The Beginning of Grand Opera in Chicago (1850 - 1859)

Bücher

Angebote / Angebote:

To My Wife pipe, and quietly muse over the things that were, this little record is modestly offered in the hope that it may afford an agreeable half hour. The gathering of the material was for me a pleasure, and I shall feel doubly repaid should it prove entertaining to the courteous and discriminating reader-how easily one falls into the polite formalities of the olden time of the structures in which it had previously found its abiding places, since this new home of Thespis was welcomed with such enthusiasm. For our information concerning the facts herein set down, I have turned exclusively to the files of the press of the time, that we might get the news fresh and fresh, just as it came onto the streets every afternoon for our great-grand- fathers-also for the additional reason, quite sufficient in itself, that there was no other place to get it. The daily newspaper, when you live with it day after day, takes on as distinct a personality, one drawing you by its cheery helpfulness and the other repelling by its chilling reserve, as the men you meet around the lunch table. The Journal was a wide-awake sheet, giving all sorts of entertaining titbits of the happenings about town, somewhat fearful of the tendencies of the opera and theatre, dubious of their possible effect on public morals, yet performing well its function as a news-gatherer. The Democrat treated things in a much superior manner, having smaller space for local doings, while the events of the Eastern centers and the reports from Europe bulked pretty large From the Journal we learn that lamp-posts to burn gas are being set up that owners of cattle are informed that Dearborn Park the land where the Chicago Public Library now stands is now thrown open to ruminating animals. Those who get there first will get the best grazing of an aggitation for the closing of State Street stores at eight oclock that thirty-four green and Italian marble mantels have just arrived for the decoration of the Tremont House also that the floor of the grand hall and office are to be of marble. In reply to the Milwaukee Sentinel, which had hinted at some padding of the census figures, the Journal retorts From the returns of the Marshal thus far, we are lead to believe that the census of Chicago of 18501 will show a population of over 28, 000. If our contemporary wears a seedy hat, and wishes to take the chances for a better, he can test our over estimate. We sought in vain to discover