I have already referred to the anxieties of the Fair’s president during the nine months which followed the Dedication. The reward for his long labor came during the last three months of the gorgeous festival, when he could enjoy the beauty and share the gay spirit of that ephemeral White City which he had done so much to create. For, though there have been world’s fairs before and since the Columbian, no other has rivalled it in delicate Venetian magic. No other has attempted its inter-weaving of water-ways among buildings and colonnades, whose shining day-time beauty turned to glory at night, when the long rows of lights trailed their golden fringes in the wide lagoons. Mr. Higinbotham delighted in the joy of the people as the festive spirit of the crowd rose and gathered force during those last months of the gala season.
The most important social event of the Exposition season was the banquet given by the Board of Directors on October eleventh to the Commissioners of foreign nations. The great Music Hall on the grounds was transformed into a brilliantly lit bower of ferns, palms and flowers for this occasion, fitly adorned with the flags of the forty-eight nations and the yellow and white banners of the Exposition. Mr. Higinbotham, as presiding officer, opened the exchange of compliments with a brief salutation, and the program closed with his address on “The Future Influence of the Exposition,” of which a few sentences may be quoted:
“The impress of our work will be so delicately and imperceptibly woven into the fabric of the future that it will have a finer and more beautiful texture. It will sink deep into the minds of the learned and unlearned alike. It will stimulate the youth of this and later generations to greater and more heroic effort. It will give to the wheels of commerce a new impetus; thereby bring the people of the earth into more intimate and, I trust, happier relations.
“Let us hope that future generations will look back to this place with reverence, satisfaction and pride, as the spot where was laid the deep foundation of a monument that should mark the dawn of a new era, emphasizing the benign influence of the gospel of peace, the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man. Let us indulge the fond hope that its influence will increase until it encircles the globe and encompasses the race.
“I have long sought for some consolation to justify the imminent destruction of our beautiful city, and I can find only this thought as comforting:
“Whenever a people have gained distinction by the creation of some specially meritorious work, have declared it finished, and then rested to contemplate its grandeur and magnificence, feeling that there was nothing greater for them to do, they have fallen into a condition of decay, and from that time become effeminate. It is better, therefore, for us to efface our work, and cease to delude ourselves with the thought that there is nothing for us, and those that come after us, to do. Let us rather hope that what we have done will live, as a stepping-stone to grander and more heroic efforts, compensated with richer and rarer fruits. Let us not take to ourselves the credit, and seek to magnify unduly our creation; if it has merit and excellence it will speak for and defend itself. Let us rather rejoice in the thought that what has been done is the culmination of a period in the progress of the world; that especially it declares and emphasizes the wisdom of our fathers in the creation of a government founded on the broad and enduring principles of human liberty.
“These buildings will disappear and mingle with our dust, but their glory will ever live, and continue to mark an era in the progress of civilization long after their creators have been forgotten.
“There is a sense in which the material side of our work seems insignificant; compared to the kindly feeling that has been augmented by the gathering of representatives of the nations of the earth it is of slight importance. The culmination of these close relations of the heart will have more lasting benefit, will permeate more peoples, enduring through all time, and growing brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.”
In every detail of his connection with the national festival, Mr. Higinbotham was an effective presiding officer. While making no pretense of oratory in addressing an audience, his personal distinction of manner and the quiet earnestness of his voice added to the force and beauty of a diction concise and vivid. In closer contacts he never lost his patience, yet never retreated from a just decision. In the personal intimacies which developed with all kinds of people, he was unfailingly sympathetic and generous; and when these ripened into friendship, his warm-hearted loyalty became a precious possession in his own spirit and in those it honored.
On May first, 1895, the Board of Directors presented a silver vase as a testimonial to their president, his work now almost over. Their spokesman, Edwin Walker, in the course of his address, said: