THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT BUILDING.—It was to be expected that Spain, the country in one respect most honored by the World’s Columbian Exposition, should be well represented in the displays, and that its government should enter into the broad spirit of the occasion. The Spanish government showed earnestness in its course from the beginning, not merely in assisting Spanish exhibitors but in such special direction as the building of the duplicate “Santa Maria,” the flagship of Columbus, the loan of treasured relics, shown in the Convent of La Rabida and the care paid to make something typical of the Spanish Government Building. The structure, which occupied a site near the lake shore between those of Germany and Canada, was the reproduction in design of the Valencia Silk Exchange, a building the erection of which was begun in Valencia, Spain, in 1492, the year that Columbus sailed. It showed exactly the style of architecture prevalent in Spain at the time, and so had had a peculiar and appropriate interest. The dimensions were a frontage of eighty-four feet, a depth of about ninety-five feet and a height of about fifty feet, the tower rising fifteen feet higher. The ornaments of the interior represented the church, the magistracy and the military arts, and the general effect was in keeping with the time represented. Here, of course, were the Spanish governmental headquarters at the Fair.

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