Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-05-12

Washington, D. c., as Seen by
Edward CIosuit, Employed in
Census Bureau.
Washington, D. c.,


A. L. Fontaine, Editor Reporter,
| Dear Sir:-You will please pardon IN,
delay in writing you as I promised.
| must offer some sort OF an excuse,
so will say that l have not had much
| leisure time Of late on account OF
the rush of work in the office, but
as the bulk of the preparatory work
| is completed, l will have much more
spare time at my command and will
try and make my letters moreN fire.
quent in the future.
To quote an oft repeated express
sion, First impressions are always
the best" In referring to my stay
in this city, this adage would not
hold good, as the longer l isojourn
in this, wonder spot the more charm
ed | am with it, and after become
better acquainted with the place and
it's people, a team of horses could
not drag me away from here. There
are so many attractions and novel
and historic sights to be seen here
that one does not have any trouble
in utilizing all Cf his spare time. |
spend most of my evenings at the
Library of Congress which faces the
Capitol on the east. This beautiful
HAS 0IltIE ipcSH SCI44Cd LIZ
most wonderful building in the world.
| will not vOuch for the truth of this
statement, but will say that it certain
Iy is the finest piece of architecture
have ever had the pleasure OF
viewing and | was rendered speech
less, with wonder and amazement
when | first beheId the splendC1's OF
it's interior. Words are wholly mad
Poi q
Of this magnificient edjflce 1t must
be seen to be fully appreciated ard
I consider myself extremely lucky in
having the advantage to do so. The
interior of this building is finished
in the finest marble, even TO the
floors and sta;rways, and the ceilings
and wallis are decorated with wonder
full paintings and designs. The build
ing is open to the public every aft
ternoon and evening and is visited
daily by great many people. Here
one can go into the book depar tmeat
and have any book that was ever pub
lished in this country, brought to
him by an attendant No books are
allowed to be taken out of this
building, so a perosn must do his
reading during the hours in which
special room devoted to newspapers,
periodicals and magazines of every
description This department is large
ly utilized by strangers who wish to
get news from home by reading their
state papers. There are papers from
every state in the union and also
foreign newspapers from every coun-
try in Europe, Canada, Philippines;
Porto Rico, all of the South Ameri-
can countries and many other places.
Wisconsin lis quite well represented,
there being papers from Super or,
Oshkosh, La Crosse, Madison and
Milwaukee.
But the upper part of the building
is the most interesting of all. Here
are large glass cases tastefully ar
ranged, in which are exhibited
great mass of personal papers, docu
ments, theatrical programs and other
literary matter of a bygone day. Here
one can view the original copies of
letters, diaries, etc, written by
George Washington, Thomas Jeffer.
son, Lincoln, Grant, Andrew Jackson,
Lee, Lafayette and in fact all of
the great national characters of the
past. I could just gaze at these rel
les for days at ttmewithout los
ing interest. The Library of Con-
gress was built at cost of approx
imately $7,000,000 and is one of the
show places of the Capitol I have
not been through any of the depart
ments, with the exception of the Cap
itol, on account Of the fact that all