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NORTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
EVANSTON
ILLINOIS
IF CHRIST CAME TO CHICAGO!
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It is written. My house shall be called the house of prayer;
but ye have made it a <ien of thieves —Matthe.». J/: ij.
IF CHRIST CAME TO CHICAGO!
A Plea for the Union of All Who Love in
the Service of AH Who Suffer
*' Said Christ our Lord, I will go and see
How the men, My brethren, believe in Me."
—Low»N.
by
WILLIAM T. STEAD
Copyright, 1894, by Wm. T. Stbau
(all rights rbsbrvbd)
CHICAGO
Laird & Lkb, Poblisiibrs
1894
press op the
Eight-Hour Herald,
CONTENTS
preface.
PART /.—The Images Ye Have Made of Me.
I.—In Harrison Street Pouce Station.
II.—Maggie Darling.
III.—Whisky and Politics.
IV.—The Chic ago an Trinity.
V.—"Who Are the Disreputables?"
VI.—The Nineteenth Precinct of the First
Ward
PART 11.—Christes Metewand in Chicago.
I.—I was an Hungred and Ye Gave Me Meat.
II.—The Sheep and the Goats.
PART III.—Satan's Invisible World Displayed.
I.—The Boodlers and the Boodled.
II.—The Tyranny of ¿he Assyrian.
III.—Dives the Tax Dodger.
IV.—Gambling and Party Finance.
V.—The Scarlet Woman.
9
CONTENTS—Continued.
PART IV.—Christ's Church in Chicago.
I.—The Churches of the Sects.
II.—The Church, Catholic and Civic.
III.—Mayor Hopkins.
IV.—Bishop Brennan and His Secular Clergy.
V.—How the Oracle is Worked.
VI.—The Watchmen of the City.
PART V.—IVhal IVould Christ Do in Chicago?
I.—The Conscience of Chicago.
II.—Lead Us Not Into Temptation !
III.—Casting Out Devils.
IV.—The Brotherhood of Labor.
V.—Who is My Neighbor?
VI.—In the Twentieth Century.
VIL—A Closing Word.
APPENDICES.
(«)—Houses of Ii,i,-Fame and Their Owners.
(Ä)—The Centrai. Relief Association.
(r)—Some Curiosities of Chicago Assessments.
(</)—^The Federation of Min;isters of Religion.
(f)—^The Civic FederationiOf Chicago.
(/^—What the London Co^tv Council has Done for Labor.
M
PREFACK.
"If Christ came to Chicago !" It was under this title
that, after a month's sojourn in the city, I summoned a Con¬
ference in the Central Music Hall, which was held in No¬
vember, 1893. Nothing was further from my thoughts at
that time than publishing a book on Chicago. The impres¬
sion produced by the Conference was so remarkable that I
promised to print a report of the proceedings, with an
appendix, and for that purpose contracted with a firm of
stenographers for a verbatim report of the speeches. The
stenographers, however, failed to supply the promised report,
and I returned to Chicago to see what could be done.
My second visit to Chicago occurred at a critical time.
The pressure of the problem of the unemployed was begin¬
ning to be severely felt; the movement in favor of a Civic
Federation, initiated at the conference at the Central
Music Hall, was entering into the region of realized fact; the
American Federation of Labor was about to meet in the
city; the trial of Prendergast, the slayer of Carter Harrison,
and of Dan Coughlin, for the murder of Dr. Cronin, were
in progress; and, more important than all else, Mr. Hopkins,
the rising young Democrat, was entering the field as
candidate for the mayoralty, then temporarily held by Mr.
Swift. For three months I was an intensely interested
spectator of the rapidly unfolding drama of civic life in the
great city which has already secured an all but unquestioned
primacy among the capitals of the New World.
This little volume, originally projected as a mere reprint
of the proceedings of a Sunday's conference, has assumed
its present shape as the result of much consultation with
XX
12
If Christ Came to Chicago.
many of the leading citizens of Chicago, who have been
kind enough to encourage its publication. It is based upon
the carefully collected opinions of the ablest and most
respected residents, which have been collated and com¬
pared with the opinions of other residents as able perhaps,
but who unfortunately are neither respected nor respect¬
able. Throughout all my work of interrogation and con¬
densation I have clung to the hypothesis which forms the
keynote and the starting point of the whole: "If Christ
came to Chicago ! "
I have discussed the question with ministers of all
religions and with the avowed unbelievers, with bankers and
merchant princes, with the keepers of saloons, and even
with the madames whose infamous calling has not entirely
obliterated the Divine image which is the heritage of every
child of man. It has been a strangely interesting and most
suggestive discussion. To men of the world, to busy ad¬
ministrators, to labor agitators, to the crook and to the
harlot, the question: "If He came to Chicago, what would
He think of us and of our lives ? ' ' was often strangely
unfamiliar, and sometimes provoked the most incongfruous
replies. " We take no stock in Christ in Chicago ! " said
one man. " He was all very well nineteen hundred years
ago in Judea, but what have we to do with him in civic
life in Chicago? " Not much, it is to be feared—' 'tis true,
'tis pity, and pity 'tis 'tis true." But, although there was
sometimes a disposition to scoff at this insistence on the
presence of the Son of Man, even in the precincts of the
Board of Trade, the conception grew in power and in influ¬
ence, and I often marveled to note the effect which the
thought produced even on the most hardened and vicious.
It might only be temporary, as most things are in this
transitory world, but it was well if even for a moment some
ray of Divine light should lighten the darkened soul with
a passing vision of the love of God. For Christ, even
Preface.
tí
to those who use His name but to garnish their profane and
filthy talk, still represents the most majestic and the most
pathetic of all the conceptions which Man has formed of
God. In the bleared eyes of the besotted drunkard, and in
the dazed and despairing heart of the fallen woman, there
was a recognition of the infinite love and tender sympathy
which, long since, became man in order to interpret God.
Christ, even to those who regarded him as a myth, is at
least an accepted standard of ideal character, shining out
luminous as the sun against the dark and gloomy back¬
ground of human society as it is. The fascination of the
popular conception of the Christ is His intense human-
ness. It is not as the Judge of all the earth, nor as the
Second Person in the Divine Trinity, that He appeals to the
common people. Christ is to them the Man of Sorrows,
who was tempted in all points even as we; the Divine tramp,
who said of himself, "the foxes have holes and the birds of
the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay
His head ; ' ' the heretic and outcast who supped and made
merry with winebibbers, who came eating and drinking, and
was called a gluttonous man, a friend of publicans and sin¬
ners. Christ was and is to the common man merely his
own highest self, radiant with Divine love, suffused with
infinite compassion. That idea of a perfect standard of
right and wrong, applied by One who has a sympathy
that never fails, because based upon an understanding of
all the facts, can never be forgotten without loss, or ignored
without peril.
' ' Oh, Christ is all right ! ' ' said one poor girl on Fourth Ave¬
nue, "it is the other ones that are the devil." And she
spoke a bitter truth. For He dwells in us but partially, and
that which is in us without Him is carnal, earthly and
devilish in sad reality. But the thought of Him recalls the
ideal, and by applying that ideal to the actual circumstances
of the civic life of Chicago, men realized more clearly how
14 If Christ Came to Chicago.
far short they had come of carrying out His -will. To very
many the conception of the Citizen Christ was so new as
almost to be distasteful. To them it appeared at first almost
as some strange heresy that the Son of Man could have
either part or lot in such mundane institutions as munici¬
palities and primaries. But by degrees it began to dawn
upon those who pondered the matter in their hearts that the
Churches, by insisting so exclusively upon the other life,
have banished Him from His own world, and by the substi¬
tution of Divine Worship for Human Service have largely
undone the work of the Incarnation. To re-enforce this
growing sentiment, to strengthen this dawning conscious¬
ness of the reality of the Citizen Christ, this book is given
to the world. Whatever value it possesses, whatever help
there is in it for the citizens of Chicago, or of any other
dty, will depend solely upon the fidelity with which I have
succeeded in expressing the mind of Christ on the subjects
which it treats, and of bringing those who read its pages
within the shadow of the presence of the Son of Man.
The original conception of Christ coming to Chicago
reached me, like most of my religio-philosophical notions,
through the poetry of James Russell Lowell. The short
poem which he styled a parable always seems to me to
sum up in a page the vital essence of Christ's teaching. It
is as it were a new chapter of the Gospel of St. John, done
into English by the American poet-seer of the nineteenth
century. I quote it here as the best explanation of the
title of this book.
Said Christ our Lord, " I will go and see
How the men. My brothers, believe in Me."
He passed not again through the gate of birth.
But made Himself known to the children of earth.
Then said the chief priests, and rulers and kings,
" Behold, now, the Giver of all good things ;
Go to, let us welcome with pomp and state
Him who alone is mighty and great."
Preface,
With carpets of gold the ground they spread
Wherever the Son of Man should tread,
And in palace-chambers lofty and rare
They lodged Him, and served him with kingly fare.
Great organs surged through arches dim
Their jubilant floods in praise of Him ;
And in church, and palace, and judgment-hall
He saw His image high over all.
But still, wherever His steps they led.
The Lord in sorrow bent down His head.
And from under heavy foundation stones
The Son of Mary heard bitter groans.
And in church, and palace, and judgment-hall
He marked great fissures that rent the wall.
And open wider and yet more wide
As the living foundation heaved and sighed.
" Have ye founded your thrones and altars, then.
On the bodies and souls of living men?
And think ye that building shall endure
Which shelters the noble and crushes the poor ?
" With gates of silver and bars of gold
Ye have fenced My sheep from the Father's fold ;
I have heard the dropping of their tears
In heaven these eighteen hundred years."
" O Lord and Master, not ours the guilt ;
We build but as our fathers built ;
Behold Thine images, how they stand.
Sovereign and sole, through all our land.
" Our task is hard, with sword and flame
To hold Thy earth forever the same.
And with sharp crooks of steel to keep.
Still, as Thou leftest them. Thy sheep."
Then Christ sought out an artisan,
A low-browed, stunted, haggard man ;
And a motherless girl, whose fingers tJiin
Pushed from her faintly want and sin.
These set He in the midst of them.
And as they drew back their garments-hem.
For fear of defilement, " Lo, here," said He,
" The images ye have made of Me."
As this poem suggested the title, so it has inspired every
page in this book. The dominant idea which Towell
insisted upon is the truth which, more than any other, is
i6 If Christ Came to Chicago.
needed to inspire and vivify our impotent, limp and
ineffective conception of Christianity. How we believe in
Christ is shown not by what we say about Him, nor by the
temples which we build in His honor, nor by the hymns which
we sing in His praise, but by the extent to which we succeed
in restoring in man the lost image of God. The tramp is
Christ's brother, the harlot is Christ's sister. These are
the images which we have made of Christ. As the strength
of a chain is tested by its weakest link, so the extent of our
failure to save the least of these. His brethren, may be
illustrated by the actual condition of those who are lost.
When once this idea is clearly and firmly grasped, when
the condition of our fellow citizens is recognized as the test
of the measure of our faith in Christ, the religious aspect
of civic politics acquires a new and supreme importance.
For the improvement of the lot of the least of these,
Christ's brethren, the assistance of the municipal authority
is indispensable. The law must be invoked, if only as the
schoolmaster, to bring men to Christ. Before we can make
men divine, we must cast out the devils who are brutalizing
them out of even human semblance. But this cannot be ac¬
complished excepting by the use of means, which can
jonly be wielded by the City Council. Hence, as it used to
be said of old time that all roads lead to Rome, so the more
attentively we study the way out of our social quagmire,
the more clearly will it be discerned that all roads lead to
the City Hall. Thus it has come to pass that this little
volume, begun with the simple object of recalling the con¬
ception of the Man Christ Jesus, has developed into an
attempt to illustrate how a living faith in the Citizen Christ
would lead directly to the civic and social regeneration of
Chicago.
William T. Stead.
Commerce Club,
Auditorium Building, Feb. 24, 1894.
IF CHRIST CAME TO CHICAGO!
PART I.—Some Images Ye Have Made of Me.
CHAPTER I.
IN HARRISON STREET POLICE STATION.
"In the name of that homeless wanderer in this
desert of stone and steel, whose hopeless heart lies leaden
in his bosom, whose brain grows faint for want of food
— in the name of that unnecessary product of American
freedom and prosperity, the American tramp, I bid
you welcome to the Imperial City of the boundless
West." So spoke William C. Pomeroy, Vice-President of
the Trade and Labor Assembly, on behalf of the labor
unions of Chicago, to the convention of the American
Federation of Labor which assembled at Chicago in last
December.
He but expressed in his own vivid way some of the
bitterness of discontent which all men felt in Chicago
last winter.
Among "the images which ye have made of Me," the
tramp is one of the most unattractive, and in December
he was everywhere in evidence. The approach of win¬
ter drove him from the fields to seek shelter in the
towns, which were already overburdened with their own
unemployed. Like the frogs in the Egyptian plague,
you could not escape from the tramps, go where you
would. In the city they wandered through the streets,
seeking work and finding none. At night if they had
17
18 If Christ Came to Chicago.
failed in begging the dime which would secure them a
lodging they came together in three great herds, pre¬
senting a sad spectacle of squalid misery and forlorn
manhood. These nocturnal camps of the homeless
nomads of civilization were all in the center of the city.
Of these the most wretched was that which was pitched
in Harrison Street Police Station.
The foot-sore, leg-swollen tramp who had wandered
all day through the city streets, looking more or less
aimlessly for work or food, sought shelter at night
wherever he could find a roof to shelter him and warmth
to keep the frost out of his bones. Some kenneled in
empty trucks on the railway sidings, rejoicing even in a
fireless retreat ; others crept into the basement of saloons,
or coiled themselves up in outhouses, but the bulk of
them were accommodated in the police stations, in the
Pacific Garden Mission and in the City Hall. Such
improvised shelters were all the appliances of civiliza¬
tion which Chicago in the year of the World's Fair had
to offer to the homeless out-of-works.
There is something dreary and repelling about a
police station even in the least criminal districts. But
Harrison Street Station stands in the midst of darkest
Chicago. Behind the iron bars of its underground
cages are penned up night after night scores and hun¬
dreds of the most dissolute ruffians of both sexes that
can be raked up in the dives of the levee.
The illuminated clock of the tower at the depot shines
dimly through the frosty smoke-mist, as a kind of beacon
light guiding the tramp toward his destined haven.
Down Harrison Street, trailing his weary, shambling legs
over the dirty snow, he crosses in succession the great
arterial thoroughfares through which the city's mis¬
cellaneous tide of human life runs loud and fast, until
he sees the road barred by the horizontal pole and the
spot of green light which arrests traffic across the grade
crossing of the railway. The bell of the locomotive
rings without ceasing, keeping up its monotone as if
In Harrison Street Police Station.
19
relays of sextons were tolling for the victims who that
day, as every day, had been slaughtered on the tracks.
A patrol wagon full of oflScers and prisoners drives up
to the brick building at the corner of Harrison Street
and Pacific Avenue and begins to unload. The occur¬
rence is too familiar even to attract a passing loafer.
The cold and frost-keen wind makes even the well
clothed shiver. The tramp hesitates no longer. He
pulls open the door of the station and asks for shelter.
Harrison Street Police Station is one of the nerve
centers of criminal Chicago. The novelist who had at
command the life story of those who, in a single week,
enter this prim brick building surrounded by iron pal¬
ings, would never need to draw on his imagination for
incident, character, plot, romance, crime—every ingredi¬
ent he could desire is there ready to hand, in the terrible
realism of life. For the station is the central cesspool
whither drain the poisonous drippings of the city which
has become the cloaca maxima of the world. Chicago
is one of the most conglomerate of all cosmopolitan cities,
and Harrison Street Police Station receives the scum of
the criminals of Chicago. It is also the great receiving
house where the police and the bailsmen and the justices
temporarily pen the unfortunate women who are raided
from time to time " for revenue only," of which they
yield a goodly sum to the pockets of the administrators
of "justice."
The cells, if they may be called such, are in the base¬
ment, half underground. They resemble the cages of
wild beasts in a menagerie. There are two short corri¬
dors into which the cages open on the right and left,
while the remaining corridors have only cages on one
side, the other being the stone wall. The floor is of stone.
In each cell there is one bench on which the first comers
can sit while the others stand. An open gutter at the
back provides the only sanitary accommodation. One
policeman and one police matron are in command.
Each of the corridors is closed by an iron barred gate.
20
If Christ Came to Chicago.
The place is lit with gas and is warm, but the atmos¬
phere is heavy, sometimes fetid, and the cages and corri¬
dors reek with associations of vice and crime.
Into this criminal stock pot of the city the homeless
tramps were thrown to stew in their own juice together
with the toughs and criminals and prostitutes, the
dehumanized harvest nightly garnered by the police of
the district.
It is true that the tramps were not mixed indiscrim¬
inately with the criminals. The women, for instance,
were kept in their own corridor. The prisoners were
in the cages behind the barred gates, the tramps slept
in the corridor between the cages and the wall. There
was, however, nothing to hinder the freest possible
communication between the arrested men and the casual
lodgers. Conversation went on freely between the
tramps and the toughs and occasional interchange of
papers and tobacco went on easily through the bars
of the cages.
The place had a weird fascination about it. It is not
a locality where a very sensitive psychic could live, for
its cages have witnessed the suicide of desperate prisoners
who, while the jailer's back was turned, hanged them¬
selves to death from the bars behind which they were
imprisoned. Murderers red-handed have lodged there,
maniacs have battered their heads against the iron gates,
for there is no strait waistcoat or padded cell in Harrison
Street; women shriek and wail in hysterics, and, saddest
of all, little urchins of ten and twelve who have been
run in for some juvenile delinquency have found the
police cell the nursery cradle of the jail. Sometimes
when the Justice needs dollars, and raids are ordered
in scores that the bail bonds may be paid, there are
two hundred women crowded into the cells. Many of
them are drunk before they come in, others get drunk
after they arrive, having carefully provided for that
contingency before they mounted the patrol wagon; all
of them, the novice in the sporting house, as well as
în Harrison Street Police Station.
21
the hardened old harridan who drives the trade in
human flesh, are herded together promiscuously with
thieves and shoplifters.
They smoke, they drink, they curse, they yell ob¬
scenely, and now and then one goes into a fit of hysterical
shrieking which rings through the gloomy corridors like
the wail of a damned and tortured soul.
One night when I was there a French woman was
brought in with her man. There had been a quarrel;
her face was streaming with blood, she had been drink¬
ing and was in violent hysterics. I have seldom seen a
more squalid specimen of human wretchedness. When
they separated her from her companion, placing them in
separate cells, she began to shriek at the top of her
voice — and a shrill voice it was. She clung to the
bars of the cage shrieking for Jacques, only stopping
when she had to wipe away the blood that was flowing
from her mouth and temple. She was shrieking and
wailing with unabated energy when I left. The police
matron told me that she kept it up for some time before
she sank exhausted to sleep. Early in the morning
she woke and at once began again the agonized cry and
kept it up for two hours. Such was the music and such
the companionship which were allotted to the lodgers at
Harrison Street.
That was bad enough. But if the city had provided
adequate accommodation for her lodgers even in this
underground Inferno, there might be less to be said.
Unfortunately, however, there was no accommodation
other than the stone floor of the corridor and there the
casuals were pigged together literally like herrings in a
barrel. The corridor was some hundred feet long and
ten feet broad. I shall never forget the moment when
I first saw it with its occupants. From the outer iron
gate to the further wall, nothing could be seen but a
pavement of human bodies. The whole corridor was
packed thick with this human compost. They lay
"heads and tails," so that their feet and legs were inter-
22
If Christ Came to Chicago.
mingled. At either end some favored ones propped
themselves against the wall or the gate, drowsily
slumbering. The majority lay on their sides with their
heads on their arms; some had taken off their coats ;
many had prepared their bed by spreading an old news¬
paper upon the stone floor; other mattress they had none,
neither had they pillow, bed clothes, or opportunities for
washing or for supper. The city, like a stony-hearted
step-mother, provided for her children nothing but
shelter, warmth and a stone bed.
The spectacle of these human beings massed together
along the corridor floor, recalled vividly to my memory
a picture in an old Sunday School book, representing
the Caliph of Islam riding over the prostrate forms of
his devoted followers. But in the Moslem there was the
enthusiasm and ecstacy of self sacrifice, the joy of the
disciple at being made the causeway of the Commander
of the Faithful. Here there were the bodies indeed,
but there was no joy of surrender, only a sullen stone-
broke resignation as they bowed themselves and laid
down and let the iron-shod hoofs of Laisséz Faire and
Political Economy trample them to the dust. It was
an ugly sight.
Only once had I seen anything like it outside the pic¬
ture book. It was when I was in one of the worst
prisons in St. Petersburg. The ofiBcials demurred rather
to let me enter, but ultimately gave way and with many
apologies allowed me to see the inmates of the House of
Detention, where the rifiraflf of the capital were herded
together to await the weekly clearing which dispersed
them to Siberia or to the four winds of heaven. Only in
that Russian prison had I even seen men crowded to¬
gether as beasts are crowded in cattle trucks. But in
Russia they were more merciful than in Chicago. They
at least provided a sloping wooden bed with straw pil¬
lows for their prisoners. But what Russian humardty
deemed necessary even for criminals, the city of Chi-ago
In Harrison Street Police Station. 23
did not vouchsafe to the honest workman tramping
around in search of a job.
The curious thing to a stranger was the apathetic in¬
difference of the sufferers themselves. They made no
audible or articulate complaint. Their patient endur¬
ance, their passive acquiescence in treatment against
which English tramps would have blasphemed till the
air was blue, was very strange. Everything that was
subsequently done to improve their condition was done
from the outside, and was received by them with the
same apparent passivity. They did not even make a
demonstration or frame an appeal.
Another remarkable thing was the apparent indiffer¬
ence of the better-to^lo citizens, not merely the rich, but
the employed working people. When, immediately
after my arrival in Chicago, I ventured to tell the
Trade and Labor Assembly that the working^en of
London would not tolerate the treatment to which the
tramps were subjected at Harrison Street, and urged them
to take action in the matter, this was the way in
which a leading evening paper thought it right and safe
to refer to the subject :
In this self-respecting city of the West, the "cause of humanity"
stands in no need of advice from British fanatics who base an argu¬
ment upon the analogy of the London pauper system. The American
tramp is sut generis. He would not work if work were offered him. He
deserves not the tear but the lash. We know how to deal with him.
Mr. Stead does not. The toe of a boot by day and a cold stone floor
by night—^these be the leading courses in the curriculum by which we
iwould educate into self-respect such tramps as are capable of it. The
tramp is a pariah and we ought to keep him such.
It was on the eve of a contested election, but the
editor, although a keen partisan, never seemed to dream
that his language might be used to the detriment of his
party when the polls were opened.
As a matter of fact no electoral use was made of this
utterance by the other side. And as a matter of justice
I should add that the same paper after a few weeks'
further agitation became so strenuous in its demands for
more liberal charity in dealing with these outcasts as to
24
If Christ Came to Chicago.
leave far behind it even " the maudlin sentimentalism of
the Stead school of philanthropists."
The doctrine that the American tramp is a pariah
and that he ought to be kept such is not often formu¬
lated so bluntly, but it embodies the underlying doc¬
trine of the American method in dealing with the tramp.
We have in England made so many failures in our
attempts to deal with the sturdy vagrant that we have
no pretention to teach others. But we have at least
learned from our failures sufficient to see that to refuse
to deal with the tramp excepting as a temporary human
nuisance, to be hustled on to the neighboring town with
the utmost dispatch, is the worst possible way of solving
the question. For even if the tramp is the spawn of
the devil, as it is constantly assumed, instead of being a
son of God and brother of Christ Jesus, to persist in a
practice which entails of necessity the quickest possible
dissemination of the spawn aforesaid over the widest pos¬
sible area of territory is of all courses the most fatal.
But when anything is proposed either by way of recla¬
mation or of redemption, there is an outcry against " pau¬
perizing the citizen." So the work of criminalizing
him goes on apace.
"Oh, he's only a bum !" was the cry which at first
met all efforts to arouse a Christian sentiment in Chicago.
That was supposed to settle all things. A bum was out¬
side the pale of human sympathy. A bum was supposed
to possess all the defects of human nature and none of
their virtues. He was declared to be an incorrigibly
idle loafer, a drunkard, a liar and a reprobate. The grim
old Calvinistic doctrine of reprobation seemed to be re¬
vived expressly to make his damnation irrevocable.
And yet nothing was being done to prevent the steady
degradation of the honest willing worker to the level of
the bum.
As a genial speaker at the Presbyterian Social Union
remarked, even the most respectable of men, if compelled
to tramp about for a week without change of linen or
In Harrison Street Police Station.
25
opportunity to wash, would feel he was becoming very
bummy. There is of necessity, in every period of de¬
pression, a considerable number of men who are thrown
out of work. These men take to the road, are driven
to it because they have no means of transporting them¬
selves from a place where there is no work to a place
where work may be had. If the present system or no
system goes on, they will tend irresistibly to gravitate
to the bum pariah class, and the practice of massing
them together in herds in Harrison Street and the City
Hall accelerates the process.
Take but one instance, the impossibility of keeping
clean or free from vermin under the present conditions.
" You can always tell the bum," said a justice, " by his
smell. There is an ancient stink about him which you
can detect in a moment."
There is no greater barrier between man and man, and
still more between woman and woman, than that raised
by the sense of smell, with its suggestion of the pres¬
ence of filth. Most people can put up more readily
with a criminal than with a filthy man. But how can
the willing worker or tramp keep clean when he is
pigged together with a foul-smelling herd on the floor of
a prison?
One night at Harrison Street I witnessed a strange
Rembrandtesque scene. In the center of the corridor allot¬
ted to the tramps at Harrison Street, the men had made a
bonfire of old paper. It was not quite so crowded as it had
been before, and there was room in the center. They were
diligently feeding the fire with shreds of paper. The
blaze illuminated the dark and forbidding surroundings
of the prison, casting a flickering glare upon the dirty,
careworn faces that surrounded it. I asked the oflBcer
in charge whether he thought it was safe to allow a
mob of men to make a bonfire on the floor of the station.
"I don't blame them," said he, shortly; "I don't
blame them. An old bum got in there who was liter¬
ally alive with vermin. When they found it out we fired
26
If Christ Came to Chicago.
him out, but the few papers he had been lying on were
lifting with lice, so that is what they are burning. And
I don't blame them," he repeated-• "what else could
they do? "
For one man who is so verminoui« that the very paper
on which he lay lifted with the insects dropped from his
rags, there must have been scores and hundreds more or
less haunted by the unpleasant habitues of uncombed
hair and unwashed bodies. Their tendency is constant
to multiplication. The longer a man goes unwashed,
the denser becomes the colony of parasites; and the
more closely he is compelled to herd with his neighbors,
the more widely does the loathsome contagion spread.
Hence the willing worker, forced into contact with the
idle and shiftless and worthless bum, becomes himself
bummier and bummier until at last he is branded as one
of the pariah class and " he must be kept such ! "
The Harrison Street Police Station, although the most
conspicuous sheltering place of the outcast wanderer, held
by no means the largest crowd. The Pacific Garden
Mission, at Van Buren and Clark Streets, accommodated
a larger number of homeless ones than the police station.
The spacious hall of the mission was turned into a dor¬
mitory, where, night after night, some five or six hun¬
dred persons occupied chairs till morning. Every
evening there was a religious service, after which the
attendants were free to remain all night. The place
was warm and orderly, and it had the advantage over
Harrison Street Police Station of enabling each man to
sleep by himself. But, as a Cheshire man told me, who
had crossed the Atlantic many times as stoker on the trans¬
atlantic ferry boats and who had for some months past
been firing steamers on Lake Michigan, it is little sleep
you get unless you can lie down flat. The poor fellow's
story was very simple ; he had spent three nights in the
mission and four days tramping round hunting work.
He was out every morning before seven, and on his
feet till after nine at night always meeting with the
In Harrison Street Police Station.
27
same response. " When you're on your feet all day," he
said, " and cannot get a lay-out at night, your legs swell
almost to the knee. You become lame and cannot even
go hunting the job no one seems able to find." He was
a stalwart, strapping fellow, who literally wept when a
little friendly help was given him. But in process of
time that man would also become a bum, unless he
could be arrested on the down g^ade along which he
was being hurried by no fault of his own.
The great sleeping place of the tramp, however, was
neither in Harrison Street Police Station nor in the
Pacific Garden Mission. The heart and center of Chicago
is the huge pile of masonry which reminds the visitor by
its polished granite pillars and general massive and
somber grandeur of the cathedrals and palaces of St.
Petersburg. The City Hall and Court House form
one immense building, iu which all the city and
county business is transacted, both judicial and admin¬
istrative. The peculiar system under which Chicago is
administered makes the City Hall, in a peculiar manner,
the center of the floating unemployed population. I have
never seen a city hall so thronged by loafers during the
day time. The politician out of a job, the office-seeker
waiting impatiently for his turn, the alderman and his
strings of hangers-on, the ex-official, the heeler, the
jobber swell the throng of those who do business
until the air in the corridors is heavy with smoke, and
the pavement is filthy with the mire of innumerable
boots and stained with the juice of the tobacco plant—for
not even the American allowance of spittoons can suffice
for the need of the citizens in their Civic Hall.
This court and reception room of the sovereign people—
where Coughlin was being tried for his life on one side,
and the multitude were being vaccinated in droves
on the other, while all the multitudinous wheels of
municipal machinery revolved between—was selected
as the chief camping-ground of the nomadic horde.
The City Hall cost five million dollars to construct.
28
If Christ Came to Chicago.
It is the solitary municipal building of any pretensions
in the city. In it are kept the city archives, the records
of the courts, and all the documents relating to the
registration of property and the due transaction of public
business. Here is the headquarters of the best equipped
and most efficient fire department in the world, and
high overhead is the accumulated wealth of the public li¬
brary of Chicago. In this building, crammed with invalu-
ble documents, the seat and center of the whole civic
machinery, for want of any better accommodation,
there were housed night after night, through the
month of December, from one to two thousand of the
most miserable men in Chicago. Most of the men
were penniless ; almost all of them were more or less
desperate ; many of them were smoking. As they used
newspapers as mattresses, the corridors were littered with
paper, amid which a single lighted match might have
made a blaze which might not easily have been extin¬
guished. Yet the risk was faced perforce for want of a
little care, a little forethought, and a little necessary
expenditure.
The tramps were not accommodated in the Council
Chamber or in any of the offices. They were allowed
to occupy the spacious, well-warmed corridors, and
make such shift as they could upon the flags. No one
was admitted to the upper stories, but every stair up to
the first landing was treated as á berth by its fortunate
occupant. Less lucky lodgers had to content them¬
selves with a lay-out in the corridor. They lay with
their heads against the wall on either side, leaving open
a narrow track down the center. Down this track
came reporters, messengers to the fire department and
other offices, followed before many nights were over by
curious philanthropists, university professors, ministers
of religion, and then by the representatives of the Fed¬
eration of Labor, all of whom marveled much and said
many bitter things about the contrasts of the great city
where "Mammon holds high carnival in its gilded
In Harrison Street Police Station.
29
palaces, while little children hunger, mothers g^row faint
for food and die, and strong men weep for want of work. ' '
But after a time that narrow pathway was choked up,
and even reporters could not elbow their way through
the crowd ; for the City Hall corridors were very warm ;
the midnight air was nipping kefen, and when all sleep¬
ing room was filled men preferred to stand in the warm,
close air, rather than shiver in the frost and snow. It
seems strange, but it appears to be undisputed that the
habit of allowing the homeless to shelter in the corri¬
dors of the City Hall is no new thing in Chicago. Indeed
the only new thing last winter seems to have been the
limitation of the area of improvised casual ward to the
ground floor and the first flight of stairs. It was not
till the 12th of last November that wire doors were
placed on the stairs, and all access to the upper part of
the building shut oflf. This necessary precaution was
taken not in order to avoid peril by fire or pillage, but
simply because the lodgers quarreled so fiercely among
themselves for favorite locations that for the sake of
peace and quiet they were stalled downstairs. There
they were quiet enough, smoking, sleeping and doing a
little talking in an undertone. But for a floating popu¬
lation with the reputation of the bum, the crowd was
singularly quiet, patient and well behaved. In the
Pacific Garden Mission the superintendent reported the
presence of 500 sleepers every night had been attended
by so little disturbance, that the upstairs tenants were
never conscious that there was a crowd below. The
oflScer in charge at Harrison Street declared that the
genuine bum was in a greater minority than had ever
been observed before. Most of his lodgers were hard¬
working men, honestly anxious to find work.
It was, of course, impossible to do more than sample
the mass of human wretchedness thus caged up nightly in
a few centers, but Professor Hourwitch, with a band of
students from the university, subjected 100 of the crowd
of 2,000 odd to a searching analysis. His report is
30
If Christ Came to Chicago.
very interesting. Only ten of the lOO selected at
random from the lodgers in the City Hall belonged to
lahûT unions. Only two had worked for less than a
dollar a day. More than half, sixty-four out of lOO,
had earned from $i to $2 a day, twenty from $2 to $3.
Almost all classes and conditions of men were repre¬
sented in the motley crowd — except millionaires. Fifty-
nine were native-born Americans, forty-one foreigners.
Of the latter the first place was taken by the Germans,
followed by the Irish and the Scotch in the order named.
Most of the men were in the prime of life, from twenty
to forty-five; only one was below twenty, and four over
fifty. Their professions or occupations, as stated by
themselves, were as follows: Common laborers, 33; team¬
sters, 6; painters, 6; waiters, 5; molders, 4; bakers, 4;
miners, 3; cooks, 3; rolling millers, 3; sailors, 3; ma¬
chinists, 2; cigarmakers, 2; shoemakers, 2; carpenters,
2; wood finishers, 2; while a brickmaker, a clerk, a
glass packer, a plumber, a florist, a varnisher, a brewer,
a druggist, a glazier, a draftsman, a wood carver, a
cooper, an upholsterer, a boxmaker, a stove polisher, a
chair factory man, a steam fitter, and a salesman com¬
pleted the list.
Several of the men were well educated. One was a
graduate of the University of Nebraska. Most of them
had come to Chicago from other towns seeking work,
and none of them could find it. Of all the dishearten¬
ing occupations that of seeking work and finding none
is one of the worst. The curse that in the Old Book
is said to have follçwed the Fall is often in the New
World an unattainable boon. It was a quaint but true
conceit of Mrs. Browning's that "God in cursing
gives us better gifts, than man in blessing." But
whether malediction or benediction, work was what these
men wanted, and work was the one thing they could
not get. If they only had been horses there would
have been men eager enough to claim them to feed, to
lodge and to care for them. But, alas, they were only
In Harrison Street Police Station.
31
men ! Even then, if they had been slaves, liable to be
sold at the auction mart, and whipped to work on the
plantation, this army of 2,000 able-bodied wanderers in
the prime of life would have probably brought at least
a million dollars at the auction block. But as they had
the misfortune to be free men, free citizens of the great
republic, none would give even a nickel for their ser¬
vices or provide a bed in which they could shelter.
It was a composite industrial army, capable of doing
much good work if only it could but find leadership and
tools and rations. All were wanting, the first most of
all. For the loyal confidence of man in man, which is
the tap root of all true leadership, does not spring up
easily in the camps of the unemployed. The nomads of
the prairie and of the steppe have more of that element
than the nomads of civilization. Hence, if they are left
to themselves they threaten to gravitate ever downward.
From poverty and homelessness comes despondency, loss
of self-respect follows on enforced dirtiness, and the
undescribable squalor of filthy clothes. Work being
unattainable, they beg rather than starve, and if begging
fails they steal. Thus by steady inevitable forces, as of
adverse Destiny, the dislodged unit gravitates downward,
ever downward into the depths of the malebolgic pool of
our social hell. Industry, honesty, truthfulness, sobriety
are rotted out of the man, and at last the only remnant
of the soul that aspires is visible in the craving after
drink. In his cups, at least, he may drown his regrets
for a vanished past, and may indulge for some brief
moments in brighter visions of the unattainable to¬
morrow. For in the utterly demoralized tramp, the only
symptom of the God within is often that very passion
for drink which, by its sore intensity, testifies to the
revolt of its victim against the injustices and abomina¬
tions of the present. Yet, of him, also, let us remember
what Lowell wrote of another lost unit of the human
family :
The good Father of us all had doubtless intrusted to the keeping
32
If Christ Came to Chicago.
of this child of His certain faculties of a constructive kind; He had put
in him a share of that vital force, the nicest economy of every minute
atom of which is necessary to the perfect development of humanity.
He had given him a brain and heart, and so had equipped his soul
with the two strong wings of knowledge and love, whereby it can
mount to hang its nest under the eaves of heaven. And this child,
so dowered, he had intrusted to the keeping of his vicar, the State.
How stands the account of that stewardsnip? The State, or Society
(call her what you will) had taken no manner of thought of him
until she saw him swept out into the street, the {pitiful leavings of last
night's debauch, with cigar ends, lemon parings, tobacco quids,
slops, vile stenches and the whole loathsome next morning of the
bar-room — an own child of the Almighty God ! I remember him as
he was brought in to be christened, a ruddy, rugged babe ; and now
there he wallows, reeking, seething—the dead corpse, not of a man
but of a soul, a putrifying lump, horrible for the life that is in it.
Soon the wind of heaven, that good Samaritan, parts the hair
upon his forehead nor is too nice to kiss those parched, cracked lips;
the morning opens upon him her eyes full of pitying sunshine, me
sky yeams down to him, and there he lies fermenting. O sleep ! let
me not profane thy holy name by calling that stertorous unconscious¬
ness a slumber ! By and by comes along the State, God's vicar.
Does she say, " My poor forlorn foster-child ! Behold a force which I
will make dig and plant and build for me." Not so, but—
let US hustle him out of the town and thank God we
are rid of the nuisance of his presence !
But with at least fifty thousand able-bodied tramps
in ordinary years patrolling the country at an esti¬
mated minimum cost of ten million dollars per
annum for means of subsistence, making no esti¬
mate of the indirect damages to property and morals,
it is beginning to be increasingly doubtful whether
the popular expedient is paying in the long run.
Of course, so long as each city or village or township bases
its policy on the question of Cain, nothing can be done.
But even in Russia, which so many affect to despise as
serai-barbarous and inhuman, they do better than that.
For there they christen their tramp a pilgrim and by
brotherly kindness and generous hospitality convert
every wandering brother into a means of grace.
CHAPTER II.
MAGGIE DARLING.
Christ was a man. It is therefore easier to conceive
of him as a pilgrim tramp, footsore and hungry, resting
his weary limbs among the bums in the police station
than to conceive of his marred image in a female shape.
But the woman-Christ like the child-Christ, either as
the Christ of the Dolorous Way or as the redeeming and
regenerating Saviour is a conception which must never
be lost sight of.
The Christian Church, which for more than a thou¬
sand years has consecrated its proudest temples to the
memory of the Magdalen, is a witness throughout the
ages to the indestructibility of the divine element in
every woman even when she has sunk so low as to
make merchandise of her sex. The image of God in
woman remains indefaceable even when in Eecky's
words, which it is impossible to read without a shudder,
she becomes " the eternal Priestess of Humanity blasted
for the sins of the people." But although the publicans
and harlots in His time welcomed the wandering eccen¬
tric from Nazareth, who shared their meals and sympa¬
thized with their sorrows, the conventional sentiment of
this day would stand aghast at any such intermingling
of the Messiah with the lost women whom He came to
seek and to save.
In Chicago some people have gone even further. One
of the most zealous and faithful of the saintly and de¬
voted women who have dedicated their lives to the ser¬
vice of the fallen told me with a heart sore with the an¬
guish of thwarted sympathy, that so far from her efforts
being supported by the Church, they were regarded as a
development not to be encouraged.
33
34
If Christ Came to Chicago.
"It was this way," she said. "I have given myself
up to this work. I visited constantly in the levee and
knew most of these women as friends. Now and then
I would come upon one or another girl who would long
to escape from her sad life. When I found such I took
them into my own house, loved them, labored with
them, and I rejoice to know that several of them be¬
came happy and converted Christians. I was pleased,
my pastor was pleased. The penitent Magdalens were
received into the church and we were glad to see their
simple faith and Christian life. But a deputation of
the leading residents and church officers waited upon my
pastor to protest against this kind of thing. They did not
want their daughters to associate with harlots even though
they were repentant Besides the presence of these women
would lower the character of the neighborhood and the
social standing of the church."
"That is incredible," I said abruptly, "to wish to
close the doors of Christ's Church on the penitent Mag¬
dalen—that would be not the act of Christian but of
devil ! "
" It was what they did," said my friend. " Fortunately
my pastor is a good Christian and he refused to yield one
single jot to the pressure brought to bear upon him. But
the opposition was great. The respectability of the
church must not be endangered by the admission of lost
women, even when they have been found and are
anxiously and prayerfully seeking to enter in to the
fold."
Here was a revelation indeed! Such a church may be
respectable as Thurtell the murderer was declared to be
respectable—because he kept a gig; but its respectability
will not save it from going down, with all its convention¬
alities, into perdition, nor will it have far to go. For
the abode of such is nigh unto the gates of Hell.
Swinburne's bitter lines came back to me as I listened
to this good woman's story of some Chicago Christians
and heard its confirmation from others in other churches.
Maggie Darling.
35
Surely yovct race it was that He
Beholding in Gethsemane,
Bled the red bitter sweat of shame,
Knowing the name of Christian should
Mean to men evil and not good.
And assuredly in the long roll of the anti-Christian acts
of the conventional church there is no blacker record
than that which deals with the lost women of our streets.
Nothing can exceed in revolting injustice the conven¬
tional mode of treating the weaker and the most tempted
as a moral leper, while her guiltier partner occupies the
highest places in the synagogue.
Justice is at least as holy a thing as charity and the
injustice of the world's judgment which the church has
countersigned is as loathsome as the selfish immorality
of the man which it condones as a kind of offset to the
Draconian severity with which it avenges the faults of
the weaker sinner.
The lost women, these poor sisters of Christ Jesus, the
images in which we have fashioiifed a womanhood first
made in the image of God, are as numerous in Chicago
as in any other great city. The silent vice of capitals
abounds here at least to the same extent that it prevails
in other cities of the million class. Where there are a mil¬
lion inhabitants it is probably an under estimate if it is
assumed that there must be at least a thousand women
who make their living; not intermittently but constantly
by means of prostitution. These regulars of the army
of vice constitute the solid core or nucleus of a host far
more numerous of irregulars, who, either from love of
license or from need of money, give way to a temptation
which is always at hand. The inmates of the sporting
houses, so called, are probably not one-tenth of the total
number of women who regard their sex as legitimate
merchandise.
Both sporting houses and "roomers" maybe found
in all parts of the city, but there is no section in which
they are so concentrated as in the district between Har¬
rison and Polk and between Clark and Dearborn streets. It
36
If Christ Came to Chicagû.
was there in the center of the heart of Chicago that I
found Maggfie Darling in the house of Madame Hastings.
Madame Hastings is a familiar figure in the alsatia of
more than one city. She is famous in Chicago courts as
having been the defendant in the case which led to the
practical ruling that the police could not arrest anyone
they pleased on a warrant made out against those mythical
personages, Richard Roe or John Doe. Before she con¬
tested that case, strange though it may appear to those
who are unfamiliar with the Turkish methods of Chi¬
cago "justice," a policeman armed with a warrant charg¬
ing Richard Roe with an offense against the law could,
on the strength of that document, arrest anybody at his
own sovereign will and pleasure. Mary Hastings, being
raided on such a warrant, appealed to the higher court,
which as was to be expected, promptly decided against
the validity of the Richard Roe warrant, and Mary's
name became famous in a leading case.
Apart from this excursion into the law-making region,
Madame inspired some awe, if not respect, by the ven¬
geance she wreaked upon certain police officers, who, hav¬
ing a grudge against her, smashed her furniture during
her enforced absence from her property. She reported them
to Mayor Harrison in person, and their offense being
proved, three policemen and one sergeant were dismissed
the force ; from which it may be seen that the name and
fame of Mary Hastings are as familiar to the administra¬
tion as to the lawyers. Her establishment is not a
very large one beside the double house of Vina Fields,
which almost immediately adjoins it, and the extensive
premises of Carrie Watson on Clark Street. Madame
Hastings' house is rather crowded when it contains twelve
girls. Madame, who is Belgian, bred and bom, owns
another house at 2004 Dearborn Street, and in course of
a somewhat adventurous career has seen much of the
seamy side of life, both married and single, in Canada
and the United States. She has plied her calling
in Toronto, in British Columbia, in Denver, Port-
Maggie Darling.
37
land, Oregon, in San Francisco, and has a wide and
varied experience with the police wherever she has wan¬
dered. In San Francisco she was in prison for six
months for conduct too scandalous even for Califor-
nians. On the whole she has the greatest terror of
the police of the Dominion. " When the English say
you're to git, you've just got to git and that's all- there is
to it," she said mournfully, " you can't do anything with
them ; with our police it is different."
Of which there is no donbt. For as big Pat the Tar-
rier, the policeman, went his rounds in Fourth Avenue, he
seldom failed to look in upon Madame at supper time, or
indeed, at any time when he felt thirsty. Pat was one of
the four custodians of law and order whom it was neces¬
sary for Madame to square. The relations between the
[^porting houses and the police on their beats is intimate,
mot to say friendly. The house is at the absolute mercy
of the officer, who can ruin its business by simply keep¬
ing it under constant observation, or he can, if he pleases,
have it "pulled" every day in the week if his moral
sense or his desire for vengeance should so prompt. The
keeper of the house, if she is to live and thrive, must make
friends with the policeman, and there is usually not the
least difficulty in doing so. Tariffs vary in Fourth
Avenue as in Washington, but Madame had succeeded
in securing virtual protection at a blackmail scale of
$2.50 per officer per week with free drinks, and occas¬
ional meals whenever the "cop" felt hunger or thirst.
As there were four of them on duty, two by day and
two at night, and they were often thirsty, it may be
taken that this police "protection" cost the house
$15.00 a week or $750 a year.—an irregular license fee
paid to private constables for liberty to carry on.
This of course does not include the further fees levied by
superior officers, the fines, the money paid to bailsmen,
and other incidental expenses, which fall heavy upon the
houses of ill-fame.
" Ye ould —— s," said the Tarrier, one evening, as
38
If Christ Came to Chicago.
he marched in at the back door, " and wat kind o' soup
hev ye's today ? An' shure, and pass me the whusky,
and for shame to ye, Maggie," he added, seeing one of
the girls emptying a wine glass, " for shame to ye, to
think that ye are Oirish and a drinkin' wine 1 It's
whusky ye should drink."
He was not an ill-natured man, was Pat, and as he sat
down and drank the whisky and tasted the soup in the
midst of the scantily attired women, his good nature
beamed on his fat face and he became confidential :
" Now, I's tellin' ye," he said. " Be shure and look
out, for I am going on another beat for the next month,
and the cops that's coming are mean divils, and if ye
don't take care it's pulled ye'11 be, so look out for your¬
selves. ' '
Sure enough, the next day there was a new patrolman
on the beat, and the girls were more cautious in their
hustling. The routine of the day at Madame Hastings
was monotonous enough. In the morning, just before 12,
the colored girl served cocktails to each of the women
before tíiey got up. After they dressed, they took another
refresher, usually absinthe. At breakfast they had wine.
Then the day's work begun. The gprls sat in couples
at the windows, each keeping watch in the opposite direc¬
tion. If a man passed they would rap at the window
and beckon him to come in. If a policeman appeared,
even if it were their fat friend, the curtains would be
drawn and all trace of hustling would disappear. But be¬
fore the officer was out of sight the girls would be there
again. They went on duty fifteen minutes at a time.
Every quarter of an hour they were relieved, until dinner
time. At five they dined, and then the evening's busi¬
ness began, with more drinking at intervals, all night
through, to the accompaniment of piano playing with
occasional step-dancing, and adjournments more or less
frequent, as customers were more or less plentiful. About
four or five in the morning, when they were all more or
less loaded with drink, they would close the doors and go
Maggie Darling.
39
to sleep. Next day it would begin again, the same dull
round of drink and hustling, debauch and drink. A
dismal, dreary, monotonous existence broken only by
quarreling and the constant excitement supplied by the
police.
For a day or two the girls were discreet, but finding
no harm came they relapsed a little, and " Redhead," the
new policeman, saw them hustling at the window. So
a warrant was sworn out at the police station and at
five o'clock at night a posse of nine policemen sallied
forth to " pull " Mary Hastings. The pulling of a house
of this description is one of the favorite entertainments
of the district. It attracts the floating and resident pop¬
ulation as much as a first-class funeral draws the crowd
in a country town. All unsuspecting the fate in store
for them, the girls were preparing to sit down to dinner.
Maggie was mixing the absinthe when the bell rang.
Bohemian Mary—for here as elsewhere in Chicago, there
are people of all nationalities under heaven—opened the
door. A policeman placed his foot so the door could not
be closed in his face and demanded Madame. When she
came he produced his warrant and eight other officers
filed into the house. Every door was guarded. There
was no escape. Had there been but a few minutes
warning the girls could have fled down the trap doors
prepared for such an event, which led to the cellar from
whence they could escape to a friendly saloon which
frequently received them into its hospitable shelter.
But it was too sudden. " Oh ! " said Maggie, run¬
ning up stairs, " we're pulled ! " " Yes," said the officer,
"and you'd better dress yourselves and make ready to
go off to the station.
As Maggie was hastily putting on her dress one of the
officers who had followed her to her bed-room touched
her on the shoulder. " Would you mind making a
date with me ?" he said. The girl's appearance pleased
him. "And though he was on pleasure bent," like
John Gilpin, " he had a frugal mind. " Policemen get
4°
If Christ Came to Chicago.
their women cheap, and when you are arresting a woman
she cannot haggle about terms. So Maggie said, " For
sure." "Well," he said, "I am on Clark, can I meet
you there some day next week?" "Certainly," she
replied, "send me a message making the date and it will
be all right."
By this time they were getting ready to start. Madame
had thrust a roll of 300 dollar bills into her stocking.
The girls, not less mindful of contingencies, had stuffed
into their stockings small bottles of whisky and cigar¬
ettes and made ready to accompany their captors. There
were six altogether. The housekeeper, the cook and
one of the girls, a newcomer who was passed off as a ser¬
vant, remained behind. Madame and her family of five
stepped out amid the curious crowd which watched for
the patrol wagon. "It makes a girl feel cheap," said
Maggie, "let's start for the station." No sooner said
than done. Bohemian Mary set off" at a run followed by
her cursing, panting custodian; then came the other girls,
while Madame brought up the rear. It was no new
thing to her. The house had been pulled only two
months before and it was all in the day's work.
When they arrived at the police station they were
taken down stairs and locked up all together in one of
the iron barred cells. The police found a bottle of
wine in a French girl's stocking and drank its contents
to the immense indignation of its owner, who gave him in
her own vocabulary " blue blazes." He only looked and
laughed. "Here's to your health, Frenchie 1 " said the po-
Ijcman as he drank the last drop. Madame in the mean¬
time had dispatched a trusty messenger for a bondsman
and as soon as he arrived she was bailed out. The girls
in the cell amused themselves with shouting and singing
and cursing and drinking, while Maggie and another
tested their agility by climbing like monkeys up the
iron bars of their grated door.
It was more like a picnic than an imprisonment.
They had drink and cigarettes and company. They
Maggie Darling.
41
were as noisy and more lively and profane than if they
had been at home.
In about an hour Madame bailed them all out, putting
up $10 a head for their punctual appearance at the po¬
lice court on Monday morning. Then the half dozen,
more drunk than when they were pulled sallied out in
triumph and resumed business as usual in the old prem¬
ises as if nothing had happened.
Five or six hours afterwards, about midnight, I made
Maggie Darling's acquaintance. I had been around
several of the houses asking their keepers and their
inmates to attend my meeting at the Central Music Hall
the following day. A strange pilgrimage that was from
house to house, to discuss what Christ would think
of it, with landladies whose painted damsels in undress,
were lounging all around ! At last, well on to mid¬
night, I came to Madame Hastings. The excitement
of the "pulling" was still visible; Madame was indig¬
nant. She knew who it was that had put the " cops "
on to her and she cursed them accordingly. Mag¬
gie was flushed and somewhat forward ; both her eyes
were blacked, the result of a fight with a French inmate
of the house.
"I don't want anything," I said to Maggie. "Why
can you not talk decently once in a while ? Sit down
and let us have a good talk."
Maggie looked at me half incredulously and then sat
down.
" I want you to come to my meeting tomorrow night,"
I said, "at Central Music Hall."
" Yes," she said, " what kind of a meeting is it?"
" Oh, quite a new kind of meeting," I answered. " I
am to speak on what Christ would think of all this,
and I want you know it all, to come to the meeting. ' '
Maggie became serious ; a dreamy look came over her
face.
Then she said, " Oh, Christ ! He's all right. Its the
42
If Christ Came to Chicago.
other ones, that's the devil," Then she stopped. "Its
no use," she added, shortly.
"What's no use?" I asked, and after a time she told
me the story which I repeated in brief at Central Music
Hall next dav.
It was a gnm story ; commonplace enough, and yet
as tragic as life, that was told to me at midnight in
that tawdry parlor. The old Jezebel flitted in and out
superintending her business ; the jingling piano was
going in the next room where the girls were dancing,
and the air was full of the reek of beer and tobacco.
Maggie spoke soberly, in an undertone so that Madame
might not hear what she was saying. Her narrative,
which she told without any pretense or without any
appeal for sympathy or for help, seemed a microcosm
of the history of the human race. The whole of the
story was there ; from the Fall to the Redemption ; from
the Redemption to the Apostacy of the church, and the
blighting of the hopes of mankind. I give it here as a
page, soiled and grimy it may be, but nevertheless a verit¬
able page torn from the book of life Maggie Darling is a
human document in which is recorded the ruin of one of
the least of those of the brethren of Christ. It illustrates
many things in our social organization, from the ruthless
sacrifice of childhood, due to the lack of factory laws,
to the murderous brutality of conventional ChrTst'ariity,
aping the morality without the heart of its Lord.
" No," said Maggie coldly. " Its no use ! Don't
commence no religion on me. I've had enough already.
Are you a Catholic ? "
"Why?" I asked. "No, I am not a Catholic."
" I'm glad," she said, " you're not a Catholic. I have
no use for Catholics. Least of all for Irish Catholics. I
will never go near any of them any more, and if I could
do them any harm, I would travel a thousand miles to
do iL "
Maggie was excited and troubled. Something in the
past seemed to harass her, and her language was more
Maggie Darling.
43
vigorous than can be quoted here. After a little she
became more restrained, and by degrees I had her whole
histor>^
She was born of Irish-American parents, in Boston,
in 1870. Her father was a carpenter by trade. Her
mother died when Maggie was a mere child. Shortly
after her death the family crossed the continent to Cali¬
fornia, where her father married again. He was a
drunkard, a gambler and a violent tempered man, much
given to drinking, and inclined to treat his children
with great brutality. Maggie, after spending a year
or two in a convent school in San Francisco, left
before she had learned either to read or to write, and
began to make her own living, at nine years of age.
She was employed in a shoe factory, where she made
from $4.50 to $7 a week at piece work. There were
several children of only seven years of age in the factory.
These infants were employed in picking shavings. They
started work at six o'clock in the morning, had half an
hour for dinner, and were dismissed at five. At the
factory Maggie learned to read out of the newspapers,
by the aid of her companions, and when she was eleven
was sufficiently smart to obtain a situation as companion
and reader to an old lady, who was an invalid, at $15 a
month and her board. The place was comfortable. She
remained there until she was eighteen.
From that situation she went as chambermaid to a
private famf|y in Golden Gate Avenue. She was eigh¬
teen, full of vigor and gaiety. She was a brunette
with long dark hair, a lively disposition, and with all
the charming audacity and confidence of inexperience.
She fell in love. The man was older than she and
for a time she was as happy as most young people in
their first dream. Of course she was going to be married.
If only the marriage day would come! But there are
twenty-fonr hours in every day, and seven days in every
week. Her betrothed, not less impatient» hinted that
after all they were already united, why could they not
44
If Christ Came to Chicago.
anticipate the ceremony. Did she not trust him ? He
swore that it was all right, that everybody did it and they
would be so much more to each other.
But why repeat the oft told story ? At first Maggie
would not listen to the suggestion. But after a time
when he pressed her and upbraided her and declared that
she could not love him if she did not trust him, she
went the way of many thousands, only to wake as they
have done with the soft illusion dissipated by the ter¬
rible reality of motherhood drawing near, with no
husband to be a father to her child. When she told him
of her condition, he said that it was all right; they must
get married directly. If she would leave her place and
meet him next da>', at the comer of a certain street, he
would take her to a church and they would be married.
In all tmsting innocence, relying upon his word, she
gave up her situation, put up such things as she could
carry and went next day to the trysting place. Of course
the man was not there. After waiting till heartsick she
went to make inquiries; she soon discovered the fatal
tmth. Her lover was a married man, and he had skipped
the town followed by the brother of another of his
victims.
Imagine her position! She had exactly fifteen cents
in her pocket. If she had gone home her father, fierce
and irascible as he usually was, would have thought
little of killing the daughter who had brought disgrace
upon the family. She dared not return to her old situ¬
ation which she had left so suddenly. She had no char¬
acter from her mistress and no references. Besides in
six months she would be confined. What was she to do ?
Her position is one in which some thousands of young
women find themselves all over the world at this very
moment She was in the position of Eve after she had
eaten the forbidden fruit and had been cast out of the Gar¬
den of Eden. It is a modem version of the Fall, and as
the Fall led down to destmction, so it was with Maggie
Darling. She seemed to be shut up to sin. She wan-
Maggie Darling.
45
dered about the town seeking work. Finding none all
that day she walked about in the evening. She kept
walking aimlessly on and on, until night came and she
was afraid. When it was quite dark, and she found a
quiet corner she crouched upon a doorstep and tried to
sleep. What was she to do? She was lonely and miser¬
able; every month her trouble would grow worse. Where
coiild she hide? She dozed oflf, only to awaken with a
start. No one was near; she tried to sleep again. Then
she got up and walked a little and rested again. When
morning came she was tired out and wretched. Then
she remembered the address of a girl she knew who was
living in the neighborhood. She hunted her up and was
made welcome. But her friend had no money. For one
night she sheltered her, but all her efforts to find work
were in vain.
What was to be done? On the third day she and her
friend met a man who asked them if they wanted a job.
They answered eagerly, yes. He gave them the address
of a lady who he thought could give them something to do.
They went there and found it was a house of ill-fame.
The woman took them in and told them they might
stay. Maggpe hesitated. But what was she to do? She had
lost her character and her place, and she had no friends.
Here she could at least get food and shelter, and remain
till her baby was born. It seemed as if she were driven
to it. She said to herself that she could not help it, and
so it came to pass that Maggie came upon the town.
Two years she remained there, making the best of it.
Her baby fortunately died soon after it was born, and
she continued to tread the cinder path of sin alone.
This went on for three years, and then there dawned
upon her darkened life a real manifestation of redeeming
love. One day when she had a fit of the blues, a young
man came into the house. He was very young, not
more than twenty. Something in her appearance
attracted him, and when they were alone he spoke to her
so kindly that she marveled. She told him how
46
If Christ Came to Chicago.
wretched she was, and he, treating her as if she were his
own sister, encouraged her to hope for release. " Take
this," he said, as he left her, giving her five dollars.
" Save up all you can until you can pay off your debts
and then we will get you out of this."
He came again, and yet again, always treating her in
the same brotherly fashion, giving her five dollars every
time, and never asking anything in return. After she
had saved up sufl&cient store to pay off that debt to the
landlady, which hangs like a millstone round the neck
of the unfortunate, her young friend told her that he
had talked to his mother and his sister, and that as soon
as she was ready they would be delighted to take her
into their home until such time as they could find her a
situation. Full of delight at the unexpected deliverance,
Maggie made haste to leave. The young man's mother
was as good as her word. In that home she found a
warm welcome, and a safe retreat. Maggie made great
efforts to break off the habit of swearing, and although
she every now and then would make a bad break, she
made such progress that at length it was deemed safe
and prudent to let her take a place as a general servant.
The short stay in that Christian home had been to her as
a glimpse into an opening paradise. Hope sprang up
once more in the girl's breast. She would be an honest
woman once again. Thus, as we have seen her repro¬
duce the Fall, so we see the blessed work of the Redeemer.
Now we have to see the way in which His people, " the
other ones," as she called them, shuddering, fulfilled
their trust
Maggie went to a situation in Oakland, Alameda Co.,
Cal. Her new mistress was a Mrs. McD—, an Irish
Catholic of very devout disposition. She was general
servant at $io a month. She worked hard, and gave
every satisfaction. Even the habit of profanity seemed
to have been conquered. Gradually the memory of her
past life with its hideous concomitants was becoming
faint and dim, when suddenly the past was brought back
Maggie Darling.
47
to her with a shock. She was serving at table when she
suddenly recognized in one of the guests a man who had
been a customer in the old house. She felt as if she
were going to drop dead when she recognized him, but
she said nothing, The " gentleman," however, was not
so reticent. " Where did you get that girl from ? " he
asked Mr. McD—. "Get her," said Mr. McD—;
"why, she's a servant in our house." "Servant,"
sneered her guest ; " I know her. She is a from
San Frailcisco."
How eternally true are Lowell's lines :
Grim-hearted world, that look'st with Levite eyes
On those poor fallen by too much faith in man,
She that upon thy freezing threshold lies.
Starved to more sinning by thy savage ban.
Seeking that refuge because foulest vice,
More God-like than thy virtue is, whose span
Shuts out the wretched only, is more free
To enter Heaven than thou wilt ever be !
Thou wilt not let her wash thy dainty feet
With such salt things as tears, or with rude hair
Dry them, soft Pharisee, that sili'st at meat
With him who made her such., and speak'st him fair,
Leaving God's wandering lamb the while to bleat
Unheeded, shivering in the pitiless air :
Thou hast made prisoned virtue show more wan
And haggard than a vice to look upon.
But in this case it was even worse. The lamb which
had sought shelter was driven back into the wilderness.
Mr. McD— would not believe it, but said that he
would tell his wife. Mrs. McD— at once sent for Mag¬
gie. " If only I'd been cute," said she to me when
telling the story, " I would have denied it, and they
would have believed me. But I thought I had broken
with all that, and that I had to tell the truth. So I
owned up and said yes, it was true, I had been so, but
that I had refonned, and had left all that kind of life.
But the old woman, d— her ! she would listen to noth¬
ing. ' Faith, she would not have the disgrace of having
a in her house ! ' that was all she said."
" Have you anything against me ? " said Maggie.
48
If Christ Came to Chicaf^d.
" Have I not done your work for yon ever since I came ?"
"No," was the reply, "I have nothing against you,
but I cannot have a person of your character in my
house. You must go."
Maggie implored her to give her a chance. " You are
a Catholic," she said, "will you not give me a helping
hand ? "
"No," was the inexorable reply. "That does not
matter. I cannot have a in my house."
Feeling as if she were sinking in deep water, Maggie
fell on her knees sobbing bitterly and begged her for the
love of God to have mercy on her and at least to give
her a recommendation so that she might get another place.
It was no use. " I cannot do that, for if anything
went wrong I would be to blame for it."
"Well then," said Maggie, "at least give me a line
saying that for the four months I had been here I have
worked to your satisfaction."
" No," she said.
"The old hound!" exclaimed Maggie to me. "My
God, if ever I get the chance I'll knife the old she devil.
Yes, if I swing for it What does it matter ? She's blasted
my life. When I saw it was all no use, I lost all heart and
all hope and I gave up there and then. There's no hope
for such as me. No, I had my chance and she spoiled
it, God d—n her for a blasted old hypocrite. And now
it is no use. No use, never an\- more. I have taken
dope, I drink. I'm lost. I'm only a I shall
never be anything else. I'm far worse than ever I
was and am going to the devil as fast as I can. It's no
use. But me to blue blazes if ever I come
within a thousand miles of that old fiend if I don't
knife her if I swing for it. When I think what I might
have been but for her I Oh, Christ ! " she cried, " What
have they done with my life?"
What indeed ? After the Fall the Redemption, after the
Redemption the Apostacy, and now as the result, one of
The images ye have made of Me !
CHAPTER III.
WHISKY AND POLITICS.
It was in Brant Smith's saloon where I first met
Farmer Jones. Brant Smith is the Democratic captain
of the Ninety-first Precinct of the Hundredth Ward.
Like many other Democratic captains in Chicago and in
New York, he combined the political duties of leader of
the precinct with the commercial calling of saloon-keeper.
In his district there is no more respectable saloon than
that of Brant Smith. It is a marvel. To the left and
to the right of it there are saloons which are frequented
by the toughest characters in Bum Street. A little fur¬
ther down are saloons which are merely annexes to so
many houses of ill-fame, overrun with loose women who
hang about in all stages of dishabille, endeavoring as
best they can to attract the attention of customers who
drop in for a drink or for a cigar, to their faded charms.
There is nothing of all this in Brant Smith's. You
may go in, as I have gone, at any hour of the day or
night and you will not see any of that class of women;
indeed it is a rare thing to see a woman at all either at
the counter or at the billard table which occupies the
most conspicuous position in the rear of the saloon.
During my stay in Chicago Brant Smith's became
one of my favorite resorts, partly because of its situa¬
tion—it was an oasis of cleanliness and light in the midst
of a district which was decidedly tough—partly because
of Brant Smith himself, who is one of the most intelli¬
gent and interesting politicians I have met in Chicago,
and partly, and perhaps most of all, because Brant
Smith's was the hang-out of Farmer Jones. Farmer
Jones is a remarkable man. I made his acquaintance
during my first visit to Chicago and renewed it when I
49
50
If Christ Came to Chicago.
returned. It was, however, not until the night on which
Mayor Hopkins was elected that I fully appreciated the
significance and the value of my new acquaintance. I
think, on the whole. Farmer Jones had done more to
reassure my faith in the future of Chicago, and to ^ve
me the clue to its secret than any other man in the city.
Yet when I walked along the street with Farmer Jones
on one occasion and passed a doctor who had for many
years practiced on Bum Street he deemed it his duty to
send a special messenger to warn me to take care,
as the man I was with was one of the toughest of
the toughs in the slums. Farmer Jones' appearance at
that time, it must be admitted, was rather against him.
There was an ugly wound on his right cheek which was
partly concealed by sticking plaster, his chin was cov¬
ered with the stubbly growth which indicates that the
barber is three days behind his time, his eyes were
bloodshot and restless, while for his hair,—well. It is
said in Chicago that Mayor Hopkins was elected by the
silkstockings on the one hand and the short hairs on the
other; Farmer Jones was emphatically not a silkstock-
ing dude and he was as conspicuously one of the short
hairs. He stood about five feet ten or eleven, some¬
what spare in his build, with a slight slouch and a curi¬
ous amble in his gait caused by a lameness in one of
his feet. You usually saw him with a billy-cock hat
on his head and a cigarette in his mouth, and his
clothes, to put it mildly, were somewhat the worse for
wear.
When I did my day on the streets with the broom
and shovel brigade Farmer Jones was kind enough to
accompany me. It was from him that I had borrowed
my working clothes. They had been lying for twelve
months in a locker in Brant Smith's saloon. They
were pretty dilapidated, but when I was fully equipped
and I sallied forth together with Farmer Jones and took
our places in the street cleaning brigade we were as
pretty a pair as there was to be found in Chicago. Yet
Whisky and Politics.
51
this tough denizen of the slums, with his stubbly beard
and bloodshot eyes, was, by universal consent of all
who knew him, one of the smartest men in politics.
It was only whisky that was the matter with him, that
was all. But then, it must be admitted, there is a good
deal in whisky, especially when it is applied internally
at pretty frequent intervals from morning till night.
The first time I met Farmer Jones I was so busy talk¬
ing to Brant Smith that I did not hear much of what he
had to say. But on the second occasion I well remem¬
ber what he said. It was the first night of the registra¬
tion for the mayoralty election, and, as was .to be expected
under the circumstances. Farmer Jones had celebrated
the occasion by such frequent libations that it was some¬
what difficult for him to maintain his equilibrium. By
holding on to the counter, however, he was able to
explain with some considerable triumph the number of
Democrats whom he had registered that day. There
was a gain on the total number and there was great joy
in the saloon over the result of the first day's innings.
When Farmer Jones saw me, he steadied himself for a
moment by the counter and said:
" I want to talk to you, Mr. Stead. I want a long
talk with you. But not now. "
"Why not now ?" I asked.
"I have a great deal to say to you," he continued,
"but I cannot say it to-night."
"But why not?" again I asked.
" Because," he said, as he looked at me very solemnly
as he swayed to and fro, with a curious owlish look in
his eyes, "because, Mr. Stead, my head is rather
muzzy—and my tongue — is so thick — and to tell
you the truth, Mr. Stead," he said, as he gave a lurch
towards me, "to tell you the truth — I am half drunk."
There could be no doubt as to his condition, although
there might have been some dispute as to the fraction.
But he had still enough sense to know what he was
driving at. After a time I got him persuaded to eu-
52
If Christ Came to Chicago.
deavor to use his thickened tongue in order to explain
what he wanted to say to me. He had evidently been
impressed by the way in which I had spoken about
the saloons at the Central Music Hall, The saloon
people in Chicago have been so accustomed to receive
nothing but vitriolic denunciation from every person
who speaks in public on temperance or morality that
they could hardly believe their ears when they found
that for once they had been treated with ordinary
justice.
He said, at last, ' ' If you want to do any good
in this town begin a crusade against the inde¬
cent saloons. You will do no good at all if you go
against all the saloons, but you should distinguish
between the decent and the indecent saloons."
" But what do you mean by an indecent saloon?"
" A saloon like this is a saloon and nothing else ; but
a saloon to which I could take you a few doors from this
is not so much a saloon as it is the door to a house of ill-
fame. There is a field where every honest man will
.support you. Why do you not stick to that and let us
have in Chicago saloons that are saloons and not saloons
that are sporting houses and gambling hells as well ! "
I agreed with my friend that this was a practical policy ;
but he was hardly in a condition to go into details, so we
adjourned the conference until a more convenient time.
That time did not come until the day of the mayoralty
election. When my son and I walked over to the saloon
after dinner we found Brant and his friends in a state of
great jubilation. It was just after eight o'clock and
sufficient number of returns had come in to show that
Hopkins' election was all but assured. There was a
crowd of men in the saloon. Brant, as usual, was be¬
hind the counter, as sober as a judge, while far back, in a
state of complacency which often accompanies the early
stages of befuddlement, sat Farmer Jones.
" Hopkins is in all right, " said he to us, " there are only
two more precincts to comç in and his majority is over
Whisky and Politics.
53
a thousand. But come," he said, "sit down and I will
tell you all about it."
He led the way into the back of the saloon and set¬
ting himself against the wall placed chairs on either side
of a small wooden table and proceeded to unfold the true
inwardness of electioneering methods in the Ninety-
first Precinct of the One Hundredth Ward in the year of
our Lord 1893. It was extremely interesting, instructive
and full of suggestion.
The scene of the narrative was in appropriate keeping
with the nature of the story which was unfolded. The
saloon was well filled with a number of men who seemed
to consider that importance of the occasion and the
significance of the victory demanded continual relays of
drinks. As for Farmer Jones himself, he found it nec¬
essary at intervals throughout the evening to lay in stores
of hot Scotch whisky ; this, he explained to me apologeti¬
cally, was owing to the fact that his extremities got
so very cold, he needed just a little something to keep
up the circulation. Beer was the general drink, but
although every now and again a free and independent
citizen who had been vindicating the rights of the peo¬
ple by voting for Mr. Hopkins would require a little
slumber after his exertion, there was no quarrelling, and
there was a great deal of good nature. Outside in the
street in front of the saloon a great bonfire was blazing.
Some luckless garbage boxes from the back yard and all
the available timber that was lying loose was pressed into
service in order to celebrate the Democratic triumph.
Farmer Jones took no part in building the bonfire, con¬
tenting himself with giving words of command to the
gang of men who tramped backwards and forwards
through the saloon, carrying fuel to the flames. Most of
the men wore the white silk badges of the Democratic
party, while some of them carried a card with the por¬
trait of Hopkins in their hat. The bard of the occasion
was one Brennan, an Irishman, who became so efïusively
hilarious as the hours stole on towards midnight, that,
54
If Christ Came to Chicago.
after having sung an indefinite number of songs, many of
his own composition, and executing step dances to the
music of an accordion, he insisted upon decorating me
with a Hopkins card. Farmer Jones protested. He said I
was a stranger and a visitor and not a naturalized citizen
and that I ought not to be compelled to wear the Hop¬
kins card, but the bard insisted, and by midnight my son
and myself might have been mistaken for two of the
staunchest of the Democratic citizens who had exercised
their right of citizenship by returning Hopkins at the
head of the poll.
" You see," said Farmer Jones, as he settled himself
to his hot Scotch and looked at me through his cigarette
smoke, raising his voice slightly so as to be heard
over the drone of the music and the laughter that fol¬
lowed each verse of Bard Brennan's song, " you see we
have done our part in this precinct It is a black Re¬
publican precinct and we polled a majority of ninety for
Hopkins. I took most of them to the poll myself," he
said with some degree of justifiable pride. "Yes, I
polled ninety votes in this precinct for Hopkins, and it
did not cost me more than half a dollar a head, whereas
the Republicans had to pay their men $3 each before
they could get them to the poll."
This inside glimpse into the finances of voting some¬
what startled me. " But," I said, " do you mean to say
that the Republicans paid $3 a head for their votes?
That was rather high, was it not? The Democrats in
the 170th Ward were only paying their men $2 a head."
"They paid $3 in this precinct," said he. "There was
any amount of money going on Swift's side. Why, I
was ofièred $100 myself if I would only stay at home on
election day and do nothing."
" But who ofiered you that ?"
"The Republicans, of course. They have been
spending money all round. They sent me word that if
I would go down to the Central Committee I should
have $100 merely to stay at home. They tried that on
Whisky and Politics.
55
all round. Why there was Skippen—you know Skippen,
that infernal scoundrel ! Why, he went round trying to
bulldoze the lodging house keepers in this neighborhood.
When he found that he could not frighten them by
telling them he would put crape on their doors if they
did not help to elect Swift, he offered them any amount
of money merely to keep citizens from voting. They
would not do it, not they. He had to get out of that
pretty quick I tell you. Oh, Skippen, he is a son of a
gun, he is ! "
" What is the matter with Skippen ? "
"Why, Skippen is a U. O. D."
"What in the name of mischief is a U. O. D.?" I
inquired anxiously.
"Well," he said, "a U. O. D. is short for a mem¬
ber of the United Order of Deputies ; that is the most
powerful secret society which exists in America at the
present time, and its object is to prevent anyone having
anything in politics or an)rwhere else that was not bom
on American soil. But I reckon," said Jones, compla¬
cently, "that Skippen will not show his head in this
precinct again."
"Why?" J asked.
" Do you know what we did as soon as the polls opened
this morning?"
" No."
" We simply fired Skippen out of the polling
booths."
" Fired him out ! How did you do that ? "
" We told him he had to git and he got."
" But how could you do that ? "
"Don't ask any questions," he said. "They know
what it is that is meant Skippen would have been
killed, that is all I can say."
" But who told him so ? "
" There was no need to tell him. There is no need lo
say such things. They did not take long to clear out
and leave us alone."
56
If Christ Came to Chicago.
" Well," I said, ' supposing he had refused ? "
" Well, we should have had to use arguments with him.
We should have convinced him, never fear. We might
have been sorry to use them but he wisely did not force
us to use them. It reminds me," said Farmer Jones,
" of a story that used to be told about Mr. Hamlin. He
used to travel with a circus up and down the country.
It was a habit of his always to ride ahead of his show
to make the business arrangements. One day he was
riding along in Virginia and he came to a plantation.
He rode into the front yard where he saw an old
gentleman sitting upon a stoop. ' Stranger,' said he
'are you from the North?' 'lam,' said Mr. Ham¬
lin, whereupon, before he knew what was going to
happen, the old gentleman picked up a rock and flung
it at him so that it struck his head and fetched the
blood. Thinking he had had enough of the conver¬
sation Mr. Hamlin rode away until he came to a trough
be the wayside, where he dismounted and began to wash
away the blood which was streaming down his face.
While he was so engaged a negro came riding up in hot
haste and said ' Are you de gentleman dat de colonel
threw a rock at ? ' ' Wall,' said Mr. Hamlin, wonder¬
ing what was the matter, ' I guess I am.' ' Oh,' said
the nigger, ' I have come from the colonel, and a bery
fine gentleman he is—a bery fine gentleman indeed —
a perfect gentleman ; he wishes to apologize — he says he
is bery sorry he hit you with a rock, sah, he is bery sorry,
bery sorry indeed, sah, and he sent me to ride after you,
sah, to give you his best respects and his compliments,
and say to you, sah, that he never would have hit you
with a rock if he had had any other weapon handy ! '
So," said,Farmer Jones, when he had finished his story,
"Skippen understood and took the hint in good time."
"Well," said I, "when you got the polling stations
in your hands, what did you do?"
" Voted our men, of course. "
"And the negroes, how did they vote ?"
Whisky and Politics.
57
"They voted as they ousfht to have voted. They
had to."
" But," said I, " the ballot is secret enough, how could
you compel those people to vote against their will ? ' '
" They understood, and besides " said he, " there was
not a man voted in that booth that I did not know how
he voted before he put his paper into the judges' hands."
"And your own men, you say it cost you half a dollar
a head?"
"Well," said he, " I had not to pay more than half a
dollar for any of them. My total expenses today for
everything is only $45 and I voted many for a drink and
some voted for quarters, but no one got more than half
a dollar. You know," he said with a smile, "we have
some curious experiences on polling day, and sometimes
they get a laugh on a fellow. For instance, I went into
a stable this afternoon and I found nine citizens who had
not voted and it occurred to me that they were very
thirsty. So I borrowed a pail and went into a saloon
and got it filled with beer, which cost me 35 cents. I
took it to the stable expecting that when they had
quenched their thirst they would be capable of the exer¬
tion of going to the polls and voting for Hopkins. But
it did make a fellow feel cheap when they took that
pail of beer and gave it to one of the horses. "
" Then you did not vote them after all ? "
"Oh yes I did, but it cost me half a dollar a head."
" How did the foreigners vote? "
" I voted fifty-four Italians all in a block and I had not
a cent to pay for them. You see," said he, " the
Italians are great believers in Democratic principles."
I said I thought it would be rather difficult for them to
know the difference between Republican and Democratic
principles.
"No, you will find that they are all devoted admirers
of Democratic principles and Republican institutions," he
said with emphasis. "These Italians voted all right
because I made them citizens. They would not have had
58
If Christ Came to Chicago.
a vote but for me. Not one of them could speak a word
of English, either, what is more." Then waxing wroth
as something came to his mind, he said, " We have got
some judges in Chicago who need to be removed. Think
of that Judge Gibbons ! I took those Italians down to
naturalize them as citizens—fifty-four as fine men as ever
you set eyes on, all residents in this ward and all good
Democrats. When I brought them in Judge Gibbons
asked me if they could speak English. I said, ' No, your
honor. ' He asked me if I could answer for them being
good citizens. I said I knew they were great believers
in American institutions, and then that judge absolutely
refused to naturalize them."
" What did you do?"
" I thought it was time to take a change of venue. So
I went to another judge. This judge he said to me,
' Now Jones, what do you want to do with these men? '
' I want to make citizens of them. ' ' Can they speak
English?' 'No, not one of them.' 'Can you speak
Italian?' 'Not a word.' 'Then how can you answer
for them ? ' 'I can answer only for one. ' ' Which one
is that ? ' ' This one,' I said, ' he can speak a little French
and I can speak French, and I can answer for his allegi¬
ance to American institutions. I will answer for him,
and I want you to enroll him as a citizen.' The judge
did so. Then that man answered for another and so on
until the whole fifty-four were American citizens. I
voted them to the last man for John Patrick Hopkins."
"But," I said, "Jones, I do not understand how you
get hold of those fellows."
" I work 'em," he said. Then, replenishing his hot
Scotch he raised his hand to about four feet above the
floor, and added, meditatively. " She is just about that
high, a little bit of a thing just about eight years old."
" What do you mean ? "
" It was a little Italian girl helped me or I could never
have done anything."
" Do explain what you mean," I said.
Whisky and Politics.
59
" Well," said he, as he lit another cigarette, " two years
ago I noticed that a friend of mine who lives down the
block had a bright little girl who was beginning to go
to the public school. He was an Italian and a very fine
man although he could not speak much English. I kept
my eye on that little girl and whenever I went to see her
father I always took her a pound of candies or a toy tor¬
toise or a snake or anything of that kind, even if to do
so I had to borrow a quarter. So I quite got hold of the
little girl ; she thinks I am her best friend, in the world
and she will go anywhere with me and do anything I
want. When the elections come round I just go to her
with a bag of candies and we go canvassing together.
She can speak both Italian and English ; so she goes with
me and translates anything I have got to say. I have got
great hold over the Italians here and it is all through
that little girl."
Up to this point I had been more or less scandalized,
but now I began to get interested — interested as a man is
interested when, after a long search in a great ravelment of
odds and ends and thrums and tatters, he comes upon a
skein which may possibly give him a clue to the con¬
fusion. This story of the way in which Farmer Jones
had roped in the Italian girl as his go-between and
Interpreter, so as to enable him to get hold of the non-
English-speaking Italians and made them his friends and
ivoted them for the Democratic candidate—^here was some¬
thing which made me inclined to cry " Eureka ! " Here at
last was something like a clue to the agency which has
worked this great conglomerate of rival nationalities into
one homogeneous whole ; here in a low and rudimentär)
state, no doubt, but with vigorous vitality in it, there was
the principle of human brotherhood and the recognition
of human service. There was religio—a real religion—
or the linking together of man to man. Which of all
the churches, I wondered, would take so much trouble for
so long a time merely in order to get hold of a little Ital¬
ian gill to work into their organization this rough unas-
6o
If Christ Came to Chicago.
similated hunk of Italianism which Farmer Jones had
got hold of in order to strengthen the Democratic party ?
Farmer Jones, however, did not see anything in it, but
was more intent upon pursuing the thread of his own
meditations.
" Stop a minute," said he, " I want to show you some¬
thing." With that he disappeared. Making his way more
or less unsteadily across the saloon, he presently returned,
bringing with him a black hat through the rim of which
a jagged hole was punched near the right temple.
" You see that," said he. " Do you know what made
that ? "
" No," I replied.
" A knife, and it nearly cost me my life. But it would
not have happened if I had taken a hint from my little
Italian girl. I got it from an Italian, the ungrateful
hound."
" Tell me about it. "
" You see," said Jones, " It was that scoundrel Billerot,
the ungrateful dog ! But never mind, I will be even with
him yet. It was only this year that we were having the
elections for constables. Billerot was put up for elec¬
tion. I did not like the fellow and voted against him
at the first ballot. We had to vote again. He came to
me and said, ' Oh, Jones, me wants two votes to be elected.
Me a good fellow, Jones, do give me your votes.' ' No,'
said I, ' I don't like you, I won't vote for you.' ' Oh, me
very good fellow,' said he, and he went on so that I had
compassion for him and, against my own judgement, I
voted for him and got him five votes. He was elected,
the son of a gun," said Jones, betaking himself to his hot
Scotch with an assiduity which made me fear that his
tongue would again become so thick as to preclude the
possibility of my receiving the end of his interesting
discourse.
"Well," said I, "what about Billerot?"
" He is an ungrateful wretch. The other day we had
a meeting of Italians in the ward for Mr. Hopkins. So
Whisky and Politics.
6i
I went for my little girl to go with me to the lodging
houses to get my men. Who should I find at the first
lodging house but Billerot. I said to him, 'Well, Bil-
lerot, are you going to come to our meeting ? ' ' What
meeting ? ' asked he, and before I could answer the little
girl twitched the side of my trousers and I saw that I was
in the wrong box. ' Why, Mr. Hopkins' meeting,' I said.
' Me no go, me no for Hopkins.' ' What ! ' I said, ' you
no for Hopkins and I got you to be constable ? ' 'Oh, you
good fellow, Jones, but me no like your alderman. Me
no like Hopkins.' ' Well,' I said, ' all right. I will go
and see the Italians.' 'No,' said he, 'you no go in, me
no let you go in. No vote for Hopkins, me don't like
your alderman. ' "
" Then," said Jones to me, " you know I am rather hot
tempered and I sometimes say things I ought not to
say, but I cannot help it, and I just bent forward to him
and said, ' Billerot, you remember there are some people
in this town who are in a secret society, that killed Dr.
Cronin, and they are called the Clan-na-gael ; and there
are other people in this town of all manner of national¬
ities except Italians, and they blew tip the policemen at
the Haymarket ; and,' I continued, looking him full in
the face, ' there is another set of men in this town and
they call them the Mafia.' I had hardly got out the
words when as quick as lightning he flashed out his knife
and struck at me with all his force. I dodged the
knife and instead of splitting my head open as he in¬
tended it went through the brim of my hat and cut open
my cheek. The little girl was standing close by us,
otherwise he and I were alone. The blood streamed
down my face, but the moment he struck at me I grabbed
my gun and began blazing at him. But he quit fast as
soon as he saw he had missed me, and the blood was so
much in my eyes that I could not see plainly to hit him. I
went across to see some of his countrymen and they said
' Did you call him a Mafiote ? ' ' Indeed I did,' said I.
62
If Christ Came to Chicago.
' Well,' said he, ' I am not suprised that he tried to knife
you, for it is God's truth. ' "
Jones stopped. Then he added, complacently, " I
think that man's political career is ended."
'' What will they do with him," I asked.
" I don't know, but no good, I reckon. No doubt he
will lose his constableship next election, and there is no
future for that man in Chicago."
Jones remained quiet for a time. He had told the
story with a vivid realism that made it stand out like a
picture by one of the Dutch masters of the interior of a
tavern or a camp—a vivid little thumbnail sketch, as it
were, of the realities of politics and electioneering in the
first ward: the Mafiote with his knife stabbing madly
at the American with his g^n, whose one regret was that
the blood in his eyes rendered it impossible for him to
shoot his fellow citizen, and consoling himself with the
thought that by his political pull he would be able to
blight the Mafiote's rise in the political hierarchy of the
American Republic. Here at least were realities and not
theories.
After another song from Brennan, " What a genius,' '
he said, meditatively, "what a wasted genius; that man
will sing from morning till night As long as he has
his beer he never seems to tire. But here," said he,
" is another citizen who would not have voted but for
me." So saying, he introduced a tall, somewhat melan¬
choly man who was doing odd jobs about the saloon.
" Here is my friend Dafton, who has been unfortunate.
He has just come out of the penitentiary in Indiana,
where he had been sent for two years." We made room
for the gentleman at the table and soon he was quite
sociable and friendly.
His story was rather a sad one. He was a teamster in
good work in Chicago, whose wife had proved unfaith¬
ful to him, and feeling discouraged he had gone to work
on a railway in Indiana. When there he had taken care
of the swag of a fellow workman who was lying dead
Whisky and Politics.
63
drunk at a strange saloon. He got drunk himself be¬
fore he could explain matters and was arrested for steal¬
ing his comrade's money. He was sent to jail for two
years. On coming out he came to Chicago but would
not have been allowed to vote but for his friend Jones.
He wrote to the chaplain of the jail in Indiana, who re¬
plied in high terms of the behavior of Dafton while in
custody. Armed with this credential Jones had been
down to the election commissioner and received from
him a certificate which entitled his friend to vote at the
election. Dafton was an interesting man, who had seen
hardship and who, in his melancholy, saturnine way, was
somehat of a mournful philosopher and a good Democrat
all the same, so he was welcomed to the fraternal bond
which united us all that night in celebrating the return
of Mr. Hopkins.
After hearing of his intervention to get Dafton his
right to vote, I said laughingly to Farmer Jones that he
seemed to be kept quite busy in the ward.
He put down his cigarette, looked at me and said
bashfully, " Well, I reckon that I get more people into
the County Hospital and more people out of the police
station than any alderman in the city. Yes, I am kept
quite busy. I think I get one man a week into the
County Hospital, and—let .me see—about two and a half
every week out of the police station. That is not all,
either," he added, "I have to bury a good many of
them also."
" Bury them, what is that for?"
"Well," he said, " I know a good many Irishmen, fine
fellows, and when they die I have not the heart to let
them be buried by the county. I have got eight free¬
hold lots in Oakwood Cemetery in my own possession,
and the ninth is nearly ready. ' '
" What on earth have you to do with burying them?"
"Well, I have got something inside of me here," he
said, laying his hand upon his breast, " which causes me
a great deal of trouble. I cannot see a fellow creature
64
If Christ Came to Chicago.
suflfering without trying to help him if I can. When
these poor fellows have died I go round to the hotels,
and to my friends, and beg the money, and I have never
failed yet in raising all that is necessary."
" How much is necessary?" I asked.
" I will tell you," said he. He went over item by item
pretty much as follows, " There is $io for a lot in Oak-
wood Cemetery, $3 for moving the corpse from the
morgue, $16 for the cofEn, $5 for the shell, and I always
take down four or five pall-bearers and bring them back
again. I also pay $2 for an itinerant preacher to say
service over the grave. Altogether it comes between $45
and $50. They are buried properly and never a doctor'.s
knife in any of them."
"But about the County Hospital?"
" There is sometimes trouble about getting a man in.
So if any of my friends need to be attended to I go with
them. They know me at the hospital and they must
take him in if I go with him."
" How is that?"
" Well, if they object to take him in I sit there until
they do or until they send him to Dunning. It saves
the man trouble and gets over a good many obstacles
which are made to a man being received."
" I can understand that, but how do you get the peo¬
ple out of the police station?"
"Oh," he said, "that is not difficult You see I have
got a pull and anyone who has got a pull can do a great
deal."
"Supposing I were your friend and had been arrested,
what would you do?' '
"Supposing one of my friends were locked up to¬
night for being drunk, I would go to the police station
and see the cop who had run him in and I would tell
him that I could answer for that man, that he was a
good man and that he was all right."
" But supposing he was not all right?"
" Oh, but then he is all right," said Jones. " You can
Whisky and Politics.
not say that it would be good for a man to be locked up
with thieves and criminals because be took a glass too
much."
" But supposing be was a thief? "
" That would be a different matter; I would do noth¬
ing for a crook. Neither would I do anything for a man
who kept on making a beast of himself. He bad better
go to the Bridewell. But when a good fellow gets over¬
taken once in a way I get him out."
" But supposing that the police will no*- let him out ?"
" Well, then there would be nothing foi it but to bail
him out and see if I could not get him off the next
morning. The justices know me. If I could not get
him off, then I would get bis fine suspended."
" What do you mean by suspended ? "
" Why, suspended ! It means that the fine is taken off,
and you do not pay it. "
" But," I said, " when a fine is imposed, is it not
collected ? "
" Not when it is suspended, and you can usually get
your fine suspended when you have a pull. I bad a little
experience of my own that way."
I begged him to tell the story, and, nothing loath, be
began.
" It was once when I was very discouraged. I bad been
employed by a corporation, and another corporation was
jealous of me, and they bad me fired out. I was so dis¬
couraged that I got drunk for two days. It was a very
big spree, and at the end of two days I felt very bad. I
thought I bad bad enough of it, and I wanted to be sent
to the Wasbingtonian Home to be cured. So I went down
to the police station, and asked them to lock me up
and send me to the Wasbingtonian Home. But the cop
who was there was my friend, and be said, 'Jones, I
could not lock you up ; I could not do such an un¬
friendly action to you. '"
" ' But I want to be locked up.' But be said, ' I could
not do it, Jones ; you have not done anything.' ' Yes, I
66
If Christ Came to Chicago.
have,' I said. ' I am drunk, and I want to be sent to the
Washingtonian Home in the morning.' ' No,' said he,
' I would not do it for a friend. ' "
"'Well,' said I, 'you will have to lock me up if I
commit a crime.' "
" ' But you would not commit a crime, Jones? ' "
" ' I will if I am driven to it. I want to get to that
home. I will one way if I can't get there another.' "
" ' Oh, nonsense,' he said, and he laughed."
' ' I went out and I felt that it was too bad that I could
not get locked up without committing a crime, but as I
had to commit a crime I thought I might as well take it
out of the corporation which had lost me my situation.
I went down the street and stood opposite the window.
It cost $ioo and I kicked my foot through it and then
took a stone and in a few minutes there was not much
left of that window. There were two men inside the
office, but they were afraid to give me in charge, so I
marched up and down the street to a cop and gave myself
up. I said ' I want you to arrest me for malicious injury
to propert. ' He took me to the police station. When I
got there I said, ' Now you must take me in charge, as I
have committed a crime.' The cop said he did not
know what to enter on the charge sheet I told him to
put me down ' malicious injury.' So he took me down
to the cell and locked me up ; I was very tired and I
felt as if my head were three feet long, but I got to
sleep."
"The next day I did not feel so discouraged and I did
not want to go to the Washingtonian Home any more.
When they brought me into court, who was there but
my old friend Justice Jennings. The plate glass insur¬
ance people were there and the corporation also. I
looked at the justice, and you know," said he with a
half bashful smile, " there is somehow or other an odd
smile on my face which comes when I cannot help it.
I no sooner stood up before the justice than my old
smile came back upon my face. The justice said, ' What
Whisky and Politics.
6^
are you doing here t ' I said, ' I have been on a drunken
spree and I have done some mischief but I would like to
pay for it' The window cost $ioo and I had not a red
cent to pay it with. I said I would go out and collect
the money if he would release me for a time. The plate
glass insurance people, however, objected ; they said that
it was a scandalous case and that the utmost rigor of the
law must be insisted upon. So the justice went into the
case. When he had heard it he fined me $j and $i costs.
I said, ' Will you give me time to raise the money, your
honor?' 'Wait a minute,' said the justice. So I
waited until the insurance man and the corporation
people had gone. Then the justice said that the fine
was suspended if I paid the dollar costs. A detective, a
friend of mine, lent me the dollar and I paid the costs.
Then I borrowed a dollar and paid the detctive back and
we all had a drink together. I have not been to. the
Washingtonian Home yet, and now I think I had better
have another hot Scotch before going home," he added.
To most people, possibly to every one who reads this
chapter, such an inside glimpse of the practical working
of the Democratic machine in Chicago would fill them
with a feeling of despair. This, they will say, is the
outcome of Democracy, the latest triumph which Repub¬
lican institutions have achieved in the New World ! What
a picture ! Bribery, intimidation, bull-dozing of every
kind, knifing, shooting, and the whole swimming in
whisky ! Yet it is from that conversation I gained a
clearer view and a surer hope for the redemption of
Chicago than anything I had gained from any other
conversation I have had since I came to the city. Here
at least I was on the bed-rock of actual fact, face to face
with the stem realities of things as they are. Yet here,
even in this nethermost depth, was the principle of human
service, there was the recognition of human obligation,
set in motion, no doubt, for party reasons, and from a
desire to control votes rattier ttian to save souls. But
whatever might die the motive, the result was unmistaka-
6S
tf Christ Came to Chicago.
ble. Rough and rude though it might be, the Democratic
party organization, and, of course, the Republican party
organization to a less extent in the same way, are never¬
theless doing the work which the churches ought to do.
They are stimulating a certain number öf citizens to
render service and discharge obligations to their fellow
citizens and so are setting in motion an agency for mold¬
ing into one the heterogenous elements of various races,
nationalities and religions which are gathered together
in Chicago. In its own imperfect manner this rough,
vulgar, fauKy substitute for religfion is at least compel¬
ling the heeler and the bartender and the tough, whom
none of the churches can reach, to recognize that funda¬
mental principle of human brotherhood which Christ
came to teach.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CHICAGOAN TRINITY.
Chicago, though one of the youngest of cities, has
still a history, which begins, like that of more ancient
communities, in blood. That royal purple has seldom
been lacking at the beginning of things. Whether it is
Cain and Abel, Romulus and Remus, or the massacre
of the garrison of Fort Dearborn, the baptism of blood
fails not. In the New World, as in the Old, the same rule
holds true, and every visitor to the capital of the Western
World is naturally taken to the historic site of the event
with which the history of Chicago may be said to have
begun.
On the rim of the shore of Lake Michigan, on a spot
then a desolate waste of sand hills, but now crowded with
palaces, stands, leafless and twigless, the trunk of an old
Cottonwood tree, which marks the site of the massacre of
the garrison. Fourscore years and more have passed
since the thirsty sand drank the life-blood of the victims
of that Indian war, but still the gaunt witness of the
fight looks down upon the altered scene. In 1812, when
the British were at war with the French in Europe, our
Canadian representatives were busy fighting and diplo¬
matizing against the French and their allies on the great
lakes. The Americans had struck in on their own ac¬
count on the side of the French, and the British had
just whipped them out of Detroit and Michigan, which
had a narrow escape of becoming a Canadian province.
War is war, and British and Americans fought on, each
using as best it could the Indian tribes which swarmed
in the unsettled country. The British made allies of
Tecumseh, the great chief of the Pc .cawatomies, and
69
70
If Christ Came to Chicago.
Fort Dearborn, the American outpost at Chicago, be¬
came the immediate objective of the allies after the
Americans had been driven out of Detroit and Michigan.
The officer in charge. Captain Heald, a weak incompe¬
tent, decided to evacuate by arrangement with the
Indians. Whether this decision was right or wrong, he
carried it out in the worst possible way. He first sum¬
moned the Indians to a council and promised them all
the goods in the fort, including the ammunition and fire¬
water, and then broke his word by throwing all the
powder and shot down a well, and emptying the liquor
into the river. The Indians, furious at this breach of
faith, waited until the little party had reached the open,
a good mile distant from the fort, when they attacked
and massacred all but twenty-five soldiers and eleven
women and children. The scene of the massacre is
marked by the venerable trunk of the Cottonwood tree,
while close by the genius of a Dane has commemorated,
at the cost of a millionaire, the evacuation and the mas¬
sacre, in a spirited group surmounting a pedestal with
bas-reliefs.
The sculptor by a happy inspiration has selected as
his motif the one incident of that bloody fray that
possesses other than a gory interest. While the Potta-
watomies were scalping and tomahawking the pale faces,
regardless either of sex or age, Mrs. Helm, the daughter
of Mr. Kinzie, the patriarchal settler of early Chicago,
was rescued from imminent death by Black Partridge, an
Indian chief, who had long known and loved her father.
The group on the summit of the pedestal represents
Mrs. Helm desperately struggling to seize her assailant's
scalping-knife, while the splendid chief, Black Partridge,
intervenes to snatch her from her impending doom.
The surgeon who was slain is receiving his death blow
at her feet, while a frightened child weeps, scared by the
gleam of the tomahawk and the firing of the muskets.
The bas-reliefs, which are not in very much relief, tell
the story of the evacuation, the march, and the massacre.
The Chüagoan Trinity.
71
and enable the least imaginative observer, as he looks out
over the gjray expanse of the lake, to picture something
of the din and alarm of that bloody August day, and
to recall, too, something of the elements of heroism and
of humanity, which redeemed the grim tale of India
war.
With the mind full of the Pottawatomies and their
tomahawks, pondering upon the possibilities of latent
goodness surviving in the midst of the scalp knife savagery
of the redskin tribes, you tear yourself away from the
traditions of Black Partridge, the Kinzies and the rest,
and find yourself confronted by the palaces of million¬
aires, Mr. George M. Pullman's stately mansion stands
in the shade of the Cottonwood tree, his conservatory is
erected upon the battle field, and he lives and dines and
sleeps where the luckless garrison made its last rally.
Prairie Avenue, which follows the line of march, is a
camping ground of millionaires. Within an area of five
blocks, forty of the sixty members of the Commercial
Club have established their homes. Mr. Marshall Field
and Mr. Philip Armour live near together on the east
side of the avenue a little further south. Probably
there are as many millions of dollars to the square inch
of this residential district as are to be found in any equal
area on the world's surface. It is the very Mecca of
Mammon, the Olympus of the great gods of Chicago.
