Mrs. E. D. Latta, of Stonewall Jackson Chapter, of North Carolina, $25. [Applause.]

Mrs. James G. Leiper, of Philadelphia, makes her contribution $50 instead of $25. [Applause.]

Mrs. Bradford D. Davol, Quequechan Chapter, Fall River, Massachusetts, $5. [Applause.]

For the Phoebe Green Lord Chapter, Westerly, Rhode Island, $25. [Applause.]

Mrs. B. F. Hyatt, Fort Findlay Chapter, Ohio, $5. [Applause.]

Miss Pursell, for the Colonel William Montgomery Chapter, Danville, Pennsylvania, $5. [Applause.]

Virginia announces its list increased to $285. [Applause.] Miss Marion Howard Brazier pledges $5 for the Paul Jones Chapter, of Boston. [Appause.]

Mrs. Richard J. Sherman, of the Buffalo Chapter, $10. [Applause.]

Martha Washington Chapter, of the District of Columbia, $10. Miss Lilian Pike, Regent. [Applause.]

St. John de Crevecoeur Chapter, of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, $10. [Applause.]

Mrs. Eliza Warren Hook, Trenton, New Jersey, $25. [Applause.]

Mrs. William A. Maurer, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, $10. [Applause.]

Mrs. S. P. Lee, of the Army and Navy Chapter of the District. $25. [Applause.]

Mrs. George T. Huff, Phebe Bayard Chapter, Pennsylvania, $25. [Applause.]

Continental Chapter, Washington, District of Columbia, Mrs. Gist, Regent, $25, and possibly $50. [Applause.]

Mrs. Julius Seymour, Mary Washington Colonial Chapter, New Yory City, $25, check sent later; making a total of $545 contributed by the Mary Washington Chapter, of New York for the Continental Hall. [Applause.]

Mrs. A. J. Herr, Harrisburg Chapter, $100. [Applause.] PRESIDENT GENERAL. Are there any more contributions? Mrs. LINDSAY (reads):

$25 from Deborah Avery Chapter, of Lincoln, Nebraska. [Applause.]

Manor House Chapter, of District of Columbia, $20. [Applause.]

Mrs. G. W. Holland, of New York, will send $300 for the Continental Hall.

Miss LATHROP, of New York. I would like to give personally, as a memorial for Mrs. Mary Augusta Lathrop, of New York City, National number 434, $50. [Applause.]

Mrs. MCLEAN. I am requested by a member of the New York City Chapter and a member of this delegation, Mrs. Velasco, to say that she desires to contribute $25 as a memorial to Mrs. Sarah J. Haldane deVelasco. [Applause.] Mrs. LINDSAY (continues):

Miss Minnie Burdette, Quaker City Chapter, Pennsylvan'a, $25. [Applause.]

Mrs. SPERRY. I have to announce that Mrs. Frank W. Benedict, of the Mary Clapp Wooster Chapter, of New Haven, will increase her subscription of $500 to $1,000 or more, provided it may be used toward a memorial window for her revolutionary ancestors.

Mrs. LINDSAY. Madam President, may I tell the ladies of the work of their committee, of the talks we have had and the plans we have for a lunch room, and how we are to have everything comfortable for the Daughters when the hall is completed, kitchen and everything nice?

Mrs. LINDSAY (continues):

Mary Washington Chapter of the District of Columbia sends $20-$5 from Miss McBlair; Mrs. Newcomb, $5: Mrs. Gadsby, $10. [Applause.]

Army and Navy Chapter, of Washington, gives an additional $10. [Applause.]

Mrs. DICKINSON, of Chicago. If this is in order, I would like to say that I am thinking constantly of how glad the former Chairman, Mrs. Shepard, will be made by this generous contribution. If this is a fitting time, I would like to send a telegram to her, sending an expression of sympathy for her as she sits alone at home, borne down by her recent afflic

tion, the loss of her mother.

I should like to move that such

an expression may be sent to her from the Congress.

PRESIDENT GENERAL. I move that the House rise, proving their deepest sympathy with Mrs. Shepard in her sorrow. It is unanimous.

Mrs. LINDSAY (continues):

Countess Mackin, of New York Chapter, $50. [Applause.] Mrs. John L. Meeker, of the Knickerbocker Chapter, New York City, $20. [Applause.]

Mrs. Keim, Hartford, Ruth Wyllys Chapter, Hartford, Connecticut, $10. [Applause.]

Mrs. Charles Rand, of the Burlington Chapter, Iowa, $25; she personally gives this for her Chapter. [Applause.]

