764 



WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 



Porter and Chauncey M. Depew were there to 

 respond. At the formal exercises Thomas F. 

 Gilroy, Mayor of New York city, and Seth Low, 

 President of Columbia College, took part, and 

 the formal reception closed with a benediction 

 by Archbishop Corrigan. Parades by day and 

 pageants by night, closing with fireworks, were 

 included in the ceremonies. 



Attendance. The number of paid admissions 

 to the Columbian Pair during the 179 days that 

 it was open to the public was 21,477,218, being 

 an average of 119,984^ per day. The total at- 

 tendance, including exhibitors and others who 

 held passes, was 27,529,400, which exceeded by 

 nearly a million the 26,538,543 of the total ad- 

 missions to the Paris Exposition during the 

 months ending with October. 



The attendance for May was only 1,050,087 

 Taking out the 128,965 of' the opening day and 

 the 115.578 of Decoration Day, the average for 

 the other twenty-six days was only 30,980. The 



TEXAS STATE BUILDING. 



paid attendance for June was two and a half that 

 of May, but its 2,675,113 included only five days 

 the figures for which exceeded the six months' 

 average. In July that average was first exceed- 

 ed, on the 4th, with a total of 283,273. and on the 

 20th the average was again passed, with a total 

 of 129,873, by the Swedish celebration. The total 

 (3,780,263) for that month but slightly exceeded 

 the record for June. The 3,515,493 of August was 

 an increase of one fourth. The paid attendance 

 for each of fifteen days exceeded the average, 

 and except Sundays the lowest figures were 80,- 

 200. The " banner day " in August was the 24th, 

 when 243,951 persons paid their way through 

 the gates to join in celebrating Illinois day. 

 The other two largest records of August were 

 168,861 for the 19th, which was British day, and 

 the 168,036 of the 25th, which was Machinery 

 day. September brought an increase to nearly 

 4,660,000, its best day being the 231,522 for the 



9th, when the Californians, the Grand Army of 

 the Republic, Utah, the stationary engineers, 

 and the exponents of transportation joined in 

 celebrating. On three other days the record 

 went above 200,000 namely, the 23d, being 

 Knights of Honor day, with 215,643 ; the 7th, 

 by Pennsylvania and Brazil, with 203,460 ; and 

 the 16th, with 202,376, that being Texas, Rail- 

 way, and New Mexico day. October brought 

 6,816,435 visitors, or an average of 227,214 for 

 each day, which was less than one third of the 

 716,881 persons who paid their way on the 

 twenty-second anniversary of the Chicago fire. 

 On each of three other days the record exceeded 

 300,000, the 10th being North Dakota and Fire- 

 men's day, and the llth, which was Connecticut 

 day, both rising above 309,000. Making due al- 

 lowance for duplications by persons who paid 

 more than one visit to the fair, it may be esti- 

 mated that twelve million different individuals- 

 went there within the six months. 



Police Service. Na 

 large gathering of peo- 

 ple such as collected 

 daily at Jackson Park 

 could be expected to es- 

 cape the annoyance of 

 petty thieving. For 

 the protection of the 

 visitor, the Secret-Serv- 

 ice Bureau of the 

 World's Columbian Ex- 

 position was organized 

 September 1, 1892 ; 

 and ex-Police Inspector 

 John Bonfield, formerly 

 of the Chicago depart- 

 ment, was given charge. 

 He consulted with 

 city and State officials 

 throughout the United 

 States and Europe, and 

 mapped out a plan for 

 the protection of visit- 

 ors, and on May 1, 1893, 

 he had a force on the 

 grounds of 300 picked 

 men, coming from every 

 State in the Union, Eng- 

 land, Canada, and South 

 America. 



The records show 845 arrests, 400 convictions, 

 and 105 acquittals; 297 persons were arrested 

 for pilfering from exhibits and released on pay- 

 ing for the goods they had taken ; 33 persons 

 were arrested for attempting to gain admission 

 to the grounds on fraudulent passes ; 9 persons 

 were arrested for attempting to pass counterfeit 

 money; 143 ex-convicts were taken in and re- 

 moved from the grounds, and cautioned if they 

 were again found in the grounds they would be 

 prosecuted ; 1,395 showcases in the different 

 exhibits were found open and not locked, 

 through the carelessness of exhibitors or their 

 employees; 300 stolen souvenir tickets were re- 

 covered from a gateman ; value of property re- 

 ported stolen, $32,988 : value of property recov- 

 ered and returned to owners, $31,875. The 

 Secret- Service Department had charge of the lost 

 and found articles up to the 19th of August,. 

 when it was turned over to the auditing depart- 



