File:StLouisWorldFairPikeGeneralView.jpg

1904 World Fair

Scanned from period stereoscope card. No publisher, date, or assertion of copyright on card.

Original caption:

GENERAL VIEW OF THE "PIKE."

An entire mile of streets lined on both side with places of amusement, all of high class and instructive, more elaborate and costly than have ever been collected at any World's Fair, such was the Pike at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The total expense of erecting the buildings and providing the exhibits amounted to several million dollars. An army of attendants were required to care for these places, and to make them pay a fair return to the owners required the attendance of millions of people who congregated from all over the globe.

The principal time for the visits to the Pike was at night, after the great palaces were closed. Then the throng in a body moved to the Pike, where the "barkers" and brass bands invited the curious to dive into the marvelous shows of actual life in foreign countries or the ingenious creations of artists and experienced showmen.

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