I am taking the liberty of quoting Secretary Lane's inspiring words given at the opening of the Exposition - a fine retrospect that we must not lose sight of when we look upon the determined woodsman of the early American life:
As I went through these grounds yesterday, I looked for some symbol that would tell me the true significance of this moment, I saw that the sculptor had carved prophets, priests and kings; he had carved the conquerors of the earth, the birds in the air and the fish in the sea. He had gone into legend and history for his symbols, but in none of these did I find the suggestion that I sought.
I found, however, in the court that lies before us, the simple, modest figure hidden behind some soldiers - a gaunt, slim, plodding figure, and I said to myself, there is the figure that represents this day, for without the American pioneer we would not be here this day, no banners would be flying, no bands playing.
He has-lived for centuries and centuries. He took sail with Ulysses and he was turned back. He took sail with Columbus, and when he heard that sailor shout, "Sail on and on," his heart was glad; but Columbus found his way barred, and then this pioneer landed at Plymouth Rock, and with that band of oxen he has trudged his way across the continent, he has gone through the sodden forests, where Nature for a thousand years has conspired to make his pathway impossible.
He has gone through the icy streams, climbed the mountains, tracked his way over the plains, over the land where there is no horizon, gone through the gorges where the Titans have been, and at last he has got it, beside the Golden Gate, beside the sunset sea, and founded himself this city, this beautiful city of dreams that have come true. And he has done more than that, he has gathered around himself his sons, and now they set themselves down here to tell each other tales of their progress through the centuries.
The sons of the pioneers - theirs be the glory today, for they have slashed the continent in two, they have cut the land that God made as with a knife, they have made the seas themselves to lift the ships across the barriers and mountains, and this accomplishment we celebrate.
They have brought the waters of the far Sierras and turned these waters into living light that put new stars in the heavens at night. They have hung their sky-line with a garden of flowers; they have worked a magic. They have gathered here in all these temples to tell their victory - the pioneers - what they have done and in what manner. This city has been finished in blue and gold, in scarlet and purples and the greens of the sea, and burnt brown, and the scene shown the pioneer has made the architecture of the centuries to march before their eyes in columns and colonnades.
The long journey of this light figure of the pioneer is at an end, the waste places of the earth have been found and filled, but adventure is not at an end; the greatest adventure is before us, the gigantic adventures of an advancing democracy - strong, virile and kindly - and in that advance we shall be true to the indestructible spirit of the American pioneer.
The Italian Towers
Architect - Geo. Kelham of San Francisco.