Brumidi was, while yet a very young man, banished from Italy for participating in an insurrection. He went to Mexico, and finally was brought to Washington through the instrumentality of General Meigs. His first work is in the room of the Committee of Agriculture of the House, where he represented Cincinnatus leaving the plow to receive the dictatorship of Rome; General Putnam, in a similar situation, receiving the announcement of the outbreak of the Revolution, and other fine works are scarcely appreciated by the clerks who daily work beneath them. For eight dollars a day, the compensation he first received, Brumidi did work which thousands of dollars could not now duplicate. Almost every one knows that Brumidi began the decoration of the frieze around the Rotunda of the Capitol. He had completed in charcoal the cartoons for the remainder of the decoration, and these drawings he left to his son, supposing that the designs would be purchased from him by the successor selected to complete the work. This man, however, obtained in some unknown way an idea of the sketches Brumidi had made, and attempted to carry them out without the aid of the originals. At the east door of the Rotunda are the famous bronze doors designed by Randolph Rogers at Rome in 1858, and cast at Munich. The high reliefs illustrate leading events in the life of Columbus. From near the Rotunda one can ascend to the dome and overlook the entire District of Columbia. VI CONCERNING SOME OF THE ART AT THE CAPITOL Among the interesting pictures in the Capitol is Frank B. Carpenter’s picture, “The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862.” Mr. Lincoln was accustomed to speak of the act which this picture represents as the central act of his administration. Historians have recorded it the leading event of the nineteenth century. It changed the policy of the war, and was received by the army and the people as a necessary war measure. According to Mr. Carpenter, he takes the moment when Mr. Lincoln has just said: “Gentlemen, I now propose to issue this Emancipation Proclamation.” Montgomery Blair said: “If you do, Mr. President, we shall lose the fall elections.” To this no one offered a reply. Mr. Seward, who sits in front of the table, said: “Mr. President, should we not wait for a more decisive victory, so that the rebels may know we are able to enforce the Proclamation?” Mr. Lincoln leaned forward and said, in a low voice: “I promised my God, if Lee were driven back from Maryland, to issue the Proclamation.” Mr. Seward said: “Mr. President, I withdraw every objection.” Chase, who stands back of the President in the picture, and who was not always in sympathy with Mr. Lincoln, laid his hand affectionately on Mr. Lincoln’s shoulder, to show the President that in _this_ matter they were in perfect accord. [Illustration: THE FIRST READING OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION ]