The Black Swans 



recently erected replica of the one in 

 staff that welcomed the nations of the 

 world in Columbian Exposition days. 

 The fading of that picture is Chicago's 

 greatest tragedy. There flowered the 

 architecture and the allied arts of all 

 the ages; a poet's dream of one short 

 summer night, a mirage too beautiful, 

 too evanescent to really exist save in 

 imagination. But it served its splen- 

 did purpose. Its profound, refining 

 influence upon a people none too famil- 

 iar with "the beauty that was Greece," 

 the "grandeur that was Rome," and, 

 may I add, the inspiration that is 

 France, long since became a prized 

 national possession. Only a trace of 

 the grand aggregation of palatial 

 structures now remains. The Fine 

 Arts Building alone of all the exhibition 

 halls was temporarily preserved. A 

 great fire swept away most of them, 

 thus saving a laborious demolition by 

 hand labor. And the Art Hall's days 

 are numbered. 



[184] 