What strange instinct led these triumphant and mili¬
tant chiefs of the Choctaw civilization of our time~)to
cluster so thickly around the bloody battle field of their
Pottawatomie forbears? " Methinks the place is
haunted," and a subtle spell woven of dead men's bones
attracts to the scene qf the massacre the present repre¬
sentatives of a system doomed to vanish like that of the
redskins before the advancing civilization of the new
social era. Four score and two years have hardly passed
since the braves of Tecumseh slew the children in the
Dearborn baggage wagon, but the last of the Pottawat-
72
If Christ Came to Chicago.
oinies have long since vanished from the land over
which they roamed the undisputed lords.
Long before four score years have rolled by the mil¬
lionaire may be as scarce as the Pottawatomie, and man¬
kind may look back upon the history of trusts and
combines and competitions with the same feelings of
amazement and compassion that we now look back upon
|the social system that produced Tecumseh and Black
Partridge. How the change will come we may not be
able to see any more than the Pottawatomies were able to
foresee the value of the real estate on which Chicago was
built. They parted with it in fee simple for three cents
an acre, and did not even get that. But the Pottawat¬
omie passed and the millionaire will pass and men will
marvel that such things could be.
Chicago, though nominally Christian, does not con¬
cern itself particularly about the Trinity, whose nature
and attributes are so carefully and precisely defined by St.
Athanasius. So far as Chicago men are concerned St Ath¬
anasius might have spared himself the trouble. They
have a trinity of their own of whom they think a great
deal more than they do of Father, Son and Holy Ghost
In abstruse theological dogmas, modem Chicago takes
little stock. But it subscribes with both hands to any
thing that is undersigned by the three Dii Majores of
Prairie Avenue, Marshall Field, Philip D. Armour and
George M. Pullman. These three millionaires are the real
workaday deities of modern Chicago. They have the
dollars and more of them than anyone else. Therefore,
they of all men are most worship-worthy. They are the
idols of the market place. Not that there is much of rev¬
erence in the popular homage. Chicago, like the Hindoo,
is quite capable of scourging its idols once a year and
throwing them into Lake Michigan. But worship in the
real sense does not necessarily imply genuflections, ko¬
towing and chin-chinning oriental fashion. You wor¬
ship what you consciously or unconsciously set before
yourself as the ideal toward which you aim, the model
The Chicagoan Trinity.
73
I according to which you endeavor to fashion your life.
That is real worship. Incense burning and prayer drill
and hymn singing and sermon hearing may or may not
have a close and living connection with your religion.
But that which a man really worships he honestly imi-,
tates as the manifest expression of the best conception
he has of the will of God.
Interpreted in that sense there is no doubt that the
members of real working trinity of Chicago are Field,
Armour and Pullman. The young man of Chicago has
one aspiration. He would like to be as successful as
they. Each of them in his own way is a beau ideal of
triumphant money-making. The honors which the
French paid to their Louis the XIV or the first Napo¬
leon, which Italy paid to Michael Angelo and Raphael, or
which England paid to Shakespeare or to Gladstone, Chi¬
cago pays to the supreme money-getters of their day.
" Marshall Field," says one citizen, "has made $40,000,-
000 in twenty years;" and all other citizens, metaphor¬
ically speaking, act as did the subjects of the Chaldean
monarch when the sound of the comet, flute, harp, sack-
but and psaltery and all kinds of music summoned them
to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebu¬
chadnezzar, the king, had set up. Chicagoans, being
practical, dispense with the' musical instmments. The
chink of the silver dollar is enough.
" As their gods were so their laws were," and as our
gods are so our lives are. Millionaires are some of the
images into which society has modeled human clay out
of the semblance of Christ. They are specialists whose
whole existence is devoted to one purpose, and that the ac¬
quisition and the accumulation of gold. Carlyle, you re¬
member, draws a weird and ghastly picture of a man who,
living solely for the gratification of his gluttonous appe¬
tite, becomes in the end merely an appendage to an enor¬
mous stomach. Millionnaires have all of them a constant
tendency to drivel and shrivel up into mere patent safes
for the custody of their gold. Fortunately for Chicago, her
74
If Christ Came to Chicago.
millionaires have made their money, they have not in¬
herited it. The real significance of the millionaire who
works to build up his fortune will not be seen or appre¬
ciated until we have the millionaire who inherits it.
Marshall Field, the first of the greater gods in the
Pantheon of the West, is a born trader. He comes of the
true Yankee breed, and he has made his fortune by being
quick to perceive that the day of the great store had
arrived. What the Louvre and Bon Marche are in
Paris, what Whiteleys and Shoolbreds are in London,
Marshall Field & Co. are in Chicaga Their wholesale
store is one of the sights of the city, and the guide books
tell with admiration that " Richardson, the eastern ar¬
chitect, received $100,000 for the plans of this stupendous
pile." The floor space devoted to the wholesale trade
covers twelve acres ; the building is 130 feet high, there
are thirteen elevators and in this huge hive of industry
1800 employes are constantly employed dispatching the
largest wholesale dry goods business in America. In
their retail establishment on Wabash there is what is
probably the perfection of business capacity directed to
the facility of distribution. As the latest finishing touch
to the conveniences of this gigantic bazaar, sixty pneu¬
matic tubes, ramifying into all parts of the building,
convey cash and return change with almost lightning-like
rapidity. A brigade of some 3,000 men and women are
employed behind the counters, and the universal testi¬
mony is that the management is far in advance of that
of most dry goods stores in Chicago or elsewhere. Merit
is readily recognized ; promotion comes so rapidly, that
the present head of the retail establishment, is still
quite a young man. There is none of the scandal, such as
rumor has persistently associated with other dry goods
houses in Chicago and elsewhere. They do not use up
extreme youth by employing juvenile cash ^rls, neither
do they pay their female assistants rates of wages which
suggest, if they do not enforce, the necessity for supple¬
menting their earnings elsewhere.
The Chicagoan Trinity.
75
Marshall Field & Co. is familiar as a household word
throughout the city, and it is readily recognized that
wherever money is required in public benefactions an ap¬
peal is seldom made to Mr. Field in vain. He and his
partners were leading members of the syndicate of mil¬
lionaires which ran the World's Fair, and although
much has been said, and little printed, concerning the
jobbery which prevailed in that select circle, there is no
doubt but that they acted with a lavish munificence
which contributed immensely to the success of the Exhi¬
bition. It was Mr. Marshall Field also whose bequest of a
million dollars led to the establishment of the Art
Palace as a permanent memorial of the great exhibi¬
tion. Mr. Field therefore is undoubtedly a high class
specimen of the public-spirited millionaire, and to this
extent Chicago is fortunate in having him at the apex of
her social system.
Regarded from the standpoint of business Marshall
Field's career undoubtedly offers much that is attractive
and tempting. If, in these days of competition, the man
who can go one better than all his other competitors and
clpar the field of all other rivals is to be considered as
having reached the ideal of a business man, then Mar¬
shall Field unquestionably stands near the top of the
tree, if not at the very top. His partners say with pride
that there is not a dollar of the forty millions he has
made which is not clean money gained in legitimate
commerce. That is more than can be said of a great
many of the money kings of the present day. But after
all this is Emitted, the estimate in which the Marshall
Fields and all that class are held very closely resembles
that with which we regard the Hannibals, the Tamerlanes
and the Napoleons of history. They loom up before the
eyes of their fellow men because they have succeeded in
ascending a pyramid largely composed of human bones.
They represent the victor in the warfare of their time.
They have gone out to battle, taking their chances as
other men, and they have come out uppermost ; but for
76
if Christ Came to Chicago.
those who have gone under even history can shed her
tributary tear.
Old residents in Chicago have told me how when each
fresh department was added to Marshall Field's stores it
was as if a cyclone had gone forth among the smaller
houses which were in the same line of business. When
Marshall Field opened any new department, say of cutlery
or hardware or millinery, jewelry, etc., or what not, he
would run it at cut rates so as to give him the command of
the field, contenting himself with the profits of the other
departments. Against such a power, so concentrated in
turn against each detachment of the enemy, or the com¬
petitor, nothing could stand. The consumer is loath to
pay a nickel more to an old tradesman for what he can
get for a nickel less down town. So it has come to pass
that Chicago is honeycombed from end to end with
elderly men who twenty years ago had businesses of their
own in retail stores by which they expected to make a
living of their own and to have a comfortable compet¬
ence on which to retire in their old age. They reckoned
without their Marshall Field, however, and others of his
class who have passed through the streets of Chicago
with much the same effect upon the smaller stores as that
which the angel of the Lord had upon the besieging
host which surrounded Jerusalem under Sennacherib.
He breathed but a breath on the camp as he passed
And the little store put up its shutters and the place
which knew it once knew it no more. All this, of course,
was legitimate business, just as the campaigns of Caesar
and Gustavus Adolphus were legitimate warfare. Mr.
Marshall Field has no explosive bullets in his locker.
What he has done to others, others were allowed to do to
him, if they could. All the same, although it may be nec¬
essary and inevitable, no one who knows the devas¬
tation which is wrought by each successive tri¬
umph of centralization in distribution, no one who sees
the changes which are wrought when a dozen centers of
supply are merged into one great concern vhen the
The Chicagoati Trinity.
77
Store keepers become only retail clerks depending for their
existence upon the caprice of their manager, can refrain
from sighing that the gain should be purchased at such
cost. The merging of all the distributing centers in
a few great stores can only be regarded with the
mixed feelings with which German patriots look back
upon the unification of Germany. It was necessary,
and the advantage outweighs the loss, but the pro¬
cess was cruel while it lasted and the ultimate gain is
not yet in sight.
Marshall Field is a silent and reserved man, who very
seldom commits himself to a public utterance. Even
the ubiquitous interviewer seldom obtains from Mr.
Field more than a succinct sentence. The ornamental as
well as the oratorical part of his marvelous business he
leaves to his partners. He does not give the impression
to those who know him well that his immense wealth
has been a source of joy and gladness which most men
think can be purchased for cash down. Marshall
Field, like other men, has found that the most triumph¬
ant success before the world may be accompanied with
bitter disappointments, to avoid which he would have
done well to have bartered many of his millions, but alas,
in matters of life and death and health and home what
the gods give is given, what they withhold is withheld,
nor can they be tempted to change their gifts by all
the wealth of Croesus.
Mr. Field probably rejoices to believe that in the
conduct of his own business he has never stooped to
anything which would conflict with his own idea of
right and wrong. But it is not surprising that his con¬
ception of duty as a business man, and the conceptions
of those who are not weighed down by his responsibili¬
ties, or hardened by the life of struggle in which a busi¬
ness man spends his days, do not altogether coincide.
Mr. Field can hardly be said to be living up to the highest
conceivable standard of social excellence. The great mill¬
ionaire is currently reported, for I cannot find any public
78
ïf Christ Came to Chicag^o.
Utterance of his to that effect, to look with scant sympâ-
thy upon the tentative efforts of the social reformer to
shorten the hours of labor, and put an end to the curse
of sweating. Neither does he acquiesce joyfully in the
restrictions which the interstate railway law places
upon the tyrannous strength of great trusts and corpora¬
tions. Sweating, of course, he would consider to be an
unavoidable evil. If it is possible to suppress it in
Illinois he can still get sweated goods supplied from other
states where the wage-earning class has not so much
of a pull over the legislature. This may be so, but Mr.
Field might consider whether it had not better be met
by urging the other states to level their legislation up to
the Illinois standard than to use the example of the back¬
ward legislatures in order to break down the bulwark
which Illinois has erected for the protection of the
sweated worker.
The second person of the Chicago trinity, Mr. Philip
Armour, is probably the best of the three. Those who
know him well dedare that in many respects he is an
ideal man of business, full of brawny common sense. He is
a Scotchman, and he might have been nurtured from in¬
fancy on the Book of Proverbs, which is said to be re¬
sponsible for much of the business instinct which
enables the Scotch to freeze out the Jews, an achieve¬
ment which entitles them to a first rank among the
nations. Mr. Armour is the head of the most gigantic
butchering establishment in the world. He is a kind of
mythic genius presiding over the transformation of
beeves and swine into extract of beef and canned meats.
He is generous and open-hearted and many stories are
told of his liberality in relieving individual distress.
Some of these stories may be legendary and ifiany no
doubt are apocryphal, but they all point in one direction
and indicate that the lord of the packing trade is a man
liberal of hand and soul who thoroughly enjoys bestow¬
ing largess upon those who are in need of his bounty.
As a man of business he is methodical, industrious and
The Chicagoan Trinity.
79
üntiring. No clerk is more punctual at his desk than
the head of the great packing establishment which last
year did nearly one hundred million dollars of business.
No galley slave is more closely chained to his oar than
Mr. Armour is to his desk. He is the first man to
arrive at the office, between six and seven every morning,
nor does he leave it till late in the afternoon, when every¬
thing has been attended to and all the innumerable ques¬
tions arising in the dispatch of his world-wide business are
left shipshape. Mr. Armour is one of the few men who
live up to Benjamin Franklin's wise saws and eschew the
use of midnight oil. " Early to bed aad early to rise
makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," is an old saw
which may be said to have fulfilled itself so far as wealth
is concerned in the case of Philip Armour. He is said
to be in bed every night by nine o'clock and has had
his beauty sleep before midnight. He is up with the
lark and by the time most of his competitors are having
their breakfast he is already half through his day's work.
He began this long ago when he was a young man and
it has become to him a habit from which he cannot
break away even if he would.
A Chicago journalist one time said to Mr. Armour,
" Why do you not retire? You have made far more
money than you know what to do with. Even if you
slept round the clock money would still come in, more
money than what you could use. Why cannot you get
out of it all and leave the field to younger men ? Why
not give them a chance? You overshadow everything,
monopolize everything in the place, and we have only
one great butcher in the place of a thousand little ones.
You have made your pile, why not clear out ?"
Mr. Armour listened patiently, as he always does, and
answered, " Because I have no other interest in life but
my business. I do not want any more money ; as you
say, I have more than I want. I do not love the money ;
what I do love is the getting of it, the making it. All
these years of my life I have put into this work and
8o
If Christ Catite to Chicagô.
now it is my life and I cannot give it up. What other
interest can you suggest to me? I do not read, I do not
take any part in politics, what can I do ? But in my
counting house I am in my element ; there I live, and
the struggle is the very breath of life to me. Besides,"
he added, " I think it is well for me to remain in busi¬
ness in order to set an example to younger men who are
coming up around me."
Set an example he certainly does, an example which,
so far as business habits are concerned, punctuality, dis¬
patch, close attention to affairs, leaves nothing to be
desired. But whether such a life is beneficial, that leaves
the man who pursues it no other interest in the world
excepting the mere struggle in the competitive arena, is
a point upon which there will not be much difference of
opinion. To live for only one interest, and that the
struggle for victory, whether on the battle-field with the
sword and cannon or in the market with the no less po¬
tent weapons of the modem capitalist, is a life that is
dwarfed and deficient in most of the elements which
make men tmly men. They come to judge everything
in the world only from the point of view of money.
Of this a curious illustration was told me in Connec¬
tion with Mr. Armour by Mr. Onahan. Some time ago
the papers were full of their periodical fits of anxiety as
to tlie welfare of the Pope, ¿eo, it seems, was declared
to be profoundly uneasy in the Vatican and to be medi¬
tating seriously a flight across the sea to some retreat
where he could find a shelter more to his mind than that
of the Vatican. The Pope was going here, he was going
there, he was going to Malta or Spain. Each corres¬
pondent had his own story and the air was filled with a
babel of voices as to the future seat of the Holy See.
"What is this ? " said Mr. Armour to Mr. Onahan,
" what is this I see in the papers about the Pope ? Do
you think the Pope will leave Rome? Where do you
think the Pope is going to ? "
Mr. Onahan said he did not know that the Pope would
The Chicagoan Trinity.
8i
go anywhere, but if the revolution broke out in Italy he
might be compelled to take refuge with some friendly
power.
" Why should he not come to Chicago ? " said Mr.
Armour.
When Mr. Onahan told me this I was much interested,
because I used to hold up the prospect of coming to
Chicago before the monsignori of the Vatican as a kind
of terrible looking forward to of punishment to come.
When I went to Rome in 1889 one of my objects was to
ascertain whether or not the Pope contemplated a flight
from the Eternal City, and in that case to suggest that
he had better come to London or to Chicago. Chicago
was too far afield for him to go at one flight, but, if the
Holy See is to regain the leadership of the world which
it held when the barbarians overran the Rçman Empire
the Italianization of the papacy must come to an end
and its English-speaking era be close at hand. I well
remember the shudder that passed over the Archbishop
of Ephesus as that octogenarian prelate pictured him¬
self and the Sacred College shivering in a blizzard on
the shores of Lake Michigan. Such a change would
undoubtedly have quickened promotion among the
higher ranks of the Catholic hierarchy. I was natur¬
ally much interested in hearing that the idea of bringing
the Pope to Chicago had apparently occurred simultane¬
ously to Mr. Armour.
Mr. Onahan continued his story. " I explained to
Mr. Armour," he said, " that the Pope was not a meer
individual, but he was a spiritual sovereign with depart¬
ments of state and that it would be impossible for him
to transfer himself to Chicago as easily as if he were a
Cook's tourist He would require great administration
buildings."
" I don't see that that makes any difference,"' said Mr.
Armour, "It is all a question of money, is it not ?
Why could we not form a syndicate, some of us, and take
up a large plot of land, as large as you like, and put up
82 If Christ Came to Chicago.
buildings and make everything ready for the Pope so
that he could come and settle here with all his cardi¬
nals and congregations, and then," said Mr. Armour,
with a twinkle in his eye, "we should make more
money by selling what was left of the land than we
spent in buying the original tract."
Here was a disillusion indeed. I had imagined that
Mr. Armour was sharing my dreams of the future of the
papacy and of a reformed and English-speaking pope
acting as director general of the moral forces of the
world from his new throne on the shores of Lake Michi¬
gan, when, lo, the only thought at the back of Mr.
Armour's mind was the number of dollars which might
be made if the Pope were duly exploited by a Chicago
syndicate with a view to a speculation in real estate!
It is perhaps only natural for Mr. Armour to look at
political chariges through financial spectacles. The be¬
ginning of his colossal fortune was laid by the prescience
with which he was able to divine the effect which poli¬
tics had on prices. It was in the spring of 1865, when
Mr. Armour was still only a junior partner in a pig kill¬
ing firm at Milwaukee, that he made his first million.
The author of that interesting volume, " The World's
Fair City," tells the story as follows :
The price of pork was gradually rising, owing to the great demand
created by the army, until the spring of 1865, when it was selling at
^o a barrel. New York dealers became greatly excited, and believ¬
ing that it would go up still higher, bought eagerly all the pork they
could grasp. Mr. Armour looked upon the situation in a fardifierent
light. He foresaw that the war was nearly ended and that pork, in¬
stead of rising in value, would suddenly collapse. Mr. Armour at
once started for New York and made a great sensation in Wall Street
by selling pork short for $40 per barrel. Then came the news of the
fall of Petersburg ; a change was produced in the pork market. Rich¬
mond was taken and the Confederate army surrendered. Then Mr.
Armour bought the pork for $18 that he had sold for ^o before he
owned it This was his first great success in speculation ; it made
him a millionaire.—Dean's World's Fair City, p. 353.
It would, however, be a mistake to regard Mr. Armour
as entirely immersed in his business. Within the last two
or three years he has gained a new interest in life. Thç
The Chicagoan Trinity.
83
foundation of the Armour Institute, that magnificent
technical college in which young men and young wo¬
men of all classes meet together on a common footing to
equip themselves for the battle of life, has been a great
benefit to Mr. Armour if to no one else. It is his toy,
his plaything. Dr. Gunsaulus is its president, but Mr.
Armour never ceases to brood with paternal care over
the institution which his liberality has brought into be¬
ing. The institute is a g^eat success, so great indeed
that already the cry is for more of a similar kind. Mr.
Armour endowed this institute with well nigh two mil¬
lion dollars, but not even that magnificent donation has
been able to provide accommodation for all those who
have sought it eagerly this year.
There is nothing that delights Mr. Armour more than
to be able to help a promising youth who has got the
capacity in him to succeed, but who finds it impossible
to take advantage of the course of study provided
at the institute In such cases Mr. Armour's generosity
is characterized by the delicacy and tact of a generous
and sympathizing hemt Nothing is more remote from
his nature than an attempt to make those who profit by
his bounty feel indebted to him. Everything, indeed, is
done, to make them feel that they are on a footing with
the rest of the students. Not that he is indifferent to the
use which is made of his benefactions ; on the contrary,
he keeps the sharpest lookout upon the recipients of his
bounty, and if they prove unworthy their allowance is
speedily stopped.
If the interest which he takes in the institute and its
students is a growing interest, instead of it being, as is to
be feared, somewhat of a toy of which its owner will get
tired as soon as its novelty has worn off, there may be
great things in store for Mr. Armour and for Chicago.
But at present business is still Mr. Armour's absorbing
occupation and even his beloved institute is but a sul>
ordinate consideration compared with the fierce joy and
rapture of the strife which fills Mr. Armour's heart when
84
If Christ Came to Chicago.
bulls and bears are in conflict over the price of wheat or
there is a speculation about the coming hog crop for the
season. •
In thinking of Mr. Armour, as of Mr. Field, even when
we contemplate the lavish generosity with which he
endows an institution which bears his name, it is difficult
to forget the ruin of the small tradesmen. Mr. Armour
feels no compunction, say in conducting a campaign
against the butchers of Joliet, or any of other town in Illi¬
nois or elsewhere, where by the aid of preferential rail¬
way rates and his enormous wealth he is able to drive
into the bankruptcy court the tradesmen who refuse to
deal with. Armour. But it is not surprising that the
tradesmen who have fought a losing battle and have
been beaten out of the field regard Mr. Armour's ascend¬
ency with feelings the reverse of pleasurable. Mr. Ar¬
mour, however, would contend that he only did on a large
scale what they were trying to do on a small. He kept
strictly within the laws of the game and if the weaker
went to the wall was that any of his lookout? Is not
tHcs victis the law all over the world ?
Indirectly Mr. Armour and his class have played a
very considerable part in the social revolution which is
going on in Great Britain. Lady Henry Somerset
lamented the other day that Armour was rendering it
difficult for the small farmers on her Gloucestershire
estates to obtain paying prices for their cattle, and there
is no doubt that the immense development which Mr.
Armour and his allies and rivals have been able to give
to the American meat exporting trade has had a very
powerful effect upon British politics. The rise or fall of
a penny in the pound in the price of beef makes all the
difference between prosperity and penury to the grazier in
Ireland. The price of Irish cattle is influenced largely
by the ruling prices in the Chicago market, and much of
the strength of the Home Rule agrarian agitation in
Ireland was due to Mr. Armour and others of the same
class in facilitating the dispatch of American beef to the
The Chicagoan Trinity.
85
English market. If many of our aristocrats are little
better than splendid paupers, as one of their number re¬
cently declared, and if Home Rule is within measurable
range of being obtained, these results are chiefly due to
Mr. Annour and his class.
Mr. George M. Pullman, the third member of the
trinity, is a man of diflerent make. He has made
the Pullman car a household word in every land for its
convenience, its comfort and its luxury. Unlike Mr.
Field, who is said to be a leap year politician, voting only
once in four years when a president is to be elected, Mr.
George M. Pullman is an active Republican politician
well known in Washington, and much esteemed by
party treasurers to whose campaign funds he has
been a liberal contributor. Mr. George M. Pullman, in
addition to many acts of private charity, is notable among
the millionaires of Chicago as the man who, taking a
hint from Krupp, endeavored to found a town in his own
image. The town of Pullman, which was named after
the author of its being, is a remarkable experiment which
has achieved a very great success.
Unlike Mr. Field or Mr. Armour, Mr. Pullman has
built up his fortune without resorting to the more ruthless
methods of modem competition. Indeed, his career is
notable as an instance of competition by high prices
rather than by low. Mr. Field wiped out the retail
storemen, and Mr. Armour the small butchers, by under¬
selling them. Mr. Pullman has undersold nö one. He has
always succeeded, not by producing a cheaper article but
by producing a dearer, but the higher priced article was
so much better that Mr. Pullman succeeded in estab¬
lishing a virtual monopoly of one of the most highly
specialized businesses in the world. This is the more
remarkable because Mr. Pullman was not originally a
mechanic. He was merely a man of reflective mind, of
native ingenuity and of great persistence. The incon¬
venience of a journey on the cars before the Pullmans
were invented turned his attention to the possibility of
86
If Christ Came to Chicago.
making the sleeper as comfortable in the cars as in a
hotel. The moment he set to work to realize his idea he
was confronted with the fact that it could not be done " on
the cheap." Nothing daunted, he decided it should be
done at a high price if it could not be done at low. The
first Pullman car which he constructed and put on the
rails cost $18,000 to build, as against $4,000, which was
the price of the ordinary sleeper. Railway men shrug¬
ged their shoulders. It was magnificent, they said, but it
was not business. A palace sleeping car at $18,000
could not possibly pay. Mr. Pullman refused to be dis¬
couraged. " Let the traveling public dec" was all he
asked, *' run your old sleepers and the new one together ;
I will charge half a dollar more for a berth in the Pullman
and see which holds the field." The verdict of the public
was instant and decisive ; everyone preferred the Pull¬
man at the extra price, and the success of the inventive
car builder was assured. He has gone on step by step,
from car to car, until at the present moment he is said to
have a fleet, as he calls it, of nearly 2,000 sleepers, which
are operated by the Pullman Company. They have be¬
sides 58 dining cars and 650 buffet cars. Altogether
the cars which the company operates number 2,573.
Other competitors have come into the field, but Mr.
Pullman deserves the distinction of having placed every
railway traveler under an obligation by acting as pioneer
of commodious, luxurious and safe railway traveling.
After building his cars in various parts, Mr. Pullman
decided finally to centralize in the center of the American
continent. Carrying out his decision, he naturally fixed
upon Chicago as the site for his works. The Pullman
Company was incorporated with a capital of $30,000,000,
the quotation for which in the market to-day is twice
that amount. He took up an estate of over three thou¬
sand acres round Lake Calumet, which is fourteen miles
from the center of Chicago, and which was at that time
far outside the city limits. There, following the example
of Messrs. Krupp at Essen, he set to work to construct
The Chicagoan Trinity.
87
a model city in his own image. The car works were, of
course, the center and nucleus of all. In these gigantic
factories, where 14,000 employes work up 50,000,000
feet of lumber every year, and 85,000 tons of iron, they
have a productive capacity of 100 miles of cars per
annum. Their annual ou^ut, when they are working
at full stretch, is 12,500 freight cars, 313 sleeping cars,
626 passenger cars and 939 street cars.
Mr. Pullman's ambition was to make the city which
he had built an ideal community. In order to do so he
proceeded in entire accordance with the dominant feeling,
of most wealthy Americans by ignoring absolutely the
fundamental principle of American institutions. The
autocrat of all the Russias could not more absolutely
disbelieve in government by the people, for the people,
through the people, than George Pullman. The whole
city belongs to him in fee simple ; its very streets were
the property of the Pullman Company. Like Tammany
Hall and various other effective institutions in America,
not from the broad basis of the popular will, but from
the apex of the presiding boss. Mr. Pullman was his
own boss. He laid out the city, and made the Pullman
Company the terrestrial providence of all its inhabitants.
Out of a dreary, water-soaked prairie, Mr. Pullman
reared high and dry foundations, upon which, with the
aid of his architect and landscape engineer, he planned
one of the model towns of the American continent.
Here was a captain of industry acting as the city builder.
With his own central thought dominating everything
the city came into existence as a beautiful and harmo¬
nious whole. He achieved great results, no doubt
Before long the increment of the value of the real
estate on which Pullman is built is expected to
amount to as much as the whole capital of the Pullman
Company. Every house in Pullman is fitted up with
water and gas and the latest sanitary arrangements.
Grounds have been laid out for recreation and athletics ;
there is a public library, school house and popular
88
If Christ Came to Chicago.
savings bank, theater, and a great general store where
the retail distribution is carried on under the glass roof
of a beautiful arcade building. It is a town bordered
with bright beds of flowers and stretches of lawns
which in summertime, at least, are green and velvety. It
has its parks and its lakes, and its pleasant vistas of
villas, and, in short, Pullman is a great achievement of
which not only Chicago but America does well to be
proud.
It was not a philanthropic, but a business experiment,
and none the worse on that account The great prin¬
ciple of quid pro quo was carried out with undeviating
regularity. If every resident of Pullman had gas laid
to his house, he was compelled to pay for it at the rate
of $2.25 a thousand feet, although the cost of its manu¬
facture to the Pullman Company was only 33 cents a
thousand feet Ample water supply was given, with
good pressure, but of this necessary of life the Pullman
Company was able to extract a handsome profit The city
of Chicago sùpplied the corporation with water at 4
cents a thousand gallons, which was retailed to the Pull-
manites at 10 cents per thousand, making a profit large
enough to enable the corporation to have all the water
it wanted for its works for nothing. Thus did the
business instinct of Mr. Pullman enable his right hand
to wash his left, and thereby created at the very thresh-
hold of Chicago are object lessons as to the commercial
(profits of municipal socialism. But between municipal
socialism, representing the co-öperative effort of a whole
community voluntarily combining for the purpose of
making the most of all monopolies of service, and the
autocratic exploiting of a whole population of a city,
such as is to be found in Pullman, there is a wide gulf
fixed.
As a resident in the model town wrote me, Pullman
was all very well as an employer, but to live and breath
and have one's being in Pullman is a little bit too
much. The residents in the city, he continued, " paid
The Chicagoan Trinity.
89
rent to the Pullman Company, they bought gas of the
Pullman Company, they walked on streets owned in fee
simple by the Pullman Company, they paid water tax
to tiie Pullman Company. Indeed, even when they
bought gingham for their wives or sugar for their tables
at the arcade or the market-house, it seemed dealing
with the Pullman Company. They sent their children
to Pullman's school, attended Pullman's church, looked
at but dared not enter Pullman's hotel with its private
bar, for that was the limit. Pullman did not sell them
their grog. They had to go to the settlement at the
railroad crossing south of them, to Kensington, called,
because of its long row of saloons, "bumtown," and
given over to disorder. There the moral and spiritual
disorder of Pullman was emptied, even as the physical
sewage flowed out on the Pullman farm a few miles
further south, for the Pullman Company also owned the
sewerage system, and turned the waste into a fluid, forced
through pipes and conducted underground to enrich the
soil of a large farm. The lives of the workingmen
were bounded on all sides by the Pullman Company ;
Pullman was the horizon in every direction."
All this provoked reaction and a feeling of resentment
sprang up in the model city against the too paternal
despotism of the city builder, and so it came to pass that
the citizens by a vote annexed themselves to Chicago, of
which it is now part and parcel. This was a sore blow
and a great discouragement to Mr. Pullman. But no
annexation can destroy his control over the town. It is
still the property of the corporation of which he is the
chief and controlling mind.
But in the civic life of Chicago Mr. Pullman takes no
part. He may reply that he has done enough for duty
and more than enough for glory in creating what is a
model suburb of the city, and if every employer had
done as much Chicago would have been a very difierent
place from what it is to-day. That may be admitted, but
the fact remains, so far as the administration of Chicago
îf Christ Came to Chicago.
is concerned, Mr. Pullman is almost as much of a non-
-entity as Mr. Marshall Field or Mr. Philip Armour.
Where Mr. Pullman can be autocrat he is willing to exert
himself ; but where he must be one among a multitude,
although he might be if he chose primus inter pares.^ he
will do nothing, no, not even although a little exertion he
might do everything. He lives in Chicago. His house is
one of the best built mansions on the lakeside. Compared
with his lordly pleasure house the residences of Mr.
Field and Mr. Armour dwindle into homely insignificance
but at the City Hall we look in vain for any trace of the
influence which has revolutionized the traveling accom-
inodation of the world.
Mr. Pullman in Chicago is something like the medi¬
atized sovereigns in Germany. He is not exactly in the
sulks, but he has about as much direct influence in the
city administration as the King of Hanover had in the
North German Confederation when his kingdom was
absorbed against the will of its monarch. Field, Armour
and Pullman, these three each supremely successful in
his own respective lines, each superbly generous and
liberal in the matter of private benefaction, all three in¬
dustrious, hard working men "tif business, they are in
many respects not unworthy to occupy the summit of the
local Olympus. They all take life seriously, perhaps a
trifle too seriously. They have each fashioned for them¬
selves and their families a luxurious home, but what
have they done for the city ? What have they contrib-
juted to the good government of Chicago? If Christ
came to Chicago would these men of many talents be
able to show a good account of their stewardship ?
Let us see. What Chicago is sufièring from, as a city,
a want of probity, an almost total lack of ordinary business
honesty in the transaction of the city's business. These
men, are upright and inflexibly honest, how comes it
that their honesty has no more influence in the City
Hall than the sickly smile of a December sun has upon an
Alpine glacier ? These men are among the greatest finan-
The Chicagoan Trinity.
91
ciers in the world, the smartest, shrewdest, brainiest men
to handle dollars and cents whom the United States has
provided. But the city finances are all in a snarl, the city
treasury is empty, and Chicago with nearly two thous¬
and millions of taxable property has only two hundred
and fifty millions that can legally be taxed. This is but
a poor showing as the net outcome of the way in
which their lives have been lived. For the city is suffer¬
ing from the lack of those very qualities of which the
trinity have been gifted in superabundance beyond all
their fellows. The spectacle is a sorry one. It reminds us
of those detested regraters in famine times who stored
million of quarters of wheat in their granaries and
watched the people perish of sheer starvation at their
gates, waiting callously until wheat reached its highest
point Is it not even worse? The speculator for a
rise at least sells when the price suits, but the garnered
harvest of financial experience, the ripened fruits of
fifty years business management, which these men have,
will perish with them. In that the city has no share.
This surely, is not an ideal condition of things. In
America and the New World, under the generous stimu¬
lus of the Democratic idea, we have a right to look for
something at least as good as that which is attained in
the monmchical and aristocratic systems of the older
world. But instead of being better the plutocratic system
as it prevails even at its best in Chicago is worse than
the results obtained by the aristocratic system which
prevails in England and Germany. I do not for a mo¬
ment mean to say that the English plutocrat is not as
selfish a creature as his American brother. I am not
speaking of the plutocrats so much as of the territorial
aristocracy. The principle of noblesse oblige is recog¬
nized by the aristocrat as it is not by the plutocrat
The obli^tions of property are recognized and acted
upon even by a very third rate landlord to an extent to
which the ordinary holder of consols or of scrip would
stand aghast He may be a scamp, sometimes he is ; he
92
If Christ Came to Chicago.
may be dull and stupid, that he very often is ; but take
him as a whole there is more sense of the stewardship
of wealth and responsibility of personal service among
the English and German aristocrats than in the monied
class either in the Old or the New World.
I suppose that in London the Duke of Westminster
corresponds somewhat to Mr. Philip Armour, so far as
wealth and social position is concerned. The Duke of
Westminster is one of the few nobles that Mr. Philip
Armour has not helped a long way towards the bank¬
ruptcy court. The Duke of Westminster does not draw
his revenue from beef, or pork, or wheat, he is a ground
landlord in London. Some time ago Lord Meath said
to me : "You do not know how hard the Duke of West¬
minster works; he has hardly an afternoon or evening
to himself. I went to see him a month or two ago in
order to get him to take the chair at some philanthropic
society. He looked over his note book and said, ' I am
afraid that I have not a spare evening or afternoon which
I could let you have.' "But I do not want it this
week,' said Lord Meath."
" 'I am speaking for the whole of this season, " the
said, turning over the leaves of his note book again;
' but I find I have one afternoon, and I ought not to
have kept that back, I admit But I have reserved that
afternoon to see Clevedon.' (Clevedon is one of the
Duke's country seats in the neighborhood of London.)
'I have never seen it this year,' he said, ' and I had re¬
served that afternoon to go and just take a look at it.
But I will give that up and take your meeting.' "
That is only a little thing; nobody thought about it or
talked about it It was all in the days work of an
ordinary duke.
There is a good deal of trouble in all this, but it is toil
and trouble for which there is an ample reward, not
merely in the security which it gives to the system that is
based upon the consciousness of service rendered to the
people, but also in the immense multiplicity of inter-
The Chicagoan Trinity. 93
ests which it gives to life. The Duke of Westminster
may not be an ideal citizen, but he at least is in no dan¬
ger of degenerating into a mere money-rake. He faces
life at many points and he is compelled to share it with
his fellow men. He has other interests than the per¬
petual scheming to anticipate a rise or fall in the price
of wheat or pork, and so it would be with every one who
did the same amount of work for his fellow men.
The ancient Greeks had a keener appreciation of the
virtue of this altruistic service than the Christian Demo¬
cracy of the present century. As Frederick Harrison
has recently reminded us, in the republics of ancient
Greece the Democracy did not think it safe to rely upon
what may be called thq(^" voluntary altruism of their
wealthy neighbors.J}If in Athens, for instance, or in any
of the other Greek cities, a citizen had grown wealthy
and multiplied his estates, it was considered well within
the prerogative of the community to saddle that gentle¬
man with the duty of contributing both in purse and
person for the general welfare. He says:
At Athens, the liturgies were legal and constitutional offices, imposed
periodically and according to a regpilar order, by each local community,
on citizens rated as having a capital of more than a given amount.
As magistrates and ministers certain men of wealth were charged with
the cost and production of the public dramas, choruses, processions,
games, embassies, and feasts. In times of war they were called on to
man and arm a ship for the fleet « >i> * it always remained a
public service, an honorary distinction, a coveted office, a duty to be
filled by taste, skill, personal effort, and public spirit. No millionaire
ever seems to think of giving his fellow-citizens a series of free
musical entertainments, a historic pageant, much less a free dramatic
performance," as did the liturgists of Greece.
No Anarchist or Communist is working so desperately" to hurry
on their abolition as are the rich men themselves.*
If some such institution as the Greek liturgies were
established in Chicago, it would be opposed as a tyr¬
annical interference with the rights of the private
property and of individual freedom. But at present
no one suggests such a thing. Even the mild and tenta-
* " The Use* of Kicli Mea iu a Republic," by Mr. Frederic Harrison, FOrum,
pecember, 1893.
94
If Christ Came to Chicago.
tive proposal of an income tax, now being discussed at
Washington, has excited a whirlwind of indignation on
the part of the wealthy classes, who are going great
lengths in their eflForts to persuade the masses of the peo¬
ple that the income tax is class legislation and therefore
repugnant to American principles !
All that is asked is that, instead of setting an example
before the coming generation of business men in Chicago
ojf cynical neglect of civic duty and indifférence to the
rësponsibilities and obligations of citizenship, Messrs.
Field, Armour and Pullman should do their duty to the
cityj
Some four years ago, when the first London County
Conndl was about to be elected, Mr. McDougall, a
chemical manufacturer in the east end of London,
had arrived at a point in his business career when
he could retire from the manufacture of chemicals
or renew his partnership with every prospect of doubling
his fortune. He was in the prime of his life and had
amassed a moderate competence, not probably a hundreth
part of the fortune of Mr. Field, but still enough to enable
him to live comfortably until the end of his days. There
was great need for capable citizens in the London County
Council, and after a long and prayerful consideration Mr.
McDougal decided that his duty both to God and man
demanded that he should give up his business and devote
the rest of his life to the service of the city. He did so,
and was elected to the County Council. For the last four
years he has worked steadily in the Council for six hours a
day every week in the year as hard as he formerly worked
in the counting house at his chemical works. Whereas
he formerly worked for himself, he now works for the
city. With this result among other things:
Among the multifarious duties which the London
County Council has inherited from the churches, the
care of mentally afilicted is one of the greatest The
Council stands in loco parentis to ii,ooo insane persons,
who are housed in great asylums scattered round the
The Chicagoan Trinity.
95
metropolis, every one of whom absolutely depends for
their daily bread upon the city authorities. Mr.
McDougall, who is a humane man, was appointed to the
Asylums Committee, and be dedicated to the task of allevi¬
ating the miseries of these afflicted ones all the energy of
his nature. It is largely due to his exertions that the
percentage of discharges has risen from forty-five per
cent to fifty-two per cent That is to say, as the direct
result of the improved administration in asylums, brought
about by the self-denying labors of such men as Mr.
McDougall in the London County Council, from seven
hundred to eight hundred lunatics were discharged cured
last year, who would still have been in the asylums if the
old system had prevailed and Mr. McDougall had gone
on making an increased fortune in chemicals instead of
dedicating the rest of his life to the service of his fellow
citizens. There is ample work of a similar kind waiting
to reward the genius of Mr. Field, Mr. Armour and Mr.
Pullman, if they would but consecrate the remainder of
their lives to the service of the city to which they owe so
much.
It is not so much by the direct abuse of the power
which money gives that the millionaire of to-day will
be weighed in the balance and found wanting; it is not
so much the sins of commission as those of ornission
which lie piled at his door.
Great wealth, unless greatly used, will not be left long
in the administration of individual men. If it be true
that the getting and hoarding absorbs the whole of
the gray matter in the millionaire's brain, then we
shall not have long to wait before we shall see the
crystallizing of the inarticulate unrest of the suffering
multitude in the conviction that there should be a di¬
vision of labor, and that while the millionaire should
be allowed to get his millions, the elected represen¬
tatives of the Democracy' should decide the way in
which it should be spent and distributed. The mil¬
lionaire would thus be relieved of the burden pf looking
96
If Christ Came to Chicago.
after his millions, and could devote the whole of his
time and energy to the more congenial task of amassing
them.
No necessary work can long be left neglected, and if
millionaires will not distribute their own wealth and use
their great position with great souls and hearts, they
'will find that they will come to be regarded by the
hungry and thirsty Demos much as compensation reser¬
voirs are regarded by the inhabitants of the cities who
have constructed them to replenish the stream which
their thirst would otherwise drink dry. These great
fortunes of $70,000,000 and $100,000,000 and $300,000,-
000 will come to be regarded as the storage service upon
which mankind draw in seasons of scarcity and drought
That is the use which society will make of its million¬
aires, if millionaires do not anticipate the inevitable by
utilizing their millions. Some people imagine that the
progress of Democratic Socialism will tend to discourage
the accumulation of these huge fortunes; it is more
likely that Demos will regard his millionaires as the
cottager regards his bees. These useful insects spend
the livelong summer day in collecting and hoarding up
in their combs the golden plunder of a thousand flowers,
but when the autum comes the bee wishes to take its
rest and enjoy the fruits of its summer toil. But the
result does not altogether correspond with the expecta¬
tions of the bee.
The supreme test of every institution is not how does
it help the few who are inside, but how does it help
the million who are outside. Christ's test, " the least of
these my brethren," is the one eternal test. That which
does not help the common man and the common woman
to make their lives human, at least, if not divine, stands
marked as a brand for the burning, whither have been
hurried by the inexorable destinies the noblesse of
the ancien regime^ by road of the guillotine, and the
slave-holders of the South, by way of Gettysburg and
Appomattox Court House,
The Chicagoan Trinity.
97
That is what I meant when I said that the millionaire
would go the way of the Pottawatomies, and as Black
Partridge is remembered for his kindly and grateful
rescue of the Kinzie's daughter, when all the rest of his
tribe are forgotten, so it may be that the memory of the
Field Museum and the Armour Institute and the Pull¬
man city will be fragrant in the mind of men long after
the last millionaire has joined the last of the Pottawato¬
mies in the happy hunting grounds of the Summerland.
CHAPTER V.
WHO ARE THE DISREPUTABLES?
If Christ came to Chicago he would find that many of
the citizens havd forgotten the existence of any moral
law apart from that which is embodied in the state or
municipal legislation. The idea of the law of God
as distinct from the statute hûok seems to have largely
died out in the hearts of many men. In their opinion
it is sufficient that their conduct is legal. If it is
legal it must be right. When I was at Detroit I had
a very interesting conversation with an alderman,
a German who had been educated for the priesthood,
but who had forsaken the sacred calling, and had be¬
come an out and out freethinker. He argued strenuously
that there was no need for any other law whatever
beyond the state law or the municipal ordinances ; that
they covered the whole area of human action^ and that
other law there was none. Religion, he said, was only
ceremonial. If a man obeyed the state law he did his
whole duty to his fellow men. The same from this sen¬
timent has sprung the prevailing conviction, especially in
commercial and political circles, that anything that
does not land a man in the penitentiary is permissible.
There is a wide region within which conduct may be
legal but nevertheless supremely wrong, but this does
not seem to have made its way into the moral conscious¬
ness of many American citizens. The law of God is
exceeding broad. It is in vain with the man-made
yardstick of human ordinances to endeavor to supply a
substitute for this invisible, impalpable, all-pervading
higher law.
It is not thirty years since in this very state of Illi¬
nois, as Governor St. John told me the other day, he
too
If Christ Came to Chicago.
was prosecuted for the great and heinous crime of giving
food to a black boy under the so-called Black Act which
was then on the statute book. Illinois legislative wis¬
dom endeavoring to formulate the eternal truth and the
divine law into a human statute, decreed in its wisdom
that any person who fed a neg^o, excepting under such
circumstances as were by statute provided, could be sent
to the penitentiary for a minimum term of two years,
with an additional fine. Governor St. John, who was the
last prosecuted under this act, cleared that iniquity from
the statute book. But with such evidence on every
hand as to the absolute antagonism between divine law
and human statutes, it is marvelous to hear good people,
as well as bad, talking as if the mere compliance with
written law was sufficient to justify a man in any course
of iniquity which he may chose to pursue. " It is not
my business to look into the questions of right or wrong ;
that is for the law to do," is a formula which is frequently
heard in the city.
The citizen who argued this point most strenuously was
a man who owned property used as a house of
prostitution in the levee district I sent him a circular
calling his attention to the fact that he was guilty of an
offense in allowing his premises to be so used. He first
of all said that he was thoroughly convinced that
some one was behind me and that there was a deal in
real estate somewhere or other in connection with that
circular. I assured him that there was nothing of the
kind, and then we went on to discuss the question. He
denied that he knew anything of the character of her
tenants ; then he said he was perfectly willing to let the
house to a church for the purpose of a Sunday School
if it would pay him as much rent as he received at
present " You see," said he, " they pay me about twice
as much as I could get from anybody else."
"Well," I said, "that may be. But if they are using
it for purposes of vice?"
" I have nothing to do with that," he replied. "That
Who Are the Disreputables f
lOI
is not my business, if there is anything wrong it is for
the city to look after that What I have to do is to see
to it that I receive my rent."
"Without any regard as to the character of your
tenants?" I asked.
"Without any regard as to the character of ray
tenants. Why should I look into those things ? That
is not my duty. If there is anything wrong with them
the authorities must do their duty. I will do mine—
that is to look after my rent."
" But," I said, " let us leave the question of prostitu¬
tion out of the question. Supposing that these people
were thieves and that they used your house for the pur¬
pose of storing their stolen goods?"
" If they would pay me $3 where I would only get $i
from honest tenants certainly I would let them have it."
" Would it not then make you a partner with the rob¬
bers?"
"No," said he, "I am simply a landlord, and my
concern is with the dollar. Questions of right and
wrong such as you are raising are for the city, not for
me."
" Well," I said, " let us go a little further. Supposing
that these were murderers and your premises were made
the headquarters of a gang of thugs, who sallied forth
every evening to murder the citizens and bring back
their gory scalps to your house. Would you, knowing
■what they were, let them the house ? "
" If they would pay me $3 in the place of $1 which
I could get from an ordinary tenant, certainly, I would
let it to them directly. I am after the dollar, as every
one else is, if they would only say so. As long as I keep
■within the law that is enough.
Here we have asserted, in its baldest and plainest
form, the working principle on which the smart man of
Chicago acts. Everything that is not ülegal is assumed
by him to be right, no matter how dishonorable
it may be, no matter how infamous it may be, or
I02
If Christ Came to Chicago.
cruel it may be ; so long as it is permitted by law,
or so long as they can evade the law by any subterfuge,
they consider they are doing perfectly right They
believe in the state ; they have ceased to believe in God.
A man is considered honest, no matter how great a
scoundrel he may be, so long as he keeps within
the limits of the law. In like manner a woman is
considered respectable and of good repute, no matter
how false, vain, idle and selfish she may be so long as
she refrains from publicly advertising her loss of chastity.
A man may be a thief, all the same, even though his
plunder is legalized by an ordinance, and a woman
may be disreputable, although she may move in the first
set of the four hundred. These two elementary truths
seem to have startled many people in Chicago when I
enunciated them, as if they were heresies, not to say
blasphemies, against the social order. Heresies and
blasphemies though they may be called, they are sacred
truths, and if Christ came to Chicago, and were still of
the same mind that he was when he walked in Judea,
He would probably have said the same things with much
greater emphasis.
It is very odd to see how there has risen up a kind of
descendant of the noxious weed of the right divine of
kings to do wrong in the shape of the social idea that a rich
man must necessarily be ' respectable." As a matter of
fact rich men and women are often, owing to the temp¬
tations which beset them, the most disreputable members
of the community ; and it is one of the heaviest indict¬
ments against the millionaire class, when it is not
steadied by responsibility and alive to its obligations,
that it tends inevitably to produce a class of mortals
which any well-regulated community would be justified in
sinking in the nearest bog until the breath had left their
body. Such was the treatment to which the ancient Ger¬
mans resorted when their tribe was disgraced by a
coward. Such is the treatment which might fairly be
resorted to when a community breeds such, social abor-
Who Are the Disreputables f 103
tions as the idle and the vicious rich. They are the
social cancers of modem civilization, and it is they, not
their hard-working fathers who have built up their
fortunes, who will bring the class of millionaires to
destmction. In the previous chapter I have referred to
the trinity of Chicagoan millionaires, who represent the
merits of their class. Unfortunately, as the sunlight is
accompanied by a shadow, so over against the Chicago
trinity there must be placed a companion picture, the
diabolical counterpart of the benevolent and the public-
spirited rich. Field, Armour and Pullman and their
class, millionaires who regard themselves more or less
as "God Almighty's money bags," who accept the
stewardship of the money which has been intrusted
to them, and who honestly desire to make the best use
of their millions, constitute a class which, notwithstand¬
ing their shortcomings from the civic point of view, is
worthy of considerable admiration. But side by side with
those men, are others who use their inherited wealth
for the worst purposes. These constitute what may be
called the diabolism of Chicago. They can be conven¬
iently divided into two classes, the pi^datory and the
idle rich.
Concerning the predatory poor, all are agreed. It
does not matter what temptation the man has been
under or how severe the physical pressure under which
he is put, if a man is a thief in the ordinary acceptation
of the term that is the end of it No conditions of
extenuating circumstances are allowed to stand in the
way of instant and ruthless condemnation of society.
" He who takes what isn't his'n, when he's kotched is
sent to prison," is the rule acted upon almost automatic-
cally by all civilized society in the Old World and the
New. But the theft must be from an individual, other¬
wise the moral sense which is so prompt to vindicate
the rights of private property does not assert itself.
The old rhyme in England which contrasts the severity
of the punishment of those who stole a goose from the
104
If Christ Came to Chicago.
common while nothing whatever was done to those who
stole the common from the goose is as applicable as
ever in the new conditions of the Western World.
This is partially due to a deficiency of the imagina¬
tion, and also to the well-known fact, Áat what is every¬
body's business is nobody's business. A man who robs
me of a dollar inflicts a wrong upon a definite individ¬
ual, which leads me to actively resent the theft, and if
possible to secure the speedy punishment of the thief. But
fí the theft is committed, not on a definite John Smith or
William Jones, but on a million such, and if the loss falls
not upon a private purse, but the collective purse of a
whole community, the indignation is so difiiised as to be
unappreciable as a force. There is no public prosecu¬
tor for thefts committed upon public property. The com¬
mon weal is left to take its chances and as a result it
fares very badly. Hence, the predatory classes in the
community are naturally attracted to property which
can be filched with impunity. This is equally true of
all thieves, whether they be rich or poor. As a rule,
however, property that is held in community is not of a
kind that can be easily appropriated by the poor thief
To rob the city demands capital. And when brigandage
is to be organized on a great scale the enterprise is
usually above the means of the ordinary pickpocket or
burglar. But the man does not cease to be a thief be¬
cause his robbery is conducted on a great scale, and still
less deserves to be freed from the opprobrium attaching
to dishonor because his robberies are conducted by means
of a conspiracy and a corporation. Indeed, the more
closely the matter is looked into, the more clearly will
it be perceived that, while the g^arrotter and the foot-pad
are poor enough specimens of humanity, they are, for
the most part, infinitely less to be condemned than the
wealthier scoundrels who wear broadcloth, pay pew
rent and show an unfaltering firont as respectable men.
It would be unfair to hold the individual personally
responsible for every crime against society of which
Who Are the Disreputables f
they are themselves to a certain extent a product.
There are wide tracts of territory even in Europe where
brigandage is regarded as an honorable profession. In
some parts of Italy and Sicily it used not to be uncom¬
mon for the brigand to regularly attend the confession
to be shriven once a month or once a quarter, as the case
might be, when he found time to spare from his more
exciting avocations. It was not so very long ago when
piracy was regarded as a laudable profession for an Eng-
glish gentleman, and in still more recent times, pious,
humane and God-fearing merchants saw nothing con¬
trary to the moral law in equipping vessels for the slave
trade. So it would be uncharitable and unjust to con¬
found the traffickers in public franchises, the trespassers
on public property and the rest of the horde of wealthy
brigands who are at this moment wallowing in the en¬
joyment of immense fortunes which they have plundered
from the people, as if they were copsciously as guilty as
their poorer brethren, who, from time to time, are en¬
tertained at the expense of the city in the Bridewell or
the penitentiary. But their offense is infinitely greater.
When the slave trade was defined as the sum of all
villianies, many estimable church members were sorely
scandalized by the definition, which implied that they
were the supreme villians of their time. Their own
descendants to-day would not object to the statement.
So in fifty years the grandchildren of many public rob¬
bers will admit that their fortunes were founded on acts
of spoliation morally as indefensible as any of those
that are treated as penitentiary offenses.
Regarded from the standpoint of an erring fellowman,
there is a great deal to be said in extenuation of the
offenses of many of the predatory poor which cannot be
alleged in defense of the predatory rich. Take for in¬
stance the case of an ordinary crook who is at present
serving his time in Joliet
He may be, and very often is, the son of a ne'er-do-
well, perhaps born of a nameless father on the highway;
io6 If Christ Came to Chicago.
hunted from his infancy by society, regarding the
"copper" as his natural enemy. He grows up half
educated or not educated at all. If he reads anything,
it is probably detective stories, which form so large
a part of the current literature of the English-speaking
world on both sides of the sea. He robs for his living
—gets sometimes one dollar, sometimes a hundred.
Every now and then he is run into the police station
and sent to the Bridewell or perhaps to the peniten¬
tiary. When he comes out he is still more of an
outlaw. He is a jail bird and there is no place for
him in the ranks of order and industry. So some day,
down on Michigan venue or one of your other fine
avenues, he crouches in the shade and holds up one of
the citizens of Chicago and relieves him of his pocket-
book. He is bad enough and ought to be laid by the
heels in jail. There is, however, one good thing about
him : he knows that he deserves to be so dealt with
and so does everybod}- else in the community. There
is no cant about your thief. He does not talk learnedly
about the blessed law of competition or of political
economy. He does not lay as salve to his conscience
texts more or less misapplied, he simply takes his gun
and holds a man up.
Take another class of men. These are not so bold;
they are what we call in England area thieves. They
are sneak thieves who wait until they can get hold
of some man servant, or servant girl, and by promises of
sharing the plunder, induce them to help them to the
silver plate. He also knows that he is a thief and that
if he is caught he will be sent to prison, and it will serve
him right.
It is bad to rob your fellowmen on the street, but it is
worse to rob your fellowmen of a whole street. It is bad
to get hold of a servant girl and either by promises of
plunder or by threats to induce her to g^ide you to the
place where the silver spoons lie ; but that dwindles
into a comparative insignificance compared with what
Who Are the Disreputables f 107
is done continually in Chicago by wealthy men, who
bribe aldermen to give them franchises which belong to
the citizens.
Of the predatory rich in Chicago there are plenty
and to spare, but there is one man who stands out
conspicuous among all the rest. He may not be a
greater sinner than the rest of his neighbors, but he
has succeeded in doing with supreme success what a
great number of his fellow citizens have done or tried to
do and failed. I refer to Mr. Charles T. Yerkes. Mr.
Yerkes is a notable product of the present system. Of
course, though Mr. Yerkes at an early stage in his
career, before he was launched upon Chicago as a finan¬
cier and street railway magnate, had served in a Penn¬
sylvania penitentiary, I would not for a moment suggest
that in his operations in Chicago he has brought him¬
self within the clutches of the law. He who is once bit
is twice shy, and the period of seclusion which he passed
in the state establishment in the Eastern seaboard prob¬
ably sufficed to convince him of the necessity for keeping
strictly within the law of the land. But as a matter of
fact Mr. Yerkes himself would be the last to complain
of being classed among those who have become wealthy
by the adroit appropriation of public property. Mr.
Yerkes practically owns two systems of Chicago's street
railways, the West and the North. Both the franchises,
which make each of those lines worth more than most
of the gold mines now worked in the States, were
acquired by him without the payment of any adequate
consideration to the city. No doubt the ordinances by
which the franchises were originally granted were
strictly legal and duly conveyed to Mr. Yerkes the priv¬
ileges which are worth to him and his corporation
millions of dollars per annum. But without questioning
for a moment the legality of his title, even the most
charitable of his friends shrug their shoulders when
asked how it was the City Council showered such lavish
generosity upon this immigrant from a Philadelphia pen-
lo8 If Christ Came to Chicago.
itentiary. It could hardly be for love of his beautiful
eyes, nor can we suppose that Mr. Yerkes exercised any
hypnotic power or fascination over the city fathers in
the City Council. All that we know is that franchise
after franchise was conferred upon Mr. Yerkes with¬
out any adequate consideration being paid for them.
Two tunnels which the city had constructed under
the river at an expenditure of millions of the city's
money were handed over to him for equivalents which
did not amount to more than twenty-five cents on the
dollar. It is not too much to say that the City Council
has given Mr. Yerkes and Mr. Yerkes' companies from
time to time franchises, tunnels and monopoly rights
which, if put upon the market to-day, could not ^ worth
less than $25,000,000. Mr. Yerkes would certainly not
be disposed to sell for less than that sum. But we may
search the records of the city treasury from end to end
without finding that the citizens received from him in re¬
turn five per cent on the whole of this gigantic sum.
What everyone in Chicago asserts is that the city
fathers were bribed at so much a head to grant the fran¬
chises. No one can say that Mr. Yerkes bribed them ;
of that there is no legal proof—as little as there is that
they were bribed. But if the mistress of a stately mansion
in Prairie Avenue were to find her most valuable diamond
ring on the finger of an Italian organ grinder who had
been observed on terms of suspicious intimacy with her
lady's maid, she would not hesitate to suspect that lady's
maid very strongly, neither would she admit for a
moment that the impecunious organ grinder had ob¬
tained possession of her diamond by any legal means.
Just so in this case of Mr. Yerkes. The franchises
are in his possession at this moment ; of that there can
be no doubt. Equally indubitable is the fact that the
citizens with whose property these franchises make free
have received no adequate consideration therefor. They
were obtained by the votes of aldermen notoriously corrupt
and from those three indubitable facts it cannot be said
IVho Are the Disreputables f 109
to be an uncharitable or far-fetched conclusion to assume
that Mr. Yerkes has no reason to complain of being
awarded a very conspicuous place in the ranks of the
predatory rich. As the man said when asked if the
fox had stolen the goose, " I would not like to say what
I cannot prove, but I saw a good many feathers
around his nose as he left the yard." Mr. Yerkes'
nose is well feathered, indeed.
Rightly or wrongly, the citizens have an incurable
suspicion of Mr. Yerkes, and whenever a franchise
is going for a railway, surface or elevated, the imme¬
diate suggestion is that Mr. Yerkes is behind it " I
want to know if Mr. Yerkes owns Chicago," asked
an indignant speaker at a meeting recently. Mr.
Yerkes does not own Chicago. He only owns the
greater part of it that is worth—well, not stealing, but
conveying, the wise call it. Hence, when you ask a
citizen if Mr. Yerkes is to be trusted to deal honestly
with the city on matters of franchises the reply is al¬
most invariably couched in similar tenns to those with
which the negro witness baffled the too searching inquiry
of a judge as to whether the accused was or was not a no¬
torious chicken thief. "Well, Massa," said Sambo
" I don't know about that, but if I were a chicken and
saw that darky loafing around, I would take care to
roost very high."
Mr. Yerkes, having acquired so many millions from
the city of Chicago, graciously deigns, now and then,
of his munificence to throw a sop or two to the public.
It was he who put up the electric fountain in Lin¬
coln Park, which, however, might be regarded as
a very shrewd business speculation, for the greater the
attraction in Lincoln Park the more dense was the
packing in Mr. Yerkes' cars. He, also, in his benevolence
offered prizes for competition to the pupils in the public
schools — prizes which, on the principle of not looking
a gift horse in the mouth, were graciously accepted by
the Board of Education. This form of benevolence was,
no
If Christ Came to Chicago.
however, discontinued after some of the school children
had ventured to petition the autocrat for a slight im¬
provement in the provision made by the street railway
for conveying them to school. By way of diverting
the attention of inquisitive eyes which would keep
squinting into his franchises he gave $250,000 for
the construction of the largest telescope in the world,
of which the University of Chicago is to be the
proud possessor when finished. It is much better for
people like Mr. Yerkes that the scrutinizing gaze of
the public should be turned to the heavens than to the
scandalous manner in which he neglects his obligations
to the people. It is probable, however, that Mr. Yerkes,
g^own insolent by the impunity with which he has
ridden roughshod over the people of Chicago, has over¬
reached himself. Had his railways been up to the
standard of street car conveniences, had he used the
power which he so mysteriously obtained in order to
meet the necessities of the traveling community, he
might have continued in unmolested possession of his
monopolies. Freebooters in olden times were able to
acquire a certain degree of popularity even among those
whom they plundered, by the genial free-handedness
with which they would scatter largess among the
crowd. Mr. Yerkes may repent too late of his indif¬
ference to the welfare and convenience of the public.
Mr. Yerkes is a significant sample of the class to which
I refer. He lives in style, and apparently does not find
it difl&cult to obtain the assistance of the gentlemen of
Chicago in the managing of his companies. There are
too many like him on a smaller scale. You can not
drive a mile in any direction in Chicago without coming
on instances of public plunder, only less heinous than
those that are associated with the name of Mr. Yerkes.
It is notorious that the franchises which have enabled
the railway companies to lay no less than 1,900 miles of
track through the heart of the city have been in many,
if not most, cases due to corruption. Rich corporatiwis
Who Are the Disreputables?
Ill
have used their wealth, as a brigand uses his carbine, in
order to possess themselves of their neighbors' goods.
And this system of public plunder will continue un¬
checked until the principle that the receiver is as bad as
the thief is applied to all holders of franchises for which
no adequate equivalent has been paid to the community,
as well as to the fraudulent pawnbroker who acts as the
banker of the light-fingered gentry who convey the
watches of the citizens to the keeping of their "uncle."
The second division of the disreputables, and who are
even more disreputable and a greater danger to the com¬
munity than the predatory rich, are the idle, frivolous and
vicious rich. Chicago has hitherto been spared the
presence of many of these social cancers. This is due to
the fact that the city is so new that it has not yet
had time to breed an idle crowd. Again and again
Chicago has been swept by national and public
calamities, and most of her citizens have been con¬
stantly employed from the foundation of the city
until now. The war, the great fire, the financial
panic of 1873, have in turn swept away much of
the realized wealth of the community and com¬
pelled successive generations to give their whole
attention to the garnering of the golden grain. But a
new generation is springing up of men and women bom
in the lap of luxury, shielded from childhood from all
ihe mde blasts of adverse fortune, and endowed neither
>y precept or example with any idea as to their duties
to the community in which they live.
The yoimg noble in Europe enters upon a public ca¬
reer almost as soon as he is out of college. His course at
the university finished, he steps at once into public service
of one kind or another. He stands for Parliament, or the
County Council, and he takes a seat on the bench. He is
initiated into the administration of his estates. In a thou¬
sand ways he is reminded, not so much by precept as by
the way in which the sociaLmachine works, that he has to
take his place and do his ciyty in the exalted sphere in
112
If Christ Came to Chicago.
which it nas pleased Providence to place him. The
plutocrat's child is shut out from this beneficent min¬
istry of service. If, as usually happens, the son con¬
ceives a postive distaste for the ant-like hoarding up of
money, he is left without an object in life. Here and
there, perhaps, a few studious young men devote them¬
selves to science or literature, but they are few and far
between. For the most part they scout a public career.
It is bad form for a well-to-do citizen and member of the
Chicago four hundred to enter his .son for the position
of alderman. To be an elected representative of the
city of Chicago in the municipal council is counted a
disgrace and it is even worse to sit in the State legisla¬
ture. A story is told of a pupil in the public schools
who resented as an insult the imputation tíiat his father
was an alderman. A youth without an object, without
an ideal beyond that of mere social success, and with
wealth beyond the dreams of avarice at his disposal, is
in a position perilous indeed.
Long ago in Switzerland I was much impressed by
the remarks made to me by Herr Boss, the veteran Al¬
pine climber, who managed the great hotel of the Bear
at Grindelwald. Sitting on the stoop one evening look¬
ing out over the great expanse of the Bernese Oberland
and talking of the workings of Democracy in Switzer¬
land, Boss suddenly exclaimed, " Do you know what
is the secret of the success of the Swiss Democracy?
Do you know what it is that has enabled us to keep all
these years a free republic, independent and strong, in
the midst of monarchical Europe ?" I suggested their
schools, their popular system of government, and other
things which naturally occurred to the mind. "No,"
said he, " it is none of these. The secret of the strength
of Switzerland lies in this ; we have realized that any
citizen who is not employed in some responsible work
for the community is a bad citizen, and a source of
danger to the republic. For instance," he said, " in this
valley of Grindelwald you will not find a householder
IVÄo Are the Disreputables ?
"3
who has not some duty to perform for which he is per¬
sonally responsible. It may be a very small duty, but
it is a duty, and its performance is exacted by local public
sentiment finding expression in the Commune. When
a young man is finishing his course at college or at
the gymnasium, and is about to return to his village
and build a house for himself, the elders of the Commune
come together and discuss what he shall be given to do.
It may be only the supervision of a village pump, or the
looking after the water coui-se that comes down the
mouutaiu side, or the custody of the fire engine. It does
not matter what it is, but before that young man returns
from college and begins life as a householder in the little
village there is a distinct duty set apart for him which
he is expected to discharge. It is essential," said Boss
" An unemployed citizen who had no duty laid upon
him would be an irresponsible critic and fault finder.
He would not feel himself attached by any binding tie to
the community, and in a very short time he would be¬
come a center for all that is bad. The prevention of
that is the secret of the success of the Swiss Democracy."
Boss's words often recurred to my mind when I saw in
Chicago how many young, rich, cultured men, dowered
with endless opportunity for serving the city, did nothing
and cared nothing for its welfare.
This is the plague spot in Chicago which eats far
more deeply into the vitals of the community than fifty
sporting houses or one thousand saloons. It is impossi¬
ble not to be moved with compassion in contemplating
the monotonous round of the social treadmill in the sacred
circle of Chicago society. When you have got money and
got plenty of it you have arrived, and you cannot get any-
higher except by getting more money. And if you have
no taste for piling up a monstrous pedestal of dollars,
there is singularly little to excite interest. The ma¬
chinery of dissipation which has been organized for cen¬
turies in such capitals as Paris and Vienna is only in
its rudimentary .state on the shores of Lake Michigan.
114
If Christ Came to Chicago.
There are social jealousies no doubt as keen between pork
butchers and hotel keepers as between dukes and princes
of the blood. It is sad to see the same snobbery and
' ' tuft hunting " which have been the laughing stock
of all sensible men in aristocratic Europe reproduc¬
ing themselves in a new society, where the distinc¬
tion between those who are in the first file and those
who are in the last is almost indistinguishable to the
uninstructed eye of the casual observer. But there is no
doubt of the power of the desire to obtain a foot-hold
and to climb a little higher up than the social stratum in
which you were born. Newspapers in Chicago have
been named whose proprietors are so swayed by the de¬
sire of their wives for social distinction that it is impos¬
sible to rely upon them for an unhesitating and unspar¬
ing attack upon municipal or social abuses which com¬
mand the approval of the keepers of the keys of the
social paradise.
Many tales, more or less malicious, are told of some
of the wealthy men of Chicago. Disraeli long ago de¬
scribed the English aristocracy as barbarians, who never
read books and who live in the open air. The first part
of that remark may be applied to many of the wealthy
men who have the means to establish themselves in
palaces on the Chicagoan avenues. The story is told of
one such, that when he furnished his house he ordered
as part of the furnishings so many yards of books. It
was necessarj', he heard, that books should form a part
of the upholstery of his palace. So he ordered them by
the yard and paid for them accordingly. Another of
the same kind, when showing his library to an English
visitor, asked whether the bindings suited the furniture,
"Because," he said, "I don't know anything about
books, but if you don't think the binding suits the
furniture, I will have them all rebound at once."
These stories do not apply, however, to the younger
men, who are for the most part supplied with tiie
be.st education that the colleges can furnish. Culture,
Who Are the Disreputables f 115
however, even when combined with wealth, does not
supply the saving grace of the enthusiasm of humanity.
Neither does it give its possessor a passport to that
healthy and varied existence which can only be reached
when one lives in tlie close and constant contact of
service with his fellow men. Infinite boredom reigns
in many a luxurious home, and millionaires, wearied
and sated with the narrow range of their amusements,
turn with languid interest to any one who will invent a
new toy. It may be a yacht, a race horse, or a new form
of gambling. Anything is welcomed as a means of es¬
cape from the intolerable monotony of a listless life.
In this connection it may not be amiss to refer briefly
to a commotion, chiefly confined to the columns of the
newspapers and the drawing-rooms of one or two ladies
of Chicago, by a short speech which I made to the
Chicago Woman's Club. This club had done excel¬
lent work all through the winter in relieving distress
among women and children. Its president. Dr. Sarah
Hackett Stevenson, is one of the salt of the earth ;
public-spirited, energetic and self-sacrificing, a capable
leader, whether of men or women, in any good work to
which she puts her hand. I was invited to attend the
meeting summoned by the Woman's Club, which I
afterwards learned was composed largely of the women
of the various relief committees in the city. I arrived
late. Almost immediately after entering the room I was
called upon to address the women present I refused,
saying I preferred to wait, nor did I wish to speak unless
there was some practical question upon which I could
say a few words that might be a help. After two or three
speeches had been made I was again called upon, and see¬
ing before me a great expanse of fashionable ladies, I
spoke as the spirit moved me : simply, honestly and with¬
out the slightest intention of producing any effect beyond
that of arousing the minds of some of those who were pre¬
sent who had no adequate realization of the situation to a
sense of the need for exerting themselves. As my
If Christ Came to Chicago.
remarks were ridiculously misrepresented I venture to
reproduce them here.
I am glad to have an opportunity of addressing you and to meet
ctaose who have been doing such good and active and self-sacrificing
work in relieving the distress of uieir fellow citizens. At the same
time I feel as if it were quite unnecessary for me to say anything to
you, for those who are among the poor, working among them
day to day, know far better than I what they need and what should be
done. But I think it m^ be useful for me to sçeak, because there are
probably some sitting side by side with the active workers before me,
and certainly many who are not here, but whom my words may reach
through the press, who are among the most disreputable people in
Chicago. Nothing is more obvious to any one who pays attention to
the teachings of our Lord than the fact that the conventional judg¬
ment about the reputable and disreputable is foreign to the Christian
ideal. Who are the most disreputable women in Chicago? They are
those who have been dowered by society and Providence with all the
gifts and all the opportunities; who have wealth and who have
leisure, who have all the talents, and who live entirely self-indulgent
lives, caring only for themselves, thinking only of the welfare of
their brothers and sisters in the midst of whom they live. Those
women who have great opportunities only to neglect them, and who have
great means only to squander them upon themselves, are more disrepu¬
table in the eyes of God and man than the worst harlot on Fourth
Avenue.
Among the many sad aspects of the present distress, the saddest is
the way m which it presses upon women. More than ever before at
times like this do I feel able to join in the old Jewish prayer, in
which, every Saturday, man thanks God that he was not bom a woman.
For man in the midst of his misery and destitution is not tormented
by the temptation to regard his virtue as a realizable asset. That is
the supreme misery of a woman."Therefore I am glad to think that
^ou women are bestirring yourselves for women. If you go down
into the depths and come face to face with the actual facts of human
life you will find that at this moment in the city the economic diffi¬
culty confronts yon at every tum. This vem morning I received a
letter from the widow of a soldier who fought in the wars, who is in
debt and difficulties and in danger of being turned out into Üie streets,
but who is offered a shameful alternative by her debtor. " What have
I to do ? " she asks. " If I cannot raise $60, I must either give in or
lose my home." Only the previous day I met a poor girl who is
willing and anxious to leave the life she was leading. Yet when it is
proposed to remove her there at once was the difficulty of a debt of
I64 which she owed. So it is all around the chapter If all of those
present were to rouse themselves as many of them are doing, then Üiis
great trouble and affliction would be a blessing, a blessing by no means
confined to those whom they would help, but a blessing which you stand
in need of yourselves. For unless all the teaching of all the religions is
false it is better for a man to lose his life and be miserable and poor
and tormented than be comfortable and the possessor of all things and
lose his own soul. None are in such danger of losing their souls as
Who Are the Disreptitables ?
117
those who are wrapped up in their own selfish comfort and who for¬
get the necessities of the brothers and sisters of the Lord.
No reporters were present I left the meeting to ful¬
fill another appointment immediately after I spoke.
I went up afterwards at the close of the meeting and
talked to some of those present, among them Dr. Steven¬
son and Madame Henrotin and others, nor did I gather
from any one with whom I spoke that they misunder¬
stood what I said. Unfortunately, however, half a
dozen ladies present felt hurt and one of them con¬
fided her indignation to a newspaper reporter. In¬
stantly it was evident to the sensationalists who man¬
ufacture scare heads for the Chicago papers that
there was an admirable opportunity for working up a
commotion. When Dr. Stevenson arrived home that
night she found her servants in a state of alarm and the
house surrounded by a band of reporters who were wait¬
ing to interview her, while the domestics feared the house
was about to be attacked by burglars. Everyone who was
present was cross-examined as to what I said, and as to
what I didn't say, and as a result it was telegraphed
throughout the whole land and across the Atlantic tiiat I
had grossly insulted the ladies of Chicago by declaring
that they were the most disreputable of their sex. Noth¬
ing could have been farther from my thought than insult¬
ing anyone. I simply stated a truism, and those who argue
that I was mistaken in assuming that some mere fashion¬
able society ladies were present at the philanthropic meet¬
ing must be singularly unaware of the habits of the crea¬
ture in question. When slumming or philanthropy is the
fashion she is always foremost in the swim. Anything for
a new sensation. Anything for a fresh thrill to break the
ennui of a blasé existence. And I cannot regret that for
once they should have received a somewhat stronger
shock than they expected. There was so much discus¬
sion of the subject, and the phrase " disreputable " was
so much discussed that I received an invitation to speak
at the People's Institute in order to set forth what I
118
If Christ Came to Chicago.
meant so that even the most perverse might not misin¬
terpret my meaning. Here is an extract from my speech :
There are worse people iti the world even than the predatory rich.
When a man is preying upon his fellow men he ia at any rate doing
something. It is netter almost to be at work in sin than doinç noth-
ingatall. " The idle rich ! " I was reminded last night by a fnend of
Raskin's terrible phrase when he said: ''Every man Mlongs to one of
two categories : he is either a laborer, that is a worker in some way,
or he is an assassin." Laborer or assassin! Carly le said the same
thine, although not so strongly, when he said "whenever you £nd a
hand that is not busy working you will find a hand that is picking
and stealing." The idle rich! What has been the salvation of the
peíale of Chicago in spite of all the City Councils ? It is this—that
heretofore you have been extraordinarily fortunate in not havinghad the
opportunity of breeding idle rich In consequence of war, confiagra-
tion and panic your rich people have had all to work and hence uey
have not been such demoralized rascals as those who abound on our
side of the water. But you are breeding them fast ; and it is because
they are still only in Üie germ, as it were, that there is hope, if you
will turn your attention to it promptly, you may be able to prevent
the multiplication of the species. It is difficult indeed to find langt^e
adequate to express the sense of shame, of di^ust and humilia¬
tion with which we look upon those whom a bountiful providence
and a kindly society has showered all the wealth of the world. They
have all their hearts can desire and they use all these blessings merely
in order to gild their own styes and to increase the quality and im¬
prove the flavor of the swill upon which they fatten. It is difficult to
speak calmly of such people or to express the degree of confusion and
sorrow and indignation which that class of self-indulgent women excite
in the mind of any intellieent person. I have been denounced be¬
cause I said that the frivolous, self-indulgent women of fashion and
woman of society was worse, infinitely worse, than many a harlot.
It was a true word well spoken, and I am glad to know that it has
reverberated throughout the world.
I will ask you to take two typical cases. There is a poor girl come
up from the country to this great city, and who is alone and friendless.
She is good looking and gets a position as saleswoman or as a steno¬
grapher. Her health gives way and she is laid up. When she comes
back her place is filled and she is out of a berth. She goes from
Slace to place seeking work, and you who have never had to do so
o not know how hard it is to seek for work day after day and find
none. In the midst of her trouble, when she is nearly at her last
cent, someone comes along. He likes her looks, and proposes to her
with more or less preamble that she should go and live with him.
That ia the way they usually begin. She has no friends, she has no
money, and the man at least seems kind and sympathetic, which is
more than most of them are. She must live. Sne sees starvation
before her. Her poverty, not her will, consents. She becomes his
mistress. After a while he tells her to go and do as the others do.
She is now down Fourth Avenue, loathing the life she leads and
drowning her thoughts with drink and often wishing that when she lies
Who Are the Disreputables f
119
down to sleep she may never rise again. That is a common type.
There is another type, a woman who is young and strong and healthy,
pretty and lazy. She does not want to work if she can help it. She
sees mat if, in the bloom of youth, she makes a market of herself she
can earn more money in a week than what she could earn in a month
by hard work. She sells herself accordingly. She says, "I suppose
my body belongs to myself, and I do not see why I cannot do what I
like with my own So she does what she likes and makes a living
out of it. That is another type. Both types are confounded under
the common cognomen of fallen women and prostitutes. There is all
the difierence between them that there is between the fixed stars. I
have given you both in order that you may compare them to their
counterparts among the idle rich. There is a woman, she is young,
she belongs to the cream of the cream of your society, she has all the
education which wealth can secure her, she has carriages to bear her to
and fro so that she will never have to put her dainty foot to the pave¬
ment She thinks of nothing except pleasing herself, and uses her
wealth to minister to her vanity and ner glory. She uses her carriages
solely for her own gratification, and uses that priceless and peerless
infiuence which a good and cultivated woman can exercise upon her
acquaintances to increase the excitement and frivolity of society. She
does what she likes with her own. She uses it all for herself, but,
having some self-respect, she draws the line at her carcass which the
other does not. Between the two what is the difference ? Each one
uses what she has received to minister to her own gratification, her
own vanity and her own excitement. Upon one society showers all its
condemnation. Press, pulpit and women all unite in burling the
severest anathemas upon her who is often more sinned against than
sinning, while they have nothing but adulation and praise for the pet
of BQcmty who has never spent a single thought excepting upon her«
self. That is bad. It is not our Lord's way of judging.
Unfortunately there is even worse than that. Some of your wealthy
women do not even draw the line at their carcass. There is one thing
which strikes us over in the old country with a certain amazement—
how the women reared in this great republic, the daughters of your
millionaires, who have been bom with every blessing which American
civilization can gpve them, instead of taking pride in their American
citizenship are ready in their lust for vainglory and their mad desire
to outstrip, if only by a hair-breadth, some rival, to sell themselves as
much as any harlot on Fourth Avenue to the most miserable scion of
European nobility.
I remember one of our dukes who bore an ancient name. He was
divorced on the charge of craelty and adultery. On one occasion
when I was editing the Pall Mall Gazette he wrote a letter for publi¬
cation in the paper, which discoursed upon the subject of bimetalism.
I sent it back. I wrote'him I did not wish to publish that letter or
any other letters in that controversy now. But I told him I should
not be frank if I did not tell him that the reason why I sent the letter
back, however, was not because of its subject, but because of its author.
" Rightly or wrongly," I wrote, " you have the reputation of ruining
women for your own pleasure, and therefore, in my opinion, you are
infinitely worse than if you cut throats for hire ; therefore I return you
I20
If Christ Came to Chicago.
your manuscript." Shortly afterwards he went to the United States
and married an American woman of wealth. What do you think of
your women if they allow themselves to be disposed of in this
fashion ? In feudal times when an estate was made over to a pur¬
chaser the contract was not complete until at the same time the seller
took a handful of dirt from the estate and gave it to the purchaser.
Your American beauties and American heiresses are no more than that
handful of dirt which marks and accompanies the transfer of their
fortunes to our stone-broke nobles.
You ask how can you help it? Well, at least, when one of them
makes merchandise of herself, instead of filling your papers with
eulogistic comments about her and her good fortune, you might speak
the truth and say what you think. The idle rich have no moral sen¬
timent. ^ Their one law is to please themselves, and they will not
touch with their little finger this burden which weighs tiie masses
down. But were the idle rich created for that ? They have education,
leisure and great opportunities for influence or usefulness. They have
received much and therefore they should render much. If they are
higher than their fellows, therefore thev should make themselves
lower in order to be their servants and to nelp them. Is that not true
Christian teaching? Is that not what our Lord and Master would say
to those people?
In conclusion I would venture to appeal to those unfortunate sons
and daughters of millionaires who are c^ing brought up as idle gentle¬
men and idle ladies. They had better have been brought up saloon
keepers. They had better have been brought up police constables a
thousand times. But it is their misfortune that they have wealth and
leisure without need to work and without stimulus to service. I
would say to them, here in Chicago is the scene for your energies, here
in Chicago where your fathers made their money, honestly or other¬
wise. In Chicago there are whole districts of your fellow citizens who
have no conveniences of civilization, who have no opportunities of
friendship. Why should your young men and women waste their
lives and the divine enthusiasm of youth simply in their own gratifi¬
cation, and why should they give all these to wine and to women and
to all the methods of fashionable debauchery when there are men and
women and children at your vety door whom you can help, and for
not helping whom you will have to answer at the Day of Judgment ?
I do not ask you to deliver tracts, or to pray at prayer-meetings, but I
do ask you to love your brother man. Why, instead of wasting your
time and your life in idleness, why not devote yourself to the service
of some precinct in this city and go and live among them ? Do not
act as high-toned, silk-stockingedgentlemen, but as a simple brother
who is willing to go and live among men to help them to live a
more human ufe man they are living now. You will then have
many opportunities of usefu&ess and will be in brotherly union and
living intercourse with hundreds of your fellow men, and then you
will find that when you thought you had given up your position by
going and living in the slums you have really found your soul and
found your Lord.
I said all this at the People's Institute. It was toler-
Who Are fhe Disreputables f
121
ably plain speaking, but so far from exciting any¬
thing of the hubbub occasioned by the much milder
address to the ladies, one editor went out of his way to
remark concerning the moderation I had displayed in
the second discourse 1 The commotion which the first
speech occasioned was interesting if only as illustrating
how much need there is for the gospel to be preached
wherg heathendom in highjplacesis masked by conven¬
tional homage to ChrfsGanity,
The graver offenses which spring from idleness and
wealth have not been specially alluded to in this chapter.
They need not be dwelt upon. It is a painful subject,
and every one can supply details for himself. Human
nature is the same all the world over. Exempt man or
woman from the necessity of daily labor, let no religious
or humanitarian enthusiasm bind them over to the ser¬
vice of their fellows, and there can only be one result
That result is making itself manifest more and more
in Chicago. There is work of every kind waiting to
be done ; there are multitudes of more or less untaught,
unkempt, uncivilized human beings to be brought into
some kind of human relationship, to be guided, to be
instructed, to be comforted. There are all the interests,
sorrows and sufferings of the helpless poor lying unat¬
tended to while the idle rich are racking their
brains in devising fresh means of excitement or new va¬
rieties of self-indulgence with which to pass away the
time. It is not asked of them as it was asked of the
young man in the gospel to sell all that they have and
give to the poor, but they might at least gpve tithes of
their time and of their substance to those who have re¬
ceived so little and who need so much.
CHAPTER VI.
THE NINETEENTH PRECINCT OF THE FIRST WARD.
It is impossible to describe Chicago as a whole. It is a
congeries of différent nationalities, a compost of men and
women of all manner of languages. It is a city of mil¬
lionaires and of paupers ; a great camp of soldiers of
industry, rallying round the standard of the merchant
princes in the campaign against poverty. This vast and
heterogeneous community, which has been collected to¬
gether from all quarters of the known world, knows only
one common bond. Its members came here to make
money. They are staying here to make money. The
quest of the almighty dollar is their Holy Grail. From
afar the name and the fame of Chicago have gone abroad
to the poor and the distressed and the adventurous of all
nations, and they have flocked and are still flocking to
the place where a few men make millions and where all
men can get food.
A scientific study of the city as a whole would be the
work of a life time, and when it was finished it would
possess only a historical value. For, while the scientist
was correcting his statistics and checking his analysis,
the kaleidoscope would be changing, and by the time his
exhaustive survey was ready for the press, a new genera¬
tion would have risen up which would not recognize the
scenes which he portrayed. I cannot for a moment
pretend to put the whole city, or even a single ward
under the microscope. But I thought it might perhaps
help us to appreciate the nature of some of the tougher
problems that confront the refonner in Chicago if we
paid a little attention to a single precinct in one of the
thirty-four wards into which the city is divided.
For the purpose of this survey I have selected the
"3
124
If Christ Came to Chicago.
nineteenth precinct of the First Ward, not because it is an
average precinct, but because it presents in an aggravated
form most of the evils which are palpably not in accord
with the mind of Christ. If Christ came to Chicago, it
is one of the last precincts into which we should
care to take Him. And yet it is probably the first pre¬
cinct into which He would find His way. There are a
good many of " the least of these, My brethren," in the
nineteenth precinct.
The nineteenth precinct of the First Ward consists of
the blocks which lie between Hajrison and Polk Streets.
It includes both sides of Fourth Avenue, the west side
of Dearborn and the east side of Clark. It is easy of
access. The Dearborn Street horse car traverses it on one
side, the Clark Street cable on the other, while Polk
Street station empties its passengers into Fourth Avenue.
It contains a fair share, but not more than a fair share, of
foreig^-bom citizens. According to the analysis of the
voting at the election of 1892-3, the number of American-
bom citizens was only just ahead of those who had taken
their naturalization papers. The figles are interesting
and bring into clear relief the cosmopolitan character of
the |)opulation of Chicago. I print the figures for the
city, for the First Ward and for the nineteenth precinct.
Citizens, 1893.
Origin.
Nineteentl*
Chicago. Pirat Ward. Precinct,
New England..
Southern States
New York
7,522 410 12
9,667 1,079 74
9,721 822 26
42,582 682 27
41.570 1,798 64
Illinois
Other States
American
131.335
4.791 203
English
Scotch..
Swedish
Canadian
German .
Irish
Norwegian
Danish ...
143 3
477 12
382 4
138 2
61 1
44 I
19 2
20 I
The iVineteeuth Precinct of the First
Ward.
125
French
643
29
5
Bohemian
5.721
5
Polish
4.865
44
I
Austrian
3.280
35
4
Russian
2,903
80
II
Italian
1,032
137
8
Dutch
20
• • .
Miscellaneous
1.933
206
5
128,812
1.740
60
The advantage of this small precinct organization,
which was necessitated by the adoption of the Australian
ballot, is that it cuts the city up into manageable propor¬
tions. There are in the city of Chicago thirty-four
wards which are cut up into 800 precincts. Each of
these may be said to constitute a unit of organization
with an independent political life of its own.
It will be seen that so far as the nineteenth precinct
is concerned that it is not a distinctively foreign precinct.
The American-born citizen who barely holds his own in
the cit\- as a whole outnumbers the naturalized in the
nineteenth precinct by more than three to one. It would,
however, be a mistake to regard the population as indig¬
enous to Chicago. More than one-third of the American-
born citizens hail from the Southern States ; that is to
say, are men of color. Only twenty-seven were bom in
the state of Illinois.
In politics the nineteenth precinct is very evenly di¬
vided. Chicago cast a ui^ority of nearly 35,000 for
Cleveland in 1892, but his majority in the nineteenth
precinct was only ninety-eight votes against ninety-one
cast for the Republican. In the election for Governor the
Democrats held their own to a man, but three of the
Republicans voted the Prohibition ticket and as they
were reinforced by another stalwart Prohibitionist the
Prohibition vote in the nineteenth precinct is four strong,
which, as the total Prohibitionist vote cast in Chicago
was only 3,116, was rather more than its fair proportion.
At the mayoral election last December, the precinct
126
If Christ Came to Chicago.
voted 85 for Hopkins (D), and 94 for Swift (R), while
three voted for Britzius, the socialist.
If woman suffrage were introduced we should be better
able to form an idea as to the constituents of the popu¬
lation. The female contingent would be largely foreign
and more remarkable for its variety than its morality.
During the last year a great change has come over
the population. The negroes have diminished and the
Italians have increased. The large number of lodgers
have to be taken into account in every election. They
are registered and they vote. Where they come from no
one knows ; they are a floating, migratory population,
but they are voted as any other residents of the ward.
The amusements in the precinct are few. The Park
Theatre, a most infamous place of resort, stands within
a few blocks, but in the precinct itself, the chief amuse¬
ment is a little gambling, varied now and then by the ex-
litement of seeing the inmates of an immoral house raided
by the police, sometimes accompanied by their male part¬
ners. There is no public hall, no concert room in the pre¬
cinct, and, as everywhere in Chicago, the saloons are
the g^at centers of social intercourse.
This precinct, lying so close to the great arterial thor¬
oughfares of the south and west, offers a tempting
field to those who wish to do good to their fellow men.
Here in these three blocks are some two or three thou¬
sand human beingjs without any of the civilizing influ¬
ences which are usually supposed to be indispensible.
There are, it is true, two doctors ; but there is no resi¬
dent clergyman, no minister of religion, no city mission¬
ary, nobody, in short, who has any moral, spiritual and
educational oversight of the people. There is one Jewish
synagogue, which is in an upstairs room in Clark Street,
fronting a larger synagogue of another Jewish sect on
the other side of the street. The Catholics also have a
large German church just outside the precinct on the
other side of Clark Street. This church stands open all
day and every day. When I was present there were three
The Nineteenth Precinct of the First Ward. 127
black-habited nuns engaged in their devotions. The
contrast between the garish females on Fourth Avenue
and the sober suited nuns in the church was very striking.
Men were kneeling before the altar, candles were burning
before the central figure and there were, in short, all the
indications of devotion on the part of the scattered wor¬
shipers that one expects to find in a Catholic country in
Europe. It is as an oasis set in the midst of all the vice
and squalor and drunkenness of a district in which,
despite all, are tobe found miracles of human innocence,
girls as pure as driven snow, young men leading holy
and upright lives, uncontaminated by the vice and filth
in the midst of which their lot is cast. That this is so is
only another reason why there should be something more
done by those who love their fellow men, to .supply
every sitch precinct with a center, a human center of help¬
ful friendship.
Near the center of Clark Street, on the western bound¬
ary of Fourth Avenue, stands my old friend Hank North's
saloon, St. Lawrence House it is called, where at any
time of the day Hank may be found dispensing free
lunches to all and sundry. How he keeps it up is a
marvel, but the free lunch goes on, hot soup with bread,
apparently dispensed with equal freedom to those who
take a drink and those who do not. There are several
other saloons to the right and left, some of them very
tough, but all supplying places in which the male deni¬
zens at least find a shelter and which are very generally
used in the evening as a kind of general drawing-room
or front parlor for those who have neither drawing-
rooms nor front parlors of their own. Some of the sa¬
loons are equipped with billiard tables and other appli¬
ances for recreation. During the extreme cold weather
one or two of the saloon keepers in the precinct allowed
the homeless out-of-work free shelter in the basements
of their saloons. The place was wann and the men
lay together in any place where they could be out of
the cold. Along Clark Street most of the stores are de-
128
If Christ Ca7ue to Chicago.
voted to the sale of old clothes and are in possession
of gentlemen of Jewish extraction. The pawnbroking
business also flourishes, the poor banker being
able to make a living where other tradesmen starve.
The rates of interest charged by pawnbrokers is said to
be as much as ten per cent a month or 120 per cent a
year. Usury is forbidden by the Illinois statutes, but it is
nevertheless levied upon the poor. Neither church nor
state in Chicago has as yet risen to the height of estab¬
lishing a municipal pawnshop, where the poor can trans¬
act their financial business at something like a fair rate of
interest. It is here, as ever) where, those who are the
,weakest have to pay the most for the accommodations
iwhich they need. Anyone who would found a pawn¬
shop on improved principles in the heart of the nine¬
teenth precinct would be a benefactor to his kind.
An improved pawnshop is only one of the appliances
of civilization with which the nineteenth precinct
needs to be supplied. A reading room in which could
be found books and papers is another institution which
is needed but which there seems to be no possibility of
procuring. The streets back and front, including Fourth
Avenue, with its painted women at the windows beckon¬
ing to every passer-by, will continue in the future as
they have been in the past, the common playground of
the children and the haunts of youth. There is in the
whole precinct not one house in which a genial hospi¬
tality is shown to the neighbors, where rich and poor
can meet and talk over their common interests and their
common wrongs. The policeman perambulating the
beat back and forth on his rounds is the only human
nexus which binds the precinct together, always except¬
ing the political organizations which at least remind men
that they are members one of another and are united by
common interests and in common concerns. The polit¬
ical life may be low, the motives may be mean, and the
antagonism which is excited between Republicans and
Democrats may be often irrational, but it is diflScult at
The Nineteenth Precinct of the First Ward. 129
present to see, with the melancholy absence of intelli¬
gently directed humanitarian enthusiasm on the part of
the better-to-do people, how the desired end could be
attained better than it is at present. The cultured resi¬
dent with kindliness, sympathy and helpful service is
not forthcoming. In his place we have the Democratic
and Republican heeler, each of whom is anxious to
curry favor with and secure converts among the citizens,
not so much for the good of the city as to weaken the
other side and to secure a claim upon office. That
motive may be poor—it is often sordid, and it works
out frequently in gross corruption ; but after all it may
be cotiipared, like the Kingdom of Heaven, to leaven
which goes on leavening the lump until the whole is
leavened.
In the nineteenth precinct there are 46 saloons, 37
houses of ill-fame and 11 pawnbrokers. This is an under¬
estimate of the places which are commonly regarded as
the moral sore spots of the body politic. Several houses
described as stores or offices are more or less haunted by
immoral women. The map which is printed in the first
part of this volume does not overestimate, but rather
g^ves an unduly favorable impression as to the influences
in the midst of which the inhabitants of the precinct
grow up. With so many saloons it ought not to be im¬
possible to establish one place of call where visitors
should not be expected to drink intoxicants in order to
pay their footing and maintain the establishment But
in the whole of the nineteenth precinct, as in all the
other nineteenth precincts, you will look in vain for any
such place. Neither is there any bath or washhouse where
cleanliness, which is next to godliness, can be cultivated;
neither is there any public lavatory or public con¬
venience, excepting in connection with the saloons.
There are one or two drug stores and one rather impos¬
ing hotel, but otherwise the neighborhoo'l is given over
to persons who are conducting an arduous struggle
against poverty. The only place of amusement is a
I30
If Christ Came to Chicago.
shooting gallery in which the marksman can have
three shots for a nickel. The only attempt to supply
the intellectual needs of the district is made by two
booksellers, one of whom was prosecuted some time ago
for selling obscene literature, and whose windows still
contain a large and varied collection of pornographic
literature, together with an assortment of photographs
of sitters whose chief characteristic is their absence of
clothes.
A large portion of the inhabitants consists of Jews.
The Jones public school, which stands just outside
the precinct on the east, is the school of the district.
I spent a morning going over the establishment and
was much interested and not a little saddened at many
things which I saw there. The principal of the school
told me that forty per cent of the scholars are Russian
or Polish Jews; a very large number of the remainder are
negroes. The genuine American was in an extremely
small minority. The school is large and lofty and on the
whole is a commodious building. But the playground is
miserably inadequate. It was a sight to see the muster of
the little ones in the dusty playground on a bitter January
morning for a ten-minute recess. The younger boys
huddled up in rows, standing close together as sheep in a
Sock, waiting motionless until they could return to the
warm school-room. The larger boys played and romped
as best they could. The little ones crowded together for
fear of being knocked over by the larger ones, for there
was not room enough for them all to play. In such a
crowded district land is perhaps too valuable to be
used for playgrounds, but it ought not to be impossible to
improvise a playground in pure air out of the dust by
simply strengthening the roof and placing a railing
round the parapet. Anything would be better than the
miserable apology for a playground which disgraces the
school at the present moment. Something äso might
be done to utilize the schoolroom after school hours,
as has been done in London and other English towns.
The Nineteenth Precinct of the First Ward. 131
But it ought not surely to be regarded as sufficient dis¬
charge of the obligations which thewealthy, leisured,
cultured citizens owe to their fellow men that this
service should be left to the hard-worked teachers and
the more' or less interested exertions of the political
heelers.
The nineteenth precinct of the First Ward is by no
means the only or even an exceptional precinct When
these pages are passing through the press Mr, F. W.
Parker, of the Baptist City Mission, described before the
Baptist Social Union a district which presents in a large
scale the same evil features. Here is an extract from
his paper :
There is a section of the city from Stewart Avenue to the river and
from Twenty-second to Thirty-ninth Streets with a population of
60,000 people. From Twentieth to Fortieth Streets, along the lake
front, is an equal area, vdth about the same population, rich and pros¬
perous. It has more than three miles of splendid boulevard palatial
residences. The river region has no boulevards; it has no lake shore,
but instead the stagnant Chicago River. Its death rate is two and one-
fourth times higher, and. deat^ from zymotic diseases are fourteen
times greater than in the lake region; it has ten deaths from diphtheria
to one in the other districts, and the death rate of infants is six times
greater.
In the lake region there are seven hospitals. It has five asylums
who help the unfortunate, while there is none in the river regpou. In
the lake section there are six night schools to one in the other; ten
kindergarten schools to one in the other; three business colleges to
none in the other. The lake region has five sectarian schools, with
700 scholars, while in the river region there are eleven great sectarian
schools, with 6,000 scholars. The lake section has ten book stores to.
none in its neighboring section to the west ; the public library has
three stations uere to none in the other.
At the last city municipal election the lake region gave Mr. Swift
6,600 votes, Mr. Hopkins 3,700. The river region gave Mr. Swift 2,900
votes and Mr. Hopkins 6,900 votes. This illustrates a great difference
between the two sections and the lack of political sympathy.
There are three Catholic churches in the lake region and six in the
other; twenty-two Protestant churches in the one section and but six
struggling Protestant churches in the other. In the lake region is
intelligence, wealth, comfort and all that makes life enjoyable; on
the other hand is ignorance, waut, misery and degradation.
If Christ came to Chicago what would He do with the
nineteenth precinct of the First Ward ? One thing is
certain. He would not pass by on the other side like the
132
If Christ Came to Chicago.
