It Happened at the Fair: A Novel

by Deeanne Gist

  Though the tests took place in the Anthropological Building, you might have noticed I was a bit vague with Helen’s location in the novel. That’s because I needed the fire wagons to come racing by, and there weren’t any fire stations in that corner of the park. I fudged a little bit on that part.

  Though the fire was real and everything that happened on that ledge is exactly how it was reported to have happened, John Ransom was a fictional character. However, the firemen really did throw their helmets off the ledge in an appeal for help. The men hugged and said good-bye, though, to my knowledge, none were brothers. I added that detail. The firemen on the roof below them made a makeshift net with their clothing. And the last man standing threw his wallet, shook his own hand, and pounded his heart before going down the rope right as the tower fell.

  Captain Fitzgerald and the men in Companies One and Two were the ones who climbed to the top of the tower and subsequently lost their lives. Chief Fire Marshal Murphy headed up the battalions that day, though he was second in command to Chief Swenie.

  TOWER ON COLD STORAGE BUILDING

  As for the conflagration itself, there was much more than what I actually included. The biggest gap in description was what happened after the tower collapsed. The heat building up inside the remaining structure made the roof that Chief Murphy and his men stood on so hot that it began to bubble and threatened to collapse. There was another scene of intense drama as the men all scrambled to get off the roof. The soldiers, sailors, and marines of other countries came out of the crowd to help contain the gathered multitude. Many of those same men, along with volunteers from the crowd, stayed to help recover bodies. And as I depicted in the novel, the Sunday after the fire was indeed designated as a memorial for the firemen. All ticket sales, as well as a percentage of the proceeds of many of the concessionaires, went to the families of the fallen and wounded.I

  I never could confirm where the Fireman’s Week competition (which occurred toward the end of my novel and well after the Cold Storage fire) actually took place. I do know fair officials were considering a few options, including the shoreline. I chose the shoreline because I liked that better than some far-removed corner of the fair. (I can’t imagine them putting it on the shoreline, though, especially not with the way the wind whips off the lake. But who knows.)

  I took a shameful amount of creative license with the historical time line of automatic sprinkler systems and twisted it in all sorts of ways in order to make Cullen’s plight more dramatic. My reasoning was that it was more in keeping with the fair to have his sprinkler new and cutting-edge than to simply be new and improved. But the truth is that the automatic fire sprinkler was first conceived in 1806 by John Carey. It became much more practical when it was improved in the 1870s and 1880s by George Parmelee and Fredrick Grinnell. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) was formed in 1895, but obviously Cullen and Vaughn weren’t founding members. So to all of those fire sprinkler history buffs—sorry! Forgive me?

  As long as I’m asking for forgiveness, I ought to mention the animal treadmill Cowboy (my family’s beloved border collie who makes a cameo appearance) hopped onto at the beginning of the book. Again, this wasn’t a new invention. It was patented by Nicholas Potter in 1881. I had Cullen “rig one up” in order to show readers his mechanical genius. The treadmill was for dogs and sheep to run on while powering butter churns, cream separators, early washing machines, or whatever.

  The Columbian Exposition was a fair of firsts, not just in its size and grandeur but in products that debuted there. Several became household names, many of which we still recognize today. Among them are Cracker Jack (though it wasn’t called that until after 1900), hamburgers, picture postcards, the Ferris wheel, chili con carne, Aunt Jemima, and shredded wheat.

  The medals awarded at the Columbian Exposition were noncompetitive, a change from previous fairs. All bronze and all exactly alike, they were awarded to articles that indicated some independent and essential excellence and also denoted improvement in the condition of the art or industry they represented. I have no idea if any of the sprinkler systems exhibited were awarded medals.

  The official fair medals should not be confused with souvenir medals. There were a plethora of those in all sizes, shapes, and colors and with all manner of engravings. You didn’t earn those; you paid for them.

