The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper CorrespondentBriggs, Emily Edson
History
The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent
Briggs, Emily Edson
United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933; Washington (D.C.) -- History
We have no Anaxagoras or Petrius, but we have General B. F. Butler,
a greater Roman than them all. As a last leap up the ladder of fame,
this distinguished Congressman has decided to become an aristocrat
and an old settler, and to this purpose he has bought a delightful
site on Capitol Hill, and is building a residence worthy of the
constructor. This costly creation may be called a stone triplet,
as three houses will be born at the same time. The first faces the
east, but its northern side salutes the Capitol. It is said this
is intended for a grand “club house,” but the gambling will be
exclusively confined to politics. All this is in anticipation of the
grand hurdle race which will probably come off in 1876. The second
house remains a mystery. The last has already been rented to the
Coast Survey for a library. Henceforth Capitol Hill claims General
B. F. Butler. He is our Congressional cloud by day and our political
fire at night. There is a great deal of legislative chaff, and only a
few grains of wheat. Capitol Hill has drawn her solitary ration and
is satisfied.
OLIVIA.
GEORGETOWN ARISTOCRACY.
THE BELLS, MADAME BODISCO, MRS. SOUTHWORTH, AND GOVERNOR COOKE.
WASHINGTON, _October 20, 1875_.
Recently some stones have been unearthed in Georgetown of great value
to the student of antiquated taste. These slabs bear a date so remote
that most of the letters have been eaten away by the teeth of Time,
but sufficient remains to identify the Bell family, who occupied
Georgetown Heights in the early part of the last century. Far back
in the shadowy past the clear ringing tongue of this English Bell
might have been heard as it poured its melody in the ear of an Indian
princess, who soon after became his wife. The first nest of the
young pair was a tent; afterward a quaint English cottage snuggled
on the woody heights. Below them moved the silvery waters of the
solemn Potomac. To the east stretched their vast possessions, which
embraced all the land within the scope of vision which lay between
the cottage and the rising sun. Here Madame Bell, attended by her
pale-face consort, led the fashions without rivals and with none to
dispute her sway. Over the stormy Atlantic came the winged schooners,
bringing rich brocades for this dusky queen. Her costumes were half
enlightened, half barbaric, like many of the styles of to-day. The
descendants of these ancient Georgetown aristocrats have been slowly
undergoing the bleaching process, and the past hundred years had
almost obliterated the last trace of Indian lineage, and yet within
the memory of the present generation “white trash” have been noticed
in this vicinity bearing the name of Bell, and carrying in their
lithe forms and eagle eyes the last superb touch of the grace of
Indian origin. But, true to the savage instinct, these were the first
men to seize the deadly musket in the Southern cause, and the late
battlefields of the South are made richer by the bones of the last of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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