The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-11-11
An Interesting Letter.
From 0. E. Moore, Telling of Their Trip to
Pittsburg Centennial Celebration.

room assignment, and after good
breakfast started out to find our
rooms. We both acknowledged a
feeling of something very much akin
to homesickness for which we have
not yet been able to account. We
spent our first day wandering around
the Centennial Quadrangle getting
our bearings, and in the evening at
tended the session of the Women's
Missionary Board, but were too tired
to enjoy any of the speeches. How
ever, we did enjoy the singing of the
GLORY Song" and "The Way of the
Cross Leads Home"
Plttsburg is great city and the
following paragraph quoted from our
guide book may interest you before
we begin to tell about the conven-
ton.
She mines one quarter of the BIZ
luminous coal of the United States.
Her electric street railway system
multiplies itself through her streets
for 492 miles. Natural gas fuel is
conveyed into her mills and houses
through 1000 miles of iron pipes.
Seven hundred passenger trains and
10000 loaded freight cars run to and
from her terminals every day. Mo-
where else in the world is there SO
large Bessemer steel plant, crucible
steel plant, plate glass plant airbrake
plant, steel rail plant, or steel freight
car works. She distributes her varied
manufactures into the channels of
trade all over the earth.
The program for Wednesday, the
18th did not interest us particularly,
so we decided to make use of the OPP
portunity to see some of the sights.
We went down town and spent the
entire day. We went to the top of the
Farmers Bank Building GA stories),
through the kindness of the men in
charge of the U. S. Weather Bureau
we were permitted to enter their Of
fees and take picture from the win
dow. The view we took is what is
known as ''The Point" it being the
place where the Allegheny and
Monongahala rivers meet to form
the Ohio. And by the way, this fact
makes it very hard for the stranger
to get around in Pittsburg. The city
lies between the two rivers and as
they come together the streets natur-
ally run into each other, making
many sharp corners and triangular
buildings and very perplexing mix
up in directions. In the course of our
wanderings we accidentally discov-
cred the Exposition Building. The
Exposition is an annual affair in
Pittsburg, lasting several weeks, and
attracting many people to the city.
AS we had heard much about it we
went in. The exhibits were very
much like those at the Worlds Fair,
only on smaller scale, and we found
our great delight in listening to the
U. S. Marine Band, and going to see
the panorama of the battle between
the Monitor and Merrimac. This is
realistic beyond description, and IS
we'll worth ones time and money.
The cost of producing this show runs
into the thousands of dollars and it's
managers deserve the large patronage
which they enjoy. 1t is more than a
panorama, it is a real battle with all
its noise and smoke and every man
euver of the ship right before ones
eyes.
After the battle, l mean after the
show, we started for our rooms and
on the way we stopped at the ship
yards of James Rees & Sons to see
the Mission Steamer for the Congo,
THE Oregon AS this steamer was
to be dedicated that evening we
found quite crowd of our own peo-
pie already gathered within the
gloomy walls of the big enclosure.
You have never heard of the Oregon,
of course, but it has history. Our
church supports missionary on the
Congo in Africa by the name of Royal
J. Dye. About year ago he visited
America, and in telling of his work
often expressed a desire for a small
steamer with which he and his hclD-
ers could journey rapidly and safely
from point to point in their mission
work. DR.. Dye, royal in character as
we'll as in name, has done magnifi-
cent work on the Congo. There they
have the largest Christian Endeavor
Society in the world, and every tenth
convert becomes a missionary, being
supported by the other nine. The
story of DR.. Dyes work in Africa
reads like romance, and it is no
wonder that when he told of the
dangers, inconvenience and delays of
Congo travel and expressed a desire
for steamer that he might push his
work farther that the good people of
Oregon came to the rescue and had
this boat built. AS it cost $4,000
you will see that it is we'll fitted for
it's purpose. 1t will be taken apart
and shipped to the Congo. This will
cost $4,000 more, and at the dedica-
ton services $4,000 of this amount
was subscribed. AS we were early
on the ground we had the pleasure of
inspecting the boat from top to bot
tom, and before we left | took a
picture of it with Eva standing on the
top deck. We developed the film last
night and it will be all right. We
count it one of the greatest occasions
of our trip to have been present at the
dedication of the Oregon Truly
these are great days, and when one
gets glimpse of the enormous sums
OF money that are being spent today
in the propagation of the blessed gos-
pei and comes to know personally
some of the great souls who are liter
| ally sacrificing time, talent and
wealth for the very love of it he can
not believe that the world is growing
worse. There are signs in the sky