DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0122
94 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
CHAPTER XIV.
GLEANINGS AND REMINISCENCES.
SECURITY OP PBOPEETY—AMAZING POPULARITY OP THE EXHIBITION—A EOMANCE IN THE BUSSIAN
DEPARTMENT—NOTABILIA—THE COLOSSAL CBOSS—THE GREAT COAL----ITALIAN WONDEB AND
AMERICAN INGENUITY—HOUSE OP CAOUTCHOUC—THE PALETOT-BOAT—THE BRASS TAILOR.
Under this head we shall, from time to time, record such incidental events connected
with the brief but glorious existence of the Crystal Palace as may, we hope, prove
not altogether uninteresting to our readers. We shall also, without any attempt at
classification, occasionally describe such of the more remarkable objects as, in the rich
profusion that was everywhere scattered around, may have escaped our earlier attention.
Indeed, such was the apparent inexhaustibility of that wondrous collection that, on a re-
trospective glance, the mind despairs of comprehending it as a whole; but now that the
glorious vision has passed, now that the excitement has cooled, and visitors from foreign
parts and quiet country places have reached their homes; now that the splendid trophies
of human ingenuity and enterprise have returned to their respective owners, and that
vast array of wealth and grandeur is dispersed, we begin to faintly realise the magnitude
and purpose of the Great Industrial Bazaar. The Exhibition of the Industry of all
Nations having finally closed, we are enabled to look on its results as matters of history,
and recall the various events of those eventful months with a somewhat calmer and more
philosophic spirit. Two reflections arise out of the mass, which, above all the rest, will
read the world a great lesson. The first, that thousands of people, gathered from every
civilized corner of the earth, speaking different languages, brought up under different
modes of government, exercising different forms of religion, and putting faith in different
creeds, passed daily through the noble edifice, not only without accident or mischief,
but positively without inconvenience to themselves. The people were their own police,-
and the six millions went, and wondered, and departed in good-will and peace. .History
records no fact like this. Not less surprising or less suggestive, is the amazing thought
that seventeen thousand exhibitors, who, like the visitors, were of almost every nation
and kindred under heaven, entrusted the most valuable evidences of their wealth, their
skill, their industry, and their enterprise, to the guardianship of some fifty policemen,
armed with no better weapon than a wooden baton, and earning wages but little superior
to that of the day-labourer. Day after day and night after night passed on, and no added
force was requisite for the safety of the almost countless wealth deposited within those
fragile walls. One can scarcely comprehend the strength of so much confidence and
reliance on the law and order of Great Britain. In no other country of the world
could such an exhibition of the industrial arts have taken place. Do we say this boast-
ingly, or of a vain spirit ? No; rather let us humble ourselves before the Throne of
Mercy, and be thankful that it has been vouchsafed to us in our generation to lead the
peoples onward in the march of peaceful enterprises and industrial triumphs.
The exceeding popularity of the Exhibition eventually became its greatest wonder,
and many who went there to study the marvels of manufacturing skill could only gaze
at the multitudes which they attracted to Hyde-park. There is a magnetic power
about large masses gathered in one vast edifice, and swarming in happy excitement along
spacious avenues, -where their numbers tell upon the eye, which eclipses every other
spectacle, however splendid or interesting. Man is superior to the choicest examples of
his handiwork, and never were vast assemblages seen in a situation more imposing.
CHAPTER XIV.
GLEANINGS AND REMINISCENCES.
SECURITY OP PBOPEETY—AMAZING POPULARITY OP THE EXHIBITION—A EOMANCE IN THE BUSSIAN
DEPARTMENT—NOTABILIA—THE COLOSSAL CBOSS—THE GREAT COAL----ITALIAN WONDEB AND
AMERICAN INGENUITY—HOUSE OP CAOUTCHOUC—THE PALETOT-BOAT—THE BRASS TAILOR.
Under this head we shall, from time to time, record such incidental events connected
with the brief but glorious existence of the Crystal Palace as may, we hope, prove
not altogether uninteresting to our readers. We shall also, without any attempt at
classification, occasionally describe such of the more remarkable objects as, in the rich
profusion that was everywhere scattered around, may have escaped our earlier attention.
Indeed, such was the apparent inexhaustibility of that wondrous collection that, on a re-
trospective glance, the mind despairs of comprehending it as a whole; but now that the
glorious vision has passed, now that the excitement has cooled, and visitors from foreign
parts and quiet country places have reached their homes; now that the splendid trophies
of human ingenuity and enterprise have returned to their respective owners, and that
vast array of wealth and grandeur is dispersed, we begin to faintly realise the magnitude
and purpose of the Great Industrial Bazaar. The Exhibition of the Industry of all
Nations having finally closed, we are enabled to look on its results as matters of history,
and recall the various events of those eventful months with a somewhat calmer and more
philosophic spirit. Two reflections arise out of the mass, which, above all the rest, will
read the world a great lesson. The first, that thousands of people, gathered from every
civilized corner of the earth, speaking different languages, brought up under different
modes of government, exercising different forms of religion, and putting faith in different
creeds, passed daily through the noble edifice, not only without accident or mischief,
but positively without inconvenience to themselves. The people were their own police,-
and the six millions went, and wondered, and departed in good-will and peace. .History
records no fact like this. Not less surprising or less suggestive, is the amazing thought
that seventeen thousand exhibitors, who, like the visitors, were of almost every nation
and kindred under heaven, entrusted the most valuable evidences of their wealth, their
skill, their industry, and their enterprise, to the guardianship of some fifty policemen,
armed with no better weapon than a wooden baton, and earning wages but little superior
to that of the day-labourer. Day after day and night after night passed on, and no added
force was requisite for the safety of the almost countless wealth deposited within those
fragile walls. One can scarcely comprehend the strength of so much confidence and
reliance on the law and order of Great Britain. In no other country of the world
could such an exhibition of the industrial arts have taken place. Do we say this boast-
ingly, or of a vain spirit ? No; rather let us humble ourselves before the Throne of
Mercy, and be thankful that it has been vouchsafed to us in our generation to lead the
peoples onward in the march of peaceful enterprises and industrial triumphs.
The exceeding popularity of the Exhibition eventually became its greatest wonder,
and many who went there to study the marvels of manufacturing skill could only gaze
at the multitudes which they attracted to Hyde-park. There is a magnetic power
about large masses gathered in one vast edifice, and swarming in happy excitement along
spacious avenues, -where their numbers tell upon the eye, which eclipses every other
spectacle, however splendid or interesting. Man is superior to the choicest examples of
his handiwork, and never were vast assemblages seen in a situation more imposing.