location of the city of Marseilles is a specially fortunate one for such an exhibition, because of the semi-tropical climate which admits of arborial and floral arrangements delightfully in keeping with the reproductions of oriental buildings, and the intermingling of French architecture. Also, Marseilles is itself a beautiful city, well worth lingering in. As this exposition is so limited in its presentations, the grounds are conveniently limited in extent, and the location easily accessible by tramways. The entire affair lets us dream of the Orient, reveals the inner life of many strange peoples and refreshes the eye with great stretches of beds of exotic flowers, interspersed with pagodas and temples. Very few of us, who are busied with our own overcrowded lifework, realize the number of colonies supported by the French, or their varied locations. Whether the popular prejudice in England against French colonial management be well founded or not, it is true that the French people find abundant opportunity for the investment of capital in these strange countries and that they are not entirely indifferent to the interests of the oriental populations with whom they deal. Possibly they consider it good policy to look to the happiness and health of their oxen and asses for the promotion of French trade interests just as some of the rest of us do for ours. The grounds of the exposition are shaped somewhat like a diamond, the main entrance being at one of the sharp angles. Entering the main gate, the eye glances up a majestic, wide avenue, the vista closed by the Grand Palace of Exportation, very much the largest edifice on the grounds. There are important pavilions devoted to the interests of Algeria, Madagascar, Tunis, Occidental Africa, IndoChina, Cochin-China, Cambodia, the Soudan, besides giving attention to the old French province in which Marseilles is situated, Provence. Entering by the grand portal, duly made gay and frivolous 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 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 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 |