Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-08-31

TTNHE San Diego Exposition reminds me of
L nothing else so much as Rabbi Gotheils
dream of the Christian Heaven-"a beautiful
place-but nobody in it," The story is that
he was twitted once by Bishop Potter, who
pretended to have had dream of Heaven
of Hebrews, where the crowd dense and
where the people were as prosperous as
happy, but because their tastes were such
they had made the place hideous by smelling
out the pavements of the streets of gold by
tearing down the Jasper walls and making
pawnshops of the pearly gates.
The Rabbits reply was as prompt the
point of the Bishop was pungent; but what
the story illustrates just now is this contrast
precisely between these two so-called world
fairs out here this year, the one at San Fran
cisco and the one at San Diego. They have
two separate names, two objects and two
wholly different atmospheres. The Panama
Pacific one at San Francisco is big, garish,
ugly, beyond your power to imagine, but full
of exhibits of value-and fuller of people.
The Panama California one at San Diego is
a veritable little gem of beauty while its
exhibits are of less Importance than those Of
a county fair at home. 1t is located in the
most inaccessible spot perhaps on the Con-
tinent but it has landscape features, sea-
views vistas and environs that are perfectly
enhancing. Unlike most things of its kind.
it was completed and ready for visitors right
from the start; it is finished now, up to the
minute, and furnished down to the last
minute detail. It is the most beautiful thing
I have ever seen-and the most nearly abso-
lutely empty.
Living on the Atmosphere"
There you have it. That is Southern Cali
fornia. And that is the reason for the fair
at San Diego. That portion of the State has
an atmosphere all of its own. And "at.
mosphere" is the right word; for climate is
the chefest of its treasures. You have no
sooner crossed the Serras than you find that
you are in the Climate Belt. The people live
on it-and make their living off it, They do
more: They have learned by 1t how to live.
They love it, they laud it, they circularize it,
they sell it. But they also teach it in their
schools. they preach it in their pulpits, they
parse it, they practice it-and they profit by
it in a way that is not understood back
East. They praise it TO high heaven; but
(Which is the point am malSing) they have
made heaven here earth by aid of it.
There is a subtle force at work upon their
minds as on their bodies. There is value
here in the field OF ethics not less real than
in the field financial.
Here is possible new scheme for Expos-
tion exhibits. The customary masses of man
ufactured products, agricultural products
and every other kind of products, piled and
stacked in lifeless array, is done away with.
Instead, here you may see the very wheels
of growth go round. The processes" by
which all the things shown are grown or
manufactured are the things exhibited"
Before your very eyes the latest of farm
machinery is demonstrated but not only
ha lafa -
things grow. There are model farms and
model orange groves tea plantations and
outdoor exhibits of a thousand kinds BY this
method is obtained a comprehensive piano.
rama of the Great Southwest's resources de-
veloped and undeveloped. The grounds thus
become one vast botanical garden of fruits.
flowers, shrubs and trees unrivaled in the
number and size Of specimens and varie-
ties
CASTLE and Aragon
Not single architectural feature is con.
ventional. There are many diverse parts OF
one composite whole; but that whole is span-
ish-colonial throughout Nothing is here
such as crammed the grounds of the old
style World Fair. but cathedral ana mis-
sion adobe and palace construction. There
is here the type cabrilo knew when he the
first white man to the Pacific coast Of
what was to be the United States. sailed
here IN 1872 the type also which Viscaino
knew and the type that Fray Sierra knew
ana did so much to reproduce when he
planted civilization on the west coast at the
old Mission of Alcala.
Nor are the costumes or the customs
any more conventional. Studied outfits 10
produce effects are the clothing Of guards
ana attendants They are caballero ana Con
quistadore, guardsmen OF Castle ana danolng