What We Saw at Madame World's Fair / Being a Series of Letters from the Twins at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition to Their Cousins at Home

WHAT WE SAW AT THE PALACE OF FOOD PRODUCTS

They were cooking so many things, and showing such quantities of food that it was most surprising. We were offered almost everything to eat that we had ever heard of, and some that we did not know existed. We were willing to sample them all, but father said that he did not believe we had better try to eat in so many languages. So we just had an oatmeal scone, and some puffed rice, and some Chinese cookies, a cup of chocolate, and a bit of biscuit, and a few other little things, but the others all looked good.

A lady has the most fascinating display of flowers made out of butter, red roses, and yellow roses, and water-lilies, and tulips, all growing on a lattice work inside her refrigerator. The colored flowers may be eaten because it is all colored with pure food colors. You could not tell that the flowers were not real, they look as though they grew there. She must have a lovely soul.

We wandered around to see the Aquarium. The fishes are lovely; we wish they did not have to be called Food Products. The Shovel-nosed Sturgeon is very probably a cousin to old Mr. Alligator, because he looks like him. He has the same bony humps on his back, and his head is shaped almost the same.

The Gar Pike looks like a submarine, and holds his body very rigidly, swimming only with his fins. He is grey and looks very cool and calm.

In one pool with some big blue Catfishes were some Salamanders, with funny furry tufts on their heads. They were lazy and would not get up. They resemble lizards. There was a whole tank of lovely Golden Perch from Catalina. They have faces with real foreheads, and a very bored and haughty expression. There were also some lovely Rainbow Trout from Canada’s mountain streams.

We were much interested in the fish-hatching processes. The eggs are kept under running water on a sort of griddle or coarse net, and when one little wiggly fellow comes out he uncoils and is long instead of round as he was in the egg, and so he drops down into the bottom of the tank, and begins to be a fish. He carries the rest of the egg around with him for a few days so that he need not be hungry until he has absorbed the nutrition it gives him.

Fishes do not care much about their relations except for dinner, as they are real cannibals. I suppose they do not know any better, but it seems unfortunate. I fear we neglected the rest of the palace.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

North Carolina and South Carolina send us rice, and Cuba sends us coffee, and South America sends fruits and also coffee, China sends tea and preserved ginger and funny nuts, and California and Florida give us oranges and grapefruit and strawberries, and almost everything good to eat, and the Philippines send us cocoanuts and Hawaii sends pineapples. Did you know that peanuts grow on a vine in the ground, and that bananas do not grow on a tree but on a tall ferny-looking thing which is not a tree, and pineapples grow on short plants which are set out every year? It takes a long time for the pineapple to perfect itself, but we did not learn just how long.

A gentleman from Cuba showed us a collection of fruit which is grown in that island, including the avocado, or alligator pear. It is a very wonderful fruit, and there is a tree in Southern California which is insured for thirty thousand dollars.

But the big red apples from Oregon were of more interest to us, because we know that we like those, and do not have to take any risks. And the lovely juicy golden oranges of California are good enough for us. But we liked to see all the things that have grown from the ground, because we can never quite understand the marvel of it—how a little seed knows quite well what it is going to be when it comes up. We know, because we planted some lettuce one year and it came up turnips. It said lettuce on the paper, but the seeds knew all the time that they were no such thing.

We could not be deceived like that again, because we know the difference now between lettuce and turnip seed.

We asked father if he did not think that Madame World should be very proud of her children, and he said yes, he did think so, and also that it was a great privilege to belong to her.

Father says such wise things!

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

THE PALACE OF LIBERAL ARTS

The telephone, for instance, has been so much improved that it is very much more practical. We were allowed to hear a telephone message from New York the other day, and shown movies of how they put the poles and wires over the mountains. It was like magic. Now comes along a machine, which we were shown in the Palace of Liberal Arts, which really is a wizardry sort of thing, as it takes your message if you telephone when your friend is out, and repeats it to him in your own voice when he returns. We know because we tried it. The man asked us to speak into the telephone, and then let us hold the machine to our ears and it spoke right back to us. We have always thought such a machine would be a help, especially if we wanted to stay at grandmother’s for supper, and could not get mother on the ’phone.

