Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1893 — DAY OF GREAT DAYS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DAY OF GREAT DAYS.

CHICAGO TAKES HER TURN AT THE FAIR. Greatest Multitude of Civilians the World Has Ever Known—Born in a Wigwam, Cradled by the Waves, and Baptized in Flame, Chicago Becomes for a Day the Queen of All the Earth. Paid Admissions, 713,640. Phi1ade1phia....................£17,526 Paris... ....327,150 Chicago ........................ Never has the World s Fair grounds presented such an appearance as they did on Chicago day. Vast crowds surged before the gates kng before 6 o’clock in the morning. Every line of conveyance to the Fair was crowded to excess, every platform on the Illinois Central and on the elevated road, every street crossing downtown was black with people anxious to get to the Exposition. The Illinois Central trains were packed, and poured people into the Fair by thousands. Theie never was such a crush. By noon there were fully 400,000 people in the grounds' and they still poured in in huge streams through nearly seventy entrances. These made their way in great black columns, interspersed with color, to the court of honor, where the gilded goddess of liberty shone doubly bright in the sun’s rays. The mammoth plazas east and west of the Administration Building were soon living masses of humanity, which cheered and laughed and shouted when the cannon of Battery D began to thunder forth, from

points north, south, east and west of the Fair, its salute to the nations. This salute, at stated intervals, occupied the whole forenoon. A silence fell on the multitude when the of peace, ” attired in their gaudy costumes, began their fanfare of peace. These were stationed on the peristyle, administration building, manufactures building, agricultural building, all turned toward the Goddess of Liberty, and played on their brazen Instruments the motto, “Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men.”

When they ceased a prolonged cheer evidenced the enthusiasm of the multitude. When on the platform on the west plaza 2,000 voices sang "The StarSpangled Banner” the multitude, carried away by their feelings, took up the refrain, and a dull roar of harmony mounted to the heavens. It was beyond all description magnificent and grand. Following the great burst of song the united bands of the Exposition joined in playing “Dixie Land,” “Maryland, My Maryland, ” and similar melodies awakened responsive chords in the hearts of the peopleThe chorus, orchestra, and band joined in “Columbia.” If the morning festivities were grand those in the afternoon far outdid them. The plaza east of Administration building, facing the Court of He nor, was black with spectators. The “Reunion of States” was the grand spectacle which they had assembled to witness. As the States passed in review around the Court of Honor, represented by 3,000 school children from all parts of the city, cheer after cheer at►tested the interest and gratification of the vast audience. The review was divided into five sections. The first was led by a chorus of 100 boys from the Diocesan choir, followed by thirty-four youths, one selected from each ward in the city, bearing a shield with the word “Welcome* inscribed upon it, representing

the great metropolis of Illinois. Then came thirteen young ladies prepresenting the thirteen original States, eaoh bearing the sheild of the particular State represented and wearing a crown with a star to indicate the sovereignty of each State. A company of twenty-four boys dressed «in the Continental uniform and selected from the First Regiment of Illinois cadets contrasted

pleasantly with the young girls who preceded them. Then followed the States of the Union, the six principal cities of each State represented by maidens bearing pennants. The States were in the order of their admission to the Union, and as State after State passed in review the cheering was loud and long. The whole affair lasted until late in the afternoon. Pageant at Night. At night the most gorgeous pageant

ever produced took place at the Fair ( followed by the most wonderful displaj of fireworks it is possible to imagine. Twenty-five great floats illustrated the arts, sciences, peace, war, Chicago, and the nations. It was like nothing. It had no dimensions to describe it, no heights tc measure it, no tapes to circle it; it was simply inccmprehensible. It was greater than Paris, greater than London, greater than Vienna, greater than all the tales of numberless horde:of marauding barbarians; greater than all the legends of ancienl phalanxes, squadrons and cohorts; greater than all the romances of pious pilgrimages, invasions and expeditions; greater than all the stories of embattled retinues of sacking princes; greater than the dim yarns of the wild mobs of pillaging armies. Seven hundred and thirteen thousand six hundred and forty-six was the exact number of paid admissions. Half a million souls at a holiday in a town yet an infant, in a town without history, in a town but a score of years out from the blackest, crudest scourge that misfortune ever dealt. It was a glorious day—glorious as to the weather, glorious as to the occasion, glorious in its program, glorious in the mighty result which attracts the attention of thinking mankind the world over. It was a day of great days. It was Chicago Day. Dark Side of the Day. Four killed and nearly a score injured. This is the record that Chicago day made at the Fair. The explosion of a mortar during the fireworks display blew out the fife of John Drvden, cable trains crushed Charles A. Clark and Thos. Robinson to death, while James Malcolm fell from the steps of the intramural railway, breaking his neck.

SINGING THE NATIONAL AIRS IN THE TERMINAL PLAZA.

ALL SIGNS FAIL IN FAIR WEATHER.