The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-24
FINISHING THE BIG FAIR.
They are Rushing Night and Day in
Jackson Park.

Grounds - Snorting Locomotives,
Gathering Hammers and Multitude
OF Saws-opening Day Draws Near,
but a Week Will Do wonders-The
Lives the Fair Has Cost.
Copyright 1889
Chicago, April 22-Clear the track .
Look out for the locomotive" is not one
of the signs in jackson park, but steam
trains are snorting through the grounds,
delivering freight at the great show build
inGs and startling the early visitors by
their peremptory passage.
How fantastic the engine and train
looked this afternoon as the engine, tender
first, came putting over the bridge of the
south canal, its black smoke wreathing
about one of the historic columns. blurring
the stupid looking plaster bear on the
parapet and sounding across the grand
basin toward the Agricultural building
ana statue of the Repuolcl
How picturesque this last lap" of the
fair is
How the clang of the engine bell and
CHATTER OF the hammers and the hum Of
the saW-mill and tramp of thousands of
feet and score of other particular sounds
jUmbled together affect the mind with a
sense of rush that somehow epitomizes in
its own way the haste to get there that
CharaCterizeS our national life
The saw-mill between the Transporta-
ton building and the incomplete Choral
hall huns and sputters all day long, and
carts block the passage to the nearby
gates and threaten to .topple YOU with
their loads OF long tapping boards
Regiments, armies Of workmen are
scattered through the grounds A regi-
ment does not go far in an area so vast
as this white city by the sea. When the
roof Of the Manufactures building leaks
they put coo men up there to tinker the
difficulty, and to the eye of the observer
from the ground a little distance OF these
men look like so many flies swarming on
a sugar barrel. A few thousand men are
scarcely within the gate when you miss
and lose them. 1t is impossible to say
where they have gone.
The truth is that they have gone every
where. They are in the rafters and under
the floors. They are painting Sky tiuts
in pasodas and chalking spaces in Ma
chinery hall. They are Juggling at der
ricls, shoveling in trenches, clinging to
tops of electric light poles, laying soil,
making repairs where wood and plaster
have stopped looking like marble, roofing
side shows, picking into ground that
holds its frost till the last minute, putting
together badly dislocated Venuses, filing
water tanks. standing up signs that ask
YOU to keep of imaginary grass unhou5-
ing statuary, patching weatherbeaten
groups, steadying the parapet goats and
bears. padding lumber RATS on the canal,
carrying shoulder loads of lumber, con-
ferring with walking delegates, discussing
plans with directors, eating lunch in odd
corners and answering the questions of
bewildered visitors.
In fact, the fair is alreadya great sight
the greatest sight this country has ever
seen.
The ensemble OF the building as the
scafIoldiues come down and the statuary
gets into position SurpasSes anything that
has ever been devised in the way of an
exhibition These structures are made
of iron, wood and plaster, but they have
the beauty of actual marble and granite.
The lagoon ratings, the statuary, all the
wood and plaster devices, although only
so much theatrical bollowness in fact,
have every pictorial charm that could be
long to the real thing The illusion in
the buildings is often marvellous. The
touch of weather since the plaster was
laid on has given the effect of maturity
to many of the buildings They look as
if they had stood for a century and were
good for another. in the sun they CLEAN
white and beautiful in vistas of such fine
distance as neither the Roman forum nor
the Atheniau capital could boast.
II is a great theatrical bluff. But it
goes The sham that would break the
rules of good architecture under other
circumstances is eXcuSable under the eN-
igencies of a show that is only TO last for
six months. ] suppose il would take 81
000,000, 600 to put up these buildings if
they were what they appear to be.
Speaking Of the plaster, perhaps most
people are not familiar with the useful
qualities of staff of which so much of
this great worlds fair is built Staff is
composition of plaster and fiber so though
when dry that Ratchet or saw is required
to cut it, You may see them saving at
Apollos and MinerVas and Republics any
day. The graceful lady who is reiterated
to such an extent on the Agricultural
building, and who does not wear any
clothes except below the waist, has
needed d good deal of saving and chop
ping before her eighteen or twenty feet of
hight is properly adjusted. 1t looks
rather old to see reiteration of the up
per half of her with arms extended lying
on the open trucks of the railway. 1t
seemed to me last week that wherever ]
went ] encountered those upstretched
arms of half woman, arms five feet long
and seeming to express kind of siren APP
peal 10 LuS pIdSOGE HOfSeLudu on Ine
fliezes.
The putting together of all this statu-
airy, the Harvesting of these plaster
horses. the arming of these plaster war
riors. the building of exhibition cases, the
setting up of pictures, the building of
great engines in Machinery hall-these
and thousand and one other things re-
quire expert service, and so it happens
that of these 5000 or 1900 employees on
tho ground hundreds are nigh class work
men. Some of the best machinists in the
country are now there fitting the marvel
Gus mechanical products of this twi-
light Of the nineteenth century.
Here in the north court Of the Art build
ing young sculptors are plastering breaks
in the caryatids and atfectiOnately mani
curing the Atlantes. In the Horticultural
building men who have had special train
ing are putting the finishing touches to an
artificial grotto made from the mineral
Caarves found in the recently explored
caves of South Dakota. The different
nations represented at the fair have sent
workmen expert in different branches Of
construction and decoration, as well as
the expert directors, with authority to
engage local workmen.
No eXpertness nor care has served 10
prevent numerous accidents on the fair
grounds. The record of Machinery hall
alone is seventy-fve accidents. In the
Manufactures building forty-three men
have been hurt. And so the record goes
until we have a total of something over
GOO for the whole fair enterprise The