Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-27
FIFTY YEARS AGO
In THE STAR

| I'm THE STAR
Last Sunday an extract was given from
an 1855 Issue of The Star briefly describing
the construction of tramway at the Post
Office Department to facilitate the shifting
of the mails. In The Star of August 20, In
the same year. is to be found an interesting
sequel to this print:
"On Friday a stranger happening to be To-
oomoting in that neighborhood perceived a
car emerging from the rear
of the city post Office build
mistake. ing. and the idea at once oc-
Cured to him that 1t was the
railroad depot, so he asked a person stand
ing by where he should put his baggage
plethoric carpetbag. Just throw it into the
wagon and it will be taken care Of The
traveller acted accordingly. Having ascer-
| tanned at what time the train was to start
he FASTENED up the steps leading to the city
postmasters private room, and there, find
ing water soap. basin and, towel refreshed
himself by removing from his face and
hands the dust Of travel. Having combed
his hair and whiskers. he sat down to read
the papers. He had not been long engaged
before he was interrupted. not by the bell
ring, nor the screecn of the steam whistle,
but by the voice OF the messenger, who pO-
litely informed him that he was in the
wrong box or. in other words, in Col. Ber-
retS room. The stranger regarded this as
an impertinent interference and somewhat
tartly told the messenger that he did not
care button, or. rather. some Intangible
commencing with d. and ending with an
n. He said he had as much right there as
any other passenger.
Passenger exclaimed the messenger;
what do you mean, SIR?
Mean? replied the traveller. Why, that
I've put my baggage aboard for Baltimore
and that I'm waiting for the Office to be
opened that may buy my ticket. I'll wait
until the agent comes
you've made mistake. sir. This Is not
the depot
None OF your nonsense. sonny. Don't I
see the railroad. and wasn't told by one of
the conductors to put my baggage in the
car and that 1T would be taken care Of?
You can't impose upon me in that way.
FINALLY he was convinced Of his mistake,
and exclaiming. I thought this was the de-
pot! darted from the office and. selling his
carpetbag, at rapid gait took the direction
to the railroad station"
Many citizens of Washington doubtless
well remember Officer James Little, who
fourished in the days before
Jimmy the war as one of the local
Little. celebrities. The following
paragraph in The Star Of Au-
gust q, 1855 recounts an incident in his
career which will doubtless be appreciated
by them:
Yesterday officer James Little. well
known to our citizens one of the cOmical
&c muses. of Washington, when in the act of
executing a search warrant in the seventh
ward was opposed by a lady, who objected to
his entering certain room. Jimmy begged
but to no purpose; his fair opponent was in
no hrryv, fr Sc
soned, but she was iRfexibe. AT last he
took another move. Assuming an attitude
that would have served as a model for the
study of some of our law students he deliv-
cred the following eloquent speech:
Madam. were the combined powers of
Erebus. led on by Pluto himself. between
me and that door l would make my way
through fifty times their stop and enter that
room. The law, madam, commands only
where it can compel; therefore be pleased to
stand out of my way Jimmy says: The
lady succumbed
There was great excitement -early~in the
night Of August %, 1850. the northern skies
being so brilliantly Illuminated that 1t
would seem as though the end of the world
was close at hand. The Star of the next
day says: About half-past o'clock last
night the northern portion of the heavens
was Illuminated with a view of fire.
commencing apparently out 10th and
disappearing at Az street. The at
tention of our citizens was directed to the
must be the aurora borealiS, while others
thought 1t was not late enough in the season
for such natural displays Besides the
opinion was gravely pronounced that the re-
fectIon partook too much of the hue of
fire. But the engine bells were sounded
and the machines hauled out and dragged
as nearly as possible in the direction of the
light, out 7th street. The parties, however.
returned after half an hours absence and
one of them reported that they learned
from a countryman on his way to market
the reflection in the clouds was caused by
the burning of barn or farmhouse three
or four miles distant from the city. This
fact being made known, of course the opin-
ion of the aurora borealis was surrendered
Since writing the above we learned that
Mosher's barn, containing a considerable
quantity Of grain, situated above the toll
gate on the plank road. was destroyed by
fire
X
The national capital was in 1855. of
course, protected from fire by a volunteer
Paid vas snraad;,a +tat 80 ~,
F1remen. system was preferable. The
following paragraph In The
Star of August "a suggests that this senti-
ment was coming to a focus:
MANY of citizens favor such an or
ganiZaton paid fire Department., but we
do not recollect of it's ever having been Sc
IipuSiS brought 10 the attention OF the
municipal fathers. To show the working
of the system in Providence, r. land one
fact is worth a dozen speculations or the
ories-we state. it appears from the report
of the chief engineer that under the volun-
tary system there were. from March
1858 to February %, 1854. twelve months
lbs fires and alarms, with an average (totaD
loss of $347, 164 Under the paid system,
hfty-two fires and alarms and a loss of
SG3,S4l. The contrast carries with 1t the
comment on which all tax-paying citizens
should ponder"
Recently in this column an extract from
an old issue of The Star was printed refer
ring to an unknown minstrel whose sweet
voice was greatly enjoyed by resident of
18th street. Several letters appeared sub
sequently from other residents { the same
district and on the oath of August The Star
printed the following explanation:
Several communications have appeared
in The Star speaking in eXtravagant terms
of the vocal properties of one of our citi-
Zens. The writer's regarded him as alto
gether incognito and solicited additional
treats of his melody. which they compared
to that of Mario Salvi, Rosi, Benedict and
other famous vocalists. friend of ours
who is capable of judging In the premises,