IIIIM ri99 .M21 ^H ■;> ^^^^^H ^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^1 ^^^^^^1 ':^^^^^^^^H 'i^^^^^^^^^H '^^^^^^^^^^^^^1 '^^^^^^H ■^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :•; ^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^M ^^^^^^1 x? ^^^^^^^^^^^^1 ;i ^^^^H .^•\.^^ ^/^JS^-'y' %--^.\.^^ ^-./-rftr'-c- •^ WASHINGTON OUR NATIONAL CAPITAL o4n Illustrated Lecture by Hon. Henry B. F. Macfarland HORACE K. TURNER LECTURE CO. Oak Hill, Newton Center, Mass. 500 II-I-09. ©CLC 221(;^' S, .WASHINGTON, OUR NATIONAL CAPITAL. jV, BY HON. HENRY B. F. MACFARLAND. t "" Copyrighted 1909. FOUNDED by George Washington, the scene of Abraham Lincoln's greatest services, the city where every Presi- ' dent except Washington administered, where every Congress since the Fifth, every session of the Supreme Court since 1800, every decision of Chief Justice Marshall, helped to make the history of the United States, Washington, our National Capi- tal stands unique. Every patriotic American wants to visit it. P'ew of the many millions of Americans can see it except in picture. It is worth almost any sacrifice to freshen one's patriotism by visiting its historic scenes. Every American ought to know that the district of Columbia, containing the Federal City, (as George Washington called it) the City of Washington, (as Congress called it,) was the last great work of the Father of His Country. He made it ready for the National Government so that it moved over from Philadelphia in 1800, a year after he died. Experience, espe- cially the rout of Congress from Philadelphia in 1783 by unpaid Revolutionary soldiers, had taught that the National Govern- ment must have an independent home under its control. George Washington put provision for it in the Constitution which established the new Government in 1789, and afterwards selected the site on the Potomac and directed the planning of 2 the city by the French Engineer, Major L'Enfant, and the American engineer, Major Ellicott. Never forget that the idea was George Washington's and the plan his prediction, as though writ large in his own hand- writing that the nation just born would live and grow to great- ness requiring a great Capital. Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison sympathized with Washington in this thought, but most public men at home and abroad doubted whether such a great capital would ever be needed, and many of them feared that no capital would be needed long. For many years even Washington's reputation for common sense did not save it from the jests of home and foreign wit. The removal of the capital westward, after Jefferson ac- quired the Louisiana Territory, and particularly after the British took the city and burned the Capitol and the President's house in 1814, might have been made had not the invention of railway and telegraphy quickened communication, and even so, it was agitated until the Civil War made removal impossible because of the blood and treasure poured out to keep Wash- ington the capital of the United States as the symbol of sover- eignty. It was not, however, until 1878 that the National Government began to do its duty in the maintenance and development of the National Capital when it entered into the present arrangement with the District tax payers, who then relinquished the suffrage, to pay one-half of the municipal ex- penses, which had been borne before wholly by the District people. The nineteen original proprietors of the farms taken for the site gave half their property to George Washington for the National Government, and the President's house and the Capitol were built partly out of the sale of lots. The poverty of the young nation, and afterwards the agitation for removal, prevented the execution of George Washington's plans for seventy years. Begun then by Governor Alexander R. Shep- herd, once almost execrated because of the great cost of his improvements, but now honored by a statue raised by the citizens in front of the District Government Building, the pro- gress made in the last thirty years is unexcelled anywhere. Beautiful for situation, in its natural amphitheatre, Wash- ington, rich in noble buildings, with more parks and more street trees than any other city in the world, is now the rival of the best capitals abroad and is sure to surpass them all. Much credit is due the Senate Park Commission, D. H. Burnham, Frederick Law Olmstead, Charles F. McKim, and Augustus St. Gaudens, which was appointed in 1900 as an outgrowth of the National Capital Centennial Celebration, This commission reported in 1902 that the George Washington plan was the best that could be made for the city and applied its principles to the rest of the District. The magnificent Union Station, just completed, is the splendid gateway that the railway entrance of every city ought to be. It was designed by D. H. Burnham, head of the Senate Park Commission, and famous for his W^orld's Fair work, and is at once, the largest, finest, and the most beautiful railway sta- tion in the world. Longer than the Capitol, with space in its concourse for the regular army of the United States to stand shoulder to shoulder, it is beyond the present needs, except at Presidential inaugurations, and is ready for the future. It is a part of the great railway terminal improvements made since 1900, including the abolition of all grade crossings, and costing in all about twenty-five million dollars. It faces Massachusetts Avenue, the principal east and west boulevard, and looks out south to the capitol. A fine plaza will contain a hundred thou- sand dollar monumental memorial of Columbus. It is pro- posed to buy all the land between the plaza and the Capitol, which is eight hundred yards away, and convert it into a park. We can easily walk from the station to the Capitol, gradu- ally climbing Capitol Hill, and passing on the left the classic building just occupied by the Senate for committee rooms and office rooms, giving every senator a handsome suite and providing magnificent rooms for conference and other senatorial purposes. Here the tariff bill of 1909 was revised in the Finance Committee Room, after it had been passed by the House, and after it had been prepared in the Ways and Means Committee Rooms. The House Office building is a like struct- ure of larger size and similar purpose across the Capitol Square, where committees and members of the House of Representa- tives have their quarters. It is well to approach the Capitol from the Union Station because you thus see first the real front of the building, facing east. The city was intended to be east of the Capitol, but because of the high real estate prices and the natural tendency to build near the President's house, it went west of the Capitol, although now Capitol Hill, as it is called, is well built up. In recent years the west front of the Capitol has been made more ornamental to suit the change in the city, but the figure of Armed Liberty surmounting the Dome still faces the rising sun. Stand by the fountains on the plaza and study the east front of the Capitol. Notice its perfect proportions which make it the finest public building in the world, notwithstanding the fact that marble wings were added to the original sand- stone building and an iron dome raised above the center, the latter completed by Lincoln's faith while the Civil war was going on. Political and personal memories crowd upon the mind of every reader of history as he looks at the building which has been the home of Congress and of the Supreme Court ever since 1800, and sees just before him the place where the tem- porary wooden platforms have stood, from which almost every President since John Adams has delivered his inaugural address and taken oath of office from the Chief Justice of the United States. Greatest of all stands out Abraham Lincoln, who twice stood on the east front of the Capitol, and spoke to his country- men in the interest of the Union, Approaching nearer you see that there are elaborate bronze doors at each of the principal entrances. It is a matter of choice where we begin to look at the interior. Suppose we iQ begin