And it is well that nearly a year is to be given by both cities to the commemoration of this event in order that the whole world may fully feel the significance of this remarkable engineering feat to its whole life.
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition held at San Francisco, from February 20 to December 4, 1915, is the national celebration authorized and sanctioned and partly financed by the government of the United States, the total investment being $50,000,000. The Exposition area covers 635 acres of ground, having a frontage of two miles on the bay immediately inside of the Golden Gate. The grounds are divided into three main divisions; the foreign section nearest to the Golden Gate, the central portion with its exhibit palaces and great Tower of Jewels rising 435 feet high and the eastern section for rest and amusement. In keeping with the world consciousness four courts are found on the grounds; the Court of the Four Seasons; Court of the Universe; Court of Abundance; Court of Palms; Court of Flowers. Every state and territory in the Union has made exhibits and in spite of the world war more than forty foreign countries are represented and co-operating in the commemoration of this most historic event.
The Panama-California Exposition is held at San Diego, California, throughout the year 1915, for which the sum of $3,500,000 was raised. The grounds are embraced within a fourteen-acre park, known as "Balboa Park," being at the very heart of the city of San Diego. The Exposition is international in its scope and has exhibits from all the American countries and from some of the European and oriental nations. It has an exhibit showing the progress of man from primitive times up to the present; and also some beautiful floral and horticultural exhibits, which are making both of the expositions most attractive, many of the tourists going south from San Francisco in order that they may participate in both celebrations.
[III
The Coast]
THE THRESHOLD OF VISION
The following prose-poem is written from the viewpoint of the national spirit, pressing toward the world vision which directly controls the thought of the previous prose-poem. For the Golden Gate, especially during the Exposition is for the quickened soul the portal—the pulling aside of the curtain through which one gets the world vision. The title, "Our Pacific Sea" might well be interpreted:
Our—Democracy.
Pacific—Nationality.