Each desk bears a silver plate with the occupant's name. A Senator keeps a desk only during a single Congress, drawing lots at the beginning of the next for a choice of seats - the Republicans sitting at the left and the Democrats at the right of the presid ing officer. Some desks are old and historic, being the same at which Senators distinguished in the early history of the Republic sat or delivered their forensic thunders. The President of the Senate is the Vice-President of the United States. He sits upon a platform within an arched niche and behind a broad desk. His chair is high backed and a magnificent piece of carved mahogany, a gift to Vice-President Hobart. At his right is the Sergeant-at-Arms, and at his left the Assistant Doorkeeper. In front of him, a step lower down, is the desk of the Senate clerks, and in front of that, on the floor of the arena, the tables of the official reporters. The press gallery is behind the President, and facing him are the galleries reserved for the Diplomatic Corps and for Senators' families. The end galleries are open to the public, the eastern one being set apart for women, who will find a convenient parlor and retiring-room, with a woman attendant, at its northern extremity. A plan of the Senators' seats may be obtained from the doorkeepers. Senate Galleries. Busts of all the Vice-Presidents are being placed in niches in the walls, of which the following is a roster, with the names of the sculptors: John Adams (Daniel C. French), Thomas Jefferson (M. Ezekiel), Aaron Burr (Jacques Joavenal), George Clinton (Victor A. Crane), Elbridge Gerry (Herbert Adams), Daniel Tompkins (C. H. Niehaus), Martin Van Buren (U. S. J. Dunbar), George M. Dallas (H. J. Ellicott), Hannibal Hamlin (Franklin Simmons), Henry Wilson (Daniel C. French), W. A. Wheeler (Edwin Potter), Chester A. Arthur (Aug. St. Gaudens), Thomas A. Hendricks (U. S. J. Dunbar), Levi P. Morton (F. Edwin Elwell), Adlai E. Stevenson (Franklin Simmons), John C. Calhoun, and R. M. Johnson. Busts of Vice Presidents. Outside the Senate Chamber many interesting things are to be seen on the main floor. Turning to the right from the main or rotunda entrance to the wing (and to the floor of the chamber), you find on the end wall a famous portrait (head) of Washington by Gilbert Stuart, which was bought by Congress in 1876, from ex-Senator Chestnut of South Carolina, for $1,200. Opposite it is a bright portrait of John Adams, copied by Andrews from Gilbert Stuart. Passing through the door between Eastern these portraits, and turning to the left, you come to the magnificent eastStaircase. ern staircase of Tennessee marble, illuminated by a rich skylight of stained glass. At its foot stands Powers' marble statue of Benjamin Franklin, which cost $10,000. The wall of the stair landing bears Powell's striking painting (an enlarged copy, for which $25,000 was paid by contract in 1873, of an earlier picture, 1863, made by Powell for the State of Ohio) of Com. Oliver P. Perry at the battle of Lake Erie, in 1810, transferring himself and his flag from his sinking flagship "Lawrence" to the "Niagara," in which he won a signal victory. This transfer was made under fire. Perry's younger brother, Matthew (who afterward opened Japan to the world), was then a midshipman, and is depicted here as entreating his brother and commander not to expose himself so recklessly. The faces of the sailors were drawn from once well-known employes about the Capitol. Just beyond the staircase is a noble vestibule, with coupled columns, having Corinthian capitals, designed by Latrobe, though usually credited to Jefferson, composed of a most graceful arrangement of Indian corn and tobacco leaves in place of the conventional acanthus. They are of white marble, but the walls are of scagliola. A bust of President John Tyler is the only ornament. This vestibule (where there is an elevator) opens upon the eastern portico through the Senate Bronze Doors designed by Thomas Crawford, cast by J. T. Ames at Chicopee, Mass., and set up here in 1868. These doors are equally interesting, and the workmanship is as fine as is that of the Rogers doors. The upper panel of each valve (one of which represents War and the other Peace, as typified in the figures in the foot-panel of each half) conCrawford tains a star surrounded by oak leaves, and acts as a ventilator. There are Bronze Doors. six panels, constituting the body of the door, in which are represented, in alto-relievo, events connected with the Revolution, the foundation of our Government, and the erection of the Capitol, chronologically as follows: The battles of Bunker Hill, Monmouth, and Yorktown; the welcome of Washington in Trenton on his way