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| GLADSTONE'S AX - In the center of the Forestry
Building stood a pyramid of wooden disks and blocks, which was
remarkable because each piece came from a different country. But the
chief attraction was to be seen in a glass case labeled "Gladstone's
Ax," which contained a well-attested implement from the home of the
British statesman. The larger of the upper two documents, seen as
white paper in the case, is an original letter of Henry White to F.
S. Shurick, president of the Ritchie Lumber Company, of Marietta,
Ohio, informing him that his request for an ax has been laid before
Mr. Gladstone. The smaller of the upper documents is a letter of Mr.
Herbert Gladstone, M. P., son of the Premier, to Mr. White, stating
that the ax will soon be sent. The tag on the ax-helve is the
ordinary express address to Mr. White. Under the ax, at the left, is
a printed card, in various types, declaring that the ax here
exhibited was used by William Ewart Gladstone in felling trees on his
estate at Hawarden; and that after the Exposition it "will be
presented to one of the Lumber Trade Associations of the United
States, to be kept as a memento of the grand Old Man." The great
block is half a disk from a California redwood. The large placard
declares that when Columbus landed in America this tree was four
hundred and seventy-five years old, and had then reached a girth here
indicated by the arrow. The large disk on the right is Mississippi
burr oak; the three pieces first in front of the big piece are, from
the left, Wisconsin white pine, Russian oak and Kentucky burr oak.
Extraordinary bamboos are seen crossing over all. These extended
seventy feet into the air, and were from Japan. |
