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of a mightier world-power than its proudest founders ever conceived
possible in their highest enthusiasms. The youngest of famous capitals,
it already holds its own with the best of its kind for grandeur and the
_rus in urbe_ charm. Its spacious avenues, one hundred and sixty feet
wide, are lined with trees and grassy walks. Their stately sweep gives
chances for fine landscape effects, which are finely used. The vistas of
the grand avenues are bounded by some piece of memorial statuary or an
imposing structure in the distance, as is Pennsylvania avenue by the
incomparable Capitol. No national monument is better known throughout
the world than this noble edifice. Its majestic stateliness is enhanced
by its snowy whiteness.

The Capitol is the greatest building for its purposes in the United
States. It covers three acres and a half, and has a frontage of seven
hundred and fifty feet. The great dome, with its figure of Liberty,
reaches a height of over three hundred and seven feet. Standing on the
rising ground among the rich foliage it has an aspect of quiet strength,
an impressive assurance of dignity and permanence peculiar to itself
among massive buildings in the great cities. Everyone goes, or should
go, to see Congress at work, and to explore the corridors trod by
generations of the nation's legislators, soldiers, jurists, orators, in
short, by all the great makers of the nation since Washington laid its
foundation stone. A singular instance of fate thwarting intention is
found in the situation of the Capitol. It was planned to face eastward,
the White House was to be in the rear, and the city was expected to
spread away from the river, eastwardly. But it perversely grew to the
northwest, with the result that the Capitol turns its back on the
capital. No one would suppose this is so unless told, so splendidly
balanced in architectural dignity are both fronts of the edifice.
Another peculiarity is that the head city of the republic is
monarchically governed, and governed better than any other city in the
Union. Three commissioners are appointed by the President, and the
citizens have no political franchise. The city was planned as a grand
example of what a capital should be. Impressed by the lessons of the
revolutions in Paris the designer dotted the area with circular
grass-plots or miniature parks, from which avenues and streets radiate
like wheel-spokes. In case of need a gun in each of the circles could
command