High Priest or Levite. He would much rather regard
it as the good Samaritan regarded the man who had
fallen among thieves. Here is not one man, but some
two thousand brothers and sisters of Christ, who are
forced to live their lives here in the levee. Their life is
squalid. Life is dreary in this precinct, yet life must be
lived, the temptations of life resisted and the joys of
life cultivated with such success as may be. But for
these two thousand and odd human beings, even if we
exclude the unfortunate women who are dedicated to
what is called by bitter irony a life of pleasure, there are
sufficient to afford a life's work for anyone who endeav¬
ors to unite himself by helpful service to his fellow man.
If any man or woman in Chicago to whom Provi¬
dence and society have given wealth and leisure,
without at the same time destroying their generous
aspirations after the improvement of the conditions of
their fellow creatures, the nineteenth precinct of the
First Ward and many another precinct in the city may
be commended to them as affording an admirable field
in which they can turn their benevolent desires to good
result. The gulf between rich and poor which modem
society seems to widen can only be bridged in one way,
namely, by the personal sacrifice of individuals in per¬
sonal service to man and woman. The healthy consci¬
ousness of human brotherhood and of community of
interest and sympathy is in danger of being forgotten
when the well-to^o live in stately mansions on boule¬
vards and avenues and the poor are crowded together
in more or less noisome districts such as this of the
nineteenth precinct.
If Christ came to Chicago, where would He be most
likely to take up His abode—in the boulevards or in the
slums, in the region of the lake or the region of the
river? If so, where is it that those who love Him
must seek and find their fate ?
Believe it, 'tis the mass of men He loves ;
And, where there is most sorrow and most want,
The Nineteenth Precinct of the First Ward. i
Where the high heart of man is trodden down
The most, 'tis not because He hides His face
From them in wrath, as purblind teachers prate :
Not so: the most is He, for there is He
Most needed. Men who seek for Fate abroad
Are not so near His heart as they who dare
Frankly to face her when she faces them,
On their own threshold, where their souls are strong.
PART II.—Chrüf s Metewand in Chicago
CHAPTER I.
I WAS AN HUNDRED AND YE GAVE ME MEAT.
If Christ came to Chicago, by what standard would He
judge the city and the inhabitants thereof? That is a
question which Lowell answers as we have seen. The
measure which our Lord would apply would be the
image which we have made of the least of these His
brethren. That conception is in consonance with the
general sentiment of the Christian Church in all ages.
It is entirely in harmony with the humanitarian aspira¬
tions which may be regarded as the latest and most
authentic outgrowth of Christian principle in our age and
generation. At the same time it must not be forgotten
that Christ has not left us entirely to the guide of rea¬
son or imagination as to the standard by which we
are to be judged. When He had finished His teaching
and had delivered to His friends and His disciples
all that He had to say upon going up to Jerusalem
to be delivered into the hands of His enemies and
crucifixion, He summed up all that He had said, and
brought His teaching to its natural and definite conclu¬
sion, in His description of the Day of the Last Judg¬
ment. This description is—after the Sermon on the
Mount — the most famous and most solemn of all
the teachings of our Lord.
There is no greater surprise in the Bible than that
which is occasioned when we come upon the simple narra¬
tive telling us that we shall not be judged by anything
which we profess to believe or by any ceremonial
or ritual to which we have conformed, or, still less,
'35
136
If Christ Came to Chicago.
by the fact of our membership or non-membership in
any organized body, ecclesiastical or otherwise. The
final decision as to our disposition, the definite appraise¬
ment of our character, will be made on grounds which
many professing Christians would refuse to regard as
being in any way distinctively religious. Christ's test as
supplied in the description as represented in the 25th
chapter of St Matthew's Gospel is throughout humanita-.
rian as opposed to theological, and unless there should be
any mistake it is stated twice, once positively, the
second time negatively, as if to preclude any possibility
of mistake.
The metewand of Christ on the Day of Judgment con¬
sists of the inquiry as to how far we have discharged the
great secular acts of mercy in dealing with our fellow
men. Those six acts are ranged in regular sequence ;
they correspond to the simple elementary needs of mortal
men. Christ at the last day will not ask what we have
said or thought about Him, neither will He ask us
whether or not we belong to His Church. His test, and
so far as can be ascertained from His teaching, the
only test which He will apply, is whether or not we have
"ministered to the physical, social and moral necessities
of our fellow men. His words are so distinct and so
precise that there is no getting away from them. Yet
they have been ignored so much that salvation, which
according to Christ was to be found in feeding the
hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked,
showing hospitality to the stranger and visiting those
who were sick or in prison, is now almost universally
held to consist in the acceptance of a more or less
abstract series of religio-philosophical propositions. I
quote, therefore, the words of our Lord as the final
authority on this point, if he came to Chicago.
31. When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy
angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32. And before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he shall sep¬
arate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from
the goats:
I was an Hungred and Ye Gave Me Meat. 137
33. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on
the left.
34. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come,
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world :
35. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty
and ye gave me drink : 1 was a stranger, and ye took me in :
36. Naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited me : I
was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying. Lord, when saw
we thee an hungred, and fed thee ? or thirsty and gave thee drink ?
38. When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and
clothed thee ?
39. Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee ?
40. And the King shall answer and say unto them. Verily, I say
unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
It is not unreasonable to believe that since our Lord de¬
clares that this is the standard which He will apply when
He comes to judge the earth, that He would apply th®
same standard ' if He came to visit Chicago. It may
not, therefore, be unprofitable to briefly cast a glance
over the city in order to ascertain what has been done,
what is being done, under each of the half dozen divi¬
sions into which the whole duty of man is mapped out.
The first, most imperative want of man is food. The
lack of it is the motive force which underlies revolu¬
tions. The dread of the want of it is the impelling
force in almost all human labor. Men work not be¬
cause they love labor, but because they are hungered
to it. Chicago may rightly claim to have done more
than an ordinary share in ministering to the needs
of mankind in this matter of food. Situated at
the head of the great alluvial basin of the Middle
States, she has contributed to cheapen the price of bread
and meat in every capital of Europe. The half penny
of the English laborer, the centime or copeck of the
European, will purchase for him a larger piece of bread
or a heavier portion of beef and pork than it would have
done if Chicago and the immense agricultural region of
which Chicago is the outlet had never existed. All
this, of course, was done in the way of business. But it
138 If Christ Came to Chicago.
is not only the poor of other lands that Chicago has
helped to feed. She has been for the last thirty years
a hospitable host of the overflow of the poor of the Old
\Vt)rld. We might well apply Lowell's couplet originally
written about the United States;
Whose latch string was never drawn in
Against the poorest child of Adam's kin.
Within her borders this day and every day, a million
and a half of human beings, at least one half of whom
were bom beyond the sea, contrive in some fashion or
another to get three meals a day with varying degrees of
punctuality.
Chicago has done all that in her devotion to what an
American humorist describes as the chief end of man,
namely ten per cent. But when we come to the feeding
of the hungry under circumstances which preclude the
making of a dividend out of the necessities of nature,
the showing of Chicago is not quite so good. And the
moral aspect of feeding the hungry, comes in only
where the work is done for the sake of the least of
these our brethren, and not from motives which would
operate quite as strongly in securing a supply of fire¬
arms or fire-water.
One of the first observations which occurs to a stran¬
ger who looks at the city from this standpoint is that
while Chicago provides food wholesale, that is to say,
wheat by the bushel, pork by the barrel and cattle by
the ton, cheaper than any other place in the world, the
retail price of these commodities when they are served
up in portions suitable to the necessities of the poor is
considerably in excess of that for which the same com¬
modities are to be had in the capitals of the Old World.
The feeding of the hung^ in Chicago was fortunately
not accompanied by any scarcity of grain. Never in the
history of the city were the elevators more crowded with
food, and this winter has seen wheat sink to the lowest
price that it has ever touched. With wheat selling at
two cents per pound, it was strange indeed to see the
I was an Hungred and Ye Gave Me Meat. 139
streets of the city lined with tnen who were unable to
obtain food.
The suffering in the city was very great and would
have been very much greater had it not been for the help
given by the labor unions to their members and for an
agency which, without pretending to be of much
account from a charitable point of view, neverthe¬
less fed more hungry people this winter in Chicago than
all the other agencies, religious, charitable and municipal,
put together. I refer to the Free Lunch of the saloons.
This institution, which is quite unknown in the Old
World, is one of the features of the feeding of the
hungry in Chicago which most amazes a stranger.
There are from six to seven thousand saloon's in
Chicago. In one half of these a free lunch is provided
every day in the week. And in many cases the free
lunch is really a free lunch. That is to say, in many
saloons, notably in my friend Hank North's in Clark
Street, scores of people were fed every day and are being
fed at this moment without fee, or reward or any pay¬
ment for drink with which to wash down the more solid
viands. In Hank North's saloon throughout the winter
he has given away on an average about thirty-six gal¬
lons of soup and seventy-two loaves of bread every day.
In very many cases those who took advantage of this
open-handed hospitality were too poor to pay a nickel
for the glass of beer which in other cases passed as a
matter of course. In this respect I think Hank North
was better than his neighbors; but both Frenchmen and
Englishmen who have had practical experience of the
working of the system declare that even when the
nickel for the beer is insisted upon they get better lunch
and more food. That is to say, better than they get
anywhere else in town with a nickel and without the
beer.
A very interesting article appeared in the Chicago
Herald by a writer who has taken some pains in investi¬
gating the extent to which the free lunch system prevails
140 If Christ Cattle to Chicago.
in Chicago, and he came to some very remarkable con¬
clusions which seem to me must be in excess of the facts.
Calculating that three thousand saloons run free lunches,
and that on the average at least twenty persons avail
themselves of the free lunch at each saloon, the Herald
calculates that 60,000 persons in Chicago were fed free
every day by the saloon keepers. Even if we estimate the
cost of the lunch as low as five cents this would repre¬
sent a contribution from the saloon keepers to the relief
of the destitute in Chicago amounting to $18,000 a
week.*
Of course the enemies of the saloon will declare that
this is a miserably inadequate attempt to remedy some
of the incalculable evil that is wrought in the commu¬
nity. Without gainsaying that in the least, it is only
just to remark that in the Old World, where we have
the evils of the saloon, there is not even an attempt
made to make such a compensation as that of the free
lunch.
After the labor unions and the saloon keepers the
most important feeders of the hungry are the Cook
County Commissioners, who are intrusted with the
control of what in England we call the adminis¬
tration of the Poor Law. The Central Relief Asso¬
ciation occupies the third place in the work of
coping with the distress this inclement winter.
It is the misfortune of Chicago that, like many other
*An attempt was made to abolish the free lunch in Chica^. In January a
meeting of the Saloon Keepers' Mutual Benefit and Protective Association of
Illinois held a meeting at Alaine Hall, 75 Randolph Street, in order to secure the
abolition of the free lunch on the ground that it was had business and entailed a
ruinous expense on the trade. The Chicago Times of January so, in a somewhat
jocose fashion, thus chronicles the rejection of the proposal.
" The free lunch has been saved froni the destroying hand of reform. It is a
matter of regret that the deliberations of the mutual liquor dealers have not been
reduced to print. But it was in no sordid spirit of profit and loss that the free lunch
was discussed by the mutual association of free lunch dispensers. The debate
proceeded. It reached its climax in the following peroration, with which Mr.
Johnson at length overthrew all opposition ;
' I warrant you that the saloon keepers of Chicago with their free lunch have
taken care of and fed more of the unemployed than all the relief societies pnt
together. Well did Mr. Stead say that the saloons in one direction were doing
more good than all the churches put together.' "
"The name of Mr. Stead seems to have hada magical effect, for thereafter there
was no more talk of abolishing free lunch. Who shall say now that Mr, Stead
came to Chicago in vain ? "
I was an Hungred and Ye Gave Me Meat. 14I
towns, she had no board of associated charities, similar
to those which have been organized in Cincinnati and
other cities. The leading position among the charitable
distributing societies was occupied by the Relief and
Aid Association, which for some reason, whether on ac¬
count of its virtues or its failings, cannot be said to be in
danger of the woe pronounced upon those of whom all
men speak well. The Relief and Aid Society, I am
afraid, bears a family resemblance to the Charity Or¬
ganization Society of London. Nothing can be more
admirable than the principles upon which they are both
founded, and few things can be less satisfactory than the
way in which a good cause has been rendered distasteful
by the pessimism of their secretaries. In London the sec¬
retary of the Charity Organization Society, Mr. Loch, a
very able man, has an absolutely unequalled way of dis¬
suading people from doing anything. No matter what it is
that is proposed to cope with the evils which afflict human¬
ity, Mr. Loch is certain to produce an elaborate reasoned
brief setting forth all the dangers and all the difflculties
with much lucidity, with the inevitable result that noth¬
ing is done. Mr. Trusdale, of the Relief and Aid Soci¬
ety, does not occupy so conspicuous a position as Mr. Loch,
but he seems to resemble him in the lack of that sym¬
pathetic fiber which enables him to enlist the sympathies
of the public. His society has done good service
with its wood yard, but its attempt to provide lodg¬
ing for destitute wanderers was a miserable failure.
Whether it was that they washed their inmates too
much or used too much carbolic acid or generally en¬
forced too many rules and regulations, I do not know ;
but as a matter of fact, the home which was maintained
at considerable expense was a dead failure until Mr.
Lamorris took it off their hands and ran it on a commer¬
cial basis, when it at once became a dividend-earning
property. The temptation of the Relief and Aid Soci¬
ety, as of all other societies, is to apply a cut-and-dried
standard to all cases, and to conclude that if the circum-
Ï42
If Christ Came to Chicago.
stances of the applicant do not fit their requirements,
he is \niworthy of relief. Had there been a more
sympathetic spirit at the headquarters of the Relief
and Aid Society, less red tape and more readiness
to devise expedients for securing employment, the
problem of distress last winter might have been coped
with without the agitation. It is well that charitable socie¬
ties should be scientific, but they should not at the same
time cease to be charitable. It is quite as important that
they should have the confidence of the benevolent public
as that their relief should be administered according to
cast-iron principle and hide-bound political economy.
Whatever the cause may be, when the distress came
upon Chicago thus it was necessary to provide relief
through other channels. The newly-fonned Civic Federa¬
tion took the question into consideration at its first meet¬
ing even before it was duly constittited and summoned
a conference of all the charities and public bodies in
the city. Action was taken almost simultaneously by
the Illinois Board of Charities and Correction and the
City Cotincil. Both, however, were abandoned in order
to follow the lead of the Civic Federation. A Central
Relief Association was founded in order to bring into
line all the existing charitable agencies and to cope with
the more pressing needs of the unemployed. An in¬
fluential central committee was fonned and branch com¬
mittees were constituted dealing with all branches of
charitable relief. An appeal was made to the public of
Chicago and all wage workers were asked to give one
day's wages to the relief fund.
Before long a street cleaning brigade some 3,000
strong was formed which provided a labor test and
utilized the surplus labor of the community for
the welfare of the city. For the relief of the women
sewing rooms were opened where more than a thou¬
sand willing workers were provided with means for
maintaining themselves and their families. The prin¬
ciple on which both divisions of the relief work were
/ was an Hungred and Yc Gave Me Meat. 143
founded was the same : let no willing worker starve,
but if a man will not work neither shall he eat.
The women's branch of relief was under the man¬
agement of the Woman's Club, Dr. Stevenson being the
chief director of its operations. Their organiza¬
tion was more flexible than the department which
looked after the men. The prejudice which pre¬
vailed in the minds of the chairman and the
most active workers of the Central Relief Association
against giving relief in money led to the issue of an
inconvertible paper currency in the shape of ten-cent
tickets which were only exchangeable for food and lodg¬
ing in certain specified stores. The Woman's Club dis¬
carded the tickets and paid for the work cash down in
the currency of the Republic. Whatever may be .said in
favor of the improvised inconvertible ticket currency,
there is no doubt that if the question had been left to the
decision of the workers who received it their vote would
have been almost unanimous to be paid in money. The
only advantage of the ticket is that it provides some
check against its being used to purchase drink, as the
saloon keepers were loath to take a currency which conld
only be redeemed on the day of issue. The other
advantage claimed for it, namely, that at the depots of
the association a ten-cent ticket would secure its owner
more than he could buy for 15 or 20 cents in the open
market, might have been overcome by the establishment
of cost price stores which would limit their custom to
those who were in relief work.
In New York, for instance, the Industrial Christian
Alliance raised f 10,000 for the purpose of founding peo¬
ple's restaurants, where a square meal could be had for
five cents. At this institution a bowl of good soup, a
bowl of coffee and three large slices of bread were sup¬
posed to answer the definition of a square meal. Tickets
were issued at $5 the hundred, for distribution among
the charitable. The cost of fitting up a restaurant with
cooking apparatus, etc., was $1,500. The five cents
144
If Christ Came to Chicago.
was estimated to pay the exact cost of the raw material.
This is mere criticism of detail. Whether by one
branch or another, a very great deal of arduous and vol¬
untary labor was performed by leading citizens. Dr.
Stevenson occupies the first position among the women,
while Mr. Harvey was the first among the men.
Mr. T. W. Harvey, the founder of the town of Harvey,
near Chicago, and well known for the leading part which
he has taken in connection with Mr. Moody's work in
Chicago, is one of the best-known and most public-spirited
citizens of Chicago. From the first he threw himself
into the work of the Civic Federation with the same en¬
ergy which he displays in the management of his own
business. Through the winter he subordinated the work
of his office to the attempt to find work for other people.
He was energetically seconded by Mr. W. R. Stirling
and by Mr. C. H. S. Mixer, who had both devoted much
attention to the subject and had rendered considerable
service in connection with the Relief and Aid Society.
Mr. W. R. Stirling has taken entire charge of the work
in the 7th, 8th and 19th wards.
The following notes of a conversation which I had
with Mr. Harvey in the middle of February, give a fair
survey of the work which was done under his direction.
I found Mr. Harvey was suffering from a disagree¬
able neuralgic trouble brought on by excessive work.
He was in excellent spirits and full of delight at the re¬
sults which had been achieved by the Central Relief As¬
sociation. Early in the day, when those who knew, or
professed they knew, a great deal about the condition of
Chicago were declaring that there were ioo,cxx) men out
of work, Mr. Harvey had assured me that the evil,
although great, was by no means beyond the power of
the city to cope with it He had the satisfaction of refer-
ing to his prediction and pointing to the results of the
steps which had been taken to grapple with the pressing
difficulty of the unemployed.
■ Ves," said Mr. Harvey, '* It has been a labor of love, laborious
/ was an Hungred and Ye Gave Me Meat. 145
no doubt, but with a rich reward in the consciousness that the necessary
work has been well done—thanks to the hearty co-operation of every
one and to the fact that these people who needed help were very good
fellows and men whom it was a joy to help." It was Sunday at lunch
time. "Ihave justcomein,"saiahe, "from being down on Water Street
where we have a thousand of our boys keeping the place clean. We
do not believe in Sunday work, but this was a Sabbath day's labor.
Water Street is full all the week and it is impossible to get it cleaned
and the boys are only too glad to put in their time in doing this nec¬
essary work."
" Tell me all about it, Mr. Harvey, for although we have read about
it from time to time in the papers it is difficult to grasp the salient fea¬
tures of the scheme."
" The salient features," said Mr. Harvey, " are very soon told. The
Central Relief Association, which was formed, as you remember, as the
first work of the Civic Federation, has grappled with the question in a
business-like fashion. It has secured the confidence of the citizens
and is now looking forward to the cessation of its more onerous
duties with the consciousness that it has done what it was appointed
to do; and, what is more remarkable, has done it to the satisfaction of
those^hose distress was the immediate cause of action. When the
Relief Association was formed there were from two thousand to three
thousand men sleeping in the police stations and the City Hall and the
Pacific Garden Mission. Our first duty was to find sleeping places for
all these men. This we did. Not by the wasteful and extravagant
method of building or buying buildings of our own, but by taking ad¬
vantage of existing lodging house accommodation and entering into ar¬
rangements with the lodging house keepers for providingeach of these
homeless men with a clean bed where he could lie down and be warm
ai night. It took some organization at first, but we had a great deal
of assistance from Mr. Lammoris—^a remarkable man is Mr. Lammoris.
We succeeded in establishing arrangements with lodging house
keepers in various parts of the city. Every homeless man was
provided with a bed at the cost of ten cents, which he paid for
by labor on the streets. No man was given relief without work¬
ing for it, unless, of course, the man was incapable, and then
he was handed over to the County Commissioners to be dealt with
along with other hopeless cases by the County authorities at Dunning
and elsewhere. The work of the Relief Association properly under¬
stood is not to deal with hopeless paupers or incorrigible vagrants.
It has to provide temporary employment to tide over a period of
hardship. That is what we have done. We have had 4,500 persons
upon our hands at work, which is a tolerably large family to look
after and to provide for by an improvised committee. Of these about
3,800 were employed on the streets; the remaining 700 were looked after
under the Women's Committee, under Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson,
which has done excellent work in looking after the women. We have
found reluctance to go to work among a very small proportion of
the out-of-works, even although the rate of payment was only ten
cents an hour. ' Our difficulty has not been to find men to work ; it has
rather been in limiting them to the number of hours which we deem
wise. The Relief Association never set itself to enter into compe.
146
If Christ Came to Chicago.
tition with the labor market as au employer of labor. Its aim was to
pay the minimum upon which an able-bodied man could live. We pro¬
vided work on the public streets wiiich would procure him that irre¬
ducible minium of subsistence. We calculated that if a man took a
ick or a shovel or a broom and went out to clean streets for three
ours he would earn thirty cents, which would be paid him not in
money but in tickets. We divided the tickets into three portions ; one
be gave for his breakfast in the morning before he started work, the
second fo»- his supper and the third went for his bed. We arranged it
so that both breakfast and supper were considerably better than he
could get elsewhere for 15 cents although they did not cost us more
than leu. By this means the tickets, alUiough nominally they had the
face value of 30 cents, were worth 40 cents, and indeed if you take into
consideration the advantageous arrangements made with lodging
house keepers it might fairly be said that our 30 cent ticket was worth
between 45 and 50 cents. This advantage comes out much more
clearly, however, in the arrangements which were made for the mar¬
ried men. We had only about ten per cent of married men among
our street workers. They were put on the long gang. That is to say
they were allowed to work double shifts and sometimes eight or nine
hours. A man who had earned 90 cents by doing nine hours' work in
the street was able to get provisions at our store which could not be
bought in the market for twice that money or nearly twice. This we
could not do as a general thing but it was done in the emergency."
" But can you explain to me how it worked ? "
"It is very simple," said Mr. Harvey, "and it is the most interest¬
ing part of the whole organization. You see we received a great
many gifts of flour and food. These we sent down to our depots.
We were also able to buy wholesale in the cheapest market, and in
many cases when we made known what we wanted the goods for we
were supplied, notably with boots for the mere cost of leather and
the labor requisite to make the boots. The result was that we elimi¬
nated the profit of the middle man. We bought everything whole¬
sale, and so we were able to supply our out-oNworks with a pair of
boots for ninety cents, which they could not have bought elsewhere
for^z.sa SoitwasMrith coal and flour and everything else which
thev needed. We were, as you may say, the head of a great family
with four thousand children, and by acting in that capacity and car¬
ing for them we were able to make a small sum of money go twice as
far as would otherwise have been the case."
"Speaking about money, Mr. Harvey, how much do you think
will carry you through ? "
" We have raised f90,ooq up to the present moment. We shall re¬
quire another $100,000 to carry us through the next two months. I
think that $200,000 will enable us to cope with all the floating distress
which the association can regard as properly belonging to its province. "
"Do you think you will get this money ? "
"Certainly, we have no doubt of it. We have been very much
pleased with tiie alacrity with which the wage earners and the lower
middle classes have responded to our appeal. Sixty-five per cent of
the money at present in band has come from that class. The response
has been very general and most gratifying."
/ was an Hungred and Ye Gave Me Meat. 147
"That is very good for the poor people," I said, 'but it does not
speak so well for the rich."
"Oh," said Mr. Harvey, "we shall get the money from the rich
now. We could have got it already if we had wanted it ; that is to
say, we could have gone round and asked a number of men who are
perfectly willing to supply all the money we need, but it is better that
the whole of this movement of relief should be popular and should be
from the people to the people. The result so far has fully justified
our plan of operations."
"How far have you found the people whom you relieved
strangers?"
" Seventy-five per cent of the persons who have applied to us for
relief, and who are now on our books, have lived five years and more
in Chicago. Many of them were born here. The popular accusation
that we have been feeding a host of tramps from the outside is a de¬
lusion. The average, I tell you is, seventy-five per cent of residents
in Chicago for more than five years. It is exactly the other way. In-'
stead of bringing people to Chicago from the outside, we have sent
away a great many persons who were lingering in our midst. They
were very glad to get home and get a chance of regaining their old
neighborhood, and who could not go because they had not the means,
or they had been so broken down and dirty and ragged that they could
not very well face their home folks. I should say there were four¬
teen hundred at least of persons whom we have given employment
to, and have washed them and got them clean clothing, and they have
been sent to the places where they belonged. There are more going
home. We are getting to know the people better and to know ex¬
actly what they can do and what kind of character they have got, and
we shall be able to find them places as soon as the winter passes. It
is astonishing what you can do with men when you get into personal
relation with them and establish confidence in them. It has been a
gp^at pleasure to me to go down morning after morning and see them
parade before they go out to work. They breakfast from six o'clock
to eight o'clock, and I go down to see that everything is going
straight. If the coflfee is weak they are very quick to make complaint,
and on oneoccasion at least that complaint was very well founded. The
supplier of coflFee had substituted a fifteen cent for a seventeen cent
conm, and the men detected it at once. Our breakfast is a substantial
meal; it is bigenough to leave something over for aman to put into his
pocket and make his lunch of, so that he could keep going until sup¬
per time. I have not been so pleased with working men for'a long
time. They are hearty and friendly, and there are very few kickers
among them. If a man growls or tries to do anything mean the rest of
the fellows round set upon him and hiss him. And why? Because they
know we have really their interest at heart. They know also that we
have not got so very much money to come and go upon, and that we
are doing the best we can with what we have. We are really endeav¬
oring to carry out with our street brigade of three thousand men
something like the socialists' ideal on a small scale—that is to say
we are endeavoring to give each man according to his needs. For in¬
stance, we parade the men and notice their shoes. Those that are
in a very dilapidated condition we form into what we call New Boots
148
Ij Christ Came to Chicago.
Brigade. They get an extra shift of work so that they can earn
their boots. That is to say, instead of working only three hours they
are put on the long shift and they will work six or nine. The average
last week of hours worked by our men was five hours. So
it is with laundry and with clothes, in fact with everything that a man
needs. Then we look out for their health. We have doctors at all
our stations, and they look at a man's physical condition. If he seems
to be very much run down they give him more work, or a chance of
doing more work. For we are not slave-drivers in our gangs, and if
he cannot work from temporary indisposition he is put under treat¬
ment. We have had as many as two hundred men in the bad weather
who had colds and other ailments. We had them laid up and attended
to, and in a short time they got better. We have been very fortunate
about small pox. There have been some cases, which were sent to the
hospital, but we have been very fortunate in having singularly few
deaths."
" Do you think," I asked, "that it would have been as well to have
made the tickets into five cents as well as ten cents? Ten-cent cur¬
rency is rather inconvenient"
'I Yes," said Mr. Harvey, "we are going to do so to-morrow. We
are issuing five cents because the men have to use a ten-cent ticket
for a shave or for a bath or for whatever they may need even although
it only costs a nickel. Now we are issuing nickel tickets and these
will be good for the bath or for the barber. As for tobacco, of which
some people have talked, that is not necessary; we have plenty of
tobacco at the store. We are beginning this next week a more close
and rigorous system of classification, so that we may know exactly
the trade and the record of the men whom we are employing. A
very great number of them are farmers' boys. We expect when the
weather opens to get a thousand of them back on the land and that
will be a very good thing."
" How have you got on with the labor unions ? "
"Very well. At first they declared they would fight and protested
against Ôie ten cents an hour for labor, but they soon came to see
that it was the best that could be done. I had one or two deputations
from disgruntled kickers who came to demand that we should pay
twenty cents an hour and employ everybody who was out of work.
I asked them how many there were who were out of work. They
said they thought there were about 40,000 who would willingly work
upon the streets or anywhere else at twenty cents an hour. A very
little calculation enabled me to show them that if we started on that
scale we should be out of funds in a week. The labor unions, how¬
ever, repudiated those gentlemen, and on the whole we have no
reason whatever to complain of the way in which the unionists of
Chicago have treated us. They have been looking after their own
men very well. We have relieved some unionists ; we never make
any difference between unionists and non-unionists, but speaking
broadly, the unionists have helped the city very much by carrying
their own people who are out of work.
" What about the churches ? "
"The Catholics, for instance, have looked after their own poor,
through the societies of St. Vincent de Paul and the Visitation and
/ was an Hungred and Ye Gave Me Meat. 149
Aid Society. Father Cashman and Father McLaughlin have both
been very active, and all their subordinates and assistants have been
specially active during this emergency in looking after the interests
and welfare of the Catholics.
Some of our agencies claim that in the St. Vincent de Paul Societies
each parish takes care of its own, without giving help to other soci¬
eties that may be less favored with means. I don't know how true
this is; but I should suppose that the richer parishes would assist
those that were less able to care for themselves. At any rate I have
no criticism for the work done by the Catholic denominations, as they
certainly give much time, thought and money to the care of their own
poor. Of course they are not able to care for all their wants, but the
Chicago Relief and Aid Society and County and the Central Relief
Association at this time supplement their efforts."
" What about the Jews ? "
"The Jews," said Mr. Harvey, "as a rule have supported their own
poor without assistance from us, but their funds have run rather low
and Rabbi Hirsch is getting out a special appeal for funds."
" What about the other churches ? "
" The other churches have done very well, but we have not suc¬
ceeded in creating the general system of house to house visitation
such as was at one time talked of. There are districts in the city
where certain churches in one neighborhood are combined together
and have undertaken a very thorough, systematic visitation of the dis¬
trict and have communicated to us daily all that they do, so as to
avoid overlapping. But these are the exceptions. There is one dis¬
trict which is very well worked, and that is what we call the Hull
House district in the seventh, eighteenth and nineteenth wards.
This is extremely important because it contains many who are most in
need of help. Ninety per cent of the Jews being helped are in that
district ; seventy-five per cent of the Bohemians and fifty per cent
of the Italians are also located there. It is a matter of very
great importance that they should be carefully visited, as they have
been. We hope to have a very interesting and useful report of the
Hull House visiting, where Mr. Waldo has charge of the registration.
Miss Addams, of course, while she was in town was the center of this
work.* The district which was best organized, outside Hull House
district, is that of which the Rev. Mr. Inglis is the center. He has sev-
*The following particulars concerningtbe Hull House district will be of interest ;
In the Wards, Seventh, Eighth and Nineteenth, there are 887 men at work who
are receiving 10 cents per hour for three full days in the week. This money all
goes to families who are entirely dependent upon this work for their support.
Each family has been visited and revisited to ascertain as to their needs and con¬
dition. Here aresomeinteresting figures.
Of these men fiSaare supporting647 women, 1,597 children ; total, 3.908 persons.
Average time in Chicago, 7.9 vears ; average number of months out of work, 5 1-5.
Total debts, fi7,236.10 ; total rent overdue, (5.546.30; pawn tickets in their posses¬
sion, 305. Total number of cases of sickness, 104 ; number of individuals needing
clothing and shoes, 536; number of families needingcoai, 351.
A summary of 134 other cases in these same wards who have been especially
long residents of Chicago and of whom only eighteen were disapproved as un¬
worthy shows 134 men supporting 139 women and 383 children ; total persons, 645 ;
average time in Chicago, twenty years ; averag;e time out of work, 6.3 months;
total debts, (4,126.35 : total amount of rent overdue, (1,496.50 ; pawn checks in their
possession, 30 ; number of cases of individuals needing clothing and shoes, 130 ;
Mmilies needing coal, 63.
ïf christ Came to Chicagô.
eral ministers associated with him and they do very good work. Most
of the churches have one visitor and some of them have two and these
are visiting and doing what they can, although there is a lack of
organization."
" How did you succeed in regard to the County Commissioners?"
"There again there is work which we foresee will be better done
next winter. We have been in friendly relations with them but we
have not been able to secure from them the lists of the people whom
they relieve. They are politicians and amateurs at the work of relief.
The way in which they distributed at first created a public scandal.
We have had people crowding upon each other in the streets. We
have succeeded in impressing upon them the duty of having a waiting
room where the people can wait, but we have not yet succeeded in
opening their eyes to the fact that it would be well to provide them
with chairs. Psychologically the chair is indispensable. If you meet
an applicant for relief who has been standing for au hour before he
comes into your presence, you have a man who is nervous and irri¬
table, and he takes much more of your time than he would if he had
been sitting for two hours on a chair in the waiting room. They have
dealt, I should say, with about 8,000 families. They have not confined
themselves to paupers, which is their proper function. They have re¬
lieved people more or less indiscriminately. Next winter I hope we
shall be able to establish a more intelligent system of division of labor.
The Chicago Relief and Aid Society, the old Chicago society, has done
good work. That is to say, they will have distributed some $90,000 before
the winter is over. They make allowances to families. They have the
whole town mapped out and they know very well where the need is
greatest. I had a curious illustration of the igpiorance which prevails
m certain well informed quarters, as to the operations of the Chicago
Relief and Aid Society. I asked a minister who was doing good work
in a district on the West Side, whether the Chicago Relief and Aid
Society was relieving any people in that district. He said he did not
think they were. I asked him if he would be willing to relieve the
Chicago Relief and Aid Society of all responsibility for cases in that
district. He thought he would. In one week I asked the Relief and
Aid Society's agent to draw me up a list of all the persons who were
receiving relief from that society in that district When the list wa.s
prepared I found that it contained no less than 1500 names. When
I handed that to the minister he was simply knocked out, and ad¬
mitted that it was no use, he could not undertake to do the work
which the Chicago Relief and Aid Society was doing so unostenta¬
tiously and so efficiently that the ministers in the district were not
aware of its benefactions. Mr. Mixer, who is Vice-President of the
Relief Association and a leading member of the Relief and Aid So¬
ciety, has been a valuable lieutenant through the whole of this work.
He was a retired business man and having leisure be devoted it, with¬
out reserve, to the service of the poor. He has come to our office
every day, six days a week, and has stuck to his work as he formerly
stuck to his business. There are others who have done good work. Dr.
Stevenson I have already mentioned in connection with the Woman's
Club. We could not get all to work in cast-iron methods at first, and Mr.
Sterling, who during the first weeks of the winter did very energetic
1 was an Hungred and Ye Gave Me Meat. 151
service, was disposed to lament our inability to make things move
according to rule and routine. We soon got them into shape and the
work has gone very harmoniously and satisfactorily and I am par¬
ticularly pleased at the hearty good feeling which exists among those
whom we have relieved. We have got these men to understand that
we are doing the best for them that we can, and they are cheerful and
I never had to do with a body of men who made so few complaints."
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, to whose work Mr.
Harvey pays a tribute of well-earned respect, draws its
resources almost entirely from Catholic subscribers. The
Catholics, who number 40 per cent of the population of
Chicago, include in their number more than 50 per cent
of the extremely poor, while more than half the wealth
of the town is in the hands of non-Catholics. Under
these circumstances charitable relief by voluntary sub¬
scription falls heavily on those least able to bear it.
Father Cashman, a public-spirited and enterprising
priest, started a trampery in the parish of St. Jarlath
which was a great success. He provided accommoda¬
tion for the hungry and homeless, and succeeded in find¬
ing places for many of them. The good work done by
isolated ministers and priests has never been adequately
appreciated in Chicago. Were I to attempt to set it
forth here I would have to convert this chapter into a
catalogue or directory. Even then it would exceed the
space at my disposal.
The work which Dr. Stevenson and the Woman's Club
undertook was extremely interesting, dealing as it did
more with the domestic life of the people. For every-
tliing that touches the woman touches the home. Mrs.
Abbott was placed in charge of a department of imme¬
diate relief, with instructions to act in emergencies such
as the prevention of evictions, the salvation of furniture
from foreclosure and mortgage and all the other contin¬
gencies which suddenly threaten the destruction of the
home. Various methods of relief were adopted; first of
all was the employment bureau, where every attempt
was made to obt lin work, whether in the city or in the
country, for those who were willing or anxious to work.
Then rooms were opened for needle-work, for plain sew-
152
If Christ Came to Chicago.
ing, knitting and lace-making. The women as a rule
worked seven or eight hours a day and received warm
lunch at Hull House, They were paid fifty cents a day.
In every way the club sought to tide over the distress of
the winter. There was, of course, a certain proportion
of reckless incompetents who gravitate to the bottom
naturally, not having it in them to hold their own in the
struggle for existence, but there was no skulking and
very little fraud. Many were married women with fam¬
ilies, but there was a good proportion of young women,
several from the factories and some from offices.
Another women's organization which did good work
was the Catholic Women's National League, which es¬
tablished soup kitchens in various centers and distributed
coal and bread to those in the immediate neighborhood.
Among the many institutions which have been started
during the past three months for the relief of the unem¬
ployed, that of the Brotherhood of St Andrew is perhaps
doing the most practical work. The office of this soci¬
ety is at 37 Michigan Street and is in charge of D. P.
Welsh, who for a number of years has been connected
with missions and charitable institutions. Mr. Welsh ac¬
cepts all able-bodied men who come to him for work, and
if they have no employment to which he can imme¬
diately be sent, they are taken in and cared for until some¬
thing can be found for them to do. The bureau has the
capacity of taking care of 140 men, all of whom are
given three meals a day and a bed on which to sleep, in
return for which they are expected to do a certain
amount of work such as splitting wood, addressing en¬
velopes and various other jobs. The home, at 37 Mich¬
igan Street, is fitted up with sleeping accommodations,
bathing facilities and, in addition, Mr. Welsh has intro¬
duced a system by which all the clothing of the appli¬
cants who are cared for is thoroughly fumigated so as
to prevent the chance of any infectious disease being
spread. The bureau is entirely undenominational and
is supported by voluntary contributions.
/ was an Hungred and Ye Gave Me Meat. 153
Looking at the work of relief as a whole, it may
be said that there was a well-meant attempt to cover
the whole ground, that a central association was formed
on sound principles with active and energetic men
at its head, and that in two or three instances sec¬
tions of the town were taken thoroughly in hand. But
although the work was well begun, it is only beginning.
The whole of the summer might be spent in elaborating
a system of co-ordination and co-operation, which is in¬
dispensable to any effort to put the community in a state
of siege against exceptional distress. Returns have
been made from some of the churches, but they have
been fragmentary, and the most sanguine would be the
first to declare that the effort to systematically district
the whole of the city under the direction of the Central
OflBce, directed by the chief of staff of the army of
relief, has by no means been realized. A good deal will
have been done if by next winter the Central Relief
Committee is in a position to issue a map of Chicago,
showing the 190 square miles of the city mapped out
into districts for visitation and relief. These districts
should so far as possible be co-extensive with the wards
into which the city is divided for electoral purposes.
Within each ward the churches should be associated as
far as possible in the work of visitation. If this were
done, and an efScient visiting committee established in
each ward, then should any fresh wave of distress over¬
take Chicago, the citizens would feel that they were ade¬
quately equipped to cope with any misfortune which
may overtake the community.
A good deal however will have to be done in the way
of active propagandism before the trustees of some of
the wealthier churches realize that they owe a duty to
the poor in their immediate neighborhood, which is not
compounded for even by the erection of gorgeous
ecclesiastical edifices or by the faultless performance of
snatches of sacred opera by trained choirs on Sundays.
CHAPTER II.
THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS.
Next to the relief of the hungry, by supplying of a cer¬
tain modicum of solid food in order to maintain life, the
second great want of our nature is something to drink.
" I was thirsty and ye gave me not drink " is the second
indictment which Christ says will be brought against us
at the Last Judgment. Under the burning Asian sun
the giving of a cup of cold water is a charity the nature
of which is better appreciated than in the colder latitude
of Chicago. In primitive semi-tropical lands the digging
of a well has ever been regarded as one of the most mer¬
itorious of human acts; and in modern cities there is a wide
field left for similar acts of beneficence, although, of
course, their forms are varied.
The supply of water to the inhabitants of Chicago is
one of the few monopolies of service which are in the
hands of the municipality. The bounty of nature
places an illimitable supply of pure water within two or
three miles of the lake shore and the supply of that
necessity of life is no longer left to the tender mercies of
the individual citizen. But as man does not live by
bread alone neither does he quench his thirst simply by
pure water. When they drink water in Chicago it is
usually iced and many people quench their thirst by
beverages in which water is only one of the many in¬
gredients. In America as in England the sanctified gen¬
ius of temperance zeal has not been able to devise
any drink that compares in popularity with beer.
Therefore the saloon, after the municipality, holds the
first place in the supply of drink to the thirsty.
According to the law of the State of Illinois the sale
of drink is absolutely prohibited one day in seven. This
>55
156 If Christ Came to Chicago.
is qualified by a municipal ordinance in Chicago which
permits the saloons to be open on Sunday provided they
keep their blinds down and admit people by the back
door. This ordinance is largely disregarded and almost
all the saloons in Chicago are run wide open all Sunday.
In the question of prohibition after twelve o'clock,
there is no municipal ordinance to break the force of the
law of Illinois. On the contrary, the municipal ordi¬
nances strengthen the law. Merely for the purpose of
testing how far prohibition prohibits, I employed an
agent to make a personal investigation one evening in
a district in the First Ward. The following extract from
an affidavit sworn before Mr. Justice Lyon, on December
14, 1893, gives the result of this investigation:
My field of examination was a territory bounded east and west by
State Street and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific tracks, and
north and sonth by Van Buren and Twelfth Streets. The tour of in¬
vestigation was made on Wednesday, Dec. 13,1893, between the hours
of 12.30 and 5 a. m., during which time I visited fifty-six saloons.
These were chosen indiscriminately, as it was impossible to go to
everyone in the district I have specified. Out of the total number of
saloons visited I found only four of them closed. In the case of the
other fifty-two, entrance was gained in thirty-seven places by the
front dooy, and in thirteen cases by the side door. At the remaining
two saloons both the front and side doors were fastened, but they were
immediately opened on my knocking. In all but seven of the places
visited I found men drinking, while in a number of them women were
also to be seen. In none of the saloons visited by me were the slight¬
est attempts being made to keep secret the fact that the sale of liquor
was going^on, while in two cases I saw police officers drinking in the
saloon. The only difference to show that it was after the midnight
hour being the fact that in most cases the window blinds were drawn
down. The gas in each place, however, was brightly burning.
The more zealous teetotalers of Chicago by way of
compounding for their own inactivity in this direc¬
tion turn to damning the saloon keeper. He g^ves
drink to the thirsty, as a matter of business of course,
but as they disapprove of the quality of his beverage,
they curse him up hill and down dale, through all the
moods and tenses, but they do not raise a finger to
minister themselves to the thirst of the community.
Let me make here one exception.
The Sheep and the Goats.
157
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union has sup¬
plied the corridor of the City Hall with drinking foun¬
tains, which are so much used they occasionally run dry.
That is good and deserves to be recorded to their credit,
but like " a good deed in a naughty world," it stands
out all the more conspicuously because it is unique. I
shall discuss elsewhere the question of the saloon; but
there is no doubt that, so far as ministering to the needs
of the human mechanism for the wherewithal to quench
its thirst, the saloon has done a great deal more than the
churches. Even in the distribution of non-intoxicating
beverages the saloon keeper does more than the churches
or any institutions run by the churches. At the same
time, if the saloon keepers are wise in their day and gen¬
eration, they will follow the example of the English pub¬
lican and supply soft drinks more widely than they do at
present. Bovril or beef extract, coflFee, tea, cocoa, as
well as lighter beverages which are at present chiefly
supplied by the drug store, are not supplied in the saloons
to the same extent that they are elsewhere ; and failing
any effort on the part of the religious and temperance
people to minister to the thirst of the community by
non-intoxicants, the saloon keeper might well be ap¬
pealed to for help.
" I was a stranger and ye took Me not in, " the third
head in the condemnation, recalls a virtue which has
almost gone out of fashion in the civilized countries of
the West. You need to go to Russia or still farther
east to find what a high place hospitality holds among
the distinctively Christian virtues. There are at the
present moment millions of men and women who are
wandering about the Russian Empire homeless, and in
one sense of the word destitute, and yet they are at
home wherever they can find a peasant with a roof over
his head. These are the pilgrims to the sacred shrines,
and the poorest peasant in all Russia would feel that he
had denied his Lord if he did not extend to the pilgrim
whatever accommodation his humble home possessed.
158 If Christ Came to Chicago.
In Germany, by co-operation between private charity
and the public authorities, labor farms have been estab¬
lished at intervals along the high-roads where a man
can earn his board and lodging and go forth on his
journey to whatever place he may be bound. In
England the organization is not so complete, but casual
wards in every Poor Law district are established, where
in return for the stipulated stint of labor the tramp, or
the working man on tramp in search of work, finds
accommodation.
In America not even these municipal makeshifts for
primitive hospitality have been provided. The re¬
sult is that the tramp nuisance is becoming one of the
most formidable of the lesser evils which afflict the
Republic. The papers all this winter have been full
of reports all pointing to the gradual evolution of the
laborer in search of work into the mendicant tramp,
and the still further evolution of the mendicant tramp
into a species of banditti. In certain counties in Ohio,
for instance, last winter, the tramps were little better
than highway robbers traveling from place to place on
freight trains. They alighted whenever they were hungry
and made a foray into the neighboring villages or
isolated farm houses, compelling the farmers to give
them meals and then tum over whatever money might
be in the house.
In another town, in Indiana, the Mayor provided every
night watchman with a stout black snake whip and in-
stmcted them to use it with vigor upon all tramps.
Every now and then the papers published telegrams de¬
scribing how freight trains were boarded and their food
and coal supply confiscated by the wandering wastrels
of civilization.
In Iowa the tramps, forming into bands of six or
twenty, made a practice of breaking into the most com¬
fortable school house in the district and converting it
into an improvised lodging house. There was usually
coal enough in the coal house to keep the stove going
The Sheep and the Goats. 159
until the morning, when they resumed their march. As
it was in Iowa, Ohio and Indiana, so it was to an even
more alarming extent in Texas and California. In
Texas they were reported to have formed camps at
stated points, where they rendezvoused and divided the
spoils which they had either begged or stolen. The
most fonnidable development was that which was re¬
ported from California in the month of December, for it
marks a stage in the evolution of the tramp into semi-
military bands. The reporter telegraphed:
The army of unemployed is moving eastward from the Pacific in
regular military fashion. Three hundred and fifty such men arrived
in Colton, Cal., a week ago, en route to New Orleans, camped outside
the city limits, ran up an American fiag on a pole, and sent a delega¬
tion into town to ask for rations. The men were of good appearance,
clean and orderly, and evidently were not tramps. The parties of un¬
employed are organized into companies, with captains and regular
roll call. The officers serve two meals a day, all sharing alike when
there is anytiiing to share. The citizens of Colton gave this particu¬
lar party too pounds of bacon, piles of bread, and several sacks of
potatoes, beans and other provisions. The men wanted food to last
them across the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico.
While the tramp was developing in this direction the
most notable utterance on the other side came from
Governor Lewelling, of Kansas, who had himself been
a tramp in Chicago nearly thirty years ago. His letter
to the police boards of Kansas created no small sensa¬
tion throughout the Western States by he pointing out
the fact that the right to go freely from one place to
another in search of work was part of the personal lib¬
erty guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States
to every human being. Even voluntary idleness was
not a luxury forbidden to American citizens. The habit
of fining tramps for being vagrants and compelling
them to work out those finesas municipal slaves on rock
piles was a flagrant violation of the Constitution. This
institution he declared was a relic of the slave auction-
block era. He declared that to be homeless and poor
should no longer be considered a crime in the cities of
Kansas. The method of entertaining strangers by con¬
verting them temporarily into slaves conflicted equally
i6o If Christ Came to Chicago.
with his reading of the American Constitution and of
the New Testament. When he was questioned as to
why he issued the circular he made the following
remarkable reply :
I know what it is myself to tramp the streets of a city seeking
work and attempting in some way to earn an honest living. In 1865
I tramped up and down the streets of Chicago trying to get work. I
was hungry, penniless, and was subject to arrest, but I was not a
criminal and ought I to have been placed upon the rock pile simply
because I was unable to get work when I was willing and anxious to
do anything that would enable me to earn an honest living ? I don't
call these people without employment tramps, and no one should use
such a name in connection with them. There is a large number of
people out of employment. John J. Ingalls says there are 3,000,000,
and Kansas has its share of them. The economic conditions of the
present are the trouble, and men are compelled to wander around in
search of work, not from choice, but from necessity.
The question as to what ought to be done with the
tramp is a burning one in many American cities, but it is
still as far from solution as ever. A circular issued to
thirty-five Chiefs of Police showed that the opinion of
the police authorities is almost equally divided as to
whether or not public provision should be made for their
accommodation. Sixteen thought it would be advanta¬
geous, while eighteen were of the opposite opinion.
Twenty at present furnish lodgings without any con¬
ditions as to cleanliness or work.
The professional tramp proper, in the United States,
is estimated at under 50,000, but this year this regular
army has been swollen by a great influx of willing
workers who are more or less undergoing a process of
degeneration which urgently calls for the attention of
the social reformer.
I have already described what is done for the stranger
in Chicago without a penny, but the duty of showing
hospitality by no means depends upon the impecuniosity
of the stranger. As a municipality Chicago has not yet
deemed it wise or necessary to intrust its Mayor with
the discharge of civic hospitality, which is undertaken
as a matter of course by the Burgomeister or the Mayor
in the Old World. Such hospitality is only provided by
The Sheep and the Goats. 161
a special vote of the City Council or is left to the
sporadic action of individual citizens.
This, however, is a matter of comparatively small im¬
portance. What is much more serious is the absence in
Chicago of any arrangement for providing clean, decent,
habitable lodgings for the poor man. According to the
best authorities, the floating population is about 30,000
single men, who are living at this present moment in
lodging houses which are too often foul, verminous and
full of every element which should not be included
in the hospitality extended to the stranger. This
army of 30,000 pays nightly for its lodgings, but owing
to the scandalous inadequacy of the municipal regula-
lation of the city and the absence of the philanthropic
enterprise, they are too often lodged like pigs and treated
worse than cattle.. The ten-cent doss house is by no
means an ideal lodging house.
A description of one of these places will give an idea
of what the poor and homeless men of this city have to
endure. Within a stone's throw of one of Chicago's best
private hotels can be found one of these lodging houses. It
is a small, one-storied frame structure. Its sleeping ac¬
commodation consists of one hundred and fifty beds (?)
which occupy the ground floor and the basement. Upon
entering the front door one is almost overcome by the odor,
which more resembles that of a long disused tomb than
that of a human dwelling place. Pushing open the door
the " office and parlor " is entered. Here in a room
twenty-five by thirty feet were to be seen, a short time
ago, crowded round a stove, twenty-seven men, whose
clothing was more conspicuous by its variety and filthi-
ness than by its adequateness. In one corner of the
room was a desk at which sat a good specimen of the
" genus tuflf." This individual hailed the investigator
as he hesitated at the door, with the question : " Say,
dere, you, does you want a bed ? if you don't, git ! We
want no loafers here. " Stepping to the desk the visitor
asked the price of a night's lodging, and after being told
102
îf Christ Came to Chicago.
deposited a dime. Saying that he would like to retire,
a doorway at the farther end of the room was pointed out,
and he was told in a far from civil tone to take his
choice of any of the beds. Following the direction
pointed out, the investigator entered the sleeping room.
For a few moments it was impossible to see anything in
the place, the only light coming from a dirty lamp at
the farther end of the room, which was about fifty by
twenty-five feet in dimensions; while the darkness was
made more apparent by the smoke from a dozen pipes
of the men who were lying in the beds and smoking.
The arrangement of the room was certainly unique in
character. The beds consisted of a piece of canvas,
which was fastened to the wall on one side, while on the
other they were supported by upright wooden poles,
which ran from the floor to the ceiling. They were ar¬
ranged in tiers, four deep, and the covering on each bed
consisted simply in one thin blanket, which in several
cases was reeking with vermin. In the center of the
room was a large stove filled with blazing wood which
only served to dispel any breath of air which might by
inadvertence have entered the apartment. In this place
one hundred and fifty men sleep, no precaution being
taken whatever to prevent the spread of any disease
which may be brought in by any of the lodgers.
Nothing has been attempted in Chicago corresponding
to the municipal lodging houses of London or the sim¬
ilar institutions which have long been successfully
worked at Glasgow. It has been left to a private individual
Mr. Lammoris, to do what can be done to provide clean
and comfortable lodging accommodations for lodgers. Mr.
Lammoris knows the lodging houses of Europe, and he
has managed several large establishments in the city with
great success. He is now preparing to put up a huge
place, a veritable poor man's hotel, twelve stories high,
with 1,200 rooms, and each room provided with an out¬
side window. When that building is completed, Mr.
Lauimoris' hotel will form a precinct in itself in the ward
The Sheep and ihe Goats. 163
organization of Chicago. Mr. Lammoris makes it pay
and pay well. But even although there are dollars in if,
yet this expert, who of all men in Chicago is best qual¬
ified to speak on the subject, has publicly declared the
need which there is for the licensing, regulating and in¬
spection of lodging houses. But as there is no boodle
in it for the Aldermen, they will do nothing. Mr.
Lammoris, speaking at a dinner which he gave on
Thanksgiving Day to 750 guests, said :
I have tried for three years to get the City Council to take action
for the inspection and regulation of hotels of this class. We have in
the east end of the Eighteenth Ward twenty-seven lodging houses.
We have frotn twenty-seven to 700 lodgers in each one, or an average
of 250 in each one, or a total of 6,950 men. We have in this whole
city only eight hotels that are run on the same or nearly the same
principle as mine, yet we have on the South Side and on the West
Side sixty-seven hotels that are run in every condition of disease
and crime. I have known of men to reach the city with $3 or $4. in
their pockets and through inability to find wholesome places within
their means have gone to these filthy and dirty lodging houses to
stay. After remaining a week or even less than a week they become
filthy and dirty and get in with men that have no self-respect, and
in less than a month they become criminals.
These are Mr. Lammoris' words, not mine. Judged
on the evidence of this witness, the city of Chicago will
cut but a poor figure if the third of the divine tests is to
be literally applied. Her hospitality to the stranger is
to convert him by rapid stages through dirt to crime.
One special feature of the housing of the penniless
stranger, was the action taken by a certain number of
churches, which, scandalized by the lodging of the home¬
less in the police stations and the City Hall, threw open
their buildings £S temporary, lodging houses until better
arrangements cculd be made for providing for them.*
This work was started by the Central North Chicago
Ministerial Association, and was one of the outcomes of
revival services held by the evangelist, Mr. Mills.
Father Cashman also was not behind in this work of
•Those who took the lead in the matter were the following: Beiden Avenue Bap¬
tist, Beiden Avenue Presbyterian, I.ake View Congrerational, Grace English Luth¬
eran, Wesley Methodist, Church of the Covenant, PuTlerton Avenue Presbyterian,
Christ Chapel and Union Park Congregational.
164
If Christ Came to Chicago
charity, and slung hammocks in the auditorium and
lecture room of the old St. Jarlath's church, and supplied
his guests with soup and sacred music.
The fourth article of condemnation, " naked and ye
clothed Me not" is a text which does not fall very
heavily on Chicago. Whether it is the severity of the
climate that kills out those who have not sufficient to
wear, or some other cause, I do not know ; but the peo¬
ple you meet in the streets seem usually to be warmly
clad. Even the little urchins who, at much too tender
years, are allowed to vend newspapers in the streets, are
comfortably rigged up. Of organized agencies for the
clothing of the destitute there are not many apart from
the charitable societies and the churches. The proprie¬
tors of a business establishment, however, gave away
$200 worth of clothing for the Salvation Army last
winter, and several other instances of like kind are re¬
ported.
The most systematic attempt to clothe the naked has
been made by the admirable School Children's Aid
Society, which has distributed about $10,000 worth of
clothes to children who otherwise would have had to re¬
main away from school owing to the lack of apparel.
About 800 children a month were clothed by this
.society, the funds for which were largely provided for
by a Thanksgiving appeal. Most of the contributions
were supplied by the children who were better off. For
every dollar that the parents have given, the children
have given five. A distributing room where both new
and second-hand clothing was received was opened at
159 W. Monroe Street The only criticism to offer upon
the School Children's Aid Society is that, much as has
been done, as the distributors know only too well, the
work was very inadequately performed. While some
were clothed, many more went without; there were
many of these little ones who could not be warmly clad,
because there were not enough clothes to go round.
Another point that may be noted in connection with
The Sheep and the Goats.
this " naked and ye clothed Me not," although it is not
absolutely in accord with the scriptural interpretation of
the words: clothing is a protection against cold, and
there is great need in Chicago for something like those
public warming places which have been established in
Paris, where those who have no active work to keep
them busy and who have to hang about the streets until
night time can find shelter within reasonable range of a
stove or radiator from the very cold wind which blows
on the shores of Lake Michigan. Such institutions
have been vehemently demanded for some time past
in London, where the question seems likely to be
solved by the unemployed taking possession of the read¬
ing rooms of the free libraries. They form part of the
public, they can read or pretend to do so, and it is diffi¬
cult for the custodian to discriminate between men who
use the library simply for a warming place and those
who are there for study. There are not many free in¬
stitutions in America which could be utilized in that
way. The fact that the evil has not obtained unman¬
ageable proportions, is due to the much abused saloon.
The saloon keeper is practically the only man who sup¬
plies free warmth to the chilled and shivering wanderers
on the street. In this as in other things, it is one
of the gravest questions which confront Chicago how
long the saloon keeper is to be allowed a practical
monopoly of ministering to the wants of mankind.
The care of the sick in a large city involves much
more than at first sight appears. There is, for instance,
the organization of first help to the injured, in which
Chicago lags far behind other cities. Miss Ada C.
Sweet, to whose energy and intellectual enthusiasm the
city owes so much, has spent much time and trouble in
endeavoring to bring about an improvement in this
direction, with but partial success. In reply to my
request for information as to how the matter stands now.
Miss Sweet writes :
An Ambulance Association is contemplated, but at present there is
i66 If Christ Came to Chicago.
nothing of the kind in Chicago. The Police Department has laid
UTOn it the picking up of persons who fall sick in public places, or
who are maimed, injured and dying. It has no trained men for this
service, nor surgeons, nor nurses to go with its heavy patrol wagons on
their missions of mercy, or even on its four ambulances. The entire
city owns not more than six ambulances, two being used almost en¬
tirely for contagious diseases and cases by the Health Department.
Hundreds of men die annually in Chicago of injuries, when intelli¬
gent, timely aid might easily have saved them. The hospitals have
no arrangements for responding to emergency calls ; the whole matter
of picking up and transporting to the hospitals persons injured or the
victims of accident, is left entirely to the untrained, ignorant police¬
men on the patrol wagons and the three or four ambulances stationed
about the city. Patients have to be carried miles over the rough
pavements, generally in heavy, stiff-springed wagons; their lives are
often jolted out or they bleed to death on the way to the County
Hospital, where most accident cases are taken.
It is no uncommon occurrence for an injured man to die unattended
in a police station. This happened to a man who had been struck by
a train of cars in Chicago while these pages were going through the
press.
The fifth head, " sick and ye visited Me not," recalls
attention to the fact that here also the specialization and
concentration necessitated by the condition of life in a
great city have deprived many Christians of one of the
means of grace which the Christian Church in all ages
has urged witii great stress. Instead of having the sick at
their own doors, where Lady Vere de Vere or her Chicago
prototype can visit her humble neighbors and cheer the
dying couch by the grace of her presence, the sick poor lie
many blocks and sometimes many miles away. They are
cooped np in huge hospitals or carried off miles into the
country and housed far away from all possibility of con¬
stant civilizing contact with the healthy members of the
connnnnity. The accommodation of the sick is supplied
on a more or less inadequate scale by various hospitals,
the largest of which is supported by the county, while
the others are of a more or less denominational charac¬
ter. A mere cursory survey, however, of the provision
of the sick in Chicago, reveals an astonishing lack in the
shape of convalescent homes. There are no institutions
provided in which convalescents can recover or in which
the incurable can be placed to die. Homes for the dy-
The Sheep and the Goats.
ing should be regarded as an indispensable necessity in
every great city. Even supposing that here and there
efforts have been made to provide for convalescents, it is
broadly true that the accommodation for patients who
have recovered sufficiently to leave the hospital is lament¬
ably inadequate.
To visit the sick is no longer regarded as part
of the indispensable duty of the Christian man or
woman. It is considered sufficient to pay taxes or to
subscribe to hospitals and to maintain district visitors or
to support religious orders devoted to the task as part
of the professional duty. The Nurses' Visiting Associa¬
tion and many other associations do noble work, but they
would be much better if they were supplemented by ihore
voluntary efforts, not merely for the sake of the sick so
much as for the sake of the healthy who need to be
brought into closer intercourse with their suffering
neighbors. If each of us were to be asked when last we
voluntarily visited a sick person we should most of ns
make a very poor showing. No one who has ever
been an inmate in a hospital or poor-house and has lain
silent, watching the long hours pass, can doubt that of all
the charities which cost little in cash and are worth much
in love and in service there are few which rank so high,
as that of the visitation of the sick. Yet what steps have
been taken, or are being taken, by any of the churches
in Chicago to secure a plan, let us say, whereby each
church should take its proper share of responsibility for
providing sympathetic visitors of the non-professional or¬
der who would take charge of their due proportion of in¬
mates in the County Hospital or of the old and infirm in
the poor-house at Dunning ? In a village or country town
where these sick persons would be lying within a stone's
throw of their neighbors' doors such visitation would be
regarded as a natural and necessary duty only to be
avoided by those who had no longer the love of Christ
in their heart. How is it that the obligation should di¬
minish as the need for its discharge grows greater ? That
If Christ Came to Chicago.
is a question which will have to be answered before our
lives can hope to escape condemnation by the metewand
of Christ.
The last division into which the duty of man is divided,
that of going unto those who are in prison, is a duty
which in the nature of things cannot be discharged by
every individual in the whole community, especially if
by prisoner is meant the ordinary convict prisoner. But
even there much might be done by the contact of the civil¬
izing influence of non-criminal kind upon caged-up-con¬
victs who are expiating their offenses in the Bridewell
or at Joliet.
The condition of things in the Bridewell, for instance,
where for years past juvenile offenders were crowded to¬
gether in cells, the comparatively innocent with the
incipient tough of the slums of Chicago, without any in¬
dustrial training, was an infamy which ought to have
roused the churches to action. But it did not, and it
was not until Mr. Pomeroy publicly denounced the con¬
dition of things upon the platform of the Central Music
Hall that help was given to Mr. Superintendent Craw¬
ford to enable him to carry out an object for which he
had pleaded in vain for so long. All state institutions
breed abuses as carcasses breed maggots, and the only way
to remedy this and to minimize the evil is to perpetually
keep every detail of the working of such institutions un¬
der the searchlight of the loving eye of Christ But
where is there among the churches of Chicago any recog¬
nition of their responsibility to the criminals in Joliet
or the offenders in the Bridewell ?
But it would be a mistake to limit the phrase, " I was
imprisoned and ye came unto Me," to the convict pris¬
oner. In the time of Christ the prison included a great
many others than those who at present find themselves
in the Bridewell and the penitentiary. All men under
restraint may be said to be in prison : the inmates of
lunatic asylums, those who are detained by the compul¬
sion of circumstances in the poor-house, all prisoners
The Sheep and the Goats.
of extreme poverty, who are reduced to a position of vir¬
tual slavery, and all those who are deprived of the right
of leisure which distinguish the free man from the slave.
In all these denizens of the prison houses of modern soci¬
ety we have to recognize the suflFering Christ of our time.
They are the least of these His brethren, and as we do it
unto them, so we do it unto Him. There is a phrase that
He used in relation to those who are in prison which has
a curious significance. ' 'I was in prison and ye came unto
Me." To come to a person is to draw near to him, to
be close to him, to be neighbor to him. Then there
can be no great gulf fixed between him and us. But
have we come unto Him? May it not be if we came
unto Him, especially those of us who are weary and
heavy laden with sins and troubles of our own; if we
came unto Him as He lies scourged and manacled in
the prison houses of our time, we should find the promise
true: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of Me ; for I am meek and lowly of
heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. "
PART III.—Satan's Invisible World Displayed.
CHAPTER I.
THE BOODLERS AND THE BOODLED,
There is a story told of one of the early Caliphs
which may well be recalled in this connection. When
he succeeded to the dominion of the Mussulman world,
he was asked by one of his friends, "Give me some
money out of the public treasury." The Caliph looked
at his friend in amazement and said, "What do you
mean? You want some money out of the public treas¬
ury?" "Yes," replied his friend. "I have been your
friend and would like some reward." The Caliph an¬
swered, " Come to me at sundown and I will help you
to some money." His friend went away feeling that he
had done well and that the Caliph had not forgotten
that "to the victors belong the spoils." He came
around that night punctually and found the Caliph
in disguise awaiting him. He was provided with a pick¬
axe, a dark lautem and a spade. His fnend was sur¬
prised and said, " I thought you were going to give me
some money." " I said I would help yon to get it,"
said the Caliph, " but you must also help me." So they
crept through the b>'-streets until they came to the house
of one of the wealthiest men in the city. " Now," said
the Caliph, " Stop! I know where this man keeps his
treasure chest. It is just on the other side of this wall,
and if we only work steadily we shall be able to make a
hole through the wall and you will be able to help
yourself to the money." The man looked at the
Caliph aghast and said : " Do you take me for a thief?"
"Why," he replied, "I thought you said you wanted
171
172
If Christ Cavie to Chicago.
some money." "But," said his friend, "it was public
money I wanted." " Then," said the Caliph, " when you
and I stand before the judgment seat of Allah, whether
do yo\i think it will be easier, for us to listen to the re¬
proaches of one man whom we have robbed or to those
of all the millions of the Faithful, whose money you
ptopose to take ? "
This saying of the Moslem Caliph, with his archaic
ideas of the responsibility of man to his Maker, not merely
for his dealings with the individual, but still more for
his dealings with the community, was far in advance of
the morality of the City Hall of Chicago. It is perhaps
too much to say that Chicago is and has been governed
upon a system of corruption, but whoever did make that
statement would not have much difficulty in making out
a very strong prima facie case in support of his assertion.
The sovereign people may govern Chicago in theory: as
a matter of fact King Boodle is monarch of all he sur¬
veys. His domination is practically undisputed, and the
recognition of its existence is the basis of the limitations
which are placed upon the taxing powers of the City
Council. It being expected as a fundamental principle
that the Aldermen will steal, the longer-headed, well-to-
do citizens, acting under the guidance of Mr. Medill, the
editor and proprietor of The Tribune., then Mayor of
Chicago, limited the taxing powers of the city of
Chicago to two per cent of the assessed value of realty
and personalty of the city. In order to limit still
further the amount of money liable to be stolen by the
representatives of the people, they elaborated the most
extraordinary system of assessment that ever bewildered
a financier or shocked a moralist. All this was not done
to any desire on the part of the reputable citizens to
place their city in leading-strings, but simply because
they knew by experience that the rule of King Boodle
would be supreme, and the members of the Council,
whether Republican or Democrat, could equally be relied
upon to act as his venal courtiers.
The Boodlers and the Boodled.
173
As a result of these expedients, which so severely
limited the financial resources of the city, the Aldermen
were driven to forage for plunder in other fields.
Unfortunately they were only too numerous and the
pastures to be obtained lay in tempting profusion on
every side. The powers of the city, although strictly
limited in the levying of taxes, are almost unlimited in
relation to the common property of the city. The
streets, for instance, have furnished an estate of incalcul¬
able value, which could be sold wholesale or retail to
the highest bidder. This estate was much greater
than might appear at first sight. For, as it is said of
freehold property, the owner possesses not only the sur¬
face of the ground, but all that lies between it and the
stars on on the one hand, and the molten core of the
earth on the other. No one who proposes to cross the
street in the air, either by an elevated railway or with
telegraph or telephone wires or electric light wires, or any
one who proposes to construct a balcony or bay-window
overshadowing the roadway, is trespassing on the city's
property. The surface of the streets of course affords
an almost inexhaustible field for revenue. There is the
right to lay down the street railways, and to permit rail¬
way corporations to cross the street or to run down a
street, together with the right to make side tracks and
connections with wharves and warehouses communicating
with the streets,* to say nothing of the right to cumber
the sidewalk with merchandise or advertising matter.
All of these things of course belong to the city by right
of its ownership in the streets. Below the surface
it is the same thing. No conduit can be made for
electric light wires, for gas or water pipes, for pneumatic
tubes, to say nothing of tunnels for underground rail¬
ways or subways, without infringing the right of the
city in its streets.
* The permit for a switch track or the vacation of a strip of alley sometimes
means more than a year's salary. There is said to be a recognized schedule of
prices.
Switch track to a coal-yard $1,000
Switch track to a brewery $2,500
174
If Christ Came to Chicago.
In the year 1892 the number of miles of streets
was reported at over 2,000 miles. These streets
are a portion of the civic domain, but only a
portion. There are besides great portions of the city
which belong to the Board of Education. These are
what are called the school sections, which are set
apart -for educational purposes. In the whole of
Chicago, the area of which is 180 square miles, there
were originally eleven square miles held in trust for
the purpose of defraying the cost of education of the
people.
These two reserves, the streets and the school sections,
constitute a civic estate of almost incalculable value.
No multi-millionaire would hesitate a moment to abandon
his possessions if he could exchange them for the real
estate originally devoted to education or the right of
ownership in the streets. Unfortunately this immense
estate, was left to the uncovenanted mercies of the city
fathers, in the case of the streets, and to the Education
Board in the case of the school sections.
The greatest part of the educational estate in the city
has long been frittered away. Instead of allowing the
space as a sacred trust to be retained or let out on lease
until such time as their real value could be utilized, the
thriftless and corrupt authorities jobbed away section after
section until only a beggarly lemnant remained, which last
year only yielded a rental of about a quarter of a million
dollars. The building stands upon one lot which
has escaped the general scramble. McVicker's Theater is
another prominent building which occupies a school
section, and here and there throughout the city there are
still parcels of property which are still held for their
original purpose. One of these, lying on the outskirts,
was saved from sharing the general fate by the action of
a public-spirited young school teacher. Any proposal to
to sell the school land must be approved by a plebiscite
of the citizens, but as a rule the public was befooled
and the trustees did just as they liked. On this occa-
The Boodlers and the Boodled.
175
sion, however, the job was frustrated by the teacher,
who, hearing of the corrupt deal, quietly whipped up a
contingent of citizens and when the matter came to the
poll the scheme was voted down. The result is that
the tract of land which would have been sold for a few
hundred dollars is now worth as many thousands. Un¬
fortunately there.was not a young teacher to stand in
the gap in other cases and now there is but a miserable
remainder of what was formerly a magnificent estate
left in the hands of the Board of Education.
Even this is by no means made the most of. On the
day when the people of Chicago wake up and decide to
look after their own property they will find that they
will be able to realize a much greater revenue than they
do at present from the school sections. One section was
made over almost bodily to the railways for use as rail¬
way tracks at a mere nominal figure. A searching in¬
quisition into the present statxis of the school sections,
with full particulars as to the terms on which they are
held by the present occupants, would suggest many
lines of inquiry that might be profitably pressed home.
It is not, however, with the school sections that I pro¬
pose to deal, but rather with that other great urban
estate, the streets of Chicago. The streets cannot be
sold in small pieces so that the purchasei can take them
away in his pocket. All that the city can part with is
the right of wa)' ; but this right of way, whether over,
on or under the streets, is a property the net value of
which cannot be valued at less than $5,000,000 a year,
while it might very easily amount to twice or three
times that sum. This estate yields $5,000,000 a year
in hard cash, not one penny of which would be earned
except for the permission to use the streets As this
revenue, .moreover, represents surplus profits, after
paying all working expenses and the capital involved in
the construction and maintenance of the plant, this repre¬
sents the sum available for the purposes of boodling. Bood-
ling is a euphemism signifying the corrupt disposai of
176 If Christ Came to Chicago.
public property by the representatives of the people in
return for price paid not to the public but to their dishon¬
est representatives. It would have been cheaper for the
city of Chicago to have paid every one of her Aldermen
$10,000 a year, if by such payment the city could have
secured honest servants, than to have turned a pack of
hungry Aldermen loose on the city estate with a mis¬
erable allowance of $156 a year but wilh practically un¬
restricted liberty to fill their pockets by bartering away
the property of the city. Sixty-eight Aldermen at í5io,-
000 a year would only cost $680,000 per annum. That
would have been money well spent if it could have
saved for the city $5,000,000 a year, which they have
been flinging away in exchange for bribes which in no
way correspond to the value of the property for which
they were given. The Aldermen knew that they were
dealing in stolen goods ; they were fraudulent trus¬
tees who, in order to fill their own pockets, conveyed
away the property of the city. Now it is an invariable
rule that the thief is at the mercy of the "fence' ' or receiver
of stolen goods. He cannqt fix his own price. A $100
watch will often fetch not more than $10 when it finds
its way to the " fence." It is just the same in relation to the
purchasers of city franchises. The predatory rich, the
unscrupulous corporations who are forever endeavoring
to snap up bargains, never dream of paying to the Alder¬
men the full value for the franchise which they pur¬
chase. There is no exact proportion whatever between the
value of the franchise and the bribes which are neces¬
sary to secure its passage through the Council.* The
*In the Chicago Record of February 19, 1894,1 find the following information on
the subject :
How much does it cost to pass a franchise ordinance through the Council?
There is no set price, because one franchise may be worth more than another.
The highest price ever paid fur aldermaiiic votes was a few years ago when a meas¬
ure giving valuable privileges to a railway corporation was passed in the face of
public condemnation. There were four members of the Council who rÑeived
i» 000 each, and the others who voted for the ordinance received }8,ooo each. An
official who was instrumental in securing the passage of the measure received the
largest amount ever given in Chicago for a service of the kind. He received |ioo,-
000 in cash and two pieces of property. The property was afterward sold for iiii,-
000. In one of the latest "boodle" attempts the Aldermen votingfor a certain fran¬
chise were supposed to receive $5,000 each. One of them, however, had been de-
The Boodlers and the Boodlcd.
177
Aldermen, like all thieves, are bad men of business and
are compelled to take what is offered to them. Occa¬
sionally they make a struggle to raise the price of their
votes from $750 to $1,500, but they never venture to
value their support at the value of the privilege which
their votes confer. Hence the city receives nothing,
while the Aldermen get very much less than what ought
to have been the fair market price of the boodler if the
market had been open and the transaction had not had to
be carried on in secret.
The method of boodling as prevailing in the City
Council of Chicago for many years is very simple.
Some man or some corporation wants something from
the city. It may be some right of way or it may be a
franchise for tearing up the streets in order to lay gas
pipes, or it may be an ordinance sanctioning the lay¬
ing of a railway down a street or to make a grade cross¬
ing across one of the innumerable thoroughfares of the
city. He can only obtain permission by obtaining it
from the* City Council. Now the majority df the City
Council consider that they are not in the Council "for their
health." As each of them went into it " for the sake of
the stuff" and for whatever there was " in it " for them¬
selves;" they think these favors should not be granted
without the receipt of a corresponding quid pro quo.
Hence it is necessary, if you wish to get anything through
the Council, to "square' ' the Aldermen. The "squaring' '
is done discreetly and with due regard to the fundamental
principle which sums up the whole law of the boodler,
namely : thou shalt not be found out. If it is a small
thing, such as an ordinance sanctioning a projection
over the street, it is not necessary to square more than
ceived and was to get only ti-y»- When be learned that he had been "frisked" of
|t,,soo he wept in anger and went over to the opposition, assisting in the final
overthrow of the steal.
The "Ss,000per vote" is the high-water mark in the Council for the last four
years. During 1891 and 1S92 there were a doaen ordinances which brought their
"bits." yet in one case the price went down to S.too. In spite of what has been said
of the good old times these two years were among the most profitable ever known
in criminal circles.
When it becomes necessary to pass an ordinance over the Mayor's veto the cost
is 25 per cent more than usual.
178
If Christ Came to Chicago.
one Alderman. This can be done directly or through an
intermediary. In all cases, however, the Aldennan must
be "seen." Remittances through the post are discour¬
aged ; bank checks are at a discount ; the transaction
takes place in the presence of no third party, but face to
face. If it is a very small matter a trifle will suffice, for
your Alderman is not above small pickings by the way.
It is a very different matter, however, when the question
is one involving a railway franchise or a new gas or¬
dinance. Then much more elaborate machinery is em¬
ployed. The Council is sometimes divided and redivided
into various rings. In the present Council one Alder¬
man, who usually can be found in the neighborhood of
Powers & O'Brien's saloon, can control forty others.
The head of the big ring is the boss. There is also a
smaller ring of ten, subsidiary to the greater ring and
working together with it The support of both rings
is necessary when an ordinance is to be passed over the
Mayor's veto. The smaller ring, as the larger, has its
own chief.
When a franchise is applied for, or in other words
something is proposed to be stolen from the city, it is
necessary to ascertain on what tenns the Aldermen will
consent to hand the stolen goods out of the windows of
the City Hall. For carrying on such negotiations, the
first desideratum is a safe man, one who can be relied
upon to keep his own counsel and who can be depended
upon not to take more than a certain proportion of the
swag. This gentleman is usually outside the Council,
but he commands the confidence of both parties to the
transaction. He is the go-between, and all transactions
are conducted by him by word of mouth. He seeks the
head of the ring to acertain whether the boys are hun¬
gry and with how little they can be induced to stand
"pat" Into the conferences between the go-between
and the boys the world is not admitted. The secrets of
a papal conclave are not more sacredly preserved than
the details of the conferences between the chiefs of the
The Boodlers and the Boodled.
179
corrupt ring in the City Hall and the corporations who
are in for the deal. As both parties mean business they
arrive at an understanding, and the money, whether it
be $500, $750, $1,000 or $1,500, is agreed upon. The
money is then put into the hands of the go-between and
deposited in his own name in the strong room of a na¬
tional bank. There it remains, the purchase price of
the fraudulent trustees of the people's property. When
the boys are assured that the money is banked in the
name of say " Mike," "Pat" or" Billy," as the case
may be, the safe man whom they have tnisted many
times in the past and who has never gone back on his
word, they proceed to fulfill their part of the bargain..
An ordinance, usually drawn up by the corporation
which proposes the steal, is intrusted to one of the
gang, who introduces it with such garnishings as he
deems desirable. If the franchise is not very objection¬
able on the face of it, it usually goes through. Alder¬
men are bound to oblige each other and as the city pro¬
perty has been chucked away every month without any
protest, it is quite possible for the ordinance to pass with¬
out serious debate. If, on the other hand, there are any of
the Aldermen who do not consider that they have been
properly treated or who have been left out in the cold
in the promised distribution of the boodle, there may
be a debate with heated discussion. Sometimes, of
course, this opposition may be perfectly genuine and
due to the natural indignation of honest men against a
bare-faced swindle. But even when this is the case, the
opposition is generally aided by one or more of the
boodling Aldermen who oppose the ordinance with a
view of putting up their price.
This maneuver is very familiar in the City Council.
It is discounted by the manager of the ring, who knows
the price of his boys as well as the farmer knows the
price of his hogs. Sometimes, however, the recalcitrants
are formidable enough to endanger the passage of the
ordinance, especially if the Mayor vetoes it and the
i8o If Christ Came to Chicago.
requisite two-thirds majority is required to pass it over his
veto. Then it is necessary that the boss "should be
seen," with the usual result Aldermen will reverse
their votes with the most extraordinary facility, and this
occurence is so familiar as hardly to call for a passing
comment. A story is told of a very well known boodler
in the town, who was at that time a member of the City
Council, and is now an aspirant for a federal ofi&ce. A
railroad corporation was endeavoring to secure a fran¬
chise to give it the right of way into the heart of the
city. The Alderman in question had not been offered,
so the stofy runs, so much for his vote as he deemed it
worth. He made an eloquent and impassioned speech
against the tyranny of the railroad corporation, dwelt upon
the devastation which it would make coming into the city,
and he voted against the ordinance. The ordinance was
passed, however, and vetoed by the Mayor. It was
therefore necessary to secure the necessary two-thirds
majority. The gentleman in question was to all appear¬
ances unshaken in his opposition. He had previously
intimated to the ring that they would have to pay him
his price or he would vote to sustain the Mayor's veto. As
they made no sign before the debate opened, he took part
in it and began a denunciation of the railroad company
and expressed his strong determination to defend the
rights of the people. While he was speaking the chief of
the ring laid an envelope before him, on the corner of
which was written "f i,ooo." Hastily thrusting it into his
breast pocket he continued his speech, when suddenly, to
the great amusement of those who were in the secret, he
wound up with the declaration that, notwithstanding
his detestation of railroad tyranny, and his reluctance
to see the streets interfered with, still, under the present
circumstances, seeing the great advantages which would
accrue from having another depot in the center of the
city, he would vote for the ordinance which he had
previously opposed. The ordinance was passed and the
Alderman was warmly congratulated by his new allies
The Boodlers and the Boodled, i8i
upon his conversion. When the Council broke up they
crowded him so that he did not have a chance of exam¬
ining his $i,ooo. When he returned home that night he
said complacently to his wife, as he produced the envel¬
ope from his pocket, "See, dear, I have made $i,ooo
this day," and handed her the envelope. She opened
it and found a $ioo bill ! The Alderman was sold. His
vote was recorded and the ordinance was passed and the
boodler was boodled. But as a rule, unless an Alderman
plays very fast and loose, he is dealt with on the square.
Of course every boodler swears that he has never
touched boodle and as a matter of fact boodle is seldom
distributed until after the campaign is over. It would
never do for any Alderman to so far compromise his con¬
science as to give a corrupt vote in the Council. In most
instances the Aldermen have never fingered a red cent on
account of the ordinance for which they have voted. It
is only after the ordinance has been passed and the stolen
goods duly placed in the hands of the receivers that
the division of the boodle takes place. The degree of
secrecy which is observed in distributing their respec¬
tive shares depends upon the degree of caution on
the part of the boys or the amount of fuss there has been
in the papers.* As a rule the distribution is managed
with discretion. The stipulated sum is sometimes placed
in blank envelopes addressed to the Aldermen in an un¬
known handwriting, who find them in some mysterious
way in the pockets of their overcoats. In some instances,
notably one in which a late mayor was said to have
been involved, the money was said to have been
placed under the pillow, for the virtuous man refused even
to touch it—at least until his visitors had left the room.
By this means the needs of the Aldermen are satisfied,
their consciences escape any pangs of remorse and there
is no legal evidence of money having passed.
■ 1
*Iii the distribution, the men are g^radedona ratio of "one," "one and a half"
and "two." The man who handles the funds and the bright gentlemen who in¬
dulge in the "con" talk would get t'.ooo each. Another nalNozen or so would
get tt.soo each and the price of a plain, untrimmed vote would be fi,ooo.
182
If Christ Came to Chicago.
The fact that money does pass is not disputed even by
the Aldermen themselves. There are some members of
the Council who are professional Aldermen, that is to
say, they have no other profession except that of being
an Alderman. They certainly do not live on the three
dollars a sitting which is paid them for their loss of
time. Aldermen of the city of Chicago have some special
privileges which are denied to meaner mortals. On
the production of their aldermanic star they are allowed
to ride as dead heads on the street railways and enjoy all
the conveniences of locomotion which have been secured
by the corporations by the votes of themselves or their
predecessors. They have also free entrance to all places
of amusement, a privilege which they share with police¬
men and other servants of the public, but none of these
recognized and legitimate privileges can explain the
sustenance of a full bodied Alderman and his mainten¬
ance in style befitting a city father on three dollars a
week. Where the money comes from is not known.
It is not well to ask too many impertinent questions,
but that it comes from somewhere and somebody may
be taken for granted. " In a fruitful year," says the Rec¬
ord., " the average crooked Alderman has made $15,000
to $20,000."
The precise number of boodlers in the City Council is
a question upon which there is often much discussion.
A lawyer of a railway corporation, speaking on the sub¬
ject the other day, said, " There are sixty-eight Aldermen
in the City Council and sixty-six of them can be bought.
This I know because I have bought them myself. " This
was probably a little exaggerated bluflf on his part No
other authorities put the percentage of non-boodling Al¬
dermen so low as this. I have gone through the list of
the Aldermen repeatedly, with leading citizens, both in¬
side the Council and outside, journalists, ministers and
men of business. The highest estimate of non-boodlers
that I have heard was eighteen out of sixty-eight Be¬
tween the minimum of two and the maximum of eigh-
The Boodters and the Doodled. 183
teen it will probably be safe to strike an average. We
shall probably not err on the side of charity if we admit
that there are ten Aldermen on the Council who have
not sold their votes or received any corrupt considera¬
tion for voting away the patrimony of the people.
Ten righteous men would have saved Sodom ; but ten
righteous Aldermen out of sixty-eight are not sufficient to
save the City Hall from the reproach of being under the
dominion of King Boodle. This is the abomination which
maketh desolate set up in the Holy of Holies, for the
City Council is the machinery through which the King¬
dom of God should be established in Chicago. It is the
agency by which, if at all, progress will be made towards
a happier and juster social state. The City Council is
the direct heir and executor of the Christian church,
and holds in trust many of the great Christian duties
which in the earlier ages were exclusively performed
by the Church. Yet here in this innermost Temple of
the Lord we have this supreme infamy — swindlers
and scoundrels sitting in the center of the whole
machine and treating their duties and their trust as
means by which they can fill their own pockets.
Since Antiochus Epiphanes slaughtered a sow on the
Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies there has seldom
been a more authentic fulfillment of the prophecy which
speaks of the abomination which maketh desolate being
set up where it ought not to be.
These boodling Alderman are indeed the swine of our
civilization, but unfortunately there is no Antiochus to
ofler them up ^ a sacrifice to the offended gods.* It is
a constant amazement to me that secrets which are in
the possession of at least fifty mortals, most of whom
•The Chicago Herald is the leading Democratic paper in Chicago. This is hew
it describes the Democratic Aldermen of the existing Council:
'■ The average Democratic representative in the City Council is a tramp, if not
worse. He represents or claims to represent a political party having respectable
Erinciples analeadersof known good character and ability. He comes from twentv
ve or thirty different wards, some of them widely separated, and when he reaches
the City Hall, whether from the west, the south or the north division, he is in nine
cases out of ten a bummer and a disreputable who can be bought and sold as bogs
are bought and sold at the stockyards. Do these vicious vagabonds stand for the
decency and intelligence of the Democratic party in Chicago ? "
184
If Christ Came to Chicago.
are married and many of whom are given to their cups,
should continue to be secrets, or that such a system
of organized plunder can go on, without any authentic
legal proof being attainable. To unearth such scan¬
dals, to bring them to light, to clear out the Augean
stable of the City Hall seems to be an enterprise
peculiarly inviting to the indomitable genius of an
American newspaper. Unfortunately, whether it be,
as I am frequently assured, because there are so many in
it whom the newspapers dare not offend, or because of
simple lethargy of conscience and indifférence to the
welfare of the town, which seems hardly less credible,
or to some other cause, there is no doubt as to the fact
Every newspaper man in Chicago will tell you first that
the system of government by boodle is going on all the
time and in the same breath he will tell you that no
newspaper has ever been able, excepting on one occas¬
ion, to secure legal evidence as to the actual passage of
money.
For the purpose of uncovering frauds which cost
the city millions, it ought not to be impossible to
purchase the confession of a boodler. Boodlers, accord¬
ing to the dealers in boodle, are divided into two
categories, the honest and the dishonest boodlers. The
honest boodler is the Alderman who, when bought, "stays
bought,' ' and does not sell out to the other side ; the dis¬
honest boodler is perfectly willing to take money from
both sides and dispose of his vote, not according to the
first bid, but the last Among these dishonest boodlers
who are for sale all the time, it ought not to be impossi¬
ble, to make a deal for a squeal, although the price might
run high. Then again public-spirited citizens at the
coming elections might find a much worse use for their
money than to spend it in securing the election of an ex¬
perienced detective to the aldermanic chair, with a man¬
date to take care to be in everything that was going, with
a view to a timely exposure of the secrets of the gang.
If such a competent representative did his work well, he
The Boodlers and the Boodled.
185
would probably not have much difficulty in landing
forty or fifty of his fellow members in the penitentiary
at the end of the first twelve months.
Discussing this question with a leading editor in Chi¬
cago, after he had put forward the ufeual futile pleas as
to the difficulties of getting evidence, I suggested to him
that nothing was easier than to obtain evidence as to the
identity of the boodlers. All that it was necessary for
him to do was to apply to the Council for a franchise,
and he would soon be approached by the guilty parties.
At present it might be somewhat difficult, owing to the
fuss which has been made on the subject, but last
year there would have been no difficulty whatever;
for the boodling was carried on with such comparative
recklessness that there would have been little or no
difficulty in landing the boodlers.
A gentleman who had applied to the Council for a
franchise a short time ago and who had met with no
success because he would not part with the needful, told
me that he had been approached by an Alderman who
intimated to him that he was the center of a group of
ten who acted together in the Council, and he was able
to communicate with another Alderman, whom he
named, who was the head of a ring of forty and who
could be got at, with the whole of his men, on the same
terms that the Alderman and his ten were willing to
dispose of their votes. The price, which he stated with
business-like directness, was $1,000 each, with probably
an extra $1,000 for the Alderman who arranged the
business. My informant said that he had taken no
steps to carry the matter further, inasmuch as he was
determined not to bribe.
" But," said I, " why don't you carry it a step further,
and obtain legal evidence as to the identity of the
Aldermen ? Get two or three persons if need be be¬
hind a screen or in a closet, who will be able to hear the
whole of the conversation and who can confirm your
testimony."
If Christ Came to Chicago.
" All very fine," said he, " and what would become of
any hope of my getting a franchise hereafter? I might,
no doubt, as you say, convict one boodler, possibly two.
Even if I had the whole of the witnesses' statements
taken down and sworn before a justice of the peace,
even if they had furnished me with the lists of the forty
and ten for whom I had to provide $1,000 each, that
would not be legal evidence against anyone but the two
persons with whom I had business. I might get two
men sent to Joliet, but forty-eight men would remain in
the Council, every one of whom would regard it as a
personal question to refuse me my franchise if I wanted
it. Even if half of them were rejected at the coming
elections, the rest would still regard me with implacable
hatred. A boodler never forgfives a man who has shown
up a brother boodler. You cannot expect me to do any¬
thing in the matter unless I am prepared to give up all
hope of getting a franchise, or unless you reformers, on
your part, would undertake to clear out the whole bood-
ling gang from the City Hall. As for me I shall lie low
and say nothing."
That conversation brings out very clearly the diffi¬
culty of obtaining evidence from the people who are ap¬
proached. It is equally obvious that those who are re¬
ceiving bribes are not likely to give evidence against
themselves. Therefore, if anything has to be done, a
detective Aldennan should be elected, or a dishonest one
should be bought up, or someone should promote a
franchise for the express purpose of being approached.
One of these methods would suffice to let daylight in
upon this particularly discreditable section of Satan's
invisible world displayed. If one or other of these
methods are not adopted, boodling is likely to remain the
chief motive power of the City Council of Chicago.
CHAPTER IL
THE TYRANNY OF THE ASSYRIAN.
The first impression which a stranger receives on
arriving in Chicago is that of the dirt, the danger and the
inconvenience of the streets. Those accustomed to the
care that is taken in civilized cities to keep the road¬
way level and safe for teams and carriages stand simply
aghast at the way in which the thoroughfares are cordu¬
royed by ill-laid, old-fashioned street car lines, the fiange
of which projects so much above the body of the rail on
which the traffic runs as to be perpetually wrenching
wheels off the axle. The civilized man marvels and
keeps on his way. But from marvel he passes rapidly
to disgust and indignation when he comes to the steam
railroad tracks. Here indeed is the climax of reck¬
less incompetence in city management, the supreme
example of the sacrifice of public safety, public prop¬
erty and public convenience to the interests of great
corporations. The Pope has always clung to the title of
Pontifex Maximus, but Chicago seems rather to aspire to
be known as Pontifex IVÍinimus. For instead of bridg¬
ing her railroads or making them bridge her streets
she has avoided bridge making wherever possible
and allowed the railroads to run along and across the
public thoroughfares of a crowded city at the street
level.
If a stranger's first impression of Chicago is that of
the barbarous gridironed streets, his second is that of
the multitude of mutilated people whom he meets on
crutches. Excepting immediately after a great war, I
have never seen so many mutilated fragments of
humanity as one finds in Chicago. Dealers in artificial
limbs and crutches ought to be able to do a better
i8^
188
If Christ Came to Chicago.
business in Chicago than in any other city I have ever
visited. On inquiry I found that the second salient
feature of Chicago was the direct result of the first.
The railroads which cross the city at the level iii
every direction, although limited by statute and ordi¬
nance as to speed, constantly mow down unofifending
citizens at the crossings, and those legless, armless men
and women whom you meet on the streets are merely
the mangled remnant of the massacre that is constantly
going on year in and year out.
"Can nothing be done?" you ask in amazement, and
you are told that the Mayor is trying to do something
but that it is very doubtful if he can succeed, the rail¬
road corporations are so powerful. " But what about
these infamous street car tracks with their murderous
flanges ? Can nothing be done to substitute more civ¬
ilized tracks ? " Another shake of the head, a shrug of
the shoulders. "Ask Baron Yerkes ! He owns Chi¬
cago." So you go from one to another and always meet
the same despondent, hopeless reply. Everywhere it is
the same story. The corporations have grabbed or
stolen everything. The citizens have not even a miser¬
able revenue from the franchises which gave the corpo¬
rations their power. They have barely a right-of-way
in their own streets. It did not begin all at once, this
usurpation, but now it is complete.
It is the old story of the Arab and the Camel. That
camel was the ancient prototype of the modem Amer¬
ican corporation. The citizens are crowded to the wall
by the corporations which they permitted to occupy their
streets. If the citizens don't like it they can quit.
The novelty, the wonder of all this is bewildering to
an Englishman. His old ideas about the sovereignty of
the American citizen, the free and independent way in
which the denizens of the great Western Republic
were believed to vindicate their rights, the traditions of
liberty associated with the American people, all combine
to obscure the tmth. He cannot believe that things
The Tyranny of the Assyrian.
189
are as bad as every one he meets tells him they are.
Even after many disillusions he clings to the fond
delusion that he is sojourning among a free and self-
governed people where the rule, " of the people, for
the people and by the people," is universally recognized.
It is only after a long time that he begins dimly to dis¬
cover that upon the ruins of popular liberty and repub¬
lican theories there has been established a plutocratic
despotism as sordid, as tyrannical and as lawless as ever
was permitted to scourge a people for its sins.
I have watched the rapid evolution of Social Democracy
in England. I have studied Autocracy in Russia, and The¬
ocracy in Rome, and I must say that nowhere, not even
in Russia, in the first years of the reaction occasioned by
the murder of the late Tzar, have I struck more abject
submission to a more soulless despotism than that which
prevails among the masses of the so-called free American
citizens, when they are face to face with the omnipotent
power of the corporations. " Wealth," said a workman
bitterly to me the other day, " has subjugated everything.
It has gagged the press, it has bought up the Legislature,
it has corrupted the judges. Even on the universities it is
laying its golden finger. The churches are in its grasp.
Go where you will, up and down this country, you will
find our citizens paralyzed by a sense of their own
impotence. They know the injustice, they know
better than any the wrongs which they sufíer, they mutter
curses, but they are too cowed to do anything. They
have tried so often and have been beaten so badly they
have not the heart to try again. "
What this man said, I have been hearing on every side,
in all classes of society. There is the most helpless hope¬
lessness, utterly strange to me. The Russian peasant,
suffering under a corrupt tchinovnik, who bows his haad
with the fatalism of his race, does not submit more ab¬
jectly to illegal exactions than the American citizen
to the endless tyrannies of his plutocratic task-masters.
The Russian peasant at least has faith in God and in the
190 If Christ Came to Chicago.
Tzar, and though, as he says, " Heaven is high and the
Tzar is far oflf, still who knows but that some day the
wicked ichinovnik may meet his deserts?" But the Amer¬
ican, if he is religious, does not think the affairs of this
world interests the Divine Being who is chiefly concerned
with chants and prayers and sermons ; and if he is irre¬
ligious, he does not think of God at all. As for the Tzar,
there is no Tzar ; the only substitute on this side of the
Atlantic for such a deliverer is the far-off, semi-mythical
conception of arousing of public opinion. "If public
opinion were aroused," say some more sanguine citizens,
" something might be done." "When or how?" sneer
the pessimists. " You forget that the country is not gov¬
erned by the opinion of its citizens, lawfully expressed at
the ballot box. It is controlled by the Dead Hand.
Read our Constitution and the Constitution of our State,
and see how cunningly the money power is intrenched
behind constitutional battlements. Think you that in a
country where it is unconstitutional even to pass a truck
act to save workmen from being plundered by their em¬
ployers, you can do anything ? If you carry your reform¬
ers at next elections, the corporations will buy them up.
If by some miracle they proved incorruptible, their legis¬
lation could be declared unconstitutional by the courts.
And if you want to amend the Constitution, you have
a very long row to hoe."
The root of the whole trouble is lack of faith in God.
If there be no God, or if He does not heed such triviali¬
ties as mundane affairs, if there be no law, invisible but
eternal, which is the silent but secret ally of every forlorn
fighter for justice and for liberty, then it is not surprising
that men's hearts fail them for fear and they refuse to
rouse them for the fray.
The citizens have acted each man of them upon the
principle of "each for himself and the devil take
the hindmost' ' They have made their fortunes if lucky,
or they have failed if they were unlucky, but the devil has
taken among other hindmost things the government of
The Tyranny of the Assyrian.
191
the city. Instead of seeing to it that the authorities
were just men, upright, fearing God and hating covetou.--
ness, they left the worst elements in the community to
convert the city government into a joint stock corpora¬
tion for the spoliation of the people and the promotion
of peijury, corruption and all unrighteousness. And
now, having accepted Cain's gospel and lived up to it,
they are reaping the consequences.
The more I look into the operations of the laws which
have reduced the city of Chicago to this present unen¬
durable position face to face with the spoiler in the
streets, the more I am reminded of the old familiar story
of the fate of the Children of Israel after they had es¬
tablished themselves and had waxed fat and comfortable
in the Land of Promise. As it was then, when the hosts
of Moab and of Midian and of the Mesopotamians fell
upon the chosen people and smote them and spoiled
them, so it is to-day in the city of Chicago.
Just before the French Revolution, Gibbon, on con¬
cluding his history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, complacently congratulated civilization upon
the fact that there were no longer any hordes of barbar¬
ians on its frontiers who might repeat the havoc of At¬
tila the Hun, or Alaric the Goth. But a few years
passed and the Reign of Terror proved that civilization
could breed her own savages within her own frontiers,
and that in the slums of her capitals were hordes as ca¬
pable of devastating the land as any of the hosts that
followed Attila to the sack of Rome. The American
Republic, in like manner, although too strong to be in any
danger from without, is now learning that democracies
can breed tyrants and that the conquerors of old who
overran empires for the sake of plunder, and impover¬
ished whole nations to fill their treasuries, have their
legitimate heirs and successors in the coalesced pluto¬
cracy of the United States.
Chicago is as much under the rule of the Assyrian as
were the Jews in olden time. Only our Assyrians seem
192 If Christ Came to Chicago.
to come not from the Euphrates Valley, but from Phila¬
delphia. It is a great mistake to imagine that the
Assyrian or any other Eastern conqueror established
the minute despotism of the modern state. What these
ancients wanted was not so much to interfere with the
liberties of their subjects as to plunder them and to deal
with them as they pleased. They killed a few, not
more than they wished to, the rest they spared to earn
the tribute money. Their interests were solely selfish.
