Evening Star Newspaper, December 2, 1893, Page 17

THE EVENING STAR ¥ EXCEPT SUNDAY. THE STAR BUILDINGS, TO1 Peansylvania Avenue, ooruer Lith St, by The Evening Star Newspaper Company, 8. H. KAUFFM! Pres't. lass matter.) wail subscriptions must be paid tn ad- Be second. ural vance. Retes of advertiaing made known an application A VALUABLE PAPER. The President's Message to Con- gress Next Week. nar ALL READY 10 BE SENT IN. Some Stories of Famous Messages of the Past. ALL CAREFULLY. GUARDED. HWrittes tor The Evening Star. HH PRESIDENTS message Is ready for Congress. It will be submitted next week, and could an advance copy be secured it would bring a hun- red dollars for every crabbed stroke in the signature at its close. Presidents’ messages always affect the stock market, and once every year the President puts forth & paper which makes and unmakes fortunes. ‘This was never more so than it is today, and tere ary Bumbers of New York brokers who are ready te pay well for advance in- formation. A Wait street man is said to have offered $25,000 t@ one of the White ‘House employes for an advance copy of one of Andrew Johnson's messages, and one of President Hayes’ messages was sold to the newspapers by the printer who set it up for $1,000. The agreement was that he was to have $1,500, and the combination which bought it were the correspondents of the ‘Chicago Times, of the Cincinnati Enquirer and the New York Times. Each of these Papers was to pay $00 for the exclusive use of the message, but the Times went back on its bargain through the difference in time between New York and Chicago. The Chicago Trfbune correspondent in New York had heard that the message was to be printed. He remained up all night and ought the first New York papers that came from the press. He found the message in the New York Times, and at once tele- graphed it to his Chicago paper. Storey was then editor of the Chicago Times, and he re- fused to pay his share of the $1,500, and so the man only got $1,000 for his perfidy. "9. 2. Adame, Cleveland’s message has been very care- fully guarded. He has written the most of it with his own pen, and he does more and more of his own writing every day. The White House has never been so close and exclusive as it is now, and news has never been more carefully watched. President Cleveland seldom uses a stenographer, though there are several good shorthand writers at the White House, and there is one who draws a salary on the executive Pay roll as such. The President prefers to write his own letters, and his m has been written almost entirely with his own hand. He uses a pad and a pen, and he has written the message in piecemeal, taking up the different subjects one by one and fitting the pieces into the mosaic, which 1s now in the hands of the government printers. He is a remarkably ready writer. His hand is smali and cramped, but he writes rapidly and he revises little. He has a good com- nd of language and he likes out-of-the- way expressions. During his last adminis- tration he penned the longest message which Was ever submitted to Congress, and the Probability is that the present message will equal this in length. Great Care Used. So far none of President Cleveland’s messages have been published in advance ef their submission to Congress. He ha: been exceedingly careful to keep them from the newspapers, and it is interesting to know how this is done. The matter is given out only to the most trusty compositors, and the proofs and the galleys are locked up when not in use in a burglar-proof safe. This was the method which was adopted ‘land was in the White House and at 3 this time, the government ad t he proofs himself and made He brought the copy to the and carried the proofs to Presi- m his own hand. Then the 0 Valuable as it is now. om as to the financial jon is now being greedily asked for. whole country wants to know what 1 is going to say on the tariff, and his exact statement as to the Hawaiian matter would be worth $5 a line if it could be published now. The employes about the sxecutive Mansion appreciate this and they Secretary Thur- nothing. Assistant dumb and owl-like hy White House ie tongue tied. d © before it House of Representa- S$ first message was read jay before Congress striking thefts of ight of the mes- He was living | ton as a gentleman of so- published he was -e of the House of commanded to state n the message. He re- | was bound under a promise { to reveal this matter, and | that Mrs. Lincoin | » while he ace. Presi- | sd over the | 1 that the | had gotten His for army | fully as much | sas d President | them in sections and over to Miss Sanger, 1 with the typewriter Ne Copy back to the President 4 on then went entire para it was given | particular | te papers | nd thought ed ent Harri- | s to the care | m. and at one time be thought of having the printers Part3. Che F pening Star. Paces iso; WASHINGTON, D. ©, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1893—TWENTY PAGES. TO ADVERTISERS. ‘Advertisers are urgently re- Quested to hand in advertisements the day prior to publication, in order that insertion may be as- Sured. Want advertisements will be received up to noon of the day ©f publication, precedence being given to those first received, come to the White House to set them up, at least this report was published at the time. How the Message is Sent. The message does not go to Congress in typewritten form. It is usually sent in manuscript, on long sheets of gray blue paper, and it seldom reaches Congress in the handwriting of the President. One of the best penmen in the United States is the assistant