834 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



Mr. MORRILL. I will say that this bill should have been considered 

 yesterday. It is important to have its immediate consideration, 

 because, although the sum appropriated is no more than will be 

 required for putting tiles in the Museum, it is thought to be exceed- 

 ingly desirable that the bill should pass now, in order that a certain 

 portion of the building may be available for the 4th of March. 



Mr. DAVIS, of West Virginia. I recognize the necessity for imme- 

 diate action, and therefore do not object; but I should like to ask the 

 Senator if this appropriation covers the entire expense for tiling the 

 Museum ? 



Mr. MORRILL. I so understand it. 



By unanimous consent, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, 

 proceeded to consider the bill. 



Mr. DAVIS, of West Virginia. I notice from the reading of the bill 

 that it provides for only one room, which is a large part of the build- 

 ing. I do not know why there should be two parts of the appropria- 

 tion. I ask the Senator how that is ? 



Mr. MORRILL. I must say that I have not made particular inquiries 

 as to that. A portion of the building, I understand, is to be covered 

 with a pine floor or concrete. This appropriation is all that is asked 

 for, and it is all 1 know anything about. 



Mr. EGBERT E. WITHERS. I will state to the Senator from West 

 Virginia, with the permission of the Senator from Vermont, that this 

 is designed simply to provide a paving for the central hall of the 

 Museum building. Other portions of it are to be floored with plank. 

 The central building is now completed with a flooring merely accord- 

 ing to the original plan. It is designed to pave it with marble and 

 tiles. That is the whole of it. 



Mr. MORRILL. And if the bill passes to-day, I understand there is 

 some chance for the completion of the flooring in time for the inaugu- 

 ration. Passed. 

 Februarys, 1881. 



Be it enacted, etc. , That the sum of $26,000, or so much thereof as 

 may be necessary be, and the same hereby is, appropriated out of any 

 money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to place a flooring 

 of marble and encaustic tiles in the large halls of the National Museum 

 building, to be expended according to the plans and under the direction 

 of the building commission of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution under whose supervision the Museum has been constructed. 1 



(Stat., XXI, 324.) 



1 Building commission: William T. Sherman, Peter Parker, and S. F. Baird. After 

 competitive bids, marble tiles were furnished by Emil Fritsch of New York, and 

 encaustic tiles by the United States Encaustic Tile Company, of Indianapolis. 



