No. 133.] 133 



FIRE WORKS. 



Tn arc- 'I'tlauce with oui' custom of the last twenty years, the 

 board uf managers offered the followins; premiums for a display 

 of fire works, in competition, viz: For the best display, $100; 

 for the second best, ^50 ; for the third best, $25. Only two com- 

 petitors entered, Messrs. Joseph G. & I. Edge, and Mr. Isaac 

 Edge, all of Jersey City. The exhibition took place on tha 



evening of the 28th of November, at the close of the Fair. 



% 



The display was truly magnificent, brilliant in color and beau- 

 tiful in design. The principal piece was composed of a central 

 group of collossal figures, representing the genius of America, 

 crowned with a laurel wreath by the Goddess of Wisdom, and 

 receiving from an attendant divinity the scroll of Fame. This 

 group was enclosed in an arch of arabesque work, surmounted 

 with the American eagle, and flanked on each side by an elegant 

 imitation of the fountain of the Infant Triton in the garden of 

 Versailles; presenting in the whole, a front of splendid highly 

 colored fires of ninety feet in length, by over fifty in height. 



Another piece worthy of notice, was called the Emblem of 

 Freedom, consisting of a large shield and pendent flags under a 

 semicircle of stars, for the states of the Union, which was sur- 

 mounted by our national bird. Messrs. Joseph G. and Isaac 

 Edge deserve much praise for efforts continued by them for a 

 series of years to elevate the pyrotechnic art from the mere manu- 

 facture of squibs and popping crackers, to the rank of one of the 

 arts of design. The artistic skill shown in their allegorical 

 pieces, it is said, has never been equalled in this country, and 

 probably not in Europe. The first and second premiums were 

 awarded to them by the judges. a. c. 



