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Title: Chicago by day and night : The Pleasure Seeker's Guide to the Paris of America
Author: Anonymous
Language: English
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Transcriber’s Note: Italics are indicated with _underscores_, except in
the title of the book, where the underscores indicate underlining.
[Illustration: (cover)]
[Illustration: LILLIAN RUSSELL.]
CHICAGO
BY
DAY _AND_ NIGHT
THE
PLEASURE SEEKER’S GUIDE
TO THE
PARIS OF AMERICA.
300 PAGES.
69 ILLUSTRATIONS.
CHICAGO:
THOMSON AND ZIMMERMAN,
234 AND 236 LA SALLE ST.,
1892.
Copyrighted 1892,
BY THOMSON AND ZIMMERMAN.
[_All rights reserved._]
[Illustration: The Gist of it.]
PART I.
INTRODUCTORY.
CHAPTER I.--Where to Stay--A Concise Description of the Hotels of
Chicago, their Characteristics, their Prices, with some Account
of the People Who Patronize Each--The Great Palmer House Tragedy.
CHAPTER II.--The Theatres--A Complete Description of the City’s
Splendid Play Houses and the Attractions They Present--Beautiful
Belles of Burlesque.
CHAPTER III.--The Great Auditorium and the New German Theatre--Two
New Edifices of which all Chicagoans are Proud.
CHAPTER IV.--Two Unique Playhouses. Being the Madison Street Opera
House and Park Theatre, where the Shows are not Painfully
CHAPTER V.--Free and Easy Shows--Where Etiquette is not always
Strictly Observed. Being Music and Dance Halls, and Such Like
Free and Easy Resorts--“Papa” Engel’s “Variety” Palace.
CHAPTER VI.--Churches and Church Services. A Full Account of
Chicago’s Handsomest and Most Popular Churches, their Location
and their Pastors.
CHAPTER VII.--The Panoramas and Libby Prison--Places of Delightful
but Quiet Entertainment that the Stranger cannot Afford to Miss.
CHAPTER VIII.--Perils and Pitfalls--A Chapter that All Should Read,
inasmuch as it Tells of the Traps Set by the Wicked for the
Unwary.
CHAPTER IX.--As to Adventuresses--The Seductive but Conscienceless
Creatures whose Wiles Work Mischief with those who Do Not Play
the Prudent Part and Keep them at a Distance.
CHAPTER X.--The Tiger and its Haunts--Gambling Games Great and Small
wherein the Process of Parting the Fool and his Money is Carried
on with Facility and Dispatch.
CHAPTER XI.--Masquerades and Similar Entertainments wherein the Giddy
Find Delight. Fun and Revelry the Order of the Night.
CHAPTER XII.--On Shopping--A Few Pertinent Pointers for Purchasers.
CHAPTER XIII.--Caroussels--A Unique Form of Diversion that is
Patronized by Many.
CHAPTER XIV.--Turkish Baths--Massage--Manicures--The First the
Winebibber’s Salvation, the Second a Doubtful Luxury, the Third a
Charming Experience.
CHAPTER XV.--Hackmen and their Ways--A Few Hints as to the Proper Way
to Treat “Cabby”--His Legal Rates of Fare, etc.
CHAPTER XVI.--The City’s Moral Code--A Complete Refutation of the
Libelous Assertion that Chicago is the Wickedest City in the
World.
CHAPTER XVII.--The Parks and Boulevards--Which Perhaps Constitute the
City’s Grandest Feature.
CHAPTER XVIII.--Racing--The Three Great Race Tracks where One May See
Unrivaled Contests in Equine Speed--The Glories of Derby Day and
the Gay Cavalcade on the Avenues.
CHAPTER XIX.--Open Air Attractions. Which Bring the Pleasure
Seeker Entertainment and the Delights of Fresh Air at the Same
Time--Mighty Pyrotechnical Displays.
CHAPTER XX.--An Ideal Afternoon--The Prettiest Drive That Mortal May
Wish to Take, With Possibly Other Charms Thrown in.
CHAPTER XXI.--On the Water--The Aquatic Side of the Paris of
America--Trips of all Sorts on the Lake.
CHAPTER XXII.--The Restaurants of Chicago--Places Where the Best of
Provender is to be Had at Moderate Rates--The Fascinating Table
D’Hote.
CHAPTER XXIII.--The Haymarket Monument, with a Succinct Account of
One of the Most Thrilling Periods in Chicago’s History.
CHAPTER XXIV.--Cheyenne--A Unique Spot in the City’s Centre that it
is Safer to Read About than to Visit.
CHAPTER XXV.--Candies and Flowers--Some Beautiful Chicago Shops.
CHAPTER XXVI.--Summer Night Concerts--The Delights of Music Enjoyed
by the People During the Dog Days.
CHAPTER XXVII.--Special Features--The Elevated Railroads; the County
Jail; the Masonic Temple and Other Sights Worth Seeing.
CHAPTER XXVIII.--A Few Final Words--Mainly in an Advisory Strain.
PART II.
THE GREAT WORLD’S FAIR.--Being a Complete History of the Stupendous
Exposition that will be Thrown Open in 1893, when the Peopled
World Will be Called Upon to View the Progress of the Future
Metropolis--How the Exposition will be Opened in the Fall of the
Present Year--The Colossal Buildings and Their Contents--Hints
for the Wayfarer to Follow in His Strolls About the City During
Fair Time.
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Lillian Russell Frontispiece
A Group of Footlight Favorites 220
Popular Playhouses 40
A Summer Concert Garden 168
Masquerades Dream 118
Bird’s Bye View of the World’s Fair 260
Auditorium Proscenium Arch 200
Panoramas, Casino and Libby Prison 80
MINOR ILLUSTRATIONS.
I. The Compiler at Work 21
II. The Guest Registering 24
III. Driving About the Town 27
IV. Harvey’s “Wayside Inn” 30
V. At the Theatres 34
VI. At the Stage Entrance 38
VII. The Auditorium Tower 43
VIII. Astride of the Moon 49
IX. Two Unique Play Houses 51
X. At Free and Easy Shows 53
XI. Types at Engel’s 60
XII. Churches 69
XIII. Professor Swing in the Pulpit 75
XIV. John Brown’s Forge 79
XV. Perils and Pitfalls 81
XVI. Buying Banana Stalks 83
XVII. The Adventuress 87
XVIII. Catching On 92
XIX. The Tiger’s Implements 97
XX. A Minion of the Tiger 99
XXI. Victims of the Tiger 101
XXII. Satellites of the Tiger 104
XXIII. A Masquerade Sprite 114
XXIV. The Fair Shopper 120
XXV. On the Caroussel 123
XXVI. In the Turkish Bath 127
XXVII. The Pretty Manicure 129
XXVIII. The Guileless Hackman 134
XXIX. The Woman’s Temple 130
XXX. The Pretty Wheelwoman 144
XXXI. Looking at the Race 157
XXXII. The Huckster 162
XXXIII. The Circus Sprite 164
XXXIV. An Ideal Afternoon 166
XXXV. On the Water 183
XXXVI. Music Hath Charms 171
XXXVII. The Waiter 187
XXXVIII. A Petit Souper 191
XXXIX. An Anarchist 194
XL. The Haymarket Monument 198
XLI. A Cheyenne Fairy 201
XLII. Cheyenne Types 203
XLIII. Candies and Flowers 206
XLIV. Elevated Railroads 216
XLV. The Author Moralizes 223
WORLD’S FAIR PICTURES.
I. Administration Building 224
II. Figure from the Mining Building 234
III. Figure from the Liberal Arts Building 242
IV. Benjamin Franklin 247
V. A Dedicatory Scene 251
VI. A Chicago Hussar 257
VII. Group From the Woman’s Building 261
VIII. Group From the Woman’s Building 263
IX. Group From the Liberal Arts Building 265
X. Scene in the Chinese Tea Palace 266
XI. Scene in the Moorish Village 268
XII. An Opium Fiend 275
XIII. Finis--The Author at Rest 281
INTRODUCTORY.
[Illustration]
At a Time when the attention of the world is concentrated upon Chicago,
as it is at present, it is fitting that the stranger within its gates,
as well as the uninitiated native, should be made aware of the various
attractions, of all sorts and conditions, possessed by the future
metropolis of the United States. Chicago has been called the Paris of
America, that title having been bestowed upon it by some bright-minded
and discerning person who evidently knew whereof he spoke. That the
title is indisputable goes without saying. In no other city of its
size on the continent is the same variety of amusements to be found
as in this one. All tastes may be promptly satisfied, all preferences
catered to. If, when confronted by the marvelously variegated array
of recreations and pursuits that this great city has to offer, the
stranger or the periodical visitor should turn away dissatisfied,
imagining that he has failed to discover anything especially suited to
his fancy, his mental and physical organism must be sadly askew. It is
his fault and not Chicago’s.
From now on, and for the next year or so, this mighty city by the
lake will swarm with myriads of men and women of all races, tribes
and languages, being brought hither by the Great Exposition that is
destined to be the marvel of all nations. That some of this floating
mass will remain here is beyond question. In that case the population
will swell until the two million mark is passed, and in the proportion
that the population increases, so also will increase the attractions of
the city that harbors it.
It is the purpose of the present work to set forth, in a terse but
comprehensive manner, the various sorts of entertainment offered by the
Coming Metropolis. The Author, while sufficiently modest to keep his
identity a secret, makes bold to assert that no person who scans the
pages of this book will be able, after he has done so, to lay claim to
ignorance of the means whereby to procure entertainment or solace for
such hours of idleness as he may find on his hands during his stay in
this city. The present area of Chicago is a fraction over 180 square
miles. What its area will be next year, or ten years hence, nobody can
predict. For the present it is sufficient to know that within that
area of 180 square miles there dwells a community active, energetic,
mercurial--eager in business and therefore keen in its thirst for
recreation outside of business hours.
The present work is undertaken in no spirit of levity or
thoughtlessness. Its author is a man-of-the-world who, recognizing
the desire of the average man to be amused when the cares of business
are done, and being fully cognizant of the qualifications of this
city in the amusement line, aims to instruct the uninitiated wayfarer
in the paths he may follow with the most satisfaction to himself and
the greatest benefit to his system. If but one reader confesses his
indebtedness to this work for enlightenment in the smallest degree, its
purpose will have been achieved.
With renewed assurances, therefore, that the seeker after light upon a
great city’s manner of amusing itself will not seek in vain, the Author
makes his bow to the reader and tenders him an invitation to accompany
him through the following pages.
CHAPTER I.
WHERE TO STAY.
[Illustration]
The question of location must of course be decided by the individual
taste of the visitor. It would be strange indeed if, with a
transient population roughly estimated at 200,000, the city did not
possess hotels of all grades and descriptions, from which the most
captious-minded person might take his choice and procure satisfaction.
Chicago, at the present writing, contains at least 1,500 hotels, with
constant additions each year. There is no more difficult task than
to tell a man with any accuracy what hotel will suit him best. A
caravansary that would delight one man would disgust another and _vice
versa_. The most satisfactory plan, therefore, and the safest, is to
give a brief pen-sketch of the leading hotels, with some idea of the
special characteristics of each and the style of entertainment they
afford.
The Lake Front hotels--the Richelieu, Auditorium, and Leland--enjoy
the cream of the _new_ transient patronage. By “new,” is meant those
people who have never before visited Chicago, and who naturally select
the houses with the prettiest sites. The Auditorium (Michigan Avenue
and Congress Street), despite its gorgeousness and the flourish of
trumpets with which it was opened, does not indulge in ruinous rates.
It is a very large hotel and accommodations may be had therein from $4
per day up. Perhaps it is this moderate charge that makes it so great a
favorite with the theatrical profession, the more prosperous members of
which enjoy the comfort it affords. Well-to-do managers, famous stars,
and sometimes interrogatively opulent soubrettes and chorus girls seek
lodging at the Auditorium, and some very pretty romances are narrated
of flirtations more or less interesting which the “blooded” habitues
of this swell hotel “strike up” with the fair footlight favorites who
enjoy its hospitality. It is worth the price of a day’s board, or at
least a dinner, sometimes, to take a stroll in the corridors and catch
the fragments of delicious lays that are being caroled forth by the
song birds who are practicing their chosen art in the sanctity of their
various chambers. Especially is this the case during a season of grand
or light opera in the great theater adjoining the hotel, in which case
the latter is sure to be thronged with singers of both sexes, and of
all grades of artistic and professional prominence. There is a roomy
balcony over the entrance to the Auditorium which, on pleasant days,
is thronged with gaily dressed people of both sexes, who sit there and
enjoy the dual delight of drinking in the balmy air and watching the
cavalcade on the broad avenue below.
A block north of the Auditorium is the Richelieu, the famous hostelry
the destinies of which are presided over by the renowned “Cardinal”
Bemis. For people of means, to whom money is less of an object than
the engagement of luxuries, the Richelieu, they say, is the place par
excellence at which to stop. Some notable people have honored the
Richelieu with their presence, and one is just as liable to run plumb
against a real, live English Lord or Italian Marquis within its doors
as against a plain, everyday American citizen. Sara Bernhardt selects
the Richelieu when in the city; so does Mrs. Langtry when the confines
of her private car become too narrow for comfort. The Richelieu is
famous for the rare pictures that adorn its walls, some of which are
worth small fortunes, and also--whisper this with bated breath, Oh, ye
irreverent!--for its wine cellars, which are stocked with some of the
rarest and costliest vintages to be found on the entire continent. On
state occasions, when the Cardinal is entertaining some choice party of
notables, he is wont to disappear suddenly, absent himself for about
fifteen minutes and then reappear with a quaint-shaped bottle or two
in either hand covered with cobwebs. Those who sample the contents
of said bottles close their eyes, pat their stomachs softly as the
divine liquid glides down their throats, and then shed tears of joy and
gratitude to the Cardinal for having given them the happiest moment of
their lives. If you are a _connoisseur_ of wines and wish to test your
art in judgment thereof, cultivate the acquaintance of the Cardinal,
and perhaps he will go down into the cellar for you.
[Illustration]
Mr. Warren Leland, who recently sold the hotel of that name, always
said he had the prettiest house in Chicago, and there are some people
who agree with him. The Leland rates, on the American plan, are from $3
to $5 per day up; the European, $1.50 up. The Leland is known as the
“home hotel” of Chicago, and there is a tradition abroad to the effect
that people who once patronize it never go elsewhere.
“THE BLOODED DISTRICT”--Before proceeding to the consideration of
other prominent hotels, it may be interesting to inform the reader
that the district which we are about to leave, and of which the three
hostelries enumerated form the nucleus, has achieved some fame in the
annals of the town as “the blooded district”--so-called for the reason
that the “high-rolling” young men of the city have made it a sort
of headquarters or rendezvous, both before and after the hours when
sober-minded and steady-going folk are fast asleep. The Auditorium,
Richelieu, and Leland _Cafes_, together with Devine’s wine-room on
the other side of Jackson Street, and Colonel John Harvey’s “Wayside
Inn” in the alley, form a sort of circuit or beat, which these “rapid”
young men (i.e. the “bloods”) travel at all times, including such hours
as the sale of cheering beverages is forbidden by city ordinance.
Of these, Harvey’s is perhaps the most unique resort, though if one
cannot find his friends in one of the places named after midnight he
is tolerably certain to encounter them in one of the others. Colonel
Harvey is the father of the pert little soubrette, Hattie Harvey, of
whom the great _diva_, Patti, became so desperately enamored as to
invite her to her castle in Wales, and admirers of the young lady are
fond of dropping in to discuss her merits with her papa, the Colonel,
who, it goes without saying, is the most devoted of her admirers. If
you praise Hattie’s beauty to the Colonel he will mix for you, with his
own hands, one of his choicest drinks; if you swear on your honor that
she is destined to become the greatest actress of the century, he will
probably crack a bottle. The door of Harvey’s “Wayside Inn” is tightly
closed at midnight, but the initiated may gain ready admittance by
learning the pass-word of the night and roaring it, in tones more or
less musical, through the key-hole. You can always tell whether there
is any fun going on in Harvey’s by the galaxy of hackmen who stand in
line at the curb, waiting for the “boys” to emerge in the small hours
of the morning. But we may now leave the “blooded district” and take a
glance at other South side hotels.
The venerable Palmer House stands like a bulwark at the corner of
State and Monroe Streets, its vast expanse stretching away for half a
block. The Palmer enjoys a steady patronage from people who have been
“putting up” there for years. It has a large _clientele_ of the better
class of commercial travelers. The wits of the town crack jokes at the
expense of the Palmer on the score of the number of guests of Hebraic
extraction it shelters. Be that as it may, the Palmer welcomes all
who pay their bills and those who patronize it generally possess that
admirable qualification. The Palmer’s rates are $3 to $5 per day.
[Illustration]
There is a little room on the sixth floor of the Palmer which is an
environ of romantic interest, it having been the scene of one of the
most famous tragedies in Chicago’s history. In the summer of 1882, it
was occupied by Charles Stiles, the popular and high-living “caller” of
the Board of Trade. Early one morning a veiled woman, whose tasteful
but somber raiment revealed the outlines of an entrancing figure, took
the elevator to the sixth floor and knocked at the door of Stiles’
room. He came out scantily clad in response to the summons. There was
a flash, the ringing report of a revolver, and in another instant the
young man lay dead on the floor. The woman knelt down, kissed his
forehead and submitted to arrest without a murmur. She was an Italian,
Teresa Sturlata by name, and the mistress of Stiles. His previous
abuse of her, as testified to at the trial, so influenced the jury
in her behalf that she received but the nominal punishment of one
year in the penitentiary, though her great beauty doubtless had some
influence on the leniency of the sentence. Many men went daft over the
beautiful murderess. Some of the letters that she received while in
jail were published, and precious epistles they were, too. They all
contained protestations of affection, and several offers of marriage
were included among them. The woman went to the penitentiary and served
her sentence. When released she disappeared as completely as though
the earth had swallowed her. Her present whereabouts is unknown, but
the room made famous by the great tragedy is still pointed out to new
guests at the Palmer.
The Grand Pacific, on South Clark Street, kept by Landlord Drake, is
of the same class as the Palmer, enjoying a steady patronage all the
year round. The rates are $3 to $5 per day. The Tremont, kept by Mr.
Eden (Lake and Dearborn) and the Sherman, kept by Mr. Pierce (Clark and
Randolph), are of the same grade as the Palmer and Grand Pacific.
These comprise the list of first-class down-town hotels, though several
others are in progress of construction, with a view to caring for the
thousands of strangers who will visit the World’s Fair. Notable among
these is the Great Northern, which, under the supervision of Mr. Eden,
has just been pushed to completion. It is on Dearborn Street opposite
the post office, between Jackson and Quincy, being situated, therefore,
in the very heart of the business district.
The Victoria, the new hotel on the site of the building formerly
known as the Beaurivage, Michigan Avenue and Congress Street, is a
fashionable house, patronized by the best people. The same is true of
The Wellington, corner of Jackson Street and Wabash Avenue.
The smaller hotels are much too numerous to particularize. They are
scattered in all directions and their rates for rooms vary from fifty
cents upward per day. There is no street in the business part of the
city without two or three such hotels, and the traveler must be hard
to please who cannot suit himself at one or another among so many.
The residence part of the city, particularly on the North and South
sides, is thickly dotted with first-class family hotels, where persons
contemplating an extended stay may obtain quiet accommodation in the
exact ratio for which they care to pay. The two most magnificent family
hotels are the Virginia, 78 Rush Street, and the Metropole, Michigan
Avenue and Twenty-third Street. These two houses cannot be surpassed
for style and elegance and they are patronized exclusively by people of
means.
CHAPTER II.
THE THEATERS.
[Illustration]
The Wayfarer having received some hints as to the quarters in which he
may establish himself, one reaches the much more important question of
how he shall amuse or divert himself while here. Before coming to the
point of the more unique or unusual modes of diversion with which the
city abounds one’s first thoughts naturally turn to the theaters.
Chicago is famous as a theatrical center, and the very best attractions
are constantly to be found at one or another of the great play-houses.
Just at this stage, therefore, it is meet to utter a few remarks on the
leading theaters and the class of excellent entertainment they present
to their patrons.
THE CHICAGO OPERA HOUSE.--This theater, one of the youngest in
Chicago, is perhaps entitled to primary mention by reason of its
virtual monopoly, except at stated intervals of the cream of the
city’s theatrical business. It has a very large seating capacity;
was first opened about seven years ago with the tragedian, Thomas
Keene, as the attraction. The director of the Chicago Opera House, Mr.
David Henderson, has achieved a wide popularity, both in and out of
the profession, and is aided in his efforts by a corps of efficient
assistants, notable among who are Messrs. Thomas W. Prior and Max
Godenrath. While presenting to the public attention first-class
attractions all the year around, the Chicago Opera House has earned
the major part of its distinction by the superb extravaganzas it
has been producing annually. These extravaganzas usually commence
in May and run through the summer months, thus securing to the
house a steady patronage during the “dog-days.” It is beyond all
question that the first of these spectacles, the “Arabian Nights,”
established Mr. Henderson’s reputation as a purveyor of this class
of entertainment, (termed by the irreverent “leg shows.”) The second
production, the “Crystal Slipper,” enhanced this reputation, and those
succeeding--“Bluebeard Jr.” and “Sinbad”--kept it going. This year
(1892) the summer spectacle at The Chicago will be “Ali Baba, or the
Forty Thieves,” and if advance gossip is to be taken as evidence, it
will transcend in magnificence anything of its kind that has ever been
produced under Mr. Henderson’s supervision. The libretto of “Ali Baba”
is by Harry B. Smith, the distinguished wit and literateur, who has
performed a like service for the pieces before mentioned. The Chicago
Opera House is situated on the South side of Washington Street, between
Clark and La Salle Streets, and is invariably thronged throughout the
hot weather. Mr Henderson manages to group upon his stage as choice a
galaxy of feminine loveliness as is to be found in any climate, and the
costuming (or rather the lack of it) is doubtless as gratifying to the
performers as it is to the spectators, being constructed on the hot
weather plan; light and airy. It is no uncommon sight to see a party of
honest country folks appearing, gripsacks in hand at the doors of the
Chicago Opera House, having come straight from the train to the theater
to witness the show, the fame of which had penetrated to their homes in
the country; and which, after their return, they would rather die than
let their families and the church folks know they had seen.
MCVICKER’S THEATER.--It is situated on the south side of Madison
Street, between State and Dearborn, and is one of the oldest resorts of
its kind in the city, though the present structure is quite new, having
been reconstructed on the site of the old one, which was destroyed by
fire in the spring of 1891. The attractions at McVicker’s are usually
of the solid, legitimate order, though the gray-haired proprietor
occasionally is guilty of a lapse to a variety show. McVicker’s,
however, is the home of high-class drama and comedy, and the theater
itself is perhaps without a rival on the continent in the way of
magnificent decorations and comfortable furnishing. While Mr. McVicker
is opposed to Sunday performances, he occasionally permits them, which
enables the stranger, not infrequently, to encounter a first-class
Sunday night show within a few paces of his hotel.
THE GRAND OPERA HOUSE.--This admirable play-house is located on the
east side of Clark Street, just north of Washington. It is another
old-established theater enjoying a large patronage. The Grand is the
home of Hoyt’s farces, each of these fanciful productions having been
produced successfully at Mr. Hamlin’s temple. At the Grand, also appear
most of the German companies, though the latter will, it is to be
presumed, go to the new edifice, Schiller theater, Randolph Street,
near Dearborn.
HOOLEY’S THEATER.--Located conveniently on Randolph, between Clark and
La Salle Streets, is devoted to all sorts of attractions, and is one
of the handsomest theaters of its size in the country. The patrons of
Hooley’s may run the gamut from low comedy to grand opera; and Irish
comedy-drama often following immediately after one of the high-class
engagements, such as that of the Madison Square or Lyceum Theater
Companies.
[Illustration]
COLUMBIA THEATER.--In the very heart of the business district, on
the south side of Monroe, between Dearborn and Clark Streets. This
theater is one of the oldest in the city, and has passed through many
managements, being at present under the direction of the Hayman Bros,
and Mr. Will J. Davis, both of whom are gentlemen of the highest
standing in the profession and thoroughly competent to cater to the
desires of an amusement-loving public. The attractions presented at the
Columbia are of a wide range, the properties of the house being suited
to the production of grand or light opera more than anything else.
Some of the first artists in the world have appeared at the Columbia,
notably, Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, the latter having, on one
memorable night, formally christened the theater which, prior to that
time, was known as Haverley’s; Sara Bernhardt, Adelina Patti, Christine
Nielsson, and others almost equally famous. The seating capacity of
the Columbia is as large as that of any of the down-town theaters and
it possesses the advantage of large, comfortable seats, very liberally
spaced, that other managers might do well to emulate.
THE “PROVINCIAL” THEATERS.--The houses mentioned are known as the
“down-town” or high-priced theaters, the scale of prices ranging from
25 cents to $1.50 per seat. In addition to these, however, there are
a number of houses, some of which are equally large, scattered about
in the three sections of the city, which are known as the “second
class” or “provincial” theaters, where the price of admission ranges
from 15 cents to $1.00. Of these may be mentioned the following: South
Side--Alhambra, State and Archer Ave.; Madison Street Opera House, 83
Madison Street; Olympic, 46 South Clark Street; Havlin’s, Wabash and
19th Street; People’s, 339 State Street. North Side.--Clark Street
Theater, Clark and Kinzie Streets; Criterion, 374 Sedgwick Street;
Windsor, 459 North Clark Street. West Side.--Haymarket, 169 West
Madison Street; Lyceum, 58 South Desplaines Street; Standard, 167 South
Halsted Street; Halsted Street Theater, Halsted and West Congress
Streets.
The outside, or provincial theaters usually offer a more sensational
type of plays, specimens of the wild and woolly border drama being
usually presented for the edification of their mercurial patrons.
The Park Theater, 335 State Street, ought not to rank with the other
theaters, but is often patronized by travelers whose tastes lead them
to desire entertainment of the more democratic type. The accessories
of tobacco smoke and liquid refreshment, which are to be indulged
in at the Park, form an attraction that they find it impossible to
resist, nor is it difficult for a patron, whose pocketbook enables him
to indulge in such luxuries, to obtain an introduction through the
influence of the manager to the more or less fascinating “fairies,” who
go through their performances on the stage. Further mention of the Park
will be made later.
[Illustration:
THE COLUMBIA.
GRAND OPERA HOUSE.
HOOLEY’S THEATRE.
CHICAGO OPERA HOUSE.
MCVICKER’S.
THE AUDITORIUM.
THE SCHILLER THEATRE.
]
THE DIME MUSEUMS.--Chicago is probably more bountifully supplied
than any other city in the Dime Museum line. It is not necessary to
particularize as to the various houses of this character; they are
scattered in all quarters of the city, and in them is to be found
infinite material for entertainment and instruction at the modest
admission fee of 10 cents. The freaks of all climes are to be found
on exibition and most of the museums throw in a stage performance of
some kind more or less meritorious. A favorite plan of a party, large
or small, desirous of a little quiet fun, is to execute a “Dime Museum
Raid,” as it is called. They assemble at the hotel or other meeting
place, and start out on a tour of the various museums, visiting each in
turn, with, of course, the usual intermission for drinks. The amount
of fun to be obtained from such an excursion can easily be imagined.
Aside from the entertainment to be derived from viewing the freaks on
exibition, it is a very easy matter to discover food for mirth in the
freaks among the audience. There is a happy-go-lucky atmosphere in a
Dime Museum which is not found elsewhere, and the Dime Museum “raiders”
are in the habit of getting much more than their money’s worth; but
so long as their fun does not end in a fight, there need be no cause
for complaint. A thing that should be looked into is the attendance at
certain of these cheap shows of young girls whose tender youth leads
one to marvel why their parents do not manage to keep them at home,
or, failing that, to box their ears and send them to bed for their
contumacy. It is not the province of the writer, however, to purify
the morals of this great and growing town, so let those “kick” who
will.
THE CASINO.--This resort, formerly known as the Eden Musee, is a
unique place of amusement, situated on the west side of Wabash Avenue
just north of Jackson Street. Its leading feature is a magnificent
wax-work exhibit, which good judges say almost equals the famous resort
of Madame Tussaud in London. All the famous characters in history,
past and present, are reproduced in life-like manner. There is also a
“Chamber of Horrors,” which may be visited by those who desire to feel
their flesh creep. On the top floor is a roomy amphitheater, in which
a good stage show is always in progress, and the rear part of which is
filled with neat, round tables, where the patrons may indulge in light
refreshments of various sorts. The admission fee to the Casino is 50
cents, which entitles the visitor to all the privileges of the house
without extra charge.
CHAPTER III.
THE AUDITORIUM AND THE NEW GERMAN THEATER.
[Illustration]
Detailed mention of the magnificent opera house in the Auditorium
building has been reserved until now in order that it might take its
proper place in the description of the mighty edifice which is the
wonder and admiration of the United States, and a topic of comment to
some extent in Europe.
The project of the Auditorium, three sides of which face Wabash Avenue,
Congress Street and Michigan Avenue, is said to have emanated from
the brain of Mr. Ferd W. Peck, a capitalist, who, in a speech to the
Commercial Club, outlined the advantages that would be likely to accrue
to the city from the possession of such a building. As the Auditorium
is one of the sights of the city, it deserves a special description.
The Auditorium Hotel, mention of which has been made in a previous
chapter, fronts on Michigan Avenue and occupies the upper floor of
the building, the colossal outlines and massive architecture of
which, rivaling as they do the ancient Coliseum of Rome, strike the
beholder dumb with admiration. The stock company that constructed
the Auditorium was formed at Mr. Peck’s suggestion in the spring of
1886, and in January of the following year work was commenced upon it.
Less than eighteen months afterward the building had progressed to a
stage that made it possible to hold the National Convention of 1888
under the roof of the great theater. On that occasion 12,000 people
cheered the nomination of Harrison as the presidential candidate.
The formal dedication of the great structure took place December 9,
1889. The star of the occasion was Adelina Patti, the world-famous
singer, who, although she had dyed her hair a brilliant red, aroused
a cyclone of enthusiasm by her time-honored rendition of “Home, Sweet
Home.” Speeches were made by Benjamin Harrison, President of the
United States; by DeWitt C. Cregier, then Mayor of Chicago; by Ferd W.
Peck, President of the Auditorium Company, and others. It required an
expenditure of nearly $2,000,000 in hard cash to erect the Auditorium,
and the men who invested their money in the project are drawing a
fair interest on the amount of their wise venture. The building has a
frontage of 187 feet on Michigan Avenue, 361 feet on Congress Street,
and 161 feet on Wabash Avenue. The material used is mostly American
granite from Maine and Minnesota; the ornamentation being largely in
Mexican onyx. To the visitor who stands rapt in admiration at the sight
of this superb edifice, a few figures may not be uninteresting. The
main building is 144 feet in height; the tower on the Congress Street
side, 225 feet, with lateral dimensions of 40 x 71 feet. The building
weighs in its entirety 110,000 tons. There are 17,000,000 brick in the
building and 50,000,000 pieces of marble. The flooring is in Antique
Mosaic.