They left like the Turk of this day the local tribal
or national organization, almost uninjured. All that
they wanted was plunder, and in collecting that plunder
they were as indifferent to the comfort and life and con¬
venience of their luckless subjects as any street rail¬
way company or railroad corporation or gas trust in the
whole United States.
As the Assyrian crushed Israel as the direct result of
the misgovernment of the country and the indifference
of its rulers to the welfare of the poor among the peo¬
ple, so the present plight of the citizens of Chic¬
ago is the direct result of their past indifference to
honesty and justice in their elected representatives
Hence it is that Isaiah's words apply almost without an
alteration to the present situation:
1. Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write
grievousness which they have prescribed ;
2. To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the
right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and
that they may rob the fatherless !
3. And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desola¬
tion which shall come from far ? to whom will ye flee for help 7 and
where will ye leave your glory ?
4. Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they
shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away,
but his hand is stretched out still.
5. O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is
mine indignation.
6. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the
people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to
take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
That, at least, it must be admitted, is exactly what
our Assyrian has done and is doing. He takes the
The Tyranny of the Assyrian. 193
spoil, he takes the prey and he treads us down like the
mire of the streets.
To those who have never visited Chicago, and to many
who have grown up and become accustomed to the con¬
dition of things as they exist, the comparison between
the great corporations and the Assyrian who oppressed
the children of Israel may seem rhetorical or far-fetched.
But anyone who will take the trouble to look into the
facts will see that the comparison is strictly just, and
after due allowance is made for the fervor and vivid
imagery of the Jewish seer, no language can more ex¬
actly express what the corporationss are doing in Chicago
than the verses in which he addresses the Assyrian.
Chicago has not yet a patron saint. Considering
the intense feverish restlessness which characterizes the
city, an unkind wag suggested that St. Vitus, of St. Vi¬
tus' dance, would be the most appropriate selection.
Those, however, who take a bird's-eye view of the
city, looking down on it, say, for instance, from the
Auditorium tower, would have no hesitation in deciding
that Chicago is the living prototype of St. Lawrence,
who was stretched upon a gridiron and whose torture is
one of the familiar horrors of Catholic picture galleries.
This great city with a million and a half of population
is stretched over a gridiron of rails which cross and re-
cross the city and form a complex network of tracks,
every mesh of which is stained with human blood. It is
not for nothing that the dismal bell of the locomotive
rings incessantly as it tears its way into the heart of Chi¬
cago through the streets. In England the locomotives
use the whistle, not the bell, and this solemn weird toll¬
ing of the bell is very impressing to the imagination of
the visitor who hears it for the first time sounding every
hour, year in, year out, summer and winter. As regularly
as the sun rises these great engines slay their man in
and upon the streets of Chicago. No other great city in
the world has allowed its streets to be taken possession
of to a similar extent, and the massacre resulting there-
194
If Christ Came to Chicago.
from is greater than that of many battles. We in Eng¬
land have always one or more little wars upon our hands on
our frontiers where they impinge upon the lawless tribes
in Africa and Asia, but I do not think that it is too much
to say that in the last five years we have had fewer soldiers
killed in our wars all round the world than have been
slaughtered in the streets of Chicago at the grade cross¬
ing. The figures are: in 1889, 257; 1890, 294; 1891, 323;
1892, 394; 1893, 431. As might be expected, the num¬
ber of these railroad murders steadily increases with the
growth of the population. In the city of Chicago there
are under 2,500 miles of roadway, but there are 1,375
miles of railroad track within the same area. The rail¬
roads traverse the streets at grade in 2,000 places. Un¬
der Mayor Washburne a commission was appointed to
investigate the matter, and an effort was made to ascer¬
tain the obstruction to traffic caused by this system. Mr.
E. S. Dreyer, speaking at the Sunset Club, where the sub¬
ject was discussed on February i, said :
Our terminal commission caused to be taken, by careful enumera¬
tors, a count at thirty-six of our most dangerous crossings on a certain
business day, from the hour of six in the morning to seven in the even¬
ing, and their report showed that there passed dumig that time over the
thirty-six crossings 68,375 vehicles, 9,145 street cars, 221,942 streetcar
passengers and 119,181 pedestrians. The gates at these crossings were
lowered 3,031 times, and the total time the gates were closed on the
thirty-six crossings was over twelve hours, dela3dng 15,000 vehicles,
2,320 street cars with 51,367 passengers and 18,212 pedestrians.
These figures, be it noted, have only regard to thirty-
six of the 3,000 crossings in the city For years past
the city has protested, but protested in vain. The rail¬
roads ride roughshod over the convenience, the rights and
the lives of the citizens. Sisera with his 900 chariots
of iron never tyrannized more ruthlessly over the
Hebrews than the railroads with their fire chariots of
steel have lorded it over the city of Chicago.
Every week in Chicago you read of grade crossing acci¬
dents, and it is very seldom that you hear of anything
being done to saddle anyone with the responsibility for
the loss of life. The evidence before the jury is usually to
The Tyranny of the Assyrian.
195
the following effect ; the gates were not lowered, the
watchman was not in attendance, no whistle was
sounded, no bell was rung. The deceased was crossing
the track all unwitting of any danger, when a train
dashed up with the inevitable result. In many cases
the bodies are mutilated out of all human semblance.
The nightmare imagination of those gruesome artists
who exult in describing the torture and mutilation of help¬
less victims could depict nothing more terrible than the
human sacrifices which are offered up daily on the altar
of the Railway Moloch by the city of Chicago. Very
rarely is anyone saddled with responsibility. On Feb¬
ruary 2 a jury returned a verdict against one of the divis¬
ion superintendents of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pa¬
cific Railroad, but nothing seems to have come of it.
The only redress is to prosecute the railroad company for
damages. This often involves a law suit with the casualty
companies with whom the railways have contracted for
all liabilities for injury to life and limb. The railraods
have taken the precaution of protecting themselves by
law. By an infamous act, boodled through the Illinois
Legi.slature by railroad influence, no jury is allowed to
award more than $5,000 damages against the railroads
for cansing the death of any citizen.
The usurpation of the streets of the city is none the less
a usurpation because it was achieved by gold and not by
steel. In many cases railroads have laid their tracks
through the streets without even going through the for¬
mality of asking for a franchise. They have treated Chi¬
cago as a conquered territory. The strolling Tartar, who
in the Middle Ages wandered absolute lord over Russia,
was the prototype of the railroad corporations in the cap¬
ital of the West. For the use of the streets the railroads
have not paid a cent into the City Treasury. Whatever
payment they made was made corruptly and went into the
pockets of the Aldermen, and sometimes of the Mayor.
If they paid $100 a mile for way-leave that would bring
in the city a revenue of nearly $200,000. So far from
196
If Christ Came to Chicago.
doing any such thing, the railroads have imposed upon
the city an expenditure which is estimated at $30,000 in
the salaries of twenty-five policemen and other employes,
paid by the city for the purpose of raising and lowering
the gates and of warning citizens to escape slaughter.
Further, they have put the city to the expense of millions
in the building of viaducts over their tracks where the ex¬
penditure of life became too great even for Chicago to
tolerate. In 1892 the cost of maintaining these via¬
ducts was no less than $146,000. For the privilege
therefore of keeping the annual total of human sacri¬
fices down to a victim a day the city pays blood money
amounting to $176,000 a year.
But, it may be urged, the city has in its own hands the
power of taxation and it can recoup itself from the enor¬
mously valuable property within its limits. Here again
we are confronted with another specimen of the way in
which the citizen goes to the wall. Mr. Washbume,
when Mayor of Chicago, stated publicly that the value
of railway property in the city was not less than $350,-
000,000. It is to-day assessed at less than $19,000,000.
The steam railroads are the worst oppressors from the
point of view of human life, but from the point of view
of plunder and of injury to health and happiness the
street railways leave them far behind. In a city like
Chicago, where the distances are so great as constantly
to occasion the regret that the building of the city had
not been postponed until tha race had developed wings,
street railways are as indispensable as the streets, and
they should no more be handed over to speculative
coiporations than the highroads. From the practical
point of view it is pretty much the same thing, for the
owner of the street railway has not only the railway but
has also the street. He breaks up the driveway and
treats the road as though it belonged to him. The
arguments against municipal ownership of street rail¬
ways would have more force if the speculative corpora¬
tions who are in possession of the monopoly of streets
The Tyranny of the Assyrian.
197
could be kept up to mark by competition. In the neces¬
sity of things this cannot be. The street railway is a
monopoly, and a monopoly of service for the whole
people should be in the hands of the representatives
of the whole people. The usual result has followed in
Chicago. There is nothing about which there is more
clamor than about the infamies of street railways.
The overcrowding of the cars is little less than a public
scandal. The city railway companies have plenty of cars,
and plenty of power, for the cables run just the same
whether there are few cars on the line or many, but in
order to save conductors' salaries they cynically compel
one-half of the traveling public of Chicago to travel
without seats. A Chicago car at the rush time, in the
middle of the day or early in the morning or late at night,
is a sight which once seen is not easily forgotten. Every
seat is filled and all the space between the seats is choked
with a crowded mass of humanity. The unlucky individ¬
uals are holding on by a strap from the roof. At the
platform at each end of the car a crowd is hanging on by
its eyelids as thick as bees when they are swarming.
The first time I saw it, it reminded me of one of Doré's
pictures of a scene in Dante's hell. When appealed to
to give better accommodation those companies which are
paying from 9 to 24 per cent reply that their dividends
come from the people who hang on by the straps, and that
things are to remain as they are. The cable service, es¬
pecially on the North Side, is perpetually breaking down,
the horse cars are miserably slow, badly horsed and most
inadequate. It was quite recently that the tyrants of the
car scouted the idea of heating them in winter time and
compelled their luckless travelers to shiver for an hour
at a time in unwarmed vehicles. The rails are laid in
such a fashion that they provoke the incredulous com¬
ments of a stranger, and some of the busiest roadways of
the town are crossed and recrossed by a corduroy of steel
inconceivable to anyone who has ever lived in a civilized
country. When the snow comes the companies simply
If Christ Came to Chicago.
sweep it to either side of the track ; and notwithstand¬
ing the city ordinances compelling them to remove the
snow, they leave it lying on the streets with the result
that this winter the indignant citizens retaliated by pil¬
ing the snow over the tracks and stopping traffic. Scrim-
ages ensued which threatened on more than one occa¬
sion to end in serious riots. Even if they could not run
more cars, the South Side cable could follow the universal
custom of the Old World and carry passengers on the
roof, where in five days out of six it is much pleasanter
than the inside. Mr. Pullman has devised an admirable
double-deck car, but as its adoption would require the
changing of the rolling stock that is not to be thought of ;
for nothing is bad enough for those who use the street
cars in Chicago so long as it does not fall to pieces on
the line of track. And this right to compel the citizens
to endure all these costs and exactions was obtained by
bribery of the most barefaced kind.
It is not only the surfaces of the streets which were
handed over to the street railway companies by boodling
Aldennen. They are in possession at the present moment
of two tunnels under the river, both of which have been
handed over to them without any adequate return. The
Washington tunnel, which it would have cost the com¬
panies thousands to build, was given them on condition
that they moved the Madison street bridge to Washing¬
ton. This cost them a bagatelle. A similar preposter¬
ous agreement handed over the La Salle tunnel to Mr.
Yerkes' company on the North Side. Two bridges were
put up, at Clark Street and Wells Street, which cost the
company about one-tenth one-fifth of what the tunnel cost
the city, and much less than what it would have cost the
company to construct the tunnel at the time they took
it over. The city was plundered in the matter of the tun¬
nels to the extent of at least one million dollars and it
would have cost the railway corporations twice as much
again to have built the tunnels themselves.*
The financial result of these privileges would make the
The Tyranny of the Assyrian. 199
mouth of a Turkish Pasha water. The following are
the figures :
Net earnings after pay- Paid
ing interest on bonds. to the
Capital. Dividend. 1S94. City.
North Chicago j 8,000,000 11^ $t,600,000 22,687
West Chicago 10,000,000 9 2,340,000 20,874
City of Chicago 24 8,500,000 11,811
Five or six years ago the street railway companies se¬
cured by the usual means an extension of their fran¬
chises for another fifteen years ; the net result of which
is that they will continue to enjoy the undisputed mono¬
poly which brings them in these enormous dividends
until 1904. If the franchises, instead of being renewed
six years ago, had been allowed to lapse, as they would
have done about the present time, it would have been
possible for the city to have possessed itself of the car
lines upon terms which would have been equitable to the
company and would have yielded the city a net annual
income of at least four million dollars. That is to say
that the city has been robbed by its corrupt Aldermen of
nearly twice as much as the total sum raised every year
by the pew rents, collections and by all the machinery of
church finance. Or to put it another way, the tax upon
real and personal property in the city of Chicago does
not amount to more than $4,8oo,o(X> a year. Almost the
whole of this sum might have been raised by the city
railway corporations in the hands of an honest City
Council, t
*See an admirable article in the Chicago Tribune, April 4,1892, on this subject.
It is reprinted in a most useful pamphlet by Barton A. Alrich, entitled, "How
Should Chicago be Governed? "
fOn this point I may quote the published statement of Mr. W. J. Onahan,
who for two years was Comptroller of the City Treasury. Mr. Onahan says :
"If the city, since it became a city, had received proper annual compensation
for all the franchises that have been ignorantly and corruptly disused of for
nothing, Chicago would today have income enough to run its affairs without
levying a dollar taxation on real estate or personal property. I can prove it if
called upon. Consider the privileges that have been given the steam railways
from the Illinois Central to the last to come in. In connection with these steam
railways look at the countless private switches and tracks—all given away. Then
the street railways, the gas companies, the electric lighting companies, the tele¬
phone companies, the water privileges, dock privileges, and I don't know what
all. Why, every one of these favored interests, which secured their privileges by
bribing Aldermen and corrupting officials, ought to be millions in annual tribute
to the city. I repeat that if our rights in this regard had been looked afrer in the
beginning and been carefully guarded ever since, there WQuld be no need now to
talk about taxes or their injustices and inequalities,'*
200 If Christ Came to Chicago.
Instead of this sum the city railway companies pay
over to the city a license tax amounting last year to
$50,000. Even here there is a swindle into which Mayor
Hopkins is making diligent inquiries. The companies
pay a tax of $50 a year upon the cars in service. But
no car is held to be in service by the companies unies.*
it makes thirteen round trips every day. As half the
cars do not make thirteen round trips a day, they do not
pay the license, and the city loses $50,000 a year in con¬
sequence.
The total capital of the street railway companies, as
shown by latest published account, is only $26,500,000.
If all the working expenses were unchanged and the
company received five per cent upon its stock, this would
still leave a balance available to the city of $4,000,000,
^the sum which the Assyrians levy upon the citizens
^of Chicago.*
The third of the oppressors under whose tyranny
Chicago is groaning is the Gas Trust. To begin with,
there ought not to be any gas trust in Chicago. By the
law of the State of Illinois, trusts are illegal, and have
no legal rights. The seven companies, however, who
form the Trust, keep their accounts separate, and
swear that they are no trust—for subterfuge and
trickery are among the weapons of the oppressor in
every age. Among the other limitations of the prerog¬
atives of the city of Chicago it is not allowed to own
or operate its own gas plant. It has therefore tried to
get cheap gas by encouraging competition. Franchises
were granted to various corporations, but they always
amalgamated and combined in order to plunder the
*Tbe fact ia that in a city like Chicago a street railway franchise is worth more
than most gold mines, and if a good bargain is made the cars will not only cany
the citizena, they could also carry the cost of governing the city. Take forinstance
the case of Philade^hia. Ten Street Car Companies in ten years, ending 1891, on
a paid up capital of^ 15,840.000, drew out in dividends $15,000,000, an average of 26
per cent. The market price of their stock in February, 1SÓ3, was $^.500,000. If
the city of Philadelphia had inveated the orignal capital on behalf of the citiaena
had charged 5 per cent interest'and had applied the balance to the city treasury, it
would have made an annual profit of $1,200.000 plus an actual investment in the
value of the property amounting to $3,250,000 a year. Philadelphia therefore lost
nearly $4,500,000 a year because the city did not run the street cara.
The Tyranny of the Assyrian.
201
public for the benefit of the share-holders. Instead of
being a check on each other, they are now all united in
maintaining their monopoly. They stayed prosecution
by virtue of an illegal agreement executed under the
Washburne administration, by which they were able to
purchase the acquiescence of the city in their illegal
position, in consideration of a reduction which has
brought the price of gas down to $1.15 per thousand,
and secured to the city three and a half per cent of its
gross income which amounted in 1891 to $150,000.
Before the companies amalgamated Chicago paid
$1.00 per thousand feet. After the amalgamation
the price was raised immediately to $1.25, from
which it is to be reduced each year at the rate of five
cents until it reaches the old level of a dollar. As the
cost of manufacture is not more than 33 cents per thou¬
sand feet, and the cost of distribution, leakage, etc., does
not exceed 33 cents, which is a very liberal allowance,
that leaves at present prices fifty cents available for
profits and dividends. Before the Gas Trust the Gas
Light and Coke Company, using the old processes,
could not manufacture the gas at less than 65 cents
per thousand feet, but it was nevertheless able to sell
it at a dollar a thousand feet, and pay a dividend of
seven per cent on its capital stock, besides putting an
additional two per cent into an expansion fund. By the
introduction of water gas and new and improved pro¬
cesses of manufacture, the cost of production was cut
in half, the figures for the last year on the North Side
being 30.13 cents, and on the South Side 29.16 cents.
Thus the immediate result of the illegal monopoly
formed by the combination of the seven gas companies
has been to raise the price of gas to the consumer at the
very time when the cost of its production was reduced
fifty per cent to the producer. In order to profit by this
the Gas Trust has watered its stock to an extent almost
inconceivable. According to the best authorities in the
gas making business, there ought not to be a greater
202
If Christ Came to Chicago.
capital expenditure for every thousand feet of gas sup¬
plied than $3.00 but three years ago the capital of the
Gas Trust was $10.65 per thousand feet. The process of
inflating, or watering, or whatever the term is
which implies the creation of fictitious capital
value, has gone on apace since then, and it
probably reaches now near $12 per thousand. The
watered stock and outlying bonds mount up to be¬
tween fifty and sixty million dollars. Now the whole of
the city of Chicago could be supplied with gas, and a
brand-new plant, at an expenditure, taking the present
consumption of gas at four thousand million feet, at a
capital expenditure of $12,000,000, interest upon which
at five per cent would ohly be $600,000 a year. If you
add $400,000 for a sinking fund, you would have a net
charge of a million dollars a year as suflScient to pay in¬
terest upon capital, and extinguish the whole debt in
twenty years ; whereas the Gas Trust is at present dis¬
tributing from two millions to two millions and a half in
interests and dividends every year. A sum, therefore,
between one million and one million and a half repre¬
sents the enforced tribute extorted from the oppressed
citizens by this illegal monopoly, under virtue of an
illegal agreement made two years ago, in order to evade
a law suit.
If the Gas Trust had supplied ideally pure gas, and if in
every respect it ministered to the convenience of the con¬
sumer, the hatred with which it is regarded would be con¬
siderably modified, and it is probable that the citizens
would not object to pay a dollar for their gas rather than
face the inconvenience of tearing up their streets. But
the consumers complain bitterly of the quality of the gas
and of the rule by which the trust compels every consumer
to deposit $10 before a meter is placed on the premises,
only $7 of which is ever returned. By this means the
trust obtains possession of a capital of at least a million
dollars, and, what is much more serious, it practically
shuts gas out from all the smaller householders,
The Tyranny of the Assyrian. 203
who might be willing to pay even $1.15 for their gas,
but who are not able to put up $10 in advance. Besides
this the Gas Trust is as arbitrary as any Persian Satrap
in its dealings with the citizens. No matter how much
the gas may be called for in various regions to which it
has not yet laid its mains, it turns a deaf ear to all ap¬
peals. It has got a very good thing as it is and it does
not see why it should trouble itself merely to please con¬
sumers, who, after all, are as the mire under its feet.
There is only one way out and that is for the city to own
and operate its own gas plant. When that comes to pass
the Gas Trust will be confronted with the alternative of
handing over its mains and its meters at a fair valuation,
which ought not in any case to exceed the sum for which
the plant could be duplicated, or if it refused these
terms, then the city would be obliged to bring it to terms
by introducing municipal gas. This could be supplied at
75 cents per 1,000 feet. It would be a great nuisance
tearing up the streets, a nuisance which should not be
incurred excepting when the work was done by the mun¬
icipality for the municipality. It might, however, be
worth while doing it in order to rid the town of the
garrote of the Gas Trust.
Compared with those great oppressors other minor
monopolies hardly deserve notice, but it is worth while
illustrating the tyranny of the Gas Trust by the interdict
which it succeeded in placing upon the development of
municipal lighting. At the present moment the munici¬
pality owns and operates its own electric light plant.
This was permitted by the Legislature on the strict con¬
dition that no private consumers should be supplied by
the municipality. .The result is that the municipal
plant is idle half its time. Even as it is the introduc¬
tion of municipal electricity into the town enabled the
city to reduce the cost of each arc lamp from $175 to
$100 a year, and if the plant could be still further
utilized that would be reduced still further by $25 per
annum. That is the fine imposed upon the city hy the
204
If Christ Came to Chicago.
Gas Trust and other monopolies to check the legitimate
development of municipal enterprise. For private illum¬
inating purposes electricity is far too dear and the price
would be cut at once if the municipality were allowed
to use its engines, which are standing idle. So little does
the Gas Trust care for the interests of the citizens that,
instead of lighting the streets for nothing, as it might
well be expected to do, it actually charges the city 25
per cent more for what is consumed in the street lamps
than it charges the private consumer. The charge
for street lamps is $25 a year, and this amounts to a
charge of at least $1.42 per thousand feet as against
$1.15 charged to the private consumer! Twenty-six
cents a thousand feet is the extra charge levied upon
the city for all the gas which it consumes. That is the
gpratitude of the Gas Trust for its franchise. It is a kind
of Gessler's cap, the last crowning insult which exulting
tyranny inflicts upon its victims.
Another monopoly which owes its existence to a fran¬
chise recklessly disposed of is the telephone company.
This is in possession of the field. Its prices are
fixed at an excessive rate, and in return for this
privilege to plunder, it pays the municipality a pepper¬
corn rent upon its net receipts. But as it publishes no
accounts and gives no information, the municipality is
obliged to take whatever the Company pleases to pay.
This, however, will be looked into.
When once an honest Council is established at the
City Hall it will be found a matter of comparative ease
to check the tyranny of the Assyrian. That at least is
my belief. At the same time I must admit that the
opinion of the majority of those who have spoken to me
on the subject is tíiat it is hopeless. I have talked until
I have been tired to one citizen after another and have
received from them the most despondent and discourag¬
ing replies. "It is no use," they say, "do what you
please, they will best you in the long run; there are too
many in it to hope for any success," and so forth and so
The Tyranny of the Assyrian.
205
forth. It is as if they were Christian Rayahs in a Turk¬
ish province and I was a Pan-Slavonic emissary endeav¬
oring to rouSe them to a struggle against the oppressor.
There is always the despairing shrug of the shoul¬
der and the remark that it is no good putting a man up
to be slaughtered. The others are too strong. For¬
tunately Mayor Hopkins does not seem to think so and
behind Mayor Hopkins are the awakened intelligence and
the aroused moral consciousness of the city.
It is no use pretending that these tyrants are so strong
that they cannot be grappled with. They have fran¬
chises, no doubt, and many legal privileges, and they are
in possession; but a resolute Mayor backed up by an
honest City Council could very soon bring them to their
reason. It is the old story of the Normans and the
Jews. The nobles after the Crusades were practically
helpless in their hands. Their estates were mortgaged
and the astute money lender of those days had taken as
much pains to complete the ruin of his victim as Mr.
Yerkes, the corporations and the trusts have taken to
secure their hold upon the vitals of Chicago. At last
the tyranny became intolerable. The noble, being a
practical man was indisposed, after fighting the infidel
in the Holy Land, to submit calmly to the exactions
of the Jew at home. He replied to the protests of his
creditor, who pointed to his bonds and his papers, bv
saying, " It is true, you have my bond, but I have goc
your person, your property and all that is yours.'
When the Jew did not at first appreciate the significance
of this argument, the noble clapped him into his dun¬
geon and used strong and piercing arguments in the
shape of the extraction first of one eye-tooth and then of
another until such time as he consented to be reasonable
and make fair terms with his jailers. Herein lies a hint
for every city administration which lies prone beneath
the heel of the oppressor. The corporation may have fran¬
chises, but the right of enforcing new conditions lies in
the hands of the City Council. And, moreover, they can
¿o6
If Christ Came to Chicagó.
soon bring the corporations to reason if they insist that
no further concessions under any conditions shall be
granted to any existing railroad, street railroad or gas
company until it has delivered the citizens from the
present tyranny. No railroad ought, for instance, to
be allowed to lay another rail within the limits of
Chicago until it has undertaken to elevate the tracks.
By imposing new conditions, or by the refusing of new
franchises, the city has the game in its own hands.
But besides this there are great resources dormant in the
hands of the authorities in the shape of a searching
inquiry into the provisions of the existing franchises, and
an inquiry into the extent to which the corporations have
already forfeited their rights by non-use or mis-use of the
privileges intrusted to them. It will be found in almost
every case that the corporations have trespassed without
warrant upon the public domain. They have laid down
two tracks where they had only received permission to
lay one, they have laid down rails in streets for which
they had obtained no permission at all, and they have
failed to take any adequate precautions to make the
streets safe for the people who have a right to use them.
The leading case which may be quoted in this connec¬
tion is not to be found in the law books but it applies
admirably nevertheless. It is to be found in the Mer¬
chant of Venice, where Shylock insists upon having his
pound of flesh. " 'Tis so written in the bond to the
bond he has appealed, to the bond he must go. It would
seem that already in Chicago a Daniel had come to
judgment in the person of the Mayor.
CHAPTER III.
DIVES THE TAX DODGER.
If Christ came to Chicago and took any practical in¬
terest in the establishment of His Kingdom in the city,
the assessment system would be radically reformed.
This is not a question of politics or of administra¬
tion or of finance. It is a question of elementary
morality. For the assessment system is based on a lie.
It is worked by peijury, and it has as its natural and
necessary results injustice, corruption, and the plunder of
the poor. Its continuance for another year would be a
practical recognition of the devil's dominance and as¬
cendancy in Chicago, which it is idle to attempt to coun¬
terbalance by such lip worship and devout genuflections
as we blasphemously dignify by the name of Divine
service in our churches.
A great deal has been written about assessment, but
many good people in Chicago are still utterly unaware
of what it means or how it is worked. Otherwise, it is
impossible that in a city nominally Christian, which is
studded with churches and littered with Bibles, such a
supreme embodiment of fraud, falsehood and injustice
could have been allowed to exist for a single hour.
Therefore it may be that the best service I can render is
to print in plain English the simple truth about the sys¬
tem and how it works.
The first remarkable feature about the assessment sys¬
tem of Cnicago is that it puts a higher premium upon
peijury than upon any other vice or virtue under heaven.
The culture of peijury is not usually regarded as one of
the legitimate objects of a civilized, to say noth¬
ing of a Christian, government. But in Chicago peijury
may almost be regarded as a protected industry. Cer-
207
2o8 If Christ Came to Chicago.
tainly there is a fuller reward oflfered to professional per¬
jurers than to any other officials in the employ of the
city. It may perhaps be argued that the virtue of the
Chicago citizen is so austere that it is necessary to offer
abnormally high inducements to induce them to damn
their souls by pequry; but judging from the eager com¬
petition there is for the post of professional perjurer,
there would seem but little basis for this argument
Whatever may be the cause, there is a heavier sum in
solid dollars pocketed every year by the official perjurers
in Chicago, than is paid to any other officials in the ser¬
vice of the city.
Perjury ought not to be so rewarded. When the Lord
Cometh, it is written on the last page of the Old Testa¬
ment Scripture He would " come near in judgment as a
swift witness against false swearers." "For I am the
Lord, I change not," was the message given through
the Hebrew prophet, and if He has not changed there
will be a very poor lookout for the Town Assessors of
the City of Chicago when they stand before Him to render
account For each and all of the whole eleven of them are
false swearers. They peijure themselves habitually and
necessarily as a part of the system. As the calling of a
pirate is based upon the negation of the moral law con¬
cerning theft and murder, so the calling of an Assessor
presupposes the annulling of the condemnation which
the moral law pronounces upon the false oath. This is
a strong saying, but it is literally and exactly true and
is proved on the authority of the latest official document
issued by the Comptroller of the City of Chicago. Mr.
Ackerman, the Comptroller in question, in his report on
the system of assessments says:
There are now eleven Assessors, whose duty it is to assess values
in the South, West and North Divisions of the city and in the towns
of Lake View, JefiEerson, Hyde Park, Calumet, Norwood Park, South
Chicago, Town of Lake, and Rogers Park, 'l^en they return their
books to the County Clerk they make oath that the book contains
a correct and full list of the real property sut^ect to taxation in their
town, so far as they have been able to ascertain the same, and that the
assessed value set down in the proper columns opposite the several
Dives the Tax Dodger.
209
kinds and descriptions of property is in each case the fair cash value
of such property to the best of their knowledge and belief (except as
corrected by the Town Board).
The Assessors must, therefore, as a condition of their
oflBce, swear that the returns which they make in their
official capacity are correct and full and that in each
case they have set down the fair cash value of the prop¬
erty to the best of their knowledge and belief. Lest
they should be liable to make any mistake as to what
constitutes "the fair cash value" of the property they
assess, it is expressly laid down by the Statutes of Illinois
how that fair cash value is to be ascertained.
The Revenue Law of the State, Revised Statutes,
Chap. 120, Sec.-4, page 1,266, in the rules for valuing
real estate, provides:
1. That each tract of land or real property shall be valued at its
fair cash value, estimated at the price it would bring at a fair volun¬
tary sale.
2. Taxable leasehold estates shall be valued at such a price as
they would bring at a fair voluntary sale for cash.
3. When a building or structure is located on the right of way
of any canal, railroad or other company, leased or granted for a term
of years to another, the same shall be valued at such a price as such
building or structure and lease or grant would sell at a fair voluntary
sale for cash.
There can be no possible loophole of escape for the
Assessor. He must swear that he has made a full and
correct return, that each item of property is assessed at
its fair cash value and that he has estimated it at the
price it would bring at a fair voluntary sale.
Now there is not one of the whole eleven Assessors, if
they were put in a row and asked the question at the
Day of Judgment, or even before a Grand Jury, who
would deny that they each and all habitually make
false oaths. They know they never make either full or
correct returns, they never assess any item of property
at its fair cash value, and they never estimate their
assessments at the price the article assessed would bring
at a fair voluntary sale. That this is so is obvious the
moment the matter is looked into, whether we take the
2IO
If Christ Came to Chicago.
totals of the realty and of personalty or whether we ex¬
amine the details of particular assessments.
We will begin with the totals. The fact that Chicago
has grown enormously in population, in area and in
wealth in the last quarter of a century is one of the
most conspicuous and indisputable facts of contemporary
history. Its increase is one of the phenomena which
have attracted the attention of the whole world. With¬
out going back farther than 1867, the following figures
will suffice to illustrate the way in which Chicago has
advanced by leaps and bounds to the proud position of
being on the eve of securing recognition as the Capital
of the New World.
Area
Square Miles. Population.
1867 24 252,054
1873 36 .367,396
1883 36 629,^5
1893 180 1,438,010
No other city in the world has such a showing. But
when we turn to the returns of the assessments, duly
sworn by eleven different Assessors as a full and correct
statement of the price which the real and personal prop¬
erty owned by the citizens of this marvelously increasing
city, we are staggered by the discovery that Chicago
would, according to the oaths of these eleven responsible
officials, sell for less to-day than she would have brought
at a fair voluntary sale twenty years ago ! Here are the
figures ;
Area Assessed Vaddb.
Sq Miles. Population. Realty. Personalty. Total.
1867.... 24 252,054 $141,445,920 $53.580,924 $195,026,844
1873.... 36 367,396 262,969,820 49,103.175 312,072,995
1883.... 36 629,985 101,596,787 31,633.717 >33.230,504
1893.... 180 1,438.010 189,299,120 56,491,231 245,790,351
Therefore if we are to believe the Assessors, Chicago,
with close up on a million and a half inhabitants and
with 180 square miles of territory, would bring 66 mil¬
lions dollars less if put up to auction and sold than
what the Chicago of 1873, with only 367,000 population
Dives the Tax Dodger,
211
and 36 square miles of land, would have brought at a fair
voluntary sale. Such an astonishing shrinkage in value,
is even more amazing than the amazing growth of the
population.
Let us look at it another way. If we average it up
we have the following remarkable results :
Avbrage Assessed Vaeue.
Square Mile. Per Head.
(Miuion Dollars.) (Dollars.)
1867 8.1 774
1873 8.5 850
1883 3.6 211
1893 1.3 170
At this rate, in another twenty years Chicago would
be stone broke, and couldn't be sold for a red cent. Yet
these figures are all official, and not one of them was
inscribed on the returns except over the solemn oath of
the Assessor. In reality the value of property in Chicago
would be underestimated at 2,000 million dollars.
The extraordinary thing about the unaccountable drop
in the value of Chicago real estate is that all the data
available for estimating the value of the property in the
city points in exactly the opposite direction. According
to the statements of the Department of Public Works,
there were 71,545 buildings erected in the city between
1883 and 1892, the estimated value of which was $316,-
857,000. But when we turn to the Assessors' statements,
the addition of these 71,000 houses to the real estate of
Chicago did not raise the total value of the assessment
more than 88 millions of dollars, even if we exclude
from consideration all other descriptions of realty. Two
and two do not seem to make four in the Assessors'
office at Chicago; for if you add 316 millions to loi
millions the result is 189 millions. The comparison
with other cities only brings out the same astonishing
contrast all the more clearly. For Chicago, while its
assessed value has been shrinking, has not been increas¬
ing its debt It has a less assessed value than any great
212 If Christ Came to Chicago.
city except New Orleans, and it has a smaller debt per
head than any city, barring none.
Statement showing the assessed value of real and personal estate
for the last year and the population and debt of the leading cities of
this country:
City.
Assessed Value.
Fopiila-
bon.
Debt.
Valuation
per Head.
Debt
per Head.
New York...
#1.933.518,529
I.923.031
#100,762,407
|iooo
#0.52
Brooklyn....
506,054,676
1,000,000
47.334.214
500
.21
Boston
924.134.300
500,000
33,720,111
1800
.67
^Philadelphia
769.930,542
1,046,964
29.065,845
750
-29
St. Louis....
280,991,420
574.569
21,376,021
500
•37
Chicago
245.970.351
1,500,000
18,431,450
160
.12
New Orleans.
137,000,000
265,000
15.335.037
500
.60
So much for a comparison of the totals. Now let us
look at the full and correct returns of property assessed
on oath at actual and the fair selling price to the best of
the knowledge and belief of the Assessor. Take as our
first instance the personalty of Mr. C. T. Yerkes, erst¬
while of a Pennsylvania penitentiary, now the street rail¬
way despot of Chicago, a millionaire and a resident in a
handsomely furnished mansion at 3201 Michigan Avenue.
Mr. Yerkes, according to the oath of the South Side
Assessor, has got #1,000 worth of personal property in
his residence, excluding the piano. In his stables he
has two horses, which the Assessor values at #150 each,
and a carriage which is assessed as high as #1,000. It is
singular that Mr. Yerkes, who rides in a thousand dollar
carriage, can furnish his whole house for #1,000. The
carpets on the floor, the pictures on the walls, the plate
on the table to ordinary eyes would seem each to be dirt
cheap at #1,000. But the Assessor swears that to the
best of his knowledge and belief the whole of the per¬
sonal property of Mr. Yerkes, excluding the piano,
would not fetch more than #1,000 at a fair voluntary sale!
In strange contrast to the beggarly value of the Yerkes'
household furnishings is the costly piano. It is assessed
*aeal estate only.
Dives the Tax Dodger.
213
at $i,yoo, or nearly as much again as all the rest of his
furniture.
Mr. Yerkes, however, is peculiar in possessing so val¬
uable a piano. I have made bold to acquire what the
value, the assessed value, of millionaires' pianos may be
in Chicago. I find that, according to the sworn valua¬
tion of the Assessors, they average little more than $150
apiece. That is the fair selling price according to the
oaths of the Assessors of the instruments which are to be
found in the drawing-rooms of Mr. Marshall Field, Mr.
George Pullman and Mr. J. W. Doane.
Mr. Yerkes' horses are also much more valuable than
those of the millionaires of Prairie Avenue. Chicago is
one of the greatest horse markets in the world and
South Town Assessors may be supposed to have some
kind of an eye for horse-flesh. Hence it must surprise the
public to leam that to the best of the knowledge and be¬
lief of the South Town Assessor, the carriage and riding
horses of the millionaires would not fetch more than $20
apiece ! Judging from their appearance in harness these
steeds must be the cheapest in Christendom. But the
Assessor may know that despite their fine appearance
they are broken-winded and spavined, for he assesses
them on his oath at only $20 a head. Their carriages,
also, in notable contrast to Mr. Yerkes' thousand dollar
chariots, could be bought, always on the sworn opinion
of the Assessor, at $30 each. Here are a few extracts
from the returns :
Each Bach
Millionaire. Horses. Valued at Carriages. Valued at Piano.
J. W. Doane s $20 5 I30 $150
Marsball Field 6 20 6 30 150
Marshall Field, Jr 2 20 2 30
G. M. Pullman 10 20 6 30 150
The total valuation of the personalty of the million¬
aires is equally astonishing. Including horses, carriages,
pianos, and everything, the following are the returns of
the Assessors, under oath, of the personalty of some lead¬
ing citizens :
214
If Christ Came to Chicago.
Marshall Field
Marshall Field, Jr .,
P. D. Armour
George M. Pullman
|20,ooo J. W. Doane ...
2,000 H. H. Kohlsaat
5,000 C. T. Yerkes.
12,000 Potter Palmer
|io,ooo
1,500
4,000
15,000
None of these gentlemen make out their own returns.
They prefer the unerring judgment and trained experi¬
ence of the Assessor. He stands between them and their
conscience, and why should they complain if he, the
elected representative of the citizens, should decide that
it would be unfair to tax Mr. Marshall Field, for in¬
stance, upon a higher valuation than could be realized
by the sale of the Corots and Millets and Teniers which
are the gems of his picture gallery ?
This is no jesting matter. It is, in plain English, a
colossal lie, bolstered up by habitual peijury, and oper¬
ating to produce roguery of every kind. If it does not
speedily go by the board, there will be very little value
in the apparent revival of the spirit of righteousness in
Chicago.
It is not diflScult to see how the system came into ex¬
istence. Like Topsy, it growed. No lunatic in Kanka¬
kee is quite mad enough to have invented such a laby¬
rinth of fraud and make-believe all of a piece. The evil
is of comparatively recent growth. As the Comptrol¬
ler says :
In 1867, under an act of that year, there was a Commissioner of
Taxes appointed by the Mayor. He was a man selected for his
knowledge of real estate values. His books were open to the inspec¬
tion of the public, and affidavits were required of tax-rayere as to
the value of their real and personal property. By act of ist of July,
1877, an unfortunate change took place. The city of Chiciwo was
required to assess and collect its taxes in the manner provided for in
the general revenue law. This is set forth in Art. 8 of the Revised
Statutes, and is the system in use at present.
The net effect of this system is that while the value of
the property in Chicago, if it were correctly assessed, is
nearly 2,000 millions, the officially assessed value of
the whole state of Illinois, including Chicago, is only
700 millions. Hempstead Washbume, when Mayor of
Chicago, said that the Supreme Court of Illinois had de-
Dives the Tax Dodger.
215
cided that all property should be assessed at 33 per
cent of its actual value, but even this liberal standard of
66^ per cent reduction would hardly bring Chicago up to
the sum at which the whole state, including Chicago, is
now assessed. When you begin to inquire you find that
the city throws the blame upon the state and the state
upon the city. If the Assessors of the city were not to
perjure themselves, these worthy officials remark, we
should simply be enabling the state of Illinois to run
tax free. All the taxes would be paid by Chicago. If
you can get all the Assessors throughout the state to as¬
sess full value or any regular proportion of the value,
we might fall into line and keep our assessments up to
the agreed standard. But at present what can we do ?
We must do as the others do, or hand over the city to be
knifed by the state.
The state, however, would co-operate if Chicago were
in earnest The Revenue Commission, appointed by the
joint resolution of the two Houses of the Legislature in
1885, reported as strongly against the present system as
any one could desire. The Commissioners' report that the
Assessors, although sworn to assess all property at its fair
cash value, "are far from doing so. Real estate is gener¬
ally put down at one-third of its value, frequently much
less, and personal property at a much smaller fraction. If
there was uniformity in the reduction perhaps but little
harm would be done ; but there is not. The Assessor,
having forsaken the standards of the laws without guide or
restraint except his own varying judgment, and subject
to the pressure of importunate tax-payers, falls heavily
downward. The practice is widely difierent from the
theory. The realty of one man is assessed at one-third,
one-half, two-thirds, or even the full measure of the act¬
ual value, while that of his neighbor is assessed at one-
sixth, one-tenth, one-twentieth, or, as was shown in one
instance of considerable magnitude, one-twenty-fifth of its
actual value. The owner of the one pays as his annual
tax five or six per cent of the whole capital invested.
2i6
If Christ Came to Chicago.
while the owner of the other pays one-fourth oar. one-fifth
of one per cent. Such distinctions are too invidious to
be meekly borne." *
In order to understand the true significance of this
system of tax dodging from the point of view of finan¬
cial pressure, it is well to remember that while the city
of Chicago can only levy two per cent, the other taxes
which are collected on the same assessment mount up
to over $7.00. Broadly speaking, Chicagoans in the
South, West and North Towns pay from $6.79 in the
South to $7.98 in the North Town. The diflference is
due to the rate of taxation for parks and boulevards,
which falls heaviest on the west and north. The total
is made up of the following items which are uniform all
over the city :
State 0.310
County 0.778
City 4.608
Library o 199
Sanitary 0.500
The other items vary. They are highest in the West
and North. The figures for the other taxes for the West
are as follows :
Town 0.500
Park 0.450
Park Bond 0.050
Boulevard 0.050
New Park Survey 0.150
Roughly speaking, the citizen of Chicago pays from
I7 to $8 local rates and taxes for every jSioo of his
assessed value. It is therefore his constant object to cut
down his ässessment. He can not materially alter the
rate of taxation, but he can and does reduce the assess¬
ment
If Chicago were assessed at its selling value it would
not need to be taxed more than one dollar per hundred
for all purposes. One dollar per hundred would yield
almost exactly as much as $8 does to-day, for the net
result of manipulating assessment is to reduce the real
* Report of the Revenue Commission, Springfield, 1886.
Dives the Tax Dodger.
217
value from ä,ooo millions to an assessed value of 245
millions. ■ But in that case all would pay according
to the value of their property, and not, as at present, upon
the fantastic value at which they can induce the Assessor
to perjure himself.
In England we have no tax upon personal property ;
local rates are based upon what is called ratable value.
This is ascertained by a calculation based upon the let¬
ting rental. If a house lets at $1,000 per annum it is
rated at about $750 or $800 ; the 20 or 25 per cent being
thrown off as an allowance for repairs, etc. When I oc¬
cupied my house on a repairing lease, that is to say, when
I as tenant undertook to keep the house in repair, I was
• rated on my net rental. The system is not perfect, but as
the rental can be ascertained from both landlord and ten¬
ant and the valuation is subject to independent revision
it does not work badly on the whole.
The result of the Chicago system is too ludicrous for
belief if it were not so cruel and unjust as to stifle laugh¬
ter. It is of course absurd to blame the rich citizens
who have been bom under the system and have never
realized their personal responsibility for what the tax-far¬
mer does in their name. Neither do they realize, the
most of them, what hardship their maneuvers inflict
upon the poor. But if they will study the comparative
tables which I publish in the appendix, they will see
how the system works.
Speaking broadly, the average assessment is one-eighth
the value of the selling value of the property. There is
no rich man assessed at more than one-eighth. There
are many assessed at much less. There are few poor men
assessed at all whose assessments do not run above the
average of per cent—of course except the poor
Aldermen, who, with half a dozen exceptions appear to
have no personal property at all. They have probably
spent it all in trying to live upon their official salary of
$3 a week.
2i8
If Christ Came to Chicago.
The curiosities of the assessments collected in the
appendix speak for themselves.
First and foremost be it noted how careful the Assess¬
ors have been to assess lightly all those who have a pull,
political or otherwise. Mr. Melville Stone told me that
some years ago when he was editing the Daily News he
was assessed at about the same as his stenographer. He
protested and got his assessment raised, but he attributed
his low assessment entirely to the fact that the Assessor
hoped thereby to secure the support of the paper which
he edited. Newspapers in Chicago have certainly, from
this or from some other cause, a very low "fair selling
value," in the opinion of the Assessors. He would be a
smart man who could equip a first-class newspaper ofiSce
with plant, type, machinery, and so forth, for the total
sum of the combined assessments of the Chicago press.
The average assessment of the morning paper is about
$15,000, about the price of a single printing machine.
The personalty of the Dispatch is as low as $300, a very
modest sum on which to run an evening paper. News¬
paper real estate is equally cheap, in the opinion of the
Assessor. It is rather odd to find that the Inter Ocean
is assessed at more than double the assessment of the
Tribune. The total value of the realty and personalty
of the Record and Daily News is about a month's
profits, if common report be correct. Mr. Lawson does
not seem to have inherited his late partner's objection
to low assessment.
After the newspapers, the Aldermen are most influential
in Chicago. They are hopelessly impecunious—accord¬
ing to the Assessor. Mr. Madden, Chairman of the
Finance Committee, is not assessed at one red cent. Mr.
Mann, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has only
$100 of personalty. It is an extraordinary illustration
of the way in which Chicago is governed, that the
control of the city revenues, which amount to almost
exactly the total value of all the gold mined in the
United States in a twelvemonth, should be vested in
Dives the Tax Dodger.
2ig
the hands of sixty-eight Aldermen, of whom fifty-five
have no personal property at all and the remainder only
own, in the opinion of the Assessor, sufficient personal
property to fetch $1,550 if they were sold at auction.
The millionaires—but stop, there are no millionaires
in Chicago, according to the Assessors. No one pays
taxes on a million. The personal property and the real
estate combined do not in any single instance amount
to that sum. There is no tax roll compiled by the
Assessor so as to show at a glance what each tax-payer
is assessed at. The real estate of a millionaire is scat¬
tered around to such an extent that it is difficult to
ascertain how much he is really assessed at. But if we
take their personalty and the cost of their residences it
is astounding how cheaply they are housed and how
economically they furnish their palaces. The Chicago
millionaire drives blooded horses which the Assessor
does not think would sell for more than $20 cash, if he
lives on the South Side, but on the North Side they aver¬
age $50. Their carriages also vary in cost from $30 to
$100 according to the district in which they are assessed.
Their pianos also come cheap—from $50 to $180; and
one of them, Mr. McCormick, has actually got three
watches, worth, on an average, $33 each.
The list abounds in strange contrasts. Who, for in¬
stance, could have imagined that Carrie Watson down
Clark Street had four times as much personalty as Mr.
John R. Walsh, President of the Chicago National
Bank, chief proprietor of the Herald., and head of the
Western News Co.? Such, however, is the fact, according
to the sworn information of the Assessor. Carrie Watson's
personalty is $4,000; Mr. John R. Walsh's only $1,000.
Whatever Carrie Watson's failings may be in other
respects, she seems to do her duty as a tax-payer
better than many other people who would not touch her
polluted fingers. I had heard that she lived in style and
had amassed considerable wealth, but I did not expect
to find that with the exception of Mr. Yerkes she owned
220
If Christ Cante to Chicago.
the finest horses in the city. She has four assessed at
$125 each. Mr. Yerkes has only two, but they average
$150 apiece. If Mr. Yerkes beats her in horse-flesh,
she leaves Mr. Marshall Field far behind in carriages.
The multi-millionaire modestly rides to town in a $30
chariot, whereas nothing less than two $350 coaches will
suffice for Madame. Mr. Medill, poor man, can only in¬
dulge one piano valued at $100, whereas Carrie Watson
has two, each of which is assessed at $150.
Speaking generally, the total personalty of million¬
aires is assessed at about the sum necessary to furnish a
single room in their palaces, and that by no means the
best. The jewelry worn by some ladies at an evening
party far exceeds the total value of the whole assessment
of their personalty. Mrs. William Astor is said occa¬
sionally to dazzle New York society by appearing
plastered with diamonds valued at a million dollars,
There are fortunately no such peripatetic jewelers' show
cases in Chicago, but more than one lady in Chicago,
could sell her jewels for more than the entire assessed
personalty of the Prairie Avenue fraternity.
The contrasts between the assessments of the immense
business buildings and those of humble stores, upon
which the Chicago Times lays such stress, is notable
enough to need no comment Much of this may be ex¬
plained by the fact that, as a wealthy man remarked the
other day, " I buy my taxes cheap as I buy everything
else." When we find the Auditorium assessed at just
about the sum which i^ cost to fit it with radiators, it is
not marvelous that people shrug their shoulders. What
can we think also of the assessing of the Plaza, a seven-
story building at the southeast comer of Clark Street
and North Avenue, at $10,000 in 1892, when the pur¬
chase money of the ground on which it stands was
$95,000 ? The premises as they stand are estimated as
being worth well-nigh a million. But even now they
are only assessed at $30,000, an increase of $20,000 since
Dives the Tax Dodger.
221
the previous year. The assessment lists are full of simi¬
lar scandals, but few are quite so gross as this.
If the evil were confined to rich "people it would be
bad enough. But there is just as much discrimination
or indiscrimination between the poor and the poor as
betweed the rich and the poor. The canker of corrup¬
tion has eaten through and through the whole social
system.
The Assessor, who having forsaken the standards of the
law, says the report is without guide or restraint, except
his own judgment and the pressure of the importunate
taxpayers. This is a euphemism for saying that the As¬
sessor is without any guide excepting his own interests as
they are influenced by Dives the Tax Dodger. The place of
Assessor is not worth very much if it is estimated by the
value of the legal salary, but every one knows that in
Chicago an assessorship is the shortest cut to fortune.
As Roman Emperors were wont to give their favorites
consulships in a fat province, in order that they might
replenish fortunes wasted in gambling and debauch,
so the political system in Chicago distributes as-
sessorships as plums to politicians who have deserved
well of their party. Assessors are not bribed in the
same way in which Aldermen are corrupted, but al¬
though the method varies, the end in the long run is
arrived at all the same. The representative of the peo¬
ple uses his position of trust in order to cheat the people
and feather his own nest. That is all there is of it, take
it as you please. Sometimes the Assessor is bribed by
liberal subscriptions to his election fund, the balance of
which goes into the Assessor's pocket At other times
the matter is arranged in hard cash, either between the
tax-farmer and the Assessor, and sometimes between the
individual citizen and the man who can fine him to
three or four times as much taxes as are being paid by
his neighbor or who can cut down his estimate to next to
nothing. An anecdote was told me of an Assessor who,
çalling upon a çobbler in one of the towns of Chicago for
222 If Christ Came to Chicago.
the purpose of fixing his assessment, asked significantly,
how much a first-class pair of boots would cost for him.
The cobbler's honesty wilted under the temptation, and he
replied, as any luckless Christian would do whose goods
a pasha or kaimakan had taken a fancy to in Macedonia
or Armenia, that to him the boots would cost very little.
As a matter of fact the boots were given, and if the
assessment was not reduced it certainly was not raised.
An Assessor, no doubt, when he leaves office marvels
at his own moderation. He has practically carte blanche
to steal where he pleases, nor is there any possibility of
any check upon his corruption provided he acts with
ordinary caution. Here, for instance, is a case in point
Mr. Washington Hesing, present Postmaster of Chicago,
mentioned the following instance of the kind of plunder
that goes on. Speaking of Assessors suddenly becoming
rich, Mr. Hesing said :
There is Chase, who was Assessor on the North Side. A few years
a^o a friend of mine came to me, and with him was Chase. J^y
fnend said ; "Mr. Hesing, this man is Mr. Chase. He is poor and has
nothing to do. He wants to be Assessor in the North Town. The
salary ta only |i,500 a year, but that will keep Chase and his family
from starving. Will yen help him get the office ? "
Chase got the position all right, held it either four or five years, and
went out of the office rich.
I make no comment on this at all. I don't need to do so. I just
simply state these facts : Chase went into the office penniless. He
held It either four or five years, drawing a salary of |i,500 a year, and
came out of it wealthy. He built himself a handsome and costly
house on Vernon Avenue. Where did he get his money ?
So well recognÍ2ed is it in the town that assessments
are fraudulent, and it is considered perfectly legitimate
to resort to any expedient to avoid taxation. Of course
in this kind of a game, the rich, and especially the cor¬
porations which have no souls to be damned or bodies
to be kicked, play a leading part. The law is the poor
man's friend. Civilization consists, as I am constantly
saying, in the substitution of the law for the arbitrary
caprice of an individual. Civilization means the protec¬
tion of the weak against the rapine of the strong. The
strong and the rich can always hold their own under an-
Dives the Tax Dodger. 223
archy. Under a system in which might is right, there is
no law save only the will of him that is strong ; the poor
and weak go to the wall. That is just what happens in
Chicago where civilization has still to penetrate many of
the departments of the city administration. The very
poor in Chicago do not pay taxes at all. They are ex¬
cused on account of their poverty. The very rich, at the
other end of the social scale, do their best to approximate
to the condition of the very poor by reducing their assess¬
ments to a minimum. The burden of taxes, therefore,
falls on the middle classes. The middle class man is not
wealthy enough or powerful enough to employ tax-farm¬
ers to reduce his assessment.
I shrink from using language which would be ade¬
quate to describe the injustice of this proceeding.
Fortunately there is no need for me to say what I think,
seeing that my sentiments and those of every person who
looks on this subject from the outside have been ex¬
pressed with sufficient emphasis by Postmaster Washing¬
ton Hesing in an interview published by the Chicago
Times. Mr. Hesing's official position and his familiar¬
ity with the facts of which he speaks give great author¬
ity to the following scathing indictment of the tax sys¬
tem of Chicago:
There is not a large corporation in the city of Chicago that is pay¬
ing taxes on over one-tenth of the real value of its property. It is the
greatest outrage on a municipality ever perpetrated. The poor men
of Chicago pay the bnlk of the taxes and it grinds them and galls
them to do it. Some of them get to thinking about it and once m a
while you'll hear of a man declaring himself an Anarchist. No won¬
der. Can any one blame him ?
The lowness of Chicago's tax list is the result of the most villain¬
ous bribery and perjury. It is enough to make honest, decent people
boil wjth mdignation to hear the naked facts. The property of a big
corporation is never assessed for more than one-tenth of its real value.
Here, for example, is a syndicate owning a big building. The prop¬
erty is worth a couple of millions. At a forced sale it would bring rn
the neighborhood of ^1,200,000. That is the figure it should be as¬
sessed at. But it never is. It goes on the Assessor's book at about
|i25,ooo. The Assessor and his go-between pocket their bribes and go
out on Blue Island Avenue or Clybourn Avenue and find a poor man—
a small shop keeper—owning a little place worth $2,000. He pays
taxes on |i,500. There is a great merchant in this town. I will not
224
If Christ Came to Chicago.
mention his name ; everybody knows who I mean. His place was
burned out once and he produced fire insurance policies for between
|9SO,ooo and |i,ooo,ooo. He got the money, I presume. At least the
companies never made any public objection to paying. That insur¬
ance was on his-stock—that is to say, chattels—which is taxable.
When I heard about it I sent a man over to the Assessor's ofiSce, and
I declare to you that a member of the firm had sworn that the stock
was worth |72,ooo, and that was what they were paying taxes on.
The rank dishonesty of the Assessor amazes me. I don't see how
a man can accept bribes, fiagrantly disobey the law, and escape un¬
scathed. The Assessor, however, always tries to cover up his tracks
and works behind another man. To show how these persons op^te
let me tell of a case that was brought to my attention. There is a
business man in this town whose taxes amounted to |i,500. He was
going to pay that sum without a kick. One day a man went to him
and said: "Your taxes are |i,50O. I can get them cut to |750.
What will you give me if I do this ? " After some talk the business
man agreed to give I400. His taxes were reduced and he saved |35o.
The city was cheated out of I750. That is only one case. There are
scores of others. Of the ^00 bribe the Assessor got ^00 and his
agent |200.
There are men in the city of Chicago whose business it is to swear
to lies, to peijure themselves. A merchant does not like the idea of
going on record as a perjurer. So he says to one of these profes¬
sionals : " Here, I am goiug out of town. You fix up my taxes.
Make the amount so much," naming the small sum on which he wants
to be assessed. The petjurer does this and gets his price.
Whatever is done, the present infamous system should go. It
forces men of little means to bear the burden ; it takes but a trifle
from the rich ; it results in bribery ; it causes peijury ; it is outrageous.
Let it be wiped out, and that without delay.
Mr. Hesing went on to describe how his efforts to se¬
cure an adequate assessment of his own property utterly
failed. He protested against a building in which he
was interested being assessed as being worth a little more
than its annual rental, but it was in vain. Mr. Hesing's
house, for which he would not take $40,000, was assessed
for $3,637. He owns land in Ravenswood that is worth
$80 a foot, and is assessed for a mere bagatelle which
would hardly pay for putting up a fence around it It
is very seldom, however, that the tax-payer manifests
an eager desire to be assessed at his full value. They
take the goods the gods provide them and they do not care
to look a gift horse too close in the mouth. They secure
themselves on the ground that these things form part of
a wrong system and that they ought not to make martyrs
I)îves the Tax Dodger,
225
of themselves in changing it. What they forget is that
they might at least make voters of themselves in order to
improve it, but that is what they heretofore do not seem
to have taken into consideration. So the rotten system
goes on. How it works out may be seen from these
fragmentary examples given in this chapter. Those
who care for further information will find in the appendix
a list of many of the wealthiest people in Chicago
together with some samples of the way in which the
property of the smaller tradesmen and the lower and
middle class is assessed.
The reform of the assessment system can only be ef¬
fected by action at Springfield through the State I/egps-
lature, and this brings us to another difficulty. A
leading citizen and universally respected ex-official of
the city administration said frankly that he despaired of
doing anything because " there are too many in it," to
use his own words, for any measure of reform to be
earned through the Legislature at Springfield. He said:
"Our Aldermen are bad enough, and cannot be said to be
ideal representatives of the city; but they are gentlemen
compared with the creatures whom we send to represent
us in the Legislature of the State of Illinois. Hence,
even if yon were to reform the City Council of Chicago
and get them unanimously to indorse a bill reforming
the assessment system, it would have no chance at
Springfield. The rich, who at the present moment
escape their fair share of the burdens of the city, would
simply go down to Springfield and buy up the Legisla¬
ture. Congressmen are not only a more disreputable lot
than the Aldermen, but their price is much lower. You
can buy up the Legislature of Illinois at much less per
head than you can the City Council of Chicago. It is
ludicrous, if it were not a matter for indignation, to see
the kind of men who are considered fit and proper per¬
sons to represent this great city in the Legislature of the
State. I remember some time ago I had a young mafl
who was a pretty fair clerk in my office, a man of no
¿26
if Christ Came to Chicago.
special capacity, who was earning fair wages but who was
totally destitute of any training that would qualify him
as a legislator. One fine day I was told that he was
listening to the proposals which were being made to him
for standing for Congress as a representative of one of
the wards of the city. I sent for him and begged him
to dismiss such nonsense from his head. ' You cannot
make an honest living at Springfield, ' I said, ' neither
can you continue to earn a salary as a clerk in my
office if you are attending to your legislative duties in
another place. Besides you know you are quite unfit
for the post. You cannot write the introduction to any
bill which might be introduced, to save your life. Drop
all that and stick to your business.' He hung his head
and looked ashamed, but then picking up courage he
said that he would try, because if he did not get it some
other d— fool would. He did get elected and went to
Congress. He became as corruptas any of the boodlers
there and as corrupt personally as he was politically. His
moral character went, he took to drinking and now he
lies in a drunkard's grave. He is one among many who
have gone down to destruction because our Legislature,
even more than our City Council, is a sink of iniquity.
What are you going to do against such a state of things
as this ? "
" Well," I replied, " there is more work to be done
than I at first realized, but it will be done all the same."
I can only say that for my own part I marvel with
exceeding great wonderment that a system so rotten
and so unjust could be allowed to continue for a
quarter of a century in the midst of a nominally Chris¬
tian community. In England we have been accus¬
tomed to consider that Americans as a race are fond of
liberty, with a keen sense of justice and an inveterate
impatience with injustice when it takes the form of
taxes. I am afraid I shall return to my own land
with a very different conception of American citizens.
The men who threw the cea into the bay at Boston
Ùives the Tax Dodger.
¿27
and severed the tie which linked the American colonies
to the mother country have left few descendants among
the citizens of Chicago. The amount of taxes in dispute
which lost us this continent was only $400,000 a year.
Many times that sum is every year unjustly shifted by
the wealthy tax-dodgers of Chicago from their own
shoulders to those of their poorer neighbors, and no one
seems to care. Yet the number of tax-dodgers is com¬
paratively few. They could be snowed under at any
election by majorities of at least ten to one, but this
meek and patient majority has gone on year after year,
suffering without protest a system of taxation compared
with which that of George III was ideally just. There
has been no tea thrown into the harbor in Chicago ; there
has hardly been an articulate protest against a system of
spoliation which admittedly robs the poor to enrich the
wealthy.
I read in the Chicago Times the statement that "the Chi¬
cago system of taxation is systematized crime against the
poor ; that for twenty years the burden of taxation has
rested upon the poor and that it is the history of tax-
dodging, discrimination, bribing and peijury, written
upon every page of the tax books of Cook County. The
trusts, the corporations, the millionaires of Chicago pay
taxes on less than one-tenth of the value of their enor¬
mous accumulations of wealth, while the small property
owners are being taxed on from one-half to one-third of
the value of their humble possessions. The millions
belonging to the rich are sheltered by bribery and per¬
jury from paying tribute, while the humble homes of the
poor have no protection." Yet, although these facts are
undenied and have been in the possession of the public
for years and are no worse to-day than they have been
any time since 1880, there is no agitation, no protest, no
revolt. Here and there in a few obscure comers a few
Socialists are organizing, and in still more obscure cor¬
ners the Anarchists are muttering threats and perhaps
dreaming of dynamite, but for any trace of an out-
¿28
If Christ Came to Chicago.
burst of healthy indignation which such facts should
elicit in any self-respecting community, I have looked
in vain. The Chicago tax-payer may have the meek¬
ness of the sheep and the patience of the ass, but he
can hardly be said to have the independence and self-
respect of a human being or the public spirit of an
American citizen.
But human nature being human nature all the world
over, even in Chicago, and the stock of patience and for¬
bearance under spoliation and plunder being a limited
quantit)', the time of its exhaustion must be drawing
near. I have had some little experience of agitation in
the Old World and I must say that I never Have seen a
condition of things in an English-speaking land where
the signs point unmistakably to change, and it may be to
violent change. Evils often exist which are keenly felt,
but whose origin and source is so obscure that it is
almost impossible for the sufferers to place their finger
on the cause of their trouble, nor do they know how to
redress it In Chicago for the first time I have found a sys¬
tem of taxation admittedly unjust, undeniably and palpa¬
bly based upon corruption, maintained for the benefit of
a handful of persons, none of whom dare defend in the
light of day what they are doing in secret; and we
have the facts officially certified by the chief authorities
in the city. Successive Mayors and Comptrollers have
placed on record so that no street sweeper could mistake
their meaning, their deliberate judgment that Dives is a
tax-dodger and that he is now and has been for years
thrusting the burden which he should have carried upon
the shoulders of L/azams. Here, for instance, is a pas¬
sage from the last report of Comptroller Ackerman:
There appears to be a general disposition to escape this form of tax¬
ation, and evasion and misrepresentationappearto be almost the rule.
It is notorious that many instances occur every year in which em¬
inently reputable citizens have made returns equal to about one-fiftieth
and in some cases one-hundredth part of the value of their personal
estate. The whole system is demoralizing in its effects from begin¬
ning to end and should be remedied by such legislative action as will
Dives the Tax Dodger.
229
enable the officers of the city to have complete and entire control of
its resources.
Changes indeed ! But what sign is there of its being
changed at the present moment? Even a worm will
turn, hut the poorer tax-payers of Chicago seem not even
to have the spirit of a worm ; they are rather like
caterpillars, bruised and mangled beneath the gardener's
spade, without even strength to crawl or resolution to
bestir themselves to remedy their miserable condition.
Even the loss of the beloved dollar fails to nerve them
to action. Possibly the tax-dodger knows his neighbor
and assumes upon his apathy and indifference ; but he
will do well to remember that this assumption is the in¬
fallible mistake of all tyrants and oppressors in all lands.
They think that the injustice by which they profit will
last their tîme and after that may come the deluge. But
sometimes the deluge does not wait until they quit the
scene. George the Third made that mistake, among
others, with the result that the English-speaking race
was reft in twain, and Britain lost her empire in the
New World, owing to a dispute about a less sum than
that annually plundered from the poor by the tax-dodg¬
ers of Chicago. There is a grim saying in the Old Book
which may be commended to the gentlemen who are
skulking, ashamed but resolute, in their trenches of the
assessment system: "Rob not the poor because he is
poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate, for the
Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those
that spoil them." And there is another like unto it:
" their feet shall slide in due time."
CHAPTER IV.
GAMBLING AND PARTY FINANCE.
Every city in Europe, with one exception, Monte
Carlo, which is not a city, has put down public gaming
hells. They flourished in other places until 1870, but
when reunited Germany smote down the French Empire
and unified the Fatherland, the clink of roulette was
heard no more in Homburg and the other German
watering places, for the croupier went out as the
Kaiser came in.
There is plenty of gambling in England^ but the
European conscience has decided apparently once for all
that gaming hells are not institutions for civilization to
tolerate. This would also seem to be the opinion of the
Legislature of the State of Illinois, and the same doctrine
has received the approval of the City Council of Chicago.
Nevertheless, so far from this having brought Chicago up
to the moral level of the most immoral European city,
the contrary is the case. The gaming hell open and un¬
ashamed is one of the indigenous institutions of Chicago.
The love of gambling is almost as deep-seated in the
human nature as the animal appetite on which the race
depends for its preservation and multiplication. The
craving for excitement ; the longing to be suddenly rich
without exertion or expenditure, are too deeply seated to
be expunged by municipal ordinances or statutes of the
Legislature.
Gambling seems to come to most men as naturally as
lying, and therefore it is claimed by some it is best to
place no obstacle in the way of this strong, inherited
and natural propensity. Common sense would seem to
point in exactly the opposite direction. One does not
need to be a moralist to admit that the gaming table is
331
232
If Christ Came to Chicago.
not an institution which makes for righteousness in a
community. That would not be maintained by anyone,
least of all by its habitues, of which in this city, it is said,
there are about 5,000. If, therefore, it be regarded as an
object of sound policy to minimize any evil which can¬
not be annihilated, the object of the administration must
be to compel those who gamble to do it as much out of
sight as possible, in order that the temptation and fasci¬
nation of the pursuit may be kept out of the minds of
others. Because it conduces to unrighteousness, the
public gaming hell has been suppressed everywhere in
the Old World, and it is not likely that any new argu¬
ments can be discovered in Chicago to justify a contrary
policy from a moral point of view. The defense, if
defense t^ere be, must be based on other than moral
considerations. At the same time, while regretting that
Chicago should deliberately adopt a lower moral standard
in relation to gaming hells than any European city, there
is no ground for Phariaism on the part of European
critics.
The great gaming hell of England is the race course,
and I have never been able to understand the nicety of
the distinction which damned the gaming table and
upholds the race course. Everything is strongly in favor
of roulette and unloaded dice as against the gambling
machines used not on the green table, but on the green
turf of the race track. Monte Carlo is a fair play its-
self compared with the betting ring. Nothing can be
more odious than the way in which some English news¬
papers which derive much of their circulation and profit
from pandering to the race course, hold up their hands
in holy horror against the Prince of Monaco for drawing
a handsome revenue from the gaming tables of Monte
Carlo. At the same time while we recognize that the
race track is worse than the gambling hell we need not
sanction both evils because one is less than the other,
and refuse to do one good thing because we cannot do
Gambling and Party Finance.
233
two. This is an absurd policy which should be left
strictly to the party of temperance, falsely so-called.
The peculiarity about the Chicago plan of dealing
with the gambling hells is not that the houses are
allowed to run; anybody could allow houses to run, if
they were prepared to take the moral responsibility of
allowing pitfalls or temptations to be opened up before
the feet of citizens. That which is peculiar about Chi¬
cago is the way in which gaming is utilized as an en¬
gine of party finance. Chicago taught the world how to
make the dice box and the wheel of fortune and the pack
of cards a resource of partisan finance. It is ingenious
and immoral. It is simply the adoption by the Mayor of
the city of the methods and morals of the policeman
who levies blackmail on the street walkers on his beat
Between the blackmailing Mayor and the blackmailing
policeman there is not a pin to choose, except the man
in the high position is much more to be condemned than
his poorer and humbler fellow citizen. The principle in
both cases is exactly the same. The gaming house has
no more right to exist in Chicago than the woman has to
solicit vice in the public streets. The law against gaming
houses is much more precise and more emphatic than
that which forbids solicitation. It is inconvenient
for the policeman to be perpetually arresting street
walkers, and it is much more agreeable for him to make
a deal with her in consideration of which he lines his
pocket and she is left uninterrupted to pursue her voca¬
tion. The same argument precisely led the late Carter
Harrison to conclude the famous deal with the gamblers'
syndicate, which brought in so golden a harvest. Of
course, if anybody asks for proof that any particular
policeman took blackmail, the proof is not forthcoming.
There was the same universal conviction as to the nature
of the bargain which was struck between Carter Harri¬
son, as Mayor of Chicago, and the gambling fraternity,
but the evidence which should be produced in a court
of law is not forthcoming.
234
If Christ Came to Chicago.
A Mayor can on an occasion be as discreet as a bood-
ling Aldemian, and they usually console their con¬
sciences by reflecting that, after all, the money is not
used by them for their own private needs; it is a contri¬
bution to the expense of getting elected and a safe
financial expedient for recuperating the party war chest
for the lavish outlay of dollars which a contested elec¬
tion will cost.
The way in which it was done, according to the story
circulated everywhere in Chicago, is as follows:
Before Carter Harrison's last election, a certain num¬
ber of the gamblers, as is the custom in this dty, made
up a purse and subscribed several thousands of dollars
(authorities difler as to the precise amount) to Mr. Har¬
rison's election fund. When he was elected he took
steps to recoup those patriots who had supplied him with
the sinews of war. A small syndicate was formed for
the purpose of securing a certain liberal percentage of
the profits on gaming, and in return practical immunity
from prosecution was secured to the gaming houses
by the arrangement with the Mayor. How large that
percentage was has never been definitely settled, but re¬
ports put it as much as 65 per cent A certain well-
known citizen who was trusted by the Mayor was
at the head of the syndicate, and in that capacity he be¬
came the favored shepherd of all the gamblers in town.
In dealing with the gaming houses he had practically a
free hand. Whom he would he slew; whom he would not,
he kept alive. That is the theory ; but in practice it was
found that the houses that were shut were those which
had not agreed to pay the stipulated percentage while
those who punctually paid up their dues to the gambling
shepherd were allowed to run free. This sum, which
amounted during the World's Fair, in some districts, to
a colossal fortune, was divided. Many people had a
finger in the pie before the residue reached Mr. Harrison.
But how ever many there were who fingered the profit en-
route, there was enough left to make it well worth the
Gambling and Party Finance.
235
Mayor's while to allow the houses to run. This ar¬
rangement was in full force when Carter Harrison
was shot, and the houses continued running all the in¬
terregnum. Everyone in Chicago knew perfectly well
that they were running ; there was no attempt at con¬
cealment. They were all in existence and prospered
under the protection of the administration. One of the
most famous hells was running immediately over the
saloon of Alderman Powers.
A Grand Jury last autumn suddenly struck evidence
as to the existence of gaming houses. They asked the
police why they were not suppressing them, the
patrolmen declared under oath that gambling was run¬
ning wide open in the city by the consent and under
the protection of the authorities, with an occasional
exception where the parties were not in sufficiently
good standing to obtain a permit They were reminded
that each one of them was commanded by law to close
up each gaming house and seize and prosecute the
gamblers. They replied that their hands were tied by
their superior officers, and that no houses were closed
without special and direct orders from these superior
officers. The Grand Jury summoned the Chief of Po¬
lice. Of course he knew nothing about it; the duty
of closing the gaming houses was left, he said, to the
patrolmen. The Grand Jury thereby reported that
the conflict of evidence led its members to the con¬
clusion that there was collusion between the police
force of the city and the gamblers so general and wide
that its devil-fish teutacles reached over a large por¬
tion of the police force. Of course everyone who read
this laughed at the innocence of the Grand Jury,
and wondered how long after the deluge begun these
worthy souls would discover that it looked like rain,
and prepare to unfurl their umbrellas. The Grand
Jury, however, at least established the fact beyond all
doubt or gainsay that gambling was running wide open
by the consent and under the protection of the authori-
236 If Christ Came to Chicago.
ties in direct contravention both of municipal ordinances
and the laws of the state of Illinois. Although this fact
was thus officially brought before the Chief of the force
and acting Mayor, nothing was done. The gaming
houses were crowded every night, and at the dinner hour
by the dinner-pail brigade, just as they always had been;
and the gambling syndicate collected their share of the
gaming receipts, and, it is hoped, handed over the due
proportion to their heirs and representatives of those
who had arranged the deal. So matters remained until
the election of Mr. Hopkins.
Nothing was said on the subject either by the Repub¬
licans or Democrats in the mayoral campaign. The
Republicans were too busy discussing the city's financial
situation-and the infamy of the Queen of the Sandwich
Islands. The Democrats laid low and said nothing for
reasons of their own. Gamblers, acting in accordance
with their usual sagacity, put up large sums of money
(the exact amount is again uncertain) for campaign pur¬
poses. A leading Democrat on the West Side told me that
Mr. Hopkins, who was receiver of the Chemical National
Bank, noticed, with some curiosit}', a heavy check paid
into the Republican campaign fund by some leading gam¬
blers of the South Side. He immediately ordered all
checks from the same source to be sentti) him for exami¬
nation, and as a result of this scrutiny he came to the
conclusion that the gamblers were putting more money
upon Mr. Swift than they were on Mr. Hopkins. There¬
fore the Mayor, who is quick to resent an injury and slow
to forgive a slight, is said to have marked down those
gamblers for condign punishment He said nothing, how¬
ever, and when the election was over he still kept his
silence, until one fine day, early in January, the Rev.
O. P. Gifford and a gambler, by name Ficklen, waited
upon the Mayor and asked him what he proposed to do
about the gaming houses. Mr. Gifford had previously
made a radical speech at Willard Hall, in which he de¬
clared he and other ministers were determined to put
Gambling and Party Finance. 237
the law into motion against gambling hells or perish on
the threshold. His first move was to take counsel with
the Mayor. He reported when he came out that he was
more than satisfied with his visit. He (the Mayor) told
Mr. Gifibrd he considered gambling an evil which could
not be suppressed in a city of this size, though he thought
it could be regulated, and he assured Mr. Gifford of his
hearty sympathy in every effort he might make to ex¬
terminate open gambling in Chicago. This was on the
fifth of January. The same day he summoned Chief
Brennan and as a result orders were issued the next day
ordering all the police to close the gambling houses in
the city. The next Saturday night every gaming hell
was closed up tight. On the next Monday, the follow¬
ing interview appeared in the Chicago papers :
The Mayor expressed some surprise when questioned concerning
the order.
" Who told you the gambling houses had been closed ? "
His honor was informed that the information had come direct
from Chief Brennan's office.
"Well," remarked the Mayor, "I don't know anything about any
order on the subject. But I do not issue instructions to my depart¬
ment chiefs. I presume Chief Brennan can tell you all that is to be
told about closing the gambling houses. I think it not improbable,"
the Mayor continued, looking very nave meanwhile, " that the closing
is entirely voluntary on the part of the gamblers. I understand they
have been complaining about the hard times. Then within the past
few weeks two of these gambling houses have been robbed. I am in¬
formed that Chief Brennan is talking of reducing the police force. In
view of these things, it is possible that the gamblers fear they will not
have adequate police protection hereafter, and have concluded to go
out of business. This is only a suggestion, however, which I offer U>i
what it is worth."
Chief Brennan was appealed to.
"Does the order include all gambling houses ? "
"All gambling houses."
"For good?"
"For good."
"All forms of gambling ? "
"All forms of gambling—gambling houses, crap games, pool
rooms."
"They will not be allowed to reopen under certain promises,
then ? "
"They will not. The pool rooms of the city were closed on my or¬
ders ailer I had conferred with the Mayor on the matter. They will
remain closed if it takes the entire police force to do it."
238
If Christ Came to Chicago.
From this it will be seen that the Mayor in addition
to his other gifts possesses a broad sense of humor. It
also shows that the actors in the little comedy had not
arranged their parts with sufficient care ; otherwise the
Mayor would hardly have expressed surprise at the ac¬
tion of the Chief of Police and disclaimed all responsi¬
bility for what he was doing, at the very moment when
the Chief in question was declaring that the gaming
houses were closed after he had conferred with the Mayor
on the matter.
Another reporter declared that the Mayor had said if
anyone could find an order of his closing the houses he
would give them a new suit of clothes. The Inter Ocean
in announcing the closing of the houses embodied the
general conviction of the gamblers themselves in the
following " Scare heads ; "
Not on the ^uare ! Gambling houses are ordered to suspend
operations ! It is only a blind ! Done for the purpose of concen¬
trating the privilege to rob ! Houses will open again as soon as those
under the ban are driven out I
"We shall all be open again in a week," was the
opinion of most of the professionals; but they began to
look rather blue when a week passed and no permission
was received. They began to fear that the Mayor, after
all, might really be in earnest. After a time they decided
to give him a hint To remind him of his dependence
upon the gamblers they made it hot for him by an elec¬
tion petition. The petition called attention to the
various irregularities which had taken place in the con¬
test which had resulted in the return of Mr. Hopkins
and compelled him thereby to defend his seat This led
to Mr. Hopkins' second declaration on the subject of gam¬
bling, from which it may be seen plainly enough that he
regarded the whole question from the point of view of the
politician and not from that of the moralist When asked
about the current rumor about the petition he said : " You
can say this: no gambler who spends his money in fight¬
ing me in this contest will open his place while I am
Gambling and Party Finance. 239
Mayor. I may not be able to stop gambling entirely,
but I will be able to stop these men from running open
houses." This was on the 23d, the houses having been
closed for more than a fortnight. The papers, which at
first had been very dubious about the Mayor's will or
power to close the gaming houses, now declared that
gambling could be suppressed, and had been suppressed,
and must continue to be suppressed. Judging from the
utterances of the Chicago newspapers there was nobody
in the town who wished gambling to continue. Mean¬
while some of the gamblers who had been through simi¬
lar experiences smiled audibly.*
Then one or two of the papers announced that the
Mayor was going to weaken on the policy of restriction.
The 25th of January a gaming house proprietor stated
that the Mayor had owned himself beaten; that the
gaming houses would all be running full blast as soon
as they could get their rooms in order. " He (Mayor
Hopkins) has been driven to toleration by stress
of circumstances. He has thrown up both hands and
confessed his failure. I am willing to give him credit
for a conscientious attempt to suppress the gaming
tables, but, like everybody else who ever tried it, he has
found his efforts futile. He has been successful in
exterminating the downtown gambling houses for the
time being, and what is the result ? Simply that the
fever has broken out all over the body corporate. There
are small games all over the city and invariably will be
as long as the legitimate outlet for the disease is closed.
*Tbe gambling houses should not be permitted to reopen under the pretense that
they are to be "regulated." There can be no "regulation" ofthat which is plainly
illegal and which u overwhelmingly condemned by the best public sentiment. I.et
the gambling bouses remain closed throughout Mayor Hopkins' term.—Herald.
Mayor Hopkins' first step toward the regruiation" of gambling is to close up
their places. "The next logical step is to cause the arrest and prompt conviction of
the gamblers as common vagrants. "The laws will be enforced." That seems to
cover the case.—riai«.
The recent onslaught of Chief Brennen has afforded ample proof that gambling
can be suppressed ifthe authorities wish to suppress xX..—Record.
If the police mean buriness, they will swear out warrants, they will raid the
gambling houses, will smash the implements, and prosecute all the offenders they
catch. If that policy is pursued the establishments which where warned Saturday
can be kept clcñed permanently. There will not be the least difficulty about it.
—Tribune.
240 If Christ Came to Chicago,
From various and sundry quarters complaints tave been
lodged with the police that residents were annoyed in
their homes by the proximity of gambling houses. "
The same paper which published this statement
reported that the Mayor declared that he had stopped
open gambling and he proposed to keep it stopped if he
could. Meanwhile the gaming house keepers went on
furnishing and preparing their establishments for the
reopening, which they confidently predicted would
speedily come.
At the beginning of February the rumor as to the
reopening of the houses began to gain, and it was
not until the eve of Valentine's Day that the inter¬
dict was removed, no one knew why or how. The
last statement which appeared from Mr. Hopkins was
that while gambling could not be suppressed he was
determined to prevent houses from running open, and
that as long as he was Mayor there should be no open
houses in Chicago, whatever might be done secretly.
His declaration was so emphatic that it is difiicult to
account for what followed.
On the 12th of February several houses opened and
were closed at once by the pólice. Chief Brennan said ;
" In closing the gambling houses that were opened last
night the police acted only on my standing instructions.
I guess if any houses open up the police will know their
duty ; there has been no change in orders." That utter¬
ance was reported on the morning of the 14th of Febru¬
ary. On that day every gaming house in Chicago started
playing in full blast, nor was there even a pretense of
secrecy. Notwithstanding this, two days after the houses
were running open Mr. Hopkins declared that he was
doing all he could to stop gambling.
"Day before yesterday," said the Mayor, "I was going to lunch
with a friend, when we passed under the shelter shed on La Salle
Street, in front of the Stock Exchanm Building. This shed is placed
there to protect the people passing from falling bricks and timb«s
from the hands of workmen laboring high up on the uncompleted
structure. When we reached the center of the shed we encounters^
Gambling and Parly Finance. 241
a big crowd. Peeping over the heads of the men on the outskirts of
tíie crowd I saw a man with a cbuckaluck cloth spread out and a
dozen or more men placing their money on the turn of the dice. I
did not wish to create a disturbance of so quiet a game, and concluded
to go to the comer of La Salle and Madison Streets and send a police¬
man back to arrest the fellow. Afterwards I wished I had used my
authority as head of the police force to make the arrest myself, for on
reaching the corner no policeman could be found. I went back my¬
self, but before I got there the fellow had ñown."
"After dinner I called Chief Brsnnan to my office and told him
what I had peen. He informed that this was a common occurrence ;
that the gambler always had a confederate to watch for the arrival of
a'çdiîceman and when one loomed up on the horizon theeambler,
being warned, stuffed his cloth and dice into his pocket and walked
off in the crowd."
"This simply shows," continued the Mayor, " that we cannot stop
gambling. I am trying to the best of my ability. Chief Brennan had
his orders soon after I entered upon the duties of my office and he has
had no modification of the orders since. There is bound to be gam¬
bling and it is surprising how many reputable business men want it
to continue. I have had representatives of prominent wholesale
houses tell me that they have great difficulty in entertaining their
country customers because they cannot take them around to gambling
houses. It is a fact, too, strange as it may seem, that 75 per cent of
the brewers want gambling houses open."
Chief Brennan's orders were still unchanged and yet
the public was asked to believe that the Mayor and
Chief of Police were totally ignorant that everything
was going on just as before.
Mr. Harrison at least was bluflf, cynical but straightfor¬
ward in the matter; he openly avowed that he was permit¬
ting gambling to go on for reasons which he set forth ;
he did not pretend to be doing one thing while in reality
he waç doing the other. He did not, of course, admit
that he was subsidized by the gamblers ; that would be
expecting altogether too much from human nature. But
he did not say he was doing all he could to suppress it,
while a dozen houses were running full blast under his
nose ; nor did he declare he was opposed to gambling
and that no house should run open while he was Mayor,
and then permit the gaming houses to be run as openly as
they are in Monte Carlo. Mr. Hopkins may have rea¬
sons for the course he has taken ; that the future will
show. But at present he has unfortunately given the
242
If Christ Came to Chicago.
enemy so much reason to blaspheme that it will require
very energetic action hereafter to remove the impression
that Mr. Hopkins is no better in this respect than his
predecessois.
CHAPTER V.
THE SCARLET WOMAN.
"Servant, awake, arise, for the people have slept o'er
long!" is the opening line in the soul stirring summons
which Mr. Grant Allen in his newly published volume
of poems, hears reluctant " In the Night Watches."
Sing of the maiden, thy sister, whom men thy brothers have sold,
Cast on the merciless world, on the tide of the ravening years.
Bought with a price in the market and paid with dishonor and gold,
Courted and loved and betrayed and deserted to desolate tears.
• ••♦»««»
Sing of a pitiless race and the blast of a terrible wrong.
Poisonous, fiery, venomous.
"Master, I hear^nd obey."
There is as much need for such a clarion cry to the
servants of God in the New World as in the Old. The
terrible wrong "ancient as infinite ages and young as
the morn of today" is as poisonous, fiery and venomous
in Chicago as in modem Babylon on the Thames.
I regret ta have to nnmber among the illusions dissi¬
pated by this visit to the western hemisphere the be¬
lief that the Americans were leading the world in the
sincerity of their respect for womanhood. The woman
with money in her purse has more homage—at least from
the lips outward—^than in England, but the poor woman
is cheaper in Chicago than in London.
A leading member of the Knights of Labor said the
other day that the Americans as a nation no longer be¬
lieved in God. They worshipped, he said, three things,
first gold, secondly women, thirdly children. I wisjh I
could have fonnd more proofs of their devotion to women
and to children in their laws. The statutes made and
provided for the protection of young girls are in many
states a very grim and ghastly commentary upon the
traditional respect of the Americans for their women.
143
244
If Christ Came to Chicago.
In some states it is true the law has been amended—
lai^ely under the influence of the same cyclone of moral
indignation which raised the age of consent in England in
1885 from 13 to 16, but in many others the law is still
in a condition to lie a disgrace to heathendom. The
legislatures of Delaware, of Wisconsin, and other states
in the following list would seem to be composed of
Yahoos rather than of Christian citizens of a Republic
founded by the descendants of the Puritans. The age of
consent—the technical term used to denote the number
of years that a girl must have lived before she is regarded
by the law as competent to consent to her own seduction
—^varies all over the Union. I quote here the black list of
dishonor from a table compiled by the Philanthropist
from official returns:
AGB Of CONSENT.
Delawat« 7 years.
Tezaa 10
Idaho 10
South Dakota 10
Carolina, North 10
" South 10
Georgia 10
Alabuna 10
Minnesota 10
Colorado 10
Kentucky 12 years
Indiana 12 "
Wisconain 12 "
Virginia 12 "
West Virginia 12 "
Louisiana 12 "
Iowa 13 "
New Hampshire 13 "
Tennessee 13 "
These are the worst states in the Union from this
point of view. There are others nearly as bad. Seven¬
teen states fix the age of consent at 14 and two at
15. Six follow the English rule and place the age
of consent at 16. Florida the most southern of all the
states raises it to 17, while Kansas and Wyoming
place it at 18.
The time is coming when such laws as those which
practically hand over innocent and unsuspecting girl
children of 7 and 10 to 12 to be the lawful prey of brutes in
human shape if they can but get their consent—forsooth!
to something of which they know nothing until it is too
late will be regarded with as much shame and indignation
as the Fugitive Slave Daw. Certainly as long as these
The Scarlet Woman.
245
States persist in leaving defenceless maidenhood with¬
out the protection of láw, the vaunts about American
chivalry and high regard for women and children sound
as hollow as did the Declaration of Independence in the
old Slave States.
The increase in the number of young women in Amer¬
ica who make their living as clerks, shop girls, teachers
and other callings which take them away from home, has
not been accompanied by increased safeguards for their
protection. Young children are employed as cash girls in
Chicago at a much earlier age than would be permitted
in Europe, and in more than one of the great stores ugly
stories are current of wages being fixed at a rate which
assumed that they would be supplemented by the allow¬
ance of a ' 'friend. ' ' The recurrence of this worst feature of
Parisian shops in the far west is a much more painful
phenomenon than the appearance of the familiar figure
of the street walker. In one of the largest of the dry
goods stores in Chicago the head of the dress making
department, now happily discontinued, was the manager
of a house of ill-fame down the levee. She is said to have
found the combination very convenient as she recruited
in one establishment by day for assistants in the other at
night These things are only too well known to the
unfortunate victims, but as public exposure would add the
last drop to their bitter cup, they suffer in silence.
The Missions and Refuges which receive the shattered
wrecks of lost womanhood, know only too well how
deadly is the system by which the daughters reared in
American homes are lured to their doom. Another lost
illusion is the belief that American girls are trusted
with knowledge instead of being kept in that cruel
ignorance which is confounded with innocence. It is
not the case. If legal protection peremptorily denied
the American girl by the men who monopolize the leg¬
islative function, neither are they delivered from the
dangers of ignorance by their mothers. No disability
of sex stands in the way of the timely performance of the
246 If Christ Came to Chicago.
most necessary duty which maternity ever imposed upon
woman. But even that is denied the American girl.
Anna B. Gray, M. D., writing in the February number
of New Occasions^ a monthly magazine edited by Mt.
B. P. Underwood, and published at Chicago, on "Ignop-
ance at the Price of Depravity" bears testimony on this
point that is worth noting. She writes:
I have given years of attention to the subject, and have arrived at
this much of knowledge. In nine out of cve^ ten cases of seduction,
^e woman in America has erred through affection, not passion; that
instinct of common humanity, most highly developed in women, to
please the beloved, but chiefly through ignorance. They feel no
passion; they are totally ignorant of its signs in others, even if they
feel, they are in equal ignorance of what it means. While that
much landed ignorance prevents any thought of evil, the result is
that before they know they have arrived within sight of it they have
crossed the threshold of sin.
I have not arrived at my conclusions hastily nor do I state them lightly.
I have talked with all sorts and kinds of women from the common
prostitute to the purest matron, from the ñrl who committed snidde
when told of the consequences that would follow her error, to those
whose sins never became known, and this is my aire conviction:—^The
commonest, and largest factor in the seduction of unmarried women
is unadulterated ignorance. Ignorance of any love less innocent than
that which teaches her to clasp a baby in her arms, caress its tender
limbs, smother it with kisses, and half crush its life out in a passion
of tenderness. If she wonders at the fervor of the caresses bmtowed
upon her, they mean no more to her, than those she so freely bestowed
upon her baby brother or sister.
If any good is to be done in dealing with this saddest
of all SOC& maladies it must be done betimes. Preven¬
tion is a thousand times better than cure and many
thousand times easier. The chief difiSculty that stands
in the way of frank sensible speech on such subjects
between parent and child is the^bsurd prudery which
in the old days led American matrons to put fiills round
their piano legs and which quite recently led an Amer-
can girl to call legacy limbacy, in order to avoid the
improper first syllable. A prudish silence with ignorance
as the necessary results lands many an innocent girl in
Fourth Avenue. This is a subject upon which an ounce
of fact is worth a pound of theory. The facts are indis¬
putable. The keepers of houses of ill-fame who reap &e
The Scarlet Woman. 247
harvest of these blighted lives are authorities on this
point Take for instance the evidence of Mrs. Vina
Fields, who next to Carrie Watson is the best known
Madame in Chicago. Vina Fields is a colored woman
who has one of the largest houses in the city. During the
Fair she had over 60 girls in the house, all colored, but
all for white men. Now she has not more than 30 or
40. She has kept a house for many years and strange
though it may appear has acquired the respect of nearly
all who know her. The police have nothing to say
against her. An old experienced police matron emphatic¬
ally declared that "Vina is a good woman" and I
think it will be admitted by all who know her, that she is
probably as good as any woman can be who conducts so
bad a business. I had a talk with her about it one after¬
noon and some days after she wrote me a long letter,
upon this subject. She says:
The present state of affairs results from the want of proper knowl¬
edge regarding self. When cultivation of self is made universal, a better
condition is possible, and not until then. The cause for prostitution
will continue until it is made honorable for the sexes to seek knowl¬
edge of self and their duties toward each other. The most important
thmgs of human life ought to never make an honest educated man or
woman blush. It is ignorance that causes shame and all this distress.
Let the causes of life and common things be more understood and
the greater things will take care of themselves, in private matters
bets^n man and woman the same as in other things.
Therein Vina spoke wisely and well. The result of
not teaching young people the truths of physiology at
home is that they usually acquire them abroad when it
is too late.
Vina Fields is a very interesting woman. She is now
past middle age. She has made a moderate competence
by her devotion to her calling and she prides herself
not a little upon the character of her establishment.
The rules and regulations of the Fields house,
which are printed and posted in every room, enforce
decorum ami decency with pains and penalties which
could hardly be more strict if they were drawn up for
the regulation of a Sunday school. In it the ladies are
248 If Christ Came to Chicago.
severely informed that even if they have no respect for
themselves, they should have for the house. She is
bringing up her daughter who knows nothing of the life
of her mother in the virginal seclusion of a convent
school, and she contributes of her bounty to maintain
her unfortunate sisters whose husbands down south are
. among the hosts of the unemployed. Nor is her bounty
confined to her own family. Every day this whole
winter through she has fed a hungry, ragged regiment
of the out-of-works. The day before I called, 201 men
had had free dinners of her providing. She had always
given the broken victuals away, she said, but this year
the distress had been so great she had bought meat
every day to feed the poor fellows who were hunting
jobs and finding none.
' ' What brings your girls here? ' ' I asked. ' ' Passion,
poverty, or what ? "
" Misery," she answered quietly. "Always misery. I
don't know one who came that was not driven here by
misery. Unhappy homes, cruel parents, bad husbands.
Misery, always misery. I don't know one exception."
On this subject Vina wrote me afterwards at some
length. And I cannot do better than quote this homily
on home, the duty of making home happy—although
few, perhaps, would be prepared to listen to such
a discourse from the colored keeper of a house of ill-
fame.
It is not necessary to go to houses of prostitution to find the oause
that places girls tíiere. All you have to do is to investigate ttie
homes of the people. These women called prostitutes come from
these homes from every grade of life, from the upper classes as well
as the others; and I am sorry to say that they give a good percentMe
to this class, as the daughters are educated to an idle, frivolous life.
As a role the marriaee jwlicy does not work very charmingly, and
only a few succeed in (Staining comfintable homes, the balance have
to find shelter who-ever they can, and aa houses of ill-fame are open
to this class of woman—they prefer it to dying and starving on the
street; many of them find it more pleasing and preferableTo their
married lives. These women are no more lustful than tbefr sisters
in other positions in life. They simply have not been successful in
marrying a home, and as many, very many do not know how to
do any kind of work, they come here.
The Scarlet Woman.
249
The only remedy for prostitution will be to educate woman in thi
value of home life.
It is natural only for man to provide. He cannot make a home
alone. It is absolutely necessary that there be the mother and wife,
and as girls enter into the most important condition of life with¬
out any previous culture or consideration of the new life that they
enter, as a rule, there will be failure, and more is to pity than to
blame for the results. The men from necessity are forced to houses
of prostitution. Why ? Because the women are uneducated in the
business of becoming wife and mother, and they, as a rule, know
nothing about the formation of a new home; that is leñ to chance.
Is it any wonder that there is trouble and ruin all around us? Do
you think that there is even a single instance where a young girl
leaves her mother to-day to form a new home, that she is taught by
that mother to believe that the grandest and best work of women is
to be able to produce a grand, noble woman or man; and that to do
this her home must be a heaven, and that it rests with her, more
than all things else, whether her home is a heaven or hell ? The
great cry of today is the advancement of woman—that means for all
to make a grand rush for outside employment, other than home
work. While the husbands and sons are walking the streets idle
the mother and sisters are earning the living, and Dy so doing, the
homes from necessity are dirty and the younger children uncared for
or left with ignorant nurses, and this state of afiairs makes the women
tired and fretful, the husbands, when they have money, naturally
seek the house of ill-fame, as wives are too tired from work or devot¬
ing their time to society, to give husbands even a pleasant word.
Yes, I say, the only way out of this trouble is to teach girls the value
of home, and when women in a mass elevate their homes and make
them all that the word implies, that is, clean, home-like and cheer¬
ful; their kitchen the cleanest and most cheerful room in the
house, and their parlor for use of the family instead of strangers; the
houses of ill-fame will have to shut up shop. They will have to close
for want of patronage.
When this is made the highest ambition of girl'9 life, to be a
possessor of a model home by her own virtues; and the boys, by
mother, are taught to value a good woman; they will then think it an
honor to keep those homes clean and wear a bright smile for husband
and little ones, and will then know the value of a clean calico dress,
a gingham apron for work and a white apron for eyes of father and
dear children. There is not a man living that would not prefer a
dear little home to "a wandering, no-account, hap-hazard life. "
An other typical scarlet woman of Chicago is Carrie
Watson, whose brown stone house in Clark Street has
long been one of the scandals of Chicago. She was
there before the fire and is there still. She does not
have quite as many girls as Vina Fields but they are
white and not colored and as she is at the head of her
shameful profession prices run higher. Business is carried
250
îf Christ Came to Chicago.
on openly enough with carriages standing at the door
at all hours of the night waiting for the "gentlemen"
inside. Carrie Watson and Lame Jimmy her violin
player are a typical Chicagoan pair. Lame Jimmy
acquired an unenviable notoriety this year for at his
annual benefit-ball one of the best known police
officers in Chicago was shot dead in the midst of the
orçy. Lame Jimmy's benefit is one of the saturnalian
nights of the Levee when all the professional forces of
debauchery are let loose to disport themselves in a
Music Hall with the assistance of the police as the above
incident shows. Carrie Watson herself has made a
fortune out of her trade in the bodiesof her poorer sisters.
She is the exploiteur, the capitalist of her class, for the
same conditions reproduce themselves everywhere. In
the brothel as in the factory the person at the top carries
off most of the booty. Carrie Watson is a smart woman,
said to be liberal in her gifts to the only churches in her
neighborhood, one a Catholic just across the way and the
other a Jewish synagogue which local rumor asserts is run
rent free owing to Carrie's pious munificence. This is
probably a slander but its circulation is significant as
proving that Carrie Watson can be all things to all men.
She is emphatically a smart woman,and cynical as might
be expected. Prostitution is to her the natural result
of poverty on the part of the woman and of passion on
the part of the man. She regards the question from
the economic standpoint. Morals no more enter into
her business than they do into the business of bulls and
bears on the Stock Exchange. Girl clerks and stenog¬
raphers she says are often unable to earn salaries to
keep them in clothes to say nothing of the numberless
relations who are often dependent upon their labor for a
livelihood. If they have youth, health and good looks
they can realize these assets at a higher price down
Clark Street, or on Fourth Avenue tiian at any otlwer
place in the city. Women who are desperate go to
Carrie Watson and her class, as men go to the gaming
The Scarlet Woman.
hell in the hope of recouping their fortunes. The mis¬
fortune of it is, that women can almost always secure
their stakes at first, whereas the gambler quite as often
as not is deterred by an initial failure. Few people
realize that a young and pretty woman can make more
money for a short time by what may be called a dis¬
criminate sale of her person than the ablest woman in
America can make at the same age in any profession.
