. Chicago. lion people of 25 Chicago both sexes are dumped six days a week bythe transportation lines to toil for theirdaily bread. When the office buildings andstores vomit them into the streets at night-fall, they hang to straps in surface,steam, orelevated cars, until they reach the housesand flats they designate as home ; but nosooner is the soot washed from their facesthan a goodly proportion ot them hastenback to the Loop again, for here are theclubs, theatres, restaurants, and hotels, aswell as the banks, offices, and departmentstores. Indeed, when the street lamps andprotean signs begi
. Chicago. lion people of 25 Chicago both sexes are dumped six days a week bythe transportation lines to toil for theirdaily bread. When the office buildings andstores vomit them into the streets at night-fall, they hang to straps in surface,steam, orelevated cars, until they reach the housesand flats they designate as home ; but nosooner is the soot washed from their facesthan a goodly proportion ot them hastenback to the Loop again, for here are theclubs, theatres, restaurants, and hotels, aswell as the banks, offices, and departmentstores. Indeed, when the street lamps andprotean signs begin to glisten, the aspectof the Loop alters entirely. Restless menand neurotic women no longer scamperfrom sky-scraper to sky-scraper; in theirplaces are affable strollers who tarry nowand then to gaze at the modish manikinsdisplayed in the gay shop windows. Thestreet cars still deposit people in the Loop,but they are merry-makers, not toilers, 26 From the Viaduct — The Loop Station at West Randolph Street. The Heart of the City and some of them actually find time tosmile. The horse truck, moreover, and themotor van have disappeared, and only thelimousine and taxicab remain to menacelife. A cauldron of human endeavor by day,a pleasure spot by night, the Loop is lit-erally, as well as metaphorically, the heartof the city. Technically speaking it is thepart of our so-called Business Districtencircled by the ugly posts and girders ofthe elevated railways. In reality, however,it extends to the lake and river, and as farsouth as the Blackstone Hotel; for withinthis area of less than a square mile is foundeverything material or aesthetic which theinhabitants of our three sides enjoy incommon. Less than fifty years ago this Loop wasa waste of smouldering ruins; yet thebuilder of the sky-scraper has been almostas ruthless a destroyer as the Great Fire 27 Chicago itself, so different in aspect is the businessdistrict of to-day from that which arosefromthe ashes of i 87 i. Should some R
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectchicagoillhistory
