The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-11-22
washington Letter.
lFrom our regular correspondent-1
WAsHINGTnN. D. @. Nov. is. 1889.

bers of the House in tow ami OF these, To-
some u~naccountable reason. the majority
are Democrats. The Republicans are show
ing up slowly, and it is probable that thi:
tendency will be evident up to the Satuf-
day before Congress eonyenes. BetS eer
candidates for speaker, doorkeeper and
clerk, the Republican congressman who Is
in town has a hard time of it.
At present there are only two candidates
for the speakership, Messrs Cannon and
Henderson Mr.. Mckinley has gone to
New York for a week. Mr.. Burrows is in
Connecticut. 1t is not known when Dir
Reed will be here. He is represented in
his absence by Henry Cabot Lodge. Mr..
Mckinley's candidacy is in the strong
hands of Representatives Grosvenor and
Thompson, aud they are doing everything
possible to persuade every new conner that
| the defeatin Ohio should not effect Mr.. Nc
Kinley's speakership hopes.
Tit first fight will be the entire field
against Mr.. Reed. The opposition will be
based upon his record on Western ques-
tons. The Congressional Record has been
raked with a fine comb to find his weak
points. 1t is stated that he opposed river
aud harbor appropriations when important
Western interests were at stake. Another
argument that will be used against him is
that he fayors the restriction of silver coin
age, an argument that mast be convincing
to members from silver producing states.
Then there is the wool question. New En-
gland manufacturers, Mr. Reeds close
friends, have declared for free wool as a
business necessity to them. The members
from wool growing states cannot stand
such an argument.
Looked on from any point, the fight is
thus a very pretty one. If Mr.. Reed is
killed of, the battle will rage only the wild
err among the Western candidates. 1t
would take a very old man to remember a
better fight for the House dictatorship.
After a long lease as a Government Of
flee, followed by a year of remodel.ng and
plastsring and furnishing, the old Seward
mansion on Lafayette place, next to Sen
ator Don Cameron's house, is again &C.
cupied. Again the tenant is a secretary of
State. The house is very old fashioned
and no exterior alterations have been made,
except the lengthening Of some Of the win
dows. The aspect is staid and dull. Tie
windows look out III grand old elms and
shrubbery that were cultivated more like
forty years ago than no~. 1t is moreover
rather a dignified looking house, as one
having participated in historic events. Ia
its days as a club house, Barton 5. Key
was won't to signal from its windows to
the wife Of Gen. Sickles. And through its
doors, lightly laughing to himself, came
Key to keep an engagement with a famous
society woman, and Slckles, waiting for him
by the big elm, shot him to death and his
blood dyed redder still the old brick side
walk that is there now So, long after
ward, Payne, the confederate of Booth,
game to kill Seward aud in the very room
now occupied by Secretary Blaine. made
the attack on Seward which came so near
an assassination. In later years, Guiteau
skulked in the shadow of these trees and
watched the White House and nursed hisde
sire to murder Garfield. It was his first plan
to have killed him in front of this fateful
house at night, as Garfield and Blaine would
pass by. 1t is a good thing that Mr.. Blaine
is a man Of good nerves; these recollections
x-.-l. ut i1ee Ia rIu man Darhap ne
he was influenced in his selection of a resi-
dence by the fact that the mansion is the
nearest residence to the White House and
IL would not be far to move if the gods
should be good TO him In 1892.
That an adventures is always able to
find a victim is brilliantly exemplified in
the case of Mrs. Levy, Of this city. Mrs.
Levy is an enthusiastic believer in spirit
ualism, from table tipping TO materializa-
ton and Decentralization, and that she
thus believes after her experience during
the present year of grace is a compliment
to her credulity. Daring last summer
there came to her unintroduced, Mrs. Diss
Debar, the famous adventures who made
the ''spook' pictures for Lawyer Marsh OF
New York. Through carefully refraining
from reading the newspapers, Mrs. Levy
had never heard of Mrs. Debar. The fair
medium produced dozens Of states, full OF
writing from Mr.. Levy who has been pop.
sures of paradise for the last ten years.