The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

THE LOCOMOTIVE. 9
We should be pleased to review this mosl interesting report very rally; but as it
contain-, in all. over four thousand pages, it will be impossible to give more than a
superficial account of it. In his report in the fiwl volume. Qen, Franklin pays B high
tribute to the juries that had the task of passing upon the merits of the exhibits.
•They worked steadily at all available hours,' -
he says, " until everything exhibited for
competition was examined. I have never Seen such honest, conscientious hard work ai
was done by this large number of distinguished men, who seised without pay. Their
reward was the appreciation by their countrymen and foreign exhibitors of their disin-
ted labors, and the consciousness — which they have a right to hold — that no body
of men ever performed a delicate and laborious task with more industry, with greater
ability, and with a better Bense of justice to all." We also learn from this report that
the number of recompenses of all degrees awarded during the exposition was 33,138.
This includes tin:; grand prizes, 5,153 gold medals. 9.000 silver medals. 9,823 bronze
medals, and s .(»To diplomas of honorable mention. In addition to these, 5,500 medals
of various kinds --were awarded to collaborators, workmen who were noted for skill
and ability aud faithfulness in the work-shops in which the exhibits were prepared."
(There were over 60,000 exhibitors in all.) Of these awards, over a thousand were
granted to exhibitors from the United States, the awards to this country's exhibits being
as follows: Grand prizes, 55- gold medals. 214; silver medals, 300; bronze medals,
246; diplomas of honorable mention, 229. Gen. Franklin, commenting on this list of
awards, says: "The United States fared better than any other foreign nation in the
number and nature of the awards granted to its exhibitors." He also states that the
French estimate of the number of people from the United States that visited Paris dur-
ing the Exposition is 90.000. It will readily be imagined that multitudes of difficult
points were continually coming up before the commission in the discharge of their
duties, and that it was an almost impossible task to meet and decide them with the
necessary promptness and fairness to all concerned ; aud one who is in any way familiar
with these things will appreciate the following passage from Gen. Franklin's report: " I
was we'd assisted by my subordinates in conducting the business of the commission. As
a rule, persons connected with a United States commission to a foreign exposition have
no experience in international expositions, and the business is entirely new to them, and
requires a certain apprenticeship. By the time the business is learned the exposition is
over, aud the employes scatter, usually declaring that they will never belong in any
capacity to another exposition. The United States commission was no exception to this
rule. The business was new to all connected with it. except two or three persons, but
it went on as well as that of the other foreign commissioners, and I think creditably to
the United States." From the report of Chief Engineer Gunnell we learn that the area
covered by Machinery Hall was 654,550 square feet, and that the area covered by the
Palace of Liberal Arts was 202.y-26 square feet. The total floor space occupied by the
United States was 113,300 square feet. There are numerous interesting appendices to
Gen. Franklin's report, replete with statistical and other information: and the first
volume concludes with a very full and complete index, which adds immensely to the
value of the report, and to the convenience of the reader. There are also twenty-two
excellent engravings.
The second volume of the Report begins with the report on the Fine Arts. We
note, on page 19, a vigorous onslaught on the " Angelus," with which we heartily sym-
pathize; but as we know more about boilers than we do about art, it may be that our
opinion in this matter is of no great importance. The "Angelus" is a fine painting,
but we have seen many that we liked better. The report is illustrated by about a dozen