The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-24
A LESSON FROM CHICAGO.
A SOMETIME HAMLET THAT HAS
BECOME A GREAT CITY.
It's Buildings Arc High and It's Golfers
Capsoious, bat Its Simplicity Is Gone
Forever-The Captains of Industry, the
Holders of Money, Are Its Rulers.
Special Correspondence.7

Especial CorTeSp onQclCe
CHICAGO, April I5.-J. Young Scammon
was buried the other day, and his death re-
calls US to the thought that we cannot much
longer have with Us the generation Of men
who were present at the Founding Of the
City. If We now count ,3O0. 600 souls within
the municipal limits, as | believe, Will not the
reader pardon me- for holding that I have
good reason to write of such a city-a city,
too, which, in addition to this true fable Of
Aladdin growth. has offered to the history of
the world conhagration that in extent, de-
struction and reflective effect on Christen-
dom now figures as its greatest pyre? read
a letter yesterday from a gentleman who
spent his boyhood playing in g grove and
swimming on the beach in the region OF Six
teenth street, then an open prairie, with the
hamlet Of Chicago and It's fort in the north
ern distance.
Now, Michigan boulevard extends south
ward past Sixteenth street for three rifles,
solidly built with granite mansions; and less
luxurious thoroughfares are paved, lighted
and furnished with cars for a total distance
Of six miles southwark in two points Of the
compass. The boy Of 1910 could now take a
street car at MS once prairie home and travel
/ further away from the site of Fort Dearborn,
! passing no vacant lots for SIX miIes, having
! his choice OF two routes. And this extension
! Is on only ole-of three sides Of the town If
! the dOUbter tell me it is a mushroom growth
| of wooden cottages, l answer that nowhere
/ else shall he see go many vast homes. built of
/ granite blocks. II he pass to the business dis
trlct, there 1 surely can point to buildings
which have not their equals in splendOr and
| magnificence, if we consider that they were
| erected upon the demand of trade rather
than the behest of national pride or royal
/ caprice The Auditorium, the Rookery, the
| Tacoma, the Chamber Of Commerce, the
general group Of thirteen story fire proof
structures, must be accepted as the industrial
capital of the first generation Of laborious
dwellers in the greatest valley Of the planet
/ cannot too often set at work upon this
miracle Of Chicago-this city, seen to rise
twice IN fifty years, to pluck a civic laurel
from the unwilling hands of cultured human
ity, and to almost immodestly seat herself
within a circle where ages rather than CEN
turies are counted. I live here-shall I be
dumb? Shall I declare, by silence, that no
such thing was done? And shall not. as this
towns clerk, dwell upon that sad yet fantas-
tic game Of battledore and shut1lecock which
time has played with the danizens Of the ham
let whose farms were needed by progress for
the establishment of a chief cityl
Was ever drama more exciting than that
pla7 Of Chicago. where once the neighbors
borrowed each others utensils, went to each
others raisings, danced at each others houses:
where a city with its wealth came on them in
a night, ordainIng the severe laws of caste
which, in Europe and New York, have been
written on tables for hundreds of years; |
where finally, at the evening of life. neighbor |
Jones sits III MS all but regal box at the Audi
forum, crowned by the aureole of hattery
and adulatiOn that BELTS unlimited wealth, |
while neighbor Tompiiins shivers in the gut |
ter outside, periodically grateful if he get |
sight Of a rich gown erethe sturdy policeman.
called hither from Ireland, shall drive the |
populace away! Is this prank that fortune .
plays with each pair Of good neighbors at |
every hamlet on this earth? Am | stricken
with a western boom who set down these /
things, as seen Of men, seen here at Chicago,
seen now by men vino, like Scammon, are
soon in the course of nature to pass to more
stable conditions; or have really some charge
to keep, some authority to write?
do not aver that the ferment of mankind,
the unsettliDg of democracy, the organiza-
ton Of a new society have come alone at Chi
cage; but where else hiss the transition af-
q
there been a band of pioneers whose dangers
were common, whose lot was austere, whose
unity o. sentiment and social pride or humil-
ity was unquesUioned-a band of pioneers,
half of whom were to parade in the terrible
reality Of absolute mOnarchs, receiving the
obeiSance Of thousands and accepting the
equality of few, while the other half were to
renouuce even the pomp and circumstance Of
in abdication, but with this mishap, that your
King Of lllyria, or Duke of dodena, or EN-
press EuCpnie is still the dear cousin Of Vic
toria and Wilhelm, while the unsuccessful"
pioneer Of Chicago has lost not only the full
but the empty honors Of royalty!
The men whoinvented railroads and steam
ships erected a new human government
government BY pieces of paper called credit
and money. lie who should develop the con
ventiOnal faculty Of acquiring or controlling
the largest number of these pieces Of paper
should take the destines of his 50 called equals
in charge. At his command the Tneritorious
rose TO comfort; by his denuncation the
meritOriOus fell into despair and death. The
tancltul operations Of government by election .
should proceed as Of habit, but of what use
for the citizen to deny the jurisdiction Of
credit! When some man should arise who
needed no money then he might affect an in
Inference toward him who had all the money
by TINS metamOrphOsis we have seen the |
world turned well away from the earlier
Of the Christian religion. The man
with money, chosen IN the very vortex OF
,hance, as these good neighb0rs were CHOSEN
1t Chicago, may now behold. not MS own
marvellous genius for saying 'Noin and seiz-
NJ a new access Of money, but rather nav
IL behold the impotent greed Of ell his fellow :
men; rather may he retreat in horror before
he ceremonies Of alteration IN which even !
ne Old neghbors would be fam 70 lead.
How strange thar all this philosophy Of
nventon-tlis putting Of the new vine OF +
knowledge into the old BEETLES Of ignorance !
md greed-shouid play its chief act before S
'ur villagers eyes, until neighbors by the
lundreis i've on one thoroughfare, each and
II richer and more powerful than the Roths- c
'hIidS after " aterloo. Tra1storlnat tons. TOO,
without number, that ought TO b5 recorded. {
Tins Traveller, a. this car window, 81 " this
morning the wife Of a great farmer dressed /
n a calico gown Of the value Of twenty-five c
ents- Let hin now gaze on this se7v- c
NJ girl, Gus on & thursday afternoon. ar
aged IN green and purple velTers, toe theme
4 Marco Polo's lore, the envy Of Elizabeth
nd E1e MISTRESS % the aDcieu refine
Cast your eye over the piain called Chicago. 6
% You zee houses rising ~ TIE hundredsi !
! on do Do you So that unhappy thing, :
which Is that al tlese petty builders ara
lear N tie belief q their reusiziaz opDor-
oEi-y 70 be landlord. on hoyseEe- small :