The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-04
Thirty Acres
Of Solid
Illumination
From
10000 Bulbs

States stand veritable incandescent
eminence. 1t is covered with mass
of light made up of all sorts of fiery
shapes-the combined effect of tens
of thousands of lamps picking out Fes-
tival Hall, the Colonnades, the pavil-
ions and the heroic statues of the
Louisiana Purchase States and Terri
tories. SO thickly studded with cleo
trio bulbs are the various buildings
and the colonnades that even if you
never saw them by day you could
accurately describe their architectural
composition.
But this is not all To the right of
you, lighted buildings stretch away for
thousands of feet. They do the same
to the left, and on both sides shim-
mering facades, rising to the height
of over fifty feet, are capped by square
and peaked towers and mammoth
domes and circles and squares and arcs
and triangles of incandescence. The
great Plaza is in a ring of light and
| lighted by it. If you cared, you could
see to read by the glow, although the
nearest point of illumination~is several
hundred feet distant.
Surely there should be much light,
with $4,000 bulbs on the Varied Indus
tries building alone, more than enough
| to light city; with the Education and
Social Economy building outlined,
even to the details, by 10000 lights;
with the Festival Hall and the. Cas-
cades strung with $4,000; with over
100000 lights used simply for decora-
| tive purposes on the main picture of
the Fair. Buffalo, heralded for its cleo
trio display, employed only $4,000
lights in decoration, and here are more
| than twice as many.
Then, too, consider the surface
| lighted. One hundred and sixty thou
sand square feet in the Manufactures
building, exclusive of its superstruc-
ture; an equal area on Machinery
Hall; one hundred and thirty thou
sand square feet on the Electricity
building--on all the buildings, exclu-N
sive of those on the Hill, one million
three hundred thousand square feet
of lighted surface, or nearly thirty
acres Little wonder that the people,
as they sit and look, become silent as
the immensity of the feature grows
on them.
By the time the Cascades are turned
on by the man stationed in the cleo
trically equipped tunnel far beneath
them in the bowels of the hill, all the
languages have been searched for
words with which to describe the
lighted picture. Then, when every
minute ninety thousand gallons of
water come tumbling down the statue
bordered Fountain of Liberty, and
forty-hve thousand gallons plunge
over each of the flanking cascades in
the same period, every gallon of water
alive with iridescent hues caught from
the myriad of lights over which it
flows, and great jets of rainbow-col-
ored spray leap up out of the Grand
Basin-then the beholders realize that
they know of no words to fit the
scene.
Here is one of the few sights really
passing description. You could spend
the rest of the evening fascinated by
it. But as the display is scheduled to
last not later than ten in all its full
ness, you shake off the spell and, be-
fore it is too late, make your way up
to the Terrace of States. Here,
where earlier in the day you saw the
City of Magical Architecture at your
feet, there is nothing but light-aS sea
of light sweeping away in a great arc
on either side and in front, up to the
gates where you entered the grounds
IN the morning. This view has one
disadvantage can hear the cas-
cades rumbling and tumbling, but you
can catch only glimpses of them.
Still, it is view you should not miss.
tor, standing there, you see what looks
like softly-g glowing cloud above roof
and tower and dome-a mammoth
reflection that seems to reach to the
sky.
So you leave the grounds for the
hotel, first walking around to the
Plaza of St. Louis for final view
OF the Festival Hall and Cascades. But
IT the room at your hotel overlooks
the Exposition you have one more
Great IN store. AS you go to the win
dow to pull down the blind you behold
the Lighted Wonder of the Night.
almost mile in length, suspended in
the air before you You gaze and
gaze; then suddenly tower and dome
disappear as if by magic-as if they
had been hauled back in the twinkling
OF an eye into the blue depths from
which they seemingly were lowered.
A moment intervenes; the next there
IS total darkness where was the glow
OF 100000 lights. The Lighted Won->
der of the Night has vanished. giving
place. again to the City of Magical
Architecture.