[Illustration:  Women’s pavilion.]

Place aux dames! First among the independent structures we must note the Women’s Pavilion.  After having well earned, by raising a large contribution to the Centennial stock, the privilege of expending thirty-five thousand dollars of their own on a separate receptacle of products of the female head and hand, the ladies selected for that a sufficiently modest site and design.  To the trait of modesty we cannot say that the building has failed to add that of grace.  In this respect, however, it does not strike us as coming up to the standard attained by some of its neighbors.  The low-arched roofs give it somewhat the appearance of a union railway-depot; and one is apt to look for the emergence from the main entrances rather of locomotives than of ladies.  The interior, however is more light and airy in effect than the exterior.  But “pretty is that pretty does” was a favorite maxim of the Revolutionary dames; and the remarkable energy shown by their fair descendants, under the presidency of Mrs. E. D. Gillespie, in carrying through this undertaking will impart to it new force.  The rule is quite in harmony with it that mere frippery should be avoided within and without, and the purely decorative architect excluded with Miss McFlimsey.  The ground-plan is very simple, blending the cross and the square.  Nave and transept are identical in dimensions, each being sixty-four by one hundred and ninety-two feet.  The four angles formed by their intersection are nearly filled out by as many sheds forty-eight feet square.  A cupola springs from the centre to a height of ninety feet.  An area of thirty thousand square feet strikes us as a modest allowance for the adequate display of female industry.  For the filling of the vast cubic space between floor and roof the managers are fain to invoke the aid of an orchestra of the sterner sex to keep it in a state of chronic saturation with music.

[Illustration:  United states government building.]

Reciprocity, however, obtains here.  The votaries of harmony naturally seek the patronage of woman.  Her territorial empire has accordingly far overstepped the narrow bounds we have been viewing.  The Women’s Centennial Music Hall on Broad street is designed for all the musical performances connected with the exposition save those forming part of the opening ceremonies.  This is assuming for it a large office, and we should have expected so bold a calculation to be backed by floor-room for more than the forty-five hundred hearers the hall is able to seat.  A garden into which it opens will accommodate an additional number, and may suggest souvenirs of al-fresco concerts to European travelers.