LI B R.AR.Y 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N IVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 George R. Carr 
 Class of 1901 
 1951 
 
 co

 
 HARPER'S 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 AND 
 
 THE WORLD'S FAIR 
 
 THE CHAPTERS ON THE EXPOSITION 
 
 BEING COLLATED FROM OFFICIAL 
 
 SOURCES AND APPROVED BY 
 
 THE DEPAR TMENT OF PUBLICITY 
 
 AND PROMOTION OF THE 
 
 WORLD'S 'COLUMBIAN 
 
 EXPOSITION 
 
 BY JULIAN RALPH 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
 
 1893
 
 Copyright, 1892, by HARPER & BROTHERS. 
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 AT the suggestion of Messrs. Harper & Brothers the 
 author of this work visited Chicago in the summer of 
 1891 and studied the plans and aims of those who were 
 in charge of the World's Columbian Exposition. He be- 
 came convinced that the Fair was almost certain to be of 
 unparalleled magnificence and interest and more nearly 
 universal in character than any that has ever been held. 
 He was permitted to make public this impression in an 
 article in HARPER'S MAGAZINE which had the merit of ap- 
 pearing when such an announcement especially in a 
 New York publication was singularly timely. A large 
 portion of the public, to some extent shocked by the fail- 
 ure of the Government to order the Fair held in New York, 
 had been inclined to disparage the undertaking. 
 Even before that, the pages of HARPER'S WEEKLY had 
 
 4 begun to build up that pictorial and literary record of the 
 work which will finally form a brilliant history of the en- 
 terprise, and which has been accompanied by frequent 
 ' i) articles in the BAZAR and YOUNG PEOPLE. In asserting that 
 
 XfCxthe Harpers have thus taken the lead and held it in ex- 
 ploiting the Exposition, the intention is not to boast of 
 
 *2 their enterprise, but to explain that the present work is 
 only a further expression of the patriotic impulse that led 
 them thus early to support our nation's gigantic effort to 
 entertain and instruct the world.
 
 This book does not pretend to be a guide, either to the 
 great and interesting City of Chicago or to the Exposition 
 which is to be held in one of its parks. Such a guide 
 would be five times the size of this work, and little more 
 companionable than a dictionary; indeed, it would be im- 
 possible at this time to compile such a work as would an- 
 ticipate the wonders of the Fair in detail. This is rather a 
 series of descriptions of the peculiarities and attractions of 
 Chicago and of the most novel and inviting of those feat- 
 ures of the Exposition in regard to which it has been pos- 
 sible to gain reliable information at this time October, 
 1892. It is a book to be read at home and before the 
 Exposition opens, rather than afterwards and upon the 
 Fair Grounds. 
 
 What is written of Chicago has already appeared in the 
 Harper periodicals. It should be of value if the author 
 has improved his exceptional opportunities for studying 
 the town. On the other hand, the chapters upon the Ex- 
 position were but little dependent on his ability, for each 
 was written close upon a talk with some Exposition offi- 
 cial who was enthusiastic over his work and whose state- 
 ments were taken down while he talked and merely re- 
 clothed, in part, in the writer's own language, afterwards. 
 
 NEW YORK, October i, 1892. 
 
 vi
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE , V 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. THE MAIN EXHIBIT I 
 
 II. HOW CHICAGO WAS BORN 32 
 
 III. THE WAY IT IS GOVERNED 39 
 
 IV. CUPID'S WINDOW IN THE CITY 53 
 
 V. THE MAN AT THE CRIB 63 
 
 VI. CHICAGO'S ARGONAUTS 69 
 
 VII. KILLING CATTLE FOR TWO CONTINENTS 75 
 
 VIII. 'ROUND ABOUT THE TOWN 82 
 
 IX. CHICAGO AND HER RAILROAD WEB gi 
 
 THE WORLD'S FAIR 
 
 X. OUR COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION 103 
 
 XI. EXPLOITING THE FAIR 127 
 
 XII. BUILDING OUR GREAT FAIR . 134 
 
 XIII. A REALIZED DREAM THE GRAND COURT 148 
 
 XIV. WOMAN'S TRIUMPH AT THE FAIR 161 
 
 % XV. THE HISTORY OF MAN AND THE COLUMBUS EXHIBIT . . 171 
 
 XVI. FOREIGN NATIONS AT OUR FAIR 179 
 
 XVII. THE GALLERY OF FINE ARTS 1 88 
 
 XVIII. NINE ACRES OF ELECTRICAL EXHIBITS 194 
 
 XIX. A HISTORY OF TRANSPORTATION 198 
 
 XX. THE MIDWAY PLAISANCE 2O6 
 
 XXI. ORNAMENTS AND ODDITIES 213 
 
 XXII. A WONDERFUL MINERAL EXHIBIT 221 
 
 XXIII. THE FISHERIES DISPLAY 230 
 
 XXIV. CONCLUSION 234 
 
 vii
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Grand Court Frontispiece 
 
 Government Building Faces page 4 
 
 "War" ' . . " " 8 
 
 The Golden Doorway Main Entrance to Transportation 
 
 Building " " 12 
 
 Workers in Staff " " 16 
 
 The Algerian Village, Midway Plaisance " "20 
 
 Ohio Building " "24 
 
 Interior of Manufactures Building, Showing Base of One 
 
 of the Great Arches " "28 
 
 Figure of " Fire " for Machinery Hall " "32 
 
 Placing Exterior Decorations on the Horticultural Build- 
 ing " "36 
 
 Model for the Live-stock Entrance " "40 
 
 The British Building " "46 
 
 Model for Live-stock Entrance " "50 
 
 Making one of the Big Figures foj Electricity Building . " " 54 
 Constructing Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. 
 
 View from Lake Front " "56 
 
 A Sculptor's Studio " "60 
 
 The Building from Wooded Island " "64 
 
 Wisconsin State Building North Dakota State Building . " "66 
 Fisheries Building Government Building Liberal Arts 
 
 Building " "70 
 
 The Model Man-of-war (The Government Exhibit at the 
 
 Columbian Exposition) " "72 
 
 Georgia Building The Massachusetts State Building . . " " 76 
 
 The Convent of La Rabida, Spain " "78 
 
 Pediment, Agricultural Building Forestry Building . . " "80 
 
 Horticultural Building " "82
 
 Liberal Arts Building Electricity Building Mines and 
 
 Mining Building Faces page 
 
 "Commerce" " " 
 
 Charles B. Atwood, Designer-in-chief G. W. Allen, of 
 
 New York, Vice-president " "88 
 
 Labna Portal from Court " "92 
 
 The Franklin Statue for the Roof of the Electrical Building " " 94 
 
 Administration Building " "96 
 
 Liberal Arts Building,' Electricity Building Mines and 
 
 Mining Building " "98 
 
 Mrs. Potter Palmer, President of the Board of Lady Man- 
 agers of the Columbian Exposition " " 104 
 
 New York Building " " 106 
 
 Fisheries Building " "no 
 
 View Looking through the Lagoon " "112 
 
 Thomas M. Waller, of Connecticut, Vice-president D. B. 
 
 Penn, of Louisiana, Vice-president " "114 
 
 Woman's Building " 116 
 
 Agricultural Building " "120 
 
 "Fine Arts" " " 124 
 
 MacMonnies Fountain " " 128 
 
 The Statue of the Republic " "132 
 
 A. B. Andrews, of North Carolina, Vice-president H. M. 
 
 De Young, of California, Vice-president " " 136 
 
 Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building " " 140 
 
 Queen Isabella Pavilion " " 142 
 
 The German Government Building " " 144 
 
 D. H. Burnham, Chief of Construction " " 148 
 
 Architectural Bits at the World's Fair " " 152 
 
 The Administration Building " "154 
 
 The Government Building " "158 
 
 The Mining Building ' 162 
 
 The Electrical Building " " 166 
 
 Wyoming State Building General View of the Fair . . " " 168 
 
 Transportation Building " "172 
 
 Mrs. Frances Welles Shepard Mrs. Mary Kavanaugh 
 
 Eagle " "176 
 
 View from Art Gallery ' 180 
 
 Washington State Building " "184 
 
 California State Building ' 186 
 
 The Administration Building " " 190
 
 Anthony F. Seeberger Hon. Benjamin Butterworth . . Faces page ig6 
 
 Minnesota Building " " 200 
 
 Mrs. Rosine Ryan Miss Mary E. McCandless .... " " 202 
 
 Colorado State Building " " 204 
 
 Moses P. Handy Charles L. Hutchinson " " 208 
 
 The Aquarium and North Entrance to the Fisheries Build- 
 ing, Showing Detail of Capitals and Columns . ... " " 210 
 Mrs. Charles Henrotin Mrs. Susan Riley Ashley ... " " 214 
 
 Maine State Building " " 192 
 
 Col. G. R. Davis " " 218 
 
 Thomas W. Palmer " " 222 
 
 John T. Dickinson, of Texas, Secretary " " 226 
 
 Pennsylvania Building " " 234 
 
 The Machinery Building " " 238 
 
 Halsey C. Ives W. T. Baker " "242
 
 
 CHICAGO
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE MAIN EXHIBIT 
 
 CHICAGO will be the main exhibit at the Columbian 
 Exposition of 1893. No matter what the aggregation 
 of wonders there, no matter what the Eiffel-Tower-like 
 chief exhibit may be, the city itself will make the most 
 surprising presentation. Those who go to study the 
 world's progress will find no other result of human force 
 so wonderful, extravagant, or peculiar. Those who carry 
 with them the prejudices begotten of political rivalry or 
 commercial envy will discover that, however well-found- 
 ed some of the criticism has been especially as to the 
 spirit of the Chicagoans the development of the place 
 has not followed the logical deductions. Those who go 
 clear-minded, expecting to see a great city, will find one 
 different from that which any precedent has led them 
 to look for. 
 
 While investigating the management and prospects 
 of the Columbian Exposition, I was a resident of Chi-
 
 cago for more than a fortnight. A born New-Yorker, 
 the energy, roar, and bustle of the place were yet suffi- 
 cient to first astonish and then to fatigue me. I was 
 led to examine the city, and to cross-examine some of 
 its leading men. I came away compelled to acknowl- 
 edge its possession of certain forceful qualities which I 
 never saw exhibited in the same degree anywhere else. 
 I got a satisfactory explanation of its growth and achieve- 
 ments, as well as proof that it must continue to expand 
 in population and commercial influence. Moreover, 
 without losing a particle of pride or faith in New York 
 without perceiving that New York was affected by 
 the consideration I acquired a respect for Chicago such 
 as it is most likely that any American who makes a sim- 
 ilar investigation must share with me. 
 
 The city has been thought intolerant of criticism. 
 The amount of truth there is in this is found in its su- 
 pervoluminous civicism. The bravado and bunkum of 
 the Chicago newspapers reflect this quality but do it 
 clumsily, because it proceeds from a sense of business 
 policy with the editors, who laugh at it themselves. But 
 underlying the behavior of the most able and enterpris- 
 ing men in the city is this motto, which they constantly 
 quoted to me, all using the same words, " We are for 
 Chicago first, last, and all the time." To define that 
 sentence is, in a great measure, to account for Chicago. 
 It explains the possession of a million inhabitants by a 
 city that practically dates its beginning after the war of 
 the rebellion. Its adoption by half a million men as 
 their watchword means the forcing of trade and manu- 
 factures and wealth ; the getting of the World's Fair, if 
 you please. In order to comprehend Chicago, it is best 
 never to lose sight of the motto of its citizens.
 
 I have spoken of the roar and bustle and energy of 
 Chicago. This is most noticeable in the business part 
 of the town, where the greater number of the men are 
 crowded together. It seems there as if the men would 
 run over the horses if the drivers were not careful. 
 Everybody is in such a hurry and going at such a pace 
 that if a stranger asks his way, he is apt to have to trot 
 * along with his neighbor to gain the information, for the 
 average Chicagoan cannot stop to talk. The whole 
 business of life is carried on at high pressure, and the 
 pithy part of Chicago is like three hundred acres of 
 New York Stock Exchange when trading is active. 
 European visitors have written that there are no such 
 crowds anywhere as gather on Broadway, and this is 
 true most of the time ; but there is one hour on every 
 week-day when certain streets in Chicago are so packed 
 with people as to make Broadway look desolate and 
 solitudinous by comparison. That is the hour between 
 half-past five and half-past six o'clock, when the famous 
 tall buildings of the city vomit their inhabitants upon 
 the pavements. Photographs of the principal corners 
 and crossings, taken at the height of the human torrent, 
 suggest the thought that the camera must have been 
 turned on some little-known painting by Dore. Nobody 
 but Dore ever conceived such pictures. To those who 
 are in the crowds, even Chicago seems small and cramp- 
 ed ; even her street -cars, running in breakneck trains, 
 prove far too few ; even her streets that connect horizon 
 with horizon seem each night to roar at the city officials 
 for further annexation in the morning. 
 
 We shall see these crowds simply and satisfactorily 
 accounted for presently ; but they exhibit only one 
 phase of the high -pressure existence; they form only 
 
 3
 
 one feature among the many that distinguish the town. 
 In the tall buildings are the most modern and rapid 
 elevators, machines that fly up through the towers like 
 glass balls from a trap at a shooting contest. The slow- 
 going stranger, who is conscious of having been " knead- 
 ed " along the streets, like a lump of dough among a 
 million bakers, feels himself loaded into one of those 
 frail-looking baskets of steel netting, and the next in- 
 stant the elevator-boy touches the trigger, and up goes 
 the whole load as a feather is caught up by a gale. The 
 descent is more simple. Something lets go, and you 
 fall from ten to twenty stories as it happens. There is 
 sometimes a jolt, which makes the passenger seem to 
 feel his stomach pass into his shoes, but, as a rule, the 
 mechanism and management both work marvellously 
 towards ease and gentleness. These elevators are too 
 slow for Chicago, and the managers of certain tall build- 
 ings now arrange them so that some run " express " to 
 the seventh story without stopping, while what may be 
 called accommodation cars halt at the lower floors, pur- 
 suing a course that may be likened to the emptying of 
 the chambers of a revolver in the hands of a person who 
 is " quick on the trigger." It is the same everywhere 
 in the business district. Along Clark Street are some 
 gorgeous underground restaurants, all marble and plated 
 metal. Whoever is eating at one of the tables in them 
 will see the ushers standing about like statues until a 
 customer enters the door, when they dart forward as if 
 the building were falling. It is only done in order to 
 seat the visitor promptly. Being of a sympathetic and 
 impressionable nature, I bolted along the streets all the 
 time I was there as if some one on the next block had 
 picked my pocket.
 
 In the Auditorium Hotel the guests communicate 
 with the clerk by electricity, and may flash word of 
 their thirst to the bar-tender as lightning dances from 
 the top to the bottom of a steeple. A sort of annun- 
 ciator is used, and by turning an arrow and pressing a 
 button, a man may in half a minute order a cocktail, 
 towels, ice-water, stationery, dinner, a bootblack, and the 
 evening newspapers. Our horse-cars in New York move 
 at the rate of about six miles an hour. The cable-cars 
 of Chicago make more than nine miles an hour in town, 
 and more than thirteen miles an hour where the popu- 
 lation is less dense. They go in trains of from two to 
 four cars each, and with such a racket of gong-ringing 
 and such a grinding and whir of grip-wheels as to make 
 a modern vestibuled train seem to slight its opportuni- 
 ties for noise. But these street-cars distribute the peo- 
 ple grandly, and while they occasionally run over a stray 
 citizen, they far more frequently clear their way by lift- 
 ing wagons and trucks bodily to one side as they whirl 
 along. It is a rapid and a business-like city. The speed 
 with which cattle are killed and pigs are turned into 
 slabs of salt pork has amazed the world, but it is only 
 the ignorant portion thereof that does not know that 
 the celerity at the stock-yards is merely an effort of 
 the butchers to keep up with the rest of the town. 
 The only slow things in Chicago are the steam railway 
 trains. Further on we will discover why they are so. 
 
 I do not know how many very tall buildings Chicago 
 contains, but they must number nearly two dozen. 
 Some of them are artistically designed, and hide their 
 height in well-balanced proportions. A few are mere 
 boxes punctured with window -holes, and stand above 
 their neighbors like great hitching -posts. The best 
 
 5
 
 of them are very elegantly and completely appoint- 
 ed, and the communities of men inside them might al- 
 most live their lives within their walls, so multifarious 
 are the occupations and services of the tenants. The 
 best New York office buildings are not injured by com- 
 parison with these towering structures, except that they 
 are not so tall as the Chicago buildings, but there is not 
 in New York any office structure that can be compared 
 with Chicago's so-called Chamber of Commerce office 
 building, so far as are concerned the advantages of light 
 and air and openness and roominess which its tenants 
 enjoy. In these respects there is only one finer build- 
 ing in America, and that is in Minneapolis. It is a 
 great mistake to think that we in New York possess all 
 the elegant, rich, and ornamental outgrowths of taste, or 
 that we know better than the West what are the luxu- 
 ries and comforts of the age. With their floors of deftly 
 laid mosaic-work, their walls of marble and onyx, their 
 balustrades of copper worked into arabesquerie, their 
 artistic lanterns, elegant electric fixtures, their costly 
 and luxurious public rooms, these Chicago office build- 
 ings force an exclamation of praise, however unwillingly 
 it comes. 
 
 They have adopted what they call " the Chicago 
 method " in putting up these steepling hives. This 
 plan is to construct the actual edifice of steel frame- 
 work, to which are added thin outer walls of brick or 
 stone masonry, and the necessary partitions of fire- 
 brick, and plaster laid on iron lathing. The buildings 
 are therefore like enclosed bird-cages, and it is said that, 
 like bird - cages, they cannot shake or tumble down. 
 The exterior walls are mere envelopes. They are so 
 treated that the buildings look like heaps of masonry, 
 
 6
 
 but that is homage paid to custom more than it is a 
 material element of strength. These walls are to a 
 building what an envelope is to a letter, or a cover is to 
 a book. The Chicago method is expeditious, economi- 
 cal, and in many ways advantageous. The manner in 
 which the great weight of houses so tall as to include 
 between sixteen and twenty-four stories is distributed 
 upon the ground beneath them is ingenious. Wherever 
 one of the principal upright pillars is to be set up, the 
 builders lay a pad of steel and cement of such extent 
 that the pads for all the pillars cover all the site. These 
 pads are slightly pyramidal in shape, and are made by 
 laying alternate courses of steel beams crosswise, one 
 upon another. Each pair of courses of steel is filled in 
 and solidified with cement, and then the next two 
 courses are added and similarly treated. At last each 
 pad is eighteen inches thick, and perhaps eighteen feet 
 square ; but the size is governed by the desire to dis- 
 tribute the weight of the building at about the average 
 of a ton to the square foot. 
 
 This peculiar process is necessitated by the character 
 of the land underneath Chicago. Speaking widely, the 
 rule is to find from seven to fourteen feet of sand super- 
 imposed upon a layer of clay between ten and forty 
 feet in depth. It has not paid to puncture this clay 
 with piling. The piles sink into a soft and yielding 
 substance, and the clay is not tenacious enough to hold 
 them. Thus the Chicago Post-office was built, and it 
 not only settles continuously, but it settles unevenly. 
 On the other hand, the famous Rookery Building, set 
 up on these steel and cement pads, did not sink quite 
 an inch, though the architect's calculation was that, by 
 squeezing the water out of the clay underneath, it would 
 
 7
 
 settle seven inches. Very queer and differing results 
 have followed the construction of Chicago's biggest 
 buildings, and without going too deep into details, it has 
 been noticed that while some have pulled neighboring 
 houses down a few inches, others have lifted adjoining 
 houses, and still others have raised buildings that were 
 at a distance from themselves. The bed of clay under- 
 neath Chicago acts when under pressure like a pan of 
 dough, or like a blanket tautened at the edges and held 
 clear of underneath support. Chicago's great office 
 buildings have basements, but no cellars. 
 
 I have referred to the number of these stupendous 
 structures. Let it be known next that they are all in a 
 very small district, that narrow area which composes 
 Chicago's office region, which lies between Lake Michi- 
 gan and all the principal railroad districts, and at the 
 edges of* which one-twenty-fifth of all the railroad mile- 
 age of the world is said to terminate, though the dis- 
 trict is but little more than half a mile square or 300 
 acres in extent. One of these buildings and not the 
 largest -has a population of 4000 persons. It was vis- 
 ited and its elevators were used on three days, when a 
 count was kept, by 19,000, 18,000, and 20,000 persons. 
 Last October there were 7000 offices in the tall buildings 
 of Chicago, and 7000 more were under way in buildings 
 then undergoing construction. The reader now under- 
 stands why in the heart of Chicago every work -day 
 evening the crowds convey the idea that our Broadway 
 is a deserted thoroughfare as compared with, say, the 
 corner of Clark and Jackson streets. 
 
 These tall buildings are mainly built on land ob- 
 tained on ninety-nine year leasehold. Long leases rath- 
 er than outright purchases of land have long been a
 
 ' ' WAR "
 
 favorite preliminary to building in Chicago, where, for 
 one thing, the men who owned the land have not been 
 those with the money for building. Where very great 
 and costly buildings are concerned, the long leases often 
 go to corporations or syndicates, who put up the houses. 
 It seems to many strangers who visit Chicago that it is 
 reasonable to prophesy a speedy end to the feverish 
 impulse to swell the number of these giant piles, either 
 through legislative ordinance or by the fever running its 
 course. Many prophesy that it must soon end. This 
 idea is bred of several reasons. In the first place, the 
 tall buildings darken the streets, and transform the 
 lower stories of opposite houses into so many cellars or 
 damp and dark basements. In the next place, the great 
 number of tall and splendid office houses is depreciating 
 the value of the humbler property in their neighbor- 
 hoods. Four-story and five-story houses that once were 
 attractive are no longer so, because their owners cannot 
 afford the conveniences which distinguish the greater 
 edifices, wherein light and heat are often provided free, 
 fire-proof safes are at the service of every tenant, janitors 
 officer a host of servants, and there are barber -shops, 
 restaurants, cigar and news stands, elevators, and a half- 
 dozen other conveniences not found in smaller houses. 
 It would seem, also, that since not all the people of 
 Chicago spend their time in offices, there must soon 
 come an end of the demand for these chambers. So it 
 seems, but not to a thorough-bred Chicagoan. One of 
 the foremost business men in the city asserts that he 
 can perceive no reason why the entire business heart of 
 the town that square half-mile of which I have spoken 
 should not soon be all builded up of cloud-capped 
 towers. There will be a need for them, he says, and the 
 
 9
 
 money to defray the cost of them will accompany the 
 demand. The only trouble he foresees will be in the 
 solution of the problem what to do with the people who 
 will then crowd the streets as never streets were clogged 
 before. 
 
 This prophecy relates to a little section of. the city, but 
 the city itself contains i8i|- square miles. It has been 
 said of the many annexations by which her present size 
 was attained that Chicago reached out and took to her- 
 self farms, prairie land, and villages, and that of such 
 material the great city now in part consists. This is 
 true. In suburban trips, such as those I took to Fort 
 Sheridan and Fernwood, for instance, I passed great cab- 
 bage farms, groves, houseless but plotted tracts, and long 
 reaches of the former prairie. Even yet Hyde Park is 
 a separated settlement, and a dozen or more villages 
 stand out as distinctly by themselves as ever they did. 
 If it were true, as her rivals insist, that Chicago added 
 all this tract merely to get a high rank in the census re- 
 ports of population, the folly of the action would be 
 either ludicrous or pitiful, according to the stand-point 
 from which it was viewed. But the true reason for her 
 enormous extension of municipal jurisdiction is quite as 
 peculiar. The enlargement was urged and accomplished 
 in order to anticipate the growth and needs of the city. 
 It was a consequence of extraordinary foresight, which 
 recognized the necessity for a uniform system of boule- 
 vards, parks, drainage, and water provision when the city 
 should reach limits that it was even then seen must 
 soon bound a compact aggregation of stores, offices, fac- 
 tories, and dwellings. To us of the East this is surpris- 
 ing. It might seem incredible were there not many 
 other evidences of the same spirit and sagacity not only
 
 in Chicago, but in the other cities of the West, especial- 
 ly of the North-west. What Minneapolis, St. Paul, and 
 Duluth are doing towards a future park system reveals 
 the same enterprise and habit of looking far ahead. 
 And Chicago, in her park system, makes evident her in- 
 tentions. In- all these cities and in a hundred ways the 
 observant traveller notes the same forehandedness, and 
 prepares himself to understand the temper in which the 
 greatest of the Western capitals leaned forth and ab- 
 sorbed the prairie. Chicago expects to become the 
 largest city in America a city which, in fifty years, 
 shall be larger than the consolidated cities that may 
 form New York at that time. 
 
 Now on what substance does Chicago feed that she 
 should foresee herself so great ? What manner of men 
 are those of Chicago? What are the whys and the 
 wherefores of her growth ? 
 
 It seems to have ever been, as it is now, a city of 
 young men. One Chicagoan accounts for its low death- 
 rate on the ground that not even its leading men are 
 yet old enough to die. The young men who drifted 
 there from the Eastern States after the close of the war 
 all agree that the thing which most astonished them 
 was the youthfulness of the most active business men. 
 Marshall Field, Potter Palmer, and the rest, heading 
 very large mercantile establishments, were young fellows. 
 Those who came to Chicago from England fancied, as 
 it is said that Englishmen do, that a man may not be 
 trusted with affairs until he has lost half his hair and 
 all his teeth. Our own Eastern men were apt to place 
 wealth and success at the middle of the scale of life. 
 But, in Chicago, men under thirty were leading in com- 
 merce and industry. The sight was a spur to all the
 
 young men who came, and they also pitched in to swell 
 the size and successes of the young men's capital. The 
 easy making of money by the loaning of it and by hand- 
 ling city realty sources which never failed with shrewd 
 men not only whetted the general appetite for big and 
 quick money-making, but they provided the means for 
 the establishment and extension of trade in other ways 
 and with the West at large. 
 
 It is one of the peculiarities of Chicago that one finds 
 not only the capitalists but the store-keepers discussing 
 the whole country with a familiarity as strange to a 
 man from the Atlantic coast as Nebraska is strange to 
 most Philadelphians or New-Yorkers. But the well- 
 informed and "hustling" Chicagoan is familiar with the 
 differing districts of the entire West, North, and South, 
 with their crops, industries, wants, financial status, and 
 means of intercommunication. As in London we find 
 men whose business field is the world, so in Chicago we 
 find the business men talking not of one section or of 
 Europe, as is largely the case in New York, but dis- 
 cussing the affairs of the entire country. The figures 
 which garnish their conversation are bewildering, but if 
 they are analyzed, or even comprehended, they will re- 
 veal to the listener how vast and how wealthy a region 
 acknowledges Chicago as its market and its financial 
 and trading centre. 
 
 Without either accepting or contesting any part of the 
 process by which Chicago men account for their city's 
 importance or calculate its future, let me repeat a di- 
 gest of what several influential men of that city said 
 upon the subject. Chicago, then, is the centre of a cir- 
 cle of 1000 miles diameter. If you draw a line north- 
 ward 500 miles, you find everywhere arable land and 
 
 12
 
 timber. The same is true with respect to a line drawn 
 500 miles in a north-westerly course. For 650 miles 
 westward there is no change in the rich and alluring 
 prospect, and so all around the circle, except where 
 Lake Michigan interrupts it, the same conditions are 
 found. Moreover, the lake itself is a valuable element 
 in commerce. The rays or spokes in all these direc- 
 tions become materialized in the form of the tracks of 35 
 railways which enter the city. Twenty-two of these are 
 great companies, and at a short distance sub - radials 
 made by other railroads raise the number to 50 roads. 
 As I have already said, in Chicago one-twenty-fifth of 
 the railway mileage of the world terminates, and serves 
 30,000,000 persons, who find Chicago the largest city 
 easily accessible to them. Thus is found a vast popu- 
 lation connected easily and directly with a common cen- 
 tre, to which everything they produce can be brought, 
 and from which all that contributes to the material prog- 
 ress and comfort of man may be economically distrib- 
 uted. 
 
 A financier who is equally well known and respected 
 in New York and Chicago put the case somewhat dif- 
 ferently as to what he called Chicago's territory. He 
 considered it as being 1000 miles square, and spoke of 
 it as " the land west of the Alleghanies and south of 
 Mason and Dixon's line." This region, the richest agri- 
 cultural territory in the world, does its financiering in 
 Chicago. The rapid increase in wealth of both the city 
 and the tributary region is due to the fact that every 
 year both produce more, and have more to sell and less 
 to buy. Not long ago the rule was that a stream of 
 goods ran eastward over the Alleghanies, and another 
 stream of supplies came back, so that the West had lit- 
 
 13
 
 tie gain to show. But during the past five years this 
 back-setting current has been a stream of money re- 
 turned for the products the West has distributed. The 
 West is now selling to the East and to Europe and get- 
 ting money in return, because it is manufacturing for it- 
 self, as well as tilling the soil and mining for the rest of 
 the world. It therefore earns money and acquires a 
 profit instead of continuing its former process of toiling 
 merely to obtain from the East the necessaries of life. 
 
 The condition in which Nebraska and Kansas find 
 themselves is the condition in which a great part of the 
 West was placed not long ago a condition of debt, of 
 being mortgaged, and of having to send its earnings to 
 Eastern capitalists. That is no longer the case of the 
 West in general. The debtor States now are Kansas, 
 Nebraska, the two Dakotas, and western Minnesota ; 
 but Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, 
 and Michigan (the States most closely tributary to Chi- 
 cago) have paid off their mortgages, and are absorbing 
 money and investing it in local improvements. What 
 they earn is now their own, and it comes back to them 
 in the form of money. This money used to be shipped 
 to the East, to which these States were in debt, but 
 now it is invested where it is earned, and the conse- 
 quence has been that in the last five or six years the 
 West has rarely shipped any currency East, but has 
 been constantly drawing it from there. 
 
 In this change of condition is seen an explanation of 
 much that has made Chicago peculiar. She has been 
 what she would call " hustling." For years, in com- 
 pany with the entire Western country, she has been 
 making money only to pay debts with. That, they say, 
 is why men in Chicago have talked only " business ;" 
 
 14
 
 that is why Chicago has had no leisure class, no res- 
 ervoir of home capital seeking investment. The for- 
 mer conditions having changed, now that she is pro- 
 ducing more and buying less, the rest will change 
 also. 
 
 When we understand what are the agricultural re- 
 sources of the region for which Chicago is the trading- 
 post, we perceive how certain it was that its debt 
 would be paid, and that great wealth .would follow. 
 The corn lands of Illinois return a profit of $15 to the 
 acre, raising 50 to 60 bushels at 42^ cents a bushel last 
 year, and at a cost for cultivation of only $7 an acre. 
 Wheat produces $22.50 an acre, costs a little less than 
 corn, and returns a profit of from $12 to $15. Oats 
 run 55 bushels to the acre, at 27 cents a bushel, and 
 cost the average farmer only, say, $6 an acre, returning 
 $8 or $9 an acre in profit. These figures will vary as 
 to production, cost, and profit, but it is believed that 
 they represent a fair average. This midland country, 
 of which Chicago is the capital, produces 2,000,000,000 
 bushels of corn, 700,000,000 bushels of oats, 50,000,000 
 hogs, 28,000,000 horses, 30,000,000 sheep, and so on, to 
 cease before the reader is wearied ; but in no single 
 instance is the region producing within 50 per cent, of 
 what it will be made to yield before the expiration of 
 the next twenty years. Farming there has been hap- 
 hazard, rude, and wasteful ; but as it begins to pay well, 
 the methods begin to improve. Drainage will add new 
 lands, and better methods will swell the crops, so that, 
 for instance, where 60 bushels of corn to the acre are 
 now grown, at least 100 bushels will be harvested. All 
 the corn lands are now settled, but they are not im- 
 proved. They will yet double in value. It is different 
 
 15
 
 with wheat; with that the maximum production will 
 soon be attained. 
 
 Such is the wealth that Chicago counts up as tribu- 
 tary to her. By the railroads that dissect this opulent 
 region she is riveted to the midland, the southern, and 
 the western country between the Rockies and the Alle- 
 ghanies. She is closely allied to the South, because she 
 is manufacturing and distributing much that the South 
 needs, and can get most economically from her. Chi- 
 cago has become the third manufacturing city in the 
 Union, and she is drawing manufactures away from the 
 East faster than most persons in the East imagine. 
 To-day it is a great Troy stove-making establishment 
 that has moved to Chicago ; the week before it was a 
 Massachusetts shoe -factory that went there. Many 
 great establishments have gone there, but more must 
 follow, because Chicago is not only the centre of the 
 midland region in respect of the distribution of made- 
 up wares, but also for the concentration of raw materi- 
 als. Chicago must lead in the manufacture of all goods 
 of which wood, leather, and iron are the bases. The 
 revolution that took place in the meat trade when Chi- 
 cago took the lead in that industry affected the whole 
 leather and hide industry. Cattle are dropping 90,000 
 skins a week in Chicago, and the trade is confined to 
 Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, and St. Paul. 
 It is idle to suppose that those skins will be sent across 
 the Alleghanies to be turned into goods and sent back 
 again. Wisconsin has become a great tanning State, 
 and all over the district close around Chicago are fac- 
 tories and factory towns where hides are turned into 
 leather goods. The West still gets its finer goods in 
 the East, but it is making the coarser grades, and to 
 
 16
 
 such an extent as to give a touch of New England col- 
 or to the towns and villages around Chicago. 
 
 This is not an unnatural rivalry that has grown up. 
 The former condition of Western dependence was un- 
 natural. The science of profitable business lies in the 
 practice of economy. Chicago has in abundance all the 
 fuels except hard coal. She has coal, oil, stone, brick 
 everything that is needed for building and for living. 
 Manufactures gravitate to such a place for economical 
 reasons. The population of the north Atlantic division, 
 including Pennslyvania and Massachusetts, and acknowl- 
 edging New York as its centre, is 17,401,000. The pop- 
 ulation of the northern central division, trading with 
 Chicago, is 22,362,279. Every one has seen each suc- 
 ceeding census shift the centre of population farther 
 and farther West, but not every one is habituated to 
 putting two and two together. 
 
 " Chicago is yet so young and busy," said he who is 
 perhaps the leading banker there, " she has no time for 
 anything beyond each citizen's private affairs. It is 
 hard to get men to serve on a committee. The only 
 thing that saves us from being boors is our civic pride. 
 We are fond, proud, enthusiastic in that respect. But 
 we know that Chicago is not rich, like New York. She 
 has no bulk of capital lying ready for investment and 
 reinvestment ; yet she is no longer poor. She has just 
 got over her poverty, and the next stage, bringing accu- 
 mulated wealth, will quickly follow. Her growth in this 
 respect is more than paralleled by her development into 
 an industrial centre." 
 
 So much, then, for Chicago's reasons for existence. 
 The explanation forms not merely the history of an 
 American town, and a town of young men, it points an 
 u 17
 
 old moral. It demonstrates anew the active truth that 
 energy is_ a greater force than money. It commands 
 money. The young founders of Chicago were backed 
 in the East by capitalists who discounted the energy 
 they saw them display. And now Chicago capitalists 
 own the best street railway in St. Louis, the surface 
 railway system of Toledo, a thousand enterprises in 
 hundreds of Western towns. 
 
 Chicago has been as crude and rough as any other 
 self-creating entity engaged in a hard struggle for a liv- 
 ing. And latterly confidence in and exultation over the 
 inevitable success of the battle have made her boastful, 
 conceited, and noisy. But already one citizen has taken 
 to building houses for rental and not for sale. He has 
 arranged an imitation Astor estate as far ahead as the 
 law will permit, which is to say, to one generation un- 
 born. Already, so they boast in Chicago, you may see 
 a few tables in the Chicago Club surrounded by whist- 
 players with gray locks and semispherical waistcoats in 
 the afternoons during business hours! a most surprising 
 thing, and only possible at the Chicago Club, which is 
 the old club of the " old rich." These partially globular 
 old whist-players are still in business, of course, as every- 
 body is, but they let go with one hand, as it were, in the 
 afternoons, and only stroll around to their offices at four 
 or five o'clock to make certain that the young members 
 of the other clubs have not stolen their trade while they 
 were playing cards. The other clubs of Chicago merely 
 look like clubs, as we understand the word in New York. 
 They are patronized as our dining-clubs are, with a rush 
 at luncheon-time, although at both ends of the town, in 
 the residence districts, there are clubs to which men 
 drift on Sundays. 
 
 18
 
 And here one is brought to reflect that Chicago is 
 distinctly American. I know that the Chicagoans boast 
 that theirs is the most mixed population in the country, 
 but the makers and movers of Chicago are Americans. 
 The streets of the city are full of strange faces of a type 
 to which we are not used in the East a dish-faced, soft- 
 eyed, light-haired people. They are Scandinavians; but 
 they are as malleable as lead, and quickly and easily fol- 
 low and adopt every Americanism. In return, they ask 
 only to be permitted to attend a host of Lutheran 
 churches in flocks, to work hard, live temperately, save 
 thriftily, and to pronounce every / as if it were a y. But 
 the dominating class is of that pure and broad American 
 type which is not controlled by New England or any 
 other tenets, but is somewhat loosely made up of the 
 overflow of the New England, the Middle, and the 
 Southern States. It is as mixed and comprehensive 
 as the West Point school of cadets. It calls its city 
 " She-caw-ger." It inclines to soft hats, and only once 
 in a great while does a visitor see a Chicagoan who has 
 the leisure or patience to carry a cane. Its signs are 
 eloquent of its habits, especially of its habit of freedom. 
 
 " Take G 's candy to the loved ones at home," stares 
 
 from hundreds of walls. "Gentlemen all chew Fraxy 
 because it sweetens the breath after drinking," one man- 
 ufacturer declares ; then he adds, " Ladies who play ten- 
 nis chew it because it lubricates the throat." A bottler 
 of spring water advertises it as " God's own liver rem- 
 edy." On the bill -boards of a theatre is the threat 
 that " If you miss seeing Peter Peterson, half your 
 life will be gone." In a principal street is a charac- 
 teristic sign product, " My fifteen-cent meals are world- 
 beaters;" yet there are worse terrors for Chicago diners- 
 
 19
 
 out, as is shown by the sign, " Business lunch quick 
 and cheap." 
 
 But the visitor's heart warms to the town when he 
 sees its parks and its homes. In them is ample assur- 
 ance that not every breath is " business," and not every 
 thought commercial. Once out of the thicket of the 
 business and semi-business district, the dwellings of the 
 people reach mile upon mile away along pleasant boule- 
 vards and avenues, or facing noble parks and parkways, 
 or in a succession of villages green and gay with foliage 
 and flowers. They are not cliff dwellings like our flats 
 and tenements ; there are no brownstone canons like 
 our up-town streets ; there are only occasional hesitating 
 hints there of those Philadelphian and Baltimorean mills 
 that grind out dwellings all alike, as nature makes pease 
 and man makes pins. There are more miles of detached 
 villas in Chicago than a stranger can easily account for. 
 As they are not only found on Prairie Avenue and the 
 boulevards, but in the populous wards and semi-suburbs, 
 where the middle folk are congregated, it is evident that 
 the prosperous moiety of the population enjoys living 
 better (or better living) than the same fraction in the 
 Atlantic cities. 
 
 Land in New York has been too costly to permit of 
 these villa-like dwellings, but that does not alter the 
 fact that existence in a home hemmed in by other 
 houses is at best but a crippled living. There never has 
 been any valid excuse for the building of these com- 
 pressed houses by New York millionaires. It sounds 
 like a Celtic bull, but, in my opinion, the poorer million- 
 aires of Prairie Avenue are better off. A peculiarity of 
 the buildings of Chicago is in the great variety of build- 
 ing-stones that are employed in their construction.
 
 Where we would build two blocks of brownstone, I 
 have counted thirteen varieties of beautiful and differ- 
 ing building material. Moreover, the contrasts in archi- 
 tectural design evidence among Chicago house-owners 
 a complete sway of individual taste. It is in these beau- 
 tiful homes that the people, who do not know what to 
 do with their club-houses, hold their card-parties ; it is 
 to them that they bring their visitors and friends; in 
 short, it is at home that the Chicagoan recreates and 
 loafs. 
 
 It is said, and I have no reason to doubt it, that the 
 clerks and small tradesmen who live in thousands of 
 these pretty little boxes are the owners of their homes ; 
 also that the tenements of the rich display evidence of 
 a tasteful and costly garnering of the globe for articles 
 of luxury and virtu. A sneering critic, who wounded 
 Chicago deeply, intimated that theirs must be a primi- 
 tive society where the rich sit on their door-steps of an 
 evening. That really is a habit there, and in the finer 
 districts of all the Western cities. To enjoy themselves 
 the more completely, the people bring out rugs and 
 carpets, always of gay colors, and fling them on the 
 steps or stoops, as we Dutch legatees should say 
 that the ladies' dresses may not be soiled. As these 
 step clothings are as bright as the maidens' eyes and as 
 gay as their cheeks, the effect may be imagined. For 
 my part, I think it argues well for any society that in- 
 dulges in the trick, and proves existence in such a city 
 to be more human and hearty and far less artificial than 
 where there is too much false pride to permit of it. In 
 front of many of" the nice hotels the boarders lug out 
 great arm-chairs upon the portal platforms or beside the 
 curbs. There the men sit in rows, just as I can remem- 
 
 21
 
 her seeing them do in front of the New York Hotel and 
 the old St. Nicholas Hotel in happy days of yore, to 
 smoke in the sunless evening air, and to exchange com- 
 ments on the weather and the passers-by. If the dead 
 do not rise until the Judgment Day, but lie less active 
 than their dust, then old Wouter Van Twiller, Petrus 
 Stuyvesant, and the rest of our original Knickerbockers 
 will be sadly disappointed angels when they come to, 
 and find that we have abandoned these practices in 
 New York, after the good example that our first fami- 
 lies all set us. 
 
 It is in Chicago that we find a great number of what 
 are called boulevarded streets, at the intersections of 
 which are signs bearing such admonitions as these : 
 " For pleasure driving. No traffic wagons allowed ;" 
 or, " Traffic teams are not allowed on this boulevard." 
 Any street in the residence parts of the city may be bou- 
 levarded and turned over to the care of the park com- 
 missioners of the district, provided that it does not lie 
 next to any other such street, and provided that a certain 
 proportion of the property-holders along it are minded 
 to follow a simple formula to procure the improvement. 
 Improved road-beds are given to such streets, and they 
 not only become neat and pretty, but enhance the value 
 of all neighboring land. One boulevard in Chicago pene- 
 trates to the very heart of its bustling business district. 
 By means of it men and women may drive from the 
 southern suburbs or parks to the centre of trade, perhaps 
 to their office doors, under the most pleasant conditions. 
 By means of the lesser beautified avenues among the 
 dwellings men and women may sleep of nights, and hide 
 from the worst of the city's tumult among green lawns 
 and flower-beds. 
 
 22
 
 Chicago's park system is so truly her crown, or its dia- 
 dem, that its fame may lead to the thought that enough 
 has been said about it. That is not the case, however, 
 for the parks change and improve so constantly that the 
 average Chicagoan finds some of them outgrowing his 
 knowledge, unless he goes to them as he ought to go to 
 his prayers. It is not in extent that the city's parks 
 are extraordinary, for, all told, they comprise less than 
 2000 acres. It is the energy that has given rise to 
 them, and the taste and enthusiasm which have been 
 expended upon them, that cause our wonder. Sand and 
 swamp were at the bottom of them, and if their surfaces 
 now roll in gentle undulations, it is because the earth 
 that was dug out for the making of ponds has been sub- 
 sequently applied to the forming of hills and knolls. 
 The people go to some of them upon the boulevards of 
 which I have spoken, beneath trees and beside lawns 
 and gorgeous flower-beds, having their senses sharpened 
 in anticipation of the pleasure-grounds beyond, as the 
 heralds in some old plays prepare us for the action that 
 is to follow. Once the parks are reached, they are found 
 to be literally for the use of the people who own them. 
 I have a fancy that a people who are so largely American 
 would not suffer them to be otherwise. There are no 
 signs warning the public off the grass, or announcing 
 that they " may look, but mustn't touch" whatever there 
 is to see. The people swarm all over the grass, and yet 
 it continues beautiful day after day and year after year. 
 The floral displays seem unharmed ; at any rate, we have 
 none to compare with them in any Atlantic coast parks. 
 The people even picnic on the sward, and those who 
 can appreciate such license find, ready at hand, baskets 
 in which to hide the litter which follows. And, O ye 
 
 c 23
 
 who manage other parks we wot of, know that these 
 Chicago playgrounds seem as free from harm and eye- 
 sore as any in the land. 
 
 The best parks face the great lake, and get wondrous 
 charms of dignity and beauty from it. At the North 
 Side the Lincoln Park commissioners, at great expense, 
 are building out into the lake, making a handsome paved 
 beach, sea-wall, esplanade, and drive to enclose a long, 
 broad body of the lake water. Although the great blue 
 lake is at the city's edge, there is little or no sailing or 
 pleasure-boating upon it. It is too rude and treacherous. 
 Therefore these commissioners of the Lincoln Park are 
 enclosing, behind their new-made land, a watercourse 
 for sailing and rowing, for racing, and for more indolent 
 aquatic sport. The Lake Shore Drive, when completed, 
 will be three miles in length, and will connect with yet 
 another notable road to Fort Sheridan twenty-five miles 
 in length. All these beauties form part of the main ex- 
 hibit at the Columbian Exposition. Realizing this, the 
 municipality has not only voted $5,000,000 to the Ex- 
 position, but has set apart $3,500,000 for beautifying 
 and improving the city in readiness for the Exposition 
 and its visitors, even as a bride decketh herself for her 
 husband. That is well ; but it is not her beauty that 
 will most interest the visitors to Chicago. 
 
 I have an idea that all this is very American ; but 
 what is to be said of the Chicago Sunday, with its drink- 
 ing-shops all wide open, and its multitudes swarming out 
 on pleasure bent ? And what of the theatres open- 
 ing to the best night's business of the week at the hour 
 of Sunday evening service in the churches ? I suspect 
 that this also is American that sort of American that 
 develops under Southern and Western influences not 
 
 24
 
 dominated by the New England spirit. And yet the 
 Puritan traditions are not without honor and respect in 
 Chicago, witness the fact that the city spent $17,250,000 
 during the past five years upon her public schools. 
 
 Another thing that I suspect is American, though I 
 am sorry to say it, is the impudence of the people who 
 wait on the public. It is quite certain that the more 
 intelligent a man is, the better waiter he will make; but 
 your free-born American acknowledges a quality which 
 more than offsets his intelligence. In pursuit of knowl- 
 edge I went to a restaurant, which was splendid if it was 
 not good, and the American who waited on me lightened 
 his service with song in this singular manner: "Com- 
 rades, com you said coffee, didn't yer? ever since we 
 were boys ; sharing each other's sor I don't think we've 
 got no Roquefort sharing each other's joys. Brie, then 
 keerect!" (I recall this against my country, not against 
 Chicago restaurants. A city which possesses Harvey's, 
 Kinsley's, or the Wellington need not be tender on that 
 point.) But it is as much as a man's self-respect is worth 
 to hazard a necessary question of a ticket-seller in a the- 
 atre or railroad depot. Those bona fide Americans, the 
 colored men, are apt to try their skill at repartee with 
 the persons they serve ; and while I cannot recall an in- 
 stance when a hotel clerk was impudent, I several times 
 heard members of that fraternity yield to a sense of hu- 
 mor that would bankrupt a Broadway hotel in three 
 weeks. In only one respect are the servitors of the Chi- 
 cago public like the French ; they boast the same motto 
 " Liberty, equality, fraternity." 
 
 There is another notable thing in Chicago which, I am 
 certain, is a national rather than a merely local peculi- 
 arity. I refer to dirty streets. In our worst periods in 
 
 25
 
 New York we resort to a Latin trick of tidying up our 
 most conspicuous thoroughfares, and leaving the others 
 to the care of I think it must be the Federal Weather 
 Bureau to whose care we leave them. However, nearly 
 all American cities are disgracefully alike in this respect, 
 and until some dying patriot bequeaths the money to 
 send every Alderman (back) to Europe to see how streets 
 should and can be kept, it is, perhaps, idle to discuss the 
 subject. But these are all comparative trifles. Certainly 
 they will seem such to whoever shall look into the sit- 
 uation of Chicago closely enough to discover the great 
 problems that lie before the people as a corporation. 
 
 She will take up these questions in their turn and as 
 soon as possible, and, stupendous as they are, no one 
 who understands the enterprise and energy of Chicago 
 will doubt for a moment that she will master them 
 shrewdly. 
 
