By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
1
He (and she) does Indeed!
youth takes a holiday, This day the world is
oyster, and they know It.
much their
nd, In the
The like
Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan,
upon the fair.
day at the World's Columbian exposition of 1803,
they broke—but that's another story!
the fair grounds. Massed from rail to rail on
the painted bridges, they moved forward slowly”
but unceasingly, toward the turnstiles. Half an
hour before the time to open the gates they were
packed tight about the seven entrances,
From outlying parts of the city came the news
that street cars, “LIL” trains and busses were
jammed beyond capacity with youngsters bound
for the fair. Immediately orders were sent out
summoning all exposition policemen off duty to
report at once. Five hundred exposition em-
ployees were sworn in as special officers, Mean.
while every passing moment saw the crowds
outside the gates growing denser and denser.
Up from the milling mob rose a strange vari
ety of cries—"We want in! = Let's
go! Hey, stop your shovin'! Lay off,
youse guys! —— Look out! Ya nearly jammed
me in the eye with that lollipop! Hey, that
ice cream bar is meitin’' and drippin’ all down
my back! ——— Oh, I've dropped the sack with
my lunch in ft! — Stop pushin’! Quit
your crowdin'! Stop it, 1 tell you!”
Bewildered gatemen tried in vain to hold them
back. The turnstiles couldn't click fast enough
to let them through. A hurry-up call was sent
for 200 city policemen-—then for 200 more. In
the administration bullding telephones were
ringing wildly, incessantly. From box offices
came word of exhausted ticket supplies, of turn.
stiles out of commission and of guards trying .
vainly to maintain an orderly flow of eager
youngsters through the gates. Then came the
news that the crowds were becoming absolutely
unmanageable, They were forcing their way
through the service entrances through which
supplies are brought into the grounds. They
were beginning to scale the walls, They were
dropping down Inside by the hundreds and para-
Iyzing the bus traffic which runs just inside the
western walls,
Officials of the fair realized that something
smust be done quickly In order to avoid injury to
tne youngsters jammed outside the gates, “Let
‘em all In free!” was the order flashed out, All
gates, Including the service entrances were
thrown wide open. And then-the deluge!
Attempts to coin appropriate similes for the
sight which followed failed, One observer said
“like a swarm of hungry locusts.” Another com-
pared it to the stampede of a vast herd of Texas
steers, “The surge came up and across the cause
ways in a spectacle seldom If ever seen before
certainly never seen before in an American city,”
declared one eye-witness,
Can you visualize a crowd of 500,000 people?
Remember there are only 13 American cities
which have more than a population of 500.000
and in the largest of these the density of popu.
lation ix less than 5,000 to the square mile, or
640 acres, Now, the Century of Progress grounds
comprise less than 400 acres of available “walk.
ing space.” Pour 500,000 people Into that amount
of space, and what do you get? A crowd, of
course,
Yes, the fair was “crowded” on May 31. It
would have been crowded even if the horde of
youngsters had been evenly distributed about
the grounds, which they weren't. They streamed
down the Avenue of Flags In an endless proces.
sion of closely packed humanity to which only
the milling crowds at Forty-second and Broad.
way in New York and State and Madison In
Chicago are comparable, From the terraces of
the Hall of Science as far as the eye could see
these thousands of boys and girls were moving
north and south so close together that the streets
themselves seemed to be moving. So steady was
the stream of young visitors across the bridges
over the lagoon that solid lines of policemen were
stretched across the approaches to prevent the
weight of too many from endangering the struc-
tures.
Over on the Enchanted Island, the part of the
fair most popular with Young America, the con-
gestion became so great that It was necessary
to establish and enforce a one-way traffic rule.
The eager youngsters massed ten deep around
some of the amusement centers and from 25 to
50 deep around others. Some of them spent most
of their day standing In line, waiting for a
chance to ride on the ferris wheel, or roller
coaster or slide down a synthetic mountain,
Bat if many of them were Intent upon such
pleasures, there were thousands of others who
Jammed the exhibit buildings until every alsle
was packed solidly with a slow-moving throng.
