SKILLED ASSISTANT. 
20 / 
be excluded. The main Exhibition had already 
begun, and all haste was desired in preparing the 
minor details. So, as soon as possible, Mrs. Max- 
well began her work, and discovered that excep- 
tional circumstances for a woman to work under 
were not yet at an end for her ! 
In the construction of her landscape, she was 
provided with the skilled (?) assistance of a negro 
who, under ordinary circumstances, was doubt- 
less competent to drive nails ! He certainly had 
the strength to do so, as Mrs. Maxwell was able 
to testify after he crushed her finger in a bung- 
ling attempt to drive one in a spot she indicated. 
It of course seemed very strange to the visitors 
who were admitted long before her miniature 
mountain-side was completed, to see a woman in 
a working -dress using paste, pulverized ore, 
water, lime, gravel and evergreens ; yet, only by 
laying aside all fastidious notions of propriety, 
and all regard for her own comfort, and working 
for about two weeks, as nearly night and day as 
possible, was her exhibit made the attractive pic- 
ture presented during the summer. The innu- 
merable questions concerning her work, and the 
criticisms upon it, were not surprising, even 
though they were a hindrance and an annoyance. 
Of course, Mr. Smith and Mrs. Jones couldn’t 
help wondering “ What on earth that woman was 
doing on those rocks with all those animals ! ” 
