It is the purpose of the present work to set forth, in a terse but comprehensive manner, the various sorts of entertainment offered by the Coming Metropolis. The Author, while sufficiently modest to keep his identity a secret, makes bold to assert that no person who scans the pages of this book will be able, after he has done so, to lay claim to ignorance of the means whereby to procure entertainment or solace for such hours of idleness as he may find on his hands during his stay in this city. The present area of Chicago is a fraction over 180 square miles. What its area will be next year, or ten years hence, nobody can predict. For the present it is sufficient to know that within that area of 180 square miles there dwells a community active, energetic, mercurial—eager in business and therefore keen in its thirst for recreation outside of business hours.
The present work is undertaken in no spirit of levity or thoughtlessness. Its author is a man-of-the-world who, recognizing the desire of the average man to be amused when the cares of business are done, and being fully cognizant of the qualifications of this city in the amusement line, aims to instruct the uninitiated wayfarer in the paths he may follow with the most satisfaction to himself and the greatest benefit to his system. If but one reader confesses his indebtedness to this work for enlightenment in the smallest degree, its purpose will have been achieved.
With renewed assurances, therefore, that the seeker after light upon a great city’s manner of amusing itself will not seek in vain, the Author makes his bow to the reader and tenders him an invitation to accompany him through the following pages.
CHAPTER I.
WHERE TO STAY.
The question of location must of course be decided by the individual taste of the visitor. It would be strange indeed if, with a transient population roughly estimated at 200,000, the city did not possess hotels of all grades and descriptions, from which the most captious-minded person might take his choice and procure satisfaction. Chicago, at the present writing, contains at least 1,500 hotels, with constant additions each year. There is no more difficult task than to tell a man with any accuracy what hotel will suit him best. A caravansary that would delight one man would disgust another and vice versa. The most satisfactory plan, therefore, and the safest, is to give a brief pen-sketch of the leading hotels, with some idea of the special characteristics of each and the style of entertainment they afford.
The Lake Front hotels—the Richelieu, Auditorium, and Leland—enjoy the cream of the new transient patronage. By “new,” is meant those people who have never before visited Chicago, and who naturally select the houses with the prettiest sites. The Auditorium (Michigan Avenue and Congress Street), despite its gorgeousness and the flourish of trumpets with which it was opened, does not indulge in ruinous rates. It is a very large hotel and accommodations may be had therein from $4 per day up. Perhaps it is this moderate charge that makes it so great a favorite with the theatrical profession, the more prosperous members of which enjoy the comfort it affords. Well-to-do managers, famous stars, and sometimes interrogatively opulent soubrettes and chorus girls seek lodging at the Auditorium, and some very pretty romances are narrated of flirtations more or less interesting which the “blooded” habitues of this swell hotel “strike up” with the fair footlight favorites who enjoy its hospitality. It is worth the price of a day’s board, or at least a dinner, sometimes, to take a stroll in the corridors and catch the fragments of delicious lays that are being caroled forth by the song birds who are practicing their chosen art in the sanctity of their various chambers. Especially is this the case during a season of grand or light opera in the great theater adjoining the hotel, in which case the latter is sure to be thronged with singers of both sexes, and of all grades of artistic and professional prominence. There is a roomy balcony over the entrance to the Auditorium which, on pleasant days, is thronged with gaily dressed people of both sexes, who sit there and enjoy the dual delight of drinking in the balmy air and watching the cavalcade on the broad avenue below.
A block north of the Auditorium is the Richelieu, the famous hostelry the destinies of which are presided over by the renowned “Cardinal” Bemis. For people of means, to whom money is less of an object than the engagement of luxuries, the Richelieu, they say, is the place par excellence at which to stop. Some notable people have honored the Richelieu with their presence, and one is just as liable to run plumb against a real, live English Lord or Italian Marquis within its doors as against a plain, everyday American citizen. Sara Bernhardt selects the Richelieu when in the city; so does Mrs. Langtry when the confines of her private car become too narrow for comfort. The Richelieu is famous for the rare pictures that adorn its walls, some of which are worth small fortunes, and also—whisper this with bated breath, Oh, ye irreverent!—for its wine cellars, which are stocked with some of the rarest and costliest vintages to be found on the entire continent. On state occasions, when the Cardinal is entertaining some choice party of notables, he is wont to disappear suddenly, absent himself for about fifteen minutes and then reappear with a quaint-shaped bottle or two in either hand covered with cobwebs. Those who sample the contents of said bottles close their eyes, pat their stomachs softly as the divine liquid glides down their throats, and then shed tears of joy and gratitude to the Cardinal for having given them the happiest moment of their lives. If you are a connoisseur of wines and wish to test your art in judgment thereof, cultivate the acquaintance of the Cardinal, and perhaps he will go down into the cellar for you.
Mr. Warren Leland, who recently sold the hotel of that name, always said he had the prettiest house in Chicago, and there are some people who agree with him. The Leland rates, on the American plan, are from $3 to $5 per day up; the European, $1.50 up. The Leland is known as the “home hotel” of Chicago, and there is a tradition abroad to the effect that people who once patronize it never go elsewhere.