THE CALIFORNIA STATE BUILDING.
As they were gazing speechless upon it, a man behind them tried to express what all felt. He began, “That is the bell that—that rang, reverberating down through”—but here words failed him, and he passed silently on, a good though speechless patriot.
Up-stairs they found tired Philadelphians in welcome quiet and seclusion. Even in the “Press-Correspondents’ Room” pens moved with Quaker-like dignity over the paper; indeed, one kindly old lady, on looking in at the door, remarked with sympathy; “Ah, yes, I see; people writing home to their friends!”
In another up-stairs room were shown the original charter to William Penn,—a beautiful piece of antique writing,—and the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania. Attached to the charter was a large wax seal, labeled over two hundred years old.
“Pretty old wax, isn’t it?” said a quiet man near Harry.
“Yes—waxing old,” the boy replied; but as the man gazed upon him in puzzled surprise, the boy moved off, rather ashamed of his forwardness.
A GROUP OF ESKIMO.[1]
Going out, they noticed General Greene’s Revolutionary battle-flag, “baptized in the enemy’s smoke” at Bunker Hill. They visited the Ohio Building, also, and then walked toward the Art Gallery; and Harry tried a snap-shot again. This time it was at a chubby youngster who walked before them, carrying two packages of lunch, while his parents walked beside him. Winding up the film, the boys set forward at a rapid pace toward the California Building, pausing only to admire the great logs that formed a foundation to the structure the residents of the new State of Washington had proudly built. The California house was like the pictures of old Spanish Missions; it had an arched doorway, tiled roof, and fine tower.
