The concluding months of the World’s Columbian Exposition are certainly interesting ones, full of unexpected twists and turns that cause chaos. Given what has happened thus far, however, this cannot be surprising, and it does not come without some well deserved glory and triumph for Daniel Hudson Burnham and the city of Chicago. By the end of June, average daily attendance has risen to the point where it has more doubled from the anemic figures of May, rising from 37,501 to 89,170. On July 4th, the paid attendance even spike to a record of 283,273, a number greater than the entire first week of the Fair. Despite the increase, the numbers are far below the number originally desired by the planners, 200,000 daily, but still the trend is promising. Daniel Burnham, and even Frederick Law Olmsted, were fairly happy with the increasing signs and the quality of the Fair at this point. The Fair seemed to be even more mesmerizing now and desirable than before, as one historian described, “Call it no more the White City on the Lake, it is Dreamland” (Larson 282). There is was even surprisingly little crime and misbehaving found and punished on the Fair grounds, although the exposition hospital did develop quite the list of serious, and even comical, treatments: “820 cases of diarrhea, 154 of constipation, 21 of hemorrhoids, 434 indigestion, 365 foreign bodies in the eyes, 364 severe headaches, 594 episodes of fainting, syncope and exhaustion, 1 case of extreme flatulence, and 169 involving teeth that hurt like hell” (Larson 284). Several famous individuals could be found at the Fair as well, ranging from Houdini, Tesla, Edison, Joplin, Darrow, a Princeton professor named Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, Helen Keller, and a sweet old lady named Susan B Anthony. Naturally much of the attendance boost was attributed to the spectacle that was the Ferris Wheel, with thousands riding it every day. Stories of its unsafety persisted, however, including a sensationalization of a man who became dizzy and was subdued by a woman removing her skirt and placing it over his head. You really could see everything at the fair and the marvels seemed endless.
Of course it could not be expected that the Fair would proceed without some physical damage and malfunctions. Midway through the month of July, a violent storm comes to Chicago and wreaks havoc on the Fair. The wicked weather is so powerful that causes glass to fall from the roof of the Agriculture Building, as well as damage to the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building, the Machinery Building, and the Hungarian Café. Probably the most terrifying place one could possibly be for this storm was in the Ferris Wheel, as it gave view to the formation of a funnel as it danced across the Fair grounds. Despite the terror in the passengers as they viewed the storm mounting, the wheel continued to turn as if nothing was occurring and they felt only a slight vibration. The storm did, however, shred a hot air balloon to pieces and “cast shreds of its nine thousand yards of silk as far as half a mile away” (Larson 301). As if the storm was not enough, the next day as Daniel Burnham is monitoring repairs, a second fire breaks out in the Cold Storage Building. The first was minor due to a execution defect in the design, but it went completely unknown to Burnham about a month earlier, which turned out to be a gigantic problem. As the alarm sounds, the Fair’s fire department responds, but several firefighters become trapped on a tower as they enter the blaze. As the fire consumes the building and the rescuers, viewers from the Ferris Wheel have a horrific view of the scene, later described as, “Never was so terrible a tragedy witnessed by such a sea of agonized faces” (Larson 302). In all the blaze killed twelve firemen and three workers, but for the next day Fair attendance exceeded 100,000. Apparently the rubble that was the Cold Storage Building was something tantalizing and intriguing to the public.
Finally a truly historic day for the World’s Fair can be found. Monday, October 9, 1893, also known as Chicago Day at the Fair turned out to be the day the planners had hoped for. When originally planning for the Fair they hoped to break the record set by Paris’s exposition of 397,000 people. Even the Mayor Carter Henry Harrison requests that businesses shut down in celebration of Chicago on their designated day. Upon riding his own wheel on that day, George Ferris looked down and remarked, “There must be a million people down there” (Larson 319). It would turn out that while Ferris was off with his estimate, he was not too far off as the Fair welcomed 751,026 visitors to Jackson Park that day, shattering the record set by Paris and any number set by a peaceable event that had taken place in history. Even better news came the following day, when exposition officials declared that the previous day had brought the fair out of debt, and now Daniel Burnham and other stakeholders could truly celebrate what they had accomplished.