It was in some of these buildings that other
things besides records were broken, In Justice
to Young America, however, It must be stated
that officials In charge of the Hall of Science,
one of the principal points of attraction, say
that the crowd there was mainly an orderly one
and more easily handled than an adult crowd of
the same size,
But sightseeing wasn't thelr only activity.
There was the matter of eating and drinking to
nounced that 125000 bottles of milk would be
distributed free. It was, and it vanished like a
light summer shower on the face of the Sahara
desert. In the struggles around the booths where
it was distributed some of the bottles were brok-
en and this caused the only serious injuries of
the day—a few minor cuts from the shattered
bottles,
So the milk disappeared (as did hundreds of
thousands of hot dog and hamburger sandwiches,
thousands of gallons of ice cream and of soft
drinks, and hurry-up calls for fresh supplies
were sent out throughout the day) and there was
left behind all over the grounds a trall of dis
carded milk bottles and pop bottles, A force of
200 extra workmen, called into service to gather
up the abandoned glassware, the papers, the
boxes and other trash, which was ankle deep
in places, soon gave up hope of picking up all
these things one at a time. So they brought
shovels and scooped the debris into wheelbar-
rows, And they were scooping far, far into the
night,
By the middle of the afternoon the surging
crowds through the entrances had died down to
a thin trickle. All over the grounds tired young.
sters, heedless of "Keep Off the Grass” signs,
were stretched out in every avallable spot of
shade, The hot sun had wilted most of them and
overcome some, These were rushed to the hos
pital maintained by the fair, given a bath and
made to rest for gwhile. Lifeguards in esnoes
were kept busy patrolling the
hy J
OUGHT TO KNOW
campus and she spends
watching the college students,
{ Ing?" she asked one day when she
| dents catching butterflies,
“lI don't know.”
“Well” sald the
to college.” —Indlanapolis News,
GONE TO HIS HEAD
“You look so queer, Mr, Candle.”
“Well I do feel awfully 1
| headed 1™
He Needs a Bleaching
An Irish Guards officer called up a
sergeant and spoke of the unsoldierly
| appearance of a recruit,
| “He looks very slovenly, sergeant.”
“Yes, sor.”
“Are you sure he washes?"
“Yes, sor”
“Absolutely certain he washes?”
“Yes, sor, but he dries a bad color,
| sor."—Tit-Bits Magazine.
Speculation
“Can the stock exchange be regu-
lated?”
“Of course” answered Mr. Dustin
Stax. “You can make speculation
more difficult, But that won't make
any difference to people who really
want to gamble, Some of "em are
| even now gambling on whether new
rules can be made to work”
Hardest Part
Brown entered the artist's studio
and gazed at the draped canvas on
the easel -
“Have you finished with your ple
ture yet? he asked
“No: I still have the hardest part
[of it to do,” replied the artist.
! “Really! What is that?
| Brown.
“Sell iL,” came the doleful reply.
asked
tury of Progress exposition
which broke all attendance records for the Fair,
1. “What's your name, little girl, and where
talking to one of the 1,400 children who were
“lost” in the crowds.
A Horrible Example
The Customer-~Isn't it rather unus-
| ual to see a barber with long hair and
| whiskers like yours?
The Barber—Yes; but it's good busi-
| ness. Every man that sees how awful
| they look on me will fall for a haircut
and shave,
invaded the Fair grounds,
3. Guards and other employees of the Fair
formed human chains in an effort to restrain
the children awaiting their turn to get in.
more than guards on shore could stop others
from jumping into pools and fountains in vari
ous stages of dress and undress,
lefreshed by such interludes they were off
again to join the mob still milling everywhere
through the grounds as Individuals, in couples,
in groups chaperoned by harassed teachers try-
ing in vain to keep track of their charges, One
teacher solved the problem by using lengths of
string to tie 16 of them together, wrist to wrist.
