WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:03.560
<v Speaker 1>This is section twenty four of The Gilded Age. This

2
00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:07.080
<v Speaker 1>LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Gilded Age,

3
00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:09.679
<v Speaker 1>A Tale of to Day by Mark Twain and C. D. Warner,

4
00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:14.439
<v Speaker 1>Chapter twenty four. The capital of the Great Republic was

5
00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:18.359
<v Speaker 1>a new world to country bred Washington Hawkins. Saint Louis

6
00:00:18.519 --> 00:00:21.719
<v Speaker 1>was a greater city, but its floating population did not

7
00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:24.879
<v Speaker 1>hail from great distances, and so it had the general

8
00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:29.679
<v Speaker 1>family aspect of the permanent population. But Washington gathered its

9
00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:33.320
<v Speaker 1>people from the four winds of heaven, and so the manners,

10
00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:37.240
<v Speaker 1>the faces, and the fashions there presented a variety that

11
00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:41.880
<v Speaker 1>was infinite. Washington had never been in society in Saint Louis,

12
00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:45.119
<v Speaker 1>and he knew nothing of the ways of its wealthier citizens,

13
00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:49.439
<v Speaker 1>and had never inspected one of their dwellings. Consequently, everything

14
00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:52.479
<v Speaker 1>in the nature of modern fashion and grandeur was a

15
00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:57.359
<v Speaker 1>new and wonderful revelation to him. Washington is an interesting

16
00:00:57.399 --> 00:01:00.280
<v Speaker 1>city to any of us. It seems to become more

17
00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:03.560
<v Speaker 1>and more interesting the oftener we visit it. Perhaps the

18
00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:07.840
<v Speaker 1>reader has never been there very well. You arrive either

19
00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:10.719
<v Speaker 1>at night rather too late to do anything or see

20
00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:14.120
<v Speaker 1>anything until morning, or you arrive so early in the

21
00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:16.519
<v Speaker 1>morning that you consider it best to go to your

22
00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:19.719
<v Speaker 1>hotel and sleep an hour or two while the sun

23
00:01:19.879 --> 00:01:23.519
<v Speaker 1>bothers along over the Atlantic. You cannot well arrive at

24
00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:27.560
<v Speaker 1>a pleasant intermediate hour, because the railway corporation that keeps

25
00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:30.120
<v Speaker 1>the keys of the only door that leads into the

26
00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:33.359
<v Speaker 1>town or out of it take care of that. You

27
00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:37.159
<v Speaker 1>arrive in tolerably good spirits because it is only thirty

28
00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:40.120
<v Speaker 1>eight miles from Baltimore to the capital, and so you

29
00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:43.439
<v Speaker 1>have only been insulted three times, provided you are not

30
00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:47.120
<v Speaker 1>in a sleeping car. The average is higher there once

31
00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:50.719
<v Speaker 1>when you renewed your ticket after stopping over in Baltimore,

32
00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:53.560
<v Speaker 1>once when you were about to enter the ladies car

33
00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:57.079
<v Speaker 1>without knowing it was a lady's car. And once when

34
00:01:57.079 --> 00:02:00.519
<v Speaker 1>you ask the conductor at what hour you would reach Washington,

35
00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:04.040
<v Speaker 1>you are assailed by a long rank of hack men

36
00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:06.359
<v Speaker 1>who shake their whips in your face. As you step

37
00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:09.479
<v Speaker 1>out upon the sidewalk. You enter what they regard as

38
00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:13.120
<v Speaker 1>a carriage in the capital, and you wonder why they

39
00:02:13.159 --> 00:02:15.120
<v Speaker 1>do not take it out of service and put it

40
00:02:15.159 --> 00:02:18.759
<v Speaker 1>in the museum. We have few enough antiquities, and it

41
00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:21.759
<v Speaker 1>is little to our credit that we make scarcely any

42
00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:25.319
<v Speaker 1>effort to preserve the few we have. You reach your

43
00:02:25.319 --> 00:02:29.080
<v Speaker 1>hotel presently, and here let us draw the curtain of charity,

44
00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:32.080
<v Speaker 1>because of course you have gone to the wrong one.