But as life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim so
the profits of that life are of very short duration. When
the bloom is oflf the rose, a very rapid process of
degradation sets in which ends in the lock hospital, the
iail or the drunkard's grave.
Carrie Watson agrees with Vina Fields in believing
that girls do not take to the life from love of vice, neither
do they remain in it from any taste of debauchery. It
is an easy lazy way of making a living, and once they are
started either by force, fraud or ill-luck there is no way
of getting back. They have to go through with it to
the bitter end. They bury the memories of the past by
drinking the waters of that temporary Lethe, which
men call strong drink, and quiet their conscience by the
thought that after all they are not worse than the highly
respectable men who visit them and that they axe able
by suffering these things to help relations who would
otherwise often be in very great straits. Carrie Watson
for instance says that almost every girl in her house
has three to four persons depending on her who share
vdth her the wages of sin.
Dora Claflin, who was interviewed at length by a
representative of the Mail., which published a series of
articles suggested by some remarks which I made at the
Central Music Hall last November, spoke with great
good sense on many phases of this difficult and appall¬
ing problem. Like everyone also who has thought
much upon the subject, either from the inside or from
the outside she was of the opinion that prevention is a
far more hopeful field of work than that of r^ue.
252 If Christ Came to Chicago.
"Prostitution is an effect," said she, "not a careless, voluntary
choice on the part of the fallen. Girls do not elect to cast themselves
away. They are driven to the haunts of vice. The more distinctively
womanly a girl is—and I mean by that the more she has beauty,
delicacy, love of dress and adornment, feminine weakness—the easier
a mark is she for the designing. And the designers are not wanting.
"Girls, and I say this empathically, are not seducers. They have
innate delicacy and refinement. I say honestly that I do not believe
that one woman in 10,000 would cast herself at the feet of lust except
under duress or under the force of circumstances.
"The recruiting grounds of the bagnio are the stores, where girls
work long hours for small pay; the homes that have few comforts and
practically no pleasure; the streets, where girls are often cast, still
unknown to sin, but in want and without shelter; in a word, places
outside the levee, where distress and temptation stand ever present as
a menace to purity and rectitude, behind every effect there is
a cause. In the case of prostitution the real cause lies not in the girls
who fall, but in the social conditions that make the fall easy and the
men who tempt to thesteuand furnish the money to support degrada';
tion after the step has been taken. Before reform in the levee is
possible there must be reform in the home, on the mart The
people to enlist in the work of reform are the fathers, the husbands,
the sons, especially the fathers and husbands."
I excited much animadversion by saying that if you
wished to do any good by reforming any section of
society it was a good plan to take counsel of those who
were the least disreputable of their class in order to
know where we are to begin. . These three women
whom I have quoted are probably better qualified than
an3'one else in Chicago to speak as to the profession
which they have successfully pursued. They all lay
their finger upon ignorance, poverty and misery, as the
three great causes of prostitution.
The question of assignation houses of which the police
say there are between 400 and 500, is far more difficult
to deal with nor is it possible to deal with it by the fav¬
orite specific of some people by placing them under a
system of license. Such a remedy would be worse than
the disease. The utmost that can be done is to keep an
eye upon notorious houses and when the concourse of
couples becomes so large as to become a public scandal
and to leave no doubt as to the character of the
house it should be proceeded against as a public
nuisance. But a fresh ordinance would probably be
The Scarlet Woman,
253
required if not an amendment of the statute law of
Illinois.
The only licensed houses of ill-fame in Chicago are the
massage parlors, fully 90 per cent of which places are
nothing more nor less than houses of prostitution. The
City Council on May 9th, 1893, passed an ordinance
licensing these places with a hope that it could thereby
control them.
One condition of the license is:
That it shall be unlawful for any proprietor, manager or employe
of any room, establishment or place wherein any of the kinds of busi¬
ness, treatment oç operations mentioned in the first section of this
ordinance are carried on to furnish, provide, permit or sufier female
attendants to bathe, treat, manipulate, operate upon or attend male
patrons.
It shall be unlawful for any female attendant, employe or inmate
of any rooms, establishment or place wherein any of the kinds of
business, treatment or operations mentioned in section one of this
ordnance are carried on to bathe, treat, manipulate, operate upon or
attend any male patrons thereof.
At the first glance this ordinance will appear to be a
measure for the suppression of the immoral massage
parlor. It has had the exact opposite efiect. The criminal
code of the State of Illinois says that no person can be con¬
victed of a crime where the witness to the crime have been
gnilty of participating in the offense in order to procure
the necessary evidence to convict. This fact was prom¬
inently brought out at the trial of three of the proprie¬
tors of massage parlors in this city two months after the
passage of the ordinance mentioned above. The case,
in question, was put on trial in the Criminal Court of
Cook County for three days during which nearly a
dozen police officers testified to the fact that they had
gone into the houses in question and had taken the
baths and massage (?) treatment in order to procure the
evidence on which to arrest the three defendants. On
this admission being made a verdict of not guilty was
returned by the jury on the defendant's attorney quoting
the law which prohibited the obtaining of evidence in
such a manner. By the passage of the ordinance the
»54 U Christ Came to Chicago.
power of putting down these places has been virtu¬
ally stopped. Previous to the action of the City Council
the massage parlors were frequently raided and so kept
under some kind of subjection. At the present time,
however, the mayor of the city has no power to refuse
a license to any persons providing their characters are
good and although he may be morally certain in his
own mind that such places are going to be run in direct
violation to the law he has no facts on which he would
be justified in refusing to grant the license asked for.
As might be expected the employers of girls are
very sure that if any of their employés go wrong it
is not because of insufficient salaries. Indeed it would
seem from their statements that the standard of female
morals is higher in a Chicago store than it has ever been
anywhere since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from
the garden of Eden. I sent a representative to question
some of the leading men in the city on the subject.
Here are their answers in brief.
E. Hillman, the manager of the Boston Store said "As far as
I can remember I never have had a girl who has gone wrong who
was employed in this store and we employ about i,QOOgirls. We take
every precaution for their being of strict moral character. It is a
strict rule with us that no yonng man is allowed to come in and talk
with the employes or wait for Uiem when they are through work so
as to escort them home. If this rule is broken and we learn of it we
immediately discharge the offender."
H. G. Selindge, of Marshall Field & Co., has only known of three
girls who have gone to the bad in the last five years. In his opinion
it was not want of food but a craving for jewelry and finery that led
girls into prostitution.
Arthur Keim, the Superintendent of Siegel, Cooper & Co's. store
said in tidking on such a subject there is always a feeling of delicacy.
" Generally I cannot say much upon the matter but I know that girls
in this store are paid good living wages. I think that wages makes
but little difference as only those girls go wrong who have a tendency
that way."
Another gentleman who was principally engaged in employing
girls and young women at the Pair said: "Prom my own experience
I have found that the question of wages caused but little difference
with these girls who go wrong. It is the training which they have
received. Girls in this store all receive |5 or |6 a week and on that
money a girl can live easily in Chicago."
Not food but clothes, not plain clothes but finery.
The Scarlet Woman.
255
that is no doubt the want that drives many to a life of
shame. The fact that I venture to remind the Woman's
Club of is that the peculiar temptation of a woman is
that her virtue is a realizable asset. It costs a man
money to indulge in vice, but for a woman it is money
into pocket. This temptation has naturally greatest
force when work is scarce, and when sickness is in the
house. Even if they have a living wage in ordinary
homes, these periods of stress and strain break them
down.
"I lived at home," said a girl in a house of ill fame,
"and had a mother and a sister to support on $5 a week.
One time, however, my mother got ill and I could not
get the necessary medicine for her. Then some young
man whom I knew in the street and who came quite
frequently to my counter to buy goods, offered me a
good deal of money if I would go with him to an assig¬
nation house. I wanted the money for my mother and
so I went Having gone once I went again until I
gradually drifted into a house of prostitution. "
So it is with many. But there are many employers
who are not so carefhl as Mr. Selfridge, who says: "It is
and has been my custom to ask all girls whether they
live at home or with friends before engaging them and I
always make it a practice if they have to pay for
board and lodging to pay them a larger salary. When
a girl is inexperienced I refuse to employ her rather
than pay her a salary on which she cannot live morally."
A keeper of one of the best houses on Fourth Avenue
spoke to me very thoroughly on the subject. She said
that one of the large dry goods managers had been com¬
placently assuring her—he was a customer of hers^that
he never employed any girls for $2.50 a week unless
they could live at home. Pin money girls as they call
them who are maintained in part by their relations, keep
the rate of wages down below living point. If blood
relations fail, other relations are too often established.
As Mr. Hillman, of the Boston store says: "A girl who
255
If Christ Came to Chicago.
boards out cannot support herself on a low wage. We
have to enforce the rule as to living with the family
or with friends to insure the moral character of our
employes. ' '
The procuress plies her trade in Chicago as in other
large cities, preying upon youth and inexperience. They
haunt the railway depots, they are quick to discover the
pretty girl who is out of work, and they are quite often
in attendance at the County Hospital. Excellent socie¬
ties of good women have done much to warn inexperi¬
enced girls of their danger and to provide them with a
place of shelter. But their efforts are inadequate and
there are many girls in houses of ill fame who have been
taken there by plausible ladies who ' 'knew of such nice
lodgings, you know, with a teacher of music who takes
such an interest in young g^rls." They did not know
anything until it was too late. These girls are as inno¬
cent of any wish to go wrong as the deer is innocent of
any wise to be shot or snared.
The keepers of houses always deny indignantly
the accusation that they recruit their establishments
with unwilling volunteers. They profess to detest
"green horns." They prefer experienced women well
broken to the work, etc., etc. All the same there are
many who are only too glad to obtain young simpletons
whom they can fleece even if they cannot, as is some¬
times the case, realize heavily upon them for rum. One
well known procuress, Mrs. Davis, was arrested twelve
months ago for one of these offenses, but she escaped.
Criminals "who have a pull" can usually escape in
Chicago. And procuresses, of necessity, "stand in"
with the police whom they subsidize for permission to
live.
Cabmen in Chicago are frequently the active agents of
the houses of ill fame. If they find a pretty girl who has
not enough money to pay her fare they can usually
raise the money by delivering her at a sporting house.
That this is done may seem incredible but it was not
The Scarlet Woman.
257
merely admitted but even complained of by keepers of
houses, who being overstocked objected to the practice
of an imposition. One madame on Fourth Avenue told
me that on three occasions last year she had received
consignments in this fashion. She did not want the
gprls so she handed them over to the Annex to Harrison
Street police station. If only any one will take the
time and trouble to watch some of the depots and houses
of prostitution on Plymouth and Custom House places
in the "levee' ' district, and those on Dearborn street and
Armour avenue, in the vicinity of 22nd street they will
realize the sad state of aflFairs.
An ex-police reporter in this city said recently: "I have
to my knowledge had four distinct cases of cabmen tak
ing young girls, who had just arrived in the city and
engaged him to drive them to a hotel, to a house of ill
fame. In each of these cases the girls were only saved
by police interference, and yet no effort was made to
punish the guilty driver of the vehicle in which the
girls had been driven to the houses where they were
found."
The best proof that the practice exists is the fact that
the City Council has passed an ordinance expressly
directed against it. It runs as follows:
It shall be unlawful for any licensed owner or driver of any coach,
cab, public cart or other vehicle to couvey any person without his
request to any place or house of ill-fame, or deceive any person in
relation to any railroad or other ticket or voucher for conveyance
which is worthless, or make any false representation or statement in
regard to any voucher or ticket for conveyance that may be shown to
him, under tiie penalty of not less than ten dollars for each and every
offence.—Municipal Code, p. egi. Sec. 1202.
When once a young girl is ensnared there is very lit¬
tle chance of her escaping. The police report that 20
per cent of the girls between 14 and 18 reported miss¬
ing are never heard of. Those zealous A. P. A. emis¬
saries who work themselves up into a fever heat of
indignation and of passion because of more or less
imaginary narratives of the way in which convents are
used to imprison unwilling maidens, would find a more
25«
If Chtist Came to Chicago.
profitable field for their emotions in contemplating the
underground railway by which keepers of houses of ill-
fame move girls out of the way. After a girl has been
ruined in one town, especially if there is any trouble,
she is exchanged for a safer girl in another city. A case
of this kind, which can be vouched for, occurred about
a year ago. L. M., a girl of i8, came to Chicago from
a well-known city in the western part of New York.
While here she was seduced under a promise of marri¬
age and taken to a house of ill-fame on South Clark
street. Meanwhile she had ceased writing to her parents,
and they, fearful that she had met with an accident,
communicated with the police here. She was located
soon afterwards, but before the authorities could arrest
her she was sent to Council Blu&, la. A few weeks
later another girl arrived at the South Clark street resort
to take the place of L. M. Strange to say, she had
come frcmi the same house in Council Blu& to which her
fallen sister had been sent. Her story was also on the
same line with that of the deported girl.
Many other girls are taken from the County Hospital,
where the authorities could interfere with effect in
enforcing some standard of civilized decency.
In places of amusement, the Park Theatre is an outrage
as it has been and is being conducted. The whole theatre
is an exhibition which would be more in place in Sodom
and Gomorrah than in Chicago. The proprietors, it is
said, make friends of the powers which be by subscribing
to the funds of both parties. Whether that is so or not I
cannot say. As a matter of fact it is but the antecham¬
ber to a lupanar. The moral level of its stage is below
that of a decently conducted sporting house. The Mid¬
way dance was one of its standing attractions long after
it had been banished from Boston and New York.
Although the manager lied to me like a Trojan on the
only occasion when I visited the place, I had no difï-
culty in obtaining trustworthy information as to the
orgies which have given an evil fame to the wine room.
The Scarlet Woman.
259
In a book called '*In Darkest Chicago" it was stated
that dancing by naked women was one of the regular
performances of this theater after the play concluded.
That, however, I think, is no longer true, the only dif¬
ference, however, being that when the women dance
the cancan in the Park they pay such homage to decency
as is implied in the wearing of a single garment which
enhances rather than interferes with the obscene sug-
gestiveness of the performance. An outward semblance
of decency could be secured by cancelling their license
whenever their decorations or entertainments violated
the municipal standard of decency. There is no neces¬
sity for making that standard extreme or puritanical,
but in a civilized city the goatlike gambols of Satus
might be forbidden. It would be too much no doubt to
expect certain classes, including some of the most
respectable so-called citizens, to comport themselves
like human beings, but they might certainly be com¬
pelled to preserve the natural decency of an ordinary
brute beast. The unnatural and worse than bestial per¬
formances which are carried on in certain places in Chi¬
cago well known to the police ought to land a consider¬
able number of persons in Joliet for the rest of their
natural lives. Offences which in England a very short
time ago sent men to the gallows and still entail penal
servitude are among the sights of Chicago which are
not interfered with by the police, because it is held by
large wholesale houses, so the story runs, that it is nec¬
essary for them to have certain amusements for their
country customers. Entertainers are attached to the
large wholesale houses, and when the country customer
comes in to make his purchases the entertainer person¬
ally conducts him round the sights of the town. As
Mayor Hopkins remarked when discussing the gam¬
bling houses, it is surprising how many merchants in
this city approve of their existence for the sake of their
country customers. They say that the first night a
country customer comes to town he is taken to the
26o
If Christ Came to Chicago.
theater; next he is taken round to the questionable
resorts, and on the third night he insists upon going to
the gambling hells. The questionable resorts to which
the Mayor referred as occupying the country cousin's
second night may be said to be run, if not under the
patronage of the police, at least with their cognizance.
A friend of mine who made the round was personally
escorted by a detective. When the police and the large
wholesale houses and country cousins are in collusion to
support unnatural crimes which the good people of Chi¬
cago fondly imagined existed only in the corruption of
the later Roman Empire, it is obvious that the moral
reformer has a very up-hill task before him.
PART IV.—Chrùls Church in Chicago.
CHAPTER I.
THE CHURCHES OF THE SECTS.
I shall never forget the almost overpowering sense of
sympathy and sorrow which overwhelmed me on the
morning of the conference in Central Music Hall. I
had been discussing, until long past midnight on Satur¬
day, with policemen, saloon keepers, gamblers and
keepers of houses of ill fame what Christ would think of
them and of us in this city of Chicago. I had heard
their unconventional exclamations as they were suddenly
confronted with this unwonted suggestion. I had seen
the brutalization of men by drink and vice until the
human, let alone the Divine image, had almost disap¬
peared, and the still sadder sight of women who were
somebody's daughters continuing a life of vice from the
terrible conviction that there was no escape.
A feeling of sorrow for these people—a feeling of
bitter heartache at the thought of my own inability to
do them any good or give them any relief, was after a
time completely swallowed up by a new emotion which
took possession of me almost in spite of myself. I felt
so sorry for Christ! I have never been able to indulge
in these devout but sombre meditations on the actual
facts of our Lord's passion with any sense of real anguish.
It was hard no doubt—all that wandering down the
dolorous way, and cruel, brutally cruel, the martyrdom
of the Cross, but it happened a long time ago. The halo
of supernatural glory which surrounds His tragic death
cannot disguise the fact that so far as mere physical
pain was concerned His suffering could not compare with
36z
202
If Christ Came to Chicago.
that of uncounted myriads of His brethren who had
gone down to the invisible world amid protracted
agonies of torture, compared with which the way of the
Cross was a comparatively swift and easy relief. But
when I had this fresh realizing sense of the greatness of
the sorrow which he came to relieve and which still
remains unstanched and of the maimed souls crushed
and mangled out of all semblance of the Divine image,
the sense of failure of it all, the thwarting of the great
aspiration came home to me with a freshness almost incon¬
ceivable, considering how long I have been familiar with
some of the saddest sorrows of the world. Was it for this
He came to earth ? Is the 19th precinct of the ist ward
with its poor girls in the Fourth Avenue houses, and its
toughs and the crooks down the levee, the fruit which
He might expect to find after nineteen hundred years ?
If I felt it so much, having but seen for a few moments
one infinitesimal shred of the world's garment of mourn¬
ing and heaviness, if I, all flawed and faulty as I am, yet
feel the iron enter my soul, what must He have felt,
who has heard the dropping of their tears in heaven
these nineteen hundred years ?
It is this which is the real passion of our Lord !
The unabandoned sin, the unstanched tears, the abound¬
ing bitterness of the human heart, these are the real
crown of thorns which the world has crushed upon His
wounded brow.
Long ago, Darwin's Descent of Man, gave me a simi¬
lar sense of the immanence of God. Until then, in a
vague sort of way, I had had the feeling, common I
suppose to most of us, that the world had been created
long ago and that creation was as much a past event as
the Norman Conquest, or the war of the American In¬
dependence. But Darwin made me see that the creative
work is going on today as much as at any previous
time in the history of the world, for we stand in the
very work shop in which the Eternal is from day to day
fashioning the world in which we live. So in the
The Churches of the Sects.
263
bitterness pf that dreary night I felt that our Ivord's
passion and crucifixion was no longer a bygone instance
in the history of the human race. The Passion and the
Cross are for us day by day and hour by hour, moment
by moment. Nor will He cease from dwelling amongst
us—the living word made manifest in flesh—^as long as
men and women live, and love, and sin, and suffer, and
go down forlorn into the pit-
There was sadness and anguish in the thought, but
there was also a great consolation, and a wonderful stay
and solace in this new realization of the omnipresence of
the Cross. And then there came the comforting thought
in the midst of it all, that He who saw it all from the
beginning never lost heart, never struck sail to a fear,
never doubted even when the sky was blackest and hope
seemed dim, that God was love, and that in the end we
shall see as He saw that even those things will work
out for those who suffer and those who bleed a far more
exceeding weight of glory.
At present we must work by faith and not by sight,
and if Christ came to earth His first instinct would sure¬
ly be to seek out those who are called by His name, if
only to ascertain how it was that these things were so
after all these years, and what they were doing to banish
evils which banish love from the lives of so many of
his brethren.
Of all the churches in Chicago the first place to which
He would turn his steps, would be the Catholic Church,
over which Archbishop Feehan presides as the represent¬
ative of that Vicar of Christ, whose seat is in the Eternal
city. Archbishop Feehan is a good and saintly man,
ascetic in habits of life, devoted to his offices and the
punctilious discharge of all the duties of his high office.
Behind him there is all the spiritual authority derived
from the traditions of the Roman Church and their vital
connection with a hierarchy which encompasses the
world.
Under him as spiritual chief and director general of
264
If Christ Came to Chicago.
the forces of the Catholic Church, there are two hundred
and fifty celibate priests. Some of them zealously
enthusiastic, humble and devoted saints of God, work¬
ing with a zeal that never tires, and with a self-sacrifice
of which the world knows little or nothing in order to
maintainChristianlawand Christian discipline within the
polyglot host which worships in the one hundred
churches over which the Archbishop has supreme con¬
trol. Every Sunday in these churches they gather
together from as early as four in the morning twice as
many citizens of Chicago as attend all the other churches
of all the other denominations put together.
Five hundred thousand of the inhabitants of Chicago
believe more or less implicitly that Archbishop Feehan
is their divinely appointed commander-in-chief in the
great campaign that is ever being waged against the
forces of evil.
But while recognizing the perfection of discipline and
drill which the Catholic host has attained by the daily
or weekly maneuvers on the ecclesiastical parade ground,
while doing glad homage to all that is high and noble
and self-sacrificing in the great communion with its
saintly sisterhoods, its enthusiastic orders and its conse¬
crated priests, I must admit a sense of bewilderment
that a power so great should be lodged in hands so
feeble, and that the army maintained at so great an
expense, both of money and labor, should have so little
influence on the civic life of Chicago.
Much is said, and foolishly said, by persons who hate
Rome much more than they love anything in heaven
or earth, against the intrusion of the church in politics.
But if the church be the divinely appointed instrument
for the reconstruction of society in accordance with the
law of God, if in short the church be the chosen organiza¬
tion, as, presumably. Archbishop Feehan believes, by
which the mandate of God is to be established here on
earth among men, it cannot keep out of politics excepting
by delivering them over to the devil. That is what seems
The Churches of the Sects. 265
to have been done in Chicago, nor has the Evil One
shown any lack of alacrity in accepting the charge.
But if Christ came what would He say concerning the
organization called by His name offering Him constantly
sacrifice of prayer and praise, and the sacrament of the
mass, but which refuses to lift a finger or stir a hand in
the great struggle for honesty, justice and righteousness
in the government of Chicago?
The A. P. A's., or the modem Know-nothings, who
call themselves the American Protective Association,
probably because most of their members are not
Americans but Canadians or Britons, whose reason for
protecting American citizenship is not quite apparent,
assert that the Catholic Church is only too active in
politics in Chicago, and in proof thereof they parade the
following tabulated statement of the offices which are held
in Cook County by Catholics.
The Catholics of Chicago have:
The Mayor.
The Chief of Police.
The Chief of the Fire Department.
The Postmaster.
The City Attorney.
Clerk of the Circuit Court.
Clerk of the Probate Court.
Clerk of the Superior Court.
A number of the Judges.
Forty-five of the sixty-eight Aldermen.
Ninety per cent of the police force, eighty per cent of
ihe members of the fire department, and sixty-seven per
cent of the scdiool teachers are Catholics, while eighty
per cent of the pupils are Protestants—^as half the Catho¬
lic pupils go to priests' schools.
Mr. Hopkins is the first Catholic Mayor the city has
ever had, and had fE not been fer Protestant support he
would have been igpiominiously defeated. His majority
was made up of 75,000 Catholics and 38,000 Protestants.
Both the Chief of Police and the Chief of the Fire
Department were in office before his election, and
by general consent are the fittest for the post what-
266 If Christ Came to Chicago.
ever their religious belief. The fact that the Catholics
predominate in the police and the fire departments
is more due to the fact that they are Irish than because
they are Catholics. The alleged preponderance of the
school teachers has nothing whatever to do with politics.
Every teacher is appointed after an open examination,
conducted by Protestants, and if sixty or seventy per
cent are Catholics it would seem to indicate the intellec¬
tual superiority of the Catholics who go in for teaching.
This is surprising, but it is in no way due to the
political influence of the Catholic Church.
Still these figures are sufiicient to show what an
enormous interest the church has in the administration
of the city. And the fact that the Catholics preponderate
so largely in the City Council ought to rouse the
church to spare no effort to rid the City Hall of the re¬
proach under which it at present labors.*
But to use the influence of the Church merely to get
jobs for Catholics is a conception that reeks of the
Ring. For the church to go into politics for the spoils
would be a church that had gone into politics not for
the kingdom of God, but for the boodle, and would be
morally on the same level with Alderman Powers and
other distinguished but unhonored members of the City
Council.
The evils which afflict the city as the result of our
forgetting God fall with heaviest weight upon the poor¬
est citizens. The majority of these belong to Archbishop
Feehan's flock. Yet so far as they are concerned, he
'Archbishop Hennessey of Dubuque, who preached in Chicago in December,
spoke words which ouffht not to have fallen on deaf ears. He said: "There is a
tradition, brethren, that 900 years before the birth of Columbus this country was
colmiized by a band of Irish people. It was called the Great Ireland of the West.
I can see in a vision the future or America and the Catholic Church wherein it will
be anin called the Great Ireland of the West. What are you doing? There are
halt a million communicants in the church in this city. Chicago is the most
Catholic city of America in proportion to its population. All nations of the earth
are here represented, and there is a multitude of societies. Take my suggestion
and work tor the future of the church of Christ. Build up your schools, make
them commodious and ample, make them free schools, so that the children of
the poor may enjoy their benefits. Elevate the standard of education to the plane
of the government of God's divine church. Marshal your forces, and you shall
become the center of the Catholic Çhurch in America."
The Churches of the Sects.
267
might as well be the Archbishop of Timbuctoo as Arch¬
bishop of Chicago. *
No one would dream that the Catholic Church in
Chicago should sully the purity of its sacerdotal gar¬
ments by arraying itself on the side of corrupt republicans
or corrupter democrats. Partisanship of that kind is
alien to the spirit and contrary to the whole conception
of the church. But not less hostile to the whole tra¬
ditions of the church are the lethargy and callous in¬
difference with which the Archbishop and his advisors
have seen this half Catholic city plunged into the mire
of corruption without one word from the Archbishop to
warn the faithful as to the sin which they were bringing
upon their city and the danger which would follow to
their own souls and to those of their children after them.
It was said of old time in one of the early writings of
the Christian Church, ' 'If the neighbor of an elect man
s'nneth, the elect man has sinned himself." How much
more then must the sin of the Catholic boodlers in the
council and the corruption of the Catholic wards in the
city lie at the door of the Catholic Archbishop in Chicago^
He sees things going from bad to worse under the very
shadow of the spires of his churches but has he ever said
a word or done a deed to rally the forces under his com-
* Some people complain of the Pope's interference in American affairs. It is
much to be regretted that he cannot intervene much more than he does in Chicago.
I.eo XIII would have very little patience with such inertia in face of the present
social crisis as prevails in this Diocese. That is to say if we may assume that he
meant what he said in his recent Encyclical. The Pope is not a mere preacher or
letter-writer. He is a general or commander of a great black-coated army of eccle¬
siastics all over the world. He reigns over the Empire of the Confessional, as Eng¬
land reigns over the Empire of the Sea. When he says that the Church ought to
concern itself with the solution pf the Social Question, he practically asserts that
every Catholic priest everywhere should do his uttermost to bring to bear the teach¬
ings of the Encyclical npon the community in which he lives. For political ques¬
tions tend to become more and more social questions, and in all social questions the
Pope tells us the infiuence of the Church is essential to their right solution. If,
therefore, the Church stands apart from their consideration, she makes their right
solution impossible.
The Encyclical deprives Archbishop Feehan forever of the excuse of Cain.
At preist, when a strilu or an agrarian revolt breaks out, there are many members
of Christian Churches who shrug their shoulders, saying, "It's no affair of ours.
Am I my brother's keeper?" "Yes," replies the Pope, "you are your brother's
keeper, and his blood will I require at your hands." Henceforth, whenever any
social question disturbs the community, the Catholic priests will feel that they have
failed ia their duty if they have not in some way or other made their influence and
their teaching heiplul to the solution of the problem.
268
If Christ Came to Chicago.
mand in support of the cause of honesty, justice and fair
dealing with the poor?
When Gregory the Great was told one day that a
solitary unknown beggar had been found dead from
starvation in the streets of Rome, he excommunicated
himself for having allowed such a thing to happen in a
city nnder his rule. For days he abstained from com¬
munion, shutting himself up in his silent cell, to make
atonement by tears and penance for his sin of omission
towards that poor starveling.
If the Archbishop of Chicago had but something of
the heart and soul that was in St. Gregory, the suflfer-
ings and privations of this last winter would not have
left him unmoved.
If Christ came to Chicago would he find a greater dis¬
appointment anywhere than the spectacle the greatest of
all His churches doing ecclesiastical goose step in the
parade ground, but refusing to go forth to battle against
the powers of wickedness in high places, and against all
the tyrannies which oppress the poor, because, forsooth!
—it might endanger the church and create diflSculties
even with some of its own members. As armies exist in
order to fight so churches are founded in order to en¬
counter dangers and to face diflSculties. Nor would there
have been an Archbishop in Chicago to-day had earlier
archbishops been as timid and incapable of rising to the
height of great opportunity as Archbishop Feehan.
Turning from the Catholic Church to the non-
Catholic churches in the community which number in
the whole city about 200,000 members, and having
an attendance every Sunday which is probably not more
than 100,000 and sometimes considerably less, we have
spiritual forces which at least are free from the paralysis
of a commander in chief whose ideal of strategy is to keep
his army out of the field. In the non-Catholic sections
of the church of Chicago there exists great diversity
with no unity. The spirit, however, of co-operation
exists and at the conference held this winter representa-
The Churches of the Sects.
tives of the various parties expressed a great desire to
co-operate so as to take more effective action in the
campaign against the evils which afflict the city.
The various churches are wealthy, comfortable,
served by able and zealous ministers and sung to by
choirs of ecclesiastical nightingales. Very few are as
fruitful in good works in the shape of institutional side¬
shows as we are accustomed to in England but here and
there you will find a church that reaches out on all
sides to minister to the wants of the community.
The Salvation Army lives among the poorest people,
works with them, gathers them together every night
and contributes a valuable element to the building up
of saner and sounder citizenship than that which yet
prevails in many precincts of Chicago.
But the Protestant churches for the most part, judg¬
ing by the complaints which are heard from inside
the church rather than from the outsiders, has suc¬
cumbed largely to the temptation of "being at ease in
Zion." The Methodist ministers were told somewhat
rudely by a speaker recently that men were needed who
would do more than make faces at the devil from behind
the pulpit.
And the most enterprising of their number are at
present considering whether they could not establish
some mission resembling that of Mr. Prie:. Hughes in
the west oí London in some of the spiritually destitute
districts of Chicago.
The growth of Epworth Leagues and Christian
Endeavor Societies is a sign of progress in the right
direction, but I do not know of any church in Chicago
which utilizes the whole of its ecclesiatical plant as vig¬
orously as do some of the leading churches of England.
Two services a day on Sunday and.a prayer meeting,
possibly once or twice a week, can hardly be said to
be making the best use of an investment in real estate
which is estimated to amount at least to $13,000,000.
All money sunk in church buildings is God's trust
270
If Christ Came to Chicago.
money, I fit belonged to anyone else and were invested
by trustees so as to yield interest only one day out of
seven the trustees would either be sent to the peniten¬
tiary or the lunatic asylum. They would certainly not
be held to have used the trust to the best advantage.
As it is with the church buildings so it is with the
membership. Instead of regarding the chtirch members
as saved souls come together for the purpose of saving
others, the tendency is too much to regard them as the
members of a select club, meeting together for their
spiritual edification, and for harmless aesthetic indul¬
gence.
Some ministers have roundly asserted that many of
the richer churches in the city are nothing more nor less
than social clubs, which are quite out of touch with the
masses of the people. They represent not so much
sacred dynamos for the generation of spiritual force capa¬
ble of lighting the whole district, but huge fly-wheels
driven at great expenditure of coal without any driving
belt It is too much in the fashion to lay the blame
for all this on the ministers. Some ministers are to
blame, no doubt, but the responsibility lies at least as
much at the door of the congregation and especially at
that of the trustees.
In America the Erastian theory of a church under
the influence or domination of the state is scouted and
rightly scouted, but Erastianism is very much like
Mother Nature. Even if they expel it with brute
force it will find its way back again after a little delay.
Each of the churches is free. It represents in theory
a spiritual power entirely free from the control of the
world, but as many a minister knows full well he is
very effectually tethered by the secular power in the shape
of a trustee or a liberal contributor to the collections.
It has been said to me repeatedly that the devil has a
mortgage upon many of the pulpits in Chicago, and he
will promptly foreclose if ministers are to presume too
much upon the liberty of prophesying.
The Churches of the Sects.
271
On the last occasion on which I addressed an audience
in Central Music Hall I made some observations on this
point which I venture to reprint here:
I have talked a great deal to ministers of religion of all denomina¬
tions, since I came here. Some of them shrug their shoulders and say
' 'Well, it is all very well talking, but if I were to denounce a man
whom I knew to be a scoundrel who was standing for alderman I
would offend some very influential members of my congregation and
that would not do for the interests of religion." But if the Church of
God exists for anything in this world is it not in order to raise men
and women who are prepared to take a little risk for God and his
Christ, and if the ministers of religion think it is sufficient answer to
any appeal made to them to enter into a campaign for righteousness
that it might offend some members of their congregations, then there
is a great need for a revival of relig^ion among ministers of re¬
ligion.
I have spoken, also, to other ministers. They say ' 'We are with you
heart and soul and to the best of our ability we have preached in this
sense. We have laid righteousness to the line, and justice to the
plummet, and we have endeavored to stir up our congregations but
they do not like it." Said one eminent minister in the city recently,
"When I preach a sermon like that to my people they are not pleased.
They do not come to the church to hear that, they want to hear a
sermon which would make them feel good. They want to be told
concerning the good people of old times and have Christian doctrine
expounded, and they wish to have a blissful future portrayed to them
of the place where they will go when they die. I am of a very
S3mipatíietic nature and I have never felt unsympathetic to anyone who
wishes to feel good—feel comfortable, I mean. I have a great deal
of S3mipathy with those good men and women who have been toiling
and moiling through the week and who wish to get into a place where
the world and all its cares would be shut out, and where they could sit
down and sing their souls away to everlasting bliss. " It is very nat¬
ural but it does not follow that it is right because it is natural.
I will take you to another scene which is also very natural and
which appeals even more strongly to many men and women than the
seductive influence of a fashionable church and congregation. Go with
me down the Levee. Go along until you come to a down stairs dive.
You go down the steps and knock on the door in a peculiar kind of a
way. A long pigtailed heathen comes to the door. You then find
yourself in an opium joint of which there are a good many in that
quarter fulfilling many useful offices among others tending to enable
our hard worked police to increase their perquisites. The atmosphere
is not incense ladened, but through the dim light you see reclining on
tressel beds or bunks persons, each of whom has a pipe and is care¬
fully engaged in putting a little pill of opium into it in order that they
may smoke it. You sit down a while and talk to that Chinee and
after a time you begin to find out that there is a most wonderful
spiritual resemblance between the opium joint and the fashionable
church. Because the poor wretch who is lying there wishes to get
away from the world and its cares and the turmoil and troubles of
272 If Christ Came to Chicago.
this evil life and he likes to smoke himself away for a brief season into
everlasting bliss into a realm which is not a real realm and which has
no bearing upon real life. That man feels good and 1 sympathise with
him. H feels that for half an hour or so he gets away from all his
troubles and cares into another region, a more exalted region it
seems to him, and there is just about as much religion in it as there
is in the other one. Perhaps there is a little bit more, for the man
with the pigtail does not sing hymns protesting all the time he is
pleasing Jesus Christ who resents faithful preaching urging present
duty because they prefer to be lulled into pleasant imagining of a
blissful future or a miraculous past. Those people are just like the
habitues of the opium joint. It is not religion. It takes them away
from the duties of relinon and leaves them in a region which is
neither heaven nor earth but is betwixt and between, and which frpip
the point of view of citizenship is precious little good.
I hope it is not necessary for me to protest that I have
no wish to underestimate the amount of sincere religio»
that exists in every church. It is not because I disbe¬
lieve in the church that I appeal so strongly and pro¬
test so vehemently against the misuse of the immense
power which the churches could wield if they were to out
concentrate their forces with ordinary common sense,
upon the redemption of the city. But if we endeavor
to place ourselves in the position of our Lord, were He
to visit Chicago, to see what progress had been made
towards the establishment of His kingdom in this city,
is it not obvious that His heart would be saddened by
the present condition of the churches called by his
name ?
Instead of finding each of these congregations, which
gather together for worship every Sunday, in His name,
working hard to get His law fulfilled and His brethren
saved from the wicked injustices to which they are now
subjected under the existing city government, they are
comfortably assembling once or twice a week, for the
purpose of hearing a good talk about Him and of having
their senses thrilled by choirs who offer the service of
praise in the hearing of the congregation.
Is it uncharitable to say that of all the disappointments
caused by the comparison between the real and the
ideal the greatest disappointment which Christ would
find in Chicago would be in his own church ?
The Churches of the Sects.
273
The sectarian churches, whether they be of Rome or
against Rome, are not in touch with the whole com¬
munity. They have no close direct bearing relations with
every householder. There is no system in the ecclesiasti¬
cal organization corresponding to the ward and precinct
organization which enables the municipal govern¬
ment to cover the whole town. Although the churches
may fraternize and their members be on visiting terms
with each other, ecclesiastically as well as socially,
there is no attempt to create a central executive empow¬
ered to wield the united force of all the churches against
the common enemies of all. It is something gained that
ttí^y should be civil to each other Some of them are
not even that. Yet there is in the more advanced
churches a genuine desire to enter into closer relations
with each other. Of this the recent formation of a Minis¬
terial Federation is a hopeful sign.*
Once more let me conclude with an extract from the
Gospel according to Russell Lowell, for the great Ameri¬
can puts the truth more forcibly in verse than we can
express it in prose. In no poem has he uttered
thoughts as to the non-ecclesiastical church more
thrillingly than in "The Search." In this poem Lowell
tells us how he went to seek for Christ, ' 'for Christ, I
said, is King." He searched for him in the solitude of
nature, and found him not; and then, " 'mid power and
wealth I sought, but found no trace'of him." The
churches had become the mere sepulchre of their risen
Lord, and divine service a mere formal mustering, as
for roll-call, of men in the empty tomb:—
And all the costly offerings 1 had brought
With sudden rust and mould grew dim:
I found His tomb, indeed, where, by their laws,
All must on stated days themselves imprison,
Mocking with bread a dead creed's ginning jaws.
Witless how long the life had thence arisen ;
Due sacrifice to this they set apart,
Prizing it more than Christ's own living heart
♦ ^ Appendúi. Th? Federation of Ministers of Religion,
274
If Christ Came to Chicago.
The poet-seeker then turned to the heedless city,
where he came, led by fresh-trodden prints of bare and
bleeding feet, and found his quest:—
I followed where they led,
And in a hovel rude,
With nought to fence the weather from His head.
The King I sought for meekly stood;
A naked hungry child
Clung round His gracious knee.
And a poor hunted slave looked up and smiled.
To bless the smile that set him free;
New miracles I saw His presence do—
No more I knew the hovel bare and poor—
The gathered chips into a woodpile grew,
The broken morsel swelled to goodly store.
I knelt and wept; my Christ no more 1 seek.
His throne is with the outcast and the weak-
CHAPTER II.
THE CHURCH CATHOLIC AND CIVIC.
If Christ came to Chicago and sought to discover His
church He would not be likely to mistake any of the
existing ecclesiastical sectarian institutions for the society
which he founded for the purpose of carrying on the
work of the redemption of the world.
Where then would He find it ? To answer that
question it is necessary for us to ask ourselves what
Christ meant by the church and what as a matter of
fact the church was and did in the early days of the
Christian era. If we further consider the evils which ex¬
ist in Chicago, which must be exorcised if the city is
to be won for Christ it is obvious that the church mili¬
tant must be the organization which can combat those
evils. The church in every age has been an association of
those who endeavor to do Christ's work and make Christ's
will supreme among men. "Thy will be done in earth
as it is in Heaven." If we keep those two ideas steadily
before us we shall not be far wrong in coming to the
conclusion that if Christ came to Chicago, the City and
County administration would seem to Him to be more
like the church which He founded nineteen hundred
years ago than any other organization lay or ecclesiastical
which exists in Chicago at this moment.
Considering the iniquities that are permitted under the
rule of the City Hall it is a somewhat startling paradox
to assert that Christ would regard that as the cathedral
of his church in Chicago. But the temple in Jerusalem
was none the less the temple of Jehovah because false
incense was sometimes burned on its altars to false gods.
So although the council chamber is packed with boodlers
nevertheless it is the Council and the-County Commis¬
sioners which are doing most of the work that the Çhris-
»75
276
If Christ Came to Chicago.
tian church in the early ages regarded as its distinctive
function. The City Hall is more faithful than any of
churches to certain of the great ideals of Christ, and it
is only through the City Council and the Town Com¬
missioners that Satan's invisible kingdom can beeSect-
ively attacked.*
If we look at things as they are, resolutely refusing to
allow ourselves to be blinded by their labels, we shall
not be long in discovering that the City government,
both in theory and in practice, much more closely
resembles the ideal Christian Church than any of the
existing ecclesiastical churches. To begin with in the
Apostolic times there was one church for one city.
There was the Church of Thyatira, the Church of Phil¬
adelphia and so forth. In Chicago there are 500 churches
but there is only one city government.
Secondly the fundamental principle of the Christian
Church was that of a brotherhood so broad as to include
men of all ranks, of all conditions, of all nationalities.
The City government more than any of the churches is
based on just such a recognition of human brotherhood.
In the citizenship of Chicago as in the old Christian
Church, there is neither Greek, nor Jew, bond nor free.
Barbarian or Scythian, all are one before the ballot box.
Only in one respect does it fail to come up to that
Christian ideal. Chicago is not yet sufficiently civilized
to recognize the citizenship of women so that part of the
*It cannot be too often insisted upon that however grreat may be the shortcom¬
ings of the city eovernment the churches cannot dissever themselves from a large
share of responsmility in the matter. What is the use of lamenting the absence of
a strong sense of civic religion it the official ministers of religion seldom or never
preach or teach the religious aspect of municipal or social duties? What is the
use of deploring the indisposition of competent and leisured men to undertake the
irksome and uncongenial work of municipal administration when those whose
special duty it is to rouse the conscience of the community never preach the
draication of the citisen to municipal work as one of the most important and
most sacred means of helping to bring in the kingdom of Christ on earth? What
conception of civic religion is possible to the ordinary man if on the eve of
municipal elections the church takes not the slightest pains either to urge the
best men into the field, or even to impress upon her congregations the importance
of electing the best men" from the candidates before them? If the churches are
the divinely appointed instrument for earring out the divine will in the affairs of
this world in Chicago, it would seem at If either Qod tia(} forsaken UU cburc^
fill «hurch liad fortaken Him,
The Church Catholic and Civic ¿77
text which says "in Christ neither male nor female,"
does not apply here.
Thirdly, the City government recognizes as does no
other organization in Chicago, the great truth that the
community is one body of which we are all members and
that if one member sufiers, all the other members suflfer
likewise. This sense of interdependence results from
the fact that the evolution of the social organism is much
further advanced on the municipal side than on any
other. The conception, however Christian, has made
more advance under the segis of the municipality than
under the dome of any Christian temple in Chicago.
Those who doubt this should compare for the moment
the different way in which a material evil is handled by
the municipality and a moral evil by the various
churches. Nothing is more inspiring than to see the
way in which the conception of the unity of the social
organism operates under the city government. It is
tested by the outbreak of a fire. A drunken tramp
drops a match in the outhouse of some miserable shanty
in the outskirts of Chicago. The straw alights and the
fire blazes up. The nearest patrolman who sees it
hastens to his patrol box and sends in a fire alarm.
Instantly in every police station, and newspaper office
throughout the 190 square miles within the city limits
that alarm is reproduced and almost before the patrol¬
man has quitted the patrol box the fire engines are
clattering along the streets from the nearest stations to
extinguish the fire. Should the wind be high and the
flames baffle the efforts of the local force, fresh alarms
are sent in and instantly more fire-engines and firemen
are dispatched, until in case of need the whole resources
of the city in apparatus and in men will be concentrated
upon the point of danger. There is no question as to
rich and poor, no discussing in police stations or at the
fire department as to whether or not the locality was a
long way off or what might be its ratable value or any¬
thing else. There is fire and there is need and that is
078 îf christ Came io Chicagô.
enough. The whole machine splendidly equipped in
perfect discipline, acts almost automatically on any
appeal from any section of the community.
Contrast this, where we have the social organism
functioning at its best under municipal guidance and
direction, with the way in which the ecclesiastical
churches act, when some moral pestilence which it is
no exaggeration to compare to an outbreak of hell-fire,
takes place in any quarter of the town. To begpn with
there is no special patrolman to give the alarm, and if
there were, there is no arrangement by which the cry
could be heard, let alone be heard instantaneously
throughout the churches of Chicago. But supposing
that by some telepathic miracle, the spiritual watch¬
man could sound his warning note in the ears of all the
churches, how many of them would respond? Some
would shrug their shoulders and say it was outside their
parish, others would remark that it was among the
Catholics and not for their people, others again that there
were no Catholics in the region, but they were all Jews
and that they ought to look after themselves. As a result
of this refusal, born not of selfishness or of cruelty, but
due simply to the fact that the evolution of the Christian
ideal of the unity of the social organism has not yet
attained so high a point in the churches as it has done
in the municipality.
Fourthly, the City government is organized upon the
simple democratic basis which was natural to the com¬
pany of fishermen whom the carpenter of Nazareth
selected as the nucleus of His church. Whatever may
be the faults of the City government, it is simple and it
is close to the people. No social and ecclesiastical hier¬
archy stands between the common people and their elected
representatives any more than there was between the
early believers who gathered together after the day of
Pentecost and those whom they appointed to dispense
charity and to serve tables. The poor man, the laborer
rude and uncultured feels more at home in the City Hall
The Church Catholic and Civic.
279
than he would in most of the wealthy churches in the
city of Chicago.
This it may be said is only theory. But the fact is, that
the City government is much more like that early
Christian Church than the existing Christian churches
which claim to be its direct descendants. This is largely
due to the success with which the early Christian Church
and its medieval successors Christianized the whole con¬
ception of secular government.
The moment you beg^n to study the state from a his¬
torical point of view, and trace the origin of the insti¬
tutions which we now possess, you are brought sharply
face to face with the fact that the modem state, espe¬
cially the modem municipality, is very largely the heir
and acting legatee of the mediaeval church. That is to
say, many of the functions which the City Council has
to perform were in old times the exclusive work of the
church. Not many centuries ago it would have been
blank heresy in the eyes of churchmen, and absurdity
in the eyes of statesmen, to assert that much of the work
discharged by the City Council could possibly be
entmsted to any body excepting the religious orders,
the monasteries, and other ecclesiastical authorities.
That is to say, according to the old conception of the
functions of church and state, the City Council, and the
County Commissioners, from the work which they per¬
form, are quite as much Church as State, for they perform
duties and accept responsibilities which for centuries
were regarded as the exclusive prerogative of the Church.
Take, for instance, the care of the poor. This was in
early times regarded as the province of the church.
Pure religfion and undefiled was defined by the apostle
as consisting in the first place in providing for the
fatherless and the widow. This function, however, is
no longer entmsted to the ecclesiastical organizations.
The fatherless and the destitute today, are sent to
Dunning, or to some other institution, which, whether
it is govemed by the City Council or the County Com-
2S0
If Christ Came to Chicago.
missioner, is a secular institution doing distinctively
Christian work.
Take another instance. The hospitals were founded by
the church, and for hundreds of years were exclusively
maintained by the church. Today there are still hospi¬
tals in connection with various churches, but the greatest
hospital of all is a County institution, and its manage¬
ment is in the hands of the elected representatives of
the people. The same is true concerning prisoners
whether it is in the Bridewell, the Penitentiary or in
other places wherein these wards of the state who have
forfeited their liberty are kept in temporary servitude.
The work of redeeming and reclaiming those wandering
ones is left to the state, it is no longer the prerogative of
the Church.
Education is another great department which in
early times used to be regarded as much the right
and duty of the Church, as the conducting of divine
worship is today. That also has passed into the hands
of a secular board appointed by the Mayor, who is
elected by the citizens of Chicago. Another institution—
the Public Library—which mankind has come to regard
as indispensable, formerly had no existence save in the
monasteries. Now it is domiciled in the City Hall, and
cared for by the civic authorities.
Cleanliness which is next to godliness, has entirely
passed under the control of the City which supplies the
water, superintends the drainage, and is responsible for
the removal of those physical causes which contribute
so much to the moral degeneration of the people. In
fact, the more closely it is examined, the more clearly
will the facts stand out that if any of the great saints,
who, a thousand years ago Christianized and civilized
Europe, were to come to Chicago, they would, after sur¬
veying the whole scene, decide that three-fourths at
least of the work which they did was in the hands either
of the City Council, the Mayor or the County Commis¬
sioners, and that not more than one-fourth remained in
The Church Catholic and Civic. 281
the hands of the clergy and their so-called church. The
state, or rather the city, has become the executor of the
church for three-fourths of the work which the church
was instituted to accomplish. This is right enough, for it
is the duty of the church ever to press forward, and when
it has Christianized the community suflBciently to entrust
any of its own duties to the elected representatives of the
people, there is always more work to be done further
afield. But the responsibility for the due discharge of
all these functions of which it has relieved itself remains
with it intact yet.
But unfortunately no sooner does the church rid itself
of the onerous responsibility with which it was formerly
saddled, than it seems to abandon all care or interest in
what used to be its own special work, and what was hereto¬
fore regarded as distinctly Christian work, is often handed
over to men who have not the slightest trace of Christian
principle. In this respect the church behaves not unlike
the unfortunate mother of an illegitimate child, who, find¬
ing it irksome any longer to maintain her ofispring,
hands it over to a baby farmer, and thanks God she is
well quit of her brat. Everyone knows what results fol¬
low when the baby farmer is substituted for the mother
as the custodian of the infant. Much the same results
follow in the secular sphere when the moral influence
of the Christian Church is withdrawn from the bodies to
which it has been handed over the duties formerly dis¬
charged by the church.
Yet it is not only the theory of its constitution
and the actual work with which it is entrusted that the
City government would lead the steps of our Lord to
the City Hall. He came to earth to seek and to save
those who are lost, to deliver the oppressed and redeem
mankind from the evils which afflict them. In His
progress through this city many sad and grievous sights
must have afflicted Him whose eyes are too pure to look
upon iniquity; but when He had made his sad pilgrimage
through our streets, and considered how best to deliver the
282
If Chritt Came to Chicago.
least of these His brethren from the afflictions with which
they are encompassed, He would find no agency in the
whole city which was capable of coping with the evils
in qtiestion, excepting the City government. The
ecclesiastical churches, even if they were filled with His
love and inspired by His spirit, could no more remove
those evils than a sunbeam can drive a locomotive.
What are these evils? There is the injustice by which
the rich, who are strong, and are able to bear the bur¬
den of taxation, transfer hundreds of thousands of dol¬
lars to the shoulders of those who are poor, and not able
to support so heavy a tax. That can only be dealt with
through the legislature, and by the elected representa¬
tives of the people. There is the evil of corruption
established as monarch in the center of the civic admin¬
istration, while aldermen like servile courtiers fawn
around his throne for sops which are purchased by steal¬
ing the heritage of the poor. That evil also can only be
attacked at the primaries and the ballot boxes.
Whether we are dealing with the tramp or with the
willing but workless worker it is by politics, through
politics and in politics that the work of redemption must
be wrought. Gamblers, open their trap doors to per¬
dition in our streets; it is the duty of the police to close
them. The insanitary precinct, where the children of
the poor are reared under conditions which defraud them
of their natural inheritance of health, and the prospect
of happiness belongs also to the municipality. The
predatory rich can only be kept in order by the same
agency. In fact the way of deliverance from most of
the evils which afflict the community, must be sought
through the City Hall, rather than through the direct
agency of any of the churches of the town.
Hence I think that from whatever point we approach
the question we shall arrive at the same conclusion, if
Christ came to Chicago, the center from which He
would work to establish His kingdom here and now in
the city of Chicago, would be the City Hall.
CHAPTER III.
MAYOR HOPKINS.
Few things impress a visitor from England more
than the dearth of leaders. Next to the distrust which
people have of each other, this phenomenon impresses
the stranger most unfavorably. The lack of leader¬
ship is, perhaps, the natural Nemesis of a people which
has forgotten how to trust. But the conditions of society
are rapidly compelling even the most indifferent of these
Anarchists of Comfort to see that society will not get on
much longer without leadership. Hero worship is
innate in the human mind. Not even the feverish tem¬
perature of the Board of Trade can banish that original
instinct from the heart of man, although the ambition
to lead is singularly absent among the natural leaders
of the Democratic society.
Nevertheless, here as elsewhere, in the wise leadership
of the preoccupied many by the capable few lies the hope
for the future. The majority of men or women, whether in
democracies or aristocracies, do not think for themselves.
They have not the mind in the first place and would not
take the trouble if they had the mind. The wise, the
thoughtful and the men of character and initiative are
always in a very small minority, but it is that minority
which rules, and must rule if the state is not to drivel down
to a heap of ruins. The supreme merit of Democracy is
not that of permitting every Tom, Dick and Harry to
steer the ship according to the untrained unwisdom of
the forecastle, but because it g^ves the one capable man,
whether he be in the forecastle or in the forecabin, a
chance of proving his capacity and obtaining possession
of the helm.
Conspicuous among those who have arisen to do battle
283
284
îf Christ Came to Chicagó.
in the popular cause against the tyranny of the corpora¬
tions and the scandalous corruption which honeycombs
civic life in America, isa sturdy New Englander, who is
now serving for the third time as Mayor of Detroit. Hazen
S. Pingree, like most of the men who have contributed
largely to the building up of the middle and western
states, is from the east coast. He did not come over with
the Mayflower, for the historic vessel had made her epoch-
making trip fourteen years before Moses Pingree settled
in Massachusetts. England was at that time just foam-
fretted from end to end with the beginnings of a civil war
which was not to end until Charles Stuart's head fell be¬
neath the headsman's axe, and Moses Pingree brought
over with him the Puritan hatred of tyranny and all
unrighteousness. Hazen Pingree, the present Mayor
of Detroit, was bom on a farm in Maine in 1842.
When fourteen he left the farmstead and began to
serve his time in a shoe factory in Massachusetts.
When the war broke out he was twenty years old
and was the first volunteer from the village in
which he was working. They talked of buying him
off, but he laughed the proposal to scorn. " Who
would not give a farm to be a soldier ? " he said, a saying
which, being repeated, passed from mouth to mouth and
acted as one of those potent suggestions kept up the
morale and re-enforced the ranks of the Army of Emanci¬
pation. Pingree, who possessed a strong constitution,
fought through the whole war from Bull's Run to the
collapse of the Confederacy with the exception of
six months which he spent as a prisoner of war in
Andersonville.
After the war was over he came to Detroit and re¬
sumed work in a shoe factory. After a time he saw
an opportunity of beginning business on his own ac¬
count in a small way, and from that moment he never
looked behind him. Keen business instincts, united
with a sterling honesty which was universally recognized
by his customers, and the rapid growth of the north-
Mayor Hopkins.
285
western states, combined to make him the owner of the
largest shoe factory west of New York. He settled
down, married, and became a comfortable citizen, full of
restless energy. He built up a considerable fortune and
furnished a mansion, every room of which bears testimony
to the culture and refinement of the Detroit cobbler. Not-
withstanding his business he made time for travel, visit¬
ing Alaska on the one hand and all the picture galleries
and museums of Europe on the other. His drawing-
room contains some of the gems of European art,
trophies of his continental expedition, while the library
is full of choice and well-thumbed books.
There was great dissatisfaction in Detroit in 1889 owing
to the corruption and mismanagement which prevailed in
the municipality. An influential deputation of citizens
waited upon Mr. Pingree and begged him to accept a
nomination to the mayoralty. Up to this time he had
been engrossed in business and had g^ven but cursory
attention to the management of the municipal affairs.
He hesitated, then refused, but finally was induced to
stand. He threw the whole of his irresistible energy into
the campaign and was elected by a majority of 2,318. He
is a Republican, but he speedily made it known that in
the City Hall, partisan politics were to be severely sub¬
ordinated to the public good. As soon as he en¬
tered office he saw that it would be impossible to
do anything in the perfunctory fashion which had
previously prevailed. The Mayor of Detroit in those
days did not come down to the City Hall till half past
eleven, where he spent half an hour in signing docu¬
ments and then for the rest of the day went about his
private business. Mayor Pingree changed all that.
He went down immediately after breakfast and stayed
there till six at night. He ran the city in the same
businesslike fashion in which he had previously man¬
aged his shoe factory.
.\s soon as he grasped the situation he found that he
was çpnfrouted by a çorrupt Council, -whpsç members re^
286
If Christ Came to Chicago,
garded their position, as chiefly valuable for the oppor¬
tunity which it afforded for selling public franchises.
He found the streets practically handed over to the dom¬
ination of the street railway companies, while the mur¬
derous grade crossings of the steam railways were in¬
creasing and multiplying to the peril of the citizens and
the continual interruption of public traific. The
tax-dodger flourished and by so doing laid the greater
proportion of the burden of taxation on the poorer classes.
The town was being spiderwebbed with wires, notwith¬
standing an ordinance which had been passed, but never
enforced, compelling the electric lighting, telegraph and
telephone companies to place their wires under ground.
The gas company was in full possession of the munici¬
pality, it charged the consumers $1.50 per thousand
feet and acted in the usual high-handed fashion of gas
conipanies in similar positions. Valuable franchises
were given away without compensation. The electric
light company rendered shamefully inadequáte service;
and in short. Mayor Pingree found Detroit suffering from
all the evils which afflict Chicago and most American
cities. The city, instead of being governed in the interests
of the citizens, was practically farmed out to corporations
who were about as honest as the farmer generals in
France before the French revolution, and who had as
much regard for the welfare of the people as distinguished
a hungry Roman proconsul just appointed to fatten upon
the wealth of a conquered province in Asia. Seeing
which Mayor Pingree took off his coat, turned up his
sleeves and set to work.
It is not necessary to describe here the details of that
great fight which began in 1890 and is still going on.
It is a campaign in which all the glory and most of the
triumph has been on the side of the Mayor. He is a
silent man of as much pertinacity as the taciturn general
who led the armies of the Union in triumph to the rebel
capital. In his first message he announced that the
time had come for the city to assume control of the public
Mayor Hopkins.
287
lighting and own and operate its own plant, in order that
it_ might escape the caprices of tyrannous corporations.
After a prolonged struggle with the city railway com¬
panies he brought them to their knees, and only this year
he has achieved a brilliant, although not decisive victory
in the law courts to which he had appealed against their
franchise. The net value to the city of the judicial
decision, if confirmed by the Supreme Court, is not
less than $5,000,000. This, although the latest, was by
no means the first of his encounters with street railway
companies. He had given them a taste of his quality by
refusing to call out the militia to shoot down their em¬
ployes* in a strike which took place soon after his election.
Instead of calling out the militia he wrote a strong letter
to the company counseling a resort to arbitration. His
advice was followed under duress and the strike ceased.
The principle of arbitration then established has been in
operation ever since, and when I was in Detroit this year
arrangements were being made for the reassembling
of the Arbitration Board for the settlement of a question
which had arisen as to a proposed reduction in wages.
He fought the gas companies and compelled them
to reduce their rates from $1.50 to $1, with a prospect
of a still further reduction to 80 cents. The quality of
the gas was improved, meters were protected against
fast running, and no extra charge was to be made for their
use. The gas company was not allowed to destroy the
pavement in laying its pipes, as all gas pipes had to be
laid in alleys whenever possible, and gas mains were to
be extended on the petition of one consumer for every
100 feet. Detroit, like Chicago, is debarred by its char¬
ter from owning its gas plant and the gas companies
were not brought to their knees without a severe fight,
in which the police, acting under orders of the Mayor,
arrested the gas men who were tearing up the streets in
defiance of the city authorities.
The most sensational incident which attended his
fight needs to be told at a little greater length. From hü'
288
If Christ Came to Chicago.
first entering office the Mayor had set his heart upon
municipal electric lighting. After infinite trouble in
getting permission from the Legislature for the munici¬
pality to operate and own its own electric light plant, he
was disgusted to find that the corrupt members of the
City Council, disregarding the permission given them by
the State, had passed an ordinance handing over the elec¬
tric lighting of the city to a private corporation in almost
as cynical a fashion as the majority in the Chicago Council
passed the Watson Gas Ordinance. The Mayor promptly
vetoed it with as much emphasis as Mayor Hopkins.
The boodlers of Detroit had either more nerve or were
in greater need of money than those of Chicago, for a
two-thirds majority was prepared to pass the ordinance
over the Mayor's veto. Mayor Ping^ee was in despair.
But light arose in the midst of darkness. An hour or two
before he had to go down to the City Council to assist as
an impotent spectator at the triumph of the boodle, an
Aldennan presented himself at the Mayor's house. He
stated that an agent of the electric light company had just
been to see him. They were rather anxious about their
majority and they wanted another vote. The Alderman
replied he was not going to vote for the ordinance. The
agent assured him that they would make it worth his
while to pass the ordinance over the Mayor's veto. On
asking what he meant he was told that if he voted for the
ordinance he would receive $800, in proof of which he
handed him there and then $200 on account in hundred-
dollar bills. The Alderman, wisely dissembling, ac¬
cepted the money, thanked the gentleman and hurried
down to the Mayor, in whose hands he placed the $200.
With a light heart, notwithstanding the fire which
burned within, and with victory in his eyes. Mayor Pin-
gp-ee drove down to the City Hall. The Council was
assembled. The ordinance was about to be passed over
his veto. Just before the roll was called the Mayor rose.
Amid the dogged and mutinous silence of the bood-
krs thç Mayor, as his habil; is, plunged into the
Mayor Hopkins.
289
middle of his subject. " Before you vote for the
ordinance I wish to inform you that I am well
aware that illicit means have been employed to secure
your votes. In fact I hold in my possession two
hundred dollar bills which were this very day handed
over to an Alderman whose vote the electric light com¬
pany wished to purchase in support of this ordinance.
This $200 was a twenty-five per cent instalment of
the total sum to be paid for that vote." A murmur of
alarm ran through the Council and one or two of the
bolder members ventured to cry, " Name I Name ! "
" Yes," said the Mayor, " I can name him : he is Alder¬
man so and so," naming his informant. " He will testify
that it is tnie. Here are the $200 which he has handed
me. It is impossible to believe that he is the only Alder¬
man who has been approached. Now gentlemen, let us
call the roll. " Consternation is a mild word to express the
dismay which was depicted on the faces of the boodlers.
The blow struck by the Mayor hit the Aldermen between
the eyes and when the roll was called they simply
bolted. The Mayor's veto was sustained, and as a
result Detroit expects to be the best and most econom¬
ically lighted city in the whole of the United States.
Success was gained in this case by the opportune dis¬
covery of legal provable facts as to the boodling that
was practiced in the Council. From that time forth the
Mayor has gone on conquering and to conquer.
He is bent at the present moment upon giving the
inhabitants of Detroit free water, founding a citizens'
street railway company which is to construct and
operate street railways in certain streets in Detroit
under conditions the most onerous which the wit
of man can devise. The franchise is to be forfeited
whenever any of these conditions are ignored. Girder-
grooved rails have to be used. The roadway between
the tracks is to be repaved. No overcrowding is to be
permitted in the cars, which have to be of the most ap¬
proved design for service and for comfort. The fare is
1/ Christ Came to Chicago.
to be twenty-five cents for eight tickets, carrying right
of transfer within the city limits. The street rail¬
way company is to pay from $1,500 to $6,000 a mile on
tracks paved and railed by the city, and the corporation
is to deposit $10,000 in cash as a security for the com¬
pletion of the trolley system. The City Council is to have
the right to purchase it at valuation to be fixed by arbi¬
tration at the expiration of fifteen years, or to take over
the whole plant, exclusive of rolling stock, free gratis
and for nothing, at the end of twenty-five years.
I went over to Detroit in order to see this champion of
the rights of the common people against corporate tyr¬
anny. I found Mayor Pingree a solid,. stalwart, reso¬
lute man, who has established a reputation of being as
immovable as the Rocky Mountains in all cases where
public interests conflicted with the claims of private
speculators. No one can move him when once he sees his
objective and he goes for it with an irresistible dash and
keeps up the momentum of the charge until his enemies
are scattered like chaff before the wind. He is a terror,
is Mayor Pingree, a terror to evil-doers and hated accord¬
ingly by all that class. Notwithstanding the opposition
of all the monopolists and all the corporations he has
twice been re-elected, and each time by a larger majority.
If ever there was a man who sits firm in the saddle and
rides his steed with a steady hand Mayor Pingree is that
man. Senator Palmer, whose family has been so long
connected with the city, said that there was no doubt
that Mayor Pingree was absolutely incorruptible and that
he was consumed with an unquenchable zeal for the pub¬
lic service. "There is no doubt," said Senator Palmer,
" that he has succeeded in making a stand which has
given him a position very few men hold in the Union ;
and I am not afraid to say that if the Republicans are
likely to have a hard fight for the next presidential elec¬
tion Mayor Pingree might be the strongest candidate
whom they could put into the field. He is a strong man
who stands for a principle which is likely to come to
Mayor Hopkins.
the front mor ; and more and I am not by any means sure
that his nomination would not be good party policy."
Into such lofty regions I do not venture to intrude.
All that I know is that Mayor Pingree is an honest man,
fighting a heroic battle against immense odds, and en¬
compassed by a host of enemies who have spared no
effort in order to ruin him both financially and politic¬
ally. The extent to which this is carried may be in¬
ferred from the fact that last year an Alderman in the
City Council, who had supported the Mayor's reforming
policy, was waited upon by an influential deputation,
including, I am sorry to say, some leading members of
St. John's Episcopal Church in Detroit, who gave him
to understand, without ceremony, that he must either
quit supporting the Mayor, or abandon his seat in the
Council or make up his mind to be ruined. The Alder¬
man was a plumber with one of the best businesses in
Detroit. As a high-class plumber his business connec¬
tion lay chiefly with the rich people, and on looking
into the matter he saw that the members of the depu¬
tation were perfectly able to make good their threat
in case he did not oppose the Mayor or abandon his
seat in the Council. The Alderman came down to
Mayor Pingree with tears in his eyes and told the
story. " What can I do ? " he said. " I am over
60 years of age, my business is worth $25,000. I shall
lose it all if I remain in the Council and support you,
as I must if I sit there. The only thing that I can do
is to resign." And resign he did. It is a curious in¬
stance of the modem tyranny of the predatory rich that
not one paper in Detroit would publish the trath about
this Alderman's resignation for the information of the
citizens.
Mayor Pingree is a Republican, who has no bitterer
enemies than some of the Republicans in Detroit.
Mayor Hopkins, who was elected last December as the
successor of Mr. Carter Harrison in the mayoralty of
Chicago, is a Democrat, and unless all appearances are
2g2 If Cfirist Came to Chicagd.
luisleadiug, is lijcely to find his worst enemies among
men of his own party. That, however, is all in the day's
work and must be expected. But just as Mayor Pingree
has made reputation for the Republican party in the
Union at large, so Mayor Hopkins may become one
of the elements which contribute to the national
strength of the Democratic party. Mayor Hopkins
has the advantage of Mayor Pingree in being a
younger man. He is the youngest Mayor that Chi¬
cago has had, with one exception, and he was elected
by the heaviest vote which Chicago ever cast for a chief
magistrate. There is much in his career to fascinate the
imagination, and if he should continue to progress as
rapidly as he has done up to the present, the story of
his early life and his rapid rise is likely to figure in the
school books of the English-speaking race side by side
with the story of how Abraham Lincoln from a rail
splitter became President. To an Englishman the pos¬
sibility of so sudden a promotion from the ranks to one
of the foremost positions in the Republic is one of the
few elements of romance and of charm in American
politics. The fact that the man who, the other day,
was working as a lumber shover or a day laborer, should
now be autocrat of the capital of the New World, is a
distinct contribution to the romance of contemporary
history. The Arabian Nights element is always the
most interesting in history of nations and individuals
and there is a great deal of the Arabian Nights element
in the rapid rise of Mayor Hopkins.
John Patrick Hopkins was bom in BuflFalo. He was
educated in the common school, and was the third son
of a family of twelve. His father and his brothers are
dead, and when quite a boy his sisters had to take to
dress making in order to keep the family in bread and
butter. As soon as he left school, which he did at a
comparatively early age, he set to work to earn his
living. His first place he found for himself. He
started in life by heating rivets in an iron foundry.
Mayor Hopkins.
393
From there he went to work in the Evans elevators
and by the time he was twenty had established a
g;ood enough reputation for regularity and industry to
be appointed weighmaster of the place. When he was
twenty-one he came to Chicago, the city which fourteen
years later was to elect him to the highest office in its
gift. For four months he looked around. He fixed
up his sisters in dressmaking business, and then started
out to look for work for himself. He was not quite
twenty-two when he went down to Pullman and asked
the superintendent of works for a job. In reply to the
question of what he could do, he replied that he would
do anything. Being asked if he meant what he said he
was taken at his word. The superintendent was rather
pleased at his determination to try his hand at whatever
turned up, and sent him to shove lumber down in the
yards. There he worked as an ordinary laborer for some
months, until he had satisfied the management that he
had good stuff in him which could be better employed
elsewhere. Whatever may be said concerning the
autocracy which Mr. Pullman has established in the
city which bears his name, no one can deny that the
autocrat and his agents have a keen eye for capacity, at
least up to a certain point. Mr. Hopkins' career illus¬
trates this. In August, 1880, he was called into the store-
keeping department. The April next year he was
appointed timekeeper in the store ; in the following
August he became general timekeeper. Two years later
he was made paymaster by Mr. Pullman.
But notwithstanding his rapid promotion and the
responsible position which he occupied as paymaster of
the great industrial army which recognizes Mr. Pullman
as its captain general, Mr. Hopkins was singularly inde¬
pendent. It used to be said of him in those days that he
was the only man in Pullman who dared to call his soul
his own. He was a Democrat, although Mr. Pull¬
man was a Republican. He was young, a comparative
stranger, without capital or resources of his own, but
294
If Christ Came to Chicago,
not content with his position of salaried employe, he
went into business on his own account in the Arcade.
A friend of his who knew him at Pullman, and to whom
I applied for some information of those early days and
of the struggles by which Hopkins established his repu¬
tation, wrote me as follows :
This Arcade is one of the original and peculiar institutions of the
little manufacturing city of Pullman, which is now, much against Mr.
Pullman's will, part of the great metropolis of Chicago. It is a
big, red structure with passage-ways running north and south
and east and west throughout and on either side booths and shops.
In the upper stories there is a small theater, a public library, oflSces
and flats. In one corner of the main floor is the Pullman Savings
Bank, through which the pay-roll runs and which is ready to care for
the deposits of the workingmen. There is no other place in the set¬
tlement where shops other than groceries and markets can be kept,
and those are for the most part centered in one great market building,
modeled after the same plan. It is possible for the company to dic¬
tate in these matters, as it controls every inch of the ground, and not
even the streets have been dedicated as public highways. It has its
own hotel, which has always lost money for the company, but which
is sustained for the convenience and gratification of the officials and
especially Mr. Pullman. Even the church is the property of the com¬
pany. The Catholics were indeed after a long time permitted to build
on consecrated ground, but before they were given a deed it is said
that a priest who had espoused the laboring men's side in a great
strike had been compelled to resign. However that may be, it is sure
that the reverend famer without any apparent reason did fold his tent
and desert his flock against their protests and despite their tears, leav¬
ing another to finish the church which he had be^n.
This was before I came to Pullman, and I speak therefore only by
hearsay. But John Hopkins had been the companion of the reverend
father in guilt and his resignation had been demanded as a punish¬
ment for the crime of openly sympathizing with the workingmen. It
was forthcoming without a murmur, and after a little time spent in
silence and without either suing for restoration or complaining, the
young man was invited to return and his demand for a largely in¬
creased salary was granted. It was Pullman's first surrender. But
the fact was that it was not easy for any one to fill young Hopkins'
i)lace ; he knew Ole Olson in the brick-yard and Ole Olson in the
bundry, and he never forgot either or mistook one for the other. So
much of his work was in this way personal that the conveniences for
a merely mechanical system of paying were not at hand and his suc¬
cessor made a sad botch of it. Besides, the absence of swagger or
bitterness on the young man's part was a strong recommendation for
a new trial ; but, state it as you will, it was a great victory for the
mayor-to-be, then little more than twenty-five years old. A similar
victory was afterwards scored by a young man named Harper, who
served as chief accountant, and was discharged for insubordination
Mayor Hopkins.
295
and requested to return after a time to straighten out a set of books
which some of the best experts iii Chicago had failed to decipher. He
was really a wonderful accountant, whose equal I have never known ;
and what because of this and what, because of a fellow-feeling for him,
Mayor Hopkins has chosen him to unravel the muddle at the City
Hall, a task which he seems to be performing with perspicuous ability
and great dispatch. But though Mr. Pullman restored both of these
gentlemen to their positions without requiring an apology and with
increased salaries, he did not fail to place persons with them to learn
the work so as to supplant them, and each found a short shift for
himself as soon as the powers felt able to dispense with his services.
Perhaps this may have been apparent to John Hopkins all along, and
may have had much to do with his indifference.
Politics was the cause of war. If there was anything which Mr.
Pullman could not endure, it was stiff-necked rebellion politically.
Like so many American manufacturers, he had come to think protec¬
tion a necessity to his business, support of it loyalty to his interest
and that of his employes, and voting the wrong way in some manner
a treachery unpardonable. But the imperturbable paymaster merely
smiled in his usual confident and provoking way, and proceeded to
do his best to carry Pullman for the Democratic ticket.
It was not an easy thing to do. The people were accustomed to sub¬
serviency, and yet more so since the unsuccessful strike referred to in
the foregoing. But Hopkins was indefatigable, and he knew
Ole Olson in me brick-yards and Ole Olson at the foundry—in short,
he knew them all. To be sure, they worked for the Pullman Com¬
pany. Doubtless largely because of their admiration for the brave fel¬
low who had stood unabashed and victorious before the company, they
did give a considerable Democratic majority in spite of the ever-
increasing rumors of official vengeance. Really, by his words, his
magnetic presence and, yet more, by his example, Hopkins brought
manhood and courage to the surface in men who never gave any
signs of either before and have since lapsed into the old, lack-luster,
subservient mode of life.
This was too much, and the brilliant young paymaster had to get
out without ceremony: and (whether as a feanul warning or not-1
cannot say) fourteen hundred others, to a man Democratic voters,
were sent out too. The reason assigned was lack of work. As a Re¬
publican victoi^ had been scored in the nation, this could hardly be
ascribed to their future votes. But to an outsider it seemed as if the
company, by one fell blow, thought to make such things impossible
for the future. Not only was the leader but the flock as well this time
driven out of the gates. As before there was not a word of complaint
from the imperturbed young paymaster, who only entered a formal
protest when the rent was suddenly and greatly increased on the
store-rooms occupied by himself and partner in the Arcade. Amid
the sneers of the company and its satellites, he prepared to remove
his business to Kensington, and for that purpose pushed, with true
Chicago enterprise, tJie construction of a new store building.
He established himself in " Bumtown," on the outskirts
of Pullman, which had been abandoned to saloon keepers
296
If Christ Came to Chicago.
and disreputable houses. His advent changed everything.
His store was a wonderful success. His wagons delivered
goods in Pullman, for the autocracy of the company
could not be stretched so far as to prevent its late paymas¬
ter from using the public thoroughfare. Mr. Hopkins is
still in litigation with the company to recover the exor¬
bitant rent exacted from him. He has also had more
than one opportunity since becoming Mayor of making
it even with his adversaries. Not that there is any
trace of bitterness in him ; no one could be more smiling,
affable or debonair. But he has not lost a chance since
he airived of reminding the public of the seamy side of
the Pullmam administration, whether in gas or in water
or of the district containing 100,000 population on the
boundaries of Pullman which has not yet been provided
with a common sewer, owing to the opposition of the
owners of real estate in the neighborhood.
Mr. Hopkins was always a politician but he was twenty-
seven years old before he was appointed to an ofíice.
The position which he held was that of Treasurer to the
village of Hyde Park. Two years later he endeavored to
obtain the nomination to the National Democratic Con¬
vention. As usual with young aspirants he had to fight his
way to recognition. He was defeated in 1888, but he made
so plucky.a fight against Mr. Green that his standing in
the party was recognized without further hesitancy. He
was placed on the committee and in the presidential cam¬
paign Pullman was delivered ever to his hands by the
Democrats. It was Mr. Hopkins who first startled the
Republican close borough by a torch light parade
through the streets and by this and other electoral sensa¬
tions he achieved a victory which startled everyone. The
next year he followed it up by a municipal success quite
as notable, for as Chairman of the Annexation Committee
he played a leading part in adding 225,000 population to
Chicago. Among the towns annexed, Hyde Park was
one of the most important, and the Pullman Company
bad the chagrin to see their estates annexed to the city
Mayor Hopkins,
297
of Chicago against their opposition. After this he be¬
came President of the Cook County Democracy. He
took the boys down first to Springfield and then to
Washington. His name was first coupled with the
mayoralty in February, 1890, wheu with a thousand
members of County Democracy Marching Club he went
down to Des Moines to attend Governor Boies' inaugura¬
tion. Hopkins, who has an extraordinary memory for
names, resembling therein the Queen and Mr. Gladstone,
who are said never to forget a name they have once heard,
presented each member of his thousand marching Demo¬
crats, and it is said that he never made a mistake in the
name of a single individual. Mr. Hopkins having com¬
plimented Governor Boies on his gray hair, the Governor
replied, " By the time you have hair like mine I trust
you will be Mayor of Chicago." Not a single streak was
visible on the Mayor's glossy raven locks when Governor
Boies' prediction was fulfilled. Mr. Hopkins went every¬
where with the marching club. " He would always
wear a plug and carry a cotton umbrella like the rest of
us," said one of the members, " he never made an enemy
in this club." He was never absent from one of the fif¬
teen funerals which occurred during his membership and
he was just as punctual in attending inaugurations, rati¬
fications and celebrations of all kinds ; indeed, the County
Democracy Marching Club may be said to have been the
creation of Mr. Hopkins. It is remarkable that he should
have held his own as its chief and trusted captain, for he
never drinks, and many of the marching Democrats need
to be well primed before the parade. He was always
pleasant and genial to everyöne, never forgot any¬
one's name and was always in his place when expected.
All this time he was building up a big business. He en¬
tered upon other work, dealing with street cleaning and
street work, and he had become a very substantial citi¬
zen. All his mind was concentrated on business and
politics. He took no part in society, although he be¬
longed to several clubs. He spent most of his time in
298
If Christ Came to Chicago.
his store or at home with his mother and sisters. He
dressed well and kept in well with the influential people,
including President Cleveland, who last year appointed
him receiver of the Chemical Bank, the duties of which
responsible post he discharged with the vigor and dis¬
patch which characiterize all his actions.
When Carter Harrison was shot and the election was
ordered to be held for the appointment of his successor,
there was no intention on the part of the official gang in
the County Democracy to run Hopkins. They would
willingfly have nominated one of themselves, but Mr. Hop¬
kins came in and said he wished the nomination, and all
opposition went down before him. He does not owe
anything to the party managers unless it may be a few
grudges, which he will probably pay off in due time.
He refused absolutely to make any pledges or to bind
himself to any course, but insisted on having his hands
free in case he were elected. With many a wry face his
rivals bowed to the inevitable and Mr. Hopkins entered
for the campaign against Acting-Mayor Swift. It was
hot and furious while it lasted, but so far as Mr. Hop¬
kins was concerned the contest was not characterized by
any asperity, nor did he commit himself recklessly in his
election pledges. The policy of the party was defined
in a manifesto which compared very favorably with the
singularly barren and jejune production which emanated
from the Republican Committee. His portrait was in
every saloon and in a great many other places besides ;
for Mr. Hopkins is a presentable looking young man,
whose countenance is good to look upon. In the end he
was elected by a majority of over i,200.
No sooner was the Mayor in the saddle than he began
a campaign which bore the strongest resemblance to
that of Mayor Pingree in Detroit. He addressed himself
to the elevation of the grade crossings, ordered a list of
the killed and wounded to be made up and read to the
Council at their meetings. He prepared himself for a
battle royal with the boodle element in the Council,
Mayor Hopkins.
299
which he saw would endeavor to use the attempt to ele¬
vate the tracks as a means of levying blackmail on the
railways in order to embarass him in his enterprise.
Finding the city hopelessly behind in its finances he cut
his own salary ten per cent and insisted on a general reduc¬
tion all round. He surrounded himself with competent
and public-spirited advisers and began a systematic
inquiry into all the abuses which have disgraced the
city. Comptroller Ackerman drew up a report upon the
scandalous system of assessments, which is the dis¬
grace of Chicago, and the report was published to the
dismay of all the tax dodgers of the community. He
took energetic measures against the street railways to
compel them to fulfill their obligations in repairing the
tracks, in paying the license duty and in discharging the
other obligations which they owed to the city.
His first battle with the Council took place over the
Northwestern Elevated Railway Ordinance, which the
Aldermen had passed, it is said, in return for $1,000 a
vote, for making an elevated railway to the northwest.
The Mayor vetoed the ordinance because it did not
secure any return to the city in the shape of a per¬
centage upon the gross receipts. His veto was sus¬
tained. The ordinance as amended provides that the
city shall share in the gross profits of the railway. A
committee was appointed to inquire into the unau¬
thorized encroachments on the public domain by steam
railways, with results which are not a little surpris¬
ing to the public and disagreeable to the railroads.
He stopped the disgraceful system of levying fees
for inspection. He waged war against the system of
collecting and retaining the taxes by which collectors
were able to pocket scores of thousands of dollars which
ought to belong to the public, and generally set on foot
an investigation of the shady places of the city adminis¬
tration. By a ukase he peremptorily suppressed the
raids for revenue upon houses of ill fame, which
have been the scandal and the disgrace of Chicago for
300
If Christ Came to Chicago.
many years, and ruined at least for a time the business of
the professional bailer and the justice of the peace. In
dealing with the police his avowed policy has been to
remove the police from politics, but the temptation to
avenge himself on his adversaries was too strong to
enable him to caYry out that programme in its entirety.
Captain Shippy disappeared. Captain Mahoney wàs re¬
duced and Inspector Ross compelled to resign. There
was no attempt to justify these acts, other than upon
political grounds.
Mr. Hopkins' great fight, however, was waged with
the boodle gas ordinance. For a whole week the victory
was in dispute, nor did anyone know to which side it
would incline. At the Council meeting Mayor Hopkins
launched one of the strongest messages which has ever
been addressed to such a body. His veto was sustained,
although forty-two members of the Council voted in its
favor while only twenty-two voted against it. He was
saved from defeat by the defection of a certain number
of Republican Aldermen. The Democratic boodlers
stood finn, with the result that the Mayor's next task is
the ridding of the City Council of the presence of the
corrupt members of his own party.
Personally Mr. Hopkins impressed me very favorably,
partly, I must admit, at first on account of his resem¬
blance to Cecil Rhodes, the Prime Minister of South
Africa. Cecil Rhodes is the ablest man in the British
Empire from the administrative point of view, and if
Mayor Hopkins is anything like Cecil Rhodes he will
not stop far short of the presidential chair. He is, how¬
ever, younger than Mr. Rhodes and of a more nervous
temperament. When he presides over a Council meet¬
ing his fingers are continually playing with his mallet,
and at times even this method of disposing of his surplus
energies fails and he gets up and walks backwards and
forwards like a caged lion on the raised dais on which
the mayoral chair is placed. He may get over this
when he grows older, otherwise it will wear him down.
Mayor Hopkins.
foi the Aldennen are a tough crowd and he has a very
long row to hoe before he gets to the end of his job in
Chicago. He is a demon for work, and his constitution,
which has not been impaired by any excess either in
drink or tobacco or other forms of dissipation, will stand
a much greater strain than would ruin the strength of
most of his opponents. There is a joyous elan about
him which will stand him in good stead. He has not
been elected three months, but he has established a repu¬
tation in Chicago which no other man possesses, and it
is admitted reluctantly, even by those who are opposed
to him, that if he were to stand on an independent
ticket he would be elected Mayor at present by a majority
of three to one. " He has a spine like a telegraph pole, "
exclaimed a banker, admiringly, after reading the mes¬
sage on the boodle ordinance. It would be difficult to
describe more picturesquely the kind of backbone which
is needed by a man in Mayor Hopkins' position.
Mr. Hopkins is not an orator, but if he were to take
a> little more trouble he would be able to excel as much
on the platform as he does in administration. There is
a bonhomie about him which is attractive to the
masses, and he is quite Bismarckian in the reckless can¬
dor with which he expresses his opinions. He is not a
scholar nor a student of books. He reads the news¬
paper, and he lives in the midst of his fellow men. His
vernacular is expressive and at times vigorous. When it
was told him that Andrew Foy, a City Hall employe,
was refusing to support his wife, who, had home witness
against him and Coughlin in the Cronin trial, he told
him he would have to quit if he did not support his
wife. ' ' I will be d if I will have a man in the
employ of the city who will not support his family."
Mr. Hopkins is perhaps a trifle vindictive, but in the
campaign on which he has entered if he will but qualify
his vindictiveness by a large magnanimity he may find
that part of his nature an element of strength. He has
got an Augean stable to clear out and many of the other
302
If Christ Came to Chicago.
labors of Hercules to put through. He will need all his
youth, all his strength and all his good temper and all
the support of the honest citizens. His experience at
Pullman shows that he is capable of fighting a winning
fight against apparently hopeless odds. He will have
against him every scoundrel who is fattening on the
plunder of the poor. He will also have to face the
determined opposition of the so-called respectable citizens
who have profited and are now profiting by the success
with which they have avoided the proper share of their
civic obligations. But as Mayor Pingree said to me, " I
could never have succeeded if I had not thrown myself
upon the people, and at every crisis in the struggle
appealed to the people to support me in the campaign,
and they have never failed in Detroit" Neither will
they in Chicago if Mayor Hopkins but sticks to his
g^ns and trusts the people to help him to carry their
cause to victory.
CHAPTER IV.
BISHOP BRENNAN AND HIS SECULAR CLERGY.
"Give ine control of the police force," said Commis¬
sioner of Police Sheehan of New York, "and I do not
care a tinker's damn who has the majority of votes."
I was told much the same thing in Chicago. "Do not
make any mistake," said one of the leading business
men in the town, "Mr. Hopkins may be mayor but the
people who run the town are the police. They are on
deck when the captain is in the cabin and it depends
upon them far more than upon him what kind of govern¬
ment we have got." Government by police is hardly
an ideal system of administration, but it would not be
so bad if it were not permeated through and through
by the influence of politics. The policeman is a good
servant but a bad master, and he has all the faults of
the tyrant and all the vices of the slave when he at the
same time lords and tyrannizes over the people and is
compelled to cringe before the pull of the political
boss.
One of the planks of the Democratic party which
carried the mayoral election for Mayor Hopkins was
that the police should be taken out of politics. It can
be done no doubt, but the process is very much like
taking a man out of his skin, and so far there does not
seem to be very much evidence that the operation has
begun. The first act of Mayor Hopkins was to dismiss
Inspector Ross,who was supposed to have been Mr. Swift's
candidate for the chieftainship of the police. His
second was to reduce Captain Mahoney because, as the
aggrieved officer put it in his letter to Mr. Hopkins,
"At the special election for mayor I exercised my right as
an American citizen, entitled to the sufirage in voting
for the choice of my party, and in my humble opinion,
303
304
If Christ Came to Chicagû.
for the best man for the position." Captain Mahoney
said he failed to see how Mayor Hopkins was
fulfilling his pledge to take the police out of politics by
reducing him in position. That is because Captain
Mahoney is somewhat dull of perception and fails to
appreciate the humor of a position which is really very
humorous although it was somewhat tragic for him.
I asked Farmer Jones what he thought of the way in
which Mayor Hopkins was fulfilling his election pledges
in this matter of the police. "He is all right," said
Farmer Jones, "there is nothing the matter with him."
"But," I said, "he is only firing out Republicans, and
is that not a rather peculiar way of divorcing the police
from politics?" Farmer Jones looked at me curiously
and then said with somewhat of his old smile lingering
in the corner of his eye: "It is all right. This is one
of the first steps which must be taken towards that end.
You see that the Democrats believe that the police can
be divorced from politics, the Republicans do not,
therefore the Republicans will do all they can to make
the experiment of a non-political police a failure. To
give it a fair chance therefore it is absolutely necessary
to clear all the Republicans out of the force in order
that the police divorced from politics may be worked
by those who believe that there ought to be no politics
in the police force,that is to say by Democrats. Otherwise
this reform would have no chance at all." Farmer
Jones, it will be seen, has in him the making of a
famous casuist, but the Mayor, fortunately, has shown
no sign of going to the lengths which Farmer Jones'
apology would justify.
The ideal before Mayor Hopkins, as indeed before
everyone else in Chicago, is the Fire Brigade. Fire
Marshal Swenie has remained in command of the fire¬
men for many years and the administration of the de¬
partment has been conducted on business principles,
with results in efficiency which are a standing reproof
to every other department in the city. As the necessity
Bishop Brennan and His Secular Clergy. 305
of rescuing at least one department of the administration
from the all pervading pestilence of party politics was
burned into the mind of Chicago by the great fire it
almost seems as if it would require a similar cautery
to brand upon Chicago a similar conviction in relation
to other departments. Even with the memory of the fire
fresh in the minds of the citizens Mayor Cregier was so
unmindful of it that immediately after his election he
proposed to replace Fire Marshal Swenie by a creature
of his own. The way in which he was restrained from
doing so was told me by Mayor Hopkins. As soon as
it was known in the city that the Mayor was going to
apply the spoils system to the fire department, a dep¬
utation of fire insurance men waited upon Mayor
Cregper. Their communication was brief and to the
point. They said, "Your Honor, we are only citizens
engaged in the fire insurance business, we have nothing
whatever to do with the distribution of the mayor's
patronage, and if you dismiss the Fire Marshal that is
your business with which we cannot interfere. Our
business is to make rates at which we are willing to take
risks on the insurance of property against fire. The
moment the Fire Marshal goes the rates upon all
descriptions of fire risks will go up 25 per cent." The
deputation then withdrew but the Fire Marshal retained
his position.
Chicago appreciates an argument which can be stated
in percentages payable in dollars. Chicago is not
yet sufficiently alive to arguments which relate to the
administration of justice, to the prevention of crime and
to the repression of vice. These things are important,
no doubt, but negligence in their enforcement does not
entail an immediate money fine upon the respectable
citizens. Were it not so they would make their police
as non-political as their firemen.
The Chief of Police in any city corresponds more
nearly to the early ideal of a Christian bishop than any
modern prelate. If his manifold functions are looked
3O6
If Christ Came to Chicago.
into it will be found that there are few people who de¬
serve to be regarded as the true episcopus or overseer than
does Chief Brennan. His jurisdiction is limited to the pre¬
vention of sin in the comparative and superlative degree;
when sin becomes vice or develops into crime then it
demands the attention of the Police Bishop of the
city. Day by day in the New World as in the Old
the tendency is more and more to saddle the police with
ever increasing duties, responsibilities and obliga¬
tions, thereby increasing the resemblance which the
police bears to the medieval bishop. Indeed the
moment the idea is suggested to anyone analogies crop
up in all directions. Chief Brennan does not wear a mitre
or grasp a crozier. He does not even wear a helmet and
his uniform is the reverse of conspicuous, but in his inner
sanctum he reigns like a prince-bishop of the olden
times over the whole of his diocese of Chicago. His
inspectors are his suffragans, his captains are his deans,
his lieutenants his canons, while the patrolmen who
every day and night keep ceaseless watch and ward
over the city constitute his secular clergy, sturdy and
stalwart specimens of the church militant containing as
is wont with all human institutions a fair share of
recruits from the Devil's Brigade.
It is a thousand pities that a force which should be
allowed to perform its arduous and responsible func¬
tions with a single eye to the enforcement of the law
and the maintainance of order should be perpetually
interfered with by the politicians. It is quite incred¬
ible—the extent to which this system is carried. Over
and over again I have had to ask myself whether I was
really in an American city or whether I had been
spirited away and dropped down in some Turkish pasha-
lik so entirely has the very conception of impartial
justice died out in the police courts of Chicago. That
is a strong statement to those who do not know Chicago
but those who know the city will only wonder and be
surprised that I should regard it as a subject interesting
Bishop ßrennan and His Secular Clergy. 307
enough to be talked about. I might as well discuss the
rising or the setting of the sun or the order of the equi¬
noxes. These things happen they say, but as no amount
of talking will stay the equinoxes, or delay the rising and
the .setting of the sun so no amount of discussion or
denunciation can cause justice to be administered in
Chicago without fear or favor. The mayor, the alder¬
men, the saloon keeper, the heeler, everybody in fact
who is anybody or anything in Chicago has got a "pull"
when justice is to be administered excepting that
abstract entity justice herself. Justice has no "p^ll."
There is no secret about this in the force. The men
talk quite freely about it on their beats and as it is with
the patrolman so it is with those much higher in station.
There is no secure reward for ability and the most faith¬
ful service counts for nothing compared with the ascend¬
ancy of the spoils system. As Major McClaughry the
late Chief of Police in Chicago said bitterly to the chiefs
of police assembled at Bloomington;
If the policman resists all the temptations which beset him he nas in
most cases, under our admirable system of city government, the prize
set before him of being abused and hounded and misrepresented, and of
being turned out to graze the moment there is a change of adminis¬
tration, either in the ward in which he resides or in the city govern¬
ment, of which he forms apart.
But it is not worth while dwelling here upon the way
in which the spoils system spoils the men who admin¬
ister it. That is an old story. What is not so familiar
is the extent to which politics interfere not only with
patronage but with the actual administration of
justice from day to day. One night as I was returning
from Harrison Street police station to my hotel I ran
across an elderly policeman who belonged to the first
precinct The conversation which took place left
a deep impression upon my mind. I had said
something about the infamous system by which the pro¬
fessional bailer and the justice of the peace drew fat
revenues by levying legal blackmail on the unfortunates
in the streets. The policeman said, "There are no
3o8
If Christ Came to Chicago.
greater robbers in Chicago than you will find at the
police stations."
He said they were all robbers at the police station, the
justices, the bailsmen and everyone else. But he added,
"That is not the worst of it, politics are in everything
and they poison everything. The police department and
the administration of justice ought to be taken clean out
of politics altogether. It just tires us out seeing how
everything we do is brought to naught by politics."
I asked "How?"
"Well," he said, "every justice is a political man and he
is under the thumb of the alderman and the politician.
The bigger the thief the greater the politician and the
more influence he has in Chicago. A tough who is al¬
ways prominent at ward meetings and fights for the can¬
didates of his party gets the protection of his party. Hence
we may arrest him red-handed and take him to the
police station; in a very short time he will march out
having the laugh on us."
"How is it done?" I asked.
"Oh, the charge will be reduced from larceny to dis¬
orderly conduct by discretion of the judge who will then
fine him #50 or $100 but before our backs are turned he
will suspend the fine, that is to say he will remit it.
The whole system of suspending or as you would say
remitting fines is bad. It is simply that a fine which is
imposed according to law is taken off according to
politics. Politics rule everything and no one in the
force dare go against an alderman. If I saw a man com¬
mit a robbery now and I arrested him and if that man
were in politics I would be a fool not to let him go,
because he would at once appeal to an alderman who
would see that he got off". Some men are so dull-headed
they cannot take a hint I thought once that it was
my duty to arrest a thief even if an alderman were his
friend but I always found that I got the worst of it in
the long run. It is that which spoils us. When you have
a clear good case against a man and work hard to get
Bishop Brennan and His Secular Clergy. 309
him to the police station you are horribly discouraged
when you find that all your labor is thrown away because
your prisoner is in politics. It is politics every¬
where and justice takes a back seat to politics. For
instance if an alderman came along here and struck
me across my face with his fist I would be a fool to
arrest him unless I wanted to be fired out of the force."
Repeating this conversation in another police station
on the other side of the river an officer who was present
said he thought the patrolman had exaggerated some¬
what, for his part he remembered that an alderman was
once arrested in Chicago.
"When?" I exclaimed.
"Well," said he, "it was a very long time ago," so
long indeed that he was not able to settle a date. I
asked the policeman from the first precinct whether he
would give me specific instances. "Instances!" ex-
clained he, "oh, every Tom, Dick and the devil know
about that. Go down any day and see it for yourself."
Without for a moment admitting that the whole
administration of justice in the justice courts of Chicago
is as hopelessly rotten, the chances of the conviction of
a political offender in Chicago are slender enough in¬
deed. The law, even when it is honestly administered
without its being rendered unworkable by the interfer¬
ence by people with pulls is very faulty. The system
of taking appeals is simply licensed larceny, for this the
law is to blame not the police or the justice. For in¬
stance: Jacob Mendelsshon, late chief clerk in Justice
Foster's court, said last winter:
"If the legislature would amend in some way the law relating
t'> appeals in city cases it would do good. For instance, if a thief
is fined f 100, |i 1.50 will get him out of the trouble. He appeals from
the decision of the justice, puts up I11.50, hasa bond signed and then
is on the streets again, and this is the last of the case. Only yester¬
day two women were fined $100 and costs each for nearly stabbing a
man to death because he would not give them any money. They
appealed the case, paid $\ 1.50, and were at liberty again in ten min¬
utes. The justices are not to blame for this state of affairs.
Under the circumstances it is a marvel that there is so
3IO IJ Christ Came to Chicago.
little serious crime in the city. Over and over again
when I have reflected upon the way in which justice is
outraged in her very courts, and when I see how the ad¬
ministration has been poisoned with political prejudice
and twisted everywhere by the zeal of faction, I have
marvelled that society does not show a much greater de¬
moralization. Nearly everything happens that ought
not to happen, and yet things go on fairly well. The
administration of justice is carried on in a hugger-mugger
fashion in a hurley-burley almost inconceivable to those
who are accustomed to the graver and more serious
methods of the Old World. I sat on the bench at the
Harrison Street police station beside Mr. Justice Brad-
well for an hour one morning, and could not help smil¬
ing at the rudeness of the accommodation which was
provided for the magistrate and his assistants, and the
extraordinary way the accusers and accused were thrust
almost like a flock of sheep into a pen in front of the bar
of the court.
As might be expected peijury is regarded as a very
venial offense by many policemen in Chicago. This is
the besetting sin of the police all the world round.
There is a tendency in every policeman to hold that the
end justifies the means, and when a police officer is
quite sure that he has got hold of a crook he feels that it
would be almost a mortal offence not to strengthen his
evidence by a little hard swearing if the occasion
demands it A prosecution of a policeman for peijury
would be almost inconceivable in Chicago.* To such
an extent has this been carried that one judge in
Chicago, Goggin, by name, has on more than one
occasion astonished the court by dismissing all prisoners
against whom there was nothing but police evidence.
•writing on this subject the Chicago Herald of December 29 makes the
following emphatic assertions: " The courts of Chicago have been defiled by re¬
peated police outrages. Wherever members of the lorce have had a personal or
uctional interest in causes undergoing iudidal scrutiny it has been repeatedly
shown in evidence that officers tampered with witnesses, secreted or distorted or
manufactured testimony, conspired for or aninst a defendant, and did not hesitate
at rank peijury to accomplish an uitjustifiable end."
