The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-08-11
BALTIMORE CENTENNIAL.
A Proposed Interesting Feature OF
the Great Exposition.

Mention having been made OF a suggestion
by Mai Geo. C. Wedderburn, Secretary oil
the Baltimore Centennial Association, in re-
gard to utilizing fifty acres to illustrate the
growth of Southern productions, that gentle
man, upon inquiry OF the ADVOCATE for fur
Their information, said:
II would suggest that at least so acres Of
ground be put into the highest possible state
of cultivation, beginning this fall for that pur-
pose, that in the spring Of 1897 II will be
ready. suitable and rich enough to produce
every staple production of any Southern
state, such as cotton, sugar, tobacco, the
cereals, grasses, and also the fruits, flowers
and plants of that providentially blessed sec
ton of our common country, in order to show
at our central or border Exposition (geograph-
ically) the mode, custom and manner of their
several paintings, manipulations, i. e.. Guilt
vations, productions and manufactures, taking
each in its beginning and ending upon Its
local and foreign value and merits as neces'
sity. In other words | think that these 90
acres or more (if my idea of a practical Expo
sition prevaiD should be made novelty in
the way Of demonstrating or i'll other words
of picturing to the eye and mind of our visit
ors lesson as to how their bread. meat,
clothing, and all other necessarles of life are
produced from the ground to the factory and
thence to their stomachs and backs as essen
tial to not only their lives but besides show
them how labor makes its living and all other
industries dependent upon the farmer and
laborer become so corpulenr and arrogant in
utilizing their products. Feeling may be
''the naked truth but ''seeing is believing
| and hence our visitors must see the facts te
either know or believe them.
Under these circumstances | recommend
the utilization of these so acres in the show
ing of the actual and absolute growing of the
cotton and tobacco plants, the sugar cane,
the wheat, rye, corn and grasses peculiar to
the South, together with acres Of its vegeta-
bles, fruits and flowers that are at home in
the several states of the South, that those who
visit our Exposition may know and see grow
ing the material agricultural products Of all
the IA Southern states at one time, and at the
same time obtain practical knowledge upon
the subject that before had been but imagina-
ton or else speculation of thought based
upon poor description of the facts OF what
this or that was like, or but faint idea oil
the greatness and importance of the Southern
states.
Having shown these crops in the ground
in their growing state, desire then that upon
the premises there should be cotton gins and
cotton factories upon small scales to demon
strate the stages, as it were, from the earth
or seed to the manufactured product; that the
sugar (sdDe Trusts should also be pictured;
that tobacco drying houses should be shown,
and from the packed hogsheads the tobacco
should pass into the factories, (also upon a
small and model scale) where the leaf will be
manufactured into chewing and smoking
packages, and also into cigars and cigarettes,
stamped and labelled, ''Baltmore's Centen-
NAL Exposition, 1897 and be distributed
free or sold in small packages as souvenir
of the occasion, the section and the revela-
ton, to the people of all other sections a.
home and abroad.
Then again there should be the wheat seen
growing early in opening days and later on
its harvesting, its threshing, its grinding into
-four and its baking into bread. while the
corn and rye should also pass their respect
i've stages and be utilized for such purposes,
by manufacture. as they are generally used
for, from the planting to their consumption,
from the old Southland lash. pone" to the
new and unadulterated spirit that is about to
be complmented with higher tax for rev
enue alone yet may be drunk earlier and
taste in its innocence ten times sweeter TO
the rising generation.
| would suggest that the state of Louisiana
furnish a competent sugar grower, with the
necessary labor and the seed cane to plant
about five acres and we to furnish the land
and make it as rich as the Mississippi bot.
toms or overfows upon which it grows and
also all other illustrations of its manufacture.
In a like manner we will furnish five OF
more acres we'll prepared for cotton, aud
would like the Atlanta Exposition of next
year to take charge of it as practical repre-
sentation of that interest, to make it perfec-
ton itself.
So far as tobacco, wheat, corn, rye and
oats are concerned the twin. sisters" Mary
land and Virginia, will "hold the FORT and
show the growing weed and cereals and
afterwards their manufactured products.
We should look to Florida for our princi-
pal fruit and flower exhibition and also for a
great variety of fish that abound in the Cult
of Mexico and which are unknown here. |
hope to see the 'Land of Flowers rival Cali
forna $ late Midwinter Exposition in her dis
play of Fruits and Flowers at BaItimOre's
great show in 1897"