1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



793 



about Chicago for miles, seems just now to be 

 ■devoted to entertaining strangers. Everybody 

 is very pleasant and accommodating, and we 

 have front rooms and lirst floor of a gem of 

 rural residence, for only 50 cents each per day. 



You may think my text a singular one for 

 such a subject as the World's Fair, with all its 

 worldliness and show, but I think I am right. 

 As I write on our front porch, several hundred 

 Indian boys and girls are on the sidewalk before 

 me. They are going to the fair. They have 

 overcome their natural reticence and timidity, 

 and have come forth from their forest homes, 

 and are now laughing and chatting as merrily 

 as if they were white people. Each has a lunch- 

 box. They evidently enjoy the fair as much as 

 or perhaps more than we whites. They are, 

 without doubt, educated, and many of them 

 look like intelligent and able men and women. 

 The great fair will be a school to them they will 

 never forget, and I am sure it is a school that, 

 on the whole, elevates. These Indians are 

 taken by the government of the United States 

 from all over the Union, and, when taken when 

 they are children, there has been very little 

 trouble in making eflicient and law-abiding 

 citizens of them. Mr. Dadant said, page G42, 

 " As soon as the Europeans took possession of 

 America, 400 years ago, they tried to civilize 



the Indians Why did they 



not succeed? Because these savages act the 

 way they are built."' If he sees these boys and 

 girls go through their military and other drills 

 I think he will at least modify this somewhat. 



Now, this great exposition. I think, is the 

 biggest step the world ever took, in the way of 

 .an object-lesson to all nations of the earth. 



In the arch of the great building of Manu- 

 tui-es and Liberal Arts (the largest building in 

 the world) we read, "The United States of 

 America bids the whole world welcome. 

 1492—1893." 

 And over the peristyle we read, " Ye shall 

 .know the truth, and the truth shall make you 

 free." 

 And again: 



"I Freedom dwell with Knowledge ; I abide 

 with men by culture trained; and fortified con- 

 science my scepter is, and law my sword." 

 Now let me take an illustration: 

 lu the machinery building is a great Corliss 

 engine of 3000 horse-power. Take a look at it 

 :and the machinery connected with it, and then 

 glance at the swarms of human beings all 

 .about and aloft in the galleries, and reflect that 

 this complete and ponderous machinery is the 

 work of these comparatively tiny beings, di- 

 rected by the spark of intellect in a single 

 human brain. Does it not all seem almost 

 ridiculous? 



Let us single out an illustration again, and 

 take only one line of discovery. Even 7 can 

 remember when electricity was in its infancy 

 •(or hardly yet born, to tell the truth). We 

 tried all metals, and, after careful experiments, 

 found copper the best conductor for this new 

 agency. Other careful tests decided what sized 

 copper wires were best for the work we wanted 

 done; other tests and trials told how these coils 

 ■should be disposed. Still other tests and trials, 

 made by hard-working hands and brains, 

 brought out the modern dynamo, in all its 

 varied forms, as we see it in Machinery Hall, 

 and, in fact, almost all nations of the earth are 

 at work at it. The discoveries that crowd 

 thick and fast are like a romance to those who 

 are familiar with it. Edison's wonderful in- 

 ventive genius startled the world as if a meteor 

 had suddenly come in among us; but 'Other 

 Edisons are now coming thick and fa^t — per- 

 haps none quite his equal, but after he, like 

 •Columbus, had opened the way, it was compar- 



atively easy. Another thing, Edison could not 

 very well have done his work had not the 

 times been ripe for it, and had not helpers and 

 facilities been near. Men and money were near 

 to back him. We were beginning to work to- 

 gether. Capital and labor and brains were 

 beginning to help each other. When the great 

 Corliss engine was wanted, some one may have 

 said, " Mr. Brown, can you make me a 3000- 

 horse-power engine ? " 



Mr. Brown takes the job, and puts it into 

 the hands of trusted and tried men. vSome one 

 man takes a general supervision, but even he 

 has a sort of advisory committee to counsel 

 with. Then a host of lesser intellects grasp 

 the minor details. The modern engine has 

 been evolved exactly as the dynamo has been. 

 We feel our way in the dark, as it were, but we 

 are continually making progress. Every year 

 shows how far we have advanced ; but the 

 footsteps of advance are wonderfully crooked 

 and devious, and oftentimes as intricate as a 

 labyrinth. Those who follow us discover thou- 

 sands of short cuts. There seems to be no 

 other way. God has, it seems, thought best to 

 let us labor through these devious ways to get 

 at the best way only after ages of " cutting and 

 trying." 



Have you ever felt like saying, " Does God 

 himself really know all these things it takes us 

 so long to find out?" Why, to be -S'U7-e he does. 

 He is " Alpha and Omega, the beginning and 

 the end." He would not be God otherwise. 

 We can not for a moment entertain the thought 

 that weak blundering mankind is going where 

 no gi'eat superior intelligence has gone before. 

 Some great astronomer, I believe it was Kepler, 

 is reported as saying, "I thank thee, O Lord, 

 that I am permitted to think thy thoughts 

 after thee." 



And now let us go back to the Indians from 

 the various Indian schools in America. Watch 

 the young men and women both as they gaze 

 with wonderful curiosity at this scene of won- 

 ders. In our factory at home is a 100- horse- 

 power engine. I have heard much talk about 

 the automatic cut-off, etc., but I never under- 

 stood it until I saw one here at work, with the 

 whole top of the cylinder and steam-chest sliced 

 off. The whole was so plain and clear before 

 the eye, that even Huber (as well as the Indian 

 boys) could understand it perfectly. Well, this 

 same working model was moved by a little 

 electric motor. You see, we don't have to put 

 up expensive shafting and have long belts 

 nowadays to get power where we want it. The 

 immense battery of boilers, and the great en- 

 gines, move massive dynamos that send cur- 

 rents of electricity (or power in a new form) 

 even miles away, and then these wires (some as 

 large around as your thumb) give us the power 

 anywhere it may be wanted. But that isn't 

 all. The lagoons and bays of water are swarm- 

 ing with electric boats that scud with wonder- 

 ful power and speed, shooting here and there, 

 stopping or starting with wonderful celerity, 

 and yet no steam nor smoke nor even engine is in 

 sight. How should electricity be made to reach 

 these boats ? Why, it is the wonderful storage 

 battery that does it. Before it came it was not 

 possible to get such energy in so small a space. 

 One can hardly resist the thought that it is not 

 a big step toward a machine that may rush 

 through the air. 



While Huber and I were having a real " pic- 

 nic "in Machinery Hall, Mrs. Root and Con- 

 stance were listening to a lecture on bread- 

 rnaking, in Ladies' Hall, by Mrs. Ewing. Mrs. 

 E. is an Edison among women (or she wouldn't 

 be called to such a place), and her talk was 

 really a lecture on health. When she was 

 married, her husband was a poor dyspeptic. 



