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RUE D' ANNAM, WHICH AFFORDS A GOOD GENERAL VIEW OF THE EXPOSITION

seilles and by it the ancient Chateau de Duplécisse; then the section of Tunis. Behind beautiful grills, brought from Tunis, we see the Mosque of Sahel-Ettaba, its white domes with green enamels dividing the attention with finely worked grilled windows and chiseled panels, its straight lines and round forms recalling the grand sun and the winds of the desert.

Arts, a dignified building in the style of the Louis XVI. period, its refined beauty enhanced by statues and architectural ornaments. It must be admitted that the French have remarkable facilities for the construction of expositions: experience, taste, a host of skilled artists and workmen and a government which interests itself in these efforts to promote the elegancies of life. They have a marvelous Crossing the grand avenue we find the ability in the construction of facsimiles Palace of Madagascar with twin columns of unusual surfaces, ornaments, imitations and trilobed arches and superbly decoof strange stonework, mud huts and rated dome interior, the space within and heathen contrivances. We can not at- the verandas filled with showings of maps, tempt to compare with them in cleverness produce, jewels and strange objects of of workmanship because it costs us too manufacture. Behind it the Palace of the much, and even if we import the skilled Congo reunites the peculiar structures of workmen, the result is less wonderful than that land in one building. Farther along there. is the cinematograph of Occidental Next in order is the pavilion of Algeria, Africa, the Palace of the Soudan, the

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transportation to fairy land. Of course there must be a theater, but this one, besides its excellent restaurant, contains a museum of the older colonies, with interesting collections, and near by are massed many booths in agreeable groups.

Behind the great Palace of Exportation are arranged the spaces for showing means of transportation, the Panorama of Madagascar, the captive balloon, the aeroplane, the labyrinth, a double toboggan slide, the shooting of Niagara (suggesting the Canadian colonies which were), the dancing natives, the Bagatelle, etc., etc. Coming back on the left, the Pavilion of Divers Colonies, each not big enough to claim a place for itself, comes to view, and the great section of Indo-China led up to by the bridges of Anam and Cambodia, which introduce us to gardens arranged

Tower of Anam lifts itself near the two palaces of Cochin-China, and then Tongking with a facsimile of two streets. It sets our geographical recollections abuzzing to find ourselves amid this array of strange names, but it is worth while to look it all up in the atlas, that we may understand what the French secured when they wrested this southeast corner of China from its owners at the cost of many wounds and much fever. Lying, as it does, over against our own new "colonial possessions," the Philippines, we are interested in many ways.

The Palace of the Sea, near by, contains every sort of ship, machine and contrivance for going to sea, and as this all has reference to navigation and seacrossing, and as Marseilles is the principal port on this side of France, the showing is

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and numerous skilled gardeners make it possible to care for large garden spaces, each little and large space being devoted to the exhibit, not alone in specially setapart grounds, but in odd corners by buildings and between them. Not only do they attend to those simpler flowers which adorn everybody's home, but the unusual, the rarely beautiful and the exotic are everywhere. Naturally, the display here is one of the most imposing features of the entire grounds, as the Orient without fruits and flowers would be a delusion. The forcing houses defy description. Enormous palms, thirty or forty feet high, stand aloft; and the lakelets are rich with divers sorts of aquatic plants, with grand flowers of ravishing colors and agreeable odors, their immense leaves floating on the surface. Skill in shaping ornamental grass plats, and in interspersing them with floral arrangements, reveals to us the superiority of these French and Oriental gardeners.

I have not mentioned the abundance of mural decorations in this line of buildings. Painters are a drug in the market in France and they are talented, trained and original. In the administration palace is a collection of pictures by artists who make a specialty of doing oriental subjects. There are two divisions of the exhibition: painters of to-day, whose names are not familiar to us in America, though many of them will soon become known, and those whom we do know because they belong to the immediate past. I am not sure which of these is the more attractive, though represented among the old men are Decamps, Delacroix, Gérôme, Fromentin, Regnault, Horace, Vernet, Renoir, Manet, all great. The collection, both old and young, is decidedly worth crossing the ocean to see.

The exposition retrospective-historic is fine also, including paintings, engravings and especially bibelots. As might be imagined, these articles of art are remarkably fine, including as they do all the exquis te jewelry, pottery, draperies, silks and woolens of these nations of fine color sense and decorative feeling. Arms of marvelous beauty and ornamentation are abundant, and they include historical souvenirs associated with the warriors of France and those equally honored of the half-civilized races with whom they fought.

It is strange to note how much more exquisite the arms of the savages are than those of the civilized race, though the latter shoot better. But the swords of the savages put those of their mentors to shame. Flags, fetters (barbarous things), tribal torture machines and wonderful robes all teach a lesson in patriotism and a lesson in art, even the robe de chambre of a famous French general who got himself killed before he could clamber into his epaulettes. Over all this space one sees the sculptured ornamentation, the statues and the portrait busts which France produces so abundantly.

