The State Rights Democrat

OUR EXPOSITION LETTER.
(From our regular correspondent.)
New Orleans, May 11, 1885.

It is an admitted fact that the best part of the World's Fair is that seen in the Government building, where the different States, placed side by side compete for the first place in the estimation of the visiting public. When you look at a magnificent display like Nebraska's the natural inquiry is, "Who is the commissioner whose talent and skill has given us such a treat?" If you will but go with me into an elegantly furnished office at the rear of the display, where every person is always welcome and handsomely treated, I will introduce you to GEN. ROBERT W. FURNAS, the United States Commissioner from Nebraska, and if, after we have left the office, you say to me, "Tell me more about that gentleman," I would inform you that "Gov." Furnas, as he is usually called, is one of the best known men West; that he is sixty-three years old, although he does not look it; that he was born in Miami, Ohio; that he has been a citizen and resident of Nebraska since 1864 when he began the publication of the Nebraska Advertiser, the oldest paper in the State, now published at Auburn; that he was the commander of the second Nebraska cavalry in the Sully expedition against the northern Indians in 1865, during which the bloody battle of White Stone was fought; that in 1873 he was Governor of his State; that in 1876 he filled the position of United States Commissioner at the Centennial; that he has helped to direct the flow of emigration to Nebraska which has not ceased; that he has filled all of and the best offices in masonic societies; is Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture; that he is President of the State's Historical Society; that he is every best man that Nebraska could have sent to the World's Fair; broad-minded, liberal, generous, a newspaper man and American citizen has no superior, and that if he does not die until your correspondent sees him or his State any harm he will be walking down the streets of the New Jerusalem when Gabriel toots his horn wearing citizens clothes and trying to pass in every poor unfortunate who, perchance, might be "left out in the cold."

If you will now go with me to Oregon's headquarters I will introduce you to COL. E. W. ALLEN, the Commissioner from that State, a gentleman who is noted throughout the Government building and especially among the United States Commissioners and newspaper men as one of the best fellows here. It would be impossible for you to meet him and talk with him if only for a few minutes without entertaining forever afterwards a very friendly feeling toward Oregon. Colonel Allen was born in Kendall county, Ill., 1842, and is therefore a child of the "Sucker State." When twelve years old he removed with his parents to Minnesota, and when the war broke out served for three years in the 7th Minnesota infantry. He afterwards moved to Oregon in charge of the business of a large agricultural machinery firm. Colonel Allen is recognized at home as well as here as an organizer and leader and was the Superintendent of ceremonies at the time of the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad when the Villard excursion reached the coast. Your correspondent remembers with pleasure having met him at that time. He became prominent in connection with industrial exhibits as Superintendent of the Portland Mechanics Fair which, under his management became the leading exposition on the Pacific coast. When Gov. Moody was looking around for the best man to send to New Orleans he insisted on Mr. Allen going, and, at the request of many of Oregon's leading business men also, he accepted the appointment and has labored for his State with a zeal that has resulted in placing Oregon to the front under all circumstances. Col. Allen has taken an active part as a member of the United States Commissioners' Association, and it was this gentleman who introduced the resolution to close the Exposition on Sunday, which, however, was lost, much to the regret of many of the best friends of the World's Fair.

The best evidence your correspondent can see that the interest in the Exposition has been national and that huge manufacturing concerns see here a medium through which they can extend trade is the fact that the old and universally known David Bradley Manufacturing Company, of Chicago, has made a large exhibit of the specialties they make, and that the President and founder of the business (Mr. David Bradley) himself should take such interest as to attend personally the World's Fair and take charge of the exhibit. As the David Bradley Manufacturing Company have for some thirty years led in improvements upon agricultural machinery made by them, it might be of interest to your farmer readers to learn of the latest improvements. Mr. Bradley shows an improved swing beam sulky plow so constructed that you can turn at the corners without lifting the plow out of the ground. Your correspondent remembers well when he was a boy how he would place his shoulder under the plow handles and lift with all his might to get the plow out of the ground so as to be able to turn the corner without getting the horses mixed up in the business, and I thought how every plow-boy will henceforth bless Mr. Bradley for his invention. This company also shown a combined cotton seed and corn planter, over four thousand of which have been sold in Texas alone this year. A cornstalk cutter which rapidly transforms the old cornfield with standing stalks into a plowable condition and cuts up the stalks so that they are easily plowed under and enrich the lands is one of the features of the display. A sulky and walking cultivator with some new improvements is shown; also a sulky farm rake. All of the machinery manufactured by this company which "goes on wheels" are supplied with Bradley's trussed suspension steel wheel, the spokes of which are all drawn from the rim towards the center by means of a patent compressible hub. Hundreds of visitors stand around this exhibit each day and look with admiration upon "farming made easy."