Lippincotts Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878 | Page 7

much the same position, relatively, that Fairmount Park
holds to Philadelphia, was probably held to be too remote.
[Illustration: GRAND CUPOLA AT ONE OF THE CHIEF
ENTRANCES TO THE MAIN BUILDING.]
The Exposition building is too low to afford grand general views
except in the end-galleries, one of which, that toward the Seine, is
occupied by England and France, and the other, that toward the École
Militaire, by Holland and France. The four especially admirable
situations for display are under the domes at the four corners of the
building, and these are respectively occupied by the English colonies,
the Dutch colonies, a statue of Charlemagne and a trophy of French
metallic work--notably, large tubes for telescopes. The French, as most
readers are aware, occupy one half of the building, and foreigners the
other, the two being divided, except at the end-galleries, by a central
court in which are the fine-art pavilions.
Transverse divisions separate the foreigners' sections from each other,
while longitudinal divisions extending throughout the length of the
building divide the various classes of exhibits subjectively. A person
may thus cross the building and view the exhibits of a country in the

different classes, or he may go lengthwise of the building and see what
the various nations have to show in a given class. No better plan could
be devised if they are all to be assembled under one roof. The same
plan has been tried before, especially in the great elliptical building at
Vienna. It is probable that the Philadelphia plan of isolated buildings
may find imitators in the future, and then this plan of national and
subjective arrangement may be carried out without the violent contrasts
incident to sandwiching the machine galleries between the alimentary
and chemical sections.
All the exhibits are classed under nine general groups, which are--1.
Fine arts; 2. Liberal arts and education; 3. Furniture and accessories; 4.
Textile fabrics and clothing; 5. Mining industries and raw products; 6.
Machinery; 7. Alimentary products; 8. Agriculture; 9. Horticulture. The
first of these occupies the pavilions in the central court. The second and
following ones to the seventh occupy the galleries as one passes from
the central court to the exterior of the building; agricultural implements
and products are shown in spacious sheds outside the main building
and within the enclosing fence; animals are shown in a separate
enclosure on the esplanade of the Invalides. Horticulture finds a place
in all the intervals wherever there is a square yard of ground not
necessary for paths, and also on the two esplanades which divide the
Palais du Champ de Mars and the Palais Trocadéro from the river
which flows between. The subjective character of the longitudinal
disposition cannot be rigorously maintained, since nations that excel in
one or another line of work or culture are utterly deficient in others.
China and Japan, for instance, fill their galleries to overflowing with
papeterie, furniture and knickknacks, while their space in the
machinery hall is principally devoted to ceramics, a few rude
implements and costumed figures.
The English pavilion in the Galérie d'Iéna consists of four wooden
structures representing Oriental mosques and kiosques, painted red and
surmounted by numerous gilded domes of the bulbous shape so
characteristic of the Indian architecture. In the order of position, as
approached from the main central doorway, the first and third are
Indian, the second Ceylonese, and the fourth is devoted to the

productions of Jamaica, Guiana, Trinidad, Trinity Island, Lagos,
Seychelles, Mauritius, the Strait Settlements and Singapore. Their
contents, without attempting an enumeration, are rather of the useful
than the ornamental, with the exception of the furniture, carpets,
dresses and tissues. The Lagos collection has a number of native drums,
with snake-skin heads on bodies carved from the solid wood, and it has
also a very curious lyre of eight strings strained by as many elastic
wooden rods fastened to a box which forms the sounding-chamber. It is
individually more curious than any shown at the Centennial from the
Gold Coast, but the collection from Africa as a whole is not nearly so
full nor so fine. Mauritius has agave fibre, sugar, shells, coral and
vanilla. The Seychelles have large tortoise-shells and the famous cocoa
de mer, the three-lobed cocoanut peculiar to the island, and found on
the coast of India thrown up by the sea. It received its name from that
circumstance long before its home was discovered, from whence it had
been carried by the south-east monsoons. Trinity Island sends sugar,
cacao and rum; Trinidad presents sugar, asphaltum, cocoawood and
leather; Guiana has native pottery and baskets, arrow-root, sugar and
coffee.
The pavilion next to the one described has the collection sent by the
maharajah of Kashmir, consisting largely of carpets, shawls and dresses,
which look very warm in the summer weather.