Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1876 — CENTENNIALITIES. [ARTICLE]

CENTENNIALITIES.

. resident of Joplin, Mo., named J. CX Temple, arrived at the Missouri State Building on the 13th of June, with a wheelbarrow load of fifty pounds of native mineral ore, which he had wheeled ail the way from home, a distance of 1,600 miles. The feat was the result of a wager. The start was made on the 20(h of February. —Among the beautiful and costly articles is a mantel or fireplace from St. Petersburg. This is made from a kind of marble or green agate which the exhibitor called malachite. The mantel is valued at $0,500 ; a pair of mantel ornaments or vases about three feet high, $4,500; three pieces of statuary sixteen inebes high, $540; a center table, with oval top made from the same material, $2,400. —Mr. John D. Laukenan, German Commissioner, recently delivered at the Women’s Pavilion, to Mrs. Aubrey H. Smith, Chairman of the Committee of Charity of the Women’s Centennial Executive Committee, a very beautiful album from Her Majesty the Empress of the German Empire. As a work of art this album is exceedingly beautiful. It is about twenty-Bix by-seventeen inches, and bound in an elaborately elegant style. It contains photographs of the various charitable institutions under the patronage of different members of the German Imperial family. On the reverse *ide of each photograph is (he name of the institution, with that of its royal patroness, in lettering of -the greatest artistic beauty. This album will be placed on exhibition at the Buream’of Charity of the Women’s Department. —The fifth annual meeting of the Na; tioaal Agricultural Congress will be held at Philadelphia, Sept. 12-14,1876. T*w annuel address of the President, the Hon. W.C. Flagg, of Illinois, will give a review <of our agricultural progress during the century; and attention will be given to '“The Centennial Idea” in other addresses. Thus the growth and present condition of leading agricultural interests —as grain, eotton, stoofc and the dairy—wild be discussed. Agricultural Education, Transportation *nd Commerce in theiriTelations to Agriculture, Organiza-tivn-among Farmers, ana kindred topics, will be discussed by L. F. Allen, Joseph Harris, X. A. Willard, and others. It is ■desirable to make this meeting national and representative in dts character. Delegates from agricultural associations of all kinds are invited as well as the attendance •of individuals interested. The full programme will soon be issued. For any *petial information, the President may be addressed at Mono, 111., or the Secretary, at the State Agricultural College, Ames, lowa. —The first railroad ever built in the United States, and the first coal-mine ever ■opened in this country, are both situated within fifty miles of Philadelphia, at the most, picturesque town of Mauch Chunk, and ought on no»aceeunt to be omitted by visitors to the Centennial. The railroad ■is. still operated, and called the “Switchback,” for the cars are up steep ■inclined planes by stationary engines, and 'then switched back, moving by gravitation down a slightly descending track. Pleasure cars nun over the road, and take ««ne in view of the -original coal-mine. This romantic town, where the wealthy Judge. Packer resides, is worth a whole week’s stay. Unexceptionable accommodations are afforded at the American ■House, where plain, and respectable trav■elers with only one trunk receive as much attention as thoße with a half-dozen, which, •says a. correspondent who speaks from ■experience, is more than can be said of most hotels in that and other places. A iflne railroad ride over the mountains to Wilkesbarre. overlooking the far-famed ■and beautiful Wyoming v alley, is one of the delights of this region. . —iThe lowa State building i 3 at last in . a-condition calculated to make glad the heart of every visiter from that State, tthoygh everything about the institution is not yet exactly in “apple-pie order.” The. building stands on State avenue, a few: numbers west of-the Illinois Building, and is somewhat larger and more ■elegantly furnished than the latter. When it JSi remembered, however, that lowa appropriated $20,000 for Centennial puriposcg, and Illinois only half that sum, it is .not to be wondered at that our sister State west of the Mississippi River should .have erected larger and more costly headquarters. Like our own, the lowa Building has every convenience for visitors, including reading and .writing rooms and files of home papers. A register is kept for the names of visitom from lowa only, •and.a general register will soon be opened fo,the.nameß of pt rties from other portions of the Union who' may happen to call, as many do. Since the State register was opened, at jut three weeks ago, •500 names have be. n entered. The average daily number of visitors from that State is steadily increasing, though no great rush is anticipated till early In the tall.— Got . Chicago Journal. —The.turnstiles are excellent things in their way, as they not only afford amusement to those who are compelled to push throtyjh them, but when worked as they were not on the opeing day, they prevent any of the “ tricks that are vain.” Among th*> now and .then, these nineteenth cefltury inventions prove less adapted .to the work than the patentee might be , disposed reasonably, to desire, ana a case in, point happened yesterday. A fat boy, fourteen years of sag, a home specimen from Illinois, visited the Centennial, and upon reaching the usual places of entrance found it not cnly impossible to pass, through any of the stiles, but even uncomfortable to stand in the narrow alleyway leading to the automatic contrivance. The gate-keepers wave powerless to render assistance or advice; their orders were.to permit nobody to pass into the grounds.except through the ntile, yet this applicant was, in the most Literal sense, a*' body.” What was to be done ? The boy had his fifty-cent piece in his hand, and demanded admission. The Department of Admissions was applied to; a hurried consultation was held by tion, and, as a last resort, the heavy youth was admitted through the wagon gate, Whether a dyspeptic individual was hired to pass through the stile, in order to make the registrations agree with the receipts, or whether a special note was made of the fat boy’s entrance at headquarters, could not be ascertained: but it is to be presumed that some definite arrangement was agreed upon for like emergencies, as several other corpulent individuals are expected at the international city within the next fortnight.— Philadelphia Inquirer. ~