WORLD’S FAIR NOTES.

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WORLD’S FAIR NOTES.

Ohio will build a mineral cabin in the Mines building to illustrate its mineral resources. Arrangements for it were completed last week by Executive Commissioner D. J. Ryan and National Commissioner William Ritchie of the Buckeye State. The cabin will be thirty-two by sixty-one feet and twenty-three feet high. It will be constructed entirely of Ohio material, the principal elements being the mineral productsof the State.

The Horticultural department is constantly in receipt of exhibits. Already within the great dome of the building palms, tree ferns and banana trees combine to make a striking appearance. Chief Samuels has a large force at work in the dome, and it is beginning to assume the aspect of a vast tropical garden.

To emphasize his entrance to the Administration building Director-General Davis last week hoisted the United States flag over the pavilion in which is located his office and those of chiefs of departments.

Not the least of the attractions at the World’s Fair is the flagstaff of the Washington State building. It is already on the grounds, and will be put in its upright position soon. It is formed of a single tree, with only the bark removed. The tree was originally nearly 250 feet in height, and was as straight ns a rush from the ground to its topmost branches. It was, however, too tall to be carried across the continent, and its top limb for nearly fifty feet was cut off, and now lies discarded on the slopes of Mount Hood. Even then its remaining length was too great. It was cut again in a way that would permit of its being spliced together again at the Fair grounds. Four flat cars were used in its transportation. Since its arrival it has been spliced together, and when erect will display the stars and stripes at an altitude of 200 feet.

The first exhibit is installed, and consists of one of California’s famous Redwood trees. It was received at the Government building last week, and will be erected by Uncle Sam as an example of the big trees of California. The sections were cut from a tree which, before it was felled for World’s Fair purposes, stood 400 feet high. The entire trunk was considered a little too big even for the World’s Fair, and a section thirty feet long was sawed off. It is twenty-three feet in diameter and big enough to make a house itself. This is what will be done with it in the Government building. The sections were boxed in a suitable material to prevent the bark being abraded on the journey. Next week Professor Dill of the New York Museum of Natural History will reach Chicago to superintend the putting together of the sections, forty-six in number. Before shipping they were hollowed out to the thickness of one foot, so that when the trunk is put in place it will be in the form of a great hollow stump, but it will be furnished, lighted by electricity and made two stories high.

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World’s Fair Notes.

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World’s Fair Notes.

Canada will exhibit a mammoth cheese at Chicago next year. The cheese was made at the Dominion experimental dairy station at Perth, and will certainly rank as the mammoth cheese of the world. It weighs over 22,000 pounds, and contains the curd of a day’s milk from 10,000 cows. A gigantic oaken press was erected for the purpose of constructing the cheese, and 200 tons of pressure was applied. The cheese has already been pronounced perfect in texture, flavor, and color. The cheese will be placed in the pyramid of Canadian dairy products at the World’s Fair, and will afterwards be cut up and sold in pound blocks either in Chicago or in one of the large cities of Great Britain.

A model of St. Peter’s Church at Rome, made from the original plans of the architect, Michael Angelo Buonarotti, will be exhibited in the Midway Plaisancein a building 50×150 to be erected by L. de B. Spiridon.

The firm of Yewman & Erb, Rochester, N. Y., is constructing a chest as a receptacle for the original declaration of independence, the draft of the same made by Thomas Jefferson, the constitution of the United States and other valuable historical and legal documents which are to be exhibited at the World’s Fair. The constitution has never before been out of the state department since it was first deposited there. The chest in appearance is like a safe built in the form of a sideboard. The height is ten feet. It is three feet six inches broad and about as deep, and is made of highly wrought gray steel. The trimmings, which are put on in abundance, are of gold leaf. A shelf lined with velvet is placed below the upper drawers. The latter are of oak. When the gold combination lock is turned to the right number and the steel doors fly open a set of drawers working on rollers and provided with Birkhead brackets appears. The chest is lined with tin. It will be sent to Washington and there supplied with plate glass so that the curious may catch a glimpse of the documents. A special car will be provided and under a guard, composed of several army officers, it will be taken to the fair.

More than a score of Japanese workmen in native costume are at Jackson park working on the Japanese World’s Fair building, w.iich is to be erected on the north end of the wooded island. These workmen are the cause of a good many comments, inasmuch as their presence at the park is an unusual event. It isn’t customary for the Mikado to send his own people to this country to build temples. The laborers are all skilled workmen. Their dress is out of the usual. Each wears a cap with a peak fore and aft, something like that of the huntsman. They are clothed each in long blue overcoats, bound in with a girdle. The structure will cost approximately $6o,0oo, and surrounding it will be Japanese landscape gardening, carried on at an additional expense of $12,000. The temple will be devoted to the arts and ethnological exhibits of Japan. It will be a permanent structure, and at the close of the Fair will become the property of the South Park commissioners. Japan was the first foreign government to make a big appropriation for the Fair. The sum set apart by the government of the Mikado approximates $630,000.

Two of the big search lights to be used next summer are on the grounds now, and it is proposed to place them for use during the dedicatory ceremonies. One on the roof of the Manufacturers Building will light the Van Buren Street Station, seven miles away, and the intervening space of lake and railroad track. The other will probably go on the cupola of the Transportation Building to light the Illinois Central tracks to the South and West Sides.

The Exposition company have decided it had the right to quarter United States troops in Washington park during the six months of the Exposition. The right has been denied by the board of South Park commissioners, who claim that the ordinance granting the use of the South park for World’s Fair purposes does not sanction the claim of the Exposition people.

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