[543] - While here and there exception may be taken to the arrangement and combination of exhibits, as the grouping of musical instruments in the department of Electricity, and of mail-bags and Leghorn hats in that of Liberal Arts, it is generally conceded that the entire Exposition and each of its divisions and subdivisions have been planned with consummate skill. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the Transportation building. Here, as elsewhere, but here especially are features that claim the attention of every class of visitors; and as the chief of this department states, "Among its main purposes was to fascinate and attract by the presentation of the most striking contrasts; to educate by showing the wonderful achievements of engineering science, and the great results developed from apparently simple discoveries and inventions."

Whether for study or for the mere gratification of curiosity, the exhibits grouped in this department are of surpassing interest; for here is presented in most attractive form a complete history of all the known methods and appliances for travel and transportation, barbarous, semi-barbarous, and civilized, from the pack animal to the vestibuled train, and from the dug-out of the savage to the swiftest of transatlantic steamers. In no branch of human endeavor, except in the application of electric power, has such progress been made as here is shown, and nowhere than in this country of magnificent distances has the annihilation of distance been more nearly approached. Yet achievement thus far is but a foretaste of that which is to come; there are those now living who may journey by rail from Paris, possibly without change of cars, to a great world�s fair to be held, let us say, in New York, toward the middle of the coming century.1

[544] - "Of all inventions," remarks Macaulay, "the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civilization of our species." Such appliances are in truth the prime factors of commercial and industrial growth, and never before was such an opportunity for observing their development in all their manifold stages.

In structural detail the Transportation building, with its spacious annex, is one of the simplest and most unassuming of all the Exposition edifices, and yet with a richness of decorative forms that relieves it from poverty of design. But in covering the allotted space of fifteen and a half acres, its architects, the Chicago firm of Adler and Sullivan, had first to consider the character of the display whose housing was to be intrusted to their care, largely consisting of rolling stock and other cumbersome exhibits. Thus it was that architectural symmetry and proportion were made in a measure to give place to considerations of practical utility, that except for the fisheries building, its width in relation to length, is smaller than in any of the principal structures, and that its exterior aspect differs essentially from all the rest.

The Transportation building proper was erected on the southwestern bank of the lagoon which surrounds the wooded island forming a portion of the Horticultural grounds. Opening into it and covering a larger area is the annex, extending westward almost to the limits of the park, and in which are the principal railroad exhibits of the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. In the main facade, separated by the lagoon from the hall of Manufactures [545] and Liberal Arts, is the point of architectural emphasis, "the golden doorway," enclosed by a fretted arch or series of arches resplendent with gilding, and with a chaste embroidery of bas-reliefs and arabesques. Around this portal are symbolic groups representing ancient modes of transportation as contrasted with the luxuries of modern travel. On either side are balconies and terraces, the latter with small kiosks, somewhat in the Mogul style of architecture. The expanse of frontage is further relieved by smaller doorways on either side of the more spacious entrance, and by allegorical figures representing the purposes of the building. At the ends are still other doorways, with several opening from the rear facade, the former with projecting pavilions richly decorated and flanked as in front by terraces. The roof, which is in three sections, the central one rising above the others, and with walls so pierced as to form an arcaded clear story, is surmounted by a cupola 160 feet in height, and surrounded by balconies to which, as also to the galleries, visitors are conveyed by swift-running elevators from the ground floor. From the higher balconies is viewed to the best advantage the city of the Fair.

Of all the Exposition buildings this is the only one whose exterior has been treated with color decorations. Beginning at the base with a light, delicate red, the polychrome treatment culminates in the golden doorway and the spandrels of the arches, in the centre of which are winged female figures, typical of transportation methods. This portion of the design is executed with singular delicacy of technique, the hues interblending in thirty shades, and yet with such harmony that the entire effect is that of a single painting. On the northern side is a line of statuary representing great inventors; on the south, on either side of the doorway, are statues of Stevenson, Watt, Vanderbilt, and others, with figures emblematic of land and water transportation, and on the east are other symbolical groups.

The interior resembles somewhat an ancient basilica, the general plan partaking of the Romanesque, though with features suggestive of the French school as represented in the Ecole des Beaux Arts. But whatever their motif, the artificers of the Transportation hall, by whom were also designed the Auditorium and other prominent buildings recently erected in Chicago, have here adopted a style of treatment at once simple, chaste, and refined.

At right angles to the main interior facades are lines of rails, separated by passage-ways, and so spaced that two pairs gives to each of the bays a width of thirty-two feet. "This," says one of the Exposition architects, "became the module of dimension and the common divisor of the plan, forming the basis of the whole architectural scheme." In the annex, a plain one story building, are also railroad tracks, perpendicular to the [546] transfer table, by the use of which the heaviest of rolling stock was readily placed in position. Along the central nave and elsewhere are long lines of locomotives, burnished to an almost painful degree of brightness. Add to this an endless array of other massive exhibits, to which an imposing vista of colonnades imparts a further emphasis, and we have in the hall of Transportation a spectacle which the visitor does not readily forget.

It was one of the purposes of this department to furnish, in a series of object lessons and with a wealth of detail such as was never before presented in written or illustrative form, a history of that science in all its details, such as carries the mind back from the year of 1893 to cycles long antedating the reign of the Pharaohs. Here, in its three main divisions of railways, vehicles, and vessels, are all known appliances for the conveyance of man, and that which many and nature have produced, with specimens or models of the machinery, and of all else whereby have been evolved the ancient and modern systems of locomotion and transportation. In the railroad groups are included mountain, spiral, and ship railways, with locomotives of every kind, from the one driven by George Stephenson to the hugest of steam leviathans. There are freight and passenger cars; drawing-room, parlor, and dining cars; officers� and private cars; mail, baggage, and express cars; working and construction cars; and if there by any other than these, then are they here on exposition. Here also are illustrated railroad construction, maintenance, equipment, operation, and management, with the history of railroads, exemplified by a collection of rolling-stock and relics, some of them more than half a century old. In the vehicles group are such as are or have been used on common roads, from an ancient war-chariot to a tally-ho coach, from a Chinese wheel-barrow to a brougham and victoria, and from the lumbering Indian bullock-cart to the sleigh and the swift-running bicycle. In the marine division are represented vessels of every form and size, from an African pirogue to an ocean-going steamer, with models of war-ships and war-boats selected from all the nations of the world.

Says the chief of the department, Willard A. Smith: "It is but moderate and fair to state that the railway division has never been approached in extent, variety, and general interest; that the vehicle division is a surprise even to the best informed, and that no previous marine exhibit of the many which have been held [547] compares with this one in variety of detail and number of striking features. Two years ago it would certainly have been deemed improbable and even impossible, that we should secure from Europe a number of locomotives and cars, besides a large amount of railroad material and machinery, in view of the fact that there is no market in this country for such things. Almost equally improbably was considered the assembling here in an inland city of models of the world�s navies, and of more than seventy-five carriages made by the most famous European builders. When this department was organized, no American, not immediately concerned in the work, believed it could be made other than purely American, and not a single country asked for space. Extremely discouraging was the reluctance with which two great foreign powers granted the privilege of reserving - not assigning - for each 15,000 square feet. Briefly, it may be said, that the plans adopted have so won their way that more than one third of the entire space was awarded to foreign countries, with applications for additional areas, some of which we were compelled to refuse."

The railroad exhibits are the most prominent feature in the department of Transportation, including locomotives, cars, railroad trains, and railroad materials and supplies, contributed by many companies and by all the nations whose systems of intercommunication are most fully developed. Here is represented a branch of industry wherein is invested a capital of $28,000,000,000, of which more than one third was supplied by the United States. There is not enough money in the world, including its entire metallic and paper currency, to purchase on half of its railways, and the aggregate banking capital of all the nations forms but an insignificant amount as compared with that which has been sunk in railway enterprise. To civilized communities the railway is almost as necessary as is the circulation of blood to the individual, not only furnishing the means of locomotion, but bringing to our doors nearly everything we eat or drink or wear. Few there were who foresaw the marvellous events accomplished by railroad development, from the time when Stephenson drove his first locomotive at the rate of a dozen miles an hour, with a signal man riding in advance, until today, 60,000 locomotives speed at thrice that rate over 350,000 miles of track. And even in these closing years of the century, railroad enterprise is almost in its infancy, its benefits extending to less than one half of the habitable globe. In the entire continent of Africa there are less than 4,000 miles of road; in eastern and northeastern Asia there are less than 3,000, while South America and Australia have but a few thousand miles. Yet each of these regions could support a larger population than that of the United States, where a few of the leading corporations control a larger roadway and a heavier volume of traffic than all these countries combined.

In passing in review the railway exhibits of the United States, I will begin with that of our pioneer enterprise, the Baltimore and Ohio company, in whose elaborate display, almost in the centre of the annex, is a collection of the railways of the world, from those of most primitive pattern to the Royal [549] Blue Line express now running between New York and Washington. First, however, it may be of interest to sketch briefly the history and condition of our railroad systems, with their 175,000 miles of track, or more than one half the total mileage of the world.

In 1827 was laid the first rough track between Quincy and Boston, for hauling granite by horse-power for the Bunker hill monument. A year or two later a locomotive resembling that which Stephenson built was shipped from England for experimental purposes. It weighed about five tons, and drew on a level road-bed near the town of Honesdale, Pennsylvania, a load of some 30 tons, at a maximum rate of 25 miles an hour, this being considered at the time a marvel of speed and power. Early in 1830 was opened the first section of the Baltimore and Ohio railraod, with wooden rails fastened by bars of iron. It was not until the following year that sufficient cars were built for regular passenger travel, and in July of that year was published in a Baltimore journal the first railway time table issued in the United States. It read in part as follows: "A brigade of cars will leave the depot on Pratt St. at 6 and 10 o�clock A.M., and at 3 and 4 o�clock P.M., and will leave the depot at Ellicott�s Mills at 6 and 8 � A.M., and at 12 � and 6 P.M." Thus did the burghers of Baltimore journey in their brigades of cars, still drawn by horse-power; for not until 1833 were steam-engines placed on the road. Meanwhile, in October 1831, the first passenger train drawn by a locomotive ran between Albany and Schenectady on the Mohawk and Hudson line. The engine used was the John Bull, of historic fame, now occupying a place of honor among the exhibits of the Pennsylvania Railroad company.

As to the discomforts attending these primitive modes of travel, the following extract from Gilpin�s Cosmopolitan Railway may serve as a description: "The cars were of the rudest construction, resembling at first the old-fashioned English stage-coach, and with none of the modern appliances. The seats were narrow, stiffbacked and uncushioned, and the roof of the car so low that in winter ventilation was impossible. At each end a stove warmed the poisonous atmosphere, and at night a single tallow candle gave forth a dim and flickering light. The springs were of the most primitive pattern, causing the vehicle to jolt and the sashes to rattle like those of a modern hotel coach, so that reading and conversation [550] were not to be thought of. The dust was intolerable, and as there were neither spark arresters on the engine nor screens at the windows, the traveller emerged from his car smutted and begrimed as though he had passed the hours in a blacksmith�s shop."

From a score of mile in 1830 the length of track in operation increased to nearly 30,000 miles in 1860. During the time of the civil war less than 3,000 miles were constructed; but in the seven years ending with 1872, the total mileage was almost doubled, and thenceforth rapidly increased until, as I have said, in 1892 there were 175,000 miles of road-bed. Of this about one third lies west of the Mississippi river, a region where in 1850 there was not a single mile of track. In the United States there is on an average a mile of railroad to every 500 inhabitants, while in Europe the average is a mile to every 2,000 inhabitants, the volume of traffic in proportion to population far exceeding that of European countries. The operations of the larger companies are on a colossal scale, some of them handling 40,000 or 50,000 tons of freight a day, and with a corresponding amount of passenger travel. The total of freightage is probably not less than 600,000,000 tons a year, and of passenger fares about 500,000,000, from which the gross earnings may be estimated at $1,100,000,000, and the net earnings at nearly one third of that amount.

In the exhibit of the Baltimore and Ohio company, occupying nearly an acre of floor space, is an almost complete illustration of railroad development, both as to engines and cars, the former arranged as models or originals of locomotives that have become historic. The collection begins with a facsimile of Sir Isaac Newton�s steam carriage, fashioned in 1680 on principles suggested by Hero�s aeropilon, or steam ball, which latter invention bears date 130 B.C. Newton�s apparatus consisted of a copper boiler mounted on a frame which rests on wheels, a pipe with plug valve pointing backward from the boiler, and with the operated seated in front, the reactionary force of the steam, generated by atmospheric resistance, being expected to furnish the motive power. Whether Sir Isaac�s carriage could ever be induced to move, history recordeth not, and it can only be said that, if the one exhibited at the Fair is a faithful reproduction, it does not look as if it could.

Next is a model of a steam carriage, in which is partially reproduced Denis Papin�s invention of 1690. The former was the contrivance of a French army officer, and was intended for military service. It was one of the most cumbersome contrivances that man could devise, its heavy frame mounted on three wheels, the huge kettle-shaped boiler suspended over the single forward wheel, with single-acting cylinders, steering, and other apparatus, the operator seated on a platform, guiding the machine by a double-ended lever connected by gearing with the frame-work of the driving wheel. Greatly to the annoyance of mankind and the terror of horse kind this unwieldy engine made its appearance in the streets of Paris about the year 1769, and was there [551] regarded as a public nuisance, until one day turning a corner near the Madeleine it came to the ground with a crash, was seized by the authorities, and is now one of the curiosities in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers.

Even more ponderous was the engine constructed in 1784 by William Murdock, an engineer employed by the firm of Bolton and Watt. Its boiler rested on a frame in rear of the driving axles, the flue passing through it, the fire box beneath, and the cylinder above, the valve being worked by the walking beam. Of this there is a reproduction on a larger scale in the Baltimore and Ohio collection; but for what purpose it was built, except to demonstrate the possibility of running carriages by steam, does not appear. Certain it is that it could not be intended for practical use.