with the north or Senate wing, walk up the broad stairs and enter through the bronze doors designed by Thomas Crawford and cast at Chicopee, Massachusetts. Its panels picture the death of Warren at Bunker Hill, 1775 ; Washing- ton's Rebuke of General Charles Lee at Monmouth, 1778; Hamilton's Gallantry at Yorktown, 1781 ; Washington's Recep- tion at Trenton, on the Way to His Inauguration as First Pres- ident, 1789; Washington's First Inauguration, 1789; Laying the Cornerstone of the Capitol, 1793 ; and at the bottom, alle- gories of War and Peace. Visitors sometimes ask to see the office of the President at the Capitol, where they understand he does all his official work. Of course he does his official work, not at the Capitol, but in the little office building adjoining what is now called the White House, although it ought to have its older and better name, the President's House, which it kept until it was painted white to hide the smoke stains after its burning by the British. But whenever the President does work at the Capi- tol it is in a room called the President's Room, just back of the Senate chamber and within a short distance of the door I ' which we are entering. The President goes to this room on the last day of a session of Congress to pass upon bills passed in the closing hours, in order that he may conveniently exam- ine them and consult Senators and Representatives about them. In the early .days Presidents visited the chambers of Congress, but no modern President would dream of doing so when either house was doing business ; although they do appear in either house upon inaugural, funeral and other formal occasions. Theoretically, the President is not supposed to influence the Congress in any way except by his formal messages. We then come to the Vice-President's Room, which con- tains a marble bust of Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, who died in this room, November 22, 1875, when he was Vice- President of the United States. Elevators will take us to the floor just above, where we can see everything very well from the public galleries. Unless there is a large crowd any Senator will give a card for a re- served gallery to any respectable applicant. Looking around the galleries we see that there are special reservations for the press with desks, and we are told that just opposite is the gallery for the Diplomatic Corps, and at the north end is the gallery for the President, the Vice-President and the Cabinet, or rather for their families. We see marble busts of some of the Vice-Presidents in niches of the gallery walls, and later see others in the corridors, together with the oil portraits of famous statesmen. Looking up we see that the walls are richly decorated and that the glass ceiling is colored with allegorical pictures. We are told that the hall is 113 feet long and 82 feet wide, and that the glass ceiling through which the sunlight comes by day, and the electric light by night, is thirty-six feet above the floor. Looking down we see that the President of the Senate (the Vice-President, or the President Pro Tempore) sits in the highest seat behind the desk in a niche midway in the north wall of the room. In front of his desk is that of the Secretary and Clerks, and still lower down that of the official reporters who make a stenographic record of everything that is said. We see that every senator has a desk and a chair and that they are placed in concentric rows ; and we are told that the Democratic side is to the right of the aisle which runs from the Vice-President's dais to the south door, which is the main entrance, while the Republicans are seated to the left of the Vice-President. Rarely is it possible to fore-know an in- teresting speech, much less a dramatic episode, and the chance visitor is as apt to happen on one or the other as a resident of Washington. It is in the Senate Chamber that the Vice-President takes the oath of office on the same day, but before the President is inaugurated. President Taft took the oath of office and delivered the ' ^ inaugural address in the Senate Chamber because a great snow storm, of which this is a photograph, made it dangerous to have the inauguration on the East Front of the Capitol. The many thousands who waited in the snow, refusing to believe even the official announcement that the inauguration would be held in the Senate Chamber, were grevieusly disappointed. But the two thousand who packed the galleries and the floor of the Senate enjoyed the unusual, almost unique, experience which had not a precedent within the lifetime of any one present. " All Washington," that is, the leaders of official life, and of " Society," including all Ambassadors and Ministers, were there, and the costumes of the ladies together with the diplomatic and military uniforms gave brilliant color. After- wards, President Taft walked through the Capitol to the East Front and over the stand where he was to have been inaugu- rated, and took his carriage, with Mrs. Taft, where all the people could see them as they started to ride at the head of the great procession up Pennsylvania 'Avenue. Mrs. Taft set a precedent by riding with her husband. President Taft's inauguration day was not as cold as President Grant's of 1873, when a biting blizzard struck down men as they marched or stood in the procession. But the snow storm was so great as to endanger many lives, cause a large number of deaths within a month, and thereby furnish a new argument to the National Committee of State Governors and prominent Washingtonians which has been working for an amendment to the Constitution, twice carried through the Senate by Senator Hoar, changing the day to the last Thurs- day in April, the day on which Washington was first inaugu- rated President. Nothing but the difficulty of amending the Constitution delays this change which every good American should advocate. But we cannot longer remain at the Senate, fascinating as it is in many ways. A short walk southward along the main corridor brings us to the Supreme Court Room which was the Senate Chamber until the Senate wing was completed in 1857. Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and their contemporaries made their great speeches of course in the old Senate Chamber, which seems very small to us. It will not hold one-fifth of the peo- ple who can crowd into the new Senate Chamber. Webster's voice might easily have shaken this room until the windows rattled. Fortunately there were fewer visitors, but when Webster made his reply to Hayne many who came late did not get in. The Chief Justice of the United States sits in the middle, on the dais right behind the long desk with four Justices on his right and the other four on his left. Above them is a bronze eagle and behind them a lobby where they can stretch their legs, see visitors, or eat a sandwich when they are too absorbed to go to luncheon. Before them are the counsel tables and outside the rail the cushioned benches for the pub- lic, while busts of former chief justices ornament the semi- circular wall. The formal opening of the court at twelve o'clock, when the justices march in slowly in their dignified robes, is one of the few impressive public ceremonies still surviving. The old Supreme Court Room is just beneath the present one, and is occupied by the Law Library. It was in this lower room that the great arguments of the elder lawyers like Webster's in the Dartmouth College case were made. Nowa- days, formal oratory is not encouraged in the Supreme Court, at least in ordinary cases. But in the Income Tax cases, Richard Olney and Joseph H. Choate made arguments of old- fashioned eloquence. Just beyond the Supreme Court Room is the entrance to the long, winding stairway that leads to the top of the dome of the Capitol, There is no elevator, so we must walk up. But we are well repaid by the splendid view of the whole city of Washington when we reach the top, nearly two hundred and fifty feet from where we started. On a clear day, especially in the springtime when all the hundred thousand trees of the streets and parks are glorious in their green, the scene is