Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-02-23
THE EXPLOSION OF THE BOMB, A
SEEN FROM A DISTANCE.

over he would be very much disappoint-
ed. Paris has fourteen months, yet in
which to make her toilet" as they say
here. She has need to move little
more briskly at that operation.
Although the Paris Exposition will
cover little more than half the space oc-
cupied by the Chicago Fair it is the
hope of the French architects that the
beauty of their buildings and the grounds
lively small space at their disposal. From
present indications, however, they will
fail of their object. For in endeavoring
TO create very beautiful designs they
have added SO many minute decorations
to the buildings that it seems inevitable
the Exposition will lack entirely the
simplicity and grandeur which marked
our greatest fair.
NOT FINISHED.
TO give even cursory inspection
of the works on both sides of the Seine
from the Champ de Mars to the Place
de Ia Concorde one must spend four or
five hours. And when one has taken
even this much time at the task he has
only an impression of piles of earth,
stones and refuse; detached skeletons of
red iron that suggest nothing of the
buildings in which they will eventuate,
and the inevitable tall scaffoldings. Yet
In spite of all this the directors of the
work and the foreign agents are abSo-
lutely sure that the spring of 1900 will
see the place ready for the inspection
of the world.
Of all the new structures on the
grounds. or connected with it, the Alex
ander bridge is the only thing that gives
any evidence whatever of what it will
look like in the future. When il was de-
signed and the Car laid the first stone
in 1896 France was alive with affection
for Russia. Her ardOr has cooled con-
siderably in the interval, and though
doubtless France would prefer that there
wasn't quite as much of Russia in the
design of the bridge it is now too late to
change II and the figures of France and
Russia will ornament the pytons at either
of hf
Seine bridge it is q single arch and is an
important feature in the estimation OF
the landscape architect. For it is from
this bridge that the general plan OF their
efforts radiate.
FRANCE AND RUSSIA.
The Alexander bridge is to take a
most important place in the principal
vista of the exposition as the landscape
architects plans are laid out. From the
Place de la ConcOrde, the visitors glance
Crilion and the home of the Ministry OF
Marine; beyond this the pillars and domes
of the Champs Elysees Buildings; then
to the Alexander bridge. with its marble
and gilt and bronze ornaments with the
republics official buildings on the left
and the pavilions of the Champ de Mars
on the opposite bank; with the shining
dome of the Invalides dominating al
above the structures that will fill the es'
planade before it.
At present all this space before thC
Invalides is barren of anything save the
builders at their preparatory work o.
laying the foundations of the structures
IN the Champs Elysees, however, one
may now obtain in excellent idea of how
tt of the new buildings will look fol
the walls. roofs and colonnades of botl
the galleries that are to contain pictures
sculptures and art objects generally are
now in place.
Of course, some of the old buildings
relics of former expeditions, are to be
used in the coming one. The great Galerit