Bishop Brennan and His Secular Clergy. 311
On January 25, on releasing a maa on habeas corpus,
Judge Goggin said:
"The carelessness and irregularities in procedure observed by the
Police Department are very great. Many of the officials are either
entirely ignorant of the first element of law or else do not take the
trouble to proceed in a legal manner. I am inclined to think that
the members of the city prosecutor's staff who attend the police courts
are not careful, or else I would not have continually to release pris¬
oners."
The fact of the matter is, as Judge Goggin very well
knows, the police are a law unto themselves, and have
the very scantiest respect for any law which they can
evade without getting themselves into trouble. One
great cause of this is that the city ordinances are so far
in advance of what is attempted to be done that a po¬
liceman naturally feels that he can pick and choose.
The Municipal Code is very- strict. Section 1790 runs as
follows:
"Any member of the police force who should neglect or refuse to
perform any duty required of him by the ordinance of the city or the
rules and regulations of the department of police, or who shall in the
discharge or his official duties, be guilty of any fraud, extortion, op¬
pression, favoritism or willful wrong or injustice, shall forfeit and pay
a penalty not exceeding one hundred dollars for each offence.
Under this ordinance every policeman might be fined
$100 every day from the highest to the lowest for there
are municipal ordinances by the dozen which are never
enforced at all. Whether it is in relation to the saloon, or
the gaming house or the house of ill-fame every member of
the police neglects to perform the duties required of him
by ordinance and therefore he has very little of the
reverence which policemen in other countries imper¬
ceptibly absorb for a law which is inexorably enforced.
Every policeman has more or less discretionary
power to suspend the law in individual cases, just as
a justice of the peace has to suspend a fine at his own
caprice. The way in which this works is obvious, it
works directly in the levying of black mail.
Hence the duty of the police in Chicago is two¬
fold. He is a representative of the majesty of law
and he does not bear the sword, or to translate it
312 If Christ Came to Chicago-
into the vernacular, his staff, in vain. He is also the
representative of his own interests and of the modus
vivendi which has been established between the
disorderly classes and the authorities. In his first capac¬
ity he has his duty clearly marked out for him, he
must be upright, incorruptible, just and vigilant in the
enforcement of the law, but in his second capacity he is
left to the resources of his own mother wit. The
policeman divides his time in unequal proportions
between keeping a sharp eye upon every evil doer whom
he must arrest and in winking both eyes hard when he
comes across those other evil doers who have either in
money or in "pull" established their right to be invisible
to the patrol. Such a position is enough to demoralize
a saint and although the majority of the Chicago Police
are recruited from the Isle of Saints, the family of Saints,
as Mark Twain said of the descendants of Washington
who could not tell a lie, "has dwindled much of late."
There are refinements in the black mailing trade which
are not suspected by the public. Take for instance the
following story told by Mr. Supt. Byrnes of New York
as to the way in which certain policemen under his con¬
trol are blackmailing the peddlers who sell fruit, fish and
vegetables in the open market which is held in Hestor
street at the east side of New York:
It seems each of the several policemen employed an agent, and
the latter informed the peddlers that every Friday they would have to
pay him 50 cents or |i or more, according to the location of their push¬
carts. The policemen on post demanded these sums, the agent averred
and if the peddlers desired to do business they would have to pay for
the privilege. Then, when Friday came around, the agent would start
to make his rounds. The policeman was sometimes a yard back of
him, but as often alongside, walking with him. From one peddler to
another they would go, the agent taking the cash and the policeman
counting it. Sometimes a peddler would refuse to be blackmailed,
and then his stand or cart would be kicked into the street, sometimes
all its contents—the poor fellow's stock in trade—being overturned
and destroyed by falling into the mud.
If that can be done to peddlers who are driving a
legitimate trade, it can fairly be assumed that every
immoral resort, whether it be a low drinking saloon, an
Bishop Bretinan and His Secular Clergy. 313
opium joint or a house of ill-fame, yields a steady revenue
to the policeman on the beat. Nor is it only the patrol¬
man who levy irregular fines upon the outlaws of society,
the captains at the police stations have a touch upon the
houses and collect their money in large sums. They
have had great trouble at the Harrison Street police
station, I was assured at police headquarters by the
way in which the superior officers had succumbed to the
temptation of feathering their own nests in this fashion.
A captain who had plundered the district very badly
was removed and one who was supposed tobe a reformer
was placed at his desk. As often happens the little
finger of the reformer was heavier than the loins of the
unregenerate whose place he has taken. The new man
levied blackmail so constantly and in such large quan¬
tities that human nature could stand it no longer and
the Madames of Fourth Avenue rose up and protested
against being bled so unmercifully. "D— you," said
the officer, when he received their complaints, "what are
you made for but to be plundered?" That is the police
theory stated with cynical brutality and acted on more
or less constantly day in and day out every 24 hours in
the 365 days in this year of grace.
Another mode by which the police augment the
slender income of $1,000 a year allowed them by the
city, is by going shares with bondsmen. A young lawyer
in the town told me an incident in his own experience
which brings out the modus operandi very clearly. I
do not give his name, but he is personally known to
the mayor and may be found any day at the City Hall.
My friend was one of a party making the round of the
opium dens under the guidance of a couple of detectives
in the district where they are thickest, that is to say
between Michigan Avenue and Clark Street in the
neighborhood of 12th Street. They had gone from
one house to another, seeing a great number ot
American citizens in various stages of opium intoxica¬
tion. As they were rounding up their tour their
314
If Christ Came to Chicago.
guides decided to take them to just one more joint before
they went home. On entering it the detectives discov¬
ered to their surprise a well known crook whom they
had been seeking for in vain and whom they had now
found quite inadvertently. The doors were instantly
guarded, the patrol wagon was called and the whole
joint was raided. Every individual from the proprietor
downwards was put in the wagon and carted off to the
police station. There were more than would fill one
wag^n so they had to wait for it to return when they were
all taken to the Harrison police station, including the two
detectives and my friend. On their way the detectives
stopped and roused up a professional bailer. The man
got out of bed and came down. He was told he was
wanted at the station as they had just raided a joint.
"All right," he said, "I will come along directly," and
leaving him to complete his toilet, the party arrived at
the station where they promptly lodged their captives in
the cells. Soon after in came the professional bailer and
bailed out all those who could put up any money for
their bail bond. As soon as the little ceremony was
over and the justice had profited to the extent of
a dollar a head on the issue of the bonds and the
professional bailer had pocketed his money he went
back to his saloon accompanied by the two detec¬
tives and my friend who wondered somewhat at what
was to happen next. He did not have long to wait, for
no sooner was the party ensconced in the saloon than a
vehement discussion arose as to the extent to which the
detectives were to share in the bail money. The contro¬
versy waxed hot and my friend had no difficulty in
hearing the whole of the discussion. Ultimately a divide
was agreed upon. Each of the detectives received $io
for his share in the raid while thq bailer kept the rest.
This kind of thing goes on constantly wherever there is
discretion left in the hands of the police officer as to
whether or not the law shall be enforced. Out of that
discretion the policeman coins money.
Bishop Brennan and His Secular Clergy. 315
The policeman has many privileges in Chicago,includ¬
ing many other things a discretionary right to kill. In
the equipment of a Chicago policeman, one indispensable
item of expense is |ii which he must pay fora first class
service revolver, and this revolver is bought for use and
not for show. It is his own property, and he has a right
to do with his own what he likes, even to the extent of
firing promiscuously at any citizen who does not choose
to obey his summons to halt. Chief Brennan assured me
that the shooting was greatly exaggerated, and that a
great many more shots were fired at the police than what
they returned. There is a good deal of shooting, how¬
ever, anyway, as was brought pretty forcibly to mind
the other day, when one of the best known officers in
the force was .shot by his comrade who was endeavoring
to allay a drunken brawl in a disreputable dance house.
Chief among the great temptations which confront the
policeman are the älurements held out to him by the
saloon-keeper, the courtesan, the dishonest pawnbroker,
the shrewd gambler and the cunning thief.
It is diflBcult if not impossible to devise any expedient
whereby this vice can be eradicated. Indeed if the
policemen of Chicago flourish upon black mail, it is not
because he is driven to it by poverty. There is no
salary paid in the whole force under $2.00 per day and
as soon as the ofiGcer becomes valuable as a patrolman,
he receives $1,000 per year; out of which, he pays i per
cent to the Pension Relief Fund, and a per cent more
to the Benevolent Association, which provides for him
in case of sickness. *
•NCTrVorkhas4iJi square miles of territory and 3,800 men. They are paid:
Chief, $6,ooo-inspectors, 13,500; captains, $2,750; sereeants, $2,000; roundsmen, $1,300;
patrolmen, first year, $1,000; second year, $1,100; third year and thereafter, $1,200.
In Boston 906 men police 58 square miles of territory. There the patrolmen are
paid$i.o(» the first ^ear, $1,100 the second year, $1,200 the third. Brooklyn has 26
square miles of territory and 1,225 men. Brooklyn patrol men are paid $900 the first
year, $1,000 the second year, and $1.100 the third year and thereafter.
In San PrandKo the police territory covers 41^ square miles and is guarded by
«7 men. The chief receives $4,000 a year: captains, $1.800; clerks, $1,800; detectives,
$1,500; sergeants, $1,500; corporals. $1,404; first class patrol men, $1,224. From his
salary $2 pCT month is deducted for the_Mnsion and relief fund.
The policemen in Philadelphia, St. ¿ouis, Cincinnati and Denver, are paid as in
Chicago, but in those cities the uniforms are furnished.
3*6
If Christ Came to Chicago.
This compares disadvantageously with the salary of
policemen in other great cities of America; more
especially as the policeman in Chicago has to provide
his own uniform. One outfit costs him close upon $ioo.
The force is unprovided with police surgeon, and if he
is sick he is docked of his pay. His hours are longer
than those which are put in by the New York police,
for the eight hours system has not yet been adopted by
the Chicago police. At night he puts in nine hours; by
day he puts in twelve; whether by night or day he
always puts in seven days per week.
The City Authorities in Chicago in drawing up the
regulations for the police have evidently arrived at the
conclusion that Col. lugersoll should revise and extend
his lecture ' 'On the Mistakes of Moses' ' in order to
draw special attention to the great mistake made by the
Hebrew Haw-Giver in insisting upon one day's rest in
seven. The Chicago authorities know better than that.
Moses may have been right about the Jews of his time,
but the patrolman, who is constantly on his beat in the
"Windy City" stands in no need of Sunday rest!
Considering the immense expense of territory that
is patroled by the police, and considering the nature
of the population that is congregated into the heart of
the city, it must be admitted that Bishop Brennan
and his secular clergy have their diocese very well in
hand. Mr. Brennan declares that there is less crime
in Chicago than any other city in proportion to its
population, and you may certainly wander unmolested
through the league-long avenues and boulevards, and
also through the more disreputable districts in the first
ward without being conscious of the near proximity of
some of the dives and crooks with whose exploits the
police reporters keep the public so well informed.
If the police were divorced from politics, and if Chief
Brennan were to show that he would prove as capable
in his own department as Marshal Swenie was in the
campaign against fire, the force might enter upon a
Bishop Brennan and His Secular Clergy. 317
new and happier era as a result of the election of Mayor
Hopkins. But Mr. Brennan is an anxious, somewhat
timid man who is mistrusted by many on account of
his connection with the Clan-na-Gael, and it is yet
to be proved that he is quite equal to the exigencies of
the situation, which would try the resources of the
ablest man, who ever wore a uniform. Still we can
hope for the best, and Mr. Brennan, if he is allowed a
free hand, will probably do a great deal better than even
an angel from Heaven if the angel were liable to have
his wings pulled every now and then by the Mayor
on the one hand and the Aldermanic Hierarchy on the
other in the interest of political partisans.
CHAPTER V.
HOW THE ORACLE IS WORKED.
populi^ VOX Dei^''"' is an old adage not much
respected in great American cities, where Lincoln's
noble prayer at Gettysburg for the success of the great
experiment of government of the people, by the people
and for the people, does not seem to elicit a loud "Amen."
Leading citizens in Chicago have repeatedly assured me
that there is no hope and no future for the city of
Chicago under the system of popular government. To
abolish the whole system of administration, stock, lock
and barrel, and to place the city under a federal triumvi¬
rate, appointed from Washington, who would govern
Chicago as Washington is governed, is one favorite
specific. To make the Mayor a Democratic Caesar is
another proposal. Universal suffrage is roundly declared
to be a failure, and the whole hope of improvement is
said to be the abandonment of the Democratic principle
and the adoption of some form or other of one man
power.
All that is of the devil, and those who think to make
a short cut to the millenium by using the scepter of the
despot are on the broad road that leadeth to destruction.
Democratic institutions are all right, and would work all
right if the people who are talking about their future
would only take ordinary trouble to see that they worked
right The people's instincts are sound, and their inter¬
ests are those of the community. But in order to give
them a fair chance, they should not be left to the uncove-
nanted mercies of the boss and the heeler. Those who
have principle, education and wealth should go into
politics and consult the oracle themselves, instead of
leaving the divine voice to be misinterpreted by thievish
3»9
320
If CKrist Came to Chicago.
hierophants of that polling place, that modern cave of
Delphos.
The custody of the Delphic cave is left to two sets of
partisans, respectively known as Republicans and Demo¬
crats, who instead of really desiring to know what the
sovereign people have to say, concentrate all their efforts
upon the supreme duty of working the oracle so as to
make each deliverance tell against their adversaries and in
favor of themselves. That is all they care for the welfare
of the city. The future of the millions it will contain are
as dust in the balance compared with the great object of
getting an advantage honestly or otherwise over the other
side. Thus there has come into existence in the party
orgajiizations a new and hideous dual form of the old
plague of legitimate right. No Bourbon was more sure
of his right divine to govern wrong than an American
party manager is of his right to subordinate every con¬
sideration, divine and human, to the interests of his
faction.
The result works out very disastrously in the cities
when the welfare of the greatest of modern communities
is sacrificed remorselessly to the exigencies of a national
policy absolutely foreign to the questions which are of
life and death to the people of Chicago.
One of Tom Moore's familiar fables for the Holy
Alliance describes how a Scythian Philosopher who
strayed into the temple of Memphis—
"Saw a brisk blue-bottle Fly on an altar,
Made much of and worshipped as something divine;
While a large, handsome Bullock, led there in an halter,
Before it lay stabbed at the foot of the shrine."
Surprised at such doings, the Philosopher inquired why
such a useful and powerful creature should be thus
offered up to a blue-bottle fly. He was told—
"That Fly on the shrine is Legitimate Right,
And that Bullock the people that's sacrificed to it."
If our Scythian could come to Chicago to-day he would
see the same marvelous sight, but in this case there are
Mow the Oracle is Worked. ¿áf
two flies on the shrine, and they are the rivals Republi¬
canism and Democracy. Opposed to each other in every
point, they agree in demanding the sacrifice of all other
interests before the shrine, where they keep up their
eternal feud.
What is wanted for Chicago is the election of the best
men regardless of party strife. Whenever votes are
given to the worse candidate for the city because he be¬
longs to the better party from the point of view of the
nation, the bullock is offered to the blue-bottle fly. Chi¬
cago's good government, Chicago's welfare should not
be subordinated to the interests of the party caucus.
Here in Chicago, for instance, the looseness of the regis¬
tration laws, the reckless facility with which anybody and
everybody is registered as a citizen, is a direct encourage¬
ment to those vulgar Catilines to aspire to pack not a pri¬
mary or a ballot box, but the register of the electorate.
To put matters simply, registration in Chicago is a farce.
Any naturalized citizen can vote, and anybody and every¬
body can be naturalized as a citizen if they are males over
twenty-one years of age. All the careful stipulations of
the laws to insure a due term of residence and an
acquaintance with the principles of the American Con¬
stitution * are brushed to one side as so many spider
webs. I am unfortunately not able to remain in Chicago
till the April election. Had I done so, I am assured by
an ardent politician that he would guarantee to qualify
me if I would be a safe vote for Bath House John. I
do not see why every English-speaking man shcuild not
be recognized as being naturalized by virtue of his
speech wherever he is on English-speaking land. But
so long as the distinction is kept up between the subjects
* A story which Americans love to tell as illustrating the process of naturaliza¬
tion, is as follows: Au Irish politician brought in a foreign voter to be naturalized.
In reply to the question whether the applicant had read the American Constitu¬
tion, his sponsor admitted that he had not. " Until he has read it," said the judge,
"we can not make him a citizen." Pat retired with his candidate for citizen¬
ship, but in five minutes they were both back before the judge. " Well," said the
ruler, "has he read the Constitution?" "ludade, he has, your honor," said Pat,
" and he thinks it a damned fine document." Naturalization followed as a matter
of course, but in this case possibly Pat's assurance may be held to ha ve deserved it.
322
If Christ Came to Chicago.
of the Queen and the citizens of the Republic it would
be more seemly to make the process of naturalization
something more than a premium on peijury. The pro¬
cess of registration is almost as great a farce as the
process of naturalization. The list of voters registered
in a precinct in Chicago may have as little connection
with the ward in which they are registered as Boss Mc-
Kane's gang of rowdies had with Coney Island.
The most amusing tales are told concerning the frauds
practiced by politicians in registering electors. Tramps
and nondescripts of every description, raked together from
anywhere and everywhere, can be registered under any
name and with any address, so as to swamp the resident
electorate. In Chicago in one ward on one occasion,
the registration agents falling short of names and lack¬
ing the imagination of a novelist, registered as citizens
of that ward every man whose name was printed on
the familiar print representing the prize figlxt between
Sayers and Heenan. None of these worthies had ever
been in the ward, few of them had ever been in the
country, many of them were dead ; that was immaterial.
The politician had registered them all as citizens, and
when polling day came he had his obedient drove ready,
who voted punctually as Tom Sayers and J. C. Heenan
or any other of the ornaments of the British prize ring
of thirty years ago.
The only chance of exerting any influence for good
on a primary is by what may be described briefly as in¬
cipient mugwumpery. That is to say, if before the pri¬
maries, the better elements of each party meet together,
mustering as strongly as possible, and were to let it be
distinctly understood at the headquarters of the respect¬
ive parties, that this section would bolt the ticket unless
good candidates are selected, this would in most cases
result in preventing the nominations which at present
are a disgrace to the city. In default of such organiza¬
tions honeit men are practically disfranchised.
As long as party leaders know that if they nominate
How the Oracle is Worked.
323
the devil himself, the swom Democrat or Republican
will vote the party ticket rather than turn to the arch¬
angel Gabriel if he were nominated by the other side,
they will simply consult their own convenience, which
in nine cases out of ten consists in taking the line of
least resistance by pandering to the ugliest and most ag¬
gressive members of their own party. But once let it be
known that each party has its sworn contingency of
honest men who will put up honesty before party, and
who would rather defeat their own side than be accessory
to the election of a thief or a boodler, and we shall see a
great change for the better. Even the toughest and most
unmanageable of the heelers of the ward politicians
would bow to the inevitable, and recognize that it was
no use trying it on with any man who was not up to
what might be regarded as the mugwump standard.
However natural it may be to an Englishman to com¬
pare American election methods with those with which
he is familiar in the old country, it is almost impossible
for an American to conceive of elections conducted under
the strict rules of the English Corrupt Practices Act
Whenever I described to citizens of Chicago the penalties
exacted under that Draconian law, they declared with
one consent that if it were put in force in America there
is not a single candidate who could not be unseated on
petition for the acts of his agents. Yet any one who
has any regard for the purity of elections, and for the
checking of this Saturnalia of corruption and debauchery
which prevails in contested elections in America, as it
formerly prevailed in Great Britain, can hardly refrain
from sighing for the Corrupt Practices Act in the United
States.
That measure is the most unique illustration of a law
which cuts up by the roots one of the most deeply
rooted cancers in the electoral system at a single
stroke. Its provisions are simple but searching. Every
candidate, on the eve of election, is compelled by law to
nominate an agent through whom alone all expenses in-
3^4
If Christ Came to Chicago.
curred by the candidate must be paid. These expenses
must not exceed a certain statutory maximum, and at
the close of the election a full account of all moneys
expended must be returned within a certain limited
period. If during the course of the election the candi¬
date, his agent or any of his subordinate agents were to
pay any elector any sum of money, no matter how
small, or even to defray the cost of his railway fare or
recoup him for the loss of time on voting day, that act
in itself is sufficient when proven before an election
judge to vitiate the election. That is to say, if a candi¬
date gave an elector a dollar to pay him for his loss of
time and railway fare in order that he might register his
vote, that act would be sufficient to vitiate the election
even if the candidate had a plurality of thousands of votes.
Nor would he be allowed to stand again when unseated,
for tliat constituency during the existing legislature.
The law is equally strict, although the penalty is not so
severe, as regards the disqualification of a candidate, in
case of treating or intimidation.
Citizens of both political parties have assured me re¬
peatedly that were such provisions enforced in the
United States, there is not a representative of the people,
from the President down to the Constable, who would not
be unseated when the conduct of his election was made
matter of inquiry before an impartial judicial tribunal,
taking evidence on oath on the spot
The practice of treating is carried to what seems to
our lùiglish ideas an absolutely ruinous extent, and can¬
didates of both parties might well welcome legislation
which would reduce such irregular claims upon their
purses.
Chicago is in the throes of what for the want of a
better name may be called a Civic Revival. The good
men and women of all parties have begun to realize how
disgraceful to the city is the condition of its municipal
administration. The Mayor has placed himself at the
head of a movement directed against the worst vices of
How the Oracle is Worked.
325
the system of organized boodle, which has so long had
everything its own way in the City Council. The finan¬
cial exigencies of the city treasury, the extreme suffering
occasioned by the lack of employment throughout the
winter and many other things have combined to prick the
conscience and arouse the moral sense of the community.
Flagrant instances of corruption have occurred in the City
Council on the very eve of the elections, and we are jus¬
tified in turning to the April polls with the hope that
they will show that Chicago has at last wearied of being
represented and governed by the vilest of her citizens.
It is fortunate that no national issue has arisen to com¬
plicate the question which will be submitted to the
people. The April election is simply to select new Al¬
dermen, Town Assessors and Collectors. It is likely to
be fought out from first to last on municipal grounds.
This is as it should be.
Even if the pending fight should result in a brilliant
victory for the forces of reform, the campaign will not
be over. The enemy never sleeps. The forces of cor¬
ruption exercise an influence as permanent as the law
of gravitation, whereas the reformers act by fits and
starts. There is an inevitable tendency on the part of
all well-to-do citizens to go to sleep politically the day
after they have recorded their votes. The system of
checks and counter checks, which the Americans have
borrowed from the English Constitution as it was when
George the Third was King, tends directly to encourage
this sluggard tendency on the part of the citizens. An
English city like Chicago would have no limitations
upon its powers of taxation, nor would the Mayor have
any veto upon the decisions of the City Council. With
us the Mayor is simply the Chairman elected by the City
Council. He is nominally the chief magistrate, but his
vote counts for no more than that of any other Alderman
in the Council. In Chicago the Mayor counts for more
than two-thirds of the Aldermen minus one, and his veto
is relied upon as the sole effective check against exces-
326 If Christ Came to Chicago.
sive corruption, to which the Aldermen, as their votes
prove, would otherwise be prone.
If the citizens of Chicago felt that there was no limit
to the taxation which the Aldermen could impose, and
that there was no check upon the City Council in the
shape of the Mayor's veto, they would, perforce, be com¬
pelled to see to it that their representatives in the Coun¬
cil were honorable citizens. As it is, what with limita¬
tions here and vetoes there, the citizens for the most part
lull themselves to sleep with the feeling that the Alderman
cannot do very much harm after all, and that they can
afford to allow them to play tricks within the limited
area allotted to them. But no city can afford to allow
their representatives to ignore honesty and good faith.
CHAPTER VI.
THE WATCHMEN OF THE CITY.
"Son of Man," came the word of the Lord to the He¬
brew prophet, "I have made you a watchman unto the
House of Israel." The same word might well be applied
to the editors of the press of Chicago. They are
the watchmen of the house of our local Israel. They
stand on the battlements keeping watch and ward while
the citizens sleep, and upon them, first and foremost of
all men, lies the responsibility and warning and rousing
of the community as to the perils which encompass it.
Chicago, prolific in all things, has been exceptionally so
in the production of journals. It gives you the headache
merely to read the list of the periodical publications in
the directory. Of the great majority of these, however,
it may be said as it was said bitterly of one of the an¬
cient churches, "they have a name to live but indeed
they are dead." There is no place in the city where
all of them can be purchased, and as it would take a long
day's march to make a pilgrimage to all their publishing
houses they remain unknown to the majority of
the citizens. Its periodicals aie as polyglot as its inhab¬
itants, and even its newspapers are printed in seven
different languages. For practical purposes, however,
the newspapers which do watchmen's service for the
whole of the city are printed in English with the ex
ception of Mr. Hesing's Staats Zeitung the only
non-English paper which is on evidence at the book¬
stalls. There are several other daily papers in Chicago
which no one outside the office where they are pub¬
lished seems to see. Omitting all these we may compare
for practical purposes the watchmen of Chicago to the
staff of the ten English papers, five of which appear in
the morning and five in the evening.
w
328
If Christ Cavie to Chicago.
The Record., which is published at one cent, has the
largest circulation of the morning papers, while the
Tribune., the Herald and the Inter-Ocean in the order
named circulate over or under 100,000 copies a day.
The Times, the remaining paper, belonged to the late
mayor, Mr. Carter Harrison, by whom it was valued
more for its influence than for its dividends which were
usually represented by a minus quantity. Of the even¬
ings, the Daily News, which when Mr. Melville Stone
was connected with it, attained the phenomenal circula¬
tion of 200,000 per day in a city of less than a million
inhabitants, still has the largest circulation of all the
evening papers and by far the greatest advertising rev¬
enue. The Evening Post, the afternoon satellite of the
Herald is as much in advance of all its evening con¬
temporaries in ability and influence and general quality of
make up and appearance as the Daily News is ahead of
them in circulation and advertisements. The Journal
is an old established paper with fine crusted prejudices
of the olden time concerning Catholics and "sich"
which its editor expresses with refreshing vigor. The
Mail, judging from its appearance, has more ability,
than capital, and more assurance than either. The
Dispatch, the drunken helot of journalism, is the only
remaining paper. Its character can best be judged from
its advertising columns which are stuffed with advertise¬
ments of houses of prostitution and of assignation.
Like attracts like.
With the exception of the Dispatch and perhaps of
the Mail, the other Chicago dailies are conducted as
respectably as any newspapers in the world. They
are all owned and controlled by men who have
sunk thousands of dollars in their journalistic in¬
vestment, and who do not mean to get left if they
possibly can help it. The internicine war which
exists between the newspapers in some towns does
not exist in Chicago where all the respectable jour¬
nals have combined for regulating their business
The Watchmen of the City.
329
on common lines. Neither with the exception of
the Inter-Ocean and the Evening Journal can they
be said to be fanatically partisan. The Tribune
is Republican, but it is national Republicanism with
its protective adjuncts which excite its devotion; it
is reasonable and impartial in relation to city afíairs.
The papers as a whole and the men who write them
are good average press men without any very great
enthusiasm for their profession, doing the best they
can from day to day. They turn out readable copy
and manufacture scare heads to the best of their ability
which is not inconsiderable and which appears all the
more conspicuous when the material to be operated upon
is as dull as ditch water. Chicago journalists are good
business men. Since Mr. Melville Stone left the Daily
News there are not many editors who take their
position seriously. They seem to feel that it is more im¬
portant to build up a great property than to exert
a great power. Mr. Medill, of the Tribune^ on one
famous occasion laid down the doctrine that a journalist
was not a teacher, he was not a leader, he was simply a
huckster whose duty it was to supply whatever articles
his customers required without allowing his own con¬
victions to interfere with the conduct of his journalistic
shop. Fortunately, Mr. Medill's practice is much
better than his precept, otherwise he would have de¬
served the retort which was.made at the time that if
he were right, Dana, Greely and Bryant and all the
greatest men in American journalism had mistaken
their vocation. The Tribune has often shown that it
was more than a shop where hucksters sold news or
traded opinions according to the demands of their pur¬
chasers, but all the newspapers are more or less under
the influence of the commercial theory of journalism.
To lead public opinion may be glorious but it is not
always profitable. The true policy, according to the
counting house theory is to be just a little behind pub¬
lic opinion rather than ahead of it and for the most part
330
If Christ Came to Chicago.
the newspapers live down to that conception of their
duties.
That is an abdication of the position of power which
in a free democracy they ought naturally to occupy. In
a democracy the newspaper is or ought to be chief scep¬
ter of power and to degrade an instrument of govern¬
ment to the mere level of a comer store—and sometimes
to the level of a corner saloon—is not worthy our high
calling and not calculated to help either journalism or
Chicago. The ambition to lead, to direct, to educate
and to act as the uncrowned kings of the American
democracy does not seem to exist among a majority
of newspapers, which really often seem to have no
other ambition than to heap up an immense fortune
and fatten on their gains. I wish sometimes that news¬
paper proprietors of the present day had as much of the
fear of God hi fore their eyes as the old medieval robber-
baron. It is not, perhaps, a very lofty idea, but it is
not one which is lived up to by the newspaper proprie¬
tors. In the old days when a man, who was stouter, or
shrewder, or more cunning than his neighbors, raised
himself above the level of the common fighting herd
and succeeded after a time in carving out for himself a
domain, in the center of which he built his castle, from
being a mere filibuster, a militant adventurer, fighting
for his own profit or for such of his neighbors' goods as
he could seize, he often developed under the pressure of
the spiritual power wielded by the old church into
something like a civilized ruler. Having "made
his pile," he used it in order to govern and civilize
and educate the people in the midst of whom he had
established his castle. But there is no such recognition of
responsibility on the part of many newspaper proprietors
nowadays. Instead of regarding the wealth which they
have acquired by the success of their journals as merely
giving them a starting point from which they might be
able to civilize and educate and humanize the conditions
of life in the midst of the people whose support has
The Watchmen of the City.
331
g^ven them their wealth they livè self-indulgent, self-
centered lives. This system can be changed only by
bringing back into existence the real live church. The
old medieval baron would probably have been no better
than the modern newspaper proprietor if it had not been
for the spiritual power which, by a judicious use of hell-
fire, succeeded in scaring him into something like
humanity and decency. We want to substitute nowadays
something for the old church, and I do not at present
exactly see where it is to be found, except in the grad¬
ual growth of a healthier public opinion on the part of
the newspaper men themselves and an unsparing and
unflinching use of the newspaper as a social pillory.
Unfortunately the efiectiveness of the newspaper from
this point of view has been impaired by the continual
straining after exaggeration and emphasis which is
equivalent to an incessant bawl kept up in private con¬
versation. If you always howl through a speaking
trumpet you find it difficult to attract attention when
you have something really important to say. This
straining after effect and the unsparing use of the super¬
lative all tends to weaken the influence of the pointed
word which, like everthing else in the world needs to be
used with reserve if it is to be used with power. When
newspapers denounce every political opponent as if he
were the incarnation of every crime, people learn to
take every invective as merely a journalistic method of
indicating their dissent from the opinions which he
holds. Sometimes, however, the need arises when the
journalist should speak with emphasis and some great
evil is to be prevented, they find it difficult to arouse
the attention of the public which is so accustomed to
being scare headed that it can hardly be roused to
more than a languid interest even if the capitals in the
scare head were printed six inches long.
The papers are all in line this spring. But they have
all been imited before when they all fought Carter Harri¬
son, with the exception of the Times. But he was returned
332
If Christ Came to Chicago.
at the head of the poll by an overwhelming majority.
Carter Harrison was an astute man, who knew how to
minimize the influence of the newspapers. He
represented himself as being the victim of a newspaper
trust, as the other papers had never forgiven him pn
account of his ownership of the Times. As the allied
papers were weighted with a very undesirable candidate,
Mr. Harrison's victory was complete. The result has
made the Chicago papers think twice or even thrice
before they commit themselves to a similar enterprise.
They had gone forth to battle and were beaten, and felt
very sore about it. They are once more in battle array,
and they certainly do not lack enemies against whom to
direct their shot.
Newspapers can do more good by bringing facts to
light than by the most Ciceronian invective. It was this
which led me to address the following appeal to. the
press at my last meeting in the Central Music Hall:
I have been for twenty years a pressman, and I am proud of my pro¬
fession. It has always seemed to me that the newspaper editor was the
descendant of the spiritual power which in the medieval times exer¬
cised so great and salutary an effect over the barbarians who overran
Europe. I regard the modern editor as in the direct spiritual succession
to all the prophets and all the spiritual teachers who have ever lived,
and, therefore, in dealing with those who need to be revived, if the
community is to be revived, 1 begin with the representatives of the
spiritual power, the press first, and then the pulpit.
Think of it t Every day, and in Chicago, 1 am sorry to say, seven
days a week, the newspaper editor has to speak out what he thinks to
be true, and what he thinks is necessary for the welfare of his readers
to know. He has that opportunity, which no other man has, of im¬
pressing such truth as there may be in him upon his fellow men.
Yet somehow or other our newspaper editors do not seem to feel
ashamed and disgraced by the existence of such a state of things as
there is to be found at present in the City Hall.
Has it ever occurred to your confreres, editors of Chicago news¬
papers, that the shame and the disgrace of this state of things lies
more at your door than at the door of any other class of citizens in
the community ? 1 know that some have done all they can, and 1
know that others would have done a great deal more if they had not
been hindered by the influence that comes from the counting room
and the advertising columns rather than from the editorial sanctum.
But taking it broadly, without laying any blame on any individual, is
it not a right and true thing to say to the editors in this city of Chi¬
cago, where you have some of the most prosperous and enterprising
The Watchmen of the City.
333
papers in the world, that it is a disgrace to the newspapers that they
cannot clean out your City Hall ? They advise the electors for whom
to vote, they criticise the city fathers, and they proclaim the gospel
day by day as they see it, and you see the result before you.
Over iu the old country, pressmen and the general public believe
two things firmly about American newspapers. It is a tradition with
us that the American newspaper man is one of the smartest and
sharpest and most indomitable of all men, and that Argus with his
hundred eyes was not in it compared with an American newspaper
reporter; that if there was anything in the whole world which was
covered and hidden, that would be the one thing which an American
reporter would unearth and publish to the world. That was one
belief of mine which, I am sorry to say, has been rudely shattered
since I came to Chicago. There was another idea, and that was, that
after an American reporter had got the facts and verified them there
was no power on this earth that could prevent an American editor
from publishing it. This is also a delusion. I suppose we got that
idea from several what you would call remarkable journalistic "beats"
which were doue by American press people, chief among which was
the well-known instance when James Gordon Bennett sent Stanley to
find Livingstone in the heart of Central Africa. You remember how
Livingstone had disappeared, no one knew where he was, and then
an American editor said to an American reporter: " There is the map
of Africa; Livingstone has got lost somewhere, in the middle of that
continent. Go and find him." Mr. Stanley, nothing loath, packed
up his things and went through the wilds of Central Africa, regarding
all the perils through which he had to pass as all in the day's business,
until the day on which he took off his hat and said: "Dr. Livingstone,
I presume." That has given the American press a great prestige.
But alas for the illusions of our childhood ! When we come to this
city of Chicago, we learn that there is a work which is as important,
and more important to you than that which Stanley undertook.
When he had to find Livingstone, the only direction given him was
Central Africa, somewhere near the equatorial lakes. If James
Gordon Bennett would send a Stanley to Chicago to discover the
boodlers and name them, I think he would not have such a wide
area lo go over as Central Africa. He would say, "Go to the City
Hall and you will find them somewhere in the neighborhood of
Powersand O'Brien's saloon." I know that there are men on every
Chicago newspaper who would be only too delighted to take the com¬
mission to find the boodlers and get legal evidence, but then they are
held back.
There is a secret which has been diligently cloaked up so that
nobody can get at it. You ask bow many people know the secret?
There must beat least thirty, forty or fifty who know the secret, and
yet this secret, which is of so much importance to all of you in this
dty, is too much for the Chicago newspapers to find out. James Gor¬
don Bennett can send Stanley to the heart of Central Africa, but the
Chicago papers, either individually or collectively, cannot find out who
it is that boodles in the City Hall.
It is one of the most wonderful things I ever heard of. Here are
four or five of the brightest newspapers with millions behind them,
334
If Christ Came to Chicago.
and there is the City Hall just across the way. They all admit cor¬
ruption. And yet, when I ask who it is that gets that money, and
who it is that pays that money, no one can tell me, no, not even a
Chicago newspaper.
The boodler has not yet been run to earth, but he
obligingly came forth from his retreat and displayed his
boodle-branded forehead unabashed before the commu¬
nity. There are 42 of them, of whom Mr. Powers of the
19th ward seems to be the chief. All the newspapers,
always with the exception of the Dispatch^ seem to be
vigorously impressing this upon the attention of the
public. While wishing them all God speed in this
work, it seems to me that the Civic Revival would be
powerfully helped if it had a distinctive organ of its
own, and this without any disrespect to the daily papers,
who indeed would find such an organ an invaluable
auxiliary. In addition to newspapers which are prop¬
erties and run for profits, there might exist one journal
which might aspire to be a power and a prophet, even
if it were run at a loss. It is somewhat odd that in the
midst of all the periodical publications of Chicago there
is no one weekly newspaper in the English sense; that
is to say, there is no weekly two cent paper which the
citizen can read who has neither the money nor the time
to read the daily press. The consequence is that a g^at
many people have all the daily papers on their tables
and are constantly failing to read things they ought to
see and want to see. They cannot see the wood because
of the trees. There is such a mass of printed matter
laid before them, without much perspective, that the
weightier matters relating to the good government of
the city get overlooked or are thrust into the back¬
ground by the more sensational happenings of the hour.
A newspaper which would survey the progress of the
city from week to week, summarizing everything that
was of permanent importance appearing in the press
from day to day, and which would preach civic reform,
would have a distinct mission in Chicago.
Were such a journal to be established and distributed
The Watchmen of the City, 335
to every household in the city every week, either by the
aid of the churches or the help of the post, it would be
an organ of incalculable influence in the town. Every¬
thing of course would depend upon how it was edited
and the nature of its contents. Bright enough writers,
however, could be found to turn out a weekly journal
whose advent would be'looked for impatiently and whose
non-delivery would be resented sharply. Such a distri¬
bution could be provided for either by endowment or by
the sale of advertising space.
In order to gpve a little more substance to this sugges¬
tion I ventured to draw up a preliminary prospectus of
such a newspaper. An appropriate title would be
simply, " Chicago," with the motto, " I will Thy will."
Here is the draft :
" CHICAGO."
On the first Saturday in there will be published the first
number of a weekly paper entitled "Chicago," the aim and object of
which is indicated by its motto "I will Thy will.
The aspiration of its conductors is to familiarize every citizen of
Chicago with the conception that this city should be made and can be
made, the ideal city of the world.
To achieve this end every resource of journalism, poetry,
romance, prophecy, art, prizes, etc , will be employed to quicken
interest and to concentrate attention upon this civic ideal, and for the
first year at least a copy of this paper, which will be published at
two cents, will be delivered at the door of every family in Chicago.
Nothing short of this regular weekly distribution to every house¬
hold, regardless of nationality, religion, color or station, can suffice
in so cosmopolitan a community to bring the great ideal adequately
before the whole body of the citizens.
The aspiration, born of the World's Fair and its congresses, to
make Chicago worthy of its position as the first city in the United
States has already brought about what may be described as a civic
revival whose influence may be perceived in many directions.
The new weekly will chronicle the fruits of this civic revival, will
encourage the citizens to fresh efforts by the record of successive
advances made towards a better social state, or rouse them to more
earnest action by emphasizing the lesson of occasional reverse and,
in short, will endeavor to be the popular gazette of the campaign for
the realization of the ideal Chicago. There is nothing Utopian or
revolutionary about this programme of "Chicago." It is severely
practical and persistently opportunist. While recognizing as the
ultimate the fulfillment of the petition "Thy wili be done in Chicago
as it is Heaven," every step, however faltering, in the right direction
will command our support. To refuse to do anything until you can
336
If Christ Came to Chicago.
do everything is to do nothing. Our policy will be to do what you
can as soon as you can, wherever you can, with whatever instruments
are within reach in order to make life happier, healthier and more
human for every man, woman and child in Chicago.
To achieve this, no new patent nostrum of a social specific is
recjuired. All that is needed is the intelligent and resolute use of the
existing civic organization as the natural and constitutional instru¬
ment for securing for the citizens of Chicago the best of everything
which exists in the world.
If Chicago is to be the Capital of Civilization, it is indispensable
that she should at the very least be able to show that every resident
within her limits enjoyed every advantage which intelligent and
public spirited administration has secured wr the people elsewhere.
Only in this way can Chicago vindicate her right to the position to
which she aspires, and it will be the constant endeavor of the con¬
ductors of "Chicago" to call attention to the flaws in her social
armor, to describe improvements which have been made in other
communities and to indicate the ways and means by which such
improvements can be most easily secured for the city.
"Chicago" will not be a party paper, neither will it be identified
with any religion save that which finds expression in the Service of
Man. Its constant aim will be to promote the union of all who love,
for the service of all who suffer. Instead of seeking for points
of difference as for hid treasure, it will endeavor to discover points of
accord and, therefore, a basis of possible co-operation among parties
and sects which are most opposed to each other. To see each other
as we appear to those who love us at our best moments is more profit¬
able than to dwell constantly upon the gloomy portrait painted by
those who hate us when we are at our worst.
"Chicago" starts with the promise of hearty co-operation in dis¬
tribution and in support from many organizations never before united
in the promotion of a common enterprise. It will combat as the
common enemy all that breeds distrust whether of nationality or of
sect, and will constantly seek to promote the growth of a'hearty
brotherly comradeship among all the citizens of this great city. Its
great ideal which will ever be presented before its readers will besuch
a transformation of the conditions of life that no one's child in the
poorest district of Chicago will be doomed to miseries, temptations
and wrongs which we should regard as intolerable for our own
children.
To succeed in arousing a sense of the responsibilities and oppor¬
tunities of citizenship it is necessary to present the issues involved in
civic questions in such popular fashion as to enlist the sympathies of
all—especially of the women and children. Hence, while "Chicago"
will endeavor to give every week a summary and a survey of all that
has been published during the week relating to the improvement of
the city, it will have special features of its own in the shape of short
tales, stories from real life in Chicago, ballads based on the events of
the week, character sketches of leading citizens, and other articles
which will enable the reader to understand the inner human and
therefore the divine element that underlies the dry and uninviting
discussions of public questions.
The Waichmen of the City.
337
To stimulate public interest in all classes in the questions of the
city prizes will be offered every week for contributions bearing upon
the improvement of the conditions of life in Chicago and eve^
effort will be made to develop the growth of a civic literature in
prose and poetry.
So far from being the rival of any existing periodical "Chicago"
hopes to become the supplement or auxiliary of all, and will rejoice if
it IS able to co-operate with each of them in helping to realize the
great aim of all in making Chicago the ideal city of the world.
Such a journal, once well established, would do more
to g^ve the cosmopolitan heterogeneous mass of the resi¬
dents of Chicago a sense of the unity of their city and
greatness of its destinies than any other scheme which
could be devised. Some such paper seems to be much
needed in every great city. The churches of the sects
have their weekly organs, but for this city, in which
there are a million and a half of human beings, there is
no organ and no pulpit from which the whole of the citi¬
zens can be reached. What an audience would hear
that prophet voice, and, as Russell Lowell said, with
"never as much as a nodder even among them:"
And from what a Bible can he choose his text—a Bible which needs
no translation, and which no priestcraft can shut and clasp from the
laiety—the open volume of the world, upon which, with a pen of sun¬
shine and destroying fire, the inspired present is even now writing
the annals of God! Methinks the editor who should understand his
calling, and be equal thereto, would truly deserve that title which
Homer bestows upon princes. He would be the Moses of our nine¬
teenth century ; and whereas the old Sinai, silent now, is but a com¬
mon mountain stared at by the elegant tourist, and crawled over by
the hammering geologist, we must find his tables of the new law here
among factories in this Wilderness of Sin (Numbers xxxiii. 12) called
Progress of Civilization, and be the captain of our Exodus into the
Canaan of a truer social order.
PART v.—What Would Christ Do in Chicago?
CHAPTER 1.
THE CONSCIENCE OF CHICAGO.
If Christ came to Chicago He would do as He did in
olden time and endeavor to band together those who loved
Him and believed in Him in an organization which
would work for the realization of His ideals, and for the
removal of the evils which afflict the least of these His
brethren. In other words, He would form a church in
which all might be one, even as He was one with his
Father. Such unity is impossible on any basis excepting
that of the practical life of service and of sacrifice. But
the one church, that is His Church Militant, can and will
be founded upon the basis of His life and His love, for that
is broad enough to include all existing churches and
others beside, of whom He said: "Other sheep I have
which are not of this fold." The only possible definition
of theChurch Universal is the union of all who love for the
service of all who suffer. And that church, from the
very fervor of its love for its Divine Master, will not
ensconce itself in pews stuffed with comfortable ec¬
clesiastical cushions, enjoying as sweet morsels spirit¬
ual caramels dispensed from the pulpit, but will find
the true service of the sanctuary in going down into
the depths, even to the depths of ward politics and' elec¬
toral agitation, in order to attempt, amid the dust and the
din of the world-struggle to rebuild society on the
foundation of the Kingdom of God.
The old idea of the union between church and state,
has long since been recognized by the modern mind as
an anachronism at the present time. It is a survival
339
340
If Christ Came to Chicago.
from the past which must either be readjusted to meet
different conditions or cease to exist. Cavour's formula
"A free Church in a free State," is accepted by Ameri¬
cans in the plural number—free Churches in a free State,
But the problem of the relation between the spiritual
power which the conscience of the community and the
civic power which represents the will and the executive
mind of the nation is far from settled by the mere enun¬
ciation of a formula. The Mayflower sailed across the
Atlantic not in order to found a free church in a free
state, in the sense of a state in which the church had
nothing to say, but rather to found a state in which the
church should be supreme. Our Puritan forefathers,
labored for a theocracy as all earnest men have always
labored whether they call themselves Mohammedans,
Catholics, Puritans or Latter Day Saints. No one
at this time of day would propose to endeavor to
realize the theocracy or the rule of right and the attain¬
ment of the ideal by the worn out machinery of church
meetings or ecclesiastical synods, but the essence of the
problem remains the same. The community which we
call a state stands more than ever in need of being
directed and controlled and dominated by the moral
sense of the community. In other words, the state must
have a conscience as well as a will and a mind. That
community will be best governed in which the moralsense
of its members has most authority. This indeed is only a
re-statement of the old proposition that the society
which always endeavors to do what it believes to be
right will be a better governed society than one whose
members subordinate right to considerations of selfish
interest and who act upon the unavowed but practical
belief that it is quite possible to cheat God. Mr.
Bigelow's caution tíiat "you have got to get up early if
you want to take in God" has been forgotten by many
smart citizens who imagine that they can run a town
safely and well hy entering into a practical copartner¬
ship with the Devil.
The Conscience of Chicago.
34*
The address to all English-speaking folk, written
four years ago, wijl at least serve to show that whether
in London as an editor or in Chicago as a visitor I have
clung with tenacity to my one central conception of the
Civic Church.
There exists at this moment no institution which even aspires to
be to the English-speaking-world what the Catholic Church in its
prime was to the intelligence of Christendom. To call attention to
the need for such an institution, adjusted, of course, to the altered
circumstances of the new era, to enlist the co-operation of all those
who will work towards the creation of some such common centre for
the inter-communication of ideas, and the universal diffusion of the
ascertained results of human experience in a form accessible to all
men, are the ultimate objects for which this review has been estab¬
lish^.
This is done distinctly on a religious principle. The revelation
of the Divine Will did not cease when St. John wrote the last page
of the Apocalypse, or when Malachi finished his prophecy. " God is
not dumb, that He should speak no more," and we have to seek for
the gradual unfolding of his me.«sage to his creatures in the highest
and ripest thought of our time. Reason may be a faulty instrument,
but it IS the medium through which the Divine thought enters the
mind of man.
Among all the agencies for the shaping of the future of the
human race, none seem so potent now and still more hereafter as the
English-speaking man. Already he begins to dominate the world.
I^e British Empire and the American Republic comprise within
their limits almost all the territory that remains empty for the over¬
flow of the world. Their citizens, with all their faults, are leading
the van of civilization, and if any great improvements are to be made
in the condition of mankind, th^ will necessarily be leading instru¬
ments in the work. Hence our first starting-point will be a deep and
almost awe-struck regard for the destinies of the English-speaking
man. To make him worthy of his immense vocation, and at the
same time to help to hold together and strengthen the political ties
which at present link all English-speaking communities save one in a
union which banishes all dread of internecine war, to promote by
every means a fraternal union between the British Empire and the
American Republic. These will be our plainest duties.
It follows from this fundamental conception of the magnitude and
importance of the work of the English-speaking race in the world,
that a resolute endeavor should be made to equip the individual
citizen more adequately for his share in that work. For the ordinary
common English-speaking creature, country yokel, or child of the
slums, is the seed of Empire. The red-haired hobbledehoy, smoking
his short pipe at the corner of Seven Dials, may two years hence be
the red-coated representative of the might and majesty of Britain in
the midst of a myriad of Africans or Asiatics. That village prl,
larking with the lads on her way to the well, will in a few 3rears be
the mother of citizens of new commonwealths; the founders of cities
342
If Christ Came to Chicago.
in Far West vhose future destiny may be as famous as that of
ancient Rome. No one is too insignificant to be overlooked. We
send abroad our best and our worst; all alike are seed-corn of the
race. Hence the importance of resolute endeavor to improve the
condition, moral and material, in which the ordinary English*
speaking man is bred and reared. To do this is a work as wormy ot
national expenditure as the defence of our shores from hostile fleets.
The amelioration of the conditions of life, the levelling up of social
inequalities, the securing for each individual the possibility of a
human life, and the development to the uttermost by religious,
moral, and intellectual agencies of the better side of our countr^en,
—these objects follow as necessary corollaries from the recognition of
the providential sphere occupied by English-speaking men in the
history of the world.
Another corolla^ is that we can no longer afford to exclude one
section of the English-speaking race from all share in the education
and moralizing influences which result from the direct exercise of
responsible functions in the state. The enfranchisement of women
will not revolutionize the world, but it will at least give those who
rock our cradles a deeper sense of the reality of the sceptre which
their babies' hands may grasp than would otherwise be possible. Our
children in future will be bom of two parents, each politically
intelligent, instead of being the product of a union between a political
being and a creature whose mind is politically blank. If at present
we have to deplore so widespread a lack of civic virtue among our
men, the cause may be found in the fact that the mothers from whom
men acquired whatever virtue they possess have hitherto been
studiously excluded from the only school where civic virtue can be
learnt—that of the actual exercise of civic functions, the practical
discharge of civic responsibilities.
We believe in God,and in Humanity I The English-speaking race
in America and elsewhere, is one of the chief of God's chosen agents
for executing coming improvements in the lot of mankind. If all
those who see that, could be brought into hearty union to helç all
that tends to make that race more fit to fulfil its providential mission,
and to combat all that hinders or impairs that work, such an associa¬
tion or secular order would constitute a nucleus or rallying point for
all that is most vital in the English-speaking world, the ultimate
influence of which it would be difficult to overrate.
Our supreme duty is the winnowing out by a process of natural
selection, and enlisting for hearty service for the commonweal all
those who possess within their hearts the sacred fire of patriotic devo¬
tion to their country. Whatever we may make of democratic insti¬
tutions, government of majorities, and the like, the fact remains that
the leadership of democracies and the guidance of democracies belong
always to the few. The governing minds are never numerous.
Carlyle put this truth in the must offensive aspect, but truth it is,
and it will be well or ill for us in proportion as we act upon it or the
reverse. The wise are few. The whole problem is to discover the
wise few, and to place the sceptre in their hands, and loyally to fol¬
low their leading. But how to find them out ? That is the greatest
of questions. Mr. Carlyle, in almost his last political will and testa-
The Conscience of Chicago.
343
inent to the English people, wrote: "There is still, we hope, the
uuolassed aristocracy by nature, not inconsiderable in numbers, and
supreme in faculty, in wisdom, in human talent, nobleness, and cour¬
age, who derive their patent of nobility direct from Almighty God.
If, indeed, these fail us, and are trodden out under the unani¬
mous torrent of hobnails, of brutish hoofs and hobnails, then, indeed,
it is all ended. National death lies ahead Will there, in
short, prove to be a recognizable small nucleus of Invincible Aristoi
fighting for the Good Cause in their various wisest ways, and never
ceasing or slackening till they die? This is the question of questions
on which all turns. " In the answer to this, could we give it clearly,
as no man can,lies the oracle response, " Life foryou: death for you."
Our supreme task is to help to discover these wi-e ones, to afford
them opportunity of articulate utterance, to do what we can to make
their authority potent among their contemporaries. Who is there
among the people who has truth in him, who is no self-seeker, who
is no coward, and who is capable of honest, painstaking effort to help
his country ? For such men we would search as for hidden treasures.
They are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and it is the
duty and the privilege of the wise man to see that they are like cities
set on the hill, which cannot be hid.
The great word which has now to be spoken in the ears of the
world is that the time has come when men and women must work for
the salvation of the state or of the city with as much zeal and self-
sacrifice as they now work for the salvation of the individual. For
the saving of the soul of Hodge Joskins, what energy, what devotion,
is not possible to all of us ! There is not a street in Chicago, nor a
village in the country, which is not capable of producing, often at
short notice and under slight pressure, a man or woman who will
spend a couple of hours a week every week in the year, in more or
less irksome voluntary exertions, in order to snatch the soul of Hodge
Joskins from everlasting burning. But to save the country from the
grasp of demons innumerable, to prevent this city or this Republic
becoming an incarnate demon of lawless ambition and cruel love of
gold, how many men or women are willing to spend even one hour
a month or a year? For Hodge Joskins innumerable are the multi¬
tude of workers: for the city, or the state that embodiment of many
millions of Hodges,how few are those who will exert themselves at all?
At elections there is a little canvassing and excitement ; but except
ing at those times the idea that the state needs saving, that the democ¬
racy need educating, and that the problems of government and of
reform need careful and laborious study, is foreign to the ideas of our
people. The religious side of politics has not yet entered the minds
of men.
What is wanted is a revival of civic faith, a quickening of spiritual
life in the political sphere, the inspiring of men and women with the
conception of what may be done towards the salvation of the world,
if they will but bring to bear upon public affairs the same spirit of
self-sacrificing labor that so many thousands manifest in the ordinary
■■ ■■ ' ' ■ .1 and evangelistic worki It may no doubt seem
Can those dry bones live? Those who ask that question little
344
If Christ Came to Chicago.
know the infinite possibilities latent in the heart of man. The faith
of Loyola, what an unsuspected mine of enthusiasm did it not spring
upon mankind? "The Old World," as Macauley remarks, "was
not wide enough for that strange activity. In the depths of the
Peruvian mines, in the hearts of the African slave caravans, on the
shores of the Spice Islands, in the observatories of China, the Jesuits
were to be found. They made converts in regions which neither
avarice nor curiosity had tempted any of their countrymen to enter ;
and preached and disputed in tongues of which no other native of the
West understood a word."
How was this miracle effected? By the preaching of a man who
energized the activity of the church by the ideals of chivalry and the
strength of military discipline. What we have now to do is to ener¬
gize and elevate the politics of our time by the enthusiasm and the
system of the religious bodies. Those who say that it is impossible
to raise up men and women ready to sacrifice all they possess, and, if
need be, to lay down their lives in any great cause that appeals to
their higher nature, should spare a little time to watch the recruiting
of the Salvation Army for the Indian mission field. The delicate
dressmaker and the sturdy puddler, the young people raised in the
densest layer of English commonplace, under the stimulus of an
appeal to the instincts of self-sacnfice, and of their duty to their
brethren, abandon home, friends, kindred, and go forth to walk bare¬
foot through India at a beggar's pittance until they can pick up suffi-
ecient words of the unfamiliar tongue to deliver to these dusky stran¬
gers the message of their Gospel. Certain disease awaits them, cruel
privations, and probably an early death. But they shrink not A race
whose members are capable of such devotion cannot be regarded
as hopeless, from the point of those who seek to rouse among the
most enlightened a consuming passion for their country's good.
But how can it be done? As everything else of a like nature has
been done since the world began —by the foolishness of preaching.
And here again let Mr. Carlyle speak:—
' 'There is no church, sayest thou? The voice of prophecy has gone
dumb? This is even what I dispute: but in any case hast thou not
still preaching enough? A preaching friar settles himself in every
village and builds a pulpit which be calls newspaper. Therefrom he
preaches what most momentous doctrines is in him for man's salva¬
tion; and dost not thou listen and believe? Look well; thou seest
everywhere a new clergy of the mendicant order, some barefooted,
some almost barebacked, fashion itself into shape, and teach and
preach zealously enough for copper alms and the love of God."
It is to these friars that we must look for the revival of civic faith
which will save the English speaking race. Fur other hope of salva¬
tion from untutored democracy, demoralized by bosses and wire¬
pullers weighted with the burdens of state and distracted by its own
clamor, wants and needs, it is difficult to see.
That which we really wish to found is in very truth a civic church,
every member of which should zealously, as much as it lay within
him, preach the true faith, and endeavor to make it operative in the
hearts and heads of its neighbors. Were such a church founded it
would be as a great voice sounding out over sea and land the sum-
The Consàence of Chicago.
345
tnons to all men to think seriously and soberly of the public life in
which they are called to fill a part. Visible in many ways is the
decadence of the press. The mentor of the youi^ democracy has
abandoned philosophy, and stuffs the ears of its Telemachus with
descriptions of Calypso's petticoats and the latest scandals from the
Court. All the more ne«!, then, that there should be a voice which,
like that of the muezzin from the eastern minaret, would summon
the faithful to the duties imposed by their belief.
A recent writer, who vainly struggled towards this ideal,has said:—
" We are told that the temporal welfare of man, and the salvation
of the state, are ideals too meagre to arouse the enthusiasm which
exults in self-sacrifice. It needs eternity, say some, to stimulate men
to action in time. But as there is no eternity for the state, how then
is patriotism possible? Have not hundreds and thousands of men
and women gladly marched to death for ideas to be realized solely on
this side of the grave? The decay of an active faith in the reality of
the other world has no doubt paralyzed the spring of much human
endeavor, and often left a great expanse of humanity practically
waste so far as relates to the practical cultivation of the self-sacrific-
ine virtues. We go into this, waste land to possess it. , It is capable
of being made to flourish, as of old, under the stimulating radiance
of a great ideal and the diligent and intelligent culture of those who
have the capacity for direction. If we could enlist in the active serv¬
ice of man as many men and women, in proportion to the number of
those who are outside the churches, as any church or chapel will enlist
in self-sacrificing labor for the ^oung, the poor, and the afflicted, then
indeed, results would be achieved of which, at present, we hardly
venture even to dream. But it is in this that lies our hope of doing
effective work for the regeneration and salvation of mankind. "
This, it may be said, involves a religious idea, and when religion is
introduced harmonious co-operation is impossible. That was so once;
it will not always be the case, for, as we said recently in the Unwer-
$al Rmiew.—"A new Catholicity has dawned upon the world. All
religions are now recognized as essentially Divine. They represent
the different angles at which man looks at God. All have something
to teach us—how to make the common man more like God. The
^e religion is that which makes men most like Christ And what
is the ideal which Christ translated into a realized life? For practi¬
cal purposes this: To take trouble to do good to others. A simple
formula, but the rudimentary and essential truth of the whole Chris¬
tian religion. To take trouble is to sacrifice time. All time is a por¬
tion of life. To lay down one's life for the brethren—which is some¬
times literally the duty of the citizen who is called to die for his fel¬
lows—is the constant and daily duty demanded by all the thousand-
and-one practical sacrifices which duty and affection call upon us to
make for men.
As the result of the publication of the foregoing
appeal and the subsequent agitation of the subject
through the Review was the formation of associations
or federations of workers for the public good in various
34^ If Christ Came to Chicago.
cities in England and Scotland. None of these asso¬
ciations, however, called themselves churches. The
name of church is unpopular with the unchurched
masses. • A.nd the application of the term to associa¬
tions, including atheists, horrified many orthodox Chris¬
tians. Cardinal Manning wrote me shortly before he
died: "Call it anything but a church and I am with
you with all my heart. Call it a church and not one of
my people will lift a finger to help you." Mr. Price
Hughes, of the Methodist body, was even more vehe¬
ment than the Cardinal in denouncing my attempt to
restore the great word which has been degraded into
the label of ecclesiastical coteries to its original purpose
describing the union of all who love for the service of
all who sufier. In some towns the name preferred was
Civic Centre; in others, the Social Questions Union;
and again others preferred the title An Association for
Improving the Condition of the People. In Chicago
the name preferred has been that of the Civic "Federa¬
tion. The name is immaterial, but I still hold that the
conception of the church universal and militant conveys
better the idea which the Civic Federation is established
to realize than any other yet invented by the wit of man.
The Church was the machinery Christ devised for sav¬
ing the world by self-sacrificing love.
What is wanted is a civic center which will genera¬
lize for the benefit of all the results obtained by isolated
workers. The first desideratum is to obtain a man or
woman who can look at the community as a whole, and
who will resolve that he or she, as the case may be,
will never rest until the whole community is brought
up to the standard of the most advanced societies. Such
a determined worker has the nucleus of the Civic
Church under his own hat; but, of course, if he is to
succeed in his enterprise he must endeavor by hook or
by crook to get into existence some federation of the
moral and religious forces which would be recognized by
the community as having authority to speak in the
The Conscience of Chicago.
347
name and with the experience of the Civic Church.
The work will of necessity be tentative and slow. Nor
do I dream of evolving an ideal collective Humanitarian
Episcopate on democratic lines all at once. But if the
idea is once well grasped by the right man or woman,
it will grow. The necessities of mankind will foster it,
and all the forces of civilization and of religion will
work for the establishment of the Civic Church. *
•See Appendix D.
CHAPTER IL
"lead us not into temptation!"
What would Christ do if he came to Chicago? Surely
he would endeavor to help to fulfil His own prayer.
" Lead us not into temptation" is not a prayer which
is regarded with much respect in the city administration
of Chicago. It would be more accurate to say that the
whole system from bottom to top has been constructed
on the principle that it is a good thing to lead aldermen
and officials into temptation on every possible occasion.
To prove this it is only necessary to refer to the unre¬
stricted liberty which is given to a snap vote of the
majority of the alderman to dispose of the common prop¬
erty of the city without any check excepting the mayor's
veto which is nugatory in case the majority in the
council exceeds two-thirds. Another instance is the
position of the assessors. An honest assessor cannot
meet his expenses whereas a man need not be very dis¬
honest to make $100,000 during his term of office. If
the aldermen and the assessors are to be kept from pick¬
ing and selling they must be removed from temptation.
It is not fair to human nature to expose it to a stress and
strain to which it has proved manifestly unequal.
There is no reason in the nature of things why alder¬
men, for instance, should be exposed to that temptation.
The Australian ballot has done much to purify Ameri¬
can elections from the scandalous abuses which pre¬
vailed when the ward politician was tempted by endless
opportunities to stuff ballot boxes and to poll repeaters.
If the City Council of Chicago would not be above tak¬
ing another hint from English-speaking men under the
Union Jack they might remove much of the temptation
to boodle which at present is altogether too strong to be
resisted by the average alderman.
349
350
If Christ Came to Chicago.
An ordinance of the city of Chicago conferring a
franchise upon a company for the supply of gas, cor¬
responds to a private act of Parliament and it is both
interesting and instructive to compare the precautions
which are taken in England against such scandals
as that which disgrace the city council with the
rough and tumble methods which prevail in Chicago.
The situation which prevails in Chicago is not unlike
that which exists in an English city which is supplied
with gas by a private company.
No private bill is passed in England until it has been
dealt with in quasi-judicial fashion by two impartial
committees one selected from the Commons and the
other from the House of Lords. Inexorably standing
orders prevent any possibility of rushing the measure
through the legislature without due consideration and
ample opportunity being aflForded to all sides to be heard
before an impartial tribune of their own selection.
Compare this with the hitty-missy, hugger-mugger
fashion in which the recent boodle Gas ordinance was
dealt with by the City Council. Somebody, nobody knows
who,it may have been a man of straw, as mythical as John
Doe or Richard Roe, thrusts a piece of paper into the
hands of an alderman and asks him to bring this pro¬
posal as an ordinance before the attention of the City
Council. This ordinance may affect adversely millions
of dollars invested under the sanction of the Council
under previous ordinances. It would certainly have
affected for the worse all the conditions of existence in
Chicago for years to come if it had been carried out It
decided once for all in a manner prejudicial to the inter¬
ests of the citizens, the price that they were to pay for
all time to come for artificial light. This reckless and
criminal proposal without any preliminaries is introduced
into the Council, and then, without any opportunity
being afforded for proving either the need of such
an ordinance or of defending the bona fides of its
promoters, this measure is thrust by a fine brute majority
"Lead Us not into Temptation.
351
through the City Council in a single sitting. The exist¬
ing gas company had no opportunity of being heard in
their own defense. The representatives of other interests
vitally concerned in the case were never consulted; but
at a single sitting, after a wrangle which could not be
dignified by the name debate, a scratch majority, secured,
it is universally believed, by out-and-out bribery of the
grossest kind, passed the ordinance into law, and law it
would have been but for the veto of the Mayor. No
amount of standing orders and regulations can make
rogues into honest men; but a very simple proposition,
entirely in harmony with the principles of the American
constitution and the charter of the city of Chicago, would
remove three-fourths of the temptation before which the
aldermen succumb. No man in his senses would dream
of suggesting that the elaborate and cumbrous machinery
of English private legislation should be transplanted to
this western soil, but ordinary common sense would
suggest that in every case where an ordinance was in¬
troduced, affecting either public or private interests, some
adequate caution should be taken to prevent the pros¬
titution of legislation for the purposes of blackmail.
It would not be difficult, for instance, to adopt so
much of the principles of English private bill legislation
as to insist that before any ordinance was introduced it
should be submitted to the corporation counsel, say, one
month before it was read before the City Council, and
that he should stop its further progress until the pro-
motors had done three things. First, to furnish full in¬
formation as to what they proposed to do, when they
proposed to begin and finish, and how they were going
to find the money. Secondly, to fully inform the local
public of the proposed ordinance by means of advertise¬
ment, and to give notice to all persons whose property
was affected or whose interests were endangered by the
ordinance. Thirdly, to deposit with the City Treas¬
urer, say, 10 per cent of the total sum which they pro¬
pose to spend should they receive their franchise. Some
352
If Christ Came to Chicago.
such system would be simple, convenient and easily
worked. After the ordinance had been introduced
into the Council and had received the approval of a
majority of the aldermen it might be referred to a quasi-
judicial committee of four disinterested persons nomi¬
nated, say, two by the Mayor and two by the city
council, who would be instructed to take evidence as
to the proposed scheme, to hear everything that
could be said against it by those whose interests it
adversely affected, and to report back to the council as
to whether or not it was to the publw interest that the
ordinance should pass. The final vote of the whole
council on the ordinance as passed or amended by the
committee could still remain as at present subject to the
Mayor's veto, which can only be over ridden by a
majority of two-thirds. To adopt such a procedure
would involve no fresh legislation, and would establish
no new precedent at variance with constitutional
practice. It would on the other hand give invested
capital security which it does not possess at present
against wild cat legislation, and the sand bagger and
black mailer would find three-fourths of their business
disappear. As to the aldermen it would in every case
be a veritable answer to the petition "Lead us not into
temptation." From a boodle point of view the post of
an alderman would hardly be worth having.
That brings me to another consideration, namely,
whether it would not be wiser and more economical in
the long run to pay the alderman $5,000 a year rather
than to leave them as at present to sacrifice millions of
the property of the city in order that they may levy an
illicit toll upon the plunder which they convey to pred¬
atory corporations. $5,000 a year would at least
remove the temptation of picking and stealing from the
alderman. At present they are paid three dollars a
sitting of the Council. This takes no account of the much
more arduous sittings in committees. As a matter of fact
the $i 56 a year hardly supplies the alderman with drink
"Lead Us not into Temptation."
353
money. In England no representative in Parliament or
any municipality is paid for his services. The result is
that a very heavy money fine is virtually imposed upon
the most public spirited citizens who devote their time to
the service of the community. They have to pay their
election expenses to begin with, and as long as they
represent the people they have to neglect their own busi¬
ness and sacrifice often half of their working time
in the unpaid service of the people. Hence, among
the English democracy there is a growing feeling
in favor of the payment of members, not only on the
ground of justice but in order that the community may
be able to command the services of its ablest members
without regard to the question whether or not they are
suflBciently wealthy to stand the racket of election
expenses and the loss on neglected business. In Chicago,
considering that the wealthier classes, who alone can
afford to serve the city for nothing, refuse to take any
part in the city government, there is a great deal to be
said in favor of paying the aldermen respectably if we
expect them to live honestly. At present the aldermen
regard themselves as morally justified in recouping
the losses incurred in getting elected or in devoting
their time to the public business by levying black mail
on all those who are asking the people for franchises.
And until the wealthier classes can be induced to come
into politics, I fail to see any way out of it short of the
adequate remuneration of the aldermen.
With regard to the assessors and also to the assessed
any attempt to realize our Lord's prayer to lead them not
into temptation, but to deliver them from evil would
necessitate a radical revision of the whole system of
assessment At the present moment assessments are
based upon a lie, and the whole superstructure is
honeycombed through and through with dishonesty
and peijury. The arbitrary power of assessment given to
elected officials whose hopes of continuance in office
depend entirely upon propitiating those whose property
354
If Christ Came to Chicago.
they assess would make thieves of archangels, and the
assessors in the three towns of Chicago are not arch¬
angels. The result is that it is assumed that they are
not honest and that they will take advantage of their
positions to make money. The basis of a true system
of assessment is very simple. Whether it is a matter of
realty or personalty there exists an automatic method
of assessment that lies ready at hand. Why not make
every citizen his own assessor ? The city might accept
as final the sworn statement of each of its citizens as
to the value of his possessions subject to the distinctly
understood proviso that they might at any time be con¬
demned or appropriated at the figure at which the owner
assessed them. By this means no citizen would dare to
assess his property much below its real value. If he
did so he would simply invite the condemnation of his
own property for the benefit of the city. The law
in that case instead of leading citizens into the tempta¬
tion of making false statements in order to dodge
the taxes would practically tend to deliver them from
the evil of inadequate assessment by holding over them
in terrorem the possibility of having to sacrifice their
goods and their real estate in return for an inadequate
sum. Of course, provision might be made for heirloons
and for some exceptional cases in which the sentimental
value could not rightly be appraised for assessment pur¬
poses, and which at the same time it might be very
cruel to condemn. But as a broad general principle,
every man his own assessor, under penalty of ex-pro-
priation at his own figures is a sound one, and would
enormously simplify the question of assessment.
Another g^eat department of public administration in
Chicago which stands in very serious need of being
delivered from evil is that belonging to justice and the
police. Law should be impartial and just In Chicago
it is neither one nor the other. The administration of
the law should be resolute, and merciful, but whatever
punishment is allotted phould be enforced with the same
"Lead Us not into Temptation'^ 355
calm unswerving regularity which distinguishes the
revolution of the planets. Almost every principle of
sound jurisprudence is violated every day in the justices'
courts, both civil and criminal, in Chicago. Justices
nominated for political considerations and swayed more
or less shamelessly by partisan feelings set before the law¬
less members of the community a shameful object lesson
in injustice and corruption. I do not mean for a moment
to assert that the justice in any Chicago court would
sentence an innocent man for a bribe, or that for so
many dollars down he would deliver the guilty. But
there is hardly a court in Chicago where a prisoner who
has a political pull is not tolerably sure of escaping
punishment, unless, of course, his crime has been too
flagrant or too sensational for it to be safe for him to be
liberated after the usual fashion.* But take the case
of an ordinary offender. That man, if he stands in
with an alderman or the owner of an alderman can
almost always escape scotfree. For the sake of
appearances he will be fined but before the court rises
his fine will be suspended indefinitely—that is it will be
remitted. The practice of imposing fines and then sus¬
pending them is one which leads many justices into
•At a meetine of the Sunset Club held March 31, 1898, Mr. W. S. Forrest read a
paper based on his personal e^erience as a lawyer in the courts of the city of Chi¬
cago or rather of Coolc County in which Chicago is situated. In the course of that
paper he said; "There are wrongs in the administration of criminal law in Cook
County, wrongs against the accused, wrongs against society, wrongs against the
letter and spirit of the Constitution of the state. What are some of These wrongs?
The rich and powerful are seldom indicted and never tried, well, hardly ever. The
Criminal Court of Cook County exists only to punish the poor and the vulgar.
Manslaughter is committed by corporations with impunity—Men are convicted
who are innocent. Sven in ordinary trials the forms of law are frequently set
aside and the rules of evidence ignored."
Gen. Stiles who followed Mr. Forrest confirmed his statement, and strengthened
it. He said; "Brother Forrest complains that no rich merchants are ever con¬
victed. Don't forget to mention that no prominent criminals are ever convicted.
No prominent gambler is convicted. Three convictions would send him to the
penitentiary, and they take mighty good care at the States Attorney's office that
no second conviction shall ever be had against an open, notorious and leading
gambler in the city. No prominent confidence man is convicted. A man who kills
another in a prominent saloon is hardly ever tried, never convicted and never was
his worthless neck stretched at the end of a halter. The People must wake up. I don't
exactly want them to form a vigilance committee, but to go so almighty close to
it that you can hardly tell the difference. Run out the riffraff, the gamblers, the
men who live upon the honest toil of others. Put a stop to the frauds at elections.
Run out of office men who are there only for the boodle that is in it. Do this and you
will soon have a better order of things, and unless you do it yourselves no reform
can be accomplished." "Sunset Club Year Book 1891-2," pp. 170, 181.
356 If Christ Came to Chicago.
temptation. It makes easy the way by which he is lead
step by step to be a mere tool of party politicians. An
appreciable step would be taken towards delivering the
justice from the evil course into which he has fallen if
he were compelled to make a monthly return of all fines
which he has imposed and the fines which he has sus¬
pended, specifying in every case the reason for such
suspension. It is an old saying that the progress of
civilization may be measured by the extent to which
the authority of impartial law supersedes arbitrary will
of the individual in the judicial administration. Judging
by the justices' courts Chicago is still in the state of
barbarism. Justice there in too many cases is the meas¬
ure of the justice's foot modified by the conflicting
influences of antagonistic political pulls. The evil is as
great in civil as in criminal courts, if not greater. A
distinguished lawer quoted by the Chicago Herald.^ Feb.
26th, says:
The petty court or "justice shop" system in Chicago and Cook
County is the most iniquitous method that human ingenuity could
have devised to oppress the poor, harass the financially distressed and
annoy victims of spite and enmity. It is a reflection upon the fair
fame of the city and a disgrace to the bar that such a condition of
things should continue to exist
The Herald commenting on these remarks says:
That the present system of administering justice in petty cases is a
disgrace to the judicial system of this city is known to everybody, and
is so patent to all that countless efforts have been made to remoly the
evils which it produces. The fundamental element of the evil, that is,
the system itself, being based upon a constitutional provision, can¬
not be changed without an amendment to the constitution.
That is usually the case in Chicago. Whenever you
find a very unmistakable manifestation of the Devil,
you are certain to find him entrenched behind the Consti¬
tution of the State of Illinois.
If any change is to be made justices should be
paid by salaries instead of as at present partly by salaries
and partly by fees. The practice of giving the justices
the interest of a solid silver dollar in every person
whom they pull, or in every case they hear, is a crying
"Lead Us not into Temptation." 357
shame which has been denounced times without number
but it remains today as yesterday the same. The
temptation which leads police to make raids in order
that they may net a sufficient harvest of dollars from
the luckless captives of these arbitrary razzias is one
into which the justices should not be led.
These are a few of the more salient instances of
maladministration of justice in which Chicago is dis¬
tinctly below the level of any European town. There
are plenty of evils which the city shares with other cities
in the Old World. The bureau of justice is an excellent
and well meaning institution but unfortunately it has
not the funds to enable it to discharge the duties of the
poor man's lawyer. Some day possibly just as the
physicians in the community consider themselves
honored by being allowed to practice for nothing in the
city or county hospital so that day may come when the
same standard of society may prevail among the legal
profession, and the leading lawyers in the community
may consider it a distinction to be allowed to practice
without fees in the cases of the poor.*
The last class of persons whom I shall consider as
subjected to temptations from which they might be
delivered by the same Christian and rational system is
the police. At present it is almost impossible for the
policeman to resist the temptation to supplement his
salary by bribes. It may be taken as a general rule
that whenever a law exists in the statute book that is
not enforced that law is the source of pecuniary profit
to all persons charged with the enforcement of the law.
*Speakiiig on this subject at a meeting of the Sunset Club March 31, 1893, Mr.
Joseph B. David said: "As one who has had a somewhat extended experience in
the practice of criminal law in this couutp for the past seven years I wish to saya
word or two on the subject under discussion. No man who is tried in the Criminal
Court of Cook County, who is without means to hire able lawyers, can get a fair
trial. The law of this state provides that when a man accused of crime is too poor
to hire a lawyer the court shall appoint counsel to conduct his defense. What
happens? A man who has just been admitted to the bar, who never tried a case in
hi^fe before, whose only knowledge of criminal law is gathered from a few
months reading of text-bobks, such a man is appointed to cope with able counsel
such as the SUtes Attorney and his distinguished assistants. The result is inevit¬
able. The trial is a farce—a parody on justice."
358
If Christ Came to Chicago.
Whether it be gamblers, or prostitutes, keepers of
opium joints, or any other offender against the muni¬
cipal ordinances nothing is more certain than that they
have to pay for their immunity from prosecution by
more or less political blackmailing levied by the police.
The remedy for this can only be sought by bringing
the written law into closer relation with that which can
be actually enforced. A law ideally good may become
the source of endless corruption when it is applied to a
community that is really bad. It may be, for instance,
considered an excellent thing that every house of prosti¬
tution, and every opium joint, and every gaming hell
should be outlawed, and authority given to every
member of the police force to suppress them whenever
he finds them; but in communities where prostitution,
opium smoking and gambling are deeply rooted the
responsibility for the initiative in suppressing these
evils should not rest upon individual policemen. It
ought either to be placed under the responsible author¬
ity of neighboring citizens or of some body other than the
oflScials charged with the execution of the law. To
leave the initiative to the patrolmen is simply to ex¬
pose them to a temptation to levy blackmail to which
in most cases they succumb. If, for instance, no house
could be raided on the initiative of a private constable,
and if in other cases the law could only be put in motion
either by a citizen's committee or by local residents the
power to 1^^ blackmail, and therefore the temptation
to receive it would largely disappear. The greater the
power the policemen have of exercising option in favor
of or against the offenders the more increase of corrup¬
tion. The ideal police service is that in which the
policeman should have no law to enforce excepting laws
which he must enforce or be responsible for their
non-enforcement. At present in Chicago the police¬
man is nominally expected to enforce an endless mul-
plicity of ordinances which are openly set at nought
by thousands of citizens every day, and every non-
"Leaä Us not into Temptation^ 359
executed ordinance aíFords an opening for ofiBcial black¬
mail.
These evils and many others which might be described
are admitted to exist by every observant citizen in
Chicago. All the preaching in the world would fail to
help our Lord to realize his own prayer in relation to
those offenses. But what preaching cannot do, what
the personal religion of the individual would be power¬
less to effect, civic religion practically applied by the
election of honest men would assuredly accomplish. If
then our churches and our Christians mean what they
say when they pray " Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil," is it not obvious that it is their
Christian duty to go into politics and stay there until
they have done something to help to fulfill their own
prayers ?
Obvious though it may appear to us, it is unfortu¬
nately the reverse of obvious to many good men. This
winter at the Willard Hall in the Woman's Temple a
"trophy" was produced in the shape of a confirmed
drunkard who had found salvation through conversion.
" Friends, " said this brand plucked from the burning,
" I have been wonderfully delivered by the grace of God
from the bondage of sin and Satan. All my life long I
have been devoted to whisky and politics. Now, thanks
be to God for his redeeming mercy, I am delivered from
both." There is small prospect of the redemption of
the city when the first thought of the redeemed is to
leave whisky in undisputed possession of politics.
CHAPTER III.
CASTING OUT DKVILS.
They greatly err who imagine that the doctrine of
diabolical possession is an exploded superstition. Not
only individuals but communities are often the victims
of this unhallowed appropriation by the Powers of Evil
of that which was designed as the temple of the Holy
Spirit. As in Judea in olden time the casting out of
devils was one of the most manifest signs of the power
of the Messiah, so to day if He were to appear amongst
us in Chicago He would doubtless signalize His divine
presence and power in a similar fashion.
Chicago like other cities is possessed by a host of
unclean spirits, whose name is Legion for they are
many. There are several, however, which can be
distinguished sufficiently to be named and described.
These I will now proceed to enumerate with some brief
suggestions as to their exorcism.
First and foremost, Plutocracy. I came to America
to see what Mr. Carnegie described as the Triumph of
Democracy. I found instead the Evolution of Plutocracy.
The new tyranny which is being installed behind
the convenient mask of republican form is likely to cure
itself by its own excess. Compound interest which if
left undisturbed will concentrate the wealth of the
world in the hands of a corporal's guard of multi-billion¬
aires has already destroyed the distinctive glory of the
American Republic. Nearly half of the once independ¬
ent proprietors of their own holdings are now tenants
of these usurers without tenant's rights.
According to the lastest Government statistics, we
possess sixty billions of wealth. Nine per cent of the
families own 71 per cent of this, leaving but 29 per cent
to the remaining 91 per cent of the families. The 9
361
362
If Christ Came to Chicago.
per cent is composed of two classes: rich and million-
airs, Of the latter there are 4,074 families. They aver¬
age three million dollars each. They constitute only
three one-hundredths of i per cent of the whole number
of families, while they own 20 per cent of the wealth.
That is, they own nearly as much as the 11,593,887
families.
The process of accumulation goes on irresistibly.
The snow ball gathers as it grows. Even spendthrifts
and prodigals cannot dissipate the unearned increment
of their millions which multiply while they sleep. The
millionaire is developing into the billionaire, and the
end is not yet. The transformation is hidden from the
multitude because the coming despot eschews the tawdry
tinsel of the crown, and liberty is believed to be as safe
as well, let us say, as the populace of Rome believed
the republic to be when Julius Caesar refused the
imperial purple. But everywhere the money power has
the people by the throat. Whether it is the pawnbroker
down the levee, charging ten per cent, per month
interest upon the pledges of the poor, or the millionaire,
negotiating with newspapers for the abandonment of
the Interstate Commerce Act, the spectacle is the same.
The poor man is the servant of the rich, and at present
stands in some danger of becoming his slave.
Plutocracy in America even more than in England, to
which I have already compared it, recalls Victor Hugo's
memorable description of the octopus. Victor Hugo
was a great artist in words and he described the octopus
from life. Had he described it from his observation of
plutocracy in America he would not have altered a
single sentence. This description of this spectral
phantom of the deep, the devil fish, with its eight huge
arms, with its four hundred pustules that cut and suck
like a cupping glass, this loathly horror of vampire-
death lurking in ocean caves to seize the limb and drain
the life of the unwary fisherman, is only too true to life
as many an unfortunate will recognize.
Casting out Devils. 363
It wittds around its victim, covering him and enveloping him in
its slimy folds. ... It is a spider in its shape, a chameleon in its
rapid changes' of hue. When angry it becomes purple. Its most
disgusting characteristic is its impalpability. Its slimy folds strangle;
its vei^ touch paralyzes. It looks like a mass of scorbutic gangrened
flesh; it is a hideous picture of loathsome disease. Once fixed you
cannot tear it away. It clings closely to its prey. How does it do
so? By creating a vacuum. ... It is a pneumatic machine that
attacks you. You are struggling with a void which possesses eight
antennae. No scratches, no bites, but an indescribable sufibcation.
The terrible wretch grins upon you by a thousand foul mouths. The
hydra incorporates itself with the man, and the man with the hydra.
You become one and the same. The hideous dream is in your
bosom. The devil fish draws you into its system. He drags you to
him and into him; bound helplessly, glued where you stand, utterly
powerless, you are gradually emptied into a loathsome receptacle,
which is the monster himself. . . . The devil fish is a hypocrite.
Nothing can be more hypocritical than the way in
which plutocracy disguises its designs, until its victim
is well within its reach. It has already flung its all de¬
vouring tentacles round almost every institution in the
United States. Some it has devoured, others it is pre¬
paring to engulf. Among the latter that which most
excites my sympathy and dismay is the last refuge of
independent criticism in the domain of sociological
study. I refer to the universities. Among the younger
university professors in America there are many who
have devoted themselves to a life long study of the
sociological phenomena. They know and appreciate
the advantages of municipal monopolies as opposed to
the monopoly of the predatory rich. They have been
most of them in the old world, and they have learned the
lessons which the most progressive of the municipalities
of the Old World have to teach the cities of the new. They
are devoted to the cause of labor and of social progress.
They write and teach the necessity of dealing with the
problems of labor in a sympathetic spirit, of making
the municipality the ideal employer and of leveling up
all other employers to the municipal level. They are
in favor of everything or nearly everything that I have
advocated in this book, for municipal gas, municipal
water, municipal street cars, municipal telephones
364
If Christ Came to Chicago.
and in short for the municipalization of all the monop¬
olies of service. Nowhere in the world will you find
more thoughtful and fearless exponents of the new
economics than in the American universities. Con¬
trasted with the servile subjugation in which most of
the slaves of the press are kept by their plutocratic
owners, the university is as an oasis in the desert,
a fresh green spot in the midst of an arid waste of
sand. How long will this oasis be permitted to con¬
tinue? I am afraid that when the battle becomes
hotter, and the hosts now being arrayed against each other
grapple in the struggle for life and death, it will go
hard with these teachers of truth. For the endow¬
ment of the universities is one of the fashionable
pastimes of the American millionaire. Vanderbilt has
given his name to a university in the South, and
Rockefeller—the story of whose Standard Oil Trust will
some day be given to the public in all its infamy of
detail, and continental grandeur of rapacity, by some
Zola of reality who will discover in it one of the most
interesting episodes in all history—^is the great patron
of the University of Chicago. There is hardly a univer¬
sity in the country which has not either received large
sums from millionaires or which does not live from day
to day in the hope of receiving large sums from mil¬
lionaires. Universities like every other institution in
the country are "on the make," and just as the modem
Herod becomes a pew holder and gags John the
Baptist by starving him out of the pulpit, a much more
efficacious method than the ax of the executioner, so
the predatory rich have intrenched themselves in the
citadels of the American universities.
I heard a story the other day which is significant of
much. A well known millionaire who was one of the
trustees of an eastern university met at one of the
university functions a professor to whom he freely
expressed his opinion that it was a very good thing that
there were half a million men out of work in the United
Casting out Devils.
365
States. By such a condition of affairs the laboring
men could be kept down. The professor shocked by
the cynicism of the avowal strongly controverted the
millionaire's view unmindful of the fact that the million¬
aire was a trustee of the university.
Shortly after the professor ventured to publish an
article in which he formulated the right of the laboring
man to be shielded from being dismissed at the mere
caprice of his employer. This article was made sufficient
cause to compel him to leave the university. He was
not dismissed, but strong representations were made by
the millionaire in question to his fellow trustees that
this professor must be cleared out. The board, like
Pilate, was loath to yield to the pressure of the modern
Caiaphas, but ultimately the professor, for peace's sake,
resigned his post and accepted another in a state
university in the west which he still holds. A vacancy
occurred quite recently in his old university and it was
mooted that it might be well to invite the professor to
return. But the suggestion was immediately negatived.
The millionaire would have no such pestilent fellow
about his place.
Another instance also came to my notice quite recently.
One of the younger professors who had taken a very
energetic and honorable part in the agitation for the
municipal ownership of the monopolies of service, was
warned by the representative of a great trust, that he
had better take care what he was doing. Articles which
he had published had attracted the attention of the
combine and they were considerably alarmed at the
effect which they had upon their invested capital. He
told his friend quite frankly that if he continued in his
present course they would have to down him. He
regretted it very much but he said "there is no doubt it
is a financial necessity and we shall have to down you"
for the trusts and corporations have a curious knack
of using even the phrases of the Camorra and other
associations of assassins. Not, of course, that the
366
If Christ Came to Chicago.
Professor was to be assassinated. 1 have been assured
that the predatory rich do not shrink even from
using the sandbag and the revolver — of course by
deputies. That, however, is not a very usual method.
They prefer to starve a man out. It costs less and does
not make so much scandal. Under these circumstances
it is not surprising that the professor feels that a Dam¬
ocles sword is hanging over his head. If these things
are done in the green tree what will be done in the dry?
It remains to be seen whether the university which
should be before everything else the home of free and
independent thought is to be subjected as completely by
the money power as the City Council of Chicago or the
newspaper press of America. For the sake of the Amer¬
ican people and the evolution of society in the United
States I sincerely hope that the various faculties charged
with the control of higher education in the repuhUc,
may stand to tlieir guns and may prove themselves
proof alike against the menace and the bribes of the
plutocrats.
To check this stealthy but rapid encroachment on
popular liberty, and to cast out this demon, is the task
which lies before American patriots at the close of this
century. Of one demon it was said this kind goeth out
by prayer and fasting, and it is so with plutocracy. Of
fasting we have had but a foretaste. When to that is
added enough prayerful, earnest wrestling with the
Throne of Grace as leads the men who pray to vote
as they pray, the way of escape will appear. But
there must be more fasting and more prayer than
there has yet been if the grasp of the Octopus with
its myriad arms is to be loosened from the throat
of the republic. At present the plutocrat is supreme
because the democracy is divided and apathetic. Nor
has "the sense of power from boundless suffering
wrung" yet given the masses of the despoiled courage
to resent their wrongs. Here in Chicago the first obvious
step is to insist upon the readjustment of the burden of
Casting out Devils.
367
taxation so that wealth may no longer shift its share
upon the shoulders of the poor. The next is to resume
as rapidly as possible all the franchises and other sources
of revenue which have been stolen from the people by
corrupting their representatives and to peremptorily
veto all further appropriation of the wealth of the many
for the profit of the few. When the democracy is dis¬
ciplined . enough and has established sufficient confi¬
dence in its leaders to do these two things, it may safely
be trusted to discover ways and means to carry out the
rest of the programme of its emancipation.
The second devil which today needs exorcism is one
I did not expect to find in a civilized and progressive
country.
We rid ourselves of it so long ago in the old coun¬
try that it was startling to find that it had simply mi¬
grated to the New World. Of all the folklore tales of
Europe the most horrible is that of the Vampire of the
Levant. The vampire is the reanimated corpse of an
evil doer which is doomed to leave the tomb and return
to the living in order that with livid lips he shall draw in
the life blood from the veins of his sleeping friends. In
the A. P. A., that strange association for the protection
of American citizens which seems to have within its
ranks far more Canadians and Orangemen from Ulster
and Glasgow than native-bom citizens of the United
States, always reminds me of that restless vampire of
southeastern Europe. No-Popery fanaticism died fifty
years ago in England. We imagined it dead and bur¬
ied. But here is the vampire thing making night hid¬
eous by revisiting the pale glimpses of the moon in
western America. It is the same old demon, with its
familiar hoof and horns and tail, scaring the old women
of both sexes' with the bogey of impending massacre
and of the domination of sixty millions by six. To
avert the menaced St. Bartholomew the Protestant
Mayor of Toledo and many of the A. P. A.'s in that
city laid in a stock of Winchester rifles, a fact of which
368
If Christ Came to Chicago.
the public only recently became aware owing to the
reluctance or inability of these doughty champions to
pay for their guns after they had been delivered.
Ridicule ought to be the best means for exorcising
this belated survival of antiquated bigotry. To
lay a vampire the Greeks say it is necessary to drive
long nails into the quivering carcass of the Dead-Alive.
When the last nail is driven home the vampire walks
no more. There are several nails of hard fact and solid
sense which intelligent and patriotic citizens should
drive up to the head into the A. P. A. The first is that
this is a land of liberty, where the whole armed force
at the disposal of the authorities will be used to protect
freedom of speech even when it is as much abused as it
sometimes is by A. P. A. lecturers. And the Catholics
of all men should be foremost in demanding that no
mob shall be allowed to interfere in their name with the
utterances of their enemies. The second is the fact
that this anti-Catholic propaganda is chiefly the work of
non-Americans who, finding no field for the reception
of their pernicious nonsense in Cardinal Manning's
country, are endeavoring to palm oflF upon the New
World the cast-off trumpery for which we have no more
use on our side of the water. But the third and by far
the most effective nail in the coffin of this propaganda
of distrust, malice and all uncharitableness is to refuse
absolutely to batten upon the bones of the martyrs of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and to insist con¬
stantly upon the immense and but little recognized serv¬
ices which the Catholic Church is rendering to humanity
and to civilization here and now. To hate your brother
who is doing Christ's work here in Chicago because his
great-great-grandfather burned your great-great-grand-
uncle three centuries since in Europe is hardly rational
and not at all Christian. This devil, however, will
disappear, like the materialized spectres of the seance
room, if you simply turn on the light
After Plutocracy and Religious Intolerance, there is
Casting out Devils.
369
the devil of Intemperance. In Chicago there is said to
be sixty millions of dollars spent every year in intox¬
icants. The victims of strong drink are to be found in
the Olympian heights where the millionaires dwell and
in the humblest homes. Dr. Keeley is curing thousands
of the craving for drink, and by his success has paved
the way for numbers of rivals. But to cast the demon
of intemperance out of individuals is not enough.
There is the community to be considered, what is to
be done with the saloon ?
In Chicago the question was one of the most hotly
debated of all those on which I touched. What I said
to the prohibitionist was simply this: " Prohibit where
you can and where you cannot prohibit do as much as
you can in that direction. But remember that the
saloon is not to be got rid of by swearing at it. The
true policy is to recognize the need to which it minis¬
ters and to put something better in its place."
Nothing but harm can come from a foolish refusal to
look the facts in the face. And the facts which the pro¬
hibitionists ignore is that with all its faults the saloon
is ministering to many great wants of the citizens which
the church ignore. In many neighborhoods the saloon
is the only parlor and the only club of the working peo¬
ple. It is their solitary place of recreation. They shel¬
ter therein the wet and cold, they meet their friends there,
and read the papers. Chicago is abominably ill sup¬
plied with lavatories and similar conveniences. The
saloon is the only place where a poor man can wash his
face outside his own house, and the only substitute
there is for the retiring rooms which every city should
establish as necessary conveniences. Bad as the saloon is
it holds the field and deserves to hold it until there is
at least one temperance saloon in every precinct. There
are 800 precincts and 7,000 saloons. But in all Chicago
there are not seventy temperance resorts such as the
Teetotums of London, the cafés of Liverpool andthe coffee
parlors and cocoa palaces of many English towns. Until
370
If Christ Came to Chicago.
the temperance people put something better in the place
of the saloon, the saloon will never be got rid of.
Failing the wholesale extirpation of the saloon can
nothing be done to exorcise the worse evils which
attend the sale of drink? I am too keenly sen¬
sible of the miseries of intemperance to dare to advise
that nothing should be tried until everything can be
accomplished. The evil is too terrible such for fooling
as this.
No remarks of mine excited more general discussion
or evoked stronger dissent than a passing observation I
made at the Central Music Hall Conference in Novem¬
ber concerning the saloons. It was made the theme of
much animadversion in the temperance press and on
the temperance platform. Suppose there are three
saloons. Grant that they are sdl diabolic because all
sell intoxicants, and you have only two prohibitionist
votes, what are you to do?* If you insist on closing
them all, you will clc^e none, for two men cannot out¬
vote three. But suppose that while all the saloons are
strongholds of Satan because they sell beer. No. i is a
clean, well conducted place to which, excepting for the
* An Important decision in the Indiana Supreme Court, as to the nuisance of
saloons, which suggests a possibility of Ktting rid of the saloons even when they
have a majority was pronounced in December 1888. The facts are as follows
(summarised from the Chicago Tribune. December 84):—An Indianapolis woman
owned a house on a residence street of that ci^. There were no saloons m the
neighborhood. The owner of the a(\joining lot built a store on it and started a
saloon there. He did this against the united protest of the people in the neighbor¬
hood. The authorities said that they could not refuse to grant him a Ucense,
hecanse the law, thereashere, is that a man who has "a good moral character" and
pays the license money is entitled to a license.
Thereupon the woman broimht suit for damages, alleging that the saloon was
a nuisance and that it hurt the rental and selling value of her property. The
defendant claimed that he was licensed pursuant to Taw, and as long as he did not
keep a disorderly place he was not amenable to any law; if neighboring property
was damaged it was something for which he was not responsible. The lowercourt
found for uie defendant and so did the Supreme Court at first, but on a rehearing
reversed itself, and decided in favor of the plaintiff.
ñie court holds now that while the I,egislatnre has the right to Ucense saloons,
the saloon business is an immoral one and is Ucensed in order that the citiaen m»
have some protection aninst the evils from the unrestrained sede of liquor, it
could not be assumed that it was the intention of the Legislature to place the sale
of spirits above the rights of the dtisen and make him endure a nuisance and sub¬
mit to loss forthe benefit of the saloonkeeper. Hence the court sayaiu cooclnaion:
If the saloon causes property to depreciate in value it is a nuisance within, the
law and can be abated. Not only that, but the person who operates the saloon is
liable in damages to the injured party and the measure of damages is the measure
of ikJuty to the property.
Casting out Devils.
371
sale of drink, no objection can be taken; No. 2 runs a
gaming hell and No 3 runs both a gaming hell and a
house of prostitution. Here two prohibitionists are con¬
fronted with three saloons, possessed respectively by one,
two and three devils. Why not ally yourselves with No.
I to vote No. 2 and No. 3 out of existence? "No cove¬
nant with hell ?' ' Well, the result of that policy of re¬
fusing to use a single barrelled devil of the good
saloon to cast out the double and triple barrelled
devils of gaming and prostitution and drink is that
all three will go on running and you are responsible
for that.
Some criticism was offered chiefly on the grounds
that such a policy would give a monopoly to No. i. To
which my reply is make him pay for it, and if you are
wise enough make him your paid agent, for I am as I
have been since 1873, a sworn advocate of the Norwegian
system of dealing with the license question. To avoid
monopoly municipalize the saloon! This, however, by
the way.
The argument has also been used that this would
involve the municipalizing or the licensing at least of
the house of ill-fame. But that is absurd. There is a
distinction as wide as the poles between the saloon and
the brothel. No one in his senses can assert that to
drink a glass of beer is a mortal sin, whereas every
Christian recognizes that a house of ill-fame exists
expressly and solely in order to facilitate direct
breaches of the moral law. Of course those who do
hold that it is a mortal sin to drink a glass of beer under
any circumstances are quite right in refusing to license
saloons or to accept any responsibility for their exist-
ance. But all who admit that the drinking of beer
although terribly liable to abuse may be indulged in
without sin are bound to do what they can to control
the supply and minimize the evils of the traflSc. That
is why I have sometimes said that the ideal church
would run a saloon. For if the sale of drink where it
372 If Christ Came to Chicago.
cannot be prohibited is so dangerous a business, it
ought to be in the hands of the very salt of the earth.
It takes a very elect saint to make a saloon a means of
grace. A man good enough to be a minister, may fall
far short of the ideal standard required for the saloon
business. And as the church was founded to produce
saints for the world's salvation it is right that the church
should see to it that if the saloon is to exist it should
be in the hands of men who will not make it a cmse and
a scourge to the community.*
The temperance element expected that the dty irould go dry at the
municipal election and made no more than a perfunctory effort to get
out the vote. The liquor men, on the other hand, put a large amount
of money into their campaign and won the city for license, to the sur¬
prise of everybody. The tei^erance element' was chagrined. And
in this novel and perhaps eâective way they will harass their oppo¬
nents.
