TEN YEARS IN WASHINGTON:

OR,

INSIDE LIFE AND SCENES

IN

OUR NATIONAL CAPITAL

As a Woman Sees Them.

EMBRACING

A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE MANY MARVELS AND INTERESTING

SIGHTS OF WASHINGTON; OF THE DAILY LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE, BOTH PAST

AND PRESENT; OF THE WONDERS AND INSIDE WORKINGS OF ALL OUR

GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS; AND DESCRIPTIONS AND REVELATIONS

OF EVERY PHASE OF POLITICAL, PUBLIC, AND

SOCIAL LIFE AT THE NATION’S CAPITAL.

By MARY CLEMMER,

Author of “Memorials of Alice and Phœbe Cary,” “A Woman’s Letters from Washington,” etc., etc.

TO WHICH IS ADDED A FULL ACCOUNT OF

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD,

BY J. L. SHIPLEY, A. M.

FULLY ILLUSTRATED

With a Portrait of the Author on Steel, and Forty-Eight fine Engravings on Wood.

[SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY.]

HARTFORD, CONN.:

THE HARTFORD PUBLISHING COMPANY.

EXCELSIOR PUBLISHING CO., CHICAGO, ILL.

OHIO PUBLISHING CO., CLEVELAND, OHIO.

1882.

IIEntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by

THE HARTFORD PUBLISHING CO.,

In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

iii

1. Fine Steel-Plate Portrait of the Author, [Frontispiece.]

2. Columbia Slave Pen, To face page 48

3. The Freedman’s Savings Bank, 48

4. Smithsonian Institute, 48

5. Major L’Enfant’s Resting Place, 48

6. The National Capitol—Washington, 72

It covers more than three and a half acres. Over thirteen million dollars have thus far been expended in its erection.

7. The Marble Room—Inside the Capitol—Washington, 95

8. The Senate Chamber—Inside the Capitol—Washington, 98

9. The Hall of Representatives—Inside the Capitol—Washington, 100

10. The Ladies’ Reception Room—Inside the Capitol—Washington, 120

11. The Central Room, Congressional Library—Inside the Capitol—Washington, 130

12. The Red Room—Inside the White House—Washington, 169

13. The Conservatory—Inside the White House—Washington, 174

14. The Cabinet Room—Inside the White House—Washington, 238

15. The Blue Room—Inside the White House—Washington, 246

16. The Great East Room—Inside the White House, Washington, 258

17. The Green Room—Inside the White House—Washington, 258

18. United States Treasury—Washington, 284

19. Making Money—The Room in the Treasury Building where the Greenbacks are Printed, 319

20. Among the Greenbacks—the Cutting and Separating Room in the Treasury Building, 322

iv21. Burnt to Ashes—The End of Uncle Sam’s Greenbacks, 337

The above is a graphic sketch of the destruction of the worn and defaced currency constantly being redeemed by the Government, which is here burned every day at 12 o’clock. On one occasion considerably more than one hundred million dollars’ worth of bonds and greenbacks were destroyed in this furnace, and the burning of from fifty to seventy-five millions at a time is a matter of ordinary occurrence.

22. The New Marble Cash-Room, United States Treasury, 340

The most costly and magnificent room of its kind in the world.

23. Counting Worn and Defaced Greenbacks and Detecting Counterfeits, 354

This room is in the Redemption Bureau, Treasury-Building. Over One Hundred Thousand Dollars’ worth of Fractional Currency alone is here daily received for redemption: out of which about Three Hundred and Fifty Dollars’ worth of counterfeit money is detected, stamped, and returned.

24. The Lobby of the Senate—Inside the Capitol—Washington, 382

25. Dead-Letter Office, U. S. General Post-Office—Washington, 398

26. The Model-Room—Patent Office—Washington, 438

This room contains the fruits of the inventive genius of the whole nation. More than 160,000 models are here deposited.

