Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1904 — GREATNESS OF THE ST. LOUIS WORLD’S FAIR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GREATNESS OF THE ST. LOUIS WORLD’S FAIR

Chicago, Paris and Buffalo Expositions Could Be Swallowed Up in It, with Room Left for Omaha, Atlanta or Charleston.

BY ROBERTUS LOVE.

THE World's Fair at St. Louis will the greatest exposition ever held. The superlative adjective Describing this exposition i* used with authority. The acreage of the Loitisi.um . I Include the combined acreage of the World's (.’olunibian..Exposliion at ,Clii-, cago iu 1893, the Paris exposition in -1889 and the Pan-American exposition at Buffalo in 1900, with space enough left over to accommodate an exposition like that of Omaha of Atlanta or Charleston. Upon these 1,240 acres has been bujlt tin asr scmldage o.f edifices 'surpassing in architectural splendors "ihe grandeur that reas Greece and the glory that was Koine.“ Within these buildings is being installed a universal collection of the products of nature and man. more comprehensive, more diversified, more interesting to the. average human than ever tvas attempted before in* the. history of die iae*. -—The World's Fair at St. Lottis is far greater than was contemplated by its creators, it has been estimated that at least thirty per cent of the extent of this exposition has been added to file original conception, the promoters <d the enterprise merely promising at the outset 'that, they 'would build an exposition larger and more universally inclusive titan any predecessor. The enterprise lias grown by involuntary accretion. Like a snowball set rolling, it has gathered size and solidity, until it now is crystallized into a thing of such immensity that even the men who set rhe ball a-roliing marvel at its magnitude. Great Exposition Site. The exposition- sitwds-a mile and a quarter by a mile and thrre-qtnrrters- in extent. Six miles of fence enclose the grounds. The Intramural Railway, op-

Honed the Mining Gulch of eleven acres, situated in a natural ravine runningout frdm the edge of the main picture of the exposition, where ’the processes of mining and reducing the various metals of coinbe demonstruted daily..at. model mines and furnaces in actual operation: the physical culture section,

erntNl by eh*Hri<4fy. which has just boon completed, has fourteen miles of track; it runs around the exposition as a licit line, with loops to take passengers into the midst of the magnificence here ami there, ami there arc seventeen stations nt which the sightseer may got aboard or alight. The World's Eair has nineteen exhibit palaces. The outdoor exhibits include several features of striking novelty* and extent that never have been seen at any exposition. Among these may be men-

vlmrir iiichtdes a for gymnasium exhibitions and an outdoor stadium like tlrose of ancient Greece, where wHI-be-hehl the quadrennial Olympian games and many other notable athletic c ontests; the rose garden < f six acres; in which will he in bloom 50,0(10 roses of various hues; the Aerial Convojtrse, —firmi which greah- airships tr im various countries will start upon the contest for the grand prize of S2OO,(MM> ajal a number of lesser prizes; tire Sunken Garden between two of the grand exhibit palaces; the Gardens of the Nations, several foreign countries having reproduced, iqsin the liberal allotment of gr.ujnd surrounding their government I iijidings, some of the famous gardens of their chief cities or monarchical estates. Features of Enormous Magnitude. Another feature* of enormous magnitude 'which no other exposition has known, even on a small scale, is the Philippine island# Exposition—aptly termed an exposition within an exposition. This occupies forty acres and in- < hides a group of buildings having names familiar to those of the main exposition —Education, Agriculture. Ethnology, Government and the like. One thousand natives of the islands will live in this Filipino reservation during the World's Fair, carrying on the occupations in which they engage at home, so that the neneral visitor may observe here in St. Louis a considerable bit of the life and e nterprise* of the far off archipelago. A leprodpeticm of a part of the walled city of Manila is one of the interesting features of this enterprise, and there are huts and shacks ami large buildings constructed by the natives themselves, of native bamboo and nipa, and outfitted with native household utensils and furniture. There is more than a mile's length of pictpresque lagoons, upon which the "Venetian gondolier will push the Venetian gondola. Festival Hall, the central architectural feature of the has a dome larger than that of the cathedral

of St. "Teter, and there is being .set up within this home of music the largest pipe organ ever constructed. The Cascade Gardens are new to expositions. Terraced hillsides leading down from Festival Hall jind the Colonnade of States to the Grand Basin, or lagoon, are fitted with stately stairways, whose bal-

uslrades' and landings support statues by the world's most famous sculptors; and down the slopes rush and.roar the wiiiers from splendid fountains, leaping and splashing over artificial cascade constructions.

Government Well Represented. 'The United States government is represented' aS neAT*rl>efoi‘e. Therh is a main Government building in which all the administrative and executive departments of the government will show exhibits, and the Smithsonian Institution and other governmental enterprises of general interest will have space. There Is a separate building devoted to fisheries, in which the United States Fish Commission is to make an exhibit of living fishes and other water foods and commercial products, from the minnow to the whale. There is an Indian exhibit wilii a separate building, wherein Will be

■ (Corner entrance. The doorway Is 90 feet high and the building covers nine acres.) ■ * — : --——- ————————— Indian Schools in open session, and alltribes of the red man will be represented elhnologieully and otherwise The Alaska exhibit will astonish -the world, in showing the marvelous agricultural resources of Uncle Sam's “farthest north” territory. The government also has extensive exhibits of the life-saving sert ice, the army and navy armament stnd Vessels, the Bureau of Plant Industry, tie Agricultural College, forestry and other branches of industry and enterprise. A, ground map of the United States, covering several acres and showing each State growing its most distinctive crops, is one special feature. Forty-seven States and territories of .the United States are participating in the fair. All but three or four of these have Hepiirute buildings. Some of tlie Slate buildings are as large ami elegant as exhibit palaces at an ordinary exposition. More than .SG,<MMi.I)OO is the aggregate of appropriation for State'and territory participation. Fifty foreign governments are taking part in tills World’s Fair. Most of them will have buildings of their own. ■♦limy of these foreign buildings are Completed ami others are going up rapidly. Germany, Great Britain, France. Japan, Russia, Brazil, Belgium and other nations have erected buildings larger and more ornate than*any foreign government structures ever seen at an exposition

GOLDENROD,” PALACE OF EDUCATION.

SOUTHERN FACADE, PALACE OF VARIED INDUSTRIES—COVERS FOURTEEN' ACRES.

PALACE OF MACHINERY—THIS BUILDING COVERS TEN ACRES.

PALACE OF LIBERAL ARTS.