PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (pp. 7-8)

PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS

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THE RUINS OF YUCATAN – To the mind of the student of the world’s history or that of any one of ordinary learning and imagination, there was no more interesting exhibit in its department of the Exposition than were the ruins from the ancient cities of Yucatan. ‘ They told of a civilized race existing on this continent, and building palaces and temples of an elaborate order of architecture long before Leif Ericsson reached the New World in his Viking ship, or Columbus, later, made the passage with his caravels. The remarkable duplication of the ruins shown at the World’s Fair was the work of Edward H. Thompson, United States Consul to Yucatan, who visited the jungles of Uxmal, Labna and Capon and made papier-mache molds of the tablets and architectural features, which were later cast in staff for the showing produced. Portions of the ruins themselves were also brought, and so the actual work of American architects, who lived and died before modern history began, stood side by side with that of the builders of the World’s Fair of 1893. The Maya language is dead, the inscriptions on the stones are undecipherable, but it is possible that, because they have now been placed within the reach of every student, their meaning may yet be construed, and something of the secrets of ancient American history revealed. There were six sections of these ruins, three of them showing doorways, arched, square and V-shaped, but in each instance, with the keystone lacking. The ornamentation was unique, and indicative of no little taste on the part of the original architects.

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ON THE WOODED ISLAND.— Without the Wooded Island, with its touch of the country, its wonderful flowers and shrubbery and winding walks, and cosy nooks and quaint Japanese houses of the past, the Fair would have lacked one of its most refreshing and interesting features. Charming alike to the naturalist, the couples who liked to wander by themselves, the student or the mere lover of the beautiful, was the island which added such variety to the scenery of the vast inclosure. The flora, transplanted from a thousand different and distant places, seemed to thrive here as at home, and nature seemed assisting man to make the whole as nearly a perfect thing as possible. And man certainly did his own part exceedingly well. He utilized what nature gave to the greatest advantage and added numerous improvements of his own which were in admirable taste. The view which appears above is but a bit, just the extreme southern end of the island where it is connected with the mainland by a tasteful bridge. There appears the broad way leading up to the Administration Building directly in front, with the Electricity Building showing partly on the left and a corner of the Mining Building on the right. The very spirit of the island’s atmosphere is caught in the illustration, the flowers, the shrubbery, the sturdy trees and the fairy lamps which gave such brilliancy to the night scene, are all depicted just as they were. The spot was one of the most charming on the Island.

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