Chapter Nine
As they entered the hotel and crossed the marble floor, Karolina heard a voice at the far end of the lobby.
“Karolina, what are you doing here?” A well-dressed woman in a dark dress with a mink stole adorning her shoulders walked up to Karolina. She and her family were waiting for Sigel to discuss their situation with the front desk clerk.
“What a small world it is to be able to see someone from Baden, right here in New York City!” The woman spoke loudly with a slight German accent. She looked at Karolina and observed her traveling attire and holding a sleeping child in her arms. Stanislaus was unsuccessfully trying to stop his other child from running through the lobby.
Karolina looked at her in surprise and said “Anna?”, “My …show more content…
The wealthy citizens of New York living at that time could boast that their commercial buildings rivaled those of any of the European capitals. The growing young nation was exuberant and had turned its back on European royalty and instead embraced the new technologies and science discoveries being made almost every day in their young nation. The “Exposition of the Industry of all Nations” was a way for New York City to demonstrate this to the world. Karolina and her family were only interested in the exhibits being built on the exposition grounds not caring how any of the world’s leaders would look on this great city. At one exhibit, a man named Elisha Otis was building a demonstration of his new invention, the “elevator” and Stanislaus and Karolina peppered him with questions in their broken English as he worked.
A “Quadricycle” was also on display at the next exhibit and Stanislaus asked the exhibit owner if he could try it out and the man said, “Yes”. He rode it around the exposition grounds while his sons and their older cousin followed him laughing and shouting. The boys played for hours on the exhibits as their parents walked the exposition grounds marveling at the artistic and technical wonders of their new country while waiting for Franz Sigel to finish his
As they entered the hotel and crossed the marble floor, Karolina heard a voice at the far end of the lobby.
“Karolina, what are you doing here?” A well-dressed woman in a dark dress with a mink stole adorning her shoulders walked up to Karolina. She and her family were waiting for Sigel to discuss their situation with the front desk clerk.
“What a small world it is to be able to see someone from Baden, right here in New York City!” The woman spoke loudly with a slight German accent. She looked at Karolina and observed her traveling attire and holding a sleeping child in her arms. Stanislaus was unsuccessfully trying to stop his other child from running through the lobby.
Karolina looked at her in surprise and said “Anna?”, “My …show more content…
The wealthy citizens of New York living at that time could boast that their commercial buildings rivaled those of any of the European capitals. The growing young nation was exuberant and had turned its back on European royalty and instead embraced the new technologies and science discoveries being made almost every day in their young nation. The “Exposition of the Industry of all Nations” was a way for New York City to demonstrate this to the world. Karolina and her family were only interested in the exhibits being built on the exposition grounds not caring how any of the world’s leaders would look on this great city. At one exhibit, a man named Elisha Otis was building a demonstration of his new invention, the “elevator” and Stanislaus and Karolina peppered him with questions in their broken English as he worked.
A “Quadricycle” was also on display at the next exhibit and Stanislaus asked the exhibit owner if he could try it out and the man said, “Yes”. He rode it around the exposition grounds while his sons and their older cousin followed him laughing and shouting. The boys played for hours on the exhibits as their parents walked the exposition grounds marveling at the artistic and technical wonders of their new country while waiting for Franz Sigel to finish his