The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1908-04-10
WASHINGTON, April 9th.

ulllluence anu UlIllQlUy III dJU6mpU-
ing to say much about Washington
in general, now that the Opinion
force has seen it all and gone home
to tell of it even better than | can
myself, but possibly there are a
few things which they missed or
won't have room for. Just now and
for month to come, the city is
at its best. Not very hot yet,
though ten days ago, in March,
woman was overcome by the heat
on the street and barely escaped
with her life. However, it won't
be hot enough for the concerted
streets to melt sufficiently to pull a
horses shoe off until after the mid
die of May. Meanwhile the flowers
in the parks are beautifully in bloom
and the fruit trees, peach and apple,
are in full blossom. Also the Jas
samine trees, the japanese magno-
has and the fowerng dogwood.
The latter trees, the size of a maple,
are now solid masses of white
flowers, which makes of it at least
one of the most popular Towering
trees of the south. An orchard of
peach trees, with their pale pink
blossoms, is also a decidedly at
tractive sight. Certainly this is
a fair sample of the Sunny South
just now, when call nature seems
to smile"
The weather, too, seems to be
having an exhilierating effect on
congress. Representative Hefflin of
Alabama became incensed at the
spectacle of a negro tough drinking
out of bottle in a street car few
evenings ago, swatted the colored
man over the head with his revol-
yer, kicked him off the car, and
when the fellow came back at him
he fired two shots at him. One
struck him in the neck, and the
other plugged an innocent by
stander. Nobody badly hurt.
Only an episode, and the sensation
of an hour. Sometime the con-
gresham will be fined, and that will
end and settle it.
The House and Senate restau-
rants are always interesting to the
visitor, for reasons other than gas
Economical practice. From 1870
to . p. m. are the usual lunch eras,
and during these hours the pie re-
sorts are a hive of the liveliest kind
of industry. A good part of the
space in each cafe is taken by the
private dining rooms of the repre-
sentatives and senators, into which
neither employee nor public is ever
allowed to intrude. The bill of
fare contains every luxury and
necessity of the season, ranging
from the plain but nourishing pie
and bread and milk to roast turkey
and lobster Newburg, with every
thing else desired on the side. No
better food in quality or variety is
served by any cafe anywhere, and
the prices are not eXtortionate.
A quarter of any variety of excel
lent pie costs ten cents, and the
upper end of the game has no limit.
The members and senators are not
extravagant in their midday diet,
as a rule, probably saving their APP
petites for the dinner which they
have in view. Usually one course
of pie, pudding or bread and milk
suffices them. The profit comes
from the visitors, to whom cash on
that one great occasion is no object.
They are the game of the walters,
whose graft from this source is the
best part of their salary. The en-
ploves of modest means stand at the
pie counter while RECALLING them
selves at an expenditure OF ten,
fifteen or possibly, in a moment of
reckless exuberance, twenty cents.
During the pie hour the public sec
tions are packed and jammed with |
patrons, the tables all full and a |
clamoring mob struggling for space
at the sandwich shelf. The once
in-a-lifetime visitor usually swipes
a menu as a souvenir, to be framed
at home, and wonders what the
folks at home will say at this unde-
niable certificate of having dined
with the elect! The menu and the
admission card to the reserved gal
Ierv are regarded as relics second in
value only to a pebble picked up at
the foot of the monument or a dead
eaf from Mount Vernon.
The popular-or newspaper
,lamor that congress ado some
hing. that it hustle through this,
hat or the other measure, is about
as mischievious and misleading as
,nv blind and baseless cry well can
De. The president may take it into
his head-meaning no particular
)resident-that a certain alleged
reform" is a pressing and imme-
late public necessity, or that it
will help him personally just at
hat time. Likewise some sect or
dement, or organization proclaims
rom the housetops that the sal
-ation Of all that is holy and
acred and altogether lovely de
,ends on the instant enactment of
ONE certain chunk of legislation.
These appeal to the country with
ears in their eyes and both fists
lenched, and put it up to con-
-ress To edifv the righteous indig-