The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-31
Frederic Thompson,
 Everybody's.


 Everybody's.
 THE one thing that makes a 9 picnic or an amusement park
 a success-it doesn't make any difference whether the picnic is made up of 10 people or 10000, whether the park is a little one or a great interna- tional exposition-the one thing abso- lutely necessary is the cornival spirit. Without that no show in the open, nothing that has to do with people in the mass. can hope to succeed. When you get right down to it, the funda- mentals are the same. whether the ap- plication Is to a church picnic, polit- ical meeting, circus. or big exposi- tion. The first step, as far as the public Is concerned, Is to create an impression that there will be things doing, to get emotional excitement into the very air In the Sunday school they talk about the picnic for weeks in advance, tell ing the children and the grown-ups what a fine time they are going to have. The circus does the same thing with it's flaming billboards and its pa rade. The political managers talk about the famous speakers who will address the meetings, about the band. You see it's all the same, fundamen- tally.
 In the year 1901 had show called "A Trip to the Moon" on the Midway at the Pan- American exposition In Buff falo. Architecturally and from an edu- cational standpoint this exposition was one of the most remarkable in all the history of worlds fairs. It was beau tifu1; 1t was tremendous; but 1t wasn't paying. After several months I went to the executive committee and to the president and told them why their out lay of millions of dollars was attract ing only 3O.0OO people day. I told them they were failing miserably be- cause there wasn't a regular snowman in the lot. I told them about the car nival spirit and they came back by telling me about the educational value of the exposition.
 But what's the use of a college if there are not students?" I asked Be fore we talk of educational benefits let's get in the crowd to educate"
 d first. Then I suggested that they turn over the show to me for one day, which would be sufficient to test what the ex- ecutive gentlemen were pleased to call my theories. President Milburn was with me, and I finally won the point. The exposition was to be mine for An gust 8, and I told them that it would be known as Midway day"
 Within six hours after the final in- terview I had four printing houses at work getting out the paper with which I was going to plaster the country. and my sideshow associates sent 10 ad- vance men on the road to herald the coming of the big day. and within week a large part of the eastern half of the United States was screaming: August third! Midway day at the Pan- American Don't miss itv'
 They didn't! On the night of August was left on every railway station with in "A hours ride of Buffalo, and when the gates of the exposition were thrown open, the police reserves had to be summoned to stop a panic. They ar rived too late to prevent 10000 people from forcing their way in without pay ing. There were more than enough left to make the gate receipts satisfactory Up to August the average daily ad- missions were about 30.000. On Midway day 142,00O paid to get into the grounds. and from that time on the attendance was tremendous.
 When I was studying architecture I paid a great deal of attention to the vignola and to the other classically conventional standards of construc- tion I was like every other architect. But when I started to build I realized that I, like every one else, was obtain. ing absolutely conventional results. So one day threw all my books and plans on the ash heap and decided to start after classical models, but with a sense of their proportions. l stuck to no style.
 One result is Luna park, the sky line of which is utterly unlike anything else of it's kind in the two Americas. The architecture of Luna park helps rather