The Devil in the White City: Part 3, Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

Attendance at the World’s Fair remains high throughout October, because people know that the Fair is about to end forever. Far more than 100,000 attend every day, and officials expect the final ceremony to attract a record number of tourists.

Frank Millet continues to organize events that attract visitors to Jackson Park, such as a recreation of Columbus’s voyage to America.

For American Cities Day, October 28, Mayor Harrison invites the mayors of San Francisco, Philadelphia, and other major American cities. It’s not clear whether or not the mayor of New York attends. Harrison announces that he is engaged to Miss Annie Howard, and that they’ll be married on November 16. He makes speeches in which he mourns the end of the World’s Fair, and privately tells the mayor of Omaha that he’d gladly incorporate Omaha into Chicago’s city limits.

Prendergast, humiliated by his visit to the corporation counsel’s office, buys a six-chamber revolver for four dollars. He knows that revolvers can be unreliable, so he loads only five bullets and keeps the empty chamber under the hammer. On American Cities Day, he walks to the Unity Building in the center of Chicago, where Mayor Harrison is making a speech. A guard refuses to let Prendergast enter the building, since he looks suspicious.

In the evening, Harrison returns to his mansion. Around seven thirty, the maid tells him that a young man wants to see him. Harrison isn’t worried by this request, since he prides himself on being in touch with his constituents. Though the visitor seems unusual, the maid tells him to come back to see Harrison in half an hour.

At eight o’clock the young visitor returns. The servants, who are eating supper by themselves, hear a shot, and rush to the hall, where they see Harrison lying on his back. William Chalmers, Harrison’s neighbor, takes care of Harrison, and tells him that he’ll live. Harrison replies that he has been shot in the heart, and will die. They argue, and Harrison becomes angry. Chalmers reports that Harrison died too early because he didn’t believe him — even in death, Harrison was “emphatic and imperious.”

Prendergast walks to a police station and tells the police that he has shot the mayor. The police are skeptical until Prendergast shows them a gun that’s been recently fired. Prendergast explains that Harrison betrayed his trust and refused to appoint him corporation counsel in return for his support.

The World’s Columbian Exposition Company cancels the closing ceremony in response to Harrison’s death. A memorial assembly is held in Festival Hall. The warship Michigan gives Harrison a 21-gun salute, and the band plays “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Visitors cry, and the World’s Fair is understood to be over.

A procession walks through the streets of Chicago. Burnham sits in a carriage, and thinks that the World’s Fair has begun and ended with deaths — Root’s and Harrison’s. A chorus from the United German Singing Societies performs for the occasion — years before, Harrison had heard them at a picnic, and joked that they should sing at his funeral.

The World’s Fair remains open until October 31, and visitors go, as if to say goodbye to a dead relative. Reporters say that a greater sight will never be seen on Earth. Harrison’s death becomes a milestone in Chicago history.