Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1876-04-12
Our Philadelphia Letter.

Our Philadelphia Letter.
Philadelphia, April, 5th, 1873.
A few months ago when visitors
to the site of the Exhibition found
the grounds one vast waste Of mud,
and covered with unsightly heaps
of building refuse, they were not
slow to complain in loud terms OF
the backwardness of operations.
They saw also the great gap in the
centre of the unfinished Main
Building. large portion of the
Agricultural Hall upon which OPP
erations had begun but few weeks
previously, Frustrated to the earth
by gale ; nothing of the now
completed and magnificent Memo
rial Hall in existence but the mar
BILE; Horticultural Hall just begin
ming to assume its prcsc..t. fe'"v
like appearance which recalls the
tabled palaces Of Aladdin in the
Arabian Nights; Machinery Hall
without q board of that floor which
now extends as a vast wooden
prairie more than a quarter Of a
mile in length the Government
Building Just assuming shape; not
trace of the Woman's pavilion,
the Pennsylvania Railroad Centen-
NAL Depot. the Shoe and Leather
building, the Carriage building, the
Commission Offices, the State pavil-
ion or the eight great restaurants
anywhere to be seen, and structures
of foreign countries almost un-
thought of. All these things were
to be noted, and newspaper COR
respondents dispatched missives
all over the country foreboding a
successful disappointment on the
10th of May, the opening day of
exhibition. People grumbled. ed
itors sneered, intending exhibitors
declared that they might as well
withdraw their applications for
space-in q word the prevalent i'm
preston was that there wonld be
repetition of the Vienna misfor-
time Of being compelled to cons
time building operations and other
preparations long after the opening
Of the Exhibition and such cir
cumstanres would certainly not
tend to strengthen foreign notions
Of Uncle Sans way of "going
abe, d."
But the tab es are turned. The
Main Building, Machinery and
horticultural Halls, and the Gov
eminent binding are not only
completed, but the first two, which
will contain the heart of the exbi-
bition, have been actually waiting
for exhibits for more than a month.
One might naturally suppose that
exhibitors, Selling the first oppor-
tunity, would have rushed in their
goods with such rapidity as to block
np the movements Of the custom
officers and the Bureau of Installa-
ton; but such has not been the
case. On the contrary, the to-
tai weight of the exhibits thus
far received in the Main Building
amounts to but about one-tweutieth
of that of all the goods estimated
to he on exhibition there: now as
the time has elapsed since those
received began to come in, is al
n:o.t as great as that which re-
mains for the installmeDt Of the
rest There being but seven weeks
before the opening day, it follows
that the influx of exhibits must
cause a very inconvenient proper
ton Of labor. 1t may happen,
therefore, that the blame OF dim
ming the opening day and retard-
ing the progress of the exhibition
must be borne, not by those to
whom the direct promotion Of the
enterprise has been entrusted, but
by the exhibitors themselves-not
foreigners either, for England,
Spain, Holland, Belgium, Sweden,
Norway, Japan, Chill. Egypt, Ger
many, and Cape Colony have al
ready landed their exhibits, those
Of the first nine being on the
grounds, while the structures OF
their owners located within the
Main Building or elsewhere in the
exhibition area, are almost COM
plcted--and handsome structures
they are-affording an excellent
exhibition OF the architectural skill
OF the various countries TO which
they belong.
The space In tho Main Building
is divided among thirty nations,
the United States occupying one
third Of the whole; Great Britain