Mower County transcript., 1904-08-17

InE WUnLU y TAIN
AN EDUCATOR
1t would seem at first sight, that the
great bulk of the st. Louis Worlds
Fair visitors are drawn hither by the
mere desire for amusement; but on a
more careful study of the multitudes,
and after taking note of the general
run of comment and conversation, the
conviction grows that the majority Of
the American people there seem to be
few foreigners at present within the
Fair grounds come to St. Louis
primarily to be instructed. The most
positive proof of this is found in the
crowded attendance at the various ex-
hibitions of highly technical and
scientific apparatus and phenomena,
that are given in several different
places throughout the grounds. More
over, it is significant fact that it is
the more difficult and intricate exhibits,
those that require intelligent thought
and consideration if they are to be un-
derstood, that seem to present the
strongest attraction to the slghtseers.
This is as it should be; and it may
surely be taken as evidence that the
main object for which the Fair has
been conceived and carried out, namely
that Of acting as powerful education
al force, is being abundantly fulfilled.
Undoubtedly these great expositions
exercise upon the average citizen
broadening influence, which in a certain
degree gives him a touch of that
cosmopolitan breadth of view which is
commonly supposed to come only by
actual travel. This would not be pos
sible were the fair conceived upon a
smaller scale and its exhibits spread
out with less lavish hand. A three
ring circus or wild west show may
afford the untraveled citizen a glimpse
of the outside world; but it takes a
$2,0O0,OOO Philippine government ex-
hibit or the splendid gathering of dis
tinct tribes under the anthropological
department, to say nothing of the cost
ly representation of foreign life and
habits shown in private exhibitions-it
takes the aggregate effect Of all these
to give to the visitor to a worlds fair
that sense of having been actually in
touch with the great outside world
which is being realized by millions of
visitors to the present Exposition.
The same broadening educational in
fluence must be making itself strongly
felt upon those who are making an
earnest study Of the carefully arranged
exhibits in the various exhibition
palaces. There is sense in which the
inhabitants of country so vast as our
own, because of the lack of any means
of direct comparison of themselves and
their surroundings with some outside
standard, may grow to certain self
suf1iciency, for which study of the
elaborate exhibits of other nations and
a knowledge of how greatly they ex-
ceed us in certain lines of achievement
will prove to be all admirable antidote.
Furthermore an aggregation of such
fine architectural and landscape effects
as are presented at such all exposition
as this must exert lasting artistic i'm
preston unconscious perhaps to the
subject of it, but none the less real. It
instills in the thousands and millions
that throng the grounds new and lofty
impressions of the grand and the beauti.
full. 10 many of the visitors these i'm
pressions will be capable of subsequent
expression, and will no doubt show
themselves in the improvement of
public structures, in a more intelligent
appreciation Of what can be done in
improving the artistic effects of build
ings whether for the home, the city, the
state or the nation. This educative ef-
feet will make itself felt at many a city
council where the inspection of com
petitive plans for municipal or other
buildings come to be passed upon. We
do not say that the Worlds Fair will
make an art critic OF cOnnOisseur of
every citizen that visits it; but it will
most certainly carry forward that ma
tional education, in domestic and muni-
cipal art and architecture, which owes
it's birth in this country largely to the
great exposition held at Chicago eleven
years ago.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
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am prepared to insure your grain
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