27. Blood-Stained Confederate Battle-Flags, Captured during the War, 462

Sketched by permission of the Government from the large collection in possession of the War Department, at Washington.

1. Black Flag. 4. State and Regiment unknown. [Captured at the Battle of Gettysburg, by the 60th Regiment of New York Volunteers.]

2. Alabama Flag.

3. Palmetto Flag. 5. State Colors of North Carolina.

28. The New Building now being constructed for Departments of State, Army, and Navy—Washington, 466

29. The Main Hall of the Army Medical Museum—Washington, 476

This Museum occupies the scene of the assassination of President Lincoln, in Ford’s Theatre, which after that date became the property of the Government. It contains a collection of upwards of twenty thousand rare, curious and interesting objects, surpassing any similar collection in the world. It is visited annually by upwards of twenty-five thousand persons.

30. Curiosities from the Army Medical Museum, 482

31. A Withered Arm, 482

Skin, flesh, and bones complete. Amputated by a cannon-shot on the battle-field of Gettysburg. The shot carried the severed limb up into the high branches of a tree, where it was subsequently found, completely air and sun-dried.

32. Skull of a Man, 482

Who received an arrow-wound in the head, three gun-shot flesh-wounds, one in the arm, another in the breast, and a third in the leg. Seven days afterwards he was admitted to the hospital at Fort Concha, Texas, (where he subsequently died,) after having travelled above 160 miles on the barren plains, mostly on foot.

33. Apache Indian Arrow-Head, 482

Of soft hoop-iron. These arrows will perforate a bone without causing the slightest fracture, where a rifle or musket-ball will flatten; and will make a cut as clean as the finest surgical instrument.

34. Skull of Little Bear’s Squaw, 482

Perforated by seven bullet-holes. Killed in Wyoming Territory.

35. All that Remains Above Ground of John Wilkes Booth, 482

Being part of the Vertebræ penetrated [A] by the bullet of Boston Corbett. Strange freak of fate that the remains of Booth should find a resting-place under the same roof, and but a few feet from the spot where the fatal shot was fired.

36. Skull of a Soldier, 482

Wounded at Spottsylvania; showing the splitting of a rifle-ball—one portion being buried deep in the brain, and the other between the scalp and the skull. He lived twenty-three days.

37. A Sioux Pappoose, 482

Or Indian infant, found in a tree near Fort Laramie, where it had been buried (?) according to the custom of this tribe.

v38. Skull of an Indian, 482

Showing nine distinct sabre wounds.

39. “Old Probabilities’” Instrument Room, 504

Storm and Weather Signal Service Bureau—Washington.

40. Tropical Fruits—Inside the Government Conservatory—Washington, 545

41. The Dome and Spiral Staircase; Rare Plants and Flowers—Inside the Government Conservatory—Washington, 546

42. Tropical Plants and Flowers—Inside the Government Conservatory—Washington, 548

43. The Van Ness Mansion, and Davy Burns’ Cottage, 550

44. The Capitol as seen from Pennsylvania Ave.—Washington, 550

45. View of the “City of the Slain”—Arlington, 582

The remains of over 8,000 soldiers, killed during the war, lie buried in this Cemetery—the name, regiment, and date of death of each is painted on a wooden head-board.

46. The Tomb of “The Unknown”—Arlington, 586

Erected by the Government to the memory of Unknown Soldiers killed during the War. It bears the following inscription:

“Beneath this stone

repose the bones of Two Thousand One Hundred and Eleven unknown

soldiers, gathered after the war,

from the fields of Bull Run and the route to the Rappahannock.

Their remains could not be identified; but their names and deaths are

recorded in the archives of their country, and its grateful citizens

honor them as of their noble army of Martyrs. May they rest in peace!

September, A. D. 1866.”

47. Portrait of James A. Garfield, the Martyr President, 588

Engraved from a recent photograph.

48. Portrait of Mrs. James A. Garfield, Wife of the Martyr President, 600

Engraved from a recent photograph.

vi