America Volume I Part 1

America.

Volume I.

by Joel Cook.

INTRODUCTION.

The American is naturally proud of his country, its substantial growth and wonderful development, and of the rapid strides it is making among the foremost nations of the world. No matter how far elsewhere the American citizen may have travelled, he cannot know too much of the United States, its grand attractions and charming environment. Though this great and vigorous nation is young, yet it has a history that is full of interest, and a literature giving a most absorbing story of rapid growth and patriotic progress, replete with romance, poetry and a unique folklore.

The object of this work is to give the busy reader in acceptable form such a comprehensive knowledge as he would like to have, of the geography, history, picturesque attractions, peculiarities, productions and most salient features of our great country. The intention has been to make the book not only a work of reference, but a work of art and of interest as well, and it is burdened neither with too much statistics nor too intricate prolixity of description. It covers the Continent of North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Dominion and Alaska. It has been prepared mainly from notes specially taken by the author during many years of extended travel all over the United States and Canada. A method of treatment of the comprehensive subject has been followed which is similar to the plan that has proved acceptable in "England, Picturesque and Descriptive." The work has been arranged in twenty-one tours, each volume beginning at the older settlements upon the Atlantic seaboard; and each tour describing a route following very much the lines upon which a travelling sightseer generally advances in the respective directions taken. The book is presented to the public as a contribution to a general knowledge of our country, and with the hope that the reader, recognizing the difficulties of adequate treatment of so great a subject, may find in the interest it inspires, an indulgent excuse for any shortcomings.

J. C.

PHILADELPHIA, September, 1900.

I.

THE ENVIRONMENT OF CHESAPEAKE BAY.

The First Permanent Settlement in North America--Captain John Smith--Jamestown--Chesapeake Bay--The City of Was.h.i.+ngton--The Capitol--The White House--Elaborate Public Buildings--The Treasury--The State, War and Navy Departments--The Congressional Library--The Smithsonian Inst.i.tution--Prof. Joseph Henry--The Soldiers' Home-- Agricultural Department--Was.h.i.+ngton Monument--City of Magnificent Distances--Potomac River--Allegheny Mountains--The Kittatinny Range--Harper's Ferry--John Brown--The Great Falls--Alexandria--Mount Vernon-- Was.h.i.+ngton's Home and Tomb--Was.h.i.+ngton Relics--Key of the Bastille--Rappahannock River--Fredericksburg--Mary Ball, the Mother of Was.h.i.+ngton--York River--The Peninsula--Williamsburg--Yorktown--Cornwallis'

Surrender--James River--The Natural Bridge--Lynchburg --Appomattox Court-House--Lee's Surrender--Powhatan-- Dutch Gap--Varina--Pocahontas--Her Wedding to Rolfe-- Her Descendants, the "First Families of Virginia"--Deep Bottom--Malvern Hill--General McClellan's Seven Days'

Battles and Retreat--Bermuda Hundred--General Butler-- s.h.i.+rley--Appomattox River--Petersburg--General Grant's Headquarters--City Point--Harrison's Landing--Berkeley --Westover--William Byrd--Chickahominy River-- Jamestown Island--Gold Hunting--The Northwest Pa.s.sage-- First Corn-Planting--Indian Habits--First House of Burgesses--Tobacco-Growing--Virginia Planters-- Importing Negro Slaves--Newport News--Merrimac and Monitor Contest--Hampton Roads--Hampton--Old Point Comfort--Fortress Monroe--Fort Algernon--Fort Wool-- Elizabeth River--Norfolk--Portsmouth--Great Dismal Swamp--The Eastern Sh.o.r.e--The Oyster Navy--William Claiborne--Kent Island--Lord Baltimore--The Maryland Palatinate--Leonard Calvert's Expedition--St. Mary's-- Patuxent River--St. Inigoe's--Severn River--Annapolis --United States Naval Academy--Patapsco River-- Baltimore--Jones's Falls--Was.h.i.+ngton Monument--Battle Monument--Johns Hopkins and his Benefactions--Baltimore and Ohio Railroad--Druid Hill--Greenmount Cemetery-- Fort McHenry--The Star-Spangled Banner.

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.

