What We Saw At Madame World's Fair

We walked around among the lovely trees, and went in and stood in the colonnade. It was so still and hushed, and different from the rest of the palaces, that it made us feel peaceful and holy, like going to early-morning service on Easter Day.

The galleries were a bit bewildering to us, there were so many pictures, but we wandered around by ourselves, and found some fascinating screens of lovely Chinese cats, and roosters, which we understood. There were more of our Swedish snow pictures, and away down in a little room at the end we found some miniatures which we loved. It made us feel quite acquainted and welcome to find a miniature called “A Mountain Lassie” which was painted by Bertha Corbett Melcher, our own dear Sunbonnet Babies lady.

We wandered out in the grounds to wait for father, and there among the shrubbery we found the darlingest little Pan, with his pipes. We stayed with him a long time. Janet Scudder sculped him. Then we came to the very prettiest thing we have found at the Fair – a dear little child figure, standing on tiptoe, with her hands outstretched to us, and her baby face full of joy, as though she had just seen the world for the first time and loved it. She is called “Wild Flower” and was made by Edward Berge. The dear little thing reminded us of spring rain, and morning sunshine, and nooks in the woods where the first violets grow.

There is another figure by Mr. Berge, called “Boy and Frog,” and many other dear little baby figures which we did not have time to learn about, because it was time to go home.

Father was pleased that we had found something to interest us. We intend to study the Expression of Art, because we feel so much better in our hearts when we find some beautiful thing which we can understand.

Your loving cousins,JANE AND ELLEN.

THE PALACE OF EDUCATION

DEAR COUSINS:

T HE Palace of Education has a most beautiful entrance, which is as it should be, because education is the most necessary thing in the world. Father says that we do not at all realize our blessings because things are made so easy for us. He says that he and Mr. Abraham Lincoln did not have things so easy.

But it could not have been so bad, because see what splendid men they both grew up! We found so many things of interest that we could not begin to tell you about them. But the thing which most interested us was the vocational schools which Massachusetts was showing.

Their motto, “Earning while learning,” does seem so sensible. They explain that there will always be some children who will have to help support themselves, and so Massachusetts, like Sentimental Tommy, has found a way.

The children go to school one week, and work in a factory the next week, turn and turn about. Massachusetts has a large number of factories and so can make an arrangement of this sort, but she believes that other communities have some industries which could furnish work for children.

Another school idea appealed to us more: We do not like to think of other little children having to work when we have so many good times, and we hope that there will be found a way, very soon, so that they need not do it.

But the idea is this, and it also belongs to Massachusetts: They build a schoolhouse in the center of say twenty-five miles of country. They put teachers there, but no pupils. The whole radius of twenty-five miles is the school. If a boy over fourteen, who has attended regular school up to that time, wishes to start a business, so that he can both earn and learn, whether it is chicken-raising, carpentering, fruit-growing, dairying, anything which he can do in the country, he becomes a pupil in the school, and is entitled to one visit a week from a teacher, who will not only show him how to do the work, but will instruct him how to market his wares. He is expected to keep along in regular school work as well, so that when he is twenty-one he will have a business, and some money in the bank. Father said that was real common sense applied. There are also schools in home-making, where any girl from seven to seventy years of age can learn all about housekeeping, and taking care of children. We saw some lovely leather bags made by the high school pupils of Minneapolis, which father said were worthy of skilled workmen.

We have not yet decided upon a life work, but we are going to learn to make gingerbread and jam, currant jam.

Your loving cousins,JANE AND ELLEN.

WHAT WE SAW AT THE PALACE OF FOOD PRODUCTS

DEAR COUSINS:

F RONTING on the Esplanade we found the Food Products Palace. Madame World considers that it is most important that the Spirit of Plenty, who rules food production, should have a palace worthy of her august Highness.

