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.
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