[99] " Unless it be for metaphysics and moral philosophy, perhaps the least progressive of all human sciences is the science of government. Just as we are today no nearer to a solution of the great questions with which Eliphaz the Temanite vexed the soul of the afflicted patriarch, so are we far from solving the political problems with which pericles wrestled, and which Plato and Aristotle attempted in vain to demonstrate. Among the modern autocracies of Europe we find no such administrative faculty as was displayed by Philip of Macedon; nor in the annals of the Athenian Republic do we find such crudities of legislation as those which deface our own, such abominations, for instance as the poll-tax, the tax on works of art and libraries, and other relics of a by-gone age.

If, in these latter days of the nineteenth century, society is in some respects better regulated than when men selected as kings to rule over them the tallest and strongest of their number, little thanks are due to governors or government. Pointing to our armies and navies, our burden of taxation and our extravagant system of tax collection, to the costly and cumbersome machinery of national, state, and municipal administration, the nations of old might claim with some degree of reason that matters were better with them. In war each man took his share, his share of the fighting and of the expense, his share of the spoils in case of victory and of tribute in case of defeat. As to the other encumbrances, they would have banished them from their midst as quickly as would Carlyle the "scoundrel and sluggard protection societies," whose false philanthropy he loved so well to deride. If history has taught us anything, it is that the weal or woe of a nation depends on the people rather than on the government, of which there is and ever has been too much. Nations become great not through, but in spite of their government. If at long intervals in the annals of our race, the dazzling generalship of an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon has raised a nation to the highest pinnacle of glory, such ephemeral splendors have ever been followed by collapse. The world has no use for such men, and no longer is it possible for any one man to shape its destinies or fashion its fate. That which the peoples of earth accomplish now-a-days is the aggregate result of their intelligence, energy, and thrift, and in that result government figures at best as an insignificant factor and a necessary evil, whose greatest achievement would be to confine itself to its legitimate functions.

Within the six acres of space allotted to the government display it cannot be said that the authorities have failed to collect such a series of national exhibits as was contemplated in the organic act of the Exposition. In one of the sections of that act are thus outlined the scope and purpose of this department: "There shall be exhibited at said exposition by the government of the United States, from its executive departments, the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Fish Commission, and the National Museum, such articles and materials as illustrate the function and administrative faculty of the government in time of peace, and its resources as a war power, tending to demonstrate the nature of our institutions and their adaptation to the wants of the people." Add to this such accessories as the naval exhibit, the life-saving and signal service stations, the lighthouse, the hospitals, the weather bureau, all contained in separate buildings, and we have [100] probably the most complete collections ever grouped together for such a purpose. The entire department was planned under the control of the government board, composed of the chiefs of its several divisions, and by which were expended to the best advantage the amounts appropriated for its purposes.

To the character, scope, and arrangement of the government exhibits there are few who will care to take exception, but as to the buildings in which they are housed, the main edifice has been not inaptly termed "the only discordant architectural note in Jackson Park," the only one erected, as it would seem, without consulting the Exposition architects, and as to design, differing as widely from its neighbors as decorative art differs from the mechanical process of manufacture. Its prominent site, moreover, north of the Manufactures hall and near the centre of the grounds, gives further emphasis to its unsightliness. True, it is less unsightly than the average of government buildings, some of them deformed, most of them commonplace, and nearly all inartistic, which are being scattered broadcast about the republic at no small outlay of treasure. If in its plan there are certain commendable features, these are yet not enough to relieve it from the conventional monotony which appears inseparable from structural compositions intended for national use.

In these remarks I cast no aspersion on its artificer, who, chosen for the task in virtue of his office as supervising architect of the treasury department, labored under the burden of manifold duties and responsibilities. His plan is well balanced, articulate, coherent, practical, and if somewhat cumbersome, with lack of due proportion and crudeness of decorative scheme, this is merely the fault of a system based rather on utility and tradition than on the recognized principles of art. In the architectural department at Washington there are frequently planned from two to threescore public buildings at a time, many of them large and costly, and all of specified materials and workmanship. Only with thorough organization could such a task be accomplished at all, and no wonder that instead of a chaste and elegant composition, carefully designed and studiously elaborated, we have her a building planned amid the pressure of other work, with business-like despatch, and according to the established formulas handed down by a long succession of official architects. It is not the government building as a building that provoked so much unfavorable comment, but the fact that it is out of place, that it is the only break in the symmetrical outlines which veil the huge dimensions of the Exposition temples, veils then so completely that the observer almost fails to notice their colossal proportions while admiring the harmony of effect.

In the evolution of his scheme the architect of the federal edifice must provide for the several departments of agriculture, war, justice, state, the treasury, the interior, the post office, the fish commission, the national museum, and the Smithsonian Institution, with quarters for administration purposes and for special collections. For each of these suitable areas must be furnished, varying from a few hundred to more than twenty thousand square feet, and with an entire floor space of nearly 150,000 feet. The general plan includes a longitudinal hall, with subdivisions for the various groups, and flanked with parallel aisles supported by rows of columns, and covered alternately with arched and gabled roofs, the loftier of these aisles having clear-story windows, so arranged that their light may penetrate the entire edifice. Intercepting them transversely is a central nave, with lateral passage-ways, and above which culminates the roof system, masked by a balustrade.

From the centre of the main floor, at the intersection of hall and nave, is developed the domical treatment of the building, taking, below the roof, the form of an arched octagonal pavilion, and above, that of a podium with double windows, flanked by pilasters on each of its sixteen faces. On this are supported the ribs of the dome, near the summit of which is a circular line of projecting windows, and above it a lantern, its [101] base surrounded with a light balcony, the flag-staff which forms the culminating feature displaying the national colors one hundred and seventy feet above the ground.

The principal entrances, one in the middle of the east and west facades, are fashioned as pavilions, with a central arch, and above them an allegorical group of figures, on either side of which are eagles mounted on pedestals. At each of the corners is a square pavilion, with glazed opening and low squat dome. On the remaining frontages are doorways in three divisions, projecting somewhat boldly but treated as in subordination to the main portals. The curtain walls are divided into bays, with arched windows, flanked with buttresses, and with a line of transoms on the level of the gallery floors.

While the general scheme is not without merit, as in its relation of parts and its economy of space, the structure bears upon it the true government brand. Even to those unacquainted with the first principles of architecture treated as one of the fine arts, it stands forth as an architectural reproach among its chaste and scholarly environment. At best it is merely of conventional type, on that does but scant justice to its opportunity, and fails in the dignity of expression that should characterize our public monuments. Says the architect of the Fisheries Building adjacent: "In England, in France, in Germany, and indeed in all great European countries, the public buildings are the highest and most characteristic efforts of their artificers. It is the ambition of every architect to make himself worthy to be employed upon them. They constitute the great prizes of the profession. We cross the Atlantic to see the cities which they have made beautiful. In our own country enough of treasure has been appropriated for national buildings, and expended on the, to make our cities equally noble and attractive. But under the present system these opportunities have been worse than lost; for they have encouraged an unnecessary extravagance of expenditure without adequate return, and they offer no higher type to be accepted as the expression of our civilization than respectable conventionality and organized commonplace."

"If the suggestive contrasts of quality in the buildings of the Exposition should serve no higher purpose than as an object lesson to our legislators, teaching them that their responsibilities in respect to our national architecture are not properly discharged by maintaining a costly architectural factory at Washington, the unsubstantial pageant at Jackson Park will not have been in vain."

In the Government Building the unsightliness of its exterior is in part atoned for by its central rotunda, whose mural paintings, representing famous scenes and cities, with symbolical groups beneath, and pillars and arches on either side, are all in the highest form of decorative art. Midway in the pavilion is a hollow section cut from on of the hugest of California redwoods, its interior lighted with electricity, and with a winding stairway leading to a platform above. Within the redwood chamber are photographs, showing how this exhibit was fashioned and forwarded into place. Six of the eight alcoves contained within the rotunda were placed at the disposal of the Board of Lady Managers, by whom is displayed a large number of colonial relics, some of them never before exhibited and all of historic interest, prominence being given to the thirteen original states, nearly off of which are represented. Among the Massachusetts collection is a Bible, printed in 1559, and which came to this country on the Mayflower, in the keeping of John Alden. There is the Latin grammar which General Warren studied; a copy of the stamp act of 1765; a fragment of Plymouth rock, and a piece of the torch that lit up the cave at Pomfret, where Putnam killed the historic wolf. Next to the pipe which Miles [102] Standish loved to smoke, lies the spurs and epaulets of Burgoyne, and near them the fife of Benedict Arnold and the visiting card of Aaron Burr. There are also the proclamations of Governor Hancock, and the ring which he wore while signing the declaration of independence. All these and hundreds of other curiosities are grouped among these alcoves.

In the two remaining alcoves and a portion of the aisle adjacent are the exhibits of the State department, whose object is to explain its functions and operations as a working business office, and as the proper repository of the national annals. The first of these functions is illustrated by sample letters and documents of the several bureaus, and on a series of bookshelves is displayed every class of publication issued by the department since its organization in 1789. On the shelves occupied by the Bureau of American History are the records of the revolution with the causes that led to it, the original petition to the king, presented by Franklin in 1774, by the side of which is a collection of his autograph letters and documents. In one of the cases is a perfect copy together with a photographic reproduction of the Declaration of Independence, with portraits of those who signed it, so far as they could be procured. Here also are the originals of the treaty of peace with Great Britain and of friendship and alliance with France.

In the adjoining alcove is a photographic copy of the original Constitution of the United States, with portraits of those by whom it was drafted. There are several of the LaFayette relics, of which a larger collection is contained in the French building, and there is a group of Washington relics, including one of his swords, his diary, and other manuscripts, of which a meteorological record is the last production of his pen. There is the original portrait of Washington by Peale, and his statue in bronze by Baron Marchetti. Covering the earlier historical period, and relating especially to diplomatic negotiations, are manuscript documents by Madison, Monroe, Jefferson, Robert R. Livingstone, and others, and with them engravings or portraits in oil. To the more thoughtful observer this is one of the most interesting features of the Fair, and while gazing on these priceless treasures, he wonders how it is that congress has expended many thousands of dollars in printing the records of the secession, and not a single dollar in printing those of the revolution. By a few faithful students of our earlier history these papers were in part transcribed, and thus alone were the public informed of their contents or indeed of their existence.

In a series of maps are displayed the several acquisitions of United States territory, under treaty stipulations, beginning with the treaty of Paris, whereby was acknowledged the independence of the United States, and ending with that which Seward negotiated, securing, in 1867, the possession of Alaska. By maps also is illustrated the consular-diplomatic representation of the United States, the first one bearing date of 1776 and the last, that of 1892. The proclamations of presidents are copied from the original, among them the nullification edict of Andrew Jackson, and the one with which in 1863, Abraham Lincoln broke the shackles of the slave. Then is traced the evolution of the American coat-of-arms or government seal from the earliest design submitted to the first continental congress to its final adoption in 1782, with an emblazoned reproduction of that instrument as it exists today, after all the modifications adopted since, by act of 1789, it was provided "That the seal heretofore used by the United States in congress assembled shall be, and hereby is declared to be, the seal of the United States."

In the exhibits of the State department are included those of the executive mansion or White House, for with the presidential functions this department is more closely allied than any other. In sample letters and blanks, including an original despatch from each of the foreign powers with which diplomatic relations are maintained, one may study the inner workings of the president�s cabinet, with the mode of conducting correspondence with foreign potentates and ambassadors.

