Nothing did more to destroy this noxious belief than the prompt conclusion of the Chicago architects that they could not build the Fair themselves, and that they must call in the best help the nation could give them. This conclusion, the eminently business-like manner in which this best help was selected and the work portioned out among it and the best of the native builders and financiers, the unlimited energy of the West which provided a treasury, an army of men, horses, and the great aid of practical Science, and, in a lesser degree, the interest and aid which the rest of the country gradually began to furnish, - all these secured the success of the Fair. These, and a sort of flame of courage and inspiration, a souffle, the like of which had never blown over Lake Michigan before and before which all impossibilities melted. No wonder that the Art Director, and all the other visitors with him, held up their hands and vowed that the architects had set a magnificent pace, and that the painters and the sculptors must bestir themselves or see their particular branches of the "allied arts" hopelessly left behind in these United States in the present year of the Lord.

It is said that as far back as 1870 the New York landscape architects, Messrs. Olmsted and Vaux, being called into consultation by the Chicago municipal authorities concerning the Chicago parks, urged the advisability of incorporating into any scheme of these pleasure grounds the beauties and advantages of the one natural feature that the city possessed, the lake front. They even urged the desirability of not resting content with a view of the alke from the shore but of bringing some of it into the land and making it an integral feature of the park system, in other words, of giving, to the South Park, a lagoon or canals. When Mr. Olmsted and Mr. Codman were again consulted, at an early stage of the discussion concerning the best site for the World's Fair, they reverted to their idea of twenty years before, and succeeded in having their plan adopted, a plan which would have been impracticable if the choice had fallen on the alternative site in Washington Park or on the still more restricted locality known as the Lake Front. In fact, it has even been claimed by a recent writer on the "beauty" of the Fair, - to be [IX] sure it is an Eastern writer - that "its great artistic success has been achieved because, at the very outset, before any of its buildings were planned, Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted was commissioned to lay out the site, and determine their positions and the character of the means of access to them." A very large part of the "landscape architecture" of Jackson Park was carried out under the direction of his young partner, Mr. Codman, during Mr. Olmsted's absence in Europe, and the recent death of this young man was as great a loss to the Exposition as that of Mr. Root, the able assistant of Mr. Burnham, the Chief of Construction. The two indispensable factors in the wonderful result obtained - if they may be limited to two - were, probably, Mr. Olmsted's plan, as executed mainly by Mr. Codman, and Mr. Burnham's administration.

As the beginnings of great things are always interesting a condensed chronology of the Columbian Exposition may be worthy of preservation. The credit for having been the very first to conceive of such a celebration is generally given to Mr. T. W. Zaremba, M. D., a citizen of Mexico, to whom the idea came while visiting the Philadelphia Centennial in September, 1876. It was not until six years later, in November, 1882, that he gave public expression to this great conception, in the Cooper Institute, New York, in the presence of Peter Cooper, John C. Fremont, and others. Consequently, his claim to priority has been disputed, by Col. Peyton, of Haddonfield, N. J., who gave utterance to it "a number of years ago," by Mr. Hinton Rowan Helper, of St. Louis, in 1879, and probably by others. Mr. Helper proposed a "matchlessly grand World's Columbian Exposition," to be held in St. Louis, in 1892; Doctor Zaremba's plan contemplated a monument which should rest on a foundation of stones given by all the civilized nations of the earth. "The monument was to have a subterranean air-tight compartment, in which would be deposited a history of all nations represented at the dedication of the monument." In June, 1884, the doctor sent to the diplomatic representatives of foreign powers in Washington an invitation to a conference to consider the celebration of the fourth centenary of America's discovery by Columbus by a World's Fair in Mexico. In the following year he was in Chicago and conferred with a number of the citizens of that city on his project, and in November received from the Secretary of State of Illinois a license to organize "The Chicago Columbian Centenary World's Fair and Exposition Company." Nothing definite was effected, though in the same year a resolution advocating the holding in Chicago [x] of such an international exposition was presented at a meeting of the directors of the Inter-State Exposition Company, and a newspaper, the Chicago "Herald," offered to denote $5000 in support of such a project. In 1886 the American Historical Society was in session at Washington and Doctor Zaremba brought his Columbus monument scheme before that body. A committee was appointed to confer with the President of the United States with the hope that he would call the attention of Congress to the best manner of celebrating the fourth centenary of America's discovery. Following this action the city of Philadelphia sent a committee to Washington for the purpose of getting an appropriation for such a celebration, to be held in that city. This is said to have been the first intimation of a World's Fair to celebrate America's discovery by Columbus to be held in this country.

The movement to secure the celebration for Chicago had meanwhile been continued, and in 1885 a committee was appointed from the Commercial Union League and the Iroquois Club of that city to take action on the matter and report. Interest in the scheme was also increasing in other parts of the country, and early in 1886 a Board of Promotion, to secure Congressional action in the matter, was organized in New England. July 31st, of the same year, Senator Hoar. of Massachusetts, introduced a resolution for the appointment of a joint Congressional committee of fourteen to consider the advisability of holding such a fair, - the Senator's plan contemplating the erection of permanent and temporary buildings for this purpose in Washington City. But, three years later, July 22, 1889, the Mayor of Chicago brought the matter before a meeting of the city council and a resolution was passed authorizing him to appoint a committee of one hundred citizens to induce Congress to locate the World's Fair in that city. It was this action which practically settled the question of location. The committee appointed by the Mayor went vigorously to work, "ringing" resolutions were adopted, and in August a license was granted by the Secretary of State of Illinois to DeWitt C. Cregier, the Mayor, and others to open subscription for a corporation having this object in view. December 19th, the first World's Fair bill was introduced in the United States Senate by Senator Cullom, of Illinois, and in the following January battle was joined before the Senate committee by delegations from the various cities contending for this honor, with the result that on February 24, 1890, Congress voted the Fair to Chicago.

It has been claimed, with considerable show of reason, that the Government, as though repenting this award, immediately proceeded to hamper it with unexpected and unfair conditions and has never since shown any warmer sentiments towards the enterprise than chilly indifference. "The only thing volunteered by Congress," says one distinguished chronicler, "has been an investigation, and its only anxiety has been to escape expense." The theory of the whole enterprise was, that the city chosen as site for the Fair should furnish a suitable locality and buildings, satisfactory to the Government's Commission, and then conduct the mere business administration of running the Exposition. The whole general control, the scope of the Fair, all communications with foreign nations and with exhibitors, an all matters of award, were to be regulated by the National Commission. Under these conditions, the sum to be furnished by the city was fixed at five million dollars, but after Chicago had been chosen the representatives of one of the unsuccessful cities happened to say that, if their city had been given the Fair, it would have contributed ten million. Whereupon the Congressional committee decided that Chicago must promise to furnish this amount, double that which Congress itself had adopted. The representatives of the Western city, thus brought to face an unforeseen condition, [xi] telegraphed home for support and then went before the committe and valiantly promised to raise the extra five millions. "How will you do it?" said the doubting Congressmen, cross-examining the Chicago spokesman; "We will raise another million by subscription," said he, "and then we will pledge the gate receipts and borrow the other four from our people. We will get it somehow, for we have promised." As will be seen later, these enterprising people not only raised the extra five millions, but added several more, and moreover took off the hands of the vacillating National Commission pretty much all the management of the whole Exposition. In addition to the "investigation" above alluded to, Congress finally volunteered, after much pressure, the sum of two and a half million silver dollars, coupled with the very unnecessary condition that the Fair must not be opened to the public on Sundays.

Energetic measures were immediately taken, in Chicago, to raise this capital stock; in April the subscribers elected a Board of Directors, and the latter, a President, and in the same month the President of the United States signed the measure locating the enterprise in Chicago and Congress constituted the "World's Columbian Exposition, to consist of two Commissioners appointed by the President from each State and Territory, of eight Commissioners-at-large, and two from the District of Columbia, each with alternates." In June a special session of the Illinois State Legislature authorized the city of Chicago to increase its bonded indebtedness to $5,000,000 in aid of the Fair, and the capital of the "World's Columbian Exposition" was increased to $10,000,000. The National Commissioners held their first meeting in Chicago in this month, and on the first of July the vexed question of site was decided in favor of a double one, at Jackson Park and the Lake Front, separated by a distance of several miles. This double site was, however, soon abandoned, and Messrs. F. L. Olmsted & Co., elected consulting landscape architects on August 20th, recommended the concentration of the whole Exposition at Jackson Park and the adjacent tract under the agreement that, when the Exposition was over and the buildings removed, the grounds should be left in a condition well adapted for conversion into a permanent public park for the city.

A Director-General, George R. Davis, was elected in September, and before the close of the year the organization of the Department of Construction was perfected by the appointment of D. H. Burnham as chief, and of J. W. Root as consulting, architect, and the foreign nations were officially notified and invited to participate by proclamation of the President of the United States. The first annual meeting [xii] of the stockholders was held on April 4, 1891, and a new Board of Directors elected, and on July 2d ground was broken for the first building at Jackson Park, that of Mines and Mining. The second annual meeting of the stockholders was held in April, 1892, and on August 12th a Council of Administration was elected and invested with all the powers of the two governing bodies in all matters except appropriations of money. The Congressional Investigating Committee visited Chicago in January, and on the strength of its report of the work then done and under way the additional appropriation of $2,500,000, with liberal extra provisions for specific purposes named in the bill, was voted in the following summer. This was just half the sum asked for by the Exposition authorities, on the ground that the enlargement of the classification lists of exhibits by the National Commission had so widened the general scope of the Fair that the ten millions provided by Chicago was inadequate. The original Government appropriation of $1,500,000 was set apart for the expenses of the National Commission and for the construction of the Government buildings. However, by the ingenious expedient of holding the five million silver half-dollars a "souvenir coins," and disposing of them at a dollar each, the Exposition authorities contrived to double their grudging donation.

The twenty-eight thousand stockholders of the World's Columbian Exposition, organized under the laws of the State of Illinois, had subscribed, up to the date of the formal dedication of the Fair in October, 1892, for $5,838,800; the city of Chicago issued bonds to the amount of $5,000,000, and the Exposition, to the amount of $4,000,000. The total expenditures up to the dedication in October were given as $9,829,777.17; up to the opening of the Fair, May 1, 1893, they were estimated at $18,750,000, and the total receipts up to the close of the display have been estimated at $34,500,000, which would leave a handsome sum to divide among the stockholders. The total amount of appropriations by foreign nations was about $6,000,000; by the various States and Territories, $3,447,000, and from other sources, $1,325,000.

To secure the interest of European nations in the enterprise an extended tour through England and the Continent was made by a number of the National Commissioners in the summer of 1891, and a new department in World's Fairs was organized in the previous December, that of Publicity and Promotion. To this bureau was given the task of advertising the Columbian Exposition over the world, by every possible means, and so thoroughly was this effected that returning travelers from the most improbably distances, the far East, South American, and the Sahara, report having seen everywhere the well-known color print showing a bird's eye view of the grounds. All the translating of the Exposition is also confided to this Department, the chief of which, Major Moses P. Handy. had acquired the necessary qualifications for his difficult functions as a journalist in New York and Philadelphia. The result of all this multitudinous enterprise, engineering, finance, labor, and advertising being that the great show was really opened on the appointed first of May - in spite of the most perverse and determined opposition on the part of the winter weather - in a very creditable and respectable state of completion. [xiii]

JACKSON PARK, in its southern portion, was a flat, dreary piece of unimproved ground stretching along the lake shore, seven miles from the City Hall, consisting mostly of a series of low sand dunes thrown up successively by the lake and of the swampy flat swales between them. There were no trees of any size, and no background excepting the sky and the lake. A locality more different than that of the Paris Exposition of 1889, or even than that of the Philadelphia one of 1876, it would be difficult to imagine. But in this unpromising bit of suburbs the landscape architects saw great possibilities, and the whole "White City" rose in their mental vision where to the uninspired was only dumping ground. The stunted dwarfish trees which maintained themselves in this thin soil against the lake winds were protected and made the most of; the superficial soil, a light, friable loam, was carefully peeled off and stored for future use; dredges hollowed out the low places to make beds for the lagoon and the canals, and the excavated earth made higher the solid ground; a thick growth of reedy aquatic plants, that would not mind an occasional submergence as the waters of the lake rose and fell, was provided to fringe the edges of these water ways, and was judiciously provided with a low background of foliage to lead up to the bigger but still stunted masses of oaks and willows. All this skillful making smile the waste places was only preparatory to the great question of who was to build the buildings of this new Venice; where were the architects who could design a dozen impromptu palaces, all keeping their places in the ensemble, all different, all admirable and worth of the occasion, and all colossal. And the Committee on Grounds and Buildings, following the recommendations of a memorial drawn up by their professional advisers, resolved to select boldly a certain number of the representative architects of the whole nations, and entrust the palaces to them, one to each. This memorial was drawn up by Mr. Burnham and signed by himself, Mr. Root., Messrs. Olmsted and Co. and A. Gottlieb, Consulting Engineer.

