Page:The Pacific Monthly vol. 14.djvu/62

24 California sends to Portland as representatives of her far-famed hospitality Mrs. Frank Wiggins, of Los Angeles; Mrs. T. A. Filcher, and no less a personage than the wife of the governor, Mrs. Pardee. No gayer party at the Exposition is to be found than the little group which lives in one wing of the big California Building. Besides the two official hostesses and Mrs. Pardee, there are the four daughters of the governor, Miss Irma Filcher and Miss Mae Wiggins. And the governor himself is to be "back and forth" between the Exposition and his office all summer.

At the Washington state building there is a continual round of social gayety. The most charming women from the twenty largest cities of the state successively come to Portland to remain a week and to fill that week from beginning to end with good cheer. Bellingham introduced Washington by sending ten of her best-known hostesses, with Mrs. Olive Leonard at theirhead. And with them came, as honor guest to add distinction to the opening reception, Mrs. Albert Mead, wife of Washington's governor. Seattle will send for her "week" Mrs. E. Bowden. Centralia sends Mrs. H. L. Mean, and North Yakima sends Mrs. Frank Harsley. These ladies all choose their own assistants in greater or fewer numbers.

The State of Oregon has chosen the wife of Commissioner Myers to be hostess at the State Building during the entire term of the Fair. Mrs. Myers is always ready to greet visitors to the State Building and to make them feel that Oregon hospitality is warm and friendly. She presides over the spacious rooms on the upper floor of the building, to which tired women sightseers are sure to find their way. On special days ladies from other cities of the state assume position as hostess for the day, and arrange their own procedure of entertainment.

New York, while having no official hostess, as she had at St. Louis, is represented in Portland by Miss Marjorie Luce, the daughter of Commissioner Luce, Mrs. De Lancy Ellis, wife of the executive commissioner, and Mrs. Pratt Brown, wife of Commissioner Brown.

Idaho, too, has made generous provision for making Exposition visitors feel "at home." Mrs. Adelia Scott, the state hostess, is assisted from time to time by well-known ladies from different cities of the state. Mrs. Gooding, wife of the governor, spent a few days with the party, and Miss May Wood was also of the number.

Illinois is represented at the Exposition by Mrs. Jessie Palmer Webber, whose father was a former governor of that state and once a presidential nominee.

The old Bay State, which has one of the most attractive buildings at the Exposition, has a gracious hostess in Mrs. Wilson H. Fairbank, wife of the genial commissioner from Massachusetts, whose friends in the Exposition city are already many, though she has been here for so short a time.

From Missouri came Miss Hattie Gordon, under the title of honorary commissioner. Her popularity at home is attested by the remark of Governor Folk when he announced her official appointment —"Missouri's best is none too good for Sister Oregon's show."

The spirit of Governor Folk's neat little speech must somehow have crept into all the official appointments for hostesses, for surely "the best" have been sent to Portland to emphasize the hospitality of the Northwest and of visiting states.