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Show BIMi - I EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE. St. Louis, May 10th, 1903, St. Louis is still pulsating under the excitement excite-ment of last week, as after a great gale at sea, the ocean is a good while in smoothing out the ruffles of her. big seas. I was not here to see the reception given the President and the ex-j ex-j President, but I saw the greeting given the great H i Ringling Bros, circus and so Know that St. Louis IB j j is appreciative of and attentive to her guests; fa whether they come as servants oi the people or jj rulers of the animal kingdom. The snake charm- iMV er and lion-tamer are strenuous people in their H j own spheres. A certain wise man once said that 11 h would rather be right than President. I fancy Hi that J, by indirection, resemble that great man in Hi this; I would rather be President than have the W big boa constrictor that was embracing the pret- mn ty snake charmer In the procession, embrace me, 81 though he looked entirely satisfied whore he was, gI even i presume, as did his ancestor after he Ql ' had worked that first apple racket on our great- 9h grandmother and thus made the costly habit of HH .' wearing clothing the world's future necessity. g99 Tne talk here is stm upon thG events of last HA .? week, of how the city did not stand the test very BH - well of receiving and caring tor the multitude; HlflM ' how mightily the transportation companies were SU' taxed; how inadequate were the city's prepara- m 1 tlons for making the hosts comfortable, and what HI must be done before the great exposition can HI possibly open with any prospect of making a suc- fi cess. There are still grave hints thrown out that fflm the directing committees should be reorganized; gffl ' that, as at present constituted, they not only mM ' - lacic directing capacity and execuive ability, but H j that they seem unable to g:asp the splendor of HI the idea behind the exposition, and a comprehen H I- g sion of the courtesies due exhalted guests, and HI .f guests who come with official certificates of char acter from outside states, and whom to slight is discourtesy to the states trom which they hail. For Instance, it is told that in the case of Governor Gov-ernor Odell of New York, care nad been taken many days prior to last week to secure at a famous fa-mous hotel here quarters for the Governor of the Empire State, and his official family and friends, numbering over forty people in ail, but when they arrived, they were coolly informed that so much more money had been offered for the rooms that they had been let to other guests, and the spectacle spec-tacle was seen of the distinguished Governor of the Empire State seeking rooms in any old place, where they could be found. This was no reflection reflec-tion upon the Governor, but it was a fearful re flection upon St. Louis and the men whose business busi-ness it was to see that no such mistake should be made, and that knowledge will keep more than one person away trom the Exposition. I have not mingled with the magnates in control of this exposition, ex-position, but somehow, I have picked up the idea that not many of them, not many ot the people here comprehend what this exposition is especially especial-ly intended to honor. The real majesty of the Louisiana Purchase was not in the first, but the second thought of Thomas Jefterson. At first, he was intent only on securing the mouths of the Great Father of Waters that a clear way to the sea might be obtained for the products to be obtained along its banks; that was shrewd material ma-terial statesmanship; without it, with the lower river in the possession of a foreign and possibly hostile power, it would have been what the Hellespont Hel-lespont is to Russia's warships in the Black sea But the second thought of Jefferson, that which Inspired him to send the intrepid Lewis and the indomitable Clark on a mission of discovery, dis-covery, was of the possible " future majesty of the Empire that was to be founded on the lands ot the purchase the lands as yet under the dark- ness and the frowns of the wilderness and the transformation of this wilderness is what is to be really celebrated. There will be pictures of Jefferson, of Napoleon, Na-poleon, of all the lesser dignitaries who took part In this transfer; there will be National and international inter-national courtesies Interchanged, but the heroic emblem, before which men should doff their hats, will be the Pike county emigrant; his ox team, his big covered wagon, his dauntless wife and the freckle-faced flaxen-haired children moving west, making a trail, lacing the wilderness, the savage, the awful loneliness, the sense of unpro-tectedness, unpro-tectedness, and held up only by the unconscious