Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-05-01

Asp FROM THE WATERS OF THE LAKE.
in this circle is another of smaller jets,
and within that a third. Then there are
other jets of varying sizes to be used in the
production of special effects-for you must
remember that the whole apparatus is con-
trived so that circuits are changed and
some of the jets are playing while others
may be shut off, or all be operated to-
gether. Even in daylight these water
effects will be very charming: but if they
are charming by day what will they be at
night, when the changing colors of thirty
great electric lights with parabolic refiec
tors are thrown upon the waters as they
rise and fall? Il is said they can produce
almost any sort of illusion known to fire
works by playing the changes upon these
streams, suiting the quantity and color OF
the light to the streams that are used at
the moment. For instance, we are prom
ised hydraulic flowers, sheaves of wheat,
fences of gold, showers of rubies, pearls
and amethysts; and if the half that has
been told of the wonderful combinations
and beauties of the fountains be true l
fear Miss Republic will drop her liberty
pole and globe in sheer amaZement when
the current is first turned on.
CHANGING around the horizon from this
spot at which President Cleve-
land is to touch the button
one perceives innumerable fiagstaffs
rising from the roofs of the palaces.
Said to myself to-day, on observing the
poles. Il think / have caught these Chi
cago people mapping at last. Will wager
they have been too busy to arrange for the
flags which they are TO fly from all these
stalls" When / mentioned the matter to
Director-General Davis an hour later, he
smiled peculiarly under his gray beard
grayer now n great deal than it was three
years ago-and for answer simply said
''Come with me-"
He led the way to a large room in n cor
ner of the gallery of Horticultural hall.
women and girls We're sew
ing various colored stuff together, while
others We're guiding pieces of fabric
through a score or sewing machines.
number of men We're cutting out from
patterns like tailors. Here" said the
director-general with another smile, 1--WE
have made all the flags, banners and drap-
cries for the Columbian exposition. The
work was begun last November and has
been going on ever since. We have had as
many as 10 persons at work at one time
in this room. though the number now en-
ployed is not more than seventy. Mr.
MiIlet, the director of decorations, has
been in charge. He has had to obtain cor
rect designs for forty-siX national flags,
that being the number of countries exhib-
iting in the exposition though some of
them of course are represented nOminally.
We have used nearly n million Yards of
bunting. and have made acres and acres
of draperies for sky-Iights, their function
being to protect the eyes of visitors
from the sharp glare of the sun on
bright DAYS, while it is so arranged that it
can be rolled away when the sun is OBJ
scrred by clouds. As for flags and banners
we'll have a display next Monday that will
astonish all beholders."
And never again will / suspect these
Chicagoans of forgetting any part or frag-
ment of the multiple details of their great
enterprise.
There never was an international EXPOSE
ton in which so much attention was paid
to details. The comfort of the public has
been provided for in a thousand ways, but
in none more strikingly than in the drink
ing water provision hundreds ana nun