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| NORTH LAGOON FROM HORTICULTURAL BUILDING - Let
us call a gondola from under a bridge, and ask the price, or buy
tickets at the landing-booths. A very long boat comes to the steps
and the party is seated in the centre. Two very vigorous Italians
soon have the craft in the open lagoon, and we
learn that the rapid
motion is sustained in a scientific manner. Custom and heredity have
given to the forms and movements of these men a grace and force that
is not to be copied by the envious boatmen of our waters.
Occasionally the gondoliers speak to each other, but always
concerning the route. We pass southward to
the Basin, and make the
circuit of the Golden Statue. We note details
of architecture that
would have escaped us on land, and before the Agricultural Building
feast our eyes on the wilderness of statues that Martiny made to
swell the retinue of Ceres. We coast the
cascade of MacMonnies'
Fountain and return on the other side of the Wooded Island, measuring
the long facade of that building of the world, the Manufactures. The
approach to the Art Palace is another
memorable moment, and then we
return by this acqueous lane to our landing. The water has always
been fresh, and sometimes the sea-gulls have kept us company. As now
we gaze closely upon this enrichment of the facade of the
Horticultural Building, by Lorado Taft, the
reader may conceive how
closely we have been able to inspect the four thousand friezes,
cornices, spandrels, arches, entablatures, columns, windows, and
statues of the Fair. |
