Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-07
KIPLING ON CHICAGO.
How He Saw the Busting City and
What He Thought of It.
CRITICISM OF A STRANGER.
Over Million of "savages- and Barbarians-
Chicago Religion, Politics and Pig sticking
What He Saw in the Stock Yards-How
Pork 10 Made.
Written for The Evening Star.


cisco was pleasure resort as well as city and
Salt Lake Was a phenomenon This place is
the first American city have encountered. 1t
holds rather more than a million people with
bodies and stands on the same sort Of soil as
Calcutta Having seen it / urgently desire
never to see it again. 1t is inhabited by saw
ages. Its water is the water OF the Hughli and
its air is dirt. Also il says that it is the boss
town of America. do not believe that it has
anything to do with this country. They told
me to 60 to the Palmer House, which is over
much gilded and mirrored and there found a
huge hall of tesselated marble crammed with
people talking about money and splitting about
everywhere. Other barbarians charged in
and out Of this inferno with letters
and kilograms in their hands, and yet
others shouted at each other. A man who
had drunk quite as much was good for him
told RE that this ''the finest hotel in the
finest city on God Almighty's earth" By the
way, when az American wishes TO indicate the
next country or state ne saws "God mighty's
earth" This prevents discussion and fiatters
his vanity. Then went out into the streets,
which are long and fiat and without end And
verify it is not good thing to live in the east
for any length OF time Your ideas grow to
clash with those held by every right thinking
man. L looked down inserminable vistas
fankeG with nine, ten and ffteen-storied
houses. AMI crowded with men and women, and
the show impressed me with great horror.
Except in LOudon-and 1 have forgotten
wha. London LIKE had never seen so
many white people together and never such a
collection of miserables. There was no color
in the stree. ard no beauty-only a maze of
wire ropes overhead and dirty stone tagging
under foot
THROUGH A CAB DRIVERS 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 a thing to be
reverentlv admired. that it was good to huddie
men together in fifteen layers. one atop of the
other. and to dig holes in the ground for Offices.
He said that Chicago was q live town and that
all the creatures hGrrying by me were engaged
IN bUsiuess-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 10 cnn:Iis black ink, and filled with
tod denominations sand babe me watch the stream
al trai9c .cru$s the bridges. He then took me
into saloon. and. while drank. made ME note
that the foUr covered with coins sunk
Ia cement. A HOttento. would no. have
been guilty of this sort of barbara IL. The
cCilS made an eject pretty .lCug T. but the
EIsu who put Item there mao 10 thought to
beauty and therefore he wa5 savage Then
riT cab driver showed me bu-iress blocks. CAV
will signs and studded with fantastic ard alb
surd advertisements o. goods. ard lool ing
down the long stree SO adorned IL was
though each vende- stool at his door howl
inI:
For the sake Of money employ or buy Of
and me only
Have you ever seen crowd a. a famine re-
hsf distribution! You know then how the men
leap into the air. stretching out their arms
above the crowd in the hope of being seen.
nile I'll. women dolorously slap the stomachs
o. their children and whimper. / had sooner
watch famine relief than the white man en-
ca,ed IN hat he calls legitimate competition.
he one understand. The other makes me
IL. And the cabmac said that these things
The ny anil vtl H.,
lie had been reading his newspaper as everJ
Intelligent American should. The papers tell
their clientele in language fitted to their COM
P-ehension that the saariins together of tele-
graph wires. the heay.n2 up of houses and the
making OF money IS progress
DONE IN TEN HOURS.
spent ten hours in that huge wilderness.
wandering through scores of miles of these
terrible streets and jostling some few hundred
thousand Of these terrible people who talked
paisa bat through their noses. The cabman
lei. me, but after while picked up another
man who was full of figures and into my ears
he poured them occasion required or the
big blank factories suggested. Here they
turned out so many hundred thousand dollars
worth of such and such an article: there 80
many million other things; this house was
worth so many million dollars; that one so
many million more or less. 1t was like listen
ing to a child babbling of its hoard of shells
IL was like watching a fool playing with but
tons. But was expected to do more than
listen or watch. He demanded that should
admire, and the utmost that could say was:
Are these things so! Then am very sorry
for YOU That made him angry and he said
that iusular envy made me unresponsiye. So
you see l could not make him understand.
CHICAGO PREACHING.
Sunday brought me the queerest experiences
OF ala revelation Of barbarism complete I
found place that was officially described as a
church 1t was a circus really, but that the
worsEipers did not know. There were flowers
all about the building, which was fitted up with
plush and stained oak and much luxury in
GLIDING twisted brass candlesticks of seyerest
Gothic design To these things and a congre-
CATION of sayages entered suddenly a wonderful
man completely in the confidence of their God.
whom he treated colloquially and exploited
very much as a newspaper reporter would
exploit a foreign potentate- But, unlike the
newspaper reporter, he never allowed his
listeners TO forget that he and not He was the
center of attraction. With a voice of silver nd
with imagery borrowed from the auction room
he built up for his hearers heaven on the lines
of the Palmer House Out with all the
gliding real gold and all the plate glass
clamond) and Sc: in the center Of it loud
voiced, argumentative. very shrewd creation
that he called God One sentence at this point
caught my delighted ear. 1t was apropos of
some question Of the judgment and ran:
No. tell you God doesn't do business that
way lie was giving them deity whom they
could comprehend and a gold and jeweled
heaven IN which they colld take q natural in
terest- He interlarded his performance with
the slang Of the streets. the counter and the
exchange, and he said that religion ought TO
enter into daily life Consequently / presume
he introduced il as daily life-his own and the
life of his friends Then escaped before the
blessing. desiring benediction at such
hands But the persons who listened seemed
to enjoy themselves, and understand that I
had met with popular preacher Later on.
when had perused the sermons Of a gentle
man called Talmags and some Others / per-
ceived that had been listening to q very mild
specimen Yet that man, with his brutal gold
and silver idols, his hands-in-pocket cigar-in-
mouth and Observation-Disclosures head styls
Of dealing with the sacred vessels, would count
himself spiritually quite competent to send
mission to convert the Indians.
All that Sunday listened to people who said
that the mere fact Of spiking down strips of
Iron to wood and getting . steam and iron
thing 20 run along them was progress That
the telephone was progress, and the network
OF wires overhead Was progress. They re-
Peated their statements again and again. One
OF them took me to their city hall and board of
trade works and pointed il out with pride IL
was very ugly, but very big. and the streets in
front OF II were narrow and unelean. When 1
saw the faces OF the men who did business in
that building felt that there had been a mis-.
take in their billeting.
STRUCK PEorrcrroSIsr
inst when the sense Of unrealitv .nd or..u.