The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1894-06-15
Letters From Hon. j. w. Turner.
WASHINGTON, d. G. June A, 1S'


Mr.. EDITOR:
The weather in Washington since my
arrival has been somewhat cold, and l
have experienced none of those swelter-
ing degrees of heat so usual about this
season of the year. There is curious
thing here, in the way of relief from the
daytime warmth. uddenly, abont or
| o'clock p. m you hear roaring in the
tree tops like the roar of the sea, and a
brisk breeze from the south sweeps up
| the Potomac from the ocean and possibly
brings the sound of the sea with it. 1t is
quite regular in its coming. The first
time heard it was startled, and with
my Michigan experience, looked out OF
the windows 20 see the coming of
storm, but there was no sign of any.
There is, am told, quite uniformly this
cooling process during the summer SOL
stice, and it is the best part of the twenty
NAV be in the day time, if one can rest
at night comfortably, he is quite fol titled
against the succeeding hours.
There is no doubt that Washington is
the finest residence city in America,
if not in the world. The only difficulty
with it is its magnificent distances" but
these are annihilated by rapid transit,
and one can ride from six to eight miles
for five cents.
went out the other day to the Zoo
logical Gardens'on Rock Creek, and was
COMPOUNDED az / was walking along
path through virgin woods, to come up
on a sacred COW and black-legged ibis
feeding in an American forest! Rock
Creek is little stream smOthered with
vines and shrubs and trees, away down
dizzy distance, where it crawls like
veritable SNAKE in the grass" On its
high banks great vines grow into the
trees like
Immobile snakes. broad-winged with leaf!
Perchance they dreamed that they could fly,
And dreaming. crawled this space so brief,
Toward the sky!
The above lines being original you will
see are not in quotation marks.
A great show of animals may be seen
in these gardens, but somehow my
heart warmed to the sylvan scene and
not to the "wild-eyed wonders of the
Libyan plains" winding road, bor-
dered with daisies and ferns, and occa-
sional glimpses Of CLASSY motion way
down between rival bluffs, on a perfect
day, was sufficient to engross all my
thoughts. The animals, many of them,
could be seen at a circus.
visited my friend, Mr.. Goode, from
Detroit, the other day, who is superin-
tendent of the dead letter Office, just
across the street from where am. There
sits by herself pale, silver.haired old
lady who simply glances at the open let
tiers with such an impassive and business
air that think / should be willing she
should read (if she had the right) my
most confidential communications. Be-
low her are several clerks who do moth
ing but slit open the letters to see if they
contain valuables. If any are found they
are kept for certain length Of time, for
years. Mr.. Goode informed me that they
get about eighteen bags of such letters
every day. Who would think that there
was that amount of failure in CORES
pondence? There is in the Office quite
cabinet of curiosities made up of articles
taken from letters and packages. For
example, snakes alive when the pack
ages were opened, but now preserved in
liquor-frogs of all sizes, scalp, an ear,
and many curiosities too numerous to
mention. Mr.. Barney Goode seems to
be just the right person in the right
place. and his Detroit constituency may
we'll be proud of his administration of
affairs. AS 1 am in something of hurry
1 must close until next time. -
JEROME w. TURNER.