ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD ON HIS TRAVELS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 34, 25 August 1904, Page 3

ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD ON HIS TRAVELS

Further Interesting Particulars of the World's Fair

His Grace Archbishop Redwood, writing under date June 29 from Chicago to a friend in Wellington, gives the following further interesting particulars o f the exhibits at the World's Fair at "St. Louis :—

' I have been here since last Saturday, 25th inst., having come from St. Louis where I spent a very pleasant fortnight despite the humid heat which was sometimes to me excessive, though relatively cool for the month of June. I have had plenty of time to see the St. Louis World's Fair as far as I care to see. To see it adequately would take months. In general external beauty and vas'tness it, in my opinion, far surpasses the Chicago Fair of 1893. The hills on whiuh it stands have much helped the picturesque effect.

The Main Picture, made up of eight bie; exhibit palaces and a mile and a half of lagoon, is on a level area Surrounded on two sides by lulls that rise to a height of 65 feet. These hills are not continuous, but just out of four points. These prominences are used to fine effect in the decorative scheme. The two central prominences, which are connected by a semi-circular ridge, lead to the lower level of the grounds by a fine sloping hollowed declivity. The exposition architects used this natural feature to effect

one of the greatest architectural, water, and garden compositions ever executed by man. The declivity between the cascades is occupied by lawns and gardens of really exquisite design. You reach the lull from two avenues of 1 lie mam picture by a long approach flanked by portrait statues of the great men who helped in the development of the Louisiana Purchase, which the exposition professes to commemorate One of the finest out-door effects of tjhc exposition is formed by the approaches leading in Ibo buildings located on the lulls. In a former letter I endoa'v ored to sketch the general he of the giound^ and the delightful effect of the landscape gardening. In this letter I will dwell on some other matters The sculptures on the grounds are very remarkable and generally of very fine execution They are all of course made of the same fragile material called " staff," which is a composition of plaster of Paris and hemp fibre. It forms the covering of nearly all the vast building's, and the statuary, scrolls, allegorical groups, and other pieces of sculpture arc made of it. It may be handled like timber, sawed, nailed, and repaired, a.id ite quite durable Without " staff," which is cheap and quickly made, the building of s-uch temporary palaces and statuary would be impracticable The history and spirit of tihe Louisiana Territory are told by the sculptor in over one thousand figures in the builldings and the grounds. They were the work of 100 American sculptors at an expense of £100,000. The profusion and perfection of this statuary is one ot the chief excellences of the St. Louis World's Fair The effect of it combined with the electric illumination or the daily sunlight is magnificent. Let us now enter one ot the splendid palaces and describe it as a specimen of the others, with, of course, due modifications and limitations. We will take

The Agriculture Palace, which covers, ie , roofs in, 23 acres. It is not quite so ornate in its style of architecture as some of the other buildings-, but it has other special features which make it a superb specimen of what an exposition hall ought to be. It is a long rectangle. The four lacades are broken by dignified entrances formed of wide arches. Large areas of glass replacing architectural decoration flood the interior with light. The roof rests on a great number of enormous trusses fixed on posts which mark the aisles. Around these posts the exhibits are disposed. In all there aie miles of aisles, but these are divided and numbered to •neet the \anous interests of the department of agriculture and relieve the fatigue of the visitor. The exhibits cover all the products of the soil, together wit Hi the tools, implements, methods of cultivation, harvesting, irrigation, drainage, and the by-products of the manufactured ' forms- of these products , their preparation and preservation, including ever) tilling edible and drinkable which comes, however lemotely, from the soil, and which foims pait of the home life and commerce of the people. Imagine how instructive all this is. The dany section at the World's Fair occupies well nigh 30,000 feet. 'A model creamery, fully equipped and m operation, is a feature of great interest. Plate glass encloses the butter and cheese apparatus, permitting visitors to see every process. There is a sanitary milk plant connected with the creamery, and a model dairy lunch exhibit where sanitary milk, butter, and cheese are dispensed. More than two acres of space are devoted to foods, including the cereals and their products , tubers and roots and their pioducts , coffee, tea, cocoa of all kinds and products , refrigerated fresh meats, poultry, fish, and game ; eggs, farinaceous products, pastes breads, cakes, tinned meats, evaporated and preserved' fruits, apices, and condiments, potable waters beers ales wines, brandies, whiskeys, cordials, and what not. Another great block of space is supplied for the manufacturers of agricultural implements, tools, and machinery. All the newest and latest devices i,n the agricultural line are on view. Here all nations vie with each other, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Egypt, Africa, and America, showing to the New World the husbandry of the Old. This agricultural hall cost £110,000. You see the completeness, the exhaustiveness of such an exposition nail. Well, say the same of all the others, which I mieht describe,, and you will have an idea of what the bt. Louis World's Fair is.

