16 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



" Why do I mention all these little 

 things ?" Because I am a little peculiar in 

 this respect. When I am with a great crowd 

 going to see some " show " I am always on 

 the lookout for, and tlelight in finding, some 

 little bypath or object that the crowd misses. 

 For instance when in the great capitol 

 building I happened to look down an open 

 door into a basement room, and there I saw 

 a workman with his dinner spread out before 

 him, and I at once fell into a train of thought 

 as to what kind of a home he had, and the 

 loving hands that probably put up that lunch, 

 etc. When Frank Benton was reading his 

 paper he paid a glowing tribute to his wife, 

 told how she stood by him through thick and 

 thin, I could see the veias stand out on his 

 forehead like whipcords, and there was a 

 huskiness in his voice. It was a little thing, 

 but it spoke volumes and put the man still 

 higher in my estimation. It was the same 

 when Mrs. Eugene Secor, who had stopped 

 over one day at Baltimore to visit friends, 

 came into the convention room, and a hearty 

 hand shake a sort of confidential smile that 

 passed between her and her husband showed 

 how happily they must live. 



But I must hasten on. What about Wash- 

 ington ? Well, it is'nt Chicago with its tall 

 buildings, and the hustle and bustle of its 

 commerce and manufactories, but it is a 

 beautiful, clean, residence city. Its streets 

 are wide and most of them covered with 

 asphalt pavements, and oh, how clean they 

 are kept ! Men with great, wide, iron shov- 

 els, shovels that remind one of a huge dust- 

 pan with a long handle, are constantly busy 

 on the streets. The moment that a bit of 

 filth is seen upon the pavement it is at once 

 scooped up and carried away. I even saw 

 men busy with brooms sweeping the pave- 

 ments. Washington is' the paradise of bi- 

 cyclers. Thousands and thousands of these 

 silent travellers glide hither and thither over 

 the smooth pavements. Nowhere have I seen 

 more elegant " turnouts ;" that is, fine 

 horses, with silver mounted harnesses, glit- 

 tering coaches, and colored drivers dressed 

 in broadcloth and heads covered with "tall" 

 hats. A view of Pennsylvania Avenue re- 

 minded me very much of scenes that I had 

 seen in pictures. 



The next morning after the convention was 

 over a party of fifteen or twenty started out 

 to " do " the sights. Of course the first 

 thing was the capitol building. It is upon a 

 rise of ground, and surrounded by stone ter- 



races and everything is so well proportioned 

 that its great size is not so apparent. The 

 building, as is the case with most if not all 

 of the government buildings, is wholly of 

 stone, marble and metal. Some of the 

 rooms are simply elegant, with their pillars 

 of variegated marble, floors of grey and 

 white marble, walls of white marble inter- 

 spersed with mirrors. Upon the walls in 

 many places are historical paintings, show- 

 ing the figures life-size. It is also interest- 

 ing to visit the senate chamber and the house 

 of representatives and see the spot where the 

 laws of this great nation are passed. Many 

 sought out the desk of the congressman from 

 their district and had the pleasure of occu- 

 pying his seat for a moment. I am so little of 

 a politician that I actually did not know who 

 was the representative from my district. 

 From the steps of the capitol one gets a fair 

 view of the city, while the clatter of the thou- 

 sands of hoofs on the pavements comes up in 

 a subdued roar that reminds a bee-keeper of 

 the roar heard in an apiary at the close of a 

 prosperous day's work at honey gathering. 



From the capitol we went through the 

 greenhouses with their various plants and 

 trees gathered from all parts of the world. 



The next place visited was the U. S. fish 

 commission. Here is carried on the hatch- 

 ing of fish and sending them away to stock 

 distant waters. To most visitors the most 

 interesting feature is the "Deep Sea Grotto." 

 This is a long room in which most of the 

 light comes in through the aquariums ranged 

 along its sides. The bottom of each aqua- 

 rium is covered with pure white sand and 

 gravel, then pebbles, pieces of rocks, shells, 

 etc., are put in, and among them are marine 

 plants and leaves of a long, thread-like na- 

 ture. The plants are mostly of bright colors, 

 such as green or crimson. In each aquarium 

 are placed one or two varieties of fish. Some 

 are quite peculiar. For instance the "floun- 

 der," that lies flat upon the bottom, and it 

 requires sharp eyes to distinguish it from 

 the gravel and sand at the bottom. Then 

 there are shell-fish, toad-fish that resemble a 

 toad without legs but furnished with a fish- 

 tail. Here, I for the first saw some eels. 



We next went to the National Museum and 

 the Smithsonian Institute. Here are gather- 

 ed together the most interesting things that 

 it has been my lot to see. A dress suit of 

 Washington, his writing desk and chair, etc., 

 seemed to bring the past so near to the pres- 

 ent. All the commissions received by Gen- 