Now for the theater itself, which is, after all, the main interior
attraction of the Auditorium, the smaller halls and office suites
which are contained in the main structure possessing only a commercial
interest. The theater has a regular seating capacity of 4,000, though
when it is arranged for a convention or a ball it will hold three times
that number. The stage is ninety-eight feet in width and 6,862 square
feet in area. The great lobby with its massive pillars and porticos,
prepares the visitor for the sublime magnificence of the immense
audience chamber. The ceiling, which is decorated in white and gold,
glitters with a myriad of electric lamps and the spectacular effect,
when the house is filled with a fashionable audience, the long tiers
of boxes gleaming with the brilliant costumes and jewels of scores
of handsome women, surpasses description. It must be seen to be
appreciated. The Auditorium theater is equipped, among other things,
with an organ that is said to be the finest and most complete in the
world, possessing as it does, 7,193 pipes.
But without question the tower is a stupendous feature of the
Auditorium and is most popular with strangers; it may be said that no
stranger should leave the city without visiting it. Enter from the
Congress Street side and purchase a ticket at the box office, costing
twenty-five cents. The elevator carries you up at rapid speed to the
top. The final ascent is made by a small flight of iron stairs and
the tower is reached. The splendor of the view from this tower can
be imagined but not described. On a clear day the Michigan shore is
discernible far away over the blue water of the lake, while on the east
side, north and south the eye may penetrate to the furthest limits of
the city. To stand there and look down on the mazes of buildings and
the swarming thousands of your fellowmen produces a strange feeling of
awe and wonderment. The popularity of the tower with sight-seers may be
imagined from the fact that the attendance brings in an average of $120
per day to the company throughout the year.
Preparations are now in progress for the presentation at the Auditorium
during the World’s Fair year of a theatrical spectacle which shall
eclipse anything of the kind ever before seen in any country. The plans
are yet in embryo, but a rough outline has been drawn. The production,
which is to be historical in character, will be under the direction of
Managers Adams, Abbey and Grau. It will open in the spring of 1893, and
run through the World’s Fair season.
The New German Theater on Randolph Street, between Dearborn and
Clark, deserves special mention by reason of the fact that it will be
the youngest of all Chicago first-class theaters, and because great
promises have been made as to the magnificence of its furnishings and
equipment. The structure is fire-proof, nine stories in height with a
large square tower fifteen feet in height surmounted by a cupola. The
main building fronts eighty-four feet on Randolph Street with a depth
of 186½ feet. There will be a covered balcony in front from which
street parades may be advantageously viewed. The cornices, balustrades
and other parts of the building are decorated with rich carvings. The
construction is of steel columns and cross-beams, the outer walls being
in terra cotta. The main entrance leading to the theater is thirty-two
feet wide. All the floors and wainscoting are in polished marble. From
the entrance to the theater foyer will extend two vestibules, in the
inner one of which the box office is located. Four passenger elevators
furnish access to the hotel and club rooms of which the main portion
of the palatial structure will consist. Broad marble stairs lead from
the foyer to the main floor, balcony and gallery of the theater, the
Auditorium plan of seating the people having been decided upon. The
theater will seat 1,300 people. The stage has a superficial area of
3,200 square feet, with a proscenium arch twenty-nine feet wide and
thirty feet high.
Seven stories of the building are devoted to the hotel, which also
deserves a word of description. There are 131 guest chambers, 39 bath
rooms, a dining room 76 feet long by 49 wide, and other features. The
hotel will of course have a separate entrance. Club, billiard, card,
and other rooms occupy the tenth floor. The eleventh is devoted to a
fine ball-room, separate quarters being provided for the servants on
the floors above.
The total cost of this fine structure is estimated at $600,000,
inclusive of the price paid for the ground. The building is erected by
a company of which the following well-known citizens are directors:
A. C. Hesing, Theodore Arnold, Louis Wolff, Edward Eiblein, Franz
Amberg, Charles Wacker, C. P. Dose, Louis Wampold, J. A. Orb, Joseph
Scheurer, William Heineman, George E. Weiss, John M. Krause, C. Herman
Plautz, and Theodore Oehne.
It goes without saying that this will be an attractive place for
strangers to visit.
CHAPTER IV.
TWO UNIQUE PLAYHOUSES.
[Illustration]
The Madison Street Opera House and the Park Theater, which were
briefly mentioned in the preceding chapter, are two resorts that may
be regarded as occupying a unique position in the amusement roster.
The Madison Street Opera House gives two performances daily and its
manager, the veteran Colonel Sam T. Jack, is reputed to be coining
money. The size of the audiences that fill Col. Jack’s theater twice a
day is attributable, possibly, to the fact that the house is devoted
entirely to the presentation of burlesque. Companies of more or less
merit appear from week to week, and in order that they may secure a
“date,” it is necessary that they possess a number of shapely women
in the cast. An artist would probably call the costumes of the ladies
who appear at the Madison Street Opera House artistic. Certain it
is that if they were constructed on any other plan than that of the
present one they could not possibly convey a more liberal view of “the
female form divine.” Indeed, there was one engagement that included
the presentation of a series of classic tableaux, in which the
complete suits of skintights that the ladies wore, were if anything
more attractive than no costumes at all. No drinks are served in the
Madison Street Theater itself, but it is situated over a large saloon
which is easy of access by means of a staircase leading directly into
the parquet. It is needless to say, perhaps, that the nature of the
spectacular gems to be seen on the Madison Street Opera House stages
are strongly calculated to produce thirst--especially in a masculine
audience. Not very long ago the Chicago _Mail_ undertook to “roast”
the Madison Street Opera House, and to stigmatize its performances as
improper. Mr. Jack at once sued the paper for libel. If a jury should
have a notion to visit the theater it might materially assist in the
rendition of a verdict in accordance with the facts.
The Park Theater, situated on State Street, in the “Levee,” or
“Tenderloin” district, is even more democratic. Drinks are sold and
consumed during the stage performance, and smoking is allowed. This
is a favorite resort for “bloods” who, having come to town for fun,
propose to see all there is in it. A party of three or four who
purchase a box may, if they choose, enjoy the society of the actresses
who will visit them between acts and have a pleasant, social time. It
is within the bounds of decorum to invite the fair performers to drink,
and if an acquaintance so auspiciously begun should be carried to even
more agreeable lengths, why, who is going to complain so long as the
City authorities permit its open programme? Not the manager, surely. He
is there to see that his guests have a good time and will exercise all
his efforts to the procurement of that end.
[Illustration]
There are several wine-rooms upstairs, and in these one may enjoy a
_tete-a-tete_ and a bottle of champagne with his chosen charmer, if
his inclinations (and his pocketbook) will permit him to go to that
length. An amusing feature of the _regime_ at the Park is the system
whereby the actresses keep matters straight with “the house.” Under
the rules, each “lady” is allowed a percentage on the money received
for drinks that she causes to be purchased. She carries a memorandum
book and pencil, and jots down every cocktail or whiskey straight that
her admirer (for the moment) may purchase. After the “show,” when
the audience departs, she goes to the bar and tallies up with the
barkeeper. A balance is struck at the end of the week and the money
paid over. An idea of the informality of the performances at the Park
may be gathered from the fact that when James Owen O’Connor played
there awhile ago, a lot of boys went about in the theater selling stale
cats, cabbages and other garden produce to the audience--the same to
be used for the purpose of pelting the actor! Anyone who wishes to see
a “tough” audience and a “tough” show will find what he wants at the
Park, which seems to be entirely within the idea of police regulation,
nevertheless.
CHAPTER V.
FREE AND EASY SHOWS.
[Illustration]
Under this caption come the entertainments of a more or less unstilted
character; that is to say, entertainments that, while being in no wise
disreputable, are nevertheless arranged with a view of catering to the
tastes of people of both sexes who do not care to spend the evening
in the narrow confines and the matter-of-fact atmosphere of a regular
theatre. The modern music hall, or _cafe chantant_, of which there
are so many in Paris and London, has not yet been duplicated to any
great extent in this city. There are, however, a few places of the
kind, widely separated by distance, that resemble the “old country”
music hall in some respects. The old beer dens of noisome character
that formed a blot upon the city’s escutcheon in earlier days have
quite disappeared, and the few music halls that still flourish, besides
being of a much more pretentious character, have in their management a
much stronger claim to toleration. At any of these places an evening
may be spent without serious prejudice to one’s morals and without
contamination of any sort. If the jokes are a little “rocky” and the
antics of the actors and actresses just a shade off color when viewed
from the standpoint of strict propriety there is no reason why the
spectator should go home convulsed with a sense of the depravity
of the city that can suffer such things to be. The pleasure of the
entertainment at these places is enhanced to a greater or less extent,
according to the taste of the attendant, by the latter’s ability to
solace himself with such liquid refreshments as his system may crave
during the progress of the show. He may also smoke like a chimney if he
so desires.
The old Tivoli restaurant and concert hall on Dearborn street, just
below Madison, which was made famous by the assassination therein
of Jim Elliott, the prize fighter, by Jere Dunn (the slayer being
afterward acquitted on the ground of self-defense), has long since
passed into oblivion and on its site, the scene of so many wonderful
revelries, a fine office building now stands. When the Tivoli passed
away there was for a long time a dearth of music halls in Chicago. At
present, however, there are at least three resorts of the kind that may
be mentioned for the enlightenment of those who desire to investigate
this class of entertainment.
Over on the North Side, on the west side of Clark street, a few doors
north of Division street, there is an establishment which in some
respects is unique. It is reached either by the North side cable cars
or by hansom cab, the fare for the latter being fifty cents for each
person. This resort is known as Engel’s, and for several seasons past
it has been the favorite with the blooded youth of the North side as
well as of a large _clientele_ of chance visitors. It was formerly kept
by a man named Matthai and adjoining it was a smaller resort kept by a
Monsieur Andre. Andre is now dead and his place closed. On the site of
Mr. Matthai’s triumphs Mr. Engel now lives and flourishes.
Enter Engel’s at any time between eight and nine in the evening, after
having paid the modest admission fee of ten cents, and you will find
the large hall, with its imposing array of polished tables and rows
of seats, rather sparsely filled. The early part of the performance
consists of a series of musical numbers rendered by the orchestra,
the members of which now and then take a lay-off for drinks. By 10
o’clock, however, there is a perceptible increase in the attendance
and the white-aproned waiters are kept busy rushing to and fro
supplying the wants of thirsty customers. The visitor, meanwhile, has
been supplied with a printed programme which tells him what artists,
ladies or gentlemen, are to appear that evening, and the manner in
which they will endeavor to amuse the auditors. The curtain rises and
a pert soubrette with a very gaudy complexion and abbreviated skirts
trips to the foot-lights and sings a song of true love or something
else equally interesting. She may awaken a hurricane of applause and
then again she may not. The stars of the troupe are usually reserved
for the latter part of the programme. Meanwhile more drinks are
ordered by everybody and by 11 o’clock a general spirit of hilarity
prevails, which is testified to by the added enthusiasm with which
the advancing and retiring favorites are greeted. The last hour of
the entertainment, between 11 and 12 o’clock, is usually devoted to a
more ambitious effort of some kind. It may be an opera in one act, a
burlesque of the current follies of the day, or anything else that will
give an opportunity for the singing of “catchy” songs, the execution
of intricate dances and, above and beyond all, the lavish display of
feminine charms. It is a pleasant custom of the place for young men of
means, possessed of more money than sense, to purchase bouquets, which
are carried up and down the aisles on trays by attractive flower girls,
and cast the same upon the stage at their especial favorites. When a
more than usually attractive damsel sings an unusually taking song the
boards upon which she treads are often fairly deluged with flowers,
and the degree of grace with which she stoops to pick them up enhances
in just that ratio the warmth of the plaudits which she receives. It
is perhaps unnecessary to say that during this latter part of the show
the added attractions of the spectacle presented, together with the
concentrated enthusiasm of the performers, all grouped on the stage at
once, increases the general demand for refreshments. The waiters are
fairly scurrying hither and thither and the consumption of stimulating
beverages is something enormous. During all this “Papa” Engel, as he is
affectionately termed by his _coterie_ of more youthful patrons, looks
on with a bland and satisfied smile, noting with evident enjoyment
the merry spirits of his guests and the rapidity with which they are
enriching his coffers.
The ground floor of Engel’s is exclusively devoted to the sterner
sex. No ladies are allowed on that floor; up above, however, a roomy
balcony runs around the hall and lady patrons of all ages and grades
of attractiveness sit at the tables with their escorts and enjoy the
entertainment with the rest. No gentleman is allowed in the balcony
unaccompanied by a lady and no lady can enter it unescorted. The
popping of corks and the sparkle of champagne are perpetual adjuncts
to this part of the house and the balcony itself, it is safe to say,
forms no inconsiderable part of Mr. Engel’s gold mine. Nobody who does
not wish to buy anything, however, is ever requested to do so, the
ten cents admission fee entitling the visitor to every privilege of
the house. Occasionally, it is true, a bit of disorder may break out,
caused by some indiscreet visitor imbibing not wisely but too well, but
it is very speedily squelched and there is no case on record where a
person guilty of causing disorder in Engel’s ever repeated the offense.
Another feature of Engel’s, and many people find it an agreeable one,
is the stage boxes. These boxes are located above the stage and behind
the curtain, being arranged in such a way that persons seated therein
may view all that is going forward on the stage itself and still remain
invisible to the audience. With prominent citizens, or other people
who like to keep their attendance at the music hall a secret, this is
an advantage not to be denied. Occupants of stage boxes, far from being
denied the privileges of quenching their thirst, are granted every
facility for so doing. There is a neat table in the rear of the box
and an obsequious waiter stands steadily at the door ready to minister
to the wants of patrons. It is quite permissible, if the occupant of
a stage box desires, to send the waiter around behind the scenes to
inquire whether this or that fair actress will not deign to imbibe
something at your expense, an attention which she duly acknowledges by
stepping daintily up beneath the box and, as she quaffs the soothing
beverage, nodding her thanks to the donor. A spirit of good nature
prevails throughout the entire performance and when it is all over
nobody has been hurt very much by his contact with this strange element
of life in a great city.
[Illustration]
There is another feature of Engel’s which merits a word or two of
mention. Promptly at 12 o’clock, in obedience to the mandate of the
city fathers, the front doors of the place are closed as tight as a
drum. Adjoining the bar, however, is a commodious _cafe_ where parties
of friends, from two to ten in number, may sit down and enjoy any
sort of a repast that their appetites may crave, with all the liquid
accessories thrown in. You, young man, who may have become interested
in an especially charming member of Mr. Engel’s _corps de ballet_,
may, if you stay in this _cafe_ long enough, possibly be rewarded by
a sight of your charmer for a moment, emerging from behind the scenes
in her street clothes after the performance. You are tolerably safe
from giving her offense if you offer her refreshment at your expense,
though if it happens that she is accompanied by a stalwart cavalier who
appears to exert a proprietory influence over her, it is just as well
to reserve your attention for some more appropriate season. Some of
Mr. Engel’s coryphees take supper regularly every night in his _cafe_,
the costs of such meals presumably being charged against their salary,
unless some outside devotee at their various shrines should feel an
inclination to pay the bills. Mr. Engel himself, animated by we know
not what generous impulse, has been known to sit at the head of a long
table, around which were grouped a dozen or so of the lady members of
his troupe, and cheerfully invite them to eat or drink their fill at
his expense. Some wag, who noticed this spectacle on one occasion,
made an observation to the effect that Mr. Engel seemed to be having a
good time with his harem, and for that reason, possibly, it has been
customary among the flippant and irreverent young men who frequent the
place to jocosely refer to it over their wine as “Engel’s harem.”
All in all, it is not such a bad sort of place to visit, especially if
the visitor is desirous of seeing something a little unusual in a place
where he will not be bothered by a demand for a too strict observance
of the proprieties. In any event it is a good place to go if you happen
to be in that part of the town after midnight and are possessed of
a thirst of the sort that only some of the choice alcoholic liquids
dispensed by Mr. Engel and his aids can quench.
On the South side are two well-patronized resorts that, while
resembling Engel’s in some respects, differ from it in others. Baum’s
Pavilion, situated at the point where 22d street and Cottage Grove and
Indiana avenues merge together in a sort of triangle, has been famous
for many years as a concert hall, _cafe_ and dance house. It is a
large structure of two stories and adjoining the building is an open
air expanse or beer garden, dotted with trees, which is always crowded
on summer nights. The pavilion is reached from three sides; the main
door faces north and entrance can be had either through the beer garden
on Cottage Grove avenue or through the restaurant on Indiana avenue.
The style of entertainment presented at Baum’s varies from week to
week. Sometimes it is a first-class variety show, at other times Mr.
Baum grows more ambitious and puts on a full-fledged comic opera troupe
as an additional divertisement. The admission fee is 25 cents and the
visitor may select his seat according to his fancy. If it is the summer
season (that is when Baum’s pavilion is best patronized) the open air
garden is only separated from the hall where the opera is in progress
by open arches, and one may sit at his table and smoke and drink with
nothing but the blue vault of heaven for a roof and at the same time
have wafted to his ears the exhilarating music from the stage within.
While the stage show is, of course, the principal feature of Baum’s
and the one from which the establishment draws its steady patronage,
the dances that are given there usually every Saturday and Sunday
night, at the nominal admission fee of fifty cents per couple, are
always numerously attended. In the winter season, when the garden is
too frosty to be agreeable and is closed up in consequence, the dances
are held in the hall above the saloon; but in the radiant summer, when
dancing is at best a fatiguing pleasure, they take place on the ground
floor. Between the dances the revelers may adjoin to the open air and
partake of whatever refreshments their hearts and souls most desire.
It is a “free and easy” spot but, as in all other places of the kind,
the best of order is always maintained, the least semblance of unruly
conduct being sternly checked by the management. Any one who violates a
second time the system of etiquette that governs the place is promptly
pitched into the street and never again admitted to the hallowed
precincts unless he manages to conceal his identity.
The crowd that attend the summer night dances afford excellent
opportunity for study; all classes of men and women are represented
there. The well-to-do club man who stays at a distance and sips his
lemonade in peace and quiet is content to find his share of amusement
in watching the antics of the throng; the hard-working and respectable
mechanic, who works his best at his trade for six days in the week, is
evidently enjoying the bit of recreation that is yielded to him there.
Scattered in the crowd are salesmen, barbers, bookmakers, bakers,
butchers and almost every other type of the young manhood of the day.
Perhaps there may be a few confidence men, bunco steerers, and types of
even more dangerous classes, but they are not to be feared. They are
there for recreation, not for business; for they know very well that
if they made the slightest effort to ply their calling in that place
they would be promptly spotted and handed over to the authorities. As
to the feminine portion of the assemblage, one is at a loss to convey
an adequate idea of it in an off-hand description; it varies with the
seasons and the weather. As a general thing, however, you will see
there from fifty to two hundred girls and women, some of them the wives
and sisters of the mechanics and tradesmen above mentioned, who, like
their male relatives, are out for a good time, but the majority are
young girls of quite independent standing--servant girls, saleswomen
and others, many of them strangers in the city, perhaps, possessed of
no sterner guardians than their own consciences, and are pleased to
select whatever means may suit them best to pass their spare time.
They see no reason why they should not spend at least one evening in
a little uproarious festivity. When the dance is at its height and
the enthusiasm of the dancers roused to its highest pitch the visitor
invariably receives the worth of his money. It does him good to see so
many people enjoying themselves, and there is very little doubt that
if he is of fairly presentable appearance and sufficiently discreet to
work the matter rightly he may without much difficulty obtain a partner
for him self and join in the general _melee_ of ecstatic enjoyment.
As a general thing the festivity winds up about midnight, but if a
few select parties desire to remain a little longer no very serious
objection is likely to be made. A very agreeable evening may be passed
in this place and the fact that the pavilion has remained where it
now stands for more years than one cares to count without any serious
protest from the aristocratic residents of this neighborhood, speaks
well for the order with which it is conducted.
On the east side of 31st street, between Rhodes and Vernon avenues,
there is a much more pretentious concert and dance hall than either of
those previously mentioned. It, also, is the enterprise of the same
Mr. Baum who runs the 22nd street place. It is a much more imposing
structure, having a stone front and a wide entrance brilliantly lighted
by electricity. An admission fee of ten cents is charged and the
great hall at the rear, in which the stage performance takes place,
will accommodate nearly one thousand people. Much the same class of
entertainments as those to be witnessed at Engel’s are presented
here, with the difference, however, that there are no stage boxes,
no balcony for ladies and no means, so far as one may ascertain, of
making acquaintances among the performers. Occasionally some singers of
higher merit procure engagements at this place and the quality of the
music that they contribute to the entertainment is not improved upon
in many of the down-town theatres. Half of the hall, the east side, is
reserved for ladies escorted by gentlemen; the other half is for the
exclusive use of the male patrons. Refreshments of all sorts are served
all through the evening at the polished round tables, thus enabling the
visitor to satisfy his hunger, as well as his thirst, with any sort of
a meal during the progress of the performance.
On the second floor is a ball-room of imposing dimensions and
magnificent furnishings. On off nights it is rented out to various
societies for their dances, but on very frequent occasions the
proprietor advertises a ball that is invariably attended by the youth
and beauty of the middle classes residing in the neighborhood. As is
the case at all places where liquor is indiscriminately dispensed, a
pleasant feeling of informality, not to say hilarity, prevails; the
chance visitor, who may nearly always procure admission for himself and
his fair companion, if he has one, by the payment of the stipulated
fee, may be certain of passing a pleasant time.
There is a place on the West side, near the Ashland club, 575
Washington boulevard, which is for that reason known as the Ashland
Club Annex. There is no especial reason for mentioning it save that the
weary wayfarer, if he happens to learn the pass-word for the night,
may enter at almost any hour and secure hilarious enjoyment. The place
nearly always contains a rollicking crowd of young men who are up to
any and every sort of mischief, and manage by their antics to create
unlimited amusement for any strangers who choose to happen in. As a
rule the “pass-word,” if it may be so called, consists in a series of
variegated taps on the window with the end of a lead pencil, their
number and regularity signifying to those inside whether the applicant
is to be trusted or not. This precaution is considered necessary on
account of the fondness of the West side policemen for descending upon
such places entirely without notice and carting off all the inmates
to the station on a wholesale charge of disorderly conduct, which
disorderly conduct consists in their frequenting such a place after
lawful hours. It has been a long time, however, since such a raid was
made.
The Lyceum theatre, while perhaps not deserving of the title of a free
and easy resort, is, nevertheless, a place where variety shows of a
broad description are to be seen at any time. The Olympic, on South
Clark street, opposite the Sherman House, is another resort of the same
calibre. There is an afternoon show at the Olympic every day in the
week, and as a rule it attracts good audiences. The rates of admission
at both of these places are very low, and, considering that fact, the
entertainments offered are in every way satisfactory.
CHAPTER VI.
CHURCHES AND CHURCH SERVICES.
[Illustration]
With a large portion of the people who remain in Chicago over Sunday
the desire to attend some sort of divine service, as well as to see
some of the principal edifices devoted to religion, is the first
thought on awakening. The finest churches are located at a distance
from the business centre. Before the fire there were a number of
churches in the heart of the down-town district, but when they were
once destroyed they were never rebuilt and it is along the residence
streets that the handsomest structures may be seen. The transient
population is cared for, however, by clergymen who hold services in
certain of the theatres Sunday mornings--of whose work more anon.
The churches of Chicago represent every Christian denomination, there
being nearly 500 places of worship the total Sabbath attendance at
which is estimated at 120,000. Among these are many splendid specimens
of architecture, but the two great Catholic edifices, the Church of
the Holy Family, corner of May and West Twelfth streets, and the
Holy Name cathedral, corner of North State and Superior streets--are
the most imposing from an architectural standpoint. Other noteworthy
churches are the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, Grace and Trinity
(Episcopal), Immanuel (Baptist), Second Presbyterian, Plymouth and
New England (Congregational), St. Paul’s (Universalist), Centenary
(Methodist), Unity and the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian).
There are some very eloquent preachers in Chicago and a visitor who
does not attend a church solely for the purpose of getting inside of it
and seeking forgiveness for his sins may enjoy a very profitable hour
in listening to an admirable sermon in any quarter of the city he may
choose to select. There are several clergymen in Chicago who receive
$6,000 to $8,000 per year, and at least three whose salaries, it is
said, are $10,000.
The principal churches of the West side are located for the most part
along Washington and Ashland boulevards, and there is a cluster of them
in the vicinity of Jefferson and Union parks--small breathing-places a
couple of miles from the business centre. The church district of the
North side is between Clark and Dearborn streets and north of Ontario.
On the South side the principal religious edifices are east of State
street and south of Twenty-second, the buildings growing finer, as a
rule, the further south one goes. There are several very fine churches
in the recently-annexed suburb of Hyde Park if one cares to travel that
distance.
It is a peaceful feeling, if nothing else, to find oneself within
sacred walls on a bright Sabbath morning, and if it is merely for
sight-seeing that you find yourself there--which it is to be hoped is
not the case--you will not be disappointed. If there are ladies in
your party they will be on the lookout, as ladies always are, for fine
clothes worn by other ladies, and if so, why it is very certain they
will not be disappointed. Some of the South side congregations are very
wealthy. In some of them a dozen of the male worshipers could raise
between them enough ready money to buy up several adjacent blocks--say
a million dollars apiece--which, considering that, according to Holy
Writ, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to be saved,” or words to that effect, makes the
spiritual outlook for these wealthy gentlemen a poor one. However, it
is always interesting to watch how rich men behave themselves in church
and one of the ushers will not be likely to refuse to point out to you
a devout millionaire or two if you ask him to do so.
Speaking of high salaried preachers (though the highest-salaried are
not always the most popular) suggests the mention of a few of the
most celebrated divines of the city: Rev. S. J. McPherson, pastor of
the Second Presbyterian church, Michigan avenue and Twentieth street,
always preaches to a full church. Dr. McPherson is not a poor man
himself, having been bequeathed a little fortune by the late John
Crerar. Then, too, he has a large income for wedding fees, for he has
such a charming manner in performing the ceremony that he is in great
request with prospective brides. Dr. Gunsaulus, pastor of Plymouth
Congregational church, is also very popular. For a time he conducted
Sunday evening services at Central Music Hall, State and Randolph
streets, but abandoned that field to the Rev. Flavius J. Brobst, who
in turn retired. The famous Jewish pastor of the city is Rabbi Emil
G. Hirsch, of Sinai congregation, Indiana avenue and Twenty-first
street, who is also a writer of some renown. Many Christians attend
this church for the sake of the Rabbi’s eloquent sermons, which are
liberal and large-hearted enough to suit all denominations. A preacher
of the good old, stern, denunciatory stripe is Dr. Poindexter S.
Henson, of the First Baptist church, corner of South Park avenue and
Thirty-first street. Dr. Henson’s sermons are pitched very frequently
in a topical key. He would just as soon discuss politics as the Bible
from his pulpit, and whenever the city administration stands in need of
a little “roasting” the Rev. Poindexter is tolerably certain to supply
the need. By reason of these sermons the Rev. Poindexter succeeds in
getting himself into the newspapers about as often as any divine in
town, and it is quite safe to say that the stranger who selects his
church as the one to visit will not regret the selection. For those who
admire a high church service the Episcopal cathedral, at the corner
of Washington boulevard and Peoria street, will be found to answer
all requirements; the Right Reverend Bishop McLaren is the pastor.
Dr. Clinton Locke presides over Grace Episcopal church, 1445 Wabash
avenue, with dignity and grace, and Bishop Cheney fills the pulpit of
Christ’s Episcopal church, Michigan avenue and Twenty-fourth street.
The Rev. J. P. Brushingham, a clergyman whose record was once marked
by a particularly stormy series of events, draws good congregations to
the Ada Street Methodist church. Dr. William Fawcett, another eloquent
Methodist divine, preaches at Park Avenue church, on Park avenue, at
the intersection of Robey street. Rev. Frank Bristol, pastor of Trinity
Methodist church, Indiana avenue and Twenty-fourth street, is noted
for his great store of learning as well as his flood of eloquence, and
so is Dr. N. T. Meloy, pastor of the First United Presbyterian church,
Monroe and Paulina streets. Rev. M. Woolsey Stryker holds forth at
the Fourth Presbyterian church, corner Rush and Superior streets, and
the very aristocratic congregation of St. James’, corner of Cass and
Superior streets, is presided over by Dr. Tompkins.
[Illustration]
The clergymen above mentioned are among the most famous in the city,
but there are many others almost equally prominent. The wayfarer,
however, will be interested in learning of the popularity of the
services at “Central” church and the People’s church, conducted at
Central Music Hall and McVicker’s theatre respectively by Prof. David
Swing and Dr. H. W. Thomas. Both these gentlemen possessed large
followings when their congregations were formed. Prof. Swing is one
of the leading personalities of the religious life of the city. He
is a man of exceedingly plain exterior but his sermons are sound and
forcible. It would be difficult to analyze his creed or that of the
people who go to hear him. Central Music Hall is filled every Sunday
morning with a large gathering of well-to-do people whose religious
ideas could not, perhaps, be very accurately defined, but who would
not go anywhere else under any inducement. There is also a large
sprinkling of outsiders. The manner in which Prof. Swing’s followers
appreciate his ministrations in their behalf is evidenced by their
paying him a salary ample enough to enable him to build a palatial
summer home at Lake Geneva, a near-by hot weather resort whose grassy
banks are lined with the villas of Chicago millionaires. Dr. Thomas is
a little more orthodox in his tenets, perhaps, but his services are no
less popular than Prof. Swing’s. At both of these temples of worship,
operated, as they are, in places devoted throughout the week to public
amusement, chance visitors are made heartily welcome and many strangers
who would not inconvenience themselves to ride out to one of the
orthodox churches take advantage of the nearness of these two to their
hotels and drop in on Sunday morning for an hour or so of spiritual
enlightenment.
CHAPTER VII.
PANORAMAS AND LIBBY PRISON.
[Illustration]
The panoramas of Chicago have become justly celebrated. They are
patterned after the famous panoramas of Europe, being contained in huge
circular buildings. There are at present three panoramas--the Battle of
Gettysburg and the Falls of Niagara, on Panorama Place, a mile south
of Madison street on Wabash avenue, and Chicago on Fire--the latter
being a splendid representation of Chicago as it looked at the time
of the awful conflagration that drew the eyes of the civilized world
upon the suffering city. The Battle of Gettysburg is the oldest of the
three. The portrayal of the greatest battle of the war of the rebellion
is realistic beyond description. It is impossible for the spectator
to detect where the canvas blends with the natural presentation
beneath the feet. Hundreds of thousands of people have visited this
attraction. The Wabash avenue cable cars take the visitor direct
to “Gettysburg” and to “Niagara,” which is just across the street.
