Anarchy's Exalted Victim: Exposition and Ladies
This is not all. There were varied-colored electric fountains of striking beauty. There were winding canals, strange and beautiful grottoes and caverns, cascades, towers, domes and pinnacles, not the least among the objects of attraction being the Midway, a diversified collection of curious displays of varied character, such as has become an essential feature of all recent enterprises of this character.
The Pan-American Exposition needed one thing to make it complete, the presence of the nation's ruler. President McKinley was warmly invited by the Exposition authorities to pay it a visit, and with his usual warm sympathy in all the affairs of the people, and readiness to yield to any reasonable request, he accepted the invitation-unhappily so, as the event proved. In anticipation of his visit, and in accordance with the custom of setting aside certain days as special occasions, September 5 was fixed as President's Day. As usual, this fact was widely advertised, with the expectation of attracting an immense multitude of people to the Exposition on that day.
President McKinley left Canton on Wednesday, the 4th of September-exactly two weeks before his sad return to his Ohio home. In the full vigor of life and the buoyancy of health, cheered on his departure by loving friends and admiring neighbors, he set out in the best of spirits on the last journey of his life, accompanied by his wife and a number of relatives and friends.
The Exposition had from the first received the earnest support of the President, to whom it seemed a new link in the chain of friendship and mutual support that was to bind the American republics into one great family of nations. He was, therefore, glad of the opportunity to aid the enterprise by his presence and to speak words of appreciation and encouragement of the purpose to which it was dedicated.
President's Day dawned bright and clear, the air moderately cool, and the weather in all respects very promising. The city was gayly decorated with flags and bunting, and banners were stretched across the leading avenues, many of them bearing expressive words of welcome to the nation's chief. The President had been entertained since his arrival on the previous day at the house of Mr. John G. Milburn, president of the Exposition, who accompanied him when he set out at 10 o'clock on the following morning to make his visit of ceremony to the Exposition grounds. Mrs. McKinley walked by his side.
A welcoming burst of cheers greeted their appearance, the President responding by bowing and lifting his hat. He entered, with Mrs. McKinley, the first of the awaiting carriages, Mr. Milburn and Mrs. William Hammond, of the Board of Women Managers, following in the second. The two carriages, surrounded by an escort of twenty mounted police and twenty members of the signal corps, were driven briskly to the Lincoln Parkway entrance to the Exposition grounds, other carriages and tallyhoes following and the people cheering as the President passed.
At the entrance to the grounds the party was met by detachments of the United States Marines, the Seacoast Artillery and the New York State Infantry, and a President's salute of twenty-one guns was fired. A stand had been erected in the esplanade from which the President was to deliver his address. Around it was gathered the greatest throng which the Exposition had yet seen, the vast multitude filling the broad space and overflowing to the Court of Fountains. In the stands on each side of that of the President many distinguished men and women were seated, among them representatives of most of the American republics.
Ringing cheers greeted President McKinley as he was escorted to the stand, and when Mr. Milburn introduced him with the brief words, "Ladies and Gentlemen: The President," there broke out such a roar of welcome and approbation that several minutes passed before the President could speak. The address that followed was one of the highest interest, not alone as the last speech of one of America's leading orators, but for the new policy which it outlined, and which President Roosevelt afterwards promised to make the policy of the nation. We give in full this inspiring address:-
"President Milburn, Director-General Buchanan, Commissioners, Ladies and Gentlemen:-
"I am glad to be again in the city of Buffalo and exchange greetings with her people, to whose generous hospitality I am not a stranger, and with whose good will I have been repeatedly and signally honored. To-day I have additional satisfaction in meeting and giving welcome to the foreign representatives assembled here, whose presence and participation in this Exposition have contributed in so marked a degree to its interest and success. To the Commissioners of the Dominion of Canada and the British colonies, the French colonies, the Republics of Mexico and of Central and South America, and the commissioners of Cuba and Porto Rico, who share with us in this undertaking, we give the hand of fellowship and felicitate with them upon the triumphs of art, science, education and manufacture, which the old has bequeathed to the new century.