The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 39, January, 1861

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 39, January, 1861, by VariousThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.netTitle: Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 39, January, 1861Author: VariousRelease Date: February 16, 2004 [eBook #11118]Language: English***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY VOLUME 7, NO. 39, JANUARY, 1861***E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg Distributed ProofreadersTHE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.VOL. VII.—JANUARY, 1861.—NO. XXXIX.WASHINGTON CITY.Washington is the paradise of paradoxes,—a city of magnificent distances, but of still more magnificent discrepancies.Anything may be affirmed of it, everything denied. What it seems to be it is not; and although it is getting to be what itnever was, it must always remain what it now is. It might be called a city, if it were not alternately populous anduninhabited; and it would be a wide-spread village, if it were not a collection of hospitals for decayed or callowpoliticians. It is the hybernating-place of fashion, of intelligence, of vice,—a resort without the attractions of waters eithermineral or salt, where there is no bathing and no springs, but drinking in abundance and gambling in any ...