When Captain Christopher Newport's expedition of three little s.h.i.+ps and one hundred and five men, sent out by the "Virginia Company" to colonize America, after four months' buffeting by the rough winter storms of the North Atlantic, sought a harbor of refuge in May, 1607, they sailed into Chesapeake Bay. These three little s.h.i.+ps were the "Susan Constant," the "Good Speed" and the "Discovery;" and upon them came Captain John Smith, the renowned adventurer, who, with Newport, founded the first permanent settlement in North America, the colony of Jamestown. The king who chartered the "Virginia Company" was James I., and hence the name. As the fleet sailed into the "fair bay," as Smith called it, the headlands on either side of the entrance were named Cape Charles and Cape Henry, for the king's two sons. Their first anchorage was in a roadstead of such attractive character that they named the adjacent land Point Comfort, which it retains to this day; and farther inland, where Captain Newport afterwards came, in hopes of getting news from home, is now the busy port and town of Newport News.

Sir Walter Raleigh, in the previous century, had sent out his ill-starred expedition to Roanoke, which had first entered this great bay; and at the Elizabeth River, which they had named in honor of Raleigh's queen, they found the Indian village of Chesapik, meaning "the mother of waters;" and from this came the name of Chesapeake Bay.

Raleigh had landed colonists here, as well as at Roanoke, and when the "Virginia Company" sent out Newport's expedition it laid three commands upon those in charge: First, they were to seek Raleigh's lost colonists; second, they were to find gold; and third, they were to search for the "northwest pa.s.sage" through America to the Pacific Ocean. So strong was the belief in finding gold in the New World that the only consideration King James asked for his charter was the stipulation that the "Virginia Company" should pay him one-fifth of the gold and silver found in its possessions.

As none of Raleigh's colonists could be found, the expedition sailed up the James River after considerable delay, and, selecting a better place for a settlement, landed at Jamestown May 13, 1607, where Smith became their acknowledged leader, and preserved the permanency of the colony. This famous navigator and colonist was a native of Willoughby, in Lincolns.h.i.+re, England, born in January, 1579. When scarcely more than a boy he fought in the wars of Holland, and then he wandered through Europe and as far as Egypt, afterwards returning to engage in the conflict against the Turks in Hungary. Here he won great renown, fighting many desperate combats, and in one engagement cutting off three Turks' heads; but he was finally wounded and captured. The sober, investigating historians of a later day have taken the liberty to doubt some of Smith's wonderful tales of these remarkable adventures, but he must have done something heroic to season him for the hardy work of the pioneer who was the first to succeed in planting a colony in North America. After the Turks made him a prisoner, he was sold as a slave in Constantinople, being condemned to the hardest and most revolting kinds of labor, until he became desperate under the cruelties and escaped. Then he was for a long time a wanderer through the wilderness, traversing the forests of Russia, and pus.h.i.+ng his way alone across Europe, until, almost worn out with fatigue and hards.h.i.+ps, he arrived in England just at the time Newport's expedition was being fitted out; and still having an irrepressible love for adventure, he joined it.

CHESAPEAKE BAY.

There can be no better place for beginning a survey of our country than upon this great bay, which Smith and his companions entered in 1607. Chesapeake Bay is the largest inland sea on the Atlantic Coast of the United States. It stretches for two hundred miles up into the land, between the low and fertile sh.o.r.es of Virginia and Maryland, both of which States it divides, and thus gives them valuable navigation facilities. In its many arms and estuaries are the resting-places for the luscious oysters which its people send all over the world. It is one of the greatest of food-producers, having a larger variety of tempting luxuries for the palate than probably any other region. Along its sh.o.r.es and upon its islands are numberless popular resorts for fis.h.i.+ng and shooting, for its tender and amply-supplied water-foods attract the ducks and other wild fowl in countless thousands, and bring in shoals of the sea-fishes, which are the sportsmen's coveted game. Its terrapin are famous, while its sh.o.r.es and borderlands, particularly on the eastern side, are a series of orchards and market-gardens, providing limitless supplies of fruits, berries and vegetables for the Northern markets. It receives in its generally placid bosom some of the greatest rivers flowing down from the Allegheny Mountains. The broad Susquehanna, coming through New York and Pennsylvania, makes its headwaters, and it receives the Potomac, dividing Maryland from Virginia, and the James, in Virginia, both of them wide estuaries with an enormous outflow; and also numerous smaller streams, such as the Rappahannock, York, Patuxent, Patapsco, Choptank and Elizabeth Rivers. Extensive lines of profitable commerce, all large carriers of food-supplies, have transport over this great bay and its many arms and affluents. Ca.n.a.ls connect it with other interior waters, and leading railways with all parts of the country, while there are several noted cities upon its sh.o.r.es and tributaries.

