26
EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
believe, would have proved of value, and many of which have already been completed, and are now in our hands ready for publication. As a whole, however, the design could not be carried out. The cause of our failure to do all that we hoped to do in this respect, I shall hereafter refer to more fully. At present it is sufficient to say that we had relied upon finding at Vienna, upon the juries, in the national commission, or among the Americans drawn thither by the Exposition, many who were interested in specialties, and from whom suggestions and even reports might be procured. A few such there were, and to them we owe those portions of the general plan of our reports which we succeeded in procuring. ’ The result, however, constitutes at best but a series of fragments. As a rule, the material we had to work with was of the most discouraging description, from which no results worthy of preservation could be expected. Even where men of character and knowledge were found, in the great majority of cases they were either so disgusted with the disrepute into which America and Americans had fallen, that they refused to assume any labor in connection with the Exposition, or they remained at Vienna merely long enough to get an idea of what the Exposition contained, and then dismissed the whole subject as rapidly as possible from their minds. Two examples will illustrate the disappointments the commissioners had to encounter in this respect. The production of paper and glass is among the most promising industries of Massachusetts, and admits of great development. In both, the Vienna Exposition was peculiarly rich; and to the manufactured results of both artistic taste and technical skill have of late years contributed a greatly increased value. In spite of the most careful inquiry, however, we were unable to discover any one possessing a knowledge of the growth or present condition of these industries in Massachusetts, who would undertake to furnish a paper upon them. A formal and superficial report could of course have been procured with little trouble and at small expense. It was not, however, deemed advisable in securing the requisite quantity of reports to evince a too complete disregard of their quality.
Under these circumstances, long before the labors of the commission were brought to a close, the fact of a practical