its walls and ceilings are some exquisite vine and fruit pieces. In the room of Military Affairs five frescoes (by Brumidi) depict the Boston Massacre, the Battle of Lexington, the Death of Wooster, Washington at Valley Forge, and the Storming of Stony Point. Above the doors of the Foreign Relations Room is a fresco copy of West's painting of the Signing of Preliminary Articles of Peace between the United States and Great Britain, at Paris, Nov. 13, 1782; and within are portraits of Clay, Allen, Cameron and Sumner, in their times chairmen of the committee. The negotiations between the United States and France which led to the Louisiana Purchase (April 30, 1803), give the theme for the exterior decoration of the Territories Room. Other portraits are of Fulton, over the door of the Patents Room; Franklin, over that of the PostOffices and Post-Roads Room; Fitch (steamboat inventor), over the Senate Post-Office, and Las Casas (Apostle to the American Indians). Crypt.—Underneath the Rotunda is a chamber formed by a colonnade of Doric columns with groined ceiling. A star in the floor designates the centre of the Capitol. A crypt below was designed to be the tomb of Washington, but it was never used for this purpose.

The Corner-stone of the original Capitol is to the right of the Rotunda portico; it may be reached by descending the flight of steps on the right after leaving the Rotunda by the north door. There are three interesting memorials of the laying of the corner-stone. One is a printed account, contained in the Columbian Mirror and Alexandria Gazette of Sept. 25, 1793 (preserved in the Library of Congress); a second is the panel in the Senate Bronze Door; and the third is a beautiful bronze tablet, set in place in 1895, and inscribed with this legend:

Beneath this tablet the corner-stone of the Capitol of the United States was laid by George Washington, First President, September 18, 1793. On the hundredth anniversary in the year 1893, in presence of the Congress, the Executive and the Judiciary, a vas concourse of the grateful people of the District of Columbia commemorated the ever.' Grover Cleveland, President of the United States. Adlai Ewing Stevenson, Vice-President Charles Frederick Crisp, Speaker House of Representatives. Daniel Wolsey Voorhees, Chairman Joint Committee of Congress. Lawrence Gardner, Chairman Citizens' Com. mittee.

A memorial tablet, deposited beneath the corner-stone of the extensions. laid July 4, 1851, concludes with these rounded periods of Daniel Webster, Secretary of State and the orator of the day:

If, therefore, it shall be hereafter the will of God that this structure shall fall from its base, that its foundations be upturned, and this deposit brought to the eyes of men, be it known that on this day the Union of the United States of America stands firm; that their Constitution still exists unimpaired, and with all its original usefulness and glory, growing every day stronger and stronger in the affection of the great body of the American people, and attracting more and more the admiration of the world. And all here assembled, whether belonging to public life or to private life, with hearts devoutly thankful to Almighty God for the preservation of the liberty and happiness of the country, unite in sincere and fervent prayers that this deposit, and the walls and arches, the domes and towers, the columns and entablatures, now to be erected over it, may endure forever! GOD SAVE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

TH

And its Mural Decorations

For hours to visit, see Time Table.

HE Library grounds adjoin those of the Capitol. The building faces west upon First street, and the outer walls have a frontage upon four streets (First, East Capitol, Second and B streets).

The

grounds and residences upon them cost $585,000. The building was completed in 1897. The net cost, exclusive of site, was $6,032,124.54. The original architectural plans were prepared by the firm of Smithmeyer & Pelz. These were modified by those of Edward Pearce Casey.

The building is of the Italian Renaissance order of architecture; it has three stories, with a dome; and is in area 470X340-ft., covering nearly 32 acres of ground, with four large inner courts, 150 by 75 to 100-ft., and nearly 2,000 windows render it the best lighted library in the world.

The plan and arrangement are shown in our diagram. The building consists of a great central rotunda, which is the reading-room; from which radiate book stacks, and which is inclosed in a parallelogram of galleries and pavilions. The building material employed for the exterior walls is white granite from New Hampshire, and for the inner courts Maryland granite and white enameled bricks.

