State room

“ Adjoining the new Senate wing by a corridor is the old Senate Chamber, now used by the Supreme Court of the United States. To the south comes the great awe-inspiring Rotunda, 300 feet in circumference and over 280 feet in height, adorned with marvelous life-size paintings and beautiful statuary. Through another corridor, the old Hall of Representatives, now Statuary Hall, presents itself. In this Hall each State may contribute bronze or marble statues of two of her most illustrious soldiers or statesmen. ”

“ Continuing our examination of what is called the original Capitol building, we would stop next at the Supreme Court room, once the Senate Chamber of the United States. For quiet, harmonious beauty it is unequaled by any other room in the building.
It was designed by Latrobe, after the model of a Greek theater—a semicircular hall, with low-domed ceiling, and small gallery back and over the seats occupied by the dignified judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. ”

“ A peristile of columns in the same room, six feet from the wall, and twenty-two and a half feet high with their entablature, support a corridor above, serving as a communication for all the upper apartments, the stairs landing in it. In the upper tier is a Senate chamber thirty feet square, an office for their clerk, five rooms for committees and juries, an office for the clerk of the House of Delegates, a chamber for the Governor and Council, and a room for their clerk. In the basement of the building are the Land office, Auditor's office, and Treasury. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The official residence of the President guarded by about twenty lounging, diminutive policemen, is alive with bustling movement, and carriages in all stages of decay line the street outside. After leaving your hat with a very unofficial-looking servant at the entrance, you pass into a large salon, and are introduced to the President, who stands near the door. Many of the leaders of fashion and society are assembled in the room, and you soon discover that a free and easy air entirely{111} devoid of anything like formality pervades the apartment. ”

“ Old City Hall.—This famous old brick and stucco, two-story, earthquake-cracked, and iron-braced structure, with the adjoining Hall of Records, stretches along the east side of Kearny street from Merchant to Washington, and extends nearly a third of the block down each of those streets. The police-offices and lock-ups occupy the basement, while the usual District Court rooms, with Judges' Chambers and municipal offices, Supervisors' and Board of Education rooms, fill the upper floors, and clamor for more room. ”

“ With respect to yourself, the little disquietudes from individuals not chosen for their taste in works of art, will be sunk into oblivion, while the Representatives' chamber will remain a durable monument of your talents as an architect. I say nothing of the Senate room, because I have never seen it. ”

“ Inside the Capitol too there is much to detain you: the vast fireproof library of Congress; the legislative halls; the marble room, wainscoted in mirrors, where you can see the Senators slide between the pillars accompanied by the multiplying train of not one but a hundred shadows, and where you can wonder to your heart's content what a room lined with looking-glass has to do with legislation ”

“ The House of Representatives holds its sessions in the southern wing of the Capitol at Washington. The House is very large, right angled, and rigid, with little ornament, and without beauty of proportion. The walls go up for about fifteen feet, and from that point the galleries slant back until they reach the next floor of the building. The roof is a vast expanse of glass, with the arms of each State painted on the square panels. The general effect is grayness of color and a size which can be measured in acres better than in feet. ”

“ The four largest hotels are Congress Hall, Union Hall, the Pavilion, and the United States Hotel, the last of brick, the three former of wood. Congress Hall alone, was yet open, the others had closed since September 1st, on account of the frost. The hotel can accommodate two hundred strangers. In the evening the company assembles in the large halls in the lower story, at this season, alas! by the fire, and pass the time in music, dancing, or conversation. Games of chance are strictly forbidden by the laws of the state, and in general, public opinion in the United States is much against gaming. ”

“ In the same room can be seen several [158] contemporary views of Federal Hall, one in water-color, by Robertson, 1798; another, an engraving, showing every detail of the façade, represents, as the inscription runs, "Federal Hall, the Seat of Congress.—Printed and sold by A. Doolittle, New Haven, 1790.—A. Doolittle Sc. Pet. Lacour del." ”

“ The beautiful “western staircase” of red sandstone (from plans by Perry) and the senate chamber (designed by Richardson) are perhaps the most notable parts of the structure. The building houses the various executive departments, the legislature and the court of appeals. A large and handsome building of white granite was begun in 1908 directly opposite the Capitol to accommodate the department of education and the magnificent state library (about 450,000 volumes) . Other important buildings are the old state hall, a handsome white marble building erected in 1842 ”

“ Morrill, of Pennsylvania, and General Butler, of Massachusetts, who have, as chairmen of their respective committees, offered us the use of their several rooms, in case the threats of a certain gentleman in the House should so terrify you, sir, that you should feel compelled to withdraw your most friendly offer. We have accepted the use of the Committee-room on Agriculture, leaving you, sir, with reluctance, simply because it is larger and more accessible than your room, and one so beautifully adorned by art, that our womanly tastes are daily gratified in its use. ”

“ It is a very spacious semicircular room, and much resembles, in its arrangements the appearance of a splendid theatre before the stage. The ascent to the seat of the president is by a flight of light marble steps; the facing of his bureau is composed of the most costly marble, richly carved. On each side of the president's chair are seats for the secretaries; and immediately below them is the tribune, into which the orator ascends to address the House. On each side of the seat of the president are antique statues of eminent patriots and orators, which are placed in niches in the wall. ”

