Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-09-01

from following the line of march
which has already carried him pretty
well through the Great Falls region
and those neighborhoods in Fairfax
and Loudoun counties. Virginia,
which are traversed by the WASH
ington and Leesburg turnpike and by
Scott, Prospect. Difficult Sugarland
and Broad creeks. and which he
hoped would lead him through that
district of Loudoun county of which
Goose creek is the principal geo.
graphic feature. But when Sunday
dawns dark and rainy the prospect of
trudging along muddy roads and
through dripping underbrush is not
alluring, and on that particular day
he took a walk on the gray concrete
pavement of the city instead of over
slushy, sticky roads in "the redlands"
of the Old Dominion.
In the course of his stroll he came
into 18th street south of the Avenue,
and marveled at the great changes
which few years have wrought in
that locality At the corner of 18th
Washington city canal, connecting
the Potomac at Easbys point with
the eastern branch. ran east and west
and the little stone LIGHTHOUSE of the
SIhdA olOou as d .iuer OF the
waterway which was to make, but
did not make, Washington center
or world trade, a waterway through
which the trade of the Allegheny
region and the Ohio valley was to
pass to the sea. South from d street,
where Potomac Park smiles in green
cry and flowers, and where vast
throngs afoot and awheel surge to
and fro, stretched the Potomac to the
virginia shore-a wide reach of shoal
water exposing flats at low tide and
OF course, also wide reach of deep
and navigable water. Within the
northeast angle of 18th and b is a
little stone house which was one of
the gate houses Of the Capitol
s groIhas th when n :. that park, much
with high iron fence, and at the
west gate stood two small stone
houses. partly for architectural effect
and partly for shelter Of the watch
men who kept the gate.
X X
In the northwest angle stands the
beautiful Pan-American building and
its wonderful garden. The Rambler's
mind went back to the time when
that big lot was jungle of neglected
shrubbery. Within that shrubbery
stood rotting, shattered cottage and
near 1t the ruin of what had been one
or the proud mansions of the United
states. 1t Is the memory of that
place which the Rambler would now
recall by presenting such facts relat-
ing to 1t as he has been able to gather.
1t Is the history of David Burnes, his
daughter Marcia, her husband. John
bertha Middleton. He believes it is a
story which will interest. old WASH
ington people-those good and gentle
folk who knew the old town in far
less tumultous times and who like
to call up recollections of the days
and the people of the long ago.
or course. the Rambler would also
like to interest the hosts of people
who have recently come to the capital,
but he approaches that task with diff
dence. So many Of these late corners
are very. young and they seem in so
great hurry that 1t is a reasonable
fear that they would not listen with
patience to an old mans story. Then.
again, their interests seem to lie in
Newark, chilIi t ,HMS New eS Bedford aH {.
New London. Holyoke, Memphis,
Evansville and Topeka. Some of them
seem to think that Washington al
ways was place of TANNED street
overrun restaurants. Many of them
do not seem to reflect that the present
rush, turmoil and confusion are
stranger to old Washington people
than to the people who have come
from the hustling commercial and
manufacturing cities of the east and
west.
1t is not an easy matter to recon-
struct a complete story of David
Burnes and his daughter Marcia. The
old chroniclers had very little to say
about the Burnes family. Chroniclers
were not as numerous, active and
pestiferous century or so ago as
they are now. A man or woman did
not then seek to have his every little
going, coming or saying set forth in
print. The advantages of advertise
Ing seemed not then to be as we'll I'M
derstood as now. The small neWspa-
pers had space for debates in Con-
gress, letter from London and for
the advertisements for runaway
slaves and for the sale of tracts OF
wild land in New York, Massachu-
sets. Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana,
but they had little to say about indi-
viduals. Their theory was that if an
individual did something that was Of
no interest there was no occasion
for publishing it. and that i: an indi-
vidual did something of interest there
was also no occasion to publish 1t,
because everybody in town knew as
much about it as the editor.
The Burnes family was long settled
on the soil of this city before tho
District of Columbia was created or
the city of Washington surveyed. But
it was not one of the smart-sct fami-