Chicago's Dim Past

No study of the history of Chicago would be complete without an understanding of its natural origin or its founding. While my focus is primarily the late 19th and early 20th century, Early Chicago is a website dedicated to the city’s ancient and earlier history. Based on the self-published book Early Chicago: A Compendium of the Early History of Chicago to the Year 1835, when the Indians left by Ulrich Danckers and Jane Meredith, the authors take us back to a time when “one could stand on the lake dunes and gaze west across a prairie stretching to the horizon. With luck or by chance, clouds of passenger pigeons might pass overhead,darkening the sky.”

Early Chicago offers many opportunities for study and research. You'll find a chronology that outlines the geological formation of the site that would some day become Chicago going back to the creation of the universe. Also included are maps, as early as 1507, an encyclopedia, essays by noted scholars and an extensive bibliography.

I'm looking forward to reading the book, which is available for purchase on the website. As a fan of James Michener, I always enjoyed the first chapter or so of his novels when he would dig into the natural history and formation of an area, such as in Hawaii. I think every historian has a touch of the poet in them and from what I have read on the website, the authors are clearly in that category. Both the website and the book on Early Chicago promise to satisfy my frustrated archeologist's desires in my study of the city and are a recommended preface to my feeble offerings.

For more information on Chicago's natural origins you might want to add the following to your library:

A Natural History of the Chicago Region by Joel Greenberg
Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon
The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History by Libby Hill

Sweet Home Chicago

A Small House with "Lots of Room in It' By Frank Lloyd Wright NINTH DESIGN IN THE JOURNAL'S NEW SERIES OF MODEL SUBURBAN HOUSES AT MODERATE COST

THE average home-maker is partial to the gable roof. This house has been designed with a thorough, somewhat new treatment of the gable with gently flaring eaves and pediments, slightly lifted at the peaks, accentuating the perspective, slightly modeling the roof surfaces and making the outlines "crisp."

The plan disregards somewhat the economical limit in compact planning to take advantage of light, air and prospect, the enjoyable things one goes to the suburbs to secure. With modern systems of heating a distinct freedom in arrangement, denied to earlier builders, is made not only possible, but may be made comfortable with modest outlay. Two large rooms, with an entry performing the function of a little, formal social office, or a waiting-room, to relieve the living-room of undesirable pressure, together with a simple arrangement of stairs and a working department, make up the scheme of the main floor.


IN THIS case the dining-room is made the '' feature," with a little indoor garden closing the perspective at its farther end. The dining-table commands the outdoor garden at the rear, and the low windows on the gallery to the street front, the whole countering upon a simple fireplace of brick which combines with the comfortable breadth of fireplace in the living-room. The dining-room is so coupled with the living-room that one leads naturally into the other without destroying the privacy of either.

The living-room is still the heart of the house, and hap access to both gallery and terrace, and gives an interesting glimpse of entry and stair landing.
The working department is roomy and convenient. The range is set within a brick-lined, brick-floored alcove, formed by the two fireplaces, the space overhead ventilated into a chimney flue. The servants' stairway reaches the landing of the main stairway, and the servants' room and bath are situated over this landing, midway between the second and attic floors. The kitchen entry is from the side, and combines with the cellarway to avoid unsightly excrescences.

As the house is free in arrangement, and the main rooms large, a simplicity of material and treatment is necessary. The exterior is plastered with cement plaster. The interior, trimmed with Georgia pine, without mouldings, put on over rough plaster, together with the Georgia pine floors, is to be stained one coat. The outside woodwork, except shingles, is also to be stained. Paint and varnish are not used.

A COMBINATION hot-water apparatus would serve to heat the house perfectly, hot air in the main body of the house, and radiation in the dining-room and entry.
The cost of the house proper, exclusive of grading and walks, would approximate:
Masonry and Stone Water-Table . .$1100.00
Plastering........... 600.00
Carpentry and Hardware..... 2950.00
Heating........... 375.00
Plumbing, Sewer and Gas Fitting . . 450.00
Staining and Glass....... 300.00
Electric Wiring......... 60.00
Total.......... . . $5835-00
The block plans at the lower corners of the page show two schemes for placing the house upon an inside, one-hundred-foot lot. One, as shown in perspective view, broad side to the street; the other alongside the depth of the lot.

