February 2, 1894. 
THE COLUMBIAN AND THE CENTENNIAL 
EXPOSITIONS. 
Now that the world’s fair at Chicago is over, the last 
half dollar taken from the public and the splendid build- 
ings which have not been entirely removed either dis- 
mantled or burned, it can do no harm to compare the two 
world’s expositions in the United States. 
The first was born of a great patriotic uprising of the 
people—chiefly of Philadelphia—to commemorate the 
birth of thenation. The second was the fourth centennial 
of the discovery of this continent, for which enthusiasm 
was manufactured by means of the powerful aid of the 
Government, added to hitherto unheard of subsidies of 
money, and by means of unprecedented advertising at 
enormous expense undertaken by reason of the ambition 
of a great young city of which the motto is ‘‘I will.” It 
is not too much to say that the Government of the United 
States did not expend a dollar without return for the 
elder exposition, while it freely gave millions for the 
later one. : 
Charles Sumner in the Senate and Mr. Springer of 
Illinois in the House of Representatives opposed the 
giving of Government support to the former, while all 
the representative members of every state’s delegation to 
Congress, and notably those of Pennsylvania, united to 
further the objects of the later project. Had it not been 
for the munificence of private monied men of Philadel- 
phia, and the contribution of small sums by her less 
fortunate people, the Centennial would needs have been 
abandoned. Yet the donations of foreign countries and 
exhibitors to the Government scientific museums in Wash- 
ington were, in proportion to their magnitude (and per- 
haps actually) greater in the first exposition than in the last. 
A recent communication to the public press by an 
observant student of the late Exposition in Chicago 
contains the following language: 
After stating that Philadelphians must admit ‘‘the 
far greater richness and elaboration” of the later enter- 
prise, it proceeds to state that the Chicago Fair ‘‘cost 
three times the money of the Centennial, and while it has 
about the same greater proportion of exhibits, it has by 
no means a three-fold power on national invention and 
progress.” . . . “‘It is doubtful indeed if all these added 
millions add an ounce to the momentum exerted by the 
Centennial, and for the reason that everything here 
beyond the essentials of practice, which were demons- 
trated at the Centennial, are in the simple though 
immense direction of spectacle, constituting a bewildering 
appeal to the senses but not being of necessity a lasting 
force in industrial science.” 
The writer of these lines may claim both the desire and 
the opportunity to make a fair comparison between the 
two expositions in the department of mines and mining, 
having occupied positions in both expositions which gave 
him facilities for doing so. 
He can only bring to the judgment of the other exhibits 
such qualifications as any man of ordinary intelligence 
and the experience of several world’s fairs possesses. 
The buildings; their arrangement with reference to 
each other and to the general architectural effect; the 
laying out of the grounds and all those many elements of 
architectural taste which are so difficult to catalogue, 
were never so perfectly attained in any part of the world 
as they were in Chicago. The buildings themselves, too, 
were spacious, well fitted for their purpose and imposing 
in their lines. 
In all the above respects, and perhaps in the means of 
transportation of crowds to and from the grounds, the 
Chicago Fair was in advance of any enterprise of the kind 
ever undertaken, 
SCIENGCE. 63 
But the appearance of the interiors was not in keeping 
with the majesty of the structures. Even to the super- 
ficial glance the exhibits seemed too often commonplace 
or ‘‘ padded.”” Not but what there were thousands of 
gems imbedded in this matrix of mediocrity and adver- 
tisement, but, as is usually the case, the most striklng ob- 
jects were of subordinate interest, and the really valuable 
objects needed careful and weary searching, and most fre- 
quently one failed to find any adequate description or com- 
petent attendant when these treasures were found. ‘The 
writer first quoted excepts from his strictures the Electric- 
ity building, but to me this building was an excellent 
illustration of the defects alluded to. Everything which 
would arrest the attention of the ignorant was shown in 
profusion. There were masses of light of many and con- 
tinually changing hues, including an illuminated column 
witha make-believe indicator to mystify the beholder; but 
the searcher for the more modern application of electricity, 
the apparatus for signalling electrically by means of a ray 
of light; the Tessla apparatus; the means of heating by 
electricity, etc., was unsuccessful or partially so. So far 
as the general public was concerned, there might as well 
have been no electric stoves as those placed at the end of 
one gallery. Outside of a favored few the visitors were 
able neither to see the interior working of the ovens nor to 
obtain any information concerning them. If there is one 
department in which the enormous advance since 1876 
should be shown, it is that of electricity, and yet when it 
is considered that the Bell telephone was first brought out 
there and that the then latest English apparatus for exact 
measurement of the electrical current were exhibited in 
“profusion, while totally lacking from the British section 
of the electrical display at Chicago, it is doubtful if, to 
say the least, any superiority can be claimed at Chicago 
in 1893 over Philadelphia in 1876 in this particular, so far 
as the instruction of the general public isconcerned. For 
the public the most instructive object lesson of the possi- 
bilities of electricity as an agent for decoration; light, 
heat and power was given by the Columbian Commission 
itself in the brilliant illumination of the dome of the ad- 
ministration building, the basin, andthe electric launches 
and intra-mural railway. 
The collection of paintings, while numerous, contained 
inthe aggregate fewer objects of rare value than many 
much smaller and less pretentious collections of modern 
days, both international and national. 
The agricultural display was fine but was a disappoint- 
ment to those who expected to see a fullrepresentation of 
the agricultural implements of all the nations of the earth 
which manufacture such objects. Here, as elsewhere 
throughout the fair, many objects whose place was in the 
building were sequestered by the commissioners to adorn 
State buildings or to meet the eyes of the more general 
public in the greatest building, z.e., that of Manufactures 
and Liberal Arts. 
There seems to be no difference of opinion as to the 
shoe and leather exhibit. With the exception of the 
Russians, and possibly one or two individual displays, the 
contents of the splendid building consecrated to this 
subject were disappointing or without significance. 
As to the Mines and Mining, in hardly any part of this 
great profusion of objects was any attempt made to 
educate as well as to astonish the non-professional visitor. 
Great piles of rocks and ores were scattered about, but 
utterly without system in most cases. ‘The silver statue 
of Ada Rehan, the purely hypothetical miner’s cabin built 
out of ores and the more or less artistic statue of. a dis- 
tinguished far western fellow citizen of the self-taught 
sculptor in sandstone, of which the advertisement took 
the place of acatalogue, were the cynosures. 
As for the rest, either a few mines or localities were 
