Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1895-02-07
EARLY DAYS 1lN, WASHINGTON.
Population ofthe Capital oityIn tho Year
1900.

EARLY DAYS i'm WASHINGTON.
Population of.thc Capital oityin tho Yeas
1900.
The people who dwelt in the Fed
eral City" in 1900 We're poor, idle, un-
clean. Mr.. Wolcots said3 They live
Hlse fishes, eating each, other" Some
Of themwere White and some of them
were negroes, Tho most censiderab BILE
persons in the settlement Avere Mr..
. Law, an Englishmah who had gone
there TO speculate in land, and Mr..
Burns, upon whose, farm the white
house and other public buildings were
erected. It was as difficult to procure
laborers or to find tradesmeh as it was
to secure comfortable lodgings. Both
were to be had no nearer than George
town, now. part of Washington, but
then.a distant port, to be reached only
after an alrluous journey over execrable
roads. muddy or dusty, as the weather
was wet or dry, and through swamp
which crossed what is now one of the
main avenues in the fashionable part of
the city. Gouveneur Morris, writing to
e Princess de la Tour ct TaXis, in 1900, said:
"We want nothing. here but houses,
cellars, Kitchens, well-informed men,
amiable women, and other trit1es OF
this kind to make a city perfect. -"
Yrujo, the Spanish minister, said that
it was impossible ''to produce decent
dinner at the new capital withoutsend-
ing fifty iorE sixty miles for the mate
rial" There was social material, how
ever, within visiting distance of the
capital, as Sir Augustus Fisher, an at
tache of the British legation, discov-
cred. The country families of Penn
sylvania, Virginia and Maryland had
preserved many of the customs of their
English ancestry, and among them the
sport of fox huating. The Gloucester
fox-hunting club, of Philadelphia, and
the South River club, of Anne Arundel
county in Maryland, were formed early
in the eighteenth century, that their
members might enjoy periodically in
groups what was their almost daily
pastime on their lands. The early
British ministers and their secretaries
and attaches found much to amuse
them and to remind them of home on
the largest estates in the immediate
neigh borhood of Washington. Sir Au-
gustus Fisher wrote admiringly of the
''rich Maryland population, y especially
of the CAROLS, Lloyds and Taylerss He
was enthusiastic over the pretty girls
Of Georgetown, where, he said, society
was centered. Indeed, society centered
there for many years. But if the men
took pleasure in chasing the fox and in
admiring the southern beauties, the
women must have found time hanging
very heavy on their hands; and the men
themselves must have longed fora lit
tie variety in their occupations, for an
occasional new face or fresh Subject
for conversation. News was making
very fast in Europe in the days when
Napoleon was topping over the thrones
of kings, and much of it was news in
which the government of the United
States was intensely interested, but it
was month old when it reached
America, and it doubtless seemed pure
idleness to discuss issues that must
have been settled before the president
and the members of the diplomatic
corps had heard of them. Society at
the capital was good deal like life at
a frontier post in the present day; and
men then, as now, found relief from
ennui ingaming which is said to have
been ''rife"-and in drinking which is
said to have been q national curse; but
whether either gambling or drinking
was more general in this country than
in England, especially among fine gen.
tlemen, we are at liberty to doubt
when we read of the exploits of William
Pitt, Lord rhurlow, and Mr.. Dhndas
of the three bottle men; of the noble
gentlemen who went to sleep might
after night under the table,. of the bets
Registered in that interesting old booL
at Brooks, in which Charles James
Fox, Selwyn, the prince of Wales, the
duke of York, and other notables re-
corded their wagers on politics, love
war, hunting, shooting, and on the
| lives of their friends and parents, The
republic was founded at a time wher
+ society in Europe was not over-nice. =
Henry Loomis Nelson, in Harper's Mag
| azinn