The National tribune., 1902-10-23
THE KANSAS EXHIBIT.
It Was the Central Attraction for Full
Week.

IT Was the Central Attraction for Full
Week.
Kansas got great advertisement
through the magnificent turnout of her
veterans, and the display of her products.
The latter was certainly the center of at
traction in the Nations Capital for about
seven days; Sunday not excepted.
The kansans got into Washington
some time in the night, Saturday, and set
to work at once to surround themselves
with Kansas atmosphere. For hours,
big vans deposited from their cayernous
depths boxes and more boxes. From
some there came 4 delicious aroma that
made one think of the old home orchard.
From others luscious purple grapes were
peeping, and yet others filled the air with
suggestions of pears and other fruits
There were long, narrow packages which
the baggage men We're ordered to handle
with greatest care, ana shorter bulkier
packages which carried the same caution.
The Oxford Hotel began to look like a
fruit-packing establishment. The side
walks were piled to the top of the first
story windows with the cases, and still
they came. Crowds began to bunch about
the inviting odOrs, and impede pedestrian
ism. When the cases began to yield up
their contents under the blows of the ham,
mer, the crowds grew vaster, and they
simply kept on growing till the last exhibit
was finally recased, and loaded into the
creaking wagons. 1t was a week of Won
dering comment from almost incredul0us
callers.
Kansas, bleeding Kansas, for whom
thousands of the Encampment guests
would very readily have raised funds on
tie spot to save her citizens from starva-
ton by drouth, or to rescue her from the
redskins, had actually had the audacity
to place before a gaping world apples so
big and juicy and luscious that New York
can 10 longer hold the palm for the finest
apples in the world. Kansas grapes, too,
have no rival on the continent, and Kan
sas pears have yanked the blue ribbon
of PR excellence from all competitors i'll
the Union.
1t sounds incredible, but it is true.
Col. Henry Loomis, Commander OF the
Department of Kansas, TO whom the
name and good fame of the great Prairie
State is as dear as his own, tired of the
miserable carpinS criticism of Eastern
know-it-all people, made up his mind that
the trip of his Department to the National
Encampment should be one vast object
lesson. He entered upon preuaration fol
it with determination to let the world
know Just eyat.ly what Kansas can do
when she wants to be very good, in the
way of growing" things. He adver-
tised in the Kansas papers for samples OF
the best fruits, grains and grasses to
advertisements is something that has as
tonished and confounded the theorists OF
the East, who believe that the 'semi-arid
region of the United States, which has
Kansas for its center, is fit only for prai
rie-dog towns and sandhill plums.
The Oxford Hotel was preempted by
Kansas people, and nobody undertook t.
contest the filing. Two big parlors held
the wonderful exhibit of fruit, which was
in charge of William III. Barnes, State
Secretary of Agriculture of Kansas. who
was assisted in placing and lecturing on
his display by s. j. Churchill and 9. II.
Hoyt, both of Lawrence. These gentle
made your mouth water to look at them.
and told the interested people who crowd
ed about him that "Kansas has the largest
and finest apple orchards in the world.
They didn't believe it, but it is true, and
that is what jars the Empire State.
High above the heads of pedestrians
around the Oxford. ropes were stretched
hese were festooned corn. The Kansans
called it corn, but it looked like stove
wood Mt that hight. and it was well that
It swung high, for many millionaire
eyed it longingly, thinking of the coal fam
inc. and the glorious blaze those gigantic
"nubbins" would make. When that corn
was finally taken down, people stood in
few grains of the Kansas cereal.
Propped up against the trees in front Of
the hotel were some ''step-ladder" stalks
of corn, with huge ears spiking the seilks
near the tip. A 50 bill was offered the
man who could hang his hat on the low
est ear of corn, and the greenback yet
reposes in the depths of Commando
Ioomis's pocket. There were fine Gnar
tered oak cabinets lining the Fourteenth
Street side of the Oxford, in which glass
boxes of grain, good. bad. and indifferent.
was shown The best grew in Kansas. of
course. One case was filled with the most
beautifully spun silk thread. the Kansas
product of the silk worm, said to be among
the finest examples in existence. People
looked on the tall wheat stools, simply
rulled up and brought along and declared
the Immense heads must be artificial. but
examination convinced them that not even
California could produce anything eQua'
to the specimens.
Lined uD outside were pumpkins which
would make good washtubs or drinking
trOughs if followed out, and watermelOns
like hogsheads. There were onions that
would burst the band Of a No. Z hat. and
so one might go on with the wonder world
which the Department Commander OF
Kansas planted in the midst Of the Ma
tional Capital, for the half has not been
told
These m1gnIncent products VIII De tnc
talk of the country for the next year.
And when it is remembered that Kansas
is the State of high winds, furnace blasts.
horrible billiards., and soul-scorching
drouths, according to history, the wonder
grows.
And then there was Kansas in the pa
rade The Kansans could not be mistak-
en-. The Sunfower State. proud of its
sunshiny emblem, chose to march down
Pennsylvania Avenue on that historic day