44

36

burden. The arrival of this vessel, outside of the company's reception, was an event of future commercial importance to the port of New York, from the fact of her being the first passenger ship of her size, draught and class to effect a landing (at Betchel's Wharf) directly on the shores of Staten Island, this demonstrating the marine value of some ten miles of seashore of what in a few short years must be a part of the Greater New York.

After a successful summer season at Erastina, S. I., and New York (originating there, at Madison Square Garden, a now much-copied style of Leviathan spectacle) twice crossing the Atlantic, visiting respectively Philedelphia, Baltimore, and Washington–an uninterrupted season of 2 years and 7 months, starting at St. Louis, Mo., on the Mississippi River, was finished in conjunction with the successful Rishmond Exposition on the James River (Virginia).

The members of the organization returned over the vast continent to their respective localities (ranging from Texas Cow-boy and Vaquero and his southern valley of the Rio Grande, to the Sioux warrior and his weather-beaten foothills of Dakota), to be reunited in the following spring on board S. S. Persian Monarch, bound once more across the Atlantic to Havre, and consigned to the Great Universal Exhibition at Paris.

Sufficiently large grounds were secured from thirty-two small different tenants, at a

JUBILEE YEAR, 1887. EARL'S COURT, LONDON.–FAREWELL, 1892.

great expense–two streets being officially authorized to be closed by the municipality so as to condense the whole–in Neuilly (close by the Porte des ternes, the Bois de Boulogne, and within sight of the Exposition). Expensive improvements were made, grand stand, scenery, a $25,000 electric plant erected, and a beautiful camping ground built.

The opening occurred before an audience said to have equaled any known in the record of Premières of that brilliant Capitale des Deux Mondes. President Carnot and his wife, the Members of his Cabinet and families, two American Ministers, Hon. Whitelaw Reid, Hon. Louis MacLean, the Diplomatic Corps, Officers of United States Marines, etc., etc.–a representative audience, in fact, of ladies and gentlemen of distinction, known the world over, in society, literature, art, professions and commerce–honored the Inauguration by their presence, and launched, amidst great enthusiasm, a seven months' engagement of such pronounced success as to place the Wild West second only in public interest apparently to the great Exposition itself.