Later, after closing day, an autumn deepened over the corrupted prairie, as the ill-famed Hawk, miles aloft, invisibly rehearsed its Arctic repertoire of swift descent, merciless assault, rapture of souls—the abandoned structures of the Fair would come to house the jobless and hungry who had always been there, even at the height of the season of miracle just concluded.
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"closing day"
October 30th, 1893. Closing ceremonies were cancelled because the mayor went and got himself assassinated two days prior.
"corrupted prairie"
I suppose corrupted by mankind in the sense that it was no longer in its natural and innocent state with the advent of man (especially European man although I bet Native Americans did a fair bit of corrupting too! Just different kinds of corruption!). The idea of the prairie being corrupted alludes to the later metaphor of the hawk's victims as souls being raptured: leaving the corrupt earth for the divine heavens.
"ill-famed Hawk"
Probably Buteo lagopus, the Rough-legged Hawk, which lives in the Arctic (thus the "Arctic repertoire") but migrates down to regions across the central United States during winter.
"rapture of souls"
I already pointed out how this is a metaphor! Poor Prairie Dogs being shot up into heaven while their compatriots spin around blinking and thinking, "Where the fuck did Bob go?!"
"the abandoned structures of the Fair"
A good majority of buildings built for World Fairs is meant to be temporary although often various places are maintained so that they still stand. Like the Space Needle in Seattle (as well as various apartment buildings full of cracks in the surrounding areas that weren't meant to become permanent living spaces). The Palace of Fine Arts, now the Museum of Science and Industry (fits thematically!), still stands, having survived the fire of 1894 which destroyed most of the temporary buildings before anybody could fix them up to be less temporary. A few other buildings survived (as well as a ticket booth but probably not the one Lindsay and Miles used because that was definitely not a real ticket booth) by being disassembled and shipped to other places to be reassembled. One of these was the Pabst Pavilion which I mention because beer.
"house the jobless and hungry who had always been there"
But, knowing the way capitalists proud of the city they live in prepare for any large event which will attract tourists, they were probably rousted from the area constantly, beaten, driven out, or arrested. Also, they were probably mostly invisible to tourists not wanting to see the those things which claimed the exact opposite of what the World's Fair was meant to proclaim. Not everything was fucking white shining cities and roses for everybody. It was also these squatters who were blamed for the fire of 1894 which destroyed most of the buildings but I bet it was some fucking capitalist who made off with a good bit of insurance money!
