The record-union., 1893-05-27
At THE FAIR.
A Growing Exhibit Something of
the Curious Gatherings,
Manufactures Building the Admiration
of Every Visiror-Tour Through
the Main Avenue.
[Chicago Herald. May 17th.l ]

OAANA Va OOAuIllDld DIV GLuG W Vic OLll6E yes
terday afternoon. That is not very
long gthoroughfare-onlya third Of mile
but he was more than an hour covering
1t. He was common, everyday Amer
lean citizen when he started. At each
step it seemed to him he swelled in his
own estimation. At the clock tower he
was proud enough to ascend that struct-
ure and make Fourth of July speech.
AT the end Of his walk he wanted to
wear an eagle on his hat and shout till
his throat should be stiff. 1t was not
solely as an American that he was filled
with exaltation, but as a member of the
human race. He was lifted up with pride
in the achievements of his fellow man,
and in satisfaction that his own country
was the host OF such a splendid company.
Columbia avenue, you of course know,
is the broad thoroughfare which traverses
the center OF the greatest building that
ever was. it runs through the manu-
tactures and liberal arts building from
the grand court to the plaza at the north
ern end. A walk down this thorough
fare is like tour of the world in sixty
minutes. Though if you are to do it in
sixty minutes you must fifty times re-
press an impulse to linger beside some
new marvel in the handiwork of man and
go marching on. You cannot beat the
record in a trip around the world and
stop and see all the grand cathedrals and
picturesque ruins and beautiful women
and inviting galleries of art.
Columbia avenue was picture yester-
day. For the first time in its history it
was really ready for the world tourists
who came tramping through it. For the
lrst time 1t gave a satisfactory glimpse
of the glory it is to be when finally per-
Fact nd fhr t,,,.,,
goes on, but the little there is simply
serves to enliven the scene, to give
glimpse of process as well as a panorama
Of result. 1t is to-day the worlds most
noble and inspiring thoroughfare. 1t is
the avenue down which the man on whom
the hand of fate has fallen and whose
steps iii this world are few should choose
to expend the last remaining atoms of his
strength.
FOLLOWING THE STARS AND STRIPES.
The American citizen just seen emerg-
ing in pride aud eXaltation entered the
avenue from the central court. He had
not been there before. The first thing he
did was to stand fully five minutes gaz-
ing at the immensity of the inclosure
trying to comprehend it, instinctively
but vainly seeking adiectives with which
to characterize it, and finally giving it all
up, as man gives up trying to measure
the ocean or count The stars, conceding it
to be too vast and wonderful for the
range alike of his vision and his mind.
No one told him which way TO go, but
away over his head, be couldn't guess
how many hundred feet was a line of
pendent stars and stripes extending so
far in perspective of red and white that
he could not see the iartheSt. For aught
he knew to the contrary the line led away
to Lincoln Park or to the pineries of
Wisconsin,; but wisely concluding that
IL
way he could afford to go he set out for
the 'tarthest north' and thus entered
upon Columbia avenue.
At the very outset he paused TO note the
graceful outlines of the Italian pavilion;
to see the faces OF the greatest human pro-
ducts OF the land OF the blue sky-Chris-
tOtOro Colombo and Michael Angelo-in
bas relief either side of the central arch:
to peep at beautiful painting, one-quar-
ter part of which emerged from a pack
ing case; to smile at the immense bronze
lion who guards the entrance and in
whose Voracious open mouth some wag
had placed a placard, Empty; to look
through the pavilion and let the eye rest
upon bewildering array of female fig
ures IN marble, and to watch the work
men, with many q "heave-oh," in LIQUID
Italian, roll and push a colossal Cesar
Augustus into place.
There was something appropriate about
Sbdl Llll9 tlllS SO1ulilDld avenue WIFI the
country which gave to the world Column
bus, the discoverer; ana it did not escape
the eye of the visitor that little further
along, on the right, was the pavilion and
exhibits OF the Mortimer, who claim to
have antedated. Columbus in knowledge
of these shores. There are paintings of
tJords and the icy mountains and the
handiwork of a people noted for industry
and coinage.
Switzerland is next, and her light pa
vlllon with maroon hangings is graceful
and well adapted to the display of the
watches and jewelry for which the little
Republic Is so famous, at the same time
atording view of the panorama of the
Alps, which lights up the background.
Il see," said the visitor, there the
mountains, rising high and cold and
grand all around, and here in the central
valley Switzerland, making watches and
jewels and toys for all the world"
The visitor was right. That is precisely
the picture which the ingenious Swiss
have made of their meager space. A
crowd was around the Swiss watches, as
there always is, and man who evidently
knows something about the business
pointed out that many of the finest time
keepers were in part machine-made.
LEARNED AT THE AMERICAN CENTEN-
NAL.
Credit that to the last International
exposition we had III this country" said
he, ''for it was the centennial exhibition
that taught the Swiss how to use ma
chinery in their watch factories"
In this way one gets q glimpse OF the
fact that this avenue is not only an inter-
national show window, but a clearing
house of ideas and of processes which
make the world better and fill it with
better and cheaper things.
Russia and Denmark next attract atten-
tion. a curious crowd watches the serv-
ants of the Car, each in his cap, colored
blouse, showing like jersey coat below
his walstcoat, and boots with a thousand
wrinkles about the ankles, laboriously
erecting the quaint ancient structure
which has done service at Mini Noygo-
rod and Moscow. One is impressed that
one Russian workman looks Just like
every other Russian workman, and these
may be the same men, if we may Judge
by pictures we saw in the illustrated
papers, pulling down the thatched roofs
of cottages to feed their starving cows.
There is suggestive contrast between
that scene Of famine and this assemblage
of luxury.
The French are putting the finishing
touches on their pavilion, which Is to be
by long odds the most splendid thing in
the lot. Forty female figures uphold
twenty beautiful arches. The painters
are busy on the grand entrance. Atop
the central arch is a tall flagstaff, from
which floats the tri-color, and though a
hundred feet from the floor, or as high as
the roof of a building that would be tall
in any city but Chicago, it falls so far
short of reaching the roof of the mighty
tent Of iron and glass spread over the
whole that the American citizen is re-
minded of story. 1t is that of the boy
who climbed upon the roof of the house
and tried 10 touch the sky with his
mothers clothesline pole. Within the
French pavilion are so many beautiful