Lippincotts Magazine, May 1876 | Page 4

overshadows
and turns its back upon the humbler tenements of the States. A line of
these, drawn up in close order, shoulder to shoulder, is ranged, hard by,
against the tall fence that encloses the grounds. The Keystone State, as
beseems her, heads the line by the left flank. Then come, in due order,
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire,
Connecticut, Massachusetts and Delaware. New Jersey and Kansas
stand proudly apart, officer-like, on the opposite side of the avenue; the
regimental canteen, in the shape of the Southern Restaurant, jostling
them rather too closely. Somewhat in keeping with the
over-prominence of the latter adjunct is the militia-like aspect of the
array, wonderfully irregular as are its members in stature and style.
Pennsylvania's pavilion, costing forty thousand dollars, or half as much
as the United States building, plays the leading grenadier well; but little
Delaware, not content with the obscure post of file-closer, swells at the
opposite end of the line into dimensions of ninety by seventy-five feet,
with a cupola that, if placed at Dover, would be visible from half her
territory.
[Illustration: NEW JERSEY BUILDING.]
These buildings are all of wood, with the exception of that of Ohio,
which exhibits some of the fine varieties of stone furnished by the
quarries of that State, together with some crumbling red sandstone
which ought, in our opinion, to have been left at home. All have two
floors, save the Massachusetts cottage, a quaint affair modeled after the
homes of the past. Virginia ought to have placed by its side one of her
own old country-houses, long and low, with attic windows, the roof
spreading with unbroken line over a portico the full length of the front,
and a broad-bottomed chimney on the outside of each gable. The State

of New York plays orderly sergeant, and stands in front of Delaware.
She is very fortunate in the site assigned her, at the junction of State
Avenue with several broad promenades, and her building is not
unworthy so prominent a position.
From the Empire State we step into the domain of Old England. Three
of her rural homesteads rise before us, red-tiled, many-gabled,
lattice-windowed, and telling of a kindly winter with external chimneys
that care not for the hoarding of heat. It is a bit of the island peopled by
some of the islanders. They are colonized here, from commissioner in
charge down to private, in a cheek-by-jowl fashion that shows their
ability to unbend and republicanize on occasion. Great Britain's
head-quarters are made particularly attractive, not more by the
picturesqueness of the buildings than by the extent and completeness of
her exhibit. In her preparations for neither the French nor the Austrian
exposition did she manifest a stronger determination to be thoroughly
well represented. Col. H.B. Sanford, of the Royal Artillery, heads her
commission.
Japan is a common and close neighbor to the two competitors for her
commercial good-will, England and New York. Modern
Anglo-Saxondom and old Cathay touch eaves with each other.
Hemlock and British oak rub against bamboo, and dwellings which at
first sight may impress one as chiefly chimney stand in sharp contrast
with one wholly devoid of that feature. The difference is that of nails
and bolts against dovetails and wooden pins; of light and pervious
walls with heavy sun-repelling roof against close and dense sides and
roofs whose chief warfare is with the clouds; of saw and plane that
work in Mongol and Caucasian hands in directions precisely reversed.
To the carpenters of both England and Japan our winter climate, albeit
far milder than usual, was alike astonishing. With equal readiness,
though not with equal violence to the _outer man_, the craftsmen of the
two nations accommodated themselves to the new atmospheric
conditions. The moulting process, in point of dress, through which the
Japanese passed was not untypical of the change the institutions of
their country have been undergoing in obedience to similarly stern
requirements. It did not begin at quite so rudimental a stage of costume
as that of the porters and wrestlers presented to us on fans, admirably
adapted as that style might be to our summer temperature. In preparing

for that oscillation of the thermometer the English are called on for
another change, whereas the Orientals may meet it by simply reverting
to first principles.
[Illustration: NEW YORK BUILDING.]
The delicacy of the Asiatic touch is exemplified in the wood-carving
upon the doorways and pediments of the Japanese dwelling.
Arabesques and reproductions of subjects from Nature are executed
with a clearness and precision such as we are accustomed to admire on
the lacquered-ware cabinets and bronzes of Japan. With us, wood has
almost completely disappeared as a glyptic material. The introduction
of mindless automatic machinery has starved out the chisel. Mouldings
are run out for