Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-11-06
Capt. Bennett offered second This
opened the matter to

Capt. Bennett offered second. This
opensd'th the matter to
DISCUSSION.
Judge Gould asked as to the cost involv>
edin tue purchase of land and the execu-
ton Of The plans outlined. He was heart.
ilY in favor of it if the money could be
| raised.
j. Ii. Porter of the committee spoke O.
the difficulties the committee had encoun-
tered in the way OF q 1ding suitable site
During the pact six We eks this commit
tee had visited every piece of ground,
which IN its opinion would be available,
and the only ground upon which any fig
ures whatever could be obtained was the
strip belonging to the Brooks heirs
spoken Of. The grouud just east and
south CT the 25 acres just spoken of also
owned by the same parties, was, be
thought, better adapted to the uses to
which 1t would be put, but the Brooks
heirs refused 10 give any option, and gave
the committee to understand that it could
not be obtained at all. He thought that
the price asked was very reasonable, and
thought nothing better could be done
than secure the ground at once.
Someone asked if any written option
had been secured. and DR.. Craig replied
that there had not, but that their verbal
agreement was good.
B. c. Kestor called attention to an
outline of the committees idea which Mr..
Cadv had prepared and which had been
hung upon the wall. The 25 acres which
the committee recommended would cost
80 500 an acle. and with the S1OO,O
prescribed, the project in the committees
idea, could be carried out.
DR.. Calvin Truesd4le said that it might
be well for the committee to try and make
some arrangement with the Books heirs
whereby the ground could be leased for q
term of years on basis of what the land
would sill for To-Day.
c. L Walker, of the committee, stated
that if the Brooks heirs were willing TO
lease they had kept itfrom the committee.
Tney refused to negotiate except on the
basis of sell. They had been asked to
name figure for lease, but positively re-
fused to do so.
Capt. W. c. Bennett said the idea of
raising 800, 900 to carry out this project
seems to be stupendous and the time is
short, but here is fine tract of land
which can be purchased for a reasonable
sum. and by the time the exposition is
over it will probably be more valuable
than 1t is now. The question is, how are
we to raise this 100000 Every man.
woman and child in the two cities is in
terested in this project. After purchas-
ing the grounts 1t is proposed to lay them
out. Capt. Bennett said that after tine
association was through with them. he
could now almost see the dome Of a new
court house rising in the center. [Ap-
piause Cnston with its hay palace,
Ottumwa with its coal palace and Sioux
City with its corn palace were referred to
and the speaker said Rock Island should
have an exposition and advertise itself
the same as these other cities. In 25
years We will have here city of 200. 900.
The grounds were beautiful, even If they
were little over in the Rock Island line
Laughter. He thought the investment
was good one. outside of other consider
etions and there would be nothing lost in
purchasing the plat
SOUVENIRS
A, this juncture President Jackson, of
the Rock Island association. arose and
stated that Rock Island bad anticipated
this Question Of cost and had come pre-
pared. He thereutol introduced one of
the sacls such as the banks are accui.
to ned to using in carrying coin, and
opening it, turned out On the table sew
eral hun ired neat souvenir medals, about
the size of ha f dollar. and which were
distributed among those present. The
medal is m ade of the metal, aluminium,
aud on the face side bears bust of Coll
umbus. with the legend. Twin City Col
umbisn Celebration, July 1892" about
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