Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1894 — THE VANISHING CITY. [ARTICLE]

THE VANISHING CITY.

The malignant and persistent attempts to destroy the remaining World’s Fair buildings at Jackson Park are discouraging to those who believe in the progress of mankind, and saddening to all who were enchanted by the beauty of those wondrous structures as well. Commencing with the destruction of the Peristyle there have already been six incendiary fires in different buildings, and there is apparently no reason to hope that they will cease until the last vestige of that great architectural picture has disappeared or been hopelessly ruined. No one has even been arrested for these criminal attempts, let alone punished, and it is evident that there is no great desire to preserve the buildings on the part of the Park Commissioners, in whose charge they now are, There has been a spirit of animosity exhibited at aIL times since the close of the Fair on the part of certain distinguished citizens of Chicago who were not identified with the Exposition that it is hard for outsiders to comprehend, and to this spirit is undoubtedly due the frequent attempts to destroy the monuments that remained to tell of the great triumph achieved by those who may be possibly considered as rivals for the public esteem with those who failed to catch the public ear and eye.

David Crockett cas He Really Was. Galveston, Tex., News. Mrs. Ibble Gordon, of Clarksville, Tex., who was born in 1805, was introduced to David Crockett. Describing the incident, she says: “It was in the winter of 1834, not long after Crockett had been defeated for Congress in Tennessee. We heard Crockett had crossed Red river, and fearing that he might not come through Clarksville, butlreep on the old Trammell trail, we intended to meet hinu Jane Latimer, then a girl of eighteen, rode behind me,and Betsy Latimer followed on a pony. We overtook Crockett and his party at the house of Edward Dean, abouf four miles from Clarksville. It was early in the morning, and when Mrs. Dean saw us she said: ‘Mrs. Clark, what brings you here at this time ol day?’ ‘My horse brought me,’ I answered, and then I told her I wanted some breakfast. We went into the house, and a friend, who had known Crockett in Tennessee, introduced us. Crockett was dressed like a gentleman and not as a backwoodsman. He did not wear a coonskin cap. It has always disgusted me to read these accounts of Crockett that characterize him as an ignorant backwoodsman. Neither in dress, conversation nor bearing could he have created the impression that he was ignoraut or uncouth. He was a man of wide practical information, and was dignified and entertaining. His language was about as good as anji we hear nowadays.”

A Parisian thief entered a cab without baggage and directed the driver to convey Kim to an address some two miles distant. On the way thither he afterward requested the driver to halt at the store of a dealer in second-hand goods. The passenger entered the store bearing in his arms a large paper-covered parcel. He had ripped open the cushion 0 , stolen ths horsehair, aai sold it