The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-11-09 00:00:00

THE LAST DAYS OF THE EXHIBITION.

In noticing the approach of the time when the Paris Ex-
hibition will be a thing of the past, the Paris Correspondent
of the Standard writes :

. . "There have been, however, in this Exhibition
three main features which distinguish it from all other
displays of the kind. For the first time the far East,
China, Cochin-China, and Japan, entered the lists
with European competitors, and revealed to the mil-
lions the existence of a civilisation which most of
them were far from suspecting. The Japanese were
not probaisly prepared for the success they have
achieved ; and it may be fairly admitted that
they have made, commersially speaking, a far
better thing of the Exhibition than the French
themselves. There is a whole description of orna-
mental goods—vases, boxes, knick-knacks—in the
fabrication of which Paris stood pre-eminent, On this
particular ground Kioto has defeated Paris, and the
article de Paris must strike its flag to the article de
Japon. The secret of their success is two:old—the
artistic merit of the Japanese products and their
comparative cheapness, due no doubt to the low
price of labour. A pair of enamelled vases, which
in Paris could not be possibly produced under
from to £lO, the Japanese offer for a trifle over
£3. The French can simply not afford to compete
with such prices. Another feature of the Japanese
Section, which was not, I am bound to say, gene-
rally attractive, was a specimen of the tasks and
exercises done by the pupils of the Japanese schools.
There are dozens of very neatly-written copy-books, in
the Japanese character, which 'coke like Chinese; but
beside them there are French and English exercises,
done by these same pupils, which display a degree of
proficiency that speaks highly for the future of that
enterprising people. The contrast between them and
the Chinese was well exemplified in the Champ de
Mars, where the two sections were contiguous. The
Chinese fabrics are all very costly, but there is abso-
lutely nothing new in them, and their high prices
deterred all but a few amateurs from buying.
"The second feature to which I would draw atten-
tion is the great success of the English display,
which even more than those of 1855 and 1867 seems
likely to exercise a permanent influence on Paris,
and, through Paris, on the rest of France. The
greatest triumph was achieved by our English artists. ,
There is a wholesome, pure atmosphere about our Eng- '
lish pictures that contrasted powerfully with the
French, and showed that French art, with a few bril-
liant exceptions, sacrifices too constantly to mere volup-
tuousness, and appeals essentially to the senses. A '
curious but very cogent proof of this popularity is that
an enterprising English picture dealer has found it
worth his while to set up a gallery in the new Avenue
de l'Opera. I never pass there without seeing a
large crowd flattening their noses against the window
panes, and the admiration of our landscapes and genre
pictures is expressed in terms too forcible to admit of
a doubt as to its genuineness. Our furniture has also
proved a great success. I have already, in previous
letters, expressed my regret that our great furniture
manufacturers should not have exhibited their cheaper
wares. Had they done so, they would have opened
up a market for themselves in France. In spite of
this error, the artistic merit of English furniture
has been highly appreciated; but what has, above
all things, told with the French is the solid, sub-
stantial, and essentially comfortable character of
our house furniture. Chairs and tables are the weak
points of French cabinet making, and perhaps our
strongest point, and there is hardly a Frenchman
in a thousand who is not alive to the difference
of those articles, which with them are made to sell,
and with us are made to last. Our warming and cook-
ing apparatus has also achieved a decided impression,
and as 1567 popularised in France that essentially
British institution, the tub, I shall not be surprised
should 1878 lead to the adoption in France of those
elements of the comfort of home life to which we are in-
debted to our cabinet makers. English habits and modes
of life have also become more familiar to the French
during the past six months than they ever were before.
They have, with the keen perception of the French race,
observed the intercourse between Englishmen of all
classes taking -place daily before their eyes, from
the Heir Apparent to the Crown down to the humblest
artisan employed in our Section; they have seen that
the one great feeling which pervades the English
social system is a feeling of mutual respect, and this
to them is a new discovery that may be productive of
much good. They have seen that superiors can be
energetic without insolence, and inferiors obedient
without servility, and have come to the conclusion
that there is much advantage to be derived from our
social system. This has produced almost greater im-
pression on our French neighbours than all the mate-
rial treasures we have exhibited; it has been a moral
lesson, tuiintentionally given, and which I think
likely to be attended with the most satisfactory
results.
"The third feature which as made the Exhibition
of 1878 incomparably superior to any of its prede-
cessors is the palpable pr ,of it has given even to the
most ignorant peasant who has visited the Champ de
Mars of the enormous strides made by science. The
wonders of electric telegraphy have been daily ex-
hibited to thousands, and the mysteries of the phono-
graph and the telephone have been made plain to
minds to whom the development of modern science
was a sealed book before their visit to Paris. The
electric light illuminating one of the most splendid of
the new streets of Paris is in itself a fact which
has brought home to thousands who came up
from remote and comparatively barbarous parts
of the country that they live in an age of
progress, and has not only opened their eyes but ex-
panded their minds. Nor are these the only wonders
that were laid before them. The marvellous invention
of Professor Mouchat—justly rewarded with the cross
of the Legion of Honour for his discovery—for utilis-
ing solar light, not for destructive purposes, like
Archimedes of old—but making it do duty for fuel, has
struck all who witnessed it with admiration. Even in
our cloudy climes M. Mouchat turns the sunlight into
a domestic servant. By its aid he works a steam-en-
gine, distils wine into brandy, cooks a mutton chop,
and makes s cup of coffee. His apparatus' like all
great discoveries, is simplicity itself. Concave
mirrors, reflecting the sun's rays on a glass tube en-
closing a tubular boiler, a kettle, or a gridiron, achieve
all these wonders' and in more southern regions, such
'as Algeria Egypt, or India, where fuel is dear and
scarce, his discovery for working stationary engines,
cooking rations for troops, or doing, in short, all that
coal can do is of incalculable importance. The
Russians, who, to do them justice, do keep their eyes
open, have not been slow to perceive the advantages
of this discovery. The Russian Grand Duke when in
Paris some time since, saw M. Mouchat's apparatus
at work, and ordered several of his mirrors with camp
kettles for the use of the Russian army under the
orders of General Kauffmann at Tashkend. These
concave mirrors are in plates, and can be set up and
taken to pieces in a very short time, and I cannot help
thinking that the attention of our Indian commissariat
should be drawn to it." . . . .