Evening star., 1950-01-01

place, T6SlQellG4dlly dllo O1llCldAlS ,
at the turn of the century than
it is today.
On January /. 1900, I moved
into a newly built house on Cliff
borne place, this side of the CAL
vert Street Bridge. The universal
observation on my selection was
on it's great distance out of town.
Francis E. Leupp, with whom I
shared an Office in the Wyatt
Building, where Garf1nckel's store
now stands, told me, as I outlined
my plans to him, that it might be
all right for me. since was 16
years younger than he, but that
he should not want to live so far
away. Senator Morrill, of Ver-
mont, who built a house somewhat
earlier on Thomas Circle. relates
in his memoirs that his friends
thought he was a venturesome
person to go so far out in the
country!
Those were the days of the
Washington boarding house, which
seems to have been supplanted by
the cafeteria and the coffee shop
But in those days. Where do you
board?" was a common inquiry
remember the man who said he
had boarded at 80 different places
and while he could not say that
each move had been an improve
ment, he would avow that it had
been a change.
My friend, Frank H. Stilton,
now a successful lawyer in Boston,
then a Congressman's secretary,
viewed his first boarding house
with such disdain that when I
asked him the hour that he and
his companions customarily went
to supper, he replied that it was
whenever they could get up the
courage to face it," Like most
Young men of that day, he was
studying law in one OF the night
schools. When he went up to Bos-
ton to take the examination, he
assigned to me the duty Of watch
ing the Boston Transcript for the
report on the results of the
examination. which that news
paper was sure to print. When it
became my sad duty after his first
trial to report failure, he shook
his head with great solemnity, to
declare:
81 knew too much common law;
I knew that that would funk me;
I knew I could never get by
knowing so much common law as
I did" When I expressed surprise
that candidates failed in an exam
ination from knowing too much
he elucidated the situation further
by adding: "I mean, of course, in
proportion to what I knew OF
other things"
$50 a Month Board
But the glory of the old days, If
1t be glory, was in its cheapness.
We had six carfare tokens for a
quarter. I paid $40 a month for
table board, and it was with a
great deal of hesitation that the
boarding house keeper on K street
broke the sad news to me that
she would have to lift the price
to $22 for 90 or 80 meals. And
yet my next seatmate was the
Assistant Secretary Of War, Gen.
Lewis A. Grant, known in the
Union Army as "the Vermont
Grant" At the next table sat
the family of a reading clerk at
the Senate whose wife was a sis
ter of the first wife of Senator
William A. Clark of Montana.
whose gifts to the Corcoran Gal
lery are much in evidence.
In my early days of newspaper
work. before I employed a stenog-
rapher of my own, I sought help
from two sisters, public stenogra-
pliers, who took dictation directly
on the machine for 80 cents an
hour to the elder, and 20 cents
an hour to the younger. To SIM
plify the bookkeeping I eventually
consolidated the rates on Is cents
an hour. I never see the younger
OF the two girls today without
recalling the letter which I die
tated to her for a man named
Gurley, which she wrote out MY
dear grille"
Los Angeles, and perhaps one
or two other cities, has undoubt-
edly grown much faster than
Washington, but this has been
q most amazing period of expan-
sion for the National Capital. I
remember the enthusiastic real
estate developer who actually be-
lieved that Washington would yet
have a million people. OF course.
1t will, and its suburbs will add
another half million.
Phrases Discredited
1t is astonishing how all the
phrases attributed to us, like "the
City of Magnificent Distances" !"
have been discredited by events.
Our distances are not great
enough. A Bostonian who came
here in 1900 remarked that the
Xorekeepers of his home city did
nd make profit enough to keep
the snow shoveled of of such am
pie sidewalks as we had here.
That was the old-tine impression.
] read severe criticism Of LEN
FAINT in a descriptive history pub
Ill T. ~ -