The herald., 1893-12-10
A STAMPEDE OF EXHIBITORS.
The Work Of Demolition of
the White City.
The Scene of Recent SplendOr Now
Dreary and Cherries.
Vivid Description of tho Proceedings
of the Tesrors Down-A Dream
Turned Into . Night
mAre-Notes.


CHICAGO, Dec. 1.-THE curtain has
fallen on the final scene, the last ap-
plause has died away, the vast audience
has gone home, the players departed,
the life and light flown and the theater
left dark and deserted, shadowy and
silent, turned over to the scene shiftere,
watchmsn and cleaners. This is the
nearest simile to the fair in it's present
condition.
The attendance after November 1st
Immediately dropped from six figures to
three. but never yet have two been
found to suffice for the total. Exhibit
ors began clamoring for permits to re-
move their goods long before they had
any notion of starting to pack up, AMI
the officials in that department were be.
sieged by frantic foreigners demanding,
threatening, bribing, begging and plead
ing. spicily interspersed with much
choice fowery language OF every tongue
until seeming pandemonium reigned
and the clerks were carried off by the
ambulance corps to the detention hos
pital to be treated for temporary IN
sanity.
No one had anticipated any such un-
due haste on the part of the exhibitors
to get away, but the storage warehouses
were reopened and soon vans, furniture,
express, nondescript wagons and almost
anything and everything ON wheels be-
gan pouring through the gates to haul
packages to the downtown depots.
All too soon the sacred court OF honor
was desecrated by tracks, trains and
their trails of dense smoke; this sacri-
lege turning this worshipful spot into a
huge freight yard. The constant crash
ing and banging of the cars, the putting
and shrieking OF the engines. the rattle
and thunder of heavy teams, the shout
ing and hustling of the loading crew. all
strike hsrshly on ears attuned at this
point only to the gentle tapping of the
waves, the gurgling fountains and hsr-
monious strains OF music. The arc-light
pillars stand in somber raylessness,
while the electric fountain plant has
literally been torn out by the roots,
revealing their inmost workings.
The offices OF the director-general, his
department chief, the commissions and
all bureaus, cave the construction, "
have again been taken down town, and
the rodent family, outnumbering the
Smith by thousands, now preside in
Ll6lT bb6dut anu 1.-Two buluk6 pE0tty
much their own way.
All is dreary, dismal and cherries.
Nature has st.iven to match the uni
form whiteness of the buildings by
clothing Mother Earth in vestments oi
n6 svsH lAs lAsssffisss sff9IIst trees g she
lucent pendant pearls, the Hover beds
are daintily coverleted with purest
swans down, while she has charitably
thrown mantel over the forms of the
statues, who had begun to look very
shivery in their lawn-party-in-G Garden-
of-Eden attire.
The basins. ponds and lagoons are
frozen over, forming a perfect chain of
delight for tho enthusiastic skater, but
the gay little steam launches are hushed.
the sharp-prowed gondolas spirited
away to some unknown region, and the
ducks, swans and other waterfowl that
contentedly made their homes on their
shores and tiny isles have migrated.
no one knows whittier.
Everything is veneered with snow
and hung with icicles. The popcorn
stands are as feecy without as the arti-
Gle formerly dispensed within; the band
pavilions are as crystal fringed as cut
glass chandeliers, while the LIQUID re-
freshment booths and houses stand in
various stages of icy destruction. Jack
Frost has left many signed etching;
delicate, hoary traceries of deep sea and
tropical growth, marvellous land fronde
and ocean ferns sketched in intricate
profusion. All the world is white with
rime which was once golden haze of
sunshine.
The interiors are in q perfect chaotic
condition, and colder than the open air.
and no one hazards life and limb lust to
view an ENHANCEMENT of packing cases.
The buildings seem to have outliyed
their usefulness, and as this grounds now
stand it is wilderness OF beautiful
nothingness. When to the sessions of
sweet, silent thought, / summon up
remembrance OF things past" the Co.
lumbian exposition will not haunt the
halls ef memory in this form.
But perhaps the faintest shadow OF
OF the great fair is the plaieance. This.
which was once the most hilarious and
gayest quarter. is now the most lonely
and forlorn. The street OF all nations
is deserted, and even visitors are denied
entrance. The strange people have all
returned to their far away isles, deserts.
forests and steppes. although some have
gone to add glory to the midwinter fair,
If they carry with them the anady rapu-
tation Chicago ceded their haunts, that
so-called ''internationaP exposition will |
be great success, financially. Some of
the dwellers below the equator STAYED |
until they were literally frozen out, then
left fri9id Christianity and civilization
for torrid heathenism and barbarism-
and happiness. But they took with |
them much good American gold, or at
least had it changed into their own or
English currency, and as the possession
of a hundred dollars makes a person a
multi-millionaire in the eyes of the
people of come countries, there are now
many future nabobs on their way home,
The Ferris wheel no longer goes round,
and several villages are already totally
razed. When the wind whistles in sandy
gusts from the Stone Island line to the
Cottage Grove mile end it initiates not
the baggy trousers of the Turk, chills
not the Javanese, fills not in homelike
way the optics of the Sahara desertite.
balloons not the rope of the Egyptian,
plays not in the names of the South See
ISLANDERS, and dismays not the Dahom-
ms, for none OF them are there, except
n spirit.
The disposition of the dozen or 40 ex-
position buildings proper seems to be
question of universal disagreement. OF
ouree the state and foreign buildings
re to be removed, but what would be
he best way to adjust The matter of the
arger structures is subject on which