"The Future is our kingdom," said George Sterling, the poet of the day, whose poem entitled _The Builders_ was read by George Arlett, a member of the California State Commission, at the closing ceremonies. Mr. Sterling struck the keynote of the splendid enterprise in these stanzas: "We do but cross a threshold into day. Beauty we leave behind A deeper beauty on our path to find And higher glories to illume the way. The door we close behind us is the Past; Our sons shall find a fairer door at last. "A world reborn awaits us! Years to come Shall know its grace and good, When wars shall end in endless brotherhood And birds shall build in cannon long since dumb. Men shall have peace, though then no man may know Who built this sunset city long ago." {232} Only nine years had passed since San Francisco had been practically destroyed by a sudden and terrible calamity. But the spirit of the Golden Gate laughs at calamity and with a magician's wand transmutes it into success. Only two years after this devastation San Francisco raised millions for the exposition she had planned. No earthquake could entomb her spirit, nor could it be drowned by any tidal wave that the Pacific is capable of providing. With that lofty poet, William Vaughan Moody, who, alas, "died too soon" for the nation which his lyre entranced, San Francisco might well declare: "From wounds and sore defeat I made my battle-stay; Winged sandals for my feet I wove of my delay." The Panama-Pacific Exposition opened on February 15, 1915, and closed on December 4 of the same year. It was participated in by the Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Equador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Holland, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Mexico, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Panama, Persia, Peru, Portugal, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, Uruguay, and Venezuela. This enumeration of the countries participating will of itself suggest the somewhat new class of exhibits, as differing from those of older countries in former world-displays. The Panama-Pacific was thus its own precedent. Its claims to the novel and {233} the unique were extremely well sustained. It was the second exposition held on the Pacific coast, and it had the longest duration by four months of any ever held before.