In concluding this sketch of the State department a brief allusion to the diplomatic service of a century ago may be of interest, if only by way of contrast with the more costly and elaborate system of today. By act of July 1, 1790, the president was authorized "To draw from the treasury of the United States a sum, not exceeding forty thousand dollars annually, for the support of such persons as he shall[103] commission to serve the United States in foreign parts." In 1892 such an appropriation would not have served for the single legation at Paris or London, and how to make it serve, in 1792, for the ministers plenipotentiary at each of these cities and for the residents at Lisbon, Madrid, and the Hague, was one of the problems presented to Thomas Jefferson, the first of our secretaries of state.1 This he solved, as related in the archives of the department, by appointing for the Hague an agent in place of a resident, thus securing a small surplus from his allotted fund. For the salary of a minister plenipotentiary was allowed $9,000; for his outfit one-seventh of that amount; for extras and homeward passage, $671, and for his secretary $1,350; for a resident the total allowance was $5,653, while the agent must be satisfied with $1,650 and find his way home as best he could; but not at the expense of his government. Jefferson himself was content with the modest stipend of $3,500, with $800 for his chief clerk, and $500 for each assistant clerk, as appointed by act of September 11, 1789. If in such modest proportion were the present salaries of our public servants, we might have more efficient service with less unseemly scramble for office.

Opposite the department of State is that of Justice, where are portraits of all the chief-justices and attorney-generals of the United States, together with court reporters. A prominent place is accorded to Judge Marshall, on the right of whom is Oliver Ellsworth, and on his left, Roger Brooke Taney. In a colored chart are displayed the judicial districts of the republic, and that with such clearness and accuracy of delineation that one may readily select and trace the boundaries of each and all. For the student of law there are sets of Howard�s and Wallace�s supreme court reports, and of the United States court reports, with other law books and documents more than a century old, and with facsimile specimens of executive messages from 1789 to 1890, including those of Washington, John Quincy Adams, and Abraham Lincoln.

From the rotunda access is afforded to the principal exhibits by a series of aisles at equal distance from the centre. To the north is the Fisheries department; to the northeast the Agricultural display; to the northwest that of the interior department; to the south are the collections of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum; to the southeast are the bureaus of the War department; to the west and southwest those of the Treasury and Postoffice. Apart from those contained in the federal edifice there are several attractions in the grounds and waters adjacent, of all of which, and especially of the naval display, mention will be made in its place. First let us make the circuit of the main exhibits beginning with the War department, as one of the largest and most attractive; for amid the temples [104] of an exposition devoted to the arts of peace, there is nothing that excites more general interest than its enginery of war.

In this department, under the direction of Major Clifton Comby, with a staff of officers selected from the various branches of the service, is one of the most complete collections, not only of the implements of war, but of historic and other curiosities, every grouped together for such a purpose. The ordnance section forms of itself an arsenal well stored with the weapons and munitions of war, with guns of the heaviest caliber and explosives such as are used on the battle field or in besieging a city, with smokeless powder, bombs, torpedoes, and all the varieties of fixed and other ammunition known to the several branches of the service.

In the ordnance section the centre of attraction is a twelve-inch breech-loading rifle-gun, weighing 52 tons and carrying a projectile a thousand pounds in weight. Next to it is an eight-inch breech-loader, carrying a 450 pound ball. In the long array of modern swift-firing ordnance are several guns of the Hotchkiss pattern, perhaps the most destructive of modern weapons, one of them throwing the lightest of light field artillery, a one-pounder Hotchkiss, strapped on the back of a mule, with a wheel on each flank, a miniature carriage, boxes for ammunition, and a soldier�s blanket. For an entire battery six loads are required, each of similar fashion, and to unlimber and bring such a battery into action is the work of a very few minutes. On either side of the portal is a mortar of modern make, such as are now being constructed in large numbers for coast defense, and capable of being fired at any angle between horizontal and vertical lines.

Among a collection of historic guns is a six-pounder presented by La Fayette to the republic whose cause he made one with his own, and near it is a British cannon, surrendered at Yorktown. The guns which fired the first and last shots of the civil war are opposite to a bronze six-pounder of the Mexican war, almost as much out of date as the Chinese breech-loader elsewhere in the collection. Nor should we forget an historic weapon of antiquated pattern, presented by the king of Portugal to the United States, at the request of President Harrison. This is the famous gun "Long Tom," whose home, for about three-quarters of a century, was on the island fortress of Fayal in the Azores. During the war of 1812 it was mounted on the spar deck of the privateer, General Armstrong, which, under command of Captain Samuel Chester Reid, held at bay an entire British squadron in the harbor of Harta, Jamaica; but was finally sunk, to avoid capture, as a line-of-battle ship came within range. Other curiosities there are, not numerous, but extremely suggestive, including Confederate torpedoes and shells, a collection of historic rifle-balls, two of which met in mid-air at Gettysburg, and, as would appear from their flattened surfaces, with equal propelling force. In the stump of an oak tree are the marks of musket balls by which it was riddled at Spottsylvania courthouse. A cannon wheel tells its tale of the war, as does the case of rusty, twisted, and shattered muskets gathered from many a battle-field.

There is powder of all varieties, safely stored within glass cases, from the description commonly used in the civil war to the smokeless explosive with twice its power, and which, now that it can be handled without fear of accident, is gradually superseding the other. Of small arms he display is varied and measurably complete; but in this division the United States appears somewhat at a disadvantage, as compared with European exhibits, more so perhaps than in her collection of ordnance she excels the nations of Europe. This is readily explained by the need of furnishing the standing armies of the latter with the best and most recent weapons, changed at quickly recurring intervals, in keeping with the inventions of science. Here we may compare the Springfield rifle and its trowel-shaped bayonet with the Martini-Henry and its sword-shaped appendage, with serrated edge. Germany and Austria have given us their [105] Mannlicher rifles; France, the Lebel, Denmark, the Crag-Jorgensen, and other nations, weapons of great power and precision. But if our collection is not the best, it is by far the most interesting of all, for here are small-arms of every pattern and period, from the earliest specimens of colonial times to such as today are stored in the magazines of the war department. There is also a gun shop in actual operation, where small arms and cartridges are manufactured. The method of making gunpowder may also be studied, but only so far as it is generally know, for the more occult processes are not here revealed.

To illustrate more fully the difference between the weapons of the present and the past, the modern exhibit, in the way of small-arms, is in proximity to the historic collection already described. Further to display the progress made in the manufacture of arms, from its earliest inception up to this year of 1893, on the eastern wall adjacent is a series of guns and pistols, from the most ancient up to the most recent patterns. Among the former class is a Chinese wheel-lock pistol, the most antiquated of all, with a heavy wheel-lock musket of the make of 1520, and match locks of Arabian, Indian and other patterns. Then come flint locks, first invented in the seventeenth century, and in which the various stages of progress are shown, up to the days of Austerlitz and Waterloo, for it was not until 1820 that percussion muskets began to come into general use.

In the shooting gallery of the Ordnance department are various instruments for determining the velocity of projectiles and the pressure of powder in fire-arms, from the earliest methods to those at present in use. First of all is the so-called powder eprouvette, a small mortar used to test the strength of powder by the distance that a ball is carried by a given quantity. In connection with it is a ballistic pendulum in the form of a swinging block, whereby until recent years pressure and velocity wee estimated through the swing of the block under the stroke of a missile. In modern methods velocity is measured by electrical appliances and pressure by the pressure gauge, of which there are several varieties. In the former process the missile passes through two electric circuits, one near the muzzle and the other at a given distance, the interval between the breaking of the currents being recorded by instruments of various dates, may of which are here on exhibition. There are also appliances for target practice, with hand and bench reloading tools such as are used in actual service.

In the exhibits devoted to military equipment the observer does not fail to notice the absence of all suitable provision for the soldier�s health and comfort. His tent is the same as in the days of the civil war, and the same is the litter which carries the wounded from the field to a hospital of antiquated pattern. So also in the transportation, the commissary, and the quartermaster�s departments. The uniform is still the same as that which our troops disgraced at Bull�s Run and covered with glory at Gettysburg; nor is it at all superior as to make or material. Of similar pattern is the canteen to that which he filled from the waters of the Potomac; the kettle in which he boils his coffee and the oven in which he bakes his bread are no less old-fashioned; nor is there any improvement as to quality in the damaged bacon [106] and beans, and the coarse brown sugar that complete his diet on actual service.

But in the quartermaster�s department are more interesting exhibits, and especially those which display the uniforms worn since the colonial period until this present year of 1893, together with the civilian garb in which the pilgrim fathers were attired. On lay-figures are reproduced the regimental costumes of the several ranks, from an era antedating Braddock�s defeat, continued through the revolutionary war, to the war of 1812, the Mexican war, and the war which ended at the court-house of Appomattox. In this collection are represented all the more prominent commanders of past and present times. In front is a figure of Major-general Schofield, mounted on a wooden horse, and behind him members of his staff, all in full uniform. Then comes a train of pack mules, a wagon drawn by a six-mule team, an escort wagon and an ambulance wagon, the last containing a paymaster and flanked by Indian scouts. There are hospital tents and models in plaster of the burial grounds at Arlington and Fort Sheridan. Finally there is the wagon which, for the five years of the war, carried the effects of General Sherman, and near to it a glass case in which is his battle-flag, draped amid those of several of our military chieftains. In other cases are collections of epaulettes, chevrons, and service stripes pertaining to various arms and grades, with all the equipments and accoutrements of officers and men. Nor should we forget the display of national and other flags depending from galleries and roof and from the pillars which support them, containing in addition to those used under present regulations, the colors and corps and division flags carried by the federal armies.

Turning from the quartermaster�s section into the rotunda, the visitor pauses for a moment in front of a large model in plaster, depicting in realistic fashion an Arctic scene of 1882. Here Greeley is in the act of welcoming back Lieutenant Lockwood and Sergeant Brainard, after taking observations as far north as 83 24", the highest point of norther latitude as yet attained. Near by is displayed in a glass case an interesting collection of Greeley relics.

In the section allotted to the corps of engineers is a choice collection of photographic views, representing the most notable achievements of this department in the line of river and harbor improvements. In addition to these is a number of transparencies, with handsomely colored views, one with a panoramic outline of Chicago harbor, another displaying the Washington aqueduct system, and a third the movable dam across the Ohio River. There are also models of Hell-gate before and after its obstructions were removed and during the process of removal. Among others are those representing the work accomplished at the mouth of the Mississippi River, at the harbor of Key West, and the Delaware breakwater. A study of the various illustrations will show that the sum of $225,000,000 already appropriated for these and similar improvements has not been expended in vain.

In connection with the war department may be mentioned the army and naval hospital, south of the main structure, where are all the equipments [107] and appliances in common use at army posts, with a ward in which are dozen cots, a dispensary, an operating room, and a collection of pathological and physiological specimens. While the treatment of patients is not included in the programme, the method of caring for sick and wounded men is fully illustrated.

In the medical museum, in connection with the hospital, is a collection of many thousands of skulls and bones, gathered from the battlefields of the civil war, for the purpose of displaying the effects of wounds from various missiles, with charts illustrating diseased and malformed anatomy. There is also a large case filled with skeletons, scores of which are suspended from the wall in such close array that we might fancy them returning in single file from their own funeral procession. Though many races are here represented, the difference can not readily be detected between the Caucasian, the Mongol, and the Negro. In a corner hidden from sight is the brain of Garfield�s assassin preserved in alcohol, and elsewhere are grewsome relics of John Wilkes Booth. On these and other horrors those may feast to the full who will.

Adjacent to the War department are the exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum, of which it may first of all be said that, while they have taken the first prize at several of the great world�s fairs their present display excels all previous efforts. Under the direction of G. Brown Good, assistant secretary of the institute, by whom were arranged similar collections for the Philadelphia and other American and European expositions, a staff of experts was long engaged in preparing this the largest and most complete collection of all. Moreover, the system of classification and labeling adds largely to its interest, and might have been adopted to advantage in other departments, where the visitor is too often left to grope his way, with the aid of an incomplete and faulty catalogue. Among the purposes of the management, and indeed its principal purpose, has been to show in an instructive and entertaining form groups and samples culled from its principal sections, with a view to illustrate the proper methods of mounting, labeling, and installing museum collections. On each specimen is a label and a description, brief but sufficient to afford an adequate idea of that which it represents. Such was the plan adopted by Professor Baird, the founder of the museum, and at the Exposition display no portion of his system has been omitted.

