Forgotten Treasures #9: TROUTING ON THE BRULÉ RIVER --PART 2

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
Don't know if you're familiar with the story of the exposition, but it's
an interesting one. The Museum of Science and Industry is the only
original structure remaining. I'd heard a bit about it from time to time,
but didn't know much about it until I read "The Devil in the White City" a
couple of years ago. The story as told by Erik Larsen is a fascinating
account of how an impossible job got done in an amazingly short
time......not quite short enough to make the proposed opening on the 400th
anniversary of Columbus's landing.....but it was done fast nevertheless.
The only thing that saves this from being a REALLY good book is that
Larsen seems to have lost his mind entirely and tried to interweave an
inane tale of a serial killer who was working Chicago at the time into the
story of the exposition.....which it has absolutely nothing to do with.

I'm glad you mentioned this. My BIL recently gave me a copy, and though I
got a few pages into it, it didn't grab me, then other stuff came up, & I
haven't picked it back up yet. He highly recommended it, however.

Joe F.

"Wolfgang" wrote...

snip stuff about old stuff

.. And, speaking of expositions, somewhere in
that mess of aerial views is a stunningly detailed rendition of Chicago's
1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

I have it somewhere (??) as well. A left-over from the history of Chicago
class, different semester. Maybe not the _same_ map, but an intricately
detailed one, almost down to Olmstead's placement of various plant types.

Wish I could tell you exactly where, but
I changed the file names when I downloaded them. I could email it to you
if you like. It's a 14 megabyte file, and you'll need a MrSID file
viewer. Don't know if you're familiar with the story of the exposition,
but it's an interesting one. The Museum of Science and Industry is the
only original structure remaining.

Only structure, yes, but much of the Hyde Park area still shows the fair's
plan. When SWMBO graced the U of C, we walked around the area quite a bit,
with a copy of the aforementioned map in hand. It's amazing how much of the
planning, if not the structure, remains.

If you're in Chicago on a warm summery day, I highly recommend the walk.

Then....take a walking tour of Pullman or the stock yards area. Not as much
evidence remains (well, more does exist in Pullman than the yards, but
either way, not too much) of the 'original' footprint, but there's enough
left to get a feel for what was happening just a few miles away from the
White City's beauty.


I'd heard a bit about it from time to time, but didn't
know much about it until I read "The Devil in the White City" a couple of
years ago. The story as told by Erik Larsen is a fascinating account of
how an impossible job got done in an amazingly short time......not quite
short enough to make the proposed opening on the 400th anniversary of
Columbus's landing.....but it was done fast nevertheless. The only thing
that saves this from being a REALLY good book is that Larsen seems to have
lost his mind entirely and tried to interweave an inane tale of a serial
killer who was working Chicago at the time into the story of the
exposition.....which it has absolutely nothing to do with.

Read it and agree, tho the Holmes (IIRC that was his name) character made
the story a bit more ...hmmm...what's the word? Dunno. Was gonna say it
made the story more titillating, but the letters from Burnham to his wife
were positively scorching (by Victorian standards anyway). I think Larsen
was trying to show two very meticulous men in Burnham and Holmes, in the
same city, at the same time, but with diametrically opposed goals. Or maybe
not? Either way, a good book that kept me company on an Isle Royale trip.



If you're still interested in that Salem business, Mary Beth Norton's "In
the Devil's Snare" is an excellent and highly detailed chronicle of the
events in and around Salem. That's the good news. The bad news is that
she fails miserably (embarrassingly, I think) to support her thesis. As
you doubtless remember, many theories have been proposed to explain the
bizarre series of events that led eventually to the deaths of 21 people.
None of them has been entirely satisfactory. Norton, borrowing a page
from modern psychology, proposes that the girls and young women at the
core of the accusations all shared a common exposure to depredations by
the local Indian tribes at the margins of settled lands and were all
suffering from what is now called post traumatic stress syndrome. An
interesting idea, which the author outlines pretty well in the
introductory matter......and then virtually ignores until the conclusion,
beginning on page 295. It looks as if she had no confidence at all in her
thesis and only pasted some crap in at the end because she was afraid that
someone would remember it from the beginning. Oh well, everything in
between is pretty good.

We read so many books for that class, I may have read this one. They all
became the same thing -- women who were 'uppity' got hung. Starkey, Godbeer,
and, IMO most importantly Karlsen all pretty much say the same thing, but
with varying geographic and/or social twists on the motivation. I didn't
take a ton from the class, but the Karlsen book, _Devil in the Shape of
Woman_ (or somesuch,) really made a great case that essentially the squeaky
wheel got the noose.


