142 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



thing of the kind on this continent, and perhaps 

 not excelled by any similar structure in the world. 

 It will rise 300 feet from the base, and 230 feet 

 from the top of the building, and will be sur- 

 mounted by a colossal figure representing the 

 Genius of America, designed by Crawford. The 

 pediments in the extensions are also to be filled 

 with colossal statuary, much of which is already 

 cut and ready to occupy its place. 



Many of the rooms are finished and painted in 

 fresco with exquisite taste and beauty. The col- 

 ors are brilliant, and are not placed on the sur- 

 face merely, but are imbedded through the entire 

 thickness of the mortar, so that if a fourth of an 

 inch of the plastering were scraped off, the paint- 

 ing would still remain. The designs upon the 

 walls are emblematical, or illustrative of the 

 business of the committee which occupies the 

 room. In the room of the committee on agricul- 

 tvre, for instance, Cincinnatus, and his oxen, men 

 and plow are represented as at work in the field, 

 and at the opposite end of the room Gen. Put- 

 nam with his hands are figured as engaged in ru- 

 ral labor, — while all the ceiling glows with the 

 ripened harvest, with golden grain and luscious 

 fruits. In the room of naval affairs, the engines 

 of war, and in that of commerce, bales of goods, 

 views of distant lands, or fine models of merchant 

 ships, with their spreading sails whitening every 

 sea. 



The floors in the passages are constructed of a 

 material made of ground flint and clay, baked 

 very hard, aud are inlaid with various colors. 

 The blocks are three-quarters of an inch thick, 

 cut into various shnpes, and laid so as to form a 

 mosaic or tesselated pavement, which is very 

 bright and beautiful. The roofs are cast iron, and 

 to prevent an outward pressure of the walls by 

 the expansion of the iron in hot Aveather, the ends 

 of the rafters rest on a series of rollers on the 

 top of the M'alls, so that as they expand, they roll 

 out, and return as they cool and contract. 



The new Hall of the House of Representatives 

 is vast and magnificent ; the ceiling is stained 

 glass, 35 feet from the floor, and above this, the 

 glass roof admits the light, which streams down 

 and kindles the rich painting and gilding into a 

 soft and delightful glow. The chamber is lighted 

 from above, is in the centre of the new south 

 wing, and is entirely excluded from all external 

 objects and sounds. In its walls around the room 

 are 18 panels to be painted in fresco, one of 

 which only is now filled. Galleries extend around 

 the room, back of which are many niches yet to 

 be filled with statuary. Between the Hall and 

 the outsides of the building are corridors, rooms 

 with tesselated pavements, for hats and coats of 

 the members, or clerks, or committees, or retir- 

 ing rooms. 



Some writers have commented with free pens 

 upon the design and finish of this room, as being 

 constructed adversely to the principles of acous- 

 tics, ornamented in a tawdry and whimsical man- 

 ner, and without the exercise of a just and refined 

 taste. It seems to me that these objections are 

 somewhat captious, and at least not well-founded 

 On entering the Hall for the first time, I felt a 

 gush of pleasure for which I was not prepared, 

 because impressions to the contrary had been 

 previously received. There was a soft and pleas- 

 ant light, but no glare ; the air was warm, but 

 pure and elastic, and, save what noise was atten- 

 dant upon the business of the session, the bustle 

 of the busy world had no admission there. There 

 is much gilding and bright colors in painting, I 

 admit, but these seem necessary to give a cheer- 

 ful aspect to a room so secluded from the direct 

 solar light. The finish is gorgeous, but not taw- 

 dry or whimsical. In the original design by 

 Walter, this room extended to the outer walls, 

 but was revised by Capt. H. C. Meigs, of the 

 corps of Engineers, who is in charge of the ex- 

 tension of the Capitol, the Post-office building 

 and the construction of the Washington Aque- 

 duct. One of the charges urged against the Rep- 

 resentatives' Chamber is, that little can be heard 

 on the floor or in the galleries when a member is 

 speaking ; but this cannot be the fault of the 

 room, for on the Sabbath, when the passions are 

 hushed, and the services of the place are con- 

 ducted "decently and in oi'der," the faint voice of 

 the preacher can be distinctly heard in every 

 part. When the distinguished Virginian, An- 

 drew Stevenson, was Speaker of the House, 

 there was a proposition to alter the Hall, and 

 several members called upon him to inquire, if it 

 were possible to remedy the difficulty in hearing? 

 He promptly replied, '■^certainly, let every member 

 behave like a gentleman ! and there will be no dif- 

 ficidtg." And this is all that is necessary. If 

 there were 7io desks in the Hall, no franking of 

 documents, no letter ivnting, no conversation, and 

 no reading of netvspapers, there would be no dif- 

 ficulty in hearing the speeches of members, and 

 the business of the session would be done in 

 about half the time usually occupied heretofore. 

 Capt. Meigs did not undertake to construct a 

 room where a man's voice could be heard despite 

 the scratching of hundreds of pens, the rattling 

 and cracking of hot political newspapers, the 

 rushing of pages and the tumbling of huge tomes 

 into wooden boxes ! As well might the House 

 assemble on the sea-shore, and ask that remorse- 

 less element to be still, as to transact business 

 comfortably under the existing circumstances in 

 that Babel of confusion, the House of Represen- 

 tatives of the United States. I am inclined to 

 the opinion that Capt. Meigs has achieved a com- 



