Massachusetts presents Samuel Adams’s statue, by Annie Whitney, and John Winthrop’s, by R. S. Greenough. What a goodly company they are, those New England heroes! Will Kansas have the courage to place there the statue of John Brown, of Osawatomie? He yet is a type of that unconventional State, which regards no precedent, follows no pattern; that State which, in a blind way, is striving to put the Ten Commandments on top and to uphold the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, no difference what man or what party goes down in the strife; that State of which Whittier truthfully said: We cross the prairie as of old The pilgrims crossed the sea, To make the West, as they the East, The homestead of the free. Upbearing, like the ark of old, The Bible in our van, We go to test the truth of God Against the fraud of man. A brave fight the State has made against fraud. The fight is yet on; but who doubts that the truth of God “shall yet prevail,” and who would better stand for such a people than one who went down in that fight with the “martyr’s aureole” around his grizzled head? Much, of course, must be left untold here; but it is hoped that what has been said will create a desire to see and learn more of those whom the State and the nation has here honored. As good Mohammedans must visit Mecca, so every good American should see these things for himself, and decide on their merits from his own standpoint. V THE ROTUNDA It is not the purpose in these sketches to go into any minute descriptions of places or things in Washington. To do that volumes would be needed, and then much left untold. The Rotunda is the central part of the old building of the Capitol, and lies beneath the dome. It is circular in form, with a diameter of ninety-five feet, and with a height to the canopy above of a little over one hundred and eighty feet. The panels of the Rotunda are set with life-size pictures, illustrating important scenes in American history. There are “The Surrender of Burgoyne, October 17, 1777”; “The Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, October 19, 1781”; and “The Resignation of Washington, December 23, 1783.” These are by Trumbull. They may not be perfect, considered as works of art, but they commemorate events whose memory should never die. The surrender of Burgoyne was the greatest triumph of American over British arms up to that date (October 17, 1777). Had his twelve hundred Hessians been English patriots the result might have been different. When the British officer was sent to inquire their condition for a fight, the answer of the British was, “We will fight to a man.” But the Hessians replied, “Nix the money, nix the rum, nix fighten.” [Illustration: BRUMIDI FRIEZE IN ROTUNDA ]