I. The academic year is divided into three terms, the first beginning on the Thursday before the last Thursday in September, and closing on 24th of December; the second beginning the 2d of January, and closing the last of March; the third beginning the 1st of April, and closing the Wednesday before the last Wednesday in June. II. The vacations are from the 24th of December to the 2d of January, and from the Wednesday before the last Wednesday in June to the Thursday before the last Thursday in September. III. There are holidays at Thanksgiving, Washington's Birthday, Easter, and Decoration Day. IV. The pupils may visit their homes during the regular vacations and at the abovenamed holidays, but at no other time, unless for some special, urgent reason, and then only by permission of the president. V. The bills for the maintenance and tuition of pupils supported by their friends must be paid semi-annually, in advance. VI. The charge for pay pupils is $150 each per annum. This sum covers all expenses in the primary department except clothing, and all in the college except clothing and books. VII. The Government of the United States defrays the expenses of those who reside in the District of Columbia, or whose parents are in the Army or Navy, provided they are unable to pay for their education. To students from the States and Territories who have not the means of defraying all the expenses of the college course the board of directors renders such assistance as circumstances seem to require, as far as the means at its disposal for this object will allow. VIII. It is expected that the friends of the pupils will provide them with clothing, and it is important that upon entering or returning to the Institution they should be supplied with a sufficient amount for an entire year. All clothing should be plainly marked with the owner's name. IX. All letters concerning pupils or applications for admission should be addressed to the president. X. The institution is open to visitors during term time on Thursdays only, between the hours of 10 a. m. and 3 p. m. Visitors are admitted to chapel services on Sunday afternoons at a quarter past 3 o'clock. XI. Congress has made provision for the education, at public expense, of the indigent blind and the indigent feeble-minded of teachable age belonging to the District of Columbia. Persons desiring to avail themselves of these provisions are required by law to make application to the president of this Institution. REPORT ON THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT BUILDING. OFFICE OF ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS, Washington, October 18, 1885. SIR: We herewith transmit a final report of the operations pertain ing to the reconstruction of the model halls and roofs of the south wing of the Interior Department building, and recapitulate the record of the work done. The first appropriation was made on March 3, 1883. The removal of the models, records, and heavy wooden cases was completed on the 15th of June following, when the dismantling of the wooden gallery, arches, and roofs was pushed and promptly followed by the reconstruction, so that on the 25th of September the erection of the first section of the new roofs was begun. Working under carefully preserved temporary roofs, the new fireproof roofs were secured in place and covered in the early spring of 1884 without the slightest interruption or damage to the offices in the two lower stories. This exhausted the funds then available. In June, 1884, a new appropriation was made, which enabled us to have the work substantially completed on the opening of the spring of the present year. On the 3d of March, 1885, a third appropriation was obtained to pay for a new steam heating apparatus and various interior finishings. These were completed in the month of May, with the exception of a new bronze railing for the circular main stairs, the models and patterns for which took considerable time, so that this last item could not be completed before this time. A short explanation and description of the work as completed will be in time. The main portico of the south front gives style to the exterior architecture of the building. It is a partial copy of the front of the Parthenon at Athens. Hence the leading motive of the composition is Greek doric, with heavy straight architrave formations for covering over the intercolumniations and horizontal door and window heads. The interior architecture of the lower stories of the building is of a composite character, mostly Roman doric, and contains even in the spacious atrium opening on the Greek portico such purely mediæval features as groined arches. In view of these conditions we treated the interior reconstruction of the whole building in the kindred but lighter forms of doric renaissance, 6287 I-47 as in best accord with the art, as understood and practiced by the recog nized masters of the present time. Guided by this genetic idea, all the forms of construction and decoration, be they in relief or in color, wrought in metal, incrusted on walls, or embossed on glass, have been harmoniously developed down to the minutest detail. The main stairway of the building leads from the atrium on the principal story to the upper stories through the center of the south wing. It is inclosed by semi-circular walls, the windows of which have been arranged so as to shed a mellow light through ornamental cathedral glass in lead sash. Wall pilasters between the windows support a strong cornice with a wide frieze decorated in colors and surmounted by a deep cove from which a tent-shaped ceiling with projecting rafters springs. This ceiling abuts on an interior wall and forms a gable which affords sufficient height for giving due accentuation to the upper entrance doors located in it, while keeping within the scope of the graceful renaissance forms. The rickety and damaged iron railing along the ends