Studies in the South and West, with Comments on CanadaWarner, Charles Dudley
History
Studies in the South and West, with Comments on Canada
Warner, Charles Dudley
Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
Next to the youth, and perhaps more noticeable, the characteristic
feature of Chicago is money-making, and the money power is as obtrusive
socially as on change. When we come to speak of educational and
intellectual tendencies, it will be seen how this spirit is being at
once utilized and mitigated; but for the moment money is the recognized
power. How could it be otherwise? Youth and energy did not flock here
for pleasure or for society, but simply for fortune. And success in
money-getting was about the only one considered. And it is still that
by which Chicago is chiefly known abroad, by that and by a certain
consciousness of it which is noticed. And as women reflect social
conditions most vividly, it cannot be denied that there is a type known
in Europe and in the East as the Chicago young woman, capable rather
than timid, dashing rather than retiring, quite able to take care of
herself. But this is not by any means an exhaustive account of the
Chicago woman of to-day.
While it must be said that the men, as a rule, are too much absorbed
in business to give heed to anything else, yet even this statement will
need more qualification than would appear at first, when we come to
consider the educational, industrial, and reformatory projects. And
indeed a veritable exception is the Literary Club, of nearly two hundred
members, a mingling of business and professional men, who have fine
rooms in the Art Building, and meet weekly for papers and discussions.
It is not in every city that an equal number of busy men will give
the time to this sort of intellectual recreation. The energy here is
superabundant; in whatever direction it is exerted it is very effective;
and it may be said, in the language of the street, that if the men of
Chicago seriously take hold of culture, they will make it hum.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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