Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1876-05-27
The First Week of the
Exhibition.

in dollars and cents. But its success
is assured in points infinitely more i'm
portant than any purely financial one.
In the first place, the accommodations
pi divided prove sufficient to insure the
absolute comfort of the public The
buildings and grounds are SO large
daily attendance does not produce a
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 Exposition
is recognized and received by the mas
ses OF our own people, not as a show
place but as school. There is very
little idle sauntering except by new
corners on their first visit. In the
groups surrounding an exhibit the ia
ces of Americans, keen, alive, quick
eyed, are distinguishable from all 9TH
ers, and the questions asked by them
are usually shrewd and intelligent.
Specialists, of course, seek out their
own department Of study: art, me-
chanics, agriculture, ceremonies, etc.
But the multitude are in scar ch of that
general 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 interior jot
down points for study at home the
habit, indeed, of carrying note book
and pencil is common among all class
es. The French came up to their Ex-
position as will be remembered by all
who visited it, as though it We're
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 re-
gard 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 pictures of it's more marked land
scapes, cities, ETC., which even to q |
child serve to identify it with the red
or yellow patch on his atlas. Now its
minerals, vegetables, and manufact-
urers are before him, and representa-
tions of the houses it's peoples live in,
their carriages, clothes, household
and in the midst, as a rule, a
living native to explain it all. A
child can learn more of the physical
the products, and civiliza-
ton of the world from a week. visit !
to this Exposition than from a years
study Of geography and atlas. 1t Of
fers to the intelligent student the ad-
vantages of travel epitomized into
brief space and time. For this reason
the chance should be especially ac-
oepted by the farming class of this
country, who travel less than any 9th
er. All their disadvantages, as they
acknowledge, come from lack of fric-
ton with men different from them
selves. The Tribune knows how large
its constituency is among this class
and urges them advisedly to sacrifice
part of the years earnings, and time
for visit to Philadelphia. 1t is not
a chance likely to occur again in a
middle aged mans or woman's life 1t
will lift them as nothing else can do
out of the dull, petty level of every
day thoughts. They will be healthier
and stronger all their days for know
ing how large is the world they live
in and how small is their part of it.
Another feature of success is the
wholesome, hearty spirit of fraterniza-
ton in which Americans come up to
this national rendezvous. The peo-
pie meet in these great buildings with
a 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 exhilaration; but
each man feels himself 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