e latter, therefore,
should have all the credit due to the founder of the new Washington.

The story has always seemed to me most interesting as an example
of the way in which public judgment of men and things is likely to
be influenced. Public sentiment during the thirty years which have
since elapsed has undergone such a revolution in favor of Shepherd
that a very likely outcome will be a monument to commemorate his work.
But it is worth while to notice the mental processes by which the
public now reaches this conclusion. It is the familiar and ordinarily
correct method of putting this and that together.

_This_ is one of the most beautiful cities in the United States,
of which Americans generally are proud when they pay it a visit.

_That_ is the recollection of the man who commenced the work of
transforming an unsightly, straggling, primitive town into the
present Washington, and was condemned for what he did.

These two considerations form the basis of the conclusion, all
intermediate details dropping out of sight and memory. The reckless
maladministration of the epoch, making it absolutely necessary to
introduce a new system, has no place in the picture.

There is also a moral to the story, which is more instructive
than pleasant. The actors in the case no doubt believed that if
they set about their work in a conservative and law-abiding way,
spending only as much money as could be raised, Congress would
never come to their help. So they determined to force the game,
by creating a situation which would speedily lead to the correct
solution of the problem. I do not think any observant person will
contest the proposition that had Shepherd gone about his work and
carried it to a successful conclusion in a peaceable and law-abiding
way,--had he done nothing to excite public attention except wisely
and successfully to administer a great public work,--his name would
now have been as little remembered in connection with what he did as
we remember those of Ketchem, Phelps, and the other men who repaired
the wreck he left and made the city what it is to-day.

In my mind one question dominates all others growing out of the
case: What will be the moral effect on our children of holding up
for their imitation such methods as I have described?

XIII

MISCELLANEA

If the "Great Star-Catalogue Case" is not surrounded with such mystery
as would entitle it to a place among _causes celebres_, it may well
b