OPENING OF THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION AT PHILADELPHIA.

North Otago Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1334, 22 July 1876, Page 2

OPENING OF THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION AT PHILADELPHIA.

A contribution to the "New York Graphic" give* the following aooount of the first day's proceedings at tho Philadelphia Exhibition :— The space between Memorial Hull and the Main Hall, whore the exorcises wert held, is not less than BOOft. Hero were assembled at an early hour at least 15,000 people^ a numbor out of proportion to th# acoustic possibilities and to comfort. The distinguished guests, however, wore rocognised by their glistoning uniforms, and were allowed to press through tho torraoo and the semi-oiroular seats of timber whioh had been prepared for the ovont At the brow of the terrace, nearly in the middle of tho huge orowd, two rampant horses, in bonds, dominated ovuv the masses of hats, bonnets, and uncovored heads. The clean now profile in granite of Memorial Hall, adorned only with some flags and colored sculpture, was filled with people. On the root and arches at the main gate wore hoisted for the first time the arms of Philadelphia, of Pennsylvania, and of tho United States. The chorus was seated on a special stand in front of the torrac«, and oxtonding out from the main odifioe. Wheuover the orowd bussed a little, nothing could be heard a few feet from the platform, and very little seen except tho lips of the chorus moving, and Theodore Thomas, bare-headed, making his charaoteristio gestures. The organ could snarooly b% heard at nil, nHhouarh tho military band* parading the grounds were very distinctly heard in many directions. In short, th« vocal musio, having all out of doors to circulate in, failed to produoe nny effective impression. The seene when all was ready, about ten o'clock, was prodigious, but the txer* cises were innudible to all exoept a few persons. Mesntime, as anybody could enter the grounds by paying, tho public streamed in throngs through fifty gates, and dispersed in front of the various edifices, waiting until they should he formally openeu and ready for admission. When President Grant, who had spent the night at Philadelphia, appeared there was loud and long-continued cheering. Dlaine, however, got a still warmer reception, which lasted several minutes, and General Phil Bberidan was huiusaed with prodigious vigor. Philadclphians wert generally phlegmatic on such subjects, but the strangers and the military made it lively. Senator Conkling, Governor Til* den, and the British Minister were mihiectl of applause. The Emperor of Tlraxil kept on the outskirts of the orowd for some time, attended by Mr O'Kslly, who aeoom* panied him from llio over all his travels, and is much depended on by the Emperor. If there is to be any broad oritiolsm of the Philadelphia Inhibition it must be that there is too much of it. The usual visitor is stunned and confused by the extent and variety of the buildings, and walked off his legs. His wife invariably goes home mad and refines to he consoled, and says she never was so thed in her life. The children are spanked for nothing In particular, and the head of the house pulli off his boots, cuts his corns, and sayi women are unreasonable. There is too much of it, because everybody has been allowed to build something, and deceive the eye with tho ostentation of a public ornament. Thero is a bakery ( there are sewing machine edifices ; sods fountains cover themsolvos with palaces ; every State, and many foreign States, have housed themselves, as for an architectural lark. What do you think, Aristides, of 100 separate and different edifices in this extravagantly largo enclosure of 230 acres! It U to great an enclosure that railways are built to oiroumambulato it, with stations at tho larger buildings. It is so rugged and uneven an enclosure that bridges 500 feet long span its ravines, on which hundreds of carriages and steam railway oars cross at one time. The buildings themselves are of suoh extraordinary size that the largest is more than twentyone acres of ground surface, every foot of whioh is interesting, and the o&ouit of this building alomo will weary a young man afoot. There are, in all, seventyfive aores under roof. I am justified, therefore, in saying that tho Exhibition fails only in the immensity of its suoooss. That is, it surpasses necessity. It is like marrying the fat woman. She was all we had expeoted, and more, too, and we wore unable to comprehend the whole of her in our affections, and made h«r acquaintance in instalments. I wss at the London Exhibition of 1862 and at the Paris Exhibition in 1807. My brother, who is a good olmorver, mid does not have to brain himself in tho nowspapers every day, says that tho Vionna Exhibition was oxteriorly tho inferior of ours, and I think that both the London and Paris Exhibitions were leas pretentious than this.

They wore, however, strlotly, International exhibitions of art and produoti, and not landioape parks. In the fine art*, particularly In sculpture, they excelled our* in quality, and, I think, quantity They were more oompaot, and more aboessiblo from their ottfea, but their buildings were neither so elegant nor so oheerful as ours, and they were not so expresalvo of the daily life and onergy of tho nation whioh prepared them. The Amerfoan Exhibition is stamped all over with our faith, oonfldenoe, and individuality, and in most rospoota we outshine other people with our produots, and pursue them closely in the arts. Our machinery leavos England, France, and Prussia noarlyout of competition. Tho CorllM engine, whioh drlvos tho miles of shafting and belting in Maohinory Hall, is such a Plutonio monster that it gives a man a slight oonoeptlon of infinite power, with its 1400 times the strength of a horse— the force, I might say, of two rogimonts of oavalry horses on a charge. It can be run up to 9600 horse-power. Blaok, double-levered, lofty, silent— a monument as well as a slave — it rears its vast fabric in the air, like a Samson toiling for the amusement of the Philistines.