Repoet of Boaed of Geneeal Managees. 115 



will, I am sure, indulge us in our felicitations and justify our enthusiasm, 

 for they cannot have seen much of this fair if they have not detected the 

 prominent place which New York has taken in it. 



This whole magnificent and unrivaled exposition has been held to com- 

 memorate the discovery of Columbus that opened a new world to civiliza- 

 tion and a new home to freedom. It is, therefore, fitting that the day 

 which the Empire State has chosen as her own at the exposition should 

 mark the date in her history which connects her with the achievements of 

 another great navigator. It was on the 3d of September, 1609, that Henry 

 Hudson, in command of the " Half Moon," dropped anchor inside of 

 Sandy Hook and began that memorable exploration which prepared the 

 way for coming commerce and marked the path by which was to be devel- 

 oped the future wealth and greatness of the State of New York. It was 

 a short cut to the Indies that Hudson sought. It was a highway into 

 the heart of a new continent, destined to become richer than the Indies, 

 that he found. Baffled and disappointed, a victim to the treachery of his 

 own crew, Hudson died, leaving the profitless search for a northwest pas- 

 sage to Asia to serve as a lure for adventurous navigators for full 200 

 years more. But the commerce for which he prepared the home at the 

 mouth of the noble river which bears his name was not long in becoming 

 a solid fact, and it is to-day one of the most notable manifestations of 

 human enterprise on the face of the globe. 



There is abundant evidence of the extent and variety of the trade of 

 New York to be found in the contents of the beautiful buildings in this 

 park. Out of all the 116 groups of the exposition classification there are 

 very few in which some New Yorker does not exhibit, and in most of 

 them the New York exhibits fix the standard of the display. Representa- 

 tive firms from New York are in the front rank of exhibitors in every com- 

 mercial department of this exposition ; the artists of New York stand for the 

 major part of American achievement in painting and sculpture, and the 

 State has come in as an exhibitor here on a scale worthy of its imperial 

 status. I had occasion to say in this building, October twehty-second last, 

 that New York would join this congress of nations, bringing the best she 

 has of the bounty of nature and the art of man. I outlined the character 

 of the display which the State proposed to make in seven of the great 

 departments of the exposition, and I am happy to say we have been able 

 to do all and more than all that we promised. There is no more complete 

 and carefully classified presentation of the farm products of any S*;ate 

 than is to be found in the New York pavilion in the Agricultural Building. 

 It has been a revelation to the western visitor to find how vast and varied is 

 the range of the field crops of New York, and how well fitted most of 



