Life — May 18, 1893 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“QWhile there's Life there’s Hope.” VOL. XXI. MAY 18, 1893. No. 542. 28 West Twenty-Tiiro Srrert, New York, Published every Thursday. $s.coa year in advance. Postage to foreign countries in the Postal Union, S104 year, extra. Single copies, to cents, bya Rejected contributions will be destroyed unless accompanie stamped and directed envelope. =o HE colossal and in- y structive exhibition at Chicago has opened, and its proprietors are waiting with some impatience for the rush to begin. The fact that the rush hangs fire a little is due to the popular impression that there will be more to see after the managers have had a little more time to get ready. It is also believed that sight- seeing will be pleasanter after the severities of the Spring have been mitigated, and that it will be considerably cheaper after intruding brigands have < found extortion unprofitable, or have been exter- minated by the management. At this writing, the Fair is understood to be incomplete and excessively hungry, and every intending visitor prefers that someone else should be the first sop thrown to the ravening showmen. The waiters and restaurant-keepers in particular are credited with a disposition to misconceive their opportunity and devour the multitude that it is their office to feed. There are other drawbacks. The mud in the Midway Plaisance is alleged to be ankle deep; many of the pictures in the Art Building still repose in packing cases; the gondoliers have not yet shed their ulsters; the unsophisti- cated Hoosiers and Illinoisans who have thus far reached the grounds give distressing manifestations of outraged modesty over the decorative adornments of the buildings and the dis- play of contemporary art. There are interesting rows, too, in most departments of the exhibition, The machinery men are reluctant to pay for power. The musical people have one another by the ears over questions touching harps and pianos. The Woman's Board has been nearly dissolved in tears over questions of social privilege and disputed author- ity. Everybody connected with the Fair seems to have staked his ultimate dollar on the enterprise, and the rush of attendance is not yet such as to allay the anxiety of investors as to reimbursement. UT these preliminary horrors are part of the reasonable cost of the great- est show on earth, All such distresses are bound to pass away, Doubtless they will have been considerably ameliorated by the time these lines reach the reader's eye. By that time his mind will have dried up, the rest of the pictures will have been unpacked, the Woman's Board will have been perma- nently adjourned, the gondolier will have warmed to his work, the “power” will have been paid for and turned on, the rush will have begun, hungry crowds will have feed the waiter, the waiter will have ceased to strike, the Hoosiers will have got used to nude statues, and the bands will play, and the wheels to go round, and all Chicago will be happy. LIFE hopes that it may be so, and be so promptly and persistently. It does not insist that Chicago’s dreams of avarice shall all be fulfilled, but believing that the Fair is a vast and splendid achievement, fit to be of the highest educa- tional benefit to the country, it wants to see the country show due appreciation, and give it ample support. If we have the money, brethren, let us go to that Fair; and if we haven't the money let us do our best endeavors to perfect arrangements for obtaining it. We must go to the Fair anyhow. > . . N spite of a multitude of conflicting reports, the present prospect is that the Fair will not be open on Sunday. That is to be regretted, since it has seemed to most people that the hoped-for crowds in Chicago would be better off at Jackson Park on Sunday than anywhere else. But which- ever way the final ruling goes, the effect will be interesting to watch. The most obvious immediate result of Sunday closing will be the promotion of Sunday travel, as unscrupu- lous people who intend to do the Fair in a week will plan to be present when the gates open on Monday morning, and to get away from Chicago on Saturday night. . . * BOSTON contemporary enquires: ‘* Are Women Club- bable?” Not with impunity in this country. Even the common law which permitted correction by husbands with a switch not larger than the finger, frowned on the use of clubs. . . * pe HE recent recommendation of the Governor ji of Oregon to the President to mind his : own business, is possibly attributable to the Governor's inability to discriminate be- tween notoriety and reputation. One great difference between a man and a newspaper, is that to the man the value of being talked about depends in some measure upon ] what is said. To be called a bad name, on conclusive grounds, by several millions of one's fellow-citizens, is not a distinction s that a wise man covets. Perhaps Gov- i ernor Pennoyer has an intellectual defect; perhaps he merely gets tipsy. In either case his friends should persuade him to wear mittens on his mouth. comicbooks.com