St. Paul daily globe., 1893-06-11
STATUARY HALL.
The Curious Properties of the Old
Representatives Chamber.

The Curious Properties OF the Old
Representatives Chamber.
Washington Letter to Rochester Post
Express.
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 semi circular room, is this old
hall of representatives, and very
peculiar place. For some reason, which
no one has been able to explain. 1t is an
echo hall, possessed OF remarkable
acoustic properties.
There are certain blocks upon the tiled
floor which echo to other blocks, so that
when a,Capltol guide familiar with these
blocks is standing Seventy-five 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 mead.
Under the eagle there is all
exit, and any one standing In the door
back of those marble pillars can talk
away across the hall to the opposite en-
trance and Startle strangers as they
enter the room. Some of the newspaper
UlGH ldf0 lGdl 1ICu GllC lONoGiOli Va ehNoN
echo stones, and take great delight IN
puZZling visiting friends or new men ou
Newspaper Row.
The natural telephone is one
of the wonders Of this won
derful hall. Away over in the cor
ner you can stand and whisper, while
your friends may be at a similar corner
on the opposite side of the room, and
hear every syllable as plainly as though
you were standing face to face. IAe
sound goes upward, presumably, and
comes down on the other side, but how
it is connected no one knows. This is
the most wonderful acoustic puzzle in
America-a great deal more ineXpllcable
than the Weli-knoWn echo at the top OF
the dome.
1t was not the intention of the archi-
tect to make an echo hail. 1t was to
build room in which speech making
would be easy and agreeable. Instead,
he builded beautiful hall III which all
conversation was veritable Jargon. HOW
the gentlemen ever managed to make
their speeches and continue their de-
bate no one can now Imagine. Yet
Daniel, Webster, Henry Clay, John Z.
Calhoun,a and Haynes, of South Carolina,
delivered some of their finest oratorlcal
efforts beneath this roof. -a4s
There is one block-about the tenth
one on the floor from the base of the
column over which the eagle presides-
which is called by the guide "the CEN
tral block" That is because it
does not carry its 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 thearoaring of thousand
people shouting 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 bounding back and
reverberating with thunderouS mock
eryI 1t is stated, however, by the "old-
est inhabitant" that when the floors
were carpeted the echoes were not so
pronounced; but. nevertheless, the
members of the house complained con-
stantly of the bad acoustic properties Of
the hall,