[xiv] In the emergency that confronted the Honorable Committee, as it expressed its, "several methods of procedure suggest themselves; First. The selection of one man to whom the designing of the designing of the entire work should be entrusted. Second. Competition made free to the whole architectural profession. Third. Competition among a selected few. Fourth. Direct selection." Each of these, the usual methods of proceeding in such important cases, was examined at some length, its advantages and disadvantages discussed, and the first three rejected in favor of the fourth.

"Far better than any of the methods seems to be the last. This is to select a certain number of architects, choosing each man for such work as would be most nearly parallel with his best achievements; these architects to meet in conference, and become masters of all the elements of the problems to be solved, and agree upon some general scheme of procedure. The preliminary studies resulting from this to be compared and freely discussed in a subsequent conference, and, with the assistance of such suggestions as your advisers might make, to be brought into a harmonious whole.

"The honor conferred upon those selected would create in their minds a disposition to place the artistic quality of their work in advance of the mere question of emulation; while the emulation begotten in a rivalry so dignified and friendly could not fail to be productive of a result which would stand before the world as the best fruit of American civilization."

Seldom has a more truthful professional document been penned. The Chicago architects, whom Mr. Burnham might be supposed to represent, went still farther in their liberality towards these outsiders. All the important buildings around the great plaza, or cour d'honneur, of the Exposition, with one exception, were given to architects from the East or farther West, while only the less stately and ceremonial ones, in the outlying regions as it were, were left for the local builders. It is comforting to be able to add that this virtue has not passed unrewarded and that, in addition to the merely human qualities of magnanimity and unselfishness - with their attendant rewards - there have been displayed by these native architects certain eminent professional abilities which have made their outlying and subsidiary palaces to be reckoned among the most interesting and distinguished of the whole Exposition. The various more important buildings were thus apportioned: The Administration Building, in the centre of the western end of the great court, to Richard M. Hunt, of New York; the Palace of Mechanic Arts, or Machinery Hall, as it is more generally known, immediately to the south of this, to Messrs. McKim, Mead and White, of New York; the immense building devoted to Manufactures and the Liberal Arts, north of the great basin and stretching along the lake front for a third of a mile, to George B. Post, of New York; the two buildings of Electricity and Mines and Mining, north of the open plaza in which the Administration Building stands, to Messrs. Van Brunt and Howe, of Kansas City, Mo., and S. S. Beman, of Chicago, respectively. All these edifices, being near to each other and having a mutual dependence upon each other, and being moreover influenced by the formal and ceremonial [xv] character of the great plaza which they enclose, were of necessity constrained to adopt a uniform and ceremonious style, - "a style evolved from, and expressive of, the highest civilizations in history," says Mr. Van Brunt. Their respective architects even felt it advisable to adopt a common unit of dimensions and to agree among themselves, among other things, that their main cornices should not be higher than sixty feet and that the module of proportions for the composition of their facades should be a bay not exceeding twenty-five feet in width. The general architectural style which they adopted was the Roman classic, "correctly and loyally interpreted, but permitting variations suggested not only by the Italians, but by the other masters of the Renaissance."

CHICAGO, being situated at the end of Lake Michigan, has that inland ocean nearly east of her, and not to the north, so that the shore line of Jackson Park tends north-west and south-east. The grand basin and the plaza of honor being set at right angles to the lake shore, do not lie directly east and west, but for convenience they are generally spoken of as if they did. All the buildings already named, that of Transportation, the Government Building and the Fisheries Pavilion, are placed either at right angles or parallel with the axis of the basin and the plaza. Those north and west of the lagoon escape from this requirement, though the larger ones, as the Horticultural and Woman's Buildings, the Art Gallery and the Illinois State Building, are set either parallel or at right angles with each other. The northern portion of this enclosure was the improved part of the park before the days of the Exposition, and here the Lagoon, escaping from the formality of the basin and canals, wanders off to the north and the east and determines by the lines of its shores the general locality of the surrounding buildings. West and north of that devoted to Mines and Mining is the important one of the department of Transportation, in the designing and exterior coloring of which the architect, Mr. Louis H. Sullivan of Chicago, felt himself at liberty to make a radical departure from the stately architecture around the Administration Building. Due north of this and looking across the lesser arm of the Lagoon to the pleasant "Wooded Isle" on which the Japanese have set up their glittering little palaces, is the handsome Horticultural Building, by Mr. W. L. B. Jenney of Chicago - a sort of apotheosis of conservatories, and in the open space between Transportation and Horticulture, the Choral Building, erected in the last days before the opening of the Fair by Mr. Francis M. Whitehouse of Chicago. The sacrifice of this open space, one of the few quadrangles left on the grounds, and the consequent masking of the handsome end of the Horticultural Building, was a somewhat sad necessity. Mr. Whitehouse, in the original plans, was assigend a group of buildings on the pier, where the great Peristyle now stands, and where there were to be only a semicircle of thirteen columns for the thirteen original States.

Due north again of the Horticultural house of glass, and separated by the cheerful little pavilions of "Puck," the newspaper, and the Red Star line of steamships, is the Woman's Building, the architect of which, Miss Sophia G. Hayden of Boston, was selected by a competition among her professional sisters. North of this the western branch of the Lagoon [xvi] takes a bold curve to the eastward around the northern end of the Wooded Isle. and on the northern shore of the peninsula thus formed stands the Illinois State Building. much the largest of any of those erected by the States and whose lofty dome is one of the most prominent objects in the Exposition grounds, - too prominent, it is sometimes thought. The architects are Boyington and Co. of Chicago. On the extreme northern shore of the Lagoon, facing south and surveying almost the whole of this long festival prospect, is the Art Gallery, with its two extensive annexes "refused" behind it, to east and west, like the wings of an army. The planners of the Exposition grounds did the Fine Arts department the honor to minimize for it, more than for any other, the danger of conflagration, and Mr. Atwood's classic building is thus not only comparatively isolated from combustible neighbors but is made more nearly fireproof in its brick walls than any other. Behind it and to the westward are the smaller State buildings, and to the south-east those of various foreign nations; due south-east is the picturesque and interesting Fisheries Building, established on the same long axis, three-quarters of a mile long, that traverses the U. S. Government Building south of it, the great Manufactures and Liberal Arts, and the Agriculture and its annex, still going south, across the great basin. The pavilion of the Fish and Fisheries exhibit was designed by Mr. Henry Ives Cobb, of Chicago, and the Government Building by Mr. J. W. Edbrooke, the supervising architect of the Treasury Department. The former is considered by the non-professional visitors as the most successful, and the latter by the visiting architects as among the least successful, of all.

East of the Fisheries, jutting out into the lake, is a pier and breakwater, safely anchored under the shelter of which, to the bottom of the lake, is the brick and stone counterfeit of one of the modern cruisers, "typifying the unsinkableness, if not the speed, of the new Yankee cruisers." Due west, back of the Woman's Building. stretches the "Midway Plaisance," connecting Jackson Park with Washington Park, and devoted to what are irreverently termed the "side-shows" of the Fair, - the Irish, Dutch, [xvii] Swedish and other villages, the rue du Caire, the Turkish mosque, the "Ferris Wheel," etc., etc., etc. Here will be found many of the most profitable and amusing ethnological exhibits of the Fair, though Professor Putnam's great American Ethnological Department is located at the other extremity of the grounds, on the shores of another inland lagoon, south-east of the Agricultural Annex. Banished also to this southern back yard, as it were, are various other undecorative and unaesthetic exhibits, the Dairy, the Forestry, the immense Live Stock exhibit, and, a little farther north, on the edge of the lake, the great Krupp gun and the convent of La Rabida. Here there is an inlet of the lake, across which the ancient La Rabida and the modern Casino look at each other, the latter being the southern wing or extremity of Mr. Atwood's imposing Peristyle, in the centre of which is situated the grand, ceremonial entrance from the water ways outside to the plaza of honor.

The Exposition has two state entrances, one for visitors arriving by water and one for those who come by land. Those of the latter who leave their trains in the great terminal railway depot back of the Administration Building, where there are some thirty tracks, under the train shed or perron, come out in the western end of the great court, where the first object that meets their eyes is Mr. Hunt's stately dome, towering far above them and flanked at every angle by Mr. Bitter's fluttering and triumphal groups. To the right is the facade of the Machinery Hall and to their left that of the Mines Building, as they pass eastward, either under the porches of the Administration Building or around it, they see the great basin stretching out in front of them towards the distant lake whose blue waters may be discerned between the white columns of the Peristyle. Directly in front of them is Mr. MacMonnie's very tall, triumphant galley of American, preceded by marine outriders and propelled by long oars, bearing down through much splashing of fountains upon Mr. French's colossal figure of the Republic at the other end of the basin. The latter, however, awaits the onset in archaic immobility and does not even lower her upraised arms to tip over with her long liberty pole the aggressive galley when it comes too near. Behind her back, in the centre of the architectural screen of the Peristyle, is the triumphal arch which serves as the state entrance to the Exposition for the seafaring visitors; on either side of this handsome arch are groups emblematic of the Genius of Discovery, and on the summit, Columbus himself, in an antique chariot or quadriga, drawn by four horses led by youthful Victories, comes to see his own Fair. On each side of him ride handsome youths, on champing horses, bearing aloft little banners, - as may be seen in the headpiece to the Introduction to this work. This distinguished and spirited group, one of the most satisfactory, as it one of the most difficult, of the entire Exposition, is the work of two sculptors, Messrs. French and Potter. The former executed the human figures, and the latter, the equine ones.

It is said that at no former International Exhibition have anything like such pains been taken to give the visitor on entering such a coup d'oeil, to impress him so greatly at first sight. This novel feature of the general plan is due to Messrs. Olmsted and Codman, and was cordially seconded by the Chief of Construction and the various consulting architects.

A smaller screen of columns also serves to connect the buildings of Machinery and Agriculture, at the bottom of the minor court and canal which run southward from the main basin, separating the two buildings. This screen of corridors has a solid basement, pierced with arches, and also a triumphal arch in the centre, which serves as an entrance to the amphitheatre and offices of the Live Stock [xviii] exhibit. At the southern end of this canal rises an obelisk, at the base of which spouts a fountain, guarded by recumbent lions, something like those of Trafalgar Square.

The Peristyle is one of the most stately and pompous architectural features of the whole Exposition, and its double rows of columns with the arch in the centre and the Music Hall and Casino at the northern and southern extremities is much more imposing than anything of the kind ever before seen in America. Its general design is taken from that of Bernini in front of St. Peter's at Rome. In the original plans of the Exposition grounds it was intended to have the long pier which runs out in the lake from the back of the Casino terminate in a long transverse one, like the letter T, with a restaurant, a pharos, and other ornamental and useful features at the seaward extremity, but this was afterwards abandoned. The restaurants, fortunately, were not all suppressed, and an almost sufficient number of these and other useful asylums for weary visitors will be found. The handsome water ways, canals, lagoons and basins, which penetrate into the heart of the Exposition, and add so much to its variety and beauty, have the disadvantage of almost doing away with "short cuts" from one building to another, and thus greatly increasing the trials of leg-weary humanity. Some of this disadvantage is remedied by the number of floating craft of all kinds, gondolas, express boats, boats by the hour or by the trip, family boats, etc., etc., which cover these waters, and even venture out on the ocean-like lake outside.