Dan
....No comments on the 'pageantry' thing? :-)

"rb608" wrote in message
news:hn_Wf.13409$f21.11144@trnddc01...
"Wolfgang" wrote in message

..."The Devil in the White City"....

I'm glad you mentioned this. My BIL recently gave me a copy, and though I
got a few pages into it, it didn't grab me, then other stuff came up, & I
haven't picked it back up yet. He highly recommended it, however.

Everybody's got different tastes. The good news is there's lots of others
to choose from.

Wolfgang

"Daniel-San" wrote in message
. com...

"Wolfgang" wrote...

snip stuff about old stuff

. And, speaking of expositions, somewhere in
that mess of aerial views is a stunningly detailed rendition of Chicago's
1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

I have it somewhere (??) as well. A left-over from the history of Chicago
class, different semester. Maybe not the _same_ map, but an intricately
detailed one, almost down to Olmstead's placement of various plant types.

Wish I could tell you exactly where, but
I changed the file names when I downloaded them. I could email it to you
if you like. It's a 14 megabyte file, and you'll need a MrSID file
viewer. Don't know if you're familiar with the story of the exposition,
but it's an interesting one. The Museum of Science and Industry is the
only original structure remaining.

Only structure, yes, but much of the Hyde Park area still shows the fair's
plan. When SWMBO graced the U of C, we walked around the area quite a bit,
with a copy of the aforementioned map in hand. It's amazing how much of
the planning, if not the structure, remains.

If you're in Chicago on a warm summery day, I highly recommend the walk.

It's been a while since I was down there. It would be interesting to look
at it again with a different eye. Can you recommend a good tour guide?


Then....take a walking tour of Pullman or the stock yards area. Not as
much evidence remains (well, more does exist in Pullman than the yards,
but either way, not too much) of the 'original' footprint, but there's
enough left to get a feel for what was happening just a few miles away
from the White City's beauty.

There's also a map of the stockyards in that aerial view collection. I
didn't download it myself, but I saw it a while ago when I was checking for
the Columbain Exposition file.

..."The Devil in the White City" ....

Read it and agree, tho the Holmes (IIRC that was his name) character made
the story a bit more ...hmmm...what's the word? Dunno. Was gonna say it
made the story more titillating, but the letters from Burnham to his wife
were positively scorching (by Victorian standards anyway). I think Larsen
was trying to show two very meticulous men in Burnham and Holmes, in the
same city, at the same time, but with diametrically opposed goals. Or
maybe not? Either way, a good book that kept me company on an Isle Royale
trip.

I think that if Mr. Larsen could choose between us for a blurb he'd probably
pick you.

..."In the Devil's Snare" ....

We read so many books for that class, I may have read this one.

Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Um.....when did you say you did your undergrad work?


They all became the same thing -- women who were 'uppity' got hung.
Starkey, Godbeer, and, IMO most importantly Karlsen all pretty much say
the same thing, but with varying geographic and/or social twists on the
motivation. I didn't take a ton from the class, but the Karlsen book,
_Devil in the Shape of Woman_ (or somesuch,) really made a great case that
essentially the squeaky wheel got the noose.

All of that is true, but there's no denying that those who did the hanging
DID believe they were hanging witches. The peculiar social structure of the
time and place played a large role in determing WHO was executed (as it
always does), but it wouldn't have been possible without the
credulity/religious fervor of the comminty at large in general, and the
essentially ecclesiastical courts in particular. And thus far no one has
yet offerred a really satisfying explanation for such a sudden,
concentrated, deadly, and prolonged outburst in an age in which witchcraft
was, after all, rather commonplace.

Dan
...No comments on the 'pageantry' thing? :-)


Well, you didn't have any, so I thought I'd wait.

Wolfgang

Wolfgang wrote:

"Conan The Librarian" wrote in message
...

When I read that passage the thought occurred to me that it sounded
just like ROFF. :-)

Chapter III is fairly typical, I think........but that doesn't necessarily
mean that it's selection for inclusion here was entirely random.

I would have been disappointed if it was. :-)

Absolutely. It makes me wish I had never posted my rambling monologue
disguised as a TR.

Au contraire mon bookish frere, you have nothing at all to be ashamed of.
As a matter of fact, there is a LOT of stuff in ROFF that is every bit as
good as anything you'll find anywhere else, judged by any standard worth
considering. And I'm certain others think so as well. I'd bet a shniy new
nickel I wouldn't be the only person here thrilled to see someone mine the
archives and start up a "Best of ROFF" series.

When I first ran across ROFF I did a bit of that to familiarize
myself with the place. I found authors whose style/content/whatever
interested me and did Google Groups searches on their (your) names. I
then bookmarked those for future reading.

