Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1893-09-24
THE SWISS EXHIBIT.
What Our Sister Republic Shows
at the Exposition.
The Finest Collection OF Watches Ever
Exhibited-wood Carving ~ Fine Art
"A House Built Of Glass-st. Goth
ard Railway Models.
Especial worlds Fair Let.er.l

The Alpine sister republic has done
as well As--or perhaps better than
could have been expected. The com.
merciRl relations which that small but
interesting country entertains with
other nations are bound up, about In
proportion Of 95 per cent, within the
limit Of her three great neighbors--
Germany, France and Italy. With
these powers Switzerland has intimate
and mutually profitable mercantile re-
lations, and since the hardy and in
tensely practical race OF men that
people her valleys and mountain sides
have very keen eye to business and
shrewdness exceeding that Of her
proud neighbors, they have always un-
derstood how to turn these relations to
good advantage. At Paris expostions
heretofore Switzerland has exhibited
quite lavishly and acknowledgements
ering her size and population--but the
case was different this time. First of
all was the fact that Switzerland ex-
ports but little-especially directly
to America. Even in watches--where-
in she used to have q monopoly in the
United States-there has been, of late
years, such an enormous falling off,
due to the experience and to the vast
capital invested, as well as to the
steadily improving quality of the goods
turned out by our own large watch
factories, that the Swiss continued to
think, up to quite recently, IL would
hardly be worth while exhibiting here.
And then the Mckinley bill-which
has cut little Switzerland quite sorely
it was no wonder there was no enthu-
siasm on the subject of our world's
fair throughout Switzerland. However,
wiser counsels prevailed in the end, and
in the late autumn of last year the
resolution was formed to exhibit any
how. Tho Swiss federal council APP
pointed james Perrenoud, n, influen-
tial merchant of La Chaux-de-Fonds,
as it's commissioner to this exposition
lin November last--and extended to
his wisdom and Integrity the unusual
compliment OF opening up for her
| an unlimited credit on the federal
funds to organize and arrange the
Swiss section at the fair. Considering
that this was done at so late date, NJ.
Perrenoud has done wonders since.
The Swiss section in the Manufac-
lures building was one of the first to be
opened and ready for inspection, and
within its narrow limits the exhibit
as q whole reflects decided credit on
the intrepid mountain nation that sent
1t ov :. One thing, though, is very
noticeable--the French part Of Swift
zerland (whence the commissioner
hails), though in point of size and pop
ulation by far the smallest, is conSid-
erablv the strongest in the size and
value and Importance of the exhibits
shown. German Switzerland, Conn
posed Of three .fourths of the popnla-
tioa and two-thirds of the territory
of the whole federation, is inadequate
ly represented--such industries as the
velyets Of Aargau and Thur, the laces
and curtains of Grisons, the furniture
and clock industries, etc, being wholly
lacking And the Italian part of
Switzerland is not represented by
single object. These facts, of course,
are partly owing to the circumstance
that the French part of Switzerland is
at the same time the one where indus
trial Development has attained its
highest point.
Outside of Manufactures building
Switzerland is weak. There is on
view--so as to cover the whole in one
paragraph-an elaborate exhibit made
by the St.Gothard railway company in
Transportation building. About six
teen hundred square feet of wall space
are taken up by it-relief plans and
water color paintings showing the
whole wonderful piece of engineering
and the entire mechanism Of that re-
markable road. In Art palace she is
wholly unrepresented, her application
for space having come too late to be
granted. On Midway Plaisance, though,
q magnificent panoramic painting,
executed by three fine Swiss painters,
Messrs. Burnand, Furet aud Band
Bovy, is on view. This forms official
ly part Of the Swiss exhibit, and it
represents the Bernsese range of Alps,
being of an artistic excellence and