Despite all of the initial troubles with completion and attendance and disasters, the outlook finally looked bright for the World’s Columbian Exposition. Frank Millet plans for the closing ceremony to be even bigger than Chicago Day and hopefully draw more visitors. Throughout October, the final month of the Fair, attendance rose sharply as people realized that this would truly be their last chance to see the White City. By October 22, paid attendance totaled 138,011, and only two days later it reached 244,127. Everyone hoped and believed that October 30 and the closing ceremony would break the record set by Chicago Day. Everything was looking up until the tragic day that became October 28, 1893. On this day Mayor Carter Henry Harrison was assassinated by the most likely mentally ill Patrick Eugene Prendergast. Claiming that Harrison had promised him a position in government when he really never had, Prendergast confessed to the police shortly after still holding the gun in his hands. Regardless of the reasoning behind it, the tragic death of the mayor caused the Exposition Company to cancel the closing ceremony. None of the festivities that had been planned for the grand day would take place, and there would be no opportunity for a new attendance record to be set. With the performance of Harrison’s funeral, the Fair was over. Everywhere the white flags that had symbolized the White City hung at half mast and the six hundred carriages that made up Carter Harrison’s cortege stretched for miles. The ride to the burial site was a difficult one, especially for Burnham who had traveled the same way before to bury John Root, his beloved partner. “The fair begun with death, and now it had ended with death” (Larson 332). The murder dredged the city and covered it “like a heavy curtain,” as all of the excitement that had taken the city by storm due to the Fair ended. The scene that evening was perfectly described by William Stead, who wrote, “Beneath the stars the lake lay dark and sombre, but on its shores gleamed and glowed in golden radiance the ivory city, beautiful as a poet’s dream, silent as a city of the dead” (Larson 333). Immediately Chicago returns to its dark past as “The Black City,” and it becomes a changed place. Without the exposition being able to provide the numerous jobs it had, as well as bringing consumers to Chicago, the economy takes a turn for the worse. More and more people lose their jobs and unions strike all over. It becomes so bad that President Cleveland even has to send troops to Chicago in the following year to keep the peace. Unfortunately much of the exposition is illegally set ablaze and burns down. Even later, in the next year, people began to finally wonder about the hundreds of people that went to Chicago to see the Fair and were never heard from again. Questions began to arise about Dr. H.H. Holmes and his Englewood Castle and why his bizarre structure was built where it was.
Before the Fair’s end, however, Holmes performed several more devious and illegal acts on those women who surrounded him. Just like many thousand others, Holmes and the Williams sisters, Minnie and Nannie, travel to the Fair for Independence Day, and upon their return to the flat away from the hotel, Holmes makes them an incredibly generous offer. He wants to take them to the East coast and then over to Europe, a plan that the girls agree too instantly. The next day Holmes takes Nannie to his hotel for a tour, while Minnie stays and packs, in an evident step in his seemingly unavoidable plan to kill them both. He takes her into his pharmacy and then his office, before locking her in his vault knowing that almost everyone else would be away at the Fair. While Nannie believes that she is accidentally locked in the vault, Holmes is outside listening the entire time, listening to her knock and cry for help, gaining what seemed to be a calm feeling from it. As her panic grows, Holmes enjoys what he hears and debates several psychopathic methods of ending her life. He could open it and hold her just before the certain tragedy, he could simply open the door and smile at her to let her know it was no accident before closing the door and returning to listening, or he could even flood his vault with gas, a method he eventually chose. After this he returns to his other flat and picks up Minnie, telling her that they will simply meet Nannie at the pharmacy after they go to the building. It seems that Holmes kills Minnie next, as the owners of the flat recieve a letter a few days later saying that Holmes will no longer need it. A hired resident picks up a box and trunk for him, delivering the box to the train station and trunk to another man, Charles Chappell, who makes skeletons. In addition, he gives his associate, Benjamin Pitezel, and his family belongings from the Williams sisters, making the crime that much more sinister.
