CHAPTER III.

ONE OF THE GEMS OF THE FAIR.

Tne Wooded Island— More than a Million Trees and Plants— Fifty Thousand Roses— Hardy Herbaceous
Plants from All Over the World— The Hunter's Cabin and Japanese Building— Timothy Hopkin's
Sweet Peas— John Thoroe's Church— A Spot Blessed by Heaven and Rivaling the Rainbow.

N many respects the Wooded Island (or islands) , including the
lagoons that surround it, is the gem of the Exposition — and
the credit belongs to Olmstead, the landscape gardner;
Ulrich, the landscape beautifier, and Thorpe, the floricult-
urist. This trio made from an uninviting marsh a thing of
beauty. When this trio took hold of the park to put it ii>
shape for the reception of the buildings, they deepened the
hollows, made silvery lagoons of the mud puddles, and created
an island which to many is the prettiest thing of all. Walks,
roads and avenues of trees followed, and the lake was
hemmed in by a stone embankment, along which there is a
magnificent promenade. The islands are fringed with
shrubbery and great stretches of wild flowers growing in colonies, as they do on the
prairies and borders of woodlawns and in marshes all through North Illinois.
Semi-aquatic plants troop down to the brink; tall reeds and other water plants rise
from the lagoon itself, and on its quiet surface lily leaves float dreamily, while the
low outlying isles are tinged a living green by the sedgy things that creep to the
water's edge.

There have been planted on the islands and near them 12,618 trees, 50,644
shrubs, 151,394 hardy perennial, herbaceous, and miscellaneous plants, 136,678
aquatic and semi-aquatic plants, 3,300 ferns, 9,582 vines, climbers and ornamental
grasses; 60,000 willow cuttings, 114,920 bulbs and similar plants, and a great col-
lection of native plants, which were used by the carload. The trees used were
principally willows, poplars, water maples, cherries, elms and lindens. The shrub-
bery consists of various kinds of low-growing willows, cornuses, spiraeas, loniceras,
lilacs, snowballs and barberries. These form the basis of the groups, but to give
variety and test their adaptability to the climate many rare shrubs were added.

The inner, higher part of the wooded island, reserved for the use of the
Floricultural Department, was laid out in lawns, flower beds and a rose garden,
while the extreme north end space was set apart for the Japanese temple and
garden, which are to remain as a premanent reminder of the patience, ingenuity,
gentleness, good will and love of beauty of that nation of artists. The flower ex-
hibits on the island form a long and charming procession. The Wooded Island is

428

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR

LOG CABIN.

about sixteen acres
in extent, ten of
which are devoted
to the plantations of
trees, shrubs and
native plants already
described. Through
the middle is the long
sweep of lawns and
flower garden, about
six acres in all. At
the south end or this
space is ihown for
the first time in the
west, it is believed, a
combination of plants
and style of grouping
that is seen on large
places in the east,

notably on the grounds of the Newport home of the late Miss Catharine Lorillard

Wolfe, consisting of azaleas and rhododendrons, and in the partial shade of these

shrubs great

clumps of lilies in

many varieties are

to be seen. The

bulbs and shrubs

bloom at different

seasons, and thus

the arrangement

affords double

pleasure. Over the

lawns north from

this fine exhibit is

seen a green and

flowery wall, the

first hint of the

rose garden — the

glory of the island.

This is a plot of

one and one-
quarter acres, ob-
long in shape, and

inclosed by a wire

fence supported by JAPANESE BUILDING.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

429

posts nine feet high set at intervals of eight feet. Between the posts the wire
netting droops in curves, the lowest point of each curve being six feet above the
ground. The fence is lined with climbing roses and draped on the outside with
many kinds of light-growing creepers, and the whole inclosed by a row of 22
varieties of sweet peas, contributed by Timothy Hopkins, of San Francisco. This
gracefully-shaped, vine-covered, flower-starred wall is in itself a thing of beauty.
Access to the interior is at four points only — in the middle of each side and at the
middle of each end — so the garden possesses the first requisite of a garden — seclu-
tion. It also possesses the second — flowers.

Fifty thousand roses were in flower in June and July. Thirty thousand of
them belonged to the taller-growing hardy class; then there were twenty thou-
sand tea and other tender
roses of the low-growing
kinds. North of the garden
may be seen a great nursery
exhibit, where the foremost
growers of nursery stock
show ornamental trees and
shrubs such as home makers
should know and use. West
of the nursery exhibit • a
number of florists and
planters have a great show
of hardy herbaceous plants,
one firm alone sending
10,000 plants. Still west of
these, England justifies her-
self for clinging to fine old
herbaceous perennials, such
as peonies, phloxes, etc., a class of plants grown to perfection by the English.
Just south of the approaches to the Japanese garden Germany displays her formal
favorities, such as stocks, asters, zinnias and dahlias. Thus the whole sweep of the
lawns from end to end is utilized by the best known plantsmen of Europe and
America for their large and attractive exhibits.