Like many other permanent architectural institutions, modern World's Fairs, owe to that very useful building material called "staff" a heavy debt. Without this combination of plaster-of-Paris, cement and water, with manilla, jute, cocoanut or other fibres, or bagging, the Chicago Exposition would have been a very different thing indeed. To have constructed these immense and numerous buildings of any available stone, brick or other recognized permanent material, would have beggared any Finance Committee that could have been formed, and would, moreover, have required an impossible length of time. The directors of the Exposition early recognized the absolute necessity of this substitute for everything and imported from Europe a whole corps of trained workers, with their plant, materials and experience. It has been used for many years not only on occasions like the present, but for so-called stucco-work, in Europe, South America, and elsewhere. In Jackson Park, this imposing realization of an architect's dream has been, as has been said, sketched in iron and washed in with plaster. The latter, as here used, can be molded into any shape, sawed and nailed like wood, and painted of any hue. When left to itself, or merely coated with oil, it has a beautiful mellow whiteness, softer in tone than marble, and as valuable for sculptural as for building effects. One enterprising decorator, when confronted with the problem of painting some of these interminable buildings, conceived the happy plan of merely sending his workmen up on the cornices with sundry gallons and barrels of linseed oil to be simply poured down the walls. The lazy fluid, collecting in the hollows and draining off the more exposed surfaces, left only the minimum of supplementary hand work to be done to convert the walls into beautiful specimens of old ivory. A few months' exposure to the weather imparts to this material a most deceptive and stone-like appearance of age and stability. Moreover, it endured the frosts of the winter - and the frost of the shores of Lake Michigan is like death, or like iron - surprising well. In the spring, the few failures and flakings off to be noticed were readily repaired by knocking off the damaged portion, down to the lath-work underneath, and putting on a neat patch of new material.

After the architects, the call upon the sculptors of the country was the most unexampled and the most severs, and very much of the festival and ornate appearance of the Exposition as a whole is due to the courage and intelligence with which this call was answered. Such a multitude of decorative, architectural figures was never before dreamed of in this Republic, and, it may well be said, could not possibly have been furnished twenty years ago. But the number of young men, pupils of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts or of the Art Students' League, who had lately embarked in this most waiting of art-trades, was sufficient to furnish all the workers necessary even without the recognized masters, such [xix] as Messrs. Ward and St. Gaudens. The latter, indeed, furnished the invaluable aid of his counsel and suggestions, and the graceful figure of Diana which turns on the summit of the dome of the Agricultural Building, but this lady had already been completed, many months before, for the tower of the Madison Square Garden in New York City. From this elevation she had been dismounted and transported westward to make room for a successor somewhat less loft in stature. As was but inevitable, in this multitude of sculptural figures to complete the architecture of the Fair, many of them heroic or colossal in scale and all of them hurried, there are but too visible suggestions and repetitions of other Expositions and other decorations, but these are but a small portion of the whole. After the landscape architects and the architects, the sculptors may be said to come next in order of merit at Jackson Park, the painters, whose work we will examine later, being much less in evidence outside the Art Galleries, and having been handicapped by various disadvantageous circumstances.

It is not necessary, in this work, to repeat at length any of the al-but universal and overwhelming chorus of acclamation with which the general aspect, the general effect, of this carefully planned array of buildings, terraces, fountains, basins, foliage and banners has been received, not only by the visitors in the flesh but by the organs of the press, at home and abroad. Not a visitor to the grounds, scarcely a writer in any of the already innumerable descriptions, but has contributed to this chorus of surprise and praise. If ever any fact of aesthetic import might be considered to be safely established by the emphatic testimony of both the unlearned and the cognoscenti it would be this, that in its outward aspect the Columbian Exposition is a well-ordered and most admirably executed work of art. Nevertheless, as is not generally known, there have been opinions and expert opinions, uttered to the contrary effect, and that we may not grow one-sided in our readings, nor become wearied with too much laudation, it may be well to stop for a moment to hear one of these dissidents. The Marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat, in a report to the Societe des Ingenieurs Civils a few months ago, thus controverted the general opinions:---[xx]

That which strikes one most on arriving at Jackson Park is the entire absence of a plan d'ensemble[!]. Different buildings have with one another no visible correlation and do not even seem to form parts of the same whole. Involuntarily the though flits back to the banks of the Seine and the regularity of the plan developed in 1889 at the Trocadero and on the Champ de Mars. It is impossible to avoid comparing these two exhibitions without finding how they symbolize the different genius of the two races. Like France herself, the French exhibition was compact, symmetrical, and built according to the majestic ordonnance of a general plan conceived in advance ... The Exhibition of 1889, where the general views were so skillfully managed, took possession of the beholder by the majesty and symmetry of the whole more than by the finish and perfection of details. It was the work of an ancient race on ancient soil, the accomplishment of the continuous labor of succeeding generations; it was the creation of a nation having that surety and absoluteness of artistic perception which can be given only by the long traditions of a civilized past solidly compacted by the lapsing of centuries. It was, in fine, the type of debatable ideal, but yet an ideal proceeding from certain preconceived and invariable principles... Like the United States themselves, on the other hand, the American Exhibition is gigantic, and it is not built according to a rigid and uniform general plan. On the contrary, the plans leaves so considerable a portion to each one's whim that it is hardly visible, and one would be tempted to deny the existence of any. Such as this is in our day the grand American Republic ... From certain points of view, the United States now constitute a nation of peoples rather than a single and homogeneous exhibition."

This expert opinion might be more invulnerable if it did not cover so much debatable territory. It has been thought, in politics, that the United States constitute as "united a people" in the matter of running a general government as France itself, notwithstanding the much greater size of the territory, and, as we have seen, the Chicago Exhibition was built in accordance with "a general plan conceived in advance." The ensemble of the Paris Exhibition of 1889 was undoubtedly imposing, and the comparatively restricted space enabled the visitor to take in very readily the general plan and to get his bearings. The Champ de Mars formed practically a rectangle, of which three sides were closed by buildings, - at the back, the great main building and the Gallery of Machines, on the right the Palace of the Fine Arts and on the left, that of the Liberal Arts; in the centre of the open side, towards the Seine, was planted the Tour Eiffel, under whose gigantic arches the visitor passed toward the Bridge of Jena and the hill of the Trocadero rising on the opposite bank and crowned with its long curved line of palace. All around this stately enclosure was felt the stir and the presence of a great capital, - an environment which is missing at Jackson Park, owing to the distance from the heart of the city. The buildings of the Paris Exposition, moreover, presented a much greater variety of form, substance [xxi] and color than those of Jackson Park, - though whether this contributed to the general artistic effect may be doubted. The two flanking palaces of the Fine and the Liberal arts were evidently built of glass and iron with curtain walls of staff, the large building at the back was so overloaded with ornament on its main facade as to render it difficult to determine the real material, the Tour Eiffel was plainly of pure metal, and the Trocadero, of stone. Moreover, the sense of stability and age with which the visitor was impressed constituted an element not to be neglected in his enjoyment, - the bridge, the tower and the palace on the hill had been there before or were there to stay, while at Jackson Park this pleasure is constantly dampened by his consciousness of the fleeting nature of the show. The Trocadero hill was a natural feature which the park on the lake lacks, the river with its thronging life was a very cheerful substitute for the more impressive lake, of which, however, the visitor need see but very little in the course of his wanderings, and - it must be said - the display of decorative and architectural statuary was very much finer at Paris.

The united architects at the Chicago Exhibition have been reproached, by our French critic just quoted and very many others, with the fact that instead of developing a new and appropriate architectural style for this great occasion, they contented themselves with falling back on old formulas. "In 1889," says our Marquis, who may be quoted as voicing this general criticism, "the French no more sought to copy the Greeks and the Romans and the Arabs than those of their own ancestors to whom they owed their cathedrals, but they created a style, that is to say, a method of decoration in harmony with the materials they used. One might say whatever one wished upon this style; ... but one had to recognize that there existed in itself this, the first of the necessary conditions which a work of art of any kind must fulfill. In 1893, the Americans limit themselves to copying the decorations of [xxii] admirable monuments, which are the glory of past ages, and can only copy them badly, since they do not employ the materials of construction which served the creation of their models."

Answers to this criticism are numerous and varied. In the first place, this is an International, and not an "American," exposition, and it was not only more courteous but more appropriate to present our foreign visitors with a demonstration in which they should find recognition of their own classic schools rather than with one aggressively domestic. In the second place, there was no time in which to formulate this new American style so as to get a dozen architects working in it towards a harmonious whole; in the third place, it would have been very unsafe to have undertaken to have done so, or to have left to the personal equation of each architect the determination of this style; in the fourth place, it was thought just as well to give an object lesson to the sometimes intemperate advocates of the national school. "There are," says Mr. Van Brunt, "many uneducated and untrained men practicing as architects, and still maintaining, especially in the remote of the country, an impure and unhealthy vernacular, incapable of progress; men who have never seen a pure classic monument executed on a great scale, and who are ignorant of the emotions which it must excite in any breast accessible to the influences of art. To such it is hoped that these great models, inspired as they have been by a profound respect for the masters of classic art, will prove such a revelation that they will learn at last that true architecture cannot be based on indisciplined invention, illiterate originality, or, indeed, upon any audacity of ignorance." Also, it is somewhat doubtful if there exists, as yet, any definite American school of architecture, any more than does any American school of painting, or of sculpture. Such as it is, the expression of the former may be found in various important buildings in the larger cities of the country, rather than at Jackson Park.

To many thousands of visitors to this great exhibition the impressions left upon the mind will be those of summer light and heat, of a bewildering multitude of all things, and frequently, it is to be feared, of excessive fatigue. But to those whose fortune it was to traverse these grounds during the two winters in which the Fair was preparing, and especially during that of 1892-93, there will be preserved also a souvenir of something more strange, more imposing, and much more formidable. The first winter was exceptionally mild for the latitude of Chicago and the work progressed almost uninterruptedly, but that which preceded the opening of the Exposition was very severe generally, as will be remembered, and the cold on the shores of Lake Michigan, as already stated, is something tremendous. Not only does the thermometer fall to Arctic depths, but the northerly winds that come across the lakes, that "blow across these five hundred miles of ice-water," add a serious element of suffering and danger. Nevertheless, time pressed and the work could not be postponed; outdoors and in, with fires wherever practicable and without them when not, the endless labor went on. The sculptors and the painters in their great cavernous studios suffered almost as much as the laborers outside, whose hardy [xxiii] frames were more seasoned to exposure and whose more active work served to keep somewhat in circulation their chilled blood. The usual prejudice of labor in favor of untrammeling garments was quite laid aside, the wearing of many overcoats, mufflers and mittens at once was not considered incompatible with the most violent manual labor. Carpenters might be seen swarming aloft on the great palaces of lath-work swaddled like mummies; stretched out in perspective along the long, solitary, white lake front at regular intervals were other mummies, spotted dark against the universal whiteness, pickaxe-ing with lusty strokes the iron ground. These silhouettes were undertaking the digging of the foundations of the ornamental lamp posts that border this now cheerful and thronged promenade. But on this bitter afternoon the interminable front of the Manufactures Building shut out on the landward side all other human life, and towards the eastward the solid white, opalescent lake stretched out, solitary as the palaeocrystic sea, till it reached the leaden Chicago sky that hung over it. Far down the line one of the pickaxers stopped his futile toil to call through the frosty air to his fellows that the whistle had blown to cease work, and the muffled figures gathered up their tools and trudged off leaving the gathering darkness to the solitary visitor. On the bosom of the grand basin, where now the gondolas glide, a horse went backwards and forward dragging after him a slender light ice-plow, and the red-nosed plowman shouted cheerfully to his assistant across the icy stretch, - "He ain't so afraid as he was to go near the edges." The bitter, piercing wind, [xxiv] when it blew, which, fortunately, was not all the time, dominated everything, and one of the localities to be most avoided was the long court between the buildings of Electricity and Mining. Through this passage way this north-easter sucked like a Sansar. Naturally, every one sought shelter within walls, and in many of the more remote portions of the grounds the sense of solitude was only excelled by that of the cold in this summer pleasure-ground. The long, silent white palaces, erected and forgotten long ago by forgotten men, awaited in this eternal frost and silence the distant end of all things; the heavy, gray sky that stooped over them, or the pale yellow sunsets that flamed in the West, alike forbade any sense of human comfort and pleasure in this city of the Djinn. That a short six months would bring summer, light, heat, crowds and festival, seemed impossible. Such were some of the strange things that come of building World's Fairs on the edge of north-western prairies.