secretary, Mr. Pruden, and it is he who copies the messages Two copies are made. one for the Senate end the other for the House, same time that these are read printed copies are laid on the de: of the Senators and Representatives, some of whom follow the reading of the clerk with the books and others who take t printed messages home to read at their leisure. Pprctiedokchrerr. Fry an huw bh olor tA S (Say Core Congress. It is said that President Cleveland writes, his own messages. He takes plenty of ad- vice from his cabinet and gets all the sug- gestions he can, but he has his own opin- ions and he writes his own ideas in the end. The present message has been looked over by the cabinet and a few outside parties. Cleveland and Gresham, Lamont and Bi. sell have hed the most to do in consulta- tion, but the finished document is, I am told, the work of the President. Why shouldn't it be? you ask. The reply is that it ought to be, but at the same time {t would be nothing strange if it were not. Many of the executive messages of the past for which Presidents get credit were writ- ten by others than themselves. Washing- ton gave the ideas for his farewell address, but it was Alexander Hamilton and James Madison who put the thoughts into shape for him. Amos Kendall wrote most of Andrew Jackson's messages, and his first inaugural address was written for him by Major Lewis and Henry Lee. Jeremiah Black wrote a number of the messages of Andrew Johnson, and Daniel Webster revised the inaugural address of William Henry Har- rison. It was full of classical expressions and had many allusions to Greece and Rome. Webster cut these out, and in speaking of his work at a party the night after he had revised the address he excused himself for being tired because of the num- ber of Roman proconsuls he had killed that day. You remember Jackson's famous nul- Wification proclamation. It is said that Edward Livingston wrote it for him, and it is so with other famous messages. Messages of Other President's. The first messages to Congress were read by the Presidents in person, and the Presidents would probably be reading them teday in this way had it not been for Thomas Jefferson. Jeffer- son, it is said, could not speak. He was a poor reader, and he didn’t want to appear ridiculous by trying to read his message to the House. The result was that he sent it up by his private secretary. Washington gave his first message, his in- augural, to Congress in New York. He took the Vice President's chair in deliver- ing it, and a few days after, this the House and Senate prepared a reply to the message and went to Washington's house, and one of their members delivered the re- ply to him. This procedure was gone through with for several years, and Presi- dent Washington was looked upon as hav- ing the right to direct Congress. He de- lvered thirteen messages to Congress dur- ing his eight years in office, and in addi tion to these gave his farewell address. John Adams was one of the most wordy of our Presidents. He delivered ten messages in four years, and you find the pronoun “I” thirteen times in his inaugural ad- dress. Van Buren and Harrison each used this pronoun thirty-eight times in their re- spective addresses, and Thomas Jefferson used the word “I nineteen times in his first message to Congress. Jefferson gave twenty-three messages during his presiden- | tial term, Madison twenty-five, Andrew Jackson seventeen, and James Monroe thir- teen. The outlook is that President Cleveland will be decidediy unpopular with a part of his party during the coming session, and his message will be severely criticised, whatever it may be. Congress will, how- ever, have no chance to insult him, as it did in the case of Washington. They re- fused to call upon Washington, and would not adjourn for thirty minutes on the 224 of one of the Februaries of his term to congratulate him upen his birthday, as they had been in the habit of doing. They refused, also, to receive John Adams, and the papers of that time criticised Washing- ton and Adams quite as severely as Cleve- land is being criticised now. Washington once said that he had been abused worse than a, common pickpocket, and when Jackson’s farewell address was published, one of the New York newspapers cong lated its feaders as follows: * pily, this is the last humbug mischievous popularity of this Illiterate, violent, vain, and iron-willed soldier can impose upon a confiding and credulous peo- ple.” Much worse expressions were used concerning Washington at*the time he left the presidency. Allard, Iilinove Girt tn. LLM —" 2 ap which the QT. Gra Thomas Jefferson sent fourteen special messages to Congress, and in Madison's time Congress received a number of con- fidential messages from the President. An- drew Jackson was censured by the Senate, and he sent a protest against this censure to that bedy. President Grant addressed ‘ by messages eight times. He did te his messagés himseif and left the Work of the various departments to his cab- inet officers. These men sent in their re- and he took such parts of them as hed for his message, pieced them her and finished them up so that they ade a consecutive m ge. All of his Vetoes he wrote with his n hand and his stat pers read we President Lincoln's messages are wonders of good diction, and W. D. Kelly of Pennsylvania, the famous pig-iron protectionist, once told me that he thought Lincoin was the greatest all- around genius since Shakespeare and that his messages to Congress would eventually become classics. A Composite Documen President Arthur's messages were written in a bold round hand, and it is said that