The Patent Office Building—Grace and Beauty of its Architecture—Four “Sublime” Porticoes—A Pretty Large Passage—The Model Room—“The Exhibition of the Nation”—A Room two hundred and seventy Feet in Length—The Models—Recording our Name—Wonders and Treasures of the Room—Benjamin Franklin’s Press—Model Fire-Escapes—Wonderful Fire-Extinguishers—The Efforts of Genius—Sheep-Stalls, Rat-Traps, and Gutta Percha—An Ancient Mariner’s Compass—Captain Cook’s Razor—The Atlantic Cable—Original Treaties—The Signatures of Emperors—An Extraordinary Turkish Treaty—Treasures of the Orient—Rare Medals—The Reward of Major Andre’s Captors—The Washington Relics—His Old Tent—His Blankets and Bed-Curtain—His Chairs and Looking-Glass—His Primitive Mess-Chess and old Tin Plates—The Old Clothes of the “Father of His Country”—Military Relics of Well-known Men—Original Draft of the Declaration of Independence—Washington’s Commission—Model of an Extraordinary Boat—Abraham Lincoln as an Inventor—The Hat Worn on the Fatal Night—The Gift of the Tycoon—The Efforts of Genius—A Machine to Force Hens to Lay Eggs—A Hook for Fishing Worms out of the Human Stomach—The Library of the Patent Office. The lawful fees for issuing patents having accumulated into a considerable fund, Congress added an appropriation, and directed that the whole amount should be invested in a new building to be called the Patent Office. From that double fund has arisen the majestic structure which, next to the Capitol, is the most august building in Washington. The southern front of the Treasury is of superlative beauty, and from several other points its architectural grace cannot be surpassed; but its whole effect is marred by the dingy, unbroken outline of its Fifteenth-street side. The advantage of the Patent-Office is, that from any point which you choose to survey it, it impresses you as supremely grand. Occupying two blocks, or an entire public square, standing upon a prominence, it spreads and towers into space incomparable in mass and majesty. You may approach it from four opposite directions, and on each side you lift your eyes to four sublime porticoes towering before you. They are supported by double rows of Doric columns, eighteen feet in circumference, made of gleaming crystallized marble. The entire building is of pure Doric architecture, strong, simple and majestic. Its southern front is an exact copy of the Pantheon at Rome, and the eastern portico is modelled after that of the Parthenon at Athens.