Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-03

| Admiral Sir Reginald Nincompoop entered
| the reception hall with the lovely ana
accomplished Warehouses of SWampoodle
how the Island Baron accompanied her
grace, the Duchess of English Hill. while
the Countess of Cooney. in blaze OF Drill
liants, dazzled and fascinated group
who encircled hcr-the highest In the
| line-among whom we noticed his serene
Earl of Arlington the Grand Hospodar
of the Five-gun Battery. the Knight or
the Canal. Lord High Chancellor of the
Tiber, etc, etc.
The question of chartering company
to construct the street railway on Penn
sylvania avenue occupied
Charter the attention OF Wash
ingtonians to the practi-
question. cal exclusion Of all other
subjects fifty years ago, the matter being
discussed at the meeting of the board of
aldermen held the night of December q,
1858. Two days later The Star commented
as follows:
1.-THE style of debate reminds us forcibly
that Washington is fast becoming con-
| siderable city; insomuch as 1T is thus
made evident that there are any quantity
of axes sought to be ground in its mu-
nicipal council chambers in connection
Will SUCH pTOpOSlllOuS IIc lCihui II CIVIL
variety of opinions on the subject Is
probably in no little degree attributable
to the ambition of different parties to De
concerned in the enterprise. While all
have an equal right to strive to profit
themselves individually by the construc-
ton of such a work, efforts on the part
of persons in the councils to bend the
legislation to subserve the interests OF
one set of applicants over those or others
are as reprehensible in principle as the
noto cprrunfinn existing In the New
York city councils where city railroad
questions are concerned. We cannot COM
mend too highly the drift of the remarks
of the member who virtually contend d
that il was the duty of tie councils only
to take due care that Congress, in grant
ing the right to construct and operate the
supposed railroad, should simply vest In
our local government the right to tax the
work for municipal purposes and to regu-
late the rates of fare"
Half century ago practically nothing
was being done toward developing the
parks Of Washington and
Landscape grounds about the public
buildings, no one having
"orh' been placed In charge Of the
work left unfinished by the death Of Mr..
Downing In The Star of December 80,
1855, is the following note on the subject:
1T strikes us as being about time that
Congress should take mea sures to Insure
that the future establishment and i'm
provenent of the public grounds shall be
conducted in all details upon some well
defined plan. such as was essayed to be
carried out when the late Mr.. Downing
was in charge Of that branch of the gov
ernments affairs here. At present there
is really no single head to direct their
future progress, the result OF which fact
can hardly fail to be delays. variance OF
plans. balks in the progress OF the work.
etc, which must in time tell effectively
against the possibility of it's completion In
due season and in a satisfactory manner.
We believe that Congress Is as anxious as
the citizens of the District and the coun-
try at large that the public grounds in
the federal metropolis shall be embellished
in manner In just accord with the value
of the government properly here and
with the dignity of the United States. To
that end 1t is quite as necessary that the
first horticultural and landscape talent to
be found in the United States should now
be employed upon the work as during the
lifetime of the late Mr.. Downing"
Every city thinks that its feminine resi-
dents are the handsomest in the world.
That is the inalienable
Feminine right of man, and conse-
Quently from the time
beauty when cities came into being
there have been controversies on this
point. In The Star of December 81. 1858.
is printed the following paragraph from
the Alexandria Sentinel:
1.-The most beautiful women in the
United States, according to Caleb Cushing,
are to be found in that region of country
represented by Philadelphia at one ex-
IRENE. running thence to Baltimore and
down to Richmond. He says: AS, for
instance for clearness of complexion, for
delicacy of skin, for rounded contour
and outlines throughout all the lines Of
FORM for health-everything say as my
own observation, and with some little
time and taste for observation upon that
subject, that / think that in all of these
respects that Is the region in which the
physical beauty of woman attains its
greatest perfection
alexandria is the very center of the
region of country above described. Beauty
therefore eliminates here and tapers away
both north and south-just what we have
always maintained
The Star was moved by this remark of
the Sentinel to eXclaim:
..Pshaw, man! Caleb meant Washington,
where he has summered and wintered
We don't believe he ever set foot in Alex
andria.''