enchanting. This is the place from which to master the plan of the city, rectangular streets crossed by transverse avenues, all related to the Capitol. We see the four divisions of the city, the northwest, southwest, southeast, northeast, made by the street axes running through the Capitol. The most inter- esting view is toward the west, taking in the Washington Mon- ument and the President's House, about a mile away, with the other public buildings near and far but all in sight, and with the park system clearly defined. Beyond the Potomac rises the hill called Arlington where the Union and Confederate soldiers and heroes of all our wars sleep in Robert E. Lee's old home estate. To the east we see the Library of Congress with its gilded dome, just across the park, and to the right and left, the House and Senate Office Buildings. From this point we get the best idea of the size of the Capitol which is about seven hundred and fifty feet long, three hundred and fifty feet wide, and covers over three and a half acres. We remember that President Washington laid the corner stone of the old or central building, September i8, 1793; and that Daniel Webster made the oration when President Fillmore laid the cornerstone of the extensions on the 4th of July. 1851; and that the dome on which we stand, unequalled in its kind, was finished in 1865. Above us towers the lantern, lighted with electric lights during the night session of either house, and above that the bronze figure " Armed Liberty," nearly twenty feet high. Returning down the stairway, stopping at different levels 8 to view the interior of the dome, called the Rotunda ; we enter that remarkable room as soon as we reach the main floor. We should look up the first thing and see the extraordinary alle- gorical fresco at the top, representing George Washington sur- rounded by the thirteen original States and many other figures. I g As our eyes come down from the height of one hundred and eighty feet we see other frescoes, and finally the well-known historical paintings by Trumbull and others, those of Trumbull being espectally valuable because the chief figures were por- trayed from life. Perhaps the best known is that of Washing- '^ ton surrendering his commission as commander-in-chief to the Congress at Annapolis. A well-known example of the other Rotunda pictures is that of the Baptism of Pocohontas, painted 20 by the American artist, John G. Chapman. (Read slowly.) Turning to the door leading out to the East Front, through which Presidents go on Inauguration Day, we niay examine the 21 Randolph Rogers' bronze doors illustrating the career of Columbus. From this remarkable circular room we pass through the southern door, almost immediately into the old hall of the House of Representatives where all the ante-bellum statesmen debated, and where John Quincy Adams fell at his post, dying ^^ in the little room, then used as a clerk's office. It is a semi- circular hall, much larger than the old Senate Chamber, and through the suggestion of Mr. Morrill of Vermont, in 1864, has been set apart as a national Statuary Hall. Each State may send two statues of "her chosen sons," Morrill's resolution said, but Illinois has sent as one of her gifts, the statue of a 23 chosen daughter, Frances E. Willard, the only woman thus honored in the Capitol. Her beautiful memorial stands beside a bronze replica of Houdon's George Washington, the original being in the State Capitol at Richmond, which Jefferson and Marshall pronounced the best portrait of Washington ever made. Virginia has just given this statue accompanied by one of Robert E. Lee. The States have not all responded to the invitation, but there are a number of statues of varied artistic character and interest. Two of the best are those sent by 24 New Hampshire, Webster and Stark, flanking the northern doorway under the famous clock representing " History." The statues of Samuel Adams and John Winthrop, sent by Massachusetts, are near those of Webster and Stark and are equally effective. Crossing the Statuary Hall to the south door, between Ohio's statues of President Garfield and Governor William Allen, if we face about we can test some of the astonishing 9 acoustics of this hall of whispers. If we walk to either end of the row of marble columns we can whisper to our friend at the other end and the sound will be carried along the arch and down again as perfectly as by any telephone. Passing through the south door we are in the House of Representatives wing. As at the Senate we find interesting pictures and statues. If you walk up one stairway to the gal- lery floor you shall find painted on the rough walls Leutze's spirited " Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way," with the pioneers going over the mountains to the winning of the West. If we go up over the other stairway we shall see Carpen- ter's picture, " Lincoln Signing the Emancipation Proclama- tion." Entering the gallery we find that the hall is in shape and arrangement like that of the Senate only it is larger, as it must be to accommodate three hundred and ninety-six members. The Speaker sits behind the white marble desk in the middle of the south side of the room, with an American flag at his back, facing the Democrats on his right and the Republi- cans on his left, sitting in concentric rows. Above his chair is the Press Gallery, opposite the Diplomatic Gallery, and over the west door, the gallery reserved for the family and friiends of the President. When the House is in session there is much more noise and conversation than in the Senate Chamber when the Senate is in session, and occasionally there are exciting scenes, and even disorder, which the speaker has to quell after he has pounded with the gavel, by sending the Sergeant-at-Arms with the Mace, the symbol of authority of the House. The Mace resembles the Roman Fasces, which the lictors carried, consisting of a number of rods of ebony bound with silver and surmounted by a silver globe bearing a silver eagle. Before this emblem the most disorderly member becomes quiet. As a rule, however, the members of both Houses behave with becoming dignity, and taken together, throughout the session there is no more dignified and impressive parliament in the world. Things have happened in the British House of Com- mons and in the legislative assemblies of France, Germany, Austria, and Italy which would be impossible in our Congress. The Supreme Court has no chaplain. Justice Brewer said once at a public dinner at Washington that he did not know whether it was because it was thought that the Supreme Court needed no prayer, or that it was past praying for. But the Senate and House have chaplains. The revered and beloved Edward Everett Hale was chap- 10 26 lain of the Senate when he died, and his daily service at the opening of the session made a deep impression on everybody. After reading a few sentences, sometimes original, sometimes from the Bible, he offered an appropriate prayer, and then the Lord's Prayer, in which at first he always asked those present to unite. But so few responded that latterly he did not ask. His venerable and majestic appearance in his flowing robes of itself reminded men of higher things. On special occasions, notably of national grief or joy, his eloquence touched deep notes. He seemed the very incarnation of the patriotism he taught in all his writings, illustrated in "The Man Without a Country." His predecessor as chaplain was an eloquent blind man, Dr. Milburn, who had been Chaplain of the House, and whose successor, Dr. Couden, is also an eloquent blind man. Leaving the House of Representatives and the Capitol 27 through another set of bronze doors, those at the eastern en- trance, representing more of our historical scenes, and walking 23 down the steps of the eastern portico from the House of Rep- resentatives we see through the trees of the park the beautiful building of the Library of Congress. (Read slowly.) After a short walk we approach its front, presently seeing the detail 29 of the handsome fountain below its main entrance. It is the finest library building in the world and best