TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



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by the enterprising citizens of St. Louis that the $5,000,000 was 

 secured. Immediately afterwards the city voted $5,000,000 of bonds 

 for the purpose, and in the following March, 1901, the Senate of the 

 United States passed a House bill appropriating $5,000,000 more. With 

 this $15,000,000 the success of the Exposition was assured, and they 

 began energetically to prepare for the same. President McKinley, not 

 a great while before his death, issued his memorial invitation to the 

 countries of the world, setting forth what it was proposed to do, and 

 asking them to participate in the celebration, and through the minis- 

 ters of the United States this memorial was presented to every civil- 

 ized court on the globe. They accepted the matter slowly, for the 

 foreigner is rather phlegmatic and slow to wake up to great events, 

 especially when they are events in which he has little interest; but, 

 little by little, the importance of the celebration was pressed upon 

 them, and one after another they have come into line, until to-day it 

 can be said with pride that fifty foreign countries have signified their 

 intention of participating in this splendid exposition. Pressure in the 

 meantime was brought to bear on the States, and to-day thirty-seven 

 out of the forty-five States have made direct appropriations for a par- 

 ticipation, and four of them, making forty-one in all, have raised from 

 $50,000 to $200,000 by other means for the purpose of representation at 

 St. Louis. 



Altogether there are something over one hundred buildings being 

 erected there, and when I say altogether, I mean, first, the fifteen 

 magnificent government buildings erected by the executive authority. 

 Then come in the State buildings, then come in the foreign buildings — 

 and many of the foreign buildings are of splendid proportions. France 

 has reproduced there the Grand Trianon palace of Napoleon at Ver- 

 sailles, fourteen miles from Paris, visited by all tourists to that country. 

 England has reproduced the Kensington palace, and other countries 

 are putting up buildings of historic interest and fame. England is 

 spending in St. Louis $700,000, Germany is spending $750,000, France 

 is spending $700,000, Brazil in South America is spending $600,000, 

 Japan is spending over $500,000, and our little neighbor on the south, 

 Mexico, has appropriated half a million for a fitting representation at 

 that Exposition. These are only instances of what foreign countries 

 are doing. I say to you that it promises to be by far the grandest and 

 most magnificent aggregation of the efforts of mankind, intellectual, 

 scientific, and industrial, that was ever gotten together on the globe. 



To indicate its proportions, let me say to you that this great fair is 

 being held in what is known as Forest Park, embracing some 2,500 

 acres; the western portion of it and the least improved is occupied by 

 this fair. An area of 1,200 acres was set aside for the purpose; but 

 subsequent events proved that there was a crowded condition, and they 



