The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-20
BY MARY BRONSON HARTT.

Conscience on the Otner sure ~
Result.
BY MARY BRONSON HARTT.
Copyright, 1901, by Mary B. Hartt.)
The city which woos and wins great
exposition gets considerably more than
it bargained for. 1t is prepared Tor
Brobdignagian feats of finance. for
mighty rush of preparation, for six
months of high carnival. and a crown
of glory that fadeth not away. 1t is
never ready to deal with the by-prod-
ucts of the exposition.
Take the case of the Pan-American.
Buffalonians fairly tripped one another
up in their rush to swell the building
fund. When Congress went back on
its appropriation they set their teeth
and bought up second mortgage bonds
like brave little men. Nothing was
grudged which could go to make the
Pan-American beyond comparison the
greatest show on EARTH" This done,
they set out to make their city fit for
the entertainment of the universe.
Temporary hotels were hastily knocked
together; shops and school buildings
and apartment houses turned into
quarters for Pan-American guests.
There was a perfect cloudburst of fresh
paint; streets tidied themselves up;
white uniforms replaced the rags OF
the street cleaners: (till then angels
in disguise): parks and parklets were
trimmed and frightened with flowers;
the whole city Haunted PanAmerican
bunting, and then the good people
leaned back in their chairs to await
the approval of their admiring coun-
tIymen.
Almost Immediately arrived the SOU
venir, small in compass, but big with
menace-a symptom. prophetic OF DIS
ease. From the first innocent little
frying pan badge it spread and spread
until the town was disgraced with
cheap tawdriness and tinsel utilities
and symbolic inanities from end to end.
BY mid-June the tables of them that
sold souvenirs had so choked the side
walks of Main street that the Common
Council were driven to the extremity
of enforcing the law to clear the
streets Swept from the sidewalks. the
souvenir infected the reputable bust
ness houses. Banks and cigar stores
and small stationers made breaches in
their street walls to let in the souvenir
stands. Worse than that, legitimate
dealers ordered huge stocks of souvenir
trash, and hung their windows full Of
Indian heads blazoned on leather, and
frying pan clocks, and brass buffaloes,
and spar jewelry, till the city looked
like a mere annex of bazar-ridden Nj
agara. The more so as the cheap Nj
agara photograph had by this time
blossomed out in all its glory.
This is the tale of the souvenir, and
before the city had made up It's mind
that there was no remedy for the SOU
venir habit, there began to break out
all along the route to the exposition,
through the loveliest part of the resi-
dence section, an epidemic of shameless,
flaming signboards, big and bold, and
bad. Mercy on u.s." gasped the citi-
zens, This will never dol" But the
billboards turned out to be not isolated
offenses, but parts of a comprehensive
conspiracy against the city. Buffalo
sent the fire board to chop down the
seven foot enormities. But hydra-lik
they thrived on opposition; they grew
up again, not one, but two stories
high. The fire board has not dared to
chop them down again lest, rising a
third time, they tower to heaven. So
the matter was turned over to the
courts, and there the battle is on.
Buffalo is still hopeful that the bill
board nuisance will be abated before
Christmas.
Along with the billboards came an
eruption of signs, speaking the faces
of hitherto respectable buildings
throughout the business section of the
town. The way to the railway sta
ton, where the cut-rate ticket offices
are, turned in a day a vile yellow color,
blazoned in big black letters-a COM
bination of distressing cheapness and
vulgarity. Save that it would be I'M
fair to New York, should say it looked
like the Bowery.
AS if to make the analogy closer,
came a crowd of dubious Shows" FILL
ing the street with dark arcades with
souvenir stands and soft-drink booths
in the free" vestibule, and heaven
knows what in the pay" inside. The
shows did not confine themselves to
the railway district. Main street, in
its most rectitudinous regions, bios
somed out with Dante's Infernos and
the like, while what was once one of
the finest residence blocks in town, was
given over to a cheap Midway Fair.
One can fancy the erstwhile owners of
the property writhing in their graves
did they know Of the merry-go-rounds,
the long haired ponies, and the fortune
telling ladies' disporting themselves,
where once their irreproachable brown
stone mansions had stood. The Midway
Fair was a financial failure, and now
they advertise lumber for sale. But
an open air poolroom and a working
model OF a Cripple Creeking gambling
bling house-an abomination in rough
bark-still disgrace the block.
The real stamping ground of the
shows, however, was not downtown
but out near the exposition, in the re-
gion known as the Free Midway. There
was the audacious loop de-loop," and
an agglomeration Of cutthroats and
swindlers and pickpockets, exhibited
az the so-called "Sing Sing Prison.
There were Little Egypts" and Orien-
tai palaces, and dancing pavilions
without stint. and all within sight OF
the great white Electric Tower. Ven
geance pounced upon the Free Midway
when the exposition was more thar
half done. The city closed the most
fegrant of the shows, and a difference
with the company which contracted to
supply lights closed the others-but not
until a murder. and a record of infa-
nous proceedings belonging to it had
been transferred by an ingenious
press to the blameless midway inside
the exposition gates.
big three-ring continuous circus
which spread its dirty grey tent as
near the exposition as possible, shared
the fate Of the Free Midway, while the
exposition was still young. Not so
certain astonishing saloons which ap.
peared on Maine street, MANAGED by
notorieties. The death Of the first
conner, Mr.. Steve Brodie. put no blight
on the business. His sign was prompt.