“Most of them. There’s the A. T. and S. F; the B. and O.; the C. B.
and Q.; the C. E. and L. S.; the C. M. and S. P.; the C. R. I. and P.;
the C. S. P. and K. C.; the C. and A.; the C. and E.; the C. and E.
I.; the C. and G. T.; the C. and N.; the C. and N. P.; the C. and S.;
the C. and W. M.; the C. and W. I.; the C. C. C. and S. L., which is
the Big 4; the I. C.; the L. S. and M. C.; the M. C.; the M. L. S. and
W.; the M. P.; the N. Y. C. and St. L. Nickle Plate; the P. F. W. and
W.; and the W. C.”
[Illustration: ILLINOIS CENTRAL TERMINUS AND THE HARBOR.]
“If you wish to go to Springfield by a zigzag, picturesque kind of
route, take the—” Here the boy went off into the alphabet again.
“I am afraid I would never get there,” said our good friend, with
uplifted hands. “I think that we have about concluded to go to Lincoln
Park.”
The party did not find this an easy matter. They went to State Street;
the sidewalks were thronged with hurrying crowds; high buildings
towered in the sunny and smoky air.
“If I were to come to Chicago,” said the confused Quaker, “I would go
into the business of collars and cuffs. Mine were clean when I started
out—just see them now! But everybody looks clean; how do they do it?”
After many directions from policemen, the party found the car for
the famous park which is the delight and summer rest of Chicago. How
lovely it was! The great bronze statue of Lincoln arose before the
province of greenery; the Lake rippled near, expanding in purple
glory. They hurried toward the Zoölogical Gardens, which are among the
finest in the world. The parks and park lands of Chicago are many, and
cover nearly two thousand acres. But Lincoln Park, with its lake view
and animal shows, has a charm that exceeds all others, and not the
least of its attractions is “Admission Free.”
On their return from the park, where they visited the Grant Statue,
the flower gardens, and the wonderful collections of tamed animals,
the party went to the Auditorium Building, and looked down from the
top on the city as it lay spread out in the sunset. How different
was the scene from the fort and little hamlet in 1830! The city
practically filled the view.
The Post Office and Masonic Buildings are works of marvellous strength
and beauty; the stranger would pause in awe before them, did not the
crowd at all hours of the day hurry him on. One cannot conveniently
stop to talk on the streets in the activity of this rapid city. The
Women’s Temple is one of the noblest structures ever erected for
benevolent work by women, and the Produce Exchange fittingly expresses
its purpose.
[Illustration: PRODUCE EXCHANGE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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