The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-08-26
Fhe WORLDS columDian Rxposition
rspeeial Correspondence d The Democratic Adve


Nineval. almost faded from our traditions of
the worlds infancy. revisits us in her freshly
eAhumed sculptures, and in the vivid nara
tons of Layard. The Egypt of Sesostris and
the Pharaohs survives no less in her pyramids
and obelisks, than in the ever-enduring rec
ords OF Moses aud Manetho. Jerusalem, in
her lonely humiliation, best typifes the He
brew State and race. Ancient Rome lives
for us in the Capitol and Coliseum. as does
her medieval and sacerdoial offspring in st.
Peters and the Vatican. Royal and feudal
France, the France of Richelieu and Louis
lie Grand, still fingers in the boundless mag
nifcence and prodigality, the snowy sieges
and battle pieces of Versailles. The Eng
land Of the last three centuries confronts us
in the Bank-not IL very stately or graceful
edifce. it must be confessed; but very sub
stahtial and well furnished-the fit hearts
core of a trading, money getting people. So
we Americans of the Nineteenth Century will
be found in due time to have inscribed our
selves most legibly, though all unconsciously,
on the earth's unfading records-how, or IN
what, time alone can tell. We have built
railroads over the Rocky Mountains; we have
laid telegraphs under the Atlantic; we have
erected weather bureau wherein ali the
storms and Gains at any moment prevailing
within our atmosphere are portrayed as ON
common dial. plate, and the storms which may
take place at any point during the next day
or week, with their several directions and
intensities, are noted and published in adj
vance for the guidance of mankind. Our
characteristic monument, the thought which
shall render the age most memorable, may
take some form very different from any OF
these. Essential History still insists on writ
ing itself, and viii not be controlled nor an.
ticipated.
The great Columbian Exposition, with its
contents and purposes, is the clearest and
broadest expression yet given 10 the spirit and
aspirations Of our time-aspirations not wholly
nslerable, nor even comprehensive as yet,
but sufficiently so 10 demand and reward our
deepest attention.
tits the greatest structure ever consecrated
to the uses of Universal Industry, 1t is the
greatest enterprise ever devoted to the ad-
vancement and diffusion of the Useful Arts
throughout the world-the one in which, to
the greatest extent consistent with individual
se!fishness, the arcana of skill and production
have been thrown open to all mankind, with
an express invitation "Come hither and see
how the most successful workers accomplish
their ends, and learn to rival or excel them
if you can-come hither and see what our
mother earth produces for the comfort and
her bounty if you can y
Herein is assembled the greatest general
convention or council of the Captains Of In
dustry-the greatest practical Peace Con-
gress-widest in scope, loftiest in aim, most
intensely in earnest, ever held.
Magnificent in conception, and most tri.
umphant in execution. this grand and fruitful
enterprise deserved something beyond the
journalists fleeing paragraph or more preten-
tious general description. We cannot waste
the time we may devote to its contemplation
in n series of articles, even though the writer
should succeed no farther than in drawing
repeated attention to the subject, leaving it
to be pondered unaided, unembarrassed, by
his crude and hasty suggestions.
Who first proposed the grand Exposition,
it is hardly worth while to inquire. The
thought might have presented itself to any
mind and in fact probably did present itself
simultaneously, or at least independently, to
several. 1t was natural suggestion of the
prevailing disposition to celebrate with pomp
and circumstance every event which marks
an epoch in our history; while the form it
took was natural sequence of the all pervad-
ing spirit of enterprise generated by Com.
merce, of the rapid march of Discovery and
Invention, of the steady growth and at length
realized importance ofthe Useful Arts. Good
ideas are rather abundant in onr day-too
plentiful to obtain much credit from busy,
practical, over-worked generation. But in
this instance the seed fell on good ground,
and the result is an immense, though not yet
fully gathered harvest Much credit is due
to those who first gave the idea hospitality
and nurtured it until it expanded, in the warm
sunshine of State and Governmental favor,
into the benignaut reality whereto the nations
of the earth are gathered.
Nor is it needful that we concern ourselves
about where to place the proper credit for the
architectural dream which has been so grandly
realized. 1t is enough that the greatest prob
lem of the kind which ever engaged the human
intellect has been fully and completely solved.
TlfsFe was- required the most eapaeious, con-
veKient, healthful and magnificent shelter
ever devised for the collected productions OF
the world, and many minds and many hands
combined to meet the requirement
A single building like the London Crystal
Palace of 1851, spacious and admirable as 1T
was deemed in its day, would have been a
useless TOY in the present emergency. The
Centennial buildings of 1876, daring in scope,
immense in acreage, and elegant in adorn-
ment, as they unquestionably were, seemed
paltry and insignificant. Even the Paris
Exposition, surprising all previous attempts
in way of wonderful structures, ingenious
devices, and wealth of details, was useful only
as a basis of computation.
The home Of the Columbian Fair must be,
not palace or collection of palaces merely,
but u magnificent capital of the civilized
world, and at the same time an adequate ex-
preston ofthe multiform life, activity, genius,
culture, humanity and manhood ofthat world s
most soulful nation.
Steal into it at nghtfall, by way Of the
water, Just as darkness is deepening over the
marvellous White City, and the buildings and
grounds are bursting into subdned splendor
with hundred thousand incandescent lights,
giving to facade and foliage weird, unnat-
ural CLEAN like the work offairyland; and the
marble palaces, with their massive colon
nades, classic pediments, ample arches and
airy mnarets, speak TO the fancy with mute
elo1nence of Ancient Greece, and Egypt, and
the father East, while the moving throng
around and among them impressively suggest
New York and London, Paris and Pekin,
Berlin and Bombay, Moscow and Mecca,
Constantinople and Quito Of today, as il the
ends of the earth, in time as well as distance.
had come together; and the lagoons, winding
gracefully among their wooded islands, under
their arching bridges, are gay with gondolas
from stately Venice and electric launches
from Menlo Park, stealing silently along
through the alternate ink of shadow and silver
of moonbeam; and the gorgeous electric foun-
tain is spouting its twenty-four Jets high IN
air ON either side, each jet different color,
or IFS twenty four enormous wheat sheaves Of
water in silver and gold, pink and blue, pur-
nle and white, green and red, with a giant
spray in the centre changing color every mo-
ment like an aquatic Kaleidoscope, or under
tie rays Of an intense white light all com.
bining to form what looks like an iceberg in
an arctic snnbeam;-take this view Of il and
YOU will be able TO get some conception of
The complete success with which the enacting
conditions Of the problem have been satisfied.
And daylight will not destroy the illusion,
but by appealingt to the judgment rather than
the fancy, will confirm, enlarge and deepen
YOUR approval and admiration.
Earth has been ransaeked for alluring mar
yels; SCIENCE has racked its brains for bril-
liant combinations Art has exhausted its
subtle alchemy in quest of dazzling effects;
Labor has poured out its sweat like rain, to
fill the grand receptacle with whatever is
beautiful. interesting and winning. Yet the
NNra II. al.