Evening Star Newspaper, April 24, 1897, Page 17

i THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY,. APRIL THE PRIDE OF PARIS Peril Confronts the Avenue of the Elysian Fields. 10 THE DISMAY OF THE PEOPLE And It’s All Caused by the Appear- ance of Street Car Tracks. HEADING FOR MONTROUGE Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, April 13, 1897. T IS THE BEGIN- ning of the Ameri- canizing of Paris,” the policeman said to mie, nd some day you will see street car tracks not orly crossing it but running up and down!" The “it” ferred to was the Avenue of the Champs Elysees, on which we stood, at night, by moonlight, near the Round-Point, underneath the chestnut trees beside tha fountains. In the full center of the crowded capital, whose population reaches close to the three mil- lion point, the broad and airy avenue, be- ginning with the noblest public place in Europe, continuing through a charming grove, then lined with carved-stone resi- dences till it broadens to another place around the Arch of Triumph, where ten other broad and airy avenues meet to form the Star, which sheds its beams of pleasure and culture over all the nations, continues through the arch and cn into the wood, called the Bois de Boulogne, its shade at Jast merged Into universal leafy shadow, cool and rustling with the summer breeze, deep, grateful depths, where the birds twit- ter, where the rabbits jump. “The Parisians are justly proud of this delightful avenue,” I said to the police- man, “and, therefore, for the life of me, I Looking Toward the Arch. cannot comprehend why they permit this tbh ‘They will permit this thing and many enother,” he replied, with cynicism, but t bitterly. His manner was as if he did not care. “This thing is a beginning, where- “fore it seems strange; behold it!” * means “behold it!” and he said {t—“voila! t it also has the meaning, in its proper of “that’s the end of it—no further to talk—I have expressed myself—the is proved”—and so on. “Voila!” thing’’ referred to, which has caused million and a half of “voilas!” from million lips, cach of the population is nothing more nor less than ming of the celebrated avenue, , the ignoble cutting of It, across ts fairest center, by a line Under the pretense to Montrouge, an ab- the street car monoply with the omnibus and cab id the municipality by the fifteen years—ai tracks along thi ake a terminus at a fixed point, © of the Church of Saint Phil- two five having twc that and at the Plac Do You Think of the Tracks?” ippe du Roule, where five lines meet al- ready and enjuy a common transfer station, with two transfer agents to do all the 0 one has been found yet in the city willing to admit the possi- any motive that could take him to Montrouge; it is the street car company, Father, that desires to lay these tracks, for its own purposes, but vaguely guessed at now by the awakened population, and ex. ected to appear more clearly in’ the light of the transportation fight, which, it is hoped by patriots, will develop ttseif with the approach of the already intrigued-over, = ady speculation-breeding exposition of "0. le w bility of A Simple Procedure, The street car company desiring to lay the tracks for its own purposes, at present misty and more than possibly devious, it was a simple thing, the procedure. Need citizens of other cities in the enjoyment of ail modern metropolitan enlightenments tola that application was made in due form, the proposed route therein indicated partes | and unmistakably, the notices publicly rye. frequency and con- {picuousness, and then the proper time al- lawed to pass wherein the public-spirited and solicitous might protest against ary ropriety. should any such by ary pos- lity have escaped the vigilance of the instaking, many civic-virtued officers of proposed corporation? The proposition, in posters pasted against trees and lings or in the advertising columns of the morning daily papers, and eke those of the event passed alike unheeded ‘under the futile, weakling gaze of the Par- istan, dazzled by the gaudier sense-impres- sions of a@ razz! hirl which has BO street cars in it. The bill passed the @ouncil—there were no objectors—and, being signed and countersigned, viewed and reviewed, was then approved and re- approved, because the tendency of perfect eivil service is to multiply the offices, as Balzac pointed out some fifty years ago. And so the bill became a law, what we would call an ordinance, and binding on the citizens who sent its framers and ap- provers to the municipal council chamber. Only then did the great howl come up from Paris. “Halt, you pot-house poll- ticans! Halt, you corporation robbers! Wili_you ruin our great avenue, the pride of Paris and the envy of the peoples?’ “Yes!” they answered. And they laid the Avenue of the Bois. tracks. “Now this is terrible!” wailed the Parisians. “Ah, what unhappiness! And ah, the-noble driveway to the Bois! And the poor little children, playing with their little shovels and their little buckets un- derneath the trees, where sit their nurses, wet and dry, interdistinguishable only by the ribbon streamers from their snowy starched and laundered caps, will they be longer safe—the children, naturally—may they not be run over by the snorting, com- pressed-air locomotive or the dinging trol- ley?” Indeed it is a noble avenue, and tts each and every step is connected with names known in America as in France. At its be- ginning, in the Place de la Concorde, the guillotine was set up one hundred years ago. There Louis XVI and Marie Antoi- nette and thousands of others lost their heads, until the ground was so sodden with Beyond the Arch. blood that the terrible machine was taken to the Place of the Throne, at the other end of the city. Until that time the Ely- sian Fields—for there was no avenue in those days—were really a part of the great hunting forest reaching up to the gates of the city. A few years before a stag had actually been chased into the Place de la Concorde, or Place of Louis XV, as it was then called. It was nearly the middle of this century hefore the well-known cafes- concerts sprang up under the trees behind the gardens of what are now the English embassy, the Rothschild and Hirsch pal- aces and the house of the president of the republic. “What is the latest thing they say At the Ambassadeurs’ Cafe?” Here Yvette sang and sings. The avenue was run through, broad and straight, out to the giant Arch of Triumph, which the first Napoleon had built to commemorate his victories. It was cnly in the time of Napoleon III that this arch was brought within the city limits, and the avenue was built up slowly. Where now there is the whirl of geyety through all the night till early morning it was considered unsafe for the people to walk alone after dark as late as the time of which Du Maurier writes in “The Martian” and “Peter Ibbet- Where Children Play. son.” And Miss Thackeray relates how ske played around the arch when all was still green countryside in the neighborhood. The First Exposition. In 1855, when a universal exposition was held for the first time in Paris, the great Palais de L'Industrie was built. Since the war of 1870 it has been used for the annual Salon, and of late years for the horse show. It is now being torn down, and the fence around the space where the buildings for the next exposition of 1900 are to be. is quite in harmony with the tramway which passes along the side. The fence, however, foe: disappear, while the car tracks will re- mai It is at the round point, where the foun- tains are, that the avenue, with its houses, Properly begins. At the left corner is what was the finest house under the empire, in the style of Louis XV, and still one of the best specimens of domestic architecture in Paris. Next to it there is a small marble hotel, with one immense bay window on the avenue. This was the home of the Duc de Morny, half brother of Napoleon Ill and his good genius in government. He was a gay duke, and his garden ran back to the Jardin Mabille. All have since disappeared, like the empire—and the can- can—and the place is now inhabited by a French family with the curiosly English name of Archdeacon. A little farther on, the Restaurant Cubat occupies the luxurious house built for her- self by the notorious Marquis de Paiva. It cost her 6,000,000 francs, but it was left closed for years and years before her death, she never returning to it. She was an adventuress whose history was wilder than the most extravagant romance. First known as a pianist of talent in St. Peters- oe aid to have escaped from are! rame of Theresa Lachman. Farther along this avenue, on the same left-hand side going toward the arch, above what Is now a carriage shop, w: All her life she al- lowed it to be believed that she was born an Indian princess. It is pretty certain that she was really a sharp German girl of the 24, 1897+24: PAGES. ; had remembered the American girl's days of triadmph came forward to give her a de- cent burial. The ground floor under her old apartment is a carriage shop, and next door to it is set up the Manege Petit where American girls of today take les sons on their first bicycles. Soon they will be out on the avenue and off! away! their golden heir all hanging down their backs! For this is now the neighborhood of smart English-speaking boarding houses, all, if you believe advertisements, within a stone’s throw of the envied avenue, the Avenue of the Elysian Jields. Famous Houses. Tne hundred or so houses which remain before the arch is reached would present a strange mixture of names of those who are considered the happy of this world. There is a rich art collector; a duke of one of the oldest of French titles, married to the heir- ess of a banker; the father of g president of the republic; the widow of a marshal of the French armies; another widow of a Spanish grandee, chief supporter of Don Carlos; a Roumanian prince; an English lord and lady, and the first house in Paris to suffer from the explosion of a dynamite bomb. Half way up the right side are the two richest and most ornamented apart- ment