‘THE WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

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CHICAGO.

 

THE AUDITORIUM HOTEL.

es New York World’s Fair of 1853 was the
third universal exposition ever held, and was
almost exactly contemporaneous with the second.
That in Philadelphia in 1876 was the eighth. That
in Chicago in 1893 is the fourteenth, and far sur-
passes in size and interest all its predecessors, As
a rule, such exhibitions have been held simply to
stimulate commerce and manufactures and educate
the public in the progress of art and industry.
One notable exception to this rule was observed in
1876, when the Universal Exhibition at Philadelphia,
besides fulfilling those objects, also served to com-
memorate the centenary of American Independence.
So, too, the great fair at Chicago marks the four
hundredth anniversary of that memorable enterprise
in which Christopher Columbus found a new world,
not only, as the legend on his banner declared,
for Castile and Leon, but for civilization and for
humanity.

Great as was the advancement of the nation,
material and otherwise, betwecn 1853 and 1876, it
has been no less marked and impressive between the
latter date and the present time. The exhibition at
Chicago, accordingly, in like measure surpasses that
at Philadelphia in variety and extent. ‘There are
new inventions to display which were unheard of in
1876, but which now are familiar as household words.
There are the fruits of the labor and skill of the
many millions who have been added to the popula-
tion of America, There are the results of experi-
ence and observation at the great fairs held in other
lands. There are innumerable circumstances and
conditions combining to make this by far the most
important exhibition the world has yet seen.

During the years of 1889 and 1890 there was much
public discussion of the proposed celebration of the
fourth Columbian centenary, Whena general agrce-
ment was reached that it should chiefly take the form