“Niagara” is a faithful delineation of the world-famous falls, the
portrayal being so realistic that the spectator, in fancy, can almost
hear the roar of the water.
The panorama depicting the fire is shown in the building formerly
consecrated to the Battle of Shiloh, on Michigan avenue, near Madison
street. Here the visitor may stand for an hour lost in wonder at the
realism of the scene so artfully drawn on canvas. The panic of a great
city in the throes of a hopeless battle with the destroying element
is admirably pictured, and from a view of that speaking and truthful
canvas one may gain a slight idea of the bitter agony of those hours
when the proud city was laid low in the face of as horrible a calamity
as ever befell a community. The panoramas have a uniform admission fee
of fifty cents.
[Illustration]
The Libby Prison War Museum, located on Wabash avenue, between
Fourteenth and Sixteenth streets, belongs to the same class as the
panoramas in the amusement category, inasmuch as the visitor may
enter and wander around for half a day or so if he chooses, taking
his own time to view the attractions offered. Libby Prison is one
of the leading permanent attractions of the city. On the outside,
fronting on Wabash avenue, is a massive stone wall, and on the inside
is the identical Libby Prison in which the soldiers of the north were
incarcerated during the war. The building was purchased in Richmond
by Chicago capitalists, and has been put up, brick for brick, exactly
as it stood during the time when the nation was convulsed by the
horrors of civil war. Within its walls will be found portraits of all
the leading soldiers and statesmen, northern and southern, of that
period; all kinds of firearms and ammunition, ancient and modern; a
fine collection of historical documents, including the will made by
John Brown an hour before his execution, and many other war relics. It
may be easily imagined how deep an interest this place possesses for
old soldiers, union or confederate. Old comrades, separated since the
close of hostilities, often meet there, and many are the reminiscences
exchanged. The Libby Prison is open day and evening. The admission fee
is fifty cents, children half-price.
Not far from Libby Prison, on Wabash avenue, is another structure that
possesses a strong historical interest. This is the fort of John Brown,
transported entire to this city and enclosed in a neat iron building.
Enterprise has no compunction in these days, and it is hard to tell
what the visitor to Chicago will not see if he waits long enough.
[Illustration: PANORAMAS, CASINO AND LIBBY PRISON.]
CHAPTER VIII.
PERILS AND PITFALLS.
[Illustration]
It is not insulting the intelligence of the stranger to warn him
against the unscrupulous persons who will beset his path, for they are
so numerous and make their appearance at such unexpected times and
places that the very smartest of us all are occasionally in danger of
being victimized. There are probably more “crooked” people in Chicago
at the present writing than any other city in the Union, and it is
altogether probable that this number will be largely increased during
the progress of the Fair.
The criminal classes who infest Chicago at all times are extremely
varied. The common tough, whose exterior and manner of comporting
himself proclaim his worthlessness, is not very much to be feared. Such
gentry will be well cared for by the police during the great rush to
the Fair. Indeed, it is quite probable that all suspicious or known
disreputable characters will be spotted at once and given a chance to
leave the city, a failure to avail themselves of which, will result in
their imprisonment until the Fair is over. But there are other gentry
who are infinitely more dangerous. The term “bunco-steerer” perhaps
best signifies their calling. The term bunco-steerer originally meant a
decoy, or “capper,” who led or “steered” the confiding stranger against
a bunco “lay-out.” Lately, however, its meaning has broadened. By
“bunco-steerer” is now meant the oily, genial gentleman who approaches
you on the street corners and politely inquires after your health,
supplementing this query with another as to whether you would not like
a chance to get into any sort of game whatsoever. The bunco-steerer
will turn his wits to almost any scheme to make money at the expense
of his more honest fellow-creatures. He belongs to the great army of
confidence men who prey upon mankind in general and upon gullible
strangers in large cities in particular.
[Illustration]
The confidence man! Ah, beware of him if you value your peace. He may
make his appearance at any moment and in any guise. The very suave
and polished gentleman who sits opposite to you at the table in the
dining-car and chats so delightfully with you as you ride into the
city together may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, with designs on your
purse. The very clumsy confidence man who walks up and slaps you on
the back with a cordial “How de do, Jones, how are all the folks?” and
immediately tries to scrape up an acquaintance, is not to be dreaded
except by very green people who have never been in a big city before.
It is the polished villain, the polite, well-dressed person who,
while preserving a dignified demeanor, nevertheless tries to scrape
up an acquaintance and then proceeds to divulge--as he will sooner or
later--a chance by which a little easy money can be made, who is to
be feared. A very good rule to go by is to preserve a polite manner to
all strangers, but not to enter into confidential relations with any
man who hasn’t been introduced to you by some one whom you thoroughly
know. The pleasures of a chance acquaintance may be great but they are
accompanied by dangers to your purse. If you go into a quiet little
game of cards at a hotel it is a “cinch” that you will lose your money,
because the men who invite you into it are cheats and will not give
you a fair show. They are confederates and the money they show cuts
no figure, because they have entered into a combination to fleece the
stranger.
The rhapsodical gentleman who rushes up to you and proceeds to tell
you glibly of all the people who live in your town has spotted you for
a victim. Look out for him. It is easy to account for the knowledge
he displays. Such people make a habit of hanging about the hotel and
studying the history of every guest. That is how this sleek gentleman
succeeded in ascertaining so much about you, my friend. The hotel
people watch very closely for such gentry and when one of them is
caught he is never given an opportunity to repeat his offense.
There are two bits of advice which if followed closely will probably
save the unwary stranger from all harm. In the first place never
enter a place you would be ashamed to have your family at home know
you entered; and in the second place never sign any papers or lend any
money or valuables at the request of strangers.
Among the devices for snaring the wayfarer’s honest dollar is the
“snap” auction sale. Passing along a leading thoroughfare one
encounters a big shop flanked on the outside by two well dressed young
men who are doing all they can to attract custom. Inside, a red-faced
auctioneer is expatiating on the magnificence of the plate and jewelry
he is offering for sale. Don’t be deceived by the plate and jewelry. It
would probably be expensive at $5 a ton. Nevertheless, the auctioneer
is eloquent. It is possible, too, that he may exhibit for a moment a
really valuable watch or ring, only to deftly conceal it and substitute
a worthless one for it as soon as somebody shall have made a bid.
Scattered about among the spectators are numerous “cappers” who,
whenever an article is put up, bid a few dollars against each other.
As soon as a stranger makes a bid of any sort the article is promptly
knocked down to him and handed over. When he gets away he discovers too
late that he has been duped.
One has not space at command to cite all the methods by which the
unwary are fleeced out of their wealth. Besides, new and treacherous
schemes are constantly being invented. It is impossible to tell what
plot the genius of the confidence man will strike next. These shrewd
geniuses have even gone so far as the selling of banana stalks to
farmers for seed. It must not be supposed by this that all Chicagoans
are dishonest, although many foolish people who contrive to get fleeced
generally go home uttering loud cries at the greed and dishonesty of
the big city by the lake. But as long as there are geese to be plucked
there will be rascals looking out for the chance to do the plucking.
Take reasonable precautions and you stand in no danger. But make merry
with chance companions in questionable resorts, and, unless Providence
has taken you under its especial charge, you will go home a sadder,
wiser and _poorer_ man.
CHAPTER IX.
AS TO ADVENTURESSES.
This should perhaps have been included under the head of the preceding
chapter, for if there are any pitfalls and perils more dangerous than
those laid by fair and unscrupulous members of the fairer sex we have
yet to be made aware of them. The adventuresses of Chicago, however,
deserve a brief and exclusive chapter, inasmuch as they constitute a
separate class which might, with very great propriety, be asked to go
about labeled with the initials D. F. (signifying “Dangerous Females”).
Even then, however, it is safe to say, they would not want for victims,
for there are some men who would run after a pretty woman if they
were morally certain that the pastime would lead to their everlasting
damnation.
[Illustration]
The term adventuress is applied to women of careless reputation who,
being much too smart to endure the ignominious career of professional
demi-mondaines, resort to various shrewd schemes to fleece the
unwary. Some of their class work in concert with male partners and in
such cases the selected victim generally becomes an easy prey. The
confidence man may be dangerous; the confidence woman, if she be well
educated and bright, as well as pretty, is irresistible except with the
most hardened and unsusceptible customers. The shrewdest old granger
of them all, who steers safely through the shoals and traps set for
him by male sharpers, will go down like the clover before the scythe
under a roguish glance, as it were, from a “white wench’s black eye,”
as Mercutio said.
There is no mortal man in this universe of ours, be he never so homely
or ill-favored, who does not cherish in his heart of hearts the
impression that there is a woman or two somewhere whom he could charm
if he wished to. It is the spirit of masculine vanity that forms the
material upon which the adventuress may work. With the art of an expert
she sizes up the dimensions of her victim’s vanity the instant she has
made his acquaintance, and plays upon it to just the extent she deems
expedient and profitable. If it were not for masculine vanity the
American adventuress could not exist.
Suppose, for instance, that Mr. John Smith, who is a merchant in
comfortable circumstances at home and quite a great man in his town,
is taking a stroll down State street in the bright afternoon sunshine.
He has just gotten outside of a good dinner at his hotel, prior to
which he had a good shave and a cocktail--just the combination to make
a well-to-do traveler with a little time on his hands feel literally
“out of sight,” as the slang phrase goes. Suppose then, as John
passes Marshall Field’s, he observes a magnificent creature, a royal
blonde, mayhap, or a plump brunette (either will do for the sake of
illustration) peeping shyly at him from beneath long silken lashes
and smiling ever so slightly. Now John may be a deacon in the church
at home; he may even be the father of a large family, but if he is
human, and animated by the latent vanity that is the paramount trait
of his sex, he will instantly experience a sensation of pleasure and
attribute the strange beauty’s attention to his own long-dormant power
to fascinate.
That splendid creature with her fine clothes, her exquisite complexion
and her graceful bearing, an adventuress? Impossible! At least so John
Smith thinks. She may even have a carriage at the curbstone into which
she steps daintily, with her eyes still slyly following the amorous
John. There is a delicate invitation in the glance, and if John is
courageous he will--pshaw! Let us hope he won’t, for it is a dead
certainty that the coy beauty is an adventuress of the deadliest and
most conscienceless sort. John, who in his confiding soul has set her
down as a duchess or a society queen at least, fondly imagines that it
is his person of which she is enamored. We, who are better posted, know
that it is his worldly wealth that she is after and that even as she
gives him an attack of palpitation of the heart by her warm glance she
is figuring on how she may most easily possess herself of that wealth.
The schemes of the city’s adventuresses are quite as numerous as those
of the confidence man, but blackmail is their great card and the one
that they play most successfully. As a rule a prosperous citizen of
good reputation and standing in his own town, who misconducts himself
when away from home, would rather pay any sum in reason than have his
friends at home know of that dereliction. That is where the skilled
adventuress makes her strong play. If she has the power to lure her
victim into a _liaison_ she has surely had the tact to draw from him
in the two or three days they have spent together all the particulars
she needs as to his relations in his own town. What a disheartening
shock it must be, must it not, to have this splendid creature, who has
vowed a thousand times to the doting John Smith that she loves him for
himself alone, strike him on the morning of his projected departure
for home for a cool thousand dollars in cash? Of course he demurs,
but when she pleasantly hints at the trip she intends to make to his
town and the exposure that must necessarily follow what is to be done?
Poor John Smith! He is not such a gay dog now. It gradually ends in a
compromise of some sort, for the lady is seldom too exacting, and if
John is inclined to be docile--to the extent of four or five hundred,
maybe--she will probably be very good-natured and let it go at that.
This is the highest type of adventuress--the aristocrat of her
profession. From her the types descend in grades, down to the very
lowest of all, the birds of the night who prowl the streets in search
of victims whom they may lure to the dens of their male accomplices,
there to be vulgarly drugged or “slugged” and robbed of their portable
valuables.
[Illustration]
The “indignant husband” game is a favorite one with adventuresses
of the second class, by which term is signified such fair and frail
creatures as occupy a somewhat lower place in the plane of rascaldom
than the fairy who relies solely upon discreet blackmail without
publicity for her means of support. This game is usually played upon
very green persons for the reason that very few others would fall
victims to it. The fair decoy makes the acquaintance of her quarry
on the street, at a matinee or elsewhere. For the first interview
she is on her good behavior, and by her repression of any approach
to familiarity that her newly acquired friend may make she creates
the impression that she is a very nice and decorous person indeed--a
little disposed to flirt, that is all. She does, however, write him
to call upon her and of course he does so--perhaps to-day, perhaps
to-morrow, but he calls, anyway. By letting fall certain artful hints
she contrives to let her victim know that she is a married woman. This
of course lends an added spice of interest to the adventure. The idea
of poaching on forbidden ground is attractive to the dupe. So an hour
passes in pleasant converse, and in the natural course of events the
Caller becomes sentimental. This much accomplished, he is hers, so
to speak. At the very moment that the poor victim is congratulating
himself upon his conquest there is a thundering knock at the door.
“My God!” screams the lady, with the dramatic intensity of a Bernhardt,
“My husband!”
The startled fly in her net squirms in his seat. Who would not,
situated as he is? “What is to be done?” he asks weakly.
“Hide! hide!” says the poor “wife” frenziedly and straightway rushes
him into a convenient closet. The “husband” enters and, singularly
enough, finds no difficulty in discovering the interloper’s
hiding-place. He is gruffly ordered to come out and as like as not
finds himself looking down the barrel of a big revolver.
Of course he is willing to make any sort of settlement in order to
escape with a whole skin. If he has no currency the “husband’s” wounded
“honor” will be healed with a check, although he would rather have his
watch, seeing that the payment of checks can be easily stopped at the
bank.
It must not be inferred from the foregoing that any peaceable gentleman
who walks the streets is liable to be dragged by the nape of his neck
into a compromising situation and compelled to disgorge all of his
portable wealth at the point of a pistol. Far from it. He who walks
the straight path of virtue is in no danger whatsoever. It is your
frisky gentleman, who is out for a little lark and is reckless in his
manner of carrying out the enterprise, who is likely to find himself
in a snare. “Be good and you will be happy” is a maxim (modernized)
that applies very handsomely to this sort of thing. “But you will miss
lots of fun!” the frisky man may respond. Well, well, even so, but be
very careful, for you know not how soon or how abruptly the languishing
angel at your side may change into a fiery harridan, determined to have
your money, your reputation or your life--whichever may suit her best.
Only a shade removed from the “indignant husband” game is the old
“panel” enterprise, which is so very vulgar and simple in the manner
of its operation that it would not be worthy of mention were it not for
the author’s desire to warn strangers of every grade of intelligence
against every possible danger that may lie in wait for him. Beware! O
sportive young gentleman in search of a little diversion, of the young
woman who on the shortest term of acquaintance invites you to accompany
her to her flat or her boudoir, as the case may be. It may be that she
has a pair of sharp scissors in her pocket with which she deftly snips
off your money pocket; but failing this device, the “panel” is brought
into play. While the interview between the more or less affectionate
lovers is in progress a panel in the wall slides back, pushed by
invisible hands, and a third person, the male confederate of the
damsel, slinks through it into the apartment. The amount of plunder he
secures depends entirely upon the degree of absorption with which the
quarry is wooing his charmer and the progress that he has made in her
affections, but however that may be he is tolerably certain to emerge a
heavy loser. If the presence of the third party is discovered (and it
is surprising how seldom this is the case) a fight is in order and the
victim is fortunate if he escapes with only the loss of his valuables
to mourn and no physical injury to lament.
It is a sorry subject and one is glad to leave it. Before doing so,
however, remember one thing, and remember it very distinctly: No young
lady, however irreproachable her appearance, who enters into a street
flirtation, can safely be regarded as other than dangerous. Act on this
suggestion and you will run no risks. In other words, “Be good and you
will be happy.” A repetition of the maxim will do no harm.
CHAPTER X.
THE TIGER AND HIS HAUNTS.
[Illustration]
While gambling of all sorts and conditions is to be strongly deprecated
it is nevertheless a fact that a large percentage of the strangers
who flock to this great city of the West find themselves possessed at
times with a desire to view the feverish scenes of which they have
heard so much. Gambling as a confirmed vice is a terrible affliction.
It frequently happens, however, that men who never dream of gambling at
home, finding themselves with a little superfluous time on their hands
in a strange city, actually yearn for a little of the excitement that
is to be obtained by staking a small sum at a game of chance or skill.
It’s not the amount of money invested or the hope of gain that animates
them; it is the pleasant excitement that the game affords. Such men
usually regard the small sum so risked as so much money thrown away;
and as a matter of fact that is the right way to regard it, for those
who pit their money and skill against gamblers sufficiently educated
to make a living in Chicago possess more nerve than discretion. The
compiler of this little work advises everybody to forego all games
of chance while resident in this city. Confident, however, that with
many people old enough and wise enough to know better this advice will
utterly be disregarded, a few remarks upon the present status of the
gambling fraternity in Chicago may not be thrown away.
In the old days, during the administration of both parties, so far
as one can remember, the gambling industry flourished like the
proverbial green bay tree. The South side, in the business district,
fairly swarmed with “hells” of all descriptions, while the residence
portions of the city were scarcely less favored. Passing along Clark
street on sultry summer evenings, when the heat of the atmosphere
necessitated the opening of doors and windows, the rattle of the chips
and the monotonous voices of the _croupiers_ could be distinctly heard
by the wayfarer. All that, however, is now changed. Mr. Washburne’s
administration, when it came into power, set its face sternly upon
“wide-open” gambling; from the very outset the well-known places were
compelled to close their doors on pain of a raid and the destruction
of their contents. It is, nevertheless, a fact that there are still
a large number of professional gamblers in Chicago--presumably there
always will be--and while there are no notorious houses open the
stranger who is yearning for a little action for his spare cash can be
readily accommodated. The notorious Hankins castle on Clark street is
tightly closed, but every night there may be found in that vicinity any
number of “sporty-looking” gentry who will be only too glad to guide
the inquirer to a secluded spot where he can be accommodated with as
large or as small a game as his inclination may dictate or his means
allow.
[Illustration]
That the sporting fraternity live in hopes of the advent of happier
times is very evident. Costly gambling furniture in large quantities
is stored away in anticipation of the coming into power of a mayor who
will look less rigorously on the “profession.” Mr. Hankins himself is
credited with having paid the rent of $8,000 per year for two years in
advance for his place, which shows his faith in his ultimate ability to
re-open. In the old days Hankins’ place was known as the “dinner-pail”
home, presumably by reason of the large _clientele_ of workingmen,
clerks and other people of small means who deposited their slender
earnings with great regularity in his coffers every Saturday night.
To this day they tell how a wagon used to drive up to the door a few
minutes before ten o’clock every Monday morning and carry away to the
bank the load of silver dollars, halves, quarters and dimes left there
by the patrons of the establishment within the preceding twenty-four
hours. The place in those times was a sight for gods and men. On three
floors games were in progress and the rooms thronged to the suffocating
point with a variegated assortment of humanity, all bent on the one
project--namely, the acquisition of riches on the hazard of the cards
or dice. Should the place ever be re-opened the sight will well repay
a visit, even though it be merely one of curiosity. Nobody who enters
is asked to play, though those who do not are regarded with suspicion.
A few minutes, however, is all that is necessary in which to see all
that is to be seen.
[Illustration]
This description of Hankins’ will serve for any large gambling house.
At the present time, however, the industry is carried on _sub rosa_.
There are two or three places which can be readily discovered by the
curious, where the “boss” gamblers are in the habit of meeting, and,
failing the presence of the common prey, proceed to cheerfully “wolf”
each other. The game chosen is the great American game of poker and a
nervous man is liable to suffer from shortness of breath at the sight
of the bets that are made. There are other places where other games are
carried on, but the visitor, if he is sensible, will steer clear of
any or all of them. The facilities for running such money traps are so
limited and the risk of arrest and punishment so great that the chances
of encountering against a “brace” game are about 100 to 1 against the
patron; the only consideration with the “slick” gentry who manipulate
the games being how to most expeditiously relieve the wayfarer of his
wealth at the least possible risk to themselves. Take the advice of an
old hand and give the polished and gentlemanly professional gambler of
Chicago a very wide berth.
For people of wealth who, afflicted with the speculative mania, desire
a larger field of operations than mere roulette, faro or other trifling
games, such a field is not difficult to find. On the Board of Trade,
where colossal fortunes are sometimes lost and won in an hour, every
facility is offered the stranger who desires to take a “flyer.” Stop in
any commission house and signify your desire to “play” the market. No
introduction is necessary--only sufficient money to “margin” your deal.
For the benefit of the uninitiated the system of speculation in grain
and provisions may be briefly explained.
If you are possessed of a notion that the market price of wheat or
oats is too low to be justified by circumstances and wish to back
your expectation of a rise with money, nothing is more simple of
accomplishment. In that case order your commission man to buy you 5,000
or 10,000 bushels of the commodity you desire to trade in and deposit
whatever sum he demands for margin. Some houses will make trades on a
basis of one cent per bushel margin; but that sort of trading is not
very satisfactory inasmuch as he will sell you out at the first point
or two the market goes against you. The profits or losses on such a
deal are easily figured. An advance of one cent a bushel, over and
above the agent’s commission of ⅛ of a cent for buying and selling,
means a profit of $50.00 from the transaction. A corresponding decline
means a loss of the same amount. But if the speculator thinks that the
article in which he is dealing is too high in price he puts up his
margin and “goes short;” that is to say, he instructs his broker to
_sell_, instead of buying the amount. Sell what one hasn’t got? Well,
that would ordinarily be difficult, but the system of margins enables
you to do it on the Board of Trade. If the price advances after you
have sold “short” you are so much out of pocket; if it goes down you
are so much ahead, less always the commission.
[Illustration]
This is the principle on which a “flyer” may be taken on the Board.
This outside speculation is of course only a feature of the vast
legitimate buying and selling that is daily transacted on the Board;
but it is there, just the same, and it will remain just so long as it
is legal to deal in “futures.” There is a bill now before Congress
making it unlawful to deal in “futures” when those futures affect the
market price of the necessaries of life. If the bill should become a
law it would put a sudden stop to outside speculation on the Chicago
Board of Trade. The proposed measure has awakened such a storm of
opposition, however, that it is hardly likely to go through. Many
people claim that such a law would virtually kill business on the
Board and that it would result in direct disadvantage to the farmer,
for whose benefit it was framed.
Quite aside from the facilities that it presents for a bit of high
speculation the Board of Trade is in itself an interesting place to
visit. The great stone building at the head of La Salle street, where
so many colossal fortunes have been lost and won, is invariably one of
the first places that strangers seek. It is the largest institution
of its kind in the world, being constructed mainly of gray granite.
The height of the tower is 322 feet above the street. Around the great
hall where the daily sessions of the mammoth exchange are held are
galleries to which visitors are admitted free. During periods of great
excitement, caused by a rapid advance or decline in prices, these
galleries are thronged with people who watch with thrilling interest
the half-wild human panorama below. At such times the stranger may be
excused for imagining that Bedlam had broken loose. Groups of brokers
stand about shouting at each other like so many madmen. Messengers are
scurrying hither and thither, and at times the scattering yells break
into a chorused roar beside which the screeching of a dozen locomotives
in unison would seem tame in comparison. The Board of Trade has 2,000
members. The membership fee is $10,000, but the places of members
who die or resign may occasionally be purchased for about half that
amount. While the claim is always made that only legitimate business is
transacted on the Board of Trade the statement cannot be disputed that
it presents the greatest opportunity for high gambling in the whole
world. Perhaps it is not altogether gambling, either, inasmuch as it is
not so much a game of chance as a game of judgment and skill, in which
the cleverest and not the luckiest players come out on top.
However that may be there have been some mighty fortunes won and
lost on the Chicago Board of Trade. There was one memorable Saturday
morning, nearly ten years ago, before the Board moved into its present
quarters, when a dozen houses that had hitherto been regarded as the
most substantial among the substantial went down with a crash. It was
the year of the famous lard corner. Peter McGeoch, the great speculator
and capitalist, tried to buy all the lard in sight. He succeeded in
advancing the price considerably, but the inevitable break came and
lard suddenly declined $3 a tierce. All the other products declined
in sympathy. McGeoch, in the parlance of the day, went broke, and he
dragged a lot of other men with him. Old operators say they never saw
such scenes on the Board as were witnessed that day. Strong men stood
about crying like babies at the sight of their vanishing fortunes,
and even those who were earning thousands of dollars with the flight
of every five minutes stood transfixed with terror lest prices should
suddenly bulge the other way and land _them_ in ruin before they had
time to realize their profits. There was another very similar scene in
the year 1887, when E. L. Harper, President of the Fidelity Bank, of
Cincinnati, tried to “corner” wheat in Chicago. He and the syndicate he
represented came within an ace of success. They ran the price up nearly
15 cents a bushel and had an enormous profit on paper. But there came a
call for more “margins.” Hundreds of thousands of dollars in greenbacks
were shipped to Chicago from Cincinnati, but the sum sent was not big
enough, and before the required amount could be raised the reaction
came. There were rumors one bright morning that a crash was pending.
The crash came and wheat dropped 20 cents a bushel in one hour. The
syndicate was ruined and the very men who had sold “short” and had
risen that morning in the expectation of meeting ruin themselves found
by the same freak of fortune which had overwhelmed their adversaries
that they were enriched by hundreds of thousands of dollars. The
aftermath of that famous corner is history. It was found that Harper
had used the Fidelity Bank’s money as well as his own and the United
States authorities took charge of the institution. Harper was tried and
sent to the penitentiary for ten years.
In order to realize the splendor of such a game one must ponder on the
actual facts. If Harper had been able to raise about $50,000 more (he
had already put up $500,000 in margins) he and his friends would have
cleared millions. As it was they just fell short of the mark and were
irretrievably ruined. But would not any confirmed gamester claim that
such a royal game was worth the risk?
The attempts to run a corner on the Chicago Board of Trade have not
always been unsuccessful. B. P. Hutchinson, an old gentleman who
afterward went to New York as offering a more profitable field for
his operations, was one of the few men who have had money enough to
engineer a “corner,” run it to its end and pocket the enormous profits.
“Old Hutch,” as he was then familiarly named, was credited with losing
a half a million cold dollars in the Harper deal. The gentlemen who got
this money were of course those who sold “short,” and they were said to
be a group of millionaires who “had it in” for “Old Hutch,” and had
laid a trap to catch him. Whether these rumors had any substantiation
in fact the writer knows not. If so, however, it may go on record as
a fact the “Old Hutch” got right royally even with the gentlemen who
“did him up” on this occasion. For a year or so after this Harper
deal he ran a corner in wheat entirely on his own account. It was the
option for the month of November to which he turned his attention. Be
that as it may, he bought all the wheat that was offered him and paid
for it at prices ranging from 90 cents to $1.10. The month drew to a
close. The “bears” had one day in which to fill their contracts to
“Old Hutch” at ruinous prices. They held off and on the last day of
the month, at the expiration of which the men who had sold “short” to
Hutch were compelled to either pay their difference or default (that
is fail), the old gentleman stepped up and bought a single car-load
of wheat at $2.00 per bushel, in order to establish a price, and in,
slang parlance, “that was where he had ’em.” He not only recovered
his losses but milked the alleged clique of millionaires for at least
a million dollars besides. They were able to pay the loss, and “Old
Hutch” went on his way rejoicing. It was whispered about that time
that “Old Hutch’s” intellect went a little awry after this terrible
strain. He disappeared, and the newspapers were full of dire hints as
to the probability of his having wandered off and drowned himself, or
else blown out his brains. He turned up all right in New York, however,
carrying on his operations with the old-time skill and nerve, and is,
presumably, still making more money to leave his sons. A very fat and
interesting volume might be written about Mr. B. P. Hutchinson and his
operations in the Chicago grain market.
The very magnitude of deals like those above described is calculated to
appall the average mind. Let not the reader suppose, however, that the
same opportunities of which the millionaire capitalist avails himself
lie open to every one. Far from it. Unlimited resources and a life-long
familiarity with the intricacies of the market are necessary adjuncts
to the manipulation of a corner. If the wayfarer desires to try his
luck to the extent of a $50 bill, or a $100 bill, or a $1,000 bill--all
well and good. But he is not advised to do so. He would better let it
alone. Only on the supposition that there are some men who cannot keep
out of a glorious game like this are the foregoing hints given.
On the Board of Trade proper nothing smaller than a 5000-bushel lot
of grain or a 250-package lot of provisions can be dealt in. On the
other side of the street, however, is the Open Board of Trade, to the
floor of which strangers are admitted free, and where one may deal in
1000-bushel or even 500-bushel lots. Here is a place where quick action
may be had for one’s money. The intending speculator may make his deal,
watch the blackboard, close out and walk away $50 richer or $50 poorer,
as the case may be, inside of ten minutes. The speculator takes big
chances--he must never forget that he is playing against a certainty
of a loss of ⅛ of a cent a bushel (the commission), but the profits,
if there are any, are handsome. So are the losses. That, however, is
merely information. If you are wise stay away from it, but if you must
go in take an old-timer’s advice and go slow.
In addition to the two Boards of Trade there are numerous
“bucket-shops” all over town where the stranger can, if he chooses,
relieve himself of his wealth without the trouble of a visit to either
Boards. A bucket-shop is a snap commission house which claims to
operate on the Board of Trade quotations. Their existence is forbidden
by law, but plenty are to be found, nevertheless. The quotations
come over a “ticker.” The customer buys or sells grain or stocks at
a certain price, reports his “margins” and awaits events. In an
hour at the outside he will get “action” for his money. There are
some bucket-shops that ignore the Board of Trade and carry on their
operations by telegraphic quotations from the New York Stock Exchange.
If the customer, therefore, would rather operate in Wall street than on
the Chicago Board he can readily be accommodated.
The Chicago Stock Exchange, located at the corner of Dearborn and
Monroe, is a comparatively new institution but one that flourishes
exceedingly. It is devoted to the purchase and sale of Chicago
securities of all sorts, such as bank and street railway shares,
stocks, bonds, etc. Several of the banking and commission houses
connected therewith have private wires to the New York Stock Exchange
and if their customers grow weary of “playing” Chicago securities,
which do not often fluctuate largely or rapidly, they can be
transported to Wall street as quickly as the telegram can transmit the
deal they wish to make.
And here the chapter on gambling may be brought to a close. It is
only presented as showing the opportunities that the city affords for
those of speculative tendencies, and once again the author, conscious
of having performed his task with all the conscientiousness at his
command, gratuitously advises the reader to let gambling of all sorts
and conditions severely alone during such time as he may remain in
Chicago. For, while a few may win, the vast majority lose. Always
remember that.
As the bully of the school said when the new boy licked him within an
inch of his life, “’Nuff said.”
CHAPTER XI.
MASQUERADES AND SIMILAR ENTERTAINMENTS.
[Illustration]
The more or less stereotyped forms of entertainment to be found in the
various theaters do not always cater fully to the varying tastes of
the transient crowds that throng the streets of Chicago at all times.
