1869.] Composite Columns. 605 COMPOSITE COLUMNS. The Albert Memorial. The four sculptors engaged on the great Albert Memorial, in Hyde Park, which, it is stated, will cost about £190,000, are Messrs. M'Dowell, Foley, Theecl, and Bell, who take respectively Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Each sculptor gets £3,000, and they all complain that they will be out of pocket. Here is an outlay proposed of over one million three hundred thousand dollars on an art-effort, which may, or may not prove a failure ; and which, at the very best, will be but a thing to look at and admire. What suggestion will it convej' to the spectator ? Why, that it is a fine work of art, and the four sculptors, veiy admirable at their pro- fession. The Prince Consort's charac- ter will not be thought of through this senseless mass of material. No, his spirit would be present in another, and a far nobler monument, where gratitude would live within, and admiration of the man be the feeling from without. We mean a true memorial, such as that which will ever enshrine the embalmed memory of Peabody. A Good Idea. — General R. E. Lee, believing in the young men of the coun- try becoming as practical as possible, in addition to the schools of civil and mining engineering and practical chem- istry, has now in operation at Washing- ton College a practical department for the benefit of young men who wish to become master workmen as carpenters, machinists, etc., in which the students are instructed in the principles of math- ematics required, and the use of tools. This department will be of great service to the country in furnishing thoroughly practical men for the development of the South. A Cheap Cellar Ice-House We find in the columns of the Rural World, (an agricultural weekly of much merit, published at St. Louis,") the follow- ing description of a domestic ice- house : " It is built in one corner of the cel- lar ; consists of two walls of brick, which partition off a space twelve feet square. The bottom is dug out a foot and a half deeper than the cellar floor, making about eight feet in height, from bottom to ceiling. The joists overhead are ceiled ; the ceiling coated with gas-tar, and then sanded upon the fresh tar. A door-frame is built in the wall, with two doors hung in it. The bottom is ce- mented. The ice is put in through a cellar window; a drain carries off water from the melting ice. Small poles are laid across the bottom a foot apart, and straw laid upon them, then the ice is packed so as to leave about a foot space between the walls and ice, which space is packed with chaff. About the same space is left between top of ice and ceil- ing, which is also filled with chaff. As the ice settles away in the spring (before we commence using it) we put in more chaff. We ventilate from the window, and have plenty of ice till the middle of September. We first partitioned off for ice room with boards, with double walls, ("ten years ago,) packed with saw-dust, which we had to haul three miles. We afterwards found our walls were decay- ing, and took down and replaced with a single wall of brick — tried straw one year, but the ice did not keep well — have used chaff for a number of years and are pleased with it — as it is home- grown it has to be hauled but a short distance. It takes between eight and ten loads of ice to fill the room, and is easy of access from the cellar where the cream is kept and churning is done in summer. We like the plan and would advise any one having a large cellar, and wanting an ice-house, to go and do like- wise. "Rustic."
