Thrones of the continents! Isles of the sea!
Yours are the garlands of peace we entwine!
Welcome once more to the land of the free,
Shadowed alike by the palm and the pine,
Softly they murmur, the palm and the pine,
“Hushed is our strife in the land of the free.”
Over your children their branches entwine,
Thrones of the continents! Isles of the sea!
The distribution of awards to exhibitors occurred in the Judges’ Hall on Wednesday, September 27th, with an interesting programme of music and addresses.
On November 9th a farewell banquet was given to the Foreign Commissioners and Judges of Awards by the Centennial Commission and Board of Finance in St. George’s Hall. The guests on this occasion included the Commissioners and Diplomatic Representatives of the nations which had participated in the Exhibition, the Chief Justice and Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, a number of Senators and members of the United States Congress, the Secretary of State and other members of the Cabinet of the United States, the Governors of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware, and New Jersey; the Mayor of Philadelphia, the Presidents of the Philadelphia City Councils, and the officers and members of the Fairmount Park Commission, the Centennial Commission, and the Centennial Board of Finance. The President of the United States was the presiding officer of the evening. During the course of the banquet addresses were made by representatives of the several bodies participating, and by Commissioners of each of the foreign countries represented, each being introduced in turn by the President of the Centennial Commission amid the applause of the guests.
The closing ceremonies of the Exhibition occurred on Friday, November 10th. They were to have been held like the opening exercises, out-of-doors, but stormy weather made it necessary to hold them within the Judges’ Hall. At sunrise a Federal salute of thirteen guns was fired. The programme proper was opened with the Inauguration March, composed by Richard Wagner, and performed by the orchestra under Theodore Thomas. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Seiss. Addresses followed by D. J. Morrell, United States Centennial Commissioner from Pennsylvania, and Chairman of the Executive Committee; John Welsh, President of the Centennial Board of Finance; A. T. Goshorn, Director General, and Joseph R. Hawley, President of the United States Centennial Commission; alternating with musical selections rendered by the chorus and orchestra. After General Hawley’s address, the national hymn, “My Country, ’tis of Thee,” was rendered by the orchestra, choir, and general audience. During the singing, the American flag which was carried by John Paul Jones on his frigate, the “Bon Homme Richard,” in 1779, was unfurled above the platform, and a salute of forty-seven guns was fired. Then the President of the United States rose and said: “I now declare the International Exhibition of 1876 closed.” General Hawley said: “The President of the United States will now give the signal to stop the great engine.” The President then waved his hand to a telegraph operator, who instantly sent an electric message to the engineer in Machinery Hall, and at exactly 3.40 o’clock P.M. the great engine ceased to work. The singing of the Doxology by the choir and audience concluded the ceremony.
It will be of interest to add, for purposes of record and reference, some statistics regarding the Exhibition. Nearly all supplies of goods, and nearly all visitors were brought to Philadelphia over the lines of two railroad companies, the Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia & Reading. During 1874 these roads delivered at the Exhibition grounds 3,341 loaded freight cars; in 1875, 10,479; and in 1876, 6,340; a total of 20,160 loaded cars bearing about 200,000 tons of freight. During the continuance of the Exhibition there arrived at the Centennial station of the Pennsylvania Railroad 23,972 passenger trains, and at the station of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, 42,495. The average number of trains daily was more than 410, and the average number of cars to each train more than 6, giving accommodations in the whole number of trains for over 20,000,000 passengers. The greatest service in one day at the Pennsylvania depot comprised 250 trains of 2,004 cars, bearing 58,347 passengers; and at the Philadelphia & Reading station on the same day 370 trains of 2,867 cars, bearing 185,800 passengers; a total of 620 trains, 4,871 cars, and 244,147 passengers. During the entire Exhibition there arrived at the Pennsylvania depot 1,392,697 passengers, and at the Philadelphia & Reading 1,726,010.
There were received at the Exhibition from all the countries of the world 154,273 packages of goods, weighing 57,116,658 pounds; and there were removed from the grounds at the close of the fair 58,700 packages, weighing 27,041,271 pounds.
From May 10th to November 10th, 1876, there were admitted to the grounds a grand total of 9,910,966 persons, from whom were received admission fees amounting to $3,813,724.49. The largest number admitted on any day was 274,919, on Pennsylvania Day, September 28th. The smallest number, 12,720, was admitted on Friday, May 12th. The largest number of persons passing through a single gate in a single hour was 1,870. The day of the week most popular among visitors was Thursday, with an average of 76,905 attendants, and the least popular was Monday, with an average of 50,051.
The total number of persons transported to and from the Exhibition was 19,821,932, of whom 3,574,528 came on local trains, 2,334,804 on railroad trains from out of the city, 10,557,100 by tramways, 556,500 by steamboat, 803,000 by carriages, and 1,996,000 on foot.
CHAPTER V.
THE COLUMBIAN EXHIBITION.
THE 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 will be the fourteenth, and will surpass 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 commemorate the centenary of American Independence. So, too, the great fair at Chicago is to mark the four hundredth anniversary of that memorable enterprise in which Christopher Columbus found a new world, not only, as the legend oh his banner declared, for Castile and Leon, but for civilization and for humanity.