PARIS IS PREPARI G

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1263, 14 May 1896, Page 38

PARIS IS PREPARI G

FOR HER WORLD'S FAIR IX THE YE Alt 10 JO. Paris, March 15. One of the clou* of tho Exhibition of 1!)0U, and not the least interesting, will be an international display of life - saving apparatus which will bo held in tho Bois de Vincennes. This ground is selected to satisfy tho inhabitants of the eastern side of Paris, who complain, with some show of justice, that the only results of tho great International Exhibition havo been to divert trade and commerce from that quarter. A committee has been appointed under the presidency of MM. Gemot and BoucherCadart to draw up tho programme. The section of life-saving apparatus will havo an exhibit at the Champs do Mars, but tho practical experiments which constitute tho most moving spectacles, by reproducing tho methods employed in different countries, will take place in the Bois de Vincennes. Tho committee charged with the organisation state that tho considerable sum of money placed at their disposal will enable them to make the experiments

sufficiently realistic to render them most useful and fertile in results. A PRACTICAL PROGRAMME. For example, in dealing with tho question of files, the skeleton of a house four stories high will bo built on the bank of tho Lac Daumosnil in order to show tho methods used by tho fire brigades, who havo promised to give their services, and also those of volunteer firemen, who will come forward from all tho societies in existence. The lake in the Bois de Vincennes is to bo specially cleaned out and deepenod hi places, for tho purpose of conducting tho experiments in life saving from tho water, either at sea or inland. A number of boats, and even a model ship in distress, aro to bo anchored at a distance from tho bank, so as to give facility for using tholife saving apparatus employed on the coast, whether by sailors oi volunteer brigades. A number of men selected from the brigades will represent passengers who will lie rescued from tho shore in the case of a supposed wreck, or in boats in the case of a ship supposed to be foundering. It is also contemplated to give an illustration of the means of raising submerged vessels, including tho operations of divers. In regard to life saving inland, ovary method and every difficulty encountered can bo illustrated, whether as to tho manner of seizing a drowning man, diving for him and supporting an insonsiblo form, or bringing it to land. Tho method of dealing with persons apparently dead, in order to restore animation, can also be illustrated, so that tho public will be able to see how to act in tho case of an accident occurring in their presence. NOVEL EXPERIMENTS. A special feature in the exjieriments is in contemplation, which recalls to mind the eminently French system of " reconstituting a crime," by taking a person charged with murder to the scene and going through the whole process iu his presence, in order to observe wdiat effect the ludicrous farco produces upon him. It is proposed to show the best means of stopping runaway horses. The committee exjiect to obtain the loan of a number of these noble animals and set them to run away, either looso or harnessed to a waggon, in order to practise tho art of stopping them.

In tho same way they propose to obtain a number of old railway waggons, and with them exhibit practical means of saving passengers in trains in collision or in carriages that have run oil the line. The committee rightly observe that a relatively small number of persons know what to do iu catastrophes of this nature, either in the way of getting injured passengers out oi' the (rains or rapidly clearing away the debris, so as to avert another calamity. Such operations, we aro told, are to be illustrated by bauds or sauveteurs, under the direction of competent men, so as to produce a complete simulation of these emotional and dangerous operations.

The committee seem to have a linking suspicion that some of their proposed operations are not absolutely practical. There is a French proverb, " Qui s'excuse s'accusc." The committee conclude their description of this part of the programme with tho following observation:—"it is

I right to insist on tho fact that the public I will not here havo before them childish ' mako-believo or puerile parodies, but j serious demonstrations, which may teach I all what aro the fiist steps to take in I the case of any kind of catastrophe." 1 If the runaway horses and railway coli lisions aro to bo serious demonstrations j tho committee have mado no mistake when j they describe them as emourantes. As to I the practical results, nothing short of actual experience can pronounce on thom. Tho Temps is probably right in its comI ment on the show. It says:—" It is not I absolutely certain that tho spectators will go away capable of rendering efficacious help to their fellow-men in danger. But thero is always something comforting in tho sight of what a spirit of sacrifice and enlightened devotion in a humane sentiment can accomplish."