The west front of the Capitol overlooks a gentle slope pleasantly turfed and shaded. The building itself descends the slope a little way by an esplanade and a series of marble terraces, from which broad flights of steps lead down nearly to the main street level. The perspective view of the Capitol is much more impressive from this side than from the other, thanks to an admirable piece of landscape gardening. In old times, the lawns on the west side were used by the residents of the neighborhood for croquet grounds, and the whole park was enclosed in an iron fence, with gates that were shut by the watchmen at nine every evening against pedestrians, and at a somewhat later hour against carriages. With characteristic impatience of such restraints, sometimes a Congressman who had stayed at the Capitol past the closing hour would save himself the trouble of calling a guard to open the gate, by smashing the lock with a stone. The increasing frequency of such incidents undoubtedly had much to do with causing the removal of the fence. No point in the city affords so fine facilities for fixing L’Enfant’s plan in the mind of the visitor and enabling him to find his way about the older parts of Washington, as the Capitol dome. A spiral staircase, the doors to which open from obscure parts of two corridors, leads first to the inside circular balcony crowning the rotunda. This is worth a few minutes’ delay to test its quality as a whispering gallery. The attendant in charge will show you how, and, if you can lure him into telling you some of the funny things he has seen and heard in his eyrie, you will be well repaid.