to New York in 1789 (the same panel contains portraits of the sculptor, his wife, three children, and of Rogers, the sculptor of the main door); the inauguration of Washington in 1789, and the laying of the corner-stone of the Capitol, September 18, 1793. The prominent figures are all likenesses. In the inauguration scene John Adams stands on Washington's right; Chancellor Livingston administers the oath, and Mr. Otis holds the Bible. The remaining figures are Alexander Hamilton, Generals Knox and St. Clair, Roger Sherman, and Baron Steuben. The frame over the door is supported by enriched brackets. The ornamentation is scroll-work and acanthus, with the cotton boll, stalks and ears of corn, grapes, and entwining vines. Above the door are two sculptured figures in American marble representing Justice and History by Crawford, whose price was $3,000. It will be remembered, also, that Crawford designed the figures that fill the pediment of this portico. This bronze door was his latest work; he was paid $6,000 for the designs, and William H. Rinehart was given $8,940 for the plaster model, while the casting (14,000-pounds) cost $50,500. Returning into the vestibule, it is well to turn aside through the first door, at the right, and see Brumidi's excellent frescoes in the room of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia. This was originally assigned to be the Senate post office, whence the artist's choice of History, Geography, Physics, and the Telegraph as subjects for his brush. The figures in each design are large and strikingly drawn, and the decorative accessories are most pleasing. This vestibule opens at its inner end on the right into the Senate Reception-room, an apartment sixty feet long, but divided by an arch, where Senators receive callersespecially ladies - upon business. It is gaudily ornate. The floor is of Minton tiles, and the walls are covered with rococo designs in stucco, in Receptionhigh relief, and heavily gilded. The vaulted ceiling has also many room. gilded stucco ornaments, and certain panels are embellished with allegor 66 66 ical frescoes by Brumidi entitled "Liberty," "Plenty," "Peace," "War," "Prudence,' Justice," Temperance," and "Strength"; while an excellently drawn and brilliantly colored mural painting, under the arch on the south wall, depicts Washington in conference with Jefferson and Hamilton - one of the best things in the Capitol. This room opens eastwardly into the office of the sergeant-at-arms, where a very large ceiling painting is visible, and westwardly it opens into the lobby. In the Senate Lobby, entering from the public reception-room, as above noted, the first door at the right opens into the Vice-President's Room, where Henry Wilson died, November 22, 1875, and whose bust by Daniel C. French remains here as a memento. The next door admits to the Marble Room a large senatorial reception or withdrawing room, popularly so called because every part of its interior is formed of variegated and sculptured marbles, all from East Tennessee except the white Italian capitals and ceilings. Here the "grave and reverend" Senators hold consultations at ease, or receive their VicePresident's and Marble Rooms. more privileged guests. Luxurious chairs, soft sofas, warm rugs, and lace curtains abound, and the room is dazzling at night when all the lights are aglow. The self-registering thermometers, barometers, wind-indicators, etc., to be seen here, furnish a branch station of the U. S. Weather Service; and the officer in charge records the phases of the weather all over the country upon the glass face of a map in a most interesting way. The House enjoys a similar substation. Next west of this splendid saloon is the President's room, another ornate apartment where it has been the custom since Andrew Johnson's time (except in Cleveland's case) for Presidents to sit during the PERRY AT THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE. Weather last day of a congressional session, in order to be ready to sign bills requiring an immediate signature. This room is brilliantly decorated, including medallion portraits of Staircase. not visible during ses THE GRAND CAÑON OF THE YELLOWSTONE. sions of Congress, except by the courtesy of some Senator. The rooms opening from the corridor west of the Senate Chamber belong to the clerks and certain committees and call for no special remark. The visitor may therefore pass on at once to the Western Grand Staircase of white American marble and Military Affairs of the House, and doubtless will eventually be placed there." At the head of the stairway hangs a full-length portrait of Washington, by Charles Wilson Peale, painted in 1779, the first sittings for