Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-28
Contractors and officials Sure the
Fair Buildings Will Be Ready.
THE IMMENSE SUMS INVESTED.
Chicago Will Also Spend $5,OOO,0OO in
Permanent Improvements.
a FEATURE OF ARTIFICIAL WATERWAYS
PART III.
PAhT III.
TFROM A STAFF CORRESPONpENT.l

4llGS dIt GOHCtIuou, lnt SItdt HILLS VI Vndll-
OfIactures and the Liberal Arts, 7SSx16SS,
and to cost 1881, ,255, the mighty temples OF
Agriculture and Machinery, and the several
annexes, the art galleries and so on, they
exist on paper only as yet. For some OF
them not even the ground is ready, and
this leads me TO the changes that
have been made, and are still MAX
ing, TO fit jackson Park for Exposi-
ton purposes. In little pavilion by the
lake side in that part of the park which has
not vet been taken from the people-it is to
he closed TO the people on October 1, be-
heve-a man in white jacket behind a
e>.elancholv temperance bar-why is it
teetOtalism is ALWAYS so unattractiye? who
served me with ginger ale, and had the hon
eSty to tell me that the five-cent kind
would quench thirst Just as well as the
tweuty-fve-cent variety with a foreign
label, also remarked that the Exposition
would have been good bit further
advanced if the designers Of the
grounds had not been bent upon making all
the hills valleys, the valleys hills, the dry
land water, and the water land. And q
couple of days spent upon the site con-
WINGED me OF the business of this criticism.
noticed one place in particular at the
northern end of the grounds, where one set
Of men were filling up a canal, and another
set of men not 30 feet away were digging a
river. said to be 18 feet deepl OF course,
the land as it originally lay was not suitable
for the grand purpose in view, for a good
deal Of ii was swamp, l am told, and the
made ground amounts to many acres, but
from the workmen about the ground, as we'll
IS from nv own observation, 1 gathered
that some money and labor, not to speak of
the even more valuable lime, might have
haen saved by adapting the plans more gen.
erallv to the Law of the land. Water will
cat a bigger figure in this exposition, /
should say, than in any previous one.
WATER WILL BE PLENTIFUL.
There will be, in addition to the embraces
Of Lake Michigan. a host of artificial and
snmi-artitical waterways intersecting the
grounds OF the Exposition. a canal from
the lake viii lead from the northern side of
the lesser pier, in the lee of which will be
the naval exhibit, full sized model of
coast line battle ship of the first class, to a
series Of lagoons which will surround a
wooded island in the center of the grounds.
Other canals will debouch into basins and
small lakes in various directions, so that
almost every building in the ground will
have a water front, and it will be possible
TO make very satisfactory tour of the Ex-
position by water. The grading, dredging,
digging Of canals and lakes and the prepar-
alton of the site have cost over $500, 600.
Only an expert in such matters could
answer the question which suggests itself as
soon as the Exposition topic is broached,
namely, is the work as far advanced as it
should be? Workmen and foremen about
the grounds told me that if the work went
on at its present pace the Worlds Fair
would be ready by the appointed time, and |
h. ~ hn
tion is being built by contract. The con-
tracts call for fulfllment six months before |
the date set for the opening, which is Nav, |
1898, thus allowing the Exposition Director
ate time to remedy anv defects or to COM
plete unfinished work. The contractors are
all under heavy bonds, and the penalties for
breach Of contract are plainly de-
fined and in large amounts. The di-
rcctors Of the Exposition with whom
! discussed this phase of the matter were
comfortable in the unanimous belief that |
the Fair was well under way, the prospect |
most encouraging, and the only considera-
ble danger was that the people of the |
earth, as soon as they became fully and |
finally convinced of the Fairs genuineness,
would make such a mad rush to get there |
with their exhibits that the present di- |
of the Exposition would prove in
adequate
THE OFFICIALS HARD AT WORK.
The men with shovels and picks, the men |
who hold down the plows, the carpenters |
and the artisans, and the executive officers |
Of the Exposition, whose work is plainly to
be seen in jackson Park, are not the only |
one, laborinc in Chicago for the great fair
Go down LaSalle street to the corner of
Adams and enter the gigantic building of
Rand, McNany & Co, the publishers; go
up in the elevator to L forget which floor,
il Is hard to remember floors in these tre-
mendous Chicago buildings, and you
viii find the clerical force and director
ate Of the Exposition, to the number of
hundreds of men and women as hard at work
with pens and ink, as the brawny fellows
with spades and saws in jackson Park.
The Exposition has two whole floors of
Rand, McNally x Co.'S building, contain
ing scores of rooms and another floor in
that wonderful Office building called 'The
Bookerv," across the street.
The department with which became ac-
guainJed is that of Publicity and Promotion,
Of which Moses p Handy is the chief and
+. F. A. DOrr, an eminent PENNSYLVANIA
newspaper man, his assistant Something
Of the magnitude Of this department can be
cleaned from the fact that there are 10000
people on the mailing list, to whom inter
esting statistics and general information
about the Fair are sent regularly, and IL 900
newspapers in all parts of the world which
lre kept informed in like manner. 1t was
rom Mr.. Dorr that | obtained an exact
of the financial condition of the
Exposition and all the figures, in fact, that
nave appeared in this article
DOUBLED UP THE CAPITAL.
The stock of the Exposition Company is
30, 100000. 1t was 5000, 900 at first, but
several months ago, owing to the enlarge
nent of the plans, the amount was in
,reased to S10, 900, 900. fthis S., ,595 40 have
llready been subscribed. The subscribers,
'itizens of Chicago, number Is, ,OOO As vet
70 per cent only of the stock has been called
or, aud the amount collected is over So, ,000,-
400. 1t was on condition that s., ,0O0, 900 of
he stock should be paid up that the city of
jhicago agreed to issue So, 900, 900 bonds for
Exposition use, and this issue of bonds will
AXE place Immediately. Of course, these
ponds will be snapped up at once.
The United States Government appropri-
tied 81 800, 600. The assets of the Exposi-
ion in the treasury, broadly speaking, in
ash are close upon ten millions of dollars.
Il the original plans of an Exposition to
,ost $4,000, 900 or So 900, 900 had been ad-
lered to the financial resources in sight
low would be ample. But the plans have
expanded, and unforeseen expenditures have
,een made necessary, with the result that
ne Exposition will cost Chicago at least
~ ,OO0, 600 or SIS 900, 600 Now the Expo
ition directorate intend to ask Congress
or 100000 as loan to be secured by the
lrst gate receipts A syndicate of Chicago
'ankerS is willing to advance this S5,OOO,OOO
low, but they ask 10 per cent, or five and a
lalt million dollars worth of tickets for five
Millions