Wallis was obliged to run to the street, the smoke nearly suffocating him. The view from the street and neighboring buildings was very grand, and thousands of persons thronged to the scene of conflagration.” The Institute mentioned was the well-known American Institute, of New York, which, after the close of the World’s Fair proper, had occupied the Palace with its annual fair. It was reckoned that the total loss by the fire was a million dollars, but the list of the chief exhibitors and their individual losses, published next day, now looks absurdly meagre. And thus passed out of existence the first Universal Exhibition of Art and Industry ever held on the American Continent. When the next was held, this was practically a new nation. The greatest war of modern times had been fought and the National Constitution amended in many important respects. Political and social changes of startling character were visible on every hand. Material growth and development had been achieved on a stupendous scale. Great inventions had been made. Every circumstance, indeed, rendered it fitting and necessary that the second World’s Fair should immeasurably exceed in all respects that which we have just described. When the World’s Fair of 1853 was opened in New York it was evident that the American nation was nearing some great and important changes. When the Crystal Palace was burned in 1858, the nation was on the very verge of the “impending conflict” which had been long foreseen. The war came. At its close America was a new nation. Its political, social, and industrial systems were transformed. Its growth and expansion received an enormous impetus. The influx of population and of ideas and arts from other countries was many-fold greater than ever before. And thus it approached the one-hundredth anniversary of its independence, and preparations were made to commemorate the time with a second Universal Exhibition.