. Chicago. nes francaises, are not ofour Chicago soil as were those hostelriesof the after-the-Fire period; nor do they 41 Chicago play so notable a part in the life of thecity. Indeed, the Palmer House and theGrand Pacific during their Americanplan glory differed as greatly from thehotels of to-day as the tumultuous Loopdiffers from our provincial business dis-trict during the years when spavined horseswith tinkling bells upon their collarsdragged bob-tailed streetcars throughState Street, and the lusty children of ourprominent citizens cut capers around theiron lions in front of Gossages sto
. Chicago. nes francaises, are not ofour Chicago soil as were those hostelriesof the after-the-Fire period; nor do they 41 Chicago play so notable a part in the life of thecity. Indeed, the Palmer House and theGrand Pacific during their Americanplan glory differed as greatly from thehotels of to-day as the tumultuous Loopdiffers from our provincial business dis-trict during the years when spavined horseswith tinkling bells upon their collarsdragged bob-tailed streetcars throughState Street, and the lusty children of ourprominent citizens cut capers around theiron lions in front of Gossages store whiletheir mothers shopped within. Instead ofthe sedate family rockaways of that un-pretentious age, with fly-nets upon thebacks of their long-tailed horses, and sleepyhired men, as we called our coach-men then, dozing beneath their projectingroofs, luxurious limousines now stand inState Street, with French governesses intheir cushioned interiors to prevent the 42 Michigan Boulevard South from ^th Street. The Heart of the City pampered children of to-day from frolick-ing with hoipolloi while their mothers shopat Fields. Until the time of the Great Fire ourlawns were shaded by the cotton-woodtrees of Michigan Avenue and the watersof the lake flowed to its curb. Grant Park,with its museums, fountains, statues, grassplats, and bare stretches of newly made land,now lies where we old Chicagoans learnedto sail and swim. Noble Michigan Ave-nue, moreover, has become a cosmopoli-tan street emulating in the smartness of itsshops the Rue de la Paix and Fifth Ave-nue ; but our metropolitan bigness lacks,it seems to me, the charm of our small-town days. Although we are less provincialnow, we are also less American than we werebefore our New England ideals were atten-uated by so potent an admixture of alien-ism that Anglo-Saxon lineaments have be-come a rarity in the faces of our people. 43 Chicago Time was when I knew a goodly pro-portion of the passers-by in the downtownstreets — men,
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectchicagoillhistory
