American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-06-24
PHILADELPHIA LETTER.
Prom our Regular Correspondent J
lLILLL I-,l,..


las been ia:g,l lis seek Shan East
,pd seems to be rt-rd'iN though .
slowly iurI, asiag. # Voc + n..i,..- .
be eutiou, 20 han"' lrs I-a
portion are iiom III. -- ..,a
transient population, aua tAe lHeH- .
.ry. The average daily attendance,
exclusive OF exhibitors, attendants
men and women, is, |
think, about 10000; many OF these
are permanent residents of the city,
many come from the county, aud
villages, and the re-
ale the transient ropula
ton from whom the hotels expect
so much for whom immense cara
vausari have been built, and for
whom private residences by the
hundred have been converted into
boarding and lodging houses. l do
not think [ eXaggerate when L say
that there may be found, by even
distribution, a suit of three rooms
for every visitor i'll Philadelphia
The high prices however for eligible
rooms are Stiffly maintained. They
argue that the crowd will be greater
in few days, that the Western and
Southern travel has not yet set in,
and that Europe has not yet crossed
the Atlantic. a better knowledge
of their country and the times would
tell them, that, the entire visitation
from the impoverished South, dar-
ing the entire time, will not he
larger than the present average daily
attendance, multiplied by two that
the West, laboring under financial
and industrial depression, will not
travel as much as usual this sum
no feasible thing for Europe to
cross the Atlantic Ocean. The desc
late emptiness of some of the large
Philadelphia hotels is anything but
cheerful.
Once inside the gates, aud dis
tributed among the various build
lngs, twenty or thirty thousand
visitors do not make a great display.
On only two days, so far, has the
Exposition seemed to have a large
attendance, these were the opening
day on the 10th May, and Decora-
tion Day, both occasions were Ob
served as holidays in Philadelphia,
and it is quite apparent that the
Exposition must depend in great
part for its success on the city of
Philadelphia. An appreciation OF
this fact has caused some OF the
more prominent citizens to make
great efforts to have the grounds
opened to visitors on Sunday, and
it is now thought that there will lie
compromise by which visitors will
be admitted on Sunday afternoons
for twenty five cents.
One of the features of the city of
Brotherly Love now is its abundance
of comparatively and "greatest-
curiosity in-the- world shows The
educated hog; the alligators the
fat woman; the largest OK in the
world, and a score OF other shows
are the close neighbors and rivals OF
the Exposition. L do not think they
have any patronage when the H.
ternational Exposition may be seen
for fifty cents, and when its wonders
cannot be exhausted in fifty days
visitors will scarcely stop outside
to see the snakes and the fat woman.
1t is now very generally conceded
that the International Exposition
will be failure financially and the
only way to make 1T highly success
full in an educational and aesthetic
sense is to reduce the visiting ex-
penses to the minimum, and thus
make the show accessible to the
greatest possible number of visitors.
No visitor can enjoy the advantages
afforded in such All almost infinite
museum as this in one day, and
every day that he remains will add
to his expense; by reducing the eX-
peuSes, the arrangements and. the
hotels will increase their own profits
by inducing the visitor to prOlong
his stay, and thus promote the only
object that the Exposition can now
be hoped to attain.
AS a great educational institution
the Exposition cannot be too much
praised. l think a better, more
helpful knowledge of the "kingdoms
of the world and the glories thereof"
may be obtained here III week
than from a tour of two months in
Europe. It has occurred to me
that the history and destiny of the
nations might be read here in their
displays, and that the progression
or retrogression of peoples depend
far less on wars or dynastic changes
than is commonly believed. At
least man finds his reading,
whether superficial or deep, wonder
fully supplemented by what he sees
here. There is something sugges-
tive in the juxtaposition of the
miraculously carved Chinese bed
stead ami the Corliss engine, but
then tie people that waste their
energy in frivolous carving built
that wall.
The Chinese and Japanese take
no interest in any exhibit except
their own. the manufacture. of silks,
carpets, wall paper, pins, ribbons,
candy, soap, etc, in Machinery
Hall has no charms for them. They
look upon these with the same in
different apathy that L have OH
served in the Indian chiefs when
they came to Washington to have
an interview with President Grant.
The most pronounced feature of
The Swedish exhibit, is iron of the
Japanese, bronzes ; of the Brazilian.
leather; of the French, silk of the
English. siIyerWare of the Turkish.