The Wichita Daily Eagle

FOOD AT THE FAIR
Provisions for Feeding the Multitude at the Exposition.
Immense Restaurants and Kitchens Throughout the Grounds—There Will Be Ample Room for the Hungry Visitors.
To feed the multitude at the fair next year has been a question upon the solution of which the hardest work of the officials of the exposition has been expended. After months of labor and investigation, of trials and interrogations, the ways and means committee has arranged a plan by which eatables and drinkables will be furnished for all.
The most important concession in the hands of that committee will soon be granted, and, although the names of the parties who will be awarded the privilege of handling the restaurants in the large buildings have not been divulged, Secretary Crawford has intimated that all the restaurants outside of special concessions will be in the hands of one company. To feed the people it is calculated to take at least a trainload of provisions per day. It would be impossible to properly oversee the price lists and to prevent swindling or bad food if the restaurant in each building were in the hands of separate persons. Therefore the ways and means committee proposes to have things arranged so as to be able to place the responsibility for any laxity, and to prevent inadequate service to the public.
At the southern end of the grounds an immense kitchen will be built, capable of providing for a restaurant with a seating capacity of 12,000. In this kitchen will be cooked all provisions for the main building restaurants, thereby preventing the smell of cooking permeating the exhibit buildings, as would be the case were many kitchens established.
In the forestry, agricultural, machinery, manufactures, mines, transportation, fisheries, electricity and horticultural buildings space has been reserved for cafes. In the total space reserved it is calculated that between 12,000 and 15,000 people can be served at once. These restaurants will be fitted up with warming tables, so that meats, etc., will not be cold. In allotting the space for restaurants twelve feet square was figured for each person, so as to provide ample room for comfort. After the army of cooks in the mammoth kitchen have prepared the food it will be conveyed to the restaurant in wagons fitted up with appliances for keeping things piping hot. This service will require about fifty wagons, and it is the aim of the committee to see to it that there is no delay in delivering the eatables.
The ways and means committee reserves the right on all concessions to fix the prices and the measures. Secretary Crawford and Chairman Butler have become so expert that they can tell offhand how thick a slice of beef should be to bring 25 cents, or how many peanuts legally constitutes a pint. The ways and means committee does not intend to have odium cast upon the fair by allowing things to run themselves, and restaurants to reap golden harvests for nothing. While it is the intention to make all concessions pay as well as possible, it is far from the calculations of the fair officials that comfort and fair treatment shall be sacrificed to gain.
Chairman Butler, in speaking of the plans of his committee, said the other day:
"Of course, we are going to make everything pay, but it is a mistaken idea circulated by certain newspapers that we have sacrificed too much space for restaurants and concessions. We have not encroached upon the exhibiting space. Now my idea is that, if the fair is to be a success, it is very essential that the creature comforts of the visitors be looked after. First, feed a man if you want him to enjoy himself. The restaurants are something more than money makers.
"They are necessary conveniences. If we shut them out we destroy an element which is indispensable. As the matter was originally fixed the space for restaurant was marked on the plan of each building before any space question was considered. In total we have room enough in the large buildings to accommodate 12,000 people at one sitting. That takes up 120,000 feet or thereabouts. I have seen it in print that in the machinery building so much space had been devoted to restaurants that the exhibitors had left about 150,000 square feet less than was allowed that department at the centennial in 1876. You must take into consideration that we have immense buildings devoted to machinery, electricity, mines and transportation exhibits exclusively. At the centennial all of these departments were comprised under the head of machinery. We have so thoroughly discussed the care and comfort of visitors that I believe we are now practically beyond any addition to the arrangements. There will be no objectionable features to the restaurants in the large buildings as the cooking will be done outside.
"In addition to the restaurants mentioned there will be others on the ground and in Midway Plaisance that will probably seat 20,000 to 30,000 people. Equipped so thoroughly in every