Report of Board of General Managers. 121 



and artistic touch of St. Gaudens and Frank Millet, or view the exhibit of 

 floriculture without being reminded that John Thorpe is with us. 



The deliberations of the Board of Lady Managers, in the absence of the 

 president, are presided over with queenly grace by a lady from New 

 York. I need not remind you that a citizen of New York is in immediate 

 command of the important Bureau of Awards; that one of her most elo- 

 quent orators delivered the oration on the occasion of the dedication of 

 the grounds and buildings; that a citizen of that State, in the person of 

 the Vice-President of the United States, accepted on behalf of the people 

 of the United States the grounds and buildings for the purpose of an 

 international exposition, and that still another citizen of New York, in 

 the person of the President of the United States, set the wheels of the 

 exposition in motion on opening day. 



New York has done splendidly, and to emphasize how fully we appre- 

 ciate her great interest and her great work we have come here this morn- 

 ing, accompanied by our chief officers, representing every part of the great 

 organization which has carried on this work under the direction of the 

 National Commission and the board of directors, to extend to the imperial 

 Commonwealth of New York, in the person of her chief executive, a royal 

 welcome to this imperial exposition of which New York is so important a 

 part. 



The State Day Poem. 



Mr. Depew then introduced the poet of the day, Mr. Joseph O'Connor 

 of the Rochester " Post-Express," who read the following poem ; 



It happens oftener than we deem 

 That we should do the good unsought, unknown. 

 Of which we did not dream; 

 That from the good we aimed at we should swerve, 

 And in our dear delusion so subserve 

 G-od's purposes, as we defeat our own. 



The Genoese who sailed 

 A westward course, in the wild hope to find 

 The distant Indies, failed; 

 But in the quest for the rich orient 

 He touched the fringes of a continent 

 And gained a nobler blessing for his kind; 



Though dying unaware 

 Of the full fruitage of his enterprise 

 And all its glory rare, 

 And half believing Oiinoco's tide, 

 16 



