The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-11-23
THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

The great Worlds Fair at Chi
cago closed on the 31st of October,
the date which was fixed at its
opening. 1t has undoubtedly been
the grandest exposition that has
ever been undertaken in any
country, surprising even that of
Paris in the number and variety of
its exhibits, as well as in the number
of visitors, the total at Chicago
having been over twenty-seven
millions. Probably no city in the
United States would have had the
courage and liberality to adopt
the programme which Chicago
announced and successfully car
ried out. The rival cities which
sought to have this fair were New
York and Washington, but neither
of these would have planned on
such a magnificent scale as their
rival sister has done. A recent
issue of the San Francisco Ex-
aminer comments on Chicago's
success in the following extracts:
Columbus discovered one new
world, Chicago has revealed another.
The America upon which the great
Fair closed is an altogether different
America in the eyes of mankind from
that upon which the Fair open ed.
The rank of the United States among
the nations has been changed. We
have proved our right to a higher
consideration. Not alone has the
foreign view of the republic been
altered but our own view of ourselves.
To Europe the United States was a
country, which If undeniably rich,
powerful and intelligent and destined
to occupy a master place in the world,
was still young, crude, boastful and
intensely material in its civilization.
1t was yet to be awakened to the
finer things of life. The Columbian
Exposition it was expected would be
large and costly and splendid with
barbaric splendor of riches. That
America, the rawest of great nations,
could surpass the French, the most |
polished, fn,architecture and fine arts,
was not dreamed by men anywhere
outside our borders, and by few |
within them. Nearly all of those few
that seemed to the sympathetic |
foolhardy and to the cynical |
ludicrous, that great city chal- |
Ienged the country through con-
gress to give to her this tremendous |
enterprise; and congress, with a wis
dom that was widely questioned, but |
has been gloriously confirmed, placed
the trust in her hands rather than in
those of New York, the oldest,
the most highly civilized of American
communities. Possibly New York
could have done as we'll with the Fair
as Chicago, but it is not likely. If
there is in her much of the quality
which was the primary requisite of
spirit-she has not
chosen N recent times to make 1T
manifest. Public spirit Chicago has
in abundance. There is direct COM
munication between the civic patriot
ism of her citizens and their pockets.
New York did not disdain to call on
the country to aid her in erecting her
monument to Grant, or to beg for the
pennies of. the Union to furnish a
pedestal for Bartholdi's "Liberty."
Chicago, instead of offering up suppli-
cations, took up home collection of
SO, OOO, 900 for the Fair. In spite of
New York's sneering hostility, in
spite of the skepticism and languor of
a large portion of the land, Chicago
faced the world undaunted, and even
tually communicated to us all some of
her ardor. Many sources contributed
toward the being and triumph of the
Fair, but the honor and glory of
its dazzling success belongs in
fullest measure to Chicago. She
babe the earth to come and be-
hold an American international ex-
position. The earth came and saw the
greatest exposition ever held-great-
est in size, in cost, in interest and in I
artistic excellence. Broad herself, [
Chicago made the Fair national. To I
the genius and talent of the United
States she held out her purse and
said: "Come and do your best to- create
beauty" And at her bidding the I
brains, the heart, the enthusiasm of {
the country concentrated themselves >
and reared city on Lake Michigan's
shore the like of which the world c