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XI
ROUNDABOUT THE NATION’S CAPITAL THE District of Columbia
at first
included a tract on each side of the Potomac, but that on the southern
side was
later relinquished, and the present District has an area of sixty-nine
square
miles. It has been the seat of government since 1800. At the end of the
first
decade it had a population of eight thousand and for a long time grew
very
slowly. Even down to 1870 the city was in a very backward condition,
but since
then improvement has been rapid, till now it is one of the most
comfortable and
beautiful in the world. Both in itself and in its surroundings it is
superlatively interesting. To be sure it is a made-to-order place that
was
carefully and formally planned at the very start, and this has
inevitably
resulted in its losing some of the piquancy that a more harum-scarum
growth
would have given it. Moreover, it still has a little of the aspect of a
boy in
clothes purposely made too large for him in order to provide for his
prospective
increase in stature — that is, the city as a whole does not yet match
up to its
splendid public buildings, and the amplitude of its parks, and the
breadth of
its avenues. But its rawness in this respect is now only incidentally
apparent,
though formerly it was a perfect scarecrow and was called the “City of
Magnificent Distances,” its framework seemed so unnecessarily large for
any
prospective growth. The phrase continues in use but gradually has come
to be
applied in a praiseworthy sense as indicating the width of the city
streets and
the spaciousness of the parks and squares. The prosperity of the
city depends
on the fact that here are the government offices and the meeting-place
of
Congress. There are probably forty thousand army and navy officers and
civil
servants in Washington, and these with their families make a large
proportion
of the population. Of the government
buildings the
Capitol is very fittingly the most imposing in size. It is no less
impressive
in its grace of design and situation, and it is set amid grounds whose
extent
and arrangement add much to its architectural effect. With the crowning
glory
of its great dome it is surpassingly beautiful, no matter whence you
see it.
The main building with its original low-crowned dome was completed in
1827, and
the wings and the present dome about forty years later. It covers three
and a
half acres and is on a hill ninety feet above the level of the Potomac.
On this same height is
the Library
of Congress, a building capable of accommodating four or five million
volumes,
and of special interest to the sightseer because of its sumptuous
adornments
of painting, sculpture, colored marbles, and gilding. These are often
not all
they might be in conception, execution, or arrangement, but the effect
as a
whole is decidedly imposing. The White House, a trifle
over a
mile distant down the straight, wide Pennsylvania Avenue, is as
satisfying as
the Capitol in its stately simplicity, and its generous grounds,
seventy-five
acres in extent. This was the first public building erected at the new
seat of
government. George Washington himself selected the site. He laid the
cornerstone in 1792 and lived to see the building completed. During
Madison’s
administration it was burned by marauding British soldiers, but the
stone walls
remained standing, and when it was restored the stone was painted white
to
obliterate the marks of the fire. It has commonly been known as the
White House
ever since. Near by is the treasury
building, as
if under the special guardianship of the president, with the
expectation that
he would protect the garnered wealth of the people from the spendthrift
inroads
of Congress which meets in the Capitol. The vast structures
necessary for
carrying on the nation’s business abound on every hand, but, aside from
the
Capitol and the White House, the most widely-famed architectural
feature of the
city is the Washington Monument. I fancy its fame is chiefly due to its
tremendous height, for it is an absolutely unornamented, tapering
marble shaft,
more severely plain than a factory chimney. The obelisk was begun in
1848, but
work on it was presently abandoned and was not resumed until 1877. It
was
finished in 1884. From the floor to the tip it soars up 555 feet, and
until
certain recent skyscrapers in New York were erected it was the highest
work of
masonry in the world. It can be ascended either by a fatiguing climb of
its
nine hundred steps or by elevator. The walls are fifteen feet thick at
the
entrance, but gradually thin to eighteen inches at the top. It cost
over a
million dollars. The immensity of the monument is only fully
appreciated when
one stands right at its base, but it is seen to best advantage from an
island
park that borders the adjacent Potomac. This park is a favorite
resort of
fisherman. I have seen them there before five o’clock on a summer
morning, and
only a storm, or darkness when the day comes to an end, sends them
home. Carp
seemed to be the fish most commonly caught, and some of these that the
anglers
secured were surprisingly big fellows. Across the river on the
Virginia
hills, within sight of the city, is the Arlington National Cemetery,
and any
one with a belligerent inclination to settle disputes between
countries, or
between masses of people in the same country, by resorting to war would
do well
to visit this spot where most of the graves are those of the silent
hosts who
died in the war for the Union. The headstones stretch away in seemingly
endless
lines, for here lie buried sixteen thousand men, and this field of the
dead is
only one of many that the Civil War filled with the soldiers who
succumbed to
either bullets or disease. Among the various monuments probably the
most
impressive is that inscribed to the Unknown Dead. The letters chisled
on the
granite inform the onlookers that “Beneath this stone repose the bones
of two
thousand one hundred and eleven unknown soldiers gathered after the war
from the
fields of Bull Run and the route to the Rappahannock.” In the southern
part of
the cemetery are buried the sailors who lost their lives at Havana in
the
blowing up of the Maine. Within the limits of the
cemetery,
on the brow of the hill that slopes away to the Potomac, a half mile
distant,
is the fine old mansion that was the home of Robert E. Lee when the
Civil War
began. But the most interesting
home in the
vicinity of the Capitol is that of George Washington at Mount Vernon,
sixteen
miles to the south. It is easily accessible by trolley. The intervening
country
is rather commonplace, except that half way you pass through quaint
old
Alexandria with its cobblestone streets and numerous ancient
buildings. Mount Vernon itself is a paradise. It suggests the home of an English country gentleman of large estate and refined tastes. The house is large, serene, dignified, and looks down from a steep, terraced hill on the lordly Potomac. Everything is on a generous scale — there is unstinted lawn about the dwelling, and many venerable trees, and there is a big garden abounding in ornamental hedgerows and flowers in their season. At the Alexandria waterside The interior of the house
is less
delightful than the exterior; for it is a formal showplace in which the
imagination finds it difficult to restore the animation of life.
