The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-12-03

The second session of the Fifty-sixth
Congress opened at noon today, with the
usual animated scenes and incidents.
At 1850 the Presidents message was
read in the Senate. and in the House of
Representatives at 200. Certain portions
of the document received applause in both
houses. Before the legislators were called
TO order streams OF people flowed through
the Capitol, where. since adjourn
-1ent last June, only the footballs Of
watehmen and OF an occasional tGuriS,
had broken the stiffness IN the west
front OF the central building, where
scores OF artisans have been employed in
transforming the space formerly occupied
by the Library Of Congress into commit
tee rooms, the sound of the hammer,
malIet, and chisei was succeeded by that
Of hundreds OF buzzing voices and shut
fling feet. IN this part Of the grand old
pile, bare brick, and wet plaster have
given way TO polished marble and pretty
freseoes.
Men eddied in and out CT the committee
rooms, which have been dark and dusty lor
six months, and men and women swarmed
at the entrances and exits, they were
punched around the telegraph offices, and
were grouped and clustered at the water
coolers and in the restaurants. Tney I'll
bowed and josfled each other through all
parts OF the vast white building. One
need net have consulted : calendar nor
have seen the flags go Up over the north
and south wings to know that this was an
opening day The building was noisy with
sounds that told it
On
handbook OF Lhe Capitol. written BY How
ard +. Kennedy, chief of gu des. and
George c. Hazleton, jr., is apt TO recall
the following:
In the old days all roads led to Rome;
today all roads lead 10 Washington The
eyes Of the world are upon her great Cap
itol; the poor look to Il as the bulwark of
liberty and prosperity; the rich for pro-
lection Of vested rights; the savage for
learning and assistance; the jurist for
law; the politician as the goal Of his am
bltlon; the statesman for the science of
progressive government; the diplomat as
the place wherein 10 plan the game of
nations; and the sOvereigns Of Europe
with apprehension II is the abode OF the
Goddess OF Freedom in the United States.
Thoughts Suggested by the Day.
As the crowds rolled along the marble
halls and up and down great stairways
there were many thoughts which Nigh {
come to Washingtonian One OF these
is, that littIe more than a century ago.
when New York, Boston, Philadelphia.
Trenton. Baltimore Annapolis. George
town, Bladensburg. Alexandria Freder-
lcksburg, Richmond and Charleston we're
important cities. the hill which so many
Americans climbed today was a piece of
thick woodland upon the Germ Abbey Manor
OF Daniel Carroll. It was on September
Is, 1888, that George Washington laid the
cornerstone of the old north wing.
Another thought might come to one and
this IS that the Indians were prophetic
when they called the great river that
sweeps by Washington the Potowmack,
which means the river of the meeting Of
the tribes
As hundreds of people stood upon the
marble terrace at the west front Of the
Capitol and let their gaze follow PennsyI-
Eania Avenue they might have recalled a
comment made by John Cotton Smith a
Representative in Congress from Con-
nectteut in the early part OF the century
His comment was this:
Pennsylvania Avenue, leading. as laid
down on paper, from the CAPITOL to the
Presidential Mansion, is nearly the whole
distance deep morass covered with alder
bushes"
When Representative Smith said this.
the only part of the Capitol that had been
built was the north wing, the white paint
ed Aqua Creek freestone part now occu-
pied by the Supreme Court, the Office Of
the clerk of the Supreme Court, and the
Supreme Court library The central part
of the building beneath the dome had not
been begun, and the 'EoYe7," as the tenn
poraFy structure on the site OF the old
south wing was called, had not been com
pleted- Primeval forest trees were stand
ing over the fifty-nine acres of CAPITOL
Grounds, and dirt roadway wound across
the east front Things haze changed
As long lines Of carriages came up TO
the plaza today by the north driveway It
is reasonable to assume that few of the
people in them thought that over that way
many Presidents had come to their inau-
guration; that Booth ard Harold galIoped
that way, and that over the same route
Guiteau's van had Travelled day after day
between the jail and court AS great
crowds Of people moved over the plaza
and the east face of the building they
did not seem to be thinking that since
James Monroe set the precedent of tax
ing the oath Of the Presidential Office in
the open air. a majority Of the Presidents
of tbs United States have been sworn in
there
Looking at Art Objects.
Groups Of people CT. the east paused to
read the inscriptioa on Greenough's
Washington, and on the west they paid
the tribute of I glance at the bronze
statue of Chief Justice Marshall. As
strangers and sightseers toiled up the
grand staircase of the Senate wing they
studied as they went Cra~ford's group in
the pedineBt of the east portico, SYM
holiZi1g the progress of civilization Per-
haps they thought OF the men whose chs
els had wrought those images. and per-
haps they did not. 1t is probable that the
names Of Gagliardi, Casoni. Casprero.
Butt, and Giampaon would have sounded
unfamiliar 10 many ears.
Many strangers asked questions of their
guides abaut the groups of statuary-
Greenough's Rescue and Persico's Dis
eovsPy' stand on the bookings over
the porte cocheTe Of the central building.
Guidts lectEred to attentive audiences
on tn subject OF Rogers bronze CoIurn
bian doors, and in the crowded rotunda
heads we're thrown lar back and uecks
strained in looking up o. the bowI-shaped
canopy upon which BrumiGi with his brush
had represented the beati6cation Of the
spirit OF George Washington Then they
followed with their eyes the unfinished
freize of Brumidf and Cestazgini.
Each Of the TrumbulI paintings in tbe
rotunda had a crowd around It. In the
picture sfThe Signing of the Declaration of
Independence, some strangers sought for
the faces OF men about whom they had
read, and during the day, 1t is likely that
each figure in the canvas from the first.
which is George Whyte- of Virginia, 80
Confined on Second Page.)