Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1894-02-08
MIDWINTER Fair OPENED.
A RED-LETTER DAY FOR THE
PACIFIC SLOPE.
WONDERFUL, RESULTS OF FIVE MONTHS
WORK BY ENTRRPRIsING cALIFORNI-
ANs-THE DAY A LEGAL HOLIDAY
AND VAST CROWDS WITNESS
THE EXERCISES.

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enthusiasm can assure the success of an
exhibition, then the Midwinter Fair may
be regarded as guaranteed against fall
ure. No such crowd has been seen
here since General Grant returned
from China. Only week before the
heaviest rain of the season occurred,
yet to-day all the walks in the Fair were
dry, and the city of Moorish palaces
and waving palms looked like bit OF
the Orient. Half of San Francisco
seemed bent on an outing. The Gov
ernor had declared legal holiday, and
the result was a crowd which taxed ell
the cable roads. Visitors by tens of
thousands came from Oakland and all
surrounding cities, and the procession
moved out TO the park between solid
lines of spectators. The parade was
one of the best military spectacles ever
seen on this coast, for all the regulars
as well as militia and foreign companies
turned out. The Governor and his
staff were present The feature of the
procession was the display of early
mining days, the old stage coach in
which Hank Monk, the famous pioneer
whip. drove Horace Greeley out of
Yosemite Valley, was filed with red
shirted miners armed to the teeth, and
after them came a train of pack mules,
loaded with bacon, flour and other
supplies. After these came a wagon
gay with the red and yellow dresses of
the Mexican fandango dancers from
the 40 mining camps.
THE WORK OF ONLY FIVE MONTHS.
The great fair in the Sunset City has
been in preparation since August "a,
when, to the cheering and plaudits of
$4,000 people, the ground was first
broken. 1t has cost about S4,500,000
and is second in extent only to the
Paris and Chicago expositions. Sixty
acres of Golden Gate Park have been
devoted to the Exposition. This space
is covered with five main buildings.
grouped about central Concert Val
ley," from the centre of which arises
an electric tower 260 feet in height.
This tower is covered by incandescent
lamps and surrounded by searchlights
which throw their beams on the foun-
tains and bsnks of flowers about its
base, or light up with silvery rays the
cascade on Strawberry Hill toward the
ocean, and bring into halo of light
the merry boating parties on the lake
at its base, spanned by picturesque
bridges, or show the Coliseum-like
observatory on the summit. The prin-
cipal buildings are as follows:
Manufactures and Liberal Arts. Man
ufactures and Liberal Arts annex,
Mechanic Arts. Horticulture and Agri-
culture, Building of Fine Arts, Admin
istration Building and Festival Hall.
The five buildings around the terraced
quadrangle leading to Concert Valley
are but the nucleus of great number
of county and concessionaires' struc-
lures selected from great number of
applicants. Santa Barbara County has
erected a handsome building, wherein
are exhibited her amphibia, principally
the sea lion. San Mateo brings her
log cabin from Chicago. The Chinese
Six Companies of San Francisco, have an
Oriental building of their own, fully 100
feet long and 80 feet wide, with GEN.
trail courtyard, to be filled with rare
Chinese flora. At one end there will
be chinese theatre, and about the
courtyard there are booths exemplifying
the manufacture of important Chinese
productions. The structure is fantasti.
cally ornamented with carved dragons,
and brilliant red, yellow and blue flags
fluttering above tiled roofs. from which
Chinese pagoda, copied from the
celebrated tower at Nankin. rises some
twenty feet.
FEATURES OF THE FAMOUS MIDWAY
THERE.
The Fair lacks Midway Plaisance,
but there are some two-score side shows
scattered through the grounds, that in
the aggregate duplicate the attractions
of that once famous thoroughfsre
There are the same Turkish, French
and German restaurants, the same Old
Vienna, the German tavern. the same
rolling chairs, Cairo Street. Chinese
Theatre, ostrich farm, captive balloon.
Hawaiian cyclorama, and. in fact,
duplicates of most of the attractions
that gave the Midway Plaisance name
and fame
LIST OF PATENTS
Granted to Wisconsin inventors this