Year: 1876



 Tribune Extra Mo-. 35, which really fur nishes much valuable information, some useful criticism, and innumerable sug- gestions to the visitor. The best thing one can do, after the terrible fatigue of a days wandering through the great halls, is to go to bed in the evening and read up his Tribune for the day following. In this way he can come at some accurate comparative estimate of the exhibits o1 the various nations and can avoid lin. gering over departments that will prove of no special interest. No doubt many others will view the matter differently. but to us the portion of the Exhibition that is of least interest is the American. It is splendid but it is not novel. We have never seen such magnifcence, such variety and such completeness elsewhere. but we have seen something approaching it. Tifany's store in New York gives us almost as fine show as his part of the ex. hibition. To be sure we cannot see the Bryant vase anywhere else, but we can see what is like it in kind if not in degree.

 GENERAL VIEW.

 No one gets an adequate idea of the magnitude of the Exhibition at first. Per haps the best way to arrive at it is to go up the stairways leading from the center to the top of the building. Here we can see the wonderful show of goods, and the sea of heads stretching away in both di- rections. The building is about thlrd of mile in length and the value of the exhibit is simply incalculable. If Alad- din's royal fsther-in-law had boon asiLed to fill single section of this great fair, we imagine he would have broken down as completely as he did in his memorable attempt to complete a single window of that other fairy palace.

 RUSSIA, ETC.

 Russia has done herself extraordinary credit, and, next to Japan, her exhibit was to us the most interesting of all. Her malachite is the most beautiful stone that we saw exhibited, not even excepting the Mexican onyx. England furnishes prob ably the richest, as it IS the most exten- sive exhibition of any foreign country The solid magnifcence of her furniture, tiled mantels, silverware. porcelain and Doulton ware, and the beauty and rich ness of her fabrics are unequalled. How ever, it is more like our own exhibit, more like what we have all seen something like before, than that from most foreign coun- tries The Bohemian glass of Austria is a wonderful exhibit. Its delicate figures and tracery are inconceivabiy beautiful. It.is of unearthly loveliness-the poetry of glass ware. France has probably the finest display of bronzes, though our has, ty examination gives us no right to speak of more than impressions on this, or in fact any other subject connected with the great fair. Ladies are said also to take special interest in the tapestries, silks and fancy articles exhibited by this sprightli- est and most fashionable of European peoples.

 MACHINERY HALL.

 From the Main Building we drift over, most naturally. to Machinery Hall. Here the inadequacy of time for thorough ex- animation IS felt even more keenly than at the Main Building. The first glance gives some notion of fabric, beautiful mantel, a porcelain vase, or even of g picture. A machine is nothing but g muddle of polished brass and iron to the casual observer. Even the great Corliss engine which sets Machinery Hall in mo engines to the uninitiated. Still there arc operations going on which interest ever the unskilled observer: the weaving o silks, carpets, woolens, etc. etc; paper making, scroll saving, glass making printing, ithographing, candy making and other manufactures, seen in mos cases for the first time, cannot fail to in terest those who have before scarcely the rudiment of an idea concerning them.

 We were specially interested in the working of diamond tooth saw for stone cutting in one of the "annexes" of this Hall. The saw is circular, some eigh feet in diameter, we should judge. ani has black diamond ingeniously inserted instead of the ordinary tooth. There ar. some fifty of these diamonds in the whol, wheel. On tic bed of the machine wal fastened block of free-stone about 24 it by 6; and, from this block the diamond saw would slice slab, of the full size O the block, in thirteen minutes. The slal was cut apparently as even in thickness and as smooth of surface as can be don' by any of the slow processes now in use It was really an astonishing sight this O the saving of stone almost with the rap idity that an ordinary sawmill saw cuts it's way through log. The price of thi machine is $10, ,000. .and we were assured by it's proprietor that there is no percepti ble wearing away of the diamonds by use SHOE AND LEATHER BUILDING. ETC. Another annex to Machinery Hall is tn, Shoe and Leather building, where th' process of the making of shoes by machi nery can be watched with interest. B, the way, the cheapest lunch we have see, is at the north entrance of Machiner, Hall. Here the cautious visitor can get glass of milk for five cents, and it is , much cheaper beverage in the long rul than the water which Philadelphians in