Surrogate Rollins aided him in the prepara- tion of them. He came to Washington and the President and himself went over the topics which were to compose the message, and the result was the combination of their two brains. President Hayes was a greater man than he has the credit of being. He had a broad mind and his state papers read well. His messages were copied by his pri- vate secret: Mr. Rodgers, and he used his cabinet officers to a large extent in their preparation, and at the} There is only one case in our history in! which a President's message has been forg- ed. This was in 1864, and It was rather a proclamation than a message. It was a production of a famous New York corre- spondent, who is still writing for the press, and it pretended to be a call for half a mil- lion more troops and to come from Presl- dent Lincoln. It never saw the White House, however, but was gotten up in New York. It was written on the manifold pa- ‘per then used for the Associated Press! news, and was handed in to the morn- ing papers raph boys, who gave the papers Associated Press dis- ch. The on’ der is that it was not a by every morning paper in New York, but through some bungling in the delivery suspicion was aroused in the office of the | Times and Tribune, and they would not use it. 'The Her had struck off an edi- tion of 25,000 copies, believing the message to be genuine, but when they did not see it in the Times and ‘Tribune they investi gated its source and, finding it s, they suppressed the entire edition. Among the papers who used it were the Journal of Commerce and the World. The publica- tion created a great s sation, and Presi- dent Lincoln ordered the editors of the pa- pers who used the matter to be imprisoned in Fort Lafayette, but, finding they were innocent of any intention to do wrong,he afterward countermanded the order. ‘7 correspondent who got up the scheme was next ar ed. He made a full confession, and he was imprisoned in Fort Lafayette. He was not kept long, but, by the inter- cession of powerful friends, Secured his re- lease. ‘The Message and the Newspapers. The message will be taken from the White House to the Capitol by the assistant private secretary. There is a good deal of red tape about the matter, and though the cable cars run directly from the White House to the Capiiol, a President's message is always taken in a carriage, and usually behind a spanking two-horse team. The carriage is the office turnout of the White House. It trots out of the yard of the Executive Mansion down to the treasury, then along the west side of h street and down the south side of the At the bottom of the avenue it Peace monument and goes up to the Senate. Here Mr. Pruden gets out, car- rying a big official envelope in his hand. This contains the message. He carries it up to the front door of the Senate, where he is usually met by old Mr. Bassett or by the clerk of the Senate, who announces that there is a message from the President of the United States. It is then carried up to the clerk's desk, and it is there read. The words in which the message is delivered to the Senate are uttered by Mr. Pruden as Leola follow: ‘I am directed by the President of the United States to present a meSsage in writing.” Copies of the message are given to the newspaper correspondents, and they are sent out by the press associations to all the | papers in the country. It used to be that! manifold copies were handed over to the newspaper men and they rushed for the telegraph offices in order to send the news | | to thelr papers. At this time correspondents kept carriages and fast horses at the Capi- tol during such times and made racesto get possession of the telegraph wires. Before the telegraph came into existence it took the mail a week or so to give the message to some parts of the United States, and the Cincinnati Gazette once made a great fuss about its feat of publishing the Presi-| dent’s message within sixty hours after it had been delivered to Congress. It ran a pony express from Washington to Cincin- nati, and it cost it $200 to get the news. What becomes of the President's mes- Sages after they are delivered? The copy that goes to the printer is cut up.into pieces or takes, and it is of little use after it Is set up. The earlier messages, which were written by the Presidents themselves, were carefully filed away, and in the crypt of the Capitol there are several of Gen. Washington’s messages, written in his pe- cullar, clear, bold hand. The messages which are sent to the Senate are stored away in the State Department vaults,where | all the laws of the Congress of the Unitea States are put, and they form a part of the manuscript history of the country. FRANK @. CARP) NTER. ———-+e+—____ IT IS VERY HARD woRK. A Naval Officer Who Thinks That He Has Altogether Too Much to Do. From the New York Tribune. Every nation loves its navy, and the heart of the landsman goes out to the poor fel- lows who are cooped up for life within the steel walls of a man-of-war. And yet, when one pays a visit to such a ship as the new cruiser New York, he ts filled with envy of the captain, the Heutenants and even the ensigns. When he stands upon the spar! deck and gazes around he realizes that he} has beneath his feet probably the finest | war ship in the world, and feels that he would like to be part of her. He addresses himself to a lieutenant, enthusiasticall: “I'd give everything I've gi to be an officer on this vesse: “Take my place and let me go ashore,” was the reply, quick as a lash. “If it were possible I would exchange | with you today. What a time you have! Pets of the government, pets