Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-09-04

Hayre, Nantes and st. Naz1re grew lnIo
Importance the advantage was equally 10
France. Venice decayed and Amsterdam
increased. but France, holding both ends
of the thread, prospered before and after
the discovery of the Genoese. When wine
and corn were the principal constituents
of wealth, no country could be so rich as
that which possessed the smiling plains OF
Champagne, Normandy and Bordeaux
When coal and iron were discovered to be
equally important for countrys great,
ness, the political Insight of the third
Napoleon secured for France free access to
the coal fields of England and Belgium.
The high prices of coal in 1873 made it
profitable to work the coal measures which
northern France herself contained.
The immense variety of products shown
in the exhibition are the products OF a
land which is 5000 miles in girth, and has
an area, since the loss of Alsace and Ior-
raine. of 204,096 square miles. 1t is a
country watered by rivers which are a
proverb for their wealth of waters, and
shaded by the historic forests of Ardennes,
Fontainbleau. the Vosges and Campisgne,
in all of which the oak, the beech, the
pine, the elm. and the edible chestnut
flourish, while the cork tree grows in the
south. The manufactures which fill the
galleries of tine Champ deMars have grown
up in the course of centuries of clviliza-
ton, in constant vicissitudes and struggles
for existence which taxed to the utmost
the powers of an inventive race. No lead
Ing industry can be mentioned which does
not owe much to France.
The captive - balloon is great sue
cess except on windy days, when no AS
tensions are allowed. Another innova-
tion is the floating restaurant, saloon
steamboat that leaves Paris in the morn
ing for st. Ger main, and returns in the
afternoon; the single journey lasts three
and one-half hours. The speculation Is
in the hands of the French restaurateurs
at the exhibition. The tourist can break
fast on board and return to Paris by rail,
or rail TO St. German and dine on board
during the return journey with electric
lights at masthead. Several sights are
pointed out along the Seine, the most vag-
anond of rivers in its course; there is the
out fall of the cty.sewer and the heights
of St. Cloud; the place where Billion
placed the remains of his cut up mistress,
the Grenonillere, q democratic bathing
pool for both sexes, and the new prison OF
Nanterre, in the land of roSiereS, to sug-
gest to the fair sex that if virtue be ever
rewarded vice shall never be left unpln-
shed-if the police can help it.
The Trocadero building referred to in
one of my former letters is considered a
marvel of economical construction under
most difficult circumstances, being based
on the hollow site of an old quarry, with
materials most carefully selected for du-
rability and good effect. The acoustical
arrangements are curious. Behind the
grand organ is large conque, or reflector,
and the occurrence of an echo is prevent
ed, or supposed to be prevented-for many
declare that it eXists-in the following
manner. Sound travels ut the rate of three
hundred and forty metres per second; and,
rs the quickest ear cannot discern two dis
tinct sounds unless there be an interval OF
Il tenth of second between them, felt is
employed in every place where there
would be any danger of echo. The ceiling,
which is suspended from the roof timbers,
is formed of peculiar felt only one-tiflh of
of an inch thick, SO that the whole does
not weigh more than forty pounds per
square metre. The ventilation of the
immense Sale deS FeteS is declared per-
feet; Il well more than 16 feet in diameter.
was sunk into the anci, mt quarry beneath,
which has an extent of about seven acres,
and with its pillars present large cooling
surface. The air is drawn into that space
by means of a steam screw fan, and driven
by the same means up into the S Alc, where
it is distributed above at the rate of five
feet per second, which is quickly reduced
to four or FIVE inches.
The number of medals was largely in
creased,-the gold from 1000 to 1900, silver
from 1000 to 500, bronze from 5000 to
10000, and the honorable mentions from
5000 to 10000. 1t seems quite unnecessary
to limit the last named awards. In all.
29,50o distinctions are to be exhibited
amongst $4,000 exhibitors; that is, in
round numbers, one medal for every third
exhibitor and an honorable mention for
one in five. The grand medals of honor
are in addition.
No less than 112,612 persons visited the
Champ de Mars and Trocadero last Sun
day. The official rehearsal of French
music, which was to have taken place in
the grand hall. was put off until next
Thursday, as it has been remarked that
the attendance at these concerts is less on
Sundays than on week days. The con-
cert given by the Upsaa students on the
previous afternoon was most successful.
ALPHA.