Evening Star Newspaper, March 4, 1897, Page 19

THE EVENING STAR, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1897-20 PAGES. HOME OF THE BOOKS| How the Snipa Library Building Was Erected. BEAUTY AND UTILITY HAND IN HAND Most Marvelous Structure of the Kind in the World. es MONUMENTTO AMERICAN ART All Americans visiting the new Congres- sional Library building feel justly proud of that structure, abounding, as it does, in marvels of beauty and evidences of rare genius. They are proud that it has been reserved to Americans to erect the most pala home for books of all ages and all tongues. and taey are proud to contem- plate that while this bufiding is the most magnificent of the king in the world, it is in design and construction the work of Americans. It is about a quarter of a century since Librarian Spofford, in his annual report, suggested that Congress cause to be erected a library building commensurate with the importance of the great collec- tion of books that had been gathered in a portion of the old Capitol building. Not until 1836 was an act passed adopting the’ Smithmeyer plan, and designating the site now occupied by .the, building. The site comprised three city squares, occupied by seven sumed in appraising and taking possession of the land, the second year in clearing the site and preparing for the foundations. The time fixed by Congress for completing the work was eight years, and the total | buildings. The first year was con- | | A GLIMPSE OF THE INTERIOR. ceilings being arranged with this height of stack in view. Metal Book Stacks. The book stacks are of metal, can be made to books of any size, can be removed in part to make additional passageways. The shelving now in tie Mbrary building ag- gregates 44 miles and will accommodate 2,085,120 volumes. The capacity of the ad- of the stricture, the solidity and per- stamens of its character and the harmohy that exists throughout its construction make it the wonder of all who see it. Ap- proached from the west front the grand staircase is magnificent and when once within che main hall, with elaborately carved staircase, with évery foot of wall and ceiling ornamented by the art of the frescoer the scene is enchanting. Not only is the structure a monument to art and es- pecially American art, but it is a aoe of American history. The principal hi and apartments have been ornamented ,by the most eminent artists of the country. ‘There have been twenty-three sculptors and twenty mural painters employed in this work. All suitable spaces are filled with fitting instructive quotations and names of the world’s greatest men in all departments of knowledge and human en- deavor. me: Where Credit Belongs. There has been considerable controversy over the degree of credit due various per- sons connected with the designing of the: new library building. As stated, the original plans were those of Smithmeyer, and for three and a half years Mr. Pelz, Mr. Smith- meyer’s partner, was engaged in carrying out the original designs. There were var ous changes made in the original designs, (Fnar Stor Pam THE GROUND PLAN. ditional shelving which may be placed in the first and se¢ond floors of the north, east and south fronts is 2,500,000 volumes, and the ultimaté capacity of the building for books without encroaching on the pavilions, reading rooms, museum halls or other parts of the west front, where is the grand marple staircase, or any part of the basement or cellar, is 4,500,000 vol- ‘ost of the structure was finally limited te 245,567.94, and one of the features of the | enterprise has been its completion within | the Hmit of both time and cost. The Great Rotunda. The octagon rotunda occupies the center of the bullding, and constitutes the public reading room, being 100 feet in diameter, the ceiling being 125 feet above the floor. This will form the great distributing center of the Iibrary. About the rotunda are book stacks, which will contain the books most in demand by the reading pul lic. As in tae British Museum, the readers make all applications and recelve and re- turn their books at the desk in the center of this great reading room. There will be ample apparatus for communication with all parts of the buliding, and convenient and quick means for getting a book to the central desk from the most remote corner of the structure. At t ntral desk are a set of twenty-four pneumatic tubes, one of which runs to the Capitol, another to n’s Office, and the balance to brarians, who will be stationed parts of the book stacks. All umatic tubes carry messages swiftly. and all but the one going to the Capitol are speaking tubes of the best qual The terminals of the mechanical book car to the various stations in the book stacks are at the central desk. Accommodations for Readers. There will be accommodations in the Mbrary for several hundred readers. In the central hall ranged about the desk will be seats for 246 readers and about the rotunda there will be forty-three spaces in the alecves where the books will be stored, each from efght to ten feet square, and students can there find