MILEAGE AND CONSTRUCTIVE MILEAGE. 325 



men, able to keep up expensive establishments, and to 

 give dinner-parties, a different state of society would 

 arise in Washington large residences would become in 

 request, and Belgravian Squares and mansions w r ould by 

 degrees fill up the unoccupied streets which are as yet 

 seen only on the plan of Washington. 



The absence of a court or centre of fashion and per 

 manent entertainments deprives Washington also of that 

 attraction, for those who are rich, which takes so many 

 to the capitals of Europe to spend their winters, and 

 which collects within their walls so many thousands of 

 those classes of society who minister to the luxury and 

 are supported by the artificial wants of the possessors of 

 wealth, refinement, and taste. Washington, in truth, is 

 merely a place of business, and is frequented by people 

 who have business to transact, and by whom a tolerably 

 comfortable temporary residence is all that is desired. 



It is amusing to learn the shifts to which the inade 

 quacy of the stipend of 8 dollars a-day has occasionally 

 driven, not only individual members for these it would 

 be improper to speak of but the whole body of the Con 

 gress, with the view of adding, in a conscientious manner, 

 to their means of living. 



Besides the 8 dollars a-day, members of Congress are 

 allowed, under the name of mileage, 8 dollars for every 

 twenty miles, to pay their travelling expenses in going 

 and coming from their place of residence to Washington. 

 This, for members from a great distance, amounted to a 

 large sum from 1000 to 2,500 dollars though the cost 

 of travelling is now very much less than it used to be. 

 But, under the name of constructive mileage, members 

 were allowed the same sum in the event of a special session 

 being called, whether they had gone home or not and 

 it was always allowed to members of the Senate at the 

 inauguration of the President, which is once every four 

 years. When a new President comes into office, Congress 



