196 Transactions of the American Institute. 



CLOSING OF THIRTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION, 



ADDRESSES AND PRESENTATIONS. 



The grand fair of the American Institnte for 1S69 came to a bril- 

 liant close last Saturday evening, Oct. 30, after an unprecedented 

 career of nearly eight weeks. The high-arched and gayly-lighted 

 rink was thronged witli the largest crowd of the season, and the 

 thousands of visitors scanned the exhibition and listened to the exer- 

 cises with much interest. Soon after 8 o'clock, Hon. Orestes Cleve- 

 land, chairman of the Board of Managers, announced that Mayor 

 Hall, who was expected to deliver the closing address, had ^ been 

 called out of the city in consequence of illness in his family, but that 

 his place would be filled by Horace Greeley, who was received with 

 applause, and remarked that, notwithstanding the inconvenience of 

 location the exhibition was a great success, for daily and nightly it 

 had been crowded during its continuance. He had also been agree- 

 ably disappointed in the character of the exhibition, as there never 

 before, on the continent, had been collected so large and varied a 

 stock of the products of woolen industry. Woolen fabrics had come 

 from the shores of the Pacific, as well as from Iowa, Minnesota and 

 Missouri, and other parts which were wildernesses ten years ago; 

 and he expected that before twenty years would have elapsed the 

 unknown regions of the West would have their wool-growers and 

 manufacturers. He spoke in the highest terms of the many steam 

 engines on exhibition ; of the new patent, positive motion loom, 

 which he considered the greatest improvement yet made of the kind, 

 and of the electrical engine, which had demonstrated that electricity 

 could be used as a motive power ; a power that, in his opinion, would 

 yet supersede the use of steam. He defended the judges who decided 

 on the awards, from any charges of partiality which may be brought 

 against them, and said that though there might have been a few 

 awards which seemed to have been partial, yet he believed all would 

 be the result of conscientious convictions. In conclusion, he 

 observed, that in the year 1876, on the centennial anniversary of the 



