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[[vertical notation in red in left margin]] Chicago exposition [[/left margin]]
Still very hot. Went early to the exposition, then at about 11 AM went to meeting of Electrochemical Society. Dr.  Colin Fink presiding. Lively discussion on various papers including storage batteries in which I participated. Met a few old friends. The others all belong to a younger generation.
Afternoon went to the exposition but first went to [[red underlined]] Museum of Natural History, [[/red underlined]] splendid specimens, well housed in a vast building and well frequented. Then again to Science Building. [[red underline]] Union Carbon & Carbide [[\red underline]] exhibit seems the most elaborate amongst many other of great merit.
The present Exposition cannot be compared with the one of [[red underlined]] 1893 [[/red underlined]] as far as artistic conception is concerned. [[red underlined]] 1893  was truly an imposing revelation [[/red underline]] and showed a new conception of Exposition buildings far superior to the Paris Exhibitions and similar attempts which all carried the type of huge greenhouses. This was so much the more a surprise at that time because Chicago and Art were then to conceptions which did not go together
Present exposition with its shrieking colors of blue, red, orange and black and its graceless straight cubic lines etc. [[red underlined]] jarrs on artistic nerves. [[/red underlined]]
But the exhibits in the [[red underlined]] Hall of Science are revelations [[/red underlined]] of great cultural value. In themselves they are entirely worth the trip to Chicago. - Saturday was the day when children are admitted for 5 cents (children's day). They and their parents thronged the Science Exhibits. Coming here day by day for weeks would be better than Science lectures.
There is an annex to the Exposition
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[[vertical notation in red in left margin]] Chicago exposition [[\left margin]]
which represents the "Midway Plaisance" of 1893, or "Show business" "Paris" and "Belgian village etc shops and what not to attract the [[strikethrough]] cro [[/strikethrough]] crowd and cash, and provided with the usual accompaniments
The [[red underlined]] "Belgian Village" [[/red underlined]] is an excellent reproduction of some old [[red underlined]] Flemish [[/red underlined]] bdgs, its moats, and canals and drawbridges etc. But the men and women selling any international trash and calling it [[red underlined]] Belgian or Flemish [[/red underlined]] are mostly not of a high order and represent any race with the Jewish type predominating. [[red underlined]] "Manneken Pis" [[/red underlined]] statue reproduced from its Brussels original and pocket editions replica [[strikethrough]] are one [[/strikethrough]] thereof are some of its trading articles. A [[red underlined]] Flemish dance on wooden shoes, [[/red underlined]] and peasants in blue blouses, danced by artificial Flemings, who [[red underlined]] look more like gangsters [[/red underlined]] are given to the gullible public as the real article.
The [[red underlined]] French section [[/red underlined]] I am told is much [[red underlined]] worse. [[/red underlined]]
Returning to the Medinah Hotel I encountered [[red underlined]] Charles Parsons, [[/red underlined]] [[strikethrough]] hif [[/strikethrough]] his wife and two of his grandchildren. After these very hot days a cool night was greatly welcome
[[vertical notation in red in left margin]] Modern Art Gaughin & Van Gogh [[/left margin]]
[[underlined]] Sept 10 - Sunday [[/underlined]] [[strikethrough]] Le [[/strikethrough]] Left early walked to the Art Museum on Michigan Avenue. Those paintings of [[red underlined]] Gaughin [[/red underlined]] and [[red underlined]] Van Gogh, [[/red underlined]] called modern art [[red underlined]] irritate me. [[/red underlined]]  Either both these painters when they painted them must have been [[red underlined]] drunk [[/red underlined]] or they were to lazy and indolent to learn to draw or even to observe their subjects.  Flat, clumsy, heavy lacking perspective as well as true color. - Look like [[red underlined]] monstrosities [[/red underlined]]