Devil, Sin and the Jungle

  Here are three books set in Chicago, two are contemporary and one written back in 1905 – but all covering late 19^th and early 20^th century Chicago.  They complement each other fairly well, I found, so I felt that reviewing them together was appropriate.

 Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson.  This is a non-fiction account of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.  It focuses on two major characters, Daniel Burnham, a prominent Chicago architect who organized the fair, and HH Holmes, a serial killer operating in the Chicago era at the same time as the fair.  The obstacles Burnham had to overcome, and all the innovations introduced at the fair – the Ferris Wheel being the most obvious – made this impossible to put down.  Plus I seem to have a fascination with late 19^th century USA.  The juxtaposition and interweaving, chronologically, of the two stories, was remarkable.  I don’t know if a book about either topic on its own would have been nearly as compelling.  Supposedly they will be making a movie version of this in 2009.

   In an attempt to answer France’s stunning 1889 World’s Fair, at which the Eiffel Tower was debuted, the big shots in the US finally turned to Chicago for their own 1893 attempt.  They built an entire city – the White City – and stuffed it full of all sorts of marvellous wonders.  The Ferris Wheel was one; Wild Bill Hickok’s western show was another; Krupp, the German arms manufacturer, had its own hall of martial products to show off.  Belly dancing got its first major demonstration in the US – and the famous belly dancing tune (childhood lyrics: “there’s a place in France where the naked ladies dance”) was also invented.  Gustav Eiffel himself proposed to contribute to the Fair, but the organizers felt it would defeat the purpose of “out Eiffeling Eiffel” if Eiffel himself was responsible for doing so – so the first Ferris Wheel served that purpose; but the Ferris Wheel is no longer there, while the Eiffel Tower still stands in Paris.  Products such as the zipper, Cracker Jack, and Shredded Wheat (slammed as “shredded doormat”) made their debuts.  Pabst beer won a blue ribbon award, forever changing its name.  The fair attracted celebrities and royalty from all over the world.  Finally, close to the end of the fair in October 1893, the attendance records shot up dramatically, completely blitzing the ones set in Paris.

 Sin in the Second City, by Karen Abbott.  Although a good complement to Devil in the White City, it’s by another author entirely and has no intention of being any sort of sequel or companion thereto.  This is about Chicago’s brothels at the turn of the century (the events in question take place about 15 years after those in Devil), with a particular focus on the Everleigh Club, the most expensive and most exclusive. 

   The book seems to be neutral between the brothels and the crusading religious zealots who ultimately succeeded in shutting down not only the Everleigh Club itself, but Chicago’s entire brothel system by late 1912.  Apparently the Mann Act, originally designed to prevent the unscrupulous panderers from kidnapping immigrant girls and trading them to brothels, has long since been warped beyond recognition to cover other behavior.  But it also gave teeth to federal efforts to shut down brothels around the country.

   On one hand, these panderers were obnoxious: they tricked girls who had no intention of becoming prostitutes into that lifestyle, after drugging them and gang-raping them, clearly women who were involuntarily “recruited” into the profession.  Once they were traumatized by the experience, most had little choice, after having been “shamed” and “disgraced” against their will, but to remain as prostitutes.  Very few men would accept them as wives, so returning to respectable society was not really an option for them.  Many of them committed suicide.

   On the other hand, the Everleigh Club, the top, premiere brothel not only in Chicago but arguably in the country, had no need to resort to such tactics.  By raising their standards well above the other brothels and charging the most, the Everleigh sisters, Minna and Ada, could afford to be selective, so there was actually a waiting list of girls applying to work there.  All their “employees” were experienced and recruited from other brothels; although they weren’t head-hunters, as they didn’t recruit madams, they did cherry pick many of the top earners at competing brothels.  The most intriguing example was Suzy Poon Tang, a stunning harlot from Shanghai, who had a rose tattooed below her navel.  She was a bit too charming: the customer for whom they had recruited her ended up marrying her after her first night with him at the Everleigh Club.