First of all are the ethnological and archaeological exhibits, described in another chapter of this work, in connection with those elsewhere in the grounds. Then come the groups relating to physical geology, supplementing, as an illustration of geological characteristics, the mineral display of the geological survey, its own collection being limited [108] mainly to gems, crystals, and ornamental stones. Here are exemplified cave formations, with the peculiarities of such as are found in the United States. In another group are portrayed the formation and phenomena of volcanoes, active and extinct; in a third the glacial era, showing the portions of the American continent that were covered by ice in by-gone ages.

But to the average visitor the most interesting groups are those of the natural history series, containing as they do the most complete collection extant of American fauna. Here are arranged in regular order, from the monkey classed as the highest to the opossum ranking lowest in the scale, all the families in our animal kingdom, and with rare exceptions all the genera of each family. And so with birds, reptiles, and insects. So far as is possible there is also displayed the environment of the several species, the herbage on which they feed, the trees and shrubs among which they live, and the waters which they frequent. Thus deer may be seen emerging from swamp or forest, the badger at his avocation, the paroquet in the act of feeding, and the hornbill preparing a nest in which to imprison his mate.

In preparing the collection of mammalia skilled workmen were employed for nearly two years under the direction of William Palmer, taxidermist of the National Museum, each specimen being mounted in its natural attitude, from sketches and photographs taken from life. Perched on a seaweed covered rock is a sea otter, one of the few perfect skins that have escaped mutilation at the hands of the Aleuts, and secured through the good offices of the Alaska Commercial company. Near it is a walrus, from Walrus Island of the Pribylov group. There is also a remarkably fine specimen of the manatee, a species rapidly becoming extinct, and a sea elephant, such as were formerly common along the California seaboard. On a miniature heights is a group of Rocky Mountain goats, and on moss and sand brought from their native homes are Labrador and Alaskan caribou, while burrowing amid cactus and sagebrush are a dozen Texan armadilloes, with California wood-rats nestling in heaps of brushwood. In a tree top is a group of raccoons feeding on berries; of monkeys there is a large collection, one of them a small brown specimen with red face, among the rarest extant. Badgers are there, and tiger and civet cats, and bears, all handsomely mounted, and among other curiosities the smallest specimen of the armadillo genus thus far discovered, a native of the Argentine republic, only four inches in length, and with a sesquipedalian title altogether out of keeping with its size.

Next to the cases containing the animal groups are those devoted to the various families of American birds, the latter among the most interesting of the natural history series. All are arranged in life-like manner; a flock of wild pigeons, for instance, perched on the limb of a tree; ptarmigan, and a second cluster in summer attire, resembling so closely the sere leaves of autumn as to deceive an experienced hunter. In a group of prairie chickens males are represented in deadly combat for the proprietorship of the hens. There are Carolina paroquets, some at roost and others at supper; there is a large assortment of birds of paradise, and of humming birds the most complete collection ever got together. Close to his friend the crocodile is the bird that bears his name, and near by a number [109] of lower birds, in nests adorned with flowers which, as naturalists would have us believe, they replace with fresh ones when faded.

In addition to the beasts and birds there is a collection of all the principal articles of commerce gathered from the animal kingdom. First of all is a large assortment of goods made of hair, wool, and feathers, the last in the shape of brushes, fans, robes, artificial flowers and feather paintings - that is with feathers in place of pigments. Near to some cases containing various kinds of skins and furs, are groups of leather and leathern goods. Among the latter is the collection of a New York firm including the perfect skins of crocodiles and alligators, tanned in many colors, with those of the python and boa constrictor, the lizard and iguana, the eel and porpoise, tame and wild fowl of many species, with others too numerous to be mentioned, from the elephant to the chameleon, the woodchuck and the domestic cat. Next comes the exhibit of horns and whatsoever is made therefrom, with the ramrod of the Dutch Boer and the war-club of the Hottentot, both of rhinoceros horn, up to umbrella and cane handles, tortoise-shell combs so-called, and all the manifold uses to which horns are applied, not omitting glues and fertilizers.

Teeth and tusks form another division of the National Museum exhibits, and here is one of the largest of elephant�s tusks, more than eight feet long and weighing nearly one hundred and forty pounds. The manufacture of articles made from ivory is largely illustrated, one segment cut lengthwise, for instance, having brush handles traced on the surface ready for sawing out, while the tip of another serves as a carving-knife handle, and the lower part of the tusk, where the ivory is not solid, is converted into napkin rings. From the tusk of the narwhal or sea-unicorn, whose long and pointed lance of ivory will pierce the side of a ship, there are many beautiful ornaments, and in walrus ivory there are numerous carvings of most elaborate design, the workmanship of Japanese and Eskimos. There are specimens of jewelry and brooches made of boars� and alligators� teeth; there is the sword of the South Sea islander, its edge bristling with the teeth of the shark; there is a necklace of human incisors, and other ghastly exhibits, as of the claws of animals and the joints and finger-nails of men.

Of oils there is a remarkable collection, including those extracted from the nose of the pilotwhale and the forelegs of the crocodile, the latter valued as a leather dressing. Here one may compare with olive oil for table use that which, prepared from the fat of the guacharo, serves as a palatable substitute to the native of Equador. Here also are oils made from the entrails of the eel and the fat that underlies the upper shell of the turtle, [110] the former recommended as a specific for deafness, the latter for rheumatism. Still another is the golden colored oil used for water-proof coverings and obtained from a Central American insect, which yields more than half its weight of the grease from which the oil is manufactured. Elsewhere is a collection of materials used for medical purposes, and especially such as insects contribute to the pharmacopoeia.

In another group is an illustration of the various articles manufactured from mother-of-pearl, the shell being cut by a small revolving saw and each part used for the purpose to which it is best adapted. The outer edges, for instance, are made into penholders, and the sections adjoining into knife-handles, while the central portion is converted into pistol-handles, and other parts into cloak, cuff, collar, and shirt buttons. By a careful economy of material all these articles may be obtained from a single shell of the largest size.

To the numismatist the collection of coins and other currency belonging to the National Museum at Washington is one of surpassing interest, for in these quaint and curious specimens is traced the history of all the world�s principal media of exchange. Here are not only rounded disks of gold and silver stamped with various devices, but metals, precious and base, of all classes and shapes that have been used as current funds since the days when Saint Peter extracted from the mouth of a fish the tribute to be rendered unto Caesar. Among them is the Chinese knife money, pieces of razor-shaped iron, six inches long, current in the first century of the Christian era, before which date knives were actually used as money. There is also the ring money which to Gaul and Briton served for ornament or cash, often forming his entire worldly wealth. Of these was unearthed in Staffordshire, England, nearly two centuries ago, a specimen containing twenty-six ounces of pure gold, some four feet long, and with all the ductility of the virgin metal. Other curiosities are the brick-salt money of Abyssinia, moulded into shape at the king�s storehouse, and the brick-tea money of Siberia, by the value of which is largely regulated the price of other commodities.

Of American coins the earliest are the disks of copper minted by Cortes, and next in chronological order the copper coins of Bermuda islands, the material for which was imported from England in the seventeenth century. Bearing date between 1737 and 1739 is the earliest coinage of Connecticut, also of copper, the workmanship of a colonist named John Higley and made from ore discovered on his homestead. On one side is the inscription, "I am a Good Copper;" on the other, "Value Me as You Please." These and other curiosities without number are exhibited in the assortment of the National Museum, which, together with that of the treasury department, forms one of the most complete collections in the world.

At the southern end of the Government Building and on the left of the southern portal is a chamber devoted to the religions and priesthoods of the world, their ceremonials, costumes, manuscripts, relics, traditions, statuary, and other objects of interest to the curious or the devout. In the first case is a breastplate of silver and gold, on which are the tablets of the decalogue, and near it are scrolls of the law in minute characters, with tapestry work representing the sacrifice of Isaac and costumes of Jewish rabbies such as are worn in Mohammedan countries. There are also Hebrew manuscripts, including those of the pentateuch and of the book of Esther, with ancient manuals of devotion, and a Jewish marriage contract in illumined characters inscribed on parchment. Another case devoted to the ceremonials of oriental Christian churches, contains [111] Russian ikons, the vestments of a Russian priest, and scenes from the life of Christ and the virgin, studded with pearls and precious stones. In a third is the Koran with illuminated text, resting on a stand inlaid with mother-of-pearl and inscribed with a Mohammedan invocation bearing the date of 1210. In the Assyrian display is a bas-relief of an eagle-headed divinity and a cast of Shamosh, the Assyrian god of the sun, taken from the original in the royal museum of Berlin. In the Greek and Roman sections are casts of their favorite deities, of the muses, and of historical figures, some of them reproductions of antique statuary contained in European capitals.

On the walls of this room are pictures of mosques and harems, of worshippers in attitudes of penance and devotion, of wedding and other ceremonies, and of oriental scenes in far off eastern lands. Musical instruments there are in abundance, many of them of most primitive device, as the rattle of the Haida Indian, the xylophone of the Zulu, and the drum of the African negro, with gongs and horns, harps and guitars, lutes, zithers, and violins, all these and others gathered from many nations and in every conceivable pattern. Of pottery there is also a large collection, showing the development of the ceramic art from its inception to the present day. The engravings include specimens belonging to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, historic and symbolical figures, and etchings, drawings, and color prints of scenery and ancient ruins.

In an adjacent room on the opposite side of the nave is a large collection of photographs of prominent Americans, including members of the continental congresses, the federal congress of 1787, and the American colonial bills, powder horns of the revolutionary period, engraved with battle scenes, models of the viking ship and other ancient craft. Several cases are filled with medals forming what may be termed a series in medallic history, beginning with the one with which William Penn commemorated his treaty of peace and friendship with the Indians, and that with which George III pretended so to do. Then come the medals of the revolutionary era, included among others of value those presented to Lafayette, a Dutch medal acknowledging John Adams as envoy to Holland, and a number of Washington medals in honor of his battles and his inauguration. There is also a large array of the military, civic, and ecclesiastic medals of other countries, the first including those of the Peninsular wars, and the last one issued by order of Napoleon I. Finally there is a collection of coins, of which the oldest was minted in England in 1615. Others worthy of note are a Washington two-penny piece of 1795, and pieces of Mexican cob-money, roughly hammered into shape and stamped with the arms of Spain.

In the Treasury department, adjoining that of the National Museum, are portrayed the financial history and financial condition of the United States, from the war of independence, when continental money ranked lower than the Argentinian currency of today, until, in this year of 1893 our bonds sell almost on a parity with British consols, esteemed as the most stable of national securities. Here he who will may study the operations of one of the heaviest of coining presses, not in the act of producing coins, but stamping medals of bronze for those to whom they may be awarded. In truth it is a powerful machine, and yet not more so than its uses demand; for to coin the half dollar with which the Fair [112] pilgrim pays his admission fee requires a pressure of more than 200,000 pounds, and for a silver dollar more than 300,000. It produces, moreover, every coin in use, from a one-cent piece to a double eagle, and that by merely changing the die.

In show-cases adjacent to the press is the treasury collection of coins and medals, forming, as I have said, in connection with that of the National Museum, one of the largest and most valuable collections extant, valuable more for the rarity of its specimens than for their intrinsic worth. Started in 1830 this collection includes nearly every description of coin issued by the government, beginning with the first one, minted in 1792, in the form of a silver half-dime or disme, as our forefathers termed it. Most precious of all is a dollar of the mintage of 1804, one of the few that remain, and worth many times its weight in gold. In all there are 7,500 rare coins and 2,500 medals; nor is the collection limited to American coins; for here are not a few gold pieces from two to three thousand years old, with the shekel of the Hebrew patriarchs, the silver currency of Aegina, and the golden stater of the Alexandrian era.

Elsewhere are exhibited in a gilt frame of cunning design specimens of all the paper currency, bonds, and other certificates of value at present in use. Here are treasury notes ranging in denomination from $1 to $1,000, with four percent bonds of a face valuation of $50,000 and a market valuation of nearly $60,000, with gold and silver certificates representing fabulous amounts, but not, it need hardly be said, in convertible shape, the bills and bonds being printed only on one side and with portions of the numbering omitted. In a word we have here a complete reproduction of the currency system of the United States, including all such outstanding obligations as are represented on paper.