privacy. While architects are enchanted by the beauty of design and execution of the great building to the Mbrarian perhaps its Most wonderful is the system of book stacks. For utility and permanence the 1s far beyond any that tn the Wbraries of the world. There Qe, ine tors oF stories of hook’ stacks, fh seven feet high, the height of the has been Cows umes, being slightly less than 100 miles of shelving. But the bulldmg will be- come crowced in generations to come, and there will be no great difficulty by using all the available space in storing nearly 10,000,000 of books. Wonder of Librarians, Another device that is a wonder to the visiting Mbrarian is the automatic book carrier. When a certain book is called for an assistant Ubrarian in the stack from which {t is ordered places it on a recetv- ing plate and in a few seconds a carrier A Window. tray comes along, picks up the books and carries them to the central desk in the reading room, landing them on a delivery slide whence they drop into a padded box near the hand of the attendants. The volumes are returned to their proper stack by a similar operation, the attendant in setting the lever at a number on the dia! corresponding with the number of the stack to which the book belongs, which in- sures its delivery at the proper place. Connected With the Capitol. The Capitol is connected with the library building by a subway a quarter of a mile in length, through which books can be sent within a féw minutes from the time of be- ing ordered. This subway ts large enough for a man to walk through and extends from the Hbrary tc a small room in the rear of the old Hall of Representatives. This subway 1s provided with a tramway that will carry parcels to the size of a bound volume of newspapers. The libra- rlan’s office will be connected by pneu- and new drawings were made. The con- struction was under the charge of Gen. Casey until his death, and since 1888 Ber- nard R. Green has had charge of construc tion, and under him many of the essential features of the building were adopted. Agser Mr. Pelz ceased to be connected with the building of the library Gen. Casey's son was employed in his stead as designer of much of the artistic work. But however the credit may be parceled out to various persons, coming generations will be proud of the magnificent library building as the work of Americans, for they were all of that nationality. ee MONKS AND MARRIAGES. Singular Religious and Social Cus- toms Reported by a Recent Traveler. The Indian Daily News gives extracts from an interesting paper read before the Beddhist Text Society of India by the hcnorary secretary at a recent meeting: Thibet abounds in monasteries and tem- ples. No other Buddhist country in Asta, whether in the past or in the present time. eculd be compared with modern Thibet in the number of her Buddhist priests and monasteries. The number of monks in the monasteries of Thibet at the present day might be estimated at a million. According to my estimate, which is based partly on records left by eminent Thibetan writers. Thibet has a population of 6,000,000; though the country is nearly equal in ex- tent and climate to Russia, its populatien is not larger than that of London. The 4 proportion of its monks to the entire popu- jJation was therefore one to six. If one-half the population be females, then the pro- portion of the monks to the male popula- tion is one to three. This appeared to me too large a proportion for the monks. I therefore thought it safe to state that the monk population was 50,000: to make the proportion one to six, as it is held by some of the well-informed men of Thibet. QUEER {in Aagust, 1814. Though the number of monasteries is so large, the number of nunneries is dispro- Portionately small. It is doubtful if there | are even 100 convents in the whole of Thibet. We find that the first-class mon- asteries, which have state endowments for their support, contain an average of 1,000 monks in each monastery, but in the larger ecnvents the average number of nuns does not exceed twenty. It may be asked what may be the reason of this surprising dis- proportion in the two classes of institu- tions. The custom of polyandry, which prevails in Thibet, would rather suggest an increase of the nunneries, with a corre- spending increase in their population. But, in fact, the very. reverse is the case. It has been a puzzle to European scholars who have taken interest in the matter of the institutions of Thibet to account for the number and occupation of the women who do not get husbands. If all the broth- ers in a family club together in matrimony with one wife, what becomes of the ma- icrity of the female population who remain unmarried?During my residence, as well as travels, in Thibet I paid some attention to the subject. As the way to wealth, fame and official power is open to those who en- ter monasteries to study religion and lit- erature, and to lead a life of celibacy, people find it humiliating to remain in their homes to lead a worldly life. They run to menasteries In large numbers, but only such