The age-herald., 1899-08-06
]. H.P. BELMONT WILL ID GREAT
 WORK FOR DEMOCRACY NEXT YEAR

may find satisfactory reasons, but the fact is registered here that there has been an unusual large number of marriages, both north and south of Washington during the past four months.
 No limited marriage tour is complete now adays without a glimpse of Washington. Brides treasure up their experiences here to relate to their children years hence. There are very few of us who have not heard at which hotels our parents stopped in Wash ington when they visited the capital of their country before the war.
 The recent war with Spain has given ad- ditional interest to the city, and the guides are my authority for saying that there have been more bridal couples to visit the capital within the past six months than any six months for a number of years past.
 July and August Pr.d-s
 July and August brides are well known as very lucrative young persons to the guides about Washington. They are generally from the country and they want to see everything there Is to be seen. As a rule the summer bridal couple is suspicious of guides. They have heard about bunco men and such things and very wisely they are careful The city bride and groom know at once if a guide is legitimate one, but he has to prove himself duly authorized to conduct strangers about the city before the July or August bride and groom will em- ploy him. At first they say they won't want guide. They always say this The guide understands 1t to mean that they are not certain if he is all right The latter does not usually take this reply, but shows his badge and stops some policeman to prove his statement.
 Once satisfied that he is under the legf- innate employ of the government or has been duly commissioned they put them selves entirely into his hands and before they leave him he is in collapsed condi- gust brides are intent on getting their moneys worth. They want to see things they have read about and of which they have heard their parents speak when the latter were here on their bridal tours. Just at this time, while the streets of Washing ton are almost deserted, the capitol and public buildings are filled with these eager visitors. The capitol, of course, Is the piece de resistance, though they don't call it by that name possibly They want to see the house and the senate and then the presi- dents room all in red and painted with hideous crimson tracings and figures. If they are from Virginia they stand for a long time before the bronze and marble statues of Jefferson and look with unfeign- ed delight on Washington, whom they say is from their state They don't take as much interest in the statue of Lincoln as the guides would like, but want to see all the pictures of southern speakers. If from the north the rural couple stand rapt before Lincoln Ethan Allen and Daniel Webster, who take up most of their attention. The Georgia couple wonders why there is not a statue of Oglethorpe in Statuary hall, while all figures sink into insignificance to the Tennessean by the side of "Od Hickory" There are several assorted sizes of Call nouns to delight the South Carolinians, and Kentuckians point to Henry Clay and say there are none like him in all that motley statuary crew. And so they go. From the capitol to the white house and then the treasury which they will never leave until they see the money and hold two or three millions in their hands. They stand in front of the model of vessels in the war, state and every building, and get a peep of the secretaries through the doors. Last week young groom from Georgia wanted to thrash a guide because the latter in de- scribing the model of the Maine said that it was only a second-class battle ship Finally MT. Finny. MT. Longs private sec- retary, cooled the patriotism of the south- erner by explaining that it was no insult to the lost vessel to say it was second d-class. He understood at length, but did not like to admit that the Maine was second-class in any thing. A. w. B.