Jasper County Democrat, Volume 16, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1914 — Marvelous Works of Art for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition [ARTICLE]

Marvelous Works of Art for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

World’s Greatest Sculptors and Painters Completing r—i Superb Decorative Masterpieces .

VISIONS OF ARCHITECTS COME TRUE AS VAST EXHIBIT PALACES RISE ON SHORES OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY

Whole World Will Be Represented at America’s Eighty Million Dollar Panama Cans! Celebration. \\ orrfferful progress has been attained in the superb Panama-Pacific Intel national Exposition to be held in San Francisco in 1915 to celebrate the opening of the Panama canal. Thousands of men are now at work upon the exposition grounds and tho plans of the great architects for the city of expos tion palaces are more clearly revealed than they were by the first published designs and drawings. The huge main exhibit section is fast nearing completion and a world s record has been established in exposition building. I’housands of sightseers flock to the exposition grounds every Sunday and on holidays visitors are not permitted during working hours because of the njury which might result to them. From the work already accomplished the visitor gains a vision of the exposition as it will appear when completed, uge groups of statuary, executed by the world’s most famous sculptors, have been enlarged and may be seen upon the exposition grounds. Hundreds of acres, once a vast barren waste, have been transformed Into beautiful park-like areas covered with green sward in which are being set thousands of rare trees, plants and shrubs, converting the grounds into a semi-tropical paradise. A wonderful color plan has been designed by Jules Guerin, world famous decorative artist, and superb mural paintings to decorate the walls and porticos of the vast exposition courts have reached San Francisco. Several hundred, thousand dollars have been expended upon these paintings alone. 'A' -AA. A■ A' . In the opinion of notable authorities in world’s expositions the PanamaI acific International Exposition has attained a greater degree of progress than that reached in any other formal world’s exposition at a period so far in advance of Its opening. Hundreds of great conventions and congresses, whose delegates will come from all parts of the world, will meet in San Francisco during the exposition year. A wonderful display of the exhibits from all parts of the world is assured. At this writing thirty-one of the nations have officially accepted the invitation of the United States to take part in the exposition. Construction has begun upon the foreign pavilions and upon the concessions section. The concessions district will be one of the most marvelous features of the exposition grounds, entailing an expenditure of more than $10,000,000. In the estimate of the comptroller, the exposition will involve an expenditure of eighty million dollars up to Its openirig day. The opening ceremonies of the exposition will be in peculiar accord with its International character. President Wilson’s invitation to the nations to be represented with detachments of their battleship fleets as the official celebration has met with an enthusiastic response; it is believed that more than two hundred battleships will be assembled at Hampton Roads, off the West Virginia coast, late in 1914. This magnificent fleet, the most formidable array of naval warcraft ever gathered together and representing the pick of the fighting strength of the world’s navies, will proceed from Hampton Roads through the Panama canal, gathering in the Caribbean sea in time for the formal opening of the Panama canal on January Ist, 1915; thence the fleet will proceed to the Golden Gate, assembling off the site of the exposition, which opens on February 20, 1915. The dramatic passage of the fleet can be easily imagined. The eyes of the whole world will be upon this vast array of battleships as they steam to the scene of America’s brilliant Panama canal celebration.