45
00:02:32.840 --> 00:02:35.879
<v Speaker 1>You being a stranger, how could you do otherwise? There

46
00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:38.800
<v Speaker 1>are a hundred and eighteen bad hotels and only one

47
00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:42.000
<v Speaker 1>good one. The most renowned and popular hotel of them

48
00:02:42.039 --> 00:02:45.840
<v Speaker 1>all is perhaps the worst one known to history. It

49
00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:49.280
<v Speaker 1>is winter and night. When you arrived, it was snowing.

50
00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:52.840
<v Speaker 1>When you reached the hotel, it was sleeting. When you

51
00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:56.400
<v Speaker 1>went to bed, it was raining. During the night. It

52
00:02:56.479 --> 00:03:00.400
<v Speaker 1>froze hard, and the wind blew some chimneys down. When

53
00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:03.120
<v Speaker 1>you got up in the morning, it was foggy. When

54
00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:05.520
<v Speaker 1>you finished your breakfast at ten o'clock and went out,

55
00:03:05.879 --> 00:03:09.719
<v Speaker 1>the sunshine was brilliant, the weather balmy and delicious, and

56
00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:13.599
<v Speaker 1>the mud and slush deep and all pervading. You will

57
00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:16.599
<v Speaker 1>like the climate when you get used to it. You

58
00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:19.680
<v Speaker 1>naturally wish to view the city. So you take an umbrella,

59
00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:23.719
<v Speaker 1>an overcoat, and a fan, and go forth. The prominent

60
00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:27.120
<v Speaker 1>features you soon locate and get familiar with. First you

61
00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:31.360
<v Speaker 1>glimpse the ornamental upperworks of a long, snowy palace, projecting

62
00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:35.039
<v Speaker 1>above a grove of trees, and a tall, graceful white

63
00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:38.479
<v Speaker 1>dome with a statue on it, surmounting the palace and

64
00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:43.159
<v Speaker 1>pleasantly contrasting with the background of blue sky. That building

65
00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:46.199
<v Speaker 1>is the Capital. Gossips will tell you that by the

66
00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:50.360
<v Speaker 1>original estimates it was to cost twelve million dollars, and

67
00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:53.520
<v Speaker 1>that the government did come within twenty one million, two

68
00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:57.439
<v Speaker 1>hundred thousand dollars of building it for that sum. You

69
00:03:57.479 --> 00:03:59.719
<v Speaker 1>stand at the back of the Capital to treat yourself

70
00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:02.599
<v Speaker 1>to a view, and it is a very noble one,

71
00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:06.240
<v Speaker 1>you understand. The Capital stands upon the verge of a

72
00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:10.400
<v Speaker 1>high piece of table land, a fine commanding position, and

73
00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:13.960
<v Speaker 1>its front looks out over this noble situation for a city.

74
00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:17.680
<v Speaker 1>But it don't see it for the reason that when

75
00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:21.560
<v Speaker 1>the capital extension was decided upon, the property owners at

76
00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:25.040
<v Speaker 1>once advanced their prices to such inhuman figures that the

77
00:04:25.079 --> 00:04:27.720
<v Speaker 1>people went down and built the city in the muddy

78
00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:31.240
<v Speaker 1>low marsh behind the Temple of Liberty. So now the

79
00:04:31.319 --> 00:04:35.240
<v Speaker 1>lordly front of the building, with its imposing colonnades, its

80
00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:40.560
<v Speaker 1>projecting graceful wings, its picturesque groups of statuary, and its long,

81
00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:44.680
<v Speaker 1>terraced ranges of steps, flowing down in white marble waves

82
00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:48.319
<v Speaker 1>to the ground, merely looks out upon a sorrowful little

83
00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:52.439
<v Speaker 1>desert of cheap boarding houses. So you observe. Let you

84
00:04:52.519 --> 00:04:55.040
<v Speaker 1>take your view from the back of the Capital, and

85
00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:58.079
<v Speaker 1>yet not from the airy outlooks of the Dome, by

86
00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:00.600
<v Speaker 1>the way, because to get there you must pass through

87
00:05:00.600 --> 00:05:03.319
<v Speaker 1>the great Rotunda, and to do that you would have