of the women. Noining to do but feel proud of your ship and yourselves. Wear the handsomest | uaitorm in the world, look spick and span, | ready for business whether in love or war. Ah, what a life!” ILOOKING BACKWARD. ‘The lieutenant seemed sad. “You know not what you are saying,” he | answerec. “You can have no idea how | hard a life we lead. Look at that and tell | me if we lie on a bed of roses!” Opening a locker ne flung out a pair of overalls, blu: painted, oily, rusty At sight of inem the eyes of the landsma: filled with tears of sympathy. And he, that beautiful officer, so spick and span, actually Wore those nasty things! “Is it possible that you, too, have to help | scrub the decks? My conscience! I should never have thought it. 1 believed that was left to the jack tars and the midshipmen. it must take you a couple of hours every morning, even with the assistance of your buv seamen. 1 don’t believe 1'll exchange with you.” “What makes you think I help to scrub decks* ' I never said so.” “Those iithy things. What do you do in them’? Hub up the guns, maybe?” “Oh, no. Once a week I have to inspect | the inside of the hull, and it is necessary to crawl ihrough some very smail holes, to save my uniform I put on these over- | mee a week? Is that all you have to| Weil, no. 1 drill some of the men in the morning—three mornings a week. I have! | Just hnished drilling a squad, and feel ex- | ceedingiy Ured. £ was at it at least an hour and a quarter.” “Anything else uisagreeable?” “1 have to go on watch occasionally.” You don't iell me so? It is pretty rough, ain't it? 4 never dreamed you feliows had such a terribie amount of hard work to do. The life of an offcer is not a jolly one. Do you ever have a holiday?” “Only two a week. ‘the first I am so tired that i lie around the ship to get rest- ed. The second, 1 have to make a few calls, |and when they are over | hurry back to get ready for work the next day.” “Well, old fellow, L sympathize with you from the bottom of my heart. I'll go ashore and stay there. Can I send you hing to make life more pleasant?” Thank you, no. The city of New York has given us everything We need, silver vice and all.” serare you ever allowed to take a drink?” “Oh, yes; a little nip now and then,” “A mate's nip?” waae size you like. Hop Wah, take two glasses and a corkscrew in my room.” Poor fellows! | on 17th street next the corner of H, where! Washington Real Estate One Hun- dred Years Ago. FIRST SALE HELD IN THIS CITY.! Four and One-Half Cents a Foot for Lots. at. BARGAINS WENT BEGGING. See Se tae ey Written for The Evening Star, in HE STAR HAVING recently published a list of the principal owners of real estate in the city of Wash- ington and the as- sessed value of their property, it seems not inappropriate to lay before its readers a statement of the first sales made by the commissioners ap- pointed to lay out the federal city, from which an interesting comparison may be made of values now and then. These commissioners were appointed by President Washington, in accordance with an act of Congress passed July 9, 17%). They were Gen. George Johnson, an old revolutionary officer, then living at Freder- ick, Md., and afterward governor of that state; Daniel Carroll of Duddington, one of the original propritors of the land embraced in the city mits, and brother of Archbish- op Carroll, the founder of Georgetown Col- lege, and Doctor Danfel Stuart, who had married the widow of Col. John Parke Cus- tis, Washington’s stepson, and who was then the President's family physician. These gentlemen appear to have labored under many difficulties.. The proprietors of the lands to be taken as a site for the city were, like the ordinary run of men, more anxious to enrich themselves than to assist the government, and many were the ob- stacles and frequent the altercations, before an agreement was reached, which enabled the commissioners to plat the land and make sale of the lots agreeably to law. Finally, however, a deed for the property Was obtained, by which the original owners conveyed the land in trust, upon condition that it should be surveyed and lald off into streets, squares and lots. The owners were to donate the land occupied by streets, For the reservations for public buildings and parks they were to be paid £25, Maryland currency, or $662-3 per acre. One-half of the lots remaining were to be retained by the owners and the other half to be sold by the commissioners and the proceeds devoted to the erection of public buildings and the improvement of the city. Having thus obtained control of the prop- erty, after due advertisement, the commis- sioners commenced the sale of lots on Mon- day, October 17, 1791. The First Lot So! was lot 30, in square 126. THis square, bounded by I and K and 17th and 18th streets northwest, is now one of the most fashionable locations in the residence part of the city. The University Club, formerly the residence of Gen. McComb, is on its southeast corner, and a few doors above it, on I street, is the old Abert mansion, owned and occupied successively by Secretaries Frelinghuysen, Whitney and Wanamaker, whose ladies made it the center of official society during thyee administrations. It is now the property of Mr. Howland of New York. Lot 30 is on the west side of 17th street, facing Farragut Square, and is now owned in part by the Maulsby estate. It Was purchased by George Diggs for £150, Maryland currency, or $400 United States money, a Maryland pound being equal to & pretty st ice, ear Lee ‘Shipper. iat ae lot No. 29, for £115, and Peter Casanave got No. 28, the northeast corner of the square, for £101. Lot 31, however, was bid up to £201, and at that price was knocked off to Henry Carroll. ‘That was the highest figure reached during the whole sale. This lot is now owned and occupied by Nathaniel Wilson. Jacob Welsh bought lots 22 and 23 on the south side of K street, about mid- way the square, for £75, or $200 each. This wound up the sale for that day, only six lots having been sold. Ps The Sales of the Second Day. These were opened with lot 4, in square 105, between H and I and 18th and 19th Streets. Maj. Tobias Lear, Gen. Washing- ton’s private secretary, bought it for £112. Four other lots in this square were sold at about the same price, and then they passed to square 78, between I and K and 20th and Yist streets. Seven lots in this square were sold at from {79 to £120. Jacob Welsh bought lots 9 for #86 and 10 for £79, upon which now stands “Gadsby's row,” at the corner of 2ist and K. Two lots, 4 and 5, in square 107, on the north side of K between 18th and 19th, bringing £101 bres £105, respectively, finished the sale for that d@y. The third day's sale started with lots 5 and 6, in square 79, between G and H and 2ist and 22d. They were purchased for 461 and £60 by Mr. John Davidson, one of the original proprietors of the northwest section. He seems to have owned a great deal of what is now very valuable property in the heart of the residential part of the city. An old plat in the Congressional Li-| brary gives a “plan of the distribution of the Davidson estate, under decree of the chancery court of Maryland,” embracing thirty squares and parts of squares be- tween G and O and Yth and 16th streets northwest, the distributees being Samuel Davidson, Eleanor Harris, William David- son, Margaret Davidson and Mary Chap- man. The mansion house of John David- son stood on the northern half’ of square 284, between 12th and 13th and K and L. To return to the sale, Thomas Pierce bought lot square 79, between G and H and 2ist and 22d streets, for £75 and lot 19 for £101. George Diggs paid £95 for lot 12 and {76 for lot 11, and Jacob Welsh bought lot 10 for £61. Joseph Hodgson paid £65 for lot 3, in square 77, between H and I and zist and 22d streets. Then three lots were offered in square 127, between H and I and lith and 18th streets. Thomas Sim Lee bought lot 28 for £60 and lot 29 for £62, Maj. L’Enfant, who laid out and platted the whole city, seems to have thought that here was the place to put his money, so he purchased lot 30 in this square. It is! the Albany now stands, and Dr. J. Ford! Thompson lives on the spot selected by| the celebrated engineer. L’Enfant’s pur- chase wound up the sale for that day and for that year. As we see it now, he might perhaps have made a better investment on F street, but the present value of his lot shows a very handsome profit on the original cost. The Commissioners’ Report. The Commissioners appear to have been more than satisfied with the prices brought. We find in “the Washington papers” in the State Department a letter from Dr. Stuart to the President, inclosing a list of the sales, in which he says: “I have to observe that the general opinion {s that the lots have gone too high. The chief pur- chasers yesterday and the day before were from the eastward. I was happy to find today they were intermixed with purchas- ers from Carolina and Norfolk. You will understand that they are all actual sales, excepting about four among the lowest. The weather pas been much against us. Could we have been on the ground and exhibited a general plan I believe it would have aided the sale considerably. We have thought proper, as the business seemed to flag a little today, to discontinue the sale, but with notice that if any gentlemen wished to purchase we should still be ready to receive their offers.” In a postscript he adds: “The squares on which sales were made are some distance from the President's house.” He means the site of the house, for at that time not even the foundation had been laid. Private Sales by Individuals. While the public sale “flagged a little,” the individual proprietors seem to have taken advantage of the presence of the buyers attracted thereby to sell a large number of their own lots. A letter from Georgetown, under date of October 21, 1, published in the Maryland Journal, says: ‘Phe public sale of lots in the Federal City ended on Wednesday evening, but the pri- vate sales siill continue, and probably will all the week. In ¢he whole, there have been at least 1,200 lots sold. The average of the public sales is something upwards of £10 for a lot of forty feet front and 130 or 140 feet deep. The sales made by indi- vidu: I suspect, were at a lower rate. Indeed, they nave sold, in many parts of the city, and the public sales were confined to the part which lies between the President’s square and Georgetown, which it is imagined wili be first improved, being so convenient to the present seat of trade.” ‘These considerations doubtless induced the Commissioners to begin the sales where they did, and gave that prominence, in the start, to the northwest section that it has maintained r since. But in those days, as well as now, other portions of the city had their advocates. Beginning of an Association. The champion of Kast Washington was George Walker, a prosperous Scotch farm- er, who owned a large tract of land in the northeastern part of the new city. He an- tedated the East Washington Association a hundred years, and battled with the Com- missioners of that day for the rights of his section with a tenacity &nd vigor that is recognized in his successors today. He did not hesitate to charge the Commisston- ers