The record-union., 1893-05-01
Special to the RECoRD-UNIoN.

Special to the RECoRD-UNIoN.
CHICAGO, April 30.-When President
Cleveland presses the electric button sig
nal for the formal opening of the Worlds
Columbian Exposition tomorrow the
public will find the fair still in a some
what incomplete condition. but this re-
gretful situation is due more to the tardi-
ness of exhibitors than any lack of zeal
on the part of the management of the ex-
position. Nearly every building con-
structed by the exposition proper in the
great white city is practically completed,
and while confusion still reigns in most
of the structures. it is in the matter of the
installation of exhibits, and not delay
which can be attributed to any failure of
the construction department.
The great buildings which constitute
the vital conception of the International
Exposition, and which are a monument
TO the indomitable executive ability of
Chief Burnham and his assistants, have
been completed for weeks and ready for
the installation of exhibits. They are the
manufacturers and liberal arts building
machinery hall, electricity hall, fisheries
building, woman's building, forestry
building. mines and mining, horticultu-
raj, agricultural and transportation build
ings, administration buildings, and are
nearly all completed or nearing compile
ion, and Midway Plaisance shows dozens
of Javanese, Turkish, Soudanese and
other typical villages which have sprung
up like mushrooms in few weeks or
days.
On all the earth to-day there was prob
ably no buster community than that
which was working at top speed in the
manufacturers and liberal arts building.
Hundreds of trucks rumbled through
the streets and avenues of this thirty-acre
house, and thousands of men made the
air ring with hammers. For one writer,
or twenty, to describe the details of the
scene and action in this, the largest
building ever constructed, is not to be at
tempted. The building itself is COM
pleted. and the work being done to-day
has to do with the construction of city
of booths, houses and temples to hold
the displays.
Reference to buildings in progress in
this big building may suggest to those
who have not been here that they are
only little affairs, but when it
is stated that the golden eagles of Aus
ria are perehed on the top of
towers 20 feet in hight, and when it is
known that a New York jewelry firm
has noble American bird ON top of a
column 100 feet high, the subject will
assume a proper view to the mind.
Could Ajax but step within the portals of
L., ~ Is
the Worlds Columbian Exposition he
would scarcely have the audacity to defy
modern lightning, bridled as it is by
science. The electrical display far sur
passes anything the management of the
great fair ever hoped to secure In this
building so per cent. of the exhibits have
arrived, and, according to statement
prepared by Superintendent Barrett, 60
per cent. of them have been installed.
ARTS GALLERIES.
There is less confusion in the Arts
Galleries than any other of the buildings.
but this is owing much to the fact that
the exhibits are less cumbersome and
more easily handled than those in other
buildings. Some exhibits are in excel
lent shape, notably those of Great Brit
ain and Germany. One trouble with the
galleries of the fine arts is that the build
ing itself is not yet finished. Some OF
the men in charge of the exhibits said
they could not unpack their stuff until
the roof had been entirely finished. In
the space allotted to Austria the work is
we'll along. OF the American pictures
but few are upon the wall. Spain is in
the worst shape. Italy and Belgium are
in about the same condition, while Hol-
land is in fair way. They will have
everything in shape within a week.
France will take fortnight to get mat
ters in shape. The paintings. as a rule.
are better prepared for exhibition than
sculptors. However, despite the diffusion
in the building, the exhibition even now
is a great one.
MINES AND MINING.
The Mines and Mining Building is
simply wilderness of boxes, unfinished
booths and unpacked exhibits. 1t will
be a month before the building is in
proper order. Throughout the entire
building there is but one exhibit in
readiness, and that is from the farthest
end of the earth, New South Wales. The
delay in this building is due directly to
the tardiness of exhibitors, for the build
ing was finished completely over eight
months ago. Some boxes have been un-
packed, but many are still on the cars,
and nothing has been done toward ar
ranging the other exhibits.
No other foreign countries are in any
thing like a presentable shape. Up in
the galleries matters are in no better
shape. A large force of men are at work
in this portion of the building and it is
expected that everything will be in shape
in about two weeks. Down on the floor
of the building, which covers nine acres.
a tremendous force of men are working
with desperate energy, but no force can
arrange the exhibits in the mines and
mining building before June.
FISHERIES BUILDING.
The situation on the island at the en-
trance north of the lagoon is the fisheries
building, model of architectural beauty.
In the main building the displays are
being rapidly placed in position. and in
clude the skeleton of a mammoth whale,
boats of every description, from rude
canoe hewn from tree by Alaskan In
dians to the trim sailing smack, vast
cords of dried fish caught in Norway
waters and fish prepared in every con-