Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-20

refuse, while all the thoroughfares but two were deep in yellow mud, and the mere, which is to be beautiful crystal lake, was a shallow pond, bearing an unpleasant resemblance to the Platte river in it's middle secti ion, where it is a mile wide and an inch deep. Forty eight hours later I saw decided inn provement, and though the rattle of hammer and saw and the whir of en- zines were such that one could not hear himself think there was still great pleasure in noting the rapid progress.
 The managers are careful to say that while they do not hope to rival Chicago for size they expect to go beyond it in some lines of excellence. There will be no pretense of having the biggest ma chimes, but every one will be the very best of its kind and of the latest pattern. I have, however, already noted four features fR which this exposition will decidedly excel the Columbian Worlds fair.
 A Sparkling Fountain.
 The first is the color fountains. To all who saw the marvellous beauty of those fountains at Chicago this will seem rash assertion for one would be ready to swear that was the one feature that never could be excelled Neverthe- less I think it will be done, for to the experience gained at Chicago the engi- neers have added some entirely new in ventions. By one of these central spar of light sent up in the middle of ris 70 .c 1,x, millions of refractions through every one of the falling drops. By another stationary cloud is formed above the basin, and on it as a background the many shaded colors appear just as lightning often shows them on the real clouds, with this great advantage of art over nature that the engineer can vary his colors. So we shall see on Q slowly rising cloud the bars and field of our nations flag and all the varying hues of smoke and azure, of green and gold. have had the process of produc- ing this cloud detajled to me once, but the effect of a single explanation of any scientific wonder on my mind is gener- ally to tumble up whatever natural sense I have on the subject, and all I can remember is that dense cloud of steam is to be crossed by fine lines of cool spray, which, it is said, will do the business But manufacturing clouds has come in since I got too old to learn easily.
 Another vast improvement will be in the topography. Instead of the dreary monotony of Chicago's level, which al- ways gives me the blues in week, the visitor will find in and around Atlanta as agreeably diversified landscape as there is in tho world. The successive rise and fall, cutting the site into de- tached knolls of from three to ten acres each, with gentle slopes between, and the large yards, shade and fruit trees and grass plots, makes tho residence portion of this city appear like long suburb of retired country seats
 Between the city line and the exposi- tion grounds by one route the visitor traverses an almost primeyal forest and by the other a high level thickset with elerant residences. The same agreeable diversity is seen in the grounds. There is lovely natural terrace and half ann phitheater, and the novelties of tho Mid way plaisance will be greatly height ened by the advantages of the ground Another feature ill which we are prom ised great improvement on Chicago is in the fisheries exhibit, and still anoth CT is in the department for the colored people. It is remembered that this was practically ignored at Chicago, but here tho projectors have worked at it with the greatest enthusiasm, and the result will give visitors a cheering index of the rapid progress of the race
 A Question of Cost.
 It may be we'll to sum up at this point some facts and figures hitherto published in part. The department of public con- fort has canvassed the city and vicinity thoroughly and registered all places available. It appears that the present population of Atlanta is almost exactly 1os, 900, and there are 20 regular hotels,