The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 1, 1904, Page 17

- i Pages17t024 | # 3 ¢ Gosl AL e [ Pages17t024] *+ FRANCISCO, SU NDAY, MAY 1, 1904. LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION IS GREATEST UNIDERSAL FAIR IN Opening Day Finds Dast Exhibition in Full and - Satisfying Readiness for Disitors. 20.—The ‘doors - of hich aggregates ac- more of . gpecial mankind. than enie -place k ybe and all sraall, ‘between . thgenyities f the bygone he many profit by dHEp A § the Guitome under- . the ag,-of year-by year Increas- rger behafit Yo great and the ked thereby sons of the treaty .of e rival her g the .nineteenth ed by its conse- es and the ihdred years before, the sweep- claimed ers: in A theif own per- fit of tt w there mes as suddenly offered who ruled much more human race esulting A fair measure of ta the action of our Jefferson, Monroe be had from the f :its results, as mow ncluded at the HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. great expositions t héve been ave all been morate the of the n re- 5 the position of 1876, at to our minds the tentury- back, of the brought forth the young that soon wag to’ wield fluence in the destinies of ew-World. The “Colum- Chicago,” in 1893, ndred years to the in-eyes first beheld h greed of gold was 1 one part and love s2.in another. L importance to termediate’ the St. : opening to-day and puichase of the terri- from. France in 1803, £ as the most import- mefnorial event of the history of the United- States, and as & conse- 1 of the bistory of the American contineff. since the beginning. The Louisiana -Territory may be described Jas that great tract of lapd .lying between the Mississippl River «#nd ‘the crést of the Rocky Mountgins. It is 1,171,931 square -miles in extent, greater than the combingd areas of France,. Germany, Englaid, Bcotland, Ireland, Wales, the Nether- bt-regar tire . Misstssippi “Valley originally be- longed to -France by-right of discovery and exploration., In 1767 -France trans- ds,” Belgium, Italy and Spain. The® ferred her rights west of thé Missis- 3 sippi, including the city-and isiand of New Orleans, to Spain, which held the e until- the year 1800. The terri- tory east of the Mississippi, iri the same year; , was ceded to Great Britain. Napoleon, in the. year 1800, was First Consul of France, and by the-secret treaty of ‘St. Ildeforiso reacquired from Sphain the old French territory west of the Mississippj.” The United States, by the Revolutionary war, had won sover- eignty over the territory between. the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi. Al- though actually owned by France, Spanish. officials were still in authority at New Orlears, and the hostile atti- tude of these personages toward Amer- icans navigating the Mississippi- re- ted in agitation which led Presi- dent Jefferson to undertake the pur- chase of the city and island of New Orleans, in order to control the mouth of the Mississippi. River. Robert R. Livingston, United States Minister to France, and James Monroe, afterward President” of the United States (and the far-seeing author of the ‘“Monroe Doctrine”), were commissioned to-con- duct the negotiations for this transfer. Instead of the transfer alone of ' the island of New Orleans, Napoleon—no doubt with the idea of getting rid of a territory which dt the time yielded no revenue and which it would be em- barrassing to defend, as well by reason of great need of funds for equipment of his navies ap i armies—proposed the sale of the en, %e Loulsiana: Territory for $15,000,000—wnich at the time seem- ed.- a much vaster- sum than it would to-day. 3 A RICH INVESTMENT. The city of St. Louis alone pays every year to the United States Gov-~ ernment in internal revenue taxes a far larger sum than the entire T ~isiana Territory cost, and this great exposi- tion held in the metropolitan city of the territory has involved in its completion an expenditure nearly four times as great as was paid for the whole. -The representatives of the United States did not hesitate to accept the saj -proposition of the First Consul. The treaty was . .Jned at Paris, April 30, 1803. The formal transfer of the terri- tory followed at New Orleans Decemher 20 of the same year at the old Cabildo building—the seat of the local French Government at the time. The old Ca- bildo building has been reproduced at St. Louis in form and fullness as an -object lesson for those who need such tangible association to fix the fact ands, circumstance of great events. It serves as the Louisiana State building. It is a fact that