The Story of the Christmas Ship

Title: The Story of the Christmas Ship by Lilian Bell (1867-1929)

Location: Google Books       Date: 1913

CHAPTER XIV

How Chicago’s City Council Indorsed The Christmas Ship

THERE is not room in this book to tell of even a tithe of the generosity which filled the Jason’s hold with gifts.

I sit and pore over the files of newspapers which daily keep arriving, and I select with care all I feel I must use. Then I am appalled by the bulk of material.

So I go over and over it, weeding out, cutting down. If I didn’t, this book would be the size of a dictionary and would have to be issued in sections—like Balzac’s complete novels, that you buy on the installment plan and think you will read on rainy nights.

In Chicago the City Council came in, and not only promised to work but were singularly unanimous in praising the thought of the Christmas Ship:

“The Christmas Ship idea is a glorious one,” said Alderman Nance. “What cheer it will carry to those in the very shadow of the great war, whose cups of sadness and desolation are overfull! The movement inaugurated by the Herald should become nation-wide and all citizens should esteem it a privilege to have a part in its work. Especially should the children be interested in the plan. The whole idea spells a spirit of generosity and brotherly love.”

Alderman Merriam said that at Christmas time no greater expression of good will could be shown than by the sending of the ship.

“The idea carries out the ‘Peace on earth, good will toward men,’” said Alderman Merriam, “and no better time for this will be found than the time the ship reaches the war country.”

“A beautiful sentiment,” was the way Alderman Harding expressed himself. “This should have the approval and aid of all.”

“One of the most high-minded ideas,” said Alderman Littler.

“Nothing can do more to cultivate the international spirit,” said Alderman Krause. “The plan is a splendid one, and I for one will do all I can to make it a success.”

“Anything that will bring joy to orphans at Christmas time,” said Alderman Bergen, “deserves the help of every one.”

“Everybody should get back of this plan and make it a complete success,” said Alderman Norris. “This plan is wonderful.”

“I believe the undertaking is something that appeals to the mind and heart of every American man, woman, and child,” said Alderman Kearns. “The substantial things it aims to accomplish need but little comment.”

“I think the idea is a grand one,” said Alderman Capitain, “and should be encouraged by the grown-ups as well as by the children. It is a big undertaking, and should have the support of all.”

These men, who have so much power in the city government, are in the habit of looking at ideas as to their influence and productiveness of good or evil. Therefore their recognition of the moral uplift and spiritual import contained in the idea back of the work conducted so ably by the Herald, indicated that they were awake to the sublime results which would emanate from the Christmas Ship in the hearts and lives of the children of the United States.

A few weeks later, in regular session, Alderman Nance introduced a resolution, followed by these most significant words: “The city council of the city of Chicago hereby indorses the laudable project and urges the generous cooperation of all citizens in making it an unqualified success.”

It was with these words that the city’s official representatives made history.

“It is rare in the annals of municipal government, either in America or abroad, that a great city has thought the suffering of other nations of concern immediate enough to inspire action toward its alleviation,” said Alderman Nance after the session.

” Never before in the history of war has a great city initiated action, or indorsed action initiated by others, to offset even in part the ur aappiness and misery which follow in the wake of war.

“That the council of the city of Chicago has taken such action is a fact not only of importance as an aid in the loading of the ship but also as a great moral step in the direction of the realization of civilization’s ideal of universal peace.

“The fact that one of the world’s largest and most cosmopolitan cities has deemed international sympathy and brotherhood of sufficient importance to merit official action, is an influence for good which will reach not only the people of Chicago but in time all the people of the world.”

Even more explicitly expressed is the commendation of the general superintendent of the United Charities of Chicago:

“Christmas Ship Editor of the Herald:

“Permit me to express my keen interest in your Christmas Ship idea. Charity workers know what fatherless homes mean to family life. They spell grief, gloom, and want. Now comes your plan to throw among these stricken little ones a kind of rainbow of cheer. It is a great idea, and I want to add my little word of encouragement. Two fairies in our own home, as I write, are busy at the front lawn to earn contributions to the cause.

“Of course this will mean money taken out of Chicago, where the needs of the poor are so great, but I am confident there will be plenty left for all. Chicago is rich, her people are generous, and their means are sufficient to meet all reasonable calls. How fitting that cosmopolitan Chicago, harboring peoples from every nation, should look with compassion upon the stricken children of all the many countries at war. Social workers ought to, and I am sure will, say Godspeed to your brilliantly conceived project.

“Eugene T. Lies”

While in another issue came this from the secretary of the Illinois Vigilance Association:

“Christmas Ship Editor of the Herald:

“To me the Christmas Ship plan seems one of the greatest influences for good I have heard of since the United States remitted a portion of the war tax on China after the Boxer rebellion. It is an act of kindness and sympathy that will do more than any diplomacy could hope to do. It will do much to quiet the war spirit in Europe and make it almost impossible for any foreign nation to declare war on us while the memory of such a kindness lasts. It is a kindness to mothers and little children that will be a source of happiness to the heart of the giver as well as to the receiver.