adapted to its purpose. It cost with the site over $6,600,000, covers nearly the same area as the Capitol, and consists of a large reading room in a high central rotunda, two enormous 30 bookstacks, to the north and south, one smaller stack and a large number of galleries, pavilions and smaller rooms. The exterior is of New Hampshire white granite ; the inner courts, . (which help to make it so well lighted) are faced with Maryland granite and white bricks, and the interior is rich in marbles and mural decorations. Over all is a gilded dome ending in a 31 representation of the Torch of Science as always lighted. Two of the bronze doors at the main entrance, tradition and writing, give you at once an idea of the remarkable detail of the 32 building. (Read slowly.) Wherever you enter and wherever you go in the building you are bewildered with the wealth of beauty and color, ^o Here is a view of the north entrance hall. Notice the beautiful coloring of the Mosaic in the ceiHng and of the paint- ings in the arches. This is a view of the south entrance hall which is similar to the one we have just seen. The painting at the end of the 34 corridor, Lyric Poetry, by H. O. Walker, is one of exceeding beauty, and our next picture will give a nearer view of it. 11 Lyric Poetry is represented by a woman standing in the center 35 crowned with laurel, striking a lyre, while Passion, Beauty, Mirth, Pathos, Truth and Devotion attend her. The central hall, on the main floor, is magnificent in marbles, decorations, and at night in many lights. (Read 36 slowly.) Entering, you stand in wonder, if not in awe, before you advance across the Signs of the Zodiac set in the floor towards ^_ the reading room. At either side are the stairways. This stair hall should be seen from many points of view before it can be appreciated. Here for example is a side glimpse that is illustrative. Our lantern slide colorist has faithfully reproduced the exquisite color and marble effects of 38 this Alhambra of America. Proceeding directly into the rotunda, as a reader in search for books, (for no other kind of visitor can enter on the reading room floor), you see the central office of distribution, and by asking for a book, test the excellence of the catalogue and of the mechanical system of tubes and carriers, which bring the oq book in a remarkably short time. Raising your eyes you begin a feast of beauty which may last for hours, as you look at the decorations, statues, and well- chosen mottoes, and high above all the Blashfield figures, in the collar of the dome, representing the Progress of Civilization. With a proper introduction you can go through the book- stacks, which, with the other shelving in the building, now contain over 1,300,000 volumes. They could hold over 2,000,000 and may be enlarged by additional shelving to accommodate over 4,500,000 volumes. When we walk out of the reading room, we go from hall to hall and gallery to gallery, looking at beautiful paintings and decorations on the walls, and at interesting collections of old Af^ editions, manuscripts, autographs, engravings, and etchings, and other treasures. This picture represents Religion, painted by Charles S. Pearce. Days may be profitably spent in a careful study of the building and its contents. Most of the Chicago World's Fair artists and many of the best American sculptors and painters contributed to this un- exampled revel of beauty. 41 Here we have a picture representing Study — a companion piece of the one we have just seen, and by the same artist, Chas. S. Pearce. We now take the street car for Pennsylvania Avenue at the southwest corner of the Library. It takes us swiftly down the hill, passing the Capitol on the right, and the house which 12 Benjamin F. Butler built of Cape Ann granite on the left where President Arthur began his administration as the guest of ^enator Jones, of Nevada, and now the headquarters of the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. Just south of it m an old fashioned brick building are the offices of the United btates Coast and Geodetic Survey. At the foot of the hill the car turns northward and skirts the Capitol park, rounding the statue of President Garfield on the right, and passing the Botanical Gardens on the left, where -^^ the imposing monument to General Grant is being built on the axis of the Washington Monument. As the car turns into Pennsylvania Avenue we see the ,^ Peace Monument, commemorating the Army and Navy of the 43 Civil War. ^ Pennsylvania Avenue is the principal street in convenience tor the visitor as in historic interest, for it touches almost every important public building and many scenes of history. Jeffer- son walked from his boarding house on Capitol Hill Avenue • ^^ and General Andrew Jackson walked down this avenue to be inaugurated at the Capitol ; but every other President since John Adams rode. In every case, including that of Jefferson he was attended by a procession which has increased in size with the years. _ Presidents, Senators, Judges, Diplomats, may be seen on Its sidewalks, as well as on its roadway. Its width is its chief beauty, for most of the buildings are not attractive, and those in the blocks nearest the Capitol are very unattractive. The south side will be redeemed from its shabbiness under the plan for its conversion into a great park full of Governmental structures, and adjoining the park that now runs on the south from the Capitol past the Washington Monument to the Potomac River, called George Washington's Mall. Besides the Botanical Gardens on the left, and the Bar- tholdi Fountain, we see only old hotels and restaurants once frequented by great statesmen. Nearby we observe the monument to Stephenson, founder of the Grand Army of the Repubhc; and the District of CoL 4!? umbia Courthouse, two blocks to the northeast, which is in front of the United States Pension Office, the headquarters of the pension system and the place where inaugural balls have been held in recent years. If we took a transfer to the Seventh Street car, going north, we should come in two or three minutes to two hand- some buildings, one the headquarters of the Interior Depart- ment, commonly called the Patent Office, because that office 13 was the most interesting to the general public when the patent 46 models used to be on exhibition there ; and the other on the south side of F Street facing the Interior Department, now occupied by one of its bureaus, the Land Office, but formerly the headquarters of the Post Office Department. And if we should ride on a few minutes more we should come to the District of Columbia Public Library, in the build- .- ing given by Mr. Carnegie, at Seventh and K Streets, a com- paratively small library with an unusual circulation. Looking to the south, at Seventh and Pennsylvania Ave- nue, we see the Center Market. From the south side of the Center Market we can see the former site of the Pennsylvania Station at Sixth Street, where President Garfield was shot, which building was pulled down by President Roosevelt's order, after it had been surrendered by the railroad as part of the terminal improvements when all tracks were taken off the Mall. Looking down Seventh Street we can see on the other side of the Mall the buildings of the Fish Commission and the Army Medical Museum. .-. At Tenth Street, looking north, two blocks away, we see ^^ the plain front of what used to be Ford's Theatre, where President Lincoln was shot, and which is now a War Depart- ment bureau. It faces the house where on a private soldier's bed Presi- dent Lincoln, who could not be moved any further, died as 49 morning dawned This house is now a Lincoln museum, full of pictures, books and relics, well worth seeing. The new National Museum Building, a stately structure with a fine dome, stands across Tenth Street, at the northern edge of the Mall, two blocks south of Pennsylvania Avenue. At Eleventh Street, on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue, stands the large building built for the City Post Office but now chiefly occupied by the Post Office Department ; on the north side, between Eleventh and Fifteenth Streets are some large and some handsome private structures, including three of the newspaper offices and two of the principal hotels. Between Thirteenth and a Half and Fourteenth Streets, 50 on the south side, is the fine home of the executive government of the District of Columbia, a structure of white marble, cost- ing with the site two-and-a-half million dollars. The District is governed by a commission of three mem- bers, appointed by the President, with the powers of the former Governors of the District, and Mayors of Washington and with authority to make municipal ordinances. 