The Morning herald., 1876-05-17
-, cr.rEsN1AL ExxIRIrIoN
A6tsr Tho Opening.

fi.t.r The difference 10 that the Cehtennial
Msrnng oell consists in the grsndest parade
nsdianitares and people, aud exercises
W .,at America and the rest Oftle world can
.a sai Induced to execute at the p cc OF meet
w. w." This has been done with great excite
m5 msn. and agony, and all have now gone
M home ,csip, very muddy and weary, to get
no na"Iy for the Exhibition, and TO give the
rvhibitiop itself time to get ready.
M he sure there are numbers OF those ad-
m;r,ble people who 90 to church half an
hnur ln', before the time, already sitting on ex-
hihiion. in their Sunday best, and making
nftbemseIyes quite respectable show, If
thev were only not up to their eyes in the
s,hhish and confusion of the incorrigibly
late and unready. OF course, too, there e
n,onty of people there to see them and
rrri,r about them. In fact, the overstrr
curio,ity of the public, and enterprise OF tie
nrrss, had already wearied us with letters
m the Exhibition, before it had even par
tal existence What is the use or fun of
sIItbis! For my part like to wait for my
np,rto m ripen. rather than to nibble childish
X at it 'rom day to day, in the green and
acrid s.Jye until it is past ever getting to
be a pear at all. presume that the sensi-
b]e class of people who read my letters, are
0ftle same mind.
Nevertheless, the people-who always, as
asight, eclipse the greatest sights they can
bp gal lered to see--undcniably made the
oocniur itself a greater exhibition than will
IN, seen in any other form. Although their
actual count has been exaggerated from the
true duure, OF about 100, 900, to more than
double that number, there really is not
much difference to poor human senses, b
tween he two figures, as facts. At either,
the spectacle is simply stunning, and after
YOU are summed wha5 more can another
hundred thousand men do to you!
But what can say of the occasion that
has not already been said and read by every
bolW 1t almost seems to me That Vidi's
occupato1's S gone-or suspended during the
Exhibition. l saw great task before me.
But lo,p presto. a afrantically eager host sweeps
it away before my eyes, as the grasshoppers
hlrycs S farmers yet succulent grain. You
don't want summary of the important
and therefore stale and kackneyed facts,
from me: ard The length of such necessary
di-css in every newspaper leaves little
space ioY the lighter touches and personal
impressions, proper to a letter. The fact is
that The Journalism of the Exhibition is such
an immense thing, that it has got to be
heavy and practical, solid world. II you
notaiizeits limitless nebula will just fill and
be lost in space.
Wccan chat little here, as everybody
does in private, over the characteristics OF
the scene-possiby hit on a point or two
not already universally spoken of. The
universal praise of the work of the mana
gers, and lis wonderful success, is not more
generous than just, ana if contine my own
few words to criticism it is only because
thai parl alone is behind hand. The main
fault was in a ri9ility rule out OF all pro-
porylon to the physical force for supporting
ii. Where there was no need of it the rule
was TOO rigid but where it was most wanled
it proved too weak. For instance, it was
que as easy as unnecessary, to outrage
patient people who had tOiled for hours to
!her turns at the turn stiles, by refusing
'nci full and exact payments because not
su9-diyilcl INTO half dollars, and condemn
n- iicm to second and third equally
tedious delay with that they had just ell
dured, or 10 the alternative of paying
premium of twenty per cent. to the peripa
tlilc money changers.
II was also easy for the military line be-
tween The Main and Machinery Hall, to
nod that passage against the peaceable
lolk, OF whom some ten thousand had cor
'dngly paid their half-dollar At the South
ensranccs only to be penned like cattle be-
tween hose halls and the enclosures, for
two hot and mortal hours, while all they
mad come to see was going on without
them. A grain of common sense or br
snup b.rn hnv nnannd -
TEN porary passage to the general grount
ior these imprisoned people, without caus-
ing the slightest difficulty in again closing
hhd guarding it for the official procession.
Eat when The official procession came and
the real need Of frmness at that point
began, these stubborn lines were but wisps
OF straw before an excited crowd. The Off
cial procession was knocked into cooked,
hat or rather out OF its cooked hats, and is
triumphant march was turned into melee
and rOut.
Again, the most properly privileged and
important personages were stupidly thrust
osck and bailled of their rign,s and dig2i- ]
IIcs, because it was physically easy for
payoneted lout to cope with gentlemen, one
al time; while thousands of wilful usurp I
ers forced their way where they had no
business TO be. |
The two seas of humanity that pressed
.owards meeting, on either side of the GER
smoLial stand, were each restrained by a |
rope that bul9ed and bent farther and far
her, like dam yielding to nightly |
mass of water, and but for a
imely but accidental reinforcement from
he Presidents body-guard, the feeble force
At that critical point would have been over
Sbelmed, with the whole official body and
oaraphernalia, like Pharoh's host in the
Red Sea. And this lucky success, too, was
only gained by cruel violence, which would
nor have become necessary if the strength
expanded in tyraniting over harmless peo-
pie who had been massed betimes in firm |
quiet inertia where the pressure OF excited |
crowds required it.
All this is not to censure the manage
ment. 1t is easy, afterwards, to show
what might have been better. Yet 1t is