Bookbinding appeals to us very much indeed, because it is so smooth and shows that one has taken pains with the work, and perhaps we shall become bookbinders. A lady had some beautiful leather bindings there, and she was most kind about explaining.

We thought we would like one of the dear little cameras that go in a hand-bag, and take little bits of pictures which afterward grow into big ones, but father said we must wait for that. So we went to see the apparatus for taking the “movies,” and also looked at the lovely autochromes. It is too bad that they will not reprint in color, but before the next ten years of course they will.

We wonder if you have seen the new lawn sprinkler which jumps around from one place to another on the lawn. When we went home today we saw it at work out in the lawns, and we could scarcely believe our eyes. It sprinkled one place until it thought, apparently, that it was wet enough, and then it bobbed out of sight and came up about ten feet away, working like mad. Really if you did not know about it, it would make you think you were asleep and dreaming a fairy story.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

THE PALACE OF HORTICULTURE

A perfect thicket of trees and shrubs and flowers surround it, seeming to peep in at their less hardy sisters who live inside the palace.

The wonder worker among flowers and fruits and vegetables, Mr. Luther Burbank, has his headquarters at the Fair, and will be happy to tell any one just how to create new flowers and fruits, and give advice on gardening.

We wanted to ask him why he wanted a red poppy instead of a golden one, but we did not. We love the poppies golden just as they are, and we did not a single bit like the nasturtium-colored ones we saw there. But of course we are only children, and he is very wise.

The people from the Netherlands have a great garden of bulb plants in the grounds, and the Japanese people have cherry, plum, and other ornamental trees, as well as rare flowers.

A gardener told father that the great eucalyptus trees and the cypresses—many of them sixty feet tall—had been brought down from a park and put there around the walls of the palace. We wondered how they liked being transplanted.

But they were playing quite happily with the little winds from the ocean and seemed quite contented. The gardener told us that they were going back home after the Fair is over, so perhaps they had heard.

We are planning a garden for next year. We shall have heaps of poppies.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

OUR FIRST LESSON IN SCULPTURE

The figure of the man on the horse certainly looks very animated, and we supposed that the figures standing on his shoulders are heralds who are to clear the way for him.

Near Horticultural Hall in the South Gardens, at the left of the Fountain of Energy, is a Mermaid Fountain by Mr. Arthur Putnam, which is repeated at the right in front of Festival Hall. That gives you a picture of the tower and what we saw from the main gate as we went in.

Father said that as we had made so good a start, it would be wise to keep on with sculpture for the rest of the day. He pointed out to us the figure of Victory, which has been placed on each one of the palaces, and then took us to the Court of Palms to see Mr. James Earle Fraser’s “The End of the Trail.” We felt just how tired both man and horse were, and felt sorry for them both. We asked father why they had come so far to get themselves exhausted like that, and he again told us something of symbolism.

The statue is intended to represent the redman, and denotes that the race is vanishing, and is supposed to be studied in connection with the “Pioneer,” Mr. Solon Borglum’s very fine statue in the Court of Flowers. That is meant to say that the white race will take up the work of progress and carry it on. We completed the lesson by going to see the Column of Progress at the end of the Court of the Universe. The bas-relief, that means the flat figures on the surface, by Mr. Isadore Konti, show men have striven for the best in life. The group at the top of the column, by Mr. Hermon A. McNeil, is a great work, father says, and is meant to express the idea of effort.

