Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-01
FIFTY YEARS AGO
IN THE STAR

In The STAN
In view Of the present agitation for
the establishment of a penitentiary in the
District for the safe keep
Local ing of local and federal
prisoners. especial interest
attaches to the following
item from The Star of February y. 1893:
Warden ThornIey's report for 1857 OF
his administration Of the affairs OF the
penitentiary is highly interesting and
suggestive. The cash to the credit OF the
institution at the date of the report (Oc-
tober u was $13,132.5O. amply sufficient
for its support and maintenance during
the residue of its fiscal year. The num-
Der of convicts at the close of the last
year was e. since which time 81 haf
been received, "a discharged. pardoned
and died. leaving IS in confinement. Th'
convicts were employed as subJoined
Shoemaking, 40; barbering. /; cooking, z;
blacksmithing. 1: baking. 1; steward, /;
invalids. 4; tailoring, 1; laboring, 4; car
pentry EARNED ouD. II: women, SHOE
binding. etc. Z: gardening. 1.
THE difficulties which attach to the
profitable employment of the convicts are
set forth. Some of them are OF a perma.
nent nature and must continue as long as
the penitentiary is located where 1t is
and with its present accommodations.
THE board of inspectors say: In the
event of determination to construct
other buildings at different place que
consideration should be given to thu
policy of constructing sufficient number
with proper facilities for the profitable
employment of the convicts. 1t might
also be worth consideration whether such
new penitentiary should not be of such
dimensions as would accommodate all
persons convicted in the different states
and territories of offenses against the law:
of the United States punished by confine-
ment at hard labor. The sum paid by
the United States to eighteen states and
territories during 1855 and 1855 for the
keeping Of this class of prisoners amount
ed to more than $4,000. Those convicts
could be kept in a properly constructed
penitentiarv in this District at little or
no COST "
There was an outbreak of duelfng in
this region half century ago. The Star
of February %, 1858. con-
Dueling tains news2item descrip-
tive Of q meeting at Blad-
SpA"eA'' ensburg between, Lieuts.
Bell and Williams, U. s.. A., at $50
that morning. Lieut.. Bells shot passed
through his opponents hat. Williams
thereupon fired into the ground, the sec
onds interviewed and apologies were ex-
changed. The Star says in another col
umn:
"Quiet people at a distance will please
comprehend that in Washington just now
the dueling epidemic is raging, and fur
Their that the sufferers under its ravages
are none of them. gentlemen who may
rightful1y claim the federal metropolis as
their residence We make this explana-
ton because when quiet folks at a dis
lance roll up their eyes IN utter aston
ishment at the belligerent turn personal
affairs have suddenly taken here. they
may comprehend that our good-tempered
fellow-citizens are not involved in any of
secure for Washington a reputation in
the dueling line somewhat similar to New
Orleans twenty-five years ago.
Somehow or other, singular moral cpl
denies will rage everywhere at times, as
physical ones do. Thus, we have here not
ipfrequently epidemics of rumors of at
tempts to come the giraffe over the
Treasury, followed by epidemics of in
vestigating committees. Then we have
epidemics of political altrufSm which set
1t is essentially a political community.
Anon comes along dancing epidemic, and
everybody around us, young and old,
goes mad to greater or less degree over
the waltz, quadrille, schottische, ct les
lanciers. Then, too, we have our periodi-
cal epidemic of fire riots, participated in
for the most part by amateurs from Bal
timore and other cities north Of us, as
our police records show, though serving
to earn for the federal metropolis not a
little of the wonderful reputation the
proneness of moral epidemics to rage here
has already secured for it.
4 i
That the feminine habit of-using cos
metic aids to the complexion is not OF
strictly modern growth is
Presidents indicated in the following
1ava. extract from The Stars &C.
count of President Buchan.
ans Ievee. printed in the issue of Febru.
airy "a, 1858:
1.-THE clear, bracing atmosphere last
hight sent the bellies of the metropolis
to the White House with rosy cheeks
of Natures own touching up. BY the
way, a lady friend was so good last
night as to hint to us a valuable receipt
being nothing less than an infallible test
By which bachelors, and benedicts. too
if they have any curiosity, may distin.
guish genuine color from that bought al
the shops. Thus, If lady's ears are
Of the same roseate tint as her cheeks
or measurably SO, the color may be sci
down as natural and not otherwise, as
nature never perpetrates the anomaly OF
giving pallid auricular appendages and
brilliant compilations to the same wearer
mot a little inquiry was created in the
east room by the appearance of ar
athletic young man in a deer-skin hunt
ing shirt, and the excitemen was added
TO when 1t was whispered that he was
Capt. Brown of Kansas but subsidized
when it was satisfactorily settled that
the newcomer was not one of the famed
Ossawattami Browns"
Z X
Suspicion was in the air fifty years ago
Cor gress was kept busy appointing in.
vestigating committees and
Inquiries hearing witnesses on all sorts
c.1or. of questions. In The Star OF
February &c, 1856, Is the
following:
I'VE believe that there never assembled
IL the capital of the nation Legislators
more scrupulously honest in the discharge
thu present Congress. 1t may be that
the attention given by the public mind
o. late to alleged congressional short
comings in that connection may have
stimulated the members, one and all, to
a due comprehension of the necessity
fer extreme caution in legislating on
all matters. great and small Ger
tain 1t is, however, that there never
was less danger than now of rep