 These problems are of national interest, and one is a 
 subject of study throughout Christendom. They deal 
 with the disciplining of the railroads, which run through 
 the city at a level with the streets, and with the estab- 
 lishment of an efficient system of drainage or sewage. 
 A start has been made for the handling of the sewage 
 question. The little Chicago River flows naturally into 
 the great lake ; but years ago an attempt to alter its 
 course was made by the operation of pumping-works at 
 Bridgeport, within the city limits, whereby 40,000 gallons 
 of water per minute are pumped out of the river, and 
 into a canal that connects with the Illinois River, and 
 thence with the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. At 
 ' most times this causes a sluggish flow of the river south- 
 ward away from the lake. Water from the lake is also 
 pumped into the river to dilute its waters, but it remains 
 
 26
 
 a noisome stream, a sewer in fact, whose waters at times 
 flow or are driven into Lake Michigan to pollute the 
 city's water supply. " Measures have been taken to con- 
 struct a large gravity channel as an outlet for the sewage 
 into the Illinois River. The Chicago Sanitary District 
 has been formed by act of -Legislature; nine trustees 
 have been elected to supervise the construction of the 
 channel, engineers have been set at work upon surveys," 
 and perhaps the channel which will result will serve the 
 double purpose of disposing of the sewage and establish- 
 ing a navigable waterway connecting Chicago and her 
 commerce with the Mississippi River. It is said that 
 this will cost Chicago $20,000,000. Honestly done, it 
 will certainly be worth whatever it costs. 
 
 Chicago's water supply has been linked with this sew- 
 age problem. It does not join with it. Once the sewage 
 matter were settled, the old two-mile crib in Lake Mich- 
 igan would bring to town water than which there is none 
 more pure on earth. The four-mile tunnel and crib now 
 in course of construction (that is to say, the tunnel and 
 gate pushed four miles out into the lake) certainly will 
 leave nothing to be desired, even as the sewage is now 
 ordered. 
 
 The railroad question is more bothersome. Chicago 
 is criss-crossed by a gridiron of railway tracks. Practi- 
 cally all of them enter the city and dissect the streets 
 at grade ; that is to say, at the level of the city's arteries. 
 Speaking not too loosely, the locomotives and cars man- 
 gle or kill two persons on every week-day in the year, 
 or six hundred persons annually. The railroad officials 
 argue that they invented and developed Chicago, and 
 that her people are ungrateful to protest against a little 
 thing like a slaughter which would depopulate an ordi- 
 
 27
 
 nary village in a year. In so far as it is true that they 
 created the city, they will but repeat the experience of 
 that fabled inventor whose monstrous mechanical off- 
 spring claimed him for its victim, for, in a wholesome 
 public -spirited sense, that is what must become their 
 fate. Chicago is ten miles deep and twenty-four miles 
 wide, and the railroads (nearly all using a number of 
 tracks) all terminate within 4000 feet of the Rookery 
 Building. I rely on the accuracy of a noted Chicagoan 
 for that measurement. The Rookery is situated very 
 much as the Bank of England is in London and as the 
 City Hall is in New York, so that it will be seen that 
 Chicago is at the mercy of agencies that should be her 
 servants, and not her masters. 
 
 Some railroad men, looking from their .stand -point, 
 assert that it will cost Chicago $100,000,000 to over- 
 come this injury to her comfort and her safety. This 
 assertion is often echoed in Chicago by men not in the 
 railroad business. On the other hand, I shall be sur- 
 prised if the railroads do not have to bear a large share 
 of the cost, whatever it may prove to be, because I take 
 it that Chicago will not fail to profit by the experiences 
 of other cities where this problem has already been 
 dealt with, and where it has not been so lightly taken 
 for granted that when railroads are in the way of the 
 people, it is the people, and not the railroads, who must 
 pay to move them out of the way. The sum of present 
 human judgment seems to be that the cost is divisible, 
 and that the railroads should look after their tracks, and 
 the people after their streets. 
 
 The entire nation will observe with keen interest the 
 manner in which Chicago deals with this problem, not 
 with any anticipation of an unjust solution that will 
 
 28
 
 trespass on the popular rights, but to note the determi- 
 nation of the lesser question, whether the railroads shall 
 be compelled to sink their tracks in trenches or to raise 
 them on trusses, or whether, as has also been suggested, 
 all the roads shall combine to build and terminate at a 
 common elevated structure curving around the outside 
 of the thick of the city, and capable of transferring pas- 
 sengers from road to road, as well as of distributing them 
 among points easily accessible from every district. 
 
 One would think it would be to the advantage of the 
 principal railway corporations to try'at once to effect an 
 agreement among themselves and with the city for this 
 reform, because, as I have said, the railroads are now the 
 slowest of Chicago's institutions. The reduced speed at 
 which the municipality obliges them to run their trains 
 must be still further modified, and even the present 
 headway is hindered by the frequent delays at the nu- 
 merous crossings of the tracks. This is a nuisance. 
 Every occasional traveller feels it, and what must it be 
 to the local commuters who live at a distance from their 
 business? They move by slow stages a quarter of an 
 hour or more before the cars in which they ride are able 
 to get under the scheduled headway. But it is more 
 than a local question. It is one of the peculiarities of 
 Chicago that she arrests a great proportion of the trav- 
 elling public that seeks destinations beyond her limits 
 in either direction. They may not want to go to Chi- 
 cago at all, but it is the rule of most roads that they 
 must do so. They must stop, transfer baggage, and 
 change railroads. Often a stay at a hotel is part of the 
 requirement. If this is to continue, the public might at 
 least have the performance expedited. Both the local 
 and the general nuisance will, in all likelihood, be reme- 
 
 29
 
 died together. It is the aim of all progressive railroad 
 managers to shorten time and prevent transfers wherever 
 possible ; and delays against which the entire travelling 
 public protests cannot long avoid remedy. 
 
 In interviews with Chicago men the newspapers have 
 obtained many estimates of the number of visitors who 
 will attend the Columbian Exposition. One calculation, 
 which is called conservative, is that 10,000,000 persons 
 will see the display, and will leave $300,000,000 in the 
 city. It is not easy to judge of such estimates, but we 
 know that there is a wider interest in this Exposition 
 than in any that was ever held. We know also that in 
 the foremost countries of Europe workmen's clubs and 
 popular lotteries have been established or projected for 
 the purpose of sending their most fortunate participants 
 to Chicago a few of many signs of an uncommon de- 
 sire to witness the great exhibition. 
 
 Whatever these visitors have heard or thought of Chi- 
 cago, they will find it not only an impressive but a sub- 
 stantial city. It will speak to every understanding of 
 the speed with which it is hastening to a place among 
 the world's capitals. Those strangers who travel farther 
 in our West may find other towns that have builded 
 too much upon the false prospects of districts where 
 the crops have proved uncertain. They may see still 
 other showy cities, where the main activity is in the di- 
 rection of "swapping" real estate. It is a peculiar in- 
 dustry, accompanied by much bustle and lying. But 
 they will not find in Chicago anything that will disturb 
 its tendency to impress them with a solidity and a de- 
 gree of enterprise and prosperity that are only excelled 
 by the almost idolatrous faith of the people in their 
 community. The city's broad and regular thorough- 
 
 30
 
 fares will astonish many of us who have imbibed the 
 theory that streets are first mapped out by cows ; its 
 alley system between streets will win the admiration of 
 those who live where alleys are unknown ; its many 
 little homes will speak volumes for the responsibility 
 and self-respect of a great body of its citizens. 
 
 The discovery that the city's harbor is made up of 
 forty-one miles of the banks of an internal river will 
 lead to the satisfactory knowledge that it has preserved 
 a great part of its beautiful front upon Lake Michigan 
 as an ornament. This has been bordered by parks and 
 parkways in pursuance of a plan that is interrupted to 
 an important extent only where a pioneer railway came 
 without the foreknowledge that it would eventually de- 
 velop into a nuisance and an eyesore. Its splendid 
 hotels, theatres, schools, churches, galleries, and public 
 works and ornaments will commend the city to many 
 who will not study its commercial side. In short, it 
 will be found that those who visit the Exposition will 
 not afterwards reflect upon its assembled proofs of the 
 triumphs of man and of civilization without recalling 
 Chicago's contribution to the sum.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 HOW CHICAGO WAS BORN 
 
 WHETHER they are fables like the story of the twins 
 who founded Rome, or whether they are as tame as the 
 account of the purchase of Manhattan- Island from the 
 Indians, there is always something peculiarly interesting 
 in the stories of the babyhood of great cities. Their 
 small and often beggarly beginnings, the little promise 
 they give of the mighty size and importance they are 
 to achieve, their mishaps and setbacks, which, like the 
 illnesses of human children, seem again and again to 
 threaten their tender and slender existence all these 
 narratives that make up history become more and more 
 interesting as the cities themselves grow greater and 
 greater. There was a time when London seems to 
 have " gone out," like a lighted candle in the wind, 
 or like those great cities of Africa which the Bible 
 tells of, and which now are but ruins and broken mem- 
 ories. 
 
 Stories of the early infantile struggles of cities seem 
 like stories of men ; they have a human character and 
 interest. Perhaps it is because they are mainly tales of 
 what men did, and yet there are accounts of earthquakes 
 and epidemics and fires, in which the parts that single 
 individuals did are lost sight of or not told at all, and 
 
 32
 
 FIGURE OK "FIRE" FOR MACHINERY HALT. 
 
 (From a Photograph by O. M. Morris & Co.)
 
 we either see the cities destroyed forever, or quickly 
 springing up again like new trees where a forest had 
 fallen. 
 
 Whoever goes to see the Columbian Exposition at 
 Chicago next year will be reminded that this great 
 American city had an uncommonly lively and tragic 
 adventure in its childhood. This will be brought to 
 mind by the sight of a large white marble tablet 
 set in the wall of a storehouse on Michigan Avenue 
 close to the Chicago River, which cuts the big city 
 into three districts the north, the south, and the 
 west. 
 
 This great tablet tells of the first important building 
 in Chicago, and fixes its site. Along the arched top of 
 the tall slab of stone are these words, " Block-house of 
 Fort Dearborn." Under that arch is a carved picture 
 of a typical wooden fort built of logs, and enclosed by a 
 high, thick log fence or " palisadoe," as our forefathers 
 would have called it. The picture shows that the fort 
 was square, and the second story, where the cannon 
 peeped out, projected beyond the first story, as if a 
 large box had been built on top of a smaller one. On 
 the roof of this second story was a cupola or observa- 
 tory, with a flag flying on top of that. Such forts were 
 very common once. Wherever the white men were sur- 
 rounded by Indians, or were pushing our frontier farther 
 and farther west, they put up such block-houses as this 
 in Canada as well as in this country. New York City 
 itself, when it was a Dutch trading-post, had its little 
 huddle of houses inside a palisadoe around very much 
 such a fort. 
 
 But what is carved in letters under the picture holds 
 the passer-by longer. It is a brief account of the birth 
 33
 
 and first trouble of Chicago when it was a baby city. 
 This is what the visitor will read upon the tablet : 
 
 "This building is on the site of old Fort Dearborn, which ex- 
 tended a little across Michigan Avenue and somewhat into the 
 river as it now is. 
 
 "The fort was built in 1803 & 4, forming our outmost defense. 
 
 " By order of Gen. Hull it was evacuated Aug. 15, 1812, after 
 its stores and provisions had been distributed among the Ind- 
 ians. Very soon after, the Indians attacked and massacred about 
 fifty of the troops and a number of citizens, including women and 
 children, and next day burned the fort. In 1816 it was rebuilt, 
 but after the Black Hawk war it went into general disuse, and in 
 May, 1837, was abandoned by the army, but was occupied by va- 
 rious government officers till 1857, when it was torn down, ex- 
 cepting a single building, which stood upon this site till the great 
 fire of Oct. 9, 1871. 
 
 " At the suggestion of the Chicago Historical Society this tab- 
 let was erected by W. M. HOYT. 
 
 " Nov., 1 880." 
 
 Before the erection of that fort the history of Chicago 
 was slight, trifling, broken, and obscure. The river had 
 been found by Louis Joliet, the agent of Count Fronte- 
 nac, who was the Governor of that immense territory 
 extending over the North-west, and called New France. 
 At any rate, Joliet first published the existence of the 
 river in a map that he roughly made. Then and after- 
 wards it was variously called Eschikagow or Checagow. 
 In the language of the Illinois tribe the word meant 
 onion, and it is said that onions grew plentifully along 
 the little river. Other Indians used the same word when 
 they spoke of a polecat. The date of Joliet's explora- 
 tion was about 1673. 
 
 The first actual settler where now upwards of a mill- 
 ion persons are living was a negro named Point de Sable, 
 
 34
 
 who had a cabin on the river-side in 1779, and who grew 
 noted and prosperous as a trapper and fur-trader. Other 
 hunters and traders came and settled near by, and soon 
 the black pioneer sold his business to a Frenchman and 
 went away. 
 
 How France lost her territory upon the lakes and east 
 of the Mississippi, how England ruled, and how her rule 
 was broken by our Revolutionary War, are matters of 
 general history in which this little trading-post at the 
 southern end of Lake Michigan took no part. But Chi- 
 cago was upon our new American frontier, and many of 
 the wild Indians of the woods and the plains were un- 
 friendly to us, and willing to harass us to please the 
 British. Therefore Congress was urged to establish a 
 fort farther west than it had done before, to show the 
 savages our soldiers, and to impress them with our great- 
 ness. Chicago was the place chosen for the site of the 
 new fort. The nearest western frontier posts at that 
 time were Fort Wayne, Detroit, and Mackinac. The 
 latter place has proven a dwarf. It has nearly stood 
 still, while the other two are thriving cities. Mackinac 
 was known as " Michilimacinac," and is now a beautiful 
 and lively watering-place in summer and a little village 
 in winter. 
 
 The War Department issued the order to build the 
 fort, and Captain John Whistler, then at Mackinac, was 
 sent to superintend the work. The captain sailed to 
 Chicago with his wife and son and the young man's 
 bride. The private soldiers who were to build and man 
 the fort came to Chicago by land, under the command 
 of Lieutenant Swearington. Theirs was a perilous jour- 
 ney. The captain's boat reached the mouth of the Chi- 
 cago River in July, 1803, where a multitude of Indians 
 
 35
 
 had gathered to see the soldiers. The fort was finished 
 in 1804. A village grew up beside it, "but it was a vil- 
 lage cut off from all the world of civilized beings. Now 
 and then, on visits far apart, a sailing-vessel brought 
 supplies. The Indians of the neighborhood were friend- 
 ly, but beyond and around them were more savage red 
 men who hated the Americans and plotted to destroy 
 the little lonely fort, arguing that the Americans meant 
 to rob the red men of their hunting-grounds. 
 
 The officers of the fort were changed in 1811. At 
 that time, when a Captain Heald was in command, the 
 village had grown considerably. Captain Heald's wife 
 and several other women lived within the block-house 
 enclosure. The settlers outside had wives and children, 
 and there were already some farms along the river-banks. 
 Then came the war with England in 1812, and the ter- 
 rible massacre wherein the majority of those who com- 
 posed the Chicago of that day were slain. 
 
 Fort Michilimacinac, and then Detroit, fell into the 
 hands of the British. General Hull, who was the Amer- 
 ican in command at Detroit, sent word to Captain Heald 
 at Fort Dearborn warning him of his peril, and advising 
 him to leave his fort and save himself and his troops. 
 Captain Heald got the same advice from the friendly 
 Indians and the white men around him. All told him 
 that if he would divide his provisions with the Indians, 
 he could get beyond their reach while they feasted and 
 drank, as Indians will under such circumstances. He 
 was told to do this at once. He was slow. He tardily 
 called a council of the Pottawatomies, who were hostile 
 and dangerous, and promised them not only provisions, 
 but all the extra arms and ammunition, as well as a gift 
 of money. They were pleased, but when they heard of 
 
 36
 
 the defeats we had suffered at the hands of the British 
 they grew insolent. To punish them for some act that 
 displeased him Captain Heald broke his word. They 
 found that he had destroyed his surplus arms and broken 
 in the heads of some casks of the liquor he had promised 
 them. Even some Indians who had been friendly to the 
 captain now joined his enemies. 
 
 A Captain Wells, brother to Mrs. Heald, started from 
 Fort Wayne, leading a small band of Miami Indians, to 
 try to rescue the garrison at Fort Dearborn. He arrived 
 on August 14, 1812, and succeeded, apparently, in con- 
 vincing the commandant that he must fly at once, for 
 all the troops abandoned the fort on the next day. In 
 all about sixscore men, women, and children (the garrison 
 of sixty-five men and officers, the Indians who came with 
 Wells, and the women and children of the fort and vil- 
 lage) started for Fort Wayne. They marched along 
 the lake-side sands. Where they marched stands Chi- 
 cago, as solid as London. There was grass or prairie 
 land beyond, and over that crept the angry Pottawato- 
 mies. Whatever distribution of provisions was made, 
 they were not satisfied. 
 
 It is said that they had reached that point where 
 Eighteenth Street now ends at the lake when Captain 
 Wells, who was leading, rode back and commanded all 
 to form in military order and charge the foe, who were 
 about to make an attack. His words had a deadly echo, 
 for at that instant the massacre began the Indians fired 
 upon the whites. At the first fire the wretched Indian 
 allies ran away. The others fought gallantly and hard. 
 Again and again they drove the Indians back and less- 
 ened their numbers. Captain Wells, Ensign Ronan, a 
 settler named Kinzie, and other heroes, showed wonder- 
 
 37
 
 ful courage. Ronan fought after he was terribly wound- 
 ed, and kept firing till he died. 
 
 An Indian youth found several children in a wagon 
 unprotected, and murdered them all. But for this the 
 end might have been different, for when another mile 
 had been fought over, an attempt was made to parley 
 with the Indians. The white men saw that it was cer- 
 tain slaughter to continue fighting. Unfortunately, Cap- 
 tain Wells then learned of the killing of the little chil- 
 dren. He became wild with rage. He turned and made 
 for the teepees of the Indian squaws and children. He 
 was overtaken and killed, and, in a word, such was the 
 fate of seven out of every ten in the party that had 
 abandoned Fort Dearborn. 
 
 The farm-houses, the cabins of the fur-traders, and the 
 fort itself, all fell before the fury of the red men. As 
 we have seen by the record on the tablet which marks 
 its site, it was rebuilt in 1816, but after that its history 
 was prosaic, until a remnant of its buildings passed away 
 in the sea of flame that all but destroyed the great city 
 that had grown up around it in 1871. 
 
 38
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE WAY IT IS GOVERNED 
 
 THE city government of Chicago recalls that garment 
 of which a humble poet has written, 
 
 " His coat so large dat he couldn't pay de tailor, 
 And it won't go half-way round." 
 
 It is a Josephian coat of many colors, made up of patch- 
 es of county methods on top of city rule. And the 
 patches are, some of them, far from neatly joined. Like 
 the immortal Topsy, it has "just growed." It dis- 
 closes at once the worst and the best examples of man- 
 agement, the one being so very bad as to seem like a 
 caricature on the most vicious systems elsewhere, while 
 the other extreme copies that which is the essence of 
 the good work in the best-governed city in the world. 
 Chicago, therefore, offers an extremely valuable opportu- 
 nity for the study and comparison of municipal meth- 
 ods in general. 
 
 The worst feature, that which seems almost to carica- 
 ture the worst products of partisan politics, is seen in 
 the Mayor's office. The Mayor of Chicago has to hide 
 behind a series of locked doors, and it is almost as dif- 
 ficult to see him as it would be to visit the Prefect of 
 Police in Paris. When he leaves his office he slips out 
 
 39
 
 of a side door the same by which he seeks his desk. 
 The charm that the door possesses for his eyes is that 
 it is at a distance from the public antechamber of his 
 suite of offices. When he goes to luncheon he takes a 
 closed cab, and is driven to some place a mile or more 
 away, in order that he may eat in peace. The reason 
 for this extraordinary and undemocratic condition of 
 affairs is that the Mayor of Chicago is the worst victim 
 of the spoils system that has yet been created in Amer- 
 ica. The chase for patronage fetches up at his door, 
 and all the avenues employed in it end at his person. 
 He is almost the sole source and dispenser of public 
 place of every grade. 
 
 The system was established a great many years ago, 
 and they say in Chicago that it " worked well enough " 
 under Carter Harrison, because after he got his munici- 
 pal organization complete he was elected and re-elected 
 several times, and had little difficulty in keeping the 
 machinery of government in smooth running order. It 
 was a city of only 400,000 population in those days, 
 but the conditions were the same. The experience of 
 a succeeding and very recent Mayor was needed to 
 demonstrate the possibilities of an office so constituted. 
 He spent the first year at his desk in handling patron- 
 age. He could do nothing else because he undertook 
 to do that. He made it his rule that there should be 
 no appointments that were not approved by him. The 
 present Mayor is of the opposite mind. He has found 
 that if he manages the patronage he cannot perform the 
 other duties of his office. He has inaugurated a new 
 departure, and seeks to make the heads of the subordi- 
 nate departments responsible for their own appoint- 
 ments. This works only partially, because the place- 
 
 40
 
 MODEL FOR THE LIVE-STOCK ENTRANCE
 
 hunters are not to be deceived. They know what his 
 powers are as well as he does, and if they do not get 
 what they want from his deputies, they fall back upon 
 him. He orders them back again to the deputies, and 
 so the game goes on. By setting apart one day in the 
 week for the scramble, and by locking himself up like a 
 watchman in a safe-deposit vault, he manages to serve 
 as Mayor. But he finds the nuisance very great, and 
 says so. When told that it seemed singular to find a 
 Mayor behind bolts and locks, and accessible only to 
 those who "get the combination," as the safe -makers 
 would say, he replied that only by such a plan was he 
 able to do any work. Mr. Washburne, the present May- 
 or, is a square -headed, strong -jawed, forcible -looking 
 man, under the middle age and with youthful energy, 
 who gives his visitors the impression that he will leave 
 as good a record as the system can be forced to afford. 
 
 Chicago is a Republican city, but is rapidly becoming 
 Democratic. There are no " bosses " or " machines " 
 there. Western soil does not seem suitable for those 
 growths. The Democrats have been trying to effect an 
 organization like that of Tammany Hall, but they are 
 divided into two factions, and the plan has fallen be- 
 tween the two. The Republicans have recently recov- 
 ered from a mild attempt at bossism. They are also di- 
 vided, and only unite under favorable circumstances. 
 The assessment evil is said not to be very great. Can- 
 didates or their friends contribute towards the cost of 
 election contests, and public employes are assessed for 
 the same purpose, but these outrageous taxes seem to 
 be laid on lightly. It's your machine that always calls 
 for excessive oiling, and it is noticeable that the chief 
 engineers nearly always grow mysteriously rich. 
 
 41
 
 In the city government there are four charter officers 
 who are elected by the people the Mayor, the City 
 Treasurer, the City Attorney, and the City Clerk. Each 
 is independent of the other, and the Mayor is not vest- 
 ed with power to remove the others. The City Attor- 
 ney is in charge of the litigations into which the cor- 
 poration is drawn ; but the more important legal officer 
 is the Corporation Counsel, who acts as adviser to 
 the government, and is appointed by the Mayor. The 
 manner in which this office came to be created is pecul- 
 iar. It is said that a score or more years ago there 
 was elected to the City Attorney's place a man who 
 knew no law, and proved worse than no attorney at all. 
 A competent adviser'was needed, and so the new office 
 was created, and has ever since remained a feature of 
 the government. 
 
 We still find justices of the peace in Chicago, and in 
 great force of numbers. They are county officers. They 
 have jurisdiction everywhere, as they please to exer- 
 cise it, and live upon their fees a plan that works no 
 better there than elsewhere, that causes rivalry and con- 
 fusion where there should be only the dignity of law, 
 and that creates courts which are inclined to rule against 
 the defendants, and to extort money from all from 
 whom it can be got. These justices are named by the 
 judges of record of the county, and the list is sent to 
 the Legislature for approval and appointment. From 
 the lot the police-magistrates are selected by the May- 
 or. There are ten police-courts and twelve magistrates, 
 and the reason there are two more judges than courts 
 lets in a flood of light upon the situation. There are 
 two very busy courts, and in order to share their busi- 
 ness it became the custom for other judges than those 
 
 42
 
 appointed by the Mayor to hire apartments next door 
 to these courts, and in them to hold courts of their own. 
 These piratical justices inspired the lawyers and prison- 
 ers appearing before the regular courts to demand a 
 change of venue and bring their causes next door, the 
 incentive being a promise of more satisfactory treat- 
 ment than the regular courts would be likely to vouch- 
 safe lighter fines, for instance, or other perversions of 
 justice. It became, and it remains to-day, a custom for 
 these motions for a change of venue to be offered in 
 the most commonplace and perfunctory manner, the 
 magistrates administering the oath, and the others sol- 
 emnly swearing that they ask a change of venue be- 
 cause they are of the opinion that they cannot get jus- 
 tice in the court in question. To break this custom at 
 its strongest points the Mayor has appointed additional 
 magistrates for the principal police-courts, and they hold 
 court in rooms adjoining those of their associates, so 
 that those who insist upon a change of venue are taken 
 one door away to obtain the same quality of justice 
 which they would have obtained in the first court. 
 The justices who may be called the Mayor's magistrates 
 are salaried. The busy ones get $5000 a year, the oth- 
 ers less. 
 
 The saloon license system is another village develop- 
 ment. The regular fee is $500, and there are only 5000 
 licenses, but any man of what is called " good charac- 
 ter" may get a license on his own application, and the 
 license is then issued to the person. He may sell his 
 liquors anywhere that he pleases within the city limits. 
 The law declares that the drinking -saloons shall be 
 closed at midnight. It has proved extremely difficult 
 to enforce this ordinance, but the present Mayor has 
 
 43
 
 been making a brave battle towards that end. He is of 
 those who believe that all evils which seem either nec- 
 essary or ineradicable should be regulated, and his idea 
 was to enforce the law for closing the saloons, and to 
 issue licenses to sell liquor in the restaurants which 
 keep open all night, the drinks to be sold only with 
 food. He found, what was no new discovery, that the 
 reform was loudly opposed by the worst element in the 
 business, who said that they could and did sell liquor in 
 their restaurants, anyway, and that there was no need 
 for licenses. He also found that the ultra-temperance 
 folk took sides with these defiers of order by opposing 
 the reform on the usual ground that licensing liquor- 
 selling was recognizing and authorizing the evil. As 
 late as the end of last autumn the Mayor was manfully 
 holding to his determination to enforce the midnight 
 closing law, and it was said by all with whom I spoke 
 that it was extremely difficult to obtain even a glass of 
 beer after twelve o'clock, and that no saloons displayed 
 lights or open doors after hours. 
 
 He was able to enforce his orders and perform this 
 function of his office for a reason that points a moral 
 for every student of the subject to remember. He 
 holds the power to dismiss those who disobey him. He 
 promised to discharge any policeman upon whose post 
 a drink was sold or a saloon was kept open after hours. 
 He could discharge every policeman, from the Chief 
 down, and they all knew it. It will be remembered 
 that almost similar authority is vested in the police 
 magistrates in the most progressive English cities. The 
 result is wholesome everywhere. 
 
 Some past work of the Chicago police has made the 
 force famous. The World's Fair commissioners who 
 
 44
 
 went abroad to urge foreign participation in the Exposi- 
 tion found their way paved before them by the good 
 opinion of Chicago that had been aroused by her treat- 
 ment of the anarchists. But the force has deteriorated. 
 It looks as if it had run down at the heels, and needed 
 a soldier in command to discipline it and develop among 
 its members an esprit de corps. The almost all-powerful 
 Mayor recognizes this, and has appointed Major R. W. 
 McClaughry to the chieftaincy on account of that gen- 
 tleman's reputation for administrative ability and for 
 disciplinary force. As warden of Joliet (Illinois) Peni- 
 tentiary, and later of a Reformatory at Huntingdon, 
 Pennsylvania, he caused these qualities to attract atten- 
 tion. The Chicago police force had become a hospital 
 for the political toughs of the city, and any man could 
 join it provided only that he had " inflooence." He 
 might be a man just out of State-prison, or only thirty 
 days in America, but if he was the protege of a politician 
 he was made a policeman. There were regulations as to 
 fitness, both mental, moral, and physical, but they were 
 disregarded. The plan for rehabilitating the force is an 
 adaptation of Civil Service methods. The men are cross- 
 questioned like school-boys at a quarterly examination. 
 Their moral character is looked into less sharply than 
 their ability to comprehend the true nature of a police- 
 man's duties and relation to the people. Politics are not 
 shown the door. The wards and "heelers" of the politi- 
 cians are the candidates as before, but after a man is ad- 
 mitted to be examined it is asserted that his political 
 backing ceases to affect his fate. He must obtain a 
 grade of seventy in a possible one hundred, and when 
 twelve candidates have passed the examination, if only 
 six are needed, the best six are taken. 
 
 * 45
 
 But even before this reform began, the Western habit 
 of experimenting with new ideas had led to the intro- 
 duction of features of police service which we in New 
 York could have copied with advantage, and must copy 
 sooner or later. On that corner of Clark Street where 
 the Grand Pacific Hotel stands, one day towards the 
 middle of last October, I saw a policeman try to arrest 
 a maniacal victim of delirium tremens. It was at six 
 o'clock, and the streets were crowded. Had the case 
 occurred in New York, our public would have witnessed 
 a brutal and sickening " clubbing match," for in no other 
 way than by stunning the man could one of our officers 
 have handled him. If the policeman would have pre- 
 ferred help, he would have beaten the sidewalk with his 
 club and waited, while the maniac fought like a tiger, 
 until another policeman arrived. Ringing a club on a 
 pavement is better than springing a rattle, as our police 
 did a century ago but that is not saying much in its 
 favor. However, this was in Chicago. 
 
 There they have discovered the advantages of a per- 
 fected electrical system of communication between the 
 police-stations and the patrolmen on duty. In this case 
 the policeman stepped to one of those patrol-boxes that 
 are so numerous as to seem always at hand, and flashed 
 a signal to the nearest station for help. In a jiffy a 
 wagon-load of policemen dashed up to the spot, the men 
 leaped out, the rum-crazed offender was bundled into the 
 wagon, and it was driven back to the station. A neater, 
 cleaner, more admirable piece of police work I never 
 saw ; but the frequent sight of these wagons flying 
 through the streets assured me that such work, in such 
 cases, is the rule with that force. 
 
 After the Mayor has appointed his heads of depart- 
 
 4 6
 
 MAKING ONE OF THE 1UG FIGURES FOR ELECTRICITY BUILDING
 
 ments (and all the 8000 or 9000 "feet," if he chooses), 
 he divides his further powers with the Common Coun- 
 cil, which has been but little shorn of its inherited func- 
 tions. Its committees follow the more important di- 
 visions of the government, and one of them, the finance 
 committee, acting like New York's Board of Estimate 
 and Apportionment, determines the cost of each year's 
 undertakings. The Council is a very large body, and 
 contains two members from each of the thirty -four 
 wards of the city, one being elected from each ward 
 every year. They are paid on the per diem plan for 
 actual service, and, like almost all the officers of the 
 government, are moderately recompensed. The city has 
 experimented with bureaus headed by commissions and 
 with intrusting the patronage to the Common Council. 
 It has now had for years what is popularly known as 
 " one-man power." It is often said that this is whatever 
 the one man proves himself, but the experience of the 
 present time in Chicago is that if the Mayor were a saint, 
 so long as the spoils system obtains, he would find it dif- 
 ficult to succeed in dispensing the patronage and attend- 
 ing to his duties, at least during the first year of his two- 
 year term. 
 
 But there are other municipal corporations in Chicago 
 with which the Mayor has nothing to do. They are the 
 park boards. It is a strange thing about Chicago that 
 those monuments of her public spirit, enterprise, and 
 taste, which are at once her glory and her pride are out 
 of the control of her city government. It is to the man- 
 agement of them that I have referred as exemplifying the 
 very best method of the administration of local affairs. 
 They do not do this in their origin because they are the 
 creatures of either the courts or the State government, 
 
 47
 
 whereas to be as they should they must be the products 
 of popular and home rule. But in the methods and 
 work of the boards is seen that which produces the best 
 government. There seem to be no " politics " about 
 them. They appear to be doing business on business 
 principles. They have produced one of the notable park 
 systems of the world by methods so wise and economi- 
 cal that the people have witnessed the spectacle of a 
 wondrous and beautiful park development without feel- 
 ing the tax by which the cost has been met. The park 
 commissioners serve without pay and in the belief that 
 their duties bring honor with them. They are inspired 
 to give the public their best service by the conscious- 
 ness that when the plans for the pleasure-grounds have 
 been executed, it will be worth as much as a monument 
 to any man to have been concerned in the work. 
 
 Even in the City Hall and among the politicians, stu- 
 dents of the city government are referred to the parks as 
 examples of the best public work that has been performed 
 in Chicago. And in the City Hall I was told that the 
 reason for this is that the Park Commissioners are un- 
 hampered by political obligations. 
 
 There are three of these corporations the South 
 Park, the Lincoln Park, and the West Park commission- 
 ers, and they not only are independent of the city gov- 
 ernment, but they have jurisdiction over all the parkways 
 and boulevards, at least one of which reaches to the very 
 heart of the business quarter in the thick of the town. 
 They enact their own ordinances, and maintain police to 
 enforce them. They build, repair, clean, and police the 
 parks and boulevards in their charge ; and have been, by 
 the courts, declared to be quasi-municipal corporations 
 in themselves. Each commission is maintained by a di- 
 
 48
 
 MODEL FOR LIVE-STOCK ENTRANCE
 
 rect tax upon the district or division of the city which it 
 benefits. 
 
 It will not be profitable to study all the commissions: 
 one does not differ materially from another. The South 
 Side Commission, headed by President William Best, con- 
 sists of five members, who are appointed for five-year 
 terms by the judges of the Circuit Court. When the 
 majority of the judges are Democrats, they appoint Dem- 
 ocrats ; and Republican majorities appoint Republican 
 commissioners; but beyond that point I am assured that 
 politics cut no figure in the case. At present there are 
 three Democrats and two Republicans on the board. 
 One member is a real-estate dealer, one is vice-president 
 of the stock-yards, one is a tobacco merchant, one is a 
 coal-dealer, and one is an editor. All are well-to-do and 
 middle-aged men. One has served fifteen years, another 
 twelve years, and another ten years. Mr. H. W. Harmon, 
 the secretary, has held the place nineteen years ; and 
 Mr. Foster, the superintendent, has filled that position 
 seventeen years. 
 
 This commission performed its functions for three 
 towns originally South Chicago, Hyde Park, and Lake. 
 They now comprise a part of the city. They are assessed 
 for $300,000 annually, South Chicago paying 80 per cent., 
 and the other towns 10 per cent. each. In addition, a 
 tax of one mill is levied on the taxable valuation of the 
 district, because the fixed sum of $300,000 proved in- 
 sufficient. The additional tax is to be imposed as long 
 as the commission has any bonds outstanding. The 
 weight of the total tax upon the community is 2f mills, 
 and is presumably an unfelt burden. For this the com- 
 mission maintains Michigan Avenue, the boulevard that 
 leads into the heart of the city; Drexel Boulevard, mod- 
 
 49
 
 elled after one of the noblest avenues in Paris ; the Grand 
 Boulevard, a splendid thoroughfare ; Washington Park, 
 which is one of the most grand and beautiful breathing- 
 spots in the city ; Jackson Park, where the Columbian 
 Exposition is to be held ; and many other boulevards 
 and park extensions. Lakes, notable floral collections, 
 boats, restaurants, picnic and play grounds, park phae- 
 tons, a zoological collection, sprinkling-carts, police, labor- 
 ers, a nursery for trees, and a score of other sources of 
 expense or attractions are thus provided for. The com- 
 mission employs a force that is mainly composed of 
 Swedes and Germans. The same men are retained year 
 after year. They are skilled in their several lines of 
 work ; they own their little homes, and feel secure in 
 their places ; they are not told how to vote, nor are they 
 watched at the polls. The work of the commission em- 
 braces several sources of income, but no effort is made 
 to force profits out of the conveniences and playthings 
 provided for the people. 
 
 Lincoln Park is the one that all visitors to Chicago 
 are certain to be advised to see. It is only 250 acres in 
 extent, but it lies along the curving shore of Lake Mich- 
 igan, a fringe of sward and shade beside a sheet of tur- 
 quoise. We in New York waited until we were 200 
 years old before we built such parks. Chicago waited 
 only forty years. Already statues, fountains, and a con- 
 servatory are ornaments piled on ornament in Lincoln 
 Park. A lake a mile long rs being added for aquatic 
 sports, and the noble Lake Shore Drive, which is a part 
 of the park, is to be faced with a paved beach and a 
 sea-wall, and is to connect with the drive to Fort Sheri- 
 dan, distant twenty- five miles northward on the lake 
 front. There are five commissioners in charge of this 
 
 50
 
 park and the boulevarded streets that approach it. 
 They are appointed by the Governor of Illinois, with 
 the approval of the Senate, and serve five years. Three 
 are Democrats and two are Republicans, but their em- 
 ployes are chosen for fitness as workmen, and the trust 
 is managed practically and economically. 
 
 William C. Goudy, the president, was counsel to the 
 commission for fifteen years before he was chosen presi- 
 dent. General Joseph Stockton has been a commissioner 
 twenty-two years, and E. S. Taylor has been the secre- 
 tary since the organization of the board in 1869. The 
 commission bought its land for only $900,000, and in 
 five years will have extinguished that debt. Now it is 
 borrowing $500,000 to meet the cost of reclaiming from 
 the lake land that will be worth millions as soon as it is 
 made. The tax rate last year was 8 mills on the low 
 assessed valuation that prevails in Chicago. During the 
 twenty-two years of existence of the commission there 
 never has been the slightest taint or suspicion of job- 
 bery or impropriety of any sort in its relation to its 
 work, its employes, or the people. 
 
 It is true that these park boards are the products of 
 the organization of Cook County, which extends around 
 and beyond Chicago. The absurd justices of the peace 
 are the old village squires of the county system also. 
 Though there are only about 100,000 persons in the 
 county outside the city, the Cook County Board of 
 Commissioners exercises an authority that is perfectly 
 independent of the City Council. The parks are there- 
 fore managed by the State, and not the city, and this is 
 cause for offence to all who hold that perfected city 
 government must be complete self-government. The 
 argument is too solid to be broken down by any excep- 
 
 51
 
 tion, and yet these commissions are singular in present- 
 ing the spectacle of State organizations freed from poli- 
 tics in a city where the local organization is poisoned to 
 the core with partisan allegiance and spoils-grabbing. 
 But beyond that is the renewed proof that local gov- 
 ernment succeeds best when administered by non-poli- 
 ticians working in no interest but that of the public. 
 
 That is what the Chicago park managers newly dem- 
 onstrate. Call them county officers, as they are, yet 
 they are of and for Chicago. They are Chicago busi- 
 ness men, and they have been induced to give up what 
 time they can spare from private business because they 
 feel it a distinction and an honor to be intrusted with 
 the execution of what every man in Chicago thinks is to 
 become the greatest and most beautiful park system in 
 the world. They are anxious to prove that no mistake 
 was made in choosing them as men of business ability. 
 The instant politicians are chosen they begin to pay off 
 their debts to the party with which they have bargained 
 for a living. They pay their debts with the valuables 
 that belong to the people. Their constant thoughts 
 and best efforts are put forth to strengthen their party 
 and to please its managers. The non-politician in office 
 has no one to please but the public. 
 
 52
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 CUPID'S WINDOW IN THE CITY 
 
 IN many States and cities the banns are now pub- 
 lished in the newspapers in the form of lists of persons 
 who have taken out licenses to marry. Seeing these 
 lists, so strange to a New-Yorker, in the Chicago dailies 
 every morning led me to investigate the manner in 
 which the happy lovers out West make known their 
 connubial intentions. I was greatly helped to make the 
 investigation by running across a few interesting re- 
 marks upon the subject in a Chicago guide-book. There 
 it was stated that 14,200 licenses were issued in 1890. 
 In nearly 700 cases the consent of parents was neces- 
 sary, so young were the brides or grooms. The young- 
 est maiden was fifteen an Italian, in all probability 
 and the youngest boy was eighteen. The oldest woman 
 was fifty-nine, but there was a bridegroom of seventy- 
 one years, who had been married twice before. One 
 man of sixty-five years married a woman twenty-two 
 years old, and more than a score of men remarried wives 
 from whom they had been divorced. 
 
 It will be seen that there was much of promise in the 
 distant view that was thus obtained of the marriage- 
 license bureau. I found it to be one of many windows 
 in the County Clerk's office a very commonplace-look- 
 
 53
 
 ing window in front of a long tall desk, and bearing the 
 legend, " Marriage Licenses and Naturalization." A 
 young German was standing before the window, and 
 several men and women stood behind him, as if waiting 
 their turns to be cross-examined by the sprightly, flash- 
 ing-eyed, black-haired man who faced the window from 
 the other side, and made his pen fly across the papers 
 before him as if he expected this year's 14,000 lovers to 
 appear before him simultaneously that afternoon. I 
 was invited to join him behind the counter ; and when 
 I explained that we New-Yorkers do not understand 
 the marriage-license ceremony, he flung open a drawer, 
 whipped out a green - covered book that looked like a 
 novel, slammed the drawer shut, and said: "I have 
 written a book about it. That will tell you everything." 
 Then he put a question in German to the suitor for a 
 license before him, obtained a " Ja, Meinherr" in reply, 
 and fell to writing again, quite as if he had another 
 book in hand and the printer was crying for " copy." 
 
 The book which he gave me was entitled From the 
 Marriage License Window, by M. Salmonson, ex -Mar- 
 riage License Deputy for Cook County, Illinois. The 
 work looked as if it might prove very entertaining, but, 
 of course, the mere glance it got could reveal nothing 
 so novel and peculiar as the fact that the clerk had 
 written it. We have many sorts of clerks in public 
 offices in New York city, but I cannot honestly say that 
 there are many who reveal a fondness for exploiting the 
 romantic sides of their work in book form, or many who 
 even read books. Mr. Salmonson finished with the man 
 in hand, and immediately addressed the next comer in 
 Swedish. 
 
 "How many languages do you speak?" I inquired. 
 
 54
 
 THE BRITISH BUILDING
 
 " I speak Scandinavian, French, German, and English," 
 said he. " That is to say, I understand the literatures 
 of those countries, besides speaking their tongues. I 
 get along with the Poles and Bohemians, but though I 
 speak their languages, I am not familiar with their liter- 
 ature an indispensable requirement in the study of a 
 people." 
 
 Unfortunately this very uncommon sort of an official 
 was too busy to talk much ; and, worse still for the fort- 
 une of the reader, what conversation we did have, was 
 upon matters not germane to the subject of licenses. 
 It is impossible, therefore, to estimate the loss that was 
 thus occasioned. His second client, the Swede, was a 
 young man under twenty-one, who had to fetch his 
 father along with him to give his consent to the pro- 
 posed marriage. "I am going to be twenty -one," 
 was all that he vouchsafed on the delicate point of his 
 age. But the non- attendant bride, of whom Mr. Sal- 
 monson always spoke as " the lady," was eighteen years 
 old, so that her part in the procedure offered no ob- 
 stacle. 
 
 All the time that Mr. Salmonson was putting ques- 
 tions to the applicants he was writing down their an- 
 swers in the vacant spaces in blanks which read as 
 follows : 
 
 No. 
 STATE OF ILLINOIS, 
 
 COOK COUNTY. 
 
 of , in the 
 
 County of and State of being duly 
 
 sworn, deposes and says, that of 
 
 in the County of and State of 
 
 is of the age of years, and that of 
 
 in the County of and State of , ,,,. 
 
 F 55
 
 is of the age of years, and that said above-named persons are single 
 
 and unmarried, and may lawfully contract and be joined in marriage. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 
 day of A.D. 18 
 
 Clerk of the County Court. By Deputy. 
 
 These blanks were for official retention, to be filed 
 away as public records. When one of these forms was 
 filled out, the clerk held it up before him and took a 
 much larger printed form from a pile in front of him, 
 upon which to copy a part of the record he had entered 
 upon the smaller sheet. The larger blank was to be 
 given to the applicant, to be taken home by him or her. 
 It was completed by a formula which the clergyman or 
 magistrate who afterwards marries the couple is obliged 
 to fill in and sign. This person then returns the whole 
 sheet to the authorities, and bestqws upon the newly- 
 wedded pair a regular marriage certificate. The little 
 blank which the clerk keeps is as plain as pie-crust, and 
 is very cheaply gotten up ; but the other is a formidable 
 and artistic -looking document, having a fancy border 
 and much brave and ornamental type, as befits a paper 
 which an ardent and tender suitor is to bear away to 
 the idol of his affections, in witness of his earnestness 
 and enterprise. When she receives such a testimonial 
 she reads these words : 
 
 " To any person legally authorized to solemnize mar- 
 riage, greeting: Marriage may be celebrated between 
 Mr. , of - , in such a county and such a State, of 
 the age of - years, and M , in such a county 
 and State, of the age of- -years. Witness: Henry 
 Wulff, Clerk of the County Court of said Cook County, 
 etc., etc." Then follows the certification that the mar- 
 
 66
 
 THE BUILDING FROM WOODED ISLAND
 
 riage was celebrated by some one who fills out the rest 
 of the form. 
 
 The happy swain who is to receive such a paper does 
 not do so until he has stepped to the next window, 
 labelled "Cashier," where he is to pay $1.50, the fee 
 for the service. Once in a while, Mr. Salmonson says, 
 there happens along a man who does not know that 
 there is anything to pay, and who is not able to meet the 
 charge, although he feels otherwise able to marry. In 
 such a case the attaches of the office are very apt to raise 
 the sum among themselves and pay it to the county, 
 because every license is numbered, and there must be 
 found in the safe as many shillings as six times the 
 number of licenses that have been issued each day. Of 
 course it is a rare occurrence for a man to come unpre- 
 pared to pay the fee. The far commoner cases are those 
 where the happy applicants are moved to throw out their 
 money lightly, with a cigar all around for the clerks, and 
 an invitation to the chief clerk to "come out and smile." 
 This literary official lays down the rule that cigars are 
 always accepted, even when the recipient does not smoke, 
 and that there is never time for the other form of re- 
 freshment. 
 
 It was on a Friday that I visited the marriage-license 
 window, and I was informed that any other day of the 
 week except Sunday would have been better, because 
 those who are even a very little superstitious do not 
 visit the window on that much -slandered day. Very 
 superstitious persons go much further than that, for one 
 couple, upon hearing a band pass the window playing a 
 funeral march at the head of a procession, refused to take 
 out the license until another day. And Mr. Salmonson 
 says that on one occasion a young man inquired whether 
 
 57
 
 he thought it would rain before night. The sky looked 
 threatening, and the clerk said he thought rain might 
 fall. 
 
 " Then I will come on another day," said the timid 
 applicant. " It would be bad luck if it rained on the 
 day I get my license." 
 
 I could not help w r ondering what must be the scene 
 on such unusually busy days as Saturdays or the days 
 preceding national festivals, for though it was Friday, 
 there was no pause in the business at the window. As 
 quickly as one man got his permit, another took his 
 place. Only two women came with their prospective 
 husbands. There is no need for any of the fair sex to 
 go to the window, and, as a rule, it is only the humbler 
 and more ignorant ones who do so, conceiving it to be 
 a necessity. 
 
 This fact led to a very peculiar and unlooked-for busi- 
 ness that was for a time regularly carried on close before 
 the window. The parties in or partners to this specula- 
 tion were a justice of the peace and a clergyman, who 
 were daily frequenters of this branch altar of Hymen 
 for purposes of lawful but selfish gain. They man- 
 aged to clear $50 a week each, it was said. Knowing 
 full well that only the simplest folk, or those most ig- 
 norant of the law, would come in couples where only 
 the man was required to attend, this ingenious pair saw 
 a chance to intrude upon such simplicity with offers to 
 marry the candidates out of hand, as it were. The jus- 
 tice of the peace was an Irish-American, and the clergy- 
 man was a German with a smattering of several Euro- 
 pean tongues. The justice always broke the ice. He 
 met each couple with a suggestion that he was able to 
 perform a civil marriage. He offered weighty argu- 
 
 58
 
 merits against delay where both parties had taken a holi- 
 day, and might as well hasten the end and aim of all true 
 lovers. Frequently his offer was refused on religious 
 grounds ; the couple were agreed to be married by a 
 minister. Very well, then, said the magistrate, there 
 chances to be here at this moment my friend the Rever- 
 end So-and-So. More than that, the obliging magistrate 
 doubted not that he could prevail upon the preacher to 
 delay his business long enough to turn two happy hearts 
 into a blissful one. Then came the busy minister upon 
 the scene, " and," said my informant, " as long as this pair 
 of brokers worked together few couples escaped them." 
 It was said that some others of this ilk were even then 
 practising their wiles upon the too susceptible fractions 
 of the public that wandered into the office, and I even 
 had one of the so-called brokers pointed out to me ; but 
 though I watched him a while (hoping to witness a wed- 
 ding, yet being disappointed), I cannot declare that the 
 " business " now goes on. 
 
 It would have been wonderful had there occurred 
 such another wedding as one which Mr. Salmonson tells 
 of having witnessed. In that case the bride, a negro 
 girl, took off her hat and collar, and then her dress, and 
 stood revealing to the at first bewildered on-lookers a 
 complete wedding-gown of white, to which she added, 
 from a parcel she had carried, an artificial orange wreath 
 to make the costume complete. In his book he tells of 
 many and many an odd observation and experience. In 
 taking an oath to the truth of what they have said, as 
 all must do, it is noticed that many laborers from Prot- 
 estant Europe raise three fingers, to represent the Trini- 
 ty, instead of one hand as we do ; but one man, on be- 
 ing asked to raise his hand, lifted both arms above his 
 
 59
 
 head. He was a professional criminal, accustomed to 
 being searched by officers of the law. Young Americans 
 are usually in a hurry ; they want to know if they can 
 be attended to "right away." They spoil blank after 
 blank in a vain endeavor to sign their full names, and 
 they explain that for years they have abbreviated their 
 signatures in the rush of business until their hands re- 
 fuse to break the old habit. One man is said to have 
 signed himself " Smith & Co." 
 
