Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-16
Of One Who Has Lived IS
Years in Washington.
EPIDEMIC OF CHOLERA
VISIT OF CHARLES DICKENS AND
MRS. TRoLLoPE.
Old Canal and First Railroad Bar
racks, Slave Pen and Jail
Election in 1860.

MY first recollectfons Of Washington are
from 1892, the year Of the cholera cpl
demic," said w. H. Frazier, who was born
here in 1927, to an Evening Star reporter
today. $50 many died that the dead carts
were driven around the streets and avenues
every morning The drivers blew horns just
as the garbage cart drivers do now, but the
solemn cry, Bring out the Dead re-echoing
every few minutes was something different.
All of the phases OF human nature devel-
oped by historical disasters were exempli-
fed here. This I know from conversations
with my sisters as l grew up. My MEM
cries are those of a very small boy, the
dead cart incidents being the most vivid.
THE appearance Of Washington at the
time has been described often by tourists
and visitors. but their accounts were not
apt to be very comprehensive. Ihey gen.
orally stopped with Pennsylvania avenue,
the poor hotels, hackney coaches and the
dust. Their criticisms on Congress and
what they considered our hopeiessly bad
form Of government concerned the country
at large rather than Washington locally.
Two of our severest critics were Charles
Dickens and Mrs. Trollope. They had been
well treated on landing here, and their I'M
merciful attacks reused the deepest resent
ment. Dickens served for many years as
the substitute for the orthodox devil In
American explosives. Where an English
man would have said The d. he did, etc.,
an American would say The Dickens he
did! Mrs. Trollope had her name taken as
a synonym for the meanest kind of wo-
man. One who would be called hussy
In the old country was apt to be called
'Trollope' here for many years.
Pennsylvania Avenue in 1882.
I'm 1882 Pennsylvania avenue consisted
of four rows Of trees, with a dirt road in
the center. There were three hotels be-
tween the Capitol and 18th street, with a
few scattered dwellings. The Indian Queen
was formed of low of old-fashioned, wide
wo-andone-half-story dwellings. They
were carried up to six stories afterward,
and renamed Browns Hotel So carelessly
was this addition built that in the winter
Of 1856 two guests complained that they
were nearly smothered by smoke although
they had not yet had a fire built. The floor
was taken up, and the mouth of chimney
was found pouring smoke and sparks into
the middle of the room. The old dwellings
were too wide for modern hotel rooms, and
to reduce the width of the upper floors the
walls had been carried up with no other
base than the strong old Joists. me sur.
face of these was already charred. Cement
and states were brought and f1re-proof
fue built from the chimney to the more
modern one leading to the top.
Many persons have read of our old west
ern turnpikes, which started out from
PittSburg, GAINESVILLE, etc. with four rows
of Lombardy poplars and macadamized
roadways, but after a few miles ended in
squirrel tracks and ran up trees Three or
four squares from Pennsylvania avenue
older Westinghouse got on to the COM
mons Here squatters built their hogpens.
and herded their cows and geese. The men
and BOYS worked at anything they could
get to do. The women and girls herded the
cows and geese. 1t was profitable, and
these humble folk were the ancestors OF
some of our solid Muldoons.
En,,% h. 40 <S- n rf at H1rp,
only one house between New York avenue
and the Boundary, as Florida avenue was
then called. That was bakeshop at N
street. Eslins brick kiln stood on the
southeast corner of the Boundary and It'll
streets. The troops used it during the civil
war to set their targets against.
Old Canal and First Railroad.
South of Pennsylvania avenue the old
canal ran from the Potomac river. at 18th
street, eastward. Wooden bridges crossed
it at Az street, 7th,- 10th. 18th and 14th
streets. 1t was impossible at other points.
This canal wendell its way into the Eastern
branch of the Potomac at Sd street south
east South Washington was then called
The Island and was one in truth.
"A nastier or more unhealthful institution
than this canal would be hard to conceive
of. Shiny mud, dead dogs, and once in a
while baby, festered in the sun of every
summer. Among all of the benefits con-
ferred by Alexander R. Shepherd, none
were greater than abating this nuisance.
For many years the Baltimore and Ohio
branch railroad was the only one into the
city. The company had built it at heavy
expense, and only at the urgent prayer Of
Congress. 1t never paid expenses.
People who had depended on stage
coaches, private carriages and shanks-his-
mare as we had, never thought of critics.
ing the road or its appointments. 1t was
completed in 1888. The station was then at
I'd street and Pennsylvania avenue. A great
crowd gathered to welcome the first train,
which consisted Of an engine and one car.
As il turned the curve just north Of the
present station small cannon was fired
and the crowd Cheered Justify.
"A few years ago Thomas A. Scott gave
us the Baltimore and Potomac, with its