houses in Paris. In one of them, on what Is called “the noble floor,” lives Rod- man Wanamaker, just decorated with the Legion of Honor ribbon. In the other James Gordon Bennett engaged in the di- rection of international politics. Before the great war no omnibus was al- lcwed on the avenue of the Champs Ely- sees. It was reserved for fine equipages, for horsemen and horsewomen, and those who came from the whole world to stare at them from the sidewalk. Here the Em- press Eugenie drove, preceded by her out- rider in green and gold coat and white breeches. The Duc de Morny whirled by with two footmen at the back of his phae- ton. Miss Skittels, another notoriety of the Gay, had an outrider forsher carriage also. The Russian Prince Demidoff, who had married the Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, and whose grandfather was a serf that hed made a fortune from his master’s es- tates, whirled by in a low coupe, Princesse Metternich had a yellow boxed caleche, and the Englishman, Wilkinson drove the first and finest mail coach seen in Paris. The policeman did not tell me all this; indeed, though a brigadier, he does not know a half of these things about the ave- nue he guards. What he said was: “It is the beginning of the Americanizing of Paris,” and continuing, “‘Some day you will see the street cars not only crossing it, but running up and down.” He is of the pres- ent, and he knows his world, as he would say in French. Was it as a compliment that he said “Americanizing?” STERLING HEILIG. ——— ae AN OLD-TIME BANDIT. John Marrell, Whose Name Was Too Familiar in Several States. From the Atlanta Evening Constitution. John A. Murrell, the most famous bandit end murderer ever known in America, has been dead for more than a generation, but his name fs still a power in many states. Years ego I visited a big plantation on the Alabama river, and in the course of my evening talks with my host something was said about Murrell and his gang. “He was a Napoleonic man,” said the planter, “and if he had directed his ener- gies and talents into a different channel it 1s probable that he would have risen to honorable distinction. He was a man of fair education, and applied himself so closely in his leisure moments to the study of the best legal text books that he made himself a sharp criminal lawyer. This ex- plains his success in evading justice for so many years.” “Murrell operated in this locality, did he not?” I asked. “Yes,” was the reply. ‘He may not have been here in person, but an overseer on this very plantation used to send negroes to lonely places on the river, where they were selzed by members of the gang and carried to Louisiana. They were sold there and the proceeds divided among the robbers.” “What was the name of fhe overseer, and what became of him?" _ “Oh, he skipped at the’right time. I have forgotten his name.” There was pause of a moment or two, and then my companion resumed. “Murrell,” said he, “had several promi- nent citizens in this region interested in his schemes or so completely under his control that they had to obey his orders.” “Is it possible?” ‘Yes, sir. When the news came that the bandit was captured a leading country physician, not twenty miles from here, im- mediately disappeared, leaving wife, chil- dren, property and everything.” “Was he one of Murrell’s men?” “I am certain of it, but nothing was ever proved against him, and twenty years af- terward one of my neighbors saw him in California. The fellow had turned preacher and was very popular.” “And his name?” I asked, pulling out my notebook. : “Can't think of it to save my life,” re- plied my entertainer. “I never could re- member names.”” I tried to get hold of a few more facts on the same line, but the old planter talked of other subjects, and, though I stopped with him a week longer, I could not induce him to return to the Murrell matter again. A long time after this conversation I visited a small town near Atlanta, where I evamined the court records in order to see if the owner of a certain piece of land had @ good title to it. I found the title all right, and.told the owner that I would so report to a friend who desired to purchase ‘The land owner was delighted and ac- companied me over the town, pointing out objects of interest. He had two or three drinks in him and was disposed to be com- municative. “They say,” he said, almost in a whisper, “that the man who lives in that cabin be- longed to Murrell’s gang in his young days.” ‘Ah, indeed.”” “Yes, they say he used to run off niggers and horses and once killed @ man and robbed him of $10,000. “Good story,” I remarked. “What is his name? Tell me all about it. “I don't know a thing,” was the response, as the man looked at me inquiringly. AGLUTTON FOR WORK AT HIS DESK ELEVER:ROUES A DAY Head of the War Bepartment is Famitiar With Military Methods. STRICT DISCIPLINARIAN Written for The Evening Star. FAMOUS STAFF general of the reg- ular army, now on duty at the War De- partment, was por- traying the new Secretary of War to some friends the other