The Henson Journals
Thu 3 June 1909
Volume 160, Pages 55 to 56
[55]
Thursday, June 3rd, 1909.
Mr Erskine, the British Agent, called on us, & took us to see the Corn Exchange, where indeed a mad scene encountered us. Four "pits" in the floor represent the spots on which the wheat, and other grains are sold. It is sheer gambling in "futures". Punctually at 9.30 a.m. the game opened. Every "pit" was crammed with men screaming & gesticulating with the utmost fierceness. There was financial method in the madness. Partly by word, mainly by signs, they signified their offers & refusals to purchase the unknown wheat. A clerk in a box appeared to register the decisions, & a small boy at his side seemed to be sending off telegrams.
Small boys with samples of wheat were ranged on a number of tables at one side of the hall.
When Mr Erskine had departed, we essayed to check our larger pieces of luggage to Fargo: but an ingenious clerk at the Railway office discovered that our tickets had been misdated by a careless official at the C.P.R office in New York, who had forgotten the year in stamping them. So we were hustled off to the Wisconsin Railway Office, where a new set of tickets were issued to us in exchange for our defective one. Thus most part of the forenoon was dissipated in a quite superfluous futility of red–tapedom.
[56]
Mrs Erskine, the consul's wife lunched with us at the hotel: and then Mr Phillips came in a motor, and whisked us rapidly through the parks of Chicago. These are truly remarkable, and reflect the greatest credit on the citizens, who at vast cost have projected & created them. The view over the lake is extremely beautiful. A zoological collection arrested our notice. We had no time to inspect the separate pens, but could not avoid the view of a fine body of buffalo. A notable statue of Abraham Lincoln adorns this park.
On our return to the hotel we paid our reckoning, and "took up our carriages" for the next stage of our journey.
In Chicago the reporters got at me, and I found myself described in divers journals. One of them had actually obtained a photograph of me.