a doubling of the number of stations, would within a few years make
that heading more of a misnomer. Meanwhile, the saving of life and
property on sea and land already effected is a solid certainty and
no mere "probability." At the station on the exposition grounds the
weather of each day, storm or shine, in most of the cities of the Old
and New Worlds will be bulletined. "Storm in Vlaenderlandt" will be as
surely announced to the Dutch stroller on Belmont Avenue as though he
were within hearing of his cathedral bell. Should such a "cautionary
signal" from beyond the ocean reach him, he may ascertain in what, if
any, danger of submergence his home stands, by stepping into one of
the branch telegraph-offices dispersed over the grounds. Or he may
satisfy all possible craving for news from that or any other quarter
in the Press Building. This metropolis of the fourth estate occupies
a romantic site on the south side of the avenue and the north bank of
the lake. Such a focus of the news and newspapers of all nations
was not paralleled at either of the preceding expositions. American
journalism will be additionally represented in the different State
buildings, where files of all the publications of each commonwealth
will be found, embracing in most cases a greater number of journals
than the entire continent boasted in 1776, and in each of the States
of Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania more than the extra-metropolitan
press of either France, Austria, Prussia or Russia can now boast.

[Illustration: GERMAN BUILDING.]

The commercial idea is so prominent in this, as in all expositions,
that it is difficult to draw the line between public and private
interest among its different features, and particularly among what
may be called its outgrowths, overflowings or addenda. Here is half
a square mile dotted with a picturesque assemblage of shops and