THE CITY OF WAs.h.i.+NGTON.

The most famous of all these cities of the Chesapeake region is Was.h.i.+ngton, upon the Potomac, and we will therefore begin this story at the American National Capital. The striking thing about Was.h.i.+ngton is that, unlike other capitals of great nations, it was created for the sole purpose of a seat of government, apart from any question of commercial rank or population. It has neither manufactures nor commerce to speak of. After the adoption of the Federal Const.i.tution there was a protracted conflict in Congress over the claims of rival localities for the seat of government, and this developed so much jealousy that it almost disrupted the Union at its inception. General Was.h.i.+ngton, then the President, used his strong influence and wise judgment to compromise the dispute, and it was finally decided that Philadelphia should remain the capital for ten years, while after the year 1800 it should be located on the Potomac River, on a site selected by Was.h.i.+ngton, within a district of one hundred square miles, ceded by Maryland and Virginia, and which, to avoid any question of sovereignty or control, should be under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress. The location was at the time nearly in the geographical centre of the then thirteen original States. As the city was designed entirely on the Maryland side of the Potomac, the Virginia portion of the "Federal District of Columbia," as it was called, was retroceded in 1826, so that the District now contains about sixty-five square miles. The capital was originally called the "Federal City," but this was changed by law in 1791 to the "City of Was.h.i.+ngton." The ground plan of the place was ambitious, and laid out upon an extensive undulating plateau bordered by rolling hills to the northward and westward, and sloping gently towards the Potomac River, between the main stream and the eastern branch, or Anacostia River.

This plan has been well described as "a wheel laid upon a gridiron,"

the rectangular arrangement of the ordinary streets having superimposed upon it a system of broad radiating avenues, with the Capitol on its hill, ninety feet high, for the centre. The Indians called the place Conococheague, or the "roaring water," from a rapid brook running through it, which washed the base of the Capitol Hill, and was afterwards very properly named the Tiber, but has since degenerated into a sewer. A distinguished French engineer of the time, Major L'Enfant, prepared the topographical plan of the city, under the direction of Was.h.i.+ngton and Jefferson, who was Secretary of State; and Andrew Ellicott, a prominent local surveyor, laid it out upon the ground. The basis of the design was the topography of Versailles, but with large modifications; and thus was laid out the Capital of the United States, which a writer in the _London Times_, some years ago, called "the city of Philadelphia griddled across the city of Versailles."

The original designers planned a city five miles long and three miles broad, and confidently expected that a vast metropolis would soon be created, though in practice only a comparatively limited portion was built upon, and this is not where they intended the chief part of the new city to be. Of late years, however, the newer portions have been rapidly extending. No man's name was used for any of the streets or avenues, as this might cause jealousy, so the streets were numbered or lettered and the avenues named after the States. The corner-stone of the Capitol was laid in 1793, its front facing east upon the elevated plateau of the hill, and the town was to have been mainly built upon this plateau in front of it. Behind the Capitol, on its western side, the brow of the hill descended rather sharply, and here they laid out a wide and open Mall, westward over the lower ground to the bank of the Potomac River, more than a mile away. Off towards the northwest, at the end of one of the diagonal avenues, they placed the Executive Mansion, with its extensive park and gardens stretching southward to the river, and almost joining the Mall there at a right angle. The design was to have the city in an elevated and salubrious location, with the President secluded in a comfortable retreat amid ample grounds, but nearly a mile and a half distant in the rural region. But few plans eventuate as expected; and such is the perversity of human nature that the people, when they came to the new settlement, would not build the town on Capitol Hill as had been intended, but persisted in settling upon the lower ground along and adjacent to the broad avenue leading from the Capitol to the Executive Mansion; and there, and for a long distance beyond the latter to the northward and westward, is the city of Was.h.i.+ngton of to-day. Pennsylvania Avenue, one hundred and sixty feet wide, joining these two widely-separated Government establishments and extending far to the northwest, thus became the chief street of the modern city. To Was.h.i.+ngton the Federal Government was removed, as directed by law, in 1800, the actual removal being conducted by Tobias Lear, who had been President Was.h.i.+ngton's private secretary, and was then serving in similar capacity for President John Adams. He packed the whole archives and belongings of the then United States Government at Philadelphia in twenty-eight wooden boxes, loaded them on a sloop, sailed down the Delaware, around to the Chesapeake, and up the Potomac to the new capital, and took possession. The original Capitol and Executive Mansion were burnt by the British during their invasion in 1814, when Was.h.i.+ngton had about ten thousand population; it now contains over three hundred thousand, of whom fifty thousand are army and navy officers and civil servants and their families, and about eighty thousand are colored people.

