The Saint Paul globe., 1904-06-19
IT ILLUSTRATES
TRANSPORTATION
Locomotives and Automobiles
in Appropriate Settings at
Worlds Fair
Globe Worlds Fair Bureau,

ST. LOUIS, Mo-, June 1S,-A new
side of an old problem was presented
to the designers of worlds fair pal
aces. They were ordered to express by
solid and utile buildings elusive forces,
electricity, education, transportation.
By tower and statue and body of
building they must tell the casual be-
holder that such a structure houses
railway trains, that one contains min
erals and mines or this is shook by
the toll of big engines. Each must be
a certain color, of a certain bignesS
and form. A dozen or more other re-
strictions were handed to the archi-
tects, again the fact that they were
to represent big ideas in a new way
was forced upon them and the men
set to work. All this has been
achieved.
They have painted the palace of
transportation deep cream and the
arching roof is green. Either end of
the structure is high and rolling; the
body is fiat and low. There are no
skylights, for the sides are largely of
glass.
Those who have Travelled on the con-
tinent Of Europe say the facades are
like the high class railroad stations
which prevail there. The entrances
are aoapaeious enough for many loco
motives and the top is constructed in
springfng arches. The effect is saved
from t1atness by round towers at the
four corners, each bearing a belted
globe. The figure of a woman carrying
in one hand the toy model of a steam
locomotive is introduced at several
places in the decoration.
If you turn to the left as you enter
the transportation building you will
come to the section occupied by auto
mobile manufacturers of France; if
you go to the right you will see Amer
ican automobiles under looped can
opy of yellow and white cloth. The
displays are quite different, though
they cover the same field. The various
parts of the French machine are as
sembled from a score of different fac
tories. American automobiles as a
rule from axle to paint are constructed
under the same roof
The French automobile section con-
talns many fine machines, each con-
tanning in itself the exhibits of nearly
score Of manufacturers. The exte-
riors are Kept polished until they re-
fleet the sun. All of them are high
victorias, for use in public parks and
on well-kept country roads, and there
are no heavy cars for long trips
through deep mud, built to stand the
wear of a military -canapign. The ex-
hibits in the American section are in
direct contrast. The space-which is
one e-eighth of the entire floor of the
building-was taken by the American
Association of Automobile Manufac-
turers, and about thirty companies are
exhibiting under the organization.
After all, other means of transporta-
tion seem secondary to steam railroads
and the great railroads show how
sharp is the rivalry between them by
the sums they have expended in ex-
hibits at the fair. The. great middle
section of the transportation building
AS broad as an acre and as long as
five of them-is occupied by lines of
partor cars, full sized locomotive
turning on a dial, models Of railroad
stations and city yards, counterpart
of a tunnel now being built under the
city of New York, three-score models
Of locomotives showing their evolu-
tion for a century back, and at the far
end a full-sized engine which is being
propelled under various conditions for
test. purposes. This locomotive, which
proclaif1s by toots and puffings that
things doing as well as things done
may. be seen in the transportation
building.
Even to an outsider the locomotive
tests carried on at the worlds fair must
be intensely interesting. To see loco
motive rocking and straining in full
flight, it's piston rod lashing the drive
wheels into full motion on duplicate
wheels bedded into concrete, is inter-
esting to one looking only for excite
ment. When he knows the details of
the plan he will come again.
Separated only by brocade hangings
from the perspiring black engine is the
Japanese section in the palace of
transportation. 1t is the step from the
round house to the drawing room.
Japan's color scheme is in red and rus
set browns, mixed together deftly in
the hangings which line the large space.
1t is startling to be told that a definite
color scheme should decorate an exhibit
of engines and steamboats,, but the
Japanese section looks as consistent in
satin brOcade as the American space
does with painted iron and open fur
naceS. Whether the distance was too
great or because they preferred to rep
resent rather than demonstrate the
japanese have brought over no loco
motives, steamboats,, carriages or au-
tomobiles. They show photographs,
paintings, replicaS, models and maps of
them. And if you think that reproduc-
tions can't be made as interesting as
the real thing step inside that ruSSet
and red brOcade.
The space is large and uncluttered.
The roof is very high and the light
comes from above, Illuminating the dis
tant corners. The floor, the raiIings,
the exhibits and the attendants are
speckless. Somehow they have man
aged not to fill but to decorate the
space with exhibits; the ensemble is
so very pleasing that you are rested
without knowing why. You are at
tracted instantly to the great irregular
relief map of the Japanese empire,
which has been placed just far enough
from the center to politely give the
other things a chance, though it really
absorbs notice. 1t is the greatest relief
map ever made, the men in charge said,
and believed them though they told
me in bad English. You may forget
it's map as you pace the low platform
alongside and believe you're a bird get
ting the view usually accredited to that
animal, The proportions are preserved
so nicely that to great eye pitched
above the Western Pacific and able to
see through miles Of air Japan would
appear like that. Every town Of impor-
tance is named by signs in English,
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