The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-05-02
THOROUGHLY AMERICAN,
Appearance of the People Who Frequent
the National Capital.

the National Capital.
1t is interesting 10 watch the people
in the parade before the windows. In
the quieter residence avenues of the
northwestern section one may see the
rich to better advantage, in far sepa-
rated couples or in carriages, and one
may see the mansions and gardens,
and the nurses, and those toddlers who
are the luckiest children in the union;
for of all places Washington is the
most heavenlike for children. But in
the mixed throng on Pennsylvania ave-
nue. there is chance to see the people
of city so distinctively American as
to contain only eighteen thousand for
eign-born men and women. The south
erners attract the eye first. Their soft
hats and Prince Albert coats betray
them. The lawyer, the leader in the
south, has set the fashion for all his
people. So it comes that all southern
men dress like lawyers-in sober black
with long coat tails. In their carriage
one sees strange conflict of pride and
slovenliness-pride in the pose of the
head, and Incidence in their gait.
Their women, petted to the spelling
point when they are young, are the
life of the avenue, and of all Wash
ington. To be typical they must be
blondes, and we see hundreds of
pure blondes in the parade. And
they must be merry and much
in evidence, having never been
restrained. They are absolutely queens
at home, and hesitate at nothing, Lit
erature, art, wit, vocalization, dramatic
entertainment reform, equestrianism,
leadership of fashion, social activity
there is nothing into which they do not
plunge; and they and their peculiari
ties are all intensified in Washington.
Their husbands and brothers look on
in blind idolatry. For themselves the
southern men ask only to be considered
orators; and that they all are. What
should we do but for the southerners
in Washington-but for their spirited
and pretty women especially? But
there is no need to discuss doing with
out this leaven in the great lump. And
it is fitting that they should be most
conspicuous there, for Washington is
southern city geographically. True,
George Washington and his testy en-
gineer, L'Enfant, planned to have it
grow to the eastward of the capitol,
on the high plateau that was best
suited for a city's site. And they in
tended the white house to be semi
country seat, apart from the town.
The southerners were in control then.
and where they thought the city would
came they laid out avenues for their
beloved states-Virginia and Georgia
and North and South Carolina avenues
Alas for their hopes! The greedy land
owners and spectators held that land
too high, and we built the city SO that
to-day the elegant streets are the ones
that bear the names of the down least
Yankee states.
Next in order of notability in the
parade are the western folk-great in
numbers, as belts the representatives
of nearly two-thirds of the union.
There is no mistaking them, either
Their men are bearded, hot-eyed, in
tense beings self-concentrated, as you
can see in their every action and
movement and conversation. Their
women include many of the leaders of
the official and the social sets, and
yet, taking them by and large, as the
sailor phrase goes, the western women
are the ones that come oftenest raw
and i'll at ease in the formal, ultra
conventional routine of the public and
social life, where power and place are
graded in one set, and etiquette and
eating rule the other. The darkies are
very conspicuous by reason of their
peculiarities and their numbers. They
divide themselves into two bodies.
The elegant and ambitious form one,
and the lazy, happy, easy-going work.
folk and and Migrants form the other.
But the darby mob is most picturesque,
with its red-waisted nurse-girls, its
huge, bandanna-crowned ''mammies,"
it's white-haired, rheumatic old
''uncles" in the whitewashing line, its
ragtag and bobtail loafers, out at ell
bow, toggle-iointed, loose all over, and
content whenever the sun shines on
them.-Julian Ralph, in Harper's Mag
azine.