The Sunday Oregonian., March 01, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 5, Image 49

THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, MARCH 1, 1908.
Alaska-CJukon-Pacific Exposition Is Progressing
BUILDINGS GOING UP AND CONTRACTS BEING GRANTED GOVERNMENT HELP ASSURED --CONCESSIONS LET
smfnmHfflemmnKnMi
m
1
i $ S- . i hi ill . . ..y
-J fr
Mr
BY FRANK 1 MERRICK.
SEATTLE. Feb. 27, (Special corres
pondencesNearly 1000 persona visit
the aite of the Alaska-Yukon-Paciflc
Exposition every fine day to Inspect the
work which is rapidly progressing on the
grounds and buildings. Now that the
rough grading and clearing have been
finished and the buildings are going up.
the amount of work done during the past
six months egins to show up to advan
tage to the average person.
The first of the big exhibit palaces
, that will be completed will be the Manu
facturers' building, which lias reached
the stage where the roof will be put
into position next week. Already much
of the ornamental staff work for this
building has been finished. Within the
next 10 days the task of putting the staff
or plaster paris ornaments on the struc
ture and covering its walls with plaster
will he started. Not long after this the
building will loom up In all of its ivory
white grandeur.
The Agriculture building, a twin struc
ture to the Manufactures building. Is not
far behind her sister in progress, as its
walls are now being erected. It will be
the second principal building finished.
The emergency hospital will have its
last finishing touches applied within the
next two weeks and then a complete hos
pital corps will he installed In the build
ing to take care of anyone hurt or taken
sick on the grounds.
Work has begun on the Auditorium.
Fl:: Arts Palace and Machinery Hall.
These three structures will be erected
for permanent use and will be handsome
.... .ltM. ,
"--"-nTTiiiimifr"'"Triri
in design. Buff brick terra cotta trim- .
mings will be used in their construction. I
After the exposition closes they will be
LITTLE LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF EXPERIENCE
THE WANDERLUST BY JIM NASIUM
BY JIM NASIL'M.
WE'VE all had it- !t seems to be
a germ that bores through our
epidermis like a wood tick with
the first dawning of the Intelligence,
and It sticks there till we scrape it
out on the rough places of some God
forsaken country on foreign shores.
Kack in the old homesteads and vil
lage streets, which are splattered aHj
over the backyard of Uncle Sam's dom
icile, gray-bearded and isolation
shrunken old men are today looking
up at the same brown hills that they
have been Inking at for 909 years and
wishing, as thpv !ve wished ever
since they first learned that the sky
dtdn't really com; down and touch.
ppiilllill
I
.
GEiraDE-EfED-ffiYE-fflD-ADlliaAlION- fjijtf
1TTWT7 rwMfi,rnT. nmmNvn 1 I flV"
uttsit-n
5V'l
used by the lnivereity of Washington
for educational purposes.
The contracts for the Fisheries and
Mines buildings will soon be let. These
two buildings will be similar tn size and
will stand In the main picture of the ex
position. The fire department station will
be started within the next ten days and
just as soon as It is finished a complete,
up-to-date fire apparatus with a compe
tent company will be installed to protect
the buildings from fire while they are un
der construction.
The contract for the Oregon building
will be the first one let for a state build
ing. Bids for this work are now being
called for.
Bill Will Pass Congress.
Advices from Henry E. Reed, director of
exploitation, and other exposition offi
cials in Washington. D. C. give assurance
that the appropriation bill granting $700,
0C0 for Uncle Sam's participation will be
passed by. Congress. The Senate has al
ready passed the bill and a majority of
the members of the committee- on indus
trial expositions in the House are tn favor
of the measure.
