THE SOLDIERS’ HOME.
By OLIVER W. LONGAN,
Adjutant General’s Office, War Department.
Visitors to Washington, whether for the purpose of meeting friends, or, as strangers to “see the sights,” are moved by common impulse to find their greatest gratification in all day tours from building to building, and from point to point, where the wonders of the place are to be found, and no ordinary matter can distract the attention from the one object which is the topic for discussion and arrangement through all the indoor hours of morning and evening while the visit lasts. Even the dreary drizzling rain which fairly divides the time with the sunshine of this weather-wise day can not dampen the ardor of the tourist, and on foot or on wheel the round is pursued regardless of fatigue and discomfort. Indeed, there is something of heroism both in the appearance and feeling manifest in the mien and move of the travelers as they walk about the streets or “climb to the dome,” and after the wearied guest has departed and the family physician is called in to prescribe a tonic or stimulant for an exhausted nature upon which the duty of guide has been imposed in the days just past, he will invariably remark with exasperating irony which almost makes the patient determine never again to truthfully reveal the cause of infirmity, “of course you climbed to the dome.”
The purpose being to invite the reader to the “dome” as the first point of view, a few words of description are offered. The dome of the capitol building is a conspicuous object from all parts of the city and affords a standpoint from which to obtain the best prospect of all the city and surrounding country. This fact, and because it fills a picture of beauty in a vista from a particular spot in the grounds of the Soldiers’ Home, introduces it into this article.
From a balcony on the top of the dome, two hundred and sixteen feet from the ground, on the eastern front of the capitol, the eye takes in a scene of which Humboldt remarked, “I have not seen a more charming panorama in all my travels.” West at a distance of nearly three miles is Arlington. The mansion, which was once the home of Robert E. Lee, resembles, in the distance, the “Hall in the Grove.” Behind it is the city of the dead, a home for the remains of about 15,000 soldiers. North a little more than three miles is the home of the living soldier. The clock tower appears to be the only sign of habitation upon a well wooded hill.
As one of the many places of interest which receives the attention and merits the praise of visitors as a spot “beautiful for situation,” a brief history and description is offered to the readers of The Chautauquan, but in neither will there be found any of the mellowness of age which is possessed by old-world places nor of the power which belongs to
“Things of earth, which time hath bent,