News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-06-06
THE GREAT SHOW.
A LONG WALK TO THE TOP oE
THE EIFFEL TOWER.
other Marvels of the Paris Exhibit
ion-Homes of the Cliff Dwellers-
Medieval Houses - M, Gustave
Eiffel.


The great exposition of 1889 is now
fairly well under way. Probably there
are some in the United States, says n
correspondent, who will get no nearer
the immense show than the columns OF
the American newspapers. But there
are thousands of Americans in the crowds
that stream to the Champ de Mars to
| feast their eyes on the wonderful sights
that are there spread out for them.
But it is time to get to the Exposition
itself, though really half the interest
lies i'll studying the different types OF
the visitors. 1t differs q great deal from
the American Centennial Exhibition in
this respect. True, Paris has way of
giving something of its own careless
gayety to the people that are here,
whether they be Russians, Hollanders,
Italians, English or Turks. They get
more OF less Parisianized very quickly.
When you get ON the Champ de Mars
you will see that the army of 5000
workmen that have been laboring here
for weeks have accomplished something.
There are hundreds of different struct-
ures in the inclosurc, and the Palais des
Machines is gigantic enterprise i'll it
self and the apothcosis of ironwork
IL
side of the Exposition, and stops at
different points Another odd means of
transportation, of which the ladies are
little shy, but which the children (and
there are plenty of children of course)
delight, are the donkeys.
On the Quai a. 'Orsay is a strange col
lection of dwellings,. They are very
novel, many of them, to the vulgar eyo
but scientist would recognize the abode
of the clilI-dweller, the lacustrine habi-
tation of the lake-dwelIer, the subter-
raneous holes of prehistoric human
kind, medieval houses, renaissance
structures, every ru3t of structure which
man has lived ia and reared his kind in.
1t is an chronological coup d'OeI of the
different way which men have housed
themselves from the beginning of the
world, and it is curious and interest
ing feature.
But the most striking feature of the
whole big show, and the one that every
body shows the most eagerness to see,
is the big Eiffel Tower. 1t can't very
well escape anybody notice, as it towers
aloft, graceful despite its massiveness,
soaring up into the blue sky to such a
dizzy height that many are afraid to
bears them to 81 Ia a giddy altitude.
The natural result Of this stupendous
height is to make tic structure, solid
and massive as it really is, n web-like,
fairy thing of cobwcb lines and lace-ike
pattern.
When you get an interior view and
see the tens of thousands of massive
girders, cross pieces, spans and all tho
countless bits of bracing iron that in
sures the stability of the wondrouls
tower, you feel safer. The inside of the
Goddess of Liberty, on New York bay,
looks complicated enough, and ono
wonders how they ever managed to get
the bolts and sections and bars into
their right places without things becom-
ing irretrievably mixed but that is O
bagatelle, a child's doll, as far as me-
cbanic difficulties and engineering COM
plications are co@c crned, to this marvel
Gus Eiffel tower
1t is we'll worth trip across in itself,
for it not only is the one thing of its
kind in existence, but it is fascinating
and instructive. The view from the
top of Paris and its environs for miles
around is ravishing. A person subject
to vertigo does not altogether enjoy the
view from the swooning height, but
certainly the landscape is a most ex-
tended one, and after all, nobody has
tumbled down into it yet.
One thousand seven hundred and
ninety-two steps to the top, if you want
to walk upl You won't have any wind
left to boast about when you get at the
airy top, but there are scores of people
who are venturesome enough or foolish
enough, as one chooses to consider il,
who, like myself, climb the fntiguing
stairs to the very top.
NJ Gustave Eiffel is a Frenchman
fifty-seven years old. He has large,
rather heavy eyes, an aquiline nose, q
strong mouth, with rather full lower
lip, and broad, strong forehead. He
wears pointed beard and moustache,
and his hair is thick and wavy. There
is something about his face which sug-'
gests that of Leon Gambetta, that idol
of the French whom already they have
begun to forget. He wears piace nez,
and jewelled scarf pin holds his quiet
four-in- hand tie in position. He is the
object of thousands of admiring glances
when he appears in public, as he oc-
does. To conceive such q
work as his wonderful Ex-
position Tower is enough to insure him
the supreme praise of every engineer
and mark him as a man of genius.