St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-22

and l now seek to give you my impress
sion as l wandered through the big
building, gained solely from the stand
point of a disinterested visitor. And
if, MI. Editor, you will permit me
to trespass a bit upon your space,
1t is possible l may open the
eyes of some OF your own people.
For an Exposition of this kind is likely
to be not without honor ave in it's own
country. Let me confess at the outset
that, misled by certain disparaglng
statements l had come across in various
places and papers, | was led to believe
that you had here a hybrid show-some-
thing between a dime museum and a
county fair. l thought that a days visit
would reveal all that the building cOn-
tanned. But, sir, l was asJounned when
once within the building to find the inter
esting variety OF the exhibits-so inter-
eSting and SO various, in fact, that not
n day, not two. not three sufficed for
such an examination of them all as
would satisfy even the casual and SUI
perfclal observer.
Perhaps the first thing that strikes
one on entering the building is the track
around which the Shetland ponies and
picture it all makes, to be Sure-the
shaggy little ponies and the rosy
checked youngsters with a fringe of
''grOwn-up folks' for a background,
who. with almost as much interest as
the little folks, watch the proceedings.
[ took pains to hunt up the owner, j..
Murray Hoag, one day, and a most in
teresting character | found him. 1t
seems that he makes the raising of Shet-
lands a feature of his farming at Ma
quoketa, 10. In the barn just outside of
the building are fifty of these equine
midgets. and the smallest Of them all is
a beautiful little colt. eight weeks old,
which is only twenty inches high-no
bigger, you see, than many adog-and it
is worth $1,000, so MIR. Hoag says. Other
ponies of more mature years are worth
that much too.
To a man with a mechanical eye
and that is what / claim to have-the
machinery on the first floor is most IN
teresting. The big 7OO-horse power
engines which generate the power are
wonderful machines in themselves;
swift. noiseleSs, and yet how powerful!
The dynamos here are huge fellows,
too. and | am told they furnish enough
electricity to light a city of 100, ZOO in
habitants-10,OOO incapdescents and 275
arcs.
One feature that many a visitor misses
is the dairy exhibit on this same
floor. The city man goes on eating his
much idea of what a revolution modern
machinery has made in the production
of dairy products since the days when
his good old mother laboriously churned
out her W butter in the farm. Here
before my eyes and in a trice vas made
fresh. sweet butter. There is, too. a
complete and instructive exhibit of
dairy utensils of modern make.
Just near it l find a curious spot
where nature and art are mingled,
where that most modern of locomotive
methods-the electric railways Illus
trated amid cascades and glens that
might well be primeval, SO natural are
they. Round and round the tiny cars
rum, lighted, heated and moved just as
larger Ones can be-and are-by the sub.
tie and mysterious fluid. Out of this
magic circle rises the slower of Glory
for so they have named this pyramidaI
monument to Edison's fame. On its
surface are placed in apparent confu'
sion. and yet with geometrical regular.
ity. $500 tiny incandescent lamps. They
are of all the rainbow's colors, and alb
solutely under the control of the mar
at the switch. This Omnipotent indi
vidual lights and darkens them in rows
in figures, in squadro ms, in troops, il
files, in every conceivable combination
of form and color. and all in perfect
time with music that floats down from
above.
On the second floor are more electrical
wonders from Wizard Edison's brain,
and in their midst, appropriately
enough. stands Benjamin Franklin fly
ing his historical electrical Cite. Here
I spent many hours examining the al.
most incredible inventions Of Edison
for instance, the autograph, a telegraph
by which one in Minneapolis may sigl
| check in New York. This is only