Miscellaneous, 



454 



[November, 1910. 



the native fabrics. This and other 

 similar exhibits in the Museum from 

 the countries, should teach our manu- 

 facturers how necessary it is to consider 

 and cater to the tastes of their customers 

 in export markets. In spite of the 

 attractiveness of much of the English 

 and German goods, the richer natives in 

 some sections prefer to use the more 

 costly native cloths on account of their 

 superior quality ; an indication of the 

 future importance of the great American 

 commerce. 



The Madagascar exhibit is of excep- 

 tional merit. The textiles of this collec- 

 tion are of native make, and in inany ins- 

 tances impossible of duplication, since 

 they have been gradually disappearing 

 for a number of years and their place has 

 been taken by the cheaper fabrics of 

 foreign make. There is also shown here 

 a native loom of most primitive con- 

 struction, and yet capable of producing 

 remarkable cloths from the raphia fibre. 

 Side by side here are found foreign 

 made cloths resembling closely the 

 Madagascar manufacture, both in tex- 

 ture and design. American manu- 

 facturers should have no difficulty in 

 competing with Europe by supplying 

 the Malagasy with textiles, provided the 

 proper effort be made to give them just 

 what they want. It is a fact that the 

 Europeans are particularly successful in 

 confoiming their own ideas to the tastes 

 of semi-civilised people and even the 

 barbaric races, Among the Madagascar 

 displays, there are to be found an 

 assortment of musical instruments, such 

 as only the native ingenuity could 

 have fathered . Rattles, made from beans 

 and used by dancers and sorcerers ; 

 dulcimers, constructed entirely from 

 raphia, and other instruments illustrate 

 most interestingly the musical inclina- 

 tions of this picturesque people. 



The collection of articles from Tahiti, 

 New Caledonia, Fiji and other islands of 

 the South Pacific is of unusual merit. 

 Very few Museums in the world possess 

 its equal. In addition to such articles as 

 display the peculiar habits and customs 

 of the natives there are samples of pearl 

 shell, copra, birds' nests, trepang, cotton, 

 coffee, and other products which show 

 the natural wealth of the region. The 

 collection is rich in the bark cloths 

 which are so perfectly imitated by 

 German manufacturers who place their 

 wares in the native markets through the 

 many traders of that nationality. 



India, Ceylon, Indo-China and Siam 

 display collections of almost equal 

 interest. 



Almost the entire floor of one building 

 is installed with comprehensive collec- 



tions of the natural products and re- 

 sources of all of the Latin American 

 countries, this being, as far as known, 

 the only permanent exhibit of that 

 character in the world. From those 

 countries come some of the most impor- 

 tant of our imports, and here are shown 

 in great variety the rubbers, coffees, 

 cacaos, asphalts, and mineral ores on 

 which so many of our industries depend. 



An important exhibit at the main 

 entrance, which is in course of instal- 

 lation, illustrates the history and devel- 

 opment of commerce from the earliest 

 beginnings to the present time. Serially 

 arranged in uniform cases are the im- 

 portant products of commerce in order 

 of their entry into the world's demand, 

 while maps in contemporary order show 

 the development and changes in trade 

 routes and the concomitant rise and fall 

 of the nations. The development of 

 transportation from the most primitive 

 type of human burden to the modern 

 railway train, steamship, automobile, 

 and airship, is pictured in a series of 

 large photographs on the surrounding 

 walls, and by a unique collection of 

 panel photographs six feet high, sur- 

 rounding the columns of the building in 

 th<5 space occupied by the exhibit. The 

 development of water transportation is 

 portrayed by a series of models of com- 

 mercial shipping beginning with the 

 most ancient tomb-paintings of Egypt 

 and carrying the evolution down through 

 the Greeks and Romans, the Arabs, 

 Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch and 

 English, down to the modern leviathans 

 both of steam and sail power. These 

 models are being constructed to uniform 

 scale so that the visitor can compare at a 

 glance the relative size and capacity of 

 the shipping of the Pharoahs, that of the 

 Caesars and the Empires of the East, 

 with the modern liners. 



Among the most valuable of the ex- 

 hibits are those which show the various 

 grades of one substance from different 

 parts of the world and the working up 

 of raw materials into fiuished products. 

 These economic collections are arranged 

 to illustrate foodstuffs, spices, beverages, 

 fibres, tans, and dyes, gums, resins, oils, 

 etc. The exhibit of cotton takes up not 

 only cotton fibre and its manufacture 

 into yarn, thread and fabrics, but also 

 the utilisation of cotton seed, showing 

 the many useful things made from 

 cotton seed oil, as well as from the oil 

 cake, the hulls and the linters. The 

 corn exhibits not only show hundreds 

 of commercial varieties of corn and 

 various foodstuffs made from corn but 

 surprises the visitor by showing also 