day. “Why,” said he, warmly, “he works like a hired man.” The truth of the remark rested in its application. Gen. Russell A. Alger, Secretary of War, ts a millionaire capitalist, a man of interests from Maine to Mexico; he has been in the brush of more than three score battles and skirmishes; he has been a captured and an escaped prisoner of war; he has been an eminent politician, the governor of a state; but before and beyond all of this he was a hired man, a model of punctuality to the clangor of the farm dinner bell. So that if now, as the ad- viser of a President from his own native state, he voluntarily exhibits the inde- fatigableness of the hired mau, the force of habit is again vindicated and the orig- inal inculcation of such latter-year indus- try is clear. Himself, General Alger often speaks of the halcyon period of his life, when stone-bruised feet and the sun-peeled back of the swimming boy were the only minor mars upon his happiness; and when, last week, he received a letter of felicita- tion from an aged preacher in Lafayette, Medina county, Ohio, whe remembered him opened, every morning, and dispatches them to his War Department office by mes- senger, and in making reply to them he —. often slips in a paragraph to the e! fect that, upon the whole, his home as a sort of Arcadia, the serenity of which he cannot permit to be impaired by the introduction of business of any nature. Eleven Hours a Day. Gen. Alger often cuts a deep hole in his immense mass of private business corre- spondence between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock in the morning, during which time he has to heavily weight the papers on his Wer Department desk to protect them from the swishing assaults of the char~ women who dust Office furniture between those hours. Promptly at 4 o'clock in the afternoon he knocks off the consideration of goverrmenial business by the mere act of changing his seat from his Secre- tary of War's desk to his private citizen's desk, half a dozen steps dit tant, in a corner of his office—which, by ‘the way, is the most gorgeous and ornstely fixtured of all the cabinet ministers’ offices. At this littered, never- cleared Geek ui 7, and even until 8, o'clock Gen. Alger often sits, beating down a daily tide of letters and reports germane to business interests as wide as the hemi- sphere. But he religiously adheres to his determination made at the beginning of his incumbency, that his private business shall not conflict with his public business; and from 9 o'clock in the morning until 4 o'clock in the afternoon he is the Secretary of War. He is a military Secretary of War. He knows the army of the United States on its peace and on its war footing. Today he can maneuver with the eclat and the pre- cision of a tactician any body of troops from a platoon to a brigade. A soldier, he is known and reepected by the old soi- diers, now general officers, by whom he is surrounded and assisted. He knows what an American military post is like, and he knows the daily routine of the private as officer or lief in rigid army discipline, and he eschews favoritism as he would poison. “Your man will have to take his chances,” is his common reply to such ap- peals. “He will get an even show with the men who have no friends to come here to intercede for them. While I am here the army officer and the enlisted man will oc- cupy precisely the same basis so far as the dealing out of justice is concerned; and the man who gets into trouble may not expect to beat a court-martial through the pres: sure exerted by his friends. In fact, my sympathy rather inclines to the soldier, man, who does not ask his friends to come here, and who takes his medicine like a man.” — Premillennial. From the Cincinnati Enquirer. ‘ “Lemme see; F believe it is said that one of the first signs of the coming of the millennium will be the confusing of the Seasons so that no man can tell one from the other.” “It is getting that way right now. Don't we have Christmas magazines in the mid- die of the fall and bock beer in the mid- dle of winter?” HOTELS. This List Appears Every Saturday. HOTEL POCKET GUIDE FREE. For Information, Circulars, etc., of any Hotel below, Call at or address (send stamp) HOTEL TARIFF BUREAU, 63 Fifth Ave., New York. 96 Regent st.. London. 