belongs that particular vomitorium.

Four miles of water- and drainage-pipe underlie the twenty-one and a
half acres of plank floor in this building. The pillars and trusses
contain thirty-six hundred tons of iron. The contract for it was
awarded in July, 1874, and it was completed in eighteen months, being
ready for the reception of goods early in January last. The cost
was $1,420,000, and in mechanical execution the iron-, glass-
and wood-work is pronounced fully equal to either of the British
structures and superior to those of the Continent. In economy of
material for producing a given result it is probable that the iron
trusses and supports of the English buildings are as much excelled as
the iron bridges of this country surpass those of Great Britain in the
combination of lightness with strength. Our metal is better, and its
greater cost has united with the scarcity of labor which so stimulated
ingenuity in other departments of industry to enforce tenuity of form.
Foreign engineers wonder that our viaducts stand, but somehow they do
stand.

The turrets and eagles of galvanized sheet iron, not being intended
to support anything but jokes, need not be criticized as part of
the construction. The tiled pavements of the vestibules, designed to
sustain, besides criticism of the he-who-walks-may-read order, the
impact of the feet of all nations, are more important. Their pattern
is very fair--their solidity will doubtless stand the test. The turf
and shrubbery meant to brighten the _entourage_, especially at the
carriage concourse on the east front, we can hardly hope will fare so
well. The defence of their native soil, to prevent its being rent from
them by the heedless tread of millions and scattered abroad in the
shape of dust, will demand the most untiring struggles of the guardian