88
00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:06.720
<v Speaker 1>to see the marvelous historical paintings that hang there, and

89
00:05:06.759 --> 00:05:09.040
<v Speaker 1>the bas reliefs, and what have you done that you

90
00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:12.560
<v Speaker 1>should suffer thus? And besides, you might have to pass

91
00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:14.720
<v Speaker 1>through the old part of the building, and you could

92
00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:17.680
<v Speaker 1>not help seeing mister Lincoln as petrified by a young

93
00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:21.319
<v Speaker 1>lady artist for ten thousand dollars. And you might take

94
00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:24.800
<v Speaker 1>his marble emancipation proclamation, which he holds out in his

95
00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:28.759
<v Speaker 1>hand and contemplates for a folded napkin, and you might

96
00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:32.120
<v Speaker 1>conceive from his expression and his attitude that he is

97
00:05:32.199 --> 00:05:35.279
<v Speaker 1>finding fault with the washing, which is not the case.

98
00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:39.319
<v Speaker 1>Nobody knows what is the matter with him, but everybody

99
00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:42.600
<v Speaker 1>feels for him. Well, you ought not to go into

100
00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:45.560
<v Speaker 1>the dome anyhow, because it would be utterly impossible to

101
00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:48.600
<v Speaker 1>go up there without seeing the frescoes in it, And

102
00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:51.560
<v Speaker 1>why should you be interested in the delirium tremens of art.

103
00:05:52.680 --> 00:05:56.000
<v Speaker 1>The Capital is a very noble and very beautiful building,

104
00:05:56.399 --> 00:06:01.160
<v Speaker 1>both within and without, but you need not examine it now. Still,

105
00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:04.879
<v Speaker 1>if you greatly prefer going into the dome, go now.

106
00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:08.720
<v Speaker 1>Your general glance gives you picturesque stretches of gleaming water

107
00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:11.759
<v Speaker 1>on your left, with a sail here and there, and

108
00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:15.160
<v Speaker 1>a lunatic asylum on the shore. Over beyond the water,

109
00:06:15.399 --> 00:06:19.079
<v Speaker 1>on a distant elevation, you see a squat yellow temple,

110
00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:22.360
<v Speaker 1>which your eye dwells upon lovingly through a blur of

111
00:06:22.519 --> 00:06:26.839
<v Speaker 1>unmanly moisture, for it recalls your lost boyhood, and the

112
00:06:26.839 --> 00:06:31.199
<v Speaker 1>parthenons done in molasses candy, which made it blessed and beautiful.

113
00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:34.439
<v Speaker 1>Still in the distance, but on this side of the water,

114
00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:37.839
<v Speaker 1>and close to its edge, the monument to the Father

115
00:06:37.959 --> 00:06:41.920
<v Speaker 1>of his country towers out of the mud. Sacred soil

116
00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:45.079
<v Speaker 1>is the customary term. It has the aspect of a

117
00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:48.639
<v Speaker 1>factory chimney with the top broken off, the skeleton of

118
00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:53.000
<v Speaker 1>a decaying scaffolding. Lingers about its summit, and tradition says

119
00:06:53.079 --> 00:06:56.439
<v Speaker 1>that the spirit of Washington often comes down and sits

120
00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:00.000
<v Speaker 1>on those rafters to enjoy the tribute of respect which

121
00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:04.360
<v Speaker 1>the nation has reared as the symbol of its unappeasable gratitude.

122
00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:08.160
<v Speaker 1>The monument is to be finished some day, and at

123
00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:11.360
<v Speaker 1>that time our Washington will have risen still higher in

124
00:07:11.399 --> 00:07:14.560
<v Speaker 1>the nation's veneration, and will be known as the great

125
00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:19.560
<v Speaker 1>great grandfather of his country. The memorial chimney stands in

126
00:07:19.639 --> 00:07:24.160
<v Speaker 1>a quiet, pastoral locality that is full of reposeful expression.

