The morning call., 1893-05-20

The Chicago business man is turning the
fair to useful account. He invites his Gus
toners in the country to put the arrange
nents of their visit in his hands and he
secures for them excellent accommodation
at reasonable rates. Knowing that good
deal of fleeing is going on, family from
the country is apt to feel gratitude in a
genuine way for attentions so eonsiderate.
1t does not cost the Chicago business man
more than civility. A practice akin to this
used to be followed by the pew-renters of
Beecher's church. The pews were rented
at auction to the highest bidder. New York
and Brooklyn merchants who were men,
bers of the congregation were always able
to insure their patrons from the country or
from abroad the favor of hearing the dis
tlDgulsbed preacher in the pulpit. In the
palmy days of the church there were hun
dreds of the public who struggled for ad-
mission and could not obtain it. They
could not get admission by payment, they
had NO friends and there was no room.
The possibilities of building houses of
glass as cheaply as If the material were
stone or brick are being discussed. The
blocks can be nodded of any size or color,
and may be made highly ornamental and
transparent where required. A house con-
structed of vitreous blocks would be abso-
lutely impervious to moisture. and should
delight the sanitarian and the man of
taste. But II the manufacture is cheap
the glass might be turned TO account as a
protector of piles against the ravages of
the teredo. Thus far the teredo seems 10
be able to defy everything. 1t is but a
question OF time when it bores through
the tar or creosote applied to piles, and
once inside the wood there is no getting
rid of the industrious traveller. Probably
tha glass could be tempered so as not to be
brittle. The art of rendering glass in
frangible is said to have been rediscovered
in France.
The HOPKINS mansion is not all that is
desirable for picture exhibition, but at
very little cost and without any struc-
tural changes much might be done to REM
edy the defects. In studying a picture
confusion of light and perpleXing rehec-
tions are to be avoided. The best light
for gallery is from the roof. This can
not be obtained in the Hopkins house
The light which serves best next to the
vertical comes at right angles to the pic
ture. This can be secured in an ordinary
room 'Dy temporary screens erected at
right angles to the windows. Every room
can have number OF these screens placed
apart at sufficient intervals to give proper
focal distance for observation. This plan
has been followed in number of the
Dutch galleries. and it is as rule the one
ordinarily applied in private houses. The
screens can be removed when the exhibit
ton is over, and there could be no perna-
neDt Disagreement.
A model of the Nicaragua canal has
been set up at the Chicago fair The scale
is to 1000 vertically, and / to 10000 hori-
zontally. The water line from the harbor at
Greytown along the San Juan, Nicaragua
Lake and the Fola basin is clearly shown,
with correct indication of the dredging
and cutting to be ACCOMPLISHED. II is only
one OF thousands of exhibits which appeal
to the curious, but it may we'll make
deep Impression on the millions at the
tair Long before the close of the CEN
tury the real canal will be open to the
commerce of the world and will create as
great revolution in routes as the Suez
waterway has done. Those 169 miles of
canal from ocean to ocean will save over
5000 miles of voyage between New York,
Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
The ports of the st. Lawrence and the
lakes and all Europe and Australia will
be ben Gifted. as we'll as Mexico and the
South and Central American republics.
The canal will do more to unity the United
States In trade than all the transcont-
mental railroads conjoined, and Its effect