Arizona citizen. [volume] (Tucson, Pima County, A.T. [i.e. Ariz.]) 1870-1880, 1876-08-26
characteristics Of she Great
SHOW

Prentice milford is one of the
brightest and fairest correspondents a
Philadelphia. He is specially en-
ployed by that carefully conducted pa
!, per, the San Francisco Bulletin. Fol
lowing is a very interesting extract from
his letter of July 81:
The more l see of the Exposition,
the more am impressed with its mer-
it, 1t will bear years study. The
labor, skill, enterprise and ingenuity
of the whole earth is concentrated
here. There is an elabOratenesS and care
in getting up many of the exhibits
(which indicate years of preparation.
1t is in itself grand college. Wand
er at shutdown through it and the most
volatile and superficial will pick up
IInvoluntarily a bit of knowledge or
suggestion, and that conveyed in an
agreeable manner. The toiling thou
sands of the Pennsylvania coal mines
come hither in monster excursions.
Though they stay but a day, yet in
that time, how much of that crude in
tellect may receive impressions never
to be erased-impresSions resulting
from this display Of art, elegance and
taste; how many forms of beauty may
remain depicted in those memories to
counterbalance and possibly raise
them from the degrading influence off
the squalid miners tap room. TheI
Worlds Fair is a wonderful leveller,
too, of class distinction. The noble, |
the millionaire, the King himself, must
leave his state carriage at the outer
gates and walk on foot with the rest
through the Art Gallery and labyrinth
an collection. Power, station and wealth \
can furnish no Statelier building, norl
more imposing or interesting array of
the painters than is to be seen at Me
mortal Hall. 4 common admiration
seems to possess the vast crowd who
daily throng this place. 1t affects
alike the hard-handed labOrer, the |
man of fashion; it nullities any feeling
Of inferiority which, under other cir
cumstances, might arise from coarse
and humble garb brought side by side
with purple and linen" In plain
terms. every man and woman visiting
the Centennial, and finding there the
many free privileges extended TO all
alike, finding the elegant parlOrs of
this or that State House as free to them
as to the Astor, Vanderbilt, or wealthy
Jones. who may be sitting by them,
comes TO deem him or herself rs good
as anybody else Yet no undue famil-
iarity comes of this. Such Is the intiu-
ence of civility, order, discipline, and
it may be said gentility, peryading the
whole place, that the coarse jest or &C
ton is never heard or seen, and one is
more secure from the annoyance of the
contemptuous, if not insulting stare,
than upon the verandah of some fash
iOnable hotel. Something here other
than physical force seems to paralyZe
the destructive and disorderly instincts
of the rowdy. \ moral straight waist
coat of good behavior is slipped upon
him so soon as he enters the grounds,
and involuntarily he copies the preva-
lent sentiment Of quiet and order. Let
it be remembered that for more than
two months, from twenty to sixty thou
sands people, of all grades, classes,
and conditions. have
daily thronged these grounds; that all
have had money to spend; that intoxi-
eating liquors are procurable on every
side-and vet not 4 disturbance has
occurred This is i sermon, and de-
claration that the world is moving to-
ward a calm and temperate millen-
MUM Why, one hundred years ago
it is very doubtful whether our grand
fathers and great-grand-fathers, whoI
loved their punch, took their regular
three drinks per day, and got fuddled
on Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiv- d
ing, the Fourth Of July, and at every I
and house-raising-it is
very doubtful whether they could have
been trusted under such conditions.