Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-11-02

FORMER NOT TAKING ACTIVE PART IN POLITICS
THE BARYE ART ExHIBITIoN-THE NEW YORK
WORLDS FAIR PROJECT DRAGGING.
Correspondence of THE EVENING STAR
New YORK, November I.
It is difficult to realize that we stand on the
brink of another election. The attendant cir
cumstances which mark the present contest, if
it deserves that name, are opposite as posi-
BILE from the circumstances Of last November.
Tho excitement Of that time is still fresh in
memory. Bands were playing, the spellbinders
were spouting. the walls were covered with
posters, the streets were ablaze with torchlight
professions and the whole country was in one
vast hubbub. But now there are scarcely any
indications Of contest. Next Tuesday, how
ever, an election will take place affecting the
fortunes of the two great parties both in the
state and in the city, and the consequences of
the balloting may be important. If the repub-
hcans, for instance, should manage to elect
their state ticket it would prove a serious if
not fatal, setback to Gov. Hills ambitions.
And even If marked republican gains in the
legislature are made it will impair his prestige
considerably. The governor has realized how
important success is to him, and in the lam
guage OF political fervor he has taken off his
coat and rolled up his sleeves, SO far as such
enthusiasm is compatible with the ordinary
habits Of gentleman at the Hoffman house
who doesn't wish to be arrested as either insane
or drunk and disorderly.
HILL AND CLEVELAND.
But dropping metaphor, the governor has
spent the week here in close consultation with
the local leaders and has made himself the GEN.
trail figure of the campaign. In marked con-
trast with the governors activity has been the
mastery inactivity of Cleveland II these two
gentlemen both have their eye fixed on '92 they
are chasing their rainbows in very different
ways. Mr.. Cleveland is keeping out of active
politics entirely. He has lapsed into the pros
porous lawyer and prominent citizen" HIS
name appears In dignitied connection with
pontlcal movements and with important social
functions. but he carefully avoids the jealousies
OF active rlvalries in the elbowing crush. Opin-
ions differ as to the wisdom of this policy, but
at any rate it is more dignified and respectable
than Hills open scramble for advancement.
THE BARYE ExHIBIrIoN,
which opens now in few days-the time is not
definitely set-will be the great art feature of
the winter here. Washington will appear to
advantage in the collection as all the examples
OF Barye's work in the possession of the Corco-
ran Art Gallery will be loaned to the exhibi-
ton. Mr.. Walters best examples will also
be included. Altogether there will be be-
tween six and seven hundred examples of the
L
art from an elaborate bronze group to a pen-ard-
ink sketch. But the exhibition comprehends
a side feature which promises to be of quite as
much popular interest as the Barge collections
This Is the gallery Of paintings by his con-
temporaries and associates most of whom are
grouped in what is known as the Barbizon
school Mr.. Walters loans about thirty of
his best canvases Then there will
be the famous AngeluS of Millet,
which is now the property of the American Art
Association, and there will be four Millets from
the collection OF Mr.. Quincy A. Shaw of Boston,
who Is considered to have the finest gallery of
Miilets In the world. Other splendid canvases
giving examples Of the finest work of Millet,
Rousseau, Corot, Diaz, Dupre, Troyon and in
short all the great French landscapists who Gull
tlvated their art in the forest landscapes of
Fontainebleau are to be loaned from the pri-
yate galleries of Cornelius Vanderbilt, William
Rockefeller, George /. Seney, Potter Palmer,
and other famous connosseurs. Unqueston-
ably the collection will be the best ever made Of
modern French landscape paintings, much su-
perlor to the one hundred master pieces ex-
hibited at the Paris exposition and finer than
any European collection could be, owing to the
fact that America possesses the cream Of this
phase OF French art
THE WORLDS FAIR.
violate no confidence in saying that the
worlds fair drags. The newspapers try to put
bright face on the matter, but their buoyant
spirits are artificial and do not reflect popular
feeling. About one-thIrd of the required guar
antee fund has been raised after a weeks act
i've campaigning, but the totals are falling off
and. candidly, it looks very squally One great
trouble Is the continued uncertainty about the
site. The defenders of the park have made
such stiff fight that the plan to utilize any of
Its territory Is practically abandoned. On the
other hand the committee find themselves ham
pered in the acquisition of private lands by
greed and crankiness, so that they are getting
pinched for room. Nor have they matured any
scheme of buildings owing to this vagueness
with regard to the location. Naturally in this
muddle cautious capitalists are not anxious to
subscribe fortunes Like Demosthenes they
exclaim, "But the how2 Tell us thatr' and the
committee in reply can rise to no more ele-
waited strain than the Pinafore sentiment
Never mind the why and whereforeI"
THE RAILROAD CONSOLIDATION.
business topic of great interest during the
week has concerned the gigantic consolidation
of western systems and the probable conse-
quences. The almost universal feeling in Wall
street is that the railroads of the country are
inevitably drifting into three or four great
systems or declarations. which again will have
an amicable understanding and division of the
spolls among themselves. And it is further
held that this tendency toward consolidation
and monopoly has been fastened by, if not due
to, the interstate commerce bill. 1t would be
a singular turn about if Senator Reagan's bill,
the whole intent of which was to forbid and
prevent railroad combination, should have lust
the contrary effect and be the means of CONSOLE
dating all the warning systems into one vast
federation. HENRY II. ELLIOT.
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