Volume V Part 25 (2/2)

Much of the sculpture, was careless in execution--not surprising when we consider that over 500 pieces were set up in less than five months, and that the artists' models had to be enlarged by machinery. But in vigor and originality of thought and as a testimony to the progress which art had made in this country, the exhibit was truly wonderful. All the arts were employed. To many it was mainly an Art Exhibition, the artistic feature making a stronger impression than any other. As a work of art the Exposition could not but effect permanent good, demonstrating what may be done to beautify our cities and dwellings and cultivating our love for the beautiful in art and nature.

The supreme glory of the Exposition lay in its electrical illumination.

Niagara was used to create a city of light more dazzling than any dream.

”As the moment for the illumination approached, the band hushed and a stillness fell upon the mult.i.tude. Suddenly dull reddish threads appeared on the globes of the near-by lamp-pillars. A murmur of expectation ran through the crowd. For an instant the great tower seemed to pulse with a thread of life before the eye became sensible to what had taken place. Then its surfaces gleamed with a faint flush like the flush which church spires catch from the dawn. This deepened slowly to pink and then to red... . In a moment the architectural skeletons of the great buildings had been picked out in lines of red light. Then the whole effect mellowed into luminous yellow. The material exposition had been transfigured, and its glorified ghost was in its place... . Every night this modern miracle was worked by the rheostat housed in a humble shed somewhere in the inner recesses of the exposition.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lighted buildings reflected in the water.]

The Electric Tower at Night.

The centre of light was the Tower. It was suffused with the loveliest glow of gold, ivory, and delicate green, all blending. The lights revealed and interpreted the architecture softening the colors and adding the subtle charm of mystery. A hundred beautiful hues were reflected in the waters of the fountains. The floral effects made by submerged lights in the basin were exquisite, and the witchery of the scene was indescribable.

The chaining of Niagara for electric purposes was of course a prominent feature of the fair. Electricity was almost, or quite, the sole motor used on the grounds; 5,000 horsepower being directly from Niagara's total of 50,000. Niagara circulated the salt water in the fisheries and kept their water at the right temperature. It operated telephones, phonographs, soda fountains, the big search-lights, the elevators, the machines in the Machinery Building, the shows and illusions in the Midway.

At Chicago we were ashamed of the Midway. We had since learned to play.

Buffalo used utmost ingenuity to provide sensations and novelties. The Midway was made fascinating. You saw in it every variety of buildings, representing all countries from Eskimodom to Darkest Africa. Cairo had eight streets with 600 natives. The Hawaiian and Philippine villages were centres of interest, revealing the every-day life of our new-won lands. In Alt-Nurnberg you dined to the strains of a German orchestra.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Triumphal Bridge and entrance to the Exposition, showing electric display at night.

The magnificent amphitheatre, covering ten acres, a monument to American athletics, was built after the marble Stadium of Lycurgus at Athens. An Athletic Congress celebrated American supremacy in athletic sports. The programme included basket-ball tournaments, automobile, bicycle, and track and field champions.h.i.+p races, lacrosse matches, and canoe ”meets.”

The exhibits at Buffalo, though less ample, naturally showed advance over the corresponding ones at Chicago. The guns and ammunition of the United States ordnance department excited interest, for we were now making our own war supplies. A picturesque log building was devoted to forestry. The Graphic Arts Building showed the great strides made in printing and engraving. A model dairy was operated in a quaint little cottage on the grounds. Fifty cows of the best breeds were tested and the tests recorded.

A conservatory contained a very fine collection of food plants, alive and growing, sent from South and Central America; also eight different kinds of tea plants from South Carolina. A small coffee plantation and some vanilla vines had been transplanted from Mexico. Nearly every country in Spanish America was represented. Cuba, San Domingo, Ecuador, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, and Canada had buildings. Sections in the Government Building were devoted to exhibits from Porto Rico, the Hawaiian Islands, and the Philippines.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The Electricity Building.

The United States Government Building was most interesting. New inventions made its exhibits live. In place of reading reports and statistics, you saw scenes and heard sounds. Cla.s.s-room songs and recitations were reproduced by the graphophone. The biograph showed naval cadets marching while at the same time you heard the band music.

Labor-saving machines were represented in full operation. Pictures by wire, the mutoscope, and type-setting by electricity were among the wonders shown. Every day a crew of the life-saving service gave a demonstration, launching a life-boat and rescuing a sailor. Near by was a field hospital, where wounded soldiers were cared for. Many of the newest uses for electricity were displayed. Never before had lighting been so brilliant or covered such large areas, or such speed in telegraphy been attained, or telephoning reached such distances. The akouphone, a blessing to the deaf, was exhibited, as were also the powerful search-lights now a necessity at sea.

CHAPTER XIX.

MR. MCKINLEY'S END

[1901]

Upon invitation President and Mrs. McKinley visited the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. September 5, 1901, the first day of his presence, the Chief Magistrate delivered an address, memorable both as a sagacious survey of public affairs and as indicating a modification of his well-known tariff opinions in the direction of freer commercial intercourse with foreign nations.

”We must not,” he said, ”repose in fancied security that we can forever sell everything and buy little or nothing.” ... ”The period of exclusiveness is past.” ”Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times; measures of retaliation are not.” ... ”If perchance some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad?” In connection with this thought the President expressed his conviction that we must encourage our merchant marine and, in the same commercial interest, construct a Pacific cable and an Isthmian ca.n.a.l.

The projects of Mr. McKinley's statesmans.h.i.+p thus announced were approved by nearly the entire public, but they were destined to be carried out by other hands. On his second day at Buffalo, Friday, September 6th, about four in the afternoon, the President stood in the beautiful Temple of Music receiving the hundreds who filed past to shake hands with him. A sinister fellow, resembling an Italian, tarried suspiciously, and was pushed forward by the Secret Service attendants.

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