Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-06-08

the only representative Of North
Dakota present was agreeably sur
prised at the conclusion of his address
to be greeted by Dr.. Henry w. Coe,
formerly of Mandan who dropped
from the clouds somewhere to prove
the truth of that statement immortal
lied in verse that wherever you may
go you will find some man who has
been Eat or near Bismarck back in
1882
Well, the banquet ended about /
o'clock and a bunch of the humorists
boarded a Market street car for the
fair grounds. 1t had rained an inch
and half in few minutes in the
afternoon, and the food of water put
the electric power houses out of COM
mission. Having proceeded few
blocks on the seven or eight miles
back to the fair grounds, the travelling
humorists were unable to get further
and after wading through the mud for
an hour or so about two o'clock in
the morning, four of them, Messrs.
Gillian, Robbins. Reese and Foley
sought the friendly haven of an under
takers shop and effected an agree
ment for transportation homeward in
an undertaker's wagon. They arrived
at the fair grounds at about three
O'Clock feeling pretty we'll embalmed.
An undertaker's wagon isn't so bad
if you are alive and well. The under
taker cheered his passengers by stat
ing that few minutes before he had
driven over to the Wabash tracks and
picked up man and woman who had
been run down and killed by a fast
train. There's nothing like natural
kindness of heart and cheerfulness.
He made his passengers feel perfectly
at home for the entire trip by this
little act of kindness in giving this
bit of cheering intelligence.
So much for the personal side of the
convention. Now, as to the fair. It
is without doubt the biggest show
ever attempted anywhere. It covers
an immense area and to give some
idea of it's extent it may be stated
that there is more exhibit space in one
building, the agricultural building,
than there was at the entire Pan
American exposition. This sounds big
and braggart, but it is the simple
truth. The grounds are so extensive
that they are circled by an electric
railway, circumscribing the grounds
irregularly, and there are seventeen
stations on the railroad, no two Of
| which are so near together that you
| would care to walk from one to ar
other through the mud. There is six
ty millions of dollars invested in the
fair. There are five millions invested
in the Pike alone. There is one at
traction on the pike that cost 100000
to install. There are five or six COM
plete auditoriums on the Pike anyone
of which will seat 1900 people, COM
pletely furnished as any theatre ex-
cept that you can see everywhere that
the construction is temporary and
shell like. There is one stage on the
Pike $50 feet wide and 100 feet deep.
There is an Alpine concession in
which you can travel for an hour
| through the Alps of the Tyrol,
and did you not know differently
you might well think you hau
been transported from America to the
Alps by simply passing through an en-
tranceway. There is such variety
of people and costumes on the Pike
that you could parade down the middle
of the street with red nightdress on
and attract no more attention than a
passenger on sleeping car who has
forgotten to tip the porter. Indeed. l
don't know but you could leave off the
| nightdress and still go unnoted. With
a hundred thousand people on the
grounds, you might think there were
no more than a thousand, so vast is
the territory over which they are dis
tributed.
| Everything is on the heroic scale
from President Francis down. The
distances are magnificent. And it is
all up hill and down dale. There is no
level. The beauty spot of the fair is
from the Hall of Festivals looking
down by the cascades over the lagoon,
fanked on four sides by magnificent
buildings, and ornamented with statu.
airy, flowers, and every thing that the
mind of man could conceive or the
skill of the artist execute. The illum'
ination at night is impressive. But
there is no vantage from which you
can obtain a satisfactory impression