They were cooking so many things, and showing such quantities of food that it was most surprising. We were offered almost everything to eat that we had ever heard of, and some that we did not know existed. We were willing to sample them all, but father said that he did not believe we had better try to eat in so many languages. So we just had an oatmeal scone, and some puffed rice, and some Chinese cookies, a cup of chocolate, and a bit of biscuit, and a few other little things, but the others all looked good.

A lady has the most fascinating display of flowers made out of butter, red roses, and yellow roses, and water-lilies, and tulips, all growing on a lattice work inside her refrigerator. The colored flowers may be eaten because it is all colored with pure food colors. You could not tell that the flowers were not real, they look as though they grew there. She must have a lovely soul.

We wandered around to see the Aquarium. The fishes are lovely; we wish they did not have to be called Food Products. The Shovel-nosed Sturgeon is very probably a cousin to old Mr. Alligator, because he looks like him. He has the same bony humps on his back, and his head is shaped almost the same.

The Gar Pike looks like a submarine, and holds his body very rigidly, swimming only with his fins. He is grey and looks very cool and calm.

In one pool with some big blue Catfishes were some Salamanders, with funny furry tufts on their heads. They were lazy and would not get up. They resemble lizards. There was a whole tank of lovely Golden Perch from Catalina. They have faces with real foreheads, and a very bored and haughty expression. There were also some lovely Rainbow Trout from Canada’s mountain streams.

We were much interested in the fish-hatching processes. The eggs are kept under running water on a sort of griddle or coarse net, and when one little wiggly fellow comes out he uncoils and is long instead of round as he was in the egg, and so he drops down into the bottom of the tank, and begins to be a fish. He carries the rest of the egg around with him for a few days so that he need not be hungry until he has absorbed the nutrition it gives him.

Fishes do not care much about their relations except for dinner, as they are real cannibals. I suppose they do not know any better, but it seems unfortunate. I fear we neglected the rest of the palace.

Your loving cousins,JANE AND ELLEN.

THE PALACE OF AGRICULTURE

DEAR COUSINS:

W E WENT around through the Court of the Universe, and across the Aisle of the Setting Sun to the Palace of Agriculture, which is very beautiful indeed.

We suppose that Madame World wished to do all the honor possible to the Goddess of Agriculture, as she is a most useful goddess, and the world could not do without her, because she has to furnish food for all the earth.

We get used to taking things very much for granted, and do not seem to be interested in where things come from, and so that is why such a Fair as this is useful. It lets us know to whom we are indebted for the things we eat. Iowa had a real mountain of corn, lovely golden corn, and Vermont had real maple sugar to eat on the Johnnie cake the corn would make.

North Carolina and South Carolina send us rice, and Cuba sends us coffee, and South America sends fruits and also coffee, China sends tea and preserved ginger and funny nuts, and California and Florida give us oranges and grapefruit and strawberries, and almost everything good to eat, and the Philippines send us cocoanuts and Hawaii sends pineapples. Did you know that peanuts grow on a vine in the ground, and that bananas do not grow on a tree but on a tall ferny-looking thing which is not a tree, and pineapples grow on short plants which are set out every year? It takes a long time for the pineapple to perfect itself, but we did not learn just how long.

A gentleman from Cuba showed us a collection of fruit which is grown in that island, including the avocado, or alligator pear. It is a very wonderful fruit, and there is a tree in Southern California which is insured for thirty thousand dollars.

But the big red apples from Oregon were of more interest to us, because we know that we like those, and do not have to take any risks. And the lovely juicy golden oranges of California are good enough for us. But we liked to see all the things that have grown from the ground, because we can never quite understand the marvel of it – how a little seed knows quite well what it is going to be when it comes up. We know, because we planted some lettuce one year and it came up turnips. It said lettuce on the paper, but the seeds knew all the time that they were no such thing.

We could not be deceived like that again, because we know the difference now between lettuce and turnip seed.

We asked father if he did not think that Madame World should be very proud of her children, and he said yes, he did think so, and also that it was a great privilege to belong to her.

