 husband envisaged an exhibition that would demonstrate the “development of mankind and the unity of the nations.”
The very thought of London being invaded by thousands of foreigners horrified many of his subjects, and when the Prince further suggested that the exhibition should be sited in Hyde Park, the fears and the indignation knew no bounds.
Doctors feared the plague; manufacturers said the country would be flooded by cheap products; members of Parliament warned that cut-throats and anarchists would cause havoc in the capital of the Empire; and the lives of all would be endangered.
Then Joseph Paxton, formerly head gardener to the Duke of Devonshire, who had already put up a huge glass conservatory at Chatsworth, submitted his design to the Exhibition Commissioners. “The Times” described it scathingly as “a monstrous greenhouse”; but the public, when they saw the sketches published, were enthusiastic, and work began on the construction of the Crystal Palace.
Covering 18 acres, the palace was to be 1851 ft long, to coincide with the year of the exhibition, and 408 ft wide. The amount of glass required consumed one-third of the nation’s output for a year. There were 24 miles of guttering, 25 acres of glass, and over 9,000 tons of iron and steel girders. Construction work began in August 1850, as 2,000 workmen swarmed around the Hyde Park site.
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Posted in America, Animals, Historical articles, History, Industry, Trade on Friday, 31 January 2014
This edited article about America first appeared in Look and Learn issue number 535 published on 15 April 1972.
Cattle were driven up from Texas to Abilene on the Chisholm Trail
From the Rio Grande to Abilene, the Chilsholm Trail, named after a half-breed Indian trader, wound through 1,000 miles of dirt, dust and Indian country to become the premier route for the Texas cowboys driving their vast herds northwards to feed a nation.
“Point ‘em North!” The year is 1866, and all over the great plains of Texas, thousands of long-horned cattle are moving slowly, like a great brown sea. They move in an endless column, flowing across the grass of the prairie, the dust from thousands of hooves rising high in the sky. On either side of the herd cowboys mill around on fleet-footed ponies, shouting, cracking whips, whistling – anything to keep the steers on the move.
“North! North! Point ‘em North!”
North to the stockyards at Abilene, Kansas, by way of the Chisholm Trail.
Abilene exists today as a quietly prosperous country town, but the trail that brought it to life has long gone. It has vanished so thoroughly that even historians of America’s pioneer days cannot agree as to exactly where it ran. But that the Chisholm Trail existed is beyond question, for in a few short years it changed the whole pattern of the Wild West.
At the end of the Civil War, the Southern States were in ruins, yet thanks to the foresight of General Grant, the defeated Confederate soldiers were allowed to return home riding their horses and carrying their guns. This was not just a gesture of chivalry towards a gallant foe. So far as the president was concerned it was important to the country to remember that the Southerners were farmers and stockbreeders almost to a man. A horse and a gun were the tools of their trade, and without them it would take that much longer for one time rebels to become useful citizens again.
Few men of the Confederate army found that they could pick up their lives where they had left them at the outbreak of war in 1861. Towns had been shelled or burnt to the ground, and plantations had become overgrown. The State of Texas, too huge to be entirely overrun, posed very special problems. The homecoming Texans were not too concerned to find their ranches in a poor way, for they had built them in the first place and were prepared to do so again. What did cause alarm was the sight of thousand upon thousand of unbranded longhorn cattle running wild upon the open range.
The ranchers repaired their homes, then banded together to round up the tough, bad tempered cattle t