Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas. Page: 253 of 1,110
vii, 9-1011 p. incl. ill., ports. : ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
'. It being a generally conceded fact that
Colonel Exall was one of the best known men
in the State, bright, active, courteous and
popular, .a bundle of concentrated energy,
with Texas permanently lodged in his brain
and her best interests at heart, it is not to be
wondered at that under his administration
the association scored another brilliant success,
both as to the receipts and the pleasure
and agreeable manner in which the crowd
was handled and entertained. Encouraged by
the great benefits derived from exhibitions at
the previous fairs of 1887, 1888 and 1889,
the attention of the country seemed to have
been attracted. Live-stock breeders and
raisers, manufacturers, merchants, mechanics,
miners and educators, representing twentyone
States in our Union, had entered the list
as exhibitors and seemed settled in the opinion
that an exhibit by them at the Great
Texas State Fair and Dallas Exposition would
reap for them rich rewards.
" Prominent counties in different portions
of our State recognized the fact that in
no better way could they lay before the capitalist
and the home-seeker their many claims
and inducements, than by an exhibit of their
soil products and general resources at these
great fairs and expositions. Indeed, so great
had grown the general interest that months
before the opening day every available foot
of space had been taken, and when the fifth
entertainment was organized, with J. S. Armstrong
as president in charge, the demand for
more space had grown so pressing the management
was forced either to increase facilities
or dwarf the proportions of a Dallas
enterprise far below the expectancy of the
public. The former course was adopted, and
every comfort and facility for both the visitor
and exhibitor were prepared. An arena with
grand stand attached was prepared for the
better exhibition of stock of all kinds. A
music hall, with a seating capacity of 3,000,
was built for the music-loving class of visitors,
and the Ladies' and Art Department,
which had assumed such colossal proportions
as to count their exhibitors from nearly every
county in Texas. and from more than twentyfive
different States of our Union, and which
had grown to be one of the chief attractions
of the Fair and Exposition, was fitted up in
elegant apartments consisting of twelve rooms
all connected with portiere openings, and in
which were collected and classified the deft
handiwork of women, showing their skill with
the needle, and the artist with pencil and
brush. In fact, nothing was left undone
that ingenuity could devise or money procure
for the entertainment as well as the education
of the crowds of visitors who were expected
to throng their gates. This entertainment
opened its gates on October 18, 1890, and
closed on the 2d day of November following,
with total receipts of $105,000 as the offerings
of a generous public in their appreciation
of the grandest entertainment that had
ever been given in the Southwest.
" It is a difficult task to properly estimate
and appreciate the great benefit which this
institution has brought to the State of Texas,
and too much praise cannot well be accordedI
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Lewis Publishing Company. Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas., book, 1892; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth20932/m1/253/?rotate=90: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Public Library.