Smyrna times., 1890-04-02
For the Smyrna Times.
Washington Letter.


the Australian ballot system and pro
vides for the Federal supervision O
elections. The system now in force
in Massachusetts is made applicabl,
to the entire country in congressional
and presidential elections. Each poll
lng-place is put in charge of six Judges
or supervisors, three representing each
political party. Voters who cannot
read or write may have tickets mark ed
by one supervisor in the presence o.
another of the opposite party. Pri
marlly the elections are in control oI
the States, but upon the petition Of five
hundred voters in any district the
Federal government will take absolute
control. On this clause the fight will
be long and hot.
From the day the last excursion boat
on the Potomac ties up late in the fall
untll the spring morning when the
Whistles sound again, the average
WashingtOnian, he Of limited resources
and boundless desires on SUNDAYS stay,
late in bed. The Sabbath sun has
looked scornfully down the deserted
streets for good three hours catching
only glimpses of an occasional police
man or belated rounder, an early
mllkman or an enterprising newsboy V.
before the town gets up. And whether
he look out through cracked window
panes or through lace curtained French
plate. the citizen votes that it will be.
Ike all Sundays at the Capitol a dull
Gay, That is, he so votes if he be a
worly citizen.
1t has come to be locally a proverb
that Washington is a dull town on
Sunday. The stray visitor from New
Orleans tells you so with many sighs
Tor the matinee and the Lake, and the
shell road. The St. Louis man, bitter
from loss Of the fair, endorses him.
The New Yorker is lost in astonish.
ment. Washington is voted a dull
town on the Sabbath.
To him who is not lost to the beauties
OF May morning graciously given to
windy March, the suburbs and the
roap houses beyond offer some com
pensation. The wheelmen know this
and while the majority Of mankind
stop at home and grumble they are
away over the hills, over roads full of
historic "reminiscences, to Tenalytown.
Bladensburg, or ancient Alexandria,
fast asleep between the sluggish Po-
tomac and the Virginia hills. 1t is
nightfall before these silent wheels
again strike the magnificent city streets
bringing a thousand glmmering rows
OF lanterns, like meteors, flashing
through the shadows.
The citizen who goes abroad on
horseback, and he is generally accom-.
panied by the citizeness, enjoys the
day and has the additional advantage
! OF knowing that this fad is in full
fashion. There are few cities in this
country that contain more good riders.
perhaps no city of the same popula-
ton. The members OF the foreign le-
| cations set the style, and the riding
academies have done yeOman service
in developing the riding talent that
slumbered undeveloped in society.
What of the rest of mankind and
womankind who are not devoted to
an orthodox observance of the day and
who remain in town?
They walk hard aud long. Up Con-
necticut Avenue, out in Georgetown,
about the hotels, down Pennsylvania
Avenue, over on Capitol hill, they
wander like uneasy spirits. Their
chief summer joys, going down the
river on excursions and going up the
river rowing, are not yet open to them
| 80 they must needs walk.
And the character Of the crowds
vary. Between lower Pennsy
avenue and Connecticut avenue on a
sunshiny winter afternoon, there is
the difference between wealth and
poverty, the difference between con-
tent and misery, the difference between
the ins and outs About the down
town hotels is a large sprinkling of
shut1ing shabby gentility, confident or
| abashed as the case may be, but
! obviously shabby.
The members of the majority of the
ways and means committee are leading
| hard life since the premature publi-
cation OF their report to the House of
the tariff bill. Every industry that is
unfavOrably affected has its lobbying
friends either in Washington or en-
route to protest. The committe room
is besieged by emphatic peaders, who
announce that if this or the other thing
isn't undone, the Republican party
will be. The biggest howl comes from
the New England shore men who
tlon against taking hides from the free
list. The hide men are quite as loud
in their appeals that they must be pro-
tected against foreign competition.
As between the divided interest of the
men on the western farm who will be
relieved of an extra tax on ready made
shoes while he trudges to market with
a calfs hide that has to come into
competition with the pauper hides OF
Europe, and the clashing interests Of
the hide men and the shoe manufac-
turer, there seems to be a chance for
fine Congressional deliberation.
The pension appropriation bill, in
volving the expenditure Of SOS, 500. 900,
passed the House on Friday. There
was no attempt at opposition further
than few remarks about the crying
need of reform in the Pension Bureau
and a few words from Mr.. Allen.
mildly protesting against the growth
OF the pension system. But there
were more political stump speeches
than the House has heard for many
day. The entire gmut of pension leg
islation was sounded. General Gros.
venOr, who can be always trusted for
extremely partisan speeches, led off
for the Republicans, while General
SpinOla took upon himself the task of
showing that the Democratic party
was the only and original, simon-pure,
all wool friend of the soldier. Then
the debate degenefated into free fight
in which the cOmbatants were badly
disfguIed. General Spinola lost his
temper, and wound up by reading a
letter from Kansas to the effect that
prohibition and the Republican ad-
ministratiOn were failures in the State.
What bearing the missive had upon
the pension bill he did not say and the
question is still uns6lved.
The House committee on the alco-
hOlic liquor traffic will favorably re-
port bill for the appointment of five
commissioners by the President, who
shall hold office not longer than two
years. The bill is rather hazy as to
the exact duties of this commissioner,
aside from inquiry into the general
charactert of intemperance. In a gen
eral way il is asked to ascertain first.
whether or not intemperance is an
evil in this country, and, second, how
it can best be restrained. The inquiry
on the first point belongs properly to
the census bureau, if anywhere. The
second inquiry may De of some benefit.
A despatch from Washington says
that Senator Blair Twas nearly over !
come by the shock" when the defeat |
of his bill WAS annOunoad If the I'd |