Exhibition Buildings and their Extent
When the prayer was ended, choral music went up from the lips of a thousand singers on the platform, who chanted the following beautiful and impressive "Centennial Hymn," composed by John Greenleaf Whittier, accompanied by the organ and the whole orchestra:
The centuries fall like grains of sand,
We meet to-day, united, free,
And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done
And trust Thee for the opening one.
The fathers spake that word of Thine,
Whose echo is the glad refrain
Of rended bolt and falling chain,
To grace our festal time, from all
The zones of earth our guests we call.
The Old World thronging all its streets,
Unvailing all the triumphs won
By art or toil beneath the sun ;
And unto common good ordain
This rivalship of hand and brain.
The war-flags of a gathered world,
Beneath our western skies fulfill
The Orient's mission of good-will
And freighted with Love's golden fleece,
Send back the Argonauts of peace.
For beauty made the bride of Use,
We thank Thee while withal we crave
The austere virtues strong to save;
The honor, proof to place or gold,
The manhood never bought and sold.
In peace secure, in justice strong;
Around our gift of Freedom draw
The safeguards of Thy righteous law,
And, cast in some diviner mould,
Let the new cycle shame the old!
When the chanting of that grand hymn was ended, the Hon. John Welsh, President of the Centennial Board of Finance, formally presented the buildings to the United States Centennial Commission. Then a cantata, composed by Sidney Lanier, of Georgia, and set to exquisite music by Mr. Buck, was sung, when General Hawley, president of the Centennial Commission, at the close of a short speech, presented the Exhibition to the President of the United States. The latter made a brief response. At the end of these ceremonies, the American flag was unfurled over the great tower of the Main Building, as a signal to the multitude that the Centennial Exhibition was open. That multitude listened to (or joined in) the singing of Handel's magnificent Hallelujah Chorus, and then dispersing, spread over the grounds and through the great buildings.
The Centennial Exhibition was eminently successful in every aspect of the affair. The management was judicious throughout; the police regulations and the provisions for comfort and security were perfect; and its financial success, considering the depressed state of the business of the country, was decided. In the extent of the Exhibition space, the amount and variety of the products of industry there gathered, and the number of the visitors, this "World's Fair" exceeded all others that had preceded it, either municipal, national, or international. The buildings of the first International Exhibition, held in London, in 1851, covered a space of twenty acres, and those of a similar Exhibition in 1862, covered a little over twenty-five acres. The buildings of the Paris Exhibition, in 1867, covered thirty-one acres, and those of Vienna, in 1873, covered fifty-six acres. The buildings constructed under the directions of the Centennial Commission, with their annexes, as we have observed (exclusive of those erected by the General and State governments), covered seventy-five acres. In these buildings, thirty-three nations besides our own, exhibited the products of their industry, namely, Argentine Republic, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chili, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland, India and British Colonies, Hawaiian Islands, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg Grand Duchy, Liberia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Orange Free State, Peru, Portugal, Russia, San Domingo, Spain and Spanish Colonies, Siam, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunis, Turkey, and Venezuela.
The Centennial Exhibition was open for pay admissions one hundred and fifty-nine days, the pay-gates being closed on Sundays. The total number of cash admissions at fifty cents each was 7,250,620, and at twenty-five cents each, 753,654. The number of free admissions was 1,906,692, making a grand total of 9,910,965 admissions. During the very hot summer, the number of admissions were comparatively few. The smallest number in a full month was in July, when the weather was excessively hot, and the rural population were engaged in the harvests. The number was 906,447. The largest number of admissions in a full month, was in October, when 2,663,911 persons were admitted. The largest number admitted in a single day was 274,919. That was on the "Pennsylvania Day," Thursday, September 28th. The total amount of cash receipts during the Exhibition was $3,813,725.50.
The Grand International Exhibition was closed on the 10th of November with appropriate ceremonies. After the performance of Wagner's "Inaugural March," a prayer, singing, and speeches by officers of the Centennial Commission, the President of the United States stepped to the front of the platform, and in quiet tones said to the multitude before him: "I now declare the Centennial Exhibition closed." Then the message--"The President has this moment closed the International Centennial Exhibition, 3:37 P. M., November 10, 1876"--was sent by telegraph all over the Union and across the seas; and the immense congregation joined in singing the Christian Doxology. The great Corliss engine that had driven acres of machinery for six months, gave one or two strokes, when the giant fell asleep and ceased to move. The American Centennial Exhibition had passed into history.