 The Slavs and the French Canadians are the most 
 illiterate applicants at the window. Many seem to have 
 had no schooling. Irishmen who cannot write are 
 ashamed of the fact. Some appear with their right 
 hands bandaged, while others give the impression of 
 having practised the art of printing merely the letters 
 of their names and no others. Many of the Hebrews 
 can only write their names in Hebrew characters. They 
 are the most deferential applicants. Oftentimes they 
 knock at the open door, and being bidden to enter, stand 
 at a distance uncovered. They come direct from the 
 synagogues dressed in their best, with their sweethearts 
 beside them. Those who are most strict will not touch 
 pen and ink on Saturday, though they come on that day. 
 Irishmen bring their friends, who are apt to tease them, 
 calling them "victims," and saying that one stroke of 
 the pen will destroy their liberty. The Irish are the 
 ones who most frequently offer to treat the clerk. 
 
 When a man strides up and produces his discharge 
 from the army and a double set of certificates of birth 
 and vaccination, the clerk says he knows he is dealing 
 with a German, who will be surprised to learn that a 
 man may marry in America without being vaccinated. 
 The Germans are apt to bring their brides and a group 
 
 60
 
 A SCULPTOR'S STUDIO
 
 of friends, who. laugh and jest all the time that the per- 
 mit is being drawn up. The young Bohemian man and 
 his male friends come freshly barbered and with white 
 artificial flowers in their coat lapels. When Italians 
 come, the families of both parties to the match are apt 
 to be with them in a swarm. The women are gay with 
 bright colors, and the bride's mother, while giving con- 
 sent for her sixteen-year-old daughter to marry, explains 
 that she was still younger when she was married. The 
 Scandinavian men marry their own kind, but the girls 
 and women are more liberal. There are Swedes whose 
 religious zeal will not permit them either to take an oath 
 or to "affirm," and such ones go to distant States, where 
 permits are not required, when they wish to get married. 
 It was easy to see in one morning's visit that a mar- 
 riage-license window is a queer place, and one at which 
 human nature is bared to official inspection as it seldom 
 is in any other government office. Hither come the gos- 
 sips to ask whether certain couples whose names were 
 published the other day have yet got married ; to ask 
 what sort of a looking man it was who took out a license 
 to wed with Susie Todd was he tall and light or stout 
 and dark? And hither come angry mothers to say that 
 no permit should have been given for their daughters, 
 who are not so old as was said. They ask how the law 
 can be invoked to punish the offending bridegrooms. 
 But there are other brides who appear to be forty or 
 thirty, yet declare themselves thirty or twenty. Back 
 comes a man to ask if his permit number cannot be 
 changed, because he wants to buy a lottery-ticket of the 
 same number as his wedding license, and cannot do so 
 unless a change is made. Old men speak for girlish 
 brides, and ancient, wrinkled-women lead up very young 
 
 61
 
 men, holding their arms as if they might escape. Once 
 a girl came weeping, and said the man she meant to 
 marry lay dying, and there was not a moment to lose. 
 Indeed, it is a queer place, and the whole illimitable 
 gamut that novelists have spanned in many centuries 
 is there at hand still sounding fresh notes and offering 
 new chords. 
 
 62
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE MAN AT THE CRIB 
 
 THERE must be men in Chicago whose fortunes make 
 them envy even " the Man at the Crib," but they cannot 
 be numerous. It is for that very reason that the citi- 
 zens generally weave a web of sentiment and romance 
 about his life, and have constituted him their pet and 
 their hero. His position is indeed a queer product of 
 a city's growth, and he is unique among the municipal 
 servants of the day. He is the attendant at the gates 
 of the city's water service, and therefore he has to live 
 out in the lake, as lonely as a light-house keeper ; con- 
 nected with the greatest bustle and stir that disturbs the 
 heart of a continent, and yet keeping away from and in 
 advance of it, like a sentry in front of a castle, or a scout 
 ahead of an army. Every morning the city looks out 
 upon the watery plain of Lake Michigan, and sees the 
 Crib dotting the expanse, as a single kernel of corn 
 might appear upon a well-swept barn floor. And the 
 Man at the Crib returns the gaze as the gray of dawn 
 strengthens into the daylight that discloses the rank 
 and file of the city's buildings edging the lake like an 
 army that had been halted overnight. 
 
 The Crib is two miles and twenty-two rods off shore, 
 in front of the city. It looks a little like a light-house 
 
 63
 
 from the shore, and like a fortress from closer by. It 
 is in reality a house built upon a great stone well, and 
 its use will be understood when it is known how Chicago 
 
 o 
 
 gets her water supply from Lake Michigan. An inclined 
 tunnel is built from that point under the lake in such a 
 way that its incline is towards the city. It ends under 
 the water-works at a level several feet lower than that 
 of the lake. There it is pumped up into a tower, so 
 that it may provide its own pressure for distributed 
 house service as it flows through the city's mains. In 
 what is called " the Crib," out in the lake, are the cylin- 
 ders which lead down to the two tunnels that run to the 
 city. One is an iron cylinder, 9 feet in diameter, lead- 
 ing 31 feet down to the bigger tunnel of the two, which 
 is 7 feet in diameter. The other is a smaller cylinder 
 leading to a 5-foot tunnel. These cylinders are in reali- 
 ty the gates of the tunnels, for the water is taken from 
 just beneath the surface of the lake. 
 
 The Crib is one of the sights of the visitors to Chicago, 
 and, like our Governor's Island or our Goddess of Liberty, 
 is reached by small steamers that carry passengers out 
 and back every half-hour. The sail is at all times, when 
 the weather is fine, a delightful ride ; but in summer, 
 when it offers an escape from the heated masonry of 
 the city to the cool breezy surface of the big blue lake, 
 it provides one of the greatest treats enjoyable by the 
 Chicagoans. I made the trip on a summer-like Septem- 
 ber afternoon, with a tug-load of country folk, domes- 
 tics, children, and school -girls. A great part of the 
 Federal navy upon the inland lakes chanced to lie at 
 anchor in the offing, and added to the interest in the 
 voyage. The squadron consisted of a revenue -cutter 
 and the old side-wheel steam war-ship IdicJiigan. She 
 
 64
 
 was neat and trim in all her lines, and she was not a 
 whit too old-fashioned to suggest the vessels that bore 
 our flag upon the salted seas not many years ago. 
 
 We passed beside the slender bulwark that has been 
 lengthened out into the lake to protect the mouth of the 
 Chicago River, and landed at a high wall of timber loaded 
 with stone, which forms a breakwater around the fort- 
 like Crib. The Crib was found to be a hexagonal struct- 
 ure of masonry surrounded by a narrow waterway en- 
 closed within the breakwater. Happily, the Man at the 
 Crib was there. It would have been a strange freak of 
 fortune not to have found him, since, as we shall see, he 
 seldom leaves his hollow island. The boat-load of pas- 
 sengers walked aimlessly about the top of the sea-wall, 
 or stared at the dim and hazy outlines of the distant 
 city. A few pieced together the joints of their fishing- 
 rods, and prepared to join the silent company of anglers 
 whose legs hung over the edge of the wall like the tat- 
 tered remnants of a fringe. I went with Captain Charles 
 Magee, the Man at the Crib. 
 
 He is a hale, bluff ex-mariner, now past sixty years of 
 age, but so hearty and sound that his appearance belies 
 his years. He looks like a sailor, and tells his visitors 
 that he lived upon the cold, foggy, treacherous, and 
 cruel lakes from the time he was thirteen years old until 
 he became a man of the middle age. He proudly ex- 
 hibits his Crib, and may well do so, since he not only 
 keeps it as neat as a pin, but loves to deck it with flow- 
 ers besides. It has been his home more than eleven 
 years. It is only the first story that looks like a stone 
 fort. Above that is the captain's dwelling a story of 
 brickwork and then the light-house lantern surmounts 
 that. The first story into which the captain leads his 
 G 65
 
 visitors proves merely a massive shell of masonry around 
 a broad well. Out of that rise those great thirsty mouths 
 of Chicago the cylinder gates of the tunnels ; and here 
 one sees boxes of flowers that cheer the scene even for 
 chance callers. Who can estimate how much they em- 
 bellish and gladden the lives of the handful of humanity 
 that clings to that stone-work year in and year out ? 
 
 In the summer-time the Man at the Crib moves in a 
 social circle that comprises his wife, his daughter, and a 
 man who acts as his assistant. It is in the winter that 
 his kingdom is swollen to what he considers imperial 
 dimensions, for then he has six men to help him keep 
 the ice out of the well. Although the port-holes which 
 let in the water are 12, 18, and 24 feet below the sur- 
 face, ice nevertheless crowds in through them, and the 
 captain's assistants have all they can do at times to fish 
 out the cakes and wheel them to the breakwater's edge, 
 there to dump them back again into the lake. The cap- 
 tain says that in the summer seasons he goes to the 
 city as often as once in a fortnight, but in the winter he 
 seldom leaves his post. When the ice forms, he becomes 
 a prisoner. For weeks at a time, he says, he sees noth- 
 ing from his quarters but the ice that hems his island in. 
 He has been at the Crib as long as seven months at a 
 time without going ashore. The never-dormant news- 
 papers of the city sometimes set afoot the story that he 
 is starving, when there has been a long break in the 
 communication between the city and the island. But 
 the captain says he has never wanted food since he be- 
 came the Man at the Crib. In the late autumn he 
 gathers a store of all the winter's necessaries, except 
 fresh meat. For that he depends upon a tug that comes 
 when it can, burdened with meat, milk, eggs, and vege- 
 
 66
 
 WISCONSIN STATE BUILDING 
 
 
 NORTH DAKOTA STATF: BUILDING
 
 tables. It also brings the latest issues of the newspa- 
 pers, for which he has been longing as only a man so 
 placed can hunger for tidings of a world of which most 
 of his reckonings have been lost. That tug also comes, 
 like a nineteenth-century angel of steam and steel, to 
 warm his heart with the evidence that he has not lost 
 the place he long has held in the city's affections. Even 
 in that hubbub and whirl, where too many persons fancy 
 they see only selfish greed, there are kindly souls who 
 sympathize with the lonely gate-keeper, and perhaps 
 magnify the hardships he endures. These admirers send 
 him fruits and cigars, literature, flowers, and whatever 
 else they think will help ease his imprisonment, and 
 show him that his friends are ever thinking kindly of 
 him. 
 
 Perhaps .these thoughtful friends, who are hidden from 
 him under the bank of soft -coal smoke that he looks 
 upon as Chicago, do not always magnify the hardships 
 of the Man at the Crib. A few words he let fall about 
 an adventure last winter suggests the thought that it 
 may be hard at times to overestimate his need of sym- 
 pathy. One day last winter his wife was taken ill, and 
 he carried her to the city in his sailboat. That was on 
 a Tuesday morning, and a north gale was blowing. As 
 the gale continued, he could not return until Saturday. 
 For some reason "his daughter, a girl of seventeen or 
 eighteen, was left alone at the Crib. When he returned 
 he found that during his absence she had experienced a 
 narrow escape from death. She had been passing from 
 one door to another by the only avenue there was for 
 making the journey an out-of-door pavement around 
 the second story of the Crib. A sea leaped over the 
 breakwater, and catching her with all its bulk, flung her 
 
 67
 
 against the coping which rails in the gallery. She was 
 badly bruised, but no bones were broken. To guard 
 against a repetition of that mishap the gallery is now 
 enclosed with framework. But there is " plenty of lee- 
 way," as the sailors say, for other adventures every year 
 on that lonely artificial island in the lake. 
 
 68
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 CHICAGO'S ARGONAUTS 
 
 ONE of the most peculiar buildings in Chicago has 
 remained unseen and unheard of by most of the recent 
 visitors to that city. It is at once a boat and a house, 
 or a house in the form of a boat, and it stands high and 
 dry far out in the lake, on the end of what I believe is 
 the longest wharf on that water-front. It is the head- 
 quarters of the Argonaut Club, and the boat itself is 
 called the Argo. From Mr. George S. Willits, one of the 
 members and an influential citizen, I obtained, on the 
 occasion of a visit to the ship, a short account of the 
 founding of the club. It is the history of one of the 
 most attractive resorts in the country. On a Sunday in 
 August, 1890, Mr. Stuyvesant Fish, the President of the 
 Illinois Central Railroad, invited a party of ladies and 
 gentlemen to go to a small resort on his railroad for 
 what he called, very temptingly, " a quiet Sunday under 
 the trees." 
 
 It was frightfully hot in Chicago, it was blindingly 
 hot in the car, and it was hotter still in the country. On 
 the return to the city six of the men of the party, Charles 
 Deering, Stuyvesant Fish, J. Henry Norton, Charles B. 
 Macdonald, Frederic Eames, and Mr. Willits, dined to- 
 gether at the Chicago Club. They talked of the pe- 
 
 69
 
 culiar fact that though the great cool lake (Michigan) 
 reached all along the east side of the city, there seemed 
 no way to enjoy it. The Illinois Central tracks cut off 
 the .lake front on the south side, and the north side was 
 not convenient. Worse yet, if there were yachts and a 
 boat-house at the command of the party, there would be 
 no place to which to sail, since there are no near-by wa- 
 tering resorts on Lake Michigan. The majority of the 
 watering-places frequented by Chicagoans are upon the 
 beautiful inland lakes, which reach in almost a continu- 
 ous chain into British America from a starting-point 
 quite close to Chicago. 
 
 At last Mr. Fish suggested that possibly a place for a 
 small house or landing-barge could be made at the end 
 of the Illinois Central Railroad pier, which is opposite 
 and close to the very heart of the business district of 
 the city, and is approached by means of a viaduct over 
 the railroad tracks. All the gentlemen visited the end 
 of the pier, and then leased and took possession of it. A 
 visit to the Building Department was paid by one of the 
 best-beloved men in the circle, Mr. John W. Root, the 
 architect, since deceased. He was the partner of Mr. 
 Burnham, who is at the head of the World's Fair Con- 
 struction Bureau, and who is also an Argonaut. Mr. 
 Root was told that the Building Department of the 
 city could not authorize the construction of a wooden 
 building. 
 
 Being a genius, Mr. Root turned his attention to the 
 building of a ship which could be launched, but in all 
 likelihood never will be. The fanciful and romantic 
 disposition of Mr. Charles Deering led him to suggest 
 the name "Argonaut" for the club, the name "Argo" 
 for the house or ship, and the limit of fifty-one for the 
 
 70
 
 membership, to tally with the number some accounts 
 give of the mythical crew of the earlier Argo. All this 
 was agreed on and carried out, and since June I, 1891, 
 the queer-looking boat has stood on the pier's end, ap- 
 parently on ways and ready to slide into the lake. It 
 has rather ancient lines, being very short and very deep, 
 but this gives room for two tall stories, with a roomy 
 deck under awnings on top of all, with ample ports on 
 the sides and an open end to the after main-deck, where 
 chairs are always kept, and a southward view is had 
 though, of course, the superb view in all directions is 
 from the awning-covered hurricane-deck. 
 
 The boat is so situated that all the shipping of the 
 port floats by it, both coming and going, and while it is 
 more than half a mile out in the lake, it is sheltered by 
 the Government piers that form the outer harbor or 
 refuge, so that however stormy and rough the lake itself 
 may be, the sailors of the club have a safe and quiet ex- 
 panse of water over a mile long by half a mile wide to 
 sail in. The club owns a one-hundred-foot steam-yacht 
 built by the Herreshoffs. The membership is full, no 
 one being or having been eligible unless he belongs to. 
 the Chicago Club, the oldest and wealthiest social or- 
 ganization in town. The governors of the Argonauts 
 are the founders : Charles Deering is commodore (or 
 president), and F. H. Ray is purser (or secretary). The 
 boat has every convenience, including a handsome din- 
 ing-saloon and several state-rooms or sleeping apart- 
 ments. Meals are served on board, and ladies are invited 
 on Tuesdays and Fridays. But the chief charm of the 
 unique headquarters is that it is always in a breeze and 
 always cool. 
 
 It is a glad surprise to a visitor, after having been in-
 
 vited to dine on " the ship," to find that it really bears a 
 likeness to a ship. Every American who has gone to 
 Greenwich, near London, to visit the famous inn that is 
 called " The Ship," has felt the hope or belief that it 
 would prove to be a real vessel perhaps an old man-of- 
 war anchored in the Thames. The disappointment at 
 finding that it is a tavern and on land is almost a cruel 
 shock to the sentimental tourist. But this club-house 
 at Chicago is nearly as much like an ocean traveller as 
 Peggotty's boat at Yarmouth which Dickens makes one 
 of the prettiest bits of the scenery of David Copperfield. 
 
 "A superannuated boat," he calls it; " high and dry 
 on the ground with an iron funnel sticking out of it for 
 a chimney and smoking very cosily. If it had been 
 Aladdin's palace, roc's egg and all, I suppose I could 
 not have been more charmed with the romantic idea of 
 living in it. ... There was a delightful door cut in the 
 side, and it was roofed in, and there were little windows 
 in it. ... It was beautifully clean inside and as tidy as 
 possible." 
 
 This would serve for a description of the Argo as far 
 as it goes, only that, instead of " a delightful door cut in 
 the side," the Chicago boat has a whimsical door in the 
 bottom of the hull, well forward, and so low down that 
 it is said to be the only boat in the world which you 
 enter through the keel. The stairs, or companion-way 
 leading up into the boat, make a first stop at the cook's 
 galley, which is precisely like any other ship's kitchen, 
 except that all its appliances are of the most modern 
 sort, and devised for the production of the very most 
 delicious meals, even such elaborate ones as we errone- 
 ously think we can only procure in Paris or New York. 
 Another flight of the stairs reaches the dining-room or 
 
 72
 
 grand saloon, which comprises nearly the entire second 
 floor of the boat. It is a very pretty parlor most of the 
 time, but on Tuesdays and Fridays, when the fashion- 
 able ladies and maidens are invited to dine there, it be- 
 comes glorious with immaculate linen, shining silver, 
 sparkling glass, and great beds and banks of roses or 
 whatever flowers are prettiest in the market at the time. 
 
 The steward, who is called " mate," and the waiters, 
 who are called stewards, are at such times clad amphib- 
 iously, as all attendants aboard ship should be, with lit- 
 tle white jackets over blue trousers. Since the members 
 make it a rule to hide their town hats and put on large- 
 peaked blue naval caps, they, too, have a scent of the sea 
 about them. There is a great open fireplace of brick at 
 the end of the saloon. That is a queer thing to find 
 aboard ship, but then one of the charms of the Argo is 
 that it is queer. 
 
 There is a wonderful sense of luxury about the boat 
 in hot weather. It seems to give fifty men and their 
 friends a first lien on all the comfort there is in Chicago. 
 And when hot weather and ladies' days come together 
 it is grand. There is always a breeze around the Argo, 
 and it flaps the window-shades and bellies out the cur- 
 tains and makes the ribbons of the pretty girls snap 
 quite " spankingly," if I may borrow a nautical term, as 
 they sit out on the open after-deck, back of the saloon, 
 while the men smoke and all send their eyes down the 
 lake shore to where the World's Fair buildings rise 
 like a white Oriental city. There is a hurricane-deck on 
 top of all, one story higher than the cosey state-rooms 
 where the members sleep when they want to, but so 
 perfect a substitute for a watering-place is this boat that 
 it is apt to be too breezy up there. 
 
 73
 
 The Argos steam-launch is called the Leila, and is, 
 I suppose, the finest steam pleasure-craft on Lake Mich- 
 igan. It is more than 100 feet long, and can accommodate 
 all the Argonauts and their wives and sweethearts. It 
 is swift as well. Every afternoon at half -past three 
 o'clock and every evening at half-past eight o'clock, it 
 seems to materialize out of the confusion of vessels 
 among the wharves, and comes to a stop at the end of 
 the pier in the shadow of the club-house. If only one 
 member of the club is there he may take it and sail to 
 Evanston or Jackson Park or straight out into the sea- 
 like lake until Chicago becomes nothing but a brown 
 bank of fog in the distance, and the gulls are the boat's 
 only companions. 
 
 74
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 KILLING CATTLE FOR TWO CONTINENTS 
 
 IN view of our national struggle to secure the read- 
 mission of American pork to the markets of Europe, 
 the great stock-yards of Chicago have become interest- 
 ing to the whole world. And well may we call them 
 interesting, since hardly any product of American con- 
 ditions more thoroughly typifies our national enterprise 
 and ingenuity. The slaughtering and packing industry 
 of the country is now mainly carried on in four west- 
 ern cities, and Chicago is at the head of these. Her 
 Union Stock-yards are five and a half miles from the 
 City Hall, in the middle of the city. They comprise 
 320 acres, dotted with buildings and covered with the 
 fenced pens that confine the cattle. The place is a sort 
 of city in itself, and has 20 miles of streets or alleys be- 
 tween the pens, 20 miles of water-troughs, 50 miles of 
 feeding -troughs, and 75 miles of water and drainage 
 pipes. The plant cost $4,000,000, and the various pack- 
 ing companies have invested there at least $10,000,000. 
 Twenty trunk-line railroads roll their cars upon the net- 
 work of tracks by which the yard is served. 
 
 During the early morning hours the scene of unload- 
 ing beeves, sheep, and pigs from the cars of the West- 
 ern railroads is a busy one. During the afternoon the 
 H 75
 
 cars of the Eastern railroads are laden with the dressed 
 and canned meat that is to be sent to the Eastern cities 
 and the seaboard. The Stock-yards Company owns the 
 railroad tracks, and charges toll for the use of them. 
 The pens when filled will hold 15,000 sheep, 20,000 cat- 
 tle, and 120,000 pigs. All the live-stock comes con- 
 signed to commission-men, who make the sales, which 
 go on all day long, and which are marked by methods 
 that have been gradually simplified to a most extraor- 
 dinary degree. In an incredibly short time the buyers 
 have rejected what animals they do not want, have ac- 
 cepted others, have seen the herds weighed like magic 
 upon patent live-stock scales, and have had a scale or 
 weight ticket issued by the Stock-yards Company pre- 
 sented for payment as if it were a formal bill. By an 
 arrangement with the bank, these tickets are in a sim- 
 ple manner made to serve as checks. In the classifica- 
 tion of the qualities of cattle the first class is that whose 
 meat is fit to send to the Eastern cities and to Europe. 
 
 The place is not beautiful, but neither is it dirty. Its 
 atmosphere suggests to the nasal organs confused recol- 
 lections of the circuses, menageries, and stables of for- 
 mer acquaintance. Cowboy riders dashing about on 
 spunky little horses lend especial picturesqueness to all 
 the out-door scenes, and the pitiful bleating of the sheep 
 and cries of the cattle give a pathetic tone to the 
 thoughts of the visitor. 
 
 After a long walk past endless rows of pens one 
 comes to the central buildings, mainly given up to bro- 
 kers' offices, and fronting on a little consumptive-looking 
 patch of grass. All along the curb and -'elsewhere near 
 by are horses, tethered usually to rings in the broad 
 sidewalk. Their soft-hatted drivers, carrying big cruel- 
 
 76
 
 GEORGIA BUILDING 
 
 THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE BUILDING
 
 looking bull goads, are loafing near the buildings, and 
 on the horses are noticed saddles with big pommels and 
 dangling wooden stirrups the contributions of ancient 
 Spain to modern Chicago. Beyond are great buildings 
 that seem to be floored with live sheep, each animal 
 showing a black initial letter, presumably put on its 
 wool with paint. Other sheep in moving droves pave 
 certain alleys that are come upon. Over and across the 
 wide vista of stock-pens are seen men bumping up and 
 down in the most mysterious manner. They are pre- 
 sumably on horseback, but their horses can't be seen. 
 
 A change comes o'er the scene. Some railroad tracks 
 are crossed, and the sight-seer stands in the thick of a 
 cluster of packing-houses. From out of a doorway un- 
 der a phenomenally long porch come huge sides of red 
 and white beef, shot out as if from a multiple cannon. 
 These great weights of meat hang from pulleys that 
 run upon a track overhead, and they swing along one 
 after another as boards are turned out of a saw-mill, and 
 with force enough to toss the men who are paid to guide 
 them as if the men were jackstraws. These junks of 
 meat were moving in the pens a short while before; 
 now they are being loaded into refrigerator-cars. In 
 this building the cattle are being turned into butch- 
 er's-meat. I saw two fat and comfortable steers com- 
 ing out of an alley, and was told that they were trained 
 to lead the other cattle to the foot of an inclined and 
 enclosed gangway, there to turn and leave them, while 
 the other brutes went on and up the walk to the slaugh- 
 ter-pens. That is earning their living and an honest 
 one with a vengeance ! 
 
 I saw that the beeves were driven into pens, and that 
 men ran along or stood over them on planks laid across 
 
 77
 
 the tops of the pens. I saw that they jabbed and prod- 
 ded the poor beasts into the right position for their pur- 
 pose, and then that they felled them with crushing 
 blows of hammers upon their skulls. Then the doors 
 of the pens were thrown open, chains were fastened 
 about the hind-legs of the unconscious beasts, and they 
 were swung up so that they hung upon a trolley run- 
 ning on a single overhead rail. Silently and method- 
 ically the slaughterers walked along and gashed their 
 throats, and the mysterious red essence of life was flung 
 with drenching volume on the slippery floor. Rapidly, 
 far more rapidly than the reader would believe unless he 
 had seen it done, the carcasses were sent back to the next 
 and the next and the next set of operatives to have 
 their hides taken off so skilfully that they fetch more 
 than any other hides discarded by any other butchers 
 in the world to have their entrails removed, to have 
 their heads and hoofs taken off, to be split and washed, 
 and to be sent swinging along to the cooling- rooms. 
 Silence, skill, expedition, these were the characteristics 
 of all the labor in that murderous place. 
 
 Everything without particularizing too closely ev- 
 ery single thing that appertains to a slaughtered beef is 
 sold and put to use. The horns become the horn of 
 commerce; the straight lengths of leg bone go to the 
 cutlery-makers and others : the entrails become sausage- 
 casings ; their contents make fertilizing material; the 
 livers, hearts, tongues, and tails, and the stomachs, that 
 become tripe, all are sold over the butchers' counters of 
 the nation ; the knuckle-bones are ground up into bone- 
 meal for various uses; the blood is dried and sold as a 
 powder for commercial purposes ; the bladders are dried 
 and sold to druggists, tobacconists, and others ; the fat 
 
 78
 
 goes into oleomargarine, and from the hoofs and feet and 
 other parts come glue and oil and fertilizing ingredients. 
 Over the slaughter-house I found a series of rooms 
 heaped full of bones and horns. The bones had been 
 boiled to get the fat of the marrow as well as to clean 
 them. Then they had been dried and shaken about un- 
 til they were as smooth and clean as cotton-spools. The 
 knuckle-joints had been cut off them, and one room was 
 filled with the ground -up flour of those parts. The 
 white and pretty bones that remained were to be 
 shipped to Connecticut, England, and Germany, to be 
 worked into knife -handles, fan -handles, tooth-brush 
 handles, backs for nail-brushes, sides for penknives, and 
 into button -hook handles, shirt-studs, cuff-buttons, and 
 so on, ad infinitum. What was to become of the horns 
 was still more astonishing. By heating them and then 
 tapping them skilfully, the operatives had loosened the 
 soft cellular filling which solidifies and strengthens each 
 horn. The substance around this, between it and the 
 inner surface of the horn, goes for glue ; the rest is 
 ground up into bone-meal. The horns were then to be 
 sent to the makers of horn goods, who, by cutting each 
 horn skilfully and then pressing it between heavy roll- 
 ers, manage to spread each one out into a flat ribbon. 
 In this shape it can be used in a thousand ways. The 
 artificers who do this work cut each horn spirally, so 
 that it becomes a tight curl capable of being straight- 
 ened out. By immense pressure the curve is taken out 
 of it. Good horns sell at $125 a ton. It is by such 
 thorough economy and ingenuity by losing nothing 
 and wasting nothing that the great firms in this busi- 
 ness have monopolized their field. A small butcher in 
 the East cannot kill his meat and market it in competi- 
 
 79
 
 tion with the stock-yards packers, because he must waste 
 what they save and sell. 
 
 I made a tour of the refrigerating or cooling rooms. 
 They are kept at a temperature of 36, I believe. Yet, 
 when the meat fresh from the slaughter is railroaded 
 into such a room, the animal heat in it warms the room 
 for a considerable time, and fills it with steam as with 
 a fog. Once it is cooled, the sides of beef become firm 
 and hard and almost appetizing. Everywhere, except 
 at the actual scene of slaughter, these houses and the 
 work in them are clean and above criticism. While I 
 looked on, they were killing four beeves a minute, or 
 250 in every hour. There were slaughtered in those 
 stock-yards during 1890 no less than 2,219,312 head of 
 cattle, more than 1,000,000 sheep, and 5,733,082 hogs. 
 
 The hog-killing is done in a very much more peculiar 
 manner than the slaughtering of the cattle. In the 
 catching-pen are many hogs. Let us follow one. The 
 catcher snaps a chain around one leg, and hooks the 
 loose end of the chain to the trolley. The hog swings 
 out of the pen to where a butcher stands on a grating. 
 The butcher, with a deft thrust, cuts the animal to the 
 heart, and death is practically instantaneous. The dead 
 body swings along to be loosened over a vat of scalding 
 water, into which it is plunged. Other bodies are there, 
 and the water is loosening their bristles. Suddenly a 
 great rake scoops out a hog, and it falls upon a runway, 
 where a chain that is hooked to its nose pulls it through 
 a steam-scraper. The knives of this machine are set at 
 every angle, and miss no part of the hide on the body. 
 
 Once out of the reach of the scraper a number of 
 men pass the body along, and remove every bristle and 
 speck that was missed. Then the body, still travelling 
 
 So
 
 along, is washed with a hose and its head is all but cut 
 off. Next it is disembowelled. Then the lard is re- 
 moved, the head is cut off, the tongue is taken out, 
 and the body is split and passed along to the cooling- 
 rooms. Again everything is saved. The blood is turned 
 into albumen for photographers' uses, is sold to sugar- 
 refiners, and is turned into fertilizing powder. The bris- 
 tles go to brush-makers, shoemakers, and upholsterers. 
 The fat is valuable in many forms, the intestines become 
 sausage-casings, the livers, lungs, and hearts are minced 
 up into sausage-meat, and parts of the meat of the heads 
 make up into head-cheese. The feet are canned or pic- 
 kled, or worked up in the lard tanks. The last that I saw 
 of the hogs was in a vast cold cellar, where men were 
 salting and turning sides of pork that were so numerous 
 as to form mounds and walls, much as one sees boards 
 piled up in a lumber-yard. 
 
 As I passed out of the yards some one handed a card 
 to me. It contained a record of the business of one 
 firm, the leading one of the "big four" packing con- 
 cerns. It showed that during the year ending April i, 
 1891, that company transacted sales 01 $66,000,000 
 worth of meat and other goods. It killed 712,000 cat- 
 tle, 1,714,000 hogs, and nearly 500,000 sheep. It em- 
 ployed 7900 persons, and paid nearly $4,000,000 in 
 wages. It owned 2250 refrigerator-cars and 50 acres of 
 buildings. It made 7,000,000 pounds of glue and 9500 
 tons of fertilizer. I suspect that its hogs and sheep and 
 boxes of glue and sides of beef and cans of meat may 
 stretch out, if piled one on the other, from here to the 
 moon, but I leave the calculation to others, satisfying 
 myself with the reflection that America is great, and 
 Chicago is its prophet. 
 
 81
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 'ROUND ABOUT THE TOWN 
 
 I HAVE referred to Chicago as a typically American 
 city, and so I still believe it to be, but it is American 
 only in the spirit that dominates it. In population it is 
 almost as mixed and cosmopolitan as New York, New 
 Orleans, or San Francisco. It is, in size, the second city 
 on the continent and the seventh in the world. It is 
 built upon a plateau 25 feet above the level of Lake 
 Michigan, and 592 feet above the ocean's surface. The 
 nearest Atlantic port is Baltimore, 850 miles distant, and 
 San Francisco is 2417 miles to the westward. This is 
 how the last census, which estimated the population at 
 1,208,689 souls, divided the peoples of the city : 
 
 Germans 384,968 
 
 Americans 292,463 
 
 Irish 215.534 
 
 Bohemians 54,209 
 
 Poles 52,756 
 
 Swedish .. 45,877 
 
 English 33,785 
 
 French 12,963 
 
 Scotch 11,927 
 
 Welsh 2,966 
 
 Russians 9,977 
 
 Danes 9,891 
 
 Italians... 9>9 2 i 
 
 Hollanders 4,912 
 
 Hungarians 4,827 
 
 Swiss 2,735 
 
 Roumanians 4,35o 
 
 Canadians 6,989 
 
 Belgians 682 
 
 West Indians 37 
 
 Hawaiians 31 
 
 Chinese 1,217 
 
 Greeks, Spaniards, and East Indians, a very few of each. 
 82
 
 Of the model city of Pullman, ten miles south of the 
 Chicago Court-house, I quote from an able article in 
 HARPER'S MAGAZINE, with some alterations of the text 
 to suit it to the changes, principally in growth, which 
 time has wrought. The place is a dozen years old. It 
 is a town of 14,600 inhabitants, on the Illinois Central 
 Railroad, and was founded by the Pullman Palace -car 
 Company, whose president and leading spirit is Mr. 
 George M. Pullman. Its purpose was to provide both a 
 centre of industry and homes for the employe's of the 
 company, and such additional laborers as might be at- 
 tracted to the place by other opportunities to labor. A 
 manufacturing town, it embraces the principal works of 
 the Pullman Palace -car Company, in addition to the 
 Union Foundery and Pullman Car- wheel Works, the 
 Pullman Iron and Steel Works, the Chicago Drop Forge 
 and Foundery Company, the Standard Knitting Mills for 
 making fine hosiery, the Calumet Manufacturing Com- 
 pany for making paints, the Terra- cotta Lumber Com- 
 pany, the Pullman Brickworks, and numerous less im- 
 portant enterprises. 
 
 Very gratifying is the impression of the visitor who 
 passes hurriedly through Pullman and observes only the 
 splendid provision for the present material comforts of 
 its residents. What is seen in a walk or drive through 
 the streets is so pleasing to the eye that a woman's first 
 exclamation is certain to be, " Perfectly lovely !" It is, 
 indeed, a sight as rare as it is delightful. What might 
 have been taken for a wealthy suburban town is given 
 up to busy workers, who literally earn their bread in the 
 sweat of their brows. No favorable sites are set apart 
 for drones living on past accumulations, and if a few 
 short stretches are reserved for residences which can be 
 
 83
 
 rented only by those whose incomes are large, this 
 is an exception ; and it is not necessary to remain 
 long in the place to notice that clergymen, officers 
 of the company, and mechanics live in adjoining 
 dwellings. 
 
 One of the most striking peculiarities of this place is 
 the all-pervading air of thrift and providence. The most 
 pleasing impression of general well-being is at once pro- 
 duced. Not a dilapidated door-step nor a broken win- 
 dow, stuffed perhaps with old clothing, is to be found in 
 the city. The streets are wide and finely macadamized, 
 and young shade trees on each side now ornament the 
 town. Lawns, always of the same width, separate the 
 houses from the street, but they are so green and neatly 
 trimmed that one can overlook this regularity of form. 
 Although the houses are built in groups of two or more, 
 and even in blocks, with the exception of a few large 
 buildings of cheap flats, they bear no resemblance to 
 barracks. Simple but ingenious designs secure variety, 
 of which the most skilful is probably the treatment of 
 the sky-line. Naturally, without an appearance of effort, 
 it assumes an immense diversity. The streets cross each 
 other at right angles, yet here skill has avoided the fright- 
 ful monotony of New York. A public square, arcade, 
 hotel, market, or some large building, is often set across 
 a street so ingeniously as to break the regular line, yet 
 without inconvenience to traffic. Then, at the termina- 
 tion of long streets, a pleasing view greets and relieves 
 the eye a bit of water, a stretch of meadow, a clump 
 of trees, or even one of the large but neat workshops. 
 Desirable houses have been provided for a large laboring 
 population at so small a cost that they can be rented at 
 rates within their means and yet yield a handsome re- 
 
 84
 
 turn on the capital invested. Rents are probably about 
 three-fifths what they are in Chicago. 
 
 It is a mere matter of course that there are architectu- 
 ral defects even in Pullman. The diversity is not quite 
 all that could be desired. What may be called the public 
 buildings that is to say, the hotel, school-house, arcade, 
 etc., are detached, but no private house stands by itself, 
 though there are quite a number of detached double 
 houses. Spaces have, however, been reserved for a few 
 detached private residences, which will improve the ap- 
 pearance of the town. With the exception of the church 
 and parsonage, built of green serpentine stone from Phil- 
 adelphia, all the buildings are of brick. This is monot- 
 onous, and rather wearying to the eye, but the slate 
 roofs, and a large use of light stone trimmings, and 
 stripes of black across the houses, help matters some- 
 what. The growth of shade trees will break into the 
 sameness, and the magnificent boulevard which divides 
 the shops on the north from the residences on the south, 
 stretching from east to west across the town, and bor- 
 dered with double rows of elms, will, twenty years from 
 now, be a vast improvement. Great overarching trees 
 will hide one part of the town from another, and give 
 opportunity for pleasant surprises in nature and art. 
 
 The interior of the houses affords scarcely less gratifi- 
 cation than their exterior. Even the humblest suite of 
 rooms in the flats is provided with water, gas, and closets, 
 and no requisite of cleanliness is omitted. Quite a large 
 number of houses contain seven rooms, and in these 
 larger dwellings there is also a bath-room. Outside of 
 the home one finds other noteworthy provisions for the 
 comfort, convenience, and well-being of the residents in 
 Pullman. There is a large Market -house, 100 by 110
 
 feet in size, through which a wide passage extends 
 from east to west. This building contains a basement 
 and two stories, the first divided into sixteen stalls, the 
 second a public hall. The dealers in meat and vege- 
 tables are concentrated in the Market-house. The finest 
 building in Pullman is the Arcade, a structure 256 feet 
 in length, 146 feet in width, and 90 feet in height. It is 
 built of red pressed brick, with stone foundations and 
 light stone trimmings, and a glass roof extends over the 
 entire wide central passage. In the Arcade one finds 
 offices, shops, the bank, theatre, library, etc. As no shops 
 or stores are allowed in the town outside of the Arcade 
 and Market-house, all shopping in Pullman is done under 
 roof a great convenience in wet weather, and a saving 
 of time and strength. 
 
 The theatre, situated in the Arcade as just mentioned, 
 seats 800 people, and is elegantly and tastefully furnished. 
 It was intended to embrace in this theatre many of the 
 best features of the Madison Square Theatre. Represen- 
 tations are frequently given by various troupes. There 
 is nothing peculiar in the management. The company 
 rents it to applicants, but attempts to exclude immoral 
 pieces, and admit only such as shall afford innocent 
 amusement and instruction. The library, which opens 
 on this balcony, contains 6000 volumes, the gift of Mr. 
 Pullman, and numerous periodicals, among which were 
 noticed several likely to be of special importance to me- 
 chanics. The library rooms are elegantly furnished with 
 Wilton carpets and plush -covered chairs, and the walls 
 are beautifully painted. The educational facilities of 
 Pullman are those generally afforded in larger American 
 villages by the public-school system. 
 
 When the writer of this treatise was in Pullman he 
 
 86
 
 found that the Pullman companies retained everything. 
 No private individual owned a square rod of ground or 
 a single structure in the entire town. " No organization, 
 not even a church, can occupy any other than rented 
 quarters. With the exception of the management of 
 the public school, every municipal act here is the act of 
 a private corporation. What this means will be perceived 
 when it is remembered that it includes such matters as 
 the location, repairs, and cleaning of streets and side- 
 walks, the maintenance of the fire department, and the 
 taking of the local census whenever desired. When the 
 writer was in Pullman a census was taken. A superior 
 officer of the company said to an inferior, ' I want a 
 census,' and told what kind of a census was desired. 
 That was the whole matter. The people of the place 
 had no more to say about it than a resident of Kam- 
 tchatka." 
 
 Those World's Fair visitors who divide their time in 
 Chicago between the Exposition and the city will be 
 moved by different impulses in enjoying the latter's 
 " sights." Some, for whose taste it seems to me diffi- 
 cult to account, will take the pains to visit the Hay- 
 market, where, on May 4, 1886, took place the infamous 
 anarchist meeting when dynamite bombs were thrown 
 among the police. They will see simply an uninviting 
 part of the city and the monument erected in honor of 
 the police. Possibly some will visit the county jail to 
 look at the entirely ordinary cells in which the felons 
 were first imprisoned. The beautiful parks and the stat- 
 ues of varying degrees of sightliness will interest many 
 more persons ; the throngs in the broad but crowded 
 streets will satisfy still more. The lake shore in front 
 of the hotels is steadily growing busier and more attract- 
 By
 
 ive, and already constitutes a peculiar feature of the 
 town. There the steamers that make excursions to the 
 water-supply cribs and to the lake-side resorts are gath- 
 ered, with bands of music playing upon their promenade- 
 decks, tooters yelling for the rival lines, and great crowds 
 of pleasure-seekers almost mingling with the throng at 
 the Van Buren Street Station of the Illinois Central 
 Railroad, which runs trains, almost comparable with our 
 elevated trains in frequency, to the Exposition Grounds 
 and the thickening settlements which are building up 
 the south side of the city. 
 
 The lake front reveals another marked peculiarity of 
 the city the fondness of the citizens for the sport of 
 fishing. Running out from the shore are great Govern- 
 ment breakwaters of crib-work, which rise, like narrow 
 causeways, a little above the water's surface. These are 
 turned into fishing piers by the people, who form a fringe 
 along them on all pleasant days. But the habit is car- 
 ried to such an extreme that the bulwarks are often 
 crowded in the hot weather. Then many thousands of 
 persons begin to gather there at dawn, to presently form 
 a multitude, which includes very many girls and women 
 as well as men and boys. A number of bumboats, which 
 the city, county, and State authorities have successively 
 tried in vain to drive away, are moored alongside the 
 breakwaters, and supply the crowds with drinks and food. 
 Bait merchants, whose nets fixed on the string- pieces 
 are so numerous as to give the structures a picturesque 
 appearance, drive a good trade, and the strings of fish 
 that are caught are seen in every part of the town as the 
 fishers carry them homeward. 
 
 But the tall buildings will seem the greatest novelties 
 to the visitors from rural districts and from most cities.
 
 Built of frames of steel, enclosed with mere envelopes of 
 masonry, and set upon great pads upon the blue clay 
 beneath the city, they rise like steeples on every hand 
 in the thick of the town, and invite strangers to flit up 
 and down in their light and often elegant interior courts, 
 in the swift express elevators with which they are all 
 provided. 
 
 The highest of these almost preposterous piles the 
 tallest building in the world is the Masonic Temple. 
 Its roof is now fitted up as a roof garden, and is, of 
 course, unparalleled in height by any other place of re- 
 sort except the Eiffel Tower or the few world-famous 
 steeples of highest reach. The topmost story of the 
 Masonic Temple is 298 feet above the corner-stone. The 
 ceiling of the rOof garden is 302 feet up in the air, and 
 the roof itself is 32 feet higher than any point of obser- 
 vation in the Auditorium tower, and 28 feet above any 
 point accessible to the public in Chicago. The roof is 
 in reality turned into an additional story the twenty- 
 first in order for it is entirely enclosed by sliding win- 
 dows, and covered by its own roofing of heavy plate-glass. 
 It is fitted with steam-heating pipes for the comfort of 
 visitors during cold weather, and is set about with flow- 
 ers and plants, the plan of the managers being to aug- 
 ment these attractions with music and refreshments 
 during the term of the World's Fair. This great roof 
 chamber will accommodate 2000 persons. It is reached 
 by seventeen elevators. Fourteen of these are for pas- 
 sengers, disposed in a semicircle at one side of the in- 
 terior court, and forming an imposing battery in the 
 rotunda on the ground-floor. These elevators are run 
 to a greater height than any others in New York, Phil- 
 adelphia, or Chicago, or, in fact, than any except those
 
 in the Eiffel Tower. They are forced to a distance of 
 258 feet, at the speed of 750 feet a minute. To balance 
 the great weight of the suspending ropes, each car carries 
 a length of chain. Seven of the elevators run "express" 
 to the tenth floor, and then begin to make stops at the 
 higher stories. 
 
 The view from this altitudinous roof garden compre- 
 hends practically all of Chicago. Lincoln Park is en- 
 tirely within the range of vision on the north, and so are 
 the World's Fair Grounds on the south, with the roofs 
 of the city intervening and reaching far to the westward. 
 The T-shaped river and its compressed activity are in 
 plain sight, and so is the magnificent lake, with its break- 
 waters, its cribs, its curving shore, and its changing col- 
 lections of shipping. 
 
 The building is owned by the Masonic Fraternity 
 Temple Association, a stock company capitalized at 
 $2,000,000, in 20,000 one-hundred-dollar shares. By an 
 issue of bonds, the company has raised $1,500,000 in ad- 
 dition to meet the total requirement of $3,500,000 need- 
 ed for the completion of the undertaking. Stock to the 
 value of $1,500,000 was subscribed for in Chicago. The 
 first sixteen of the twenty-one stories are arranged for 
 offices, the four next succeeding floors being adapted for 
 Masonic lodge -rooms, cloak-rooms, an assembly hall, a 
 kitchen, a smoking-room, and for other uses. These 
 apartments are said to form the most elegant and well- 
 devised headquarters at the disposal of any fraternal or- 
 ganization in Christendom. 
 
 90
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 CHICAGO AND HER RAILROAD WEB 
 
 CHICAGO paraphrases an ancient Roman boast. She 
 likes to say that " all (rail) roads lead to Chicago." It 
 is close enough to the truth to be quoted as indicative 
 of how truly great a railroad centre Chicago is. That is 
 the first of the really great cities of the United States 
 that was developed by the railroads. The older cities 
 grew in importance according as the multiplying steam- 
 boats and ships, as well as railroads, came to them in the 
 natural course ; but in the West nearly all the roads 
 sought out Chicago, and caused her to wax great and 
 powerful. Chicago would have forgotten this fact as 
 being a mere incident of her childhood ; but she has not 
 been permitted to forget it. She has outgrown depend- 
 ence upon the railroads, or, rather, they have become 
 subordinate to her, and it is when the local fathers at- 
 tempt to discipline the railroads that she is reminded by 
 them of how much of her greatness these officials con- 
 sider due to their agency. 
 
 It is fitting that the first great railroad centre should 
 have become the greatest sufferer from those evils which 
 follow the passage of railroads through or into a city. 
 Such is the case with Chicago. A battery of railroad 
 tracks skirts part of the lake shore which, elsewhere, the 
 
 9 1
 
 city has beautified and made its constant care and joy. 
 And, since most of the roads came into the town when 
 it was very small or now come in over routes laid out 
 at that time it follows that to reach their terminals the 
 roads cut across the city at many angles. These long 
 avenues upon which the steam-cars run constitute one 
 of the peculiar features of the city. The tracks are 
 fenced in, and at the street-crossings are those finger-like 
 gates with which all American railroad travellers are fa- 
 miliar. These gates, having two long thin arms which 
 swing towards one another upon pivots when the thor- 
 oughfares are to be blocked, are worked by men who sit 
 up in little boxes on the tops of tall posts exaggerated 
 sparrow-boxes are what they look like ; and, in reality, 
 they are but little larger than such kennels as we house 
 St. Bernard dogs in. 
 
 There is a ladder up one side of each pole, and the 
 door of each box is in its floor. In each box there is a 
 tiny stove, a chair, a shelf, and the levers that the gate- 
 man uses to work the gates. The boxes command views 
 up and down the tracks and the cross-streets. As all the 
 railroads run on the same grade or level as the streets, 
 the usefulness of these long rows of watch-boxes is ap- 
 parent ; and yet the slaughter and mangling and maiming 
 of the citizens by the railroads goes on, and is unparal- 
 leled elsewhere in the world. The people of Chicago 
 may be said to know that each rising of the sun ushers 
 in a day in which a human life will be slain by some train 
 of cars, so nearly do the murders in each year approach 
 the sum of one a day. And that is saying nothing of 
 the mangling that goes on ! 
 