heroism and self-denial necessary to lay the new foundations on which glorified States were to bo upreared. The purchase of Jefferson was different only In degree from the transaction of buying a hunting preserve from an Impecunious owner, but following follow-ing the Pike county trail-blazer, the possibility has, in a hundred years, been realized of founding an Empire to which half the world looks for bread and the opening of mines, the products of which, transfused into the arteries ot finance, have set business roaring trom sea to sea and made of native na-tive land the foremost power among the nations of the earth. The cold purchase of Louisiana was the work of the statesman and financier, but history Is filled with similar transactions. The dream of empire which came later and its magnificent materialization ma-terialization 'are what are really to be celebrated by this exposition. Lewis and Clark were the pioneers, their frail boat breasting the currents ot the muddy Missouri; made the "first low wash waves" along Its banks; the "human sea" that followed was made up of Pike County men and their prairie schooners, and the great parade to inaugurate the exposition should be led, not by President and Cabinet, not by decorated ambassadors; ambas-sadors; not by "plumed troops" and emblazoned 1 standards, but by a team of oxen, hauling a lead-I lead-I painted covered wagon, with a brown wife, and children with frizzly, unkempt hair, and a lantern lan-tern jawed driver, in one hand a bull whip, in the other a rifle, and the legend on the wagon box should read, "Going where 1 won't be crowded." St Louis is a great city ; the hum of her industries indus-tries rises up continuously day and night; she is already cramped for room for necessary transportation transpor-tation facilities; the whistles of trade on land are constantly being answered back by the deeper deep-er whistles of commerce from the incomparable river, and the thronging thousands of her people peo-ple all seem alert with the hurry and urgency of business. The city is filling up with great business, busi-ness, blocks, and fine structures, and wears the air of dK man. who feels that his independence is secured, but who still, loves to try conclusions in a business way with his fellow- men. Coming through Nebraska and Kansas an. Icy wind, was blowing; the country seemed soaked, with rain and it was clear the season was six I weeks late. On inquiry, it was. learned that the farmers were in fear, lest the spring having been put off so long, cannot make up tor its absence; that when the planting of corn shall be finally possible, the corn cannot grow fast enough to protect itself against the hot July winds, which are sure to come and which will be liable to wither with-er the corn before the ears can form. Let us hope that the winds may, as has the spring, be put off for a month. That fear is a reminder that no such apprehensions are ever felt in Utah. I be-j be-j lieve nothing ever disturbed the crops there, save sometimes a little frost in the spring and at long intervals, the visitation of locusts or grasshoppers. grasshop-pers. Then the other crops of Utan, the gold, silver, sil-ver, copper, lead, coal and baby crops never fail. Surely, there is more variety than in Nebraska. i Speaking of silver, the Globe-Democrat of this city, rejoices over the recent advance in the price of the white metal, as an evidence of the country's coun-try's present prosperity; the prosperity giving a better price to the silver commodity, and it ex plains that it expresses a commodity rapture only. It has never been able to understand that there is any more significance to silver than to cabbages. cab-bages. The "Little Monitor," "Arkansas," which has been anchored here in the river, sailed away yesterday. yes-terday. I cannot shake off the impression that she had a mingled look of homesickness and humiliation hu-miliation as though she felt degraded tohave her ' keel washed by the muddy river, and as though she was dreaming of her first home in the blue I sea, and longing to get back to it. It's a saucy looking craft, and could it have been at Trafalgar, it could have sunk all the ships in that fight of fights, with only a single shot tor each one. Indeed, In-deed, had the first Monitor been armed as thi? one is, the Merrimac would have gone down, or up, when the first shell exploded. The Utah contingent to the dedicatory exercises exer-cises have all left. Governor and Mrs. Wells and General and Mrs. Burton started for New Orleans Monday evening. Mrs. Ada Dwyer Russell Rus-sell is playing at one of the theatres in this city. I met Broker Harry Cole last evening. I hear that Senator Clark of Montana and Senator Kearns of Utah were in this city on Sunday last, IbutJ did not meet them. C. C. G. |