The reminiscences . e and fall into the water, tofee fished out with difficulty by the sergeants-at-arms and theirassistants. The hotel at which I stopped, the National, the same inwhich Henry Clay had died less than two years before, wasdingy beyond description, and there were hardly half a dozenresidences, if as many, in the whole town, that had the appear-ance of refined, elegant, and comfortable homes. The streets,ill-paved, if paved at all, were constantly covered with mUdor dust. But very few of the members of Congress kepthouse. Most of them took their meals in messes, havingclubbed tog
The reminiscences . e and fall into the water, tofee fished out with difficulty by the sergeants-at-arms and theirassistants. The hotel at which I stopped, the National, the same inwhich Henry Clay had died less than two years before, wasdingy beyond description, and there were hardly half a dozenresidences, if as many, in the whole town, that had the appear-ance of refined, elegant, and comfortable homes. The streets,ill-paved, if paved at all, were constantly covered with mUdor dust. But very few of the members of Congress kepthouse. Most of them took their meals in messes, havingclubbed together for that purpose. Washington was called the city of magnificent distances. But there was nothing atthe ends of those distances, and, excepting the few public build-ings, very, little that was in any way interesting or many of the streets, geese, chickens, pigs, and cows hadstill a scarcely disputed right of way. The city had through-out a slouchy, unenterprising, unprogressive appearance, giv- [20]. THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHUEZing extremely little promise of becoming the beautiful capitalit now is. The first call I made was at the War Department, topresent my letter of introduction to the Secretary, Mr. Jeffer-son Davis. Being respectful, even reverential, by natural dis-position, I had in my imagination formed a high idea of whata grand personage the War Minister of this great Republicmust be. I was not disappointed. He received me slender, tall, and erect figure, his spare face, keen eyes,and fine forehead, not broad, but high and well-shaped, pre-sented the well-known strong American type. There was inhis bearing a dignity which seemed entirely natural and un-affected—^that kind of dignity which does not invite familiarapproach, but will not render one uneasy by lofty courtesy was without any condescending air. Our con-versation confined itself to the conventional commonplace. Atimid attempt on my part to elicit from him
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