Another popular attraction was The Streets of Cairo. This concession, like most, charged an additional admission price. Here you see the relatively meager entrance to Cairo Street (Brown, Julie K. Contesting Images: Photography and the World's Columbian Exposition University of Arizona Press, 1994).
The most financially successful of the midway attractions, Cairo Street was a model of one of the streets of old Cairo. Visitors were treated to a world totally foreign to them. Many Egyptians traveled to Chicago to run the booths, and provide other ent ertainment. There were about sixty shops, a mosque with a reenactment of daily prayers, and a presentation of an Egyptian Wedding Procession. Fairgoers saw snake charmers, water carriers, Egyptian donkeys and fortune-tellers, but one of the most popular activities was to take a ride on an Egyptian camel.
Most of the Exposition's national concessions, such as Cairo Street, were staffed by natives of the represented countries. However, so many people were needed to work, often additional individuals were hired. On Cairo Street, students from Otterbein Uni versity in Westerville, Ohio sold souvenirs. Here are some of those students posed in front of the entrance with Egyptians from Cairo Street. (Courtesy Otterbein College Archives and Carol K. Cornell.)
Geneva
Cornell, one of the Otterbein students who worked at Cairo Street,
took her autograph book to the Exposition with her. One of the
entries reads:
Cairo Street, July 24, 1893: "Dear Miss Cornell remember well, The sights and fights on Cairo Street, The lemonade "made in the shade", And "bum-bum candy" stringy and sweet. The juggler's camp that got so damp, The wedding daily passing by, The camels, donkeys, Columbian Guards, And "No. 30" That is I. --L. Etta Freeman.
Several members of the Cornell family from
Westerville, Ohio worked at the World's Fair on Cairo Street as part
of the Otterbein Student group. Sisters Geneva and Blanche sold
souvenirs, while brother Otto worked as a Midway guard. Their mother,
Lucinda Lenore Merriss Cornell, visited Chicago during the World's
Fair in October. 
Otto B. Cornell, whose ticket to the Exposition is seen here, was on
of the thousands of people required to work at the fair. His mother,
Lucinda Cornell, Ohio, recorded his departure to Chicago just three
days after his sister left to work on Cairo Stre et:
May 25, 1893 "...Otto got a dispatch from Mr. Smythe telling him to come immediately to Worlds Fair to be guard in Midway plaisance Ciro [sic] Street, he bid goodbye and took 8pm train for Columbus." (Courtesy Otterbein College Archives and Carol K. Corne ll.)
Lucinda Cornell later visited the exposition for herself, from October 2 - 13, 1893. Mrs. Cornell celebrated her 61st birthday at the Fair, visiting her children and seeing the sights. On October 8 she wrote of the Fine Arts Building:
8th - At World's Fair and it is a lovely day. Mrs. Gantz and I put up lunch for all day which we spent in the art gallery. Oh the beautiful pictures, the Russian, French, Holland, Spain and United States displays so exceedingly lovely. One was alone in the world, breaking home ties and bringing home the bridge."
(The Cornell Collection, which includes diaries from Mrs. Cornell from 1855-1910 is available for research at the Otterbein College Archives in Westerville, Ohio. Quoted courtesy Otterbein College Archives and Carol K. Cornell.)
The official closing of the World's Columbian Exposition, October 31, 1893, was marred by the murder of Carter Henry Harrison, Mayor of Chicago. Harrison was gunned down at his front door three days prior to the Closing Ceremonies by a disgruntled citizen. Fair officials muted the closing ceremonies in honor of the Mayor, cancelling the planned music and fireworks and flying all the flags a half-mast. Although officials attempted to honor Harrison during the final days, the exhuberance of the crowd was undaunted. Heavy drinking on that final day played no small part in the defacement of the Exhibitions buildings with graffiti.
Economic panic was evident in the city, as the fair closed, jobs went with it. The buildings went from housing elaborate displays of the progress of man to refuges of the desparate homeless who remianed in Chicago during the winter of 1893-94. That winter, it is estimated that soup kitchens and missions served nearly 60,000 free lunches a day to the needy.
The buildings of the World's Columbian Exposition stood the test of that fateful winter. Before the city had determined its final plans for the structures, the Pullman Strike of 1894 paralyzed the city. While federal troops battled with the strikers, arsonists lit fires that destroyed the once magnificant buildings of the Exposition. In mere hours, the fairgrounds was turned to rubble. The Palace of Fine Arts, the only building to survive that fateful night, later became the Field Museum of Natural History, the the Museum of Science and Industry.
There are numerous websites that give great information about the World's Columbian Exposition, and this one has barely scratched the surface. A few are listed here, but try an AltaVista or other search - the results will be numerous and varied.
Selected Bibliography of Stanley Applebaum's The Chicago World's Fair: A Photographic Record Click Here
Guided Tour: The World's Columbian Exposition Click Here
Return to 1890's America: A Chronology