91

Herald May 22

TROUBLE AT THE GATE

ATTEMPT TO INCITE A BIG CROWD.

Suggestion to Storm the World's Fair and
Force the Gates Applauded by Disappointed
Thousands - Effect of Temporary
Supremacy of Sunday Closers.

Chicago and the World's Columbian
Exposition were near being disgraced
yesterday through the rashness of a mob. But
for the prompt action of the police the
Fifty-ninth street entrance to Jackson park
might have been torn down and the great
enterprise besmirched by the cry of
anarchy.

About 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon a
well dressed young man climbed on a barrel
near the entrance and begane to address the
crowd gathered at the gates. When he
called upon his hearers to enter the park by
force the sentiment met with a responsive
cheer from the five thousand people who
had surrounded him. The speaker had no
more than uttered the words when a police
officer in plain clothes pushed his way to the
young man's side and ordered him to cease
at once. At the same time several blus-coats,
re-enforced by a dozen detectives, ordered
the crowd to disperse. There was a
moment of sullen hesitation and then the
throng slowly broke in pieces and moved on,
up and down the thoroughfare. Another
scene similar to the foregoing took place at
Fifty-seventh street entrance. The crowd
was small as compared with that at the
Fifty-ninth street entrance and the police
were easily able to prevent any riotous
action.

It was a perfect spring day. The sun
hung in a dome of purest blue and from the
east came a tempering wind. From the
budding trees came the songs of the birds
and from the smiling earth arose the
fragrance of flowers. Inside the high fence
that held back hundreds of thousands of
people the magnificent columns, spires and
roofs of the white city glistened in the mellow
sunshine, but from the mighty interiors
came no sound. It was indeed a deserted
city.

Not for the Eyes of the People.

The beauty of the peerless landscaoe,
with its bright green tapestry dotted with
a million fair blossoms, was not for the eyes
of the people. The lagoons and canals, unfretted
by th wind, lay shining in the light,
but no trim craft cut the water or glistening
blade cast shimmering ropes of
pearls above the placid waters. Within the
vast structures, the storehouses of the
wealth of many nations, wherein are shown
the products of man's genius, a few workmen
hammered away. The splendid exhibits
were covered with canvas and no moreal
eye gazed upon them. Two thousand guards
patrolled the park under orders to use force
if necessary to keep safely hid the treasures
from many lands. And so throughout the
livelonig day all these beauties lay, as much
buried from the sight of the people, whose
brains and money made them possible, as
though the earth had opened and swallowed
them up.

Outside the guarded barricade there was
another picture in strange contrast to the
peaceful one within the forbidden grounds.
From early morning until the sun went
down the great thoroughfare leading by the
western limits of the park and spanning the
Midway plaisance was thronged with well
dressed and law-respecting men and women.
Hundreds of thousands of people gazed during
the day from the dusty roadway and
ugly viaducts into the glittering city over
against the blue of the rolling lake. On one
side of them was an enchanted city given over
to solitude. On the other was a horde of noisy
and vulgar mountebanks shouting their
worthless wares or urging the people to
patronize their worse than bad entertainments.
From the west came the shouts of drunken
men and the clink of glasses. The
saloons that line Lake avenue as
well as those near to Stony Island
avenue did a thriving trade all day
long. The people had money to spend and
they gave it to the fakir and the groggery
keeper because they could not spend it
within the gates of the fair. Every fakir
reaped a harvest, while the only entertainment
worth all that is paid to see it was
unable to accommodate one-half the people
who desired to witness it. The one exception
was Buffalo Bill's splendid exhibition.
At both the afternoon and evening
performance the great grand stands were
packed to their utmost limit. When the
shows began standing room could not be
secured at any price.