Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-02-26


Jog which has been erected Of iron anC
glass, on the banks Of the Danube aud neal
the new and splendid boulevards Of thu
new city, is completed. 1t is far larger
and moe convenient than the Temple Of
lndusty in Paris, or the Sydenham Palace
Of London. The exhibition promises to b.
more extensive and fner than any previous
one. Nearly all the nations, oriental and
occidental, will display their choicest pro
ducts, manufactures, aud objects Of art
Silks from the East, teas and lacquer from
China, the golden fleece Of Australia, the
diamonds Of Africa and Brazil--wil
divide the attention Of the visitor with the
watches and wood work Of Switzerland the
Byzantine and Florentine Mosaics Of Italy
the flagree of silver and gold from Geneva
the garnets and shells Of Venice the vel
vets Of Amiens, the laces and Sevres por.
celain and gobelin tapestries and engrav.
ings Of Paris, the meerschaums and leather
work of Vienna, the machinery of England
and the lager beer and brass helmets of Ger.
many.
1t is hardly possible, with the limited
means at the disposal Of our countrymen
that the United States will make much oil
display at Vienna. It is scarcely to be
expected that our best products and man.
ufactures will find their way there. Our
people will put on exhibition many things
worthy of notice, but there will be ex.
hibited many things suggestive of nothing
so much as American vanity and goucherie.
We are sorry to say it, but it is an Ameri-
can popularity to ventilate those things
about which other nations keep silence.
To exhibit the different styles and com
biuations Of reapers and mowers, Of ploughs
and spades and hoes and axes, of steam
engines and railroad cars, of churns and
dairy machinery and products, of scale.
and ranges, and coal stoves and gridirons,
may be desirable for these common and
homely things are the implements by
which we are achieving our supremacy over
the vast territory of new country. Or
it may be well to display our revolvcrs and
rihed cannon and breech leaders and shot
guns, for these have given us certain EN-.
inence among the more favored military
nations. But to exhibit certain other
things, on which Americans pride them.
selves, would be simply absurd 1t is our
boast that we have the best system Of
public schools in the world. This is not
true, for the Prussian system is as far in
advance Of ours as ours is Of the English
yet we boast Of our schools. And we see
that one enthusiastic educator and super.
lntendcnt proposes to take to Vienna a
model school house. Doubtless the idea is
that the school house is the symbol of our
progress, and when the barbaric Austrian
or Italian looks upon it, he will see the
bright capitalization of all the moral and
spiritual forces Of American progress. BY
this sign he will learn how to reach an
equal civilization. Now a school house, as
st. Paul says Of an idol, is nothing at all
1t is simply so much enclosed space, fur
nished with desks and seats. 1t publishes
nothing in respect to the real sources Of
our progress, any more than any other
equal space enclosed by four wooden walls
and singled to keep out the weather. 1t
is not possible even for the imagination to
discover its moral significance, and it will
necessarily stand to all eyes, not as the
symbol of education and culture, but OF
American vanity and boastfuness. The
place to see school house is in its proper
location. The time to see it is when it is
full OF living scholars, gathered from the
abodSs OF poverty and the dwellings Of
wealth, and all equal in the pursuit and il
the h0nors Of learning. This education, com.
mon to the rich and the poor, the great and
the mean, is what Europe does not yet fully
comprehend. 1t has its castles and socia
distinctions in the school. We have nc
castles in learning. All are equal in the
curriculum Of study. The school bous,
does not show this, and to transport q Bos
ton built school room to Vienna to show
the nations specimen brick from oul
educational temple, would be as ridiculou.
as to carry thither an old puritan meeting
house as fair index and specimen of our
American christianity.
We see that the nations also are to be
dazzled by the display Of American jour.
nalism. A catalogue Of American period.
ical literature, with specimens, is to i'm.
press on the Continental mind the great
mental activity of America. The project.
or of this mode of impressng Europe with
the greatness of this country, appeals to his
countrymen to help him in binding this
sheaf Of American intellect for exhibition
at Vienna. ours" he says, is prc.em-
inently country Of newspapers" lie
challenges the world to show anything like
it. An opportunity now presents itself for
making claim to the distinction Of superi.
GRITTY in journalism. The country is to be
ransacked for single numbers of every mag
azine, review, newspaper, and all period.
cal publications circulated gratuitously by
tradesmen and advertisers. The collsc-
ton is to be arranged geographically. 1t
is to include almanacs, year books, patent
medicine pamphlets, transactions of learned
societies, and occasional publications.
There is no doubt that such collection
would not excite the slightest interest 10
the mind Of human being. 1t would
only be convenient magazine of waste pa.
per. One would contemplate with horror
tho idea of looking through the list of such
a catalogue. 1t would not be thing 10
be proud Of, but a thing to be ashamed Of
No human being, Of any sense in his head
possesses the least curiosity to DO acquaint-
cd even with the titles and names Of such