Mrs. LINDSAY. We have over $7,000 this morning [Applause]; most of this is in pledges. The $100 read for the Washington Heights Chapter, of New York, is a personal contribution from Mrs. Blackstone, Vice-Regent, making a total of $1,100.

Mrs. MCLEAN. May I ask what was the sum total before we commenced this morning?

Mrs. LINDSAY. From the Treasurer General we received the amount up to February 10, 1899; we had then in the Treasury $43,773.36.

Mrs. MCLEAN. I asked because I believe the sum we have now received in promises will bring us up to a round figure, $50,000; is it not so?

Mrs. LINDSAY. Yes, it is so; and if these pledges are redeemed as early as possible we will have more advantages in purchasing property; because the Continental Hall Committee has had offers made; the members can tell of property offered, so that if we say we have the money we will have other good offers made.

Mrs. RAND. What has been the largest amount given at any Congress?

Mrs. LINDSAY. I think $1,000.

PRESIDENT GENERAL. There are a number of life memberships to be read, but half go to the Chapters and half to the Continental Hall Fund. Are there any other contributions for the Continental Hall before the life memberships? If there

are any of the members who do not care to announce it just at present, any time will do during the week. The Continental Hall Committee will be glad to receive them and will be very grateful for any contribution.

Mrs. LINDSAY (reads):

Mrs. Kennedy, of Illinois, $25 for life membership for her mother, Mrs. George Fisher, of Illinois. [Applause.]

Mrs. Cedrick Marsh, Oak Park, Illinois, $25, life membership. [Applause.]

Twenty-five dollars for life membership, Mrs. Louis W. Hall, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. [Applause.]

Mrs. MCCARTNEY. I have the honor to say that my Chapter has notified me that they have made me a life member of the Society.

PRESIDENT GENERAL. We are very grateful for that. Are there any other contributions from life memberships? Would the Congress like to listen for a moment to one or two members of the committee who have been deeply interested in looking at land in this city on which we desire to place the Continental Hall, or on some lot? I am very ambitious for the Continental Hall in another way which I hope will be the successful way, but we will be very glad to listen to Miss Virginia Miller for a moment, who can tell us something.

A MEMBER. Did not Congress give us a site?

PRESIDENT GENERAL. There was some little mistake about the gift; they gave us a site which they could not give us. It is my wish and hope that the Government should recognize us in that way, and give us a lot on which we can place our Continental Hall.

Miss MILLER. Ladies, last winter, after the meeting of our Congress, Mrs. Shepard, at our President General's request, wrote to me and asked me to take the position of chairman of the sub-committee for hunting up sites for the Continental Hall, for getting all the estimates that I possibly could with regard to the cost and with regard to eligible sites. I have submitted, I suppose, about twenty-five or thirty distinct places and plans to the committee. One of them we thought last year particularly desirable, but the hope of getting a lot from the Government rather prevented our deciding on it.

It was a very large corner lot, with an old building on it, which was obliged to be sold as the owners were in need of the money. No decision was come to with regard to that lot. Since then I have been empowered to offer to this Society the old Corcoran Art Gallery, which contains 17,733 square feet. It is a very substantial building, said to be one of the best built buildings in the United States. It contains, as we all know, a large number of rooms all well furnished and if you would like I will read a description of the building which is printed here so that you can judge somewhat of it.

"The building stands on the Northeast corner of Pennsylvania avenue and Seventeenth street, fronting 106' 7" on the Avenue and 125′ 6′′ on Seventeenth street. It is two stories in height, in the Renaissance style, built of brick, with brown-stone facings and ornaments, a Mansard roof rising ten feet, having a large central pavilion and a smaller one at each corner facing the streets. The front, under the main and corner pavilions, is divided into recesses by pilasters with foilated capitals, and is ornamented with wreaths, with the monogram of the founder, and over the central pavilion is the inscription: Dedicated to Art.'

"In the central pediment is a large bronze medallion profile portrait of Mr. Corcoran, with decorations of foilage, and on the tops of the two columns are bronze groups of children holding garlands, and the emblems of architecture and music. "On the front of the building are four, and on the side seven niches, with statues 7 feet high. The first group contains those of Phidias, Raphael, Michael Angelo, and Albert Dürer; the latter those of Titian, Da Vinci, Rubens, Rembrandt."

I have been told that if we decide on taking this building, or give the slightest intimation that we may possibly take it, there is a probability of their altering the second floor so as to make it one vast audience chamber which will seat 5,000 people. The lower floor contains a great many rooms, large halls, statuary hall, and other places. I have a plan of the building here if any one wants to see it. It is offered to us, this noble thing, the building and the grounds, at the price of the ground, which is valued at $20 a square foot. All Washingtonians