merely ornate--a circumstance which was proved fortunate by the excess
in the demands of exhibitors over all calculations, since the means
it was at first proposed to bestow upon the artistic finish of the
buildings were needed to provide additional space. As it is, the
architectural results actually attained are above the average of such
structures in general effect. The Main Building strikes the eye, at an
angle of vision proper to its extent, more pleasingly than either
of the English or French structures; while for the massiveness and
dignity unattainable by glass and iron Memorial Hall has no rival
among them, and its façade is inferior chiefly in richness of detail
to the main entrance at Vienna. Were it otherwise, some shortcoming
in point of external beauty might be pardoned in erections which are
meant to stand but for a few months, and which can have no pretensions
to the monumental character belonging to true architecture.
Suitability to their transient purpose is the great thing to be
considered; and their merit in that regard is amply established.
Mr. P. Cunliffe Owen, familiar with all the minutiæ of previous
expositions, declares them supreme "in thoroughness of plan and energy
of construction"--a judgment designed to coyer the whole conception
and administration of the exhibition, and one which, coming from a
disinterested and competent foreign observer, may be cited as an
amply expressive tribute to the zeal and fidelity of those in control.
Ex-Governor Hawley of Connecticut, president of the commission, is
a native of North Carolina, and brings to the cause a combination
of Southern ardor with Northern tenacity. The secretary of the
commission, Mr. John L. Campbell of Indiana, was a good second in
that bureaucratic branch of the management. The trying charge
of supervising the work generally, conducting negotiations and
correspondence, and leading as one harmonious body to the objective
point of success an army of artists, contractors, superintendents,