What, then, shall I talk about? Here in this great building, surrounded by this vast display of the products of agriculture, industry, invention, commerce, and art, the eye and the mind, not the tongue, should be busy. This Exposition is a modern object lesson—a school for the instruction of old and young alike. It illustrates the social and industrial progress and prosperity of the West—the arts, trades, sciences, literature and philosophy of our people, as well as their great commercial and agricultural pursuits. The useful and the beautiful, the products of skill and of industry, of the studio, the factory, the field and the mart, are here blended happily together, for the inspection of the curious and the study of the thoughtful. Such exhibitions are of the greatest value to all classes of the people. They instruct and inspire. They suggest new ideas. They diffuse a better knowledge of the natural resources of the country, and of the methods, industries and progress of its people. The Exposition, therefore, needs no orator. It speaks for itself. It is its own advocate and eulogist. Look around, and admire. I heartily congratulate the originators and managers of the Exposition upon the brilliant success they have achieved. They have inaugurated a great enterprise; an enterprise of vast and permanent importance and value; an enterprise worthy of this great and prosperous city. I rejoice, also, to see that here, as at all previous exhibitions of similar character, commencing with the Centennial at Philadelphia, the displays made by Kansas attract general attention and comment. Kansas has never been ashamed or afraid to appear in any presence, or on any proper occasion, and exhibit samples of her products; and every true Kansan is sure that wherever Kansas sits, there is the head of the table. Perhaps this may be a clansman’s pride and enthusiasm. But I believe it is measurably shared by the people of a small section of Missouri. Is not this so? For if Kansas were not where and what it is, what would Kansas City be? I have been informed that fully three-fourths of the trade of this city comes from Kansas. I have also been told that, excluding their circulation within the corporate limits of the city, fully four-fifths of the readers of the Kansas City papers are found in Kansas. And if these are facts, surely no people outside of Kansas can have a larger interest in the development, prosperity and victories of the Sunflower State than have the people of Kansas City.