The ladies' and gentlemen's toilet rooms also are in that part of the building.
The architect has laid especial stress upon the architectural ornamentation of the building. Upon the apex of the arch over the main vestibule a great group will be placed, representing Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders, and supported in his work by the allegorical figures of Steam and Electricity.
This group, which is at the present moment being executed in copper by Houwald, in Brunswick, is the work of a Frankfort sculptor, Herr Gustav Herold. In the arch itself, near the clock, we see two allegorical female figures, over life size, in a sitting posture, modeled by Prof. Gustav Kaupert in Frankfort, and representing Day and Night. In front of the pillars supporting the arch, two other female sitting figures, also above life size, will be perceived. These were modeled by Professor Calandrelli in Berlin, and represent Agriculture and Commerce, and in the niches on both sides there are the statues of Navigation and Industry, the work of the sculptor Hundrieser, of Berlin. The two side portals of the entrance hall are surmounted by figures of boys, having a height 2.40 meters; on the left the commercial traveler and traveling student, modelled by Rudolph Eckhardt in Frankfort; on the right the traveler for pleasure and the emigrant, the works of the sculptor Scholl, of Mayence. The groups of the corner pavilions, allegoric representations of machine building and engineering, were modeled by Professor Max Wiese, of Hanau. The figures, like the whole building, are of Heibronn sandstone. Either wing has a vestibule leading to the middle perron of the great hall. They resemble in style the architecture of the front of the middle building, only their arches are smaller. Here also we meet rich architectural ornamentation on the pillars in the great arch. The ornaments consist, as in the former case, of allegorical figures of boys. They have a height of 2.20 meters, and represent Agriculture and Art Industry on the one side and Art and the Retail Trade of Frankfort on the other side. The two former figures are the work of the sculptor A. Brutt, of Berlin; the two latter were modeled by Hermann Becker, of Frankfort. The side facades are very long, but of simpler style than the front of the building, and connect with the perron halls, which on their part end in semi-towers. There the offices of the administrations are located. The main vestibule leads directly to the middle of the perron in the large hall, which consists of three naves, and into which enter the trains of six railway lines, each separated from the other by perrons. The perron hall has a length of 186 meters and a width of 168 meters. The height of the naves, with their low arched roofs, rises in the center to 28.5 meters. Tunnels connect the different railway lines, in order to assist the rapid transit of through trains. The port also benefits by these tunnels. The inside front of the main vestibule is very richly decorated. In its center a large clock is situated, and on both sides of it are colossal allegorical figures modeled by F. Kruger, of Frankfort, and representing the hours of Morning and Evening, while on the pillars we perceive large male figures in a sitting posture, representing the Defense of the Country and Mining, the work of Herr Keller, of Frankfort. The pillars are crowned by groups of sculpture, representing the Honeymoon Travel and Instruction in Traveling, the one modeled by A. C. Rumpf, and the other by Friedrich Schierholz, of Frankfort.
The whole edifice is fire proof, scarcely any wood having been used in its erection. The hall as well as the other parts of the building are heated by steam and lighted by electricity. The whole cost of the structure amounted to about $8,500,000.—Illustrirte Zeitung.
THE COMMERCIAL EXCHANGE, PARIS.
At the beginning of the year 1881, the committee on finances of the common council of Paris received a petition from the central committee of the syndical chambers asking for the establishment of an official exchange for merchandise and commercial transactions for the especial use of Parisian commerce. To this petition was added a project of organization which proposed the appropriation of the grain market, with a clearing of the approaches. The Paris chamber of commerce had likewise been for a long time contemplating the establishment of a merchandise exchange, and was studying the practical means of organizing it.
Called upon to decide, the common council, at its session of May 28, 1881, decreed that an official merchandise exchange for the commerce of Paris should be organized, and that the grain market, or any other place considered favorable by the administration, should be appropriated.