THE CAPITOL.

The crowning glory of Was.h.i.+ngton is the Capitol, its towering dome, surmounted by the colossal statue of America, being the prominent landmark, seen from afar, on every approach to the city. The total height to the top of the statue is three hundred and seventy-five feet above the Potomac River level. The grand position, vast architectural ma.s.s and impressive effect of the Capitol from almost every point of view have secured for it the praise of the best artistic judges of all countries as the most imposing modern edifice in the world. From the high elevation of the Capitol dome there is a splendid view to the westward over the city spread upon the lower ground beyond the base of Capitol Hill. Diagonally to the southwest and northwest extend two grand avenues as far as eye can see--Maryland Avenue to the left leading down to the Potomac, and carrying the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad to the river, where it crosses over the Long Bridge into Virginia; and Pennsylvania Avenue to the right, stretching to the distant colonnade of the Treasury Building and the tree-covered park south of the Executive Mansion. Between these diverging avenues and extending to the Potomac, more than a mile away, is the Mall, a broad enclosure of lawns and gardens. Upon it in the foreground is the Government Botanical Garden, and behind this the s.p.a.cious grounds surrounding the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution; while beyond, near the river bank, rises the tall white shaft of the Was.h.i.+ngton Monument, with its pointed apex.

On either side spreads out the city, the houses bordering the foliage-lined streets, and having at frequent intervals the tall spires of churches, and the ma.s.sive marble, granite and brick edifices that are used for Government buildings. In front, to the west, is the wide channel of the Potomac, and to the south and southeast the Anacostia, their streams uniting at Greenleaf's Point, where the Government a.r.s.enal is located. On the heights beyond the point, and across the Anacostia, is the s.p.a.cious Government Insane Asylum. Far away on the Virginia sh.o.r.e, across the Potomac, rises a long range of wooded hills, amid which is Arlington Heights and its pillared edifice, which was the home of George Was.h.i.+ngton Parke Custis, the grandson of Mrs. Was.h.i.+ngton and General Was.h.i.+ngton's adopted son, and was subsequently the residence of General Robert E. Lee, who married Miss Custis. Spreading broadly over the forest-clad hills is the Arlington National Cemetery, where fifteen thousand soldiers of the Civil War are buried. At the distant horizon to the left rises the spire of Fairfax Seminary, and beyond, down the Potomac, is seen the city of Alexandria, the river between being dotted with vessels. To the northwest, behind the Executive Mansion, is the s.p.a.cious building of the State, War and Navy Departments, having for a background the picturesque Georgetown Heights, just over the District boundary, their tops rising four hundred feet above the river. Farther to the northward is Seventh Street Hill, crowned with the buildings of Howard University, and beyond it the distant tower of the Soldiers' Home. All around the view is magnificent; and years ago, before the city expected to attain anything like its present grandeur, Baron von Humboldt, as he stood upon the western verge of Capitol Hill and surveyed this gorgeous picture, exclaimed: "I have not seen a more charming panorama in all my travels."

After the British burnt the original Capitol, it was rebuilt and finished in 1827; but the unexampled growth of the country and of Congress soon demanded an extension, which was begun in 1851. It is this extension which supplied the wings and dome, designed and constructed by the late Thomas U. Walter, that has made the building so attractive. This grand Republican palace of government, stretching over seven hundred and fifty feet along the top of the hill, has cost about $16,000,000. The old central building is constructed of Virginia freestone, painted white, the ma.s.sive wings are of white marble from Ma.s.sachusetts, and the lofty dome is of iron. The dazzling white marble gleams in the sunlight, and fitly closes the view along the great avenues radiating from it as a common centre. The architecture is cla.s.sic, with Corinthian details, and, to add dignity to the western front, which overlooks the city, a magnificent marble terrace, eight hundred and eighty-four feet long, has been constructed at its base on the crest of the hill, which is approached by two broad flights of steps.