127
00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:27.399
<v Speaker 1>With a glass, you can see the cow sheds about

128
00:07:27.399 --> 00:07:30.959
<v Speaker 1>its base, and the contented sheep nibbling pebbles in the

129
00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:35.160
<v Speaker 1>desert solitudes that surround it, and the tired pigs dozing

130
00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:39.240
<v Speaker 1>in the holy calm of its protecting shadow. Now you

131
00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:42.600
<v Speaker 1>wrench your gaze loose, and you look down in front

132
00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:46.199
<v Speaker 1>of you and see the broad Pennsylvania Avenue stretching straight

133
00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.920
<v Speaker 1>ahead for a mile or more till it brings up

134
00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:52.319
<v Speaker 1>against the iron fence in front of a pillared granite pile.

135
00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:56.079
<v Speaker 1>The Treasury Building, an edifice that would command respect in

136
00:07:56.199 --> 00:08:00.199
<v Speaker 1>any capital. The stores and hotels that wall in this

137
00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:04.240
<v Speaker 1>broad avenue are mean and cheap and dingy and are

138
00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:07.959
<v Speaker 1>better left without comment. Beyond the Treasury is a fine,

139
00:08:08.120 --> 00:08:12.279
<v Speaker 1>large white barn with wide, unhandsome grounds about it. The

140
00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:16.279
<v Speaker 1>President lives there. It is ugly enough outside, but that

141
00:08:16.439 --> 00:08:21.199
<v Speaker 1>is nothing to what it is inside. Dreariness, flimsiness, bad

142
00:08:21.399 --> 00:08:25.480
<v Speaker 1>taste reduced to mathematical completeness is what the inside offers

143
00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:28.439
<v Speaker 1>to the eye, if it remains yet what it always

144
00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:31.519
<v Speaker 1>has been. The front and right hand views give you

145
00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:34.840
<v Speaker 1>the city at large. It is a wide stretch of

146
00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:38.279
<v Speaker 1>cheap little brick houses, with here and there a noble

147
00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:43.399
<v Speaker 1>architectural pile lifting itself out of the midst government buildings. These.

148
00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:46.440
<v Speaker 1>If the thaw is still going on, when you come

149
00:08:46.519 --> 00:08:49.240
<v Speaker 1>down and go out about town, you will wonder at

150
00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:52.000
<v Speaker 1>the short sightedness of the city fathers when you come

151
00:08:52.039 --> 00:08:54.759
<v Speaker 1>to inspect the streets in that they do not dilute

152
00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:57.480
<v Speaker 1>the mud a little more and use them for canals.

153
00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:00.960
<v Speaker 1>If you inquire around a little, you will find that

154
00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:03.720
<v Speaker 1>there are more boarding houses to the square acre in

155
00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:07.360
<v Speaker 1>Washington than there are in any other city in the land. Perhaps,

156
00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:09.919
<v Speaker 1>if you apply for a home in one of them,

157
00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:12.799
<v Speaker 1>it will seem odd to you to have the landlady

158
00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:15.480
<v Speaker 1>inspect you with a severe eye, and then ask you

159
00:09:15.559 --> 00:09:19.480
<v Speaker 1>if you are a member of Congress, perhaps just as pleasantry.

160
00:09:19.799 --> 00:09:22.159
<v Speaker 1>You will say yes, and then she will tell you

161
00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:26.000
<v Speaker 1>that she is full. Then you show her her advertisement

162
00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:29.919
<v Speaker 1>in the morning paper, and there she stands convicted and ashamed.

163
00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:33.080
<v Speaker 1>She will try to blush, and it will be only

164
00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:35.240
<v Speaker 1>polite in you to take the effort for the deed.

165
00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:38.840
<v Speaker 1>She shows you her rooms now and lets you take one,

166
00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:41.720
<v Speaker 1>but she makes you pay in advance for it. That

167
00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:44.080
<v Speaker 1>is what you will get for pretending to be a

168
00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:47.039
<v Speaker 1>member of Congress. If you had been content to be

169
00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:50.200
<v Speaker 1>merely a private citizen, your trunk would have been sufficient

170
00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:53.919
<v Speaker 1>security for your board. If you are curious and inquire

171
00:09:53.960 --> 00:09:57.120
<v Speaker 1>into this thing, the chances are that your landlady will

172
00:09:57.159 --> 00:09:59.480
<v Speaker 1>be ill natured enough to say that the person and