Three of the Trevithick engines are reproduced, one of them being actually used about the year 1808 as a locomotive; and with it are sections of rails, short, rusty pieces of iron, and the stone ties which preceded those of wood. Then comes the steam dredge which Oliver Evans constructed a few years earlier near Philadelphia. Passing by other models, among them a Blenkinsop engine provided with a cog wheel, the famous Puffing Billy, and the first one patented in the United States, we come to Stephenson�s Rocket, which has been a thousand times described. Not far away is the Stourbridge Lion, built in 1829, and the first used in the United States for locomotive purposes. This is of the grasshopper type, of which there are many specimens in the collection, all somewhat resembling a primitive fire-engine mounted on a flat car. In models or originals are many engines which have done good service in their time, among them the Traveller, the first freight engine of the Baltimore and Ohio road; the Mazeppa, the first with horizontal cylinders; the Hercules, the first with equalizing beams; the Peppersauce, the first to climb Mount Washington; and a Perkins engine built in 1863, and removed from active service to take its place in Transportation hall. All the improvements made within the last three score of years are included in this exhibit, which ends with a Royal Blue express train, at the head of which is one of the most powerful of compound engines, manufactured at the Baldwin Locomotive works. Here are shown progressively and in detail the various stages of development, how the first horizontal boiler replaced the vertical boiler, and the engine whose steam passed upward through the smokestack superseded the clumsy device in which a blower was used to aid combustion. There is also a collection of rails, from such as were laid without flanges more than half a century ago to the modern rail of Bessemer steel. Finally is shown in photographic form the railway machinery used in every quarter of the world.

Adjoining the section occupied by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad is the main exhibit of the Pullman Palace Car company, in which the most attractive features are two complete exhibition trains, a limited and a day train. Both are of finished workmanship, representing in its highest form of development a purely American invention, one opening a new field of progress in which no tentative efforts had been made in other lands. And yet it may be said [552] that, like other valuable inventions, this was almost the result of an accident. Some thirty-five years ago, while travelling by night from Buffalo to Westfield, George M. Pullman lay awake, bethinking him how to convert the rude sleeping car then in use, into a comfortable dormitory on wheels. The idea grew upon him, and in due time he rented a workshop at Chicago, hired skilled mechanics, and applied himself in earnest to the task. The result was the car Pioneer, the first one built, and costing $18,000, or more than four times as much as the best before constructed. Though at first encountering strong opposition, it gradually revolutionized existing theories of construction, for nowhere else could be found such a combination of strength and beauty, with minute elaboration of devices for ease and comfort. From this small beginning was developed the Pullman enterprise, with property valued in 1893 at $60,000,000, and with more than 2,500 sleeping, parlor, and dining cars, carrying 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 passengers a year over the 125,000 miles of railroad under contract with the company.

In all the Transportation department there is no more handsome exhibit than the Pullman Columbian exhibition trains almost in the centre of the annex. At the head of the limited train is one of the most powerful of compound engines, named Columbus, from the Baldwin Locomotive works at Philadelphia. First is the baggage and smoking car Marchena, with bath-room, barber�s shop, writing-desk, and library. Next is the dining-car La Rabida, finished in the finest of vermilion wood imported from Central America, with windows of stained glass in delicate hues, seats elaborately carved, and kitchen which is a model of cleanliness and condensation of space. There are the sleeping car America and the compartment sleeping car Ferdinand, both marvels of comfort and decorative skill, the latter finished in Pompeiian red, and [553] satin wood, artistically carved and polished to a mirror-like brightness, each of its compartments a miniature boudoir, and with separate design and color scheme, as in ivory and gold, in olive green, in blue and satin wood, all with upholstery of silk brocade. The last is an observation car, named Isabella, a portion of which is furnished as a drawing-room, with large railed platform at its end. In this train it would almost seem that the perfection of comfort and convenience had been attained, many skillful devices, though small in themselves, contributing to the general effect. All the compartments are provided with toilet appliances, and with water, hot, cold, and iced. The electric lights are shaded with silken fringe; the entrance ways paved with mosaic, and vases placed on stands remain undisturbed by the motion of the train; so smoothly run these palace cars, the very embodiment of the luxury of modern travel.

In the second train is a mail car of novel pattern, its walls finished with white enamel, with mail boxes of cherry, and all the appliances of railroad postal service. Next is the passenger coach 1893, with the softest of high-backed cushioned seats, the parlor car Maria, with its sumptuous appointments completing the railroad exhibit. All the cars are equipped with the Pullman vestibule, forming a solid yet sinuous train, under a single roof, and allowing the traveller to pass in comfort as in his own home, from sitting to dining or sleeping room. Here for the first time is shown the application of the vestibule system to the entire width of the cars, by extending the sides and enclosing the ends, with an original and ingenious arrangement of entrance doors, and with trap doors above the steps, whereby is avoided the exposure to wind and weather on ordinary cars with open platforms and projecting hoods. A still more important advantage is that it affords practical immunity from danger to passengers even in case of violent collision.

An entirely new and conspicuous feature of these two trains, and one which attracted wide and favorable comment during the Exposition is the application of the vestibule to locomotive tenders, making it impossible for either the tender or the car next to it to be elevated to a position where one would telescope [554] into the other. By its use the locomotive is made a factor of safety in resisting shocks due to collision; and the train is made solidly continuous, practically ensuring the mail clerks, baggage and express men, and engine men, as well as the passengers, from injury in case of collision.

In the Pullman group is also a set of standard six-wheel trucks, with street cars of various patterns, one of them an electric car with upper deck, such as are now in use at Washington. In the centre of the main building, fronting on the longitudinal nave, is a model of the workshops, stores, and dwellings of the town of Pullman, with its 12,000 inhabitants, more than half of whom are operatives actually employed at the works. Of these, further mention is made under the heading of World�s Fair Miscellany.

South of the annex is the pavilion of the New York Central company, a separate edifice in the form of a triumphal arch connecting two side structures, one of them furnished as a waiting room, its walls hung with scenic paintings of landscape views from its lines of route, and the other serving as an office, where information is furnished as to the company�s operations and exhibits. In the court between, with its flooring of mosaic, is a model of the Empire State express engine, 999, the original of which is stationed on tracks outside the building. For this locomotive, which is said to be the fastest in the world, such impossible rates of speed have been claimed as a mile in 32 seconds or 112 miles to the hour. The 999, built [555] for the occasion at the Schenectady Locomotive works, is an eight-wheel engine, long-limbed as a race-horse, with seven-foot driving-wheels, and of plain but handsome appearance. Beneath its huge boiler, with its heating surface of 1,700 square feet, there is room for a tall man to stand upright, while the diminutive smoke-stack is on a level with the curved roof which shelters the engineer. On the tender an inscription indicates the service for which it is destined, the engine and tender weighing together more than 100 tons, and yet running as smoothly as a drawing room coach. The accompanying train consists of Wagner vestibuled cars, and includes drawing room, sleeping, dining, and smoking coaches, most of them decorated in Louis Quatorze style, with elaborate carvings and color scheme of gold, yellow, and pale green.

In contrast with this steam leviathan and its train of palace cars, stands at its side a reproduction of the De Witt Clinton locomotive, with its ramshackle cars, the former having fallen to pieces years ago, though some of the fragments were pieced together and the engine reconstructed from the original specifications. For the coaches the following is a portion of a contract, dated the 23d of April, 1831: "To the commissioners of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad company, Sirs: - I propose and agree to furnish for said railroad company six coach tops, to be finished and hung in the style of workmanship generally adopted in Albany and Troy for post coaches; a baggage rack and a boot to be hung at each end; the length of coach body to be 7 feet and 4 inches, 5 feet wide in the centre and 3 feet 8 inches between the jacks; to have three inside seats, the back to the end seats to be stuffed with moss and all the seats to be stuffed with hair. The whole to be completed [556] as aforesaid for the sum of $310 each. It is understood that the above coaches are not to be provided with lamps or mud leathers."

Here in truth we have the climax and anti-climax of railroad travel, in the palace cars of the Empire State express, costing perhaps $30,000 apiece, and these primitive coaches of three score years ago, costing about one hundredth part of that sum, with their moss-stuffed seats, and without lamps or "mud leathers." As to the engine there is nothing whereunto we can liken it, unless it be to an old fashioned machine that has stood in the rain since the days of the colonial era. Its boiler is hump backed; its tender filled with water barrels, and its overgrown smoke-stack is without spark-arrester, cinders falling in showers on the passengers, who protected themselves with umbrellas, and at times used their coats to extinguish incipient fires. Thus did the good citizens of New York, including Erastus Corning, Governor Yates, and the high constable of the state travel on the pioneer trip from Albany to Schenectady on the 9th of August, 1831, the conductor seated in rear of the tender, and giving the signal to start by blowing a large tin horn. It may have been an interesting but it certainly was not a comfortable excursion; for we learn that the tops of the passengers� umbrellas were burned through, and that each one seized his neighbor�s clothes to extinguish the brands that came from the pitch pine fuel, while, when a stop was made for water, the constant jerking caused by the slack of the cars was relieved by wedging rails between them and tying them fast with packing twine.

Near the pavilion of the New York Central, the Pennsylvania Railroad company erected a tasteful edifice of its own, in the form of a passenger station, behind which a track was laid with standard rails, and a signal tower and foot bridge overhead. Here also was displayed a historic and technical collection, but relating only to lines which have been associated with or merged in its system, showing in models, relief maps, relics, and illustrations in graphic [558] art, the results achieved by this organization, in which were consolidated, between 1846 and 1892 the interests of more than 200 corporations. At either side of the main entrance-way are depictured on panels in relief primitive and modern methods of travel and transportation for periods extending from 1492 to 1892. There are relief maps of termini and of the company�s former and present lines, with relief models of Horse Shoe curve, and of cars, locomotives, and canal-boats. A perspective map, 33 feet long, shows the exact location of every train in its system at six o�clock in the evening of Columbus day, the 21st day of October 1892. A chart explains some of the working of the organization, and impressions from seals the gradual accretion of its corporate interests.

Among the models, most of them about one tenth of the actual size, are a stage coach that ran between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia nearly 70 years ago, and a Conestoga wagon such as was used before the railroad era for eastward travel and transport to the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Of locomotives there are among others models of the one which John Stevens built at Hoboken in 1825, and of the Stockton and Darlington engine No. 1, imported from England in 1826 by William Strickland, and loaned for the occasion by the Franklin institute of Philadelphia. There is the historic John Bull, its model made from the original drawings sent with the engine from Stephenson�s works. After making the trip from New York to Chicago in somewhat less than a week, the engine itself with its two old-fashioned cars was installed in the yards at the terminal station near the Administration building, thus reproducing the first train drawn by a locomotive in New Jersey, the date being the 12th of November, 1831. There is also a rack-rail locomotive constructed for the Madison and Indianapolis railroad, near which are the Herald, which did service on the Baltimore and Susquehanna road in 1831, and the George Washington, built in 1835, the first to ascend a heavy grade.

[559] - Among the models of passenger and freight cars are two stage-body coaches, originally drawn by horse power, and which, with the engine Lancaster, formed the first train run on the Pennsylvania State railroad in 1834. There is one that plied in the same year between the business quarter of Philadelphia and the ferry across the Schuylkill river. To this date also belongs the first car with shingled gable roof, and with straight-backed seats, in which none but a quaker could sit. Of freight cars there is one which did service in 1836, and there is a baggage car built in 1849, the baggage being placed in wheeled crates and carried across ferries without removal. Finally, there are the original cars, built specially for the purpose, by which the Krupp guns were hauled to Jackson park, with models of the guns upon them.

Safety appliances are shown, with train signals, lanterns, and color-blind tests. There are lay figures of trainmen, conductors, brakemen, and other employees in uniform. There are models of tracks laid between 1831 and 1857. There are tug-boats, a ferry boat, lighter, and barge, whose achievements date from 1839 to 1892. There is hoisting machinery by which a 3,000 ton vessel can be loaded in four hours, and there is a model of the first railroad bridge constructed in Pennsylvania, with spans of timber nearly 1,000 feet in length.

In cases and frames is a large museum of railroad relics and curiosities, including more than 1,000 specimens. Among them are rails and chairs laid in 1833; the whistle used by a driver on the old state road in 1832, when cars were run by horse-power; an old copper penny that helped to purchase the first ticket sold in the same year by the Camden and Amboy railroad; the ticket punch which a conductor used in 1849; a baggage check of similar date; a conductor�s badge and tariff book of 1853, and the first guide book published by the Pennsylvania railroad in 1855. There are the wood-burning stoves used in passenger cars, the old fashioned signal lanterns, and the bells which for nearly half a century announced the arrival and departure of trains and steamers. Railroad literature is freely displayed, with reports, regulations, pamphlets, instructions, payrolls, schedules, train-orders, way-bills, and advertisements, among the last a poster of 1792, advertising the "New Line Industry" by stage and sail boat from Paules Hook, now Jersey City, to Philadelphia. A so-called blank African ticket, issued in 1861, guarantees "that the person of color mentioned below is free, or is the slave of the party designated, and he has the permission of the said owner or owners to travel in the cars."

A collection of the old views on Pennsylvania lines dates from 1832 to 1892. Among them is shown the wooden bridge built over the Schuylkill river in 1804, and used by vehicles, foot passengers, and later by railroads until its destruction by fire in 1875. On the Old Portage railroad is a train of freight cars being drawn up an incline by cable, behind it a "buck" or safety car, and at the summit an engine house and hitching shed. A stage coach is changing horses at a Pennsylvania tavern in 1825, and here again, are John Bull, and the old [560] fashioned Conestoga wagons, with coaches, canal boats, and packets. There are locomotives of many patterns and dates, and the letters patent signed by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren in 1831, granting exclusive rights for "a new and useful improvement in locomotive carriages and rails adapted thereto." The railroad riots at Pittsburgh in 1877 are depictured in graphic art, as also is the devastation wrought by the Johnstown flood in 1889. In drawings, photographs, and other forms are illustrated engineering work, construction, and maintenance, with bridges of iron, wood, and stone; stations, tunnels, cuts, canals, and floating equipment. In addition to this elaborate display the company occupies a small section in the annex of the Transportation building, where are passenger, refrigerator, and inspection cars of improved and recent pattern.

