Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-11-02

y
the Cash Was Derived-The Ferris
Wheel Yeritable Bonanza-Buffalo
Bits Success.
Chicago, Oct. 2o.-Four million dol
lars is the amount of money the Column
bian exposition has received, or will
receive by the end of October. from
the people who hold concessions within
Jackson park and on the Midway.
About as nearly as it can be estimated
| that is 20 per cent of the business done
by all the concessiOnaireS at the fair
the Ferris wheel, the Intramulal rail
way, the roller-chairs, the restaurants.
the different villages, the popcorn man.
the soda water tanks and all the rest.
For an extremely dull season $1,000.
coo is not bad rake-off. 1t pays the
running expenses of the fair. 1t is a
compromise figure, too, on the eSti-
mates submitted to the DOckery COM
mittee when congress was digging into
the resources Of the exposition at the
time a loan of $5,000,O0O was asked.
Some of the estimates OH receipts from
concessions We're as low as 100000
President Higinbotham, then the chair
man of the ways and means committee
went as high as $6,00O,0OO. His esti-
mate would probably have been very
nearly correct had it not been for the
starvation period at the beginning Of
IN n 81 ~
sionaireS sat idly in their offices and
wished they had never heard of Chica-
go or the Columbian exposition or any
thing connected with it. The Midway
in those days was like the main avenue
of a burying- ground. The middle of
August, however, saw Il decided change
People began then to come to the fair,
and since that time especially since the
middle of September, the concession
aires have been reaping a rich harvest.
But it cannot properly be inferred
that all the cOncessi0naireS have grown
rich simply because they pay $1,000
900 to the exposition. Some of them
have and some have not They are
not many of them who will tell wheth-
er they have made or lost, for very
good reasons. Many of the Midway
people are negotiating with the Cali
fornia mid-winter show; others are fig
uring to get to New York and ali of
them have in view some prospect which
they do not want to jeOpardize by a
~ ct,
Paul Blacl1mar, the superintendent
of the bureau of collections, whose tin
box Drigades have been seen SO much
about the grounds, knows, perhaps
better than any one else, the profits
and losses of the concessionaires.
speaking generally" says Mr..
Bllckmar, "the concessionaires have
made money A few Of them, Of course,
have lost but those losses are more
than balanced by what others have
made | have no doubt that all Of
them would have made money and Il
good deal Of it had it not been for the
financial stringency, Which affected
the cOncesSiOnaireS as it did every one
else. The last two months have saved
them all. No one knows how much
each individual has made OF lost except
the concessionaires themselves, if
even they can tell. Except in a few
instances we do not know what their
knowing the amount of business they
have done we do not know whether it
has been profitable or not.
81 will say, though, that with nor
NAL season there is not Il concession
on the grounds THAT would not have
made money if properly managed.
Most of the Midway people have made
money as it is. I should say that all of
them had, except perhaps the restaur-
ants that were not operated in cOnnec-
ton with some exhibit. Some Of the
greatest winners are the Ferris wheel,
Cairo street, the Wellington restaurants,
Hagenbeck, the German Village and
Old Vienna, the 1ntramurai railroad,
the electric launches and gOndOlas, the
Libby Glass works, Blarney Castle, the
beauty show and a few others. Those
concessions have made money, [ think,
and some of them have made lots Of
it, If a short money market had not
kept the people away from the eXpOSi-
ton during the early months they
would have made a great deal more"
The Ferris wheel is one concession
about the profits of which there is not
any doubt 1t has made money for its
owners and more for the fair than any
other single concession in spite of the
early predictions that it would prove
an enormous loss. The Ferris wheel
cost 1892, 900. No part of its receipts
was paid to the exposition until $780,
600 Of that amount had been paid back
into the treasury of its owners. Then
the exposition claimed one-half the
gross earnings. The managers of the
wheel estimate the number of people
they carry at one-tenth of the number
of paid admissions to the fair. In
round numbers that would give them
two million passengers from whom the
wheel received S1,0OO,0OO. Deducting
the 100000 leaves 100000, of which
the exposition gets 80 per cent. Out
of the $780, 900 left to the wheel take
the balance $4,000 on the cost and
the running expenses, which are by no
! means heavy, and it leaves the profit
on the investment The biggest day S
business at the wheel was on Chicago
day, when 10000 people We're carried.
The figures on the receipts are not ex-
act, but are the estimates given by the
managers.
On the Intramursl road Mr. Black