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| THE COURT OF HONOR - This splendid scene, the
triumph of the Columbian year, has evoked unfeigned praise from the
very heart of civilization. Whether we look upon this spectacle by
day, under a blue sky that is clarified by the refliection of the
limpid waters of Lake Michigan; or by night, when fretted with fires
that out-spangle the vault of heaven, with flying fountains bathed in
floods of rainbow lights, and overlooking domes bejeweled with
glittering crowns, and waters resounding with choral song or echoing
the soft splash of Venetian oars - we feel that the dream of hope has
come true. The victory of Art and Soul over the moods of tempestuous
Nature is bulletined on every architrave and joyously proclaimed from
the mouths and the trumps of a thousand heroes and angels. Nowhere
else in the modern world have the skill and genius of sculptor and
architect been so prodigally bestowed. The Court of Honor is itself
a fabulous fountain, curbed with high palaces and colonnaded, on
whose fronts are marshaled the army of Art's kingdom. Along these
friezes, pediments, facades, springing with every arch, sitting high
on every column, holding office at each portal, may be seen some
memorable groups that came from the sculptor's brain in obedience to
the confident call of a glorious nation that was to invite the Elder
Hemisphere to its august festival. Brooched on the bosom of the
scene is the MacMonnies' Fountain, which cost $50,000, and was made
in Paris. On the right is the Agricultural Building, remarkable for
the wealth and beauty of the sculptor Martiny's statuary - his
Zodiacs and bovine groups, his Four
Races, bearing their armillary spheres. In the Basin towers the golden statue of the Republic, sixty feet high, by Daniel C.
French. In the distance is the Peristyle, so-called, and on the left the
mountainous Manufactures Building , the
largest structure so far erected within historical times. |