In an adjacent section the Old Colony railroad exhibits the first locomotive built for its line in 1858, and a passenger coach that ran in 1835 between Boston and Providence, modelled after the stage coaches of the time, hung on braces, and resting on a four-wheel truck. In contrast with it is one of the last engines and passenger cars constructed for the company.

By other railroad companies historic engines have been placed on exposition, the Illinois Central for instance installing near the exhibit of the Pennsylvania company the Mississippi, built in England in 1836 for the Natchez and Mississippi line, now incorporated with its system. After doing service on several lines, in 1868 it was carried away by a flood, and after lying buried for ten years under a mass of debris was exhumed and repaired for further service. It is an odd-looking relic, and has been aptly compared to a boy�s penknife which has several times been fitted with new blades and handle. On timbers beside it are specimens of the strap rails used on the Natchez and Hamburg line, on which this locomotive ran between 1836 and 1838.

Near the German section, in the north of the annex, the Chicago and North Western has on exhibition the Pioneer, so named as the first engine used on a Chicago road, one shipped by way of the lakes nearly half a century ago, when no railroad ran eastward from the midcontinent metropolis. Built in Philadelphia, in 1836, for the Utica and Schenectady line, a few years later it was purchased for the Galena and Chicago Union railway, then in course of construction. Here also is one of the quaintest of specimens, its smoke stack towering above the diminutive boiler and cylinders, with a single pair of driving wheels, and all its apparatus of most primitive pattern. Still another historic locomotive is the General, exhibited by the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis railroad, by whose manager it was rescued from a limbo of refuse not far from the spot where it was captured by a band of federal raiders in April 1862. Of this incident the story is briefly told under the heading of World�s Fair Miscellany.

Of modern specimens displayed in the American sections of the Transportation department, aside from those already [561] mentioned, the largest collection is from the Baldwin Locomotive works at Philadelphia, consisting of fifteen engines adapted to all varieties of service, including broad and narrow gauge, simple expansion, and compound locomotives, with such as are used on mines and plantations. The Brooks Locomotive works of Dunkirk, the Schenectady and the Pittsburgh works, are also well represented, the Schenectady works having one of the largest engines in the annex. The Cooke Locomotive and Machine company, of Paterson, New Jersey, sends a freight and a passenger engine; from Lima works in Ohio come a logging engine and car; the Rhode Island works at Providence, and the Rogers works at Paterson, New Jersey, have each three engines on exhibition, and from the Richmond works is a locomotive of finished workmanship. Finally, the H. K. Porter and company�s works at Pittsburgh show some of the smallest engines used for special purposes, but equipped with all modern appliances.

Among foreign participants Great Britain occupies a prominent section in the annex, facing that of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Though somewhat limited, the display is of historic as well as of practical interest, for England is the mother of railroads, and by her have been furnished, almost from Stephenson�s days, the types for many European systems. Here one may study a full-sized model of the Rocket, which on a September day of 1825 dragged between Stockton and Darlington a heterogeneous procession of vehicles, from a hucksters� wagon to a family coach. As all the world knows, it was driven by the Scotch engineer who, beginning lie as a cowherd and at eighteen unable to read or write, gave to the world an invention which revolutionized its commercial and industrial conditions. Though conveying passengers from Stockton to Darlington at the rate of one shilling a head, the line was mainly used for carrying minerals and merchandise, at once reducing the freight on the former by more than 70 percent, and on the latter by 90 percent. Such was a foretaste of the great work which railroads were destined to accomplish.

On the completion of the Liverpool and Manchester line in 1829, it became apparent that ere long a transformation would be wrought in methods of travel and transport. Others followed, slowly at first, and then in more rapid succession, so that before the middle of the century the foundation had been laid of all the great trunk lines interlacing the British isles. In 1853 there were nearly 8,000 miles in operation; in 1873 this [562] mileage had been doubled, and at the close of 1893, more than 20,000 miles were open, railroad construction having almost reached its limit as it would seem, for there were few more lines to build, or few that would pay to build. The entire capital invested in these enterprises is not far short of $5,000,000,000, the gross revenue from which exceeds $400,000,000, or at the rate of $20,000 a mile, while in the United States, though with nearly thrice the total of earnings, the average is less than $8,000 a mile.

A feature in British as compared with American railroads is their enormous cost, amounting with less than one eighth of the mileage to more than one half of the outlay incurred by the latter. This is due in part to the substantial character of English road-beds, but more to the expenditure for right of way, much of it passing through towns and cities, or thickly populated regions, and purchased at fabulous prices. The metropolitan railway, for instance, built partially underground, cost at the rate of $2,500,000 a mile, and the North London, constructed mainly on arches, $1,635,000 a mile. Yet both these lines are paying properties, the latter requiring nearly 1,000 passenger coaches and several hundred freight cars for its dozen miles of track. In the United States railroads have been built within recent years at a cost of $15,000 a mile, while for the most expensive sections of the Central Pacific, over and through the Sierra Nevada, the outlay was not more than five percent on ordinary stock against less than two percent in the United States. Another contrast is in the proportion of employees, with twenty men to each mile of British road against five in the United States. To the insufficiency of their working force is mainly due the large number of casualties on American lines, amounting to nearly 10,000 a year, more men being killed in 1893 than met their fate in the federal ranks during the three days� struggle at Gettysburg.

In the Queen Empress with its train of cars, exhibited by the London and North Western company, we have the most perfect types of rolling stocks developed by British ingenuity. While there are larger and more powerful locomotives in the American section, there are none of more handsome appearance and more elaborate finish. Not only are the iron and steel polished to a mirror-like brightness, but the painted portions resemble the finest cabinet work, even the pipes of the smoke box being varnished, while the tube plate is of snowy whiteness. The engine itself is of a blue color, with stripes of red and edgings of green. Its weight is about 52 tons, and a novelty in its construction is that he high-pressure cylinders are placed in front of the forward driving wheels, with corresponding length of piston rods. There are more than 150 boiler tubes, with a total heating surface of some 1,350 square feet, and a steam pressure of 175 pounds to the inch.

The sleeping car contrasts somewhat sharply with those of American build, affording almost the privacy of a home, with broad, cushioned seat provided with arm rests and baggage rack for every passenger, the sleeping berths with wardrobes underneath, and each with separate lavatory and electric communication. In the centre of the car, and connected by a side aisle with either end, is a smoking room, finished in walnut and [563] satin wood, with easy chairs and folding tables. The composite car contains first, second, and third class compartments, the principal difference being as to finish, for all are well upholstered and comfortably furnished. Among other exhibits by the London and North Western are models, signal apparatus, and scenic views along its line of route, the models including reproductions of the Rocket, and of a Trevithick engine, the first to run on a trainway between Merthyr and Cardiff, some ninety years ago.

The Great Western Railway company has on exhibition the Lord of the Isles, built for broad gauge lines, and partly to show their superiority over those of narrow guage. This is a type of the first express engine ever constructed, others having been used for nearly half a century, and then retired only on account of a change in the standard guage. From this company are specimens of the track used many years ago, one of the rails weighing only 62 pound to the yard, but laid on longitudinal sleepers and with continuous supports, enabling it to carry as much weight as the modern rail by which it was superseded, mainly because of the lower price of iron and the higher cost of timber. There are also photographic views and portraits, among them [564] one of Brunel, the artificer of the Great Eastern, and in 1825 resident engineer of the Thames tunnel.

By the London firm of Westwood and Winby is exhibited the locomotive James Toleman, built for handling fast and heavy trains. In the mechanism of this engine there are special contrivances for combining speed and power, the driving wheels for instance having separate cylinders, with long piston rod for the transmission of power. The boiler is of unusual size, with a total heating surface, including fire box, of 2,000 square feet, and narrow enough in horizontal diameter to be placed between the driving wheels. The bearings are large, the connections strong, and the entire engine is a handsome specimen of workmanship, but with a complication of parts that must render difficult the task of keeping it in order. From Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker are fine models of the bridge across the Forth, and from other companies are models and photographs of rolling stock, buildings, equipments, and the scenery along their lines of route.

Side by side with the exhibition train of the London and North Western is a full standard train of the Canadian Pacific railway, built at its works in Montreal, and showing the actual service of the company, with the accommodation furnished to passengers. At its head is a compound engine weighing 106 tons, with steel boiler carrying a pressure of 180 pounds to the inch. As with most of the steam leviathans housed in the annex, it is plainly finished, and of sombre hue, the tender painted black, with red facing and gold bordered panel. The baggage car is of the usual type adopted by the company, strong and solid, as are all the rest. Next to it is a second class sleeper, with leather covered seats arranged at night as berths as on the Pullman cars. Then comes a first class day coach, upholstered in wine-colored plush, and finished in Honduras mahogany, elaborately carved and with tasteful panellings. Arches resting on columns divide the car into sections without obstructing the view, and give to it a massive appearance. At either end is a smoking room, of which only the one in rear of the car is used when the train is running.

In the dining car, whose floor is heavily carpeted, are ten tables, with carved bronze alcoves, their seats covered with morocco leather, and with a rounded pillar at the back and end of each. The sideboard is an elaborate piece of furniture, rounded at the base, with plate glass panels, its handsomely carved octagonal top resting on massive columns. The last car is a first class sleeper, with ornate and elegant finish, its main body divided into eight sections, and at one end are state rooms with lining and curtains of richly flowered silk, connected with which is a toilet room with plate glass mirrors. The cars can be lighted either by gas or electricity, and are heated by steam from the engine. In maps is described the company�s route around the world, and in graphic art is reproduced some of the finest scenery on this the most picturesque of American [565] railroad lines. From the bureau of public roads are also maps and photographs of roadways, bridges, and tunnels, and from private exhibitors collections of railway supplies.

Adjoining the British section on the northwest, New South Wales has condensed much that is of interest within a limited space. The hansom cabs, with their ingenious sliding doors, are specimens of excellent workmanship, and a collection of photographs gives the stranger to Australian enterprise a most favorable impression of the railway stations of Sydney, Albury, Newcastle, and other centres of the system, as well as of its bridges and rolling stock. A large model of the Zigzag railway shows the line winding around and climbing the sides of the Blue mountains, one of the remarkable engineering feats of modern times. Near by are models of the steamships Austral and Glasgow, and in the far end of the section are reproduced the Sutherland dry docks at Sydney, among the most extensive in the world. At the other side of the annex is a large pile of railway sleepers, made of iron bark wood, many of which ahve done service for nearly a quarter of a century.

Germany occupies a liberal space at the southern end of the annex, where are well represented the railway interests of the empire. The first of the German lines was completed in 1835, and of Prussian lines in 1839; but while the Prussian government encouraged railway development, and a decade later undertook the construction of railways of its own, it was not until recent years that her system was fully developed. In 1879 was authorized the purchase of private lines by the state, which in 1885 owned nearly all of the 14,000 miles of roadway. In 1892 there was double that mileage in operation, with 14,300 locomotives, 27,000 passenger, and 300,000 freight and baggage cars, the total earnings amounting to $480,000,000, and the net earnings to 43 percent of that sum; but in which, as in other countries, fixed charges as interest on bonds are not included.

First among the German exhibits may be mentioned that of the Royal Prussian state railway administration, at Berlin, consisting mainly of locomotives and passenger and freight cars manufactured in the principal railroad works of the empire. The first include compound freight engine and tender from the Elbing shops of F. Schichau, and a locomotive with five-ton axle pressure from Henschel and son of Cassel. Among the rolling stock are three and four truck railway carriages, and a coal car with iron body, the last from a Cologne-Deutz firm.

By Siemens and Halske of Berlin and Chicago are displayed all kinds of apparatus used for signalling, and for the operation and interlocking of railroad switches. Among them are two illustrations of their electromanual system of block signalling, one adapted to German and the other to American lines, the principal features being the same in each, as with other apparatus, some of which has been in continuous service for many years. All the signals are controlled by the same instrument, and by an ingenious contrivance the electric circuit is connected with each of the rails, preventing the operator from unlocking the signal to the rear, [567] and thus avoiding a source of danger in manual block systems. And so with the track signal, which can be placed at any distance in advance of the signal tower, and has doubtless prevented many a collision. The same company exhibits an electric automatic system of block signals, and in Machinery hall has one of the most elaborate collections in the German department.

From the museum of Permanent Way, at Osnabruck, is a collection gathered from every quarter of the world, showing the roadways of many nations and periods, arranged chronologically and in groups. First is a specimen of the plank road named by Tacitus Pontes longi, laid by Domitius about the year five B.C., as a portion of a Roman military road across a swamp near osnabruck, and excavated in 1892 from its dense overgrowth of moss. Next is a wooden tramway, such as is still used in remote and sparsely settled regions. Then there are exhibits of stone, wood, and iron sleepers and rails, either as originals or reproductions, from the track on which Richard Trevithick experimented in 1804 to that which was laid in 1890 for Prussian state railways. There are self-bearing rails without sleepers and joltless permanent way of various kinds, operated at small expense, with other appliances for comfort and safety, illustrating many phases of construction both as to economy and technique.

In a superbly executed model is reproduced the railway station at Cologne, one of the finest specimens of railroad architecture in the world, 80 feet high, and with a central span of more than 200 feet. Near the northern portal of the Transportation building are sets of wheels for locomotives and cars, pressed castings and welded iron plates, with models of public and other works constructed by a Bergbau company, which, as it states, employes 7,600 men in the production of 250,000 tons a year of manufactured iron and steel.

In France railroad development has been largely aided by the state, which furnished one-half the cost of the earlier lines constructed, equipped, and worked by private enterprise. In the larger corporations were for the most part absorbed the local roads afterward built under government patronage, and in 1884 a contract was made with the six great companies for 7,000 miles of roadway in addition to the 17,000 miles then in operation, to be built at their own expense and the money ultimately refunded by the state, which meanwhile guaranteed a fair dividend to stockholders. These were not all completed, as it would seem, in 1891, when the total length of track was somewhat less than 20,000 miles. From all French railways the revenue for that year was stated at about $230,00,000, of which nearly one half was net income; for in France railroads are managed with the closest economy.

