Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1890-10-23
IDAHO DAY.
Extracts From the Grafton Of Hon.
Jas. W. Reid. at the Exposition.

Jas. W. Reid. at the Exposition.
"Amid gorgeous offerings which,
in such rich profusion, are rendered in
votive heaps by our eloquent sons at
this magnificent exhibition, where the
Queen city of the Northwest has spread
before wondering Union the products
of the vine, the orchard, the field, the
mine, and the genius of the men of the
West, come, not seeking to wear the
armor of those whose luminous words
shave chased the night, spread day in
a hundred fields of thought, and borne
to this worship the trophies of elo-
quence and conquered arts" but as
devoted and affectionate son of the
land of my adoption, come, bearing
simply the feeble tribute of love, graft
tude and loyalty to the "Gem of the
Mountains" and with respectful rev.
erence would place the modest oblation
on the same festal shrine.
He is a soulless American and loves
not his country who can gaze unmoved
on that masterpiece of genius that de-
corates one of the corridor walls of the
national capital. Faithfully delineated
is a long line of emigrant wagons, filled
with brave hardy pioneers and their
wives and little ones. The artist pic
lures the train just as it rounds rocky
promontory on the crest of the noun
tains and catches a glimpse of the
great Pacific.
In the face and form of those daring
men are clearly despicted the Drawn,
muscle and unflinching nerve that
blazed out the pathway of civilization
through the wilderness and carved
from its wild that bright galaxy of new
states in the Northwest that decks, as
with diadem, the national constella-
ton. In the foreground of that paint
ing stands an uncouth guide, with
buckskin arm upraised, pointed across
the fir-covered hills that stretch away
toward the setting sun, to their jour-
ney's end. Around the scene is traced
the talismanic words: ''Westward the
course of empire takes its way!' Little
thought they whom the gifted Moran
has thus immortalized that within q
) quarter of century, with free COM
Q merce, from the Golden Gate, would
. go free gospel to the orient; free insti-
, tutions, art, sciences, letters and prog
: ress, while the manhood of civilization
| would revisit the land of its infancy
, and the first great cycle of history be
Y complete.
e When Thomas Hart Benton-enor-
; nous in learning and prodigious in
achievement-predicted that the child
was then born who would witness a
great transcOntinental railway linking
ocean to ocean, the savants smiled and
:, imagined that the day-dreams of that
, grand old man had unsettled his hith-
erto stupendous intellect. But no
a prophetic picture of thirty years ago,
: no matter how bright the colors, how
deep the shading, or how vivid the in.
:. spired imagination, ever faithfully por.
,, trayed the wonderful progress and de.
velopment of the great West. What
utopian dreamer, what poet, soaring in
l. the high regions Of his fancy, could
II have imagined forty years ago the
q beauty the power, the free and majes
q tic of the human life which has poured
across this continent?
e r
= 1t is fit and meet, Mr.. President, tha
. this imperial metropolis-the Queer
y City of the northwest-but yesterday
A' leveled into ashes under o sirocco o
fame, to-day far-famed for lovely home
and massive blocks of iron and bricl
"a and granite, and rich in thrift, capital
>. enterprise, culture, beauty, learning
ir hospitality and all the graces, virtue
ct and amenities that make life beautiful
10 and desirable, should emphasize tn
l. progress of the great Northwest by con
n vocations of the people at this marvel
70 GUS exposition, where we behold tn
le mute but eloquent evidences of thos
It. remarkable developments in our histor.
a. which have been so fraught with bless
g. ings and manifold benefits to our pee
1e pie. This exposition is one of the "mile
IN stones Of our history" marking a.
le epoch, which, for grandeur Of result
lis and beneficial advantages conferred o
our common country, stands without
parallel in the record of centur
crowded with history, and richly an
of heavily freighted with the interests an
nd happiness Of humanity.
er, These great facts, this marvelor
Id progress and development, these crow
ar ing plenties and teeming riches, as "
ay gather around this festal altar, call fort
"a: u: the ablation of fervent gratitude to Il,