The proclamation of the President of the United States, of December 24, 1890, inviting foreign nations to come to the Exposition, was accompanied by a letter of the Secretary of State , containing regulations for foreign exhibitors, instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury governing the free importation of exhibits, and the prospectus of the World's Congress Auxiliary. That there should be no possible doubt as to the sincerity of this invitation, five commissioners, representing both the national and local authorities of the Exposition, sailed for Europe on the 9th of the following June, as already related. When they returned in September they had visited all the northern countries of Europe, journeying as far as Novgorod, and making it a point everywhere to approach the highest authorities, the Prime Ministers or Ministers of Foreign Affairs, and had been everywhere received with distinction. Want of time and the lateness of the season prevented them from visiting the more southern countries, Italy, Greecs and Spain. The responses have been both numerous and satisfactory. The official publications give the following long list of nations that manifested their desire to attend and set apart liberal appropriations for the purpose of making a good display: - Argentine Republic, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Cost Rica, Denmark, Danish West Indies, Ecuador, France, Germany, Great Britain, Barbados, British Guiana, British Honduras, Cape Colony, Ceylon, India, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, New South Wales, New Zealand, Trinidad, Greece, Guatemala, Hawaii, Japan, Liberia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Dutch Guiana, Dutch West Indies, Nicaragua, Norway, Orange Free State, Paraquay, Peru, Russia, Salvador, San Domingo, Spain, Cuba, Sweden, Uraguay. And most of the States of the Union. Nineteen countries - Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Austria, Canada, Ceylon, China, Columbian, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Hayti, Japan, Nicaragua, Norway, Sweden and Turkey - have buildings of their own in addition to their pavilions and set exhibits in the various main buildings. And, in addition to the assignment of space for regular exhibits and buildings, concessions were granted for the purpose of conducting theatres, shops, restaurants, or of furnishing representations of native life, to the following governments; Algeria, Australia, China, India, Dahomey, Egypt, Hungary, Pacific Islands, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Persia, Sandwich Islands and [xxv] Tunis. All this may be said to be enough to give the display at Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance something of an international character.

The nineteen official foreign buildings are situated in the north-eastern portion of the Exposition grounds proper, around the North Pond and east of the Art Gallery and Fisheries Building. The extreme north-eastern corner of Jackson Park is occupied by the spacious and decorative building of the State of Iowa, the picturesque conical towers of which are shown on another page. Just outside the official boundary of the Exposition, towering up against the sky and covered with deserted scaffolding, is an immense unfinished building, a monument to the miscalculations of speculators and capitalists. The Iowa Building occupies one of the most advantageous sites in the whole grounds, and the open paved terrace in front of it affords an uninterrupted view of the lake and is an excellent idling-place on warm afternoons. This was the site of one of the old buildings, the Jackson Park pavilion, which was transformed into a Corn Palace and a reduced model of the Iowa State capitol added on the west, the two being made to conform into a sort of general architectural harmony. The exhibit in the interior, however, includes a bewildering display of the application of cereals to architecture, the mural decorations consisting of grains (of all kinds), dried, cut into sections of every variety and put on en applique. From this point a pleasant breezy walk down the paved esplanade of the lake front leads past a number of the most important foreign buildings, - first the handsome hospitable-looking French pavilion, then the low wooded bungalow of Ceylon with barbaric Buddhist carvings, finally Germany and Spain side by side, just north of the North Inlet and the Naval Exhibit, the red manor house that represents Great Britain. Ireland is represented a good mile away, in the Midway Plaisance, by (characteristically) two "Irish Villages." Back of these more important states are the lesser ones, grouped together apparently at hap-hazard, Venezuela next to Turkey and India facing the Polish Café. The somewhat rococo white Brazilian palace, forever flying its large green flag, occupies the little cape that just out into the southern portion of North Pond, opposite the Illinois Building, and is a prominent object from the main entrance of the Art Gallery, across the pond. The three Japanese Buildings are situated on the northern shore of the Wooded Island and there is also a little Japanese tea-house, with a pretty musmee to serve you, on the mainland opposite. As for the Midway Plaisance, though not quite such a kaleidoscope of costumes and tongues as has been represented, it really affords the patient explorer very interesting glimpses of many very strange lands.

Mr. Robert Lincoln, the American Minister to Great Britain, in March, 1891, made, on behalf of his Government, a formal application to the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, that Great Britain should take measures to be represented in the Chicago Exposition, and received the reply that a Royal Commission would be appointed for that purpose. This Commission was subsequently formed from the Council of the "Society of Arts," which undertook the duty under the conditions that a grant of 25,000 pounds be appropriated from the Treasury and that, in addition, a charge proportional to the space occupied be made to all exhibitors, as had been done in Paris in 1889. This plan was, however, abandoned later when, in view of the great interest manifested in the project by British exhibitors of all kinds, Her [xxvi] Majesty's Government increased the grant to the Royal Commission from 25,000 lbs to 60,000 lbs on the understanding that space should be provided free to all exhibitors. The official head of the Commission if the Prince of Wales, who is President of the Society of Arts, and the total area allotted to Great Britain and the British possessions is about 500,000 square feet, more than 300,000 being occupied by Great Britain. The largest total amounts previously occupied at any World's Fair were 383,373 square feet at Paris in 1867, and 363,018 in the same city in 1878. At Philadelphia, in 1876, the total amount was only 194,381; and at Paris in 1889, 232,845. Prompt steps were taken by the Commission to inform the Indian Government and the British Colonies of the action of the home authorities; the Dominion of Canada decided without delay to participate in the exhibition, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania all took into consideration the propriety of appointing commissions, and New South Wales finally decided to do so, Cape Colony, Ceylon, British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad did likewise and India, after much hesitation, followed suit. The other colonies, given in the official list, joined the movement later.

The "Victoria House," so designated by special permission of the Queen, is the official building of the Royal Commission, and their contribution to the decoration of Jackson Park. Standing where it does, it is a valuable contribution to this decoration, and the pleasant reds of its walls, roofs and chimneys come in very well, from any point of view, with the white battle-ship, its neighbor, the blue of the sky and the varying tones of the lake. The building, to quote the official description, was designed by Colonel Edis, the Honorary Architect of the Commission, and "is intended to be generally characteristic of the best type of English half-timber houses of the sixteenth century, of which there are so many good examples still extant. It is, however, a modern house, and for this reason it has been considered permissible to employ terra-cotta somewhat largely in the lower story, with red brick facings and mullioned windows. The upper portion is of half-timber construction, with overhanging and projecting gables. The plan forms three sides of a quadrangle, with the open side next the lake, enclosed by a raised terrace with balustrade. The centre, on the front or inland side, is recessed, with steps leading from both sides up the covered portico, which opens into a large central hall; off this are, on one side, large library and reception rooms, while the other wing is occupied by the offices. On the first floor is a large suite of rooms and offices. Great care has been bestowed on the interior decorations. All the principal rooms are fitted with wall panelling and elaborate ceilings, after the manner of some of the best English country houses." This handsome building, like those of other nations, is provided to enable the members of the commission to extend appropriate hospitalities to their guests and compatriots, as well as with offices for the transaction of their business. A little distance down the transverse road that comes out in front of the Victoria House is the Indian pavilion, whose pale yellow and arabesqued walls, pierced by high entrance arches, enclose an inner court that is considerately covered with glass for the benefit of the Western visitor. Here, following the example adopted at the Amsterdam Exhibition of ten years ago, a feature is made of the free distribution of native tea, by beautiful native "boys" with very black whiskers, scarlet coats and white turbans. Indeed, the hope of developing the importation of Indian tea into this country was generally acknowledged to be one of the principal objects of the Indian Commission, though it appears that the United States has nothing much to give in return but a steadily diminishing shipment of kerosene - diminishing owing to Russian rivalry. The Government of India made a grant of 40,000 rupees to the Indian Tea Association, and only 10,000 rupees to some commissioners of Delhi to aid in the formation of a representative collection of Indian Art ware. The Commissioner at Amsterdam reported that, - "The mere idea of any refreshment being given without charge appeared so strange to Dutch notions that visitors crowded to the tea-room daily, and could scarcely believe that no charge would be made." The annual statistics do not show any very great [xxvii] increase in the annual exportations of tea to Europe in consequence of this liberality, but the Amsterdam juries testified their appreciation by the number of awards given to the Indian tea, - 1 diploma of honor, 7 gold, 17 silver, and 14 bronze, medals, and 19 lesser recompenses, 58 in all. The slowness of the good Hollanders to appreciate gratuitous refreshment cannot be said to be manifested by the visitors at Jackson Park, - and the veracity of an historian compels us to add that neither do they manifest a just appreciation of this (apparent, at least) courtesy by vacating their chairs and tables in favor of the thirsty multitude awaiting their turn, when they have finished their own beverage, - or even when they don't intend to take any. As to the tea itself, the judgment of the experts generally is, that no tea can be truly right served in the wholesale and inartistic fashion, but that, on the whole, it is pretty good, though by no means the best that the said experts ever say. Others, learned in these mysteries, advise the unlearned to avoid the famous Ceylon tea.

In addition to this grateful beverage the Indian court offers a curious and interesting assortment of objects, mostly for sale, from real gods down to quaint and amusing painted wooden toys. There is also a good deal of the brass and other metal work, and if but few of the exhibits are of the very first quality very few, also, are held at forbidding prices. The native attendants are among the few truly satisfactory ones to be seen outside of the Midway Plaisance.

Another important, though minor, addition to the architectural features of Jackson Park is furnished by the English Pavilion in the great building of Manufactures and Liberal Arts. In fact, the elaborate pavilions or screens which three or four of the great nations, England, France, Germany, Russia, etc., have erected to enclose their various sections in this building are among the most interesting architectural and decorative exhibits of the Fair. But with regard to the comparative artistic style, finish and originality of these screens, entrances, etc., the traveler who recalls the Paris Exposition of 1889 [xxviii] experiences a certain sense of disappointment. He thinks he remembers three or four arched entrances in the Gallery of the Thirty Metres alone - opening into various sections of the great, general display - that were more satisfactory as original, decorative specimens of art industry than anything in this colossal Manufactures Building. The screen of the French section here, for instance, is surmounted by a low cornice supported on a multitude of huge, heavy, disquieting caryatides, evidently manufactured by wholesale out of some cheap material. This bilious traveler will even go further and declare that a great multitude of the exhibits here made in which the element of art enters, taste, originality, design, or finish, have the same quality of not being of the very best - the taint of the commercial is over them all. The foreigners have underestimated the American market, or they have deemed the distances and the expenses too enormous, or they have thought it better to send exhibits which they can probably dispose of nearly en bloc at the close of the Exposition. This is as true in the Japanese section as in the European ones.

The English pavilion in this building - to get back to our text - is declared to be a reproduction of the dining hall in Hatfield House, said to be the best specimen of Elizabethan architecture extant. One side is left open, and on the other may be seen the antique fireplace, inscribed with the date, 1637; above it a tapestry and the coat-of-arms of the house, on either side suits of mail, etc. A carved balcony surmounted by six lions rampant, each holding a shield, is at one end of the dining room; on either side of the great folding doors hang life-size portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots. The bulk, value and comprehensiveness of the English contribution to the Fair is, indeed, extraordinary; the official catalogue of the British section is a thick octavo. Her majesty the Queen contributes as her individual exhibit a number of royal tapestries from her own palaces; the Cape Town diamond mine exhibit is an unique feature. Five tons (one account says a hundred and fifty tons0 of diamond clay, filled with rough stones, were brought over with all the machinery necessary and the process of presenting the diamond to commerce is shown in its completeness. The clay is thrown into the big crushers, and a stream of water turned on the broken debris while real Zulus, arrayed as at home, sort out the gems which are then cut and polished by skilled workmen in full view of everybody. The value of the stones in the five tons of clay was variously estimated at from a quarter of a million to a full million dollars. The same enterprising Cape Colony also exhibits in the Agricultural Building, under glass cases, on their native soil, what it said to be the finest lot of ostriches that has ever been seen in this or any other country, from veterans in magnificent plumage to little chicks of six weeks; "the most perfect tusks that have ever been brought from South Africa;" a full  [xxix] collection of Kaffir curiosities, etc. In the Transportation Building, the English railway display is the most interesting of any of the foreign ones, and among the numerous models of steamships and smaller vessels by far the largest and most important is Sir William Armstrong's of the ill-fated battleship "Victoria,' sunk off the coast of Syria in June of this year.