Applications for exhibit space are pour
ing into the office of Henry E. Josch,
director of exhibits. Some of the leading
manufacturers in the country will make
displays. Every effort Is being made to
have, as far as possible, only operative
exhibits.; On account of the big demand
for space, the management is assured
that only the best of exhibits need be ac
cepted. The officials state that the most
Interesting exhibit to visitors is the one
that shows how an article is made, from
the raw material to the finished product, t
. ..:: : ' . -
Among this class of exhibits already ar- .
ranged for are a rope walk, agriculture I
machinery, stationary machinery, and re-
those hills and that there was more
world beyond, that they could beat it
out over the horizon and see the great
cities and the mysterious countries of
whtch they have heardN The kids, driv
ing the cows home from the field or
fishing for chubs in the mill pond, look
up at the setting sun and dream of the
time when they get to be men and
cross this barrier of hills to stab the
world tn the face. And out beyond
these hills the city's busy marts of
trade are filled with a race of people
whose minds are ever wandering over
oceans blue and into strange lands, and
whose lives are rendered miserable
from the wanderlust gnawing at their
vitals.
WISHT i CO
Ride on de
iKARS LIKE
DAT FE.LLLR.
a.
v
mm 1
I i!
ssT-
13
1-v K
1
s
J
SI
11 U.
mwiaiT. t rv.i iai-x.a.aa-!
frigerator factories and a large Iron
foundry for the making of novelties
never before manufactured in public.
Eastern offices, stores and factories
seem to be operated by a force of men
whose sole object In working; is to
amass sufficient lucre to go West,
while In Western places of" business
the men who are crazy to come East
are thicker than old maids in a boarding-house.
No matter what part of the
world you happen to be in. It's the
one best bet that there won't be a day
pass that some sufferer from the wan
derlust doesn't come up and hang on
the lapel of your coat while he pours
about sixteen gallons of hot air into
your ear about the land be is going
to migrate to some day. And if he
does go. It's a hundred to one shot that
he gets lint on the lungs from chew-
" I XI I 1.1 I I .'J
its' v
-Mr?
I &. ...
AVAZTOHZZTZf AT THE ALAS2ZA. YZ7K0T7rAC2FIC
&ZPOSZZ7C2V 5 ; ,
t
-STAFF-5HQP uWALASlLkzYOTr-CZFJC
J,'POSITJOJ
These are only a few "of ihe exhibits
demonstrating life and motion that have
been awarded space and the long list will
be added to with careful selection.
A. W. Lewis, director of concessions,
has laid down a policy that stands out
above all others in the management of
the amusement features. No fakers, no
grafters and all shows clean. Is the end
the concessions department will strive to
reach.
The largest and most instructive Eskimo
village ever presented at a world's fair
has been arranged for at the exposition.
This concession has been let to Captain
A. M. Baber. who has lived much of his
life In the Northland. There will be no
expense spared in .the collection of this
exhibit, according to Lewis as an expo
sition held to exploit Alaska must have
as one of its educational amusement
features the best Eskimo display ever
.placed before the public.
Eskimos to Have Village.
There will be three kinds of Eskimos in
the village, those who have not been
touched by white civilization, those who
only recently came into association with
modern civilization and the common or
garden variety, the natives who were
long ago brought into contact with white
men. To secure the first named. Captain
Baber will travel this Summer far along
the Arctic Coast. This Autumn these na
tives will be brought to a point some
where on the Southern Alaska Coast,
where they will be Wintered. Prior to
June 1, 1909, the opening day of the ex
position, they will be brought to the ex
position. It is necessary to start these
natives from their village this Autumn,
as they must be brought from such a dis
ing the rag to his new friends there
about the great things and the good
features about the place he has just
left and how he wishes he was back
there again. With us our ideals al
ways seem to be in the place we have
Just left, the place we are going to or
the place we would like to go to. They
are never in the same place we are
at the same time. We appear to run
on a different schedule than our ideals,
and we never make 'connections. When
it comes right down to cases it might
be said that the ones who wouldn't
rather be some other place than the
place where they happen to be are
the fortunate minority.
