ping may be repaid by suggesting the route of routes; but each of the group of the masculine persuasion has his own individual tastes, and we are more puzzled than ever, until the ladies take their turn in the discussion and, by their unanimity if not by the weight of better judgment, prove that the men are all wrong, as "the Women's Pavilion is unrivaled by any of the men's shows." Well, here is relief from our perplexity at last-we'll go see, especially as the tasty Pavilion is just before us and quite near. We find the Pavilion itself a most attractive edifice, highly creditable to the fair architect (MONTHLY, Feb., page 150), and the display within proves not only that "Women can do some things as well as the iords of creation," and some things in a manner that baffles musculine skill, but that Mrs. Gillespie and her co-laboresses in getting up the "Women's Department" have shown marvelous judgment and matchless ability. Having devoted more time than we can spare to a close inspection of the utilitarian, practical and fancy products of women's handicraft and braincraft, we reluctantly pass out, and directly opposite we behold the "United States Government Building," one of the handsomest, bestplanned, best-appointed and best-filled of all the buildings, and containing, in the opinion of very many discriminating julges, the very best display, for its extent, in the Centennial World-an opinion in which we undoubtingly concur. We find here a display which, to do it or ourselves justice, would require more than one or two days' close study; but the old truism runs somewhat like this: "We must cut our coat according to the cloth," and so "we must cut our stay in this grand building according to our time."

A cursory review of the leading features of this fine exhibition cannot fail to be interesting. There is no department in the Government Building more replete with interest than the section occupied by the Corps of Engineers, under General A. A. Humphreys. The special exhibition of the appliances for use in both peace and war is under the direct charge of Captain D. P. Heap, of the Corps of Engineers, assisted by Lieutenant S. S. Leach and a detachment of seven men from the Battalion of Engineers. The object of the exhibit is to exemplify the range of duties of the corps, as well as to illustrate the characteristic features of some of the engineering operations under their charge. The excavations at Hell Gate probably attract the most attention from general observers. Many other operations under General Newton in New York harbor are also illustrated by means of maps and drawings, and also by models, one of the most important of which is a drilling scow invented by General Newton, and used in his works with great success. An equally interesting exhibit is a sounding machine devised and constructed by Major E. H. Hoffman, under the supervision of Colouel J. N. Macomb, and used in the improve. ment of Rock Island Rapids, Mississippi River. Near this is an end-dock for docking the United States dredges at the mouth of the Mississippi. It is the invention of Captain Howell, in charge of the Southwest Pass, to avoid the necessity of hiring at great expense the dry-docks owned by private parties, and also to avoid delay. It serves all the purposes of a dry-dock for repairs forward and aft, it only being necessary to take a regular dock for repairs below the water line when the work must be done amidships, and this

is rarely needed. Major D. C. Houston's method ư ca. 1: cribs is peculiarly ingenious, and attracts much stint from engineers engaged in this branch of work.

Passing on, we come to the gabion work used in the har of Galveston, Texas, for submerging jetties. It is make a a material almost useless for any other purpose-care nur or sea-cane-the gabions being rectangular in shape, 1 the corners slightly rounded, and having wooden tips in! bottoms. In connection with these are photogr.,ċi tem of the work in the Mississippi.

Next is a model of the mattress or apron used it Cra Fear River for choking off water from one che another. It is made of rough logs, brush, and store when laid at the bottom superinduces the formation of a se bar, and thus works like the jetties. Next we find the large drawings of the United States iron snag-best fr moving snags from Western rivers.

On the east wall of the department is hung Gener. Me ren's map of the flood plane of the Mississippi, skønt, 20 surveys on both sides of the river connected Near over one hundred fine specimes of building stone unum ted by General Gilmore, and also a large portfolio of m maps of campaigns in the civil war.

Next is a model of a construction used in Lake Frie, s tended to meet the want of a crib capable of standing the water's horizontal force, which is much greater in the than in the ocean. In general appearance at difiers 182 from an ordinary crib, except that it is provided with m inclined plane, up which the waves first dash, and then, being thrown back, meet the incoming waves, and dear frie is thus spent upon each other instead of on the cra tain Howell's dredge boat used in the Southwest Pas peculiarly simple in construction, and yet has shown perfectly adapted to the work for which it was intended.

