Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1893 — THE WORLD’S FAIR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE WORLD’S FAIR.

The Ferris Wheel— Depew on the Fair—Blarney Castle. - EIFFEL TOWER OUTDONE. [ The event of list Wednesday at the World’s Fair was the formal dedication or opening to the public of the Ferris wheel. This is a remarkable piece of mechanism and likely to become as famous in its way as the Eiffel tower at Paris. Like some other notable triumphs in engineering. it is the work of a man who is not an engineer. The idea and construction of the Eiffel were simple and easy compared with those of the Ferris wheel. The tower might be compared to a bridge 800 feet long, stood on end, while the wheel is a bridge of that length bent- in the form of a circle and set in the air. The tower was stationary while the whcelre\ , olvess Its..Aiameteris2so feet, and it has two rims, or tires, with a complicated system of spokes and girders, suggestive of a huge bicycle. Between the two iron rims arc suspended three dozen coaches, each about as large as a Pullman ear and capable of holding about sixty

passengers. These coaches are suspended in such a way that when the wheel revolves they are carried around without changing their horizontal position. The entire weight of the wheel and its mechanism is 4,300 tons, and it is moved by two engines of 1,000 horse power- each. The object of the huge structure is to give people a trip through the upper air where, from a height of 250 feet, they may get a bird’s-eye view, not only of Jackson Park and the World's Fair, but of Chicago, the lake and more distant scenes. The wheel cost an enormous sum of money, but as it is expected to make thirty revolutions per day and carry from one thousand to two thousand passengers every trip at 50 cents each, it is likely to prove a profitable investment. The Ferris wheel is as likely to be distinctly the sensation of the World’s Fair as the Eiffel tower was at the Paris Exposition. % DEPEW’S IMPRESSION’S. The urbane Chauncey M. Depew, of New York, visited the Exposition last week. He was seen by reporters at his hotel, and seemed the embodiment of good nature and kindly courtesy. “Come along,” said he, and I will tell you all about my trip of yesterday. I have seen the Fair, and I have seen it thoroughly,” were his first words. “Naturally, the

first thing that strikes one is the ex- ( cellcnce of the transportation facili- j ties. Yesterday, I watched how! 178,000 people went to the Exposition and I saw how they, returned. It surpassed what I thought could be done when I was here at the dedicatory exercises. The stories of extortion which we hear so much about in the East are like everythingjaffecting Chicago, greatly exaggerated. I think people can secure about what they want at a reasonable price for what they get in Chicago. The Fair itself is so vast, so comprehensive, so beautiful, that it eliminates comparison with other exhibitions of the kind that have been held before in the world. It is vastly superior in interest, in extent, and in value to any previous fair ever built. If one wall come in from the lake through the marvelous entrance, which seems to revive in the memory of a college man his dreams of the approaches to the famous buildings of antiquity, then a fitting sense of the Exposition is in a degree Obtained. By a further ride on gondola or launch through the lagoons one gets an impression of the vastness, the superb architectural beauty, and the completeness of Chicago’s work, which it is impossible to describe as superlatives are unequal to the occasion. Then you must add to that the thirty buildings belonging to the States of the Union, which in size, appointment, and number far surpass the buildings erected by all the foreign nations of the world at the Paris Exposition. “I remained last night to the ll.umination. It was worth a visit from New York if there was nothing else to see. It was simply enchant-

ing. ’Twould make a poqt out of a 1 baggage-smasher. I have seen an j illumination of the Grand canal in i Venice, and repeatedly that of the World’s Exposition in Paris, but the vastness of the White City and its possibilities for effects made those

frights, as wonderful as they seemed at the time, after last night, remind one of the difference between a candle and an arc light.” BLARXEY CASTLE. like stepping across the sea into the midst of scenes of historic interest, natural beauty, and Irish life, dear to every traveler’s

heart, is a visit to the industrial village at the inner entrance of the Mid way plaisance. From the classic gateway of King Cormac’s chapel on the Rock of Cashel, through which the visitor passes into the picturesque ruins of beautiful Muckross abbey, to the summit of Blarney Castie and the cottages with heaps of turf from the bogs of the Emerald Isle, all is redolent of the “ould

sod.” Grouped around the four sides of an ancient square, in the midst of which rises Castle Blarney, are typical peasant cottages in which, especially in the industrial part, can be seen the life and labor of the frugal and industrious poor. In these humble domiciles one hears the bright sallies of wit and the

keen repartee from Irish lassies who plainly have no need to kiss the blarney stone. Exquisite laces, beautiful carvings, grow before the eye, while rare old relics of the days gone by adorn many rooms. In the village hall the music of the Irish harp accompanies sweet voices singing Irish national melodies. The entire proceeds of this village, of which Lady Aberdeen is the presiding spirit, go to the establishment and development of home industries in Ireland.

WEDDING PROCESSION IN THE STREETS OF CAIRO, MIDWAY PLAISANCE.

VIEWING THE WHALE SKELETON—FISHERIES BUILDING.

JAPANESE SERPENT IN A PARADE.

BLARNEY CASTLE.