.

[Illustration: Two large domed building with several hundred people
walking about.]
The Administration Building,
seen from the Agricultural Building.

Swarms visited the Midway Plaisance, a long avenue out from the fair
grounds proper, lined with shows. Here were villages transported from
the ends of the earth, animal shows, theatres, and bazaars. Cairo Street
boasted 2,250,000 visitors, and the Hagenbeck Circus over 2,000,000. The
chief feature was the Ferris Wheel, described in engineering terms as a
cantilever bridge wrought around two enormous bicycle wheels. The axle,
supported upon steel pyramids, alone weighed more than a locomotive. In
cars strung upon its periphery passengers were swung from the ground far
above the highest buildings.

[Illustration: Several ornate buildings surrounding a busy street.]
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: Several people watching a fire.]
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 Par