Holland’s mansion is tastefully decorated in blue and brown, and looks very inviting. Java, one of Holland’s colonies, has some interesting colored prints called Battik cloth, which are made by covering the surface of the cotton with clay, or wax, and then cracking the covering so that the dye stuffs may penetrate to the cloth.
In Norway there was no one at home except some singers who were giving a concert, which we enjoyed. Their things had not yet been unpacked.
Australia was at home and showed us her treasures. We liked her birds and brilliant butterflies, but father was more interested in her articles of commerce, such as woods, wools and fruits.
It is hard to remember that these countries are really so far away from our own country, it is so easy to get to them in the Fair.
New Zealand showed us some motion pictures of interesting water sports, and how they catch the big kingfishes; we saw, also, some mounted specimens of the kiwi, the wingless bird of New Zealand. It has absolutely no wings, and is about the size of a guinea hen.
From there we went over to Siam for a few minutes, to see their lovely lacquered wood, and other treasures, and then went to Turkey to admire the rugs and Benares brasses. We are sorry that so many of the countries which we are anxious to see have not as yet arrived, but we must hope to come back to the Fair before it closes.
P. S.--Have you ever noticed how sad it is to do things for the last time?
We have always wanted to see how skis are really worn, and we were very glad to go to Sweden and see them. The Swedish mansion is directly across from the Canadian building, so our foreign travel is being made very easy for us.
We went into a blue room, after we had seen all the ships, and steel things, and the beet sugar cones, which made your mouth water just to look at them.
The walls of the blue room are covered with a cloth made from wool, and colored blue, the very bluest blue you could imagine. Then we saw the nice deep hand-painted chests which we thought would be perfectly fascinating to have in our attic, to put all our brocaded satin dresses in, so that our children could dress up in them as we do in our grandmother’s things. There are old-fashioned wool rugs made with a hook which pulls wool through a foundation. We have seen Tillie Nelson’s mater make them in Minnesota.