Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1893 — HOW WORK GOES ON. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOW WORK GOES ON.

PROGRESS AT THE WORLD’S FAIR NOT RAPID. Exhibits for Many Departments Seem to Be In Slow Hands and Many Days Required for Complete Installation—Details of the Big Buildings. The Week at Jackson Park. Chicago correspondence: Progress in the installation of exhibits in most of the World’s Fair buildings is being made much more slowly than there was reason to expect on the opening day of the Exposition. The promises of several of tho chiefs that the mechanical work would be completed and the refuse cleaned out within ten days will not be fulfilled. At the present gait it Is doubtful'if the sound of hammer and saw shall oease to be heard within twice the promised ten days. This prolonged delay can no longer be charged to tho railroads;,, about everything which will be shown on the Exposition grounds is within reach. There are no labor troubles and no burdensome exactions from the Exposition management. Every exhibitor is Irea to make haste. He did hurry before the opening, but he seems to be making life as easy for himself as possible. The weather at present is most favorable for manual labor, and there are too few people in any building to cause the least interference. Some work is done at night. The chiefs of every building say they cannot get sufficient Light and refuse to issue any peremptory orders for night work. The exhibitors will not incur the additional expense of overtime labor bills until they'are compelled to. In Manufactures Building Great Britain is in most presentable shape. This is accounted for, in part, by the fact that she built no elaborate pavilion or facade, as Germany and France are doing. As in the American section, each exhibitor has acted independent of all others. But, unlike the American, the British exhibitor constructed his pavilion or booth at home, and it came along with the exhibit. On arrival there was nothing more to do than put it together and arrange the goods within it. This has been quickly done, and the visitor may

Walk through the British section and see as much now as he ever will here of the produots of the three isles over the sea. The Canadian Display. Canada was induced by Chief Allison to inclose her space, which appropriately adjoins that of the mother country, and there Is no mistaking her typical facade on Columb a avenue. Within there is a display of manufactured articles, but the American idea that quantity is more impressive that quality apparently prevailed. France moved eo slowly with her staff ornamentation as almost to seem not to move at ail. French exhibitors have tired of waiting for the completion of the ornamental work and are installing their wares in the rear of it. But they find it necessary at once to surround their booths with canvas to keep out the staff dust, and visitors get little benefit from them, to say nothing of the fact that they are almost inaccessible. These goods are of the choicest kind, and peculiarly attractive *to Americans because of their artistic excellence. The exhibitors profess to sell only by sample, or with the reservation that the goods cannot -be removed until after the close of the Exposition, as the rules of the Fair require. But they are permitting customers to take away almost anything they are willing to pay the big prices for when the customs officers are not on watch. American ex-

hibitors are giving evidence of an interest in the Exposition, and their booths are filling up with a little more rapidity than heretofore. A very few may be said to have completed their work. Austria needs to do but little more, while Germany will have her hands full for many days yet. Switzerland can sit down and wait for sightseers in her completed pavilion. Belgium, just across the street, is ready for guests. Other countries have little to exhibit except unopened boxes and miscellaneous debrio—not including Japan in this category, which is more than half ready. Educational Exhibit Advanced. The educational exhibit is well advanced, and some things In it will bear close inspection. This is especially true of that of Pratt Institute, of Brooklyn. This is an industrial school, and the specimens of work in all the practical arts are excellent. They show what a pupil in school can be taught to do in architecture, building, plumbing, iron work, millinery, dressmaking, etc. The exhibit is presented with good taste. The Chicago educational exhibit, If present at all, has hidden its light under a bushel; no one has b*en

able to find it. Leaving the sections ot the gallery assigned, to Great Britain, France, Germany, and Austria, them Is much vacant space to fill, although it is said to have all been assigned. In Mines and Mining Building New South Wales presents an exhibit tho .most nearly complete of those from foreign countries. Germany and Austria are getting into shape slowly, excepting the great display of the former near the center of the building. Quebec it. hidden away behind Ontario with a dis-

play of minerals, principally phosphates and mica. British Columbia, adjoining, strikes the visitor with amazement by an exhibition of what appears to be a pyramid of gold ingots, some ten feet high and live or six feet square at the base. On closer examination the blocks prove to be cheaper than dross, for they are nothing but bronzed plaster. The pile is supposed to give a comprehensive idea of the province’s production of gold, as the bars

Represent in bulk the amount of refined gold sent to market since the mines have been systematically worked. The compound value is $52,i 0i>,(,00. England shows a good deai of coal, one piece weighing fourteen tons having been installed. South Africa has a large space inclosed and a model of a mill set up, but no exhibits opened. Mexico is inclosing the largest individual space in the building, and has her cases ready to be filled with minerals. Chili is already prepared to give a good idea of the nitrate industry. She boasts of the fact that 1,0 j 0 ,119 tons of this mineral were exported in 1890. Samples of crude nitrate and as prepared for a fertilizer are in place. In the agricultural building Wisconsin is ready to entertain visitors and lowa nearly so. The incomplete exhibits at the end of next week in this building will be the exception and not the rule, as in some others, if work proceeds as rapidly next week as it Has this. It is already second in popularity to Manufacturers building, apparently; a crowd of visitors lingered in it all dav and reluctantly withdrew at night. The big engine in Machinery hall is turning a thousand wheels, and an air of early completeness pervades the building, in spite of the delay in handling the ponderous machinery there is a prospeet of a finished exhibit before many days. Electricity may be able to reach a specified point in a very short space oSr time, Taut the installation of thcgaachincry and . appliances through .wmch it operates is\slow bejoad comparison. Apparently, the Electricity building will be last on the list for the visitors. Transportation building has no new surprises, but is monotonously slow in some departments. The carriage exhibit is about complete and of a high order.

VIEW FROM THE WEST GALLERY OF MANUFACTURES BUILDING.

FOWER OF ORANGES, HORTICULTURAL BUILDING.

PORTAL TO BELGIUM'S EXHIBIT.