Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.

July 10

The Tower of Flame

By Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909)

On July 10, 1893, the Cold Storage Building at the Columbian Exposition was burned.

HERE for the world to see men brought their fairest,

Whatever of beauty is in all the earth;

The priceless flower of art, the loveliest, rarest,

Here by our inland ocean came to glorious birth.

Yet on this day of doom a strange new splendor

Shed its celestial light on all men’s eyes:

Flower of the hero-soul,—consummate, tender,—

That from the tower of flame sprang to the eternal skies.