Evening star., 1934-05-06

ATIONAL CIRCUS ON CAPITOL
God, Man or the Universe, it is news
and worth publication. To the per-
son who has never heard of it, the
navigating exploit of Noah, or the
military strategy of the Battle of
Waterloo is news. If something in
terests me, I judge it will be new
and interesting to the hundreds of
thousands of average men like my
self who read the newspapers each
day"
And so he writes Of everything in
Washington, of the Capitol and Con-
gresS, of the horse cars and herdic
cabs, of saloons and salons, of board
ing-house life in these days before
apartments were common. and of the
curious characters of the sociable
hotel Hobbies and billiard rooms on
Pennsylvania avenue. He retells the
stories told over the teacups in the
parlors and over the cups of cold
tea" in the Capitol cafes. He de-
scribes his visits with the mighty and
his talks with the lowly. In his
search for news Carp" meets every
body, goes everywhere, sees every
thing. The dangers of decollete
dresses. the use of enamel upon the
faces of society bellies, their bobbed
hair and their sealskin sacques and
the part which they play in social
circles are not forgotten in his de-
scriptions of the more important fea-
lures of the Washington drama. He
turns his kindly spotlight upon all
the public men and women of the
period tells how they look and how
they dress, how they eat and what
they drink. how they think and what
their contribution is to the world
There is no need for you who have
turned back your clock and attuned
yourself to this period, to try to re-
construct the times of your fathers
and grandfathers. You make your
pilgrimage through them yourself with
keen observer who sees with his
own eyes and who writes of what he
sees upon the spot. He was there!
And as you walk backward with
him into the Eighties. you are there,
too. FRANCES CARPENTER.)
Chapter I.
tCopyright, 1934)
w I1TH1N the past two days the
\A/ Winter season at Washing
Wv ton has opened. The hotels
are filling up and scores
of strangers are wearing
out their energies in looking up COM
Portable quarters for the Winter
Washington is a city of boarding
houses and of all cities which charge
extraordinary prices for very ordinary
board it bears the palm. Every man.
woman and company holding property
here expect to feast off the strangers
of the season and the city plans to
make during the few months of ses-
sion of Congress enough to keep it
self alive during the rest of the year.
Today have been pretty well over
the central part of the city looking
for furnished rooms. found the
rates fully one hundred per cent
higher than in Cleveland. Two very
ordinary rooms shabbily furnished a
mile from the Capitol were offered
me for one hundred dollars a month.
Others 1 saw at fifty dollars. and one
suite of two, a small bed room and
sitting room, were shown me for
forty dollars. All of these were with
out board and the last were so dreary
that their occupants would be in
danger of suicide from the blues. The
boarding house keepers had no faith
in mankind and they all wanted
their rent in advance.
Private board in Washington is
high. At the hotels the prices are
much higher and it would take the
best part of Congressman salary
to pay his board and whisky bills if
he did not take room high up under
the roof and leave his family at home.
One New York Congressman paid last
year six hundred dollars week for
and his extras made his monthly bills
run into the thousands.
Opening of Congress.
The opening of Congress yesterday
presented the usual scenes of the first
day of the session. The House came
to order at IL o'clock and showed
about one hundred chairs vacant.
Upon many of the desks were bouquets
of flowers, gifts of admirers of the
different lawmakers.
The several candidates for Speaker
of the next House were in their seats
at the beginning and were among
the centers of attraction. Carlisle of
Kentucky is q smooth-faced, pale,
shaggy-browed man of middle age.
He is a trifle round shouldered and
his small, bright, gray, determined
eyes shine out from under his fore
head which seems to grow out as a
protection to them.
Sam Randall sits on the east side
of the chamber near Sam Cox. He
is a well developed man of about
sixty. with a brunette complexion.
with brown eyes and a genial pleas
ant smile, his smooth cheeks unorna-
mented with whiskers. His dark hair
is becoming sprinkled with gray and
1t circles around a bald place as
large as dessert saucer with all the
symmetry of natural art.
The galleries of both House and
Senate were filled at the opening of
the sessions, but they thinned rapidly
during the drone-like reading of the
clerks as they waded through the
Presidents message. The Presidents
message is variously received here.
The recommendation of the abolition
of all revenue taxes, except those on
whisky, Is meeting many objections