Streak of fire, puff of smoke, deafening sound – Grover Cleveland Presidential Dollar Coin

Today, the second Grover Cleveland Presidential Dollar Coin remembers where the president was and what he did on May 1, 1893.

The World’s Columbian Exposition “opened” in October 1892 for the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in America.

But, the Exposition in Chicago did not open its many displays and entertainment until May 1893.

The Aurora [IL] Daily Express printed the highlights of the opening ceremony:

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Amid the plaudits of a great multitude, the World’s Exposition opens.

Two years of splendid effort crowned by a magnificent and glorious success.

The Chief Magistrate of the Nation sets the machinery in motion and inaugurates the Columbian Fair.

As he does so, “Old Glory,” with the flags of all nations, unfurl in midair from hundreds of staffs and the Great White City is arrayed in the Radiance of the colors of the rainbow.

Chicago, May 1.

A streak of fire, a puff of smoke and a sound as though something had struck the dome of the earth a sharp blow, announced at high noon today to those who were near enough to hear, but not to see, that the World’s Columbian Exposition was duly open. That President Cleveland had touched the electric button controlling the action of the great engine in Machinery Hall, and that the work—the miraculous work—of two short years was practically complete.

And as the report of the cannon died away, there was a lifting up of human voices that ascended in one vast roar into the zenith, was repeated over and over again, gathering strength at each repetition until all of the hundreds of thousands of throats were joined in one grand acclamation for a great work magnificently done.

Before the sound of the gunfire had died away, however, there was a scene that very few of the landsmen present had ever witnessed before, and on a scale larger than probably ever witnessed at sea.

Many had noticed at the top of the tall, central flagstaff a bundle and many had wondered what the thing was. Crowning the tops of two other tall staffs on each side were similar bundles, while the seven hundred staffs on the buildings of the exposition were each topped with a similar package.

As the time drew dear for the supreme moment 700 men took their positions at the halyards of these flagstaffs, and three more took firm grasps on the downhauls at the central staffs and awaited the boom of the gun.

As the boom of the gun sounded, a flash appeared at the top of the central staff and as if instantaneously materialized from the sky itself “Old Glory” streamed out in the breeze. It was sixty feet in the fly and forty in the hoist and had hardly shown its full length as it rapidly fell out of its folds before there was another flash at the tops of the flanking staffs, and the colors of Spain and Columbus, each forty-five feet long, unrolled to the breeze.

Then it looked as if the whole city of exposition buildings had suddenly donned gala dress. Instantaneously there broke from the tops of all the staffs on the Administration building the national colors, while from the other buildings the flags of all nations fluttered.

At the eastern end of the lagoon on the south side of the Liberal Arts building there is a colossal statue of Liberty. She had been veiled until the moment of the gunfire, when the veil dropped from around her, and she stood revealed in all her majestic beauty.

Never had a scene more inspiring been seen than this climax of the opening ceremonies. No wonder the multitude shouted; no wonder they kept up the cheering.

It was a marvelously beautiful transformation scene on a gigantic—really “gigantic,” not the “gigantic” of the sensational telegram—scale, and its execution was perfect.

The ceremonies leading up to this event of the day were simple and brief, occupying about an hour.

Music by the orchestra was first. Then Rev. W. H. Milburn, chaplain of the United States Senate, offered a fervent prayer and Miss Jessie Couthou read a poem by W. A. Croffut, “The Prophecy.”

Music followed this as an introduction to an address by Director General Davis, in which he briefly reviewed the work done and tendered it to the president of the United States for the formal inauguration of the exposition.

President Cleveland’s reply was brief and to the point. At its conclusion, he leaned forward to the stand in front of him and pressed an electrical button, which started the great engine in Machinery Hall, and as he did so the events described in the foregoing took place.

While all this was going on, a chorus of many hundred voices sang the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

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The second Grover Cleveland Presidential Dollar Coin shows beside a view of the Opening Ceremony flyer of the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.

Grover Cleveland Presidential Dollar Coin