Father says such wise things!

Your loving cousins,JANE AND ELLEN.

THE PALACE OF LIBERAL ARTS

DEAR COUSINS:

A S WE went in the door of the Liberal Arts father called our attention to the doorway, and also to the panel, representing the making of things which we use, and the figure of the lady with the spindle, and the man with the hammer.

These were made by Mr. Mahonri Young of Salt Lake City, Utah, and are meant to show that work is honorable and desirable.

All the ideas shown in this building are not more than ten years old, or if older they have been greatly improved in that time.

The telephone, for instance, has been so much improved that it is very much more practical. We were allowed to hear a telephone message from New York the other day, and shown movies of how they put the poles and wires over the mountains. It was like magic. Now comes along a machine, which we were shown in the Palace of Liberal Arts, which really is a wizardry sort of thing, as it takes your message if you telephone when your friend is out, and repeats it to him in your own voice when he returns. We know because we tried it. The man asked us to speak into the telephone, and then let us hold the machine to our ears and it spoke right back to us. We have always thought such a machine would be a help, especially if we wanted to stay at grandmother’s for supper, and could not get mother on the ’phone.

Bookbinding appeals to us very much indeed, because it is so smooth and shows that one has taken pains with the work, and perhaps we shall become bookbinders. A lady had some beautiful leather bindings there, and she was most kind about explaining.

We thought we would like one of the dear little cameras that go in a hand-bag, and take little bits of pictures which afterward grow into big ones, but father said we must wait for that. So we went to see the apparatus for taking the “movies,” and also looked at the lovely autochromes. It is too bad that they will not reprint in color, but before the next ten years of course they will.

We wonder if you have seen the new lawn sprinkler which jumps around from one place to another on the lawn. When we went home today we saw it at work out in the lawns, and we could scarcely believe our eyes. It sprinkled one place until it thought, apparently, that it was wet enough, and then it bobbed out of sight and came up about ten feet away, working like mad. Really if you did not know about it, it would make you think you were asleep and dreaming a fairy story.

Your loving cousins,JANE AND ELLEN.

THE PALACE OF HORTICULTURE

DEAR COUSINS:

H ORTICULTURE, as you know, is the art of making things grow, like grass and flowers and blooming trees and shrubs, which add so much to the beauty of the world.

The Goddess of Horticulture, whose name is Flora, should be very happy in the palace which Madame World has provided for her at the Fair, because it is extremely beautiful.

Madame values the goddess Flora very highly, and loves her dearly, because she knows what a very different place this world would be without her.

Her palace at the Fair has a wonderful dome, where the sun shines in all day, and several smaller domes, so that the palace is always light and cheerful.

A perfect thicket of trees and shrubs and flowers surround it, seeming to peep in at their less hardy sisters who live inside the palace.

The wonder worker among flowers and fruits and vegetables, Mr. Luther Burbank, has his headquarters at the Fair, and will be happy to tell any one just how to create new flowers and fruits, and give advice on gardening.

We wanted to ask him why he wanted a red poppy instead of a golden one, but we did not. We love the poppies golden just as they are, and we did not a single bit like the nasturtium-colored ones we saw there. But of course we are only children, and he is very wise.

The people from the Netherlands have a great garden of bulb plants in the grounds, and the Japanese people have cherry, plum, and other ornamental trees, as well as rare flowers.

A gardener told father that the great eucalyptus trees and the cypresses – many of them sixty feet tall – had been brought down from a park and put there around the walls of the palace. We wondered how they liked being transplanted.

But they were playing quite happily with the little winds from the ocean and seemed quite contented. The gardener told us that they were going back home after the Fair is over, so perhaps they had heard.

We are planning a garden for next year. We shall have heaps of poppies.

Your loving cousins,JANE AND ELLEN.

