The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-10-19
4 MARIETTA MANS
Recent Trip North and
East. 4e
He GIVES SOME INTERESTING FACTS
About What He Saw in Washington,
New York, Boston and
Philadelphia.

Al "a
EDS. JoURNAL:-It may be interesting
to the readers of the Journal to have a
letter on some things the writer has seen
on recent trip North and East Instead
of going to the Worlds Fair, we decided
to combine business and pleasure on a
tripto Washington, New York, Boston
and Philadelphia. Leaving Atlanta at
y o'clock on the Richmond g. Danville
vestibule and after pleasant afternoons
ride and comfortable nights rest we
found ourselves in Washington, D. c., at
eight o'clock the next morning. 1t was
on our program to spend the day there
and after selecting comfortable hotel
where we got an excellent breakfast be-
gan sight seeing. We first took the
cable cars which are greatimprovement
over the old horse cars, and as they run
so frequently, and in trains of two or
three cars together, they are seldom
crowded, and the speed is quite in excess
of that of the old jaded horses. We
passed through streets of beautiful homes
many of them surprising in elegance
anything we had ever seen before. Most
of them are built by congressman, who
in Washington reach the very perfection
of parliamentary and social life, and their
homes must of necessity, be in keeping
with this life. We were told that many
of these beautiful homes are sold at con-
siderable sacrifice when their owners
term expires. The streets of Washing
ton are beautifully paved with asphalt
and but little noisy rumbling is heard in
consequence. At the White House we
were invited into the EAST ROOM" this
being the only one open for guests at
that time, but, Notwithstanding, this
could not restrain our thoughts from
picturing how little Miss Ruth and her
baby sister looked at that moment just
up stairs above our heads. Mrs. Cleve-
land must certainly enjoy the lovely ma
tional flower garden in the rear of the
White House. 1t covers several acres.
The shrubbery and flowers are most
beautifully and tastefully arranged and
kept, requiring the skill and labor of ten
to twenty men constantly. Just in the
rear of the White House ga1dens is the
national drive where Mr.. and Mrs. Cleve-
land are. frequently seen in the summer
evenings driving. This is beautiful
half mile track of hard clay and sand,
and encloses circular grass plat of level
and spotless green. Just beyond is the
Washington monument. 1t sets on a
slight elevation. This perhaps is the
most wonderful and interesting sight to
be seen in Washington. Imagine, if you
can, great tall white granite smoke
stack standing all alone. You would
hardly believe it to be $50 feet high and
sixty feet square at the base tapering to
an apex of twenty feet square. 1t has
an elevator inside which goes up every
hour, also spiral staircase, but we
did not feel like being so high above this
mundane sphere just yet, SO as Mrs.
Darlington would have said, remained on
''terra Gotta" We were, however, in
formed that some heartless experimenter
forced cat to jump from the window at
the top of the tower to the ground, which
it did without being killed, but after
wards was caught and killed by a dog
while making its way across the green.
In the afternoon we took carriage
and drove to view numerous sights.
Among the most prominent were the old
Ford Theatre and the house opposite,
where Mr.. Lincoln was carried and died
after he was shot. At the navy yard we
saw all kinds of guns. just think of a
steel cannon forty feet long that throws
a ball eighteen inches in diameter dis
lance of seven miles, and another that
has a shooting capacity of twelve hun
dred shots minute. They are at work
making and piling them up all the time
ready for use.
At the treasury we were formed into
line with lot of other sight seers and a
guide took US through the various rooms
and finally wound up at the vault where
the silver dollars are stored away under
ground in large iron cage, eighty feet
one way, sixty another and twelve feet
high, almost solidly filled with silver
dollars in wooden boxes. Torn and mu-
tilated currency is ground up in an i'm
mense pulp mill and sold to paper manu-
factories. This mill consists of a large
cylinder in which are revolving knives
and water. The mutilated money is
brought in large baskets and emptied
into this machine in the presence of the
secretary of the treasury of the United