Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1893-11-08
RecoIlecttons Of the Fair.

In an article on Inc Ia5e 10y " S
Fair" in late number of HarPer's weesty'
Mr. Richard Harding Davis wrote charming
ly of the nightly Illumination OF the Court
of Honor"-a scene that every visitor to
the Fair remembers with pleasure. 1t was
best to be enjoyed from the water, in Ven
etian gondola or an electric launch. III
you are in launch on the water you can
give yourself up entirelyto the scene around
you, and you have the added wonder of the
sight of thousands of people massed in 81
lent rows around the edge Of the lagoon,
Just as though they were waiting for some
great event to happen, or for some miracle
in keeping with the tremendous beauty OF
the scene about them. People try to give
you an idea of this scene by comparing II
to Venice on the nights when that city is
illuminated, and to the beauty of the Acrop-
oils when it is shown off by colored lights
and fireworks. This is the best the Old
World can do towards helping us to under
stand this city of the New World. But 1t
is not enough for while Venice has the ef-
fects of the lights on the water, she has not
the great buildings grouped so closely and
so grandly together, nor are the Parthenon
and the other ruins of the Acropolis on a
scale of sufficient grandeur to make one I'M
derstand in any particular the extent OF the
temples of the Lake Front. 1t is like try
ing to appreciate the Sphinx in the desert
by the little bronze copy you use for paper
weight. This same Sphinx by moonlight
was the most impressive thing | saw in the
East Not as one sees it by day, with tour
lists and photographers and donkey-boys
making it cheap and familiar, but at night,
when the tourists had gone to bed, and the
donkey boys had been paid to keep out OF
sight and the moonlight threw the great
negro face aud the pyramids back of it into
masses of black and silver, and the yellow
desert stretched away on either side so emp
ty and silent that one though; he was alone
and back two thousand years in the past,
discovering these great monuments for the
first time. And yet the Court of Honor
illuminated was as much more impressive
than this as the ocean by moonlight is more
impressive than the painted ocean on the
back drop of theatre. And the curious
wonder of the sight is that while all of the
great monuments of the Old World have
historical values back of them to help their
impressiveness, these of the Worlds Fair
have nothing to speak for them but what
lies before you. They have no past TO help
them and, what is worst of all. they have
no future. That every one who has visited
the Fair should feel this so keenly is signif-
icant of one of its greatest qualities. 1t is
this peculiar charm which makes you feel
that it has become part of you and of your
experience; you have made your home there
as you do in certain cities and not in others,
and as you certainly never did in any other
Worlds Fair. You find you have grown
TO want certain Of its views and vistas, and
that you have accustomed yourself to its
ways and its comforts. You cannot give up
the thought that you will never again glide
through the lagoons at night in n gondola,
with Venetian singing Santa Lucia at
the bow, and with the wooded islands glow
ing with fairy lamps like fire-fies, and the
ducks and swans hurrying out of your way,
or that you cannot sweep into the Court of
Honor and feel your own insignificance as
the search lights turn and twist like fenc-
ers foil. pointing down to the fountain or
up to the winged angels, or stealing along
the length of the Peristyle silently as one
who shows something to you and makes no
comment, knowing there is none to make"