The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-05-06
The OPENING At NASHVILLE
THE TENNESSEE CENTENNIAL EN-
POSITION HAD AN AUSPICIOUS
OPENING.
ROAR OF artillery ANNOUNCED

That President Mckinley Had
Pressed the Button Which Opened
the Big Show-Crowds Visited
Places of Interest.
Nashville, Tenn, May 1.-Following a
night of cold, dreary, forbidding rain, a
night casting gloom over an entire city
where all the people were anxiously
hoping for a typical May morning
bright, warm and beautiful-upon which
to open the Tennessee Centennial expo
sition, came day surprising and delight
ing eXpectant thousands A bright, cloud
less day dawned, but cold with a chilling
north wind blowing, the effects of the
rain during the night vanished, the wind
dried the earth, and when the citizens
parade, including knights of Pythias
Tennessee State Guard, Company A, Ohio
National Guard of Norman, o., the spon-
sors and maids of honor of the EsseniC
order, with brass bands and flying colors
marched along the decorated streets the
throngs forgot the cold and wind and dis
missed their fOrebodings. I...HY
At o'clock the gates were opened and
l.
the hour fixed for the exercises in the
auditorium, that building, holding 600C
people, was filled. The brief, simple but
impressive program was carried out be-
fore one of the most intelligent and bril-
liant gatherings ever assembled in Ten
nessee. On the platform were the expo
sitiOn officers and committee, Governor
Taylor and staff, the chief justice and
associate justices of the supreme court
members of the women's board. the
mayor of Nashville, United States Sena.
tor w. B. Bate, Hon. j. W.. Gaines and
hundreds of prominent citizens.
President John w. Thomas, at II
o'clock, with historical gavel, raped
for order, and Rev. Thomas f. GaylOr
coadjutor bishop of Tennessee, offered
prayer
Governor TnyIOr's Address.
Governor Taylor delivered the follow
ing address:
Ladies and conference.-the first centu.
ry in the history of the commonwealth OF
Tennessee, glorious with the deeds of he.
roes, and rich with achievements in all
the arts of peace, has been garnered in
eternity; and as | stand here to join you
in this jubilee, the stirring scenes of a
hundred eventful years pass in review
before me. | see the blue smoke curl
ing heavenward from the rude cabins of
the pioneers. and hear the first song of
civilization along the banks of the
Watauga; see the red glare on the sky
of night proclaiming the approach of
torch and tomahawk; l see the peerless
Bonnie Kate" like frightened noun
tain fawn, outstripping the painted war
riors in her race for life, and amid the
flames and smoke from Decherd rifles.
which battle the savage foe. | see her
scale tho noronets nf rho heleo cured fort
and fall fainting info the arms of Jobn
Sewer: I see n thousand coon skin cans
gathering Mt Sycamore Shoals and n
thousand rifles refecting n Thousand
sparkling images of the rising sun: I see
a thousand stalwart mountaineers sud
denly vanish into the forest. and now I
SEQ tbem omeroo oround Tho hoSo Of
Kings Mountain. and winding upward
towards it's summit like serpent of
fire. they pour their whitening yolleys
into the faces of the foe: the brave red
coats fall like the leaves of autumn. the
battle is won and the tide of the reyolu-
ton is turned. The scene changes. and
now / see the AK cleaning in the hands
of these men; the forest falls and fruit
full fields spread westward from the
mountains to the mississippi; new
state is carved from the heart of the
wilderness, the sixteenth star glorifies
the flag of the Union, and Tennessee is
born. [srr ..,.
The years roll on, and the young repub-
lie of civil liberty gives birth to a new
republic of thought. Men like Jefferson
and Jackson rise up and revolutionize the
political ideas of the world; men like
Franklin and Fulton and Morse and
Howe and Hoe and Whitney and Bell
and Tesla and Edison, open up new high
ways for the march of civilization.
see the vast wilderness of America.
the dominion of savage Indian and wild
beast, yielding to the brain and prowess
of the Anglo-Saxon race, until forty-four
stars ON our national flag symbolic the
strength and power and unity of the
greatest republic this world has eyar
known.
see the achievements of a Thousand
years crowded into single century. I
see American genius walking in the gar.
dens of the intellectual gods. gathering
sweets for the soul from a thousand nm,
whitening flowers, catching music from
the spheres and beauty from 10 90 fieIds
of light. a2@ 3fa'lI = 7Y'9G
If our fathers, who died n hundred