orld. A perception of this fact is shown in the exceptional
efforts made by Brazil to be fully represented in all departments of the
exposition, and in the visit to it of her chief magistrate, as we may
properly term her emperor, the only embodiment of hereditary power and
the monarchical principle in a country that enjoys--and has for the half
century since its erection into an independent state maintained--free
institutions.
[Illustration: DOM PEDRO, EMPEROR OF BRAZIL.]
In art domestic exhibits utterly lose their preponderance. Our artists
content themselves with a small fraction of the wall- and floor-space in
Memorial Hall and its northern annex. In extent of both "hanging" and
standing ground they but equal England and France, each occupying
something over twenty thousand square feet. Italy in the aesthetic combat
selects the chisel as her weapon, and takes the floor with a superb
array of marble eloquence, some three hundred pieces of statuary being
contributed by her sculptors. She might in addition set up a colorable
claim to the works executed on her soil or under the teaching of her
schools by artists of other nativities, and thus make, for example, a
sweeping raid into American territory. But she generously leaves to that
division the spoils swept from her coasts by the U.S. ship Franklin,
together with the works bearing her imprint in other sections, satisfied
with the wealth undoubtedly her own, itself but a faint adumbration of
the vast hoard she retains at home. Italy does not view the occasion
from a fine-art standpoint alone. Of her nine hundred and twenty-six
exhibitors, only one-sixth are in this department.
[Illustration: JAPANESE CARPENTERS.]
Nor, on the art side of our own country, must we overlook the Historical
division, the perfecting of which has been a labor of love with Mr.
Etting. He allots space among the old Thirteen, and reserves a place at
the feast of reunion to the mother of that rebellious sisterhood.
Forty acres of "floor-space" _sub Jove_ remained to be awarded to
foreign and domestic claimants. Gardening is one of the fine arts.
Certainly nothing in Memorial Hall can excel its productions in
richness, variety and harmony of color and form. Flower, leaf and tree
are the models of the palette and the crayon. Their marvelous
improvement in variety and splendor is one of the most striking triumphs
of human ingenuity. A few hundred species have been expanded into many
thousand
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