[231] - To the department of Liberal Arts was assigned a floor space of 400,000 square feet, or more than ten times the room allotted for similar purposes at the Centennial Exposition. It was at first intended to place the exhibits in the southern end of the hall of Manufactures, and about equally divided between its ground and gallery floors. But as finally arranged, the only group on the main floor is that of musical instruments, which occupies nearly 70,000 feet in the southeastern portion. Here is a large and varied display of organs and pianos, fashioned by some of the foremost makers in the United states, with historical collections and handsome pavilions devoted to special exhibits, national and individual.

Of foreign powers only Russia and Austria are represented by small exhibits, the Austrian collection forming a combined display of Viennese musical manufactures, among which the zithers are especially noticeable for superior Viennese musical manufactures, among which the zithers are especially noticeable for superior workmanship. The entire department has many specimens of self-vibrating pieces; of stringed instruments played with the fingers and the bow, as banjos, guitars, harps, and violins; those provided with key-boards, and wind instruments, from simple fifes to complicated orchestral pieces or huge orchestrions.

Chief among the historic groups, and indeed the only one that can be termed a purely historic collection, is that of L. Steinert, of New Haven, who exhibits, among other curios, Bach�s clavichord, one of the earliest of Keyed instruments, which gives forth a thin and feeble tone. The collection includes several specimens of old-fashioned harpsichords and spinets, among them Mozart�s spinet, upon which he composed many of his grand sonatas. There is also Beethoven�s grand piano of six and a half octaves, with frame of rosewood and hinges of brass. Near this is Haydn�s piano in a white oaken case, of deeper and fuller tone than most of the earlier instruments. [232] Other interesting relics are an eighteenth century harpsichord, with double board and keys of tortoise shell and ivory, its case profusely decorated with floral designs, and a piano built in London in 1776 for Martha Washington.

The exhibits of the United States cover the entire range of musical appliances, including not only all modern instruments, but their accessories, and the materials of which they are made. New York manufactures display, for instance, felts, hammers, wheels, discs, and cones, with spruce sounding-boards made from forest woods in the Adirondacks. In their pavilion are also illustrated the various processes in the manufacture of felt, from the raw material to the finished product. A Boston house exhibits in the way of musical specialties pianos, cabinet organs, one of the last decorated in white and gold, and its pipe top representing the Bay State capitol on Beacon Hill. But the largest collection is that of a Chicago firm, in whose two-story pavilion, decorated in terra cotta and gold, are many rare and costly instruments. One division is filled with harps of massive workmanship, highly polished and ingeniously decorated, ranging in value from $700 to $2,200. In an adjoining case are dainty mandolins and guitars, one of the latter a Stradivarius of the date of 1680, for at times the great artificer fashioned other musical instruments than violins. In an adjoining section is an array of banjos, and elsewhere are bass drums, and huge batons with massive heads and gold and silver. Together with the drums and batons is a strange looking stringed instrument, the body of which is a large bamboo. This is a reproduction of the mahati, or great vina, one of the favorite instruments of Upper India during the thirteenth century. In this pavilion a winding stairway leads from the main exhibits on the ground floor to a small recital hall above, where daily concerts are given by performers on the harp and guitar.

[233] - But the bulk of the musical exhibits, and the choicest specimens of mechanical and artistic workmanship, are found in the hundreds of pianos, which testify more than all else to the growing tastes of music loving people. Mahogany, rosewood, satin wood, ebony, cedar, oak, ash - all the cabinet woods of the tropic and temperate zones - enter into their construction. Some are enamelled; some are finished in white and gold; others in ebony and gold; many being elaborately carved, though not a few are merely painted by hand. In style of architecture they differ almost as widely as the homes of the Fair, and this remark applies also to the organs, of which there is a choice collection.

To the educational groups were assigned about 175,000 square feet, including the entire southern aisle of the gallery, and a portion of the eastern and western aisles adjacent. Here is probably the most comprehensive collection of the kind every brought together, including specimens, descriptions, apparatus, models, and programmes pertaining to every grade and class of education, from the kindergarten to the university, and to schools of medicine, law, and the mechanic arts. To these groups more than thirty states and territories have contributed, with several foreign powers, and some fifty universities and colleges; but of the four acres or more of educational exhibits therein contained, only the more salient and interesting features can here be noticed.

In the sections occupied by the United States is fully illustrated the progress of [234] educational science within the brief span of years that have elapsed since the opening of the Centennial Exposition. The kindergarten or play-school system which Friederich Frobel introduced in Germany, well nigh half a century ago, was then in its infancy. As to the Pestalozzian system there were few, even among professional teachers, who knew anything more than its name. Manual training schools were almost unknown, and if in the Philadelphia display there was anything suggestive of methods more advanced than those which had sufficed for at least the lifetime of a generation, it is not recorded in the annals of her Fair. Memorizing was then, as today it is, an all too prominent feature in the curriculum, and especially the memorizing of rules which, on leaving school or college, the student will surely make hast to forget.

