The Washington times., 1920-06-10
Presidents and Pies
An Interesting Account of Washington Peo-
pie Of Yesterday and Today BY the wife
of the Well L-KnOUn DiDLOn,atist
BY Mrs. Larx Anderson.

nounced that the city 10 to be so
cialised not 'beautified.' The sf-
fev. ST this practice has not bs-s
to the advantage OF Washington.
Indeed. lately there seems TO have
been even animus in Legislation
concerning the District. and radical
taxation has been put over. 80 that
the collections are greater than the
needs of the community warrant"
Travel Is almost impossible"
writes my correspondent on the 5th
OF January. They have taken on
trains, and those which do run are
hours late; some OF them take
twelve hours going from here TO
New York. Diners. sleepers. and
chair cars have gone into the dis
card"
I, January 2s. i'It showed last night
and is colder than ever. We have
only the edge of the blizzard here.
but IL 10 bad enough, for this Is a
'heatless day All the stores and
office buildings are closed. WASH
ington Is so crowded that you have
to give rooms to almost any comers.
There are thousands more arriving
clog conditions"
January 80. Here IL is showing
again; on top OF the worst weather
of twenty years comes this new
storm. and after the most unprece-
dented cold spell of almost two
months! The roads are blocked and
there Is no coal. We are down low.
our fuel is almost gone. while some
have none at all. Yesterday heard
that the poor revolutionary Russian
Ambassador has had to give up his
house because he couldn't meet his
bills; today when I was out ] saw
them taking the coal from his house
and sending II, suppose, to some
one who can pay for II. / felt like
grabbing some of IL myself"
We returned to Washington in
June, and found that as :ime went
on conditions had b"c1me, IL any
thing, worse. Houses were still full
as beehives, with the war workers
continuing to stream Into town:
girls of all sorts--somc pretty and
sor,e ugly. some ladies and some
toughs, some from town and some
from country-a river of females
that flowed from the Offices at four
thirty. spread into. every crevice Of
the city. NUMBERS OF tHeH1 ndu ilttle
to do but sit idly at desks all day
and be paid by the Government :
most of their money poured into
their landladies' pockets, but what
was left apparently went for silk
stockings and high-heeled shoes.
Houses were Communicated, and
lawsuits to get rid of tenants so
that more profitable ones could be
put in were an everyday occur
renee. People rushed back to Wash
ington from all corners of the earth
to save their homes from being
taken by the Government. During
October you hardly dared leave for
a moment, for while you were away
a blue sign might be put up, saying
that the house had been comman-
deered. A woman we knew gave
her two servants a holiday and
went out to luncheon: during her
absence the key of her front door
was procured land Government
agents let themselves in; went all
over the place, and put up the
signs. Fortunately she could prove
that she did war work and expected
to have her bedrooms filled in few
days with others in service, SO her
house was given back to her.
Copyright, Houghton. Mifrlin Coz
Ito He Continued Tomorrow.)