an a locomotive. In
cars strung upon its periphery passengers were swung from the ground far
above the highest buildings.

[Illustration: Several hundred guests.]
Midway Plaisance, World's Fair, Chicago.

Facilitating passenger transportation to and from the Fair remarkable
railway achievements were made. One train from New York to Chicago
covered over 48 miles an hour, including stops. In preparation for the
event the Illinois Central raised its tracks for two and a half miles
over thirteen city streets, built 300 special cars, and erected many new
stations. These improvements cost over $2,000,000. The Fair increased
Illinois Central traffic over 200 per cent.

Save the Art Building, the structures at the Fair were designed to be
temporary, and they were superfluous when the occasion which called them
into being had passed. The question of disposing of them was summarily
solved. One day some boys playing near the Terminal Station saw a
sinister leer of flame inside. A high wind soon blew a conflagration,
which enveloped the structures, leaving next day naught but ashes,
tortured iron work, and here and there an arch, to tell of the regal
White City that had been.

[Illustration: Smoke pouring from a large building.]
Electricity Building. Mines and Mining Building.
The Burning of the White City.

The financial backers of the Fair showed no mercenary temper. The
architects, too, worked with public spirit and zeal which money never
could have elicited. Notwithstanding the World's Fair was not
financially a "success," this was rather to the credit of its unstinted
magnificence than to the want of public appreciation. The paid
admissions were over 21,000,000, a daily average of 120,000. The gross
attendance exceeded by nearly a million the number at the Paris
Exposition of 1889 for the corresponding period, though rather more than
half a million below the total at the French capital. The monthly
average at Chicago increased from 1,000,000 at first to 7,000,000 in
October.

The crowd was typical of the best side of American life; orderly,
good-natured, intelligent, sober. The grounds were clean, and there was
no ruffianism. Of the $32,988 worth of property reported stolen, $31,875
was recovered and restored.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Official Views Of The World's
Columbian Exposition, by C. D. Arnold and H. D. Higinbotham

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOS