124 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



One day Mr. Allen went with me to the House of 

 Representatives, where we heard part of a debate on the 

 Pleuro-pneumonia Bill, State rights, etc. The arrangements 

 differ widely from ours. The whole building seems to be 

 open to the public. There is a very broad gallery all round 

 the chamber with comfortable seats, accommodating perhaps 

 several thousand people. Every member has a separate 

 desk and chair, and most of them write or read at their 

 ease while the speeches are going on. Dozens of messenger- 

 boys are always running about, taking letters, telegrams, or 

 messages to friends. To call a boy the member claps his 

 hands. There is much more energy and gesticulation in the 

 speeches than with us. The Capitol is a very fine building, 

 standing on a small hill in a fine park. It is in the classical 

 style, with very broad flights of steps, great numbers of 

 columns, and a beautiful central dome, as graceful in form 

 as that of St. Paul's, and over three hundred feet high. The 

 whole building is pure white, part painted stone, the rest 

 white marble. The general effect is really magnificent. The 

 inside is equally fine, the central hall under the dome forming 

 a kind of public lounge. Owing, however, to its being situated 

 in a city which is not a great business centre, it is rarely 

 crowded. 



The Corcoran Art Gallery occupied an afternoon. The 

 most remarkable pictures were Church's "Niagara," Bierstadt's 

 grand view in the Sierra Nevada, and MuUer's " Charlotte 

 Corday." One morning I went by invitation to the Naval 

 Observatory to see the instruments and the wonderfully in- 

 genious electrical arrangement by which clocks all over the 

 country are automatically set right at noon, both second and 

 minute hands being moved back or forward as required. I 

 also saw the great equatorial, with twenty-six-inch object 

 glass and of thirty-feet focal length ; at that time the finest 

 telescope in the world. A week later, on a frosty night, I 

 went again, and was shown Saturn, with powers of four 

 hundred and six hundred. The division of the ring was very 

 sharp, but the dark ring was barely visible as a shadow on 

 the two ends. The white equatorial belt was, however, very 



