Tne World’s Fair at St. Louis, 1904.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XXI, 21 May 1904, Page 26

Tne World’s Fair at St. Louis, 1904.

Expositions cannot be measured by their endowments, and yet endowments plus men will make an exposition. And the World’s Fair at St. Louis has both. It enjoys a larger fund than was ever before available for sueh a purpose. The City of St. Louis appropriated five millions of dollars for the Fair, private subscriptions added to this five million dollars, while the United States appropriated in all seven million dollars, making available from these three sources 17 million dollars. And to this should be added four million five hundred thousand dollars more, appropriated by the several States and by private subscriptions for local exhibits, making a grand total of twenty-one million five hundred thousand dollars, not to speak of the many milions received from concessions, gate-receipts and the like. Conservative estimates of the expenditures made prior to the opening of the doors of the Fair, place the total figure at fifty million dolars, which does not include the millions spent by the promoters of amusements, entertainments, and other features of a similar nature. And the men who have had the spending of this immense sum of money, a sum more than three times the total original cost of the Louisiana Purchase, are, in the main, the same men who made the Chicago Fair, who represented the United States at Paris, and later were the controlling spirits at the Buffalo Exposition. The Exposition is located in the western portion of Forest Reserve Park, and covers nearly twelve hundred acres of land, enclosed by a six-mile fence. The site offers unusual opportunities for architectural display, being heavily wooded in part, and of a gently undulating character. The central feature, to which all else converges, is an elaborate crescent of cascades, crowned at the crest of the hill by a semicircular colonnade. In the centre, and at either end of the colonnade are located three ornate buildings in the French Renaissance style. Cascades descend into a central basin by successive plunges, eventually reaching the main lagoons, which traverse, like the ribs of a fan, the ground plan of the Exposition. On the crest of the hill, and as the the completion of the axis, is an imposing Festival Hall. It is used for large musical entertainments, opera, public meetings and the like. It is circular in form, and is surmounted by a dome 145 ft in width. The dome itself arises above the level of the terrace to a height of 191 ft. In general dimensions it is one of the largest domes in existence, and has a seating capacity of between 3000 and 4000. people. Reaching out on either side of the Festival Hall is the Colonnade of States, 1000 ft long, made up of two rows of splendid lonic columns 65ft high, supporting a massive entablature. Within the Colonnade are statues symbolic of the States and Territories within the Louisiana Purchase, which statues have been designed by eminent sculptors. Some distance behind the Colonnade of States, and elevated above it by gently rising terraces, is the Art Palace, which is erected in marble as a permanent structure for ultimate use as an art museum.

At the other end of the main axis, and directly in front of the Festival Hall, at the lowei’ end of the Grand Basin, is the Louisiana Purchase Monument, an imposing shaft 100 ft high. The St. Louis art exhibit is planned on a magnificent scale. The attitude of foreign Governments is evidenced by the fact that France and Germany alone applied for three-fifths of the total space alotted to the fine arts for their exhibits. With one exception, all the States of Europe requested space, while the United States add to the brilliant display made at Chicago all of the additions which have come to the nation since that time. Among the novel features is a reproduction of Jerusalem, surrounded by its wall, showing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Mosque of Omar, the Stables of Solomon, the Golden Gate, and the Mount of Olives, as well as all other features of the historic city. Shades of the Crusaders! The Holy City in the heart of America! The Tyrolean Alps are represented, embracing the snow-clad mountains, with the native sports, costumes, refreshments and the like. The City of

Paris is there, with the Bastile, the guillotine, as well as the cafes and street scenes of the gay capital. Of a somewhat different nature are such things as the International Horse Show, the Olympian Games, which will attract athletes front all over the world, and which have been brought to St. Louis from Chicago, where the world-meeting was to have been held. There will be an exhibition of aerial navigation, which is expected to bring together aeronauts from France, England and America. An appropriation of two hundred thousand dollars has been made available for this feature of the Exposition, of which a sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars will he given in prizes.