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Show lOLD DICE HOUSE Has Had Every President as Its Guest Except Taft. Ancient Building In Virginia Has Long Been Famous for Its Fish and Chicken Dinners Only Dwelling Dwell-ing Left of City. u Washington. On the Virginia side-of side-of the Great Falls of the Potomac, commonly known as "the Niagara of the South," fourteen miles from Washington, Wash-ington, is an ancient building, the old Dickie house, connected with which is the pleasing tradition that every president presi-dent of the United States has taken dinner beneath its roof tree. President Taft alone excepted. The old habitation, habita-tion, long famous for its ilsh and chicken dinners, is the only dwelling left of the departed City of Matildas-ville, Matildas-ville, that was called into being by tho construction of the Potomac Company Com-pany Canal, of which George Washington, Wash-ington, after relinquishing his command com-mand at the close of the revolution, was promoter and president. Generations ago the canal was abandoned aban-doned and Matildasvllle vanished from the map. The old Dickie house alone remains. George Washington often ate beneath its roof. When the British Brit-ish captured Washington in 1SU Pres- ' ident Madison and his cabinet, it is said, tarried for a meal before crossing cross-ing the river. All tho presidents but one are said by the descendants of the original owner of the house to have sat at the table in the little dining-room when visiting the falls and to have partaken of fish, and chicken cooked in a style that has made tho Dickie family famous for its culinary accomplishments. Some are skeptical enough to question this claim, but it is put forth with such stress that most visitors depart strong in the faith that they have eaten a meal in a room that has been honored by the presence of all the presidents but one. As yet President Taft has not sat in judgment judg-ment upon a meal at Dickie's, and the absorbing ambition of the proprietor of the house is to make the list complete. com-plete. Since the completion of the trolley line to the Great Falls of the Potomac this beautiful work of nature has attracted at-tracted a great interest among excursionists. excur-sionists. The trip to the falls is one of the most popular in the vicinity of ' the national capital. Last year, 170,- "l 000 excursionists visited the falls. In addition, thousands of other sightseers made the trip by automobile or carriage car-riage on the Maryland side. This route is far more beautiful than the one on the Virginia side, for the road winds along the river and the Chesapeake Chesa-peake and Ohio Canal to the famous Cabin John bridge, which was built when Jefferson Davis was secretary of war. During the civil war the name (c t r- iff "The Niagara of the South." of Jefferson Davis, which was inscribed inscrib-ed on the bridge, was chiseled out, but a few years ago it was replaced, an episode that attracted wide interest at the time. From here the road cuts across a beautiful hilly country to the Great Falls on the Maryland side, v-where v-where there is a hotel of advanced ' age. The falls are always changing, according ac-cording to the height of the water. Above them is a dam which holds back the water for the Washington supply. A rise of one inch at tbe dam makes a rise of eight inches in the water as it passes over the falls and down the gorges. The spectacle is one of great majesty. The river splits and runs around a craggy island, isl-and, and the two parts rush together again and pour thunderously between great rocks which split the flood into three separate waterfalls, as it tumbles tum-bles over the precipice into the caldron. cal-dron. Here the water, rushing in from three angles, forms a great whirlpool whirl-pool and thence rages through a narrow nar-row gorge with perpendicular walls of granite for about a mile, where it spreads out into a placid expanse. |