Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-22
Washington is Diamond That Needs
Polishing Badly.
IMPROVEMENTS THAT MIGHT Be MADE
No Reason Why This Should Not
Be Commercial City,
q N SIG H TLY ATU R ES
Written for The Evening Star.

town, that it was largely residential, but it
must be confessed he was not entirely pre-
pared for what he saw.
AS the train rolled slowly over the an
Gent bridge he gazed with wonder at the
broad expanse of river beneath him, river
big enough to float the navies of the world,
and at the long, deserted shore line below
| Giesboro' Point.
Can it be-" he exclaimed, "that this no
bic stream performs no more useful pur-
pose than in carrying the waste waters of
the Alleghenies to the sea! Where are the
| busy vessels I saw at New Orleans couple
of days ago? And yet we are nearer TO
Chesapeake bay by six miles than is the
crescent city to the gufr'
With a rattle and roar the train crossed
the causeway. Now. this is something
like" again calculated the observant stran-
ger. Il see something has been done to fill
in those flats / have read about
You are right" answered a gentleman IN
front, who had heard this remark, turning
around, land in a few years this will be a
beautiful park much like the Thames en-
bankment or Charlesbank fine addition to
our already magnificent although rather
neglected park system"
What exclaimed the stranger as the
train pulled UP Maryland avenue, lis it
possible that in this of all cities, the polit-
cal center of great nation, your railroads
go through the streets as if they were no
mere than trolley lines?"
Living in Hopes.
Il am sorry to say they Co." answered his
new friend, although we are living in
hopes that with so many shining examples
before them in other cities both the Balti-
more and Ohio and the Pennsylvania lines
may soon come to see the folly of their old
fashioned methods. See the millions spent
at Philadelphia and Chicago Even in The
little town of Elizabeth, New Jersey, all
grade crossings have been abolished at
great expense and the spirited action of
the mayor of Jersey City forced the Penn
syiVania to build Viaduct even there. But
we are coming to our magnificent union
station-mark the accent. Built in the early
seventies, it was considered fair then. but
now it might serve we'll at Alexandria
However, this is a palace compared with
the Baltimore and Ohio terminal"
why don't the Baltimore and Ohio peo-
pie build a decent one?"
For the same reason as that which
wrecked the road. An inordinate desire to
declare dividends by allowing the line to
get out Of Gate. When she was severaJ
thousand cars shy in her rolling stock.
when her locomotives became too light to
maui the ever-increasing loads and the
bridges to hold those loads. when the fifty
pound rails bent and distorted beneath
their trains and the rotted ties failed to
hold up their burden: in other words, when
the road got in such a shape that it couldn't
h maui Its freight, then the Baltimore and
OHIO went under. The depot was built be-
TORE the age of printing and it's date is lost
In the fogs of obscurity. 1t boasts of four
tracks which have to handle all the long
instance ana suburban traffic However,
tnahks to the rapid development OF our
electric lines and the utter neglect of this
psSt-payinS class of business by the far
sighted railroad authorities our suburban
ties VIII not long have to endure thas dirty
station. > -
An Unsightly Blot.
The tracks cut off North Capitol street,
making, within a stones throw of the
srandest building in this country one Of
the most unsightly bIots Imaginable. In
l@ct' everything is so poverty-stricken and
"retched around that terminal that T. as a
c'tlzen OF the city, am heartily ashamed of
~ ~ mo, inaeea, every year when friends want
10 visit me l always advise their COR ing
by the route that will bring them to this
depot, poor as it is. Not that the ros n is
any smoother, nor the trains better and
faster, put simply that I am afraid OF first
impressions. am not the only one who
thinks and acts in this way When one
HVes IN Washington one always finGs a host
OF 1ong-lost friends and relatives wanting
10 Visit. nave calculated that the Ralti
more and Ohio road loses 500 On, a vaar ~,
passengers for the reason l have given
per cent on $1,000, 00O-enough to build 3,
good terminal and viaduct
This is Pennsylvania avenue" continued
the loquacious citizen, as the two boarded
green car; the finest avenue in the
world. There are several things in which
we are way ahead; our underground cyr
tenn OF electric propuision--no; this is not
cabie-we haven't single overhead trolley
nhe IN the city; our magnificent system Of
broad streets and avenues, paved with
asphalt-dOn't look at those brick sideyaIlxs
in front of the market They're all over the
city, but We're gradually replacing then,
with cement; our hundreds of parks tri-
angles and circles: our public huiIdings ava
private Residences
There seems to be rather lack of large
business buildings here, though" remarked
the stranger. Now in the CITY from vhicn,
l Just came, with about the population of
washington, the business houses are very
handsome
A Mistaken idea.
THAT is because for some unaccountabre
reason the good citizens of my town have
got it into their heads that this is, never
has been and never can be a business citv
They seem to think Providence has issued
a fiat to that effect. Why, even a largo
part of our suburban trade goes to Bali
more and Richmond. and our business men
seem to make no effort to recover it,"
And yet YOU have excellent railroad IA
cilities, replied the traveller. Il don't
mean terminal facilities, you know With
side trunk lines coming from all points of
the compass, with magnificent water con-
nections and with considerable wealth
Washington should control the business of
northern Virginia, southern and western
Maryland and West Virginia"
yes but do We make anything to carry
away besides politicians? Manufacturing
here has never been encouraged. although
the successful operation of the big govern
ment gun factory at the navy yard is an
indication of what might be done here by
private concerns.
Washington is nearer to Chicago, st.
Louis and Cincinnati than any other east
ern seaboard city, including Norfolk vet
see what has been done at Norfolk the past
few years. That is. the land haul which
costs so many times the water haul should
be less to Washington for all the products
OF the central and western states than to
any other eastern seaboard city. We are
at the head of tfdewater on the Potomac.
close to the West Virginia coal fields, which
give us better btuminous coal than even
the far-famed Cardiff, and which can be
brought down by the canal at remarkably
low rate. We are almost exactly the same
distance from the sea by water as Balti-
more, that stands fourth in commerce
With the exception of few insignificant
shoals the Potomac gives US from thirty
to forty feet of water at low tide, and those
few shoals, which would cost but a few
hundred thousand dollars to get rid of, have
haol