The San Francisco call., 1897-08-18
IT'S OPENING
THE THIRTIETH
First Night of the Me-
chanics' Fair Drew a
Big Crowd.
Pure-F ood Enthusiasts Came in
With a Brass Band and
Dockery.
Auspicious Start of the Exhibit of
California's Manufactures and
Products.

The Columbia Theater was filed to over
flowing yesterday afternoon with the mui-
titude who came to witness the opening
scenes of the great Mechanics Institute
fair. The programme was ar elaborate
one and we'll rendered from start TO finish.
Rogers military band made its debut in
San Francisco and was enthusiastically
received.
The exercises opened with Berlioz's
Roman Carnival by The band, after
which President Dencke made an ad-
dress, of which the following is brief ex-
tract:
Ladies and gentlemen: 1t is my pleasant
duty to welcome you to the thirtieth indus
trial exposition OF the Mechanics Institute
hope you will agree with me that each exposi-
ton an i'm provement on the last.
On this OCCASION in compliance with reso-
luton passed at a late congress in this City,
our chief feature will be an exhibition of pure
food.
The Board of Health has undertaken an in
spection of foods, with a view to extinguish
the trade in spurious foods. This was wise
idea. The prosperity OF this State depends
largely on the excellence and purity of the
articles produed here tor sale at home and
abroad, and, this is q food-prod ucing State,
upon the excellence and purity of our food
products especially. We want 10 perfect our
processes so that the words "Made IN CalifoI-
mia" shall be, all the world over, q guaranty
of quality, purity and general excellence.
am sorry to have TO say 10 you that the sue
cesslve Mechanics Institute fairs, while
demonstrating the development of the State
as a producer, have not illustrated cor
responding progress In manufactures. This
has been due TO various causes, one of which
is the high price of coal. l am happy to ex-
press to you my hope that this drawback is
likely to be removed what steam has been to
the nineteenth century electricity will be to
the twentieth, and look forward to the time
when, instead OF bringing coal from the
mines it will be converted on the spot in to an
electric fluid, which will be conducted by
wires to the cities and villages, there to be
used for power, light and heat
This was followed by the following
Aumb bers:
Soprano solo, 'Dream of Love" (Hepburn);
fautasie, Hunt in the Black Forest (Voel-
chimes in the distance; the assem- ply; arrival
at the blacksmith shop; the drinking song;
the return; they scent game; the chase;
finale. Quartet, "Sigh6tingale'' 6 william
Pardee Riggs soprano, Miss Grace l. Davis
mezzo-soprano, Mrs. Robert W. Smith alto,
Miss Carolyn Boyan contralto; "The Shadow
OF Song" (Rae Campbell Brown).
rhe second part began with a cornet
solo by W. B. Rogers, after which Irving
the day, and delivered an Grafton on
"Labor-saving Inventions"
Mr.. Scott spoke as follows:
Man came into the world with uudeyeloped
intellect and unskilled hands, with which to
gain livelihood and to defend himself
against his fellow and against beasts of prey,
heat and Geld, storm and flood. He was but
waif, dependent upon nature for charity. But
as her gifts were not at all times ample to
meet his requirements for the necessaries of
life, and as security from harm was constantly
threatened by proving beasts, necessity stim-
ulated him TO invent implements of defense
and attack, as the flint, the spear and the bow
and arrow. The invention OF these plements
was q glorious triumph for in telleci-sayed
perchance, the human race from extinction,
and made man lord of the fowl and the
brutes."
As population increased and mans require
ments multiplied he supplemented the gifts
OF nature by domesticating the COW, horse
hog, goat and sheep; invented implements OF
husbandrY, as the piow and harrow: also in
vented the yoke and harness foF the OK and
horse, and thereby caused them to plow the
field and harrow in the sown seed.
The invention of gunpowder was another
marked triumph OF man over the forces of
nature. Obstacles that had hitherto seemed
immovable were, by its application, instantly
burst into diminutive fragments; fortifica-
tions that could have withstood the assaults
of the battering-ram and catapult Indefinitely
were readily demolished, and vast armies
armed with their wOnted weapons were but
chaf in presence OF the gale.
In consequence OF the invention of gunpow-
der manifold enterprises that would not have
Otherwise been were projected and success
fully executed.
Thus, mines and quarries that otherwise
would have remained intact were worked and
their material utilizel roadways and canals
built, shafts sunk and 1t nrels driven through
mountains and under rivers. If the inven-
ton on one hand saved the Ia Dor of thousands
OF men. on the other hand 1t produced en-
ployment for tens OF thousands.
The art OF printing seems to have been 2rac-
ticed by the ancients. evidenced by the
Roman stamp and by every Babylonian brick
Europe, however, was invented in the fiji
teentn century. Prior TO this event books
were in manuscript.
AS inventions multiplied, the need of a
better motive power than that of horses and
other animals began to be sorely felt and this
led TO the invention OF the windmill and
water wheel. The winds were too inconstant
to afford steady employment 10 labor. The
stream or waterfall subject to the effects of
drought, was very often too remote ior its
force to applied to the work required TO be
done. In view of these disadvantages neces-
sity stimulated man to invent the steam
engine, device susceptible of indefinite ap-
pllcation-no task too delicate nor too mighty
for 1t to accomplish.
Notwithstanding the great efficiency of the
steam engine, II, of itself, was found made
quate to meet the requirements of the prgo-
ress and civilization which it had so largely
caused and fostered. To effect the objects re-
Qu1red, necessity stimulated genius to invent
electrical apparatus by " hich messages can be
conveyed at speed ten million times as rapid
they can be by the fastest locomotive, ana
light and power transmitted to points in
definitely distant from the source of energy.
So that immense have been the beneti ts
conferred upon the world by the steam en-
gine, experience demonstrates that the inven-
tion of electrical apparatus for the pracucal
purposes of life far transcends that of the
steam engine. 1t may perhaps, be urged that
the steam engine is the prime motor and the
electrical apparatus the secondary. That this
relation obtains in certain instances is true
Some may cavil--rail against inventions, to
the end that their introd nc ton throws men
out of employment and distracts bu siness If
such be the case the inconvenience is only
temporary. and the loss quickly and amply
Iecompensed.
After the applause which followed the
concluding passage of the interesting ad-
dress, duet for from bones, by Balfe, was
given by Mr.. and Mrs. Tobin. Lightly
Bounding" (Danks) was then rendered
by the Knicker booker Quartet. The band
followed with a march dedicated to the
Mechanics Institute and entitled ''Thir-
tieth Industrial Exposition"
This concluded the interesting exercises
and the immense audience dispersed.