In the frame adjacent are copies of the commissions, official invitations, and other documents issued in the name of the United States, together with a collection of stamps. In a third case are the vignettes of all whose portraits have appeared on certificates of value or other instruments issued by the national government, including those of all the secretaries of the treasury, from Alexander Hamilton whom Washington appointed, to John G. Carlisle whom Cleveland called to office. There are pictures of such historic events as have been used for symbolic decorations, as the landing at Plymouth rock and Perry�s achievement on Lake Erie, and vignettes of many of the more prominent generals of the civil and other wars. Side by side with Winfield [113] Scott, in the stiff uniform of his day, is General Custer, attired in the frontier garb which he loved to wear. Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan are there, with others whom the nation will never forget to honor, and among statesmen and financiers are many whose names have long been household words throughout the land.

In connection with the Treasury department may be mentioned the exhibits of the United States Coast and Geodetic survey, consisting largely of the instruments used in this branch of the service. But here the centre of attraction is a device representing in plaster of Paris the surface of the United States, with an area covering about four hundred square feet and a scale of one to each million inches of actual area. The true contour and curvature of this portion of the earth are also delineated with accurate distances and elevations. At intervals from the coasts a series of blue lines represent each increase of a thousand feet in ocean�s depth. Around the map is a stairway with landings, about two feet from its surface.

In the Lighthouse exhibit, adjacent to that of the Geodetic survey, are models of old lighthouses, lightships, buoys, and river-lights, with large illuminating apparatus containing hyper-radiant lenses ranged and numbered in the order of their strength and brilliancy. Elsewhere in this department are the outfit and implements of a lighthouse keeper, his chest of tools and his working library, with photographs and paintings in oil and water colors of the lighthouses along our coasts, showing the materials of which they are built, some of timber, some of steel, others of boulders of rock, and still others resembling an old-fashioned water tower or windmill.

In the Post-office department is first of all a branch in practical operation, connection with the main Chicago office, and not only as a distributing point for mail matter, but for the registry of letters, the issue of money orders, and the sale of stamps. An interesting feature in this connection is a combination postal car for letters and newspapers, of most recent pattern and manned with the most expert of sorters and operators. Here the entire mail gathered within the grounds of the Fair is sorted, placed in pouches and sent forth for distribution, wagons delivering and receiving the mail-bags direct from incoming and outgoing trains. The car itself is a model of workmanship, constructed by the well-known car-building firm of Wilmington, Delaware, and named the Benjamin Harrison. It is sixty feet in length with five-foot platforms at either end, painted a light cream color and handsomely upholstered and equipped, the interior finished in white ash and with furniture of maple and mahogany. Except that it is stationary this model resembles in all respects a postal car in actual service.

The working space is divided from the main lobby by a screen surmounted with glass, on which are the names of the various departments, beyond which may be partially observed the workings of the department. The service is further illustrated by a collection of uniforms, facsimiles, and models, belonging [114] to the museum of the Postoffice department at Washington. Side by side with a pony-express rider is a letter-carrier mounted on a bicycle; near to mail-coach of antiquated patter, which saw hard service in the Rocky mountains, and in 1877 was captured by Indians, is a miniature postal-car completely equipped, and in company with one of the old fashioned mail steamers that plied on the Mississippi in the days of the Mexican war, is a beautiful model of the steamer Paris, one of the floating palaces used for the postal transport of the present day.

A feature in this department is the collection of stamps, gathered by the American Philatelic association, and dating back almost to the invention of the adhesive stamp in the office of a Dundee printer in 1834, though such were not in public use until several years later, the first in the United States bearing the date of 1841. From a few thousands issued in that year the number has increased to 700,000,000 or 800,000,000, New York alone consuming 100,000,000 a year. Of nearly all that have been used up to 1893, including those of other lands, there are samples on exhibition in the gallery, where also are the offices of employees. On the walls are portraits of all who have held office as postmaster-general, and in some of the alcoves those of presidents and justices of the supreme court.

But to the average sight-seer the most attractive exhibits in the postal department are those which contain the unclaimed packages of the dead-letter office, for never before was such a heterogeneous assortment of odds and ends collected within so small a space. In truth it is a fitting accompaniment of an exposition intended to display all the products of soil, mine, and sea, for many of those products, including also the denizens of air, are to be found in these grotesque and strangely blended [115] groups. In one case is an owl perched on a human skull; in another an Indian scalp, side by side with a Chinese doll; in a third a string of battered Mongolian coins. Pistols there are of quaint and olden pattern, with knives and daggers, axes and hatchets, stuffed birds and reptiles, centipedes and tarantulas. Next to a group of bronze medals, a package of tobacco awaits its owner, and elsewhere in this postal morgue are jars filled with snakes preserved in alcohol, and flanked with bottles of whisky. On each articles is placed the address, and on some the letter that accompanied it; thus, among other purposes, the Fair may serve as a means of restoring to owners some of their stray effects.

In the exhibits of the Interior department all the functions of this branch of government are clearly illustrated, its subdivisions including the Education, Land, and Census bureaus, the Patent office and the Geological survey. The display is further enriched by curiosities gathered the world over, by John M. Ewing, as special agent, with a corps of assistants in each of the several bureaus, while to its groupings and classification, under the management of Horace A. Taylor, no exception can be taken. Of such exhibits as relate to ethnology, archaeology and kindred subjects, mention will be made in a chapter specially devoted to such topics.

The exhibits of the bureau of education are classed in four divisions, first among which is the one relating to Records and Correspondence, including the collection, publication, and diffusion of information, with statistical charts presenting in figures and by means of graphic devices data collected from the public and other schools and colleges of the United States. In the division of International exchange is a comparative exposition of foreign educational systems.

In the Library and Museum, which form the third and fourth divisions, are catalogues of all the principal collections of school and college textbooks in the United States. There are also samples of text-books printed during the earlier colonial period in New England, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and opened at such pages as display the characteristics of the era in which they were published. There is a library devoted to the science of teaching, and to general instruction, where is illustrated the best system of utilizing a small collection, say of two to three thousand volumes, whether for school or other purposes. By models and charts is shown the method of administering such libraries in France, with the classes of books that are circulated and some of the results attained.

In the Museum are water-color and other paintings, with drawings, prints, photographs, and models, showing the evolution of the modern school building and grounds. Among [117] the models are those of the primitive school-house of logs or sods, of which there are still many actual specimens extant. As exhibits of school furniture and fittings, the models of the Patent office have been borrowed for the occasion. The collection of school apparatus is devoted mainly to object teaching, and includes such as can be made by the teacher. Methods of objective teaching are also illustrated, such as are adapted to laboratories and training-schools, with experiments by teachers and students in chemistry, electricity, and other branches of science. Finally it is shown how, for a brief course of instruction, these branches may be so arranged as to obtain the best results at the smallest expenditure of time and money.

In the space devoted to the general land office are displayed the methods of obtaining government land and the process of acquiring title until confirmed by patent. On maps and charts are outlined the sections disposed of to actual settlers or remaining unoccupied at the time of their delineation, with location, character, and capabilities, whether as agricultural, pastoral, mineral, or forest lands. On the walls are copies of the actual patents whereby the government itself acquired possession, with such as were granted to the earliest settlers in several of the original states. While of practical value, the display of the land office and public land system is also an educational and historical collection. Here is presented in attractive guise a complete record of the country�s progress, its various acquisitions of territory, by cession, purchase, or occupation; the surveyed and unsurveyed public lands in each state and territory and the areas granted to railroads, with their settlement and development.

One of the most interesting exhibits is a mammoth terrestrial globe, probably the largest in existence, and yet with all the accuracy of delineation that science and mechanism can bestow. The glove is 63 feet in circumference, 20 in diameter, 1250 in superficial area, and mounted as it is on a star-shaped structure which serves as a pedestal, 15 feet above the floor, over-tops the surrounding exhibits. On its face oceans and continents are reproduced on a scale of one and three-quarter inches to a degree, measured at the equator. The boundaries of all the countries of earth, their surfaces and subdivisions, the sites of [119] the larger cities, the limits of ocean and of inland seas, and the courses of rivers and streams are portrayed in skillfully shaded colors and with singular fidelity. Parallels and meridians are also indicated, with zone and isothermal lines, with the principal steamship lines, and with the course of the great discoverer clearly traced, on the first of his New World voyages.

Suspended from the structure beneath are maps of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and the two Dakotas, the last admitted among the sisterhood of states. Entrance is afforded through several doorways, beneath a drapery of flags, in the artistic blending of which is no combination of the colors of rival nations. An interior stairway in the chamber formed by the pedestal leads to a balcony around the base of the glove, which rests on a horizontal axis, and not as the earth revolves in space, thus permitting a clearer view of the surface, which is lighted by electricity. At the lower axis, within the antarctic zone, where there is nothing to be depicted save for the shadowy outlines of Graham�s land, is the apparatus for turning the glove concealed under a huge design representing the seal of the land office. Through an ingenious device the interior may be lighted by electricity, giving to the outer surface a novel and pleasing effect.

In the space devoted to the Census bureau may be seen in actual operation the Hollerith tabulating machine, with employees of this department assigned for special duty, by whom the visitor, whose curiosity may so incline, may place on record his age, size, nationality, birthplace, and such other details as come within the province of the census taker. There is also a collection of charts and maps, showing the resources of every section of the United States and their adaptation to various branches of industry, with a long array of statistics more voluminous than reliable.

To the visitor whose tastes or faculties incline to invention the northwest portion of the Federal building is one of the most attractive spots in the home of the Fair; for here in a long array of glass cases are the models of the patent office, containing not only the leading inventions of recent date, but a historic collection, illustrating the progress of the world in this direction and especially the progress of the United States. And not alone to the man of science but to the casual visitor are these among the most interesting of all the Exposition groups, for never was gathered so rare a collection of curiosities. Here, for instance, the farmer may study the various stages of invention whereby has been evolved the modern reaping machine, up to the latest device of the McCormick pattern, and this he may compare with one of ancient Gallic construction, such as the [Oedric] or Helvetic may have used when disturbed at their task by the approach of Caesar�s legionaries.

From nearly a quarter of a million of models and specimens little more than 2,500 were selected for representation at the Fair; and these have been chosen with care and judgment, with a view to their practical or scientific value, and excluding all mere ingenious toys or such as would give to the display an element of the ludicrous and grotesque. To cull these exhibits from the huge collection of the patent office was a two years� task for three of its most expert [120] examiners, and, as the result, they have given us, within moderate limits, a collection which illustrates, in a series of object lessons, the history of human invention, almost from the days when the father and mother of the human race invented for themselves their rude and scant apparel.

Among the exhibits of telegraphy is displayed the first huge, unwieldy instrument for which a patent was issued, and with it, in order of date, all the principal improvements, culminating in what appears to us the well-nigh perfect instrument of today. In similar fashion is reproduced the history of telephones, beginning with the Bell telephone in 1876. And so with printing presses; we have first an exact reproduction of the one which Guttenberg put together near the middle of the fifteenth century; then come the more recent types of hand-presses; then cylinder presses, with all their ramifications; then, in progressive series, the web perfecting presses, and finally the Hoe press of latest pattern, such as furnishes the breakfast tables of New York with their relish of news and scandal at the rate of seventy thousand an hour.

Somewhat to his surprise the average visitor will learn that the first type-writing machine, its patent signed by President Andrew Jackson, was invented in 1829 by one William Burt, who sold for $75 his rights for the New England states, the purchaser demanding the return of his money on the ground that the machine was unsalable. The model on exhibition is a reproduction of the original, which was burned in 1836. Though a cumbersome structure it worked fairly well, and failed only because the world was not yet ready for such an invention. There are others of later and slightly improved design, including the first one of the Remington pattern, manufactured in 1874, and thence proceeding through various gradations up to the typewriter of today.

