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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The Paris Exposition through Review Eyes.
A. S. CAPEHART, DIRECTOR OF THE LIBERAL ARTS AND CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES DEPARTMENT,
THE REVIEW TALKS WITH THE CHIEF OF THE DEPARTMENT WHEREIN THE MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS ARE DISPLAYED — A COMPARISON WITH THE CHICAGO FAIR.
[Special to The Review. |
Paris, France, Aug. 9, 1900.
Mr. Alexander Capehart, director of the
Liberal Arts and Chemical Industries, is
one of the busiest amongst the many busy
heads of the different sections belonging
to the United States at the Paris Exposi-
tion, for he has the entire responsibility of
two most important classes: i. e., the Lib-
eral Arts section, where the pianos are
shown; also the Chemical Industries, and
the amount of work that, as director of
these important divisions, is entailed upon
the man who occupies the post, can only
be understood by those who have seen
something of the magnitude of these un-
dertakings.
Mr. Capehart's office was until last week
at 20 Avenue Rapp, where the American
Commissioner General has a handsome
suite of rooms turned into offices for the
use of the many different interests there
represented; but now Mr. Capehart has
transferred his office to the Exposition itself.
Thus he is always on the spot, should his
advice as director be required or his assist-
ance as the most experienced head be asked
for. This experience has not only been
gained at the Paris Exposition, but dates
back to the World's Fair at Chicago, where
Mr. Capehart took an important position
among those who were the mainspring of
the exhibition.
This office of the director of the Liberal
Arts is to be found in the United States
section bearing that name, and is contained
in a well situated gallery just above, and
at the back of the Musical Instrument sec-
tion; the gallery is reached by a flight of
stairs just opposite the Ludwig piano ex-
hibit ; and it is here that your correspond-
ent was received by Mr. Capehart one day
recently, when the thermometer stood at
some exceptionally high figure "in the
shade;" but as this section is rather a
favored one as to position and coolness, the
effects of the' heat were not too apparent.
A desk which would have been full to
overflowing, were it not for the methodical
accuracy which placed every letter and
paper, or jurors' report in the various
pigeon holes prepared for them; a couple
of type-writing machines with their opera-
tors, to one of whom an important paper
was being dictated by the director; such is
the present office of Mr. Capehart, who de-
clared upon receiving your correspondent's
card, asking could he spare five minutes to
the "Music Trade Review," that for the
" Review " he could even manage possibly
to spare ten, although he had yet so much
on hand, that no day, not even the dog
days of mid-summer, were half long enough
to enable him to accomplish all that
he would like to do each day. And this
was no matter of surprise when the direc-
tor added that at the time of speaking he
had the papers of thirteen juries on his
hands, all of which had to receive individ-
ual attention and the utmost care,to insure
perfect accuracy in every detail.
Asked whether there was any compari-
son between the arrangements made at the
World's Fair in '93 and the present Expo-
sition, Mr. Capehart expressed the senti-
ment that there was a certain amount of
difficulty in making a comparison, as every
arrangement was made so differently. For
Paris he had found his work much ham-
pered by the many unnecessary restrictions
placed upon every effort, and also by the
amount of "red-tape" formality with
which every act was surrounded. A faint
smile appeared upon the director's features
as he explained that upon his arrival he
ALEXANDER S. CAPEHART.
considered the facade of the Liberal Arts
section was some six inches too low. His
explanation of this to the French authori-
ties met with the reply that he would find
it very difficult to get the necessary author-
ization which would enable the facade of
the United States section to be raised these
necessary six inches. Unfortunately Mr.
Capehart found this reply was only too
correct, and after waiting and mak-
ing any number of applications for
this permit which never came, Mr. Cape-
hart acted as though he were at Chicago:
one evening he got together a good staff
of experienced workmen, and all the re-
quisite implements, and set men to work
under his own active personal supervision,
with the result that when the next sun rose
over the gardens of the exposition that
particular facade was higher by six inches:
the usual applications were still sent in,
and finally some weeks afterwards permis-
sion was given by the French authorities
to do a work which American enterprise
under an energetic head had accomplished
in the course of a night! When one thinks
of the disadvantage it would have been to
every exhibitor in this section, (especially
to exhibitors of musical instruments) if this
work had only been undertaken when the
permit arrived, when nearly every stand
was arranged and the section all in order,
an idea can be formed of the immense ser-
vice this promptitude on the part of Mr.
Capehart rendered to every one concerned.
Mr. Capehart explained that his idea
when arranging these two sections, was to
form from the materials under his hands,
not a series of disconnected exhibits, but a
sequence of ideas. Leaving his desk,
and asking your correspondent to step
to the other side of the gallery (from the
edge of which the whole of these two sec-
tions can be seen), Mr. Capehart pointed
out the different exhibits, and showed how
each exhibit lead up to the next. The musi-
cal instruments, for instance, were so
arranged that the visitor found first of all
the various sections of a piano, the action,
keys, strings, etc., before he came to the
exhibit of the perfected piano, organ or
stringed instrument. With the exhibits of
another department, a complete observatory
had been formed ; an observatory in which
no single article was missing, from the
most elementary to the most finished; still
another department, that of photography,
had this same principle applied to it, for it
commenced with the different parts of a
camera and its lens, and went through
every stage of photographic development
up to the finished portrait photographs,
than which no other nation sends a fine
collection.
The chemical and surgical exhibits in
the neighboring section are all carried out
on this same plan of continuity, and by
their very arrangement explain their uses
in a way quite impossible, had not this
thought and care been lavished upon their
disposal.
Returning to his desk Mr. Capehart men-
tioned the fact that the Exposition as an Ex-
position was as well managed by the French
authorities as anyone could desire, provided
that those dealing with them knew just how
to work themselves, but he considered that
in Chicago much more was done for the
comfort and amusement of the visitor than
is being done at this Exhibition, where even
the exhibitors do not study so much to
please or attract visitors, as they do to make
their exhibit attractive to the jury by whose
decision a medal of sorts may or may not
come their way.
This perhaps is the " cloue " of the pres-
ent Exposition; it is the jury whose visit is
eagerly looked forward to as holding great
possibilities in store, while the great tide
of visitors may remain or leave as pleases
their fancy. Certainly sufficient has been
done in every section to make a visit from
the general public a matter of that same
public gaining more information on every
subject than would be possible to gain in
any other way; and of no sections is this
last remark more true than of the two
under the supervision and direction of Mr.
Capehart, who considers that the music
trade of the States is worthily represented
by the firms who have sent some samples
of their manufactured goods to the present
Exposition.
Lilian King.