Year: 1878

If there is one characteristic
which distinguishes the United
States Department more than ano-
ther, it is the practical every day
utility of everything you see. To
the European who has studied
Brother Jonathan through the me-
dunn of Sam Slick or the broad
caricatures of Yankee Hill, it is a
somewhat startling revelation that
the young man who was once Bro
ther Jonathan, but has now become
Uncle Sam, is one of the most Or
namental and aesthetic of all orna-
mental and aesthetic persons. His
Kentucky jeans which used to reach
half way between his ankle and his
knee are changed for the finest of
oassimers, his neektie Of blue or
yellow or green is replaced by the
most immaculate of chokers. He
never wears an Alexander larger
than six and three-quarters, and
the set Of his superb swallow-tail
is the wonder and delight of all
the young bloods along the boule-
Yards. Brother Jonathan is not
what he was and Sister Jonathan
is not what she was. "Our Gal, !"
as pictured by Mrs. Williams few
years ago, who walked around in a
blue piuafore with the most absurd
knot on the top of her head, and
was constantly kicking up her heels
to the tune Of ':Bobbing Around"
can scarcely be- found in Paris,
All through the Exhibition you
realize the change that has taken
place in everything American in
the last thirty years.


I remarked, at the opening OF
this letter, that the practical utility
of things in the American Depart
ment was the most striking charac-
teristic but with that utility is dis:
played taste unsurpassed by that
OF any other nation. One of the dis
tinguishing features Of the French
Department is the beautiful man
nerin which the goods are put up, but
the Americans seem to have brought
this peeuliarity to the dignity
ola high art, and the manner in which
it is done almost entities it to the
dignity Of a science. Allen &
Co., of Richmond, Of whom I spoke
last week, exhibit only tobacco ;
but on the various classes Of goods
are labels costing thousands and
thousands of dollars; works which,
if exhibited as specimens OF art,
might have carried off the gold
en- prize of the Academy. In
the Department Of Food a firm
from the West exhibits lard the
roof of their little building has been
decorated by an eminent artist and
is one of the most beautiful works
in the entire Exposition. The labels
which cover the goods of this firm
are of unsurpassed beauty, and yet
they are only an advertisement for
lard which is the most unpoetic
and unsentimental of all the sub
lunary things. Hogs lard and
poetry, pigs and sentiment, fried
bacon and sesthetics,-great must
be be who can unite these three,
and this the Americans have done,
and done with a perfection which
entities them to the highest credit
Distin & Sons exhibit saws and
tools, a very simple announcement
indeed and yet every article is as
bright and as beautiful as if it
we're made for exhibition in lady
boudoir; wrenches, punches, ham
mers and saws rivalling the ice
brooks temper. It used to be the
test of the famed blades of Toledo
that yon could bend them till the
point touched the hilt. I think:
from what I have seen, that you
| could tie one of Distin's saws into
O. bow knot and afterwards draw
mathematical lines with it OF 8
thousand to the inch.


Madame Demorest is here with a
case of paper fashions, and if she
would only teach our wives and
daughters to dress in the material
with which she decorates her mod
els, she would lay the people OF the
United States and Europe under a
lasting obligation. Ishould like to
see my wife trctting off with q
brown paper underskirt and a fools
o,,, Doll1 Warden. hrt { SuppOse