Our meals were supplied in a big shed like dining room, and ordinary fare as would be supplied to any children. The sleeping quarters were in a building somewhat similar to the dining room, excepting that there were lots of bunks built in round the walls, and with the busy day it would be no error in stating that all slept well the night they had there.

The Exhibition was of great educational value and most interesting from all points of view, and one of the first exhibits we were to see, was a great big lump of coal from Glentunnel. We had known about it previous to seeing it, and then, when seeing it, made us wonder how it could be got to where it was in one piece. That piece of coal weighed over half a ton, and however it could be dug out, brought out, and set up in one piece, was something we marvelled at.

What interested us most was the spectacular appearance of the whole set up of the place. It would cover a few acres in Hagley Park, and had Walt Disney being showing here we could possibly have compared it to one of his shows, but in miniature.

To we children from Glentunnel, who had never seen anything approaching this Fairyland, or even dreamt that such a place could exist, was a pleasurable memory that remains with most of us for many years.

The amusements were innumerable, and they suited us better than the educational displays. We had school every day, and that would have to do in the meantime, but first our minds were on more, (to us anyway,) non-educational exhibits.

We were all given a ticket for one ride or look at most of the amusements and displays. When we had used that one ticket, we had to pay for any further ones should we want them and had the money, which most of us had not. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe that my allowance for the two days was two shillings and sixpence, and that was broken up into sixpences, threepences, and pennies, and that was more than had ever been allowed to me before, and for many years later too. In that park, the most prominently displayed piece of amusements and displays was the Waterchute. It was run by men in Sailor’s uniforms, and the uniforms did give those men a more sailorlike appearance, especially as they had to man the boats, which held about twenty passengers on each trip.

All the passengers for the ride down in the waterchute boat had to assemble at the bottom of the large frame which carried it all. They were carried up to the top in a small carriage like affair that ran on rails. It too was pulled up with an endless wire rope that ran continuously, and when enough people were at the top, the sailors ushered them into the boat for the run down.

The boat was pushed by men at the top on to the steep slope, and with one sailor, who was in charge, standing in the stern; it took off at a high speed down that steep grade until the flat bottom hit the water at the bottom. That quickly reduced the speed, the sailor then taking over and paddled the boat to a small platform for all to get off, or disembark, and then off, adults had had their shilling’s worth and those under fourteen their sixpence worth.

Another of the more prominent amusement places was the Toboggan, it working on lines similar to the waterchute, but it did not go to any water, having instead the up and down run which eventually brought the passenger carriages to a stop. Again, priced one shilling, children half price.

There too was the Katzenjammer Castle. It was a spooky place, and its motive was to give its patrons thrills, and in lots of cases it did. There were dark places in it, other parts had shaking floors, and other places winds of gale force coming round the corners. It was a recognised place for pick pockets to work in, and they did

There were several other amusement places of the nature described, but one of the most interesting and educational displays there, was the Battle of Gettysburg. The building in which paintings of The Battle of Gettysburg were housed was one of the most elaborate there. It was large and circular, and had paintings covering a lot of the inside was among the most wonderful one could imagine or see. They appeared to be real, and would be practically a true scene of what happened at Gettysburg during that Civil War. The lifelike pictures of soldiers in battle, some of them wounded, and others for whom all of the fighting had ended, the guns and cannons in action, and the surgeons at work on the battlefield as all of it was said to have happened. The Surgeons were at work in the middle of it all. They were to be seen most plainly using saws and knives doing amputations, and to the ones, who were not physically fit or disliked seeing anything of that nature, that battle scene was most unsuitable.

The seating accommodation was ample for all that wished to see what the battle was like. With the use of electricity which had in some way been connected on the guns and rifles a flash was created when they were fired, at the same time the bangs from them were as real as to make one believe he was there in the middle of the battle.