ODDS AND ENDS. 



DIRECTOR-GENERAL WILSON. 



Dr. William P. Wilson, director of the 

 Philadelphia Commercial Museum and 

 director general of the National Export 

 Exposition, to be held in Philadelphia 

 next fall, is a man of unusual intelligence 

 and of marked executive ability. In the 

 year 1893 he conceived the idea of found- 

 ing a commercial museum, using as a 

 nucleus the raw products exhibited by 

 different nations at the Chicago World's 

 Fair. He secured authority from the city 

 of Philadelphia, and succeeded in having 

 donated to the proposed museum the large 

 collections of natural products exhibited 

 by nearly every country, especially the 

 Spanish-American countries. Since that 

 time his plans for the successful organiza- 

 tion of the museum have been carried out, 

 and the result has been very helpful to the 

 commercial interests of this country. The 

 National Export Exposition, of which he 

 is the director general, will be under the 

 auspices of the Commercial Museum and 

 Franklin Institute, and it will do more to 

 expand and extend the trade of this coun- 

 try than any other exposition ever held. 



Dr. Wilson was educated at the Agri- 

 cultural College of Michigan and at Har- 

 vard University where he afterwards was 

 instructor in botany. He also spent sev- 

 eral years in the universities of Germany 

 and Italy, receiving the degree of Doctor 

 of Natural Sciences from the University of 

 Tubingen. For several years he was pro- 

 fessor of botany and director of the school 

 of biology in the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



Since the organization of the Commer- 

 cial Museutn he has visited Europe several 

 times, traveling through England, France, 

 tJerrnany, Switzerland, Italy and other 

 countries for the purpose of studying the 

 economic and trade relations. In 1897 he 

 made a long trip through Mexico to secure 

 accurate information of the resources and 



trade conditions of that country for use of 

 the museum, and in 1898 he visited 

 Venezuela for the same purpose. Dr. 

 Wilson is a man who is always active, and 

 who possesses the faculty of imparting his 

 earnestness to those around him. 



WHAT THE CAT THOUGHT OF THE 

 FOURTH. 



At about the usual time in the evening 

 I was thrown out of doors, with no idea 

 of what the next day was to be like. My 

 owner has a very disagreeable habit , of 

 thus putting me out every evening to 

 spend the night as b?st I may a very un- 

 kind proceeding in my way of thinking 

 and the third of July was no exception to 

 the rule. I had heard some idle talk about 

 the '"Fourth," but paid no attention to it. 

 Human beings so often talk about the most 

 foolish things things of no interest what- 

 ever to me so that I have 'got into the 

 the habit of paying very little heed to 

 what they say unless they speak directly 

 to me. when of course politeness bids me 

 listen, or unless I hear them talk of milk 

 or meat or mice. While as I say. I did 

 not listen to their foolish chatter, I heard 

 snatches now and then that made me think 

 the "Fourth"was something that happened 

 every now and then for they spoke of "last 

 Fourth" and "the Fourth a year ago" and 

 one of them took me up and said. "This 

 will be your fii'st Fourth of July. Kittie.'' 

 but I was sleepy and did not listen to the 

 rest. 



It was a wet, nasty night. No one but a 

 human being would dream of putting a cat 

 out in such weather.but my mistresses are 

 such great big giantesses I dare not resist, 

 so with outward weakness but inward re- 

 bellion I crept down stairs and went under 

 a convenient box to avoid the weather. 

 There was nothing of importance going on 

 no other cats seemed to be about so I 

 settled down for a good night's rest. It 



