Saturday, August 8, 2015

Chicago, the Dingy City-- Part 4: "A Universal Nuisance"

On December 19, 1880, the Chicago Tribune wrote:  "There is not a storekeeper in Chicago whose goods are not seriously injured by it, and to many lines of fine goods it is destructive.  It soils and irreparably defaces some things.  The deposit of soot finds its way not only into stores, but into public and private offices, where it defaces papers and books.

"It reaches into every private dwelling, falls upon every bed, curtain, carpet, dining-table, blackens and disfigures all articles of furniture, finds its way into drawers and clothes-presses, is a curse to every laundry, and injures clothing to a costly extent.

"It is forever falling upon goods and upon persons, it renders the hands and faces of all grimy, sooty and unclean.  It is not a special but a universal nuisance, reaching all alike, and by all detested."

Not a Pretty Picture.  --DaCoot

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