entrance, where 'Earth,' majestic but untamed, a
masterpiece of giant statuary, guards one massive pillar; and the same
'Earth,' yet not the same, conquered yet conquering, adds her beauty
to the strength of the column opposite--to the east, where Neptune
sports, classic as of old, around about the octagonal interior with
its splendid arches, its frescoes and gilding, its medallions and
plates of bronze, wherein gleamed, golden and fair, the names of the
world's greatest countries at its gilded panels, supported by winged
figures, and bearing engraven upon each shining surface the record of
some great event. Its medallions and graceful groups, allegorical or
symbolic, all mounting high, and higher, until illuminated by the
opal-like circle of light at the summit, Dodge's great picture crowns
the whole, with its circling procession of arts and sciences, gods and
muses, nymphs and graces, and Apollos radiant in the midst.

Small wonder that, forgetting all but the scene before me, my lips
shot out the single word 'Eureka!' and smaller wonder that, having
vented my admiration in sound, I became aware of the fact at once, and
remembered not only who I was, but what I was, and why I was there.

It was scarcely ten a.m., but there were people all about me, and my
exclamation caused more than one eye, inquiring, amused, cynical, or
simply stupid, to turn toward me where I stood, near the centre of the
great rotunda.

'Big thing, ain't it?'

I turned my head, a little rattled at the notice I had thus brought
upon myself, and saw standing close beside me a man whose garb, no
less than his nasal utterance, proclaimed him a Yankee, and a son of
the soil. I had seen him upon my entrance, standing beneath the dome,
with his head thrown back at a painful angle in an effort to read one
of the brazen plates above him, one hand tightly grasping a
half-inflated umbrella--long past its palmy days--and the other
fiercely gripped about the handle of a shawl-strap drawn tight around
a handleless basket, by no means small, and bristling at the top with
knobby protuberances which told but too plainly of the luncheon under
the pictorial newspaper tied down with abundant lashings of blue
'Shaker' yarn.

'Big thing, indeed!' Evidently my burst of enthusiasm had brought upon
me this overture, no doubt meant to pave the way to further
conversation; and I answered, after a single quick glance at my
neighbour, as blandly as Ah Sin himself.