The Mirrors of Washington

There is something inscrutably ludicrous in the anxiety bordering upon consternation that lurks in the elongated and grotesque shadow that George Harvey casts upon Washington. The Republican fathers who now feel a sense of responsibility after a lapse of many years for the future of party and country do not yet know how to take him. As a campaign asset his value could be expressed in intelligible terms. But as a party liability or asset -many a good Republican wishes he knew which -he remains an enigma. There is not one of the array of elders of either political persuasion who while laughing at his satirical sword-play does not watch him covertly out of the corner of the eye trembling at the potential ruin they consider him capable of accomplishing. -from George Harvey CLINTON WALLACE GILBERT (1871-1933) was a Washington correspondent for the New York Evening Post when in 1921 he published anonymously this survey of the personalities in the nations capital including President Woodrow Wilson his staff and other prominent and influential political figures of the time. The 1920s equivalent of todays bloggers and pundits Gilbert is opinionated aggressive and incisive in his analysis of the inside machinations he observed as a reporter. With its firsthand perspective The Mirrors of Washington is not only a unique view on the politics of a fascinating era in modern American history but an unusual document of the development of American journalism in the 20th century.