of the white marble steps is being replaced by an appropriately designed bronze railing. A broad platform at the head of the stairs is floored with mosaic terrazzo, as used by the ancient Romans, the art of which has lately been revived in the prominent public buildings of the most ad vanced nations. Crossing the threshold of the entrance door to the huge quadrangle which shelters the model museum of the patents of the United States, we find ourselves within an entry hall of 40 by 60 feet in size, and 33 feet high, which has been individualized by the imposing treatment as a marble hall, and to this its design, material, workmanship, and decoration have been subordinated. Upon high pedestals of black and antique green marble rise sixteen wall-pilasters with fluted shafts in polished Sienna, bases and capitals • in flat veined Italian Keene's cement scagliola. They are surmounted by carved consoles, ornamented friezes, and enriched cornices of fireproof cement, which, under the exposure to fire, exceeds by far any natural building stone. These support a molded ceiling, panelled in a variety of forms around an octagonal skylignt of 20 feet in diameter, glazed with borders, sides, and center-piece of colored cathedral and embossed plate glass. All details, enrichments, ornaments, and rosettes in the ceiling are plastic and relieved by carefully blended subdued tints and chaste gilding. To the east and west this hall discloses, through large open archways between the pilasters, a view into corridors, offices, and into the gal eries forming model-halls. Besides the skylight this hall receives subdued light through ornamented windows on the north and south sides. High wall spaces above the windows and below the cornices are allotted to six largest sized allegorical representations, sculptured in bassrelief, and relating to objects appropriate to the place, namely, invention and industry, mining and agriculture, on the south side, and electricity and magnetism, water and fire, on the north side. In the decoration of the eastern and western side walls four large busts are introduced of men who have well deserved of, or occupy prominent places among the inventors of the country, to wit, Thomas Jeffer son, who has been justly called the father of the American patent system; Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin; Robert Fulton, and Benjamin Franklin. A paneled wainscoting in black, antique red, and green polished marbles girds the hall and incloses a decorated tile-floor of original designs, which was manufactured and laid by the United States Encaustic Tile Company of Indianapolis, Ind. Not long ago such tiles were solely imported from England, but the mauufacture is now domesticated in this country so that home-made tiles have the preference of the foreignmade for plain work, being superior in hardness. The execution of our floors, requiring great numbers of new dies at short notice, according to architects' designs, places the home manufacturers in the foreground for the more difficult decorated work. The offices to the east and west of the entry hall contain in the aggregate about ten thousand square feet floor space. They are plainly finished, have solid mahogany sash and doors, and wooden floors laid in concrete. Those facing the courtyard are now occupied by the Patent Office library, and those along the F street front by examiners of the Patent Office. The corridors between the two rows of rooms are open to the roof and lighted all along by double skylights, with an intermediate ventilated air-chamber. The floors and side-walls of these corridors, up to the first gallery, are treated similar to the corresponding part of the entry hall. A toilet-room for gentlemen has been arranged at the east end of the wing, and a toilet-room for ladies at the west end has been rearranged. The fluted columns along the corridors in front of the galleries are finished with polished Keene's cement scagliola, similar to the pilasters of the entry hall. The galleries are inclosed along the corridors and within the openings into the entry hall by ornamented, polished, and chased solid bronze railings. They have Keene's cement floors, and have been mostly furnished with wrought-iron fire and dust proof model cases of original construction with the balance of an appropriation available for the purpose, and have been for some months filled with models. Approached from the second gallery there is an additional fire-proof hall of 96 by 32 feet in size, above the main portico on F street. This is at present fully occupied by the records and work of the Census of 1880. The roofs of the entry hall, hall over portico, and main staircase, consist of trussed wrought iron. The roofs over the model halls are supported by fire-proofed sectional wrought-iron columns. All exposed structural iron work of floors and roofs is thoroughly protected and bridged over by hollow tiles and blocks, both of porous terra-cotta, the best non-conducting fire-proof material at present available. The outer skylights are glazed with hammered plate-glass, and provided with a system of condense-gutters. The inner skylights are glazed with heavy obscured fluted glass. The main portico has received a heavily paneled cast iron ceiling in keeping with the exterior architecture of the building. The interior stairs and boxed window-frames are also of cast iron. Absolute necessity compelled the removal of the thoroughly corroded, inefficient, and for the reconstructed building insufficient steam-heating apparatus, dating from a time when this mode of heating was in its childhood and but imperfectly understood. A new low-pressure steam-heating apparatus, planned and based on the theoretical and empirical results now at command, was introduced. This work was done mostly at night, so as not to interfere with the business in the offices. The cutting of numerous grooves in the hard |