It is indeed a World's Fair.

TJie New Zealand exhibit, which occupies a considerable space, is in the agricultural building. 'It is most creditable and interesting. The principal part of the N.Z. exhibition is in this hall, as I have just said, but there is also another very excellent exhibit in the game and fishery building not far from the agriculture hall. Aus~ tra-lia is well nigh unrepresented at IJhe World's Fair. In -the anthropology building a special feature o[ interest

are the Vatican treasures and Queen Victoria's presents (Queen's Jubilee gifts). Among these presents were a number of ex-quisitcly illuminated and framed addresses, among which I was pleased to see the one from the New Zealand Paihament, on which our old friend Dr. (i race's name was conspicuous. From the Siplcndid priceless broooh sent by the C/.ar and C?anna of Russia to the two pans of blankets and roll of flannel sent by a woollen linn in New Zealand, there is every Kind of article produced by man. In the Vatican treasiur(N is a iacsunile 01 pages of the cele-biated Codex Vaticanus, the oldest extant Greek manuscript of the New Tcstc-nient, preserved in the Vatican Libiary. r lhere are also some excellent mosaics and some personal souvenirs of Leo XIII. and the present Pope. At the New Zealand exhibit I met Mr. Clarkson. He is the second m charge at the exhibition. Mr. Donne, the head man, was, 1 am sorry to say, very ill with dysentery and fever when I left St. Louis. A few words of comparison between the former expositions and the present World's Fair may be alike instructive and interesting The grand area of St. Louis World's Fair is 1240 acres , that in Paris m lUOO, 330 acres ; the Chicago Ex-position of 1893, 633 acres ; the Pan-American at Buffalo, 300 a'eres ; the Centennial* at Philadelphia, 236 acres. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition roofs in by il« palaces used for exhibition 128 acres ; the Chicago Exhibition had 82 acres under roof. Also no former exhibition e\ ci paid s-o much inteiest to out-door exhibits. At St. Louis there are 100 acres of this class of exhibits. I most say something about

The Pike, the name given, "by reference to the obsolete^ old turnpike road, to what went by the name of the t " 1 Midway" at Chicago m 1893, which may be deemed the amusement section of the World's Fair. The Pike, which is always crowded night and day, is story-book land. AH creeds and customs aie there , 6000 nondescript characters stop from history, travel, and adventure, to hail you in reality. Forty amusements, costing one million pounds .sterling, extend one and a hall miles. Starting on the Pike from the Pla/a of St. Louis, mountain m|asses 100 feet high, but looking by optical illusion six thousand, reproduce the snowy Tyrolean Alps with their trees, habitations, and glaciers, high over an Alpine village. An Irish village has facsimiles of Corniac's Castle, the old House of Parliament at Dublin, and St. Lawrence's Gate. Under and over tfle sea us a trip to Pari.s m a submanne boat and a return voyage in an airship. I took this tup for 25 cents, and tihe illusions were mo^t realistic and delightful, not to say sometimes startling in the nud-air stoiins. You m.o\e among senoritas and Romanies in Seville, with t.he marionette bull fights at Madrid ; sou hunt in the O/arks of the mount ams of Missouri , you aie alike amazed and delighted at llagenbeck's /00, en cms. and animal paradise, showing man-eating beasts perfectly tame in a jungle of growing \cgctation, talking birds at liboity, and trained wild animals — lions, tigers, panthers, bears, etc.— in (he same cage with the tamer and performing most wonidertul and almost incredible feats, to the eternal credit of their trainer. In mysterious Asia you have a picture of life in India, Bunnah, Persia, and Ceylon. Plastic ait is shown in the Moorish palace, where historic East Tndia customs are illustrated. Weaving of glass into tablecloths and other fabrics is shown in the glass weaving palace. Paris is a reflection of that gay centre Aivient Rome is seen in a street of the Aug,usian period A hi^toiy of fashion from the period of the early Roman colonies is shown* in t.he palais dv costume. In the infant incubator babies are seen through the glass doors of their strange nest. Indian Congress and Wild West show is an assembly of historic tribes of the American Indians and famous scouts. The Siberian railway is an illusion showing a locomotive and traih running