Of sewing machines there are more than a hundred models, including the originals of the Greenough machine of 1842, and the Howe machine of 1846, the latter with an antiquated fly-wheel and long-toothed plate on which the cloth was held, the latter feature being partially reproduced in the most recent of all the models, one used for sewing on looped fabrics a woven lining. From the earliest machines to those of recent make are displayed the gradual improvements in each, the latter for all the processes known to the seamstress� art. Among the spinning machines are models of the ancient distaff and spindle, of the spinning wheel of colonial days, of the spinning-jenny that Hargreaves fashioned, and the water-frame that Arkwright invented, thence traced in unbroken series to the self-acting machinery which gluts the market with an over-production of textile fabrics. And so with the looms, the most powerful of modern apparatus standing side by side in contrast with those which wove the wefts of ancient Egypt and of Rome.

Of agricultural implements there is a complete and varied display, beginning with such as the Assyrians [121] used, and including the most primitive of ploughs, shaped like a crooked stick. Here also is the first fashioned with cast-iron board, invented in 1797, but finding little favor with agriculturists, who believed it would poison the soil and kill their crops. Among those of recent make is a sulky gang-plough of the fin de siecle pattern, with numberless levers and springs, for which a patent was issued in 1892. Reapers, mowers, and harrows, seeders and planters, there are in abundance, with the first of what may be termed modern reapers, invented in 1799, one of 1825, and the prototype of the present McCormick reaper, manufactured in 1831.

Of steam engines there are more than two hundred varieties, and of engines for propulsion on river, ocean, and lake, nearly three hundred. Among the former is a model of Hero�s globe, said to have been turned by steam more than two thousand years ago, with those of the engines invented by Papin and Savery, Newcomen and Watt, of the locomotives built by Trevethick and Stevenson, with others that have become historic, down to the Ericsson models, and the cylinders and drivers of the steam leviathan constructed by Vanclair in 1891. Of electric motors the first is that of Joseph Henry, invented in 1835, and near it the original model of Faradya�s induction coil, which furnished the keynote to further progress in electricity. A feature of the group in Davenport�s motor of 1837, which failed only because there were as yet no dynamos for the production of electric currents. Side by side with Page�s motor, used in 1854 on a locomotive running between Washington and Baltimore, are the inventions of Morse, Houston, Edison, and others known to the world of science. Telegraphs and telephones, electric lamps, and other of the manifold uses to which electricity is applied are exhibited in all varieties.

Was is represented as a science by several hundred models of ordnance and other fire-arms. There are cannon of many patterns, from the wooden tubes of the Chinese to rapid-firing Hotchkiss guns, with the Dahlgren gun which, three decades ago, was among the most destructive of war�s enginery. In the display of small-arms are models of the first invented, including a pyrotechnic hand weapon and the hand culverin of the middle ages, fired by a slow match. Next to them is a match-lock of the Columbian era and a wheel-lock of sixteenth century pattern, with curiously lacquered barrel, the wheel resting on a spiral spring, wound up with a key, and at the touch of the trigger revolving so rapidly as to emit a shower of sparks from a flint in contact with its circumference. This weapon was used by the Germans in 1555. Near it is the needle-gun which figured so prominently in the war of 1870. There are breech-loaders, muzzle-loaders, and hammerless fowling-pieces, with the original Henry rifle, on which all other magazine rifles are largely improvements, and [122] there is the first Colt�s revolver for which a patent was applied. All these and many other specimens are contained in a large glass case, at one end of which is an old-fashioned weapon in the form of a wooden tube covered with bamboo; at the other a Crag-Jorgensen rifle, patented in 1893.

Of other models, as of boot, shoe, and screw-making machines, wood-turning, wood-working, and wood-sawing machines, wire and sheet-metal working machines, fire escapes and ladders, bridges, gates, and fences, threshing machines, knitting and netting machines, and laundry apparatus, of these and many others I need only give passing mention.

Near the northwest corner of the Government building are the quarters of the Geological survey, in the windows of which are photographic transparencies representing objects of historic interest. Under them are topographical and relief maps of every section of the United States, together with a collection of instruments used in the various surveys. Elsewhere are models in plaster of Paris representing the entire surface of the earth and the waters beneath the earth, with their underlying strata, to the greatest depths at which soundings have been taken. Of special value are those which present to us, as the result of many years of study and research, the geographical features of our own country. Here are reproduced in miniature its mountains and valleys, its lakes and rivers, its deserts and swamps, its cities and towns, and even its railroads, all with a minuteness and perfection of detail such as could never be embodied in mere verbal or graphic delineation.

In the geological and mineral groups are no less clearly revealed the strata of our rock formulations, and the secrets that for unnumbered aeons lay buried within. Of metals, minerals, crystals, and precious stones of commercial or scientific value, there is one of the most complete collections extant, with fossils and the flora of geology, especially its coal flora, depicting more plainly than on written page the legend of the rocks. There are sections of turquoise, several pounds in weight, extracted from the mines of New Mexico; there are garnets of phenomenal dimensions in crystalline form; there are crystals that cannot be readily detected from diamonds, taken from the clay strata of Herkimer county, New York, and there is a large and varied assortment of crystals of the calcite, cryolite, and other varieties. Of specimens and formations not included in the display there are illustrations in the form of paintings, maps and photographs, and as a further supplement to the exhibits are those of the National Museum, devoted mainly to physical geology.

In the various exhibits is represented the entire work of the survey, whether in the field or in the office, elucidating by carefully selected specimens the geology and mineralogy of the United States. The fossil collections are so arranged as to show their original locations and their order in the geological column. Prominent among them is the huge skeleton of an antediluvian pachyderm, fourteen feet long and eleven in height, unearthed in what are known as the badlands of Dakota. Elsewhere is a fossil horn more than four feet in length taken from a mollusk of the ammonite family, with other ammonite and trilobite specimens, entire or in parts. There is also a large group of the coral-building crustacea commonly known as stone lilies, so called on account of their close resemblance to water lilies.

By the bureau of Indian affairs, as a branch of the Interior department, a building was erected near the Krupp pavilion and the convent of La Rabida, reproducing, as far as possible, the reservation boarding-school, the walls of its chambers decorated with articles of Indian manufacture, and the windows partly composed of transparencies depicturing Indian customs and modes of life, with collections of photographs for similar purposes and portraits of prominent chieftains. There are workshops, school, sitting and dining rooms, dormitories, and kitchen, with apartments for employees, and here may be seen, under charge of instructors, boys and girls, studying or reciting, working at trades, or preparing their meals, all as though actually living on reservations, with specimens of their self-taught industries compared with those of civilized nations, and with the methods adopted and the results accomplished. The pupils and teachers were selected from a large number of Indian schools, not only government schools, but such as are conducted by the several religious denominations, each furnishing its quota, and giving place to others after a brief sojourn. Thus are extended to a large number of Indian boys and girls the educational advantages of the Fair, and to visitors a complete exposition of the training afforded by government and other agencies at widely scattered points.

[123] - Finally should be mentioned in connection with the department of the Interior, its Alaskan exhibit, housed in the norther gallery of the Government building, one fully illustrating the resources of that much abused territory, and more than justifying the well-known remark that Seward made, some few years after its purchase. "What, Mr. Seward," asked one of his admirers, "do you consider the crowing act of your political career?" "The purchase of Alaska," he replied, "but it will take the people a generation to find it out." And now that a generation has well-nigh passed away, the people are beginning to realize her natural wealth, not only in land and pelagic peltry, but in fisheries, forests, and mines, the first making good the decreasing output of the Columbia river canneries, the second with timber of many varieties and in unlimited supply, the third containing, in addition to valuable placers, gold-bearing quartz-veins, which may yet go far to reestablish the equilibrium in the value of the precious metals.

For more than a year G. T. Emmons, as special agent, was engaged in preparing this display, and as the result has presented a most attractive and interesting collection, including many curiosities never before given to the public. Among them is a war canoe, grotesquely painted, the sleds of the Thlinkeet and other tribes, their trophies and totem poles, and there is the most complete assortment of furs ever placed on exhibition. In the Thlinkeet, or as the government spells the work, Tlingit collection, are exhibits of rare interest to the casual visitor no less than to the ethnologist. In one case is the most complete assortment of furs ever placed on exposition; in another a collection of festival and ceremonial pipes; in a third of head-dresses, robes, and blankets; in a fourth of weapons and household and fishing implements; in a fifth, of charms and ornaments. Adjoining them are cases containing the household and fishing implements and clothing of the Eskimos. As specimens of Alaskan timber, there are sections of spruce, cedar, alder, and hemlock. The mineral group includes a piece of quartz from the Treadwell gold mine on Douglas island, with gilded bars representing in facsimile its output of $676,226 for 1892. Finally, there are studies of Alaska in graphic art, in a collection loaned by T. J. Richardson.

In the main gallery are displayed, as may be read on its canvas signs, the resources, industries, commerce, and customs of Mexico, Central and South America, and the West Indies. Here is the picture gallery of the Federal pavilion, where may be studied, in a series of excellent illustrations, the more striking physical features, the farms and factories, the traffic and means of communication, the cities, homes, and home-life of many nations, with portraits of their more eminent men. In cases containing textile and other fabrics are copies of a work entitled the Special Exposition Bulletin, issued by the bureau of American republics, and, as it states, showing how Latin American markets may be reached by manufacturers. Among other curiosities are facsimiles of the Peruvian, Bolivian, and Argentinian declarations of independence and a collection of paintings in water color by an Amayara Indian of Bolivia. Elsewhere are llamas, guanacos, and burros, the last in a mounted group, side by side with a pack-mule and a yoke of oxen. A relief map of Central and South America shows the proposed line of an Intercontinental railroad and of existing railway and steamship lines, with a vertical scale of about one inch to the mile and a horizontal scale of an inch to twenty-five miles, measured on the equator.

Descending from the gallery, whence we found an excellent view of the departments below, and especially of the rotunda, with its mural decorations, let us enter the Fisheries branch, for which, with the aid of an appropriation of $89,000, preparations were begun in the spring of 1891. Collections were placed in a building rented by the Fish commission in Washington, and a corps of assistants was employed in preparing the exhibits for packing. In December 1892 eight car-loads were housed in the federal building, and before the middle of March twelve additional car-loads were landed in Chicago. In the closing days of the latter month the work of installation was begun, and by the first of May completed. As the result we have a most interesting and instructive display, occupying 15,000 square feet in the northern corridor and the naves adjacent, between the spaces allotted to the departments of the Interior and Agriculture.

Says the manager of the Fisheries department: "The object of our exhibits is to illustrate the functions, methods, and operations of the United States fish commission in its three divisions of scientific inquiry, fisheries, and pisciculture." The collections are largely drawn from the fisheries section of the national museum, where most of them were deposited by the commission, after doing duty at former expositions; but much of the material is the property of the museum itself.

As illustrations of the scientific work of the commission, there are models and photographs of its aerological stations for marine exploration and of its vessels, the Albatross, Fish Hawk, and Grampus. Together with apparatus for deep-sea soundings and thermometers and salimometers for physical observations are sectional [124] charts of ocean�s bed, relief models of submarine continental slopes, and specimens, dried or in alcohol, of mollusks, polypi, and other denizens of surface and deep waters, including corals and foraminifera, crinoidea, star-fish, and sea-urchins, the last of which is classes as an edible specimen, though one would prefer to have fresh on table the lobsters, crabs, shrimps, or oysters that form a part of the collection. Of seines, trawls, towing-nets, dredges, sieves, and other such articles as were used in making and preserving this collection, there is also a plentiful display. Nor should we omit the groups which show the development of pisciculture as a branch of economic science.

The division of fisheries is subdivided into objects or groups of specimens, apparatus, illustrations, and statistics. In the first are included, among other mammals, the common and bottle-nosed dolphin, the grampus, porpoise, and sperm-whale, the common and fur-seal, and the sea-lion, the last three mounted on frames and the others in the forms of casts. Of reptilia and batrachians there are the alligator, or rather his skin; turtles, green, soft-shelled, snap, and spotted; tortoises of several descriptions, and snakes and frogs, some in the form of painted casts and others represented by their shells. But most of the fish exhibit proper is to be found in the annex of the Fisheries building, the living specimens in its aquaria and others in various forms of illustration. Of these a description will be given in connection with the Fisheries department.