Among the most interesting Government exhibits are the torpedoes representing the system invented by Gen. 7. Abbott for coast defence. They are all operated by en tricity, and the explosive used is dynamite. The we." ranges from five hundred to one thousand pounds, an .5m are generally spherical or cone-shaped. They are u mi in a line at the point to be defended, and held in po tot a wire rope, where they will be struck by the keel of a ve passing over them. Electricity is employed to ignite the st plosive, and this is done by the closing of the currit, when the torpedo is overturned, but the electrical appliances in the manner of making and breaking the current rem a a secret. When a large number of torpe-bes are used, the are all electrically connected by means of a connection fas with a single cable, some of these boxes only cont three or four torpedoes, while others connect ten or twelve A most ingenious contrivance is a double torpedo, or a taŭr and a real one, intended to overcome the power of outriggers An outrigger is a sort of false bow extending to such a h tance beyond the ship that it touches the torped first and explodes it before the hull has approached sufficiently tea be in danger. To circumvent this contrivance a flat ele. cally connected with a torpedo (held so low in the w. 7 that a ship or outrigger cannot touch it) is placed at such a distance from the explosive that when the float is overture! by the outrigger the torpedo goes off directly under the venei

RUSTIC BRIDGE IN THE RAVINE, WEST PARK.

are no "trophies" captured during the late war exhibited, though Confederate arms having peculiarities in construction are shown, and some of these, especially the Southern breech-loaders, have many meritorious points. Among the more striking contrasts in this collection are a breech-loading cannon used before 1570 by the Spaniards at the time of their occupation of Mexico, and a Sutcliffe breech-loading rifle piece. The first mentioned is loaded at the breech by a clumsy contrivance more resembling a flat iron wedged into a hole than anything else, while the modern piece is provided with every improvement which science and ingenuity could suggest. Pivot guns or rampart guns were in use in the early part of this century, but bear about the same relation to a Parrot or Krupp as a flat-boat to a monitor. Six valuable posts for an enclosure are formed of the bronze cannon presented by General Lafayette to the United States during the Revolutionary War.

The display of the Quartermasters' Department is not only interesting to the military visitor, but also to the civilian. The exhibition comprises everything that is any way connected with the department. The most striking objects, or rather the ones that first attract the attention, are a number of lay figures which, though not very prepossessing in facial appearance, still serve admirably to display the various costumes of the different branches of the service from the time of the Revolution up to the present year, and in connection Government tailors are in attendance who show the method of making up the clothing required by the army. A cloth-cutting machine is shown, which is very easily worked by one operator, and will cut through twenty thicknesses of

army cloth without difficulty. Horse equipments and harsen are placed on dummies, showing what is necessary for four and six horse teams; also the pack saddles used by the troops on the frontier. The farriers' department is complete, we portable forge, sets of tools, horse and mule shoes, adapted to all climates and countries. A mounted skeleton of a horse shows the whole bony structure, each bone being plainly labelled, and a miscellaneous collection of hoo's show the effect of improper shoeing and point out the priz method. The different styles of tents are set up in mintere including the small shelter, the common wal, Sale, a the large hospital. The different chevrons are neatly arriages in a glass frame. A camp bed gives an idea how comler able the officer can be when not on the march, covered as a is with the army woolen blanket, mosquito net, rather blanket and a good hard pillow. Books and blanks she how stores are drawn and requisitions made from the head quarters of a military division down to what is needed by a

company.

non.

