— 18 — 
THE WORLü’s FAIRS 
The immense Rotunda of Vienna, with a 
doine that equals tliat. of St Peter's atRome 
in size, nowservesfor concerts and populär 
festivals. Düring the exhibition the Ro 
tunda contained a thoroughly interna 
tional selection of the most valuable pro- 
ducts from all the departments. This idea 
had the disadvantage of, as it were, dis- 
countiug in advance the decisions of the 
Jury. To be in the Rotunda gave an ex- 
hibitor at once an advantage over his 
competitors. This can not liave been the 
intention of the organising comnuittee, who 
in thus forming a small universal exhibi 
tion within the large one, were probably 
mainly actuated by the wish to give 
the immense Rotunda some useful besides 
ornamental employment in connection 
with the exhibition. They would pro 
bably have better attained their end by 
making it, the department of plastie art, 
whose subjects would have presented a 
more harmonious aspect, than did the 
heterogenous mass of industrial products. 
In beauty of the grounds the Phila 
delphia exhibition surpassed those of 
Europe; and Memorial Hall, whicb per- 
manently adorns Fairmount Park, can 
rank worthily by the side of the Vienna 
Rotunda and the Trocadero Palace at 
Paris.
	            		

— 19 — 
THE WORLü’s FAIRS 
This fine building - contained the art de- 
partment of the exhibition, and it now con- 
tinues in the same Service as a inuseum. 
If the United States thus give the place of 
honor at home to art, they do not show 
the same attention for their art depart- 
ment in the European exhibitions. A 
populär French guide book to the Paris 
Exhibition (Gautier &Desprez, Paris 1878, 
vide p. 62; explained the fact, that there 
was little worth seeing in the American 
department, by the assertion “cepeuple 
n’est pas encore arrive au scntiment de 
Part! ” 
Instead of wasting words on a picture, 
which has no originality, and merely imi- 
tates a lower kind of parisian style—a 
vulgär female laughing over the “Journal 
pour rire,”—it would have been more just, 
if American Art was to be judged by the 
pictures exhibited, to draw public attention 
to Dana’s “ Solitude,’’ representing the 
grand majesty of a high-goingsea by moon- 
liglit, or to Bridgman’s very original pic 
ture, “funeral scene in ancient Egypt.” 
If this guide book does not fiatter 
American artists, it is certainly no less 
severe for the architects of the monu 
mental building of the exhibition, theTro- 
cadero Palace. It honestly States, that 
this building of arabesque style resembles