Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-26
WORLDS FAIR FACTS
A Dispatch Inquiry Into the
Exact Status of Chica-
gO's Exposition.
THE SITE REALLY SUPERB.
Actual Progress Which Has Been
Made on the Various Buildings.
ONE RAILROAD COMPANY'S SNAP.
The Manner in Which the Long Lake Front
Will Be Utilized.
IMMENSE AMOUNT OF WORK TO BE DONE
THE SITE REALLY SUPERB.
ONE RAILROAD COMPANY'S SNAP.
IMMENSE AMOUNT OF WORK TO BE DONE
PART /.
rFRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENTS


ting clear idea of how the Worlds Fair
was progressing, The DISPATCH commits
stoned me to visit Chicago, and report what
! could see of the actual conditions, and the
general status of the enterprise. Every
thing that follows in these columns is there
fore the direct result of personal inquiry
and observation, and is entirely impartial
and from the standpoint of a Pittsburger
anxious to know the truth about the Ex-
position.
The pleasantest and quickest way to reach
the site of the Worlds Columbian Exposi-
tion, if you are located downtown in the
hotel district as visitors are apt to be, is to
take the Illinois Central train at Van
Buren, street and ride to either South Park
or Wood Lawn stations, the first being at
the northernmost end of the Fair site and
The other about the center. The journey
takes about 20 minutes, the cars are clean
and airy, and you can get from the windows
a good view of the Lake Front, and some
gllmpseS Of the more pretentious residences
of wealthy Chicago. But if YOU want to ap-
proach the place where the great Worlds
Fair is to be held in 1898, with some knowl-
edge Of what Chicago is to-day, and
to what extent she is justified
IN such gigantic undertaking
1t is best to eschew comfort and the steam
cars put time out of the question and board
Cottage Grove cable car on Wabash avenue
and 90 with it, despite the rattle and shak-
ing, the dust and the inevitable incense of
bad cigars, TO the uttermost parts of the
State Of Illinois in Chicago's ample grasp.
SIGNS OF sTUPENDoUS GROWTH.
By the time the car swings around the
loop at Fitty-ftth street you will under
stand some of the phases of Chicago's stu
pendous growth better than you did before,
The day boarded Cottage Grove cable
car ii was very hot, though stiff breeze
from the northwest blew some coolness as
well as lots of dust along the broad streets.
Wabash avenue, along which this car pro- I
ceeded, for the nrst mile or two is not es-
pecially lovely, and it contains the
mixture of fine and unsightly build
ings, so often encountered in Chicago
Cottage Grove avenue has not much of the
sylvan character its name suggests, but /
there still survive some scrubby villas,
which by courtesy might be called cottages,
among the handsome blocks of stores and
fats and private houses.
Down the eros. streets for miles, how
ever, can be seen long vistas of more ambi-
tious structures, the homes of the well-to-
do SouthsIders; and the variety of archi-
lecture and of material in these homes, as
well as in the churches and semi-public
buildings, makes the residential side of
Chicago far more interesting than that of
most American cities. Gradually the ser
ried blocks of brick and stone, the broad |
avenues and regular pavements, were left |
behind, and houses appeared irregularly |
amid the brown grass and dust of the |
prairie, like shapely islands in a calm |
but dingy sea The city limits at |
Thirty-ninth street in a rough sort of way |
mark the boundary line between the closely |
built city and the scattering suburbs but |
how quickly the prairie is being devoured |
by the builders, the newness of the COM |
pleted houses and the activity of brick |
layers in hundreds of spots within view of |
the Cottage Grove ears attest.
THE REAL ESTATE MANS PARADISE.
Every 20 feet or so of vacant land a huge
placard announces with more or less tempt
ing adjectives the desirability of the site
''FOr Sale" Nerv often three or four
signs struggle for recognition from one 2Ox
100 feet lot, and the horizon is lost in a
forest of such emblems of real estate deal
ers' enterprise. l noticed COW that might
have oncebeen white staring with melan-
choly eyes at one of these "For Sale" signs,
and doubtless regretring that such
things were not edible, since
there were far more of them than
grass on the scorched prairie Through
his region, where real estate imitation has
checked progress, one approaches jackson
Park, whereOn the world is TO meet Chicago |
in friendly competition.
To tell the truth, the desperate fatness of
the country and the unvarying superlatives
Of the real estate agents have discour-
aging effect upon the spectator, but by the
time the Exposition opens this section, as
likely as not, will have been solidly built
up, and the vanity of projection have dis
in the reality of well-paved
streets and handsome residences. l speak
Of IL as 1t is to-day; and it must be said that
the street car ride in its last stage rather
wearies the traveller to the Exposition site.
The car lands you finally stones throw
from the South Park station of the Illinois
Central Railroad, and at the gateway of
Jackson Park. A thing that strikes the
casual observer at once is the exuuisitely
good thing the Illinois Central has in the
location of the Exposition. The wide tracks
Of the railroad almost inclose the Exposi-
ion on the western side, for the Exposition
les wholly between the Illinois Central
Railroad and the lake. The advantage. of
|
he dozen tracks of the Illinois Central
Railroad that form a steel band between
he Exposition and the land, afford most
access for transportation of ma
erlals for the buildings, of exhibits later
md Of visitors last of all
DID NOT MISS VERY MUCH.
There is an impression in the East that
he Illinois Central did not secure everv-
hing 1t wanted in regard to the location of
he Exposition, but TO the unbiased OBJ
erver 1t looks as if even a railroad CORPORA
ion could hardly desire ANYTHING more ,
han the Illinois Central has obtained, un- {
esS II might be the closing of the lake s
rout to steamers and the abolition of street I
ar lines entirely. Under the circum- ,
tances 1t is not wonderful that the Illinois :
.entral is regarded with awe by most Chi S
agoans or that il is related that a Cook j
ounty infant asked his mother in good {
aith if the Illinois Central were the only $
ure-enough route to heaven. S
Crossing the wide avenue of rails, and |
'asslng by the booths, where a man with :
ut any eyebrows begged me to taste the ,
magic sweetness Of brass band reproduced q
n phonograph, and others proclaimed the ,
xcellence Of their tin-tvpes, their peanuts, ,
op-com and park ponies, entered the re- t
reshing green shade of the park itself
About a quarter of miles walk 6
rought me to a tight-board fence about u
eet high which ran as far Us the eye could 7
ee, in one direction toward the lake, and t
D the other at first at right angles to the t
IKE and then parallel with it,
This fence keeps ont the curious public |
rom the Exposition site, and if it were not l
here work would be impossible, for half f
hicago would be out to see how things /
ere coming along all the time. An in {