FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54  
55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   >>   >|  
o the historic sense just as much as any other vast legislative palace of the world--and perhaps more intimately than some. The sequence of its endless corridors and innumerable chambers, each associated with event or tradition, begets awe. I think it was in the rich Senatorial reception-room that I first caught myself being surprised that the heavy gilded and marmoreal sumptuosity of the decorations recalled the average European palace. Why should I have been expecting the interior of the Capitol to consist of austere bare walls and unornamented floors? Perhaps it was due to some thought of Abraham Lincoln. But whatever its cause, the expectation was naive and derogatory. The young guide, Jimmy, who by birth and genius evidently belonged to the universal race of guides, was there to keep my ideas right and my eyes open. He was infinitely precious, and after his own fashion would have done honor to any public monument in the East. Such men are only bred in the very shadow of genuine history. "See," he said, touching a wall. "Painted by celebrated Italian artist to look like bas-relief! But put your hand flat against it, and you'll see it isn't carved!" One might have been in Italy. And a little later he was saying of other painting: "Although painted in eighteen hundred sixty-five--forty-six years ago--you notice the flesh tints are as fresh as if painted yesterday!" This, I think, was the finest remark I ever heard a guide make--until this same guide stepped in front of a portrait of Henry Clay, and, after a second's hesitation, threw off airily, patronizingly: "Henry Clay--quite a good statesman!" But I also contributed my excursionist's share to these singular conversations. In the swathed Senate Chamber I noticed two holland-covered objects that somehow reminded me of my youth and of religious dissent. I guessed that the daily proceedings of the Senate must be opened with devotional exercises, and these two objects seemed to me to be proper--why, I cannot tell--to the United States Senate; but there was one point that puzzled me. "Why," I asked, "do you have _two_ harmoniums?" "Harmoniums, sir!" protested the guide, staggered. "Those are roll-top desks." If only the floor could have opened and swallowed me up, as it opens and swallows up the grand piano at the Thomas concerts in Chicago! Neither the Senate Chamber nor the Congress Chamber was as imposing to me as the much less spacious former Se
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54  
55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Senate

 

Chamber

 

palace

 

objects

 

opened

 

painted

 

airily

 

patronizingly

 

statesman

 

hundred


eighteen
 

Although

 

excursionist

 
contributed
 

hesitation

 

remark

 

singular

 

yesterday

 
painting
 

finest


notice

 

portrait

 
stepped
 

religious

 

swallowed

 
Harmoniums
 

protested

 

staggered

 

swallows

 

imposing


Congress
 

spacious

 
Neither
 
Thomas
 

concerts

 

Chicago

 

harmoniums

 

dissent

 

guessed

 

proceedings


reminded
 

swathed

 

noticed

 

holland

 
covered
 

devotional

 

States

 

puzzled

 

United

 
exercises