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Georgia's Escape.
A very determined effort was made last winter to dragoon the State of Georgia into the support of a so-called American Exposition in London, and to railroad an appropriation through the Legislature. Similar attempts have been made upon several preceding Legislatures, and they will be made in the future. Georgia made a happy escape from this one. We had not heard of the exposition since the day it opened with a full assortment of hand soap and store teeth until now. The Baltimore Sun has a correspondent in England, who has taken in the show. He writes as follows:
"Buffalo Bill and his company were brought here merely as an adjunct to the American exhibition, but it is the most remarkable case of the tail wagging the dog that was ever known. This American exhibition was heralded in advance with a great blowing of trumpets in both hemispheres, and President Cleveland was announced to open it by Atlantic cable. The auspices under which it was conducted are said to be entirely proper and respectable, and there seems to be nothing that is not strictly legitimate about it, but somehow or other it was not enthusiastically taken hold of in the United States, and the President, after reflection, declined to have any official connection with it. The exhibition is not much. It puts one in mind of the old Maryland Institute fairs.
"But, as I have intimated, the exhibition is really 'very thin,' and there is not much loitering around the 'chestnuts,' which have done duty at one and another town and county fair in the United States for lo these many years. One glance is given, and the visitor then hurries on to get a seat in the vast amphitheatre where Buffalo Bill and his company prance around and burn powder."
The days of expositions have passed, for a season, at least. The public has tired of them, and they do not pan out well in hard cash.
The Federal and State treasuries should be carefully guarded against any more raids from the interested agents of expositions.