The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-10-02
Exhibition Echoes.
I'm the Main BuiIding-Anong the Old
Nntions-Jnpan and Egypt.

Ths Philadelphia visitor enters the Main
Building jauntily and with determination to
explore it in the course of the day. Very likely
he will feel disappointed as he looks down the
vista, fall to doubling if he have enough sight
seeing to fill up his time, and resolve to finish
the main exhibition that morning. He will
ind the resolution of about as much effect as
those of political conventions. Noon will come
and 60, and night will find him, unless he skip
like confirmed novel reader, far on the hither
side OF the center transept. He will come out
OF the building thinking that he has gone over
much ground, but as he Rlances down the long
lines Of its outer walls with doubt If he has
made beginning of the task he set himself to
accomplish.
Unless one has weeks to pass on the grounds
he will find it absolutely necessary to leave
some things unseen and pass by many others
with brief inspection. Perhaps there is moth
ing in the great hall unworthy of attention, but
there is certainly much which does not require
a prolonged examination. The visitor, too,
with but limited time must discard many things
richly worth examination and confi2e himself
to the worthiast l would advise the m an who
counts his stay by hours to enter the west end
of the building, saunter through the paltry dis
play which Italy makes, glance at the min
erals of Chill and the skulls which Peru
sends from the tombs of her Incas, pass some
minutes admiring the ricn display of ostrich
feathers from the Orange State, and make
his first decided tarry in the department of the
Scandinavian Kingdoms. There the groups If
costumed peasants, the exhibits of iron and
porcelain, the silver flsgree work from Nor
way, and the marble and porpbyry of Sweden,
claim careful attention. Thence he steps
across the nave into the department of Japan,
where, I venture to say, he will linger the rest
of the day.
If one have but an hour to spend at the Ex-
hibition let him spend it in Japan If he have
but day let him pass half the day there. If
he have weeks let him study the Japanese de-
partmeat the major portion of those weeks, and
il there be left to him leisure after exploring
the rest of the show let him return to japan.
He will be surprised and delighted at the ex-
hibit. The highest manifestations of that
wonderful civilization which has but lately
been opened to US and which as yet we fail to
fully comprehend, ARE spread before the visitor.
After wandering through the courts he will
believe there are no artisans in the world out
side of japan. Bronzes are there both gro
tesque and graceful, of exquisite fashion and
material, intricate In work, (metal upon metal
false in heraldry but true in art) strange in
decoration with the dragon and the stork con-
stantly appearing, with handles of vases formed
BY flocks of birds, with damask patterns OF
many colored metals Porcelain is there in
Kaga ware of scarlet and gold, in Yokohama
jars of curious form, in the fve-colored Gasai,
In egg pottery, In the red ware of Akai. in
the chysanthemum.pedecked imperial vases.
Lacquer is there in gold and cinnabar, as unlike
the lacquer ware of the shops as an ancient
cameo is unlike its modern imitation. Screens
are there in powerful tints and delicate gradua
tions of color. Curious ivory carvings are
there, and silks in shades richer than Western
imagination ever pictured.
Leaving the Japanese courts and returning
to the nave the visitor is confronted by great
archway bearing the legend: 1.-THE Oldest
nation of the Earth sends her morning greet
ing to the youngest" He is in Egypt, in the
midst of strange armor and housings of gold, -
with ''the beasts and birds which Pharaoh
knew" gazing into the straight-lidded eyes OF
the daughters of the Sphynx, their faces full
of an eternal patience" On the sombre black
caslnss are bricks from Lower Egypt, coarse
fabrics of palm-leaf and rushes, ancient weap.
ons, strange costumes from Soudan, camel
saddles with housings of rich cloth and mount
ings of gold. coins older than Rameses, un-
couth musical instruments played upon before
Athens was, casts from the Egyptian monu-
ments, hammered work in copper of the
ancient Arab time bearing strange Arabic
inscriptions, lamps from temples and mosques,
doors of old sanctuaries carved and inlaid in
ivory and ebony, sacred crocodies, tusks Of
elephant and horns of rhinoceros, weapons Of
the Pharaohs, medals of the Ptolemies, pot
terry OF the Caliphs, these and much more. One
can linger there hours, taking no note of time
as he passes down the centuries. Beside
Egypt all else is modern. There is nothing old
in comparison with the gigantic sculpture from
the sacred Nile-embraced island. And better
than the spectacle are its suggestions. In the
Egyptian quiet and gloom one sees far beyond
the fragment of an old world before him, sees
back beyond mosque and temple to the first
days of dawning civilization.
After Egypt one does not care to see more
that dsy. If there be hours left he will gladly
dream them away M.