with partiality, and carried his charges to quarters. In a letter to the Presi- dent, October 8, 1792, he protested that the conveyances of the various tracts embraced im the plan of the city were made by the several proprietors with the distinct under- standing that the improvements and ex- penditures were to be divided, “with the most rigid justice and impartiality,” be- tween the eastern and western sections of the city; and that the two principal build- ings, the Capitol and the President's House, were to be erected pari passu, and an equal number of lots in their respective vicinities would be offered for sale at the same time. Instead of that, he says, the principal im- provements have been made at the Georgg- town end of the city, the preparations for the President's House are much further ad- vanced than the Capitol, the first sale was confined entirely to the western section, and that while justice demands that those about to take place should be limited to the eastern section, the Commissioners do not appear to have any intention of doing so. “Hence,” he concludes, “those who may have come here from a distance with an intention to purchase on the Eastern branch will again be deceived, and natur- ally conclude that the Commissioners are not desirous that any city should ever be built to the eastward of Goose creek.” The “Goose creek” of those days was a small stream emptying into the Potomac just be- low the President's grounds. The Commis- sioners bestowed upon it the more classical tile of “Tyber creek,” and so it appears on the first official plats of the city. The Second Sale. Mr, Walr>r's letter was too late to affect the second sale, which began the very day it was written, October 8, The first lots offered were in square 224, bounded by F and G and l4th and 15th streets northwest, now one of the most val- uable business squares in the city. That canny old Scotchman, Davie Burns, was on hand early, and bought the first two lots sold, No. 8 for £200, or $533.33, and No. 9 for £150, or $400, thereby securing the corner of 15th and G streets, where now stands the Riggs House. Wm. A. Washington bought lot 12 for £125 and lot 13 for £100, on the south side of G street,adjoining the Mackall corner, now occupied by Messrs. Baughman & Co. Hoben and Purcell bought lot 4 on the north side of F, midway the square, for £110, William Corkill bought lot 5, just west of 4, for £105, and Thomas I. Beatty got lot No. 1, the corner of F and 14th, now owned by Mr. Joseph Willard, for £115, or $306.67. He also bought lot 16, adjoining it on 14th street, for £117. The next square put up was No. 254, be- tween E and F and 13th and 14th, the site of the Ebbitt House, the Hooe building, Newspaper Row, the National Theater, the Hotel Lawrence and the new Post building. Leonard Harbaugh bought the first, lot 5, where the Hotel Lawrence, formerly the Imperial, stands, next door to the tional Theater, for £135, or $360. Gabriel Vanhorn bought lot 7, now occupied by the new Post building, for £120, or $820. Cortworthy Stevenson purchased lot 10 for £102, and Collin Williamson lot 11 for £105, both on 14th street, where Newspaper Row now stands, and whence more varied informa- tion has been transmitted to all parts of the counts than from any other spot in it. Rich: Contee struck what has turned cut to be*bonanza. He got lot 14, the Ebbitt House corner, for £105, or $280. Saml. Blod- gett, jr, bought the adjoining lot, No. 15, on F for £100 even. He bought lot 19 for £80, lot 20 for £80 and lot 21 for £75; ail on the south side of F street. Sam’l Davidson bought lot 2 on E street, next the corner on lath, for £86. That was a great day for bargains. The Commissioners perhaps thought so, for they stopped the sale for that day. The next day they skipped to the extreme West End, where they put up five lots in square 4, bounded by K and L, and 26th and 27th streets. Robert Peter, one of the proprietors, whose mansion house stood in square 5, on the opposite of K street, bought lot 3 for £88. Richard Bland Lee bought lot 2 for £76, and Richard Ober paid #67 for lot 1. The next sales were in square 5, bounded by I and X, and 26th and 27th streets. Coi. Richard 1 eakins, one of the richest men in Georgetown, bought lot 18 for £78, Richard Contee bought lot 11 for £110 and lot 17 for £70, and Robert Peter bought lot 6 for £62. The next square was 16, between I and K, and 25th and 26th streets. Walter Hellen bought lot 16 for £81 and lot 16 for £&. Hoben & Purcell took lot 17 at £101, Sam’l Blodgett, jr., lot 21 at £61, and Richard Ober lot 22 at £63 and lot 23 at i81. This ended the sale for that day. Shifting the Scene. The next day the Commissioners shifted the sale to square 488, bounded by E and F and 5th and Gth streets northwest. Ed- ward Voss bought lot 2 for £92 and lot 3 for £86. Samuel Blodgett, jr., bought lot 12 for £76 and lot 13 for £75. Then four lots in square 489, between DL and E and 5th and 6th streets, were put up. Hoben and Pur- cell purchased lot 1, the site of the old police headquarters, for #81 and lot 2 for £36. Samuel Davidson paid £67 for lot 13 a Samuel Blodgett, jr., took lot 16 for All of the above sales were of single lots, but during the sale some of the visitors had expressed a desire to have an op- portunity of buying by the square instead of the single lot. To oblige them, and at the same time to placate Mr. Walker and his fellow owners of land in East Wash- ington, the Commissioners concluded to put up square 658, containing 24 lots, now the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds. It did not sell for as much as they