are permitted to remain in them as can commit to memory the largest number of pages of the sacred works. So, many come back unsuccessful and discomfited by failures. These generally, not liking to re- turn to their homes, betake themselves to trade and to service in distant places Marriage {s considered as a very difficult and troublesome institution in Thibet. It only takes place in families which possess wealth. The eldest brother in a family marries, and his younger brothers are locked upon by the wife as so many junior husbands. Although the Thibetans are not subject to jealousy in the proportion as other nations are where polygamy pre- vails, yet the junior husbands generally find it inconvenient to share matrimonial bliss with their eldest brother. So they leave their home and property in disgust. In some cases they take separate wives, relinquishing thereby their claims to ances- tral property. According to the laws of Thibet, the eldest brother, who had the right to marry, inherits the ancestral prop- erty. The other brothers can only enjoy the same as long as they live with him and his wife. I was present at a Thibetan marriage; the father of the bride in giv- ing her away to the bridegroom, address- ing his father, said: “Henceforth my daughter becomes the wife of your sons, beth born and unborn. She wili be theirs conjointly.” In consequence of tedious ceremonies and long terms of waiting be- fore getting the bride, and also trouble- some conditions imposed upon the candi- date for her husband, marriage seldom takes place in Thibet, and the majority of men and women remain unmarried. ———__+e+__. Premature Thanks, From the Argonaut. During the rebellion the 19th Maine ac- quired a reputation for foraging the coun- try so thoroughly that they were said to have starved the confederacy out. One matic tube and telephone with both houses of Congress, so that senators and repre- rentatives will have every facility in se- curing beoks that they now enjoy while the library is within the Capitol building. The library was designed with as great a regard for utility as for beauty, and the art of preserving and readily referring to books within it was closely studied. The windows have been so sealed as to make them dust proof, no fire can ever spread in the building, which will be kept at an equal temperature throughout, and there are no leages on which dust or other dirt can collect if it should get in the book stacks. Specialprovisions have been made for prevent any through ceiling or aa Age Architectural Beauty. But to the average visitor to the library building those arrangements -for .the-safe will be secondary in interest and accepted as matters of course. The marvelous beau- day they were sweeping along, dining on the fat of the land, as usual. Another trcop was ahead, and between them and the 19th rode Gen. Hancock. As the gen- eral was passing one plantation the pro- prietor came out and hailed his party. “General,” said he, “I want some sort of eer au rela = just gone 'y pigs, en roost: emptied my cellar. ae lees “I am very sorry,” said Hancock. : “Yes,” continued the old man, “they stole everything but my hope of ‘immortality. ‘Thank God, none of them can steal that.” “Don’t be too eure of that," retorted the general; “the 19th Maine és coming next.”” ———_+e+____ To Be Expected, From Truth, Askins—“Do you know, Miss Fitters, the dashing young bachelor girlf’ Grimshaw—“No, but I know brother, the coy old maid man.” a Z 19 MAKING BIG GUNS Where the Great Rifled Cannon Are Manufactured. ; THE WASHINGTON ORDNANCE SHOPS i ae Curious an Inferesting Objects at the Navy Yard. = RELICS OF THE WAR ‘The "Washington gun foundry fs one of the landmarks of the national capital. In- asmuch as it is there that all the high- powdered guns and their mounts for: the equipment of our modern ships of war are manufactured, it is a place of special in- terest to vieltors In these days of wars and rumors of war. Originally established as a navy yard for the construction and re- pair of warships, it was long since aban- doned as such and is now devoted almost exclustyely to the manufacture of guns and ordnance materials. In February, 17! Congress made an appropriation of $1,00U,- 000 for the building of six ships of war, a small appropriation for such a purpose according to modern ideas, but ample in those days of primitive wooden warships. A portion of this appropriation was de- voted td the establishment of six navy yards, one at New York, one at Wash- ington, one at Philadelphia, one at Bos- ton, one at Portsmouth, N. H., and one at Norfolk, Va. The action of Congress was predicated on threatened danger of war with France. All the navy yards men- tioned, with the single exception of the one at Washington, are still maintained by the government in the building and care of ships. -The Washington Navy Yard. The grounds comprising the Washington navy yard, lying near the mouth of the Eastern branch of the Potemae, consist of forty acres of rolling land and were origi- nally “purchased fer $4,000. The yard was first established in 