The New England magazine . ost influ-ential men in Congress never have got overthe hotel habit, because, having fine housesat their own homes, they spend no more timein Washington than they are absolutely com-pelled to and are never here unless Congressis in session. Conspicuous among this classis Senator Aldrich, of Rhode Island, pop-ularly reputed to be a very wealthy Aldrich has at times rented a house inWashington, but for nearly all of his Con-gressional career, which has continued fornearly thirty years, he has lived at theArlington Hotel. The Senator has a housein Providence, an
The New England magazine . ost influ-ential men in Congress never have got overthe hotel habit, because, having fine housesat their own homes, they spend no more timein Washington than they are absolutely com-pelled to and are never here unless Congressis in session. Conspicuous among this classis Senator Aldrich, of Rhode Island, pop-ularly reputed to be a very wealthy Aldrich has at times rented a house inWashington, but for nearly all of his Con-gressional career, which has continued fornearly thirty years, he has lived at theArlington Hotel. The Senator has a housein Providence, and a fine estate at War-wick Neck, twelve miles below, on Narra-gansett Bay, equally distant from New-port. He has an extensive water-frontand can on clear days get a view of thedancing blue waters of the bay as far downas the ocean. Mr. Aldrich has on his beau-tiful place a stone tower, near the top ofwhich is located his private study, reachedonly by a ladder which the Senator, whenhe desires to be uninterrupted, pulls up. Senator Thomas Gore, of the new Stateof Oklahoma MEN AND AFFAIRS AT WASHINGTON 593 after him. The view from the windows ofthis tower on a clear day is superb, com- . manding as they do practically all of Nar-ragansett Bay, and practically the wholeState of Rhode Island and ProvidencePlantations, as well as a corner of Massa-chusetts. The late Thomas B. Reed always be-lieved that it was not at all necessary for aman, however prominent in public life, 1 to set up a private establishment at thecapital. As for himself, he never owned or I rented a house in Washington. He lived I for many years until he became Speaker I in a second-class hotel where his fellowboarders were for the most part recruited I from among his obscure colleagues in the I House of Representatives. Afterwards went to a more pretentious hotel, I where he occupied a modest suite of fourrooms and never did any something of a bon vivant and al-ways a jolly good fellow,
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