Editor's Note — As a guarantee that the plan of this house is practicable and that the estimates for cost are conservative, the architect is ready to accept the commission of preparing the working plans and specifications for this house to cost $5835.00, providing that the building site selected is within reasonable distance of a base of supplies where material and labor may be had at the standard market rates.

The above advertisement is from the Ladies Home Journal Vol.XVIII, No. 8 July, 1901. I found it while researching on the Harvard University Library site, Women Working, 1800-1930. It includes digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard University's library and museum collections that explore women's roles in the US economy between the beginning of the nineteenth century and the Great Depression.

I find this ad intriguing.

According to J. H. Delmar's Wright on the Web: A Virtual Look at the Works of Frank Lloyd Wright, "Through the turn of the century, Wright's distinctively personal style was evolving, and his work in these years foreshadowed his so-called "prairie style," a term deriving from the publication in 1901 of "A Home in a Prairie Town" which he designed for the Ladies' Home Journal.

"Prairie houses were characterized by low, horizontal lines that were meant to blend with the flat landscape around them. Typically, these structures were built around a central chimney, consisted of broad open spaces instead of strictly defined rooms, and deliberately blurred the distinction between interior space and the surrounding terrain. Wright acclaimed "the new reality that is space instead of matter" and, about architectural interiors, said that the "reality of a building is not the container but the space within." The W.W. Willits house, built in Highland Park, Illinois in 1902, was the first house that embodied all the elements of the prairie style. His masterpiece of the prairie style is the Robie House, built in Chicago in 1909."

Wright built about 49 homes similar to the one in the ad between 1893 and 1901. And his open concept was an off shoot of the open space theory of the City Beautiful movement.

But, Chicago was an extremely socially polarized city at the turn of the century that had rapidly expanded with the arrival of the railroads, expansion of industry and the wave of immigrants who flooded the city seeking a better life and the American dream.

The typical immigrant in 1901 would definitely not have been able to afford Wright's house. Their home buying experience was described in Upton Sinclair's muckraking novel The Jungle (link to the text at right).

In Chapter 4, the immigrant working class Lithuanian family of Jurgis Rudkus contemplates buying a home:

Their good luck, they felt, had given them the right to think about a home; and sitting out on the doorstep that summer evening, they held consultation about it, and Jurgis took occasion to broach a weighty subject. Passing down the avenue to work that morning he had seen two boys leaving an advertisement from house to house; and seeing that there were pictures upon it, Jurgis had asked for one, and had rolled it up and tucked it into his shirt. At noontime a man with whom he had been talking had read it to him and told him a little about it, with the result that Jurgis had conceived a wild idea.

He brought out the placard, which was quite a work of art. It was nearly two feet long, printed on calendered paper, with a selection of colors so bright that they shone even in the moonlight. The center of the placard was occupied by a house, brilliantly painted, new, and dazzling. The roof of it was of a purple hue, and trimmed with gold; the house itself was silvery, and the doors and windows red. It was a two-story building, with a porch in front, and a very fancy scrollwork around the edges; it was complete in every tiniest detail, even the doorknob, and there was a hammock on the porch and white lace curtains in the windows. Underneath this, in one corner, was a picture of a husband and wife in loving embrace; in the opposite corner was a cradle, with fluffy curtains drawn over it, and a smiling cherub hovering upon silver-colored wings. For fear that the significance of all this should be lost, there was a label, in Polish, Lithuanian, and German – "Dom. Namai. Heim." "Why pay rent?" the linguistic circular went on to demand. "Why not own your own home? Do you know that you can buy one for less than your rent? We have built thousands of homes which are now occupied by happy families." – So it became eloquent, picturing the blissfulness of married life in a house with nothing to pay. It even quoted "Home, Sweet Home," and made bold to translate it into Polish – though for some reason it omitted the Lithuanian of this. Perhaps the translator found it a difficult matter to be sentimental in a language in which a sob is known as a gukcziojimas and a smile as a nusiszypsojimas.

