Artie; A Story of the Streets and Town, by George Ade. Pictures by John T. McCutcheon. Chicago: Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1896. 193p.

Artie, George Ade's first book, is an outgrowth of his columns written for the Chicago Record during the 1890s. It is a pleasant little story centering around the adventures, real and imagined, of Artie Blanchard, a Chicago office clerk. Artie's one goal in life is to be a lady's man and young man about town, and each new adventure, as he reveals it to his fellow workers, is suitably interpreted and properly embellished to bear out that image. Artie is an exercise in satire which has withstood the test of time, for it bears up under perusal today as well as it did in 1896.

Bookman (NY), 11/1896, p. 262. Critic, 10/31/1896, p. 259. Independent, 1/21/1897, p. 91. Picayune, 10/18/1896, p. 9. Saturday Review, 12/19/1896, p. 658.

The Chicago Record's "Stories of the Streets and of the Town." Copiously Illustrated. [Chicago:] Reprinted from The Chicago Record, 1894. 128p.

A series of eight volumes containing selections of George Ade's writing, Stories of the Streets and of the Town was published with a Chicago Record by-line, since Ade wrote the stories for that newspaper. Although Ade's name appears no place in the volumes, he has now been given credit for the stories. Reprinted just as they appeared in the Chicago Record these stories have not been revised and edited as have the later works which appear under Ade's name. The stories vary somewhat in quality since they were written hurriedly to meet a journalistic deadline, but each displays a vitality of style and thought that would be difficult to match. Original illustrations by John T. McCutcheon appear in series 1-6 and add immeasurably to the humor in these small volumes.

CONTENTS: Since the Frenchman Came.--What Some Aldermen Do.--The Advertising Agent and Others.--How Walton and Davis Came Home.--Queer Ways of the Assessor.--The Conductor Has His Woes.--Just As They Do In London.--The Lonesome Passenger and the Porter.--Trying to Identify Two Men.--How to Get a "Pull" and Keep It.--The Mystery of the Back-Roomer.--In Chicago but Not Of It.--Principally About Life on Street-Cars.--Mr. Pensley Has a Quiet Day "Off".--Some Incidents Peculiar to a Big Town.--A Run to a Fire.--The Story-Book Detective and the Detective.--What is Expected of a Postmaster.--"The Gold Eye-Glasses" and Other Stories.--The Search for "Mother's Cooking".--About Arrests and Those Arrested.--Her Visit to Chicago.--Disconnected Stories Claiming to be True.--What Was Learned at the Hat Infirmary.--The Intoxicating Effect of Carmen Music.--A Victim of the Slot-Machine Habit.--"Stumpy" and Other Interesting People.--Merely Some Odds and Ends.--Small Shops of the City.--From Market Street to Moreland.--One Evening at the Station.--The Dog Feud in Shady Heights.--A Romance of South Water Street.--The Happiest Moment of a Lifetime.--The Intellectual Awakening in Burton's Row.--To Be Seen at the Coroner's Office.--Uncle Zig's Sign and Other Stories.--The Beginning of One Morning's Docket.--The Wonders of a Dime Museum.--Some Instances of Political Devotion.--High Life and Other Kinds of Life.--From Preaching to Pool-Selling.

Second Series of The Chicago Record's "Stories of the Streets and of the Town." Copiously Illustrated. [Chicago:] Reprinted from The Chicago Record, 1894. 192p.

CONTENTS: The Weather Bureau in the Tower.--The Mistake of Getting Another Man's Name.--The Lake Front on a Warm Sunday in April.--Post-Mortem Verses About the World's Fair.--Several Square Miles of Transplanted Poland.--The Expensiveness of Dying in Chicago.--Where the Law is not Delayed.--The Wretched Conduct of Young Mr. Parsels.--How the Stage is Being Elevated.--Some of the Gentle Arts Practiced by Barbers.--Clybourn Avenue and the Dandelion Crop.--Chicago and the Foreign Mails.--The Fortunates and Unfortunates of Town Life.--How They Pay Their Taxes.--One Kind of Trial by Jury.--Around the People's Buildings.--The Wonders of a Fish-Market.--Hotel Clerks and Others not so Important.--Old Days on the Canal.--How Jasper Swift Came and Saw and Went Home.--With the Market-Gardeners.--Things Happening in the Hospital Wards.--"How Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth".--Two New and Interesting Church Ruins.--Thespians, "Barkers," Policemen and Others.--Trying to Outwit the Humble Check-Raiser.--How Hogan and Humphrey Finally Fell Out.--How Veteran Bartholomew was Made Captive.--Fair-Minded Discussion in Dearborn Avenue.--The Innocent Diversion of Killing Pigeons.--The Heroic Conduct of the Proof-Reader.--A Valuable Specimen in the Barber School.--One way of Dispersing a Crowd.--How Bad Luck Became Multiplied.--The Brief Story of the Peerless Athletic Club.--Little Billy as a Committeeman.--Getting Married While You Wait.--Pleasure-Trips on the Grip-Car.--A Tramp's Reflections.--The Machinery of Justice on the North Side.--The "Genuine Turkish Harem".--At The Green Tree Inn.--The Pleasant Gentleman Looking for a Flat.--On the Road to Evanston.--The Pestilence of Laughing Cats.--How Proposals are Made in a College Suburb.--He Wanted a Lower Berth.--A Man in a Department Store.--When the Conscience is Troubled.--The Plight of a Representative Business Man.--One Good Result of the Coal Famine.--"Jim" and Some of His Friends.--Inspector Shea Talks About Criminals.--"Me Pardner" in the Hospital.--The Summer Season and the "Perfesh".--William Wickerly's New Stenographer.--The Social Triumph of Sherman Miller.--The Advantage of Being "Middle Class".--The Greeks of Chicago.--The Man With Presence of Mind.--Only a Saloon Case.--"Stone Walls do not a Prison Make".--The "Gallery" Wax-Flower Bouquet.--The Circus in the Back Yard.--The Last Day of School.--The Junk-Shops of Canal Street.--Brother Wilson and the "Weight Social".

