The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-03
LESSON OF THE BIG FAIR.

| The prophecy is made by many publ
| cations that there will never be another
| Worlds fair as great as the one which
| is now in progress at St. Louis. This
may be true-and it may not. The
same prophecy was made with refer
ence to the Chicago fair only decade
ago. but after a lapse of so short a
time worlds exposition is given which
| far exceeds the Chicago fair. Arneri.
cans are progressive and it will not be
at all surprising if another generation
sees worlds fair which will over
shadow the st. Louis fair as the pres
ent exposition is in advance of it's pre-
decessors.
The average person cannot begin to
comprehend the st. Louis fair. A week
at the exposition will give one a super
fetal idea of the general plan of the af-
fair, but more than that the average mind
| cannot grasp. 1t is a. notable fact that
after a person has spent six or seven
days there, exhibits cease to impress him
unless he specializes. The mind gets
full and any more poured into it simply
Hlns out without creating any impress
sion.
If an individual has any special SUBJ
ject which he wishes to study he can
put in weeks in a single line. A stu
dent of educational methods and
sociology could put in the entire sum-
mer in the educational exhibits with
profit. In the German section of the
same building the average physician
can learn more of up-to-date medical
science than he could in a long course
in most medical schools. The electrician
can put in a month in the electrical
building and still have only a super
fetal knowledge of many of the late
discoveries in electrical science which
are exploited, And a hundred different
specialists could find as many different
Inns in which to work.
The exposition cannot be a financial
success for the people of st. Louis who
have put their money into it. St Louis
has been greatly rnisrepresesated in
some particulars with regard to charges
at the Worlds fair. Notwithstanding
the fact that rent and living expenses
are necessarily higher there on account
of the Worlds fair, visitors are only
charged with accommodations about
what they would be in any other city,
and one can get almost any sort of ac-
Communications. Inside the fair gates
prices are necessarily somewhat higher.
for a large percentage goes to the ex-
cents for a meal, 20 cents of the amount
goes towards paying the expense of the
exposition, so that the so. cents admis-
sion which one pays at the gate is only
a part of what one pays towards the
expenses of the fair. But notwithstand-
ing this, the stockholders of the EXPOSE
ton company and the city of ST. Louis
do not expect to get their money back.
The real lesson of the exposition is
lost on many visitors. The total ex-
pense of building the fair and INSTALL
ing the exhibits is estimated at fifty
million dollars. This is more than
three times the original cost of the
Louisiana purchase. 1t seems like a
tremendous sum, yet if the income
from the farms, the factories and the
mines of the Louisiana Purchase were
devoted to that purpose, it would pay
for the entire exposition in less than
a week. The lesson of the exposition
is that in a region that only COM
paratively short time ago was an
unknown wilderness today there exists
the highest civilization ON earth.