“Wirt W. Hallam”

Two hundred women’s clubs of Chicago, through their representatives in the executive committee of the League of Cook County Clubs, enlisted in the work of the Christmas Ship.

Notice of the league’s action was conveyed to the Herald in a letter signed by the president, Mrs. Charles H. Zimmerman, and the corresponding secretary, Mrs. A. P. C. Matson. The letter read as follows:

“At a meeting of the executive committee of the League of Cook County Clubs, held September 15, it was voted to indorse the Christmas Ship movement.”

All the time I was teaching my Santa Claus Class, and 1 wrote for them as I would write had each day’s story been going into a book.

Was there ever a more delightful play-combined-with-work and work-combined-with-play invented than all of us mothers and children sitting down to prepare such a shipload of joy?

Can you imagine what the children of Europe are thinking right this minute? For already thousands know what we are doing.

And the best of it is that we are all happy about it.

For my own part, I wear that smile that won’t come off. I smile when I am with people and when I am alone. Sometimes I get to smiling so in the street car that I have to turn and look out of the window for fear people will think I am not quite right in my mind!

But we Christmas Shippers can’t help smiling, can we?

This smile of ours is one which will circle the earth.

Bell, Lillian (Mrs Bogue) (b.1867-d.1929) Published her first novel at age 26. She wrote mostly from her experience and her travels as the wife of upper-crust Arthur Hoyt Bogue of Chicago. [The couple divorced in 1913] Her father, Maj. William W. Bell, fought in the Civil War, as did did her grandfather, Gen. Joseph Warren Bell  (a Southerner, who sold and freed his slaves before the war, brought his family North, and organized the 13th Illinois Cavalry). Her great – great – grandfather, Captain Thomas Bell, served Virginia in the American Revolution. Lilian Bell was born in Chicago, but she was brought up in Atlanta.

Works include: The Love Affairs of an Old Maid (1893); Hope Loring; A Little Sister to the Wilderness (1895); The Under Side of Things; From a Girl’s Point of View (1897); The Expatriates (1900); Abroad with the Jimmies (1900); At Home With The Jardines (1902); As Seen By Me; Carolina Lee (1907) – Vintage Women’s Books

Chicago Medium Rare

Title: Chicago Medium Rare:When we Were Both Younger by Robert J. Casey

Location: Internet Archive           Date: 1949

“CHICAGO, according to the experts, is a city that took root in a swamp about 1826, grew to noticeable size before 1890 and reached its ultimate magnificence day before yesterday.”

So begins Robert J. Casey’s (1890-1962) recounting of life in Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century. Usually I would provide some biographical material on the author here, but have decided to post that information on The Journal next week. The reader might also note that the illustrations were provided by Ann and John Groth. More on Groth to be posted on The Journal also. In the meantime – enjoy the following story by newspaper man, author, adventurer, Bob Casey! This book is a treat I just had to share.

Bad-News Tillie

THEY were plowing up the last celery patch in Lake View to make room for Weiblinger’s saloon when Bad-News Tillie moved into Ashland Avenue near Cornelia Street. Her advent was considerably more spectacular than the unloading of Gentry Brothers’ Circus half a block down the street, and was reviewed with unmasked interest by all the kids of the neighborhood and most of the adults.

Tillie didn’t bring any moving van filled with the customary oddments of furniture generally revealed on such occasions. She was more practical. She appeared on the scene seated by the side of the driver of a steam roller behind which, on four stonemason’s trucks, was hitched a long, narrow, two-story house. Tillie’s possessions, whatever they were, remained where they had always been inside the house. And nobody got a look at them until long years afterward.

A moving crew got the house onto its waiting foundations before the day was out. In this work they were greatly encouraged by Tillie, who cursed at them with a spectacular vocabulary in English, Polish and German. When they had finished she chased away the observing children and retired through her somewhat accessible front door via a stepladder. The spectators then moved on to the circus which, after Tillie’s show, seemed to be lacking in savor.

Next day it became obvious that Tillie had come to stay. By the time the mannerly little children had gathered around she had a nondescript washing hung on a line in what was to be her backyard, and bricklayers were filling up holes in the underpinning of her house. Moreover, as determined by test, the ladder had been attached to the house with wooden cleats. Public interest waned rapidly.

The house, when it was permanently emplaced, looked like what it was a large square box, badly in need of the coat of paint it was never going to get. But Tillie had some eye for improvement. Maybe she found it inconvenient to get in and out of the place on a ladder. Anyway, at the end of the week a brewery truck arrived at her address carrying a spiral staircase of rusted iron.

