4 ON MUSEUMS, &c., 



economical processes for the preparation of food for cattle were going 

 on ; and the manufacture of butter, cheese, oil, cider and piquette, a 

 kind of sour wine made from unripe grapes, and much drunk by the 

 peasantry of France. Modes of preparing different manures were 

 shewn. The basket-maker, the cooper, the wooden-shoe maker, the 

 farrier, the blacksmith, were all plying their respective trades, aided by 

 the most ingenious mechanical contrivances. 



Incessant communication was maintained with the island of Billan- 

 court by rail and steamboat. 



Of the 103J acres contained in the Champ de Mars, the Exhibition 

 building itself, or Palace proper, covered 31^ acres (153,194 square 

 yards). The space outside the Palace was styled the Park. An innu- 

 merable multitude of buildings were here to be seen in every variety of 

 form — kiosks, pavilions, chalets, churches, chapels, bell-towers, school- 

 houses, barracks, temples, palaces, huts, Tartar wigwams, theatres, 

 stables, windmills, bath-houses, conservatories; with several real light- 

 houses, one of them 220 feet in height, displaying at night the elec- 

 trical light. The edifices just spoken of were scattered about most 

 promiscuously, as it might seem ; but each had its relation to one or 

 other of the exhibiting nations, and each gave shelter to and conve- 

 niently displayed some special product or products of that nation, 

 natural or artificial. Although at the first glance the paths leading 

 to these buildings seemed labyrinthine enough, by the aid of a plan no 

 great difficulty was found in threading one's way to any desired point. 



Very conspicuous in the western portion of the Park, on the avenue 

 leading towards the Military School, was one object which quickly fixed 

 the eye, and which even in 1867 was regarded as ominous. This was 

 a bronze equestrian statue of King William of Prussia, raised aloft on 

 a high pedestal, of colossal dimensions, and crowned with laurel. 

 Towering up to a height of twenty-five feet, ifr seemed to dominate the 

 western portion of the Park. It was in jest likened at the time to the 

 fatal Horse which found its way into the heart of Troy. It was little 

 imagined that the comparison was destined to be so nearly exact as it 

 has proved. Another ominous Prussian object, in another place, filling 

 every beholder with awe, was the so-called Krupp gun, a cast-steel 

 breech-loading cannon, weighing with its carriage 141,062 lbs. To 

 enable this monster to reach Paris, the railway bridges in some places 

 were strengthened. A multitude of other kindred implements of 

 destruction accompanied it. Sorrow and shame, and indignation, could 



