Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1897-10-09
POTOMAC EXCURSIONS.
Washingtonians Would Swelter to
Death Without Them.
Attractive scenery and Cool BreczeS
II Make Suffering Humanity For
Eet the Torridity of
the Capital.
Especial washington Letter.l


Although tn e maievolence of the heat
ed season fingers with us here, the
worst has passed. This capital city
never sweltered through such Septem-
ber as the ore which has just gone
seething and kissing into the torridity
of temporal oblivion. The only relief
accorded the people from intense suf-
fering and possible prostration was in
the cheap Potomac excursions.
The cool resorts along the upper Po
tomPe are numerous, and have never
been fifty described. The travelling
center of the city is at the junction of
Seventh street and Pennsylvania av-
enue, where the car tracks cross each
other, transfers are given and the
crowds are greatest. 1t Is low ground,
and in the spring time has frequently
been covered with water foot deep,
so that marketing at the great
"mash" market, near by, has been either
done in skiffs or has been entirely sus-
pended.
Into this low locality, on the burning
and yielding asphalt pavement, the hot
and almost fainting people congregate,
hurrying and scurrying from car to car,
where they "hang on by the strap, sit
IN some fat mans lap, or else stand on
the platform and draw up their feet"
The ride thence to the river landings
is continual perspiration and swelter.
The little puffs of air are laden with
the heat above and reflected heat below,
and life is only endurable because of the
hopeful certainty of speedy delivery.
The arrival at the wharf brings the
cool-air seekers into a density of still
furnace-like air, in which there is never
breath of moving atmosphere, and the
rush for tickets is an awful nightmare.
Fortunately there are boats enough to
prevent that crowding to suffocation
which used to be the bane of the river.
AS soon as the steamers are COM
fortably full, the bells ring, the en-
gineers put the machinery to work, the
pilots whirl their wheels, the bands
commence their alleged music, and the
motion of the boat produces a breeze
which is at once revivifying. Almost
immediately we are brought alongside
the arsenal grounds. There, under o
shaded lawn, about mile in length,
lying under the trees, at or near the
edge of the stone wall which rises per-
pendicularly from the water, are
stretched hundreds of men, women and
children. too poor even to take the ten
cent ride down the river. But they are
cool and comfortable, SO long as quiet
There is always breeze on the arsenal
grounds, that is becoming one of the
most popular resorts in the city for the
residents of south Washington.
Unfortunately, the half-civilized col
ored people, the uneducated and per
sistently ignorant and ill-bred class, are
crowding hard upon their more cleanly
and deserving fellow-citizens, often ex
hibiting such rudeness as to almos
make it necessary for class discrimina
tion by the officers of the Third artil
lery, who are garrisoned in the grounds
As we pass the barracks, the long lin,
of brick buildings used as the soldiers
quarters, the "sun-down gun" comes il
sight, This little piece of rifled artillery
has doomed forth an announcement o
the rising of the sun and of the goir
down of the same for many years.
is situated almost exactly on the spo
where the gallows were erected upoI
which were hanged the accessories t.
the assassination of President Lincoln
The breeze grows fresher and coole
as we glide along towards the south
land. That little wharf extending ou
into the stream is all that remains of th
immense landing places for CAM
Stoneman. during the war. That grea