Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-17
FIFTY YEARS AGO
IN THB STAR

President Buchanan being inaugurated.
Washington soon appropriated it's usual
After the number Of ernectant
Inauguration. patriots whiting around
for plums to fall. In
The Star Of March 10, 1850, was printed the
following paragraph regarding the post
inaugural conditions:
''The thousands upon thousands who
came to Washington last week only to wit
ness the Inauguration have departed and
with them most of the opposition members
of the House and the large number of per-
sons who spent the winter in Washington
looking after their interests in Congress.
Nevertheless the hotels and boarding
houses continue to be crowded, while con-
siderable accessions to our floating popu-
lation continue to arrive by each succeed
ing public conveyance They are. of course.
gentlemen absorbed with the solution OF
the spoils question-some seeking to hold
on to their present places and the rest.
who outnumber them, perhaps ten to one,
to GUST them. AS the administration Is
hardly warm in its seat, of course it has
not yet had time even to begin to take
cognizance of the claims of either party tc
this very pretty controversy as 1t now
ing with rumors from Washington on this
subject. we know enough from experience
with such matters to place no confidence
in any Of them. Nor do we believe that
when the new government comes to look
over th5 field and to realize that in max
ing every appointment it will surely disap-
point at least one hundred, it will be In
any hurry to make the clean sweep SO con-
fdently predicted by the outs. In the mean
time we advise all-officsholders and office
seekers-to watch and pray, and also to be
sure to work like beavers, or rather like
moles for experience teaches that the most
successful labors in this connection are
those performed in the dark. Blessed are
they who expect little, for they shall not be
disappointed!
In the matter of the unfounded reports
which were spread broadcast from Wash
ington during those anxious
unfounded days, The Star said In
Rumors. later issue:
I'VE advise the distant
public to place no confidence whatever In
the thousand and one rumors from this
city, of which most of the Washington
newspaper correspondence of the hour Is
made up--that is, concerning the views and
purposes of the new administration. The
writer's for lack Of facts. are simply play
ing their old game of manufacturing sur
misses for the amusement of distant won
dermongers. Though the admin .stration
is not yet fairly inStalled-haS hardly had
an opportunity Of glancing at half dozen
points involved in the discharge OF its
manifold duties-each of these wiseacres an
nounces its determination fairly and fully
settled upon almost all matters and queS-
tons of public interest. We have witnessed
such expOsitions on the advent of each sue
ceeding administration for the last quarter
of century. and rarely knew one OF them
10 \ toI,
written. The closeness with which the new
administration Is already devoting Itself to
consultation in cabinet council Is guaran-
tee to the country that it's members are by
no means the hap hazard men they are
really represented to be by writers who in
sist that they have already matured their
plans and policy for the conduct of the gov
eminent for the next four years.
Each period is the most wonderful in his
tory-up to that present. Each generation
believes that it is witnessing the maximum
of achievement. In The
Remarkable Star of March II, 1857, Is a
PROGRESS. comment on the wonders OF
invention then In evidence
at the fair of the Mechanics Institute In
this city. which dicloses that the people half
a century ago entertained high regard for
the achievements then scored. without
vision Of the infinitely greater wonders
soon to come:
"In matters of steam. electricity. etc,
with which all the mobile world are almost
constantly thrown in contact, the newspa-
pers are ever watchful to chronicle every
step in the march Of improvement, insO-
much as they Immediately interest those
who commonly regarded as the news
paper readers of the day. We mean the in
habitants of the cities and we here refer to
the city press. for the issue of single daily
journal of considerable circulation rarely
fails to be tenfold that of any country paper
printed within fifty miles of it. Yet in the
department of agriculture, in the progress
of which our country is far more interested
than in that of any other branch whatso-
ever of American industry, the city press
takes little interest indeed. Still, within the
last ten years. fast as our country has i'm
proved in the matter of the discovery and
perfection of new methods and modes APP
plicable to the arts which save labor and
reduce cost, We question much whether our
progress in this respect has been SO sure
and swift in the reduction of labor re-
quired in the business of agriculture to pro-
duce desired result, and to accomplish de-
sired ends more certainly than was previ-
ously possible
= <
There were no "air ships" in those days the
plain gas bag or old-fashioned balloon be-
ing the maximum of mans accomplishment
toward the goal of human
BALLOON flight. balloon ascension was
Flight. always interesting to the pub
- lie. In The Star of March H.
1857, is the following account of such an
occasion:
-Four half street. in the vicinity
Of the gas mouse, was alive yesterday with
spectators drawn out to see the balloon as
cessiOn. The balloon was inflated by a
hose. The operation being necessarily a
slow one, the huge globe was seen bob
bling around for long time In
way to create numerous false alarms
of There she goes.' Finally, about
4:30 pm, it shot skyward amidst shouts
Of insiders and outsiders. A Mr. Amos Car
rier. who has already had some pretty tall
aeronautic experiences. went up in lieu of
Mr.. Elliot. who was prevented by illness In
his family. The balloon gracefully,