AMERICAN MASTERPIECES 



furnishings, men's and women's dress, and 

 every other form of every-day art had 

 sunk to the lowest possible level. The 

 country was beginning to accumulate 

 wealth and needed only a new leadership 

 in matters of taste. Under such circum- 

 stances, the architecture and gardening of 

 the World's Fair grounds proved a revela- 

 tion to thousands of persons. These men 

 and women went home inspired with new 

 ideas of beautiful things and with a de- 

 termination to make their own homes more 

 orderly and artistic, their own grounds 

 more beautiful, and to give their home 

 towns and cities something of the grandeur 

 and magnificence of the White City beside 

 Lake Michigan. 



The design in itself was a good one. 

 It was well adapted to the flat land on 

 which it was built. It was convenient for 

 the purposes of the Exposition. It showed 

 what could be done in the massing and 

 harmonization of architecture. It showed 

 how this could be accomplished in such a 

 l2U"ge way as to amount to landscape 

 making. The great Court of Honor, sur- 

 rounded by its beautiful white buildings, 

 with Macmonnies' fountain at one end and 



187 