The Capitol is surrounded by a park of about fifty acres, including the western declivity of the hill and part of the plateau on top. Upon this plateau, on the eastern front, the populace a.s.semble every fourth year to witness the inauguration of the President when he is sworn into office by the Chief Justice, and delivers his inaugural address from a broad platform at the head of the elaborate staircase leading up to the entrance to the great central rotunda. In full view of the President, as he stands under the grand Corinthian portico, is a colossal statue of Was.h.i.+ngton, seated in his chair of state, and facing the new President, as if in solemn warning. The rotunda is the most striking feature of the Capitol interior; it is nearly one hundred feet in diameter, and rises one hundred and eighty feet to the ceiling of the dome, which is ornamented with fine frescoes by Brumidi. Large panelled paintings on the walls just above the floor, and _alti rilievi_ over them, represent events in the early history of the country, while at a height of one hundred feet a band nine feet wide runs around the interior of the dome, upon which a series of frescoes tell the story of American history from the landing of Columbus. But, most appropriately, the elaborate decorations, while reproducing so much in Indian legend and Revolutionary story, are not used in any way to recall the Civil War. Away up in the top of the dome there is a Whispering Gallery, to which a stairway laboriously leads.

The old halls of the Senate and House in the original wings of the Capitol are now devoted, the former to the Supreme Court and the latter to a gallery of statuary, to which each State contributes two subjects, mostly Revolutionary or Colonial heroes. Beyond, on either hand, are the extensive new wings--the Senate Chamber to the north and the Representatives' Hall to the south. Each is surrounded by corridors, beyond which are committee rooms, and there are s.p.a.cious galleries for the public. Each member has his chair and desk, the seats being arranged in semicircles around the rostrum. In practice, while the House is in session, the members are usually reading or writing, excepting the few who may watch what is going on, because they are specially interested in the matter under consideration; and the member who may have the floor and is speaking is actually heard by very few, his speech being generally made for the galleries and the official stenographers and newspaper reporters. Debate rarely reaches a point of interest absorbing the actual attention of the whole House, most of the speech-making seeming to be delivered for effect in the member's home district, this method being usually described as "talking for Buncombe." The other members read their newspapers, write their letters, clap their hands sharply to summon the nimble pages who run about the hall upon their errands, gossip in groups, and otherwise pa.s.s their time, move in and out the cloak- and committee-rooms, and in various ways manage not to listen to much that goes on.

Nevertheless, business progresses under an iron-clad code of procedure, the Speaker being a despot who largely controls legislation. The surroundings of the Senate Chamber are grander than those of the House, there being a gorgeous "Marble Hall," in which Senators give audience to their visitors, and magnificently ornamented apartments for the President and Vice-President. The President's Room is only occupied during a few hours in the closing scenes of a session, this small but splendid apartment, which has had $50,000 expended upon its decoration, being a show place for the remainder of the year.

THE WHITE HOUSE.

The most famous building in Was.h.i.+ngton, though one of the least pretentious, is the Executive Mansion, popularly known as the "White House," being constructed, like the older part of the Capitol, of freestone, and painted white. It stands within a park at some distance back from the street, a semicircular driveway leading up to the Ionic colonnade supporting the front central portico. It is a plain building, without pretensions in anything but its august occupancy, and the ornamental grounds stretch down to the Potomac River, which flows about two hundred yards below its southern front. It is two stories high, about one hundred and seventy feet long, and eighty-six feet deep. This building, like the Capitol, was burnt in the British invasion of 1814 and afterwards restored. Unlike the nation, or the enormous public buildings that surround and dwarf it, the White House has in no sense grown, but remains as it was designed in the lifetime of Was.h.i.+ngton. It is nevertheless a comfortable mansion, though rigid in simplicity. The parlor of the house, the "East Room," is the finest apartment, occupying the whole of that side, and is kept open for visitors during most of the day. The public wander through it in droves, walk upon the carpets and recline in the soft chairs, awaiting the President's coming to his almost daily reception and handshaking; for they greatly prize this joint occupancy, as it were, and close communion with their highest ruler. This is an impressive room, and in earlier times was the scene of various inauguration feasts, when Presidents kept open house for their political friends and admirers.

