The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-14


Chicago People Not Afraid That the
Time is Too short-Money in Pro-
fusion.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer.
WASHINGTON, March S.-The most con-
spicuous feature of the great exposition at
Chicago in the year 1892 will be a tower cal
cllated to surpass that OF NJ. Eiffel almost
As mountain does molehill 1t is not to
be supposed that the metropolis by the lakes
would be willing to find itself outdone in any
point by effete Europe. Therefore, if a
tower is to be had. it must necessarily dwarf
ANYTHING of the sort hitherto attempted by
man. OF course there is no record as to the
hight of the Tower of Babel. Certainly,
however, it did not compare with that of the
French engineer-it being physical impos-
sibility to pile up stones on top of one an
other in any such manner as that by which
a adder-like framework of iron may be
upllfted into tho sky. Probably, if the
truth were known, the Babel affair did not
reach an altitude Of 500 feet-if it got nearly
so high. Five hundred and fifty feet, mind
YOU, was the utmost altitude attained by a
building of human construction up to 1883
A. D. Then NJ. Eiffel, by mechan-
ical contrivarce, climbed up to 1000
feet above the ground, and his
achievement was regarded as the most
wonderful modern illustration of the evolu-
ton of man as a climbing animal from his
original arboreal condition. Now if LOCO
feet OF vertical erection was a marvel. it
follows that every additional foot was a
superadded miracle, just as every inch over
and above six feet makes a man gigantic
But Chicago will not be content to sur
pass any previous exploit by small margin
of superiority; it must insist upon aston
ishing the world with something never
before approached.
The tower of the Chicago worlds fair
will be 600 feet in hight-600 feet higher
than the one which astonished the peoples
of the earth at the French exposition. To
realize in some small measure what a differ
ence in altitude this is you have only to
place the plans of the two in vertical pro-
lection side by side. Positively the topmost
point of the Tour d'Eiffel hardly seems to
reach much above the middle of the pro-
posed Chicago monument to civilization.
Visitors to the Paris show all came away
more wildly impressed with the tower than
with anything else they saw. You
can imagine, then, what SEN
sation will be created by this
monstrous work, which is to be, in COM
parison to the colossal structure by the
Seine, as man six feet odd inches in hight
is to another whose stature is only four feet
nothing. Nor is this stupendous project
merely considered as thing that is likely to
be put through. Already it is as good as de-
termined upon, and the Phoenix Iron Works
has offered estimates for the construction of
the tower, pronouncing the plan for IL en-
tirely practicable. It will cost 81 SOC, 900,
or 100000 more than the Eiffel Tower.
AT the base it will be a circle 400 feet
in diameter, diminishing to 276 feet
in diameter at the top. Around it from
base to summit will wind stairway seventy
feet in width in spiral fashion, on which
cars will he run at one-minute Roadway by
a system newly invented. The whole dis
lance from bottom to top will be three and
three-fourths miles by car line. Also there
will be another road upward, running be-
tween the curves of the spiral already de-
scribed, for a driveway, by which car
riages may be comfortably driven I'D. Six
teen hundred feet is a big climb; but it will
not actually seem so, because the grade will
only be a little more than forty feet of
ascent in every 1900 feet or so of journey
that making one circuit of the tower at the
bottom and little more at the top. This
method of ascending will be infinitely pre-
ferable to the elevator plan of the Eiffel
tower for several reasons At every circuit
of the mighty structure the views will
change with the elevation and there will
be no such thing as the elevator seasickness,
which caused majority of the visitors to
the Tour dEiffel to 60 no farther than the
first landing.
1t will be acknowledged in the year 1892
that Chicago has the tallest thing on earth
by all odds. Suggestion has been made to
the effect that it might be better to make
the tower ,492 feet high--one footfor every
year in the date at which Columbus discov-
cred America-but this would imply a
painful sacrifice of altitude for motive not
altogether sufficient. Chicago is DESTROYS of
making Columbus as famous as possible,
but presumably not at too great a cost in
advertising value. And did ever a town
have such chance to advertise itself to the
world as has Chicago nova Nations abroad
will look upon 1t as the great American
city when they know that the discovery of
America is to be celebrated there. AS for
the tower, its model will be less picturesque
than that of M. Eiffel; but size is the main
point that makes structure of the sort i'm
pressive You can hardly realize off-hand
what 1000 feet of hight means, but when
you see a plan of the tower and notice
that the Washington monument comes up
only to little above the first of the three
landings, a notion of it begins to dawn
upon you. 1t takes a pretty big noun
tain to elevate its summit 1000 feet above
its base The Chicago tower will be man
aged as a private enterprise, its profits
DelDg permitted TO accrue TO the concern
that directs and runs it under the direction
of the worlds fair commissioners. In shape
1T will be simple truncated cone, with a
huge observatory at the top. Within the
enormous, sky-reaching framework there
will be hotel of ten floors, theater, res
taurants etc.
Possibly it may not be uninteresting to
learn what the Chicago representatives and
senators here in Washington have to say
about what the worlds fair is going to be
ike.
Representative Springer of the subcom-
mittee, to whose special care the framing
of the worlds fair bill was intrusted, re-
marked yesterday that the exposition OF
1892 would be twice as big an affair as the
centennial
Beyond Doubt" he said, "the great
feature Distinguishing it from all the
worlds fairs hitherto held will be the dis
play agricultural. In this department
all the resources, not only of the United
States, but of the three Americas will be
represented by an altogether unparalleled
show of products of the soil, implements fol
tilling the fields and live stock. Chicago
In this matter, has undertaken an enormous
responsibility, and she will go down deer
INTO her pockets for the money to make it 8
success. We shall ask nothing of the gov
eminent. The bill framed according tt
our wishes recognizes the exist
ence of the present corporation