The Washington herald., 1913-09-07
By JAMES BRYCE,

pressions of a visitor who having seen
something of the capitals OF other coun-
tries and having spent six happy and in
teresting years in Washington, and hav-
ing grown always more and more inter
ested in your own plans for the adorn-
ment of Washington, may possibly be
able to look at the matter from some
what different angle from that at which
most of you have seen it.
It is, 1 think, impossible for any one
who speaks our common language, who
is familiar with your institutions and
history, who recognizes how much there
is in common between us-your nation
and mine-to live here without becoming
for many purposes-morally and INTEL
lectually, and for practically all pur-
poses-s citizen of the United States.
That does not prevent him, need
hardly say, from remaining patriotic
citizen of his own country. He is eN-
empt from the duty from which, indeed,
you are all exempt in the District OF
Columbia-of casting a vOte-and from
the other duty of getting on the plat
form to give his political views to his
feIlow-countrymen; but in every other
respect his residence here gives him all
the advantages which you have, IN be-
ing able to follow the ins and outs OF
your politics and to appreciate the sur
prising changes which the whirligig of
time brings about.
Taking So keen an interest as l do in
the welfare of the United States, have
often felt it somewhat difficult TO re-
frain from offering advice which was
not asked for. l trust that l have al
ways refrained. but in this particular
case the ohservations-I will not call
them advice-the observations on the
WI
done for it nave been asked for, and if
Won find they are only what you knew
before, do not altogether blame me, but
lay il to the misjudgment Of the too
kind friends who have asked me TO
come upon the platform.
Beauties of the Potomac.
It is impossible to live in Washington
and not be struck by some peculiar fea-
lures and some peculiar beauties which
your city possesses In the first place,
its site has a great deal that is admir-
able and charming. There is rising
ground inclosing on all sides a level
space, and so making a beautiful am
phitheater between hills that are rich
with woods. which in many places,
thanks to the hard ancient rocks of this
region, show bold faces and give much
more striking effects than we can have
in the soft, chalky, or sandy hills which
surround London. Underneath these
hills and running like a silver thread
through the middle Of the valley is your
admirable river.
The Potomac has two kinds Of beauty
the beauty of the upper stream. mur-
muring over a rocky bed between bold
heights crowned with wood. and the
beauty of wide expanse, spread out like
lake below the city into a vast sheet
of silver
Besides all this. you have behind
Washington a charming country. I am
somewhat surprised that so few Of your
residents explore that country on foot
1t is only on foot that you can appre-
ciate its beauties, for some OF the most
attractive paths are too narrow and
tangled for riding. On the north, east.
and west sides Of Washington. and to
some extent on the south. or Virginia
side also. although there the difficulties
of loCOmotiOn are greater on account of
the heavy mud in the roads, the country
is singularly charming quite as beauti-
full as that which adjoins any of the
great capital cities of Europe. except. of
course. Constantinople, with its wonder
full BosphOrus.
No European city has so noble cata-
ract in its vicinity as the Great Falls of
the POtOmac-a magnificent piece OF seem
cry which you will, of course, always pre-
serve.
Trees of Washington.
Vienna has some picturesque country.
hills and woods and rocks within a dis
tance Of twenty-five or thirty miles. Lon
dOn also has very pleasing landscapes of
a softer type within about that distance;
but I know OF no great city in Europe lex
cept Constahtinople) that has quite close,
in its very environs, such beautiful seem
cry as has Washington in Rock Creek
Park and in many Of the woods that
stretch along the Potomac on the north
and also on the south side. with the
broad river in the center and richly
wooded slopes descending boldly to it on
each side.
One may wander day after day in new
walks all through these woods to the
northwest and west of the city. One
need never take the same walk twice, for
there is an endless variety of footpaths.
each with its own vistas of woodland
beauty.
Nor is Washington less charming in
respect of its interior. l know of no city
in which the trees~seem to be so much
part of the city as Washington Moth
ing can be more delightful than the views
up and down the wider streets and ave
nues, especially those that look toward
the setting sun or catch some glow OF the
evening light.
Look southwestward down New Hamp-
shire Avenue. look nothwestward u3
Connecticut Avenue, or even westward
along modest little n Street. which passes
the house where I live. and whose vista
is closed by the graceful spire of George
town University, and you have the most
charming sylvan views. and all this is so
by reason of the taste and forethouGht of
those who have administered the gov
erument of the city and who have planted
various species of trees, so that you have
different kinds of sylvan views.
This Capital and Others.
When yor want a fine. bold effect.
what could be grander than Sixteenth
Street, with its incline rising steeply
% the north. and the hills Of Virginia as
Me background, where it falls gently
4way to the south? There are few finer
streets in any city.
+ do not mean to say that there are
not many other capitals in this world to
which nature has been even more gener-
Gus. You have not beautiful arm of
the sea at your doors, as has Constanti-
uople, nor the magnificent mountains that
surround the capitals of Rio Janeiro or
Santiago de Chile: ROr such a bay, or
rather land-locked gulf, as that OF San
Francisco with its splendid passage out
to the ocean. But those are very rare
things, of which there are few in the
world. AS capitals go, few. indeed. are
natural charms as is Washington.
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