Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1900-07-05
PARIS LETTER.
Some Things to be Seen at
the Great Exposition.


There are on the left bank of the
Seine and facing directly the river,
a row of detached buildings, each
one of which is a national build
ing and occupied as II sort of ma
tional headquarters by the nation
that built it. Over each waves the
nations flag and in each walks
two or three soldiers in the uni
form of their country. These
buildings of foreign powers, or as
the French say it, "Pavillons des
Puissances Etrangeres," are situa-
ted in the following order: Italy,
Turkey, United States, Austria,
Bosnia, Hungary, Great Britain,
Belgium, Norway, Germany, Spain,
Monaco, Sweden, Greece, Servia
and Mexico.
The United States building has
but one central group on pedes-
tai about eight feet high. 1t is
three life-size Indian ponies of
plaster in Il terrible tangle of legs,
heads, necks, and tails. asked
an attendant what it meant. He
said it represented horses stamped
ed and on the brink of a precipice,
those behind pushing those in
front and thhse in front trying to
pull them selves back. The eX-
PLANTATION was quite necessary to
the motive of the artist and the
three ponies. But why should
this Omaha sculptor with models
of good Nebraska pillow horses ever
before his eyes, strive to express
himself in something horrible and
theatric impressing the superficial
foreign observer, represented by
nine in ten of all who will see it,,
that the typical American horse is
Il scraggy Indian pony with a
chronic habit of stampeding over
precipices.
The exhibits that interested me
most in all these buildings Were
those of Norway and of Spain. In
the former, the place of honor is
given to bust of the explorer,
Nansen; Il very large model of his
ship, Fran" two of the dogs
that accompanied the expedition;
the reindeer bag in which he
slept when so near the north pole;
his dog sled, small boat and
some of the prepared food left over
from the trip and still in good
state of preservation.
In this pavilion we see also life
size figures in wax, representing
the people of the country in vari-
Gus costumes and in various in
dustries, stuffed seals, walruses,
and the preserved head of a whale
down whose capacious throat JO-
nah, with proper presentation,
might have travelled.
Spain has remarkably fine GObe-
Inns worked with historic scenes
entirely covering the sides of the
ample rooms of her Pavilion; but
the most interesting relic is the
coat, or tunic of Boabdil the last
King of the Moors, with two of his
swords and two dirks. These are
shown in a glass ease in an other
wise empty room, and proclaim
with haughtiness that is pathetic
in view of recent history, the van
ished greatness of country that
once and forever saved Europe
and Christendom from MOhammed-
anism. Proud Spain! Poor
Spain! The tunic, when is of
crimson figured velvet, is timeworn,
but after four hundred years APP
pears to hold together as well as
Washington's clothes in our Ma
tional Museum. The swords are
finely wrought, straight bladed
weapons with but little guard to
their hits. The scabbards are of
metal, heavy, richly ornamented,
and fine of workmanship.