14 The citizens pay half of the expense of the maintenance of the National Capitol, and the rest of the country pays the other half. In 1908 this amounted to sixteen dollars per capita for the District Residents, and six cents per capita for all other citizens of our country. The citizens, through their civic organizations, v/hich form and employ public opinion more effectively than is done where the suffrage obtains, celebrated the Fourth of July, 1908 ; — at once Independence Day, the opening of the District Govern- ment Building, and the thirtieth anniversary of the commission government, including the National Government's assumption of half of the expenses of the district and the abolition of suffrage. It interests all visitors, but especially Englishmen, to find that taxation without representation is not regarded as tyranny in the National Capital, even on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But the District Tax-Payers, knowing that they have self-government by public opinion and declaring, as they did at the opening of the District Building, that it had been notably honest and efficient, generally do not care to give up the substance for the shadow. On the green lawn of the District Building is the statue of -^ ' Alexander R. Shepherd, once villified as "Boss," now honored as Governor, the man who appears in all his rugged strength, ready to tear down hills, fill up valleys, run the ploughshare of progress over the paper streets and avenues planned by Washington, but undeveloped until he made them real. It was paid for by popular subscription, and unveiled with elaborate ceremonies, which thousands of tax-payers attended, and in which the National as well as the District Government was represented. The five squares immediately west of the District Building are in process of condemnation by the National Government, as the site for new buildings for the Department of State, Department of Justice, and Department of Commerce and Labor, which will begin the general conversion of the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue into a Government Building Park. These Squares face Pennsylvania Avenue on the north, the Mall on the south, and the White House Park on the west, and will cost less than the two and a half millions appropriated by Congress. All the way up Pennsylvania Avenue we have seen the Treasury 52 Department, stretching across it at Fifteenth Street, placed, tradi- tion says, by General Jackson, with one stroke of his cane, when as President he abruptly settled the dispute as to where it should go. 15 But for this, the President's House would have ended the vista from the Capitol. The Treasury Department is an admirable piece of classic architecture, if not a good modern office building, for many of its rooms lack proper light and ventilation. It covers a larger area than any other public building except the Capitol, for it is four hundred and fifty feet long and two hundred and fifty feet wide. Visitors usually want to see the banking side of the Treasury Department, the cash room, with its costly marbles, where Treas- ury warrants and checks are cashed at the rate of millions a day, sometimes in million dollar denominations; the bond and silver and gold vaults, where the Treasury assets are stored and where they, especially brides and grooms, are sometimes allowed to hold for a moment bags or bundles worth many millions. They are also interested in the division of issue, or redemption division of the paper money; the secret service division, with the samples of counterfeit money and counterfeiters' tools, and finally, in a brick building on the other side of the Mall, the Bureau of r-j Engraving and Printing, where Government bonds. National currency, postage, and revenue stamps, official commissions, passports, are turned out in great quantities. The fourteen hundred employees in fourteen divisions do expert work, all of which, except the engraving of plates, may be seen by visitors. The processes are interesting from beginning to end. There is no statue in Washington of John Sherman, who was Secretary of the Treasury, but just south of the Treasury Depart- ment is the statue of his brother, General William Tecumseh 54 Sherman, who seems to be guarding the treasures of the Govern- ment. The treasures in the Department and the treasures in the making at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing are most carefully guarded by a large force of watchmen and by an elaborate system of accounting which prevents employees from leaving any day until every account balances to a cent. Fifteenth Street from Pennsylvania x\ venue, opposite the ^^ Treasury, and for a block beyond, is the Wall Street of Washington. At the north end of the Treasury Building, Pennsylvania Avenue appears, and as our car turns the corner westward, the Lafayette Monument at the southeast corner of Lafayette Square rises before the eye at our right, and the President's House through the great elms of its park, at our left. In a moment we can get off near the Lafayette Monument and walk across "The Avenue," towards the President's House. c^ You walk up through the broad driveway to the porte-cochere and so get the front view of the house, which is a very satisfying 16 building. Simple and stately are the adjectives usually applied to it. The building proper is one hundred and seventy feet long, and eighty-six feet deep, and was the first public building in Wash- ington. George Washington selected the site and the architect, 57 James Hoban, who got his idea from the residence of the Duke of Leinster, near Dublin. The cornerstone was laid by Washington, October 13, 1792, and he lived to see the building finished. In 1902 and 1903 the interior was strengthened and altered, and low wings con- structed, so as to provide on the west side the President's office and the Cabinet Room; and on the east side a colonnade, lined with boxes and hooks for hats and wraps, — a long desired con- venience for official entertainments. At the same time the con- 58 servatory on the west side was entirely removed. The office build- ing was doubled in size in the summer of 1909. Visitors must go around to the eastern end of this colonnade to enter this building, passing through the basement corridor, ornamented by portraits of the mistresses of the House, and cabinets set up by Mrs. Roosevelt, containing specimens of the china and glass used by past administrations. The only room commonly shown to visitors is that called the -_ "East Room," the largest reception-room, which in its unfinished ■^^ state Mrs. John Adams used as a drying-room for clothes. Its decorations have been changed from time to time. They are now in white and gold. It is here that the President receives large delegations, that important public meetings and state funerals have been held, and that musicales, dances, and receptions, have been given in the social season. Exercises commemorative of the National Capital Centennial, December 12. 