 The occupation of a part of the lake front by the rail- 
 roads has fretted the officials more than any other source 
 
 92
 
 of complaint against the steam roads. The part of the 
 lake front that is used thus is that large section lying 
 south of the Chicago River, from the river to somewhere 
 about Fiftieth Street, or near the grounds of the Colum- 
 bian Exposition. The tracks are the property of the Il- 
 linois Central Railroad, but they are used by four other 
 railroads, all of them busy ones. Everybody who has vis- 
 ited Chicago during the past twenty years will recollect 
 the ruin-like depot buildings in use at the end of these 
 tracks. Constant agitation and uncertainty as to the di- 
 vision of rights between the Illinois Central and the city 
 has, I believe, occasioned the delay in the construction 
 of a station there to vie with the others in the city, which 
 are mainly large and thoroughly equipped. The railroad, 
 company has held that it owned the lake front route in 
 fee simple and also the riparian rights. It has been de- 
 cided by one court that it has a full title to certain parts 
 of it, but only an easement or right of way in the remain- 
 der. Another court may view the case differently, of 
 course, but in the mean time the railroad made an offer 
 to the city which, had it been accepted, would have led 
 to the sinking of the tracks along the shore, so that the 
 city could have treated the water-front as a park, and the 
 railroad would not have interfered with the effect. For 
 such rights and claims as the company would surrender 
 it asked remuneration, and, upon this feature of the prop- 
 osition being considered, there arose those inevitable per- 
 sons who were startled by what they called the grasping 
 character of the corporation. And thus was lost a chance 
 that may never come again. In the mean time the six 
 tracks of the road are kept busy night and day in front 
 of the hotel centre of the town, and that which should 
 be a beauty-spot is very like a railroad switching-yard, 
 
 93
 
 than which there are not many objects more unprepos- 
 sessing. 
 
 Dangerous as the traffic is at present, its evils are as 
 nothing to those which would exist if the present state 
 of things continued during the Exposition, when hun- 
 dreds of thousands of persons and teams would have to 
 cross the tracks to reach the Fair Grounds, and when the 
 trains will have been so multiplied that it is safe to say 
 that they will be run every two minutes. This being 
 understood, a great force of men is now employed in 
 raising the tracks near the Fair Grounds to a height of 
 twelve feet above the present level, and the streets are to 
 dive under them so that the cars will cross overhead, on 
 bridges. When the road-bed is raised to a certain 
 height by a sort of Egyptian process of shovelling dirt 
 upon one track from trains upon another, and then from 
 the raised track down upon the first one the perform- 
 ance is repeated to and fro by something like a proc- 
 ess of pure perspiration until the whole wide series 
 of tracks are up where they are wanted to be. A new 
 million-dollar depot will speedily be erected in place of 
 the present unsightly ruins. These great improvements 
 the Illinois Central is making of its own accord, and it 
 is deserving of great credit for the fact. 
 
 Despite the great area of land which Chicago occupies, 
 her business portion is very much compressed far more 
 than that of New York. The reason for this is that all 
 the railroads reach the very heart of the town. Their 
 freight and passenger depots are close together, and 
 these force the bulk of the mercantile business into a 
 little space for convenience' sake. Whoever looks upon 
 a map of the great city will be surprised to see that 
 these depots really wall or frame a space of only about 
 
 94
 
 THE FRANKLIN STATUE FOR THE ROOF OF 
 THE ELECTRICAL BUILDING
 
 a mile square. It is only a mile and a quarter from the 
 Chicago and North-western Depot on the north side to 
 the Dearborn Depot the one farthest south. But it is 
 only about three-quarters of a mile from the Union 
 Depot on the west side to the Illinois Central Depot on 
 the lake front. The reader sees in this fact why Chicago 
 has such tall buildings, and so many of them. Laughed 
 at for having reached out and seized scores of square 
 miles of prairie, and even yet possessing farms within 
 her city limits, she none the less feels her " business el- 
 bow-room " more cramped than if she were on narrow 
 Manhattan Island. In the little square mile, around 
 whose edges the railroads end, are all her towering office 
 buildings, her principal hotels, her leading stores, her 
 wholesale warehouses, her public buildings, restaurants, 
 exchanges, and all her principal centres of trade and re- 
 sort. Many of these buildings have been piled high in 
 the air because the ground is crowded and the only lee- 
 way is upward. 
 
 Some day it is a problem many men are study- 
 ing this heart of the city must be enlarged, and the 
 probability is that this will be done by moving all the 
 depots back a mile or so. When that is accomplished 
 they may be connected by a circular railroad an ele- 
 vated road, most persons predict. Then travellers by 
 the various roads can connect with others than those 
 upon which they come in, and may continue their jour- 
 neys without delay. This cannot be done now. Chicago 
 stops every traveller now, like a giant highwayman, and 
 makes him or her pay homage to it whether the travel- 
 ler wishes to break his journey there or not, taking his 
 baggage and, in most cases, holding his person at a hotel 
 until a later hour or another day. 
 
 95
 
 It will be interesting to add a note about each of the 
 Chicago depots that squeeze in the vital organs of the 
 city like iron corsets. There are seven of them : the 
 Dearborn, the Illinois Central, the Baltimore and Ohio, 
 the Union, the Grand Central, the Van Buren Street, 
 and the Chicago and North-western. They are so close 
 to one another that they seem- almost to transform the 
 thick of the city into one great railway depot the great- 
 est in the world. More than 85,000 miles of railroad 
 centre there to-day, and nearly all the great systems of 
 the United States, Canada, and Mexico meet there. If 
 we speak of those which enter the city by leased or con- 
 tributory lines we leave out scarcely any notable rail- 
 road in North America. 
 
 Those visitors to the Fair who will enter the city by 
 skirting the lake shore and passing close to the Fair 
 Grounds will end their journeys at the Illinois Central 
 Depot, in front of the densest part of town. This Illi-. 
 nois Central Railroad operates 2875 miles of road, and 
 connects the Gulf of Mexico with Lake Michigan, reach- 
 ing such principal points as St. Louis, Cairo, Memphis, 
 and New Orleans, at which latter place connection is 
 had with the Southern Pacific for points in Texas, New 
 Mexico, and on the Pacific slope. Another railroad 
 which curves around the foot of the lake and ends at 
 the Illinois Central Depot is the " Big Four," or Cleve- 
 land, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Company. Its 
 title, made up of the four great cities which are its ter- 
 minals, indicates the extensive and important sections 
 through which it runs. At this same depot a large frac- 
 tion of the mass of sight-seers from New York and New 
 England will leave the cars, because it is the terminus of 
 the Michigan Central line, or" Niagara Falls Route," so 
 
 96
 
 called because its through trains all stop beside the great 
 cataract long enough to enable passengers to alight and 
 walk to the edge of the bluff, looking down upon the 
 falls from one of the best points of view commanding 
 them. Westward-bound passengers leave the New York 
 Central Railroad at Buffalo, are whirled into Canada, 
 and thence to Detroit and across Michigan in model 
 trains, with dining and buffet cars, vestibuled sleepers, 
 and all the new conveniences. The Baltimore and Ohio 
 Railroad enters Chicago by the same lake shore route, but 
 has a terminal station of its own near the Illinois Central 
 Depot. This, one of the oldest of all American railroads, 
 now operates more than 2000 miles of road, exclusive 
 of a great line which it leases, and crosses Western In- 
 diana, Northern and South-western Ohio, West Virginia, 
 Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey, to 
 New York. Its route is famed for its picturesqueness. 
 
 The Dearborn Station, at Polk Street and Third Ave- 
 nue, is commonly regarded as one of the " sights " of 
 Chicago. It does a heavy business, being the terminus 
 of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F6, the Erie, the 
 Grand Trunk, the Chicago and Eastern Illinois, Chicago 
 and Western Indiana, "The Wabash,'' and the Louisville, 
 New Albany, and Chicago systems. The "Atchison" 
 operates more than 6400 miles of its own road. Its busi- 
 ness is done in nearly a dozen States and several Ter- 
 ritories in the south and west, including Missouri, Ar- 
 kansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, 
 Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. It is 
 one of the great scenic routes of the country. The fa- 
 mous "Erie Railroad," or New York, Lake Erie, and 
 Western, reaches this depot via the Chicago and Erie, 
 one of the railroads of its system which traverses Indi- 
 
 97
 
 ana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, through beau- 
 tiful regions, and has New York City for its terminus. 
 The Chicago and Eastern Illinois, and Chicago and West- 
 ern Indiana railroads, whose names describe their routes, 
 also run their trains from this depot. The Chicago and 
 Grand Trunk, also running from this depot, is the con- 
 necting link between the Grand Trunk system of Cana- 
 da and the American railroads. By its means all points 
 in North-western and Central Michigan, Eastern Canada, 
 and our own New England States can be reached. An- 
 other tenant of the Dearborn Station is the " Monon 
 Route," or Louisville, New Albany, and Chicago, an en- 
 terprising, well -equipped company operating between 
 Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, and the 
 South. The famous Wabash Railroad, for St. Louis, 
 Kansas City, and Texas, is also a tenant of the station. 
 
 All the trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad, either by 
 the Fort Wayne or the Panhandle routes, run to and 
 from the Union Depot at Canal and Adams streets. 
 Its limited trains are as fast and as elegant as they are 
 famous, and its routes to the great Eastern capitals are 
 both direct and picturesque. The Chicago, Burlington, 
 and Quincy Railroad is another of the great arteries of 
 the country. It operates 7000 miles of road. It reaches 
 the Black Hills, the Wyoming cattle ranges, and many 
 leading points in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, 
 Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Another system that ter- 
 minates at the Union Depot is the Chicago and Alton, 
 for St. Louis, Kansas City, and, by connections, all over 
 the West and South-west. Also at this depot travellers 
 take the cars of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul 
 Railroad, a vast system, and a great favorite with Chi- 
 cago people. It embraces 6900 miles of track, and is of 
 
 98
 
 great importance in the North-west. It runs to Omaha, 
 into South Dakota, and has a notable number of the 
 summer resorts of Chicago among its stopping-places. 
 
 The Chicago and North-western Railroad Station is at 
 Wells and Kinzie streets. The Chicago and North-west- 
 ern is one of the very great systems of the West. It 
 embraces more than 7000 miles of roads in Illinois, Mich- 
 igan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Nebras- 
 ka, and Wyoming. The Union Pacific Railroad, with 
 all its ramifications in the Far West, has this depot for 
 one of its terminals by a direct connection. 
 
 The Grand Central Station at Harrison Street and 
 Fifth Avenue is a new and handsome building. The 
 Northern Pacific Railroad, by a lease of a connecting line 
 between Chicago and St. Paul, now practically makes 
 Chicago its eastern terminus, and this is its depot. It 
 thus connects the Great Lakes with the Pacific, and trav- 
 ellers may make the journey with all the modern com- 
 forts, and over an imperial reach of diversified scenery. 
 The Wisconsin Central Railroad, which is the line by 
 which this railroad to the west coast reaches Chicago, 
 does an extended business in the North and North-west, 
 running through a notable timber, mining, and sporting 
 country. 
 
 The seventh and last station, though it is as conven- 
 ient to the city as any, is the Van Buren Street Depot. 
 To and from this are run the trains of the Lake Shore 
 and Michigan Southern Railroad, one of the main routes 
 of the Vanderbilt system between the East and the West. 
 Travellers have their favorites, and some favor this, 
 while others prefer the Niagara Falls route. The Lake 
 Shore Road is direct and unbroken, is very popular, 
 passes through a beautiful and well-developed territory, 
 
 99
 
 and is equipped as perfectly as the rest of the system. 
 Another tenant of this depot is the Chicago, Rock Isl- 
 and, and Pacific Railroad, which is one of the pioneer 
 roads of the West, and has grown until it operates in 
 Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Indian Territory, Nebraska, Col- 
 orado, and, by connection with other roads, offers quick 
 routes to the Pacific slope, the middle West, and the 
 North-west. 
 
 This list of the principal roads centring at Chicago 
 makes uninteresting reading only to those who are fa- 
 miliar with the railroad systems of the country, and to 
 those who do not think while they read. The others 
 will perceive by it something of the causes of Chicago's 
 greatness, and how, like a great spider in the heart of a 
 web of steel, she reaches out in every direction, making 
 every point more or less tributary to her.
 
 THE WORLD'S FAIR
 
 THE WORLD'S FAIR 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 OUR COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION 
 
 IF it were sought to express in one phrase the expec- 
 tations of those who are planning the Columbian Expo- 
 sition of 1893 in Chicago, it could best be done by call- 
 ing it a Venetian spectacle. In all that governs its best 
 effects, as it will burst upon the vision of the multitude, 
 it will suggest Venice. Especially at night will it call 
 to mind what the poetic comprehension conceives that 
 Venice might appear if she were in gala attire, and her 
 beauties, seen under a flood of electric light, were effect- 
 ively concentrated along two miles of the Adriatic shore. 
 
 Chicago has been visited, the site of the projected 
 Columbian Exposition has been examined, and the men 
 and women who have undertaken to arrange the major 
 details of the Great Fair have willingly offered their fore- 
 casts of the finished work. The labor of preparation is, 
 in point of time, far from that appointed stage of com- 
 pletion when, in October, 1892, the Columbian anniver- 
 
 103
 
 sary is to be celebrated with several days of pageantry 
 and festivity.* After that seven months will be con- 
 sumed in storing the buildings with exhibits; and then, 
 in May, 1893, the Great Fair will be opened to the inspec- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 Even in New York, where there has been keen disap- 
 pointment over the failure to secure the Fair, it is at this 
 writing evident that the shrewdest business men have 
 come to regard the projected Exposition as likely to 
 prove a complete triumph of American enterprise and 
 skill. Not all who feel compelled to sink an already 
 weakening local prejudice beneath national pride are 
 even now willing to predict artistic and material success 
 for Chicago's undertaking. But it is in Wall Street that 
 is heard the first note of confidence in the success of the 
 undertaking, and it is scarcely necessary to say that in 
 Wall Street the finer and more delicate aspects of the 
 case are not likely to receive recognition, particularly in 
 those bulletins in which financiers seek to convince their 
 correspondents that we are on the eve of three years of 
 prosperity. The basis and reasoning in these bulletins 
 are that the movement and sale of our enormous food 
 products will bring about the first year's prosperity ; 
 that next will occur a year distinguished by great rail- 
 road extension, to be paid for out of the first year's 
 transportation earnings ; and that there will then follow 
 a year given over to the profitable task of entertaining 
 the foreign visitors to the World's Fair. 
 
 Following this hopeful financial view, there is a grow- 
 ing belief that the Exposition will not fail from an ar- 
 tistic point of view. The broad and liberal spirit which 
 
 * This chapter was written in the autumn of 1891. 
 104
 
 MRS. POTTER PALMER 
 (President of the Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition)
 
 led its projectors to seek the aid of the most distin- 
 guished architects of the country is reassuring to those 
 who have doubted whether our Fair would vindicate 
 American taste at. the same time that it would dis- 
 play our wealth and progress. The manner in which 
 the architects are encouraged to work for the Fair is quite 
 as remarkable, and quite as potent in destroying bor- 
 rowed concern. After ten men of admitted excellence 
 have been selected from all over the country, to each 
 has been paid an honorarium of $10,000. It is truly a 
 royal way to insure hearty co-operation and the best 
 work of the best men. All have been treated alike, and 
 all are enabled to fortify themselves by special study 
 here and abroad for the work they are undertaking. 
 The note thus sounded in the most influential circles 
 outside of the business world is in harmony with the 
 chord that has been struck in Wall Street. There will 
 not long remain among well-informed persons a trace of 
 the former belief that Chicago will too strongly impress 
 her individuality upon the Fair, or of the dying doubt 
 that it will be fully and grandly national in its aims and 
 accomplishments. 
 
 Once again the peculiar manner in which American 
 affairs are influenced by public opinion is in this matter 
 made evident. Amid the clamor attending the compe- 
 tition among large cities which wished to possess the 
 Fair many angry and rude aspersions have been cast 
 upon Chicago's fitness for the honor to which she as- 
 pired. It is now evident that in a considerable degree 
 the triumphs of the managers of the exhibition are due 
 to the rancor that preceded and even followed the se- 
 lection of Chicago as the exposition city. These shrewd 
 officials may be in some measure unconscious of the fact, 
 
 105
 
 yet, in many remarks and arguments, they make it evi- 
 dent to me that in taking hold of the gigantic enterprise 
 they bind themselves to disappoint their rivals. They 
 are resolved to prove false the prediction that Chicago 
 would belittle her opportunity by seeking to make only 
 local capital, and would shock the cultivated taste of 
 the nation by producing a crude and clumsy fair, lack- 
 ing those elegances and luxurious attributes of ornament 
 and finish which rendered the last Paris Exposition the 
 wonder of the civilized world. I am not likely to be 
 contradicted if I assert that the unkindly comparisons 
 into which the Paris Fair of 1889 was constantly forced 
 resulted in the establishment of the Parisian standard 
 as the model that Chicago was to surpass at all hazards. 
 To say this is to ascribe to Chicago qualities of which 
 any city might be proud, for in her conduct she has 
 shown that true and wholesome pride which is never 
 found apart from modesty, and with these traits she has 
 exhibited a clear consciousness of her strength to re- 
 press every weakness with which she has been unfairly 
 charged. 
 
 At the moment when this is being prepared for the 
 press, the greater part of the Fair tract in Jackson Park 
 is one-third enclosed by the waters of Lake Michigan 
 and two-thirds by a tall fence six miles in length. With- 
 in that enclosure is to be witnessed a scene of extraor- 
 dinary activity. Close at hand, as one approaches the 
 site from the city, the second story of the Woman's 
 Building already rises above the greenery, and as far as 
 the eye can comprehend the scene the view is dotted 
 with other white forests and thickets of new timber, 
 marking the foundations and framework of the great 
 buildings that the Commissioners are to erect as the 
 
 106
 
 nucleus and glory of the Fair. Even through the dis- 
 order of such a field, wherein thousands of laborers and 
 carpenters are at work, and where the surface of the 
 ground is receiving no care, it is apparent that the site 
 is well chosen, and that the grounds are capable of con- 
 version into the unique and really extraordinary park 
 of palaces which the managers have planned. 
 
 It was a marsh when work upon it was begun, a sop- 
 ping combination of low lands, water, and hummocks ; 
 but the once uncertain beach is already a beautiful 
 slope of neatly-ordered stone-work edged with sand, and 
 capped by a broad and elegant esplanade of white con- 
 crete, forming as noble a water-side way as can be pict- 
 ured by the mind. Beyond this costly promenade the 
 field is divided into promontories and islands, among 
 which have been led beautiful sheets of water, in the 
 form of lagoons, canals, basins, and straits. It is the 
 water of the Great Lakes, and has the translucent quality 
 of pure crystal. 
 
 This, it must be remembered, is the character of the 
 site for the ten or eleven principal buildings to be erected 
 by the Commission in what is now the distant part of 
 Jackson Park. But adjoining this is the older portion 
 of the park, long ago in use as a finished part of the su- 
 perb park system of Chicago. A large pond embel- 
 lishes this section, and upon the undulating ground 
 around the pool are meadows, groves, and winding roads. 
 This land is to form the site of the buildings of those 
 foreign governments that are to participate in the Expo- 
 sition. Mexico has already selected the foremost plat 
 close against the new domain upon which the Exposi- 
 tion builders are now busy. The two sections are to be 
 thrown together, the great pond is to be connected with 
 
 107
 
 the lagoon system of the Fair Grounds, and the finished 
 site will include both grounds. 
 
 Standing upon the broad, trim, artificial beach beside 
 the blue ancK*green expanse of Lake Michigan, I found 
 it difficult to free" what I saw from what, after a week's 
 study of the official plans, I knew must soon take the 
 place of the disojrder around me. After such a study, 
 and with some of the officials of the Exposition discuss- 
 ing the future in*rny hearing, it was easy to enjoy a pro- 
 phetic view of the.^great park as it ^ould appear after 
 the Exposition opened almost as easy to comprehend 
 and far more interesting than the actual scene. Already 
 the unfinished model of a modern cruiser lay before me 
 at the edge of Lake Michigan, and afar off the founda- 
 tions of the almost fairy-like Casino Pier fretted the sur- 
 face of the great lake. I fancied myself on a barge ap- 
 proaching the gaudy wharf. The mind's eye showed 
 the pier joining the long expanse of artificial beach at a 
 point in front of a beautiful emerald lagoon that lay be- 
 tween the Palace of Agriculture and the almost incon- 
 ceivably vast building for Manufactures and Liberal 
 Arts. Rising from the lagoon was the colossal yet 
 graceful Statue of the Republic, seen through the spaces 
 of an impressive line of separate granite columns, whose 
 capitals will bear figures displaying the arms of the 
 States. 
 
 The great building showed a general tone of darkened 
 ivory or slightly smoked meerschaum, an effect produced 
 by the "staff" or stucco composition with which the ex- 
 terior walls are to be covered. All the exterior w r alls of 
 all the buildings will be of this material, and the build- 
 ings themselves will therefore be rather architectural 
 models than durable structures. Wherever great arches 
 
 108
 
 support heavy roofs or span wide openings beUveen 
 walls, the trusses will be of iron, but in most cases the 
 
 4f 
 
 walls or frames will be of timber. 
 
 But though the general tone in this prophetic view of 
 the buildings is that of enriched ivory, each view of 
 every structure presents a more or less brilliant array of 
 colors, the differing hues being seen wherever the walls 
 are broken, as in the arcades, porticos, corridors, pavil- 
 ions, and galleries, which^elieve and ornament most 
 of the edifices. Eor instance, while still looking down 
 the lagoon that is ornamented by Mr. Atwood's chef- 
 d'oeuvre of statues and columns, the eye is taken cap- 
 tive by the brilliant golden dome of the Administration 
 Building. Statuary, banners, gorgeous panels, medal- 
 lions, and colonnades, all harmoniously blended, make 
 this the most striking and one of the most admired of 
 the works of the architects. Richard M. Hunt, of New 
 York, is its designer. 
 
 The beautiful waters of the system of lagoons pass 
 every one of the main buildings, and all but surround 
 some of them. On their surfaces all the palaces will be 
 reflected, and at night the water will duplicate the full 
 brilliancy of this, the second of the world's expositions 
 which electricity has rendered viewable after dark. The 
 water itself, by-the-way, will be shot with brilliant light 
 by scores of electric lamps placed around its borders. 
 A hundred gondolas brought from Venice will loaf lux- 
 uriously along these liquid avenues, to be distanced con- 
 temptuously by a myriad of swift launches. Their mo- 
 tions on the water's surface will but weakly imitate the 
 fast-gliding artificial denizens of the deep which skilled 
 electricians plan to send hither and thither by means of 
 delicate machinery urged by power stored in the bodies 
 
 109
 
 of the toys. At night, when the eyes of these subma- 
 rine monsters and beauties are lighted by electricity, 
 they will cidd a strange feature to the general spectacle. 
 
 Beside the gorgeous Administration Building, on the 
 one hand, is the Machinery Hall, designed by Messrs. 
 'Peabody & Stearns, of Boston. It is a beautiful and 
 imposing palace, and is connected artistically with the 
 Building for Agriculture by means of a colonnade sur- 
 rounding one end of a gret canal. Messrs. McKim, 
 Mead & White, of New York, designed the Agricult- 
 ural Building. These two great houses for agriculture 
 and machinery are each above 800 feet long, and the 
 Machinery Building has an annex 550 feet in length, so 
 that the roofs of these two buildings and their connec- 
 tions cover an unbroken length of 2400 feet. The Ma- 
 chinery Building will be constructed as if three great 
 railroad depots or train sheds were placed side by side, 
 and it is the purpose of the Columbian Corporation to 
 sell these parts for such uses after the Fair closes. 
 The managers expect to realize a salvage of at least 
 $3,000,000 on the material used in the various struct- 
 ures, and they boast that they have already saved 
 $1,000,000 on what was considered a careful preliminary 
 estimate of the cost of the buildings. 
 
 But to return to the view. Down the canal that 
 half divides these buildings the Electricity and Mining 
 houses are reached. The Electric Building (designed 
 by Messrs. Van Brunt & Howe, of Kansas City) is most 
 unique, and besides being decorated by many towers, 
 has a grand entrance that rises a story higher than the 
 rest of the building, and that, when illuminated at night, 
 will seem ablaze with light as if it were a colossal lan- 
 tern. Beyond this building is the principal lagoon,
 
 from whose surface rises what is known as the Wooded 
 Island. This island is many acres in extent, and is de- 
 signed to remain bare of almost everything but flowers, 
 trees, and paths, in order that it may furnish through- 
 out the Exposition a. cool and alluring retreat for tired 
 visitors. Absolute bareness will be prevented by the 
 presence of a beautiful temple put up by the Japanese. 
 
 Behind this great lagoon are the Transportation, Hor- 
 ticultural, and Woman's buildings, at the farther end is 
 the Illinois Building, and on the side between the lagoon 
 and Lake Michigan are the Fisheries and United States 
 Government buildings, all costly, extensive, and elabo- 
 rate examples of the skill of American architects. One 
 building that has not yet been mentioned receives, per- 
 haps, the highest praise. It is the Gallery of Fine Arts, 
 and will stand beyond the lake that is now in the old 
 part of Jackson Park. Its designer is^Mr. C. B. Atwood, 
 of New York. 
 
 Beyond the Fine Arts Gallery, in the older part of 
 Jackson Park, and gathered amid its groves and around 
 its picturesque lake, are to be the seats of the foreign 
 governments that participate in the Fair. The domes 
 and the towers of these still undetermined buildings \yill 
 doubtless reach far down what is called Midway Plai- 
 sance, a parkway connecting Washington and Jackson 
 parks. Down this plaisance, now a broad bowery bou- 
 levard, will also be gathered many of the lesser attrac- 
 tions of the Fair, not all of them wholly disconnected 
 with private enterprise or the showman's profession. 
 
 Thus has been arranged the greatest of world's expo- 
 sitions. The field laid out embraces 640 acres, and 400 
 acres adjoining this- are available if needed. The floor 
 space already provided for is equal to 400 acres, or more, 
 
 M III
 
 it is said, than the entire ground utilized in any other 
 exposition. The park is seven miles from the Chicago 
 City Hall, but it is to be connected with the city by all 
 of the great steam railroads that enter Chicago, by the 
 cable-car lines and stages, by the lake boats, and by an 
 elevated railroad now nearly constructed. Within the 
 Exposition Grounds connection between the various 
 points of interest may be had both by land and water 
 by donkey-back, jinrikisha, 'bus, gondola, launch or skiff, 
 and by a marvellous overhead travelling sidewalk. 
 
 Apparently the entire distribution of leadership and 
 command has been characterized by as liberal a spirit 
 as that which led Mr. D. H. Burnham, of Chicago, the 
 Chief of the Bureau of Construction, to cluster the archi- 
 tectural geniuses of the country around him as he did. 
 The architects in question are: Richard M. Hunt, of 
 New York ; W. L.JB. Jenny, of Chicago ; McKim, Mead 
 & White, of New York ; Adler & Sullivan, of Chicago ; 
 George B. Post, of New York ; Henry Ives Cobb, of 
 Chicago ; Burling & Whitehouse, of Chicago ; Peabody 
 & Stearns, of Boston ; S. S. Beman, of Chicago ; and 
 Van Brunt & Howe, of Kansas City. 
 
 In the same spirit and towards the same end of con- 
 ducting a thoroughly national enterprise, Director-gen- 
 eral George R. Davis has divided his work into fifteen 
 branches, constituted each branch a department, and 
 then sought men of national fame and acknowledged 
 ability to take charge of these divisions. The Bureau 
 of Agriculture has been put in the hands of Mr. W. I. 
 Buchanan, a remarkable organizer and student of the 
 interests of the agricultural class, and hero of the fa- 
 mous Sioux City Corn Palace Exhibition. His plans for 
 the agricultural exhibit are exceedingly broad, and are
 
 perfected to the minutest detail, so that the Western 
 men at least feel certain that his will be as complete a 
 display as can possibly be made. 
 
 The Department of Ethnology is in charge of Pro- 
 fessor F. W. Putnam, of Harvard, who has sent to South 
 America naval and military officers, many of whom are 
 specialists outside of their professions, and whose busi- 
 ness it will be to scour South America to secure a rep- 
 resentative exhibit. The past and present methods of 
 living in every South American country are to be illus- 
 trated realistically by models provided by the gentle- 
 men who have selected trvs objects after consulting 
 well-informed persons from those countries. The rep- 
 resentation of lake dwellings from Venezuela is spoken 
 of as likely to be more marvellous than the examples 
 of the same study that will be sent here from Europe. 
 The results from Patagonia, Alaska, Greenland, Finland, 
 and Iceland will all be notable. The bureau has in 
 Africa an officer of the navy who is in correspondence 
 with Tippu-Tib for fifteen pygmies. 
 
 The Department of Fish and Fisheries is in charge of 
 Captain J. W. Collins, of the United States Commission. 
 He will exhibit an aquarium stocked with both salt and 
 fresh water fish, and will present casts of all the known 
 species of fish, together with a valuable presentation of 
 the fauna and flora of the ocean. He will also exhibit 
 the different modes of and appliances for fishing, both 
 ancient and modern. Either here or elsewhere in the 
 Fair will be given graphic expositions of the work at the 
 seal-fisheries of Alaska. 
 
 The Department of Mines and Mining is in charge of 
 Mr. F. J. V. Skiff", of Colorado, a man thoroughly famil- 
 iar with the mining business, who proposes to have the 
 
 "3
 
 department illustrated by working- mines if possible. 
 This is the first international exhibition in which a sep- 
 arate building has been provided for this industry. 
 
 The Department of Liberal Arts, comprehending a 
 greater variety of exhibits than any other department, 
 is in charge of Professor S. H. Peabody. It was offered 
 to Professor John Oilman, of Johns Hopkins University, 
 but he was unable to accept the trust. The Depart- 
 ment of Machinery is in charge of Mr. L. W. Robinson, 
 who was first assistant in charge of the Machinery Hall 
 at the Philadelphia Exposition. The Columbian Fair 
 will gain distinction from having at its service steam of 
 the power of 24,000 horses. It is said that the greatest 
 of the engines which will be shown will dwarf the great 
 Corliss machine exhibited in Philadelphia in 1876. 
 
 The Department of Publicity and Promotion is under 
 the chieftainship of Major Moses P. Handy, the distin- 
 guished journalist. There was never such a depart- 
 ment in any other exposition. There have been press 
 bureaus, but the press work of this Exposition is simply 
 a branch of the work of promotion which is carried on 
 both at home and abroad, and, as elaborated by Major 
 Handy, is so formidable that his mailing department 
 alone ranks by the bulk of its business with some of the 
 most important second-class post-offices of the country. 
 
 The Department of Fine Arts is in charge of Mr. Hal- 
 sey C. Ives, of Missouri, who built up the great art 
 school in St. Louis. He began work by journeying 
 abroad, visiting every country in Europe, talking with 
 artists, inspecting famed galleries, and arranging for the 
 exhibition of pictures by loan and otherwise. While in 
 Paris Major Handy met M. Prust, who had charge of the 
 art department of the Paris Exposition, and who gave 
 
 114
 
 his word that France, which can contribute so much 
 towards a successful art display, will do its best for this 
 one. Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen and Sir Henry Wood, 
 Secretary of the Royal Society of Art, assured Major 
 Handy that England does not propose to be eclipsed. 
 The English artists now realize, that which the French 
 years ago discovered, that America has become the 
 greatest and most profitable field for the disposal of the 
 best products of the Old World studios. 
 
 In addition to the half-million-dollar Art Building on 
 the Fair Grounds, it is proposed, aside from the Exposi- 
 tion entirely, to build in Chicago a noble and perma- 
 nent art palace. The money has been raised, and those 
 concerned in the project hope to secure for the new 
 museum many of the finest works exhibited at the Ex- 
 position. 
 
 Mr. James W. Allison, of Ohio, is in charge of the 
 Department of Manufactures. He is noted for having 
 conducted in Cincinnati the most successful local expo- 
 sition in this country. His department and the depart- 
 ments of Ethnology and the Liberal Arts will exhibit 
 in the huge Palace of Manufactures. 
 
 In view of the extraordinary competition among the 
 great electrical combinations, it was a delicate and diffi- 
 cult task to secure for chief of the Electrical Department 
 a person not connected with any interest, yet acceptable 
 to all. Professor J. P. Barrett, of Nevada, was selected, 
 and the highest hopes are based on the exhibition he 
 will arrange. Mr. Thomas A. Edison is greatly interest- 
 ed in this department, and will aid the work in it in 
 other ways than by contributing to it his newest marvel, 
 upon the completion of which he is engaged. It is 
 promised that many of the wonderful features of the re-
 
 cent Electrical Exposition of Frankfort will form part 
 of our Exposition. 
 
 The Department of Horticulture is in charge of Pro- 
 fessor J. M. Samuels, of Kentucky; and that of Flori- 
 culture is headed by Mr. John Thorpe, of New York. 
 Already the growth of plants for the great exhibition is 
 under way in a house on the Midway Plaisance. Ten 
 acres on Wooded Island will be planted with flowers, 
 and the entire out -door display will include wild and 
 aquatic flowers as well as the cultivated varieties. The 
 Government exhibits will be uncommonly fine, and are 
 to be in charge of officers appointed by the President. 
 The naval display, aboard a brick model of a cruiser, 
 will be exceptionally fine the exhibition being shown 
 in the space which on a real ship would be given up to 
 machinery and arms. The Post-office Department ex- 
 hibit will show the progress of the postal system, espe- 
 cially in the methods of transporting and distributing 
 mail. It will include an illustrated history of our post- 
 age-stamps. England will send illustrations of her post- 
 al department in connection with the working of the 
 postal telegraph system. Mr. Willard A. Smith, Chief 
 of- the Bureau of Transportation, will make a collection 
 demonstrating the development of the methods of traffic 
 and travel from the use of the goat-cart and the dugout 
 to that of the hotel car and transatlantic flyers of to- 
 day. Mr. Walker Fearn, of Louisiana, head of the De- 
 partment of Foreign Affairs, was our Minister to Greece 
 under President Cleveland. His bureau will grow more 
 and more useful and busy as it follows and directs the 
 plans of the foreign governments that will join in the 
 display. 
 
 Uncommon interest has from the beginning of the 
 
 116
 
 work been attracted to the Woman's Department, the 
 most notable feature of the Great Fair. It was fortu- 
 nately placed under the charge of Mrs. Potter Palmer. 
 She is a society leader in Chicago, where it is proudly 
 boasted that she would grace any court. She is the 
 possessor of great wealth, and was wholly unacquainted 
 with public affairs before she undertook this charge, and 
 yet she has taken hold of the Woman's Department as 
 of something by the conduct of which she may crown 
 her life, and in doing so has shown the most marked 
 executive ability. In choosing a plan for its building, 
 the Woman's Department has copied one of the most 
 admirable designs made for the Exposition. The archi- 
 tect who drew the design is Miss Sophia G. Hayden, of 
 Boston. Mrs. Palmer has planned a treasury of objects 
 illustrative of woman's work. The exhibit will embrace 
 a model kitchen, a modern creche, a kindergarten and 
 hospital with trained nurses, a notable exhibition of 
 books written by women, periodicals edited and pub- 
 lished by women, and, most interesting of all, the me- 
 chanical inventions of women. It is curious to read in 
 Western papers that Mrs. Palmer is of Southern birth 
 and the wife of a Democrat. The reason for so unex- 
 pected a reference to a lady lies in the fact that original- 
 ly it had been charged that the Columbian Exposition 
 was to be a partisan Republican institution. It is un- 
 necessary to further the discussion here. The chiefs of 
 the two governing bodies the National and State di- 
 rectories are men of both parties, and the work of plan- 
 ning and perfecting the Exposition has avowedly and 
 apparently been apportioned to men chosen for their 
 experience and ability, regardless of their political faith. 
 The long list of officials composing both the national 
 
 "7
 
 committee and the Illinois organization has been print- 
 ed many times. The President of the Government Com- 
 mission is Senator Thomas W. Palmer, of Michigan ; the 
 secretary is Mr. John T. Dickinson, of Texas ; and the 
 director-general, by far the most active man on either 
 board, is General George R. Davis, of Illinois. The pres- 
 ident of the local or Illinois delegation is Mr. William 
 T. Baker, who is also President of the Chicago Board of 
 Trade; Mr. Thomas B. Bryan is vice-president of the Il- 
 linois organization ; the treasurer is Anthony F. See- 
 berger; and the auditor is William K. Ackerman. 
 
 Over in what has long been an important part of Jack- 
 son Park, on the lake front, but nearer to the city than 
 where the greater buildings are to be located, is the 
 ground set apart for the headquarters of foreign coun- 
 tries. Exposition officials are in the habit of calculating 
 that the other countries of the globe will add about 
 $3,000,000 to the amount expended at the Fair. If the 
 foreigners spend $3,000,000, and the various States of 
 the Union lay out $5,000,000, as they are expected to 
 do, the total expenditure for the Fair will amount to 
 $26,000,000. 
 
 It is evident that there will be massed together in the 
 foreign quarter a very gaudy, impressive, and unfamiliar 
 jumble of picturesque and peculiar structures, contrast- 
 ing strangely with the stately group of huge palaces on 
 the main grounds. We know that with part of Mexico's 
 $750,000 she will erect a fac-simile of an Aztec palace ; 
 Guatemala will put up, out of her $120,000, a model of 
 a palace that distinguishes her ruined City of Antigua ; 
 Colombia, which has appropriated $100,000, will repro- 
 duce her splendid Capitol ; Ecuador, which has allotted 
 $125,000, for all her expenses, will again show, as she 
 
 118
 
 did in Paris, a copy of her Temple of the Sun ; Brazil 
 will make a magnificent contribution, at a cost of at least 
 $500,000. Around the beautiful palace which she will 
 erect will be gathered lesser buildings illustrative of the 
 habits and industries .of her people huts with native 
 inhabitants, a sugar -mill, and coffee -planter's outfit. 
 Glimpses of the rubber industry will be among the ad- 
 ditional exhibits. Brazil's most famous band will be 
 sent here also, perhaps to compete with the band of the 
 Coldstream Guards of England, and certainly to blend 
 its melody with that of the great orchestra which Theo- 
 dore Thomas is to lead, and with the music of the thou- 
 sands of choral singers to be trained by Professor Tom- 
 lins. Almost all the South American countries, even 
 the smallest, and the colonial islands off the Atlantic 
 coast, have signified their intention to be represented 
 at the Fair. 
 
 It is becoming more and more apparent that what 
 seemed to be an unwarranted liberality in the projected 
 extent of the Fair Grounds will still leave the Commission 
 hampered for room. The battle will be to economize 
 space, and already skirmishes to protect the necessary 
 beauty-spots, like the Wooded Island, are of daily oc- 
 currence. The Europeans, who never held an exposi- 
 tion covering half the area of this one, are insisting upon 
 allotments that would have been out of the question at 
 Paris or Vienna. England and Germany, for instance, 
 will not be satisfied with less than 120,000 square feet 
 of ground. It is the enthusiasm of their commissioners 
 which leads to this demand, and they assert that the 
 same hearty interest in our Fair will result in the grand- 
 est exhibitions their countries have ever made. It is 
 perfectly apparent that France will not ask a jot less 
 
 119
 
 than these neighbors. England's main building will be 
 a reproduction of some notable manor-house, like Hat- 
 field (Lord Salisbury's country place), or Sandringham, 
 perhaps. The idea will be to illustrate typical English 
 architecture. A model English garden will be attached 
 to the great house, and a fine feature of the building 
 will be a spacious hall filled with armor and hung with 
 pictures, and to be used for receptions and ceremonial 
 purposes. England will appropriate 27,000 for her 
 use at the Exposition. Herr Wermuth, the German 
 commissioner, who came to Chicago in September last 
 with Sir Henry Wood, of England, was less explicit with 
 regard to Germany's intentions. He said he thought 
 his nation would select for its headquarters some typical 
 ancient German building; and he added, after speaking 
 enthusiastically of the Exposition Grounds and Build- 
 ings, that ours would be the grandest fair ever held, and 
 that Germany would do its share towards the achieve- 
 ment of that degree of success. 
 
 It is too early to discuss more fully the part that the 
 foreign governments will take in the Exposition. This 
 is peculiarly disappointing, because there seems no 
 doubt that many great countries will surpass all their 
 former efforts at international exhibitions. Major Moses 
 P. Handy, one of the Commissioners who went abroad 
 last winter, says that their errand proved most wise and 
 fruitful. It was thought advisable for some of the offi- 
 cials of the Fair to put themselves in evidence in the old 
 countries to answer questions, and to induce the more 
 tardy governments to move towards participation in 
 the display. In most cases it was only necessary to see 
 the heads of such governments, but in Switzerland the 
 rule was reversed, and there popular sympathy with the
 
 project needed to be aroused by public meetings. Switz- 
 erland was nearer to having done nothing than any 
 other country, but owing to the formal visit of the Com- 
 missioners the ancient republic is now earnestly inter- 
 ested in making a praiseworthy appearance at Chicago. 
 In the other cases the rule was to see the chiefs of each 
 government, and to urge that a more than perfunctory 
 interest be taken in the project. In Sweden and Den- 
 mark the kings were seen, but in the majority of the 
 countries visited our ministers presented the visitors to 
 the foreign ministers of each court, and by these states- 
 men the Americans were introduced to those cabinet 
 officials in whose departments the matter came. The 
 leading statesmen of England, France, Germany, Switz- 
 erland, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Norway, Sweden, 
 Denmark, and Russia were thus induced to interest them- 
 selves in our Fair. In each country great success attend- 
 ed the visit of the Commissioners. 
 
 It is known that there will be sent from India all that 
 is needed to picture life in an East Indian village. Tur- 
 key, reluctant to bear the expense herself, has authorized 
 private individuals to construct a realistic reproduction 
 of a Turkish street, probably of shops, and showing not 
 only the wares peculiar to the country, but her mechan- 
 ics, artisans, and professional entertainers. Egypt will 
 show a more complete and picturesque reflex of the 
 life of her people than that which was demonstrated by 
 the famous Rue de Caire in the Paris Exposition. This 
 exhibit will also take the form of a street. It will be 
 400 feet long, and lined with shops, cafes, dwellings, and 
 amusement halls. It will be peopled with donkey-driv- 
 ers, Egyptian serving-maids, dancing-girls, jugglers, mer- 
 chants, women, and children. Japan will spend $500,000
 
 in reproducing what is most picturesque and effective 
 in her architecture and in scenes from her home life ; 
 while China, exhibiting with governmental sanction for 
 the first time, will add a notable feature of the Fair. 
 Persia also promises what will prove a glistening drop 
 in the colossal bucket. It is whispered that from many 
 of these foreign' countries royalty itself will come in 
 numbers and consequence greater than ever distinguished 
 any universal exhibition since the last effort of imperial 
 France. A dozen kingly and princely visitors are talked 
 of as our possible guests. All and more or none at all 
 may come. No one can speak one whit more posi- 
 tively upon the subject. It is even possible that some 
 of the things that are here set down as fixed and certain 
 attractions of the Exposition will be changed or omitted. 
 It is certain that a host of inviting features, not yet 
 known even to the managers, will be added to those 
 here set forth. Allowance should be made by the read- 
 er for the uncertainties of so long a look ahead. 
 
 Our Territories are nerved to make the most of their 
 opportunity. The most important Territorial contribu- 
 tions will be in the line of mining and mineralogy, but 
 this may not be the most generally interesting. The Ter- 
 ritorial delegates will meet this exposition of wonders at 
 the wonder capital in the spirit that is to produce its 
 most amazing results. Mr. Richard Mansfield White, 
 who is a son of the late Richard Grant White, told me 
 when he was in Chicago as Commissioner from New Mex- 
 ico that his Territory will endeavor to emphasize the fact 
 that its capital, Santa Fe, and not San Augustine, Florida, 
 is the oldest city in the country. He says that " when 
 the conquistadores entered New Mexico they found in 
 Santa Fe a city already existent, and already so ancient,
 
 as to have been for hundreds of years a town of the 
 Aztecs, or Toltecs, or whatever people we like to call 
 those who had a civilization of their own centuries be- 
 fore Europeans touched their soil." The so-called pal- 
 ace of Santa Fe is the work of this misty past, and Mr. 
 White hopes to bring part of it to Chicago and the Ex- 
 position. Mr. White himself is an ideal exponent of 
 the manhood which dominates the regions that have 
 not yet reached the dignity of Statehood. He was rev- 
 elling in the luxury of full evening dress in the palatial 
 Auditorium Hotel, and might easily have been mistaken 
 for a pampered child of the stagnant East, but five min- 
 utes' conversation with him brought out the fact that, 
 though born in New York, he had been for twelve years 
 in the Apache country, fifty miles from a railroad, a 
 pioneer at first, and now a leader among the white men 
 there. He calls himself a Western man, and acknowl- 
 edges stronger ties in the robust West than those by 
 which birth binds him to the metropolis. 
 
 An astonishing feature of the Columbian Exposition 
 will be one of the palaces grouped in the heart of the 
 Fair Grounds. It is the Manufactures Building, designed 
 by Mr. George Post, of New York. It will bear the 
 same relation to this Exposition as the Eiffel Tower 
 did to that of Paris in 1889; and, indeed, its possible 
 use as a vantage-point from which to see the Fair Grounds 
 has terminated in the negative the discussion for and 
 against the construction in Chicago of a rival to the 
 great tower of Paris. This greatest of all the Exposi- 
 tion Buildings, and of the buildings of the world, will 
 present to Lake Michigan a facade of such a length as 
 to suggest the wall of a city, yet it is so admirably de- 
 signed, so light and graceful in its effect upon the 
 
 123
 
 vision, that its true extent can only be comprehended 
 when its dimensions are expressed in figures and by 
 comparisons. It is one-third of a mile long, and to com- 
 pass it round about is to walk a mile. The roof of it is 
 1688 by 788 feet, and the span of the dome, the largest 
 ever attempted, is 388 feet. The roof is 230 feet from 
 the ground, and the building has 40 acres of ground- 
 floor. Two of the vast machinery halls of the Paris 
 Exposition could be wheeled through it, and the Audi- 
 torium, the building of which Chicago is most proud, 
 could be pushed under this great roof, tower and all. 
 
 But, without any question, the most amazing exhibit 
 at the Fair will be Chicago itself. It will interest every 
 class of visitors. It will offer a tonic and exhilarant to 
 the frivolous, and a subject for profound study to the 
 thoughtful. Let those who go there like it or not, there 
 it will be found a vast, throbbing, roaring combination 
 of humanity, machinery, and masonry. It is so new 
 that a tree which figured in an Indian massacre, at a 
 border fort that marked the city's beginning, is still 
 standing a far from ancient -looking object in the 
 smoke-burdened atmosphere of myriad factories, in the 
 presence of 1,200,000 inhabitants, and in the shadow of 
 an aggregation of buildings taller than the average Eu- 
 ropean ever conceived the Tower of Babel to be. Ad- 
 mire Chicago or criticise it as they may, it will stand to 
 awe and to confuse the men of our own as well as of 
 foreign cities. Young it will be found, but not infantile, 
 for it will display the most palpable monuments of a 
 consummate civilization. It will show a magnificent 
 park system not anywhere excelled, mile upon mile and 
 line upon line of boulevards, magnificent in themselves, 
 and bordered by homes which only vast wealth widely 
 
 124
 
 distributed can maintain. It will display splendid pub- 
 lic schools, libraries, hospitals, storehouses, galleries, and 
 theatres ; hotels unexcelled elsewhere on the globe ; 
 factories whose workmen could populate towns, and 
 whose products are as familiar in Europe and Canada 
 as in Illinois. But it suffices those who love Chicago 
 best to think that in the preparation she has made for 
 the Exposition in 1893 she has recognized the fact that 
 Chicago is to be only one exhibit, and that the aim of 
 the Exposition is to reveal the progress of the United 
 States first, and of the world afterwards. 
 
 Chicago's financial part in the preparation for the Ex- 
 position should be clear to every one, as it is a matter 
 of public record ; but the people of that city assert that 
 they are misunderstood and misrepresented. All the 
 citizens appear to be agreed upon one explanation of 
 the situation, and it is a very simple story. At the out- 
 set 28,000 persons subscribed 86,000,000. This was to 
 be collected in instalments. Conditionally upon $3,000,- 
 ooo being collected, the Illinois Legislature authorized 
 the city to issue bonds for a further contribution of 
 $5,000,000 to the enterprise. The $6,000,000 that were 
 subscribed and the additional $5,000,000 from the mu- 
 nicipality constitute $11,000,000, or $1,000,000 more 
 than the city agreed to put up. 
 
 Now as to the national participation in the enterprise. 
 The Government appropriation of $1,500,000 has not 
 been touched by the local corporation. It has no more 
 to do with this money than it has with whatever sum Con- 
 necticut or Indiana may set apart for defraying the cost 
 of their individual State exhibits. The Federal Govern- 
 ment appropriation is being used to meet the expenses 
 of the National Commission and for the construction of 
 
 125
 
 the Government buildings. But there will be made 
 upon Congress a demand for a loan of $5,000,000, to be 
 secured to the nation out of the gate receipts of the 
 Exposition. It is asserted that the necessity for this 
 sum was brought about by the National Commission, 
 which so enlarged the classification lists of exhibits as 
 to greatly widen the projected scope of the Exposition, 
 and to make $10,000,000 inadequate for the purpose. 
 This National Commission is a supervisory body, repre- 
 senting all the States and the country at large, and 
 placed over the local corporation in authority. The 
 National Commission recognizes its responsibility, and 
 co-operates with the local corporation in asking for this 
 loan. The request, therefore, comes to the Government 
 from its own representatives.* 
 
 * Since this was written Congress, in the summer of 1892, ap- 
 propriated $2,500,000 as an outright gift, for the expenses of the 
 undertaking, with liberal extra provisions for specific purposes 
 named in the bill. 
 
