Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/319

 THE SALOON IN CHICAGO 305

centers of the city, comes with wife and child, and the business cares float gradually away, borne on the lighter strains of music. Old men with their pipes find in this place a never-ending source of pleasure, and will sit by the hour philosophizing and reminiscencing over a single glass of beer. The people gath- ered here are in the main well-dressed and of more than the average intelligence. They are representative of the middle and upper classes of the suburban districts.

A young woman of strong temperance views exclaimed, after spending an hour in this garden for the first time : " Isn't it beautiful ? Can it be, is it possible, that after all our ideas are wrong and these people are right ?" It is not for our report to judge, but this is true that, while drinking to excess is seldom known here, a certain proportion of the patrons acquire in these beautiful and apparently harmless surroundings the progressive appetite which, with men of some temperaments, means the whole sad story of the ruined home and the drunkard's grave. Too much importance can scarcely be attached to the music rendered in some of these resorts. It is of the first quality and to be had every night for the nominal fee of $0.25. People, many of whom do not drink at all, gather here from far and near. The gardens draw their patronage mostly from those who own comfortable homes in the suburbs.

There are, of course, beer-gardens of all grades and qualities, but those for the poorer classes, the ten-cent and free gardens, are mostly in the form of open-air vaudevilles. In these the music is inferior, and the vaudeville bill, similar to that mentioned in a previous paragraph, is presented. They are much more numer- ous here than are the saloon vaudevilles of the city centers, and here no roof is necessary to keep out the smoke and dirt.

A unique feature of the suburban districts is the road-house. Buildings, interesting in their exterior architecture and well equipped within, are located along the road to the suburban dis- tricts. They are especially adapted to wheelmen and other pleasure-seekers wishing to stop for rest and refreshment.

As a general rule, funeral processions returning from the cemeteries that lie along the road to these suburban districts