20 .The Humming Bird. 



the work of preparation of the great Fair has reached a stage 

 requiring it to be carried on in the buildings which are to 

 contain the exhibits. All of these buildings are now practi- 

 cally finished, and ready for the installation of exhibits. 

 Most of the work remaining to be done on the buildings is of 

 a decorative nature, and can be carried on and completed 

 without interfering with the placing of exhibits. 



In the Administration Building, with Director-Genenal 

 Davis, are the offices of the departments of Foreign Affairs 

 and Publicity and Promotion. The chiefs of the various 

 -exhibit departrnents — agriculture, electricity, mines, trans- 

 portation, etc., — have their offices respectively in the great 

 department buildings. 



The installation of exhibits has already begun, but has not 

 yet progressed far. Soon, however, the interior of each one 

 of the buildings will be the scene of great activity. The 

 authorities are determined to have all exhibits in place at the 

 opening of the Fair, and manifestly this cannot be accom- 

 plished if exhibitors are allowed to be dilatory. It will not 

 do to permit the great mass of exhibitors to defer installing 

 their exhibits until April, and accordingly, state and foreign 

 commissions, and individual exhibitors, will be required to be 

 prompt. Exhibitors, who are dilatory beyond a certain point, 

 will lose their space and be barred out.. 



The requirements of the preparation of the official catalogue 

 of exhibits also necessitate promptness on the part of ex- 

 hibitors. This catalogue will be an elaborate publication, 

 and, generally speaking, will have a separate volume devoted 

 to each department. Its preparation is in charge of Major 

 Handy, chief of the department of Publicity and Promotion. 

 It is the determination to have it on sale, in complete con- 

 dition, on the opening day of the Fair, if it is possible to do 

 so. That will, of course, depend mainly on the promptness 

 of exhibitors. 



Under the east windows of the occupied wing of the 

 Administration building lies a scene like a creation of the 

 Arabian Nights. It is the grand court, the main gate-way to 

 "the World's Fair, the feature par-excellence of the entire 

 perfect plan of the Exposition. 



In the centre ripples the blue waters of the great basin, 

 which, while constantly renewed by Lake Michigan, is yet 

 sheltered from the giant waves foaming on the open shore*' 

 The sky line on the east side — where the gray-blue horizon 



