Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1893-09-08
Worlds Fair Letter.
AT HOME, August 81. 1898.

have not written you since the
23rd inst. I discontinued writing
| you while at the Worlds Fair be-
cause my stay there was limited SO
I thought best while there to occupy
all my time in looking around. l
spent two weeks at the Fair. Ihave
often attended state fairs, and if in a
hurry look them over in one day,
never desiring to stay over two days
to look over a state fair. am sat
isfied. that a month at the Worlds
Fair equals about day at state
fair. On the 23rd I first visited the
convent OF La Rabida. Here the i'm
mediate relics pertaining to Colum-
bus are collected, such as his original
charter given to him by King Ferdi-
nand and Queen Isabella, when he
first set sail from Spain to search for
the unknown lands, with several
other documents of similar nature,
with his books, household furniture
and some relics. gathered by him
from the Indians, such as log canoes,
an old door with lock and bolt
combined from the house that he
lived in on the Madeira Islands,
from 1860 to 1474, a long time
before he disco vered America in 1892
It is a peculiar combination, when
the door is locked the bolt can't be
moved.
In the FORESTRY building you will
find only what you might reason
ably expect, from a great log down
to cane, embracing suppose every
known variety. noticed a grape
vine which measured foot in dia-
meter, bamboo inches in diameter
and Is feet long. I noticed but one
piece Of cork tree, it was about
two feet in diameter, about ten feet
long, no appearance of any bark
having ever been on it. 1t is hollow,
having a shell of about IL inches
thick of pure cork. A few packages
of cork indicated that it grew in tu-
bular form. 1t is most remark able
product. A specimen Of bark from
a California tree showed that it was
18 inches thick. Much wood and
timber is exhibited at other places.
The large specimen I believe is to be
found at the Government building,
was sawed up and brought in Sec
tions. AS it appears at the Fair it is
a tube 20 feet across and 40 feet high.
About foot of wood is left besides
the bark on it making shell feet
thick, a doorway is cut out and
winding stairs built up the center.
The tree was discovered in Ethe Sc
quota National Park by Gen. Noble
and bears his maine. It's height was 500
feet. We read of the trees growing
much larger than this in California,
but no specimens of these appear at
the fair.
On the Oath went through the art
gallery. It contains an immense
amount of statuary and a vast
amount of paintings, from all parts
of the world. Many OF the paintings
were very large, one 1 measured by
stepping along the floor and it meas
ured 3Oxl8 feet. There is some fine
work in wood carving, in which the
Japanese clearly excelled all others.
Among the paintings and the statu-
ary did not discover as mach as
expected to represent ting religious
belief. The most OF them were got
ten up in reverential style, but
some partook strongly of the riducu-
lous in my mind. One of this sort
was the attempt to represent by
carved work, the overthrow of Pha-
aoh and his hosts into the Red sea.
| Illustrations of fabulous statelnen ts
should be and generally are wisely
executed.
| Your most obedient ETC.,
| N. RICHARDSON.