1804, soon after this city was made the seat of government. It became an important naval center and depot of supplies, from which our naval vessels and other navy yards received thelr stores. Together with many other public ‘buildings, it was destroyed by fire during the British invasion of Washington Congress made provision for its rebuilding the following year, and by 1816 it was again in full running order. During the svcceeding half century many of the largest and finest ships of war pos- sessed ,by the United States were con- structed at this yard. At the outbreak of the civil war its capacity was taxed to the utmost in the manufacture of ordnance and ordnince stores and in the repair of disabled vessels. Since the war, however, it gradually de- clined in imvortance as a ship yard, main- ly because of its. inaccessibility owing to the shoaling of the river channels, and but one ship has been built there since that time. The ordnance department was maintaine? throughout, and the plant has been enlarged and improved to such an extent that czisting gun factory is said to be one of the best equipped estab- Ushments of {is kind in the world. Devoted to Gun Making. ince April, 1886, the buildings and ma- chinery of the yard have been devoted ex- clusiyely to thé mapufacture of guns an‘. ordnante material.!The entire gun plant and appurtenances have cost about 32,000,- 000, and are believéd to be fully equal to the demand of the times in supplying the new navy with guns equal in power and efficiency to those supplied to the leading navies of foreign pawers. The gunshop Is filled with the most pow- erful and approved_machinery for turning, boring, rifling, jacketing and otherwi fintstfing: the fimmense rifles, gequired, for Madde battle ship ns. well ha the smaller rapid-fire guns, which form such an im- pertant part of the secondary batteries of the cruiser gunboats, and, in fact, all ves- sels of war. The largest lathe in the shop, commonly called the “16 lathe,” was built for turning out a gun 1@ inches in diam- eter of barrel, 48 feet 7 inches long and welghing 110 ‘tons. This size has been found too large for practical use, how- ever, and the largest guns made for the navy are but 13-inch caliber. The lathe, which is used for boring the interior of these guns, {s about 115 feet long, and cost nearly $100,000; smaller lathes are used in the case of the smaller guns. Traveling over these lathes, 40 feet from the ground, is an Immense crane capable of raising and carrying from one lathe to another a dead weight of 125 tons. In the center of this building is the shrinking pit, in which are located furnaces for heating the jackets and hoops for use in shrinking the gun tubes. These furnaces are heated to be- tween 600 and 700 degrees, the heating power being naptha oil with an air blast. Mounts and Carriages. A separate building is devoted to the manufacture of gun mounts and carriages, and 1s provided with the latest and most approved machinery, as Is also the projec- tile shop nearby, in which shells are made and finished. Persons interested in ord- nance work and in applied mechanics will find a visit to these shops of great pleasure and profit. There are many historic relics in the museum and other buildings at the yard, which the watchmen in charge will show with an tll-concealed display of pride and patriotism, The two old-fashioned cannon mounted on either side of the avenue near the entrance were captured from the Tri- politans by Capt. Stephen Decatur in 1804. Near the east door of the gun shop is the original “Long Tom," used with such suc- cess by Capt. Samuel C.-Reid on. the brig Gen? Armstrong in his never-to-be-forgot- ten engagement with the British fleet at Fayal, September 26, 1814. This gun was presented to the United States by the Port- uguese government a few years ago, and formed part of the naval exhibit at the world’s Columbian exposition. In the rear of the commandant's office is a gun park, where are displayed trophies captured dur- ing the war of the revolution, the war of 1812, the Mexican war and the war of the rebellion. The Museum. The museum contains a most interesting collection of relics and trophies. Just out- side is a large willow tree, grown from a slip from a tree over the grave of Napoleon Bonaparte at St. Helena. Unquestionably the most striking relic in the museum is a section of the stem post of the famous Kearsarge, showing an unexploded shell, weighing about fifty-six pounds, which lodged there during the ship's engagement with the redoubtable Alabama off the coast of Cherbourg, :France, during the civil war. Had this shellyexploded when it struck it might have tumnedpthe scale.of- battle. An- other object ofsintexest is a breech-loading gun, made in) Spain in 1490 and. used by Cortez in the igonquest of Mexico. It was captured durimg: the war with ~Mextco. Then there isw walrus tusk brought from the arctic region by: the Greely relief expe- dition, pieces of am Egyptian obelisk built twenty-two years pefore Christ, and all sorts and styles ofsarms and ammunition from the