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A Trip Around The World

A Trip Around The World image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
June
Year
1893
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The AVorld's Columbian Exposition at Chicago is, without question, the greatest and the most marvelous representation of the genius, the enterprise, the industry and the progresa of man this world has ever seen. The effect which, as a whole, it produces upoa the mind has not yet been described and it is doubtf ui if it ever can be in - words. I believe it is the unanimous testimony of those who have visited them all, that the great Expositions of Paris, Vienna and our-own Centenial sink into insignificance in comparison -ith it, Everything about the great show impresses one with a sense of quietness and repose with brotherly loveand peace, altliough weknow that not f aT away in the government exhibit and Krupp's building, hidden like the cla ws in the pa ws ot the sleeping lion, there may be found the most ponderous and terrible engines of dis-truction and war. Ilere, almost with a single step, you can pass f rom the iiighest results of modern civilization in the French exhibit, to mingle with the men and products of the Stone Age, and all the rest progress bet ween these -extremes is shown and illustrated by tne exhibits of the different nations and countrles. Everything about the Exposition has been conceived and executed upon a gigantic and magnifiaent scale. Ilere the visitors can see a sollonade more majestic than any liCient architecture- structures that wlU hold larger audiences than the Flavian atnphitheatres- buildings more beautiful than any that ever crowned - the Acrópolis. Seated upon the base of one of the columns of the peristyle and fliiog west as the rays of the ing sun tint with purple glory the white facades of the buildings and reilect in the lagoon the golden statue of tfee Republic and rap in flery llame tbe vast gilded dome of the administra tion building, the effect is one of ..chanting beauty and loveliness. . Ê. view of the buildings and grounde itlone- to secure and appreciate the general effect of the Exposition as a TEhcle- without looking at details at all - wïll well repay a visit. Vhen it comes to details the show is too vast to be comprehended in a single Jwasoïi er by any single mind. After setüing a general view of the buildings and grounds one should devote himself to those exhibits which interest kim most. Even some single departments, like the art exhïbit, are confusIng f rom their extent. It has been nlimind necessay to build addition after addition to the are building to contain the pictures and statuary sent f or exhijitioa-r sale. The art exhibit is the most popular and attractive of any jsingle exhibit upon the grounds. it is strikingly tree from the horrible and disgusting rubbish which fashion or láety or interest impelled the artist to paint two or three huudred years ago. lachere are few or no women here with tfaat sneaking conventional look, with tiieir heads thrown back and their eyes colled up as if they were in an agony of remorse for having thrown vitrol . ïa the faces of their rivals- no women .with their shoulder blades dislocated --aad leveloped into uncouth and cuji4xxus wings.no "last judgments" where our Havenly Father is hurling his ááúldren, hcad fírst, into a lakeof ing brirnstone.no canvass with itsglorious sky behind whose floating and tinted clouds fat babies, with wings, and faces as characterless as dishes oi oatmeal mush, are gazing down upon some imaginary and useless miracle, sorae shameful rascality or horrible crime being perpretruted upon the eiirth below. That there is so little of this miserable trash in the art exhibit at Chicago in this year 1893 shows as clearly as any thing can what enormous progress the world has made, not only in art, but in religious thought as well, since tho days of Columbus. Of course in these acres of canvas there must be some rubbish. One. turns with a f eeling of disgust f rom its "Flagellant" a picture representing a crowd of halfnaked and deluded women of the middle ages doing penance.fortheirsins by whipping each otherthrough the streets, to gaze with a feeling of admiration and awe upon a noble canvass painted by Sir Frederick Leighton representing the naked Hercules aroused to wrath by a great wrong committed, and who with heroic and manly courage seizes grim Death himself by the throat to rescue from bis dominion the body of the dead Alcestis. The "Garden of the Hisperides" another picture by Sir Frederick Leighton is by common consent one of the flnest pictures in the Exposition. Indeed, to the surprise of most people, the EDglish art exhibit marches easily beside the art exhibits of Italy and France.if itbe not the best in the wholeExposition. All the state buildings, except that of Vermont which is ridiculous, are well worth seeing. The Massachusetts building especially, while not so expensive as soine of the others, is a model of taste and appropriateness. It represents an oíd colonial home surrounded by ahigh fence in ancient style with arched gateway. lts low ceilings, old time fire-places with their cranes, windows with small glass and sills high from the floor, will recall the dear home of his childhood to many a gray headed New Englander at the fair. One who bas never visited Mt. Vernon will be interested in the Virginia building which is a pretty exact representation of the home of Washington. Michigan cuts no great figure at the fair. lts building is commonplace. lts mining exhibit is fairly good and its agricultural exhibit is passable, but in horticulture and forestry where it should have been and might have been strong it is easily surpassed even by the new born state of Washington. But we musí remember that Michigan had less inoney to spend than most of the states. Not the least attractive feature of the fairistheMidway Piaisance, a show of itself, well worthy of a visit to Chicago. Nearly every race and nation in the workl is represented here by its people, its buildings, its family and social customs. Here different peoples carry on in the streets and in the open shops and bazars their peculiar occupations and trades. Here is located the enormous Ferris Wheel which carries on its revolving axis thirtv-two coaches as large as our street cars, two hundred and lifty feet into the air, a curiosity as great, if not as high, as the Eiffel Tower. Many people are asking themselves the question, "Can I afford to go to the fair?" They might better ask themselves the question, ''Can P afford to ttay awayf" When again can one simply by a trip to Chicago gain the information, the knowledge and all the substantial advantages of a trip around the world? The World's Columbian Exposition s destined to turn out a tremendous flnancial failure and blunder. More than thirty millions have already been nvested which must be a total loss. This makes it certain that such a fair will never be repeated. When the great white city disappears a few months henee from .Tackson Park its like will never be seen on earth again and the descriptions of it by the young men and young women who visit it to-day will sound like a story from the Arabian Xights when repeated to their children and grand children in the

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Old News
Ann Arbor Register