Over this document the family pored long, while Ona spelled out its contents. It appeared that this house contained four rooms, besides a basement, and that it might be bought for fifteen hundred dollars, the lot and all. Of this, only three hundred dollars had to be paid down, the balance being paid at the rate of twelve dollars a month. These were frightful sums, but then they were in America, where people talked about such without fear. They had learned that they would have to pay a rent of nine dollars a month for a flat, and there was no way of doing better, unless the family of twelve was to exist in one or two rooms, as at present. If they paid rent, of course, they might pay forever, and be no better off; whereas, if they could only meet the extra expense in the beginning, there would at last come a time when they would not have any rent to pay for the rest of their lives.

The family scrapes together the down payment and moves in. By Chapter 10 Jurvis is beginning to find out about the hidden costs - taxes, insurance, city improvements - that will steal more from his meager income. And, by Chapter 18 the family has lost the house and their money. It was a typical result due to the precarious position that the immigrants held;they could loose their income for any number of reasons and there were hundreds of fresh immigrants who would gladly take their place in the packinghouses or factories.

So, when I see this ad - and the others like it by Wright's contemporaries - I think of the two Chicago's. You can get a lot of history from one little magazine advertisement...

(Photo:From Wikipedia article on Frank Lloyd Wright)

* * * * *

For anyone interested, I'd like to recommend City of American Dreams: A History of Home Ownership and Housing Reform in Chicago, 1871-1919 by Margaret Garb. I have also added links on the right side of the page to some excellent sites on Frank Lloyd Wright.

A Holiday Break

"Chicago History" will be on a Christmas break until December 27th. But, I leave you with this seasonal treat:






Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse by Eugene Field

Ghosts of Chicago Christmas Past

The Chicago Daily News archive has five wonderful pages of photos of "Christmas Activities" in old Chicago. The picture here is of shoppers bustling along State Street in front of Marshall Field's. The picture was taken in ca. 1905. (I chose this picture purposefully. I'm in mourning. You remember Marshall Field's, don't you...sigh.)

(Photo: DN-0002541, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.)

The Christmas Tree Ship

The Fate of the Christmas Tree Ship

It was late November and the sights and sounds of the holiday season were creeping into the bustling city of Chicago. Each year, the arrival of the creaking old three-masted schooner Rouse Simmons served as a signal for the beginning of the Christmas season. The schooner always ended her shipping season by bringing to Chicago a large and profitable cargo of Christmas trees.

Along with the annual tree buyers, peg-legged and bearded Claud Winters eagerly awaited the arrival of the Rouse Simmons Claud and Captain Schunemann, owner and master of the ship, had an unusual bond. Although their lives were quite different, they seemed to understand and sympathize with each other.

Claud was softhearted under his rough outer appearance. As a child he had lost a leg under a boxcar, so he couldn't handle the demands of being a seafarer. Claud admired the Captain as a fearless sailor and a smart ship operator. In the great storm of 1889 the Rouse Simmons was the only sailing ship that was not severely damaged or lost.

The Captain was legendary for his stinginess and stubbornness in working with anyone who might cut into his profits. Claud would have enjoyed the thrill and adventure of a sailor's life. The Captain must have understood this about Claud because he was unusually generous to his stocky peg-legged friend. Once the Captain gave Claud a sliver dollar saying "Always keep this and you'll never be broke." Whenever they met, Claud would show him the coin and say, "Here it is Cap...still good as new and still yearning to be spent."

On the morning of November 27, 1912, Claud stomped onto the Clark Street wharf to await the early morning arrival of the Rouse Simmons. Claud had hired a group of men to unload the fragrant pine and balsam trees. When the ship was nowhere to be seen, Claud was sure the Captain was floating offshore waiting for the fog to lift so he wouldn't have to pay charges for a tug to bring him in. But by 4:00 p.m. many of Claud's hired companions had tired of waiting and left. Claud himself was feeling tired, discouraged and hungry. Many busy tugs had come upriver, but nowhere on the horizon could he see the sails or masthead lamps of the Rouse Simmons.

The year 1912 had been a devastating one for Great Lakes shippers. The worst snow storm in a century had blasted the lakes for four days in early November, destroying 10 large freighters and littering the shoreline with debris. Four hundred seamen were lost in those four disastrous days.

