Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-03-21

ling the most delicate and beautiful cary
ing, as from ivory or pearl. Some figures
represented flowers, and these were wrought
out with faithfulness and detail so per-
feet and charming as to produce in the
mind sentiment Of the highest happiness.
| enioyed the examination Of these laces
beyond anything could have conceived
to be possible, to one who has seldom
cared much for matters of that kind.
A GROUP OF sTATUARY.
The second was in line with which |
am much more familiar and which has
always conferred upon me great pleasure.
1t was a group of statuary in the French
exhibition. 1t represented a miracle per-
formed by one of the early Popes, on be-
half of Saint Cecilia, | think. The
group comprises three figures, the
kneeling Pope, the appearing Savior
and the deyout Cecilia. The Pope
is kneeling before an altar upon
which is placed crucifx, invoking
for the devotee more beautiful vision of
the Savior than she had ever before seen.
She has supplicated for knowledge of the
suflerings of the Savior, deeper than she
had ever conceived The Savior appears,
extending his hands and poised as if sup
ported in the air; his face is beaming with
compassion, his extended hands show
plainly the marks of the nails of the cross
and he looks toward the devotee with COM
passionate approval. The devotee ex-
presses the exaltation, the ecstacy, the
happiness of the vision,
mingled with the love and the pity, which
blending forms one of the most beautiful,
pure, and at the same time compassionate
faces, have ever seen, in life, on canvas,
or in stone. 1t was so fascinating that |
returned to it several times. 1t had power.
What appeared most wonderful to me was,
that it expressed new feeling at each re-
curing visit; pity, love, pathos, indigna-
ton supplication, iii short, it was suscep-
tible of being translated into any of the
higher and nobler attributes of the soul.
SMALL ARMS AID ORDNANCE.
was, of course, not Indifferent to many
of the displays representing the great me-
chanical advances in the world, particularly
in the facilities for destroying human life
The exhibit by Remington, OF beautiful
and ingenious means of assassination; by
Krupp, of monster guns, which in the
hands Of tyrannical power might destroy
liberty, on in the hands of patriots might
the freedom of men. They
are powerful engines for the de-
struction of human life, but as
compared with the group of statuary |
have witnessed, they are far down the
plane of human endeavor; they have min
istered to the devilish ingenuity of men;
thev are the medicines which nations take
when they are.afflicted with maladministra-
ton. and the disease of bad diplomacy.
CIRCUITS ENDING AT THE BEAUTIFUL.
From them was charmed with the dis
play of modern railroad appliances, instru-
ments of Growth, of production, of life, of
communication, and from these again to
the cotton spinning apparatus, and then to
the exhibits from the Patent Office of the
perfect wilderness of valuable inventions
for saving labor and adding to the sum of
human happiness; to the fruits and the
flowers, to the minerals, and back through
the tronzes and ceramics ] would find
myself naturally drawn to the laces from
Brussels, and the statuary from Paris. 1t
was like ascending from the valley of
death, where Krupp, and Remington and
Colt were the presiding genluses, to the
summit of q fairy mountain, bathed i'll the
beauty and the brightness Of heaven. And
so | remember the exhibition with much
pleasure. and shall long retain its pleasing
impressions.
IMPRESSIONS OF THE MtRDI GRAS
OF the Mardi Gras | retain sentiment
Of indifference, mingled with some pity,
if not contempt. | witnessed the daytim
parade. The subject was lvauhoe. A
single pasteboard tree repr 'ented Sher-
wood Forest. and fellow dressed as
a ruffian, with three or fear Others as
rudelv dressed as himself, represented
Robin Hood and his merry men. Then
came the Palmers' challenge, pasteboard
portico, with Palmer standing in front,
and a tableau of individu;si; behind him
1.-THE exact meaning of which | could not
read), offering challenge t., combat in the
Tournament. There was i.ebecca with the
false Templar in a little pasteboard turret,
barely large enough to stand IN, IN the
attitude of declaiming in heroics, Come
but one step nearer, false knight, and |
will hurl myself from this high tower p
The lovely Rebecca could have sprung
from the deck to the backs of the wheel
mules without danger to life or limb.
There were
TWELVE or THESE TABLEAUx
Drawn Oh floats, and when | remembered
the magnificent imagery which was in the
mind of Sir Walter Scott, and compared
the sylvan depths of Sherwood Forest,
that deep greenwood of romance, as well
as of reality, with the tree drawn by four
mules through the dirty streets of New
Orleans, / could not repress the thought
that from the Ivanhoe of literature to the
Ivanhoe of the Mardi Gras, was beg
CARLY desceIa to miserable anti-climax.
There is much good-natured raillery
among the merry maskers; there is fun to
some minds behind mask; there is a