HANGING FOUR OF THEM 



imaginable, crime and infamy running riot. Street 

 murders were common, and as a rule the punishment 

 was totally inadequate. During the time I was there, 

 however, five men were hanged one morning — four of 

 them for participation in one murder, that of a man 

 coming into town with his market cart. I knew the 

 judge who sentenced them, and he told me that the 

 most strenuous efforts were being made to get them 

 off, but on his part he was going to fight to the finish 

 to see that they did not get reprieved. Although 

 there were postponements, in the end the law took 

 its course. It was calculated to have a deterrent 

 effect; whether it has had I do not know; this 

 happened three years ago. Of course, Chicago is the 

 dumping ground, especially in the winter, for thousands 

 of every nationality. The majority of these clear out 

 in the summer to work on the various farms in the 

 west, but can do a lot of mischief while they remain. 



I have spoken about the department stores. That 

 of Marshall Field, in State Street, Chicago, is an object 

 lesson to the dry goods houses of the world. They 

 employ nearly eight thousand hands : five thousand in 

 their retail place and the remainder in their wholesale 

 warehouse, despatching, etc. Their wholesale busi- 

 ness covers practically the whole of the United States. 

 Another firm does a turn-over of millions of pounds a 

 year and never shows anything. The big store is on 

 the outskirts of the city and entirely a mail-order 

 business, the firm employing nearly three thousand 

 hands. All the business is found through posted 

 catalogues, and the response from everywhere is 

 stupendous. Whether the same thing would be pos- 

 sible in this country has never been properly tried. 



I never visited a gambling house, but there was a 

 mild game played in nearly every bar and cigar store, 



331 



