Glances at Europe. Greeley Horace

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СКАЧАТЬ dollars' worth of admirable and cheap Muslins, Drills, Flannels, &c. And beside, our Manufacturers, who find themselves met at every turn, and often supplanted at their own doors by showy fabrics from abroad, are shy of calling attention in Europe to the few articles which, by the help of valuable American inventions, they are able to make and sell at a profit. I know this consideration has kept some goods and more machinery at home which would otherwise have been here. The manufacturers are here or are coming, to see what knowledge or skill they can pick up, but they are not so ready to tell all they know. They think the odds in favor of those who work against them backed by the cheap Labor and abundant Capital of Europe, are quite sufficient already.

      Still, there are some Yankee Notions that I wish had been sent over. I think our Cut Nails, our Pins, our Wood Screws, &c. should have been represented. India Rubber is abundant here, but I have seen no Gutta Percha, and our New-York Company (Hudson Manufacturing) might have put a new wrinkle on John Bull's forehead by sending over an assorted case of their fabrics. The Brass and kindred fabrics of Waterbury (Conn.) ought not to have come up missing, and a set of samples of the "Flint Enameled Ware" of Vermont, I should have been proud of for Vermont's sake. A light Jersey wagon, a Yankee ox-cart, and two or three sets of American Farming Implements, would have been exactly in play here. Our Scythes, Cradles, Hoes, Rakes, Axes, Sowing, Reaping, Threshing and Winnowing machines, &c., &c., are a long distance ahead of the British—so the best judges say; and where their machines are good they cost too much ever to come into general use. There is a pretty good set of Yankee Ploughs here, and they are likely to do good. I believe Connecticut Clocks and Maine (North Wayne) Axes are also well represented. But either Rochester, Syracuse, or Albany could have beaten the whole show in Farming Tools generally.

      Yet there are many good things in the American department. In Daguerreotypes, it seems to be conceded that we beat the world, when excellence and cheapness are both considered—at all events, England is no where in comparison—and our Daguerreotypists make a great show here.—New Jersey Zinc, Lake Superior Copper, Adirondack Iron and Steel, are well represented either by ores or fabrics, and I believe California Gold is to be.—But I am speaking on the strength of a very hasty examination. I shall continue in attendance from day to day and hope to glean from the show some ideas that may be found or made useful.

      P.S.—The Official Catalogue of the Fair is just issued. It has been got up in great haste, and must necessarily be imperfect, but it extends to 320 double-column octavo pages on brevier type (not counting advertisements) and is sold for a shilling—(24 cents). Some conception of the extent of the Fair may be obtained from the following hasty summary of a portion of the contents, showing the number of Exhibitors in certain departments, as classified in the Official Catalogue, viz:

GREAT BRITAIN.
Coal, Slate, Grindstone, Limestone, Granite, &c. (outside the building),	44
Mining and Mineral Products (inside),	366
Chemical and Pharmaceutical Products,	103
Substances used as Food,	133
Vegetable and Animal Substances used in Manufactures,	94
Machines for Direct Use, including Carriages, Railway and Marine Mechanism,	339
Manufacturing Machines and Tools,	225
Civil Engineering and Building Contrivances,	177
Naval Architecture, Guns, Weapons, &c.	260
Agricultural and Horticultural Machines and Implements,	287
Philosophical, Musical, Horological and Surgical Instruments,	535
Total, so far,	2563

      The foregoing occupy but 55 of the 300 pages devoted expressly to the Catalogue, so that the whole number of Exhibitors cannot be less than Ten Thousand, and is probably nearer Fifteen Thousand; and as two articles from each would be a low estimate, I think the number of distinct articles already on exhibition cannot fall below Thirty Thousand, counting all of any class which may be entered by a single exhibitor as one article. Great Britain fills 136 pages of the Catalogue; her Colonies and Foreign possessions 48 more; Austria 16; Belgium 8, China 2, Denmark 1, Egypt 2½, France and Algiers 35, Prussia and the Zoll Verein States 19; Bavaria 2, Saxony 5, Wirtemburg 2, Hesse, Nassau and Luxemburg 3, Greece 1, Hamburgh 1, Holland 2, Portugal 3½; Madeira 1, Papal State ½, Russia 5, Sardinia 1½, Spain 5, Sweden and Norway 1, Switzerland 5, Tunis 2½, Tuscany 2, United States 8½. So the United States stands fifth on the list of contributing Countries, ranking next after Great Britain herself, France, Austria, and Prussian Germany, and far ahead of Holland and Switzerland, which have long been held up as triumphant examples of Industrial progress and thrift under Free Trade; and these, with all the countries which show more than we do, are close at hand, while our country is on the average more than 4,000 miles off.—I am confirmed in my view that the cavils at the meagerness of our contribution are not well grounded.

III.

       Table of Contents

THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

       Table of Contents

      London, Thursday, May 6th, 1851.

      "The World's Fair," as we Americans have been accustomed to call it, has now been open five days, but is not yet in complete order, nor anything like it. The sound of the saw and the hammer salutes the visiter from every side, and I think not less than five hundred carpenters and other artisans are busy in the building to-day. The week will probably close before the fixtures will have all been put up and the articles duly arranged for exhibition. As yet, a great many remain in their transportation boxes, while others are covered with canvas, though many more have been put in order within the last two days. Through the great center aisle very little remains unaccomplished; but on the sides, in the galleries, and in the department of British Machinery, there is yet work to do which another week will hardly see concluded. Meantime, the throng of visiters is immense, though the unexampled extent of the People's Palace prevents any crush or inconvenience. I think there cannot have been less than Ten Thousand visiters in the building to-day.

      Of course, any attempt to specify, or to set forth the merits or defects of particular articles, must here be futile. Such a universe of materials, inventions and fabrics defies that mode of treatment. But I will endeavor to give some general idea of the Exhibition.

      If you enter the building at the East, you are in the midst of the American contributions, to which a great space has been allotted, which they meagerly fill. Passing westward down the aisle, our next neighbor is Russia, who had not an eighth of our space allotted to her, and has filled that little far less thoroughly and creditably than we have. It is said that the greater part of the Russian articles intended for the Fair are yet ice-bound in the Baltic. France, Austria, Switzerland, Prussia and other German States succeed her; the French contributions being equal (I think) in value, if not in extent and variety, to those of all the СКАЧАТЬ