DEAR COUSINS:
FAIRY-LAND was never more beautiful than the Fair is when the lights are on in the evening, with all the big searchlights and the colored lights going at once. Then the Tower looks like the queen that it is, with its thousands of sparkling jewels. There is something majestic and silently mystical about it, as it stands with its head among the stars. There has never been anything like it, and there will never be anything like it, and while, like other great things, it may have faults, it will live forever in the hearts of the little children who have seen it.
Once in a while, as a special treat, Madame World has an evening of fireworks, in addition to the illuminations which she provides for her guests every evening. We went out late one afternoon, and stayed out for them.
Out on the Marina, or water-front, there is a big machine which controls the searchlights, and from there the whole Fair is illuminated.
When the lights are turned on, and stream far up in the sky, it looks as though the Goddess of Light and all her subjects were holding high carnival in the heavens. Sometimes the lights are all colors of the rainbow, and when they are turned on Golden Gate it looks as though all the color sprites from the coral caves were sailing in from tropical seas to dance at the carnival.
A most beautiful color effect was arrived at by puffing great white clouds of steam from engines, and turning on them the colored searchlights.
The fireworks were, however, the crowning surprise. First they were the ordinary Fourth of July kind, just skyrockets, which, bursting with a loud report, fling stars and bouquets of flowers in the air.
We liked them very much, as all children like fireworks, and were quite satisfied that we were having a lovely time, when Boom! a big rocket exploded, sending balls of fire high up in the air, and do you know, out flew Old Mother Hubbard and her dog Tray, Mary and her little lamb, Little Boy Blue and his flock of sheep, the old woman who went up in a basket, the pig which flew so high, and the cow which jumped over the moon, not to mention a ballet dancer, and whole flocks of geese, and strings of flags, all the old story-book folks, not little things which you would have to guess about, but real large-as-life characters whom you would at once recognize. Now if some one will explain to us how they could pack them all into a skyrocket, we shall be satisfied.
To complete the entertainment, the aviator then went up in his aeroplane and gave an imitation of a comet tearing through space.
Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.
DEAR COUSINS:
IN SPITE of the fact that it may be called advertising, which, father says, we are not being paid to do, we wish very much to tell you about the Panama Canal representation which we saw at the Fair.
It is far and away the most educational and interesting thing at the Fair, and helped us to understand really why Madame World was so anxious to have the Canal cut, and why there is so much rejoicing over it.
They have a moving platform with chairs upon which we were seated, and given a telephone, through which we heard the lecture, and as the platform moved around the circle, carrying us from the Pacific to the Atlantic, we were informed as to each step in the great work of making the Canal, and shown exactly how it is now operated.
Of course we had to keep constantly in mind that if we were really to travel over the country which we were being shown that we could by no means do it in the twenty-three minutes which are used in seeing the show. But it gives a really correct idea of the country, and the work which has been and is being done, how the locks are opened and closed, and how the ships go through the locks, the location of the lighthouses, and of the various rivers and mountains, also how the cities are placed, and what cities are now submerged.
We had always wondered how it was possible for a ship to go higher than the level of the ocean, and no amount of explanation which father could give us was able to make it clear to us. But the actual passing through of the tiny vessel showed us at once. Whenever a vessel has gone through the Canal the fact is communicated to the world by the wireless which is stationed at each Canal entrance.
We are very glad that we saw the real working, splendid Canal spread out before us, and only wish that you might also have seen it.
Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.
DEAR COUSINS:
FATHER said that on our last day at the Fair we might be as frivolous as we pleased. So we went in at the Van Ness Avenue entrance, and did everything we wanted to do. Father did not seem a bit bored, though we had been afraid that he would.
We went to Toyland, and saw the circus, and the dog show, and the funny little men and women, who are really grown up although they are scarcely bigger than little brother, who is only five. There was one little father and mother there with a baby nearly as big as they were.
Then we went over to Japan Beautiful, and it is indeed beautiful, and we stayed a long time, buying gifts for all of you. It looked like fairyland with all the red lanterns and pretty flags flying. It was Queen Day. The queen’s chariot was a big bird, like a swan, only more beautiful.
Then we zigzagged across again and did things on the other side of the Zone, like going up in the funny thing which gives you a ride in the air, so you can see all the Fair at once. Then we stopped a few minutes in Old Mexico, but we had been there before, you know, so we came out and went to see the little babies in the incubators. They are very sweet, but are so little that they cannot live in just beds like other babies. They should have had “The Blue Bird” to read before they came and then they would not have been in so much of a hurry, because it cannot be any fun to be shut up in there.
We were hungry when we saw the chickens being roasted in front of a cafe, so we went in and had some lunch, and came out in time to see the big man walk across the Zone on a wire stretched away above our heads. We bought some candies, and saw them being made, and father bought us each a Nova Gem pendant, so we should not forget how the Tower sparkles in the sun, and then we went down to see the man fly. He writes his name in the sky, but it does not stay there very long. Father says Fame is like that.s
Then we came out and stood and looked back at the Tower, and out under the arches, out to where the bay was shining in the setting sun, and were glad that we had come. Father asked us what we had liked most. We couldn’t answer just at first, but after we were outside we knew. We had loved it, every bit of it, but the best thing of all was going home to mother.
Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.