Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 80.djvu/112

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108
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

From the enclosed oblong square, the visitor overlooks a larger open space and notices in the distance the imposing structure devoted to popular hygiene which is marked above the entrance in large and imposing letters, "Der Mensch." This imposing structure has a prominent, semicircular entrance, divided by a series of large columns, 11 meters high, surmounted by a cupola and leading into a spacious vestibule, on either side of which are wardrobes, and, finally, into a magnificent hall, with a stage or podium at its furthest end for giving seating capacity to the officers conducting various meetings, with their guests of honor. Against the background of this stage there is visible a large statue with the inscription "No Wealth is equal to thee, Health!" This entire building is devoted to popular hygiene. Passing down the wide steps of the first open square, we find ourselves entering a large open enclosure in the grounds. This is the so-called "Festplatz." On the sides of this Festplatz are various small stores, a

Main Court of the Exhibition.

music pavilion, garden restaurant, to the right a wine restaurant with a terrace above and the recently erected pavilion of Great Britain. Farther to the left and overlooking the garden restaurant there is the permanent exhibition building of Dresden, artistically embedded among the new buildings. On the left, also, and against the botanical garden we find the recreation park. This park is occupied by a very original Bavarian restaurant, a hippodrome, a place for dancing, an academic Beer-kneipe, Japanese and Indian tea-houses. This recreation park proved a great necessity in that it accommodated the overflow of sightseers and gave them a chance to rest and refresh themselves, lending at the same time variety to scenery and interest to sightseers, without interfering with the intended serious character of the exposition.

The city exposition palace, Steinpalast, forms the center of the exposition; this palace had to undergo extensive interior changes to accommodate the historical and ethnological sections, some of the most remarkable features of the whole exposition. While exhibiting most effectually the contrast between past and present conditions as regards hygiene, it also showed and illustrated what we hear so often without