Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-11-12

eyNhnia avenue as tne nneet Wink IN w.
country.
In the first place there ID no other street that
has so much variety in its scenes Starting
from the Peace monument you can walk out to
Georgetown and pass from modern political life
through a section OF old Washington residences
into what is a rural market for the country
round. You can keep on and so on the tow
path or the Cabin John road, and while il no
longer bears the same name. IL is still merely
continuation Of Pennsylvania avenue. You can
see there such scenery as you will ind nowhere
else. by Little Falls, over the 6nest stone arch
in the world. on up 20 the Great Falls OF the
Potomac. Having got thus far YOU will wish
TO go no further. for here you will one Of
the grandest pieces Of natural scenery that ID to
be found anywhere.
IL you never have done so, get horse and
buggy and make the drive, and make Il now,
or better still, IL you pedestrian. walk upas
far as you can, take a rest and come back. This
is the proper season FOR the purpose. The air
is bracing, the leaves have not vet all fallen and
the forests on the Virginia shore are bright
with changing colors. But. perhaps. the beau
ties of nature are not to your taste. Then don't
leave the city limits, but just walk the avenue
proper and observe the different types Of
humanity you see there.
EVERY TYPE OF HUMANITY SEEN.
What Wall street in New York is TO the
financial world Pennsylvania avenue 10 to the
world OF politics. There coagregate those who
seek Office and those who hold Office There
are the men who have the power OF appoint
| ment those who want appointments and
crowds who have dissppcintments. Senators,
! judges, members of Congress, cabinet officers,
/ bureau chiefs and government clerks and their
hundreds and thousands Of hangers-on-au
make Pennsylvania avenue their chief place Of
| rendezvous. Two men are talking earnestly
about California politics; the same curb
1 Of fuo 9th he q,
| Maine, and further on is an old soldier begging
| his member of Congress TO get him pension
| Of IS a month. There are always q goodly
number of cranks, too for no phase of life at
| tracts them SO much the public life in WASH
| ington. The swell Is there, too; the rich man
| in politics, TO whom il 10 an occupation, and
who cares not for the money there is in il. and
there Is the man who cares for nothing else.
The one wants something to do and goes into
| official life so that time may not hang too
heavily on his hands; the other wants an Office,
/ because he can get q living in no other way.
To some u,en the idea that PennsylvaniA ave-
nue. represents is a last resort, to others il 10
the end OF years OF ambitious effort
ALL THE PRESIDENTS HAVE TRoD IT.
II you are a lover of history Pennsyivania
avenue ought TO please you, for il is rich in
! "reminiscences. The truth is that the city OF
Washington is now old enough to boast Of it's
history, for it has been the seat of government
/ for nearly one hundred years. Washington
rode along the avenue and inspected it, and so
have the feet Of all our Presidents since then
trodden 1t. John Randolph of Roanoke fell of
his horse and wallowed in its mud while the
| nineteenth century was still young. Henry
| Clay and Daniel Webster used TO stroll down
the avenue every day and stop and talk to their
| hosts OF admirers. Beau Hickman, whose repu-
! tation was hardly inferior TO theirs, literally
( lived Oh this famous walk. Thirty years ago Il
was. a resort of fashionable people, too, and the
young men of the city crowded its hotels. Sixty
years ago il was famous for its oyster saloons
and, it must be admitted. for it's gambling ga
| looms also. John Peter Van Ness rode down il in
| 1900 to court Maria Burns, and later on the
! grim figure of Calhoun, the great nullifer,
could be seen upon the avenue daily. When
| YOU stroll there, stop and think of its armies.
First Of all in l754 Braddock. with the young
! Col. Washington on his staff, crossed the upper
| portion Of the avenue. Then in l77s and later
sections of the patriot army must have followed
| its track. In 1913 the British army marched
| down from the Capitol to the White House. and
| in 1S6l-5 il was constantly alive with troops.
But the imagination can even take Jump for
Their back, and it is highly probable that the in
surgents who followed Nathaniel Bacon in his
rebellion against kingly authority in 1876 crossed
over from the northern neck and trod the soil
now covered by the asphaltum of Pennsylvania
avenue. As matter of fact the historical as
scciatlons. with the ground upon which Wash
tOu otduOt, arg uututTOus Anu IuObt IL Ter
esting.
RESORT FOR LADIES.
But the avenue is, at the present day. a resort,
especially in the morning, for the ladies Of
Washington, and you can see great numbers Of
them walking or driving in their carriages to
the shops. The streets are gay with their
| equipages and the sidewalks are crowded with
those who walk.
Now, leave the busiest part OF the avenue
and 60 toward West Washington. Before you
get to Rock creek you pass by a row OF DWELL
ings, still handsome structures, which were
almost the first to be erected in the District Of
| Columbia. For years they stood alone, but
now they are surrounded by other fine houses.
| Here is the residential portion Of the avenue,
| tired part Of the town, except that there 10 q
steady stream of travel flowing past. Only little
| part Of the stream stops here, however, for its
destination is down town. Having crossed the
creek you are on part Of the avenue that is the
Oldest Of all, and you are among houses that
were well on in life before the city of Washing
ton was born. shops are here, too,
and fine ones, many of them, and they
have the steady air OF respectability that
| comes from years Of trade in one
spot. Go further on and you are in center
| OF agricultural activity. You may see country
wagons with produce inside Of them and q cage
| Of chickens underneath. Enormous hay wagons
| drawn by four horses, with the mud Of country
roads upon them roll by. Smaller vehicles
bearing the farmer and his wife, who have been
in town shopping are making their way out to the
country again. You can see the Office Of q
lawyer, whose clients are chiefly from the rural
districts, and, if you see the lawyer himself he
will probably be clothed in . fine old beaver
hat and a black broadcloth frock coat You can
see the barber shop, where not only shaving
and hair cutting are practiced. but also cup
ping and leeching.
Pass down miles away from this end Of the
town. go around the Peace monument pass
over the place where the Tiber creek used to
be and take the balance Of the avenue, which
runs on the other side of the Capitol, out into
the empty fields As you stand and look at il
your imagination is free to see il going on and
on, out into Prince Georges county, Nd. on to
Chesapeake bay, on to the Atlantic ocean
THE FINEST WALK IN THE UNITED STATES.
All these reasons did the gentleman whose re-
mark was quoted at the beginning Of this article
give for declaring that Pennsylvania avenue il
the finest walk in the United States. He might
have gone further and said IL Is the most inter
esting walk TO an American In all the world.
The bouleyards Of Paris are pleasant enough.
but they do not show as finely the variations and
the growth that are plain to the person Who
walks from one end Of the avenue to the other.
and while broadway in New York ID interesting
as tapering street, that 10. street whose buste
and activity taper on into q condition of soli-
tude, nevertheless there is a eamepexa ebout
Broadway that Pennsylvania avenue has not cot.
The streets OF London are Of course iuter,ni IN