earliest. days. The buildingwat tae entrance to the yard ts the barracks of the marines, who are on duty there as guards. The dwel along the main avertue arp occupied by the com- mendant and éthenofficers stationed atthe yard. Although it ja actually a gun factory and wothing wore,” it -is still, generally known to the dittzdrs at large as the navy yard, and 1s aalwags referred to by that hame in genegai cdnversation. res ne WASHINGTON SEWERS. How They Are Constructed and What They Cost. The sewers of Washington rank with the finest inthe world. All» sewer: work .ex- ceeding $1,000 tn cost is‘required by law tobe done by contract after advertisement. The effect of : this: 1s. practically: to .cause pipe sewers.to be constructed by bor. ‘The contractor is. required Pipe furnished by the District. terial he provides himself, subject to District specifications fof quality. On the smaller sewers the contract price is usvally for the linear-foot of completed sewer, but on the largest sewers the contract is gen- erally by the cubie yard of material in the sewer. All contractors must make eight hours a labor day. Inspectors are paid #4 per day, the amount patd being included fn the cost of the sewer upon which they are engaged. In all work done by hired labor the day is of eight hours, ordinarily from 7 a.m. 12 m., and from’ 1 p.m, to 4 p.m.; but in late fall and early spring work begins at 7:30 a.m., with half an hour intermission at Troon time. The wages paid are ail by the day, and are as follows: Foreman, $4; la- borers, first-class, $1.75; second-class, $1.50; masons and bricklayers, $4; watchman, $1.50; water boys, cents; _two-horse wagon, with driver, $3.50; one-horse cart, with driver, $1. The foreman ts respon- sible for all tools belonging to the District used by his party, and for all material is- sued for use in construction of the sewer, and that all work is properiy performed. The first-class laborers are generally those engaged at the bottom of the trench,where the throw is hardest, and in mixing and handling concrete. The materials used in all sewers built by hired labor are purchased by the District in large quantities by contract, and stored in the District property yards. The yards are five in number, adjacent to the rail- roads or water front, and each contains the materia! which can be placed in with the least haul from the point of unloading, such hauls being, as a rule, less than 500 feet. The sand used is of exceptional quality, being a nearly pure silica, of sharp, reg- ular grain, obtained by dredging in the Po- tomac, and is delivered in a condition that would be termed “washed” in most locali- ties. Two sizes are used—the coarser for concrete and the finer for brickwork. The gravel is used for concrete. Broken stone, at $1.50 per cubic yard, was formerly used for this purpose, but the saving in purchase price by using gravel, as well as other advantages following its use, which are stated in describing the construction of sewers, have caused it to be employed exclusively in the department. All pipe larger than S-inch is of the ring pattern— that is, without bell ends. It is found that the bottom of the sewer, with this pipe, can be made much more even and free from projections due to irregularities of circumference. The timber used for braces and shoring is Virginia pine, costing $13.50 per 1,000 feet, and can be ordinarily used about eight or ten times. This city has had great trouble with the pipe sewers laid about twenty years ago, and very many of them have to be re- placed entirely, the expense of doing so without interrupting the flow of sewage making tne replacing sewer cost more than one of the same size laid as a new one. The active cause of the failure of these sewers is root intrusion, but ihe primary causes are several, one being lack of proper gradient of the bottom of the sewer trench, the grade having been tested at intervals of 100 feet, and guessed at for the inter- vening interval, and if any obstacle, such. as boulder or stump, was encountered in the trench, the sewer was simply laid around it or over it. Another was careless- ness in jointing, the pipe having been simply laid in the bottom of the trench without any particular care to see that each section occupied its proper position. This effect has doubtless been increased by the action of the roots of trees entering the joints and forcing the pipes apart. Washington streets, with their width, fine pavements and magnificent lines of shade trees, are models for the world; but, owing to the width and expensive pave- ments, it has been necessary to place most of the pipe sewers under the sidewalks, where they are most exposed to the action wf the ‘ree roots. This condition of affairs renie, necessary in sewers now built a degree of protection for the joints that Would be extravagance in most cities. In many cases where the roots have entered the sew they are cut out and the inte e sewer freed in this manner. er, affords but temporary re- “las the larger part of the o.d sew- 8 are crooked, ory a short di: e from the man-hcle be reached, and it fol- lows cf necessity that the ~ must he rebuilt. 