The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-23
.IbLE Of TWO G.IIES
Wichita and Washington Alike
in Many Respects,
FORMER JUDGE KEENAN,
AnaIYzeS the Points of Com
mon Interest in Them,

Former Justice Bruce L. Keenan,, now
with the census department in Washing
ton, writes to the Eagle as follows;
While in wichita last month I was
frequently asked, How do you ike living
in washington? As my, stay here is but
temporary and my experience confined
to boarding houses, my actual knowledge
is limited rather to observation than ex-
/ perience after all However I believe
that Washington. with its drawbacks,
/ some of which are serious. IS the best
home city in the world. speak not for
/ the rich but for people who put actual
living, the real enjoyments Of living,
above astentadon. Nor do speak this
in disparagem of ones prejudice for his
own locality, for there are associations
that cluster around ones home whether
country, town or city, and make it the
dearest place or all others The men,
the women, the children you have known
and by whom you are known whose mu-
tual friendships and sorrows you have
shaved make Of that place, whose life
you are a part, though marred 10y the
mutual disputes incident to erring hui
rnanity; the place to which, when away.
your affection would direct your feet to
return I warn the reader particularly
that this is not written as a personal
preference for Washington over Wichita
because / would prefer living in Wichita
to Washington.
Washington. in the first place, Is not
the home of the very rich nor the very
poor Paupers in Washington are about
as scarce as millionaires. These two
classes, the very rich and the very poor
are ragrettable necessaries to common
sense people, who find enjoyment in life
from good, wholesome men and women
with horse sense and hum4e sympathy.
We pity those who are nl-fed, whose bod
les and blood and brain have not proper
nourishment from wholesome food; We
should pity those, who by ostentation,
by false conceptions of superiority, by
Incidence. by disregard of their own well
being. Iiv efalse and unnatural lives and
would cord it over their fellowment.
These two classes are irritants to each
other. I am not unmindful Of all the
world owes to the real captains Of indus
try The worlds progress is due more
than we sometimes admit to the growth
of great Industries and yet wealth sepa-
rates itself too much from the true teens
ing life about US These separations
are TO an extent necessary beyond the
reformation Of legal enactment and yet
we cannot help hating the tears that are
shed over us because we are poor and
despising the man who toadies to us
because we are rich
Tn Washiugto nthere is mainly a salar-
led class who get their pay for short
hours Of service; who are above the av-
erage Of intelligence; who have little aris- !
tocratic assumption; who have no bust /
ness jeaIousies; whose work keeps them /
from fdIeness and whose leisure may be
enjoyed because they are not weary by |
long hours OF work and vexed by by bus
mess anxieties. In a word, Washington I
has work that IS not wearing and leisure (
that is not incidence. The department /
class ae cosmopolitan people drawn I
from all parts Of the nation and who re-
tain their local customs and peculiarities /
to some extent They treat you as they f.
would IF they met you at New Haven, I
Syracuse Altoona, Norfolk, Nashville /
DAYTON. South Bend. Los Angeles, Little .
Rock or Wichita Into this class social /
enhance is not dofcult There is little
excIusiveness and nonsense. A stranger
can find himself sooner at home in Wash
ington than in other eastern cities. He
may have excellent neighbors and good
friends if he choose to deserve them. In
this respect Washington IS likely to fav-
orably disappoint one. There is the ex-
elusive official and diplomatic set ueces-
sarily so. This leave out OF the count.
Washington IS the seat Of the nations
and has the magnificent car
itoI buildings and the White House. Tt
has the nations public buildings. such
as war and navy,t reasury pension. pat
ent, Smithsonian, exc. lit has the gov
ernment-the law-mazing the law con-
STRUNG and the law executing power in
open view. That is, it has the congress.
the supreme court and the president It