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From: "David M. Waid" <>
Subject: [PACRAWFO-L] Souvenir, Jottings, part 5
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 16:19:05 -0400


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RETR0SPECTIVE THOUGHTS.
(WRITTEN JANUARY 25, 1889.)

"I believe if in my grave,
Hidden in woody deeps all by the wave,
Your eyes should drop some warm tears of regret,
>From every salty seed of your deep grief
Some fair, sweet blossom would leap into leaf,
To prove that Death could not make my love forget."
ONE OF THE "HUMBLER, POETS."

Once again let me pause in quiet, retrospective thought; let me stand aside
to see the phantoms of past days go by me, accompanying the shadow of myself
in dim procession. Weeks, months, years glide along. They seem little more
than a summer day and a winter evening.
I find in my hand to-day the marriage ring I placed upon Eliza's finger
nearly thirty-five years ago, and a keepsake book, "The Family Circle,"
which I gave her April 3, 1853, after our engagement but before our
marriage. While looking in my library I take from its shelves this neat
little volume, which I find in a good state of preservation, though it has
been read and reread with much profit to both of us. The value to me of this
little book is increased as I read on the fly-leaf the inscription: "Eliza
C. Masiker, April 3, 1853," and "Francis C. Waid, April 3, 1853," both in
our own handwriting. If this little memento is so valuable to me, I ask what
should be the Bible?
I have stood aside to see the phantoms of those days go by. They are gone,
and I resume the thread of my story.

TRIP TO WASHINGTON, D. C.
FEBRUARY, 1889.

"Our nature consists in motion: perfect rest is death."
PASCAL.

