THE NORTH FRONT OF THE AGRICULTURE BUILDING, AND LAWN.—Between the magnificent Agriculture Building and the Grand Basin was a lawn not very broad, but nearly a thousand feet in length, resting the eye with its strip of green, and giving room for a just estimate of the architectural beauties displayed above. In the view given here is afforded not only a charming perspective of the Agriculture Building’s graceful front, but of two Exposition features which commanded general admiration and were among the first to perish after the Fair ended. In the distance is seen the greater portion of the famous Peristyle, destroyed by fire January 8, 1894, and, nearer, the dome and central groups of statuary of the Agriculture Building, which were consumed in the later fire of February 24th. The origin of the fires, as of those occurring elsewhere upon the grounds, is, as yet, unknown, whether the work of tramps or of some “cranky” lover of the Exposition’s glories, resolved that to disappear in flames should be their proper ending—but the fact that two points of greatest beauty were so attacked inclined many to the latter theory. The Agriculture Building, or, rather, the Southern Colonnade connecting with it, had been fired but a few days before the dome was destroyed, yet, though the west end of the edifice was seriously injured, its splendid frontage and the beauty of its adornments remained unmarred. No amount or caution on the part of watchmen appeared sufficient to prevent the fires, and the incendiary theory, very naturally, became the dominant one with the public.

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