Chicago History Caught in the Web: A Few Book Notes

Satan (impatiently) to New Comer. The trouble with you Chicago people is, that you think you are the best people down here; whereas you are merely the most numerous.
- Following the Equator, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar

The back-breaking, eye-straining, century long anticipated 760 page Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 is in the building!Yes, I know a November 15 release date has been publicized, but I am aware of at least one euphoric individual (non reviewer) who is weeping for joy as he gazes at the monumental tome. And, it is available for purchase on Amazon right now. So there. While you are waiting for delivery, check out The Mark Twain Project (which has a searchable copy of the book online) and the excellent site, Mark Twain Quotations, Newspaper Collections, & Related Resources

Award-winning writer, John A. Farrell's new biography of famed Chicago lawyer Clarence Darrow is available for pre-order now. (Farrell's name should be familiar; he is also the author of Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century, served as a reporter for The Boston Globe and The Denver Post, and is a contributor to the U.S. News Opinion page.) Darrow is one of those amazingly complex individuals where there is always some new facet of his personality to explore. For example, Darrow was an avid feminist and often spoke on behalf of women suffrage as early as 1890. I didn't know that. The "Admirers of Clarence Darrow" Facebook group, hosted by Farrell, is a fantastic place to learn more about the book and Darrow. You can also read an excerpt on the author's website. Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned is slated for a June, 2011 release.

I haven't been advised of a release date yet, but Oldest Chicago by David Witter does have a website! Here's the skinny:

"From Gangsters to Ghosts, to Slaughterhouses, Stables, Bars, Ball Parks, Bakeries and Bridges, the history of Chicago lives in the land of Oldest Chicago. In his new book by Lake Claremont Press, author David Witter examines nearly one-hundred of Chicago's oldest entities with first-hand interviews, photos, maps, and guides to explore other historic sites in Chicago, the Suburbs and the Exurbs. From their foundations in Chicago's early days, through events like wars, the Great Depression, and the onslaught of chain stores and internet entities, Oldest Chicago tells the story of how these unique places have survived, often handed down four as many as five generations. But Oldest Chicago is more than just a book and history is not something that exists in faded yellow photos. Oldest Chicago is a guidebook which tells you how you can eat, drink, smoke, swim, watch, listen and dance in Chicago's Oldest, letting you experience history firsthand."

Oh yes! Sing it, brother! I want to eat, drink, smoke and dance the hoochie coo with history! Just tell me when! (You'll know when I know.)

The University of Chicago Press is having a book sale and has a spiffy online catalog. Some of the books, such as Lost Chicago, The Plan of Chicago and Ben Hecht's classic A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago, are already on your book shelf. At least they had better be! Other offerings, I'm sorry to say, were new to me. Of particular interest is I've Got to Make My Livin': Black Women's Sex Work in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago by Cynthia M. Blair. I suppose I can be forgiven because it hasn't been released yet (December, 2010). For those of us interested in working women at the turn of the century, this is important. There is a lot written about their white counterparts, but the experience of black prostitutes in old Chicago hasn't had much exposure. Women who needed to work often did not have a choice because of limited more respectable options and the restrictions that the then present laws put on them. I'm anxious to read this one. Check out the catalog.

NOTE TO PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS: Please send notices and press releases of upcoming books to sharon@chicagohistoryjournal.com. I try to be everywhere, but it's hard.

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The Stuff of Nightmares

Halloween is almost here so I thought it appropriate to post something that would give my readers a little shiver.

If women's votes aridify
The town that's briefly known as "Chi,"
I can't begin to tell to you
The funny things that we shall view.
By "funny" I'd not have you think
That humor lies in lack of drink:
A desert to the human race,
Has never been a comic place.
By "funny," then, I merely mean
Odd, queer, strange - things we've never seen;
A few of which as they appear,
May briefly be considered here.


First, you are prompted to inquire
What's to become of Bill McGuire,
Who now compounds with skill and grace,
The cup that cheers in "George's Place,"
Or, serving in a humbler sphere,
Draws the plebeian pail of beer.
If women put that dry stuff through,
What's Bill the Barkeep going to do ?
The next best thing. Bill needs no mourner.
He'll still be working on a corner,
Mixing, with old-time skill and grace,
Drinks in a soda-water place.

Next, you are prompted to inquire
What entertainment for the "buyer"
The local merchant can supply
If women make the city dry.
How take him out to see the sights
When vanished are the great white lights ?
What will replace, I hear you say,
The little toot of yesterday ?
Why, he will cut the primrose route,
And tackle the Art Institooi,
Or take his customer to see
Th' Historical Society.

If "Chi" goes dry 'twill sound the doom
Of the far-famed Pompeian Room.
Lo, all its "Pomp," should you inquire
"Is one with Nineveh and Tyre."
Gone is the Saturnalian din,
The crowd that watched the New Year in,
The soggy jest, the arid chaff,
The brimming bowl, the empty laugh.
The lion and the lizard keep
The courts where Folly guzzled deep,
And placidly the fountain flows
Where drunks fell in and spoiled their clo'es.



Letting our fancy freely range,
We visualize another change:
"The College Inn" in other days
Given to blatant cabarets,
Whose academic atmosphere,
Was made of whiskey, wine and beer,
Where gathered noisily at night
Folks who could barely read or write -
Is now a place of fair renown,
Which caters to the cap and gown.
Good fellows here, good fellows hail,
In steins of foaming ginger ale.

The "Poor Man's Club," whose daily dues
Are what the members spend for booze,
Unwept, unsung will pass away
If there are no more dues to pay.
Emancipated from the tub,
The home will be the Poor Man's Club,
Wherein he will devote the dues
To flour and beans and children's shoes.
And here the so-called son of toil,
Recouping from the daily moil,
Far from the gang's ignoble strife,
Will lead the desiccated life.

