Those who entered the palace rarely followed the logical order indicated by the catalogs. Coming into one of the radiating paths and approaching the center of the circumference, they went straight to what shone, to the mirrors of Saint-Gobain, to the porcelains of Sèvres, to the carpets of the Gobelins, to the crystals of Baccarat or from Bohemia. Then we admired the centerpieces of the Christofle house and the more discreet masterpieces of the Froment-Meurice house. What most deserved attention were the efforts towards new discoveries, towards new industrial applications.
The gallery of machines, the most exterior of all, the one that encompassed all the others, offered many subjects for observation. Alongside the old steam devices, other devices began to appear, obeying other driving forces, such as gas or compressed air. The extraction and exploitation machines, intended for the mines, had received improvements proportionate to the importance of the services which they would soon render. Very instructive, very suggestive also was the exhibition of the railways. This great industry of transport, which tended to seize the government of all the others, was then in full evolution. At first they had contented themselves with obtaining speed, and the public, the engineers themselves, delighted with the marvel realized, had stopped for a moment, as if resting on success. Now people were looking for new progress; thence, all sorts of standard wagons which would ensure the convenience of long journeys; from there, all sorts of devices or signals that would prevent accidents.
That if, from the gallery of machines, one passed into the gallery of raw materials, the aspect was unattractive and even quite severe. A new metal, light and resistant at the same time, attracted a lot of curiosity:it was aluminum. We also noticed the so-called petroleum oils, then little used, although known for quite a long time.
The following galleries and, in particular, that of clothing made it possible to follow the fate of all the textile industries.
The cotton industry still bore the marks of the crisis which, from 1861 to 1865, had weighed on it; hence, in certain parts of the Exhibition, products that are both less fine and less solid. The silk industry was also going through a somewhat difficult period. She felt affected by the disease of silkworms which desolated the whole Cevennes country. It was no less so by the fashion revolutions. People were beginning to recognize that these rich decorations, suitable for draperies or furnishings, were nothing but pretentious excess and perversion of taste for toilets. Moreover, the crinoline tended to disappear. This wise return had not failed to deal a rather severe blow to the Lyon manufactures, and, for the refinement or the variety of the creations, the Exposition du Champ-de-Mars would have had difficulty withstanding the comparison with its predecessor.
A series of galleries were devoted to cheap objects. Admittedly, the general appearance was, at first glance, that of a rather petty mess:moreover, it would not have been difficult to point out puerilities,
clumsiness . But these stains faded in the generous design that had presided over the organization. This exhibition found its complement in the popular model dwellings scattered throughout the park. Leading by example, the emperor had wanted to compete for the workers' houses and had ranked himself among the exhibitors.
Very close to the center of the circumference was the so-called gallery of the labor history. It was a real retrospective museum.
Along with the Labor History Gallery, the Fine Arts Gallery occupied the center of the palace. The choice was limited to works executed since January 1, 1855:so one sought in vain the great masters who had illustrated the previous eras. Even a little diminished, the French school still appeared first at the Exposition du Champ-de-Mars, with Hippolyte Flandrin, who had died shortly before, then with Gérôme, Meissonier, Cabanel, Théodore Rousseau, Corot, Millet, Breton . In sculpture, the superiority of our country was shown in the same way with Crauk, Carpeaux, M. Falguière, M. Guillaume.
The desired pretext was offered on July 3, 1870, by the candidacy of the Prince of Hohenzollern to the throne of Spain. To the French, it seemed that Prussia was updating traditional Habsburg politics. France, having rejected for dynastic reasons the candidacy of a Frenchman, the Duke of Montpensier