Third Series of The Chicago Record's "Stories of the Streets and of the Town." Copiously Illustrated. [Chicago:] Reprinted from the Chicago Record, 1895. 256p.

CONTENTS: The Photograph Album at the Morgue.--A Breathing-Place and a Playground.--About "Shooting the Chutes".--In the Days of the July Strike.--The Sad Duty of the License Clerk.--If They Had Known.--Dark Days for the July "Profession".--How a Great View Was Spoiled.--Along the South Shore.--Seven O'Clock at the Stage Door.--Chattel-Mortgage Methods in Chicago.--The Prendergast Case and Number 13.--The Duty of Every Good Citizen.--People Who Imagine They Are Hot.--Vehicles Out of the Ordinary.--The Suburban Resident.--On the Crossing Detail.--Some Singular Misconceptions.--The Downfall of Mr. Jesseau.--How They Went to the Picnic.--Women Barbers Around Thirty-First Street.--Hot Weather Athletics.--Monday Morning at Des Plaines Street Station.--Following the Horses.--How a Massacre Was Prevented.--Chicago Society Before the Fire.--Two Men and a Baby.--Some Stories of the After-Dinner Kind.--The Literature of Waiting Rooms.--Going Out Between the Acts.--The Sunday Crowd on the Bleachers.--Sign Language in a Restaurant.--Another Woman Takes to Literature.--When He Was "On His Uppers".--The Challenge of the Trotter.--Mr. J. Herbert Eversham's "Devilish Lark".--The Crowd at a Military Review.--Buying Matinee Tickets.--The Man With Rubber Feet.--Thursday Morning at the Detention Hospital.--The Bachelors and the Baby.--Going to a Sunday Picnic.--"Hobo" Wilson and the Good Fairy.--A Tale of a Bicycle Girl.--Queer Ways of Making a Living.--An Old Friend from Binghamville.--The Homeless and Dependent Children.--The Williams Family and Labor Day.--The First Day of School.--"Touched" by a Non-Professional.--Visitors' Day at the Jail.--The Sad Fate of Mr. Binger's First Born.--Two Strange Animals in a Box.--How "Pink" Was Reformed.--The Little Yachts at Van Buren Street.--After the Sky-Scrapers, What?--Sidewalk Merchants and Their Wares.--Two Weeks of Vacation and Rest.--Showing His Brother Around Town.--"What Have You Got to Say?".--Another Evidence of Wonderful Progress.--The High School's Noonday Half-Hour.--A Visit to Tony Denier's Museum.--The University of Chicago.--His Experience With a Superior Woman.--Another Good Man Gone Wrong.--The High Art Study of Whiskers.--He Didn't Make a Sale.--Some of the Unfailing Signs.--A Romance of Chicago Day.--The Great Cause of Tariff Reform.--The Views of a Practical Politician.--One Day With Ollie.--Dropping in at a Few Places.--Why People Looked at Her.--A Plantation Dinner at Aunt Mary's.--One of the Hannibal Boys.--Mr. Benson's Experience With a Maniac.--His Day to be Miserable.--The Amateur and the Identification Bureau.--The Plain Duties of a Janitor.--The Doctor's Charity Patient.--Tales Gathered "On the Circuit".--The Social Sphere of Jarley.--The Gold Star Set with Diamonds.--One Solution of the Woman Problem.

Fourth Series of The Chicago Record's "Stories of the Streets and of the Town." Copiously Illustrated. [Chicago:] Reprinted from The Chicago Record, 1895. 192p.