Afterward came workmen who argued for a long time with Tillie about what they were going to do with the staircase. It was too long to serve the front door, the foreman mentioned in two languages. It couldn’t be cut off with a hacksaw because it was the wrong curve. It was going to look pretty ghastly no matter what was done with it. And he suggested that maybe she might throw the thing away and get somebody to make her some stairs and a porch out of wood.

Tillie solved the problem with the directness that the neighborhood was presently to recognize as her most charming characteristic.

“Run it up to the second floor and make a door out of the upstairs front window on the east,” she directed in German. “Then you can nail up the front door downstairs. I won’t be needing it.”

The foreman translated this order to his workmen and thereby let the neighborhood know what to expect. “She’s certainly going to have a fine-looking place,” he mentioned to give the message a personal touch. And he was right about that.

The result was something that people came from miles around to see. The little children would linger for hours just to observe Tillie making her exits and entrances. Unfortunately they were never around when she emerged at night swinging a lantern in front of her 200 pounds of bulk. John Spetti and Mike Mullen, conductors on the Ashland Avenue car line, who were frequent witnesses to this odd procedure, christened her place “The Ashland Avenue Lighthouse.” And the name stuck.

In time, from one source or another, we learned the name of our new neighbor. She was Mrs. Herman Gratzburg. She had come from Bowmanville. And she had a wispy little husband whose apparent object in life was to keep out of her way.

“He’s fine man,” Tillie told Mrs. Volk in the grocery store across the street. “He’s good to me. Never sticks around the house. Never bothers me. Just fine man.”

That was her last observation on the subject, but a few of the neighbors began to draw conclusions from what they could see for themselves.

Mr. Gratzburg sometimes got up enough initiative to get drunk at Schulze’s saloon no great distance away. But he never was sufficiently ingenious to enlarge on the program. He would come home, find himself unable to negotiate the winding stairs and sit all night on the bottom step. Next morning he would appear on the street with a black eye or a bandaged head. He worked somewhere as a freight-elevator operator, but nobody ever found out much about that.

Before coming to Ashland Avenue the Gratzburgs had lived near some carbarns in Clark Street and, whether because of this proximity or not, Tillie had developed a definite allergy toward streetcars.

There was a story that some conductor had once given her a misdated transfer or maybe had refused to accept a misdated transfer from her. There was a further report that in retaliation she had assaulted the motorman and broken some windows. These allegations were never proved. But it is true that she had been known to the trade in the old neighborhood as “Bad-News Tillie” for a considerable time.

She was some fifteen years in the Ashland Avenue Lighthouse and had an eventful life. Every now and then the police came from Town Hall station to arrest her for throwing rocks at passing streetcars or for one thing or another. But nothing came of it.

Tillie acquired a dog that seemed to have been trained to detest blue uniforms. But inasmuch as few trolley-car crewmen ever went by her house except in streetcars, the dog had a lonesome time of it. After a year or so in a mistaken moment he bit a policeman and died. The hazard of riding through the 3500 block in Ashland Avenue decreased from that day forward.

So, with little change in routine, the years went by until one night Herman Gratzburg made friends with a streetcar conductor named William Gavin in Schulze’s bar. When Herman decided it was time to go home Gavin escorted him not only to the foot of the iron stairs but all the way up to the second-floor door. A bucket of water barely missed him on his way down.

The next day, July 15, 1905, was to be memorable in the neighborhood. Tillie appeared in Volk’s grocery store and bought a bar of soap.

“He’s no good,” she told Mr. Fred Volk, the proprietor.

“Who?” inquired Volk.

“Herman, my old man,” explained Tillie patiently. “All the time with streetcar conductors he runs around. So now I guess I kill him.”

“So?” inquired Volk “And how are you going to do it?”

“With this,” said Tillie. And she held up the cake of soap.

Volk repeated the conversation with considerable amusement to everybody he saw that day, including the policeman on the beat.

But the next day he would have had difficulty reconstructing a smile. Toward evening of that day Mrs. Gratzburg was back in the store, looking fairly happy.

“Well, I do it,” she said. “The old man. Now he’s dead. No more streetcar conductors for him.”

Volk took a second look at her and called Town Hall station.

The police came. They found Herman in a bathtub with the back of his head caved in. It seemed likely that he had slipped on a cake of soap which they found underwater at the bottom of the
tub. A detective asked Tillie about it.

“Sure,” she said in German. “I guess maybe he slips on that. I try hard to fix him up again. But he don’t pay no attention to me. He just lies there.”

“And when was this?” inquired the detective.

“Three days ago,” said Tillie.

“Well,”  snapped the policeman, “where’s that cake of soap you bought day before yesterday from Volk?”

“Oh, that,” said Tillie. “That’s right here.” And she produced the cake of soap from the kitchen sink.

So they buried Gratzburg. Then they took Tillie in for mental tests. And they turned her loose again.

At last reports she was living on a little truck farm near Bensenville.

