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The Campus Mirror
What Was It Like?
By Francks -Johnson, ’37
All over the country people are asking
their neighbors, “What about the Fair?
What was it like?" And though this neigh
bor who was so fortunate as to actually visit
the Fair, may answer in a stream of des
criptive adjectives so dear to the hearts of
all English professors, his less fortunate
friend is not always quite satisfied for he
wants to know just what about the Fair was
“wonderful" or what buildings were “odd
and unusual.”
Ten of the most commonly used adjectives
for describing the Century of Progress Ex
position have J)een here collected with a brief
summary of the interesting points that they
suggest.
(1) Bewildering may describe the new
comer’s first day at the Fair as he stands
on the steps of the Hall of Science and
looks back up the Avenue of Flags at the
milling, gaily-clad, jostling crowds that are
surging up and down the avenue lined with
its scarlet flags.
The endless exhibits can also l)e described
as bewildering, for any Fair visitor will tell
you that after wandering about for an hour
or so in the Transport Building, looking at
at least fifty different types of steam and
electric engines, he felt that he was lost in
a trackless desert, with no relief in sight.
The vast Transport Building and the Gen
eral Motor’s Plant; the Carillon Tower, the
domes and turrets of gray stone of the Bel
gian Village; plus the lighted causeways of
the Hall of Science by night, bring forth
sighs of admiration and murmurs of (2)
stupendous from all visitors.
Perhaps if asked after having spent a
whole day on the Fair grounds, one would
describe the Exposition as (3) wearying.
And wouldn’t you, after trudging over about
eight or ten of the eighty-two miles of ex
hibits, scuffing your shoes on the hard grav
el walks with the Havoline Oil Thermometer
registering from 90 to 95 degrees in the
shade?
The incessant cries of, “Yeah folks”,
“Step this way folks", “hot dawgs, hot
dawgs,” and ‘Madame, have you tried our
health drink?” are all so (4) exasperating
that it causes one to pause and wonder if
these people don’t get tired of hearing
themselves talk.
All teachers and students will tell you that
the Fair was (5) interesting and instruc
tive, meaning the industrial exhibits and
historical displays, but, to the ordinary visi
tor, these two adjectives—instructive and
interesting would describe even more the
"naive, gum-cliewing, beer-swigging crowds”
that fill the avenues and swarm over the ex
hibits buildings in endless numbers.
The same crowds were also (6) amusing in
their explanations and speculations on vari
ous scientific experiments and phenomena
found especially in the Hall of Science. Can
you picture the indignation of one woman
in the “Wings of a Century” show, when
her little boy, after staring at one of the old
fashioned airplanes dated about the year of
1888, asked her if she had been present when
it made its initial attempt at flight.
“1 can't go a step farther! My dogs’ are
simply killin’ me,” was almost a slogan of the
crowds along about four o’clock in the after
noon.
No fair, whether local or world-wide is
complete without its Midway, and so we find
the Chicago Fair no exception to this rule.
Among the Midway attractions were the Sem
inole Indian Village with its wrestling alli
gators, Ripley’s ‘Believe It or Not’ Audito
rium, the Havana Rumba, and the Streets of
Paris. These are described by some as (7)
tame and unoriginal and by others of stricter
morals as (8) salacious.
(9) Raucous is the caption given the loud
speakers bellowing out their cries of “Going
on now, folks, on the Lagoon, see the big
water circus!”; the barkers doing their
‘speils’ on the Midway; and the balatant
souvenir-hawkers pressing their high-priced
wares on the crowds.
Finally, (10) disorderly, may be used to
depict the hodge-podge of pseudo-scientific
displays and the many Coney Island peep-
shows.
Although many may give adverse criti
cisms about the Fair, expressing their disap
pointment. concerning the buildings, exhib
its, and the like, nearly all however, no mat
ter what their position in life, agree that the
1933 Century of Progress Exhibition was a
succession of one big thrill after another.
Home Folks At the Fair
By Edna E. Nkal
“Every type of sound, responsible, middle
class, American father, mother and child ivas
represented at the Fair.” You noted the dif
ferent types first by their clothing. Cow
boy hats mix with panamas, and men wear
ing suspenders and no coats mix with men
Avho cling to coat and vest even on the hot
test days. Of course, every type of women’s
clothing was well represented. Second, you
noticed their talk, the clipped northern
brogue, the broad western drawl, and the
long, drawn out southern dialect. Although
the people differed markedly in their dress,
talk, and manners, they as a whole were
kind and polite and most of them would go
out of their way to do you a favor.
The main trouble the visitors had was with
their feet. You can always tell an experi
enced sight-seer from a new one. Among the
new ones are the dear little ladies who tip
around in their close-fitting high-heeled slip
pers and the men who stroll in their newest
Sunday oxfords. The experienced visitors
wear their oldest and biggest shoes and
smile sympathetically at the suffering
martyrs. Men sitting on benches with their
shoes beside them and their stockinged feet
dangling comfortably, was a common sight at
the fair. In their eager haste to s;ee every
thing the people are likely to forget their
poor feet than can stand just so much. A
clerk in a Michigan Avenue drug store
stated that they sold as many bunion plasters
as ice cream sodas. Most of the treatments
at the fairground hospital ward were for
failing feet. “This shows that the feet of
the nation are in a bad way.”
The people were interested in almost every
thing at the fair, but more in some things
than in others. In the crowd were the gush
ing maidens who exclaimed, “Oh! Isn’t this
adorable?” Husbands who merely grunt ap
proval, and wives who fiddle around with
everything. However, Jerome Beatty in his
article, “Did I Meet You At The Fair?”
cited an incident where the husband was
fiddling around and the wife wanted to go
on to see something else. It seems that he
was looking at a bug which was enlarged
30,000 times. He kept exclaiming, “Ain’t
it ugly?” His wife grew impatient and went
to look at the bug herself. The last time
he made the remark, she retorted, “Humph,
why criticize the bug for his looks? You
wouldn’t be so handsome yourself, if you
were enlarged 30,000 times!” The dance
floors were nearly always empty, possibly
due to foot trouble. The people as a whole
seemed to be more interested in exhibits on
disease than in those on health, more inter
ested in copies of things familiar to them
than in things far away which they had
never seen, and more interested in what is
going on now than in demonstrations of
the future. Most of the people were disap
pointed in their first sight of the Fair, but
they soon got used to it. However, a very
few of the people liked, or even got used to,
modern art. Jerome Beatty says that the
Fair will probably end modern art forever.
But they all like what they like, not what
they ought to like, or rather they like what
they think they ought to like.
The older people marveled at the scientific
exhibits, but it was the younger people who
asked the questions. They wanted to find out
about everything. One man expressed his
opinion that the fair with its various ex
hibits of different things helps the young
people to decide what course they want to
follow in life.
Someone said that you learn about the
Fair from the exhibits, but most of all you
learn about the fair from your fellow sight
seers. You do. You learn all about Ameri
can people and America from the people
you come in contact with and the things
they do. You saw many examples of honesty
at the fair. A man lost $188.00 in the wash
room and it was returned to him. Three
girls lost their return tickets and all their
money, and these were recovered. Most of
the shows were clean and decent. This fact,
says Jerome Beatty, is not so much a tribute
to the officials of the Century of Progress
as to the American people. They simply
do not patronize vulgar shows. You learn
a great deal about the people of America.
You learn that they are friendly, guileless,
honest and trusting and you decide that
America isn’t so bad after all!
One interesting guest at the Tapley Me
morial service was William H. Borders, .Jr.,
of Evanston, Ill., with his mother, Mrs. Julia
Pate Borders.