That “variety is the spice of life” is endorsed by the popularity of
the different festivities that are being constantly arranged and that
invariably secure profitable patronage. Dancing, as a pursuit for
pleasure-seekers, is always popular and its votaries are countless.
There are any number of ordinary dance-halls located in every quarter
of the city, and the particular style of entertainment they offer may
always be ascertained by consulting the advertising columns of the
evening newspapers. There are several high-class dancing academies
which, however, would hardly be classified as public dance-halls, their
privileges being really confined to the pupils and classes who receive
regular instructions there. They may, however, be particularized as
follows: Bournique’s academy, a handsome brick structure located at 51
Twenty-third street, where the youthful scions of the “first families,”
so called, receive instructions in terpsichorean art; M. De Long, 78
Monroe street; Horace Beek, 164 Warren avenue, and Martine’s academy on
Ada street, between Madison street and Washington boulevard.
Conceding that these places are for “society”--for the aristocrat,
so to speak--one comes to consider those that are dedicated to the
people--places where a small sum of money is the passport for admission
and circumspect conduct the condition of remaining. If an ordinary
dance or ball is enjoyable how much more so is a masquerade--that
merry carnival in which identities are mysteriously hidden and all
manner of pleasant pranks indulged in by the maskers, whose brilliant
and variegated costumes transform the aspect of the thronging floor
into a kaleidoscopic expanse of ever-changing beauty. The accompanying
illustration depicts the sort of jolly scene to be encountered at a
typical Chicago masquerade--a scene which, witnessed for the first
time, is rarely forgotten until it is eclipsed perhaps, by another
later and even more novel.
Some prodigious masquerades have been witnessed in Chicago, and, though
the fall and winter months constitute the regular masquerade season,
the mercurial spirit by which the population is animated occasionally
manifests itself in a masquerade of large or small dimensions at almost
any period of the year. The most extensive masquerades of all have been
held in Battery D, the roomy building on the Lake Front, in which has
been held every style of entertainment, from floral displays and dances
to prize-fights and dog shows. While these masquerades may be attended
in safety by any one who goes in the capacity of spectator and is
animated by a determination to keep quiet whatever happens, some quite
stirring scenes are occasionally witnessed there. Like a disordered but
by no means wholly unpleasant dream comes over the writer the memory
of a certain masquerade at Battery D, which was a gigantic affair,
given under the auspices of the Board of Trade Clerks’ Association,
a _coterie_ of youthful and devil-may-care spirits whose only object
outside of business hours is to discover agreeable methods by which to
slay time. The admission fee was fifty cents per head, ladies free.
A commodious bar contained unlimited refreshment for the revelers,
who were of all classes, from the young “chippie” of the cheap dry
goods shops and her red-necktied escort to the opulent banker and his
friends who viewed the fun from the galleries. The variety of costumes
was simply infinite. There were clowns, knights, devils, harlequins,
kings, princes, queens, shepherdesses, queens of hearts, fairy-maids,
witches; in fact, every sort of character it is possible to imagine.
The fun commenced at eight o’clock and continued until--well they say
it was about noon the next day when the music finally stopped and
the last of the revelers disappeared. Some of the scenes that were
witnessed were simply too wonderful for description. After midnight,
when the musicians as well as the maskers found themselves vinously
fortified to sufficient extent, all formality was dispensed with and
care thrown to the winds. Frolicsome gentlemen turned somersaults
and handsprings, landing not infrequently with their feet in the
stomachs of their friends, and equally frolicsome ladies indulged in
high-kicking contests and other acrobatic feats that materially added
to the spirit of the occasion. And fights? Well, fights were quite
numerous but not very deadly. A soft blow or two exchanged, maybe, and
then the combatants, animated by the general hilarity, kissed and made
up with charming good-nature and _abandon_. Nobody bore any malice.
A gentleman who punched another gentleman was promptly forgiven and
the reconciliation sealed with a drink. The gentleman who got punched
as a rule got even by punching somebody else. People who were knocked
down and walked upon got up with a lenient smile on their faces and at
the earliest opportunity walked on other people. Once only was there
cause to fear a serious affray. A young man of very good family and
great wealth succeeded in incurring the displeasure of a band of very
tough citizens from some region near Canal street district. His offense
consisted solely in his wearing a swallow-tail coat. Be that as it may,
he was backed into a corner and gruffly ordered to apologize.
[Illustration: THE MASQUERADER’S DREAM.]
“Apologize for what?” he asked. The leader of the tough gang, who was
manifestly drunk, peremptorily ordered the victim to cease “monkeying”
and apologize; if he did not know what to apologize for he could
apologize on general principles. The situation was desperate. The young
man knew it was time to think and think quickly. It was a case of
apologizing for the mere fact of his existence or suffering facial
disfigurement for three months. He desired to call next day on the
charming young lady to whom he was engaged and so he wisely apologized,
and the menacing horde of roughs, who were preparing to tear him limb
from limb, at once retired, in the best of humor, and let him escape.
This, of course, was a masquerade of the lower order. It is only
described to acquaint the reader with the style of entertainment
in which he may readily mingle if he cares to look for it. There
are plenty of other masquerades where the company is more select.
The halls along North Clark street, notably North side Turner Hall,
advertise masquerades and plain dances the year round, some of which
are very select. The finest masquerades of all, however, are given at
the Germania Club, on North Clark street, near Division. Admission is
solely by invitation and one must possess an acquaintance with some
member of the club in order to secure entrance, and even then it is
very difficult. Such entertainments, however, are very popular and much
sought after. At no time, though, is there a scarcity of public dances
which will afford the visitor all the pleasure of that sort he is
seeking, at a very trifling admission fee.
CHAPTER XII.
ON SHOPPING.
[Illustration]
A party of visitors in which there are one or more ladies will
unquestionably go on a shopping excursion of greater or less extent,
according to the tastes of the fair ones and the length of the purses
possessed by their escorts. It is not intended to give any advice as
to where to go on such occasions. To do so would be to “get oneself
disliked,” as the saying goes. It is not possible to mention all
the great shops or stores in detail; it would be manifestly unfair
to praise a few to the exclusion of the many. There are a few great
houses, however, the names of which are in a sense landmarks, and have
nothing to lose or gain by being either spoken of or omitted.
It has been said that one can buy absolutely anything on State street,
from a stick of candy to an elephant. Certain it is that there are
some stores on that thoroughfare, notably Marshall Field’s, Gossage’s,
the Boston Store, Mandel’s, Schlesinger & Mayer’s, the Fair, the
Leader, J. H. Walker & Co.’s, and Siegel & Cooper’s, that contain
almost everything obtainable for money. State street is the great
retail thoroughfare of the city and in any of the stores mentioned the
customer is certain of fair treatment and his money’s worth. These
houses are all extensive advertisers in the daily newspapers and if
extensive purchases are contemplated it is just as well to scan these
advertisements for notices of “special sales,” as they are called.
During “special sales” of certain articles the reduction in the prices
of those articles is very low and much is to be gained by looking out
for announcements that may save the purchaser considerable money. The
first five houses enumerated are located between Randolph and Madison
streets. The Fair, which is a wonder in itself, and very popular, owing
to the cheapness of its goods, stands opposite to the Leader, at State
and Adams streets. James H. Walker & Co. have a large building on
Wabash avenue, at the corner of Adams. Siegel & Cooper’s great place,
occupying nearly a block, from Van Buren to Congress streets, is one
of the sights of the city, being, it is said, without exception the
largest store in the world which is devoted to the sale of general
merchandise.
All the leading stores have high-class restaurants attached to them,
a feature keenly appreciated by lady shoppers, who find it very
convenient to rest from their arduous labors long enough to take
luncheon and then resume the happy pastime of getting rid of the
dollars that their husbands and fathers have bestowed upon them for
this purpose.
CHAPTER XIII.
CARROUSELS.
[Illustration]
The carrousel is a form of entertainment which has grown popular with a
certain class of people within recent years. The term may be a little
obscure to the uninitiated, but they will readily understand its
meaning when it is explained that the carrousel is nothing more or less
than the old-fashioned “merry-go-round” which we all easily remember
as a feature of fairs, circuses and other out-door entertainments.
There are at the present writing several carrousels in the city, but it
would be quite useless to specify their location, because they change
places so frequently that to do so would only be misleading. They are
here today, there tomorrow; but there never need be any difficulty in
finding them. An inquiry of the hotel clerks or any other well-posted
person will secure the desired information as to where the nearest
carrousel is to be found.
Various newspapers have from time to time waged war upon the caroussel
on the ground that it is prejudicial to the morals of young people who
patronize it. This work does not assume to criticize, but to state
facts. It is a fact that the carrousels are well patronized as a rule
and that the young people who do the patronizing appear to extract no
end of fun out of the whirligig process.
The caroussel or “merry-go-round” is generally situated in a flimsy
building on some convenient vacant lot, rented for the purpose at a
pinch, so to speak. The fiery wooden steeds that go whirling round and
round in a circle, to the spirited music of a brass band or snorting
orchestrion, bear on their backs sundry youths and maidens, with now
and then an old boy or girl thrown in as a leaven to offset the general
juvenility, who indulge in all manner of sportive remarks and jests as
they go on their circular journey. It must not be supposed that the
ride itself forms the chief part of the entertainment. By no means. A
very little of that goes a long way. The principle part of the fun is
derived from standing among the many rows of spectators and listening
to the witticisms that are indulged in at the expense of the riders.
These are often very pert, not to say cutting, and the lively repartee
(not always very refined) that is exchanged between equestrians and
spectators is always productive of infinite amusement to the chance
visitor. A too pointed remark not infrequently leads to a spirited
argument, which spirited argument not infrequently results in a row
in which the friends of the participants are as likely as not to take
part. In such an event that is the time when courtesy and all semblance
of it abruptly ends and simple muscle then comes into play. This is
good time for the outsider to withdraw to a safe distance, but though
the combat is never very deadly--no shooting scrape, according to the
writer’s recollection, ever having taken place in a carrousel--it is
just as well to avoid the risk of a black eye or a bloody nose that
may result from a chance whack from a too-enthusiastic pleasure-seeker
who has become embroiled in the fray with or without his consent. The
battle, inconsequential as it always is, invariably terminates before
it is found necessary to call in the police.
The ground upon which certain of the great editors of the city have
attacked the carrousel is that of the temptation to wrong-doing which
it presents to the young. Certain it is that wherever a carrousel is
located a large _clientele_ of girls of tender age seems to follow in
its wake. These girls are of the sort irreverently referred to by the
very tough young men of the period as “chippie.” They do not seem to be
burdened with a great supply of innocence, but it is beyond question
that the surroundings of the carrousel lead them to indulge in such
behavior as they would not be guilty of elsewhere. In this respect
the caroussel has in a measure taken the place of the skating-rink.
Roller-skating some years ago was a craze, and while the carrousel
craze has never assumed the dimensions of that popular “fad” its
associations are very similar. There is always a liberal supply of
alcoholic beverages to which the patrons of the carrousel, male and
female, have easy access. Indeed, in some cases, there is a saloon
directly attached. From this fact it may be easily imagined that this
is not the sort of place from which a girl of fifteen or thereabout can
be expected to derive any lasting benefit--and any number of such girls
will be found enjoying themselves at the various carrousel enclosures.
Whatever be its merits or demerits the carrousel constitutes one of
the features, good, bad or indifferent, of a great city. As such it is
mentioned here, and for no other reason whatsoever. It may interest you
to go and take a look at one.
CHAPTER XIV.
TURKISH BATHS---MASSAGE---MANICURES.
[Illustration]
The heading of this chapter may at the first glance seem peculiar. If
so, you don’t have to read it, do you? Nevertheless, a little space may
be devoted, in a haphazard sort of way, to a feature of Chicago life
that is not without its charms for those who are initiated.
Chicago is nothing if not metropolitan. The Turkish bath is a feature
of metropolitan life which should not be deprived of its proper share
of attention.
Ever taken a Turkish bath? No? Then remedy the deficiency in your
education at once and at the same time taste one of the sublimest
sensations that falls to the lot of man in this prosaic world of ours!
To particularize all the Turkish baths of the city would consume too
much space. They can be found in connection with most of the leading
hotels. The Palmer House baths, located beneath the barber shop,
the floor of which is studded with silver dollars, is perhaps the
most celebrated. They are open day and night--as all Turkish baths
naturally are--and enjoy a large patronage. There are other places,
quite independent of the hotels, notably Franks’, on Wabash avenue. The
visitor is well cared for and given a taste of Oriental cleanliness and
luxury at any hour of the day or night.
The Turkish bath owes a good deal of its popularity, I fear, to its
revivifying effect on the toper. A man may enter a Turkish bath with
the most aggravated case of “jag” on record and emerge in a few hours
fresh, cleansed and glorified--“clothed and in his right mind,” as Holy
Writ has it. Not to say that only tipplers patronize the baths! Far
from it. People of unimpeachable sobriety indulge regularly in them for
their health-giving qualities alone. In hot weather, when the clothing
sticks with disagreeable closeness to the body, there is no easier
method of “cooling off” than a passage through this fiery, or rather
steaming, ordeal. Listen a moment and learn how it is done.
You descend a flight of stairs into a basement and enter the mystic
portals. A colored servitor, almost nude, escorts you politely to a
dressing-room. The torrid atmosphere has already produced a feeling of
enervation, and you doff your clothes with alacrity. You then wind
about you the sheet with which you have been provided and emerge,
giving all your valuables to a clerk, who deposits them in the safe.
You are then led to the “hot-room,” as it called, in which you remain
as long as you like.
[Illustration]
Hot? Well, rather. The senses become numbed and dulled under the
great heat, but the sensation is delicious beyond description. Lying
full length on the couch, fairy visions float before the mind. Try to
think connectedly and the effort will be a failure. The mind becomes
a strange jumble, in which people and events, real and imaginary,
mix themselves without volition of yours in a kaleidoscopic mass of
pleasant pictures. A copious and wholesome perspiration breaks out at
every pore. After awhile even the strongest of us has had enough of it,
and another stage of the process is reached.
The bather is now laid full length on a marble slab, with a blown-out
rubber pillow under his head. A stalwart negro takes him in hand. He is
rubbed, pinched and pounded and kneaded with a vigor that at any other
time might be unpleasant. In the drowsy languor of the moment, however,
it is all right, and when the servitor presently smears him all over
with sweet smelling suds only to rinse him copiously a minute afterward
with a bucket of tepid water the subject of the operation would not
change places with the king of Siam or any other potentate of whom he
has heard great things. This done, he is led to the shower bath, where
the gentle stream falls over him for a few minutes, at first warm, then
colder, until he rushes out from under a veritable stream of ice-water.
Acting under instructions he plunges without hesitation head-foremost
into the big swimming bath that stands ready to receive him. In this
he may sport and gambol at will until he is tired, and in the cool
embrace of the spacious tank the fever of the hot-room is forgotten
and his body brought back to a normal temperature. Emerging from the
swimming-bath he is rubbed perfectly dry by an attendant and escorted
to a couch in a large, cool room, where, wrapped in a sheet, he may lie
as long as he lists in the sweet, dreamless sleep of the happy and the
just. If it is his first experience he will vow on leaving the place
that, as well as being refreshed and revivified he feels cleaner than
he ever felt in all his life, and, as cleanliness is said to be next
to godliness, this is something by no means to be despised. A Turkish
bath in a first-class place costs $1, though there are plenty of places
where the charge is lower. Most Turkish bath establishments have an
apartment especially provided for ladies.
Massage--a good deal is contained in the word. There are massage
parlors in Chicago and again there are--massage parlors, or at
least those called such by their proprietors. There are legitimate
massage parlors conducted by competent physicians, employing skilled
male operators who treat the applicant with every consideration.
Massage--which consists of rubbing weak or otherwise affected parts
of the body with the hands--is recommended by many physicians as a
cure for rheumatism and kindred ailments. The applicant seeking such
treatment, however, should assure himself that he is going to a place
where he will receive such treatment as he needs and nothing else.
For there are so-called massage parlors--extensively advertised in some
of the daily papers as employing lady operators--that are nothing more
or less than improper resorts in disguise. There have been times when
the “massage” question has received critical and analytical attention
from one or more sensational papers, and the disclosures that have
been made from time to time have been anything but edifying. The
visitor will receive a sort of a Turkish bath at the hands of a “lady”
operator, but other entertainment will not be difficult to procure if
he should express a word or two to that effect. From a standpoint of
morality as well as prudence it is a good plan to let such “massage”
(?) establishments as brazenly advertise their employment of “lady
operators” severely alone.
“Manicuring,” by which term is signified the treatment of the hands,
is an industry that is only mentioned in this chapter by reason of
its bearing on the care of the person or the toilet. The manicuring
establishments are in every way respectable. For the sum of one dollar
a pleasant-faced young woman washes one’s hands in a preparation of her
own manufacture and so trims, polishes and fixes up one’s fingernails
that the average customer does not recognize them as his own after she
has finished the delicate task. Aside from the neatness imparted by the
operation few men object to the sensation produced by having a pretty
woman manipulate scientifically and dally with his clumsy hands for
half an hour or more.
CHAPTER XV.
HACKMEN AND THEIR WAYS.
[Illustration]
There is a well-grounded suspicion in some quarters that only the
hackmen of Niagara can compete with the hackmen of Chicago in
their fondness for extortion and their success in practicing it.
Yet, while it is very true that most Chicago hackmen are imbued
with a praiseworthy desire to earn all they can, and are none too
conscientious in their ambitions to acquire riches rapidly, there
is a very easy manner in which to avoid disputes, namely: make your
bargain with your Jehu before you enter his vehicle. If, after such an
arrangement, he endeavors to impose upon you at the end of the ride,
you may be sure he is trying to give you the worst of it. In such
a contingency, which may arise in very rare cases, pay him nothing
whatever until you have called a policeman. It is part of every
policeman’s duty to familiarize himself with the schedule of legal
cab fares, and he will settle the dispute in very short order. It will
be found, however, that most of the public hackmen are pretty square
fellows, a little bit prone to try for the best it, maybe, but always
amenable to reason,--particularly if it be a uniformed officer who
talks the “reason” to them.
As a general thing it will be found that the street-cars provide ample
facilities for transportation to any given point in any direction.
There is a uniform fare of five cents on all the lines, and for this
trifling sum one may ride many miles on any of the cable lines.
These lines run direct to all the parks and most people choose this
inexpensive mode of traveling. Occasionally, however, parties desire
a more luxurious mode of transit, preferring to visit the parks in
a carriage and drive about in the pleasant intricacies of the leafy
aisles instead of traveling afoot; in which case an understanding with
the driver before the start is made becomes an imperative necessity.
But in order that there may be no mistake it is just as well to set
forth briefly the legal rate for cab-hire established by the city
ordinance.
The charge of conveying one or two passengers from one railroad depot
to another in a hack--by which term is signified a vehicle drawn
by two horses--is one dollar; for conveying one or two passengers
any distance over one mile and less than two miles, $1.50; for each
additional two persons of the same party, fifty cents. For conveying
one or two passengers any distance exceeding two miles the charge is
$2.00--fifty cents more for each additional passenger of the same
party. Children between the ages of five and fourteen years call for
half rates, but there is no charge for youngsters under five--providing
that the distance they are carried does not exceed one mile. In case
it is desired to charter a hack for the day the charge is $8. Four
persons may ride in this way, from point to point, stopping as often
as they may wish. Or the hack may be chartered by the hour, the charge
for which system is as follows: Two dollars for the first hour and one
dollar for each additional hour or part of an hour. As to baggage, each
passenger is allowed to carry without charge one trunk and twenty-five
pounds of other baggage. For each additional package so carried the
driver may charge fifteen cents. Baggage of course is only carried on
short trips, between railroad depots and hotels, it being presumable
that no traveler wishes to take his trunk with him out to the park or
to the World’s Fair grounds.
The rates for hansom cabs, or other one-horse vehicles, is much
lower, being twenty-five cents per mile or fraction of a mile for
each passenger. By the hour, seventy-five cents for the first hour
and twenty cents for each quarter of an hour thereafter. For service
outside the city limits and in the parks: for the first hour, one
dollar, and twenty-five cents additional for each quarter of an hour
thereafter. It should be remembered that no time engagements will be
made by any driver for less than an hour.
It is the duty of every hackman and cabman to have posted conspicuously
in his vehicle the rates of fare as quoted above. The law requires him
to do so. But even if he has complied with the legal requirements it is
just as well to make the bargain with him before starting, particularly
if the journey be a long one. Disputes can be most easily avoided in
that way.
Many people prefer to secure their carriages from the hotel livery
stables. The charge in that case will be somewhat higher, with a
corresponding advantage, of course, in the point of style.
When a party of twenty to thirty people wish to take an outing in
the parks the best plan is to charter a coach, or “tally-ho,” as it
is generally called, and the charge for which is $25 to $30 for the
afternoon or evening. When divided up equally between the gentlemen
of the party the cost is by no means ruinous. These coaches are drawn
by four or six horses and the ride is always an enjoyable, not to say
exhilarating, one. It is considered _de riguer_ on such occasions for
the two handsomest men in the party to station themselves at the foot
of the ladder and help the ladies up to the best seats on the roof of
the coach.
For the journey to Jackson Park and the World’s Fair grounds hacks and
cabs are little in demand for the reason that, if the cable cars are
not considered quick or commodious enough, the Illinois Central trains,
which run every few minutes, stop at the South Park station, at the
very gates of Jackson Park.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE CITY’S MORAL SIDE.
[Illustration]
Chicago has been called, in its time, the wickedest city in the
world, and somehow or other (in exactly what manner it matters not)
the impression has gone abroad that it is really a very wicked place
indeed. It is with the idea of counteracting this impression in some
degree that reference is about to be made to some institutions,
the very existence of which, denotes a desire on the part of the
respectable majority to do all they can for the benefit and improvement
of the minority, given over to evil ways.
Every great city in the world has its wicked side. Chicago is not an
exception to the rule, but it may be maintained, with earnest emphasis,
that it is at least no worse in this respect than its contemporary
cities. It contains, moreover, some institutions that should atone, in
the eyes of its critics, for some of the evils that are undoubtedly to
be found within its borders.
It is possible for a perfectly moral person, one used to all the
refinement and peace of the most law-abiding and self-respecting of
communities, to spend any length of time in Chicago without being
contaminated by the evil that may be found easily enough if sought.
This statement is made with due consideration and careful thought. It
may seem a bold one, but it is true, nevertheless.
In a previous chapter, on the churches of Chicago the author has given
the reader some idea of the strictly religious institutions of the
city. But there are other institutions, semi-secular in their nature
and tone, but wholesome in their effect upon the moral welfare of
stranger and native alike, that deserve especial mention.
This allusion does not apply to the inebriate asylums, the hospitals or
charitable institutions. They are too numerous to particularize, but
they all exert a wholesome effect upon the moral welfare of the city.
But the Young Men’s Christian Association, or, rather, the Chicago
branch of it, deserves some special attention. The present home of
the Association, on the south side of Madison street, between Clark
and La Salle, was for a long time ample to provide for the wants
of members and strangers. A new building, however, is in course of
preparation. The site of the new building adjoins the present property.
The lot has a 52 foot front on La Salle street and 185 feet on Arcade
court. One-third of the space in the new building will be utilized for
Association purposes and the remainder for offices, the ground floor
being rented for stores. The Y. M. C. A. proper will have two stories
fronting on La Salle street and seven on Arcade court. The estimated
cost of the new building, which will contain libraries, reading-rooms,
gymnasium, etc., of the most approved description, will be $1,400,000.
The Young Men’s Christian Association is an organization whose
influence is felt around the world. Its branches extend to every
inhabited portion of the globe, and it goes without saying, perhaps,
that a member of the Y. M. C. A. from another city is always sure of
a welcome at the home of the Association in this city or elsewhere.
In addition to the members, strangers are always welcome at the
Association rooms and every consideration shown for their benefit and
comfort.
The Chicago membership is over 5,000. There are five branches in
different parts of the city.
The Public Library is an institution the good influence of which can
hardly be over-estimated. It is at present located on the fourth floor
of the City Hall building, though in future years it will occupy a
splendid home of its own now in progress of erection on the vacant
lot known as Dearborn Park, Michigan avenue, between Randolph and
Washington streets. It is one of the largest free public libraries in
the world, and its reading and reference rooms are at all times open
to strangers. A card signed by some respectable citizen is the only
passport needed to its circulating shelves.
The new Women’s building, at the corner of La Salle and Monroe streets,
must remain an everlasting monument to the influence of good women upon
the existence of mankind, at least so far as Chicago is concerned. It
was erected under the supervision of the Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union, of which Miss Frances Willard is President, and is devoted to
all the purposes in which female organizations are interested. The
building is fifteen stories in height and the architecture is superb.
Lady visitors will find it more than worth their while to inspect it.
The Permanent Art building, now in course of erection on the Lake
Front, on the site of the old Exposition building, is to take the
place of the old Art Institute, corner of Michigan avenue and Van
Buren street, recently purchased by the Chicago club. The structure
has a frontage of 320 feet on Michigan avenue, a length of 178 feet
and a depth of 208, with a main entrance facing Adams street. In it,
when complete, will be found as fine an art collection as any on the
American continent, upon which the visitor or student may spend hours
in meditative gazing. The World’s Fair directory contributed $200,000
toward the erection of the building, $275,000 more was raised by
the sale of the old building, and $125,000 by private subscription.
The structure, when completed and filled to the satisfaction of its
projectors, will be one of the sights of Chicago.
There are many other features that might be mentioned as embracing the
workings of Christian influence upon the mighty and ever-increasing
population of the city, but those mentioned will suffice. There are a
hundred avenues open to peaceful enjoyment for old and young, rich and
poor.
It is possible to spend any length of time in this city, and enjoy
yourself in a quiet, unostentatious and perfectly moral way without
being contaminated by the evil that confessedly exists in certain
spots.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PARKS AND BOULEVARDS.
[Illustration]
So much space having been devoted, not without reason, to the
attractions of Chicago after the evening shadows have fallen, it is
with a feeling of pleasure that one turns to the charms of the city by
day. If there is a city in the world calculated to offer the tourists
opportunities for pleasure in the daytime it is Chicago. It is natural,
perhaps, in considering these opportunities, to refer to the parks and
boulevards of Chicago, which, as good judges of such matters have said,
constitute a whole host of attractions in themselves.
The park system of Chicago is something upon which the city prides
itself perhaps more highly than on anything else. There is no city in
the world that contains such a complete system of breathing-places for
the people as is to be found in this one. The parks of Chicago embrace
a total area of 2,074 acres, which is exclusive of grounds covered
by park boulevards. The park system makes the circuit of the city,
being connected by boulevards and embracing a total length of perhaps
40 miles. The system is divided into three divisions, each one of
which is under the control of park commissioners, which commissioners
are elected by the courts. There are therefore three separate or
distinct government bodies: the South park commissioners, the North
park commissioners and the West park commissioners, who care for the
territories under their control, which are maintained by a tax upon
the three divisions of the city above signified. The city government
maintains the control over numerous small parks or squares, which are
maintained by the city treasury. All of the great parks are easy of
access, being easily reached by any of the cable lines at the rate of
five cents per passenger. South park, Jackson park and Washington park
may be speedily reached by the Illinois Central at the rate of 25 cents
for the round trip.
Chicago’s boast that it possesses the finest parks of any city in the
world will be found on investigation to be borne out by the facts. The
area of territory under care and cultivation, the artistic manner in
which the grounds are laid out and the general excellence of the _tout
ensemble_ so provided cannot be rivaled by any of the cities in the
Old World. It is not proposed in this modest work to give a technical
description of the various parks of the city, but rather to convey
a general idea of the natural and artificial beauties to be found
within their limits. On summer nights, when the hot air of the streets
drives the crowds from the business district to seek a refuge or
breathing-place, the cars that lead to the various parks are thronged
to the guards with people whose only universal desire is to get away to
some cool spot where they may enjoy a gentler atmosphere, with perhaps
a cool breeze thrown in.
Of the many parks of which the city boasts Lincoln park is perhaps the
most popular. This, perhaps, is because it is nearest to the business
centre and is also one of the largest, situated, as it is, on the very
shore of Lake Michigan and stretching from Diversey street on the north
to North avenue on the south, being bounded on the west by Clark street.
Lincoln park is reached from the south by the Lake Shore drive, which
is already the finest boulevard drive in Chicago, and which, when it
extends, as is promised, to the military post at Ft. Sheridan, will be
unequaled in all the world. The drive proper commences at North side
water works on Pine street and skims along the lake to the northern
extremities of the park itself, connecting at the park’s northern
most end with the Sheridan drive, which, when complete, will extend a
distance of 25 miles along the lake. Along this drive are grouped some
of the finest private mansions of which the city can boast. Noticeable
among these is the home of Potter Palmer, the proprietor of the Palmer
House, whose wife occupies the proud position of president of the
Board of Lady Managers of the World’s Fair. The Palmer castle, as it
is called, is a giant structure of dark-gray stone and its towers
and turrets present an appearance very little less imposing than the
ancient castles of the Old World. The Palmer castle is pointed out to
the visitors as one of the sights of the city. On the right side of
the drive is a strong embankment surmounted by a wall of solid stone,
against which the waves beat ceaselessly. On bright days the drive is
fairly thronged with brilliant equipages and the sight is a very gay
one. A boat racing course, especially designed for regattas, commences
just beyond the entrance to the park, being protected from the fury of
the sea by an outer pier.
Lincoln park itself is about 250 acres in area. In old days it was a
cemetery and the tomb of the Couch family is one of its land-marks. It
has been under state supervision since the year 1869, when the first
board of commissioners was appointed. All that art can contribute to
nature has been directed upon the project of beautifying this lovely
place, and the winding avenues, the glassy lakes, the rich foliage,
the gorgeous beds of flowers and masses of shrubs combine to produce
as attractive a picture as mortal mind could conceive or human eyes
delight in. Aside from the natural beauties of the place Lincoln park
possesses other attractions in the way of statuary and a zoological
collection, which exercise a peculiar charm for visitors. Notable among
the former is the Grant monument, facing Lake Michigan on the Lake
Shore drive, the cost of which was $100,000, the same being defrayed
by popular subscription. There is also the Lincoln statue, by St.
Gaudens, which faces the main entrance and was presented, together with
a drinking fountain, by the late Eli Bates, statue and fountain costing
$50,000. Other monumental works, notably the Indian Group in bronze,
presented by the late Martin Ryerson; the La Salle monument, presented
by Lambert Tree; the Schiller monument, erected by German residents
of Chicago, and the Linne monument, erected by the Swedish residents
of Chicago, are to be found at various points of the park. There are
also magnificent conservatories, in the flowery mazes of which the
visitor may wander at will, feasting his senses on beauties there to be
found. A feature of Lincoln park is the new palm house just erected,
the dimensions of which are 168 by 70 feet, with a rear extension, and
in which every variety of tropical palm will be exhibited. The cost of
this structure was $60,000 and it will well repay a visit.