Nevertheless,
as a museum of articles connected with the life of the Father of his
Country,
and illustrative of well-to-do household appointments of the colonial
period,
it is extremely valuable. The house was built in
1743 by
Washington’s half-brother, Lawrence. When you observe it close at hand
you
become aware that its wooden sides are dominoed to imitate stone, a
pretense
that one can not help regretting in a building that otherwise is so
admirable.
Lawrence died, and Washington at length inherited the property. He came
here to
live and carry on the farm soon after his marriage in 1759. During the
Revolution and his presidency of the new republic Mount Vernon saw
little of him,
but on his retirement from public office he came back to his farm, and
it was
in the beautiful old mansion beside the Potomac that he died in 1799,
and his
remains repose in a tomb in a quiet nook of the grounds. In this desultory account
of the
Capitol and its vicinity I only attempt to deal with a few salient
features,
but I would include among these, because of its picturesqueness, a
canal that
comes into the city from the west, high up on the north bank of the
Potomac,
and descends to the river by a series of locks. Just above the locks is
a place
where the boats tie up to await their turn for unloading. Sometimes a
boat will
be there a week or ten days before it can proceed. Usually a sail-cloth
awning is put
up to protect the cabin from the hot sunshine, and a plank is adjusted
to serve
for passing to and from the shore. The mules on the bank are tied to
feed boxes
built there for their accommodation. It is a sort of amphibian gypsy
encampment.
Coal is the ordinary cargo, and the boats commonly go back light to the
mines
in the Cumberland Mountains. Another feature of the
Washington
vicinity that appealed strongly to me was the Great Falls of the
Potomac,
fifteen miles by electric line from the city. The route is in the woods
much of
the way, and you see little of the river, and nothing of the falls
until you
reach your destination. Then you pass through a pleasure resort grove,
and
there are the falls before you. The pavilions and other buildings of
the
amusement park are back out of sight among the trees, and the
artificial music
of the merry-go-round cannot be heard, so much more powerful is
nature’s music
of the roaring waters. The river channel is a chaos of jagged ledges
amid which
the stream has worn various tortuous channels, and the water surges
down
through the rocks in a smother of white waves, and then makes a sudden
leap to
a lower level. In floods the rocks are buried from sight, and the river
tears
along in a wild torrent that fills the narrow chasm below and
obliterates the
falls entirely. Above the rapids is a dam, but it is low and
unobtrusive, and
one sees the falls almost as much in a state of nature as when the
aborigines
possessed the country. Indeed, I met one enthusiastic onlooker who
declared
that because of its unspoiled scenic setting the Potomac Falls was
superior to
Niagara. Besides the
pleasure-seekers from
Washington, who come to listen to the melody of the waters and watch
their mad
struggle down the rocky channel, there were quite a number of local
farmers,
who had resorted thither to fish for shad in the swift rush of the
stream just
below the falls. Here they have come ever since the region was settled,
and no
doubt it was a fishing-place of the Indians for untold years before
that. The
rocks in the steep ravines where the fishermen descend to the stream
are worn
smooth with the footsteps of those who have toiled up and down, and
bear mute
testimony to the attraction of the spot. You find the fishers busy on
both
sides of the river. They are armed with long-handled scoopnets, and dip
and dip
from the several points of vantage, making a slow sweep down stream.
The rocks
do not furnish many footholds suitable for the task, and at each
dipping-place
there is pretty sure to be a group of fishermen waiting their turn. A
few
townsmen also come to fish, but they use pole and line, and instead of
shad
they get occasional cat fish and sun fish. I clambered down a gulley
and joined
one of the scoopnet squads. In the intervals between fishing they
retired from
the water’s edge and sat in a shadowed spot on the rocks talking,
chewing
tobacco, and spitting. Rubbish and fishscales were scattered about, and
it was
no more savory in its odors than are most fishing-places. One of the fishermen was
a thin,
spectacled old man, very quaintly rustic, with long white hair hanging
in
ringlets about his shoulders. This patriarch was the acknowledged
scoopnet
champion. To quote one of his companions — “He knows just how to do it,
and
he’s mo’ likely to get shad than any of us. Uncle Jim was an old
fisherman when
I was a boy, forty odd years ago, and he’s caught mo’ shad in this
river than
all the rest of the crowd here put together. Oh, my, yes! yes indeed!
