Sunday Closing and the St. Louis Fair
THE Outlook says that “all accounts agree in regarding the fair at St. Louis as not only the largest, but in many ways the most important yet held on this continent, and one of the most important ever held in any part of the world;” yet as regards the attendance, the fair seems likely to be a pronounced failure. “For the first three months,” says the Outlook, “the attendance at the fair was only about five millions, while the attendance at the Chicago fair for the same period was over nine millions.” From all that was said by the parties responsible for Sunday closing of the St. Louis exposition, it was to be inferred that a Sunday observing fair would prove a success because of its moral character and the patronage it would receive from the church people; yet it appears that the fair is even less of a financial success than was the Chicago fair, which kept open gates on the “American sabbath.” Hereafter not as much weight is likely to be attached as formerly has been to the prophecy that an exposition will prove a failure if its gates are kept open on Sunday.