CHAPTER V.

THE PRESS AND THE COLUMBIAN GUARD/
Splendid Service of the Columbian Guard — Cursed, Reviled and Knocked Down and Otherwise Abused, They Faithfully Perform Their Multiform Duties of Firemen a nd Police — They Extinguish 284 Fires and Save Machinery Building from Total Destruction — The Thanks of the Exposition are Due to Colonel Edmund Rice and the Columbian Guard — Also to John Bonfield and His Secret Service Police— The Fair Indebted to the Chicago Press More Than to All Other Things Com- bined.
NE day in December, 1892, a small explosion took place somewhere on the grounds, and many cried, "What's that?" And the response came, "The Columbian Guard, is making an arrest." At another time some scantling fell from the dome of the Administration Building and a man was killed — "but it was only a Columbian Guard," added the cold-blooded bearer of news. These anecdotes might be multiplied by a hundred, with the joke on the Colum- bian guard each time- But these same Columbian guards and their commander may exult, generally, over the character of their work. To be sure these guards have been abused and caricatured for the severe performance of their
duty. They have been sworn at, reviled, and knocked down. They have not
only arrested disreputable and suspicious persons, but they have even placed de-
partment chiefs, directors and commissioners under
arrest and trotted off their own commandant to head- quarters for attempting to do what he, himself, had
forbidden.
The Columbian Guard is a military organization,
under the control and direction of the Exposition
company, having no connection with the Chicago police
department. The Guard is under command of Col.
Edmund Rice, U. S. Army, whose title in the Guard is
commandant. The guards perform police and assist at
fire-patrol duty inside the grounds, and, up to May i,
1893, at the gates, and at one time numbered 2,50x3 COL. EDMUND RICE.
8o HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.
men. The secret service part of the command is under charge of John Bonfield. Colonel Rices started out with the idea of making the Columbian Guard a model organization of selected men, physically, mentally and morally qualified for the work required of them. The following officers of the regular army were de- tailed to assist Colonel Rice in his duties, and were assigned as follows: Cap- tain Fred A. Smith, Twelfth United States Infantry, as adjutant of the guard and commanding Company E and patrol system; First Lieutenant C. B. Hop- pin, Second United States Cavalry, as quartermaster, and, First Lieutenant R. J. C. Irvine, Eleventh United States Infantry, commanding Company B. Each member of the Guard performs his eight hours of duty during the twenty-four. The two reliefs which do the work. during the day have four hours on, then four hours off. The night relief has a continuous tour of eight hours. It is all so arranged that no two companies or reliefs are changing at the same hour, day or night. The uni- form consists of a light blue cloth sack coat, ornamented with five rows of black braid across the front, each row terminating in a clover-leaf knot; black braid on the cuffs of the sleeves, with three small brass buttons on each cuff and five large ones down the front of the coat. The trousers are of a lighter blue than the coat and trimmed with two rows of flat black braid down each outside seam with a narrow red stripe be- tween. The fatigue cap is made high for the addition of a black pompon on occa- sions of ceremony, which, together with the black braid shoulder knots andaiguilet- tes with belt and short sword, constitutes the full dress. The ornaments are a blazing sun, from the centre of which an eagle's head appears, worn on the left breast; a whistle for the purposes of signal and alarm; on the right breast a cross- bow after the pattern of 1492, on which is the Guard's number, and on the cap a crossed gun and sword in the center of which is a miniature morion, or leather helmet, such as was in vogue during the time of Columbus.
Up to the opening day the Columbian Guard had extinguished or helped to extinguish 284 fires, and on one occasion saved Machinery Building from complete destruction — while the splendid conduct of the guards on the day of the destruc- tion of the Cold Storage Building elicited general commendation. It is not improbable that the Guards performed their duties in a too severely civil way to suit many not at all acquainted with or used to military discipline, and feigned in- sensibility of discriminating powers. But, all the same they have been faithful and .vigilant from first to last, and the Exposition Co. has been greatly the gainer by their effective patrol ambulance and fire department work.
The Cold Storage Building was erected for the sole purpose of the manu- facture of ice and for the preservation of fruits, etc., and was a very handsome building. This caught fire in the upper part of its central dome, about 2 o'clock on July 10, and was completely destroyed, during which fifteen brave firemen and one unknown person perished. The names of the brave firemen who were killed were Captain James A. Garvey, Captain Burton Edgar Page, Lieutenant Charles W. Purves, John Artemus Smith, Louis Z. Frank, Ralph A. Drummond, Norman H. Hartman, Bernard Murphy, Captain James Fitzpatrick, Lieutenant John H.
HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR. 81
i
Freeman, John C. McBride, John Cahill, Paul W. F. Schroeder, Philip Breen, and William Henry Denning. Before the smoke had cleared away subscription papers had been started in all the departments and among all exhibitors, and in less than two weeks more than $150,000 had been raised, which was afterwards so invested that the families of the firemen lost receive substantial payments there- from.
Ample preparations were early made for music, and such well-known bands as Souza's Marine, Theodore Thomas, the Mexican and Iowa bands, and many others made music at various times, and at various places during the Exposition. There were also ample preparations made for restaurants and other eating places, and the prices were generally satisfactory, and the service and cooking good. Arrange- ments were made long before the opening for a Bureau of Admissions, and Horace Tucker, who had the bureau in charge, conducted it with marked ability from the commencement to the end. The fire department, ambulance corps and the Emerg- ency Hospital, which took care of nearly 20,000 cases — serious and trivial — without cost of medical or surgical service or medicines, were all provided for at the com- mencement of work and kept up until the close.
And last, but really first in importance, has been the general attitude of the Chicago press toward the Exposition. And, while, at times, the home papers have deemed it not improper to censure as well as to praise, they have never permitted an outsider to scorn or misrepresent without reprimand or rebuke. The Chicago press could have killed the Fair had it so determined. On the contrary, the Chicago papers, to a great extent, have made it. It is this press that has portrayed regularly by picture and text the commencement, progress and completion of the wonderful undertaking, and it is this press that all the historians of the Fair depend upon, just as all the historians of the civil war depended upon the accounts of the newspaper correspondents sent from the seat of war. Therefore, the author de- clares himself indebted to the Tribune, Herald, Inter-Ocean, Times, Record, News, Journal, Post, Mail, and other dailies, and to the illustrated papers, for much that is best in this book.
The New York Times, San Francisco Call, Chronicle and Bulletin, the Los Angeles Herald, Times and Express, and all the magazines and illustrated papers in the country have been conspicuous in their aid and devotion to the Fair. Indeed the whole press of the country, with very few exceptions, have been kind and lib- eral from first to last.
BENJAMIN HARRISON,
EX-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.