South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1892-12-09

RRIDAY. pEoEMBER .. 1895.
at viii Be the Biggest and Most
Beautiful show Of the Age.''

People have thought for 30 long
that Chicago was merely place to
do business In" said James w.
Scott publisher of the Chicago
Herald, ''and have associated it
with the stockyarjs, where so ma
Ey hogs are killed and packed per
second, that the idea of its doing
anything in the artistic way seems
ridiculous. But want to say to
you Ehat the Worlds fair wiz be the
most beautiful thing ever seen. : -
s.The Paris exposition was mag
nificent, but I think the World 8
fair will DO finer. 1t is generally
conceded that American architects
are the best. We have more STYLES
and more style. Well, the beet ar
chitects in the country have form
ed into board, and while each has
been accorded free hand as to the
building which no has to design,
yet there has been q certain unifor-
nifty of design-say, for example,
in the size of the openings which
makes all the buildings seem the
work OF one great mind Of wonder
ful versatility.
"Alrea y you can see and appre-
ciate the magnificsnoe of these
buildings. They are magnificent.
There is nothing cheap looking
about them. The material of which
they are built looks like marbl. or
any other kind OF stone You choose
to make it, and yet it doesn't seem
! shabby.
| Here's a point. You know the
iron Orders of structures covering
as much ground as these.io are usu-
ally ugly. The architects realized
that this ironwork could net be hid
den. They have frankly exposed
ii, and they have glorified the COM
monplace. AS you stand and look
up at the ironwork it seems like
lace.
1.-The trouble in all these exposi-
tons has been that there has been
no grand scheme of color or archi-
lecture. One building would have
been handsome If it had been pIa
ced right or if it's color had not jar
red with that of its neighbor. All
4 hat has been avoided at Chicago.
Frederic Law Olmsted, who Is q
landscape architect, has planned
the site Of each building with ref
erence to the lagoon.
frank ID. Millet, whose posi-
ton in American art is we'll known,
has charge Of the whole scheme of
color and decoration. There won t
be a popcorn stand the lines of
which wont be in harmony with
that Of it's surrou cdings. There
will be electric launches plying on
the lagoon to carry people about,
and even the color of their avn
ings has been considered. know
people had an idea tut any.h 'ng
Chicago would do would be big, but
they also thought it would be a sort
OF rough pine lumber affair. Deco
rated with d white and u, print
stuff, with rows of stars in it. 1t
won't. Chicago people have made
their brags to their friends and
then have gone down 20 the grounds
and come away stupefed to find
that their widest boastlngs have
been double discounted.
"Wby, take the matter of flow
ers. Your Mr. John Thorpe, of
Flushing, a man known to every
florist in America, and friend to
every wealthy man who has an in
terest in beautiful plants, has said
to them, 4 want the best you We
got, and these rare plants he has
set out in their own earth already,
so that by the time the fair is open
ed for visitors those plants will look
as il they had been there q hundred
years.
Il can't begin to tell you OF all
the wonderful things there will be
to all, but | do wish it could be un-
derstood that this is distinctively
an American work and q demon
stration to the whole world that
while we can make money we have
the very best artistic feeling, and
can do anything We choose when
VIC give our mind TO il. Bxhibi-
tors from the European govern
ments who have had experience in
Paris, in Vienna, in London in
Berlin, when asked TO make sug-
gestions have thrown up their hands
in despair. They have made sug-
gestions, though, which have been
Of value, but they are amazed at
the way in which the thing has been
handled.
"As a sample OF the artistic feel
ing of the thing, let me tell you
that the art building, which is in
the style of the Parthenon, Is the
delight Of all the architects, be.
cause it is more purely Greek than
the Psrthen0n itself. That was
added to by the people who took
bits from outside atYles, bat the
man who designed the best building
had the Greek feeling 40 thorough
ly that he out Greeks the Greeks.
And yet it isn't stiff and formal,
but full of that, ] don't knew what,
that shows the man took pleasure
in bis work and made it almost q
living thing.
"There viii be buildings devoted
entirely 70 departments that in 9TH
or expeditions hare been showed OF
ia a corner, For example, mines