Evening star., 1925-06-28
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

Fifty years ago Philadelphia was
nial exposition TO
Centennlal commemorate h e
A+%andoroe hundredth anniver-
sary of the signing
of the Declaration of Independence.
In anticipation of the opening of the
great fair some concern was felt in
that city lest the number of visitors
attracted TO it might be greater than
the city could properly accommodate.
The Star of June 21, 1875, thus dis
cusses the question:
The centennial managers estimate
that the minimum attendance of Wis
itors at the affair will be three mil
lions. and that the average daily at
tendance will be $4,000. AS the pres
ent hotel accommodations of Phila
delphia Is little beyond what is re-
quired for everyday business the
question comes up where the visiting
multitude is to be accommodated over
night. The hotel men have made a
detailed statement of the number of
guests they can now accommodate,
as we'll as the number that can be
lodged after making contemplated i'm
provementS. From these figures II
appears that the number that can
now be provided for is under 5000 and
that the additional accommodations
will give room for only about 5000
more, or 1900 in all. The hotel &C
commodations at the outside, there
fore, will be inadequate for little more
than a fifth part of the guests eX-
pected. The centennial people, how
ever. cipher away the difficulties in an
offhand style by estimating that
40 900 private houses will be opened
to dodgers, and. as there will be so
much to see on the centennial grounds
and so many good restaurants on all
Sides 1t is believed that visitors will
find it convenient to live on the Euro
pean plan, securing their lodgings
and eating where they please and
when they please. In the event, how
ever, that the throng in attendance
should altogether exceed the lodging
capacity of Philadelphia, the surplus
could be readily provided for in New
York, Baltimore and Washington, as
cheap excursion trains could take
them nightly to roomy lodgings in
these cities and return them next
morning in good season. But after
all, there Is a bare possibility that the
attendance may not reach $4,000 per
day; though 1t is to be hoped 1t may
The numbers present at the opening
will doubtless be enormous, but 1t is
doubtful If the daily attendance will
reach $4,000 for any length of time. y
The exposition opened May 10. 1876,
and lasted until November 10. and the
paid attendance was 100000, or
5 900 900 more than the first esti
mates.
1--WE Judge by a remark in the New
York Times says The Star Of June
%, 1875, that the
IrampS In public parks there
~. porL. are infested with and
tue 1diAs the seats monopolized
by much the same style of dirty, lazy
bummers and vagabonds that loaf
about in our parks through the day
and night, with only an occasional
| break in their elegant leisure when
the calls of hunger compel them to
resort to some basement door in the
neighborhood to solicit, or rather de-
| mand, something to eat These
| sturdy vagrants. stretched out upon
| the park seats or lawns, seem TO de-
| light in repelling ladies and children
from the pleasure ground by an 1nso-
lence and half-suggested ruffianism OF
manner, and by the filth and indie
cency Of their vermin-freighted, filthy
garments, which anord through tnelr
apertures a more than Humphrey
| CIinker.iike exposure of person.
"The Times advises the loafers in
| the New York parks to go west. We
| would cheerfully see our bummers
spread themselves north. south, east
or west. And they needn't go far TO
| find work If they really want to earn
an honest living. At this very mo-
| ment when our city is overrun by this
swarm of able-bodied loafers, the
| farmers of Maryland and Virginia are
complaining that it is almost impos-
sible to procure the requisite labor
| for their fields. Under the circum-
stances it would seem to be advisable
| for our citizens to discourage the pres
ence of these idlers In our city In
f. every possible way. A sharp inspec.