Rock Island daily Argus., 1893-04-28


and built III ten stories. We pass that waj
an hour later. Not stick of timber il
seen in the entrance. 1t has not only been
taken down, but carried away. This is thu
way they do things at the Worlds fair.
was here yesterday morning. On &
piece of bare ground between the Admins
tration building and the railway station
teams were unloading lumber and mater
tails for the erection of large chocolate
pavilion. In the afternoon the pavilion
was half completed. 1t needed only the
finishing strokes. To-day l expected tc
see thing of beauty if not joy forever
But not vestige of it remained. Permit
revoked. Ordered torn down" This was
the explanation.
Where yesterday were muddy roads be
tween the big buildings to-day are paved
streets. Two thousand men are scrapins
away the surface accumulation, pouring
tar, laying asphalt artificial stone
This cavalcade advances like host. Each
regiment has a certain part of the process
to perform. 1t sweeps along at the rate OF
mile an hour. Behind it is a finished
road on which my lady from across he sea
may walk with sligpered feet, il she be not
afraid of catching cold from the sharp
winds wl,,h come over The lake.
The shores OF the lagoons ~ inland
lakes, on which al rdv hundreds OF
strange and Dtctty it are beginning to
hover look like bar Ks OF mud F-re
comes Il fiotil.g of jiat-bottonaa sccys.
Their bggl.n is green scrubs, each T,th a
clod of black earth at its ro1ts In zen
minutes row of these green and grow
ing things has been planted
plong the margin. Now looking
more carefully we see that these mud
banks contain sprouting grass, vines and
flowers. With some ones foresight-the
foresight of positive genius which has in
a thousand ways in two years transformed
this swamp into paradise-these banks
We're sowed and planted and impregnated
long ago with the things which, in another
week of sunshine, will blossom like the
rose. When You come to the fair the
shores of the lagoons will remind you of
the most beautiful old English park you
ever saw or dreamed of.
One is not surprised to hear that a thou
sand men are employed in the landscape
department alone, constantly at work
beautifying the scene.
There never was an exposition in which
SO much energy and money were devoted
to beauty as is this one. Some way or
other we expected big things out here in
the bounding west. We should have been
disappointed had we not seen the biggest
building, the biggest gun, the biggest
crowd, and all that. But few expected to
see million of money devoted to those
little touches which enrich and beautify,
but whi I'll are not absolutely essential to
success. Even now, in the tremendous
pressure Cor accomplishments, for finishing
and nstallation, for making ready the
great hour of Monday next, the manage
ment seems more concerned about the
artistic effect than about the material.
At the end of the matchless basin which
spreads its waters between the Admins
tration building and Lake Michigan, where
centers the greatest architectural and land
scape perspective ever attempted by man,
hundreds of wori1men are engaged perfect
ing the already famous MacMonnies foun-
tain and the sea-horses which surround it
as a Gordon OF sentinels. We stand for
half an hour watching the men wheel the
white monsters into place and put them