1900; the conference called by President Roosevelt on the conservation of our natural resources; and later his conference on child-caring work, are typical of the serious official gatherings. President Roosevelt and President Taft have both danced in this room at evening entertainments. At certain hours, by special permit, when they are not in use by the President's family, you may see the smaller parlors, called the Blue Room, where President and Mrs. Cleveland were married, and where the President and his wife stand at State receptions; the green room and the red room (all named from the color of their decorations and furnishing) containing interesting portraits and relics, including the Washington portrait which Mrs. Dolly Madison cut from its frame and took to safety when she left for Virginia upon the advance of the British in 1814. The State dining-room as reconstructed, paneled in dark English oak, and in which President Roosevelt had mounted heads of 17 American big game, may also be seen at such times. The dining table seats one hundred guests. Any respectable person can enter the little office building west of the President's House, doubled in size to provide much needed space for the President and his official family. If he has any color of right to do so he can, at appropriate hours, at least shake hands with the President, and even have opportunity for conversa- tion. ,p. The usual way to see the attractive park and the rear of the President's House is from outside the iron fence w^hich runs around its semi-circle. But in summer, Saturday afternoon concerts are given for the public on the lawn, and you can take a child to the egg-rolling there on Easter Monday. The Saturday afternoon lawn concerts by the Marine Band removed in May, 1909, to the Sherman .Statue park at the Treasury Department, were restored in August. 51 The State, War and Navy Departments are in one large granite building directly w^est of the White House grounds and overlooking them. The State Department, gradually crowded in the south side of this building, facing us in this picture, desires and will have a building of its own. The War Department occupies the greater portion of the building. All three departments are obliged to have rented quarters outside as well. The State Department Library has on its wall the original draft of the Declaration of Independence in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson, with interlineations by John Adams and Ben- jamin Franklin, than which there is no more interesting liberty document in the world. The engrossed copy, exhibited until the sun faded out two-thirds of the autographs of the signers though not effecting the text in the least, is now locked up with the signed copy of the Constitution of the United States in a State Department safe, which can only be opened on the order of the President or the Secretary of State. There, too, are the sword of Washington and the staff of Franklin. The State Department has many other valuable originals of treaties, laws, letters, and other documents. Throughout this building are a number of valuable relics, including the Fort Sumter flag, lowered and raised by Colonel Robert Anderson, and the flag wrapped around Lincoln's coffin when it was taken to Springfield. There are also many portraits and models of our naval vessels and military uniforms. The Corcoran Gallery of Art, the gift of W. W. Corcoran, a ^2 Washington banker, who made what would be considered in New York a very modest fortune, and gave to the people nearly half of it, 18 is on Seventeenth Street right below the State, War and Navy Building, and near the house v^hich was General Grant's head- quarters the last year of the war. The Gallery building of Georgia marble is attractive within and without, and contains many admirable pictures, a few original ^3 marbles and bronzes, and reproductions of most of the classic sculpture; also the lecture room, studios and class room of the Corcoran School of Art. The Trustees of the Gallery are very hospitable, entertaining at receptions many important guests, including notable conventions meeting in Washington, and from time to time removing their own collections to give place to such remarkable exhibitions as that of 64 the American artists, or that of the St. Gaudens' collection. The main stairway is the most beautiful portion of the interior; most of the statuary is on the first floor of the Gallery, and most of the paintings on the second floor. Perhaps the most celebrated of its original marbles is "The Last Days of Napoleon" by Velas, which stands in the center of the ^c upper hall. Among others is "The Greek Slave" by Hiram Powers of Vermont. The Corcoran Gallery has the largest collection of Barye bronzes (more than one hundred), which are kept in a separate room. It also has fine examples of Kemy's animal bronzes, and Remington's studies of western life in bronze; and many excellent specimens of modern paintings. The Gallery offers every opportunity for the display of the collections of millionaires, and usually has on exhibition loaned 66 pictures of great merit and value. Former Senator Clark, of Montana, has had on exhibition there for a long time, old masters valued at over a million dollars. Walking down Seventeenth Street from the Corcoran Gallery towards the Potomac Park, at its foot, we pass the Continental Hall, National Daughters of the American Revolution; and the building for the International Bureau of American Republics, for which Mr. Carnegie gave $750,000. Directly south of the President's House, almost in the center of the original District of Columbia, and on the meridian of Washing- ton, the Washington Monument rises over five hundred and fifty- 67 five feet. It is the dominating feature of every view of Washington, far and near, and has as many different aspects as the changes of the day and of the weather. It is the first thing you see as you approach Washington, and you can never get away from it while you remain in the city. It has a different beauty for every hour of the day and night. No man ever had a more perfect monument, "Build it to the skies," said Robert C. Winthrop at the laying of the cornerstone, "you cannot outreach the loftiness of his 19 principles; found it upon the massive and eternal rock, you cannot make it more enduring than his fame. Construct it of the peerless Parian marble, you cannot make it purer than his life. Exhaust upon it the rules and principles of ancient and modern art, you cannot make it more proportionate than his character." It is an obelisk of white marble, the shaft proper a little over five hundred feet high, fifty- five feet square at the base, and thirty- four feet at the top, surmounted by a pyramidon of fifty-five feet capped by pure aluminum, inscribed "Laus Deo." It is the highest masonry structure in the world, the nearest being the Philadelphia City Hall, with Wilham Penn's hat at five hundred and thirty-seven feet. A slow but safe elevator makes regular trips through the day, 68 and we may also walk up the nine hundred steps of the winding stairway, through the interior lighted by electricity, to the platform at the height of five hundred and four feet, where we can look through eight port-holes, two in each side, for great distances north, east, south and west. This is the best place to get a com- plete idea of the plan of the capital. As we go up, we will see in the interior of the older part a hundred and seventy-nine memorial stones, some of them beautiful, sent by States, cities, organizations, individuals. Greece sent a marble from the Parthenon, and many other foreign countries, including Japan, China, and Siam, are represented. Popular contributions carried the obelisk up from the laying of the cornerstone in 1848 to the height of one hundred and fifty-two feet in 1855, when the money gave out and nothing more was done until 1878, when Congress took it up and by successive appropria- tions completed it, so that it was dedicated on February 21, 1885, Robert C. Winthrop being the orator on that occasion as he had been thirty-seven years before at the laying of the cornerstone. Before we leave the top of the Washington Monument, we must XQ take one more look over the flag-pole at the general view from the ■^ Mall at our feet to the circle of hills which was a circle of forts in the Civil War, and even beyond to the Blue Ridge Mountains in the west, and almost to Mount Vernon on the Potomac in the south. Looking to the eastward, for example, we see the whole of the Mall, with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in the fore- ground, the old Department of Agriculture next to the eastward, with