“The child dancing with life and delight all through the days before Christmas is a fair emblem of what society should be in the presence of coming events … The meeting of Nations in 1893, the meeting on the shores of Lake Michigan, the meeting in a young republic, the meeting in such a period of intelligence unite to compose an event which should be to all Americans more than a Christmas to a child.
—Prof. David Swing (1830–1894) in “Inspiration in Events” The Illustrated World’s Fair Sept. 1891, p 14.