The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1893-10-13
FORMS OF BEAUTY
Made from All Substances at
the Fair.
THE MANUFACTURES BUILDING.

/ =
struction Of the Great Building Itself.
WORLDS FAIR, Sept. 8. - [Special.l -
beneath the high arched and iron CIR
dered roof Gtself a marvel of science and
art) OF the Manufactures and Liberal Arts
building are gathered the richest results
or thousand years of the skill and taste
OF all mankind from Nova Zembia to Pat
agonia. 1t is impossible to mention a
substance from grass to gold or from gos-
samer so light that it must be shown un-
der glass because breath would watt it
away, to the hardest flint, but one may
| find it there in scores or even thousands of
| forms. There one might, If life were not
! 30 brief that days only can be given where
months are too short, trace that evolution
| of the arts of every race of mankind and
gather abundant materials for the elucida-
tion of an answer to the great question
why does each nation develop its arts
along its own peculiar line despite the in
fuence of other nations?
On those forty acres of floor space is
piled a real wealth exceeding that of
many an ancient city of renown, and the
work embodied in the articles has been
roughly computed as equivalent to the la
Dor of 10000 skilled men for twenty years.
Are you interested in ivory9 There you
may find it in hundreds of forms from the
polished elephant tusk down to comical
figures an inch in length on the faces of
which the patient and skillful Japanese
have depicted all the emotions of human
ity. In wool? 1t is not possible in a col
umn of print like this to give the bare
names Of the fabrics, from delicate stuffs
worth their weight in gold to heavy robes
and cashmere shawls and Navajo blankets
so closely woven that water can be carried
in them. In silk? Familiar as they are,
language can scarcely convey an idea of
the delicate fabrics wrought on the looms
of France by artists (they cannot be called
dren followed their parents in the same
line of work for two generations before
the hereditary talent was developed up to
that capacity.
In wood there is more scroll work and
of greater variety than was ever before
collected in one place, and the carvings can
but be mentioned because they cannot be
described. Leather, which seems in COM
mon so very plain and homely an object of
use, is there the basis for fine art, and
when one sees the changes wrought in it
he is almost persuaded that if no other
substance were available q refined civiliza-
tion might easily find expression in that
alone. All the metals, precious or useful,
are worked into objects of SURPRISING
beauty. Under the hands of the japanese
the common distinction is lost sight of and
iron is made as precious as gold by the
artistic work done on it. In so plebian an
article as clay, including the finer kinds
of earth, there are over 1900 articles in
every conceivable form and style of beauty
from the Sc, 600 vase down to bits of pot
terry no longer than ones thumb, but glow
ing with color and rich in elaborate deco
rations.
Other buildings are merely parts of
worlds fair; this is a worlds fair. In
bronzes, vases, damascened work and some
other lines it so far exceeds any previous
exhibit that comparison seems ridiculous.
There is touch of the humorous, too, in
the surprising uses made of many SUBJ
stances. Snakeskin does not suggest
beauty, bnt here it is seen in many lovely
forms. The show of parchments is COM
plete. Vellum is exhibited in every con-
ceivable style. Grass, grains, gums, wax,
teeth, hair, paper, bark, bone, fish scales,
celluloid, coral, rushes, bamboo, all the
skins of all the animals, leaves and vines
and roots, are all worked into forms of
beauty, The most riotous imagination
held with the loosest rein cannot picture
An artistic form in any substance, but you
may find it here.
~*~
And yet there are those who say that
the building itself is a greater curiosity
or rather greater triumph of skill-than
anything in it. 1t has often been de-
scribed, but the main points will bear one
more repetition. 1t is 1857 feet long and
7s7 feet wide, with height along the CEN
trail hall of 24511 feet, and deducting there
from the roof and the space below the
floor the height in the clear interior is 203
feet. The sides and corner pavilions Of
course are lower. Over all this central
section extends single span truss Of 382
feet. Deducting the side support there is
thus a self-supporting, iron arched roof
864 feet in the clear, without pillar or in
cline brace, the largest roof of the kind in
the world. There are 2,000, 900 pounds of
steel in the trusses Of central hall and
1000 900 pounds of iron in the nave; and
all these magnificent arches and Orders,
all the iron in the roof in fact, were sold to
St. Louis parties before being placed here.
There are over 1000, 000f feet of lumber in
the floor and five average carloads of nails.
One thousand cottages Of Is by 30 feet
each could be placed in the building; and
as one walks through the space occupied
by particular nation he often comes upon
separated building which by comparison
seems small till he enters and finds it .
miniature worlds fair. Thirty great stair
cases lead to the galleries. Two avenues
fifty feet wide traverse the building in its
two extensions, crossing in the center; five
narrow avenues on each side run the full
length and twice as many cross these from
side to side. In almost every open space
in the building and chiefly at the intersec-
ton of the main avenues are easy seats for
the weary, and high overall are the famous
bell chimes which men of experience and
taste pronounce equal to anything in Eu-
rope. At intervals these enliven the null
titude of sightseers with the sweetest mu-
sic and in the course of day one may
hear the national airs of the principal ma
tions, alternated with the worlds famous
hymns and a few light and popular
pieces.
Wy. Y a AZ L.. H.. II