Evening star., 1932-09-11

OF course, the caprlclouSneSS OF the WeaIner
must always be taken into consideration, but
unless there is duplication Of the continuous
downpour of May IL, and assuming that all
of the % 900 affiliated Master Masons OF this
city take part, the event will surpaSs, at least
in numbers anything heretofore held by this
body in the District of Columbia.
A CCORDING to advance Information, the
exercises are to be historically accurate,
a condition which always adds much to
notable affair of this kind. Unfortunately,
however, the information on the subject handed
down to us is not nearly so full and complete
as the exacting historian would like to have II,
and So to a large extent, we are forced to
rely upon a write-up in the Columbian M1rror
and Alexandria Gazette.
Naturally Washington cannot be reproduced
as it was in 1793 nor can we even hark back
to its appearance as described by ThomaS Moore,
the poet in 1904, when he wrote:
~This embryo Capital where fancy sees
Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees;
Which second-sighted seers, evn now,
adorn
With shrines unbuilt, and heroes yet
unborn,
Though naught but woods and Jefferson
they see,
Where streets should run and sages
ought to be-
Several years before Moore wrote this, Rich
ard Parkinson, who toured America in 1898 to
1900 said that washington contained only 300
houses and that it was too young a city for
q brewery which he had thought to establish.
In 1900 John Cotton Smith, who came here
as member of Congress from Connecticut,
said he found one wing OF the Capitol only
erected, which and the Presidents House were
Shining objects in dismal contrast with the
scene around them"
mot an avenue was visible" he says, Eek
cept road with two buildings on each side
of it, called the New Jersey avenue"
pennsylvania avenue" he continues, was
nothing but deep moraSs covered with alder
bushes"
Christian Hines, who a lad Travelled weekly
from Georgetown to Greenleaf Point during a
part of the years 1867, tells us: After pass
ing the Presidents House, our road lay along
F street until we arrived at Eleventh street
west We then passed in southeasterly direc-
ton to a small creek that crossed E street
north, near where DR.. Borrows now lives. we
then continued along this stream, in the same
direction, until it crossed Pennsylvania avenue
where the Center Market house now stands,
and then we crossed the bridge At that time
there was rot single house on the Avenue
from the Presidents House to the Capitol"
i'm 1899 or 18OO," Mr.. Hines further states,
| "the commons, where now the Avenue is.
from the foot of Capitol Hill westward was
almost impossible for vehicles of any kind;
indeed it was difficult for a person to walk
in some places on account of the mud bushes,
thorns briers, etc., and more particularly on
the south side, where the clumps Of thorn
bushes in some places were so thick that
believe they were cut down with scythes so
as to enable the workmen to make footway
to Fifteenth street. This they did by carting
earth, gravel, chips of freestone ETC., on both
sides of the Avenue, to the full extent, until
toleraby good footway was made all the way
along. On the north side of the street 1t was
not quite so bad, because the road from George
town to the Capitol pretty much on high
ground from about Ninth street. in south
easterly direction, passing along the foot OF
the hill below Blodgett's Hotel (where the
Post Office now stands, thence by McGirks
little JAIL and on past the rear Of Jackson Hall
to Tiber Greek, and thence to the foot of Cap
itol Hill, where 1t turned southwark and passed
along where Breckinridge's Church was after
ward erected
Certainly Pennsylvania avenue was not open
to travel in 1893, when the corner stone was
laid and the Masonic parade must have taken
the post road on top of the ridge (approxi-
mately for a distance along what is now F
street,. II is true, the Commissioners did give
orders to the general overseer of labor in 1892
to have "a breadth of two perches done in
the middle of the Avenue from the Presidents
Palace to the Capitol" but the overseer did
not do the work. And so the matter rested
until 1896, when it definitely concluded to
put this thorought.re in shape for travel, and
the original prietor-David BurneS-was re-
quested mot to sow seed on the line of Penn
sylvania avenue" In their letter, the Com
missioners also told Mr. Burnes that they had
Aa ak@Fo H. xs.,z- H.