Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/380

 I selected as Pennsylvania Day the 20th of August, the one hundred and tenth anniversary of Wayne's victory at the Fallen Timbers, in order to enforce attention to the fact that it was Wayne who won for us the whole Middle West. There was much opposition to this date among the commission for the reason that it was in the very midst of the hottest part of the season and, therefore, likely to interfere with the pleasures of the occasion, but I was inexorable upon this point. An artistic building was erected at a cost of $96,145.64, and it was visited by more people than all of the other state buildings together, due in large part to the presence of the Liberty Bell. The exhibits were most creditable and received many medals from the National Commission.

We left Philadelphia on the 18th with a large party which included my staff, Mrs. Pennypacker, Mrs. Carson and many of the commissioners and their wives, and the next day arrived in St. Louis, where, for the first time, I saw the Mississippi River, and we put up at the Jefferson Hotel. On the ménu for dinner there appeared “Boiled Owl.” I was sorely tempted to try what the thing was like, but the price was four dollars and I forebore. We concluded that night to go out in automobiles and take a preliminary look at the fair. We had gone about four squares when one of the most violent of thunder-storms let loose upon us, the bolts of lightning striking and splintering the poles beside us on the street, and we hurried back to the hotel, wet to the skin. In the morning, escorted by the famous City Troop, with John C. Groome at its head, I was driven out to the Pennsylvania Building, which we examined. The day proved to be fully as hot as had been anticipated and all were uncomfortable, but endured their martyrdom for the good of the state. There I delivered an address setting forth in detail Pennsylvania's part in the creation of the West and the securing of the lands of the Mississippi Valley. It has often been reprinted; it appears in 364