The artist has also expressed the thought that no man can accomplish anything alone, but must have the love and support of his fellow beings. We think that is a beautiful thought.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

THE COURT OF THE UNIVERSE

The very big groups on the triumphal arches attracted our attention, and we asked about them and what they were supposed to mean. Everything about the Fair has some meaning, but we do not expect to get it all. The group with the elephant and the Oriental gentlemen represents Eastern civilization on the way to meet Western civilization, which is represented by the group on the other arch—that with the prairie schooner drawn by oxen, and the figure of the Alaskan woman.

The Spirit of the East marching to meet The Spirit of the West is meant to typify the meeting of the world’s families now that the Canal has been completed.

The groups are the work of A. Stirling Calder, Leo Lentelli, and Frederick G. R. Roth.

Father liked very much the “Hopes of the Future” and “The Mother of Tomorrow,” two of Mr. Calder’s best things, in the group.

We liked, especially after the lights were on, the figures representing stars, of which so many are used in the avenue leading north.

Mr. Robert I. Aitken has four good figures in this court, and in the evening when the lights were on and the vapor was rising from the urns it looked like a story out of the Arabian Nights.

The flowers are lovely, and you never for a moment feel away from home, because all the courts are so homey-feeling, just like one’s own garden.

Father said after awhile that he thought it would be well for us to see something that we could really understand, and so he took us over to see Edith Woodman Burroughs’ dear little figure of “Youth” which she has made for a fountain. We just loved it, it looks so girly, and we were also much interested in the Fountain of Eldorado by Mrs. Whitney, because we have read the story about Ponce de Leon.

It would be nice to be a sculptor if one were a boy, unless one could be an aviator.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

We have never needed a brother as much as we do in seeing this Fair, though of course we say nothing to father about it as we realize that he is doing his best for us, but he so often has to leave us while he attends to some business or other, and then it is we feel the need of a brother of our own age. An older one would be of no use, as our fifteen-year-old one is not any good to us. He says he has interests of his own.

We were waiting in the Court of Abundance today for father, and were having a lovely time pretending that the lanterns between the arches were the homes of the light fairies, which would come out after the sun went away, and waving their golden wands would say, “Let there be light,” and there would be light, and that the color fairies would come down from the pictures and dance with the light fairies, and goodness only knows what we might not have accomplished in the way of a six best seller when a young sparrow fell out of his nest. He was disturbed about it, very naturally, but we were so sorry for him that we could not go on with our pretend. If we had had a brother of course he could have climbed up and put the poor little thing back, but a guard came and got him, and while of course we shall never know what happened, we have our fears.

Father came just then and we asked him if he wanted to give us a lesson, and he remarked that he feared the Court of Abundance was almost too big for a couple of ten-year-old tots to get much out of except perhaps fresh air and incipient inspiration. That cannot be as serious as it sounds, because we are sure father would not expose us to anything, but we shall look up “incipient” as soon as we get home.

We stayed down and saw the lights this evening and when the vapor is rising from the urns and the serpents are writhing, or at least seeming to, and all the lanterns are lighted, it looks like something out of our Arabian Nights’ book.

We shall try to finish our little play sometime, when the sparrows have taught their young ones to fly properly.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

THE COURT OF THE FOUR SEASONS—THE COURT OF FLOWERS

WE LOVE the Court of the Four Seasons, by Mr. Henry Bacon. It is so homey and lovely in there that we feel that we could be perfectly happy all day and every day in there. We like to hear the birds talking about their nests, and how many eggs there are now, and when the young ones are going to have their first flying lesson. We love also Ceres, the Goddess of Agriculture, who is standing on a pedestal on top of the lovely fountain. Mrs. Evelyn Longman is the lady who made it. The young ladies who dance around the base of the pedestal are so happy that you almost expect them to join hands and jump down and dance on the grass. Mr. Albert Jaegers’ Feast of the Sacrifice is in this court also, but we did not care so much about the symbolism of that. The artist has made it seem so real that we are sorry for the poor animal, which we are sure does not wish to be sacrificed.

