Lippincotts Magazine, May 1876 | Page 3

souvenirs of _al-fresco_ concerts to European
travelers.
Nor does the sex extend traces of its sway in this direction alone. A
garden of quite another kind, meant for blossoms other than those of
melody, and still more dependent upon woman's nurture, finds a place
in the exposition grounds near the Pavilion. Of the divers species of
_Garten_--_Blumen-, Thier-, Bier_-, etc.--rife in Vaterland, the
_Kinder_- is the latest selected for acclimation in America. If the
mothers of our land take kindly to it, it will probably become
something of an institution among us. But that is an If of portentous
size. The mothers aforesaid will have first to fully comprehend the new
system. It is not safe to say with any confidence at first sight that we
rightly understand any conception of a German philosopher; but, so far
as we can make it out, the Kindergarten appears to be based on the idea
of formulating the child's physical as thoroughly as his intellectual
training, and at the same time closely consulting his idiosyncrasy in the
application of both. His natural disposition and endowments are to be
sedulously watched, and guided or wholly repressed as the case may
demand. The budding artist is supplied with pencil, the nascent
musician with trumpet or tuning-fork, the florist with tiny hoe and
trowel, and so on. The boy is never loosed, physically or
metaphysically, quite out of leading-strings. They are made, however,
so elastic as scarce to be felt, and yet so strong as never to break. Moral
suasion, perseveringly applied, predominates over Solomon's system. It
is a very nice theory, and we may all study here, at the point of the
lecture-rod wielded by fair fingers, its merits as a specific for giving
tone to the constitution of Young America.

At the side of the Kindergarten springs a more indigenous growth--the
Women's School-house. In this reminder of early days we may freshen
our jaded memories, and wonder if, escaped from the dame's school,
we have been really manumitted from the instructing hand of women,
or ever shall be in the world, or ought to be.
Is the "New England Log-house," devoted to the contrasting of the
cuisine of this and the Revolutionary period, strictly to be assigned to
the women's ward of the great extempore city? Is its proximity to the
buildings just noticed purely accidental, or meant to imply that cookery
is as much a female art and mystery as it was a century ago? However
this may be, the erection of this temple to the viands of other days was
a capital idea, and a blessed one should it aid in the banishment of
certain popular delicacies which afflict the digestive apparatus of
to-day. This kitchen of the forest epoch is naturally of logs, and logs in
their natural condition, with the bark on. The planking of that period is
represented by clap-boards or slabs. Garnished with ropes of onions,
dried apples, linsey-woolsey garments and similar drapery, the aspect
of the walls will remind us of Lowell's lines:
Crook-necks above the chimly hung, While in among 'em rusted The
old Queen's-arm that Gran'ther Young Brought hack from Concord
busted.
The log-house is not by any means an abandoned feature of antiquity. It
is still a thriving American "institution" North, West and South, only
not so conspicuous in the forefront of our civilization as it once was. It
turns out yet fair women and brave men, and more than that--if it be not
treason to use terms so unrepublican--the highest product of this world,
gentlemen and gentlewomen.
[Illustration: OHIO BUILDING.]
Uncle Sam confronts the ladies from over the way, a ferocious battery
of fifty-seven-ton Rodman guns and other monsters of the same family
frowning defiance to their smiles and wiles. His traditional dread of
masked batteries may have something to do with this demonstration.
He need not fear, however. His fair neighbors and nieces have their
hands full with their own concerns, and leave him undisturbed in his
stately bachelor's hall to "illustrate the functions and administrative
faculties of the government in time of peace and its resources as a
war-power." To do this properly, he has found two acres of ground

none too much. The building, business-like and capable-looking, was
erected in a style and with a degree of economy creditable to the
officers of the board, selected from the Departments of War,
Agriculture, the Treasury, Navy, Interior and Post-Office, and from the
Smithsonian Institution. Appended to it are smaller structures for the
illustration of hospital and laboratory work--a kill-and-cure association
that is but one of the odd contradictions of war.
The sentiments prevalent in this era of perfect peace, harmony and
balance of rights forbids the suspicion of any significance in the fact
that the lordly palace of the Federal government at once