The Devil in the White City (Pages 234- 316)

Summary

Opening day arrived and thousands of people made their way to Jackson Park. Burnham turned on the electricity in the park after the opening statements had been made to begin the fair. It was a success as more than a quarter million people attended. After the first day, only a few people went as stocks went down, which started an economic scare in Chicago and the rest of the country. Many wanted to go see the exhibitions and attractions but were discouraged by this. Expectations for the fair and other businesses didn't reach the expectations to make a good profit. Holmes hotel one and he only allowed women to stay there. The benefit of visiting the fair was to learn new things from around the world. During this time Holmes not only continued making profit but continued his suspicious activity as one of his waitresses disappeared. In the next month attendance numbers began to rise again. On July 4th, the grand exhibition made the numbers rise far more than they expected, but the economic depression kept putting stress on whether or not it would be a complete success. The upcoming storm caused many scares due to changing conditions. There was a scare on the ferris wheel and a fire in the cold storage tower, which led to Burnhams arrest. The Retrenchment Directors became in charge of the fair to fix the economic worries.

Quote

" Burnham's work did ot cease, the pace at his office did not slow ... the fair became the subject to the inevitable forces of degradation and decline- and tragedy.(Larson 299)"

Reaction
This quote introduced the accidents that began to occur at the fair. The men working there did not take regulations necessary in order to prevent such events from occurring. One of the scares that happened was with the Ferris Wheel when they tried it for the first time. Also, when I read this quote I thought the scares would lead to the downfall of the world fair.