all the other representatives of the dark or semi-civilized races that
appeared in a similar character. They proved a success, their genial
bearing and ever-ready smile pleasing the mass of the guests more than
did the _triste_ and impassive Moslem. The theatrical can just as well
be done here, and _quant. suff._ of Cossacks and Turks be manufactured
to order. Then we have John and Sambo in unadulterated profusion; the
former ready at the shortest notice and for very small compensation to
indoctrinate all comers in the art of plying the chopsticks, and the
latter notoriously in his element in the kitchen and the dining-room,
and able to aid the chasse-café with a song--lord alike of the
carving-knife, the cocktail and the castanets.

Water, the simplest, most healthful and most indispensable of all
refreshments, is provided without stint and without price. Foreigners
are struck with the immense consumption of water as a beverage in this
country. They do not realize the aridity of our summer climate, which
makes it sometimes as much of a luxury here as it is in the desert. A
rill of living water, let it issue from a mossy rift in the hillside
or the mouth of a bronze lion, comes to us often like the shadow of
a great rock in a weary land. We lead fevered lives, too, and this
is the natural relief. Fountains are among the first decorations that
show themselves in public or private grounds. They give an excuse and
a foothold for sculpture, and thus open the way for high art. In the
Centennial grounds and in all the buildings upon them, of whatever
character, the fountain, in more or less pretentious style, plays its
part. Led from the bosom of a thousand hills, drawn from under the
foot of the fawn and the breast of the summer-duck, it springs up
into the midst of this hurly-burly of human toil and pleasure, the
one unartificial thing there, pure and pellucid as when hidden in its
mother rock.