Meanwhile Captain Schunemann was realizing he could turn a disaster into a fortune. Snow had buried tree farms in Michigan and Wisconsin. Chicago tree dealers were desperate for tree. Captain Schunemann was happy to deliver! At Thompson Harbor just southwest of Manistique, Michigan trees were being crammed into every available space on the Rouse Simmons Well into the evening the Captain had more bundles of trees tied on board the deck, row upon row. The schooner sagged under the weight of her fragrant cargo. He expected this could be the most profitable run he had ever made.

Despite stormy weather, the Rouse Simmons set sail at noon on November 25, 1912. The schooner Dutch Boy was seeking shelter when its captain spied the Rouse Simmons off his bow. He exclaimed above the howling wing, "Mother of God, look! That crazy Dutchman's going out in this, and him with every inch of canvas up."

As the Rouse Simmons swung west southwest on course toward Chicago, she was caught in deadly winds of 60 miles per hour. Every part of the ship creaked, moaned and shrieked in the howling gale. Every part of the ship creaked, moaned, and shrieked in the howling gale. Some time during the night two sailor's were sent to check the lashings. A tremendous wave swept them, along with many of the bundled trees and a small boat, into the raging seas. With less weight on board, Captain Schunemann and his first mate were able to maneuver the vessel toward shelter at Bailey's Harbor.
As fate would have it, the violent wind changed suddenly, producing a furious snowstorm and an incredible drop in temperature. A thick blanket of ice quickly thickened as the unrelenting waves pounded the ship. The situation of the Rouse Simmons was becoming more desperate each moment. Battered hatch covers could no longer prevent water from entering the hold where it quickly turned into ice on the trees.

From the station tower at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, men of the old United States Lifesaving Service sighted the Rouse Simmons flying distress signals as she continued to move low in the water, driven along by the force of the gale. A rescue team 25 miles to the south launched a surfboat in an attempt to intercept the suffering schooner. Visibility was difficult and a two hour search was unsuccessful. But suddenly there was a break in the snowstorm and the pitiful ship was sighted. She was barely afloat and resembled a mass of ice. Rescuers desperately moved full steam ahead and blinding snow again made it impossible OT see the schooner. The Rouse Simmons vanished from sight and was never seen again.

Meanwhile, Claud Winters continued to believe that the Rouse Simmons would arrive even after a note was found in a bottle on the beach in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. It said, "Friday...everybody goodbye. I guess we are all through. During the night the small boat was washed overboard. Leaking bad. Ingvald and Steve lost too. God help us. Herman Schunemann.” Chicago suffered from a shortage of Christmas trees that year.

That Christmas Eve, Claud made his daily trip to the dock. He stood in the falling snow waiting for the Rouse Simmons to arrive. The next morning a policeman found him blanketed with snow. Believing to the end that the Captain would come through, Claud’s sad life was ended. As the policeman picked up his lifeless body, a silver dollar fell from his frozen fingers and rolled into a crack in the dock, landing in the icy black water below.

It was another 10 years before evidence of the Rouse Simmons was discovered. Captain Herman Schunemann's wallet was found among the fish caught in the nets of a Wisconsin Fisherman..

This charming fable comes from US Environmental Protection Agency and the picture is by maritime artist Charles Vickery.

More on The Christmas Ship

There are three exceptional books available on the story of the Rouse Simmons:

Lives and Legends of the Christmas Tree Ships by Fred Neuschel (Visit the book's website)

The Christmas Tree Ship: The Story Of Captain Santa by Rochelle M. Pennington, with illustrations by Charles Vickery

The Historic Christmas Tree Ship: A True Story of Faith, Hope And Love by Rochelle Pennington


W. L. Vanaman (left), Captain H. Schuenemann (center), and Mr. Colberg (right standing outside near Christmas trees. (Chicago Daily News, 1909, Reference copy http://chsmedia.org/media/dn/00/0069/DN-0006926.jpg)


“The Christmas Tree Ship: Captain Herman E. Schuenemann and the Schooner Rouse Simmons” By Glenn V. Longacre
Extensive article from Prologue (The National Archives Magazine), Winter 2006, Vol 38, No. 4

The Wikipedia article on the Rouse Simmons.

