oors
exhibition, sent their portable contributions in a fine steamer of
Swedish build, the largest ever sent to sea from the Venice of the
North, and not unworthy her namesake of the Adriatic. To compete in
two of its specialties with the cradle of the common school and the
steamship is a step that tells of the bold Scandinavian spirit.

The contemporaries and ancient foes of the Northmen, who overthrew the
Goths on land and checkmated the Vikings in the southern seas, have
a memorial in the beautiful Alhambra-like edifice of the Spanish
government. Spain has no architecture so distinctive as that of the
Moors, and the selection of their style for the present purpose was in
good taste. It lends itself well to this class of building, designed
especially for summer use; and many other examples of it will be found
upon the grounds. The Mohammedan arch is suited better to materials,
like wood and iron, which sustain themselves in part by cohesion, than
to stone, which depends upon gravitation alone. Although it stands
in stone in a long cordon of colonnades from the Ganges to the
Guadalquivir, the eye never quite reconciles itself to the suggestion
of untruth and feebleness in the recurved base of the arch. This
defect, however, is obtrusive only when the weight supported is great;
and the Moorish builders have generally avoided subjecting it to that
test.

[Illustration: PLAN OF EXHIBITION GROUNDS.]

Spain also has taken the liberty of widening the range of her
contributions. Soldiers, for instance, find no place in the official
classification of subjects for exhibition. She naturally thought it
worth while to show that the famous _infanteria_ of Alva, Gonsalvo,
and Cuesta "still lived." So she sends us specimens of the first, if
not just now the foremost, of all infantry. This microscopic invasion
of our soil by an armed force will be useful in reminding us of the
untiring tenacity which takes no note of time or of defeat, and which,
indifferent whether the struggle were of six, fifty, or seven hundred
years, wore down in succession the Saracens, the Flemings and the
French.

[Illustration: JAPANESE BUILDING.]

Samples in this particular walk of competition come likewise from the
battle-ground of Europe, Belgium sending a detachment of her troops
for police duty. We may add that the Centennial has brought back
the red-coats, a detachment of Royal Engineers, backed by part of
Inspector Bucket's men, doing duty in th