The Portland daily press., 1892-09-22
AT THU NATIONAL CAPITAL.
Washington Filled with the Grand
Army Veterans.
Speaker Reed and His Portrait-The
Great Review of the Grand Army.
CORRESPONDENCE of the Press. !

Correspondence OF the PreSS.I
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19.-During all
the day the streets of Washington have
echoed with the tramp of marching men.
The great railway line which is the chief
avenue of approach to the capitol from
the north, has fairly groaned with it's
loads of blue-coated passengers, The
Grand Army and his wife and children
are here, two hundred thousand strong.
Indeed for two days there has been no
cessation in the coming of the blue-coat-
ed men. The Sabbath quiet-or what
semblance of that quiet Washington Gus
tomarily maintains-was broken by the
the tap of drum and squeak of fife, the
nearest perfect of any marching music in
the world, as post after post were
dumped from the Baltimore Sc Ohio
trains, and made their way up Pennsyl-
vania Avenue to the old White House
Lot, now and hereafter forever to be
Grand Army Place.
All Sunday the streets were thronged
by people on their way to Arlington
Heights, to the Soldiers Home or down
the river by Alexandria, drowsiest of all
cities this side of the Tropics, to Mt.
Vernon where the Pater Patrie, apotheo-
sized by the popular imagination, sleeps.
But the capitol, thrown open to the pub
lie, was the central object of attraction,
and a mob as unruly perhaps as that
which confronted the Speaker when Reed
was in the chair, but incomparably less
noisy and vastly more civil, filled the
Hall of Representatives and squat in the
seats of men whom they might, perhaps,
with advantage to the country, succeed.
That chair behind the Speakers desk
or rather those two chairs, for new
Speaker needs as much coaching as cal
low collegian-the chair behind the
Speakers desk was the object of each
mans ambition, and as the lucky one
seated himself he tried to look as much
like Reed, or his idea of Reed, as posi-
BILE. All others of the long and illustri-
Gus line of Speakers of the United States
Honse of Representatives, line far
more able, if neither so notable nor so
memorable as that of the Presidency it
self, seemed to be forgotten for the time,
and only the latest man from Maine re-
manned in the memories of the visitors.
I say ''the latest man from Maine" be-
cause 1 hope Mr. Reed is not the last of
its sons to make large and impressive
figure in the National Councils, as he
most indubitaly is not the first. Sixteen
years ago, on former visit to the Capt.
tai, name of more than continental
celebrity was on all mems lips; and when
1 told inquirers with a local pride as in
tense as the cold of my native state, as
profound as it's snow-drifts, as lasting as
its granite beds, and doubtless as etern-
ally sgreen" as its pine groves, that I
was from Maine they said with a note of
interest in their voices, 80, from
Blaine's State?" Now they make the
response as Ophelia wore her rue, with a
difference, and say 30, from Reeds
State?' An entire decade of American
politics is summed up in that slightly
changed response.
[ said, few lines back, that visitors
seated themselves in the Speakers chair
and tried. to look like Reed. Two months
ago 1 should have said they succeeded as
well as Sergeant did in the noteworthy
portrait that hangs in the corridor under
the press gallery-for that, until recently
has to my eye borne but remote
resemblance to Mr.. Reed. AS the
panorama man distinguished Daniel from
the other lions by the blue cotton UNI
brella under his left arm SO identified
Reed among the other lions by the thumb
| thrust through the pendant watch chain.
But not long since listened to the Maine
man as he was speaking to an audience
of his constituents in the Cape Elizabeth
town hall, and as he turned toward the
| table where sat, what the photograph
ers would call three-quarter view it
seemed as though the Sergeant portrait
I had started out of it's frame and taken
| it's stand on the low platform. The like
ness of the Speaker to the painting was
| perfect. Then realized that the artist
had done wonderful thing-had caught
and pictured a great man in his most
| mastery mood.
If this letter, purporting to treat OF
the twenty-sixth encampment of the
Grand Army, is given chiefly to mention
| of one of its members, the reason can be
| found in the fact that the memory of the
| absent Reed is more potent in the city
to-day than the presence of its two hun:
bred thousand visitors, distinguished
| though some of them be. Reed has i'm.
| pressed himself upon the Imagination
of Washington as sharply as the
| head of Tiberius is impressed upon the
Roman coins of the first century in the
| Christian era.
| As for the great crowd here can best
measure it by saying that in the mighty
| crush of white men the face of a negro
seems as rare as in the streets of Port
land.
| The Grand Army Parade.
| WASHINGTON, Sept. 20.
FryJ ~ l.