66 JSew Yoek at the Wokld's Columbian Exposition. 



WOEK OF THE WiNTEK MoNTHS 1892-1893. 



On the return of the Board of General Managers from the Colum- 

 bian celebrations, work was taken up by the commissioners and 

 department chiefs with renewed energy. Indeed, it might well be 

 argued that the holding of the dedication six months in advance of the 

 fair was of the highest benefit to the exposition, apart from its 

 historical significance, for the reason that representatives from every 

 State and many foreign nations were present, who freely interchanged 

 viewB as to the scope and possibilities of the exposition and the nature 

 of the work ah-eady undertaken by them. Furthermore, it was readily 

 appreciated by all that the magnificent scale on which the grounds and 

 buildings were planned was the type of the fair, and that to occupy an 

 honorable place in the exhibit departments meant unremitting labor 

 for the remaining six months. It is safe to assert that the exhibits of a 

 majority of the States were doubled in attractiveness by the experience 

 gained and rivalry excited at the early ceiebration. 



The work of the commission during the winter of 1892 and 1893, 

 though pressing and exacting, was necessarily of a certain routine 

 character difficult to transcribe and uninteresting to read. Only a few 

 of fhe most miportant actions can be touched upon. The greatest 

 demand upon the time, patience and diplomatic ability of the board 

 was the question of space ; many of New York's manufacturing 

 industries demanded an immediate adjustment ot the difficulty as a 

 condition of their making an exhibit ; others, just waking to a sense of 

 the importance of the occasion, were making frantic endeavors to 

 obtain recognition from the exposition autliorities. In their role of 

 mediators the board were obliged to use the utmost tact to satisfy the 

 demands of the exhibitors on the one hand and not make unjust require- 

 ments of the exposition officials on the other. 



There was undoubtedly a failure to satisfy the great majority of 

 individual demands both as to the amount of space granted and the 

 time consumed in reaching a decision, but the task imposed upon the 

 Chicago authorities was so complicated and delicate as to demand for 

 them the utmost indulgence. Some idea of their problem may be 

 obtained when it is stated that in the Manufactures Building, with a 

 floor area of thirty and three-fifths acres, American exhibitors proposed 

 to occupy space five times greater than at their disposal, and yet no 

 foreign nation received one-third the space reserved for the United 



