They were ushered through a large, smutty door, into a brick building, paved with bricks, and having arched recesses, here and there, at the lower part. Commodious retreats, in case the flames put forth their tongues beyond their usual range, and advanced towards the centre of the building,—as Mr. Diggs devoutly hoped they might. At one end, the wooden frame-work of a house, with ground-floor, and first and second floor, presented its front. It was black and charred from recent fire, with sundry repairs of new planks, which “brought out” the black of the rest, both without and within, to the greatest advantage. Level with the lowest window was a sort of lecturer’s stage of rough planks, at the back of which lay the model of a ship’s hull, some six or seven feet in length; and to the right of this, the model of a house, with lower and upper floor, of about two feet and a half in height. Fronting this stage, model ship, model house, and actual house, was a semicircle of chairs and benches—not too near—with ample room left at the sides for the sudden flight of visitors who had seated themselves in an incredulous and unimaginative state of mind, nearer than subsequent events seemed to warrant. Then, there were the arched recesses; then, a low stage with seats; then, a broad flight of wooden stairs at the opposite end, by which visitors could ascend to a high platform, leading also to side galleries, on the same level. The whole place was most eloquent to the olfactory nerves of coal-tar, pitch, resin, turpentine, &c. A light sprinkling of sawdust completed the furnishing of this hall, in which one of the most extraordinary of all our modern discoveries (provided it prove thoroughly efficient) was about to be subjected to trial. Mr. Diggs having planted his foreman at one horn of the crescent of chairs, and dragging his wife (whose thoughts of her handsome bonnet and shawl were written in shady lines all over her face) to a dirty-seated bench, on the other, he darted straight across to the scene of action, and without a moment’s hesitation or ceremony, ascended the lecturer’s stage, and diving with nose and hands into the model of the ship’s hull, began to explore its contents.