Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1851-07-16

pense as much more, or altogether so per ton
and this alone would be profit that would bring
into the business all the capital needed for car
rying on iron manufacturing business to the
greatest extent.
There is no wild speculation about this bust
ness-the mountain Of iron is here, the extens-
i've and scarcely unbroken wilderness Of timber
is here for coal, and the markets of the great
West and of the whole country are needing it.
Of the common articles of iron there is no want
in any part of the country; but of superior
article like this, there is no other place in the
Uuited States that can so easily furnish the re-
quisite supply Det Free Press.
OUR OWN BEST EXHIBITION GROUND AT HOME.
There are a dozen old women at Nootka
Sound--we think that is the exact number, for
we love to be precise in such matters-great
mediterranean as they are called, who have a
very bad opinion of the people of the United
States. Our countrymen show most stoical
indifference to what those respectable ladies may
think Of us, while they are making themselves
uncomfortable about matter Of no more con-
sequence, the opinion expressed by the London
Times of American taste and American ingenu-
ity, as shown in the articles exhibited at the
Worlds Fair. The London print does not like
the fashion of our furniture. 1t cannot be help
ed, there is no disputing about tastes. 1t dis
approves of our light carriages. This is very
natural; persons accustomed TO heavy and clum-
sy vehicles, find sort of spectral tenuity in the
slender wheels and slight shafts, and rod-like
axles and delicate frames of the carriages in use
here, made Of the tough and strong wood of our
forests 1t quarrels with our daguerreotypes
but there is no occasion for us to blame the pref
renee of the Englishman, who likes faint pre-
sentation of the human face, taken in DINNER
atmosphere, and only visible when held in par
ticular light. The mediterranean Of Nootka
Sound, who are the learned class Of the country,
are allowed to enjoy their opinion of us without
question, and we do not see why we should
make ourselves uneasy because our tastes do
not agree with those of the medcine-men Of
London.
That we make meagre figure in the Crystal
Palace is very possible, but the difficulty is that
the Crystal Palace is too small for what we have
to show. Among the products Of American
taste and ingenuity, there are none more strik-
ing than the cleaners our great rivers and
lakes-hoating palaces, the perfection of that
sort of rchitecture-beyond all comparison,
more elegant and comfortable than any which
are built in any other part Of the world. Some
of them are nearly as large as the Crystal Pal
ace itself. We send to England a sea steamer,
the Pacific, more spacious, more beautiful, more
commodious, than any built on the other side of
the Atlantic; but the Crystal Palace was not
constructed for such huge productions of hui
man skill. There is no room in the Crystal Pal
ace for our cpper-built ships, which so far dis
lance all others in speed, that they carry freight
for English merchants in India for six pounds
sterling ton, while the masters of the slow
sailing British ships are obliged to content them
selves with three pounds.
The English are clever in the construction of
the spigot and faucet, and many neat things Of
this kind, we doubt not, are to be seen at the
Worlds Fair; but the Americans construct
aqueducts which would be the establishment Of
the ancient Romans themselves, bring distant
rivers into mighty cities, which fill the soil be-
low with veins of the clearest water, reaching to
the upper rooms of every habitation, and burst
ing forth in the public squares in the loftiest
and most copious fountains. The French are
ingenious in the construction of iron bedsteads,
as any one may see who visits the Worlds
Fair; but those who are curious to compare the
products ofingenuity in different countries, must
come here to look at our big railways, on which
men may travel from day break to day break, and
! till sunset again--tracks of iron running thro'
state after state, and bringing remote degrees of
latitude and longitude within a few hours jour-
ney Of each other. The are expert at making
force pumps on the other side of the Atlantic,
and there is every convenience for their exhibit
ton at the Crystal Palace, but we cannot so con-
veniently show them our grand na,which con-
meets the waters of our vast lakes in the interi-
or Of our continent, with those Of the Atlantic.
There are exhibitions of minerals at the Worlds
| Fair--an enormous diamond among the rest,
with an Oriental name--but we have a richer
mineral--coal-felds according to Sir Charles
Lyell, equal to the whole extent of Great Brit
ain.
| We have, no doubt, much to learn from Eu-
rope, in our domestic and useful, as well as or
namental arts, and Europe has, perhaps, some-
thing to learn from us. No man can visit, for
example, the annual industrial exhibitions in
Paris, without being convinced that, in vast
many respects, we might advantageously copy
the skill and grace shown in the objects produc-
ed by the French artizans, beside which, many
of our own would appear rude in workmanship
and clumsy in adaptation. We have often tho't
that if an agent were sent out every year to
make drawings or models or to bring back sam
Piles of such Of those articles as we have most
occasion for, our mechanics would find their ac-
count in it.
4. q