173
00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:03.200
<v Speaker 1>property of a Congressman are exempt from arrest or detention,

174
00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:05.879
<v Speaker 1>and that with the tears in her eyes, she has

175
00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:08.879
<v Speaker 1>seen several of the people's representatives walk off to their

176
00:10:08.919 --> 00:10:13.440
<v Speaker 1>several states and territories carrying her unrecedd board bills in

177
00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:16.480
<v Speaker 1>their pockets for keepsakes. And before you have been in

178
00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:19.759
<v Speaker 1>Washington many weeks, you will be mean enough to believe

179
00:10:19.799 --> 00:10:23.840
<v Speaker 1>her too of course, you contrive to see everything and

180
00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:26.919
<v Speaker 1>find out everything. And one of the first and most

181
00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:30.639
<v Speaker 1>startling things you find out is that every individual you

182
00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:34.559
<v Speaker 1>encounter in the city of Washington, almost and certainly every

183
00:10:34.639 --> 00:10:38.279
<v Speaker 1>separate and distinct individual in the public employment, from the

184
00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:41.399
<v Speaker 1>highest bureau chief clear down to the maid who scrubs

185
00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:45.279
<v Speaker 1>department halls, the night watchmen of the public buildings, and

186
00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:51.399
<v Speaker 1>the darky boy who purifies the department'spatoons, represents political influence.

187
00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:54.440
<v Speaker 1>Unless you can get the ear of a senator or

188
00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:57.639
<v Speaker 1>a congressman, or a chief of a bureau or department,

189
00:10:57.919 --> 00:11:01.559
<v Speaker 1>and persuade him to use his influence in your behalf,

190
00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.720
<v Speaker 1>you cannot get an employment of the most trivial nature

191
00:11:04.759 --> 00:11:10.120
<v Speaker 1>in Washington. Mere merit, fitness, and capability are useless baggage

192
00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:14.759
<v Speaker 1>to you without influence. The population of Washington consists pretty

193
00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:19.600
<v Speaker 1>much entirely of government employees and the people who bored them.

194
00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:23.159
<v Speaker 1>There are thousands of these employees, and they have gathered

195
00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:26.120
<v Speaker 1>there from every corner of the Union and got their

196
00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:30.039
<v Speaker 1>berth through the intercession. Command. Is nearer the word of

197
00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:33.919
<v Speaker 1>the senators and representatives of their respective states, it would

198
00:11:33.960 --> 00:11:37.080
<v Speaker 1>be an odd circumstance to see a girl get employment

199
00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:39.799
<v Speaker 1>at three or four dollars a week in one of

200
00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:44.200
<v Speaker 1>the great public cribs, without any political grandee to back her,

201
00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:48.480
<v Speaker 1>but merely because she was worthy and competent and a

202
00:11:48.519 --> 00:11:52.639
<v Speaker 1>good citizen of a free country that treats all persons alike.

203
00:11:53.720 --> 00:11:56.840
<v Speaker 1>Washington would be mildly thunderstruck at such a thing as that.

204
00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:01.399
<v Speaker 1>If you are a member of Congress offense, and one

205
00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:04.519
<v Speaker 1>of your constituents who doesn't know anything and does not

206
00:12:04.679 --> 00:12:07.720
<v Speaker 1>want to go into the bother of learning something, and

207
00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:11.600
<v Speaker 1>has no money and no employment and can't earn a living,

208
00:12:12.039 --> 00:12:16.080
<v Speaker 1>comes beseeching you for help. Do you say, come, my friend,

209
00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:19.960
<v Speaker 1>if your services were valuable, you could get employment elsewhere.

