The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-07-09
THE EXPOSITION.
What 1t Costs to See the
Worlds Fair.
HINTS OF PRACTICAL VALUE.
A Visitor Who Is a Good Manager
Need Not Spend a Small
Fortune.
HINTS OF PRACTICAL VALUE.
Correspondence OF THE MORNING CALL

Correspondence OF THE MORNING CALL
People who expect to see the Colum bian
Exposition without sacrificing pretty
large slice of their reserve fund will be
disappointed. On the other hand, those
who come to Chicago prepared to blow
themselves in very heavily will be agree
ably surprised to find how cheaply they
may live. The fair may be said to be
neither expensive nor inexpensive.
Within the gates of the exposition you
must pay. Outside the limits of Jackson
Park people bow and scrape and offer you
the earth at your own figure. The eXpla-
nation is obvious. The people upon whom
you depend within the grounds are indie
pendent embellishments is
the all too innocent name under which
they masquerade. Outside the gates ter
prising but sadly disappointed thousands
compete with each other and try to make
the best of bad bargain.
For the hotels, restaurants, effervescent
drink booths, museums, shows and special
catch-penny contrivances have thus far
turned out.sad bargains indeed.
You leave the Cottage Grove cable-car,
AZ
hour, and carries three cars to train. and
you turn toward the nearest fair gate.
Crisp new brick and terra Gotta hotels line
the streets and avenues for miles. But for
an occasional glimpse of glittering dome
or some lofty group of statuary. yOu would
Park. The hotels have Understanding
names, the word hotel" invariably pre-
cedng the remainder of the name In
capacity they range from so to 800
rooms. They are for the most part I'M
tenanted. save by idle clerks and cham ber-
maids whose situations are all but sine
cures.
You step into the Hotel Minnehaha, for
example, and four dapper young men sieZe
you politely and tell you about rooms.
They have some elegant apartments at 81,
and il you say that dollar room will suit
yo6 they scan the brand new keyrack a
moment and murmur that they have Tor
gotten those nice rooms fronting on Sixty
first street which they can let you have for
81.
And nice newly furnished rooms, you
may obtain for 81, at any except the
more expensive of the mushroom hotels.
clustering about the fair grounds.
OF course. if you want to advertise the
fact that you are a S3-roOm individual. you
have the privilege or going to one OF the
few swell hotels, where all you have to do
that all passers-by may see you, and your
object will be accomplished. But you need
not expect TO sleep any the more comfort
ably.
Sandwiched in between the hotels are
hundreds upon hundreds of smaller houses,
with cards out; and the two or three floors
over every store and shop are also min la
ture hotels, where nice rooms are TO be had
at from Is cents to 81 80 per DAY.
As you pass along, yon must run the
gauntlet of vendors of all sorts. Every
conceivable article which could poss bly, be
desired during your stay within the fair
grounds. is displayed upon unters. stands,
boxes boards, barrels and clothes-lines.
And as you walk along. you are screeched
and howied at. until you feel morally GER
tain that these vendors have been directly
imported from the ferry-iandlng at San
Francisco.
Restaurants informal-that is of kind
guaranteeing immediate apd systematic
service-invite you in n breakfast or
lunch. Still more informally. you mount a
stool at a sort of picnic booth; or you may
purchase any kind of sandwich or pie for
nickel and take your lunch with you
into the grounds.
Blue-glass men warn you OF frightful
diseases of the eye brought about by IN
protected staring at walls of dazzling
white staff; guidebook men flaunt at
least dozen different "only official guide
books" in your face; Australian hat men
shove the ugly-looking headgear in front
OF you and warn you against sunstroke
umbrella men predict thunder-shOwers ;
messenger boys and gamins If all sorts
offer their services as "guides"-"to keep
yer from ben' lost ; and as for lemonade
and soda, the streets fairly swim in them.
Outside sandwiches are cents, inside
| 10; icecream is or 10 cents outside, and
| Is and % cents inside: all cold drinks are
| double; candy and popcorn are also very
high.
The cafes, of which there are not suf-
| ficient number. are high priced where they
are not too vile for self-respectng diners
to patronize. However, you occasionally
strike one which. happens, fortunately, to
| lie between Scylla and Chraydis. and you
| stick to it as matter of mmon-sense.
In town lodgings are about the same as
in San Francisco. Downtown the average
price of front rooms is Is cents. You don't
feel at home, but you are near the stores,
banks, offices and thea ters.
Nj 0St important Of all 1t must be stated
! that the ideal quarters are between the
fair grounds and the city, along the Cot
tage Grove cable line. On this road, which
is eight miles long, stores extend uninter-
ruptedly. On the side streets and avenues
are pretty residences of all styles and sizes.
At least half of these have rooms to rent.
Many furnish also beard. 1t is the very
prettiest art of town. The avenues are
lined with trees. you are near the lake.
within twenty minutes or half an hour
ride from either the center of the city or
Jackson Park and it is quiet. peaceful and
homelike.
Throughout this entire region you may
rent choice rooms for 81 or So week. or
obtain board and lodging for from SIS to
SO. Many couples live thus for $50 and
$50 per month. being satisfied, of course,
with plain home fare.
Add to these figures 20 or 80 cents for
carfare during each day, theater money,
travelling expenses and incideDtals. and
the subject is narrowed to the fair itself.
You do get fearfully tired of planking
down so cents every day, and evening too,
for that matter, that you enter the gates.
If you are so fortunate as to be employed
in some manner about the buildings. you
have your photo pass and may come and
go as often as you please. Fifty cents a
day for the common herd. and of course