CHICAGO.

DEAREST MAMMA,--We had such an interesting dinner on the train the

night we left Niagara, and here we are. A millionaire travelling also,

whom the senator knew, joined us for the meal, so we sat four at one

table, and Gaston and Octavia alone at the other side. He was such a

wonderful person, the first of just this kind we have met yet, although

we are told there are more like him in Pittsburg and Chicago.

He was thick-set everywhere, a bull neck and fierce moustache and bushy

eyebrows, and gave one the impression of sledge-hammer force. The whole

character seemed to be so dominated and obsessed by an immense personal

laudation, that his conversation created in our minds the doubt that

qualities which required so much vaunting could really be there. It was

_his_ wonderful will which had won his game, _his_ wonderful diplomacy,

_his_ wonderful knowledge of men, _his_ clever perception, _his_

supreme tact; in short, _his_ everything in the world. The slightest

show of a contrary opinion to anything he said was instantly pounced

upon and annihilated. I do wonder, Mamma, if two of his sort got

together what their conversation would be about? Would they shout one

another down, each saying he was perfect, and so end in thunder or

silence? Or would they contradict each other immediately and come to

blows, or would they realise it was no use boasting to one of their own

species, and so talk business or be quiet?

We, being strangers, were splendid victims for him, and I am sure he

spent a dinner of pure joy. After each speech of self appreciation he

would look round the table in a triumphant challenging way, and say,

"Say, senator, isn't that so?" and the dear senator, with a twinkle in

his grey eye, would reply:

"Why, certainly, Governor." (He was a governor of some place once, the

senator knew.)

Finally he got on to his marvellous cleverness in the training of the

young. He had no children himself, he said, but he had "raised" two

young men in his office, and as a proof of their wonderful astuteness

from his teaching, "I give you my word, Ma'am," he said, "either of

them could draw a contract now for me, out of which I could slip at any

moment!!!"

Isn't that a superb idea, Mamma! And the complete frankness with which

it was said! What we would call sharp practice he considered "smart,"

and no doubt that is the way to get rich; for when he had gone on to

the smoking car, the senator told us he was five times a millionaire,

and really a good fellow underneath.

"We've got to have all sorts to make a nation, and he's the kind of

machine that does the rough-hewing," he said. "He did no bragging when

he was under dog; he just bottled it up and pushed on, but it was that

spirit which caused him to rise. Now he's made good, won his millions,

and it bursts out."--(It certainly did!)

The Senator always sees straight. He said also: "He rough-hews

everything he handles, including his neighbours' nerves; he has no

mercy or pity or consideration for anyone serving him, and yet he's the

kindest heart towards children and animals, and the good he does to

them is about the only thing he don't brag about."

It interested me immensely, but Tom had got so ruffled that I am sure

even his sense of humour could not have kept him from contradicting

Craik Purdy, his name is--Craik V. Purdy, I mean!

The Senator told us lots more about him and his methods, succeeding by

sheer brute force and shouting all opposition down. Don't you wish,

Mamma, we had some like him at home to deal with the socialists? These

men are the real autocrats of the world, even though America is a

republic. But wouldn't it be frightful to be married to a person like

that! Octavia, who even in the noise of the train had heard some of it,

asked the Senator what the wife was like, and he told us she had been a

girl of his own class who had never risen with him, and was a rare

exception in American women, who rise quicker than the men as a rule.

"She's been every sort of drawback to him," he said, "and yet he is

almighty kind to her and covers her with diamonds; and she is a dullish

sort of woman with a cold in her head."

Octavia said at once that was the kind she wanted to see in Chicago. Of

what use to meet more charming and refined people like in New York or

Philadelphia. She wanted to sample the "rough-hewn." And we both felt,

Mamma, one must have a nice streak in one to go on being kind to a

person who has a continual cold in her head.

The Senator said he would arrange a luncheon party for us in Chicago

unlike anything we had had in any place yet, and it is coming off

to-morrow. But first I must tell you of Detroit, where we stopped the

night before last, and of our arrival here. The whole train goes over

in a ferry boat from the Canadian to the American side and dinner and

screaming tram cars under the window are the only distinct memories I

have after our arrival, until next day, when we took a motor and went

for a drive.