From Lincoln park to Douglas park is a long jump, but for the sake of
continuity that jump may be appropriately taken, for the West side
parks come next in importance to Lincoln park when one is considering
the entire system. The area of Douglas park is 180 acres. It is
situated in a northwesterly direction four miles from the Court House,
being bounded on the north by 12th street, on the west by Albany
avenue and on the south by W. 19th street. The 12th street cars take
the passenger to the very gates of the park. Douglas park is located
in a neighborhood which some years ago was almost entirely destitute
of residences, but within the last few years it has been built up to
such an extent that those who saw the neighborhood in the days of its
primitiveness would scarcely recognize it now. The people who live
in that neighborhood have great affection for Douglas park, which is
artistically laid out and very skillfully cultivated. There is a large
lake with a boat-house and refectory. It has also an artesian well
whose waters are said to contain fine medicinal properties.
The chief park of the West side, however, is Garfield park, which is
reached by the W. Madison street cable cars, being situated four miles
directly west of the court house. It is bounded by Lake street on the
north, Madison street on the south, extending a mile and a half west
from Washington boulevard. In order to drive to Garfield park one
may traverse Washington boulevard, which, lined as it is with fine
residences, is one of the prettiest and most attractive to be found
in the whole city. It is an exceedingly well paved boulevard and on
certain occasions, when the police are not too vigilant, some smart
brushes between the rival owners of fast horses are occasionally to
be seen on its broad stretch of smooth road-way. This park was not
always known as Garfield; its first name was Central park, but this
was changed in honor to the memory of the martyred president. The
park itself is picturesque beyond measure, its drives and promenades
being laid out in such a manner as to cater to the most exacting of
tastes. Among its features may be mentioned a handsome fountain, the
gift of Mrs. Mancel Talcott, and an artesian well 200 feet deep, which
discharges mineral water at the rate of 150 gallons per hour. Beautiful
as Garfield park is at the present writing it bids fair within the next
few years to be advanced to an even more perfect state. The people of
the West side are determined that it shall be one of the handsomest
parks in the city, and are sparing no efforts to make it so. The West
side cable cars reach a terminus at this point, but connecting with
them is an electric line which carries passengers out to the town of
Cicero, through the suburbs of Austin and Oak Parks, at the uniform
fare of 5 cents.
Humboldt park is another West side breathing-place in which the
residents of the locality in which it is situated take especial pride.
Its area is 200 acres and it lies four miles north-west from the court
house, being bounded on the south by Augusta street, on the east by N.
California avenue, on the west by N. Kedzie avenue, and on the north by
W. North avenue. Humboldt park is beautifully laid out and its trees,
shrubs and flowers are of superb beauty. It has a fine conservatory and
an artesian well 1,155 feet deep.
The South side park system is the most complete of any in the city,
and it monopolizes the favor of visitors who desire to make a speedy
circuit of the three handsomest parks in the town within the short
space of half a day. The system of boulevards leading to these parks
cannot be equaled in the whole world. Michigan avenue boulevard, which
commences at Jackson street and the Lake Front, is the open sesame to a
drive as delicious as the most exacting soul can desire. This street is
one hundred feet wide from curb to curb and skirts the Lake Front park
at its commencement. Speeding up Michigan avenue, in whatever sort of
conveyance the taste of the tourist may select, a fine view is obtained
of some of the finest residences to be found in the whole city, many
of whose millionaires have built palatial homes at distances greater
or less from the business district. Michigan avenue proper extends
south to 35th street. At 35th street commence two boulevards, Drexel
boulevard and Grand boulevard. Drexel boulevard commences at Oakwood
and the junction of Cottage Grove avenue and 39th street, and has a
double drive-way 200 feet wide, having in its centre a wide strip of
turf dotted with shrubs and flowering plants, and at its western side a
soft track for equestrians. It was named after the Messrs. Drexel, the
famous bankers of Philadelphia, who, in appreciation of the compliment
thus bestowed, have erected a fine bronze fountain at the intersection
of Drexel avenue. Grand boulevard is a very similar stretch of road-way
in all respects. It runs south from 35th street, where South Park
avenue joins that thoroughfare, and forms the northwestern entrance to
Washington park. It also presents a beautiful road-way for driving and
has a side strip for equestrians, with flower beds, shrubs and green
turf on either side. Both of these boulevards are dotted by magnificent
private residences, the chosen homes of the wealthiest class in the
city. They form dual entrances to the circuit of boulevards leading to
the famous Washington park race-track, of which mention will be found
in another chapter.
Washington park, then, is entered from the beautiful drive-way on
Drexel boulevard, is most delightfully situated a little over a mile
from Lake Michigan and nearly seven miles southeast from the court
house, being bounded on the west and north by Cottage Grove avenue and
51st street, on the south by 60th street. In the opinion of many people
it is the finest of all of Chicago’s parks, being 371 acres in area,
its floral beauties and its charms of hillocks, shrubbery, woods and
water being almost beyond description. There is a great play-ground
100 acres in extent, upon which any one is free to indulge in any sort
of athletic game that fancy may dictate, also a large lake upon which
boating may be indulged. There is also a splendid conservatory, in
which many rare flowers of all lands may be viewed at any time. The
floral display is in charge of a great army of skilled gardeners, who
change the designs from season to season and always manage to turn out
something new.
Jackson park proper, the extreme southern part of which has been
selected as the site for the World’s Fair, lies about eight miles
southeast of the court house, being bounded as follows: on the west
by Stony Island avenue, on the north by 56th street, on the south
by 67th street and on the west by the blue waters of Lake Michigan.
The works incident to the preparation for the World’s Fair include
the excavating and dredging of the little lakes connected with Lake
Michigan. The preparations for the Fair have not materially interfered
with the northern portion of the park, the major portion of which is
devoted to a huge play-ground which is utilized all through the summer
by the devotees of tennis, base-ball and cricket, or by the militia as
a parade ground. Surrounding this open expanse of turf are beautiful
wooded avenues, while on the east side is a sea wall and promenade
from which a superb view may be had of the lake. Midway north and south
in the park, on the very edge of the water, is a large stone pavilion,
in which thousands of people may find shelter in rainy weather, and
which is sometimes used for dances and other festivities during the
summer months.
Visitors who desire to make a circuit of the South park system cannot
do better than patronize the phaetons which start every few minutes
from the northern terminus of Drexel boulevard and make the circuit in
about one hour, the charge for which is 25 cents.
It should be remembered that in case the visitor desires to make the
circuit of all the parks in a day the chain of boulevards extends
completely around the city. It is impossible to lose one’s way and
the merest hint at a desire for information at any point of the
journey will meet with the readiest response. In addition to the
parks herein described there are a number of smaller pretensions,
mere breathing-places, scattered about the city, that, while not
affording much opportunity for study, will, nevertheless, be found
to greatly enhance the attractions of the journey. The scene in any
of the great parks, particularly at night, when they are filled with
pleasure-seekers, will be found to be well worth investigation. At
that time there are all sorts and conditions of people to be found,
all bent upon the enjoyment of the hour and determined to console
themselves so far as they may for the trials and vexations of the day.
The moon is shedding an indulgent light down upon the merry-makers as
they stroll to and fro in laughing groups beneath the whispering trees.
There is light, mirth, laughter everywhere, and the merriment of the
idling wanderers is echoed from time to time by the rippling of the
water as it laps upon the sandy shore. It is indeed a pleasant picture.
Far away in the distance, separated by only a few miles of dusty roads,
is the great city, teeming with life, turmoil and wickedness. Here all
is peace. The air is soft and balmy, the spirits of the merry-makers
are at their highest without being vexed either by the recollection of
the tumult of the day or care for the morrow. The benison of night,
assisted by the art of mankind, is perhaps responsible for the beauty
of the scene and the spirit of happiness and content that prevails.
Visit any of the parks on a hot summer night for an hour or two, when
all the world is devoted to calm relaxation, and see if you do not
subscribe to the sentiment.
CHAPTER XVIII.
RACING.
[Illustration]
The national love of horse-racing, which is growing in intensity year
by year, finds nowhere a better ground for development than in Chicago.
There are in active operation in this city during the months of summer
and autumn three admirably equipped race tracks, where the fleetest
horses in the world are entered in daily contests for fat purses.
Attached to each are commodious betting-rings, where the spectator
may indulge in any size of wager he desires, from a dollar upward. On
any fine day during the summer the roads leading to the tracks are
thronged with gay equipages, which add spirit to a scene always varied
and beautiful. Two of these tracks are located on the West side, one
at Hawthorne (Corrigan’s) and the other at the western extremity of
Garfield park (the Garfield Racing Association). The other, and by
far the most famous of the three, is the Washington Park Club, at
the southern end of Washington park. The Washington Park Club, under
whose auspices the races there are given each year, is a somewhat
aristocratic organization, composed of a number of the well-to-do
citizens of Chicago. The commodious club-house occupies a commanding
position to the west of the grand stand and admission thereto is
confined to members and their friends. To the grand stand and enclosure
adjoining, the public is admitted at a charge of one dollar per head.
The betting-ring is under the grand stand, and, from the fact that one
hundred book-makers are sometimes doing business there at the same time
and paying the club $100 per day apiece for the privilege, it may be
inferred that the industry is highly profitable.
The races given every year at this beautiful track are famous the
country over. They commence early in the month of June with the
American Derby, a race for three-year-olds, for which a stake of over
$20,000 in value is annually hung up. Derby day is one of the events
of the year in Chicago. Every vehicle capable of transporting two or
more people to the pleasure ground is bespoken for weeks beforehand.
Along Michigan avenue the gay cavalcade goes--tally-hos with their
freight of gallant knights and ladies fair; wagonettes, dog-carts,
man phaetons, with their clanking chains and glossy steeds; tandems,
cocking-carts--the new fashionable vehicle drawn by three horses
abreast--down to the simplest and most democratic of conveyances. Away
they go, and every window along the route contains its group of people
who, while not going to the Derby themselves, intend to see the best
part of the show. For hours the procession continues, the vehicles
turning from Michigan avenue into the boulevards and then winding into
the parks, to emerge presently at the great gateway of the tracks and
unload their pleasure-seeking occupants.
The scene when the bell is rung for the great race is one which
impresses itself on the mind beyond all possibility of effacement.
Spectators are packed in the paddock like sardines in a box. The grand
stand is a solid mass of men and women, the toilets of the latter
presenting a brilliant picture in the gorgeous sunlight. In the centre
of the great in-field, as it is called, jockeys and stable boys are
walking about, and scattered here and there are some of the noble
brutes that are to take part in the day’s contest. The horses come
on the track and a buzz sweeps over the vast assemblage as they go
cantering to the post. A few minutes of suspense and then--“They’re
off!” cries the crowd and past the grand stand they sweep like a
splendid troop of cavalry, the jockeys sitting like statues on the
struggling beasts, each one of which is animated by an almost human
determination to conquer in the struggle. A moment more and it is
over, and a roar goes up as the winner sweeps past the judge’s stand.
The great Derby has been lost for some and won by others. After the
subsequent and lesser races are over the cavalcade sweeps back to the
city again, the winners shouting and singing for joy and the losers
solemn in their silence.
The Washington park meeting lasts till the latter part of July. The
present officers of the club are as follows: President, George Henry
Wheeler; vice-presidents, Samuel W. Allerton, Albert S. Gage, H. I.
McFarland, Charles Schwartz; treasurer, John R. Walsh; secretary,
John E. Brewster; assistant secretary, James Howard; directors, N. K.
Fairbank, Norman B. Ream, Samuel W. Allerton, James W. Oakley, Columbus
R. Cummings, Charles I. Barnes, John R. Walsh, Henry Norton, A. S.
Gage, S. H. Sweet, G. H. Wheeler, Thomas Murdock, H. J. McFarland,
C. J. Singer, and others.
The Garfield park and Corrigan tracks commence operation at the close
of the Washington park meeting. The gatherings at these tracks are by
no means so aristocratic, but the purses offered are rich and the
racing is of the first quality. The betting facilities are ample. For
a while the admission to the Corrigan track was free, but it is a
question whether the practice will be followed in future.
At present Chicago is one of the liveliest racing centers in the
country during the season and the visitor who desires to see a little
of this exciting sport will find the amplest facilities at his command
for so doing.
CHAPTER XIX.
OPEN-AIR ENTERTAINMENTS.
[Illustration]
Under this head come the open-air shows of different dimensions, one
or more of which are always running in Chicago during the summer
months. Last year Thearle & Cooper gave the public a treat with an
entertainment that they styled “A Night in Pekin.” The location was
the great vacant lot at the southern limit of Washington Park, across
the street from the race-track of that name. Tiers upon tiers of seats
accommodated thousands of spectators, who watched the drama, enacted
in pantomime, of the destruction of the city of Pekin by the British
naval forces. The work of desolation was preceded by games, slack-wire
walking and other interesting feats. The bombardment itself was a
magnificent spectacle. As the big buildings came toppling down in ruins
and the inhabitants rushed screaming about, showers upon showers of
fireworks were discharged and the roaring of the great guns kept up
until the work of demolition was over. It was conceded at the time
that the spectacle, from a pyrotechnical standpoint, was the finest
ever seen in Chicago, but from all accounts the shows to be given this
year and next will eclipse it. For the World’s Fair year the Kiralfys,
those consummate masters of the spectacular, have promised a production
on the same order as the “Night in Pekin” that shall totally eclipse
anything in the line of an open-air show ever before seen or heard of.
Its exact nature has not yet been outlined, but if all the promises are
kept it will be something very wonderful.
The attractions of this sort of an entertainment are manifold. Aside
from the show itself, which is always interesting, there is the
pleasant, happy-go-lucky spirit that always pervades great crowds
bent on an evening’s fun. The peanut and lemonade venders ply their
calling briskly, and come in for the usual share of “guying” that such
merchants always excite. In hot weather the out-door spectacles detract
from the attendance at the theatres, people preferring to secure their
entertainment in the open air if possible. Spectacles like “Pekin,”
it is perhaps unnecessary to say, cost many thousands of dollars to
produce.
Speaking of the peanut and lemonade men reminds one that the two great
circuses, Barnum & Bailey’s and Forepaugh’s, exhibit in Chicago every
summer. They generally appear for two weeks each, and of course parade
in due form, according to custom, through the streets of the city on
the opening day. Who shall picture the delights of the circus? Are
they not as old as the memory of man? Strange but true it is, that the
older we get the circus that we remember as the circus of our youth
strengthens its charm upon our memory and we would not miss a sight of
it if we could. We have the added pleasure of taking our little ones
to see the sights that so delighted us in our own childhood, and that
should be the keenest pleasure of all.
[Illustration]
A summer rarely passes without a succession of smaller shows in the
open air, such as balloon ascensions, bicycle races, cricket and
base-ball matches and so on. There is a resort known as Cheltenham
Beach, a strip of sand twelve miles from the City Hall, reached by
the Illinois Central railway and known as “The Coney Island of the
West,” although it has never touched the real Coney Island in point of
prosperity. At Cheltenham Beach there is always a show of some sort
going on. It may be athletics. It may be a broad-sword combat between
mounted gladiators. It may be an ascent by a parachute artist, a nervy
gentleman who soars a thousand feet in the air in a balloon and then
descends gracefully to the earth (at the imminent and exhilarating risk
of his neck) under a parachute to which he clings by a thin trapeze
bar. This is a hair-raising exhibition frequently seen and quite
often ending in the maiming for life of the hardy ærial navigator. At
Cheltenham Beach, however, everything “goes,” as it were, and nobody
ever complains unless it is on account of the small amount of beer
doled out for the conventional nickel. Occasionally they have barbecues
and clam-bakes at Cheltenham Beach, which, though at times enjoyable,
are not exactly the class of entertainment to which one would invite
the ladies of his family.
There are always vast crowds of people in Chicago athirst for
amusement. That is why amusement caterers grow so rich when they give
good shows. It has been the purpose of the present chapter to show that
there is plenty of amusement to be found out-of-doors.
CHAPTER XX.
AN IDEAL AFTERNOON.
[Illustration]
The charms of Chicago as a summer resort have been sung ever since one
can remember. No matter how sultry the atmosphere in the down-town
district, there is generally a cool breeze from the lake to temper
the fierceness of the sun if one can only get where it is blowing. It
is the purpose of the present chapter to describe how a simply ideal
afternoon may be spent, provided the weather is suitable, by a drive
along the north shore, taking in two well-known summer resorts in the
journey.
About three in the afternoon is a good time to start. By that time the
sun has moved well around toward the western heavens and the extremity
of its fierceness has departed. Let it be understood for the sake
of illustration that the traveler has secured a companion for the
journey--for who likes to go driving alone, I should like to know?--and
this makes him seem so much the better natured when he asks the hotel
clerk to procure him from some first-class livery stable the particular
sort of a rig he may fancy. It may be either a modest one-horse buggy,
a high-wheeled cart (if it is desired to make an attempt at style), a
mail-phaeton with a spanking team, or any one of half a dozen other
styles of conveyance to be had at short notice. It may even happen that
he has secured a lady companion for the trip, and if so, the lucky
dog is to be envied, eh? Who does not know how much more pleasure is
attached to the task of holding the ribbons when one’s left elbow is
continually jolting against the shoulder of a pretty woman at one’s
side.
The start is made in due season. The pace is necessarily careful up
Michigan avenue and on to the big Rush street bridge (we are to have
a mammoth viaduct hereabouts some day, so “they say”) but once on the
North side the gait may be accelerated to a slashing trot, the smart
pace of which will lend an added color to the cheek of the charmer at
your elbow--always supposing the companion to be feminine. Turning into
Dearborn avenue at Ohio street the smooth asphalt pave is encountered
on which the hoofs of the spirited animals sound smartly. It is only
a few minutes until North avenue is passed and Lincoln Park reached,
upon which we swerve gently to the right, pass around the curves by Mr.
Yerkes’ great electric fountain, and the Lake Shore Drive (referred
to in a previous chapter) is reached. Hence and away there stretches
a wide and smooth expanse of roadway two full miles straight to the
northward. The blue waters of the lake are dancing and sparkling in the
sunlight. The refreshing breeze is coming straight from the east and
rustling the green foliage of the trees on the left. Is it any wonder
that the blood flows quicker through the veins and that the tug of the
horses at the bits produces an exhilaration that leads to a desire for
increased speed? Even the beasts feel the spirit of the thing, and
dash ahead buoyantly over the broad roadway. Other vehicles swarm over
the pleasure course--heavy family carriages, in which fat dowagers are
taking an airing; dog carts driven tandem by smart young men whose
fathers have big bank accounts, and here and there an actual exercising
cart with a blooded trotter between the shafts--it all makes up a gay
panorama and the probabilities are that if you are human you will let
out a link in the lines and indulge in a wee bit of a race just to see
if the horseflesh you are in charge of is not just a little better
than the next man’s. This will go all right until the mounted park
policeman motions you to moderate your pace. His mandate must be obeyed
or an arrest and fine will be the result. The policemen are sometimes
conveniently blind, however, and sometimes enjoy a bit of a brush as
much as anybody, but really furious driving is against the law and will
not be tolerated.
[Illustration: A SUMMER CONCERT GARDEN.]
But the two miles have been passed by this time and Diversey street
and the northern limit of the park is reached. A few yards further
and it is time to stop, for we have reached the great gateway of the
famous summer garden, formerly known as “Fischer’s,” but which is now
conducted by a gentleman of another name. No matter what the name is;
it is still Fischer’s just the same. Driving through the gates into the
grounds a servant takes charge of the team, leaving you at liberty to
stroll down to the covered pavilion which abuts on the very edge of the
lake and sit and drink in the cooling breeze to your heart’s content.
There are other refreshments that you may indulge in if you choose, but
it is generally conceded that the breeze alone is worth the price of
admission.
Fischer’s is an established North side resort. Besides being a favorite
objective point for a drive it is also pleasantly accessible by
water. There is a landing for boats, many of which arrive there during
the afternoon and evening hours, freighted with many young folks who
laugh and sing gaily as they come skimming over the water to the
common haven. On certain evenings during the summer, generally three
in each week, Professor Rosenbecker’s orchestra (see Sunday concerts)
gives a concert at the garden, and then is the time to see whole
bevies of pretty girls and women, decked out in all the attractive
bravery of summer attire, sipping sherbet or lemonade in the moonlight
and contributing their quota of charm to a scene as picturesque and
brilliant as any to be found in the West.
[Illustration]
The stop at Fischer’s, however, is merely for a brief rest and change
of scene; with the team freshly rubbed down we may start on the drive
to Sunnyside. A quarter of a mile north of Fischer’s we turn west to
Evanston avenue and speed through the pretty suburb of Lake View. The
branches of the trees at the side of the road will brush our hats off
as we go by if we don’t look out. But the horses spin onward, past neat
villas, with their snow-white barns in the rear--pictures of comfort;
past smoothly shaven lawns, upon which young people of both sexes are
engaged in rattling games of tennis; past lissome beauties who look
coyly up from the hammocks in which they are indolently reclining; past
all manner of interesting objects, each of which lend their separate
and special charm to the journey. We are skimming through Edgewater
presently--nicknamed by the irreverent “the dude town,” by reason of
its being so very spick and span. Then a sharp turn to the left and a
long stretch of highway, lined on one side by pretty trees. It begins
to look like the country at last, for here are some fields in which
thrifty husband-men and their wives are at work. A rattle and a thud
as we cross the railroad tracks, the dust flying from the hoofs of our
nimble steeds. One more sharp turn, a start into a private drive-way,
and here we are at our destination--Sunnyside.
One reason, perhaps, why the summer hotel--roadhouse, some people call
it--named Sunnyside is so popular is that it is just within comfortable
driving distance of the city. An hour and a half, or two hours
(counting for the customary stop at Fischer’s) is the time allowed for
the journey. The hotel itself, kept by the Dowling family for years, is
a great rambling old wooden building standing in the midst of spacious
grounds. A peculiarity of the place is the beautiful independence of
the proprietors, an independence that manifests itself in their refusal
to cater to the whims of guests. A supper bill of fare is arranged by
them. Supper costs one dollar per person served. No orders for special
dishes are taken. You can take what is there or go without it. But no
one was ever heard to complain of the fare. There is beef-steak, from
the loins of fat cattle slaughtered by old man Dowling himself. In
addition, maybe, there is a plump chicken raised in old lady Dowling’s
own poultry yard, and whose neck was blithely wrung by her own fair
hand that very morning. There is green corn and ripe tomatoes and
young onions and other delicacies all raised on the Dowling demesne,
and all included in the dollar. If there has been no joke about it
and you really are accompanied by the charming damsel I have hinted
at, the meal is doubtless all the more enjoyable. Having youth and
good appetite, sharpened by the ride, you can do justice to the homely
and honest fare. You may have a little private dining-room all to
your two selves, bless your dear hearts, and every two minutes or so
Mother Dowling will come bustling into the room, eager to see if you
are satisfied with the service and anxious to supply any deficiencies.
She is a sweet old dame, and if by the merest chance she should catch
you in the very act of conveying to your inamorata an idea of the high
estimation in which you hold her--if, indeed, she should detect your
face in too close proximity to your inamorata’s face, her joyous laugh,
strident and cracked though it may be under the stress of the many
years that have rolled over her head, will echo uncannily through the
corridors, awakening all the echoes and making you wonder if your fair
companion will look as well as she does when she is as old.
Dear old Lady Dowling! Venerable high priestess of the quaint old
sanctuary of Sunnyside! Many a time and oft, as the writer has heard
some merry party of noisy but honest fellows, of whom, alas! he was
one, roll out the rare old drinking chorus:
“Then here’s to Mrs. Dowling,
Drink her down! Drink her down!”
has he marvelled at the fewness of the wrinkles upon thy
brow--considering all that thou hast passed through in thy progress
through this earthly vale of tears.
The repast concluded, an adjournment to the wide verandah is in order,
there to enjoy a peaceful smoke and ruminate upon the experiences of
the hour. There may be at the other end of the verandah a party of
frolicsome youths who have driven out on a six-horse tally-ho, and
who have brought their mandolins and guitars along. Their songs and
laughter fall pleasantly upon the balmy air. If the songs and laughter
grow wearisome you may wander among the trees and shrubbery--and,
always supposing that fair feminine companion a pleasant
possibility--who may picture the enjoyment of such a stroll? The sly
old moon, always indulgent enough toward lovers to shrink gracefully
behind a cloud at the critical moment, smiles down a jocund benediction
upon the scene and it is all too soon that one is reminded of the
flight of time and that the proprieties demand a return to town.
Within three minutes of signifying a wish to that effect the conveyance
is brought to the front door by a cheery hostler, who gracefully
accepts from you the small _douceur_ that you may give him, and which
is the only charge--even that being voluntary--that is made for the
entertainment of your team. A chirrup to the horses and off you go, the
frolicsome youths upon the verandah lifting their hats and gratuitously
wishing you a pleasant voyage home as you speed away.
The drive back? Well, the pleasure thereof always depends upon
circumstances. If that pleasant possibility before hinted at is an
actuality--why, what is the use of picturing it? Have we not all, as
it were, been there before? But the whispering breeze, the ceaseless
murmur of the wavelets on the shore and the same old moon smiling so
persistently and blandly down--form delicious adjuncts to an experience
that once enjoyed will not soon be forgotten. The spirited horses still
tug lustily at the lines, but they are homeward bound and you can
afford them a little latitude if the supposititious companion seems
to demand a little more of your attention than she did on the outward
journey.
Pshaw! What does it all matter? It is only a few hours of pleasure,
after all; yet I think you will confess to me, as your horses trot back
over the Rush street bridge, that it has been an ideal afternoon.
CHAPTER XXI
ON THE WATER.
[Illustration]
The part Lake Michigan will play in the transportation of people to and
from the World’s Fair Grounds has not at this writing (May, 1892) been
definitely determined upon. It is beyond question, however, that some
proper arrangement in this direction will have been made long before
the Fair opens, for it would seem highly impossible that the great
facilities for water transportation should not be properly utilized.
For some reason or other aquatic sports and pleasures have not
flourished in Chicago as they should, considering the immense
advantages in that direction that are lying, as it were, at our
very doors. Some people attribute the small interest of the average
Chicagoan in aquatics to the unstable character of the great sheet of
water known as Lake Michigan--an unstability which is shown sometimes
in the quick gathering of storms. The lake may be shining like a
sheet of glass one hour, and in the next heaving tumultuously under
the influence of a squall. This sort of thing puts a check on the
ambition for boating to some extent, but is hardly a sufficient reason
why the sport of yachting--one of the grandest of all sports--should
not flourish. The yachtsmen of New York, Chicago amateur marriners are
fond of arguing, have infinitely greater risks to run in New York bay
than we have in our harbor and lake, but yacht clubs flourish there,
and in fact in all the cities on the Atlantic coast, while in Chicago
the enjoyment of this royal sport is confined to a few enthusiasts
who vainly endeavor to enlist the sympathies of the multitude in the
pastime they find so delightful.
There are few sailing yachts in commission nowadays, but there are
several yacht clubs, and the time may come when the sport will be
properly revived and encouraged. The Chicago Yacht Club, whose office
is at 655 Rookery building, has many members. Its officers are
A. T. Fisher, commodore; Harry Duvall, secretary; J. W. S. Brawley,
treasurer. The President of the Countess Yacht Club is Mr. Sidney W.
Woodbury, and the treasurer, E. W. Herrick. The Countess Yacht Club
derives its title from the somewhat celebrated craft of that name.
The _Countess_ is a magnificent sloop, and the club is composed of
the gentlemen who own her and take their enjoyment on board of her.
The _Countess_ was built in Canada and named originally the _Countess
of Dufferin_, in honor of the wife of the then Governor-General of
the Dominion, the Earl of Dufferin. She was built to contest for
the American cup but did not succeed. The name was changed to the
_Countess_ when she was brought to Chicago. The _Countess_ may be seen
any bright summer day gallantly riding the waters of the bay opposite
Lake Front Park. It is an enthusing sight to see her starting bravely
out into the lake with all her canvas set, heeling gracefully on in
deference to the breeze. Dozens of smaller but none the less ambitious
craft swarm about her and endeavor to keep the pace, their snow-white
sails showing prettily against the blue sky. But the _Countess_ is too
speedy for them and out-fools them all.
Perhaps the most active yachting organization in Chicago is the Lincoln
Park Yacht Club, organized two years ago. Its list of officers is as
follows: Commodore, James J. Wilson; vice commodore, S. S. Johnson;
rear-commodore, A. E. Back; treasurer, H. A. Paus; secretary, C. O.
Andrews. This club possesses an advantage inasmuch as the vessels
of its members find a safe haven and anchorage in the new slip,
protected by a break-water, at Lincoln Park, which has been constructed
especially for regattas. From ten to fifteen yachts find shelter here,
and some splendid yacht races may be witnessed during the summer over
what is termed the Lincoln Park course, extending some five miles out
into the lake. The race is always made outward and return, and the
spectacle is beautiful to witness when half a dozen of the fleet craft
are speeding over the waves in the contest for supremacy. The yacht
races during the summer naturally heighten the attraction of this most
popular of all the parks.
There are many boat clubs. The Catlin Boat Club has a clubhouse at
the foot of Pearson street, on the North side. The Ogden Boat Club’s
house is at the foot of Superior street, half a mile further south. The
Farragut Boat Club is the most pretentious of all, however, possessing
as it does, in addition to its boat-house at the foot of Thirty-third
street, a handsome clubhouse on Lake avenue, just below Thirty-first
street, which is the scene of many noteworthy social events. The
clubhouse contains, in addition to its comfortable parlors and
reception rooms, a bowling alley, pool-room and lavatories, while the
upper story is devoted to a dancing hall and theatre with a seating
capacity of 400.
So much for the private aquatic organizations. While a visitor with
influential friends finds no difficulty in securing an introduction
to any of them, and a consequent temporary share in their privileges,
they are, of course, more or less exclusive, and the reader’s interest
will naturally go to such provisions as are made for the enjoyment and
entertainment of the stranger and the unknown.
Down on the Lake Front, just across the Illinois Central tracks, will
be found from ten to fifteen pretty yachts, owned by their captains,
who will take a party out for an hour’s sail at the rate of 25 cents
per hour. In case there are only two of you the charge will be a
dollar, the owners never moving out for less than that sum. These
crafts are sound and seaworthy and in the charge of old sailors whose
skill and nerve are to be trusted and relied upon in any sort of
weather. It is a most delightful manner of spending an hour. When the
heat in the city is stifling and not a breath of air is stirring, try
the experiment of a spin over the blue waters and see how refreshing
is the breeze that is invariably blowing briskly over on the Michigan
shore. There is not even time to get sea-sick, no matter how violent
the motion of the staunch little vessel, yet if any of the passengers
should feel squeamish the captain is only too ready to put about and
return home.