In the French section, adjoining the main portal of Transportation hall, there are no such monster locomotives as are exhibited in the American and British departments. Of the four engines the average weight does not exceed 45 tons, and the average cost about $15,000. Of rolling stock the only specimen is a neat, second class coach, used for local and suburban traffic, with seats across the body of [568] the car and a stairway leading to the roof. The Northern and Western railways of France have special sections in which the extent of their systems is explained, as also their facilities for handling freight and passenger traffic. The latter has a model of the St. Lazare station at Paris, showing the passenger depot, the long train sheds and freight houses, the depressed tracks, and the city streets which traverse the area partially occupied by the company�s buildings and lines. Elsewhere a manufacturer of railway supplies advertises his wares in a monumental pile of axles tires and wheels.

Austria-Hungary with her 17,000 miles of railroad is represented in the Transportation building only by photographs of freight and passenger cars, and a few exhibits of vehicles. On the northern walls of this building is a gallery of paintings, with relief maps illustrating the scenery and topographical peculiarities along the line of the St. Gothard railway, the engineering link connecting the Swiss and Italian lakes and the railway systems of northern Europe with those of the south. Here are still traces of the havoc wrought by the landslide from Rossberg mountain, which more than eighty years ago crushed entire villages like egg shells. Along the shores of Uri lake, the southeasterly arm of Lucerne, the windings of the railway may be partially traced, losing itself in mountain tunnels, the rocks and peaks becoming more and more forbidding, and the valley narrowing to a gorge. Here also is shown Mount Bristen, from which the train emerges upon the bridge which spans the dizzy heights of Maderan valley. Then follows a series of seventeen tunnels, three of them circular, and the northern entrance to the great St. Gothard is reached. A quarter of a mile above it is a little village, and at twice that altitude, a miniature mountain lake. The main tunnel runs through the mountains for a distance of nine miles, and the entire railway, which for nearly a dozen years has traversed the barrier of snow peaks dividing central Europe from northern Italy, is more than 100 miles in length, the 56 tunnels covering about one third of the total distance. There are also illustrations of the plans adopted by the engineers, showing how valley levels were followed, wherever possible, in the construction of the great work. Models made by a professor of the Federal polytechnic at Zurich are works of art in themselves, the ideas of relative depression and elevation being conveyed in gradations of color as well as in form, blue for the valleys, and orange for the hills and mountains.

Entering the Mexican section near the United States exhibit of vehicles, we are confronted with the typical horseman of our sister republic, with wide sombrero and mounted on a profusely caparisoned steed. Near by are specimens of saddlery and wagon [569] work, both of skillful execution. In one of the corners is a replica of the so-called stone sails near the summit of the hill of Guadalupe, in the neighborhood of which stands the temple of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whither, as the legend runs, a party of shipwrecked sailors, in fulfillment of a vow, bore the foremast of their ship, planting the transformed emblem of their devotion where now it stands. Of this curiosity there is an exact reproduction by the Mexican National railroad, except that it is some twenty feet lower than the original. The company�s office is decorated with ancient pottery, casts of Mexican gods, and figures exhumed from the sculptured ruins of Aztec and Toltec civilizations. The Mexican Central has its headquarters in another corner of the section, and in a separate chamber, in the form of a miniature museum, shows in maps its lines of route. Along the walls are tiny painted figures of water-carriers, and other agents and agencies of transportation, with objects that have no connection therewith, as the kitchen of a peon�s home, a convivial lover embracing his sweetheart, and a drunken husband arraigned before a Mexican justice.

Southeast of the central court is a large area in which our manufactures display the multitude of articles classified as railway supplies, the range varying from such as are required for a passenger coach to the outfit of a railroad depot. From various establishments are such specialties as seats of wood, rattan, and metal for cars and stations, with folding beds, ceilings, panels, ornamental trimmings, and lighting apparatus. Of the two last there is a creditable display by the Adams and Westlake company, of Chicago, in a handsome pavilion whose decorations are mainly composed of the bronze, brass, and white metal trimmings now largely used for cars of elaborate workmanship. There is also a complete collection of headlights, signal lamps, and lanterns. Near by is the large model of the city of Pullman, mentioned in connection with the railroad exhibit of the Palace Car company, and adjoining this the publishing firm of Rand, McNally and company has a specimen ticket office, which is a bureau of information as well as an advertisement of the special classes of goods that the house supplies, as railway maps, tickets, punches, cases, and baggage checks. Upon the outer wall of this structure, which is shared with the Pullman company, is a large map of the United States, showing its complicated railway systems, and beside it the electrotype from which it was printed.

In the section devoted to railway supplies, several bridge companies exhibit models and drawings of the structures which they have built, among them being a reproduction of the bridge thrown across the Mississippi [570] River at the city of Memphis, the only one below the mouth of the Ohio river. Opposite is a finely constructed model of the bridge over the firth of Forth, the pride of British engineers. In the western gallery a prominent engineer traces in a series of drawings the evolution of the American bridge.

Under the group of railway supplies are classed the exhibits of air brakes of the many patterns now in use. The largest collection is that of the Westinghouse Air Brake company, which has a brilliantly lighted pavilion and a liberal space in which to display in working order its numerous specimens. It has also a train of cars, supplied with the latest apparatus, and furnished with compressed air pumped from Machinery hall, that the brakes may be seen in actual operation. Several companies have special apparatus for heating and lighting cars, the entire side of a long aisle in the annex being occupied with this class of exhibits. Two New York establishments make the most extensive showing, one of them illustrating not only its specialties for heating by steam but what is known as the Pintsch method of lighting by gas.

Among the miscellaneous features of the railroad exhibit there are few more attractive than that of snow ploughs. Of these there are several specimens within and outside the annex, the most noteworthy being the rotary snow plow used by the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe company. It consists of a ponderous engine, with huge automatic reversible knives and hollow cone-shaped scoops; and one may well believe that the heaviest snowdrifts in the canons of the Rocky mountains cannot long resist its onslaught. It has been thoroughly tested, and in a collection of photographs the plough is shown battling its way at various points through towering masses of snow.

Bicycle electric cars are among the new inventions exhibited in the railroad department. In some of them the wheel is so large as to protrude through the roof of the car; in others there is a smaller central and vertical wheel, with two which run horizontally upon side tracks. The efforts to avoid friction, both of atmosphere and rail, are illustrated by several mechanisms. One of the devices is a cigar-shaped car; and there are at least two electric railways over which it is proposed to run trains suspended from the rails, rather than resting upon them. Through one of the contrivances it is claimed that a speed may safely be developed of 200 mile an hour, the central idea being the action of a bevelled drive wheel against a bevelled rail. On the top of the supporting trusses is a steel trough, sloping upward and outward from the centre, in which travel the truck and antifriction wheels whence the car is suspended. The invention has been tested on a small scale, and even with imperfect roadway and electric motor it is said that a speed of over 40 miles an hour has been attained.

Although the exhibits of railroads proper completely dwarf those of the street car and minor lines, much is to be seen and learned by an examination of the latter groups; for here are displayed the latest patents in seats, stoves, wheels, switches, and all other appliances. Electric motors and the furnishings of electric cars are largely represented, together with all kinds of cable systems. In the latter direction San Francisco is prominent, A. S. Haliddie of that city, the inventor and builder of the first cable road, producing the original dummy used on a steep hill grade in August, 1873. [571] In a section of the roadway are also revealed the workings of the grip and pulleys, and adjoining is a collection of grips used by various cable lines throughout the country, showing difference in style and mechanism. A California company, which manufactures wire cables, has a patent rope-way in operation, one devised for the transportation of ore over the mountains, and a Chicago establishments exhibits a motor operated by liquid ammonia supplied by stationary plants.

In the division of vehicles are included all the parts of which they are composed, and all appliances used for animals employed in travel and transportation, together with everything that tends to illustrate the development of this branch of locomotion from remote ages and from distant lands. First let us pass in review the collective exhibits of the United States and Great Britain, with the historical specimens scattered among their sections, for here is the largest and choicest assortment of materials, far exceeding in interest those of other participating nations.

Nearly three acres of floor space in the northern portions of the main building and annex are occupied by vehicles exhibited by manufacturers in the United States. Generally speaking, light pleasure carriages, as pony carts, surreys, phaetons, rockaways, and coupes, with speeding wagons, sulkies, and trotting sleighs are found in the main hall, and in the annex are grouped the rougher and more cumbersome specimens, as trucks, farm and lumber wagons, street sprinklers, and such as are used by beer, coal, express, and ice companies. In the latter are also the delivery wagons of the grocer and dry-goods merchant, wheelbarrows, hand-carts, garbage and milk wagons, and various devices for dumping heavy loads.

In each of these sections, whose dividing lines are not distinctly drawn, are costly hearses, noticeable alike for artistic design and finished workmanship. A so-called state hearse, made by the Crane and Breed manufacturing company, of Cincinnati, and covered with figures of cherubim and seraphim, was designed by a woman, and is valued at $12,000. In another from the works of James Cunningham and son, of Rochester, is imitated the style of the Italian renaissance, with symmetrical dome, elaborately fashioned lamps, and body composed in part of bevelled glass, the highly polished portions relieved by those of more sombre finish. The same firm has also a [572] Columbian coach, its body decorated in various colors, with trimmings of black, orange, satin, and gold lace. A New York manufacturer shows a sleigh in the form of a delicately tinted shell, resting upon a bed of sea-weed supported on the back of four dolphins. The front of the sleigh is in the form of a sea dragon, the coloring throughout being harmonious and artistic. Nearly a score of carriage manufacturers Amesbury, Massachusetts, present a large and varied collective exhibit, including many styles of buggies, wagonettes, phaetons, and rockaways, with a remarkably handsome specimen of a tally-ho coach. Studebaker brothers, whose factory is in South Bend, Indiana, and their salesrooms in Chicago, have an elaborate display, ranging from a light speeding wagon and a finely carved victoria to a massive four-in-hand. The Columbus Buggy company, of Ohio, also demonstrates the pleasing effects which may be produced by factory work, and adds to the interest of the entire exhibit by contributing to the museum of curios a typical Mexican ox-cart, its body and wheels made of huge timbers, and the state carriage of President Polk, built at Yorktown, New York, half a century ago.

A dozen or more of vehicles, of various nations and times, are ranged along the eastern and northern walls of the section now being described. First comes the Mexican litera, a kind of sedan chair, but with handles fastened to mules instead of to men, used for the conveyance of women over mountain roads. Next are the colonial carriage of 176, and one of somewhat later date, used by a substantial citizen of Wilmington, Delaware, close to which is the pert, light sulky in which Nancy Hanks broke the world�s record. In contrast with this feather-weight vehicle is the four-in-hand drag which flanks it, made by a London factory for the prince of Wales. Beyond is an antique Vermont sleigh of the last century, and a quaint wagon, more than 100 years old, in which rode Nancy Standish Wells, of Wetherell, Connecticut, a descendant of Captain Miles Standish. Almost touching the latter are the handles of a Japanese jinrikisha, and not far away the lumbering ox-cart of Mexico, the family coach of President Polk - its cushions falling to pieces and its veneering much the worse for wear - and the more modern carriage of Daniel Webster. In this vicinity also is the Spanish volante, with its single pair of cumbersome wheels, the horses driven neither tandem nor abreast, but in a fashion between the two.

Passing into the annex, where again the Studebaker company is represented, we find a large collection of farmers� wagons, especially from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kentucky factories. [573] Among other specimens of artistic workmanship is an ice wagon from a Philadelphia company, with historic scenes depicted on its panels, and a piano van from the same city, its body divided into diamond-shaped sections and painted in tasteful coloring.

On the ground floor is a small but choice display of British vehicles and their accessories, the main interest centring in the collections of two London firms. One of them has an assortment of drags, victorias, mail-phaetons, a rustic cart, and a canoe-shaped landau. In the state-coach used by the lord mayors of London, the other firm presents an attractive exhibit, as is shown by the crowds which surrounded it. The gold-fringed hammer cloth, the golden lamps, the body of blue bearing the royal crest, and the interior furnishings of heavy, blue damask, with trimmings of blue and gold, give to it the gorgeous and fantastic appearance which helps to make the lord mayor�s show the laughing-stock of the British metropolis.

Canada has be a slender exhibit of vehicles in her section north of the British display; yet one that includes nearly every description of conveyance used on land or stream, from heavy farm wagons to light carriages and phaetons, with carriage springs and hardware, bicycles, skates, and sleighs in many styles. Of the last there is an interesting collection, as might be expected from a country where for three months in the year sleighs are almost the only means of travel and transportation. Among them is a model of the sleigh presented by the women of Canada to the duke of York and the Princess May. It is a beautiful specimen of workmanship, showing the skill developed by long experience in this branch of manufacture. Here also are sportsmen�s canoes, folding boats, snow-shoes, toboggans, and other special articles adapted to this home of the sportsman, with photographs of tourist routes and pleasure resorts.

In the French section the Parisian manufacturers who are mainly represented have organized an exhibit remarkable for its variety of form and bright, artistic coloring. A double-decked omnibus, with massive enamelled iron guards around the steps, seems to combine comfort with safety, and near it is a $1,100 coupe of graceful outlines and richly but simply decorated, with an electrical indicator recording the distance travelled. Almost beside it is a gilded sedan chair of the seventeenth century, adorned with cupids, clusters of fruit, and garlands of flowers, while not far away are mail-phaetons of unique design, landaus, dog-carts, road coaches, silver-mounted harness and saddles, with other paraphernalia, all tastefully arranged, a life-like dummy occasionally giving animation to the scene. There is also a small collection of bicycles, the remainder of the exhibit relating to the [575] railroad systems of France already described in this chapter.

In the section devoted to vehicles Germany plays a modest part, her exhibit on the ground floor being confined to a small collection of bicycles and tricycles, a few carriages and wagons, registers for public cabs which record either time or distance travelled, and a carriage whose motive power is gas. Italy is but slightly represented in the Transportation department, her entire display consisting of a collection of cordage and whips, and a refrigerator car from a Milanese firm.

