The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-10-06
TIE NEW oRYsPA1-9ALAoE.
The Glass House nt Amsterdam.


and has been opened to the public. Itis a splel
aid and symmetrical structure; and il Il thu
pleasantly described by correspondent of Ii
London Star
siEvery here in Amsterdam you hear and Sc
,nviiatiobs 20 visit the Crystal Palace. Ever
prinlshop and booksellers window displays en-
guyhgs and gorgeous colored Autographs o
ne hnilding. IL looks splendid sight on iper
8rystal dOmes and arches rise lustrous and trans
Darent, in llmpid blue heaven, and from the sur
hee Of vast and beautiful garden, gay with par
ferfes and all the combined glOries OF the snring
The summer, and the autumn SPARKLING ,yitl
many fountains, and alive with brilliant pronn
and splendid equipages. The reality does no
quite answer the expee ations thus awakened II
the impatient mind. A stranger after inspectini
some Of the prints of the Amsterdam Peopls I
Palace, in the Amsterdam shop windows must 5,
somewhat disappointed when he arrives az th,
real structure. For the Amsterdam Palace /,
quite hnished externally anu il is crystal and il
really is shapely, symmetrical, elegant building
10 has one long central hall spanned with
iron arches Of light and slender construction, and
covered, OF course, with glass 1t has transepts Ga
the same style, and It has a large dome Swinging
from the main points of juncture-not huge
heavy, and clumsy, like Captain Fowke's imme
mortal eonstruction-but shapely, and glittering,
and beautiful. The dome is surmounted nv n
gilded hgure, representing something or o,her
allegorically connected with trade and commerce
Mercury, If you please), and looking good
deal like the golden image on the top of the
all The Netherand provinces and cities flutter
from every point and stage Of the structure. But
the palace lies as yet in the midst of a mere
waste, a dusty, arid DESERT with few detected
and battered old smoke-dried trees, Offering a
scanty shade 10 three or four Of the dullest and
most clumsy of hackney coaches. There are no
fountains, and no statues, aud no brilliant groups
nm THE EXHIBITION.
"Yet the exhibition is open. IL has come into
existence, like 'Maedui, u little premRturely and
informally. 1t seems odd to talk OF Dutch impl
tence but II really seems that the Dutchmen did
grow impatient 70 have their exhibition opened
Atonce, and SO public opinion voted it complete,
or complete enough, and opened it was suddenly
and without calm and gradual preparation much
AZ an oyster is opened. Therefore it is seen az
present 10 some disadvantage outside, and to less
advantage within. For when you enter the great
central hall, behold IL is all but empty There Is
aspiendid throne, all crimson velvet and gold
nearly as imposing as that of king Claudius' ia
the Lyceum Hamlet; aud this, of course, is for
his Majesty KING William; and there are many
ranges of seats for his Majestys subjects when
the grand day of pageant comes; and there are a
few busts and statues (some of plaster and worth
probably two and sixpence each); but there is
nothing else. Where are the wealth OF Amster-
dam, the products of Utrecht, the LABOR of Arm
helm, the tolls of Leyden and Haarlem the
treasures OF the spicy colonies received by
RotteIdami Well, the country has them all TO
exhibit, and will exhibit them, or, perhaps, is
doing 20 even now; but your correspondent saw
none OF them as he stood beneath the beautiful
root of the central hall in the Amsterdam Crystal
Palace, IL is really beautiful ROOM looking like
combination on small scale OF the Manchester
Free Trade Hill and the Sydenham Paace--all
glass and iron, and white moulding, and stucco
and gold In the rooms which run off this hail
hke the courts OF our own Crystal Palace, you
90 lndeed see crowded and splendid specimens
OF the more brilliant and ornamental products of
Flemish skill and industry. Here you see won
derful pieces ofupholsteIy and rare cabinet work
aud bronzes and porcelain, and gold and silver
and steel and brass, and iron work Parian marble
and aabaster statues, silks and velvets, and
triple-piied carpets, and models of ships and
steamers, and cannOn curious specimens of
mechanism, and quaint, fantastic Du ch orna-
ments and gorgeous mirrors and dazzling chau-
deiers. Here you see, too, some English and
American goods and contrivances-why exhibited
there know not--and you hear the unresting
clatter of the sewing-machine which meets YOU
in every industrial exposition everywhere
and the lady who makes q crimson silk
purse out OF red skein and two or
three twists OF little wheel, seems as natural
and inevitable a part Of the performance as a
Khss Amazon or heading Girl One court
is given up TO Dutch modern paintings, and to
eneTayings OF the wonderful masterpieces which
bring the artists and connosseurs of che world 10
feast their eyes upon the museums Of Amsterdam
and the Hague. In other places one is rather
surprised TO see good many English engravings
from modern English works OF art--engravings
which you may buy in the Strand for seven-and-
eMpence apiece, but which seem to look upon
you with a sort of pride from the walls OF thls
Amsterdam Palace, as If they would rebukngy
Call our attention to the fact that apprecitlive
strangers could detect in them that rare value
which needless aud unworthy public had denied
10 them At home.
