The Washington herald., 1913-03-16
WASHINGTON FAST BECOMING
The AMERICAN MECCA
Capital Of the Nation Annually Drawing to 1t More Visitors
Lured by Seat Of Government and
Wonderful improvements

| More and more Washington becomes
the mecca of the United States. writes
! A. Maurice Low in Harpers Weekly.
Every year an increasing number of peo-
pie come to Washington. some on pleas
ure bent. some with their heads SO full
of serious business that they have little
| time or inclination to think IF pleasure.
some who wisely contrive to mix busi-
ness with pleasure. TO the profit OF both.
There was day when Washington was
Stunned by every one who was not COM
PEELED by stern necessity to go there,
and when Washington was so unattrac-
tive that it was not to be wondered at
\ that no one went except those who had
| to do penance for their sins. In those
days Washington was a mud-hole, a
slattern among cities. unkempt, sprawl
| ing, elbows out of sleeves, unashamed
of its patches, and in its ignorance
glorying in its dirt and general untide-
| ness. There are persons still living in
Washington who remember when they
were children the perils involved in
crossing the street, so deep and thick
and foul was the mud; and who have
vivid recollections OF their carriages
ccoaches'' they were called in those
days. being stalled in the mire when
that prehistoric time parties began when
the sun went down and ended long be-
fore the moon came up Now parties
are arranged in Washington on the re-
verse schedule. 1t is not unusual for
them to open about the time the moon
| rises and for the last turkeytrot, num-
Der to be played as the sun is beginning
to show its unabashed face. In the pre-
historic era people went to Washington
because they had to and not for pleas
ure or amusement; the way was long
and hard and there was little or nothing
on arrival to compensate for the hard
ships of the journey. Washington had
neither comfortable hotels nor fine shops
nor beautiful streets 1t was a place
to avoid il possible or to get out of as
quickly as one could. As it grew in
years it grew in beauty. although its
youth gave no promise Of its rich ma
turity.
State Capitals Supreme.
In the days past the State capital was
| the big" place politically as well as
| socially. Whatever was to be done or
! left undone. to be pushed or to be pre-
vented, must be energized or stified by
the State Legislature 1t was to its meet
ing place the politicians went, the men
| of large interests, the people who had
influence. There was good reason for
tn. In the first place, Congress exer-
| cised less power then than it does to-day
and gave more power to the States,
which were Indifferent about the exercise
of their power. Another reason even
stronger was that Washington seemed
a place very remote and somewhat for
eign, while the State capital was COM
paratively close at hand and nowise diff
ferent from any other city Of the State
Stories f1oated out from the State capital
of the wickedness or levity or high jinks
of legislators and other officials, but,
after all, Assemblyman the Hon. William
Jones was to the majority of his con-
stituents only "Bill.'' farmer or small
merchant or lawyer like themselves. and
Bill Jones's constituents stood in no par
ticular awe of him, and, as rule. had
him pretty correctly sized up. The State
capital was a cosey sort of a place where
there was little formality and much hos
p:tality.
Washington was different. No farmer
took his woes to Washington, for WASH
ingtonN was a stoney-hearted stepmother
VIII had neither time nor inclination to
bother with such trifling details as the
fares a railway might see fit to charge
or the iniquities of a trust 1t Is true
that when there was a tariff to be made
Washington was all-important. but the