Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1901 — BUFFALO’S BIG SHOW [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BUFFALO’S BIG SHOW

PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION A GORGEOUS DISPLAY. Plenty of Contrast and Color, Unlike the Chicagra Fair—A Correspondent Says It’s Well Worth Crossins the Continent to See. Buffalo correspondence: The Pan-American exposition In many respects ought to be the most successful international exposition ever held in America. The Centennial at Philadelphia and the Columbian World’s Fair at Chieago are the only exhibitions that can fairly be compared with the Pan-Ameri-can at Buffalo. Each of those was held in a slough of bad times. The nation was sick at heart. Most of the people were too poor for entertainments. Buffalo gets the benefit of the most marvelous rush of prosperity the country has ever, known. She has the advantage, too, of eight years of scientific progress over Chicago,

and of twenty-five years over PhiiadeJphia—a quarter of a century as full of miracles as half a dozen centuries irl slower times. And then she has Niagara Falls—a thing no other city coukl have matched eight years ago, or twenty-five, or at any other time— It is a happy thought of Buffalo to invite the world to come and see the falls while she has them. They will not last very long. Even if they were left to themselves they would probably wear away and disappear within the next ten or fifteen thousand, years, but industrial enterprise is not likely to let us keep them even as long as that. Within the next half century the Niagara river may be all running through a double row of electric power tunnels, leaving nothing but a dry cliff where now the cataract surges. So all should hasten to Buffalo

and prepare to tell their grandchildren truthfully that they once looked upon the glory of Niagara Falls. The Pan-American Exposition is well worth crossing the continent to see. The buildings here, excepting those erected by the government for its exhibits, are in variegated tints the very opposite of the white city at Chicago. Opulent contrasts are offered by the red tile roofs, with the greens, yellows and other tasteful tints of the walls, and the blues, reds, gold, purple and other rich hues used in the decoration of the pavilions, archways, cornices and towers of the Spanish renaissance architecture in which all the buildings are harmoniously constructed. At night the electric illuminations bring out in full the beauties of the statuary and of the many cascades. The effect is wonderful. Over 500,000 incandescent

lights are used in the marvelous illumination. The things that greet the eye of the visitor in the Rainbow City give one a comfortable feeling, and the greetings of the Buffalo people enhance the pleasure. Comparisons are bound to be made between the I’nn-Ainerieari Exposition and the Chicago World’s Fair. But the conditions are so different that comparisons are out of order. Experts in such affairs who have made a study of both displays say the effects at Buffalo are more satisfactory because of the warmth iu the coloring of the buildings, which gives a variety that was lacking in the White City. • , . , . These Pan-Americnn grounds include 133 acres of improved park lands and are completely surrounded by big trees, lagoons, canals and waterways. At the north is the railway approach, and at -the south or city end is a shaded boule-

vard, the Lincoln parkway. The visitor, once in, stands with the music gardens at the left, the court of State and foreign buildings at the right, and the triumphal bridge in front, from which he sees ev*. erything. On the east are the United States government buildings, on the west the buildings devoted to horticulture, forestry, mines and graphic arts. Directly in front is the esplanade, reaching to the court of fountains, with its bubbling cascades from the electric tower. At the right of the court of fountains are the ethnology, manufactures and liberal arts buildings; to the left the temple of music, machinery and transportation buildings. The mall runs east and west across the north end of the court of fountains, and in front of the electric tower, east and west of which will l»e respectively the agriculture and the electricity buildings. At the right, north of the mall, will be the stadium, “Just like the old Coliseum of Rome,” say the Buffaloes, and on the left the midway. “Something like the old Columbian midway," they explain.

ETHNOLOGY BUILDING.

ELECTRICITY BUILDING AT THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION.

SERVICE BUILDING.