“I like it here,” she reported to one of her old German friends. “It’s a nice place. No policemen, no streetcars, no streetcar conductors. And there’s no way you can get drowned in the bathtub
because there isn’t any bathtub. There’s just some water that squirts in from a thing up near the ceiling. And I wonder what those policemen wanted with me when Herman died.”

“I don’t know,” said the friend. And, for that matter, neither does anybody else.

Darrow-Starr Debate: “Is Life Worth Living?”

Title: Darrow-Starr Debate: “Is Life Worth Living?”

Location: The Clarence Darrow Collection Date: 1920

It’s an age-old question: “Is Life Worth Living?” It was also the topic of a public debate  between Clarence Darrow and Prof. Frederick Starr held at  the Garrick Theater on March 28, 1920 as part of the Workers University Society series of lectures. Darrow, who was referred to as the greatest living exponent on the philosophy of pessimism in the introduction, debated in the negative while noted Chicago University anthropologist Starr sided in the affirmative. (Darrow and Starr would also debate on other equally upbeat topics: “Is Civilization a Failure?”  and  ”Is the Human Race Getting Anywhere?” ) Following is a sample of Darrow’s rebuttal. What is interesting to note is Darrow’s references to retirement. While this debate was held in 1920, two of Darrow’s most famous cases were yet to come: The Leopold and Loeb murder case (1924) and the Scopes Trial (1925). Darrow died in 1938.

What does the great mass of the human race think about this question as to whether life is worth living, and whether this is in any way affected by the question of the destiny of Man? Why, since man began to dream dreams and see visions; since he evolved consciousness; since he looked around and asked the meaning of life and of death, he has sought by every means to prove that death is not death. He has braced up his love of life by making for himself a dream that there was something more to life than is shown by science or philosophy, or the facts that are apparent to every one who thinks. And, take that feeling from the human mind today, and take it suddenly, and it would be paralyzed, and men would not live their lives. There are a few who might live it out. But, to say that the question of the destiny of man does not affect his present happiness is to say that man has neither memory, nor imagination, nor consciousness, nor thought.

Men suffer from evils that never come, and they ex- perience joys that never come. A very large part of our conscious life is dreaming. We believe in happiness that will come tomorrow, and in misery that passed yesterday. We are terrified sometimes by disasters that will come tomorrow, more than we are by those that we lived through yesterday. Man’s brain is such that his mind will reach into the future and into the past and all about him, and the future and the past, whether it exists or not, does exist for the present, and is the largest part of the things which affect the happiness or the misery of the man. It is idle to say man must not take into account the question of his origin or the question of his destiny, when he considers whether life is worth living. Is it?

Now, I didn’t know that I grumbled so much. I don’t know why I should. I have got about through with the blooming game. I am about ready to retire. That does not mean I have money, but I study the actuary tables; I know I am about to retire. When I retire – well, while I will not be happy, I will not be miserable, and, as life goes, I believe I have as little cause for complaint as almost any person I know. And, I trust that I complain very little. At least I don’t mean to. I have lived a life which is, approximately, as good as nothing. Not quite, but somewhere near it. And I will not be very much better off when I am dead; but some what.

Does Professor Starr prove that life is worth living, be- cause man is here? If so, that is a simple question. By what process can you prove that everything that is here is worth while? Or, what do we mean by worth while? Of course you can ask a lot of questions in discussing this. Of course, if life is worth living to man because man is here, it is likewise worth living to every animal because it is here. It is worth living to the dog and the mouse and the cat that eats it. Of course, you might say that the life of the mouse is worth living to the cat that eats it. It is worth living to the ant and the grasshopper, and to those tiny insects who live only a fraction of an hour. And, in the sight of eternity, the longest human life is just as short. Even if the emotions, in the fraction of a hour, were all pleasant ones, it was not worth while to begin it when it was to end so quickly. The fact that life is here, to my mind, proves nothing, excepting that if you got a certain amount of earth and heat and water – if they were resolved into the simple elements given these elements in certain proportions under certain conditions, life will develop, just as maggots will in a cheese. Does that prove it is worth while? I cannot see it. It does not prove it in any meaning of the words worth while. If it does prove it, then everything is equally worth while, and the living man is no more a part of nature than the corpse. And the well man is no more a part of nature than the sick man. The pleasurable emotion is no more a part of nature than the painful emotion. The fact that it is here simply proves it is here, that is all. The only way that this question can be discussed, it seems to me is as an intellectual or philosophical question: Are the pleasurable emotions of life more than the painful ones? Is there a greater balance of pleasure than pain? And this cannot be discussed without taking into consideration every feeling and imagination that influences man, and influences the feelings of man. You cannot settle it by saying life is a question of health, wealth, happiness and wisdom.