the wings of the new Department of Agriculture building behind it. Then comes the building of the Smithsonian Institu- tion, a fine example of the English Gothic, under which comes the ypw national museum, soon to be transferred from the ugly old building east of the Smithsonian Institution to the beautiful new building 20 directly north of it on the Mall. Here there is a great variety of exhibits including relics of Washington and Grant, and some loaned articles of which the most interesting is the flag that floated over Fort McHenry, to which Francis Scott Key addressed the Star Spangled Banner. There are many interesting places, some chiefly historic and some chiefly beautiful, and some both, outside of the City of yi Washington, within the range of our eye as we look from the Washington Monument. The Soldiers' Home, where veterans of the regular army live, started by General Scott, vdth the Mexico indemnity; the United States Navy Yard, which is chiefly a great gun factory, in the southeast ; the Army War College, on a neighbor- ing peninsula — these are some of the things that we might well visit. But there are two places that we must visit. One is Arling- ton, and the other is Mount Vernon. Two lines of trolley cars will take us to Arlington and one of them, by the way, will take us also to Mount Vernon. The one that goes through old Georgetown is the more interesting, because one gets a passing view of some of its old mansions, antedating the city of Washington by fifty years. One of them was used by George Washington when he was founding the Federal City, and back of it on the hills is the residence of his kinswoman, Mrs. Kennon, still living at an advanced age. Out what is now called Wisconsin Avenue Braddock marched to his defeat. The home of Francis Scott Key is on the south side of our route near the bridge that crosses the Potomac, and an association has undertaken to preserve it. As we cross the bridge, we see the buildings of Georgetown University, one of the oldest Jesuit Colleges, rising on the hill; we look up and down the Potomac, admiring its beauty, and the regatta course beneath; we go through a wretched-looking village on the Virginia side, and presently pass the mihtary reservation, Fort Myer, so neat in contrast, which will always be famous as the place where Orville Wright made his successful flights with his airship and narrowly missed death when he fell by accident. '^ By whichever gate we enter we should make our way through the cemetery, first of all to the front of the Arlington Mansion, and slowly drink in the beauty of the unsurpassed view of Washing- ton. Arlington Hill slopes to the river at the point where some day it will be spanned by a magnificent memorial bridge, celebrating the valor of the Civil War. This bridge wifl rest on the Washing- ton side about one mile west of the Washington Monument, where a superb portico memorial of Abraham Lincoln is proposed by the Senate Park Commission. 21 The plan of the City of Washington here appeals to us as it does not from any other point. Right at our feet lie the remains of Captain and Brevet-Major of Engineers in the Continental Army, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, recently removed from the lonely unmarked grave on a Maryland farm, where they were buried in 1825 by the family with which he found refuge during his later life. After all those years of neglect his remains were brought by act of Congress under the auspices of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, stopping for a memorial service in the Rotunda of the Capitol, and escorted by an appropriate procession to this spot, overlooking the city he helped to plan. General Sheridan, Admiral Porter, Secretary Gresham, and other notable men lie along this same crest. 73 When our eyes can behold no more of this wonderful view, we turn to look at the house of Robert E. Lee, whose mother was related to the Washingtons, and whose house and estate were finer than Mount Vernon. The classic front of the mansion touches our sense of beauty at once. Glancing at the rooms we can easily imagine the old-fashioned hospitality of George Washington Parke Custis (whom Washington adopted when he married his mother, the widow Custis) and of Robert E. Lee who married in 1 83 1 the only daughter of Custis in the drawing-room, where we register our names in the visitors' book. Lee was the head of the house from Custis's death in 1857, until on April 22, 1861, at Virginia's call, he left Arlington for Richmond, 74 never to return. The Union troops made it a camp almost im- mediately, later it became a hospital, and by natural process a cemetery, the first soldier buried there being a Confederate prisoner who died in hospital. Quartermaster- General Meigs, upon whose suggestion President Lincoln made the estate in 1864 a national military cemetery, has there his monument with many other generals, not only of the Civil War, but of former and late wars. Twelve Revolutionary officers, including L'Enfant, are buried there. As the wives and daughters of soldiers buried at Arlington may also be buried there, many women rest side by side with those they loved. In all about twenty thousand persons have been buried at Arlington since 1864. Before that time there were only two, George Washington Parke Custis and his wife, besides their slaves. 75 The Government bought the property when it was sold for delinquent taxes in 1864 for $26,100 and in 1877 paid George Washington Custis Lee $150,000 which satisfied his claim as the legal heir. The Superintendent of the Cemetery and his family live in the house and courteously receive visitors. On the wall of the drawing-room where Lee married Miss 22 Custis, hangs the most famous speech of modern times, Lincoln's address at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. "Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in hberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. " The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." As we go out into the grounds our eyes are irresistibly drawn to that marvellous view which Lafayette, when he visited Custis in 1825, said was one of the most beautiful he had ever seen. The Arlington estate, with its plateau, its ravines, its graceful slopes, its splendid trees, has been cultivated by landscape garden- ers to a high degree, and on the whole without spoiling its natural beauty. The structures which have been added, like the Temple of Fame, so-called, fit in very well with the surroundings. A costly auditorium has been authorized by Congress as a monumental memorial, but meanwhile the annual impressive ceremonies of Memorial Day will continue to take place in the amphitheatre, under the shadow of the glorified grape arbor of elder days. 77 Of all the memorials in this cemetery, the most touching is that which stands in granite strength and simplicity over the common grave of 21 11 nameless soldiers of the Union Army, gathered, as it says, after the war, from the fields of Bull Run and the route of the Rappahannock. The inscription adds, simply: "Their remains could not be identified, but their names and deaths are recorded in the archives of their country, and its grate- 76 23 ful citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs. May they rest in peace. September A. D. 1866." 