vious that the walls of but an
imperceptible minority of American homes would have the patriotic
faith and fervor of their occupants attested a century hence by these
capacious engravings, as that of a hundred years ago is by rusty
muskets and Cincinnati diplomas.

Still, the stock did not altogether go a-begging. The adjacent
State of New Jersey signed for the sum of $100,000, more remote New
Hampshire and Connecticut for $10,000 each, and little Delaware for
the same. Kansas gave $25,000. Five thousand were voted by the city
of Wilmington, and a thin fusillade of ten-dollar notes played slowly
from all points of the compass. This was kept up to the last, and with
some increase of activity, but it was a mere affair of pickets, that
could not be decisive.

Undismayed, the managers fought their way through fiscal brake and
brier, the open becoming more discernible with each effort, till in
February, 1876, Congress rounded off their strong box with the neat
capping of a million and a half. The entire cost of administration and
construction was thus covered, and the association distinguished from
all its predecessors by the assurance of being able on the opening day
to invite its thousands of guests to floors laden with the wealth of
the world, but with not an ounce of debt.

The assistance extended in another and indirect form by the States
collectively and individually was valuable. Congress appropriated
$505,000 for the erection of a building and the collection therein
of whatever the different Federal departments could command of the
curious and instructive. Massachusetts gave for a building of her own,
and for aiding the contribution of objects by her citizens, $50,000;
New York for a like purpose, $25,000; New Hampshire, Nevada and West
Virginia, $20,000 each; Ohio, $13,000; Illinois, $10,000; and
other States less sums. The States in all, and in both forms of
contribution, have given over four hundred thousand dollars--not
a fourth, strange to say, of the sums appropriated by foreign
governments in securing an adequate display of the resources, energy
and ingenuity of their peoples. It does not approach the donation of
Japan, and little more than doubles that of Spain. In explanation, it
may be alleged that our exhibitors, being less remote, will encounter
less expense, and a larger proportion of them will be able to face
their own expenses.

Great as is the value to a country of a free and facile interchange o