Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1878-10-03
[ PROPRIETOR.
Communication.
>~~.~~~~e~.~-~~s~~.o.>~~~~~~-
Paris Letter.
From our Regular Correspondent.

, IAklS, oept. 10th, 1913.
After all, there is this muc
to admire, to wonder at, and t
J philosophise over in a Univer
sal Exhibition, in the fact tha
each of these shows is, after it
kind, unique; and that the thin,
in its complete entirety ca
never be seen again. Its com
ponent parts may be, and in al
probability, will be brought to
gether again, since one-half oil
the world is never tired of shop
keeping, and the other half ol
shopping, or, at least, of star
ing into shop windows anl
thinking it would buy if it ON
ly had the money. And, il
truth, a modern Exposition il
abstractly only a manner of
Kaleidoscope. The manufac
turers and the shopkeepers have
an enchanced supply of parti-
colorcd yitreous fragment,
forthcoming; and on a giver
day authority gives cylinder Q
shake, to the accompaniment of q
flourish of trumpets and a dis
charge Of artillery, and millions
press to the peephole, and, sur
veying the new geometrical pat
tern, calculate o-o-o-ohl
just as they do at a public gar
den when the final pyrotechnic
bouqet begins to unfold its glo-
ries. But there will be more
exhibitions and more fireworks
in days to come. 1t is inexpe-
dient, perhaps, to be enthusias-
tic about anything, but in no
direction is enthusiasm of the
gushing kind SO much to be de-
precated as in the case of In
ternational Exhibitions rs Con
crosses of Industry" and "Fes-
tiyals of Peace" The Worlds
Fair in London in 1861 was i'm
mediately followed by a Revo-
luton in France. The Paris
Exhibition of 1856 was held in
the very midst of a devastating
war between four of the great
European powers; two years
after the Exposition Universelle
Of 1867-disiurbed as it was in
its actual course by the Mexican
catastrophe-came Worth and
Sedan; and, as for 1873, all we
can say is that Western Europe
has escaped the horrors Of war
by which the East has been de-
vastated, and we have not the
idea of what is to come
next. Gentlemen have always
cried peace! peace! when there
S no peace, but this need not
prevent our enjoying the dis
plays Of all the kingdoms of the
world and the glories thereof |
which satan and the French |
people have grouped together
lere for our contemplation.
In decorative bronze sculp-
ure, as | have more than once
deserved, the French are well
Ugh unapproachable. In mar
lie statuary they hold their
'wn very nobly, although they
re closely pressed by the Ital-
ans; but in ecclesiastical deco
alton, and even in decorative
architecture, / can but think
hat France, through her addic-
edness to florid color and cx-
essiye ornamentation, is very
eriously retrograding. That
he paintings executed by NJ.
PAUL Bandry at the New Grand
opera House are truly magni-
lcent, and that the proportions
f that edifice are very grandiose,
aust at once be obvious, but /
Fas born either too early or too
ate to appreciate the beauty of.
be Opera House facade. 1t
Gems TO me meretricious mass,
be whole effect of which not
all the costliness
f the materials of which it is
omposed, and all the consum-
aute plastic skill which has
,een layished on It's adornment,
5 not to my mind, more attrac-
i've than M'Girandin's sweet ,
tuff shop on the Rue de la /
'iax. And | am positively sure !
hat / never saw anything more 4
rchitecturally hideous than
he exterior Of the Exhibition
'alace of the Trocadero, or the