The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1893-07-22

The course oil prices was up ana up
every thing was screwed up tight to the
top notch, aud there it was left to await
tho actual opening OF the fair. And
there it is to-day, awaiting purchasers
who do not materiaiize. Tho general
financial situation OF the country and
the transitory character OF much OF the
building invoked into life by the iair,
weigh now like lead on the market. II
doesn't move upward because in the es'
timation OF would-be purchasers there
is no margin lett ior such u move, tho
natural growth OF several years having
been anticipated, and it doesn't move
downward because rs yet holders are
hoping against hope that visiting
capitalists, enchanted by the glamour
oil the "White City, at Jackson Park,
will DO carried away by their enthusl'
asm and become purchasers, Therefore
they hold on, They would be glad to
take the price they could have got in
the fall OF 1890, but they can't get 1t
now. All around me, out in the neigh
borhood OF the fair where | am stop
ping, | SEQ vacant lots with from two to
q half dozen signs OF competing agents
stuck up, here and there on their areas,
informing visitors that the property Is
for sale. Right under my eye is q lot
that cost the owner $1,000 u few years
ago, and that he could have sold for
5000 in 100, but the opportunity went
by unimproved and now exists no more,
And this is only u sample OF the general
situation everywhere within the radius
that was set wild by the fur location.
Ii history shall repeat itself all such
property must return to its normal
value when the fair, like the Arabs
OF the Plaisance, has folded it's tents
and passed away, OF course the real
estate referred to is not going back to
the prices of five years ago, Rapid
transit extensions all through 1t and
around it will prevent that The
South Side electrics and the cross town
olectrics have put u large amount OF
property on n new basis OF value as
compared with five years ago. What 1t
must drop is tho purely fictitious value
conferred by tho fair. That factor has
spent its force and there is now great
crop OF disappointments TO take its
place. Tho two dollars u day for u
small room that all these new and old
h~ouseholders were going to receive for
the six months OF the FUR has dropped to
one dollar, and, lower still, to 70 and 90
cents, and still great numbers oil them
are |untenanted. The American people
were not so hungry for u Worlds Fair
as these people supposed they would
be. They concluded to remain at homo
and await the dawn OF common sense
ut Chicago, and the event proved that
they have made money by so doing
EFFECr OF SUNDAY OPENING.
There arc several other factors that
have exercised an untoward influence
on the fair attendance up to this time.
One OF these is the religious controversy
over the Sunday opening, and another
is the railroad rate. The Sunday OPEN
ing business was the monumental dzzle
OF latter days. Tho directors finally
made a virtue OF necessity and shut the
gates. They lost money and lost stand
ing (as alleged contract breakers) by
opening them and got the i'll will Of in.
Vulnerable people beside. An evidence
of this is seer in the fact that the boxes
containing the Presbyterian exhibit in
the liberal arts department. OF the fair
has never yet beon opened. Whatever
thetmerits OF Sunday opening, disCon-
nected from the alleged contract with
the government, they need not now be
discussed. The alleged breach Of con
tract was tho real thing that had weight
with a good many people who had no
prejudice otherwise against Sunday
opening. Coupled with tho aroused
Sabbitarian sentiment of the Prosby-
teriQns and others, it made itself felt.
In addition to this was the insutIiCiency
in itself OF the attraction OF n half.shut
fair to excitement and curiosity seekers.
A half.shut fair at half-price was no 20,
and so it iizzied ingloriously il not igno-
miniously to u wholly shut one.
The business aud financial condition
OF the country, which gets no better
but rather worse, is another and i'm
p~ortant unsettling influence thai mill
tates against tho fair. ANY year OF all
the last twenty years would have boon
preferable to 1893. 1t is most unfortu-
nate that after all this preparation in
the good years Of lS9l-02 tho fair
should encounter such an %overspread
sky as now hangs over tho country. A
friend writing to INC from the iron re-
gion OF Alabama on the 18th uses these
words in tho course Of his letter: ~
have been in active business nearly
thirty years and have never known the
conditions to DO us bad US they arc
now" This expresses tho general
manufacturing situation. With banks
%suspending all over the west and hard
driven elsewhere, and people on the
anxious bench about either their money
or their employment, it is not to be
expected that they will feel like coming
of on Il pleasure trip to the Worlds
Fair; not at least until they SEQ that
the lightning is not going to strike their
own houses, and not even then until
they see what Inducements the rail.
roads are going to otler. To the masses
OF the people reduced expenses will
mean more than usual this fall.
You have noticed, Of course, that
Chicago stands up we'll under the
financial pressure that is now upon all
bank centres in tho west. She ought
to, for the money OF tho country Is
coming here in tho pockets of visitors
and is left to the extent ut least OF two
hundred thousand dollars per day, or
say u million and n quarter per week.
This Is fresh blood IN its municipal
circulation aud gives tone and health to
tho financial and business situation
hero. No great wonder that her banks
have not issued clearing house cOttia.
Gates up to this timo' A.@ I. G.
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