Jerusalem at the St. Louis Fair
THE reproduction of the city of Jerusalem at the World's Fair in 1904 is now definitely assured, and it promises to be the leading feautre of the greatest exposition ever planned. The reproduced city will stand upon a tract of ten acres located right in the very heart of the fair, immediately south of Machinery Hall and west of the "Terrace of States," and near the Palace of Fine Arts. The World's Fair city will have all the salient features of the Holy City as it is to-day, and will be peopled with many of the present-day citizens of every nationality and creed.
The credit for this wonderful reproduction is due to Mr. Alex. Konta, in whose fertile, practical brain the idea first took shape, and in whose masterful hand it is rapidly becoming a brilliant realization. Mr. Konta is a native of Budapest, Hungary, and by education and experience is fitted for such an enterprise. He started in life as a newspaper man, and has had extensive business experience in Palestine, Japan, Italy, Egypt and India. Associated with Mr. Konta in the building of the new Jerusalem is a board of directors, composed of men prominently connected with many of the leading commercial enterprises of St. Louis. They are: Messrs. A. W. Lambert, Joseph P. Whyte, Ralph Orthwein, Otto Stifel, L. W. Post, H. W. Kroeger, August Frank, John Magner, S. G. Wilson G. H. Ten Broek and Meyer L. Stern. These men and their enterprise have been endorsed by the leading banking institutions of this city, as attested by the accompanying bankers' letter.
The reproduced Holy City will stand upon an eminence overlooking the entire Fair. It will be enclosed by a wall, which will be a fac-simile of that which encloses the sacred city to-day, and whose gates will be reproduced in exact form and size. Within these walls will be reproduced all the sacred places and buildings, including the Mosque of Omar, which stands upon the site of the ancient Temple; the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Wailing Place, the Ecce Homo arch, the Tower of David, the Pool of Hezekiah and other places of sacred interest. Outside the wall, eastward, there will be the valley of Kedron, Garden of Gethsemane and Mount of Olives. All in all, it will form a picture unparalleled in the history of expositions.
But in addition to the reproduction of buildings and places, there will be the reproduction of all the most interesting features of present-day life of Jerusalem. About five hundred natives of the present-day city, carefully selected from its cosmopolitan population, representing all its different ranks and nationalities, will be imported for the peopling of the World's Fair city. Then, too, there will be the installation of all the industrial features of Jerusalem as they exist to-day. There will be the shops and bazaars, the goldsmith, the silversmith, the weaver and embroiderer, and the workers in olive wood and mother-of-pearl.
In addition the entire festival life of the Holy City will be reproduced, and each day will witness some new procession enacted by those who figure in these same processions in that city to-day.