Arizona republican., 1893-07-28
THE BELGIAN EXHI i,
Attractive Things Sent to Chicago
 from Leopold's Realm.
Works of Art Which Would Attract At tentlon Anywhere--Lacesw Worth Thou sands of Dollars Per Yard
 Congo Iron Houses.
[spee.al Worlds Fair Letter. l


 Small in territory, but densely peopled with a nationality that is mixed in race and language but homogeneous and strong in artistic proclivities, in exquisite taste in herited since the of dawn the middle ages, endowed with nimble, elastic mind and fingers equaled in deftness not even by the neighboring French, Belgium is strong at this exposition For a country that is only about one sixth part the size of the single state of Illinois, plucky little Belgium has indeed done wonders. True, her ex- hibit cannot be compared, so far as variety and size go with that of the big powers of Europe, but it is almost on a par with that of Germany or France so far as quality is concerned. In space covered the Belgium exhibit compares favorably with Italy, Spain or Russia, however, for it measures, all told, considerably over 100000 square feet. Of this the lions share is taken up in Manufactures building, namely, 45.0O0, and then comes Machinery hall with 10000 square feet, the Fine Arts palace with 1S,000 square feet, the Woman's building with about 1,S00 square feet, and the balance is taken up by the Belgium exhibit in Horticultural build ing, where she is strong in azaleas and rhododendrons particularly, Ghent thus vindicating that ancient city's preeminence in flowers.
 The whole Belgian exhibit is charac- terized, so far as it goes tor in the Electricity, Mining, Transportation, Forestry, Leather, Agricultural build ings she has nothing on view), by excellence of workmanship, artistic taste and individuality both in design and execution. Her commission, too, is made up altogether of men that are eminent representatives of the re- sources and culture of the tiny king dom. Astere Vercruyne, senator of her parliament, is the president of the commission, and Alfred Simonis, like wise senator, is her commissioner general, while E. Edouard Guerette is the chief delegate, and Messrs. Le Ghait. Andre Simonis and Vaxelaire are the three secretaries.
 Relatively strongest Belgium is in the Fine Arts palace, where she has hung the walls of five rooms with her 200 paintings and shows, likewise, a goodly array of water colors, sculp- lures, etchings and engravings. The | paintings, though, are--so far as aual- ity and effect as an aggregate are con- cerned-by far of greatest importance There are score of powerfully painted ! canvasos among them, and in land- scapes and portraits the exhibit is noticeably strong. A few good still lifes and historical paintings, such as "The Goldsmith's Fair at Antwerp" prove that the old Flemish school is not yet dead, and that the modern Bel gian hand has not lost it's cunning in manipulating the brush and palette. One good feature, too, is that there is not single daub in this collection, and that the execrable craze known as the "impressionist school" has not so far gained foothold in Belgian stu dios. It ought to be mentioned, too, that there are on view, as part of the Belgian women's exhibit in the Wom-