length of the envelope is passed under the most curious sort of knives, which cut the paper to the required width, and chip the ends, then the pieces are passed on and the ends are folded, pasted and turned in, when the folding edges are pasted and sent along turning around a lot of great iron wheels to dry, and presently they come out on the other side of the wheels all folded and packed into packages of twentyfive, ready for wrapping and for sale. John A. Roblin & Son's exhibit of wire-roping is one of the special attractions in the hardware sections of the building. There are specimens of wire rope from the thinnest thread up to a splendid rope made of six thousand cast-steel wires, measuring fifteen inches in diameter, intended for the new high bridge over the East River, between New York and Brooklyn. The exhibit of fine and elaborate steel and brass manufacture, seamless drawn tubes and copper and Muntz metal bolts and rods of the Bridgewater (Massachusetts) Iron Company is worthy of special mention, not only by virtue of the excellence of the goods, but also on account of the originality of design in the display.

On entering the Main Exhibition Building by the central entrance at the west end, keep to the right and systematically go through the exhibits occupying the southern half of the building. And then, coming back, treat the northern half in the same way. By this plan, rigidly adhered to, you will see more in a single day than in six days of aimless and planless rambling, and seldom go past an exhibit a second time unless you purpose doing so.

To the right as you enter, the exhibits of the Orange Free State and Peru will not detain you long. There is an interesting exhibit of minerals and some good embroidery: and in the centre of Peru's exhibit a case of "diamonds in the rough," which attract considerable attention. But, as if by some power of unknown magic, the visitor is hurried along to the really captivating exhibits of China and Japan. The marvelous bronze and porcelain vases, so exquisite and delicate in their workmanship, so unique and in some cases so amusingly grotesque in their design, the very symbols of reverence and age-the ruling characteristics of the nations exhibiting them-fairly enchain the attention and capture the admiration of the modern heart and mind. Then the Japanese carving in wood and ivory, so chaste and elaborate and quaint and droll, demands a full share of our eyes and our praise. The styles of the carving of the two nations are at first sight quite similar, but on closer examination it will be found that the Chinese is more fanciful and intricate, and the humor of it more complex; that the Japanese is simpler and more solid, dealing with the primal forms and creatures of nature. The embroidered silk screens in these ́exhibits are unequaled by anything else in this line in the entire exhibition. Some of China's vases are said to be over two thousand years old, and the most elaborate of them are valued at $4,000 per pair-pretty good work for old barbarians.

In the Spanish exhibit the visitor is struck on entering with the elaborateness of the workmanship in the manufacture of certain bronze shields and pistols that occupy the most prominent place to the right as you enter; also with the costly nature of certain cathedral altar decorations, both very expressive of the ruling characteristics of Spain as a

In marked contrast with these last three is the ext.** Russia, notable at once for its general completeres = largeness—a really good expression of the great rising of the Old World; notable in particular for its sed ero mens of malachite marble and the exquisiteness of its w- 1 manship therein. The beautiful malachite mantel ee the east side of Russia's exhibit is considered one of berdei pieces of stonework ever made, its uprights being of main chite, with inlaid pieces and bunches of fruit con posed a rhodonite, amethyst, jasper and other precious stones, Thr cases of costly furs, of all shades and of the setrest f and texture, are also a special feature of this exhibe, as -the two stuffed bears on either side of them. Russia's rete bits of Bohemian glassware and of Bohemian jewe y are also notable and beautiful in the extreme.

Germany's exhibit is wonderfully perfect in all the depar ments of modern manufacture. Its cases of elaboring carved Meerschaum pipes are quite characteristic, as 8 the exhibit of Swiss clocks of rare design and executam placed near the southern centre of the south side of Main Building. All the ladies and children stop to exata se and admire the enormous case of doll babies in the German Department, and the most royal looking exhibit in the Luild ing is a large glass case of German velvets of the ran shades and most perfect manufacture. The relative subyrar, of modern German culture and the many-sided variery of its ingenious skill are very palpable, after a few eIMI tions of the exhibits in this southwestern quarter of the MBuilding.

On entering the southeastern half of the exilers in the Main Building-the American Department—a different me chanical atmosphere at once surrounds the visitor. Ther has been evident labor for striking external effects. The cases are more costly and the goods placed in a sort of § vi way. But the American Department is really a magift expression of the wealth, industry and multiplied geri d our people. The jewelry exhibits of Messrs. Tiffany & Co. New York, with sets of diamonds valued at $111,700, an many rich and original designs in solid silver-ware; t Messrs. Starr & Marcus, New York, really the ur· pest and most select and tastefully gotten up exhibit in the Exhal with its richly carpeted floors and its three dainty le pyramidal stands and cases filled with the finest cames and coral work one has seen for many a day; and the eng y rich exhibits of Messrs. Bailey & Co., and Caldwell & C Philadelphia, are really dazzling in their expensive splendia The exhibits of gas fixtures of Messrs. Thackara, Buk & Co., and Cornelius & Sons, of Philadelphia, make a vert brilliant show, and the workmanship in design and w are worthy of real praise. A little nearer the south chaf this central section of the Main Building, are some ve*

handsome and extremely interesting exhibits of drugs, chemicals and chemical liquids, made from woods that are there on exhibition, and two or three very attractive and pretty exhibits of perfumery, with their little bowls and sprays of delicious odors waiting to bless the weary visitors on their tiresome way.

