Show IT SAVED THE FAIR fNl What tho Midway Plnisancc Did fog tho Chicago Exposition Tho authorities I who have the management man-agement of tho Paris exposition in hand may be criticised for It but there are good business reasons for making tho Midway Plalsance a feature and a leading feature observed a represent atlvo of e Western State to a Star reporter Kites I re-porter It happened that I was connected con-nected with the managementof the Worlds fair at Chicago and while serving In that capacity I found out lots of things I did not know befoie or oven had dreamed of One of the things I found out to my entire satisfaction satis-faction was that man and the Won Paris includes is woman peculiar and it till 4 does not make any great different dcoP I whether IIP Is French American or any 2d JI other It be j jury nationality may telling a j tale out of school but the inside hb ctn tory of the Worlds fair shows that if li met It had not been for the midway the i ptrt to whole fair would have gone down low ltama destruction and debt Involving uvcry 5t one The midway saved the fair and tlo its r besides lots of accounts of put on the trig right side of the books The first two tay f at l months of the Worlds fair were terra future t lily trying ones to all Interested In Its kc tai ultimate success for it WHS make or break with many who had their money Jj1c1 Invested In It and In business of van dtparil Otis kinds Inside and outside connect rJuch I eel with It Inside of six weeks it was E rt tot as clear as daylight that something r r had to be done or the entire concera vlll I would go up In the air financially Suggestions tbis a Sug-gestions from all sources were asked tinder though it was kept as quirt an possil I r l1gt ble Finally MaJ J G Pangborn who view tAft t I had formerly boon the advertising 6f slgr manager for a railroad and after that tar wt had gone Into the patent medlcln Aft business and had half the country taking the P1 I king the medicine or rubbing Itself vatic I with a liniment he was promoting wan gate n given full authority to pull the fair ages out of the hole and to adopt his own itllt tl moans to do the pulling In less than tlrctlll a week he had l Invited a couple of dr rt I I dozen of the leading amusement managers tires man-agers cirrus owners and the like to the lc confer with him at Chicago on the subJect the F sub-Ject of the fair IIP paying all the rx One pcnsss of the conference But he cot all the bIb managers of the country to tfcc gother and put the proposition to them dying that the fair l is ca managers were or de tarUe thdr heads and saw no to way get out oY and also the entire ifTn I responsibility un If I them They discussed the business for of the three days and unanimously decided to 1 ra that the fair was but a big show and crth that show rules applied to it and that I the show features would have to Le brought out somewhat stronger If tithing ti-thing was expected to pay There nzi I a midway there then but h was decided I de-cided that It did not have enough drawing powers and that It should b T Increased ten to twenty fold that Ct 1 every hootchycootchy or other cl1s nc r elephant wild bear or monkey tha was to be fourd on the streets of Ca1 o V1 there should be > at least ten more added S add-ed and everything else In proportm i ard that as far as possible everj tiling I should bo run wide open to use I I show term It was decided that all tho rest of the fair should be allow to take care of I self If It would hut f I forced If It would not until a chan I came in the condition of things for L I I scorned to be sure that as the reforma t I i tion from a fair to a show took pl2C the thing would pay The change did the work for the midway won out I Of course none of those coir rn1 I f was boastful or proud of his work but they had to do the beet l thy en hi I 1 with a bad case It also proved that 1 showmen know more about run ring r f show than did the proprietors and pn I irot ° rs of the fair If the Pails erp I skies Is to win out It wll be a xvlnn 1 for tho same reasons The people b j these I mean of course th e mvf 1 t go to It as a show and th lr dfr I and expcctit ons have to be cat rcI < j to Washington Star i A S |