Evening star., 1918-11-10
FIFTY YEARS AGO In The STAR

The old Washington canal, which
ran through the center Of the city
fifty years ago
Wasting Money from near the
on the Canal. r,vsr along B
street. was not only a serious menace
to the public health, but a heavy
drain upon the public revenues. In
The Star Of November 2, 1858. is q
protest against further throwing of
money into the canal:
CAS- the taxpayers of Washington
feelingly appreciate. a good deal OF
money has been thrown away at va
rious times in the so-called work of
improving and cleaning out the
Washington canal. Annually for
many years more or less money has
gone into that nauseous and ravenous
sink hole, literally thrown away. as
everybody here knows. Sometimes it
is sum of $4,000. sometimes less.
sometimes more;. but every year the
people are sure to be mulcted to
greater or less extent to pay for the
mythical work of cleaning out the
canal Latterly. however, the tax
payers have shown such unmistak-
able signs or impatience at being
plundered annually through that
transparent job of canal cleaning
that we had not supposed there was
an individual in the community who
would have the assurance to propose
to waste more corporation money in
the same direction. But it seems to
easily. Parties are hard at work
getting up corner grocery meetings
for another raid upon the corpora
ton treasury through the inevitable
job of canal cleaning. These parties
put forward the specious plea that
people. Very likely: but IL money
must be appropriated from the city
treasury merely to keep people en-
ployed, let it be expended In open
ing and repairing streets. ditching or
filing up miasmatic marshes, or some
ton arises, however, whether the
corporation is bound to tax itself to
furnish employment to all comers.
Grant and Colfax were elected Presi.
dent and Vice President November 8.
1868, and, although the result
Election was well assured in ad-
vance, there was much local
heIu1nS excitement. as evidenced by
the following paragraph in The Star
of November 4:
Last evening large crowds were on
the Avenue, anxious to hear the latest
returns from the elections, and the
newspaper Offices were the scenes OF
considerable excitement. The Star
posted in the Office dispatches as re-
ceived and issued during the evening
three extras on slips, and our neigh
bors of the Express were also visited
by a crowd. and an extra was also is
sued from that Office. Large numbers
of republicans gathered about the
Chronicle office, and at the Intelligencer
Office a number of democrats were gath
cred to hear the returns. Our neighbors
Of the Republican had a large bulletin
board out, lighted by two gaslights. AT
Carusi's saloon dispatches were read
and sent to the Seymour and Blair Club
in the Northern Liberties and to other
associations, and at the republican
headquarters, opposite the Metropolitan.
there was so great crowd that all
could not enter. Excited crowds also
fingered about the hotels for some
hours, but every one seemed by midnight
to have heard enough and the streets
were soon comparatively quiet News
paper row, on 14th street. was one OF
the principal points Of attraction. as
all of the offices were receiving dispatch
es, Connery of the New York Herald and
Brooks of the New York Times had