Will "Chi" go dry? Then in that case
Across "the desert's dusty face"
I see a line of pilgrims winding,
The toil of travel never minding,
Plodding with worn but eager feet
Through winter cold and summer heat,
Trekking across the sandy places
Toward that greenest of oases,
"Famous" Milwaukee, home of Beer!
Last spot upon a drying sphere
To lose its moisture! Till that be
Mecca were but a type of thee!


If "Chi" goes dry, as dry as Mars
What of its seven thousand bars?

They'll still be there,but let us hope
The bar will be a bar of soap.
Freed from the well-known demon, Rum,
The joint a laundry will become;
For if the world from drink were free
No washerwomen there would be,
With worthless husbands to support,
And fines to pay in Monday's court.
Gone is the place where father drank,
Changed to a corner savings-bank.

This humorous cautionary verse, written and illustrated by two of our favorite old Chicagoans, was originally published in The Metropolitan in 1914. Both John T. McCutcheon and Bert Leston Taylor worked for the Chicago Tribune. You can see the original article here. And people wonder why Chicago got a little testy during Prohibition!

Recommended reading:
Prohibition in the United States (Wikipedia)
Prohibition: Its Affects on Chicagoans and Organized Crime
Prohibition and Temperance (Encyclopedia of Chicago)

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More Fowl Play

Well, it seems that our Harry M. Hansen Duck Hunt ("Hunting for Hansen") is not such a wild goose chase after all. At least it has piqued the interest of several readers who are hot on the trail. There is no new information to report as yet, but some appropriately themed items have been uncovered. My favorite snippet was submitted by Alan Gornik, a Trustee of the Western Springs Historical Society and a major contributor to the outstanding Early Chicago website. Alan sent a poem that appeared in the December 12, 1923 Chicago Tribune column, "A Line O Type Or Two." The popular humor feature was originated by Bert Leston Taylor (a.k.a B.L.T) who authored it until his death in 1921. His successor was Richard Henry Little (R. H. L.)who penned the following:



Recommended reading:
"Boris Artzybasheff cover art from Richard Henry Little’s 1929 'Linebook'" (I'm Learning to Share)
Our American Humorists by Thomas Lansing Masson, Chapter XXXV, "The Columnists", 1922
Bert Leston Taylor (1866-1921)

Photo Credits:
"Wild Duck Shooting: A Good Day's Sport" by Nathaniel Currier, 1854 (Currier & Ives Collection at Springfield Museums)

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Hunting for Hansen

I often receive emails from readers. Sometimes they are notes of support (those are my favorites). Other readers are writing to request that I help them trace their Chicago ancestry (which I don't do) or provide a valuation on some bit of historical Chicago memorabilia (which I also don't do). But, I recently heard from a reader who had found an object in his deceased grandfather's effects and was hoping for more information. Alas, I came up empty, but the item really intrigued me and wanted to learn the back story.

The item in question is an embossed brass tray (see above), 7 1/4" x 4 7/8, that states "Commemorating Harry M. Hansen's Annual Wild Duck Dinner of 1924." It originally belonged to the reader's great-great-grandfather, Edward F Bryant, who was at one time president of the Pullman Loan and Savings Bank.[At the time of the 1894 Pullman Strike, Bryant was a cashier and manager and testified at the strike's investigation] We are guessing that the "I.A.C." in the corner near the date refers to the "Illinois Athletic Club", a club which dominated sports in the United States until after World War II and was home to Johnny Weissmuller in the early 1920s.

What, of course, caught my eye was the name "Harry Hansen." Was this THE Harry Hansen (1884-1977), reporter for the Chicago Daily News, author of numerous books, friend of Ben Hecht, a Chicagoan for two decades before settling in New York? That was my initial thought. But, there is a problem. I have never seen a middle name or initial associated with the famous Harry Hansen plus it was not an uncommon name. I did find a "Harry M. Hansen," who lived at 7210 St. Lawrence Ave., listed in the 1909 Chicago Blue Book.

But, I'm sorry to say, that's all I've got. I'm hoping one you knowledgeable readers can help me out. Anyone ever read about such an event? Was this the famous Harry or a lesser known Harry M.? If you have any information on this event/tray please contact me or leave a comment. It's driving me nuts!

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The Great Flag

World War I officially ended today.

IN honor of twenty-seven fellow workers whose lives were sacrificed in the Great War, the employes of Marshall Field & Company held a memorial service in the Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, December 8, 1918. Four thousand three hundred men and women, a fourth of the employes in Chicago, attended, filling the great Auditorium to the doors.

The Marshall Field Choral Society of two hundred voices sang and Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus delivered the sermon. Flanking the stage hung the memorial flag bearing in gold the names of the heroes.

The following paragraphs, written by Irvin Clay Lambert, for twenty-six years an employe of Marshall Field & Company, appeared in the program of the memorial service:


"Moved by rapture high and fine, they left us to cross the infested sea. Forth they went, dreaming not of a peace reserved for us alone, but with a vision that reached far down the years—a purpose to clear the road for children yet unborn.

Serene and strong, and armed with swords forged in the white flame of Truth and Justice, they met the ruthless enemy of mankind, and foe-ward fell like men! With stoic calm they gave their lives for something dearer still.

They never doubted clouds would break,

Never dreamed, though Right were worsted,
Wrong would triumph.

For them our memory shall not fail nor falter. Not in vain was the last charge made, the last mound captured! The red harvest of slaughter is ended, and today we recall
with holy pride that they sealed with their life's blood the pledge of Human Freedom! Sleep on, brave souls, in your consecrated places! Yours is the tomb of Eternal Years."

From: The Merchant and the New National Spirit By Forrest Crissey, Marshall Field & Company (1920)

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