Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-03
FIFTY YEARS Ago J.
IN The STAR


andria. Richmond and Petersburg to per-
sGade the government to
National locate a national foundry
i'm one of those cities. The
Star. in it's issue of April
20. 1883 said:
Notwithstanding the appeals of the
above-naned places. we think this city
possesses advantages very much superior
to any of them. None of them are more
accessible. more healthy more secure
from invasion or more justly entitled TO
this Improvement than Washington. We
are located on a navigable river, sufh-
GENTLY remote from the coast. in closer
proximity than any of them to a great
trunk line of railway. At the same time
we are much more intimately connected
by railway and canal with one of the
regions to be found. probably, in the
Union 1t is only necessary to remember
that Washington is a large and improving
city. and close by another large city. for
any one to become convinced that labor
is procurable here as cheap cheaper
than In any of the towns mentioned.
Then. again. land eligibly located for
such an esta blishment can be obtained at
very reasonable rates. The greatest con-
sideratjO in behalf of Washington, how
departments Of the government. Wash
ington being the federal city. too. all por'
| tions of the Union are alike interested in
it's welfare. and whatever of government
patronage can be conferred upon 1t with
out injury to; other, sections of he coun-
try is certainly its due We hope there
fore. that our citiz ens will not cease to
keep their claims for this Improvement
before Congress, as the advantages to be
derived therefrem are of such ma gnitude
as to be apparent to every reader without
our even limiting at them
Capt. afterward Gen, NJ. c. Meigs
was the officer in charge of the construe-
ton of the new Capitol
Attacking wings. and at this time
Mt: half century ago was
under hot fire of criticism
| for the manner in which he was con-
| Quoting the work. especially in the dec
| orations Of the House wing. In The Star
of April 26. 1858. is a reply to one of
these attacks; printed in the New York
Express, which asserted that Capt. Meigs
was hiring cheap Italian talent at s. or
81 day, when such distinguished Amer
lean painters as Huntington. Leutz, os-
sitter. Elliott Kensett and Durand were
| available. The Express pointedly referred
to Brumdi as IAN Italian decorator of
nediocrity." and declared that he was
at work Ito the annoyance of every per-
| son of correct taste in the arts .
The Star. rating this as inspired by the
disappointed artists. said
THE truth is. if Capt. Meigs would
but accommodate all the tribe who are
ambitious to be employed to decorate the
the building. according to what each
| rates his services at. he would be the
cleverest fellow in the world, and we
should read no such criticisms upon his
| management of his trust and his artistic
taste as are to be found in the, above
various ax-grinding pens on the same
subject. The House and the country
however. happen to be more than salts
fled with the decorations of the new
though the services':of the artists en-
ployed were obtained for the shockingly
low price of from 3 to s. per diaIn''
Possibly as result OF the house
cleaning preparatory to, the use of the
new wing of the Capitol a
Treasure, 4[,%fnd'' of reaL syalue was
made in the old 2 building
1--we fifty years ago. as thus re-
lated in The Star of,Aprii %. 1855:
"A week OF two ago the dedrkeeper of
the House reported to Speaker; Orr the
finding by some of his -subordinates in
the vaults under the rotunda'. Of the Cap
itol. of a large number of books belonging
to the government, some of them of much
value. not few of which under heaps
of coal and ashes. Thus $4,000 volumes
have been dug out, of the. cataccmb in
which they have been ,entombed for years
past-at least long enough. the doofkeeper
tells us. to result in a total OBLIVION on
the part of those intrusted with their
| o3,y IN, N iC roSnOOSihlp for their
| location there and the shameful condition
| of not a few of them. Among these books
are 800 full sets of the words of John
| Adams, the records of the DEBATES IN
parliament as far back as 1910. various
valuable French books and newspaper
| files in French and English. various man
uscript books connected with the. details
| Of the custom-house business OF the coun-
| try about twenty years ago. The mass
| of the rescued volumes were published by
| order of Congress-. and in all they will
| number perhaps 10000 volumes. many or
| which have been irretrievably injured by
neglect, the rats and coal ashes to-
| gether.'
The crusade against carpets as insani-
| tary, on the score of being lurking
places for disease elements.
1nsanitary is no modern movement,
c4 after all. Half century
ago the danger Of carpets
was being proclaimed. In The Star OF
May 1, 1885, is an extract from an article
in the Musical World by r. 8. Willis, its
editor. descriptive of the home of Rink,
the Germany composer:
There is no carpet on the floor. The
German home has no carpet. as we I'M
derstand the term. Perhaps a square
rug is placed under the center table. But
| the floor is so white that it We're a
| pity to cover its imma culateness. Indeed
after short residence in countries
| where a certain intimacy is maintained
between floor and scrubbing brush,
even to one accustomed to this lux
ury. the carpet seems not over-tidy
| thing. AS with the ha bitual black silk
! handkerchief. against which some Eng
| lshmen entertain such a prejudice from
| the fact that it goes not weekly to the
| laundreSS. so a carpet that cannot be
washed dawns upon one gradually as a
not particularly neat institution"
| The Star comments: willis might have
added. with equal truth. that the French
| people abhor the filthy. dirt-absorbing
wooden carpet quite as heartily as the Ger
| mans. In fact, the carpet is peculiarly an
| English institution. and however we'll
adapted to the damp. chilly climate of
England. is quite as much out OF place
| in our dry, warm atmosphere as in con-
tinental Europe
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