Thcu there is another side to the
story. Splattered around over the
world Is a thin sprinkling of human
ity, who have chased their ideals Into
strange lands and backed them up into
the four .corners of the earth, only to
find tSiat fliey have been chasing shad
ows and that the only real and sub
stantial ideals they have left are the
unts they threw in the slop barrel
back home, and their wanderlust has
now broken out in the form of an in
tense desire to go back and fish them
out and wear them in peace and con
tentment for the rest of their natural
lives.
It isn't getting far from the truth to
say that about the only ones who aren't
afflicted with wanderlust are the ones
who have to travel and the ones who have
traveled. Which is getting down to the
cold pickled fact, that about the only dif
erence between work and play. Is that one
is compulsory and the other isn't. In
other respects they are practically the
same. A man will lug a heavy old blun
derbuss over the mountains and break
his fool neck chasing a mangey coon
across the state on a dark night, but he
throws 11 different kinds of a conniption
fit if his wife asks him to get out of bed
and shoo a cat off the back fence. The
fellow who coughs up his hard-earned
coin for a theater ticket giggles In child
ish glee over his night's enjoyment, but
you don't hear much howling mirth com
ing from the leader of the orchestra or
the guy who throws the pale green lights
on the soubrette. And it's just about the
same with travel. The fellow, who has
been chained to a desk or looking at the
v.;: :; f i.a..,,Tfe',a:
'Hit
tance that, were Captain Baber to wait
until 1909. it would be impossible to get
them to Seattle before the middle or lat
ter part of the exposition.
The village will represent the Eskimos
in their home surroundings with exact
fidelity to life. Moving pictures show
ing the tribesmen killing polar bears,
spearing the walrus and the sea Hon and
capturing the seal, the beaver and other
game will be a feature of the attraction.
Irv tanks of artificially cooled sea water
.will, be displayed living specimens of
polar bear, seal, walrus, sea lion and
other animals native to the North.
Another big attraction arranged for is
a spectacle called "Fighting the Flames."
This concession will show the public how
a modern fire department operates at a
big conflagration. A crack crew of fire
laddies, with a fully-equipped apparatus,
under the leadership of a ohlef who, at
one time, was the head of the fire de
partment of one of the larger American
cities, will be maintained by .this show.
Briefly, the performance will shoy how a
company responds to a fire, how persons
are rescued from the roof and windows
of a burning, -five-story building and how,
when the firemen arc cut off from help
ing those who are still left, the life-nets
are resorted to.
Other concessions that will grace the
Pay Streak, the official name of the
gaiety boulevard corresponding to the
Trail at Portland and the Pike at St.
Louis, are the Japanese and Chinese vil
lages, the Streets of Cairo, and the Isles
of Greece. Director Lewis Is constantly
conferring with prospective concession
aires and contracts are let just as soon
as satisfactory arrangements can be
made.
same old warts on the landscape for a
dozen years, is overflowing with efferves
cent joy when he climbs into a Pullman
to be jerked across the continent on a va
cation trip, but the fellow in the brass
buttons, who comes through with a pair
of snippers and bites holes in his ticket
isn't having many hysterical outbreaks of
hilarity over the same trip.
The wanderlust is a good deal like the
mumps, because it is contagious 'and you
never have it after you've had it on both
sides. When you've been all over, you
are immune against the germ. There's
nothing like getting what you want, to
teach you that you didn't want It at all.
It's a. course in the school of experience
that comes high, but there Is no substi
tute just as good.
