1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



99 



we were going to be treated to a glimpse from 

 the depths of the sea. A room full of the aqua- 

 riums, and the usual accessories of fish-hatch- 

 eries, first enlisted my sympathies and interest. 

 Then somebody suggested that we should go 

 down into a sort of cave or grotto. This cave 

 is under ground, and all the light that comes in 

 ■comes through the aquariums arranged around 

 the sides of the room, up near the ceiling. The 

 sunlight strikes the surface of the water, and 

 then comes through the water to light up the 

 low darkened room. This seems to be some- 

 thing new in the line of aquariums. It was 

 new to me, any way. The fishes and the marine 

 plants came out in that subdued and refracted 

 light through the water, with startling distinct- 

 ness. I thought I had seen beautiful collections 

 of ferns before; but I never saw any vegetation 

 in the open air that could compare in beauty of 

 form and coloring with this vegetation of the 

 mighty deep. Most of us have admired the 

 colorings and markings of various gold and 

 silver fishes; but the fishes collected here are 

 wonderful beyond description. In some of the 

 museums we saw birds of paradise; but here 

 were /is/ies of paradise, promenading and sail- 

 ing about among the gorgeous fernlike mosses 

 and shrubbery. To add enchantment to a scene 

 that seemed almost a dream already, soft fleecy 

 clouds were floating through the briny deep— I 

 mean the salt water in these glass cages. When 

 I asked for an explanation of those clouds that 

 rolled so leisurely through the water and 

 among the fishes, I was told that it was simply 

 small globules of air in fine subdivision. On a 

 foggy morning, microscopic particles of water 

 float through the air we breathe. Well, in the 

 ocean — at least so it seems — similar microscopic 

 particles of air float in clouds through the water; 

 and the effect I admired so much was produced 

 very simply by letting a fine stream of water, 

 under pressure, shoot down into the aquarium. 

 The slender stream, in shooting down to the 

 bottom of the glass tank, carried minute parti- 

 cles of air along with it. and these floated away 

 in cloudlike bodies as they slowly came to the 

 surface. I made up my mind that such an 

 arrangement must be very soon a sort of- annex 

 to that wonderful new greenhouse that works 

 for nothing and boards itself across the street 

 from where I write. Well. I have not got at it 

 yet. 



Most of the crowd kept expressing a desire to 

 visit the Treasury of the United States. Some- 

 body said that I'ncle Sam was kind enough to 

 let his children handle a million of dollars just 

 a little while, to see whether it would make 

 them feel happy, you know. Well, 1 was not 

 very anxious, for I knew beforehaiid that the 

 million of dollars would not make me feel hap- 

 py a bit. The trick I had learned, of how to 

 make an underground aquarium, was worth 

 more to me than holding the million of dollars. 

 Nevertheless, we hustled off to the Treasury. 

 We saw smart, nice-looking girls counting out 

 sums of money so rapidly that it looked like a 

 sleight-of-hand performance. Then we saw 

 them printing bank notes, with great numbers 

 of beautiful clean printing-presses. And. by 

 the way, the biggest partof the work of making 

 money, and handling it, in the Treasury de- 

 partment, is in the hands of the women-folks. I 

 almost had a mind to feel hurt about it, for it 

 looked to me as if Uncle Samuel was just a 

 little partial to nice-looking girls, or else he 

 was afraid to trust his boys with so much 

 money. 



By the way, I want to say right here that I 

 was exceedingly gratified to see how much 

 pains is taken in Washington to let every 

 American, or anybody else, so far as I know, go 

 •everywhere and see how every thing is man- 



aged. It reminded me of the words of our Sav- 

 ior, who said to his enemies, when they tried to 

 make up some charge against him, " in secret 

 have I done nothing." And it looks to me as if 

 it were just that way in Washington. Placards 

 were put up in various places, to the effect that 

 visitors must not offer fees of any kind to any 

 of the guides or employes of the government,* 

 for they would not receive them, even if offered. 

 Those who talk loudly of the extravagance and 

 trickery of our government should go and see 

 how every thing is open to the eye of Colum- 

 bia's children. 



In the Treasury department it was very much 

 as it was in the Capitol — there was so much 

 that was curious and wonderful, the guide 

 could not get us to " move on." Finally I 

 began to think I would rather see less, and un- 

 derstand it, than to see so much and not know 

 what I had seen. I felt as did Josh Billings 

 when he remarked, " What is the use of know- 

 ing so mucii, when so much you know isn^t 

 so ? "' 



Just at this time Mrs. Root began to admon- 

 ish me that we were getting behind. " Oh, no!" 

 said I, ■' we are not. There they are." But 

 she insisted that that was not our crowd. You 

 see there were a great many other crowds of 

 " innocents abroad," like ourselves, but I saw 

 friend Hutchinson, of the i?ei;iew, following in 

 that crowd, and I concluded he was wise 

 enough and big enough to know what he was 

 about; so we just rested our faith on him: but 

 it transpired that he was following a lot of 

 strangers instead of our own people. Then 

 there was a quandary. We looked here and 

 there, up and down aisles almost a quarter of a 

 mile long: ran upstairs and downstairs, and 

 then W. Z. H. very kindly volunteered to find 

 the crowd and bring tiiem back if I would 

 just "stand right there by that post." Then 

 he dived down into a dark-looking stairway, 

 and that was the last of him. When we got 

 pretty nearly ready to feel as if we had been 

 cruelly wronged, they burst upon us. laughing 

 at our discomfiture, and making fun of us be- 

 cause they had had the privilege of walking 

 around the 25 millions of silver dollars, and we 

 didn't. It turned out afterward, however, 

 that they did not see the dollars at all— they 

 saw only the boxes that somebody said conUiin- 

 ed silver dollars. After that I saw a lot of folks 

 holding a bundle of papers that a white-haired 

 kindly-faced old gentleman was passing from 

 one to another. .\nd then friend Danzenbaker 

 said, " Why, look here: Mrs. Root wants to 

 hold a million of dollars. I know by her looks." 

 One of the bee-men passed the bundle over to 

 her, remarking, " There I that is just ray luck. 

 Money has been slipping through'my fingers all 

 my life, and this time I have actually let slip a 

 whole million before it did me a particle of 

 good.'" Mrs. Root seemed to enjoy handling a 

 million about as much as the rest of us. Oh 

 nol it was not silver dollars, nor gold either, 

 for that matter. Somebody said a million of 

 dollars in silver would weigh about Sl.^js tons 

 avoirdupois. You know silver is getting to be 

 cheap nowadays, because Uncle Sam"s children 

 are finding so much of it scattered around 

 through the Rocky Mountains and elsewhere. 



After our visit to the Treasury building we 

 went down to see that Washington Monument, 

 that I told you about, in the morning. It is 

 .55.5 feet ii^-s inches high. I do not know why 

 they are so particular as to put on that ^-^ inch, 

 unless it was that some crank on accuracy 

 might want to know just exactly. It is .55 feet 

 square at the base; inside, 25 feet square. The 

 foundation in 38 feet deep. The bottom of the 

 foundation is 126'. < feet square. The monument 

 tapers V inch to the foot. The elevator will 