Passing out into the avenues and alleys one is impressed by the evidences of the love of prettiness by the French. They believe that an exposition should have a festive air and that long strings of garlands in electric lights, suspensions of artificial flowers in tissue paper, flags and more flags, as well as flowering urns and fountains, are essentials. Indeed they do ornament the place wonderfully, though often too prettified. All these ornaments form a veil to the picturesqueness of the Algerian building, which lifts its_tall minaret white against the blue sky. Towers, pagodas and other tall structures show us here how much we missed at the World's Fair in St. Louis, where there were none because the money gave out too early and the management had to shear the good plans.

Beautiful arrays of colonettes range themselves around the interior courts of these long-drawn-out collections of the mosques and palaces of Algiers, fountains play, statues range themselves suitably, and the floral display makes it all like a fairyland. Inside are showings of the wheat that we have introduced so favorably in our own country, the hard grain. of Africa which promises to improve our bread. Cork wood, dates, wines, brandies and other articles both useful and injurious, but all good for money-making, make an array which fatigues as well as instructs. All these African pavilions are filled with the same sort of produce nearly, but we were not prepared to find iron, zinc and hydraulic cements in this hot country. Naturally the tobacco and olive oil met our expectations. Over in the Exportation Palace we saw French champagne for the Africans, and here we

see superior native wines coming the other way. The forests of Algeria must be sweet smelling, if one may judge by the abundance of perfumed woods. It seems that there are native picture-painters, in European manner, in Africa, though their works will never set the world on fire.

Tunis became a French province, a protectorate, some time since, much to the disgust of the people of Italy, who nearly went to war about it. The Tunisian pavilion is one of the best on the grounds, surrounding a fine large court. Tunis was once the Carthage of history and its ancient relics arrest the attention seriously, though the chalks, cements, fruits and garments of marvelous weave make such a mixture of impressions that we think that this is the same as Algeria. By the way, the clever building made of native woods shows us a new form of log house, delightful to see, and proving that modern architects can outdo our practical forefathers in using timber. This is "artnouveau" in logs. They stand upright and recall primitive pillars and colonnades in a new style.

That island in the Indian Ocean, next the southern part of Africa, Madagascar, seems to please the French intensely, probably because of its cost to them. The architecture of the pavilion is nearly the same as that of Tunis. Laces and straw hats ("Panamas") are largely in evidence, and they seem to be proud of funeral rites in which many oxen are barbecued, though it does not state that any of these are exported. Rice and gold dust are candidates for exportation honors. Music seems to be the favorite distraction of the Malgache, so silently do they seat themselves, all in dignified costumes, around the valiha players. Cocoanut fiber has been a source of riches to the Malgache since time was, and they must export much of it, judging by the exhibits here. But I really think that they should be most honored for their clothes and peculiar stuffs.

Probably no one will linger long in the exposition of the products of the French Congo, though ivory, rubber, gum copal, copper, tobacco, coffee and vanilla are good for trade. Dahomey is on hand, but I did not see the Amazon warriors, its principal product according to some accounts. There is a grouping of most interesting

villages and a showing of home life that interests every one, and the main pavilion is one of the good things on the grounds. There is a sobriety about its unbroken stretches of wall, crowned by a coping pierced with what look like port holes to shoot through. In the center is a strange tower, massive and substantial, crowned by an unfamiliar sort of colonnade and a solid, square cupola.

Indo-China has more attention than most of the other colonies. The visitor who arrives by the grand avenue, before its collection of strange edifices, stops astonished by the vision of this far-off Orient, which gives him such an ensemble of roofs with points erect like horns, of porcelain dragons, of bridges, of a tower and the numberless palaces lost amid the gardens of strange composition, in which are united the most precious specimens of the flora of the Chinese. In approaching we traverse one of three bridges crossing a lagoon. These are so very peculiar in shape that we seem to find here the source of the style, "art-nouveau." They simulate stone, have massive piers at the corners, and others half way across, massive ramps, and rectilinear panels of fine tracery. I wish most heartily that some architect would copy one of them for a Chicago park. On occasions of ceremony the middle one is used by the king, the mandarins of civil service pass by the one on the right, and military mandarins by the left one. Dragons and chimeras guard the entrances and the whole effect is picturesque but seriously dignified.

This section comprises the exhibits of Tongking, of Anam, of Cochin-China, of Laos, of Cambodia and of KouangChu-Va, all provinces under the dominion of France. Various views down the sample streets of Chinese towns leave but a confused impression of pie-crust houses with brilliantly painted trimmings around the eaves, the doorways and on the very peculiar carved wooden dogs which linger by the pathways and hang to the eaves. Interspersed with these are magnificent blue and white porcelain jars and sang-de-boeuf vases. The wonderful ardens are not to be described at all, nor do we understand them any more than we understand an oriental puzzle. These trees and shrubs are simply strange, though sometimes beautiful. Imagine the

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