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Show I Cfee Paris Exposition I 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- Father Malone's Elaboration on the Great Fake. 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4-4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4-4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4-4- (Copyrighted, 1900, by the Intermountain Intermoun-tain Catholic.) Paris, France, June 16, 1900. The opinions of the Exposition which I expressed ex-pressed in former letters to The Intermountain Inter-mountain Catholic have been accentuated accentu-ated rather than moderated by a greater great-er knowledge of the subject. The Exposition is not finished; indeed, in-deed, .from present appearances it is safe to assume that when the gates close on the first day of next November, Novem-ber, many things about it will still be in a state of chaos. Today, over two months since the opening, acres of floor space are closed to the public. Speaking of this deplorable situation, the Paris edition of the New York Times today remarks: I Inaugural festivities will doubtless ! continue at the Exposition until the gates are finally closed and Paris becomes be-comes Parisian once again, and resigns itself to its yearly tale of the winter's sleet and snow. Today, a full two months since the-opening. Prince Mohammed Mo-hammed Ali Pasha, the brother of Egypt's Kkedive, inaugurated the Egyptian section. And then they say the French are slow. It is a fact that outside of the Fine Arts building scarcely a single section is finished at the present time. Americans are paying more attention to the sights in and about Paris than they are to the Exposition, with which they are keenly disappointed. The hordes of hotel keepers, shopmen, charlatans and fakirs with which Paris abounds are greatly chagrined at the wisdom which Americans display in dealing with the average French "robber" "rob-ber" for this all thanks to the American Ameri-can newspaper men, who' warned the people through their respective papers of what was in store for them in Paris, should they permit themselves to be imposed upon. The gracious "Pardon. Monsieur," the condescending "Sil vous plait," and the obsequious "Merci" of the everyday highwaymen here fails to soften the icy stare of the alert American, whose purse strings are being loosed for the necessaries neces-saries of life, but for no more. A great splurge is made over the fact that tickets of admission to the Exposition Expo-sition can be had for a dime, while at Chicago the same were never obtainable obtain-able for less than half a dollar. This sounds very well, but if one desires to see the whole show it will cost considerably consid-erably more. The American papers arriving here by the latest mails show that their correspondents in . Paris have looked upon this whole affair in about the same spirit as I have. The New York Tribune arriving today contains the following, which I heartily indorse: Robert B. Roosevelt, uncle of Governor Gover-nor Roosevelt, fresh from the Paris exposition, ex-position, arrived home on the Holland line steamer Statendam today. "I am not a cynic ana am usuauji - cctniijr pleased," said Mr. Roosevelt when seen at his residence, 57 Fifth avenue, "but that exposition is the worst fake and fraud that was ever perpetrated on mankind. "The papers were right when they said recently that the American building build-ing at the exposition was unsafe. It is unsafe. I don't care what is said to the contrary, and I want to tell the people peo-ple of New York that it is. I was there on the opening day and know of my own personal knowledge that not half of the people who wanted to go into it were allowed. The building was not more than half full at any time and even then it was not safe. If all the people w-ho were turned back had got in at once, the buiding, in my opinion, opin-ion, would have fallen. "I do not blame Commissioner Peck. I don't know who is responsible for the building being weak. "Unless you have been to the Exposition Exposi-tion you can't understand how Americans Ameri-cans are being robbed in Paris this summer. Really, it is the duty of some one to warn Americans to keep away from the Exposition, and I am going to take up that duty. "In the first place, it is worse than a Bowery not as interesting as one of the most uninteresting shows on the Bowery. Everything about it is a fake. I have read lots in the papers about the wonderful spy glass that snowed the moon. I went to see this spy glass and found it pointed to a magic lantern. I detected the fake at once, but I went on just as did all others oth-ers and paid another franc to see another an-other fake. , "Before I went to 'the exposition calculated that a person could see the whole show for 300 francs. I discovered discov-ered before I left that It cost just 1,500 francs to see every fake. "The art galleries are worth seeing, and the American exhibits are as good as any. In fact, I can say from an unprejudiced un-prejudiced viewpoint,.; that they are even better than those of an other country except France, and tlfey are as good as those from France. Art critics crit-ics to whom I tp'ked say that America i3 improving in art while France is deteriorating." de-teriorating." When Senator Jones called attention in the senate to the lavish and apparently appar-ently