Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-16
MEETING OF UNITY CLUB (1s74).
Address by Secretary Doyle Of Civil
Service Commission.

The members and guests of Unity Club
QS74 were addressed last night at a meet
ing held in the Riggs House parlors by Mr..
John T. Doyle, secretary Of the civil service
commission. His subject was washington,
the Capital City, and his address consisted
Of a review of the origin, rise and progress
OF the nations capital. He depicted graph
ically the early struggles, when, as a ham,
let Of a few frame houses, occupied chiefly
by laborers, the city lifted its head above
the mire and morass, and on through the
years when it formed bone of contention
among It's rivals, even threatening at one
time to disrupt the Union.
The lecturer said 1t was fortunate that 1t
had never become what Washington him
self fondly thought 1t would be-a great
commercial city-nor a manufacturing CEN
ter, as its later builders hoped, for it had
been and always would be free from the
entanglements, the rivalries, the jealousies,
the mobs which threaten the great COM
rnercial centers and most all the foreign
capitals. The very slow growth up to the
war OF 1872, its recovery after the deStruc-
ton then wrought, and its vicissitudes up
to the civil war, were given in detail.
At the last-named period Washington be-
gan to attract the attention of the entire
country, and though its growth was slow
and Its material progress small. yet its
status as city Of 10000 inhabitants was
fixed, and It's permanency as the nations
capital assured.
There were some attempts, he said, to
create sentiment for the removal of the
capital westward in the seventies: but with
the advent of Alexander Shepherd Wash
irgton began to be worthy Of its founder
and the republic. While not exactly like
the Roman emperor who found Rome brick
and left it marble yet Alexander Shepherd
was the moving spirit, whose heroic, though
then misapprehended, efforts left Washing
ton on a basis which will prove to be an
enduring one.
Mr. Doyle quoted Madison's prophecy to
the effect that Washington would not only
be the permanent capital, but would attract
to 1t people OF wealth and distinction. and
that the country 1t represented would
eventually be covered by towns and cities
IN every part. The speaker facetously re-
marked that the alleged malaria which
so often bears the blame for many ills
which Washington flesh is heir to was only
too often the result of dyspepsia" which
was produced by departure from simple
living, where costly viands and frequent
dishes played a great part. That Wash
ington had not only developed in different
lines, but had become a city more central
than geographically its founders and the
earlier Congresses and statesmen had an
ticipated was very evident They had
thought the country would develop rapidly
to the south and southwest, and that Wash
ington would then be naturally the great
center of those regions commercially as
we'll as politically. AS wisdom is justified
of its children, so has the capital city been
Its own vindfcation, and from the feeble,
struggling town of the first half Of the GEN.
fury, when 1t was the jest and butt of
travellers and writer's, domestic and foreign.
1t has risen to Its present high estate.
Discussion OF the lecture followed by
President Patterson, Secretary Holden and
others, and a vote of thanks for his inter-
esting paper was rendered by those present
to Mr.. Doyle.
Other features of the evenings entertain
ment were a piano solo, Drops of Rain
{variations), by Mrs. Ellen Vockey Se;fort;
reading OF the clubs chronicles by Secre-I
tary H. P. Holden: soprano solos. ''Sognaf'
and Long Ago" by Mrs. William Keye
Miller, accompanied by Miss Edna Baer;
piano solo, '-Tarantelle." by Miss Rousseau;
dramatic recitals of Damon and Pythias''
and Charley McCrea" by Mrs. Ellen ".
Seifort, concluding with two excellent bass
solos by Mr.. Earnest Seifort, Thy Sentinel
Am T. and anchored