Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1909-12-10
CONGRESS AND
CAPITAL TALK.
How the City Of Washington
ImpTesses a Visitor.
ITS QUIETUDE IS STUNNING.
National Legislature Has Not Yet Got
Down to Real Work-Congress Plan
ming Its Christmas Vacation-The
"WriegIe" Walk and the Social Sea-
son-Taft's New Offices.

SUIT at > view OHICeS.
Washington, Dec. 8. Especial -
This town is an ideal place for ma
tional capital. There is nothing else
here-no distractions, no annoyances,
no anything The streets are wide, the
parks are charming, the buildings,
many of them, are classic, the people
are courteous, the avenues of an aft
ernoon are full OF color from swell
turnouts, and all things combine to
make Washington about as beautiful
and agreeable city as there is in the
land. But there is nothing doing A
Sabbatical stiffness is over all. Yet if
one gets on the inside there is nothing
Sabbatical about it. In the inner
chambers of Washington a certain gen
tleman Of hoofs and horns is exceed
ingly busy. But there, l was almost
giving something away.
A Mecca of Fashion.
The distinctive feature of most
American cities is the travail of doing
things. Crude and noisy they may be,
but at least they are not dead. They
are hammering things out, forging the
future. They are filled with the clam
or of builders, traders. workers. Their
energy finds expression in the steam
engine the dynamo and the machine.
One would suppose that this national
characteristic would find its most in
tense expression in the national cap
ital. Exactly the opposite is the case.
/ Here is the sound of no machine ex-
cept the government machine. The
/ loudest noise that assails the ears is
/ from PERFECTLY decorous street cars.
! The visitor coming from any other
American city to Washington is al
/ most stunned by the quietude If he
blows in from New York, for example,
! it is like the change from lower Broad.
way TO upper Fifth avenue. Indeed. !
should call Washington the Fifth ave-
nue. of the nation. The smile is true
in more ways than in the quiet and
dress parade, for be it known that
this capital of the land of the free is
swiftly becoming a Mecca of fashion
| have not yet seen the "wriggle"
walk in Washington, but the social
season is not fully opened. 1t will
probably make its appearance before
the Christmas holidays. If you do not
know what the "Wriggle" walk is
thank the gods for your ignorance.
Congress Getting Ready.
l am not writing much about con
gress in this letter for the reason that
congress is not doing much to write
about. 1t has started off in its usual
listless fashion. The first day it ad-
journed out of respect to its dead, the
second listened TO the presidents mes
sage, or. rather. did not listen. but
read it in the morning papers, and
since that time it has been thinking
about Christmas. Either the national
legislature ought to meet earlier in the
year or later or abolish the Christmas
holidays, or inject Il little ginger into
itself. or something. Uncle Sam pays
for this wasted month and gets moth
ing in return If the average bust
ness house, factory, store, bank or
newspaper We're run like congress in
the opening month OF the session it
! would be in the hands of a receiver be
fore it had time to wake up.
| Where ] art Works.
In the absence OF other excitement l
took a stroll around the new executive
building west of the White House. Or
is it west? | am always mixed in my
directions in Washington. Anyway,
there is only one executive office, and
It matters not whether it is west, east.
north or boxes the compass. Perhaps,
being the apex OF the nation, it Is like
the north pole and everything from ii
is south. 1t certainly is an improve
ment on the whitewashed dry goods
box that did service for an executive
office during the days of Roosevelt.
The thing that used to puzzle me was
how man of Il. RS cyclonic ac-
tivity could confine himself in such a
building. One expected every minute
that he would burst out one Of the
walls, go up through the roof or ex-
plode the thing with his suppressed
energy. Taft's official housing, like his
girth and his smile, Is more ample.
Whether by malicious design or mere
accident, the new structure has spread
itself over Roosevelt's famous tennis
tOuIl. nat HlSlpIlC spot hNtNh
Of Jimmy Garfield Clifford Pinchot
and the rest Of the fianneled brigade
is no more.
Wide Out Structure.
The new executive Office is chiefly
notable for the wide expanse OF terri
tory it occupies. It looks for all the
world like one OF those churches that
the congregation is too poor to build
all AT one lime and so finishes the
basement and uses that until the pros
porous hour when ii can add tn"
superstructure The presidents Office
annex is not without dignity-a sort of
one story dignity, as it were-but it
has the appearance of not being done.
II is a low. raklsh structure that re-
sembles Il sawed off edition of n
worlds fair building. To one accus-