irresponsible expenditure of money mon-ey by Mr. Peck, the latter replied that Senator Jones' charges were made for political effect solely. Senator Jones had good reason to call Mr. Peck to an accounting. Mr. Roosevelt's charges cannot be dismissed by Mr. Peck with the curtness that characterized his reference ref-erence to Senator Jones' remarks, but must be met some time, fairly and squarely, by the commissioner general, to whom unlimited power seems to have been given, yet whose accomplish- j ments are so keenly disappointing to all who have witnessed them. Since my former letter some improvements improve-ments have been made in the United States pavilion, not the least noticeable notice-able of which has been the removal of that wretched oil painting of President Presi-dent McKinley, which has made way for a somewhat less hideous likeness in th3 form of a bust. All the flags are Still herfV whlVh nrnmnto n ...it... Frenchman to observe, the other day, that cotton was the chief ijustry of the United States. To be sure, many of the individual American exhibits are magnificent in every detail. The art exhibit is entirely entire-ly creditable, and many displays in industrial in-dustrial arts are attracting deserved attention. The number of awards for excellence, however, will, I fear, be disappointing to Americans, not, as is rumored here, because of a conspiracy against American Amer-ican manufacturers, but because of a super-excellence among other nations. With the exception of the United States, the commissioners from all other countries have so arranged their respective buildings as to make deep and lasting impressions upon the people visiting them. The arts, sciences and Industries of the different countries are so represented in the respective national na-tional pavilions as to give the visitor an adequate idea of their advancement, resources and possibilities as to attract the widest possible attention. In this respect commissioners from foreign countries have manifested wisdom and appreciation which misht well have been emulated by the United States, whose national pavilion is typical of nothing. In this particular method of attracting attract-ing attention Mexico is one of the most prominent of the nations at the Exposition, Ex-position, but I will reserve the Mexican Mexi-can exhibit for a future letter. Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting meet-ing my old friend and classmate, Rev. Thomas F. Lillis, pastor of St. Patrick's Pat-rick's Church, Kansas City, Mo. Father Lillis arrived in Paris last Monday, and will make a hurried visit to Ireland, returning to the United States July 1. Today Father Lillis and myself paid a visit to the cemetery of Picpus at Vincennes. This little cemetery is enclosed en-closed within the convent grounds of a religious order and is an exceedingly interesting place to visit. The cemetery ceme-tery is small, not occupying more than thfc half of a city block. It contains the tombs of members of some of tlni oldest families in France. In one corner cor-ner is the "Cimetiere des Guillotines," where 1,300 victims of the revolution were executed at the "Barriere du Trone." Among these are the poet Andre Chenier, the chemist Lavoisier, General Beauhamacis and many other representatives of innumerable noble families of France. But what makes this little cemetery of Picpus of unusual interest to Americans Amer-icans is the fact that it contains the tonb of Lafayette, whose memory tie American people will ever hold in grateful. remembrance and highest esteem. es-teem. As we entered the gate of the cemetery, which is surrounded by a wall perhaps twenty feet high, we witnessed wit-nessed a Picture lone indeed to be rp- membered. Over the grave of Lafayette Lafay-ette the American flag moved gently in the quiet breeze, seeming to breathe peace and rest from its stars and stripes. A number of white-robed Sisters, Sis-ters, surrounded by a score of pupils gowned in black, knelt by the grave of America's benefactor, uttering prayers to God for peace eternal to his soul. We joined our prayers with the Sisters beneath the flag of our country, unfurled un-furled in a foreign land, emblematical of a nation's gratitude. I believe 1 understood better today what Archbishop Arch-bishop Hughes meant when he spoke of his feelings on first beholding the American flag. What he prayed to be the destiny of that flag, so did I pray today. The great archbishop said: "I can even now remember my reflections on first beholding the American flag. It never crossed my mir.d that a time might come when that flag, the emblem em-blem of the freedom just alluded to, ' ? should be divided by apportioning its stars to the citizens of native birth, and its stripes only as the portion of the foreigner. I was, of course, but young and inexpmenced, and yet, even recent events have not diminished my confidence in that ensign of civil and religious liberty. It is possible I was mistaken, but still I cling to the delusion, de-lusion, if it be one. and as I trusted to that flag on a nation's aith, I think it more likely that its stripes will disappear disap-pear altogether: and that before it shall be employed as an instrument of bad faith towards the foreigners of every land, the white portions 'ill blush Int.i crimson and the glorious stars alon3 j will remain." ' THOMAS H. MALONE. |