at first it had been intended that the heads of the various governments should in person attend this universal congress , but as the enterprise went on , as the enthusiasm spread , as the necessity for haste became more apparent through the warning notes which were constantly sounded from the observatories where the astronomers were nightly beholding new evidences of threatening preparations in mars , the kings and queens of the old world felt that they could not remain at home ; that their proper place was at the new focus and centre of the whole worldthe city of washington .