The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-03
 LUXURIOUS SURROUNDINGS
In the New Committee Rooms of Con
 gress.

From Washington Letter to the Brooklyn
 Eagle.
 At the capitol the members refer to the new quarters of the ways and means com mittee as the royal suite," and talk ad- miringly of the throne room" They vii; surpass in elegance and beauty the sump- tuous quarters of the luxurious Senators, if the present plans for decorating the rooms, proposed by a New York artist, are carried out.
 No less than four rooms have been re- served for this committed The largest is something like 60 by 30 feet, or more, and Is destined to become one of the show places of the town. Today its walls glare with a whiteness that suggests polar bears as the natural inhabitants of the place, but after the artists have got in their work the chamber will present riot of design and color that will cause it to look like a Turkish rug bazaar.
 The throne will be at the north end, and the seats of the committee arranged in semi-circle on an elevated platform, as in a court room. In the amphitheatre l in front will be placed a large table for l the use of witnesses, in the center of which will be two revolving desks, so that documents may be passed about without the necessity of throwing them. The decorators guarantee the acoustic properties of the plant, for they say they have discovered that the wave theory of transmission is all wrong; that light and sound are goverened by the same law, and that after they get through with the apartments a remark made by one of the courtiers about the throne" can be heard in the farthermost corner the same day. The chair designs submitted by the ex- perts are somewhat wonderful. when they were shown the other day each of the committee selected different design. but it is expected that an imperial re- script of MT. Payne will determine the pattern to be adopted.
 It is proposed that above the "throne'' shall be painted, by the finest artists ob- tainable, Q picture of the famous ways and means committee of 1890, with Will liam Mckinley as its chairman When this proposition was made it was at once sug- gested by one of the democrats that the next alcove be made to contain painting of the committee of 1894 which framed the Wilson bill. These propositions are now under consideration. It is planned to have wainscoting of bookcases about the chamber, with the remainder Of the walls and ceilings done in blaze of color and design which will make the place look like fireworks all the time
 These suggestions, it may be said, are all tentative. and so far are made only by the decorative artists. The committee were taken off their feet when they first viewed the drawings, but when they struck earth again they agreed that, al- though the plans might be modified in some details, the eventual outcome would be one of the handsomest rooms In Wasn- ington if not in the world.
 So far very little has been done in the line of decoration to relieve the staring whiteness of the rooms in the new House office building, In time. of course, they will be beautifully finished. The commit tee on agriculture has made a commend- able start with a group of colored pho- tographs on glass, depicting mountain scenes in California; the Appalachian re- zion and elsewhere. These have been sup stituted for the plain glass In winoows and doors, and the effect is exquisite The photogra phs are supplied by the for estry division. .......--.