the entrance to the Hall of Gods and Kings, more grand in dimensions and beautiful in color than that (the Saulenhof) built by Lepsius in the museum at Berlin, and contains twelve decorated columns in three styles- the Lotus Bud, the Palm, and Hathor capitals - with wall decorations and the throne pavilion reproduced by Lepsius. The Upper Egyptian Hall contains the beautiful interior of an Egyptian house and court designed by Racinet. The larger section, 33 feet by 42 feet, is for illustration of the arts and crafts of the Egyptians. A dado 72 feet in length displays a facsimile in color of the Papyrus of Ani, or Book of the Dead, from the British Museum. On the staircase wall is a copy, 10 feet by 7 feet, of Richter's "Building of the Pyramids," and adjacent, one of like size of Long's "Egyptian Feast"; also a cast of the Rosetta Stone.

The Assyrian Throne Room is gorgeous in blue and gold. A section is walled with casts from the Nineveh and Nimroud slabs in the British Museum, and paintings of others. The portal is between the four colossal human-headed bulls found in the Palace of Sennacherib. The Throne of Xerxes from Persepolis is set up, modeled from the original in the Louvre.

The Roman House upon the ground floor, with entrance from the Hall of Columns, covers 10,000 square feet. Its decorations, which cover more than 15,000 square feet of surface, are copied in part from the beautiful House of Vettius. This exceeds in size and completeness Mr. Smith's well-known House of Panza in Saratoga.

The Taberna (shop) occupies the lower floor of the Roman House, and contains superb illustrations of Greek vases, full size. Replica copies thereof will be made for supplying schools and individuals with models of form and beauty in decoration.

The Lecture Hall, in Persian style of ornamentation, contains the painting of the Grandeur of Rome in the time of Constantine, covering more than 500 square feet, after the original by Buhlmann and Wagner of Munich.

ASSYRIAN THRONE ROOM, HALLS OF THE ANCIENTS.

The Saracenic Halls are a precise counterpart of the beautiful interior of the House of Benzaquin in Tangiers, and a hall with gallery plated with casts of traceries from the Alhambra.

The Art Gallery is devoted to illustrations of Roman history. The walls are surrounded by 102 plates from Pinelli's "Istoria Romana "- engravings in historical order from the foundation of Rome.

Visitors will be attended in the halls by expositors upon the most interesting objects and illustrations. Mr. Smith will speak in explanation, at intervals, to audiences in the different halls. A descriptive hand-book, with fifty illustrations, is issued for loan to visitors, and is also for sale.

The ultimate object of the construction of the Hall is to illustrate Mr. Smith's design for National Galleries of History and Art according to view annexed. The plan is elaborately set forth in Senate Document No. 209; over 300 pages, octavo, with more than 200 illustrations. It has been published by unanimous consent of the Senate, and can probably be obtained upon request to members of Congress.

X.

CHURCHES, CLUBS, THEATERS, ETC.

Episcopal.

Washington has a great number of churches of every denomination and in all parts of the city. Only a few of the most conspicuous of these need be mentioned. The oldest are Rock Creek Church, near the Soldiers' Home; Christ Church, near the Navy Yard, and St. John's, on Lafayette Square. All these are Episcopal, and have been elsewhere described. Other prominent Episcopal churches are: Epiphany (G Street, near Fourteenth), which, like several other church societies in the city, has a suburban chapel; the Church of the Ascension, at Massachusetts Avenue and Twelfth Street; old St. John's, prominent in Georgetown; and St. James', at Massachusetts Avenue and Eighth Street, N. E., on Capitol Hill, very highly ritualistic. The Roman Catholics have many fine churches and a large influence in Washington, fostered by their universities. Their oldest church is St. Aloysius, at North Capitol and S streets; and St. Matthew's, Rhode Island Avenue near Connecticut Avenue, is probably the most fashionable. Congregationalism is represented most prominently by the First Church, at G and Tenth streets, which has always been a leader in religious philanthropy, especially toward the Freedmen. The Presbyterian churches are among the oldest

and largest. The leading one, perhaps, is the First, which remains in Presbyterian. Four-and-a-half Street, and became famous under the care of Dr. Byron Sunderland, when it was attended by President Cleveland. An offshoot from it was the New York Avenue Church, whose big house is so conspicuous in the angle between that avenue and H Street at Twelfth. Out of this has sprung the Gurley Memorial, near Seventh Street and the Boundary; and the Church of the Covenant, whose great square tower is a conspicuous ornament on Connecticut Avenue. Well

at Fourteenth and L streets. The Universalist meeting-house is at L and Thirteenth streets. The "Christian" Society, of which President Garfield was a member, worships in its Memorial Church on Vermont Avenue, between N and O streets. The Lutheran Memorial Church, on Thomas Circle, is foremost in that denomination, and the service is in English. Colored churches are numerous, chiefly Methodist and Baptist; in the former the strongest is Asbury, at Eleventh and K streets, and in the latter the Abyssinian, at Vermont Avenue and R Street. 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 a historic site on Madison Place, Lafayette Square. Another large theater is the Grand Opera House, on Fifteenth Street, at the corner of E Street, one block south of Pennsylvania Avenue, now devoted to vaudeville. 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

Theaters and the Opera.

house, at Ninth and

D streets. The Columbia is the newest addition to the commendable theaters. It is at 1112 F Street, occupying what formerly was Metzerott Hall. Kernan's Lyceum, at 1014 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Butler's Bijou, give variety shows.

Certain churches 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 conventions.

The clubs of the capital are not among its "sights," but

THE CHURCH OF THE COVENANT.
Southeast Corner Eighteenth and N Streets, N. W.

Army and Navy Club.

should receive a few words. Most prominent among them is the Metropolitan, characterized elsewhere. 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 Cosmos Club has been referred to elsewhere; the Columbia Athletic Club is a large association of young men, partly social and partly athletic, which has a field in the gardens of the old Van Ness mansion. The Country Club, near Tenallytown, and the Chevy Chase Club, have already been mentioned. Minor Clubs. Allied to them, within the city, are several clubs of amateur photographers, golf players, 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 606 Eleventh Street, composed of women who earn their living-physicians, journalists, stenographers, etc. Both these clubs give teas, musicales, 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.

The Young Men's Christian Association flourishes here — and in 1898 took possession of the fine house and gymnasium built by the Columbia Athletic Club on G Street near Nineteenth.