CHAPTER VIII.

WHEAT AND CORN PRODUCING STATES.

Four Great States — How They Were Represented in Congress Thirty Years Ago — Unsurpassed Display
of Iowa — Grandeur of Minnesota— -Minnehaha and Hiawatha — What the Women of Minnesota
Have Done for Their State — Bleeding Kansas and Its Inviting Display — The Twenty Thousand
Dollar Building of Nebraska.

HEN the Civil War broke out more than thirty years
ago Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska each had
only one representative in Congress. Iowa now has
twelve and the others are catching up. All are great
States of the Union, and each is particularly repre-
sented at the Exposition. In the extreme north-east
corner of the park, rising almost abruptly from the
lake, stands the Iowa building. At first sight it seems
to be mostly high roof and rounding towers, very
pleasing to the eye. The total frontage is about 250
feet while the depth is 92 feet. The main entrance,
which is from the south, is between two round towers,
the space being spanned by a triple arch. Iowa is
written all over this front. One of the towers, the western one, is
belted with the names of all the chief cities of the state. The
other bears medallions illustrating the state's history and growth. On the dormer
windows of the towers are bas reliefs illustrative of agriculture and mining.
Perched beside the finial of the highest peak on the roof is the figure of a farmer
who looks as prosperous as if he really lived in Iowa. There is a broad reception
hall with a hard wood stairway leading to the second floor. Opposite the landing
of this stairway is a huge fireplace. On the mantel of this fireplace are these words:

Iowa.

The affections of her people, like the rivers
of her borders, flow to an inseparable union.

From the main hall to the left the women's parlors open. There are two of
them — one is circular and gives fine views west, south, and east. Well-appointed
retiring and check rooms are connected with these parlors. At the rear of the
main hall are big lounging and smoking rooms for the men. All of these apart-
ments have big open fireplaces. There are rooms, too, on the first floor — the post
office, check stands, information bureau, headquarters of the state board, and super-

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HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

IOWA BUILDING.

intendent's otfice. The whole of the eastern wing of the building is occupied by
the exhibit hall. The stairway from the main hall leads to the assembly room
which occupies most of the second floor. This room is about 40x60 feet in area, but
it is hard to tell about that, for it is about as irregular in outline as the rest of the
building. It is an altogether pleasant place though, to assemble. Here is the

state's art exhibit and the exhibit
of women's work. Connecting with
the assembly room is the large
apartment of the state historical
society, and in the north-east corner
of the second floor are the rooms
for newspaper men, and, by the
way, these Iowa newspaper men
are pretty well treated, for they
have two fine rooms overlooking
the lake, one for loitering, the
other for working purposes. The
lounging room has a newspaper
man's mantlepiece in it. The cen-
tral figures on either side are news-
boys in full chase. Then there are

bas reliefs of pastepots, and shears, "shooting-sticks" and composing sticks, and
whatever spaces are left the designer has filled up with pleasant representations of
that important personage, the printer's devil. This room is further bedecked
with a frieze of newspaper headings. Perhaps the most interesting part of the
building is the exhibit hall, and people who think corn is nothing but horse feed
have here a fine chance to study its effects as a decorative material. Corn ears,
some of them split lengthwise and some of them sawed up into circles, are
worked into all sorts of fancy designs. There are festoons of corn and corn pictures.
The capitals of the columns are trimmed with small grains, and there are festoons
of grasses here and there, but mostly it is just corn. About the walls are series of
big pictures, done in corn, illustrating Iowa's resources, her mines, her clay beds,
dairying, stock-raising and grain-growing industries and the work of her schools.

