THE NEW ORLEANS EXPOSITION. 593 



who are chiefly to be benefitted by it, than to any other cause. They could and 

 should have put their money into it liberally; at least they should have paid up 

 their voluntary subscriptions — and not have allowed its credit to be destroyed 

 before its completion ; they should have provided better means of access, both 

 for freight and visitors, and they should patronize it better themselves. 



But even as it is, it is a better exposition in many respects than this country 

 ■ever saw. Any visitor who undertakes to see all that is even now well presented 

 — omitting all unfinished exhibits — in one week will fail to do it justice. Any 

 visitor who is interested in any special subject and desires to study it in detail, 

 can spend days on that alone, whether it be ores, minerals, products of the soil, 

 manufactured articles, natural history, archaeology, machinery, inventions, art, 

 educational facilities, or progress and results in any other line. Every State and 

 Territory is fully and excellently represented in all these respects, and while some 

 few are yet in an unfinished condition, it is the verdict of all who visited it that 

 these exhibits far excel in size and manner of arrangement those at the Centennial 

 at Philadelphia in 1876. To be personal and candid, I will say that Nebraska 

 seems to take the lead of all in the magnitude and the tastefulness of her display, 

 while Kansas comes next. Missouri has a striking array of packing-boxes, bar- 

 rels, bales, etc., besides a quantity of freight yet remaining at the depots, which 

 when arranged as contemplated will be highly creditable to Major Hildtr and 

 his assistants. Of course the $2,000 or $3,000 raised for this purpose, mainly in 

 St. Louis, will not enable them to make much of an effort to compete with States 

 whose legislatures and private citizens furnished their commissioners with from 

 $5,000 to $25,000 to give an adequate representation. 



The display by the Interior and other departments of the Government is 

 absolutely superb, and one who has not visited the Patent Office, Smithsonian 

 Institution, Bureau of Education, Coast Survey, Signal Office, Agricultural De- 

 partment, Post Office Department, National Museum, Fish Commission, etc., 

 will be fully repaid by these alone for a trip to New Orleans. I am not certain 

 that he will not be belter satisfied here, because he can see the best items of all 

 these collections, all under one roof, and thus avoid the fatigue of looking them 

 up in buildings scattered all over Washington City. 



If he has a taste for natural history, not fully gratified by the specimens in 

 the Government and State displays, he can step into the gallery and there find 

 the vast collection of Prof. H. A. Ward, of Rochester, which is unequaled in 

 the country. In this he will find restorations and casts, life-size, of the mam- 

 moth or fossil elephant, the Glyptodon clavipes, the Megatherium, the Mylodon 

 robustus, and the Irish Elk, besides skeletons, beautifully articulated and mounted, 

 of man and all the Simian family, side by side ; birds, fishes, reptiles, etc. Many 

 of these cannot be seen elsewhere in the United States, and Prof. Ward has 

 never before drawn so largely upon his museum for an outside exhibition. 



In the main building other nations besides the United States are represented, 

 such as Mexico, Turkey, Honduras, Japan, etc. 



To those who are fond of machinery we commend Division B, an iron exten- 