Droskies and sleighs of artistic design and elaborate finish, heavy robes, muffled outriders and drivers, are what the visitor expects to see in the Russian section; nor is he disappointed. Among the finest specimens is a large sleigh with rich ebony finish, the runners curving gracefully in front and the driver further protected from contact with his horses by a rampant figure of the king of beasts. This exhibit is by a Moscow firm, and another manufacturer from the same city displays the saddles and harness which have gained for him during the past forty years medals of bronze, silver and gold from the fairs of his own municipality and those of Philadelphia and New Orleans.

A structure of mediaeval aspect now attracts the attention of the visitor, one that appears somewhat out of place in the Transportation building. Around it are patches of verdure, and a large mosaic of Columbus, set into the wall near the main entrance, adds to the incongruity of the exhibit. The Gothic arch which forms the doorway is approached by a short staircase, and beyond, and within is the inscription, "The United Tyrolean Association for the attraction and guidance of tourists." This edifice is, in fact, a reproduction of a Tyrolean monastery of the middle ages, the figure of Columbus being the handiwork of native peasantry, who used in its construction pieces of opaque glass colored by burning. The alpine panorama presented to the visitor as he ascends the stairway is supposed to be viewed from the vestibule of the monastery. The canvas shows the grandeur of the Mittelberg glacier, and also the signs which direct the traveller to noted resorts scattered throughout that region. Two small apartments at the side of the panorama further impart a religious aspect to the structure, containing as they do carved and painted figures of sacred personages, photographs of churches, and burnt etchings in wood in imitation of Raphael�s work. Small alcoves are filled with articles made by the peasantry of the Tyrolean alps, including native costumes, and affording a gentle hint as to the real object of the exhibit are samples of the clothing best adapted to tourists whose path lies through these regions.

On one side of a screen in the Japanese section adjacent is a series of photographs depicturing oriental modes of transportation. A leading role is played by the shah of Persia, with his state carriages and gorgeous retinue. Opposite is a small space crowded with figures whose originals are found among the street carriers of Constantinople, this statement, however, not applying to the Turk, apparently bending double under the weight of a vast packing box consigned - so reads the custom house label - to the Columbian Exposition. The burdens [577] borne by the donkeys, the sedan carrier with his lady, the peddler with market basket on his back and tray of tins before him, and other typical characters, are more in keeping with the environment. Packs and harness for man and beast, with trappings and appliances of various kinds, are also within the scope of the exhibit.

In the Brazilian section, the old and new, the savage and civilized are strangely commingled, and the contrasts are rendered all the more striking from juxtaposition within a somewhat contracted area. Along one entire side is a canoe, more than fifty feet in length, fashioned from a large mahogany tree. A few feet away are a first-class passenger coach for local travel, and a roomy tramway car from Rio de Janeiro, with finely finished wood-work and reversible seats. Near an antique tricycle of the year 1850, the first one seen in Brazil, is the state carriage used by Dom Pedro in 1822. From the naval department of the republic are the great yards and docs at Rio, with models of engines, hoisting and other apparatus there employed. In a gaudy Turkish carriage, between the exhibits of Brazil and Mexico, is one of the many instances where the most diverse of civilizations touch elbows in the Columbian Exposition.

In the northern half of the gallery floor is a large assortment of bicycles and miscellaneous exhibits, and these I will describe beginning with the collection of Great Britain, which has here installed the greater part of an extensive display of vehicles. On a ledge of the gallery, in the midst of a museum of curios presently to be mentioned, stands an odd looking machine with wheels joined to a wooden backbone and handle. Upon it is a saddle, but the observer cannot detect the mechanism by which it was propelled, until in one of the quaint pictures which line [578] the walls he sees its counterpart. Astride of the latter is depictured, with his feet vigorously pawing the ground, the rider of the English hobby-horse, which, during its brief existence in the early portion of the present century, was mercilessly caricatured by the press. The specimen here presented is said to have been ridden by the first earl of Durham in 1810. But aside from its comical appearance, this vehicle is of interest as the forerunner of the modern bicycle. Among those who mounted the dandy horse, otherwise called the pedestrian curricle, was a Scotch blacksmith, who conceived the idea of fitting to the rear wheel of his machine a pair of cranks, this being another step toward the noiseless swift-moving machine of the present day. Tricycles and tandem bicycles, it may here be observed, have never come into such general use as the trim, light, two-wheeled machine known as the safety - safe as compared with the high-wheeled pattern, and now furnished with pneumatic tires and trimmings of aluminum which help to reduce the weight.

The British collection consists mainly of bicycles best adapted to the excellent roads for which that country is famous. Here and there are a few tricycles, and several firms display such specialties as cold-drawn steel tubings, tires of peculiar make, and other parts of the machine; but as a rule the score of manufacturers who have organized this department confine themselves to the modern bicycle in its entirety. A Coventry firm has on exhibition more than thirty specimens of safeties alone, some weighing only 18 and none more than 30 pounds, the finer grades furnished with the twisted tubing which is only used in their construction. A Birmingham company has a large assortment installed in a richly furnished section, finished in mahogany with a neat office in the centre. Its standard machine weighs 37 pounds, the racer being only about half as heavy, and as one of its specialties is shown a bicycle for women. In the section containing a Nottingham made machine is a large case filled with medals, cups, and other prizes won by its rider, now generally recognized as the world�s champion. The company also furnishes a record for 1892 of 100 notable races in which the machine and rider participated, the contests being held in Great Britain, Germany, Canada, and the United States.

On the southern wall adjacent to the French section, the institute of British Carriage Manufactures has an interesting collection of paintings, drawings, and engravings, illustrative of the gradual changes wrought in the construction of vehicles. In some of them are depicted stage-coach and other modes of travel; in others, the jeering crowds which greeted the first steam carriages, as these crude mechanisms halted midway on a steep hill, or were imbedded in the mire. Convivial coaching parties are gliding swiftly [579] along green-hedged English roads, and in another series are shown the start, the mishaps, and the conclusion of the first recorded steeplechase. Caricatures are plentiful, both of Irish and English travel, and in hundreds of drawings, here and along the front sections of the gallery, are displayed in outline the construction of state coaches and foreign vehicles, with the heraldic devices placed upon them. Here is an early Spanish coach, there a French carette, and a few feet away the lord-mayor�s carriage of 1757, and the magnificent car of state in which rode Louis XIV. Among the members of the institute who have contributed to this collection are Hooper and company, carriage builders to the queen and to the prince of Wales, and the Coach-makers� company, of London, among the rare drawings furnished by the latter being one of the state-coach said to have been used by John V of Portugal, in 1706.

Among the groups of curios arranged along the front of the gallery is an array of cruel looking spurs, with massive specimens in brass and silver dating from the seventeenth century, and an antique war bit champed by the mailed steed of a crusader of the middle ages.

In the British section also transportation by sea and land is illustrated by a collection of models from the government of Ceylon, where the visitor may observe the difference in the construction of the bullock-cart used on low marshy ground and the one adapted to the highlands; or he may see in miniature a carrying chair, a gravel wagon, and a racing cart. Models of boats there are whose outlines are somewhat unfamiliar, especially the catamarans and the outrigger canoes. The latter carry enormous sails, and it is said that the winds that ruffle Ceylonese waters are known as the one-man, two-man, and three-man breezes, according to the number of men required to perch on the outriggers in order to keep the craft from capsizing. The double canoes, or fishing boats, the originals of which are made of del wood, closely resemble ice boats. A group of apparatus characteristic of the Holy Land, a contribution from the United States consul at Jerusalem, is composed of [580] leather bottles, water-skins, mule-packs, jars, bags for carrying babies, and baskets for holding horse feed. Near the model of a boat, such as has been used for centuries upon the sea of Galilee, is a small wooden frame propelled by children while learning to walk.

North by the British gallery section, the Japanese department of communications has an exhibit supplementary to that of its hydrographic and naval bureaus, presently to be described. Here are maps portraying the principal routes of coasting steamers and charts indicating the monthly average of wrecks in given sections, together with the location of lighthouses. There are also traced the railway systems of this country; and statistics are plentiful as to the extent of their interests and those of the merchant marine. There are numerous models, from those of the ubiquitous mule which appears to be the common carrier of mankind to the passes of the Usui mountains, showing the Abt railway system and the great bridges over the rivers Kurobe and Nishiki. Additions have been made to the original bridges completed in the 17th century, but the portions built in that era are still considered remarkable feats of engineering. The structure thrown over the Kurobe, called the Aimoto bridge, is of the cantilever pattern, with a span of more than 160 feet.

North of the Japanese section, and occupying the entire northern aisle, is a large collection of miscellaneous exhibits, as saddles, bridles, and harness; wagon, carriage, and saddlery hardware; carriage lamps, axles, and springs; collars, chains, halters, and blankets; wheels, and hubs; rubber steps, dashes, and fenders; boots for liverymen and leather overalls for cowboys. Some of the groups consist entirely of whips, as that of a Chicago company which manufactures at the rate of 10,000,000 a year. The monotony of these exhibits is somewhat relieved by the groups on either side of the northern entresol, one of them in the form of a saddle, harness, and cart from Palermo, Sicily, the trappings decorated in the highest style of Sicilian art and bedecked with ribbons presenting all the hues of the rainbow. The saddle is surmounted by a red plume and the collar band studded with small glass mirrors. Of the cart itself, every square inch of its body is brightly painted with figures, the spokes, hubs, and felloes with alternate stripes of red and blue. It is a national conveyance, used either for the carriage of commodities or for the conveyance of visitors to local fairs and wedding feasts.

At the opposite end of the northern gallery are photographs and models illustrating the modes of transportation prevailing in South America, their subjects ranging from railway stations and railroad trains to brute and human pack carriers. Among them are the llama and his burden, the mule driver of Columbia, the [581] mounted milk-woman, and also the native carrier of the Andes with a traveller�s chair strapped securely to his back.

At the gateway to the bicycle and marine exhibits of the United States, the island of Madeira furnishes a unique contribution. First there is a large coach, curtained, roofed, and travelling on runners on streets so slippery that wheels would be of no avail. Upon a rear seat the driver urges on the bullocks which drag this odd-looking conveyance over the paved highway. Here also is shown the mountain sleigh, upholstered in red, which slips down the precipitous and well travelled heights with the velocity of a locomotive. Another means of conveyance here reproduced is a mountain hammock, resembling a sedan, which, attached to poles, is carried with its human freight among the mountain peaks of Madeira.

Not far away is a small museum in which are represented ancient types of vehicles. Here is a reproduction of a racing chariot exhumed from a Theban burial ground, and of which the original, in the royal museum of Florence, is probably the only vehicle that has survived the pre-Christian era. Beside it is an unwieldy ox-cart, such as was used by the Pueblos of New Mexico. In the cases which partially surround this exhibit are some of the oldest railroad tickets and announcements issued in the United States, with similar contributions from the railways of Japan.

In the United States exhibit of bicycles, more than forty of the leading manufacturers participate. The display is organized almost on the same plan as that of the Great Britain, some of the exhibitors showing special parts of the machine, but the majority presenting the entire mechanism. Many of the collections are housed in handsome pavilions, and not a few are in charge of well-known experts, who have won for themselves an excellent record while using the machines whose merits they are always ready to explain to the visitor.

Chicago is well represented in this section, several of the larger factories making a somewhat elaborate display. The Western Wheel works have, in addition to bicycles of many patterns, wheel chairs and children�s carriages, all very tastefully arranged in their neat and spacious pavilion. In the specimens prepared for exposition, the Stokes Manufacturing company has avoided the use of enamel nickel plates that the visitor may better judge for himself as to their material and workmanship. The Gendron Wheel company, of Toledo, has one of the largest collections on exposition, including bicycles, tricycles, [582] velocipedes, children�s carriages and sulkies. In a structure composed of brass, a Boston company shows in several styles its bicycles with weldless steel tubing. Beside the perfected machine of 1893 are the parts of which they are composed, either as unwrought material or in various stages of manufacture. There is also a model of the English dandy horse, with pedals, of Parisian make, the first safety, which appeared in 1877 in Boston streets, and the now antiquated machine on which Stevens made his tour of the world. Finally there is a bicycle fashioned for military service, one that has recently been adopted by the army department.

Other features in this division are wooden bicycles from a Newton company of Massachusetts. An exhibiting firm, dissatisfied with its space and position, placed two of its machines upon the gallery railing, the treadles worked by automatic figures. A group finished in rainbow tints is among the many ornamental specimens contained in the department.

About midway in the eastern gallery, near the southern end of the bicycle exhibit, are the tent and palanquin in which Mrs. French-Sheldon lived and travelled during her journey of 1,000 miles into the heart of the dark continent, attended only by her retinue of Africans. The palanquin is built of bamboo and aluminum, and contains a bed, an adjustable table, and lockers for wardrobe and toilet articles. Around it is reproduced the scant herbage of the desert; here also are the boxes in which Mrs. Sheldon stored her supplies and her presents for native tribes.

In the marine division of the Transportation department the most interesting exhibits are the Columbian caravels and the Viking ship of the Norsemen, reproduced as nearly as possible in facsimile, just as they sailed in the seas many centuries ago. After crossing the Atlantic and taking part, as I have said, in the naval review in New York harbor, early in June the caravels arrived, by way of the lakes, off Jackson park, where, as at every port of call, they were received with welcome and ovation. With her four [583] decks, her breast-high bulwarks, her poop some twenty feet above water line, and masts and rigging too heavy for her size, the Santa Maria is an ungainly looking craft, and yet made the voyage from Spain to Cuba without escort or the use of steam tugs, following in the track of the Columbian expedition. Of the three craft this is the only one fitted and furnished throughout to resemble the original type, so far as could be reproduced an obsolete style of naval architecture and equipment. Suspended over the main hatchway is a long-boat similar to that which the vessel carried, the only one on board. Coiled around the deck are ropes of curious pattern, and the hawsers, nearly half a foot in diameter, are strong enough to hold a first-class man-of-war. There are no capstans, sails and anchors being worked with ropes hauled by main strength. Aft of the ship is the admiral�s cabin, with its cramped quarters suggestive of bodily discomfort, its narrow bedstead covered with a counterpane of red damask bordered with lace. Here are numerous relics, including, as is said, the table which Columbus used; his chart, his inkstand, and the nautical instruments of the day; with the flag presented by Ferdinand and Isabella, its white field with cross of green, and on either side the initials of their catholic majesties.

