We are visiting Chicago this weekend as I attempt (again) the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. In honor of our trip, I looked up the Windy City in volume 6 of the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. The entry begins with a version of that stereotypical claim one finds all over the midwest - if you don't like the weather now, just wait 15 minutes: "The climate is very changeable and is much affected by the lake; changes of more than thirty degrees in temperature within 24 hours are not at all rare, and changes of twenty are common" (118). Waiting has done us no good; it has been the same grey, cloudy, windy, and rainy not-quite-freezing weather the entire trip.
As for the city itself, "a belt of 'bad-lands' — occupied by factories, shanties, &c. — partially surrounds the best business district. The smoke resulting from the use of soft coal has given a drab and dingy colour-tone to the buildings. The low and even relief of the site and the long vistas of the streets do not lend themselves to the picturesque; yet this quality may be claimed for the high and broken skyline, varied colour, massiveness, bustle and impressive commercialism of the business district. Chicago is generally credited with being the original home of the steel-frame 'sky-scraper,' though there are now higher buildings elsewhere in America" (119).
No entry on Chicago would be complete without some mention of the Great Chicago Fire: "In 1871 it suffered a terrible calamity. On the 8th of October a fire broke out near the lumber district on the West Side. Two-thirds of the city's buildings were wood, and the summer had been excessively dry, while to make conditions worse a high and veering wind fanned the flames. The conflagration burned over an area of 3 1⁄3 sq. m., destroyed 17,450 buildings and property valued at $196,000,000, and rendered almost 100,000 people homeless; 250 lost their lives. The flames actually travelled 2 1⁄4 m. in an air-line within 6 1⁄2 hours. Thousands of persons, fleeing before the flames and fire-brands, sought refuge on the shore and even in the lake. Robbery, pillage, extortion, orgies and crime added to the general horror" (124).