The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-05-04
OUR NATIONAL CAPITAL.

Washington is the American city the
city of the people, and it's characteristic
features are broadly indicated in an ar.
ticle by Julian Ralph, in the April Harp
ers, entitled Our National Capital"
He says:
1t is interesting to 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 separated
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 heaven
like for children. But in the mixed
throng on Pennsylvania Avenue there is
chance to see the people of city so
distinctively American as to contain
only $4,000 foreign born men and women.
The Southerners attract the eve 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 Washington. 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 re.
strained. They are absolutely queens
at home, and hesitate at nothing. Lit
erature, art, vocalization, dramatic en-
tertainment, reform, equestrianism, lead
ership OF fashion, social activity-there
is nothing into which they do not
plunge; and they and their peculiarities
are all intensified in Washington. Their
husbands and brothers look on in blind
idolatry. For themselves the Southern
men are only to be considered orators:
and that they all are. What should we
do but for the Southerners in Washing.
ton-but for their spirited and pretty
women especially? But there is no need
to discuss doing without this leaven in
the great lump. And it is fitting that
they should be most conspicuous there,
for Washington is a Southern city geo.
graphically. True, George Washington
and his testy engineer, L 'Enfant. planned
to have it grow to the eastward of the
Capitol, on the high plateau that was
best suited for city's site. And they
intended 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 come
they laid out avenues for their beloved
States-Virginia, and Georgia, and North
and South Carolina avenues. Alas fer
their hopes! the greedy landowners and
spectators held that land too high, and
we built the city SO that to-day the ele-
CANT streets are the ones that bear the
hon0o VI tho uOWu-EdSU IdDKee Otatt 8.
Next in order of notability in the
parade are the Western folk-great in
numbers, as BELTS the represen tatives
of nearly two thirds of the Union. There
is no installing them, either. Their
men are bearded, hot-eyed, intense be-
ings, 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,
ra-conyentional 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 pc.
culiarities and their numbers. They
divide themselves into two bodies. The
elegant and ambitious form one. and
the lazy, happy, easy-going work folk
and Migrants form the other. But the
darby mob is most picturesque, with its
red-waisted nurse girls, it's huge ban
danna crowned ''mammies," it's white
bearded, rheumatic old "uncles" in the
withdrawing line, its ragtag and bob
tail loafers, out at elbow. toggle iointed,
loose all over, and content whenever the
sun shines on them.