Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-05-26
Tho First Week OF the Exhibition
New York Tribune .

New York Tribune.
The close of the first week of the
Exposition still leaves in doubt the
question whether it will pay for itself
in dollars and cents. But its success
is assured in points infinitely more
important than any purely financial
one. In the first place, the accom-
modations provided prove sufficient
to insure the absolute comfort of the
public. The buildings and grounds
are SO large that a large daily atten-
dance does not produce crowd
The great concourse at the gates
melts away into the vast houses;
every man has breathing room, and
that comfortable sense of license and
quiet, essential to thorough compre-
hension of the object before him.
Another marked success is the
promptness with which the Exposi-
ton is recognized and received by
the masses Of our own people, not
as show place but as school,
There is very little idle sauntering,
except by newcomers on their first
visit. In the groups surrounding
an exhibit the faces of Americans,
keen, alive, quick-eyed, are distingu-
ishable from all others, and the ques-
tons asked by them are usually
shrewd and intelligent. Specialists,
of course, seek out their own de-
partment Of study, art, mechanics,
agriculture, ceramics, etc. But the
multitude is in search of that gen
eral information which everywhere
sharpens the American mind to its
exceptional readiness and facility
Western colleges already are sending
up their students, mothers bring
their boys, young girls from the In
terror jot down points for study at
home; the habit, indeed, of carry
ing notebook and pencil Is common
among all classes. The French
came up to the Exposition, as will be
remembered by all who visited it,
as though it were a grand fete; the
Americans are going to make all the
practical use they can of theirs,
The third point of success is that
the Exhibition does not fail in any
regard to supply the information de-
manded. The exhibits are fuller in
most classes than was anticipated
European nations experienced In In
ternational Exhibitions display great
skill in the completeness with which
they represent their industries. In
many cases maps of the physical
structure of the country are hung up,
with the pictures Of its more marked
landscapes, cities, etc., which even
to a child serve to identify it with
the red or yellow patches on his atlas.
Now its minerals, vegetables, and
manufactures are before him, and rep
reservations of the houses its people
live in, their carriages, clothes, house
hold utensils, and in the midst, as a
rule, living native to explain it all.
A child can learn more of the physic-
al condition, the products, and civil
cation of the world from weeks
visit to this Exposition than from g
years study of geography and atlas.
1t offers to the intelligent student
the advantages of travel epitomized
into brief space and time. For this
reason the chance should be especial
ly accepted by the farming class of
this country, who travel less than
any other. All their disadvantages,
as they acknowledge, come from lack
of friction with men different from
themselves. The Tribune knows
how large its constituency Is among
this class, and urges them advisedly
to sacrifice part of the years earn
ings, and time for visit to Phila-
delphia. 1t is not chance likely to
occur again in middle aged mans
or woman's life, 1t will lift them as
nothing else can do out of the dull,
petty level of everyday thoughts
They will be healthier and stronger
all their days for knowing how
large is the world they live in and
how small is their part of 1t.
Another feature of success is the
wholesome, hearty spirit of fraterni-
cation in which Americans come up
to this national rendezvous. The
people meet IN these great buildings
with cheerful, even joyous, good
will very alien to their usual temper.
The beauty and space and grandeur
of the surroundings have their effect,
no doubt, of temporary exclamation;
but each man feels himself o host,
and is proud Of the stately welcome
he gives to the older people of the
earth. He goes home more of an
American and wiser man than he
came. What other success can the
ExDOsitiOn ask?