The Pinta is similar in shape to the Santa Maria, though of smaller dimensions, and the Nina, with her leg-of-mutton sails, is little better than a row-boat, nor larger in size than the bireme of the Greeks. But as to these vessels no further details need here be added to the hundreds of descriptions published in the current literature of the day. All the three craft were presented to the government of the United States, and at the close of the Exposition would be cared for by the naval department.

Of the Viking ship, resembling the vessel in which, [585] as is claimed, a Norwegian navigator discovered the North American continent nearly a thousand years ago, the following is briefly the story. During the winter of 1879 a sailor, living at the port of Sandefjord, employed his spare time in exploring a mound on the outskirts of the town, where, as tradition related, a Viking had been buried with all his earthly belongings. In this ancient Saga legend the towns-folk had little faith; but the sailor persisted, and after digging a square hole not many feet in depth, his spade struck a solid oak plank, which proved to be the side of a ship. Thereupon the royal university of Christiania sent men to inspect the relic, and in early summer, when the frozen earth could be cleared away, it was found to be the genuine craft of �a Viking old,� whose skeleton, encased in armor, still kept guard over his treasure, its wood-work, oars, and equipments all well preserved after the lapse of many ages.

The vessel was repaired and removed to the university, where now is its home, and as the approaching Columbian Exposition began to be the talk of the world, it was determined to send there her counterpart, manned by Norwegian sailors and unattended by any other craft, in order to prove the feasibility of Leif Erikson�s alleged expedition, more than nine centuries ago, from Norway to the New England coast. Thus from Sandefjord the vessel, built by public subscription in the spring of 1893, set sail for New York, and in the middle of July anchored off Jackson park. To call her a ship is somewhat of a misnomer, for she has no deck, and carries but little sail. Rather is she a large open boat of some 27 tons, more than 70 feet long and 16 in the beam, with 32 oars, each 17 feet in length, her bow and stern far above her body and her clinker-built planks overlapping like the weather-boarding of a house. Her lines are remarkably beautiful, resembling those of a yacht, the convex curvature of the keel increasing her strength and steadiness of motion. Such is the vessel in which a crew of Norwegian sailors crossed the Atlantic and the lakes, sleeping on reindeer skins and cooking their food as best they could in the bow of their unsheltered craft.

Reentering the Transportation building through the golden doorway, the first object to attract attention is a large model of the Santa Maria, presented by Santo Domingo. Beyond this is a broad beamed, battered, old-fashioned craft, with but the faintest traces of paint, one that was certainly not placed here for ornament, and of which the following placard explains its presence: "In this boat, on the morning of September 6,1838, Grace Darling, then 22 years of age, with her father, rescued nine people from the wreck of the Forfarshire, at Longstone, on the Farne Island." There is no self-righting or other of our modern apparatus wherewith to do battle against winds and waves - nothing but sound timbers, sturdy arms, and the courage which wrought one of the most heroic deeds that history records.

Turning to the marine exhibits of the United States, we find only a small portion of them on the main floor, adjacent to the German section. Here are life-preservers and life-boats, launches operated [586] by steam, gas, naptha, and gasoline, and in the midst of all a caique which has seen service on the Bosphorus and the Golden horn. Of modern pleasure boats there is a fine collection from Thomas Kane and company, builders of the electric launches which ply on the waterways of Jackson park. In this vicinity are many other specimens of small, light craft, with marine hardware, ships� anchors, steering, hoisting, and other nautical apparatus. There are also models of well-known steamships, the most complete exhibit of this character being that of the Harlan and Hollingsworth company, of Wilmington, Delaware, whose progress in marine construction is exemplified in a gallery of pictures and models of the schooners, yachts, tugs, ferry boats, steamers, and propellers built at its works during more than half a century. Altogether more than 300 vessels have been constructed, including, as is claimed, the fastest steamboat in the United States, the first iron screw steamer for inland service, the first iron steam pilot boat, the second largest transfer steamer in the world, and the first iron steamer for ocean service, completed in 1844, these and others forming a chronological panorama of the progress of ship-building in the United States. In this pavilion is also a working model in gold and silver of the machinery in one of the company�s iron steamers running on Long Island sound.

Across the main aisle near the southern entrance-way, is the exhibit of the International Navigation company of Philadelphia, consisting of a full-sized section of a steamer now being constructed at the ship-building yards of William Cramp and sons. As this is the only transatlantic line of steamers owned in the United States that will bear comparison with the Cunard and other European systems, the display is of special interest to American travellers; for here is shown not only the exterior of the vessel but all its internal arrangements, furnishings, and equipments.

The section is more than 70 feet long by 35 in width, or about one seventh of the entire length of the ship. The floor of the Transportation hall represents the water line of the steamer, which is 26 feet above the keel, so that, if the model were complete, it must sink that distance into the ground. As here it stands the promenade deck is 25 feet from the floor, above which rises the funnel to a further height of 53 feet, thus giving a depth of 104 feet from the top of the funnel to the bottom of the keel, the former almost touching the roof truss of the building, and painted black with a band of white, as the distinguishing mark of the company, to which belongs the well-known steamships, Paris and New York. The sides are studded with port-holes to a height of 17 feet above the floor, where the iron plating ends and the railing of the second or saloon deck begins. Above this is the first or promenade deck, and above all, the bridge, whence orders are given and the course of the vessel directed. Entered from the floor, the first compartment exhibits an array of models of steamers, for one of which, that of the Paris a gold medal was awarded at the Exposition of 1889. Next are the steerage quarters, with family rooms and single berths for men, with thorough ventilation and electric lighting, as in other portions of the ship. A stairway leads from the model room to the deck above, where are first and second-class cabins, the former with sofa and extension berths so arranged as to communicate when required for family use. Ascending to another deck, the visitor enters a large, open hall, handsomely finished in dark mahogany and [587] gold. Passing thence to the right he comes to the dining saloon, with wood work, chairs, and tables of white mahogany, and with walls and ceilings in light green panellings relieved by silver mouldings. In the centre is an arch of glass panels through which sunlight is admitted by day and electric light by night, its base supported by carved allegorical figures and surrounded with groups symbolical of commerce. At one end of this deck is a suite of rooms, the chamber containing a double bedstead with folding wardrobe and opening into a bathroom, while in the sitting-room the sofas can also be used as berths. The decorations of the suite are in ivory and gold, with upholstering to match, frescoed panels and ceiling artistically painted.

The highest or promenade deck is in three divisions, first of which is the hall around the stairs or companionway, corresponding with the one below and the same as to size and finishings. Then comes the library, with wood-work of dark mahogany, ceiling tinted in gold, and lighted by large square windows, above which are smaller windows for purposes of ventilation, the former covered at night by sliding sashes of leaded glass, fitted with electric burners. Seats upholstered in dark planks are ranged along the outer walls, with tables and writing materials. Finally there is the smoking-room, handsomely furnished as are all the rest, with carved mahogany chairs arranged in three sides of a series of hollow squares, and a table in the centre of each.

No wonder that 20,000 persons on an average passed daily through this sectional model exhibited by the International Navigation company. Here is in truth embodied the luxury of travel by sea, with carpeted floors, the richest of furniture, and all the appointments of a luxurious home. By Doctor Johnson a ship has been described as a prison house, with the additional disadvantage of the risk of drowning; but the good doctor did not make his historic journey to the Hebrides on board a modern transatlantic liner.

Passing from the promenade deck, one may step into the gallery of the Transportation building and there commence his examination of the large array of American marine exhibits, extending thence northward for several hundred feet. Here are not only exhibits from every portion of the United States, showing the present status of marine construction and its historic development, but from travellers, naval officers, consuls representing the government in many distant lands, and from foreign commission are also numerous collections. In this section the main purpose is to illustrate the forms of marine architecture prevailing in the United States, the curios from other lands serving as a foil to the specimens wherein are represented modern enterprise, ingenuity, and skill. For example, above the large model of a ship-building plant are suspended a black wooden canoe from the isthmus of Panama, and a raft of straw from Lake Titicaca, such as are used on the inland waters of South America. Near by is an old bateau, found on the banks of the upper St. Croix, in Wisconsin, and contributed by the Historical society of that state as an illustration of the [588] French-Canadian style of river craft in the early fur-trading days of the northwest. Though called a canoe, it weighs several thousand pounds, and was built to carry a score of voyagers and traders and a tone of goods. Not far away are beautiful models of the Columbian caravels, with whose outlines we are familiar, and a number of cases filled with tiny models of Hindoo chairs, carts, rafts, boats, and canoes, with illustrations of the marine architecture of India, ranging from the luxurious barge of state which plies on the lake of Kashmir to the rounded piece of wood on which the native lies face downward, propelling himself with his feet and fishing as he goes.

In another section is a Venetian gondola, finished and furnished in ebony, near which are Alaskan canoes, in one of them the figure of a native fisherman and hunter armed with weapons of the chase. Here an Australian bark canoe may be compared with the Alaskan haida of cedar, and a boat from Hammerfest, Norway, with models of the craft which float on Chinese waters. Of all the collective exhibits from foreign lands, that which the Siamese commission has furnished is the most extensive, and the one most thoroughly typical of the country and people which it represents. It consists of about 100 models, including ponderous junks, in shape not unlike those of the Chinese, and low tapering boats with sharp bows, similar in shape to racing shells, but inlaid with gold and pearl and otherwise decorated in oriental fashion. There are also craft intended for river service, for the sea, and for fishing and pleasure boats. In another department are models of carts, coaches, and sedans, both for common use and for weddings, festivals, and state occasions.

Turning again to the exhibits representative of modern naval architecture, may first be mentioned that of the Union Iron-works in San Francisco, near the gallery exit from the model displayed by the International line. Suspended from the roof of a handsome pavilion, broad festoons of silk serve as a canopy for realistic models of its workshops, ship-yards, docks, and vessels in process of construction or afloat on the waters of the bay.

In a section opposite is a relief map of the Nicaragua canal, a working model illustrating the projected system of locks, excavations, and dams. The map, which covers about 100 square feet, is constructed [589] on a vertical scale of one to 2,000, and a horizontal scale of one to 30,000, this proportion allowing the engineering details to be plainly indicated, the points where work is being done or has been projected, being shown by patches of red. Lead pipes are molded into the ground work of the map, and when the water turned into them fills the beds of Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan river, the nature of the enterprise is at once understood. From a dam constructed about midway between the reservoir and the Atlantic, the waters of the river can be raised to a level with those of the lake.

In order to float a chip, which here represents a vessel, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, it must first be carried into a miniature canal cut for a mile and a half through the rocky ridge of the continental divide, lifted over three locks into the so-called Tola basin, and then set adrift in another cut, representing a canal eight miles in length. The distance from the Pacific Ocean to Lake Nicaragua is only twelve miles, but from one side much of the heaviest work is yet to be accomplished, including the blasting of solid rock 70 feet in thickness. The route projected is across the lower end of the lake, south of the inactive volcanoes of Ometepe and Madera, past old Fort San Carlos, where light dredging is to be done through volcanic ashes, and into the Rio San Juan, through which for 64 miles it runs to the commencement of the eastern artificial channel. The channel, which is more than 30 miles long, contains three locks, and thus at length the vessel passes into the harbor of Greytown and the Atlantic Ocean. Of the total distance from sea to sea, nearly 170 miles, Lake Nicaragua, San Juan river, and the natural basins furnish 142 miles of free navigation.

In an adjacent section is illustrated the construction of the huge log rafts and towboats of the Mississippi, and opposite is a collection of models, photographs, and paintings, showing how whaleback barges and steamers are built [591] at the yards of a company whose headquarters are at Superior, Wisconsin. Near by is a relief map, resembling rather a plaster model of St. Thomas island, in the Danish West Indies, by Charles E. Taylor. Here are reproduced, with remarkable fidelity of detail, the waves of ocean breaking on the shores, the fringes of cocoa palms that surround the island, the ships in the harbor, including the caravels which touched there, the dry docks, fishermen�s huts, and the houses and streets of the seaport. Around it are terra cotta plaques and photographs presenting views of the island scenery upon a more extended scale.

In another relief map is shown the entire canal system of the state of New York, with the topography of the adjacent country illustrated. This is the work of Martin V. Schenck, state engineer and surveyor, and with it are models of the doubled and lengthened locks, showing how the products of the west are conveyed rapidly and cheaply to the seaboard. Of historic interest is the model of the original lock built at Little Falls [592] In a modest booth, not far away, the state commissioners of Maine have models of famous ships which have sailed from their ports and in a corner of this section is a small old-fashioned cannon, captured from the British brig Boxer during the war of 1812. Beyond a pavilion which contains the models of the ship-yard and steamers of a Virginia company, the exhibit is largely historic and pictorial. In the centre of a boat, for instance, are the original engine and boiler of the first twin screw steamboat, built by John Stevens, of Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1804. This is a portion of the exhibit of a ferry company of that city, and adjacent to it are models and pictures from a New York company, showing the architectural evolution of steamers which have plied on Long Island sound, from the Fulton to the latest craft launched from New England shipyards.

