The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-08-02
THE FAIRS FINANCES.
The First Half of the Big Show
Not Entirely Satisfactory.
NO PROFITS FOR STOCKHOLDERS

Exposition oGioials Charge the Railroads
with Responsibility for Smaller Attend
Rnoe Than Was Expeoted-President
HiGinbotham Hopeful for the Future.
CHICAGO, Aug. 2.-with the closing of
the gates Monday night the first half of
the Columbian exposition passed into his
tory. The number OF paid admissions dur
ing the month was 2, 2,759,971. and the Iarg-
est number of pnid admissions was regis
tered July 4, when 2s3,2 ,2T3 people deposited
the admission fee with the ticket seller
The smallest number was on Sunday last,
when only 1887 paid admissions were re.
corded. The paid attendance for May was
1,050,o37, while that OF June more than
doubled this figure, reaching u total of
2,6751l3 ...-
Officials of the fair arc greatly pleased
with the artistic success OF the exposition,
but this much cannot be said of the fnan-
cial end Of the enterprise. The enterprise
has failed largely to reach the mark it was
expected to attain during the first half of
the fair, and especially during the month
of July. For this the railroads are in the
main held responsible, and the officials do
not hesitate to criticize their stubbornness
and meanness in refusing to make one
fair round trip Mt the beginning of the
fair. The present hard times have had
much to do with the poor attendance but
the management thinks the people could
have attended largely had the railroad
fares been reduced.
There must necessarily be large at
tendance during the remaining period of
the fair IL the management expects to pay
its debts, and this is all they now hope to
do. 1t is foregone conclusion that the
stockholders of the fair will get nothing
on their inves tment nor will their sub
scriptions be returned, as the money for
which the exposition is legally liable
amounts to SO much that 1t will take a
tremendous daily average of paid admis-
sions to release the obligation.
President Higinbotham is as hopeful as
any of the officials in the matter of finance
He said today:
II have only one fault to find with the
first half of the fair. The attendance has
not been what it ought TO have been. In
all other respect the exposition has been
success, rs no one can reasonably deny, but
in that respect the first half is by no means
the better half believe that the attend
ance from now on will steadily increase. l
believe that tho admissions this week will
exceed those of last There have now been
about 6,5O00o0 admissions. Certainly more
than that many will be registered during
tendance will more than double those fig
ures. The latter half of the fair will sur
prise us as much with large attendance
as the first hal ( has disappointed us with
bad"
The retirem ent policy will be renewed at
once with increased vigor. One of the first
effects of economy Is felt in the elimina
tion of one "special' night per week
Heretofore Tuesday, Thursday and Satur-
day were designated as special nights, and
were rendered attractive by band concerts
fireworks, etc. This feature has been
abridged to two nights, and Wednesday
and Saturday will hereafter be known as
"spccial' nights. There will be no music
at night except upon those days, and the
hours for the day concerts have been
changed so as to divide tho music equally
between the morning and the afternoon
The free orchestra concerts will be given
as usual, when the orchestra is not en-
gagged in rehearsing for an afternoon pro-
gram. at least for the present. The new
arrangement will work saving of few
hundred dollars daily.
The paid admissions at the fair yester-
day were 764lS