Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-06-02
From New and Philadelphia.


From New and Phlladelphia.
FOURTH OF JULY IN NEW YoRK-LoRD NANDE-
vILLE-HRLL GATK-woNKN's DEPARTMENT
AT THE cENTESNIAL-THE FOURTH" IN
PHILADELPHIA-AERIAL ILLUMINATION.
NEW YORK, May %. 1876.
To the Editor Of the Free Press and Times;
Gotham will celebrate the approaching
Fourth of July upon most extensive scale,
generously disappearing the expense" T"
and going in for genuine jubilee. The
City Fathers have not vet announced their
programme, but I'VE. the people," have
already taken hold of the matter, and the
New York Centennial Committee has
sounded the opening note of preparation.
At the Fifth Avenue Hotel, few evenings
since, Thurlow Weed, Augustus Schell.
Gen. Franz Sigel. DR.. Ruppaner. Col. Rush
Hawkins, Russell Sage. and other distin-
gulsh ed citizens, made patriotic speeches
and appointed committees on pyrotechnics,
both combustible and oratorical; finances.
printing. decorations, procession, etc. !;
took up subscriptions and generally marked
out the main features of a gigantic glorii-
cation. "Old Probs" is making special ar
rangements with regard to the weather, and
will cause all previous observauces of the
day to pale their intellectual fires"
Club men are making merry over prac-
tical lessen in republican equality admins
tered yesterday to Lord Vaudeville, q scion
OF British nobility, BY an unterrifed Amer
lean citizen of the mature age of twelve.
The youngster was attracted by his lord
ships stunning get-up as representative
of the Coaching Club, and suggested that
he would make powerful attraction in
Barnum's show. His irste lordship struck
the audacious and irreverent juvenile, who
Immediately showed fight. Sanguinary re-
suits were prevented by the bys;anders, and
his lordship came near making the &C.
quairtance of Police Justice and obtain
ing some enlarged ideas regarding Ameri-
can institutions.
In anticipation of the grand elbow out"
when the He'll Gate explosion takes place,
the residents of Astoria are getting into
state Of great trepIdation. Mindful of the
late destruction occasioned in New Jersey
by giant powder. the Astorians anticipate
the final end of all things, as far as they
are concerned, and g desirable residences
may be had at absurdly low figures Cen
Newton. who is engineering this little affair,
thinks it will be no" great shakes" after
all. He does not even think the shock will
be felt upon the river banks, and in order to
manifest his faith in the dictum of science,
announces his intention of standing within
two hundred and fifty feet of the shaft when
the great upheayal takes place.
PHILADELPHIA, May "a.
The w0men's department Is being gradu-
ally enriched with valuable contributions,
and ere long will prove one Of the most
noteworthy features of the great exhibition.
In many respects il is already a leading at
traction, and we have promise of numerous
desirable additions TO its art treasures.
Miss Hosmer. whose fame as sculptor is a
matter of national pride, in letter ad-
dressed some time since to Mrs. Gillespie, of
the Woman's Centennial Committee, an
nounces her intention of sending, among
other works Of art, a group of sculpture,
which will occupy space OF four and a halt
BY six feet in area. and eight feet in height,
representing Emancipation, or " The Atrl
can Sibyl fOreshadOwing the freedom of her
race" the largest ideal statue yet executed
by Miss Hosmer.
There will also be copy of Lord Brown
lows gates, which measure ten feet in
width by seventeen feet in height. and pre-
sent seventy-One figures, representing the
animal and vegetable kingdoms. In sddi-
tion 10 the above, there will be marble
fountain. executed for patron OF art in
San Francisco together with bronze cop
les of some previous productions of ac-
knowledged merit.
The natural expectation is that on the ap-
preaching Fourth of July the city of Phils-
delphia will present an extraordinary blaze
of glory in fact, the intention is to extend
the anniversary celebration over a period of
some two weeks, during which time un-
limited manifestations OF patriotic exulta-
tion will be the order of the day and night
and in order to afford the American Eagle
unobstrueted opportunity to take birds
eye view OF the scene, it is proposed to il
Illuminate the entire city-not by ordinary
gas lights and tallow dips-but by an aerial
irradlation which will permeate every nook
and Granny and bring every object of admi-
rstion into bold relief
This grand scheme is to be effected by Mr.
W. +. Schroeder. of seronautic celebrity
who proposes to the Philadelphia City
Fathers a plan of illuminating the entire
municipality by means of calcium lights
and rehectors, displayed from his - air
ship at an altitude of some FIVE or six
hundred feet. The cost of the operation
| would be less than one thousand dollars,
and aside from the question of economy
the novelty of the idea would be in appro-
pirate keeping with the countless wonders
which iascinate Us at every turn in the
greatest exhibition which the world has
ever seen.
While verbal descriptions of the great
Exhibition are " thick as leaves in Vallom-
hrosa," good pictorial representations are
by no means equally common. The illus
trated papers contain many creditsble pro-
ductions, but in the whole range of the en-
graver's art we have seen nothing to surpass
the beautiful illustrations in Harpers Week
iy. An efficient corps of artists and en-
gravers is maintained at the Exhibition, and
all the most attractive features of the grand
display are promptly and accurately repre-
sented. As an evidence of newspaper en-
terprise this may be considered as of equal
interest with the most attractive features Of
the great show itself, and parties living st
a distance and unable to visit Philadelphia.
should not fail to procure the successive
numbers, and thereby preserve a complete
record OF the Great Exhibition.
Yours DARK,