The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-09-08
Bright Promises for the Future OF
the United states.

Paris Exposition. 1t has, to be sure drawn
large number Of our citizens across the
Atlantic, and to that extent has helped to
take money out of the country and VIII
leave many of our fashionable summer
hotel proprietors with empty pockets at the
close of the expiring season. But, them IL
has supplied material for conversation 10
American ''society" for the next two years
and laid up store Of adventurous remln-
iscences for those fortunate enough to have
''done" Paris during the show. Some trifiing
envies and jealousies may be excited by this
pleasant gossip in the breasts of the less
favored, to whom the gay French capital
has been sealed book during its memoir
able holiday months; but enyies and
jealousies always exist in ''society," while
live topics of conversation are somewhat
rare 1t will be delightful to recall the ex-
elements and enjoyments Of the industrial
carnival when the heat. dust, crowding and
fatigue of the Exhibition are things of the
past and to dwell in memory upon the en-
chantmcn and attractions of that charming
Paris when the drawback of extortionate
charges for Indifferent accommodations Is
forgotten. Aside from all this, we ought
to be grateful to the great Exposition,
inasmuch as it has afforded lis an oppor-
tunity once more to teach all Europe to
look with admiration on the productions Of
American genius and skill and on the
wonderful progress made by nation yet,
as compared with it's venerable transat-
lantic cousins, in its swaddling clothes.
Thoughtful men will no doubt begin to
comprehend what must be the future Of a
people who. with only a century's history,
have shown their ability to compete with
all Europe in art, in inventive genius and
in manufacturing skill.
While the Supreme Jury and the Council
of Presidents of the Exposition have been
insisting that the list of awards must not
be published prior to the distribution cere-
mony, and while the Ministry Of Commerce
has been promising to consider and decide
the point as soon as the accurate list has
been filed, the HERALD has cut the red tape
which binds the grave official secret and
furnished its readers with the names
of very large number of the
American exhibitors to whom honors
have been adjudged. This list when
complete will no doubt be greatly ex-
tended yet enough is given to prove that
our citizens have been remarkably success
full, and that in the face of many disadvan-
tages the long distance they have had to
transport their goods and the thousand
and one drawbacks to which they have
been subjected-they have been able to
carry off the palm in a competition with all
Europe We might, indeed, have expected
that the United States would be unexcelled
in firearms, agricultural implements, india
rubber goods, farm produce, canned meats
and some specialties in which the Yankees
have long enjoyed world wide reputation.
But when we find Americans carrying off
prizes for watches, silks, prints, calicoes,
carpets and woollen goods in contest
with the whole Of Europe we may well feel
that we have made long stride toward
practical independence within the past
quarter of century, Notwithstanding the
large bite taken out Of our national progress
by four or five years Of civil war. We may
rest satisfied that the days Of our crude
efforts as an infant nation have passed, and
that we may now claim equality as manu-
facturers with the most experienced handi-
craftsmen of the Old World.
We may look back very few years to find
the time when anufactured article or I'M
invention from the United States was re-
garded in Europe as something of curl
osity and examined and criticised much as
tn
else the bead work and other cunning and
ingenious productions of expert bands of
Indians at our watering places There was
then patronizing disposition to approve
these efforts OF young and struggling peo-
pie and a readiness to pat us on the back
and cry "very we'll DONE" such as the
friends of family display who are favored
with peep into Arthurs third copy
book or little Maud's portfolio of
drawings. of course without any idea that
in few years Arthur may write better
hand than themselves, much as they boast
OF their chirography, or that the little Maud
Will some day put their own family of dis
tinguished artists to the blush. Some of
us are not too young to remember when the
prediction that within the present century
American watches would equal those made
in London. Paris, Geneva, &c. that Ameri-
can silks would vie with those of Lyons
that in the United States would be manu-
featured as good woollen, cotton and linen
goods as anywhere in the world, and
that in an open aud fair compe-
tition with all Europe America would
carry off the honors for superiority, would
have earned for its author the reputation of
a visionary. Yet to-day the prediction liz
verified rs the list OF our successful exhib-
itors at Paris satisfactorily proves, and
millions of Europeans have learned by
ocular demonstration that in the wide