No. 17. Order of business.—­Reading of the minutes; reports of standing committees; reports of special committees; unfinished business; new business; adjournment.  This order of business may be suspended at any regular meeting by two-thirds vote of the members present.

    No. 18.  Roberts’s Rules of Order shall govern the proceedings of
    this board.

Upon the centennial of the day the Louisiana Territory was sold by Napoleon to the United States, the exposition, which embodied all that the vast territory now represents, was consecrated to its purpose.  In the presence of 50,000 persons the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was formally dedicated; 12,000 troops, the pick of the United States Regular Army, and the best militia of the country, moved past a given point for one hour and a half, under Maj.  Gen. Henry C. Corbin, U.S.  Army, grand marshal.  Governors and their staffs were loudly cheered as they appeared at the head of their State troops.  Gathered on the reviewing stand was a notable assembly—­our Chief Executive, President Roosevelt; ex-President Cleveland, ambassadors and diplomats, cabinet officers, the lieutenant-general of the Army, Nelson A. Miles; Cardinal Gibbons and Bishop Potter, Senator, Representatives, governors, State and Territorial representatives, Government officials, President Francis, and the board of directors of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission, and the board of lady managers.

At the meeting in the Liberal Arts Building following the parade, President Carter of the National Commission addressed the great assembly.  The enthusiasm was unbounded when, in turn, the President and ex-President spoke to the vast multitude.  After the meeting an adjournment was made to the Administration Building, where President Roosevelt and ex-President Cleveland received many of their friends, and the board of lady managers entertained a distinguished company at 5 o’clock in their rooms in the Administration Building.  Among the guests present at the dinner tendered in the evening by Hon. David R. Francis to President Roosevelt, in the building of the Hall of Congresses, were several members of President Roosevelt’s Cabinet, ex-President Cleveland, Lieut.  Gen. Nelson A. Miles, diplomatic representatives of thirty foreign governments, governors, Senators, National Commissioners, and the board of lady managers.

The second, or “International Day,” the procession was arranged as on the first day, the introductory oration being delivered in the Palace of Liberal Arts.  President Francis extended greeting to representatives of foreign governments and responses were made by Ambassador Jusserand, of the French Government, and Senor Don Emilio de Ojeda, Spanish minister to the United States.  In the evening a reception was given at the St. Louis Club in honor of the diplomatic corps, and a banquet was tendered to visiting journalists in the Hall of Congresses on the exposition grounds.