Before the section’s end, Holmes, newly free and rich in land acquired from Minnie’s death, brings a new woman, Georgiana Yoke, to the Fair. Before the end, he asks her to be his wife and she agrees, as she is infatuated by his uniqueness as every other woman in the past has been. Apparently Holmes decides that it is time to leave Chicago, as the pressure from debt collectors he had so expertly avoided in the past amounted more and more. In part of his leaving process he sets fire to the top of his castle, and while it does minimal damage, it does allow him to collect several thousand dollars for insurance claims. A snag occurs, however, when the company requires the owner, Hiram S Campbell to pick up the money, but that was simply an alias utilized by Holmes, and so he never collects. This causes a stirring of his creditors, who ambush him in a meeting that even he cannot talk his way out of. With all this, he flees with Georgiana Yoke to Texas to better utilize Minnie’s land in that area, planning to build another structure similar to the one in Chicago. Before leaving, however, he did acquire a life insurance policy to insure his associate, Benjamin Pitezel’s life for $10,000. This is an odd action and only makes me think that Holmes plans to kill Pitezel just as he has killed so many of his other close friends and acquaintances. The actions of Holmes are certainly diabolical and make the novel that much more interesting, and it seems as if his plans and secrets are slowly beginning to unravel. I personally cannot wait to see what fate awaits the serial killer that is Dr. H.H. Holmes.
Of course it could not be expected that the Fair would proceed without some physical damage and malfunctions. Midway through the month of July, a violent storm comes to Chicago and wreaks havoc on the Fair. The wicked weather is so powerful that causes glass to fall from the roof of the Agriculture Building, as well as damage to the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building, the Machinery Building, and the Hungarian Café. Probably the most terrifying place one could possibly be for this storm was in the Ferris Wheel, as it gave view to the formation of a funnel as it danced across the Fair grounds. Despite the terror in the passengers as they viewed the storm mounting, the wheel continued to turn as if nothing was occurring and they felt only a slight vibration. The storm did, however, shred a hot air balloon to pieces and “cast shreds of its nine thousand yards of silk as far as half a mile away” (Larson 301). As if the storm was not enough, the next day as Daniel Burnham is monitoring repairs, a second fire breaks out in the Cold Storage Building. The first was minor due to a execution defect in the design, but it went completely unknown to Burnham about a month earlier, which turned out to be a gigantic problem. As the alarm sounds, the Fair’s fire department responds, but several firefighters become trapped on a tower as they enter the blaze. As the fire consumes the building and the rescuers, viewers from the Ferris Wheel have a horrific view of the scene, later described as, “Never was so terrible a tragedy witnessed by such a sea of agonized faces” (Larson 302). In all the blaze killed twelve firemen and three workers, but for the next day Fair attendance exceeded 100,000. Apparently the rubble that was the Cold Storage Building was something tantalizing and intriguing to the public.
Finally a truly historic day for the World’s Fair can be found. Monday, October 9, 1893, also known as Chicago Day at the Fair turned out to be the day the planners had hoped for. When originally planning for the Fair they hoped to break the record set by Paris’s exposition of 397,000 people. Even the Mayor Carter Henry Harrison requests that businesses shut down in celebration of Chicago on their designated day. Upon riding his own wheel on that day, George Ferris looked down and remarked, “There must be a million people down there” (Larson 319). It would turn out that while Ferris was off with his estimate, he was not too far off as the Fair welcomed 751,026 visitors to Jackson Park that day, shattering the record set by Paris and any number set by a peaceable event that had taken place in history. Even better news came the following day, when exposition officials declared that the previous day had brought the fair out of debt, and now Daniel Burnham and other stakeholders could truly celebrate what they had accomplished.