There are 35 specimens of sunflowers, 32 that are natives of America; two of
Japan and one (the big sunflower) whose nativity is known to no botanist.

The rhododendron exhibit on the Wooded Island during June was one of
the most gorgeous and luxuriant ever seen anywhere, as there were special selec-
tions of this famous flowering plant sent from Germany, Belgium and France, and
from a number of American florists. Conspicuous over all other exhibits was that
of Frederick W. Kelsey, of New York, who had at the south end of the island and
just off from the broad path that leads along the eastern water front, erected a large
white tent. On both sides of the entrance stood a couple of immense rhododen-
drons. These were fully ten feet high and, when set in the ground ten day

OLD VIENNA.— MIDWAY PLAISANCE.

430 HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

before, a hundred delicate blossoms had given evidence of their being in full
bloom. Through the wide opening were revealed glimpses of a perfect mass of
bright colored blossoms chat tempted alike, with irresistible impartiality, the soft
zephyrs, the warm sunlight and the eager gaze of every lover of flowers who passed
the tent. Several hundred plants were arranged in a solid mound that rose from
a low height at the sides of the tent nearly to the top of the pole in the middle.
The dark green color of the glossy, smooth leaves formed a striking contrast to
the brilliant colors of the flowers. Each flower is composed of twenty or thirty
separate and smaller flowerets. Each of these tiny flowerets is as big as a pink and
perfectly formed. The effect of one of these many-flowered clusters is very pretty.
Each floweret is striped with a different color — the pink flowerets with deep red,
the white ones with purple, yellow and every imaginable hue. Each cluster, though
only a single rhododendron flower, looks like a whole bouquet.

ELECTRIC LAUNCH.

Imagine about 500 of these clusters, of varying shades and colors, all grouped
in an oval mound, against a background of deep green — truly this mound of floral
beauty surpassed in quiet elegance the more startling but less beautiful tower of
light in the electricity building near by. Over a hundred different varieties were
mingled in this enormous mass of rhododendrons. Only florists would appreciate
the album grandiflorum, the bandyanium,the delicatissimum.the everestianum and
the coriaceum; it is a peculiar coincidence that almost without exception the names
of the different varieties of the rhododendron are almost as voluminous and unpro-
nounceable as the title of the flower itself. But all can easily imagine the beauti-
ful sight of crimson, pink, red, silver, lilac and rich purplish crimson flowers, tinted
with variegated hues and indiscriminately heaped together in a wonderful profusion
of floral color and beauty. Outside the tent there were several choice specimens of
conifers, Japanese Maples, and other strange and rare snrubs, plants and trees.

The Wooded Island is reached by three bridges. At the southern end is
seen the Hunter's Cabin, a novelty to many. At the northern end is the Hoodo,
or Japanese building, which consists of three pavilions, connected by corridors,

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

43J

each representative of the decorative and architectural features of three prominent
epochs in the history of Japanese art. The general ground plan follows the arrange-
ment of the Hoodo Temple (hence its name), an interesting monument of Fuju-
wara art, erected by Yorimichi when at the height of his power, but is modified for
the benefit of the main architectural unity and to suit the want of the present ex-
hibition. The left wing is intended to represent the Fujuwara style, ranging from
the tenth to the thirteenth century, when the pure Yamato school broke through
the traditions of the Konin era. The interior decoration shows a room in the
palace of the court nobles, who spent their refined leisure amid poetry and music.

The right wing shows the
building in the Ashikaga
period, just about the
Columbian epoch, when
Japan, emerging from the
war of the two dynasties,
started into a new art-life
under the influence of
Zen-Buddhism and Lung-
philosophy. Purity and
Simplicity was the motto,
and most of the rich
colored decoration of feu-
dal palaces was given up
for plain ink landscapes,
in the style of Sesshin and
Soami. The interior is
reproduced from the Gin-
kakuji, a villa of an Ashi-
kaga Shogun. The cen-
tral pavilion is in the style
of Tokugawas in the eight-
eenth century, a part of

a daimio's palace. It represents a sitting-room of a feudal lord. The central wall is
covered with a huge pine emblem of strength and endless glory, with phoenixes.
The adjoining chamber is decorated with fans of different designs. The ceiling
consists of nearly 270 phoenixes in gold and color, encased between frames of gold
lacquer and gilt metal work. Each of the rooms is furnished exactly in the styles of
the periods.

Wooded Island was so crowded with bloom and fragrance during the warm
months that great swarms of honeybees invaded the fairyland and made each flash-
ing poppy or sweet-tipped columbine nod under the weight of its nectar-sipping
burden. So varied were the colors that a hundred prisms seemed to have been
hung in the clouds to reflect the glories of a hundred rainbows. So luxuriant was
the foliage that even the maples and elders and oaks seemed to have forgotten

GONDOLAS.

