10
EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
parison, as at the last Paris Exposition, but they seemed to be so placed that both comparison and contrast were impossible. Not only a guide, but a very experienced and competent guide,—one who had made a special study of a class of objects,—was an absolute necessity to any one who sought to examine all that the Exposition contained of objects of that class. Both morally and physically, the search was made as wearisome and exhausting as was possible. The investigator was equally oppressed with the number and variety of the exhibits discovered, and by the distance traversed in the journey of discovery. The method of arrangement thus became a practical matter, detracting most seriously from the general popularity of the enterprise; for the great mass of those, the presence of whom decides the success or failure of such undertakings,—the travellers and the buyers,—are brought together from motives of curiosity or in search of amusement. One principal object always, therefore, to be kept in view should be to render the work of examination as little fatiguing as possible. At Vienna it was a severe and unattractive labor. The Exposition, therefore, speedily became unpopular with the general public, and very few, who were not compelled to, paid it either long or frequent visits.
This deficiency as regards detail was in fact the point of weakness throughout the undertaking. The conception was very large and fine, perhaps too much so, but it was not sustained by any corresponding faculty for organization. A few men, indeed it might practically be said that one man, attempted to supervise everything and to do everything. Subordinates were mere ciphers. But to secure the success of an enterprise of this description, a good organizing and executive mind is even more indispensable than a large conceiving mind. Indeed, it is not difficult to imagine, or to procure designs for the largest buildings or the most perfect collection of industrial products which the world has yet seen, and by a sufficiently lavish expenditure of money these conceptions may be more or less fully realized. The difficulty is in producing, with.the least degree of friction and at the smallest cost, practical and harmonious results. In neither of these respects could the Vienna Exposition be regarded as a success. Indeed, few more perilous industrial undertakings could be