By Water to the Columbian Exposition

Title: By Water to the Columbian Exposition by Johanna S. Wisthaler

Location:  Google Books         Date: 1894

There are many books concerning the Columbian Exposition of 1893, but this one has to be considered unique. The author traveled 1, 243 miles by yacht, from Schenectady, New York to Chicago to visit the White City: down the Erie Canal, through the Great Lakes following the shore line, past Detroit up to the Straits of Mackinaw, then down Lake Michigan to Michigan City, Indiana and finally to the Fair itself. It’s a wonderful book, but, unfortunately, the pictures that Ms. Wisthaler took are not included in this edition nor have I found them in any other addition available on the Internet. That aside, it is a terrific tale. Following is the author’s description of her companions and the yacht itself: (Note: the spelling and grammar has been left unedited.)

INTRODUCTION

Experience, this greatest of all teachers, will undoubtedly have convinced many of my readers that the most delightful voyage is only capable of maintaining its charms when made amidst congenial fellow-travelers. The grandest scenes can be fully enjoyed and duly appreciated when viewed through an atmosphere of physical comfort. Thus, in order to demonstrate the accuracy of the assertion: Voyaging with Mr. James and his family was attractive and enjoyable to me in every respect,

I must make the reader acquainted with my amiable traveling companions, as well as with their floating home, the beautiful steam yacht “Marguerite.”

Her owner, Captain S. R. James, is a stately, fine-looking, accomplished gentleman, and quite a linguist. To me it was a source of unusual pleasure to discuss French and German literature occasionally during our voyage with one who has given so much attention to these languages.

Mr. James was styled by the Buffalo Courier “a typical New Yorker;” but he impresses me more as a typified English gentleman of the thorough school, and this impression is confirmed as I reflect upon his conduct to those fortunate enough to be associated with him in any capacity. I trust the reader will pardon me if I warmly eulogize Mr. James, his lovely Wife and their Foursweet Children, together with Miss Sarah E. Campbell, the very amiable sister of Mrs. James — who were my traveling companions on this eventful trip’; for, certainly, I was extremely fortunate in my compagnons de voyage, whom I have thus introduced to the reader. They abandoned their lovely home for the purpose of undertaking the gigantic enterprise of making a canal and lake voyage to the White City.

 

The reader may well judge that sailing on a yacht presents innumerable novelties and advantages not attainable by any other conveyance. Since the parties on board a pleasure-boat concentrate all their thoughts to the expected enjoyments they cast aside all irksome forms and straitlaced habitudes, delivering themselves up to the free air to live less conventionally than at home. The preferableness of such an existence, freed from all unnecessary ceremonies, is still more perceptible when the trip is of long duration and having, moreover, for its terminus the World’sColumbian Exposition, a place where the wonders, beauties, and evidences of nature’s power and man’s skill are gathered from all lands.

The great anticipations we had of our unique voyage were justified in every respect. For it offered us the opportunity to store our memories with that which will never die, and to adorn them with pictures whose colors will never fade.

All this will be revealed subsequently to my courteous reader, who is cordially invited to follow me now on board the steam yacht, which formed our home for six eventful weeks.

 

What first strikes the observer on approaching the “Marguerite,” are the graceful lines which run from the sharp, slightly bent stem to the well-rounded stern. So beautiful is her form, and so majestically does she rest upon the water, that you will have no difficulty to recognize her, even at a great distance. You observe that she is painted with taste, and all the mouldings are gilded; you also perceive that the railings are of oak wood, surmounted by finely polished brass, and the deck of narrow deal planks is as white as snow. There is nothing wanting to make her equipment harmonize with the requirements of the present era. She has a length of a hundred feet, a width of about fifteen, with a draught of five feet eight inches; being fitted out for both steam and sail navigation.

Now, dear reader, let us go below. If you consent, we will first visit the engine-room, since it contains the most essential part of the working machinery. A force of from eighty-five to ninety horse-power is developed to propel the boat. The engine is of the triple expansion type; the diameters of the cylinders being 6 1-2, 10 and 16 inches respectively.

Are you not pleased with this piece of machinery, so elegantly finished and neatly polished? From it you can conclude that the yacht is capable of running with considerable speed, amounting to thirteen miles an hour, if desired.

Let us descend to the cabin next; can anything be more tasteful and convenient? Is it not luxurious? And, although small, does not its very limited space astonish you when you view so many comforts? This is the diningroom. What can be more complete! Just look at this

side-board, with its sumptuous outfit in silver and crystal. A multum in parvo.

The kitchen is admirably arranged; the spacious refrigerator making it possible that a considerable amount of all sorts of provisions and delicacies can be kept on board for some time.

Let us peep into the cozy staterooms. Are they not nicely furnished? Glance at the large and comfortable berths, which can be extended so as to form double berths, as in a Pullman car. All the rooms receive light, either through side-windows or from the upper deck. Every facility for enjoying open air exercise is offered by the main deck running the whole length of the ship. The portion pertaining to the stern is especially commodious, and constituted our dining-room on pleasant days. Even when the weather was unfavorable, the awnings which inclosed this delightful place formed an excellent shelter, giving the impression we were living in a large tent.