"Water-logged evergreens surfaced near the site of the sinking off Two Rivers for years after, but the wreckage of the Rouse Simmons was not discovered until 1971, when a scuba diver inspecting another wreck happened upon it. It still contained hundreds of trees, and 59 years after the sinking, two trees -- obviously without needles -- were brought to Milwaukee, where one was displayed in the lobby of the Marine National Exchange Bank.

The anchor of the Rouse Simmons was also retrieved; it stands today at the entrance to the Milwaukee Yacht Club."

Wikipedia also has an article on the play, "The Christmas Schooner," which debuted at the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre in the Winter of 1995.

Recent maritime archeology by the Wisconsin Historical Society pertaining to the Fate of the Christmas Tree Ship.

And, if you aren't busy Christmas Day this year, The Weather Channel will be broadcasting the 60-minute Storm Stories Episode, "The Christmas Tree Ship: A Holiday Storm Story" at 2 PM (check local listings for correct time)

I always like to check archival newspaper reports when doing my research, and I found the following headlines from the Chicago Tribune: (I haven't been able to read the articles yet; the Chicago Tribune requires payment for even extremely old archived articles and I'm just a poor researcher. Too bad...)

December 5, 1912
'CHRISTMAS SHIP' LOST ON THE LAKE WITH 17 ON BOARDSchooner Rouse Simmons Which Annually Tied Up at Clark Street Missing HOPE NEARLY ABANDONED Wreckage and Holiday Greens Reported Washed Ashore Are the Only Clews. CAPTAIN'S WIFE ON ILL-FATED CRAFT

December 6, 1912
STILL NO TRACE OF SHIP
Relatives of Men on Christmas Craft Yet Hope for Safety. VESSEL'S YAWL IS FOUND. Search for Boat in Out of Way Harbors Will Be Continued.

December 7, 1912
TREES FROM SHIP MAY HELP WIDOWS
Sailors' Union Plans to Sell Christmas Evergreens Lost from Rouse Simmons. CHICAGOANS GIVE UP HOPE Search for Bodies Continues Among Drift on Shore at Pentwater, Mich.

December 11, 1912
SELLS WRECK TREES TODAY
Daughter of Capt. Schuenemann Offers Supposed Salvage. USE BOAT AT CLARK STREET. Mother Assists Girl in Disposing of Northern Firs.

OH, and one last message...MERRY CHRISTMAS from CHICAGO HISTORY!

Lloyd Lewis and Henry Justin Smith

I'm reading Chicago: The History of its Reputation by Lloyd Lewis and Henry Justin Smith, and I must say it is one of the most quotable Chicago history books I've read in a long time. For good reason. The book was written by two seasoned newspapermen and they knew how to turn a phrase to make impact. The photo to the left is Lewis and Smith from the Chicago Daily News negatives collection at the Chicago History Museum (DN-0088867).

Lloyd Lewis (1891-1949): "After 12 years as publicist for Balaban and Katz, in 1930 he joined the Chicago Daily News as drama critic, becoming subsequently sports editor, managing editor, and a popular columnist. A gifted raconteur rich in friendships with the great literary, artistic, political, and sports figures of his time, Lewis was an ardent Chicagoan and Midwesterner with a voracious interest in the Civil War. His published work included Chicago: The History of its Reputation (1929, with Henry Justin Smith); "Jayhawkers," a three-act Broadway play coauthored with Sinclair Lewis (1935); and highly regarded biographies of Generals Sherman and Grant. His friends included Carl Sandburg, Sherwood Anderson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Sinclair Lewis, and Adlai Stevenson." (Encyclopedia Chicago)

Not only did Lewis count Frank Lloyd Wright among his friends, but Wright designed his Libertyville home located on the Des Plaines River at 153 Little St. Mary.

My brief research on Henry Justin Smith revealed that he was Managing Editor of the Chicago Daily News. More about him was hinted in the 1931 review of his book Chicago: A Portrait. And the Newberry Library offered this short biography: "Henry Justin Smith, a native of Chicago, IL, was born in 1875 to Justin A. and Mary L. Smith. He attended the Morgan Park Military Academy and the University of Chicago.