They will fit up oue of the largest stores in the heart of the city as
a saloon. This they will stock with the best liquors and beers of all
brands. An efficient business man will be put in charge, and behind
the counter will be a dozen expert drink mixers. Prices will be as
follows : Mixed drinks and fine wines, 5 cents; liquors, plain, 3 cents:
beer, a cents; ponies, i cent. Bottled goods will be sold at cost, and
no profits will De expected from sales, except sufficient to pay for the
running expenses, as the rent, fixtures, advertising, and license fee
will be paid for by subscription.
In this way the promoters hope to draw enough customers from the
other saloons to ruin their business. This may be the more easily
efiected as'all who take out licenses have to pay f 2,000 each May i, and
it takes considerable time to get the equivalent back in ordinary bus¬
iness. The trade is extremely lucrative here. The law limits the
number of licenses to one to every 1,000 inhabitants, which gives
Haverhill twenty-seven liquor shops, but as all the neighboring cities
and towns connected by electric roads regularly vote no license the
trade here supplies a population of 100,000 persons. The projectors
have |r,4oo already subscribed toward the saloon.
During my stay in Chicago, Mayor Eustis of Minneap¬
olis passed through the city on his way to New York.
Before I was aware that he had arrived he had departed.
But the previous day I read in the papers the following
* A ChlcsTO paper published a special telegram dated Haverhill, Massachusetts,
Dec. SS, deacnbiug a curious development of temperance activity in the heart of a
prohibition district. I wrote to Haverhill but I have received no reply; the story
may be an invention. I quoted, however, as indicating a possible use of the com¬
petitive principle for the destruction of the vested interest of the saloonkeeper
which may be more useful in England than in Chicago.
Casting oui Devils. 373
interesting expression of opinion in an interview with
Mayor Eustis:
"We are operating under the Stead plan of local government,"
said he, "and strange to say we adopted the policy before we ever
heard of Stead or his ideas. By conferences with Üie liquor dealers'
associations we have succeeded in closing up all tough saloons and
stopped robberies and fights that had taken place in them every day.
In this way all thieves, swindlers and thugs have been driven from
town. Ministers took ofiense because I refused to clo.se the back doors
of saloons on Sunday. I believe men will drink on Sunday if they
wish, and if one door be closed another will be opened. I preferred
to employ the saloon-keepers as allies in trying to bring about a decent
government. How I have succeeded may be seen from the police
court records. One year will develop statistics to show the correctness
or error of my position."
I wrote at once to the mayor asking him for further in¬
formation, and he was good enough to write me a long
and most interesting letter which is a most valuable
contribution to the solution of a very knotty problem.
The best way of fighting the saloon is to put something
better in its place. It is a great delusion to imagine that
the need of social centers or public rooms is only confined
to laboring men. The modern club of the middle and
upper classes show that the need is felt by them and not
even the conveniences of the American hotels are suflficient
to meet the needs of the situation. Hotels and clubs have
alike one great disadvantage, they are both places in which
treating goes on as a matter of course. If intemperance
is to be successfully exorcised provision must be made
for supplying a meeting place without drink. An
admirable example of what can be done in this way is
supplied by the Commerce Club, in the Auditorium
Building. This institution has no bar but it has
all the other conveniences of an ordinary club with
the additional advantage that it can be used by both
sexes.
A number of such institutions with moderate terms—
the subscription to the Commerce Club is only $20 for
resident and $12 for non-residents, while $100 secures a
life membership—scattered about the city would have a
wholesome efiect. Having used the Commerce Club
374 If Christ Came to Chicago.
every day for months I gladly testify to the fact that it
is the most convenient place I have ever seen in any
city. It is a model of what such an institution should be.
The exorcising of the gaming fiend so far as public
gaming hells go is easier than that of dealing with other
vices which perplex the moral reformer. The experience
of Europe suflSces to prove that the public gaming house
can be suppressed by law without any difficulty. The
experience of Chicago from the 6th of January to the i2th
of February shows that open gaming can be suppressed
by the mere fiat of the Mayor. That every gaming house
in Chicago is not shut up tight at this moment is due to
those who are charged with the enforcement of the law.
The law itself leaves nothing to be desired on the score
of stringency.
There is practically unanimity on the part of the re¬
spectable and decent people, that open gaming houses are
an evil, this is admitted as frankly by the newspapers as
it is by preachers, nor is it only journalists and mimsters
who have expressed a clear opinion on the subject.
Last December the grand jury in Mr. Justice Bren¬
tano's court investigated the subject, drew up a report
which concluded with a very emphatic condemnation of
the system and a practical proposal for dealing with the
evil. The following is the closing passage of that report.
This conflicting testimony from officials charged with the reraon-
sible duty of enforcing the laws of the state and ordinances of the
dty wisely enacted for the purpose of protecting the persons, prop¬
erty and morals of the people from the vicious and criminal cLsses
so closely associated with gambling, together with evidence of sev¬
eral other subordinates, who confessed to honest efibtts to earn their
salaries by preventing "crap," "brace" and "copper" operations
(terms not fully understood by all the grand jurors), led us unani¬
mously to the conclusion that there is collusion between the polùx
force of the city and the gamblers so general and wide that its ' 'devil
fish" tentacles reach to a large portion of the police force. In a
community claiming the concomitants of civilization there ought to
be sufficient moral and legal power to locate the head center of offi¬
cial collusion with gambling and smite it to the death. While any
portion of the police force is under suspicion of this conspirac;^—a
"combine" which hesitates not at the crime of peijury—no citizen
can feel a sense of security in life or property; and inasmuch as
Casting out Devils. 375
grand juries of the r^ular panel have as much as the^ can do, or
more, with the regular docket cases, we suggest the calling of a spe¬
cial g^and jury for the sole purpose of considering the subject of
gambling and the relation of^ the city police thereto, as herein set
forth.
We have, therefore, a very favorable condition of
things. The law is all right; public opinion is all right;
the Mayor wishes to do everything he can to suppress
it; and Chief Brennan's orders are all right, what¬
ever they may be worth. The grand jury which has
reported on the subject so emphatically declares that
there ought to be suflBcient moral power to locate the
head sinner of official collusion with the gambler and
smite him to the death; and further, the grand jury has
indicated the way in which this can be done, viz., by
the calling of a special grand jury for the sole purpose
of considering the subject. The state's attorney or
any judge on the bench can act upon this recommenda¬
tion. Judge Brentano, upon whom would naturally
devolve the calling of such a grand jury, has been
engaged with the trial of Prendergast so long that he has
not had time to look into the matter. He stated, how
ever, that it was his opinion that,
The report reveals a state of affairs that should be investigated
without delay, and if the regular juries cannot find time to do it no
time should be lost in calling twenty-three men who can devote their
entire time to an honest inquiry into a matter that so much concerns
the public welfare.
What, then, is still needed in order to put the
machinery of the law in motion? Here we have some
help from an unexpected quarter. The late Carter
Harrison in defending his policy made a notable speech
which may well be taken into account by all those who
are interested in this question. He said:
Those who have so vigorously cried out for its extermination have
failed to suggest any possible or practicable plan by which the desired
end can be accomplished, and they forget that every effort at its anni¬
hilation has been a dismal failure. * » • Considering what the
results had been, I came to the conclusion, on becoming Mayor, that
the evil must be kept within proper bounds and restrictions. More
rhati that, I determined to restrict these houses to the central portion
376
If Christ Came to Chicago.
of the city, where they could be closely watched and hept in check.
By this course of procedure I had in view the easy and unrestricted
—' ' rp practices by the gamblers,
night desire to see whether
an employe was squandering money surreptitiously taken from their
funds. By such a course as I have thus outlined I have had the
eudorsement of a large number of citizens and the results have been
far better than they would have been under different conditions.
Under the apparent rigid rule in vogue in 1873 there were in the city
forty-four gambling establishments and twenty odd bunko places; in
1877 over uirty gambling-houses and a dozen or more bunko-rooms,
while during 1888 there have not been seventeen of the former and
not a single bunko room. The present state of affairs here is due to
restrictions, and while a great number of complaints came to my
office shortly after my inauguration, there have been not more than a
half dozen within the past eighteen months. The plan of keeping
these places in the heart of the city enables the police officers to leam
where brace boxes are played i^on unsuspecting victims. Such
houses are promptly dealt with. Those that run are put upon their
good behavior; minors are excluded, and those who must play pro¬
tected from the tricks of dealers, and games of a character calculated
to attract the man of small means entirely prevented.
After having laid down his position and stated the
ground upon which he defended it he then proceeded
to suggest the natural and proper course to be taken by
those who have differed from him, if they had the
courage of their convictions and were determined to
have their way.
I am not defending gambling per se, but if I am wrong in my
position in dealing with it from a practical standpoint, the people
nave their remedy. They can appeal to an authority higher than
mine, and strange it is that such citizens and newspapers as have
assailed me have not also directed their batteries toward that author¬
ity. Those who think my plan not the best have a state law under
which any one so disposed can take his hand in suppressing gambling.
I fear, however, that Mr. Lincoln was not mistaken when he said that
"statutoiy enactments can't turn a calfts tail into a third hind leg."
The fireside, the lyceum and the well-stocked public library will do
more than laws to suppress social evils.
That is to say, Mr. Harrison points to the same
remedy which Rev. O. P. Gifford referred to in his speech
at Willard Hall. Under the law of the State of Illinois it
is quite possible for any association of citizens, or for
any individual to swear in police for a special purpose
to enforce any law which may be violated, and to emDlo>
persons who might seek its
Casting out Devils^
377
these police to raid the gambling houses and prose¬
cute the gamblers under the law of the State of Illinois.
There is no necessity of doing this on a very extensive
scale. If one prominent gaming house were raided and
its proprietors prosecuted, not once, but twice or thrice
in succession—^until they had qualified for Joliet—that
would settle matters. Gamblers do not mind in the
least being fined; they have a strong objection to being
sent to the Penitentiary. After a second or third convic¬
tion they would be sent to prison and when once it was
well understood that every leading gambler in the town
would be taken in turn and prosecuted with the utmost
rigor of the law until his career is terminated by incar¬
ceration, Mr. Hopkins would be able to realize his
pious wish for the suppression of public gambling and
the city would be rid of one of its most conspicuous
plagpies.
Of course, this work should be undertaken by the
constituted authorities, but if the constituted authorities
fail in their duty, as they have habitually done in Chi¬
cago, then the duty of action would devolve upon
the committee of the Federation charged with moral
questions, of which committee, by the by, the chairman
is none other than the Rev. O. P. Gifford.
The open air gaming hell which is carried on on
the public race tracks—a much more difficult ques¬
tion, owing to the element of innocent amusement that
enters into it—and the "respectable" speculation which
is but another term for the gambling on the Board of
Trade—equally difficult from the element of business
which pervades it—^are much more insoluble problems.
But the fact that it is difficult or impossible to deal
with racing is no reason why so simple and obvious
measures as the closing of public hells should not be
carried out. The machinery is there, the law is clear,
and all that is necessary is for some one to put it in
operation, who has a steady hand, cool head and reso¬
lute heart.
378
If Christ Came to Chicago.
The Social Evil usually so called is one of those
problems which confront the administrator in every land
and which are satisfactorily solved in none. In Chi¬
cago it is not greater than elsewhere, and in some
respects it is manifestly reduced to smaller proportions.
There is very little street walking in the ordinary
sense of soliciting on the streets in Chicago. I went
about the town at all times of the night and in many
of the thoroughfares which have the worst reputation
in this respect, and I had nothing to complain of. This
result, however, is obtained by practically sacrificing
the liberty of the single woman in the streets of
Chicago at night. A woman sauntering or gossiping
with a friend in the streets of Chicago at night is liable
to be arrested by the police, in virtue of no ordinance,
for the law is singularly weak, but in virtue of the high
and singular power with which every police officer in
Chicago seems to be invested to arrest anybody with¬
out the slightest risk of penalty for false imprisonment,
at least when the person arrested is a woman. No
corroborative evidence ever seems to be asked for on
the charge of molestation which is alleged against the
street walker by her captor. The rule enforced in
London police courts is that a woman shall not be
arrested for molestation and annoyance unless the
person molested and annoyed will appear against her.
This rule does not prevail in Chicago. Street walkers
are outside the law and the question as to whether a
woman is a street walker or not, is decided according
to the arbitrary caprice of the policeman. He has only
to swear that he has seen her soliciting. No other
testimony is required. The woman may deny the
accusation as much as she pleases. It is only her word
against the policeman's, and he can, as a rule, obtain
a brother officer to swear to anything that he pleases.
The habit of levying black mail is almost universal.
On Wabash avenue the officers "pinch," to use the
technical term, girls regularly unless they pay up
Casting out Devils-
2,19
regularly. "Pony up or we will run you in," is the
formula which secures the requisite backsheesh to the
officers of the law. A woman in thriving bnsiness will
pay up $10 to the policeman, while those who are not
doing so well are allowed to compound for $2 or $3
as the case may be. Refusal to pay simply lands the
unfortunate in the police cell every time she puts her
face outside the door. One very bad case on Wabash
avenue was one in which a girl had quarrelled with the
police. She refused to give them their black mail, was
arrested on one occasion when going to a drugstore.
Shortly afterwards they broke into her house and said
that if they could not get her on the street they would
take her in her home.
In all great cities it is the same. Where arbitrary power
of arrest is given to the policeman, and no confirmatory
evidence is required by the justices in convicting those
whom they accuse, the street walker proves a great reve¬
nue to the policeman. I have been disillusioned as to
American freedom. There is much more freedom in Lon¬
don than in Chicago, and any girl, say a typewriter
or a work girl, can go from one end of London to the
other at any hour of the night, with much less chance
of molestation, by policemen or by other people, than
she can go through Chicago. Victor Hugo said
truly, long ago, that it was a delusion to believe that
slavery had vanished from the earth. It still exists,
he said, only they call it prostitution. These women
are as much slaves of the police as was any negro on a
cotton plantation before the war. The idea that a prosti¬
tute has as much right to be treated with justice as any
other human being, is a conception that has not yet
dawned upon the mind of the average man. The day
upon which immoral men are subjected to the same
arbitrary authority, without a hope of redress or chance
of escape, that these women are subjected to, would
see the beginning of a revolt. But women are
weak, and there are few who dare to plead for the
38o If Christ Came to Chicago.
prostitute. It is a bad way to reform men, or women,
either, by denying them justice and sacrificing their
liberty. Chastity is a good thing, and purity of life, but
these things are not more holy than the right of all
human beings to liberty and to justice; nor will you in
the long run promote purity by trampling justice under
foot. To make women the chattels of the administra¬
tion as is done in France, or whether it is a system of
arbitrary arrest tempered by black mail as in Chicago,
does not moralize the women, but it does demoralize tíie
administration. *
What then can be done? The first thing to decide
is, what cannot be done. One thing is impossi¬
ble, and that is to yield for a single moment to that
temptation of the devil which is ever whispered in the
ears of the authorities when they are confronted with
this question. Regulation in the European sense, apart
from its hideous immorality and cynical violation of
every principle of right is absolutely futile from the
standpoint of health which is the plea usually put for¬
ward in its defense. A system against which the
womanhood and the moral sense of the manhood of the
world are in hot revolt is not likely to find much favor
in the western world. Any system of official license
and registration is virtually an authorization of vice by
the state. It is as if the constituted authorities were to
certify for the use of the citizens a number of women
guaranteed healthy by the certificate of some state
* It hu been reserved for Mayor Weir of Lincoln, Nebraska, to take the lead in
a repressive campaign directed not against the unfortunate women but arainst their
customers. After taking every precaution that adecjuate accommodation was
provided for aU women on the town in public institutions if they wished to
abandon their present life, he gave six weeks notice of his determination to root
up the traffic in vice. On the Ist of March the name of every man found entering
a house of ill fame or rambling house was noted by the police. They were
instructed to take pains to obtain their real names, and the order significantly
continued "it does not matter if the arrests occur every day or oftener." The
order was Issued to break up and destroy this alleged business, and the mayor
assured the police that he would support them to the last extremity in the per¬
formance of Its duty. "I will under no circumstances," says the Marar, "concur
in the custom of fining the woman alone, believing that all prostitutes male and
female should be dealt with exactly alike." The names of all men entering houses
of ill fame will be publicly exposed at the police station for general inspection. All
owners of property rented for immoral purposes will be prosecuted.
Casting out Devils.
381
surgeon. "This is the way, walk ye in it" would be
written up over the broad and easy way which leads to
the house oi debauchery. The system or no system of
irregular arbitrary license by black mail which prevails
in Chicago at present with all its faults, is immeasurably
better than any attempt to legalize or to give the imprim-
ateur of the state or of the city to the practice of prosti¬
tution. This system in the garrison towns in England
has been shattered by the uprising of all that was best
in the English people. The agitation against it is hot
and strong on all parts of the continent. To intro¬
duce the system of compulsory surgical examin¬
ation while it may secure the health of a faction
it tends directly to increase the disease among the
women who elude the register. In Paris where
the system has been in existence the longest, the
administration admits that for one woman who is
licensed and periodically examined in a licensed house
there are ten who ply their calling clandestinely. The
only way of combatting venereal disease is to take it at
the outset when it can be cured instead of allowing it to
continue until it assumes a more aggravated form, when
it is almost incurable and dangerously contagious.
Hence from the hygienic point of view the great object
is to tempt sufferers from this malady to seek medical
assistance at the earliest possible moment. This is
directly hindered by trying to subject these women to a
periodical examination which they detest and which
makes them the bondslave of the police doctors.
Besides no system of regulation and examination
can ever succeed when it is applied only to one sex.
The immediate consequence of any system of state regu¬
lation or municipal authorization for houses of debauch¬
ery is to teach every citizen that vice is necessary and
lawful and to encourage the delusion that freedom
from disease is guaranteed to debauchees by the govern¬
ment. The law then becomes a schoolmaster to lead
men to the brothel.
382
If Christ Came to Chicago.
In Cleveland, where Chief Director Pollner has on his
own mandate, introduced a system of regular medical
inspection and police registration, the girls trade upon
the fact and assure hesitating men that they are all right
because they have the official certificate at home. One
of them, while I was there showed me a whole bundle
of duly signed copies of the original certificates which
have to be filed every week in the Director's office.
What then must be done?
Common sense would suggest that the entrance to
the profession should be narrowed and made as diffi¬
cult as possible, while the exit from it should be made
broad, easy and accessible to all the unfortunate victims
of the system. This is exactly the opposite to the
course which at present prevails.
Sexual incontinence is not a crime, and should not
be treated as such. It is a sin which should be left to
the moralist, and the Christian teacher. It only comes
within the lash of the law when it becomes the source
of disorder and public scandal, and actual crime. If
this principle were recognized, many of the greatest dif¬
ficulties would disappear. Au immoral woman who
plies her vocation, so as to make no scandal and
create no nuisance should no more be subjected to police
surveillance, to say nothing of arrest, than the immoral
man who takes pleasure in a dissolute life. The case is
different when the woman "converts herself into a peri¬
patetic nuisance, or makes the house a moral cesspool,
so that it infects the neighborhood. In that case she
should be proceeded against as a nuisance and her neigh¬
bors should take prompt action against such a center of
contagion being established in the midst of their
young people. Even then the greatest care should
be taken against arbitrary and vindictive measure
in which justice is violated under the plea of pro¬
tection for morality. These people forget that it is a
greater immorality to prostitute justice than to follow
the calling of a prostitute. The girls for the most part
Casting out Devils. 383
are victims rather than the accomplices of the criminals
and should not be interfered with. It is the keepers,
and the landlords of such houses, who should be prose¬
cuted when prosecution is deemed advisable; and in
every case when they are proved to be guilty they should
be sent to jail and the house broken up. The present
system of arbitrary pulling is simply a regulation system
under the mask of arbitrary arrest. Those who make a
traffic in vice by exploiting their fellow creatures, the
procurers, the souteneurs and the "macs' ' are the worst
parasites of the vicious system, and should be severely
dealt with instead of being allowed, as at present, to
escape scotfree.
A lady who has devoted much time to the subject, and
who has had practical experience in the work of reclaim¬
ing and rescuing the unfortunates, called upon me soon
after my arrival in Chicago to urge upon me the impor¬
tance of more vigorous action in this matter. The
Anchorage mission, an admirable institution established
close to the sunken district of Fourth Avenue does a
good and noble work. So does the Refuge for Fallen
Women which is one of the most remarkable institu¬
tions of its kind in the country. But they are inade¬
quate. The Home of the Good Shepherd is another
institution which is doing excellent work. But these
three do not do more than touch the fringe of the ques¬
tion. My friend wrote me as follows-
I wish to see established over the city a series of seven graded homes.
1st homb.—For pure mrls found in hospitals, depots, worn out
clerks, etc., where ifthey desire they could be trained into service for
this field.
2in> BOMB.—For those who come in after their first ofience. There
is so much need of this, they have no refuge now.
3rd homB.—For those who have lived the life, either as kept
women or madames, or those who have frequented houses of shame.
4th. —A home for the workers, chapel school and work rooms of
many kinds, type writing, music, drawing, painting, dress making,
book keeping, or any other thing a woman can do credit to or develope
2. taste for Care being taken, no woman is where she does not fit,
misapplied people cause much of the confusion in life to my thought.
fiTH.—Maternity home. Mothers living here with httle ones.
384 If Christ Came to Chicago.
Children born here and cared for afterwards. Kindergarten, kitchen
garten etc., etc.
flth homb.—For women addicted to drink.
7th.—A home where old sinners can come and die—m'M a Saviour
—and hospital in which these women can help much and in making
themselves useful, they will be more content.
The women able to work should receive wages, kept for them in
a bank of our own, as it were, and after a few years, strong in the
physical and spiritual with a sum of money at their command, they
could go out from us citizens, able, having been taught their trade, to
build up a business of their own. Desirable, that this should be done
in our city, than the one in which they have been living and known
in sin.
All that is needed to start this home at once is the money. God grant
it may soon come. I am looking alone to Him for it, and I firmly
believe it will be given, and you can see the benefit of having a pre¬
ventive home in connection with the others. No girl coming from
the neighborhood would receive any stigma, no one knowing from
which she came, it would be no disadvantage to the pure girl, as those
homes would be perfectly distinct and what greater honor could be
conferred on any woman, than to be educated for this field in the
vineyard.
When Mr. Carter Harrison ordered all the women
to leave State street, and concentrate on Fourth
Avenue and Clark street, he eflfectively destroyed the
value of all decent property in the neighborhood. If
such a policy is pursued in the future, the owners who
have property in the condemned district should be com¬
pensated otherwise they are driven to the alternative of
either closing their property or of entering the busi¬
ness of brothel keeping. The Japanese alone have
carried this policy out to its full logical extent. There
are prostitute quarters in Japanese cities which are the
Fourth Avenues magnified. Should such a policy be
adopted, it would be well to adopt it with our eyes open,
giving due regard to the interests of the neighbors and
with adequate security for the escape of the inmates.
It is possible to establish such a quarter, brilliantly
lighted and constantly patroled by police matrons, who
would have power to suppress any house which would be
proved to have debauched innocent girls, or to have
admitted any inmates without first sending them to a
good woman to dissuade them from the life into
Casting out Devils.
385
which they were entering. This could oe done. It would
be better than the present system, which has the disad¬
vantage of establishing a prostitute quarter without the
safeguards which might be secured where the Japanese
system is logically carried out. For my own part I
prefer the scattering system, but this is too large a sub¬
ject to discuss here.
All these measures, however, are but palliatives,
the real exorcism must be accomplished by raising
the standard of morality until it will be regarded
as shameful for a man to be unchaste as it is now
for a woman, and in the promotion of everything
which tends to give men and women more points
of contact. Any advance that is made in the direc¬
tion of the emancipation of woman tends to reduce
the physical relation to its proper subordinate position.
Nor does this in any way imply the igpnoring of the
important part which that relation occupies in society.
Unless civilization is a mistake, and Christianity a delu¬
sion, monogamy is the ideal towards which our race is
tending. In the future, adultery and fornication will be
regarded as almost as inconceivable as incest. Every
step towards this tends to exalt the conjugal relation and
at the same time to extend the possibilities of friendship
between the sexes.
Hitherto I have confined myself to discussing
the exorcising of evil spirits which are vices rather
than crimes. But the criminal demon must not
escape attention, he is the superlative degree
of human crookedness. To cast him out is
the task which the police and magistrates have
Continually before them and there is no truce in that
eternal warfare. But there are one or two things which
might be done with advantage in Chicago. The first is
to cease manufacturing criminals. That is much more
practical and easier withal than to reclaim them after
they are manufactured. Chicago manufactures her
criminals in two ways: first, by the absence of any
386
If Christ Came to Chicago.
arrangement for dealing with incipient criminality in
the child; secondly, in the lack of any adequate
arrangements for reclaiming the idle tramp, or of pre¬
venting the gravitation into bumdom of the unem¬
ployed workingman, and thirdly, by the scandalous
abuses which prevail in her police courts.
An admirable little book written by my friend, Mr.
Waugh, the Hon. Director of the Society for the Preven¬
tion of Cruelty to Children was published in England
some fifteen or twenty years ago. It was entitled
"The Jail Cradle, and Who Rocks it," and con¬
stituted such a damning indictment against sending
children to herd with criminals, that the practice of
sending juvenile offenders to jail has almost ceased, with
advantage to society and to the children themselves.
New South Wales, and some of the Australian
colonies have gone further than any other countries,
in the protection of the juvenile offender from the influ¬
ence of other criminals. If New South Wales is at the
head of the scale Chicago lies very near the bottom.
Police magistrates, journalists and every other author¬
ity, have deplored the practice of accustoming children
before they are in their teens with the police station
and the cells in the Bridewell. There is very little rev¬
erence for children in Chicago. Messenger boys not
more than fourteen years of age, go in and out of the
police cells every hour of the night gaining an intimacy
with the drunken and debased classes, which can hardly
be said to tend towards edification. Mere lads of the
same age, make a regular tour through the houses of
ill-fame, selling newspapers on Fourth Avenue, nor is it
thought that it is undesirable that such young children
should be introduced so early to the abominations of a
g^eat city. As for the waifs and strays, if it were not for
Mr. Daniels, the indefatigable superintendent of the
mission of State street, I do not know what would be¬
come of them. This mission is one of the most admira¬
ble charities in the city; and it is housed in a way
Casting out Devils.
387
which v^ould be a disgrace to a third rate country town.
Mr. Daniels has set his heart upon the building on the
Lake front, where there could be established a depart¬
ment dealing entirely with the juvenile offender so that
he would be removed altogether from contact with elder
criminals. His scheme, which is well thought out and
carefully planned, would supply a court for all offenders
whose youth would entitle them to special considera¬
tion, but he would use the greater part of the building
as the headquarters of his busy boys. Mr. Daniels has
made a business success of the Waifs Mission. He has
taken the riff-raff of the streets and trained them in
habits of industry and thrift, and made them earn their
own living. This is done under every conceivable
difSculty; wretched accommodation, lack of support, in
fact, lack of everything except what is supplied by Mr.
Daniel's own indomitable will and loving heart. He is
ready, if he is provided with adequate housing for his
lads to ask for no further contribution. He would
make the institution self-supporting and rid the town of
the shame and disgrace of the manufacture of juvenile
criminals. I sincerely hope that the philanthropy of
Chicago will see that Mr. Daniel's prayer does not go
unanswered.
Criminals are also manufactured by neglecting the
tramp. If no adequate provision is made for relieving
the necessities of the penniless and destitute, they will
beg and be supported by the conscience of the commu¬
nity in doing so. But begging is only one shade better
than stealing, and the habit of mendicancy leads natur¬
ally to actual thieving.
There is no excuse for a city like Chicago in which
the elementary necessities of sanitation and of street
cleaning are so poorly attended to for refusing to pro¬
vide a labor test for the tramp. It is in the winter
when the tramp plague is the most formidable in the
towns and at that time there is work for 10,000 men on
the streets and the allies of the city. There is work
388 If Christ Came to Chicago.
enough to be done, it is only a question as to whether
the tramps will be allowed an opportunity of working at
useful labor for their rations instead of prowling round
the city, infesting every street and alley and rapidly
degenerating into the semi-criminal condition of pro¬
fessional bum.
CHAPTER IV.
The brotherhood of labor.
It was an old jug, and withal much worse for wear.
It had lost its handle and its sides were seâmed
with many a flaw, but still it held the water and that
sufl&ced. Nor did the speakers in the Trades and Labor
Assembly of Chicago, object to use its contents because
of its forbidding and even repulsive exterior. For the
battered old gallon jug stood on the table all worn and
frayed with much pounding of the gavel, at which sits
the chairman of the Parliament of Associated Labor in
Chicago, and the water which it contains refreshes the
unionist orators when they are dry and parched by their
own fiery eloquence. For the water is there all the
same and thirsty men are not particular about the
jug-
Which jug is a parable of the relations which ought
to exist, but which at present do not, between the
labor unions of America and the organized Christian
churches of the continent. The labor unions look
askance at the church as it exists and is organized
today. If they do not say with the French Republi¬
canism, "Cléricalisme—^voila l'ennemi!" they say much
the same thing—American style. They have got no use
for the church, they say. It has no handle by which
they can use it to help labor. It is seamed and flawed
with numberless imperfections. So they will have
nothing to do with it; and they don't. Not five per
cent of the members of labor unions in Chicago, I
was assured on my first visit to the Trades and Labor
Assembly, ever darken the doors of a place of worship.
Such unionists as are churchmen are chiefly Catholic.
The result is what might be expected. The labor
unions are suffering from the lack of the support which
389
390
If Christ Came to Chicago.
the church could give them, and the church is vaguely
and painfully conscious that it is not ministering to those
who need her most And all because of the prejudice
against the battered and ugly old jug which, never¬
theless, is the vessel that contains the water of life.
By water of life I do not mean what many labor men
think is religion, which is as they would put it, the
mere obtaining of passports duly vised and counter¬
signed by certificated sky pilots for admission to the
celestial regions after death. I mean the help which
they need on earth to enable them to realize their ideals
here and now. I mean the strength which would
enable them to redress grievances, to elect just judges,
to amend unjust constitutions and generally to deliver
them from the bondage under which they are lab¬
oring. I mean the friendly sympathy that would, for
instance, secure them places in which to meet and liberal
support both in the moral backing and in the financial
help of which they stand in sore need. And I mean
more than any of these things, more than all of them put
together, a reinforcement of the moral sentiment among
the unionists themselves, a restoration of confidence of
man in man which is almost eaten out by the all-
pervading worship of smart money making, and as
the result of this the discovery of leaders among
their own ranks whom they would not hesitate to
trust with uncounted gold. Unionists in Chicago
and in America lack many things, but this above
all. For they, like other men have forgotten
God, and have learned to distrust men. There is as
much envy, malice and all uncharitableness among
them as among any other class in the community.
They distrust each other, malign their leaders and are
more singularly lacking in enthusiastic devotion to
their chiefe than any body of men I have ever met.
I do not for a moment believe what I hear on every
side as to the universal dishonesty of everybody whose
name I mention. But this readiness to hurl the reproach
The Brotherhood of Labor.
391
of dishonesty against every labor leader by the men who
follow them shows that the rank and file is suffering
from what might be expected from the divorce between
labor and the church. The divorce has gone much
further here than in the old country. In England most
of the labor leaders even if they have quit church going
bear the stamp of their early training in church and
Sunday school. Some of them, notably those who more
or less ostentatiously repudiate Christianity, are as
stalwart as puritans in everything but the ordinances.
And as a result English trades unionists and the labor
movement in the old country has the advantage of half
a dozen leaders, whose personal character is unimpeach¬
able and whose record is as stainless as that of the
highest and noblest in the land. There may be many
such men in America but they have not succeeded as
yet in securing the same general recognition even among
their own class, let alone in the community at large.
That seems to me the greatest weakness of the labor
movement in America.
Distrust and lack of faith are due to lack of character
on one side or the other. It is only the honest man who
believes in the honesty of men. Those who are certain
all men are thieves but see the reflection of their own
inner soul in the mirror of their neighbor's faces. But
whatever the cause and wherever lies the secret of this
lack of confidence,- it is a fatal bar to any real progress.
If in the heat of the fight you have to keep squinting
over your shoulder to see that your officer is not pick¬
ing your pocket, you stand a very poor chance of
victory. The labor movement suffers and will suffer
more from these indirect consequences of the worship of
the dollar among its own members than from the tyranny
of Mammon in all its trusts and corporations.
I never realized so clearly before the eternal truth of
the saying that, "by faith ye are saved," as when I was
confronted with the consequences of the lack of faith.
Not faith in formulas, but faith in the divine in man.
392
If Christ Came to Chicago.
of so much at least of the divine in man as will lead
him to keep his word, to stand to his guns, and to
keep his hands from picking and stealing. That ele¬
mentary indispensable, irreducible quantum of faith
seems to be more lacking in Chicago than in London.
Faith has perished among the people and as a result
they are handed over helpless and hopeless to be trod¬
den under foot by the strong.
Long centuries of oppression during which all the
resources of England were employed to foment distrust
and destroy the confidence of the Irish in each other
have produced their natural results in Ireland and
here, where the Irish element is strong, the fatal herit¬
age brought across the seas has lost none of its evil
power. But that would not be sufficient to account for
this deep ingrained conviction that if you elect your most
trusted comrade to office he will in a few months be as
corrupt as the rest, that every man is more or less "on
the make' ' and that the more you trust a man the more
certain it is that he will sell you when he gets an oppor¬
tunity and that you will get left. No brotherhood of
labor or of anything else is possible until this funda¬
mental lack of faith is replaced by that more generous
confidence of man in man which is the basis of every
good thing.
" Do your neighbor as he would do you—if he gets the
chance," the Chicago version of the Golden Rule is not
working out well for the laboring man. In so far as he
has substituted for this the older version he has suc¬
ceeded in bettering his condition. The Cigar Makers
Union, for instance, which is one of the strongest in the
country with a reserve fund of half a million in the
bank has gone through these hard times without having
to submit to wage reductions and that without having
recourse to strikes. The Lumbershovers' Union on a
smaller scale has been, and is, very successful. Of
course no amount of confidence in each other will enable
men to keep up prices against a falling market, but it
The Brotherhood oj Labor.
393
minimizes the loss and enables them to tide over bad
times. "A brother that is helped by a brother is like a
strong city." It may have its reverses but the strong
city stands.
The unions of Chicago have done good, noble service
to the cause of labor this winter. They undertook at
the outset to provide for the relief of all tiie unemployed
of their own number and on the whole this promise has
been honorably kept There are 297 unions in Chicago
with 100,000 members representing a population of 400,-
000. Very few of these unionists have come upon the
fund raised by public charity. The sum which the
unions have distributed to their unemployed members,
this winter in Chicago, probably exceeded all the money
subscribed by the rest of the community for the relief of
distress. Exact statistics are lacking but the facts speak
for themselves.
The more thoroughly organized unions, especially
those connected with the building trade which have a
separate council or federation of their own have suc¬
ceeded in securing the eight hours day without legis¬
lation and until the recent bad times they maintained
a high standard of wages. Wages, however, have tum¬
bled in some cases very heavily and what is much worse
to bear, the work itself is not to be had. The aristoc¬
racy of labor in Chicago is apt to imitate other aristoc¬
racies and having obtained its own comforts to leave its
less fortunate brethren to get along as best they can.
This lack of a realizing sense of human brotherhood,
combined with the deep underlying conviction of almost
all unionists that if any wider movement is promoted out¬
side their own immediate trade it is in order that some
"skate" or boodler may get something out of it, para¬
lyzes the labor party in Chicago as elsewhere in America.
The labor movement in America seems to me to be
about where the English labor movements stood nearly
thirty years since. The unions are still to a certain
extent outlawed. They have no allies and many eue«
394 If Christ Came to Chicago.
mies. They have no representatives in City Councils,* in
state legislatures or in the Federal Congress, The news¬
papers, almost without exception, are against them.
Among the churches they have some sympathy but lit¬
tle support. They are hampered, as we were not, by
the fetters of written constitutions.
These are the consequences to labor of the divorce
between the unions and the churches. The results to
the churches are not less disastrous. They have lost the
confidence of the leaders of the labor movement The
local unions regard them with suspicion, and in some
cases with positive dislike that is a barrier to doing any
good work. A well known minister, in Chicago, told
me a curious instance of how this operates. He is a
doctor of divinity and he recently made a tour round
the world. On his return he was asked by a member of a
Milwaukee labor union to give them an illustrated lecture
about his travels. The union approved of the invitation
believing that he was a medical man. Before the lect¬
ure was delivered they discovered that he was a doctor
not of medicine but of divinity. They immediately
cancelled the invitation with only one dissensient and
the lecture was declared off". To preach and teach in
the face of such prejudice as this is somewhat difficult
work. The result is that as the unionists don't attend
church while their employers do, the ministers naturally
and inevitably tune their music to their audience, t
* See Appendix P, "What London County Council has done for labor.'
t The Lutherans, of Oshkosh, honestly believe that labor unions are contrary
to the law of Qod and in February aU unionists were expelled from the south side
Lutheran church in that town. Admission to membership was refused to the son
of an oflScer in the church because he was a member of a labor union. The argu¬
ments used by the minister in question are somewhat archaic. "We Lutherans are
against labor and trade unions, because their principles, endeavors and pro¬
ceedings are against God's commandments. Their principles, endeavorinn and
proceedinn are evidently against the order which God has put in the fourth com¬
mandment. In this commandment God has drawn the line of difference between
the employer and the employed, parents and children, masters and servants. It
the workman does not come to Uie employer with decent requests or desires, but
with firm demands, taking the control of the business into his hand, he removes
the bars which God has put between master and servant; in fact, he makes himself
the master of the business. It is the duty of father and husband to car« for their
families. If they do not do this, if they rather go on a strike, they sin against the
word of Cod, ucglççltpgtlie duties imposed upon tlicm in the fourth Etnd sixth com-
The Brotherhood of Lahor. 395
The wealthy pew holder, the liberal supporter of
church funds becomes as potent in the church as he is
elsewhere, and so the breach is made worse. The net
effect of it is that the church cannot fulfil her divine
mission.
All that I have done or tried to do in Chicago resulted
from my conviction that no good worth speaking of will
be done in Chicago or elsewhere which does not bring
together again into a firm fighting alliance the forces of
organized labor and the forces of organized Christi¬
anity. When on my first Sunday in Chicago I was asked to
address the Trades and Labor Assembly, I was earnestly
cautioned against saying a word about religion. ' 'If you
say anything about Gk)d or the church or religion they
will hiss you off the platform. This crowd takes no
stock in these things." I listened and wondered. But
when my turn came to speak I could not refrain from
telling them that the first condition of social emancipa¬
tion was a hearty alliance between the church and labor.
"You don't take much stock in churches I am told,"
and the audience assented heartily. "Don't take stock in
them," I continued, "if you don't believe in them, but it
is fatuous folly on your part to refuse to use them for
all they are worth to attain your own ends and to promote
the regeneration of society." The ice was broken.
They didn't hiss. "The boys stood it," said a journalist
who was present, and from that day I never lost an
opportunity of pleading for the recognition of the need
which each of tiiese two great factors has of the other.
mandments. It is the will of God; laid down In the seventh and ninth command¬
ments, 'That we may not craftily seek to eet our neighbor's money, goods, inheri¬
tance or house, nor obtain it by a show or right; ' nor by oppresion or extortion.
But this is done if the unions meet their employers with firm demands, threaten¬
ing with strikes and carrying out the same. It is well known how many a strike is
the cause of sins against the fifth commandment. The eighth commandment is
sinned against by calling nonunion men 'scabs' and abusing them in dififerent
ways. According to the tenth commandment we should urge our neighbor's serv¬
an»'to stay ana do their duty.' Union men on the contrary alienate the serv¬
ants from their employer by telling him whom he has to or whom he has not to
employ. The members of this union have to pledge themselves not to divulge the
proceraings of this union to any person not a member of the same. The Bible
says; ' Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and
their works are in the dark, and they say; Who seeth us and who knoweth us 7
396
If Christ Came to Chicago.
"No practical solution of this question will ever be
found without the assistance of religion and the church."
That is the dictum of the Pope in his famous encyclical,
and it has been and is the burden of all that I have said or
what I have to say. Labor parched' and thirsty will
yet overcome its prejudice against the chipped old
ungainly jug that contains the living water of helpful
sympathy and effective support. It was the chasm be¬
tween the unions and the churches organized as Mr.
Pomeroy told the Labor Federation by "the Great Master
Mechanic, and his immortal twelve walking delegates,"
one that is impossible to bridge. There is every disposition
on the part of the better men on both sides to join hands
for helpful mutual service. The ministers of religion for
the first time in the history of Chicago sent an influential
deputation of their number to bid welcome to the
American Federation of Labor when it held its annual
meeting in the city last December, and the act was
hailed on both sides as a harbinger of better days to
come. Nor has labor on its part been indifferent At
the Central Music Hall conference in November the
chair was taken by Mr. M. H. Madden, president of the
Illinois Federation of Labor, who in an eloquent opening
speech made an earnest appeal to the churches to clasp
hands with labor and to do something for God and
humanity. "We yearn," he said, "for the co-operation
in the work of doing g^od and alleviating sufiFering."
At Milwaukee, under the auspices of an energetic
young Methodist minister a church and labor social
union has been formed, which was inaugurated by an
address by a well known labor leader who had not dark¬
ened the doors of a church for a quarter of a century
until he came by invitation to occupy the pulpit and
explain why the working classes were not within its pale.
In Chicago the retail clerks union through their able
and indefatigable representative, Mr. L. T. O'Brien,
appealed to the Ministerial Federation for their assistance
on securing the passing of an ordinance giving the clerks
The Brotherhood of Labor. 397
in the stores the boon of Sunday closing. Nor were the
ministers slow to respond. The ordinance was approved
by the judiciary committee, and it is expected it will be
passed by the council.
One of the most remarkable of all the evidences of the
altered spirit of the labor men has been afforded by the
formation of a church in the identical building where
four months ago I was told I should be hooted off the
platform if I so much as mentioned religion. "The Mod¬
em Church' ' was founded by Mr. Pomeroy, Mr.
O'Brien and other leading labor unionists on modern
principles in response to a challenge thrown out by Dr.
Harper of the University of Chicago at a social gather¬
ing of Congregationalists, where a labor leader, had
severely denounced the church for her indifference to
the interests of labor. " Why not organize a church
of your own?" said Dr. Harper. "So we will"
responded the labor men, and ""The Modem Church" was
the result.
It met for the first time, on Sunday aftemoon, Feb-
mary 11, in the Bricklayer's Hall, which is occupied
by the Trades and Dabor Assembly on alternate Sundays.
The church therefore meets once a fortnight. Its salient
features as defined by its founders are " free seats, no
collection, no dogma."
It is the intention of the committees in charge to have a different
preacher each time and to see that every creed has its representative.
In course of time they hope this will cause the labor people to think
differently of preachers, and preachers to change their opinion of the
labor people.
As yet "the Modem Church" has not progressed so
far as to build itself a local habitation and is perforce
content to accept the hospitality of the Temple of Dabor.
But if it makes headway it intends to have its own
building.*
* The following extract from the programme of the founders will be read with
interest: The most radical departures from established church construction are to
he observed in the plan prcmosed for the home ofthe " Modem Church." It will
be not only a place of worship but a pleasant lounging place where the members
may find any recreation they desire. It will be an educational institution, and
398
If Christ Came to Chicago.
The church was opened by the Rev. J. Lloyd Jones,
the Unitarian who defined it as a church whose corner¬
stone was sympathy, and declared that its object was to
make here in Chicago a new Holy Land. The second
meeting, held February 25, was devoted to a discussion
between Mr. Pomeroy on the one hand and the Rev.
Mr. Burch on the other as to the relation between
the church and labor. The hall was crowded by an
attentive audience which remained for two and a half
hours following the debate with the deepest interest.
Both agreed that the time had come for more hearty
co-operation between the two, but they difiered as to
who was to blame. Both speakers were capable and
earnest but the most eloquent passage in the speeches
was that in which Mr. Pomeroy in his impeachment of
the organized church referred to the character of Jesus.
He said:
I am pleased to have my friend know that the labor people have
cheered the name of Christ, that carpenter of Judea, the sweet pathos
of whose life has softened the stone in the bosoms of men, whose
teachings have made the world better beyond measure; Christ, whose
fraternity was as broad as eternity, and as immeasurable as is space,
whose mission among men was to teach them brotherly love; Christ,
whose name is the synonym of fellowship, whose lessons were love,
whose words were love, whose eveiy act was fathered by His mighty
love and pity for the poor, the we^, the persecuted and the helpless
—love for every man, woman, child and beast of the field. Christ,
the halo of whose glory makes the sunshine dim, the magic of whose
name calls the evil hand to halt; Christ, whose church was the
world, whose pulpit was the breasts of men; Christ whose religion was
humanity. No wonder the sons and daughters of toil cheer His name.
Nor can you separate Christ and His church. His church, I say; for His
church is within the inner temples of the pulsating hearts of the peo¬
ple of the world, and in listening to His sermons they forget those of
the "salaried soothsayer."
from the pulpit rostrum naiversity extension lectures will be given, debates on
every topic of any interest whatsoever will be held, and musical and other enter¬
tainments given. The central idea in the club-house arrangement will be
to keep men away from saloons and other bad resorts. In furthering this otqect
the basement will be given up to a set of baths, a bowling alley and a fine gymna¬
sium. On the ground flour will be a large amusement hall, billiard and pool
tables, checkers, dominos and other games, and stands for the sale of cigars, ^ht
temperance drinks, and lunches. A library will be installed in one comer. Tnis
floor rrill be a general lounging place where men may read, smoke, or enjoy them¬
selves as they see fit. On the floor above will be the auditorium proper, church,
lecture hall and theatre combined.
The Brotherhood of Labor.
399
It was in full accordance with the spirit of this decla¬
ration that Mr. Pomeroy concluded his speech by an
impassioned appeal to the churches to produce a new
Peter the Hermit who would preach a new crusade
for the redemption not of the holy sepulchre but of the
desecrated temple of humanity. "Peter," said Mr.
Pomeroy " must come from the churches. We want their
help and they will not follow Peter of our raising." A
notable declaration from one who in this same speech
eulogized Tom Paine's writings as the only revelation
accepted by the American workman.
Mr. Pomeroy is a Kentuckian, of some education and
wide reading with a natural genius and magnetic power
which stood in small need of book training. He is in many
respects the most remarkable personality in the camp
of labor at Chicago. His address of welcome to the
Fedesation of Labor was unique. His position—idol¬
ized by some, detested by others, and distrusted by most
—is exceptional. It might be made commanding. All
that he needs to attain to any position for good to
which he might care to aspire is the command of the
confidence of his fellows. On the day when Mr. Pome¬
roy is trusted in America as John Burns, for example, is
trusted in England, the labor men will not need to
look further for their leader.
There is ample need tor the advent of a Peter the
Hermit if the social crisis in America is not to cul¬
minate in bloodshed. The working people without
allies have given no hostages to fortune and have no
visible reason for refraining from violence. It is true
that violence will injure them in the long run far more
than it can help them, but like all men who suffer
and who are weak they think more of the immediate
winning of a strike by knocking a few "scabs" on the
head than of the permanent loss which such violence
inflicts upon their cause. The fact that large numbers of
labor men are at this moment in what in England
we call the Broadhead stage of development. Broad-
40O
If Christ Came to Chicago.
head being the secretary of the SheflSeld cutlers union,
•who use to hire men to kill and maim scabs or black¬
legs, simply proves that they are more or less outlawed.
If they were -within the pale, if they had churches
to back them, and newspapers to plead for them, and
courts to do them justice and their own trusted represent¬
atives on the bench and in Congress to see fair play, they
would have long ere this emerged from the stage of
incipient Thuggee in which many of them dwell. As
they have no church to help them they clutch the
revolver, and in default of an impartial judge to appeal
to on the bench, they fetch the "scab" a clout over the
head with a sandbag or a club. Every time they do this
they supply Mr. Carnegie and others with plausible justi¬
fication for the use of Pinkertons and of Gatling guns,
and public opinion even among those who are most
sympathetic is driven over to reinforce the enemies of
labor.
What American labor needs is (i) a definite prac¬
tical programme—not a wild cat scheme for inau-
gfurating the millenium by passing a resolution and
appointing a committee, (2) honest and capable leaders,
and (3) a policy of making allies -with all who will help
labor to elect to city councils, to state legislatures, the
bench and congress honest men first and foremost.
Infinitely better in the interest of labor itself to send
an honest capitalist to congress or to Springfield rather
than a dishonest laborer who is simply in the market
for the dishonest capitalist who prefers to buy his legis¬
lators ready made. Honesty is a jewel of price. With¬
out honesty political life is simply a den of thieves in
which justice and right are sold at auction to the highest
bidder.
The policy of electing labor men to office is excellent,
if labor men can be found to subscribe to pay their
representatives. Here it is that the universal distrust,
bred from want of confidence in character and the loss of
faith in the very possibility of disinterested service,
The Brotherhood of Labor. 401
hamstrings the labor movement. Until labor men learn
to trust each other, and are worthy of trust, their cause
is under a curse and can never prosper. It can only
writhe like a wounded snake occasionally inflicting
injury upon its enemies but never doing any real perma¬
nent good for itself.
The alliance with the churches can best be secured by
appealing to their help for definite practical reforms.
Take for instance the question of the emancipation of
labor from the seven days a week. On this point the
churches ought surely to be solid with the unions. In
a kind of a way they are. But even here in Chicago,
they are still half asleep on this subject. Instead of
eagerly volunteering to help the clerks in their crusade
against the open Sunday store, they have for the most
part needed to be coaxed and entreated and worried into
action. A still more promising field is now opening
before them. The attack upon the statutory limitation
of child labor under the guise of a technical question of
its constitutional legality ought to bring the churches
into line with the unions not merely on this question,
but on the broader question of constitutional revision.
Mr. Pomeroy has directly challenged the ministers to
take issue on this question. He said:
Is the church the protector of women and children? Let us see.
A society of wealthy manufacturers has recently been formed to pur¬
chase a verdict from the state supreme court declaring that most just
law unconstitutional. They have retained the strongest legal firm in
the state to handle their case. Here the lines of contest are plainly
drawn. On the one side wealth and legal craft, seeking the re-en¬
slavement of women and children. On the other the labor organ¬
izations saying "hold your hand! with all you^ money, all your
lawyers, with all the çast record of that supreme court against us, we
say hold !" Where is the church in this controversy? How many
sermons have been hurled from the pulpit against this threatened
infamy, this huckstering of childhood, this immolation of feeble
women on the altar of greed? "By their works shall ye know them."
Who are the members of this soulless manufacturers' association?
Prominent pillars of the church—^men whose consciences are as hard
as their marrow bones are soft I charge the church as being tacitly
guilty of complicity in this premeditated crime. The church has
fuilty knowledge of this most damnable scheme, and forgets to call
own damnation upon the heads of the men who conceived it.
402
If Christ Came to Chicago.
What has the church to say to this? And what has
the church to say to the demand that will assuredly fol¬
low a ruling by the court that the law is unconstitu¬
tional for a revision of the constitution? Legislative
restrictions which even the most reactionary, hard
hearted capitalist in England admits to be indispensable
for the protection of labor are unconstitutional accord¬
ing to the State of Illinois. That constitution makes
a fetish of freedom of contract and immolates before
this idol victims whom British law would have long since
rescued. The lawyer of the Manufacturers Association
in explaining why he regards the Factory Act as unlaw¬
ful said:
It denies to .both employer and employee freedom of contract.
The Supreme Court of this state has held somewhat similar legisla¬
tion unconstitutional. It declared the truck law illegal, also the
mining statute, which provided that miners should be paid by actual
weight, equally invalid.
The simple fact of the matter is that from the point"
of view of the working man and the working woman if
the State of Illinois could be suddenly placed under the
Acts of Parliament passed by the British legislature they
would attain at one stroke almost all the reforms for
which they are now clamoring in vain.
The need of an indissoluble union between labor and
the church which was proclaimed as the great need of
the age by the present pope vdll if recognized and
worked out practically, offer the best chance of securing
the reunion and the revivification of American Christi¬
anity. There is only one saving faith, says Prof. Briggs,
but "nowhere in the world is the Christian Church so
torn to pieces by denominationalism as in America." If
there is to be a Universal Church it will have to be
based on the ministry of service, and the more practical
that service the more insignificant will seem all speculat¬
ive points of theological difference. The natural result of
this new departure will be a breaking down of the bar¬
riers which sectarian theology has built up between
Christians of different rites and creeds. When you are
The Brotherhood of Labor.
403
concerned solely upon hoisting an invisible soul into an
impalpable heaven, you may without sense of shame or
of guilt refuse the co-operation of all who do not see eye
to eye with you about the Immaculate Conception or the
Procession of the Holy Spirit. But when it comes to be
a question of hauling a half-drowned donkey out of a
mudhole hi which he is in danger of sufiFocating, there
is not a bigot in any of the churches but would feel con¬
demned before God and man if he let that donkey drown
rather than take his place at the windlass side by side
with a heretic and a schismatic. And the more the
church sticks to the outward and visible works of charity
and philanthropy, the more anti-Christian will seem to
be the spirit of exclusion and excommunication which
destroys Christian power.
The church cannot do better service to labor than by
helping labor to help itself. The time is perhaps com¬
ing when under the inspiration of religious enthu-
siam, we may see the problem of the unemployed solved
by the establishment of a great Brotherhood of Labor,
which would utilize in co-operative industry at ration
rates, the unemployed labor of the nation. There is
plenty of work to be done and plenty of workers, only too
anxious to do it. Who shall bring those together whose
separation spells starvation? Anything can be done
if you can get men to trust each other. Nothing if
trust is absent. The organization of labor camps for
the unemployed, where a workless worker could pawn
his future earnings in return for rations and shelter,
might be carried out by such a brotherhood if men were
honest. There is money in that scheme of a labor pawn¬
broker which will be realized by somebody some day—^as
Mr. Famsworth has been endeavoring in vain to point out
all this winter—and it would be well that its profits
should accrue to associated labor. In like manner the
issue of local inconvertible paper currency in the shape
of labor certificates against material work into which the
labor has been put which is advocated by Mr. DeBar-
404 If Christ Came to Chicago.
nardi in his "Trials and Triumph of Labor," might be
carried out with advantkge, if men but trusted each
other as brothers should.
Faith not only can move mountains. It can earn dol¬
lars. Without it even the securing of the dollar seems to
be becoming more and more diflScult.
If we had but a more real faith we should have more
practical religion. Chicago has been somewhat inter¬
ested by a series of discourses in which Dr. Harper,
president of the University, has been expounding week
by week the generally accepted theories as to the more
or less poetical or mythical nature of the narrative in
the first chapter of Genesis. Hence much perturbation
among many good souls inside the church, and a more
or less languid curiosity on the part of those who are
without to see whether anything will happen. The
alarm is quite unnecessary, and the public interest
might well be devoted to something more practi¬
cal. The real religious issue before the city is not
whether Cain killed Abel, but whether rascals compared
with whom Cain was a gentleman, are to be allowed to
continue to sit as aldermen in the City Council.
Either the whole gist of the teaching of the Old Tes¬
tament Scriptures was misleading, or the silence of pul¬
pit upon the moral and social issues of the election is a
practical negation of the church's belief in the inspira¬
tion of the sacred books, infinitely more serious than
the speculations of the scholars as to the conflicting
theories of their dates and origins. It does not mat¬
ter much to John Jones in the Rookery whether a
real Cain did or did not kill a real Abel. It
does matter a very great deal to John Jones whether the
condemnation pronounced upon the man who asked,
"Am I my brother's keeper?" expressed the inner
thought of the Eternal Lawgiver. Ministers and
priests who at this juncture drone away with their
homilies and their platitudes, without one vital¬
izing word of inspiration and of guidance to their
The Brotherhood of Lahor.
405
flocks, may not be bad men. They are simply blind.
"Humanity," said Heine, "yearns after more solid
food than the symbolic blood and flesh of the Eucharist.
Humanity smiles compassionately at the ideals of its
youth, that have failed in realization in spite of all its
painful attempts, and it grows manfully practical.
Humanity in our day worships a system of earthly
utility; it has serious thoughts about establishing itself
in citizen prosperity, about a reasonably ordered house¬
hold, about securing comfort for its old age."
What a change has come over the whole aspect of
Christendom since the century begun! The modem
spirit—of which Heine was the exponent—which was
then in fierce feud with the church, has ended by
triumphing over its old adversary, and changfing the
standpoint from which it contemplates the aflairs of men.
This life is no longer merely the ante-chamber of eter¬
nity. We are no longer mere pilgrims through a wilder¬
ness to a heavenly city, which rises on the other side of
the waters of the river of death. We have become, on
the contrary, citizens of the kingdom of God on earth,
charged with the duty of transforming the world and
regenerating human society. "Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The human
spirit,which in the early ages, affrighted by the bestiality
and cmelties of Imperial Rome, could find no resting
place, even for its imagination, on this side the grave,
now sees the waters subside, the tops of the mount¬
ains appear, and the dove already bears the olive branch
to the window of our social ark.
CHAPTER V.
WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?
One afternoon in February an unknown visitor
announced himself at the Commerce Club. On going
out to see who he might be I came upon a little Irish¬
man who introduced himself as one who was a man
about fifty and lived in Custom House place. " I am all
alone in the world," he said, "am getting on in years,
and I should like very much to make the acquaintance
of some people, especially of some good women, who
are in a somewhat better social position than myself. I
have neither man nor woman friend to whom I can tell
my troubles or with whom I can have any conversation.
The only people with whom I can speak are those in my
own rank in life. They shift and move about and can¬
not help me if I get into trouble, and I feel as if it would
be a good thing to be able to go, now and then at least,
and have a friendly talk with somebody who would take
an interest in me. So, ' ' he said, ' ' I have called upon you.
Do you think you could help me? You see," he said
plaintively, " I don't see why I should be condemned for
wishing to know people who are higher up in the world
than myself. I noticed the other day that Chauncy M.
Depew has been over to Europe and has been received
by the Pope. Now, Mr. Depew is as much below the
Pope as I am below Mr. Depew, yet if I should go and
call upon Mr. Depew I should be treated as a tramp and
should never be allowed to get a word with him. It is a
little lonely for a workman who has got along in years,
and I often think if I could only tell my troubles now
and then to a good friend I should feel like another
man. I should feel twice as much energy as I have. I
am so lonely all alone in Custom House place."
The plaintive little Irishman set me thinking. How
407
40S
If Christ Came to Chicago.
many must there be in every great city who are more
or less inarticulately echoing the complaint of this for¬
lorn and lonely carpenter. They are alone in the world
—alone in a great city. They have all the aspirations
of a human being to be in healthy sympathetic relations
with the rest of their kind. Educated men and refined
and sympathetic women, in so far as they are educated
and refined, represent a capacity for human intercourse
which the uneducated and inarticulate can hardly be
said to possess. What that carpenter wanted was not
money. He indignantly disclaimed any desire for money
for which he, indeed, stood in no need. It was not
charity that can be expressed in dollars, but the much
rarer and more valuable charity of friendship and sym¬
pathy that he craved.
It is a sad enough thing to contemplate the number
of the destitute of this world's goods; after all it is not
so sad as to see that other host of the lonely and for¬
lorn. Persons who seem to be orphaned of the uni¬
verse and who never go to sleep without feeling some¬
what of the bitterness of the third Richard's anguished
cry, " There is no creature loves me, and if I die no one
will pity me." It was said of old time that the Eord
setteth the desolate in families, but our modem civiliza¬
tion masses them together not in families but in blocks, in
hordes regimented only for indiiStrial work. That pro¬
cess is the reverse of divine. Every human being, man
or woman, in so far as they are human and not animals,
have tendrils of the heart which are perpetually yearn¬
ing to clasp and to cling to their fellow-creatures. Some¬
times cmel disappointments early in life, or bitter periods
in later years, sear these tendrils as with hot iron, and
the man or woman, instead of being a living vine, full
of the grace of life, and of the tender and delicate sym¬
pathies and associations which blossom so freely in the
heydey of youth, becomes but dry and withered stick.
Useful, perhaps, but living no more.
If Christ came to Chicago it seems to me that there are
mo is My Neigkborf
409
few objects that would more command his sympathy
and secure his help than efforts to restore the sense of
brotherhood to man and to reconstitute the human
family on a basis adjusted to modern life.
In the doing of this work the Christian Churches are
doing a good deal. Not so much as they might do and
will do when once they have grasped the social obliga¬
tions of the Christian faith. But they are probably
doing more than any other institution that can be
named. The Young Men's Christian Association, the
Young Women's Christian Association, the Christian
Endeavor Societies, the Epworth League, the King's
Daughters and other associations are all efforts in the
right direction. And after a time it is to be hoped that
they will make practical efforts to see how far it is pos¬
sible for them to secure the advantage of federated
co-operation without losing the strength which comes
from a firm, narrow foothold upon a single principle.
The time is surely coming, however, when something
more must be done to knit together the caste and class
severed units of the city's population into a homogene¬
ous whole, in which the strong should bear the burdens
of the weak and where the rich and poor could meet
together as a first step towards recognizing that the
Lord is the maker of them all. The lesson of the In¬
carnation needs to be taken into the hearts and worked
into the lives of all of us. That is to say, the Word
must be made flesh, and if your fellow-man is to be
helped he can best be helped by making him your
neighbor. You have got to come unto him to lift him
up, and it is vain to think that the gjeat, submerged,
toiling multitude can be substantially assisted to a
higher and more human life if their higher and more
humane fellows remove themselves apart. When Christ
came to save the world He did not do it from some con¬
tiguous star from which messages of love and mercy
could be securely conveyed by some missionary angeb
to a miserable, sin-smarting world. He did just the op-
If Christ Came to Chicago.
posite. He came right down and lived as a man among
men; among the artisans of Nazareth, with the fisher¬
men of Galilee, and then finished His course without a
place to lay his head among the homeless wanderers of
Judea. As He did then, would He not do now if He came
to Chicago? That is to say, if His object was to redeem
the least of these. His brethren, who live in Halsted
street and in Little Hell or down the levee. He would
take up his quarters where His brethren and sisters
could be within talking range, and where He could see
them from day to day, hear their troubles, heal their
sicknesses and minister to them from the store of His
divine compassion.
If so, then Miss Addams was right in going to Hull
House, where, with her friends she for some five years has
been endeavoring to help the people by the redeeming
g^ace of good neighborliness. Hull House is one of
the best institutions in Chicago. Not merely because
of the humanitarian influences which it radiates around
the district in which it stands, but because it will be¬
come a training ground and nursery for multitudes of
similar institutions speedily to spring up in all the
great cities of America. What the monastery of St.
Bernard was to the Cistertians,what the original Brother¬
hood of St. Francis was to the Franciscan order, so
Hull House will be to the brotherhoods and sisterhoods
or helpers and neighbors, who in increasing numbers
will take up their residence in the midst of the crowded
and desolate quarters of our over-crowded cities. Only
by this means can we hope to reconstruct the human
family, and restore something approaching to a micro¬
cosm of a healthy organization in every precinct of the
city. Mere propinquity counts for a great deal in
human affairs. The healthy natural community is that
of a small country town or village in which every one
knows his neighbor, and where all the necessary
ingredients for a happy, intelligent and public-spirited
municipal life exist in due proportion. Within a siftfile
Who is My Neighbor f
411
square mile you will find ministers of religion, the
lawyer, the doctor, the laborer and the business man all
within stone's throw of the blacksmith and the carpenter.
Such a community constitutes a unit of which each
human life forms a part where public opinion is power¬
ful, and where the influence of the best members can
be immediately brought to bear upon the worst. But
there are square miles in Chicago from which the cultured
and the wealthy and the well to do flee as if from the
plague. Whole quarters are left to be crowded with the
poor and the ignorant who become sodden together in
houses where the only civilizing light is the bull's eye
of the policeman's lantern. My chief hope for our
great cities is that the increasing number of intelligent,
warm-hearted people will establish neighborly friend¬
ship with the crowded precincts which at present are
almost as unknown to them as the territory of Tim-
buctoo. If in every one of the eight hundred odd pre¬
cincts into which Chicago is divided, there were but one
educated man or woman who had leisure to devote, say
one hour a day to making friends with the people of that
precinct, a great step would be taken towards civil¬
izing the city. Each of the eight hundred helpers
would be like a living filament linking on the precinct
in which he or she spent an hour a day with the wealth¬
ier and more favored circle in which the other twenty-
three hours of their daily life was spent. Hull House
is one of the best illustrations of what can be done by
intelligent and sustained effort in this direction. The
pioneer of this system of settlement was probably
Toynbee Hall in the East of London, but Toynbee
fíflil is a very much less humane institution, and by no
means so beneficent in its multifarious activities. The
University settlement in Bethnal Green is on a much
larger scale than Hull House, but it is much more of a
polytechnic or democratic people's palace, than a settle¬
ment in the strict sense of the word. Mansfield Hall,
founded by the Congregationalists in London, is more
4"
If Christ Came to Chicago.
on the lines of Hull House. There are similar institu¬
tions in both New York and Boston, but of all those
that I have seen in the old country Hull House seems to
me best because it is most helpful. This, perhaps, is
due to the fact that a woman, with a woman's instinct
of natural motherliness is at the head of Hull House,
whereas the other institutions are all more or less under
the supervision of men. Whatever is the cause. Miss
Addams and her associates have good reason to thank
God, and take courage when they contemplate the work
they have done in àe last five years, and the prospect
now opening before them of a still wider field of use¬
fulness. For they have realized the ideal settlement of
which many have dreamed, but which they alone have
brought into life. Hull House has avoided the Scylla
of denominational narrowness, and at the same time has
not less dexterously steered passed the Charybdis of the
luke-warmness and apathetic indifierence which are the
bane of much undenominational effort. A High Church
movement or a Catholic sisterhood or a branch of the Sal¬
vation Array may generate more enthusiasm, but they in¬
sist upon confining it to the straight and narrow channels
of their conception of orthodoxy. On the other hand in¬
stitutions which are maintained by those who are Laoda-
cean in matters of theology, are too often very tepid
in their humanitarianism. Very broad people are very
seldom as earnest as they are broad. Human enthusiasm
seems to be like a volume of water in a river, if you con¬
fine it to a mill race, it is powerful enough to work the
most powerful machinery, but if you spread it out over
a wide, shallow bed, it has not sufficient force to drive
a single wheel. Hull House has been enthusiastic
without being intolerant, and broad without losing the
fervour of its humanitarian zeal. Therein Miss Addams
has done good work. She has been the subject of
considerable criticism, not to say denunciation, among
the stricter devotees of cast iron creeds, but she has
bravely stuck to her guns, and vindicated her position,
Who is My Neighbor f
413
not by arguments, but by quietly and constantly
endeavoring to live the life and do the deeds of
Christ. What is wanted is a multiplication
of Hull Houses all over the city. Some, of
course, will be founded by denominationalists and
sectarians on denominational and sectarian lines, and
of all of them I can only say that every one must wish
them God speed in the name of the Lord. It is a thou¬
sand times better that Christ should be preached in this
practical way, even if He preached of envyings and
strife. But these dogmatic partition walls are wearing
very thin, and justice and righteousness, and the
weightier matters of the law, which, being interpreted,
mean honesty, cleanliness, and brotherly kindness are
becoming more and more recognized as of infinitely
greater importance than the tithe of ecclesiastical mint
and anise and cumin, to which the scribes and pharisees
in every age attach such exaggerated importance. In
southern Chicago, in the neighborhood of the stock yards,
a new settlement has been founded in the last month
or two, in connection with the University, with the co¬
operation of a company of kindergartners, who are
entering upon their residential movement in the best
spirits, with practical heads and kindly hearts. The
only fault about Hull House is that it has been too
successful, and has increased and extended to such an
extent, that solitary individuals who might be disposed
to attempt something of a residential helpership, may
shrink back aghast at the thought of having to found an
institution with all the adjuncts and paraphernalia which
have sprung into existence around Miss Addams' origi¬
nal venture. Let them not be afraid. If they can do
but one thing let them do that, and do not shrink from
doing the duty of today from any fear that your strength
may not be equal to the duty of tomorrow. In this
matter I am disposed to look most of all to individual
efibrt, but a great impetus would be given to this work if
the churches in various districts could practically combine
414 If Christ Came to Chicago.
to found a residential settlement inithe most neglected pre¬
cincts. There is gpreat advantage in a union of churches,
because when half a dozen churches have to work to¬
gether, the necessity for co-operation prevents any undue
insistence upon the sectarianism of any one of the asso¬
ciated churches. Once let us get the people thoroughly
well satisfied that we have not even beg^n to enable the
masses to realize Christ until we have got one Christlike
man or one Christlike woman living within five minutes'
walk of his door step, and a great deal of the light of the
life of God will penetrate into the heart of darkest
Chicago.
Yielding to many and pressing applications from those
who have sought information about Hull House, Miss
Addams has at last been good enough to publish a brief
statement or outline sketch of the work which is be¬
ing done at that social settlement. Hull House has en¬
tered upon the fifth year of its existence with a residential
membership of eighteen, thirteen of whom have been in
residence longer than six months. The settlement be¬
gann with two ladies, who believed that "social inter¬
course could best express the growing sense of the econ¬
omic unity of society." They simply went to Hull
House, 335 South Halsted Street, and lived there in the
Nineteenth Ward, which returns Alderman Pow¬
ers to the Council. Miss Addams was attracted to it by
the fact that it was so forlorn and desolate. She says :
In a ward where there is no initiative amone the citizens the idea
underlying our self-government breaks down. The streets are inex¬
pressibly dirty, the number of schools inadequate, factory legislation
unenforced, me street lighting bad, the paving miserable and alto¬
gether lacking in the alle3rs and smaller streets, aud the stables defy
all laws of sanitation. Hundreds of houses are unconnected with the
street's sewer. There are seven churches and two missions in the
ward; all of these are small and somewhat struggling save the large
Catholic church on the west boundary. Out of these nine religious
centers there are but three in which the service is habitually con¬
ducted in English.
It wa.s her conviction that this ward and similar God¬
forsaken regions could not be saved by mere political
IVAo ù My Neighbor f 415
activity. They could only be saved by applied Christian¬
ity working ont into the social sphere. But who was to
apply this Christianity? Miss Addams believed that
among the mass of unemployed people of culture
there was a reserve battalion of the I^rd of Hosts which
might be brought into the field. She says :
We have in America a fast-growing number of cultivated young
people who have no recognized outlet for their active faculties. The
impulse to share the lives of the poor and desire to make social service,
irrespective of propaganda, express the spirit of Christ, is as old as
Christianity itself. That Christianity has to be revealed and embod¬
ied in the fine of social progress is a corollary to the simple proposi¬
tion that man's action is found in his social relationships in the way in
which he connects with his fellows; that his motives for action are the
zeal and affection with which he regards his fellows.
When she settled in Hull House she did not know
exactly what line of development experience would
suggest. She was content to wait and see how things
framed themselves. She began by living among the
people, visiting them and asking her neighbors to
call as friends and guests. They responded to her invi¬
tation so willingly that Hull House has 2,000 visitors
a week. These guests of hers formed the first class of
what is now a regular system of College Extension
courses with 250 enrolled members, with twenty-five
teachers, mostly college-bred men and women, some of
whom have taught continuously for three years, and all
of whom gpve their services free. The only charge
made is fifty cents per student to cover cost of prospec¬
tuses, etc. Here is a week's diary of these classes and
reading parties :
Day. Hour. Subject. Day. Hour. Subject.
Mon. 4. Pedagogics, or how Tues. 5. Reading in English
to teach Science. Literature.
7. I^tin, Elementary. 7. Arithmetic.
7. Drawing.^ 7. Emerson.
7.30, Gymnastics 7.30, Gymnastics
(women). (women).
8. Latin Reading. 7.30, English and Letter
8. History of Art (Early Writing.
Italian). 7.30, Cooking.
4I6
If Christ Came to Chicago.
I
Day. Hour. Subject. Day. Hour. Subject.
Tues. 8. English Poetry, Fri. 7. German, Blemen-
Amold and Clough. tary.
8. Book-keeping. 7. Algebra.
8.30, Delsarte. 7. American History.
8,30, English Comp(»itiou 7. Drawing.
Wed. 3.30, Cooking. 7. Physiology.
7. Shakespeare, 8. German Reading.
Othello. 8. French, Advanced.
7.30, Gymnastics (men). 8. French, Elementary.
8. Dante (Purgatorio). 8. Geometry.
Thürs. 4. Biologfy, with Labor- Sat. 7. Chemistry.
atory. 7.30, Gymnastics
7. German Needle- (women).
work. 8. Bohemian Literature
Singing. 8. Electricity.
,30, Reading, Lang's 8. Physics.
Odyssey. 8.30, Dancing Class.
It! addition to these regular courses there are three
University Extension courses. The Students' Associa¬
tion is divided into Literary, Dramatic, Musical and
Debating sections, each of which gives an entertainment
once a month, which is always followed by an informal
dance in the gymnasium. Twice a year there are exhi¬
bitions of pictures, small but select. No pictures are
admitted to the walls of Hull House but those helpful
to the life of mind and soul, and much of the influence
of the House is traceable to the harmony and reason¬
ableness of the message of the walls. On Sundays
there are meetings of choral societies and a free concert
in the gymnasium. A branch of the Public Library
is established in Hull House, with a reading room
attached. The first public bath in the city was estab¬
lished last year on Hull House property. It has seven¬
teen shower baths and one swimming bath.
Situated as it is in the midst of the sweat shop district
of Chicago, its residents have been the central nucleus
of the anti-sweating ag^itation in Illinois. It was largely
owing to Hull House that the Factory Inspection Law of
1893 was passed, and it owes what efficiency it possesses
to Hull House influence, both in framing it and in its
WAo is My Neighbor f
417
administration, for one of its residents, Mrs. Kelley, is
Inspector of Factories in the State of Illinois.
Hull House breeds clubs. The Jane Club occupies
five flats, for it is a co-operative boarding club for young
working women. It now numbers fifty members and
is entirely self-supporting and self-managing, without
either matron or outside control. The members pay $3 a
week, which covers rent, service, food, heat and light.
The furnishing and first month's rent were supplied by
Hull House. An Eight-Hour Club of women meets
twice a month at Hull House. The Working People's
Social Science Club meets every week. The Arnold
Toynbee Club meets once a month. The Chicago
Question Club meets every Sunday in the art gallery.
The Nineteenth Ward Improvement Club, which has
standing committees on street cleaning, etc., meets once
a fortnight.
In connection with this Improvement Club, a co-opera¬
tive association has been formed which has just started
a co-operative coal yard. The Hull House Woman's Club
consists of fifty of the ablest and most active women in
the ward. They visit the sick, relieve the poor, look after
the inspection of streets and alleys and keep in active
touch with all the reform movements of the city. Every
Friday evening there is a social reception for Germans.
Two hoixrs are spent in singing, reading, games, etc.,
with occasional coflee drinking and entertainment. The
Hull House Men's Club has 150 members, and basa
reception once a month. The Lincoln Club is a de¬
bating society which meets once a month with a
Social Club of young women. They have also at
Hull House three clubs for boys and four for girls.
The latter are the School Girls', the Pansy, the Story
Telling and the Kindergarten. One club had a consec¬
utive-course of legends and tales of chivalry. One boy,
after a number of Charlemagne stories, flung himself
half crying from the house and said that " there was no
good in coming any more now that Prince Roland was
4I8
If Christ Came to Chicago.
dead ! " The Shamrock Club is a mixed club of ooys
and girls. In the children's dining room dinners are
served on five-cent tickets to children who attend school in
the neighborhood. A class of 120 Italian children meets
in the gymnasium every Monday afternoon, where a
superintendent and fifteen teachers instruct the little
foreigners in the mystery of sewing and dressmaking.
Cooking and natural history classes are also in full
swing. Every year Hull House takes 500 children for
a day in the country, and all last year Hull House se¬
cured the use of a vacant lot, rent free, for a children's
playground, which was filled with swings and sandheaps
and was immensely appreciated.
For the youngest of all, Hull House has a creche,
where mothers can leave their little ones for five cents a
day. The walls are hung with large photographs of
Raphael's Madonnas, and there are also casts from Don-
atello and Delia Robbia. The children talk- in a famil¬
iar way to the babies on the wall ; sometimes climbing
upon the chairs to kiss them. The babies vary in num¬
ber from thirty to fifty.
The latest addition to Hull House is a coffee house,
built like an old English inn, -with a coffee and lunch
room, a New England kitchen, a gymnasium with
shower baths, and a men's club room filled with billiard
and card tables. The coffee house is open from 6 a. m.
to II p. m., every day, Sundays included. The New
England kitchen supplies cooked food, well cooked, for
home consumption ; coffee, soup and stews are delivered
piping hot, every day at noon, to the neighboring fac¬
tories. Five cents will buy a pint of soup or coffee and
two rolls. Hot lunches at ten cents were supplied last
winter to the unemployed.
There is a public dispensary open from 3 to 4 and from
7 to 8 every day. It is hoped to put this on a mutual
benefit plan. A physician resides in Hull House, and a
nurse from the Visiting Nurses' Association. There is a
Labor Bureau in connection with the House.
Who is My Neighbor?
419
No public appeal for funds has ever been made, but
the money comes. The residents give their lives to the
work and they are esteemed worthy of support. No
rent is paid for Hull House, or to adjacent lots on which
friends of the House have put up needed buildings. All
superintendence and teaching is given free. Residents
pay for their board and lodging, what just covers the
cost, which is arrived at by calculating all expenses as
if they were incurred by a co-operative club, under the
direction of a house committee. Such is a very brief,
bald and inadequate survey of the social settlement.
But no mere catalogizing of the institutions which
have blossomed into being from the parent stem of Hull
House can give any idea of the gracious and blessed
influence which Miss Addams and her residents diffuse
throughout as squalid, and as mean a precinct as is to
be found in Chicago. You need to live in the district
to understand. But even a casual visitor can catch a
glimpse of it as he hears the continual ringing of the
door bell and sees Miss Addams, pale and weary, but in¬
domitable to the last, answering with ready helpfulness
to every appeal from without. Now it is a sick infant
that wants doctoring, then it is someone out of work
who wants a recommendation ; a third ring brings some¬
one in danger of eviction, and before they have cleared
out someone else comes in with a tale of petty tyranny.
For Miss Addams, like the name of the Lord, is a strong
tower, and not the righteous only but all the forlorn and
miserable in the neighborhood feel that if they can but
run into that stronghold they are safe. From early morn
till late at night these good and gracious women, strong
sisters of the poor, by the potent influence of their own
example, show their neighbors how to bear one another's
burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
CHAPTER VI.
in the twentieth century.
Chicago was en fete. It was a bright June morning
between the hours of six and seven o'clock, but already
there were many signs that something unwonted was in
the air. Groups were gathered together at places of
vantage, while the decorators were putting the final
touches to the triumphal arches. Streets were being
festooned with flags and everywhere were to be seen the
signs of an approaching festival. *
It was in the twentieth century. The population of
the city was between three and four millions. Although
it was more than ever a city of magnificent distances,
the population was more compact, due to the more gen¬
eral utilization of lofty buildings for purposes of co-op¬
erative housekeeping. A great impetus had been given
to the city by the construction of the oceanic canal
which made Chicago the greatest seaport of the world.
The Atlantic steamers now plowed their way direct from
Europe to Lake Michigan. Their constant arrival and
departure added fresh elements to the various phases of
the life of the capital of America, for all rivalry to Chi¬
cago as the capital had disappeared at the dawn of the
twentieth century. Even New York no longer dreamed
of contesting the supremacy of the younger city. The
workmen were putting the finishing touches to the mag-
* I thought It was better to adopt the historico-prophetic method of treating this
subject instead of making a schedule of suggestion^ as to what might be done
towards making Chicago the ideal city of the world. Unlike most writers who
enter the field of imaginary prediction, I have endeavored scrupulously to confine
myself to the practical In describing Chicago as it might be in the twentieth
century, I have refrained from coloring the picture by introducing any element
that is not well within the grasp of her citizens, if only they would give their
minds to the task of obtaining it. The majority of the changes wrought in the
social economy of the city have been realized piece-meal elsewhere •. it now re¬
mains for the Chicago of to-day to unite all the best things which eaist in other
cities and combine them in the great ideal Chicago of the twentieth century,
4«
422
If Christ Came to Chicago.
nificent series of state buildings which were reproducing
in marble the architectural glories of the World's Fair,
in order to provide accommodation for the Federal Gov¬
ernment which was shortly to be transferred from
Washington to the continental center.
Chicago's ascendancy was even more marked in social
and municipal affairs than in the realm of commerce and
the play of politics. For Chicago had become the ideal
city of the world. The changes had begun about the
middle of the last decade of the nineteenth century. The
great impulse, bom of the World's Fair, led the citizens
to decide, when the White City had gone up in flames,
that their black city should be transformed according to
the best thought of the world's greatest thinkers. The
great civic revival, which had liberated an hitherto un¬
utilized moral force in that direction, brought into ex¬
istence what in an ecclesiastical age would have been
called a religious order, but which in this age was sim¬
ply the appearance of a body of men and women who
were known as "helpers." They dedicated themselves
to the service of the city, as the followers of Loyola ded¬
icated themselves to the service of the Church. It was
the first time that an order or a society of consecrated
souls dedicated to the redemption of the municipal and
social system who undertook the task of civic regeneration
with the same self-sacrificing zeal which Xavier showed in
Asia, Livingstone in Africa and Judson in Burmah. The
civic revival had another effect more potent still in bring¬
ing about the transformation. Before that time the ad¬
ministration of the city had been entirely in the hands
of one moiety of the citizens ; the other, the home-mak¬
ing portion, was jealously excluded from all share in the
rights and duties of citizenship. As a result the civic
administration was almost bmtally lacking in all the
amenities of life. It became evident that if the city had
to be remodeled on the ideal of the family, woman
must not only be permitted, but even compelled, to
take a full and fair share with man in all civic work.
In the Twentieth Century.
423
The result of this infusion of the more refined and cul¬
tured and graceful element into municipal work was
everywhere apparent.
Side by side with this civic revival came a new and
great re-enforcement from the side of material develop¬
ment. The construction of the drainage canal, by which
the waters of Lake Michigan and the great arterial sys¬
tem of the Mississippi Valley were connected, enabled
Chicago to utilize the inert force of Lake Michigan in
the same way in which Niagara was long ago harnessed for
industrial purposes. Immense turbines, worked by
the descending volume of the surplus water of the lake,
generated electricity which, when transmitted to the
city by cables, supplied all the power necessary to
drive all the machinery in the city. The tapping of this
great reservoir of costless power corresponded with the
great moral and social upheaval which, following the
civic revival, enabled citizens to accomplish many things
which otherwise would have been beyond their reach.
The City Council did not allow the monopolies of serv¬
ice to pass into the hands of private corporations. Every
such source of power and of wealth was jealously pre¬
served for the benefit of the city.
The sky was singularly bright and clear ; hardly a
wreath of smoke was visible over the great expanse of
roofs which spread north, south and west as far as the
eye could teach, for the day of smoke was almost a thing
of the past When the gas trust was broken up, and
the city entered upon the supply of gas, the low prices
which followed, together with its more general intro¬
duction into the houses of the citizens, led to its adop¬
tion as fuel. Every facility possible was made for this
change. One of the first ordinances passed by the City
Council in the twentieth century was a stringent decree
drafted by Thomas J. Morgan, then Corporation Counsel,
*At the great pottery works of Doulton, I«ambeth, I^ndon, England, the
five-minute rule is risfidly enforced, a policeman being on duty to uote the time«
rroeccutioB and fin« (oilovr if the five minute«' ^ra«« is exceeded.
424 If Christ Came to Chicago.
rendering anyone liable to imprisonment in the Bride¬
well if from his chimney smoke was seen to appear for
more than five minutes at a time.
A great deal of heating, however, was done by the
municipality direct. A central furnace in each block,
fitted with the latest improvements, enabled the munici¬
pality to provide heat at a fixed charge for every room
in the block. In this climate heat is as much a necessity
as water, and at the City Hall the Heat Department had
long been recognized as an indispensable part öf the
municipal machinery. The discontinuance of coal fires
greatly reduced the diflBculty of garbage. The un¬
sightly garbage boxes which used to be such an eyesore
to the city had long ago disappeared. Early every
morning the refuse of the city was collected by a body
of scavengers in the municipal service, who carted it
away before seven in the morning.*
The garbage so collected was taken to the heat gene¬
rating furnaces, where the bulk of it, after it had been
sorted, was used as fuel.f Tin cans and similar unbum-
able rubbish was picked out, and everything was rescued
that could be utilized.}:
Those who had not visited Chicago since the World's
Fair, would have been startled by the appearance of the
streets. All wood pavement for the sidewalks had dis¬
appeared, but the changes in the roadway were greater
still. In the heart of the city the pavement was of
asphalt, washed every morning and thoroughly cleaned
before business commenced. The more frequented
thoroughfares outside the heart of the city were paved
*Tbis may seem rather earlv, but such a municipal regulation is enforced in
many of the old cities of the Old World, notably in Rouen, where all refuse from
the houses must be removed during the night or early in the morning. Hvery
householder has a portable garbage pail into which the refuse of the house is
placed o-er night and removed in the morning. By 7 o'clock the refuse of the
whole town has been cleared away.
fThe utilization of garbage for fuel in order to generate heat and steam is
practically carried out in the town of Rochdale, Lancashire, Bugland, where the
only fuel used for the municipal boilers, employed in uUliziug the sewage, is the
" "tPw proSe''have any idea of the value of the city refuse. Whole colonies in
Paris exist entirely from the findings of the rag pickers. Chicago has hitherto not
recognized this, and has gone so far as to pay a man $35,000 to accept a monopoly,
which in QtUer «Uc8 would have been a source of revenue.
In the Twentieth Century. 425
with wooden blocks and these also were swept and
washed every day by an efficient staff. All streets were
paved.*
Before the universal paving of the streets was intro¬
duced, provision was made for the construction of a vast
system of underground communication which is carried
to a greater extent in Chicago than anywhere else in
the world. Under every thoroughfare there runs a steel-
lined tunnel in which are laid the pipes, tubes and
wires necessary for the supply of the needs of the
city. In this underground subway, which was built so
as to be accessible at all times, the gas, water, hot air,
pneumatic tubes, telegraph and telephone wires and the
electric light cables are so arranged that repairs can be
carried on at all times without tearing up the streets or
the interruption of the traffic. This was immensely
facilitated by the city's acquiring all the monopolies of
service.
One of the first effects of the civic revival was the
acceptance of the doctrine that as it was ridiculous for
private corporations to own the roadway of the streets so
it was wrong for them to own either street railways, gas,
telephone or telegraph systems. One by one, as the fran¬
chises fell in or as they were forfeited for non-user or
mis-user, all these monopolies came into the hands of the
city. For accommodation of their pipes, wires and
mains, and for the convenience of the citizens, the sub¬
way was constructed. This was not the only use that
had been made of underground communication. When
the old ruin formerly kno\vn as the Post Office was de¬
molished, the site was utilized for a central underground
terminal from which lines radiated to all parts of the
city and communicated with all the railway depots. The
*Iii Chicago in 1892 of 2,900 miles of streets in the city only 900 were paved.
Of sidewalks 3,356 were of wood and 54.7 of stone. No attempt was made to
sweep the streets from day to day. S¡ven when the street'cleaniog department had
the Ree service of the unemployed brigade of 3,000 men, hundreds of miles of
streets were never cleaned at all. In Paris a municipal force of 3,000 men sufficed
to clean the whole city from end to end every day. But in Prance street cleaning
ranked as à virtue, and even the main roads in the country were swept from end
to end, a practice which was much appreciated t>y bicyclists.
426
If Christ Came to Chicago.
street railways were free within the city limits. This
plan was adopted in order to reduce the congestion of
the population near the center of the town. To induce
the citizen to give up half an hour in the morning and
evening in traveling backward and forward to his place
of business, it was held that the least that could be done
to equalize matters was to allow him free transit. The
cars were operated by electricity from underground con¬
ductors. As no fares had to be collected a single driver
was sufficient for each car. They were under perfect con¬
trol. For the barbarous and dangerous rail of olden
times was substituted the groove slot rail, laid level with
the roadway, so that it was possible to drive "across
the tracks without a perceptible jar.
Chicago was the center of 100,000 miles of railway,
some 3,000 miles of which lay within the city itself.
Grade crossings had long disappeared and the only
memorial which remains to commemorate the annual
massacre of the early day was a fine monument of
Mayor Hopkins, erected at the former crossing at Six¬
teenth Street, where more people had been killed by the
railroads than had been slaughtered in the massacre of
the garrison of Fort Dearborn.
The subway was divided into two divisions, down the
center of which passed the footway for workmen and
inspectors. The gas and water mains lay on the left,
while the right was devoted to electric cables and tele¬
graph and telephone wires.
The pneumatic tube system had been in use for some
time. The construction of the subways led to the uni¬
versal adoption cÄ this convenience of life. The devel¬
opment of the system was very rapid. It began with
the despatch of pneumatagrams, following the example
of Paris. Then a larger tube was introduced, and all
letters and post cards were dispatched from the central
office to the branches in this manner. They were look¬
ing forward to a still further development, when parcels
and newspapers would also be so dispatched, but as this
In the Twentieth Century.
427
would have necessitated an enlargement of the subway
there was some hesitation in undertaking so great a task.
Great as were the changes which had taken place .in
the city, those on the Lake Front were still more remark¬
able. The land had been thrust forward into the lake
as far as the breakwater, but due care had been taken to
preserve open water for boating, bathing and landscape
purposes. The whole of the Lake Front was laid out as
a lovely park, half land and half water. The wonderful
effect which had been achieved by the landscape gar¬
deners who laid out the World's Fair had been reproduced
here on an even more extended scale. There were more
wooded islands and picturesque promontories on the
Lake Front, while winding lakes afforded ample field for
innumerable gondolas which gemmed at nightfall like
fireflies the surface of the illuminated water. An¬
other breakwater had been constructed outside the re¬
claimed land and it surrounded the city like an atoll does
a Pacific island. The boating clubs, which had become
so remarkable a feature of Chicago, found ample space
for exercise ; while a harbor, well protected against the
storms, gave shelter to the yachts, which on regattas and
holidays covered the great extent of the lake with their
white-winged sails. The Manufactures Building, or all
that was left of it after the last great fire at Jackson Park,
had been brought down to the Lake Front and established
as the first of a series of half a dozen People's Palaces
which were one of the most conspicuous features of Chi¬
cago. The Home of the Waifs and Strays had been
built on the site of the Battery, which had so long been
an eyesore and had been demolished as a nuisance.
At intervals along the Lake Front were bathing estab¬
lishments, similar to those which abound on the Seine
and Rhine, the presence of the breakwater rendoing
their erection along the shore of the lake possible.
The People's Institute, of which the Manufactures
Building was the pioneer, formed the center of
the Democratic university system of Chicago.
428
If Christ Came to Chicago.
There were also polytechnics in connection with
these institutes, the first of which had been started in
connection with the Van Buren and Oakley Streets Peo¬
ple's Institute in 1895. In each of these institutes were
meeting rooms, concert, reading and news rooms and all
the social adjuncts which made Mr. Quinton Hogg's
polytechnic in London so valuable an agent of social pro¬
gress. Every ward of the city had its institute and
every precinct its Hull House outpost. Hull House had
gradually extended its borders until it had become
the greatest social center of the city. It had its affiliates
in every one of the two thousand precincts, who were
living among the people, sharing their life and con¬
stantly interdianging their experience for the purpose
of bringing the help of all to the aid of each.
The saloon had practically disappeared, and so, very
largely, had the drug store. Under the changed condi¬
tions of life, with the absence of wear and tear, over¬
work and the anxiety about the loss of work, improved
cooking, and the careful training in the laws of health
which was gfiven to everyone in the public schools, the
demand for medicine had shrunk so much that comer lots
were no longer in demand for dmg stores. As fast as they
fell vacant the municipality entered into possession and
established what was known as the New Saloon, which
in a very short time drove the old saloon entirely out of
the field. The ground floors of these saloons were fitted up
like the admirable cafés of Liverpool, with provision for
light refreshments and beverages. The supply of food and
dnnk, however, was but a fractional part of the functions
of the New Saloon. Upstairs the rooms were fitted up
much as the Commerce Club in the Auditorium Build¬
ing was in 1894, with the addition of a circulating li¬
brary, and billiard table. Lavatories and all other con¬
veniences of the kind were provided free, the library and
reading room were also free, but the customers paid for
their refreshments. There was no interdict on the sale
of beer and light wine, but it was the policy of the ad-
In the Twentieth Century. 4^9
ministration to discourage the sale of intoxicants so far
as it was possible to do so without interfering with the
liberty of the citizen to choose his beverage.*
The churches had undergone the same beneficent
transformation which had taken place in the saloon. To
begin with, there was now a Church of Chicago which
included as its efíective members all the religious or¬
ganizations. When Archbishop Ireland, afterwards
Cardinal, succeeded Archbishop Fechan, a wonderful
change came over the churches of Chicago. The Cardi¬
nal speedily achieved for himself on the shores of Lake
Michigan the same position which Cardinal Manning
used to enjoy on the banks of the Thames. His primacy
was acknowledged with enthusiasm by men of all creeds
and of none. He had most trouble at first with his
own people, but after a time they also began to see that
the ideal of the Catholic Church could only be realized
by widening the conception of Catholicism. The germ
of the Federation of the Ministers of Religion which had
begun in the year of the World's Fair was developed
under his influence, and before long the Church of Chi¬
cago was organized with the Cardinal Archbishop at its
head as Chairman. The Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, the
Unitarian, was the first Vice-President Then was in¬
troduced for the first time a systematic districting of
the city. This is now carried on so effectively that
there is not one man, woman or child in the whole city
who can suffer an accident or receive injury, but that it
could be acertained in one moment, which of the
churches must be called upon to take charge of the
case. The Church of God in Chicago has only one
belief, and that is to do what Christ would have done if
He were confronted with the problems with which they
have to deal. The principle of centralized administra-
*Tliis snggestion of the municipal saloon is well within the pale of practical
achievement. The experience of the Aerated Bread Company, in lA>ndon, and the
Coffee Palaces, in Liverpool, proves that nothing: pays better than a welUcon-
dacted place of refreshment and place of call which can be used equally by
both sexes. The new saloon when it is established would be a source of revenue
to the city and not a charge upon its finances.
430
If Christ Came to Chicago.
tion, with local responsibility and close intercommunica¬
tion, has been adopted in the service of the Church.
If any spiritual or moral evil occurs in one district, the
whole of the massed forces of the associated churches
can be depended upon to assist in its removal. Under
this system, no district is left without the appliances of
the civilization or of the means of grace. The churches
have thus undergone a great change, and each is the
center of the locality in which it stands. The minister
every morning sits, with one or more assistants, to hear
complaints, to listen to the distressed, to give counsel and
to compose the difficulties of his parishioners. It is the
new and modernized confessional, adapted to the endless
diversities of life, in the complex civilization of the
twentieth century. The church buildings are open all
day and they are gradually being transformed into pic¬
ture galleries and museums of sculpture, commemorating
all that is best in the world of human reverence and
gratitude.*
Besides this, every church was also a reading room,
while all the class rooms were placed at the service of
students who wished for a privacy which they could
not find in the boarding house or at home In the
working class districts every church was also a concert
room at the dinner hour. Nothing could be more
remarkable than to see the church edifices crowded with
grimy, brawny workmen eating out of their dinner
pails and listening to organ recitals and vocal and
instrumental music.
Chicago, which long ago achieved the foremost posi¬
tion in musical America, had not lost grotmd. The
seed sown by Mr. Thomas and Mr. Tomlins had borne
good fruit, and no privilege was more coveted by the
• If tbii Bceiiii strann to some who are accnatomed to the acandaloui spectacle
of a church costing |ioo,ooo locked up from week end to week end, and only
opened a few hours on Sunday, presumably for the worship of God, they may be
reminded that in Southern Europe the churches do fulfil this function, ney are
the only picture gallery of the poor man; there he can find his wax Maniary
figures and leam something of architecture and the liberal arts.
In the Twentieth Century.
431
singing classes in the public schools than to be allowed
to sing at the midday concerts for the people.*
The schools had also undergone a great and memo¬
rable change. The post of Superintendent was regarded
as the most important in the city after those of the
Mayor, the Chairman of the Civic Federation, the Presi¬
dent of Hull House and the Chairman of the Church of
Chicago. He was a highly trained nniversity man who
had had practical experience in public school work. He
had a staff selected from the brightest and best teach¬
ers, under the direction of a board whose duty it was
to be perpetually on the road visiting all other cities
for the purpose of getting pointers and picking up ideas
for the schools in Chicago. Under their stimulating
influence a great change had been brought about.
Half of the teaching was done in the open air and by
means of the natural object lessons with which the city
abounded. The idea suggested by the German, the
Austrian and the Irish villages had been taken up, and in
Chicago there could be found, in the public parks, typical
specimens of the buildings and scenery of the countries
which had contributed of their most adventurous sons to
the city of Chicago. Geography was studied as it is in
various German and Swiss towns, by taking the children
out into the country and making them draw maps and
sketch what they saw. Natural History was not taught
with cut-and-dried specimens in cases, but by contact with
the living nature which surrounds us. A great improve-
men had been made in providing every school room
with adequate playgrounds. At first the roofe were
utilized for this purpose, but soon it came to be regarded
as a public disgrace if the children were not provided
with convenient playgrounds at the street level. Every
vacant lot in the city was taken possession of and con¬
verted into a playground until such time as the owner
thought fit to build upon it. By this means the vacant
* The experiment of having midday concerts for working people was tried on
a small scale at the City Temple in I<ondon with remarkable success.
432
If Christ Came to Chicago.
lots which used to so disfigure the city were utilized for
the service of the children.
One of the first things which was rendered possible
by the union of the Church of Chicago was the possi¬
bility of having religious teaching in the public scnools.
The Church was broad enough and wise enough to
draw up a system of religious teaching to which all could
subscribe. The teaching everywhere became more prac¬
tical. Special attention was paid to cooking. The
French chef who was at the head of the Culinary Depart¬
ment of the Education Board was at first in despair, but
after a few years he comforted himself with tie belief
that, in the course of another generation, every woman
in Chicago would be able to cook as well as if she had
been bom in France and had had the training of a French
home.
After the Superintendent of Schools, the most import¬
ant official in the town was the Chief of Police. His
position, of all others, was perhaps the most coveted.
The same feeling which leads the scions of the first fam¬
ilies in Europe to aspire to commissions in the army or
navy, in the twentieth century led the youth of the city
to aspire to positions in the Police and Fire Departments.
As these positions could only be secured by service in
the ranks, there was great competition for the position
of patrolmen. Entrance was by competitive examina¬
tion, and for these examinations, the sons of the most
cultured and of the wealthiest citizens entered most
eagerly. Hence it was not at all strange to see the son
of a millionaire in the patrolman's helmet, superintend¬
ing the traffic at Madison and La Salle Streets, while
others would do patrol duty before their own man¬
sions. This raised the standard of the police force and
"on the word of a patrolman" came tobe regarded
as equivalent to the old phrase " on the word of a gen¬
tleman," or "on the honor of an officer." Pupils who
had attained special distinction at the public schools
were sometimes, as a great reward, granted entrance
In the TwetiHeth Century.
433
into the police force without undergoing the prelimin¬
ary examinations ; but with that exception the rule of
a(^ission by competitive examination was enforced.
The police force was largely composed of women. The
experiment begun by the Municipal Order League
when police matrons were appointed had led to the
adoption of a female police. This change resulted in
raising the moral tone of the force and facilitated the
dealing with the social evil, and with all matters relat¬
ing to the welfare and custody of the children. The
functions of the police had become greatly extended un¬
til from mere thief-catchers they had become the indis¬
pensable servants of the administration in almost every
department of life.
