The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-11-17
The Prisoner and the Columbian Fair
Site

The Prisoner and the Columbian Fair
Site.
The Worlds Fair grounds are already
in such state of preparation for the
Columbian Exposition next year as to
impress anyone with vivid sense of
their wonderful beauty. We have just
seen them. Our Superintendent, how
ever, was there some time ago when all
was rough, and he was impressed then
with the fact, which others are able to
bear even more emphatic testimony to-
namely, that these grounds, originally,
to an unpracticed eye, must have seemed
very unattractive. They were a rough
and unpromising bit of territory; part
of it was marshy. If we had looked
upon it in this condition undoubtedly
place here fit to be site for the won
derful celebration which is coming
But the trouble would not have been
with the ground, but with ourselves
The wonderful capacity was there. even
though we might not have seen it.
That territory had in it even then the
great possibilities which are not only
just beginning to be demonstrated
The eye of good Judge of such things
would have seen all this then. And no
doubt such a judge did see what the
land was, even when in this wild con-
ditiOn. Perhaps he saw then what it
might be as plainly as we can see it now
and perhaps more plainly than we can
even see it.
There is a lesson here for our own
life. Perhaps we look upon prisoners
sometimes with discOuragement. Per-
+hapS we say there is small chance, and
we are tempted to prOphesy evil. Still
| it is just as sure that the prisoner has
the capacity in him for noble future
as that there was a capacity in these
grounds for all that Jackson Park will
hencefOrth be-
Mr.. Chauncey DepeW some time ago
went to Chicago and was perfectly
charmed. He had seen the marvelS of
other Fairs upon European soil, where
| the wealth of EmperOrS and the genius
of their most talented advisers had been
called into requiSitiOn.
Perhaps he had thought that this Ex-
position ought to be in New York; per-
haps he had had many misgivings
about Chicago. But they all vanished
upon the occasion of this recent visit
to which we have referred. He was
rapturOus in his praises. He was con-
tident that nothing that he had seen yet
in the history of Worlds Fairs would
compare with what the artists and the
committees of Chicago were preparing
for the Columbian year.
The special charm of the present ar
rangement of Jackson Park comes to
it by the introduction of water. The
very marsh which seemed at first per-
hapS exceedinly ugly, is now the central
feature of the beauty of every part of
this area occupied by the immense
buildings of the Exposition. The wa
ter goes into shining channels. and
lakelets, and lagoons. Bridges and
arches, themselves marvelS of beauty,
span these waters in every direction,
while the immense temples of indus
try, and lesser but fairy-like structures,
look down upon them from all direc-
tiOns. Thousands we suppose are there
now daily paying the admission fee to
go in and see even the incOmpleteness
of the plan. What will it be when the
work is done!
We shall not undertake to describe
Jackson Park; what we have said al
ready is but an unsatisfactory hint.
Our object in making this reference to
it is simply to point the lesson. A
place perhaps that no one at first
thought suitable is beyound doubt the
place of all the world for this great ce-
Iteration And SO the life which seems
to us broken, the life which seems per-
haps destitute of promise, has the ca
pacity of yet becoming one that the
angels themselves shall look upon with
wonder and jOy.-O,w Paper.
Prince Coloredo Mansfield, proprietor
of a vast domain in Bohemia, has mort
0aOed his estates for $50 600 600 FORMS