Evening star., 1936-02-09
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

FTER siege of weather similar
~ to our present portion, Mark
~ Twain once remarked about
n our Nations Capital, Wash
tngton hasn't a climate, just samples
of weather."
In our youth many of us on Capitol
Hill knew a quaint old character who
amused himself with weather predic-
tions when other interests tagged.
His opinions seemed wonderful to US
until we desired direct prophecy con-
cerning a contemplated picnic or sail
ing trip, when they became as cryptic
as those of a Greek oracle. When hard
pressed, this was his philosophic con-
clusion about probable weather con-
ditions for the future: Whatever
weather folks have had in neighbor-
hood before they are likely to have
again"
Here in washington our Winters
recently have been so pleasant and
open that it would appear We have for
gotten the kinds of weather which were
once our portion. During these past
few days of sleet and storm the search
ing of certain old records would indi-
cate that history is but repeating it
self, if we are to Judge by these COM
mentators of an older day.
William Writ, Attorney General OF
the United States for IL years during
the administrations of Presidents Mon
roe and Adams, and biographer of
eminence, tells us in his Letters of a
British Spy" of Winter he spent in
attendance at a school in Georgetown
in 1779. So bitter was the weather that
the Potomac froze over sufficiently to
permit long lines of supply wagons
loaded with munitions and other stores
to cross over as If there had been a
frozen road en- route to the South to
reinforce the American troops against
possible attack from the British.
Five Inches of Ice on Bay.
Thomas Jefferson in his Notes on
Virginia" comments on the cold
weather of 1880 and the freezing of
"the Potomac River from its head to
its mouth in the Chesapeake Bay" and
the fact that at Annapolis, where the
bay is IS miles wide, the ice was S
inches thick"
A New York merchant, the guest Of
q Georgetown hostelry in 1912. writes
home to his family of taking hack
after dinner for the purpose of visit
ing his friend Nathaniel Maxwell,
whom we are told lived in nearby
Washington near the center OF this
city, which it is claimed will some day
be a second Paris, but which GER
tainly gives little evidence of being
anything but grand plan sprawled
out all over creation" Warming up
to his subject he commented: such
was the state of the roads, streets
they are called, that I considered
my life nearly as much in danger as
1t was when I was last cast away at
sea at the same time of the year.
Continuing his grievance against
conditions in Washington, he re-
marked: Although I paid my visit
In the early afternoon, had to re-
turn before nightfall. The distance
l believe on straight line would not
have exceeded a half mile, but to
reach my destination, it was necessary
TO ride up and down steep hills, with
frightful gullies on almost every side"
II meters had been in existence one
might even believe that an unsym-
pathetic cabby was taking him for
ride" for he loudly bemoans having
10 pay mack fare for the journey which
ne would gladly have taken on foot
mad he only dared. His respects. too
were paid to the fact that in one after
noon he could not remember having
, encountered quite so many kinds of
weather in his life, from rain to snow
TO sleet. In conclusion he solaced
himself for the expenditure involved
In taking the hack with the remark.
Had not done so, my neck would
. nave been constantly in danger from
slipping and sliding in and out of
slippery ruts and bogs."
At Least, It's No Worse.
= We OF Washington, in what we trust
VIII be this well-nigh perfect year of
1885, can still congratulate ourselves
= That modern weather, like modern re-
Igion, Is at least no more arduous
=, than the old.
We learn, too, that during the Win
ter OF 1927, on January 18 to be exact.
-there was tremendous conflagration
In Alexandria and that many citizens
skated from Washington and other
nearby points to render such assist
ance as they could. Imagine, If YOU
can. volunteer firemen and curious
onlookers on skates attempting to be
neip1uL 1t makes signing for the
good old days" a more futile thing
than ever.
Richard P. Jackson, the father Of
MISS Cordelia Jackson of this city, in
ms chronicles of Georgetown" tells
us OF the cold Winter of 182s-3o and
OF the ice in the Potomac River
breaking up with a freshet which
carried the schooner Washington away
from Crittendens Wharf. To this
moorng she had apparently been
made fast with cables which Mr. jack
son speaks Of as being rent like pipe-
stems" when the vessel was carried
down stream with such violence that
her course was unimpeded until she
nnaliy grounded herself near Easbys
Point.
During this same freshet Mr.. Jack
son continued, the angry surge of
the waters and the jam caused by
the piling up of the ice cakes caused
tne Long Bridge to be shattered to
pieces with more than IA gaps in il.
b ms apparent tragedy, it would ap-
pear, worked out to be blessing In
disguise, as Congress eventually pur-
chased the remains of the bridge from
It's owner. the Potomac Bridge Co.
Tor $4,000 and erected in its place
new and modern bridge, "toll free"
Other FreshetS Described,
Concerning freshets In the Potomac
due to severe Winters, we are told
OF the description of one given by
@. w. p. Curtis, one-time proprietor
OF Arlington, whose memory went
back to the year 1874. Descending