Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-05

London, and even that labyrinthine capitol,
Genoa, unequaled for its tortuous and mar
row ways, easier to learn than this mathe-
matical city of Washington, which seems
SO very simple and is yet so very complex.
POINTS OF INTEREST.
1t is not my province to go into any de-
scription, guide book style, of the number
less places of interest in and around the
national capital. My desire is, in brief
| space, to give birds eve view of the city
and its surroundings. 1t would require a
volume of considerable size to convey anv
! adequate idea of the Capitol, with its halls
of Congress, its great library, its scores of
committee rooms, each containing something
of interest, its pictured and frescoed dome,
its Supreme Court, its chamber of horrors, -
more mildly named the Hall of Statuary-
the courtroom being the old Senate
| chamber where Sumner was assaulted by
Brooks, and where the historical debates
and quarrels occurred previous to the war,
and the Hall of Statuary being the old
Hall OF Representatives. on whose hoor
many fsticuff has occurred between op-
posing politicians-and the thousand other
I nameless objects of interest in and about this
vast pile; the Patent Office with its myriad
of curious models of inventions; the Post
office, with its wonderful machinery for the
conduct of the mail business of this and
other countries, and its Dead Letter Office,
a museum of itself; the Pension Office,
where relief for the
VETERANS OF THE WAR
is ground out as from a mill, and from
which emanates the warrant for the millions
that are paid out annually to the old
soldiers of the nation; the Treasury, that
great banking house Of the nation, with its
cash room showing at all times big piles of
gold and silver, its vaults with tons upon
tons of silver and gold piled high in their
little canvas bags the hundreds of employees
to audit the accounts of the Government and
pay its dues, the counting and disposition
of money and revenue stamps, the counting,
cutting in pieces and reduction to pulp of
redeemed and mutilated currency, the draft
ing of designs and the giving OF contracts
for the public buildings of the whole
country; the War, State and Navy Depart
ments, with their museum, their curious
models, their historical portraits, their vast
magazine of interesting documents, their
multifarious designs for hedestruction of the
human race; the navy yard, the arsenal, the
magazines; the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing, where nearly all of the paper
money, stamps and other securities of the
Government are printed; the Government
Printing Office, which grinds out mountains
of public documents and prints
ALL THAT IS SAID AND DONE
by Congress every year; the Agricultural
Department, with its great array of curiosi-
ties and its fine nursery and greenhouse;
the horticultural gardens; the National
Museum and the Smithsonian Institution,
almost as interesting as the Kensington
Museum, of London; the Medical Museum,
with its unequaled library and its innu-
merable curiosities and horrors, among
which is the skeleton of Guiteau. the assas-
sin; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, with its
very interesting collection of paintings and
casts and statuary; the Geographical Sur
vey, the Signal Office and the Observatory,
and many minor departments of the Gov
eminent devoted to the cause of science and
industry and commerce; the prison where
many noted criminals have been confined
and executed; the insane asylum where
many noted lunatics in the persons of poll
ticians and claimants and others gone mad; /;
the Congressional and other cemeteries,
populous with the noted and historical
dead; old churches, with bricks and altars
and ornaments brought from foreign coun-
tries more than century ago, when the ma
ton was not yet conceived; these, with the
outdoor attractions of the city at large, its
and streets, its magnificent dwellings of
NOTED MEN AND WOMEN,
its many little parks and circles, its monu-
ments, its more ancient parts, quaint with
dwellings of the olden English type, the
suburban drives and points of interest, such
as Arlington, the Soldiers Home, Mount
Vernon. Fort Washington, the ruined forti-
fcations seen on all sides, with the scenic
Oh - 4
tion, altogether make up an aggregation of
absorbing interest which is not approached
by even ancient Boston, nor by the vast
metropolis of population on the bay of New
York. Washington is not place to visit
for day. 1t is study for weeks, and
months, and years, and added to the tangi
bic attractions briefly mentioned, are the
ever varying phases of political and social