If the pleasure-seeker prefers steam to canvas as a motive power he can
take his choice between a trip to the government pier or water-works
crib, and a longer sail to Jackson or Lincoln Park. The fare to the
pier and back is ten cents; the round trip to and from the crib or
either of the parks is 25 cents. There are several more pretentious
vessels that go out at night for moonlight excursions on the lake.
They start both from the Lake Front and from the river, in the latter
case generally at the Clark street bridge. They always secure a large
patronage and there is generally a good time enjoyed by those who make
up such excursions. The decks are crowded with pretty girls and their
escorts, it somehow generally happening that the girls outnumber the
boys, and, as a dance is always begun the minute the vessel is well out
in the lake, the pair of strangers who have resolved to try this manner
of spending the evening are apt to find their company very much in
request. The advent of another year will probably see a large increase
in the number of excursion steamers, and during the Fair the lake will
doubtless be drawn upon to its fullest extent as a source of pleasure
for the visiting throng.
All the foregoing applies to short trips. There are steamship lines
whose vessels make very extended journeys.
[Illustration]
It not infrequently happens that visitors take advantage of the
excellent opportunities afforded and make one or two voyages that they
remember with pleasure long after their return to their homes in the
country. The Graham Morton Transportation Company’s steamers leave
from the dock at the foot of Wabash avenue for St. Joseph and Benton
harbor daily, at 9:30 in the morning and 11 o’clock at night, arriving
at St. Joseph at 1:30 P.M. and 3 in the morning. On Sunday one trip
is made, leaving at 10 A.M. and arriving at 2 o’clock. The fare for a
single trip is $1 but the round trip can be made for that price if the
passengers return the same day. The fine side-wheel steamer _City of
Chicago_, one of the handsomest on the lakes, is the star of this line.
The Sunday excursion on this ship costs $1.50. The voyage is directly
across the lake, about 40 miles, and is made on schedule time in good
weather; adverse winds and waves are apt to cause a little delay.
The Goodrich line, however, is the leading line of lake steamers as
well as the oldest. The company’s dock is at the foot of Michigan
avenue. The steamers ply between Chicago and all ports on Lake
Michigan, such as Racine, Milwaukee, Sturgeon Bay, Menominee, Grand
Haven, Muskegon, Green Bay and Manistique. The trip to Muskegon, which
takes one night, is especially enjoyable and many people indulge in it
for the purpose of seeing the greatest lumber town in the world, which
distinction Muskegon enjoys; the night trip to Milwaukee is also a
favorite, especially in hot weather. Milwaukee, as is ever known, is a
sort of Gretna Green for youthful and impressionable Chicago couples,
who are in the habit of eloping to that happy haven, getting safely
married and then returning on the next boat to seek the parental
forgiveness which is almost invariably bestowed if they wait long
enough. The Saturday night boat rarely starts in the summer months
without at least one such eloping couple on board.
Some of the Goodrich line vessels will bear comparison with the
finest ocean steamers. The dimensions of the Virginia, for instance,
are as follows: 278 feet over all, 260 feet keel, 38 feet beam and
25 feet deep. The hull is divided into six water-tight compartments,
so constructed that if the vessel were cut squarely in two halves it
would float. The interior decorations and equipments are of the most
magnificent description. No one should fail to at least inspect this,
by all odds the finest vessel that floats the lakes. Other fine vessels
of this line are the _Indiana_, _City of Racine_ and _Menominee_.
The steamers of the Lake Michigan & Lake Superior Transportation
Company, which are all elegantly appointed, carry passengers between
Chicago and Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior. These staunch
steamers leave Chicago Wednesday and Saturday evenings, leaving the
dock at Rush street bridge at 8:30, and call at Mackinac, Sault Ste.
Marie, Marquette, and all Lake Superior ports. The passenger traffic on
this line during the summer is enormous and increases constantly with
the fame of the northern summer resorts, which are yearly growing more
popular.
The pleasure-seeker is hardly likely to be interested in the commercial
side of the Chicago lake marine. The story of its magnitude, however,
may be told in one brief paragraph:
The daily arrivals and clearances at Chicago exceed those of New York
by fifty per cent, being nearly as numerous as those of Baltimore,
Boston and New York combined. Figures talk, and these are the figures
that Chicago modestly presents to the observation of the wondering
stranger.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE RESTAURANTS OF CHICAGO.
[Illustration]
In response to the question, “Where shall we eat?” one might say: “You
pay your money and you take your choice.” There are more than six
hundred restaurants in Chicago and you will admit that the declaration
is not imperfect. That is to say, there are over six hundred now, but
at the present ratio of increase there will doubtless be a thousand or
more a year hence. It eventually follows that these restaurants are of
all grades. There are places where you can get a meal for ten cents;
others where no single dish costs less than 50 cents to $1.00. All
the leading hotels--the Richelieu, Auditorium, Victoria, Wellington,
and Palmer, as well as the family hotels, like the Metropole and
Virginia, have restaurants or _cafes_ (that is the fashionable term)
attached, where the service is very elegant and the price pitched in
a corresponding altitude. Cheap restaurants are to be found in every
quarter of the city. There is scarcely a block without one, but the
down-town trade is monopolized by a few large and well established
institutions that serve all sorts of meals at moderate prices.
Kinsley’s, No. 105 Adams street, is a place which caters to all
classes. On the ground floor is a lunch-room or restaurant in which a
good meal may be purchased for twenty-five to fifty cents. On the next
story are two fine _cafes_, one for the exclusive use of gentlemen and
the other for ladies, or ladies with escorts, in which the service and
prices are on the same grade as the hotel _cafes_. Other floors are
devoted to private dining-rooms of all sizes. There is also a banquet
and ball-room, which is at the service of large parties.
Other large restaurants, where good, plain food only is served at
moderate prices, are Thomson’s, 143 and 145 Dearborn street; Saratoga,
155 and 157 the same street; Central, on Randolph street near State,
and Tacoma, north-west corner Madison and La Salle streets.
The oyster houses of Chicago form a special feature in themselves.
There are four of this class. The Boston Oyster House, Clark and
Madison streets; Chicago Oyster House, Madison street between Clark and
La Salle; the Lakeside, Clark and Adams; Rector’s, Clark and Monroe.
Three of these serve all kinds of meats when desired, as well as fish
of every variety, but Rector’s is an oyster house pure and simple,
where only fish and game are served. Rector’s is a favorite resort
after the theatre. From eleven o’clock to midnight it is crowded with
people of all classes, with a very strong sprinkling of the sporting
and professional element. There are pretty actresses galore, some of
whom are attended by their hard-working husbands who have places in
the same company with them; others by young men of means who enjoy the
prestige of having been acquainted in that particular sort of social
worldliness. It is a gay scene in any event and the fun is often kept
up until long after midnight.
There are at least three places that make a specialty of catering to
patrons who desire the seclusion of private dining-rooms. These are
Lassagne’s, on South Clark street, opposite the court house; Weber’s,
and the Vendome, State street, between Madison and Monroe. Lassagne’s,
as the name would indicate, is kept by a Frenchman and the cooking and
service are essentially French. The service at Weber’s and the Vendome
is similar in almost every respect. The prices charged at these places
are not at all exorbitant, and a private dining-room is always in great
demand with affectionate couples who desire a tempting tete-a-tete
meal that would not be nearly so enjoyable if it lacked the charm
of privacy and the opportunities for the display of sentiment which
such privacy permits. These dining-rooms are small apartments, neatly
partitioned off and graded in sizes to suit parties of from two to
twenty. That these are liberally patronized may be inferred from the
merry bursts of laughter that are occasionally heard pealing through
the carpeted halls as the busy waiters go scurrying to and fro with
their piles of well filled dishes. It has been said that it is from
the sale of wines that the proprietors are enabled to maintain these
private-dining-rooms, consequently it is the proper caper to wash down
the very reasonably priced dinner with a bottle or so of one’s favorite
style of grape juice if the person can afford it, and if you can’t,
why, you have no business there.
[Illustration]
The _table d’ hote_ has become quite an institution in Chicago within
the past two or three years. It is presumed that every reader of
this book knows what the term signifies, but it will do no harm to
explain it. The term is a French one, signifying “the hotel table.”
The _table d’ hote_, then, is a course dinner, given at a fixed price,
upon payment of which the patron is entitled, if he wishes for it, to
a taste of every dish mentioned on the printed bill of fare. To so
grade the courses of a big dinner as to pamper the appetite and leave,
with the consumption of each course, a desire for the appearance of
the next, is a splendid art, second to none in the opinion of some
people, and at least one _table d’ hote_ in Chicago comes very close
to perfection. This is the _table d’ hote_ inaugurated by Mr. Leland
and since maintained by the purchasers of the hotel of that name. The
price of this dinner is $1.00, and in addition to the twelve courses
of eatables each person is entitled to a bottle of excellent red or
white wine. An orchestra stationed somewhere discourses sweet music
during the meal, which is served from 5:30 to 8:00 P. M. A very similar
_table d’ hote_, but without wine, is served at the Palmer House at
the same price. A most excellent dinner may be had at a little French
restaurant on Monroe street, one door west of the Columbia theatre, for
seventy-five cents.
In one respect the _table d’ hote_ is a most excellent arrangement.
Considering the lavishness of the spread a dollar is a very reasonable
price; the same dinner could not be purchased in a first-class
restaurant _a la carte_ for less than five or six dollars, if not more.
If a party of four or six people want to enjoy a jolly dinner at a
reasonable price, amid pleasant surroundings, they should patronize the
_table d’ hote_, always supposing they have plenty of time. The dinner
takes an hour to serve comfortably. Those who are rushed for time
should go elsewhere.
A chapter on restaurants would be incomplete without a reference to the
innumerable boarding-houses of Chicago. For a person who contemplates
a more or less extended stay a boarding-house is perhaps the best
place to go. It is certainly much more economical than living at a
first-class hotel. Excellent accommodations in boarding-houses in the
best parts of the residence districts may be secured at rates varying
from $4 to $10 per week, room and board. No need to describe the
location of boarding-houses. A glance at the advertising columns of
the daily newspapers will show you a quick route to hundreds of such.
If it is not desired to go to the trouble of selecting a boarding place
for yourself call at any of the many agencies--all of which print cards
in the “Board Wanted” columns of the Sunday papers--and tell the people
there exactly what you want. In nine cases out of ten they will send
you to a place which will be found suitable. There is no charge for
this service. The usual way is to charge the applicant a dollar, which
sum is deducted from the bill at the establishment he may select from
the list furnished by the agency.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE HAYMARKET MONUMENT.
[Illustration]
The statue which stands in the Haymarket, the broad square on Randolph
Street extending from Desplaines to Halsted, commemorates an event only
second in importance in Chicago’s history to the great fire of 1871. It
stands as a mark of that awful night, May 4, 1886, when the mouthings
of the anarchists culminated in the hurling of a bomb--the only bomb
ever thrown in America--into a squad of police, of whom seven were
killed and sixty-six laid low with awful wounds.
While looking at this monument, the figure of a policeman in heroic
size, the visitor may if he chooses, try to imagine that scene, when
Desplaines Street bore the appearance of a battlefield, and the station
house near by, whither the dead and wounded were carried, that of a
hospital. Think over it all, as you gaze at the monument, and try to
realize the importance of the bloody epoch which it typifies.
May day of that year had been fixed upon as the proper time to
inaugurate the eight hour movement. Prior to that date the anarchists
had become thoroughly organized. They held meetings every Sunday
afternoon on the Lake Front, when their leaders made fiery speeches,
advocating the murder of capitalists and the destruction of property.
On the first of May, strike after strike occurred in quick succession.
Within two days there were thousands of unemployed workmen in the
streets; the anarchist leaders did all they could to foster a spirit of
mischief and incite the strikers to deeds of violence. The Haymarket
riot itself originated in the great strike at the McCormick Reaper
works, which transpired February 11, the strikers’ places being filled
by non-union men. Police were put on guard at the works, and such
anarchist leaders as August Spies, Albert Parsons, Henry Fielden, and
Michael Schwab improved the opportunity to further excite disturbance
and disorder and to increase the hatred of the mob for the police. On
the evening of April 28, 1885, the new Board of Trade building was
opened and a swarm of anarchists, both men and women, marched to the
building, waving red flags and breathing death and destruction to the
“aristocrats” as they called them. It was a strange scene. Inside the
glittering building there were fair women, in dazzling toilets and
decked with gems, who shuddered as they gazed through the windows at
the menacing populace without--the same class of misguided beings who
turned Paris into a Hell during the revolution. The police drove the
mob away. The raving hordes dispersed, uttering curses and threats
as they went. This incident is related merely to show the spirit
which prevailed among the anarchists prior to the deadly deed of the
following year.
It was Monday, May 3, when the riot at McCormick’s occurred. As the
workmen left the building they were attacked by a great army of men
and women. The police were called and a battle, or rather a series of
battles, resulted, in which knives, sticks, stones and pistols were
used. The police were fired upon repeatedly by the mob and promptly
returned the fusillade. In all, six rioters were killed or injured,
and several police officers were wounded. One officer narrowly escaped
being lynched, and succeeded in breaking away from his captors as
they were about to string him up to a lamp-post, to which a rope had
already been attached. Immediately after this bloody affair the famous
“Revenge” circular was distributed--an incendiary document written by
August Spies, and supposed to have been the principal cause of the
bomb-throwing. As a historical document it is worth quoting:
“Revenge! Workingmen, to arms! Your masters sent out their
bloodhounds, the police. They killed six of your brothers at
McCormick’s this afternoon; they killed the poor wretches because
they had the courage to disobey the supreme will of your bosses;
they killed them because they dared to ask for the shortening of
the hours of toil; they killed them to show you, free American
citizens, that you must be satisfied and contented with whatever
your bosses condescend to allow you or you will get killed. You
have for years suffered unmeasurable iniquities; you have worked
yourselves to death; you have endured the pangs of want and hunger;
your children have been sacrificed to the factory lords--in short,
you have been miserable and obedient slaves all these years. Why?
To satisfy the insatiable greed, to fill the coffers of your lazy,
thieving masters. When you ask them now to lessen the burden they
send their bloodhounds out to shoot you--kill you. If you are men,
if you are the sons of your grandsires, who have shed their blood
to free you, then you will rise in your might, Herculean, and
destroy the hideous monster that seeks to destroy you! To arms! We
call you to arms!
YOUR BROTHERS.”
Events followed fast upon the issue of this circular. A number of minor
conflicts occurred, and then the _Arbeiter Zeitung_, of which Spies was
editor, called the Haymarket meeting in the following notice:
“ATTENTION, WORKINGMEN! Great mass meeting tonight, at 7:30
o’clock, at the Haymarket, Randolph street, between Desplaines
and Halsted. Good speakers will be present to denounce the latest
atrocious acts of the police--the shooting of your fellow workmen
yesterday afternoon.
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.”
[Illustration]
The hour came. The Haymarket Square and Desplaines Street were crowded.
From the top of a wagon, Parsons, Schwab and Spies made inflammatory
speeches. Fielden was in the midst of his, when a platoon of police,
over a hundred in number appeared, headed by Captain Ward and Inspector
Bonfield. Ward commanded the people to disperse, and at that instant
the bomb was thrown. It sputtered through the air like a comet and fell
with an awful roar in the ranks of the police, exploding with deadly
effect. Without wavering an instant, the surviving officers poured a
volley of pistol shots into the mob. For several minutes the battle
raged. When it was over the ground was littered with the dead and
dying. The wounded were taken to the Desplaines Street station.
The ringleaders were arrested the following day. Schnaubelt, the man
who threw the bomb was arrested but released by some mistake and
disappeared as completely as if the earth had swallowed him.
Spies, Engel, Parson, Fielden, Fischer, Schwab, Lingg and Neebe were
tried for conspiracy to murder. The trial was the most sensational
in Chicago’s history, and lasted thirty-six days. Neebe was sent to
the penitentiary; all the others were sentenced to death. All the
men made long speeches in court, protesting against the sentence,
but its justice was affirmed by the Supreme Courts of Illinois and
of the United States. The execution was fixed for November 11, 1887.
A petition asking for clemency was sent to Richard J. Oglesby,
then Governor of the State. The sentences of Fielden and Schwab
were commuted to life-imprisonment. The day before that set for
the execution, Lingg, who was the most ferocious anarchist of all,
committed suicide in a horrible manner. He placed a fulminating
cartridge in his mouth, cigar-fashion, lighted the fuse and calmly
waited until the thing exploded and blew off his head. The four others,
Spies, Parson, Engel and Fischer, were executed a few minutes before
noon the following day.
The writer of these lines saw these men die, being seated just below
the scaffold, with a complete view of the proceeding. The assertion
may be ventured, that every witness of that awful event was impressed
by the bravery with which the doomed four met their fate. They had
lived misguided lives and died ignominious deaths, but there was not a
coward among them. When they perished the anarchists of Chicago ceased
to exist as a political power. Their party, which suffered a staggering
blow by reason of the event of the proceeding year, was obliterated,
effaced by the tragedy on the scaffold which vindicated the righteous
power of law and order. The anarchists of Europe no longer look to this
country as a pleasant or profitable ground for the dissemination of
their doctrines.
When you gaze upon the Haymarket monument you may ponder on these
things. That simple figure typifies the rise and fall of anarchism in
Chicago--one of the most thrilling periods in all its history.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXIV.
“CHEYENNE.”
[Illustration]
This is an excellent neighborhood to let alone, however curious you
may be. The small section of city to which the nickname of “Cheyenne”
has been given comprises the district bounded by Harrison Street on
the north, Twelfth Street on the south, Dearborn Street on the east
and Fifth Avenue on the west. In this district reside more dangerous
characters than there are in any other portion of the city. It might
almost be called a negro colony, so many colored people reside in it;
but there are also large numbers of foreigners--the scum of the large
cities of Europe--who are fruit-peddlers and organ-grinders by day and
by night--heaven only knows what! They herd together like animals,
twenty families sometimes finding lodging in one tenement. It is a
historical fact that the police once literally “cleaned out” a house in
which sixty-one Italians were living. The sixty-one comprised several
families, as many as a score of persons sleeping in one room.
So desperate are many of “Cheyenne’s” known characters that no
policeman who patrols a beat in that locality is permitted to do so
alone. The officers move about in squads, armed to the teeth, for they
never know when a gang of habitual criminals, out on a drunken frolic,
may not swoop down upon them and evidence their traditional hatred for
law and order by inaugurating an attack upon the officers with clubs,
pistols and knives. When an arrest is contemplated in “Cheyenne,” a
dozen armed officers go to the objective point in a patrol-wagon,
prepared for any sort of an encounter; for it is a well-known fact that
every prominent Cheyenneite has an army of followers who regard it as a
point of honor to resist his arrest as bitterly as possible. The degree
of importance enjoyed by the gentleman whose arrest is contemplated
serves as a guide to the police authorities; if he is in any sense a
leader, twenty stalwart men are none too few to be entrusted with the
mission.
[Illustration]
It is with no idea of speaking disparagingly of the fair sex that
one remarks on the presence in “Cheyenne” of several dusky female
characters of whom the police have a wholesome dread. Most officers
would rather engage in a grapple with half a dozen male desperados than
with one of those formidable negresses. They are Amazonian in physique
and being thoroughly abandoned, are ready for any hideous devilment
which may or may not turn up. “Big Mag,” the wickedest and most
notorious character in Cheyenne was recently sentenced to five years
at Joliet, and will therefore be safely caged during the Fair. She has
raised riots without number in “Cheyenne” in her time. She is nearly
six feet in height, as straight as an arrow and of such marvelous
strength that no officer on the force would undertake to arrest her
single-handed. She had a record with the pistol, too, and there was
easier breathing at the Harrison Street Station when she went “over the
road” for a comfortable five years.
As a general thing, there is not much noise or tumult in “Cheyenne”
after nightfall. But its very quietude is its most deceptive feature.
Woe to the guileless countryman who, having been celebrating his visit
to the city not wisely but too well, ignorantly strolls into the
dangerous canton. There are dark forms lurking in the alley-ways and
doors, eager for prey. They carry razors as well as pistols, and will
stop at nothing when booty looms in sight. But there are other times,
generally on holidays when some electrical spark touches “Cheyenne,”
and then the whole settlement goes, as it were, on a roaring tear. At
such times the police are kept busy. There was one occasion--’twas
last Thanksgiving Day, if one remembers aright, when the inhabitants
of “Cheyenne,” male and female, turned out for a series of athletic
contests. The open streets served as a race-course, and the dusky
Amazons were the candidates for honors; the men preferring to stand and
lay wagers on their prowess. A herculean negro lined the “mares” up for
the start and sent them away to the crack of a pistol--no matter where
the bullets went; such trifles are not considered in “Cheyenne,”--the
Amazons picking up their skirts and tearing down the “track” to the
cheers of their applauding friends who lined the sidewalks. Between
races the saloons were patronized and the termination of the sport
may be imagined. So long as the Cheyenneites confined themselves to
mere racing, the police did not interfere, but when the bad whisky got
in its work to such an extent that fights occurred at the conclusion
of every race, an army of blue-coats swooped down and made wholesale
arrests. The scene which followed will never be forgotten. It is a
wonder that any policeman who figured in the raid escaped alive. The
mob of desperate blacks surged round the officers trying to rescue
the prisoners who had been gathered in at the first rush. Pistols
were drawn and many shots fired. Nobody was killed, but many heads
were cracked. The affair is talked of to this day in Cheyenne and no
police officer who figured in it has any desire for a repetition of the
experience.
It is just as well perhaps that so much of the dangerous element of
the city should be grouped or colonized in this one spot; as the
authorities know exactly where to look for it and can always be
prepared to check any lawless demonstration that may emanate from it.
If this locality is visited at all, it should be in broad daylight and
in good company. “Cheyenne” might fitly be termed the Whitechapel of
Chicago.
CHAPTER XXV.
CANDIES AND FLOWERS.
[Illustration]
A community’s prosperity is always to be gauged by the amount of money
it is able to spend on luxuries. And if candies and flowers are to be
classed as luxuries Chicago must be very prosperous indeed, for the
city supports a large number of large stores that are devoted to the
sale of one or both of these articles.
A high-class florist in these days simply coins money. He ought to
do so, with Jacqueminot and La France roses often at $12 a dozen.
There are several Chicago florists who are in a fair way to become
millionaires. The immediate profits of the candy business are not quite
so large, perhaps, but there is less risk. Roses fade in a day, and
if they are not bought are a dead loss. The sweet stuff on which the
young ladies of the period dote lasts a little longer and is disposed
of more readily. Perhaps the best customer of the florist and the candy
man alike is the susceptible youth who wishes to make the fair object
of his adoration think her best of him, and for that reason bestows
gifts of flowers and candy upon her as long as he seems to entertain
the ghost of a chance of getting any sort of return for his money. It
is the proper caper, if you are an engaged man, to send your _fiancee_
flowers and candy every day. This is where the profits of the purveyor
of these luxuries come in, for, when a marriageable young man gets
what is known as “the mitten,” it stands to reason that he is very
soon going to find somebody else upon whom to lavish the same gifts so
fruitlessly bestowed upon the cruel one. Of course when he actually
does marry, the florists and candy men may mark him off their books,
for who is so foolish as to suppose a man is going to buy flowers and
candy for his own wife? But, while the flower and candy men are apt to
deplore marriage on this account, they find comfort in knowing that for
every marriage that is taking place there are twenty young men arriving
at a marriageable age and thereby taking the place of the rescued
victim.
To mention all the florists of Chicago would take up too much space.
There are over two hundred of them. It is the fashionable thing
nowadays to join the two businesses, having flowers for sale on one
side of the shop and candy on the other. This is the case with the
Spencer store in the new Masonic Temple building, on State street, at
the corner of Randolph. The windows of this store are adorned with rare
palms and other handsome plants that prepare one for the beauties to
be found within. It is a splendid stand for a store of this character
and commands a large patronage. An establishment of a very similar
character, and quite as imposing, is the store of P. J. Houswirth
(successor to Charles Reissig), in the Auditorium building. It is a
convenient place to rush into during an operatic performance in the
Auditorium and purchase a $1000 bouquet to fling to a favorite singer.
Perhaps the best-known florist in Chicago is Michael H. Gallagher,
whose store is located in the Palmer house block, 163 Wabash, and whose
greenhouses are at 5649 Washington avenue. Mr Gallagher’s trade is very
large. “The superb floral decorations were by Gallagher,” is a familiar
phrase in the newspaper reports of weddings, receptions and kindred
gala events. Mr. Gallagher is said to have made a large fortune at the
business. Among the other prominent down-town florists may be mentioned
the following:
Joseph Craig, 84 State street; Charles Fisk, 149 State; Joseph Curran,
242 Wabash avenue; Walter Krintberg, 231 Wabash avenue; J. C. Vaughan,
88 State street (with a branch at 148 West Washington).
Coming to the consideration of candy, confectionery, and fine
fruits, the name of Charles Gunther first challenges attention. The
Gunther store, 212 State street, is without doubt one of the sights
of the city, containing, as it does, in addition to the regular
stock-in-trade, the Gunther museum, which the proprietor has spent the
best years of his life in collecting. The museum embraces curios of all
sorts and some of them are of great value. The entire collection is
worth a fabulous amount and there is a well-defined impression abroad
that the owner intends to give it to the city some day.
The furnishings of the Gunther store are magnificent. Tall mirrors
reflect the customer’s shape at every step. The rear part of two floors
is dotted with tables, at which iced drinks, ice cream, and light
luncheons are served. Whether with a view of purchase or not, the store
will well repay a visit. Gunther’s candy is advertised the country
over, and the concern enjoys an enormous out-of-town trade.
The new Berry candy store, at the north-east corner of State and Adams
streets, challenges Gunther’s for brilliancy. The walls and ceilings
are lined throughout with mirrors, set at all angles, and the effect at
night when all the electric lamps are in full blaze is one of dazzling
brilliancy. The usual soda water fountain and ice cream branch is also
to be found here. The store is the head-quarters of John Berry, the
proprietor, who, however, has branches at 155 East Madison, and 167,
241, 581 West Madison streets. The factory is on Washington boulevard,
corner of Sangamon street.
Huyler’s, 161 State street, is a branch of the famous New York house
of that name and enjoys a large patronage. It is a favorite resort
for ladies who, tired out with shopping journeys, stand in need of a
little refreshment. Plow’s, in the new McVicker’s theatre building,
is another popular store. On matinee days especially it is crowded
with purchasers. Boles & Kehoe, in Central Music Hall, claim that
their candy is equal to the best, and to judge by the size of their
trade the claim is well founded. The Kranz store, on the opposite side
of the street, is particularly gorgeous in its furnishings, and its
refreshment tables, as well as its counters, are always crowded.
There are many others that might be mentioned. The candy purveyors of
Chicago number over a thousand, and no one who is in need of a package
of the toothsome stuff need go away disappointed.
CHAPTER XXVI.
SUMMER NIGHT CONCERTS.
[Illustration]
“Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,” said Shakespeare,
and whether it does so or not it soothes the ruffled feelings of
the thousands who attend the summer night concerts at the new First
regiment armory on Michigan avenue near Sixteenth street. For the last
ten years the summer night concerts in this city have been given under
the direction of Theodore Thomas in the old exposition building, but
with the demolition of that time-honored structure Thomas has retired
from the summer musical arena, leaving his baton to be wielded by Max
Bendix, who for several seasons played the first violin in the Thomas
orchestra. The great exposition building, dirty and weather-beaten as
it was, had charms for the thousands who congregated there. It is true
that the occasional weird and unearthly shriek of a locomotive on the
Lake Front interfered sadly with the witching harmonies of Schumann or
Gounod and even drowned, at times, the ponderous volume of Wagnerian
outbursts. But it was delightfully cool and refreshing to sit among
the potted shrubs with which the great hall was dotted and drink in the
seductive strains simultaneously with one’s Seipp or Bass and watch the
never-ceasing procession of comely youths and airily clad maidens who
passed to and fro.
The atmosphere surrounding the armory concerts this year is perhaps
rather less democratic than that of the vanished exposition building,
but the general effect is the same. The massiveness of the structure as
viewed without heightens the pleasant impression received on stepping
within. The polished floor is covered for the most part with long rows
of neat chairs, but at each side of the big hall is a row of boxed
fir-trees behind which are scattered the miniature tables at which
light refreshments are served. Overhead are flags and bunting, while
light is supplied by rows of big electric lamps depending from slender
wires. Placed in niches at intervals along the walls are electric fans,
the incessant whirling of which supplies a pleasant draught, almost a
breeze, in fact, in the sultriest of weather.
As the hour arrives for the commencement of the concert the hall fills
up. The stream of amusement-seekers contains all qualities of people,
from the society belles of the adjacent avenues and their escorts to
the musically-inclined shop-girl from the West side, and the plump
capitalist to the thrifty book-keeper or ribbon salesman. Music is
the ostensible attraction for all, but it is quite as much to chat
with their friends in quiet nooks and to see what the other girls are
wearing that the prettily attired belles have made their appearance.
And some of the costumes are veritable dreams. The warmth of the summer
season affords every opportunity for the display of fetching feminine
apparel, and Solomon in all his glory was never arrayed like some of
the dames who patronize the summer night concerts.
The music itself is of the very best quality. Certain nights are
devoted to certain music. There are two “request” nights, when the
programs are made up from the numbers patrons have asked Director
Bendix to play. There are “popular” nights, when the classical idea
is pushed into the background for the nonce and the simplest of
compositions, the comprehension of which does not involve the knitting
of one’s brows and the tearing out of one’s hair by the roots, played.
There are two “ball-room” nights, when the best style of dance music is
played. Thus all tastes are catered to and all desires satisfied. He
who hankers for classical music may attend on such nights as classical
music is given and stay away on others. Others may consult their tastes
in the same way.
The general idea, that of supplying two hours of light entertainment
each night through the hot weather season, is a most excellent one.
The delicious strains discoursed by the fifty shilled musicians float
through the air, sending the listener into dreamland, their soothing
effect enhanced, possibly, by the magic effect of a mug of golden Bass
and the clouds blown from a fragrant weed. And ever and always there is
the procession of beauty, daintily clad, that pampers the eye and gives
rein to pleasant imaginations. A garden of pretty girls in a setting of
sweet sound--that is a good definition of the summer night concerts in
Chicago.
The concerts at the armory are given under the direction of Mr. Anson
Temple, the same active gentleman who manages the Schiller theatre on
Randolph street.
CHAPTER XXVII
SPECIAL FEATURES OF CHICAGO.
[Illustration]
There are not a few sights worth seeing in Chicago a detailed
description of which has been overlooked in the compilation of the
preceding chapters. It may not be amiss to set down a few of them as
briefly as may be and permit the reader to suit himself in the matter
of paying them a visit of inspection or not.
First in importance of these, perhaps, is the elevated railroad,
running from Congress street to Thirty-ninth through the alley between
State street and Wabash avenue. This is the South side line. The West
Side, or Lake street “L” road, is in rapid course of construction but
will not be finished for some time yet. Another road, along Ogden
avenue, is also projected, and though it is reasonably certain to be
built some day its completion is too far distant to merit extended
notice.
