Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-22
Recollections Of the City by a
Septuagenarian.
SPECTATOR OF MANY VIVID SCENES
Characteristics Of the Community
and Its Geography.
INCIDENTS OF INTEREST
Written for The Evening Star.

| Written for The Evening Star
| Virgil it was who said, at delights me to
| remember" while. on the contrary. Thomas
| Haines Bailey sang, Teach. oh, teach me
to forget" Tranquility, perhaps dwelIs be-
| tween the two. Regarding memory. it is
| an interesting question how much or how
| little septuagenarian like myself can
| really recollect or accurately recall. We
are all apt to get more or less mixed and
confused. and perhaps our statements must
be taken with the apochryphal grains Of
| salt. Every one. probably, has heard of
the marvellous memory of the old fellow
who declared that 1t went back to the day
| before he was born, and that he lay awake
| all night crying for fear he would be
| girl
1 was three years old in 1882, when the
| cholera struck Washington city. Perhaps
| the awfulness of that period impressed it on
my tender mind or recitals of its hor-
| rors constantly poured into my juvenile
ears fixed it in my memory, but it is there
| after all these years.
City of Death.
| I can remember the grass and tall weeds
| growing in the midst Of the streets of our
city. The funereal gloom which hung over
city of the dead: the cross marked in
| chalk on almost every door, denoting that
victims Of the Asatic pestilence, which
walked at MONDAY. and also midnight; the
| sepulchral sound of the tin horns. blown
by the drivers Of the cart tumbril which
stopped at every such door. and the cry
the awful cry--of the sexton. who gath
| cred them in Bring out your dead.
| Bring out your dead." 1 can conceive of
nothing approaching it in horror: How
many of our "old-timers'' and their fami-
lies passed away through that terrible
scourge 1 never learned or cared to know,
but there were hundreds, perhaps a thou
| sand or two There must be some record
in the national library
Schoolmate of A. r.. Shepherd.
| At five years of age I was first sent to
| school, to keep me out Of mischief to Chas.
| Strahan. a fine, fat little roly-poly. oily
man Of God. who presided in an annex Of
frame to his handsome three-story brick
residence on the corner Of 9th and H streets
| northwest. Mr.. Strahan had been intended
| for the priesthood but somehow miscarried,
| I'm afraid, from the unconscious but all
| the more irresistible attractions of a GER
tain Miss sweeny. daughter of bank pres
| dent, 1 think the present Bank OF Wash
| ington, where our friend Charley James
/ now is. And she was intended for nun.
| to take the black veil, but she took Strahan
and the white one. Neither ever regretted
| it, believe, for I never saw or heard of
| a happier couple. Strahan's school was the
school in those days Of Washington: 1t
was most select-a sort of West Point Mill
| tary Academy as to difficulty of getting in
| and ease of getting out. John Clay. adopt
| ed son of the great Henry Clay, was one of
our boys, and they said very bad boy.
too. Anyhow, John got sent home to the
| great Harry Of the west" Gen. Manning
| Force. one of the Union heroes of our civil
war. and his brother. Charles F. NJ, the
doctor, who was a surgeon on the other
| side, their father being Col. Peter Force,
mayor of Washington as long as he chose;
| Alexander Shepherd and others notable in
| after life went to our school and were
| called "Strahan's pigs by Mcleod s pigs"
| a rival institution across the street, but by
| no manner Of means so select. Billy Gait.
the jeweler, now owns and occupies the
| remodeled building.
In those days Pennsylvania avenue from
| the Anacostia marshes to Rock creek was
| bog or swamp in wet weather or river
| floods and a srocco on a sandy desert! IN
dry. A little shock-headed, cotton-headed
| chap. with too moist a nose, too inatten-
| lively cared for. who sat on form in Stra-
hans school then was destined in the future
| to change all that among us. All know his
| name-Alexander. the Shepherd. They
are talking about his statue and monument
now but pshaw. he has built it himself.
Look around at Washington city and see it.
Distinctly remember the stepping stones,
| short graveyard foot stones. sticking up
at intervals-more numerous and closer
over frequent gullies-the idea derived from
Pompeii on which the great John Quincy
Adams, Andrew Jackson. Henry Clay. Van
Buren,, John c. Calhoun. Daniel Webster.
and all the great men Of the day when
there were giants on earth earth had to step
carefully or find themselves in the ditch.
Walked With VIM. Henry Harrison.
1t was much relieved in appearance. how
ever. when distance lent enchantment by
| the double row of tall. lance like Italian
| poplars which occupied each side Of the
| roadway from the Treasury to the Capitol.
| Up that street from the Baltimore and
| Ohio depot the writer Of this in 1S40 came
hand in hand with the President, VIM.
Henry Harrison. "Old Tippecanoe" By
then the street had been much improved,
but it still waited for Aleck Shepherd. 1t
was very snowy day, raw and damp,
and 1 stood beside the peoples idol. under
the same umbrella. He was bareheaded
and bowling, hat in hand, most of the time,
and to me he looked taller and just as raw
boned and angular as Henry Clay. John
Randolph or Abraham Lincoln, whom I
subsequently knew (the latter, and ccm-
pared them in my child mind.
He came to be inaugurated, caught his
death of cold. they say. that day. and died
in the White House one month afterward
Near that spot. where 1 first saw 1.-The
hero Of Tippecanoe.' 1 witnessed. after
| aeronaut Wise Then up in a balloon,
boys" was a miracle. indeed.
Many more miracles have seen here in
our beloved city. 1 saw the first railroad
locomotive arrive. on temporary tracks,
| dragging freight or passenger car behind
it. Standing on the same historic spot, 1
witnessed the first telegram being sent from
the United States Capitol building to Bal
| timore, Md, viz: What hath God
wrought?'
The Plug Ugly Riots.
Later on came the riots of the Plug
Uglies and Dead Rats and Know Moth
| ings of Mayor Magruders day, which Gull
minated in the killing by United States
| marines of a dozen or twenty rioters
at the Northern Liberties market house.
where they had dragged up piece of ar
| tillery. loaded to the muzzle with nails.
spikes and slugs, bottles-any old thing
| and were about to fire on the voters and
clear the polls. 1 was at an upper window
| of Burdett's dry goods store. now Hahn &
Co.'S. and looking on. when the marines
| fired up and down 7th street and Massa-
| chusetts avenue, with such terrible re-
| suits. Another onlooker alongside of me
received one Of the big musket balls in his
breast, killing him instantly. Then 1 with
| drew. 1 never learned who the man was
One poor fellow, I noticed, had received a
| point-blank shot right through his fore