The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1893-10-25

HarpT's HtsHg.
OF course the thing to SEQ at the fair
is the illumination OF the court OF honor
at night. You should see this from the
water, in launch or gondola, and not
from the embankments, where your at
tention is distracted by your having to
push your way through tho crowd il
you are on foot, or you disturb others
by running thcm down il you are in n
rolling chair. But il you are in n launch
on the water you can give yourself up
entirely to the scene around you, and
YOU have the added wonder OF the sight
OF thousands of people masaed in silent
rows around the edge of tho lagoon,
Just us though they were waiting for
some great event to happen, or for some
miracle in keeping with the tremendous
beauty OF the scene about thom. Peo-
pie try to give you an idea Of this scene
by comparing it to Venice on the nights
when that city is,iIluminated, and to
the beauty OF the Acropolls when it is
shown off by colored lights and
fireworks. This is the best the
Old World can do towards helping us to
understand this city Of the new world.
But it is not enough; for while Venice
has the effects OF the lights on the water,
sho has not the great buildings grouped
so closely and SO grandly together, nor
are the Parthcnon and the other ruins
oil tho Acropolis on scale OF sufficient
grandeur TO make one understand in
any particular the extent OF the temples
oil the lake front. 1t is like trying to
make n person appreciate the Sphinx
in the desert by the little bronze copy
you use for paper.weight. The same
Sphinx By moonlight was the most iin-
pressive thing | saw i'll the cast. Not
us one secs it by day, with tourists ana
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 and the pyramids back
OF it into masses OF black and
silver, and the yellow desert
stretched away on either side so
empty and silent that ono thought 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 theater. 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 the worst OF all, they have no future
That every one who has visited the fair
should feel this so keenly is significant
OF one OF its greatest qualities. 1t is
this peculiar charm which makes you
feel that it has become q part OF you and
OF your experience; you have made your
homo there rs you do in certain
cities and not in others, and as you
certainly never did in any otherWorld's
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 can
not give up to the thought that you will
never again glide through the lagoons at
night in gondola, with n Venetian
singing "sauta Lucia" at the bow, and
with the wooded islands glowingwith
fairy lamps like fire-aies, and the ducks
and swans hurrying out OF your way, or
that you cannot sweep into the court Of
honor and ieel your own insigniticance
us the search lights turn and twist Ii ke
iencer's foil, pointing down to tho
fountain or up to tho winged angels, or
stealing along the length OF the Peris-
tylo silently as one who shows some
thing to you and makes no comment
knowing there is none to make.