The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-13

All Lnls, anu very much more, The Boy saw from afar off, and his soul rebelled- not at the sight of the Fair, but at the sad fate of a boy who is on the outside; for he knew that on the inside there were many things of splendor which he was unable to see from the outside, and he knew that beyond The Fence he could see ten times as much or the things as he had seen only in part
 But The Fence was there. 1 No amount of wishing would remove | The Fence. Between The Boy and the wonderland of his longing The Fence in- tervened like a grim goblin at the gates 1 of Paradise
 The Boy was indeed sore sick at heart
 Bitterly resenting the sad fate that doomed him to the outsideness of all this magnificence, he wandered on and on, along The Fence.
 "Ha" calculated The Boy.
 He had seen some thing that he was not exactly looking for; that is, he had not purposely intended to find it. and yet he acknowledged to himself that he might have entertained, when he set out to walk around the outside of The Fence, a sneaking idea that there might be a | crack wide enough for a boy to squeeze through. The crack which he now saw was of boys size; it was big enough l for him to pass through without tearing his trousers.
 The Boy hesitated at the crack; not, perhaps, because just at that moment he felt a qualm of conscience chasing up and down inside his soul like a pesky ant down ones back at a picnic, but well, just because he saw inside The Fence, through the crack, stalwart young man wearing a long blue over coat and yellow khaki cap and carry ing a short stout club.
 The stalwart young man was a Jeffer- son guard. He was walking his beat
 which was in the neighborhood of The
 Fence at that particular spot. The Boy
 watched the Jefferson guard with eager eyes. He grew still more bitter against fate-the fate that made him only a boy
 when he might be man grown and wear the uniform of a Jefferson guard and draw fifty dollars a month just for
 walking around inside The Fence and seeing things.
 "Aw, confound the luckn' hissed The Boy, through his set teeth, as he peered cautiously through the crack in The Fence.
 By that time the Jefferson guard, twirl- ing his stick to keep his hand warm for it was a chilly day, had disappeared be- hind one of the state buildings.
 The Boy hesitated no longer. Wasn't the disappearance of that guard an invi- tation, or a challenge, for him to get in- side? Why, of course it was-or at any rate, so The Boy thought.
 And he got inside!
 Now that The Fence was on the out side and The Boy on the inside, there was nothing for The Boy to do but forget The l Fence and see the Fair, and he saw it.
 he reveed in it; he turned it over and over in his soul as sweet morsel-a mighty big morsel, though-and gloried in it.
 | The Boys eyes actually bulged at what he saw. Verify, he stood at length at the center of the world. at the acme of things that awe and amaze Round and about him opened a vast, vivid, won | derfu1 new world of life and color and motion. Hundreds, yes. thousands of men were swinging hammers and trowels; others were lifting and setting in place l great shapes of white staff, immense gar goylems goblins, gods and graces. Here was monster horse ten feet high being set up in sections and so accuratel., join ed together that no man could tell where the joints were. There was a gigantic angel, with wide white wings. standing aloft on the cornice of mighty palace, 1 u. | there and wonder, and still beyond, were other statues, big and little. of angels and goblins and bears and gods and 1 Cupids and Centaurs. 1 The Boy stood open-mouthed. He al- most forgot to breathe. He was en- 1 tranced.
 Gee! but ain't it bully?" he cried aloud.
 | Just then another tall young man in uniform, swinging club, sauntered along.
 Say, mister" said The Boy, what is that great big round thing they're buid- ing there at the middle of the hil?" That's the Hall of Festivals sonny" I replied the Jefferson guard ''and those l two other big round things, one at each end of the Terrace of States, are the Restaurant pavilions; and all this work down the slope here is the Cascade gar dens; and down wonder on the level be- i tween the big palaces are the lagoons. the Grand basin, and so forth and so l forth. and -
 But The Boy had passed on, between 1 the rear of the Hall of Festivals and the marvelously beautiful middle front of I the Palace of Fine Arts 1 Gaping in awe, he went on, stopping | now and then to feast his eyes upon some particular bit of beauty or grandeur that 1 struck his fancy. Beyond him he be- held a most curious group of buildings, some apparently finished and many others I but partly done, while in the open spaces | between were multitudes of men laying other foundations or raising other scaf- | folding for still more houses. There were hundreds of these houses going up and they were of such architecture as The Boy had never seen, except in book that told about city or Bible lands. Hi, there3' yelled piping voice at his ear. Flows you git in?'' The Boy turned sharply. At his elbow was the lad who had invited him to visit the Worlds Fair. None O your business." he replied sulenly.
 'I bet you sneaked." said the other lad who, as previously suggested. was not particularly polite.
 "Go, chase yourselfl'' said The Boy What is it to you. anyway, I'd Ike to know?"
 "Aw. keep your clothes on. now'' saio the other lad What's hurtin' you?'
 What's that?' inquired The Boy. pointing ahead, his indignation mollihed by the curiosity induced through contem- p1ation of the numerous large and small structures immediately in front of him. That's Jerusalem" replied the other | lad.
 "shut upr' cried The Boy T won't believe you"
 .It is. too" insisted the other lad; It's 1