Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1895 — ATLANTA’S BIG SHOW. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ATLANTA’S BIG SHOW.

MARVELOUS BEAUTY OF THE SOUTHERN EXPOSITION. Its Future Now Depends Upon the Public—President Cleveland Touched the Button to Put the Wheels in Motion—A Superb Exhibition. All the World Represented, The Atlanta Exposition is a reality. On Wednesday, at 3:30 p. m., President Cleveland, at Gray Gables, touched the button, and as quickly as the current could fly from the coast of Massachusetts to the inland metropolis of Georgia the buzz of machinery was heard, and the South’s great show was open full speed. Like all great enterprises of this kind, the Atlanta Exposition was not*in a complete condition on its opening day. The finishing touches will have to be put on many buildings and much of the exhibits were not in place. But this is not discouraging to the promoters of the exposition. They do not expect to be in good running shape until Oct. 10. The exposition’s future depends upon the public. Atlanta brains, and pluck, and energy, and perseverance have done their best. The money of the citizens of the stirring Southern city has been invested in the enterprise without stint and without hope of profit. The universal desire is to better bring to the attention of the United States, to the attention of the world, the advantages of the “New South,” its manifold resources, its enterprising business men, and its hospitable people. The highly trained labor of the most advanced countries of the globe is to contribute its best endeavors to the show.

France, Germany. Russia, England, and Italy have sent their best products in liberal arts and in the sciences. The fertile South has emptied the choicest fruits of its fields and hills and factories into the exposition. The highest types of agricultural products possible to the rich lands of the Southern Slates arc here in attractive arrangement. The products' of the South’s factories are heaped in abundance in the buildings. The great resources of mine and forest show the vast possibilities of this section. The countries of South America will be most creditably represented. There is no doubt that one of the cardinal purposes of the exposition, the opening up of better trade relations between the South and the South and Central American countries, will be realized as a result of the enterprise. Our own government is not behind. It presents its riches in a manner that will arouse the patriotic pride of very loyal American. ‘ . Eclipses New Orleans. The exhibition at Atlanta will completely eclipse that given at New Orleans with its dearth of facilities of all kinds. Not withstanding the government helped it more than a million and a half of dollars, the latter was an unsuccessful local fair. That at Atlanta will represent all parts of the country, though naturally and appropriately it will be largely devoted to an exposition of the progress which the South has made since the war and of its resources not yet fully developed. A peculiarly interesting feature of it will be the section devoted to the negro. For the first time the colored people will have their own building and will show the world what they can do in the arts and industries and how much they have accomplished in the upbuilding of the South. Indeed, Atlanta has everything in its favor — a united people working harmoniously together, ambitioh, public spirit, business enterprise, and local patriotism. Miniature World’s Fair. The Atlanta Exposition will be a World’s Fair only on a reduced scale. Those who visited and admired the White City in Jackson Park cannot fail to find pleasure in a look from the entrance gate in Piedmont Park. The Midway of the World’s Fair is reproduced. It is not of the same magnitude. Some attractions are to be seen not on exhibit in Chicago and many of the old Midway features are missing on Atlanta’s thoroughfare of nations. Over 200 Chinese arrived direct from the Flowery Kingdom. They were on exhibition opening day in the Chinese Village. They were as much astonished as were the early seekers after the sights, who paid a quarter to get inside the gates. The scenic railway is doing business right along, and a second edition of the Ferris wheel is turning around with carloads of people. It is not nearly as large as the original. The streets of Cairo is an attraction, with its camels, donkeys, and dancing girls. Shooting the chutes can be enjoyed, with all the accessories to be had at Coney Island, Atlantic City, or 63d street in Chicago. A roof garden will be con-

