St Ignatius College - Ignatian Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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8 IGNATIAN paintings, its charming pagodas, its exceedingly well wrought Statuary, its most minutely and intricately carved pieces of furniture, and its oddities of every description, all these ren- dered the exhibit of the Jesuit orphanage of Zi-Ka-Wei of special value, and drew to the booths of this department a continuous stream of admiring visitors. Japan confined the greater part of her floor space to economic questions, and so hardly comes under this head. This void, however, was filled by Argentina? whose exhibit, although consisting almost entirely of pictures, was nevertheless a very comprehensive display. Uruguay gives an idea of its summer resorts to- gether with some information about its schools. We are done now with the educational exhibits properly so called. There remains to be considered the Religious dis- play, the medical outlay, and the moral reformers. The first topic just mentioned was treated in a very loud and egotisti- cal manner. It is almost to be wondered at why they didnlt allow most of these people to own a concession on the Zone and charge ten cents admission. Ridiculous, fantastic, and most inartistic banners and drawings were stuck up all around, and spoke so loud as to be grating on the nerves. After going through that quarter one felt relieved in step- ping out of its domains to examine some more quiet and instructive exhibit. And when one feels relief in retiring from a certain department it certainly is a very peculiar life exhibited there. On every side one needed to give but a few hasty glances to be convinced of the utter illusion and ignorance of the persons advocating these principles. What must there be in the poor mind of the person trying to prove that the earth is concave? Then the American Buddliisfifii society venerating the god Buddha 5 and the Theosophical society displaying chaits and pictures of enlarged angle- worms and microbes with the sign, What our thoughts look like. Taking pictures of or even trying to draw a purely spiritual thing is in itself enough to show their foolishness. But there was an oasis in this desert. After wandering

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PALACE OF EDUCATION ll' 7 .rg even a California State exhibit other than through tliiyiiiedium of' motion pictures. But while these are suflicieiit, perhaps, for the quick survey of a subject, they are inadequate for the display of the work of a State. Other parts of the country, however, enjoyed in this respect a good representation. Smith's College, Boston, the St. Louis city schools 3 the Gary city schools, the States of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Oregon, Wisconsin, Utah, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland all have much in common, and differ principally in their mode of presentation. Through them all runs the germ of the American Educational system. The last three States named were somewhat jejune in their real educational display. They dwelt chiefly on economic questions, and it was to ex- hibits of this character that their departments owed their prestige, for the latter subject lends itself very favorably to interesting presentation. The governments participating were our own United States in its department of education, China, japan, Argen- tine, and Uruguay. The first just mentioned gives us the work of the department, as well as does the extremely in- teresting exhibit from the Philippine Islands. Uncle Sam here did his Work in a manner it would be hard to improve upon. There was an excellent pictorial demonstration of agricultural education, in itself a mostinteresting subject, and the work of the Islands was so well arranged, and in- cluded excellent' topics that it left not much more to be desir Chinese gave us an example of what an educa- ' a ii ' liding should contain, and they were very consistent. Il allowed nothing which wash not conformable to school r f. and 'in this particular they certainly excelled. They us sample of every form of education in their country, including machine work and handiwork of every description. Under the latter is to be mentioned with very special interest the exhibit from the Zi-Ka-Wei orphanage at Shanghai. This exhibit is probably the most!-delightful display of its kind in the Exposition, Its antique lacquer screens and . QQ' -rr sh -'IL ' ' l me . 'I 34-Q 1- .,. . 4 1 ':- fa'-s. if- 1'

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PALACE OF EDUCATION 9 through all this wreckage of thought it was a quiet and ele- vating relief to come upon a modestly curtained booth where was displayed a replica of the chapel of Mary Immaculate which is soon to rise on the grounds of the Catholic Univer- sity at Washington. This reminded one of the quiet, yet superior and enlightened manner in which our Holy Mother the Church nestles right in the center of disbelief, sending out messengers and slowly but surely conquering the foe in a manner peculiar to her own, bequeathed to her by the Redeemer Himself. I said in the beginning that the department devoted to medicine could be divided into those exhibits handled by individual or private concerns, and those handled by the Government. Of the former we can include the Hook- Worm Cure exhibit, the Mouth Hygiene exhibit, the Amer- ican Medical Association's display, and two California tuber- cular exhibits. The Hookworm Cure exhibit was more or less repulsive according to the angle at which it was viewed. To those who enjoy such things it undoubtedly proved of keen interest. As to the Mouth Hygiene or Dentistry ex- hibit, of its very nature it proves interesting, and is of advantage to all, for who is there who has not had more or less trouble with his teeth? The American Medical Associa- tion devoted itself to making public the utterly false and extremely poisonous nature of our common patent medicines. They ridiculed and exposed every quack concern in the country. This proved most profitable to a multitude of the deceived. Now in our last step we shall consider those who have given us a demonstration of the public work being done in the prevention and cure of disease. The United States De- partment of Labor devoted a good deal of space to this question. The proper care of children was explained and demonstrated in a unique manner. Here, too, was shown the striking similarity between cakes of real chocolate, and those of painted or imitation chocolate. The people of the little