Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-10-16

PARIS. October 81. 1875

urning homo in shoals after making
point of seeing the exhibition on their way,
one cannot wellavoid calling to mind the
fable. 1t is !" Eyes and no
Eyes " over again, only on larger scale,
and with greatly increased variety of
episode. 1t need scarcely be said that l
allude to that class of general sight seers
which SO enormously preponderates over
The comparatively few visitors who have
been to the exhibition for some definite
purpose of art or business, or both COM
bined. and who expect to make tangible
profit in one way or another out of their
study of the latest achievements of agri-
cultural engineers, of polters, of uphol-
sterers, and of builders. The general
visitors have been or are going to Paris,
partly because they like to see all exhibit
tons of every kind, partly because they
fancy that they ought to see this particular
exhibition for the sake of being as other
men are. and of obtaining material for
small-talk, and partly because, if the truth
be told, they grasp eagerly at any excuse
for a holiday in the recreation ground of
Europe. The impression left upon differ
ent members of this body by their inspec-
ton of the Paris exhibition are worth
study by reason of their variety and their
singular contradictory nature. There are,
first Of all, the good people who come
home delighted with all that they have
seen, because they set out intending to be
pleased, and because they fear that il they
seemed dissatisfied their neighbors would
fancy they had Numbered into failure,
and waste of money and time. At the
opposite pole, though actuted by much the
same insincerity Of motive, are the unhap-
py people who are disappointed, and be-
cause they think it is the correct thing to
be disappointed, and because they believe
that their dissatisfaction proves their own
superiority. Leaving the genuine impress
sion of these sight.seerS out of the question
as beyond the reach of anything save
guess work, we come to the spectacle S
who are chiefly struck by the magnitude
of the thing to be seen. They have been
oppressed by their self-imposed task of
pleasure, and having no method in their
holiday occupation, have confessedly de-
rived from it little but vague sense of lis
importance. There has been so much to
see that they have seen nothing. 1t would,
they say, and say truthfully, take weeks to
:" do the exhibition thoroughly; SO they
have not known how to spend "a few days
there with intelligent enjoyment. With
them it is not exactly II case of " no eyes,
or of eyes wiful!y blind; they honestly
desire to see, but they do not know where
to begin to look. Others, still without the
charmed circle of those who have acquired
The art of " seeing" have failed because
they have limited too carefully their hori
zon. Interested in the pictures, they have
forgotten the furniture; paying attention
, to the characteristic productions of the
furniture makers. they have missed taking
, II comprehensive view of the still mor'
characteristic structures in which they ar,
) placed. Struck by the merely curious
5 they have lost sight of the beautiful, or
2 on the other hand, they have looked onl,
! where they could admire.
/ 1t would be difficult to expand the cat
: alogue of exhibition-goers to length II
Z great as that of the more familiar exhibi
5 ton catalogue. The ways of seeing ar
b as many rs the sights to be seen. AS
= rule, it may be said that he who take
2 most into an exhibition takes most out O
Z it, inst rs he who brings most informatio
S to bear upon book derives most from it
pages. 1t is certain that the art of profits
s table sight seeing is one well worthy {
cultivation, since the result of proficienc
e in it is to increase indefinitely the mean
:. and opportunity of education. Not onl
l. are we enabled by its aid to effect the of
e laughed-at combination of business an
d pleasure; our very pleasures are elevate
l. and intensified by the mental advancement
n which they are thus made TO imply. If tt
n series of exhibitions inaugurated in lS5
i and eliminating for the time being
a 1878, had done nothing else, they wou
y have accomplished Il great work in TRAN
e ing the myriads who have visited them
- make profitable use of those powers
n general observation which SO often !
II dormant, while other faculties are actual
@ employed in the monotonous routine
life That the crowds who now throng Il
ID building opposite the Trocadero, and stut
" its huge mass of contents, are better tittt
m than their predecessors of twenty-seVe
20 wears ago to derive mental improveme
" from their study, can scarcely he doubte
d They have much to learn before they ca
Al gain the full benefit from gigantic o
D. portunily such as this; but they have al
II learned much, and have done SO in
< small degree, by the aid of the moveme
is set on foot in the various capitals of E
ot rome. To those who have been taug
il how to use an exhibition properly, the
will be new value in every examinati'
10 of the shop windows of foreign cit
"a or, indeed, of their own native town An
of what is still more valuable, they wi
in never miss the possible interest of dai
of life because they employ "no eyes"
= the observation of the objects which Ii
Id their path.
a. A very peculiar case is just now exc
"a ing indignation against the Paris legal
- sttutions. The circumstances are rs II
lows: A young man, called Maillard, IL
. New York where his f.mily is settled.
:. draw in the CONSUMPTION, and, havil
~ drawn good number, he went to Hav
In and embarked. Just. however, as I
vn steamer was about to leave, police age
a went on board and arrested him. All
=, having been kept eleven days in the polio
CT office and two days in prison, where
In had to put on the prison dress, he W
lat transferred to Paris handcuffed. 1t W
only after having been for eight days
-, durance vile that the examining judi