“ The door of the chamber is open, and we are introduced into a lofty, well-lighted and commodious apartment, in which the Congress of the Confederate States holds its deliberations. A gallery runs half round the room, and is half filled with visitors—country cousins, and farmers of cotton and maize, and, haply, seekers of places great or small. ”

“ The T-shaped hall ends on the solid wall behind the stairway on the west side, and on the east leads directly into the post-Civil War wing which contains a small sitting room, bathroom, and the kitchen. The smaller hall, the stem of the T, runs perpendicular to the main hall with opposing entrance doors at each end. The spacious living and dining rooms flank the smaller hall, with entrances from the main hall. ”

“ The Salle des Pas Perdus has an ante-chamber, a sort of crossway room, upon which opened the staircase of the High Tribune, and several doors, amongst others the great glass door of the gallery which leads to the apartments of the President of the Assembly.
As soon as they had reached this crossway room which adjoins the little rotunda, where the side door of exit to the Palace is situated, the soldiers set the Representatives free. ”

“ The inconveniences suffered on account of the insufficiency of room are a constant source of complaint. Only four of the eight bureaus of the Interior Department are accommodated in the building, namely, the Patent Office, the Land Office, the Indian Bureau, and the Bureau of Railroad Accounts. ”

“ The guards before whom they pass will draw up, and present their arms: at the palace, where the sittings of the assembly of their high mightinesses are held, they are to be received in a private room by the committee of that assembly, then at the door of the chamber of sittings by the notary, who shall introduce them to the place of the sittings of the assembly, and accompany them to the place destined for them, and which is similiar to that of the members of the assembly. ”

“ To the left of the entrance hall were waiting rooms, writing rooms and retiring rooms for the accommodation of guests, while at the extreme south end of the building were two reading rooms, in which were on file the various daily papers of the State. But seldom were the reading rooms without visitors eagerly familiarizing themselves with what had happened at home subsequent to their departure. Also, on the first floor were coat rooms, a bureau of information, postoffice, telegraph and telephone offices. ”

“ And immediately, from all ends of the city or the State, or from every State in the Union, all who feel an interest in the subject or question fly upon the wings of steam to the appointed place of meeting and at the appointed hour. The hotels and boarding-houses of the city are rapidly filled; they come together in the great hall of assembly, they shake hands, they become acquainted with one another, they make speeches, they vote, they carry their resolutions. ”

“ A bathroom has been annexed to every room. Presumably every international delegate will have a suite allotted to his nation. The question I ask myself is this, Will he put himself in the room and his secretaries in the bathroom, or himself in the bathroom and the secretaries in the room? And the answer I make to myself is as follows: The delegate will appoint the room to be his room and the bathroom to be his bathroom and will leave his secretaries to make the best of things out in the corridor. The suggestion you will probably make is that there are more suites of rooms than nations ”

“ I very much admired the governor's reception room, twenty by forty feet in size. The room is beautifully decorated in green and red. The chandelier is as elaborate when lighted as any I have ever seen. The harmony of the color effect and the blending is perfectly grand. ”

“ The Senate Chamber, under his immediate direction, was fitted up in handsome style as a court, and laid out into apartments for the senators, the House of Representatives, the managers, the accused and counsel, the members of the executive departments, besides a semicircular gallery constructed within the area of the chamber, which formed from its front an amphitheatre contiguous with the fixed gallery of the Senate Chamber. ”

“ There is a private gallery for Senators’ families and friends, one part of which is set apart for the family of the President. It is seldom occupied by the dwellers in the White House, but often by visiting friends. The reporters’ gallery is over the Vice-President’s desk. There sit those busy, bright men who keep you informed of what the Senate is doing. The gallery opposite is for the diplomats. It is always interesting to watch the faces of these distinguished foreigners as they scan this body of lawmakers. ”

“ From this room,—in Daniel Webster's day the Hall of Representatives,—the boys were led to the doors of the present legislative chambers and permitted brief views of the imposing desks, arranged in semi-circular rows, at which the men sent from all over the nation sit in long sessions of serious deliberation. ”

“ The large East Room, which occupies that entire end of the building, is elegantly furnished, while the walls are hung with life-size portraits, in oil, of Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and [72] others who have formerly filled the highest national office, but who now have passed away.
It was my pleasure to pass an evening, with my wife, in the private parlor of President Grant and family, who gave me a cordial reception. ”

“ It is amusing to note how the ladies crowd the seats, and how the Congressman lolls on the sofa in the outer circle of the chamber, or turns round in his chair at his desk, crossing his legs on the desk in front of him, puffs his cigar, and, heedless of the fate of the nation, turns round and fascinates the fair ones in the gallery. It is amusing also to see a Member leave his seat during his speech and walk all over the floor, snapping his fingers and pummelling any desk handy. ”

“ Bundles of letters and documents were lying on the Lord Chief’s desk. The drawers were unlocked, as I could see by papers revealed [Pg 188] in them. A “crook” in this room might get hold of the seals, the writing paper, the signature, and the private correspondence of the Lord Chief Justice of England, and play a great game with them. It seemed to me extraordinary that a footman should put an unknown visitor, on unknown business, into this private room, and leave him there for nearly an hour. ”

“ In the state house the four little patriots saw a large apartment on the first floor which the men said was Independence Hall. It was decorated with quaint carvings, and pictures of famous Americans adorned its walls. Many of the chairs used by the members of Congress in 1776 still stood here to remind the children of that great event—the reading and signing of the Declaration of Independence, executed in this city. ”