Egyptian museum; of a Nineveh museum; of an Indian museum; of a
reproduction of a Pompeiian house; of a reproduction of the Alhambra. The
ornaments of the Alhambra have been molded, and these molds are preserved
in an adjoining room as proofs of authenticity. In order to omit nothing,
copies have been made of the most notable Italian paintings, and these are
daubs worthy of a country fair.

There is a huge tropical hothouse, wherein are fountains, swimming
turtles, large aquatic plants in flower, the Sphinx and Egyptian statues
sixty feet high, specimens of colossal or rare trees, among others the
bark of a Sequoia California 450 feet in height and measuring 116 feet in
circumference. The bark is arranged and fastened to an inner framework in
such a manner as to give an idea of the tree itself. There is a circular
concert room, with tiers of benches as in a Colosseum. Lastly, in the
gardens are to be seen life-size reproductions of antediluvian monsters,
megatheriums, dinotheriums, and others. In these gardens Blondin does his
tricks at the height of a hundred feet.

I pass over half the things; but does not this conglomeration of odds and
ends carry back one's thoughts to the Rome of Caesar and the Antonines? At
that period also pleasure-palaces were erected for the sovereign people;
circuses, theaters, baths wherein were collected statues, paintings,
animals, musicians, acrobats, all the treasures and all the oddities of
the world; pantheons of opulence and curiosity; genuine bazaars where the
liking for what was novel, heterogeneous, and fantastic ousted the feeling
of appreciation for simple beauty.

In truth, Rome enriched herself with these things by conquest, England by
industry. Thus it is that at Rome the paintings, the statues, were stolen
originals, and the monsters, whether rhinoceroses or lions, were perfectly