To each of the exhibiting states is allotted a separate space in the group to which it belongs, and where are represented not only its public school system, but its denominational, normal, scientific, technical, and other schools and colleges. There are also collective exhibits showing the organization and management of school libraries, of commercial and industrial schools, of schools where trades are taught, and of institutions for the deaf and dumb, the blind and feeble-minded. A feature of the entire display is the specimens of handwork, with drawings and maps, essays, and answers to given questions on subjects assigned to the pupils of participating institutions, thus showing the achievements and acquirements of their alumni as the result of scholastic training. Statistics are [235] presented both in the form of text and diagrams, showing school populations, the ratios of elementary, secondary, and superior education, race, sex, attendance, revenue, and other data in this connection.

Of the fourteen million pupils and 400,000 teachers represented in the educational exhibits of the United States, about one-tenth belong to the state of New York, to which was allotted a liberal space in the southern aisle of the gallery, and thence northward in a parallel line with the Massachusetts section. On a chart fourteen feet square, made by the pupils of the Albany high school, are portrayed in attractive form the school statistics of New York. Of the products of her manual training schools there are selected samples. In 150 phonographs may be noted the various systems of singing as taught in as many schools. Of kindergarten specimens there is a large collection, especially from Rochester, Buffalo, and Albany, with photographs showing the children at work or play. Beginning with the best work of the primary grades, we come to that of the intermediate grades, and then to the exhibits of high schools and academies, culminating with those of Columbia college and other institutions in which are represented our higher system of education.

Founded in 1784, the state university has no counterpart in this republic, for with it are affiliated some 500 colleges and academies, and in its system are included the state library, the state museum, and other libraries and museums admitted by the regents to association. The university of the city of New York has on exhibition the publications of the faculty for the past sixty years, among them the works of John W. Draper, whose History of the Intellectual Development of Europe has been translated into a score of languages. There are also scientific apparatus invented by the professors, with charts and papers illustrating their methods of teaching and examination. Of special interest is a photographic portrait of Draper�s sister, taken by the historian [237] in person, presented to Sir John Herschel, and recently found among the posthumous papers of the great astronomer. This is probably one of the oldest of existing photographs of the human face. Another curiosity is the original battery used by Samuel Morse, fashioned in the room now occupied by the junior class of the University law school. On the label of the case which contains it is the following extract from an address delivered by Morse at a meeting of the alumni in 1853: "Your Philomathean hall - the room I occupied - that room in the university was the birthplace of the recording telegraph."

To the Massachusetts section many cities and towns have contributed, forming a complete illustration of her educational methods and results. As in the New York and other sections, the public-school exhibits lead up to and are connected with those of higher institutions of learning, at the head of which is the university; for such is the system generally adopted by exhibiting states. Of the elaborate collections of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and other universities and colleges, grouped as many of them are in proximity, it is unnecessary here to make other than passing mention. They include among their exhibits, pictures, diagrams, and models of their buildings and grounds, their museums, libraries, laboratories, and assembly-halls, with college and other publications, and with portraits of professors and alumni who have won for themselves distinction and repute. There are also manuscripts, missals, charters, and other documents in the original or in facsimile, with relics and curios that cannot be purchased for gems or gold. In this allusion to university and college displays, the term is here applied to such institutions proper; for in the United States the word college is of wide application, and in these booths is a vast range of illustrations, from these in Latin and Greek to plates showing the relative values of lucerne and oaten hay.

In connection with these exhibits may be mentioned that of the College fraternity, whose site in the northwest corner of the gallery is marked by a reproduction of the Choragic monument of Lysicrates. The side walls of the pavilion are in imitation of ebony, with gilt ornamentation; and here are the badges characteristic of the so-called Greek letter societies. In bookcases is contained the literature of the fraternity, in the form of bound volumes, magazines, and college annals, and under the clear-story window included in their space are portraits of their prominent men, with charters, symbols, and historic documents.

Near the Massachusetts section, and extending thence westward along the southern aisle, are the groups of other New England states, each with a characteristic display. A feature in their collections, and especially in the Connecticut section, is the sewing work represented in articles of attire or domestic use, most of it handiwork of girls under twelve years of age. Except for New York, Pennsylvania has the largest collection among the middle states, and one of excellent quality, for her educational system is on a par with her material greatness, as is attested by the superior workmanship and finish of her specimens. New Jersey has a compact and skillfully combined exhibit, with many original and suggestive features.

Ohio is mainly represented in the separate exhibits of three of her principal cities, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Toledo, these being the only instances in which city schools occupy a prominent place. Missouri, with her ample school fund, has a good display of educational work, with a chart showing the location of her [238] school-houses, and filled with statistical and other information. In Louisiana�s exhibit is fully illustrated the progress of the southern states, New Orleans contributing the bulk of the collection. Minnesota�s section is arranged with a view to artistic effect, and of special interest are the specimens from the manual training schools of Minneapolis, Duluth, and Stillwater, and those of children�s sewing which St. Paul and Minneapolis have furnished. In the booths of Iowa are maps, drawings, photographs, statistics, and other collections in which are portrayed all the branches of her educational system. Colorado, though one of the youngest of the states, has furnished sufficient evidence that she is one of the most progressive in educational, as in other matters. In addition to numerous articles of school-work, the artistic qualities of her school architecture is shown in photographs, and there are models of the first school-house and the new high-school building completed in 1892 at Colorado Springs. California and Oregon are strongly represented, the former by an elaborate and the latter by a compact exhibit of school and college systems, appliances, and results.

