The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-10-11
AT THE ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION.
A Messenger Correspondent Tells of What He Saw There
Incidents of the Journey-Things Seen and 0bse7-
vations On the Country.

land. and the question Is, how long
Z will it's fertility hold out Some west
/ ern men assured me that some OF it
| is already giving out and that fertili-
zation is becoming necessary. Pea
planting would bring I'D this land,
| shade it and enrich it We are ac-
| customed in North Carolina to think
| rail fences unknown in the west, but,
| bless your heart, they were seen 10Th
in Indiana and Illinois. and three log
| cabins also. There are thousands OF
| miles of hedges of Usage Orange, n
very beautiful they are dividing the
| farms. The apple trees in the great
| orchards, which are so numerous. are
| all ablush with rosy fruit. There is
prosperity everywhere, and miles on
miles of peaceful landscape, with
; planted forests filling in broad spaces
with the In Illinois. in one
of the most fertile counties. in which
a great product is Bloom Corn, which
yields $500 to the acre, a young North
Carolinian got aboard the train to
ride a few miles with relatives and
friends. He is a professor in n of
the most f1ourishing colleges in that
section, and pointed with pride to the
towers and domes of his buildings in
The distance as the train danced along
at A Neutrality-suspicious. gait. All this
middle-west is full of descendants of
the Virginians and North C~arohnians.
and their grandchildren and children
cut q great figure in affairs. Truly, a
strong people left this section for that.
On the train DR.. Speight and my
self talked about the wonderful eff
fects of travel and intercourse in max
ing the people of these United States
homogeneous. He said twenty" five
years ago. when he was at college,
he could tell in a moment from III
part of the country a student came.
This is not the case now. There is
very little difference in language, pro-
nunciation or accent. People from a
score of states were in the car and
no expert could locate them by their
talk. This was tested. as a matter of
curiosity. But there is difference
on the part of these people in the
west, which shows the push and drive,
but not the fine spirit of chivalry, they
put h man before the m q
great mistake anywhere o. by any
body. Place aux danes ought to be
mans motto everywhere-the woman
first always. In Germany, when an
orator addresses a mixed gathering,
he says, Men and women" we say,
Ladies and Gentlemen" Another
thing which CRATES on the sensibili-
ties is the dissertation of the Sabbath.
Along the Big Four thousands of
WI Nv GIG ShooSSN III 'uihNiiA q
new line which considerably shortens
the old one. The smoke rolls in the
air from factory chimneys -afar and
near. Every baseball ground vas full
of players and spectators. Sunday is
the liveliest day of the week in he
west. Perhaps u third of the business
goes on. Much of the rest get all the
| pleasure they can out of the day. OF
course, there are many church-goers
too, but these must deDlora the sights
they see. An Illinois man made a
remark which attracted attention.,
this being to the effect that in his
state there was not a town of any size
whatever which was out Of the sound
of a railway whistle. Great ha been
the progress of North Carolina with
| it's relatively small amount of railway
| mileage. but what would the state be
if it was so threaded with roads aus
Illinois or Indiana for example?
Everything is on the hustle for buSi-
ness in the west. The most amusing
thing seen along the route was an
sign owe the American
carriage factory at Cincinnati. 1t was
in these words: This Way, Sinners"
Judge by the company's output of
vehicles.
But this is to be pr~e-eminentfy a
chat about the St. Louis exposition.
No man can describe it. 1t will take,
what Old time-lovers used to swear
to their sweethearts. ocean of ink,
all the forests pens and all the world
paper. to fifty describe it. At this
Worlds fair at Chicago lever years
ago, as a friend and / were coming
into the exposition one night from
the Lake. as we approached the Per
istyle. with its vast collonnades. he
said. Jules Verne is clean out-done
This reality exceeds his widest ro-
mancing." 1t was even so. Now
make bold to say about the st. Loui:
exposition that the most fancifu
stories about that dear friend OF u
childhood. Aladdin of the Wonderful
Lamp are very far surpassed by the
daily and certainly by the nightly
scenes at st. Louis. The sight has thi:
advantage over that of the Chicago
exposition that while the latter wa
absolutely fiat, Forest Park where thu
present exposition is being held, i
hill and dale. and so affords, wonder
/ full opportunities for locations on com
+ manding sites and gives effect un
dreamed of before. No doubt almos
{ all the visitors to Chicago believe n,
, exposition will ever equal the glorie
of that one. Really it did not seen
/ possible, but st. Louis. always tn
? great rival of Chicago. felt bound t
, 6XceI, so Amos S0U, VUU,UV
have been expended.
The writer thought the Centenia
l exposition at Philadelphia in 1876
2 marvel, and so it was. 1t marked
= great advance in the development O
his country, which seized upon an
/ improved the best foreign ideas. Sue,
4 was again the case at Chicago. an
so it will be after this present va
t show of the worlds industry, re
= sources and talent. The writer HI
e attended expositions at New Orlean:
= Atlanta, Nashville, Richmond, Char
f lesion, and other places, and no dout
= all OF these proved stimulating to in
dustry and talent and application
There are people who say that tn
e st. Louis exposition will be the las
Of the great ones because there
o nothing else to celebrate on so vast
scale. The Lewis and Clark %centennis
exposition will be local and confine
n maily to washington n Oregon an
the jamestown exposition will De {
d largely confined to Virginia and az