 126
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 EXPLOITING THE FAIR 
 
 AT the beginning of the work on our World's Colum- 
 bian Exposition it was resolved to organize a depart- 
 ment like unto which there had been nothing in any 
 other similar undertaking. That was what is called the 
 Department of Publicity and Promotion. It has been 
 in operation nearly two years, and has proved to possess 
 a value not ever to be estimated yet known to be very 
 great, because it has absolutely fed the press of the 
 whole world with interesting news of the coming Expo- 
 sition. It has put this news in the hands of editors too 
 lazy to have gotten it otherwise, editors too poor to 
 have purchased it, editors neither lazy nor poor who 
 could not have gathered nor presented it so attractive- 
 ly ; but, better than all, it has been first in procuring it, 
 so that every one, even the most enterprising, has been 
 glad to get and use it. 
 
 An interesting thing about the Department of Pub- 
 licity and Promotion is that it is itself conducted as if 
 its rooms formed a great newspaper office. Major 
 Handy, the chief, is the editor and guide as to the pol- 
 icy to be pursued in the gathering and treatment of 
 that flood of news which so great an exposition creates 
 as surely as a fire creates a current of air. His assistant, 
 
 127
 
 Mr. R. E. A. Dorr, was, until August, 1892, the managing 
 editor in charge of the supervision of details. Others ' 
 subordinate to Major Handy are a city editor, heading 
 a staff of reporters ; an exchange editor, reading all the 
 newspapers for what has been published about the Fair, 
 and a corps of translators making the news legible to 
 foreigners. The rooms of the department, in the Rand 
 & McNally Building in Chicago, where all the World's 
 Fair offices are, present scenes that recall a modern city 
 newspaper office. There the editors sit receiving the 
 public and issuing orders. There is the reporters' room, 
 full of desks and crowded with busy writers ; and there 
 is even a mailing-room for the wrapping and addressing 
 of the printed sheets of news. 
 
 The department was established in December, 1890, 
 by the appointment of its chief. Major Moses P. Handy 
 is widely known. As a journalist his editorial work in 
 Philadelphia and New York gained him fame for his en- 
 terprise and successes. As President of the Clover Club 
 of Philadelphia for many years, and as a brilliant after- 
 dinner speaker and entertainer he extended his fame 
 beyond this hemisphere. There was nothing but the 
 name of the department in the files of either the Na- 
 tional Commission or the directory of the Exposition to 
 indicate its duties or what results it was expected to 
 produce. With the sanction of the Director- general, 
 Major Handy at once took the position that the de- 
 partment must reach to every corner of the earth. 
 About the first work done by it was the sending of a 
 circular to every daily and weekly newspaper in the 
 United States and Canada telling of the creation of the 
 department, that it proposed to issue a weekly budget 
 of news about the making of the Fair, and that it would 
 
 128
 
 MACMONNIES FOUNTAIN
 
 send this budget without cost to such papers as might 
 desire it. The only return asked was that a copy of 
 every paper containing anything about the Exposition 
 should be mailed to the department. About 10,000 pub- 
 lications responded, requesting that the weekly news- 
 letter be sent to them. The promptness and great 
 number of these requests necessitated the formation of 
 such an organization as is hinted at above. 
 
 Having established relations with the newspapers of 
 the United States and Canada, a similar plan was fol- 
 lowed with those of foreign countries. A newspaper 
 writer of ability, who had French and English at his 
 command, was employed to write a weekly letter in 
 those languages; another for the German letter; anoth- 
 er for Portuguese ; and occasional letters were also pre- 
 pared in Italian, Russian, Turkish, and Dutch. Includ- 
 ing the letters in these foreign languages, the list of 
 papers which weekly received the Exposition budget 
 soon outnumbered 17,000. The work of exploiting the 
 Exposition may be said to have been divided under 
 three headings : first, to let the world know where and 
 what Chicago is, its greatness as a city, and its accessi- 
 bility ; second, to make thoroughly understood the plan 
 and scope of the Exposition, and the great opportuni- 
 ties it would offer any one in almost any part of the 
 world to show his wares to the peoples of the other 
 parts. In other words, the second stage was to secure 
 exhibits. These two lines of labor may now be con- 
 sidered closed. The work has been finished, and in 
 such a manner that there is now no place so remote that 
 its people do not know all that it was aimed to make 
 clear and attractive to them. The third stage of the 
 advertising will be for gate receipts, and will include al- 
 
 129
 
 most every kind of advertising known to the theatrical 
 or show business. 
 
 In addition to the newspaper work, it was deemed of 
 importance to interest as many persons of influence in 
 their communities as possible, and the interest and co- 
 operation of foreigners were considered most important. 
 To secure the names and addresses of foreign merchants 
 and manufacturers whose businesses were large enough 
 to warrant their becoming exhibitors, if the Exposition 
 could interest them to that extent, an autograph letter 
 was sent to every diplomatic and consular representative 
 of the United States, asking for a list of the names of 
 such persons in his district. The keen interest shown 
 by America's representatives abroad resulted in a foreign 
 mail list such as had probably never been equalled in 
 this or any other country. The names of more than 
 12,000 leading merchants and manufacturers were se- 
 cured in this way. Every week for several months a 
 circular or letter, printed in the language of the person 
 for whom it was intended, was sent to these persons. 
 The interest that was at once awakened was shown in 
 the receipt of as many as forty or fifty foreign letters a 
 day. It was found necessary to comply with the re- 
 quest of thousands of individuals who asked to be sup- 
 plied with the World's Fair literature. Several State 
 Legislatures instructed their clerks to request that this 
 matter be sent to the home addresses of members. 
 High officials of the Farmers' Alliance sent long lists of 
 officers in all parts of the country whom they wished 
 kept informed of what was done here. More than 400 
 libraries asked for the literature for display in their read- 
 ing-rooms and for final preservation. To enumerate all 
 the classes into which this mail - list, now embracing 
 
 130
 
 about 70,000 names, is divided would be to mention al- 
 most every line of industry in the world. 
 
 While organizing the other systems, Major Handy 
 also covered the essential point of determining what be- 
 came of the matter sent tp the newspapers. To do this, 
 what would be called in a newspaper office " an ex- 
 change editor's room " was established, and arrange- 
 ments were made for securing excerpts from clipping 
 * agencies in London, Paris, Berlin, New York, and Chi- 
 cago. The several thousands of publications received 
 in the department were also carefully read for matter 
 relating to the Exposition. Scrap-books were made for 
 every State and Territory in the Union, and for every 
 country on the face of the globe. After the clippings 
 are read and assorted in the exchange editor's division, 
 they are pasted in the various books. These clippings 
 are so numerous that before the organization of the 
 scrap-book division there was an accumulation of more 
 than 60,000 of them ; and they are still received in such 
 large quantities that the division is apt to be kept 30,000 
 clippings behind its work. When these clippings are 
 examined, careful tally is kept of the number of words 
 each month's batch contains, and of the proportion there- 
 of that was sent out by the department. The monthly 
 report of the department for May shows that these clip- 
 pings contain 5,314,000 words, of which 2,202,150 words 
 were matter furnished by the department. The Depart- 
 ment of Publicity and Promotion also does the transla- 
 tion for the entire Exposition. 
 
 In time it became clear that the demand for pictures 
 
 must be met. Many persons would not believe the 
 
 news reports until they saw copies of photographs of the 
 
 actual work under way. The architects' plans for build- 
 
 o 131
 
 ings were photographed, and a large quantity of prints 
 of them was sent all over the world. When it was de- 
 cided to issue a colored picture, showing a bird's-eye 
 view of all the grounds and buildings, a competition be- 
 tween the leading lithographers of the country was 
 called, the rivalry being more with regard to the beauty 
 and accuracy of the design than to the cost of the prod- 
 uct. The water -color painted by Mr. Charles Graham 
 was accepted and adopted as the official picture of the 
 Exposition. This picture has literally been sent to ev- 
 ery part of the world. There is scarcely a town in the 
 United States, in Canada, or South America, of 1500 
 population or more, but has this picture conspicuously 
 displayed. In a published interview a traveller just re- 
 turned from the far East told of having seen one of 
 these pictures in a native village on the edge of the 
 Saharan Desert. Another traveller from South America 
 and several from the Orient have made similar reports, 
 showing the wonderful effectiveness of the methods 
 adopted for this distribution. About 100,000 copies of 
 this picture have been sent out, together with the news- 
 paper cuts, which are being printed wherever newspa- 
 pers are published, and which have made the artistic 
 triumphs of the Exposition architects familiar to nearly 
 every one. Every week at least 40,000 separate enve- 
 lopes are sent out from the mailing-room, and each en- 
 velope requires at least a cent stamp. The work of fold- 
 ing, enclosing, and stamping these packages is all done 
 in the mailing division, where also the addresses are put 
 on the envelopes by mailing machines similar to those 
 in use in the largest newspaper offices. Expert help has 
 to be employed here, as in every other branch of the 
 department. There was no time to educate beginners 
 
 132
 
 THE STATUE OF THE REPUBLIC
 
 in an enterprise whose life is so short as this one's must 
 be. The expense of all this has been very great, even 
 though it has been managed very economically, but the 
 money must assuredly prove a paying investment.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 BUILDING OUR GREAT FAIR 
 
 IT is not true that the grounds of our Columbian 
 Exposition in Jackson Park, Chicago, have for months 
 been more interesting than they will be when the Fair 
 is thrown open to the world. And yet they have pre- 
 sented a fascinating study during all the stages of the 
 preparation for the great display ; a scene so peculiar 
 that no public exhibition except the completed Fair 
 can exceed it in interest. To have been there and to 
 have watched the construction of the Exhibition pal- 
 aces is to have enjoyed a great surprise and an unique 
 pleasure. The 3000 spectators on week-days, and the 
 10,000 who have paid their quarter-dollars at the gates 
 on Sundays, will alone be able to boast, when they see 
 the Columbian show itself, that they have enjoyed the 
 full spectacle. " They will have seen the earliest and 
 most peculiar exhibit the mode and progress of con- 
 struction. It will not dwarf the aggregation of exhib- 
 its, but it pales every single one or dozen of them. 
 
 It is the custom of the persons concerned in the work 
 to refer back to the time when not a spade had been 
 thrust in the surface of the Fair Grounds, as if that were 
 an interesting period; and truly it is wonderful, now, to 
 see the finished avenues and lawns around the great 
 
 134
 
 palaces and the trim-sided lagoons and the orderly beach 
 of Belgian blocks against which the lake's wavelets lick, 
 and to know that here, a year ago, was part jungle, part 
 marsh, and part sandy waste. Of what has been done 
 with the land and water nothing is to me more interest- 
 ing than the story of the making of the Wooded Island. 
 This island, as all the public must know, is in the main 
 lagoon between the Horticultural Building and the 
 enormous structure for the exploitation of manufactures 
 and liberal arts. It contains sixteen acres, is sparsely 
 wooded, and is designed to be kept rid of all buildings 
 except a superb Japanese temple, and is to be sacred to 
 public comfort. It will be a cool and shady place for vis- 
 itors to rest upon. One end of it the Japanese will deco- 
 rate \vith their peculiar but beautiful flowers and dwarfed 
 trees, and this they have promised to give to Chicago 
 as a lasting memento of their interest in our Exposition. 
 The place was scarcely an island; it was rather a lump 
 of solid sand in a marsh. To-day it is a picturesque 
 islet that any one would vow had been made by Nature 
 and by her slow processes. The banks slope into the 
 clear water of the lagoon in a very naturally ragged 
 way, with sedge-grass and water-weeds and lilies wading 
 out beyond the edges of the water. Little arms of vege- 
 tation and of land reach out here and there between 
 tiny coves and bays, and the general effect is so natural 
 and real that it amazes one to hear that it is not so. 
 Yet the fact is that the island as we see it to-day is a 
 work of art of the art of Frederick Law Olmstead and 
 his partner, the landscape architects. The land was 
 shaped as it is now, and the lilies and grasses and water- 
 plants were put there and made to grow according to a 
 picture or a plan, precisely as the gigantic palaces of
 
 the Exposition were first designed upon paper and then 
 executed by mechanics. 
 
 Such perfected bits of the Fair Grounds do not speak 
 for themselves, however. One might walk around and 
 over them and never suspect that there was a story to 
 tell concerning them. It is the buildings that are loud- 
 ly eloquent of their own histories, and that cause re- 
 peated exclamations of wonder and delight from all 
 who see them. While they were at their first stage 
 they were less substantial than most skeletons. They 
 looked like mere cobwebs of timber and iron. Next 
 their sides were latticed with thin wood-work, so that 
 you saw their full dimensions and artistic outlines and 
 proportions, and yet could look right through them as 
 if they were architectural ghosts. To-day some are 
 partially at that stage and partially clothed with the staff 
 that is to make them all look like palaces of marble or 
 of ivory. They rise on every hand to great heights with 
 graceful arches and picturesque towers and pinnacles, 
 and already reveal bits of storied entablature, groups of 
 statuary, reaches of decorated frieze, and, in short, strong 
 hints of all that is to compose them. 
 
 One cannot be among them, and with the architects 
 and artists who are at work upon them, without feeling 
 that one is upon novel ground ; that they are realized 
 castles in Spain ; that the scene is an artists' festival, and 
 that the entire work is like a materialized dream. 
 
 Never in the world's modern history did so many 
 cultivated men in so many allied professions have such 
 scope to give their genius play, and to watch the exe- 
 cution of their designs, with full liberty to alter and im- 
 prove their work while it progresses. The whole coun- 
 try must feel the beneficent results of this condition. 
 
 136
 
 The architects, painters, decorators, sculptors, garden- 
 ers, draughtsmen, and engineers who are housed on 
 the grounds, form a great national school of beaux arts. 
 They are developing themselves and one another, and 
 the crowds of professional men that are constantly visit- 
 ing the grounds and studying the work feel themselves 
 lifted to new endeavor, and inspired by the opportuni- 
 ties and triumphs of the rest. Art has never had such 
 a field in this country, nor such an opportunity, nor 
 such liberty. This could only be possible under a 
 man like Mr. D. H. Burnham, the Chief of Construction. 
 A broad and liberal man, cultivated, sympathetic, sensi- 
 tive, and ambitious, kindly with his fellows, and content 
 to let credit drift whither it belongs, he is perhaps the 
 most remarkable product of the enterprise. In Paris 
 he would have been heroized. In Chicago he is leaned 
 upon. 
 
 There are while I am writing, in early July, 1892, 
 about 10,000 men at work in building the Exposition 
 grounds and buildings. Thousands are laborers who 
 are planting trees, making roads, driving piles, and cart- 
 ing and lifting iron and lumber. But there is one great 
 building full of skilled men led by architects and artists. 
 And in other buildings even in the most out-of-the- 
 way places one comes upon painters at work upon 
 frescos, artists illuminating plans with gay colors, sculp- 
 tors creating beautiful statuary and bass-reliefs, and land- 
 scape architects supervising the plans for out-door dis- 
 plays of foliage and flowers. 
 
 The Forestry Building is now the studio of the sculp- 
 tors' assistants, who are making gigantic enlargements 
 of sculptured models which are to be used on the great 
 buildings. These skilled workmen are mainly Italians, 
 
 137
 
 though many are French, and a few, very clever ones, 
 are Americans. Here we see a great deal of the work 
 of Mr. Philip Martiny, of New York, who is doing this 
 part of the ornamentation of the Agricultural Building 
 and most of that which is to embellish the Galleries of 
 Fine Arts. The full-relief figures and great medallion 
 busts for that building will be made by Olin Warner, 
 of New York. m Carl Bitter is also there at work on the 
 sculptured decoration of the Administration Building, 
 which will display groups at each corner of each pavilion, 
 on two stories, and on each side of the doorways. The 
 figures and bass-reliefs are usually made one -fifth the 
 size they are intended to be, and the after-work of en- 
 larging these is very interesting. The sculptors do this 
 by what is technically called " pointing up." In a 
 word, they take the original figure and determine a 
 number of points upon it as a basis for development. 
 Having put "dividers" upon two points, they keep en- 
 larging third points to the desired distance from the 
 basic points until the figure is the proper size, always 
 beginning from an initial point. Or they make a rough 
 model which assumes the main lines of what they are 
 to produce. This model is usually made of wood built 
 around iron rods and arms, which follow the straight 
 lines of the core of the figure, and serve to keep it strong 
 as with a backbone. They have easily determined the 
 height and width of the statue or figure. The smaller 
 measurements are taken with nails driven in so that 
 their heads are at the right distances from the body. 
 The composition of plaster or staff is then worked upon 
 the figure until it is brought up to these points, and 
 gives the depressions and elevations of the draperies 
 and curves of the subject. It is not necessary to point 
 
 138
 
 out how nice this work must be, or how great is the 
 skill that is required to reproduce, on a scale of five 
 times the original size, all the fine lines and shadings 
 and artistic touches which produce expression in a sculpt- 
 ured face. 
 
 Some of the smaller figures, as of animals and birds, 
 are first made with small bits of lath and whittled pieces 
 of wood. Though they are rude before the composi- 
 tion is added and worked into shape, fhey often look 
 very droll, and are frequently strikingly realistic models, 
 like the object to be represented, and yet with angular, 
 unusual lines such as cause us to know that the sheep 
 is to be a sheep, for instance, and yet that it is a sheep 
 outlined as we never saw one before. Some of the giant 
 figures are done in actual staff, where only single figures 
 are wanted and no copies are to be made. The work- 
 men perform their tasks in such cases under the close 
 supervision of the sculptors. Where there are to be 
 duplicates only one is made, and that is of plaster. From 
 that a mould will be taken. Gelatine moulds are in use 
 at the Fair Grounds, made largely of glue, and retaining 
 their softness and elasticity, so that when a cast is torn 
 from them their parts yield and pull about and yet re- 
 turn to their original form. This material gives the 
 sculptor a great deal of freedom in his work, and this 
 is preserved in the castings. It is the only process 
 which permits what is called "undercutting," so that 
 the turn or underside of a device, like the lip of a flower 
 or the undercurl of a leaf, may be made with the cer- 
 tainty that it will reproduce finely. 
 
 A visit to the Forestry Building shows the workmen 
 at every branch of their operations, and often looking 
 like pygmies as they move among the battalions of gi- 
 
 139
 
 gantic white figures that they have created. Still more 
 like dwarfs do those look who are at work upon the 
 colossal bass-reliefs which will ornament the arches over 
 some of the palace entrances. Half a dozen men may 
 be perched upon one figure of a woman ; one on her 
 shoulder, another on her knees, others working upon 
 her extended arms. Forty or fifty of these sculptors 
 have been busy all summer. 
 
 The headquarters of the Landscape Department is in 
 a storage building of its own. Not only has it this place 
 for the storing of plants, but it boasts acres of beautiful 
 flowers in propagating houses and elsewhere. Hun- 
 dreds of thousands of flowering plants are there in bloom, 
 and there are any quantity of ferns and palms and 
 shrubs, to be used for decorating vases on balustrades 
 and lawns, or planted in pots along the walks on the 
 Wooded Island, and wherever they will be most effec- 
 tive. Hundreds of landscape-gardeners are at work turf- 
 ing the grass-plots, planting trees and shrubs on the 
 Wooded Island and the embankments, and around the 
 lagoon, the canals, and the Great Basin. In the mean 
 time nature is assisting in the growing of plants and all 
 sorts of marshy grasses with which the men will line the 
 edges of the lagoons to give them a natural appearance. 
 A great many wild flowers are being cultivated for fut- 
 ure use, and one can even now foresee their value, because 
 spots which were sand - banks not long ago are now 
 abloom with the tropical luxury of the most magnificent 
 landscapes. It may not have occurred to all who read 
 this that architecture, floriculture, and landscape-garden- 
 ing are cousins to one another, but here the plans of the 
 grounds are elaborated in connection with the plans of 
 the buildings, and the decoration of the surface of the 
 
 140
 
 ground is called the " setting " of the palaces the jew- 
 elry, the finery, the lace -work of the buildings, as it 
 were. Frederick Law Olmstead & Co. have this task 
 to carry out, and their proper title is " landscape ar- 
 chitects," a phrase which sounds forced, but is strictly 
 practical and correct. Mr. Olmstead is in Europe, but 
 it is his genius that has inspired the work, and his plans 
 are being carried out with great skill by Mr. Henry Sar- 
 gent Codman. He has travelled all over the world, 
 studied at the Academic des Beaux Arts, and has been 
 trained to the study of architectural forms and the re- 
 lation between architecture and landscape work. Al- 
 ready his plans have produced the great plots of vivid 
 lawn, which, reaching along whole sides of buildings, 
 throw their white walls into bold relief as if they were 
 cameos in frames of enamel. 
 
 The Department of Water and Sewerage is just now a 
 busy one, and constitutes one of those features of the 
 work which are evident now, but will be lost sight of 
 when they are completed. Mr. W. S. McHarg, of Chi- 
 cago, presides over the department. Under the system 
 of sewerage he has devised, it will all be pumped by 
 ejectors, through pipes to the southerly end of the 
 grounds, into a building containing the great reservoirs 
 and other paraphernalia of sewerage-cleaning works, in 
 which the waste will be all treated chemically so as to 
 rid it of all its impurities, leaving one part in the form of 
 dry cakes and the remainder in the form of water, which 
 will go back into Lake Michigan so pure that it might 
 even be used for drinking purposes. There are more 
 than 600 acres in the grounds, which are something like 
 a mile long and three-quarters of a mile wide at the 
 broadest part. The appointment of these with sewer- 
 p 141
 
 age and water-supply pipes requires miles and miles of 
 tubing. One system of pipes takes all the roof water 
 and drains it into the lagoons and lake. Another series 
 conducts the water from the sidewalks into the main 
 sewerage pipes, so that it may not foul the lagoons. It 
 must be remembered that provision is being made as 
 for a city of 700,000 souls. As 50,000 exhibitors will 
 show their goods at the Fair, and each will require at 
 least two attendants, these alone constitute a daily pop- 
 ulation of 100,000 souls. 
 
 The work of the Electrical Department is not alto- 
 gether so mole-like and hidden, but it is measurably so. 
 Mr. Frederick Sargent, a very competent electrician, is 
 putting underground all the wiring of the grounds in im- 
 mense conduits, which carry the power to all points 
 from where it is generated in Machinery Hall. These 
 conduits are eight feet square, or plenty big enough for 
 two or three men to walk in, side by side. Mr. Sargent 
 has charge of all the wiring of all the buildings, for all 
 are to be electrically lighted. The electrical fountains 
 and the fete-night illuminations are to be provided for 
 by him. He also has charge of the installation of all 
 the boiler plants that will supply power for the entire 
 Exposition. 
 
 Experts in railroading have charge of the different 
 systems of railroad tracks within the grounds, not only 
 of the permanent system which brings visitors to the 
 park, but of the installation tracks which run about 
 the exteriors of all the buildings, and into those in which 
 very heavy exhibits are to be carried and displayed. 
 These tracks within the buildings will be covered by the 
 floors until after the close of the Exposition, and then 
 uncovered again. In this department comes the system 
 
 142
 
 called the Intra-mural Railroad. It is an elevated rail- 
 road, averaging twelve or fourteen feet high, and built 
 on posts, so as to give room for the passage of people 
 and vehicles underneath it. It will be several miles 
 long, and will land passengers at every important point 
 and building on the grounds. It is a simple elevated 
 road. It will be connected with the great terminal sta- 
 tion, or main depot, in the Fair Grounds, with the south 
 side " alley L road " of the city, and with all the main 
 entrances to the grounds. 
 
 Mr. Frank D. Millet, the famous author, artist, and 
 war correspondent, has an important department, under 
 the title of " Director of Color." He is exercising a 
 general supervision over all the color and decorative ef- 
 fects to be produced on and in the buildings and about 
 the grounds. The buildings are all turned over to him 
 bare and naked, except in so far as they possess statues, 
 carvings, or medallions as part of their designs. He 
 must tone or illuminate them inside and out or, rather, 
 see that this is done. He has charge of the designing 
 and disposition of all the banners, flags, burgees, awnings, 
 and of any and everything that is to give tone and col- 
 or and spectacular effect to each view the visitors may 
 get of the Fair. He is to turn the Columbian Exposi- 
 tion into a brilliant picture a vast stage effect. He is 
 to illuminate and glorify it. It is an immense task, but 
 it is in capable hands. Mr. Millet has travelled exten- 
 sively, and has seen many universal expositions, fairs, 
 great fetes, and pageants. He will therefore be able to 
 see to it that the artistic element shall not be dropped, 
 subordinated, or forgotten in the tremendous rush of 
 practical work that is going on. 
 
 Neither he nor any dozen men can do the work of 
 
 143
 
 this department. Almost any one of the great palaces, 
 one of which has a mile of walls, might occupy a man's 
 time for years. As he can only supervise the whole, it is 
 Mr. Millet's task to gather around him the artists of the 
 country who are competent, and divide among them the 
 actual work of decorating the buildings. To paint the 
 pendentive domes of the biggest building (Manufactures 
 and Liberal Arts) he has invited J. C. Beckwith, Ken- 
 yon Cox, C. S. Reinhart, Robert Reid, E. E. Simmons, 
 E. H. Blashfield, Walter Shirlaw, and J. Alden Weir. 
 For other work he has called upon Elihu Vedder and 
 C. C. Coleman. Mr. Vedder is to do some immense 
 paintings of decorative figures for the dome of the Art 
 Building, and Mr. Coleman, it is hoped, will paint some 
 flower panels for the Horticultural Building. Mr. Pot- 
 ter and Mr. P. C. French, the sculptors, are doing a 
 huge quadriga for the Columbus Porticus or water gate- 
 way to the grounds, as well as bulls and stallions, led by 
 men, for the pedestals in front of the Agriculture and 
 Manufactures and Liberal Arts buildings. Edward 
 Kemeys, of New York, is on the grounds to do figures 
 of wild animals native to this country, for the pedestals 
 on the bridges. Theodore Baur, of New York, is at 
 work upon the great figures on the Peristyle that are 
 to represent the forty-eight States and Territories. Mr. 
 G. W. Maynard is doing the decorations of the colon- 
 nades, porticos, and dome of the building for Agricult- 
 ure. Mr. W. L. Dodge is painting the ceiling of the 
 dome of the Administration Building. Already the ar- 
 tistic side of the great show has developed a most inter- 
 esting collection of studios and of painters and sculp- 
 tors at work, but there will be a host of such before 
 early winter. And others are at work elsewhere. Wal- 
 
 144
 
 THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT BUILDING
 
 ter McEvven and Garri Melchers are engaged in their 
 studios in Paris, creating immense wall panels filled with 
 figures for the decoration of the corner pavilions of the 
 Palace of Manufactures and Liberal Arts. 
 
 A busy hive is the Construction Headquarters a 
 building 400 feet long and 200 feet wide, which has 
 been designed solely as a workshop for the professional 
 men and headquarters for all. It contains all the offices 
 of the chief of construction and of all the departments 
 under him, as well as an engine-house and dormitories 
 for the guards and firemen. The entire second floor is 
 taken up by men at work on building plans for the 
 buildings of all sizes, the sewerage, and the engineering 
 works. An immense force of map-makers is keeping 
 up the necessary charts and maps maps of every pipe, 
 every wire, every roadway, every hydrant and lamp and 
 railroad track. The labor of forty men is required on 
 this branch of the work. They make fifty copies, by 
 the heliograph process, of every completed drawing, and 
 these are delivered to the various contractors for the 
 differing kinds of work. 
 
 The stages through which the plans of every one of 
 the buildings pass are interesting. The architects' orig- 
 inal design may be a mere sketch in which, though 
 every part is indicated, not nearly all the parts are com- 
 pleted. Yet all that is left for the draughtsman is to 
 elaborate it on the lines laid down. Thus is produced 
 the first picture of a building as it will look. Then the 
 engineers and others take the drawing and plans and 
 calculate the strains and weights on the floors and foun- 
 dations, as well as the strength of the materials that are 
 to be used. Thus the different departments produce a 
 complete set of drawings often great in number from
 
 which the actual building is projected. On the Fair 
 Grounds a force of at least 150 men is thus employed, 
 and the rooms are rilled with the plans that they have 
 accumulated. These are so fine, and executed with such 
 regard for detail, that every stick, rod, and beam I had 
 almost said every nail is shown in certain ones among 
 each set. One truss of the greatest truss roof the world 
 ever saw that of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts 
 Building required drawings comprising eighty great 
 sheets, drawings so exact that in them every plate, nut, 
 and bolt was drawn in its exact shape and at the exact 
 distances apart, so that the contractors knew precisely 
 where to bore every hole in the iron-work. 
 
 It has been interesting, almost fascinating, to be upon 
 the grounds, and to observe how closely the buildings, 
 in their progress towards completion, resemble the vari- 
 ous plans that have been drawn for them. There is a 
 time, before the staff is put upon the framework to make 
 the edifices look substantial, when the great piles look, 
 as I have said, like houses of lattice- work. But the most 
 surprising thing is to know that not only all the joists 
 and beams, but the infinitude of lattice cross-pieces have 
 all been drawn on the builders' plans, have all been cut 
 out at the electric saw-mills on the grounds to match the 
 pieces in the pictures, and then have been brought to 
 the site by the car-load and dumped there, leaving noth- 
 ing for the carpenters to do but to nail them in place. 
 Few skilled workmen are employed, in proportion to 
 the number of mere laborers ; indeed, nine-tenths of the 
 workmen are mere dollar-and-a-half-a-day folk, whose 
 duty is simply to nail bits of wood in the places shown 
 in the plans, under the supervision of skilled foremen. 
 That is one reason why the constructors have had little 
 
 146
 
 trouble with the labor organizations. If nearly all the 
 men left the grounds to-morrow, their places could be 
 filled by the people seeking work who are forever clam- 
 oring at the gates. 
 
 The staff which covers up the exteriors of the palaces, 
 transforming them into the counterfeits of solid mason- 
 ry, which covers up the skeleton posts and seems to 
 convert them into granite and marble, is a material 
 whose liberal use at the Fair has caused it to attract 
 wide attention and to engender much discussion. It is 
 made principally of plaster of Paris and cement and wa- 
 ter, and while in the liquid state is put into the moulds 
 that are to give it its required shape, with the addition 
 of some fibre or other manila or jute or cocoanut, or 
 sometimes a web or bagging. This is embedded in it so 
 that when the mass " sets " or solidifies it all becomes 
 homogeneous, and if a piece were cracked or broken the 
 fractured parts, instead of falling out, would be held in 
 place. There is nothing new about it. It has been long 
 in use all over the world a great deal in the German 
 cities, and a great deal in South America. Buenos Ayres 
 and many cities in the South are largely built of or fin- 
 ished with it. The dilapidated houses which we see in 
 our own cities,, in which pieces of the stucco have fallen 
 away and reveal brick behind the fractures, are called 
 stuccoed, but the stucco is staff. If it is attended to 
 from time to time it can be made to last a long while. 
 On the Fair Grounds it is first painted with oil to make 
 it withstand the elements, and to cause it to require less 
 paint. Then it is painted so that it will resemble any 
 building material and present any color that is desired.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 A REALIZED DREAM THE GRAND COURT 
 
 THE Grand Court, or Cour d'Honneur, of our Expo- 
 sition is at one side of the main group of buildings, and 
 yet has many of them abutting upon it. Most visitors 
 will see it first, for the water entrance is at its foot, 
 where the great landing-pier projects into the lake, and 
 the railroad terminal station is at its head. These im- 
 mense and magnificent places of entrance and exit are 
 parts of the Grand Court, and are designed to conform 
 to its other features in architectural proportions and 
 finish. There are many entrances to the Exposition 
 Grounds between Fifty-fifth and Sixty -seventh streets, 
 but the tracks over which the great railroads that enter 
 Chicago will reach the Fair will turn into the grounds 
 at this Grand Court of Honor. These will be sufficient 
 in number for the arrival of trains every two minutes, if 
 not oftener. I will therefore begin a description of this 
 crown-piece of the great display by explaining what the 
 railroad terminal station is to be. 
 
 But, first, the reader should glance at the diagram of 
 the Grand Court. It has a great basin of clear, emerald- 
 tinted water for its central feature, a beautiful pool edged 
 with what appears to be granite, bordered with grassy 
 terraces and flowers and paths, and yet reflecting upon 
 
 148
 
 D. H. BURNHAM, CHIEF OF CONSTRUCTION
 
 its surface the huge and splendid palaces which face it. 
 On one side is the Machinery Building and that for 
 Agriculture ; on the other side are the Mining and Elec- 
 trical buildings and the colossal palace for Manufactures 
 and Liberal Arts, the most gigantic building the world 
 ever saw. 
 
 The terminal station at the head of the Grand Court 
 is within the grounds, and is controlled by the directors 
 of the Exposition. There never has been a world's fair 
 into which the people have been brought directly. They 
 have usually been landed near the enclosure and allowed 
 to drift in. Messrs. Frederick Law Olmstead and Henry 
 S.Codman, the landscape architects, introduced this idea 
 after consultation with the Chief of Construction and the 
 various consulting architects. It was part of the land- 
 scape architects' work of plotting the entire grounds. 
 Their project was not only to land the visitors within 
 the enclosure, but to do so at such a point that their 
 first view should be the chief and most magnificent one 
 of all ; that of the Grand Court, or architectural piece de 
 resistance of the Exposition. Twenty -four or perhaps 
 thirty-two tracks will end at this terminal depot under 
 a train-shed or perron 100 feet wide and 672 feet long, 
 placed exactly behind the depot building. 
 
 Those who go directly forward will pass through a 
 great vestibule or hall in the centre of the building. It 
 is worth our while to pause a moment here as we shall 
 when the train-load of which we shall be a part is emp- 
 tied, practically, into this great gathering-place. It is a 
 room 175 feet long and 60 feet wide, and its roof is 80 
 feet overhead. Great columns and arches appear to di- 
 vide it in three parts, but, except the columns, the only 
 interruption of the clear space is a pretty kiosk, which 
 
 149
 
 serves as an information bureau. Peculiar ornaments of 
 this vestibule are twenty-four great clock-faces telling the 
 time of day in as many of the world's capitals. These 
 will be illuminated at night. The light in the great room 
 comes in at the attic from windows above the walls and 
 higher than the neighboring buildings. On either end of 
 this vestibule are rooms for public comfort refreshment 
 and lunch counters and a ladies' parlor at one end ; at 
 the other, boot-black stands, a barber-shop, gentlemen's 
 toilet-room, check-rooms, and a room solely for resting. 
 There will be ample provision for persons with baskets 
 who expect to lunch upon what they bring. A kitchen 
 is near by, and they may have coffee, tea, lemonade, or 
 what they wish. 
 
 At either end of this central hall are grand stairways 
 leading to the second floor and to a gallery twenty-five 
 feet wide looking down into the open hall over a beauti- 
 ful railing. This gallery connects with a large open log- 
 gia on the front of the building and facing the jewel-like 
 Administration Building, the gem among the palaces. 
 As the Administration Building is but 262 feet long and 
 the loggia is 700 feet long, the spectator will see beyond 
 either side of the beautiful building, beyond palace after 
 palace, the full length of the Court of Honor to the Co- 
 lumbus Porticus and the blue waves of Lake Michigan, 
 which form a background to that royal arch. Weary 
 men and women, who have travelled about the grounds 
 all day, perhaps, will find settees on this loggia, and may 
 there fix indelibly upon their vision this last grand view 
 of the Fair. 
 
 To vouchsafe and to multiply the means for public 
 comfort has been the unending thought of the builders 
 of the Fair. In this they have had a selfish purpose, 
 
 150
 
 though the result will be delightful to all visitors. To 
 give conveniences for resting to the public, they argue, 
 and to make a visit cost little and yield a great deal will 
 be to keep the majority a day longer than was planned. 
 Thus the visitors will not only come again and spend 
 another half-dollar at the gates, but when they depart it 
 will be to go home and send their friends. That will 
 mean $7,500,000 gain if the 15,000,000 of visitors who 
 are expected stay another day. 
 
 On the second floor of the terminal station is a res- 
 taurant in which ladies may dine alone. There is also a 
 gentlemen's smoking-room and an office where railroad- 
 tickets and parlor-car berths may be engaged. On the' 
 third floor are offices of the railroad officials, Custom- 
 house inspectors, and other persons connected with the 
 work of transportation. Possibly the roof will be con- 
 verted into a great garden. It is calculated that 50,000 
 persons can gather in the building at one time. But we 
 must fancy the people pouring in and through and out 
 of it. 
 
 About 400 feet in front of it is the Administration 
 Building, the most ornate of the main buildings, and of 
 the Grand Court. It is the work of that masterly artist, 
 Mr. Richard M. Hunt, of New York. It dominates as 
 well as illuminates the court as a jewel upon a brooch 
 masters the entire ornament. Its great golden dome is 
 thrust far on high, and it will seem like a sultan's fancy 
 to those who see it from the opposite end of the court, 
 standing alone at the end of the grand avenue of pal- 
 aces. All around it, at its open sides, will be great ob- 
 jects typical of the uses of the buildings whose sides 
 adorn the court locomotives set high in air on pedes- 
 tals of apparently solid masonry; a huge dynamo near 
 
 Q 151
 
 the Electrical Building, a powerful ore-crusher or some 
 compact engine that will silhouette well against the sky 
 to typify the purpose of the Mining Building. Here 
 will also be several huge masts from the primeval forests 
 of Washington, 125 feet high, gaudy in color, and fling- 
 ing banners against the sky. The crowd will pass 
 through the Administration Building, whose main arches 
 lead into an octagonal rotunda under a dome compar- 
 able only with that of the Pantheon a dome brilliant 
 with color and decoration and lighted by a great eye or 
 opening at the top. There will be nothing for the 
 crowds to do here except to pass through this elaborate- 
 ly decorated rotunda over its mosaic pavement, but 
 those who have business there will find the Administra- 
 tion offices in the wings or pavilions at each corner of 
 the edifice. These appear small in the pictures, but are 
 in reality broad four-story office buildings. A noble 
 interior gallery, on a level with the roofs of these pavil- 
 ions, lords it over the scene, giving a view of the multi- 
 tude passing through the rotunda and another upward 
 at the bands of color, the pictured panels, and the sculpt- 
 ured figures of the dome. 
 
 Once beyond this building, the visitor confronts the 
 foot of the Great Basin, where stands the magnificent 
 McMonnies Fountain, one of the most ambitious of the 
 smaller ornaments of the grounds. On either side of it 
 are beautiful electrical fountains, which at night toss up 
 masses of illuminated water colored in various hues 
 masses fifty feet in diameter, which rise twenty-five or 
 thirty feet high, and are designed to give the electricians 
 a chance to show the utmost that they can do in per- 
 forming the princely nineteenth century trick of glorify- 
 ing water with color, and transforming it into the sem- 
 
 152
 
 blance of precious gems. Their work is all to be done 
 in chambers below ground and with reflectors. A man 
 hidden somewhere in a conning tower will play the keys 
 that manipulate the colors, and an artist will watch and 
 compose the effects on fete nights. 
 
 A few words about the electrical illuminations, such 
 as will be seen on every fete night, will but do the sub- 
 ject the scantest justice. Fancy yourself a visitor looking 
 on at the tumultuous waters of the fountains somer- 
 saulting like explosions of amethysts or pearls or emer- 
 alds, turquoises or sapphires. The Great Basin is before 
 you, timidly reflecting the stars and showing the slanting 
 beams of the electric lights in the buildings and on the 
 grounds. Suddenly, close to the water-line, a row of 
 electric lights bursts forth all along the edge of the 
 basin just above the water. It will seem a double line 
 of jets of fire, because each light will be reflected in the 
 crystal pool. Then, a few feet higher, on the first ter- 
 race or on posts above it, will spring forth another line 
 of brilliant lamps again outlining the basin. Then lights 
 will begin to spring into bright view against the sky. 
 A corner of a great palace will be outlined in jets of 
 light, or a splendid arch or its supporting columns. If 
 you happen to be looking towards the Administration 
 Building you will see its outlines transformed into white 
 beads of electric flame. First the rounding side of a 
 dome, then the whole crown, then the pinnacles, the 
 pavilion roofs, the angles, until at last the beautiful 
 structure will be all outlined in fire. But wherever the 
 eye turns the same luminous pencilling will greet it. At 
 last the main lines of all the huge buildings will be 
 tipped with the sparkle of a myriad diamonds. The 
 rows and lines and arches of lights will creep into being 
 
 153
 
 like sparks running along a dead cedar-bush until, final- 
 ly, the entire splendid Court of Honor will look as its 
 picture would if such a picture were dotted with pin- 
 holes and held before a brilliant lamp. 
 
 The search-light, used with such wonderful effect on 
 men-of-war and on the steamers on our Southern rivers, 
 will here get its glorification, and will add other charms 
 and another marvel to the Grand Court. The most 
 powerful search-lights that can be obtained will be used. 
 They will create sudden daylight after dark. One upon 
 the Administration Building, for instance, will in an in- 
 stant lift the McMonnies Fountain or the great statue of 
 the Republic out of the nightlights into the full splen- 
 dor of broad noon, keeping it as if ablaze before the ob- 
 servers, like a bit of ivory on black velvet. Other lights 
 will glorify other objects. Bits of daylight will pluck 
 the gems of the court out of the grasp of night and bathe 
 them in mid-day splendor. 
 
 In the daytime both sides of the Grand Court will be 
 seen to be bordered with sunken lawns of fine grass hav- 
 ing bevelled sides. These will be carefully maintained, 
 and will be dotted with statues, vases, small jets of water, 
 and other ornaments. Above this sunken terrace, eight 
 feet higher, will be another long, wide ribbon of lawn. 
 Palatial stairs, 150 feet wide, are to lead gently up to the 
 buildings which abut on the great court, and which offer 
 a series of long sheltered colonnades open for prome- 
 naders. These loggias extend all around the great Man- 
 ufactures Building, and here will be found the restau- 
 rants of many nationalities, having chairs and tables 
 spread upon the promenade, as is done on the side- 
 walks of the Parisian boulevards. Food, drink, flowers, 
 and the grand views of the lake and Exposition Grounds 
 
 i54
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
 
 can here be enjoyed at ease not only by customers of 
 the restaurants, but by all, and without cost. 
 
 The Great Basin mingles its waters with those of a 
 canal that reaches out on either side. The arms of the 
 canal, where they leave the Great Basin, are crossed by 
 bridges sixty feet wide, of great beauty and of massive 
 design. The heavy balustrade which edges the entire 
 terrace is carried over the bridges, and on abutments on 
 either end of the bridges are tremendous rostral col- 
 umns a form of ornament familiar to ancient Rome, but 
 not before seen in this country. These rostral columns 
 stood about in the city of the Caesars to commemorate 
 the victories of each succeeding emperor. Here, at the 
 Columbian Fair, they will be sixty feet in height, upon 
 massive pedestals. On each capital will stand a heroic 
 figure of Neptune, and projecting from opposite sides of 
 the columns will be sculptured prows or beaks of Ro- 
 man war barges. On the opposite faces and on the ped- 
 estals will be naval trophies, coats of arms, and mottoes 
 glorifying Columbus's daring, the whole structure resting, 
 in each case, upon successive flights of steps in a noble 
 manner. There are six of these rostral columns, and 
 they are disposed like outriders or heralds to accentuate 
 and emphasize the effect of the great buildings. 
 
 Gaudy covered ways of bright awnings will fill the 
 spaces between the bridges and the loggias or colon- 
 nades of the palaces, so that the entire way around the 
 Grand Court may be made in the shade during hot 
 weather. Banners waving from great masts, a flutter of 
 gay bunting on all the buildings, electric launches dart- 
 ing, gondolas loafing, banks of shrubs and flowers, heroic 
 statues in every view, vases on pedestals, boxes of trop- 
 ical trees, and, above all, the giant palaces and the mul-
 
 titudes of pleasure seekers these are the objects which 
 will render a view of the Court memorable. 
 
 At the head of the Great Basin, where the grand 
 statue of the Republic stands like a sculptured island of 
 marble, is a vast open space raised above the low ter- 
 races, where thousands may congregate and look down 
 upon and along the Court. But to do this they must 
 turn their backs upon the Peristyle and the Columbus 
 Porticus, which many of the artists who have studied 
 the plans regard as one of the most impressive and ar- 
 tistic triumphs of the Exposition, as it is certainly one 
 of the happiest adaptations of a Roman motive. Like 
 the greater part of all that enters into this description 
 of the Grand Court, this is a new topic not before treated 
 for the public. 
 
 Mr. Augustus St. Gaudens, who had been called in to 
 advise with regard to the purely sculpturesque and ar- 
 tistic features of the Fair, suggested as a finish to the 
 end of the Court a row of isolated standing columns. 
 These were to be fifty feet high, surmounted by statues, 
 and, being thirteen in number, were to typify the thir- 
 teen original States, but since then the whole work upon 
 the Fair has developed new plans and new proportions, 
 and Mr. Charles B. Atwood, of New York, has been ap- 
 pointed Designer-in-Chief to supervise the great work. 
 In the light of the general development the original 
 scheme seemed meagre. Mr. Atwood felt that more 
 noble treatment was demanded at this point. There was 
 a necessity for a music-hall for Mr. Theodore Thomas, 
 for which no adequate site had been chosen. It occurred 
 to Mr. Atwood and the consulting architects that the 
 Music-hall, the Casino, and the needed water approach 
 could be combined by putting a great arch in the middle 
 
 156
 
 and the buildings on either side. It naturally next oc- 
 curred to their minds to connect these structures with a 
 noble colonnade or peristyle. Next, it was seen best to 
 adopt the architectural proportions which prevailed on 
 the sides of the Court ; indeed, it should be said here 
 that at the outset all the architects agreed to adopt a 
 proportion of sixty feet of height, fifty being the column 
 height, and ten that of the entablature. Thus was to be 
 kept equal and even, and in perfect accord, the top of the 
 line of solid masonry around the Grand Court. It is so 
 to-day. Above that sixty-foot level creep the statues, 
 poles, towers, rails, and the rest of the ornamentation of 
 the palaces. 
 
 The result of this effort for harmony is what is called 
 the Peristyle the completion of the Grand Court on 
 the Lake Michigan end. On the north end of the Per- 
 istyle is the Music-hall and on the other the Casino. 
 The Columbus Porticus, or majestic water-entrance to 
 the Exposition, is in the centre of the Peristyle, which 
 connects the two buildings. Although both the build- 
 ings on the ends of this finishing feature are in full view, 
 the especial charm of it is in the open Peristyle, through 
 which is seen the blue horizon of the lake. And though 
 the Grand Court is thus enclosed by a serious architect- 
 ural feature and all its sides are completed, yet here, 
 through the columns of the Peristyle, the beautiful and 
 majestic lake still counts as part of the general compo- 
 sition. The Peristyle shows forty-eight columns, twenty- 
 four on either side. These correspond with the number 
 of States and Territories, and each carries, above the bal- 
 ustrade of the work, a typical figure about fourteen feet 
 high. On the frieze above the columns and below the 
 fiures will be the coats of arms of the different States
 
 and the name of each. The whole majestic composition 
 is 850 feet long, the buildings being 140 feet long and 
 the Colonnade or Peristyle reaching 234 feet from each 
 building to meet at the Columbus Porticus, which is 102 
 feet wide. 
 
 This immense arched water-gate is to be surmounted 
 by a quadriga or sculptured group representing a female 
 herald in a chariot drawn by four horses, each pair led 
 by a male youth, the figures being completed by a 
 pair of mounted outriders in the rear. At the base 
 of the Porticus on either side of the arch will be groups 
 indicating the Genius of Navigation and Discovery, 
 with supporting figures for each on a richly decorat- 
 ed projecting prow of a vessel. The two buildings 
 at the ends of the great yet superbly graceful Colon- 
 nade are the Casino and the Music-hall. Each of 
 these structures, harmonizing perfectly with the pal- 
 aces of the Grand Court, is 140 feet wide by 246 feet 
 long. 
 
 The Music-hall is intended, primarily, to give a place 
 for those musical entertainments which Theodore Thom- 
 as will conduct. The first floor of the hall will seat 2500 
 persons in the audience section, facing the slanting plat- 
 form for the chorus, which will take the place of a stage. 
 Five hundred persons can be seated in this chorus 
 space, which is called " the hemicycle " on account of 
 its rounded, horseshoe shape, and which is constructed 
 like a huge shell or sounding-board. Between the 
 hemicycle and the audience space is a great place for 
 the orchestra. On this ground-floor are all the offices, 
 dressing-rooms for tenors, prima donne, and chorus, and 
 all the other adjuncts of a theatre or concert - hall. 
 The hall will be beautifully decorated with figures and 
 
 158
 
 richly colored. On the second fleor are the balco- 
 ny or gallery of the hall and its two great organs. 
 There is also a rehearsal - room of large dimensions, 
 and a suite of private rooms for the comfort of the 
 directors of the Exposition and their specially invited 
 guests. 
 
 The Casino is similar to the Music-hall in external 
 appearance, but its ground-floor is all open and intended 
 for public comfort. All sorts of concessions will be 
 granted to persons to sell newspapers, flowers, beverages, 
 and whatever, but in the main it will be a great resting-" 
 room open to the lake and the Grand Court, and breezy 
 and cool. An open court is carried up through the sec- 
 ond floor, and here there is a large restaurant with din- 
 ing-halls at either end and private dining-rooms in 
 between, on the sides of the Court. Music, beer, and 
 sandwiches will be among the light attractions to this 
 place. 
 
