THE XATIUX'S CAl'lTAL 



••Jl 



many places water-logged, owing to nu- 

 merous pools and swamps. It has no 

 natural attraction either in its immediate 

 or more distant environs, except the 

 stream of Neva. 



Paris, again, has some agrceahle land- 

 scapes within reach, but nothing at all 

 striking, nothing nearly so fine in the 

 lines of its scenery as the hills that in- 

 close the valley in which Washington lies, 

 and no such charm of a still wild forest 

 as Washington affords. The Seine, too, 

 is a stream not to be compared to your 

 Potomac. 



The same thing may be said of ^Madrid. 

 It stands on a level, and the mountains 

 are too distant to come eft'ectively into 

 the landscape, and its only water is a 

 wretched little brooklet called the Man- 

 zanares. They tell a story there about a 

 remark attributed to Alexandre Dumas 

 when he visited Madrid. He w^as taken 

 to the lofty bridge which spans the ra- 

 vine at the bottom of which the rivulet 

 flows. The day was hot and, being 

 thirsty, he asked for a glass of water. 

 They brought him the water, and he was 

 about to drink, when looking down and 

 catching sight of the streamlet, he said. 

 "Xo, take it away; give it to that poor 

 river; it needs a drink more than T do." 



Then there is our English London, 

 which stands in a rather tame country. It 

 is true that there are some charming bits 

 of quiet and pretty rural scenery in Sur- 

 rey and Sussex, within a distance of from 

 20 to 30 miles, and there are pleasing 

 beech woods covering the chalky hills of 

 Bucks. Yet N^ature has done nothing for 

 London comj^arable to what she has done 

 for Washington. The Thames, although 

 it fills up pretty well at high tide, is no- 

 wise comparable for volume or beauty of 

 surroundings to your own Potomac. 



These cities I have named have, how- 

 ever, something that you have not and 

 cannot have for many a year to come. 

 They are — and this applies es])ecially to 

 London and Paris — ancient cities. They 

 have still, in spite of the destroying 

 march of modern improvements, a cer- 

 tain number of picturesque buildings, 

 crooked old streets, stately churches, and 

 spots hallowed by the names of famous 

 men who were born there or died there 

 or did their work there. 



You are still in tiie early days of your 

 history and are only beginning to accu- 

 mulate hist(jric memories which in four 

 or five centuries will be rich and charged 

 with meaning like those of European 

 cities. 



r.ut in every other resi)ect you have in 

 Washington advantages which the.se Eu- 

 ropean cities do not jujssess. If you want 

 to make any large street improvement in 

 London or Paris it is a most costly busi- 

 ness. The land is very dear. You can- 

 not easily disturb the old lines of streets 

 and the drains and water pipes and tele- 

 phone lines that lie under them. Everv 

 improvement that has to be made in a 

 city like London has to be made at a cost 

 so heavy that where it is added to the 

 necessary expenses of maintaining mod- 

 ern appliances and carrying out .sanitary 

 regulations in an old city the cost is al- 

 most prohibitorv. 



But here you have still plenty of .space, 

 and though the city is extending very 

 fa.st on almost all sides, still if you take 

 forethought and consider your future, 

 you can lay out the tracts over whicli 

 \\'ashington is beginning to spread in a 

 way that will have results far more l)eau- 

 tiful than are attainable in the growing 

 parts of Londan and Paris, where land 

 is so expensive. 



London and I'.erlin and Paris are 

 crowded and you are not yet crowded. 

 You have still elbow room here to do 

 what you want. 



A ciTv i)i:Dic.\Ti:n kxtirklv to politics 



.\Xn (".OVKRNMKNT 



You possess another great advantage in 

 not being a large commercial or manu- 

 facturing city. If you had maiuifactitres 

 you would have tall chimneys and. as it 

 seems impossible to enforce an anti- 

 smoke law in a manufacturing city, you 

 would have black smoke, which would 

 spoil the appearance of your fijier build- 

 ings, especially those con.structed of 

 limestone or sandstone, the soot cling- 

 ing to them as it docs now to Westmin- 

 ster .\bl)ey and St. Paul's Cathedral in 

 London. You would not have the same 

 satisfaction in making things beautiful. 

 .V mi'.rkv cloud would hang thick and 



