Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-30
THE CAPITOL DOME
And the Splendid City That It Over.
looks.

| From Harpers Weekly.
When Mr.. Howels let the world into the con-
fdence Of Their Wedding Journey" Washing
ton had not yet discovered its charm as honey
moon shrine. When their wedding journey was
made the newly married found in the sylvan
giades OF Goat Island and along the banks OF
the Niagara that sequestration from the eve of
the world which seems the fitting aftermath of
loves young dream. The bridal chamber holds
no longer the chief place in Niagara hostels
Eleusis has set up its temples at the capital
Just why Washington Was on q sudden selected
as Hymen's rendezvous can only be guessed.
Why the ordinary tourist should seek Washing
ton and delight in its urban beauties any one
who has ever been there knows without telling
Bat Darby and Joan, in the felicities of the
honeymoon. cannot be supposed to have eyes
for the beauties of tho streets the art Of the
monuments or ears for the oratory that makes
the Senate and House place or interest for the
student. Yet that there is permanent attrac-
ton in the city on the Potomac for the honey
mooners" the constant throngs of them attest
Satire, like science, depends upon wider
knowledge. as we'll as later developments for
the business of its generalization. Travel may
have been the fools paradise" the satirist
stigmatized when the caustic epigram was
written. 1t would be hard to make the bliss
full pair pictured in the dome OF the Capitol
take this melancholy view of their honeymoon
sojourn on the banks OF the Potomac. What
Niagara and Bath were in other DAYS to the
newly wed Washington is now become 1t is
the single capital in the world that enjoys this
piquant distinction. and the fact suggests re-
Election Of sort agreeably stimulating to our
national competency. Other great cities have
arisen by decree. but with the exception of St
Petersburg, built on the boys of the Neva
and Alexandria, recovered from the sands of
the Nile, there are none Of the vast metropol
that walked the worlds wonder left to tell
the tale Of their purpose. Other cities have
had their origin in needs of commerce, agri-
culture, defense. but Washington is alone Of
all the cities of earth, the creation of art
little less than q hundred years ago the mag
nifcent distances" that now fill the eye of the
stranger with surprise and pleasure we're COW
cred by primeval forest. Where miles Of pala-
tial structures now recall the stateliness OF
the Rome that Augustus Cesar left, the fowls of
the air, serpents and Wild beasts enjoyed I'M
troubled covert 1t was not until I7y6 that the
tempest-tossed Congress Of the thirteen colo
MES saw the first evidences of the federal city
that excited the mirth OF the wits, the forebod-
ings of the timid. The circumference of the
city as it now spreads out under the great dome
is greatly contracted from the imposing d.
mansions originally laid ont by the engineer
L'Enfant. Where the superb Patent Office now
stretches in marble majesty the poetic French
man. inspired by recent events i'll Paris. had
marked the site for a national tabernacle, where
national events we're to be religiously commem-
grated, where national obseques were to be
celebrated. and the dead honored by the coun-
try were to be buried and their monuments be
perpetuated--a sort Of Pantheon to the glories
of the republic. Two columns of majestic pro-
portions were to rise at specified distances from
the Capitol, the one representing in bronze
and granite the memorabilia of the seven years
war from Lexington to Yorktown, the other
such prodigies by sea as in ten years had made
our little navy rival of Britain's. The streets
running eastward from the Capitol were to be
continuous arcades, like the sequcstered al
coves of Bologna and Venice. Between the
Capitol and the Presidents residence were to
be Elysian fields and palatial dwellings for the
foreign ambassadors and the public buildings
But even at that early day rings and Jobs
found their account. The indignant Fronch-
man, beset on all sides by venal legislators
and self-seeking jobbers, threw up his CON-
mission in disdain, and the city as it stands
was perfected by Andrew Ellicott In 1892
five hundred dollars IN gold were offered.
without restriction as to calling. to the citizen
who should send in the accepted design for the
Presidents house. Five hundred dollars and a
lot in the new city. gold medal were
offered for the best design for the Capitol
TO generation that has become familiar with
the sums annually voted for post offices and
custom houses i'll Plumyille aud Pumpkintown
our forefathers will seem thrifty indeed, en-
barking upon city building with q grant OF
Sl9. 200 from the states of Virginia and Mary
land. This supplemented by n national
lottery for which $1,000 tickets were sold
Sixteen thousand seven hundred and thirty
were to draw prizes, the capital one being a
hotel which was to cost $4,000. The price of
a ticket was 81, and the prizes ranged from
$40 to 81. 600. Nor need tho student of cur
rent morals and manners, depressed by the
laxity Of our times. wholly despond,
when he reflects that the lottery
was made use OF hundred years
ago not only in the building of our national
Capitol. Churches, schools. colleges, even Har-
ward itself. were indebted to the wheel for
moneys to secure their usefulness. In 1895 the
Presidents house and the Capitol we're the only
evidences OF a city where the traveller now sees
squares and monuments, edifces and gardens
that eclipse Paris and Vienna in beauty and
taste. When the lottery failed and the sums
voted by Virginia and Maryland gave out,
Washington was loss Of city than the humblest
suburb of Jersey City BROOKLYN. Three
hundred thousand dollars were asked by the
commissioners to 60 on with the work, and the
country was distracted by such profigate out
lay. Tho press of the time Numbered against
such was.cful extravaganza. In 1900 the CAPT.
tai was o sore trial to men accustomed to the
homely comforts of New England and New
York There was but one good tavern in the
town. The members Of Congress were herded to-
gether IN few mean tenemen;s like soldiers in q
barrack. Land was rated at twenty-five cents n
| square foot. the spectators holding for rise.
The residents were mostly negroes, or shift
less vagabonds, thrown out OF regular indus
try by the visions Of sudden city-making
Though the whole city was covered with