CONCESSIONS & PRIVILEGES DEPARTMENT

Abraham L. Reed, Manager
S.B. Wadley, Superintendent
E.M. Fairfield, Chief Clerk
Olin West, Chief of Inspectors

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

The best Expositions are places of instruction, interest and amusement.  As no
school of instruction and training is complete without its play grounds and its
games, so no Exposition school of learning is complete without its play
grounds, its places of amusements, recreation and frolic.  It only remains, as
with other schools of instruction, to so surround the features provided for the
play grounds with such rules and regulations as will be calculated to restrain
the fun and frolic within proper and reasonable limits.  It also follows that,
as with other schools of learning, the operators of amusement features and the
frolicsome visitors will sometimes set all rules and regulations at naught and
have for their guidance this only-
"On with the dance, let Joy be unconfined."
It is true, however, that it is but seldom that the authorities of the
amusement section fail to maintain a firm and even control over the operations
of features and the conduct of the patrons.  The fun and frolic of an
Exposition is not, however, the chief element of the Concessions Department. 
The matter of providing food and drink for Exposition visitors and its small
army of employees, the privilege to sell all sorts of articles and to pursue
all sorts of avocations.  The very many pursuits in which money passes, are all
the subjects of negotiation with and are operated under rights granted by the
Concessions Department.

The applications for these many concessions and Privileges are generally
somewhat plentiful and the management of the Department is called upon to very
carefully consider the proposals, their purposes, their proposed manner of
operation and the multitude of detail involved in their presentation, so that
the Exposition shall not be imposed upon, nor the patrons of the Exposition
have just cause for complaint upon any legitimate cause or basis.

It will thus be seen that the management of concessions department is not
simple.  Also, that in spite of careful consideration, constant watchfulness
and unceasing surveillance, there will creep in things that should not be, and
which are not highly creditable.  The stringent regulations and constant
oversight, however, minimizes the opportunity for unseemly and indecorous
operations and actions.

A large Exposition is not only full of instruction for the onlookers but is a
most liberal education for all who have to do with its management and daily
routine.  In no other department is this education more diverse and
comprehensive than in that of concessions.  When one considers that 90 out
every 100 concessioners are regular followers of Expositions, who not only
represent the native craft and cunning of twenty different peoples, but come
with wits sharpened against other, perhaps many other, Concessions Departments,
the mere making of the hundreds of contracts, whose terms shall not conflict,
is seen to be a task calling for the aptest of pupil.

So also in the daily and hourly enforcement of the contracts, particularly
those governing the operation of amusement concessions of the "Midway", are
those lessons to be read and digested, and that instantly.  No long hours of
study can here be permitted;  it is not a place for the student but for the man
of discriminating insight and quick decision.  When dispute arise, when
collections of deferred payments or daily percentages are sought to be evaded,
when a Babel of tongues engulfs the officers of the department, when the guards
are met with a show of armed resistance at the Indian camp or threats to
unleash the lions in the "Animal Show", then it is that one wishes his
"education" were not all crowded into a few short months.

The T.M. & I.E. was fortunate in having the experienced assistance of a
superintendent and a chief Inspector in the Concessions Department, who had
served apprenticeship at the Nashville Exposition the year before and who
therefore had personal knowledge of most of the concessionaires and their
peculiarities.  This knowledge was invaluable, and it is all but essential to
the success of any Concessions Department that its executive officer should
have had previous experience.

One of the rocks which dot the course of this department is the grant of
"exclusive" privileges, and the navigator who would avoid wreck thereon must be
well up in the psychologic ethnologic and diabolic branches of Exposition
knowledge.  Whether a certain costume is Syrian or Greek, whether a "wedding
procession" is Egyptian of Maltese, whether camels are permanently attached to
the land of the Pyramids, or may safely be assumed to have use in other
countries, whether Algiers is any more "Oriental" than Italy or whether
"oriental" has a technical, specialized, Expositionized meaning, from these
International problems down to the question of how long it takes to transform a
"hot roast sandwich" into a cold one and thereby change its contractual
habitat, for the proper determination of these and innumerable other vexatious
questions, the department needs nothing less than Omniscience.

Happy the manager who can see the light often enough to correct his reckoning
and steer safely between the Scylla of lost revenue and the Charydbis of legal
complication.  He must assume infallibility if he have it not; and if some of
his judgment are reversed by the courts, he is always to be congratulated that
the reversals are no more numerous.

It is with confidence that the assertion is made that the amusement section of
the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was more free from anything
objectionable or indecorous than any previous American Exposition of magnitude. 
And that this is so is attributable manly to the care, study, investigation and
manly decision of the Manager of this Department, whose every aim was toward a
successful and a credible operation of the department placed under his care and
management.

It is always expected that the Concessions Department shall be productive of
large revenues to the Exposition, and sometimes it is revenue only that is
planned to result.  In this Exposition it was planned to have a successful and
credible operation of this department, with as large net revenue as would there
by result.

In the consideration of rights for sale of beer and wines in connection with
restaurants, etc. it was decided that while it was clear such rights must be
granted, yet it should be within proper regulations and the sale of such goods
by the use of open bars or otherwise should not be offensively thrust on the
notice of Exposition patrons.  This decision was duly carried out.  The sale of
whiskey and liquors was not allowed under any concession granted, and the
troubles of the management by reason of the sale of intoxicants were slight.

The revenues of the Exposition, coming to it from the Concessions Department,
were of most material advantage.  Those receipts prior to the opening of the
Exposition and during its first months, having special value, owing to demands
of creditors, whose clamor could only be satisfied with cash, and some
concessions perhaps, were granted for a less consideration than could otherwise
have been secured because of the crying need for funds.

The receipts of the Concessions department show that for each admission to the
Exposition, paid and free, the Concessions Department received 14-7/10 cents. 
And for each Paid admission to the Exposition grounds the Concessions
Department received 16-53/100 cents, a record that stands unmatched by any
previous American Exposition of magnitude.

To show fully the concessions granted, their character receipts, the revenue to
the Exposition from each, the receipts daily from each class of concessions,
together with a summary of the financial transactions of the department, the
subjoined statements are given.


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Next follows classified abstract showing gross receipts of the various
concessions, etc.  Said abstract is too long and too complex for typewriting.

_______________________


Mr. John A. Wakefield,
821 New York Life Bldg.
Omaha, Neb.

My dear Wakefield:

I return with this the copy for the Trans-Mississippi History enclosed with
yours of the 5th.  You will note I have made a few corrections that will
eliminate giving the Mo. Pacific prominent notice as against the other Omaha
terminal roads.

Also note what you say about the medals.  I cannot help but think that your
proposition is very nice and Mr. Wattles who was just in and I mentioned the
matter to him, and will add that if the meeting can be held the fore part of
next week I will take pleasure in being there, in fact will make a special
effort to be there at any subsequent date if advised.

Yours truly,

G.W.F.A.