The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-12-27
JEsDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 27, 1892.
OPENING THE FAIR.
The wheels WIN Be S t in Motion After
Simple 1Exerci es.


CHICAGO, December 26.-The finishing
touches have beea. put upon the pro
gramme for the opening of the World s
Fair in May. Grover Cleveland, who
will be President of the United States
when the fair is opened, if his life is
spared, is to deliver the only address and
start the machinery with his strong right
arm. No other orator will be head. a
poem, perhaps, by Oliver Wendell
Holmes and some music will pre- EIDE Mr.
Cleveland's address. After the wheels
are all buzzling merrily and the crowds
are rushing through the building. it is
proposed that President Cleveland and
his party shall drive through the grounds
and pay their respects to the foreign
commissioners to the fair, who will be
waiting in their official headquarters to
receive the presidential party. Later
Mr.. Cleveland's carriage will stop in
front Of Festival Hall, and there the
President will hold a public reception for
two hours, from 4 to O'Clock. The
public will not have an opportunity to
attend the exercises of formally inaugu-
rating the great Exposition. Festival
Hall seats but five Thousand persons.
One thousand tickets will be reserved
for the officials of the fair, members of
Congress and others. The remaining
four thousand seats will be sold at S5
each, tickets being issued on invitation
This course was taken to get money to
pay the bills of the opening ceremonies,
the board of directors having refused to
vote any more money for that purpose,
During the six months that the Worlds s
Fair will be open there are good reasons
for believing that there viii be no strike
on any Of the railroads throughout this
country The reason for this is that all
of the railroad labor organizations, with
the exception of the sWitchmen, are, it
is said, once more to form themselves
into an analgamated association. The
meeting for the purpose of this amalga-
nation will takeplace at Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, and will be composed Of the fol-
lowing brotherhoods of railway en-
ployes: Locomotive engineers, train
men, telegraphers, locomotive firemen
and conductors. It is said that the OBJ
ject of this .amalgamation is to prevent
any railroad strike that may occur dur
ing the time of the Exposition, as such a
strike would meet with great popular
disfavor.
All sorts of exhibits are beginning to
find their way to the World S Fair. As
between, foreign countries and domestic
states the enterprise represented by
early shipments isabout equal. For the
United States government building there
was received recently a collection of sea
lions, which will go in the government
fish exhibit There was also received
a carload of ordnance exhibits from the
United States Ordnance Department.
Japan is rushing along its exhibits, and
four carloads of them have been received
for the manufacturing building. From
France was received two carloads of
taxidermists' exhibits of fine horses.
They came direct from Paris, and will
be placed in the French building. In
the greenhouses of jackson Park, Chief
Thorpe, of the bureau of Horticulture. has
placed nearly 500 different varieties of
Chinese primroses. which are now in
bloom.