He never
does anything else but fish in the fishin’ season, and he can make a
livin’ and
a half at it. He’ll be here every day for the next month. “This is as far as the shad go up the river. They can’t get over the falls. It’s heavy exercise handling a scoopnet, but we don’t keep at it continuous. Every man follers around and takes his turn. He dips a hundred dips, which takes about fifteen minutes. I believe Uncle Jim was the starter of that plan in his young days. If we get suspicious that a feller is not stopping when he ought to stop, some one sits back and counts to make sure whether he’s cheating or not. I see a big fight about that one day over where them men are fishin’ on the rocks opposite. But mostly those who scoop for shad are neighbors who live right around, and they are all honest. At the fishing-place “Once in a while we scoop
up a carp
here, and it’s a tolerable good fish if it’s cooked right. You want to
boil it
with a little vinegar in the water. Then it tastes first-rate, but it’s
a very
rich fish, and while it does well enough for a mess or two you soon get
sick of
‘em. Take shad though, and its good any old way. The only fault you can
find is
that it has a whole lot of bones, and them bones are stiff, too. “Hurrah! Uncle Jim’s got
one.” There was a general shout
of
congratulation from the group, and we could hear the faint cheers of
the men
across the river, who had likewise observed Uncle Jim’s success. A man
in our
group scrambled down and took the flopping, silvery captive from the
meshes,
and Uncle Jim, after one exultant smile, stolidly resumed his wielding
of the
scoopnet, and only stopped when he had finished his hundred dips. Then
he gave
way to the next man and came up the rocks, got out his knife, and
dressed the
shad. “The scales are right
loose when the
fish is first taken from the water,” he explained, “but they get tight if you
let the fish dry. Shad are a pretty fish, ain’t they, they look so nice
and
white? When I get enough of ‘em to make it worth while, I take out the
backbone
and salt ‘em up so they’ll keep till they’re wanted. They’re a whole
lot better
that way than fresh. But we don’t scoop many here now. We used to get a
thousand to one that we ketch late years.” “Hello, Joe! caught any?”
This greeting was to a
new arrival. “No,” Joe responded, “I been down to the riffle. Two was caught there, but I did n’t get either of ‘em.” “The water’s too muddy,”
Uncle Jim commented. “It was cl’ar
early in the week, but every rain muddies it.” I asked him if he could
see the shad
before he scooped them when the water was clear. “No,” he replied, “muddy
or not, we
never can see down into the water enough to have any idee whether we’re
goin’
to get a fish till the net brings it to the surface.” The day was waning, and I
at length
climbed back up the rocks, marvelling that so primitive a scene as is
presented
at the Great Falls of the Potomac in early summer should be found
within an
hour’s trolley journey of the big modern city of Washington, the
nation’s
capital. NOTES. — Climatically
Washington is
most delightful in May or October. If possible, be there when Congress
is in
session and see the Senate and the House of Representatives at work. Some of the features of
the city not
mentioned in the body of this chapter, yet which have exceptional
attraction,
are the Botanic Gardens; National Museum; Smithsonian Institute; the
Bureau of
Engraving and Printing, where visitors can see paper money, bonds, and
stamps
in the process of manufacture; the Corcoran Gallery of Art; Ford’s
Theatre on
loth Street, where President Lincoln was shot, and the house opposite
to which
he was carried to die, and which contains a collection of Lincoln
relics; and
the Union Railway Station, which in size and architectural charm is a
fitting
companion to the best of the government buildings. Automobile routes radiate
in all
directions, but many of the roads are very poor. The road to Mt.
Vernon, for
instance, is so bad that it is well to make the trip by trolley, or,
better
still, by boat. One can, however, motor to Alexandria, 10 miles,
without great
discomfort, though the dirt road is very rough. At Alexandria, which
at one
time aspired to be the nation’s capitol, the traveller should visit the
wharves
and the marketplace, see the Marshall House where Colonel Ellsworth,
the first
man to die in the Civil War, was killed, and go into Christ Church
where
Washington and General Robert E. Lee used to worship. There is a good macadam
road to
Great Falls, 15 miles. Half way it crosses Cabin John Creek by a bridge
that
has a span of 220 feet and, with one exception, is the longest stone
arch
bridge in the world. It was built to carry the Washington Acqueduct.
Jefferson
Davis was Secretary of War at that time, and his name was cut into one
of the
stones. When he became president of the Confederacy his name was
chiseled off,
but many years afterward it was restored by order of President
Roosevelt. The
water supply of Washington comes from above the Falls. |