248 Rue de Kivoli, Paris. (A. P. means American Plan; E. P., European.) ALBANY, N. Y. Hotel Kenmore, A.P., $4 ATLANTIC CITY, N. The Dennis, A.P., $3 up; RAILROADS CHESAPFAKE AND O10 RAILWAY. THROUGH AMERIC ELECTR: MEALS SERVED IN DID TION SIXTH AND B SPREETS. Schedule in effect April 21, 18 THE GRANDEST 8CENERY 2:20 P.M. DAIL, cial—Solid “train Le to Cincinnati, ¥ and St. Louis without change. nati to Chi Virginia Hot 21:37 P.M. DAILY_F. = or ) TRAINS VESTIBULED, ITED, STEAM HEATED. ALL G CARS. STA. Cincinnat! and St. 1 * Ch ti, 4 ington, Louiay' Indianapai Partor earg Cinein- ‘onnects at Covington, V: rings. for Cincinnati, Lexington and Lo for rece 20 ville, Sunda; P. Staunt ‘A 10:37 A.M., Washington to Poiut—ouly rail I Reservations and th offices, 513 and 1421 street northwest, and at the 21-388 "SOUTHER Pullmas Solid train (Cincinnat tr shatt to Chicago and St. Lon! DAIL jon and for EX Richu For Gordonsville, Richmond daily, eacept UT SUNDAY—Parlor car md and Richword to Old t Chesapeake acd Ohio 1110 yivania avenue, ¥ H.W. FULL Guveral Passenger RAILWAY. Schedule in effect April 11, AM trains arri; nd leave at Pennsylvania pas- Local for Danville, Charlot sat Mi es Puliman Buffet Sleepers, New York ‘on to Jacksonv il Springs, N.C. a and at Charlotte wit Pullman Buffet Sleeper ork connect 18. uniting at Salts or “Asheville and Hot Chattanooga, ‘Tenn., Pullman Sleeper for Augosta . to New Orleans, At Atlanta for Birmingham and Mein out change. Solld train Washington to New Orleans with: Sunset Personally ¢ Excurston Through Sleeper @™ this tra Francisce withont clange nducted Tourist every Sat- well as the commanding officer. He could serve as the quartermaster of a regiment, or he could direct the operations of a regi ment of cavalry scouring the yellow moun- is as a man at home in his smoking jacket. At the very outset of his term a $18up per week. LargestHouse.Directly on the beach ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.The Hesworth, A. BALTIMORE, Md...Hotel itennert, E.P., $1.50 up do. The Stafford, EP., $1.50 up A. P., $3 up ss The Carrollton, BRISTOL, R. 1. D'Wolf Inn, opens Juné Bop 4:51 P.M. 10°43 PM. Coaches. Tenn., via Ai w York tannte Daily. Local Daily. WASHINGTO) WESTERN VESTIRULED LIMITED, composed of Pullman Vesti ed Slee Mian Sleey sheville, to Tampa and New York for Front Royal, Strasburg and daily, except Sunday, with conpec- on, neal for Charlottesville, » Sour. pers, Dining Cars and Day ers New York to Nashville, noxville and Chat heavy problem was thrust at him, and he handled it like a general in the field. When the Mississippi floods first became menac- ing, and the general government was ap- pealed to, it was Gen. Alger’s own instant suggestion that the submerged districts should be mapped off into sections, each section to be the territory of a responsible officer of the army for the mitigation of danger and the distribution of relief. The War Department had often before held up the hands of the distressed people in times of flood; but this eminently military plan of organization in dealing with the jeop- ardy of swelling waters had never before been thought of, much less carried out. At His Desk. At his Secretary of War’s desk he is the general in his tent, and you unconsciously look around for his orGerlies and hearken for trumpet calls. He has the curious, characteristic habit of an old-time army officer of not looking up from his desk when he is addressed, and of yet seeing as a raven-haired imp in the orchard-loot- ing and hookey-playing stage of his days, he told his confidential secretary, Mr.Victor Mascn, that he clearly remembered having had his ears painfully tweaked by that same parson, a matter of nearly. fifty years ago, on his return into the village of La- fayette from a Sunday fishing expedition. Then he suspended work for half an hour to pen a long and cordial letter, filled with pleasant reminscences, to,the old Lafayette minister. ; Wher to the burdens of a cabinet port- folio is added the burden of the care-tak- ing of a large private business the welght would seem to be sufficiently staggering for @ man of any degree of physical,and mental strength; and because General Alger’s for- mer ink-black hair is rapidly turning very white the prophets of dissolution have idly foreshadowed the collap#e of his vigor. But they speak as men at.a palpable dis- tarce from knowledge. They have not seeu him plodding through a torrent of rain, muecularly readjusting an umbrella turned inside out by half a gale of wind; they have not seen him run twenty yards after a cable car, to swing onto the rear platform like a newsboy who does it from bravado; they have not seen him man- heréle a leather-covered office chair weighing forty pounds, describing an arc in the air with it without a puff of the bresth; they have not seen the nature and quantity of the luncheon he takes—cer- tainly equal to any hired man’s noonday collaticn; and finally, they have not seen him work. Active as Youth. Secretary Alger looks his sixty-one years only because his head is sodded with a heavy mass of silky, waving hair, as white as washed fleece. If, by some impossible process of hirsute devolution, this striking natural crown of white, hardy as hemp, could once more resume its former black- ness as of burnished ebony, Gen. Alger, if he ‘so elected, could parade the world un- challenged 2s a man of forty-five. He has @ stride that demands a step and a half on the part of most men to keep up with him, and he thrusts his shoulders back like a regimental adjutant mounting guard. With a leather breast-plate and a steel helmet, he would look the Roundhead of Cromwell's body brigade; for the contour of his long, thin face, with its healthy, ruddy bronze, gained in long summer in- spections of virginal, lumber-rich