The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-05-24


naHty the like Of It has never been seen
on any continent.
It requires a great deal of inventive
facUty-in fact, something quite APP
preaching Inspiration itself-to create
such original exhibitions as many of
these on the Pan-American midway
are to. be. For instance, let me cite
the story of how "a Trip to the Moon
came 10 be suggested TO the inventor
of this midway feature, Mr.. Frederic
Thompson.
One day Mr.. Thompson was studying
on how TO create some new ana star
tiing effects for the Darkness and
Dawn concession, in which he is also
interested and ia which is a reprGsen-
tatiOn OF Dante,s Inferno revised and
brought up 10 date. Throwing himself
upon q couch in his Office and gazing
dreanlily. thrOugh half closed eyes at
the circles of smoke from his pipe. he
was seeking a solution to the problem
how to carry his passengers over a,
deep and almost bottou1leSs gulch he
bad created in the very heart of the in
fernal regions suddenly he hit upon a
grand idea Starting from his couch,
he exclaimed: I have 1t. But this
VIII never do for Darkness and Dawn.
Ia make it a Trip to the Moon
THIS was born the idea which re-
suited in the construction Of the large
building one sees among the first on
entering the Midway and which IS
called "A Trip to the Moon" It CON
tains within it some Of the most weird
and mysterious illusions one could find
in travelling the whole world around.
Mir. Thompson win carry his visitors
TO the moon by the airship Luna. The
scientstic principle which he has deVel-
oped in planning this voyage Is one
which renders 1T possible to make the
trip a very. delightful as well as excit-
ing experience.
Strange to say. Mr. Thompson con-
Cetyed almost the identical ideas of the
possibilities of interest in an under
ground city Of the Moon which have
been written up in story form by Mr..
H. G. Wells in the Cosmopolitan and
Strand maEa zines. Neither of these
Z gentleman is Acquainted with the other
nor could have obtained his ideas from
4 the other 50 that this merely furnishes
another instance Of great minds run
ntng in the same channeL
The magazine writer has carried his
adVentureTs to the moon and caused
+ them to discover its inhabitants under
meath the surface of the eaTth's satel-
lite instead of on top. Mr., Thompson
has done the same thing in A Trip TO
the Moon" which Vvill present TO Pan
American visitors far stranger sights
than they ever dreamed Of
Another strange thing, in this same
connection is the fact that the Dark
ness and Dawn" idea was developed by
Mr.. Thompson before the same thing
was carried out in the series of comic
+ pen sketches IN the Cosmopolitan Of
1900 pOrtraying the adventures or Hip
rah Hunt. Esq, in his trip through the
{ Inferno and the punishments he wit
messed devised to fit the crimes COM
mitted; even umbrella borrowers, scan
daI mongers at summer resorts, etc,
having to suffer for their sins in an ap-
,propriate manner.
Art Young, who made such hit with
these sketches, published some ten
years ago in Chicago a little volume
called Hell Up to. Date. which made
; no sensation at the time. Mr.. FhOn1p-
son never saw it until after he had pUJ
3 on at Omaha, and. other eXpositi0ns the