Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-09-26
Washington Letter.

VINO, through modern pictorial art,
are known almost as well in the ham,
lets of this vast country as at the Capt.
tol itself, indicate the not remote APP
proach of the fall political opening.
The city is alert with preparation.
Hotels and boarding houses, private
residences and shops, streets and side
walks, are receiving the touches of
renovation, and are having their
youth and freshness renewed with
such cosmetics as paint, white-wash,
wallpaper and paving stones.
The most conspicuous improvement
is that which has been made in the
capitol Marble terraces have been
built about the North and West
wings, with the result of improving
the symmetrical effect of the building
by reducing the disproportion of the
dome.
Between forty and fifty workmen
are now engaged in the work-sheds
opposite the South side of the Capitol
preparing the marble and granite
blocks for the terraces. This work is
being pushed along rapidly. The
terrace work has advanced so far as
to enable one to see the beauty and
value of the improvement. There
are $50 men employed at the work.
These include laborers, brick-layers
and well diggers. The latter are en-
ployed in sinking wells down some
twenty-five feet. These wells are
filed up with concrete and stone ma
sonry, and between the wells massive
brick arches are constructed to sup
port the walls. This methods adOp-
ted to save expense, time, and to Sc
cure a solid foundation. To eXcavate
the entire foundation would be dam
gerOus. Preparations are now being
made to lay the Tagging of the North
terrace, which also forms the roofs of
the vaults. There will be twenty
large rooms on the north side. Some
of them will be ready for occupancy
in about two weeks. These rooms
will relieve the interior part of the
Capitol of a vast number of docu-
ments.
In the building itself much is being
done to prepare for the coming Con-
gress. Some Of the Committee rooms,
particularly thoseof commerce, claims
and library on the House side, and
privileges and elections on the Sen.
ate, are being handsomely fitted up,
and the ceilings and walls frescoed
The paintings, "The Battle of the
Thames" and the "Capitulation o.
the City of Mexico" have beer
finished and will soon be placed in
position in the rotunda. Such is the
pressure for committee rooms in
the building that the document room
had to be removed to an interior par
where there is but little ventilation
and the room surrendered to the com
mittee on foreign affairs. The'Secre
tary of State when comforting with
this committee does so in secret. The
clerks, therefore, to carry on theil
work are required to seek desk room
in other places. The document room
was seized upon to obviate this diff
Guilty.
A large force Of men are painting
the interior Of the dome. Prepare
tons will soon be made to lay the
carpets in the Senate and House
chambers. The Supreme Court cham
Der has been painted and the marble
cleaned down. On all sides the busy
workman is seen lending his hand tC
beautify the building before Congress
conveneS.
The east front of the building has
been hOly-stoned to whiteness, all
marks of the mellowing hand of time
being Obliterated by removing thin
layer of the surface of the marble in
the wings, so as to correspond with
: the painted surface of the old build.
ing.
The new pension building has beer
: almost completed and is already oc
cupied by the Commissioner of Pen
sions and his vast army of assistants
and clerks. The pension building is
ugly in the extreme, and l think il
will be used as warning, and enc
the brick era in National architecture
For building so vast and enduring
no worse design or material coulC
have been adopted. 1t looks like 6
factory or prison, and it is so unfor
tunately situated as to be conspicuous