§ J. The Columbian Exposition. 



The World's Fair eclipsed all other enterprises in the 

 mind of every American during the year 1893. The Exposi- 

 tion was expected to represent the highest achievement in art, 

 science and industry, and it was built upon a stupendous base. 

 But the very boldness and vastness of the undertaking seemed 

 to disparage the individual and minor exhibits. It was essenti- 

 ally an engineering and architectural triumph, the culmination 

 of the great constructive or inventive movement which has 

 been a distinctive mark of the century. The Exposition will 

 probably live longest in history in its vast framework, architec- 

 tural splendors, the transcendent beauties of its lagoons, and 

 the many organized, movements which sprung from it. It will 

 linger in the minds of those who saw it as a fascinating dream, 

 becoming unreal and glorified as the years pass on. The mul- 

 titudes who passed under its inspiration must have gone their 

 ways with a new and enlarged sense of the greatness of human 

 institutions, and a keener appreciation of all those agencies 

 which are making for the brotherhood of the race. 



With so much to admire, it seems ungracious to offer 

 criticisms of any of the integral parts of the Exposition ; but 

 it is true that some of these departments and bureaus did not 

 properly or adequately represent the subjects with which they 

 were charged, and this was true with various lines of exhibition 

 which fell to the care of the Department of Horticulture. 

 The reasons for these faults in this department were various. 

 In the first place, the classification of the department was 

 unnatural and unfortunate, the management was rent by per- 

 sonal dissension, and some classes of horticulturists made no 

 effort towards an exhibition. The soil in which the outdoor 

 plants had to be grown was generally poor, and the season was 

 very dry ; and most of the exhibits of living plants were set in 

 their quarters in the spring of 1893, and were therefore not 

 sufficiently established to make the best exhibit. The effect of 

 haste in preparing for the Fair was probably nowhere more 

 apparent than in the horticultural department, where all grow- 

 ing exhibits should have been established as early as 1892. 

 Yet the horticultural exhibits, as a whole, far exceeded, in 

 interest and variety, anything before attempted in this country, 



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