210
00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:23.639
<v Speaker 1>Don't want you here? Oh no. You take him to

211
00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:27.080
<v Speaker 1>a department and say, here, give this person something to

212
00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:30.200
<v Speaker 1>pass away the time at and a salary, and the

213
00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.960
<v Speaker 1>thing is done. You throw him on his country. He

214
00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:38.320
<v Speaker 1>is his country's child. Let his country support him. There

215
00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:42.120
<v Speaker 1>is something good and motherly about Washington, the grand old,

216
00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:47.000
<v Speaker 1>benevolent national asylum for the helpless. The wages received by

217
00:12:47.039 --> 00:12:50.080
<v Speaker 1>this great hive of employees are placed at the liberal

218
00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:54.480
<v Speaker 1>figure meet and just for skilled and competent labor. Such

219
00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:57.679
<v Speaker 1>of them as are immediately employed about the two Houses

220
00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:01.519
<v Speaker 1>of Congress are not only liberally paid also, but are

221
00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:06.960
<v Speaker 1>remembered in the customary extra Compensation Bill, which slides neatly

222
00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:11.519
<v Speaker 1>through annually with a general grab that signalizes the last

223
00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:15.000
<v Speaker 1>night of a session, and thus twenty percent is added

224
00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:20.200
<v Speaker 1>to their wages for for fun, no doubt, Washington Hawkins's

225
00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:24.480
<v Speaker 1>new life was an unceasing delight to him. Senator Dilworthy

226
00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:29.799
<v Speaker 1>lived sumptuously, and Washington's quarters were charming, gas, running water,

227
00:13:29.879 --> 00:13:34.759
<v Speaker 1>hot and cold, bathroom coal fires, rich carpets, beautiful pictures

228
00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:39.039
<v Speaker 1>on the walls, books on religion, temperance, public charities and

229
00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:44.480
<v Speaker 1>financial schemes, trim colored servants, dainty food, everything a body

230
00:13:44.519 --> 00:13:47.559
<v Speaker 1>could wish for. And as for stationary there was no

231
00:13:47.720 --> 00:13:51.120
<v Speaker 1>end of it. The government furnished at postage. Stamps were

232
00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:54.440
<v Speaker 1>not needed. The Senator's frank could convey a horse through

233
00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:58.799
<v Speaker 1>the mails if necessary. And then he saw such dazzling company.

234
00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:02.559
<v Speaker 1>Renowned general garls and admirals who had seemed but colossal

235
00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:05.159
<v Speaker 1>myths when he was in the far West, went in

236
00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:07.840
<v Speaker 1>and out before him, or sat at the Senator's table,

237
00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:12.919
<v Speaker 1>solidified into palpable flesh and blood. Famous statesmen crossed his

238
00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:16.720
<v Speaker 1>path daily, and that, once rare and awe inspiring being

239
00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:21.519
<v Speaker 1>a congressman was become a common spectacle, a spectacle so common, indeed,

240
00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:25.759
<v Speaker 1>that he could contemplate it without excitement, even without embarrassment.

241
00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:29.840
<v Speaker 1>Foreign ministers were visible to the naked eye. At happy intervals.

242
00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:34.519
<v Speaker 1>He had looked upon the President himself, and lived and more.

243
00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:39.200
<v Speaker 1>This world of enchantment teemed with speculation. The whole atmosphere

244
00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:42.879
<v Speaker 1>was thick with it, and that, indeed was Washington Hawkins's

245
00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:47.480
<v Speaker 1>native air. None other refreshed his lungs. So gratefully he

246
00:14:47.559 --> 00:14:51.240
<v Speaker 1>had found paradise at last. The more he saw of

247
00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:54.679
<v Speaker 1>his chief, the Senator, the more he honored him, and

248
00:14:54.759 --> 00:14:58.720
<v Speaker 1>the more conspicuously the moral grandeur of his character appeared

249
00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:02.320
<v Speaker 1>to stand out. He possessed the friendship and the kindly

250
00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:05.399
<v Speaker 1>interest of such a man, Washington said, in a letter

251
00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:08.720
<v Speaker 1>to Louise, was a happy fortune for a young man

252
00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:12.799
<v Speaker 1>whose career had been so impeded and so clouded as his.

253
00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:18.440
<v Speaker 1>The weeks drifted by Harry Brierly flirted, danced, added luster

254
00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:23.840
<v Speaker 1>to the brilliant senatorial receptions, and diligently buzzed and buttonholed

255
00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:27.840
<v Speaker 1>Congressman in the interest of the Columbus River scheme. Meantime,

256
00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:31.440
<v Speaker 1>Senator Dilworthy labored hard in the same interest and in

257
00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:35.840
<v Speaker 1>others of equal national importance. Harry wrote frequently to Sellers,

258
00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:39.159
<v Speaker 1>and all was encouragingly. And from these letters it was

259
00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:41.759
<v Speaker 1>easy to see that Harry was a pet with all

260
00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:45.120
<v Speaker 1>Washington and was likely to carry the thing through. That

261
00:15:45.240 --> 00:15:48.960
<v Speaker 1>the assistance rendered him by old Dilworthy was pretty fair,

262
00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:53.120
<v Speaker 1>pretty fair, and every little helps, you know, said Harry.