Thus, you observe, that nothing is omitted to secure comfort. Do you see this electric bell? Well, all the staterooms are provided with such bells, which are connected with the steward’s pantry.

Now, let us go forward. These two doors form the entrance to the pilot-house; please, step in. Here is the steering wheel, and by means of these brass tubes the steersman communicates with the engineer. Look up to the ceiling. It is decorated with multitudinous charts and maps. Before we leave this room do not forget to glance at the mariner’s compass in its elegant brass case.

Close by is the entrance to the fore-castle, which contains the men’s berths. The crew occupying them consists of the captain, the engineer, the cook, the steward, and the seamen.

 

There not being accommodation for more female servants, Mrs. James was attended by only one maid. She, however, could easily spare larger retinue, because this excellent girl has assisted her mistress in performing the manifold domestic duties for more than fourteen years, and during this long period Mrs. James has learned to value her for her dexterity in all female occupations. She is also a faithful guardian of the children whom she tenderly cares.

Flattering myself that I have given my kind readers a satisfactory, introductory description, I shall now advance with the narrative, and proceed on our journey, traversing the longest artificial waterway ever constructed by human hands; and sailing on the unsteady billows of the great lakes, which contain the largest amount of sweet water on the globe, in order to visit the World’s Fair, the grandest and most complete exposition that hum-in eyes ever beheld.

Iroquois Theater…Chicago

Title: Iroquois Theater…Chicago: Souvenir Programme

Location: Google Books       Date: 1903

On November 23, 1903 Chicago’s new Iroquois Theater opened. Six weeks later it would be the site of the deadliest fire in Chicago history killing 602 people – mostly women and children. But, opening day of the majestic theater was grand! Just in time to entertain the Loop’s weary holiday shoppers! To commemorate the event, a souvenir program was published and included many details of the theater’s beautiful entrance.

The latest and most noticeable achievements in theatrical construction, not reckoning the cost to secure the finest results, are significant in the recherche New Amsterdam Theatre in New York, the finest concrete example of L’ Art Nouvean in the world: the beautiful Nixon Theatre, now approaching completion in Pittsburg, and last but not least, the Iroquois in Chicago, the finest and most complete of its many modern houses devoted to the drama.

The desirable site chosen for the Iroquois is close to that associated with the very beginning of things theatrical in this municipality nearly sixty years ago. It is located within ” The Loop,” is more readily accessible from traction and railway lines than any other Chicago theatre, and has a frontage on three thoroughfares, with many avenues for exit. The practical part of its promotion as an elegant edifice as well as a perfect theatre show the result of skill added to good judgment in unstinted financial outlay, with a determination to secure the best as befitting such an important artistic adventure. Every penny of the large expenditure represented in the Iroquois was made in the theatrical business. Mr. Will J. Davis and Mr. Harry J. Powers, as the result of ripe experience, understood exactly what was needed. The judicious character of their investment is unquestionable and the artistic addition to the city most advantageous. Associated with the Chicago managers are Messrs. Klaw and Erlanger of New York, and Messrs. Nixon and Zimmerman of Philadelphia, both firms being large producers as well.

The George A. Fuller Company is second to none in handling building enterprises of magnitude, and in carrying them to completion in spite of all obstacles that the uncertain temper of the times may impose. It may be recalled that this corporation carried the Illinois Theatre to completion under conditions that seemed prohibitive, and has been equally successful in completing the Iroquois at a time when other builders have been seriously delayed or entirely abandoned constructions, discouraged by the attitude of labor and contract conditions.

Mr. Benjamin H. Marshall, the architect, has shown admirable capability as a modern theatre builder, and in this instance has again given Chicago its most beautiful temple of the drama. The Illinois Theatre was the first monumental structure of the kind in Chicago, and the Iroquois is a surpassing second, as the entire building is devoted to theatrical purposes.

The Iroquois presents the most imposing and attractive facade to be seen in this city of modern structures, and will impress even the most superficial observer by its beauty and grandeur. The style, architecturally, is French renaissance, which has a strong suggestion of the classic. This mingling of the heroic and lighter lines is artistically adroit, and the result very satisfactory. The Randolph Street front is of Bedford stone deeply recessed (sixty feet wide and eighty feet high), the admirable proportion and architectural treatment making it appear larger than it really is. The central feature is a deep French coved arch thirty-five feet in width and fifty-two feet high, flanked on either side by stone columns four feet in diameter and thirty-eight feet high, weighing thirty-six tons each. Next to these in correct architectural spacing is an engaged pilaster four feet wide that returns back of the columns, acting in double function. The front view gives the impress of double free columns on either side of the arch, adding grace and strength to the uplift of the edifice. These columns and pilasters rest upon a mammoth pedestal of St. Cloud granite sixteen feet square. The width of these bases will serve as bulletins of attractions, for which a space five feet square is recessed and framed in carved leaves of laurel, the top center being a rich cartouche. The columns and pilasters are surmounted by a cornice nine feet high, running across the entire front from pilaster to pilaster, breaking back to the face of the arch at the top of either column. These returns are sustained by elaborately carved massive brackets of French pattern. The upward continuation of the cornice forms a pediment or gable, the apex of which is seventy-five feet above the pavement. Above its crown moulding is a parapet. Surmounting the center as a terminal is a monolith of stone twelve feet wide and fifteen feet high. The massive character of the masonry will be appreciated when it is stated that this upper wall is fourteen feet thick.