In the process I learned a lot about the culture of ROFF and its
denizens. I expect if I were to return to one of those searches, I
could put together quite a nice collection. (A good portion of which
would simply be culled from various trip reports surrounding certain
anti-claves held (or not) in North Carolina.)

Chuck Vance (and not just us liberrians and liberrian wannabes like
Wolfgang :-)

My biggest fans never read I word I write. ;-)

Wolfgang
who knows there's nothing better than a good dose of roff to put a boy to
sleep with a smile on his face.

I guess that depends on whose stuff you're reading. :-)


Chuck Vance (you takes the good with the bad)

"Wolfgang" wrote ...


If you're in Chicago on a warm summery day, I highly recommend the walk.

It's been a while since I was down there. It would be interesting to look
at it again with a different eye. Can you recommend a good tour guide?


Recommend? Well... I knows dis guy. Loves Chicaga, and likes to tawk
fishin', but don't seems tah bee much of a fisshermin.... :-)


Then....take a walking tour of Pullman or the stock yards area. Not as
much evidence remains (well, more does exist in Pullman than the yards,
but either way, not too much) of the 'original' footprint, but there's
enough left to get a feel for what was happening just a few miles away
from the White City's beauty.

There's also a map of the stockyards in that aerial view collection. I
didn't download it myself, but I saw it a while ago when I was checking
for the Columbain Exposition file.

..."The Devil in the White City" ....

Read it and agree, tho the Holmes (IIRC that was his name) character made
the story a bit more ...hmmm...what's the word? Dunno. Was gonna say it
made the story more titillating, but the letters from Burnham to his wife
were positively scorching (by Victorian standards anyway). I think Larsen
was trying to show two very meticulous men in Burnham and Holmes, in the
same city, at the same time, but with diametrically opposed goals. Or
maybe not? Either way, a good book that kept me company on an Isle Royale
trip.

I think that if Mr. Larsen could choose between us for a blurb he'd
probably pick you.

Probably true. One of my many faults is that if I find a book entertaining
(for whatever reason) I tend to think highly of it, notwithstanding any
faults it may have. Something I try (and frequently fail) to be cognizant of
when reading academic work. Probably cost me a few grades here and there.



..."In the Devil's Snare" ....

We read so many books for that class, I may have read this one.

Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Um.....when did you say you did your undergrad
work?

Well... I have a feeling I'm about the youngest guy around these parts, but
no, I ain't _that_ young. Most of the books we read had some use of the word
"devil" in their titles, and as I said, I was paying attention to studying
the women (and maps) more than I should have, so they all got a bit muddied.


They all became the same thing -- women who were 'uppity' got hung.
Starkey, Godbeer, and, IMO most importantly Karlsen all pretty much say
the same thing, but with varying geographic and/or social twists on the
motivation. I didn't take a ton from the class, but the Karlsen book,
_Devil in the Shape of Woman_ (or somesuch,) really made a great case
that essentially the squeaky wheel got the noose.

All of that is true, but there's no denying that those who did the hanging
DID believe they were hanging witches.

True, and disturbing. Amazing what religiosity can do to a person. Or
perhaps more importantly, to a society governed thereby. No parallels to
present day Murricah intended, of course.

The peculiar social structure of the
time and place played a large role in determing WHO was executed (as it
always does), but it wouldn't have been possible without the
credulity/religious fervor of the comminty at large in general, and the
essentially ecclesiastical courts in particular. And thus far no one has
yet offerred a really satisfying explanation for such a sudden,
concentrated, deadly, and prolonged outburst in an age in which witchcraft
was, after all, rather commonplace.

Dan
...No comments on the 'pageantry' thing? :-)


Well, you didn't have any, so I thought I'd wait.


Nah... :-)

Dan

"Daniel-San" wrote in message
et...

"Wolfgang" wrote ...


If you're in Chicago on a warm summery day, I highly recommend the walk.

It's been a while since I was down there. It would be interesting to
look at it again with a different eye. Can you recommend a good tour
guide?


Recommend? Well... I knows dis guy. Loves Chicaga, and likes to tawk
fishin', but don't seems tah bee much of a fisshermin.... :-)...

Your people will be hearing from my people.

Wolfgang
road trip!

Conan The Librarian wrote:



In the process I learned a lot about the culture of ROFF and its
denizens. I expect if I were to return to one of those searches, I
could put together quite a nice collection. (A good portion of which
would simply be culled from various trip reports surrounding certain
anti-claves held (or not) in North Carolina.)


uh oh... um, that might cause a number of us to spend inordinate time
in the "library of excuses and alternative explanations" where all of
the necessary anti-clave reference works are maintained. g

jeff