263
00:15:54.039 --> 00:15:57.679
<v Speaker 1>Washington wrote Sellers officially now and then in one of

264
00:15:57.720 --> 00:16:00.360
<v Speaker 1>his letters, it appeared that whereas no man member of

265
00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:03.159
<v Speaker 1>the House Committee favored the scheme at first, there was

266
00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:06.759
<v Speaker 1>now needed but one more vote to compass a majority.

267
00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:12.519
<v Speaker 1>Report closing sentence, Providence seems to further our efforts, Signed

268
00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:18.360
<v Speaker 1>Abner Dilworthy, U. S. S. Per Washington, Hawkins P. S.

269
00:16:19.559 --> 00:16:21.840
<v Speaker 1>At the end of a week, Washington was able to

270
00:16:21.879 --> 00:16:25.320
<v Speaker 1>send the happy news officially as usual, that the needed

271
00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:28.639
<v Speaker 1>vote had been added and the bill favorably reported from

272
00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:32.240
<v Speaker 1>the committee. Other letters recorded its perils in Committee of

273
00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:35.360
<v Speaker 1>the Whole, and by and by its victory by just

274
00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:39.039
<v Speaker 1>the skin of its teeth on third reading and final passage.

275
00:16:39.399 --> 00:16:42.399
<v Speaker 1>Then came letters telling of mister Dilworthy's struggles with a

276
00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:45.720
<v Speaker 1>stubborn majority in his own committee in the Senate, of

277
00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:49.799
<v Speaker 1>how these gentlemen succumbed one by one till a majority

278
00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:54.159
<v Speaker 1>was secured. Then there was a hiatus. Washington watched every

279
00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:56.240
<v Speaker 1>move on the board, and he was in a good

280
00:16:56.279 --> 00:16:58.519
<v Speaker 1>position to do this, for he was clerk of this

281
00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:02.759
<v Speaker 1>committee and also one other. He received no salary as

282
00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:07.200
<v Speaker 1>private secretary, but these two clerkships, procured by his benefactor,

283
00:17:07.640 --> 00:17:10.759
<v Speaker 1>paid him an aggregate of twelve dollars a day, without

284
00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:14.599
<v Speaker 1>counting the twenty percent extra compensation, which would of course

285
00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:17.279
<v Speaker 1>be voted to him. On the last night of the session,

286
00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:20.160
<v Speaker 1>he saw the bill go into Committee of the Whole

287
00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:24.599
<v Speaker 1>and struggle for its life again, and finally worry through

288
00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:27.839
<v Speaker 1>in the fullness of time, he noted its second reading,

289
00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:30.559
<v Speaker 1>and by and by the day arrived when the grand

290
00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:34.519
<v Speaker 1>ordeal came and it was put upon its final passage.

291
00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:38.960
<v Speaker 1>Washington listened with bated breath to the eye no no

292
00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:43.160
<v Speaker 1>aye of the voters for a few dread minutes, and

293
00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:46.039
<v Speaker 1>then could bear the suspense no longer. He ran down

294
00:17:46.079 --> 00:17:49.160
<v Speaker 1>from the gallery and hurried home to wait. At the

295
00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:52.200
<v Speaker 1>end of two or three hours, the Senator arrived in

296
00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:55.920
<v Speaker 1>the bosom of his family, and dinner was waiting. Washington

297
00:17:55.960 --> 00:17:58.680
<v Speaker 1>sprang forward with the eager question on his lips, and

298
00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:02.359
<v Speaker 1>the Senator said, we may rejoice freely now, my son.

299
00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:07.920
<v Speaker 1>Providence has crowned our efforts with success. End of Chapter

300
00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:08.559
<v Speaker 1>twenty four.