  Something I regrettably was forced to overlook were the designated days and weeks of celebration. The fair had a Children’s Week, German Day, Miller’s Day, Chicago Day, Irish Day, and many more. The only one I managed to work in was Fireman’s Week.

  RECORD ATTENDANCE AT CHICAGO DAY

  The Pennsylvania Home for the Training in Speech of Deaf Children Before They Are of School Age, which became known as Bala Home, did transport the school to the fair as an official exhibit. I could find no record of how many teachers and pupils there were, nor where they all boarded, so I took complete creative license there.

  Neither was I able to discover how they taught lip-reading back in the day. I found a lot of information about why it was taught, but I couldn’t find a thing on how it was taught. So I used one of today’s methods. If I made mistakes—and I’m sure I did—it wasn’t for lack of trying. I just couldn’t find the resources I needed.

  The same thing with sign language. At the time of the World’s Fair, if I’m not mistaken, America was using a French-based sign language. In my novel, however, I have Della teaching Cullen American Sign Language (ASL). Again, it wasn’t for lack of trying, I just couldn’t find the resources I needed concerning sign language in 1893.

  What I did find plenty of material on was the heated debate the country was having about whether sign language should be taught or used. The advocates of lip-reading were called “oralists,” and the advocates of sign language, “manualists.” The debate represented a much bigger issue, however: the one where society was so busy striving to make everyone the same that it failed to look at a person’s character and integrity and instead concerned itself only with the superficial surfaces.

  Alexander Graham Bell was a purist when it came to oralism. His wife was in fact deaf, so I firmly believe his heart was in the right place, as was everyone else’s. The manualism versus oralism topic is still a sensitive one. It is my deepest desire that I have not hurt any feelings or stepped on any toes. If I did, I apologize and ask for your forgiveness.

  You might have wondered why I didn’t end the book with the closing ceremonies on October 31. They were to be as magnificent as the opening, but two days before the fair ended, the mayor of Chicago was murdered. So tragic. He was, of course, a major player in the success of the fair, so the closing ceremonies ended up becoming a funeral dirge. Not exactly the tone I wanted to end the book on.

  As for weddings and honeymoons, I found reports of people wanting to say their vows on the Ferris wheel and such, but official permission was always denied, so it is my guess that Cullen and Della would not have been allowed to get married on the Wooded Island. Still, there are folks today who had grandparents or other relatives who claimed to have married on the grounds. I did find confirmation of a couple who honeymooned inside the fair. It was a specially prepared bridal chamber in one of the bastions of the miniature Fort Marion in the Florida State Building. Since neither of my characters was from Florida, I decided to use Blooker’s as a substitute.

  Just as Della mourned the temporariness of the Columbian Exposition, so do I. Its buildings were burned to the ground the following year by union members involved in the Pullman strike. Only the Art Building survives today. Because of all the masterpieces it displayed, it was the only build-to-last structure of the fair. Its walls were brick based, its floor and roof, iron. It was also the only fire-proofed building. It is now the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and still looks out over the north end of the lagoon in Jackson Park.

  REMAINS OF THE WORLD’S FAIR 1894

  Other evidence of the fair can be seen by driving on one of Chicago’s highways that
runs along the shore, roughly on the same route as the elevated train. The Plaisance is now in the middle of the University of Chicago’s campus. It’s still called the Midway Plaisance, and the Chicago Bears are called the “Monsters of the Midway.”

  I’m an avid scrapbooker and save every piece of memorabilia imaginable from every trip our family takes. Evidently there were more than a few of us back in 1893 too. Because of it, we can find souvenirs of the fair here and there—some more expensive than others. For example, you can find a picture postcard from the fair for a few dollars on eBay. While in 2011, Coca Cola’s soda fountain from the fair was auctioned off for $4.5 million. I’d love to hear from you if you have a piece of the fair or if you know of one. E-mail me from my Web site, IWantHerBook.com.

