Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-09-05

Mrs. Agusta Brakeman Writes About
Her Trip to the Windy City.

Dear Editor:
Thought l would give you little
description of my trip to Chicago. We
arrived in the city on the evening of
Aug. IS, after an all days ride from
DEBORAH, and. found our friend walt
ing for us at the station. Took the
street car for his home. Ii seemed
so long I thought We would never
get there; it was over an hours ride
out. We we're met by his wife and
mother and lunch was served. After
visiting a while we retired. feeling as
If we needed to. The next afternoon,
we started out, four of us to visit the
soldiers camp which is on the lake
front, but before we got there we
took the sightseeing auto and went
on q trip 1t was sure a great trip.
We happened to be lucky and get up
per seats. We were UP pretty high.
We saw the new pier they have built
out in the lake, the several beaches
where there were hundreds in bath
ing. The beautiful EdgeWater Beach
Hotel is located on the north shore
about seven miles from the center of
the city. 1t is built in the form of a
Greek Cross without an inside court
and without an inside room. The
parks are beautiful; was in several
Lincoln Park is a very pretty place
the Observatory is grand, never saw
Ianything as beautiful; some bananas
growing there and many other things
We rode for hours it seemed as If
there was no end to all the beautiful
things we saw. 1t sure was sight
seeing trip. Then we took the street
car to visit the soldiers camp. That
was a great sight. You have to tell
a sentinel who you want to see and
then he sends an order to call the one
you want to see. He was in Battery
B, second artillery. They roll call for
mess, the band played one piece, Star
Spangled Banner, and then it was
supper time. Our friend took five Of
us to a swell Cafe for supper We
sure had a fine time. The next day
we visited some of the large depart
INIT stores. At the Boston Store we
went up in the observatory tower,
ic1, l. c+r
level You surely can get a great
view Of the city from there. Tuesday
we visited Sears Roebuck great store,
which covers so acres of ground.
They have beautiful gardens, athlet-
ic fields, tennis courts and q baseball
diamond. We enter the doorway un-
der the tower and in company with
many other visitors are assigned a
guide We go up more than 200 feet
in the tower elevator and take view
from the tower balcony. 1t has sew
en- large buildings with floor space Of
over 80 acres. Below us is the great
est of all the structures, the mer-
chaadise building, including the gro
Gerry annex, in all 1,223 feet long, SO
feet wide and stories high. The
wall paper mill, with a capacity of
over As 900 sixteen yard rolls of
wal paper a day, the paint factory
with a yearly capacity Of 100000
gallons of paint and many more
things they Operate. In New England
states they have shoe factories with
a daily capacity of 10000 pairs of
shoes. In Ohio stone foundry
which yearly puts out 100000
stones; a vehicle factory in Indiana
with a yearly output of 10000 bug
gies. They have other factories in
Iowa, New York Illinois, Louisiana,
Wisconsin, and Minnesota. There are
1000 men and women working in
the buildings and another army Of
200 in the factories. They also
have rooms fitted up like a hospital
for their sick. There are nurses and
doctors and their dining room is very
large. We were invited in to dinner
where everything was free. My such
a dinner as we had. There were hun
dreds eating. After dinner we were
seated in reception room till the
time came to be shown through the
building. Writing desks are furnished
with writing material so you can
write your cards to friends, and you
leave them there and they stamp