The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1911-12-22
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON CITY. DEC. 20.

: WASHINGTON CITY. DEC. %.
This certainly is swell. Uncle Sam
doesn't ask the price. Marble every
where.
/ Senator Hoke Smiths office is in
THAT is called the Senate Office
/ Building, a beautiful structure of white
marble which cost several million dol
! lars.
! ne Capitol faces east and on the
! LETT Of the grounds is the Senate Off
! ce Building, and on the right the Office
building of the House of Representa-
tives, the two being exactly alike
Facing the Capitol is that wonder of
modern architecture, the Compression.
al Library, which cost over six mil
lion dollars.
Congress has started in earnest to
make OF Washington City Beautiful
and marble structures are increasing
in number. The land has been con-
demned for a park between the Cap
itoi and the new Union depot and
when these plans are fully carried out
the visitor to Washington will open
his eyes first on great cluster of
magnificent marble buildings with
spacious grounds and surroundings
that will not detract from their gran
deur.
The depot of which speak is one of
the sights of the city. 1t is larger
than the Capitol. being 760 feet long
and 343 feet wide. The waiting room
is 220 feet long and 1870 feet wide, and
the roof is an immense arch 1870 feet
in height. What is called the pas
senger concOurse is a great arched
room 100 feet long, and it is said that
an army of $4,000 men could stand
upon the floor.
This immense depot will be espec-
tally useful in handling Inauguration
crowds, and | hope it will house a
great throng in about fourteen months,
who come to see a Democrat take the
oath of Office as president of the
United States. There are a lot of
people here who think it isEgoing to
happen, though we always feel that
way in the 'off-years"
But, reverting to the imposing
buildings and all that is here to i'm
press one with the greatness of our
country in material way, | cannot
help thinking of the one thing that
struck me most forcibly on the day
that Congress met
l had always thought of Congress
as a most unsentimental and unspirit-
ual thing. When / looked over the
Senate with its picked men from
among ninety millions | thought of the
vast interests that some of them
represented, the learning, the state
craft and all that, and the vast re-
sponsibility of that little gathering,
which is considered the greatest law
making body in the world.
Surely these men were not children
in mind and were not to be classed
as among those who cling to the old
time religion because of ignorance
and simplicity
These staid Senators, when the Vice
Presidents gayel called them to or
der, arose and with heads reverently
bowed, listened to a beautiful and ten
der prayer by the chaplain, in which
he asked Gods blessing on Congress
and the government of our country
and all its people.
My heart trembled as | saw and lis
tened, for | thought that, surely,
though the young and the ignorant
may scoff the Bible still lives and
religion is not dead in a land where
the greatest and wisest of our states
men, in our Capitolf so filled with
its tremendous meaning, ask for the
guidance and blessing of Almighty
God.
And | have wanted to say to the
young, to whom in these latter days
the spiritual side of life does not seem
to appeal, that if these great states
men are so reverent might it not be
WClt W sup anu lulHh D6lOI6 TCSdTu-
ing lightly and with disdain the sim
pie faith in which our fathers and
mothers lived and died?
1t was a passing incident of the
opening day, but it made a deep i'm
preston ON me, for had before my
mind our continent, stretching from
ocean to ocean, its cities, it's fields,
it's homes, its millions OF citizens, the
great Republic which is the crystal
cation of their power to govern them
selves and work out their happiness
and destiny, and felt that the beau
! tiful flag. floating from the dome o.
the Capitol. was still the emblem o.
people with faith in the sublime
life and teachings of Jesus.
JOSIAH CARTER.