Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-07-18
MOST BEAUTIFUL CAPITAL
That Distinction Now Belongs To The
City Of Washington.

That Distinction Now Belongs To The
City OF Washington.
What goes on in Washington
furnishes grist for the nations news
papers all the year round, but just
now Washington, the city, itself is
getting unaccustomed publicity on
two accounts" says a bulletin from
the National Geographic Society.
Senator Sherman, of Illinois, wants
to move the capital to some mid
western city. Citizens of Washington,
apparently oblivious of any such con-
summation, arc waging national pub
licity campaign for representation in
congress"
Aside from these political iss des, the
bulletin states, Washington probably
has never been such a magnet for
visitors as now and those who are
coming as well as those who have
gone will be interested in the follow
ing comparison of Washington with
other world capitals written by Wis.,
count James Bryce, former British
ambassador to the United States.
1T is impossible to live in Wash
ington and not be struck by some
peculiar features and some peculiar
beauties which your city possesses.
NO European city has so noble a
cataract in it's vicinity as the CIR at
Falls of the Potomac-a magnificent
piece of scenery which you will, of
course, always preserve.
Vienna has some picturesque
country, hills and woods and rocks
within a distance of 25 or 80 miles.
London also has very pleasing land
scapes of a softer type within that
distance; but l know of no great city
in Europe Except Constantinople)
that has quite so close, in it's very en-
virons. such beautiful scenery 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
You have not a beautiful arm of the
sea at your doors, as has Constanti-
nople, nor the magnificent mountains
that surround the capitals of Rio
Janeiro or Santiago de Chile, nor such
bay, or rather locked gulf, as
that of San Francisco, with it's 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 so advantageously
situated in respect to natural charms
as is Washington.
Take Berlin. 1t stands in a sandy
waste, perfectly fiat, with here and
there a swampy pond or lake, and
sluggish stream meanders through it.
Parts of the environs have, however,
been well>planted with trees, and this
redeems the city to some extent. 1t
has become through the efforts of the
government and it's own citizens, an
imposing city; but the environs can
never be beautiful, because Nature has
been very ungracious.
Take Petrograd. Petrograd has a
splendid water front facing it's grand
river, the Neva, with its vast rush of
cold green water, covered with ice in
winter and chilling the air, and SEEM
ing to chill the landscape in summer.
That, however, is the only beauty
Petrograd has. The country is fiat
and in many places waterlogged, owing
to numerous pools and swamps. 1t
has no natural attraction either in its
immediate or more distant environs,
except the stream of Ncva.
Paris, again has some agreeable
landscapes within reach, but nothing
at al striking, nothing nearly so fine
in the lines of it's scenery as the hills
that inclose the valley in which Wash
ington lies, and no such charm of a
still wild forest as Washington affords.
The SCENE, too, is stream not to be
compared to your Potomac
THE same thing may be said of
Madrid. 1t stands on a level, and the
mountains are too distant to come
effectively into the landscape, and it's
only water is a wretched little brooklet
called the ManzanareS. They tell a
story there about remark attributed
to Alexandra Dumas when he visited
Madrid. He was taken to the lofty
bridge which spans the ravine at the