Despite all of the initial troubles with completion and attendance and disasters, the outlook finally looked bright for the World’s Columbian Exposition. Frank Millet plans for the closing ceremony to be even bigger than Chicago Day and hopefully draw more visitors. Throughout October, the final month of the Fair, attendance rose sharply as people realized that this would truly be their last chance to see the White City. By October 22, paid attendance totaled 138,011, and only two days later it reached 244,127. Everyone hoped and believed that October 30 and the closing ceremony would break the record set by Chicago Day. Everything was looking up until the tragic day that became October 28, 1893. On this day Mayor Carter Henry Harrison was assassinated by the most likely mentally ill Patrick Eugene Prendergast. Claiming that Harrison had promised him a position in government when he really never had, Prendergast confessed to the police shortly after still holding the gun in his hands. Regardless of the reasoning behind it, the tragic death of the mayor caused the Exposition Company to cancel the closing ceremony. None of the festivities that had been planned for the grand day would take place, and there would be no opportunity for a new attendance record to be set. With the performance of Harrison’s funeral, the Fair was over. Everywhere the white flags that had symbolized the White City hung at half mast and the six hundred carriages that made up Carter Harrison’s cortege stretched for miles. The ride to the burial site was a difficult one, especially for Burnham who had traveled the same way before to bury John Root, his beloved partner. “The fair begun with death, and now it had ended with death” (Larson 332). The murder dredged the city and covered it “like a heavy curtain,” as all of the excitement that had taken the city by storm due to the Fair ended. The scene that evening was perfectly described by William Stead, who wrote, “Beneath the stars the lake lay dark and sombre, but on its shores gleamed and glowed in golden radiance the ivory city, beautiful as a poet’s dream, silent as a city of the dead” (Larson 333). Immediately Chicago returns to its dark past as “The Black City,” and it becomes a changed place. Without the exposition being able to provide the numerous jobs it had, as well as bringing consumers to Chicago, the economy takes a turn for the worse. More and more people lose their jobs and unions strike all over. It becomes so bad that President Cleveland even has to send troops to Chicago in the following year to keep the peace. Unfortunately much of the exposition is illegally set ablaze and burns down. Even later, in the next year, people began to finally wonder about the hundreds of people that went to Chicago to see the Fair and were never heard from again. Questions began to arise about Dr. H.H. Holmes and his Englewood Castle and why his bizarre structure was built where it was.
Before the Fair’s end, however, Holmes performed several more devious and illegal acts on those women who surrounded him. Just like many thousand others, Holmes and the Williams sisters, Minnie and Nannie, travel to the Fair for Independence Day, and upon their return to the flat away from the hotel, Holmes makes them an incredibly generous offer. He wants to take them to the East coast and then over to Europe, a plan that the girls agree too instantly. The next day Holmes takes Nannie to his hotel for a tour, while Minnie stays and packs, in an evident step in his seemingly unavoidable plan to kill them both. He takes her into his pharmacy and then his office, before locking her in his vault knowing that almost everyone else would be away at the Fair. While Nannie believes that she is accidentally locked in the vault, Holmes is outside listening the entire time, listening to her knock and cry for help, gaining what seemed to be a calm feeling from it. As her panic grows, Holmes enjoys what he hears and debates several psychopathic methods of ending her life. He could open it and hold her just before the certain tragedy, he could simply open the door and smile at her to let her know it was no accident before closing the door and returning to listening, or he could even flood his vault with gas, a method he eventually chose. After this he returns to his other flat and picks up Minnie, telling her that they will simply meet Nannie at the pharmacy after they go to the building. It seems that Holmes kills Minnie next, as the owners of the flat recieve a letter a few days later saying that Holmes will no longer need it. A hired resident picks up a box and trunk for him, delivering the box to the train station and trunk to another man, Charles Chappell, who makes skeletons. In addition, he gives his associate, Benjamin Pitezel, and his family belongings from the Williams sisters, making the crime that much more sinister.
Before the section’s end, Holmes, newly free and rich in land acquired from Minnie’s death, brings a new woman, Georgiana Yoke, to the Fair. Before the end, he asks her to be his wife and she agrees, as she is infatuated by his uniqueness as every other woman in the past has been. Apparently Holmes decides that it is time to leave Chicago, as the pressure from debt collectors he had so expertly avoided in the past amounted more and more. In part of his leaving process he sets fire to the top of his castle, and while it does minimal damage, it does allow him to collect several thousand dollars for insurance claims. A snag occurs, however, when the company requires the owner, Hiram S Campbell to pick up the money, but that was simply an alias utilized by Holmes, and so he never collects. This causes a stirring of his creditors, who ambush him in a meeting that even he cannot talk his way out of. With all this, he flees with Georgiana Yoke to Texas to better utilize Minnie’s land in that area, planning to build another structure similar to the one in Chicago. Before leaving, however, he did acquire a life insurance policy to insure his associate, Benjamin Pitezel’s life for $10,000. This is an odd action and only makes me think that Holmes plans to kill Pitezel just as he has killed so many of his other close friends and acquaintances. The actions of Holmes are certainly diabolical and make the novel that much more interesting, and it seems as if his plans and secrets are slowly beginning to unravel. I personally cannot wait to see what fate awaits the serial killer that is Dr. H.H. Holmes.