New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-10-03
THE PARIS EXPOSITION.

The Paris Exposition has not made money for
those most interested in its success; in fact
there appears to be ground for the belief that
when the gates are closed, the shutters are put
up, and the small hours of the night are witness
ing the travail of officials and "concessonaires
over their cash accounts, wall Of bitter disap-
pointment will rise above the city. Some say
that the wall will develop into a roar of rage
that when the already startling list of bank
ruptcies shall have been extended TO imposing
and uncomfortable length the people will turn
the present Government inside out
It never pays TO prophesy disaster for the
French. They have a way of their own that
diverts the lightning, and we are far from
sharing the opinion, amounting to conviction
of those who are only waiting for the close of
the Exposition to look for reports of revolution
in the streets of Paris. The dubious financial
outlook of the enterprise, however cannot be
gainsaid; and since the projectors and popula-
ton generally, including many small investors
are as surprised as they are indignant, it may
be interesting to inquire into the causes.
Thousands of foreigners confidently expected
have stayed away. Why? 1t is insufficient TO
say that the English have been feeling poor on
account of their war; and have been in an i'll
humor with the nation that has permitted its
caricaturists coarsely to lampoon the Queen.
The rest of the world has been prosperous
enough, and only Americans have cared at all as
the English have cared about Willettes abOm-
Unable insults. Germans have visited the Expo
sition in droves. A stone could not have been
thrown anywhere in the show without hitting
one of the Kaisers subjects. But, numerous as
the foreigners of all nations have been there
might have been more of them, and those who
came might have spent more money if it had
not been for reasons to be found nowhere save
1nfo Of
whole affair. A most conspicuous exhibit has
been the art of making people uncomfortable
Two things are essential in a scheme Of this
sort-easy means of locomotion and facilities
for the enjoyment of repoSe. Both the moving
sidewalk and the electric railway have afforded
only q modicum of the convenience required
neither giving easy access to every point in the
immense show and the stations of both being
too few. The wheeled chairs have served fairly
we'll but have been put out of the question for
thousands by the piratical charge made for
them. The unhappy pedestrian has been physi-
cally and nervously exhausted by the strain of
walking over the coarse gravel spread on long
stretches of uneven roadway in this place of
magnificent distances. What has put the gflded
roof on the horror" has been the "passerelle" a
wooden structure rising in a gradual slope to a
level passage across the space inter~upting the
promenades within the fair wherever it has
been necessary to leave the bridges across the
Seine free TO the public Hot dusty, long and
always crowded these nulsances have been but
poor substitutes for the system of checks which
could have been arranged, enabling the peopIe
to cross the barrier on the same level In a
fraction Of the time required by the "passerelIer
and with none of the discomfort involved in
that expedient
The tourist whose legs have at last refused N
perform their office any longer without some
recuperation has been reduced to an extremely
unpleasant iron chair, the only thing OF the sort
provided save the benches in the Sale des
Fetes far off and not particularly agreeable
anyway. There have been no shady and COM
Portable lounging places. free to every one In
side the buildings there have been few seats
and when despair has driven the WORKOUT travel.
Ter into restaurant he has been relieved OF too
much of his money The rates for the smallest
OF repasts have been incredibly eXorbitant The
'concessionaires' are mostly bankrupt they say
and 1t is not to be wondered at Their prices
have been monstrous at time and in a place
where everybody has seemed bent on extracting
from the pilgrim the highest possible sum for