WASHINGTON
ITS SIGHTS AND INSIGHTS
I
THE CITY OF WASHINGTON
The City of Washington is the central point of interest of that stage on which is being performed the second century act in the great drama of self-government.
The actors here are the representatives of 85,000,000 of people. The spectators are all the peoples of the world, to be succeeded by those of all future ages.
If this experiment in self-government should fail, all other republics will surely perish; but we believe that the Republic of the United States of America has taken its place as a fixed star in the galaxy of great nations, and that the stars on its flag will not be dimmed till dimmed in the blaze of humanity’s millennium. Therefore, the actors and the buildings of this great city, which are parts of the dramatis personæ and the furniture of the stage, can not fail to be interesting to any child of the republic.
Baron Humboldt, in 1804, when standing on the west balcony of the Capitol building, said: “This point gives the most beautiful view of its type in the world.”
Senator Sumner said: “The City of Washington is more beautiful than ancient Rome.”
Besides what one can behold of the great city from that point, across the Potomac can be seen the heights of Arlington, where sleep so many of the sacred dead of the nation.