thought it ought to bring, and they had it bid in by Samuel Blodgett, jr., at £57 per lot. Then a demand was made that a square in the western part of the city should be sold in the same way, and, to keep the peace, square 22], between ’ Pennsylvania avenue and H, 15th and Madison place, was put up. This square, containing the sites of Riggs’ Bank, the Department of Justice, the Blaine house, the Cameron house, the Cosmos Club and Wormiley’: Hotel, was purchased by Samuel Davidson for i85 per lot, or £2,040—85,440—for the 24 lots it contained. The Commissioners made up their minds to offer no more squares at that time. Private Sales by Commissioners. Having closed the public sales the Com- missioners, from October 13 to December 5, 172, made private sales, amounting to £2,190. Among these were some bargains. John Templeman bought lots 7, 8 and 9, in square 253, between F and G and 13th and 14th, for £100 each. The Adams butld- ing now occupies lot §, the Riggs Fire In- surance Company building lot 7, and the Stone estate owns lot 9 and the buildings on it, Patrick McDermott Roe bought lot 6, where Messrs. Burchell & Co. now are, for £75 or $200. Cornelius MeDermott bought Jot 1, in square 254, northwest corner of 13th and E, for £110. In square 225, Penn- sylvania avenue and F and 1ith and 15th, Benjamin Blodgett bought the corner of 15th and F, site of the Western Union Tel- egraph office, for £109 or $2662-3. Samuel Blodgett, jr., bought lot 7, next to it on 15th street, and Peter Giiman lot 6, the lcorner of 15th and Pennsylvania avenue. at the same price. The Corcoran building is built on these lots. Patrick McDermott Roe bought lot 10, on the south side of F Street, midway the square, for £75, and eget eo jot a ae it, for 3 e Kellogg bu! one of these lots, Se eee The Arlington Hotel occupies the whole front of square 200 on Vermont avenue. At the southeast corner of that square w; the residence of Charles Sumner, now part of the hotel. Samuel Blodgett bought this corner for £100 or $266 2-8. Hoben and Purcell bought lots 16 and 17, midway the square, on Vermont avenue, where the main entrance of the hotel is, for £100 each. John Templeman bought lot 2 on H Street, and Mr. Ketland bought lot 3, for the same price. Nathan Bond secured ‘the southeast corner of square 408, 8th and E, or Market Space, now occupied by Hoeke's furniture store, for £100, and lot 2, west of it for £100, Andrew Estave bought the southwest cor- ner of square 406, 9th and E, Messrs. Wer- rer & Co.’s coal office, for £100. It appears that after October 22 no sales were made by the commissioners that year for less than £100 per lot. That seems to have been fixed as a minimum price. As these lots averaged about 6,000 square fee, $266 2-8 cr 4 1-2 cents per foot does not seem an extravagant price for lots that have since sold from $5 to $50 per foot. Had the original purchasers held on to their invest- ments and transmitted them to their pos- pone like = Astors of New York, mil- ionaires wo now be moi Washington. rg g The Commissioners Satisfied. The commissioners seem to have been pretty well satisfied with their second sale. In his report to Gen, Washington, Dr. Stu- art says: “Tho the average price is not entirely equal to that of the first sales, yet when it is considered that the company assembled was by no means such as might have been expected, from the unlucky in- tervention of several circumstan and also that it was the public opinion that the first sales were too high, and that they would be considerably less this year, we think we have much reason to be satisfied. We observe, with pleasure, now a contrary opinion gaining ground fast, that they will not sell so cheap hereafter.” Several of our mechanics are among the purchasers, who will probably be among the first improy- According to the list of the combined sales, public and private, sent Gen Wash- ington by Dr. Stuart, the total number of lots sold by the commissioners up to De- cember 5, 1792, was one hundred and forty- six. The total proceeds were 212,604, or $33,610, an average of about $230 per lot. The combined official sales of the two years did not yield more than half as much as any one of the original lots they sold on F street would bring today. Most of the lots reported as sold to Mr. Samuel Blodgett, tjr., = besa a = bid in for the commissioners, and they were babi, sold again at better prices. ais f > The Eng! From Well Spring. The emblem of our country is a familiar sight to all who are the happy possessors of silver coin, yet how many of us take into consideration that to boys and girls of other countries it may have been equally well known? The boys who are studying Roman his- tory must recall the fact that the Romans, from the time of Marius up to the time of Hadrian, were as proudly the owners of the eagle as their emblem as we are. Rome, Russia, Prussia, Poland and even France under Napoleon each in turn has headed her processions with this bird em- blazoned on her standards. Now, why is all this honor given to the eagle? Is he a bird of rare qualities? Has he courage, strength of purpose or any of the qualiues | of our country we wish emphasized by our emblem? if we are to believe the majority of our tural history students we should say io” to all these questions, for nowhere can we find them attributing to him any but thieving propensities. They tell us that, though strong and quick of wing, he is willing to let any other bird make a living for him. If we had taken a naturalist’s advice We might have had the courageous ttle | King bird at the head of our nation, but! when our emblem chosen our