The school buildings were utilized as covered-in play¬
grounds of evenings by the younger children, and as
gymnasiums by the elder; while many of the class
rooms were used for the purpose of social intercourse by
the inhabitants of the neighborhood.*
Another gjeat change which had come over the town
was the increased attention which was paid to recrea¬
tion. There was a circus in every park, and a theater
in every ward. Both circus and theater were under the
direct control of the municipality. The circuses were
a source of perpetual stimulus to the physical train¬
ing of the youth of the city. In the gymnasium
which were connected with every school in the
city, the achievements of the athletes of the circus
were a constant inspiration both to boys and girls, and
the Board of Education specially granted free admission
to the circuses to such pupils as had distinguished them¬
selves in their physical training. This applied to
both sexes, the circus being one of the institutions
which afford women with practical object lessons as to
• This is no more than what is done in i;A>ndon and several other towns. The
London School Board allows the use of its finest school buildings during the week
to the Hamiy Evenings Association, which uses them for playgrounu for the
young childien, and the Recreative Rveniiug^ Association, which utilises them for
gymnasiutns, concerts and other means of social intercourse and entertainment.
434 If Christ Came to Chicago.
the fact that they are not made of porcelain, but that
^ey can, with training, make as mu(^ of their limbs as
if they had been bom of the other sex.
Another institution which was established for the
mingled purpose of amusement and education was the
Zoological Garden. There were three such gardens in
Chicago. No lesson was given in natural history unless
it was accompanied by a visit to the animals, which
were lodged in cages fitfed up so as to resemble as
closely as possible their native habitat.*
But it was the theater which was the greatest re-en¬
forcement of all the moral forces of the city. The
dramatic instinct, so strongly rooted in every human
breast, instead of being repressed, was developed and
relied upon as a special means of cultivating the mind
and reaching the heart of the population, and especially
of the scholars. Every school and every Sunday School
had its own dramatic society, and it was a proud day for
the pious parent when her daughter was permitted to
make her debut on the boards of the municipal theater.
As the stage was recruited from the best citizens and the
ablest scholars, the standard of its morality was at least
as high as that prevailing in the Sunday School and the
churdi choir. Any ward without its municipal theater
was regarded as being in a state of spiritual destitution
which called for the prayers of the churches, and their
immediate assistance to supply the want.t
This work in Chicago began by a rdative of Mrs.
Potter Palmer who had been studying in Germany and
who came back to Chicago full of the idea of starting a
town theater. Happening one day to look in at the
Park Theater, in order to contrast the stage of
*The Jardin des Fiantes in Paris Is a xoolotrical and botanical grarden to which
all dtlxens have free acceH. Most of the German cities have soological gardens
for the instruction and amusement of their citizens.
t No one who has been to Oberammergan and seen the way in which a popula¬
tion of two or three thousand peasants can supply a whole dramatic troupe,
capable of pla3ring not merely the "Passion Play," but most of the classical
dramas of their native land, can douht that in the theater, rightly conducted, lies
the most potent Instrument of popular education which human hands have yet
grasped.
In the Twentieth Century.
435
Chicago with what he had seen in his univer¬
sity town in Germany, he was unutterably dis¬
gusted by the vulgarity and the obscenity of the
play and the orgies of debauchery which followed
the performance. As a result, he decided to make
a beginning then and there. Calling upon the Mayor
he laid facts before him. This led to the siun-
mary closing of the theater and the forfeiture of the
license. He then formed a syndicate which decided to
supersede the old farrago of brutality and indecency by a
first-class variety entertainment He decided to begin
on a small scale and made a tour both of America and
of Europe in order to ascertain what could be best done
in order to obtain popular amusement that would amuse
without degrading. When he returned he brought with
him assistance which enabled him to make the Park
Theater the most popular institution in Chicago. Its
success led to the improvement of the standard of popular
entertainments in other quarters, and after a time the syn¬
dicate felt strong enough to undertake the regular drama.
From that time their progress was rapid. The church
co-operated heartily and at last, at the suggestion of the
Civic Federation, the City Council took the matter in
hand. There was no pedantry about the entertain¬
ments. Man is a creature who needs to be amused, and
amusement must be supplied to him in his own sphere
with an upward tendency. This was recognized to the
full, and in the seafaring quarters the entertainments were
of a very free and easy nature. It was held that where
the need was greatest, there must the means of grace be
the most abundant; and it was a sight for the gods and
men to see Archbishop Ireland presiding over an enter¬
tainment in the Sailor's Home where jolly tars, the
hornpipe and the fiddlers, were playing as merrily as
ever they did in any popular resort ungraced by the
presence of a dignitary of the Church.
The means for supplying these appliances of civiliza¬
tion were furnished witíi less strain upon the resources of
436
If Christ Came to Chicago.
the citizens than was felt under the old system. This
was partly due to the action of some public-spirited mil¬
lionaires, and also by the immense resources of revenue
provided by the municipalization of the monopolies of
service. Great markets were established in which the
producers of the necessaries of life were able to sell di¬
rectly to the consumer without the interference of the
middleman. This of course is no more than what is
done in every center of civilization in Europe, but Chi¬
cago went one better, as it has been her custom to do.
The way was opened up by the action of Mr. Marshall
Field and Mr. Leiter, who decided that as they had made
a sufficient number of millions in their great stores
it would be an interesting social experiment if they were
to hand them over to the city. The City Council had
long been composed of the best citizens in Chicago, who
administered its affairs with efficiency and probity.
The two great stores of Marshall Field & Co. and
Siegel, Cooper & Co., passed into the hands of the City
Council, fully stocked and with an adequate capital for
carrying on the business. Other millionaires followed
this example and soon the city found itself in the pos¬
session of income enough to carry out the realization of
most of its ideals.
I referred to the fact that the skyscrapers had been
built for the purpose of co-operative housekeeping. The
first of these was established by the municipality for the
housing of the employes of Siegel, Cooper & Co., after
it passed into their hands. No one was compelled to
live there unless they pleased, but the advantages were
found to be so great and so much above what could be
obtained elsewhere that it was soon filled. The cook,
for instance, was a first-class French chef and there was
also in connection with it a large library with reading
rooms, concert rooms, etc. There were also established,
in connection with these co-operative homes, branch es¬
tablishments in the country, which in summer time were
always crowded. The roads were so good that there was
In the Twentieth Century.
437
nothing to prevent the employes from cycling backwards
and forwards to their place of business and their summer
retreat. Cycling, I may add, has come into almost uni¬
versal use both for men and women, with great advan¬
tages to themselves, and in the distribution of population.
In these great homes domestic service became a profession.
The cooks and the housemaids in the co-operative homes
had at least the social position of a stenographer or a
retail clerk. They worked in relays, and after they had
finished they were as free to go and come as any clerk in
an office or store.
The hours of labor generally had been adjusted to the
eight-hour standard, with an immense gain to family life
and without diminishing the economic value of the day's
labor. Child labor was strictly forbidden, and the spec¬
tacle of a child of twelve or thirteen working in a store
was so unusual as to lead to an immediate summons to
the police. A labor bank had been established where
those who were temporarily out of work could pawn
themselves on security of their future labor, and a system
of co-operative distribution among workers had been es¬
tablished on the basis of labor certificates which, within
a small area and among fnends and neighbors, facili¬
tated exchange and dispensed with the costly service of
the middleman. When employment was slack and
periods of depression came, exact information was ob¬
tained as to the number of the unemployed and provision
made for the utilization of their labor in the service of
public improvement. Men could always work for their
rations, and an unemployed man was considered as a
wicked waste of a valuable asset of the community. The
Church of Chicago in this followed the example of the
Latter Day Saints, who have from the first regarded the
organization of labor and the employment of the unem¬
ployed as one of the first of religious duties.*
• Few peraons interested me more during my stay in Chicago than George Q.
Cannon, A the letter Day Salnta, whom I met at the Auditorium Hotel on hisway
throogh the country. I had a long talk with him on thesuUect of the organisation
of lalmr and the relieving of the worklcsa worker, which forms so important a
43^ If Christ Came to Chicago.
All pawnbrokers had disappeared and their places
were taken up by popular banks of deposit managed by
the municipality. Instead of paying ten per cent per
month as was the case under the old system, the deposi¬
tors did not pay more than ten per cent a year, and the
municipal pawn shop, like the municipal saloon, more
than paid its running expenses. The poor were relieved
upon very different principles than what had formerly
prevailed. The poorhouse at Dunning, to which at the
end of the nineteenth century the helpless and forlorn
were dispatched by the slowest trains that crawled over
the iron way, in order to be packed together in a
crowded building, is a thing of the past. The change
was made not so much for the sake of the poor as in
order to give better opportunity to their neighbors to
visit them. After grave discussion and long considera¬
tion the Church of Chicago decided that with the poor-
house at Dunning, this means of grace was too far removed
from the Christians of Chicago. It was necessary for
their own souls that they shotdd visit the sick and the
afflicted, and the homes of the oppressed. As they
could not find time to go down to Dunning the poor
must be brought closer to them and established at their
doors. Hence instead of one huge mass of overgrown
Sauperism, there were a multitude of citizens' alms-
ouses, where the poor people were established
within easy range of their neighbors. The churches
took special charge of these institutions, maintained
their eflSciency and supplied the visitors. The responsi¬
bility of the churches for the moral and social well-
being of the community was sharply recognized, and
for any failure were taken to account promptly.
In the midst of all the preparations which were going
on, on this bright June day, one church was conspicuous
for the absence of any adornment It was draped in black;
featoK of American polity. Preaident Cannon's ideas upon polygamy are detest¬
able enough, but as a captain oi industry, if I were an unemployed man I would
rather look to him than to most of the Christian bishopa with whom I have had
any acquaintance.
íñ the Twentieth Century. 43^
ând the reason why this church stood out iu solitary gloom
amid its gay and decorated neighbors was because of the
birth of an illegitimate child iu the block for which it
had accepted responsibility to the Church of Chicago.
Such a scandal, it was held, could not have occurred if
the local church had done its duty. As the church had
not been able to prove that it had done all that it~ might
have done to have remedied the evil from which this
seduction sprang it was doomed to wear penitential garb
on this day of public rejoicing.
Medical service was provided free for all the citizens.
The reason for making this municipal change was be¬
cause it was held that disease in most cases arose from
conditions for which the individual was not responsible,
and that it was often traceable directly to the neglect
of the city authorites. It was thought only just that
if the individual citizen had to bear the pain and
risk of death resulting from his illness, the least the
city could do was to give him a free doctor and free
drugs. The convalescent system of Chicago was the
wonder of the world. Mr. George M. Pullman on
his retirement from business had handed over three-
quarters of his immense wealth to be employed in con¬
veying convalescents and consumptives by Pullman cars
to regions where their recovery would be expedited.
Floating hotels in the summer season surrounded by a
small flotilla of pleasure craft were anchored off the
more beautiful and shelter spots of the lake, where, in
the midst of air and water, the patients made a much
more rapid recovery than was possible on land.
Disease, however, had been much improved owing to
the improved cooking which had been brought about by
the combined agency of the public schools and of Mr.
Kohlsaat's bakery. Mr. Kohlsaat, when he devoted him
self exclusively to the editorship of the Inter Ocean., had
followed the example of Mr. Marshall Field, and handed
over his bakery to the city to be utilized for the purpose
of experimenting in supplying well-cooked food at a
440 if Christ Cante to Chicago.
minimum cost The result was so successful that the
Civic Restaurant became a kind of Cooks' University.
The menu was always published the day in advance,
and householders and their cooks could come down and
take lessons in the preparing of the delicate dishes with
which the Civic Chef made cooking almost a fine art.
It was not cooking alone which had become a fine art
The much-neglected art of hospitality, especially civic
hospitality, had been revived. Nothing in the traditions
of the Lord Mayor of London or the Syndic of Florence
could rival the hospitality of the Mayors of Chicago.
They entertained as a matter of course every distin¬
guished visitor who arrived on the American continent
This notable innovation was begun in the first mayoralty
of Mrs. Potter Palmer, which made the year 1900
memorable in the history of America. Nor was it only
at banquets that they displayed their hospitality. Gala
performances, operatic, dramatic and musical, were pro¬
vided for their guests, while all the citizens regarded it
as an honor to keep open house for the entertainment
of the stranger, for open house was not confined to
distinguished strangers. The millionaires no longer
kept their treasures of art to themselves and a select
circle of friends. The same generous rule which pre¬
vails in the Old World was accepted here. On visiting
days the poorest citizen in Chicago could drink his fill
of beauty in the picture galleries of the richest million¬
aire on Prairie Avenue. A citizen who possessed valu¬
able pictures and excluded the citizens from seeing them
was regarded as virtually a thief, and when due repre¬
sentation had been made and made in vain, was boy¬
cotted by his neighbors and excommunicated by the
Church.
Owing to the general introduction of taller buildings
in the residential quarters, great spaces had been cleared
and devoted to parks and recreation grounds. Each
nationality had its own playing ground, in which it pur¬
sued its national sports. The streets were planted with
in the Twentieth Century.
441
shade trees and provided with seats. Fountains played
in all the public places and in winter time the squares
were converted into winter gardens where artificial
warmth enabled the citizens to enjoy the music and the
society which in summer time they found in the parks.
Every citizen was supplied every week with the official
gazette of the city, by which everyone was kept in¬
formed as to the movement of the civic life.
Pageants were numerous and splendid. On Mayor's Day
the procession which filed through the city cast the civic
pageants of the Lord Mayors of London far in the shade.
But that was only one of the half a dozen which bright¬
ened the civic life of Chicago. Chicago Day was a great
popular fete. Bands played, processions moved through
the streets, all gay with flowers and bunting, all those
who had deserved best of the city were decorated and the
day finished with a grand display of fireworks. The
whole world was ransacked for hints how to beautify and
enliven these fetes. The Fete Dieu of Southern Europe
supplied many hints which enabled the Master of Cere¬
monies to decorate the streets of the city with a wealth
of beauty the like of which was never seen in the Windy
City in the olden times. The great aquatic fete which
took place at the annual regatta was another ceremonial
which it was worth coming to Chicago to see.
Enough has been said to indicate the scope and range
of civic life which has made Chicago the ideal city of
the world. Meanwhile the sun had risen high in the
heavens and the first notes of the national anthem were
heard mingled with the sounds of many voices, and the
cheering of the crowd that was mustered thickly round
the m^^ificent palace which had taken the place of the
old City Hall. As far as the eye could see the streets
were gay with flags and bright with arches. An expec¬
tant crowd lined the sidewalks waiting for the approach
of a procession. Bells were ringing and now and again
from the Lake Front could be heard the deep boom of
the salute of the men-of-war lying ofif the harbor. Pres-
44^ tf Christ Came to Chicagô.
ently an advance corps of cavalry trotted down the street
in front of the procession. The notes of German music
filled the air and the smart uniforms of the Imperial es¬
cort excited universal admiration as they swept by.
Presently, surrounded by a brilliant staff, there rode down
the street a resolute soldier, with an imperial presence,
saluting as he ackowledged the cheers of the enthusias¬
tic people. It was the German Emperor on his way to
the City Hall to be presented with the freedom of the
city of Chicago, which had been voted to him on his
first visit to the American Continent, to which he had
come expressly in order to see for himself the ideal city
of the world.
CHAPTER VIL
A CLOSING WORD.
If Christ came to Chicago what would He wish me
to do ?
That is the question with which I hope every reader
will close this book. Nor is the answer difficult or far
to seek.
For what He would have you to do is to follow in His
footsteps and be a Christ to those among whom you
live, in the family, in the workshop, in the city and in
the state.
Be a Christ. The more you disbelieve in Christianity
as it is caricatured, the more earnestly should you labor
to live the life and to manifest the love and, if need be,
to die the death of Jesus of Nazareth.
Even if you doubt whether He ever really lived, God
Incarnate in mortal flesh, the more imperative is your
duty to endeavor so far as you can, to realize in your
own person that supreme embodiment of Eove, in order
that now, if never before, there may be on earth a Messiah
of God who is Love among men who are perishing for
want of love.
Be a Christ!—everything is summed up in that.
What Christ would do if He came to Chicago in these
last days and were living in your circumstances, even so
do you ; and do it not once or twice in moments of
spiritual ecstacy or of moral enthusiasm, but do it all the
time.
Each day's duties at home or at work, every friend
whom you love, every acquaintance which you form,
every occasion where a duty confronts you and every
opportunity where you can manifest love by word- or
deed or look—there and then you can be a Christ. If you
443
444
If Christ Came to Chicago.
are selfish and unloving, then instead of being God's
Messiah to your fellow men you are shutting out God
from a portion of His own world.
Whenever you gfive up yourself—^your time, which is
a part of your life ; your thought, which is a part of
your mind ; your love, which is a part of your soul—^to
serve others, you are, so far as that sacrifice goes, mani-
festi^ God's Love to man. For God is Love and His
service is sacrifice of self in helping others.
His commandment is exceeding broad. As I have
attempted to show in the previous pages, it applies
especially to a great field of human service, with which
many imagine religion has nothing to do. A religion
which has nothing to do with any human effort is not
religion. For religion is the life of man going out of
himself to unite itself to the life of other men so that
they may all be one in Love, which is God.
The New Redemption for which the world has long
been waiting wearily is nigh at hand. The old forms
having served their turn and done their work are pass¬
ing away. They hinder where they ought to help, and
fail to interpret the full orbed revelation of the will of
God toward us in all its bearings upon the social, political
and national life of man.
"A new commandment give I unto you, that you love
one another," is still, alas, a new commandment in a
world that is more or less avowedly dominated by the
doctrine of Cain. The New Redemption will come
when that new commandment has cast out the Evil
Spirit, the Prince of this world, whose watchword is.
Each man for himself and the devil take the hind¬
most" For it was the hindmost whom Christ came to
save.
For this New Redemption for which the world waits,
there must come a new Catholicity, transforming and
widening and redeeming the old. The new religion,
which is but the primitive essence of the oldest of all
religions, has but one formula—Be a Christ ! The new
A Closing Word.
445
church which is already dimly becoming conscious of
its own existence, under all kinds of ecclesiastical and
dogmatic and agnostic concealments, is not less broad.
What is the Church ? It is the Union of all who Love
in the Service of all who Suffer.
Are you willing to help? If Christ came to your
city would He find you ready ? If so you will not have
long to wait For the least of these. My brethren, are
a numerous tribe, and an hour will not pass after you
close this book before your readiness will be put to the
test. And Christ will then see in your case, " How
tíie men. My brethren, believe in Me."
THE END.
Appendix A. BLACK LIST.
OCCUPIERS, OWNERS AND TAX-PAYERS OF PROPERTY USED FOR IMMORAL PURPOSES.
No.
Street.
Clark St
DB9CR(PTIOir.
Saloon
/ Saloon and assig-
t nation honse.
r Saloon and aasig-
t nation house.
House of ill-fame ..
Keeper.
Saloon
House of ill-fame ,
Joe Moll
C. F. Kinnucan.
iCarrie Watson .
Kitfy Plant
Daisy Plant
Miss Lulu ... I
May Blank
Saloon
House of ill-fame
f Saloon and house \
\ of ill-fkme. i
House of ill-fame
i Saloon and house )
{ of ill-fame. Ç
Miss Lillie
Cora Clark .. |
Jennie Moore..
Thos. May ....
JessieWilson. |
F. Whittahcr..
Wm. Rcidy.. 1
J. Finlev.... [
Ada Dick J
Adolph Miller f
Joe Moll ' \
Albert E. Kent
Caroline V. Watson ..
No record J
No record J
Jenney Lehr
Andrew luerotte
Samuel Hofman
Andrew luerotte
Owner.
Annie M. Howard ...
Sidney A. Kent...
Philo C. Hildreth.. j
Annie C. Soloman . (
Grace M. Cheney .. (
Big., Le Grand O'- j
Dell. Deed in trust V
to Thos. H. Bliss. )
Anna A. Cheney
Rosa Foster
Est., Hannah Meyer \
Lease, W. T. Adams. J
Livi Winsberg
C. E. Robinson est
i}
William Short.
Sarak B. & Hariet Port.
Bldg.,W. M. Jenks. }
Lease, L. Friedberg. Ç
Taxes Paid by
Jacob Franks, 163 Clark-st
A. E. Kent.
Caroline Watson.
S. Hofman, 744 W. Monroe-sL
Mrs. M. Myer.
Mrs. R. luerotte, 457 S. Clark-st.
S. Hofman, 744 W. Monroe-st.
Mrs. R. luerotte, 457 S. Clark-st.
Philo C. Hildreth, 523 N. Weber-
st, Colorado Springs, Col.
Grace M. Cheney, 453 Washing-
ton-bl.
Bliss & Hanscomb.
W. W. Strong, 436 Washing'n-bl.
Rosa Foster, 685 W. Indiana-sL
W. T. Adams, 125 La Salle-st
T. H. Schintz, 81 Clark-st.
Knight & Marshall.
Wm. Port, 5046 State-st.
J. Lafe. Curtis, 69 Dearbom-st.
Clark St.
Saloon
5 Saloc
{ of Ul-fame.
Saloon
House of ill-fame
{ Saloon and house )
Frank Gary
French Georgie.
Jimmic'a Place.
<C (<
r Saloon and house )
\ of ill-fame. )
(( (C tt
tf (< 4(
Maud Gillian
Belle Gireouz
MissGerbold.
Miss Maggie.
Saloon
5 Saloon and house \
of ill-fame. j
(< <( l<
Saloon
j Saloon and house \
( of ill-fame. J
«( (4 44
{House of ill-fame
below lerel of
street. A den of
thieves.
r Saloon and house \
\ of Ul-fame. /
Saloon (below street)
! House of ill-fame, '
2d floor.
Saloon (below street)
C. B. SdUs^n estate.
Julius Bemdt
C. B. Robinson estate.
Lou^ Mackway... |
C. E. Robinson estate.
Gerado Nugliore... 1
Gerado Nugliore... x
V. Di Stefano j
Herman H. Gage, sold
C. B. Robinson estate.
■ M. Hilder- f
brand. \
Clifibtd Moody.
Jennie Love. )
Belle Taj^lor. )
Miss Davis
( Lena Chris- >
( tianson. J
T. H. Schintz, 8i Clark-st.
Julius Bemdt, 3232 Vemon-av.
T. H. Schintz, 81 Clark-st.
R<^er Plant, Jr
Roger Plant, Jr f
Lse.,M.Hilderbrand \
Edwin O. Gale, Sr. |
Edwin O. Gale, Sr . |
Ambolena Jones et al.
Martha E. Bucking- )
ham )
Eva C. Reker
No record
C. L. Jenks, 100 Washin^n-st.
Madan Mackway, 508 Belden-av
E. Mackway, 930 Chi. Op. Hse.
Louise Mackway, 16 KendaU-st.
T. H. Sdiintz, 81 Clark-st
Gerado Nugliore, 519 Clark-at
to A. Gage.
T. H. Schintz, 81 Clark-st,
Roger Plant, 531 S. Clark-st.
May Hilderbrand, Santa Monica
California.
Churchill C. Clarke, Hotel Met¬
ropole.
Churchill C. Clarke, Hotel Met¬
ropole.
A. M. Wells, Quincy, 111.
C. L. Jenks, 100 Washington-st.
Eva C. Reker, 5124 Halsted-st.
No record.
%
No.
555
561
54
52
5ï
53
76
78
80
83
84
86
86
88
90
92
94
lio
112
114
132
124
126
isS
130
133
134
Clark St....
Taylor St..
Gnat. H. Pl.
(Fourth Ave.)
Stubbt.
Dbscbiption.
( House of ill-fame
j and den of
( colored thieves.
House of ill-fame ..
House of ill-fame ..
«I S«
( Saloon and house
\ of ill-fame.
Saloon
Saloon
Keeper.
H
House of ill-fame
ShIoou
i Gambling den, 2d
I floor.
House of ill-fame
<C C«
House of ill-fame
;}
SallieWhite '
(a notorious
thieO-
Miss Amanda^
N. Campbell
Mrs. Jordan
A. Prato
Roger Plant
J.Monahan
Miss Davis... 1
MaggieMoore /
Mrs. Mitchell Í
Mrs. Ellison. /
C. C. Salvator Í
A. J. Scott... J
J. (^odrich ...
Ida Moss
Jennie Letang.
Blanch D'Ory..
Nellie Dillon. |
Madam Theo..
Nellie Dihville.
B. Ritchie
Miss Monroe...
Miss Shakes...
Miss Andrea
■{
OWIfBB.
Belle Smith.
Mad. Cloquette.
Lucy Celorime.
C. E. Robinson estate.
Bldg., W. M. Jenks. \
Lse., L. Friedberg., j
Chancellor L. Jenks.
Isaac Atkinson estate.
C. E. Robinson estate.
Samuel L. Alexander.
Mary L. & Andrew )
J. Scott )
Jennie Tompkins, sold
Mrs. Emily Barkers..
E. Alice Miller
Jennie Phillips
Fred R. Otis )
Olliver Tillingast... )
Annie Conway
Mary O'Day
E. Ritchie
Abraham Wilkins
Chas. A. Roggio
Lot 31, blk. 125, add )
to Town of Sonth >■
Chicago j
Bernard Mahon
V. Fields, 138-40C.H.P.
Dora Goldstine
Taxes Paid by
T. H. Schintz, 81 Clark-st.
J. Lafe. Curtis, 69 Dearbom-sL
Chancellor L. Jenks.*
Mead & Co.
T. H. Schintz, 81 Clark-st.
S. L. Alexander, 905 Jackson-bl.
Mary L. & Andrew J. Scott, 86
Custom House-pl.
to E. Lowery.
Mrs. £. Barkers, 1332 Wash'n-bl.
E. A. Miller, 6218 Michigan-av.
Eugenia Phillips, 13 W. Park-av.
F. R. Otis, 236 State-sL
B. A. Cnmmings & Ca
Maty O'Day, 132 Dearhom-st.
B. Ritchie, 122 Custom Hse.-pl.
Abraham Wilkins, 124 4th-av.
Chas. A. Roggio,32i9S.Park-av.
Bernard Mahon, 13« State-sb
J. W. Thomas, 144 Clark-sb
Stein Bros.
• Mr. Chancellor L. Jeuica wlahes me to deny that he owns any property that is used as a house of prostitution.
foOblV ,0' iíott, 206 LaSalle-st.
45 Macalister pl.
P. Brown, 126 Dearbom-st.
P. S. Kelley, 2i&22,5o6State-st.
Cath. Hull, 6ist & Tenth-av.
C. Metyner, 112 Harrison-st.
Barnes & Parish.
J. Barnet, 152 Custom H. PI.
Estate of Mary Kelsey, by G.
S. Newbury, 164 EaSalle-st.
Mrs. C. D. Crocker, 3131 For-
rest-av.
Cbas Metyner, 112 Hanrison-st.
M. Eisenberg, 96 E. 4otb-st.
M. Eisenberg, 96 E. 4oth-st.
Louis Batee, 400 Dearbom-st.
Joel Bigelow, 2449 Prairie-av.
Louis Olcese, iii S. Water-st.*
W. C. S. R. R. Co.
W. Wood, 827 Op. H.
M. A. Monroe, 184 Cns. H. PI.
Jane S. Haven, 184 Cus. H. Pl.
M A. Monroe, 184 Cus. H. Pl.
Jno. B. Baxter, Moreland, 111.
C. S. McCoy, 608 Tacoma Bdg.
Cust. H. Pl.
(Fourth Ave.)
House of ill-fame
Plymouth PI
Saloon and As
signation bouse
House of ill-fame
.}
(col)
House of ill-fame
Anchorage Missio
Vina Fields.. |
Vina Fields
Mary Hastings.
Mad. Andrea..
Miss Ritta
Miss Masker...
Miss Masker...
Madame Flora.
Madame Flora.
Mme. Carmen..
Margueritta
Miss Lillie
Geo. Bower
Lizzie Pay ton..
Miss J. Clyde. /
EmmaHarper )
Clara Ferris...
Minnie White..
May Willard...
Dora Lyons....
M. A. Monroe..
Mrs. Morris....
Zoe Owens ....
Mary Woodson.
n for Fallen
John G. Mott...
Sarah O'Hanna.
Zyulica Mercier.
No Record
Catherine Hull .
Cbas. Metyner..
Gastain Arlara..
Jane Barnet. ...
Jno B. Grossett...
Cbas. D. W. Crocker '
Cbas. Metyner...,...
Morris Ei^nberg
Morris Eisenberg
No Record
No Record
Han. W. Jennings.. )
Leased to L. Olcese. )
W. C. S. R. R. Co . ..
Geo. Heath
Mary A. Monroe
Jane S. Haven
Mary A. Monroe
Jno. B. Baxter
Mrs. E. W. Knights..
Women.
*Mr. Olcese informs me that these premises are held under a lease which expressly provides the^ shall not be used for any
immoral or illegal purpose or in contravenuon of the ordinances of Chicago or the statutes of Illinois. Neither he nor his agent had
ever ^sited the premises since the lease was granted " Acting upon information acquired since receiving your communication, I
have this day instructed my attorney to cancel the lease and institute proper proceedings to obtain possession of the premises.'*
No.
STKBBT.
DBSCRXPTlOlf.
Keeper.
Owner.
Taxbs Paid bt
«45
«53
173
175
177
181
«83
189
191
193
197
205)
to
213J
2151
to
223 J
225
227
2006
2014
2016
2018
2020
2024
2034
2108
2iio
2ii2
2116
2118
2120
2124
Plymouth PI
<< It
<( II
41 It
11 11
II II
II II
• 1 II
II II
II II
II II
II II
II 11
II 11
II II
Dearborn St.
II 11
II il
II Ii
II II
II i 1
II II
II II
II II
II II
II II
II II
II II
II II
House of ill-fame
Il II
Il II
Il II
il II
Il II
Il II
Il II
14 II
Il II
Il II
Il II
Il II
Il II
;;;;
House of ill-fame ....
Il II
Il II
Il II
Il II
Il II
Il II
Il II
Il «•
Il II
Il II
Il II
Il II
Il II
Joaie Bnruham.
Misa Prankie ..
Nellie Michell.
Mrs. H. Skiuner
Dora Clafiin...
Bva Uttle.
Annie Hufif
Ollie Prosser...
Mrs. Parker ...
S. Washington.
( Cotorra l
( Prostitutes. (
( Colored )
I Prostitutes. )
J Colored )
\ Prostitutes. )
Nannie Powers.
Nannie Powers.
Cora Campbell.
Nellie Tuttle ..
Clara Din nick .
May Wilson ...
Minnie Ross. \
R. Ritchie.... /
MolC. Hastings
Rilen Sherman.
L. Manning . \
OUwLavan.>. /
Jessie Martin ..
Madame Lulu..
Annie Honore .
Gataina Ailara
A. E. Kent
Sophie Miller
A. B. Kent
Mrs. Bertha Pollak..
John Koch
Rudolph Weber
[^thenne Buckley...
B. & P. Mahone
Edward Fox
( C. S. Frank.
) A. T.&S.F.R.R
( No. 205-7-9-13, A.
j T. S. F. R. R., 211
(jno. Johnson, Jr.
No. 215, F. Knoe-
pfle. Nos. 217-18
- & 221, no record.
C. S. French. No.
.223,A.r.&S.F. R..
Kate Hastings
Emanuel Pilser
Hary J. Robbins
C. E. Robinson estate
E. Ritchie
Jennie B. Walker....
No record
John J. De Lacy, f
2222 Dearbom-st. \
Hatt. Melwety, et al.
Emma Leronx
Nocecord
Emma Leronx
Barnes & Parish.
A. E. Kent
H. Miller, 58 Bvergreen-av.
A. E. Kent.
Mrs. B. Pollak, 2714 Indiana-av.
John Koch, 385 Evanston-av.
Mrs. H. Weber, 451 State-st.
W.Buckley ,5300 Lexington-av.
B. & P. Mahone, 1355 State-st.
Sold to R. Fuller.
A. T. & S. Fe R. R. Co.
G. W. Crawford, 1444 Unity big..
E. Pilser, 34 Randolph-st.
M.J. Robbins, 2016 Dearborn-st.
T. H. Schintz, 81 Clark-st.
Bayley & Waldo, Borden blk.
D. P. Flannery, looWash't'n-st.
S. Chadwick, 3010 Waba^-av.
Clara Weber, 2913 Dearbom-st
J. J. DeLacy, 2222 Dearbora-st.
Libby P.Hardy, 3123 Rhodes-av.
Emma Leronx, 2i24Dearb'n-st.
Sold to W. H. Johnson.
Emma Leronx, 2i24Dearb'n-st
3I09
2II3
2II9
2I2I
2127
2129
2I3I
2133
2I08
2106
2117
2II5
2III
2107
2Î03
2028
2026
2022
2014
2008
2031 ^
2033,
2029
2027
2017
2015
2011
2009
2007
Dearborn St.
House of ill-fame.
Armour Ave.
(col)
(Jap)
Mrs. King. • • \
Mrs. Hattcld/
Mrs. Johnson ..
May Myers .. |
Mrs. Slater ....
Clara Hudson..
Emma Rose ...
Mrs. Allen
M. Blanchard..
Mrs. S. Stewart.
Miss Robinson.
Maggie Jones..
Madame Brown
Miss Lulu
^llon White...
Grace St. Clair.
Millie Stem ...
Minnie Shima \
Nellie Woods /
Kate Edwards .
Fannie (
Edwards (
May Harrison..
Minnie Harlan.
Lizzie Crane. )
IceneOakland (
JCiB. Wilson. j
Ifiss Stewart.
Miss Rogers
:}
Mrs. Oath. A. Duffey.
James A. Ryan
Olof Rudbeck Í
Cornelia A. Miller.. \
Mrs. P. A. Stanton...
Lucretia Brennan
C. E. Robinson estate
Ellen Williams
J. F. Primky .
Jos. Lavin
No record
No record
Mary F. Wells
No record
No record ....
No record
Harriet F. Storey
John E. Oehman
Edward J. Fisher
Arthur Meyer
Wm. E. Wicker )
Nettie Maynard.... )
John D. Ryan
No record
C. E. Robinson estate
Catherine Norton .. |
Mra.C.A.Dnff^,3i09Dearb'n-et.
Jas. A. Ryan, 469 S. Clark-st.
p. F. Crilly, 167 Dearborn-st.
Mrs. Stanton, 2121 Dearbom-st.
L. Brennan, 2127 Dearborn-st.
t. H. Schintz, 81 Clark-st.
E. Williams, 2131 Dearborn-st.
W H.. Wilson, 209 36 LaSalle-st.
D. J. Hamilton, 11 Reaper blk.
C. D. Doran, 2107 Clark-st.
A. Ponsely, 2117 Armour-av.
T. H. Schintz, 81 Clark-st.
Dan ScotL 3647 Armotu:-av.
S. Chadwick, 3010 Wabash-av.
J. H. Lyman, 2103 Armour-av.
J. M. Cliver, 84 LaSalle-st.
John E. Oehman, 2247 Went-
worth-av.
Edward J. Fisher, 2015 Clark-st.
J. Thomas, 2006 Armour-av.
W.J. Maynard by E. Goodrich
& Co., 125 LaSalle-st.
John D. Ryan, 469 S. Clark-st.
F. Heldebrand, 2026 Dearborn-st.
T. H. Schintz, 81 Clark-st.
Catherine Foley, 2007 Armour-
av.
It is only just to remember that persons who pay taxes as agents for property have often no means of controlling the disposition
of that property. It is also well to state that in many cases the owners of the houses are only owners of the g^vund on which the
houses stand, with next to no power of control over the tenants of the houses built on their land. In other cases they have inherited
the property and do not know what to do with it.
It is possible to cancel a lease under the law of the State of Illinois if the tenant uses the premises for immoral purposes, but the.-
difficulty of obtaining legal evidence sufficient to convict is an obstacle in the way of speedy and effective action.
45^ If Christ Cmne to Chicará.
STATE OF ILUNOI8. I„
Chicaoo, County of Cook. (
Norman A. Ebbs, being first duly sworn, deposes and says that the annexed
aheets attached to and forming part of this affidavit, have been compiled by him,
and that the description of the property duly numbered and tabulated thereon, is
to the best of his belief true. Norman A. Ebbs.
Subscribed and sworn to before me, a Justice of the Peace, for the Town of
South Chicago, County of Cook, State of lUiqois, this 3d day of January, A. D. 1894.
D. J. EFon, Jiutice of the Peace.
The foregoine list, as will be seen, does not attempt to include all
the honaes used for this purpose in ChicaTO. The field is too wide. I
selected two districts. Armour Avenue and the Levee, and instructed
a detective and police reporter to make an exhaustive return of the
houses used for purposes of prostitution in those districts. When he
had done so, I sent another person around to check his information as
to names, etc. I then submitted the return so obtained to a competent
real estate agent, with instructions to obtain from the official records
the name of the owner and the name and address of the tax-payer. In
order to avoid any mistake or injustice, inadvertently committed
through an error in the returns, I sent notice in the following form to
all the tax-payers named in the list.
If January i3,1894.
Sir : I find your name in a return prepared for me as paying taxes on premises
situate on behalf of the owner
As these premises are described on affidavit in the same return as being openly
used as a House of Prostitution, in contravention of Articles 1602—5 of the Munici¬
pal Code, I write to ask whether you are aware of the fact, or whether you have
any explanations to offer, or corrections to make, before I publish the said list of
owners of Houses of 111 Fame in the book on Chicago which I am preparing for
the press. I am your obedient servant,
William T. Stbad.
One of the tax-payers informed me that I had rendered myself liable
to fine and imprisonment by the mere fact of issuing this circular. It
may be so, but I think it would not have been just to have risked in¬
cluding any name in the list without giving ample opportunity for
correction and explanation. The list is as precedes, after emendations
made in consequence of the issue of this arcular.
The foregoing list of houses of ill fame, their keepers, owners,
agents, etc., has only been compiled after a very careful inquiry into
the matter by a fully competent investigator and a real estate expert
Owing, however, to the constant change of residence on the one hand,
and the frequent sale of property on the other, it may not be exactly
correct when it meets the eye of the reader. The list was correct on
Jan. ist of this year (1894), and it therefore fulfills the purpose for
which it was compileo.
Chapter 38, Section 97, of the Criminal Code of the State of Illi¬
nois, says :
Whoever keeps or maintains a house of ill fame or place for the practice oi
prostitution or lewdness, or whoever patronizes the same, or lets any house, room,
or other premises for any such purpose, or shall keep a common, ill-governed and
disorderly house, to the encouragement of idleness, gaming, drinking, fornication
or other misbehavior, shall be fined not exceeding I200. * * • « And whoever
shall lease to another any house, room, or other premises, in whole or in part, for
any of the uses orpurposes finable under this section, or knowingly permits the
ssune to l>e so used or occupied, shall be fined not exceeding |soo, ana the house or
premises so leased, occupied or used, shall be held liable for and may be sold for
any Judgment obtained under this section. * * • *
Appendices. 453
bxtract from municipal cods of chicago.
No penon shall keep or maintain or be an inmate of, or in any way connected
wiib or in any way contribute to the support of any house of ill fame or assigna¬
tion, under a penal^ of not less than ten dollars for each offense, and the further
penalty of one hundred dollars for every twenty-four hours such person shall keep
or maintain said house after the first conviction,or after any such person shall have
ben ordered by any member of the police force to discontinue the same.
Svery pernn found in any house of ill fame or assignation, shall be considered
an_inmate within the meaning of Section i6oa of this Article.
Bvery house of ill fame or house of assignation, where men and women resort
for the purpose of prostitutiou, is hereby ordered to be a nuisance.
Appendix B.
THE CHICAGO CENTRAL RELIEF ASSOCIATION.
The following are particulars of the Constitution and Objects of the
Central Relief Association, formed in December at a conference sum¬
moned by the Civic Federation:
President—^T. W. Harvey.
Vice-Qiairman Executive Committee—C. S. H. Mixer.
Treasurer—^Lyman J. Gag[e.
Chairman Finance Committee—John J. Mitchell.
An^tor—^Andrew McLeish.
The Executive Committee is composed exclusively of the chairmen
of the varions Standing Committees, as follows :
On Finance—J. J. Mitchell.
On City, County and State Relations—Alderman Madden.
On Provisions of Supplies in Food, Fuel, etc. and Storage—C. S.
H. Mixer.
On Distribution of Supplies in Kind—Otis S. Favor.
On Transportation—^R. A. Waller.
On Shelter of Men—D. J. Harris.
On Shelter and Employment of Women—Dr. Sarah H. Stevenson.
On Horaitals and Homes—Mrs. Potter Palmer.
On Children's Homes—Mrs. J. M. Flower.
On Medical Aid—Dr. Frank S. Johnson.
On Visitation—Professor C. R. Henderson and Professor A. W.
Small, Vice Chairman.
On Organization and Co-operation with Charitable Institutions—T.
W. Harvey.
On Co-operation with Social Organizations and Clubs—John W.
Brooks, Jr.
On Co-operation with Churches and Religious Organizations—P. F.
Pettihone.
On Publications and Press—R. A. Waller.
On Auditing—A. McLeish.
On Legtd Action-H. B. Hurd.
To tbe Public: All who give money to men on the streets or at the door are
doing harm. They are increasing pauperism, and doinga wrong to the individual
flcd to tfac Stfttc.
Do not give tickets that will entitle the recipient to food or lodging without in¬
vestigation, or without an equivalent in work.
It Ts just as harmful to give food, shelter or clothing to the unworthy as it is to
give them money, since the one as well as the other gives support to lasy and dis¬
honest people.
454 If Christ Came to Chicago.
G4iw onlv MKh tickets ss are provided by reputable Institutions, and wbkh
refer Mmilies or single persons to the varions institutions where their case will he
investigated, work provided for those who are able, hospitals for those who are
sick; fuel, food or money to families who are in distress.
Host of the following institutions issue such tickets either to their members or
to the public at large, vis.;
The County ^^nt. No. to7 South Clinton Street, who cares for permanent
gmpera or families in which there is no probability of their bettering their con-
The Chicago Relief and Aid Society, that investigates and cares for families who
are usually self-supporting, at its central office. Nos. 51 and 53 I,a Salle Street,
and its various branch offices, as follews: Na 410 I4ncoln Avenue, No. itos
Milwaukee avenue. No. 519 West Monroe Street, No. 317 West Folk Street, No. 380
South Halsted Street, No. 310X Wabash Avenue, No. ^3 I^ake Avenue, No. 395
North Clark Street. Work for married men at their wciodyard.
The United Hebrew Charities, No. 323 Twenty-Sixth Street, that relieve suffering
and prevent pauperism among the Jewish poor of the city.
The German Relief and Ala Society, at No. 49 La Salle Street, that gives aid to
Germans who have been in the city leas than three 3rear8.
St. Andrew's Society, at No. 1341 Fulton Street, that relieves all deserving
Scotchmen.
St. George's Society, at No. 195 Washington Street, grants relief to persoiu of
Bnglish parentue.
iwmian Relier Society, No. 249 West Chicago Avenue, assists worthy Danish
people.
Polish National Alliance, No. 574 Noble Street. This is a National organization
holding beneficia^ funds, and for the present ememncy a general relief com¬
mittee has been formed, which gives food, fuel ana money for rent, to worthy
reMdent Polish families.
Scandinavian Relief Society, at No. 233 North Peoria Street, that aids Swedish,
Norwegian and Danish worthy poor. They give relief in the form of provisions
and lodgings.
Norwegian Society, comer Peoria and Indiana Streets, that gives immediate
temporary relief to all Norwmdans.
Bohemian Society, No. 776 West Twelfth Street, that aids all worthy Bohemians.
The society has visKors and all worthy cases receive food, coal and clothing, but no
money.
Swiss Benevolent Society, No. 49 La Salle Street, to assist indigent Swiss people
with pecuniary relief or hos^tal care.
Soldiers' Home in Chicago, Nos. 51 and 53 La Salle Street, devotes the income
from Ito investments toward relieving indigent soldiers, their widows and chil¬
dren.
The G. A. R., that gives relief to needy soldiers and their widows.
The Brotherhood Employment Bureau, at No. 37 Michigan Street, that gives
work to able-bodied men.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society, which has a bureau of relief in every Catholic
parish in the city.
The Visiting Nurses' Association, Room rtr6 Masonic Temple, furnishes
nurses and promotes cleanlineas and procures proper care for the sioc.
The Young Women's Christian Association, with their various homes and
offices, as follows: Home, No. 22B Michigan avenue; transient homes. No. 367
Jackson Boulevard, No. ¿28 Wentworth Avenue, No. 6307 Stewart Boulevard;
Rosalie Court Home, No. 383 Rosalie Court; employment bureau. No. 243 Wabash
Avenue; travelers' aid department, Bnglewood branch.
Woman's Club Emergimcy Bureau, Room 29 Athenieum Building, gets situa¬
tions and gives work and Shelter to women.
Minnetonka WorUngwoman's Home, No. 21 South Peoria Street, which is a
home for self-snpporting women, $2.so per week.
Home fin- Friendless, No. mao Wabash Avenue, free for women and children.
St. Joseph's Home for the Friendless (Catholic), fl-ee and pay, NO. 409 South May
Street.
Home of Providence for Unemployed Girls, Calumet Avenue and Twenty-Sixth
Street, Catholic, free and pay.
Adelphia Industrial Home, Austin, lU., for girls, free.
WorUngwoman's Horner No. 329 Monroe Street, fVee and pay.
Anchorage Mission, No. 12s Plymouth Place, free, for women.
W. C. T. U. Home, No. 870 west Madison Street.
Woman's Shelter, «omev Folk and Halsted Streets.
Chicago Exchange for Wokiaa's Work, No. 130 Wabash Avenue, provides a
Appendices, 455
depot for the reception and aale of anv marketable article which a woman can
make in her own homOi or any valuable article which her neceaaitiea oblige her to
diapoae of.
Masonic, Odd Fellows, and other brotherhood organisations care for their own
members.
The various free dispensaries, of which there are twenty-two in the city.
Bureau of Justice to assist in securing legal protection against injustice for
those who are unable to protect themselves.
For information concerning applicants for relief of which you are in doubt as
to the proper reference, apply to No. 83 Market Street, to the Central Relief
Association.
For information concerning the work of societies doing relief work in Chicago
apply to the Central Relief Association, No. 1015 The Rookery. They refer to all
tne various institutions to which any applicant may properly belong. They are
now preparing an alphabetical list by names and street numbers, lu wMch all
those who are receiving aid will be recorded, and which can be examined by any
citizen who desires to know what any society may be doing, thereby preventing
fraud and duplication, and also furthering the wotfk of properly aiding the worthy
poor.
There are many hospitals and homes which sre known toourcitizens generally,
for men, women and children, and there are various reformatory institutions of
which information may be had at the office of the Central Relief Association, No.
1015 Rookery Building.
Information concerning other relief societies will be published as soon as the
committee on cooperation have the facts ready for publication.
By order of Executive Committee.
T. IV. BbtxvBY, Chairman.
Appendix C.
SOME CURIOSITIES OF CHICAGO ASSESSMENTS.
The present system of assessing real and personal proj^rtjr in
Chicago has been denounced as scandalous and unjust, iniquitous
and contrary to sound policy by the Mayor of Chicago, by successive
Comptrollers, and by the Finance Committee of the City Council. It
has been vehemently assailed by the Chicago Times, wliich has pnb-
lished a series of articles commenting in the strongest terms upon the
injustice and the disparity of the taxes levied upon the poor property
owner, who pays through the nose while his rich neighbor goes com¬
paratively scot free. The facts, however, are so startling and the figures
so strong that it is impossible to frame a statement whidi is more damn¬
ing than a few extracts from the tax books. In orderto see howthings
stood I instructed a real estate agent to go through the official re¬
turns and extract from them the assessments of real and personal
property made in the cases of most prominent people in Chicago, in-
cluoing the millionaires, the aldermen, the members of the Civic
Federation and the newspapers, etc. I also instructed him to obtain
the assessments of the more notable buildinm in the city, and for the
purpose of conmarison to obtain the assessed value of various smaller
premises owned by wage workers and others. The returns which he
has made be scrutinized with keen interest in Chicago, and they
will afford much matter for curious comment elsewhere. The retiums
would have been much more complete if it would have been possible
to have employed a real estate valuer to have made a really fair valu¬
ation, but this is difficult, especially in the case of personalty. I
could not send a valuer into the stables of a millionaire, nor could I
introduce a competent assessor into the domesticities of Mr. Yerke^
There seems to be no reason to doubt the general correctness of the
statement that taking the city all around the. assessed value is
45^ If Christ Came to Chicago.
only one-eighth of the real value. The owners of small houses are
often assessed at one-fourth, one-third, and even one-half of their real
v^ue, while the owners of the mansions and the sky-scrapers escape
with one-tenth, one-twentieth, or even one-thirtieth of their real
value. The following is a table of some of the curiosities of Chicago
assessments. Personalty to the amount of I500 to |i,ooo is exempt
from taxation.
SOME CURIOSITIES.
Owners, Clinton J. Wanen and Adolphus W. Maltby, I/>ts 82, 83, 86, 87,90,91, 94,
98. except east 49 feet of lota 91, 94. 95 and 98, Burton's aubdiwsion of lot 14,
Boonaon's addition to Cbicago. 995,000.
"Plasa." Seven-story apartment. South-east corner Clark and North Avenue.
1892 assessed value 910,000. Taxes paid, 9982.80. 1893 assessed value 930,060.
U. S. Biewiuf Co. (4824 Cook Street.) 1893 returned personal property at 950.00.
Union RendöinB Company, Stockyards. 1893 returned the following personal
property: 25 horses. 9250; 11 wiwons, 9'10; one safe, 915.00. Total 9390.
Fonr^story brick building, Mflwaukee and North Avenue. (Stores below and
hall on top.) Worth at least $20,000, assessed in 1893 at $1,830, or one-eleventh.
Owned Iw Joseph Sokup, formerly West Town Assessor.
West Chicago Street Railroad Company personalty is assessed at $275,000.
Chicago City Railway Company is assessed $260,000 for personalty. 180 horses
assessed at $8,000; 500 cars, at $50,000; machinery, etc., at $100,000, and money at
$100,000.
North Chicago Street Railroad Company returns $65,500 personalty, of which the
following are some of the items ; aoo horses, $2,800 ; 220 cars, $20,000 ; machinery,
925,000.
ALDERMEN.
Ward. Personal.
ist. John J. Coughlin, 145 B. Madison-st Nothing.
Louis I. Epstean, 113 E. Randolph-st
2d. Daniel J. Horan, 169 SIghteenth-st
Martin Beat, 1429 Michigan-av
3d. Edward Marrener, 3227 Groveland-av
mi Smith, 3147 Vernon-av $100.00
4th. John W. HejiDurn, 3633 miis-av. Nothing.
Martin B. Madden, 3^3 Forest-av
5th. John Vogt, 448 Twenty-siidh-st "
ratri^ J. wall, 605 Twenty^eventh-st "
6th. HenryBluckart, 2519 Archer-av., 3 horses, $300; 3 cows, $400 $800.00
Thomas Reed, 2500 Main-st Nothing.
7tb. John A. Cook, 624 8. Halsted-st "
William J. O'Ndll, 547 B. HaUtedst "
8th. William Locffler, 369 Johnson^ "
Martin Morrison, 362 Blue Island-av
9th. Frederick Robde, 278 Washbnrne-av
Joseph 8. BidweU, 738 W. Twelfth-st
10th. CharlesC. Bchumachcr, 266 Blue laland-av
John F. Dormán, 971 Twenty-second-st
nth. Geoige B. Swift, 52 Eoomis-M "
Will&m D. Kent, 490 W. Oongreas-st "
i2th. Robert L. Martin, 719 W. Van Bnren-st $200.00
James L. Campbeli, 99 DeKalb-st. Nothing.
13th. Charles F. Swigart, 280 Ituk-av
Martin Knowles, »7 Walnnt-at "
14th. James Keats. 225 W. Chicago-av
William L. BLamcillng, 339 Glenwood-av "
15th. James Reddick, 143 Peiry-av "
Michael Ryan, 601 W. North-av ■■
i6lh. Peter J. Bilett, 48a N. Ashland-av.
Stanley K. Kuns. 685 W. Hort^ '
17th. J. N. Mulvihill, 118 Austia-av..
Stephen M. Goaselin, i8a N. Green-st
18th. William F. Mahony, 74 Centemv
John J. Brennan, 15 S. Cat)ienter-st
t9th. John timers. 243 8. Canal and 170 Madison-sts., saloons.
Thomas Galla^^, 256 S. Halsted-st —,....
W. North-av Nothing.
Appendices. 457
Ward. Personal.
20th. Albert PottbofT, 97 Willow-st Nothing;.
Otto Haire, 185 Southport-av "
2ist. Joseph H. Ernst, 271 North-av "
John McGillen, 967 N. Halsted-st "
22d. Arnold Tripp, 596 Dearborn-av
Edward Muelhoefler, 112 Ctyboum-av $200.00
23d. John A. Larson, 305 N. Wells-st Nothing.
William J. Kelly, 168 Oalr-st "
24th. Louis L. Wadsworth, 252 Michigaii-st $100.00
Zara C. Peck, 238 E. Huron Nothing.
25th. Austin O. Sezton, 1457 Wrightwood-av .' "
Albert H. Kleinecke, 914 Racine-av "
26th. Henry N. Lutter, Perry-av. and Wellington-st "
William Finkler, 843 Perry-av "
27th. Frederick F. Haussen, 15 W. Huron-st "
M. J. Conway, Hermosa "
2Sth. Daniel W. Ackerman
Thomas Sayle Nothing.
29th. Robert Mulcahy, 4335 WentworUi-av "
Thomas Carey, 4304 S. Wood-st "
30th. John F. Kenny, 5205 State-st "
John W. Utesch, 4836 S. Ashland-av "
31st. Edwin J. Noble^ 6621 Harvard-st "
James L. Francis, 7757 Sherman-st "
32d. James R. Mann, 334 Oakwood-bd $too.oo
William R. Kerr, 5126 Washington-av $200.00
33d. Cyrus H. Howell, 7828 Edwards-av $ 50.00
George H. Shepherd, 9151 Commercial-av Nothing.
34th. John A. Bartine, Roseland "
John O'Neill, 5900 Wabash-av "
Sixty-eight Aldermen, $1,700. Average personal property, $26.
THE MONOPOLIES.
The Railroads (1S92) $16,698,589
City Railway Co., ( 1893) 1,350,000
West Chicago Railway Co., (1893) 1,000,000
North Chicago Railway Co., (1893) 500.000
Chicago Gas Light and Coke Company 700,000
Consumers Gas Company 250,000
People's Gas Light and Coke Company 250,000
Hyoe Park Gas Company 5,000
Lake Gas Company 5,000
"Telephone Company a, iou,ooo
THE NEWSPAPERS.
Name. Personalty. Realty Taxes on
1893. ite2. Realty.
Record and Daily News $15.000 $ 8,700 $ 742.
Herald 18,000 49.800 4,250
Tribune 18,000 3.6.000 2,987
Inter Ocean 11,000 76 000 6,486
Times 7.500
Evening Post 7.5oo 25,200 2,150
Evening Journal .".«i... 7.000 12,000 1,024
Mail 2.600
Dispatch 300
Staats Zeitung 6,000 32,400 2,765
458
If Christ Came
to Chicago.
NAME.
NEWSPAPER PROPRIETORS—EDITORS.
Joseph Medill, loi Cass-st
H H. Kohlsaat, 2978 Prairie-ave
Wm. Penn Nixon, 743 N. Clark-st
•Carter H. Harrison. 231 Ashland-bd..
J. W. Scott. 184 Pine-st
John K. Waith, 2133 Calumet-av
Victor F. Lawson, 317 La Salle-av
K. W. Patterson, Astor st & Burton-pl.
MILLIONAIRES AND OTHERS.
Marshall Field, 1905 Prairie-ave
Marshall Field, Jr., 191p Prairie-av..
P. D. Armour, 2115 Prairie-av
G. M. Pullman. 172g Prairie-av
Potter Palmer. 100 Lake Shore-dr
H. N. Higiiibotham. 2838 Michigan-av
J. W. Doane, 1827 Prairie-av
Mrs. Wm. Armour, 2017 Prairie-av.,
*C. H. McCormick, 321 Huron-st..
C. T. Yerkes, 3201 Michigan-av
Lambert Tree. 94 Cass-st
Edward S. Isham, i Tower-pl
Wm. G. Hibbard, 1701 Praine-av ..
C. M. Henderson, 1816 Prairie-av...
T. W. Harvey, 1702 Prairie-av
•Frank'n MacVeagh,io3LakeShore-dr
O. W. Potter. 130 Lake Shore-dr
Volney C. Turner, 112 Lake Shore-dr
E. W. Blatchford, 375 La Salle-av
Lyman J. Gage. 470 N. State-st
Henry Keith. 3360 Prairie-av
W. Kimball, 1801 Prairie-av
Elbridge G. Keitb, 1900 Prairie-av
Edson Keith, 1906 Prairie-av
Mrs. C. P. Kellogg, 1923 Prairie-av
Fernando Joues, 1834 Prairie-av
Mra. H, O. Stone, 2035 Prairie-av
S. W. Allerton, 1936 Prairie-av
Chas. D. Hamill. 2126 Prairie-av
Henry C. Rew, 2619 Prairie-av
Noble B. Judab, 2701 Prairie-av
Marvin Hughitt, 2828 Prairie-av
John G, Shortall. 1600 Prairie-av
P. B. Studebaker, 1612 Prairie-av
Granger Farwell, 1623 Prairie-av
Mrs. Wirt Dexter, 1721 Prairie-av
Richard T. Crane, 2541 Michigan-av..
Warren Springer, 1635 Prairie-av
John Mason Loomis, 55 Lake Shore-dr
Henry J. Willing, 110 Rush-st
Henry W. Bishop, 167 Rush-st
tjohn P, Hopkins. 2813 Calumet-av..
Hempstead Washburne. 154 Astor-st.
Dewitt C. Cregier, 418 Chicago-av....
•Judge C. C. Kohlsaat, 239 Ashland-av
Richard Prendergast, 534 Jackson-bd
M
O
»
}200
60
fl20
40
50
200
600
200
100
100
50
300
300
250
120
40
500
40
'5°
40
60
250
300
¿ U)
"2
K
$ 500
30
50
30
180
60
liS
600
Î50
140
100
200
t,000
300
250
60
60
1,000
90
X50
90
90
150
300
a
s
I xoo
25
100
50
100
180
150
125
100
150
50
1,700
100
200
100
ij
<
H
O
H
« S
^ c»
&4 o M
50
50
100
100
200
100
20
500
I 2,600
1,500
300
300
300
1,000
300
Nothing.
20,000
2,000
5,000
12,000
15.000
2,000
10,000
7.500
10,650
4,000
2,000
2,000
2,500
3,000
3.000
a.500
Ii500
2.500
3.300
1,000
100
2,100
3.000
4.000
4,000
1,200
1,100
8,000
2,250
1,500
300
300
2.000
1,500
Nothing.
3.750
3.000
Nothing.
2.500
2,000
600
150
500
Nothing.
aoo
Nothing
$11.130 j
13,760
Appendices.
459
NAMB.
Horses,
Car¬
riages.
Pianos,
Total.
cî
0^
ta ¡J-
Sh
S
I
d
d
s
73
>
V
73
>
Per¬
sonal.
1893.
Realty.
1892.
2 J
h m
Pi
•Judge r, Tuthill, 532 W. Jackson-bl..
50
25
50
•Charles H. Case, 201 Ashiand-av
•Wm, A. Pinkerton, 196 Ashland-av,.
Mrs, Owsley, 245 Asbland-av
2
2
50
50
2
2
50
50
i
i
500
400
9,100
4.400
9,000
2,520
3900
817
•George r, Davis, 692 Wasbiugton-bd
J. B, Hobbs, 343 La Salle-av
Robert Lindblom, 678 La Salle-av ....
i
i
25
50
i
i
25
50
1
1
25
100
100
226
383
Malcolm McNeill, 448 La Salle-av
Harry Rubens, 581 La Salle-av
3
90
2
80
i
30
400
Nothing.
.950
Nothing.
Nothing,
Nothing,
4,000
400
4,140
2,140
8,170
406
John DeKoven, 402 Dearborn-av
A. a, Munger, 308 E, Ohio-st
5
200
2
loo
i
50
802
4.250
23.900
4,300
382
2,147
367
Carrie y. Watson, 441 S, Clark-st.,,,
4
500
2
700
2
300
200
•J.J, Badenoch, 391 W, Randolph-st..
•W, P, Rend, 153 Ashland-av
Louis Wolff, 1319 Washington-bd
•Daniel W, Mills, 1510 Washington-bd
tL. Z. Leiter, 4 Tower-pl
50
500
500
350
1,000
75
2
50
100
t
50
50
4
2
100
3
150
*Retanied personal property.
Îln the name of Mary Hopkins.
In the name of Joseph teiter.
Potter Palmer returns s watches, $100; one billiard table, |ioo; one sewing ma¬
chine, $25.
B. W. Blatchford returns gold and silver worth $300, diamonds worth $400.
John Mason Ixiomis returned gold and silver worth $100, diamonds worth $200,
one sewing machine, $10.
iohn DeKoven returned 2 watches worth |ioo.
lenry J. Willing returned gold and silver to the amount of f200, and diamonds
valued at J600.
Lyman J. Gage has one watch, |ioo, gold and silver, |ioo, and diamonds, $100.
Building.
Unity BuiliUng..
skyscrapers,
Assessed,
Equal¬
ized.
Taxes,
.. 93,000
,, 161,800
•• 305,500
I350181
114,390
199,014
375,765
f24,299
7,987
13,809
26,074
,. 254,000
312,420
21,678
;.. 300,500
.. 40,000
368,615
25,647
Paid by.
Masonic Temple Assoc.
Wirt de Walker
John W. Lachard (Agt).
Chicago Auditorium Co. . ^
JL. Z. Leiter and Siegel. I ,
1 Cooper & Co f
Owen F. Aldis 1-14
Per
Cent.
1-13
I 14
i-i4
i-i4
thb rich and thb poor.
The following comparative figures are extracted from the Chicago
Times, which has addressed itself to this subject with great energy
and perseverance :
Actual Assessed Per
Value. Value. Cent.
Pullman Building, Michigan-av. and Adams-st fi,200,000 $ 85,000 1-14
Title and Trust Building, 100 Washington-st 1,500,000 158,000 i-io
Ashland Block. Clark and Randolph-sts 1,800,000 I53>ooo 1-8
Woman's Temple, Monroe and LaSalle-sts 1,800,000 230,000 1-8
Chamber of Commerce Bldg, LaSalle and Wash'gn-sts, 2,225,000 225,000 t-io
460 If Christ Came to Chicago.
Rand-McNally Bui!
Rookery Builoing.
Edward Morgan's cottage, 3141 Dearborn-st
W. J. Miesler's store, 587 Sedgwick-st
Mathias Boesen's building, 300 Mohawk-st
C. E. Carlstrom's building, 190 Milton-av
iames McCombie's store. Twenty-fifth and State-sts.
W. I.emke's building, 167 Wei s-st
P. I). Lynch's residence, W. 47th and Monroe-sts
Fred G Libke'sshop, 248 Milwaiikee-av
Uavid Kahn'a store. ii4Chicago-av
F. A. Ruck's store. 273 Wells-st
M. McNuIty's residence, 138 Seminary-av
C. L. Young's residence, 613 Melrose-st
Robert Berndt's building
Actual
Assessed
Per
Value,
Value.
Cent.
.$1,000,000
$110,000
1-9
. 1,600,000
160,000
I-IO
. X,600,000
200,000
1-8
750,000
75.800
MO
. 1,800,000
90,000
1-20
800,000
37,700
1'2I
1,700
527
1-2
3.500
1,109
»3
4.500
1,100
1-4
1,600
400
1 4
2.500
1,743
3-5
4,000
900
I 4
2,000
500
Ï-4
2.200
1,100
12
8,000
2,DUO
1,800
1-4
7,200
1-4
2,000
5>7
«■4
4.000
1.600
2-5
2,000
1.050
X-2
THE FAIR SELLING VALUE OF COOK COUNTY.
Statement of property assessed for the year 1892 in Cook County
(including the city of Chicago), as returned to the Auditor's office :
Description. No. Value. Average.
Horses 37.si6 I879.33S I aS-fia
Cattle 35.303 241.852 6.85
Mules and asses 24,3 4.588 18.73
Sheep I.4S3 1.479 1.02
Hogs 7.874 8,616 I 12
Steam engines including boilers 583 158.410 277.82
Fire and burglar proof safes 432 15.885 36 77
Hiiliard, pigeonhole, etc., tables 169 5,074 30.02
Carriages and wagons 25.068 586,474 23.40
Watches and clocks 5.989 28,113 4.69
Sewing and knitting machines 4.266 5-7°
Pianos 11.086 373.898 23.79
Melodeons and organs 439 4.510 10.27
Franchises 10 50,483 6.30
Annuities and royalties 5.04
Patent rights
Steamboats, sailing vessels 239 52,010 217.61
Materials and manufacturing articles 1,157.743
Manufacturers'tools, implements and machinery 1,181,838
Agricultural tools, implements and machinery 81,911
Gold and silver plate and plated ware 16,460
Diamonds and jewelry 21.000
Moneys of bank, banker, broker, etc 1,097.75.5
Credits of bank, broker, etc 8,200
Moneysof other than banker, etc 970,129
Credits of other than banker, etc 123,6<,5
Bonds and stocks 6.670
Shares of capital stock of companies not of this State 50.1
Pawnbroker's property .' 5,35.>
Property of corporations not before enumerated 1,776.213
BnoR property 710
Property of saloons and eating houses 15,625
Household and office furniture 3><'90.975
Investments in real estate and improvements thereon 14,845
Grain of all kinds 2,625
Shares of stock of State and National banks 5.903.550
All other property 489.123
Total value of unenumerated property 27,974,158
Total value of personal property 30.407,189
Appendices.
461
REAL ESTATE —LANDS
Number
of Acres. Value.
Average Value
Improved
Unimproved
362,729 ti.ni.Tfi
97,040 6,702,363
per Acre.
Í21.44
69.07
KEAL ESTATE—TOWN AND CITY LOTS.
Description.
Improved town and city lots
Unimproved lots
No. of
Lots.
Average
Value. Value.
. 167.094
.470,822
»126,394,249 $756.43
31,052,151 66.00
Appendix D.
THE FEDERATION OF MINISTERS OF RELIGION.
The Executive Committee of the Federation of the Ministers of
Religion in Chicago is one of the many signs indicating a desire on
the part of the ministers to exercise a more effective influence upon
the affairs of the city by means of co-operative action. The question
as to whether or not the Ministers of Religion could come together as
a body had been discussed, but it was not until the iith of December
that any actual step was taken towards bringing the subject to a test.
On that day I summoned a conference in the Willard Hall for the pur¬
pose, which was defined as follows : "To take counsel as to the best
means of convincing the masses that the Church of God is the agency
which can best help them to redress their grievances and realize their
aspirations for a better social condition." A copy of the circular sum¬
moning the conference was sent to every minister of religpon desig¬
nated as such in the Chicago directory. The conference thus sum¬
moned was infiuentially attended, and after a meeting lasting about
two hours, it was resolved to form a committee representing the
churches of all denominations to convey the greetings of the Ministers
of Religion to the American Federation of Labor, which was then
meeting in Chicago. The same committee was also instructed to at¬
tend the conference summoned by the American Federation to discuss
the question of the relief of the unemployed. This committee was to
report to the adjourned conference which was held a week later. The
representatives named by the conference attended the Federation of
Labor and expressed their hearty sympathy with the object of the la¬
bor unions. They were very courteously received by the President,
and there was a feeling on both sides that the visit was timely and
useful. The committee also attended the conference summoned by
the Civic Federation, at which the Central Relief Association was
founded.
On December 18, the adjourned conference met in order to discuss
the question as to how the Church of God in Chicago could best be
organized as a unit for the relief of the poor and for the realization in
Chicago of the prayer : " Thy will be done on earth as it is in
Heaven." Accompanying the circular summoning the conference
there was appended a schedule of information which it was suggested
would facilitate the work of the conference if it were filled in by each
minister of religion.
462 If Christ Came to Chicago.
As a number of inquiries have been made as to this schedule, it may
be well to reprint it here.
Ward No Precinct No
If the Church of Chicago were Organized as a Unit.
I would undertake to be responsible in the name of my church and congrega¬
tion for the district lying between on the north, and on the sonth,
and between on the east, and on the west.
Estimated population ; of above are church goers, and non-English
speaking.
Our church building seats persons, and is occupied days in the week. We
have — rooms available for social or civic service, seating persons. Of these
are occupied days in the week.
We have....enrolled members of above are engaged more or less actively
in churchwork. In the Sunday School children are on the books and teach¬
ers, with an average attendance of
In connection with our church we have the following branches of social work
in progress:
Temperance
Purity
Economics.
Civic Duties ■
Education
Philanthropy
Music
Sanitation
Recreation
The capital invested in our church buildings, etc.. is atxmt Dollars
and we raise annually for all purposes Dollars.
In the district for which my church is responsible, the following are among the
influences detrimental to the social welfare; Wehave places of business open on
Sunday, which deprive employes of their weekly rest from labor.
Wehave saloons and houses for the sale of intoxicants. Of these are of
average character, are bad, and are very bad.
We have notorious houses of ill fame, containing inmates. There are
massage houses with inmates, and other resorts maintained for purposes of
immorality.
We have gaminghouses and resorts of betting men.
Wehave sweating shops, or factories, where men, women and chil¬
dren work in conditions of labor which render it impossible for them to be either
happy, healthy or human.
Among the agencies of service in the district in all of which my church is more
or less actively Interested are the following :
Police station with policemen schools with scholars school attend¬
ance officers and teacners playgrounds for children covered playrooms,
Happy Evenings Associations gymnasia Recreative Evenings Associa¬
tions for youths technical classes cooking classes, university extension
lectures public reading room,... people's institutes, temperance saloons,
... drinking flnintains temperance societies, night refuges good lodg¬
ing houses labor registries labor unions' offices, thrift agencies, relief
agencies maternity homes homes for deserted children societies for
crippled and blind hospitals convalescent homes, sick nurses visitoi s
of sick fresh air fund,... flower mission, early closing associations ^ul
day rest associations societies for prevention of cruelty to animals.
(Signed) Minister.
Address
Of the Church
Address
denomination
The attempt was nearly shipwrecked by objections taken to the ad¬
mission of Catholics, Jews and Unitarians. Were they Ministers of
Religion? What was Religion ? I answered, " Pure religion and unde-
filed before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and
widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the
world. "
Appendices.
463
ïhe objectors collapsed, and after a somewhat desultory discussion
a committee of organization was appointed with instructions to meet
as soon as possible and to report what should be done, both in
relation to the relief of the poor, and for the efiFective realization of
the force of the Church of God in the cause of righteousness. This
committee decided to put itself in communication with the Re¬
lief Association, and to undertake what could be done in the way of
districting the city, and organizing a house to house visitation which
was necessitated by existing distress. They further determined to con¬
stitute an Executive Committee which would represent all denomina¬
tions, including the Catholics and the Jews, for the purpose of carry¬
ing out the rest of the programme. This Executive Committee, which
met for the first time on January 15, had before it the question of
securing one day's rest in seven for the Retail Clerks. Mr. O'Brien of
the Retail Clerks' Association attended and made a statement, calling
attention to the extent to which the action of three individuals in the
various districts of the town impeded the closing of stores in the even¬
ing, and also made a statement as to the reasons which induced the
Retail Clerks to appeal to the City Council for the purpose of securing
legal protection for one day's rest in seven. The Rev. Jenkin Lloyd
Jones was appointed to see the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
to which the ordinance had been referred by the Council. On January
22, the committee met and passed a resolution assuring Mayor Hop¬
kins of the support of the churches if his administration would keep
the gaming houses closed. On January 29, it was decided to hold a
conference at some future date at the Willard Hall, for the purpose of
uniting all the churches in the campaign for honesty and pure gov¬
ernment at the aldermanic elections.
The Executive Committee represents all the churches, as will be seen
from the following list :
Baptist—Rev. O. P. GifFord, D. D., 4543 Greenwood Avenue.
Independent—Prof. David Swing, D. D., 66 Lake Shore Drive.
Jewish—Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, D. D., 36[2 Grand Boulevard.
Reformed Episcopal—Bishop Samuel Fallows, D. D., 967 West
Monroe Street.
Unitarian—Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, D. D., 3939 Langley Avenue.
Episcopal—Rev. Floyd Tomkins, D. D., 310 Superior St.
Methodist—Rev. Arthur Edwards, D. D., 57 Washington Street.
Rev. R. S. Martin, D. D., 142 Locust Street.
Prof. A. W. Small, Ph. D., Chicago University.
Prof. Graham Taylor, D. D., West Side Theological Seminary.
Lutheran—Prof. R. F. Weidner, D. D., 1311 Sheffield Avenue.
Presbyterian—Rev. J. G. Inglis, D. D., 6518 Woodlawn Park.
Congregational—Rev. J. G. Johnson, D. D., 7 Ritchie Place.
liev. R. A. Torrey, D. D., Moody's Bible Institute.
Presbyterian—Rev. Thomas C. Hall, D. D., 425 North State Street.
Wm. a. Burch, Secretary, Argyle Park
But before long it is hoped that a Catholic priest may be found who
will be willing to serve side by side with his brethren outside the
Roman fire in the interest of the city.
It was not intended to have any elaborate organization but it was
proposed that the committee should meet fortnightly and on occasion
464
If Christ Came to Chicago.
when (questions arose of sufficient importance they would summon all
the Ministers of Religion in Chicago to a conference to concert action
and to consider what should be done.
The task of organizing the ministers of religion as a whole has
been made in several towns in the United Kingdom and has been par¬
tially successful in some towns in the United States. One of the earli¬
est efforts made in the United Kingdom was made at Newcastle-on-
Tyne and in Liverpool, where representative conferences were called
consisting of representatives of all the churches for purposes of dis¬
cussing such questions as gambling, the social evil, drunkenness, the
treatment of the poor and so forth. In England the concerted action
of ministers of religion has been for the most upon less broad
lines than those laid down in Chicago. In Bradford, Birmingham,
Halifax and Leeds, and other similar towns where the ministers have
met together and have undertaken a house to house visitation for the
purpose of making a census of church attendants and a list of all chil¬
dren of school age in the Sunday Schools, there has been an attempt
to exclude the Unitarians and neither the Catholics nor the Episco¬
palians have taken part in the work. It is thought possible that i n
Chicago where the differences are not so marked as in the Old World
ministers of all religions and all creeds may unite in common
effort in order to survey the city as a whole from the point of view
of the Church of God in order to ascertain what districts remain
to be occupied and what work there is which they can better under-
Jtake collectively than otherwise.
The questions raised at the Central Music Hall meeting seem to
have made a deep impression upon one of the papers, where it least
might have been expected. The Chicago Mail ever since the Music
Hall meeting[s has been publishing articles more or less avowedly sug¬
gested by the discussion on that occasion. Its first series was in refer¬
ence to the vices of the city to which reference has been made in the
text of this book. The second was an attempt to ascertain the amount
of capital locked up in church buildings in Chicago, the number of
church members ana the total annual revenue raised by them from all
sources. The Mail set out with a thesis of its own to prove, its object
being to impress upon the minds of the public that the millions sunk
in church property were more or less wasted and that the amount
spent in running the churches of Chicago was far in excess of what was
justifiable considering the hardship of the times and the ideal poverty
of primitive Christianity. Suppose, said the Mail, with all reverence
and love, the Man of Nazareth were to come to Chicago to-day and
survey the work of the churches, what would He think of it all ? The
leaven seems to be working although in strange places. We may not
agree with all the answers made to the question but the fact that it is
being asked on all sides is a hopeful sign for the future spiritual and
social life of Chicago.
The following is a table summarizing the results of the Mail's un¬
critical inquiry :
Appendices.
465
DENOMINATIONS.
Connegational
Methodist Episcopal
Presbyterian
Episcopal
Baptist
Uuiversalist
Unitarian
Jewish
Reformed Episcopal
Lutheran
Outside Lutheran ...
Roman Catholic
Total
ö s
■SÄ
10,890
15.703
12,941
23.247
12,228
900
1,200
1.115
1,108
58,000
50,000
500,000
687,341
S*
■a
u
Jio3,328
170,824
267,637
357.907
178,072
39 200
34,000
82,000
23.530
188,500
85,000
635.900
$168,623
38,205
107,071
47.351
41,971
1.750
2,000
49,700
9.364
»2,055,897
$466,035
Appendix E.
THE CIVIC FEDERATION OF CHICAGO.
At the Conference which I held in Central Music Hall in November,
1893, I had an opportunity of setting forth the idea of a Civic Church
or Federation of all good citizens, in the hearing of a large and rep¬
resentative audience. After some discussion it was unanimously de¬
cided to choose a committee of nominators who should call together a
representative committee of leading citizens for the purpose of discuss¬
ing the question with a view to action. That committee was chosen
and in due course of time it evolved the body known as the Civic Fed¬
eration of Chicago.
The following is the Chronology of the foundation of the Civic
Federation of Chicho, the text of the Constitution and the names of
the members and officers :
Nov. 12, 1893,—Formation of Civic Federation suggested and approved
at meeting at Central Music Hall and committee of
nominators of a temporary committee of inquiry ap¬
pointed : Mr. T. W. Harvey (Business), Miss Addams
(Philanthropy), Rev. Dr. Thomas (Religion), Profes¬
sor Bemis ^Education), and Mr. O'Brien (Labor.)
Nov. 17. —^The following was the form of notice sent out by T. W.
Harvey, as the Chairman of the Committee of Nom¬
ination, to those nominated to serve on the Joint
Executive Committee :
The committee named at the Central Music Hall meeting Sunday night to ap¬
point an Executive Committee to take in charge the establishment of the proposed
Civic Federation in this city, begs leave to inform you of your appointment as a
member of the committee.
The object of this organization briefly and in general terms, is the concentra¬
tion into one potential, non-political, non-sectarian center all the forces that are
now lalxiring to advance our municipal, philanthropic, industrial and religious
interests, and to accomplish all that is possible towards energizing and giving
effect to the public conscience of Chicago
466
If Christ Came to Chicago.
It it not expected to accomplish all this in one day, but all great movements
must have a beginnings, and a consultation with a great many orour leading citi¬
zens of all classes who desire to see Chicago one of the best governed, the healthiest
and cleanest city in this country, leads us to believe that now is the time to begin.
Especially do we believe it opportune that such a movement should begin while
our people are yet filled with the new ideas, new ambitions and inspirations drawn
from the great Exposition and its most valuable adjunct, the World's Congresses.
An early acceptance of this appointment is earnestly desired.
Dec. —Committee nominates a provisional committee.
First meeting at the Palmer House.
Conference summoned on the condition of unem¬
ployed.
Central Relief Association formed.
Jan. —Committee appointed on organization, Judge Collins,
Dr. Hirsch, Prof. Small and Mr. Easley.
Feb. 3, 1894.—Civic Federation incorporated at Springfield.
INCORPORATORS.
T. W. Harvey, J. J. McGrath, Lyman J. Gage,
A. C. Bartlett, Ada C Sweet, M. J. Carroll,
Bertha H. Palmer, Emil G. Hirsch, O. P. Gifibrd,
James W. Scott, L. C. Collins, Jane Addams,
Sarah HackettStevenson, F. MacVeagh, W. P. Nixon.
CONSTITUTION.
The text of the Constitution of the Federation is as follows :
Name—This corporation shall be called The Civic Federation of Chicago.
Purpose—The purpose of this Federation shall be :
I. "The coucentraiion into one potential, non-political, non-sectarian center of
all the forces that are now laboring to advance our municipal, philanthropic, in¬
dustrial and moral interests, and to accomplish all that is possible towards energiz¬
ing and giving eflect to the public conscience of Chicago.
a. To serve as a medium of acquaintance and syi^athy between persons who
reside in the different parts of the city, who pursue different vocations, who are by
birth of different nationalities, who profess different creeds or no creed, who for
any of these reasons are unknown to each other, who nevertheless have similar
interests in the well being of Chicago and who agree in the wish to promote every
kind of municipal welfare.
3. To place municipal administration on a purely business basis, by securing
the utmost practicable separation of municipal issues from state and national
politics.
Methods—The means employed by the Federation will be investigation, publica¬
tion, agitation and organization, together with the exercise of every moral in¬
fluence needed to carry into effect the purpose of the Federation.
MANAGEMENT OP THE FEDERATION.
Management—There shall be a central council, consisting of one hundred mem¬
bers, the Mayor of Chicago being ex-officio a member. "The incorporators shall
constitute the council until the first annual meeting. At the first annual meeting
the incorporators shall appoint ninety-nine councilors, to be divided by lot into
three equal groups, the same to hold office for one. two and three years respec¬
tively. Ateach subsequent annual meetingthe vacancies in the council,occasioned
by the expiration of terms of office, shall be filled by vote of the remaining council.
The membership of the central council may be increased by the addition of one
delegate from each ward organization. As soon as practicable, branch ward
organizations shall be formed, and each of these branches may elect annually a
representative to the council, to serve one year. The council shall elect annually
from itaown members the board of trustees, to consist of a president, two vice-
presidents, a secretary, a treasurer, a legal adviser, a general organizer and eight
other members. The Board of Trustees shall also be the executive committee of
the council. The officersof the Board of Trustees shall be the officers of the council.
They shall hold office for one year, or until their successors have ousHfied.
Appendices.
467
DIVISIONS INTO DEPARTMENTS.
Departmfnts—The work of the Federation shall be divided into the following
departments :
Municipal.
Philanthropic.
Industrial.
Educational and Social,
Moral Reform.
Departments may be subdivided as the council may from time to time determine.
Amendments—The purpose and methods herein indicated may be modified or
extended, as occasion may demand, by a two-thirds vote of those present at any
regularly called meeting of the council.
Branch Organiratioii—Twenty-five or more citizens, who are residents of a ward
in which there is no branch organization, may at any time form a branch of the
Federation. No organization shall be deemed a ward branch of the Federation
until it has been recognized as such by the council. Said council shall always have
power to pass upon the regularity and good faith of any ward organization, and
upon the quali&ations of any person claiming to represent, or be a candidate of,
or a delegate from such an organization. There shall not be more than one want
organization in any ward, but there may be as many precinct councils as the ward
may deem expedient to authorize in its respective precincts.
Feb. 5, 1894.—First meeting of the council at the Palmer House.
Feb. 15. —Meeting of Council at Commerce Club to elect officers.
OFFICERS.
President—Lyman J. Gage.
First Vice-President—Mrs. Potter Palmer.
Second Vice-President—J. J. McGrath.
Secretary—R. M. Easley.
Treasurer—E. S. Dreyer.
Trustees—J. J. Lineban, M. J. Carroll, T. W. Harvey, L. C. Collins,
Jane Addams, Ada C. Sweet, Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson, Franklin
MacVeagh, G. E. Adams, E. B. Butler.
In the absence of President Lyman J. Gage Mrs. Potter Palmer,
First Vice-President of the Civic Federation, called a meeting of the
trustees on February 20. at the Palmer House, to appoint the standing
committees required by the by-laws of the Federation :
Political—L. C. Collins, John J. McGrath, E. S. Dreyer, John F.
Scanlan George E. Adams, J. W. Ela, Victor F. Lawson, Franklin Mac¬
Veagh, R. W. Patterson, Jr., Wm. Penn Nixon, Carter Harrison, Slason
Thompson, J. W. Scott, A. C. Hesing. The seven representatives of the
press in the Federation will also be asked to co-operate with all the
department committees.
Ways and Means—^T. W. Harvey, Arthur Ryerson, George E. Adams,
Wm. Penn Nixon, E. S. Dreyer, Z. S. Holbrook, A. C. Honore, E. B.
Butler, J. Irving Pearce.
Municipal—Professor John Gray, W. A. Giles, W. J. Onahan, Mar¬
shall Field, Professor E. W. Bemis, M. J. Carroll, Ada C. Sweet, Mrs.
H. W. Duncanson, J. W. Ela.
Industrial—James J. Linehan, M. H. Madden, August Jacobson, Mrs.
Potter Palmer, Mrs. Charles Henrotin, W. J. Niestadt, Frank Sweeney,
Jane Addams, Dr. H. W. Thomas.
Philanthropic—Mrs. J. M. Flower, T. W. Harvey, Professor Albion
W. Small, Professor Graham Taylor, J. J. Ryaii, Mrs. W. J. Chalmers,
H. N. Higinbotham, Dr. Sarah H. Stevenson, C. S. H. Mixer.
Morals—Rev. O. P. Gifford, Edwin D. Wheelock, Cvrus H. McCor-
mick, L. T. O'Brien, H. H. Van Meter, Rev. Frank M. Bristol, Rev.
M. c! Ranseen, Rev. Floyd Tomkins, Dr. Arthur Edwards.
4^8 If Christ Came to Chicago.
Educational and Social—Mrs. H. M. Wilmarth, Mrs. Marion F.
Washburn, John McLaren, Emil G. Hirsch, William C. Ames, M. R.
Grady, G. Fred Rush, Professor Bamberger, Bishop Fallows.
By vote Mrs. Palmer was requested to call a special meeting of the
general council of one hundred for Tuesday evening, February 27, to
receive the recommendation of the committee on political action, and
to decide how the Federation can be the most effective in the coming
campaign.
LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE FEDERATION UP TO FEBRUARY.
Geo. R. Peck 611 Monadnock.
Prank Sweeney Commerce Building.
John J. McGrath, Pres't Trades Assembly.394 South Paulina Street.
L. T. O'Biien 214 Washington Boulevard.
M. J. Carroll 148 Monroe Street.
T. J. Griffin 177 North I.awndale Avenue.
Prank Kidd i8s Barclay Street.
M. H. Madden. Pres't State Fed. of Labor .86 Bda Street.
Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson 322 North State Street.
Mrs. Marion Poster Washburn 555 West Jackson Street.
T. W. Harvey 825 Rookery.
Cyman J. Gage First National Bank.
J. Irving Pearce Proprietor Sherman House.
Franklin MacVeagh Lake and Wabash Avenue,
Rev. E. G. Hirsch 36i2Grand Boulevard.
Rev. O. P. Gifford 4543 Greenwood Avenue.
Mrs. W J. Chalmers 234 Ashland Bonlevard.
Bishop Pillows 967 West Monroe Street.
Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones 3939Langley Avenue.
W. J. Niestadt 14 Tell Place.
Rev. Dr. Thomas 536 West Monroe Street.
Prof. Edward W. Semis Chicago University.
Prof. Albion Small Chicago University.
R. M. Easley Inter Ocean.
J. W. Scott Chicago Herald.
Melville E. Stone Globe National Bank.
Dr. Bayard Holmes 36 Washington Street, Room 914.
A. C. Hesing Pres't Staats Zeitung Co.
Prof. R. D. Sheppard Northwestern University, Bvanston, 111.
Prof. Graham Taylor Chicago Theological Seminary.
Mrs. J. M. Flower Ontario House.
Mrs. Potter Palmer 100 Lake Shore Drive.
Mrs. Charles Henrotin Walton Flats. Walton Place.
Miss Ada Sweet 175 Dearborn Street, Room 82.
Miss Jane Addams 3« South Halated Street.
John J. Mitchell Illinois Trust and Savings Bank.
Rev. P. J. Muldoon 3" Superior Street.
Wm. Penn Nixon Inter Ocean.
Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers Evanston. 111.
U. S. H. Mixer Woodruff Hotel.
A. C. Bartlett 32 Lake Street.
Prof. Gray Northwestern University, Evanston, 111.
Judge L. c. Collins Rookery.
Aiel F. Hatch Title and Trust Bdg., too Washington St.
Wm. Crear 263 South Washtenaw Avenue.
J. J. Ryan, Pres't Building Trades Council. 199 Randolph Street.
M R.Grady 478 Marshfield Avenue.
John Anderson 185 North Peoria Street.
L. W. Kadlec I79 West 12th Street.
Lloyd G. Wheeler "9 Dearborn Street.
Mr Bamett 184 Dearborn Street.
Edwin D. Wheelock 99 Washington Street.
W. H. Tatge 79 Deartiom Street, Room 644.
Charles J. Holmes 9' Dearborn Street, Room 601.
Rev. M. C. Ranseen B79 West Huron Street.
Rev. T. F. Caahman 65'! West Jackson Street.
Rev E. D. Kelly West 12th Street, corner May Street.
Appendices. 469
E. F. Rennacker 185 West Madison Street.
Mrs. H. M. Wilniarth Auditorium Annex.
C. A. Mair 169 Jackson Street, Room 212.
Mrs. G. W. Huddleston 903 West Adams Street.
Mrs. Celia Parker Wooley Geneva, III.
Mrs. Henry L. Frank 1608 Prairie Avenue.
Mrs. Henry Solomon 4060 I.ake Avenue.
Hre. H. W. Duncanson 190 Warren Avenue.
Miss Hattie A. Shinn 115 Monroe Street.
W. J. Onaban 37 Macalister Place.
John F. Scanlan Postoffice Building:.
Z S. Holbrook 475 Dearborn Avenue.
E. B. Butler 230 Adams Street.
John H. Hamline The Temple, Room 500.
Wm. Vocke 520 LaSalle Avenue.
Luther L. Mills 122 LaSalle Street.
iohn W. Ela 1331 Unity Building:.
(r. W. R. Harper University of (:hicag:o.
Henry Wade Rog:er3 Northwestern University, Bvanston, 111.
O. S. A. Sprag:ue 2700 Prairie Avenue. •
Chas. L. Raymond 2239 Calumet Avenue.
H. N. Higinbotbam 29tb Street and Michigan Avenue.
A. C. Honore 2103 Michigan Avenue.
Prof. Bamberger Jewish Manual Training School.
C. U. Gordon 115 Dearborn Street.
Arthur Ryerson 59 Bellevue Place.
Rev. J. H. Barrows 2957 Indiana Avenue.
Rev. F. W. Gunsaulus Armour Avenue and 33d Street.
Rev. Frank Bristol Evanston, 111.
Rev. Floyd Tomkins 310 Superior Street.
Dr. Arthur Edwards 2816 Indiana Avenue.
Augustus Jacobson 1416—100 Washington Street.
Geo. E. Adams The Temple, Room 914.
E. S. Dreyer 99 Dearborn Street.
Willis G. Jackson 59 Dearborn Street, Room 403.
F. M. Atwood Clark, N. W. Corner Madison Street.
A. H. Revell Wabash Avenue.
John McLaren 2 Franklin Street.
Cyrus H. McCormick, Jr 329 Wabash Avenue.
Marshall Field Washington Street & Wabash Avenue.
Phillip Henrici 173 Madison Street.
H. H. Van Meter 21 Groveland Park.
Wm, C. Hollister 148 Monroe Street.
The Federation was organized in accordance with ideas of leading
citizens irrespective of party. Considerable difference of opinion pre¬
vailed as to the best method of constituting such an organization, but
the principle of Tammany Hall ultimately prevailed. That principle
is organization from above downwards instead of what naturally seems
to an Englishman the natural organization from the bottom upwards.
Tammany Hall, however, is undoubtedly an organization distinctly
American. It has at least vindicated its capacity to survive and it is
probably, notwithstanding some temporary reverses, one of the most
powerful political organizations in the United States.
Down the levee on Clark Street there is to be found a saloon keeper
who for twenty years was a Tammany captain in New York. He keeps
a saloon and a house of ill fame in Chicago, but he still keeps up his
connection in New York, where he is the proprietor of a hou.=e of ill-
fame, which will entitle him, no doubt, should he return to the East,
to resume his political captaincy in the ranks under the com¬
mand of Boss Croker. I saw him the night after Dr. Parkhurst had
scored his first great success over the politicians of New York. The
ex-Tammany Captain shook his head when I asked him what he
470
If Christ Came to Chicago.
thought of Dr. Parkhurst's campaign. He had no use for Dr. Park-
hurst. For a time, he thought, ne might advertise himself, which was
no douht his object, but after that everything would go on as before.
The one permanent institution in New York was Tammany.
I asked him to explain its secret. "Suppose," said I, "that I am a
newly arrived citizen in your precinct, and come to you and wish to
join Tammany, what would be required of me? "
"Sir," said he, "before anything would be required of you we would
fínd out all about you. I would size you up myself and then after I
had formed my own judgment I would send two or three trusty men
to find out all about you. Find out, for instance, whether you really
meant to work and serve Tammany or whether you were only getting
in to find out all about it. If the inquiries were satisfactory then you
would be admitted to the ranks of Tammany and would stand in with
the rest."
". What should I have to do?"
" Your first duty," said he, "would be to vote the Tammany ticket
whenever an election was on, and then to hustle around and make
every other person whom you could get hold of vote the same ticket."
" And what would I get for my trouble ?" I asked.
"Nothing," said he, "unless you needed it. I was twenty years
captain and I never got anything for myself, but if you needed any¬
thing you would get whatever was going. It might he a job that would
give you employment under the city, it might be a pull that you might
have with the aldermen in case you got into trouble, whatever it was
you would be entitled to your snare. If you get into trouble, Tam-
niany will help you out. If you are out of a job Tammany will see
that you have the first chance at whatever is going. It is a great
power, is Tammany. Whether it is with the police, or in the court or
in the City Hall you will find Tammany men everywhere and they
will stick together. There is nothing sticks so tight as Tammany."
Therein, no doubt, this worthy ex captain revealed the secret of
Tammany's success. Tammany is a brotherhood. Tammany men
stick together, and help each other.
Their members may be corrupt, their methods indefensible, but the
question for Chicago is whether or not the Civic Federation can organ¬
ize a brotherhood that will work as hard to make Chicago the ideal
city of the world as Tammany has been successful in organizing a
party which practically holds New York in the hollow of its hand. In
other words, are there as many men and women in Chicago who will
work as bard for the Kingdom of the Lord in Chicago as there are men
who will work for the rule of Tammany in New York ?
Tammany has not only organization; it has spoils and power. Power
the City Federation may have and will have if its operations are di¬
rected with energy and discretion, bnt there are no spoils. Still, if
anything is to be done in practical politics the sinews of war must not
be wanting. Many of the members of the Federation are wealthy
enough to meet the running expenses of such an organization. But
if the Federation is to root itself "deeply in every warà in the dty it
will have to democratize its finances.
'There are many persons who wish well to the work of political and
social reform in the city who cannot render much active service, but
Appendices.
471
who would be able and willing to contribute say a dime a week for the
coming of the Kingdom. If there are 10,000 men and women in Chi¬
cago who are sufficiently in earnest about the regeneration of the cit^
to subscribe the cost of a cigar a week for the attainment of their
ideal the war chest of the Civic Federation would be able to command
$50,000 a year. With that sum a great deal might be done.
Appendix F.
WHAT THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL HAS DONE
FOR LABOR.
The following brief outline of the way in which the labor unions
of London have used the London City Council for the purpose of im¬
proving the condition of the wage-earners may not be without interest
10 the unionists of Chicago. By means of a hearty working alliance
wiih the non-conformist churches and the temperance and other so¬
cieties, the trades unions of London succeeded in 1889 in electing a
uiajority of representatives on the Council, pledged to do what they
could to improve the condition of labor in London. John Burns, the
engineer, who was the hero of the great dock strike, was elected as a
rejiresentative of labor to the Council, and from the first sittings his
genius, his eloquence and business capacity, his absolute honesty
and transparent sincerity, made him one of the most infiiiential mem¬
bers. The lalior policy of the London Council was largely dictated
by him, and it has become a model for the most democratic municipál-
ities iu the kingdom.
The following is a brief summary of what the London County
Council, under the leadership of John Burns, has succeeding in doing
for labor :
** Fair " wages established in all cases.
Sub-letting and sub-contracting abolished except for work that contractors could
not do in ormnary manner.
Practical clerk of works employed in each case where work of any trade is un¬
dertaken.
A maximum week of fifty-four hours established.
No man to work more than six days.
Where continuous working goes on. and two twelve-hour shifts were the rule,
three shifts of eight hours are now observed.
Overtime abolished.
Contract labor abolished.
In works of maintenance connected with parks, bridges, highways, all classes
of men—such as painters, laborers, engineers, scavengers, carpenters, etc.—em¬
ployed direct.
Firemeu, extra holidays.
Pensions are now gjranted to all retiring employes instead of as
formerly only to the higher officials. The wages of the employes of
the Council have been raised by $250,000 a year.
All the foregoing relates to what the Council has done when it di¬
rectly employs labor. The police force in London is not under the
control of the Council. Neither are the school teachers; they are
controlled by a School Board, not by the Council. None of the em¬
ployes of the London Council are engaged for political reasons, nor
are any dismissed on account of politics. But, not reckoning the
police and the teachers, the London Council is one of the largest em-
472 If Christ Came to Chicago.
ployers of labor in the kingdom. It sets an example in insisting upon
human conditions of service for its workmen and in doing so has done
an incalculable amount of good.
But, great as this is, it is less far-reaching than the action which
the Council took in deciding that no contracts shall be let to contrac¬
tors who keep sweat shops or refuse to concede to their workmen the
union rates of wages and hours of labor. This step was taken in 1889
when the following resolution was passed which struck at the root of
the system which nad previously prevailed of accepting the lowest
tender without any regard to the conditions which the contractors ex¬
acted from their workmen :
That the Council shall require from any persons formally tendering for any con¬
tract to the Council a declaration that they will pay such rate of wages and observe
such hours of labor as are generally accepted as fair in their trade, und in the
event of any charges to the contrary being established against them, the tender
siy>uld not be accepted.
Mr. H. M. Massingham, one of the ablest of English journalists,
writing in the Daily Chrofiicle upon this charter of London labor,
says :
Here,-then, was a direct blow at the sweating system, at which the pulpit, the
press, and politicians had been hammering blows for half a century without ever
substantially impairing its direful sway. In other words, the great moral problem
of the treatment of labor was placed in the hands of the workmen's organizations
as the only bodies callable of guaranteeing a righteous system. The Council's res¬
olution has been carried out with unflinching sternness, and its result has been to
mitigate in favor of the workers of I/indon the whole system of accepting the
lowest tender. Under it the employer who cuts his estimate for public work in the
hope of sweating his profit out of ill-paid and ill-organized labor finds to-day his
oceupation gone. Linked with this reform was another of equal importance. The
Council decided that it would be impossible to allow the contractor to slip out of
his engagements to bis workmen by letting out his business to another man.
They therefore decided to forbid sub-letting and sub-contracting, save In those
cases where work lay outside the ordinary scope of the contractor's trade. This
regulation has not only been laid down, but enforced; and one fine of j^'soo was in¬
flicted as a warning, which it has not been found necessary to repeat. The petty
sweating jobmaster has thus been eliminated, for the good of every creature ex¬
cept himself.
In other directions the same beneficent spirit is manifested. It
h<is established bands in the parks, laid out and beautified hundreds
of acres of common lands, has made playgpronnds for children and has
enormously raised the standard of the music hall entertainments in
London. It has established a municipal lodging house for single
men, and is steadily working to acquire possession of the street rail¬
ways, the water and gas works, and the markets, in order that it
may use all these monopolies of service to cheapien the cost of living
for the poor, and to remove the obstacles which at present stand
in the way of their leading a human life. The policy of the Council
has been strongly in favor of temperance. The chairman of the
Council is a strong tempranee man, and the majority of the members
are deadly enemies of the saloon. I need hardly say that no saloon
keeper was brought forward on either side as a candidate at the last
election, nor if any had been would he have had the remotest chance of
being elected. If these things can be done in London, why cannot
they be done in Chicago by the labor unions acting together with the
other moral and religious forces of the town ?