Mother looked a little doubtful, but father said, “Nonsense, it is no trick at all for me to take them.” Madame World has sent us an invitation to her Fair and we could not think of refusing. So we came at once.
We have been so wishing that you could be here with us that father has suggested that we write you a letter every day, and tell you about some of the things that we see.
We think it is a good plan, and we shall try to make the letters as full of interest as possible, in the hope that we may show you something of it, and at the same time fix it in our own memories.
First, then, this Wonder City by the Sea is a real city, even though it does, as we heard a lady remark today, look like a poet’s dream.
It has a bank, and a postoffice, a hospital, a fire department, a hotel, a street car, houses for the different families of the world to live in, and in fact about everything which any city needs.
The buildings and statuary are made of a kind of cement, called artificial travertine, tinted to look like terra cotta.
Real travertine is a pure carbonate of lime formed from dripping water which bears a lime deposit, and is found in Rome, where it is much used in building and for statuary. The imitation travertine was discovered by Mr. Paul Denneville of New York, and we have to thank him for the fact that after all day at the Fair our eyes are not in the least tired; it is due to the fact that the material is easily tinted, that Mr. Jules Guerin who composed the color scheme of the whole Fair was able to carry out his ideas.
You will remember that Mr. Guerin is the man
Madame World has sent us an invitation to her Fair and we could not think of refusing. So we came at once.