New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-02-25

mean, to me, so II may be my fault ana
not his. Mr. Hay, q great authority,
used to speak of it as a scheme of math-
ematical precision. He said
my house is No. 800, in 18th street.
II had TO be- 1t could not be any
thing else. The street and the num-
Der Of the street and the number of the
house. were foreordained. Logic and
mathematics and the general conven-
fence settled it all"
] do not dispute with Mr.. Hay. All l
venture TO say is that, after many, many
visits to Washington, and after living
there for some years, have never been
able 10 go from one part of it 10 another
except in a cab. regard the cab driver
as a man Of genius. I envy him. To
rival him ] can never hope. The streets
and avenues which meet at every con-
ceivable angie resemble nothing so much
as the intercepting parallels of longitude
and latitude where you approach the
Poles, They start off cheerfully from a
fixed point of the compass and arrive at
another, unfiXed and uncertain. There
are exceptions, but If you take streets
and avenues together, mine is a true ac-
count. Often I have entered a Circle by
one avenue and left It by another which
fondly believed to be the same. It is
city of comic sections: conforming, I
doubt not, 10 inexorahle geometrical
laws, but to the wayfaTer being a fool
like me, stumbling block and a snare.
While l lived in Stoneleigh Court could
find my way to the White House on one
hand and to the British Embassy on the
other; for all other Journeys / wasted
my substance and my time on cabs; then
the slowest known vehicle; now quicker
but also dearer
Yet does not this difficulty deter the
American from making Washington his
home. There is, l imagine, no city in
the United States which so many men
select as residence who might reside
anywhere. Men OF fortune and leisure
find it Irresistible. They build houses
there, and live in them and find their
way to other peoples houses. which is
migration Of desirable citizens is one
secret Of the charm which the actual
Washington has; and the Washington Of
earlier days had in almost equal degree,
Mr.. Hay and Mr.. Henry Adams, Mr.
Wayne MacVeagh and Mr.. Charles Fran
els Adams are examples. and 1 could
name scores of others were I writing a
directory, which I am not. Some l have
already mentioned in mentioning their
houses. The latest instance which oc-
ours to me is Mr. Henry White, who
having for almost twenty years served
his country abroad as a diplomatist with
unfailing distinction. has returned TO his
native LAND and built himself house in
the new 10th street quarter. on a hill by
the wayside, still higher than the street.
That IS to say, Mr. Pope, the eminent
New York architect, has built it for him,
q Colonial mansion, beautiful to behold
spacious, a model of convenient fitness
to live in: with the air and sunlight OF
heaven about 1t and within 1t; mas
terpiece of domestic architecture on
which designer and owner have left each
his mark This is what l may call the
Henderson neighborhood; OF which the
awe inspiring Henderson Castle is a
central point. Mrs. Henderson has built
many other and better houses, Of which
the French Embassy is perhaps the best
The Danish Legation is hard by, and on
the opposite side Of the street the new
home Of the present Secretary Of the
Treasury; a rectangular parallelogram,
almost a double cube conspicuous and
uncompromising in its loneliness which
will not long be lonely.
On all, or nearly all, those districts Of
the capital which are given up to dwell
ing houses rests the stamp of refinement.
You may criticise this or that STYLE or
want of STYLE but the general impression
is one Of distinction and Of unlikeness to
other cities, European or American. II
is more American than European, but
more Washingtonian than either. Even
the apartment houses are houses and not
drygoods boxes In that vast expanse Of
territory through which you pass in a
Connecticut avenue surface carl say
surface from habit; there are no subter-
ranean roads - these huge erections
abound. Far away toward the-I was
going to mention point Of the compass,
but I do not know which-horizon they
stretch: commercial to look at, but yet
domestic; and am told Of a wonderful
cheapness in the matter Of rent. They
help solve the problems of life which an
economical government solves but imper-
fectly for its departmental servants. But
do not enter Just yet upon questions Of
ways and means: still less upon those of
social or political II which require to
be considered by themselves