But when we are in this lovely court it is impossible not to be happy, so we enjoy the flowers, and the statuary without thinking too much of what the symbolism is. Father says that we can think of that later, when we are older.

The Fountain of the Earth is in this court, and we like to watch the play of the water over the dome of the fountain.

In front of the Court of Flowers stands “The American Pioneer,” by Mr. Solon Borglum, which we like very much, because it looks like something out of our story books, which is not a very good reason, father says, because it is meant to show that these fine old men and women came first and made a way for us, and if they had not, we should have no beautiful Fair today.

This court is supposed to be the Court of Oriental Fairy Tales, but so far we have not met any one whom we know especially, except “Beauty and the Beast,” by Edgar Walters, and they do not seem quite in the right place.

Mr. Calder’s Flower Girls, with their garlands, make the place seem very gay and happy, but the real flowers were what we liked best, and we could sit for hours and hours in this beautiful spot, watching the big butterflies flitting over the pansy beds, and the bronze, ruby-throated humming-birds flashing like jewels escaped from the Tower.

This Fair makes us wonder why people do not make gardens prettier, and not live in houses as much as they now do.

We suppose it is because they cannot all live in California, where out-of-doors is nearly always nice.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

MURAL PAINTINGS

We liked very much the panels which symbolize the four golds of California, the poppies, the oranges, the gold, and the wheat. We have secured some photographs of all the murals in the Exposition, and shall study them when we are at home, and we shall send you some pictures with these letters.

We are of course not quite sure why we like some things better than others, but we do like very much the picture entitled “Victorious Spirit” in the Court of the Palms.

It has the most beautiful blue in it, and we love blue, though of course we know that that is not an adequate reason for liking a picture. There is something fine about being a Victorious Spirit, which we admire, especially if it is a good spirit, and this one seems to be.

In the Court of Abundance we saw Mr. Frank Brangwyn’s “Earth,” “Air,” “Water,” and “Fire.” The “Earth” picture shows in a harvesting scene all the things which the earth has given to us. In “Fire” we are shown how fire was first found, and how much more comfortable people were after that.

Next, men were learning how to use the fire, and when they had discovered that cooked food was better than the old way, they needed pots to cook their food in, and so had to make the pots.

In the “Water” picture, you will notice that the people are using the pots now for carrying the water to their homes, and the clouds show you by their heavy grayness that it will soon rain.

The “Air” picture shows that the storm has come, and the children are hurrying home to shelter. We did enjoy these pictures so much, and we wish that all pictures were as easy to read and as interesting as these. It is a bit hard to understand that there has ever been a time when people did not have fire and such things, but father says we should not say such things when we are in the Fifth Grade.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

WHAT WE DID IN ITALY

In another part of the palace wonderful laces were displayed, and some carved corals which we know would have pleased mama.

In one case were some old velvet cloaks, which we have seen worn by pirates and buccaneers in our story books—those who wear big droopy hats with big plumes on them,—you remember?

There are copies of famous painters, among them several by Titian, who always painted red-haired people, and isn’t it funny how one thing you hear fits in with something you have heard! We know now why big sister is called Titian-haired.

Michael Angelo’s “Virgin” we shall always remember, the face was so pale and pure looking, and so young, though she has been made so long. There were some carved alabaster vases, real ones, though almost everything is copied, and some modern paintings which my nice gentleman did not care about. He liked the old masters, he said. There were some musical instruments which had been dug up from Pompeii, just green with age. Nobody knows what their names are.

Some copies of Lucca della Robbia were very beautiful, especially an altar piece of Virgin and Child.

The furniture is beautiful, and is all in keeping with the big rooms and high ceilings. They use fireplaces mostly in Italy, but have modern heating now. Our nice gentleman said that Italy is a good deal like California, “only little bit nicer.”

