National Republican., 1881-06-30
PLACES OF PLEASURE,
How Strangers and others May Ea5oy
Themselves In tho City.

There Is a vast amount Of pleasure and
information 10 be obtained in this city free of cost
and yet how few there are comparatively who
avail themselves of the opportunities offered.
Those persons possessing literary turn of mind
| can find books in the Congressional Library upon
every subject and all the aid they may need in
their search after knowledge. The lovers of art
and the beautiful have only to visit the Corcoran
Art Gallery, where, amid pictures and statuary,
they may war( at will, and find much to crafty
their aesthetic tastes. The
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
throws its doors open every day to the students of
natural history, and furnishes field rich in speci
mems, and where, in a limited space, they can ex-
anime and study the wonderful natural produc-
tons of the whole world To find as much as is
confirmed in this collection the longest life would
be toe short, and no one mind, however compre-
hensive, could take in the names varieties history
and conformation of all the curious things gath
cred there. When the new part of
THE MUSEUM IS COMPLETED,
and the cases receive their valuable contents, the
collection will excel all other in this country, and
to judge from the corner already in order, a walk
through the building will be surprise and de-
light from beginning to end. The northwest end
has been devoted to ores, minerals and marbles
and, although in very unfinished condition, the
display is particularly interesting. Th2 specimens
of marble not confined to American produc-
tions, but the latter seem to predominate and one
is surprised to find such beauty and such variety
and can scarcely decide
WHICH TO ADMIRE THE MOST
the pure white and the dove-coored marble from
Vermont, the red ya-ieglted from Tennessee, orthe
green mottled marble from New York. Plain
black marble is somewhat rare, although it has
been found in ancient Roman sculpture. In this
collection there is beautiful specimen of it from
New South Wales. OF variegated marble nothing
can be more beautiful than the Tennessee marble,
which has been extensively used in the Capitol
and other public buildings in this city.
FOSSILIFEROCS MARBLES
are abundant in this country as well as in Europe,
and the specimens of in the museum in the va
rious stages of formation exceedingly interest
ing. In the first stage the shells are plainly seen
and form solid mass. In the course of time
maybe ages-and with the action of water this
mass turns to limestone and finally becomes solid
marble. The beautiful veins which form the chief
beauty of marble are merely the outline of the
original shells. These veins are very plainly seen
in specimen of dark gray marble from Lake
Champlain, where they take
THE EXACT FORM OF LoBSTEES,
or some shellish resembling them, and these fish
no doubt entered into the formation of the stone.
There is a very fine specimen of eoccne limestone
from New Berne, n. c.; also of semi-opaque marble,
which was discovered il Virginia short time ago,
and which, strange to say, resembles SO closely a
slab taken from the lost quarry of Egypt to make
one suppose they came from the same quarry.
This quarry in Egypt was lost for over one hun
dred years, and was rediScovered in 1919 by a
Frenchman. 1t does not require scientific edu-
cation to
APPRECIATE BEAUTIFUL MARBLE,
for the eye takes in at 4 glance the color, form,
and variety and every one understands wha. it is
and for what purposes it is used; but when it
comes to ores and minerals with high sounding
names one must be educated and Cup" in such
things to appreciate them. True, one can admire
the sparkling topaz the rich green of the emerald
in its rocky bed, or the veined malachite COM
bined with mountain blue and iron ochre, Or the
purple chrisals of the amethyst or the red of the
garnet peeping out from its hard surroundings,
without knowing how much silica, alumina, or
quartz
ENTER INTO THEIR COMPOSITION.
Quite number of valuable specimens of these
gems and of other minerals have been presented
to the Government by the museum of the Mining
School in st. Petersburg The Western States and
Territories are very rich in mineral productions,
and there are many splendid specimens i'll the
Museum Of sulphur, copper, malachite, lead, and
silver