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One is to wander about the palaces and courts in the midst of the soft flood of mysterious light, watching the play of the fountains, the barbaric flames of the Court of Ages, the green shimmer of the waters in the Court of Seasons, the banners fluttering in strong white light, the statuary in changing hues according to the color screens used before the projectors, the Aurora Borealis above the Scintillator battery.
The Exposition recognized this need of a background for the great beams of the Scintillator when it provided for the clouds of steam that are nightly sent floating upward through the shafts of colored light. Nothing brings out the wonder of the Court of Ages at night like mist or fog. On the first night that all the illumination was given a full rehearsal it was raining slightly.
On each occasion a set program is followed consisting of twenty-four numbers. At the opening, a salute of ten detonating bombs and a large rocket announce the event. This is followed by features of the scintillator lights, combinations of these with steam, with smoke bombs and with orange showers and Japanese daylight shells, and by fancy star shells, festoon rockets and candle fountains.
'Shall we burn up our rubbish, or give it away? asked Lavinia, who liked energetic measures, and was ready to cast her garments to the four winds of heaven, to save herself from the agonies of packing. 'I shall never give up my pictures, nor my boots! cried Matilda, gathering her idols to her breast in a promiscuous heap. 'Be calm and listen, returned the scintillator.
The climax is reached in the Zone Salvo when a tremendous explosion of hundreds of detonating devices occurs, with rockets and star shells exploding in the air, the rays of the scintillator coloring the smoke clouds in brilliant hues; and amidst it all, high above, suddenly appears a beautiful American flag caught and followed by the ray of a powerful white searchlight as it floats away from sight.
The many-colored fan of enormous rays, the Scintillator, which stands against the sky behind the Exposition, is produced by a searchlight battery of thirty-six great projectors mounted on the breakwater of the Yacht Harbor. It is manned nightly by a company of marines, who manipulate the fan in precise drills. Concealed lights shine through the waters of the fountains.
First one side and then another of the Tower of Jewels is bathed in white light, until the Tower stands out in ghostly radiance. Two slender shafts of light shoot upward on either side of the globe atop the Tower and stand there, symbols of pure aspiration reaching to the heavens. Behind it all the huge and many-colored fan of the Scintillator opens in gorgeous color in the northern sky.
View through north court toward bay, from half-dome, very interesting; intense white light of scintillator directly opposite court; statute of "Ceres," silhouetted against rays. Banners in court, no heraldic designs.
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