Fair Grounds Teemed With Varied Exhibits of Art and Craftsmanship
Practically every State in the Union in which the negro is a factor in industrial life is represented in the negro exposition which opens at the Virginia State Fair Grounds this morning. All the negro schools and colleges in the country, with the sole exception of the Tuskegee Institute, of which Booker T. Washington is the head, have sent exhibits.
A cursory inspection made yesterday afternoon under the guidance of Giles B. Jackson and Professor G. A. Edwards, of Shaw University, North Carolina, gave satisfactory evidence that in the last fifty years the American negro has made wonderful and remarkable strides in industrialism and the arts and sciences. Manufactured articles, the products of home and shops, school work of all kinds, articles of millinery, things made by children, the work of skilled artisanship, text books written by colored authors and even portrait paintings are displayed in the booths of the executive building.
MAYOR AINSLIE WILL MAKE WELCOMING ADDRESS
The exposition opens in the morning at 9 o'clock. Prayer will be delivered in the auditorium constructed in a corner of the Administrative Building, and Mayor George Ainslie has been invited to deliver a welcoming address this afternoon at 1 o'clock. It had been hoped that governor Stuart would be able to take part in the opening ceremonies, but he is now on his way to attend the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.
The formal opening will not take place until the coming of president Wilson, who has given assurances that he will make an earnest effort to be present at an early date. The exposition will continue for three weeks, ending July 27.
The chief exhibits are on display in the Administration building, which is even now nearly full, while many exhibits have not yet been unpacked. A near-by building will be used as a big dining hall for the visitors, for whose need and comfort ample provision has been made.
LARGE NUMBER OF STATES HAVE SENT EXHIBITS
States represented include Virginia, Maryland, New York, and Two Carolinas, Massachusetts, Illinois, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and others. Giles K Jackson, who has been the guiding factor in bringing the exposition here and whose efforts results in appropriations being made by the city of Richmond and by Virginia, New York, and the Federal government, is immensely pleased with the result. More to him than to any other individual will be due the final success of the first negro exposition ever to be held in the south.
"I am seventy-one years old," he said yesterday afternoon, "and it has always been my conscientious effort to help teach the colored generation of to-day in all lines of industrialism. What the negro has accomplished you will be able to see in this exposition. It will surprise the white people, for it has never been made known before what remarkable strides have been made and what a large and important factor the negro race has come to be in the development of the country and particularly in the industrial life of the South. Every article you see has been made by negro hands, and the products you see form the schools show you what the negro has done in the educational field."
INDUSTRIES AND ARTS ARE WELL REPRESENTED
The administrative building, in which all the exhibits are displayed, is divided into four rows of booths, most of which are now filled. The decorations are profuse and artistically arranged. To the right is the art and general handwork of the Atlanta University. Next is seen wagons and sorts of other vehicles manufactured by the pupils of St. Emma's Industrial and agricultural School, located at Rock Castle.
The Voorhes School, of Denmark S.C. is well represented, and the Washington Graded School, of Raleigh, N.C. has a large number of diversified exhibits, all manufactured by the schools. Then come the displays of the Hampton Institute and of the colored school at Atlantic City, N.J. Perhaps the best of all is the diversified exhibit sent here by Shaw University, of North Carolina. It consists of all sorts of handwork, millinery, fancywork and furniture. From the negro Deaf and Dumb School of Newport News will come a large number of exhibits to-day, and New York State, which appropriated $7,500 for the exposition, will send 300 exhibits.
PORTHSMOUTH MAN HAS A MODEL OF LOCOMOTIVE
Other exhibits come from St. Paul's Industrial School of Lawerenceville, the Hampton Vocational school, the Manassas Industrial school, from the American Tobacco Company and from innumerable individuals. One of the prize individual exhibits is a working model of the latest of locomotive engine, made by Joseph Hall, of Portsmouth. Another is a toy coach and four made by William Brown, of Covington, and still another is a beautiful inlaid table made by R.W. Johnson, of New York.
There are exhibits from every trade and from every handwork, and even the inmates of the Central State Hospital at Petersburg are represented. While the industrial arts are most in evidence, there are not lacking exhibits in the fine arts. In one of the art booths is a portrait of Giles Jackson himself, a work of which he is very proud.
FREE ATTRACTIONS AND MIDWAY WILL AMUSE
Amusements for the visitors will not be wanting. President Jackson will have five bands of music to gladden the negro heart and to stir him enthusiasm. Midway will be filled with vaudeville performances and a great variety of gaieties. Here will be seen such attractions such as the Glendale Troupe of five stars, Hobson and Michol, the Renyold Brothers, the Kline Brothers Troupe, Phillip and Smith, and imported company of Japanese; Alexander Jhonson and twenty others. There will be the usual array of monstrosities and freaks. President Jackson yesterday received a telegram of congratulation from Bishop Samuel Fallons, of Illinois, where another negro exposition is to be held.
"I pray the people of the South," and Bishop Fallons, "regardless of former differences, will unite in showing the world that the sacrifices of fifty years ago were not made in vain."