1t been found the P wooded and mest rapidly grow pear to cause the most trouble. The sewerage system of the future, how- ever, promises great things. Several years ago Congress appropriated money f n investigation of the subject by competent ergineers, and this report, with the rec- ommendations, has in the main been adopted by the District. All sew that are laid now or estimated for are ed mainly upon the report of the engineers and in a few years Washington will a position to take its place among the be: sewered cities in the world. Battalion From the Carlisle School a Decided Feature. There was ao feature of the civic parade that attracted mcre interest or won more applause than the battalion of cadets from the United Stetes Indian school at Carlisie. Pa. These students have been very much in evidcnce before the public for several years past. In their parade and drill at the world’s fair at Chicago, in which they followed pretty much the same methods as they did today, the cadets won unstinted admiration by their fine appearance and soldierly bearing. Last fall the playing of the Indians on the foot ball field was a revelation, and the most sensational fea- ture of the foot ball season. The cadet organization of the Carlisie school is coexistent with the school itself. In the parade today the battalion was un- der the ccmmand of the school discip- hparien, Mr. W. Grant Thor son. The uniform of the cadets is of army kersey, sky blue trousers, dark blue coats, with scarlet trimmings, and the army cap. In the parade the flag was borne at the head of the command. After this came the band, thirty pieces strong; then the school banner, on which is inscribed “United States Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa. Into Civilization and Citizenship.” Tken followed the battalion, divided into four companies, eight platoons, each plat- ocn illustrating some feature of the school work. The first platoon represented edu- cation, the front rank carrying books. globes and signs, the reer rank carrying signs indicating the pursuits the different graduates are following. The second plaz- ocn represented agriculture and baker: front rank, tools; rear rank, product: Third platoon, carpentering; front rank, tools; rear rank, products. Fourth platoon, tiacksmiths and wagon makers. Fifth platoon, tailors and shoemakers. Sixth platoon, harness makers and tinners. Sev- enth platoon, printers and painters. Eighth platocn, athletes. In each case the tools were carried by the front rank, and the rear rank carried the product. ‘The roster of the companies is as follow! Company A—Captain, C. Whitethunder; first lieutenant, Frank Hudson; second lieutenant, Frank Schively. Company B— Captain, Paul Hayne; first lieutenant, Ezra Ricker; second lieutenant, Perry Thaman- wa. Company C—Captain, Jacob Jamison first Meutenant, V. Nahtailsh; second lieu- tenant, Antonio Tapia. Company D—Cap- ta‘n, Isaac Sereca; first lieutenant, Chas. Cusick; second lieutenant, Alex. Upsham. The Carlisle barracks, established in 1755, as an outpost against Indians, was orig- irally granted rent free to the common- wealth by the Penn proprietors, but in 1801 were purchased from them by the United States. The buildings, erected during the revolu- tion, and subsequently becoming dilapidat- ed, were rebuilt {n 1836. These remained until 1863, when they were burned by the confederates, under Fitzhugh Lee, on the night of July 1, just before the battle of Gettysburg. Rebuilt in 1865-6, the bar- racks were occupied as a calvary school for recruits until 1872, at which time the school was transferred to St. Louis, and the place ‘was practically unoccupied until turned ever to the Interior Department for an In- dian school, September, 1879. The aim of the school has been to lead the Indian3 into the national life through associating them with that life, and teach- ing them English and giving a primary ed- ucation and a knowledge of some common and practical industry and means of self- support among civilized people. To this end there are shops where the principal trades are taught the boys, and two farms for their instruction in farming, and suit- able rooms and appliances where the girls are taught cooking, sewing, laundry and housework. But the crowning influence in the accomplishment of these purposes is an extensive and most effective system of placing annually hundreds of boys and girls out in familles and in the public schools. , ————— One Good Answer, From Harper’s Round Table. Mrs. Warmheart—“‘My good man, why do, you let your children go barefoot?” Pat O’Hoolihan—“For de raison, ma'am,’ dat I have in my family more feet than shoes.” CLIMB THE DOME ‘An Opportunity That the Sight-Seer Should Not Miss. The Way to Get Up # You y See From the Top When You Reach It. You must go up in the dome of the Cap- {tol before you leave the city. If you have never been there before, it would be an unpardonable omission to go home without | doing so, and if you have made the as- cent upon previous visits to Washington