structed on the u* the Forestry Building, and an enterprising theatrical manager of Atlanta has built a theater on the Midway, where vaudeville shows of a high order will be given. The Mexican Village, with its bull fights, the Illusion Hall, and a dozen other attractions will tempt the dollars out of visitors’ pockets. At the east end of the Midway life in the South before the wur is depicted by a troupe of colored people. A rude theater has been constructed of wood of historical interest. It was first cut in ISIS on Piedmont Park, where the exposition buildings are erected. A house was built from it, which remained in the park until Gen. Sherman took possession of the country. Gen. Sherman destroyed the buildings and used the lumber in the breastworks he built at Atlanta. At the close of the war the lumber was purchased by Henry H. Smith, an Atlanta cotton merchant. The lumber has been used in six buildings before being put in the present negro theater and has every evidence of hard usage. There will be a continuous Georgia barbecue on the grounds and life in the mining camps in California in 1849 will be depicted true to life. Electric cars from the business center of Atlanta run to the main entrance of the exposition. At the entrance is the Administration Building and just east of it the Fire Department House, where several compauies and apparatus will stay during the exposition. History of the Fair, Now that the expositiqn has thrown open its gates to visitors from all partsof the world the story of the conception oi the enterprise will be read with interest In a recent conversation on the subjec Editor Clark Howell, who has been o»u of the hardest workers for the success of the undertaking in Atlanta, said: “On the morning of the 17th of December, 1893, only two months after the closing of the World’s Fair, Colonel William A. Hemphill suggested to me in

casual conversation that Atlanta ought to inaugurate some movement which would act as an antidote for the hard times from which the whole country was suffering. I promptly acquiesced in the suggestion that something must be done. ‘I do not know,’ said he, and then, suddenly stopping: ‘I have it; iet’s have an exposition!’ whereupon he developed the idea that the best wuy to meet the general depression was by launching an undertaking which would bring our people together and give them something to do while others were talking about disaster and depression.” Mr. Howell then told how the people wore inspired with the exposition idea, of the business men’s meeting when the first active steps were taken, the appointment of a general subcommittee and the determination to raise a preliminary fund of at least $200,000. Continuing, he said: “But it was necessary that there should be some distinctive eehtral idea, around which the exposition should be built. It would not do to go before the world that Atlanta was getting up an exposition with the sole idea of stemming the tide of depression. Out of the discussion was evolved the keynote on which the music of the whole movement was based. It was that the exposition should have as its leading purpose the establishment of closer trade relations between the United States and the Central and South American republics. The suggestion met the immediate approval of the industrial and commercial centers. “The $200,000 needed as a preliminary fund had been pledged in cash subscriptions in less than a week, even the newsboys and the children contributing their mites, the city appropriating $75,000, the additional $125,000 being raised in personal subscriptions. To this the county ndded $75,000 in work, and when the Legislature met the following fall it gave $25,000 more, making the aggregate subscriptions from the city, the State and the county $300,000.” After referring to the work of permanent organization; when it was found that the movement had assumed such magnitude that it had even then far surpassed the most liberal expectations or hopes of its founders, Mr. Howell continued: “The story of the fight for congressional recognition and of the government’s appropriation of $200,000 is too long to tell at this time, but suffice to say that we got it, and from that moment the success of the movement was assured, and the enterprice, already beyond the bounds of our most sanguine expectations, doubled in scope at once. Commissioners were sent to every State in the Union, to' every South and Central American republic and to every European country. From April, 1894, for nine months, these commissioners traversed every part of the globe explaining the purposes of the exposition and inviting the participation of the world. Every State in the Union appointed commissioners, as did many European countries, and almost every South and Central American republic. The plans and specifications of the buildingß were approved in the early part of the present year. Three hundred' thousand dollars in bonds, guaranteed by the gate receipts, were issued, on which cash was promptly advanced, so that the exposition

soon found itself in possession of ample funds with which to push ths’vtolk of const] action. The movement has progressed without a hitch from that day to this and the result will be seen by the more than 2,000,000 visitors who are expected this fall." *

DUNRAVEN—“I won’t play with you any more.”