There are a large number of
Irish in the prison.
Our next visit, still under Mr. Dennison's escort, was to the Capitol or
State House, a very fine building of white limestone. The facade is more
than 300 feet long, and the height nearly 160 feet to the top of the
dome. This however has not yet been completed. The architecture is
Grecian. Here, as at Washington, are Halls for the Senate and House of
Representatives, in equally good taste and somewhat similarly arranged.
Mr. Dennison, who had once been a member of the Senate, was repudiating
the accounts so commonly given of the behaviour of the senators, when
Mr. Niel came in, and over-hearing what he was saying, begged to remark
that when they "went to work" they usually divested themselves of their
coats without substituting any senatorial garment in its place; and
putting his legs on the desk before the chair, he declared that such was
the usual posture in which they listened to the oratory of the place.[8]
We afterwards went through the apartments appropriated to the Treasurer
and Auditor of the State, the two chief officers of the Government,
which are very capacious and well fitted up--and we were specially
introduced to both these functionaries; Mr. Neil, who is somewhat of a
wag, was rather jocose with them, and high as their position here is,
they very cordially retaliated on him.
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