 The so-called Casino Pier ends this aggregation of 
 beautiful works. It is an enormous wharf, 250 feet wide 
 and extending 2400 feet into the lake. Its sides will 
 be railed in and set with turnstiles, through which all 
 visitors coming by steamboats must pass. The famous 
 movable sidewalk will be operated on this pier. It is 
 so arranged that travellers may walk upon a slow-moving 
 section, or ride upon a faster one. The seats slide along 
 under its roof so as to suggest to a passenger the thought 
 that he is in a long railroad coach which stands still 
 while the seats run along through it. This sidewalk or 
 railroad is constructed with a loop at either end, so that 
 it is continuous. The cars are four feet higher than the 
 footwalks on the pier, and passengers are able to enjoy 
 the view over the heads of the others. At the outer or 
 
 159
 
 lake end of the pier is a great building to be used as a 
 refectory or restaurant, where the crowd, to the number 
 of 5000 or 6000, may eat and drink in the breezes while 
 enjoying the lake view of the Exposition. 
 
 160
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 WOMAN'S TRIUMPH AT THE FAIR 
 
 IN everything " look for the woman ;" yet not in ev- 
 erything ; not in the work of preparing the Columbian 
 Exposition, for instance. She is so active and conspicu- 
 ous in that as to make looking for her an absurdity. A 
 section of the act of Congress creating the World's Co- 
 lumbian Commission required that body to appoint a 
 Board of Lady Managers, and this was done by appoint- 
 ing two ladies from each State and Territory and the 
 District of Columbia, eight lady managers at large, and 
 nine others from Chicago. Out of this apparently sim- 
 ple operation has grown what we shall see ; and if it 
 does not strike the reader as a singular thing to have 
 credited only eight of the ladies with being "at large," 
 when he finds how universal and ubiquitous they all 
 have become, it must be that the reader is inattentive 
 to this text. 
 
 " There has been a great deal of unfavorable comment 
 upon the ridiculous title ' Lady Managers' for our Board 
 of Commissioners," said one of the women, " and the 
 criticism is just, but the fault is with the framers of the 
 World's Fair bill and not with the women. The title 
 Congress gave us conveys the impression that we are a 
 useless ornament idle women of fashion ; whereas our 
 R 161
 
 board comprises as many workers, as much representa- 
 tion of the active industries of the country, as if it were 
 composed of men. There are doctors, lawyers, real e's- 
 tate agents, journalists, editors, merchants, two cotton 
 planters, teachers, artists, farmers, and 'a cattle queen' 
 among them. I beg you to make this statement, be- 
 cause it has been most unfairly urged that earnest and 
 industrious women have no representation on our board." 
 
 Mrs. Potter Palmer, of Chicago, now celebrated for 
 her tact and great executive ability, is President of the 
 Board of Lady Managers, and Miss Phoebe Cozzens, of 
 St. Louis, is Secretary. However, they are but two of 
 womankind, and it shall be seen that apparently nearly 
 all the women in nearly every part of the land are en- 
 thusiastic in the performance of the task they have set 
 for the sex that of filling the Woman's Building with 
 an exhibit at once surprising, varied, and calculated to 
 give the better sex all the credit for all that it has ac- 
 complished with its brains and hands and hearts. 
 
 The Woman's Building was itself designed by a wom- 
 an, and, beyond the manual labor of the builders, noth- 
 ing about it now or when it shall be opened to the pub- 
 lic reflects credit upon the sterner sex. Fourteen women 
 architects, not one of them above twenty-five years of 
 age, and the majority hailing from the South and West, 
 submitted designs -for the structure to the scrutiny of 
 the Board of Architects of the Exposition, and Miss 
 Sophia G. Hayden, of Boston, had hers accepted. The 
 choice of the masculine architects is not concurred in by 
 all the women interested in the woman's department by 
 any means. As for the architects themselves, one said 
 to me, " Its fault is one which makes it especially suita- 
 ble for the purposes for which it is to be used it is 
 
 102
 
 chaste and timid." To my lay eyes it is far more cred- 
 itable as a work of art than the more pretentious Gov- 
 ernment Building, and than many of the buildings put 
 up as headquarters by and for the various States. 
 
 The Woman's Building is 388 feet long and 199 feet 
 wide, with a floor space of about three and one-third 
 acres. Though it was the first of the great palaces 
 to take shape upon the grounds, and long ago seemed 
 finished, the fact is that it is to boast a roof garden, 
 with beautiful palms and a fountain, all enclosed by the 
 heavy open railing which completes and crowns the 
 walls. Miss Enid Yandall, of Louisville, of whom it is 
 said that she is "conspicuous socially," modelled the 
 caryatides which support the roof railing. Miss Alice 
 Rideout, of San Francisco, is the sculptress who, in com- 
 petition, won the contract to decorate the attic cornice. 
 Another sculptress, the same whose statue in butter at 
 the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition was much talked 
 of, will be recalled to mind by a statue in marble hap- 
 pily completed before her death, which recently took 
 place in Italy. A great deal of the interior decoration 
 of the building, much of which will be carved work, is 
 being, or will be, done by women. There is a pretty 
 rivalry among the States in this regard. Of course it is 
 understood that there is a commission of women at work 
 in every State, and that there are auxiliary committees 
 of these State boards in almost every county of almost 
 every State. Panels are being carved by women all over 
 the country, and certain rooms in the building are to 
 be not only decorated, but finished, as to their interior 
 wood-work, by the women of certain States whose boards 
 have applied for the coveted privilege. 
 
 This work will be made typical or characteristic of 
 
 163
 
 each commonwealth which engages in it, either by the 
 use of materials for which the State is noted, or by the 
 designs for the decorative effects. California, for in- 
 stance, will wall and ceil a room with red-wood orna- 
 mented by women. The women of New York will fin- 
 ish the library, one of the largest and finest of the rooms. 
 In Cincinnati about one hundred of the most prominent 
 women have united to complete another room. West 
 Virginia, Indiana, and other States are rivals at this 
 gracious task, and many of the workers are quite mys- 
 terious about what they intend to do. It is known, how- 
 ever, that Tennessee will wainscot the great main vesti- 
 bule in marble from her quarries. All over the land the 
 women, even including some Indian wives and daugh- 
 ters, are employed in the making of beautiful hangings, 
 some of them richly embroidered, for the doors and 
 windows. 
 
 There was a woman's department or branch at the 
 New Orleans Cotton Centennial, and women were ac- 
 tively concerned in the last Universal Exposition at 
 Paris, but there is no precedent for the conspicuous- 
 ness and prerogatives of womankind at this next great 
 Fair. I think there never was a building set apart at a 
 world's exposition for the display of woman's work ex- 
 clusively, and James Dredge, member of the Royal 
 Commission for Great Britain and Ireland at the Chi- 
 cago Exposition, says so positively in a report of his 
 lecture on our Fair in London. The women commis- 
 sioners boast that they are the first feminine officials 
 ever commissioned by Congress. They treasure formi- 
 dable parchment commissions- of which all women 
 should be as proud as they. They encountered a se- 
 rious obstacle at the threshold of their work. The sis- 
 
 164
 
 terhood of artists, artisans, and wage -earners generally 
 included many women who objected to the display of 
 woman's work except in contrast and competition with 
 the best that men have accomplished in the same lines. 
 But it was early seen that the women will at Chicago 
 enjoy a double opportunity to display their achieve- 
 ments. They may exhibit with the general army of 
 contestants in all the other departments. Moreover, the 
 women are, by act of Congress, represented by persons 
 of their own sex on every jury of award which is to 
 judge of exhibits that are the work of women, in whole 
 or in part. The feminine exhibitors will not only have 
 the right to a twofold display of their work, but they 
 will be urged to embrace it, for the commission will 
 strive to get something equally good from every woman 
 who shows anything in any other department of the 
 Fair. It is not yet decided whether the exhibit in the 
 Woman's Building will be competitive within itself or not. 
 The collection in the Woman's Building will be ex- 
 ceedingly interesting, and, in part, unique. The presen- 
 tation in the Gallery of Honor is looked forward to with 
 delight and impatience. This Gallery of Honor is the 
 central hall of the building, and runs almost its entire 
 length. In the rooms opening into it, with a display 
 that will partly parallel and partly augment Professor 
 Putnam's ethnological collection, the women will show 
 that their sex included the inventors and first producers 
 of what was necessary as well as what was beautiful, and 
 that men only took up their work when it became prof- 
 itable as merchandise. Here will be exposed to view 
 the most elementary products saved from the rudest 
 times and peoples but made by women articles of pot- 
 tery, clothing, and decorative work. The Indian wom- 
 
 165
 
 en of New Mexico will provide the gorgeous hangings 
 which will form the background to this display. 
 
 In the central hall itself will be made manifest the 
 high development of all the arts which women began so 
 rudely and have followed to so rich a fruition. The 
 most beautiful and the most advanced work and skill of 
 woman will be exhibited in tapestry, laces, statuary, and 
 paintings. There will be reproductions of the historic 
 works of women which have influenced the times in 
 which they lived such as Elizabeth Thompson's first 
 true study of the horse in motion ; such as the extraor- 
 dinary book compiled by the Abbess Herrard in the 
 twelfth century, which was an epitome of nearly all the 
 knowledge of that date ; and such as the famous tapes- 
 tries of Matilda of Flanders, which have been accepted 
 as the best pictorial representation of the manners, cos- 
 tumes, arms, and accoutrements of her time. Thus will 
 be illustrated, as never before, the history of woman's 
 work in all ages. 
 
 The lady managers have many other aims besides the 
 completion of this historical aggregation. They mean 
 to emphasize the part the sex has taken and is taking in 
 philanthropy. They will gather statistics and records 
 from every society for the increase of the happiness of 
 women. This subject has already been found to be full 
 of surprises, such as the discovery that there are schools 
 for the technical training of woman in Italy, and most 
 interesting and astonishing news of women's preroga- 
 tives and progress in Sweden. With nearly all notable 
 works or records it is hoped to give portraits of the 
 women concerned, so that there will be a grand collec- 
 tion of the counterfeit presentments of distinguished 
 and worthy women. 
 
 166
 
 If their plans do not fail, the very doors of the build- 
 ing, at the main entrance, will begin the record of wom- 
 an's triumphs, for they will be fac-similes of the famous 
 bronze doors of the Strasburg Cathedral. These were 
 made by Sabina von Steinbach, the talented lieutenant 
 of the architect, to whose work is ascribed the power of 
 having influenced in a beautiful way the character of 
 later architecture. The doors are to be copied in papier- 
 mache, by some woman selected either by the German 
 commission or the national woman's board. 
 
 There will be maintained in the building a fully 
 equipped hospital, with physicians and trained nurses 
 in attendance not merely an exhibit, but a real work- 
 ing hospital as well. The London Training-school for 
 Nurses will send skilled graduates and all the equip- 
 ments of a complete modern hospital. An investigation 
 is being prosecuted into all well-attested news and rec- 
 ords of all the unusual vocations women have followed 
 or are pursuing to-day, as sea-captains or pilots, locomo- 
 tive engineers, blacksmiths, and the rest. Especially in- 
 teresting will be the exhibit from Kane County, Illinois, 
 which is thought to have been the first county in any of 
 our States in which women were appointed as deputies 
 to the elective officers, and performed such duties of the 
 sheriff, the county clerk, the treasurer, and the others, 
 as deputies are commonly intrusted with. 
 
 In the library will be gathered all the books which 
 women have written so far as such a collection is pos- 
 sible. The ladies at Chicago bid the ungallant and un- 
 sophisticated part of the masculine public to prepare 
 itself for the discovery that, so far from woman's book- 
 writing being confined to fiction in prose and verse, it 
 includes a large proportion of works on nearly all the 
 
 167
 
 arts and sciences even embracing three volumes of such 
 literature as might be expected from a young free-think- 
 ing woman in France. But, after all, it is not necessary 
 to go as far as the ocean's width for that, since, I have 
 heard, an American newspaper for the promulgation of 
 advanced ideas is now edited by some young women, 
 to whom it descended from their father. 
 
 A very interesting and valuable work that is said not 
 to have been attempted before in America is the collec- 
 tion and classification of all the flora of our country. 
 The women of every part of the Union strongest in 
 numbers in the South and West are preparing to con- 
 tribute to this unique display, and especial wonders are 
 expected from Colorado, which is not only rich in floral 
 ornament, but possesses two women who have long been 
 famous for their art in preserving and preparing flowers 
 that never lose their colors or naturalness in the process. 
 
 Elsewhere I have told of the showing of fine needle- 
 work which will be made by the pupils of a noted school 
 in Athens, of which the Queen of Greece is an enthusi- 
 astic patroness. This exhibit may go somewhere else 
 than to the Woman's Building, but there is no lack of 
 titled women who are directly interested in the depart- 
 ment under the care of the lady managers. In England 
 one of the Queen's daughters, the Princess Christian, is 
 at the head of the body which is to show the work 
 of British women at the Fair. The Baroness Burdett- 
 Coutts is also a member of that commission. The 
 Queen of the Belgians is at the head of the woman's 
 commission in her own country, and in Germany the 
 commission is directed by a princess of the reigning 
 blood. Lady Aberdeen, who will undertake the man- 
 agement of the Irish village on the Exposition Grounds, 
 
 168
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE FAIR
 
 is also preparing an elaborate collection of specimens of 
 the handiwork of Irish women for the woman's depart- 
 ment. The Queen of Italy will surpass all the other 
 titled and crowned heads, in graciousness, at least, by 
 exhibiting her very famous private collection of laces. 
 She will also send over the crown laces a part of the 
 State treasure never yet seen outside of Italy. 
 
 There is to be a Children's Home at the Exposition, 
 and its promoters say that then, for the first time at 
 such an exposition, will children's interests receive full 
 representation. The Children's Home is designed to 
 give mothers perfect freedom while visiting the Fair 
 with babies that could not be left at home. The home 
 will be close to the Woman's Building. There will be 
 made clear the best ideas upon sanitation, diet, educa- 
 tion, and amusements for children. "A series of mani- 
 kins will be so dressed as to represent the manner of 
 clothing infants in the different countries of the world." 
 The best costumes will be discussed, and so will their 
 sleeping accommodations, with lectures upon the devel- 
 opment of the child's mental and moral nature. In one 
 room will be given lectures, illustrated by the stereopti- 
 con, about life in foreign countries for the older children. 
 Kindergartners will be the lecturers, and will take the 
 children to see the exhibits from the countries lectured 
 about. These kindergarten teachers will eagerly seize 
 this chance to prove to parents that they can bring hap- 
 piness to children while the little ones unconsciously 
 imbibe valuable knowledge. There will be a creche in 
 charge of experienced nurses where tender infants may 
 be left. There will be a playground surrounded by 
 booths for the sale of the toys of all nations. There 
 will be a fountain in the playground, with a pool for the 
 
 169
 
 sailing of little boats; but the best playground, it is 
 hoped, will be the great flat roof, all set about with 
 trees and flowers, made gay by birds and butterflies, 
 rendered safe by an enclosing net of wire, and yet free 
 even for kite-flying. Contributions for the execution of 
 these plans are greatly needed by the lady managers, 
 whose treasurer is Mrs. George L. Dunlap, of 328 Dear- 
 born Avenue, Chicago. 
 
 The statute creating the Board of Lady Managers 
 gave them wide liberty to " have general charge and 
 management of all interests of women in connection 
 with the Exposition." Mrs. Palmer considered it quite 
 within these bounds to procure for the women who will 
 visit Chicago "good, clean, safe homes at reasonable 
 rates." Mrs. Matilda B. Carse, the financier among the 
 Chicago women, submitted a plan to erect, close to the 
 Fair Grounds, some buildings capable of sheltering 5000 
 women, whose apartments should contain comfortable 
 beds and toilet conveniences, while refined matrons 
 should be appointed to look after the unprotected girls 
 who might come. The plan was adopted, and a stock 
 company has been formed with shares at $10 each, and 
 a capital stock of $150,000. Among the directors are 
 Mrs. Potter Palmer, Mrs. Carse, Mrs Helen M. Barker, 
 Mrs. Charles Henrotin, Jun., Miss Frances Willard, and 
 Mrs. George L. Dunlap. 
 
 170
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE HISTORY OF MAN AND THE COLUMBUS EXHIBIT 
 
 AMONG those whose lives are temporarily given over 
 to the making of the Exposition, it is noticeable that 
 what is called " Professor Putnam's exhibit," is counted 
 upon to prove very remarkable and instructive, as well 
 as interesting in a high degree. The reference is to 
 Professor F. W. Putnam, of Harvard University, who is 
 chief of the department embracing ethnology, archae- 
 ology, history, cartography, and the Latin- American 
 bureau. No man in America is more competent to un- 
 dertake this work, and he is bringing enthusiasm to aid 
 his ability. His lieutenants have long been at work in 
 many distant fields, and among the traces of prehistoric 
 man, as well as the habitations of our aborigines in this 
 country. To his department has been assigned 160,000 
 square feet in the gallery of the great building for Man- 
 ufactures and Liberal Arts, as well as a strip of land 
 looo feet long and from 100 to 200 feet wide in the 
 south-easterly part of the Fair Grounds. 
 
 In the section devoted to archaeology will be shown 
 traces of man, his skeletons and handiwork, which have 
 been found under geological conditions, and thus prove 
 his existence in remote periods. Following this will be 
 shown discoveries connected with the second prehistoric 
 
 s 171
 
 period on this continent: objects from shell -heaps, 
 burial-places, mounds, earthworks, ancient pueblos, cliff- 
 houses, caves, and the ruined cities of the lands to the 
 southward of us. Models of the most interesting earth- 
 works and mounds, such as those of geometric shapes 
 in Ohio, the great mound at Cahokia, Illinois ; Fort An- 
 cient, the " serpent mound " of Ohio, and other remains 
 will be shown. It is hoped and believed that Wisconsin 
 will contribute models of her ancient structures of this 
 sort, and that a full illustration of the pueblos and cliff- 
 dwellings of Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico 
 will be made. Moulds are being taken of the very an- 
 cient stone structures that exist in Yucatan, and casts 
 and photographs will further familiarize us with them. 
 One such structure, " the Portal of Labna," will serve as 
 an imposing entrance to a section of the exhibit. The 
 collection of the Peabody Museum (Harvard) Honduras 
 Expedition will be shown here, and will form a remark- 
 able part of the display. 
 
 Professor Putnam hopes, through the aid of the for- 
 eign governments, to exemplify the primitive modes of 
 life, customs, and arts of the native peoples of the world, 
 but in this he is to be dependent upon the interest that 
 others will show in the subject. For his own part, he is 
 bending every effort to render the American branch of 
 this subject especially complete, and to display it so 
 that it shall attract popular interest. The American 
 exhibit will be on the strip of land reserved for his de- 
 partment, where will be shown the habitations of such 
 native American tribes as can DC secured " a living 
 picture," as he writes, " of the typical native peoples of 
 different parts of America; each family to be living in 
 its native habitation ; the people to be dressed in native 
 
 172
 
 costume, surrounded by characteristic household uten- 
 . sils, implements, and weapons, and engaged in their 
 native occupations and manufactures." Thus will be 
 shown the peoples who were in America when Colum- 
 bus made his voyages. Through the co-operation of 
 the Indian Bureau the exhibition of members of our 
 North American tribes, with their habitations, costumes, 
 and implements, will be as complete as it is possible to 
 make it. 
 
 In an interesting newspaper interview Professor Put- 
 nam outlined his work, beginning with an exhibition of the 
 first traces of man in America, and the flora and fauna of 
 the time. He said it was planned to show skeletons of 
 the mammoth and mastodon, and mounted specimens 
 of northern animals living at that period far south of 
 their present abode. He said that " in connection with 
 the habitations of the Eskimo, models of men, women, 
 and children will be shown, made from casts taken and 
 colored from life and dressed in native costumes. These 
 figures will be made to illustrate all types of mankind. 
 The work in part is in papier-mache, with the figures 
 draped in actual garments." Other collections, extend- 
 ed and enriched by such models made from life, will 
 " represent all the principal tribes of the northern part 
 of the continent, the Indian races of the interior, the 
 inhabitants of the West Indies, and the eastern tribes 
 of North America at the time of Columbus, the native 
 tribes of the South-west, those of Mexico, Central 
 America, and South America, in all cases with their 
 habitations and costumes and arts and industries ex- 
 tensively shown." 
 
 He has arranged with the Peary Expedition to Green- 
 land for models of Eskimos, their huts and equipments, 
 
 173
 
 and by other means he will make known to us the 
 Aleuts and their modes and paraphernalia of life. A 
 great part of the exhibition will be the result of new 
 explorations, but much will be gathered from private 
 collections. 
 
 An exhibit in another branch of this department's 
 work will be a pioneer's log -cabin, characteristically 
 furnished, and apparently inhabited by a frontiersman's 
 family of a century ago, clad in homespun, and engaged 
 in the preparation of flax and in spinning and weaving. 
 When it is understood that this will serve but as a 
 background against which to bring out the changes and 
 improvements that have taken place in the things that 
 most intimately influence our home life, the magnitude 
 of this display will be appreciated. The evolution of 
 furniture, tools, and clothing will be illustrated, and there 
 will be shown originals, copies, and models of notable 
 inventions, as well as a collection of portraits of distin- 
 guished inventors. American history will get its share 
 of attention and illustration in a display of busts, por- 
 traits, relics, autographs, and the like. In another sec- 
 tion " a complete series of maps of the world will be 
 collected, both of those anterior to Columbus and of 
 others illustrating discoveries down to the present time." 
 In modern maps, the wonderful, almost fascinating prog- 
 ress that has been made in map-making will be shown. 
 
 The " section of physical anthropology " will be a 
 valuable as well as novel part of the department ex- 
 hibit. Here will be gathered and made known thou- 
 sands of measurements and special notes of the physical 
 size and characteristics of members of the various native 
 tribes, of the school-children in our cities, and, to such 
 extent as is possible, of the foreign visitors to and em- 
 
 174
 
 ployes at the Fair. The apparatus used in such an in- 
 vestigation will be exhibited, the methods and objects 
 of such research will be made plain, and there will be 
 obtained valuable data "showing the importance of 
 such investigations in relation to the education and 
 physical development of children." 
 
 And thus we come to the chief exhibit of the Latin- 
 American Bureau, under the able supervision of Mr. 
 William E. Curtis. From a historical point of view the 
 collection of Columbiana by this bureau will be the 
 most remarkable exhibit at the Fair, as well as one of 
 the most important ever made upon the globe. Con- 
 gress authorized the expenditure of $35,000 in securing 
 the collection, with the understanding that it would be 
 housed in a building which should exactly reproduce 
 the picturesque old Moorish structure which was the 
 Monastery of La Rabida at Palos, in Spain, where Co- 
 lumbus applied for food and shelter for himself and child 
 after the Spanish court had refused to outfit him for 
 his voyage of discovery. " Here," says an able author- 
 ity, " he found an asylum while developing his theories, 
 and it was through the intercession of the prior of this- 
 monastery that Queen Isabella consented to reconsider 
 her refusal to furnish ships and money for the voyage. 
 It was here, too, that Columbus remained while prepar- 
 ing his little fleet for the memorable expedition. In 
 the chapel of this monastery he attended mass on the 
 morning of the day he sailed, and again on the evening 
 of the day he returned from the discovery of the New 
 World." The building is to be upon a promontory al- 
 most surrounded with water, so as to be as safe as pos- 
 sible against conflagration from without, and the Secre- 
 tary of War is to detail a military guard to protect it 
 
 i75
 
 otherwise. Admiral Luce has characterized the gather- 
 ing of the Columbiana as " the most important historical 
 movement that has ever taken place in America." The 
 Spanish Government places such a value upon it that it 
 asked permission to show it at the Columbus Exposi- 
 tion in Madrid, offering to pay all the costs of packing, 
 shipment, and redelivery to us, and the Librarian of Con- 
 gress has applied for it as a permanent attraction to the 
 new Congressional Library Building now under construc- 
 tion in Washington. I have been permitted to see a 
 letter by a gentleman deeply interested in the matter, 
 in which he states concisely, but with reverential regard 
 apparent in every sentence, something of the scope of the 
 exhibition. "The Government of the United States," he 
 says, " through the Secretary of State, has formally ap- 
 plied to the governments of Spain, Italy, France, Eng- 
 land, and Germany, to the municipality of Genoa, to His 
 Holiness the Pope, and to the Duke of Veragua, the 
 lineal descendant of Columbus, for the loan of manu- 
 scripts, maps, books, charts, and other objects identified 
 with the life history of Columbus and the discovery and 
 early settlement of the New World. These include the 
 original of the most remarkable contract that was ever 
 drawn, in which the sovereigns of Spain guarantee to 
 Columbus and his heirs forever one-eighth part of all 
 that may be produced of any character whatever, in any 
 lands that he may discover, and appoint him and his 
 descendants perpetual rulers over such lands with the 
 title of viceroy. The collection will contain the original 
 commission, signed by Ferdinand and Isabella, appoint- 
 ing Columbus ' Grand Admiral of the Ocean Seas ;' 
 the originals of the other papers relating to his first and 
 subsequent voyages ; twenty-nine manuscript letters in 
 
 176
 
 P 
 
 II
 
 his own hand ; the manuscript of a book in which he at- 
 tempts to prove that his discovery was predicted in the 
 Scriptures ; his last will and testament ; the original 
 drawing of his coat of arms ; a pen-and-ink sketch which 
 he drew in his old age and called 'The Triumph of 
 Columbus/ The collection will also contain his letters 
 to his native city of Genoa, the breviary which Pope 
 Alexander VI. gave to him and which he used on his 
 later voyages; the first map of America, made by Juan 
 de la Cosa, his pilot ; original copies of his letters de- 
 scribing his most important voyage, and telling of the 
 discovery of our continent, and the priceless volumes 
 which he carried in the cabin of the caraval Marco 
 Polo, Imago Mundi, and the Cosmograpliia whose pages 
 contain manuscript notes in his own hand. . . . The 
 Government of Germany sends from Nuremburg the 
 original of the globe of Martin Behaim, and the Queen 
 of England loans the Leonardo da Vinci map on which 
 the name 'America ' first appears." 
 
 Quite modern and apart from all these things in his- 
 toric interest is a collection of five paintings by a Rus- 
 sian painter, Aivasoffsky, illustrating five incidents in 
 the career of Columbus. He pleads that they may be 
 shown in the La Rabida Building, and it is quite likely 
 that they will. They are said to be remarkable, and so, 
 indeed, is Aivasoffsky's home celebrity as a marine 
 painter. 
 
 A list of the exhibits to be made in La Rabida and 
 elsewhere as illustrative of Columbus's time, voyages, 
 and discoveries, would be too long to give here. It in- 
 cludes maps, charts, globes, nautical instruments ; mod- 
 els, paintings, and other pictures of his vessels ; portraits, 
 autographs, and other relics of the persons who assisted 
 
 177
 
 Columbus or are connected with him in history; fac- 
 similes of the arms and armor of his men ; assortments 
 of the goods he used for barter, such as hawk bells, beads, 
 coins, medals, cloths, crosses, mirrors, and brass articles ; 
 pictures showing the natives of America as they were 
 at first represented ; the Columbus tombs, monuments, 
 and statues, and so on to the end of all that can be 
 thought of and obtained. 
 
 178
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 FOREIGN NATIONS AT OUR FAIR 
 
 To investigate the possibilities of the foreign exhib- 
 its at the Columbian Exposition, when I was on the 
 grounds recently, was not an altogether satisfactory 
 task. It reminded me of an experience a fellow- re- 
 porter had when we were boys, and he wanted to hear 
 from good old Peter Cooper what sort of neighbors his 
 were, one of whom had blown up his uncle with a bomb. 
 
 "Oh, I know them all," said the philanthropist, "and 
 they are all nice people. What sort of a man was the 
 
 elder ? Oh, he was a nice man, a very nice man. 
 
 What did I think of the young man? Now, he was a 
 nice man. And the other one ? Oh, he was a nice man, 
 too." 
 
 Just so, when I inquired what sort of an exhibit Aus- 
 tria or Greece would make at the Fair, I was told that 
 each would be fine ; that Germany's would be grand, 
 that Italy's would be quite notable, that Norway and 
 Sweden were going to do something truly remarkable, 
 and so on through the list. And there I sat, with my 
 pencil poised and my pad ready, and felt just as my 
 friend did when Peter Cooper was telling about his 
 neighbors. 
 
 Still, there was some reward ; indeed, it became evi- 
 
 179
 
 dent to me that the instructiveness and brilliancy of the 
 Exposition will be drawn from abroad. At the Phila- 
 delphia Exposition in 1876, we who visited it stayed at 
 home and travelled in many countries, seeing much more 
 than most actual travellers would have seen ; and one 
 result of that comparatively small fair was to revolution- 
 ize our country in the matter of house decoration, in the 
 use of rugs and hangings, and the beautification of car- 
 pets and furniture. 
 
 We know that this will be a gigantic exhibition, as 
 compared with that a truly universal one. At it will be 
 the display of no less than forty-five countries and colo- 
 nies, the principal and the most interesting ones in the 
 world. The reason that there was not full news of what 
 each nation is to exhibit, at the headquarters of so ac- 
 tive and enthusiastic a master of the field as Mr. Walker 
 Fearn, the chief of the Foreign Department, was a man- 
 ifold one. In the first place, he has been chiefly con- 
 cerned in securing the attendance and co-operation of 
 the nations; and, subordinated to that, but requiring 
 more work and time, has been his effort to meet their 
 demands for space, or rather to bring about some equal- 
 ity between their demands and the space at the disposal 
 of the Commission. The minor details of what the na- 
 tions will do with their space our commissioners abroad 
 understand very well and the foreign commissioners are 
 perfectly conversant with, yet they have not in all cases 
 been discussed at the office of the Department of For- 
 eign Affairs. 
 
 Japan will outdo herself. Practically she made her- 
 self known to the world at the Philadelphia Centennial 
 Exposition, which took place only about twenty years, 
 after her ports were thrown open. Her most notable 
 
 180
 
 VIEW FROM ART GALLERY
 
 exhibit will be that upon the Wooded Island a large 
 island in the Lagoon on the Columbian Grounds. The 
 Japanese commissioners have secured the northerly end 
 of this tract as the site of their exhibit. There they 
 will erect a great temple in three parts a main body 
 and two wings symbolizing the Phoenix, as they de- 
 clare. It will be solidly built of wood made ready in 
 Japan, and set up by Japanese workmen on the Fair 
 Grounds. In one wing of this elaborate and gorgeous 
 building they will exhibit articles from 1000 to 4000 
 years old their old bronzes, arms, armor, and what may 
 be called the beginnings of their famous work in pottery 
 and lacquer. Some of this, however, will illustrate arts 
 which they have lost, and will consist of exhibits of ex- 
 tremely great value. In the other wing they will show 
 Japanese products 400 years old and more, illustrative 
 of the condition of their people when Columbus set out 
 to discover their country, for it was the tales about 
 Cathay (Indo-China), and of a wonderful island near by 
 which was, in all likelihood, Japan that strongly in- 
 fluenced Columbus. Indeed, it is said that when he 
 reached Cuba he called it by the name by which Japan 
 was called by the travellers whose works he had read. 
 In the main or middle building the Japanese will show 
 goods characteristic of their country at the present time. 
 Upon the whole north end of the Wooded Island they 
 will expend their skill and ingenuity in the cultivation 
 of flowers, dwarfed trees, and those landscape and gar- 
 den effects in the production of which they are unri- 
 valled. The temple and the horticultural work they 
 will present to Chicago, to remain permanent orna- 
 ments of Jackson Park; and this, by -the -way, is the 
 only work of any sort that forms part of the Exposition 
 T 181
 
 which is absolutely certain to remain after the Fair 
 closes. The art galleries may or may not that is not 
 determined ; but the gift of Japan has been accepted by 
 the city authorities. 
 
 It is thought that the Japanese may introduce a few 
 hundred jinrikishas, or man-drawn carriages, in which to 
 carry visitors about the grounds. 
 
 It was long believed that the Japanese exhibit would 
 be the most peculiar and interesting, but it is now 
 thought that the Russian may surpass it. Nowhere 
 has royalty shown so deep and active an interest in this 
 Exposition as in Russia. Hers will truly be an impe- 
 rial exhibit. It is very remarkable, and yet it is a fact, 
 that never before have the Russians been so stirred by 
 any such project. The old and warm friendship be- 
 tween the two countries, newly strengthened by the 
 sending of American ships to relieve Russia's famine- 
 stricken peasantry, is partly the cause of this ; but, on 
 the other hand, there have been political crises at the 
 times of other expositions in which she might have 
 taken a considerable part. The collection of exhibits 
 in Russia goes on with a will, and the Czar is sending 
 to the heart of Asia, where he has recently thrust the 
 government railroads, to enrich the store. There will 
 be a complete exhibit to illustrate Russian life in town 
 and country ; there will be wonderful bronzes, a most 
 remarkable array of paintings, of minerals from the Ural 
 Mountains, of the unrivalled Russian leather-work, and 
 of the varied articles of manufacture in which that coun- 
 try has made such recent great strides. 
 
 The intense rivalry between the Germans and the 
 French augurs well for the Columbian Fair. Each 
 country is intent upon surpassing the exhibits of the 
 
 182
 
 other. The French never before made such an effort to 
 win credit abroad. They may be called professional 
 exhibit -makers almost professional " expositioners." 
 They make no " boom," as we would say, about what 
 they are doing, but their commissioners promise the 
 best that the country's resources make possible. The 
 Government will exhibit its treasures from Sevres and 
 Gobelin, and the Limoges collection will be splendid. 
 Well aware of the value of our gilded American patron- 
 age of French art in the past, they will make perhaps as 
 fine an exhibit of paintings and sculptures as they ever 
 showed at home. The German contributions will be 
 quite as notable. Germany did not exhibit in Paris in 
 1889, and, indeed, this will be her first great official ex- 
 hibition on neutral soil. Her commissioners are working 
 with splendid energy.- The exhibition by Herr Krupp, 
 the gun -maker, will represent an outlay of nearly 
 $1,000,000. He will show a i3O-ton gun the largest 
 rifle ever made. Some of the monstrous and marvel- 
 lous machines notably a great trip-hammer, such as is 
 used at his works will form parts of his exhibition. 
 The very best features of the Frankfort electrical exhi- 
 bition of a year ago are promised. This collection of 
 inventions and adaptations of electrical machinery and 
 devices astonished the world, and visitors from America 
 acknowledged that the Germans had outstripped us in 
 this field of endeavor. They have been especially bold 
 and ingenious in their uses of the electric light for showy 
 purposes as in theatres, for instance and the accom- 
 plishment of brilliant and startling stage effects. This 
 they will show in Chicago. It is believed that the 
 Siemens-Holske house of electricians will make a great 
 exhibit, notably of their powerful search-lights, whose 
 
 183
 
 use for grand fete -night effects upon the grounds is 
 counted upon. Germany's remarkable progress in man- 
 ufactures will be exemplified thoroughly. If Austria's 
 demands for space form any criterion by which to judge 
 of her intended display, it will be a grand one. Her 
 commission is headed by the Archduke Charles Louis, 
 the brother of the Emperor. It is promised that this 
 great country will exhibit at least those evidences of 
 progress which render Vienna the easterly Paris. 
 
 The exhibition of delicate and beautiful needle-work, 
 and of diaphanous cloths and tissues, by the kingdom of 
 Greece will be among her most attractive contributions. 
 The best of those handiworks by women, which the 
 Queen encourages by her interest in the famous Ergas- 
 terion in Athens, will be shown. Greece also promises 
 a complete collection of casts of her noble and incom- 
 parable ancient sculptures, figures, friezes, and other re- 
 mains, including many of Schliemann's discoveries. 
 
 Sweden and Norway are running a race to outdo one 
 another at Chicago. Both will exhibit panoramas and 
 paintings of scenery calculated to induce travellers to 
 go to their countries rather than to Switzerland. The 
 Norwegian fisheries exhibit will be very interesting, and 
 her display of furs, peltries, and woods will be notable. 
 Holland will do nothing finer than the showing of the 
 products, natives, and modes of life in her colonies, led 
 by Java, though the Dutch will attract attention by 
 their exhibition of watch -making, of art works, and of 
 floriculture. 
 
 Italy, hindered by the affair at New Orleans and by 
 other obstacles, will make no official exhibit, but our 
 World's Fair commissioners in that country promise a 
 notable showing of artistic and beautiful works. The 
 
 184
 
 Italian people are fully alive to the opportunity, though 
 the Government is quiescent. Turkey's exhibit, very 
 novel and interesting, is in the nature of a concession 
 and not an imperial undertaking. Spain's historical 
 contributions will be remarkable. The most important 
 of the exhibits at their Quadri-centennial or Columbus 
 Exposition will be sent to our Fair, and will form an 
 extensive display. The Spanish commission is very ac- 
 tive, and has stirred up private enterprise at home to 
 such an extent as to guarantee an interesting exhibition. 
 The English seem principally actuated by the idea 
 that we do not know and appreciate their art, and that 
 if we did, so much of our money would not go to the 
 continent of Europe. Thus inspired, they will make a 
 very great and remarkable display of paintings and 
 sculpture, quite apart from their usual exhibit of manu- 
 factures and inventions. Many of Great Britain's colo- 
 nies are hard at work in preparation for the Exposition. 
 Canada will send ample proof of the importance of her 
 farms, forests, mines, and fisheries. India will make no 
 governmental display, but individual exhibitors will 
 show a wide variety of native manufactures, especially 
 in those lines in which they excel almost the entire 
 world, the making of silks, rugs, and muslins especially. 
 A showing that is promised to be exquisite and in the 
 nature of a revelation to us, is promised from India. 
 New South Wales leads all the Australian colonies in 
 her anxiety to " show off" well at Chicago. She applied 
 for 1,000,000 square feet, or more than three times the 
 space awarded to the mother-country. Fifty thousand 
 square feet is the area that has been set aside for this 
 contribution. The presentation will be of the natural 
 resources of the country, her wool, minerals, and raw 
 
 185
 
 wealth, a showing designed to attract immigration. 
 Queensland, Victoria, and New Zealand will send exhib- 
 its, but not officially. 
 
 Far away Ceylon will seize the opportunity which this 
 Exposition will offer to do for herself what Japan did in 
 Philadelphia in 1876. Ceylon will be thereafter more 
 talked about, if her plans prosper, than ever before. One 
 remarkable Ceylonese exhibit will be a reproduction of 
 the temple of Amarapoora a place in the interior of the 
 island. This temple, now overgrown with giant trees, 
 has its roof upheld by the trunks and tusks of forty or 
 fifty carved white elephants. There is exquisite ara- 
 besque work on the columns, and the roof itself is alto- 
 gether charming and remarkable. This will be exhibited 
 merely as a specimen of the native architecture. Other 
 temples, pavilions, and pagodas will be recreated on the 
 Fair Grounds to illustrate the beauties of the architecture, 
 and to serve as booths and bazaars. The importance of 
 the exhibit otherwise will be mainly in its agricultural 
 department. The Ceylonese believe that they grow the 
 finest tea in the world, and it has been distinguished for 
 fetching the highest prices in London 30 being paid 
 for one lot if my memory serves me. In a building of 
 peculiar design, one exhibitor will sell this tea at a price 
 to cover merely the cost of the commodity and the hire 
 of the native servants, who, habited as at home, will wait 
 upon the people. The tea is grown at a great elevation 
 above the sea, and the mode of cultivating both it and 
 the coffee-plant will be shown on the Fair Grounds with 
 native farmers at their accustomed toil. 
 
 The exhibits of the South American republics and col- 
 onies will be so remarkable as to deserve a chapter by 
 themselves. Argentine Republic, Brazil, British Guiana, 
 
 1 86
 
 British Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the 
 Dutch West Indies, Dutch Guiana, Guatemala, Hayti, 
 Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Uruguay, 
 all are preparing to show their resources, products, and 
 industries, and many of them will surprise the majority 
 of visitors to the Fair. President Diaz, of Mexico, prom- 
 ises a complete exhibition of the progress and present 
 condition of his country. Asked to show the wonderful 
 ruins and remnants of other civilizations in his domain 
 he declined, and insisted that the time had come for 
 Mexico to show her best side, her present prosperity 
 and cultivation. Apart from the official exhibits of 
 these countries, and in connection with Professor Put- 
 nam's remarkable ethnological collection, Mr.W. E.Cur- 
 tis, who is at the head of the Latin-American Bureau, 
 promises photographs and models representing types of 
 the natives from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, their 
 habitations, apparel, weapons, household implements ; 
 photographs of beasts, games, toys, their transportation 
 facilities, and, embracing the peoples of the present day, 
 these same things and their education, religions, arts, oc- 
 cupations, resources, and products, as well as their his- 
 tory, heroes, liberators, and so on to the end of all that 
 is instructive and interesting. 
 
 Only two countries of note Italy and Portugal 
 have failed to accept the invitation of our Government 
 to participate in the Exposition. In another chapter, 
 describing the Midway Plaisance, I have told of the curi- 
 ous exhibitions that will be made up of peasant life in 
 Tunis, Algiers, Egypt, Dahomey, China, Germany, and 
 other countries. 
 
 187
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 THE GALLERY OF FINE ARTS 
 
 THE Gallery of Fine Arts at the Columbian Exposi- 
 tion is regarded by the architects of the country as hav- 
 ing reached the anticipations of those who are aware 
 that in all recent world's fairs it has been sought to 
 make that building a perfect example of each nation's 
 taste and progress in architecture. Such a building 
 must be more solidly built than the others ; it must be 
 as nearly fire-proof as possible, or it would be vain to 
 try to induce painters, sculptors, and owners of the 
 finest art works to send their treasures to it. It follows 
 that this one among all the buildings is oftenest the 
 one that is preserved as a memento of each recur- 
 ring exposition, and as a permanent monument of the 
 art progress of the nation which has managed the Fair. 
 It is therefore natural that such a building should be 
 the subject of discriminating judgment when the work 
 of planning the Fair is distributed among the architects, 
 and that it should be planned with great and loving 
 care by him who is chosen to design it. 
 
 This task, at the Columbian Exposition, fell to Mr. 
 Charles B. Atwood, of New York, the Designer-in-Chief 
 of the Exposition. In the unstinted praise that his 
 effort has drawn from the leaders in his own profession 
 
 iSS
 
 here he cannot be mistaken in anticipating similar plau- 
 dits from the critics of the world at large when all are 
 gathered at Chicago. With an absence of envy, and 
 with a generosity that to me seems extraordinary among 
 men engaged in the rivalries of a pursuit of one profes- 
 sion, the members of the World's Fair advisory council 
 of architects seem to have awarded Mr. Atwood the 
 palm, and have vied with one another in finding terms 
 in which to praise his work. Mr. D. H. Burnham, the 
 Chief of Construction, himself a famous architect, goes 
 so far in his praise of the building as to predict that it 
 will one day be made permanent in marble. 
 
 The exterior is of the pure Ionic style, the details 
 having been carried out in the strictest and most aca- 
 demical manner. The proportion of the various divis- 
 ions of the work have been adapted from those of the 
 famous temple of the Erectheum at Athens, but the 
 composition of the general masses of the building has 
 been treated with freedom after the manner of the schol- 
 arly projcts of the Academic des Beaux Arts. These de- 
 signs have afforded the inspiration which has moved Mr. 
 Atwood. But though he has made the building as schol- 
 arly as possible, it yet impresses the layman most by its 
 chasteness and proportion. The main building is 500 
 feet long by 320 feet wide; its annexes are each 136 feet 
 wide by 220 feet long, and are connected with the cen- 
 tral pavilion by colonnades. The walls, both interior 
 and exterior, are built of brick and the roof construction 
 is of iron, thus giving a permanent character to the edi- 
 fice, and reducing to a minimum all risk of harm to the 
 works of art which will be shown there. 
 
 In the colonnades and great entrance loggias are 
 sculptured friezes after the manner of the frieze of the 
 
 189
 
 Parthenon at Athens. On the attic story of the great 
 entrances are heroic statues, in full relief against the 
 pilasters, representing the arts and sciences. Between 
 these, in the panels, are portrait busts of the masters of 
 art, while crowning the dome of the main pavilion is a 
 great winged figure following the fashion of the Victory 
 at Samothrace. All about the exterior colonnades will 
 be replicas in large size of the most celebrated antiques. 
 The dome, covered by a pattern as of scales, will be 
 white like the building. At night the cornice-line above 
 the colonnades will be crowned with candelabra bearing 
 flambeaux, from which, driven about by the breezes, 
 will leap great bulky, ragged masses of flame. 
 
 The interior of the main pavilion contains a court 100 
 feet wide, running north and south and crossing one of 
 the same dimensions lying east and west. At the point 
 of intersection of these courts is a great dome 125 feet 
 high and 75 feet in diameter, and forming a sort of trib- 
 une in the centre of the building. Here will be dis- 
 played a few of the best works of sculpture. All the 
 sculptural display will be arranged on the ground-floor 
 of these great courts. Around these courts run gal- 
 leries twenty-four feet above the floor, twenty feet wide, 
 and lighted by great central skylights. Under these 
 galleries, in alcoves, will be displayed all the sculptural 
 bass-reliefs and casts of architectural remains, notably 
 the entire collection from the Trocadero at Paris, dupli- 
 cates of which have been presented by the French Gov- 
 ernment to the Art Institute of Chicago, an enterprising 
 body which is likely to become the envy of all similar 
 institutions in this country, so great will be the prizes it 
 will gain after the termination of the Fair. 
 
 In the gallery-floor, on the walls, and on cross-screens 
 
 190
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
 
 will be displayed all the architectural plans, the etch- 
 ings, photographs, and prints which are to be shown in 
 the building. The picture-galleries are all arranged in 
 the four angles of the building. They are thirty feet in 
 height, and average thirty by sixty feet of floor space. 
 Numerous doorways permit the free movement of the 
 visitors. In the annexes the easterly pavilion is to be 
 entirely occupied by the French collection, which will 
 be very remarkable. The American section, being in 
 the angle which is contiguous to the French pavilion, 
 will exhibit all the notable French paintings owned in 
 America, in a corridor connecting with the French pa- 
 vilion. The westerly pavilion will be occupied by sev- 
 eral of the foreign peoples whose collections are much 
 smaller. Each annex has a central dome about fifty feet 
 in diameter, and galleries are arranged in varying sizes 
 in each pavilion. The cost of the building is $800,000. 
 Mr. Halsey C. Ives, the chief of the Department of 
 Fine Arts, is admired and honored by all his associates 
 in the management of the Exposition as a competent 
 and enthusiastic chieftain in the work. He is very hope- 
 ful about the display that is likely to result from his en- 
 ergetic labors. His aim is to show work by painters 
 and sculptors who are not known here, as well as the 
 best that has been done by the world's general favor- 
 ites ; to enlighten us all upon the varieties of paintings 
 that the world offers, and yet that are not handled by 
 the French dealers. To this end he went up into Scan- 
 dinavia and to Moscow, as well as to the lands that were 
 certain to contribute good exhibits. He found, among 
 other great things, a treasure in Russia. A collector 
 there named Trajakoff, a wealthy devotee of art, has a 
 gallery of paintings (all of Russian work) which is worth 
 u 191
 
 making a pilgrimage to see. One remarkable part of 
 his collection is a number of paintings by a man who 
 had, as Mr. Ives said, " discovered everything that is 
 true in the impressionist school." He had never been 
 out of Russia, and he cannot have been prosperous, for 
 some of his work is upon such stuff as window-shades 
 are made of, but it is fine, as all will discover if Mr. Ives's 
 hopes of bringing it here are satisfied. Mr. Ives thinks 
 that the art display will discover perhaps half a dozen 
 men in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden whose pictures 
 will astonish us. One Kroyer, a Dane, one of the strong- 
 est portrait-painters in the world, is among these. Ma- 
 kowsky, whose "Wedding Feast" was greatly admired 
 here, is painting a great historic canvas for the Emperor 
 of Russia, who is going to allow him to send it to our 
 Fair. It represents a celebrated scene in Moscow, where 
 the ladies are pictured bringing their jewels to the offi- 
 cials to enable the Government to prolong a war against 
 their enemies. 
 
 Mr. Ives has assurances from the artists and art asso- 
 ciations abroad that a number of countries are going to 
 make splendid exhibits ; but the Governments have ev- 
 erything to say in this regard, and will make their own 
 selections, so that at the last moment, perhaps, such 'a 
 nation as Russia, for instance, may decide to send only 
 its palace collections, leaving the more novel, varied, and 
 often far more admirable work of individual artists at 
 home. Holland may not send above 300 pictures, but 
 they will represent the best work that has been done in 
 that country in the past fifteen years. Spain and Italy 
 are interested and active, from their thrones to the stu- 
 dios, and cannot fail to make fine displays. France will 
 offer a better exhibition of her modern work than has 
 
 192
 
 MAINE STATE BUILDING
 
 been made in her own country. She used 93,000 square 
 feet in her Paris Exposition in 1889, and actually applied 
 for 90,000 square feet at Chicago. Mr. Ives, believing 
 that quality rather than quantity was what was desired, 
 allowed only 29,000 square feet to the French exhibition. 
 By thus limiting the allotments of space, he makes it 
 possible to show the best work of twenty-two countries 
 instead of that of seven or eight. 
 