The small building northwest of the Government Buil is used as the laboratory, and contains a number of these intricate and delicately-adjusted instruments that are asei for making lists of ordnance and powder. There are sevi ral instruments on exhibition for measuring the velocity wh which a ball moves as it leaves the mouth of a rifle or can Each of these has some peculiarity particularly own, and in which it excels. The oldest, and the one that was used for testing all powder purchased during the rebellion, is the Shultz chronoscope. The method of ascertaining the velocity given to any projectile by the specimens of powder furnished is as follows: Two targets are erected, each of which is covered with a net-work of copper-wire. The wire in each of these targets forms a portion of the circun of an electro-magnet, whose armature is kept vibrating by a tuning fork, which, tuned to a certain key, makes a certan number of vibrations each second. These vibrations ar recorded on a revolving drum. As the bullet passes through the first target it cuts the circuit of the first magnet, and stops its motion, leaving its record on the drum. As it ca the wire of the second magnet its motion also ceases, and there remains a record on the drum of a certain number of vibrations in that interval which can be counted, giving in minute fractions of a second the exact time the ball took pass between the two targets. Another instrument operan by the magnets releasing two pendulums suspended from the same point, the other ends being held up by the magnets opposite sides of the arc. At the point at which they meet on the arc, and the distance of this record from the centre point, where they would have met had they fa.len together, is the basis for the necessary calculation. Le Bulenge chronograph reaches the same result by dropping two per dulums from two magnets, the second one releasing a sprag which makes an indentation on the first, which is then falling. The distance it has fallen is then measured, and, with this measurement as the datum, the time occupied > found by mathematical calculation. Pressure gauges to shew the force of expansive gases, so often the cause of canna bursting, are shown; also, electric primes for discharging a torpedo or cannon by electricity. There are in this building other instruments of incalculable benefit to the scientific

ufficer and student, the building, designed and constructed by an army officer, is itself not less interesting than its contents.

The Navy Department, too, makes a grand display, every improved appliance for use in naval warfare being shown, made the more interesting and valuable by comparison with the methods used in the early days of the Republic. The first object which claims the visitor's attention upon entering the building is a model, forty-one feet in length, of the United States sloop-of-war Antietam, from water line to rail, fully rigged with sails, equipment, and twenty-two broadside guns. Another model of the same vessel, thirteen feet in length, shows in detail the method of constructing a sloopof-war. A model of the French frigate Didon, built at St. Malo in 1797, and noted for her extraordinary sailing quali ties, although differing materially from vessels of the present day, has an appearance of great strength and swiftness combined. Sectional models of a double-bottom broadside, ironclad frigate, and the war vessels Hartford, New Ironsides, Monadnock, Kearsarge, Vandalia, Jamestown, President, St. Mary's, Constitution, Ohio, Portsmouth, and others are shown. Stationed at different points among the models and other exhibits of the department are life-size figures in the uniform of marines and sailors, from the sailor of 1776 to that of the present day. The arms borne by these men in the various periods which they represent, are exceedingly interesting, the boarding-pike, short flint-lock musket, cutlass, and cumbersome pistol contrasting strangely with the improved arms in present use. The arms themselves, of which a large number are exhibited, attract marked attention. They embrace the different sorts adopted for use by the Government, beginning with the primitive weapons of Revolutionary days, and showing improved patterns up to the breechloaders used in the late civil war and now forming a part of the regular armament of the navy. The guns shown are beautiful specimens of workmanship. Among them are the powerful Gatling gun, Treadwell's thirty-two pounder, mounted. The shells and projectiles are of infinite variety, and the same may be said of submarine rockets and torpedoes. A monument of considerable historic interest consists of wood blocks taken from the ship Columbus, built in 1716; the Delaware, 1717; United States, 1794; Raritan, 1820; Pennsylvania, 1822; Columbia and Columbus, 1825; Merrimac, 1855, and the Florida, 1861. A model of the United States navy dry dock at Norfolk, Virginia, is a perfect piece of workmanship, complete and true to the original in all its details. The dock was commenced December 1, 1827, during the administration of President Adams, and opened June 17, 1833, during the incumbency of Andrew Jackson. A similar model shows the Navy Yard at Brooklyn, commenced in 1841, and finished ten years later. A hospital | ship is also shown with its beds, and necessary appliances for the comfort of the sick. A forward section of the United States steamer Hartford, shewing “sick bay," with its swing. ing beds, is also exhibited. Two ship's galleys, capable of cooking for two hundred and five hundred men respectively, are fitted up with every modern utensil pertaining to the culinary art as practiced on shipboard. At intervals upon the upright cases, containing shot and shell, are hung ancient looking oil portraits of the naval heroes who have figured in the annals of the country. A powerful-looking, back-acting

