The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-15
TIE MECHANICS FAIR.

The Mechanics Fair opened Tuesday
with large attendance, although many of
the exhibits have not yet been installed
and there is more or less noise attending
the process. The able speech made by
Congressman Mcguire stated the indus
trial principles represented by the fair so
| clearly as to render useless any further
efforts in that direction. As the friend OF
the laboring classes ne defended industrial
progress and the introduction of machin-
cry, taking the high ground that the best
results in this direction will not have been
secured until all labor not needed to be
done for health and occupation or required
by mechanical conditions has been per-
formed by machinery. 1t is not, he de-
clared, because machinery is displacing
manual labor that the laboring classes are
! suffering, but because of a monopoly OF
natures bounties by the rich and strong.
But that is a subject separate from the
exhibition of the Mechanics Institute and
the great interest which the people are
taking in it. For many years this Institu-
ton has been giving these fairs annually,
and they came long ago to be recognized as
the great annual show of the State, leading
the State Fair in refined and lasting inter-
est Within the limitations which it has
imposed upon itself the fairs of the Me-
chanics' Institute are remarkable exhibit
tions. They indicate not only the progress
of mechanical achievement in the world at
large, but give an exceedingly instructive
insight into the accomplishments of Cali
fornia itself No one can form an idea of
the tremendous activity of the State with
out study of its manifestations at the
Mechanics Fair.
The large number of City residents who
always crowd these exhibitions sufficiently
indicate the estimation in which they are
held here. But this pleasure and instruc-
ton are equally accessible to all the resi-.
dents of the interior. The fair comes at a
time when the climate of the interior is
warmest and when work in the orchards,
vineyards and farms is temporarily sus-
pended. 1t happens this year that the
City has many other unusually meritori-
Gus attractions. The theaters have better
companies and more of them than we are
accustomed to see, and the prices in most
cases have been so much reduced that it is
not hardship to pay them. 1t is the
time Of year, too, when many of the City
residents who live in boarding-houses and
family hotels are away. so that there is
abundant room for visitors from the in
terror.
A good many Improvements worth see
ing have been made in the City since the
last Mechanics Fair. Several very hand
some houses have been built, and numer-
Gus electrician lines have been pushed in
all directions into strange aud picturesque
parts of the City which even very large
proportion of the residents themselves
have not yet seen.
Of course the Mechanics Fair will be
the central attraction. In addition to it's
exhibits, many of which are new this year,
will be other exceedingly pleasing features.
Chief among these are the concerts given
by splendid body of musicians under the
direction of Fritz Scheel, whose concerts
in the Vienna Prater of the Midwinter
Fair are remembered with pleasure by
so many thousands of country visitors.
Nothing could give more pleasure or ben
eft than change from the hot interior to
the cool breezes of San Francisco, with the
Mechanics Fair and the special induce
ments offered by the railroad companies
as an excellent opportunity for indulg-
ing it