The "East Room" was a famous entertainment hall in President Jackson's time. On the evening of his inauguration day it was open to all comers, who were served with orange punch and lemonade. The crowds were large, and the punch was mixed in barrels, being brought in by the bucketful, the thirsty throngs rus.h.i.+ng after the waiters, and in the turmoil upsetting the punch and ruining dresses and carpets. The punch receptacles were finally taken out into the gardens, and in this way the boisterous crowds were drawn off, and it became possible to serve cake and wine to the ladies. Various traditions are still told of this experience, and also of the monster cheese, as big as a hogshead, that was served to the mult.i.tude at Jackson's farewell reception. It was cut up with long saw-blades, and each guest was given about a pound of cheese, this feast being the talk of the time.

Jackson's successor was Martin Van Buren, who came from New York, the land of big cheeses. Being bound to emulate his predecessor, an even larger cheese was sent him, and cut up in the "East Room." The crowds trampled the greasy crumbs into the carpets and hangings, and all the furniture and fittings were ruined. Now no guest comes unbidden to dine at the White House; but the change in the fas.h.i.+on aided in defeating Van Buren, who was a candidate for a second election in 1840. He stopped keeping open house in order to save the furniture and get some peace, and during several months preceding the election many persons arrived at the White House for breakfast or dinner and threatened to vote against Van Buren unless they were entertained.

This, with the fact noised abroad that he had become such an aristocrat that his table service included gold spoons, then an unheard of extravagance, proved too much for him. Van Buren was beaten for re-election by "Old Tippecanoe"--General William Henry Harrison.

A corridor leads westward from the "East Room," through the centre of the White House, to the conservatories, which are prolonged nearly two hundred feet farther westward. A series of fine apartments, called the Green, Blue and Red Rooms, from the predominant colors in their decorations, are south of this corridor, with their windows opening upon the gardens. These apartments open into each other, and finally into the State Dining Hall on the western side of the building, which is adjoined by a conservatory. North of the corridor the first floor contains the family rooms, and on the second floor are the sleeping-rooms and also the public offices. The Cabinet Room, about in the centre of the building, is a comparatively small apartment, where the Cabinet meetings a.s.semble around a long table. On one side of it, at the head of a broad staircase, are the offices of the secretaries, over the East Room; and on the other side, the President's private apartment, which is called the Library. Here the President sits, with the southern sun streaming through the windows, to give audience to his visitors, who are pa.s.sed in by the secretaries. One of the desks, which is usually the President's personal work-table, has a history.

The British s.h.i.+p "Resolute," years ago, after many hards.h.i.+ps in the fruitless search for Sir John Franklin, had to be abandoned in the Arctic seas. Portions of her oaken timbers were taken back to England, and from these, by the Queen's command, the desk was made and presented to President Grant, and it has since been part of the furniture in the Library. An adjacent chamber, wherein the Prince of Wales slept on his only visit to America, and the chamber adjoining, are the two sleeping-rooms which have been usually occupied by the greatest Presidents. The accommodations are so restricted, however, that a movement is afoot for constructing another presidential residence, on higher land in the suburbs, so that the White House may be exclusively used for the executive offices.

