The age-herald., 1898-03-27
MATT MINER
 IN WASHINGTON

| all for the better. It was a good thing l for everybody that the power house of the 1 Georgetown Railroad company covering | half block and eight stories high, burned l down last September. It cost the company | great deal of money, but that makes no l difference. The people are benefited. It | resulted in taking out the old cable system 1 of railway on Pennsylvania avenue and the 1 construction of an underground or Buda 1 Pest system. There is now in use on 1 Pennsylvania avenue some of the finest
 street cars in the United States Can make speed at the rate of twenty miles 1 an hour. wish bounding Bob Jemison l would come up here and make a personal
 inspection of the new cars. won't agree
 to pay his railroad fare to come, but am
 sure he will profit by 1t. and in this way he will be doing great deal of good to the | Birmingham public. I don't suppose Bob is any more phiianthropic than any other business man, but take pleasure in tell 1 ing him that they have no teete-totter 1 cemetery cars in Washington.
 | It is difficult to imagine the intense war l feeling that prevails in every part of Wash 1 ington. The telegraphic dispatches have not half told the tale. Every man you l meet Is talking war. Even the street car conductors and motormen are asked by | strangers what they think of the situation. l If war does not come 1t will not be because | the Washington public does not want it. l There is more patriotism in Washington 1 than I really thought was lodged here. The | absence of franchise has to certain extent l alienated the people from the general poll | tics outside of matters that pertain to the l district alone Every man seems to have | his fighting clothes on I venture to say | that 90 per cent. of the members of the l house if brought to a vote tomorrow would 1 declare themselves in favor of decara- 1 tion of war.
 In the discussion of the naval bill on l Thursday there was most intense express sion on this subject. While many of the | speeches were common place, most of | them were read from manuscript. There was an under-current of intense hostility | to Spain. It is difficult to understand this unless one comes in contact with it.
 The war spirit has become intense l that it is affecting the feminine mind as well. American flags worn upon the l breast of nearly every woman, and brass l buttons of the soldier kind are galore. Wo- | men talk as much as the men. While they | may not be able to fight, they are willing | to lend their influence to the justice of | the cause.
 Gen. Wheeler, of Alabama, has gained the | reputation of being the most enthusiastic | member from the south. In case of | hostiIties, most of the northern members | expect Gen. Wheeler to be at the head of | the troops from the south. He is seldom | referred to as Gen. Wheeler now.s It is | usually Fighting Joe."
 |
 | If it were not for the war scare, this | session of congress would be a dull one. There has been practically no legislation of I any kind outside of the appropriation bills 1 and the few war measures. The fifty mil
 lion dollar bill was followed quickly by the | naval bill which calls for an appropriation l of forty-dve million. This, with other 1 bills for fortifcation armament, mun- l tions of war, etc., will run the war meas | ures up to $125 100000. There has been a | dearth of every kind of legislation There | has been less number of bills introduced i in this congress than in any congress for
 the past thirty years.
 |
 It was a hot time for Mark Hanna, Steve l Elkns Eugene Hale-all able senator's l when Senator Thurston made his thrust at | them in his famous speech on Thursday. | When he referred to the fact that a declar- l ation of war would do nothing more in Wall | street than to shift the chips from one side l of the gambling table to the other every | spectator in the gallery and every one on 1 the floor of the senate looked directly at | Mark Hanna. Marks face grew crimson. | He knew the position he occupied. He | realized the trend of public opinion. He | knew that he was regarded as stumbling l block between national honor and the desire of the people Thurston combatted every
 thing that Wall street advanced. He said | that war, instead of ruining commerce l would build up trade. That instead of low | ering the value of commodities, it would | add to their price. When Senator Thurs ton said that he did not get his patriotism | from the ticker everybody looked at Mark | Hanna and Steve Elkins again. Thurs | ton smoked Hale out of his hole when he | read from the New York World an inter- | view with Hale saying that events had | crowded one another so rapidly that the president had been swept off his feet, and | that he had also lost his head, he was mak- ing a statement that was very embarrass- ing to MT. Hale While Hale'S sweetheart no longer sits in the gallery, having accom- | panied her husband, who was deported from the United States to Spain the Maine
 senator came to the front and slipped out
 of it in the same old way. He simply
 denied having made the statement. There
 are four men in the city who heard Hale
 make the statement and their word is un-
 occasionally as good as his. 1t was un.
 kind of Thurston to shoot it into the sen.
 ator from Spain as he is called here in
 the presence of so large an assemblage.
 There was a great deal of indignation
 among the Kentuckians in Washington that
 the battleship Kentucky should be chris
 tened with bottle of water. The night
 before the party left for Newport News
 Joe Blackburn was heard to say that he
 intended going to the launching and as