The South side “L” road commenced operations about the first of June of
the present year. Its cars are well built, roomy and well ventilated
and the run over the route to Thirty-ninth street is made in about
fourteen minutes. The road is to be extended south to the world’s fair
grounds in time for the opening of that great enterprise. Accustomed
as Chicagoans have always been to the introduction of novelties the
sight of the elevated railroad cars skimming along on a level with the
second-story windows of the houses along the route excited curiosity
and interest for several weeks, and it stands to reason that strangers,
while taking their first ride in the elevated cars, will experience the
same pleasant emotion. On the day that the road was formally opened to
travel a number of prominent citizens were invited to take the trip,
and from the accounts published at the time it is to be surmised that
many interesting sights were seen along the journey. The families
living in the rooms facing the alley were wholly unprepared for the
passage of the train, and the clear and unobstructed view that could be
had into their windows was productive of no end of merriment. Gentlemen
whose pleasures of the night before had caused them to sleep late
were surprised at their shaving mirrors, and ladies in every variety
of demi-toilette were fain to dodge behind closet doors or hastily
draw the curtains as the train loads of voyagers swept by. This sort
of thing was encountered all along the line, and, while the occupants
of dwellings whose rear windows face the alley have learned to look
for the trains by this time and guard against surprise, one is still
occasionally caught napping. The elevated railway affords a rapid and
pleasant mode of transit. Its trains run at all hours of the day and
night. The fare is five cents for the entire journey.
Although it is not altogether a pleasant place to visit the county jail
is inspected by parties of strangers who have a desire to glance at a
dark side of life in a big city. There may or may not be a number of
interesting prisoners in the jail at the time of your visit, but if
not there are spots that will be shown you by the affable clerk, Ben
Price, that are full of historical interest. “Murderer’s Row,” the
line of dingy cells in which candidates for the gallows are confined,
generally has at least one occupant, and let us hope it will be empty
when the reader sees it. The petty criminals, or those awaiting trial,
are allowed to roam during the day in the cage and converse at stated
intervals with their relatives or friends through the wire grating.
In this place Louis Lingg, the anarchist, whose dreadful suicide is
referred to in another chapter, used to enjoy weekly interviews with
his sweetheart, the young girl who is said to have given him the
bomb with which he cheated the gallows by blowing off his head. In
interviews of this sort the prisoner stands on one side of the wire
grating, the visitor on the other. “Lingg’s girl,” as the jail habitues
used to call her, is said to have given her sweetheart the bomb by
means of a kiss between the bars, passing the deadly little instrument
from her mouth to his at the moment their lips met. This is of course
only a jail story, but as there is no other known manner in which the
doomed man could have secured the bomb, it must be accepted in lieu of
a better explanation.
There is a “visiting” day at the jail each week, on which the friends
of the prisoners are permitted to bring them delicacies. Old women with
baskets in their arms trudge in and stand with tearful eyes as their
hopeful sons or grandsons greedily devour the contents. Many a pitiful
sight is to be witnessed and the visitor may, perhaps, come away with
a strengthened determination never to get into jail himself if he can
help it. A call at the sheriff’s office is all that is necessary to
secure a pass to the jail. It is situated on the north side on Michigan
street, close to Clark.
Some of the great buildings of Chicago, recently finished, are well
worth inspection. One of the newest of these, the Temple, on La Salle
street, is one of the sights of the city. Its cost was $1,100,000, and
the estimated income from its rents is $250,000 a year. Just across
the street, in the Home Insurance building, is the office of Armour &
Co. There are three hundred well disciplined employes here, and they
move about their business like clock-work. Mr. P. D. Armour, who is,
perhaps, the richest man in the west, sits at an unpretentious desk
among his “boys,” as he calls them, and spends as many hours here daily
as any of them. Other great buildings within fifteen minutes walk of
this one are the Rookery, Royal Insurance building, Republic Life
building, Tacoma building, Phœnix building, Monadnock and Kearsage
building, Manhattan building, Insurance Exchange building, Pontiac
building.
The gigantic Masonic Temple, at the north-east corner of State and
Randolph street, deserves special mention. It towers skyward until its
roof is almost lost in the clouds. The idea of a grand Masonic temple
in Chicago is twenty years old, and western Masons are responsible for
the erection of the superb structure, which is an everlasting honor to
themselves and a credit to the city. The building, which is without
doubt one of the finest in the world, was completed this spring. The
company erecting it is capitalized at $2,000,000, the price per share
being $100. It has an interior court measuring ninety feet north and
south by forty-five east and west, the walls of which are faced
with marble of variegated colors, with a bronze staircase winding its
devious way from the ground floor to the roof. There are fourteen
passenger and two freight elevators, each of which makes a round trip
every three minutes. An entire morning may be profitably passed in
inspecting this mighty structure, the magnificence of which, perhaps,
cannot be duplicated on the continent, if indeed, in the entire
universe.
[Illustration:
MAURICE BARRYMORE.
JESSIE BARTLETT DAVIS.
RICHARD MANSFIELD.
HATTIE HARVEY.
GEORGIA CAYVAN.
ISABELLA IRVING.
MARGARET MATHER.
]
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A FEW FINAL WORDS.
[Illustration]
In view of the fact that the remainder of this little work will be
devoted to the World’s Fair--that mighty gathering of all nations in
myriads of manifold variety, which will concentrate the attention of
the civilized earth upon Chicago--a few farewell hints to the stranger
may not be out of place.
An effort has been made to carefully describe the places of public
entertainment, of all sorts and conditions, within the city’s
confines--in short, to furnish the visitor with a faithful and accurate
“pleasure-seeker’s guide” in fact as well as in name. How well that
task has been accomplished is a matter resting with the opinion of the
investigating reader.
In treating of resorts in attractions that are not of a kind to excite
the admiration of people of tender sensibilities or strongly pronounced
views, no effort has been made to descant on any impropriety or
undesirability that may exist. The author, throughout this work, has
been actuated by one motive--to tell facts and to tell them briefly.
The multitudes from all nations who will make the great city by the
lake their Mecca during the Fair will find here a hearty welcome and
innumerable ways of spending their time pleasantly. They will also
find, probably, the same crowds of rascals, in all guises, that kept
the police so busy during the Philadelphia and Paris exhibitions.
Every man’s good common sense must be his own guide, both in looking
out for crooks and in seeking channels of legitimate diversion for his
unoccupied hours.
That is all--and it is enough. We pass on now to a consideration of the
colossal project which is to make Chicago’s name a household word on
the tongue of the world’s enlightened nations.
THE GREAT WORLD’S FAIR.
I. THE PROJECT OF THE WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.
[Illustration]
Even at the present time, nearly a year before the date set for the
opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the site upon which it is
to be given forms the main object of interest to Chicagoans as well as
visitors. This interest will, of course, be heightened as time passes
on until it culminates in the attendance of visiting millions at the
exhibit, which will stand unrivaled in the history of the nations.
The World’s Fair grounds are in Jackson Park, seven miles from the
business center of the city, and any one who has noticed within the
last year or so the great expanse of swampy, uneven ground would not
recognize it to-day, so stupendous has been the transformation. The
great expanse, half wilderness, half prairie, which stretches away
southward from the Park on the shores of the Lake, has been transformed
into a miniature city, and the great buildings, several of them in a
state bordering on completion, tower high toward the skies, giving
promise of the magnificent effect they will create when finished. If
the millions of people whose eyes are directed in fancy upon this scene
could view it in reality, they would feel satisfied that the promises
made as to their entertainment will be much more than fulfilled.
The shore line of the Lake approaching the World’s Fair grounds is
graced by a sweeping promenade of flag-stones. Entering the grounds one
is greeted by a splendid vision of graceful lagoons, wooded islands and
colossal buildings, gracefully ornamented and striking the beholder
dumb with admiration.
The history of this World’s Fair project reads like a romance. All the
great cities of the country contested for the honor of holding the Fair
within their gates. By dint of splendid work, admirably strengthened of
course by the natural advantages it possessed, Chicago won the prize,
and the manner in which the city’s pledges have been carried out fully
justifies the selection. The citizens of Chicago raised over five
million dollars for a guaranty fund and pledged themselves to have a
like amount in addition ready in case it should be needed. That is one
of the reasons why Chicago secured the Fair; it was a case where “money
talked.” This Fair, which marks the four hundredth birthday of this
great and mighty Nation will be thrown open next year to the delight
of the civilized world. The following is the proclamation by which
President Harrison invited the Nations to participate:
Whereas, satisfactory proof has been presented to me that provision
has been made for adequate grounds and building for the uses of
the World’s Columbian Exposition, and that a sum not less than
$10,000,000, to be used and expended for the purpose of said
Exposition, has been provided in accordance with the conditions and
requirements of Section 10 of an Act entitled “An Act to provide
for celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery
of America by Christopher Columbus, by holding an International
Exhibition of arts, industries, manufactures and products of
the soil, mine and sea, in the city of Chicago, in the State of
Illinois,” approved April 25, 1890.
Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United
States, by virtue of the authority vested in me by said Act, do
hereby declare and proclaim that such International Exhibition will
be opened on the first day of May, in the year 1893, in the city of
Chicago, in the State of Illinois, and will not be closed before
the last Thursday in October of the same year.
And in the name of the Government, and of the people of the
United States, I do hereby invite all the Nations of the earth to
take part in the commemoration of an event that is preeminent in
human history and of lasting interest to mankind by appointing
representatives thereto, and sending such exhibits to the World’s
Columbian Exposition as will most fitly and fully illustrate their
resources, their industries and their progress in civilization.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-fourth day of December,
in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety, and
the independence of the United States the One Hundred and Fifteenth.
By the President. [Signed] BENJ. HARRISON.
[Signed] JAMES G. BLAINE, Secretary of State.
The World’s Fair grounds embrace a total of 1,037 acres and the two
adjoining parks, Jackson and Washington, form a part of the magnificent
park system of Chicago, which has been fully described in a previous
chapter. It stands to reason that a project of this scope can only be
undertaken under the supervision of a great host of officers. The
principal officers of the World’s Columbial Exposition are:
President, William T. Baker; Vice Presidents, Thomas B. Bryan,
Potter Palmer; Secretary and Solicitor General, Benj. Butterworth;
Assistant Secretary, J. H. Kingwill; Treasurer, Anthony F.
Seeberger; Auditor, William K. Ackerman; Traffic Manager, E. E.
Jaycox.
BOARD OF REFERENCE AND CONTROL.
William T. Baker, Potter Palmer, Ferd W. Peck, Fred S. Winston,
Thomas B. Bryan, Lyman J. Gage, Edwin Walker, H. N. Higinbotham.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
William T. Baker, President; Thomas B. Bryan, Vice President;
Potter Palmer, Second Vice President. Ferd W. Peck, Robert A.
Waller, William D. Kerfoot, Robert C. Clowry, Edwin Walker, H. N.
Higinbotham, A. H. Revell, Lyman J. Gage, Charles H. Schwab, Martin
A. Ryerson, Charles L. Hutchinson, John J. P. Odell, Marshall M.
Kirkman.
The officers of the National Commission are:
President, Thomas W. Palmer, Michigan; Director-General, George
R. Davis, Illinois; First Vice President, Thomas W. Waller,
Connecticut; Second Vice President, M. H. De Young, California;
Third Vice President, Davidson B. Penn, Louisiana; Fourth Vice
President, Gorton W. Allen, New York; Fifth Vice President,
Alexander P. Andrews, North Carolina; Secretary, John T. Dickinson,
Texas.
The National Commission is composed of eight commissioners at large and
two for every State and Territory in the Union, with two alternates.
There are standing committees as follows: Executive, Judicial, Tariffs
and Transportation, Foreign Affairs, Fine Arts, Science, History,
Literature and Education, Agriculture, Live Stock, Horticulture
and Floriculture, Finance, Auditing, Ceremonies, Classification,
Manufacture, Commerce, Mines and Mining, Fisheries and Fish Culture,
Electrical and Pneumatical Appliances, Forestry and Lumber, Machinery,
World’s Congresses, Printing, Grounds and Buildings, Federal
Legislation, Awards, Reference, and Control.
There is also a Board of Lady Managers composed of two members for
every State and Territory of the Union, with alternates, under whose
supervision woman’s share in the exhibit is being prepared. The
following are the officers in the Board of Lady Managers:
President, Mrs. Potter Palmer; First Vice President, Mrs. Ralph
Trautmann; Second Vice President, Mrs. E. C. Burleigh; Third Vice
President, Mrs. Charles Price; Fourth Vice President, Miss K. L.
Minor; Fifth Vice President, Mrs. Beriah Wilkins; Sixth Vice
President, Mrs S. R. Ashley; Seventh Vice President, Mrs. F. B.
Ginty; Eighth Vice President, Mrs. M. B. Salisbury; Vice President
at Large, Mrs. R. D. Harrison; Secretary, Mrs. Susan G. Cooke.
There is also a body known as The World’s Congress Auxiliary, which is
an organization authorized and supported by the Exposition corporation
for the purpose of bringing to Chicago a series of world’s conventions
of leaders in the various departments of human progress during the
Exposition season of 1893. The auxiliary has also been recognized
by the Government of the United States as the appropriate agency to
conduct this important work. Its general announcement has been sent to
foreign governments by the department of State, and an appropriation
for its expenses has been made by act of Congress.
The Auxiliary consist of an active membership of persons residing in
Chicago or sufficiently near to attend committee meetings without
inconvenience and a nonresident membership divided into advisory
councils of the different departments of progress and honorary and
corresponding members. Each committee has its own advisory council,
composed of eminent leaders of the world in the department to which it
relates. Honorary and corresponding members are persons not assigned to
a particular department, but whose prominence and influence make their
aid and co-operation desirable.
The officers of the Auxiliary are:
President, Hon. Charles C. Bonney; Vice President, Hon. Thos. B.
Bryan; Treasurer, Hon. Lyman J. Gage; Secretary, Hon. Benjamin
Butterworth. There is also a President of the Woman’s Branch of the
Auxiliary, Mrs. Potter Palmer, and a Vice President, Mrs. Charles
Henrotin.
The dimensions and costs of the various buildings are shown complete in
the following table:
==============================+=============+========+==========
BUILDINGS. | Dimensions | Area | Cost.
| in feet. | acres. |
------------------------------+-------------+--------+----------
Mines and Mining | 350 x 700 | 5.6 |$ 260.000
Manufactures and Liberal Arts | 787 x 1687 | 30.5 | 1.100.000
Horticulture | 250 x 1000 | 5.8 | 300.000
Electricity | 345 x 700 | 5.5 | 375.000
Woman’s | 200 x 400 | 1.8 | 120.000
Transportation | 250 x 960 | 5.5 | 280.000
Administration | 260 x 260 | 1.6 | 450.000
Fish and Fisheries | 163 x 363 | 1.4 }| 200.000
Annexes (2) | 135 diam. | .8 }|
Agriculture | 500 x 800 | 9.2 | 540.000
Annex | 328 x 500 | 3.8 }| 200.000
Assembly hall, etc | 450 x 500 | 5.2 }|
Machinery | 500 x 850 | 9.8 }|
Annex | 490 x 551 | 6.2 }| 1.200.000
Power House | 80 x 600 | 1.1 }|
Fine Arts | 320 x 500 | 3.7 }| 500.000
Annexes (2) | 120 x 200 | 1.1 }|
Forestry | 200 x 500 | 2.3 | 100.000
Saw-Mill | 125 x 300 | .9 | 35.000
Dairy | 95 x 200 | .5 | 30.000
Live Stock (3) | 65 x 200 | .9 }| 150.000
Live Stock Sheds | | 40.0 }|
Casino | 175 x 300 | 1.2 | 150.000
+-------------+--------+--------
Total | | 144.4 |$5.990.000
United States Government | 350 x 420 | 3.4 | 400.000
Battle Ship | 348 x 69.25 | .3 | 100.000
Illinois State | 160 x 450 | 1.7 | 250.000
State Annexes (2) | | .3 |
+-------------+--------+----------
Grand Total | | 150.1 |$6.740.000
==============================+=============+========+==========
The first two of these are erected by the United States Government, and
the third by the State of Illinois. They will form a striking portion
of the group of buildings surrounding the lagoons. In addition to
these buildings at the north end of the Park, buildings will be erected
that are to be devoted to individual States and the foreign Governments
structures, probably one hundred in all. The latter will surround the
gallery of fine arts at the north end of the lagoon. On the Midway
Plaisance the visitor will find special features, such as the bazaar
of all Nations, the street of Cairo, the Constantinople Street, the
Japanese village, the German village, etc.
Among the various buildings in a more or less advanced state of
construction, the ADMINISTRATION BUILDING at once challenges
attention, being regarded as the finest. It stands at the west end of
the great court in the southern part of the site, facing eastward,
the transportation facilities and depots being immediately in its
rear. The Administration Building cost $450,000, and its lofty dome
is observable from all parts of the grounds. It consists of four
pavilions, each eighty-four feet square, one at each of the four angles
of the square and connected by the central dome, which is 120 feet in
diameter and 220 feet in height. The design of this building is after
the French _renaissance_, the first story being on the Doric order of
architecture of heroical proportions, the tiers of each pavilion being
ornamented with fine sculptures. On the second story the Ionic style
prevails. There are four great entrances fifty feet wide and fifty
feet high, covered with huge arched vaults. Above the entrance doors
are enormous screens of glass, through which light is given to the
central rotunda. Galleries connect between the different pavilions. The
internal features of the building are even more magnificent. Between
every two of the grand entrances is a hall thirty feet square, giving
access to the offices. The rotunda is octagonally formed, the first
story consisting of eight great arched openings, corresponding in
size to the arches at the entrance. The second story, fifty feet in
height rises above the balcony, and from this rises the interior dome,
200 feet from the floor, in the center of which is an opening fifty
feet in diameter and through which light falls from the exterior dome
overhead. The interior of the dome is richly paneled and moulded, the
panels being ornamented with sculpture and paintings of numerous size
and splendid design. The corner pavilions are divided into offices
for the administration, lobbies and toilet rooms. The fire and police
departments are located on the ground floor. In the second pavilion are
the ambulance offices and other departments; in the third, a bank and
post office; in the fourth, a restaurant.
Next in magnitude to the Administration Building, perhaps, is the
Transportation Building, which is one of a group of edifices forming
the northern architectural court of the Exposition. It is situated
between the horticultural and mines buildings, facing eastward and
commanding a view of the floral island and part of the lagoon. The
building is simple in its outlines, but rich and elaborate in detail.
The cupola of the Transportation Building, reached by eight elevators,
commands a most beautiful view of the entire exterior Exposition.
The main entrance is in the form of a single arch, richly carved and
decorated with _bas reliefs_ and mural paintings. The main part of
the building is composed of a continuous arcade in which numerous
minor entrances are pierced, while almost at every place are grouped
terraces, drinking fountains, statues, etc. The main part of the
building is 960 feet front by 250 feet deep, from which extend a huge
annex one story in height, covering about nine acres. In the annex, the
more bulky exhibits are to be found. Along the central avenues scores
of locomotive engines will be found, highly polished and greatly adding
to the grandeur of the effect. In this building will be found exhibits
of everything connected with transportation, from a carrier pigeon to a
traction engine.
Passing from the Transportation Building one comes to Machinery Hall,
which is said to be second only in magnificence to the Administration
Building. Machinery Hall is located at the extreme south of the
Park, between the west Park line and Lake Michigan, standing south of
the Administration Building across the lagoon from the Agricultural
Building. This building is spanned by three great archways, and the
interior looks not unlike three railroad train houses grouped side
by side. The arches or trusses are built separately and will be sold
after the Exposition is over to the railroads for use as train houses.
The building has numerous platforms upon which visitors may stand and
view all that is transpiring. A power-house adjoining will supply all
the power needed. The entire group of buildings in this vicinity is
designed so as to conform with the idea of a Spanish town, the same
being considered appropriate in a Columbian celebration.
[Illustration]
Between the Machinery and Agricultural Halls is a space covered by a
colonnade and _cafe_; in the center is an archway which, if followed
to the end, will lead the visitor to the cattle exhibit. There is
also a portico which affords a view of nearly a mile down the lagoon.
Machinery Hall has an annex covering between four and five acres, thus
increasing the length of the actual building to about 1,400 feet. It
ranks second of the larger structures of the Exposition.
The Woman’s Building, it is safe to say, will be the main object of
interest to a large number of visitors at the Fair. It is situated
in the north-west part of the Park, facing the great lagoon with the
beauty island of flowers at its front. In this building will be grouped
exhibits showing woman’s work in every conceivable form, and judging
by the progress made at this writing, the building itself will be no
less splendid than the array of marvels it will contain. In front of
the Woman’s Building the lagoon stretches out to a bay 400 feet in
width, from the center of which a landing and staircase leads to a
wide terrace. Above the terrace are other staircases giving access
to the ground floor of the building itself. On the first terrace
are artistically designed flower beds and shrubs, and the building
itself, in the style of the Italian _renaissance_ will be considered
one of the most attractive points for the visitor. The main grouping
of the building consists in a center pavilion with a corner pavilion
at each end, connected at the first pavilion with open arcades. There
is a shady promenade the whole length of the structure. The first
floor is ten feet above the ground line. The pavilion is reached by
a wide staircase which forms the main triple-arched entrance. The
corner pavilions are two stories high, where are located the hanging
gardens and the committee rooms of the Board of Lady Managers. There
is a lobby forty feet wide leading into the rotunda, the latter being
surrounded by an open arcade of beautiful design. On the first floor
of the building will be found a model hospital and a kindergarten. As
to exhibits, the whole floor of the south pavilion will be devoted to
the delineation of woman’s work in the past; the one on the north to
reform work and charity organization. Above this are located ladies’
parlors, committee rooms and dressing rooms, all of which lead to the
open balcony on the front. The balcony commands a superb view of almost
the entire grounds. In the south pavilion will be found the kitchen and
refreshment rooms, etc.
The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building stands alone as the largest
Exposition building ever designed, being 1,687 feet long and 787 feet
wide and covering an area of thirty and one-half acres. The building
is rectangular in form, its great central hall being its feature. The
height of the roof is 245½ feet at the apex, and the 380 feet space is
covered by a single arch without so much as a supporting column. The
height from the floor to the center of the arch is 201 feet, the roof
being supported by twenty-two steel arches, each arch weighing 125
tons. An idea of the magnitude of this building may be conceived from
the fact that over 5,000 tons of steel were used in the construction
of the main hall. Extending around this hall is a gallery twenty feet
from the floor, sixty-seven feet wide, twenty-one feet of which space
overhangs the floor of the hall. Beyond the gallery is a nave 108
feet wide and 114 feet to the roof. Extending around the nave into
the outside limit of the building is a gallery twenty feet from the
floor and forty-nine and one-half feet wide, the two galleries being
connected by twenty-eight bridges fifty feet in width and 108 feet
in length. Forty-one carloads of glass were used in the construction
of the roof. The immensity of the building may be still further
conjectured by the fact that it is three times as large as St. Peter’s
Cathedral in Rome; twenty buildings the size of the Auditorium could
be placed side by side on its floor, and its central floor is big
enough to seat 50,000 people. The building, which is in the Corinthian
style of architecture, will contain, besides pavilions and promenades,
about sixteen large _cafes_ and seventy-five private dining rooms.
The building faces the lake and fronts upon smooth lawns and wide
promenades. Its estimated cost is $1,500,000.
But the building that will challenge the attention of everybody,
rich and poor, young and old alike, will be the ART PALACE, which
is Grecian-Ionican style and a pure type of the most beautiful
architecture. The Art Palace is 500 feet long by 320 wide. Collections
of sculpture will be displayed on the main floor of the nave and
transit, and on the walls of both the ground floor and balcony will
be ample space for paintings. Small picture galleries will occupy the
corners. All around the building are spacious galleries forming a
continuous promenade. In small spaces between the promenade and the
naves are small rooms to be devoted to private collections and the
collections of the various art schools. There are also large annexes to
the main building, which will be used for various art exhibits. There
are four entrances to the main building approached by broad flights
of stairs. The entire construction of the Art Palace is the most of
classic order and will compare favorably with any Exposition building
ever constructed. The location of the palace is the northern portion of
the Park, the south front facing the lagoon, from which it is separated
by beautiful terraces, and immense flight of steps lead from its main
portal to the lagoon, where there is a landing for gondolas. From the
north front are to be seen the wide expanse of lawn and the group of
State buildings.
The Horticultural Building stands just south of the entrance to Jackson
Park from the Midway Plaisance, facing east on the lagoon. The front
of the terrace borders the water, its center forming a boat landing.
The length of the building is 1,000 feet and its width 250. Its plan is
a central pavilion with two end pavilions connected by front and rear
corridors, forming two interior courts, each 270 feet by eighty-eight
feet. A colossal dome 288 feet in diameter crowns the central part of
the pavilion, under which are to be shown the tallest palms, bamboos
and tropical tree plants to be found anywhere on the face of the earth.
The galleries in each of the pavilions have been designed particularly
for _cafes_, the surroundings being considered inducive to the
enjoyment of refreshments. On three sides of these _cafes_ stretches an
arcade commanding a fine view of the grounds. In this building will be
found arrayed every variety of flower, plant, vine and sod, together
with a complete array of every implement used in horticulture. Such
parts of the building as require it will, of course, be warmed to a
tropical temperature.
The Dairy Building will be of special interest to the agriculturist
for whose special favor and edification it was designed. Besides
the exhibits of dairy products it will contain a dairy school, in
connection with which will be carried on a series of tests to
determine the various merits of different breeds of dairy cattle and
milk and butter producers. The Dairy Building stands close to the lake
shore in the southeastern part of the Park, and covers one-half acre.
It measures 200 feet by ninety-five, and is two stories in height. It
is simple in design. On the first floor appears a large open space to
be devoted to the butter exhibits, while further back will be the large
operating room to be devoted to the dairy. This room will contain an
amphitheater capable of accommodating four hundred spectators, under
whose seats will be stored refrigerators for the care of the products
turned out. The cheese exhibits will be placed in the gallery, the rest
of the second story being devoted to a _cafe_ which overlooks the lake.
The dairy school, which is regarded as of special interest, this being
a great agricultural country, will continue in operation throughout
the entire Fair, and will, no doubt, prove of surpassing interest to
visitors.
The Fisheries Building is regarded as one of the most artistic of all,
embracing, as it does, a large central structure with two smaller
buildings connected with it by arcades at either end. The extreme
length of the building is 1,100 feet and its width 200 feet. It stands
to the north of the United States Government Building. In one of the
similar buildings or annexes will be found the angling exhibit and in
the other the aquaria. The architecture of the building is exceedingly
quaint, the designer having arranged the ornamentation in such a way
as to employ only fish and sea forms for his designs. The display of
live fish will be something wonderful. In the middle of the rotunda
will be found a basin or pool twenty-six feet wide, in the center of
which will be a mass of moss-covered rocks. From crevices in this mass
will flow streams of water to the basin below, and in this great basin
all sorts of live fish will disport themselves. Outside the rotunda
is a great corridor or arcade, on opposite sides of which are tanks,
great and small to accommodate members of the finny tribes. This arcade
is fifteen feet wide. The glass fronts of the aquaria will have 3,000
square feet of surface.
PART II.
LOOKING AROUND.
[Illustration]
A trip to the World’s Fair grounds even now will convince the visitor
of two things, namely: the magnitude of the undertaking and the steady
approach of the whole enterprise to completion. The arrangement of
roadways whereby one may make the circuit of the grounds in carriage
or afoot, stopping at every point desired to examine the details of
the work, is excellent. An admission fee of twenty-five cents is now
charged and the readiness with which thousands of persons pay it
everyday for the privilege of taking a look around is some index to the
probabilities with regard to the attendance a year hence.
Besides the buildings mentioned in a preceding chapter there are the
following: The Forestry building, Electrical building, Agricultural
building, Mines and Mining, Government building, Illinois State
building, the casino and pier, the United States naval exhibit. Before
proceeding further these may be briefly sketched.
The dimensions of the Forestry building are 500 by 200 feet. The
architecture is rustic in style and is surrounded by a veranda and
colonnade, the latter consisting of a series of columns composed of
three tree trunks 25 feet long, one of which is 16 to 20 inches in
diameter and the others of smaller girth. The tree trunks have been
permitted to retain their bark, thereby creating a unique effect. They
come from all states and countries, each of which has contributed a
specimen of the best known tree. The building itself is constructed
of slabs and thatched with various barks, the interior being finished
in woods in such a manner as to show the graining and polishing
susceptibilities of each. Tablets on the tree trunks forming the
colonnades will inform the visitor as to where each came from, with
other interesting information. Flags will float above this building,
denoting the different nations whose products are on exhibition within.
The forestry exhibit may be considered as one of the most interesting
to be found at the fair, comprising, as it will, logs and sections of
trees and “worked” lumber in every form, such as shingles, flooring,
casing, etc. Look also for dye woods, barks, mosses, lichens, gums,
rosins, cocoanut shells, gourds, rattan, willow-ware and wooden-ware,
tubs, brooms, etc. More than one saw mill will be seen in active
operation and will be quite distinct from the exhibits of saw-mill
and wood, working machinery on view in Machinery hall. The Forestry
building is one of the cheapest at the Fair, costing only $35,000, but
its projectors expect it to be by no means the least entertaining or
instructive.
The Electrical building will be one of the most important, the exhibit
of electrical appliances and devices being expected to enchain the
attention of scientists and experts as well as the uniniated millions.
The building is 700 feet in width by 345 feet in length, and has
been constructed on magnificent plans at a cost of $345,000. It is
two stories in height and contains spacious galleries from which
crowds may view all that is going on below. In the north end of the
building is a great semi-circle window, above which, 102 feet from the
ground, is a spacious gallery, affording the visitor a wide view of
the lagoon and that part of the grounds stretching to the north. In a
niche at the south part of the Electrical building is a heroic statue
of Benjamin Franklin, whose name connects American history with one
of the most important discoveries of modern times. The building has
four pavilions, with towers 169 feet high. There are domes, spires
and columns adorning the building with an architectural and imposing
magnificence that rivets the attention at first sight and makes it one
of the most striking attractions in the grounds. It is needless to say
that the exhibit will show everything in connection with the marvelous
power, electricity, discoveries in which, some people claim, are yet
in their infancy and the rapid advancements in which are destined
ultimately to revolutionize the world.
The Agricultural building, 800 feet in length by 500 feet in width,
stands close to the shore of the lake, its east side fronting upon a
harbor of refuge for pleasure craft. The designs of the building, which
is but one story in height, is bold and impressive. On either side of
the main entrance are Corinthian pillars, fifty feet high. The main
entrance is 60 feet wide and leads into a vestibule, thence into a
rotunda 100 feet in diameter. Above the rotunda is a large glass dome,
130 feet in height. To the south of the Agricultural building proper
is the vast structure to be devoted to the live stock exhibit and
agricultural assembly hall. The elevated railway station affords every
access to the building. In it will be held the meetings of all persons
interested in live stock. There will also be a bureau of information,
spacious waiting and toilet rooms; also an assembly room with a seating
capacity of 1,500, and complete facilities for lectures, etc. More than
twelve acres of ground are covered by the Agricultural building and its
annex.
