Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-05-24
IT rs ALL GREAT.
The Worlds Fair Built on a
Model of vastness.
BONE SURPRISING COMPARISONS.

Great Piers, Great Railways, Great Hotels.
Great Expectations of Great Crowds in
ChicaGo-Optica1 Delusion Caused by
the Bigness of Things in the Monster
Exposition=
WoRLG's FAIR, May %. [Speciall -
Every one who comes to see the Colum-
blan exposition is at once impressed by the
vast scale on which everything in connec-
ton with the fair has been planned or con-
structed. This is almost as noticeable
without the grounds as within. Even in
the central part of the city one observes
immense hotels that obviously have been
opened for Worlds fair trade. At the
lake front park are still more striking evil
dences of the exposition boom and of the
fact that the Chicagoans have made all
their plans in anticipation of an enor
nous influx of visitors. In the harbor is
a big fleet of steamships waiting to carry
passengers to jackson park, eight miles
away. Some of the vessels are new, as the
monster whaleback passenger steamer
which has just arrived from Duluth, and
which is said to be able to carry 5000 per-
sons. AS yet not many people use the
steamers, for the weather is not very
warm here and every one is in hurry to
get to the fair. But later in the summer,
when the mercury rises and the city be-
comes disagreeably hot, thousands upon
thousands will be glad to avail themselves
of the opportunity to refresh body and
soul during an hours ride on the cool lake.
For the accommodation of these crowds
enormous piers and landings have been
constructed. On one of the piers is an
immense pavilion, in which is a restau-
rant, besides many other attractions de-
signed to take the nimble nickels, dimes
and quarters from the pockets of the null
titude. Near by are other piers and land
ings, and the steamers constantly going
and coming with their passengers and
their bands of music make a scene of great
animation.
Here too is the terminus of the Illinois
Central Worlds fair railway. An elabo-
rate system of platforms and turnstiles
has been provided, and almost every min
ute of the day the special express trains
are arriving from or departing for the ex-
position To take care of the Worlds fair
travel this road must have spent two mill
ions of dollars. 1t bought hundred loco
motives and nearly thousand cars. Be
sides, it elevated several miles of track in
the vicinity of the exposition grounds.
These preparations on so vast a scale have
produced an admirable result. The special
trains start out every two or three min
utes, ten cars in train and each train
carrying, when all the seats are occupied,
$50 persons. There are eight parallel
tracks one line OF double rails being used
for these Worlds fair expresses, which
make no stops and do the journey in fiji
teen minutes, another serving the subur-
ban trains, of which there are 3l2 in day
Increased this summer from 1S9), the third
carrying the through passenger and eXcur-
sion trains, and the fourth the freight
traffic.
On the way to the fair visitors behold
scene of much interest. In the lake, the
steamers plying to and fro. At the.water's
edge the trains whining past each other
every minute or two. Not far from the
shore the cable roads and the trains on the
elevated road may be seen, and now and
then one gets glimpse of the big coaches
with their four horses swinging along the
boulevards. All the way out may be seen
hotel after hotel, many of them enormous
structures covering half or the whole of
q block and with from six to twelve stories.
These increase in number as the region of
the fair is reached, and extend for mile
or two back from the lake. After stran-
ger has gazed upon acre after acre of these
big buildings, and noted the innumerable
smaller structures and private houses
which have been converted temporarily
into inns, he rightly concludes that Chi
cago has gone into this Worlds fair bust