There are three stories. On the ground floor are the copyright office, reading room for the blind, and superintendent's office. The first floor contains the reading room (where the books are consulted). the librarian's room, periodical reading room, Senate and Representatives' reading room and map room. The pavilions and galleries of the second floor are devoted to exhibits of engravings and other collections, including rare books. first editions and portraits of the Presidents and other personages.

Exterior Decorations.-The Dome is finished in black copper, with panels gilded with a thick coating of gold leaf. The cresting of the Dome above the lantern, 195-ft. from the ground, terminates in a gilded finial, representing the torch of Science, ever burning.

The thirty-three windows of the corner pavilion and of the west façade have carved heads representing the several races of men. The types are: Russian Slav, Blond European, Brunet European, Modern Greek, Persian Circassian, Hindoo, Hungarian, Jew, Arab, Turk, Modern Egyptian, Abyssinian, Malay, Polynesian, Australian, Negrito, Zulu, Papuan, Soudan Negro, Akka, Fuegian, Botocudo, Pueblo Indian, Esquimau, Plains Indian, Samoyede, Corean, Japanese, Aino, Burmese, Thibetan, Chinese.

The Bronze Fountain, by Hinton Perry, represents the Court of Neptune, with tritons, sea nymphs, sea horses, serpents, frogs and turtles.

The Entrance Pavilion has sixteen rounded pillars with Corinthian capitals. Four colossal Atlantes support the pediment, on which are sculptured American eagles, with supporting figures of children. In the windows are nine colossal portrait-busts in granite: Emerson and Irving, by Hartley; Goethe, Franklin and Macaulay by Ruckstuhl; Hawthorne, by Hartley; Scott, by Adams; Demosthenes and Dante, by Adams. The sculptures over the entrances by Bela L. Pratt typify Literature, Science and Art.

The Bronze Doors.

Bronze Door-Printing.-By Frederick Macmonnies.-Minerva presiding over the "Diffusion of the Products of the Typographical Art." Two winged figures of youthful genii are, as her envoys, conveying to mankind the blessings of learning and literature. By Minerva's side is her owl; other suggestions are the hour-glass, the old-fashioned printing press, the stork (as the bird of home), and a Pegasus. The legend: "Homage to Guttenberg." (Guttenberg was the inventor of printing, Germany, 1400-1468.) In the panels idealizations are of Intellect and Humanities.

Bronze Door-Writing.-by Olin L. Warner-A mother is instructing her children from the written record of the scroll. On one side is an Egyptian scribe with his stylus, and a Jewish patriarch; on the other, a Greek with a lyre and a Christian with the Cross. In the panels are Truth with mirror and serpent and Research with torch. Bronze Door-Tradition.-By Olin L. Warner.Tradition is typified as a woman reciting her story to a boy. Listening to the tale are four representtative types of mankind-a Norse warrior, with winged cap and battle-axe, a shepherd with his crock; a primitive man with his stone axe, and an American Indian with his arrows. The Indian figure is a portrait of Chief Joseph of the Nez Percés. In the left panel is Imagination with the lyre, emblematic of recitation and song; in the right stands widowed Memory clasping the sword and helmet of her dead. The genii below support the wings of Imagination and the memorial urn.

Entrance Pavilion - Vestibule --Grand Stair Hall.

The Minerva of Defensive War and the Minerva of Wisdom and the Liberal Arts, sculptured figures by Herbert Adams, are represented in eight pairs. The white marble of the vestibule is from Italy. The gold of the ceiling is like that of the Dome, 22-carats fine.

The Central Stair Hall is a magnificent apartment, unsurpassed by any other entrance hall in the world. It is lined throughout with fine Italian marble, highly polished. On the sides rise lofty rounded columns, with elaborate carved capitals of Corinthian design; while the arches are adorned with marble rosettes, palm leaves and foliated designs of exquisite finish and delicacy. The great height of this entrance hal!, rising 72-ft. to the sky