Under the heading of apparatus are classed fishing vessels of all descriptions, from a steam-whaler to a skin or bark canoe. Of the smaller craft there are many actual reproductions, and of the larger, models and pictures, with improved and recent types, their instruments of navigation, their rigging and equipments. For the taking of fish there are casting and towing nets, trawls and dredges, the lines, rods, reels, flies, floats, and sinkers of the angler and the deep-sea fisherman; and the spears and lances, or missile weapons used in whaling and sealing, or by Indian tribes, as the Aleuts and Eskimoes for supplying themselves with food. Among the collection of rods is one valued at $2,000, manufactured by the New York firm of Abbey & Imbrie for the Queen�s Jubilee Exposition, as a specimen of the most finished workmanship. It is mounted in gold, engraved with designs of artistic merit, in it butt a topaz which cost $1,200, and its reel of solid gold, with handle of agate.

In addition to the models, casts and pictures already mentioned, the Fisheries department is further illustrated by a collection of many hundreds of color-sketches, paintings, and enlarged photographs, representing [125] not only classes and specimens, but the dwellings of fishermen, their mode of life, and the villages and towns supported mainly by this industry. Statistics are presented in the form of charts and in the publications of the Fish commission, beginning with its organization in 1871. Those who incline to this class of literature will find here no lack of material; for in one of the cases are some twenty volumes of Annual Report, each of nearly 1,000 pages, ten volumes of its Annual Bulletin, with 5,000 pages in all, the quarto series in connection with the tenth census, and special treatises and reports on scientific investigation and research.

As an example of what has been accomplished in the way of pisciculture, it will be seen on one of the charts in this section that, between 1872 and 1892, the commission distributed 2,732,486,387 fish. Of the economic value of its work a single instance must here suffice. In 1880 some 29,000,000 shad were distributed among the inland waters of the United States and more than 5,000,000 were caught, while for 1890 the take was little short of 13,000,000; yet for the former year the catch was valued at nearly $1,000,000 and for the latter at about $800,000, showing a decrease of 69 percent in price in relation to volume of production, and with an actual reduction of 40 percent in retail markets, thus brining this favorite food-fish within reach of the most slender purse.

Among the exhibits are all the apparatus for collecting, preserving, and hatching ova, and for the preservation of fish in various stages of growth, including such as are or have been used, not only by the commission, but at other piscicultural stations in our own and foreign lands, thus affording a practical illustration of the science from its very inception. Of hatching houses there are many models, with pictures on a scale representing their structural design, their methods and appliances, together with floating stations in actual operation. In a word, fish propagation may here be studied, whether from a commercial or scientific point of view, extending over the entire region between Maine and Oregon, and thence southward to the state of Missouri.

Methods and results are further illustrated by figures in clay, showing the mode of capturing shad and cod, and by a chart the system of collecting their eggs. The growth of fish reared by the commission, as the trout, white-fish, carp, tench, gold-fish, bass, and many others, is indicated by painted casts. In another group are ova in various stages of development, with specimens, preserved in brine and alcohol, from the smallest of fry to the full-grown fish. In still another are models and photographs of water-ways, showing how fish are assisted in passing the obstructions of river and stream, with other appliances for their protection.

As with the Fisheries, so with the Agricultural department of the government display, it is intended to illustrate the functions, scope, and methods, with the results achieved in each of its subdivisions. While largely of a scientific and educational character, as are most of the government exhibits, it is not entirely so, and few there are among the more intelligent class of observers who fail to recognize its attractive and artistic features.

Entering from the central rotunda our national hall of agriculture, veiled by a screen of symbolic and most tasteful design, the visitor finds abundant evidence that the $150,000 and 23,000 feet of space appropriated for its purposes have been utilized to good advantage. Under the personal supervision of Edward Willits, assistant secretary of his department at Washington and chairman of the government board of control, there have been gathered and installed probably the most complete and yet the most compact collections every brought together. An agricultural display like that of the main Agricultural department of the Fair, it was not intended to be. Nevertheless there are choice exhibits of cereals, cotton, tobacco, and wool, procured by agents specially appointed for their task, mainly with a view to illustrate the effect of soil and climate on the several products on view. Samples of wheat, barley, oats, rye, corn, and buckwheat, culled from every section of the United States, are accompanied with sufficient data to afford a comparison of each variety and to indicate the most suitable habitat for each. Of cotton there are numerous specimens, carefully chosen and skillfully arranged, showing how this industry has been and yet may be improved. Tobacco is shown in every form and variety in which it is raised, and among other exhibits is one in bulk, as removed from the hogshead which contained it. Samples of wool, including many foreign descriptions, are [126] placed in large glass jars, and beside them are fleeces in pyramidal form. Thus the wool-grower or wool-merchant may compare the relative merits of nearly all merchantable classes and grades.

The bureau of Animal Industry has furnished an excellent display, happily combining the scientific with the popular. Sides of beef and an entire hog in papier mache illustrate the process of dressing and preparing for market. The spread of pleuro-pneumonia, the world over, is traced on a globe, where its progress is indicated before and after it reached our shores. The method of inspecting pork to detect the presence of trichina is shown by men detailed for that purpose. Of pathological specimens in alcohol there is a large collection, and the diseases of domestic animals may be studied in the forms of models, together with such of the bacteria as are destructive to brute and human life. In other models are displayed some of the most recent patterns of cattle cars and vessels, constructed with due consideration for the care of live-stock in transit. There are also horse-shoes on exhibition, showing approved and faulty methods of shoeing and the manner in which are shod the champions of the turf.

In another section of the Agricultural department are exhibits of practical chemistry, with a working laboratory showing the most recent appliances for the analysis of food constituents, for detecting adulterations, and other useful purposes. The cultivation of sugar-beets and the manufacture of beet-sugar are features of interest, and the machinery and apparatus used in this connection are models of their kind.

In the Botanical division is a herbarium case, where are mounted and labeled specimens of most of the plants indigenous to the United States, and in bottles a large collection of medicinal plants. There is also a comparative display of grasses, whether serving for food or for manufacturing purposes, and outdoor groups of such plants are found in the desert regions of the southwestern states. In this connection may be mentioned the Entomological collection in which are included injurious species of insects, insect-destroying substances and apparatus, systematic and biological classes, appliances and methods for collecting and rearing insects, and illustrations and maps. By models are illustrated the depredations wrought by insects on varius species of plants, and that with such fidelity of detail that the spectator might suppose himself looking on the plant itself. In a heap of corn are shown the ravages of the boll-worm and other pests, in the potato, tomato, tobacco, and other plants those of the insects called by their name. Finally there is a choice exhibit of mounted specimens, including South American varieties, their brilliant colors blended in most artistic fashion.

Of fruit there is a large collection in the shape of wax models, and here is an excellent opportunity for the comparison of different species and specimens, such as are adapted to the various fruit-growing regions of the United States. Side by side with these groups are several hundred kinds of nuts, indigenous, transplanted, and foreign, from the Florida cocoanut to the almond and Persian walnut - more commonly termed the English walnut - of California. In the so-called division of Microscopy is a large collection of edible and poisonous fungi, with mushrooms displayed in life-like coloring. Here are illustrated the operations of the administrative department in connection with experiment stations, the workings of the stations themselves being displayed in the main Agricultural department of the Fair, and described in that connection.

In the Forestry section are the tops of the long-leafed or southern pitch-pine, with its trunks and seedlings in various stages of growth, and with its several products, including all grades of crude and refined [127] turpentine and rosins, the specimens arranged in columnar form representing a section of the tree. Suspended from the trees are the various tools employed in this industry. There are also native and foreign finishing woods in a pagoda containing columns of such woods, handsomely carved and veneered, and there is a large octagonal column filled with seeds from the various trees indigenous to the United States, around its broad and terraced base a group of living conifers. Another attractive feature is a series of monographs, framed with sections cut from the trunks of various species, and illustrated by means of botanical specimens, with maps and photomicrographs showing geographical distribution. In the form of screens are more than two hundred specimens of botanic forest growth, in conjunction with as many sections of the trees among which they are found, and also with charts of distribution and annotations of interest.

In the herbarium is a complete collection, including more than 200 specimens, of the leaves and timber of all trees of commercial value indigenous to the United States. An instructive exhibit is in the form of large square cases, their framework of elm, birch, cherry, maple, oak, spruce, ash, cypress, walnut, and hickory, and inclosing polished panels, fashioned of native varieties. A small pavilion is set apart for railroad ties, of wood and metal, the Central Pacific sending one of red fir and the Southern Pacific one of black redwood, to show how they have been preserved in serviceable condition after the hard usage of a quarter of a century. But perhaps the most unique exhibit of all, and one that is specially appropriate to this year of Columbian celebrations, is a disk of highly polished wood containing a series of rings which reveal, as clearly as on written page, that, in the Columbian era, the tree of which it is a section must have been a seedling, all unconscious of the great future which lay before it. On each series, indicating a decade�s growth, are described the leading historic events of the corresponding period.

Still another interesting exhibit among the Forestry groups is a model of a recently invented machine for the planting of trees, whereby as many as 35,000 cuttings have been planted on unbroken prairie-land in a single day. The timber tests conducted by the Forestry department are also shown, with the methods of applying strains. In the corner occupied by the office of fibre investigations are arranged in boxes sisal and other hemps, flax, jute, ramie, and the fibres of the pineapple. Among the exhibits of hemp are twines and cordage, and among those of flax, the straw in its natural state, as well as dressed and manufactured, with a spinning-wheel more than a century old. Finally in the section of vegetable pathology are illustrated in models or actual specimens, such fungous diseases as the pear blight, and the mildew of the grape, with materials and methods for their extermination.

In the division of ornithology and mammalogy are shown the economic relations of birds and mammals to agriculture, with their geographic distribution. Here, for the first time, are displayed the collections gathered in the Death Valley expedition of 1891, under the direction of this bureau. The groups are skillfully mounted and arranged, and among them is one representing the fauna and flora of a mountain slope, as seen by him who climbs the mountain�s side.

For those whose tastes incline to this class of literature there is a complete collection of the publications of the Agricultural department, with statistical chart and maps relating to all the agricultural products of the United States, including their distribution and their prices for a series of years.

Of the Naval exhibit some description may here be added to the slight mention already made of this interesting feature. In the model Illinois, whereby this department is represented, we have somewhat of a novelty in naval architecture - a vessel of war whose hull, from berth to main deck, is of brick and concrete, covered with a coating of cement, and resting on a foundation of piles. The ship is armed, manned, and equipped, and there are quarters and mess-rooms for officers and men, with drill and dress parade, all in such realistic fashion that, by the uninitiated , the vessel might easily be mistaken for an iron-clad moored alongside the wharf in front of the government plaza.

The Illinois is a model of our coast-line battleships of the latest pattern, such vessels as the Oregon and Massachusetts. She is 350 feet in length, with a beam of 70 feet, and were she an actual man-of-war, would be of about 10,000 tons, with engines of 9,000 horse-power and a speed of some 18 knots an hour. Her full complement of officers and men would be about 450, those now on board belonging to the marine corps and the war-ship Michigan. As to her armament, there are first of all, on the main deck, fore and aft armorplated turrets, with thirteen-inch breech-loading guns, almost as harmless as those which the Chinese used in the fifteenth century, and made, like theirs, of wood, wrapped and covered with cement. Pointing fore and aft are six-inch breech-loading rifles, mounted in sponsons projecting above water line. On the excursion deck the batteries consist of eight-inch also mounted in turrets. The armament includes, besides, Gatling and other rapid-firing guns, in all some fifty pieces of ordnance, large and small, and with six torpedo tubes. The lighter cannon are of real workmanship, and were forwarded from the naval gun factory with carriages and equipments as though for actual service. From the forward section of the upper deck rises a hollow iron tower, or as it is termed, a military mast, around which, at the forward end of the bridge, is the chart house, and above it platforms, or tops, for sharpshooters and quick-firing guns. Above the tower is a flagstaff for signaling purposes. In the conning tower, where is the commander�s station in time of action, are electric and other appliances, as call-bells and speaking-tubes such as are needed for handling a ship to the best advantage. On either side of the bridge are hung the boats, eleven in number, with two steam launches, all of which are real and serviceable [128] craft. The starboard side is protected by a torpedo netting of spars, which at times is displayed in actual operation, as also are the several uses of electric lights for naval purposes.

