The age-herald., 1897-08-01
CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY To Be Placed in a Splendid New :. Building. WHITE HOUSE RENOVATION Foreigners Critcise the Presidential Home and Fail to Apr .ciate the Love of the
 Amercans for Re'Ic and
 Simplicity
Washington, July s1.-(specia1 Cor.)-

Washington. July S1.-(Special Cor)-
 The great library of congress, 750,000 volumes strong, will probably be started On its way to the splendid building op- posite the capital sometime next week.
 To the credit of those responsible for the construction of the new building, be it said, no library in the world is so magnfcently, so beautifully, and so ade- quately housed as the congressional li- bIary will be when it snail have been placed in it's new quarters.
 The work attendant upon the transfer Of this gigantic library from it's recent cramped quarters to those spacious rooms which have been prepared for it will be great.
 A large force of men will be employed for the work, and at least eight, If not ten weeks will be required for them to perform the task.
 It is not as if there were merely so much bulk to be transferred. To be sure very large number of the books are not expensive and not difficult to duplicate. But big portion of them are volumes very rare and yauable volumes which neither love nor money nor yet great in- genuity could duplicate, for they are unique.
 Take, for instance the far-fa med Tener collection. Its like lolosl5 not exist Guards watch it night and day. People are per- Iufdl6u uO tlAdDIllt dl1Q COPy llOll Oub they do so under uhe eyes of book-lovlng wa, ,ehmen.
 The two g1ieat enemies to books are damp and dust. The new quarters are oamp aLlld dust-prcof in so far as quar- ter5 may be made damp and duStSpqoof. To prevent any duEt of book worms being conveyed to the new quarters, every vol ume will be Subjedded Ito a thorough wind bath. IhiS wll be done by turning a hloIse nozzled by a piece of st:el four inches by e5xtfa Of Through this hose and nozzle will rum a stream of dried air swift enough to drive every Epeck of dust from the volume, while at the Sams time absorb every particle of moisture.
 This bath Wll be given the books as they are taken from the boxes into which they will be packed and conveyed to the new building.
 The removal will bs under the direct su- pelNisi5n of Mir. Spoffo1ld, under whose fostering care the library has grown to tis present. excellence. He beSdows upon rare volume l.he affecGion of a parent for chtl1 and tbre can be no doubt that every possible precaution will be taken to preserve their great wealth of literature from harm.
 The white house is to be put in thor ough repairs while the president and his Wife are away There has been no op- portunity to c.ean and .garnsh the eXscu tive mansion for nkarly five years or even longer than that. During Mrs. liar rison's illness and after her death noth- ing was done inside the building oth r than put some hideous wall paper about and lay few carpets. MT. Cleveland had little done to it while he was there ard there was no chance to make repairs between the time the Clevelands vacated It and that when the McKinleys assumed the occupancy. Mrs. Mckinley is so nervous that nothing has been done at all since she entered it as first lady. Any noise at all was very an-oying to her. The cabinet room, for instance has not been done over since the administration Of Grant. The floors on the second story are being taken up and they are fourUi to be in a very bad condition In fact. many Of them are decaying and would soon have been the couse of sickness.
 AL pest the white house is the most un- inhabitab,e place in Washington No amount of money could make it present an appearance otherwise than that of an old-tir'e uncomfortable colonial home in virginia. But the people of Washingtrn love 1t as thlay do TO other public build ngs here and every suggestion to add to it or tear it down has met with a storm of criticism and derision from the 0oeal na pers.
 Foreigners cannot understand how this country, with the wealth it possesses. allows it's president to live and entertain Tn such place. They forget that Amer jeans cling to it as a relic of the sim plicity with which this republic was founded and that to them it represents the corner stone of the government.
 The exterior is still one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the city and once every few years it is given coat of white lead. It Is not gener- ally known that the walls were originally Of dark brown stone, the same as the walls of the older portion of the capi- tai which have also been painted white to correspond with the wings The orig ihal cause for painting both the whi house and capital was the burning of them by the English in 1S12.
 The great dome of the capital is now undergoing a coat of painting for the first time in many years. There are a hundred men on the white house so as to complste the renovation by the time the McKinleys want to return. Two weeks only will be taken in repairing and painting the old mansion.