Evening star., 1934-07-08

CHAPTER X
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.
THE coming season in Washing
ton promises to be one OF the
liveliest, both socially and po-
i litically. Even at this date,
over two months before the
opening of Congress, nearly every
desirable house in the fashionable
localities has been rented. New
buildings are going up rapidly but
the demand is far in excess OF the
supply. The rent for furnished rooms
is extravagant. Those in which
write this are two square ones on the
second floor of a three-story brick
near the Ebbitt House. They are
moderately well furnished and some
Congressman or politician will gladly
pay S10O a month for them.
The hotels are being reftted and
repainted The Willard is again
opened and both the Ebbitt and Riggs
have been refurnished. The hotel
men say they never saw brighter
outlook at this period Of the year.
They have received enough letters
inquiring as to rooms to have dis
posed of their whole space, and they
predict that more people will be in
Washington this Winter than at any
time for years.
There is little doubt that this Is
so. It is a new session of Congress,
and a practical change Of party power,
the Democrats having the House. 1t
is a long session and the Lobbyists
will come to stay hoping to have time
to accomplish something. 1t is the
session preceding national election
and the politicians will come here to
keep the pot boiling.
BOSS" Mclean.
BOSS" Mclean of the Cincinnati
ENQUIRER is to be one of the social
lights here this Winter. He has
rented for two years an elegant fur
nished room on Lafayette Square,
stones throw from the White House
and across the way from Bob Inger-
soils residence. 1t is the same house
that Colfax occupied when he was
Speaker and it is not far from the
residence of George Bancroft, Gen.
Sickles and Gen. Beale.
Cox and the Speakership.
S. S. Cox will occupy his new
$50 900 green stone house just around
the corner from the Blaine mansion.
This will be the first time Mr.. Cox
has owned a house in Washington
and his place will doubtless be one OF
the great social centers Of the new
democracy. Is is pretty house, with
many corners, and beautifully built.
If Mr.. Cox succeeds in his Speaker
ship race it will be one of the sights
of the Capital. But there is not much
prospect that he will succeed.
Cox and the Speakership remind
me of the time shortly after the
close of the war, when Sam Cox
thought death held him in his hand
and that ere many days would squeeze
the sunny life out of him. Cox
was at this time a member elect OF
Congress, but he had rushed off to
Europe for his health. While there
he thought of posterity and the repu-
tation he would soon leave behind
him. AS he pondered gloomily. he
decided that it would ease his last
days if he could be the choice of his
party for Speaker of the House of
Representatives. The House was Re
publican, and the choice would be
merely an empty honor. Still Cox
wanted it. He sat down and wrote
pitiful letter to Dan VorheeS, who
vas then a Representative, told him
he was dying and that he thought his
past services merited this recognition.
Vorhees, who has a heart as big as
the Capitol, took the letter about
with tears in his eyes and Cox was
chosen. Now, over a dozen years
later, he is again candidate and
litical power.
"Waukeen" Miller.
'Waukeen" Miller is here in his
slouch hat and his Western air of
good-natured mildneSS. He says he
is taking three weeks vacation and
he is full of talk about a new play
which he has written and which is to
be brought out shortly in New York.
He intimated to me last year that he
was about to write the great Ameri-
can play, but whether or not this is
it, I do not know.
The Willard Hotel cigar stand has
been rented for the coming year for
$500. 1t will take a good many
thousand cigars at big figures to pay
for it.
Washington Auctions.
Washington auctions are one of the
curfosities of the Capital. Combining,
as they go, the sales of furniture of
Senators, generals and foreign min
listers, they are frequented by all
classes in great numbers. Fine fur
niture always sells for as much as its
real value, and in the case of the
owner being prominent character,
it often brings much more.
Last week the Brazilian Minister
sold his household effects at auction.
The sale was duly advertised with
great f1ourishes, and pink catalogue
was printed with description Of the
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