an-) cestors had so little while been free from! the rule of monarchs that probably even | the word king, connected in any way with our free country, would have been - | tasteful to them. | I must repeat to you something Benja-| min Franklin once wrote to a friend on this subject. After speaking of the Latin | used in our motto and of the criticisms | made on it he says: i “Others object to the bald eagle as look-| ing too much like a dindon or turkey. For my part I wish the bald eagle had not | been chosen as the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral char- acter. I am, on this account, not dis- pleased that the figure is not known as a! bald eagle, but looks like a turkey. For, in truth, the turkey is in comparison a true, original native of America. “Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours, the | first of the species seen in Europe being | brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada and served at the wedding table} of Charles IX. He is, besides (though a/ little vain and silly, it is true, but not the} worst emblem for that), a bird of courage, | and would not hesitate to attack a gren-| adier of the British guards who should | presume to invade his farm yard with a Ted coat on.” i Interesting stories are, told of the happy | eagle, which is a native of our country, | living in California, New Mexico and south- ern Mexico. The Aztecs called them the “winged wolves,” on account of their great power of destruction. Moreover, these same people used to train these immense birds like falcons for capturing deer. Cortez once owned one of these trained eagles, of which he was very fond. One day, unable to make the bird obey at once, he shot at him, saying: “I'll teach him manners.” The eagle sank to the ground. The proud, | imperious Cortez knelt at his pet's side, | doing all in his power to revive him. The eagle struggled once more, seized the right hand of his master and crushed it com- pletely, giving Cortez the only injury he| sustained while In Mexico. | If this is_the bird we have as our em- blem,even Franklin could not accuse him of lack of courage. | ‘The Spaniards call him the aguila real— the king bird. But, despite the scant praise of natural-| ists and the old Pennsylvania statesman, the history and poetry of all ages and countries have made the eigie famous. ————— 22 —__—_—_ 333. eur Qaoenes eococoorrn —_—_ NL” FOR LITTLE ONES. Some Pretty Suggestions For Fanoy Costumes. THREE NEW AND DAINTY DESIGNS Children's Dances Will Be Pop- ular This Winter. THE BUTTERFLY Dano ‘Written for The Evening Stax, Judging from the amount of attention that is being given just now to the composition of numerous gay little costumes, children’s dances are to be a prominent feature of the winter's festivities, and surely nothing can be prettier than some of the ballets which have been arranged for the little folks, Some of the gowns especially designed for Such occasions by a New York modiste are well worth describing, one of the prettiest being fur a new version of the Butterfy dance. The outer dress is made of opak ‘The Butterfly Dance. escent silk with the short skirt cyt an@ Slashed im the most unexpected places, showing @ petticoat of India tissue (a filmy material elaborately worked in silver) which gleams and glitters through the openings of the silk skirt in the most irresistible fash- jon. The bodice is left open about the throat, while immense ruffies of silk with inner ones of tissue take the place of sleeves. The wings are made of stiffened gauze, and almost covered with tinsel, while from the silver fillet which confines the hair are two long antennae. Flesh colored hose and silver-tipped slippers com- plete this daintiest of outfits. The Shauow Dance. Another new dance which I do not think has been seen in Washington is very ap- propriately called “The Shadow.” A strong calcium light is used in this, and the little dancer has her own shadow for a partner. The costume is decidedly unique, the skirt being made entirely of ribbons, which are placed so closely together and with so many thicknesses that there ts hardiy any exposure of the figure. The color ts palest silver gray, and at the end of each ribbon of the outer row hangs a tiny sflver bell. ‘The bodice is a blouse of gray silk with epaulettes of ribbon, a coronet of rhine- stones and sandals of ver, laced with silver cord, finished the costume. When all lig’ are turned out and the graceful little figure is seen bowing and wafting kisses to its own shadow, you won- der if you have ever seen anything prettier and in a moment or two come to the con- clusion that you never have. Sweet ax a Cherry. The third tustr: shows a costume used for the It is almost identical with that used for the same dance in “The Is The color is a delicious with the ex- ception of the hat, which is a dull green, elaborately trimmed with The gay little Jockey d which looks as tho been cut into pi for its ma- terial. The bi s = demure Quaker dre lawn kerchief and all othe Besides these were a number of others less elaborate than those described, but each showing as much care in the se- lection of ma ial, color combination and peculiar appropriateness as though the artist hed made a life study of that par- ticular design, and had achieved a most flattering success. _— Of an Inquisitive Mind. From the New York Herold. “Where is your ¥ tive child of a caller, who separated from his ver half. “I don’t know.” 1 the man shortly. “But why « now?” persisted the child, v pany trembled and * asked an inquist- had recently “I have y. We don’t + child musingly ou fight it out like my r