The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1878-09-13
From our Regular COrrespondenLl

PARIS, Aug. %, 1878.
Visitors apparently prefer the Chaml
de Mars to the Trocadero; at the com
mencement, the opposite taste was evi
dent. People soon tire of architecture
and the Trocadero has few popular ex
hibits infinite in their variety. 1t is tn,
intellectual moiety of the Palace less th,
elevator" Its various halls devoted t
retrospective art, corresponding to 81
many epochs or ages, rivet the attention
even of the ordinarily Indifferent. The
masses commence, to take in that oul
ancestors had to work their way 10 civil
ization, and that all those morsels of flint
roughly hewn or polished typically rep
resent human progress, as accurately as
Shakespeare's seven ages, does the life
of man. The collection of Retrospective
objects from the museum of Bordeaux
is most instructive, and some of the an
tique jewelry might set ladies 10 reflect
on the clauses of the Decalogue touching
covetousness.
The Process Gallery is not only one OF
the Exhibitions most curious features,
but it is of importance in the influence
it may have in giving technical educa
ton to the world in certain minute but
lucrative branches Of industry, which
have hitherto been, in their most sue
cessful development, essentially Partisan.
1t has received magnificent locate in
the Vestibule du Sud, opposite the Ecole
Militaire. 1t will be remembered that
in 1867 similar department existed in
the Exhibition of that year, and its sue
cess induced the French Commissioners
to reestablish it now, upon a grander
scale. 1t was proposed to them to turn
the whole Champ de Mars into series
of workshops; to establish all over it
forges, glass works and foundries; to have
it bristling with tall chimneys, ,re-echoing
with the whole gamut of machinery
discorjs, and redolent of smoke and
steam; to turn it, in fact, into a species
of industrial epitome; but this, like a
number of other ridiculous schemes
which the archives of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Commerce could reveal,
was abandoned, although the Gallerie du
Travail was extended beyond the limits
originally assigned to it. A hundred
little things, that are continually in do
mestic use are manufactured before the
eyes of the visitors themselves, who pur-
chase them in large quantities; and it
may, therefore, not be uninteresting if
we glance at some IF the principal in
dustries so represented.
To commence, we may mention a
curious industry, witch cannot fail to
attract the visitors attention soon after
entering the gallery. We allude to the
filigree WORK. Few of us have not often
had occasion to admire the delicate and
ingenious work of this description for
which Genoa is so famous, and which
has its origin in the dimmest antiquity.
The workman takes in his hand simple
silver thread; he folds it, bends it, turns
it, and twists it, in a thousand different
ways and with Il rapidlty which battles
description produces ia few minutes
the most diverse objects, and the most
astonishing effects. 1t seems to be the
simplest work in the world; but a very
little consideration will show that the
workmen must be endowed with more
than ordinary taste, and with dexterity
which is only the result Of practice and
education.
Passing hence we glance at mOdiSte,
who is dressing dolls in the newest and
most approved Partisan fashions, and
then we arrive at a stand where skilled
workmen are supposed to be engaged in
the production of numerous pretty con
ceits in ivory, mother of-pearl and tor
toise shell. The real fact, however, is
that all the "skill' of these workmen
consists in unpacking ready manufac
tured goods and pricing them, whilst the
only claim that the stall possesses TO
occupy position in the gallery Is de-
rived from a species of drill, which, for
reasons best known to itself, is forever
vacuously drilling the same hole in an
ivory plate. Elephants tusks are to be
seen here in great variety, as well as
ivory breaches, earrings, and other orn-
aments; but the mechanical link be-
tween these two forms of inorganic
creation is missing, and the process of
evolution, like some great secret OF
nature, is allowed to remain unexplain
ed. The inventors, however, of an i'm
itation, called "Ivorine," are more gen.
erous. They show you some small
brown squares of a material which, in
appearance, is not unlike chocolate
but they do not explain its composition.
This they heat, and when it is in aliquid
state they pour it into moulds, which, at
the end of halfan-hour turn it out again
in the guise of what seems to be- ivory
penholders. This simple process is not
8 very interesting one, but the produc-
tions are very pretty, and initiate very
closely their more expensive prototypes.
We then pass in review workmen
who, by blowing bubbles from glass in a
state of fusion and by tempering them in
a chemical bath and other expedients,
produce large imitation pearls, and all
those gaudy beads for which the aborig-
ines of Africa barter their dearest pos
sessions; others who make all kinds of
waterproof clothing, manufacturing even
the material by rolling the liquid india
rubber onto the cloth; and then a num-
Der of nimble fingered ladies and gen.
tlemen who are making chignons, ,braids,
pads, fringes, plaits, and all other nec-
essaries for the ornamentation of g
young lady's hair and the covering
of middle-aged ladies heads We stop
for a moment before the tables where
gentlemen and ladies are painting on
china lovely pieces of sceneryand beau
tiful representations Of romantic and
noetic scenes. We halt, too before the
workmen, covered with white powder,
who with lathe, number of knives
and few drills, are carving lovely pipes
out of blocks of Crimeare ond Anatolian
.meerschaum, and others who are finish