the present greatness . of the United States would not have been possible without this territory. By this purchase the extent of our country was more than doubled, and after this lantic to the Pacific and have made it the way was made easier for the many possible. for this country to become one additional acquisitians of territory of the great world powers. From the which have given the United States a mere commercial standpoint, the pur- broad, unbroken expanse from the At- chase of the Louisiana Territory was a wonderful “‘bargain.”” This great central western region is. to-day the most intrinsically valuable portion of the United States. Its agricultural re- sources and mineral THE HISTO Y OF THE WORLD Di&play» J, preads Over Area of 1240 Acres, Representing an Expenditure of $50,000,000. . | ST. LOUIS, April 30.—The. Louisiana Purchase Exposition is the greatest . universal fair in the- history of’ thie world. ‘Not only is its area the most S lor Al el Lol o LS Rt L S S in no equivalent extent of: territory on the globe. Its population has increased from less than 100,000 at the period of Continued on Page 19, Column 1. -+ 4 it Y - v LT, expansive -ever included within éxposi- tion fences, not only is the amount of - money expended the largest ever avail- able to an exposition, but the space for " exhibits is the greatest ever created under palace roofs, and the outdoor . displays are greater. than ever known before. E The grounds are 9500 feet long, and 8000 feet from north td south, ‘eompriss ing 1240 acres. Fifty-one States and Territories of the Union and fifty-one. foreign nations participate. The esti: mated cost of the fair is $50,000,000. The magnitude of the fair. can be padrtially indieated by a glance at-some . of the principal features. What is talled the “main picture” of the expa- sitien occupies the northeastern sec- tion, and with the Festival Hall, Cas- . cade Gardens and Colonnade of States as the key to the picture, one sees the great exhibit palaces assembled along- radiating avenues laid out ‘in the form of a lady’s openfan. ¥ : From the southeastern gate, around the northeastern fronts of the several great buildings, to the western limits, the distance is nearly two and three- quarter miles. ¥ Four great buildings, beginning with. the Liberal Arts and -taking the.Pal- aces of Manufactures, Varied Indus-, tries and Transportation, have a north- ern frontage of three hundred Tfeet more than a mile. The Government building is upon a high elevation and from its loggias and porticos many in- teresting views are obtained. The two large buildings nearest the Government building are the Palaces of Liberal Arts and Mines and Metallurgy: Next comes the Plaza Orleans dand the Pal- aces of Manufactures and Education. The broad space which divides the main group into two. parts js known as the Plaza St. Louis. The prominent feature of this place is the Louisiana Purchase ' Monument, near the north end of the Grand Basi The surroundings of this plaza férm the “central picture” of the exposition. RESTAURANT PAVILIONS. . 'Bhe Festival Hall, which is two hun- dred feet in dlameter and two hundred feet high, with attendant colonhades on either side, and the beautiful Res- taurant Pavilions terminating them, closes the view on the southwest. Upon the slopes between the Colon- nades and the Grand Basin are the great Castades and Rainbow Gardens, giving extraordinary color and life to the scene. ‘Behind the Festival Hall are four great buildings representing an expen- diture of .more than a million dollars,- devoted to the display of. fine arts. They contain a total .of one hundred and thirty-five galleries, and the ex- hibits constitute the largest art dis- play ever shown. - The buildings on the west of the Plaza St. Louls are the Palace of Varied Industries and the Palace of Electricity. The Plaza St. Anthony is next west, of these buildings. The Palace of Transportation, cover- ing fifteen acres, and the Palace of Machinery, with its many towers, are the next buildings Avestward. upon the high ground, southwest of the Palace of Machinery, is the Palace of Agricul- ture, covering twenty acres. South of Agriculture is the Palace of Horticul- ture. Westward from the Palace of Agriculture is the Philippine reserva- tion of forty acres, where twelve hun- dred Filipinos are at home for the ex- position.’ T : The Palace of Nations is west of the : . The Administr nology - building, Hall of International Congresses afd Woman’s building are "Administration .other reservation of s .map of the United - of Jerusalem, which which stands, Among the those of Bel- Palace of Transportation fine buildings here a gium, Brazil, Great Br Italy, China, Sweden, Austria, ') ragua, Cuba, Mexico, Ceylon and Can- ada. tion building, Eth- near together on the gh ground west of the foreign buildings. South of the building, the large structure is the Palace of Forestry, Fish and Game 3 -The ‘reservation of thirty. acres for the' Govern nt In n exhibit and an- acres for'a States in - living plants, are west of the Palace of Fisb, Forestry and Game. THE GREAT FLORAL. CLOCK. lear-the Palave of Agriculture is the great floral cloek, 112 feet in @iameter, and the lake in which . the. United States Life Savings Corpa give.dzily exhibitions. The Pike, the amusement street of - .the exposition, begins in the eastern part of the grounds, with the Tyrolean * Alps, which -cover ten- acres ‘or more, and winds around the west end of the Transportation and Machinery palaces to a point near the Art buildin end- ing with the reproduction of the ecity covers _eleven acres: - In this distance of nearly two . miles are seen the most novel enter- tainmerits that "ingeniéus show men haveé beea able to devisé. .Areas under roof at various exposi~ tions are ‘as follows In London, in 1851, 21-acres were cov- ered. .. ke In Paris,.in.1367, 37 acres.were cov- ered. = : In Philadelphia, in 1876, 65 acres were covered. - In Paris, in 1899, 75 acres were cov- ered. o In Chicago, in 1803, %00 acres. were covered. . In Paris, in 1900, 125 acres’ were cov- ered.’ . In St. Louis,” in 1904, more than 250 acres js covered under roof.” . The area of grounds of various.expo- sitions are as follows! Trans-M ippi Expesition; Omaha, 150 acres. Centennial Exposition,” Philadelphia, 236 acres. Buftalo, position, 1599-1900, 338 acres. Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, acres. . Louisiana -Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904, 1240 acres. The Wonld's® Fair site at St. Louis comprises 1240 acres, The total acreage of thé four larger expositions of this country—Philadelphia, Chicago, Omaha and Buffalo—was 1319 .acres. At Chi- cago the ex on grounds were con- tained in E s, a fracttod more than half the size of the grounds at St.. Louis. In St. Louis the principal ex- hibit palaces cover an area of 123 acres. In: Chicago the’exhibit buildings de- voted to the same purposes covered an area of 52.2 acres. The Pan-Amertcan Exposition at Buffalo covered 300 acres, and the combined exhibif buildings were containe d in° an area of 1.1 acres, not quite ¢qualing the size of the Palace of Trahsportation at St. Louis. The Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha was built on a 130-acre tract, and the exhibit buildings covered an grea of 9.3 acres. The beautiful site. of the exposition was chosen June 25, 1901. It is six miles west of the Mississippi River at the western limits of St. Louis and em- braces the west half of Forest Park and adjacent lands. No exposition has had - a more beaugiful site. Its hills and ghallow valleys give it many charming vistas and landscape features such as have been involved in.no previous ex- position layout. Portions of the grounds are covered,K with tall trees, among which will be placed the various Staté buildings and other structures. These Gelightful groves will constitute restful retreats for visitors when seeking di- version from sightseeing—especially when the temperature may be high. There were no such valuable adjuncts to the expesition grounds in Chicago— though they would have been much ap- * preciated during some of the warmer days of the summer of 1893. The principal exhibits palaces are lo- cated where was what was called “The Wilderness” in Forest Park—a stretch of rolling country where a dense forest rose out of a mass of tangled under- growth in which many wild denizens of ‘the woods found refuge. The River des Peres stole through in zigzag course, adding much to the beauty of the re~ gion. Untll the exposition forces ad- vanced uven it, “the wilderness™ con- * stituted a feature of the park unparai- leled in the pleasure grounds of ary other city. In the midst of this “wilder- ness” one might have imagined himseif hundreds of miles away from the great municipality. The clearing of the exposition site was begun in June, 1901. The first stake for the location of the buildings was driven September 3, 1901, and the earth was first broken by President Francis December 20, of the same year. Work on the Varied Industries build- ing—the first exhibit structure to be erected—was begun February 20, 1902,