UNCLE SAM'S FARM. 47 



nearly 40,000 volumes, beside pictures and statuary 

 to the value of about $50,000. 



The Merchants' Exchange, which was erected in 

 1841, is a magnificent structure, built of granite and 

 brick, and laid with hydraulic cement. " Its front on 

 State street is seventy-six feet ; its height, seventy 

 feet ; its depth to Lindall street, two hundred and 

 fifty feet ; covering thirteen thousand feet of land. 

 The front is entirely of Quincy granite, with four 

 pilasters and two antes, being forty-five feet in height, 

 weighing on the average fifty-five tons each. Up- 

 wards of one million six hundred thousand bricks 

 have been used. The roof is constructed of wrought 

 iron, and covered with galvanized sheet iron ; and all 

 the principal staircases are of iron and stone, and of 

 course fire-proof. The front is occupied by banks, 

 insurance offices, and places of business ; the rear is 

 an hotel ; the basement is occupied by bath rooms, 

 and the top as a telegraph station. 



" The great centre hall is the Merchants' Exchange 

 and reading room. Its dimensions, fifty-eight by 

 eighty feet, having eighteen columns, twenty feet in 

 length, in imitation of Sienna marble, with Corinthian 

 capitals. The most finished and highly ornamented 

 work in the structure, is the enamelled skylight of 



