The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-05-24
Progress of the Worlds Fair.

ago. In the first place, month OF time
was needed to prepare the exposition
for visitors. No one cared to see an
incomplete exposition, although no one.
in weeks of industrious sightseeing,
could hope to comprehend the COM
pleted exposition. From this and o.her
causes, the attendance has been very
light, and six weeks of the most desr-
able season for visiting the fair will be
practically lost to the anxious managers.
Discussions have rent almost every
department of the organization. Dis
cord has entered even the board OF lady
managers and brought that body to the
verge of dissolution. Chicago is essen
TALLY materialistic, and material Chi
cago has quarreled with the musical
director, the great Thomas, because,
forsooth, he would not convert his or
chestra into medium for advertising
musical instruments. The master mu-
stefan had an idea that he should select
those instruments whose quality had
the sanction of his musical judgment.
This independence did not suit the no.
ton of the men who had pianos to be
doomed. Mr.. Thomas had been chosen
musical director by reason of his known
competency and his national fame, but
the business management, on financial
grounds, undertook to boss the musical
director. Mr.. Thomas is not the man
to brook any interference with his func-
tons, and the conflict between materi-
alism and spiritualism in music has
ended in request for the musical d.
rector's resignation of the delicate trust
committed to his head and hands.
Even music hath no charms to
soothe the savage who insists that the
divine art at the fair must be reduced
to subserviency to the manageme nts
financial policy aud exigencies.
Then there is the contest over the
, question of Sunday opening. The as
: ISOLATION accepted 50, 500, 900 from con-
J gress, accompanied by the condition
, that the gates of the fair should not be
Najar on the Lords day. Having re-
, ceived the money with this condition
attached to the acceptance, and having
by thrifty management made this two
and half million (Which was paid in
! souvenir half dollars) five million dol
5 lars, and having spent the entire sum,
9 and having become weary of the COM
7 pact as to Sunday observance, Chicago
r has turned its search-light on the COM
a pact to discover some flaw in the in
= strument, or some hole through which
j escape from the prohibition of Sunday
e opening could be effected. The man.
5 aging board finally resolved the diff.
i Guilty by voting to open the exposition
d and to refund the $2,5000O0 loaned
: with such hard condition attached, &c
i refund after the costs Of the exposition
e had been paid. Here was fine exhibi
. ton of Chicago thrift and Chicago
a morality. The costs of the monster ex
n hibition will never be paid. No appre-
8 ciable approach can even be made to-
t ward paying the cost, and for the direc
i tors to say that they will break the
!! compact under which they accepted ar
d enormous sum of money, aud refunt
this money after the costs of the ex
position have been paid" is a yer,
i transparent compromise, by one party
e to the contract, with every rule or prin
r ciple of honor. But having reached
" this easy solution of the Sunday-openins
e question, the fair management ha
l. learned that, as it takes two to make
IS bargain, 50 the two must assent to an,
r change in the terms of that bargain
/, The United States encouragement ha
1t directed the legal representative of tn
l. government at Chicago to enforce tn
l. law should the directors of the fair at
Is tempt to open the gates on Sunday
-e Possibly the attorney generals instruc
D. tions may not be accepted as ina
al settlement of the Sunday-opening ques
or ton. The local directory is defiant AM
" local sentiment is belligerent. Th
g matter may be carried to the court:
g and during the tendency of the ques
y. ton the gates may be opened. A prop
a. osition of this kind is preached.
TO Of course the question, as now pre-
Of sented, is purely one of law and right
s. 1t is not whether or not the fair ough
e. to be opened on Sunday, but whethe
e. the management should open it on tha
IN day, after having accepted and use
r. two and half million dollars with til
he express condition attached to the loa
Mt or gift that the fir should be closed o
IN Sunday. The law is clear, and theI
ed can be only one conclusion of the Who'll
X matter, if the courts are appealed to.
n Meantime the attendance is phenon
he enally small. There seems to be d
n vided and conflicting sovereignty {
re "the White City" The fair seems