THE VIKING SHIP.
1. Appearance when discovered.
2. After restoration.
3. Rudder, shield, and dragon-head.
The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building was of such unprecedented size that its ground area was more than thirty acres, and its gallery space forty-four acres. Its roof structure surpassed any ever made, and it was the largest building in the world. So vast indeed was it that it is worth our while to impress it upon our minds by several comparisons. Any church in Chicago, which contains numerous large ones, can be placed in the vestibule of St. Peter's at Rome, but the latter is only
one-third of the size of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. The Coliseum of ancient Rome would seat 80,000 persons, but in the central hall of the Chicago building, which is a single room without a supporting column, 75,000 people could be comfortably seated, while the building itself would seat 300,000 persons. The iron and steel in the roof would build two Brooklyn bridges, and it required eleven acres of glass to provide for the skylights. In its construction 17,000,000 feet of lumber, 13,000,000 pounds of steel, and 2,000,000 pounds of iron were used, with a total cost of $1,700,000. The ground plan was twice the size of the pyramid of Cheops.
We have recorded enough, however, to give some idea of the wealth of treasures exhibited at Chicago in 1893, and which drew visitors from all parts of the world. It is not worth while to refer at length to the display of the foreign countries, for those who had the pleasure of
looking upon them will always carry their pleasant memory, while those who were deprived of the privilege can gain no adequate idea from the most extended description. The Midway Plaisance was a unique feature, with its Hungarian Orpheum, Lapland Village, Dahomey Village, the captive balloon, Chinese Village, Austrian Village, Cyclorama of the volcano of Kilauea, the Algerian and Tunisian Village, the Ferris Wheel, the never-to-be-forgotten street in Cairo, the numerous natives, and other scenes that were not always on the highest plane of morality.
THE GRAND WORK BY THE STATES.