ld
the rope which controlled the bells, but, it is said, they were not
silenced. The architect of the Octagon was Dr. William Thornton, of the
West Indies, who designed the plans of the first capitol in Washington
and who was the controlling spirit of the three Commissioners appointed
by Congress to acquire a "territory not exceeding ten miles square" for
the establishment of a permanent seat of government. These men were
Daniel Carroll, Thomas Johnson, first Governor of the State of Maryland,
and David Stuart. Most of this land, which included Georgetown and
Alexandria, was primeval forest and was owned chiefly by Daniel Carroll,
Notley Young, Samuel Davidson and David Burns.

The Commissioners had great difficulty in dealing with Burns, who owned
nearly all of what is now the northwestern section of the city, as he
was a closefisted and hardheaded Scotchman, who was unwilling to part
with his lands without being roundly paid for them. When argument with
him proved fruitless, it is said that General Washington, realizing the
gravity of the situation, rode up several times from Mount Vernon to
discuss the situation with "stubborn Mr. Burns." At length, in despair,
he remarked: "Had not the Federal City been laid out here, you would
have died a poor planter." "Ay, mon," was Burns's ready response, "and
had you no married the widder Custis wi' a' her nagres ye'd ha'e been a
land surveyor the noo', an' a mighty poor ane at that!" It is further
related that Washington finally succeeded in winning Burns over to his
way of thinking, and that the canny Scotchman, realizing how largely he
was to profit by the transaction, actually became generous and gave to
the Commissioners, in fee simple, his apple orchard which is now the
beautiful Lafayette Square.

In passing through Lafayette Square, I have often sat down upon a bench
to rest near the "wishing tree," a dwarf chestnut so well known to
residents of the District, and I have been impressed by the many
superstitious persons, both men and women, who have stopped for a moment
and silently stood under its branches. Many are the credulous believers
in its power to satisfy human desires, and the season when its branches
are full of nuts is regarded by these as a specially propitious time for
their realization. With many persons this tree is the basis of their
only superstition.

I remember the case of a young girl who had been working very hard to
obtain a position in one of th