The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-30
The BucoIic village of Chicago.

Some years ago an eminent Chicago
| journalist. in commenting on the then
acknowledged absence of an art atmos-
phere and Of artistic sense in the
Windy City, said with much point and
possibly pathos: I'VE are not yet ready
for Art. When we are we will make
her how'll 1t is not definitely known
at this office whether the bowling days
of art have reached the fashionable
circles of which "Bathhouse John" is
the Ward McAllister, or penetrated to
the refined regions included in and
tributary to Mr.. Dooley's "Archey
Road" but if progress in that depart
ment of human civilization has not
outstripped local achievement in others,
as represented by native author Of
merit, probably art is yet fnchoate and
mute in Chicago.
These observations are suggested by
some remarks made by Mr. Henry B.
Fuller, the novelist, whose recent con-
duct in holding UP the mirror of truth
to tie Chicagoese has been savagely
resented by them. Replying to his
critics, Mr.. Fuller, the other day, made
the retort courteous in few observa-
tons which will strike people general
iy-outside of the theatre of war-as
singularly acute and illustrative.
Among other things, he said:
Two million country people live in Chicago
and fancy they make city. The countFyman
is the dominant element in Chicago. which in
many of its social and material aspects is but
the country town grown big. Abundant evidence
STl q fprrzr n nfz
The freedom with which We make our gut
tiers do service as livery stables relates Us at
once TO the thousands OF main streets all over
the West. Numberless open poTches and barless
windows recall the day when we were too young
and too small to have criminal class.
seven-eighths OF our people are totally with
out the urban tradition. OF the native half the
great bulk. drawn from the farms and small
towns Of the Mississippi Valley, have never
a city in their liyes-there are none west of the
Alleghenies-and do not know what a city is,
ought TO be, what restraints and con-
cessions necessary for successful living under
civic conditions. The foreign half. very largely
from the rural districts OF the Continent,
nearly as guiltless Of metropolitan knowledge
the native.
"our plight is attributable in part. of course.
to corruption. in part 10 incompe:ency. in part
10 msladroit financing, in part TO selfish impu-
dence eager to snap at small personal advantages:
but most Of all it is attributable TO a slack
and flabby good nature the direct product of the
Western village and town, those methods OF mu-
tusl tolerance and petty license.
when we were paying our dimes, some years
ago, to see Dog-Faced Joio he didn't ask us
what thought of him. He didn't pose as q
host. He was frankly a freak. The question is:
Can Chicago longer afford 10 rank the Joio
among the worlds cities? / think mott
Mr. Fuller has not said thing which,
in more or less concrete form, has not
occurred to observing visitors to the
great aggregation of Mexicar pueblos
and village streets which provincial
pride considers as constituting an ideal
metropolis: but he is wrong in finding
fault with his acknowledges. Remem-
bering that less than single genera
ton separates their highest aristocracy.
or most Of it, from the prairie sod
house, the livery stable, the tavern,
lunch counter, or butcher shop, and
that the masses are either of domestic
or foreign. rural origin, the wonder is
that as much has been done in the way
of city making as Chicago has to show.
II is better to be kindly and charitable.
and to watch the slow but certain
growth of higher civilization. in the |
course of which the great and earnest
community shall free its hair of the |
ancestral hayseed, and the aroma sur |
yiving early struggles in the stock |
yards, and become as outwardly per- |
feet and as inwardly provincial as New |
York itself.