Art and Handcraft in the Woman's Building
of the World's Columbian Exposition

THE CHILDREN’S BUILDING. THERE are certain departments of the Fair whose interest is rather special than general; there are others (and these far outnumber the former) which have a universal interest. Foremost among these stands the Children’s Building. There may be a few misanthropes of both sexes among our visitors who will declare themselves indifferent to what women are doing in the world, but I believe there is no man or woman who visits the Fair who will not be glad to peep into the children’s house. There are some crusty old bachelors and a few childless women who make a pretense of disliking children, but it’s a flimsy sort of sour-grape antipathy, and rarely ring's true. Even those people who do not like childrens society will find a great deal to enjoy in their domicile. The sternest bachelor was a boy once, and he will have a sort of retro- spective enjoyment of our great play-house in conjuring up his own youthful image swinging from the rings, leaping over the horses, and exercising on the parallel bars of our gymnasium. All the world loves a lover, all the world loves a child. Many of us fear children, and with reason; their bright eyes, their unsophisticated judgments, make them keen and wholesome critics of their elders’ actions. But we love them for two reasons. They recall life’s morn- ing, when tears, and smiles, and passions were quickly roused and quickly banished; when the world was a great treasure-house, and the years were eagerly added to our span because each, brought greater freedom to go out and gather the fairy gold and jewels lying in heaps before us. Childhood typifies for each of us the unsullied purity of his own soul; we love it for this, and again we love it because in the tiny hands of the infant we tend so carefully the future destiny of our race is clinched. Manhood and woman- hood stand for the living present, but childhood stands for the past and for tlie future, and what one of us would exchange the bitter- sweet memories of yesterday, the dreamy visions of to-morrow, for the common-sense reality of to-day? The Children’s Building stands close to the Woman’s Building, nestling under its eaves in a very natural manner. It is a pleasant (159)