Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1902-06-05
HELPED BY LOTTERY
HISTORY OF BEGINNING OF olTy
OF WASHINGTON.
buildsrs Had Very Humble Idsss aud
Little Money to Garry Them Out
Now sight Eolipsing the Beauty Of
Paris and Vienna.

Efforts to provide more decent and
reputable quarters for the Chief Elk
ecutive and his corps recall many In
teresting facts in the early history Of
some Of the public buildings in WASH
tngton.
1t was not until 1896 that the tenn.
pest-tossed Congress of the thirteen
colonies saw the first evidences Of
the Federal city that excited the mirth
of the wits, the foreboding OF the tim
i'd. The circumference Of the city as
1t now spreads out under the great
dome is greatly contracted from the
imposing dimensions originally laid
out by the engineer, L'Enfant. Where
the superb patent office now stretches
In marble majesty the poetic French
man, inspired by recent events In
Paris, had marked the site for ma
tional tabernacle. where national
events were to be religiously COM
memorated, where national obsequies
were to be celebrated, and the dead
honored by the country were to be
buried and their monuments perpet-
uated-a sort of Pantheon to the glo-
ries of the republic. But the French
mans hopes and plans were early
nipped, for even in those early days
"jobs" and rings" found their &C
count. He was beset on all sides by
venal legislators and self-seeking job
bers, and practically coerced into
throwing up his commission in dis
dain, leaving the city to be completed
by Andrew Ellicott.
In 1882 $500 in gold was offered,
without restriction as to calling, to
the citizen who should send in the &C
cepted design for the presidents
house. Five hundred dollars and lot
in the new city or gold medal were
offered for the best design of the Cap
itol. To generation that has became
familiar with the sums annually ap-
propriated and voted for postoff1ce and
custom houses our forefathers will
seem thrifty indeed, embarking upon
city building with grant of $4,000
from the states of Virginia and Mary.
land.
This, however, was supplemented by
national lottery, for which $4,000
tickets were sold and of which 49,
73O were to draw prizes, the capital
one being a hotel which was to cost
$4,000. The price of the ticket was
81, and the prizes ranged from $40 up
to the hotel. Nor need the student of
current morals and manners, depress-
ed by the laxity of our times, wholly
despond when he reflects that the lot
terry was made use of not only In the
building of our national capitol, but
churches, schools, colleges, even Har-
ward itself, were indebted to the wheel
Tor money to secure their usefulness.
In 1896 the presidents house and the
capitol were the only evidences of a
city where the traveller now sees
squares and monuments, edifices and
gardens and parks that eclipse Paris
and Vienna in beauty and taste. When
the lottery failed and the sums voted
by Virginia and Maryland gave out
Washington was less of a city than
Cahaba down in Alabama, which was
once the capital of that state and was
sold for taxes. Three hundred thou
sand dollars were asked by the com.
missioners to go on with the work, and
the country was distracted by such
profligate outlay. The press of the
times Numbered against such extrava.
ce.-Washington Times.