OUR FIRST LESSON IN SCULPTURE

DEAR COUSINS:

W HEN we had looked, and looked, and looked at the Tower, and had almost counted every jewel on it, we were so delighted with it, father called our attention to the Fountain of Energy, made by Mr. A. Stirling Calder, and told us about its meaning, or symbolism.

The sculptor means to convey the idea that the Canal has been finished because of the pluck and energy and courage of our nation, and that now we are going on to better things.

The queer sea creatures at the base of the fountain are supposed to be carrying on their backs the four oceans, the North and South Arctic, and the Atlantic and Pacific.

The figure of the man on the horse certainly looks very animated, and we supposed that the figures standing on his shoulders are heralds who are to clear the way for him.

Near Horticultural Hall in the South Gardens, at the left of the Fountain of Energy, is a Mermaid Fountain by Mr. Arthur Putnam, which is repeated at the right in front of Festival Hall. That gives you a picture of the tower and what we saw from the main gate as we went in. Father said that as we had made so good a start, it would be wise to keep on with sculpture for the rest of the day. He pointed out to us the figure of Victory, which has been placed on each one of the palaces, and then took us to the Court of Palms to see Mr. James Earle Fraser’s “The End of the Trail.” We felt just how tired both man and horse were, and felt sorry for them both. We asked father why they had come so far to get themselves exhausted like that, and he again told us something of symbolism.

The statue is intended to represent the redman, and denotes that the race is vanishing, and is supposed to be studied in connection with the “Pioneer,” Mr. Solon Borglum’s very fine statue in the Court of Flowers. That is meant to say that the white race will take up the work of progress and carry it on. We completed the lesson by going to see the Column of Progress at the end of the Court of the Universe. The bas-relief, that means the flat figures on the surface, by Mr. Isadore Konti, show men have striven for the best in life. The group at the top of the column, by Mr. Hermon A. McNeil, is a great work, father says, and is meant to express the idea of effort.

The artist has also expressed the thought that no man can accomplish anything alone, but must have the love and support of his fellow beings. We think that is a beautiful thought.

Your loving cousins,JANE AND ELLEN.

THE COURT OF THE UNIVERSE

DEAR COUSINS:

W HILE we were in the Court of the Universe, father thought we had better have another lesson on sculpture.

He considers that the fountains of The Rising Sun and Descending Night are the very finest things at the Fair, and he has traveled abroad and is a good judge. They are the work of Adolph A. Weinman. Father wants us to put in the names of sculptors and artists not because he expects us to remember them just now, but because big brother will want to know.

The very big groups on the triumphal arches attracted our attention, and we asked about them and what they were supposed to mean. Everything about the Fair has some meaning, but we do not expect to get it all. The group with the elephant and the Oriental gentlemen represents Eastern civilization on the way to meet Western civilization, which is represented by the group on the other arch – that with the prairie schooner drawn by oxen, and the figure of the Alaskan woman.

The Spirit of the East marching to meet The Spirit of the West is meant to typify the meeting of the world’s families now that the Canal has been completed.

The groups are the work of A. Stirling Calder, Leo Lentelli, and Frederick G. R. Roth.

Father liked very much the “Hopes of the Future” and “The Mother of Tomorrow,” two of Mr. Calder’s best things, in the group.

We liked, especially after the lights were on, the figures representing stars, of which so many are used in the avenue leading north.

Mr. Robert I. Aitken has four good figures in this court, and in the evening when the lights were on and the vapor was rising from the urns it looked like a story out of the Arabian Nights.

The flowers are lovely, and you never for a moment feel away from home, because all the courts are so homey-feeling, just like one’s own garden.

Father said after awhile that he thought it would be well for us to see something that we could really understand, and so he took us over to see Edith Woodman Burroughs’ dear little figure of “Youth” which she has made for a fountain. We just loved it, it looks so girly, and we were also much interested in the Fountain of Eldorado by Mrs. Whitney, because we have read the story about Ponce de Leon.

It would be nice to be a sculptor if one were a boy, unless one could be an aviator.

