Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-10-19
CITY WON'T CAST
| ONE WILSON VOTE
Large Municipality, Where
President Has Lived, Too,
Won't Vote for Him.
rs A SAFE ELECTION BET
BY A. r. GROH.

There is city OF over $4,000 popu-
lation in the United States where
Wilson won't get single vote.
Rather startling statement, we
must admit, but it is true, neverthe-
less, and you can bet your money with
any presidential betting bug who
wants to disagree with you on the
proposition.
Hughes won't get any votes there,
either. For this city is Washington.
D. C., whose citizens are not allowed
to vote. (Not such bad joke, eh?)
The Washingtonians are even
worse off in this respect than the
Indians, who, while they can't vote,
at any rate do not have to pay taxes,
The citizens of Washington pay $l.SO
per hundred in taxes. The federal
government pays half the expense of
running the city.
A few facts concerning our national
capital are of interest just now be-
cause a distinguished New York gen
tleman who was in our fair city Mon
day evening expects to make that his
home for the next few years.
Target for Wits.
1t is called The City of Magnifi-
cent Distances as nearly everybody
knows. But nearly nobody knows
that this name was applied origi-
nally in derision by visitors because
the magnificent scale on which it was
laid out l26 years ago was in such
striking contrast to the actual size
of the place and the few, poor build
ings.
The wit OF these dead-and-gone hu-
morists did not stop with that. They
called it also The City of Streets
Without Houses" The Wilderness
City" and The City of Miserable
Huts."
Major Pierre Charles rEnfant, a
French engineer who had served in
the continental army, planned it with
the big, broad, enthusiastic vision
characteristic of the French. 1t COW
CTS all dlCd VI olAty oIu" lihSo' Ju''
about twice the area of Omaha.
Which indicates that the nicknameS
we're not bestowed without just cause.
Its poulation today is 35S,679, of
which number o9,029 are colored. For
several years after the revolution this
republic had no permanent capital.
Virginia and Maryland both offered
to cede tract to the federal govern
ment and George Washington select
ed the site. An Englshman had set
tied on the spot in 1868 and called the
place Rome, seemingly an omen of
the city's future greatness.
Burned by British.
The cornerstone of the capitol was
laid in 1898 and was finished in 1900,
Congress held its first session in the
building that year. The capitol was
burned by the British in 1914.
During the civil war the capital was
repeatedly threatened by the confed-
crates. A system OF Notifications was
constructed then, which consisted OF
sixty-eight enclosed forts with LILO
guns, ninety-three unarmed batteries
and twenty miles OF infantry trenches;
These works have been unoccupied
since civil war days with the excep-
ton of Fort Meyer on Arlington
Heights. ,
Washington is today the result of
the most complete and artistic CT,
system ever carried out. 1t is pic
turesquely situated on the lovely fot.
omac. 1t has wider streets than any
other city in the world, ranging from
eighty to 100 feet (Our Farnam
Streets sixty feet wide.) 1t has more
than 100000 trees. Massachusetts av-
enue has quadruple row of trees its
entire length of four and half miles.
Squares and circles and reserva-
tions at the intersections of streets