494 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



multiply labor by the introduction of mechanical improvements ; and 

 we supply our homes with luxuries that have become necessaries at 

 extraordinarily economical rates. In short, we produce quickly and 

 cheaply, and in all that relates to action we leave the dreamy East im- 

 measurably behind, as the Easterns are ready enough to acknowledge, 

 and, for the most part, rather with commiseration than envy. But, on 

 the other hand, in much that is highest and most perfect in art we are 

 the scholars and they the teachers. Our best-informed and most ex- 

 perienced technical and practical men are the most ready to acknowl- 

 edge this. It is not wealthy connoisseurs and capricious dilettanti 

 who lounge about the courts of Japan, China, and Turkey, cheapening 

 the strangely attractive wares which are exposed by the merchants 

 from those distant countries. It is the European manufacturers and 

 tradesmen especially the English who rush into the Eastern de- 

 partments, eagerly bidding against each other for every thing that 

 strikes their fancy. This is one of the most characteristic features 

 of the Vienna Exhibition. On no previous occasion of the kind has 

 there been such wholesale buying and selling in the very earliest days, 

 and the traffic goes forward most briskly in the Oriental quarters. 

 As yet, Japan has not cleared her goods at the custom-house ; China 

 has scarcely imported the better part of hers. Those countries can- 

 not as yet pretend to set a price upon their wares, while the prices 

 fixed by the Persians seem high enough in all conscience, and the 

 Ottomans are following suit after the time-honored fashion of Eastern 

 dealers. Yet already the choicest of the Persian prayer-carpets are 

 snatched up at the high prices set upon them ; the best of the Jap- 

 anese porcelain, bronzes, cloisonn'ee ware, and silks, have been sold 

 several times over, the charges being left to the conscience of the com- 

 missioners, and the cards of the fortunate purchaser lying on the 

 fragments of the torn tickets that had been affixed by rejected bidders ; 

 while even in Turkey and Tunis, which come far behind Japan and 

 Persia in taste and quality of workmanship, many of the goods have 

 changed owners already, the Prince of Wales being among the earliest 

 and most considerable buyers. 



The truth is, the more closely we look into the special productions 

 of the East, the more we recognize its incontestable superiority in 

 design and color, and in perfection of form and finish. The Orientals 

 have plenty of time, no doubt, and do not grudge it ; they can afford 

 to work leisurely and carefully where we must economize labor by 

 the rapidity of our processes and the multiplying power of our ma- 

 chinery. But then they have taste as well, and a taste which is older 

 than schools of art, and seems nearly independent of technical educa- 

 tion. Compare the graceful turbans and draperies of the Oriental 

 with the stiff "chimney-pot," cutaway, and trousers of the Frank. 

 The latter, although open to criticism even as convenient wear, doubt- 

 less look more like business. They give the idea of stripping easily 



