What We Saw at Madame World's Fair - Elizabeth Gordon

Canada the Beautiful

Dear Cousins:

Canada, who is our very nearest neighbor on the North, has built a mansion at the Fair, which seems to us the very most beautiful of all.

The pictures shown give one a perfectly correct idea of the country, and what it produces, and can produce in the future.

As we entered we were asked by a polite attendant to "keep to the left, please," which rather surprised us until we remembered that in England and all colonies belonging to her all traffic passes from left to right, and not the opposite, as with us.

The pictures of the forests and the birds and animals which live in them kept us a long while, and we were never tired of looking at them. We were glad that father brought us, because we could look as long as we liked, instead of hurrying through as so many children are obliged to do.

The pictures are made by placing real animals or other objects in the foreground, and painting a back drop continuation of the scene, in the manner of a stage drop in a theatre.

One beautiful scene represents a farmhouse with cattle grazing in the distance, and green gardens and fruit trees around the house. It is meant to show what a farmer can do in five years of work on a new piece of ground.

Another picture shows the rolling prairies with fields of ripe, yellow wheat, with snow-capped mountains in the far distance, and still another takes one to the extreme north of Canada, and shows how the Aurora Borealis lights up the world during the time of the midnight sun.

There is also a wonderful apple-harvesting scene, where real apples are used in the foreground, and in the background men on ladders are gathering the apples from the trees.

Canada has also immense mines of iron, coal, gold and silver, as well as great quarries of marble, asbestos and copper, and many other minerals.

The decorations in the main building are made from seeds, and you would be surprised, we are sure, to see the pictures which can be produced with the natural seeds and grasses.

We liked Canada very much and brought away some new ideas.

Your loving cousins,

Jane and Ellen.

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Section Court of Ages, showing Tower of Jewels and Arch of the Rising Sun in distance. The Fountain of Earth in the foreground.

Canada the Beautiful Dear Cousins: Canada, who is our very nearest neighbor on the North, has built a mansion at the Fair, which seems to us the very most beautiful of all. The pictures shown give one a perfectly correct idea of the country, and what it produces, and can produce in the future. As we entered we were asked by a polite attendant to "keep to the left, please," which rather surprised us until we remembered that in England and all colonies belonging to her all traffic passes from left to right, and not the opposite, as with us. The pictures of the forests and the birds and animals which live in them kept us a long while, and we were never tired of looking at them. We were glad that father brought us, because we could look as long as we liked, instead of hurrying through as so many children are obliged to do. The pictures are made by placing real animals or other objects in the foreground, and painting a back drop continuation of the scene, in the manner of a stage drop in a theatre. One beautiful scene represents a farmhouse with cattle grazing in the distance, and green gardens and fruit trees around the house. It is meant to show what a farmer can do in five years of work on a new piece of ground. Another picture shows the rolling prairies with fields of ripe, yellow wheat, with snow-capped mountains in the far distance, and still another takes one to the extreme north of Canada, and shows how the Aurora Borealis lights up the world during the time of the midnight sun. There is also a wonderful apple-harvesting scene, where real apples are used in the foreground, and in the background men on ladders are gathering the apples from the trees. Canada has also immense mines of iron, coal, gold and silver, as well as great quarries of marble, asbestos and copper, and many other minerals. The decorations in the main building are made from seeds, and you would be surprised, we are sure, to see the pictures which can be produced with the natural seeds and grasses. We liked Canada very much and brought away some new ideas. Your loving cousins, Jane and Ellen.