The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-07-20
FAIR OBSERVATIONS ON THE FAIR.

AS alreaOy remarked the W0rl0B
Fair will no longer be opened on Sun
day. The object in opening the fair on
Sunday was to make money, and the
object In closing 1t on Sunday is to save
money. AS we understand the situa-
tion, the management was influenced
by mercenary considerations in opening
on Sunday, and as Sunday opening did
not pay, same considerations induced
Sunday closing, 1t was thought the
laboriDg classes would be benefited by
Sunday opening, but the laboring
classes in Chicago, as elsewhere, have
very little surplus cash to invest in
amusement or recreation, and..the ques-
ton of bread appears to be the most
vital one to the average laboring man
with family.
Up to date the Worlds Fair manage.
ment is about $19,OO0,000 short of pay
ing. Up to the 1st of July the profits
of the fair over current expenses were
a trifle over a million dollars; and as
the cost of the fair is S20000000, 1t will
require an immense attendance during
the three remaining months to prevent
loss of at least $10,000,0OO.
The present outlook does not indi-
cate the remotest probability that the
Fair can be made to pay. The receipts
for the month of June were 81 $780, 800,
and the expenses S641 ,921, The receipts
for May were $7l9,403.71 and the ex-
penditures S609,88387, leaving profit
for that month of only $109,5l8 81. The
| profits for the second month were con-
| sequently ten times as great as for the
| first four weeks.
The expenses of the Fair for all pur-
poses, from the time the first meeting
was held by small body of citizens
| who decided to present Chicago's
claims to Congress, down to July 1,
were S20,6l0, 1904. The construction
department paid out $16, ,456, ,662.93 of
| this, or nearly $5,000,000 more than the
estimates for that department. The
| ornate Columbian guards, $50 called)
beGecked with brass knobs and slashed
with braid, cost to July 1, S639, 9,33734.
| This is about 100000 in excess of the
expenditures for statuary, which has
cost to date $5J0OO0. The force of
guards numbered 1895 during June,
and the cost of keeping them was S123,-
225.60. Here is highly expensive lux
ury, that can be reduced at least one
half, without hurt to the Fair proper
ties.
One great fact is already apparent to
the Fair management: The great
army of foreigners, who were to come
over here and bring their gold with
them have not arrived. We have had
few dukes, and lords, and earls, and
| highly decorated sirs, and brace of
| princesses-upon whom we have spent
a good deal Of good American money;
and the most conspicuous of all these
has just crossed over to Spain to send
back an appeal for help to save his fam
lily furniture, pictures, and works
| of virtu from the relentless
grasp of the sheriff. 1t Is observed by
those visiting the Fair, that all or
nearly all the foreign exhibits arelfor
sale, and last week General Director
Davis issued an order to prevent the
foreigners from selling their exhibits.
Outside of the few foreigners in
charge of exhibits there are no
foreigners in Chicago worth mention
ing, and the expectation that the
French, English, Germans, Austrians,
| Spaniards and Italians, of the blood
royal, would flock to this country in
droves, as the Americans fiocked to the
Paris Exposition has utterly failed of
| realization.
But the Fair is the greatest show on
earth just the same. No country on
either eide of the Atlantic since Christ
opher G. started west for plunder and
adventure, has ever given such show.
AS Ben Douglass, (who has seen the
most of it, says:
"We have conquered many of the
errors and evils of our political system,
burying slavery and treason in the
same hated sepulchre and installing
upon their ruins the beginnings of q
new political and powerful industrial
period-just SO are we beginning to add
ornament to use, to embellish peace
and prosperity, to illustrate welfare and
hope, and enter upon that career of ma
tional existence which shown under
Pericles in Greece, was Augustan in
in Rome and Elizabethan in England"