Early on the opening day of the Exposition, May 1, 1893, the Chief Magistrate of the nation sat beside Columbus's descendant, the Duke of Veragua. Patient multitudes were waiting for the gates of Jackson Park to swing. "It only remains for you, Mr. President," said the Director-General, concluding his address, "if in your opinion the Exposition here presented is commensurate in dignity with what the world should expect of our great country, to direct that it shall be opened to the public. When you touch this magic key the ponderous machinery will start in its revolutions and the activity of the Exposition will begin." After a brief response Mr. Cleveland laid his finger on the key. A tumult of applause mingled with the jubilant melody of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." Myriad wheels revolved, waters gushed and sparkled, bells pealed and artillery thundered, while flags and gonfalons fluttered forth. The Exposition formed a huge quadrilateral upon the westerly shore of Lake Michigan, from whose waters one passed by the North Inlet into the North Pond, or by the South Inlet into the South Pond. These united with the central Grand Basin in the peerless Court of Honor. The grounds and buildings were of surpassing magnitude and splendor. Interesting but simple features were the village of States, the Nations' tabernacles, lying almost under the guns of the facsimile battleship Illinois, and the pigmy caravels, Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, named and modelled after those that bore Columbus to the New World. These, like their originals, had fared from Spain across the Atlantic, and then had come by the St, Lawrence and the Lakes, without portage, to their moorings at Chicago. [Illustration: Large domed building.] Horticultural Building, with Illinois Building in the background. Near the centre of the ground stood the Government Building, with a ready-made look out of keeping with the other architecture. Critics declared it the only discordant note in the symphony, Looking from the Illinois Building across the North pond, one saw the Art Palace, of pure Ionic style, perfectly proportioned, restful to view, contesting with the Administration Building for the architectural laurels of the Fair. South of the Illinois Building rose the Woman's Building, and next Horticultural Hall, with dome high enough to shelter the tallest palms. The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, of magnificent proportions, did not tyrannize over its neighbors, though thrice the size of St. Peter's at Rome, and able easily to have sheltered the Vendome Column. It was severely classical, with a long perspective of arches, broken only at the corners and in the centre by portals fit to immortalize Alexander's triumphs.