it will be worth while to repeat the trip. There are many people living in Washing- ton who have rever ascended the -lome. That is their misfortune, perhaps. If you shoulé not go it will be your fault. It would be difficult to give directions in print how to reach the entrance of the stairway leading to the dome. The best thing to do Is to enter the rotunda and ask a policeman. He will direct the vis- iter to the stairway and then there is nothing mcre to do but to fellow your nose and the stairs. Do not think for a moment, however, that this in itself is a small matter. It is quite a considerable one, and grows more portentous the higher you ascend. It ts not necessary, however, to have a guide. That is, unless you -ould get one who could operate a sedan chair. Before you reach the top the longing for a sedan chair or an elevator, scmething of that kind, grows into a burring desire. You think you never wanted anything so badly be- fore in your life. The Pathway Up. You start nimbly up a pair of dark, wind- ing, iron stairs. In a fesy minutes you emerge upon a gallery and climb a set of zig-zag stairs, ending in a steep flight of steps with a hand rail. This leads you to a door, which opens into the dome, on a level with the Brumidi-Costzgini frieze, which you had noticed from the floor of the rotunda. It seemed quit> a long ways up then, but now as you direct your glance upward it seems that you are still an im- measurable distance from the top. Keep a-climbing, however, and soon you come to the first outside gallery encircling the dome, newly half way up. No one stops here, however, who has the breath and the strength to go further. Take an- other hitch in your waistband, draw a good breath and start bravely up the next flight. You don’t remember much about this stage of the chmb, afterward. It comes back to you in a dim and confused recollection of long lines of stairs, of turnings, twistings, that general tired feeling. At last you come to the uppermost gal- lery of the inside of the dome. You are now under the frescoed canopy which forms the roof of the rotunda. You peer over the rail, and hundreds of feet below appear the people in the rotunda, moving around like great bugs. This is a dizzy height, and one involuntarily takes a firmer hold upon tke balustrade. If you should fall over there would be nothing but a grease spot and some rags on the marble ficor beneath when they came to shovel up the debris. More Steps to Come. But there is still another climb to make. A narrow iron stairway leads upward, above the canopy, and this you ascend, passing amidst a mass of great iron and steel girders and beams. At last you reach the uppermost landing piace in the dome and pass out upon the gallery which en- circles it. When you have made the round of the gallery you feel well repaid for all efforts. You are now nearly 300 feet from the base line of the Capitol building, and immediately beneath the bronze statue of the Goddess of Liberty, which is ninetcon feet six inches high and weighs 14,985 pounds. The view from the gallery at this point is one of entrancing beauty and interest. As you emerge from the gallery, the first ob- ject that strikes the eye is the broad Po- tomac, stretching away southward like a great silver sheet, for miles at your feet. It narrows in the perspective until it seems to disappear at the base of Fort Washington, ten miles down, where the river makes a sharp turn to the west. The stone battlements of the fort can be clear- ly observed upon a fair day, and the an- cent town of Alexandria seems almost within a stone’s throw, half way down. You foliew the river northwestward untii it disappears again in the gorge formed by the steep and rocky cliffs beyond George- town. The burnished silver of the noble sheet of water is crossed by a bar of sable, the historic Long bridge, spanning the waters, and over which the Union troops marche1 to the invasion of Virginia at the outbreak of the war. A Beantifal View. Just north of the Virginia end of the Long bridge is Arlington, and the great yellow pillars of the Lee mansion stand out clearly against the sky. Away off against the southwestern’ Horizon the sharp point ofthe steeple projecting above the sur- rounding forests marks the location of Fairfax Court House. Looking toward the heart-thumpings and | are so high above the beautiful library building that it looks squatty and dumpy by comparison, and it seems that you could almost toss a stone upon its golden dome. Northward aad westward there is also a beautiful view. The smooth asphalted streets stretch away in interminable dis- tances until they end in the wooded slopes and uplands of the suburbs. Due north- west stretches broad Pennsylvania avenue, visible to the naked eye as far as the Treasury Department. Beyond that is the White House, and appearing above the trees of the White House grounds the roof of the immense state, war and navy build- ing. History of the Dome. A little te the south the Washington mcnument cuts a silhouette against the sky, its needle point appearing to be on a level with