Hundreds of Miles Through Siberia. Deetp sea divers is explained by its name. Cairo is a reproduction, with its camels and dotikeys, of the Egyptian city. The Chinese villas. c brings to the Pike the joss houses and temples of bamboo. Eleven sections of the famous bazaars of Stamhoul ate reproduced in Constantinople. Esquimaux and Laplanders is a view of the life of those people, with their dogs and furs and sledges, i n the Polar region. The magic whirlpool is a descent by boat around a circular waterfall. The clifi dwellers is a duplicate of a section of the caves on the Mancos Canyon, Colorado. Batitle Abbey is a cyclorarnifc reproduction of America's battle history. The na,val exhibit tries to show a modern sea fight. Beautiful Jim Kef is an educated horse. Ante-bellum days are revived in the old plantation of the south. The great disaster ;yvhich overwhelmed Galveston, in September, 1900, is

reproduced in the Galvcst'on flood. Male's fire fighters is 1 an exhibition of extinguishing a burning building and saving lives. JSlew ork to the North Pole is a|n illusion of a trip by vessel to the Polar regions. I did this trip and it was most impressive and enjoyable. Wireless telegraphy is the exhibit of a wueless telegraph compaJiy, messages being sent from a tower in the grounds 200 feet high Jerusalem is a remarkable openair representation of the Holy City. It covers 11 acres. Observation wheel is a huge wheel of steel, 250 feet h'i'ghi giving \ l.sitois a Inrd'st-eye view of the exposition. The miniature railway (carna.gcs and entrine about 3 feet high) afloids a ride m a perfectly equipped xailioad tiaiii. There aic several other show, but I have given the principal. Something for all tastes. As I told you in a former letter, Father Smyth was to join me at Salt Lake City, which he did. We were most warmly welcomed and right royally treated at All Hallows College, where we spent several very pleasant days. One day vc were treated to an organ recital at the great Tabernacle. It was excellent ; I never heard an organ which so perfectly combined sweetness with power ; nor did I ever hear a " vox humana," or " voces humanae " stop equal to the one here. I much prefer the tone of this organ to that of the largest organ in the world, which I heard in the grand festival hall at the World's Fair. Coming from Salt La;ke to St. Louis a washout caused our train, between Denver and Kansas City, to be delayed over six hours. This caused me to stay the night at Kansas City. The Bishop and priests were most kind ; in the afternoon of my arrival I was driven round the beautiful and rapidly extending boulevards of Kansas City, and I also visited the very fine establishment of the Redemptorist Fathers. I have' seen the Archbishop here, Dr. Quiglcy, who was most kind. I have also seen the Sacred Heart Sisters and the Jesuits, who are now in the smoky and grimy part of Chicago, as bad as the East End of London. I dined yesterday with Father Galligan, who is in capital health ; his parish has been ruined by huge factories and most of his people driven elsewhere, lie will sell out soon, demolish St Patrick's Church (once the cathedral of Chicago), and migrate to a cleaner and better quarter of the city. The Redemptonsts, with whom I am staying and am treated with every possible kindness, have a splendid church here, of the Romanesque architecture, with admirable and extremely laru;e Munich stained glass windows, and an electric licht illumination of the whole building, finer than I have yet seen in any church I shall stay hcie some days and then go to St. Paul, whither I am m\ited by Archbishop Ireland, who is expected here m a few days, as he has informed me by wire Father Smyth left St. Louis some days befoie I did in order to go to New Orleans, Algiers, and Jefferson College. "We should meet again as per arrangement at Washington, and then we shall see about auanging for our \ oyage across the Atlantic'