busy lot of happy cranks,"
as Mrs. Jones expressed it.

The building contract was awarded a Washington company, whose foundries
and shops are located upon the Potomac, adjacent to the city. The work
is being done under the general supervision of Marsh and the three
friends. It is not long before the vast scaffolding that is built up as
the long, slender, silver-like ribs of the aluminum framework are put in
place, begins to attract the attention of the surrounding populace. And
well it might, for as the beautiful globe began to assume shape,
certainly nothing so colossal of the kind had ever been seen before
upon earth. And as one stepped inside the mighty ball and looked up
through the vast network of aluminum rods and braces that ran in every
conceivable direction, looking like silken threads in the great
distances above, the feeling inspired was one of awe and unbounded
admiration.

The work was pushed forward with all possible expedition. The summer
passed rapidly away. As winter drew near, a vast roof was built over the
globe, and all was securely shut in from the inclemencies of that
inhospitable season. All winter the hundreds of hammers, busily riveted
the sheets of aluminum and zinc into place, and by spring the globe, the
splendid creation that had existed in the brain of Dr. Jones, was an
actuality. Language is inadequate to describe the sensations of the
little company of promoters. They said but little, but would often stand
in a group, gaze upon it, then into each other's eyes, and smile and wag
their delighted heads.

The newspapers were not slow, meantime, in keeping the public informed
of all that could be learned of the unique enterprise. Reporters
besieged the projectors, in season and out. Our friends freely gave them
all possible information, and no little interest was excited all over
our great land. People came from every quarter of the Union, many from
Europe to see the mighty, glistening sphere. The crowds were so vast
that work was impeded, and it became necessary to restrict admission. A
nominal entrance fee was charged, but that only seemed to stimulate the
eager sightseers. So the public were, of necessity, finally entirely
excluded.

Then the roof of the building was removed, and the whole structure
gradually, except so much of it as was absolutely necessary to maintain
the globe in position.

The cabin was attached to the bottom of the globe, forty feet square,
with ten feet between