Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-08-09
At the Great Worlds Fair.
A MAINE PRESS ASSOCIATION PARTY
VISITS ST. LOUIS AND THE LOUISIANA
PURCHASE EXPOSITION.
Fifth letter.
THE AUTOMOBILE YEAR.

(Fifth letter.
THE AUTOMOBILE YEAR.
The world do move, and rapidly at
that. In the Transportation building at
the Chicago fair in 1893, the dominant
thing was the bicycle. The railroads
and steamship lines, as we'll as the horse
and mule, had share of space, but
overshadowing everything else was the
multitude of whirring wheels which
testified to the bicycle madness OF the
people. The automobile was rs yet
little more than a dream, and had no
more place at the fair'than did the flying
machine. That was just eleven years
ago.
AT the st. Louis fair to-day, the dOmi-
nance of the automobile Is unquestion-
able. In the Palace of Transportation
one NAV see all methods of locomotion
illustrated, from the rude bullock wagon
of primitive peoples to the enormous
locomotives which are the latest product
of the manufacturers art; but the auto
mobile holds the floor-at least, several
acres of it. Machines big and little:
with tops and without; the battered
vehicle which was the first to cross the
continent, and others more or less sec
ond- Inland which have done other remark
able stunts: and new carriages by the
hundred, resplendent in paint and var
nish. And they look almost as much
alike to the layman as new bicycles.
But there are other interesting things
in the Transportation building, and ons
of them is n series of old locomotives
from the museum of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad. 1t is study in evolu-
ton, beginning with StephenSOn's old
Rocket, and running up through some
fifteen or twenty different models. In
il are a number of curiOsities which will
surprise the ordinary observer who does
not skpow that any such looking thing
as many of them are was ever put TO-
gether. 1t is particularly interesting to
note that the lines of the modern type
of locomotive, as now in general use, DO
not begin to appear until nearly 1880 at
about which time the historical exhibit
ceases. Directly beside this collection
of antiques, and towering above it like
4 mountain over mOlehill, is one of the
heaviest of the modern locomotives OF
the same road, looking powerful enough
to plow through the whole string and
reduce them to scrap iron without leav'
ing the rails.
Another exhibit in this building that
can hardly fail to be of interest to al
most any one is that made by the Pull
man Company. A dozen cars of every
imaginable pattern and richness of
finish, from the simple but elegant
ordinary sleeper to the private car OF
the railroad magnate. Ye weary travel
ers who have sat through hundred
mile journey in one end OF corner seat,
with your feet cramped under you and
valise on your knees, or got through
the night in one half of an upper berth,
look on the luxury here displayed. Re-
clining chair cars; state-room cars, with
toilet and perhaps bath in each state
room: cars with writing tables, barber
shop. and buffet this last is of course
term little known in Maine); and finally,
private car which combines all the
Injuries of all the others, and is, on
small scale, a veritable rolling palace
1t shows in what comfort one may travel
if he has the necessary to pay for it:
As between private car like that and
fine steam yacht, l think l should
choose both.
BEAUTY IN THE FRUITS OF THE EARrh.
The largest building ever put up
under one roof for exhibition purposes
is the Palace of Agriculture, or pam
architecture, 500 feet wide and l6oo 1eet
long, with % acres of floor space. MY
travelling companion and l estimated
that if we walked down one aisle and
back,another, with such side excursions
as the character of the exhibits might
induce. we should cover approximately
mile. and as neither of us was directly
and specially interested in agriculture,
we should consider that building "done"
when so much was accomplished. The
schedule was carried out, and we saw
the inside of that building no more, but
I think if we had had little more time
we should have gone back again, be-
cause of the unexpected attractivenesS
of the place. 1t is not so much the
good quality and great variety OF what
is shown as the beauty OF Its arrange
ment. In certain sections-notaoiy IN
Missouri-are large wall pictures OF
farm scenes, made entirely OF seeds ana
grains, and it is difficult to believe, un-
til a close inspection is made, that they
are not paintings. These are the most
elaborate things to be seen in the build
ing, but in the arrangement of the ordi-
nary products of the field an immense
amount of work has been done, and re-
snlts have been achieved which are
revelation to one who does not know
the possibilities along that line.
One thing in this building that at
tracts the crowd is in the North Dakota
section, and is Theodore Roosevelt's
ranch house, being nothing more or less
than the little two-room log house occu-
pied for several years by President
Roosevelt when he was leading the
strenuous life of a ranchman. 1t is so
small that you must look out not TO ge'
by without seeing it, and it needs TO oe
we'll watched to guard against the
souvenir hunters knife, if indeed some,
body does not pick it up bodily and
carry it off when no one is looking
SUNDAY. WITH THE LID ON AND OFF,
Sunday morning we found that the
gates of the wire fence on the sides OF
the hotel toward the grounds had been
closed and locked. For one Gay i'll ehe
week the Inside Iun becomes, not what
it is sometimes loosely called, the In
side Out, but the Outside Inn.
Under the terms of the act of con
gress making appropriation for this ex
position, the gates are to be closed OF
Sunday. A similar condition has beer
attached in the case of previous exposl
tons, but through some technicality Il
has been evaded. The managers OF TN:
fair are faithfully carrying out the pro
vision, and on Sunday the grounds are
unoccupied, save by the permanent resi-
dents and those whose presence is neces
sary to care for the place.
, 1t is more or less the fashion on sun
day, when admission to the fair ground
is not to be had, to take sail on one o
the big three-decked arks of steamer
which ply on the tawny-yellow waters o
| the Mississippi. This is fifteen hundred
miles from Maine, and those who low
the old.fashioned New England Sunday
and look upon the Berlin Sunday excur
: sion train as powerful instrument o
Dissertation (which no doubt 1t is) woui'
, have occasion for still greater grief u
7 the scene on one of these steamers. U