Los Angeles herald., 1891-12-05
THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.
The Commissioners Have Great Faith in
Its Pronounced Success.
Especial Correspondencel

Its Pronounced Success.
Especial Correspondence
CHICAGO, Nov 3.-"If the Worlds fair
buildings were to be ten times the dimen-
sions that have been finally agreed upon, 1
believe there would be no difficulty in fill
ing them to the full with exhibits of one
kind and another" This is what the
chairman of an important committee, and
who is most indefatigable worker in the
interests of the exposition, said the other
day. The declaration may seem trife
strained, but it is probably within the
mark. So far all the time and energy of
the responsible authorities have been de-
voted to the work of getting the buildings
before attempting to get anything to put
into them, and the classification tabula-
ton has not yet been distributed among
the various interests for which it has been
prepared.
Missionary work abroad, moreover, may
be said to have but barely commenced with
the pilgrimages Of Ben Butterworth and
his colleagues, and it might be regarded as
trife early for applications for space to
7 load up the transatlantic mails. Not a
bit of it however. These applications are
already pouring into the general offices in
the Rand-McNally building in what may
Dc IerLQtQ COuUluuOuS Stlcdu Acy
come in almost every maitland there are
score or more of mail deliveries day
and they are coming from both halves of
the world. 1t may seem almost in
credible, but it is nevertheless fact, that
three American interests alone, the plow
interest, the dairy interest and the canned
food interest, have demanded in the aggre-
gate no less that 1000 square feet of
in tho r,,a hr1ilfincr nrapicQlv
onehalf of the entire space that is avail
able OF course it goes without saying
that such excessive demands can never be
granted but the fact is cited as indicating
what the exposition might be if it were
projected to cover quarter section of Chi
cago instead of being kept within the
boundaries of South park.
Five structures of the size of the pro-
posed main building could be pretty we'll
filed by granting the applications for
space that are already on file. AS matter
of necessity therefore, it will be a case of
having to cut the coat to fit the CLOTH and
while good many people will not get as
many feet as they are asking for square
yards, a good many others who think now
adays that all they have to do is to ask and
get it will find to their hearts sorrow that
they are not in it at all And certain it is
that the lot of those men who will be called
upon finally to allot the space to each ex-
hibitor will not be a happy one.
There is one consolation, however, in the
prospects that the supply of legitimate ex-
hibits will be in excess Of the space fRcili-
ties. That consolation is to be found in
the fact that it constitutes an effectual
barring out Of the cranks. The number of
these individuals is legion. The promoters
of the Centennial were troubled with few
of them, but apparently during the past
fifteen years they have waxed fat and null
tiplied exceedingly. A majority of them
seem to think that the exposition will be
more or less of a dime museum on a stu
pendous scale, and already the directors
have been rendered such a collection of
freak suggestions rs would, if accepted,
turn one of the biggest buildings into
museum such as was not dreamed of by
Barnum In his palmiest days. There is
man over in Wyoming who firmly believes
that the exhibition of couple of horse
pistols with which a Rocky mountain des-
perado in the olden times played havoc
with unsuspecting travellers would be a
great card
Last but not least there is the individual
who would organize and equip a complete
Monte Carlo, and eXpound to the rural
visitors the secrets and methods of that
colossal den of iniquity All of these pro-
posed exhibits and hundreds of others
which cannot be enumerated at this time
will be declined, some with thanks" and
some without There isn't room for them,
and they would not be given room even
were there plenty to spare.
HENRY M. HUNT.