An opportunity to study some of the details of a very strange and ancient architecture is furnished by the Ceylon Building, on the lake front, - the interior of the court being in the Dravadian style of the ancient Singhalese temples and the carvings after those in the rock of the ruined temples of the ancient capitals of the island, Pollanarrua and Amarajapoora, between 543 B. C. and 235 A. D. Twenty-five varieties of brilliantly colored wood may be found in these decorations, and the island exhibits, in addition, an interesting collection of strange things presented by the Sultan of the Maldives.

Of the two Irish Villages in the Midway Plaisance, that on the south side of the central street, to be know by the square tower of Blarney Castle rising high in the air, is under the patronage of the Countess of Aberdeen, and that on the north, known as Donegal, under that of Mrs. Ernest Hart, wife of the publisher of the London Lancet. The object of both is practically the same, to secure appreciation and encouragement for the products of Irish industry, to aid in the foundation of technical schools, factories, etc., by showing these [xxx] cottage industries in actual operation, the making of lace, weaving homespun woolen cloths and fine linens, artistic work in wood carvings, iron work, etc. Most praiseworthy Irish needlework is also to be seen in the British section in the Manufactures Building, consisting of linen work of all descriptions. In the very neat little washed cottages - very neat, and with a total absence of traditional pigs - may accordingly be seen in these villages fresh-looking Irish girls and industrious weavers and carvers, all at work. The village piper, one for each village, paces solemnly up and down in the court or village green and fills the air with his thin, querulous strains. In Mrs. Hart's village may be seen, also, a collection of Irish art, ancient and modern, portraits of prominent leaders, specimens of ancient metal work, etc. The entrance to the village is under the St. Lawrence Gate at Drogheda, which dates from A. D. 1200; at the back of the court is a half-size reproduction of Donegal Castle (1607), with its ancient banqueting hall and ruined keep, - everything very fresh, white and new, - another of a Round Tower, one of an ancient Celtic market cross, the Wishing Chair of the Giant's Causeway, "with Ogham, Bullen, and Hole stones." On a pleasant day this village is a truly cheerful and pleasant place, and its latest honor, Mr. Bruce Joy's colossal statue of Gladstone, a facsimile of the one in front of Bow Church, London, was formally unveiled in the banqueting hall of the castle by Mr. Hart on the 24th of June. Lady Aberdeen's Irish villagers, across the way, celebrated with a "dance at the cross roads" the final turning-on of the electric lights that enabled them to see their way about their houses, - an event that did not occur till nearly the first of June, and two weeks later they were roused to a still higher pitch of enthusiasm by the arrival of a piece of the real Blarney Stone, which was formally unveiled and saluted by the Mayor of Chicago. This has been placed on the roof of the castle, against the coping of the east wall and slightly below the floor. Instead of hanging over the wall of the castle, head downward, as was formerly the custom in Ireland, the Chicago tourist will have to do nothing more dangerous, if he wishes to kiss this stone, than get down on his hands and knees.

Germany furnishes the most distinctly mediaeval feature of the Exposition, as well as some of the most modern ones, and the Deutsche Haus on the lake front is claimed by the children of the Fatherland to be the most picturesque structure of the Exhibition, as the Deutsches Dorf is one of the most interesting villages in the Midway Plaisance. The former rises white and handsome - but very strange and foreign-looking indeed to the untraveled visitor - on the lakeside, adjoining the much more mildly mediaeval building of Spain. As one of the most distinguished, as well as one of the earliest to be opened to the visitor, this building of Germany and its contents deserve some attention. It was designed [xxxi] by the government architect, Johannes Radke of Berlin, and its style, we are assured by the official report, is that of the early German renaissance of the fifteenth century, "betokening the transition from the pure Gothic and leaning on such models as the tower of the Aschaffenburg Castle, a gable of Goslar, the City Hall of Rothenbury, etc." The white walls, both outside and inside to a great extent are covered with that peculiarly German, mediaeval decorative painting, largely composed of scroll work, apparently burlesque heraldry, black lettering, etc., which no other nation can do anything like so well and which when well done and applied to an appropriate architecture like this is very effective. "The coats-of-arms of the German states decorate the space over the main entrance; above is the imperial double eagle; to the right spreads the drastic German motto in ancient rhyme which translated reads: -

"Fruitful and powerful, full of corn and wine, full of strength and iron, Tuneful and thoughtful - I will praise thee, Fatherland mine."

"On the north side is a representation of St. George killing the hellish dragon. All the niches and corners exhibit poetic designs. The effect is heightened by the high gables, the bay windows, balconies, turrets and glazed tile roofs with bronze corners and water spouts." This scrafito painting was executed by the artist, Max Seliger. Fortunately, the building has a number of trees around it on the sides and back, which help it very much, and as it was largely built of iron and stone, at a total cost of $250,000, it is hoped that some means of preserving it after the conclusion of the Fair may be hit upon.

The most prominent feature of the display in the interior is the very large exhibit made by the German publishers, their innumerable volumes, in every variety of binding, being arranged in stalls all around the great central hall. It may be frequently observed, however, that in the matter of general artistic get-up, particularly of the illustrations, the interiors of these editions de grand luxe seldom correspond to their imposing exteriors. On the right of the great hall is a very handsome library, with more volumes and paintings, the mediaeval aspect being duly tempered with modern luxury, and at the rear of the building is a chapel with a fine organ, stained glass windows, and a large display of those unpleasant, painted religious figures to which the church still clings. "In the belfry hang three cast steel bells, made at Bochum, Westphalia, and of 80, 60, and 40 hundred-weight respectively. These bells will be ultimately placed in the 'Church of Mercy,' now being constructed in Berlin in memory of the late Empress Augusta." Throughout the greater part of the building the walls rise directly to the high roof, the only two-story portion being that devoted to the general offices. A gallery extends [xxxii] around the central hall, the intricate heraldic Teutonic designing on the walls following the visitor almost to the last when it suddenly gives out. This building was formally opened by the German Commissioner on the afternoon of May 23rd, amidst much enthusiasm, many "Hochs" and appropriate healths to the Vaterland mein.

In the Midway Plaisance the German Village furnishes a still more comprehensive epitome. "It is for the purpose of illustrating these peculiarities,' says the official description, "that we have erected, in a hospitable foreign country an edifice which, together with its contents, will, we hope, give as faithful a picture as possible of the characteristics of our Fatherland. We tender this representation in a place where Industry and Art celebrate their triumphs, and believe that even beside this wonderful collection of the products of all nations, and among the might creations of the inventive genius of modern time, it will excite a friendly interest."

"A Castle of the olden time stands before us, in which younger generations have taken up their abode and built their nests. In true knightly fashion it flanks and protects a dignified Townhall and stately farmhouses. The interiors of Castle and Townhall are rich in valuable treasures of past ages, and in excellent works of German Industry and Art. The gifts of Bacchus and Gambrinus will also not be found wanting, for it is the German custom to value these highly and to regard them as the best panacea for every ill. We hope and with, therefore, that in the face of this small piece of your dear German Fatherland each one of our countrymen living abroad will be seized with a yearning for the spot where his cradle, or the cradle of his ancestors, stood, and will remember with painfully pleasant sensations his old native land; its towering mountains, its rustling forests, its peaceful valleys, its smiling plains, its powerful streams and its loyal people, so that half-faded pictures may suddenly appear to him in fresh colors; - the peaceful little town at the foot of the steep height covered with the ruins of an old Castle, the brook and the rattling mill again rise up vividly before him, until he almost fancies that he hears once more the mother's beloved voice."

Further, it was hoped that even the foreigners and aliens would be led to feel and recognize "the [xxxv] charm that lies in the peculiarities of the German races," as here typified; and that the care here shown in the preservation of ancient household utensils, costumes, ornaments, etc., would tend to the encouragement of this practice elsewhere, "for the purpose of descriptive Anthropology," this material begin "more calculated than any other to render perceptible the life and instincts of those who were formerly associated with it."

Here is a wide field to cover indeed, and it must be said that the true German intelligence and thoroughness with which it has been carried out gives this exhibit a singular charm and interest. More perhaps than in any other part of the Exposition does the visitor feel here something of the real charm of the country, especially of an old country, which the official cataloguer sets forth. The important and interesting museums of historical costumes, armor, paintings, etc., in the Castle and the Hessian Townhall have not much to do with it, - indeed, a very large portion of these historical things are frankly modern copies - but the general aspect of the buildings, the picturesque models of farmhouses, the general atmosphere of age and mellowness which gradually permeates him, perhaps even some of the influences of "the gifts of Bacchus and Gambrinus" which our official guide praises upon almost every page. There are no mountains and very few trees, the "moat" around the castle is a very slight affair, there is even very little grass, - but to compare the model of the Black Forest Cottage, for instance, with that of a scientific American wheat farm in one of the State buildings of the great Northwest is to feel that there are certain advantages possessed by an old country over a brand-new one for which even some superiority in political institutions does not altogether compensate. For any one who has traveled in Germany lately, however, this impression will be somewhat diminished by the remembrance of the many hideous modern architectural "improvements" which are being adopted there, even for the most ancient and picturesque edifices.

In the Manufactures Building the architecture of the German pavilion is said to be founded on that of the renaissance of the sixteenth century, later than that of the Deutsche Haus, and the architect is Gabriel Sidel, of Munich. Like that of many of the other important foreign structures in this building, this was constructed at home, taken down and shipped to America. The ground plan suggests three circles touching each other. One room, in blue and gold, reproduces to some extent the reception room of the Imperial Palace in Berlin; another, one of King Ludwig's in Munich; and another, it is said, a presentation room in the royal palace at Dresden. Among the most venerated exhibits is a small, round blue baton, trimmed and tipped with gold, the marshal's staff of Von Moltke. The display of porcelain , tapestries and furniture is very fine, and there is a great group of "Germania" which, at the close of the Exposition, is to be taken down and sent home again to be mounted over the entrance to the new [xxxvi] Reichstag building in Berlin. The Emperor contributes a special exhibit; the total number of contributors, in all departments of the Fair, is over 5000, representing 230 cities and towns. The most famous and important of these - after the Emperor - is, of course, Herr Krupp; he has been assigned a locality on the lake front, south of La Rabida, and makes a most imposing display. The exterior of his building presents something of a warlike appearance, fully borne out by the artillery within. The great gun, known as a forty-two centimetre rifle, has a bore of nineteen and a-half inches and a length of barrel of forty-two feet, two inches. The weight is 270,000 pounds, and the range estimated at twelve miles. It was only with a great outlay of money and of engineering skill that this monster was transported, special "shears" had to be built to lift it from the vessel's hold, and special car trucks made to carry it. This piece of ordnance, said to be the largest in the world, is to be presented to the city of Chicago by the maker and mounted in a fort to be built on five acres of made ground, off Hyde Park. The gun exhibit here, it is claimed, includes everything in the nature of heavy and light ordnance manufactured at the Krupp works, and the process of manufacture is here shown to some extent. This exhibit was informally opened by a speech from the German Commissioner, Herr Wermuth, on the afternoon of June 5th.