In this part of the building Miss Bloodgood's exhibit of wax fruits and flowers is as perfect and exquisite a thing as we have ever seen produced by human hands; and if we may resume to select from an exhibit so full of rare skill and delicate beauty, we should say that the little white cross, so fine and stainless, emblem of the finest thought of God and man, entwined with that spotless and perfect little branch of honeysuckle, is a veritable gem of gems, a piece of true art, a thing of beauty and a joy as long as it may live.

In the same vicinity are some very choice exhibits of marbles, and marble mantelpieces of American manufacture, notable among which, for its perfection of design and cutting as well as for the royalty of its purchaser, is a mantelpiece of Mexican marble, manufactured by Messrs. A. L. Vanchere & Co., New York, and bought by the Emperor William of Germany. If we made a criticism of this beautiful piece of work it would be that the little bands of nickle or silver-moulding decoration near the bases of the uprights, though they are chaste and pretty enough in themselves and would nicely adorn almost any iron or metal work, look tame and weak and impure beside and in contrast with the very delicate and fine-grained, polished Mexican marble.

Of a lighter character, but not less artistic or beautiful, are the American exhibits of gilt frames and fine looking-glasses, the one of Messrs. Earle & Sons, of Philadelphia, attracting special attention as well for the extreme delicacy of the work displayed as for the good taste with which the exhibit has been arranged. Some choice Rogers's groups, and other similar clay modeling have been placed in such order as to give double effect to the general exhibit, making it, like the store and gallery of this popular house, an enjoyment to all true lovers of artistic work.

Keeping on our way to the east we are soon in the midst of the furniture exhibits. There are drawing-rooms and bed rooms, and parlors all furnished elaborately, and with furniture costly enough to satisfy the most extravagant politician of these days. A specialty in this line is the exhibit of Messrs. Hale, Kilburn & Co., Philadelphia. The materials and general mechanical finish of their work is not finer than those of many other furniture exhibits, still their goods attract much more than an ordinary share of attention, simply from the fact that they have conceived and applied an economical idea in a department where economy is so seldom practiced and where extravagant outlay is the usual order of the house. It is not the wood or the carving, therefore, but the idea of the "Champion Folding Bedstead," and the changes and economies in domestic arrangements suggested thereby, that lead visitors to stop and examine these articles and question the parties in charge. The bachelor sees that he can have a parlor and bedroom all in one with mirrors included in his bedstead, a place to sleep and dance, and entertain his friends, all without suits of rooms and extra looking-glasses. The accompanying cuts will show, number one, the bedstead getting into shape as a bed, and the case with which it is

In fact any

handled, requiring little strength or skill. ordinary Bridget can handle it, as can any delicate maiden lady who wishes to set up perpetual housekeeping on her own account, and of course a moderately good-looking and capable bachelor would find no difficulty in manipulating the arrangement provided he could get the bedclothes well smoothed out and snugly tucked in at the sides, as some bachelors can do, to our personal knowledge. Number two shows the Champion Bedstead open ready to welcome the most tired sleeper, and number three shows it closed, looking like a handsome wardrobe with every vestige of sleepiness gone clear out of the house. Number four illustrates the same idea applied to the baby's crib, so that you can keep the little one safe and snug all night long, and during the

day show no signs that there is a smitch of a baby in the house at all. And there have been cases where arrangements of this sort might have played very practical as well as very sentimental parts in the domestic dramas of the ages. In the same locality are sofa beds and lounge beds, but the Champion Bed comes in for the largest share of attention and admiration. The bedstead is worked by means of a patent circular spring and an arrangement of heavy iron bars laid in grooves along the base of what is usually called the head of the bedstead. Before going further east you had better stroll into the mineral annex and take a hasty peep at its treasures, then return, and in the same general locality of the Main Building the piano exhibits and exhibitors keep up a perpetual concert of sweet sounds, and occasionally of sounds not so sweet. But the instruments of all our pianomakers are, of course, the best and handsomest that they could produce, and the performers thereon are usually at

J. B. Lippincott & Co. has the best position and presents the most commanding appearance. We think the book-houses generally made a great mistake in making a two-story exhibit instead of one. Less space on the ground-floor would have been better for all parties concerned.