But for a view of the most interesting exhibits on board the Illinois we must descend to her lower deck, where, between the sailors� and officers� quarters in the fore and aft compartments, a large space is devoted to a hydrographic display, illustrating the process of marine surveying and deep sea soundings, to that of the naval academy, to the departments of the surgeon-general and paymaster, and to a collection of such engines, apparatus, and tools as are commonly used on board our vessels of war. Beneath the forward turret is the magazine from which ammunition is hoisted by hydraulic power, and almost under the vessel�s bow is a railed inclosure where those who are curious as to such processes may watch at leisure the loading of torpedoes. On this deck also are the mess-rooms, the store-rooms, and the cook�s galley, men and officers living as though on actual service and under similar discipline. Finally there are portraits of naval heroes from the days of Paul Jones to those of Admiral Porter, and there are models of war-vessels of all ages and descriptions, from the war-canoe of the savage and the trireme of the Greek to the wooden three-deckers that fought at Trafalgar and the steel-clad cruisers of our own white squadron.

The builder of the Illinois was the naval architect, F. W. Grogan, and to Commodore R. W. Meade of the navy department is due the project of a naval exhibit. On the decks of this model is an opportunity for the visitor who dwells remote from seaport towns to study the organism of the navy now in course of construction, and intended to give to the United States her proper rank among the maritime powers of the world. As yet we have merely the nucleus of a navy, and that consisting almost entirely of the iron and steel-plated cruisers, coast-defense, and line-of-battle ships constructed within recent years; for, in the relics of the civil war - a few small armored vessels and antiquated specimens of naval architecture - we had nothing on which to rely in case of need. To no purpose could the treasury surplus have been better applied than in providing such means of protection for our commerce and our coasts, and few there are who will grudge the expense of adding to our navy, though at an average cost of some $3,000,000 each, at least two or three vessels a year, such as those represented by the Illinois . Doubtless the ship of which she is a model would, on occasion, render a good account of herself; but as yet there is not in the entire fleet a single man-of-war that would be a match for the first-class ironclads of England, Italy, or France.

A short distance inland from the wharf where lies the Illinois is the camp of the marine corps, whose location is revealed by the letters of U. S. M. C. worked in botanic device on the strip of lawn in front of its neat and orderly array of tents. In addition to guard service on board the Illinois, it is their duty to protect certain of the exhibits in the Government building, and especially the more valuable public documents, some of them among the most precious of our national heirlooms.

Of the live-saving station, adjacent to the camp, brief mention has been made in connection with Exposition management. Within or in front of this two-story structure are life-boats and other appliances for the rescue of those whom accident overtakes in lake or waterway. Among them is a beautiful specimen of such craft, built of mahogany and in air-tight compartments. To one side of the building is attached the first life car ever used on our Atlantic seaboard, whereby, from the wreck of the Ayrshire on the New Jersey coast, in 1850, were rescued her crew and passengers, all save one, who, fearing to wait his turn, clung to the outside of the car and was washed away. Here also are the mortar and cannon-ball used to cast on board the life-line, the latter found, a quarter of [129] a century later, in the hold of the vessel. Both have become historic and form a part of the collection loaned by the Smithsonian institution, where is their home. The life-saving station is one of the Fair buildings, small though it be, that is intended for permanent use. Near it is a lighthouse of modern design, with framework of steel and about 100 feet in height. Its revolving light is of the first magnitude and with the most powerful of reflectors. After the close of the Fair it was to be taken apart in sections and shipped to the mouth of the Columbia river, a point more dreaded by mariners than any other on the Pacific coast. Next to the lighthouse, on the government esplanade, are the three small wooden buildings in which is contained the naval observatory, with its equatorial and transit telescopes, and an interesting collection of chronometers that have seen hard service in Arctic and other lands. Of such as are of historic interest mention is made under the heading of World�s Fair Miscellany. Here, under the direction of F. T. Gardner, a time-ball is made to drop from the flag-staff of the Federal building precisely at noon by Washington time, or at about eleven o�clock as time is in Chicago.

To this group of minor departments belongs also the Weather bureau, classed under the agricultural section of the government exhibits. Thoroughly equipped and with the most approved and recent of meteorological instruments, it is almost a reproduction of the system in use at the national capital. From cipher telegrams, announcing weather conditions throughout the United States and Canada, forecasts are made by the officers precisely as in Washington. In the upper story of this neat and unpretentious building, short lectures are delivered on meteorology, illustrated by a stereopticon, and here may be had lithographic weather maps prepared each day from the current reports, on the back of which are described the elementary processes in the science of weather forecasting. On the roof is a shelter-house containing the thermometers, the apparatus for recording rainfall and sunshine, and the flagstaffs for the display of wind and weather signals.

From the national administration let us turn to the administration of the Fair, though in the latter department there are no exhibits, properly so-called, except for the building itself, which has justly been termed -the crown of the Exposition palaces. When, by a member of a foreign legation, the remark was made, already quoted in these pages, that "the Chicago buildings are what we expected to see in Paris, and those of the Paris Exhibition what we should have expected to see in Chicago," his meaning was probably somewhat as follows. In Paris, the home of art, the architects of the last of her great World�s Fairs gave little more than commonplace effects, with an eye rather to convenience than structural beauty, while Chicago, the acknowledged type of industrial progress, but where as her rivals said, art found no abiding place, has far outstripped the Parisian display in artistic and scenic design. From the latter was expected, at least by foreign visitors, merely the colossal and utilitarian style of treatment developed by the exigencies of modern exhibitions; there was found instead the most refined and harmonious of decorative forms, evolved on such a scale and with such skill and taste as in its entirety has never been witnessed in Exposition architecture.

While in the five great structures that surround the main court we have the most striking of all the architectural effects, nowhere do we find among them more perfect elaboration and harmony of composition than in the Administration buildings. Yet in none of the larger edifices were there structural problems more difficult of solution; for, adjacent as it is with the railroad terminus, here is the principal entrance-way to the grounds, and through its porches, through its spacious and majestic interior, the visitor may pass into the fullness of glory revealed by the city of the Fair.

Covering an area in the form of a square, whose side is 260 feet, the first floor consists in part of four exterior pavilions in the form of [131] wings, of equal size, one at each angle of the square, and in the centre of their facades a wide recess, where are the grand entrances, flanked with emblematic statuary. These are of the Doric order, with flat terraced roofs, surrounded with balustrades, and adorned with statuary at their outer corners. In the interior of the building is a rotunda of octagonal shape, forming the principal motif of the plan, its arched walls surmounted with a frieze nearly thirty feet wide, and covered with sculptures in low relief. Within this hall neither nave nor transept interferes with the unity of the composition, nor is there anything to obstruct the view from the floor to the overhanging dome.

On the second story the octagonal structure rises above the pavilions, standing forth boldly against the sky, and asserting itself as the dominating feature of the design. With a height of some fifty feet, this story is of the Ionic order, and with an open colonnade on each of its faces, the pillars of which are forty feet high and four in diameter. Above the pavilion, and resting on the floor of the gallery in which the story ends, are domes flanked with the heroic statuary in which the artists of the Fair delight. From this floor rises the base of the central dome, which is thence continued in soaring lines to the apex, towering far above the loftiest of the adjacent temples, its gilded surface displaying, for a radius of two-score miles, the location of this monumental vestibule of the Exposition.

In structure this dome resembles, as I have said, that of the Invalides, but is more than forty feet higher, and more than fifty above that of the national capitol. In diameter it is larger than any that have yet been fashioned, with the single exception of the dome of St. Peter�s. Within it is an interior dome, nearly 100 feet less in altitude, and at its apex an opening fifty feet wide, through which the vault above appears like the concave arch of another sky. Thus light is admitted to the great rotunda, while its inner ceiling is not so lofty as to impair the architectural effect.

The Administration hall was intrusted to Richard M. Hunt, with whom in former years were associated, as pupils or assistants, several of the Fair artificers. Says one who has made a thorough study of his design, and of the plans of which all the main buildings were formulated: "In his decorative treatment of the problems thus evolved Mr. Hunt has exercised a fine spirit of scholarly reserve. The architectural language employed is simple and stately, and the composition as a whole is so free from complications, its structural articulations are so frankly accentuated, that it is easy to read, and, being read, cannot fail to surprise the most unaccustomed mind with a distinct and veritable architectural impression. We have said that this edifice was intended to introduce the visitors to the Exposition into a new world. As they emerge from its east archway and enter the court, they must, if possible, receive a memorable impression of architectural harmony on a vast scale. To this end the forums, basilicas, and baths of the Roman empire, the villas and gardens of the princes of the Italian renaissance, the royal court-yards of the palaces of France and Spain, must yield to the architects, �in that new world which is the old,� their rich inheritance of ordered [132] beauty, to make possible the creation of a bright picture of civic splendor such as this great function of modern civilization would seem to require."

The decorative features of the Administration building are no less worthy of commendation than is the building itself. Far up on the frescoed walls and between the grand arches of the rotunda, are panels on which are imprinted in gilt letters the names of the principal countries represented at the Exposition. Above the arches and the carved moulding which surmounts them are inscribed on other panels some of the great discoveries and events of the past and present centuries, with the names of prominent discoverers and inventors, on a higher border of moulding, over a row of small latticed windows. Above these are portrayed in plaster medallions the various types of women, among the leading nations of earth. Near the summit of the interior dome are groups of statuary, in each of which the central figure is a woman in the act of crowning with a wreath one to whom honor is due. Over one of these figures are the letters W. C. E., and in front of it, in kneeling posture, the typical exponents of science, industry, literature, and art.

But it is on the outer dome that one of the youngest of the Exposition artists, though a medallist of the Paris Exposition and the American Art Association has given us the gem of the decorative scheme. While the largest of all the decorative paintings of the Fair, so perfect is its execution that, as with the Fair itself, its monumental proportions are veiled by its symmetry of design. Here Apollo sits enthroned, and before him kneels a warrior on whom he is conferring the wreath of victory. Others are ascending the broad stairway of this Olympian dais, and around the entire vault extend in unbroken procession the favored representatives of the peaceful arts. Over a model of the Parthenon, drawn by four winged steeds, female figures are raising the canopy of its amphitheatre.

Of sculpture there are twenty-eight groups in all, with many single figures and bas-reliefs. On the sides of and above the entrance-ways are those which represent the four elements - earth, air, water, and fire - and at the corner pavilions, such as are typical of patriotism, religion, charity, diligence, and other qualities and tendencies of the human race, with special regard to American characteristics. Flanking the cupolas at the base of the dome are groups allegorical of the highest development attained by man, whether in culture, industry, or commerce, science or art, peace or war. In these are winged [133] female figures, with boys proclaiming in trumpet tones the symbolic language of the theme. Thus is also relieved the severity of the structural design.

As to the several branches of the administration bureau, with their various functions and operations, little remains to be added to that which has already been said in this connection. Here, during the formative period of the Exposition, were the headquarters of its various departments, afterward removed to the rooms set apart for them in the home of the Fair, the post-office, for instance, being now in the Government building, and so with the rest. Nevertheless there are features still remaining that are worthy of passing mention. First of all there is a branch of the bank of the Northern Trust Company of Chicago, for the care of deposits, the purchase and sale of foreign and domestic exchange, and for telegraphic and cable transfers. This was established at the solicitation of President Higinbotham, soon after the suspension of the Exposition branch of the Chemical National bank, on which occasion the entire sum deposited by exhibitors, amounting to some $75,000, was made good the directors and their associates. "The good name of Chicago," said the president, "cannot afford to be smirched by such a small matter as $75,000. If the sum were ten times that amount, it would be raised by the business men of the city."