Four days earlier the national exhibit in Machinery Hall was opened to the public and the great Schichan engine started which furnishes power for all the machinery of this section and for the immense Siemens-Halske electric motor. The dynamo is twelve and a-half feet in diameter and the largest direct current machine ever made. It furnishes light for the German section, the terminal station, the Wooded Isle, the Choral Hall, and a current for several hundred hourse power machines in addition. In the Agricultural Building,the German section was opened with appropriate ceremonies, the greatest enthusiasm clustering around the reproduction, in solid chocolate, of the Niederwald monument of Germania, eleven feet high and weighing three thousand pounds. At the Paris Exposition there was a reproduction of the Venus of Milo in chocolate, but only about the size of the original. Thus does civilization proceed from one triumph to another. The pavilion built of chocolate by a Cologne firm, "in the renaissance style," is very much larger and heavier even than the statue. In the south court of the Horticultural Building is the vault containing the exhibit of the German Wine Growers' Society, the most extensive made by any wine producers, and with two of the side walls covered with a pleasant and deceptive panoramic painting of the hill slopes which produce the Johannisberg, Rudesheimer and Moselle. The German exhibit of needlework, in the Woman's and Manufactures Buildings, is by far the most extensive of any, and in many respects the best. The greater part of it has been drawn from the districts of Plauen and Eibenstock in Saxony, famous for the artistic needlework of the women. All of the display in the Woman's Building is under the charge of a committee of the leading ladies of the Empire, at the head of which is the Princess Friederich Karl.

Nor is this all. In the Midway Plaisance is a menagerie and "zoological arena" from Berlin, the lions of which lie in their barred cages over the entrance doors and look out pleasantly on the crowds passing by; and a very fine exhibit of the quality of the German army was given by a private of the [xxxvii] Cavalry Band who, when grievously wounded by a catastrophe on the grounds, refused assistance at the surgeon's hands till everyone else was attended to, sitting silent and enduring, like one Sir Philip Sydney.

The official building of France, which stands on the lake front, somewhat to the north of that if Germany and about in the latitude of the Fine Arts palace, is handsome, inviting and worthy, but by no means as eminently national in its characteristics as that of the German Empire. In fact, being late Renaissance, it serves but to repeat an architectural theme, with certain variations, which is already somewhat familiar in these grounds. The late Renaissance is, moreover, said to be not quite pure by the experts, and the building lacks in stateliness. It was fortunate, however, in capturing one of the very few clumps of large trees to be found in Jackson Park, and promptly proceeded to enclose it between the sheltering arms of its two pavilions, connected by an open arcade, like a cloister, that shuts off the great noisy Exposition behind it, and looks out peacefully, over this little shady garden with a fountain and flowerbeds, to the great open lake. This restful little plaisance was laid out by the assistant municipal landscape gardener of the city of Paris; and the architects of the building were MM. Motte and Du Buysson, and R. A. Deuell. Of the two pavilions, the southern and smaller is occupied by the city of Paris, whose exhibit is of an eminently practical nature, - specimens of the work of the pupils of the various municipal schools, drawings, embroideries, etc.; Dr. Bertillon's system of identifying criminals by scientific measurements of their bodies; certain diagrams of the Parisian sewerage, or tout a l'egout, system, of municipal prisons, hospitals, etc., etc. On the inner wall of the connecting corridor are hung a number of large views in the streets and squares of Paris, skillfully painted in flat, decorative tones by eminent artists. In the northern and larger pavilion are the offices of the French officials at the Exposition and a large Salle d'Honneur containing a number of valuable and interesting relics connected with the times of Lafayette and Washington. The general decoration of this Hall of Honor was copied from that Salon des Ambassadeurs of the chateau of Versailles in which Louis XVI received, on the 20th of March, 1778, Silas Deane, Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, the envoys sent by the American Congress to negotiate an alliance with France. The greater part of the west hall is covered with a large Gobelin tapestry, representing, in the fine old seventeenth century manner, from designs by Le Brun and Van der Meulen, the siege of Douai by Louis XIV in 1667. Near this very important hanging are two other, smaller, Gobelin tapestries, also after Le Brun, and on the northern wall, a larger Gobelin displaying the ancient arms of France and Navarre supported [xxxviii] by two genii. Under the tapestries are suspended the portraits, pictures, drawings and autograph letters of the collection; three handsome cabinets in black work and marqueterie, surmounted by bust of Washington and Lafayette, contain other relics, and articles of furniture are placed about the room. In one of these, a chair, is a cushion the cover of which was embroidered by Martha Washington at the age of seventy and presented to Lafayette. In the centre of the room, resting upon a Louis XIV. console of carved and gilded wood, is a case containing the sword of honor voted to Lafayette by Congress, and carried to him by the grandson of Benjamin Franklin at Havre in 1779, after the hero's return from his first voyage to America, - or, rather, the golden hilt of this sword joined to the blade of one presented him by the National Guard of Paris in October, 1791, when he made his adieu to that force. The original blade of the Congressional sword was destroyed by rust during its enforced burial during the Terror, and after its recovery Lafayette conceived the idea of replacing it with that of the latter weapon which, as it had been forged from the bolts of the Bastile, was equally "eloquent of liberty." Decorations of the Society of the Cincinnati, coins and medals of the period, a gold ring containing in the bezel the hair of George and Martha Washington, the pistols carried by Washington during the Revolution and left to Lafayette by his will, various relics of Franklin, a silver vase presented to Lafayette by the midshipmen of the frigate Brandywine, in which he returned to France in 1825, etc. complete these historical records. Most of them are owned by the descendants of Lafayette, who are said to have parted with them for this occasion with very great reluctance, and only at the instance of President Carnot himself.

The great white cube of this northern pavilion, when approached from the Fine Arts building, or down the lake front, is handsome and suggestive of distinguished things within, an immense tricolor drifting from its staff over the norther facade or drooping over the great allegorical sculptural group set in a niche and representing the proper conventional qualities of Progress, Enlightenment, etc. Round on the lake front, the upper part of this pavilion is ornamented with a stately painted frieze, in which the arts and sciences walk in handsome procession against a gold ground. After this very important exhibit, and that in the Gallery of Fine Arts, the most distinguished display made by France is probably the collective one of the various Paris publishers and great printing houses, much more complex, artistic [xliii] and interesting that that made by the Germans in their Deutsche Haus, and only inferior to that in the second story of the Palais des Arts-Liberaux in Paris in 1889. Here however, as there, this superb library, being up two flights of stairs, and not easily discoverable in the great wilderness of the Manufactures Building, has remained unknown to most of the visitors. In all the important departments of the Fair, France is represented with varying completeness; - in that of education, by a comprehensive exhibit, consisting mainly of statistics, text books and examination papers, giving an excellent idea of the present condition of the three grand divisions, primary, secondary and university, of education in France, prepared by the Minister of Public Instruction. In that of Electricity and Telegraphing, there is a retrospective collection of telegraphic apparatus since the invention of the system, coming down to the very newest improvements; examples of the various submarine telegraph cables from the earliest down to the present time; an exhibition of electrical instruments and devices used by private firms; the display of the lighthouse administration, and a projector to display the carrying power of some examples of rotating beacon lights. In that of Transportation, a bewildering variety of things from locomotive engines down to stable fixings. In that of Alimentation, the complete machinery, in working order, of a French Bakery, in the neighborhood of the Live Stock Pavilion; a Normandy cider press, in the Midway Plaisance, where that very unsatisfactory beverage may be purchased of native peasant girls in costume; and also, it may be added, a very unworthy, alleged French restaurant in the Manufactures Building. In the Woman's Building, among other triumphs of needlework, may be found the famous collection of dolls, sent by an enterprising association. L/Aiguille, representing the feminine costumes of France from the primitive Gauloise down to the present day. The dolls themselves, however, are the inane waxen ones of commerce and have nothing in common with their historic gowns. 

In the Manufactures Building, the French Pavilion or court, already alluded to, is said to have been designed by the government architects; and a general harmony and congruity was attempted by attending to the details and proportions of the various show-cases, the artistic grouping of the exhibits, etc., - each class of manufactures having its own architect and decorator. The central court is devoted to the products of the great national manufactories of Gobelins, Sevres and Beauvais - described in the French art section of this publication. The artistic bronzes, naturally, make a very fine show, but one, alas! that is tainted by the meretricious, cafe chantant art that has of late years not scrupled to avail itself of this dignified material. The great houses, Leblanc-Barbedieene, Thiebaut Freres, Susse Freres, are represented, sometimes by very large and important pieces, reproduction of contemporary sculpture, examples of cire-perdue, the wellknown Dore vase, "La Vigne," etc., etc. In jewelry and enamel work there is a fine display, as also of the porcelains and enamels of Limoges, the enameled terra-cotta of the works of Yvry-Port, near Paris, and a very interesting reproduction, on the scale of one-fourth of the famous "Frieze of the Archers," now in the Louvre but discovered by M. and Mme. Dieulafoy in their excavations at Suza, Persia. Of a more commercial interest are the imitation little salons, furnitured, carpeted and decorated as if for immediate use; and the very deceptive counterfeit precious stones and gems.

An important contribution to the international character of the Exposition is that of the French Colonies, of which the exhibits are installed in the Agricultural Building and near the lake front south [xliv] of it. The former comprises the Algerian pavilion, constructed from the plans of the architect of the Governor-General of that colony, and said to be an exact reproduction of the interior of the Palais d'Hiver in which he dwells. The government building of Tonquin, a reproduction of a part of a Cochin Chines palace, was originally designed and put together in that newer colony, and was first used at the Paris exhibition of 1889. Since that date it is said to have had various excursions in the employ of a French syndicate, and was secured for Chicago by the efforts of M. Yvon, the architect who had charge of this colonial exhibit. The building is rectangular in shape and has exterior wall adorned with reproductions of antique Chines inscriptions, some of which, it is averred, repeat those of the times of Confucius. The interior is finished in walnut wood, picturesquely carved. The Pavilion de la Tunisie is a larger building, very Moorish-looking with its four domes, its horizontally striped walls and its horseshoe-arched entrances. In the interior, the large central hall has been furnished by the Bey of Tunis, in imitation of a similar apartment in his own palace. Specimens of all the various products, natural and artificial, of the various French colonies, in IndoChina, Asia, America, and Oceanica, may be found distributed through these buildings and their appurtenances.

Just south of the official German building, and in strong contrast with it, stands the sever, Gothic edifice of Spain, on of the last to be finished, and one of the most characteristic of the national architecture. This is a reproduction, on a scale of three-fourths, of the Casa Lonja, or Silk Exchange, of Valencia, the commencement of which antedates the sailing of Columbus in 1492. At the southeast corner a rectangular tower with an apparently incompleted top rises somewhat higher than the rest of the building, the skyline of the latter terminating in curiously finished Spanish battlements. On the plain masonry of the exterior walls the delicate tracery of the doors and windows terminates above in eight great twisted columns, two and a half feet in diameter. A circular staircase gives access to the top of the tower, in which it was the custom to confine defaulting and bankrupt merchants. This building, erected by an architect residing in New York City, Rafael Gaustavino, is occupied by the offices of the Spanish commissioners and is used for the reception of visitors and for the display of certain large paintings and maps, relics of Columbus and Cortez, a sword of Queen Isabella, some pieces of ancient Spanish artillery, etc., etc.

In the Manufactures Building, the Spanish section attracts attention at once by a wilderness of small columns supporting an apparently interminable number of low Moorish arches decorated with innumerable stripes of white and terra-cotta. This is the result of an attempt to adopt to these alien surroundings the first tier of the famous arches of the great cathedral of Cordova, built as a mosque by Abderrahman I. Of the original twelve hundred columns less than seven hundred now remain, it is said, and as many of them as could be adopted to this limited space were reproduced in their proportions and put here by the architect of the Spanish commission and special commissioner, Don Juaquin Pavia. Unfortunately they are somewhat unduly crowded, both from above and from all sides by their neighbors, and their due effect is thus in a large measure lost. There is also something of a deficiency of light under these arcades to view the Iberian exhibits, which are sufficiently numerous and varied. There is a very large display of woolen goods, wonderfully graded in color, by the Corporation of Manufactures of Sabadell and the Industrial Institute of Tarrasa, the latter adding shawls; there are Spanish laces, mantillas, etc., and a rich and curious display of steel objects ornamented with gold after the process invented by a clever artist of Madrid, Donna Felipa Guisasola, some years ago. The design is sketched and etched [xlv] on the steel surface and the gold, of all colors, hammered into these lines; among the exhibits are two vases, about four feet high, one of Pompeian and the other of Renaissance design, the former representing three years' labor in the ornamentation and the latter, sever; one valued at $20,000 and the other at $40,000. The latter vase represents the skill of Donna Guisasola herself. Some of this work is so fine as to be almost invisible, and it is applied to very minute objects. Among the Spanish exhibits is a model of the famous bridge over the Guadalquiver at Cordova, the foundations of the sixteen arches of which were laid before Christ.

