Lippincotts Magazine, May 1876 | Page 6

Neither does he indulge us, like
Brazil, with the sight of an emperor, or even with cæsarism in the dilute
form of a crown prince. Such exotics do not transplant well, even for
temporary potting, in this republican soil. It is impossible, at the same
time, not to reflect what a capital card for the treasury of the exposition
would have been the catching of some of them in full bloom, as at the
openings of 1867 and 1873. A week of Wilhelm would have caused
"the soft German accent," with its tender "hochs!" to drown all other
sounds between Sandy Hook and the Golden Gate.
Let us step over the Rhine, or rather, alas! over the Moselle, and look
up at the tricolor. It floats above a group of structures--one for the
general use of the French commission, another for the special display
of bronzes, and a third for another art-manufacture for which France is
becoming eminent--stained glass. This overflowing from her great and
closely-occupied area in Memorial Hall, hard by, indicates the wealth
of France in art. She is largely represented, moreover, in another
outlying province of the same domain--photography.
Photographic Hall, an offshoot from Memorial Hall, and lying between
it and the Main Building, is quite a solid structure, two hundred and
fifty-eight feet by one hundred and seven, with nineteen thousand feet
of wall-space. Conceding this liberally to foreign exhibitors, an
association of American photographers erected a hall of their own in
another direction, upon Belmont Avenue beyond the Judges' Pavilion.
This will serve to exhibit the art in operation under an American sun,
and enable our photographers to compare notes and processes with
their European fellows, who treat under different atmospheric
conditions a wider range of subjects. This is the largest studio the sun,

in his capacity of artist on paper, has ever set up, as the hall provided
for him by the exposition is the largest gallery he has ever filled.
Combined, they may reasonably be expected to bear some fruit in the
way of drawing from him the secret he still withholds--the addition of
color to light and shade in the fixed images of the camera. This further
step seems, when we view within the camera the image in perfect
panoply of all its hues, so very slight in comparison with the original
discovery of Daguerre, that we can hardly refer it to a distant future.
Questions of finance naturally associate themselves with sitting for
one's portrait, even to the sun. A national bank becomes a necessity to
their readier solution, be they suggested by this or any other item of
expense. Such an institution has consequently a place in the outfit of
the Centennial. Here it stands within its own walls, under its own roof
and behind its own counter. The traditional cashier is at home in his
parlor, the traditional teller observes mankind from his rampart of wire
and glass, and the traditional clerk busy in the rear studies over his
shoulder the strange accent and the strange face. Over and above the
conveniences for exchange afforded by the bank, it will introduce to
foreigners the charms of one of our newest inventions--the greenback.
This humble but heterodox device, not pleasant in the eyes of the old
school of conservative financiers, is yet unique and valuable as having
accomplished the task of absolutely equalizing the popular currency of
so large a country as the Union. That gap of twelve or thirteen per cent.
between greenbacks and gold is no doubt an _hiatus valde
deflendus_--a gulf which has swallowed up many an ardent and
confident Curtius, and will swallow more before it disappears; but the
difference is uniform everywhere, and discounts itself. Whatever the
faults of our paper-money, it claims a prominent place among the
illustrations of the close of the century, for it is the only currency save
copper and Mr. Memminger's designs in blue that a majority of
American youth have ever seen. Should these young inquirers wish to
unearth the money of their fathers, they can find the eagles among other
medals of antiquity in the Mint department of the United States
Government Building.
[Illustration: SWEDISH SCHOOL-HOUSE.]
His fiscal affairs brought into comfortable shape, the tourist from
abroad may be desirous of seeing more of the United States than is

included in the view from the great Observatory. The landscape visible
from that point, as he will find after being wound to the top by steam, is
not flecked with buffaloes or even the smoke of the infrequent wigwam,
as the incautious reader of some Transatlantic books of travel might
expect. For the due exploration of at least a portion of the broad
territory that lies inside of the buffalo range he needs a railway-ticket
and information. These are at his