The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1904-09-02
OUi, WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, d. c., Aug eth.

there is no visible activity around the Elk
ecutive premises except the silent conf z
and going of tourists. The single clerk
still on duty at the white annex has little
information of value to politicians but
yesterday announced that the President
letter of acceptance will not be issued Till
September 12 and possibly Is. Ju lge
Parker's letter will greet the public a
week later. This is quite in accordance
with the purpose of the Democratic nat
ional committee to have very short,
sharp and lively campaign not beginning
till October.
The solitary clerk who sits behind the
| Federal inkstand as above mentioned, an
nounces with an air of beastful superiori-
ty that the Republican committee has
closed contracts for 525 tons of white pa
per to be used for campaign literature.
FIVE Chicago paper jobbers have the con
tracts and some twenty paper mills are
| busy turning out the stuff in its INN acu
late form of harmlessness. The Tribune
correspondent figures that the paper
when it has become offensive with ink
and gall, would be sufficient to lay pa
| per sidewalk all the way to California,
or Pata gonia, the quantity increasing with
each repetition. Democrats do not pre-
tend that they are going to use more than
a hun dred thousand acres of paper, but
they mean to glut the U. s. mails with it
during September and October.
The famous old Long Bridge, which,
! for generations has been the only connec-
ton between our northeastern and south
eastern states, has permanently retired
| from business. The new double-track
| bridge built at cost of $75O,000, has
been opened this week. 1t is half a mile
long and marvel Of engineering skill.
A brilliant coat of red paint brings the
great steel structure out in bold relief,
contrasting it with the blue river and sky
and the green of luxuriant foliage. The
old bridge crouches, frienGless and tot
tering in the shadow of its successor,
doubtless remembering, before it plunges
to oblivion. the proud days when it extin-
guished the commercial life of George
town and, two generations later, when it
bore the tramp of million men marching
to meet the hosts of the South.
The passing of the old bridge and the
dedication of the new may be said to be
accomplished during these weeks by the
transit of the tens of tn ousands of soldiers
and thousands of commissary wagons
moving to the mock battle of Bull Run
around and beyond Manassas. Three
headquarters have already been establish
ed on the CONTESTED" ground, the war
like appearance of the vast area of hun
dred square miles being broken only by a
solitary Quaker who obstinately sits in
| the middle of it upon his 800 acres and
refuses to permit the hostile legions to
| trespass on his land. The scream of bugles
and the trob of drums are already heard
across the river, and Friend Pearley sits
triump ant in his doorway and laughs
derisively to behold the expenditure of a
million and half of dollars to enable
vast brigades and divisions of parading
men to fire blank cartridges at each other,
make danking manouvers, and delight the
imperialistic spirit of the American Pres
ident.
Another great naval scandal has broken
out this week. Forty seizures of dutia-
BILE merchandise have been made in San
Francisco, revealing wholesale smuggle
of oriental goods. There are more than
one hundred cases of goods in all, worth
them consigned to Commander Bull and
Rear-Admiral Stirling. Probably Secre-
tary Shaw will simply reprimand the
offenders, as he did the naval officers who
struggled into Porto Rico, for the cases
seem exactly similar. Secretary Shaw
told your correspondent that he should
let these offenders off with reprimand,
while native Porto Ricans were still IN
Jail and had been there for year, for do.
ing precisely the same thing.
The high water mark for pensions was
reached September 30th, 1902, when the
rolls carried 1,OOO,732 names. There is
one revolutionary widow on the pension
rolls, today,-Esther s. widow of Noah
Damon of Vermont She must have mar
ried at II when her husband was 70. He
served as follows: six days from April
10Th, 1775, in Captain fuckers company;
twenty five days in Captain Summers
company; sixty-fve days in Captain
French's company; three months in Cap.
tain Thomas Whites company; three
months in Captain Lapham's company
thirty seven days in Captain Clapp's com
pany; nine days in Captain Abner Cranes
company; thirty-one days in Captain
Richards company and eight months in
Captain Champney's company. These
companies were generally in different
regiments, and the record shows the cur.
icus instability of military service during
the Revolution. The last survivor OF
that war died in 1869, aged 1O9 years.
| 4 ,,or'c