Detroit is really the most perfectly laid out city one could imagine,

and such an enchanting park and lake,--infinitely better than any town

I know in Europe. It ought to be a paradise in about fifty years when

it has all matured. That is where the Americans are clever, in the

beautiful laying-out of their towns; but then, as I said, they have not

old débris to contend with, though I shall always think it looks queer

and unfinished to see houses standing just in a mown patch unseparated

from the road by any fence. I should hate the idea of strangers being

able to peep into my windows.

We left about twelve, after being interviewed by several reporters in

the hall of the hotel. These halls are apparently meeting places for

countless men, simply crammed like one could have imagined a portico in

the Roman days,--not people necessarily staying there, but herds of

others from outside. The type gets thicker as one leaves New York. It

reminds one of a funny man I once saw in the pantomime who put on about

six suits, one after another, growing gradually larger, though no

taller or fatter--just thick. All these in the hall were meaty, not one

with that lean look of the pictures of "Uncle Sam," but more like our

"John Bull," only not portly and complacent as he is, but just thick

all over, at about the three coat stage; thick noses, thick hair, thick

arms, thick legs, and nearly invariably clean-shaven and keen looking.

The Senator said they were the ordinary business people and might any

of them rise to be President of the Republic. We are perfectly overcome

with admiration and respect for their enormous advancing and adaptive

power, because just to look at we should not call these of the

Senator's class. But think what brains they must have, and what

vitality; and those things matter a great deal more than looks to a

country.

The Senator said the type would culminate in Chicago, and gradually get

finer again out in the far West. And he seemed right, from the

impression we got of the crowd in this hotel. It was rather like a

Christmas nightmare, when everyone had turned into a plum pudding, or

those gingerbread men the old woman by the Wavebeach pier used to sell.

Do you remember, Mamma? Perfectly square and solid. They are ahead of

Detroit, and at the six coat stage here. Probably all as good as gold,

and kind and nice and full of virtues; but for strangers who don't know

all these things, just to look at, they make one think one is dreaming.

Do you suppose it is, if they have to be so much among pork and meat

generally, perhaps that makes them solid? We did not know a soul to

speak to, nor did the Senator either, though he said he was acquainted

with many nice people in Chicago; so perhaps they were just travellers

like us after all, and we have no right to judge of a place by them.

We supped--we had arrived very late--and watched the world in from the

theatres. We don't know of what class they were, or of what society,

only they were not the least like New York. The women were, some of

them, very wonderfully dressed, though not that exquisite Paris look of

the New Yorkers, and they had larger hats and brighter colours; and

numbers of them were what the Senator calls "homely." We were very

silent,--naturally, we did not like to say our thoughts aloud to the

Senator, an American; but he spoke of it to us himself.

He said his eye, accustomed to the slender lean cowboys and miners,

found them just as displeasing as he was sure we must. "Lordy," he

said, "they look a set of qualifying prize-fighters gorged with

sausage-meat, and then soaked in cocktails." And though that sounds

frightfully coarse to write, Mamma, it is rather true. Then he added,

"And yet some of the brightest brains of our country have come from

Chicago. I guess they kept pretty clear of this crowd."

One of the strangest things is that no one is old, never more than

sixty and generally younger; the majority from eighteen to thirty-five,

and also, something we have remarked everywhere, everyone seems happy.

You do not see weary, tired, bored faces, like in Europe, and no one is

shabby or dejected, and they are all talking and drinking and laughing

with the same intent concentrated force they bring to everything they

do, and it is simply splendid.

To-morrow we are going to drive about and see everything. The

aristocracy live in fine houses just outside the town, we are told, and

the Senator has arranged with Mr. Craik Purdy for us all to go and have

lunch with him in his mansion. This is the party he promised us, which

would be different to what we had seen before, and we are looking

forward to it. And there is one thing I feel sure: even if they are

odd, we shall find a generous welcome, original ideas, and kind hearts;

and the more I see the more I think these qualities matter most.

Now I must go to bed, dearest Mamma.

You haven't heard from Harry, I suppose? Because if you have you might

let me know.

Your affectionate daughter,