Although I have seen nearly all the large cities of my country, it was left
until a recent period for me to enjoy a visit to its capital, the City of
Washington, the seat of government of the best nation in the world. I had
had many opportunities to make this journey, but for one reason and another
had never embraced them. Having the means and disposition to go to a certain
place does not necessarily take us there; we need an actual start, and at
times it takes more than mere inclination to give us that start; we need a
strong incentive. This is as true of all earthly journeys as it is of the
journey to the Heavenly City. Merely wishing to go, having friends and the
Bible to point the way, and even Christ to lead us, will not without will
and determination on our own part lead us to the gates of the New Jerusalem.
How will it ever be made unless we start, and start to-day. Are you aware,
my reader, how much meaning there is within the little word, "Now"? All the
years you may have lived have at one time been included in this little word
of three letters. Do you not know that future happiness depends upon how we
improve the present?
To return to our Washington trip--In company with my brother-in-law, Mr. G.
W. Cutshall, I left Meadville, February 28, 1889, for the National capital,
to attend the inauguration of President Benjamin Harrison, and to visit the
many points of interest in the city. In leaving for Washington, however, I
had a motive that was of far more importance to me than that which impelled
me to visit its sights, and that was that I purposed attending the wedding
of my son, Fred F. Waid, to Minnie Haines, of Brookville, Jefferson County.
This wedding had a two-fold pleasure for me from the fact that I was married
on the day that I was twenty-one, and that Fred was within one day of the
same age when united, on the 7th of March, to Miss Haines.
We obtained a rest on the first night of our journey at Pittsburgh, where
we visited Jacob Cutshall, a brother of my traveling companion, and whom we
had not seen in several years. This visit I shall always pleasantly
remember. We left the Union depot on the morning of Friday, March 1, on a
Pennsylvania Central train. We were accompanied by a jolly crowd of
excursionists bound like ourselves for the inauguration. Let a person who
has never made the journey from Pittsburgh through the great Keystone State
by all means make it. The scenery is grand, no other word can describe it. I
would like to travel through that beautiful country, amid such scenes of
sublimity, again and again. "The horseshoe curve," "Spruce Creek tunnel"!
their very photographs are pleasing; how much more enjoyable then to see
them in their native state! Farther along the route are Jack's and Lewiston
Narrows, and if you be not yet satisfied gaze upon "Alleghany Mountain
tunnel," or catch a glimpse of Altoona.
Dear reader, in this life we are never out of reach of disappointments. It
was well for me that I formed the acquaintance of a gentleman named O. A.
Hibbs, of Harrisburgh, Ill., otherwise I should have been without a
companion during the rest of my trip. My disappointment arose from the fact
that, by an unfortunate accident, I became separated from Mr. Cutshall and
did not see him again until I reached his brother's home in Pittsburgh on my
return. At Harrisburgh, where we stopped twenty minutes, the conductor said:
"All passengers for Washington remain in this car." As I wished to make a
note in my diary, Mr. Cutshall said he would step out and bring me a lunch;
from that moment we were separated, he going by accident into the first
section of the train, and although in the depot at the capital, we could not
have been more than an hour apart, we failed to find each other. Several
times during the inauguration we must have been very close, but we did not
meet. He left the city one hour ahead of Mr. Hibbs and myself, and thus I
followed him to his brother's. Our attachments, however, are not so easily
separated as our persons, and we were extremely glad to meet once again. A
lesson is to be learned from incidents of this nature, and the one that
comes most naturally is that from our disappointments we may learn wisdom. I
have during years past traveled thousands of miles with Mr. Cutshall, but
never once have we been separated. At times we have failed to make proper
train connections, and have met disappointments in other forms, but this was
always our consolation: "We are together." And if we were again to travel, I
think that our Washington experience would cause us to appoint a place of
meeting at the point of destination, so that in ease of separation on the
way it would be but of short duration.
As I have said before, it was a source of great pleasure to me to have met
Mr. Hibbs. We became warm friends during the short time of our intercourse,
and we lodged together at the house of Mrs. Eugenie Tabler, No. 224
Thirteenth Street, South Washington, where we found a pleasant home during
our sojourn in the city.
The first object toward which Mr. Hibbs and I bent our steps was the great
Washington Obelisk, a monument of Maryland marble erected to the memory of
the Father of his Country. It is of imposing appearance, as one may judge
when its dimensions are given; a shaft rising to the immense height of 555
feet, 4 inches may well inspire awe as one gazes upon it from its base. Its
walls are 15 feet thick, at the base, and 18 inches at the top. Resting upon
a space of ground 55 feet, 1 1/2 inches square, the obelisk tapers to 34
feet, 5 1/2 inches at the height of 500 feet, from which point a pyramid
roof has been erected. The work began in 1848, and when in 1855 a height of
178 feet was reached, the building ceased. In 1876 the Government took
charge of the labor of its completion, and in December, 1884, the copestone
was placed in position. The interior is fitted with iron stairs, which
ascend to the beginning of the roof. An elevator carries passengers to the
extreme top. On the inner walls are blocks contributed by the different
States and Territories. Two hundred and thirty thousand dollars had been
expended by the monument society when Congress undertook to complete the
obelisk, and since then the appropriation has been $900,000. Next to this
monument in height comes the city building of Philadelphia, which towers to
an altitude of 537 feet. Next is the Cologne Cathedral, whose spire reaches
Heavenward a distance of 424 feet, 11 inches. The public first gained
admission to the obelisk in 1888. The monument inspired me with much more
enthusiasm as I gazed upon it than did the world-famed obelisk in Central
Park, New York, which I visited with my son Guinnip in September, 1887. As
we viewed the vast pile from various parts of the city and surrounding, I
thought of the greatness of the man to whose memory it was erected. While we
stood at its base we saw people chipping pieces from the slabs that were
broken off when the marble was dressed, and pocketing them as relics, so we
secured a piece each in the same way. The meriting of our visit, just at
nine o'clock, we waited for the opening of the massive doors that led to the
interior, and luckily were among the first to gain admission. We took our
places in the elevator, and were soon at the top, from whence the view is
magnificent; the city, the Potomac River and a vast stretch of country lie
beneath you, forming a feast for the eye. I love even now to recall the
monument to memory. I may add to the above description that history tells us
the corner stone was laid by President Polk July 4, 1848; and from the
Knoxville Tribune I read: "Completed; December 6, 1884, the copestone was
placed in position." The monument is made of blocks of marble two feet
thick, and it is said that more than 18,000 were used, the total cost being
$1,300,000. There are 900 steps. No wonder the Washington Monument is great,
the highest work of man! The skill and ingenuity of man have ascended to
their loftiest height to honor George Washington, and the youth of our
country will ever be inspired by the name and memory of GEORGE WASHINGTON. I
will mention, without lengthened description, some of the other points of
interest that we touched, before I speak of the Capitol. First came the
Agricultural Department, where were a number of lady clerks doing up
packages of seeds. Next we saw the Smithsonian Institute and the National
Musium, where there are so many relics of George Washington and Martha
Washington and Gen. Grant. The Patent Office, Fort Meyer and Arlington House
came next in the order of sight-seeing. The Arlington House was once
occupied by G. W. Parke Custis, the adopted son of our first president, and
later by Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate forces during the
Rebellion. At Arlington Cemetery are buried over 16,000 soldiers, and
directly in front of the mansion rests Gen. P. H. Sheridan.
We attended, on the 4th of March, the inaugural ceremonies. There were more
people present at the inducting into office of President Harrison than on
any similar occasion in the history of the country. The parade was fully
eight miles in length, and it is said that there were fully 50,000 people in
line. Mr. Hibbs and I stood at Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue from 1
o'clock until 5, or from the time that the presidential coach had passed
until the last cow boy from the West had ridden by on his broncho.
In the waiting-room of the Baltimore & Washington Railway depot President
Garfield was shot at by the assassin, Guiteau, and there is yet to be seen a
stain of his life blood upon the floor to mark the spot where he fell. While
in the city we visited both houses of Congress while in session. It was
certainly worth a great deal to me to visit the capitol, and to hear the
speeches of the members of the lower house, and the debates and speeches in
the Senate. It broadens a man's mind to visit halls of legislation and to
get some idea of the legislative methods of our country.
The capitol is a building 751 feet long, 324 feet broad, and the dome rises
to an altitude of 397 feet above low water mark of the Potomac River. The
great bronze door at the front entrance weighs 20,000 pounds, and cost
$28,000. The building covers an area of three and a half acres, and its cost
with the dome was $15,000,000. The view from the dome is indeed fine, but
its height being less than that of the monument before described, not as
great an area of country can be seen from its noble gilded top.
There is so much of beauty in our country's capital city that I must say I
withdrew from it with reluctance, but duty called my attention in another
direction and to a most important event in the life of one of my children,
the marriage of my son. It is with a heart full of gratitude that I remember
my own marriage, and the happy after life until the time that my beloved
wife was taken from me. Knowing the importance of the step my boy Fred was
about to take, and realizing that not only duty but his wish called me to
his side, I left Washington and started on my homeward journey.

David

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