California's Exhibit at the Atlanta Exposition [pp. 387-401]

CALIFORNIA'S EXHIBIT AT THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION.
vegetables, and beans. In addition to
this, I know of quite a number of small
orders for wines, dried and canned fruits,
etc., that were supplied direct from California to individuals. I know also that
during our stay in Atlanta an agency
was established there for the sale of our
olive oil, our canned fruits, our canned
asparagus, and for our California unfermented grape juice.
To appreciate the importance of these
facts, it must be remembered that Atlanta
is a distributing point for almost the entire South east of the Mississippi, and that
the supplies received there are sent more
or less to other Southern cities. In interesting its merchants to handle our produce we are, in effect, getting a foothold
in the South, and that, in brief, is one of
the results we have accomplished through
the Atlanta Exposition. Heretofore, as I
have said, the merchant or hotel keeper
who desired a supply of California produce
less than he cared to ship direct from
California, was compelled to order either
from New York or Chicago. Hereafter
he can get such supplies at Atlanta, and
being cheaper and more convenient, and
the interest of himself and his patrons
having been increased in them, it goes
without saying that their consumption
will materially increase.
As for stimulating immigration, I believe
the results will be even greater, relatively,
than the increase of trade. As I have
said, all visitors showed a lively interest
in California, and the number of inquiries
after information regarding different features and opportunities of our State was
limited only by the number we could find
time to answer. We met hundreds who
said they were going to California, expected to go, or hoped to go. The people
from Florida showed especial interest, and
to a man, almost, said they were coming
to California as soon as they could dispose in some way of their Florida hold
ings. A few that I know of, after visiting
the Exposition, continued their journey to
this State, to inspect the situation for
themselves. We found, also, quite a
number of people from the North who,
while incidentally visiting the Fair, were
in the South mainly for the purpose of
looking out for a place to settle. These
people almost invariably gave us to understand (after inspecting our exhibit) that,
judging from our show, they believed
when they moved they would go to California. One party of twelve heads of
families from Ohio, who were South in
search of a location in a more congenial
clime, were captured by our exhibit, and
after asking us about rates of fare to the
Coast, the opportunities for obtaining
homes, etc., left with the assurance that
when they moved they would go to California. Indeed, while one purpose of the
Atlanta Exposition was to attract people
to the South, I am sure that a fair proportion of those so attracted were, through
our efforts and our exhibit, diverted to
California. At the same time, many
wealthy Southerners and others who
have been going or sending their families
to Europe, assured us that they would
make their next excursion to California.
On the whole, I feel that our work must
inevitably be fruitful of gratifying results.
There was still another feature of our
exhibit and work which came in toward
the last of the Fair, and in which we
scored a signal victory for California. I
have reference to the display of citrus
fruits which we were enabled to make in
December. The Exposition people, it
seems, were under the impression that
California had all the fresh citrus fruits it
could get or cared to get in the exhibit of
the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
We had no fresh citrus fruits in the State
Board of Trade exhibit at'first, and the
Exposition management, as they afterwards explained, took it for granted that
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