We enjoyed our Italian trip, and shall always remember it.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

OUR VISIT IN TEHUAN-TEPEC

Mothers always enjoy making their children happy, we are glad to have observed, so Senora Mexico told the little village if it would be good and keep its face and hands clean, and not ask for more than one helping of cake and ice-cream that it might go to the party. So it came, and one evening we went up to call. It lives on a very noisy street called “The Zone,” but after we were inside the gates we did not even hear the noise.

It is quite the quaintest little village we have ever been in. They have a dear little theatre, not a movie, but a real play theatre, which pleased us because we like regular plays much better than pictures. It seems more like really doing things, and we miss the voices so much in a movie.

They gave a play for us, in their own language, and it was very funny. We did not, of course, understand the words, but they laughed so much at it that we knew.

After the play we went to supper, which was cooked on a ’dobe stove, and served in a real kitchen in a real hacienda.

There is a real river of real water running through the village, and on it is a tiny barge full of green vegetables, showing how the gardener takes his produce to market. There were two big catfish in the river. We stood on the puente, which is Mexican for “bridge,” and watched the good ship Anita as it steamed into the harbor. We feared the catfish would capsize it.

Some of the people of the village have brought along their work, and we were much interested in the basket-making, and the weaving of the brilliant colored serapes, which the people wear instead of coats.

A Mexican grandmother gave us each a dear little vase of red pottery, and a feather picture of a blue jay. We hoped the picture was not made of a real blue jay’s feathers, because we are fond of him.

We found the village interesting. They bade us adios, and asked us to come again. Thank you, Mexico, we shall.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

On that day the boys are instructed in the standards of manhood as they are expected to live, and shown their ancestors’ great deeds as recorded in the family records.

We think we should not exactly care about a wholesale birthday, but the maiden said that the girls also have one, which is March third. A doll made like the small girl child is presented to her, and she is supposed to keep it until she grows up, so that her children may have it. Japanese people care a very great deal about their ancestors, and we suppose they feel about them as we do about our great-grandfathers who fought with George Washington.

We had Ceremonial Tea, in a lovely tea-garden, which was very beautiful, but of course we are not allowed to drink tea, but the cakes were interesting, and father said that budding authoresses should always absorb local color.

We think that we did that because we studied the flowers and shrubs very intently, and while father talked with the artist who was making lovely postal cards by painting scenes from the gardens we went out and traced to its source the laughing brook which was rushing through the grounds. It did not spoil it a bit for us to discover that the brook came from a water pipe sunk in the ground, because we understand of course that the gardens did not grow there of their own accord.

The Japanese people love beauty and always

create it wherever they may be living, and their gardens at the Fair are very wonderful. They have a dwarf evergreen tree which is said to be over one thousand years old. It is about as large as our Christmas tree is when we have a large one for both families.

In Japan, the silk culture occupies an important place. We saw some exhibits of it, and it seems to us that if we did not care so much about our native land that we might like to go and raise silkworms in Japan.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

CANADA THE BEAUTIFUL

The pictures are made by placing real animals or other objects in the foreground, and painting a back drop continuation of the scene, in the manner of a stage drop in a theatre.

One beautiful scene represents a farmhouse with cattle grazing in the distance, and green gardens and fruit trees around the house. It is meant to show what a farmer can do in five years of work on a new piece of ground.

Another picture shows the rolling prairies with fields of ripe, yellow wheat, with snow-capped mountains in the far distance, and still another takes one to the extreme north of Canada, and shows how the Aurora Borealis lights up the world during the time of the midnight sun.

There is also a wonderful apple-harvesting scene, where real apples are used in the foreground, and in the background men on ladders are gathering the apples from the trees.

Canada has also immense mines of iron, coal, gold and silver, as well as great quarries of marble, asbestos and copper, and many other minerals.

The decorations in the main building are made from seeds, and you would be surprised, we are sure, to see the pictures which can be produced with the natural seeds and grasses.

