in the fixed images of the camera. This
further step seems, when we view within the camera the image in
perfect panoply of all its hues, so very slight in comparison with
the original discovery of Daguerre, that we can hardly refer it to a
distant future.

Questions of finance naturally associate themselves with sitting for
one's portrait, even to the sun. A national bank becomes a necessity
to their readier solution, be they suggested by this or any other item
of expense. Such an institution has consequently a place in the outfit
of the Centennial. Here it stands within its own walls, under its own
roof and behind its own counter. The traditional cashier is at home in
his parlor, the traditional teller observes mankind from his rampart
of wire and glass, and the traditional clerk busy in the rear studies
over his shoulder the strange accent and the strange face. Over and
above the conveniences for exchange afforded by the bank, it
will introduce to foreigners the charms of one of our newest
inventions--the greenback. This humble but heterodox device, not
pleasant in the eyes of the old school of conservative financiers, is
yet unique and valuable as having accomplished the task of absolutely
equalizing the popular currency of so large a country as the Union.
That gap of twelve or thirteen per cent. between greenbacks and gold
is no doubt an _hiatus valde deflendus_--a gulf which has swallowed up
many an ardent and confident Curtius, and will swallow more before it
disappears; but the difference is uniform everywhere, and discounts
itself. Whatever the faults of our paper-money, it claims a prominent
place among the illustrations of the close of the century, for it is
the only currency save copper and Mr. Memminger's designs in blue
that a majority of American youth have ever seen. Should these young
inquirers wish to unearth the money of their fathers, they can find
the eagles among other medals of antiquity in the Mint department of
the United States Government Building.

[Illustration: SWEDISH SCHOOL-HOUSE.]

His fiscal affairs brought into comfortable shape, the tourist from
abroad may be desirous of seeing more of the United States than is
included in the view from the great Observatory. The landscape visible
from that point, as he will find after being wound to the top
by steam, is not flecked with buffaloes or even the smoke of the
infrequent wigwam, as the incautious reader of some Transatlantic
books of tra