Picturesque World's Fair, Vol. I, No. 1, Feb. 10, 1894: An Elaborate Collection of Colored Views . . . Comprising Illustrations of the Greatest Features of the World's Columbian Exposition and Midway Plaisance: Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Scenic and EthnologicalAnonymous
History
Picturesque World's Fair, Vol. I, No. 1, Feb. 10, 1894: An Elaborate Collection of Colored Views . . . Comprising Illustrations of the Greatest Features of the World's Columbian Exposition and Midway Plaisance: Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Scenic and Ethnological
A VIEW IN MIDWAY PLAISANCE.--A city in itself was the Midway,
picturesque certainly, and educational as well, however meretricious
some of its droll features. It was the playground of the multitude
and they learned much while they ate, drank, stared and were merry.
The view above presented is from a point about the center of the west
half of the Plaisance and a little west of the Ferris Wheel. On the
right appear the fronts of Old Vienna and on the left the entrance to
the Chinese Village and Theatre, the difference in styles of
architecture affording a striking contrast. Still further on the left
rises the front of the panorama of the volcano of Kilaueau, and in
the remote distance may be dimly perceived the domes of the great
buildings of the Exposition proper. The particular locality
represented in this illustration was one exceedingly popular with
visitors, and the number of people appearing in the broad
thoroughfare at the time the photograph was taken is by no means up
to the standard of crowded days at the Fair. The three or four
attractions here grouped together always commanded their laughing
great constituency. From Pekin to Vienna is a far cry, and from
thence into space on the wings of an American inventor is another
remarkable bit of travel, but hundreds of thousands of people made
the journey within the limit of an hour or so. The view, it need not
be said to the observer, is an admirable one, the familiar fronts
being reproduced with a fidelity which speaks for itself.
[Illustration: STATUE OF THE REPUBLIC.]
STATUE OF THE REPUBLIC.--The one figure intended to be symbolical and
representative of the Fair, as a whole, was the gigantic statue of
The Republic, at the eastern end of the waterway in the Court of
Honor. A figure, the total height of which from the water was one
hundred feet, it stood grand, majestic and kindly, a fitting
idealization of the nation, the world's hostess for the time. The
statue proper was sixty-five feet in height above the massive
pedestal and was the largest ever made in America. It was modeled
after the Phidian style, with simple, flowing garments, the bust
covered with an armored shield and arms upraised, one hand upholding
a globe upon which was perched an eagle, indicative of America's
invitation to the world; the other sustaining a staff surmounted by a
liberty cap. The arms were bare, the hair was arranged after the
Grecian fashion and the head was crowned with laurel. The distance
from the chin to the top of the head was fifteen feet, and the arms
were thirty feet long. The interior of the statue was ascended by a
stairway, and the man who attended to the electric light, by which
the crown was illuminated, climbed up a ladder through the neck. The
magnificent figure was gilded and was a striking object in its
commanding position. It became popularly known as "The Golden
Statue."
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