your face. whole of Wash- ington is vistble from the elevated position | which you now occupy, and churches, public buildings and points of interest can be picked out The dome of the originally central « itol building was constr 1 of wood covered with copper. In 1856 this was re- moved and the construction of the present structure was commen It pleted in 1865; it fs con the entire weight of t 200 pounds. The height of the the line of the east front ts inches. The height from the t the building is 217 feet, 11 greatest diameter at e base is 5 inches, The rotunda is 9% feet in diameter, =r 4 FLY TRAP, A Freak Among F Almost Human Act From the New: York diteral:: > Now an@ again, in exp! ods and swamps, botanists have come cross floral curiosities that almost bridge over the great gulf that divides the animal and vegetable kingddmé, says the Designer. One of these, to be the world save in } met with nowhere 4 orth Carolina, ts sclen- tifically classified as dionoea “muscipula but is colloquially known as “Venus’ fly trap,” In appearance the extraordinary plant is pretty but unassuming, the “leafless flower stem, running from six to efght inches In height and surmounted by a cluster of five petaied blossoms, rising erect like a ro- sette-like bed of leaves. It is in the edge of the leaves that the death-dealing appa- ratus is set--for this modest little plant, which is so delicate that it dies of the slightest injury to root or stem. sustains its life by feeding upcn the unwary insects that chance to alight upon its leaves, en- ticing them to their destruction by exud- ing from the edges of its fatal traps a viscous fluid, somewhat resembling h 5 The traps consist of two soft, velvety leaves, fringed with delicate bristles and hinged together on one side. The unsus- pecting fly, lured by the honey, alights on xese bristles in anticipation of a feast. but | at the first touch of its feet the hinges clese, the two leaves come together, the bristles interlock and the hapless insect is imprigoned in a cell from which escape is impossible. ~ Under the stimulus of the victim's strug- gles the tiny glands with which the inner walls of the trap are furnished pour forth a secretion which Darwin analyzed as a | vegetable gastric juice, resembling that which insures digestion in animal life. Un- j der the Influence of this curious fluld the fly is actually digested alive, and its juices being extracted the trap doors are reopencd and the skeleton is flung out The sctenti: declare that the plant un- questionably lives upon the juices of its victims, but one or two expert florists take exceptions to this statement. It is worthy of note that, although the habit of the plant is carnivorous, experiments have proved that it lives tonger and thrives bet- ter when so inclosed that no insects can reach it—a superabundance of its favori diet apparently rendering it even more cate than it ts by nature. The set of mu: cles controlling its leaves are said to semble those of the human eyelid. The Value of Sterilized Milk. Frem Nature. Although milk has so frequently been held responsible for the dissemination of diphtheria, yet curiously but few exact investigations have been made on the be- havior of diphtheria bacilli in milk. Hesse found that cholera bacilll underwent de- terioration in raw milk; that, in fact, when kept In these surroundings at a tempera- ture of 37 degrees C. (98 Fahr.), they were entirely destroyed within twenty-two hours, Caro of Naples, on the other hand, work- ing with anthrax bacilli in raw milk, states that these microbes flourish abundantly in milk, and abate no jot of their virulence under these conditions. Professor Schot- telius has repeated these experiments, and has entirely confirmed them; he has, how- ever, extended his investigations to the he- havior of diphtheria bacilli in milk. In a recent number of the Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie, part I, a summarized ac- count is given of these researches, and it appears that in fresh milk diphtheria bacilli find ap exceptionally satisfactory material for gréwth and multiplication. In sterilized milk, however, their growth was not #0 abundant, and was less strongly marked than in the ordinary broth used for cult!- vation purposes. As the milk was ouly sterilized for half an hour by means of the ordinary Soxhlet apparatus, this difference in the vitality of the diphtherla pacilll in the raw. and heated milk, respectively, could not have been due to the milk having become acid through heating. esse has shown that when milk is subjected to pro- longed steritization at a. high (2mperaiure it exhibits an acid reaction. Professor Schottellus conclaGes bis paper with a warn! now so often repeated, of the danger the consumption of milk in its raw, unsterifised condition. —__+«-___—_. From the New York Tribune. The Heiress—“Yes, when I don’t wish to accept certeip. men's attentions, and they ask where I live, I say in the suburbs.” Selfsure— Mr. “Ha! ha! An excelieht (After a pause).—“But where Rive,” Mies Brownlow?" oar The Heiress—‘“In the suburbs."