The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-18
WAGON LOADS OF MONEY.
It was Tramped Under Foot at the
Fair on Chicago Day.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
Chicago day and its crowds surprised
all the world, but they surprised Chicago
just as much. Seven hundred and thir-
teen thousand persons sdoes not form the
largest crowd the world ever saw; it is
not as large a crowd as gathered in this
city during the recent naval celebration
but it is the largest assemblage that was
ever numbered, that ever had its noses
counted, and that ever was passed
through a set of turnstiles to count up its
own proportions as printed sheets are
counted at the end of one of the Suns
swift presses.
Looking back on Chicago day, the most
wonderful thing about it is seen to be the
handling of the money at the worlds fair
gates. AS the crowds pushed up to the
ticket sellers booths all day long, the
money kept accommodating on the little
shelves in the tiny booths until it rose in
wavering, unsteady piles of greenbacks
and pyramids of silver coins. AS the day
wore on, the ticket sellers fought to keep
| the money on the shelves, but they needed
| more hands than they were possessed of,
| for it took two hands to take in the
money, make the change and pass out the
| tickets. Presently the silver began to
slide upon the floor in each booth, and
| the greenbacks refused to keep in their
! do a strange thing. They swept the
paper and coin off the shelves and down
upon the floor With bare shelves they
| began new Accommodations of this broken
up wealth. Still the money literally
| poured in, as if the little ticket windows
| We're the mouths of cOnduits leading from
the mint of the richest nation on earth.
1t poured in, and it kept on pouring in
| Again the loose piles of greenbacks began
to waver. Once more the dollars and
half and quarter dollars assumed the
rough piles that coal makes when it is
| dumped upon a pavement. Again the up
| per layers of the coin mounds began to
| slip OFF upon the floor, and once again the
men swept their collections down upon
the boards.
| Again and again this happened. Up to
that day it had been the custom to take
in the money in a leisurely way, with
| much care that was born Of knowledge
| that the slightest loss must be made good
or a new man would stepin the old ones
place and the old ones bondsmen would
! be called upon to retrieve the commits
| siOn's loss So accurate and so strict was
| the accounting that the Chicago newSpa-
pers had called the worlds attention to
| these men as the most rigidly disciplined
and the most absolutely correct money
changers outside the treasury depart
ment or the Bank of England. ThC
| tickets to the fair are numbered, and the
rule was that each ticket seller
should so stack his money as to be able
to count it all up quickly at night, and to
! turn it in, cent for cent, with the amount
called for by the difference between the
| nun bers on the first and last ticket of
the days sales. But now all this was
changed. The men were overpOwered by
the flood of money that swept in upon
them. In time it began to look as II they
might be drowned in coin and bills. No
longer able to keep the bills in piles, ac-
cording to their denominations, theyc came
by degrees to sweeping them all upon the
floor of each booth, where it rose to their
shOe-tops, and where they not only stood
in it, but trampled it down and walked
on it, and disregarded it as men in coal
yard or grain boat walk upon the stuff
they deal in.
Word of all this was sent to the treas
urer of the fair. The news came stimuli
taneously with the knowledge that he
would that day be able to wipe out the
indebtedness of the great corporation, to
pay the bondholders, aud to start upon a
career of profit with a venture that had
cost, all told, more than S25, 100000, sew
enteen millions and half being the cost
exclusive of the state and foreign nation
Buildings The treasurer had to abandon
his discipline just as completely as the
ticket sellers had disregarded their habits
of care and accuracy. Instead of demand
ing a careful comparison of moneys taken
in with tickets given out and an instan-
taneous closing of accounts be
TWEEN each man and the fair, he
simply sent around lot of wagons and
men to scoop in the money and bring it to
headquarters. The wagons carried gunnY
bags, and into these the men shoveled
the money, gledy-piggledy coins and
bills all together scooping it no by the
shovelful, and then scraping the rest of
the boards around and from under the
mems feet. Thus more than $685. 500
were loaded into the wagons as if they
were the sweepings and debris of the fair
grounds put into bags for convenience in
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