ELABORATE PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

The great public buildings used for Government purposes are among the chief adornments of Was.h.i.+ngton. To the eastward of the White House is the Treasury Building, extending over five hundred feet along Fifteenth Street, enriched by a magnificent Ionic colonnade, three hundred and fifty feet long, modelled from that of the Athenian Temple of Minerva. Each end has an elaborate Ionic portico, while the western front, facing the White House, has a grand central entrance. This was the first great building constructed for a Government department, and is the headquarters of the Secretary of the Treasury. Upon the western side of the White House is the most splendid of all the department buildings, accommodating three of them, the State, War and Navy Departments. It is Roman Doric, built of granite, four stories high, with Mansard and pavilion roofs and porticoes, covering a surface of five hundred and sixty-seven by three hundred and forty-two feet. The Salon of the Amba.s.sadors, or the Diplomatic Reception Room, is its finest apartment, and is the audience chamber of the Secretary of State, who occupies the adjoining Secretary's Hall, also a splendid room. This great building is constructed around two large interior courts, the Army occupying the northern and western wings, and the Navy the eastern side, where among the great attractions are the models of the famous wars.h.i.+ps of the American Navy. To the northward of the White House park and furnis.h.i.+ng a fine front view is Lafayette Square, containing a bronze equestrian statue of General Jackson by Clark Mills; beyond, on the western side, is the attractive Renaissance building of the Corcoran Art Gallery, amply endowed by the late banker, William W. Corcoran, and containing his valuable art collections, which were given to the public. The foundation of his fortune was laid over a half-century ago, when he had the pluck to take a Government loan which seemed slow of sale. His modest banking house still exists as the Riggs Bank, facing the Treasury.

The most admired of the newer public buildings in Was.h.i.+ngton is the Congressional Library, on the plateau southeast of the Capitol, an enormous structure in Italian Renaissance, a quadrangle four hundred and seventy feet long and three hundred and forty feet wide, enclosing four courts and a central rotunda. It was finished in 1897, and cost about $6,200,000. Its elevated gilded dome and lantern are conspicuous objects in the view. This great Library, the largest in the country, is appropriately ornamented, and its book-stacks have accommodations for about five millions of volumes, the present number approximating one million, with nearly three hundred thousand pamphlets. The Pension Building is another huge structure, northwest of Capitol Hill, built around a covered quadrangle, which is used quadrennially for the "Inauguration Ball," a prominent Was.h.i.+ngton official-social function, which was adopted to relieve the White House from the former feasting on the inauguration night. This house, accommodating the army of pension clerks, has running around the walls, over the lower windows, a broad band, exhibiting in relief a marching column of troops, with representations of every branch of the service. Seventh Street, which crosses Pennsylvania Avenue about midway between the Capitol and the Treasury, has to the northward the imposing Corinthian Post-office Building, formerly the headquarters of the postal service. Behind this is the Department of the Interior, popularly known as the Patent Office, as a large part of it is occupied by patent models. This is a grand Doric structure, occupying two blocks and embracing about three acres of buildings, the main entrance being a magnificent portico, seen from Pennsylvania Avenue. The new General Post-office Department Building is on Pennsylvania Avenue, covering a surface of three hundred by two hundred feet, and having a tower rising three hundred feet. It has just been completed. The Government Printing Office, where the public printing is done, and the Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where all the Government money issues and revenue stamps are made, are large and important buildings, though not specifically attractive in architecture.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSt.i.tUTION.

Upon the Mall stands the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, of world-wide renown, one of the most interesting public structures in Was.h.i.+ngton, its turrets and towers rising above the trees. The origin of this famous scientific establishment was the bequest of an Englishman, James Smithson, a natural son of Hugh Smithson, Duke of Northumberland, born in 1765. He was known as Louis Macie at Oxford, graduating under that name; early developed scientific tastes; was a Fellow of the Royal Society, the friend and a.s.sociate of many of the most learned men of his time, and lived usually in Paris, where in the latter part of the last century he took the family name of his father.

He died in Italy in 1829. In Was.h.i.+ngton's Farewell Address, issued in 1796, there occurs the phrase, "An inst.i.tution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge," and it was well known that the Father of his Country cherished a project for a national inst.i.tution of learning in the new Federal City. This was evidently communicated to Smithson by one of his intimates in Paris, Joel Barlow, a noted American, who was familiar with Was.h.i.+ngton's plan, and in this way originated the residuary bequest, which was contained in the following clause of Smithson's will: "I bequeath the whole of my property to the United States of America, to found at Was.h.i.+ngton, under the name of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." Upon the death of Smithson's nephew, without heirs, in 1835, this bequest became operative, and the United States Legation in London was notified that the estate, then amounting in value to about 100,000, was held in possession of the Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery. This was something novel in America, and when the facts became public opposition arose in Congress to accepting the gift, eminent men, headed by John C.

