Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-05-05
f23,bSG or $lls,3 $50
IL, 053 or IS, 26
THE VIENNA EXPOSITION.

The opening of the Vienna Exposition on
the let inst, was a brilliant affair. The des-
patches of John Russell Young, to the New
York Herald, give the fullest account publish
cd in this country. We copy from them the
following interesting PARTICULARS
As soon as the vast hall, the size Of which
comes slowly on you, with fall sense of its
immensely, was opened, the surging multi
tude began to fill it, crowding from twenty
opening doors. Without and within the
scene was exceedingly animated in some re-
spects exceedingly picturesqus-and Vienna,
though its welcoming day Of Spring has often
| been celebrated with great pomp and magni-
| flcence, never before witnessed a pilgrimage
to the Prater so brilliant or so magnificent
All the world had gathered in the Austrian
capital. The Orient and the Occident had
met at the centre of nation whose bounda-
res are on the Threshold of two worlds.
From the West came the phlegmatic and phi
losophical German, the versatile and brilliant
Frenchman, the burly, jovial and singular
Englishman, and the practical and energetic
American; from the East representatives of
the ancient civilizations, Asiatics coming from
every land between the Euxine Sea and the
Japanese Empire in the Pacific. Austria her
self was represented by people speaking ten
different tongues. All the world was in this
comparatively meagre space to witness the
gathering Of the nations.
The effect produced on the mind of the visi-
tor by first glance inside of the Exposition
building was not agreeable. The raw frescoed
walls seemed to weep with oozing frost and
rain. The high organ obtruded naked metal
pipes, which well-meant banks of greenery
would not hide. Everywhere everything
seemed misplaced.
There are statues, castings, groups and can
opies hung with cloths and carpets, produc-
ing most grotesque effect. France, as u
solemn and preposterous lion, stared hungrily
down from an imperial dais, and confronted
the famous Lake Leman group, which cele-
brates the return of Geneva to the arms of
Switzerland. This colossal group became a
point of attraction for American sight-seers,
a cluster of these astonishing the Austrian
Chamberlain by their agility and courage.
As His Excellency the Chamberlain en-
tered the vast space seemed spotted with
black masses in evening dress gathered in
patches and slowly increasing in number.
Then a wave Of beauty and color surged into
the ladies' boxes in the diplomatic quarter,
each beautiful grandee provoking ripple of
wondering comment as she tloated to her
place.
AT single glance one saw the cOurtiness
and splendor Of an ancient throne surrounded
by quaint and innumerable costumes, decor
| atoms, insignia of the variety of races which
obey the DEGREES of the Kaiser. The multi
tude took every form and color. Swarthy
warriors in the rich apparel of the Danube;
Poles, Hungarians and Bohemians in the
costumes of their country, and the dress of
the armies and naves of the world, our own
genuine blue being neither absent nor for
gotten, helped to complete the picture
| The whole scene was sea of color. At
every turn the eye was met by great dis
play of raiment black, orange, green and
brown: velvets, laces, waving plumes, rich
EMBEDDING furs and gold and silver braids, un-
til the sombre multitude took life and seemed
banks of lilies and roses, tinged with the
deep rich color Of the South.
From the high galeried dome, its three
tiers rising one above the other, The first at
the height of seventy Ave feet, the second If
teen feet higher and the third twenty. one feet
higher still, adventurous spirits looked upon
the multitude in the rotunda below, moving
to and fro like the ebb and flow OF the sea.
This sight was grand beyond description, and
well repaid the courage and nerve which were
its price.
The diameter of the rotunda, from pillar to
pillar, is 1916 metres; the height up to the
imperial crown il 270 feet, height surpas-
sed' only by few church towers. The impe-
rial Austrian crown which surmounts the
dome is intended to be faithful copy Of the
original, and studded with colossal ''precious
stones"-amethysts and opals. rubies and sap
phires, mountain crystals and carneols. The
Austrians call it "the GROWING of the edifce,"
and they cry out in ecstasy, 'Austria's crown
protects mighty work, which was erected to
the honor Of the Empire and to the renown of
the fatherland."
! The view from dome SO magnificent was