of the Main Building were laid the means of meeting the foe on the
threshold were planned. The Main Building alone contains seventy-five
fire-plugs, with pressure sufficient to throw water over its
highest point. Adjacent to it on the outside are thirty-three more.
Seventy-six others protect Machinery Hall, within which are
the head-quarters of the fire service. A large outfit of steam
fire-engines, hose, trucks, ladders, extinguishers and other
appliances of the kind make up a force powerful enough, one
would think, to put out that shining light in the records of
conflagration--Constantinople. Steam is kept up night and day in the
engines, which, with their appurtenances, are manned by about two
hundred picked men. The houses for their shelter, erected at a cost
of eight thousand dollars, complete, if we except some architectural
afterthoughts in the shape of annexes, the list of the buildings
erected by the commission.

[Illustration: WOMEN'S PAVILION.]

_Place aux dames!_ First among the independent structures we must note
the Women's Pavilion. After having well earned, by raising a large
contribution to the Centennial stock, the privilege of expending
thirty-five thousand dollars of their own on a separate receptacle of
products of the female head and hand, the ladies selected for that a
sufficiently modest site and design. To the trait of modesty we
cannot say that the building has failed to add that of grace. In this
respect, however, it does not strike us as coming up to the standard
attained by some of its neighbors. The low-arched roofs give it
somewhat the appearance of a union railway-depot; and one is apt to
look for the emergence from the main entrances rather of locomotives
than of ladies. The interior, however is more light and airy in effect