Much the most famous and wonderful of the exhibits, however, are the Convent of La Rabida and the caravels. The former, as is well known, is a nearly exact reproduction of that Monastery of Saint Maria de la Rabida, or Saint Mary of the Frontier, - though the derivation of the word is not certain - in which Columbus found shelter and encouragement at the hands of the prior, Juan Perez de Marchena, when his fortunes were at their lowest ebb. It was early decided by the Board of Directors of the Exposition that no more suitable building could be erected to contain the very large and valuable collection of historical relics pertaining to the time of Columbus than a facsimile reproduction of this ancient monastery which was so intimately and picturesquely connected with his great voyage. Situated in the most inaccessible locality of the Exposition grounds, on a little promontory on the lake front, south of the Manufactures Building, this curious little specimen of Moorish architecture nevertheless enjoys the distinction of being the only one of the buildings in Jackson Park that is always crowded. Mr. William E. Curtis, who presented the project of its construction to Congress in 1890 and who was largely instrumental in bringing together the collection within its walls, says of the latter:

"This building contains all the existing records of Columbus, including the original of the contract with the sovereigns of Spain, under which the voyage was made, the commission they gave him as 'Admiral of the Ocean Seas,' his correspondence with them, and many other priceless historical papers [xlvi] relating to the discovery and early settlement of America, which are loaned for exhibition by the Government of Spain and the descendants of Columbus. There are also original copies of the first publications concerning the New World, and a large number of equally interesting books, maps and manuscripts borrowed from the archives of the Vatican, the national libraries of England, France and Spain, and private collectors in Europe and America. One of the anchors and a cannon used by Columbus on his flag-ship, the Santa Maria, were secured, and all the ruins that remain of Isabella, the first town established in the New World, were brought from the island of Santo Domingo by a United States man-of-war. There is also the original of the first church bell that ever rang in America which was presented to the people of Isabella by King Ferdinand, and many other interesting relics.

"To these has been added a collection that includes the original, or a copy, of every portrait of Columbus that was ever painted or engraved - eighty in number - and a model or a photograph of every monument or statue that was ever erected to his memory."

The three small vessels which are exact reproductions of the original fleet of Columbus, as nearly as modern researchers have been able to determine, are the joint contributions of Spain and the United States to the Exposition. They were built in Spain upon plans prepared by a commission of naval architects and archaeologists appointed by the government of that country. This commission, according to Mr. Curtis, "spent six months in study and investigation in order to make their models as exact as possible." The flag-ship, Santa Maria, was built by the Spanish Government in the navy yard at Cadiz, and the two smaller vessels, the Nina and Pinta, at Barcelona, under an appropriation made by Congress for the purpose, and under the supervision of Lieutenant W. McCarty Little, U. S. N. The two latter were towed to Cadiz and Huelva by the United States gun-boat Bennington, and all three of the caravels took part in the Columbus festivals at the latter place, celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the departure of the original fleet, October 10-14, 1892. The Nina and Pinta were regularly commissioned as vessels of the United States Navy, and two commissioned line officers with ten men were assigned to each from the crews of the United States cruiser Newark and the gun-boat Bennington. While lying at Cadiz their sailing qualities were tried, and after some necessary alterations were made in their steering arrangements, they were fitted out for their voyage across the [xlix] Atlantic. On February 18, 1893, the entire fleet set sail from Cadiz, the Santa Maria, under command of Captian Concas of the Spanish Navy and convoyed by a Spanish man-of-war, the Nina in tow of the Newark and the Pinta of the Bennington. The passage was made safely, but not without some discomfort to the crews of the caravels, the course taken being somewhat more southerly than that originally adopted by Columbus, and Havana was reached on the morning of the 21st of March. Under the original programme, the two smaller caravels were turned over to the Spanish authorities, to be manned and used by them during the naval reviews at Norfolk and New York, and to fly the flag of Castile and Leon under which Columbus sailed. From New York they were transported to Chicago by way of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes, and have since been formally conveyed by the Spanish government to that of the United States.

The Pinta has a displacement of about 110 tons and the Nina, of about 100, modern measurement. The two cost about $15,000, as they left the contractor's hands. The dimensions of the Santa Maria are given as follows: Length at water-line, 71 feet, 3 inches; beam, 25 feet, 8 inches; depth of hold, 12 feet, 5 inches; displacement, 233 metric tons. Her crew, when she arrived at Chicago, consisted of 52 men, all told. The following description of her may be found worthy of preservation: "On the poop and extending across the deck of the Santa Maria is a cabin which is a copy of that occupied by Columbus. It contains a table, chair, bed and wardrobe, of the style of the fifteenth century. There is also a royal pennant which is an exact cop of the one taken by Columbus to the discovery, and by John of Austria at the battle of Lepanto, as well as by other great Spanish leaders, as the symbol of command. On the table are placed an astrolabe and a forestaff, instruments used to measure the altitude of the stars; while around the sides of the cabin are the arms of the officers. The Santa Maria is armed with four small carronades on the upper deck and four breech-loading guns on the gunwale. She has a bowsprit and three masts, and is rigged with square and triangular sails. Elevated at the stern of the vessel is the large iron lantern, the ancient insignia of an admiral, and a custom handed down to us, as in the mizzentop or on the after mast of the flag-ship there is always a light beaming from sunset to daylight. In the open space under the poop deck are all sorts of specimens of the arms used by the fighting men of Columbus' day, among the most curious of which are the large guns call 'lombardia,' which are lashed with ropes to their stout wooded blocks of carriages, while near by, in a netted bag, hang stone balls, which ere the projectiles of the day. In the little cannon, called 'falconets,' which are mounted on the rail, one finds the ancestors of our great guns, in the shape of a breech-loading cannon. A small, flat, curved pin holds in place a little iron pot-looking receptacle, which, upon the withdrawal of the pin, is readily removed. In this is placed the powder charge and then the diminutive stone ball. The priming and firing are done at a touch-hole in the upper rear portion of the powder-holder. The falconets are arranged so that they can be moved about laterally and vertically. The odd-looking blocks for the tackles which are used for raising the heavy yards are also curiously made things, while the compass is one of the most interesting of curiosities. The old windlass for raising the heavy looking anchors and the means for securing the cable at once attract attention. The banners on the ships are as follows: Aft, pennant of Castile; mizzen truck, arms of Aragon and Castile united, beginning of the arms of Spain; main truck, standard of Castile; fore truck, banner of the expedition, granted by their Catholic Majesties. The shields over the rail are, the arms of Castile (castles and lions); Aragon (gold with red bars); Sicily (the bars of Aragon and eagles)." 

[l] Italy, which shares with Spain the honor of Columbus, if not of his great discovery, has no official building, in common with Russia, China, Holland and Austria, but she made a fine display in the Manufactures Building and an important one in the Fine Arts galleries. Among the historic relics and documents are several of great value loaned by the Vatican, this being the first International Exposition to which the pontifical library and museum have contributed. One of these manuscripts is a paper dated 1448, in which reference is made to that "Northern Land" which, half a century later, proved to be the American continent. Another is a bull of Alexander VI., dated at Rome, 3rd of May, 1493, granting to King Don Ferdinand and to Queen Donna Isabel, in regard to the West Indies discovered and to be discovered the same privileges which had been granted the King of Portugal in respect to the western coast of Africa. In the department of fine arts, the most valuable and important contributions are the reproductions of antique bronzes; in the Fine Arts palace two galleries are devoted to those from the Naples Museum, most of them from Pompeii and Herculaneum. This entire collection has been purchased for the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts. In the Manufactures Building are some fine reproductions of statues in the Vatican galleries, by Nelli of Rome, - the two gladiators, for example, "Damusseno" and "Creucante," facing each other before the principal entrance to the Italian section. Among the modern work - which too frequently displays the same frivolous tendencies that belittle the marble statuary - are some curious examples of technical workmanship, as in a statue of a chained negro slave, "Syra," executed in bronze and yellow marble, and in examples of silvered bronze by Pandiani of Milan. The wood carving, also, is frequently of a most intricate and skillful workmanship, and this same dexterity with the chisel and the graver, at present one of the most prominent characteristics in the national art, is carried into works in marble, in cameo, in silver, in furniture and house furnishings. There is an interesting display of leathern goods, of decorated pottery, of mosaic work, of Roman, Etruscan and Egyptian gold jewelry, and of reproductions of household articles found at Pompeii. Some of the latter are the originals, from the well-known Castelani collection in Rome. In the Liberal Arts section on the interior floor in the northwest gallery the musical academies of Naples, Rome and Florence are represented and there is an exhibition of books, photographs, etc., - among the former being an example of a limited edition of Dante issued by a Milan publisher, Ulrico Hoepli, in 1878, each volume being about two inches long and an inch and a half wide. Nevertheless, the type is readable, and the edition having been long ago exhausted the price of a copy has risen from sixteen dollars to a hundred and fifty. In the Woman's Building, great enthusiasm is constantly maintained around Queen Marguerite's collection of laces, antique and modern, held to be almost priceless in value because of the alleged discovery of the lost art of manufacturing them from the ancient patterns and of rendering their texture practically indestructible.

Of the little kingdom of Portugal the principal, or the most characteristic exhibit, is that of the wines judiciously opened with appropriate ceremonies in the Viticultural section of the Horticultural Building in the latter part of June. A hundred and thirty exhibitors, selected by the Oporto Chamber of Commerce, contributed no less than three hundred varieties, ranging in age from 1812 down to 1854. This nation is also represented in the Manufactures Building and in that of the women.

Northern Europe contributed only two national buildings, those of Sweden and Norway, to the architectural features of the Fair, if we except the Russian pavilion in the Palace of the Liberal Arts, but is otherwise abundantly in evidence. The Danish display was provided under the auspices of the Copenhagen Industrial Union, the committee of artist who [li] looked after the department of fine arts working in conjunction with this body. The series of foreign fete days which so enlivened the month of June was inaugurated by a brave display by this stout little kingdom, some thirty-five hundred men and women in national costumes and uniforms marching in procession through the grounds to listen to appropriate speeches and singing societies. Among the exhibits in the Manufactures Building the greatest interest centres around the two devoted to the memory of those illustrious Danes, Thorvaldsen and Hans Christian Andersen, - the museum for his works, presented by one to the city of Copenhagen, being reproduced in miniature, with miniature casts of all the works of sculpture contained therein, and the living room of the other, - its furnishings, its books, and the poet's hat, spectacles, cigarettes, etc., - reproduced in facsimile. There is also a fine display of pottery and porcelain, some of the handsomest pieces from the royal Copenhagen porcelain manufactory; jewelry; a model in gold and silver of Rosenberg Castle, the summer residence of King Christian IX.; an equestrian statuette of this monarch in the same metals, etc., etc. This pavilion in the Manufactures Building is a pleasant, sort of Renaissance, enclosure furnished with three little towers. 

The curious hexagonal, hipped-roofed steeple of the Swedish Building, topped with its great gilded crown and the national ensign, is one of the striking features of the crowded little international village in which it stands. The architect, Mr. Gustaf Wickman, of Stockholm, is said to have taken for his models various details of the national architecture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and to have put them together so as to make the most of his limited, triangular site. The great expanse of stained but unpainted shingling that covers these many-angled roofs and walls gives the building a strange, foreign, northern air. The lower portion of the front wall, however, is a handsome, many-colored structure of modern tiling, brick and terra-cotta work. The edifice was constructed in Sweden temporarily put together, taken apart again and shipped to Jackson Park. In the interior is a bewildering variety of demonstrations of the national industries, including two of the most valuable and famous - the unequaled iron ore and its products and the unrivaled sakerhetstanddtickor, safety matches. In his neat little speech at the opening of this building - in which are concentrated all the national exhibits excepting the works of art - the commissioner apologized for the lack of an appropriate national day to celebrate, Sweden never having been discovered since human history began, and having no independence day because always free. The architectural and other features of the Norwegian and Russian manifestations here will be noticed briefly with the fine arts of these two nations.