As she led the way through the grounds, they
trailed along behind her like the tail of a kite
that is, until they attempted to spread out in the
midst of the crowd. Then “tangle” is a mild word
to describe the resulting situation,
She didn’t lose any of her little flock, however,
but there were plenty of “lost children” that day
~1400 of them to be exact, fourteen hundred
who became separated from parents or teachers
or companions, But thanks to a “clearing house”
maintained by the Travelers’ Ald society all of
the lost were found eventually. Urged by the
public address system to seek their stray charges
at the society's headquarters, anxious parents
and teachers stood In line for hours until police
men or Fair attendants pushed their way through
the crowd with their weeping charges, Older
children who knew where they lived were given
carfare and sent home. Younger ones were com.
forted by the young women In charge of the
“clearing house” and an harassed staff of over
worked volunteer assistants,
By the time evening came and the thousands
of twinkling lights which adorn the buildings of
the fair were being reflected in the waters of the
lagoon, an army of weary youngsters was trudg.
ing its way to the exit. By 9 o'clock the shrill
clamor which had echoed throughout the bulld-
ings all day was dying down to a murmur, There
were still thousands of children in the grounds
but after the spectacle of the day those grounds
seemed strangely deserted. By midnight all of
them had gone—except for 65 unfortunate young.
sters who were still “unclaimed” at the “clear
ing house.” But by 1:30 in the morning the very
last of these had been returned safely home.
And policemen, Falr attendants, concessionaires,
street ear conductors, exposition officials (yes,
and teachers and parents, too!) heaved the big.
gest sigh of relief In their lives. The record
breaking first “children’s day” at the 1084 fair
Was over, '
@ by Western Newspaper Union.
Economy First
i+ Poet—You haven't returned any of
| my poems for some time.
per's way up.
LEAVE IT TO "EM
you did while she was away?”
His Pal
A private, walking down a street
with his sweetheart, met a sergeant
belonging to his regiment.
“My sister, Sergeant,” sald the bash-
ful young man
“That's all right,” said the sergeant,
smiling, “she used to be mine”
Can't Fire the Cook
Woman-—Does your husband kick
shout the meals?
Other Bridge Player (smiling)
No; what he kicks about is having to
get them,
A Smart Postman
The man is angry with the postman
Australia Wages War
Against Rabbit “Pets”
It is estimated that 1,000,000,000
rabbits infest the state of New South
Wales alone, Millions of dollars
have been spent in the war against
these animals, which were first intro-
duced as pets by early settlers,
Fences have been constructed, water
holes have been poisoned and profes.
sional rabbit catchers have been em-
ployed. One fence extends from
Condon, on the northwest coast, 1,000
miles south of Hopetoun on the south
coast, protecting the entire western
portion of the state of western Aus
tralia.
Rabbits are particularly
tive In sheep-grazing
they destroy not only grass, but
shrubbery as well, rabbits
are sald to eat as much grass as one
sheep. The destructiveness is off-
set somewhat, however, by thelr
commercial value In fur and food.
Exports of rabbit products, chiefiy
skins, averaged $15,000,000 per year
during the years Immediately pre-
ceding 1920, but since that time have
declined,
£
destruc.
sections, as
Seven
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LINCOLN
WL ER EEE LE
i TERT T
Little Girl's Face
Inflamed by
Psoriasis
Healed by Cuticura
“My little girl's face was so Ine
flamed that her eyes were swollen
almost shut, The trouble was diag-
nosed as psoriasis, She scratched
night and day and was not able to
obtain rest. The scratching aggra-
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“After three months’ suffering I
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by my mother. I bought a cake of
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Ointment and used them according
to directions. The first treatment
brought relief and she is now
healed.” (Signed) Mrs. Marie I. John
Soap 25¢. Ointment 25¢ and 50e.
Talcum 25¢. Sold Everywhere. One
sample each free. Address: “Outs
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