It was so easy to disappear, so easy to deny knowledge, so very easy in the smoke and din to mask that something dark had taken root. This was Chicago, on the eve of the greatest fair in history.
This quote, from the first chapter of the book, sets the scene of Chicago in the late 19th century. It foreshadows the two main plots of the rest of the book: Holmes’ murders and the World’s Fair. It also introduces the theme of the coexistence of good and evil. The "something dark" taking root in the first sentence contrasts with the "greatest fair in history" of the second sentence, but both occur in the same place and time.
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood."
This is a direct quote from Burnham, but without knowing the author it could believably be attributed to Holmes or any of the other ambitious lead characters. The quote shows the ambition and thirst for greatness that is a common thread throughout the men in the book, highlighting their similarities in personality. Both something magnificent and something terribly evil could “stir men’s blood,” whether in wonder or in disgust. Therefore, this quote illustrates the tenuous line between insanity and sanity seen in the architects and Holmes, and suggests the startling idea that they are not all that different inside.
"Great murderers, like great men in other walks of activity, have blue eyes."
This is just one example from the text of the image of blue eyes being used to connect the main characters. This is a real quote from a physician referring to H.H. Holmes. Burnham and Harrison are also described as having striking blue eyes, and are shown to be great architects. This quote includes all these men under the umbrella of ‘greatness’, drawing eerie similarities between the ambition of the murderer and the ambition of the architects. Of course, there isn't any hard scientific evidence to suggest that blue eyes actually translate into greatness, but Larsen's subtle linking of the two main characters is important nonetheless.
No one could bear the idea of the White City lying empty and desolate. A Cosmopolitan writer said, "Better to have it vanish suddenly, in a blaze of glory, than fall into gradual disrepair and dilapidation. There is no more melancholy spectacle than a festal hall, the morning after the banquet, when the guests have departed and the lights are extinguished.
This quote serves to foreshadow several notable events to come in the rest of the book. The ‘blaze of glory’ mentioned metaphorically here, is first realized when Holmes sets fire to his building in later pages. The irony of this quote is increased when, in 1894, arsonists set the seven biggest buildings in the fair ablaze. These lines also create the mood of melancholy at the close of the book, with diction such as “empty and desolate.” It isn't just that a fair is over; it is that a beautiful dream is over.
With a power of perception that far outpaced his era, Burnham recognized that the tiniest details would shape the way people judged the exposition.
In this quote Larsen reveals how important Burnham was to the fair in terms of his micromanaging—a trait that would normally seem obnoxious or problematic is actually in the best interest of the fair. Burnham knows that a visitor might enjoy the exhibitions or the Ferris Wheel but that some singular moment might break the illusion; thus, he concerned himself with anything and everything, no matter how inconsequential. This meant that he could not be with his family, that he was often stressed, that he butted heads with others, yet, this was what made him a genius and what made the fair what it turned out to be—a complete experience, a place that transported the visitor.
"Anything approaching a gorgeous, garish, or gaudy display of flowers is to be avoided."
Olmsted's vision is just as entrenched as Burnham's—he knows what he thinks good landscape design should be, and he will brook no interference. For him, the garish or the overly manicured are both problematic, for they would not transport the visitor into the dream world, which Olmsted knows good landscaping can do. Through the planting and tending of flora and fauna, Olmsted knows he can render a visitor's experience—a visitor who probably comes from either a dirty big city or an unprepossessing rural town—into something unlike her or she has ever experienced before. The attention to details such as these is what makes the fair so memorable.
By far, however, the most exotic cargo was human.
Larsen writes this and then leaves it behind, offering no further commentary on these "exotic" examples of human cargo. The reader, though, is no doubt compelled by the fact that the World's Fair featured numerous examples of exoticized "others" for white American viewers to gawk at. The fair was not just an example of ingenuity but also a strong assertion of the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, capitalist peoples of the Western world.
If you worked to advance the interests of the machine, the machine paid you back. Harrison was in his debt.
With this short sentence Larsen adds another layer to the grittiness and corruption of Chicago—the patronage system. In the patronage system, elected officials (or would-be elected officials) curried favor with voters and often rewarded them with jobs in their administration. The "machine" Larsen mentions is the political machine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a network of favors and bribes and pressure at the city or state level. Prendergast is aware of this machine, as is everyone else. He did indeed campaign heavily for Harrison, and thus his expectation of a job is not altogether that surprising. However, the machine doesn't work when someone is mentally ill, or when someone hasn't even met the person they're supposed to get a job from. In 1883 President James Garfield was assassinated by a disappointed job-seeker, but clearly the lessons from that event did not trickle down to Chicago.
And they saw the first electric chair.
Larsen's style of writing is sometimes like that of a novelist, particularly a thriller writer. He favors short, striking, and succinct sentences that announce something shocking or incredible. He knows that "less is more" (to use an architectural phrase!) and that he can leave the reader in a state of breathless apprehension or surprise. By saying "and they saw the first electric chair," the reader immediately makes a connection between this deadly device and the dastardly Holmes, and perhaps considers other aspects of this modern way of doling out state punishment. Larsen's style isn't as formal as other historians, but you can't say he doesn't know how to hook a reader.
No one saw Twain. He came to Chicago to see the fair but got sick and spent eleven days in his hotel room, then left without ever seeing the White City.
Of all people.
This is an amusing small moment from Larsen, who acknowledges that Mark Twain would certainly be one of the voices he'd like to have as a primary source. Twain was known for his wryness, his intellect, his powers of observation. He was a true chronicler of the American scene in his novels and letters, and one would have loved to know what he made of this American extravaganza.
