The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1904-05-27
ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION

When an exposition has come and
gone, and its lath-and. plaster palaces
have returned again to dust, it must
have left In the midst Of those who
saw it one dominant and satisfying
| picture really to have been worth
while. The exhibits, of which no hu-
man being is able or cares to see half,
are carted away and forgotten, those
who invested their money count up
what they haYe lost, new inventions
make the old ones crude, bigger shows
make the old ones small, but the one
supremely beautiful picture-the H.
Elimination at the Pan-Amerlcan,iwi
the twilight fading into dusk and the
and the glow Of the lamps coming out
from everywhere, like music, brighter
and brighter, until they swept into an
overpowering crescendo of lights; the
Court of Honor at Chicago, with the
white glory of its stately distances set
against bluer sky-this nothing can
destroy.
When the Louisiana Purchase Ex-
position was planed, the creation Of
such Feature" was one of the hard
est tasks set for those who had UNDER
taken the work. There was no large
body OF water at ST. Louis, and the
land on which the buildings must be
raised was mere forest and farm. The
problem was finally solved by making
feature of a hill. On this hill, flank
ed by colonnades, the pivotal building
was built. From this central heart
the great body spreads downward and
outward like fan, as some have said
perhaps more nearly like the aisles
and the semicircular seats of a theatre
The main aisle consists of series of
fountains and cascades which flow and
splash between heroic statutes down
to the level Of the main buildings and
the lagoon. On either side Of this
foaming waterway, and sweeping up
to the central hail, are terraces of
green turf. From Festival Hall you
may look down on the plain as from
throne; from almost any part of the
plain your eyes can sweep up past the
fountains and over the sweet and rest
full green to the central hall, very
much as, on a lesser scale, you may
look up the avenues past the fountains
to the palace at Versailles. The idea
is a noble one and nobly carried out.
Whatever of the impression Of vast
ness is lost by the curving instead of
the rectilinear arrangement is gained
in unity and cohesion, and the physi-
cal fact of that solid grass-covered hill,
seen through the statutes and foun-
tains, and restfully backing up the
White Exposition buildings, gives to
the whole picture an impression of
naturalness and permanence which
other expositions have sometimes
lacked.
But this architectural scheme of
crown-jewel building, decending
fountain, and the palaces on the plain,
is, SO to speak, only the body OF the
picture without Its soul. 1t is a pic
ture that would be just as appropriate
in Paris or IN Lundon, whereas the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition is
something that has peculiarly per.
sonal significance to every American
who lives west of the Mississippi. On
curving arms Of the peristyle behind |
them, and the vast palaces of the En-
position stretched out ut their feet.
sit the heroic statutes of the States.
Not New York or Massachusetts,, but
the States carved out of the Louisiana
Purchase-the States which, when the
purchase was made, did not exist even
in name. When the treaty was signed,
a century ago, there was NOT a state
or territory line from New Orleans to
Puget Sound, and there they sit now,
these states, come up out of the wild
erness, each clothed with bit of our
nations history, each daughter of
the nation, with an arm to uphold the
flag that floats for all of US, and a
heart and soul of her own. Here sits
North Dakota, her fresh girlish body.
sweetly strong, held proudly erect, her
eyes on the Eorizon's edge; here sits
Indian Territory, looking down at her
blanket and her pottery, her face pen
sive her heart in the past; and here,
too, are Montana and Kansas and Wy
oming, and the rest. There will be
many pictures worthy of remem-
brance, which can only be guessed at
now, but every Westerner-which
every American who has ever really
felt his country-will take away with
him is already there. And long after
he has forgotten that the show is
twice as big as Chicago's, when the
palaces have been sold for junk and
the trees are growing again IN Forest
Park, he will remember the FAIR as he
saw it from the central court, with the
lagoon and thp pu,,choSo NTonnuon+