There have been used in decorating this room 1,200 bushels of corn and three
and one-half car-loads of cereals. The work is a new phase of the polychrome house
decorative art, except that the raised colors are given by different cereals and corns.
The capitals of the columns are worked out in corn shucks and millet heads. From
the roof-tree to the walls the ceiling is divided into three sections, the top one being
general in design and made of all the field products of the state. The next section
has fourteen panels, those on the side ceiling containing figures illustrating the
different industries of the state. These panels, in an interesting way, demonstrate
the worth of grains as a decorative auxiliary. At each end of the ceilings are pan-
els containing the American eagle and shields worked out in grains, and in the four
corners of the ceiling are shields with the device, " Iowa, 1846-1893," worked out on

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

495

MINNESOTA BUILDING.

a blue field in white corn and shucks. Where the pillars join the roof is a frieze, an
elaborate scroll-work made of festoons of corn and wheat and millet seeds. The
spandrels between the windows are done in tessallated panels of many colored
corns. In one corner is a round band stand reached by a short stairway and decor-
ated in much the same manner as
the main hall except that the frieze
represents a grape vine, the leaves
being made of corn shucks and the
fruit of purple-colored popcorn.
There is not a piece of wood shown
in the entire hall, which cost
$12,000 to decorate. Throughout it
is one blaze of color and nothing
but the natural products of Iowa
were used and not a kernel was
dipped in paint or dyed. In the
center of the hall is a model of
the state capital made entirely of
glass and filled with grain. It is 21
feet high, 23 feet long and 13 feet

wide. Facing the eastern entrance is a heroic group, the center figure being a
woman. It represents Iowa fostering her industries. Grouped around by the pil-
lars are small pavilions and pagodas, on which are displayed the different prod-
ucts of the farm and mine. The State spent $35,000 on this building. The peo-
ple of Iowa have won conquests
before. Their corn palaces have
attracted the country's attention,
and their coal palaces have been a
revelation. In the Iowa building
these ideas have produced some
marvelous effects. To the farmer
visitor nothing has been more in-
teresting and striking. To every-
one the Iowa building is worth an
extended visit. Minnesota is the
greatest flour producing State in
the Union, and when the civil war
commenced it had only one rep-

KANSAS BUILDING. resentative in the lower hall of

Congress. Its building, which cost

$30,000, is designed in the Italian renaissance style, two stories high, with a mez-
zanin story in the rear. The frame is of wood, covered with staff. The roof is
of Spanish tile. The ground dimensions are 78x91 feet. The main entrance is on
the south. In the recess within the entrance is a sculptural group, symbolizing the

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HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR

legend of Minnehahaand Hiawatha. On the first floor is the exhibition hall, 52x78
feet, apostoffice, baggage and ticket rooms, and superintendent's room. The main
stairway is in the rear, opposite the entrance, and on the landing, half-way up, is a
semi-circular bay alcove, lighted with large glass windows. On the second floor is
a reception hall, 30x33 feet, parlors and retiring rooms for men and women, and a
committee room. In the mezzanin story are four bed rooms and two bath rooms.
The interior walls are plastered, decorated in fresco, in plain tints, and finished in
pine. The woman's rooms have color decorations done by women of the State.

Bleeding Kansas spent $25,000 on its building. Its ground plan is irregular.
It approaches a square, one side being straight, and the other three forming irreg-
ular angles. It has a ground area
of 135x138 feet. It is two stories
high, built of frame and staff, and
is surmounted by an elliptical
glass dome. The main exhibi-
tion hall occupies nearly all of the
first floor, and extends through to
the glass dome. A balcony, from
the second story, overhangs the
main entrance on the south, and a
second balcony extends around the
base of the dome. The north end
of the main floor is occupied by a
natural history collection. There
are also offices for the boards of
commissioners on the .first floor.

Four flights of stairs lead to the second floor, where are rooms for the women's
exhibits, a school exhibit, and parlors for men and women.

Nebraska spent $20,000. Its style of architecture is classical and of the Cor-
inthian order. The building has a ground area of 60x100 feet, and is two stories
high. The exterior is of staff. On the east and west fronts are wide porticos,
approached by flights of steps. Over the porticos are projecting gables, supported
by six columns, twenty-five feet high, the full distance from the cornice to the floor.
In each pediment is the State seal, in bas-relief, five feet in diameter. From each
portico three large double doors of oak give entrance to the exhibit hall. The
room is 60x70 feet and in it an agricultural display is made. On the first floor, also,
are a reception room, commissioners' office, baggage room and postoffice. A double
stairway, nine feet wide, leads from the center of the exhibit hall to the second
floor. Here is an exhibit room, 60x70 feet, used for an art exhibit. On this floor
are a women's parlor, reading room, smoking room and toilet rooms.

NEBRASKA BUILDING.

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497