432 HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

their rules and built their leaves on special lines, bending their boughs to the very
earth. Nursed and petted for twelve months, the bog and sand and swamp
blossomed like a royal garden and it is no wonder that the shaded nook about the
hunter's cabin and the jungle of the tropical hut and all the other bowers of the
island were daily and nightly thronged with people.

Well, John Thorpe made the most of it. And when the gates are closed and
great piles carted out to the bonfires and melting pots and the history of the great
event shall be more voluminously written, your Uncle John will have a golden page
in the record which will tell of him grandiloquently as a florist, a botanist, a genius,
a man whose whole heart shines in an honest face and whose rough dress covers a
disposition as tender and sympathetic as a maiden's love. With the gentleness of
a mother he has nursed the birds and blossoms and taught the pansies and dahlias
and poppies how best to bloom and brought out two flowers where nature put a
single blade.

His worship, his religion and his whole existence are his flower pets, and no
man was ever more consecrated to his lot or more happy in his work than this one.
He has always been at it and desires nothing else, and, as he sat with his legs
stretched on the grass one afternoon he told the tale of how it all happened.

He was always talking with the blossoms, as he puts it, and when a wee boy
he wondered why the violets were always blue, why the grass never grew any way
but green and why nature never missed by accident the lesson and way taught it
when the world began. Under the wide oaks of his English home he lay flat upon
his back and wondered why no clouds were square. He had never seen any water
that wasn't blue and sparkling, nor any rill that didn't laugh and chatter and dance
and glisten like a coronet under the sunbeams. He grew up in the woods and
among the hedges and primroses and toddled with his father about the meadows of
a gentleman's home. From the very start the trees and shrubs and vines were
his associates and what the boy loved the man adored. Thus he came near to nat-
ure's heart and nature to him was all.

Wooded Island is his church, and as long as he draws this fleeting breath
some such spot, blessed by heaven and rivaling the rainbow, will be his altar. He
wants- no vaulted domes, nor pointed minarets, nor tinseled spire, nor velvet aisles,
nor carved pew, nor quarelling choir, nor finical pastor. These be right, so he says,
and he who wants them is as good as himself, but he prefers the cool, clear air as
his nave and transept, the blue circle of sky as his high roof and the gentle rush
of the breeze through the sighing poplars as his choir. This is why he spends
many a Sunday in a reverie in his splendid bower and makes the Wooded Island
his church.

There are others who worship at this shrine while the morning star flings its
splendor over a sleeping world, for some writer has expressed himself thus:

When tremulous morning lights waver and burn like the enchanting
glance of eyes lovelit and surprised, when flakes of summer glory melt in a sun-
shine dusky with golden promise and full of tender preference, that is the time to
rest and dream in the Wooded Island. Not in the courting hour of shadows, when

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR. 433

brisk winds stir the flowers and plighted evening leans towards the night, nor at
high, cruel noon, that bruises sentiment and withers violets, but in the morning,
sweet with disappearing dew, when tears of dawn lie only where cool silence waits,
and when white roses faint against the rich brown earth or bleeding heart droops
in scarlet thirst, plaintive as a hopeless sigh. Then the young trees scatter a maze
of lace-work about the gardens, the prettiest blossoms grow almost visibly and
fragile things too delicate to bear the touch of sunbeams die in a wave of perfume
There is a stillness that is enchaining and that poetry of loneliness which weds the
soul to flowers and the melody of birds. The dripping grasses are so wondrous
fresh and the leaves so restless. Where the sun blazes hungrily tendrils curl and
petals fade as purity beneath the unkind torture of passion or hardily gather
strength like the martyr's halo rising out of fire. That very few can know the
lovely island in this early glory is one of the selfish delights of the Fair. "Myself and
misery" and the man who works a fiendish garden-hose in relentless spurts of mercy
to the flowers seem to about constitute the visiting list of the morning. At night
Jt is not safe for sympathetic ardor to be adrift within gunshot of the hallowed spot.
There is more undiluted adoration afloat in the secluded atmosphere than ever a
lover's lane discovered to the rude eyes of bachelors and earthy scoffers. There
is a teeming simoon of endearments on tap from 8 p. m. till the guards are called in
and the lovers and lights put out. The swift splash of a night-bird's wing in the
black lagoon startles more timid embraces out of plumb than can ever be braved
again and the inhuman search-light is a distressing tattler, dreaded as a kodak.
Out of the tangled meshes of malaria and amorous glances it is difficult for a rank
outsider to gleam much evening consolation in the island, but in the beautiful morn-
ing there is a glimpse of heaven for tired eyes and a touch of gold to aching hearts
and weary lives.

•N..

HARRIET STONE MONROE.

THE POKT-I.AURKATK OF THK WORLD'S COLUMBIAN IMPOSITION.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR. 435