Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1890 — A CORN PALACE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A CORN PALACE.

A Modern Sioux City Advertising ■Wonder. The Sioux City corn palace —and there was never a corn palace outside of Sioux City—is a palace covered and embellished; as with tapestry, outside and inside, with products of the field, com pr-edominatmg ingeniously and fancifully arranged, In building the palace a large structure is first erected of lumber of a shape that will carry and show to advantage the multiform decorations with which it is to be adorned, It is in form lofty, with broken lines, pinnacles, buttresses, bridges gables, ornamental windows, -eteF ■ ; —— Over every inch of this wooden surface are laid corn and kindred plants in architectural harmony, in a multiplicity of designs. - The corn is em—ployed in the stalk. the.i.ear. .the kernel and even .the husk has its decorative uses. All the grains and grasses of the field lend themselves to the beautifying of the palace. The walls are covered on the outside with ears of corn, cut lengthwise or crosswise.

and nailed on in geometrical figures or other designs. The various colors of the cereal permit of a wide range of shading and coloring, while its artistic possibilities developed from year to ■ year in building the palace, admit of the production of effects that fire as startling as pleasurable. High over the entrance of the palace of 1889 was King Corn's crown as the nucleus of a sun burst, while below was the national flag in graceful folds all wrought in vari-colored corn as ' true, and as beautiful as if painted by an artist’s brush. The roof is overlaid .with corn leaves. Pinnacles and columns are capped with the sorghum p ant, or with grains and grasses. ! The irridescent walls, seen from a near distance, seem to be a rich mosaic of polished woods, while with the “Banners, yellow, glorious, golden,” that “From its roof-tree float and flow,” the palace enraptures the beholder as .one who looks upon a cloud-painted mansion that may dissolve before his ‘eyesr-—■ ’ —: ' "■ ■■ The interior worK is finer and more elaborate. Here the kernel of the corn is largely employed, producing amazing and lovely effects. On the Wai 8 are'wrought p ctures illustrating farm scenes, legendary and nursiiu talks, etc., with a fidelity that is calculatefl to raise a_.douht that the material employed in the homely utilitarian growth of western farms. Frescoes and flower figures of persons and animals, draneries and thousands of surprising and beautiful things are made of field plants for the dohght of the visitors to thepal \ce, whose ast.nishment is succeeded by admiration of the genius that conceived and dtvleoped so much of art and beauty from such homely fabrics as are employed.

Sioux City Corn Palace of 1890. Opens Sept. 25. Closes Oct. IL