Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-06-01
GATEWAY TO IDAHO.
Worlds Fair Exhibit Reveals Re-
 sources of a Great State.

luanO IS geItln2 herself talked about at the worlds fair. No state makes more interesting display of products in agriculture, horticulture and mining than does the Gem state of the noun tains.
 Other states have spent more money in displaying their cnarms; they have erected more costly state buildings, have used more gold leaf on their ex hibits. and have covered more space OH the floors of the exhibit palaces; but no one can see the Idaho exhibits i'll the departments named without recog- nizing the fact that Idaho has some thing worth ones while to investigate. The state legislature appropriated but $20,000 for the display, but the commissioners have made every dollar
 count. Iii the mines exhibit there are ores shown that would sell in the mar ket any day for SzJ,0O0
 This mining exhibit is particularly alluring. Tn one pyramid of ores there | is one huge boulder. It is silver mug get that weighs more than five tons, has POO ounces of silver i'll it. and 50
 per cent is lead. There Is another mug get i'll the same pyramid that weighs 1 four tons. These nuggets come from Wallace, Idaho. The Hailey mines fur l nish even q richer nugget It weighs l 2,000 pounds, contains 240 ounces of silver, and is 70 per cent lead There l are shown ITO samples of copper, and l some specimens show as much as u per cent pure copper.
 The gold nuggets are peculiarly at ! tractive. These are chunks of pure 1 gold just as they come from the placer mines.
 The beautiful gems from Idaho have been admired by all worlds fair vis- l itors who have seen them. There is
 the opal, garnet, crystal, topaz, anne | thyst and turquoise. They are dis l played in all conditions and show that l the artistic was not forgotten when r1a, tt1re formed the great northwestern state.
 A large sign in gold letters on the | wall of the mining booth shows Idaho's | mineral output for 1093 to be as fol- 1 lows:
 Gold, ,$2,os5, ,9e3.76: silver, $9.s1s,- 9S641; lead, $0,3S6.2 6.213.13; copper, l $336, ,954. .O1; total, $21.12S,147.31 Superintendent Mcbride was ready 1 for visitors on the opening day, and l Idaho was one of the six states to have all mineral exhibits in place when the worlds fair opened.
 It was in the Palace of Horticulture that Idaho most surprised visitors who were unacquainted with that states wonderful resources. On the opening | day Superintendent Wessells displayed
 2O6 plates of apples covering twenty l five varieties. The mingling of the l colors, and the delicious fragrance 1 caused every passerby to pause and ad-
 mire. The winesaps were large and | red, the Arkansas blacks were appar- l ently carved from ebony and were as | firm as could be; the Wolf River was so 1 large and so vividly red as to cause | wondermer1t. Then there was the
 Banana apple, the White Winter Pear
 mann, the Rome Beauty, the New I town, the York Imperial and the Ben
 Davis. All were developed to the ] highest degree and demonstrated that apples raised on the high irrigated
 lands of Idaho, with its fertile soil and wonderful climate, can not be | surpassed anywhere After making l this big display on the opening day there were yet thousand boxes of
 apples in cold storage and these will l last until fresh fruit comes to replace 1 it.
 .sThe Gateway to Idaho. is the de l sign of a monumental arch that at tracts attention to the states display l i'll the Palace of Agriculture. Here is
 shown ill charming array everything 1 that the wonderful soil can produce.
 The background of the design is I green and black, and the white straw
 and the green grass show to wonder | ful advantage. In Idaho the rainless | summers bleach the straw to an ivory
 white and cure the grasses and alfal- l ia, permitting them to retain their viv-
 i'd green color and all their nutrition. ] Great sheafs of dazzling white wheat,
 oats and fox go to make up the col
 umns reaching to the arcbway. On
 the walls are seed boxes showing the ] threshed grain beneath the sheaves,
 so that one can examine the product Efrom every standpoint. Cornucopias
 wonderfully wrought in grains are l pouring forth their wealth of products I from the fields.
 Above the archway is the word
 .Idaho," formed of the seed of blue grass, millet. turnip and wheat. The
 letters are of rustic design. The 1 south end of the booth is built of | dried fruit, great. smooth black
 prunes forming the columns, and the | apricots and apples. Elsewhere are : shown the garden products. There | are potatoes and beets of wonderful
 size and unsurpassed quality. There
 are Spanish onions raised on irrigated
 land that have q circumference of 24
 inches. Hanging baskets made of
 ears of corn with the husks turned back for the baskets are suspended between posts. There are festoons of I grains and grasses so gracefully placed as to make the whole display resem-
 ble some mammoth show of exquisite I ly wrought embroidery.
 The portals of Idaho's state building were wide open to visitors on the
 opening day of the fair, and they have
 not been closed. The key is lost. The latch string is on the outside, and
 q true western hospitality is extended
 to all visitors, be they from the west, 1 east, north or south. The Idaho bun