The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-09-04

6eElto VI COIuIleutS I6RdluluB ODt-
cago IL is proper for me to say that
i am writing for the-I shall not
say instruction, but entertainment
(Which is less in%accurate) of per-
sons who like myself until three
weeks ago had never enjoyed a
few days loafiDg and sight seeing
In a great city. Many of my OBJ.
servations will appear stale and
trite to those readers to whom
skipping over the country to mar
kets and pleasure resorts is a part
of their ordinary life, and of the
impressions which 1 shall here put
into pint a large portion might
have been produced by a visit to
another town than Chicago. 1T is
my purpose TO attempt to give here
ideas that / gained rather than to
describe what / saw. A map and
an illustrated guide book of the
fair and the city with concise ex-
planatory notes will furnish a bet
ter and fuller conception than any
description might convey.
One likes the quantity of Chicago
but the quality is despicable, at
least so far as it lies in the power
of a countryman to Judge. 1 had
no opportunity TO look upon good
Chicagoese society and while not
questioning its existence in the
bay windows and galleries of Mich
igan and Indiana and Calumet
avenues, it Is left for me only to
tell of the kind that meet ones
eye in the cafes and on the street
cars. A southern man is abroad
when he is in Chicago. If those
people whom he jostles against are
Americans, he is himself a foreign
er. If he is a native of this land of
the free then the Chicagoese with
their gruff, short, Teutonic and out
landish language and cast of coun-
tenance bear just as much resem-
blance to him as do the Irish of
Tipperary or the Scotch of Dundee.
None of u near kin live in Chi
cago and a darkey would find
much more congenial society in
the imported villages on the "Mid-
way" than you or 1 would find
among our white fellow citizens of
the Western Metropolis.
A countryman Is lonesome in
Chicago. He wonders how it can
be that not one of the millions Of
faces pouring along in streams and
out of the cars in shoals
seems familiar and as he gropes
amid the darkness of humanity he
becomes disguised that some fell
low does not slap him on the
shoulder and remark concerning
the weather. If one is with a friend
and the two talk inquiringly about
the nearest car route to their hotel
while a dozen of these Intelligent
Westerners sit. by in silence not
n of them will deign or presume
to offer any information. If one
looks a Chicagoan square in the
face and aims his interregaattoTy
straight from the sbSSider perhaps
he Will obtain/an answer in quick,
-9SSrffSK grunts and congratulate
himself on having successfully in
terriewed a hog. The Chicago fe-
males r an Improvement on the
grabbed sex and don't appear so
utterly stingy with their stock Of
words but they pronounce those
words with a twang. How that
twang lacerates and tears it is
painful to remember and when it
ceases one involuntarily runs his
fingers through his hair to satisfy
himself that the scalp is still there.
The cry of the newspaper and
other street hucksters is still more
horrid. 1t is not only piercing but
1t has a jagged edge. 1t is no less
unintelligible than the note of the
Charleston oyster mauma, but the
latter if monotonous is almost me-
lodius. After hearing the Chicago
csc endeavor to speak a few SEN
fences n is ready to admit that
heirAuneofnmunicative sullenness
has some redeeming features. I
believe that the child of a Southern
Iaborer gets a better "English" ed
ucation in its cradle than the
Northern common schools afford.
Chicago seems rather loosely
flung together. While my idea
had been that like all new towns it
was far from compact I was not
prepared to expect a general air
of s~catteration with vacant lots
enough to allow of baseball on
every other street corne In the
ecIlltOly SOutu VI JIG IlNCT anu
about State and Dearborn streets
where at short intervals those tall
buildings leap upwards like mighty
chimneys all the available space
Is utilized with handsome houses.
When n goes out a short distance
the aspect of things changes. In
the corner of a block, there may
be n or two or more houses and
sometimes an eight or ten story is
olated structure while the greater
part of 1t IL vacant and abandoned
to weeds. Across the street there
Is another block its counterpart
and 80 on there may be a stretch
country continuing for a long dis
tance dotted with splendid build
ings with intervening old fields.
Some Of these days, and perhaps
the time Is near, ali these spaces
will be filed and then the city will
be indeed as populous as she Is
already vast in extent.
fancy that no othor town rivals
Chicago In street advertising.
There must be something like suf-
flcient plank in the billboards and
sign boards to construct q shelter
over Laurens county. Oceans of
paint of numberless colors have
been bestowed upon the fences and
walls and roofs of stores and all
devoted to eulogiZing somebody's