134 Transactions of the American Institute. 



thau an hour commanded the undivided attention of a vast audience. 

 The following sketch appeared in the N'eio Yoi'k Tribune: 



" The large hall of the Twenty-second Regiment's armory was 

 thronged on Friday night by upward of 5,000 persons, flitting from 

 invention to invention, examining the hundred thousand wonders in 

 mechanics, science and art, which the managers of the American 

 Institute have collected from all parts of the continent. The pneu- 

 matic railway, the sewing machine of a score varieties, pictures, 

 chromos, cameos, designs in iron, china ware, lifting and weighing 

 machines, &c., all received their due share of attention. From 6 to 

 8 o'clock a continuous stream of people flowed through the doors 

 of the building, until even standing room was no longer attainable. 

 The announcement that the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher would speak, 

 had doubtless considerable influence in securing so large an attend- 

 ance, but independently of any such extraneous circumstance the 

 fair possesses sufficient attractions for the ordinary public. At 

 about 8 o'clock the vicinity of the temporary platform was filled 

 by an anxious, expectant throng, and when the Rev. Mr. Beecher 

 appeared he was greeted with the warmest and most hearty 

 applause. In commencing his address, he said, we are accustomed 

 to think of this great metropolis as a commercial city, but, if a ship 

 did not leave the harbor, it would be among the first cities of the 

 world, and out of our own industry and ingenuity there could be 

 gathered an exhibition that would outlast the year in interest. 

 And in this city there ought to be some permanent collection of 

 the results of the skill of our mechanics and inventors, and as in 

 other cities there are collections of paintings, and museums, and 

 libraries which never close, so should there be in New Y rk an 

 American Institute which should, like the great Mississippi river, 

 never cease to flow. If this exhibition of the products of the 

 inventive brain which we see around us to-night in such countless 

 variety, could be transferred to some remote era of antiquity, it 

 would scare the world out of its propriety. Not because it was 

 some necromancer's work, but because it was the result of the 

 mechanical genius of our day, the like of which the world never 

 saw. Even so wise a man as Plato held that it ought to be 

 accounted a crime for a free citizen to become a tradesman; the 

 Emperor Augustus put a man to death because he dabbled in 

 manufactures. The whole spirit of antiquity was opposed to work, 

 and its Avork, such as it was, was performed by slaves. The free 

 citizen was exempted from all manual labor. It was counted a 