Harper and brothers and other publishing houses have selected from the best of their art works, extending over many years, sketches, drawings, and engravings, representing modes of transportation among many people and countries, ranging from the war canoes of the Congos to the cruisers of the white squadron, and from the bullock cart of Siam to the steam leviathans of modern railroads. In one section may be traced the development of our naval architecture, and in another is shown the excitement produced in the land of the Pharaohs by the advent of the bicycle. In addition to these collections are several galleries filled with paintings of marine subjects. Among them are scenes along the coast of Jersey, some of them depicturing the dangers that confront the pilots of Sandy hook. Here also is Farragut�s fleet and the harbor fronting the World�s Fair city. But the most complete exhibit, one illustrating the development of the merchant service of the United States together with ingenious types of oriental craft, is that of the Essex institute [593] and Peabody academy of Massachusetts. Salem is one of the oldest seaports in the country, and the pictures of her ships, some of them water colors by Ross Turner, cover the period from 1765 to 1893. There are also models of old English frigates, as of the Sovereign of the Seas, launched in 1637, in contrast with which are those of Chinese freight and fishing craft, and a mandarin dragon or racing boat.

The marine display of Great Britain is on the ground floor of the Transportation building. Here is a complete representation of the history of British ship-building for more than three-score years, showing the progress made in the construction and equipment of her naval and merchant service, her steamers and sailing vessels, torpedo boats, launches, tugs, and the craft used for river and lake navigation. By the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding company is illustrated in models the development of the British iron-clad, beginning with the Warrior, launched in 1860, and then believed to hold the navies of the world at her mercy. Her armor, more than four inches in thickness would resist a 68-pound shot, then the heaviest projectile used, asn as was thought the heaviest that could be used; but year by year the invention of more powerful weapons called for heavier armor, until today 20-inch plates are considered none too thick for a first-class line-of-battle ship. In other models to the Warrior, but of larger size, the Sanspareil, of 10,500 tons displacement and 14,000 horse-power, and the steel cruisers Blenheim and Theseus both with a speed of more than twenty knots. Then there are war vessels built for various foreign nations, with steam and sailing yachts and craft for special service.

From the works of Armstrong Mitchell and company, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, comes probably the largest model of a ship that was ever exhibited. It is that of the ill-fated Victoria, reproducing on a scale one-twelfth of the original size, and with all her armor and equipments to the smallest minutiae of detail, a 10,500 tone vessel, 360 feet long and one of the most powerful of her class. Only the [594] starboard side is presented; but in the mirrored background is viewed the entire ship resting on an unruffled sea, amid the accessories of naval warfare imitated in most realistic fashion. The model and its guns are of steel and nickel plate; the anchors and cables of polished steel, with boats in facsimile, and a netting of wire for protection against torpedoes. Another model is that of the 25 de Mayo, a cruiser built by this firm for the Argentinian government.

From a Clydebank firm are models of several war vessels, including the Ramillies, launched in 1892, one of the most powerful battle-ships afloat, and the Reina Regente, a Spanish cruiser which took part in the naval review in New York harbor, with channel and Atlantic steamers, the latter with a speed of twenty-three knots an hour. A London house shows models of torpedo boat catchers, with one of the Opale, built in sections for the French government during the Dahomey campaign. From the Sheffield works are exhibits of armor plates and naval apparatus, and from other firms are quick-firing guns, including those of the Nordenfelt and Adamson patterns.

In the display of the Cunary Steamship company are models of its most powerful vessels, beginning with the Britannia, of 1,139 tons and 740 horse-power, built int 1840, and ending with the Campania of 12,500 tons and 24,000 horse-power, launched in 1893, the latter 620 feet in length, or only 60 feet shorter than the Great Eastern. All the models were constructed by the company�s naval architects, on the scale of one fourth of an inch to the foot. They are contained in glass cases, resting on carved oaken tables, and with ivory tablets descriptive of each of the exhibits.

In smaller models the Peninsular and Oriental company illustrates, in periods of a decade each, the various types of steamers used and now in use since first it took the field, in 1837, with two vessels little [595] larger than the life-boats which today its ocean greyhounds carry. In map form are shown all parts of the world to which its service extends, and information is here afforded as to the progress of naval architecture and engineering during the term of the company�s existence. The operations of this company are on a gigantic scale, with nearly threescore steamers plying on the Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean, and Indian oceans, representing a value of $35,000,000 and with subsidies of $1,650,000 a year from the British and other governments. In return, more than one half of their boats are armed as cruisers, ready for instant service, and all are subject at the briefest notice to the orders of the British admiralty.

From the Laird brothers, of Birkenhead, is also an elaborate collection of historic models, one being that of the steamer, John Randolph, launched in 1834, and another a reproduction of a steam-yacht built for the Vanderbilts in 1893. Among them are represented vessels built for the Chilean navy, the cause of recent troubles with the United States. The Atlantic Transport line, whose headquarters are in London, reproduces the twin-screw steamers which carry live-stock and meats in the carcass from American to British ports. A West Hartlepool company shows one of its cargo steamers, constructed of steel on the web-frame system, and carrying a dead weight of 6,500 tons. Elsewhere are models of the paddle and screw steamers built at Dumbarton works, and of those engaged in the mail service between England and South Africa. From other firms, models, apparatus, rigging, and naval equipments of many kinds a varied and interesting display.

In connection with the British marine exhibit may be mentioned that of the well-known firm of Cook and son, which, beginning operations in July 1841, when a few hundred passengers were carried a short distance by excursion train at the rate of a shilling a head, issued in 1892, nearly 4,000,000 tickets, for routes extending over more than 1,800,000 of railroad, ocean, lake, and river. The display consists mainly of models and publications descriptive of its system of transport and travel in various countries and periods. Among the models are those of vessels built for tourist service on the Nile, one of them, the Rameses the Great, being shipped to [596] Cairo in sections filling 3,750 cases, and there put together by 400 workmen, with the use of 70,000 rivets. Of dahabeahs, built specially for voyaging in comfort on the Nile, there are several specimens. Here also are models of ancient funeral boats, said to have been disinterred from the tombs of Upper Egypt, 4,000 years ago; and copied from the originals at the royal arsenal at Venice, are reproductions of Venetian gondolas from the 15th to the 19th century. In another model is presented the Egyptian temple of Edfou, a Ptolemaic structure with massive walls and propylon towers, which, in the pre-Christian era, served at once as military stronghold and priestly tabernacle. In photographs are displayed some of the company�s offices, forming a continuous chain around the civilized countries of the world.

In the Canadian section near by, the largest of the marine exhibits consists of models of steamships plying between British Columbian ports and those of China and Japan, in conjunction with the service of the Canadian Pacific railway. A study of these models, in connection with the railroad display described, will explain in part how it is that this powerful corporation is gradually wresting from the United States the most valuable portion of the foreign commerce of the Pacific coast. From private firms are smaller craft, both as models and originals, and by the department of public works at Ottawa is reproduced its system of locks and canals.

Prominent among the ground floor exhibits of Germany is that of the North German Lloyd Steamship company, an organization owning about 60 ocean steamers, with a total registration of some 200,000 tons, running to North and South American, Asiatic, and Australian ports. Its display is arranged in a neat pavilion, and consists mainly of models of its vessels and charts and maps illustrative of its operations, one of the latter showing the exact position of each of its steamers at a given hour of the day. By the Hamburg-American Packet company are shown models of its fastest boats, contrasting strangely with the reproduction of a primitive craft on which they stand.

In the southern galleries are models of ships constructed within recent years for the imperial navy or for the more prominent transportation companies. Among ironclads is the Kaiserin Augusta, which held the post of honor in the German squadron at the naval review in New York harbor. In plans and models are also traced the principal inland waterways of the empire, the most striking exhibit of this character being from the imperial canal commission. It includes a reproduction of the harbor and dry-docks at Kiel and a large relief [597] map showing the course of the northeast canal from the river Elbe to the Baltic, and the physical aspect of the country through which it passes. Of the curios in this section may be mentioned the model of an ancient boat, the original of which, 75 feet in length, was found in the frozen marshes of the Baltic sea.

The marine division is but a portion of a collective exhibit of engineering installed in the southern galleries, including plans and models of harbors, railroads, and bridges constructed by the government, with diagrams of public establishments and illustrations, in many forms, of the sewerage, water, electric, and gas systems of the principal cities of Germany. Most of the contributions are from municipal governments, especially from those of Berlin and Frankfort. From the imperial capital are publications and plans of its asylums for the insane and epileptic, of public markets and bathing establishment, and of its sewage system, with the places where the fertilizing refuse is deposited. There is also a beautifully constructed model of the Kaiser Wilhelm bridge, with plans of structures of lesser note. A pavilion contains the exhibit from Frankfort-on-the-Main, the chief object of which is to illustrate by drawings, plans, and descriptions the new water supply and drainage works of the municipality. Details are presented as to flooding, ventilation, house-drainage, and siphon construction, and the machinery used for preparing chemical disinfectants and for removing the slime from disinfecting tanks.

In addition to the collections specially prepared by the imperial and local governments, there are private exhibits in the engineering department. One company presents models of various apparatus for distilleries, breweries, starch, sugar, and yeast factories; another exhibitor shows his plans for what he considers model agricultural buildings; and elsewhere are reproductions of pottery works, smelting furnaces, and mining machinery, while specialists indicate how life-boats may be built of aluminum, with the latest ideas regarding the construction of dredging and hydraulic machinery.

In the French gallery section the General Transatlantic company has eight large paintings or dioramas by members of the salon which caused so much comment at the Paris Exposition of 1889. Each picture is at the back of a booth, the entire framework being of a rich maroon, so that the visitor seems to be looking into the scene rather than at it. Now he sees the embarkation of passengers at Havre for New York, with the waving of handkerchiefs, tearful embraces, and farewells. Next is the dining-room with passengers engaged in conversation over their meal, and then the smoking-room where men are enjoying their cigars and wine, their cards and backgammon. Near by are depictured the arrival of an African steamer at Marseilles, and a French boat at the harbor of Algiers, with the workshops of the company and a steamship in process of construction. There are also models of several of the finest boats, especially those which run between Havre and New York. Another notable feature is the exhibit from the chamber of commerce at Dunkerque, [598] including a mammoth painting and a relief map showing the harbor and dockage system of the port. In this vicinity, as an exhibition of industrial art, are several large screens of opalescent glass. Finally, there is reproduced in the French section on the main floor the cabin of a channel boat running between Dieppe and New Haven.

Between the German and French sections the Netherlands and Cape colony are represented in the gallery by small collections of drawings and photographs, the former contributed by the Royal institute of engineers. Here are shown the harbors of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Batavia, with views of the more important waterways of Sumatra. The Cape illustrates the beauties and commercial advantages of the harbors of Table bay, Port Elizabeth, East London, and Algoa bay, with a photograph of a mail steamer plying between the colony and the mother country.

In Russia�s section, on the ground floor, is a large exhibit from her naval department, including a model of the cruiser Rurik, with the hoisting apparatus for lowering and raising torpedo boats. Side by side with the miniatures which stand for the might of Russia�s naval power is a reproduction of the Yahl, the boat in which Peter the Great first learned to love the sea and formed the plans that resulted in the founding of the navy, of which the original of this tiny craft, less than eleven feet in length, has been called the grandfather. Elsewhere are coils of rope such as are used by men of war; and beyond is a small model of a train of military hospital cars, the history and present condition of the naval department being also represented in government literature.

Across the hall is an exposition of the work which has and is being done by the naval department of Japan. One of the walls is covered with charts, maps, and inscriptions explanatory of the work of the hydrographic [599] office, established in 1870. There are drawings showing the configuration of the coasts, their safe channels and their dangerous reefs, and here the statement is made that this is the first attempt by any Asiatic country to furnish its navigators with nautical charts, the progress achieved in this direction being without the aid of foreign engineers. In this section is a modern rapid-firing gun with automatic recoil carriage, and there are models of steamships, one of them showing a transverse section, and of a boiler intended for a Japanese cruiser fashioned by the students of the dockyard school at Yokosuka.

Among the curiosities in the northern gallery are the log canoe and dugout sent by the United States consul at St. Paul de Loando, the capital of a Portuguese colony on the western coast of Agrica. The canoe, or so-called bimba, resembles the catamaran, its frame resting on a raft as in Chinese river craft. These clumsy devices are also reproduced in photographs, the dugout containing a dusky occupant whose naked body glistens as brightly as the waters that surround him.

Near the Austrian section on the ground floor of the hall, Spain illustrates the historic development of her naval architecture. Almost side by side with models of the Columbian caravels are the iron-clads of her modern navy, and in prints on the outside of the booth may be traced the evolution of her merchant marine and war ships up to the present day. From the arsenal at Cartagena and the manufactories of Barcelona are cables, cordage, and other nautical appliances.

In the northeastern portion of the annex, and in the northern part of the main building, small sections are occupied by Spain, showing the character of her coast defenses and other engineering works, with the progress made in the construction of her weapons. From the museum of royal engineers comes a large collection of models of such fortifications as those of San Sebastian and Cartagena. The plan of the Havana water-works and bridges, ancient and modern, including the one at Cordova, are also reproduced. The manner of transporting bridges on the backs of donkeys, during a military campaign, is elsewhere illustrated, and in this section is a case filled with the swords, halberds, and other mediaeval arms of Toledo make. In the annex are models of fire-arms, and a long array of cannons a contribution from the king, some of them dating almost from the time of Cortes.

In the United States section devoted to naval warfare and coast defense, a few manufacturers illustrate [600] some of the most recent appliances, a Massachusetts inventor, for instance, showing a pneumatic dynamite gun, with torpedoes as projectiles. But in this group the main exhibit is from the Bethlehem Iron company, of Pennsylvania. Toward the south of the hall, rising almost to the roof and astride the central aisle, is a gigantic frame, apparently of solid iron, supporting a huge hammer of cylindrical shape. This imposing structure, 90 feet in height, with a span of nearly 40 feet, is a reproduction of the apparatus which carries the steam forging hammer of the Bethlehem works. The original mechanism weighs more than 2,000 tons, and the ram and rod 125 tons, forming the largest hammer in the world. The replica is of wood and staff, and the absence of an anvil is explained by the fact that is would almost have blocked the central passage-way of the building. Here, the, is the shadow of the huge implement which welded the armor plates, steamer shafts, and other massive articles grouped in this section of the hall. A plate of steel armor, more than ten inches thick, is shown as battered by a shell travelling 700 feet a second, and near it is the first plate made by the company in 1891, two 100-pound shells having pierced its eleven inches of solid metal. A nickel steel plate for the battleship Indiana, protecting one of her thirteen armored sections, is 17 inches thick, 12 feet high, and weighs nearly 70,000 pounds. Near by is the model of a casting for heavy armor plates, 18 feet high, nearly half as wide, and 52 inches thick, with a weight of 25,000 pounds. By way of suggesting how such armor can be penetrated, the company shows a piece of naval ordnance, 36 feet long, weighing more than 50 tons, and with a twelve-inch breech. The manufacture of shafting requires even more skill than that of gun forgings, [601] and the exhibit in this line includes a hollow shaft for the Old Colony Steamboat company about 40 feet in length, and finished cranks for the cruiser Minneapolis and the steamer City of Sydney, of the Pacific Mail line.

