The Van Buren press., 1893-11-18
WHERE POVERTY REIGNS
Tne Sink Region of Our Cav Ma.
tlonal Capital.
Eventually the Spot Will Become a Grant
Park, But at Present 1t Is the
Abode Of Vice, squalor. Misery
and Malaria.
Especial Washington Letter. I

Especial Washington Letterl
The old Van Ness mansion is both an
ancient and modern landmark. More
than a hundred years ago it was the
home OF the wealthiest man in western
Maryland. 1t was the only brick build
ing between Baltimore and Norfolk.
excepting the house of Gen. Washing
ton, at Mount Vernon, on the Potomac
1t was the house OF the wealthicst
family in the District Of Columbia.
when the national capital was located
here. 1t was the home of handsome
heiress. 1t was the social center of
our original aristocracy. Although
fallen to decay, and crumbling beneath
the massive hand and whitening before
the corroding canker of Time, the an
cient landmark is stately in ruins,
mutely eloquent concerning its past,
and every piece of broken brick or
mortar seems anxious to tell of what
might have been.
The old Van Ness mansion is a mod
ern landmark, because it is the eastern
mete and bound of primitive simplicity
in Washington, which lies almost
wholly in the region of the Chesapeake
and Potomac canal. which runs south
of Observatory hill, parallel with the
flats toward the monument This also
is the "sink region" which has been
mentioned number of times lately in
speaking of needed improvements in
the city, and to u stranger, making his
way through the district for the first
time, it is hard to tell which is the
more interesting the inhabitants OF
the topography of the place
Going westward from the well-kept
ponds that lie at the base of the mon
ument, the first object of interest is
the gut" not so unpicturesque as its
name would imply, broad expanse of
water reaching out to the river, and
bordered on either hand by close-grow-
ing ranks Of willow trees, that lean
out over the stream. The only thing
that mars the beauty of the prospect is
that at the upper end of this tidal ca
nal, the great Seventeenth street
sewer empties into it, adding color to
the water and an odor to the air that
do not enhance the attractiveness of
the spot, and which would seem to
threaten all sorts of fevers and mala-
rial affections to the negroes who work
day after day on its banks unloading
the sandscows that come In from the
river and empty their cargoes in noun
tains Of sand thirty feet high on the
banks of the canal.
You may be surprised at this state
ment, but 1t is q fact, that these con-
ditions exist within three-quarters of
. mile of the white house. Indeed,
within an eighth OF mile OF the
white house, half way to the Van
Ness mansion, there are houses where
poverty, filth and squalor revel In the
rivalry of intensity. Walking west
ward from the old mansion, one strikes
into the heart of the picturesque re-
gion. Virginia avenue runs down to
the fats in the form of street, with
curbstones and trees on its edges.
Back of the building line on one side
there is an underground of willows,
Young poplar trees and weeds, while
on the other there is a wilderness OF
ashdumps and declivities like the vol
canic bad lands of Dakota, rolling
down to the edge of what used to be
the river, but which is now the filed
In fats,
The houses, such as there are along
this way, are palpable makeshifts' and
one standing in the street can look
through front to rear or from side to
side with but slight obstruction. The
family washing of all sorts is done on
the front steps, and the wash not un,
commonly includes brown-skinned
baby far more destitute OF covering
than the chickens that pick under the
soorsteps; while other chickens OF q
larger growth, but not much more
advanced in tho matter OF cioth'
inc. play in the sand in the
street. The negro's love OF hower' ls
VI