Passing over to the northeast side of the building the rich carpet exhibits command much admiration. It struck us that the styles of manufacture were very indicative of the sections of the country whence the fine goods came; as every man's nose not only marks his face pretty prominently hut really gets into whatever work he does and tells the real story of the soil out of which the man grew, and the bread he eats, and the air he breathes. Without attempting to criticise or mention them all, we would say that the exhibit of John and James Dobson, of Philadelphia, seems the most profuse and brilliant, and that of the Bigelow Mills, of Clinton, Massachusetts, the richest and finest, all the other exhibits ranging at various grades between these points, and the total display being a fine tribute to the growing industrial skill of our country.

Out of the carpet exhibits we pass into the rich displays of American dry-goods. There are elaborate and very costly show-cases, filled with every description of ladies' dress goods, some of them tastefully fitted on model forms to show how fine they look when you really get a natural model figure to fit on. It is the showiest and apparently the least studied portion of the Main Building. You step out of this section by way of the handsome clothing exhibits of Wanamaker & Brown, of Philadelphia, and Devlin & Co., of New York, the workmanship in each case being remarkably fine, one of the cases of the Wanamaker exhibit indicating the very finest style in cut and make up yet reached by any man in the tailoring line.

In passing out of the fulness and luxuriance of the American Department and entering the Mexican exhibit, one realizes in a moment the vast differences there are between our Northern Yankee aggressiveness and inventiveness and the comparatively easy-going ways of our Southern neighbors. It is not merely a difference of climate, though doubtless that has a great deal to do with it; and by the way it is worthy of notice, that the immense majority of our American exhibits are from the Northern and very few from the Southern States of the Union-a majority out of all proportion to the majority of inhabitants in favor of the North; illustrating again the tyrannical sway of the tropical sunbeams over the brainal as well as the muscular energies of man. Then there is a vast difference in the urgency of the calls to labor where the earth with little tilling and a slight tickling does seventy-five per cent. of the work needed to feed the race living thereon. The sun and the soil of all Southern countries as well as the blood and muscle evolved from them all tend to stamp the inhabitants with a come-and-goeasy sort of nature and existence. When aroused, the Southern brain is as clear and keen as the Northern, and the heart perhaps deeper, tenderer and quite as true (for nature is full of just compensations). But it cannot endure the sustained labor of the temperate zones. And the races and heads that have kept the world spinning on its axis for the

last six thousand years, and that have set new wheels into its machinery, caught the starlight in their lamps and brought the infinite forces of nature generally down to the practical human work of making seamless stockings by steam, and all works in this line, have somehow pitched their tents and run up their machinery along the temperate belt of the planet.

So Mexico has some excuse for a comparatively meagre exhibit. It is the best that nature, not the Mexicans, could do at this hour of the day. The fence work of the department is characteristic, and tastefully done. On the northern side of the exhibit is a huge root of a Mexican mahogany

FIG. NO. 4.

tree apparently something over eight feet in diameter-a beautiful wood with a little finer and sunnier grain than any of our Northern woods, and capable of a more brilliant polish. There are specimens of numerous varieties of woods in the rough; some large blocks of the renowned Mexican marble, and many slabs of the richest grain cut for table-tops and polished to perfection. Another exhibit attracting considerable attention in this department, is a very large mass or cake of silver, some six feet in diameter, and valued at $72,000.

The exhibit of the Netherlands demands time and careful study. There are large, carefully-drawn diagrams, showing the relation of the Netherlands to the surrounding seas, and illustrating the fights and struggles of the inhabitants with the waters, their efforts to get a little more land to dwell on; also several most painstaking specimens of the bridges and dikes and embankments used to hedge back the waters, and keep them in place while the brave human work of tilling the new soil goes on. It hardly seems worth while to tug and dive and build so much for a poor bit of European clay, while Uncle Sam is rich enough to give every man in the Netherlands a good rich farm for the digging of it; but the struggles of our old Dutch neighbors are none the less heroic for all. In this exhibit there are also some of the finest

specimens of inlaid pearl-work to be found in the exhibition; several cases of cloths, showing a skill in weaving equal to that of the best English mills, and some royal-looking rugs, large and rich and soft enough for the best feet in the world to walk over.

In the Brazilian exhibit the Southern contrast meets us again. There are indications, however, that modern tact and industry and skill are working things into shape in Brazil. It is not wholly Southern or languid. There are some fair specimens of the early stages of manufacture; there is much ingenuity displayed in its fancy cases of bugs and butterflies and beetles, and in the cases of gorgeous featherflowers. Some of the crown jewels formerly worn by the Empress touch the hearts of the ladies, so tender on the subject of jewelry, and so fond of the atmosphere of aristocracy and royalty. But the Brazilian crown jewels are not remarkably brilliant.