Creeping up out of the mellow haze of
the long ago, 'comes a fond recollection
of the halcyon days when I was about the
Chased mm ideals
AND SACKED TTiOI-UP
- OF THE EARTH
size of a drink of water, and sat on the
sugar barrels to gaze tn wild-eyed awe
and admiration at the commercial drum
mer who rode on the cars every day and
talked about the big cities and the ada
mantine railway sandwich and the festive
horse car, as familiarly as my fellow,
townsmen talked of the potato bug and
the grasshopper platrue. He was the only
section of the traveling public with whom
I came in contact, and he was to me a
messenger from the outside world, which
was the Mecca of my dreams. I was
willing to trade my chance of becoming
President of the United States, which my
school teacher has told ns every Amer
ican boy possessed, for a chance to pack
around some gum drops and chewing gum
and bandana handkerchiefs and copper
riveted overalls and celluloid collars and
patent adjustable hay rakes and be a com
mercial drummer. I wanted to travel from
town to town on the comfortable railway
train, and stop at the big hotels and as
tonish the natives with my castiron nerve
and air of superiority. "
I would gather a bunch of pine knots to
burn In the evening while I read Jules
Verne. Frank Reaae. Jr., and the Illus
trated Police Gazette, and then lay awake
the rest of the nighj looking at the twink
ling stars and longing for the time to
come when I could own an electric horse,
or a submarine boat, or a canal-boat, or
something In which I could cruise In un
known seas and cross darkest Africa. I
wanted to drift out Into the great world
and soak up a lot of knowledge and expe
rience In lands so that I could come back
home with an air of mysterious greatness
that would awe those with whom I came
In contact, and talk about things which
nobody knew anything about, and make
them feel respectful and unhappy In my
presence.
Ah, what has wealth and position to
offer equal to the dreams of childhood.
As I sit here- In the costly magnificence
of a newspaper office and view the Ori
ental splendor of my surroundings, the
rich tapestries of worn-out overalls and
scrub rags, the floors artistically decor
ated Id sepia about the base of the majol
ica cuspidors, the gorgeous furnishings
of paste pots and copy paper, as I sit
here and listen to the rich tenor voice
J TO SOUTH AFRICA y : MWi'
Whosk minds arl-lwwmdemg- oyer-
OCEANS- BLUE-IND-INT0-6TRAN(3E-LMDa)-
of the city editor singing a solo for the
copy boy, the thought comes to me that
I would gladly exchange It all for one
little dream plucked from the mellow
past.
I have drifted with the flotsam and Jet
sam into many lands since tlte days in
the long ago, when I used to look up into
the blue vault of Heaven and dream of
stabbing 'the world in the face, and I
have soaked up a lot of experience and
a vast fund of Information. But, some
how, I always fail to awe those with
whom I come in contect. Persons are
never deeply unhappy in my presence, and
some are not even respectful. When I
throw the throttle wide open and turn
loose the escape valves on my fountain
of variegated experience, it is true that
I frequently note a change coming over
the features of the listeners, but It is
strangely like an expression of sympathy,
mingled with regret, and gives me the
feeling that I have not made a pro
nounced hit as a representative of the
mysterious great.
The great throbbing world doesn't seem
to care a brass mounted continental about
the fund of widespread information that
I have gathered from the four corners
of the earth, and It makes me feel lone
some and sad when T am out in society
to' have the guests turn from my. cheer
ful flow of edifying chin music with a
sigh of relief to the fellow who has
never been out of sight of the gables on
the roof of his birthplace.
Since the days of my childhood dreams
of travel and exploration my wanderlust
has chased me around over the earth,
until finally I turned on it in a corner of
one of these Godforsaken countries and
kicked the eternal daylights out of ft.
Then I hit a beeline for home and looked
up a job that would enable me to buy
a reasonable amount of contentment and
enjoy the things that I was in immedi
ate juxtaposition with, as It were. Instead
of working up a sweat chasing the mi-
into strange land.
INTO THETO CORNER
rage of a fevered Imagination. And I
haven't had a taste of the wanderlust
since. It fights shy of me now. When
It sees me coming down the street it
ducks around the corner as if it owed
me money, because I am on to It now.
It can't fool me any more with It's hand
painted pictures of foreign lands, and its
treasure trove stories. Not much.