As to other participating states and territories, what has already been said will serve to indicate the general character of their display. Their remains, however, to be described, the largest of all the educational groups, that of the catholic exhibit, occupying 29,000 square feet in the eastern aisle of the gallery. To gather and classify this collection was almost a three years� task, and as the result we have one of the most attractive features in the department of Liberal Arts; attractive to all classes of visitors, whatever their creed or sect. In no sense of the word is this a sectarian demonstration; nor is it in the nature of a religious propaganda, except so far as it represents the influence of the church on the education of its people, forming a material exposition of what the church has done and is doing for the cause of education. In a word it is what it pretends to be, and that is a school and college exhibit under catholic auspices.

At a meeting held in Boston in July, 1890, about which time, it will be remembered, the Exposition began to assume tangible shape, the archbishops of the United States, with Cardinal Gibbons at their head, extended an invitation to the principals of all catholic institutions of learning to aid in preparing and organizing the exhibits. The preliminary arrangements were made in Chicago and St. Louis, Bishop Spaulding accepting the presidency, and Brother Maurelian the office of secretary and manager of the commission. Then quietly and steadily they went to work, and with such good will that in the completed collection are represented nearly all their educational establishments throughout the republic, with many beyond the seas. In addition to the exhibits of parish schools, academies, colleges, and universities, are those of normal schools, of schools of science and technology, of commercial, industrial, and manual training schools, of schools for negroes and Indians, of kindergartens and orphanages, and of benevolent and reformatory institutes.

Almost in the centre of the group is a statue of Archbishop Feehan, carved in Carrara marble, and of chaste and elegant design. This was presented by the priests of the diocese of Chicago, and on the pedestal is inscribed beneath his name the simple legend: "The Protector of our Schools." Around it are arranged in booths the exhibits of the various dioceses of which nearly all the principal schools are represented. The collections include every [239] description and grade of educational work; but with no distinctive classification of the various grades, as in those of the public schools. Of parish schools several hundred are here represented, the dioceses of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Buffalo having the largest number. Add to these the exhibits of higher institutions of learning, and of industrial, charitable, and reformatory institutes, and some idea may be formed as to the magnitude of the display, representing, as it does, the aggregate results accomplished by all the numerous orders of priesthood and sisterhood, to whose care are intrusted the educational interests of catholic America.

Among the more interesting exhibits is the display of industrial work, not arranged, as elsewhere in separate groups, but in the booths of the several dioceses, where side by side are specimens from schools of technology, orphan asylums, and reformatory schools; for in these classes of work the church makes no distinction. In certain of the booths, however, there are special displays, as in that of the St. Nicholas reform school at Paris, where are musical instruments, tapestries, laces and draperies, silver-plated ware, and decorative articles in bronze and copper, all these and others the handiwork of the pupils. Several booths are filled with samples from New York orphanage, including, among others, wood-carvings, mechanical drawings, metal-work, and brush and rope-making. And so with the diocesan collections, for in most of the dioceses are similar asylums, and one or more industrial and manual-training schools.

Of school and college buildings, with their chapels, classrooms, lecture-halls, libraries, and grounds, there are many drawings, paintings, and photographs. In graphic art are also represented groups of students and teachers, of music and sewing classes, and the workshops of training and industrial schools. Of paintings on porcelain, of free-hand crayons, mechanical and perspective drawings, and drawings from nature, there is a large collection, together with maps and hypsometric models of cities and countries. Printing and type-writing, plain and ornamental, electrotyping, carpentry, shoe-making, tailoring, needle-work, wax-work, as well as other useful arts and industries, are represented in the catholic exhibit.

Elsewhere in the educational section are the special exhibits of industrial and training schools, art and medical schools, business colleges, asylums, and other institutions not connected with the catholic church. Among the training schools represented are those of Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Toledo, the Carlisle Indian school, and the Hampton Normal and Agricultural institute for Indians and negroes, the two last pleading in silent eloquence for these wards of the republic. Worthy of note are the leather manufactures in the form of harness, satchels, trunks, and shoes, and the carved and inlaid wood and cabinet work.

[240] - The groups representing asylums for the deaf, dumb, blind, and feeble-minded form an elaborate display, and one in which are fully illustrated the most humane and intelligent methods of treatment and training. Manual work of a rough description the visitor would probably expect to find among the exhibits of schools for the blind; but to see there printed publications, free-hand drawings, and the finest of crochet work is somewhat of a surprise. A Washington institute for the deaf has contributed a replica of the monument erected at the national capital in honor of Gallaudet the elder, by whom was founded in Philadelphia the first American institute for deaf-mutes. Even from insane asylums are specimens of useful workmanship, for in such are not a few possessed of the rational faculty in a greater degree than many outside their walls.

Among the art institute represented in this department are those of Chicago and St. Louis, the Cooper union, the Boston museum and the New York art students� league, her academy of arts, and her Philadelphia school of design. In all these exhibits are illustrated by specimens the several courses in drawing and designing, together with systems of instruction, and their results in the competitive display of classes and pupils. In the medical section are the exhibits of eclectic, homoeopathic, pharmaceutic, and other colleges. [241] The principal business colleges of the United States, apart from those under catholic auspices, have a collective display in the western gallery, with specimens of penmanship, stenography, and telegraphy, together with a class-room in actual operation, showing the workings of such institutions. Finally in the exhibits of Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, and other colleges and seminaries, together with those of several art schools, is represented the education of women.

