arouse in the minds of the beholders a more lively understanding of the history and development of our city, and, while delighting the eye, will convey an important lesson in the very best and most effective way -that is, unconsciously. A population like ours is greatly in need of some powerful stimulation of this kind to weld together all its heterogeneous elements. But let it not be supposed that this is the only end to be attained; such brilliant spectacles are a good in themselves and none will appreciate this more thoroughly than those whose life is. merely a sad and monotonous struggle for their daily bread. On this occasion the poorest and the richest will share equally in the enjoyment of the various splendid and artistic spectacles.

Of the special exhibitions which have been organized by the Art and Historical Exhibits Committee, the most important is the magnificent collection of masterpieces by Dutch painters which will be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at Fifth Avenue and Eighty-second Street. Never before have so many splendid examples of Dutch art been gathered together in the United States; indeed, the exhibition as a whole has never been rivaled even in Europe. Here may be seen no less than thirty-five Rembrandts, a larger number than exist in any permanent collection, except that of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Then there are nineteen portraits by Franz Hals, who is only inferior to Rembrandt among the Dutch portraitists, and five specimens of the work of Vermeer van Delft, whose pictures are extremely rare, there being only thirty authentic examples extant. Besides the works of these artists there are fine and characteristic pictures by Jacob and Salomon Ruysdael, Cuyp, Hobbema, Metsu, Van Ostade and many others who were contemporaries of Henry Hudson. These works come from the finest private collections in the United States and many years will pass before an equally favorable opportunity will be afforded for the study of Dutch pictorial art.

The special exhibition also embraces a large and valuable collection of furniture, silver, pewter, porcelain and glass, produced in this country between 1625 and 1815, the year of Fulton's death; and there is also a fine collection of paintings by American artists born before 1800, including pictures by Woolaston, Copley, West, Allston, Peale, Stuart, Trumbull, Fulton, Doughty, etc.

We have all read of the Indians who were settled on Manhattan Island before the arrival of Henry Hudson, but few realize how many. relics of these aborigines have been found here, especially at the upper end of the island. A large and valuable collection of these relics may be seen in the American Museum of Natural History, at Central Park West and Seventy-seventh Street, and a classic monograph, written by Dr. Clark Wissler, can be obtained at the same place, and will enable the visitor to understand the significance of the various relics. The

manners and customs of the Indians of Long Island are represented by an important exhibit in the Brooklyn Institute. Independent of any museum, and of ethnological interest, will be the 125 Indians, men, women and children, from New York reservations, who will participate in the landing of the Half Moon, and in several of the parades.

The early history of New York and the beginnings of steam navigation will be illustrated by an exhibition of views, paintings, manuscripts, books, etc., shown in the Lenox branch of the New York Public Library, detailed information in regard to the exhibits being offered in a special catalogue. The New York Historical Society, in its new building, on Central Park West, corner of Seventy-seventh Street, just below the American Museum of Natural History, exhibits many interesting pictures and relics relating to Robert Fulton. At the National Arts Club, No. 15 Gramercy Park, the special collection is entitled "Three Hundred Years of New York," and the visitor will see a large number of pictures and other objects illustrating the development of the city and its rapid and marvelous growth. A collection of oil paintings and old manuscripts concerning the early history of New York is exhibited by the Genealogical and Biographical

Society, No. 226 West Fifty-seventh Street, and rare manuscripts and books on the same subject may be seen at the College of the City of New York, St. Nicholas Avenue and 138th Street.

As is the case with all great inventions, steam navigation was not the work of one man alone, although Robert Fulton was the first to apply it consequently and permanently. Epoch-making inventions have usually been the work of a group of men pursuing the same end, often independently of each other, but the credit and glory of success is reserved for that one of them who possesses the energy and persistence requisite for ultimate triumph. Before Fulton built the Clermont, John Fitch had constructed a boat operated and propelled by steam, and John Stevens had already sailed a steamboat, his Phoenix being undoubtedly the first steamboat to sail on the ocean; but Fulton applied the ideas of Fitch and improved upon them to such an extent that he is rightly regarded as the parent of steam navigation. Aided by the advice of Chancellor Livingston, he secured a sort of monopoly in steamship building and his name will always be remembered among those of the great benefactors of humanity.

The portrait of Fulton by Benjamin West is justly regarded as one

on January 20, 1783, reached Philadelphia, by way of Cadiz, Spain, on the twenty-seventh of March.

The flora of Manhattan Island and its vicinity, in the time of Henry Hudson, is shown in the New York Botanical Garden, where these specimens are indicated by the letter "H," and in the parks of Brooklyn and Queens boroughs, a special sign in this case indicating the trees and shrubs which grew here in 1609. It is difficult for those who see this city of stone, brick-and concrete to imagine its appearance in Henry Hudson's time, when stretches of meadow land alternated with groves or small forests of trees, over the greater part of the territory, while the upper part of Manhattan Island was traversed with rocky ridges rising in some cases to a considerable height above tide-water. Except in the outlying portions of the city, all these irregularities have been effaced, but the large parks, especially Morningside Park and a portion of Central Park above 100th Street, still show much of the primitive conditions.

Such a transformation makes the old pictures of Manhattan Island seem unreal, nevertheless it should be a consolation for the present landowners to know that the land was duly and legally acquired by the first Dutch settlers, and although Peter Minuit may have made a good bargain, the title is clear and without stain.

Those who wish to form some idea of the fauna of this region at the time of Hudson's arrival should visit the New York Zoological Garden, where the specimens in question are marked by the flag of the HudsonFulton Celebration. In the New York Aquarium appropriate signs have also been placed on the tanks containing fish indigenous to the Hudson River and the waters surrounding New York.

For many special exhibitions catalogues have been prepared at considerable expense. The price at which they are sold scarcely covers the cost of printing them from the plates. A first edition of 5,000 to 10,000 copies has been printed, but when this supply is exhausted new editions of, say, 2,000 copies will be issued from time to time as occasion requires. One of the leading features of the celebration will be a grand banquet of 2,000 persons in the magnificent new dining-hall of the Hotel Astor. This will be the greatest fine banquet ever given in this country, and the use of the hall has been held back to have this the initial banquet. It is true that in point of size it can not be compared with the dinner given to 22,000 maires of the French communes, at the opening of the Paris Exposition in 1889. Some idea of the gigantic proportions of this function may be given by the fact that the plates used in serving the dinner, if placed on top of each other, would have made a pile two miles in height. However, this was merely a dinner, while the function in the Hotel Astor is a grand banquet faultless in every detail.

In Brooklyn the social side of the celebration will find expression in