The ornamentation of the pediment is emblematic, showing the semi-recumbent figure of a woman heroic in size, representing Tragedy, and the figure of a jester, typifying Comedy. They support a richly carved cartouche as the central ornament.

The sculptors of this large group are Beil and Manch, and the carver, Joseph Dux. The figures are cut out of the solid stone projection, the relief being 3 1/2 feet from the face of the pediment. The size of these sculptures may be judged by the fact that the ornamental head forming the keystone of the arch ten feet below them is 3 1/2 x 4 feet.

Springing up within the arched entrance are a pair of stone pilasters thirty-four feet high, supporting a cornice spanning the arch at the beginning of the curve. The upper members of this gable are cut out as a broken pediment, allowing space for the sculptured bust of a noble Iroquois that Mr. Davis selected as typical from his large library Americana. Back of this arch is an elaborate screen of ornamental iron work (in which the Winslow Brothers have fairly outdone the Germans in their handicraft). This screen is set with heavy plate and jewel glass, giving light and airiness to the inner lobby and outer front. Five pairs of wide mahogany doors with glass panels give entrance to a vestibule 20×40 feet, with an eighteen-foot ceiling beamed and paneled with marble. This is elliptical in shape, allowing room for ticket and other offices on either side, their windows being an attractive feature of the otherwise plain solid construction. At the east end ornamental iron stairs lead to the business offices of the house and to the third floor above, the manager’s private office. A second series of swinging doors admit to a foyer truly palatial (sixty feet wide and eighty feet long), with a colonnade of pavonazzo pillars carrying the ceiling upon groined arches sixty feet above the tessellated floor. It is-by far the most majestic interior in this city or in this country, rivaling many vistas to be seen in the Congressional Library in Washington. In the dignity of its decorative disposition it suggests some kinship with the latter noble structure: but its lines are lighter, its treatment not so severely studied, while its originality is worthy of the highest praise.

For more on The Iroquois Theater Disaster, please see The Chicago History Journal.

The World’s Parliament of Religions

Title: The World’s Parliament of Religions: an illustrated and popular story of the World’s first parliament of religions, held in Chicago in connection with the Columbian exposition of 1893 edited by Rev. John Henry Barrows

Location: Google Books Date: 1893

Today all Americans remember the tragedy and horror of September 11, 2001. We mourn for our lost sisters and brothers and for our lost innocence. This day, however, should also remind us of the need for tolerance and understanding between all nations and religions so I believe it is appropriate to feature the hopeful meeting  of the representatives of the world’s religions that occurred at the Columbian Exposition of 1893.

It should be noted that the editor, John Henry Barrows, served as minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago from 1886 to 1891, authored numerous books and was a highly respected man in the religious community. It is even more interesting to note that the University of Chicago Divinity School department on the study of Islam is named after Rev. Barrows.

Religion is the greatest fact of History.

This book will show that it is one of the most picturesque and interesting. These volumes are enriched with views of Eastern Temples, painted and tiled Pagodas, superb and stately Mosques, humble meeting-houses and all the beautiful forms of Christian architecture in Europe and America.

How these efforts of Man to embody his thoughts of God and of worship give a celestial gleam and glory to his struggling and sorrowing life!

The human soul, with its upward look, catching the reflection of Heaven, transfigures the sombre annals of Time.

This book records a grand event, the most important incident of the greatest of World Expositions. In preparing for it, the editor of these volumes has been brought into friendly and delightful relations with Catholic Archbishops, Greek Priests, Jewish Rabbis, disciples of the gentle Buddha and followers of the gravely-wise Confucius. Pleasant friendships have been formed with men of a score of Christian denominations. Contact with the learned minds of India has  inspired a new reverence for the thought of the Orient. He has seen in imagination Milton’s

“Dusk faces, with white silken turbans wreathed.”

And, in the disciples of Zoroaster and of the Prophet of Islam, he has found the spirit of the truest human brotherhood.

It is my inspiring duty to bring before my readers a most varied and stately procession of living scholars, reformers, missionaries, moral heroes, delvers in the mines of the soul, seekers after Truth, toilers for humanity.