Among foreign powers Germany has the largest of the educational exhibits, in her 22,000 square feet of space in the western gallery. And here in truth is a display well worthy of a country famed for her thorough and scientific system of education, one in which the student may read that system almost as thoroughly as though he had traveled thousands of miles to study it. In this collection is a complete and explicit demonstration of the methods employed in the various grades, with plans, illustrations, statistics, and such other data as may render those methods intelligible. There are maps showing the location of all the higher institutions of learning, with paintings, photographs, and models of German schools, and geographical charts, some of them 400 years old, side by side with those of modern date.

The educational exhibits proper are classed in three divisions, in two of which are those relating to public, normal, and high schools, to colleges of various grades, to asylums, and to the training of teachers. Among these collections are specimens of pupils� work, not specially prepared for the purpose, but selected as a fair illustration of what is being accomplished in the various school departments, including the manual training schools. In the high school section are represented the latest and most practical teaching methods, especially in the natural sciences, which occupy an important place in the curriculum. There are also the annual reports of all the higher institutions of learning, including those for 1892, with histories of some of the oldest and most celebrated schools.

But the most interesting of all the exhibits is that of the universities, twenty in number, and occupying about one-half of the space allotted to the German section. While in part of a special character, and intended to illustrate their leading education features, there is much that is of general interest. First of all are large photographic views of the buildings, with elaborate plans and descriptions of each. On the walls are portraits of eminent professors and men of science, among them one of Alexander von Humboldt, of Kekule, and August Wilhelm Hofmann, from the royal library and national gallery of Berlin. Of autographs and autographic letters there is a choice collection, including those of Charlemagne, Louis the German, Karl I, Goethe, Schiller, Kant, Winkelmann, and a despatch to the great ex-chancellor from Wilhelm I. On a facsimile of a page in the church register at Bonn is recorded the birthday of Beethoven; all these and other treasures from university and state libraries, which have contributed, in 3,000 handsomely bound volumes, the best works of German scientists, inventors, and discoverers, with all the leading scientific periodicals.

Together with models of ancient and modern laboratories and apparatus for scientific investigations are reproduced many of the principal inventions and appliances, including the telegraphic instrument fashioned by Gauss and Weber, in which is embodied Faraday�s system of insulation, and the apparatus with which Kirchoff and Bunsen developed their method of spectrum analysis. There is also the first mirror which [243] Helmholtz constructed, and the air-pump which Otto von Guericke invented in 1650. A Guessfeld outfit includes all that is usually needed for scientific and exploring expeditions, and in botanical tables and charts is illustrated the mode of introducing and propagating exotic plants.

Of chemical specimens, small in size but large in number, there is a valuable assortment, mainly from the German chemical society, and so with mineralogy, zoology, and other natural sciences, most of which are here represented; but for the speculative sciences there is no place in the German section. A special exhibit by Rudolph Virchow, one of the foremost of pathologists, is in the form of a lecture hall, specially equipped for his purpose, and with a large anatomical collection; in another is reproduced an operating and dissecting room, and a third consists of a food collection for army and other purposes where concentrated nourishment must be produced at the smallest cost. But of all the special exhibits, perhaps the most interesting is that of bacteriological specimens and apparatus by Robert Koch, with bacilli of all known varieties stored in glass cases, and the instruments with which they are detected and placed under the light of the microscope.

In connection with the German section may also be mentioned the display of scientific instruments by more than forty manufactures, fully sustaining the high repute of German craftsmen in this direction. Among them are lenses of all descriptions and sizes, and in every stage of manufacture, from the rough pebble or glass to the finished article, with photographs from such as are used in that art, as nearly perfect as photographs can be. For these and for optical and surveying instruments, both of which are here represented, there is [244] a large and increasing foreign demand. The astronomical instruments are of superior finish and precision, with ingenious methods for minimizing the effect of errors in construction.

Somewhat in contrast with Germany�s elaborate display is England�s exhibit, in which there is less to interest, less even than in those of her dependencies of Canada and New South Wales. This calls to mind the fact that England was among the last of the great powers to accept, as a nation, the responsibility of providing methods and means for public education. It was not until recent years that the evolution of her public school system was fairly commenced, and even yet she has no such coherent and comprehensive system as those of Germany and the United States. In the mother country the phrase public school is applied to Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and other endowed institutions, some of them founded in the fourteenth, and not a few in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These and others established by religious denominations or through private benefactions, were, apart from her universities and private schools, about all that England had to show in the way of education.

In the exhibits of the London school board are specimens of writing, map-drawing, designing, modeling, wood, iron, brass, needle, and kindergarten work, with school-books, materials, apparatus, models, and diagrams. Some are framed or pasted on cards, an to others cards are attached with inscriptions, giving the names of exhibitor and exhibit. From the Whitechapel craft school are drawings and models illustrating the system of manual instruction. In the exhibit of the Oxford examination schools are portrayed the history and method of university extension. Trinity College, Dublin, has a collection of anatomical models, and from schools of art are some of the drawings, paintings, models, and designs executed by their pupils.

