The Black City
- The scene is desolate: the White City is abandoned, drifters take up residence on the grounds, and thousands are left unemployed.
- "Heights of splendor, pride, exaltation in one month: depth of wretchedness, suffering, hunger, cold in the next" (3.22.1), writes one journalist.
- Soon, the first planned fires occur and destroy several structures, transforming the once vibrant fair into a landscape of "twisted and blackened steel" (3.22.3).
- The winter is especially cruel, with thousands of labor unions going on strike throughout the city. President Cleveland sends federal troops to Chicago to handle them mess.
- Arsonists set fire to the former palaces of the exposition.
- Burnham later writes, "There was no regret, rather a feeling of pleasure that the elements and not the wrecker should wipe out the spectacle of the Columbian season" (3.22.6).
- It's not until much later in 1894 that people begin to wonder what ever happened to the women who went to the fair but were never heard from again.
- Perhaps they found their way to Holmes' Castle?
- Initially, the Chicago police have no answers.
- After all, it was so easy to disappear in the time of the fair.
- But soon the persistence of one detective reveals Holmes for who he really is.