Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1904 — Rev. Drake At St. Louis. [ARTICLE]

Rev. Drake At St. Louis.

Rev. T. F. Drake, now of Terre Haute, but formerly pastor of Rensselaer M. E. church, has been down to see the World’s Fair, and sends the following interesting letter to the Crown Point Star: “The World’s Fair is great, I will not attempt to describe ir, for want of space, but advise every body to go and see it. As some of the exhibits are not yet ready for inspection, it may be better to delay your v isit until a few weeks later; however there is now enough on exhibition to make it the largest attraction ever shown for fifty cents There has been some reports that the St. Louis people were robbing the visitors; I did not find it so; it is there as everywhere else, you pay according to the service rendered. The Indiana state building is a very restful headquarters for Hoosiers. There are no exhibits in the building excdpt some of the literary productions of her authors. I heard one lady Siy “I am glad this building is not filled up wi;h seeds and grasses!” In the Mining building there is a quaint old castle built of Indiana block coat When in this building don't fail to see the great iro • statue of Vulcan put up by a company from Birmingham, Ala. It is 52 feet high and weighs 120,000 pounds. ' The Government .display is very fine, there you can see them manufacture the dangerous rifle cart ridge filled with flax seed! Here •i large section of a battle ship is a gre t curiosity to “land lubbers ” The skeleton of a great whale 78 ft et long, whose skull weighed three tons is nicely mounted, and along beside it is a life-size reproduction of the animal The Japanese exhibit is thought by many to be the finest made by any foreign country. The Italian disp ay of statuary is probably the finest that ever was made at an American fair. The steel tower for the Wireless Telegraphy station is completed and the apparatus is being installed., The station is to be a permanent one, the U. S. government is paying part of the expense of putting up this station 1 Similar stations will be erected at Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

There is one thing in which St. Louis will not excel Chicago. They have the same Ferris Wheel,' that I rode in at the Columbian Exposition. Among the* attractions for vis itors outside of the Fair grounds, will be Shaw’s Gardens, containing 45 acres of choice botanical specimens, gathered from all the world. Henry Shaw the founder was born in England in 18.00 and died in 1882; he left an endow ment of $1,343,333, to keep the gardens up for 99 years, when they become the property of the Park A> sociation.