In this connection may be mentioned the elaborate collection of photographs, adjacent to the educational display, in which are represented most of the prominent photographers of [246] Great Britain. There are also engravings, etchings, and photogravures from art societies and art publishing firms and associations. Elsewhere in this section are specimens of book-binding, and an assortment of newspapers illustrating the development and characteristics of British journalism.

Canada is represented by the educational exhibits of the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, housed in cheerful and tastefully furnished booths. Here are contributions from some 200 of the principal schools, most of them under catholic auspices, and including all branches of education, from primary to high school grades and special course. Classroom work is freely distributed, with samples skillfully arranged, and displaying the aptitude and proficiency of the pupils. Of excellent quality are the relief-maps, the specimens of ornamental drawing and penmanship, and the embroidery and other needlework, the last from the institutions of the sisters of Notre Dame. Elsewhere in this section, and of similar character, are the collections of secular schools and colleges, with representations of the educational systems of the northwest provinces. In galleries of photographs are depicted scenes in the Rocky mountains, in Nova Scotia, and on the banks of the St. Lawrence, together with the public buildings of Ottawa. Of musical instruments there is a small assortment, and the Scotch element finds expression in a display of curling stones of Toronto manufacture.

In the narrow space allotted to New South Wales are several hundred photographs in the highest style of art, portraying the history of Sydney, almost from the day when the British flag was unfurled on the shores of Port Jackson amid a group of naked, gibbering savages. Among them is one of the largest photographs in existence, reproducing the harbor of Sydney, one of the most beautiful in the world, and the largest on the southern continent except for Hobson�s bay where Melbourne sits enthroned, and in the centre of which its shores appear in faintest outline, even under the bright Australian sky. In other photographs are depicted the public buildings and statuary of the metropolis, her parks and pleasure grounds, with the mountain and river scenery, the forestry and agriculture of a colony almost equal in area to the entire Pacific coast. There are also collections of water colors, one representing the animals, another the birds indigenous to the country, and supporting the Australian coat-of-arms, over the entrance to the pavilion, are the largest kangaroo and the largest emu that could be secured and stuffed for the purpose. Of natural specimens there is a choice assortment, including birds of brilliant plumage, and the web-footed ornithorhyncus, or platypus, with the bill of a duck, the eyes of a fish, and the fur of a seal. The Technological museum has a display of classified wools, and many varieties of timber and plants of economic value. For journalism a corner is reserved, while educational exhibits in the stricter sense of the term are restricted to those of the public schools, and to specimens of work from the deaf and dumb institute under government auspices.

The exhibits of France in the eastern aisle of the gallery consist largely of samples of work from her polytechnic and training schools, both of which are prominent features in the educational system of this country. The public schools are also represented, as are the commercial and night schools. All the exhibits are grouped [247] with the true artistic taste of the Frenchman, forming, as a whole, a complete illustration of school life, with exercises and examinations, and with text-books arranged in regular order and adapted to every grade, from the primary school to the university.

But the most interesting feature in this section is a representation of the library systems of France, together with her stationers�, booksellers�, and bookbinders� trades. Among rare and valuable works is De Lamennais� Imitation de Jesus Christ, its 102 quarto pages all decorated in different designs, with four large pictures from manuscripts of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, and with ciselure work such as is found in the illuminated manuscripts of bygone ages. A priceless treasure is the Heures, belonging to the first quarter of the thirteenth century, in small octavo on vellum, with French and Latin characters, and miniatures painted on gold ground in relief, all in the purest of classic style. Other curiosities are a reproduction in old morocco of Madame de Pompadour�s writing-case, with flowers in mosaic; a prayer-book with borders, miniatures, and Gothic letters executed in silk; a Livre de Marriage, with bas-relief in carved ivory, and a card-case representing the finest cuir-cisele work of the renaissance. Still another rare work describes the triumphant entry of Charles IX into his capital, and in Ces Presentes Heures, Paris, 1498, is a miniature figure of an angel, copied from the prayer-book of Anne of Britanny.

Under the auspices of the Cercle de la Librairie, founded in 1847 on the eve of the revolution, and including more than 400 members, a catalogue was specially prepared for the occasion, containing much that is of interest. Here may be read the history of the more famous printing and publishing houses, one of them founded in the seventeenth and several in the eighteenth century; for in France a business, once fairly established is often preserved in the family for several generations. Sixty of the members of this association are represented in the French section, and among their exhibits are many choice works, especially in ouvrages de lux. Of these may be mentioned Les Maitres Florentins de XV Siecle, with illustrations from original paintings and sculptures in the Thiers collection; the first of two folio volumes by Edouard Rouveyre, relating to the manuscripts of Leonardo de Vinci, with copies of the originals; Charles Blanc�s Histoire des Peintres, and le Vasseur�s editions of Buffon and La Fontaine. Other editions de luxe are from a publishing house in Tours, whose establishment covers six acres in the heart of the city and from which are issued several millions of volumes a year. Other publications [248] worthy of note are illustrated editions of Victor Hugo�s works, one in forty-eight and another in seventy volumes, and those of Sir Walter Scott in thirty volumes, of which only twelve are on exhibition, with illustrations by the foremost of French artists, costing or to cost, when completed some twenty years hence, the sum of $150,000.

