The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1890-11-15
Corr sspondence Baltimore County Union.
LETTER FROM BALTIMORE.
A Glance at Washington-The Chrysan-
themum Craze-Booth and Barrett
Excitement in the N. Y. Stock Mar
KETTLE New Maryland Club
Householder Clubs etc.
BALrIMoRE, November 18th, 1sl


MesSrs. Editors Having after prolonged alb
sence had occasion lately to visit Washington for
day, was much impressed with its growth and
grandeur. The time was, and that time well
remember, when Washington was hateful place
to Baltimoreans. There were the public build
ings. interspersed at wide intervals with squads
of ugly houses; there was Pennsylvania avenue,
which then was everything among the avenues
and now is nothing; and there were the streets,
hot and dusty in summer, cold and windy in win
ter, while of mud stretched all over the
town. There were no horse cars, and beyond
walking on 1.-The avenue" everything in the way
of locomotion had to be done in shabby hacks.
1t was in truth dreary, comfortle abode. I he
hotels were poor. the boarding houses desolate,
and when Congress was not in session the place
was deserted of man and woman kind outside of
its own deniZens Now Congress is q mere item
in the features of the place, and an elegant and
refined society is altogether independent of it.
Pennsylvania avenue has much the same aspect
it had thirty years ago. while far beyond it north
ward and westward extends a great and magnif-
cent city. Stately houses have been built in
every direction, superb avenues intersect its
streets, the reservations are gardens of beauty.
noble statues adorn its parks, fine hotels and ex-
tensive ranges of flats offer every accommoda-
tions horse cars and asphalt pavements every
where facilitate travel, and a truly metropolitan
aspect pervades the whole city. One may be
there for days enjoying the scenes OF the beauti-
fully shaded streets and avenues without the
thought of entering public building Wash
ington is rapidly growing in wealth and popula-
ton, while many persons of quite moderate
means are settling there, attracted by the itera-
ry scientific and astronomic charms of the place,
for its social characteristics, wholly apart from
politics, are unrivaled. Libraries; museums and
institutions of learning are spread broadcast De-
fore one and the expenses of living there are not
greater than in any other firstc class CITY, and in
deed much less than in New York and Boston.
The future grandeur of the city can only be con-
jectured.
other flowers has been held at NatatOrium Hall
during this week. 1t is singular how the RACES
for different flowers take possession of cultiva-
dahlias, now hoIlyhocks, and at present the bril-
liant autumn beauties above mentioned, while
orchids are always IN vogue. Indeed some OF the
forms of these last partake almost in appearance
of insect life. Sunf1owers were the rage few
years ago, when Oscar Wilde, with his long hair
and knee brooches. made them his pets, only
they were too big for boutoniers The old-fash-
toned flowers, as they are termed, will never go
out of fashion, because they are intimately blend
ed with some of the sweetest traits of human
nature simple home life and rustic culture
The new Lyceum Theatre is success already
and on Monday night especially the theatre was
packed, a special train from washington being
run over the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad
landing its passengers within easy walking dis
lance of the theatre. Next week the opera of
the RED Hussar" will be given. piece which
ran for several months in New York and drew
crowded houses.
The bulls and bears of the Stock Exchange in
New York have been at it again, hammer and
been pretty much all hammer, as the bears have
beaten down stocks numerically. The only
for the poor nus Is the ower s
but when the rise will come is the question. On
Monday prominent member of the Exchange
fell dead upon the floor. In ordinary times the
Exchange would have adjourned for the day,
but on this occasion it only did so for half an
hour, so vast was the pressure of business upon
it. This is almost as bad as at the gambling
houses in Europe AT the public gaming tables
of Homberg, Baden Baden and Monaco desperate
gamblers, cleaned out of their last sixpence
have blown their brains out, as much to make
slight sensation as to get rid of their troubles
On such occasions few moments of impatient
suspense would be all the reward of the suicide
and as soon as the corpse would be removed the
game would go on with redoubled vigOr. The
motives of some suicides apart from gaming are
almost incomprehensibe. The queereSt one that
1 ever heard of was that of fellow in Paris who,
one day entering the morgue, saw stretched out
on one of the marble slabs the corpse OF beau
tiful young woman. He fell at once dead in love
with the unknown, dead indeed, for he went off
forthwith and drowned himself in the Seine in
order that his own body might be laid out on the
The exterior of the new Maryland Club House,
on Charles and Eager Streets is now completed
and presents a very grand appearance. 1t is OF
white granite left rough except in its ornamen-
tai features. Its interior will be in keeping with
every elegance and convenience included, adap-
ted to club life. Four prominent clubs will then
be on Charles street, although the entrances TO
two of them-the Maryland and Atheneum-are
on Eager and Franklin streets. Besides these
University and Baltimore are near together, each
very flourishing in their way The Baltimore
Club occupies its own building, a handsome struc-
ture, and is almost entirely occupied by young
men. The University Club, although possessing
all the usual features of such institutions, is dlf
ferent in some respects from the others. Quite
a number of clergymen belong to it, including
Cardinal Gibbons. Many of the Johns Hopkins
professors and artists. and literary men are
among its members and once month or SO
very attractive evening is presented, when large
numbers of ladies are invited works of art ex-
hibited and an elegant reception held. 1t now
comprises four hundred members and is such
favorite institution that it is quite difficult to
secure membership except in case OF a vacancy
it occupies but may eventually determine to
build. WALPOLE.