  Well, my friends, it was great fun to research and write this book. I cannot tell you how much it means that you came along for the ride with me.

  Many blessings,

  * * *

  I. After It Happened at the Fair had already gone into publication, I discovered that the statue of Columbus the firemen pulled down so they could better fight the Cold Storage Building fire actually survived. It was originally placed in front of Engine Company 51’s firehouse, because it was Battalion Headquarters and the chief there was a veteran of the Cold Storage fire; today, you can see it in all its glory at the Fire Museum of Greater Chicago.

  IT

  HAPPENED

  AT THE

  FAIR

  DEEANNE GIST

  READING GROUP GUIDE

  Introduction

  Cullen McNamara didn’t set out to be an inventor. He had long ago settled on a life of farming, but his debilitating allergies to cotton—and a tragic history with his mother—continued to steer him toward his idea for inventing an automatic fire sprinkler system. With the support of his father, Cullen attends the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and finds more than just a platform for his invention. A beautiful lip-reading teacher quickly turns his world upside down, and everything he thought he knew about himself—and life—changes.

  Discussion Questions

  1. In It Happened at the Fair, we are introduced to a hard-of-hearing farmer with severe allergic reactions to his crops. What are your first impressions of Cullen McNamara? Why do you think he was so resigned to a life of farming, even though it made him miserable?

  2. Cullen’s father manages to persuade Cullen to attend the fair after confessing he has paid the nonrefundable money for Cullen’s travel expenses and fair fees. Despite Cullen’s protests, do you think he was privately happy about this? Why or why not?

  3. Describe Cullen and Wanda’s relationship. How does he view his girlfriend? Why is he hesitant to set a date for their wedding?

  4. Adelaide Wentworth, the beautiful lip-reading teacher at the fair, is hesitant to trust Cullen at first. Even when he proves his loyalty, she suspects he is lying. What makes her so distrusting? How do you think that defined her character?

  5. Della is forbidden from teaching sign language to her pupils because if they were to engage in it, they would be branded as different and therefore less than. How do you feel about that stigma? How has the stigma changed since the 1890s?

  6. One of the overarching themes of the culture of America during the World’s Fair appeared to be assimilation—if you weren’t one of us, you were against us. Beyond the sign-language stigma, in what other ways did this culture manifest?

  7. Wanda accused Cullen of not being honest when he wrote the letter to break their engagement. She said he should have done it in person and that two more months wouldn’t have mattered. Did Cullen do the right thing in writing Wanda to break off their engagement? Should he have waited and done it in person? Should he have written earlier? What else could he have done?

  8. The backdrop of the World’s Fair adds a certain ethereal magic to Cullen and Della’s relationship. How do you think things would have developed under different circumstances?

  9. Cullen refuses to retaliate against or reprimand the manual sprinkler salesman, even though he feels certain Bulenberg sabotaged his shed demonstration. How would you have reacted in Cullen’s position? Why do you think he refused to address it?

  10. Why do you think Cullen chose not to tell Della when he met her that he was engaged? Do you think he had feelings for her from the very beginning?

  11. If someone had lied to you about having a fiancée, would you forgive him under the right circumstances?

  12. Vaughn advised Cullen that he should not disclose his loss of hearing to potential clients since it had no bearing on the reliability of his sprinkler system. Yet Cullen felt this might be lying by omission, especially if he knew the client would object to working with someone with a disability. Who was right—Vaughn or Cullen? Why?

  13. Discuss the author’s note. Had you wondered if her descriptions were real? Is the Chicago World’s Fair an event you wish you had been able to attend?

  14. What were your favorite descriptions from the fair?

  Enhance Your Book Club

  1. The Chicago World’s Fair wasn’t just about celebrating inventions—it was about celebrating America and its innovations. Choose a local museum to attend with your book club, preferably one focusing on North American history. If there are multiple museums in your area, make a day of it.

