The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-10-26 00:00:00

CLOSE OF THE EXHIBITION OF 11372.

On Saturday afternoon, punctually at five o'clock, at
the close of a dark and dreary October day, the Inter-
national Exhibition of Ifin expired. But it must be
confessed (says the Observer) that the South Kensington
farewell, the valedictory ceremony, the last day in the old
home, the latest occasion for worshipping at the shrine
of art woo not ouch an imposing ceremony RP
m:ght have been imagined. Anything more melan-
choly than the scene it is not eats.), to unaoine. The
show did not conclude with a shout, but with a
long drawn sigh. The visitors could have been
counted with the greatest ease. Many of the galleries
were quite deserted. The cotton and fabric avenues
echoed only to the melancholy tramp of a guardian
policeman, the whirr of the machinery was hushed, and
the silence of the long manufacturing corridor was
broken only by the fitful laughter of two boys fob ling the
last copies of 'The Key." The only signs of life were
visible among the musical instruments and the jewel-
lery, where the last gushing season-ticket holder fa-
voured the company with the latest " Mire'eats pour
le piano," all shakes and twirls, where the little old
gentleman like Alexandre Dumas woe busy superin-
tending the washing of the last watch-chain by elec-
tricity; where the awe-struck youeg ladies were
sighing over the Countess of Du ley's jews Is ; and
where au energetic proprietor of musical boxes im-
prat ed the occasion by catching hold of a stray visitor,
and acco-ting him with the old bazaar jargon, the old
touting formula, " Would you like to buy a nice
musical box, sir, cheap? Very cheap, I assure you, sir !
A great reduction in prices to-day !" We had not been
in the instrument room three minutes before we were
accosted in this fashien, and we pursued our course
after this by the photograph stalls and jewel cases with
fear and trembling. The complete nuisance of the
bazaar syetem—ii Saturday can be taken as an example
—must have spoiled the pleasure of peeping and prying
about; which belongs properly to visitors at much ex-
hibitions as these. We want to leans and be instructed,
not to buy. We want to see what manufacturers are
doing, not to fill their pockets.
us there anything more profoundly melancholy and
pathetic than the appearance of a friend's house,
where laughter ar.d revelry have gone hand in hand,
at some unfortunate time when reverses have come,
and the bit of carpet in hung out of the drawing.
room window? The notion of the olil home and
pleasant scenes under the bitter rod of the auctioneer
and the coarse control of the broker was not dis-
associated from Saturday's break up. It looked very
much as if the carpet was flung out of the com-
missioner's wietilow, and scenes not unouggestive of
summer pleasure were being rudely tramples! on. The
picture galleries were denuded of their best treasures,
the French gallery was a desert of dirty walls, ard
everywhere there were those sad stains of the outlines
of the frames, and large holes from which the nails
had been cruelly wrenched. The public was evi-
dently in the way, and exhibitors seemed in a hurry
to pack up and be off. The bier gartrit, where once
we smoked in the summer, and which was then no
merry and animated, was littered over with packiiig
cases and joints of machinery. Specimens everywhere
were ticketed for departure, and round about the gal-
leries wandered just a few art-lovers who were anxious
to be in at the death, and to bargain for some object
which had caused them delight. Damp without, and
depressing within, the scene was anything but enliven-
ing. Wandering disconsolately through half filled
picture galleries, on every side and at every turn a gap,
and avoiding the attacks of tradesmen hungry for
custom, such of the public as dared to brave the misery
of a wretched autumn day saw on Saturday the last of
the International Exhibition of 1872.