The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-02


'New York" Foreigners.
From the Washington star
Yes" said the guide with the seedy
suit, the well polished if non-waterproof
shoes, the black derby that had seen bet
ter days and the frazzled yet immacu-
lately white linen-he hovers expectantly
in the general vicinage of the peace mon
ument, which, it will be remembered. is
not too far out of range of establish
ments where the largest size Of schoon-
ers may be had for the price-"this big,
comfortable-looking man in crash linen
clothes and a Panama hat hired me to
take him around one afternoon last week.
He had guide book, map of the town
and all the rest of the gear of a visitor.
He noticed my badge in passing along this
way, and says he:
Just tote me around and show me
the whole thing.
Then Ae called calash ana we start
ed out. Took him through the capitol first
and then the Botanical Gardens. Then
we did the ride up TO the top of The
monument Afternoon was about wound
up then, and he said he'd meet me and
W. "a Atil49A hp A4lt rest Oh the SlENNS the
next day. He was on hand all right with
another wagon the next morning. ana
away we started again. Did The Smith
sonian, National Museum. Medical Mu-
scum, house where Lincoln died, Corcoran
Art Gallery, treasury, war, state and
navy, patent Office, the whole works
Interesting place, very said he. when
we had about covered the town and he,
was paying me off. Had no idea there
was so much TO be seen here
Oh, says /, in an off-hand, I-know-it-
all way, 'WashingtOn's swell show town
OF the country First time you've ever
been here?
He looked at me kind o funny like out
o the slants of his eyes, and says he:
Well, no; wouldn't exactly say that
I've been living here steadily for the past
nine years-in the government service
Never had look around town before
though Spent all my vacations out of
town, and you can't see much of any
thing here after 4 O'Clock. Thought Ia
just take couple o days Of my vacation
TO look around the town that I've been
living in for nearly a decade And then
he went his way.
Fact. Honest. Cross m heart. Here
I'd been throwing all kinds DWELL pipev
things-into him for two days thinking
he was from Omaha or MINNEAPOLIS. or
some old place like that, and that he'd
never 81 IuuCn as got OH the cars in
Washington-and he ups and stuns me
with the Information that he's been here
nine years, which is five years longer than
I've been here myhelf. But I'll bet a hat
that he swallowed all the-well Just call
il perslflage-that l filed him up with
about some O. the sights we took in Just
as if it really had been his first whirl in
Washington-thati is, just as if he'd never
been here before.
Plenty Customers Here.
'And, say, I want to remark that If I
could get all of that kind of business
that's here to be got, wouldn't have to
hustle for visitors to show around. mean
that the departments here are chock-a-
block filled UP with clerks, from SOFA
month folks up to the top-notchers who
haul down the big government coin every
month, who, after several years of resi-
dence here. don't know half so much
about Washington as a bunch OF Baltimore
or Philadelphia school marms who fit in
here on cheap two-day excursions and
cover the town with a drag net from the
minute they get in until they take the
train for home. I'd like 10 have a two-bit
piece for every man and woman in the
government service in Washington who's
never even been inside the capitol Sounds
singular doesn't it? But it's on the level
all right. I'd be willing TO bet that not
eminent folks have ever been up at the
top Of the monument, and that not more
than five, or. at the most, ten per cent
of them have ever passed beneath the lin
tells of the Smithsonian, the National Mu-
scum or the Corcoran Art Gallery. Why?
Oh, that's easy enough. AS my man, who
had lived here for nine years, said, few of
the show places in Washington can be got
at after O'Clock in the afternoon, and so
they are practically of no good to the peo-
pie in the departments. They hesitate
about taking a day off now and then from
their annual leave for the purpose Of look
ing over Washington and when their va
cation time comes around they want to go
to their homes or to the beach, the noun
tains, or some place for a change. Don't
blame them, at that. They go on postpon-
ing their sightseeing from year to year
and the result is that slews of department.
al people have spent years here, lived and
died here without ever seeing much more
of Washington than Pennsylvania avenue
f street and the route between their
homes and their Offices When their rela-
tives drift here, at inaugurations, and big
affairs like that, some of them do turn out
with their visiting kinfolk and look around
Washington a bit, and the obs and abs
they work off over sights that have been
lying right here alongside them for years
are actually funny to listen to. During the
peace carnival a lady who's been in the
treasury department since the memory of
man fergits it,, so TO speak, engaged me
TO take her and a couple of visiting women
friends from the West around town.
Had Not Time Before.
Now, who would think there were so
many interesting spots around the capt.
tol buildingr said she, when l was show
ing them around the crypt.
OF course, you've seen EN- oil good
many times before, ma amp says ].
NO. she said, kind O. hesitatngly,
I've only been in the capitol building
twice before-once to hear Charles Sum
ner make a speech, and the last time
when the Supreme Court was considering
the Tilden-Hayes contest
We'll, I declare, said one of her Wis
iting friends, ia really be ashamed to
admit it,
"T am acknowledged the lady, who's
been in the treasury since the days of
Gen. Spinner.
"A guide in this town rubs 10 against
some queer propositions in the course or
the year. Say. ! plowed around with
party of twelve-even dozen-school teach
are from, UfffalO not long ago Had 'ar,