 Japan, whose people never made a display in the art 
 section of an exposition abroad, will give one of the 
 most unique exhibitions in Chicago. The commission- 
 ers from Japan told Mr. Ives they feared they could not 
 meet the requirements of our classification, so greatly 
 did their art works differ from ours. His reply delight- 
 ed them intensely. He said he greatly desired them to 
 make a presentation uninfluenced by a Western rule or 
 limitation, and that they might put any interpretation 
 that they wished upon our classification. The result is 
 that the Emperor will permit the display of works never 
 seen out of his country. These will take up 2200 square 
 feet of space. 
 
 193
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 NINE ACRES OF ELECTRICAL EXHIBITS 
 
 THE Department of Electricity is to collect the con- 
 tributions of the world to its demonstration of the prog- 
 ress of electric science in a building which will be likely 
 to attract an extraordinary number of sight-seers. The 
 shelter for this exhibit is one of the very beautiful 
 buildings of the Exposition. Its architects were Messrs. 
 Van Brunt & Howe, of Kansas City. It is 690 feet 
 long by 345 feet wide, of Italian Renaissance in style, 
 and elaborately finished with many towers. The prin- 
 cipal entrance on the south side will have a noble and 
 gorgeously decorated open vestibule, covered by a half- 
 dome, the whole, it is said, being capable of the most 
 brilliant illumination. Indeed, at every point where it is 
 possible the building offers an opportunity for an electri- 
 cal night display. To this end something like 20,000 in- 
 candescent and nearly 3000 arc lights will be employed on 
 or about the edifice. The building covers more than five 
 acres and a half, and offers a floor surface of nearly nine. 
 
 Mr. John P. Barrett is the executive of the department. 
 One of his lieutenants attended the exhibition at Frank- 
 fort, in Germany, in 1891, the first purely electrical exhi- 
 bition ever held. One of the remarkable exhibits there 
 was a demonstration of the fact that electrical power 
 can be sent over great distances, the power for the fair 
 
 194
 
 being obtained from a water-fall 100 miles away. A tur- 
 bine wheel operated the alternating dynamos at the gen- 
 erating station, where power of a low voltage was put 
 through a converter and transformed into a current of 
 high voltage, and then, on the Exposition Grounds, was 
 reconverted into its original form. This process will be 
 illustrated at Chicago in a modified manner. A Nurem- 
 berg firm showed some search-lights of amazing power. 
 They formed one of the wonders of the modern world. 
 A nobleman gave a ball forty-five miles away, it is said, 
 and the light for the dancers was supplied at Frankfort 
 by this lamp. That lamp had a five-foot refractor, but 
 at Chicago there will be larger ones, the biggest being 
 displayed on top of the Electrical Building, whence it 
 will throw a huge white beam of light across the sky to 
 bathe some distant bit of Lake Michigan in noonday 
 splendor on the darkest nights. At Frankfort a theatre 
 was fitted with electrical lights, arranged for the produc- 
 tion of brilliant and realistic stage effects, which were 
 more ingenious and beautiful than any we have ever 
 seen. There will be no theatre in the Chicago display, 
 but it is likely that the processes in use at Frankfort 
 will be illustrated for us. 
 
 A very popular novelty in the building will be a 
 large and complete villa or dwelling fitted with all the 
 household electrical appliances of the period. There 
 will be no .occasion for lighting a match in it for any 
 purpose whatsoever. At the front door those who 
 wish to enter will open a box and press 3 button, which 
 will light the lamps in the 'main hall, as would be done 
 by an occupant returning home late at night. Some of 
 the lamps in the house will be peculiar. There will be 
 electroliers in certain rooms; rosettes of light embedded 
 
 195
 
 in the ceilings and walls of other rooms ; in others, 
 lamps set behind white porcelain. There will be lamps 
 in all the closets, and these will be lighted by the open- 
 ing of the closet doors, and put out when the doors are 
 shut. The mere pressure of buttons in the door-frames 
 will open each door in the building. Electric elevators 
 will obviate the necessity for using the stairways. In 
 all the common rooms and sleeping apartments there 
 will be electric fires in open fireplaces, simulating coal 
 and log fires, and each one started by the touching of 
 a button. In each room there will be electric fans for 
 use in hot weather. The library will contain an electric 
 cigar- lighter, and the sewing-room will be modernized 
 by an electric motor for running a sewing-machine. 
 Burglar-alarms of the latest sort will fortify the doors 
 and windows. The kitchen will astonish old-fashioned 
 housewives, for all the usual operations of the servants 
 will be aided by electrical devices. The electric stove 
 will boil, bake, or roast whatever is to be prepared for 
 the table; the laundry -machines will all be electrical, 
 even to the smoothing-irons, from whose hollow interiors 
 light flexible wires will reach to the main circuits in the 
 nearest wall. Electrical washing-machines and electric 
 centrifugal wringers will be notable parts of the para- 
 phernalia. The ice or the cool air in the refrigerator 
 will be made by the miniature ammonia ice-plant, which 
 will be arranged to cool the entire house on hot days 
 and nights. The house will be forty-two feet wide by 
 fifty feet deep, and therefore each device will be of full 
 working size and power. 
 
 A very beautiful exhibit will be a Moorish minaret 
 of cut glass and Bohemian colored glass, thirty feet in 
 diameter and seventy feet in height. It will appear like 
 
 196
 
 a huge lamp at night. A telephone company will em- 
 ploy a fine orchestra to play in New York, and will con- 
 duct the sound of the music all the way to the Electrical 
 Building, in which a great horn will throw out the mel- 
 ody for the benefit of all who care to visit the section. 
 One electrical company will spend $350,000 upon its ex- 
 hibit. The Baltimore and Ohio Railfoad Company will 
 show a full-sized model of a scene attending the laying 
 of the first telegraph wire by Professor Morse, who, it 
 seems, intended that the telegraph wires should be en- 
 closed in lead pipe and buried. An English firm will 
 send complete models of all the contrivances used in 
 laying submarine cables. The electric street-car exhib- 
 it in one section of the building will be very fine and 
 thorough, showing all the methods of applying elec- 
 tric power to the propulsion of cars. All the currents 
 of power in use in the building will be supplied from 
 dynamos set up by exhibitors in the Machinery Hall. 
 
 The French will make a splendid display in electric 
 appliances that are universally celebrated as being the 
 most artistic and often the most delicate products of 
 the sort that any country produces. The French excel 
 in the manufacture of delicate electrical instruments in 
 use in scientific pursuits, and for their ornamental adap- 
 tations of electrical inventions. Belgium will be conspic- 
 uous in the display, but her contributions will be mainly 
 practical, and will embrace both heavy and light ma- 
 chinery. England is very actively interested in per- 
 fecting a grand exhibit, and the electricians of our own 
 country will make an enormous and marvellous presen- 
 tation of their works. Among the German exhibits 
 will be the astonishing Nuremberg search-lights of which 
 I have twice before had occasion to write. 
 
 IQ7
 
 A HISTORY OF TRANSPORTATION 
 
 ANOTHER " first appearance " at a world's fair will be 
 the history of Transportation told by a complete series 
 of exhibits at Chicago in 1893. It will begin with vehi- 
 cles as rude as the dugout, the travois, and the chair on 
 which the guides of the Andes transport travellers on 
 their backs. It will be crowned with the marvels of the 
 modern railroads those mighty concerns which are es- 
 timated to be worth one-tenth of the wealth of civiliza- 
 tion, and three times more than all the money in the 
 world could buy. 
 
 The seventeen acres of exhibition space for this col- 
 lection are in a building 960 feet long and 256 feet deep. 
 It rises on the western bank of the main lagoon nearly 
 in the centre of the grounds. In general the architect- 
 ural treatment is simple, but many of the details and 
 accessaries are very rich. " The main entrance," says 
 the official description, " will consist of an immense arch, 
 decorated with carvings, bass-reliefs, and mural paint- 
 ings. It will be treated entirely in gold-leaf, and will be 
 known as ' the golden door.' Numerous minor en- 
 trances are provided, and with them are grouped ter- 
 races, seats, drinking-fountains, and statues. The interior 
 of the building is treated much after the manner of a 
 
 198
 
 Roman basilica, with broad nave and aisles." The mid- 
 dle roof rises much higher than the others, and its walls 
 are partly open, so as to form an arcaded clear-story. 
 On this is a cupola 165 feet above ground. Eight ele- 
 vators carry visitors from the floor to the cupola, and 
 thus give them a chance to overlook the entire aggrega- 
 tion of palaces in the park. The architects of this enor- 
 mous and sightly pile are Messrs. Adler & Sullivan, of 
 Chicago, who also designed the Auditorium, the largest 
 and most improved hotel in that city. 
 
 One of the richest " finds " of Mr. Willard A. Smith, 
 the life-long student of the science, who is at the head 
 of the department, is an old Roman chariot now at 
 Florence. Its remains are complete. It has a pole, 
 neck-yokes for the horses, and spoked wheels. It will 
 be reproduced exactly. There is also, in a museum in 
 the same city, a miniature Egyptian canoe, found in 
 perfect condition in a tomb. It also will be shown by 
 reproduction. But the exhibits of marine transporta- 
 tion may be said to begin with the rudest forms of vehi- 
 cles, such as the simple bladders used as floats on the 
 rivers of India by those fishermen who fish as they are 
 carried along. Next will be presented the log-boats 
 combinations of logs, like the jangadas of Brazil and 
 the sampans of China. These are too bulky to be 
 shown otherwise than by means of models. Then follow 
 the sheepskin rafts of the Euphrates, formed of distended 
 skins, " with the woolly side in," sewed together, and 
 made to uphold cross-poles. Next we shall see the dug- 
 outs that are found all over the world, and that are 
 practically the same everywhere. These include those 
 which are fitted with sails and in use on the west coast 
 of Africa 
 
 199
 
 A higher development in the next order of succession 
 is seen in the bedarkas of Alaska and the kiyaks of the 
 Eskimos canoes made by stretching skins over frame- 
 works. Succeeding these come the better boats, whose 
 covering of skin or bark is sewed, gummed, or laced upon 
 the vessels' hulls. Many interesting forms of boats of 
 admirable patterns will be shown, like the gondolas of 
 Italy, the caiques of Turkey, the daghsas of Malta, the 
 dahabias of the Nile, the latter being exhibited, by the 
 way, close to fine models of the modern Nile passenger 
 steamers, which are as nearly perfect as any craft of their 
 class in the world. Perhaps the sailboats of the Adriatic, 
 with their richly colored sails, will be as picturesque as 
 any in the collection, but in interest nothing can exceed 
 the gorgeous painting, already prepared, of the Bucen- 
 toro, or state barge of the Doges of Venice, whose ex- 
 terior was all gold, and whose decks were of hard and 
 polished wood inlaid with marquetry; the boat in which 
 the rulers went out to toss into the water the marriage- 
 ring with which they wedded their city to the sea. As 
 has been published before, a company has been formed 
 in Norway to reproduce the old Viking's boat the most 
 ancient vessel in the v/orld that is shown there, making 
 it of full size, and perhaps navigating it across the ocean 
 to America. The great Hudson's Bay Company will 
 contribute a notable display of birch-bark canoes, York 
 boats, travoises, dog-sleds, and all the paraphernalia of 
 travel and transportation in the wilderness. 
 
 An interesting exhibit is promised from the marine 
 museum at Madrid. It will show the sort of vessels 
 Spain employed when her naval power was enforced by 
 the largest and best fleet in the world. From the rath-' 
 houses of Lubeck, Hamburg, and Bremen will come 
 
 200
 
 MINNESOTA BUILDING
 
 models of the once terrible vessels of the Hanseatic 
 League. From England will be sent the most complete 
 and interesting marine and naval exhibit which ever left 
 her shores. By beautiful models will be shown the de- 
 velopment of both her merchant marine and her navy 
 up to the Victoria, her latest battle-ship, the model of 
 which cost $20,000. Every large ship-building establish- 
 ment in Great Britain has taken space in the building. 
 Trinity House will send copies of the British light- 
 houses, and the English life-saving system will be fully 
 exploited in the same way. The great transatlantic 
 steamship companies of England, Germany, and France 
 are building large fac-similes of the state-rooms and 
 saloons of the finest "flyers," and they will make a his- 
 torical display of the development of the transatlantic 
 service. There is every reason to believe that Italy will 
 offer a wonderful and proud showing of her naval re- 
 sources. Samples of armor-plate, naval guns, quick-firing 
 machine guns, turrets, conning towers, and the complete 
 paraphernalia of modern naval equipment will form an 
 accessary exhibit contributed from many lands. 
 
 The subject or story of land transportation will be first 
 taken up with a showing of ancient sedan chairs and 
 more modern chairs of the sort now used by travellers in 
 Persia, Asia Minor, and Turkey. We shall see the pal- 
 anquins of Japan, China, India, and Africa ; an elephant 
 carrying a howdah, camel -saddles for both riders and 
 freight, llamas with their loads, the donkey outfits of 
 South America and Egypt; the "rig" of the water-car- 
 riers of Cairo, of the lecheros or milk-sellers of South 
 America, and of the cargadoes or human pack-horses, of 
 both sexes, also of that half of our continent all to be 
 shown by models that include the human and brute
 
 forms, and trappings in fac-simile. Undergoing collection 
 are many magnificent equestrian outfits from Peru and 
 Mexico, Algiers, Turkey, Russia, and Hungary, but the 
 most splendid objects of this sort will be the horse-trap- 
 pings from the Casa Real at Madrid, as well as the man 
 and horse armor of feudal times from there and else- 
 where. 
 
 A Norwegian cariole, an Irish jaunting-car, a Neapoli- 
 tan cart, a very picturesque specimen of the Sicilian 
 carts, and a camping and travelling equipment from Pal- 
 estine are other exhibits. Some Americans offer a great 
 curiosity from Lisbon, where they purchased the old car- 
 riage which was built for the first Patriarch of that city. 
 By a special dispensation, the Pope of that time, 350 
 years ago, permitted this vehicle to be exactly copied 
 after the papal carriage, of solid silver and heavy gold 
 plate. It is in perfect order. Models of ox-carts used 
 in Jacob's time will be seen to be precisely like those 
 now in use in Mexico, South America, and some Asiatic 
 lands. There will be shown an ox-cart entirely of wood 
 made by Pueblo Indians. 
 
 An old English stage-coach, such as was in use before 
 the advent of railroads, will serve as a link between the 
 periods, and from the very threshold of the latter era is to 
 be exhibited the oldest railroad-ticket, an eight-cornered 
 brass check, bearing the legend, " L. & S. Railway, Bag- 
 worth, No. 29." It has been recently recovered from 
 within the wainscoting of the oldest railroad station in 
 the world, at Leicester, England, once the terminus of 
 the all but forgotten Leicester and Swannington Rail- 
 way. There will be an exceedingly interesting histori- 
 cal collection of the earliest forms of rails for steam- 
 power contrivances, including one of the rails on which
 
 95 
 II
 
 Nevithick's engine ran in 1804. A rail laid for a tram- 
 road on the estate of the Duke of Rutland in 1793, just 
 a century ago, will be shown beside a part of the strap- 
 rail on which ran Stevenson's " Rocket." A curious 
 exhibit will be the first rail for a flanged wheel, the first 
 conceit of railroad builders having been to put the flange 
 on the rail in the form of a gutter, instead of on the 
 car-wheel. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first 
 American road that was designed as a trunk-line, will 
 prepare a historical exhibit of the earliest forms of its 
 track, cars, and locomotives, of full size, and including 
 an old shanty car, built for passengers, and to be moved 
 by horse-power. They will reproduce the old locomo- 
 tive " Peter Cooper," which had a famous race with a 
 horse-car. The old grasshopper locomotives, with walk- 
 ing-beams to apply the power, and the camel-back, with 
 its dab on top of the boiler, are also in the collection. 
 The company is spending more than $50,000 on an ex- 
 hibition that will show the development of the locomo- 
 tive not at all for purposes of advertising, but in the 
 sole interest of history and information. It will go 
 back to the steam road -carriage, now shown in Paris, 
 and will make clear the successful and unsuccessful work 
 of all the early inventors who worked on the locomotive 
 engine, the steps of practical progress being shown full- 
 sized. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Railroad will display a section of 
 an ideal modern four-track railroad, with a station, sig- 
 nal-box, and switches, and with the interior of the station 
 transformed into a museum, or School of Railroading, 
 illustrating the methods by which the business is carried 
 on. This company will offer a historical exhibit as well, 
 starting from the Conestoga wagon and the canals along 
 
 203
 
 whose towpaths the railroad was first constructed. To 
 make known the best devices for safety at stations, the 
 company will show a model suburban station, with a 
 depot by each track, connected by a bridge overhead 
 and a tunnel underground. 
 
 The New York Central, or Vanderbilt system, will re- 
 produce its old Schenectady station at one end of its 
 space, and at the other a complete modern station build- 
 ing. On the road-bed between the two will be shown a 
 reproduction of the old Mohawk and Hudson train that 
 is so familiar in pictures, with the first locomotive and 
 the train of funny- looking cars, like stage-coaches on 
 rails. On other tracks this company will exhibit the 
 most approved system of signalling and a modern vesti- 
 buled train with a huge latter-day locomotive. In the 
 entire aggregation there will be shown more than sev- 
 enty-five American locomotives. France will send no 
 less than eight locomotives, and railway appliances and 
 exhibits of all sorts to a proportionate extent. From 
 Germany the Government will send some engines and 
 coaches from the State railroads, and, as especial features, 
 their newest compound locomotives, and both ambu- 
 lance and postal cars, the latter being part of the exhibit 
 from their Postal Museum, which we are also to see. 
 These foreign exhibits will form the first really interna- 
 tional and comparative exhibition of railroad machinery. 
 From England will be sent a London and North-western 
 Railway train complete, and shown on a section of that 
 company's track, made perfect by a presentation of their 
 signalling apparatus. England will also show examples 
 of great railway engineering works, including a twenty- 
 foot model of the big Forth Bridge. 
 
 It would seem that the only serious interruption in 
 
 204
 
 COLORADO STATE BUILDING
 
 the plans of Mr. Smith and his associate, Lieutenant 
 A. C. Baker, U.S.N., is caused by the apathy of the 
 New-Yorkers who have to do with her water commerce 
 and yachting. There is no representation of the com- 
 mercial navy of the harbor of the metropolis except such 
 as has been contributed from the New Jersey shore. 
 Especially disappointing is the failure of the New York 
 Yacht Club to appreciate the opportunity that is yet 
 offered for the display of its extremely valuable histori- 
 cal collection of yacht models. It is said that the rules 
 of this club forbid the loaning of its models, but the 
 governors could speedily suspend such rules as bear 
 upon the case, and, for that matter, the club could well 
 afford, were its patriotism stirred, to duplicate all its 
 models and send the counterfeits to this otherwise al- 
 most complete exhibition. 
 
 205
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 THE MIDWAY PLAISANCE 
 
 THE Columbian Exposition is to have what the irrev- 
 erent architects call a " Church Fair" annex. They call 
 it so because whereas the Exposition proper is designed 
 to show a visitor " the earth for fifty cents," this adden- 
 dum will be filled with things calculated to drawa vis- 
 itor's last nickel, and to leave his pocket-book looking 
 as if one of Chicago's twenty-story buildings had fallen 
 upon it. I refer to the Midway Plaisance. The Plai- 
 sance is the name that was long ago given to a strip of 
 land which connects Washington Park with Jackson 
 Park, where the Exposition is to be held. This Plai- 
 sance or parkway is 600 feet wide and a mile in length. 
 To explain its position to a visitor to the Fair it should 
 be said that it starts behind the Woman's Building, and 
 extends westward a mile back from the lake and into 
 the city. 
 
 Along its southerly side runs the Barry Sliding Rail- 
 road, a section of which excited great interest at Paris 
 at the last exposition. This is a sort of water railroad, 
 but it acts as if it was greased. The rails are laid in a 
 trough, and, instead of running on wheels, slide on flat 
 disks which set upon the rails. By hydraulic pressure, 
 water is made to force its way between these disks, and 
 
 206
 
 the tracks and the cars slip along at the rate of 100 
 miles an hour. When the passengers are seated in the 
 coaches they hear a " tsip," and, before they can dis- 
 cover what has happened, they have run the length of 
 the railroad in less than a minute. In that way they 
 traverse the Plaisance in one direction, but in order that 
 they may see how perfectly under control is the ap- 
 paratus, they return easily, making three stops on the 
 way. 
 
 Through the centre of this narrow parkway lies a 
 street 100 feet wide, and this will be lined with so re- 
 markable a collection of houses, palaces, villages, show- 
 places, and curiosities of one sort or another, that though 
 a man travelled around the world by a hundred routes 
 he never could hope to find its like or its equal in varie- 
 ty, color, gayety, and abundance of novelties. This is 
 the avenue of what the architects call the '' Church 
 Fair," and of what I think of as the side-show at the 
 " World's Circus though no diminutive term is applica- 
 ble to it, and no belittling nickname is just, for it is to 
 be a place of great and genuine wonders. 
 
 It will be a jumble of foreignness a bit of Fez and 
 Nuremberg, of Sahara and Dahomey and Holland, Ja- 
 pan and Rome and Coney Island. It will be gorgeous 
 with color, pulsating with excitement, riotous with the 
 strivings of a battalion of bands, and peculiar to the 
 last degree. It will require a day to glance at it ; a 
 week to see it. 
 
 All the buildings, villages, and palaces will be the 
 seats of private enterprises, and they will cost between 
 $50,000 and $250,000 each. Beginning on the north 
 side, the first building on the street is a factory where a 
 leading company will manufacture and cut glassware, 
 
 207
 
 performing the entire operation before the public. Next 
 door to this is a Dutch village copied from one of those 
 in the Hollandish possessions in the South Pacific Ocean, 
 with the natives leading their accustomed lives amid 
 their native surroundings. A German village of forty 
 houses is to lie next beyond. It will cover a space of 
 .240X800 feet. Copies of old Nuremberg houses, of 
 German farm-houses, and of other habitations peculiar 
 to the country, will surround a central court wherein 
 will be found German restaurants and beer-halls. There 
 will be Tyrolese dancers, German bands, singing com- 
 panies, musicians, and German cooking and beer, all il- 
 lustrative of fatherland life in town and country. This 
 will provide a study more or less ethnological in char- 
 acter, and it has interested ethnologists in its produc- 
 tion. Five hundred to a thousand persons will be 
 brought over to equip it with its population. 
 
 A street in Cairo will be the next adjoining novelty ; 
 not the famous Rue de Caire that delighted the Pari- 
 sians, but something different and better. It will show 
 a theatre, mosque, bazaar, private dwellings, and a full 
 representation of life in the open street by Egyptians 
 in costume. Of course all will sell wares and meals, and 
 give performances for which there will be a charge. One 
 of the most exquisite scenic effects within the whole 
 World's Fair will be the Algerian and Tunisian village, 
 which is next in line. One who sees the colored and 
 complete drawings of the buildings now on the grounds 
 realizes their great beauty. They are all truly Oriental, 
 and are white, with decorations of faience, in pale greens, 
 blues, and vermilions. One is a large Algerian theatre 
 seating 600 persons ; another is a Tunisian theatre hold- 
 ing 300. There is also a Kabyle theatre, such as the 
 
 208
 
 Kabyles in the mountainous parts of Algiers resort to. 
 A native Kabyle house is one of the curiosities ; another 
 is a street leading to a Moorish cafe", and one of the 
 larger buildings is a minaret, with twenty shops under 
 a great gallery. A bazaar of as many shops is another 
 feature. Tents and dwellings are scattered about, and 
 a host of the savage, swarthy, but picturesque people of 
 Tunis and Algiers will fill the place with activity. Men, 
 women, and children will compose the population, and 
 will dance and play their music, cook and serve their 
 food, and in every way illustrate their modes of life at 
 home. Some native Arab fanatics will be among them, 
 eating scorpions, carrying snakes familiarly about, cut- 
 ting and piercing themselves with evil-looking weapons, 
 and generally so behaving as to be interesting but total- 
 ly unsuited to a family tea-party. The dans de ventre, 
 which was so great a success in Paris, will be repeated 
 here. 
 
 The panorama of the volcano of Kilalau in the Sand- 
 wich Islands is a next-door show, and next to that is a 
 reproduction of a large Moroccan village, of which much 
 that has been said of the Tunisian and Algerian display 
 would have to be repeated were it to be described. The 
 inevitable captive balloon exhibition will be neighborly 
 to the Morocco display, this venture being by a French 
 company. A mention of it calls to mind the fact that 
 one man asked the directors for a concession for a bal- 
 loon venture of a novel kind. Under his balloon he 
 wanted to have a deep pond of water, with a sort of 
 cup or big thimble in the bottom of it. The balloon 
 was to carry up a great metal cartridge, large enough 
 to admit a man or woman. . The passengers were to get 
 in at the top of the cartridge, be enclosed tight, and 
 
 209
 
 then to be carried several thousand feet in the air and 
 dropped. The cartridge was to fall into the pool, and, 
 after wobbling about in the water, was to gradually come 
 to an upright position and fit itself into the cup in the 
 centre. The inventor thought that tens of thousands 
 of persons would be wild to be thus flung back to earth 
 from a mile or so above the clouds, but the directors 
 disagreed with him. 
 
 A great nursery exhibit of trees will be the last at- 
 traction on the north side of this remarkable avenue. 
 Returning, on the opposite or south side, the first ex- 
 hibition will be a representation of a Dahomey village, 
 but not sufficient is known of it at this time for me to 
 be able to say more than that it will be like most of the 
 other foreign settlements a reproduction of antipodean 
 life. An Austrian village next along the line will give 
 a wide and complete view of life in town and country 
 in Austria, with houses and peasants as they are seen 
 there. A copy of a magnificent house as it stood in 
 ancient Rome will be on the next plot of ground. Far- 
 ther on will be found a very peculiar toy, " the ice rail- 
 road." By means of a refrigerating process the moisture 
 on a system of pipes will be frozen sufficiently deep for 
 sleds to be run over it during the entire summer. 
 
 Beside the railroad is another toy, and one so remark- 
 able that it is sometimes referred to as filling the place 
 of especial notoriety that was held in Paris by the Eiffel 
 Tower. This curiosity at Chicago is called " the Ferris 
 Wheel." It is a wheel 250 feet in diameter, or as wide 
 as twenty full -sized city dwellings. Its construction 
 combines great strength with airy gracefulness and light- 
 ness by the adaptation of the principle upon which a 
 bicycle wheel is built. The great circle, looking almost 
 
 210
 
 like a cobweb from a distance, will be revolved on an 
 axle that will rest on two towers, each 150 feet high. 
 On the periphery of the wheel, in the place where pad- 
 dles would go on a paddle-wheel, will be hung twenty- 
 six passenger-cars, each capable of seating sixty persons. 
 These cars will be so adjusted as to keep their positions 
 evenly and steadily while the great wheel revolves, and 
 passengers will find themselves lifted far above the high- 
 est buildings, and commanding a view of the entire Ex- 
 position, the city, and a great segment of Lake Michi- 
 gan's surface of emerald and sapphire. The gearing 
 by which the motive force is applied to the wheel will 
 be underneath, and will be exerted by means of cogs, 
 giving the operator full control and the passengers per- 
 fect safety. 
 
 Next beyond this giant wheel will be an immense 
 Moorish palace after the style of the Alhambra. Its 
 interior will be given up to an exhibition of Moorish 
 and Spanish curios. Its managers propose to exhibit 
 $1,000,000 in gold in one pile in one of the apartments. 
 This treasure will be so disposed that at the slightest 
 approach of danger, or at any pretended alarm, the mass 
 of wealth will sink into the ground and disappear. Its 
 disappearance will be within a burglar-proof vault, built 
 underneath it for the purpose. This receptacle will in- 
 stantly lock itself up when the treasure descends into it, 
 and any robber who may have thought himself about to 
 capture it, will feel like the boy who, when he went to 
 pick up something on the sidewalk, found that it had a 
 string to it. 
 
 A panorama of the Bernese Alps is spoken of as a 
 most realistic painting, and next to it is a natatorium of 
 great size, which, besides containing a large swimming 
 
 211
 
 pool, will have private baths, plenty of dressing-rooms, 
 and all sorts of appliances for water gymnastics and ath- 
 letic sports. A typical Vienna bakery is to be run in 
 connection with the natatorium. Beyond this the won- 
 derful zoological collection of the famous Hagenbeck, of 
 Germany, is to be on exhibition. For very many years 
 Herr Hagenbeck has been world famous as the largest 
 collector of animals in Christendom. A very complete 
 exhibition of Irish industries and products from Donegal 
 occupies the next space. Donegal is the headquarters 
 of the Irish lace- making industry, and the display of 
 these beautiful laces will be very notable. Thus we 
 are brought back to the head of the Plaisance, and find 
 ourselves again behind the Woman's Building. We can- 
 not reach that building without passing the Circular 
 Railroad Tower, the last or the first, if you please of 
 the wonders of the Plaisance. The tower will be 400 
 feet in height and 100 feet in diameter, and will look not 
 unlike the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Around it will run 
 a spiral railroad with two tracks. On one of these tracks 
 the cars will be hauled to the top by means of a cable 
 moved by electrical power. Then they will descend by 
 gravity, and the passengers will enjoy a novel, if not a 
 dizzy, journey.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 ORNAMENTS AND ODDITIES 
 
 THE "pop -corn man" at the Columbian Exposition 
 counts upon a profit of at least $100,000 from the sale 
 of his goods there, and he is no visionary. He obtained 
 the same concession at the Philadelphia Exposition in 
 1876 and cleared $70,000. He will dot the Exposi- 
 tion Grounds with pretty little stands that will be long 
 the subject of tender memory with those who like their 
 corn when it is hot. But there will be hundreds of 
 other kiosks, boxes, pavilions, and booths at the Colos- 
 sal Fair, and if we include a mention of a few of the still 
 larger and more ambitious houses for the sale and ex- 
 hibition of the things the crowds will want, we start 
 upon a chapter of uncommon interest. 
 
 Clams and baked beans will at last receive their glori- 
 ous deserts. It has been reserved for the Columbian 
 Exposition to pay the debt of an admiring world to 
 these marvellous sources of Massachusetts' greatness. 
 The Clam-bake Building, 180 feet long by 60 feet wide, 
 will be one of the prettiest edifices on the Fair Grounds. 
 Mr. Sandier is the architect, and, catching the true spir- 
 it of the clam and the Boston bean, has designed a 
 building whose beauty is in its simple lines and modest 
 ornamentation. To be sure, the panels of its entabla- 
 
 213
 
 ture are decked with carved fish -nets and sea -shells, 
 and its projecting balconies will appear gay with color 
 against the white walls, but in the main the theme of 
 the building is approached with proper reverence. Here 
 the clam-baking will be done in pure Yankee style. A 
 great court, running through the building to the roof, 
 will rise above an enormous and incessant clam-bake in 
 the basement, down upon which all visitors to the build- 
 ing may gaze. I do not know why the appetizing 
 gases and perfumed odors of the succulent composition of 
 clams, sweet corn, and other " goodies " should be drawn 
 or sucked away so as not to rise to the noses between 
 each pair of devouring eyes, but this is to be done. A 
 forced draught will carry up the chimneys that delicious 
 effluvia which is to a true Yankee what the odor of in- 
 cense is to other devotees. There will be a restaurant 
 on the second floor over the bake, and a roof-garden 
 will render the top of the house useful. This is the 
 work of Boston capitalists I had almost said philan- 
 thropists. 
 
 The Leather Building is on the lake shore near the 
 Forestry Building. It is built at the expense of a com- 
 bination of men in the leather industries. This will 
 be rather one of the larger than of the subordinate 
 houses, for it will have a length of 600 feet and a width 
 of 1 50 feet. It will cost $100,000. In it the leather men 
 will combine in exhibiting the machinery and products 
 of manufacture in this country. Of shoes, saddles, and 
 trappings, and of many other sorts of leather-work, both 
 the ancient and curious and the modern and perfected 
 articles, they will make one of the notable exhibits at 
 the Fair. 
 
 The Convent of La Rabida, to which Columbus retired 
 
 214
 
 _ 
 
 2* 50 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 o S 
 3 > 
 S z 
 
 o a 
 
 I?
 
 at Palos, in Spain, after his disappointment, and before 
 the King and Queen reconsidered his project, will be re- 
 stored in staff as nearly as human ingenuity can make 
 it. In it will be shown all the Columbiana that can be 
 gathered ; all relics of Columbus books, pictures, por- 
 traits, and everything that illustrates his life and ad- 
 ventures. This will be the work of the Latin-American 
 Department, and a man-of-war will be sent abroad to 
 collect and to guarantee the safe conduct of the pre- 
 cious relics to our shores. Possibly the last lineal de- 
 scendant of Columbus, the Duke of Veragua, now living 
 in Spain, will accept an invitation to come and live in 
 the convent during the Exposition. 
 
 The Choral Building is put up by the Exposition 
 managers. It is so large that it will accommodate an 
 audience of 5700, a chorus of 2000 persons, and an or- 
 chestra of 160 persons all seated as if around the sides 
 of a sloping bowl, for the whole interior is an open cir- 
 cular amphitheatre with rings of seats one above the 
 other and with the conductor at the bottom, as if he 
 stood in the heart of an unfolding flower. Externally 
 the building is a modest square pile, Ionic in character, 
 and very plain and chaste. Those who see it will be 
 most impressed by its noble porch recessed behind 
 heavy Ionic columns. Francis M. Whitehouse, of Chi- 
 cago, is the architect, and the dimensions of the build- 
 ing are 250 by 260 feet. This hall the Exposition man- 
 agers will put at the disposal of the various choruses 
 that are to be features of the Fair, sometimes in com- 
 petition one with another. Other musical entertain- 
 ments, such as oratorios and the Welsh eisteddfod, will 
 be presented here. 
 
 A concession has been granted to one of the very 
 
 215
 
 swell restaurateurs of Paris, who will be backed by New 
 York capital, that is to be expended in putting up a 
 very notable restaurant building. It will be pretty in 
 its exterior effects, but its interior marvels will pale all 
 its other attractions, for it is proposed to fit it palatially, 
 so that there shall be no other dining-place so rich and 
 attractive in all America. The most artistic furniture 
 and decorations will embellish it, and the rarest china 
 and glassware, contributed by the principal foreign man- 
 ufacturers of such wares, will equip its tables when they 
 are set. The building will contain fifteen private dining- 
 rooms. The famous " Joseph," long of the Cafe" Amer- 
 icain and now of the Cafe de Paris in that city, will be 
 the chef. He is the man whom one of the Vanderbilts 
 salaried and brought to' America a few years ago. In 
 all probability the French possess a word to explain 
 what Joseph is, for he is not a cook or a chef. He is 
 an artist of the table, of the dining-room, rather than 
 of the kitchen. It is said of him that he can so embel- 
 lish and serve the most ordinary green apple that it be- 
 comes a thing which men will bid against one another 
 to acquire. His art is the science of tempting men to 
 dine, of arousing an appetite, of making every edible 
 and dish take on a new attractiveness under his way of 
 serving or displaying it. 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the number of restaurants 
 that will offer meals to those who visit the Fair. Every 
 nationality will maintain its own restaurants and modes 
 of preparing food. Wherever the nations seek to re- 
 produce their peasant life or novelties, a dining-place 
 will be one feature of such exhibition. All the great 
 buildings of the Exposition proper have been planned 
 with profuse arrangements for restaurants, varying in 
 
 216
 
 scope and excellence. Near the stock exhibit, and 
 where men will go to look at masses of machinery, or to 
 wrap themselves up in the study of a serious subject, 
 the restaurants will be mere lunch-counters ; whereas in 
 the heart and the gayety of the crowds there will be 
 bountiful and elaborate provision for eating. The great 
 structure for the exhibition of manufactures and liber- 
 al arts, the largest of the enormous palaces, will contain 
 more restaurants than are to be found in some cities. 
 The twenty-five-foot loggia along the east side of this 
 building is one-third of a mile in length, and it will be 
 lined with restaurants, all facing Lake Michigan. The 
 restaurateurs will have the right to set tables out on the 
 promenade, as is done on the boulevards of Paris. It is 
 hoped here to show the working and service of all na- 
 tions in the widest and most attractive variety, so that 
 merely to walk past them and to see the Japanese and 
 Javanese, the French, the Swiss, and all the others, with 
 their differing eating-houses, will be a joy and wonder 
 in itself. 
 
 Ceylon will have a typical and beautiful pavilion 
 one of those low-roofed palaces with richly-carved posts, 
 red tiles, and all the ornate characteristics of Indian ar- 
 chitecture with which those of us who love pictures are 
 familiar. Turkey is to have a building fifty feet square, 
 which will be an exact copy of one now in Constantino- 
 ple. It will be all open underneath, and supported on 
 gaudy columns, gayly roofed ; but the wonder of it will 
 be that it will be all inlaid with mother-of-pearl. This 
 building is designed as a sort of rendezvous. It has 
 already been built in Turkey, and is in readiness to ship 
 to Chicago. 
 
 The chewing-gum man who has bought the right to 
 
 217
 
 sell that commodity which, as we read on the Chicago 
 fences, all gentlemen chew after drinking, and all ladies 
 chew to "lubricate their throats" is not going to be 
 distanced by the pop-corn man. He will have as many 
 stands as the other, and all his little marts will be as 
 pretty as so many statues in a park. The officials insist 
 that they shall be pretty, or they shall not be at all. 
 Then, again, there are to be scores and scores of cent- 
 a-gUss pure water kiosks, little pavilions for the sale of 
 an absolutely pure water brought from springs 100 
 miles away. The entire great area of the Fair Grounds 
 has been piped for conducting this supply to the dif- 
 ferent stands. The toilet and retiring rooms for ladies 
 and gentlemen will not be scattered about the avenues 
 in the manner that formed so bad a feature of the Paris 
 Exposition. They will be arranged in groups in all the 
 large buildings, at the entrances, and at central points. 
 They will be under careful supervision, and alongside 
 those which are free will be those in which for a small 
 fee of, say, five cents, the full advantages of a neat and 
 complete wash-room with willing attendants can be en- 
 joyed away from the crowds and at ease. The plumb- 
 ing will be of the daintiest and most perfect character. 
 The work of preparing it has been put in the hands of 
 a syndicate of leading plumbers. 
 
 Set about the great park-like grounds in all suitable 
 places will be picturesque flower -stands presided over 
 by pretty young women, the buildings themselves being 
 subordinated in beauty to the masses of blossoms and 
 bouquets which will be heaped within them, as one sees 
 such stands on the Parisian boulevards. 
 
 In half a dozen places there will be ornate music pa- 
 vilions, very gay in colors, and of the French renaissance 
 
 218
 
 COL. G. R. DAVIS
 
 type of construction design. Mr. Theodore Thomas's 
 agents have been abroad to secure all the famous mili- 
 tary bands of Europe. These will be heard at one time 
 or another, alternating their performances in the vari- 
 ous pavilions. There will be an abundance of this very 
 best of out-of-door music by the noted orchestras of all 
 the gay places of Europe, such as Homburg, Monte Carlo, 
 Vienna, Berlin, and by such bands as that of the Cold- 
 stream Guards, of Strauss, of Suza of Washington, and 
 by whichever are the foremost bands of St. Petersburg 
 and Paris. 
 
 At the principal points of view, particularly around 
 the crystal lagoon, wherein the Wooded Island lifts its 
 restful height, will be built blooming bowers of leafage. 
 The vines of which these shady nooks will be formed 
 will train over trellises resting upon ornamental columns 
 or upon hermes, those pedestals ending in busts of sa- 
 tyrs such as are seen at Capri. These retreats, called 
 pergulas by the learned, will be free, and most delightful 
 to all who are tired or who wish to sit and drink in the 
 memorable scene among the great palaces, under the 
 flutter of a myriad of gay banners, and amid the bustle 
 of armies of trooping sight-seers. 
 
 In front of the great building for manufactures, be- 
 tween it and the trim shelving shore of Lake Michigan, 
 will be a row of ten rather large pavilions of very rich 
 design. Two of these elaborate gems of art have been 
 taken by rival chocolate houses. One is being designed 
 by Carrere & Hastings, of New York. It is in the Louis 
 XV. style, very luxuriant in its carving, and gayly col- 
 ored in the tones of Dresden china. It will be a perfect 
 gem. The other will doubtless vie with it. In these 
 two tiny palaces the public will be asked to drink choc- 
 
 219
 
 olate served by comely maidens in bewitching costumes, 
 the beverage being offered in only the daintiest china. 
 The Japanese have secured another of these ornate pa- 
 vilions for a native tea-house, and undoubtedly the 
 others will be taken by different nationalities for similar 
 purposes. 
 
 220
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 A WONDERFUL MINERAL EXHIBIT 
 
 IN a very prettily located position stands the great 
 building devoted to mining and metallurgy. It forms 
 one of the group which has for its centre-piece the com- 
 manding and graceful Administration Building. It faces 
 at the south the Grand Central Court ; at the north, the 
 waters of the Lagoon. The great throng of visitors 
 which will move in from the terminal station, and stream 
 out around the western line of exhibit buildings, will 
 course through the structure which is to house the offer- 
 ings to the Genius of Mining. 
 
 The substantial and ornate exterior is suggestive both 
 of the fundamental character of this industry and of the 
 thousand and one brilliant, handsome, and unique forms 
 of mineral wealth to be displayed in the interior. The 
 symbolical figures of miners with picks and pans in hand, 
 adorning the walls of the lofty arched portal, teach their 
 lesson that the opulence of precious metal and costly 
 gem to be lavishly displayed within is, as in all other 
 industries, only achieved in terms of toil. 
 
 The scene which will be presented by the interior will 
 certainly be an attractive and striking one. Let us an- 
 ticipate what it will disclose. We find ourselves within a 
 capacious hall, 700 feet long, 350 feet broad, and almost
 
 IOO feet high. The glass -covered roof seems to have 
 a light and airy support, its cantilever truss branching 
 from and sustained by only two widely-separated lines of 
 graceful columns. We see a strikingly beautiful display 
 confronting us glittering minerals, many-colored assort- 
 ments of ore, towering stacks of shining metals, trophies, 
 bunting, half- discerned descriptive shields, everything 
 in such profusion as to be at first bewildering. 
 
 To make a closer survey, we walk down the broad 
 central avenue which forms a promenade the length of 
 the building. Bullion Boulevard it might aptly be term- 
 ed, from the mass of riches heaped upon the fronting 
 spaces. On the western side of this avenue are arranged 
 the exhibits of the leading mineral-producing foreign 
 countries, beginning with the Central and South Ameri- 
 can States. The lands of the Aztec and Inca, in respect 
 to the variety of resources and prodigious output of 
 metal, still vie with their northern neighbor. It is a 
 case of age and natural fertility as against youth and 
 future productiveness. The mines, worked from prehis- 
 toric times, with whose gold Cortez loaded his return- 
 ing galleons, and which were still active when the great 
 discoverer Alexander von Humboldt described them, 
 still revel in the record of their ancient greatness and 
 prove their present stores inexhaustible. Lining the 
 opposite side of the avenue have been located the treas- 
 ure States of our own country. These States, through 
 their organized boards and regularly appointed officials, 
 have for many months been assiduously employed in 
 gathering and selecting exhibits possessing an inherent 
 interest and attractiveness, and characteristic of their 
 respective States. As each State and Territory owns, for 
 Exposition purposes, the space it occupies, the result has
 
 THOMAS W. PALMER, PRESIDENT 
 (Michigan)
 
 been a great rivalry as to which shall excel in the mat- 
 ter of comparative exhibits, arrangement, and decora- 
 tions. The variety of mineral products, allowing a wide 
 difference of treatment, together with great diversity in 
 the tastes of the designers, has therefore transformed 
 the State sections into a series of ever-changing scenes, 
 mirroring the typical mineral resources and industries of 
 each one. Monotony is lost as in the glittering transfor- 
 mations of the kaleidoscope. Here granite-ribbed New 
 England, demonstrating the solidity of her foundation, 
 exposes in cube and slab the beauty and excellence of 
 her justly celebrated quarries. From the vast coal 
 basins of the carboniferous forests the great States of 
 the Appalachian region and Ohio valley appropriate a 
 plumage, all their own, of shiny blackness, and fashion 
 this murky material into singular and felicitous embel- 
 lishments. 
 
 In the centre of one space are trophies in glistening, 
 moulded metals; here, curious arches of iron and steel, 
 resting upon massive blooms and billets; there, a statue 
 in bronze, brass, or copper, supported by pedestals of 
 curiously wrought metals. In the centre of another sec- 
 tion pillars and pyramids of salt of rare crystalline white- 
 ness and beauty, almost blinding in their brilliancy, are 
 reinforced with an assortment of the different evaporated 
 and mined saline products; over there, a dioramic view 
 of a western desert, with a train and teams made of 
 borax realistically springing from the painted scene. 
 The South substantiates the "boom" she has received 
 during the last decade by exhibiting collections of her 
 many commercial minerals, such as mineral fertilizers 
 and pigments, clays, and her numerous precious and base 
 metalliferous ores. The gold and precious stones of 
 
 223
 
 North Carolina, the phosphates of Florida, and the iron 
 ores of Alabama are assembled in this world-wide ex- 
 hibit. But in the realm of the metals it is the great and 
 unbounded West that presents the most wonderful dis- 
 play of limitless wealth. California, Colorado, Montana, 
 Idaho, are names synonymous with golden opulence. 
 The nuggets of placer gold, the heaps of quartzose ores, 
 full of the yellow metal, and bullion, stacked on every 
 side, attest the fact that these are the sovereign mining 
 States. A large semicircular court in the centre of the 
 building is adorned with a trophy tower, formed by a 
 cluster of typical machines employed in the mining in- 
 dustry, and emerging at the base from a massive and 
 artistic mineral foundation, appropriately graced with 
 shields and ensigns. This is intended to be the princi- 
 pal rendezvous of the building. From it radiate ave- 
 nues, aisles, and transepts, which render all the exhibits 
 easy of access. Foreign countries, like Great Britain 
 and Germany, on one side confront the greatest of our 
 mineral States on this open central arena. 
 
 In one direction we discern the outlines of the heavier 
 machinery used in mining, both underground and on the 
 surface, for the extraction of the ores and their final re- 
 duction. The exploitation of this machinery is complete 
 in every detail. One can trace the ore through every 
 stage of these processes. Drills and cutting machines 
 take out the ore ; automatic hoisting and conveying ap- 
 pliances transport it to the crusher and stamp-mill; a 
 smelting plant reduces the assorted ores, and turns out 
 the metal in ingot form. Most interesting of all the 
 exhibits in this division, for the average visitor as well 
 as for the mining engineer, are the different applications 
 to which electricity has been put in the new and fruitful 
 
 224
 
 field of mining. Its ease of transmission has availed to 
 make of it an exceedingly efficient motor agent, and the 
 most improved mines at the present day employ elec- 
 trically-driven ro.ck and core drills, and underground 
 trains, while some of the hugest mining pumps and 
 hoists are of the electric variety. Electricity fires the 
 blast, gives the signals, and, in some cases, lights the 
 mines. As a principle in mining machinery it is becom- 
 ing indispensable. The display, offering as it does an 
 unparalleled opportunity for comparison and study, can- 
 not fail to give a tremendous impetus to its further de- 
 velopment in this direction. 
 
 A series of most entertaining and instructive exhibits 
 are the collections of archaeological mining tools and 
 apparatus employed in the earliest days of mining his- 
 tory. These are arranged in a progressive order, and 
 thus present the successive advances made in the im- 
 provement of each particular kind of machine. For ex- 
 ample, we have shown to us, in this comparative man- 
 ner, the methods employed by the ancients, or primitive 
 peoples, for sinking shafts, driving and timbering tun- 
 nels, and for hoisting and transporting the ores. The 
 pick, hammer, and chisel are contrasted with compressed 
 and electric rock drills, and with powerful machines 
 which cut out the mined material in huge blocks. The 
 straight-laddered pole, up which climbs the South Amer- 
 ican native miner with ponderous burden of ore baskets, 
 is placed beside the old-fashioned windlass and basket. 
 This in turn is succeeded by the engine and bucket, or 
 cage, the improved engine and hoisting-drum, and, 
 finally, liquid -lifts and electric hoists. A picturesque 
 group, consisting of a burro laden with panniers of ore, 
 urged on by his native driver, represents the first stage 
 
 225
 
 in the surface transportation of ores, the series ending 
 with belt conveyers, automatic tramways, and hydraulic 
 transmission of coal and ores through a liquid medium. 
 Beginning with the grinding mortars and stone mills, 
 relics of the earliest ages, we are shown a variety of an- 
 tique and curious crushing appliances, such as the his- 
 torical arastra of Mexico (several oblong stones revolved 
 in a circular vat by mule -power), and we finally halt be- 
 fore the modern stamp and gold mill with all the acces- 
 saries for separating and sorting the ores. 
 