"He became a reporter for the Chicago Daily News in 1899. He advanced as the city editor from 1901-1906, the assistant managing editor from 1906-1913, and the news editor from 1913-1924. He left the Chicago Daily News from 1924-1926, serving as assistant to the president of the University of Chicago. In 1926 he returned as managing editor. He kept this post until his death from pneumonia on February 9, 1936.

"In addition to his career as a newspaper man, Smith was also a historian and an author of fiction. He wrote several books about Chicago including Chicago: The History of its Reputation, co-authored with Lloyd Lewis. Smith wrote several popular fictional works, including Josslyn and Deadlines. In 1931, he was awarded the Chicago Foundation for Literature’s fiction prize."

Lewis and Smith also co-authored Oscar Wilde Discovers America (1892)[written in 1936] and the book is now on my "you've got to read this" list.

But, let's get back to the book written by these two gentlemen. Here's a sample from the Introduction:

"It will take a good part of a life-time to see it all. [Chicago] And by the time the observer has studied one part, he may find that another part, when he goes back to it, has changed beyond recognition.

The city has a daemon - Innovation.

It has come to the height of a passion for tearing up, improving, substituting, enlarging. It is in a frenzy of discontent with everything that was big enough for the last generation; and of course, hardly any of those things are really big enough for this one."

Those lines could have been written yesterday and, to me, they are quite poetic. Granted, I have a romantic view of history; it is a privilege and benefit of being an amateur. But, those words are just as appropriate today as in 1929 or 1893.

I like this book and wanted to share its quality writing. I've included some links for Reputation and a few other of the duo's books available on the Internet Image digitized book site, but after you get a feeling for them there, visit Alibris or Amazon or your personal favorite used book seller and get a hard copy...starting with Chicago: The History of its Reputation.

Early Chicago Tribune History

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has chosen The W.G.N. : a handbook of newspaper administration, editorial, advertising, production, circulation, minutely depicting, in word and picture, "how it’s done" / by the world’s greatest newspaper. (1922) as their “Digitized Book of the Week.” It was published in commemoration of the newspaper’s 75th birthday and is not only a look back at the paper’s history but also a fascinating glimpse of the machinery (human and otherwise) used to publish the paper. The book is loaded with illustrations. And for the few people who didn't know - Yes, the "W.G.N" in the book title, WGN radio and WGN television all stand for "World's Greatest Newspaper." Check it out.

Recent Chicago History on the Web

The Pen and Spindle has a story on “The Chicago Ambulance,” about a contingent from Chicago who fought in the Boer War in 1900.

History and Education: Past and Present spotlights Scott Newman’s great Jazz Age Chicago website.

Forgotten Chicago looks at "Public Bath Houses" of the 19th Century and "The Little House on Polk Street."

ArchitectureChicago Plus talks about the Lake Shore Athletic Club’s reprieve from the wrecking ball. The building was constructed in 1927 and designed by architect Jarvis Hunt.

Chicago Magazine’s article “Battle of the Ages” examines the contenders for the oldest house in Chicago.

Got an interesting article on Chicago history? Let me know so we can share.

Chicago Through the Eyes of the Inter-Ocean

This week's choice of digitized book is: Chicago's First Half Century, 1833-1883: the city as it was fifty years ago, and as it is today : the trade, commerce, manufactories, railroads, banks, wholesale and retail houses, theaters, hotels, churches, and school (1883)

The book was published in 1883 by the Inter-Ocean Publishing Co. According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, "The morning Chicago Republican (1865), sporting the motto “Republican in everything, Independent in nothing,” was edited briefly by Charles A. Dana and, in 1872, after passing the several hands, was renamed the Chicago Inter-Ocean, an upper-class arbiter of cultural tastes. The Inter-Ocean went into decline after 1895, when it became the property of Chicago traction boss Charles T. Yerkes, who used it as a tool in his political wars."

