The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-29
THE ROMANTIC WEST
 IS DISALLUS|0NED
A Would-Be Cowboy Told
 Cruel But Wise Facts
CHICAGO LIKES BEER
Great Corn Belt City Drinks Millions of Gallons Day-Chicago Git izens Too Devoted to
 Business

Chicago. May 2S-(Special)-The out break of spring runaways in Chicago ls more acute this year than ever oefore' although the number has been growing larger year by year. One boy wrote 10 the postmaster of a town in the Texas i Panhandle, saving: Dear Sir: Do you want to hire any cowboys? can ride
 rope and shoot well enough to take care of myself Age, 19. Can take another fellow out if you say so. State wages and when to go out" But the dreams or wild riding cowboys and seven-shooters was given a cold shock for the post master replied: Let me shatter the hope that, mayhap, has filled your young life with visions of romance-of wild rides across endless leagues of blossoming prai- rie-of laundering hoofs and elashing horns, of maddened herds in the mid night stampedes-of panting horses and swishing lariats-of redhanded outlaws battling to hold their booty in the gran ite recesses of cliff -bordered gorges. There are no fair and only daughters of cattle kings whose rescue from desperate bands of lowbrowed ruffians will win for you an easy life and a happy home. The poetry of life has lost it's metric meas ure in the golden west, and your letter came 40 years too late to secure for you situation that would adjust it's facts to your fancies. It may surprise you, liar ", and cause you the natural pain that accompanies every stern disillusionment, but 1t is essential to your proper con- ception of the difference between the Pan handle of Texas of which you have read and the Panhandle as I know 1t, that you be told that. the first exhibition of your skill as a manipulator of the ostracised six-shooter will cost you s100 and six months 10 a year in the county jail. You will not do any Buffalo Bill mock heroics, but you can ride a gang blow across those far-spread fields, and you can watch the fragrant breezes ripple the billowing har- vests that have sprung from fertile depths at the beck of your industry"
 Most of the runaways are boys headed toward the west, but each year the stern fact is learned that the runaway with little money can find only one result, a sentence to hard labor in fields where imagination pictures varied assortments of buffalo, antelope and cow-punchers. | No other city in the world not even l Berlin, can show an equal of Chicago s beer drinking record, according to data in the hands of members of the vice
 commission. About one-half of the pop
 ulation does all the beer drinking, bu
 that half has consumed about one mil
 lion gallons daily in the phenomenal,
 hot weather which has prevailed during May. This is figured from the fact thai
 there are 1000 saloons and that each sa- loon sells on an average three barrels | of beer per day in moderate weather. During the days of high temperature the beer sales have been more than 3OOOO barrels a day. Recently a careful esti- mate was made by those familiar with the sales of these saloons. Some were put down for 15 to 25 barrels per day, and some for only one. Figuring the retail cost of each glass of beer at 2-5 of cent, which Is sold for 5 cents, the cost of the beer thirst is shown to run into hundreds of thousands of dollars per day, out of which the brewers profit, through ownership of the saloons, as well as from profits in the wholesale trade, are enormous. The figures serve to ex- plain the fortunes the brewers have &C., quired The vice commissions recent re- port found that the most dangerous im- moral influence and most important fnan- cial interest aside from regular disorder ly houses are the disorderly saloons, ad- hitting women. Four hundred and forty 1 five such saloons were listed in the city and 929 unescorted women were found l in them during the investigation. Another feature of the vicious saloons that is pointed out is the vaudeville show of inn | proper nature conducted in rear rooms The owners of lake steamers should ex- ercse more vigilance enforcing their
 rules. The sale of intoxicating liquor to minors should be absolutely prohibited
 on lake steamers An gambling devices
 should be suppressed on lake steamers
 The devotion to business of Chicago:
 prominent citizens and their absorption
 in it is the reason for lacks in munici
 pal government and neglect of human
 ideals, according to a report to the Boar,
 of Trade of London by the labor commis
 sion of that board. which recently visite
 America and devoted especial attentio
 to Chicago To-day there are signs O all hands that better order of thing
 is beginning to dawn for Chicago" say tho report "since civic problems hay begun to claim the serious attention 0
 thoughtful and enlightened citizens Tn
 commission upset the theory long hel
 to be a fact in the United States tha comparison of wages and costs o living showed the American laboring maj
 and artisan to have a vast advantag
 over those of England. On the contrary the commission finds that while wage are twice as large as those of artisan
 in England, in America the costs of liv
 ing are from 50 to 75 per cent greate
 than in England. Regarding housing con
 dtions the commission reports that nt
 general improvement is taking place 1T
 Chicago in those sections where there ha.
 been overcrowding, but it does commend
 the general character of houses avail
 able for homes for the working classes
 Chicago is blessed with low retail prices
 of food, according to the report, ant
 a list of articles is given to show how
 comparatively cheaply the workingmai
 can live there. The history of the cit, Is given and descriptions of it's great bus
 mess activity and its immense building
 appear. The commission was impressed
 by the sky line of the city and th'
 methods used to facilitate business.
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