Russia has much to show in her 1,000 square feet of gallery space, largely occupied by specimens from hundreds of orphan and other asylums with their hundreds of thousands of inmates. Among their specimens of needlework is a beautiful piece of embroidery representing the arrival at Russian ports of American vessels laden with grain. This is the handiwork of St. Petersburg school-girls from twelve to fourteen years of age, and at the close of the Fair is to be presented, as a token of gratitude, to the wife of President Cleveland, while for the president himself was fashioned a mantel ornament in gold and silver thread, interwoven on a background of dark red silk. From national and private schools and other educational and charitable institutions are many collections, and especially from those under imperial patronage. In addition to samples of work are models, charts, statistics, and illustrations pertaining to matters educational throughout the broad realm of the tzar. These, together with everything else contained in the department of Liberal Arts, except for a few articles of special value, are to be distributed among the benevolent and other institutes of the United States.

Among the exhibits grouped in this section is that of the postal service, with life-sized figures of officials, and with mail-pouches littering the tables and floor as though cast aside by the carriers. The carriers themselves are represented in realistic fashion by models and pictures, one traveling over the snow in a reindeer sledge, another in a cumbersome horse cart, and a third mounted on a camel, with others toiling afoot through rugged mountain passes, the entire group being intended to illustrate the difficulties connected with the service and the means by which they are overcome throughout the broad realm of the Russias, covering as it does one-sixth of the land surface of the globe. The War department, in its several divisions, has also a liberal display, including plans of the military prison at St. Petersburg, and of the corn granaries erected near Warsaw to be used as storehouses in case of siege. Then there are the uniforms and musical instruments of the various army corps, and books relating to the science of fortification and other branches of warfare. In charts are indicated the proportion of food elements in the daily ration of pupils of the military schools, and the stature of Moscow school children. The Pedagogic museum has models of the many ethnological types of which the population of the empire is composed, [250] with cabinets filled with minerals, skeletons, and mounted specimens of animals and birds.

Austria has no educational exhibits, except for the models, school apparatus, and musical instruments, displayed by business firms. Italy has only a few educational publications and reports, and Belgium, a few plans and designs for school-houses, with a model of a school for basket-making, also from private firms. Denmark is represented by models, drawings, and implements from a Copenhagen society for encouraging manual labor in homes and schools and by a method of teaching drawing to feebleminded children. In Mexico�s section, where are large transparencies of President and Mrs. Diaz, are fully illustrated the improvements in her school system during the present regime. Here also is an assortment of musical instruments, and a museum stocked with the birds and animals native to our sister republic. Japan has a large and exhaustive collection, one fully explaining the organization of her public schools as developed within recent years, largely on the American plan, and with the aid of American teachers. All the workings of that system are here on exposition, from the kindergarten and primary grades to the high school and the imperial university. There are also colleges of art, engineering, technology, and agriculture, with commercial schools, and schools for the blind and mute. From many of these are specimens of work and apparatus, with diagrams or models of buildings, records, reports, regulations, and statistics. From the pupils of the government schools are many samples of needlework; pen-drawings, crayons, and colored sketches; artificial fruits and flowers; native woods and [252] models in wood of buildings and bridges; decorated porcelains and other ceramic ware, and an entomological cabinet illustrating the insect life of Japan.

Considered as one comprehensive display of what has and is being accomplished the world over in the cause of education, we have in these sections by far the most complete and interesting collection that has ever been gathered together. Here may be compared the systems of countries many thousands of miles apart, the systems developed under autocratic and republic rule, denominational systems with those of the state, all grouped within a few thousand square yards of space, and yet presenting a clearer illustration of methods, appliances, and results than could be obtained from an extended tour of the world. While the entire Exposition is of itself in the nature of an educational display, the strongest factors in that display are the groups which reproduce in miniature what the world has to show us in the art of teaching - an art, indeed, it may properly be termed, for the true pedagogue, like the poet, is born, not made.

In the central section of the northern gallery is illustrated the entire domain of photography, with the reproduction of photographs and works of art, forming a collection which goes far to prove the oft repeated statement that no branch of art or science is becoming so rapidly perfected and popularized. Here are chambers filled with the most finished specimens of albertypes, aristotypes, steel engravings, wood-cuts, photo-engravings, half-tones, and wash drawings, from the large clear photograph of a locomotive at full speed, caught by the instantaneous process, to the most delicate gems of workmanship.

Except to the specialist, the display of surveying and engineering instruments, and of meteorological, optical, and astronomical apparatus is of no great interest; but in this connection is the most striking exhibit in all the department of Liberal Arts, in the form of an equatorial telescope, sixty-five feet in length, with a lens forty inches in diameter, and weighing, apart from its foundations, nearly seventy tons. In weight it is about fifty per cent and in power twenty-five percent greater than the Lick telescope at the Mount Hamilton observatory, the gift of a California millionaire to the cause of astronomical science, [253] and with this exception the largest in the world. Yet so delicate is he workmanship and so perfectly balanced the parts, that the tube and declination axis to which it is attached, weighing together 16,000 pounds, can be moved by the pressure of a forefinger. Built by the artificers of the Lick instrument for a wealthy and public-spirited citizen of Chicago, the Yerkes telescope, located near the northern end of Columbia Avenue, will find a permanent home in the Geneva observatory in connection with the University of Chicago.

