Middletown transcript., 1893-05-06
OPENED UNDER AUsPICIoUs CIR
CUMsTANoEs SO FAR AS
WEATHER GOES AND
NOTABLE IN MANY WAYS.
The Presidents Speech Four Times as
Brief as the Opening Prayer.
About IL 5, 900 Visitors In Attend
ance to See the "wheels Go
wound.''
w. D. BoYoE's CORRESPONDENCE
RuRrAu AnMINIsTRA ATIoN RuIIDINa
BUREAU, ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, I
WnpIn's FAIR GRnI1Nns. MAY 8. '93

A cloudy, raw day. but without rain, was
so much better than the weather the past
week gave reason to expect, that the great
Exposition can be said to have opened
under favorable auspices. A brighter day
would have made larger attendance, but
every spectator present is ready to make
affidavit that the attendance was sufficiently
large for comfort.
The opening was notable in many ways,
not the least being that no other public oc-
casion outside of Washington, has ever
brought the president. vice e-president and
all the cabinet with a single exception to
participate.
Add to this the Duke of Veragua, only
eleven generations distant from the dis
coverer of Chicago Tor America, which
means the same thing today and there is
a combination worthy of occurring once in
400 years. The Duke is accompanied by
his brother, but as he attracts little or no
attention, I have been wondering how
many more generations distant he is from
Columbus than the Duke.
But waving abstruse questions, the Fair
has been opened on time and there now
seems no reason why the exhibitors should
not go ahead with their work and in the
course of few weeks have their wares and
inventions in readiness for the public.
While the exhibits are already colossal
they will be vastly increased when the
remainder come on the scene.
THE EXHIBITION STARTED.
Aside from the fainting of several women
and children, and possibly injuring some in
the crash among those who gathered to see
and hear the President, opening day was
not marred by disaster. 1t is not an easy
matter to handle 10000 to 175,0OO people
when all are trying to occupy the same
position. The brevity of the Presidents
speech was commendable and the comfort
of the crowd would have increased if Rev.
Milburn had divided his prayer into five
sections, and omitted about four and half
1t was three or four times as long as the
Presidents address. But the wheels go
around and by some mistake it only threat
ened, but did not absolutely rain. When
Chicago has first class pleasant spring day,
there should be special celebratration OF
the event. Opening day might have been
worse weatherwise.
THE SIDE SHOWS.
Midway Plaisance is part of the Park
system of Chicago, being quite wide strip
of land, just one mile long. connecting
Washington and Jackson Parks. The
Ilaisance is a portion of the Park grounds
which your SO cent ticket of admission en-.
titles you TO visit. You can enter the
viaduct in front of the woman's building,
or you take the Seventy-first street Wabash
Avenue cable car to the Washington Park
entrance and, walking through the Plais-
ance, enter Jackson Park through the
viaduct already mentioned. Midway
Plaisance is what the side show is to the
circus the extra touch" There are forty
different exhibits nearly all of which charge
an admission. Two or three are free, but
make up for that by having something
attractive to sell.
Nearly all charge 25 cents, admission, but
few are so cents, and from $40 to $12 is
required to see all the sights in the Plais-
ance.
The collection of people from distan
parts of the globe in their various costumes
and styles of living is a curiosity of itself.
There are Turks, Egyptians, Arabs, Java
nese from the Isle of Java, Cinnamon,
Ceylonese from the Island of Ceylon, Lap
landers, residents of the Barbary States,
Dahomeyites, japanese, Persians, Siamese,
Mexicans, Indians, Zulus, Swiss, Corlans,
Germans, Irish English and Americans.
each with some characteristic exhibit or
show.
There are twenty three different languages
spoken in the Plaisance and as many differ
ent nationalities represented. No such
combination was ever before seen or at
tempted.
The side shows, like the big exhibits, are
still in a somewhat chaotic shape but when
the Plaisance assumes more definite form
little later, will take walk with my
readers among the various and curious
people here congregated.
MINING EXHIBIT.
The Liberty bell is not the only attractive
feature of the Pennsylvania exhibit. The
much criticised coal barons have sent from
the Reading mines model of an anthracite
coal crusher which stands thirty feet high.
The crusher is accompanied by miniature
engines and but for the dust, the machine
might do practical work in the Mines and
Mining building where it is located. That
tate also contributes solid blocks of anthra-
cite weighing eight and ten tons. The
Pennsylvania exhibit in the Mine and
Mining building occupies, 3,3O7 square feet.
With the exception of Michigan, which
occupies 3,308 feet Pennsylvania exceeds
any state in the union or foreign country in
the space occupied by her display in this
department.
CONDITION OF GROUNDS.
Visitors who do not find the ground in
apple pie order the first week of the Ex-
position should not shoulder the entire
blame on the management. The very
nature of the work, the receiving of ex-
hibits on temporary railroad tracks and by
trucks precluded the clearing up of the
grounds until the last moment. In the last
eight days prior to the opening, seven were
rainy, and some regular down-pours The
EXHIBITS are still pouring in so that the tracks
cannot be removed and roads and walks
put in permanent order. While some por-
tons of the grounds are in good shape
to-day, other parts are almost impossible
for the pedestrian and unless the weather
changes this condition is not likely to i'm
prove for some time to come. Between the
weather and tardy exhibitors the opening
is not propitious.