The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-05-16
WASHINGTON'S BEGINNING.
HOW 4 LOTTERY AIDED IN PUTTING Up
TIE CAPITOL ITSELF.

Efforts to provide more decent anc
reputable quarters for the Chief ESccn
tive and his corps recall many inter
csting facts in the early history O
some of the public bindings in Wash
ington.
1t was not until 1886 that the TEN
pest-tossed Congress OF the thirteen
colonies saw the first evidences of the
Federal CITY that excited the mlrth OF
the wits, the forcbodings Of the timid
The circumference Of the city as it
now spreads out under the great dome
is greatly contracted from the impos
ing dimensions originally laid out 10y
the engineer, l. Enfant. Where the
superb Patent Office now stretches in
marble majesty the poetic Frenchman
inspired by recent events in Paris, had
marked the site of a national tabernacle
where national events were to be re-
ligiously commemorated, here nation
al obseuuirs were to I've celebrated, and
the dead hunni,'i ~ ;it coan'rv were
to be buried and their monuments per-
petuated-a sort of Pantheon to the
glories of the republic: But the
Frenchman's hopes and plans were
were early nipped, for even in those
early days Jobs" and rings found
their account. He was beset on all
sides by venal legislators and self
seeking jobbers, and practically coerced
into throwing up his commission in
disdain, leaving the city to be com.
pleted by Andrew Ellicott.
In 1882 $500 in gold was offered
without restriction as to calling, to the
citizen who should send in the accepted
design for the Presidents honse. Five
hundred dollars and lot in the new
city vr a gold medal were offered for
the best design of the Capitol. To Il
generation that has become familiar
with the sums annually appropriated
and voted for Post Office and custom
houses our lorefathers will seem thrifty
indeed, cmbarking upon city building
with grant OF $l9 200 from the States
of Virginia and Maryland.
This, however, was supplemented by
a national lottery, for which 10000
tickets were sold and of which $3.50
were to draw prizes, the capital one
being hotel which was to cost $50 900.
The price of the ticket was s., and the
prizrs ranged from $40 up to the botel.
Nor need the student ofcurront morals
and manners, depressed by the laXity
of our times, wholly despond when he
reflects that the lottery vas made use
of not only in the buiitin. Of our ma
tional Capitol, but churches, schools,
colleges, even Harvard Itself, were in
dcbtcd to the wheel for money to Sc
cure their usefulness.
In 1886 the Pr, si1rn.s 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 ard taste. Whci
the lottery failed and the sums voted
by Virginia and Maryland gave out
Washington was less of 4 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.
missioncrs to so on with the work
and the country was distracted by such
protligate outlay. The press of the
time thundered against such eXtrava
gancc- Washington Times.