In another section the visitor was greeted with a gorgeous display of carnival spirit.  Beautifully colored heraldic shields on which were written the early history of the Pacific coast were illuminated by groups of luminous arc-lamps on standards varying from twenty-five to fifty-five feet in height.  The Tower of Jewels with more than a hundred thousand dangling gems was flood-lighted, and the myriads of minute reflected images of light-sources glittering against the dark sky produced an effect surpassing the dreams of imagination.  Shadows and high-lights of striking contrasts or of elusive colors greeted the visitor on every hand.  Individual isolated effects of light were to be found here and there.  Fire hissed from the mouths of serpents and cast the spell of mobile light over the composite Spanish-Gothic-Oriental setting.  A colored beam of a search-light played here and there.  Mysterious vapors rising from caldrons were in reality illuminated steam.  Symbolic fountain groups did not escape the magic touch of the lighting wizard.

In the Court of the Universe great areas were illuminated by two fountains rising about a hundred feet above the sunken gardens.  One of these symbolized the setting sun, the other the rising sun.  The shaft and ball at the crest of each fountain were glazed with heavy opal glass imitating travertine marble and in these were installed incandescent lamps of a total candle-power of 500,000.  The balustrade seventy feet above the sunken gardens was surmounted by nearly two hundred incandescent filament search-lights.  Light was everywhere, either varying in color into a harmonious scene or changing in light and shadow to mold the architecture and sculpture.  The enormous glass dome of the Palace of Horticulture was converted into an astronomical sphere by projecting images upon it in such a manner that spots of light revolved; rings and comets which appeared at the horizon passed on their way through the heavens, changing in color and disappearing again at the horizon.  All these effects and many more were mirrored in the waters of the lagoons and the whole was a Wonderland indeed.

The scintillator consisted of 48 arc search-lights three feet in diameter totaling 2,600,000,000 beam candle-power.  The lighting units were equipped with colored screens and the beams which radiated upward were supplied with an artificial fog by means of steam generated by a modern express locomotive.  The latter was so arranged that the wheels could be driven at a speed of sixty miles per hour under brake, thereby emitting great volumes of steam and smoke, which when illuminated with various colors produced a magnificent spectacle.  Over three hundred scintillator effects were worked out and this feature of fireless fireworks was widely varied.  The aurora borealis and other effects created by this battery of search-lights extended for many miles.  The many effects regularly available were augmented on special occasions and it is safe to state that this apparatus built upon a huge scale provided a flexibility of fireless fireworks never attained even with small-scale devices.