propriated should be
expended by the Secretary of the Interior in such manner as in his
judgment would promote the objects for which the sum was appropriated,
in accordance with rules and regulations prescribed by him, one of his
first acts was the appointment of Hon. Thomas Ryan, First Assistant
Secretary of the Interior, chairman of the Alaska commission, to have
immediate charge at the Department of the elaboration of the exhibit.
Later Governor John G. Brady was appointed executive commissioner, and
entered upon the task of gathering together and forwarding to the
exposition such collections of exhibits as would best represent and
illustrate the products and resources of Alaska.

Still later Mr. Joseph B. Marvin was appointed special agent of the
Alaska exhibit and was sent to St. Louis in December, 1903, to
superintend the construction of the Alaska Building, to attend to all
accounts with the Department, and to arrange for the installation of the
exhibits as they arrive.

Mrs. Mary E. Hart was employed January 1, 1904, to assist in the
securing of the exhibits in Alaska, especially in the Department of
Education, and upon the opening of the exposition Mrs. Hart was directed
to proceed to St. Louis, where she was designated as hostess and placed
in charge of the bureau of information in the Alaska Building. At the
same time attendants were selected, whose duty it was to explain the
exhibits to visitors.

The executive commissioner, the honorary commissioners, the hostess, all
of the attendants, and those employed in collecting exhibits in Alaska
were all Alaskans, the attendants being especially selected because of
their acquaintance with Alaska and its products.

It was the desire of the executive commissioner that the utmost
hospitality should be shown to all visitors at the Alaska Building, and
the commodious and homelike parlors on the second floor of the building
were free to the public, maids being employed for special attention to
the wants of ladies and children.

The principal exhibits in the Alaska Building related naturally to the
mining interest of the country.

One of the most impressive and significant exhibits was a gilded cube,
about 3 feet in diameter, representing the size of a block of gold worth
$7,200,000, which was the amount paid by the United States to Russia for
Alaska, and beside it, inclosed in a brass railing, a gilded pyramid of
blocks representing the amount of gold taken each y