The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-14
A PALACE OF COAL.
The Novel Exhibit That Iowa
Will Show Next Fall.

The great coal palace which is being built
at Ottumwa, Iowa, is fast approaching COM
pletion, writes q correspondent from that
place to the Boston Herald, in fact, only
the finishing touches remain to be put to it,
At Ottumwa all the roads center upon the
river front. back of which the city rises in
lordly terraces to the summit Of the sweep
ing bluff The coal palace is just beside the
great 90" depot, upon the main street and
in the very heart of the city. The cost of
the building Will be between $4,000 and
$4,000.
Great hewn blocks of bituminous coal,
laid in red mortar, form the massive walls,
veneered over the solid sheeting of plank
And the ten counties which form the Coal
palace League-theugh the citizens of Of
tumwa are building the palace-produce
over 3,0O0,G tons of this same coal every
year, and offer to the manufacturer and the
artisan the cheapest fuel in the world. For
steam purposes it sells for 81 cents per ton
in Ottumwa.
The great auditorium is now being di-
vested of its scaffolding and Shows all its
superb proportions. Here, where 5000 peo-
pie can be seated, some of the nations fore
most men will talk-President Harrison,
Chauncey Depew, Senator Mills, General AL
ger, and John &. Carlisle and others.
Over the great arched windows filed with
colored lights at the back of the broad
stage a natural waterfall will be q UNIQUE
feature. Here stream of water thirty
feet broad will fall forty feet into pond
banked with ferns ana flowers upon the
stage. Several hundred parti- colored elec-
trio lights arranged behind this sheet of
falling water (Which will consume 1000, 600
gallons daily will shed wonderful pris-
matte glow of color over the scene at night.
Another novel feature will be the coal
mine. Ascending 10 the tOwer-the upper
platform of which will be an aerial dancing
pavilion capable of accommodating fifty
couples-an elevator can he entered and the
descent made through dark shaft lined
with coal to the labyrinth reeesses under
the palace Here circuitous passageways
will lead about in most perplexing man.
ner, while miners will be at work with pick
and lamp, and a meek and docile mule will
drag about typical mine-car loaded with
the concentrated "heat, light and power"
This mine will be one of the most realistic
and wonderful features of the great palace.
The main floor and great balconies of the
palace will be given over to the general ex-
hiblts OF the counties, including mineral and
agricultural products, chronological, anthrO-
biological, numismatic, botanic, geological,
antiquarian and art collections. The num-
Der of private collections which have been
rendered for exhibit is surprisingly large,
and, while it has gratifed the directors
Wy Viu ihOaSuiV, ~ aoouico bue pupllc u ue-
lightful and instructive treat. Perhaps no
greater museum has ever been collected out
side of the great cities of the East than that
which will delight coal palace visitors from
September 10th to October 18th.
The great space reserved for the machinery
exhibit will all be occupied. This will in
clude displays of all the more interesting of
the modern labor-saving devices and the In
genous mechanism with which science en-
croaches upon the arts and industries. A
great display of electrical machinery of all
kinds will be leading feature of this de-
partment.
The palace is an imposing structure, 23o