Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-01-05
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WASHINGTON'S CHARM.

WESTINGHOUSE CHARM.
ITS GRIP ON OUR STATESMEN AND
ITS ENERvATlNG EFFECTS.
+
How q Man Who Spends Year or So ut
tho National Capital Feels Lost When
He has to Leave It-What Becomes Of
Ex-Statesmen.
Especial Correspondence
WAsHINaroN, Dec. 24-There is some
strange and subtle fascination about public
lie in the capital which is not easy to dis
cover and define Many public men will say,
when you talk to them on the subject, that
they wish they had remained at home and
given attention to their business or profess
sion, and yet very few senator's or repre-
sentatives fail to seek reelection. OF 325
seventy five come back to the next, and of
the seventy-fve who failed Of reelection
nearly all "died a-trying," either in the NOM
mating conventions Of their parties or ct the
polls. Probably it is ambition which at first
prompts man in public life to use every
effort to extend his career, and after the
promptings of ambition become less and less
strong. as they do to large majority of men
in public life. habit steps in and carries
them on in the channel in which
fate has put them They become less
and less interested in the vocations which
they were following when called to public
service, their Business is sold or merged with
other interests, their law practice has drifted
away from them, and the spending Of the
greater part Of every year in Washington be-
comes more and more part of their lives,
and requisite of contentment. There are
plenty Of congressman who feel as ''Sunset"
Cox feels. He has now been in congress more
than thirty years, and as I sat by the blazing
log in his handsome home on New Hampshire
avenue one recent night Mr.. Cox declared
that In his case ambition had long since
ceased to play part in his public career
II am like the man friend Of mine from
Delaware used to tell about" said the con-
gresham. "This man committed a crime of
some sort and was condemned to the tread
mill for long term of years. Day after day,
for seventeen long and weary years, he trod
the mill, and when at last his term expired
and he came home, he was SO miserable and
discontinued that he went and bought a
treadmill of his own and continued to walk
it day after day till he died. / have been in
congress SO long that If l were now to be
taken out I'm afraid I'd have to go and buy
q little congress of my own and continue to
tread the mill till death should come to my
relief"
Ambition and vanity are usually strong in
men who are just getting nicely started on
public careers, but both gradually disappear
as the years roll by. With most men who
have been long in public life-and there are
plenty Of senators and representatives who
have been here all the way from dozen to
twenty-five years-vanity plays more i'm
portant part at home than here at the capital.
Here their round of life becomes more or less
a treadmill. They are outshone in most cases
by more favored sons Of fortune. Ambition
has almost ceased to tickle them with its
pleasant dreams and phantasies. Many Of
them are not much looked up to or sought
after, and they go their rounds in the dull,
spiritless manner Of old horses or government
clerks. But at home the scene changes There
they are pointed out on the streets Society
is eager to honor them Prominent citizens
are anxious to gain their good will In all
this the congressman's amour propre is graft
fed, and it is this very thing that consoles
many Of them for the disappointments and
vexations Of a public career and stimulates
them into making the constantly recurring
struggles for reelection
And yet for the majority there is some
charm in Washington life. 1t Is blessing
that the capitol is not situated in a very
large city, where its social world would be
swallowed up and lost in a vast community,
having not much in common with it. Wash
lngton is so entirely given up to government,
and The best residence quarter is confined
within such narrow limits, that public men
can and do get much together. Thus it is
that one of the great charms of public life
here is its companionship. In the house or
senate representatives and senator's are
thrown constantly in the society Of their
equals. 1t is not with them all worl, and no
play by any means. They tell stories, talk
politics, gossip about their fellows in the
cloak rooms, the committee rooms, on the
sofas in the rear Of the halls
and even in their seats. Representatives and
senator's mingle much together, too, though
the former make most of the calls, senator's
rarely visiting the hall of the houses After
the days work is over these oppor-
sunities for social converse are by
10 means at an end. Within a
district three-quarters of a mile square, in
he west end, reside four-fifths Of the public
men. Not more than one-tenth of them keep
house. The remainder are in the hotels and
arge boarding houses. Frequently large
lumber board in one house. In this way
hey are thrown together evenings and Sun
lays They naturally and easily resolve
Yourselves into little lotteries, with whist,
poker, billiards, the theatre, story telling and
l great variety of quiet social pleasures con-
tautly at their command. This sort Of thing
crows on most men; they are 10th to give it
Up, and if the fates send them to their less
,ongenial social circles at home they suffer
liscontent and improve every opportunity
hat may bring them back into the charmed
circle
So far as society is concerned-speaking Of
society in its fashionable aspect-the average
Is not much troubled by it. He
S not sin" This may be a revelation sur
,rising to some people, but probably not as
many as fifty representatives make any pre-
enSions to social enjoyments of fashionable
ort. The society" of the capital is steadily
rowing away from the popular branch of
ongress and becoming an aristocracy of the
abinet, the senate, the foreign legations and
he wealthy unofficial residents. Just as it
S said of more than one congressman, that
lie IS too poor TO go into the cabinet so it is
aid of congressman as a Class that they ere