1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



429 



if it was the business of every Chicago citizen 

 to know all about the Pair, and take special 

 pains to instruct her! I suggested that some 

 of the people of Chicago lived ten or fifteen 

 miles away from the Fair, and it was not solely 

 a Chicago enterprise, and that they could find 

 out some things by asking the Columbian 

 Guards. " The guards!" sniffed the old gentle- 

 man; and then he used a word that wouldn't 

 look pretty in print as he said, " The guards 

 don't know as much as we do." 



Now, the fact is that the guards are well 

 posted, considering the amount there is to learn 

 about in 640 acres, and they are always accom- 

 modating and pleasant, ready to answer all the 

 questions asked, in a way that makes you feel 

 in a little while that every guard you meet is 

 one of your friends. 



On a wet day you will find it disagreeable 

 getting around, as the mud. although not deep, 

 covers nearly all the pavements. But that's 

 getting better all the time. Likely enough, 

 before you enter, a fakir in the guise of a good 

 Samaritan will tell you that you will become 

 very tired, and will want to sit down, and that 

 you can't get a seat for less than ten cents, and 

 he'll sell you a nice stool for a dollar. When 

 you get to the gate you will not be allowed to 

 take in the stool, and you'll not know which to 

 curse most — the fakir or the exposition com- 

 pany. For a stipulation, the authorities have 

 granted to one company a monopoly of the 

 stool business: and if you carry a stool around 

 with you, you must pay ten cents a day for it. 

 If you want to hire the use of a rolling-chair in 

 which to push around your wife or mother, 

 you will have to pay 40 cents an hour for the 

 use of it. It will cost you 75 cents an hour for 

 one of these chairs, with a guide to push it 

 around. Your indignation at paying so much 

 will be somewhat softened to think that, by so 

 doing, you are helping some poor fellow to work 

 his way through college; for these guides are 

 made up mainly of students from the different 

 colleges. 



I have seen estimates as to how much it will 

 cost you to see all the Fair, amounting to a 

 number of dollars. The plain truth is, you see 

 the Fair for just fifty cents a day. Along Mid- 

 way Plaisance are foreign villages, theaters, 

 etc., that you can see for nothing from the out- 

 side; and I am told that the outside view is 

 something worth while; but you can not enter 

 these places without paying admission, just as 

 you pay admission to the side-shows at county 

 fairs to see the double-head(^d baby, the learned 

 pig, etc. But you can continue sight-seeing 

 lor many a day, at only 50 cents per day. You'll 

 do well to train your legs for walking, some 

 days in advance; for if th<! phrase " magnifi- 

 cent distances " applies anywhere it is at the 

 World's Fair. 



With regard to water, the capers have said 

 you couldn't get a drink without paying for it. 

 In no part of Chicago, at no county fair I have 

 ever seen, is water so easily had as at the 

 World's Fair. It is in square boxes, like dry- 

 goods boxes, scattered over the grounds every- 

 where, free, cold, and good: and I haven't seen 

 a chance to get any kind of drink by paying for 

 it, but there undoubtedly will be, perhaps are 

 now, places for selling lemonade, etc. Hygeia 

 water, piped from Waukesha, will be for sale 

 at a cent a glass, but it isn't to be had yet. 



Except in the State buildings, seats are 

 scarce; but I am told there are to be seats scat- 

 tered over the grounds. Extortion is practiced 

 in cases where you get in a tight place to get 

 something in the line of v ork done. In some 

 cases it seems a matter of necessity that delays 

 make it very expensive for exhibitors to get 

 any thing done. It depends a little on the way 



you look at things whether you call it vexa- 

 tious and expensive delay or extortion. Per- 

 haps you may submit to the delay and extor- 

 tion, perhaps you may. wiggle out of it. I'll 

 give you an example of both extortion and 

 delay: I needed 213 feet of boards, to be built 

 on to one side of the case for friend Root's 

 exhibit, and the carpenter work for it. I found 

 a boss carpenter who agreed to let me have 

 two hands to work any minute I was ready for 

 them, charging fifty cents an hour for each of 

 them (50 to no cents per hour is the usual price 

 for eight hours' work, and 50 per cent is added 

 for any thing ov<'r that time). But the car- 

 penter told me that I would have trouble in 

 getting the lumber, as the lumbermen were two 

 days behind orders, and some of his jobs were 

 now waiting on that account. The prospect of 

 two days' delay was not pleasant. Acting on 

 the advice of my son Charlie, who is one of the 

 Columbian Guards, and whose advice has served 

 me well on more than one occasion, I concluded 

 to try to shorten the delay; so I took my stand 

 (or, rather, Charlie did) at a spot where teams 

 were going back and forth, and in perhaps half 

 an hour I caught a Dane with an express 

 wagon. I got on the wagon with him. went to 

 the nearest lumber-yard, got the lumber, and 

 came back quite elated. But when I got to the 

 Agricultural Building I found a long line of 

 wagons standing waiting their turn. It would 

 be several hours before I could get in. I wasn't 

 so much elated. I went in to the man who has 

 such things in charge, told him my fix, and 

 asked him if he couldn't have the boards 

 trucked in for me. Oh, yes! he would have 

 them trucked right in, and it would cost me only 

 $2.00. I demurred, and he very coolly told me 

 to find some one else. It was a case of extor- 

 tion, pui'e and simple; and the question was, 

 which was cheaper — to submit to the extortion 

 or delay. If I submitted to the delay, of course 

 the expressman must be paid for his time. I 

 thought I would try not to submit to either. I 

 went into the building, put on my best-natured 

 smile, and told my carpenters I was ready for 

 them to go to work. I thought the chances 

 more than even that they would tell me they 

 were carpenters, not porters, when I told them 

 the first thing was to take the boards on their 

 shoulders and carry them in. But they were 

 good-natured about it, and went right to work. 

 The expressman helped, and then frightened 

 me by charging only GO cents for bringing the 

 stuff. 



But in other cases the way out is not always 

 so easy. In one case after waiting half a day a 

 man paid 13.00 for half an hour's hauling. 



Prices for food on the grounds are, to a large 

 extent, extortionate. Don't submit to it. Bring 

 a lunch on the ground with you. If you don't 

 want to lug your lunch around with you, have 

 it checked for you at the Illinois Central R. R. 

 building (there may be other places), at-a cost 

 of ten cents. 



As to the cost of supper, lodging, and break- 

 fast, you can make it about what you please. 

 You can get good board at hotels, close by the 

 grounds, for ?25 a week; and if that isn't high 

 enough, you can have better rooms and make 

 it higher. I'll tell you how I did. Charlie told 

 me of a very nice restaurant, right close by the 

 grounds, corner of ('M St. and Hope Ave. 

 Every thing is nice, clean, and good, with 

 prices just the same as'they have always been 

 at sucli restaurants in the city. I went into a 

 hotel and asked what I could have a bed for. 

 Two dollars and a half. As I didn't promptly 

 say I wanted it, the clerk said he could givo me 

 another one for two dollars; but I left. Then 

 Charlie skirmished around and found a place 

 for me. I got a nice clean comfortable room 