   But because the sisters were so provocative and defiant of the authorities and reformers, they embarrassed the mayor (Carter Harrison II, son of the famous Carter Harrison Sr assassinated as the 1893 World’s Fair drew to a close) to the point where they had to be made an example of, and shut down.  Once the Everleigh Club was closed – permanently – it was a short time before the entire Levee district (as Chicago’s top red-light district was called) was shut down as well. 

   There are some oblique references to the 1893 World’s Fair, and also to an up-and-coming crook by the name of Al Capone.  Overall, an extremely fascinating book, yet another “can’t put it down” one.

I’ve never been to Chicago, but both Devil & Sin inspire a modest desire to visit, but for one major problem: 90% of the “White City” (the 1893 Worlds Fairgrounds) is now long gone, with only one building surviving.  Oddly, the grounds are now partially taken over by Soldier Field, home of the Bears.  The huge, first, Ferris Wheel is, of course, long gone, as are all the other buildings, the Island, and the gateway.  There is little point in visiting Chicago solely based on the 1893 World’s Fair.  Likewise, not only is the Everleigh Club long closed, the building itself was demolished in 1933, and the entire neighborhood is now completely razed and is now the grounds of a housing project.  So neither book lends itself to nostalgic tourism as of 2008.  

The Jungle, Upton Sinclair. This is the original 1905 version, not the 1906 version which actually got published.  In 1988 someone tracked down the original manuscripts as the book was serialized in socialist newspapers; Sinclair had to edit it down in 1906 to get published by a normal, capitalist publisher.  As originally written, it’s a widespread condemnation of capitalist society overall, merely focusing on the Chicago packers as one example.  It is VERY cynical and depressing. 

This is a fictional story about a small family from Lithuania trying to survive in early 20^th century Chicago.  They face perpetually uncertain job security, bitter cold, a deceitful mortgage holder (they ended up with a lease with option to buy, not a mortgage), and countless other heinous injustices perpetrated by a cold, heartless, deceitful capitalist system.  To give one example of the many obnoxiously unfair things which happen: Jurgis’ wife is blackmailed by her boss into having an affair with him.  When Jurgis finds out, he attacks the boss, is thrown in jail, and loses his job during his brief jail sentence.  They have absolutely no safety net: no disability insurance, no unemployment insurance, no health insurance, and are subject to layoffs and arbitrary termination at will.  Practically every representative of the capitalist system is portrayed as callous, uncaring, ruthless, and deceitful.  By Lewis’ analysis, even Friedrich Engels – an enlightened, compassionate capitalist – should not exist. 

            Since it takes place in Chicago around the same time as Sin and the Second City, some of the same issues pop up: Jurgis’ cousin Marija becomes a prostitute at a brothel in the Levee, there is a brief discussion of the “white slave trade” (kidnapping girls and doping and raping them, then selling them off to brothels) etc., which is more interesting here because Sinclair was writing contemporaneously.  And since Jurgis finds himself homeless and tramping briefly, even parts coincide with Orwell’s Down & Out in Paris and London, though he’s not tramping through London.

            Again, as originally published it was targeted at the meat packers.  Sure enough, the packers themselves have enough substantive crimes on their plate, well beyond their ruthless personnel practices (shared by the other firms in the book).  Due to payoffs to the Federal meat inspectors, countless unsavory practices occur, not the least of which are various human body parts – or even entire unlucky workers – getting mixed in with the meat.  Rotten meat and diseased animals are used anyway, simply surreptitiously mixed in along with the more wholesome and healthy meat. 

            Of course the book caused a scandal when it came out.  Theodore Roosevelt, upon learning the truth about the payoffs of the inspectors, spearheaded the movement which resulted in the Food & Drug Administration.  But a general hatred of capitalism, and an open revolution against the system, never materialized – even during the height of the Great Depression, when public dissatisfaction with the system was at its peak.  As it was, the other Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, managed to co-opt the socialists with his New Deal, so much so that the socialists were reluctant to run their own candidate against him.  Ultimately they did so to avoid giving the impression that they endorsed him, and thereby discrediting him.  The Communist Party-USA (CP-USA) had orders from Stalin to support FDR’s election efforts behind the scenes. 

            Despite my own views, I found the book extremely informative and compelling.  I cannot, however, track down the silent version of the film done ages ago – maybe someday it will turn up.