forests, and his straggling, gray-white beard are everything. The faculty has been called telepathi An official enters the Secre- tary of War’s room. The Secretary of W: ids carefully scrutinizing some papers on his desk, with his head bowed low over them. Yet he cordially calls the official by name, before the latter has spoken, and oid offi- cials of the department, who were down at the front during the war, declare that, somehow or another, they never enter Sec- retary Alger’s room that their right hands do not give an involuntary preliminary twitch toward the executicn of a “number fou salute, General Alger implanted surprise in the bosoms of a num- ber of the younger army _ ofti- cers whom he sent to the submerged Mis- sissippi river districts, when they returned to Washington to make their personal re- ports to him. He put them on their mettle with half a dozen questions, and they quickly discovered that they were under the cross-examination of a civilian who had no always been a civilian. He quizzed them on some points of engineering that made them hark back to their West Point examinations; and they soon understood that their temporary relationship to the Secretary of War was as that of staff aids to a field general. The right hand of any Secretary of War is the army’s adjutant general. But Adjt. Gen. George D. Ruggles is peculiarly the guide, philosopher and friend of Secretary Alger. The two men are old chums, and when they met in the Secretary’s office on the day that Gen. Alger “reported for dut there was a half hour's bandying of reminiscences such as can only ensue be- tween a pair of distinguished gentlemen who, though somewhat separated by a division of interests, have known all about each other for a matter of nearly forty years. The adjutant general's office is the clearing house of the army establishment in matters of personnel, and Secretary Al- ger and his friend, the adjutant general, have already gotten into the stride of tan- dem working that clatters “business.” They spend from one to two hours together every day. Gen. Ruggles carries to the Secre- tary’s room a big Russia leather portfolio so stuffed with documents that they con- stantly drop out on his passage along the corridors, to be picked up by relays of messengers, and then Stenographer Ga: appearing with a batch of clean notebooks, there is a crackling of papers and a rata- plan of dictation that quickly knocks the formidable-looking Russia leather portfolio kite-high. As Dictator. “Rataplan of dictation”—that is an ex- act term. Secretary Alger is said to be the warmest dictator of stenographic notes that ever came to Washington as a cabi- net minister. Stenographer Gay 1s con- sidered one of the most expert jotters of Pitman pot-hooks in the service of the government; and although Secretary Alger has not yet succeeded in putting his short- hand man to the guessing point, he has certainly tried hard enough to do so, It is a commen thing for him to dictate let- ters, both official and private, at a rate of nearly 175 words a minute; and there are not many stenographers who can han- dle that rate of dictation when the dic- tator has a confirmed habit of running his “Some people say these things, but there are some folks who would say anything. Old man Blank in the cabin there is a very clever citizen, so far as I know. Don’t you quote me. I have only told you what I have heard from Tom, Dick and Harry.’ “How long have you lived here? next question. “About sixty years.” “And you are how old?” “Seventy-eight this month.” “As Murrell did a good deal of damage around here you ought to be able to tell me something about it.” “But I don’t know anything,” replied the man in a pleading tone. “My memory was never very good, and I get dates and names so mixed up that I am afraid to talk.” I looked at him searchingly and satisfied myself that he had told the truth about one thing—he was afraid to talk. A few weeks ago I met a well-known At- lsnta merchant on the north side and told him some of my difficulties in getting defi- nite facts about Murrell and his gang in the localities where they had some of their head men permanently stationed. “Very natural,” said he. “By the way, aid you ever hear of the Pony Club?” I told him that I had heard of ‘t, but did not _know its history, “Well, I belonged to it,” he continued with a smile. “I was forced into it by a lot of wild youngsters when I was sixteen years old, but,as I had a disabled arm at the time I managed to dodge the active work of the club.” “What did the Pony Club do?" “Nothing much,” answered the merchant, looking keenly at me. “It was just an or- ganization of mischieyous boys. But I must be moving. Good-bye,” A week later in another county I repeated this conversation to an old resilient. “The Pony Club,” said he, “was com- posed of boys and young men who stole ponies from the Indians who then occupied north Georgia and part of middle Georgia. They turned the ponies over to Murrell’s agents and received a portion of the spoils. 