The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-11 00:00:00

THE PARIS EXHIBITION.

(run ova smut comuntronnsirr.)
Although the festivities are at an end, there is
much activity in the exhibition and in connection
with it, the competitions are endless, tenon',
men, and beasts, and flowers—yesterday the rose;
competing for sweetness, to-day the orpheomats
are singing against each other. Chess platers,
rowers, musicians, ploughmen, horses, dogs, have
obeyed the emulative spirit of the year.
I On Saturday there was a grand competition
among the French orpheonists. Bands .4 them
were placed in the palm house, in the reserved
garden, in the pavilion of music, in the great
hothouse, &c.; and the jury—among the members
of which are Ambroise Thomas, SainWiaeris,
Elwart, Delibes, &c.—went from one place to an.
other to hear each society. The prizes are to be
11 awarded at the Palais de l'lndustrie during this
week. It will be the turn of the nightingales sem.
At the seventh flower show, which is just over,
M. Margottin, from Bourg-la-reine, carried otr the
prize for roses. He certainly deserves the honour,
the roses he exhibits are magnificent in form and
brilliancy of colour.
Turn we now from roses to dogs. There will be
a series of dog races at Billancourt during the first
fortnight in August. The dogs which will run are to
arrive on the Ist and 2nd of the month. The rail.
way companies have granted a reduction of 50 per
cent. on the ordinary price charged for animals.
The Imperial Commission took the initiative in
this matter. I believe this will be the first official
exhibition of dogs.
The poultry show at Billancourt is over, and hiss
been replaced by an exhibition of various specimens
of the bovine race, especially those destined to
become beasts of burden. The show is very cone
plete,'and includes some fine specimens of all breeds
of cattle. I think one of the reasons why Billaa-
court is so deserted is that many persons overrate
the difficulty of getting there. But nothing is
more easy. There is the railway from the Rue
St. Lazare, there are innumerable omnibuses, and
steamboats which start every half-hour from the
Pont-Royal, and reach Billancourt in three-quarters
of anhour. Stillthree-quartersof an hour,tobe spent
(14 route to any exhibition, are unpalatable to the
Parisians. The Billancourt plan (I described it
fully to your readers early in the spring) was com-
prehenaive and picturesque; and it would have
drawn crowds had there beendirect communication
between the Champ de Mars and the island. There
are, as I have said, conveyances enough ; but they
start from wrong points.
The distribution of prizes showed that the
Americans have the genius of progress. The de-
velopment of the active resources of the national
spirit has secured the United States a high place
among industrial nations. The proof lies in the
results obtained by the American exhibitors—in
the machinery department especially—at this great
international contest.

Among the remarkable objects figuring in the
list of rewards is Patterson's locomotive, which has
obtained a gold medal. Then comes the sewing-
machine, which I think demonstrates the /newts-
sive views of the Americans as a people. This
machine saves a considerable amount of time,
and economises bodily health ; and of coons
will in time ameliorate the physical condi-
tion of one of the most important sections of
the working class. The inventor, Mr. Elias Howe,
has been decorated. This is the first notice that
has been taken of him as the inventor of this won-
derful machine. But now, those he exhibits,
which are the original, have been so much im-
proved upon that he is outrun in the race f
superiority, and the sewing-machine exhibited by
Messrs. Weed, of Hartford (Connecticut), has
obtained a silver medal, as the best in the
American department. A gold medal has been
awarded to the beat button-hole stitching machine.
This section of the American part of the
Exhibition is very little known, yet I think it cle•
serves a larger share of public attention than it
commands. There is a great deal in it that serbes
scientific men will study and appreciate at
its proper value. Our cousins have done well on
the Champ-de-Mars, from the delicious iced sodas
dispensed at the American bar of Messrs. Dust,
Clark, and Vanwinkle, to the courts behind, while
the piano of Chickering discourses sweet music.
Foreign soldiers are now allowed to enter the
Exhibition without paying their franc at the
tourniquet. The coming of the Belgian workmen
is announced for next month. All the expenses of
their visit are to be defrayed by the commission of
encouragement. French chroniquintra are still hard
at work, hunting-up what they call the abut of the
Imperial Commission's arrangements. The last
I grievance is one that was started sonic time ago,
and left unredressed. Here it is again. The
restaurateurs occupy the whole of the covered
outside walk, and people who are not sitting at
the cafés are obliged to keep outside the magic
circle, either in the heat of a July sun or under a
heavy fall of rain. This grievance is as old au the
Exhibition, and will, I fear, endure to the 31st of
October.
During the past week the Sultan has been the
chief attraction at the Exhibition. He and his
son and nephews have visited it constantly, and
have had a taste of Paris mobbing. Among the
week's visitors have been the Lord Mayor and the
aldermen who are with him. They have been at
the Exhibition every day, and have "done' it
thoroughly. They stayed two hours in the
95th class. This class, in which much manual
skill is shown, is the novelty in industrial exhibi-
tions. For some days after the distribution of
prizes the galleries of the Exhibition presented a
very gay aspect. Those exhibitors to whom the
international jury had awarded prizes decorated
their cases with wreaths and bouquets of &wax
rejoicing unreservedly in the new honours that had
fallen upon them.
A few nights ago the Prince of \Vales was at de
Chinese Theatre, and was particularly amused a:
the performance of the individual who swallewi
sword. M. Arnault, the director of the theatre. s
very proud of the honour, and has written b. di
Paris papers, begging that the Prince's visit muia
be made known. This keen neinag,er saw, le. :-
over, the market value of the honour—directly
royal highness entered, the price was raised (ea
franc and a half to two francs, because a prince s,e
in the house. Those persons who enteral the
theatre before the Prince had arrived only paid t:a
customary, franc and a half. M. Arnault is ir.t
Chinese director to be caught napping. He i 5 lOTA
fortunate than the poor French Theatre, log fkiti
he has conjurors instead of composers. thie of the
Paris papers has announced that the liiterox.:..T.!al
Theatre is about to be re-opened ;is a
establishment. I need scarcely out that thl: is rwt.
correct. It is simply closed until the I% CO ot
another company, under a new direction. The
new company is in course of formation, and is ex-
pected to open the fresh season in the c• in's. i 4 ten
days or a fortnight. Until then the theatre %sill he
used occasionally as a concert room, tie.: but it
is an ill-starred speculation.
The mourning is not to keep back at least two
sovereigns. The King of Portugal is on his wax
the Exhibition. He will reach liere with the queen
on the 20th, having made a short stay 111 itru,sels.
Their Majesties would have been here earlier but
for the court mourning.
The newspapers arc full of reetifications and
omissions apropos of the prizes awarded. .%11 the
Paris journals have reported that. on presenting
M. de Losseps with the gold medal f-.r remark-
. able exhibition of the cutting of the Istlonw Of
Suez, the Emperor said to him, •• 1 ant
pleased to give you this medal,
which you nevi)
deserve."
The complete list of the exhibitors to wh,
rewards were given will be published ai...111 the
12th of July. It will make a large volume of
hundred pages, and will be priced at three francs.
I have seen some fac-similes in cardboard of the
gold and silver medals which have been awarded
in the Exhibition. The inventor of these nega-
tions has provided the rewarded exhibitors with
means of having a fee-simile of their
mediately, while they are waiting fur those of t.
vernment, which are a long time lerthcone;it. 4
4nerally. Their inventor, M. hinged.:, is at
Medal-office, 53, Avenue de la Bourdoimap...