The

The Post-Office Department exhibits a handsome case in which are displayed improved mail-bags in present use. There are also shown marking-stamps, boxes, and blank forms. The scales are beautiful in workmanship, and adjusted in an exceedingly delicate manner. The envelopemaking machine is a superior piece of mechanism. paper for making the envelopes is fed to a flat plate and cut into proper shape. It is then seized, folded, and turned out upon an endless rotating table, stamped, and ready for use. The motive power is supplied by a small steam-engine of the Baxter patent. Locks used by the department between 1800 and 1876 are also shown. A regularly systematized postoffice is in operation. The mails are received and distributed regularly in the same manner as at the main office on Chestnut street, the list of unclaimed letters is regularly posted, and every facility given for the transportation of mail matter to different sections of the Union and to foreign countries.

The Department of the Interior occupies the southwestern section of the building, and is divided up into five displays, each directed by a special agent, who has charge of the exhibits of his particular bureau, General Eaton exercising a general supervision of the display of the department. The divisions are: The exhibits of the Indian Bureau, the exhibits of the Census Bureau, the exhibits of the General Land Office, and the exhibits of the Patent Office. The Indian Bureau, more especially at this time, when the eyes of the whole country are directed to the Western frontier, is particularly interesting, giving, as it does, an immense amount of valuable information regarding the modes of life, warfare, and general habits of the red man. In connection with the bureau the Smithsonian Institute makes a very fine ethnological and and archæological display, the result of geological surveys made by Messrs. F. V. Hayden and J. W. Powell. The photographic views from life and nature representing Indians, their costumes, their modes of cooking, style of living, and the country they inhabit, cannot fail to interest the visitor.

There is a model of the Yellowstone National Park, and other models, which are both interesting and instructive, including the Grand Canon of the Colorado of the West and the cliffs of Southern Utah; geological model of the Elk Mountains of Colorado; ancient ruins of a town on the Rio McElmo, Southwest Colorado; ancient cave-ruin on the Rio de Chelly, Arizona; ancient cliff-houses in the canon of the Rio Mances, Colorado, and many others, which lack of space forbids mentioning. A very life-like representation of Red Cloud, chief of the Ogalalla Sioux, dressed in full war costume, paint, feathers, and all, is a better specimen of the lay figure than is usually seen. In upright cases, having glass fronts, with each article intelligibly labelled, there are placed the costumes of the numerous Indian tribes. Both male and female dresses are offered for inspection in great variety and profusion. These include the fur dresses of the Esquimaux and Alaska Indians, and the weapons used by them in the chase. The various articles used in ordinary life by the savages, other than the implements of war and the chase,

such as bows, arrows, quivers, and shields, are classified into personal adornment, including feather head-dresses, other head-dresses, etc. The shell money, articles of the toiletcombs, mirrors, painting, spatula, depillatories, head-scratchers, and paint mortars, objects relating to funereal rites, and burial bracelets and necklaces, articles relating to dances, etc. In bottles are shown specimens of the vegetable food of the Indians, such as smilax, moss, mushroom, tule root, tuckahoe, mesquito bark, screw bean, together with such materials as are used for food. Models of dwellings of all shapes, sizes, and varieties are shown.

