A characteristic and fitting feature of the Exposition--Fountain of
Energy--The Mermaids--Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's "El Dorado" and
Mrs. Burroughs' "Youth"--Rising and Setting Sun--Piccirilli's
"Seasons"--Aitken's masterpiece, the Fountain of Earth--"Beauty and
the Beast."



The fountain, the spring, the well, is a characteristic note in the life
and art of all lands in the Sun. The Arabians, the Moors, the Spaniards,
the Italians and the Greeks loved fountains. It is less so in the North,
in the regions of much rain, where water flows naturally everywhere. But
nothing is so welcome in a thirsty land as a fountain. Hence there is
appropriateness in the many fountains of this Exposition, which reflects
in its plan the walled cities of the Orient of the Mediterranean, where
fountains play in the courts of palaces, in public squares and niches in
the walls; and pools lie by the mosques, and in the gardens.

Here are many kinds of fountains, from huge masses of sculpture spouting
forth many powerful streams in the sun to terraced basins where water
murmurs in quiet alcoves, and simple jets tinkling in summery courts. Of
those fountains that have especially been dignified and adorned by
sculpture there are fourteen, some single, some in pairs, with one
quartet in the Court of Seasons. Their sequence from the chief gate of
the Exposition follows in a way the symbolic significance of all the
sculpture.

The Fountain of Energy, by A. Stirling Calder, in the center of the
South Gardens before the Tower of Jewels, as a figure of aquatic