How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Together [Burnham] and his architects had conjured a dream city whose grandeur and beauty exceeded anything each singly could have imagined. (Prologue.8)
Strength in numbers, right? When you put a bunch of really smart and creative people together, great things happen.
Quote #2
But the fair did more than simply stoke pride. It gave Chicago a light to hold against the gathering dark of economic calamity. (3.11.30)
Light; dark. Dreams; nightmares. See where we're going with this? The White City offered people and escape from the Black City clamoring outside its walls.
Quote #3
The fair was so perfect, its grace and beauty like an assurance that for as long as it lasted nothing truly bad could happen to anyone, anywhere. (3.11.34)
Visitors felt safe in the White City, as safe as they do in their own dreams. They felt protected from the evils lurking outside, and perhaps wished they could live in this dream forever.
Quote #4
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. (3.20.5)
Why prolong the torture? Just end it. Rip it off like a Band-Aid.
Quote #5
"Let it go; it has to go, so let it go. Let us put the torch to it and burn it down." (3.21.8)
Mayor Harrison quotes Burnham in his speech on American Cities Day. He feels the way most do: it's really hard to face the reality that the dream is coming to a close. But even more painful would be seeing the White City lie abandoned and crumble to dust.
Quote #6
"If we cannot preserve it for another year I would be in favor of putting a torch to it and burning it down and let it go up into the bright sky to eternal heaven." (3.21.8)
In his American Cities Day speech, Mayor Harrison feels the way most do: it's really hard to face the reality that the dream is coming to a close. But even more painful would be seeing the White City lie abandoned for a year and crumble to dust.
Quote #7
"We are turning our backs upon the fairest dream of civilization and are about to consign it to the dust. It is like the death of a dear friend." (3.21.31)
We're talking about the White City here, right? Actually, this is Reverend Dr. J. H. Barrows' blessing at Harrison's funeral. Ironically, the lines were originally intended to be read at the grand Closing Ceremony.
Quote #8
"It seems cruel, cruel, to give us such a vision; to let us dream and drift through heaven for six months, and then to take it out of our lives." (3.22.2)
First you give us something pretty, and then you take it away? Well, that's just not very nice. Journalist Theresa Dean says what most are thinking at the end.