St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-08-23
HOW 1T WAS DONE.

AA IN AN~AA NAO u = u -
BARNUM, did not achieve the royal
purple Of the millionaire at IL bound.
At the outset of his career as a public
entertainer he had much to learn, and
candidlv confesses to this truth in his
latest revised autobiography. He was
content to creep before he walked, and
to walk before he Sprinted up the daZ-
zlIng heights of fame. Rough expert
ence taught him the %gullibility of hu-
man nature, but having sounded Its
depths and measured its heights. he
profited thereby.
In many respects the successful Bar
numizing of the worlds fair has been a
slow progression by degrees. In the
first place, the managers. from Director
General DAVIS down, were not show
men. With the single exception of
Maj. MOSES 2. HANDY, they were not
expert advertisers. Plain, everyday
business men that they were, the
possibilities of the fake were to
them as heavily yelled as were
the Eleusinian mysteries to the
working classes of the Greeks. So
berly moving upon a high plain OF
intellectual achievement. the fair ana
gers appealed earnestly to the purer
motives actuating mankind for patron
age. But still the attendance remained
at a low ebb. Each clashing element,
those who favored and those who OPP
posed Sunday opening. was cajoled,
toadied to, flattered and bulldozed. On
one Sunday the fair was Theoretically
sealed. On the succeeding Sabbath,
like the rest of Chicago, it was run wide
open. And still the expected thousands
hesitated to merrily spin the turnstiIes
and register the anticipated influx of
wondering visitors.
Yetall this time a subtle genius was
at work in the interest of the great
Columbian show. Born in the Midway
PlaisaDce, it grew with all the startling
rapidity of the dusky wrath released
from Aladdin's bottle. Its name was
American Sensational Curiosity. From
the four quarters of the earth gathere d
grotesque crowds of humanity. They
stole quietly in by night, and, 10, in the
morning. by the bright light, a new
phase had been added to the intoXicat-
ing seductions of the Plaisance. The
tnick-lipped. h~am-handed Nubian was
the vis-a-vis of the oX-eyed Persian
houri. The blonde Circassian beauty
was cheek by jowl with the squat
Laplanders, and the slant-eyed maiden
from the Fiowery kingdom brewed a
cup of amber Japan tea for the putatiye
wife of the CosSack, who utilized it TO
wash down a quarter of a pound of leaf
lard. And at night!
when nature drew her curtain round,
And pinned it with ii star"
Then cymbals clashed and tinkling
castanets kept time to nimble feet. The
beauty OF all nations concentrated in
one mighty focus to W the woolly
Westerner and paralyZe the dude.
Voluptuous forms from the Orient
moved and conyoluted in senSuous
dances. rivaling the B~acchanalian
groupings on the ancient isles of
Greece, where burningSAPPHo loved and
sung" And the splay-footed Guinea
negress a~lternated with a breakdown
that sent even the South Clark street
tough INTO trance. and,the proSalc peda-
gogue from Wayback to his 50 a day
room on the North side. The freaks
paraded, and the camel-punehers CT the
Sahara drank Milwaukee, beer to the
weird notes of the ~SenegaInbian hurdy-
gurdy. All was life. color, motion. and
the arc electric light spluttered above
them all.
Then came Editor WATTERsoN. pro-
nouneed it vapid, and vent away. Then
came ANTHONY CoMsToCK, determined
to De shocked If it took all SKINNER.
Then, too, came Citizen GEORGE FRAN
Us TRAIN III a rel feZ and blazer.
Then Numbered the mighty engines OF
the Chicago press, and forth rolled col
umns OF lurid. graphic, realistic ord
! painting of the Waipurgis nights ou the
| Midway P%laisance. The country papers