On the ground floor of the southeast pavilion are the offices of the Western Union and Postal telegraph companies, and on other floors are, in the order named, those of the Board of Lady Managers, the National Commission and the committee on ceremonies. In the northeast pavilion are the quarters of the custom-house, the secretary of installation, the World�s Columbian Exposition, the director-general and the department of awards. A third pavilion, in the southwest corner, is set apart for express companies, for the branch bank and the vaults of its safety deposits, for the department of Foreign Affairs, and the offices of the Columbian guard. The remaining pavilion is largely devoted to the press; and here also are the rooms of the department of Publicity and Promotion, and of the official catalogue and directory. In describing the wonders of the Exposition, some of the ablest pens are busied, representing nearly all our states and territories, with many foreign lands, and forming probably the largest gathering of correspondents ever seen. By the middle of June, Great Britain and her colonies had nearly two-score correspondents on the ground, among them those of the London Times, Morning Post, Art Journal, Graphic, Illustrated London News, Pall Mass Gazette and other metropolitan journals. There were also representatives from minor English cities, from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, from Canada, Australia, and Hindostan. To Germany fifty members of her press sent home their descriptions from a city whose denizens of German parentage outnumber all other nationalities. France had sixteen correspondents, Austria about as many, and Italy more than twice that number. Other European countries had several men in the field, all save the one whose acquisition of her New World empire the Fair was intended to celebrate, Spain being represented by a single correspondent, that of the Madrid publication, La Union Catholica. Add to this the descriptive matter scattered broadcast throughout the world by the department of Publicity and Promotion, and it will be seen that if the Exposition should prove a failure, a financial failure, that is, for an artistic failure it cannot be - it will not be for lack of advertising. No wonder that from an average of some $10,000 or $12,000 for the month of May, the gate receipts increased to more than $50,000 a day before the end of June.

World�s Fair Miscellany - The cost of the federal building was about $325,000, or a little more than $2 per square foot of floor area. As the appropriation was $400,000, there remained a balance of $75,000, with which were erected the army hospital, the naval observatory, and the quarters of the weather and Indian bureaus.

At various points around the northern gallery are canoes of various patterns, among them the Alaskan war canoe mentioned in the text, one hollowed from a single trunk, and with figures painted and carved after the grotesque fashion of the Aleuts. From the centre of the gallery rises the top-mast of a vessel, with a look-out on the cross-tree. On one side of it is the bowsprit of a whaler, and on the other the bow of a whale-boat, with men standing ready to cast their harpoons. In the wall of the gallery floor are decorated panels, typical of the industries of the four [134] principal sections of the United States. Thus the north is represented by commerce; the south by cotton and fruits; the east by arts and science, and the west by agriculture. On other panels are representations of tapestry, plastic, metal, wood, and stone work. Over the northern entrance are depicted the triumphs of liberty; over the southern, the home of cave-dwellers; above the eastern door-way is a birds-eye view of the Chicago of today, and above the western is its site as it appeared in 1492.

The California redwood from which was cut the section in the central rotunda of the Government building was 300 feet high and 81 feet in circumference. To cut and forward this exhibit in a number of subdivisions, on eleven railroad cars, cost, with the work of putting it together, more than $10,000. It was named the General Noble, after the late secretary of the Interior.

Says the manager of the State department, G. Hunt, to whom I am indebted for a valuable dictation thereon: "Among the purposes of its exhibits was to popularize itself, especially by laying stress on its possession of the earlier records of the formation of our government, comparatively few of which have ever been printed. That people may see for themselves they have never been printed was indeed one of the objects of their exposition." As with other departments of the government display, this is not intended for the gratification of idle curiosity, but as an opportunity for study, its illustrations being so arranged as to stamp on the minds of the people the actual working of the department. It is worthy of note that the greatest interest in these groups is displayed by visitors of the middle class, who bring their children with them, show them objects of historic interest, and stop to explain their meaning.

The bronze statue of Washington in the State department is the property of Lord George Young, of Edinburgh. Executed, as I have said, by Baron Marchetti, it is the only copy of the original model by Howdon, under whom he studied at Paris, after the close of the revolutionary war. The latter was shipped to the United States with the expectation of receiving an order from congress, but was destroyed by fire.

To fire the 52-ton piece of naval ordnance requires a charge of 460 pounds of powder, and each time it is discharged, the sum of $1,200 is added to the expenses of the navy. To transport this gun was the task of no slight difficulty. Fashioned at the Watervliet arsenal, near West Troy, it was brought over the Pennsylvania railroad to the Exposition on two cars of similar construction, with triple sets of wheels and protected by a bridge, weighing in all 115 tons, apart from the locomotive. Whether the bridges would bear this enormous strain was somewhat doubtful, and at one time it was thought they could only be hauled over a track built for the purpose and avoiding the rivers; but this was found unnecessary. In the quartermaster�s department is a display of barrack furniture, with bedding and bunks, mess-tables, cooking ranges, and other camp and garrison apparatus, and with farrier�s and veterinary exhibits, showing the treatment of animals for lameness and disease. Here also is a forage wagon which formerly belonged to the army of the Potomac, and saw perhaps the roughest usage of any in the civil war, travelling, it is said, more than 40,000 miles before the war was ended.

Among the exhibits of the War department is a gun-stock lathe, for which, in 1822, a patent was issued to its inventor, Thomas Blanchard. This, the oldest and the first manufactured, became the property of one of the United States armories, where it remained until 1855.

Among the decorative features of the national museum is a collection of sportsmen�s trophies, and of the portraits of prominent scientists in the various branches of natural history.

For the collection of stamps in the post-office department the Fair is indebted to the American Philatelic Association, and to individual collections, some of them containing a complete set of specimens issued by the country represented. In a word it is an exhibit of postage stamps by American collectors, under the auspices of the society. The cases were specially prepared for the purpose, roofed with heavy plate glass, and with a total capacity of 50,000. Though not equal to the best European collections, as the one in the imperial post-office museum at Berlin, it is probably the most extensive and complete thus far attempted in the United States.

For information regarding the Fisheries department I am largely indebted to its manager, T. H. Bean, who was kind enough to furnish me with a valuable dictation. By several firms contributions were made of rods, reels, and other fishing apparatus, the Montague City rod company sending many specimens of their choicest articles of manufacture, and the New York firm of Abbey & Imbrie a collection of salmon, trout, carp, black bass, and other rods, in addition to the one mentioned in the text, on which he who is inclined may expend the sum of $2,000. The largest collection of flies is from Charles F. Orvis, of Manchester, Vermont, and there is a handsome group, forwarded by D. W. C. Farrington, of Lowell, Massachusetts, together with several mounted specimens of trout.

There are many models of fish, indigenous to northern waters, whereby taking one year as the starting point of age, comparisons are made in the growth of such identical descriptions as belong to the lakes of Maine, Lake Michigan, and inland waters to the southward. Here are displayed the effects of climate, alkaline waters, etc., some reaching thrice the size of others and, as a rule, becoming larger toward the south.

By William F. Hubbard, acting under the instructions of his chief, Philip Walker, as special agent, I was supplied with an [135] excellent dictation on the Agricultural department. Exhibits worthy of mention in this connection, in addition to those described in the text, are a collection of plows of ancient pattern and a case containing cocoons raised in the United States, with specimens of silk and silken fabrics, and some of the apparatus used in China for preparing silk for market. In the entomological section nature is counterfeited in most realistic fashion. In one of the models, for instance, is a full-grown beetle in pursuit of a potato bug, which presently he will devour. In another is a soldier fly hovering above a potato bug on which he is about to pounce. The tomato and cotton worms are represented as attacking these plants, and so with the pests that injure or destroy the grape vine and citrus fruits. Collections of insects destructive to agriculture are mounted in cases that show in regular series their transformation and other insects which devour them. There is also a collection of spiders and other arachnida indigenous to the United States, among them the large specimens of New Mexican and Texan genera, such as catch and suck the blood of birds.

By Professor Eggleston, of the Forestry department, was suggested the idea of representing by the section of a tree the ages that have elapsed since the Columbian era, with their leading historic events. Only after long and diligent search did his agent in Mississippi discover this so-called Columbian tree.

The Illinois was formerly opened for inspection, as a model of one of our most powerful war-vessels, on the 3d of June, though visited by scores of thousands before that date. The ceremonies, which were of the briefest, were conducted on the gun-deck, under the direction of Lieutenant E. G. Spencer, and in the presence of a number of guests to whom invitations had been extended by her commander, Captain Taussig. On this occasion the ship was for the first time illuminated. Along the entire gun-deck two rows of electric lights depended from either rail, their glare subdued by globular shades or screens, after the fashion of Chinese lanterns. And so with the upper decks, above which the search-lights cast their glare athwart the surface of the lake. After her formal opening the Illinois was illuminated thrice a week, as were the Exposition grounds and buildings.

The life-saving station is under the charge of Lieutenant Charles H. McClellan, who served in the navy during the war, and for the last fifteen years has been engaged in this branch of the service. To take charge of the Fair station he was temporarily relieved from his command of all the stations between Cape May and Sandy Hook, and largely to his organization and management is due their efficiency. Among the apparatus of the station are the Lyle & Hunt guns, the former carrying a projectile weighing nearly 20 pounds and with line attached, to a distance of more than 500 yards, and that with such precision that a second shot is rarely required. More powerful but less accurate of aim are the Cunningham rockets, seven feet long, and carrying almost double the distance reached by either of the guns.

Among the collection of chronometers in the naval observatory is one that was used by Charles Francis Hall in his Arctic expedition of 1872. Buried in ice at a far inland station, it was found, several years later, by a member of the British expedition of 1876, and in good condition, though a part of its long imprisonment had been passed in a temperature 100 degrees below freezing point. Another is a chronometer which Captain De Long used on board the Jeanette, and carried with him in his attempt to cross the frozen continent. It was found in his last camp on the Lena delta, where, with the last of his party, he perished of starvation, after subsisting for several weeks on a single teaspoonful of glycerine doled out thrice a day. Still another is the old-fashioned instrument which Captain Wilkes carried in his expedition to southern lands and waters in 1838-42. After nearly forty years of continuous service it still keeps perfect time. There is also in a large mahogany case, bearing the stains of many years, the clock which accompanied Commodore Parry on the voyage which opened the ports of China and Japan to the commerce of the world. Finally there are the chronometers, or what remains of them, belonging to the vessels wrecked at Apia, during the hurricane which a few years ago swept over the island of Samoa.

Those who stop to admire the gigantic section of the tree which stands under the dome of the Government building may be interested in knowing that it once grew in the edge of Converse basin, beyond the General Grant National park, California. It once stood, says a witness to its destruction, among a goodly company of quaint red-woods, interspersed with firs and pines of every variety, six thousand feet above the sea. Among the crew of those who felled it were men from Missouri, Maine, Virginia, Iowa, and Scotland. It had been agreed between the government and the contractor that no nail should mar its bark, and a swinging platform was also erected around it. The tree was cut fifty feet from the ground, measuring at this height seventeen and a half feet. From this huge stump thirty feet were taken for the Fair, all the interior sections being removed except a small thickness and the bark. The falling of the tree, which was two hundred and eighty-five feet in height, was witnessed by over one hundred people from the mills and adjoining camps, the event being thus described:

"The saw was withdrawn, the last wedge driven. The immense tree quivered like one in agony, and with a crushing, raging, deafening sound it fell, the extreme top, with its branches, falling upon an opposite hill and breaking into a million pieces. The larger part split as it fell at the base of the fifty-foot stump, and lay like the hulk of a monster ship - the weight of that part being estimated at over 200 tons."

Footnote

1. Although John Jay held office for a few months after the department of foreign affairs was merged in that of the state, he never received a formal appointment. In the Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, III, 369 is a letter from President Washington, dated June, 1789, asking for "some informal communication from the office of secretary for foreign affairs." In September of that year Jay was appointed chief-justice, and Jefferson who had not yet returned from his mission to France, was chosen as the first secretary of the newly organized department of state. After his arrival Jay wrote him a letter of congratulation, in which he favorably recommended "the young gentleman in the office." From his home at Monticello Jefferson writes to the president, February 14, 1790, "I have duly received the letter of the 21st of January with which you have honored me, and no longer hesitate to undertake the office to which you are pleased to call me." - Id. III, 381.