The supreme glory of the Exposition lay in its electrical illumination. Niagara was used to create a city of light more dazzling than any dream. “As the moment for the illumination approached, the band hushed and a stillness fell upon the multitude. Suddenly dull reddish threads appeared on the globes of the near-by lamp-pillars. A murmur of expectation ran through the crowd. For an instant the great tower seemed to pulse with a thread of life before the eye became sensible to what had taken place. Then its surfaces gleamed with a faint flush like the flush which church spires catch from the dawn. This deepened slowly to pink and then to red. . . . In a moment the architectural skeletons of the great buildings had been picked out in lines of red light. Then the whole effect mellowed into luminous yellow. The material exposition had been transfigured, and its glorified ghost was in its place. . . . Every night this modern miracle was worked by the rheostat housed in a humble shed somewhere in the inner recesses of the exposition.”
The Electric Tower at Night.
The centre of light was the Tower. It was suffused with the loveliest glow of gold, ivory, and delicate green, all blending. The lights revealed and interpreted the architecture softening the colors and adding the subtle charm of mystery. A hundred beautiful hues were reflected in the waters of the fountains. The floral effects made by submerged lights in the basin were exquisite, and the witchery of the scene was indescribable.
The chaining of Niagara for electric purposes was of course a prominent feature of the fair. Electricity was almost, or quite, the sole motor used on the grounds; 5,000 horsepower being directly from Niagara’s total of 50,000. Niagara circulated the salt water in the fisheries and kept their water at the right temperature. It operated telephones, phonographs, soda fountains, the big search-lights, the elevators, the machines in the Machinery Building, the shows and illusions in the Midway.
At Chicago we were ashamed of the Midway. We had since learned to play. Buffalo used utmost ingenuity to provide sensations and novelties. The Midway was made fascinating. You saw in it every variety of buildings, representing all countries from Eskimodom to Darkest Africa. Cairo had eight streets with 600 natives. The Hawaiian and Philippine villages were centres of interest, revealing the every-day life of our new-won lands. In Alt-Nurnberg you dined to the strains of a German orchestra.
Triumphal Bridge and entrance to the Exposition, showing electric display at night.
The magnificent amphitheatre, covering ten acres, a monument to American athletics, was built after the marble Stadium of Lycurgus at Athens. An Athletic Congress celebrated American supremacy in athletic sports. The programme included basket-ball tournaments, automobile, bicycle, and track and field championship races, lacrosse matches, and canoe “meets.”
The exhibits at Buffalo, though less ample, naturally showed advance over the corresponding ones at Chicago. The guns and ammunition of the United States ordnance department excited interest, for we were now making our own war supplies. A picturesque log building was devoted to forestry. The Graphic Arts Building showed the great strides made in printing and engraving. A model dairy was operated in a quaint little cottage on the grounds. Fifty cows of the best breeds were tested and the tests recorded.