06 A City Built in a Swamp

A cap which you wear on your head means “head.”

A cap-tain also means “head”—he's the head of a company of soldiers.

A cap-ital means “head” too—it's the head city of a country or of a State.

When I was a boy I lived in the capital of the United States,but I did not live in the Capitol of the United States. That may sound funny, but it's true, for there are two kinds of . The capit-Al is a city, the Capit-Ol is a building, and of course I didn't live in the Capit-O1 building. Not even the President lives there.

When our country was started men tried to find a suitable place for the capital. Eight places were tried out and at last a swamp was chosen as the proper place to build the city, because it was then near the center of our country. So a city was built there and called Washington after George Washington, because he was the First President of the United States. Even when-I-was-a-boy there was a part of Washington which every one called “Swamp Puddle” or “Swam-poodle.” I wonder if boys there still call it that. It is now one of the most beautiful cities in the World, with lovely parks and beautiful buildings. George Washington didn't live in Washington. He lived at a place in the State of Virginia about ten miles away called Mount Vernon. Washington is now on the edge of our country, over a thousand miles from the center. The capital hasn't moved, but the center of the country has.

There are twenty-eight cities named “Washington” in the United States. Washington, the capital, looks on the map as if it were in the State of Maryland, but it isn't. It isn't in any State. The capital of all the States had to have a place all its own; so this piece of land is called the District of Columbia, or D. C. for short. The District of Columbia is named after Columbus, the man who discovered America. So if you write a letter to any one in Washington, the capital, you must be very careful to put “D.C.” after Washington, for there are so many cities and towns named after Washington that your letter might not go to the right one.

When-I-was-a-boy I thought the Capitol was the most beautiful building in the World. Since then I have seen nearly all of the most beautiful buildings in the World, and I have changed my mind. I have even seen a building fit to be in Heaven. I used to make a copy of the Capitol as nearly as I could in my sand-pile. I would fill a shoe-box with wet sand, then turn it carefully upside down so as to empty it out without breaking, and I made the dome on top in the same way with a tea-cup.

I thought all capitols of other countries must have domes, too. I didn't learn until later that not capitols but churches were the first buildings to have domes, and that many capitols have no domes. As a boy I used to climb to the top of the dome—for there was no elevator—to see the view of the city, and to look down on the inside at the floor far below where people walking seemed like ants crawling.

On one side of the Capitol is a large room called the Senate, and on the other side is a still larger room called the House of Representatives. In both the Senate and the House of Representatives men sit at desks like boys in school. These men are the ones who make our laws, which are rules that everybody in the United States must obey. The men in the Senate are called Senators. The men in the House are called Representatives. When I say “men,” I mean women too, for some of the Senators and Representatives are women.

Each State chooses two Senators to go to the Capitol in Washington. No matter whether the State is big like Texas or whether it is little like Rhode Island, it sends only two Senators. And each State also sends to the Capitol in Washington other men or women called Repre-sentatives, but the number of Representatives each State sends depends on the number of people in the State; New York has the most people, so it sends the most Representatives. Several States have so few people that they send only one Representative. The Senate and the House of Representatives together are called “Congress,” and when Congress is holding a meeting a flag is flying over the Capitol.

Look in the front of this book or any other book and you will see printed there “Copyright.” Just across a park from the Capitol is a large building with a golden dome on top. This building is the Library of Congress. Every one in the United States who prints a book sends two copies of it to this library, and the library sends him a “copy-right,” which means that no one else has the “right” to copy it or print it without his permission. In the Library of Congress there are more books than in any other building in the country.

Look on your camera or phonograph, or any other machine in your home, and see if you can find the word “Patented.” Any one in the country who invents anything new and useful—whether it is a fountain-pen, an airplane, or a mouse-trap—sends one—a model, it is called—to another building in Washington called the Patent Office and asks for a patent. If the thing is really new and no one has ever made anything of the kind before, the Patent Office gives him the sole right to make and sell it, and no one else is allowed to make or sell it. That is called a patent. Some of the models are very curious. One model that some one had invented was a steam-engine that walked with iron legs. When-I-was-a-boy I invented a “snapback” handkerchief. I would blow my nose, then let go the handkerchief, and a rubber pulled it back into my pocket. But I didn't get a patent.

Parades! Soldiers! Bands of music! Flying flags! Some of the greatest parades have passed down a very wide street in Washington called Pennsylvania Avenue, or usually just “The Avenue.” It might be called “Parade Avenue.”It stretches from the Capitol to another building about a mile away that looks like a big bank. This other building is called the Treasury. There is a picture of it on the $10 bill. In the Treasury is kept money of the United States. We write United States with two letters, U. S., and we write the sign for “dollars” with the same two letters, written one on top of the other, with the bottom of the “U” cut off—thus, $.

Paper money and postage-stamps are printed in another building.

“You see that man over there turning the handle of that printing-press?” says the guide who shows you around. “He makes a million dollars a day!”

“Whew! He must be the richest man in the World.”

“Oh, no. He only gets $5 a day.”

The money made out of silver, and gold, and copper is made in another city—not in Washington—at a place called the Mint.

When-I-was-a-boy I had an old bookcase which I called my museum. In it I had a starfish, some shells, a bird's nest, a “gold” rock, and so forth. In Washington there is a large museum called the National Museum in which there is a huge collection of all sorts of curious and remarkable things from all over the World.

There are many white houses in the country, but next door to the Treasury is a White House that is different from any other, for in this house the President lives. There is a picture of it on the $20 bill. From the back porch of The White House the latest President of the United States can look across his back yard and see a monument to the First President—Washington. The Washington Monument is the highest piece of stone work in the World. It's like a giant finger, five hundred and fifty-five feet high. It seemed a mile high, but it is really only about a tenth of a mile high—not even as high as a low mountain. No man has ever been able to build as high as God. Though there is an elevator, I used to run up the stairs, two steps at a time, to the top of the monument—just for fun—to see how quickly I could do it, and whether I could beat the elevator. Boys are like that. They will run a race with anything. I could beat the elevator down by jumping half a dozen steps at a time, but not up. My heart did the beating going up.

There is a long pool of water at the foot of the Washington Monument in which you can see the monument as in a mirror. At the other end of this pool is a marble building with columns all around the four sides. It was built in honor of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President after Washington. It is probably the most thrilling memorial ever built to a human being. There is a picture of Lincoln on the $5 bill and on the other side a picture of his Memorial. Lincoln was born in a tiny house made of logs, so small that the whole house could be put in one room of your home. No boy was ever poorer, or had less money or less chance, and yet he became President of the United States. While he was President two parts of the United States fought a terrible war with each other and almost became un-United, but Lincoln kept the States together. That's why this beautiful building was built in his honor. The only thing in the building is a statue of Lincoln sitting in a chair. He looks down on the crowds of people who visit him, as if his spirit were inside that figure of stone.