who makes the color pictures which we have so much admired in the “Century Magazine.”
The roofs are covered with artificial tiles, and the contrast between the pinkish walls and the red of the roofs makes a picture which will never be forgotten.
It seems a pity that the city cannot remain, but it is not built for permanency, father says, but is like a beautiful dream, which seems so real that the memory stays always, and that its influence will color our whole lives, and make each one of us better for having seen it.
And when we got our first glimpse of the Tower! We couldn’t even say “Oh!” We just looked at each other, and then back at the Fair city, just to make sure we were not dreaming.
There was the beautiful Tower of Jewels, smiling and twinkling its shining eyes at us, and saying, “Come in, children; come in, and walk under my beautiful blue arches, and through my magic courts, and my sheltered gardens, and be happy, and love each other and all the children of the world. Peace I offer you, and Plenty, and Harmony, and Beauty. Here you are safe, and here you are welcome. Come in, my children.”
So in we went. The sun was shining, the blue waters of the bay were sparkling, bands were playing, the red and yellow flags were flying in the sweet salt breezes, and the lovely white pigeons were cooing; and best of all, little white people, and little brown people, and little yellow people were here and there and everywhere, all happy and smiling and glad that they had come.
We will tell you about the Tower. It is Madame World’s expression of joy and satisfaction that the Canal is finished, and it is really the key to the whole Fair. Mr. Thomas Hastings of New York designed it. It is four hundred and forty-three feet in height, and the arch, which is the gateway to the Fair, is sixty feet wide and one hundred and ten feet high.
On the pedestals are figures of men who have made the world what it is today. There are fifty thousand jewels on the Tower, of five colors—canary, amethyst, ruby, aquamarine, and white. These were made in Austria, of a peculiar kind of sand which produces a very hard glass, called Sumatra stone, and which takes a high polish. The jewels were cut exactly like precious stones, and are called Nova Gems.
These were set in bands of metal, and suspended from hooks, each jewel with a tiny mirror back of it.
When the winds move the jewels, they catch the light, and sparkle like real gems.