 In the metallurgical section an exhibit of great his- 
 toric interest is the original Bessemer converter, the 
 first device ever used for the manufacture of steel by 
 the pneumatic method. This was invented by a Ken- 
 tuckian (Kelley), and patented two years prior to Sir 
 Henry Bessemer's claim. Of course, the operation of 
 that wonder of the age, the steel-rolling mill, is exhib- 
 ited in miniature models of the machinery, diagrams, 
 and pictures, and specimens of the product at different 
 stages of manufacture. The electrical reduction of the 
 metals aluminium, copper, and tin forms a very inter- 
 esting and attractive exhibit, the actual process proceed- 
 ing under the eyes of the visitor. 
 
 The Cape Colony exhibit comprises an exact repro- 
 duction of the machinery and methods employed for 
 mining and washing gems in the famous South African 
 diamond fields. We can easily imagine ourselves at the 
 Kimberley mines, as the machinery before us stamps, 
 chops up, and washes the diamondiferous blue clay, and 
 the native Kaffirs at the sorting-tables pick out and ar- 
 range the precious pebbles according to size and quality. 
 The lapidary is at hand with his chisel and wheel ; takes 
 the stone, chips off a bit here and there, polishes the 
 
 226
 
 JOHN T. DICKINSON, SECRETARY 
 (Texas)
 
 facets, and dazzles the eye with the brilliant and flash- 
 ing rays of a perfect gem. 
 
 At the side or end of the building we ascend a broad 
 flight of stairs to the spacious gallery. From this point 
 of vantage the spectacle afforded by the varied display 
 below is indeed inspiring. The avenues and transepts, 
 as revealed in a bird's-eye view, mark out four large open 
 rectangular exhibit sections, and two narrower areas con- 
 tiguous to the walls of the building on either side. Every 
 bit of these spaces. seems alive with the gleam and glitter 
 of mineral and metal, and the tremulous motion of ma- 
 chines. Turning from the rail, w r e find ourselves among 
 handsome glass cabinets containing collections of crys- 
 tals flawless and unique. Down another alcove is a 
 complete set of gold and silver bearing minerals, simple 
 to complex, flecked with grains of their white or yellow 
 ingredient. The blues and greens of copper, the yellows 
 of sulphur, and the many- shaded iridescence of other 
 crystalline minerals, all intermingle to make a pleasing 
 effect in color. Model after model of famous mines and 
 mining establishments is arranged on tables, and these 
 are so constructed as to permit the display of both exte- 
 rior and interior workings. Large relief maps in papier- 
 mache illustrate the geographical and geological dis- 
 tribution of minerals, and ores; while upon the wall hang 
 charts and diagrams giving historical and statistical data. 
 Hard by are the headquarters of the mine engineering 
 ' profession, geologists, and other scientists. A scientific 
 library, containing several thousand volumes of rare and 
 valuable works on gems, minerals, mining and metal- 
 lurgy, catalogued and available for reference, is installed 
 in a quiet corner of the gallery, and is under the charge 
 of a librarian. Here, too, all of the periodicals devoted 
 
 227
 
 to these industries or the allied sciences have files of 
 their current issues. Rare and interesting photographs, 
 engravings, and prints of objects possessing special and 
 technical interest, are exhibited for the instruction and 
 entertainment of the miner, engineer, and scientist. The 
 laboratory for assaying is a luxury and convenience far- 
 sightedly provided by the management. It is conducted 
 for the benefit of exhibitors, but so many interesting 
 operations are involved that it becomes itself a fascinat' 
 ing and instructive exhibit. 
 
 I find in the Chicago Times a short account of the life 
 and character of the department chief who has thus ar- 
 ranged to make dull rocks, crude metals, and cumbrous 
 machinery narrate the history of mining so eloquently 
 and luminously. He is Frederick J. V. Skiff, and was 
 born in Massachusetts in 1851, and there attended school. 
 He went west at the age of seventeen, and became a 
 journalist. In time he came to be part owner and gen- 
 eral manager of the Denver Tribune, which we are told 
 " required a great deal of hustle to keep it ahead of the 
 procession." The owners sold it, and, later, Mr. Skiff 
 went to the Legislature, to which body he afterwards de- 
 clined re-election. 
 
 '" In 1889 he was appointed Commissioner of the State 
 Bureau of Immigration and Statistics, and performed 
 valuable work in this field. He was made a member of 
 the National World's Fair Commission to represent Colo- 
 rado in 1890, and was chosen for the chairmanship of the 
 Commission's committee on mines and mining. Director- 
 general Davis named him for chief of the department 
 of mines and mining in June, 1891. Under the act of 
 the Legislature of Colorado he was the same year made 
 a member of the Colorado State World's Fair Board. 
 
 228
 
 During his residence in Colorado he has been interested 
 more or less in mining ventures, and during his profes- 
 sional career, and in his official capacity, he has natu- 
 rally written and spoken a great deal on industrial topics 
 and the questions of raw material and mining. Mr. 
 Skiff made a collection of the mineral products of Colo- 
 rado, which was placed on exhibition in Chicago and 
 St. Louis in 1889-90. Mr. Skiff is small in stature, but 
 he is big in intellect and large in the hearts of his 
 friends. He has a bulging forehead, with more than 
 the usual quantity of brains behind it. He has a big, 
 bright, kindly eye, as full of language and poetry as In- 
 gersoll's. He is a fine writer, a speaker of power and 
 fluency, and he is altogether a most charming man." 
 Magnetic would have been a stronger word than charm 
 ing, but otherwise the account of him is adequate. 
 
 229
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 THE FISHERIES DISPLAY 
 
 NEVER before was a collection of fishery exhibits dis- 
 tinguished at a universal exposition as ours will be in 
 Chicago in 1893. The great building arranged for hous- 
 ing the collection is one of the most pleasing of the Fair 
 Ground palaces, as well as one of the least conventional 
 ones in its form and ornamentation. Mr. Henry Ives 
 Cobb, of Chicago, the architect, has shown great courage 
 in decorating the structure with the shapes of sea-creat- 
 ures and sea-forms of very many sorts that easily lend 
 their outlines to artistic uses. The pillars and arches 
 of the colonnades of the building, for instance, are rich- 
 ly and ingeniously decked with turtles, crabs, lobsters, 
 and fish of various kinds, and this is done so that the 
 effects are nearly always beautiful, the general result be- 
 ing entirely so. The type which the building copies is 
 the Spanish Romanesque, and its uncommon form a 
 combination of three houses '-is so ably proportioned 
 and so attractive to the eye that many visitors will 
 doubtless fancy it above most of the other structures 
 on the grounds. The buildings face an arm of the La- 
 goon, and stand between it and Lake Michigan. They 
 have a united length of about 700 feet. The middle 
 house, which is rectangular in shape, will be devoted 
 
 230
 
 to exhibits illustrative of commercial fisheries, scientific 
 investigation, and the propagation offish. The annexes 
 are polygonal (sixteen-sided) pavilions, connected with 
 the main building by curved arcades. 
 
 The East Pavilion is built for the showing of live fish 
 in aquaria. " In the centre of this building will be a ro- 
 tunda about sixty feet in diameter; in the middle will 
 be a basin thirty feet wide, in the centre of which will 
 be a mass of rocks covered with moss and lichens. From 
 crevices in the rocks tiny streams of water will rise in 
 miniature fountains, and will drop in spray showers to 
 the basin below. In this pool will be many bright-hued 
 goldfish, golden ides, golden tench, and other ornamental 
 fishes, as well as aquatic and semi-aquatic plants. From 
 the rotunda one side of the larger series of aquaria may 
 be viewed. These will be ten in number, and each will 
 have a capacity of from 7000 to 27,000 gallons of water." 
 
 The West Pavilion is to be devoted to the display of 
 the angling paraphernalia of our own and foreign coun- 
 tries, and, in the language of the chief of the depart- 
 ment, " bids fair to be the most comprehensive, varied, 
 complete, and interesting collection of everything per- 
 taining to the 'gentle art ' that can possibly be brought 
 together, and will be quite unique in character and mar- 
 vellous in extent. Not only is it expected that a won- 
 derful array of fishing-tackle, tools, and implements will 
 be displayed, but that everything bearing on the subject, 
 either directly or remotely, will be included." This is 
 likely to compass an illustrative collection, showing the 
 evolution of the angler's science from prehistoric times 
 until these days, as well as the processes and parapher- 
 nalia of modern barbarians. Out-of-doors the side of the 
 Lagoon will be picturesquely set with fishing-camps of 
 
 231
 
 timber and canvas, and with boats and camping outfits, 
 while upon the adjacent water competitors and exhib- 
 itors will show their methods of trolling, skittering, fly 
 casting, and bait fishing. 
 
 In addition to the ground-floor space in the buildings 
 there will be very wide galleries in the main structure, 
 so that, in all, more than 80,000 square feet of room 
 will be at the disposal of the exhibitors and visitors. 
 The salt-water for the exhibition of living creatures from 
 the oceans will be brought to Chicago in a condensed 
 form, at one-fifth its natural bulk, and will then be re- 
 stored to its original condition by the addition of fresh- 
 water. It is expected that Captain J. W. Collins, who 
 is assistant fish commissioner under the Government, 
 as well as the energetic chief of this department at the 
 Fair, will maintain ponds on the grounds for the preser- 
 vation of fish to replace those which die in the tanks. He 
 will exhibit every fish native to inland waters as well as 
 those which are found off the ocean coasts everything, 
 I should say, except snakes and whales. It is possible 
 that a baby whale may be shown, but to show a splendid 
 one-hundred-and-fifty-barrel right whale would entail 
 an expense for which the department is not prepared. 
 There will be sharks, however, and specimens of every 
 fish of lesser size, shown in glass tanks that will be elec- 
 trically illuminated when necessary. Crabs, lobsters, oys- 
 ters, as they live and grow, eyeless fish and all the rest, 
 are being gathered all over the country. 
 
 The school-children of San Diego will send a complete 
 collection of California fishes in alcohol and glass. A 
 Maine fisherman will send a twenty-pound lobster, pre- 
 pared by a taxidermist. From Colorado will come a 
 collection of prehistoric fishes the oldest in the world 
 
 232
 
 dug out of rocks of the Silurian Period. They are small, 
 and armored with bone instead of scales. Washington, 
 richest of our States in marine wealth, will make a nota- 
 ble display illustrating the processes of salmon-catching 
 by Indians and by modern means ; of canning, packing, 
 and the manufacture of all fish products. She will show 
 her little oysters and huge crabs, her sea-otters, beavers, 
 fishers, and the rest, either alive, in alcohol, by models or 
 by paintings, and in most cases by every form of exhi- 
 bition. The general, national, and foreign collection will 
 include everything that relates to the gathering and 
 preparation of pearls, sponges, and all other sea products. 
 Workmen are now making counterfeit forms of all 
 American fishes, imitating them all exactly by making 
 them of an especial composition, moulded in plaster 
 casts taken from the creatures themselves, and then by 
 painting them. A feature of the exhibit will be a restau- 
 rant for the exclusive service of fish. 
 ZA 233
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 QUITE as wonderful and interesting as any of the de- 
 partments and especial exhibits that I have described in 
 the foregoing pages are many of the subjects which, be- 
 cause of lack of space or the scantiness of the informa- 
 tion obtainable when this was written, are necessarily 
 gathered in this concluding chapter in a few paragraphs. 
 I am beholden to the excellent guide-book published by 
 the Department of Publicity and Promotion for many of 
 the facts and figures which follow. 
 
 The World's Columbian Exposition was created by 
 act of Congress, April 25, 1890. The President, on De- 
 cember 24, 1890, proclaimed the Exposition to the world, 
 and invited foreign nations to participate. The officers 
 of the national board, or " World's Columbian Commis- 
 sion," are : President, Thomas W. Palmer ; Secretary, 
 John T. Dickinson ; Director-general, George R. Davis. 
 The department chiefs are as follows : Agriculture, W. 
 I.Buchanan; Horticulture, John M.Samuels; Live-stock, 
 Eber W. Cottrell ; Fish and Fisheries, John W. Collins ; 
 Mines and Mining, F. J. V. Skiff; Machinery, L. W. Rob- 
 inson ; Transportation, W. A. Smith ; Manufactures, 
 James Allison ; Electricity, John P. Barrett ; Fine Arts, 
 Halsey C. Ives ; Liberal Arts, S. H. Peabody ; Ethnolo- 
 
 234
 
 PENNSYLVANIA BUILDING
 
 gy, F. W. Putnam ; Forestry, W. I. Buchanan, in charge; 
 Publicity and Promotion, Moses P. Handy; Foreign Af- 
 fairs, Walker Fearn ; Secretary of Installation, Joseph 
 Hirst ; Traffic Manager, E. E. Jaycox ; President of the 
 Board of Lady Managers, Mrs. Potter Palmer; Secretary, 
 Mrs. Susan G. Cook. 
 
 The officers of the local board, or " World's Columbian 
 Exposition," are : President, William T. Baker ; First 
 Vice-president, H. N. Higinbotham ; Second Vice-presi- 
 dent, R. A. Waller ; Secretary, H. O. Edmonds ; Treas- 
 urer, A. F. Seeberger; Auditor, William K. Ackerman ; 
 Chief of Construction, D. H. Burnham. 
 
 The consulting or advisory board of architects con- 
 sists of Richard M. Hunt, Administration Building; W. 
 L. B. Jenney, Horticulture Building ; McKim, Mead & 
 White, Agriculture Building ; Adler & Sullivan, Trans- 
 portation Building ; George B. Post, Manufactures Build- 
 ing; Henry Ives Cobb, Fisheries Building; Peabody & 
 Stearns, Machinery Building ; S. S. Beman, Mines and 
 Mining Building; Van Brunt & Howe, Electricity Build- 
 ing. C. B. Atwood, Designer-in-Chief of the Construc- 
 tion Department, is the architect of the Peristyle, Co- 
 lumbus Porticus, Music-hall, and Casino, the Fine Arts, 
 Forestry, and Dairy Buildings, and the Terminal Depot. 
 Miss Sophia G. Hayden is architect of the Woman's 
 Building. 
 
 The space under the roofs of all the buildings and 
 sheds is more than 200 acres. The grounds themselves 
 comprise 633 acres. The admission fee during the Ex- 
 position, from May I to October 30, 1893, will be 50 
 cents. The Fair Grounds are seven miles south of the 
 City Hall, and can be reached from the heart of the city 
 by frequent trains of the Illinois Central Railroad, which 
 
 235
 
 make the trip to Woodlawn (beside the Fair Grounds) in 
 forty-five minutes, at a cost of 25 cents for the round 
 trip ; by several lines of steamboats starting near the 
 foot of Van Buren Street, and making the trip in an 
 hour, for the same fare ; and by the Cottage Grove Av- 
 enue cable-cars, which afford a slower but delightful ride 
 for 5 cents fare. 
 
 The foreign nations which will formally or informally 
 participate in the Exposition are here set down, together 
 with the amounts of money they have set apart for their 
 expenses. This does not include the sums of money, 
 often very large indeed, which individual exhibitors will 
 spend, or which their displays will cost. 
 
 Argentine Republic $100,000 
 
 Austria 102,300 
 
 Belgium 57, 900 
 
 Bolivia 30,700 
 
 Brazil 600,000 
 
 Bulgaria 
 
 Chile (informal) 
 
 China 500,000 
 
 Colombia 100,000 
 
 Costa Rica 150,000 
 
 Denmark 67,000 
 
 Danish West Indies .... 1,200 
 
 Ecuador 125,000 
 
 Egypt (informal) 
 
 France 733, 400 
 
 Algeria 
 
 French Guiana 
 
 Germany 690,200 
 
 Great Britain 291,990 
 
 Bahamas 
 
 Barbadoes 5,840 
 
 Bermuda 2,920 
 
 British Guiana 25,000 
 
 British Honduras 7, 500 
 
 Canada $100,000 
 
 Cape Colony 50,000 
 
 Ceylon 65,600 
 
 Fiji 
 
 India 
 
 Jamaica 24,333 
 
 Leeward Islands 6,000 
 
 Malta 
 
 Mashon aland 
 
 Mauritius 
 
 Newfoundland 
 
 New South Wales 243,325 
 
 New Zealand 27, 500 
 
 Queensland (informal). . . 
 
 South Australia 
 
 Straits Settlements 
 
 Tasmania 10,000 
 
 Trinidad 15,000 
 
 Victoria 97>33O 
 
 West Australia 
 
 Greece 57,ooo 
 
 Guatemala 200,000 
 
 Hawaii 
 
 Hayti 25,000 
 
 236
 
 Honduras $20,000 
 
 Italy 
 
 Erythria 
 
 Japan 630, 765 
 
 Korea 
 
 Liberia 
 
 Madagascar 
 
 Mexico 50,000 
 
 Morocco 150,000 
 
 Netherlands 
 
 Dutch Guiana 10,000 
 
 Dutch West Indies 5,000 
 
 Nicaragua 30,000 
 
 Norway... 56,280 
 
 Orange Free State 7, 500 
 
 Paraguay 100,000 
 
 Persia 
 
 Peru 140,000 
 
 Portugal (informal) 
 
 Madeira , , 
 
 Roumania 
 
 Russia $46,320 
 
 Salvador 12,500 
 
 San Domingo 25,000 
 
 Servia 
 
 Siam 
 
 Spain 14,000 
 
 Cuba 25,000 
 
 Porto Rico 
 
 Sweden 53,600 
 
 Switzerland 23, 160 
 
 Transvaal 
 
 Turkey 
 
 Uruguay 24,000 
 
 Venezuela. . 
 
 Total $5,936,063 
 
 Fifty nations. 
 Thirty-four colonies. 
 
 Forty States and Territories had, at the time this was 
 compiled, determined to erect buildings on the grounds. 
 These buildings will cost from $10,000 to $100,000 each, 
 with the exception of the Illinois building, which cost 
 $250,000, and almost ranks with the principal palaces in 
 the park. These are the States whose Legislatures have 
 appropriated sums for State buildings, with the sums 
 thus voted : 
 
 Arizona . $30,000 
 
 California 300,000 
 
 Colorado 100,000 
 
 Delaware 10,000 
 
 Idaho 20,000 
 
 Illinois 800,000 
 
 Indiana 75,ooo 
 
 Iowa 130,000 
 
 Kentucky 100,000 
 
 Louisiana $36,000 
 
 Maine 40,000 
 
 Maryland 60,000 
 
 Massachusetts 150,000 
 
 Michigan 10,000 
 
 Minnesota 50,000 
 
 Missouri 150,000 
 
 Montana 50,000 
 
 Nebraska 50,000 
 
 237
 
 Total $3,441,000 
 
 New Hampshire $25,000 Vermont $15,000 
 
 New Jersey 70,000 Virginia 25,000 
 
 New Mexico 25,000 Washington 100,000 
 
 New York 300,000 West Virginia 40,000 
 
 North Carolina 25,000 Wisconsin 65,000 
 
 North Dakota 25,000 Wyoming 30,000 
 
 Ohio 125,000 
 
 Pennsylvania 300,000 
 
 Rhode Island 50,000 
 
 Funds to be raised by other States by subscription $385,000 
 
 The States which have made appropriations are, in 
 many cases, raising additional sums by subscription, or 
 hope to get additional appropriations. It is predicted 
 that the total amount that will be raised and expended 
 by all the Commonwealths and Territories will approxi- 
 mate $5,000,000. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, 
 Kansas, Oregon, and South Dakota are the States which 
 have failed to make appropriations. The commissioners 
 at work in Georgia and Kansas are pledged to raise 
 $100,000 each; Oregon and Florida hope to raise 
 $50,000 apiece. 
 
 The United States Government Building not one of 
 the most admirable structures from an artistic point of 
 view is 415 feet long and 345 feet wide, with a floor 
 surface of 6.1 acres. It cost $400,000, and was designed 
 by Government Architect Windrim. The Government 
 display includes exhibits by the departments of War, 
 State, Post-office, Treasury, Justice, Agriculture, Interior, 
 the Fish Commission, National Museum, and the Smith- 
 sonian Institution. The Mint will contribute examples 
 of every coin made by the United States, and the Bureau 
 of Engraving and Printing will send samples of all the 
 paper-money. A life-saving station, completely equip- 
 ped, will be in operation on the lake shore. There will 
 
 238
 
 be shown a map of the United States 400 feet square, 
 made of plaster, and on a scale showing the exact curva- 
 ture of the earth's surface, the height of mountains, etc. 
 There will be an exhibit of heavy guns and explosives, 
 and a daily battery drill in the space east of the Govern- 
 ment Building. The famous brick battle-ship, sheathed 
 in armor, and looking like a real vessel, though built 
 upon the lake bottom, is part of the Federal exhibit. It 
 cost $100,000, and is 348 feet long by 69 feet and 3 
 inches width amidships. The exhibit of the Navy De- 
 partment will be shown in this ship. The very large 
 guns on board will be " make-believe," but the machine- 
 guns and smaller arms will be actual weapons. The 
 boat will be manned like a man-of-war, and the life of 
 our blue-jackets aboard ship will be followed to the let- 
 ter. The uniform of our naval sailors in the past will be 
 worn by janitors on the vessel. 
 
 But the most interesting reminder of war at the Expo- 
 sition will be the display made by Herr Krupp, the gun- 
 maker of Essen, in Germany. His exhibit cannot be 
 landed in New York, or, in fact, anywhere on our coast 
 except at Sparrow Point, where a great steel-works em- 
 ploys a crane that will lift 135 tons. The great Krupp gun 
 weighs 122 tons. It is said to be as thick at the breech 
 as the average lower story of a house, and it is fifty-four 
 feet in length. The railroad company that is to transport 
 it to Chicago is obliged to build cars specially for the 
 purpose of carrying it and its accessaries, and these are 
 constructed after plans prepared by Krupp. The Ger- 
 man Government will show, in front of the Krupp ex- 
 hibit, a mediaeval fort with bastions projecting into the 
 lake and mounted by rude and very ancient cannon, the 
 property of the Krupps. 
 
 239
 
 The Eiffel Tower of this World's Fair is no tower at 
 all, but merely one of the Exhibition palaces. It is the 
 building for Manufactures and Liberal Arts. It is by 
 far the largest house the modern world contains. It is 
 1687 feet long and 787 feet wide, so that to walk around 
 it is to move 4948 feet, or only about 300 feet short of a 
 mile. The great trusses of its roof the largest ever 
 built have a span of 382 feet, and of 354 feet in the 
 clear. The height of the trusses over the central hall 
 is 212.9 f eet ^e clear space between the floor and the 
 roof being 202.9 feet. The building covers 30.47 acres, 
 and with its galleries offers 44 acres of floor space. It 
 cost $1,700,000. It contains 17,000,000 feet of lumber, 
 12,000,000 pounds of steel in the trusses over the cen- 
 tral hall, and 2,000,000 pounds of iron in the roof of 
 the nave. Mr. George B. Post, the architect, of New 
 York, who designed the building, did not at first include 
 the vast roof, which is one of the wonders of the world. 
 The structure included a central court with the features 
 of a noble garden ; but when more space was demanded 
 than was contained in the outer pavilions enclosing this 
 court, a bit of charcoal held between the fingers of the 
 architect swept over the plan of the building, marking a 
 curve that bridged over the central space arid outlined 
 the character of the .edifice as it is now completed. That 
 stroke of the charcoal added a cost of $450,000, but en- 
 nobled the building as none of the sort ever was. 
 
 The official guide issued by Major Handy's department 
 makes known these extraordinary facts about this colos- 
 sal pile : 
 
 " The building is rectangular in form, and the interior 
 is divided into a great central hall, 380 by 1280 feet, 
 which is surrounded by a nave, 107 feet wide. Both 
 
 240
 
 hall and nave have a 5ofoot gallery, extending entirely 
 around them. This building is the largest in the world, 
 and is the largest one ever roofed over. Its unequalled size 
 makes it one of the architectural wonders of the world. 
 It is three times larger than the Cathedral of St. Peter, 
 in Rome, and any church in Chicago could be placed in 
 the vestibule of St. Peter's. It is four times larger than 
 the old Roman Colosseum, which seated 80,000 persons. 
 If the great pyramid Cheops could be removed to Chi- 
 cago, it could be piled up in this building with the gal- 
 leries left from which to view the stone. The central 
 hall, which is a single room without a supporting pillar 
 under its roof, has in its floor a fraction less than eleven 
 acres, and 75,000 persons can sit in this room, giving 
 each one six square feet of space. By the same arrange- 
 ment, the entire building will seat 300,000 people. It is 
 theoretically possible to mobilize the standing army of 
 Russia under its roof. There are 7,000,000 feet of lum- 
 ber in the floor, and it required five car-loads of nails to 
 fasten the 215 car-loads of flooring to the joists. Six 
 games of out-door base-ball might be played simulta- 
 neously on this floor, and the ball batted from either 
 field would insure the batsman a " home run." The Au- 
 ditorium is the most notable building in Chicago, but 
 twenty such buildings could be placed on this floor. 
 There are 1 1 acres of skylights and 40 car-loads of glass 
 in the roof. The iron and steel structure of this roof 
 would build two Brooklyn bridges, while there is in it 
 1400 tons more metal than in the Eades Bridge at St. 
 Louis. There are 22 main trusses in the roof of the cen- 
 tral hall, and it required 600 flat cars to bring them from 
 the iron-works to Chicago. These trusses are twice the 
 size of the next largest in existence, which are 90 feet 
 
 Q 241
 
 high and span 250 feet. The latter are in the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad Depot at Jersey City. 
 
 "The lumber in the Manufactures Building represents 
 1 100 acres of average Michigan pine-trees. This build- 
 ing will be provided with 10,000 electric lights. Its 
 aisles will be laid off as streets, and lighted by orna- 
 mental lamp-posts, bearing shielded arc lights." 
 
 The Machinery Hall, the work of Messrs. Peabody & 
 Stearns, of Boston, cost $1,200,000, and offers 6.2 acres 
 of floor space. It is 846 feet long and 492 feet deep, and 
 the main building is built as if it were made up of three 
 train-sheds side by side, the trusses of the shed roofs 
 reaching 100 feet in air, and having a span of 130 feet. 
 In the power-house adjoining the building 24,000 horse- 
 power will be provided, one of the great engines being 
 twice the size of the world-famous monster " Corliss," 
 that was a notable feature of the Philadelphia Centen- 
 nial Exposition. For supplying part of the power need- 
 ed by the Electrical Building there will be a multipolar 
 dynamo of enormous size, and of 1500 horse -power, 
 coupled by an axle directly to a triple-expansion engine. 
 The boilers in the power-house will constitute a battery 
 600 feet in width. 
 
 A beautiful exhibition will be that in the Horticultural 
 Building, whose dome, rising as lightly as, and with the 
 transparency of, a soap-bubble, is of glass, and is 180 feet 
 in diameter and 132 feet in height. Mr. L. B. Jenney, 
 of Chicago, is its architect, and it cost $300,000. It is 
 formed of three pavilions, and will, amid the wealth of 
 the plants and flowers of the wide world, display the 
 tallest tree-ferns, palms, and bamboos. There is no use 
 of iron in the great Forestry Building; even the place of 
 bolts being taken by wood in the form of pins. The ex- 
 
 242
 
 terior will show a grand series of columns made of tree- 
 trunks with the bark left on. There is a floor area of 
 fifteen acres in the richly decorated and beautifully de- 
 signed structure for the agricultural display. It is the 
 work of Messrs. McKim, Meade & White, of New York. 
 This also supports a great central dome of glass, which 
 in this building is 130 feet high. The cost of the build- 
 ing was $620,000. For the Stock Exhibit are sheds en- 
 closing forty acres, and a pavilion containing an amphi- 
 theatre and exhibition ring. This series of structures 
 caused an outlay of $335,000. Near the Sixty-second 
 Street (Woodlawn) entrance to the grounds is a com- 
 plete and modern hospital for the treatment of all who 
 are injured or taken ill upon the grounds. The buildings 
 of all sorts are insured against fire, and the amount of 
 insurance has been increased as the work on the Fair 
 Grounds has progressed. It is thought that, finally, the 
 buildings will carry an insurance in $6,000,000, while the 
 full insurance taken by the Exposition officials for its 
 own property and goods held by it in trust may reach 
 $15,000,000. 
 
 An independent exhibit, already at Chicago, is the old 
 whaler Progress of New Bedford, Mass. She is a splen- 
 did example of the type of vessels which formed our 
 once formidable whaling fleet of romantic memory. 
 Bark -rigged, with immense spars, and with her hull 
 painted like a corvette, she looks as trim as a war-ship. 
 Her history warrants the exhibition, for she has seven- 
 teen times rounded the Horn, and has forty times sailed 
 into the Arctic Ocean. She carries all the paraphernalia 
 of a whaler, and her equipment forms a museum. 
 
 At least one feature of a private collection of Alaskan 
 curios that will be brought to the Fair by a trader will 
 2 B 243
 
 interest all who love the beautiful. This will be a num- 
 ber of blankets of the down of eagles, which the coast 
 Indians make by pulling the feathers out and piecing the 
 skins of the great birds together. 
 
 The Government has recognized the World's Congress 
 Auxiliary as the proper body to superintend the holding 
 of a series of world's congresses in Chicago during the 
 Fair. The officers are: C. C. Bonney, President; Thomas 
 B. Bryan, Vice-president ; Lyman J. Gage, Treasurer; 
 Benjamin Butterworth, Secretary ; Clarence E. Young, 
 Assistant Secretary. Agriculture, Art, Commerce and 
 Finance, Education, Engineering, Government, Litera- 
 ture, Labor, Medicine, Moral and Social Reform, Music, 
 the Press, Religion, Science and Philosophy, Sunday 
 Rest, Temperance, and a miscellaneous or general divis- 
 ion embracing topics not included under these head- 
 ings are the classified subjects to be discussed. But 
 these, in turn, have been subdivided into several times 
 as many divisions, each to be the subject of a congress, 
 and each in charge of a committee. The congresses will, 
 in general, be held in the new building of the Art Insti- 
 tute, now in course of erection on the lake front, in the 
 heart of the city. 
 
 244
 
 THE CHICAGO FIRE 
 
 SOME NEW LIGHT ON THE OLD STORY 
 BY HOWARD H. GROSS 
 
 'HREE years of careful research and study devoted 
 by the writer to gathering data for the creation of 
 the great Cyclorama of the Chicago Fire, now so 
 happily completed, brought to light considerable 
 new matter, some of which seemed to him to be of 
 great interest, the most important being the discov- 
 ery of the origin of the fire. Contrary to popular 
 belief, neither Mrs. O'Leary nor her still more fa- 
 mous cow was the responsible party; but it was 
 rather a couple of nervous lovers who were called 
 upon by an assemblage of friends to procure, by hook or crook, 
 sufficient milk to serve some oysters for the party. It was sug- 
 gested that they make their way by stealth into the O'Leary stables 
 and milk some of the cows there. The action quickly followed the 
 thought; an entry was soon made. The yoang lady, though nat- 
 urally nervous, was now even more so, in the unique position of 
 barn-breaker; and the scampering-away of an innocent mouse was 
 all that was necessary to cause her to drop the lamp she was car- 
 rying. The world and the Insurance Companies know the rest. 
 
 The figures that pertain to the great Fire are astounding; and it 
 is only when one stands upon the platform of the wonderful Cyclo- 
 rama of the Chicago Fire, amid the historic ruins of the old city, 
 when palace and hovel are joining the kingdom of ashes with 
 fire fire everywhere we can realize that from start to finish the 
 flames swept over an area and reduced to ruin 125 acres of buildings 
 every hour; that it wiped out property at the alarming rate of $2500 
 at every heart-beat, a million dollars every five minutes, all night 
 and all day long; that the flames turned six thousand people home- 
 less into the streets every hour ; that if all the buildings burned were 
 placed end to end they would make an unbroken row a hundred 
 and fifty miles long. It is only then the mind can grasp in any true 
 degree the scope and character of this greatest of all disasters.
 
 ARCHITECTS OF DAINTY WOMAN'S HEAD-DRESS 
 
 Sisters ! look ye, 
 
 How by a new creation of my milliner's, 
 
 I've shook off old mortality ! 
 
 JOHN FORD. 
 
 IT has been said by one whose sayings have become a part of the 
 common lore of all mankind that " the mantle makes the man." 
 With equal truth it may be asserted that the bonnet makes 
 the beauty. 
 
 ' ' Virtue may flourish in an old cravat ; 
 But man and nature scorn a shocking hat." 
 
 Dainty woman needs a dainty bonnet and knows 
 it. Susceptible man admires and pays for it. 
 
 A community may scorn the refinements of dress, as 
 they sometimes do those of mind and manner, but the 
 fact remains that Fashion is king, the milliner an auto- 
 crat whose creations are the thermometer that marks the 
 march of civilization. The char- 
 acter and refinement of the people of a 
 nation may be very accurately judged 
 by the bonnets of its belles. Paris, 
 where sooner or later are met all whom 
 genius endows with fame, wears as the 
 fitting crown of superiority the produc- 
 tions of the master -milliners of the 
 world. London and New York have 
 indexed their progress by the art of 
 the milliner- as well as that of the poet, 
 painter, and sculptor. Chicago, and the country tributary to it,
 
 boasted always of its beautiful women, and may now assert, without 
 fear of contradiction, that their pretty faces peep from beneath pret- 
 ty bonnets. Rapid transit, modern means for the quick interchange 
 of ideas, the aspirations of American women themselves, the de- 
 mands of the enterprising milliners of the minor cities and towns, 
 and the up-to-date methods of the young men who have of late 
 assumed control of the old firm of GAGE BROTHERS & Co. are re- 
 sponsible for this fact. This firm, which is one of the seniors in 
 Chicago business circles, was established in 1856, and has a reputa- 
 
 tion that is a synonym 
 ness integrity. With 
 poration and the advent 
 dictatorship of fashion 
 long years of faithful 
 sists of five young, vig- 
 ive Chicagoans: Messrs. 
 Wetherell, A. A. Adams, 
 Geo. Ebeling. All young 
 nected with leading whole- 
 go, these gentlemen are most 
 the millinery trade. They 
 great need in their line 
 The milliner's de- 
 signs patterns 
 stamped with ar- 
 
 for success and busi- 
 the firm's late incor- 
 of young blood, the 
 in millinery has crowned 
 endeavor. The firm con- 
 orous, and progress- 
 Fred. Bode, C. C. 
 C. L. Nelson, and 
 men, and long con- 
 sale houses of Chica- 
 favorably known to 
 have grasped the 
 and supplied it. 
 mand is for de- 
 fashionable and 
 tistic originality, 
 hats that will match 
 with which to trim them, 
 
 Next they want hats 
 these designs, and the materials 
 and in perfect consonance with the patterns. The undisputed pre- 
 eminence of GAGE BROTHERS & Co. is due to the fact that they 
 have helped to make and then meet this demand. Their patterns 
 are always the best product of the best artists. Their motto is 
 Fashion first and always. Equally important, their hats and mate- 
 rials are purchased by master-buyers, and ever with the patterns in 
 view. These two facts are the foundation upon which GAGE 
 BROTHERS & Co. have built a national reputation. It is their de- 
 termination that customers, after viewing their patterns, the product
 
 of great artists, shall make their purchases from a stock every ar- 
 ticle of which is in harmony with the patterns shown. Pattern, 
 hat, and material are purchased by skilled buyers buyers with the 
 
 them harmonious and 
 That which is pictured 
 Co.'s pattern -room is 
 chased in the stock- 
 the great stock that 
 of their big store at 
 Avenue the law of af- 
 and design rules su- 
 department of its own, under 
 
 one great point in view, of making 
 satisfying in every respect, 
 in GAGE BROTHERS & 
 to be found and pur- 
 rooms. All through 
 crowds the five floors 
 118 and 120 Wabash 
 finity in color, shape, 
 preme. The firm has a pattern 
 the supervision of master-designers, who originate new styles and de- 
 signs based upon the best creations of Paris. Special departments 
 for the design of mourning bonnets, Oyk. children's hats, and 
 low-priced trimmed hats are also a ^f^njif^'* feature of the firm. 
 Add to GAGE BROTHERS & Co.'s d^^^fe^ special pre-emi- 
 nence in the artistic department of its business the fact that* it 
 ever fills orders promptly and correctly, and employs a quota of 
 courteous and intelligent salesmen unrivalled in their line, and the 
 reader will have formed a fair conception of the great business house 
 whose pride it is to create and sell 
 
 "A woman's bonnet built to fit its place."
 
 parson, Leach & C- 
 
 ~ 
 
 -DEALERS IN- 
 
 PUBLIC SECURITIES. 
 
 115 DEARBORN STREET, CHICAGO. 
 2 WALL STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
 Full descriptive lists of high-grade City, 
 County, Town, and School Loans, paying 
 from 4% to 6#, mailed on application. 
 
 We Offer the Most Attractive 
 
 LIST OF INVESTMENT BONDS 
 
 the market affords. 
 
 Our friends visiting New York or Chicago are invited 
 to make headquarters at our offices. In writing men- 
 tion " Harper's World's Fair Book."
 
 [-[EALTH 
 
 SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 YOU NEED EXERCISE there are several 
 
 REASONS WHY. 
 
 IF YOU ARE A BUSINESS MAN, to clear your brain, to smooth off 
 the rough edges of business cares. The Rambler Bicycle affords 
 a medium par excellence for "comfortable exercise." 
 
 IF IN POOR HEALTH, you can regain good health through the judicious 
 use of the Bicycle the Rambler Spring Frame reduces excessive 
 vibration and makes exercise safe. fc 
 
 IF IN GOOD HEALTH, Bicycle Riding will keep you so. In your chil- | 
 dren the Bicycle lays the foundation of a healthful and useful j 
 life. A good intellect reaches its highest excellence only in a | 
 healthy body. 
 
 IF YOU ARE A WOMAN, the Bicycle affords a most pleasant means of 
 obtaining exercise, which you, of all others, most need. Riding | 
 any Bicycle is exercise riding Rambler Bicycles is "comfortable | 
 and luxurious exercise." 
 
 IF YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL, Bicycle Riding will preserve your beauty. | 
 Exercise means health. There is no real Beauty without Good S 
 Health. 
 
 IF YOU ARE NOT A BEAUTY, you may at least make yourself more 
 attractive. The Bicycle brightens the eye, puts a flush of health 
 on the cheek, takes you out to nature, to the pure fresh air. They 
 are yours; enjoy them do it " luxuriously " on a Rambler Bicycle. 
 
 V 
 
 Our welcome awaits you at the " World's Fair," upstairs in the Transportation Building, where f 
 
 may be seen our complete line of Ramblers, for Man, Woman, Boy, and Girl, with Spring 
 
 Frame or Rigid Frame, for pleasure bicycling, scorching, or racing ; or if you will 
 
 mention this book, our catalogue, teeming with Rambler points of interest, 
 
 will be mailed to you. It is free to you. 
 
 GORMULLY & JEFFERY MFG. CO, 
 
 ^'1 221=229, 222=228 N. Franklin St., Chicago. 
 
 / 174-178 Columbus Ave., 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
 1325 i4thSt.,N.W., 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 85 Hadison St., 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 Cor. 57th St. and Broadway, 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 King's Head Chambers, Coventry, England.
 
 Comfort atThe World's Fair. 
 
 Visitors in Chicago during the progress of the Columbian Exposition will be especially 
 fortunate if they have secured before leaving their homes such hotel accommodations as 
 they require while there. Those who best see the Great Fair, and take away the pleasantest 
 impressions by reason of having seen it in comfort and peace, will be the ones who locate 
 near the grounds. It is a mistake, however, to engage rooms on the lines of the main 
 entrances, because of the noise, dust, and confusion sure to exist in the immediate vicinity 
 of the direct approaches. 
 
 THE HOTEL " SOUTH SHORE " is located just south of the Exposition Grounds, 
 fronting Lake Michigan and a beautiful beach, only seven blocks distant from the Expo- 
 sition. For transportation facilities it has: 
 
 1. Double-track electric street-car line running direct from the west entrance on Coles 
 Avenue to the Exposition Grounds. 
 
 2. Suburban service on the Illinois Central Railroad, three blocks distant, to Exposition 
 Grounds (west entrance), five minutes ; to centre of city, thirty minutes. This line now 
 runs twenty-eight suburban trains daily each way, and this number will be increased dur- 
 ing the Exposition period. 
 
 3. Lake transportation four blocks distant. This line is one of the largest on the 
 lakes. Its passenger steamers will run to the Exposition Grounds, centre of city, and all 
 lake points between Waukegan on the north and Michigan City on the south. 
 
 The " SOUTH SHORE " is away from Chicago's smoke, dirt, and noise, but in perfect and 
 immediate touch with every point of interest. It is under the shadow of the Exposition 
 Buildings, but away from the Exposition crowds. The entire building will be lighted by 
 electricity. Ample provision has been made to secure perfect ventilation, so that every 
 room shall be cool and open to air currents. Solid plastered partitions render each room 
 entirely private and secure. Especial care has been given the plumbing, and few buildings 
 are better equipped with sanitary appliances. No expense has been spared to make it 
 safe and to provide every precaution against fire and other accidents. Standing near the 
 shore of Lake Michigan, where the cool breezes insure pleasant nights and comfortable 
 days, where the bustle and annoying crowds of the great Exposition will not intrude, the 
 " SOUTH SHORE" is an ideal " home," and no visitor to Chicago in 1893 will be able to 
 secure one more nearly perfect in all respects. 
 
 EVENING AT THE EXPOSITION will be the most attractive part of the day. 
 The electric and other illuminations will be beyond anything ever attempted heretofore, 
 and no one can afford to miss enjoying them. The " SOUTH SHORE," located as it is 
 within ten minutes' walk of the Exposition Grounds, is so easily accessible that its guests 
 can remain until the close of these SPECIAL EVENING DISPLAYS, and then be able to reach 
 their rooms, even if obliged to walk, within a few minutes thereafter; while others stopping 
 at distant hotels will still be struggling to secure even standing room in cars that will be 
 heated and packed with the tired visitors. 
 
 FULL INFORMATION, including a Bird's-eye View of the Hotel " SOUTH SHORE" 
 and World's Columbian Exposition Grounds (size 16x26 inches), and complete Descriptive 
 Circulars of the Columbian Visitors' Association, proprietors of Hotel "SOUTH SHORE,' 
 will be sent FREE to any address. 
 
 ADDRESS . 
 
 CHARLES R. BRADLEY, Manager, 
 
 The "South Shore," 17-21 Quincy Street, Chicago, 111.
 
 THE GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO RIVER IN ARIZONA 
 
 Nature's Sublimest Panorama. Reached from Flagstaff, Arizona, by stage, in 
 12 hours. Flagstaff is on the main California line of the Santa F^ Route, and is 
 reached from Chicago in Pullman Palace Sleeping-cars without change. For de- 
 scriptive pamphlet, excursion rate, etc., write to 
 
 JNO. J. BYRNE, 723 MONADNOCK BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
 
 "MURRAY. 
 
 This name on a Buggy or set of Harness is a guarantee of its 
 superiority over all other makes. It is a name that is better known 
 throughout the United States than any other in its line. 
 
 You, of course, know our prices. 
 
 You also know we save you fully 50^. 
 
 And you are aware we give a longer guarantee on our "Murray" 
 goods than any Factory in the World. 
 
 $5*95 "Murray" Harness, 
 
 and 
 
 $55*95 "Murray" Buggies, 
 
 Sounds, and is, awfully cheap for high-class goods. You should read our 
 handsome 1 5O-page catalogue of every style of Vehicles and Harness. 
 We sell them direct to you without you having to pay the exorbitant 
 profits added to such goods by the Dealers and Agents. We'll mail 
 you this catalogue free. Send us your name and address. 
 
 TheWlLBERH.nURRAYMFG.Co.,Cincinnati,Ohio.
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 WEEKLY 
 
 1ARPERS W[ iKLY 
 
 COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION 
 
 AND ALL IMPORTANT 
 CURRENT NEWS SUBJECTS. 
 
 EDITORIALS 
 
 SHORT STORIES 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE 
 ARTICLES 
 
 AMATEUR 
 
 SPORT 
 
 ETC 
 
 BY THE BEST WRITERS. 
 
 "ABOUND VOLUME OF HARPER'S WEEKLY IS THE BEST 
 EXISTING ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE YEAR-N.Y,H E R*u. 
 
 SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $4 co A YEAR
 
 1 
 
 Liebig; COMPANY'S 
 
 Extract of Beef 
 
 Is made from the flesh of the best Cattle reared expressly for this pur= 
 
 pose by the Liebig Company on their extensive, fertile grazing fields in 
 Uruguay. 
 
 The greatest care and strictest cleanliness prevail in every department 
 of the Company's works, which are under the constant supervision of their 
 own chemists. This vigilance in looking after every detail, beginning with 
 the cattle on the hoof and extending to the finished product in the jars, is one 
 
 secret of the reputation and success of the world-known 
 
 i 
 
 Liebig COflPANY'S Extract of Beef. 
 
 i 
 
 Unapproachable in odor, fine flavor, and wholesomeness. Keeps 
 perfectly anywhere. 
 
 FOR DELICIOUS, REFRESHING BEEF TEA. 
 FOR IMPROVED AND ECONOMIC COOKERY. 
 
 8181818181
 
 SUBSCRIBE FOR 
 
 s 
 
 CHICAGO, U. S. A. 
 JEWELL N. HALLIGAN, 
 
 General Manager. 
 
 JOHN McGOVERN, 
 
 Editor. 
 
 The finest and most profusely illustrated journal in the world. 
 
 The only publication illustrating the progress and every phase and 
 feature of the Great Exposition from start to finish. 
 
 All exhibits, machinery, and mechanical appliances will be faith- 
 fully illustrated as they appear. 
 
 It will be a complete and profusely illustrated encyclopaedia and history 
 (by word and picture) of the men and women, machinery, mechanical appli- 
 ances, and exhibits connected with the Greatest Exposition ever known to the 
 world. 
 
 Illustrated departments of interest to scientists, scholars, artists, men of the 
 world, housewives, and general readers will be established and maintained on 
 a high plane. 
 
 The bound volumes form books of intensely interesting reading, besides 
 being a handsome art gallery, and should have a place in every library. All 
 back numbers can be supplied at 25 cents a copy. 
 
 Get all numbers. Have your library complete. Subscription price in 
 United States and Canada, $2.50 a year. Foreign subscription in Postal Union, 
 $3.50 a year. Single copies, 25 cents. Bound volumes in beautiful paper cov- 
 ers, $2.00 ; in cloth, $3.00. Lady agents wanted in every city, town, and village. 
 Address JEWELL N. HALLIGAN, General Manager, 
 
 McVICKER'S THEATRE BUILDING, CHICAGO.
 
 Is deemed superior to all others : 
 
 ist. It is a pure water and, unlike most of the table waters, is unadulterated 
 or any other ingredient. 
 
 ad. It is a fresh water from a mountain-spring, and has the pleasant taste and 
 ing quality which can only he found in mountain spring water. 
 
 3d. It is the most sparkling and effervescent of all waters, being charged with 
 gas taken out of the same spring. 
 
 4th. Recommended by all physicians who have tried it as the best rem- 
 edy known for indigestion and stomach troubles. 
 
 5th. A chemical analysis shows it contains the best properties to act on 
 stomach, liver, and kidneys. Prepared in nature's laboratory, it produces 
 an effect on the system that cannot be duplicated by any combination man 
 
 by salt 
 refresh- 
 its own 
 
 can create. 
 
 ' The analysis of 
 
 Iflamtw 
 
 By Prof. ELWYN WALLER, Ph.D., Analytical Chemist, New York City, 
 found it to contain 
 
 Sodium Chloride, 
 Potassium Sulphate, 
 Sodium Sulphate, 
 Sodium Carbonate, 
 Lithium Carbonate, 
 Calcium Caibonate, 
 Magnesium Carbonate, 
 Iron Oxide, 
 Alumina, 
 Silica, 
 
 It contains free carbonic acid gas. 
 
 2-993 
 
 1.336 
 
 1.268 
 
 5.083 
 
 .089 
 
 8.635 
 
 2.085 
 
 .003 
 
 .009 
 
 -3'2 
 
 21.813 
 
 1 'our druggist or grocer has it or will procure it for you. Circulars sent on application to 
 
 MANITOU MINERAL WATER CO., MANITOU, COLO. 
 
 MANITOU GINGER CHAMPAGNE is made from the Manitou Mineral Spring Water 
 combined with Jamaica ginger and fruit syrups. Absolutely non-alcoholic and specially 
 recommended for ladies and children.
 
 "THE HEALTH AND GROWTH of our Piano business depend in 
 1 some degree upon our interesting and making friends of the people 
 who do not know our goods. We want you, before the Exposition, to 
 know what pur leading piano is. It is- not only our leader, but one 
 of the few pianos which everywhere is recognized as a leader. It is 
 
 Bear this in mind, and when at the Exposition seek us out. We 
 say no more here of its merits, but during your visit will gladly make 
 them known. 
 
 THE JOHN CHURCH COMPANY, CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
 
 Do you want a new piano? Do you want to exchange an old square piano or an organ on a new 
 upright? If you do, we want your name and address. To get them we will send you free the "College 
 Album of Vocal and Instrumental Music by Standard Composers," if you will mention where this adver- 
 tisement was seen and enclose a two-cent stamp for postage.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 1C43PRAL 
 
 HARPER'S CHICAGO AND THE WORLD'S FAIR NY