Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1897-04-16
GREAT CENTENNIAL.
Progress of the Work Phenom-
nal--Government Building
Ready--"Vanity Fair"

course of construction, including
the Government Buildings and
Hygienic and Educational Build
ings, have arisen as if by magic,
and all doubts about them not being
ready by May |, have been dispell-
ed. The Government Building an
exceedingly beautiful structure,
will be ready to receive the exhib-
its by April 10 and they can all be
placed in position in one week.
An event worthy of special men,
ton occurred last week that shows
how very much in earnest people
are becoming about the success
of the Centennial. Ferdinand w.
Peck, chairman of the Illinois
Commissioners, who was one of
the prime factors in the Inaugural
ton of the great Worlds Fair at
Chicago. Maj. Durand, of the
Chicago Freight Bureau; Robert
Thompson Secretary ofthe Illinois
Commission, and others, arrived
at Nashville at 3 o'clock in The
afternoon and were driven direct
to the Exposition grounds. Be-
fore 4 o'clock site for the Illinois
Building had been decided upon
by the Director General, Maj. L.
G. Lewis, and Mr.. Peck, and an
hour later the contract for the
building had been let, and that
same evening part of the material
was delivered on the ground.
Knoxville and Cincinnati will have
their buildings ready about the
same time as Illinois. The Illinois
Building will be a reproduction of
the beautiful Administration Build.
ing at Chicago, one-sixth the orig
inal size, and will cost $4,000;
| it will be adorned with the same
statuary, valued at 100000, which
was used at Chicago and will be
deliberately decorated with a hor-
ticultural display of rare excell-
ence. There will be no exhibit in
the interior, it will simply be used
as a reception-room for the Hi
nois visitors.
The past week has brought
great changes in every part of the
grounds. Among recent add
itions is a water wheel, placed al
the waterfall near the Broad
street entrance, and it serves as
an object lesson, impressing the
beholder with the fact that you
cannot grind with the water that
! has passed; and as one stands on
the little bridge and surveys the
busy scene before him, the idea
forces itself uppermost that the
Tennessee Centennial Exposition
is q much creator affair than most
people imagine. 1t requires but
an instant to observe that thu
character Of a State organization
has been overwhelmed by the in
ternational spirit that prevades
the whole. 1t is an achievement
Of which the nation may well be
proud, and yet it is the work o
, the people of Nashville alone, an(
it can be unhesitatingly asserted
that never before in the world'l
, history has any city the size of thu
capital of Tennessee brought 81
gigantic a scheme to so success
full an issue. A Michigan edito
said recently, after a day on thu
grounds: "What can | do for yol
people, l want to do something
This is the grandest thing tho
South has ever seen; and it evel
, surpases the Worlds Fair in man.
, ways There are lots of people
like that Wolverine editor, and i
, } recalls the lines
, nHe either fears his fate too much
J Or his deserts are small,
J You will not put it to the touch,
And win or lose it ALL,
} AT meeting of the Executiv
Committee the other day, June 2
} was setapart as Vanderbilt Day
} in honor of Commodore Wander
bilt, who did SO much for tn
cause of education in the South
} On that day &remarkable hand
some monument Of theComm0dor
t by Moretti, the eminent sculpto
, will be unveiled in the Parthenon
3 and Chaucy Depew will delive'
: the grafton. At the close of th
Exposition the statue will be plac
ed on the campus of Vanderbilt