to completing the ornamentation of this building. Five, seven or ten
millions of people will pass through it in the course of its first
year, and among them will be some capable of making sound suggestions
for its finish. The wisdom that comes from a multitude of counsels
will remain to be sifted. Then will remain the creation of the artists
who are to carry the counsels into execution. We shall be fortunate if
the next three decades bring us men thoroughly equal to the task.

[Illustration: MEMORIAL HALL, WITH EXTENSION.]

It would be an unpardonable neglect of the maxim which enjoins
gratitude to the bridge that carries us safely over were we to
complete our tour of the exposition structures without a glance at the
graceful erections, diverse in magnitude and design, which overleap
the depressions so attractive to the student of the picturesque and
so trying to the pedestrian. The æsthetic capabilities of bridge
architecture are very great, and a fine field is here offered for
their display. The flat expanses of Hyde Park, the Champs de Mars
and the Prater could afford no such exhibition. The ground and the
buildings became, perforce, two sharply distinct things; and the
blending into unity of landscape and architecture could be but
imperfectly attained. Here the case is very different. With the aid of
an art that embraces in its province alike the fairy trellis and the
monumental arch and pilaster, the lines of Memorial Hall and
other permanent edifices may be led over the three hundred acres
appropriated to the exposition. From the foundation of a bridge-pier
to the crowning statue of America, the artist finds an uninterrupted
range.

The work of his foster-brother, the artisan, has certainly been well