The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-06-21

next month. The vacation season VIII
bring 10 Chicago thousands upon thou
sands of people who work for salaries, just
as the lull in farm work after harvest viii
bring thousands upon thousands OF people
from the agricultural communities.
Considering that the exposition was not
complete till about the first of June, and
that May was a cold and wetl month in
Chicago, the attendance at the exposition
has been surprisingly large. The paid at
tendance during May was about 900 600,
or an average of nearly 80 coo day, while
the attendance at the Philadelphia expo
sition of 1876 during the first twenty-eight
days it was open averaged only q little
over 90, coo per day. As the season wears
on the contrast between Philadelphia and
Chicago becomes even more striking.
During June at the Centennial the attend
ance averaged less than $4,000 per day,
while this month at Chicago is likely to
show an average of $4,000. 1t is remark
able fact that in the week just closed the
Chicago exposition showed an attendance
as great as that at the Centennial during
the whole month of June.
There is some doubt as TO whether the
attendance for July will be very much
larger than that of June. 1t surely will
be if the weather proves favorable, and if
dreaded cholera or other menace 10 the
health OF the people viii be good enough
to stay away At the Centennial they
were much surprised when the attendance
for the month of July amounted TO only
two-thirds the attendance during the pre-
vious month. / asked Major Handy, the
chief of the push and puff department of
fptS hnyr that hayaDapeH
at Philadelphia, knowing he could tell me
because he was there 1t was on account
of the extreme heat, he said. That July
was about the hottest July Philadelphia
has ever known. Besides the heat, there
was much sickness, and people were afraid
to expose themselves to the sun while CO.
ing to the fair The result was the attend
ance diminished instead of increased, as
everyone had thought it would.
l was talking the other day with a
prominent Chicago man about his invest
ment in Worlds fair stock. lie had sub
scribed for S20,0 900 worth and paid in the
money.
q viii sell you that stock, today" he
said, 'at 10 cents on the dollar. That is
more than / expect to get on it when we
come 10 wind up the affairs of the exposi-
lIOU. LIT bt>O VI II -, L sioAA y oi4eiF
whether / get even 10 cents on the dollar
or not. So far as know that is the way
all the Chicago stockholders feel. They
did not expect to get their money back
when they subscribed to the stock, and
they will not be bit disappointed. 1t
was gift with them, and they are not
sorry they made 1t, either"
And yet the chances arc my friend would
be throwing away money if he sold his
stock at 10 cents on the dollar. / believe
he viii get back 40 or 80 per cent. of his
subscription. The crowds of July, August,
and particularly of September and Oc-
tober, are going to put up thevalue of that
stock perceptibly. During the six months
the exposition should take in from ten to
twelve millions of dollars at the gates, and
half as much more from concessions; and
If il can do this it will be able 10 pay its
debts and return to stockholders, includ-
ing the city of Chicago, which put up five
millions in one sum, about 80 cents on the
dollar. WALTER WELLMAN.