The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-07
AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.
FIFE CITY DEsERTED BY SENATORS AND CONGREssMEH.


 Labor Day-Coxey's Late Armse
 Pythians Big Ceiebration-The Business
 Improvement Prospects Discussed
 Washington. Sept. 4.-Labor day was generally observed here yesterday as n national holiday. all the departments and government offices being closed. The parade in the morning 1t may tru- ly be said wound up the season. and the national capital will be practically dead until congress convenes in the early winter. The city is deserted, not a senator or congressman Is to be found, and with them went many heel CTS, lobbyists and hangers on, while the going of the knights had the effect of ridding the city of numerous fakirs, who have made the past week seem like a countryfair. Even Coxeys army is no more and nearly half the govern ment employees are on their annual leave. The president is at Gray Ga bIes, nearly all the cabinet officers and heads of departments are away, while society is gaily sporting at the seaside and mountain resorts.
 All the congressman and senators have gone home to fix up their fences' many of which are in need of repairs almost beyond hope and many a con- gressman will find it hard work to ex- plain to his constitents what he did down here the past twelve months to entitle him to another term. This mat ter can safely be left to the people, however, and November will tell the story.
 After one of the most successful en- campments ever held the Knights Of Pythias left the city on Saturday, but leaving behind them the supreme lodge, who for the next two weeks will deal with some of the most important ques- tions ever having come before the order, chief among which the advisa- bility of allowing liquor dealers to be- long to the order.
 The supreme lodge, which Is the highest jurisdiction of the Pythians; is composed of men who exemplify the highest types of true citizenship and superlative skill in statesmenship.
 They legislate for six hundred thou sand lovers of fraternity, and represent many professions.
 They are sixteen and are George w. Hochstedler, a large manufacturer of Albany. Oregon; Tazewell Upshaw, prominent insurance man of Oklahoma; John I. Dille, attorney for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railway conn pany, and also resident of Oklahoma; I Bennetto of Manitoba, who is colonel and aid-de-camp on General Carnahans staff; L. G. Aldnch, one of the largest cotton and sugar planters of Mississip- pi; Douglas s. Wright, also of Missis- sippi, and in the book business there; o. F. Kimbal and John Young, two of New Hampshire's most prominent business men; John T. Robertson of New York, leading grocer of Middle town, N. r.; W. E. Tipton, an attorney of Douglass, Dakota; F. W. Hoyt, a merchant, who with Louis H. Farms wotthi issfrom Utah, together. with fE B. Haslkins and ogden H. Fethers of Wisconsin; R. B. Huff of Iowa; P. D. Mcclellan of Ontario, and John S. King of the same place make up the supreme lodge. t~~ ,------
 An incident of the encampment of the knights was the work of fitting the figure of the goddess of liberty on the summit of the capitol dome with elec- tric lights, thing which had before been considered impossible. An effort to do 1t was made during the Knights Templar concave and the Grand Army encampment, but was abandoned as be- ing to hazardous. However, early last week Albert Ports, an assistant to the chief electrician of the capitol accom- plished the feat by means of ladder held by four men on the top landing of the dome. When he had finished his work he stood erect on the liberty cap, the first man to ever stand on the cap and look down on the city. .
 While at the Shoreham the other night looking for some familiar face I ran up against William B. Lightfoot of New York, a prominent banker and capitalist of the latter city. In speak ing of the business condition of the country MT. Lightfoot said: "While business will improve steadily, it will not be as rapidly as some people think. The people will not be able to transact the trade that under normal conditions would have been carried on, because of the immense shrinkage of values during this period of prostration, a shrinkage that has been estimated at twelve billions of dollars, an estimate that do regard as exaggerated. The responsibility for most of this fast loss rests on congress, which took nine months to do what a council or con- vention of business men would have done in three weeks, and done better. No wonder the people are disgusted, and if the have their way next Mo- vember will show these men what they think of them. The truth is there are only two or three really good business men in congress, and they are on the republican side of the house, which makes it so much the worse for the democrats. As bad as the new tariff l bill is. it is certainly an improvement on the old, and in woolens alone will save the country an enormous sum of money. Had the tarif been settled last May as 1t should have been, by this time every section of the Union would have been on a prosperous basis and the recollection of the worst epoch | America ever saw been only as night l