DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1312#0142
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 89
regarded by all who witnessed it with no ordinary degree of emotion. Feelings of
gratified curiosity, of national pride, and of enthusiasm at the public homage paid to
industrial pursuits, were tempered with regret that a spectacle so grand and unique should
ever have a termination. The ephemeral existence assigned to the Exhibition has all
along been fully recognised; yet it was impossible that so marvellous an undertaking
could run its brief career without gathering around it many attachments, sympathies,
and associations, which at the last it proved difficult to sever. Each person who had
visited the building had found therein some objects that, by appealing to his imagina-
tion or his tastes, had gradually grown into favourites. With a large proportion it was
the edifice itself which took the firmest hold upon their hearts. Its vastness, its sim-
plicity, and regularity of structural details, and a certain atmosphere of mysterious
grandeur which pervades it, are features which harmonise so perfectly with our character
as a people, that they must have left a strong impression. If the whole country does
not now protest against the wanton and aimless destruction of the Crystal Palace, we
shall be very much surprised. It is only when we are about to lose them, that we begin
to find the value of objects which have insensibly become endeared to us. As with the
building, so it was also with many of the works of art, the treasures of wealth, and the
examples of ingenuity which it contained. The'Amazon/ Van der Yen's ' Eve,' Strazza's
'Ishmael/ the two French bronzes, and many other contributions of the highest
artistic merit, were, for the last time, to be gazed at by the admiring multitude. AH
who had wondered over the chef-d'ceuvres of Sevres and the Gobelins, who, in Tunis,
had spent pleasant hours in examining everything, from the richly-brocaded dresses to
the tent hung with wild beasts' skins; or who in India had feasted their eyes on the
splendid evidences of an ancient civilisation—all had to take a final farewell of what had
interested and moved them so strongly.
" The mechanical wonders of the place were about to be withdrawn from public view.
The card-making machine, the circular wool-comb, Appold's pump, and Whit worth's tools,
were to be seen no longer. The gratuitous distribution of envelopes and soda-water was
to cease, and the alarm bedsteads were to do duty before admiring groups of chambermaids
and cooks no longer. Even the time of that king of diamonds, the Koh-i-Noor, was up;
and, after having attracted more curiosity and inflicted more disappointment than any-
thing of its size ever did since the world was created, the period had arrived when it
must cease to shine its best before the public. Under such circumstances, and with the
mingled feelings which they could not help suggesting, the crowds of half-crown visitors
bent their way to the Crystal Palace on Saturday. The weather was splendid, and the sun
looked down warmly upon the only great building in the world, which did not inhospitably
exclude his rays. At nine o'clock visitors began to arrive, and they continued to pour in
steadily almost until the closing-bells had commenced to ring. All who came remained to
the last, and, although the numbers present were not so great as some had anticipated,
they rose higher than on any previous half-crown day, and were amply sufficient to make
the"death scene of the Exhibition worthy of it's unprecedented popularity. There were
53,061 visitors altogether, and, as might have been expected, they busied themselves during
the entire day in examining once more all the objects which on former occasions had
chiefly attracted their interest. Some few were strangers taking at one view their first and
last look of a spectacle which in grandeur they may not hope soon to see equalled. There
was also a slight sprinkling of the humbler orders present, and among them a band of hop-
pickers, with wreaths of the plant around their hats. In the main, however, the assem-
blage belonged to the middle and wealthier classes, and consisted of habitues of the
Exhibition, or, at least, of people who had been there several times before. Faces that had
not been seen in the interior since the first month after the opening were recognised
regarded by all who witnessed it with no ordinary degree of emotion. Feelings of
gratified curiosity, of national pride, and of enthusiasm at the public homage paid to
industrial pursuits, were tempered with regret that a spectacle so grand and unique should
ever have a termination. The ephemeral existence assigned to the Exhibition has all
along been fully recognised; yet it was impossible that so marvellous an undertaking
could run its brief career without gathering around it many attachments, sympathies,
and associations, which at the last it proved difficult to sever. Each person who had
visited the building had found therein some objects that, by appealing to his imagina-
tion or his tastes, had gradually grown into favourites. With a large proportion it was
the edifice itself which took the firmest hold upon their hearts. Its vastness, its sim-
plicity, and regularity of structural details, and a certain atmosphere of mysterious
grandeur which pervades it, are features which harmonise so perfectly with our character
as a people, that they must have left a strong impression. If the whole country does
not now protest against the wanton and aimless destruction of the Crystal Palace, we
shall be very much surprised. It is only when we are about to lose them, that we begin
to find the value of objects which have insensibly become endeared to us. As with the
building, so it was also with many of the works of art, the treasures of wealth, and the
examples of ingenuity which it contained. The'Amazon/ Van der Yen's ' Eve,' Strazza's
'Ishmael/ the two French bronzes, and many other contributions of the highest
artistic merit, were, for the last time, to be gazed at by the admiring multitude. AH
who had wondered over the chef-d'ceuvres of Sevres and the Gobelins, who, in Tunis,
had spent pleasant hours in examining everything, from the richly-brocaded dresses to
the tent hung with wild beasts' skins; or who in India had feasted their eyes on the
splendid evidences of an ancient civilisation—all had to take a final farewell of what had
interested and moved them so strongly.
" The mechanical wonders of the place were about to be withdrawn from public view.
The card-making machine, the circular wool-comb, Appold's pump, and Whit worth's tools,
were to be seen no longer. The gratuitous distribution of envelopes and soda-water was
to cease, and the alarm bedsteads were to do duty before admiring groups of chambermaids
and cooks no longer. Even the time of that king of diamonds, the Koh-i-Noor, was up;
and, after having attracted more curiosity and inflicted more disappointment than any-
thing of its size ever did since the world was created, the period had arrived when it
must cease to shine its best before the public. Under such circumstances, and with the
mingled feelings which they could not help suggesting, the crowds of half-crown visitors
bent their way to the Crystal Palace on Saturday. The weather was splendid, and the sun
looked down warmly upon the only great building in the world, which did not inhospitably
exclude his rays. At nine o'clock visitors began to arrive, and they continued to pour in
steadily almost until the closing-bells had commenced to ring. All who came remained to
the last, and, although the numbers present were not so great as some had anticipated,
they rose higher than on any previous half-crown day, and were amply sufficient to make
the"death scene of the Exhibition worthy of it's unprecedented popularity. There were
53,061 visitors altogether, and, as might have been expected, they busied themselves during
the entire day in examining once more all the objects which on former occasions had
chiefly attracted their interest. Some few were strangers taking at one view their first and
last look of a spectacle which in grandeur they may not hope soon to see equalled. There
was also a slight sprinkling of the humbler orders present, and among them a band of hop-
pickers, with wreaths of the plant around their hats. In the main, however, the assem-
blage belonged to the middle and wealthier classes, and consisted of habitues of the
Exhibition, or, at least, of people who had been there several times before. Faces that had
not been seen in the interior since the first month after the opening were recognised