EXHIBITS IN MINES AND MINING BUILDING. 459 



It has been the object of Mr. F. J. V. Skiff, Chief of the 

 Mines and Mining Building, to make the mining exhibit truly 

 characteristic of the states and foreign countries represented, 

 and thus to give it the greatest possible value to the general 

 public and to the individual exhibitors. His supervision has 

 been wise and systematic, and it is to him that a large part of 

 the success of the mining exhibit is due. Where failures have 

 been made they have been the fault, not of the Chief of the 

 Mines and Mining Building, but of the commissioners under 

 whose charge the exhibits were prepared, or else of the govern- 

 ment of the state or country which they represent. Very often 

 the commissioners have been so hampered by the fancies of the 

 mine owners or others in their districts that, though entirely 

 capable of doing so, they have been unable to make a creditable 

 exhibit of the regions they represent. Many of the state exhib- 

 its contain a large amount of good and characteristic material 

 which is often rendered useless and often ridiculous by bad and 

 ignorant arrangement ; while many otherwise good and charac- 

 teristic exhibits are rendered very unattractive by the slovenly 

 way in which they are exhibited and the untidiness of the cases 

 and specimens. Of course the last mentioned defects are minor 

 ones, especially to those interested in the subject ; but at the 

 same time the neatness of presentation has a great influence on 

 the attractiveness, and hence on the benefits, of an exhibit to the 

 general public. An exhibit which has no natural beauty may be 

 made very attractive by neat and systematic arrangement, while 

 on the other hand, an exhibit of beautiful things may be made 

 actually repulsive by a slovenly and dirty mode of presentation. 



The different state exhibits have been collected and dis- 

 played by means of the appropriations made by the various state 

 legislatures for such work. As the amount and conditions of 

 the appropriation varied very much in different states, the size 

 and costliness of the exhibits vary accordingly, and often give a 

 very great advantage to the state with the larger appropriation. 

 In criticising an exhibit, therefore, these circumstances must be 

 borne in mind. 



