Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-10-09
RUINED WHITE CITY.
A Dreary Reminder of Its For
mer Grandeur.
WRECK AND RUIN OF TIME AND MAN.
Tons of Giant Iron Trusses TAKEN out
and Sold for Structural Purposes
Site of New Park.

Jackson Park, Chicago, where the
Worlds Fair once stood. has become
the home of the water-rat, the snake
and the creeping things of the eartn.
At the extreme north end stands the
Field Columbian Museum, once the
Art Institute, forlorn "reminiscences
of the one time grandeur of the White
City. To the southwark the ruin and
desolation is complete. The footprints
of thousand years could hardly have
marked it deeper. All Of the splendid
thoroughfares are obliterated and rag
weed and sorrel grow rank in the sand
burrows of the courts.
In place of the palaces rise huge piles
of burned and twisted iron arches. and
the squares are Uttered with fallen
statuary, broken glass and jungles OF
wire. From the grand basin in the
Court of Honor the Statue of Liberty
still holds her gilded symbol to the
sun. The golden sheen of her garments
was blistered off by the fire and the
white garments are streakeu and
weather worn. Sparrows have nested
in the curve of her huge arm. In the
midst of the hattened ruins she looms
up unseemingly large and out of place.
Lakeward from where she stands
rise the gray walls of La Rabida Con-
vent in the midst of weedy. wind
swept knoll, around the rocky barriers
of which the lake mumbles Its dis
, lance from the other buildings pro-
tected it from the fires, and the wreck
ers have not yet seen fit to remove it.
Wind and weather have disoolored its
walls and torn away part of the plas-
ter, adding age and grimness which the
builders sought in vain to counterfeit
Around the Art Building and Ger
many's Building, which will be per-
manently retained, all that section OF
the grounds as far south as the Mid
way Plaisance, the landscape gardener
has atoned for the rack of time He
has wiped out the Midway with a
great boulevard 600 feet wide. Grad
ually he is encroaching to the south,
and when its great scheme shall have
been fulfilled Jackson Park will be a
fitting monument to the city which
grew and persisted in day.
Today the iaborer is supreme in
Jackson Park. He is undoing the
work that has made men famous. The
commercial instinct is abroad.
On that memorable night in July,
1894, when fire swept the city, the
Columbian Exposition Salvage Com
paIy was loser to the extent of $780,
900. 1t is now working at the tangled
masses of steel and iron to save as
much of the wreck as may be. 1t is
clipping beams and Orders and trusses
into short lengths for the furnaces
of rolllng-mills. Eighty-five thousand
dollars was paid by this company for
the salvage of the main buildings. Of
these there escaped the fire the Govern
ment Building, the Woman's Building,
the Federal Building. the two service
buildings, the Horticultural Building,
Choral Hall. the Transportation build
ing, the Fisheries Building, the Colon
made, the Stock Pavilion and five minor
structures.
OF these buildings materials have
gone to various parts of the country.
The dome of the Horticultural Build
ing ornaments one of the State Fair
buildings at the Illinois capital.
Structural iron from the Fisheries
Building forms the framework of a
great rolling mill at Pittsburg.
Bridges in many parts of the country
are strengthened by heavy beams from
these buildings.
Iron and steel now left on the
grounds are for the scrap heaps of roll
ing-mills at Pittsburg, South Chicago,
Youngstown (O.,) Cleveland, Detroit
and Milwaukee. 1t is Titan's task
to reduce these vast networks of half
fused iron and steel. Powerful alli-
gator shears are planted near one of
these ruins. and from drum heavy
wire cable is trailed to giant beam
or truss. Rivets are cut and the heavy
metal is drawn to the shears to the
putting of little short.winded engine.
A derrick picks it up like a child's
plaything, swings it into the 36-inch
jaws of the shears. and with irresistible
power they close together, biting the
heaviest truss into stovewood lengths.
Work at this great clearance was
begun june /, 1894, and according to
contract it must be finished May /.
1896. Only the building material is
to be removed by the salvage company,
and the South Park Commissioners of
Chicago will receive the trenohed,
pitted grounds and restore them to
park beauties.
According to the estimates of the
Exposition builders there were $4,000
tons of iron and steel in the buildings
purchased by the salvage company.
However. the original plans for struct-
ural iron work in the buildings called
for such additions in strengthening
material that the salvage company will
gather 80, 900 tons of scrap iron from
the ruins.
Of the burned buildings there re-
main in the ruins only the Manufac-