In the exhibit of Belgium are some interesting cases of paper and cloth, rags and shreds, showing the materials out of which the finer and coarser qualities of Belgian and other papers are made. The mode of glass-making is illustrated, and the Belgian laces, here on exhibition, fully justify the world-wide renown which they have already attained. A prominent feature of the Belgian exhibit is a new and very elaborately carved pulpit according to the old style. There is not a finer, more painstaking or accurate piece of wood carving in the exhibition, but being new, and we Americans being so used to fine new things, this splendid specimen of the wood-cutter's art does not impress us as do the older exhibits of the same character in the departments of China and Japan. The far-famed glass works of Belgium are also strongly represented both in the shape of enormous cases of unframed glass and in the line of large and handsomely framed mirrors. The exhibit is simply a fair expression of the average best European civilization of this century, without any specially marked features expressive of Belgium alone.

The exhibit of Switzerland has very definitely marked characteristics. It not only has good and elaborate woodcarving, equal in mechanical execution to the best in other national departments, and cases of fine woolen and silk manufacture, with delicately wrought laces and kindred fabrics; its genius has taken another and well-marked turn. The air of the mountains is the best air in the world, and the snap given to the atmosphere where the surrounding summits are clothed and glorified with perpetual crowns of snow, and the strength and brilliancy that come from the pure hearts and shining faces of the Alpine glaciers as they melt and scatter' under the rays of the noon-day sun, all have their beautiful effects on the inner and inmcst being of the inhabitants living in the midst of them. There the economies of the mountain are perpetual and sure. The soil is not as deep or broad as that of the lowlands and prairies. Man of necessity strikes the minimum of expenditure; determines to live, to feed, and at the same time enjoy the exquisite pleasures of the extravagant without incurring the usual immense costs of the same. Nature has crowded him into a small angle of the planet, and shortened and condensed his days by the height of the hills which obstruct the sun, and in return has brightened his brain by the freshest

breezes, finer light and a keener air. He in rep~~ intensifies his life, knits his brow, and crowds the e him into smallest spaces and the briefest hours Ties. velously ingenious music-boxes of the Switzerland ex are a truly rich expression of all these forces c...et They set these on their stands and tables, some plan, sine rather finely carved, quiet, mute, like so many old or mahogany tool-boxes or family chests, as they used to be in the substantial good old days; and they are in very nee tool-boxes of the hidden forces of nature, family chest ages, and the harmonies of the mountains, very Sperates life, harmonized and still. On inquiry, the polite are, a takes a little key from his pocket, unlocks the Sphinx, take a larger crank or key and winds the inner bands and wier and tools into proper position, pitches a tune, when the relen roll around, striking the little brass burs against the app note or key, making even alone the choicest melody, bær n addition, there is a chime of silver bells skillfully parted*, enrich the music; in another part of the box, run by same wheel, arranged by the same good head to beg 1Y and to add another element to the sound and pleasure, 1. veritable drum and drummer, beating his martial strokes into the tune, and a castanet finely played. It is a pos military band, church music and the rich and crip chimes, or the mountain air and sunlight of genius = one. The Switzerland clocks and watches in the ex den also of note and worthy of admiration, especially the gems of gold watches, scarcely larger or thecer than a silver quarter-dollar, and one enormous clock, which, need ing some attention as to its pendulum, we noticeleme day the man in attendance got into and moved around ang the cogs and wheels with apparent comfort, safety and ease The impression one gets on entering the French Depu ment is that there is everything in it, and that ali a vers beautiful. Taste the most varied, refined, and sometias fanciful, rules the section and the hour. The display, 15 a whole, is not as commanding or harmonious as that of Ras nor as strong and complete as that of Germany-the two 21hibits of modern nations which it most resembles in dines sions and style; but it has a greater variety than either ou sé the two. After you have strolled through it time and agia, the first impressions return with renewed force. It is the diamonds, the fine lace shawls, the millinery marvels, in de shape of feathers and ribbons, that take the preponderance The diamonds-one set, or part set, valued at $40,000—ar”. perhaps, the richest in the exhibition, though this might be contested, and the palm born off by Messrs. Tatry & Company, already mentioned. The French lace shi.. are the most costly in the show, and very exquisitely te The ladies' dress goods surpass in elegance anyth og v seen on this side the ocean. It is, too, quite amusing interesting to see how the French could not help excreng such notions of religion as the majority of them have. 1 • not a religion of doctrine, like the Scotch; or of law, like the German; or of principle, like the English. It is a re gion of sentiment-dreamy, light and playful, such as prettily enough exhibited in the wax and other gringo l'av trative of the early life of the child Jesus, and old at expressions of worship towards the same.

But the Fa group of Jesus in the Manger hardly convey the idea of the