The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-05-05

pOluu OF view, say JDat OF ulNlne OmE Is
cencs and fairness, in which Chicago
would appear as one Of the gre at cities
Of the world, in fact a metropolis, by.
and-by to rival in population and wealth
any city of the seabosrd. It has certain
ly better commercial advantages, SO far
as water communication and railways 90,
than Paris or Pekin or Berlin, and a ter
ritory to supply and receive from iDfin-
Itely vaeter, richer and more promising
than either. This territory will have many
big cities, but in the nature of things
only one Of SURPRISING imp0Its And
taking into account its geographical DO.
sitiOn-a thousand miles from the Allan
tic seaboard on the one side and from the
mountains on the other, with the ac-
knowledged tendency Of the people and
of money to it as continental center
it seems to me Chicago is to be tnat one.
Social life, is speaking generally, as un-
formed, unsolicited IS the city that is
more fluid and undetermined than in
Eastern large cities. That is merely to
say, however, that while it is American,
it is young. When you come to individ-
uals, the people in society are largely
from the East, or have Eastern connec-
tions that determine their conduct. For
twenty years the great universities, Har-
ward, Yale, Amherst, Princeton, and the
resthave been pouring in their young men
here. There Is no better element in the
world, and it is felt in every pulse of the
town. Young couples marry and come
here from every sort of eastern circle.
But the town has grown 80 fast, and so
many new people have come into the
ability suddenly to spend money in fine
houses and equipages, that the people do
not know each other. You may drive
past miles of good houses, with man
who has grown up with the town, who
cannot tell you who any of the occupants
OF the houses are. Men know each other
on Change, in the courts, in business, and
are beginning to know each other in
clubs, but society has not got itself sort
elements. This is Il metropolitan trait
it Is true, but the condition is socially
very different from what it is in New
York or Boston; the small village associ-
alton survive little yet, struggling
against the territorial du tances, but the
social mass is still unorgRuized, although
society" is a prominent feature in the
newspapers. OF course it is understood
that there are people Gin society" and
dinners, and all that, in no wise different
from the same people and events the
world over.
A striking feature of the town is
youth" visible in social life as we'll as
in business. Az Eastern man is sur
prised to see so many young men in re-
sponsible positions, at the head or taking
the managing oar, III great moneyed in
stitutIons, i'll railway corporations, and
IN societies Of charity and culture. A
young man, graduate of the city high
school, is at the same time president of
prominent bank, president of the Board
of Trade, and president Of the Art Insti-
tute. This youthful spirit must be con-
tagious, for apparently the more elderly
men do not permit themselves to become
old, either in the business or the pleas
ures of life. Everything goes on with
youthful vim and spirit.
Next to the youth, and perhaps more
noticeable, the characteristic feature OF
Chicago is money making, and the money
power is as obstrusive socially as on
change. When we come to speak Of ed
ucationRl and intellectual tendencies, it
will be seen how this spirit is being at
once utilized and mitigated; but for the
moment money is the recognized power.
How could it be otherwise? Youth and
energy did not flock here for pleasure or
for society but simply for fortune. And
success in mOney-getting was about the
only one considered. And it is still that
by which Chicago is chiefly known
abroad, by that and by a certain CON
sciousness of it which is noticed. And
as women reflect social conditions most
wildly, it cannot be denied that there is
type known in Europe and in the East
rs the Chicago young woman capable
rather than timid, dashing rather than
retiring, quite able to take care of her
self. But this is not by any means, an
exhaustive account of the Chicago woman
OF to-day.
While it must be said that the men, as
a rule, are too much absorbed in busi-
ness to give heed to anything else, yet
even this statement will need more quail
ifcatlon than would appear at first when
We come to consider the educational, in
dustrial, and reformatory projects.
And indeed, a veritable exception is the
Literary Club, of nearly two hundred
members, a minglinR of business and
professional men, who have fine rooms
in the art building, and meet weekly FOX
papers and discussions. It is not In
every city that an equal number of busy
men will give the time TO this sort of in
tellectual recreation. The energy here is
superabundant; in whatever direction it
is exerted it is very effective; and it may
be said in the language Of the street,
that if the men Of Chicago seriously take
hold of culture, they will make it hum.
MANY leading Jews have made magnifi-