Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/198

214 to its inmates, nothing was wanting. Every necessary for the kitchen, the workshop, the nursery the sitting room, were abundantly supplied. The fine arts had contributed their share. The home of the artisan might enjoy the delights of music at a reasonable cost. Appliances were also provided for the cultivation and beautifying of the garden in one section of the Exhibition, devoted alone to every species of garden tools. For the Catholic Belgium is, as in many other respects, united to its sundered sister-state, the Protestant Holland, by its love of flowers, and the cultivation of gardens. Industry, art, and science, vied with each other in the production of whatever could ennoble the condition of the poor working man, and elevate his earthly life.

A similar display had been made at the Great Exhibition in Paris in 1855, but then merely as an adjunct to it, and in a building apart from the halls of the splendid Exhibition. Now the whole circumstances were changed. The building, separate from and inferior to the rest, had now taken the foremost place. Cinderella had become the princess. And now from all parts came hastening hither by railway, people of the working-class, to behold the new spectacle. In one day alone, it was visited by ten thousand working-people. The greater number of articles there exhibited were sold before the Exhibition was closed.

One circumstance I must mention. Amongst all the representatives from so many different countries to this Congress for the outward well-being of the poor, I did not see a single minister of the gospel.