“King Cotton,” Mississippi’s Special Feature at the World’s Fair. Mississippi’s King Cotton is a colossal statue, thirty-seven feet high, constructed entirely of the fleecy staple. It is located in the center of the agricultural building, and attracts more attention than any other exhibit shown therein. The king is of the sixteenth century type, and wears a crown upon his head and holds a scepter in his hand. He is seated upon an immense throne, constructed out of thirty bales of the best Mississippi cotton. Before him stand five negro cotton pickers, wrought in wax, and they are perfect types of the old negro field hands. Around the base of the throne is shown cotton, cotton seed, and all its varied products, aggrogating, as a scroll held by one of the negroes says, $85,000,000 last year. All visitors to the fair admire the statue of King Cotton, which has taken the grand prize.

Monarch of vast realm, this Colossus of Cotton gazed out on downtown Memphis as thousands of his loyal subjects paid homage during the festivities of the Cotton Carnival and National Cotton Show in the Tennessee city. Mounted on a throne of cotton bales, the huge figure was built by high school students, who spent months on the job.