Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-05-02
KIPLING ON CHICAGO.
HOW he SAW THE BUSTING CITY
AND WHAT HE THOUGHT OF 1T.
over n Million OF "sayages" and Bar
barIans-Chicsgo Religion, Politics,
and Pie-StickinR-How
Pork Is Made.

have struck a citg-a real city-and
they call it Chicago.
The other places do not count. San
Francisco was pleasure-resort as we'll as a
city, and Salt Lake was phenomenon.
This place is the first American city
have encountered. II holds rather more
than q million people with bodies, and
stands on the same sort of soil as Calcutta.
Having seeA il, urgently desire never TO
see il again. IL is inhabited by savages.
| It's water is the water of the Hughl. and
| its air il dirt Also il says that it is the
| "bossn town Of America. | do not believe
| that it has anything TO do with
this country. They told me TO 60
| 10 the Palmer House, which is over
| much gilded and miTrOred. and there /
| found a huge ball of tesselated marble
crammed with people talking about money
| and splitting about everywhere. Other
| barbarians charged in and out Of this in
! fcrno with letters and kilograms in their
| hands, and vet others shouted at each
| other. A man who had drunk quite rs
| much as was good for HIM told me that
| this was the finest hotel in the finest
| city on God Almighty's earth " BY the
| indicate the next country OF state
| he SAYS God A'mighty's EARTH
| This prevents discussion and fatters
| his vanity. Then | went out into the
| streets. which are long and fiat and with
| out end. And verify il Is not q good thing
| TO live in the East for any length of time.
| Your ideas grow TO clash with with those
| held by every right thinking man. Hooked
down interminable vistas hankod with
| nine, ten, and fifteen-storied houses. and
| crowded with men and women, and the
| show impressed me with great horror.
Except IN London-and have forgotten
what London was like-I had never seen
| so many white people together. and never
| such q collection Of miserahles. There
was no color in the street and no beauty
| only maze of wire ropes overhead and
dirty stone tagging under foot.
THROUGH A CAB-DRIyER's LENS.
A cab-driver volunteered TO show me the
| glory of the town for so much an hour and
| with him ] wandered far. He conceived
| that all this turmoil and squash was
| thingto be reverently admired; that 1t was
| good TO hudde men together IN fifteen
| LAYERS, one atop Of the other, and to dig
! holes IN the ground for offices. He said
| that Chicago was a live town and that all
| the creatures hurryiug by mo were en-
| gaged in business that is to say, they
| were trying TO make some money that they
might not die through lack of food to put
| into their bellies. He took me to canals
| black as ink and flled with untold abomi-
| nations, and babe me watch the stream OF
| traffic across the bridges. Hethen took me
| into q saloon, and while ! drank made me
| note that the floor was covered with CONS
! sunk in cement A Huttpnt Ot would not have
| been guilty of this sort of barbarlsm. The
| coins made an effect pretty enough, but the
| man who put them there had no thought
| to beauty, and therefore he was a savage.
| Then my cab-driver showed me business
| blocks, CAV with signs and studded with
! fantastic and absurd advertisements OF
| goods, and looking down the long street
| so adorned 10 was as though each vcnder
| stood ut his own door bowling:
For the sake Of money employ or buy
| of me and me only
| Have YOU ever seen a crowd at a famine
| relief distribution? You know, then, how
| the men leap into the air, stretching out
| their arms above the crowd in the hope Of
! being seen, while the women dulorOusly
| slap the stomachs Of their children and
| whimpcr. had sooner watch famine re-
! lief than the white man engaged IN what
| he calls legitimate competition. The one
| | Understandable other makes me Ill
| and the cabman said that those things
were the proof OF progress. and by that /
| knew he had been reading his newspaper,
| "a every intelligent American should. The
| papers tell their clientele, IN language
| fitted TO their comprehension, that the
| snprling together of telegraph-wlres, the
| heaving up of houses, and the making Of
money ls progress.
DONE IN TEN HOURS.
spent ten hours III that huge wilder
| ness. wandering through scores OF miles of
these terrible streets and iOstlmg some few
| hundred thousand of these terrible people
| who talked DGtSd bat through their noses.
| The cabman left me, but after awhile /
| picked up another man who was tull OF
| figures and into NV ears he poured them
| as occasion required. or the big blank fac
| tories suggested. Here they turned out so
many hundred thousand dollars worth Of
| such and such an article, there so many
million other things; this house was
| worth so many million dollars; that on"
| so many millions. more or less. IL was Ike
| listening to a child babbllng of its hoard Of
shells. II was like watching fool playing
| with buttons. But | was expected To do
| more than listen or watch. He demanded
| that l should admire, and the utmost that
| could say was: Are these things 80!
| Then | am very sorry for you" That
| made him angry and he said that lnsular
| envy made me uErcspOnsiye. SO gOu see |
could not make him understand.
CHICAGO PREACHING.
Sunday brought me the quecrcst ex-
| pericnccs of ala revelation of barbarlsm
complete. found place that was Off
| cially described as a church. 1t was a CIR
| ems really, but that The wOrshippers did not
| know. There were flowers all about the
| building, which was fitted up with plush
and stained oak and much luxury, lnclud-
ING twisted brass CanolestIcks Of seyerest
| Gothic design To these things and con
| gregatlon of savages entered suddenly a
| wonderful man completely IN the
| confidence of their God, whom he
| treated coIloquially and exploited very
| much as a newspaper reporter would
| exploit foreign pOtentate. But, unlike
| the newspaper reporter, he never allowed
| his listeners To forget that he, and not He,
was the centIe of attraction. With q
voice OF silver and with imagery borrowed
| from the auction-rOom he built up for his
| hearers heaven on the lines of the Pal
| mer House (but with all the gliding real
| cold and all the plate-glass diamond and
! set in the centre Of il a lOud-yoiCed.
argumentatlve, very shrewd creation that
he called God. One sentence at tins point
caught my delighted ear. 1t was dpropoSI
| of some question of the judgment, and
! ran
mo! I tell you God doesn't do business
| that wav.n He was giving them deity
! whom they could comprehend, and gold
| and ievellcd heaven In which they could
take a natural interest. He lnterlarded
| his performance with the slang OF the
streets. the counter, and the exchange, and
| he said that religion ought to enter into
| daily lie. Consequently, | presume he ln-
troduced it as daily life-hls own and the
life ofhis friends Then escaped before the
! blessing. desiring no benedlctlon at such
hands. But the person who listened seemed
10 enjoy themselves, and understand that
had met with a popular preacher. Later
on. when had perused the sermons of a
| gentleman called Talmage and some others,
| / perceived that had been listening 10 a
! very mild specimen. Yet that man, with
his brutal gold and silver idols, hls hands
! in.pocket, cigar-in-mouth, and hat-on-the-
| batk-of-the-head STYLE of dealing with the
sacred vessels, would count himself spirltu-
allv quite competent to send missionary
| to convert the Indians.
All that Sunday listened to people, who
! said that the mere fact of spiklng down
| trips of iron to wood and getting a steam
and IRON thing to run along them was
| progress; that the telephone was pro
| rress and the network of wires overhead
was progress. They repeated Their state
| ments again and again. One CT them TOOK
me 10 their city-hall and board OF trade
works and pointed IT out with pride. II