Life — September 7, 1893 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

150 OUR FRESH AIR FUND. $4,997.19 | In loving memory of Perci- . Hu Ye ARCA Qeeeevee Chas. L: Crittenden. The Cedars, West Chop, Mass Watch’ Hill, Previously acknowledg: Fred. A. Myrick In memory of Dorothy R.F In memory of Little Justin. From May, Mabze, Elinor ind Veni . 3s 8 23 88 $ Mary Osman, Hilisboro,N.B. Staatsburgh Rae Milicent W. D a 10 00 Nantucket, Mass.. 6.00 Byeew ey 888s3s $5,124.69 3 anX MY POKER GIRL. H eyes are velvet, soft and fine, That none can antedate ; Her hair's fine strands seem all divine, Her form is, oh! so Her teeth, like driven snow, are white ; And when see wills to blush ‘There is no tint can equal quite / Her rounded cheek's fine Could I but hold a hand like that Just once, I would not care If afterwards [ stood quite pat Forever, on a Nurse, wash-voman and general housekeeper (looking throuzh “Kitchen I'VE BEEN ALL THROUGH IT TWICET, AN’ IT DON'T GIVE NO FANCY DISHES WOT KIN RE MADE OF Guide"); OM, BOTHER SUCH A COOK BOOK! BREAD A WATER!" A STORY OF CHICAGO. HICAGO is like England in that. she expects every Chicago man to do his duty. Whether she will consider that Mr. Henry B. Fuller has done his duty by her depends upon her point of view. If it is enough to have written a novel about Chicago, Mr. Fuller has done that, but if she demands that her story-writers shall make her best side show well to the front, she may find serious defects in Mr. Fuller's method. “The Cliff Dwellers” is not a flattering narrative. It takes no pains whatever to make Chicago seem pretty. Gath- ering a group of characters from the various offices of one of those sky-scraping edifices of which the Western metropolis is so proud, it mixes their lots judiciously together and follows them to their several fates. On the whole, they are as unpleasant a lot of fates as the most sluggish liver could desire. It happens that way partly because an unduly large percentage of Mr. Fuller's chief male characters are rascals, but largely because the atmosphere in which he finds his people is so charged with greed and ruthless “ business enter- prise” as to develop sharp men into scoundrels and weak ones into pilferers. An Eastern-born resident of Chicago, from whom the present writer once solicited information about the town, replied that it was a capital place to do business, but not at all a place to which a considerate hus- band would wish to bring his wife. Mr. Fuller's story bears out that opinion, His women have a hard time. Some marry fortune-hunting scamps, some marry business knaves, some are weak fools and ruin their husbands. But there are two exceptions : Cecé/fa Ingles, whose husband owns the Clifton where the Cliff-dwellers live, and Cornelia McNabb. \t was kind of Mr. Fuller to give us Cornelia McNabb. She is thoroughly satis- factory. She fits her environment. She was made for Chicago and Chicago for her. She is a hustler. She is intelligent, indomitable and good-hearted, She begins her Chic: career as a waitress in a board- ing house. Progressing by quick sta into a type-writing stenographer ies a millionaire’s favorite son at the close of the second ‘To be sure her man loses his money. smart and unscrupulous, and she is superlatively smart and thick-skinned, and they are sure to get act. but he is more. The master leaves her in full confidence in her destiny to get her share of all Chicago has to offer and be a radiant star in the same dazzling constellation as Cecilia Ingles. Whether Mr, Fuller has not dealt over-harshly by his hero, and made him do things of which he was constitutionally incapable, the reader may judge when he gets the book. To the present writer it has seemed comicbooks.com