. Thirty years in Washington; or, Life and scenes in our national capital. Portraying the wonderfuloperations in all the great departments, and describing every important function of our national go vernment ... With sketches of the presidents and their wives ... from Washington's to Roosevelt's administration . Marvelous Collection ofBirds Eggs — The Delight of Mr. Scientist —What We ThinkWe See — Weighing a Ray of Light — Doing Many MarvelousThings — The National Zoo — Among the Wild Animals — A Visitto the Fish Commission — Some Curious Specimens of the FinnyTribe — One of the Most Entertai
. Thirty years in Washington; or, Life and scenes in our national capital. Portraying the wonderfuloperations in all the great departments, and describing every important function of our national go vernment ... With sketches of the presidents and their wives ... from Washington's to Roosevelt's administration . Marvelous Collection ofBirds Eggs — The Delight of Mr. Scientist —What We ThinkWe See — Weighing a Ray of Light — Doing Many MarvelousThings — The National Zoo — Among the Wild Animals — A Visitto the Fish Commission — Some Curious Specimens of the FinnyTribe — One of the Most Entertaining Exhibits in Washington. HE Smithsonian Institution had a unique begin-ning, showing that a government may not bewithout sincere friends amonp; those who at thetime are regarded as natural enemies. JamesSmithson was an Englishman, a natural son of thethird Duke of Northumberland and Mrs. ElizabethMacie, a niece of Charles, Duke of Somerset. He waseducated ut Oxford and some time later took the name ofSmithson. Of a scientific turn of mind, he wrote severaltreatises, which, however, attracted no great attention. Nothaving any fixed home, he appears to have lived at variousplaces in lodgings, dying at last in Genoa in 1829. In 1835 President Jackson announced that this English- (495). 496 A STRANGE STORY. man, who so far as is known never visited America nor hadfriends here, had left all his property to found at Washing-ton, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, anestablishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledgeamong men. Why he did not prefer to establish such aninstitution in his own country does not clearly appear. Hehad doubtless watched with interest the growth of the youngrepublic, and, having no other use for his fortune, which,owing to his simple and retired life, had rapidly accumu-lated, he conceived the idea of bestowing it upon the gov-ernment of the United States .to further the increase ofeducational advantages, which at that
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