The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-13

head to foot, 12-guinea hats loaded with ostrich plumes, the lace, the jewels, the thousand expensice ct cetras which have great lake, lay that dream which we shall rot see again of artistic excellence and architectural efficiency.
 Then we had the exhibition in Paris again. infinitely improved and vastly more beautiful from the fact that America had led the way, and there were exhibits In these buildings which were quite un- rlvaled for their individual beauty.
 None of us will readily forget the tap- es,ry from the Escurial with it's ex- ouisite entwining of gold and colors, the nurity of its design and the beauty of its conception.
 And now we have the Franco-British exhibition in London, hideous in archi- lecture. vulgar in every detail as regards the buildings, and yet interesting in many ways on account of the fact that so much is gathered there which is so dlstinctly individual to both countries.
 Probably that which Is the greatest re, veIation internationally is the art of England. Among the French 1t has al- ways been the fashion to say that Eng land has no art, and that English pie lures are not worth considerlng' put with the frank openmindedness which constitutes a characteristic of the french they have admitted that they have dis covered English art.
 Cainsborough, Reynolds and Constable are revelations to great nunoer or Fftach people. The Lourre, with its B. 00j paintings, where every school Is rep resented. has very few English pictures and the Luxembourg has but three.
 But tho French are awake to their mis- take and art is too real and too living a science with them for them not to be fully willing to rectfy their ideas.
 Perhaps the greatest contrast of all to be found in the exhibition is in the Ma chinery hall It would be quite useless for an amateur to attempt to describe the marvels which are there exhibited, marvels only too well known to the Americans, who are largely authors Of these wonders.
 There is an old man who still lives at the Crystal Palace, who was young mechanic in the days of the great exhi- bition of 1851 and who will still tell you that the reaping machine was almost the greatest wonder of that show.
 He says that he can recollect very well two gentlemen who came to see this novel invention. One of them was an American and one an Englishman.
 Well, you see," said the American, "our young men are teaching your young men a few wrinklesl' and the English man laughed. As they walked away the man asked who they were, and learn ed that one was MT. Dickens, and the other Mr. Horace Greeley.
 But probably the most extraordinary change is to be found in those great glass showcases which exhibit feminine fashions. I do not mean that the poke bonnet and Paisley shawl and crinoline are no longer to the front, but that what would have been considered an elegant and costly dress for woman in those days would be barely considered fit for a charwoman's Sunday frock in ours.
 ree-thousand-guinea sable cloaks, tight clinging garments, with long trains made entirely of ermine, directoire dresses embroidered in skilled needlework from become necsssaries. these all go to prove that life in our time is complicated by