MECHANICS' FAIR. -- A vast number of American flags have been received at the great Fair building, to be used in decorating it, and when the lofty dome and the ample sides of the structure shall be robed in festoons of gaudy stars and stripes, depending above a multitude of people moving hither and thither among the clusters of commodities on exhibition, and illuminated by a thousand jets of gas, the effect will be very beautiful. The tall tower in the centre of the building will be dressed out in fresh flowers from top to bottom, and lighted by about a hundred gas burners; a number of fountains will play around its base. Within this tower the big sanitary cheese is to be placed, and will be invisible except to such as are willing to purchase a sight by a contribution of ten cents to the Sanitary Fund; it weighs two thousand pounds. There will be about twelve thousand feet of gas pipe in the building. Messrs. Hinckley & Co., of the Fulton Foundry, are putting down heavy frame work timbers in the north wing, for their large circular saws for sawing large logs, and for a gang of sixteen small saws for lighter work. Two fine hay-presses -- one exhibited by Mr. Payne, of San Francisco, and one by Mr. Price, of Petaluma -- are already in the building; also, one of Halstead's improved wine and cider presses, exhibited by the inventor; also, one of Farrand's amalgamators, exhibited by himself; also, one of Roper's caloric engines, and four pumps, exhibited by S. F. Blasdell, agent for San Francisco. This engine is used for all purposes, where small motive-power is required -- for driving printing presses, and lathes, for pumping, sawing, elevating, grinding, crushing sugar, railroad depot uses, and domestic farm purposes, etc. These machines are manufactured by the inventor himself, and the last improvement he has patented bears date 1863. Henry Paulissen has four handsome specimens of fresco painting on exhibition; Mrs. S. J. Hill has one French calico quilt, and Miss Dedclair one tapestry picture, ("Washington.") In the north wing, the Pacific Foundry Company are erecting one of their superb engines, for exhibition and have volunteered the use of it to drive all the machinery at the Fair, free of charge. The remainder of the wing, or the greater part of it, has been taken by a number of inventors and manufacturers of all kinds of quartz milling apparatus. The Pacific Glass Works Company have made preparations for the erection of a pyramid twelve or fifteen feet square at the base, and fifteen or twenty feet high, with shelves upon which to display wares of their manufacture. From California material, they make the very best of all varieties and colors of common bottle glass, in every way equal, if not superior, to the imported article. A beautiful Grecian temple, entirely composed of sugar, is to be erected in the main Fair building by the San Francisco Sugar Refinery Company, and within it they will display a large variety of sample sugars of their manufacture. The dimensions of the temple will be nine by eighteen feet square, and fourteen feet high. The Mission Woollen Mills will make an extensive display, and have a carpet loom in operation. The company are making three different qualities of carpeting now. The Fair will be thrown open to the public on the 1st of September. Those who have applied for space in which to exhibit heavy machinery are requested to come forward and see to selecting locations for it right away. The applications -- in all industrial branches -- from such as desire to exhibit, now amount to five hundred
[transcribed from microfilm, p. 1.]
_____
WHO KILLED HIM? -- The men engaged in excavating a cellar in Sansome street, just north of Bush, dug up an uncoffined human skeleton yesterday. They exhumed the unknown outsider one bone at a time, disputing among themselves as to whether they had belonged to a man or a beast, until when they at last turned up an unmistakably human skull -- the other traps belonging to it had all been carted away and lost. It if were polished up a little, this might be a pretty enough skull, but in its present ratty state, with sand in its eyeholes, and its scant bunches of hair discolored and matted with dirt, and its under jaw unshipped and its grinning teeth foul as a mudscraper, it is inconceivably homely. And alas, poor Yorick, how did he happen to get planted in that sandhill? It is a solemn question. And who planted him? That is another solemn question. Both will doubtless remain unanswered until the end of time. The front upper teeth of the skull were worn square, and we cannot imagine what the departed could have lived on that was so destructive to his ivory. He must have been old, because he could not wear a good set of teeth so much in one generation unless he was fond of gravel and had a good appetite. Therefore, he was not a rice eating Chinaman, as was suggested by a bystander. The back part of the skull was badly cracked and depressed, from which it [is] easy to infer that somebody hit him very square. Like Henry Meyer, he probably never had any recollection of the circumstance afterward. This skeleton was only about six inches under ground, and was green with mould, and looked as if it might have lain there for many a year. Cannot the doctors and the spiritualists examine the relics, and cypher out between them who they belonged to?
[transcribed from microfilm, p. 1.]
Quotations | Newspaper Articles | Special Features | Links | Search