Calhoun, arguing that it was beneath the dignity of the United States to receive presents. Others, however, led by John Quincy Adams, ardently advocated acceptance. The latter carried the day; Richard Rush was sent to London, as agent, to prosecute the claim in the Court of Chancery, in the name of the President of the United States; and the legacy was obtained and delivered at the Mint in Philadelphia, September 1, 1838, in the sum of 104,960 British sovereigns, and was immediately recoined into United States money, producing $508,318.46, the first installment of the legacy. There were subsequent additional installments, and the total sum in 1867 reached $650,000. This original sum was deposited in the Federal Treasury in perpetuity, at six per cent, interest, and the income has been devoted to the erection of the buildings, and, with other subsequently added sums, to the support of the vast establishment which has grown from the original gift.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _In the Congressional Library, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C._]

The Smithsonian Inst.i.tution was formally created by Act of Congress, August 10, 1846, the corporation being composed of the President, Vice-President, members of the Cabinet and Chief Justice, who are const.i.tuted the "establishment," made responsible for the duty of "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." The Inst.i.tution is administered by a Board of Regents, including in addition three Senators, three members of the House, and six citizens appointed by Congress; the presiding officer, called the "Chancellor," being usually the Chief Justice, and the secretary of the board is the Executive Officer. The late eminent Professor Joseph Henry was elected secretary in 1846, and he designed the plan and scope of the Inst.i.tution, continuing as its executive head until his death in 1878. His statue stands in the grounds near the entrance. Two other secretaries followed him, Spencer F. Baird (who was twenty-seven years a.s.sistant secretary), and upon his death Samuel P. Langley, in 1888. The ornate building of red Seneca brownstone, a fine castellated structure in the Renaissance style, was designed in 1847 and finished in 1855. Its grand front stretches about four hundred and fifty feet, and its nine towers and turrets, rising from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty feet, stand up prettily behind the groves of trees. This original building contains a museum of natural history and anthropology. In connection with it there is another elaborate structure over three hundred feet square--the National Museum--containing numerous courts, surrounding a central rotunda, beneath which a fountain plashes. This is under the same management, and directly supported by the Government, the design being to perfect a collection much like the British Museum, but paying more attention to American antiquities and products. This adjunct museum began with the gifts by foreign Governments to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, most of them being still preserved there. The Smithsonian Trust Fund now approximates $1,000,000, and there are various other gifts and bequests held in the Treasury for various scientific purposes similarly administered.

Briefly stated, the plan of Professor Henry was to "increase knowledge" by original investigations and study, either in science or literature, and to "diffuse knowledge" not only through the United States, but everywhere, and especially by promoting an interchange of thought among the learned in all nations, with no restriction in favor of any one branch of knowledge. A leading feature of his plan was "to a.s.sist men of science in making original researches, to publish them in a series of volumes, and to give a copy of them to every first-cla.s.s library on the face of the earth." There is said to be probably not a scientific observer of any standing in the United States to whom the Inst.i.tution has not at some time extended a helping hand, and this aid also goes liberally across the Atlantic. As income grew, the scope has been enlarged. In the various museums there is a particularly good collection of American ethnology, and a most elaborate display of American fossils, minerals, animals, birds and antiquities. There are also shown by the Fish Commission specimens of the fis.h.i.+ng implements and fishery methods of all nations, an exhibition which is unexcelled in these special departments. Many specifically interesting things are in the National Museum. The personal effects of Was.h.i.+ngton, Jackson and General Grant are there.

Benjamin Franklin's old printing-press is preserved in a somewhat dilapidated condition, and there is also the first railway engine sent from England to the United States, the original "John Bull," built by Stephenson & Son at Newcastle-on-Tyne in June, 1831, and sent out as "Engine No. 1" for the Camden and Amboy Railroad crossing New Jersey, now a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It weighs ten tons, and has four driving-wheels of fifty-four inches diameter. This relic, after being used on the railroad for forty years, until improved machinery superseded it, has been given the Government as a national heirloom.

Among the anthropological collections is a chronologically arranged series ill.u.s.trating American history from the period of the discovery to the present day. This includes George Catlin's famous collection of six hundred paintings, ill.u.s.trating the manners and customs of the North American Indians. One of the most important features of the work of this most interesting establishment is its active partic.i.p.ation in all the great International Expositions by the loan to them of valuable exhibits under Government direction and control.

THE SOLDIERS' HOME AND WAs.h.i.+NGTON MONUMENT.