In this book will be found Theology, Science, Philosophy, Biography, History, Poetry, Experience, Political and Social Wisdom, Eloquence, Music, the rich lore of the head, the richer literature of the heart, Revelations from God, the story of Man’s outreachings toward the Infinite, his triumphs and partial failures, his hopes and despairs, the bewildered efforts of noble souls

“Who, groping in the darks of Thought,
Touched the Great Hand and knew it not,”

and the sublime joy of those to whom Religion was a daily walk in the light of the Eternal.

This Book will show Man seeking after God, and it will also tell the diviner story of God seeking after Man.

Striking the noble chord of universal human brotherhood, the promoters of the World’s First Parliament of Religions have evoked a starry music which will yet drown the miserable discords of earth.

This Book is the record of Man’s best thinking to-day on the greatest of themes. For the first time in all the centuries, the wonders of Art and Science and the wonders of Faith and Thought have been exhibited side by side.

The faces of living men of all Faiths, the Temples wherein they worship, the record of their highest achievements, the reasons for their deepest convictions, and the story of their earliest meeting together in loving conference, are for the first time presented in one comprehensive work.

The Western City which was deemed the home of the crudest materialism has placed a golden milestone in Man’s pathway toward the spiritual Millennium.

As some of my readers look into the pictured faces of robed and mitred ecclesiastics, earnest pulpit orators, highhearted women, grave reformers and strange-featured wise men from far Eastern lands, the scholarly representatives of Faiths which are alien to the habitual current of Western thought, and as they read these varied chapters in the wondrous history of the Soul, I am confident they will experience a widening of thought, and be glad that the Providence of God has, in the process of the suns, blessed them with truer tenderness and a broadened sympathy.

This Book will also be read in the cloisters of Japanese scholars, by the shores of the Yellow Sea, by the watercourses of India and beneath the shadows of Asiatic mountains near which rose the primal habitations of man. It is believed that the Oriental reader will discover in these volumes the source and strength of that simple faith in Divine Fatherhood and Human Brotherhood, which, embodied in an Asiatic Peasant who was the Son of God and made divinely potent through Him, is clasping the globe with bands of heavenly light.

May this record speed on the day foreseen by the English Laureate, who looked forward to the Parliament of Religions as the realization of a noble dream, the day when

“All men’s good
Is each man’s rule, and Universal Peace
Lies like a shaft of light across the land,
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea,
Thro’ all the circle of the Golden Year.”

John Henry Barrows.

Chicago, Nov. 8, 1893.

Own Your Own Home

Title: Own Your Own Home by Ring W. Lardner

Location: Google Books       Date: 1919

Satirist Ring Lardner (1885-1933)  is best known for his humorous observations of the sports world, but Lardner looks at the “sport” of building and owning a home in this 1919 selection. Fred Gross and his family are tired of living in a cramped urban flat and decide it is time to become home owners in the suburbs. In a series of letters to his brother Charley, Fred documents every rocky step of the way – from buying a lot, dealing with the bank for financing, problems with the architect, a flooded basement and leaky roof, and even getting along with his new neighbors. If you have ever built or remodeled a house you will find Fred Gross a kindred sufferer.

Chicago, Jan. 21— Dear Charley. They got me all most drove crazy & if any body ever says to you build a house bust them in the jaw. The archateck keeps ringing me up on the phone all the wile a bout 5 times a day & asking do I want this or that & what do I know a bout it & he is getting payed for doing the worring but in sted of him doing it he lays it all off on to me, some times he wants to know do we want a tin or ivory bath tub & its in the contrack for us to have a ivory bath tub but when I tell him that he says I thot you might of wanted tin because ivorys going to cost more money & when I say what do I care what it costs because all I half to pay is what the contrack calls for then he says the price of ivorys went up & we cant put it in for the money I thot we could so I & Grace argu it out & then tell him to go a head & its $25 or $30 more or what ever it is.

Then he keeps wanting me to tell him if we want tliis or that & how do I know what is it we want when its all in the contrack & he should ought to know with out bothering me. & besides that the real estate man told me that taxes was pretty near nothing in Allison but I got notise to day that I owe $40 taxes & if thats pretty near nothing Im glad it aint no big amt.

Then an other thing when the archateck drawed the plans he made a misstake a bout putting in the radiators for the hot water heat & he aint got enough of them in & hes going to put in 2 extra Is and he aint told me yet what that will amt. to but it will be a plenty.

Where I was going to lay a side $80 per mo. I aint laying nothing a side & they dont seem to be no chance of ever saveing a nickle un lest we dont eat nothing & you know Charley I wasent never the man to starv my self to death. I told the man down to the bank a bout the radiators & the bath tub & he says I should ought to of had some sort of writen contrack with the archateck so he couldent keep hanging them things on me all the wile but its to late now & any way I guess they wont be no more trouble tho I wisht they would go a head & not worry me to death asking them questions.

Rgds. to Mary.

F. A. Gross