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Summary: Chapter 26: Opening Day

Dignitaries approach in carriages, including President Cleveland, Mayor Harrison, Burnham, Davis, and many others. A long procession follows them through the Midway Plaisance to the Fair. Ten thousand men have transformed the grounds overnight, clearing all the trash and empty boxcars, laying sod, and planting flowers. However, the Ferris wheel remains unfinished.

The ceremony begins at eleven o’clock, filled with pageantry. Crowds in formal dress completely fill the Court of Honor. Set atop a table draped with an American Flag, President Cleveland turns a gold key and the Fair comes to life. Steam engines in the Machinery Building roar, water soars through the pipes and turns on a central fountain, and a huge American flag unfurls. The crowd begins to sing “My Country ’Tis of Thee,” the unofficial national anthem.

Despite the incomplete Ferris wheel, Opening Day is a success with at least a quarter of a million people in attendance. However, on subsequent days the numbers drop drastically, likely due to the country’s financial panic and “reports of the unfinished character of the Fair.” Banks fail around the country. Olmsted’s team needs to undo the flowerbeds planted for Opening Day.

Burnham assigns Frank Millet the task of imagining ways to boost attendance at the Fair. Millet organizes fireworks, parades, and special days to honor particular states or groups of people. Still, attendance only reaches a sub-profit daily average of 33,000.

Summary: Chapter 27: The World’s Fair Hotel

Holmes’ hotel begins to fill, though he only accepts female guests. Women like him despite the dark gloominess of the hotel. Minnie becomes jealous of the women and therefore inconvenient to Holmes, so he rents a flat outside the neighborhood to keep her away from the hotel. Guests return late or keep to themselves because the hotel lacks common areas. Holmes doesn’t mind when someone checks out early without paying her bills. Nobody finds it odd that the friendly physician smells of chemicals.

Summary: Chapter 28: Prendergast

Prendergast believes he will soon be appointed as Corporation Counsel. He sends a postcard to a man named W. F. Cooling who works with the German newspaper in Chicago. He advises Cooling that Jesus is the ultimate authority, and offers him an assistantship upon this appointment. 

Summary: Chapter 29: Night is the Magician

The Fair represents a modern city’s future. Instead of dirt and smoke, The White City has pure water, electric streetlights, and an efficient sewage system. Many “firsts” occur, including: the first moving pictures on Edison’s Kinetoscope, a long distance telephone, the Tesla Coil, zippers, a dishwasher, Juicy Fruit, Cracker Jack, Shredded Wheat, Aunt Jemima’s Pancakes, and the vertical file, a game-changer for organization.

Visitors slowly walk the Court of Honor with sober faces, as if “under a spell.” In contrast, the Midway is lively, complete with belly dancers in the Street in Cairo. Everyone hammers the guards with questions.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show is a great success. Cody, the owner, was denied a spot within Jackson Park, so he performs on an adjacent plot of land. He sometimes attracts more people than the Fair, especially on Sundays when the Fair closes. The directors reject a request from Harrison to have one free day for children, but Cody accepts. He pays train fare and provides unlimited ice cream, attracting 15,000 children. The show’s total attendance reaches nearly four million.

By June, most everything has been completed, including the exhibits and landscape. The Court of Honor and its neoclassical design overwhelm people to tears. When Burnham gives tours through the Fair, he enters through the Court of Honor, as he believes it should be seen first. One tour group includes Root’s widow Dora, and she writes to Burnham about both her sadness and wonder at seeing Root’s dreams realized. Only the Ferris wheel remains to be finished.

Nights are particularly special. Electricity lights everything, and it is the first large-scale test of alternating current. Visitors can stroll in lighted safety. Guests and journalists report the wonder of the Fair back to their hometowns.

Summary: Chapter 30: Modus Operandi

Guests begin disappearing from The World’s Fair Hotel. The building smells like chemicals and gas. Friends and family continue to inquire about disappearances, but the police still do not suspect anything, or have too much else to do. Holmes delights in hearing his victims’ panic, but does not kill them face to face. He uses either chloroform, gas leaks, or the soundproof vault. Most of all, Holmes enjoys feeling his exertion of power over his victim’s life.

Summary: Chapter 31: One Good Turn

The time comes for the first turn of the Ferris Wheel. Ferris cannot attend, but sends his partner W. F. Gronau to oversee the occasion. The wheel makes an alarming noise, but Rice explains that rust is just scraping off the metal. People cheer as the wheel begins to turn. Rice telegraphs Ferris to let him know of his success. However, the boxcars have yet to be hung.

Simultaneously, Infanta Eulalia, sister of King Alfonso XII and daughter of exiled Queen Isabel II, visits from Spain. Her arrival is an opportunity for Chicago to show off its new refinement to the world, specifically New York. Chicago arranges several events in her honor, but Eulalia has little patience for ceremony and instead chooses to walk in the crowd incognito and dine in the German Village. She arrives late, leaves early, or skips most of the events. Articles suggest that Chicago is insulted. 

Analysis: Chapters 26-31

In this section, the Fair proves that there can be triumph through persistence. Larson’s description of this real event shows the complexity of the Fair’s success and the consequences of its obstacles. Through incredible persistence, Burnham’s men are able to accomplish a seemingly impossible amount of work in a very short time. Just the night before Opening Day, there are boxcars and trash and empty crates all over the grounds, but 10,000 men work through the night, determined to accomplish something presentable, because failure is simply not an option.

The delay caused by the committees’ prideful arguing turns out to be serious. Larson lists many exhibits that had been advertised but remain incomplete at the opening of the Fair, including the Ferris wheel. While Olmsted is upset about having to plant flowerbeds, Larson says the first thing people marvel at are his lawns. Olmsted and Burnham are perfectionists, but they are wise enough to accept that there must be incomplete aspects of the Fair in order to give the crowd something presentable. They do not let it dampen their spirits so much as to render them frozen in anxiety. When the Ferris wheel does eventually turn, it is a highlight of success for the Fair and for engineers of America. Americans boast that this accomplishment overshadows France’s accomplishment of the Eiffel Tower.

The chapters about Holmes in this section are relatively short, but they continue to give us insight about his need to manipulate others. As is his pattern, when Minnie becomes inconvenient for him, he simply moves her out of the way. Her jealousy of his interactions with other women does not bother him at all in an emotional way; Minnie’s feelings are simply getting in his way of using her for his pleasure and her money. Holmes doesn’t kill her at this point because he has invited her sister Anna to visit. He knows Anna is already suspicious of him, and he wants to dispel these fears before proceeding further. The melancholy atmosphere of the hotel also has the effect of keeping guests in their rooms, separated from each other, making it much easier for Holmes to kill them.

Larson has been developing Prendergast’s character throughout the book in small increments, showing his descent into insanity. Prendergast’s complex delusion that Harrison will give him the appointment of Corporation Counsel causes him to prematurely consider his role as a leader. He offers a future assistantship to a journalist, signifying that he truly believes he will get this position. According to his letter, he also believes Jesus Christ is the ultimate authority, so it may follow that he believes in fate and divine appointment. Regardless, Prendergast’s delusion should be a red flag that he is probably dangerous. Larson foreshadows that trouble will occur when Prendergast discovers that nobody knows anything about him, and Harrison has no plans to appoint him a government job.


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