Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-05-30
Scandal Over the Reported Attend
ance at the Fair.
MUCH SMALLER THAN WAS ESTIMATED
Lives Lost in the Wreck of q
Circus Train.
YOUNG MRS. BLAINE wEDs.
GRAVE SCANDAL AT THE FAIR.

Discrepancy Between the Estimated and
Reported Attendance on sunday.
WORLDS FAIR GROUNDS, CHICAGO. May 30
The difference between the size Of Sundays
crowd and the number of tickets received by
the admissions bureau is to be investigated by
worlds fair oficials. Two or three Of the lead
ing spirits place Sundays crowd at 200. 900,
others at 150. 600, while the United Press sent
out the conservative estimate Of I25, 900. All
Of these figures, according TO the bureau OF
admissions. are wrong. as they have returns
from but e4.857 people. The officials think the
highest estimate is nearly right, and viii try to
find out today OF tomorrow whether or not
there is a leak.
There is no way Of estimating accurately the
crowd beyond the returns from the gates-
The grounds andbuildings cover so much terri
tory that even those accustomed to estimating
crowds can hardly form an intelligent idea
Any one OF the great exhibit buildings can
swallow crowd Of many thousands and give
no hint. At one time SUNDAY afternoon, for
instance, the fisheries building, which always
attracts its share Of visitors, was 20 crowded
that il was difficult to get into the aquarium
wing. let alone to see any Of the fish.
Then, there are hundreds Of byways and
pockets. such as the side shows on the plaisancs
There WAS not a time. for instance, during the
afternoon when there were less than 1000 peo-
pie in the German village. and unless the visitor
went inside the gates he would pass them by in
the count
Director General Davis was one Of those who
personally looked over the crowds of Sunday
He said yesterday: The question of Sundays
crowd is one that is giving the officials much
concern. There is nothing TO prove that there
were more people in the grounds than n indi-
Gated by the report of the depar tment Of ed
missions. 1 cannot believe. however. that the
a nlA A. n 1aa a.
bureau Of admissions by any means indicates
the real number there were inside jackson Park
and Midway Plaisance. / do not feel. however,
that the matter should be discussed at the
present time. However, I made a tour of the
entire grounds at clock. and at that time I
am convinced there were $50 900 people in the
grounds. / had men watching the gates 10 see
how the crowds were coming. and they reported
a steady stream all the afternoon. There must
have been considerably over 200 900 people in
the grounds. 1 have brought the matter to
the attention Of proper persons and an investi-
cation will be made. ID. II. Burnheul, director
of the works. said that he was satisfied that
there were 200. 900 people in the grounds.
There is no suspicion of wrong-doing in any
departments. Nevertheless. il remains to be
settled where. when and how nearly 100000
people got in. There are several ways in
which il Is known that the gates were swindled
Sunday, though how largely is a matter of un-
certainty. People who came in on working
mems passes aiterward handed them out in
various wavs TO friends on the outside. so thAt
one ticket served for several admissions"
During the day ninety men were caught At
tempting this piece OF petty swindling. Other
people were bold enough TO try the same trick
with photograph passes. and eight of these
passes were taken from people who were caught
IN the act.
1t is also suspected that single admission
passes and souvenir tickets which had been held
x&.,.a ir .ba .-.l 80 he
est gatemeu were used. thus swelling the crowd
without increasing the gate receipts