When I pick up a book now, and read
about the delightful trip some fellow is
having through Europe or the South Sea
Islands or some other garbage dump, and
take in his euphonious phrases and gilded
language describing the beauties of his
surroundings. I know that that fellow is
sitting with his back up against a stone
pl'e in one of these Godforsaken places
writing this stuff to raise the price of a
ticket back home. If the editors, upon
receipt of one or these lavender-colored
travel articles, would only send the au
thor a ticket and throw his literary con
tribution Into' the waste basket, they
would not .only tickle the author to death
but would do a lot toward preventing the
spread of the wanderlust epidemic. And
If all writers of travel stories would stick
to the truth, like I do, and use more facts
and less festoons of smllax and floral
decorations In thier flights of descriptive
analyses, there wouldn't be so blamed
many young fellows at home, pining their
young Jives away, because they can't hit
the trail to some foreign shore, and there
wouldn't be so blamed many fellows
splattered around foreign shores, gettlns:
cross eyed watching for a chance to work
their way back home.
I have never been, guilty of thus de
ceiving the public I am not skilled In
the art of being a picturesque liar, and
words fail me when I attempt to color
up muskeag swamp, so as to give the
rrader the lmpresflon that the Garden cf
Edsn was a lonesome sand pile in com
parison; or when I try to make a dirty,
ill-smelling alley in Algiers put the
Champs Elysee clear under the table. I
cannot descrl.be a beautiftil desert sun
set In that picturesque language which
is being overworked by descriptive writ
ers, and pen aoul-stlrrtng lines about
harmoniously blending tints, when my
epiglottis is crowding up into the gable
end of my mouth from thirst. Neither
can I grind out copy filled with extrava
gant flights of language, on the delights
of ocean travel, and embellished with
references to the swan-like motion of the
ship and the turquois color of the sea,
when I am hanging over the rail tele
scoping the duodenum Into the oesopha
gus tn an effort to give the fish a hand
out. No. if I write one of my little liter
ary gems, while I am on board ship and
send it to an unprincipled publisher to
turn loose to the public, it Isn't going to
give the reader the impression that I am
spending my time promenading the moon
lit deck with a wealthy heiress, when I
am really down in my bunk tying knots
In my diaphragm and wishing to heaven,
that some one would scuttle the ship.
I can't do it. The public is fortunate,
therefore, in having the. writer's works
to turn to as a reliable authority in their
hour of need.
The greatest obstacle I meet with In
my efforts to educate the public to tho
truth concerning a lot of these popular
fallacies, is the growing tendency to pub
lishers to underestimate the value of
truth In literary productions. As a re
sult of this tendency on the part of pub
lishers some of my most s-parkting and
purest gems of thought are hidden away
In an old trunk at home with the usual
printed slip telling me that "non-acceptance
does not necessarily mean lack .
of merit, it is true that "truth is strang
er than fiction," because it Is so seldom
met with that most people never get a
chance to become acquainted with it.
Outside of that being used by the. In
tellectual giant who is pounding this' out
on the typewriter I don't suppose there
are over a dozen gallons of the pure un
adulterated stuff on the market.
Since the passage of the Elkins act has
rendered it impossible for a struggling
writer to obtain free transportation. I
have always adhered to the truth in writ
ing about any particular part of tho
country. This Elkins law has been a
wonderful power for good. It is saving
many writers from perjuring their souls
and lining them -up on the path of truth
and rectitude. "When I travel on any
railway line now I am not afraid to tell
about the concrete sandwich and the cel
luloid pie they fed men in the dining car,
and when X land in one of their highly
advertised sand piles I spend less time
In writing about the gorgeous scenery and
wonderful commercial facilities, and put
in more time on the mosquitoes and the
facilities for dying of starvation and the;
scarcity of pawn shops, which is usually
much nearer the truth.
The Bungler.
Elsa Barker In Smart Set
I madfl a man out of my own gmt ned.
I took the body of one ready-formed
In Nature's workshop, but its blood X
warmed
With my own Are. Half of my foul I fr4
To animate the form ; the dream, the deed
That malcofl man god-like, these from tha
great void
I enjurd. and my temple vei destroyed,
That he might ee the 'Image burn and
bleed.
But when I questioned this created thing.
Therj was no vole to answer, for the
breath
Divine I had not given could not glva!
Confounded before God, I only brine
Into creation's hall this masque of death.
That wears the mold ofalUs but does
not Uva.