The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-04
WORLDS FAIR INCIDENTS.
Studies From Lie as Seen in The
white CITY.

AnlCagO. june -4.--lO speak Oh ttlllS III
connection with the fair may appear a
striving after the ultimate incommensur-
ate. yet the New York suns correspond
ent here finds that the cent, its use and
-considerat ton by the people, is a matter
of great interest to any one who happens
to find the people at the fair the most
profitable exhibition for study Along
the midway mile and the Unreasonable
miles of the fair grounds streets are
scattered many pretty little booths,
where the thirsty stroller may drop Il
penny in a slot and thereby draw glass
of mineral water. The proprietors of the
mineral spring who own these booths.
are knowing and venturesOme advertisers.
They have columns of most terrifying de-
nunciation of the ordinary drinking water
printed in the local papers; papers whose
thrift induces them to print these
alarming statements unacCOmpanied by
the explanatory ADV" and in those
columns even the sterilized water, fur
nished free on the fair grounds, is de-
scribed as densely populated with pc
culiarly malignant variety OF mlcrobe.
AS they, the mineral water men, not the
microbes, paid a million dOllarS-lt may
not be an even million. but no less sum is
mentioned in speaking Of fair concessions
for the exclusive privilege of operating
the peny-a-drink machines, they are JUS
titled, of course, in frightening the life
out of you in order to induce an adherence
of any drinking water save what they
supply.
But do YOU know-and here is where
the penny feature comes in-theY don
succeed in this scheme with all the fair
visitors. If YOU are studying this feature
zF4 ha 70 CT nd nv If the hnpthC
and pretend to read your guide book.
Along comes family party, pa, ma, and
the children Five or six of the children
clamOr for a drink of water. Pa APP
proaches the fountain, takes up glass
and tries to draw some water. He pushes
all the buttons and screw heads, tries to
turn the spout, twists the handles, and
then when his efforts to start something
flowing threaten to demolish the slot
machine, a blonde duchess in
attendance sconfully asks what
is wanted. She asks in a bored
tone, as if she thought the man might
want a ride in a gondola, and when she is
assured that a glass of water is sought
she points languidly to the slot and says:
drop a penny and then resumes with
vigor her interrupted Irritation with a
Columbian guard.
What Pay for drink Of water2" ex-
claims the amazed Indianian.
The girl points to printed sign, which
confirms his worst fears. The man usu-
ally reads the sign aloud several times,
his wife reads it. the children read il,
and it is explained to the baby.
well, amt there no water you don't
have TO put up for2' asks the man, re
duced to meekness by the naughty manner
of the fountain girl and the threatening
aspect Of the guard.
The girl Jerks her thumb in the direc-
ton of one of the wooden tanks of steril-
lied water, and the wife whispers to the
husband
Il don't care if there are bugs into il"
he answers. I'D rather drink all the
bugs in Lake Michigan than put up for
glass of water, and he struts away in
diEnantly.
Sometimes the head of a family I'M
deferred by the vision of a yawning poor
house, will put up penny and divide
q glass of water among his thirsty family.
OF course the fountains do a large bust
ness with easterners and foreigners with
a less retentive concern for the penny,
but the average Countryman prefers to
achieve the bugs rather than lose the
penny. The agreeable truth about the
matter of drinking water the lurid, I'M
marked advertisements TO the contrary
notwithstanding, is that the sterilized
water is quite as depopulated as the pen
ny-slot kind-if II is not drawn from
common source.
The other side Of the cent question was
presented in a highly picturesque man
ner by a sleek, bald, smiling, well-fed,
well-dressed citizen of Manhattan Island
II is painful to be thus truthful about the
hero of this incident, for that New
Yorker played a highly reprehensible
trick upon an Ohio parson, for which,
however, his conscience has probably
punished him He was a New Yorker
whose daily stroll has not taken him, per-
haps, for years beyond the limits of the
Tenderloin district, and the excitement of
the change from that peaceful life to the
delirium of Chicago had brought out all
that was festive and even fanciful, in his
nature. He lunched in the Cafe de Ma
rine, whose second-story veranda, where
his bountiful table was set, almost over
hangs the lagoon where il runs between
the cafe and the Illinois building. AS
this cafe serves nothing to eat but fish
and what is here sometimes spoken of as
"shell food" the inducement to drink is
strong
1t may have been this fact that suggest
ed to the New Yorker the advantages of
taking gospel chair" for his further
excursions He ordered the divinity
student prOpelling his chair TO wheel him
TO the Midway, where, if anywhere, he
would be certain to find New Workers. or
San FranCiscans, or some one not afflicted
with solemn melancholy. On his way
TO the Midway the New Yorker stopped
at every penny slot fountain and ordered
the girls in charge to supply the mourn
full looking customers with drinks at his
expense. This is mentioned because it
was in this way the old chap accumulated
a pocketful of cents in change, his tips to
the girls being in coin of another metal
Each time he stopped he caught sight of
the depressing and disappearing counte-
nance of his chair pUsher, and each time
he requested his attendant to cheer up.
and assured him on the word of a veteran
rounder that things were not so bad as
they seemed, after all. But the divinity
students who operate the chairs smile
only when they are wheeling girls, and
the Tenderloin delegate, when he reached
the Midway, dismissed his chair. and
took a sedan chair, whose carriers, though
unchristian Turks, were the most smiling
rascals on the grounds.
With these to bear and cheer him. the
New Yorker made a triumphal parade of
the Midway. He sampled every kind of
drink known to civilized and. uncivilized
man, in the German village he sent a re
quest TO the bandmaster to play The Cat
Came Back in the cafe of old Vienna he
informed the orchestra leader that he
wouldn't mind singing After the Ball, g
if the orchestra would accompany him
ana he nearly precipitated "A riot i'm the
DahOmey village by want gg 70 buy a