architecture. This portion of the art of the court is best considered as
decoration, finding its justification in the beauty it imparts to the
whole. It has genuine meaning, but what that is remains inscrutable so
long as the court is called that of Abundance.

Mullgardt called his creation the "Court of the Ages." He was overruled
because the officials deemed the name not in accord with the
contemporaneous spirit of the Exposition. They called it the "Court of
Abundance." In spite of the name, however, it is not the Court of
Abundance. Mullgardt's title gives a key to the cipher of the statues.
Read by it, the groups on the altar of the Tower become three successive
Ages of Civilization. (See p. 70.)

Tower of the Ages.--This is the most admired of all the Exposition
towers, and with reason. The originality, strength and beauty of its
design set it above anything else of the sort yet seen in America; and
the symbolism of its sculptures, which are the work of Chester Beach, is
of almost equal interest with the tower itself. At the base, on the
gable above the arch, rude of face and form, with beasts low in the
scale, are the people of the Stone Age. Above them is a mediaeval group,
the Crusader, the Priest, the Peasant Soldier armed with a cross-bow,
with similar figures on the side altars. Enthroned over all, with a
crown on her brow, is Modern Civilization, expressed as Intelligence. At
her feet are two children, one with an open book, symbolizing Learning;
the other, a boy with a part of a machine, representing Industry. The
supporting figures on the sides are the Man and Woman of the Present,
sprung from the earlier types. The delicate finials rising from the
summit of the tower express Aspiration.

The two shafts at the head of the court, each surmounted by a huntress