Read the excellent essay by Christopher Gair "Whose America? White City and the Shaping of National Identity 1883-1905" on the City Sites website for an analysis of the book and its racial implications, particularly evident during the Columbian Exposition. Continue with "The Black Presence at "White City": African and African American Participation at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, May 1, 1893 - October 31, 1893" by Christopher Robert Reed of Roosevelt University.

I wanted to find a sample of the Inter-Ocean's journalistic style, and I stumbled on this little gem at, of all places, Encyclopedia Titanica:

Special Dispatch to the Inter-Ocean
HUMAN BUZZARDS OF SEA SINK WITH TITANIC

New York, April 19.—Figures familiar to Forty-Second street will be missing in the cafes of the Great White Way when the lights are brightest as one of the results of the foundering of the Titanic. Pictures in the rogues’ gallery will be turned to the wall. The police will strike from their records the name of more than one man “wanted.”

There went down with the great White Star liner a flock of buzzards of the sea, human vampires who preyed on the passengers crossing the Atlantic, men whose mission in life inspired Wilson Mizner’s play, “The Greyhound.” It is known that at least a score of these harpies were on board the lost ocean liner.

Old time card and confidence men had been waiting on the other side for months to procure passage on the big ship, anticipating the haul of their lives. It looked to them like an orchard of big plums. Their business was to get on board and do the picking. Some of these men had been “following the sea” for years—their home was the sea. And now by one of the inscrutable tricks of fate their burial place is the sea.

It is impossible to get the names of all of them, for they invariably traveled under assumed names, sometimes as millionaires, sometimes merely as well to do manufacturers. It is known on the Great White Way that no less than a half dozen gangs of the crooks were waiting to embark on the steamer. Reports reached here that some of them got away in the lifeboats, and it is an even bet on Broadway that if there was a chance “for a minute” more than one got into the boats as a sailor or as a shrieking woman in distress.

“Buffalo” Murphy, it is said, is numbered among those who went to the bottom in the Titanic. “Old Man” Jordan is another, and Jim Kitchener is said to have found his last “sitting.” “One Arm” Mac has found his last “sitting.” Silverton is another who is said to have “lost out” on the wrong confidence game.

Silverton is credited with having been gifted with the greatest “gall” of all the merchant sailors of the sea. The story is told on the Rialto that he was the mainspring of Mizner’s “Greyhound,” that he was the “greyhound” himself. He traveled under various aliases, one being J. Brayton Coleman. Once he met the original on board ship, and that was a very disastrous voyage for him. Mr. Coleman heard of his impersonation and went to Silverton’s stateroom and, pulling him out of bed, administered to him the soundest thrashing he had ever known.

The passing of “Buffalo” Murphy is a “cinch” according to advices from the other side. He was booked on the Titanic, as usual assuming the name of J. W. White, the chewing gum man of national reputation. Murphy was a steady ocean traveler in the spring and summer season. For the last fifteen years he never missed a trip and the Titanic looked to him the biggest game that he had ever been permitted to “sit in.” He was “lost in the shuffle,” at which he had been so great an adept. He was one of the original street fair fakers and an all around “skin game” man. He never spent a cent and was said to be worth $200,000,

“Old Man” Jordan was 80 years old and they say along Broadway that he had been cheating for seventy-five of these years. He was comfortably fixed in France—was well off, in fact—but the lure of the first trip of the Titanic was too much for him. He yielded for the last time to the call of the sea and “cashed in,” in response to the call. He has played the gamut of the crooks from gold bricks to green goods and generally got the money.

Jim Kitchener hailed from the Middle West and was one the best card sharpers in the country. He had “followed the sea” for the last ten years, playing the ocean seasons as other men played the races. Only he took no chances and got away with the coin. He played the game once too often.

“One Arm” Got Money

“One Arm” Mac had all the card men on both sides of the Atlantic backed off the board. He used his arm to better advantage than most men use both members. The fact that he had only one wing rarely attracted suspicion to him, and he raked in the money fast. He had impersonated nearly every big business man in the world. No doubt is entertained that Mac has “passed” for the last time.