78 There are many large and some beautiful monuments to officers and their wives, but they do not impress us like the rows of white headstones, ten thousand in one place, ranked like regiments, which mark the graves of private soldiers, in that silent army. 70 Soldiers of the Spanish War sleep in similar rows, headed by the victims of the explosion of the Battleship Maine, not far from one of the anchors brought up from the wreck, and placed upon a hill in the Cemetery. A very good example of the landscape gardening in the Cemetery is that surrounding the receiving vault, which is sometimes taken 80 for the tomb, of the Custises, who are buried elsewhere in the grounds in separate graves under simple shafts. Over all, from the tall staff in front of Arlington House, the American flag flies in the breeze from sunrise to sunset. At differ- ent points along the line of the graves are bronze tablets, each bearing a verse of Colonel Theodore O'Hara's "Bivouac of the Dead," first read at Frankfort in the dedication of the monument to the Kentucky soldiers killed in the Mexican War. The second verse at least will live : " On Fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread. And glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead." The trip to Mount Vernon, fifteen miles south of Washington, on the Potomac River, is better taken by boat than by rail if the weather be pleasant. But either route is interesting, giving us first a view of the water-front of Washington, including the whole extent of the Potomac Park, the Army War College and the Navy Yard. Then five miles down the river we see the ancient city of Alexandria, Washington's business town, where he spent much time during the week and where on Sundays he attended service in the square old pew, still unchanged, in Christ Church, near that of the Custises and Robert E. Lee. If we had time we should see the unique George Washington relics in the George Washington Lodge of Masons, of which he was master, in the second story of the market house, and the nearby old Carlisle Mansion which was Braddock's headquarters before he started for the West. On the high ridge west of Alexandria is the famous Episcopal Seminary, where Phillips Brooks received his theological training. The Mount Vernon estate stands high and much of it is rolling ground. If we have come by boat, we have a long cHmb to the « J house, while the trolley station is not far from the house, at the edge ^ ' of the estate. When we reach the front of the house with its low 24 facade and eight simple columns, more familiar than any other house in America, we instinctively, as at Arlington, look out upon the view, which here of course is simply of the Potomac River and the Maryland shore, with its low hills beyond. Marshall Hall, the home of a cousin of Chief Justice Marshall, is in full view, while right around the next point south of Mount Vernon is Gunston Hall, the residence of George Mason, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights. Turning we examine the plain but pleasant face of George 32 Washington's home from his marriage in 1759 until he died forty years later. When Washington's heir, John Augustine Washing- ton, in 1855, offered the place for sale because he could not main- tain it, a woman, Ann Pamela Cunningham of South Carolina, determined that she would preserve it for all the people as the Government ought to have done. Washington's heir wanted $200,000 for it. Miss Cunningham organized the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, which made her Regent, and appointed Vice- regents for the other twelve original States, and appealed to the country for the money, which was as much to raise then as a million dollars would be now. Edward Everett made the largest con- tribution, $69,000, which he earned by repeating his lecture on Washington, and from certain writings. Washington Irving gave 33 $500. Many thousands of school children gave five cents apiece; and in i860 the Association owned Mount Vernon. Its Regents provided a fund for its care, and every visitor pays twenty-five cents towards its maintenance, while some special gifts have been given to recover portions of the original estate, to repair the mansion and other buildings, to restock the deer park. Many pieces of furni- ture and other household goods have been gathered from all over the country and replaced in the rooms of the mansion. The 84 Government ought to own it and give free access to it. The house is surrounded by beautiful trees, some of which go back to Washington's time, and is as pleasing from the side as from the front, whether from a distance or from a near view. The view of the house from the rear is little known in pictures. or It shows some of the offices, some of the oldest trees, and part of the garden. Rhode Islanders in 1888 replaced the sun-dial which stood on the west lawn and whose motto, "Horas non numero nisi serenas" (I record none but sunny hours) Washington used to read. Hours can be pleasantly and profitably spent in examining the rooms of the house, and the furnishings, decorations and relics, from the main hall, with the Key of the Bastile, sent by Lafayette to Wash- ington, and three of Washington's swords, by the south bedroom on the second floor, where Washington died, to the room in the attic, where Mrs. Washington died. 25 The tomb of Washington divides the interest with the home of 86 Washington. It is the plainest of brick vaults with an arched gate- way bearing a marble slab inscribed: "Within this enclosure rest the remains of General George Washington." Inside are the words: "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that beheveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Two marble coffins, each hewn from a single block of marble, stand before us as we look through the barred gateway, now never opened, and which is constantly guarded. The one containing the remains of Washington stands on the right and is simply in- scribed with his name, the United States coat of arms and a draped flag. The eagle in the coat of arms has lost one of its talons, taken, it is said, by a visitor during the Civil War. On the left stands the coffin inscribed, "Martha, Consort of Washington. Died May 21, 1801, aged seventy-one years." The last date is wrong, for Mrs. Washington died a year later. About forty members of the Wash- ington and Custis families and their relatives sleep within the vault. The monument beside it is in memory of Judge Bushrod Wash- ington, of the Supreme Court, who inherited Mount Vernon. Eight memorial trees, planted by distinguished persons and societies, stand here. This is not where the Washingtons were first buried. The old tomb is nearer the house. It was because in 1831 it was entered by a robber, who took a skull, which he thought was Washington's, but which proof showed was not, that the new tomb was constructed and the remains of the Washingtons and their relatives were transferred here. The National Capitol and its related surroundings is a place of memorials. The great of the present day are crowded by the great of former generations. Besides the historic buildings and their portraits, busts, and statues, there are thirty-five statues in the parks and streets of the city. Many of them are of mihtary and naval heroes. A larger number are on horseback than in any other city. There are here an increasing number of monuments to the heroes of peace. The statue farthest east in Washington is that representing 87 Lincoln emancipating the negro, and stands in Lincoln Square twelve blocks east of the Capitol. The farthest west monument is the Peace Cross on the site of the proposed Protestant Episcopal Cathedral on the heights above Georgetown. Among the statues last unveiled are those of Henry Wadsworth OQ Longfellow, the poet of the common people (read slowly), and John Witherspoon, President of Princeton, advocate and signer of the Declaration of Independence, of whom Horace Walpole said in the House of Commons, "Cousin America has run off with a 26 Presbyterian parson." Witherspoon stands almost in front of the British Embassy, on Connecticut Avenue, and almost in sight 39 of Longfellow, who is sitting in a poet's chair facing the east. More statues have been authorized and will gradually be erected. Christopher Columbus, Steuben, Kosciusko, John Barry, besides Grant, are among those under way. It is to be hoped that beautiful fountains, which are very few in Washington, may be employed much more in the future to com- memorate those whom we delight to honor. The more we contemplate President Washington's plans for this even now beautiful city, the more we appreciate the man and the largeness of his faith in his country's destiny. grv "By broad Potomac's silent shore, Better than Trajan he lowly lies, Gilding her green declivities With glory now and evermore. Art to his fame no aid hath lent. His country is his monument." MH-3^ \^^