Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-10-25
THE ECHOES OF srAr0Aey HALL
The Curious Properties of the Gid Rep
.a.u.antirca, III m her.

The Curious Properties of the Gid Rep
resentatives' Chamber.
Statuary hall was for many years
occupied by the house of representa-
tives previous to the completion of
the great south wing of the Capitol
where the representatives now meet
annually. 1t is a semicircular room.
is this old hall of representatives,
and very peculiar place. For some
reason which no one has been able
to explain it is an echo hall, possessed
of remarkable acoustic properties.
There are certain blocks on the tiled
floor which echo to other blocks, so
that when a. Capitol guide familiar
with these blocks is standing seven
ty-fve feet from you he will address
you in an ordinary tone of voice, and
the sound will come from the floor
beneath you or seemingly from the
air above your head.
Under the eagle there is an exit.
and any one standing in the door
back of those marble pillars can talk
away across the hall to the opposite
entrance and startle strangers as
they enter the room. Some of the
newspaper men have learned the To-
cation of these echo stones ard take
great delight in puzzling visiting
friends or new men on Newspaper
row.
The natural telephone is one of the
wonders of this wonderful hall.
Away over 10 the corner you can
stand and whisper, while your
friends may be at similar corner on
the opposite side of the room and
hear every syllable as plainly as
though you were standing face to
face. The sound goes upward pre-
sumably, and comes down on the
other side, but how it is connected
no one knows. This is the most
wonderful acoustic puzzle in Amer
ica-a great deal more inexplicable
than the well known echo at the top
of the dome.
1t was not the intention of the
architect to make an echo hall 1t
was to build room in which speech
making would be easy and agreeable.
Instead, he builded beautiful hall
in which all conversation was veri-
table jargon. How the gentlemen
ever managed to make their speeches
and continue their debates no one
now can imagine. Yet Daniel Web
ster, Henry Clay, John G. Calhoun
and Hayne, of South Carolina, deliv-
cred some of their finest oratorical
efforts beneath this roof.
There isone block about the tenth
one on the floor from the base of the
column over which the eagle pre-
sides which is called by the guide
the central block" That is because
it does not carry it's echo to any other
block in the room but brings back to
whoever stands upon it his own
voice. If you were to stand upon the
central block and utter your name
you would hear the voice ringing in
your ears-your own voice-like the
roaring of a thousand people shout
ing in unison and calling you. 1t
seems that this block is the acoustic
center of the hall, and every sound
made upon it is reflected back from
every Granny of the room.
What terrible place it would be
for an orator to stand and listen to
his own words as they came bound
ing back and reverberating with
mockery! 1t is stated,
however, by the 'oldest inhabitant"
that when the floors were carpeted
the echoes were not so pronounced,
but nevertheless the members of the
house complained constantly of the
bad acoustic properties of the hall
Cor Rochester Post-Ex-
press.