  2. Pick three buildings as themes and ask everyone to bring something fun or unique, old or new, that would have gone in one of the “buildings.” Set up three tables and label each with its “building” name and have everyone put their items on the tables as they arrive. For example, “Art Palace” would have paintings, sculpture, music, etc. The “Woman’s Building” would have cooking, lace and tableware, shoes and clothing, and household items. “Horticulture” would have plants, seeds, gardening tools, etc. Be sure to make time for everyone to share why they chose the items they brought.

  3. Give each person a card with one of these words written on it: eat, love, hurt, help, more, please, thank you, daddy, mommy, cheese, meat, banana, cereal, cookie, drink, juice, milk, hot, cold, all done. Have them make up a sign for their word and try to communicate it to the group. If the group is a little shy, this can be less intimidating if done in pairs, but it is hilarious when done as a group. If there is someone who knows sign language, have that person demonstrate the real signs afterward. If not, here’s a link to an animation of each sign: http://www.labelandlearn.com/signgamecolor.swf. Sign demonstrations can also be found on YouTube, so feel free to make up your own list of words to play with.

  4. In honor of Cullen and Della’s romance, have your book club make their favorite hot cocoa recipes for your next meeting. If the weather is warm, experiment with frozen hot chocolate instead!

  Author Q&A

  1. What was the biggest motivating factor that made you want to write about the Chicago World’s Fair?

  I’m always drawn to events in our country’s past that are strangely absent from our history classes. Why the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition has been left out, I don’t know. Especially since it was such a pivotal event for us. It set the standard for architecture in the upcoming century; it introduced foreign cultures to our amazed population; it wowed the world with our scientific innovations; and it gave women their first official board position recognized and approved by an Act of Congress (all before we had the right to vote). But it was technology that claimed the day as it nipped at the heels of horses, buggies, and man-powered tools. Between that and the evocative backdrop which lent itself to so many possibilities, how could I resist?

  What was your favorite detail to write about?

  All of them were my favorites! So much so, I had a horrible time trying to decide which details to leave out. I read thousands of pages about the fair, its exhibits, and its programs. All of them fascinating. All of them worthy of being included. Some that I found particularly interesting were among the applications submitted for exhibit space.

  One hopeful wanted to make a suite of apartments b
eneath the waters of Lake Michigan. Someone from England wanted to be placed on exhibition as the Messiah. A father of an “infant prodigy” wanted his baby to introduce the leading orator at the dedication ceremonies. And a vendor of cosmetics wanted to “varnish” half of a “wrinkled hag’s” face with his products and at the end of the fair reveal her features (on that half) to be “sleek and smooth.”

  2. How did you come up with the idea to delete parts of words in dialogue between Cullen and other characters?

  When I write I try to get deep into my character’s “head” so that the reader will experience what the protagonist is experiencing. Therefore, if Cullen couldn’t hear a word and had to figure it out by context, then by default, so did the reader.

  Do you think it effectively demonstrated what kind of context clues Cullen had to struggle with to understand someone?

  Golly, I hope so. It was difficult to find just the right balance. I needed to show his struggle with hearing—and it needed to escalate—yet I didn’t want to irritate the reader, especially the fast readers who were bound to get tripped up by the abbreviated words. Trying to find that line was definitely a challenge.

  3. What do you think about the views of the oralists and manualists from that time period?

  I was amazed at how the debate was symbolic of a much deeper struggle going on in America. Keep in mind that only twenty-eight years had passed since the end of the Civil War and each generation was still feeling its aftereffects. Because of that, divisions within the nation were not only suppressed, but also considered downright dangerous.

  Before the Civil War, the motivation for teaching sign language was to teach the deaf about Christ. At that time, society was extremely concerned with a person’s soul and inner being. After the Civil War, the motivation for teaching lip-reading was to make everyone more homogeneous, less different. Ever since, our society has become more and more focused on outside appearances and less concerned about the inner essence of an individual. Explains a lot about today’s culture, doesn’t it?