“Black Mike”—nobody seems to have known what his name really was—was another of the old time crooks who has been gathered in by the Great Policeman. There will be no further need for his picture, which adorned the rogues’ gallery. Mike was one of the old time and surest of “con” men. His great stunt was tapping the wires. He made his victim believe that he was getting inside information on the races by having a confederate tap the wires. He never tapped the wires, but always got the money. He made baskets of money, but the fare banks got most of it in the wind-up.

Chicago Inter Ocean, Saturday, April 20, 1912, p 1, c. 3

Remember William T. Stead, author of If Christ Came to Chicago? He accused Chicago of sinking to the depths of depravity. Well, Stead just sank. He went down with the Titanic along with the aforementioned blackhearts.

Need some help interpreting the lingo? Robert Loerzel has kindly compiled a convenient list, "Chicago Lingo of the Late 1800s," that should prove helpful. Loerzel is author of Alchemy of Bones: Chicago's Luetgert Murder Case of 1897 (link on the left of the page). If you liked Devil in the White City, you'll love Alchemy of Bones.

Before we judge the paper too harshly, keep in mind that Ring Lardner and Ida B. Wells both wrote for the paper at one time. The Wells article "Lynch Law," refers to the paper.


As I said, great opportunities for research...

Chicago History Resources Available at Internet Archive

I like digitized books. They provide access to publications that I am not familiar with, have been unable to find or push the envelope of my meager budget. They are a great resource and offer endless opportunities for research.

The Internet Archive is one of my favorite places to find rare and out-of-print books and there are thousands of books available pertaining to Chicago history. The books are available in a variety of forms - PDF, flip-book, TXT, DiVu and several others. My favorite is the flip book. Register on the site and you can bookmark selections for future reading.

There is much more to the site, including audio files, moving images, and live music. Plus, they have 85 billion web pages archived. According to the site, "The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public."

From time to time, I will choose a Chicago history book from the Internet Archive, do a little research, and see what turns up. This should be great fun!

A Thought on Historical Perspective

One of my current writing projects is a paper on the effect of urbanization on women in Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century. It came as a result of rereading Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie and asking myself the question, “What were Carrie Meeber’s choices?” As you may recall, the book was rejected by many publishers because of the main character’s lack of, what was considered at the time, moral substance. In a nut shell, Carrie tried her hand at working in a shoe factory but eventually became a kept woman, not once, but twice. This was actually not an unusual scenario for many “women adrift” during the period. But, I digress…

As I began work on the paper I took stock of the resources in my library. My bookshelves are filled with old treasures and I dug out three fragile issues of The Ladies Home Journal, from 1901, 1902 and 1909 respectively. I was trying to establish a connection to the women of the period. What I got was a reminder from historian David McCullough surfacing in my thoughts: “The past after all is only another name for someone else’s present. Or, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “There is properly no history; only biography.”

Within the pages of the magazines I read Rudyard Kipling’s new story, “How the Leopard Got His Spots, with illustrations by Frank Verbeck” Oscar Hammerstein published his new waltz, “Mia Cara” for the ladies and I learned how to decorate china with roses …correctly. There were pages of advertisements with absolutely enticing copy promising health, wealth and beauty. And, there was an article by Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago on “The Bad Boy of the Street.” The cover of the 1901 issue (shown here) was drawn by Albert Herter, a New York born artist who studied in Paris returned to the United States and moved to Chicago to teach at the Art Institute. I saw ads for many Chicago companies – Quaker Oats, Armour and Swift, to name a few.

The object I had in my hand was a magazine that had been originally read by some of the very women I was writing about in my paper. The fictional character Carrie Meeber would have read it, too.

These magazines gave me my connection to the past and helped me to focus on what was important about my topic. It wasn’t the period – the end of the Gilded Age and the over lapping Progressive Age. It wasn’t even the wide polarization of the classes. It was remembering that as I am looking backward, what I am glimpsing is someone’s day to day life, their dreams, struggles, successes and monumental failures.

I’ve scheduled an interview that I hope to include in my paper. It is with the daughter of a Polish immigrant who settled in Chicago and got a job making cigars, worked in a hotel kitchen and eventually a garment factory. I don’t know if I’ll be able to garner much from the interview that is enlightening or new. But I do know one thing. It will put a face on my topic and the past will become what it is... biography.