In the Summer of 1883, Louisville, Kentucky, held a Southern Exposition. Farny attended both as an artist on behalf of Harper’s Weekly and an exhibitor, showing The Last Vigil and A Village of Hostiles, the latter of which remains elusive (can’t find a picture of it, but it might have been this one, painted in 1882 and perhaps renamed Winter Encampment of Crows).
The Southern Exposition was the biggest use of electric lights up to that point. This article from The Courier-Journal, out of Louisville, Kentucky, goes into detail on what was required to achieve that.
A July 03, 1883, a brief article in The Courier-Journal indicates Farny did the preliminary sketch work for these illustrations during the first week of July, prior to the August 1st opening. The short blurb also noted that Farny “now ranks among the best illustrators in the country“.
Three sketches done by Farny appear In the August 4, 1883, issue of Harper’s Weekly and can be seen below:
On August 25, 1883, Harper’s Published this image by Farny on page 532:
His last work appeared in the September 15, 1883, issue of Harper’s Weekly, page 580:
While Farny was down in Louisville doing his sketches, he went to a French restaurant with some rough-around-the-edges Kentuckians. According to an August 26, 1884, Cincinnati Times-Star story:
Harry Farny has been at Louisville of late, and brought back a ssory concerning some wild Kentuckians from the unculti. rated Interior. They sat down to an elegant French dinner. Truffles figured prominently in the good things, but the hewgags were not up to the fashion in such luxuries and throw truffles under the table.
One of them said, as he threw down a nice one, “I never did see so many cockroaches in victuals in my life.” They horrified the French landlord, who threw up his hands in astonishment. However, he didn’t throw them up any higher than Farny himself when be told the story to a friend. The friend didn’t smile, but merely asked, “What in the mischief are truffles, anyhow?”
