field, during a visit to Scotland, spoke enthusiastically to his Scottish host of a particular view as the finest he had ever seen. The host, who at the time was not aware that his guest resided in Springfield, replied that it was the finest he himself had ever seen, excepting one from the tower of the United States Arsenal on the Connecticut River.
      The main Arsenal building is an immense structure, 200 X 70, three stories high, each floor having a storage capacity for 100,000 stand of arms. On a single floor there is room for weapons enough to equip a large army. It is impossible to describe the impression made upon one who visits these rooms for the first time. Guns with their polished barrels stand like organ pipes closely packed in their racks, — pipes of tremendous music, music that has been the death knell of thousands, but the anthem of deliverance for other thousands. Longfellow's well-known lines have made this a classic spot:—

"This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling,     Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms; But from the silent pipes no anthem pealing     Startles the villages with strange alarms. "Oh! what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary,     When the death angel touches those swift keys! What loud lament and dismal Miserere     Will mingle with those awful symphonies! "Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals     The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies! But beautiful as songs of the immortals,     The holy melodies of love arise."

      Besides the main Arsenal, two other buildings are used for the storing of arms. The original intention was to do all the heavy work requiring machinery at the Water Shops, and the lighter hand-work at the Armory. Forging, drilling, boring, rifling, cannon-carriage making are still done at the former place; but machinery was introduced at the Armory soon after the advent of steam as a motive power.