which were given at Valley Forge. Senate Galleries. This west corridor admits one to the gentlemen's and to one of the reserved galleries of the Senate, and to numerous committee-rooms. The rooms in the northern front of the wing, behind the press gallery, are not public. Turning to the right from the elevator, or from the head of the stairs, let us walk around through the south corridor, whose doors admit to the Senate galleries, to the head of the eastern grand stairway. Beyond the stairway are two of the most interesting rooms in the building, a hall looking out upon the plaza, and another, adjoining, having a delightful prospect northward. These rooms not only contain fine tiling and mural decorations, but some notable paintings. In the former are a portrait of John C. Calhoun, and Moran's celebrated pictures of the cañons of the Colorado and of the Yellowstone, which were THE CHASM OF THE COLORADO.- Painting by Thomas Moran. painted from actual studies, and sold to the Government for $10,000 each. Those familiar with these marvelous regions of the country know that the coloring is by no means too vivid, and that the drawing is highly expressive. This room opens into the gallery for Senators' families, the first and second seats of which are reserved for the President and Vice-President, and their friends. The adjoining hall (from which opens a ladies' retiring-room, with a woman attendant) has the painting representing the encounter between the Monitor and Merrimac, THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION. Painting by Mrs. Cornelia A. Fassett. In Lobby of Senate Gallery. painted by Paintings and Portraits. only exception to the rule that no reminder of the Civil War shall be placed in the Capitol, an exception due to the fact that this was in reality a drawn battle, where the courage of the contestants was conspicuously equal, and where the naval methods of the world were revolutionized. Its historical interest is therefore worldwide. Here also are portraits of Lincoln and Garfield, in Italian mosaic, the gift of Signor Salviati of Venice, Italy; a portrait of Charles Sumner, by W. Ingalls, dated 1870; and one of Gen. John A. Dix, by Imogene Robinson Morrell, dated 1883. It was John A. Dix, afterward a Major-General, Senator, and Governor of New York, who, when Secretary of the Treasury in 1861, sent to one of his special agents in Louisiana the famous order containing the words: "If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag shoot him on the spot," which so thrilled patriotic hearts. Here also are several busts of high artistic excellence, as well as historic interest. These are of Kosciusko, the Hungarian patriot, by H. D. Saunders; of Count Pulaski, Polish soldier of the Revolution, by H. D. Mochowski; of Thomas Crawford, the sculptor, by Gogliardi, and a marble head of Bee-Shee-Kee, a Chippewa Indian. Busts. A small special elevator makes this room directly accessible from the basement; and descending by it, or by the eastern grand stairway, to the main floor, one walks to the main corridor, where, upon the wall at the western end, hang beautiful portraits of Thomas Jefferson, a copy from an original by Thomas Sully, and of Patrick Henry, a copy by Matthews, from an original by Sully, an eminent painter of portraits and historical pictures, who died in Boston in 1872. The portraits on the eastern wall have already been described. The survey of the Senate wing has now been finished, and the Supreme Court Chamber is next to be inspected. This is reached by the main passageway leading from the Senate to the rotunda. Here, as soon as the older part of the building is entered, one comes to the door of the Supreme Court, guarded by an attendant who will admit visitors upon all proper occasions. Beginning with the resort of the populace in the rotunda, the visitor has now inspected in succession the halls of the lower and upper house of Congress, and now concludes with the tribunal which passes upon the validity of the laws they pass. To sit at the rear of this old hall when the court is in session, as happens five days in the week, during the greater part of the year, is an impressive experience. The Supreme Court of the United States now occupies the chamber in the old Capitol designed for the Senate, and occupied by that body from 1800 until the completion of the new wing in 1859. Previously it sat in the hall, prepared for it, beneath this one. Supreme This chamber was designed by Latrobe, and its general resemblance to the old Hall of Representatives (Statuary Hall) will be noted, but it is smaller, measuring 75 by 45 feet wide, and 45 feet high to the zenith of the low half-dome. Beneath the wide arch of |