The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1908-09-17
Washington Letter.
(From our regular correspondence

Washington, D. c., Sep. Is, 'O8.
+ Mountains of trunks at the rail-
road station and on express delivery
wagons and familiar faces on the
streets; expensive touring cars and
carriages on the fashionable avenues
and circles and in the parks are con-
vincing that the summer vacation Is
over and that the fashionable politi-
cal and diplomatic throngs are rap
idly returning to Washington. The
president is expected this week and
the White House has been prepared
for his reception. His horses, which
have been in pasture in Maryland
about ten miles from the city, are
ready for service and are no doubt
improved by their summer outing.
The British Ambassador, MIR.
Brice, is on the sea returning from q
summer spent in England and the
Swedish Minister is returning to
Washington after years absence
spent in his Scandinavian home.
The smoothness with which inter-
national affairs run on in spite of the
absence of diplomats suggests that
these heritages from past age may
be tagging superfous on stage, and
that the Atlantic Gable and the
swift liner may have made diploma
cy, or at least its gaudy representa-
tives, somewhat useless. The com
ing season in Washington with its
grand climax of the inauguration Oh
March the 4th of the next president
will doubtless be interesting and
eventful
The President, it is said, will con-
tinue to urge an increase of the bat
tleship output; an enlargement OF
the military force and of all those
policies and enterprises now so well
known under the Rooseveltian clas-
sifcation. 1t is not expected that q
complalsant Congress will grant all
he wants, but whether it may be
President Taft or President Bryan
after March the fourth 1909, the
Roosevelt influence will actively live
in legislation and administration
long after he is in the wilds of Afri
ca or in his grave.
Apropos of the return of the most
conspicuous man of the fines to the
city: the interest in the personality
| of President Roosevelt is undated
and survives even in the midst of 8
presidential campaign 1t is no
known that the report of an attempt
ed assassination near his home at
Sycamore Hill was without founda-
ton. His cous; ms on a nearby farm
were firing at target while he was
riding in the vicinity, and tramp
who was trying to petition him was
arrested the same day. The arrest
of insane or cranky tramps trying to
approach the NEST conspicuous per
son in the land, whether the land is
America, Europe, Or Asia, is an in
cident of almost daily occurrence.
It is we'll understood that the
President will continue his strenu-
| Gus life in the wilds of Africa after
his present presidential term, and
the contrast with his duties there
and here will be as sharp as can be
| imagined, yet there will be little that
is unfamiliar to him. He has hunt
ed big game in other wilds and
whether in the Rocky Mountains, OF
the prairies or bad lands of the West,
or the jungles of the dark continent,
or as the orator said, whether il
courts or camps, he seems proof
against peril and empowered with
ubiquity.' President Roosevelt is
good shot, and this is the more re-
markable in that he cannot see with
out specially ground eye glasses.
He always wears them, whether he
is jumping fences or shooting. He
is almost blind without his glasses,
but with them is one of the best
marksmen in the country.
Army officers are much interested
IN the report that the annual mes
sage of the President to Congress
will urge the increase of the army
until its rank and file shall number
| at least one hundred thousand men
They are specially interested in this
bill because they know that the in
crease of the number of men would
mean that most OF them would be
advanced at least one grade and pos
sibly two, and that a most all of thei,
number would in some way be bet
tered by the change. There are
about six hundred officers who are
detailed to work for special purposes
and who, while counted in the regu-
lar military establishment, have
| nothing NOW to do with Ii and whose