Your loving cousins,JANE AND ELLEN.

DEAR COUSINS:

THE COURT OF ABUNDANCE

W E ARE very happy and cheerful children – we have often heard people say so – but behind our smiling faces lies the deep and consuming sorrow that we have not a brother of our own age.

We can never understand why kind Providence did not create us triplets instead of twins and make one-third of us boy! It would have made no difference to kind Providence, and would have been much better for us.

We have never needed a brother as much as we do in seeing this Fair, though of course we say nothing to father about it as we realize that he is doing his best for us, but he so often has to leave us while he attends to some business or other, and then it is we feel the need of a brother of our own age. An older one would be of no use, as our fifteen-year-old one is not any good to us. He says he has interests of his own.

We were waiting in the Court of Abundance today for father, and were having a lovely time pretending that the lanterns between the arches were the homes of the light fairies, which would come out after the sun went away, and waving their golden wands would say, “Let there be light,” and there would be light, and that the color fairies would come down from the pictures and dance with the light fairies, and goodness only knows what we might not have accomplished in the way of a six best seller when a young sparrow fell out of his nest. He was disturbed about it, very naturally, but we were so sorry for him that we could not go on with our pretend. If we had had a brother of course he could have climbed up and put the poor little thing back, but a guard came and got him, and while of course we shall never know what happened, we have our fears.

Father came just then and we asked him if he wanted to give us a lesson, and he remarked that he feared the Court of Abundance was almost too big for a couple of ten-year-old tots to get much out of except perhaps fresh air and incipient inspiration. That cannot be as serious as it sounds, because we are sure father would not expose us to anything, but we shall look up “incipient” as soon as we get home.

We stayed down and saw the lights this evening and when the vapor is rising from the urns and the serpents are writhing, or at least seeming to, and all the lanterns are lighted, it looks like something out of our Arabian Nights’ book.

We shall try to finish our little play sometime, when the sparrows have taught their young ones to fly properly.

Your loving cousins,JANE AND ELLEN.

THE COURT OF THE FOUR SEASONS – THE COURT OF FLOWERS

DEAR COUSINS:

W E LOVE the Court of the Four Seasons, by Mr. Henry Bacon. It is so homey and lovely in there that we feel that we could be perfectly happy all day and every day in there. We like to hear the birds talking about their nests, and how many eggs there are now, and when the young ones are going to have their first flying lesson. We love also Ceres, the Goddess of Agriculture, who is standing on a pedestal on top of the lovely fountain. Mrs. Evelyn Longman is the lady who made it. The young ladies who dance around the base of the pedestal are so happy that you almost expect them to join hands and jump down and dance on the grass. Mr. Albert Jaegers’ Feast of the Sacrifice is in this court also, but we did not care so much about the symbolism of that. The artist has made it seem so real that we are sorry for the poor animal, which we are sure does not wish to be sacrificed.

But when we are in this lovely court it is impossible not to be happy, so we enjoy the flowers, and the statuary without thinking too much of what the symbolism is. Father says that we can think of that later, when we are older.

The Fountain of the Earth is in this court, and we like to watch the play of the water over the dome of the fountain.

In front of the Court of Flowers stands “The American Pioneer,” by Mr. Solon Borglum, which we like very much, because it looks like something out of our story books, which is not a very good reason, father says, because it is meant to show that these fine old men and women came first and made a way for us, and if they had not, we should have no beautiful Fair today.

This court is supposed to be the Court of Oriental Fairy Tales, but so far we have not met any one whom we know especially, except “Beauty and the Beast,” by Edgar Walters, and they do not seem quite in the right place.

Mr. Calder’s Flower Girls, with their garlands, make the place seem very gay and happy, but the real flowers were what we liked best, and we could sit for hours and hours in this beautiful spot, watching the big butterflies flitting over the pansy beds, and the bronze, ruby-throated humming-birds flashing like jewels escaped from the Tower.