1f Murrell had not been captured and sent to the Nashville penitentiary many of the (etd Club boys would have become full- Lo Ust have been! was my Victor Mason. characteristically Puritam Claf in small- clothes, with a ruff-embellished, skirted coat, and the dreadful, point-towering slouch hat of that time, Gen, Alger would make a perfect painter’s modebfor a coun- cilman of @ Massachusette-governor of the seventeenth century. 4a As Secretary of War, den. Alger puts in eix solid hours of work a day. As private citizen and capitalist he=work# five hours a day. Eleven hours a day of such work as he does is not so bad Ee. of sixty- one, who, by some odd at fe, has been focused by the prophets ef; disselution. His labors, both as public official and as private citizen, are all performed at ‘ws partment office. He refu: ceive- any letters other members of his family and even these he answers wi assistance of his lovely um ter, Miss Frances Alger, passage out from under the lintel of his War Department office he abandons public and private business until the coming of another sun. He even ban- ishes the thought of business. Public men, letters right into each other, as Secre- tary Alger has. It requires a bit of me ory to write twenty or thirty sizable let- ters in the course of an hour’s parade back and forth in an office room, without the use of a single note of reference, and this is General Alger’s manner of disposing of his correspondence. With his hafds be- hind his back, and his eyes fastened upon the carpet, he strides back and forth through his own office and that of his private secretary, emitting a fanfaronade of well-considered and well-constructed speech that makes his stenographer dig around in his memory for all the word signs he has ever mastered. He no sooner appends the conventional “truly yours” to one letter than he juts out the name and address cf the next correspondent, and plunges right along without a break, as ff the whole dictation was to be comprised in one lette:. When he considers that he has talked enough at Mr. Gay to keep that swift hiecglyph penciler busy for a while, he smilngly turns to his confiden- tial secretary, Mr. Mason, who is also an ex- pert stenographer, and dictates a whole lot more. Secretary Mason never tran- scribes his notes himself, but hands them over for transcripiion to Mr. Gay, who is possessed of the accomplishment rare in shorthand writers of being able to easily read another stenographer’s notes. ‘Thus, the batch of letters really dictated by the Secretary of War himself, and not merely signed by him, amounts to a good- sized basketful every day. He signs them in a slashing hand, not unlike that of Rob- ert G. Ingersoll, as fac-simlied at the bot- tom of the agnostic’s lithographs. Strict Disciplinarian, There are several points of official detail on which this Secretary of War is as ad- amant, not to be wrought upon by any manner of solicitation, high or low. One of these points has reference toghe army court-martial. If a Secretary of War were to listen to all of the appeals that are made to him by men of great name in the land for the squelching of courts-martial, or for LEOOKLYN, N.Y.Hotel St.G: de. J. CHARLESTON, S.C.Charleston Hotel, A-P.,§3.50 up CINCINNATI, 0. # Royal Clarence Hot GARDEN CITY, L. L, 50 minutes from Garden City Hotel is now open, A. GLASGOW (Bath st.).Cockbun Htl., A-P., GT. BARRINGTON, Mass...Berkshire Inn, A.P., $8 KANSAS CITY,Mo.TheMidland,E.P..$1up; .$3up LONDON, Eng.DeVere Hotel) De Vere Gardens. do Broadwalk do (Kensington Palace, W. do Prince of Walcs do )Specially recommended. LONDON (97-99 Queen's Gate w.).Queen’s Gate Ht), do.13Henrietta st.Strand),Cockburn,A.P. MILLBROOK, N.Y..The Hi do. -Hotel Grunewald, E.! do....The Cosmopolitan Hotel, E.P., $1.50 up NEW YORK. Fifth Avenue Hotel, AP, $5 do. 6o..(N. B. Barry) St. Cloud Hotel, E.. @o...Hotel Westminster, E.P., $2; A do. 3 do(Restauront d0.(Areb& PLYMOUTH, En; PORTLAND, Oregon. PORTSMOUTH, N. 8 la-carte) New Lafayet! Hotel Hanover, Grand Hotel, A. -The Portland, A. -The Rockingham, A. eau Frontenac, A.P., RICHMOND, VaThe Jefferson,E.P.,$1.50 up.. ROCHESTER, N.¥....Whitcomb House, A. do. .Linde!l Hotel, E.P.,$1.50 up; AP. SYRACUSE, N.Y. Hotel,E.P., $1.50; A.P., $4 TROY, N.Y. The Troy House, A.P., $3 up WASE INGTON, D.C.....Arlington Hotel, A.P., $5 $2; AP., $5 . $4 up The Raleigh, E.P., $1.50 up OCEAN TRAVEL. NORTH GERMA! EXPRESS See SOUTHA Konigin Luise 4 Friedrich der ( hursday, GIBRALTAR, NAPLES, GENOA. ~April 24, 10'am | Wer y Age ANCHOR L UNITED STATES MAIL STEAMSHIPS Sail from New York every Saturday for Glasgow, via_ Londonderry. Rates for Saloon Passage: CITY OF ROME, $70. Other steamers, $50. Second Cabin—Rome, $42.50; Furnessia, $37.50; other steamers, $35. Steerage Passage—Rome, $25.50; $24.50; other steamers, $23.50. For rew illustrated of Tours and farther information, apply to I DERSON General Agents, 7 Bowling Green, . > 21 Penna. ave. u.w., or w. & SO! 925 Penna. ave., Wasbington. HOLLAND-AMERIGA LINE for Wasbington. Furnessia, From New York to Rotterdam and Amsterdam via Boulogne Sur-M. 8% hours from Paris or London. April 24, 10 a.m. First cabin, $72.50 and up; information apply to General Broadway, New York, or to G. W ew ; ave.; E. F. Droop, 925 Pa. ave. & Co., Ebbitt House, Washington, : : American Line. New York-Soutbampton (London-Paris) S. Mail Steamships. every ‘ednesday. 