Beyond the galleries of photographs, engravings, and exhibits relating to the reproduction of color or form, are the collections of United States publishers, some of them so arranged as to display not only mechanical processes, but the original sketches of artists and manuscripts of authors whose works have won for them repute. Here one may read somewhat of the history of several of the great publishing houses of the United States. Thus in the pavilion of Harper and brothers is the first book published by that firm in 1817, a translation of Senaca�s Morals, a worn and dust-brown volume, by the side of which is a recent edition of She Stops to Conquer, illustrated by Edwin A. Abbey, and the original manuscript of Ben-Hur.

More pictures than books are exhibited by the Century company, and of special interest is its case of Lincoln relics, including his letter accepting the nomination for the presidency, the original draft of his proclamation of 1861, calling for 75,000 troops, the proof sheets of his inaugural address, with corrections and interpolations in his own handwriting, and his message to congress in 1865, proposing compensation to slave-holders, together with portions of his correspondence with Douglas, Grant, and Jefferson Davis. In this collection is the only letter which Jefferson Davis addressed to Lincoln in his official capacity as president of the Confederate States of America. There are also casts of Lincoln�s hands, and a life mask of his features, the latter taken in 1860 by a Chicago artist. In the pavilion of this company is illustrated its system of wood-engraving, and its typographic methods, the latter in a case containing proof-sheets and page-forms of the dictionary. An interesting feature is an article written by Kennan, the Siberian traveler, and mutilated by the Russian censor of the press.

The Scribners have some rare first editions and many specimens of costly and elaborate bindings, the latter contrasting somewhat sharply with the faded yellow cover of a magazine in their collection, bearing the date of 1787 - the first one published in the United States. There are many manuscripts of noted authors, some written with the pen and others with the typewriter, and more expressive than any words that Stanley could have sent are two arrows, tipped with poison, representing an episode in his [254] explorations of the dark continent. Houghton, Mifflin and company�s pavilion is so arranged as to resemble a library, with the busts of authors appearing above their works. The Appletons� exhibit consists mainly of works of art, with a collection of reference books; by other firms juvenile literature is represented, and by a Chicago house are displayed some of the largest maps every made, one of them printed from a single plate. In a word, every department of American literature is here represented, together with certain branches of graphic and delineative art.

Adjoining this section are exhibits which demonstrate the proselyting methods of the various religious associations. Through their publishing houses many of the churches present specimens of denominational literature, and kindred organizations explain by means of printed books, statistics, and diagrams, the workings of their systems and the growth of their orders. The American Bible society has an especially interesting collection, including such rare biblical editions as the King James of 1611; a facsimile of the first page of the first bible every printed, the Mazarin, of 1450; a copy of the Biblia Pauperum, representing the style of printing from wooden blocks, and the Hexapla, showing side by side the Greek text and the six early versions of the scriptures. In the pavilion of this society one may examine copies of its special publications in 300 different languages.

Of the French exhibits on the gallery floor, in the department of Liberal Arts, forming as they do an integral portion and not a mere overflow of her display, mention has already been made. The other foreign powers represented are Great Britain and her dependencies of Canada and New South Wales, Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, Mexico, and Japan, all of them in the western section of the gallery. Italy�s pavilion is in the shape of the letter T, and over its double portal, fashioned in imitation of Carrara marble, on which are painted the royal arms, are suspended the national colors. In addition to such articles as are included in her main collection are Leghorn hats, gold-embroidered satins from Palermo, and armor from Sicily, with musical instruments from Venice, literature from Rome and Milan, and horological and other scientific instruments from all the chief municipalities, among them a clock which as its maker claims, illustrates the theory of perpetual motion.

In the exhibits of other foreign powers are illustrated their reproductive art, their printing processes and their improvements in surgical, medical, and scientific apparatus. The English and German picture galleries have also choice collections of photographs and engravings, loaned by art societies, with contributions from private firms and publishing houses. Japan displays, in addition to her educational exhibits already described, a number of photographs representing her modern ordnance [255] and arsenal, with charts, tables, and other illustrations of her postal system. In the New South Wales section is revealed her progress in manufactures and in the functional departments of government, the former showing remarkable development since the days, not long gone by, when, apart from a few saw and grist-mills, a small woolen factory for the production of coarse blankets and tweeds embodied the entire manufacturing industries of a colony with more than 300,000 square miles of area.

World�s Fair Miscellany - The Yerkes telescope, mentioned in the text, was not placed in position until several weeks after the opening of the Fair. It was not until late in December of 1892 that the contract for making this instrument was assumed by the Cleveland firm of Warner & Swasey, and it was thought that at least a year would be required for the task, the magnitude and delicacy of which it is impossible to over-estimate. The telescope was put together at the Fair, as indeed it must be; for apart from the question of transportation, to place the tube in position on its supporting columns would have required an unobstructed space equal to that of a six-story building with sixty feet of frontage.

Among the Russian exhibits in the Liberal Arts section is the Tolstoi book-case of old oak of brownish hue, with panels in the form of pictures, the design of which is burned into the wood. In one of them Tolstoi is represented at work among the peasantry on his estate; in another, busied over his manuscript and books; in a third, at rest in his garden, and on a fourth is a replica of Repin�s portrait of the great Russian author. The case is filled with his novels and philosophical treatises.

