Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-03-24
THE FLORAL DECORATIONS ARE SUPERB
All Doubt About the Ter-Centennial Fair Being
Ready Can be Cast Aside, According to Those
Who Are in Charge of the Work-Warm
Sun and Showers Will Put Shrubs and
Flowers in Perfect Shape,

In just SO days the jamestown Elk.
position will swing wide it's gates for
the public to enter and then will begin
history making epoch for Tidewater
Virginia.
Probably the question that is first
and uppermost in the minds of the
people of Newport News and others
Interested in the Exposition is wheth-
cr the buildings will be in proper
shape when the time for opening the
big fair rolls around. To that ques-
ton most emphatic answer yes car
be given, ut least as far as the build
ings directly under the control of the
Exposition Company are concerned.
This is also also true of the buildings
being erected by the Federal govern
ment. Truthfulness forbids conf
dent prediction that all of the State
structures will be completed by April
26. but it will be matter of only a
few weeks when they will be ready
for occupancy.
A most conservative estimate is
that the average percentage of all the
Exposition Company's buildings are
in. ninety-five per cent stage of
completion and with any kind of ia
vorable weather they will be entirely
and thoroughly completed when the
Goth day of April arrives. All evil
dence certainly does point to the conf
petion of all buildings and landscape
designs before the day OF opening.
The eye Of early visitors will not be
offended by the unfinished appear
ancc which has married the early days
of many eXpositions. Begun in ans
pie time and pushed by men wiz
have had the benefit OF experience az
other great expositions, the prepare
tons for celebrating the tercentenary
Of the establishmentlof the first per-,
fnanent English settlement at James
town,Ha are SO WE'LL ON. to completion
that visitors, nov femarls not only
On the amount or work doneSbut the
actual appeai1iiice ofaagen tpne that
many buildings as welfS&s theSeaeden
effects have. The brick facing Of
most OF the buildings with their CO.
lonial pillars tends to obviate the
garfsh newness, while the stupendous
work of transplanting large trees to
border walks and roadways, SO sue.
cessfully accomplished, and the ad-
vantage of much native woodland,
through which paths have been laid,
have lent themselves admirably to
the schemes of the landscape design
erS.
Never, perhaps, in the history of
eXpositions has a city Of such magni-
ficance. most of which is to remain
for years after the jamestown Elk
position is a thing of the past, sprung
up in so short q time as has the
jamestown Exposition. Most of the
main buildings, as has been stated.
are now wellnigh completed and the
debris is being cleared away, while
the avenues and walks and the
grounds are rapidly assuming the
grand and picturesque form in which
they will be presented to an admiring
public on the 26th day Of April.
In All 90 Buildings.
The plans call for 80 buildings on
the grounds. This number includes
everything Exposition buildings,
State structures, private edifices for
advertising purposes and the War
Path 1t is doubtful IL all of these 9S
buildings will be constructed as in
ono or two instances no preparations
have as yet apparently been made
to erect on the ground that has
been given to them by the Exposition
Company. The Exposition buildings
proper consists of about twenty-five
structures. Naturally they are the
largest and most pretentious on the
grounds and it is matter of congrat-
ulation that they have been advanced
to such near state of completion, as
1t gives the governor of works and
assistants ample time to put on the.
finishing touches during tho next so
days. At present many of the build.
ings have scaffoldings surrounding
them that arc stated as being com
pleted and perhaps to the average
person the timber about the structure
would give the impression that there
remained much to do. but such is not
tile case. In number of cases the