The Mines and Mining building is one of the most imposing on the
grounds and stands at the south end of the western lagoon, between the
Transportation and Electricity buildings, being 700 feet in length by
750 feet in width. From its balconies and porticos splendid views may
be had of a vast portion of the grounds and in its front are spacious
lawns dotted with flowers. The wonders to be found in this building
cannot be adequately described in advance. Mines of all sorts, in every
stage of operation, are to be shown. The visitor may feast his eyes on
piles of silver and gold in every stage, from the ore freshly taken
from the earth to the gleaming double-eagles, most royal of all the
coins! And silver dollars fresh from the mint. And precious stones!
They will be there in every variety and all stages of preparation. A
promise has been made that an African diamond mine will be shown in
active operation. At one point will be seen the dusky native delving
for the rarest of gems; at another a skilled workman cutting and
setting brilliants of “purest ray serene.” All this and much more will
this wonderful building contain; and it is a question whether any other
will possess so great a charm for the crowds who will be apt to stand
there and let their mouths water in awesome hunger at the sight of so
vast an aggregation of wealth.
[Illustration]
The Government building is situated on the lake shore, south of the
main lagoon, near to the buildings of England, Germany and Mexico.
It is built of iron, brick and glass at a cost of $400,000. All the
departments of the Government, such as the post-office, war office,
etc., will make special exhibits. Ample space has been allotted for
the exhibits of the Smithsonian Institute and interior department.
The government exhibits include the mint, the coast and the geodetic
survey, the bureau of engraving and printing, the bureau of statistics,
the life-saving board, the light house board and the marine hospital.
The life-saving exhibit shows a life-saving station built and equipped
with every appliance and a regular crew which will go through all the
life-saving maneuvers in practice on the coasts. The coast survey
exhibit includes a mammoth map of the United States, 400 feet square,
constructed of plaster of paris, and placed horizontally on the ground
beneath a covering erected over it. By a system of galleries and
pathways on the inside the visitor may “walk over the whole United
States” without touching it, as one recent writer has expressed
himself. The scale of the map accurately shows the exact height of all
the mountains and the depth of all the rivers in the United States.
Here is a fine chance for a lesson in geography. The war department
exhibit shows all the uniforms ever worn by United States’ soldiers, a
telephone as it would be used on the battlefield, besides all means of
army telegraphing and signaling.
The naval exhibit will without doubt attract a great share of
attention. It consists of a structure, erected in the lake, typifying
with marvelous accuracy one of the new coast-line battleships recently
constructed for the American navy. The structure stands on piling at
the edge of the lake at the north-east side of Jackson park. Being
quite surrounded by water the structure has the exact appearance of a
vessel moored to the wharf. It is fitted with all the appliances of
an actual ship, such as guns, turrets, torpedo tubes, anchors, etc.
The navy department will send on a special crew to serve during the
exposition and the visitors will have an opportunity to witness all the
workings of an American man-of-war.
A delightful feature of the fair will be the mammoth casino and pier.
The pier runs out 1,000 feet into Lake Michigan and at its extremity
is the casino, which is so constructed as to give, on the waters of
Lake Michigan, a miniature representation of beautiful Venice. The
casino is built on piles and embraces nine pavilions, eight of which
are two stories in height, the center one rearing 180 feet. Bridges
and gondolas afford communication between the pavilions. In part of
the casino is a harbor for pleasure craft. At night the harbor will be
lighted by incandescent lamps sunk beneath the surface of the water and
the brilliancy of the scene may be imagined.
The Illinois State building occupies a fine site in the prettiest spot
in Jackson park. The state appropriated $800,000 for this building and
the money has been well expended. The building is 450 feet in length by
160 feet in width, and is constructed of wood, stone, brick and steel,
nearly all the material having been procured in Illinois. A feature
of the building is Memorial Hall, which contains a superb collection
of relics of the war and other periods. An admirable view of the main
exhibit hall may be had from the spacious galleries. The exhibit will
include five model school-rooms, equipped and furnished under the
direction of the state superintendent of public instruction. Here will
be illustrated the methods of education pursued in the state, from the
common school to the university. The exhibit also includes collections
illustrating the natural history and archæology of the state; an
exhibition by the State Fish Commission of native and cultivated live
fish, with hatchery, appliances and equipments for transportation. Also
maps, charts, etc., illustrative of all the resources of the state. The
women of Illinois were promised, or presented with, $80,000 and space
in this building for a special exhibit illustrating women’s work in the
state.
PART III.
THE DEDICATORY CEREMONIES.
[Illustration]
Though the great exposition will not be formally opened until May 1st,
1893, the fall season of the present year will witness the dedicatory
ceremonies, which will be conducted on a scale of magnificence
unequaled in the history of such enterprises. The dedication of the
buildings will in reality be a sort of informal opening of the fair
itself, inasmuch as the publication of accounts of the ceremonies
will start the stream of visitors Chicago-ward, and all through the
succeeding year, up to the time of the opening, people will journey
hither to see how the colossal enterprise is progressing. If crowds
are willing even now to pay an admission fee of 25 cents (which is at
present charged) to see the buildings in their embryotic state, how
much more willing will they be to do so after the dedication of the
buildings has set the stamp of actuality on the stupendous display.
The dedication ceremonies are to take place in October of the present
year, and the programme has been fully arranged. The celebration will
last four days, during which one of the features will be a military
encampment. The troops will be under command of an officer of the
United States army, to be designated hereafter by the Secretary of
War. The ceremonies will open with a mammoth civic parade which will,
doubtless, be appreciated by the thousands of visitors who will by
that time have assembled. The parade will be allegorical in character
and typical of the world’s “march of progress.” This will transpire
during the morning hours. In the evening there will be an even grander
display, in the form of the “Procession of Centuries,” a historical
representation of American progress, including scenes in the life of
Columbus, and showing the gigantic strides accomplished in science
and art, the discovery and development of steam, electricity, etc.
This procession will be repeated each evening during the four days’
celebration. The regular evening features will also include magnificent
displays of fireworks at Jackson Park and along the Lake Front.
The feature of the second day’s celebration will be a magnificent
military parade and review, in which all the visiting troops will take
part. The display of the following day will be for dedication day
proper, and the main building in Jackson Park will be the scene of the
memorial services. An idea of the grandeur of these services may be
gained from a glance at the programme as already mapped out. Promptly
at 10 o’clock in the morning the troops will parade in readiness to
receive Benjamin Harrison, president of the United States, with proper
military honors. After being saluted by the troops the president
will lead the way into the building, accompanied by his cabinet, the
diplomatic corps (which will come on in a body from Washington for the
occasion), and other distinguished foreigners. Inside the building the
president will receive the representatives of the thirteen original
states with proper ceremonies. After this the remaining states will
be received in the order of their admission to the union. The various
states will be represented by their governors and their staffs, whose
brilliant uniforms, together with the banners and other insignia that
they will bear, will contribute to a scene the gorgeousness of which
can scarcely be imagined.
When the formal receptions are over and the great throng of people
comfortably arranged the following programme will be observed:
1. Overture--(Original music by an American composer.)
2. Prayer.
3. Address and report from Director-General George R. Davis.
4. Presentation of buildings by the president of the World’s
Columbian Exposition to the president of the World’s Columbian
Commission.
5. Commemoration Ode--(Miss Harriet Monroe)--with original music.
6. Address by the president of the United States.
7. “Star-Spangled Banner.”
8. Dedication oration.
9. Hallelujah chorus.
10. National salute of forty-eight battery volleys.
On the evening of the second day the president will hold a reception
in honor of the diplomatic corps, distinguished foreigners and
invited guests. On the evening of the third day there will be a grand
dedication ball at the Auditorium, a ball which for magnificence and
brilliancy will probably supersede anything ever seen in this country.
Even now, several months before the date set, people are figuring
on how to secure invitations, but as 5,000 people at the most can
enter the ball-room many of course will have to be disappointed.
Participation in this gorgeous _fete_ will be confined to very
prominent citizens and distinguished visitors from other cities and
across the ocean. Every day there will be military drills and parades,
closing on the last day with a grand sham battle.
The foregoing is merely an outline of the entertaining and elaborate
ceremonies. It is only reasonable to expect that the programme will
be enlarged in its attractiveness as the time approaches for carrying
out the carefully studied plans and features. It is to be presumed
that every one knows these ceremonies will be commemorative of the
completion of the world’s fair buildings. The day after the ceremonies
are concluded the work of arranging the exhibits in the buildings
will begin and this will be carried on with all due expedition until
the great opening day, 1st of May, 1893. The ceremonies, it should be
stated, are at present under the charge of the following gentlemen,
composing the committee on ceremonies of the World’s Columbian
Commission: Hon. P. A. B. Widener, Philadelphia, Pa.; Hon. John D.
Adams, Little Rock, Ark.; Hon. Wm. Lindsay, Frankfort, Ky.; Gen. V. D.
Groner, Norfolk, Va.; Hon. C. H. Richmond, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Hon.
G. W. Allen, Auburn, N. Y.; Hon. M. B. Harrison, Duluth, Minn.; Gov.
R. B. Furnas, Brownsville, Neb. And of the following who compose the
committee on ceremonies of the World’s Columbian Exposition: Messrs.
Edward F. Lawrence, Chas. T. Yerkes, James W. Ellsworth, Charles L.
Hutchinson, W. D. Kerfoot, Ferd. W. Peck, Charles H. Schwab, Chas. H.
Wacker--all of Chicago.
Acting for the best interests of everybody concerned these two
committees, acting as the joint committee, have selected the following
sub-committee to assist them with the details in connection with the
preparation for the ceremonies:
On behalf of the World’s Columbian commission--Director-General George
R. Davis and Secretary John T. Dickinson. On behalf of the World’s
Columbian Exposition association--Chas. T. Yerkes, E. F. Lawrence and
C. H. Wacker.
PART IV.
THE CHICAGO HUSSARS.
[Illustration]
There is every reason to suppose that considerable interest will attach
to the Chicago Hussars, a regiment of volunteer cavalry which has
already secured the honor of acting as special escort to the officers
of the exposition on all occasions of state. The Chicago Hussars are
comprised of gentlemen who own their horses and are rich enough to
afford the luxury of costly uniforms, expensive banquets and other
delights dear to the military heart. Mr. E. L. Brand, a prominent
citizen, is the commanding officer of the Hussars, and the rank and
file numbers over a hundred gentlemen, who, when mounted on their
dashing steeds and clad in their gorgeous trappings, present a most
dazzling appearance. Chicago at present enjoys the distinction of
being the only city of the United States possessing a volunteer cavalry
regiment. The Hussars are shortly to erect, at some advantageous point
on the South side convenient to the boulevard, the finest club-house
and armory in America. This will include a riding ring, perfect in
appointments and over 500 feet in circumference. The appointments
include one hundred box stalls and a balcony seating fifteen hundred
spectators, commanding a perfect view of the ring. The prosperity
of the Hussars and their appointment by the director-general of
the exposition as a special guard of honor, for properly escorting
distinguished visitors and officials about the city during the
continuance of the fair, makes a membership in their ranks a prize much
to be desired. The volunteer cavalrymen on the march will be one of
the sights of the city. The regiment’s list of officers is as follows:
Captain, E. L. Brand; First Lieutenant, M. L. C. Funkhouser; Second
Lieutenant, Joseph B. Keene. The staff officers are: Inspector, P. R.
McLeod; Judge Advocate, A. Fouguer; Quarter-Master, Charles Kern;
Surgeon, Stewart Johnstone, M. D.
PART V.
WORLD’S CONGRESS.
The imposing structure known as the Permanent Memorial Art Palace,
about to be erected on the site of the old exposition building and
mentioned in a previous chapter, is to be the scene of some notable
gatherings during the continuance of the fair. The building is to be
devoted to the exclusive use of the world’s congresses. It will contain
two large audience halls, having a seating capacity of 3,500 each,
with twenty smaller halls, which may be utilized by committees and
other bodies into which congresses are usually divided. These world’s
Congresses will be interesting from every standpoint. There will be
special congresses of lasting organizations, under the supervision of
the auxiliary, to which will be delegated the consideration of all
live questions, such congresses being conducted by their own special
officers. There will also be popular congresses, open to all who
may desire to attend, and at which will be presented for discussion
all questions governing the results of human progress in all the
channels of civilized life. The discussion will be carried on under
the direction of the ablest exponent of that particular branch of
knowledge whose services can be procured for the occasion. These
congresses, besides providing the various organizations with the
opportunity to discuss their interests, will secure to the people the
opportunity to hear words of wisdom from the wisest of mankind. Suppose
Mr. Gladstone, the most eminent Englishman of his time, should visit
the fair, as is not improbable? Should he do so he will unquestionably
be invited to deliver an oration. Mr. Gladstone is only one of many
European notables who are expected to attend, and they will of course
be conspicuous at these world’s congresses in the Permanent Art
building.
[Illustration: BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF THE WORLD’S FAIR.]
PART VI.
THE FAIR ITSELF.
[Illustration]
When Mr. Edwin Lee Brown, a pioneer citizen of Chicago, died in the
summer of 1891, there passed away the man who is said to have been the
first to suggest the idea of holding a world’s fair in commemoration of
the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. The mind, therefore,
which conceived this mighty project, over which all the nations are
agog, is now stilled in everlasting sleep, but to those of us who have
memories the fair will remain a lasting monument to the greatness of
that master mind.
Mr. Brown first proposed his scheme to a meeting of citizens in
1885. His words took root immediately. Like a flash the idea rushed
through the land, and met with such a unanimous response that long
before the plan had the sanction of Congress the holding of the
fair was a certainty. From the time it so became a settled fact in
prospect a number of cities waged a strong and at times bitter fight
for the honor of having the fair held within their favorite environ.
New York was Chicago’s most formidable rival, though various other
cities contested determinedly for the honor. Chicago’s campaign was
carried on with energy. A stock company was formed and $5,000,000
subscribed--$5,000,000 more being pledged long before it was needed.
Headquarters were established and agents sent all over the United
States to enlist the national sympathies in behalf of Chicago. When
the question of location finally came up before Congress the struggle
was sharp, short and decisive. But a few ballots were taken when the
decision was made. That night was a happy one in Chicago. Some people
celebrated a little uproariously, it is true, but “everything went,”
so to speak, on an occasion like that, and nobody complained of the
widespread enthusiasm.
[Illustration]
Not a day was lost. It seems a long stretch of time since then, but
everything considered the progress made has been simply phenomenal.
All judges agree on this point. The great nations of the earth,
in response to the president’s proclamation, have signified their
intention to be fully represented. The following is a list of the
countries that will participate, showing the amounts appropriated by
their respective governments:
Argentine Republic, $100,000; Austria-Hungary $147,000; Bolivia,
$150,000; Brazil, $550,000 Chile, $100,000; Colombia, $100,000;
Costa Rica, $100,000; Danish West Indies, $10,000; Ecuador, $125,000;
France, $400,000; Germany, $20,000; $215,000; Great Britain, $125,000;
British Guiana, British Honduras, $7,000; Cape Colony, $25,000; Ceylon,
$40,000; Jamaica, $10,000; New Zealand, $27,500; Trinidad, $15,000;
Guatemala, $120,000; Honduras, $20,000; Japan, $700,000; Mexico,
$750,000; Dutch Guiana, $6,000; Dutch West Indies, $10,000; Nicaragua,
$30,000; Peru, $140,000; Salvador, $30,000; Cuba, $25,000.
It is hardly possible, in mere words, to convey an idea of what the
fair will be like, but from previous chapters the reader will have
formed his own opinion and his imagination must supply the rest. To
say that it will be the most wonderful exhibition in all history is
to employ very mild language indeed. The grounds will present a sight
that will never be forgotten. At night, when all the buildings are
glittering with their myriads of electric lights and great showers of
fireworks soaring heavenward; when the great lake itself fairly blazes
under the glare of illuminated craft and the stupendous carnival is at
its height, the visitor may be pardoned, if, in the excitement of the
moment, he fancies that he has fallen off the earth and stepped into
another world, peopled by fairies and decked with palaces reared by the
magicians’ wand.
PART VII.
SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE FAIR.
[Illustration]
Aside from the great buildings that will of course be the main points
of interest, there are numerous special features promised--features
that will be unique in their way and reflecting in a great degree the
manners and customs of the people who inhabit the countries of which
they will be typical. It has been decided that a single entrance fee,
probably fifty cents, shall entitle the visitors to see the entire
exposition proper. For the special attractions on Midway Plaisance a
moderate additional charge will be made. In the course of time these
attractions will doubtless be added to, but even the present plans are
liberal enough to give satisfaction. The Plaisance, which is a strip
of land connecting Jackson Park with Washington Park, will be occupied
throughout its entire length by special exposition features, largely
of a foreign character, such as the “Bazaar of All Nations,” “Street in
Cairo,” “Street in Constantinople,” “Moorish Palace,” “Maori Village,”
etc. Concessions have been granted to all these enterprises and their
production will represent the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Panoramas, cycloramas, the sliding railway, etc., will also be
located in this part of the exhibition grounds.
[Illustration]
A person of imaginative temperament can easily picture to himself the
attractions that may be found in this locality. The “Bazaar of All
Nations” is a mammoth structure in which will be representatives of
almost every clime under the sun, grouped in their native habitations
and presenting to the visitor exactly the same appearance as that
which characterizes their home routine of life. Their manufactures,
occupations and pleasures will be graphically pictured. The “Street in
Cairo” is to be exactly what its name implies. A street in that sleepy
and quaint old Egyptian city will be deftly reproduced, in passing down
which the visitor may see sights exactly similar to those that would
greet his vision if he were touring in far-off Cairo itself instead of
in Chicago--the famous city that finds everything possible, even to the
reproduction of an entire Egyptian city, to say nothing of a single
street from such. The Moorish Palace will be a splendid structure
and within its gorgeous recesses one may wander and try to imagine
how Othello felt when he paced his vaulted halls a prey to the demon
jealousy.
According to recent plans fully 150 restaurants and cafes will be in
operation in the various buildings and about the grounds. These will be
conveniently distributed and will have an estimated aggregate seating
capacity of 6,000 to 8,000. It is intended to have in the Fisheries
building a restaurant devoted as far as possible to the exclusive
serving of fish. Fish dinners and fish, fresh and salt, served in
every edible style, it is believed, will be a popular feature. In view
of the present outlook it doesn’t seem as though any visitor need go
hungry at the fair.
[Illustration]
In line with the special features, perhaps, is the announcement
recently made that a silversmith in Monterey, Mexico, is engaged on
a work in silver which when completed will be an exact reproduction
of the Agricultural building now in process of completion at the
exposition grounds. It will be eight feet wide, will contain a quality
of silver valued as bullion at $10,000, and when finished will be
valued at $20,000. The Connecticut members of the Board of Lady
Managers have undertaken to raise by contribution a fund with which
to pay for a fine bust of Harriet Beecher Stowe. This will be their
contribution toward the adornment of the walls of the Woman’s building.
Copies of Mrs. Stowe’s literary works will also be contributed.
The President of Ecuador has decreed that the governors of each state
of the Republic shall collect and forward to Quito, the capital,
exhibits of all kinds illustrating the riches and productions of their
several states. The Archbishop of Ecuador has issued an order to the
bishops and priests throughout the Republic directing them to do the
same, and also collect and forward everything which may be in their
keeping illustrative of the history of the country suitable to exhibit
at Chicago. The Consul-General of the United States at Quito has
directed the consuls and vice-consuls and consular agents at different
points in Ecuador to assist the governors of states in every way
possible in the matter of collection of articles relating to commerce
with exterior countries. The entire exhibit so collected will be
forwarded intact to Chicago.
Lieut. Baker, head of the marine section of the department of
transportation, has secured a promise from the Detroit Dry-dock Company
for an exhibit of a perfect model in stucco of the entire ship-building
plant of that company, both at its Detroit and Wyandotte yards.
A bill has recently been introduced in Congress carrying an
appropriation of $18,000 “to procure, prepare, compile for publication
and publish statistics of the moral, intellectual and industrial
progress of the colored people of the United States from January 1,
1863, the date of the emancipation proclamation, to January 1, 1893, as
a part of the government exhibit, the same to illustrate the growth of
liberty, morality and humanity of the United States.”
The women of England, it is understood, are actively preparing for
their participation in the exposition. At a meeting of the Woman’s
Committee in London, March 3, of the present year, it was announced
that Queen Victoria had promised specimens of her own work in spinning
and knitting, done when she was a girl; also some of her embroidering,
fine drawing and water-color painting. Princess Louise will contribute
some clay modelling, Princess Beatrice several paintings and Princess
Christian some embroidery.
It is probable that the visitors to the exposition will have an
opportunity to see a more extensive and finer exhibition of ancient
Greek art than it has heretofore been possible to contemplate outside
of Greece. Mr. P. Canreading, director-general of Grecian antiquities,
has accepted the invitation to participate in the exposition, with
the understanding that it will be represented only by memorials of
its antiquities. Charles Walstein, director of the American school
of classic studies at Athens, states that the Grecian government has
agreed to make and send to the exposition casts of the principal
works of ancient art now in Greece, together with maps, diagrams and
photographs. To these will probably be added casts and perhaps some of
the original specimens of classic Greek art which are now distributed
throughout Europe.
A wheelman’s parade, participated in by 24,000 bicyclists, may be one
of the sights at the exposition. Efforts are being made to bring about
that result.
The Pennsylvania coal operators want to construct a building entirely
of anthracite coal at the exposition and to have 50,000 tons of best
anthracite on exhibition.
A continuous clam-bake will be one of the attractions which epicurean
visitors will find at the exposition.
The South African diamond mine exhibit will doubtless prove an
eye-opener, to use a slang expression. The exhibit will come from Cape
Colony and will include 10,000 carats of uncut stones, a very large
quantity of stones fine cut and polished, together with all that is
necessary to show the process of mining and washing. For this it will
be necessary to transport to Chicago 100 tons of pulverized blue earth,
50 tons of unpulverized earth, and a complete washing machine, which
will be operated by natives. The exhibit will also include a unique
collection of crocidolite, special diamondiferous products, ostrich
feathers, fleeces, etc. It is reported that a Bushman and Hottentot in
native dress will accompany the exhibit.
A communication has been received by the fair officials from the
British Commission asking for space to exhibit the rifle-calibre guns
manufactured by the Maxim-Nordenfeldt Gun Company. The company wants to
erect a building in which to exhibit its guns in practice. One end of
the building will be filled with sandbags into which the projectiles of
the guns will be fired. It is claimed that the arrangements are such
as will insure perfect safety and will be reproductions of a similar
exhibit recently given at the Royal Naval Exposition in London.
The wooded island in the exposition grounds has already begun to assume
the character which in great part it will have during the fair--that
of a gigantic flower garden. The horticultural department has recently
received 27,000 rose bushes and other plants, several thousand of which
came from abroad. These are being transplanted on the island.
It may be said to be assured that the exhibits at the fair will cover
a wider range and be far more numerous than any array ever before
gathered together. They will present a picture of the condition and
industrial progress of mankind in every quarter of the world and of its
achievements in every branch of the sciences and arts. The exposition
classification embraces 12 departments, 176 groups and 967 classes. The
applications for space by intending exhibitors in the United States
alone numbered 2,082 in January last. The number at the Philadelphia
Centennial in corresponding space was 864. Applications from foreign
visitors are rapidly increasing in numbers. It seems assured that the
visitors will outnumber those at any previous world’s fair.
In April, 1893, a grand international naval review, preliminary to the
opening of the exposition, as provided for by an act of Congress,
will be held in New York harbor, arrangements for which are already in
progress. All the great navies of the world will participate in this
vast aquatic pageant.
PART VIII.
ABOUT THE CITY DURING FAIR TIME.
[Illustration]
With the exception of the Auditorium and the Chicago Opera House the
plans of which have been heretofore outlined, the theatres, so far as
at present known, have not arranged for any special attractions during
the fair. All of the down-town houses have booked more or less to the
time from May to October, and the attractions for the most part are
such standard renditions as have been proved popular with playgoers
for the last two or three years. The patron of the regular playhouses
will be able to take his choice between grand or light opera, local
drama, tragedy, comedy or burlesque, and the most exacting taste will
doubtless be amply satisfied. The contract between managers Abbey and
Adams for the production at the Auditorium has already been signed and
the spectacle to be presented there will, it is expected, eclipse
anything that these two managers have ever before attempted. At the
Chicago Opera House the first great successes in the way of burlesque
that Mr. Hendersen scored, “Arabian Nights,” “Crystal Slipper,” and
“Sinbad,” are to be repeated in rotation, and people will have an
opportunity to witness the perfection of the class of entertainment
termed by the irreverent “leg-shows,” but known to the world at large
by the more dignified title of burlesque.
Pain & Sons, the great firm whose pyrotechnical productions have made
them famous wherever fireworks are known, are to produce their famous
spectacle, “The Fall of Pompeii,” at the Cottage Grove amphitheatre,
near South park, this summer. They are also, it is understood,
arranging for a production on a much more wonderful scale for the
fair season in the same locality. One of the beauties of the Pain
projections is their shortness. Their glare and brilliancy is generally
crowded into an hour or at most an hour and a half, thus enabling the
spectator to secure a surfeit of pleasure, as it were, in a short space
of time, without forcing him to spend an unnecessary season in waiting,
Micawber-like, for something to turn up.
The racing, the boating, the riding, and the hundred other attractions
of the city have already been described in detail. None are likely to
get away between the present time and the day set for the opening of
the fair. On the contrary, they are likely to be added to and enhanced,
for human ingenuity is being taxed to its utmost to invent new charms
for the pleasure-seeker and, incidentally, of course, to catch the
nimble dollar that he is willing to disburse for the procurement of
such pleasures, elevating or otherwise.
Of course no well regulated person ever enters a saloon except for
purposes of investigation, but there are a few saloons and cafes
in Chicago that are visited as much for sight-seeing as for liquid
refreshment. In some there hang pictures worth small fortunes. The
objects represented are generally a little bit _outre_--“_saloonish_,”
as I have heard it called. Hannah & Hogg’s saloons, of which there
are several, located in the business district at various points,
are celebrated for the works of art that adorn their walls. The one
on Madison street, under the Madison Street Opera House, contains a
valuable gallery of paintings, the cash estimate of which runs into
thousands of dollars. This is the largest place owned by the firm; some
of their branch establishments contain rare pictures that are almost as
valuable.
“Handsome Harry Varnell’s” place on South Clark street, near
Madison, is perhaps the most gorgeous saloon in Chicago. It was only
recently completed at a cost said to exceed $40,000. All the walls
and wainscoting are finished in Mexican onyx, and the outer part is
designed in iron and bronze. Some oil paintings, the subjects of which
are very interesting, adorn the walls. Varnell, the proprietor, is a
“character.” He enjoys a large popularity with the sporting classes. He
is said to be interested in the Garfield park race track and is quite a
“plunger” at other games as well. He was one of the principals in the
old-time “boodle” sensation, which resulted in several of the county
officials of that period going to the penitentiary under sentence for
bribery and corruption.
Just across the way from Varnell’s is Lansing & McGarigle’s saloon
and restaurant, a place made famous both by the personality of its
chief proprietor and by a historical tragedy that occurred there some
few years ago. William J. McGarigle has held various offices. He was
once superintendent of police and later warden of the county hospital.
When the boodle trials were held he was tried and sentenced to two
years imprisonment, but, while awaiting in the county jail the result
of his appeal for a new trial, he secured permission from Canute R.
Matson, the sheriff of the county, to visit his home. He drove there
with Matson, and, on the pretext of taking a bath, he slipped away from
the house, boarded a schooner, and got over into Canada. His flight
formed one of the newspaper sensations of the hour. Matson never quite
recovered from the shock. In the language of the song, McGarigle “never
came back,” that is to say, not until his friends had so arranged
things that when he did come back he was permitted to pay his debt to
the law by the payment of a fine of $1,000. McGarigle’s place now is a
famous rendezvous for “sports” of both sexes. The fare served is of a
high quality, and the visitor may find all the enjoyment he desires in
studying the people who sit at the tables near him. There are ladies
of great beauty and of all ages, but all of whom manifestly belong to
the class whose existence reputable people endeavor to forget; there
are gamblers, touts and so on, in loud clothes and wearing much loud
jewelry, both genuine and bogus. The best of order and good conduct
prevail for the reason that no boisterous actions are tolerated. But
sometimes all the rules and regulations in the world are not proof
against the angry passions of men, a fact that was conclusively proved
by the tragedy already mentioned.
The principals were “Doc” Haggerty, a well known and very muscular
person, who bore the reputation of being something of a bully, and
“Jimmy” Connorton, a gambler. There was a feud between the two and when
Connorton went into McGarigle’s place one Saturday evening and met his
foe face to face high words and blows were instantly interchanged.
Accounts vary as to who first drew the deadly pistol, but Connorton
got in the first shot. He shot Haggerty through the stomach, and then
fled through the restaurant, pursued by the wounded man, who at every
step snapped his revolver in the effort to slay his adversary. But
the weapon would not explode, and it was not until the two reached
the sidewalk and Connorton had almost succeeded in escaping through a
line of cabs that it did respond to the fall of the hammer. Connorton
sunk to the sidewalk desperately wounded. The excitement over the
tragedy was only equalled by that occasioned by the Dunn-Elliott
encounter in the old Tivoli. Haggerty died, but Connorton recovered
and was acquitted on the ground of self-defense. At present Lansing &
McGarigle’s is a model resort of its kind. It caters to the sporting
element almost exclusively, and happily such tragedies like the one
here told do not occur often.
Hogan and Batchelder’s, two well-known and popular resorts on
State street, also cater to the sporting element. They have private
supper-rooms in which hilarious parties are wont to hold high revel,
especially after a return from a successful day at the races.
The places mentioned are of course of a certain variety, but the reader
has been told in preceding chapters of the many more quiet and more
decorous places that he may visit. It is a “great big” city, full
of all sorts of attractions, godly and ungodly. If the world’s fair
should be closed on Sundays, something that the religious element is
sedulously endeavoring to bring about, the army of pleasure-seekers
will be driven to the city itself for recreation.
[Illustration]
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support
hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to
the corresponding illustrations.
Two illustrations contain multiple photographs. The captions for them
are grouped vertically: left, right, center.
Page numbering in the original book jumps from 10 to 21.
The List of Illustrations omits the sketches on pages 77 and 177, and
the decorative drop cap on page 212. The illustration listed as being
on page 223 actually is on page 222.
Page 63: “adjoin” should be “adjourn”.
Page 208: “$1000” probably should be “$10.00”.
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