84 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Not tlie least wondrous of the sights of this American Crystal 

 Palace, are the moving groups which throng its long-drawn aisles. 

 Not, as in the Wall-street part of Broadway, where carking care 

 shows on every face, and the fixed look, the wrinkled brow, the 

 impatient gesture, indicate that care goads the passenger as he 

 drives along; but where the faces are lit up with inquisitiveness, 

 with the genial flow of gratified curiosity, or the grave but satis- 

 fied air of examination and investigation. See that school, headed 

 by the sympathizing teachers, asking, hearing, moving, here and 

 there in files, in knots, in little groups, in large fronted columns I 

 See how the girls and boys display the difl'erent temperaments and 

 trainings of the sexes ! See the different objects which attract 

 their gaze and elicit interest ! What a beautiful effect, those 

 graceful forms and brilliant dresses sprinkling the floor and mix- 

 ing with the sober gloom of the iron machinery, and how those 

 graver costumes contrast with the bright hues of the dahlias and 

 brilliant exotics ! 



A few in lightness, easily forgiven; a few in talk of things not 

 of the exhibition', perhaps of mechanics, not of machines. These 

 are the exceptions to the groups, and are balanced by those solemn 

 faces wliich discuss apart to the very minutest detail that new 

 invention, and by those busy men who are dilating on the merits 

 of the machines which have cost them nights of sleeplessness and 

 days of toil. May the world appreciate their labors, and reward 

 them with better things than that " hope deferred, which maketh 

 the heart sick." 



What if these breasts were made of glass ? not roughened like 

 that of our palace to keep the outsider from looking in, but good 

 transparent crystal. Then, our illusion would vanish, and the 

 inside show come back to the Broadway type. Let us rather use 

 the scene as not abusing it; admit the light of day, but give no 

 transparency. Let us enjoy our Crystal Palace illusion while it lasts. 

 Let us believe that, in this house at least, there is no skeleton.^ 



I have often wondered that more care was not taken amongst 

 us to preserve the statistics of different enterprises, with a view 

 to know their actual results, and trace tliem to their causes; and, 

 further, with a view to their practical utility. If a railroad is 

 organised in a city, for example, the statistics of the number of 



