department. The gems of this superb cabinet, however, are the articles of jade, in which this collection has few superiors; among which the translucent plaques of carved jade, if not unique in the United States, are certainly unsurpassed. A large number of ivory carvings, teakwood stands of exquisite design, and other curiosities of oriental art and workmanship, make this gallery notable. Visitors are admitted upon Thursdays, during January, February, March, and April, between 11 and 4 o'clock of each week, by paying 50 cents for each admission toward a charitable fund. The magnificent Walters' Galleries in Baltimore (No. 5 Mount Vernon Place) are so easily and frequently visited from Washington, and are of such importance, that they ought to be mentioned here. They are the private collection of the late William T. Walters, kindly opened to the public during certain winter months, by his son, Henry Walters; and they excel not only anything in America, but in special lines, as oriental porcelains, bronzes, etc., and certain classes of pictures, surpass anything else anywhere. The collection of modern paintings is unequaled for quality in the whole world. These arttreasures are visible each Wednesday, from February to May; and tickets may be had in Washington of Harris & Shaler, 1113 Pennsylvania Avenue. The Theaters in Washington attract the finest traveling companies, including occasional grand opera. The newest and most ornate house is the Lafayette Square Opera House, occupying an historic site (p. 123) on Lafayette Square. Another large theater is Allen's (formerly Albaugh's) Opera House, on Fifteenth Street, at the corner of E Street, one block south of Pennsylvania Avenue. The new National Theater, on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, is of great capacity and comfort, and holds the popularity it gained long ago. The Academy of Music is another well-known house, at Ninth and D streets. Kernan's Lyceum, at 1014 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Butler's Bijou give variety shows. Metzerott Hall and Willard's Hall are the principal places for lectures, and the like, but scientific lectures are usually heard in the hall at the National Museum or in the lecture room of the Cosmos Club. Convention Hall is an immense arched apartment over a market where New York Avenue crosses L and Fifth streets, and is intended for the use of the great conventions that more and more seek to meet in this city, and for inauguration balls, fairs, and similar occasions where vast congregations must be accommodated. In winter it is a skating rink. The Clubs of the capital are not among its " sights," but should receive a few words. Most prominent among them is the Metropolitan, which has already been characterized (p. 129). Next in social importance, probably, is the Army and Navy, which has a handsome six-story building opposite the southeastern corner of Farragut Square. Its triangular lot has enabled the architect to make a series of very charming principal rooms, in the northwestern front, where the sunshine streams in nearly all day. These and the many connecting apartments are luxuriously furnished and adorned with pictures, including original portraits of a dozen or more of the principal commanders of the army and navy, from Paul Jones to W. T. Sherman. Only those identified with some military organization are eligible to membership, but the club is very liberal in extending a welcome to visiting militiamen, foreign military men, and others suitably introduced. One feature of this club is the informal professional lecture given to the members once a month by some expert. The University is a smaller social club having a house at the corner of Seventeenth and I streets. The Cosmos has been referred to elsewhere (p. 127); and the Columbia Athletic Club is a large association of young men, partly social and partly athletic, which has a fine new house and gymnasium on F Street, and a field in the gardens of the old Van Ness mansion (p. 107). The Country Club, near Tennallytown, and the Chevy Chase Club have already been mentioned. Allied to them, within the city, are several clubs of bicycle riders, tennis and ball players, and boatmen, Washington being a place famous for oarsmen. The two women's clubs must not be forgotten: One is the fashionable Washington Club, on H Street, opposite the French Embassy, and the other the Working Women's Club, a purely social organization, at No. 606 Eleventh Street, composed of women who earn their living—physicians, journalists, stenographers, etc. Both these clubs give teas, musicals, and other feminine entertainments. The Alibi is a coterie of well-fed gentlemen who give charming feasts, largely of their own cooking, and cultivate a refined Bohemianism; while the Gridiron is a dining club of newspaper men, who have a jolly dinner among themselves once a month, and an annual spread to which all the great men available are invited, and where most of them are good-naturedly guyed. XII. EXCURSIONS ABOUT WASHINGTON. 1. To Mount Vernon. The pilgrimage to the home and tomb of George Washington at Mount Vernon is regarded by most Americans as a duty as well as a pleasure, and foreigners look upon it as a compliment due to the nation. It forms, moreover, a delightful excursion. Mount Vernon is on the right bank of the Potomac, sixteen miles below Washington. The lands about it were a part of an extensive grant to John Washington, the first of the family who came to America in 1656, and they descended rather fortuitously, in 1752, to George, then hardly more than a lad. He married in 1759, and continued to develop and beautify the estate until the breaking out of the Revolution, when the ability he had shown in the Virginia militia called him to the service of the United Colonies. He returned to Mount Vernon at the close of the war, but, to his grief, was obliged soon to quit its beloved acres for the cares of the first Presidency of the Republic. During this interval of five years an almost continuous stream of visitors had been entertained there, and among them were many foreigners of note as well as representative Americans of the time. Finally, in 1797, the great commander was released from the cares of government, and enabled to retire, to pass, as he hoped, many quiet and enjoyable years upon his plantation. A most interesting account of life at Mount Vernon and its neighborhood at this time may be found in an illustrated article by Constance Cary Harrison in The Century for April, 1889. Only two years were vouchsafed him, however, for on December 14, 1799, he died of membranous croup (or barbarous medical treatment) following exposure in a storm. He was buried upon his own estate, and the family declined to accept the subsequent invitation of Congress to transfer |