The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1858-08-03
london ana the Crvstal palaoa.

Wofld0 Exhlbltion some fvo years agO. NJ,
aAsrwards purchased BY . company and 70
| moved to Sydenham, about six miles from
LoDdon. The design Of tho company was Ia
make il museum Of art science and useful
invsntiona Let 10 take the train, pausinR
. moment on London bridge b feel the throb
of the vast pulse of life beating across ito ar
tories, and to glance ct tho chaos Of wherries,
golfers and steam boats covering the
Thamss Twenty minutes, on 1--we have ar
rived. You pass through the tation house,
and are within the grounds These consist
Of hundred and sixty acres laid out With
most exquisite taste. Every rod of the g.~.s
is beautifully shaver, and every flower bed
and all the shrubbery brilliant with scarlet,
and white, and yellow. Perhaps the grand
fountains are playing. They are the most
stupendous in the world. Six millions of
gallons Of water are required to supply them
single hour. Jets are shooting up into the
air sixty feet higher than Bunker Hill mon
ument and around them, like palm leaves
round the trunk. are innumerable lesser ones.
How beautifully the white spray CLEANS
across the blue skyl How deliciously cool
the whole atmosphere Then see the over
| flow from the enormous basins running in
cataracts for six hundred feet down the
slopes! Approach the basins and an ex-
quisite network of crossing streams, like a
wire fence, encircles them It 10, indeed,
Fairy Land. You wander through the
grounds till, passing through the archery and
| cricket plots, you come to the lower lakes,
devoted to the illustration Of the geologic pc.
riod which preceded the creation of man.
Hideous saurians are sprawling about in the
water and displaying their ugly shapes ON
the rocks. The lguanodon, the Hylesaurus,
the Meglosaurus,-huge monsters, as big as
Elk elephants, with tails twenty feet long and
jaws that fitted them to lunch on granite
are all before you. Bullfrogs as large as
sxen are putting out their throats, leaving
but one regret-that You could not hear
them croak, just once. The mind at once
takes delicious retrospect of hundred
million years or so. And yet abortions as
these creatures are. was led by simple in
cident to think our age can match them
Will your lady readers pardon what | am
about to say? While examining at dis /
lance Of twenty feet huge lguanodon,
fashionable woman, expanded in the skirts
to degree | never before witnessed went |
up quite close to the monster and inspected |
him with evident skepticism as to his sym
metry. People that live in glass houses
must not throw stones" thought l. and cod /
the monster have been restored to life and /
thought, | am sure he would have plumed
himself on the conviction that there was one
creature at least on earth good deal more
deformed than himself, and would have
sprawled back into the mud highly slatsd
lguanodon.
But where is the palace all this time !?
Come away. There it is on its splendid ter
race, glittering in the sunlight, quarter Of
a mile in length, with its crystal wings each
five hundred feet more
The vast area within the palace presents a
view that would create soul under the ribs
Of death. Standing at one end you look up
an avenue of flowers, palms. bananas, arau-
carias, of fountains and statues, cleaning
through the dark foliage that makes one de-
voutly thank God for being permitted to be-
hold it. On either side are ranged the arch
tectural courts, brilliant succession of
Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, Byzan-
tine and Medieval fronts. In these are il
ustrated the architectural wonders of the
world, and marvellous reproductions they
sre You wander through an avenue of
sphynxes into the Halls of Karnac, and the
walls are covered with Egyptian Heroglyph-
cs and pictures: you pass through portals
guarded by the centaur bulls of Assyria into
>imrod's palace, and learn more at glance
han from all Layard's books In the Gre
ian courts, modelled in the exquisite proper ,
ions which that gifted people revealed to
he world, are grouped all the famous stat
les that time has spared The godlike seorn
If the Apollo Belvidere, the anguish of Niobe, !
md the flowing beauty of the Medicen
venus the life and vigor of the friezes
It the Parthenon,-all the transcripts :
# power and beauty that one hunts out sing /;
Y through France and Italy are here brought IN
ogether. You enter the Moorish courts,
nd all the airy traceries and brilliant colors :
t the Court of Lions in the ALEXANDRIA is be- i
ore you. The fountains are flowing in their 6
Marble basins, and the scenes Irving has SO
'itchingly described in his siege of Grenada
re palpable realities to the eye. And so on, 4
through Pompeian houses and baths. thro !;
'yzantine churchesRnd cloisters thro' Gothic ;
alls and burial crypts, till overpowered by !
he succession you realize Byron's language, .
drunk with beauty" And as you wander /
olemn strains come sounding from the great !
ryan, or the band is keeping time to your a
loughts with beautiful melodies. !,
The system OF teaching by observation is
arried out through the different depart
tents of the palace. Ethnolosy,is illustras b
ID by groups Of life size From the degra- y
ed Bushmen fighting together like beasts, i
: the frozen Esquimaux budding in snow i
orm round their huts, onward through /
igher types to English civilization, the eye .
carried step by step Botany, too is il :,
strated by a splendid collection Tropical !"
alter lilies arc floating in the marble basins :, =
the fountains, and branching palms are :,
ching overhead. - :.
When shall we have such a museum in -
II dear native land? This thought sus- .,
,sts itself, and daily feel more and more =
hat a barren wilderness We live in as far : ;,
regards the means Of the highest culture. /;
he influence of such collection as this =,
ust be eleyating to the popular mind, and !,
ust lift it above mere sordid materialism =
TT and science are the only ends that can - -
gnify the pursuit of wealth. A museum :,
a this scale we can, Of course, not look for g
sven million dollars in the hands of the first :,
en- of the country have cen expended here, .
nd financially, even with London to visit it, =
has been a failure! But, thank heaven, :,
stands. The nation has gained, though Il
lie stockholders, have lost As with our rail- - -
,ads others have labored and we have en- -
red in u
FIRST FAMILIES GosslP-The New York b
of the Albany Statesman tt
yes the follow ing gossip as in circulation Il
"private circles: tt
at is said that one Of our most noted CT
eamship-men is shortly to take a new part p'
r. The gallant commodore is widower W
the lady is neither maiden, wife nor widow al
being just now in crysalis state She
ats only the dull, tedious process of the HI
W to cast off the iron chain that binds her W
fore she will put on the golden livery Of "
ore congenial master. Rumor has it that til
e lady was on with new love before she st
rs off with the old, and that the new love to
IS so arranged matters that the liege lord to
nsents to part with his better half-osten- d
,ly because Sarah Jane can be more hap ca
with another than she will be with him.
an earnest of his devotion, the another tn
s given Sarah Jane the title deeds to prop to
y in town worth $50, 900 and also the fee m
nple of a princely country seat in the West tr
ester county, together with all and singu- an
; the Entertainments and things thereunto ne
az