Among the Asiatic nations, the greatest interest centres upon the important Japanese display, made in so many departments. The island empire was one of the first of the foreign powers to prepare, a sum equivalent to $630,785 was appropriated, the merchants seconded the efforts of the government, and the Ho-O-Den, the sacred palace on the northern end of the Wooded Islae, was officially dedicated as early as March 31st. The construction of this picturesque edifice by the native workmen was one of the sights of the early days of the Fair; the sever weather did not seem to congeal the neat, leisurely energies of the cabinet makers and carpenters who occupied themselves in putting it together, and their neat dark-blue winter garments - ornamented with [lii] queer geometrical designs, such as a bull's-eye on the wearer's back as though he were intended for a target - had a sort of acrobatic air about them. All the materials, even to the nails, came from Japan; the wood-saws cut toward the user, instead of from him, and it was early found necessary to place additional guards about the building to prevent the too-liberal carrying away of materials by curiosity seekers. Three different epochs of the national architecture are exemplified in these buildings; the earliest of these, the Ho-o-do, dates back to A. D. 1052, and is said to represent in its shape the Hoo, the Japanese phenix, a very fabulous bird, indestructible by fire, - which is much more than can be said of its representative. The resemblance is not perceptible to any but Japanese eyes. The second, representing the art of A. D. 1397, is a reproduction in miniature of a monastery of the Zen sect, situated at Kioto, and its name, Kin-Kakuji, signifying the golden pavilion; the third dates back only to the period of our own Revolution, and all are rich, within and without, in color, carving and decoration, lacquer work, metal work, inlaying, painting and chiseling. All the artists employed were picked men from the school of the fine arts at Tokio, under the supervision of the director, K. Okakura. These buildings are to remain the property of the city of Chicago, the Japanese government undertaking to maintain a museum in them the contents of which shall be changed from year to year. 

The national art and industries are set forth in bewildering richness and variety in most of the great departments of the Fair. In those of Fine Arts, porcelains, silk and teas, especial efforts were made. Twenty tons of raw silks were said by the imperial commissioner to be imported; the little tea house, back of the Fisheries Building, constructed of native woods and bamboo, is directed by a dignified silk-robed official and adorned by the graceful services of Miss Morimoto, one of the very prettiest girls in Japan. This little edifice was put up in Tokio and then taken down and brought to its present site to be put together again. The national pavilion on Columbia Avenue in the Manufactures Building is also curious and costly in construction, the material employed being native hard woods, skillfully carved by hand and adorned with metal ornaments, naiil heads, a figure of the sacred phenix, etc. The Japanese village on the Midway Plaisance, though not officially endorsed by the commissioners, offers many interesting features.

[lv] Much was hoped by the Exposition authorities in the way of a worthy exhibit from China, but unfortunate international legislation intervened to prevent that government from taking any official part in the Fair. The Chines village in the Midway Plaisance is the enterprise of a syndicate of Celestial merchants, and the buildings were designed by a Chicago architect. They include a theatre, restaurant, Joss house from which the Joss has departed, and bazaar; some of the tea offered for sale if priced at a hundred dollars per pound, only a few leaves being required to make a pot of the beverage. In the pavilion in the Manufactures Building are exhibited the well-known industrial and artistic productions of the empire, porcelains, ivory carvings, embroideries, textile fabrics, etc.; and in the Transportation Building a number of models of Chinese boats and other modes of conveyance.

The representation from Korea (Corea) , on the contrary, is unexpectedly full and interesting and was prepared and forwarded under the direct supervision of the king himself. That despotic monarch, it seems, who is know as Chula-Long-Kom, has been in the habit of holding biennial fetes at his town of Seoul, and when he heard of the Chicago Fair was filled with the worthy desire of extending his enterprises. Hence this curious exhibit of the industries of these little-known people, which includes a large number of agricultural products, cotton, silk, grass and hemp fabrics, tanned skins, paper, clothes, furniture, etc. The display of food products is very large and among them are rices, dried mushrooms and persimmons, salad oil, bamboo roots, the native sochu wine, and smoked and perfumed hams similar to that prepared by the Chinese, from the wild hog. The main interest attaching to the fabrics, which are generally of a poor quality, is in the curious mixture of cotton, hemp, silk and grass all woven together in the same piece. There is also a full set of culinary utensils and table furniture, including one of the king's own brass dinner sets; a complete smoker's paraphernalia; numerous court costumes, ancient armor, weapons, horse trappings, musical instruments, and a full display of native jewelry and a valuable collection of old pottery which the monarch proposes to present to some American museum.

Another of these far-away potentates who were moved to assert the standing of their own realms in the great family of nations was the Sultan of Johore, of the Malay peninsula, whose bust, formally unveiled by his premier, Dato Sri amar D'Raja, an Oxford graduate, presided over a fine array of tropical products, natural and artificial, from elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns to cases of exquisite needlework. These were all crowded into three leaf-covered, cane-walled pagodas in [the] Agricultural Building, the space allotted being only about one-tenth that required for a full display, when this exhibit was opened, about the middle of June. A still more imposing ceremony marked the formal dedication of the site of the Turkish Pavilion and the raising of the Sultan's flag in November, 1892; this taking [lvi] place in the presence of all of his subjects connected with the Exposition and a number who had come from Turkey especially for this occasion. A snow-white lamb, perfect and without belimish, the pick of a flock of five thousand, was led to the sacrifice, its eyes bandaged with a silken scarf, and as its innocent blood gushed forth under the stroke of the scimitar, the prelate sprinkled with the red drops the foundation of the Sultan's building and the Stars and Stripes fluttered down in salutation as the red flag of the Ottoman Empire, with its white crescent and lone star, rose to the top of the staff. Then all the assemblage rose from their knees, and shouted, "Vive le Sultan! Vive le President! and the two high priests called aloud in Turkish, "God give long life to the Sultan and to the President of the United States," which was repeated three times by all the faithful present.

The building thus dedicated and consecrated is said to be a reproduction of a public fountain in Constantinople, built some two hundred years ago by Selim the Great. It is a handsome rectangular pavilion, topped with a low, sloping, broad-eaved roof, adorned with five little domed towers, one in the centre and one at each corner. The entrance is through a handsome arched portal on one of the sides, and in the other three are set marble basins in which the water falls. The walls are embellished with alternate panels of inlaid wood and mother-of-pearl work, intricate carvings and texts from the Koran; and the interior is rich with mosaic floors, hangings, rugs and divans, and many objects of value and curiosity from the Stamboul museum and elsewhere. The Turkish village in the Midway Plaisance is said to be peopled by about two hundred men, women and children, and to be an imitation of one of the old streets of Constantinople. There are houses, mosques, kiosks and bazaars; all the manual trades of Turkey are shown by fifty workmen in thirteen houses; the muezzin calls the worshippers to prayer from the heights of the minaret, and behind the mosque is a room containing a tent once the property of the Shah of Persia and a solid silver bedstead weighing two tons. The theatre is finished in the interior after the manner of the handsome residences of Damascus; and the troupe is composed of sixty-five European and Syrian performers, in addition to a number of gypsies and Bedouins. The languages employed are Turkish and Arabic, and the performances include tragedy and comedy, dances, funeral, weddings, engagements and battles. In addition to all these varied displays, the "Dreams of Beauty," the exhibit of the embroideries of the Turkish Compassionate Fun, shown in a conspicuous place in the Woman's Building, are declared by some of the lady experts to seem to reach the highest grade of artistic needlework.

[lxi] Of the Spanish-American republics, the neighboring one of Mexico makes the largest display it has ever done, being represented in all departments of the Exposition except those of Live Stock and Electricity. Its principal demonstrations, naturally, are made in the Mines and Mining Building and in that of Manufactures, the choicest product of the country, onyx, being shown in great abundance and in a great variety of manufactures shapes, some of them being even more questionable than that of Hamlet's father. There are also examples of marble work, feather work, native modeling in clay, etc., but much of the manufactured product demonstrates the crudeness of the native arts. In the Mining Building specimens of gold, silver and copper ores are shown; in that of Machinery some two dozen different machines, of which one, a steel maguey wine mill, has a peculiar national interest. Indeed, the manufacture of liquors seems to possess a variety and an importance of its own, nearly every kind of plant in the country producing a distinctive drink, and all of them being appreciated. Samples of the famous national beverage, pulque, however, cannot be seen, as this liquor will not keep for any length of time. There is also an interesting display of tobacco and cigars, a large case full of hats of every kind, bronze castings, models of guns from the national ordnance foundry, and in the Transportation Building a large relief modeled map of the country showing the various means of communication and a great display of saddlery.

The little official building of Costa Rica stands near the head of the lagoon, nor far from the Art Gallery, and is variously described in the official catalogues as an "Aztec temple" and a Doric edifice. It is a plain rectangular structure, lit by large arched windows in the side walls, smaller ones in the clere-story and sky-lights in the roof. In the centre of each of the long sides is a high arched portico supported on columns under which one enters, the national coat-of-arms, carved in high relief, being placed over each entrance. Inside is a glowing display of tropical products of all kinds, including a number of gorgeously plumed birds and the sarsaparilla plant. At one end of the gallery is a large, long-distance landscape, the painted blue sky and white clouds of which are helped out by stuffed birds nailed to the canvas. Much more ornate is the neighboring building of Gautemala with its four square towers at the corners, crowned with tall, richly decorated domes and the walls adorned, within and without, with representations of tropical plants, flowers and other things. As this republic is more prosperous and better developed than Cost Rica, and equally rich in natural products, it makes a somewhat more ostentatious display. A great point is made of the native coffee, elaborate provisions being made to impress the visitor with its excellence when served fresh, with the accompaniment of pretty girls in becoming costumes, etc. In the matter of orchids, hieroglyphic stones, and carved Jicara masks and drinking cups, this country offers a special interest, it having taken a prize at Paris for the finest display of the first. Guatemalian exhibits may be found in the departments of Ethnology, Agriculture and Mines. It was intended to have these buildings surrounded by beautiful and well-appointed tropical gardens, but this does not seem to have been carried out quite successfully.

Among these foreign buildings should also be enumerated those of Columbia, Haiti and Siam. The first named is quite an important affair, in the Italian Renaissance style, and said to be modeled after the capitol at Bogota. The Haitian Building, much lower and less pretentious, is a one-story, Southern colonial edifice, surrounded on three sides by wide piazzas and with an incongruous little dome rising from [lxii] the centre of the roof. The Siamese building is a picturesque little piece of what the school-books used to call semi-civilized architecture, only twenty-six feet square, designed and constructed by native talent of teak wood, elaborately carved and gilded, and bearing proudly aloft the royal standard, the sacred white elephant on a red field.

Among the State buildings may be found exemplified all the various methods of solving the neat little problem of appropriate expression which might be supposed to present themselves to an intelligent architect or to an unintelligent layman. The readiest, and, when possible, the safest, form of thus crystallizing in concrete architectural shape all that the State means, - in history, in commerce, in the eyes of its inhabitants, - is, naturally, to select the typical, natural architectural style of the commonwealth, the New England Colonial for Massachusetts, the old Spanish mission form for California, the early settler's construction of logs for new communities like Washington and Idaho. The second method - when the character of the State is too cosmopolitan, or not sufficiently differentiated from that of its neighbors, or for some other reason, - is, evidently, to undertake to strike out an architectural emblem, as it were some edifice that would express justly the place in civilization of the commonwealth it stood for, as New York's little palace in the Italian Renaissance. The third broad method - or, perhaps, only the second method gone wrong - is by some mental process to arrive at such results as Vermont's Pompeian villa, or Arkansas' French rococo. Between these three distinct solutions of this knotty question there are, of course, innumerable shades of meaning and of no meaning, - for, as the painter, nowadays, seems to be emancipating himself more and more from the trammels of "literary art," the architect seems to be becoming involved in it. His edifice is now much more than a structure for shelter, - he has to be able to tell what it means. There are a great many meanings in the northwestern corner of Jackson Park, and many of them, it must be said, are very tolerably clear.

The scope and the limitations of this work alike forbid that entering into the details of the style, the proportions, the quality and quantity of the exhibits, of the various buildings of the Exposition which may be found in innumerable catalogues and other technical and popular publications. Some of these details are briefly set forth in the tissues of the various full-page plates.