The Washington herald., 1913-09-07
Former British Envoy to United States Talks Of Beauties Of
City and Compares 1t with Famous Capitals of
Europe He Is Acquainted With.

Perhaps you might like to hear few
! remarks on some of the otner great
capitals of the Sorld. Take Berlin. 1t
stands in a sandy waste, perfectly fiat,
: with here and there a swampy pond or
| lake, ana a sluggish stream meanders
| through it. Parts of the environs have.
however been well planted with trees,
and this redeems the city TO some ex-
tent The streets aare now stately,
| adorned by many a noble building. 1t
| las become, through the efforts of the
! government and its own citizens, an I'M
| posing city; bu: the environs can never
| be beautiful, because nature has been
very ungracious-
Paris Not Striking.
Take St Petersburg. st. Petersburg
! has a splendid water rront facing its
grand river, the Neva, with its vast rush
CT cold green water, covered with Ice in
winter and chilling the air and seeming
! to chill the landscape in summer. That,
! however, is the only beauty ST Peters
| iurg has The country is fiat and in
| many places water-logged, owing 10 nu-
merous pools and swamps. II has no
! natural attraction either in its immediate
or more distant environs. except tho
stream Of Neva.
Paris, again, has some agreeable
landscapes within reach, but nothing
at all striking, nothing nearly so fine
in the lines of its scenery as the hills
that inclose the valley in which Wash
ingtOn lies, and no such charm of
still wild forest as Washington affords.
The Seine, too, is a stream not to be
compared to your Potomac.
The same thing may be said of Mad
rid. 1t stands on a level, and the
mountains are too distant to come ef-
fectively into the landscape, and its
only water is a wretched little brook
let called the ManZanares. They tell
a story there about a remark attrib-
uted to Alexandra Dumas when he Wis
tied Madrid. He was taken TO the lofty
bridge which spans the ravine at the
bottom of which the rivulet flows. The
day was hot, and. being thirsty, he
asked for a glass of water. They
brought him the water, and he was
about to drink, when, looking down
and catching sight of the streamlet,
he said: NO, take II away; give it TO
that poor river; it needs drink more
than l do"
Talks of Own Capital.
Then there is our English London,
which stands in a rather tame coun-
try 1t is true that there are some
charming bits of quiet and pretty rural
scenery in Surrey and Sussex, within
distance or from twenty to thirty
miles. and there are pleasing beech
woods covering the chalky hills OF
Bucks. Yet nature has done nothing
for London comparable 10 what she has
done for Washington. The Thames, al
though it fills up pretty welltat high
tide, is nOwise comparable for volume
or beauty of surroundings to your own
Potomac.
These cities I have named have,
however. something that you have not
and cannot have for many a year 10
come. They are-and this applies es-
pecially to London and Paris-ancient
cities. They have STILL in spite of the
destroying march of modern improve
ments. a certain number of picturesque
buildings, crooked old streets, stately
churches and spots hallowed by the
names of famous men who were born
there or died there or did their work
there.
You are still in the early days of your
history and are only beginning to accu-
mulate historic memories which in four
Tor five centuries will be rich and charged
with meaning like those of European
cities
Washington Has Advantage.
But in every other respect you have i'm
aSnlnEtOn
ropean cities do not possess. II you want
to make any large street improvement n
London or Paris it is a most costly busi-
mess. The land is very dear. You can
not easily disturb the old lines of streets
and the drains and water pipes and tele-
phone lines that lie under them. Every
improvement that has to be made in
city like London has to be made at cost
so heavy that where it is added TO the
af,,fv,
ern appliances and carrying out sanitary
regulations in an old city the cost is al
most prohibitory.
But here you have still plenty Of space,
and though the city is extending very
fast on almost all sides, still if you take
forethOught and consider your future,
you can lay out the tracts over which
Washington is beginning TO spread in a
way that will have results far more
growing parts of London and Paris,
where land is so expensive.
London and Berlin and Paris are
crowded and you are not yet crowded.
You have still elbow room here TO do
what you want.
You possess another great advantage
in not being a large commercial or manu-
featuring city. If you had manufactures
you would have tall chimneys, and, as il
smoke law in a manufacturing city, you
would have black smoke, which would
spoil the appearance of your finer build
ings, especially those constructed of
limestone or sandstone, the SCOT cling
ing to them as it does now to Westmin-
ster Abbey and St Pauls Cathedral in
London. You would not have the same
satisfaction in making things beautiful.
A murky cloud would hang thick and
dark over your city as it does over
Pittsburgh and Chicago. Moreover. your
streets would be Overcrowded and diff
culties of rapid transit would arise.
Possibilities of City.
With much larger population. ideas
of beauty would have to give way to
those Of commercial interests. whereas
here the pressure of commerce is not
such as to interfere with your ideals OF
beauty and convenience.
With all these advantages before you
in Washington, and with the bOttomless
purse Of Uncle Sam behind you'll am
coming presently to the use that Uncle
Sans representatives may make + his
purse for your benefit, but in the mean
time we may assume II is an ineXhaust-
ible purse, because we know how much
money he is able to spend upon objects
that are certainly of no more Importance
than the Identification of Washington
with all those advantages ready to your
hand, what may you not make of Wash
ingtOn? What may YOU not make of
city which is dedicated entirely to poll
tics and government and society?
Mr.. Henry James, in one of his in
teresting and subtle studies of modern
ANA aShi tba