Another extensive exhibit of ordnance is that of the Hotchkiss company, in an outdoor space adjoining the annex on the southeast. Projectiles for rapid-firing guns are shown, with pierced steel plates from one to four inches in thickness. There are naval landing guns with a range of nearly a mile, rapid-firing cannon carrying shells of from one to fourteen pounds, and various specimens of the revolving style and those which are best adapted for use in a rough or mountainous country, together with horse battery caissons carrying as much as 96 rounds.

World�s Fair Miscellany - In the Transportation department power was furnished by electricity or compressed air for the operation of machinery; but the use of steam was avoided as far as possible; nor were any lines of shafting erected within the building. As a precaution against accident, all exhibits of machinery in motion were enclosed by a railing.

Included in the railway division of this department is the terminal station, with its 30 lines of track, erected at a cost of some $400,000, with ladies� parlor elegantly furnished, a bureau of information, and several well appointed restaurants. A special feature is a series of 24 clocks placed upon the walls of its rotunda, whereby the visitor may ascertain the hour of day at as many of the great cities of the world. The clocks are regulated by United States observatory time.

The intramural or elevated electric road, operated within the Exposition grounds, is also included in this department. In its power plant are the great dynamo and engine described in the chapter on electricity. Its system is about six miles in length and the circuit is made in less than half an hour, affording an excellent view of the external features of the Exposition. The intramural road, it may here be stated, cost $1,000,000, and though carrying nearly 6,000,000 passengers during the term of the Fair, resulted in a heavy loss.

Along the south side of the Midway plaisance is another elevated road, which is also considered as a portion of the Transportation department. Its cigar-shaped cars travel at a high rate of speed, being provided with runners or shoes, and propelled by turbine motors. Not only is water the motive power, with a pressure of about 150 pounds to the square inch, but the cars slide upon a film of water which issues from a small pipe behind each shoe. The rail covered by the water film is about eight inches wide, and beneath the track is the main pipe from which the power is derived. This invention first had practical demonstration at the Paris Exposition of 1889, the European patents [603] being controlled by Prince Andre Poniatowski, who claims that his system will work a revolution in the domain of transportation.

A much frequented portion in the marine division of the United States was that of the American Steam Barge company, of West Superior, Wisconsin, builders of the new style of steamer known as the Whaleback. When the first of the class appeared upon the lakes it was the subject of much ridicule, but soon it demonstrated its capacity for speed under all conditions of wind and weather. At the Fair the Whaleback representative was the Christopher Columbus, its steel cylinder-like body being more than 360 feet in length, tapering from the middle toward the bow and stern; and the ends of the cylinder lifting high out of the water like a birch-bark canoe. The vessel was lighted throughout with electricity and elegantly furnished, the grand saloon containing several fountains and large aquaria filled with lake fish. Besides conveying passengers from the city to the Exposition, the Christopher Columbus made several excursions to Milwaukee and neighboring ports, upon which occasions it proved itself the fastest boat on the lakes.

By the World�s Fair Steamship company 1,758,665 passengers were carried during the Exposition season, and almost as many by the steam and electric launches and gondolas plying on the waterways within the grounds, the entire travel by water exceeding 3,000,000. No accidents were reported.

Scattered throughout the Transportation building are various exhibits of pneumatic tubes, overhead tracks, etc., designed for the conveyance of money and packages in large business establishments, and in the annex is pneumatic machinery for carrying grain. [604] Elevators, whether in actual service or on exhibition, are included in the transportation department, some of them being run by steam, some by water, and others by electricity. Among the miscellaneous exhibits installed in the annex may be mentioned the great steam shovels for dredging and the continuous chains of buckets for carrying water and semi-liquids. The largest steam shovel in the building, exhibited by a Bucyrus, Ohio, company, is used as a pavilion, and is well adapted to the purpose.

In the southeastern corner of the annex, and extending outside of it, is the exhibit of the Bay city Industrial works, of Michigan. The pavilion, which is within the building, is finished in light hard wood, and contains reception rooms for the public and private offices for the company, and upon the outer walls are photographs of the works at Bay City, and of the cranes, pile drivers, wrecking cars, and railway appliances manufactured by the company. In the outdoor space are several massive pieces of hoisting apparatus used in the installation of exhibits. In this vicinity is also an exhibit of what are known as Pintsch gas buoys.

In addition to Siemens and Halske�s exhibit of safety apparatus for railways, several American manufacturers show ingenious appliances of this description. The Johnson Railroad Signal company, of New Jersey, has a large pavilion constructed of the various apparatus employed in the Syke block systems for grade crossings. Another company illustrates in a model a similar system in which no movable apparatus is located on the roadbed or other exposed place.

Near the lagoon, north of the Horticultural building, is the pavilion of the White Star Steamship line, reproducing, as far as possible, the outlines of an Atlantic steamer. It has two decks, with the familiar rail and netting, the latter hung with life buoys bearing the names of the company�s fleet. Side lights take the place of windows, and on the decks are comfortable seats and chairs. The exterior coloring is of buff or cream and the gilded dome is surmounted by a five-pointed star and lighted by electricity at night. The interior affords an idea of the comforts and luxuries of the White Star service. In the centre are models, under glass, of its vessels, and near the main entrance a large chart showing the tracks of the company�s fleet. Small models of the different boats are moved daily along their special routes, locating them approximately according to the reception of official reports.

On Transportation day, the 9th of September, a naval parade was held on the lagoon, in charge of A. C. Baker, superintendent of the marine division of the department. Modern yawls, Turkish craft, boats in the government service, Norwegian fishing smacks, Indian canoes, and craft from Ceylon, Egypt, Venice, Brazil, and other nations passed in picturesque review. Then came aquatic sports, and in the afternoon the agents of transportation by land were marshalled by J. G. Panghorn, secretary of the American exhibitors� association. [605] There were brute and human carriers and vehicles of curious patterns, typical of many eras and nations. The engine John Bull was pressed into service, and many crowded into the old-fashioned coaches attached to it for a ride on the tracks of the terminal station, where these relics of early American railroads are on exhibition.

The operations of the Pullman Palace Car company were started, as I have said, in Chicago, and so rapid was the growth of its business that shops were soon afterward established in St. Louis, Detroit, Elmira, and Wilmington. But even these could not keep pace with the demand, which could only be supplied by the erection of works on a larger and more comprehensive scale than any before attempted. Chicago, as the railroad centre of the continent, appeared to be the most suitable location; but to this there were weighty objections, which need not here be mentioned. Thus it was that George M. Pullman looked about him for a spot that would fulfill all the requirements of his constantly expanding business, and this he found near the shore of Lake Calumet, some fourteen miles from Chicago. Here he purchased a tract of 3,500 acres, now included within the city limits, whose suburbs are already encircling its borders. Such in brief is the origin of the town of Pullman, the most thriving of all our young western settlements, with its eight miles of paved streets, its handsome business blocks and residences, with modern appliances for comfort and sanitation, with churches, school-houses, and libraries, and a cosy theatre tastefully upholstered and equipped, all planned with symmetrical unity of design, amid stretches of lawn and park, and bordered with flowers of brilliant hue, the home of one of the most prosperous and contented communities in the world, and the more so that it has not a drinking saloon within its limits. By the Palace Car company there is distributed in all nearly $150,000 a week as the wages of 15,000 employees; and of the 6,300 operatives engaged at its works at Pullman, a large proportion have homes of their own, while the Pullman Savings bank has $630,000 to the credit of 2,000 operatives. At these works there are used more than 50,000,000 feet of lumber and 85,000 tons of iron a year. At the construction shops there could be built, within a twelve-month, 12,520 freight cars, 313 sleeping cars, 626 passenger cars, and 939 street cars, which, if coupled together, would form a train 100 miles in length. The number of miles run by Pullman cars during the year ending July 31st, 1893, was 206,453,796, the longest unbroken run being from Boston to Los Angeles, California, a distance of 4,322 miles.

The 16th of September, the date on which the Manchester and Liverpool railway was opened sixty-three years before, was selected as railroad day by the Exposition authorities. Many prominent railroad men from the United States and foreign countries participated in the exercises and recreations, which included a trip on the intramural road, the movable sidewalk, and the historic pioneer train drawn by the John Bull, with a tug of war between an electric and a steam engine, the steam locomotive, though only an old switch engine, easily dragging its competitor along the track. The exercises, which were held in Festival hall, were largely attended, and included the usual feasting and speech-making.

On her westward trip the John Bull, with her two primitive coaches, left New York at 10 A.M. on the 17th of April, arriving at Chicago, after a triumphal procession, on the afternoon of April 22nd. The engine was run as swiftly as its condition would allow, with its wheezy boiler and rusty apparatus, followed by a special train of officials and journalists, and passing at times between throngs of enthusiastic spectators, waving hats and handkerchiefs as the timeworn relic went snorting past, with warning note of bell, resembling the sound of a dinner gong. The engine kept excellent time, though rumbling awkwardly over the rails and swaying to and fro like a vessel rolling in the trough of ocean. The tender is within two feet of the furnace door, and upon it is an odd-looking contrivance shaped like a poke bonnet, and called the gig top, where the forward brakeman sat, keeping a sharp lookout for other trains. The John Bull was driven by the same engineer who handled the locomotive forty-two years ago, and, as he said, "obeyed the lever as if her joints were not worn with age and stiff with rheumatism."

Of the Murdock engine, invented in 1784, as mentioned in the text, the following story is told in an English publication of many years ago. Murdocks� experiments were conducted by night, near the Cornwall town of Redruth. Returning late from a visit to his flock, the pastor of the parish was suddenly confronted by a fire-breathing monster advancing furiously upon him. He sprang aside, and before the demon could turn upon him had run such a distance that, as it seemed, his fervid prayers for deliverance had been [606] answered. Still he ran, however, and presently came full butt against a man running in the opposite direction.

"Back! back!" he cried. "Run back for your life!"
"Have you seen my engine?" asked the other.
"I�ve seen the devil! Run! Run!"
"How far away is he?"

The stranger�s tone was somewhat reassuring; and bethinking him that he of all others should have courage to face the veil one, the worthy pastor turned back with his companion, who, it need not be said, was William Murdock. Soon they found the engine, which had run into a ditch, snorting and roaring in terrific fashion, and thence, to the astonishment of the parson, was dragged by its artificer.

Before being stationed among the exhibits of the New York Central railroad the engine 999 was attached to various trains to test her speed. On the 9th of May, while running on the Empire State express from new York to Buffalo, it is claimed that she made the last 69 mles in 68 minutes, making one of these miles in 35 seconds, and on another occasion, as mentioned in the text, a mile in 32 seconds. These figures are not official; but while there is no reliable evidence that this or any other locomotive ever before ran at the rate of over 100 miles an hour it is certain that the 999 exceeded that rate after the close of the Fair.

To test her speed and capabilities, the Greater Britain, sister engine to the Queen Empress in the London and North-Western company�s section, was run for six days in succession between London and Carlisle, attached to some of the heaviest mail and express trains, their average weight, including engine and tender, exceeding 237 tons. The total distance travelled was 3,588 miles, and the time 75 hours and 17 minutes, or an average of nearly 48 miles an hour. The fastest runs were between London and Crewe, 158 miles in 3 [607] hours and 8 minutes, or a little over 50 miles an hour. This is probably almost as good time as will be made by the Empire State express, when on regular service, notwithstanding the exaggerated accounts that have been published. Fifty miles an hour is in fact about the limit of speed, with due consideration to wear and tear of road-bed and rolling-stock.

Of the capture and recapture of the locomotive General, exhibited by the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis railroad, the following is briefly the story: Soon after the battle of Shiloh General Mitchell was laying his plans for the capture of the confederate stronghold at Chattanooga, and for that purpose it was necessary to cut off railway communication with Atlanta. The task was undertaken by Captain Andrews and a chosen band of federal scouts, their object being to capture a train on the Western and Atlantic line, and burn the bridges between Atlanta and Chattanooga. Disguised as Kentuckian farmers on their way to join the confederate cause, they reached Marietta early on the 12th of April, 1862, and there boarded the train for Chattanooga. At the next station the train stopped for breakfast, and there the attempt was made, though close at hand was a confederate camp, with sentries pacing to and fro. While the driver and conductor were taking their meal at the station, the raiders uncoupled all but the foremost car, and a moment later were speeding northward with their prize. Then followed "the great locomotive chase" which history records, Andrews and his men being hotly pursued and finally driven to the woods, where they were hunted with bloodhounds and captured, eight of them, including the captain, being executed as spies.

Footnote - [[543]] 1. The connection of the railroad systems of the world by way of Bering strait is by no means the chimerical project that some would have us believe, nor one that may not ere long be accomplished. [544] The bridging of that shallow strait by way of the Diomede islands, almost in the middle of its narrowest part, presents no such engineering difficulties as were encountered by the artificers of the Central and Canadian Pacific railways. With the latter system the line would connect by way of Alaska, for the most part across a level plain, and on the Siberian side would skirt the base of the Stanavoi mountains, avoiding the tundras or marshes between them and the sea. To Vladivostok, on the sea of Japan, Russia�s principal naval station on the Pacific, a railroad is already nearing completion, and such a route, if operated only for a few months in the year, would open for settlement or industrial purposes a vast extent of unoccupied territory, much of it rich in resources.