Evening star., 1931-12-08

YEARS ocIoTe the National Governments
enects were brought here from Phila-
oeipnia. Ever since its construction has
progressed; 1t Is not completed yet.
War, while its basement did service as
| q military bakery, Lincoln insisted that
tnere be no suspension of the building
of Its dome.
District volunteers, enrolled to defend
| tneir homes and the Capital, heard re-
| ports OF plots to burn the flour mills II,
Georgetown. They instantly pressed
| INTO service every vehicle to be found
on the streets or in stables, loaded them
with flour, and all day there proceeded
along Pennsylvania avenue the most
curious procession which ever traversed
, that street of countless parades. The
| -four was stored safely In the Capitors
vast cellars and Washington's home
baking habits were revolutionized. Ira
| dition has 1t that French and Vienna
loaves gained their American vogue
from the United States Capitol bakery
While bakers kneaded war loaves
below, hammers we're busy every work.
ing day on the giant dome above.
Under the rotunda is a chamber,
now bare, circled by severe Doric COL
umns, and beneath the center an empty
tomb.
AEuStcCS DAiAcu TI&H.
Congress requested that Wsshington's
remains be removed from Mount ver-
non to this sepulcher, which was to
have been national shrine, where all
would pause In reverence as they passed
But the owners of Mount Vernon, mind
full of Washington's wish to be buried
on his estate, would not permit the
removal of his body. And present and
future generations are grateful that
they acted as they did.
1.-THE older portion of the Capitol has
room which holds more historic asso-
Citations than any other chamber in
America.
Here Lincoln. John Quincy Adams,
Horace Greeley and Andrew johnson
served in the same Congress. Here
Henry Clay welcomed Lafayette, who
replied In a speech said to have been
written by Clay. Here John Marshall
administered the oath Of Office to Mad
ison and Monroe.
''For some years religious services
were held In this old hall of Representa-
tives on Sunday afternoons; Lincoln at
tended them during the war period,
when the hall was crowded because
many churches had been converted into
barracks. The room was also used at
times, many years ago, by classes of
Columbian College, now part of
George Washington University, when a
statesman would address the students
on some phase of political economy.
Room Has Deep Interest.
"One other room In the Capitol, that
now occupied by the United States Su-
preme Court, might challenge the claim
OF Statuary Hall to pre-eminence in long
historic association.
HOf fhfc C,,nroy,,e ro,,r+
Is told which ranks as one of the most
charming chapters of the copious lore
OF the Capitol. Around the chamber
are busts of the Chief Justices since
the time of John Jay.
For some years it was exceedingly
difficult to get any of the darker -hued
employees of the Capitol to go into this
| room after nightfall They summed it
as they would cemetery. They said
IT was haunted. They knew It was
haunted because the statues of these
Jurists bowed their heads when any one
entered the room after sundown!
One day an employe in the ofice
OF the clerk of the court was detained
by his work until late in the evening.
Entering the room where the court sits
to get some papers, he was astounded
to see the ghostly figures slowly swaying
back and forthi
Investigation disclosed that q sus-
pended light outside was swung by
breeze, and the play of the shadows
gave the statues the semblance of
bowing
1T is probable that more pilgrims
hock to our Capital annually than to
any other city in the world.
But huge motor travel is nothing
compared with the crowds that come
by rail. All counted, at least 5000 900
visitors a year see the Capital.
Conventions never cease. This or
that national group seems always In
session. The year around one sees
crowds OF man or women wearing
badges carrying banners, following
bands, touring sthe city in big buses
which flaunt gaudy streamers telling
| who the pilgrims are and where they
come from.
In vacation time school children by
the hundreds of thousands flock here
from all over the Union, and five UNI
versities now give to Washington the