A JAPANESE
CARVING.
“Well, it would,” said Philip, as soberly as he could. “You couldn’t be sad while listening to that song.”
Just as they were leaving, they saw a mother and child listening to the same graphophone, each having one ear to an end of the branched tube. “I don’t know,” said Philip, “whether that’s quite honest.”
The exhibit of a well-known manufacturer of steel pens had in the center of it a pen fully six feet long, apparently quite as huge an affair in its own way as the building. The boys stopped at this, but perhaps at another time they would have passed that by and looked at things they now ignored. There was so much it made them particular. If a display was not brightly lighted, or was at all crowded, or required a few extra steps, it was left unvisited. Knowing they could see only a few things, they simply walked along, and let the exhibits show themselves.
THE HUNTERS’ CAMP.
There passed them in rolling chairs an old minister and his wife, and Harry made up his story about them. He imagined one of the deacons going to consult with the elders, saying, “The Parson wants to go to the World’s Fair. He hasn’t said so exactly; but I can see he does. He reads all about it, and he talks about it—tells how big the buildings are, and all that. Can’t we send him?” There may have been no truth in all this, but it gave Harry great pleasure to see the old couple’s enjoyment. Coming to the upper, or north, end of the building, they found the exhibits of stonework, ironwork, paints, varnishes, and so on. But they turned back to see the exquisite work of artistic Japan. Here were ivories, pottery, metalwork, embroidery, odd carving (one little bear, a grotesque figure, Harry stopped to sketch)—all designed and executed in perfection. The boys spent a long time here, and left dissatisfied. It was time to meet Mr. Douglass on the bridge, and they raised umbrellas, tramped through the mud, and, finding the tutor waiting for them, were soon on the way to the Horticultural Building, where they lunched at a restaurant on the second floor.
INTERIOR OF THE MANUFACTURES AND LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING—SHOWING THE ELEVATORS.