"It would not be fair to Judge of the aspect of
this palace from the present view. II is now only
beautiful building, in which there is TO be an
exhibition. But the building itself, though small
indeed when compared 10 that at Sydenham or
the ci-deraHt ornament al BrumptOn, is one which
n a nfp naIg a
bespeaks for the Dutcnman the taste which APP
preciates O new style OF architectural art.
AN oUrsIDE VIEW.
"fhere are galleries running round the palace
and you may emerge upon one OF their balconies
ana enjoy a strange and wonderful sight See
~ your feet lies quaint, picturesque, fantastic,
venerable Amsterdam, with its three hundred
bridges spanning its innumerable canals, and its
ranges OF high houses seeming almost to ioin
their gables across the narrow rugged crowded
streets. Tall trees in straight rows line every
where the long quays. Sometimes there are no
quGys, but the green water Of the canal
washes the Easements OF the houses, and the
bargeman, as he poles bis heavy craft along,
puts cut bis huge oar to save himself
from collision with the sill of your
Parlor window. Long vistas OF streets-if
streets they may be caied-are 90 be seen
from this balcony of the Peoples Palace, ia
which houses and trees and masts and hulls
and water are so mixed up together that you
wonder whether sailor going aloft never stops
burgess, having extinguished his nightly candle,
does not sometimes lay himself down % rest iu
the rigging Of a ship. You eau look down upon
the huge and monOtonous pie which is Kings
Palace (where his Majesty spends whole fort
night once year and Town Hall together aud
where, IN a vast and splendid hall Of marble hang
almost as many tattered flags as adUrn the chapel
Of the Invaides; aud where, among countless
blackened banners of Spain, you may see some
trophies of which the Invalides cannot boast-the
spoils of many an English war-ship. The palace
is surmOunted, know not why, by an unsightly
statue of Atlas, with a vast globe On his back.
YOu can look into some of the few real streets
streets with two rows of houses and no water
which Amsterdam possess.
BIBLICAL TREASURE,
"In one Of these streets is a peculiarly quaint
and Old-fashiOned house, with a large wooden
efiigy of an open Bible over its door Here the
first Dutch Bible was printed by jacob van Lies
weld in 1912, and il bears the emblem 20 this day
But on the seats before the door strange visit
ors sit, and smoke, and gaze upon the streaming
population. For the place has become a hotel, and
an excellent one. The wooden Bible once used 10
stand open at the page where St. Paul advises
Timothy TO use little wine for his stomach's
sake. The enterprisiDg parsonage who first con-
Verted the old printing-house into hotel SAW a
peculiar and happy appropriateness in the pas
sage. But the house being much visited by
travelling cleTgymen, one Of them demurred TO
the exhibition of such a text in such a place as
sayoring of levity and the shop, and the page was
H.aRN