and Congress, but I
never heard of any prayers for the State Legislatures, and they needed
them most of all. They brought about the groans of the nation, and we
were constantly in complaint of them. I remember a great mass meeting in
the Academy of Music in Brooklyn, at which I was present, to protest
against the passage of the Gambling Pool Bill, as it was called. I was
accused of being over-confident because I said the State Senate would
not pass it without a public hearing. A public hearing was given,
however, and my faith in the legislators of the State increased. We
ministers of Brooklyn had to do a good deal of work outside of our
pulpits, outside of our churches, on the street and in the crowds.

When the Ives Gambling Pool Bill was passed I urged that the Legislature
should adjourn. The race track men went to Albany and triumphed.
Brooklyn was disgraced before the world by our race tracks at Coney
Island, which were a public shame!

All the money in the world, however, was not abused. Philanthropists
were helping the Church. Miss Wolfe bequeathed a million dollars to
evangelisation in New York; Mr. Depau, of Illinois, bequeathed five
million dollars to religion, and the remaining three million of his
fortune only to his family. There were others--Cyrus McCormick, James
Lenox, Mr. Slater, Asa D. Packer. They, with others, were men of great
deeds. We were just about ready to appreciate these progressive events.

In the summer of 1887 I urged a great World's Fair, because I thought
it was due in our country, to the inventors, the artists, the industries
of America. How to set the idea of a World's Fair agoing? It only needed
enthusiasm among the prominent merchants and the rich men. All great
things first start in one brain, in one heart. I proposed that a World's
Fair should be held in the great acreage between Prospect Park and the
sea.

In 1853 there was a World's Fair in New York. In the same year the
dismemberment of the Republic was expected, and a book of several
volumes was advertised in London, entitled "History of the Federal
Government from the Foundation to the Dissipation of the United States."
Only one volume was ever published. The other volumes were never
printed. What a difference in New York city then, when it opened its
Crystal Palace, and thirty-four years later--in 1887! That Crystal
Palace was the beginning of World's Fairs in this country.

In the presence of the epauleted representative