Photo bv Alfred C. Robin>.. 



IX THE RAPIDS OF THE POTOMAC 



dark over your city as it does over 

 Pittsburgh and Chicago. Moreover, your 

 streets would be overcrowded and diffi- 

 culties of rapid transit would arise. 



With a much larger population, ideas 

 of beauty would have to give way to 

 those of commercial interests, whereas 

 here the pressure of commerce is not 

 such as to interfere with your ideals of 

 beauty and convenience. 



\\'ith all these advantages before you 

 in Washington, and with the bottomless 

 purse of Uncle Sam behind you — I am 

 coming presently to the use that Uncle 

 Sam's representatives may make of his 

 purse for your benefit, but in the mean- 

 time we may assume it is an inexhausti- 

 ble purse, because we know how much 

 money he is able to spend upon objects 

 that are certainly of no more importance 

 than the lieautification of Washington — 

 with all those advantages ready to youi 

 hand, what may you not make of \\'ash- 

 ington? ^^'hat may you not make of a 

 city which is dedicated entirely to poli- 

 tics and government and society? 



Mr. Henry James, in one of his inter- 

 esting: and subtle studies of modern 



American life, called Washington the 

 City of Conversation. That is a happy 

 characterization, having regard not only 

 to Congress and jwlitics, but also to all 

 the interesting talk that goes on here 

 about science in the Cosmos Club, and 

 elsewhere about many things that are 

 neither scientific nor concerned with any 

 kind of work. 



\\'ashington is in a peculiar sense con- 

 secrated to society and to the higher 

 charms of life : in fact, to all these things 

 which make the delight of human iiUer- 

 course ; and therefore it is especially fit- 

 ting that it should be able to live without 

 the continual intrusion of those mighty 

 factors of modern life — industrial j)ro- 

 duction and commerci"! exchange — 

 which donn'nate most of the cities of this 

 continent and indeed most of the great 

 cities of the modern world. 



WASUIXC.TOX SHOfLI) HE Till. i.Mr.iM.i- 



MEXT OK THE M.A.TESTV OF 



THE WHOLE X.VTIOX 



From all that in Washington you are 

 free, and it is fortunate you are free, be- 

 cause you are able to make a city of a 



723 