The Bureau of Education has received the special attention of General Eaton, still the exhibits are far from being as full as would have been expected in this land of free schools, the difficulty arising from the fact that all articles would have to be furnished by private parties, the Government itself having no educational institutions other than those of West Point and Annapolis, and these properly belonging to the War and Navy Departments respectively. On the tops of the cases have been placed busts of Gideon Hawley, first State Superintendent of schools of New York, George Peabody, and Noah Webster, of dictionary renown, and on the columns are hung portraits of all the Secretaries of the Interior, and of Thomas H. Gallaudet, of Hartford, Connecticut, the first teacher of the deaf and dumb in this country. The Indians who are located in the Indian Territory furnish an interesting exhibit of the progress made by the young in education, in specimens of hand-writing, and articles of wearing apparel and household goods made by them, such as necklaces, moccasins, quilts, etc. Photographs are also shown of some of the Indians who have been educated, and of the schools erected in the Territory. Models of schoolhouses are numerous, and include the old-fashioned log schoolhouse, the ordinary frame country schoolhouse, up to the model of the Franklin School in Washington, which took the prize at the Vienna Exposition. The printed exhibits are made up of catalogues and year books of colleges, catalogues of the largest and best libraries | in the United States, reports made by the different State Superintendents of Schools, publications by scientific associations, photographs of schools and college buildings, with a few photograghs of teachers and professors; the text books in use in the early part of the present century and those in use now, and an interesting collection of books in raised letters for the blind, in addition to the annual reports and photographs of the blind and deaf and dumb asylums in different sections of the country, wall maps, charts, drawingbooks and instruments, and writing-books displaying the ability of scholars. The specimens of drawing and of modelling in clay, and the designs for carpets, wall paper, tiles, etc., made by pupils in the industrial art schools are really handsome, and evince great ability. The coloring of some photographs by pupils of the Cooper Union of New York city, is particularly fine. Some school furniture is on exhibition, but not in any great quantity; and there is a set of plaster casts representing all the diseases of the tooth. The Kindergarten system of education is shown in the furniture, blocks of wood, paper weaving, small and simple paper designs, and the other objects used in instructing and amusing the young scholars.

The Census Bureau occupies but a small space, ara. is most interesting portion is the original manuscript of the new census made in 1790. The small case containing this c sus, compared with the long rows of shelves requires for te volumes containing the census of 1870, proves to the vis the immense and rapid growth of this country in prz during the past eighty years. Maps are also exhiberi, k = ing by the different shades of coloring the density ap tion in the various sections of country in the last decade. The exhibits of the Patent Office are in charge of £ ward Knight, Esq., editor of the Official Gazette. Tw publications on exhibition comprise a handsomely-kozi s of volumes, containing copies of the Gazette issued ees week during the past five years. A General Indes, in at a cost of $25,000, contains a list of all patents issued in 1799 to 1873, numbering in all 160,000. This D., A book of 1,950 pages, was prepared by Mr. Knight, and gives evidence of great labor and thorough prepare There are also furnished for inspection printed ecpies, bas" somely bound, of the specifications and drawings of tyom patents. Among these publications is a copy in fac of the original printed register of patents issued in 1 earliest days of the Government. This shows that in 17 patents were first granted by the Government, and from the year until 1836 the officer in charge of granting patents w known as the Clerk of Patents, and had his office in the State Department. Dr. William Thornton was the Lor person who filled this office, he being in possessiva ir m 1803 to 1808. Before this time there had been no di tive officer in connection with patents, the work being p formed by one of the clerks in the office of the Secretary a State. In 1821 the title was changed to that of Super :'> dent of Patents, which in 1836 was changed to Commissier of Patents, the first Commissioner being H. S. Lilsworth. It appears from this register that the first patent ever grant ! in this country was that issued to Samuel Hopkins, JA; 11, 1790, for a machine for making pot and pearl ashes, third, to the celebrated Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, a wo granted in 1790, for a machine for making foar ai pra The models furnished by the Patent Office number abst 5,000 of the most interesting models in their posse a ty these being nearly three per cent. of all the models in the Patent Office, and are classified under the wing heat, including a greater portion of the most wvelderful prices of mechanism invented in this country during the prez century: Civil engineering, steam, mechanical movemt i agriculture, fine arts, gas, journals and bearings, navigat. " textile, glass, household, mills and presses, metallur, 3, w working, pneumatics, horse-powers, firearms, stae, ele tricity, ice, harvesters, architecture, railways, hj imalo hoisting, vehicles, leather, light, chemistry, metal-wer.. printing and stationery, clay, and heat.

The display of ores of the precious metals and other m erals in the Smithsonian section has been so carefully arrangt. by Professor Blake that the most superficial observar má find both pleasure and instruction in even the mod task survey. This collection exhibits the nature and vane the mineral resources of the United States, the geographica distribution and geological association of the mineral, Pr extent to which they have been utilized, the metallurgical an