In the American publishers� section are some interesting manuscripts in addition to such as are mentioned in the text, and of special interest to those who love to study the chirography of prominent authors. In backhand writing, but as plain as print, are pages from the pen of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, with the bold, dashing handwriting of Henry James, the angular, feminine handwriting of W. D. Howells, the last manuscript sheet of Frank R. Stockton�s romance of The Lady or the Tiger, and some of the copy of Frances Hodgson Burnett�s story, Little Lord Fauntleroy. Among other specimens are the manuscripts of Mark Twain, Bret Harte, R. H. Stoddard, and E. C. Stedman, with the letter from James Russell Lowell to Joel Benton, in which the former cleared himself from the imputation of lukewarm patriotism, caused by his English proclivities. Finally, there is in this section a historic collection of dictionaries, including the first one published in the English language, compiled by John Bullocker, and bearing the date of 1616; the second, issued in 1623, and written by Henry Cockeram. Thomas Blount�s dictionary of the edition of 1670; Samuel Johnson�s of 1755, and the Imperial dictionary which James Ogilvie published in 1847, many of the features of which are reproduced in the Century dictionary.

Prominent among the Art school exhibits in the southern gallery is that of the Chicago Art Institute which, though one of the youngest, ranks among the foremost in the United States. Its efficiency is largely due to the ability and zeal of the instructors, among whom are such men as Frank Millet and Lorado Taft. The character of its exhibits is indicated in my description of the institute, in the chapter containing a brief historic sketch of Chicago. The collection from the Art students� league of New York is also a creditable display, representing, as it does, modern ideas and methods, [256] modeled largely on the French schools. Objection has been taken to the exhibits of the Pennsylvania academy, on the ground that they reveal too strongly the influence of French impressionists. Boston has sent some excellent studies, and there are small collections from the Minneapolis and Jacksonville schools.

In the exhibits of the university of the city of New York is one of the first telegraphic messages that ever passed over the wires, forwarded by Samuel F. B. Morse on the 24th of January, 1838, and by him and his associates recorded in the university chapel. It reads as follows: "Attention. The universe my kingdom. Right wheel." The message was dictated by Professor Thomas S. Cummings, who afterward filled the chair of art, and on whom had just been conferred a general�s commission. Hence the wording which, though it may have been sent in jest, was none the less prophetic. In this section are represented the several departments of the university, including its school of pedagogy, established at the request of teachers for higher instruction in that science. To Mrs. Benjamin Williamson, a member of that school, one of the advisory committee of the university, herself from the state of New Jersey, I am indebted for valuable information in this connection.

From the university of Philadelphia comes a collection of fragments of Babylonian pottery, bricks, tablets, and ornaments gathered during an expedition sent forth in 1888 under the auspices of that institution. On some of them has been deciphered the signature of Assyrian kings, and on others are strange cuneiform inscriptions, throwing light on the history and customs of the people. From the ruins of the ancient city of Nippur is an assortment covering a period of more than 3,000 years. On a fragment of an axe is an inscription of which the following is a translation: "To Bel, his Lorn Nazi Meruttash Kuri Galzu has presented this axe of bright lapis lazuli, to hear his prayer, to grant his supplication, to accept his sigh, to preserve his life, to lengthen his days."

Other universities and colleges have also many curiosities, only a few of which can here be described. Princeton, for instance, displays a large portrait of Washington, which for more than a century was not removed from its home in Nassau hall. The frame which contains it originally held a portrait of George II, and at the battle of Princeton the picture was destroyed by a cannon-ball, but the frame was left intact. Among other relics are a commencement programme of 1760, printed in Latin, and a number of old diplomas, one of them dated 1749, when the college was located at Newark, and signed by Aaron Burr, father of the vice-president.

In addition to the catholic exhibit mentioned in the text, many of the leading protestant denominations are represented in the educational sections of the department of Liberal Arts, among them the presbyterians, episcopalians, methodist-episcopalians, and Christian brothers.

An exhibit worthy of more than a passing glance is that of the Carlisle Indian school, in the east gallery of the Liberal Arts department. In addition to specimens of penmanship, map-drawing, etc., there is a collection of uniforms, underclothing, and fancy work in glass cases, all made by the pupils, and entirely by hand, as also was a large wagon, with harness and running gear for government use.

Among the educational exhibits in the south gallery is one from the department of scientific temperance in connection with the Woman�s Christian Temperance union. One of the purposes of this organization is to provide for hygienic instruction in the public schools, with special reference to the effects of alcoholic liquors and narcotics.

For the testing of musical instruments provision was made by the department of Liberal Arts, first in an adjacent building at the north end of the peristyle, where is a recital hall with seating capacity for 500 persons, and second in the spaces allotted to exhibitors, who were invited to appoint from their own number a committee to prepare a series of programmes, both for the recital hall and the musical sections of the Manufactures building. A necessary regulation was that during the time assigned to special exhibitors, other instruments in the vicinity were to be silent.

South of the Fifty-seventh street, on Stony Island avenue, and adjacent to the Fair grounds, is the International Sunday School building, which is practically devoted to an exposition of the most effective methods of religious work among children, and may be classified in the department of Liberal Arts. Here are headquarters for the Sunday School workers of the United States and Canada.