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descent will do well to study. Exposition is American in broad friendly contrast with all that is European; it is an exposition of the arts, industries, and life of the New World from the furthest north to the furthest south; it is a record of the spiritual history of the early native races, of the English, the Scotch, the Irish in Canada and the United States, of the French, the Spanish, the Portuguese in Central and South America. These races, in their racial integrity or in their long mingling with one another, are the builders of the Pan-American Exposition; it is the work of their hands, and it is, therefore, a revelation of their spirit.

The shaping idea of the Exposition has

been admirably stated by its President, Mr. John G. Milburn, in these significant words:

So much could not have been accomplished but for the association of the Exposition with a grand idea-the bringing closer together of the peoples of this hemisphere in their social, political, and commercial relations. That aspect of it has been the inspiration of the enterprise and the source of the enthusiasm which has carried it forward to completion. It is assured of permanent results in the new and closer ties of amity, interest, and sympathy between those peoples which are bound to spring from it and to stamp it as an historical event. And in it is the fairest promise that the hope will be realized so nobly expressed in the inscription on the Propylæa, "that the century now begun may unite in the bonds of peace, knowledge, good will, friendship, and

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THE MINES BUILDING AND MIRROR LAKE Drawn by A. Fleury.

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noble emulation all the dwellers on the conti- craft rounds the first point of dense foliage, nents and islands of the New World."

The setting of the Exposition could hardly be more attractive or the approach to it more beautiful. Buffalo is not only one of the most comfortable cities in the country in the summer, but it is also one of the most finished and restful. The section given up to homes is not without architectural monstrosities-no modern city here or abroad is free from abominations of this kind; but its broad avenues shaded with trees of substantial growth and girth, its commodious and amply planned homes surrounded by generous lawns, the ripeness of nature enfolding a highly civilized life, give the city a first place among American towns. So rich is the foliage on Delaware Avenue and the neighboring streets for several miles that one finds himself in the Park without any sense of abrupt transition.

The Exposition ought to be approached, for the first time at least, through the drives or walks of the Park, which bring one to the lake, where a steam launch conveys the visitor swiftly to the main entrance to the grounds. As the little

high above the great mass of green in the foreground rise the striking equestrian figures on the columns of the bridge, full of a noble freedom and energy, the dome of the government building, and the electrical tower. This first glimpse of the Exposition strikes the keynote of grace, lightness, and harmony; the striking figures against the clear sky and the blue of the domes give one a sense of elation, as if something ethereal and magical were at hand. The first view of the grounds reveals the simplicity and symmetry of the structural scheme, and conveys at the outset its deeper significance; for it is in the whole, as it unifies and co-ordinates the parts, that the meaning of the Exposition is to be sought. There are almost countless exhibits of products, industries, methods, and inventions; the means, tools, and appliances of an immensely diversified industrial and commercial life; and there is a vast amount of that incidental advertising which is as old as the oldest fair in the Orient; but there is no hint of utility detached from beauty, of commercialism divorced from altruism, of industry divided

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from art, in the ordered harmony of the structure of the Exposition; that shares in and recalls the higher activities of humanity among all races; it may be regarded as a symbol of the co-ordination of interests in this country in some future when we shall have worked through the distinctively commercial stage into something higher and more inclusive.

The Exposition is, fortunately, much more compact than its predecessors, and permits, therefore, the working out of a unity which is grasped at a glance. The noble causeway, flanked by great towers with rich shields swinging between, prepares the eye for the long vista of the Court of Fountains closed by the tower, from which a stream gushes as if to feed all the rising and falling masses of water,

touched by the sun with a beauty which lives in the subtle commingling of light and spray, and vanishes to be rekindled moment by moment in endless variety of gathering, dispersing, and foaming loveliness.

From this great vista what may be called transepts expand the foreground on either side, with rich masses of flowers breaking the long distances. The landscape effects are skillfully produced, and give the buildings a charming setting of verdure and color. The Paris Exposition of 1888 was larger but far less effective as a whole; the Exposition in the same city last summer was so vast and so widely scattered on both sides of the Seine that artistic unity was impossible of achievement; it was a vast aggregation of exhibits, housed in a great number of buildings,

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