New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-06-15
IMPROVEMENTS at TIE CAPITAL.

ordering change in the present ball. which Don Patt
calls the Cave OF the Winds-a change which IL 10 In
cude some OF the windows Of the adjoining corridor 10
the room into which you look to-day might look
who ght Truth in her well Indeed as at present
constituted not one pure ray Of daylight gains access TO
this huge cell and though costly machines OF all sorts
have their best TO fan pure nr upward through INC
floor not mouhul Of 1t Is to be breathed taere either
When the House is In session. to sit long In the galleries.
where hangs round the opposite corners Is 10 FEEL
your blood slowly poisoning, an oppression benumbms
your BRAIN your eyes growing and strained ana u see
yourself IN the first mirror white mask OF clay your
eyes rngod with purple and your wrinkles ana burrows
all prematurey alive. Many
clared their opinion that than Congressmanfa
victims every year diseases the character OF
the chamber and outsiders have long since grown accus
toned to attribute much OF the bad lawmaking to the
bad light and bad air Of the place. They have only TO
enter the Supreme Court room. with its long windows
behind the Bench. to note the difference in the !mere
humanity Of a room; there can see bit OF sky
bending branch, and be aware OF storm OF SUNSHINE
But the black hole Of the legislative mans one Is as
blind TO the outside world Justice Is supposed 10 De-
and il may not be too much to say that the LAWS par
take more of the nature OF blindness than OF justice
If ia not generally known that this Enclosure Of the
halls OF the Senate and House the surrounding lob
bies was something not originally IN the plan OF the
building at all Chambers embodying far n0Dler dea
are said to been in the design but they were aro
trary altered their present form by the order oil
officials in the War Department. That was at time
when the soldier uppermost and all in ALL ana his
superiority in everything was so unquestioned that
chief OF engineers In the army would have been eonsld
cred competent 10 alter the plans OF Michael Angelo
himself But now bitter experience has shown the Con-
gressmen need of little more light on their work. both
literally and fguratiyely. Every lover of beauty will
rejoice at this change when 1t shall be effected Tor the
| inclosure OF the two rooms is the only archi
1 an In building
| we cannot call it quite perfect till the central
portion OF the east front shall be extended into the
symmetry that the architect Of the wings has desired
and designed Undoubtedly this will at some time be
done, as the growing needs Of the Library will demand
either that change or the erection OF entirely
edifce and probably somewhat corresponding growth
of public taste will allow the architect in the future to
carry out his wishes This architect Mr. Edward Clarke
is an artist who to have been animated by the true
spirit art. Almost upkDQwp by name, modest and out
of sight he courts praise bcgs puiery and lets his
work speak for him. And it does speak, as poems speak
for Milton and symphonies for Beethoven; and indeed
If any architecture be frozen music we have 1t here On
every side of Washington from the Maryland hills the
Arlington Nights the Virginia farm, the dome rises so
pale so perfect and buoyau that it seems only
cloud among the clouds ana you approach it and see
| its exterior by daylight white and awful temple Of
liberty set In It's velvet lawns and empowering foliage
or By starlight see the sentinel lamps throw out tue
great shadows arches at its foundation; see the
superb flights Of steps so lofty and Of such exquisite
graduation as be kind of sublime satisfaction ~ III m
selves the long flying lines of the Of columns
monollths of marble taking sparkle Of light and re-
treating into distance and darkness and follow up the
nights till your eye rests the shadOwy dome hanging
in the dark dheayens with the stars themselves and
you comprehend the whole immensely and beauty OF
the thing; then your heart thrills and stirs with
a great patriotic pride and love. as If the
Tho alvin If
the genius Of the nation. BY and by when the building
shall be all complete and more seen surrounded by
mean approaches but shrubbery shall have grown in the
grounds which Congress has appropriated the money TO
purchase and clear and decorate when the Towering
almonds and the tulip trees and that burning bush, the
scarlet Japan ounce shall have come to maturity there,
and the magnolia shall lift its snowy urns OF incense
about the spot Imagination will be satisfied and any
architect might well content himself to rest with such
monument.
But the addition of new grounds and the opening of
the legislative hats not the only changes which the
last year or two will have wrought. Within the
building notable improvement has begun to take
place in the old Hall Of Representatives, noble
amphtheater with its rounded roof, its dark
polished scaglioa ipIars and Franzonis famous
clock where history records upon her knee our
deeds as her winged chariot whose wheel DIAL rolls
round the earth. This hall has been dedicated as
national pantheon and there each State Is to send her
that Morans wonderful painting of the Yellowstone will
be hung here permanently; at present the only very
attractive thing Of Roger Williams. satisfy
ing to the eye the record Of the man is to the heart
There are nevertheless several valuable things in the
way OF art scattered here and there within the Capitol
walls to say nothing of various daubs of the Persico
horrors or OF Leutzes impossible picnic party OF giants
there Powerss Franklin there the bronze DOORS and
there are the beautiful bronze starcases which the
feet OF the profane are tread and in and out the
iptrcaces whose balustrades all manner OF foresfe
ia cast-the bounding beneath the branches and the
birds utterng over their nests which the serpent sde
along TO rifle.
But the Capitol is not alone in projected Improvement
An appropration has made for the grounds OF the
Washington Monument by Congress, and the Territorial
Government has had gangs OF men upon the public
works relieving each other by night ard day. ever since
the weather allowed. The grades OF numerous streets
have been altered, their spades and picks wrought;
hills have been eveled, and parking and planting and
terraclng has gone on FOrtunatuss purse were at
tbe hottom OF IL ALL But il is none OF business
who pays for such really tremendous epeTaons by the
means OF them the distances OF the city are beeom-
ing absolutely as well metaphOrieaiy magnificent;
the carriage wheels roll concrete wooden pave
ment as II they rolled velvet, and the width Of the
streets is broken by the turf which has been sodded on
space wider than tho Old sidewalk by rows OF trees or
by the beds OF flowers and tho tiny fountains with which
moro enterNsing citizens have omamented the plots
before their own doors OF course, this has required
time outlay, and trouble and the grumblers are not
wanting will never forgive the Board Of Works that
neither eoalcart nor coach could approach their
houses for mouths; that wife could give no
receptloQsl that another wife had TO be
carried a square before reaching her hearse;
that the cutting OF this street left the house high
in the air as eyre and OF the other let in whole
rents OF nasma from the river blow about the town.
But the Inconvenience are nearly all past; there are
streets enough in the town that up for those