The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-08-27
What 1t Costs to Run the
Great Exposition.
1T HAS HELPED CHICAGO.
People Who Are Making Money Out
of It-Concessions Pay
Expenses.

me STATUE OIL icloFY INTO tue AQnl0lStra-
tion building of the Worlds Fair to-day to
see the director-generaL. This building
contains the Offices of the men who are
managing the great show. 1t is covered
by a great gold dome and mortgage. The
dome is very big and very costly. The
mortgage. by which L mean the indie bted-
ness of the fair, is also big and it repre-
sents millions. The dune covers nearly
half an acre and 1t shines out under the
sun above the great city of Chicago. The
mortgage covers all the seven hundred odd
acres of shows here aud it can be seen
blazing over Chicago all the way from New
York TO San francisco. The dome will be
wiped out at the end of he fair, when
the Administration building will be sold to
the highest bidder. Whether the mort
gage will be wiped out or not remains to
be seen. The direetor-genera thinks it
will. 1t was to ask as to this that called.
Walking over the marble floor of the
rotunda past the pretty girl in the center
who peddles out for 81 each silver souvenir
Columbian half dollars, though in reality
they contain less than 10 cents worth of
metal, l reached one of the half dozen steel
elevators which carry you to the upper
floors. At the second stop was landed,
anu d ldlti, buIOuEu lil6 III OuuC-
ton of Major NJ. j. Handy. was in the big
parlors of the director general. a tall.
robust, gray-haired, ay-bearded man,
with an eagle eye and brunette COM
pleXlon, was presented as the manager of
the Worlds Fair, Director General Davis,
aud be, I'D response TO my question, said:
The Worlds Fair is doing better every
day. It will pay all its debts, and we Will
come out even. We are cutting down our
expenses in every way, and the saving
from the music under Thomas is to be fol-
lowed by other radical reductions. Pro-
fesSor Thomas and Isis orchestra cost US
just $500 day, and the people who heard
him had to pay 81 apiece to go to his
concerts. 1t took me several months TO
get rid of him. Think of it! Eighteen
hundred dollars day! Why it costs only
$500 day TO run the great buildings OF
the exposition. We are reducing right
along. Our next cut will be as TO the gates,
which cost $500 a day. aud we Will cut
also IN otner quarters.
what Goes it now cost TO run the ex-
position ?" said |.
cit costs just about $4,000 a day now.
but an average in the past has been far
above that. When we were building we
spent $40. 600 or more day for weeks and
money had to flow like water. We have
labored under great disadvantages. All
the work has been done under the eight
hour law, and that law has increased the
expenditures Of the fair over 81 ,OOO. 600
The trades unions have regulated our
prices, and we paid double wages for the
work we had to have done Op Sunday In
order to get ready in time. Some of our
contracts were made for the entire perlod
of the fair when they should have been
made for short time, and the expense of
the whole has been materially increased
through the haste we nave had 20 make"
Where does this $4,000 day that it
tn ri
asked.
at is spent in all sorts of ways" was
the reply. "a large amount has 20 be
paid out for guards. police and detectives.
We have about 200 detectives and 1900
guards. The number of guards has been
criticized as being too large. but we need
them to provide against fire. The statue
Fire Controlled above this building is
typical of our work. We have here one of
The most inflammable cities of the world
and one of the most dau gerOus as regards
loss of life. Suppose fire should break
out in the manufacturers building, ma
chinery hall or the electricity building
and should gain Roadway. Think
Of the electric wires charged with
hundreds upon hundreds of volts of cleo
tricity that might fly about as wild wires.
If we were not prepared for them they
would deal death al every touch. Why
some of those wires are charged up to one
h
other day and fell into pond covering
nearly an acre of ground. A man was
standing in the waters of this pond a good
distance from the wire. He is now laid I'D
with a sore leg coming from the electric
shock be got at that time. | have it now
arranged so that theSa wires can all be
deadened at once. If it were not sn and
fire should break out the results would be
more terrible than any confiagratOn of his
tory. We have already had fifty fires, but
they have been put out 50 promptly that
the people have never heard of them. AS
it is our fatalities have been very few. We
have had in round numbers 100000
people on these grounds. We have built
these great buildings with the men clinch.
ing the bolts oil some of these great iron
structures as they were put together, hang
ing onto the beams while they were NOV
ing, and all told only fifty men have been
killed, and not more than 700 wounded. In
other words, including visitors, only one
man in every ten thousand. so far con-
nected with the fair has met with an acct
dent. The only building burned has been
the storage building, aud for this we were
not responsible.
You must also remember that these
great buildings are not like ordinary siruc-
lures. They are fragile, and, solid a they
look, you could kick hole into them at
almost any point"
"Wnat is TO become of these buiIdings?"
i asked. Will there be fair next year?"
NO" replied Director General Davis.
"A fair next year with these buildings is
an impOssbilty. They would n OF last the
winter through. The glass roofs are so
Constructed that they would be broken bv
the ice, and the buildings would fall to
pieces. l know there is some talk of an
exposition next year, but 1t is out of the
question"
How about the extending of the exposi-
tlon on into November"
Il cant say whether 1t will be extended
or not. / think it might be good thing
Tor us if we could have ten days, two weeks
or even more in November, and it would
help us out. Whether Congress will be
asked for this and whether it will be
granted cannot now say, but it is very
probable that some such movement Will be
undertaken"
Has the panic hurt the fair?" [ asked.
Yes" replied General Davis, sit has re-
onced our attendance at least 5000 day
ana our receipts proportionally far more.
Inc rich men OF the country are not COM
ing TO the fair. Capitalists, bankers,
merchants and the men who usually spend
a great deal of money at such places as
tGls are staying at home TO watch their
business. The financial condition is such
that they are afraid to go away. The banks
q Ea nn.N