New-York tribune., 1876-05-09
THE GREAT EXHIBITION.
NOTES ON THE EVE.

| IrRoN A STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF TIE TRIBUSBl
PHILADELPHIA, May g." You young America -
| tonish me-" said an Italian Official he assisted Q
lady in making her way among the packing boxes
that fill the Main Exhibition Building. "You young
America astonish me. 1t is like one big exposionp
And, true as this observation sounded repeated
Hundred miles or so east of Philadelphia, how much
truer il sounds to your correspondent now he is on
the spot where it was first utteredl had only
known Philadelphia in her tranquil every y-day life,
when nothing ever seems to be doing, nobody ever
seems to be going anywhere, and the whole popular
ton out of doors appears, to stranger, to be made
up of two parties: those who dashing water
round the legs of the pedestrians on the pretense
that they are washing the sidewalks. and those who
are vainy applying their muscles and their ntellects
to the problem, how to avoid ducking. But to-day
Philadelphia is noisy and bustling crowded city
lof her sze as can be found anywhere; and Chest
nut-s which is wont to be pensve little alley. 10
now jam-fnll and hustling Macy's shop the day
before Christmas. The signs of preparation
for the Centennial are so thick that this wicked
generation need not be at the trouble of seeking
them they stare him in the face wherever he goes.
The hotels preparing to use every inch Of their
room, and have laid in stock Of young Seeding
bedsteads and early dwarf bureaus. with acre or
two of tufted spring mattresses, that just now
standing ready for bedding-out in the corridors in
the less tmckly-setted quarters of the hotels. We
hear of people all the city who are bitten BY
the Centennial tarantula to that degree they arc
ready to turn their neat, trim homes into boarding.
houses in hopes Of reaping golden harvest. Rows
of houses have been rented for the six months by
parties who have knocked doors in the partitions.
and turned them by this easy magic into sntcs OK
rooms and acres and acres that even six weeks ago
were pastureground vacant city lots now bud and
II - IL
city houses. The change that has come over tho
region about Fairmount Park is such to make the
story of Chicago tame. The houses have sprung
up like toads after shower, like dandelions in .
Spring pasture like Democratic voters at election
tme where they were as scarce as small change
at the present time of writing. And as no two OK
them alike, and all ugly as carpenters and
painters make them, the landscape is only suf-
ferer by them. In fact, the Centennial is Dutch
tulip mania over again, and if people are showing
signs of madness so early in the season, what will
they do month hence when the Exhibition is in it,
| gloryf Here is man who has paid $5OOOOs
Fifty thousand dollars for the privilege of selling
liquor is it in, only near, the groundsi At any
| rate, believe there doubt the money has
been paid for privilege to sell liquors somewhere.
and when one adds to this the expense of putting up
the building in which they are to be sold and tho
cost of the stock it is hard to where the profit
on such an outlay IS to come from. Others have
paid thousands OF dollars for the rent for six MONTHS
of land which to put up stands to sell peanuts
| and apples And to-day a small army of guide-bOok
sellers, peanut apple, orange banana, black-your-
boots and patent-hot sausage men and boys infest
all the approaches to the grounds, and antedate the
mosquitoes by several weeks. l think good read
| ing for well-known poetic simile would be Ter
rible as army with bananas"
| One thing surprises that Philadelphia should
| have left herself without any means of getting
| rapidly to the Exhibition grounds. Steam COM
munication there ought certainly to be, and it 10
inevitable that unless it be provided the city hotels
and boarding houses must suffer, and tie hotels and
boarding houses the Park will get goodly por
ton of their custom. The only way of getting
from the central part of the eity-from the Conti-
| mental and Girard Houses, say-tO the Fair, a dis
tance of five miles, is by the horse-cars, transfer
carriages OF public hacks The trip takes at least
| three-quarters Of an hour, and seems full hour
| from the dust and heat and smells. The Chinese
gentleman who held to the straps in front Of me
in the horse-cars to-day hid his Celestial in his
coatseeve as We went along Market-st, and uttered
an impassive Celestial malediction in his native
tongue, with which heartily sympathized But
this is only May; are yet but young i'll deed, and
what will the smells of July and August be? Wo
shall look back sally this comparatively innocent
time, and sigh, fear. Where the smells Of yes
ter yearp
Already people are talking Of the advsahility Of
getting lodgings nearer the Park. An exhibitor
with whom talked in the cars quite inpatient;
SAID 1T would drive him crazy to have to make this
journey twice day every day in the Summer and
it is certain this exhibitor cannot be alone in his dis
content.
Another fellow-passenger, on another day, in
formed me that If the Phiadephians could have
had year OF SO to discuss and quarrel it the
difficulty might have been settled aud the steam
put OH in time for the opening Of the Exhibition.
But nothing in the way of Improvement Is ever ac-
complished in Philadelphia without fighting and
the introduction of the street cars themselves
as much disputed as the putting on them of steam
| dummies will be. 4" A dummy has been invented
said my informant, :" has been tried, and proved to
be everything that can be desired in q dummy, but
il will not he introduced till the pressing need Of ID
has passed away with the Exhibition" But,"I
said the pressing need OF it pass away 40
long as the Park five miles from the heart of the
city. 1t will be much needed next year, and the
next ten years, as II is now."
The Exhibition grounds and most of the build.
ings are in a state of preparation that does great
credit to all concerned. But, within, there is eonfu-
sion worse confounded, and q beggary array of full
and empty boxes. Still. in spite Of appearances,
| believe the Main Building will be in reasonably
| complete state on Wednesday. The activity there
is bewldering yet there Is method in the madness,
and if every one man is working like forty it must
| also be admitted that all the forties working
| like one. saw no confusion in my hours walk up
and down the asles, heard swearing Tin English)