THE CENTENNIAL OF 1876.

TO THE credit of having first conceived and suggested the idea of a grand Centennial celebration of the birth day of the United States, many individuals, and not a few public journals, have laid claim. This was the fact also with regard to the birth-place of Homer, several cities, it is said, having asserted their right to the honor. But, in the case of the Centennial, as is frequent in astronomical discovery, it is probable that the same idea occurred to many minds at or about the same period of time, and, as commonly happens, floated into the newspapers, where it became

manipulated into shape through the exigencies of journalism and thence impressed itself upon certain individuals possess ing influence, political or social, from which point it is easy to trace its course.

In the beginning the idea of an International Exposition was ridiculed, as a suggestion whose carrying out could not add any weight to our Centennial display. It was argued that to attempt to compete with foreign nations in a representative exhibition would be to expose ourselves to the danger of being laughed at for our pains.

The next objection which was raised contemplated the refusal on the part of foreign governments to combine with