Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1886-09-01
THE EXPOSITION.

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THE EXPOSITION.
Opening Day ut Atnaeapolis--Gov. Davis
Tho Minneapolis Exposition differed
from most expositions in that it opened
promptly on time. On Monday the
25rd Minneapolis made the occasion q
holiday. Business entirely suspended
at noon and practically so all day as
but little was done in tho forenoon
save to prepare for the afternoon
parade. In the afternoon all of Min
neapolis and the surrounding country
seemed to be on the street and q pro-
cession surprising anything heretofore
attempted in that city was formed and
marched to the Exposition building.
The opening exercises then took place
ex-Gov. Davis of St. Paul delivering
the dedicatory address.
The Governors address was able and
entertaining. ae noted the fact that
the first important exposition was tho
Worlds Exhibit at London in 1851 and
said:
Since that time there have been sew
eral such International displays, where
the nations have placed in comparison
and competition, the essential forms of
their arts and sciences, and have borne
back to distant lands the perfections
of many races. Nothing has ever done
so much, not even martial conquest, to
break down the obdurate, and self
sufficient pride of race, and to make
hospitality take the place of exclusion.
1t has taught the Persian and the Turk
and has caused the immemorial and
enormous mass of Chinese polity to
yield to the influence of nations, whose
inhabitants, forty years ago, were
called, according to the Abbe Hue,
with Mongol insolence, "the red
haired devils of the western world"
These pageants of the useful and the
beautiful have widened the scope of
human thought, to the conception of
federation of the nations, in which the
brazen voice of war shall be heard no
more, and Peace shall brood over tho
world like rejoicing sky; in which
the contentious, the needs and the
abuses, which now array classes against
classes, labor against capital, the city
against the country, and the states
against each other, shall be abolished
by Christianity and knowledge, recon-
ciled, and working together.
On q scale less grand, but little less
beneficial, the Expositions in our own
country, have done a us seful work. 1t
is, no doubt, true that the one at New
Orleans did more to efface sectional
antipathy, to soothe the rancor of
defeat, to quell tho exultation Of con-
quest, to make the Union and the
Constitution dear, to bind in brother
hood the North and South, than all the
statutes that have been enacted, and all
the judicial decisions that have been
pronounced, for the last twenty years.
Wien men saw the wheat of Minnesota
and Dakota, the ccrn of Iowa, Nebras-
ka, Kansas and Illinois, the products OF
Missouri, the cotton OF the lower States,
the sugar of Louisiana, the white and
yellow wealth of the mines of Montana
and Colorado, the agricultural and in
dustrial examples from q union of
states of sixty millions of people, they
must have realized, as never before,
the greatness of this republic, watered
as it is with rivers which flow not
against, but with, the course of trade
and which afford the facilities of e1
change of divers-producing soil; beltec
as it is, with iron highways; standing
as it does, lord of continent, and clay
ing either hand upon q tributary sea-
Something, more than poetic sentiment
must have caused hearts TO throb be
which more than one hundred: years
ago, rang out, from Independence Hall
the tidipgs of the birth of this nation
and whose pealings inspired the souls
of Adams, Franklin, Washington, JEFF
ferson, Madison, and of all mon,
North and South.
1t must be matter of pride, for the
men who have built this spacious tenn
pie of utility, that they are the same
men who have called into being this
marvellous city, by processes which are
more wonderful than enchantment. ]
know of no community, whose mem.
bers possess, to an equal degree, that
faith which moves mountains' that
allegiance; that genius for planning,
which is always at work; that audacity
in execution, which daunts even the op-
posing forces of nature; that liberality
of expenditure, which makes the pro.
fusion of rivals seem niggard.
And these men are here to-day, listen.
ing to the praise they so well deserve.
Looking over this great multitude how
few old men are seen. Youth stands
here exalting in bis, conquests. Ponce
De Leon, dreamed of D. land
of perpetual youth in the valley of the
Mississippi. He died in his quest, but
he simply misinterpreted his vision.
1t was of an age distant from his,
when men still in the prime of life,
should live in vast cities built by them
selves, cities which, like double stars,
are separate to their dwellers, yet
which, to the observer, seem but ono.
Long may they live, these men and
women of Minneapolis, to enjoy to the
full, the blessings of Industry, refine.
ment and luxury, which they have
created for themselves.
To name them is not necessary, and,
besides, even Homer nodded ip Ml
enumeration of the Argive kings.
The Governor then proceeded to con-
trast the civilization of to-day with
that in existence when the Roman Col
asseum f1ourished. "
When the oration was ended Hon.
W. d. Washburn, president of the ex-
position read a telegram from the pres
ident in response to the one sent, him,
sending Congratulations upon the
opening of the exposition. Mrs. Cleve-
land was then notified that all was
ready, and from the Prospect House
in the Adirondacks, New York, she
started by electricity the machinery
and the great exhibit was formally
opened. ..5>t.! ,, -!<:tt u !.
my Thousand-Dol smile'' Is tho
>N to- III 0na~n