at once that was the kind she wanted to see in Chicago. Of
what use to meet more charming and refined people like in New York or
Philadelphia. She wanted to sample the "rough-hewn." And we both felt,
Mamma, one must have a nice streak in one to go on being kind to a
person who has a continual cold in her head.

The Senator said he would arrange a luncheon party for us in Chicago
unlike anything we had had in any place yet, and it is coming off
to-morrow. But first I must tell you of Detroit, where we stopped the
night before last, and of our arrival here. The whole train goes over
in a ferry boat from the Canadian to the American side and dinner and
screaming tram cars under the window are the only distinct memories I
have after our arrival, until next day, when we took a motor and went
for a drive.

Detroit is really the most perfectly laid out city one could imagine,
and such an enchanting park and lake,--infinitely better than any town
I know in Europe. It ought to be a paradise in about fifty years when
it has all matured. That is where the Americans are clever, in the
beautiful laying-out of their towns; but then, as I said, they have not
old debris to contend with, though I shall always think it looks queer
and unfinished to see houses standing just in a mown patch unseparated
from the road by any fence. I should hate the idea of strangers being
able to peep into my windows.

We left about twelve, after being interviewed by several reporters in
the hall of the hotel. These halls are apparently meeting places for
countless men, simply crammed like one could have imagined a portico in
the Roman days,--not people necessarily staying there, but herds of
others from outside. The type gets thicker as one leaves New York. It
reminds one of a funny man I once saw in the pantomime who put on about
six suits, one after another, growing gradually larger, though no
taller or fatter--just thick. All these in the hall were meaty, not one
with that lean look of the pictures of "Uncle Sam," but more like our
"John Bull," only not portly and complacent as he is, but just thick
all over, at about the three coat stage; thick noses, thick hair, thick
arms, thick legs, and nearly invariably clean-shaven and keen looking.
The Senator said they were the ordinary business people and might any
of them rise to be President of the Republic. We are perfectly overcome
with admiration and respect for their enormous advancing and adaptive
p