. The space
between the river and the main building is the only breathing-ground
on that side of the river, the only place large enough for a band to
play in the open air with allowance for a moderate crowd of listeners;
and even this portion has a far larger number of detached houses than
elegance or convenience of view would dictate. It was otherwise in
Philadelphia, where the ample room gave a sensation of freedom, and
the wide lawns, and even rustic hollows, permitted rambles, picnic
lunches and parties. Herein consists one of the most striking features
of dissimilarity between the Philadelphia and Paris expositions. The
former had plenty of room--the latter has insufficient. The former,
with the exception of the Main and Machinery Buildings, with a
few adjuncts, and the Art-Gallery, a little retired from the Main
Building, had its structures dotted over a wide expanse bordering its
lakes or along an encircling drive. For want of any other sufficient
opportunity to display the architecture of the countries assembled,
one of the interior facades of the Paris building has a series of
characteristic house-fronts looking upon an allee of but fifty feet in
width, which is dignified by the title of "The Street of Nations."

This tight packing has, however, one compensation: it has permitted a
degree of finish to the grounds far superior to what was possible at
Philadelphia. All the space inside the enclosure is admirably laid out
in walks and parterres, and the two open places between the principal
buildings and the Seine display a truly beautiful and picturesque
garden, with winding walks, ponds, fountains, artificial mounds with
clumps of trees and evergreens, grottos, statues, trickling rivulets
with ferns and mosses, cozy dells with little cascades, and the walks
in the more open spots bordered with charming flowers and plants of
rich leafage. The lawns are something marvellous in the speed with
which they have been created. Thousands of tons, as it seems, of rich
mould have been deposited and levelled or laid upon the swelling
tumuli which border the more open space, and the grass grows with
denseness and vigor under the stimulating treatment of phosphates, its
greenness mocking the emerald, and forming a most vivid setting for
the darker leaves of the tree-rhododendrons, whose globular masses of
bloom look like balls of fire.

After all, it is only justice to mention two things at Philadelphia
which render it memo