Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1875 — The Arrangements for the Coming [ARTICLE]

The Arrangements for the Coming

10, 1876, and remain open everyday, ex cept Sunday, until Nov. 10. There will be • fixed price of fifty cents for admission to all the buildings and grounds. The Women’s Centennial Executive Committee have raised <30,000 for the erection ot • pavilion in which to exhibit every kind of women’s work. To this collection women of all nations are expected to contribute. Power In the Machinery Hall will be chiefly supplied by a pair of monster Corliss engines. Each cylinder is forty inches in diameter, with a stroke of ten feet ; the fly-wheel is thirty-one feet in diameter, and weighs fifty-five tons; the horse-power is 1,400, and the number of boilers is twenty. This engine drives about a mite of shafting. The Secretary of the Navy has arranged that a United States war vessel shall call next spring st convenient European ports •to collect and transport hither to the 'Exhibition the works of American artists resident in Europe. Among the ports thus far designated are Southampton for England, Havre for France, Bremen for Germany and Leghorn for Italy, to which, if desirable, others may be added. Mr. Bell, the eminent English sculptor, who designed the groups for the plinth for the great Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, London, is reproducing in terra cotta, at the celebrated works in Lambeth, the one which symbolizes America. The figures in this group are colossal, covering a ground space of fifteen feet square. It will probably be placed in the great central gallery, opposite the principal entrance.

Ah important special exhibition will be made by the United States Government and is being prepared under the supervision of a board of officers representing the several executive departments of the Government. A fine building of four and one-half acres is provided for the purpose, space in which will be occupied by the War, Treasury, Navy, Interior, Postoffice and Agricultural Departments and the Smithsonian Institution. The Machinery building, like the others, is already fully covered by applications. There are about 1,000 American exhibitors in this department, 150 English and 150 from other European countries — which is about 250 more than entered the Vienna Machinery Exhibition. Extra provision is being made for annexes to accommodate the hydraulic machinery, the steam hammers, forges, hoisting engines, boilers, plumbers, carpenters, etc. The Centennial grounds arc situated on the western bank of the Schuylkill River, and within Fairmount Park, the largest public park in proximity to a great city in the World, and one of the most beautiful m the country. The park contains 3,160 acres, 450 of which have been inclosed for the Exhibition. Besides this tract there will be large yards near by for the exhibition of stock, and a farm of forty-two acres has already been suitably planted for the tests of plows, mowers, reapers and other agricultural machinery.

The Art Exhibition will include in addition to the works of contemporary artists representative productions of the past century of American art—those, for instance, of Stuart, Copley, Trumbull, West, Alston, Sully, Neagle, Elliot, Kensett, Cole. These, as well as the works offered by living artists, will be passed upon by the Committee of Selection, who will visit for the purpese New York, Boston, Chicago and other leading cities, in order to prevent the needless transportation to Philadelphia ot works of art not up to the standard of admission. The Exhibition buildings are approached by eight lines of street-cars, which connect with all tlie other lines in the city, and by the Pennsylvania and Reading RitiUpads, over the tracks of which trains will also run trom the North Pennsylvania undPhiladelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroads. Thus the Exhibition is in immediate connection with the entire railroad system of the country, and anyone within ninety miles of Philadelphia can visit it at no greater cost than that of carriage hire at the Paris or Vienna Exhibition. The articles to be exhibited have been classified in seven departments, which, for the most part, will be located in appropriate buildings, whose several areas are as follows: Department. BuUdlnqe. Acree Covered. 1. Miii’g & MetTgy, 1 2. Manufacture*. /-Main Building 21.47 8. Kducafnand Sci. ) 4. Artr Art Gallery 1.5 5. Machinery. Machinery Bnfld’g 14. 8. Agriculture Agrfcu’ttital Building.. .10. 1. Horticulture, Horticultural Building.. 1.5 Total, 48.47

This provides nearly ten more acres for exhibiting space than there were at Vienna, the largest International Exhibition yet held. Yet the applications of exhibitors have been so numerous as to exhaust the space, and many important classes of objects must be provided for in special buildings. A large number of orders and fraternities have signified their intention to hold gatherings at Philaaelphia during the period of the Exhibition. Among those which may now be enumerated are the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; the Grand Encampment, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Grand Lodge United States, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Grand Commandery Knights Templar; Grand Army of the Republic; Presbyterian Synod; Caledonian Club; Portland Mechanic Blues; Welsh National Eistedfi dd; Patriotic Order Sons of America; California Zouaves of San Francisco; an International Regatta; the Life Insurance Companies; National Board of Underwriters; State Agricultural Society; Second Infantry, N. G. of California; Philadelphia Conference Methodist Episcopal Church; Cincinnati Society; California Pioneer Society; American Dental Convention ; Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America; Independent Order of B*nai Berith; National Alumni Association; Salesmen’s Association; Fifth, Maryland Regiment; American Pomological Society; Malsters’ Association of the United States; Army of the Cumberland; Humboldt Monument Association; Christopher Columbus Monument Association; Board of Trade Convention; International Typographical Congress; Rifle Association of the United States; Centennial Legion; aUadelphia CpuMy.Jledical Society; Interffational Medical Congress; Old VoL unteer Fire Department of Philadelphia,