Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-04-20
EDUCATIONAL COLUMN.
CONDUCTED By J. II. LANeEyBAUGH.
A TRIP TO THE COUNTRY.

TRIP TO THE COUNTRY.
This being the Centennial or the
one hundreth anniversary Of the
birth of our National existence, I
would beg leave to give a short and
may be interesting sketch Of the Gen.
tennial building at Philadelphia We
had occasion. recently, to visit Tren-
ton, New York, and on our return
trip we spent part of day in visiting
Fairmont Park and the Centennial
buildings. To Mr.. A. b. Webb of
Philadelphia, we are indebted for q
portion of this sketch, as without his
kind and courteous guidance. we
could have obtained but little infor-
nation. Fairmont Park contains
3l60 acres. For the Centennial ex-
hibition, $50 acres have been set
apart besides large yards near by for
the exhibition OF stock, and q farm
A acres suitable for planting, fos the
test Of plows, mowers, reapers, and
other agricultural machinery. The
main exhibition building (Which We
will not attempt to describe In detaiD
is located near the southern bound
airy line Of the Park, and at the inter-
section of Belmont and Elm avenues.
The main building runs parallel with
FL. o.l cfo,Io oh 1c0
10 feet back from the north side Of
the avenue. Tho building is In the
form Of parallelogram, extending
east and west $50 feet in length, and
north and south 464 feet in width.
The larger portion Of the building Is
one story in height, varying from 45
to 20 feet The main entrances are
provided with arcades upon the
ground floor and central facades,
which extend to the height of 80 feet
They are grand and imposing. Upon
the corner OF the main building are
four towers 75 feet high surmounted
by a spire at each angle Of the tower.
The foundations Of the building are
Of masonary and the superstructure
is composed Of wrought iron COL
umns. which support wroueht-iron
roof-trusses. Lengthwise OF the
building the columns are "a feet apart
We were Informed by our guide that
there are 672 columns in the building,
the shortest being D feet and the
longest l25 feet in length. The sides
of the building. for the height off
feet from the ground, are finished
with brick-work, the panels between
the columns and above the br'ck-work
are finished with glazed sash. The
corners and angles, upon the exterior
are concentrated by small galvanized
iron octagonal turrets. which extend
above the roof. The walls of the
building are painted brown. We
were told that the area covered by
the main building was 936.008
square feet OLAF acres). We were
informed that the building being but
atemporary constructions the columns
and roof-trusses are so designed that
they can easily be taken down for
re-erection elsewh here. We viii not
attempt to give a description OF the
other buildings connected with the
main building; space will not permit
us to do so, but will say that they
correspond in architectural beauty
with the main building. We were not
permitted to visit the interior Of the
building, consequently can not say
anything from actual observation, but
will give brief description as we re-
ceived it from A. b. Webb, Esq. The
interior decorations of the buildings
is in excellent taste. The walls and
roof are painted a pale blue. with a
variegated border OF bright car
mine. A row OF windows extend
around below the ventilators and sky
lights OF each avenue and aisle.
These are filed with what appears to
be richly stained glass in variegated
designs. But the stained glass
which, il it were real, would have
cost hundreds OF thousands OF dollars.
is nothing more nor less than cheap
muslin lightly painted and pasted
over plain glass; yet the effect is
very bright and pleasing.
The space assigned or allotted to
each nation in the main building we
dc not remember, as we did not note
it down at the time, our readers will
therefore pardon us for this neglect
Before closing our brief sketch OF the
Centennial buildings We will say
something OF the city Of Philadelphia,
one of the handsomest cities on this
continent. The length Of Philadel-
phia, on the north and south line, Is
20 miles, and its breadth, from east to
west, 8 miles. The city limit, which
is equal to the county, has an aver
age of S2.S03 acres or 1858 square
miles Perhaps it would be well to
show the amount OF ground covered
by the National Exposition buildings,
and the cost OF the same. Space
covered by expositions, and cost Of
the same are as follows: London,
i'm 1851, 20 acres-cost, 81 ,464. 600:
New York, in 1853. st acres-cost
$5OO.O00; Paris, in 1855, 80 acres
cost. s4.O00,000; London, in 1862. "a
acres-cost, $780, 900; Paris, in 1867,
4Oa acres-cost - ,596. 1853; Vienna, in
1873, 80 acres-cost. s9,s50,0O0 Phil
adelphia. in 1876. 60 acres-cost. &6.-
724,320. This shows that at Phila-
the space covered is just three times
that OF the London Exposition in
1851, double that of Paris in 1856, and
nearly thrice the size OF that of Lon
don in 1862, and the one In Paris in
1867 was but two thirds as large
A Preston man has been missing
for three days, and as he was recent
iy married, grave doubts exist as to
| NH 10Th ar he ;s c;t<;ro ~x,,.pd In a bav