The Harris-Ingram ExperimentBolton, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science
The Harris-Ingram Experiment
Bolton, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science fiction, American
Nearly a day was spent in driving about Genoa with its flower-crowned
terraces. It was after five o'clock when the party stood before the noble
statue of Columbus recently dedicated in a prominent square filled with
palms and flowering shrubs, and near the principal railway station. Here
the statue welcomes the coming and speeds the parting guest. Its design
is admirable. Surmounting a short shaft is Columbus leaning upon an
anchor, and pointing with his right hand to the figure of America; below
him are discerned encircling the shaft ornaments symbolic of Columbus's
little fleet, while other statues represent science, religion, courage,
and geography; between them are scenes in bass-relief of his adventurous
career.
Dinner was taken aboard the yacht as it steamed away from Genoa. The
flowers that Harry had bought for Lucille's stateroom she thoughtfully
placed on the table, and with the porcelain they added artistic effect.
The day's experiences were reviewed, and, as the appetizing courses
were served, the conversation drifted back to the World's Columbian Fair
which all had attended. Many of the wonders of the "White City" were
recounted, and Henley in his off-hand manner repeated a compliment
which was paid by a cultivated Parisian who visited the Fair. The
Frenchman said that at the last Paris Exposition, he saw immense and
unsightly structures, such as one might expect to find in far-off
Chicago, but that at the Columbian World's Fair, he beheld buildings
such as his own artistic Paris and France should have furnished; that the
Columbian Fair was an artistic triumph that had never been paralleled
except in the days of imperial Rome by her grand temples, palaces,
arches, bridges, and statues.
"The Parisian is right, and he pays America a most deserved compliment.
Never was so elegant a panorama enrolled as at Chicago," responded
Colonel Harris.
"You are correct, Colonel," said Captain Hall, "the triumph of our
Exposition was largely due to the masterly supervision which evoked
uniformity of design and harmonious groupings by employing only those
of our architects, sculptors, painters, and landscape gardeners, who
possessed the highest skill."
Leo ventured to add that the "White City" seemed to him dream-like and
that under the magical influence of Columbus, as patron-saint, all
nationality, creed, and sex, were harmoniously blended in ideal beauty
and grandeur.
Lucille, who had just sipped the last of her chocolate, also bore
testimony, and Harry watched her admiringly as she said, "At times,
especially in the evening, when thousands of incandescent lights outlined
the Court of Honor with its golden Goddess of the Republic and the
facades, turrets, and domes, it seemed to some of us as if we had stepped
out upon a neighboring planet, where civilization and art had been
purified, or that the veil was lifted and we were gazing upon the
glories of the New Jerusalem."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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