Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1889-10-26

took my eye. "The Helping Hand" repre-.
his boat ashore, and little girl is seated be.
side him, her hands placed on the oar to help
the old man pull. Probably one of the best
pictures in the gallery is the one showing
Charlotte Corday in prison. In the Sculp.
ture Hall are many fine works Of Grecian as
we'll as modern sculpture, but to mention
them all would be Of little interest and to
describe them is not in my power. / will
just mention one, though, because it was the
one l admired the most and which was Of
more interest to me than most of the old
Grecian statues. 1t is entitled, "The Last
Days Of Napoleon l." 1t represents him
seated on chair. with pillow to rest his
head on. His chest is bare but the rest Of
his body down to his legs is covered by q
robe. A map Of "Europe of 1914" is be-
fore him, and his dying eyes seem to be fixed
on it. Altogether, it is one OF the best
works Of sculpture ever saw 1t was time
to depart now, but never spent three hours
with greater pleasure than those I spent in
the Csrcoran Art Gallery.
That evening, through the kindness Of my
hostess, got written permission from one
Of the Naval officers, to visit the U. S. Naval
Observatory. This building is situated at
the foot Of twenty fourth street, near the
bank of the Potomac. At eight o'clock we
were admitted and were at once taken to the
top Of the building where the large telescope
is placed. This telescope, one Of the best
in the world, is 81 feet long, weighing with
all its fixtures, about six tons.
The professor, as soon as we were all in
readiness, pointed the instrument at Jupiter,
who was then shining in the southwestern
sky. 1t was magnificent sight! He ap
peared to be about the size Of our moon, and
had in the center wine belt which Astron.
ignores tell US is supposed to be dense clouds,
or rather the opening between dense clouds,
the belt being what we really see Of the
planet, the rest being hid from view by the
clouds. Whatever is the cause, it could be
plainly seen Three of the four moons could
also be seen, the fourth was behind the planet
as the professor told US. black spot look
ing like fly speck in the centre OF Jupiter
was seen, which we were told was the shadow
from one Of the moons. The planet seemed
to be moving with fearful speed for every
few seconds he was out of focus and the in.
strument had to be reset. OF course it was
on account of the movement of the earth,
but it appeared to be that Of Jupiter. The
telescope was then focused for the moon,
which was almost full but clouds had al
ready begun to gather in the heavees. and
what seemed at first q favorable night, turned
out to be bad one for star.gazing.
had jut time to get good look at the
moon, which seemed but a few feet away,
and looked like huge cheese cut in two,
with the fiat side turned towards me. The
surface seemed to be full of holes, resemb.
ling prospect holes, and l wondered if it
could be possible that this was the place
old prospectors went after leaving this world,
instead Of having to work in the lower lev.
els. While medi,ating the clouds came
between the moon and the instrument and
the sight was obscured. We waited for
some time for the clouds to roll by, but as
they seemed to grow denser all the time,
we reluctantly made up our minds to depart
I have not got to my Mount Vernon trip yet,
and as this letter is already too long I will
have to conclude in another one.
HERMAN SHIRLEY.