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Show THE ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION. Jt It should be a matter for geneial congratula- H tion that Mr. Dan MacGuier is to have the hand- I ling of the mineral exhibit for Utah for the great M exposition at St. Louis next year. The city for l , M the exposition will far exceed in beauty and ex- ' tent tho wonderful "white city"" that was pre- j 1 pared for a like exposition at Chicago. The area ! fl will exceed in extent that of the Chicago, Buffalo, j B Omaha and Paris exposition grounds; its ap- j t i B proaches fiom the city will be through tho finest J -B residence streets, we believe, in the Union and J B the pride of St. Louis and all Missouri is aroused 1 ? fl to make all expositions up to date look small and vB mean by comparison with It. It will represent I B $100,000,000 in construction alone. 'S Then all Americans should take a warm inter- B est in it, for in a sense at least It represents the Jfl first great "forward march" of our Republic. , H Ours would have been a gieat nation without the ( H Louisiana Purchase, but as we glance at the map H and think of what has been accomplished, during s H the past fifty years, the hand of Destiny is plain- ' H ly outlined on the map and as we watch the shad- , H ow of it becomes illuminated until the page glows H with a celestial light. There wore harsh criti- H cisms of the Purchase; a nanow provincialism j H was invoked to deride and discount the value of i H the Purchase; the acquisition of California was , likewise not only derided but was assailed as a ' ' I merciless and unjust conquest with no holier de- ' ;H sign behind it than the extension and perpetua- tion of human slaveiy. In the light of what has fl tianspired since all men should be careful how ' fl they make predictions or seek in advance to tell . i fl what are God's plans, for in that light that narrow fl provincialism is all swept away and the truth is j fl made clear that when the crisis came which was j rfl to determine whether the nation or slavery was ! fl to be perpetuated, the gold of California and the J , I gold and silver of Nevada made the weights that k turned the tremendous scale. ,1 ifl That history gives a sanctity to the purchase y ' f and a justification for the conquest which the men I ' if I engaged in the work could not see, for it is clear I fl now that they were but instruments In higher j ' $ fl hands to work miiacles, both of which were boons i Ifl of mercy to the world. ,i I Ifl It is well then to celebrate the Purchase, it is ,l f fl bettor still to celebrate the work which was be- i jfl gun by Lewis and Clark and which culminated I B i i B j! when the locomotives from the East and the "West B; ,j i touched noses at Promotory, signaling to the na- B H tion and the world that the work of exploration B lj for our country was virtually completed, that "the B'( I mountains had been lowered and the valleys ox- Bj alted" to make smooth the path over which civi- Hi n , lization with "unsoiied sandals" might advance to H i1' l possess her own. B? ' The exposition is not only in honor of the B j'1 naked purchase, but also in the nature of a lofty B ,Jt memorial to the pathfinders, the trail-blazers, the B jf workers, who, in the face of the storm, the sav- Bfc : age and the mighty waste, laid the foundations or B1 I states from the Mississippi to the western ocean. B , J Their graves are stretched over all that distance; B ' they simply bore their part and when overborne B laftl down and died, not knowing that they were B heroes. B ! j No pen can picture what the men endured, or B i j "what hopes and longings were repressed by the B I j' women who performed that work, but it is well B I for their descendants to gather together and cole- B if brate their achievements with an ostentatious dis- B j play that will awaken the admiration and awe of Bh !i ' I those who will come from afar to witness It. B i From a mountain top of Central America Bal- B'.' boa looked out upon the western ocean. That tact B ' f ' has been handed down as a matter of moment for B jj four hundred years. It was a narrow isthmus on B ll which he stood. The American people tolled for BLjj a two hundred and fifty years on their way to the B I 'i Western ocean, but, when their journey was fin- By jj ished all the mighty space for three thousand B; ' miles was filled with temples to Freedom, to ln- f j , dustry, to Justice, to Learning and Religion until Bjj ij ' the songs awakened in the morning by the school B J , 1, children beside the White Cliffs of Maine "fol- K& , ' 1 lowing the sun and keeping company with the Bf'wj hours," fills the Republic "with one continuous Bf H'l unbroken" melody until the music at last dies Bf t away above the sea beyond the Golden Gate. Surely It is an achievement worthy of celebrating with all the pomp of a great, free, grateful people. |