Ten years in Washington : Life and scenes in the national capital, as a woman sees them . ontain 26,148 feet,or nearly five miles of book-shelving, and contain over210,000 volumes. The iron floors are covered withkamptulicon floor cloth, a compound of India-rubber andcork, which possesses the triple advantage of being clean,light and cheap. The leg of every chair has a pad ofsolid India-rubber under it. Nobody is allowed to speakabove a whisper; thus the stolid turning, or the light flut-ter of leaves make the only sound which stirs the after alcove line the halls, but with the
Ten years in Washington : Life and scenes in the national capital, as a woman sees them . ontain 26,148 feet,or nearly five miles of book-shelving, and contain over210,000 volumes. The iron floors are covered withkamptulicon floor cloth, a compound of India-rubber andcork, which possesses the triple advantage of being clean,light and cheap. The leg of every chair has a pad ofsolid India-rubber under it. Nobody is allowed to speakabove a whisper; thus the stolid turning, or the light flut-ter of leaves make the only sound which stirs the after alcove line the halls, but with the excep-tion of two devoted to novels and other light reading,left open for the ladies of members families, they areall securely locked and protected by a net-work of wire,and thus the chance of pilfering and of flirting are bothshut in behind that securely fastened little padlock. Before the era of locking up, many books wereabstracted from the Library and never it is said that the alcoves were used during the ses-sions of Congress by the belles of the Capitol for recep- i. THE CENTRAL ROOM, CONGRESSIONAL \SIDE THE CAPITOL.—WASHINGTON. LOVE IN THE LIBRAEY. 131 tion rooms in which they received homage and listenedto marriage proposals. The story is told of a wealthySouthern representative gleaning materials for a speechin an upper section, who was suddenly stopped in hispursuit after knowledge above by the knowledge ascend-ing from below that a penniless adventurer was thatmoment persuading his pretty daughter to elope in thealcove under him. It did not take the parent long to de-scend into that alcove. The daughter did not elope. The halls are lined with wide tables and arm-chairsprovided for all who wish to make use of the treasuresof the Library. Tickets with blanks can be filled withthe name of any book desired, over the signature of theapplicant, who retains the book while remaining in theLibrary. On the back of those tickets are printed thefollowing
Size: 1368px × 1827px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidtenyearsinwa, bookyear1876
