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.