E.EPOET OF BoAED OF GeNEEAL MaNAGEES. 57 



origin, the records of the fair can hardly fail to bear eloquent testimony 

 to the energy, enterprise and skill of the metropolis of workers that sur- 

 rounds the harbor of New York. 



Art and literature have yielded in all ages to the attracting force of 

 great cities, and our time shows but few exceptions to the rule. New 

 York is the chosen home of American art ; beyond its limits the accepted 

 representatives of native painting and sculpture are comparatively few. 

 Of the 34,000 square feet of wall space reserved in the Art Palace for the 

 pictures of the United States painted in the last sixteen years, the larger 

 portion will, therefore, be occupied by the work of New York artists. 

 No more valuable exhibits than these will be intrusted to the care of the 

 exposition authorities, and none with which the prompting of mere com- 

 mercial profit will have less to do. The State recognizes the fact that its 

 own credit demands an adequate presentation of the fine arts nourished 

 within its borders, and its assistance has been freely given to provide for 

 the safe transportation of works that, in many cases, represent the sole 

 possessions of their makers. 



Equally imperative has been the obligation of the State to be adequately 

 represented in the educational exhibit of the exposition. Our public 

 school system was one of the first established in the Union, and we 

 believe that there is no more congruously developed system in the country 

 to-day. It is a great work, this of showing the whole field of scholastic 

 education from the lowest primary grade to the academy, the normal 

 school and the college, of illustrating the methods that prevail in it, and 

 of preparing specimens of what ;^ yields. The mere collection and 

 arrangement of samples of the wjrk of pupils from all parts of New 

 York is a task of uncommon magnitude, and is one that can only be done 

 by those wielding the delegated authority of the State. But it has been 

 committed to capable hands ; and I do not think that in this sphere of 

 civic effort New York will have any cause to blush for the results of com- 

 parison with her neighbors in the department of liberal arts. 



The University of the State of New York, an agency for the promotion 

 of higher education, without a counterpart in any other State of the 

 Union, will make a comprehensive showing of its mode of operation. The 

 leading colleges of the State will have independent exhibits of a kind infe- 

 rior to none of their associates in the work of academic culture. Our chief 

 technical schools, our institutions for the education 'of the blind, and the 

 deaf and dumb, as well as the reformatories of the State, will have proper 

 representation here. So will the great public hospitals and asylums, those 

 monuments of private beneficence and State and muaicipal charity, which 

 are not the least of the glories of New York. 