10 um, St. “Red Star Line. NEW YORK TO ANTWERP. ‘LAND, April » $3 up ington, 6:42 a.m., 2:20 Harrisonburg, avenue, station. Vestibuled Day Coach Washington to At- Southern Raflway Dining Car Greensboro’ “WASHINGTON AND ashiington 9:01 a.m zcept Sunday, a mbia, Savannah and Ja: to Memptis, via Birmin, ew Orleans, via Atlanta and 2:40 a :20 a.m. defly from Charloites Sleeping ‘Car reservation and tion furnisbed at offices, 511 and 1300 Pennsylvania and at Pennsyl Ww. W. A 8. onto DI Hy a im. 4:32 25 from Leesburg. ‘Through trains from the south arrive at Wash- 1 |. GREEN, General Supt. CULP, Traffic Manager. TUR Pai -m. and 9:40 p.m, 9:40 pm. dally, i inform: nia railroad passenger BROWN, Gen. Agent Pass. Dept. 10:50 ao. a ‘ing Car cinnati). 40 ‘Sunday. falo. 10:40 P. falo 7.0 A.M. WEEK lor und Din M to 10:50 A.M. and 1 8:00, 9:00, 11 A.M, 12:15, 3:15, PM.” For Pt A.M. week days. days, wit PM. daily. RAILROAD. AND D SL FETS. DAYS. PITT EXPRESS. ing Cars Harrisburg to Pitts- PENNSYLVANIA LIMITED. —Pull- nr wurg. 10:50 ALM. man Sleeping, Cars Harrisbui olis, St. Louls, rg to Chicago, Cincinnati, Ind! Cleveland ‘and Toledo. Parlor Car to Harrisburg. , Dining, Smoking and Observation nap Buffet FAST LINE.—Pullman Buffet Parlor Car to Harrisburg. to Pittsburg. Ing Care Harristurg to Chicago. WESTERN EXPRESS.—Pollman Sleep- Buffet Parlor Car Harris- Pittsburg, Chicago, and Harrisburg to Gleveland. Dini SOUTH pian Sleeping Cars W i Harrisburg to St. Louis and Louisville (via Cin- Car to TERN EXPRESS.—Pull- ington to Pittsburg and ining Car. PACIF Car to Pittsburg. A.M. for Kane, iagara Falls daily, for Elmira avo daily. exce For Lock Haven week days and Wil- licmsport Sundays, 3:40 P.M. 210 P.M. for Williamsport, Rochester, Buffalo and ‘Magara Falls hiladelphia ‘only, Fs O1 and 5:40 P.M. dally 5 hout change, 7:50 A.M. weck days, and 3:15 For Atlantic City ( rail route), For Baltimore, 10:50, (11:00 the station, an be left for’ the checking of baggage to destination from hotels and residences. HUTCHINSON, General Manages 38 ap? Cree re 6th 3:15 Coast” ‘Atlantic Coast Line, ek Line, daily, except Sunday. For Annapolis, Li con and B streets, > EXPRESS.—Pullman Sleep- Tanandaigua, Rochester and t Sunda: Re ex and except daily, except Saturday, with Sleep- ing Car Washington’ to Suspension Bridge via Buf- |. for Erie, Canandaigua, Rochester, jagara Falls daily, Sleeping Car ington to Elmira. E FOR PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK AND TNE EAST. 4:00 ‘CONGRESSIONAL LIMITED,” ull Parlor Cars, re. lar 10:00 (ining € Wilmington) daily, with Balti: 4:20, 6:50, Express, 7 Boston, re River Bridge, all- Dela’ da 7:50 A.M. and 4:36 P. 9:00 A.M., 12:15 and 4:20 ‘Sundays, 9:00 A.M. ine.—Express for 4 10:57 ALN via Richmond and Seal Florida AN and . where orders J. R. WOOD, General Passenger Agent. WASHINGTON, ALEXANDRIA AND MT. VERNON RAILWAY. ae8 ‘ly. FOR MOUN’ STATION! Daily. FOR ‘ALLL GTON, 12a8, 12 clases ticker C. E_ ABBOTT, From Statin, 13% in effec FOR ALEXANDRIA.—6: 93 \T VERNON, RIVERSIDE AND WAY 240, 10:05, . and Penna. ave. uly 20. 40, 7:05, 7:35 ex., °8:00, *10.05 *11:00, 1124 *11:00, 12:05, 2:05, Daily.—8:00, 9:00, 10:05, 11:00, 2:40, 5:00, 6:05, 7:00, 8:00. checked free for passengers holding first- ts at station. = 23 cents each. EO. R. PHILLIPS, 5 Gen. Pass. Agt. BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD. Sc Leave Washington from stat! y lay 19, 12 noon INTERNATIONAL NAVIGATION Copan re Piers 14 end 15, North iver. | ESS S fe a een, N.Y. GEO. W. MOSS, Agen! 921 Penn. ave. ~ French Line. COMPAGNIE GENERALE meen Ag mh22-6m POTOMAC RIVER BOATS. B.S. RANDALL'S POTOMAC RIVER Passenger ac received until the hour of sailing. a = E.'S. RANDALL, GEO. 0. CARPINTER, “Agent, Washingt fe5-14,t¢ WM. M. REARDON. ‘sont, Ale: STEAMER WAKEFIELD, FOR POTOMAC RIVER LANDINGS, ‘asbington, Ras sts Mon Nomini ‘inte-mediate to town, Abell’s, Nomini x Piney Point, ve island, Smith's Creek, ‘and Yeo- ‘Saturdays, 7 a.m., for intermediate landings to Bushwood, Rock Point, Nomini ‘Colton’s. (Bee schedules.) fez-it ©. 'W. RIDLEY, General Manager. The Weems Steamboat Co. WINTER SCHEDULE. In effect December 31, leaves Tth st. Wonets fee yiree ‘and trie throughout. Tiver freight sust be ezetet joone 78. ‘Thore- All Ofice, 910 Pa. For Toledo and BFR byl; Cy le in effect Fe ‘ebruury 21, 1897. ‘ion corner of New Jersey aveuue and C street ‘or Gail bm Detroit, 11:25 p.m. ‘Winchester apd ‘way stations, 13:40 and Vestibuled Limited 12. lis, Ex, ‘orthwest, 208, . and Cleveland, express daily 10:00 iis, Birmingham, Chat- re BLUE LINE FOR NEW YORK pe) PHTLADELPHTA. trains iMuminated with Pintsch light. Philadel, New York, Boston and 5 SeeSize et zr > ? i fs F PY e