We liked Canada very much and brought away some new ideas.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

OUR CHINESE VISIT

The polite gentleman told us something about the dwarf trees which are used for decorative purposes, and showed us an elm tree which was over a hundred years old, and is only three feet in height, and is growing, or, as we said we thought, just living, in a flower-pot. The Chinese dragon on the flower-pot would have scared us so that we never could grow any more if we had to live with it, and perhaps that is what happened to the tree.

The gentleman was feeling very sad over the loss of some similar trees which had been ruined by the voyage from China, by the carelessness of some one who took care of them, in watering them with sea water. We took note of the fact that salt water will kill trees and plants.

There were some reproductions of ancient temples and shrines, and a queer picture made of postage stamps of all nations, and we had a lot of fun finding our own stamps. It has a picture of George Washington, and as far as we can remember it was the third one from the end, starting at the right.

After we had seen all the pictures in the pavilion, and all the other treasures, we went to the tea-house to have lunch.

Dear little almond-eyed Chinese girls waited on us, and surprised us by speaking excellent English. We were a little disappointed that they wore American-made shoes with their pretty native costumes, but father said, “Why not? They are going to be American girls now. That is why Madame World was anxious to have the Canal.”

We are glad we brought father, he always remembers what we do not want to forget.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

MORE FOREIGN TRAVEL

Holland’s mansion is tastefully decorated in blue and brown, and looks very inviting. Java, one of Holland’s colonies, has some interesting colored prints called Battik cloth, which are made by covering the surface of the cotton with clay, or wax, and then cracking the covering so that the dye stuffs may penetrate to the cloth.

In Norway there was no one at home except some singers who were giving a concert, which we enjoyed. Their things had not yet been unpacked.

Australia was at home and showed us her treasures. We liked her birds and brilliant butterflies, but father was more interested in her articles of commerce, such as woods, wools and fruits.

It is hard to remember that these countries are really so far away from our own country, it is so easy to get to them in the Fair.

New Zealand showed us some motion pictures of interesting water sports, and how they catch the big kingfishes; we saw, also, some mounted specimens of the kiwi, the wingless bird of New Zealand. It has absolutely no wings, and is about the size of a guinea hen.

From there we went over to Siam for a few minutes, to see their lovely lacquered wood, and other treasures, and then went to Turkey to admire the rugs and Benares brasses. We are sorry that so many of the countries which we are anxious to see have not as yet arrived, but we must hope to come back to the Fair before it closes.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.

P. S.—Have you ever noticed how sad it is to do things for the last time?

OUR DAY IN SWEDEN

The walls of the blue room are covered with a cloth made from wool, and colored blue, the very bluest blue you could imagine. Then we saw the nice deep hand-painted chests which we thought would be perfectly fascinating to have in our attic, to put all our brocaded satin dresses in, so that our children could dress up in them as we do in our grandmother’s things. There are old-fashioned wool rugs made with a hook which pulls wool through a foundation. We have seen Tillie Nelson’s mater make them in Minnesota.

Their furniture is black oak, with wool tapestry for covering, and there are some beautiful bookcases, and hand-carved book-ends, and some beautiful book-bindings.

We looked a long time at the wonderful pictures of snowstorms painted by A. Schultzberg, 1914. We both like them better than any paintings we have ever seen. We almost expected to see little Mrs. Cottontail hop out from under the snow-laden spruce trees, or to hear a chickadee bird sing his winter song from one of the branches. We have resolved to study art. A beautiful statue, carved by Alice Nordin, entitled “The Goddess of Love,” is in that room, and seemed to us very beautiful.

There were some bronze chandeliers which we know would interest big brother, they were what he calls decorative, and some china which sister would rave over.

We came away feeling that Sweden is a very large and useful nation, and a homey and comfortable sort of people. We said so to father, but he said, “Yes, yes, children, I am glad you felt that, because they are that and more.”

We knew by his tone that he was thinking, so we were careful not to chatter and disturb him.

Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.