Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1884-11-14
THE NEW PENSION BUILDING.
The Largest and Most Wonderful
Rrfck building i'm Amerfca-The
Scarcity of Room for Government
Work

/ visited the new pension building
today, writes correspondent IN
Washington to The Cleveland Leader.
It is rising upward like Aladain's
palace, which was built in the night,
and its scenes make one think of those
of the building of the Pyramids, or
the Coliseum. 1t is an immense
structure, covering two whole acres,
and it is to be the largest brick build =.
ing in the United States. l doubt
whether there is now a larger one in
the world. The baths of Diocletian,
the ruins of which still stand by the
Via Nazionale, in Rome, were largely
made of brick, and they we're over a
miles.in circumference. Their interior
was finished in marble and Egyptian
granite, and they had three thousand
marble seats for bathers. Wonderful
mosaics covered their floors, hot and
cold water continuously flowed for the
use of the bathers, and the poorest
and dirtest plebeian could have en-
trance to them for one-eighth OF a
cent time.
This new pension building, by the
way, is modelled after the Old Roman
palaces of the fifteenth century, and
it is the only building of that
style we have in America. Most of
the other great buildings here are
after the Greek. The interior depart
ment has portico which is the exact
reproduction of the Parthenon at
Athens, as has also the treasury
building the caption has many
Corinthian columns, the city hall is
of the Greek order. and the same may
be said of the postoffice, and also,
with modification, of the new state,
war, and navy building.
This pension building has now
reached its third story. Its proper
tons are beautifully symmetrical, and
| look for it to take rank as one of the
wonderful buildings of the world.
The way it is being built is worthy of
notice. The interior is series of large
rooms around a great central court
containing about an acre in area. As
| have said before, it will look, when
completed, for all the world like the
grand square of st. Marks in Venice.
This square, should think, about the
same slzs 1t is surrounded by stores
which look out upon its center through
arcades separated from it by columns.
These arcades surrounding the whole
square form delightful promenade,
where every night thousands of 1tal-
ians walk, gossip, and flrt, or sit at
little tables and drink black coffee
from glass goblets. There will be
the same sort of promenading around
this acre Of marble flooring in the new
pension building.
ST. Marks, at Venice, has only the
Italian sky to roof it, but this pension
court will be protected from the cold
winds by sky of glass, and this i'm
mense glass roof will be supported by
eight massive brick columns, as round
and smooth as though they were pol
ished marble They will be higher
than the highest house in Cleveland,
and thicker than any tree outside of
California. Each of them contains
enough brick to build two good sized
houses, and III the ages of the future
they will probably stand while much
of our other building has crumbled
into ruins. This court lighted with
the electric light will make gor-
geous hall.
1t is expected that the roof will be
finished by the close of the building
season, and the work is going on on a
giant scale.
This great court is now filled with
hundreds of workmen, coored and
white, moving to and fro with hods
upon their shoulders Carts drive in
to it with great loads of brick, and a
steam engine is kept constantly busy
raising and lowering mortar and
bricks to the workers away ap there
under the sky. Two large platforms
have been built across the court be-
tween the second and third stories,
and TO these the bricks and mortar are
taken. 1t is a curious way ia which
these hods of material are raised to
this height of fifty feet above the
ground. The engine does it all. Two
sets of wire ladders run on pulleys on
the two sides of the building. Each
run of the ladder has sort of a V,
INTO which bod filled with brick or
mortar may be placed so that it will
stand upright. The laborers contin
ually bring their hods to this ladder
and hang them loaded in it as it con
tinually moves slowly upward. When
they reach the top another class of
laborers, putting their shoulders under
them, carrying them off to the
masons in the different parts of
the building. Returning, they drop
tAe empty bod into The ladder on the
other side of the pulley, and it slowly
descends, to be carried off and loaded,
and to rise again in the same way. In
this manner dozens of loads of bricks
and mortar are carried to the masons
by single movement, and the little
engine buzzing away below does it APP
pareptly without trying. The other
workings throughout the building are
on the same gigantic scale. AT one
side of the court is lake of lime, its
snow-white surface sending up
milky smoke which seethes and boils
as brawny hands throw shovelfuI
after shovelful of sand in its midst,
while others with great ladies continu-
ously stir it to and fro. At the side
of this is seen pile Of gray mortar
looking like small hill, and on the
other side of the court may be seen
another of the dimensions of several
tons of hay. All through the build
ing the work is going on. Some of
the rooms are already whitewashed
and the windows are filed with glass
1t has been estimated that the entire
building will cost about $500, 900, but
the probability is that it will run very
close to million. 1t has already been
year and half in building and it
may be two before it is completed.
Its outside is piled around with mil
lions Of bricks and here and there a
little mountain of sand is seen. Every
where the utmost activity is going on
and even the grass does not grow with
N 90 feet of its outer walls.
The United States is constantly add
ing 10 its wealth of public buildings
| estimated It once, and my remem-
brance of it is that the country al
ready has over 800, 600, 000invested in
government structures here at Wash
ington. l thought of this as l climb
ed TO the top OF this new pension
building and took glance over the
city. To my left, at the capitol,
could see the workmen busy putting
new terrace to its north front. To
my right the Washington monument,
with its 81, 600, 900 of marble, stood be-
tween me and the sky, and near by it
I GOULD COO fbn Stota onA