The only Spanish exhibits at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition were shown in the Agricultural Building. There were but three displays, one being of pure sherry brandy, another of wines, and another of olive oil.
D. Mauricio Mandil was the only exhibitor from Spain, and he had the brandies, wines, and olive oil analyzed by well-known analytical chemists. The brandy exhibit consisted of a pyramid of ten barrels, well finished and varnished, placed on a fancy stand in the center of a well-polished platform, in the corners and sides of which were piled up polished pine cases of pure brandy distilled from sherry wine. On the top box of each pile were pyramids of bottles of different fancy packings artistically located.
The wine exhibit occupied a square 20 feet on each side. It represented a vine in full growth, being 18 feet high. The four corners were the trunks, on which were painted life-size figures of Spanish girls surmounted by the vine, bearing grapes. This square was covered by a silk awning made in the Spanish colors. In the center of the tent and on a platform was located a pyramid 15 feet high, composed of barrels and bottles artistically placed. The wines exhibited were mostly of old vintages, dating as far back as 1809, and among these was a special brand brought to America for the first time, and called Solera Lincoln, it being of the vintage of 1865, the year of Lincoln's assassination.
The olive-oil exhibit was made by one of the largest exporters of olive oil in the world.
TURKEY.
The Imperial Government of Turkey with great regret decided, for financial reasons, not to participate officially in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and therefore no official pavilion was built. The three functionaries appointed for the Turkish commission were instructed to aid and to give advice to private exhibitors only who were Turkish subjects and who could be accommodated in exhibit buildings.
The three officials appointed were Chékib Bey, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States, commissioner-general; Dr. Hermann Schoenfeld, consul-general in Washington, associate commissioner-general; George Eli Hall, consul-general in San Francisco, secretary-general of the commission.
VENEZUELA.
The participation of Venezuela in the St. Louis Exposition was authorized in the month of October, 1903, immediately after the end of one of the most sanguinary civil wars known in the history of the country. The following-named gentlemen were appointed as commissioners of the Venezuela Government: Gen. Cipriano Castro, honorary president; Eugenio M. Ambard, commissioner-general; Dr. H. Lameda, attaché; H. Meinhard, secretary.
The amount of the Government appropriation was at first $25,000, but this amount was soon exhausted and smaller amounts were subsequently sanctioned for the maintenance, transportation, and installation of exhibits. The total amount of appropriation was $30,000. There was absolutely no private contribution in cash. The approximate value of the exhibits was about $105,000.