This section is from the book "The National Capitol. Its Architecture Art And History", by George C. Hazelton, Jr. Also available from Amazon: The National Capitol Its Architecture Art and History.
The Corinthian columns which surround the chamber are of breccia or Potomac marbie from quarries in Loudon County, Virginia, and Montgomery County, Maryland. The polishing of their surfaces has produced designs and pictures almost as weird and curious as the echoes. Some of the outlines formed by cutting the imbedded pebbles are such perfect caricatures that the imagination is not required to distinguish them. On the column to the right of the door which leads to the office of the Clerk of the House, about seven feet from the ground, is found a perfect head of a deer; and on the column behind the statue of Ethan Allen, about four feet from the ground, an almost perfect head of a Turk. An Episcopal clergyman in his clerical robes is easily distinguishable on the column behind the statue of Garfield. Behind Collamer is a form suggestive of ex-Senator Edmunds; and behind the statue of William Allen, about four feet high, the characteristic face of Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts appears. Upon the column to the left of the entrance to the document rooms is a face which strikingly resembles Joseph Pulitzer, the great journalist.
 
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