The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-30

Colossal size Is the arresting note of decorative art at the worlds fair. whole pantheon of marble gods sustain roic palaces.
 Sculptural motives used for other ex- positions are utterly inadequate to the much larger courts and avenues of the St. Louis show. That the great court Is 600 feet wide and 2500 feet long con- tributes some idea of it's immensity of proportion.
 therefore the dominant spirit of. the buildings and grounds of the world s greatest exposition. The vastness or mans genius is impressed on the mind of the visitor from the moment one passes through the gigantic closure at the main entrance to the court. The ar tistic scale Is ever ascending as one passes up the court to it's jubilant ter imitation in the cascades. the heighth of massive magnifcence at this exposi- ton. Master builders of the great fair have wrought their noblest conceptions in these cataracts which become the crowning glory at St. Louis. American sculptors will furnish the complete dec- oration of this exposition. Whatever the honor that comes from the impressions carried away by millions of critics, after they have feasted their eyes will belong to the United States. No foreign sculp- tor is accepted as a contributor to the effect for which the management has set aside $500, 0,000.
 To fully grasp the harmony of the purely artistic display, the spectator must look at the exposition picture as a comprehensive entirety. Its tremen- dous exhibit palaces are laid out on a level plain swinging for a mile in slight arc, around the base of the Ahill- side apron of an upper plateau, heavily wooded and remote in its wild beauty The grand court, carrying the cascade basin and the main lagoon, cuts the swing of the buildings exactly in its cen ter. At the extreme head of the court slope upward. gardens whose floral car pets are laid out in the bowl of semi circular hill. having an elevation of 70 feet.
 At this local point, the genius of the architect and sculptor has been given most lavish sway. Filling the whole center of the perspective, at the crest of the hill, appears the most ornate struct- ure of the exposition. Festival hall Is a circular building surmounted by dome larger than Michael Angelo's famous creation finishing the roof of St. Peters Graceful Ionic columns encircle the domed mass, which Is resplendent with festal ornamentation. Beginning at eith- CT side of this triumphant structure, massive peristyle or colonnade of Ionic columns curves along the crest of the hill towards the court, where it termi- mates in airy pagoda cafes. Immediately before the Festival hall and forming part of its decorative scheme. stands the 'Fountain of Liberty from whose base gush the waters of the main cascade. Over 45000 gallons of water begin their plunge of 20 leaps at this point for the grand basin. Twelve colossal groups surround the rushing flood as it springs from a niche, crowned by an heroic com position of Liberty, Justic and Truth. The groups refer to the human qualities which arise from and are fostered by liberty. Two side cascades, symbolizing the Atlantic and Pacific, of the tranquil and turbulent waters, of the animal life found within their bosoms and of the rivers that find their W ay to them, have their source at the pagoda cafes.
 H. A. McNeil is the sculptor who Is ex- ecuting the Liberty group and all other groupings for the main cascade Isdore Konti is doing the sculptures for the mil nor cascades. Carl Bitter. chief of sculp- ture for the exposition has said in his report to the management, that the occa- sion here presented to the sculptors of America offers such tremendous possi- bilities that he can hardly conceive of the reoccurrence of another such oppor- tunity.
 Mir. Konti's treatment of the pedestals thanking the minor cascades is suggested by such titles as Atlantic Ocean," Boy and Bear Cub" Cupid Holding Fish," Pacific Ocean," "Girl With Petrel." The dash and flavor of the sea is most happily preserved and the spirit of alle- gory shines forth in the abandon of the figures.
 Subjects of the. statuary used in the