Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-20
CAPITAL A VILLAGE
EARLY DAYS oE CITY OF MAG
NIFIcENT DISTANCES.
Address by Mr.. w. v. Cox Before Abb
bott school-Pfesident Wash
ington anlExaaple.

| MI w. v. COX, speaking To-Day at the
Abbott School on the subject Of Washing
toms birthday anniversary,,sa said:
| About ten years ago. when Mr.. S. w.
Woodward was president of the Board of
Trade. the celebration Of washington's
birthday was inaugarated in the public
| schools Of this city, and under the solicit
| tous care Of the public-spirited DR.. A. P.
Pardon and others patriotic exercises on
I the anniversary of that memorable date
have become feature Of the school year.
| 1t is most praiseworthy custom to recall,
at least once a year. the unselfish life of
George Washington. whose first and every
thought was for the betterment Of his coun-
/ trymen, under a republican form of gov
eminent
I'VE usually think Of Gen. Washington
| as first In war, first in peace and first in
! the hearts of his countrymen,' but we who
| are so fortunate as to live in this beauti-
| full city should also think of Washington
as its founder. ,---
1.-The early history Of the capital city was
| unpromising. Gaillardz Hunt APPLY COM
pares the establishment of the seat of gov
eminent in the District Of Columbia to the
ugly duckling. Thomas Moore calls atten-
ton to this embryo capital whose fancy
sees. Z
Squares in morasses, obelisks In trees
Charles w. Janson said: THE entrance, or
avenues, as they are pompously called
which lead to the American seat Of govern
ment, are the worst roads I passed in the
country, particularly the mail stage road
from Bladensburg to Washington. Deep
ruts, rocks and stumps of trees every min
ute impede your progress and threaten
your limbs with dislocation. Half
starved cattle browsing among the bushes
present melancholy spectacle to a
stranger.
so very thinly is the city peopled and so
little is it frequented that quais and other
birds are constantly shot within hun
dred yards OF the Capitol"
Referred to as "Village."
Another writer says the village" is sur
rounded by endless and almost impene-
trable woods. There were no objects to
catch the eye but a forlorn pilgrim fore
ing his way through the grass that oveI
runs the streets or COW Eliminating on a
bank"
Another writer says Pennsylvania avenue
was "a deep morass, covered with elder
bushes" Sibonian bog, says another.
Despite newn ss and physical conditions;
Of 1.-The future Of the federal city, as he
was of the success Of the American army
in the war Of the revolution.
What contrast the early capital in the
wilderness presented to the capital Of to-
day with public buildings and private resi-
dences on magnificent avenues paved with
asphalt.
What changes have been wrought IN the
century, since Washington became the
permanent capital of the republic.
Days Of Saddlebags.
The world seemed much larger in those
days Of saddlebags than now, when we go
in steam cars to New York in five hours.
cross the Atlantic In steel steamship in
five days, and send back a cablegram an
nouncing our arrival ~ less than five min
utes. What hath God wrought! George
Washington never saw an electric light nor
dreamed Of an electric cara
He never heard central say: Ring off;
White House wants Chicago" He was I'M
acquainted with the typewriter. and had
never struck match, nor did he ever see
his good wife run sewing machine. He
never saw a man take header from BIZ
cycle and afterward an anesthetic, in order
that his Uranium could be examined by the
X-ray and some Of his superfluous brain re-
moved without pain. He never heard the
monograph talk, nor saw the kaleidoscope
with moving pictures,
He was never disturbed BY the thoughts
of ba,clli and bacteria. He never rode in an
automobile, q submarine. boat nor an eleva-
tor. He never had a typewriter letter
sent him in a stamped envelope, for cents
and by rural free delivery. He never saw a
Mergenthaler typesetting machine. He
never saw paper made of wood pulp. He
never bought a newspaper Of several hun
dred columns Of reading matter and with
pictures for a cent, that gave him the
news Of that day all over the world.
He never dreamed that three months
product Of the Franklin press could be
PR tied in an hour 10000 copies). He never
saw steel plows, planters, harvesters, bind
ers. reapers and threshers that ran by
steam, nor Pullman cars and railroad trains
Of a hundred cars that make wheat fields
and mines hours instead Of months from the
market. He had never heard Of the wire
less Marconi talking through the fogs of
Newfoundland to the King Of Italy and
without megaphone, nor the cannibal is
landers Of the Pacific sending a cablegram
OF congratulations to the President of this
republic ...
He never dreamed as possible the gigantic
combinations Of capital. blessings inter-
mixed with evils He had no conceptions of
the strenuous commercial life and modern
methods that have made America a world
power. He never saw the Abbott nor any
Of our many substantial and well-appotnted
| school buildings, with an able corps of OFF,
! Gals and teachers, who, by enlightened
judgment and wise methods, render most
efficient service in educating the young and
in upbuilding and maintaining our free pub
lie schools.
The Future.
What Of the future?
Pupils, apply yourselves, so that when
opportunity, which knocks once unbidden at
every gate presents itself Won will he pre-