Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-05-25
CENTENNIAL LETTER.
Progress of the Show-some of the Fellows /
who are Sick-Counting Chickens Before |
they are Hatched.
PHILADELPHIA. MAY 20. is

PHILADELPHIA, May ~, 1910.
If the success of the Centennial Show
could he fairly measured 10y the atten-
opening it would he a good time now
To take back some of the glowing and
extravaganza things that have hereto
fore been said. 1t has really been
an exceedingly dull week, with consid-
erably less than 10000 average daily
attendance. But this state of facts is
simply in the natural order of things
and not in the least disc0uraging. The
cold, wet and disagreeable weather has
of itself been enough to keep everybody
at home; and then the impression has
got abrOad-and it is correct too-that
the Exhibition lacks good deal of be-
ing ready. The unfinished condition
of the walks and numerous buildings,
together with the mud and rubbish and
the work of unpacking one has still to
encounter about the grounds, are by no
means features calculated to attract.
When it is known that tens of exhibits
are arriving daily, people naturally
enough feel that there is no hurry But
this is no indication that they wont
come by and by. The success of the
exhibition is assured both by its i'm
mensity and the interest and ell
thusiasm manifested everywhere, espec-
tally on the opening day. 1t is stated
that considerable disappointment is
felt by the Centennial. direction
and in business circles generally at the
limited number, and what they are
pleased to term the severe economy, of
visitors. So far as the exhibition is
concerned there is no occasion for mis-
giving. When the pressure of spring
business shall be over, and the Exhibit
ton complete for inspection, the peO-
pie will come from every section, not to
parade the streets and gaze in the shop
windows, bat to cluster about the great
fairy-land in the Park and study its
beauties day after day, until they are
content, and then most of them will go
away to return for farewell visit in
the autumn to what this generation can
never see again. 1t may be that the es-
Inmates early made of the millions of
visitors will prove little Jules Verney,
but the people are certainly coming.
But for the thousands of speculative
sch onlalu m r.lrtaE tho
unsuspecting people who are to come
here nobody will have sympathy. They
went upon the theory that fool and
his money are soon parted, and that
the city would be overrun with people
anxious to spend their accumulated
wealth; or that they would be naked
and hungry and they would take them
in; that there was to be a famine of
provision and harvest of greenbacks.
But they counted their chickens before
the eggs were laid. The cafes and re-
freshment places inside of the grounds,
which charge treble or quadruple prices
for ordinary meals and drinks, will fail
disastrously, as they most justly deserve
to fail. L have seen bills rendered for
ordinary dinners amounting to from
three to four dollars, which at any of
the best restaurants in Philadelphia
would not have cost more than dol
lar, and if any one is so stone-blind as
not to see by this time that fifteen cents
for glass of soda-water and fifty cents
for a sandwich will make visitors alb
solutely withhold their patronage, they
will learn 1t finally to their sorrow.
The clearinghouse and extemporized
hotels promise to be not the least of
these sufferers, and l am glad of it.
There are many hundreds of them all
demanding 81 to So per day for the
most ordinary accommodations, such
as can be obtained in any other city,