The times., 1899-03-05
EARLY HISTORY
OF THE AVENUE
The Most Cosmopolitan of All
ThorOushfares.
Many Distinguished Persens Have
TrOd Its PavementS.
Was Once the Scene of "a battle He
tween Indinn Tribes-Its Trn-
ditions and Legends.

Pennsylvania Avenue runs from Rock
Creek on the west to Twining City on the
east a distance of about four miles. At
equal distances it is broken by the Treasu-
~ and the Capitol. each division being
about one and one-quarter miles long.
Historic Pennsylvania Avenue, the
Avenue to use the phraseology of old
ingtonians-commences at the west
side of the Capitol grounds on the east
and ends at the Treasury on the west. 1t
is broad, magnificent boulevard 100 feet
wide from building line to building line,
being surpassed in width by only one street
in Washington-Sixteenth northwest, which
is 163 feet broad. 1t is not in its magnift-
cent proportions, however, that it is the
historic street of America. II is in the as
sociations that cling around it, the mem
ories that hang over it. the scenes it has
witnessed, and the great men and women
who have walked its pavements that Penn
syivania Avenue is to the United States
even more than the Strand of London is
10 England or the High Street of Edin-
burgh to Scotland.
The genius of American institutions is
inseparably connected with this broad ave
nue.. The voiceless stories of its pavements
are thrillingly vocal in their eloquent ut
terances of a nations history. Every tree
lining its sidewalks has a story TO tell,
every brick or flag in its broad thorough
fare legend, every old building a tradi-
tion of the struggle of parties; of the evo-
luton Of the nation from the conflicting
atoms of heterogeneous colonies. of the
progressive growth Of a Republic that has
hsrN1r- lat a1 rrtn
of coast 10 be one of the leading and most
powerful nations on earth.
Scene of an Indian Rattle.
1t is haunted spot, haunted by the
ghosts of an alien race and different set
OF institutions from ours. There is ira
dition preserved among the remnants Of
the Wicomicoes. now living in Charles and
Prince George counties. Nd, that they.
with the Anacostias and Analostans met
the dreaded Susquehannas at the dent cal
point now occupied by the Centre Market,
and drawing their formidable enemy into
a swampy ambuscade completely defeated
and drove him back. The Analostans
were nearly destroyed, and the other TWO
tribes so badly cut up that they gladly
few years afterward welcomed the coming
of the whites. The Susquehannas were
the most formidable of the Indian tribes
IN lDlS StcllOn, or ldtDeT Ildt luNduSu lillS
section. They have been identified by
some ethnologists with the Six Nations.
Their onward progress, however, was ar
rested by this battle and after another
but far less sanguinary struggle on what
used tc be known as Little Camp Hill. 10
the east of the site of the old Observatory,
they disappeared alike from this section
and from history. So Pennsylvania Ave-
nue. can boast of being the theatre of one
of the decisive battles of the world.
The British Invasion.
Once again its pavements resounded to
the tread Of an armed foe. In 1914 the
British invading army crossed the Ana
costa River over the old bridge, just
south OF the Congressional Cemetery, and
one column marched up the Avenue-then
about the only thoroughfare from Capitol
Hill to Georgetown-to burn the White
House. Men who mad grown bronzed be-
meath Peninsular suns and grizzled among
The SHOWS Of the Pyrenees, gathered in
the first place from the lowest slums of
Dublin, London, and Edinburgh, 1.-The
ordure OF the human race" as John
Mitchell aptly calls them, strode, with
martial tread and wollsh hearts, up our
broad Avenue. burning, plundering and
destroying whatsoever they felt inclined
TO do. 1t is gratifying TO add that a few
days afterward they met in this new
world what they had never encountered
in the old-a sound and thorough thrash
ing.
II may not be amiss here to say that
while the Capital of the United States has
once been in the hands of a foreign foe
there IS not capital in Europe. with the
single exception Of St. Petersburg. that has
not frequently been invaded by enemies.
And the isolated location of St Petersburg
a hoo faa ana D
capture. Moscow and Noygorod the an
cient capitals Of Russia. have time ans!
again passed under the yoke OF the foreign
invader.
The Encmy's Cnmphres
The boast of the Lakaidaimonians before
the days Of Epaminodas was that no Spar
tan woman had ever seen the campfire OF
an enemy from the towers of that insolent
city on the Eurotas. Washington cannot
make that boast. People from the tops OF
lofty houses in Pennsylvania Avenue saw
the Confederate camps on the hills of the
Old Dominion in the earlier days OF the
war and their watchfres cleaning beauti-
fully In the darkness of the night Along
the broad thoroughfare giided the rushing
stream Of an excited and busy multitude
while at not a long range cannon's throw
ing distance were the camps of a valiant
and determined enemy.
II is not, however for these things thai
Pennsylvania Avenue is the historic stree
of the nation. Down its broad sidewalks
rnder its broad spreading shade trees have
walked the great men of the nations past
as its great men are walking today Here
arm in arm may be seen the greatest pub.
-licists and the most accomplished jurists
SLOWLY promenading, discussing matters
that pertain neither TO state nor court.
Distinguished Promennders.
Aaron Burr and Thomas jefferson. Rob.
ert E. Lee and Ulysses S Grant. Jefferson
Davis and Winfield Scott. Andrew Jackson
and Henry Clay, John Adams and Jane.
Madison. Abraham Lincoln and James A
Garfield. James Gillespie Blaine and Georg,
Bancroft. all great men of the nation, from
the first opening of the Avenue 10 III,
present time. with hosts OF the famou
dignitaries Of Europe, have been familiar
with the pavements Of our historic boule.
ward. and the no less famous women o
the past, native and foreign, have mad,
the Avenue their promenade and fayoritc
drive. Celebrated divines. great poets. anC
famous writers have lent their memorie,
30 this thoroughfare. Edgar Allen Po,
picked his way through the muddy inter.
stices OF its cobblestones; Charles Dicken!
struggled and foundered amid its dust
Changes of Ninety Years
II was over ninety years ago the sam,
broad street that it is now. but the changes
in its appearance have been almost infinite
Could III. ghost Of Thomas Jefferson com,
back he could find 10 more resemblance il
the Pennsylvania Avenue OF today to III,
muddy country road of 1902 than he coulc
hnd In the hibiscus of the Agriculture
Grounds TO the long since uprooted ire
TO which he hitched his horse just befor
Tor many years afterward the Ayenu
from the CAPITOL TO the TreasurY WAS ;