ted from the instructing hand of women, or
ever shall be in the world, or ought to be.

Is the "New England Log-house," devoted to the contrasting of the
cuisine of this and the Revolutionary period, strictly to be assigned
to the women's ward of the great extempore city? Is its proximity to
the buildings just noticed purely accidental, or meant to imply that
cookery is as much a female art and mystery as it was a century ago?
However this may be, the erection of this temple to the viands of
other days was a capital idea, and a blessed one should it aid in the
banishment of certain popular delicacies which afflict the digestive
apparatus of to-day. This kitchen of the forest epoch is naturally
of logs, and logs in their natural condition, with the bark on.
The planking of that period is represented by clap-boards or slabs.
Garnished with ropes of onions, dried apples, linsey-woolsey garments
and similar drapery, the aspect of the walls will remind us of
Lowell's lines:

Crook-necks above the chimly hung,
While in among 'em rusted
The old Queen's-arm that Gran'ther Young
Brought hack from Concord busted.

The log-house is not by any means an abandoned feature of antiquity.
It is still a thriving American "institution" North, West and South,
only not so conspicuous in the forefront of our civilization as it
once was. It turns out yet fair women and brave men, and more than
that--if it be not treason to use terms so unrepublican--the highest
product of this world, gentlemen and gentlewomen.

[Illustration: OHIO BUILDING.]

Uncle Sam confronts the ladies from over the way, a ferocious battery
of fifty-seven-ton Rodman guns and other monsters of the same family
frowning defiance to their smiles and wiles. His traditional dread of
masked batteries may have something to do with this demonstration. He
need not fear, however. His fair neighbors and nieces have their hands
full with their own concerns, and leave him undisturbed in his stately
bachelor's hall to "illustrate the functions and administrative
faculties of the government in time of peace and its resources as a
war-power." To do this properly, he has found two acres of ground none
too much. The building, business-like and capable-looking, was erected
in a style and with a degree of economy creditable to the officers
of the board, selected from the Departments of War, Agriculture, the
Treasury, Navy, Interior and Post-Office, and from the Smithsonia