The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-05
Omaha( June 2

Is IL possible for the wild and III
tanned west to produce an expositio
winch shall be in any proper sense a
artistic success? Such was the inouir
IN 1882. 1t was admitted a great cour
try, with measureless possibilities in
commercial way, pregnant with untol
wonders of the industrial sort, veri
taoie eighth wonder, before which tn
hanging gardens of Babylon and tn
Colossl of Rhodes were as naught
you considered the practical phases O
IRE alone. But what of the arts
Ihose who visited Vienna in 1873 an
facls in 1889 had much misgivings. vi
emma and Paris, of all cities in tn
world, seemed specially fitted for tn
work OF preparing Worlds fair. Yol
could reach your hand out over tn
city, and in one night gather togethe
a magnificent display of those thing
which form the chief feature of ever!
such exhibition. Painting. statuary
blJouterie, brio a brac, these are tn,
real attractions. And these are tn,
sort of which the west was distinctly
destitute. Great corn fields, splendid
orchards, limitleSS cattle ranges, were
all magnificent in their way, but as q
contribution to an artistic Worlds fail
they meant little or nothing.
1t was not surprising, therefore, that
NAANAC ollOulQ Dt an ABUNDANT prophecy
OF evil before the Columbia exposition
What more natural than to say that
out of the necessities of the case il
must be simply an enlarged county
1alr, where the principal attractions
would De the pumpkin and the bump
KIN? Yet, we all know how the sooth-
SayerS were covered with confusion
how from this intensely practical, corn
raising, lumber producing, pork pack
ing ana cattle shipping community.
there came an astounding display of
the best type of fin de steele culture.
Nature was expected of Nazareth. vet
here was brought to fruition the ar
tlstic labor of the world for all the
centuries.
A distinguished English novelist.
travelling in America, expressed great
surprise over one phase of our national
HE. With US" said he, London is
the center, not alone in commerce but
IN all things. 1t is the literary center:
II is the art center; it is the center of
all phases of the higher life of the
British empire. But here it is not so.
You are as likely to find great erudi-
ton IN small western village, where,
least of all, you would look for it. as in
Boston or New York. I, myself, was
amazed to find Hagel and Kant living
on drawing room table in a frontier
town, away beyond the Missouri river.
Such is the outcome of this strange
cosmopolitan people,
Surprising, however, as the Chicago
Worlds fair proved to be, it was. never
theless, in a certain sense, a disap-
pointment Taking its inspiration from
people accustomed to great things, it
was, perhaps, to be expected that the
enterprise would assume colossal pro-
portions To the casual looker-on, who
visited the White city, there was an
embarrassment of riches" The mag
nI1cent specimens of landscape garden
ing, the dream Of beauty embodied in
the court of honor, the perfect examples
of Grecian architecture as seen in the
buildings, the shady hooks of the
Wooded Island, the electric fountains.
with the prismatic searchlight resting
and melting in everchanging hues on
statue and pinnacle-theSe and a thou
sand other beauties held the eye and
supplied the mind with wonderment.
One felt bewi1dered at the magnificence
or the feast spread before him and
when at last poor, tired nature de-
manded her needful rest, and he was.
forced through sheer exhaustion to
leave the grounds, it was with the dis |
SauSned conviction that a complete and /
comprehensive view was impossible. It
would have occupied the full six months ]
TO have gained an adequate knowledge !
OF this grandeSt of exhibitions Not /
SO with Omaha; her people wisely de- |
clced that her exposition should I
be chiefly American and sneci /
ally representative Of the ans-Missis-
sippi states. While Chicago abounded /
IN exhibits demonstrating the wealth
and cultivation of other nations, Omaha
shows the unlimited resources of orr
own Foreigners learn that their idea /
Of the empire that constitutes the great !
west is mistaken one; that the buff
faIo does not roam over its fertile prai-
ries and that the Indian is no longer a
source of terror. That, in fact, the
west, in the frontier sense that the
term is implied, no longer exists. That
f you ask its locality in New York they
viii direct you to Chicago-at Chicago.
they viii point to Omaha-from Omaha
you VIII be told to go to Denver; the
Denverites viii Indignantly point to
Salt Lake City, and when at last you
have reached the coast, you will find
in San Francisco as cosmopolitan a
city as any eastern port.
Ninety years ago, when Louisiana
was purchased, her boundaries extend
ed to the Pacific ocean The land west
of the Mississippi river was designated
on the map as the Great American
desert" The kansas and Nebraska
Of 1S57-5S, by Nathan Par
ker, spells Kansas with a ~" and des-
gnates British Columbia as the north 4
arn boundary of Nebraska. What Won
1ers have been accomplished in these
80 years. They have seen the desert
blossom like the rose; the population I
IF few thousand swell into an earnest
people who number millions; the rude ;
implements of farming give way to ]
the most perfect machinery in the
world, and poverty and ignorance re-
placed by wealth and knowledge. What
more fitting, then that after half cen
-ury, the people Of the west should give
q PXnnSifiOr d1T11nTlEtrat har
commerce leads the way, art, culture,
rue social progress follow?
The Omaha exposition is now open | {
IS states are already represented, and
( is undoubtedly destined to assume
rational proportions. On June l Pres
dent McKinley's touch set the machin-
ny in motion.
a series of congresses on innumer- h
bile subjects will be summer attrac- n
ions, besides a number of popular in [
erests which will be represented by 2
ational associations. There will be !
congresses of religion, of music, of art, :
f literature and of education. a
The year will be a notable one in the il
istory of the religion of the west,
many Of tn UNCONVENTIONAL bodies hav- c
az perfected arrangements for their y
nnual sessions to be held in Omaha a
uring the Trans Mississippi exposition a
side from the regular proceedings of b
nese different denominations, a liberal Fl
Ongress of religions will be held which a
ill be participated in by every known q
eligion under the sun. Representatives Il
/ Hindooism, Buddhism, Judaism, the
eligion of Jain and Mohammedanism
i'll hold their regular services The
rray of pulpit orators, scientists and
.udents will include many of the most n
rilliant thinkers in this country, and r
the orient. is
A delightful novelty of the exposition Ii