CONTENTS: The Prospect of Meeting His Wife.--That Part of the City Which is in the Country.--The Money Lost in One Day.--The Plain Ways of a Poor Millionaire.--A Visit to the Costumer's.--Two Congregations Out of the Ordinary.--Their Holiday.--The Conversation on the Car.--What to Do In Case of Fire.--The Disadvantage of Being a Hypnotist.--How Lucy Went Away.--Three Stories from the Back Streets.--Mr. Morgan's New Flat.--A Day in a Sky-Scraper.--Danny's Story.--Sophie's Sunday Afternoon.--Olof Lindstrom Goes Fishing.--Back of "The Yards".--Franklin Sommers and the Baby.--Looking for a Friend.--Ways of the Grain Speculator.--One Way of Getting Experience.--A Suburban Romance.--The Strange Caller and Her Sister Luella.--The Glory of Being a Coachman.--The Installment Plan and Other Plans.--Chicago High Art Up to Date.--The New Repair Shop Across the Way.--Cupid in Buttons.--Sunday Evening at the Music Hall.--In the Fire-Alarm Telegraph Office.--The Feud Between the Burnetts and Deakins.--How Brown and Curtis Secured Employment.--From the Mail-Box to the Carrier.--How "Pick" Caught the "Battle-Row".--The Court-Rooms in the County Building.--City Suicides.--The Romance of Mr. Wellington Jenkins.--Playing the Races.--Life on a River Tug.--John Roberts' Vacation.--Mr. Norris Goes to a Picnic.--A Transaction Among Friends.--City Burden-Bearers.--At Dunning.--Clark Street Chinamen.--Houses of the Rich.--By Boat to Windsor Park.--From the Office Window.--Clarence Was Not at the Station.--He Told of a Valuable Discovery.--When No Place is Open.--They Had Met Once Before.--Beginning With the Ex-Cook.--When They Came Back to Town.--Some Adventures on the Wheel.--He Wanted the St. Louis Train.--Fred Had Met Her Before.--Mr. Smythe Paid for His Lodging.--The Gentle Art of Crippling the Other Man.--Mr. Burnby Goes to Lunch.--People Who Are Funny Without Intending To Be So.--The Peculiar Adventure of a "Front".--Having a Man's Night of It.--Mr. Porteus Had To Be In It.--The Four Places in a Row.--The Town Has Degenerated.--"They're All Good People, But--".--The Author and His Woes.

Fifth Series of The Chicago Record's "Stories of the Streets and of the Town." Copiously Illustrated. [Chicago:] Reprinted from The Chicago Record, 1897. 128p.

CONTENTS: "Doc" as Lothario.--Guessing at Our Neighbors.--Ollie and Freddie.--X-Rays While You Wait.--The Actor's Return.--She Had the Proofs with Her.--Ollie's Meeting with Beatrice.--He Was Always Busy.--The Barclay Lawn Party.--When "Doc" Was in Philadelphia.--From the Monday Morning Docket.--The Great Campaign in Tracy County.--From Out of the Depths.--The Lodger's Story.--Mr. Buchanan Hunted for It.--In the Land of Plenty.--"Doc" Tells About Fishing.--Spending a Million.--The Necessity of Keeping Cool.--On the Summer Excursion Boat.--An Old Friend from Dunbar.--Cooped Up in Town.--The Evolution of Sinclair.--How He Earned His Title.--The Girl at the Asylum.--The Song That Reached His Heart.--How He Fooled His Wife.--"Doc" Horne as an Invalid.--A Mean Trick on Howard.--The Days of Mush and Milk.--Narrow Escapes from Matrimony.--A New Face at the Alfalfa.--While Waiting for May.--Two Distinct Kinds of Lying.--The Photograph on the Mantel.--The Freckled Boy and the Diamond.--Mr. Parker in an Amiable Mood.--The Banjo Instructor as an Artist.--The Montaye Family.--"Doc" Horne Talks of Opportunities.--The Pious Young Man's Evening Paper.--The Sons of Old Coldwater.--Concerning "the Little Lady".--On the Bridal Tour.--The Attempt to Reform Joseph.--Mrs. Drew and the Sleuths.

Sixth Series of The Chicago Record's "Stories of the Streets and of the Town." Copiously Illustrated. [Chicago:] Reprinted from The Chicago Record, 1898. 120p.

CONTENTS: The Baby and the Purse.--Back to the Alfalfa.--An Evening with Gertie.--Selected from the "Turns".--The Beautiful Snow.--"Doc" Horne Lost in the Woods.--Making It Up with Josephine.--The Team of Carina and Wylston.--The Old Spelling School.--Miraculous Cures and Magic Preventives.--The Instance of Beautiful Rita.--"Doc" on Aerial Navigation.--The "Lush" Meets a Playful Couple.--One Day on the "Main" Exchange.--The Detective at Bolivar.--How Dr. Brascoll Was Trapped.--The "Lush" Tries and Fails.--When They Were Boys.--What the People Saw.--An Experiment in Art Criticism.--About a "Cousin" Letter.--An Experiment in Philanthropy.--The Fate of the Juggler.--A Boy's Career.--Some Street Characters.--Memories of Their Youth.--Putting Down the Rebellion.--The Streets at Night.--A Tale of a Letter-Box.--The Ways of the Hustler.--A Commercial Transaction.--In the Roof Garden.--Mr. McGarvey Wins at a Loss.--John Hickey's Trip to Town.--A Colony of Relatives.--Where the River Opens to the Lake.--For Increasing the Revenue.--The Buell Cherry.--One Instance of a Real Statesman.--The Band That Played.--The Soldier's Letter.

Seventh Series of The Chicago Record's "Stories of the Streets and of the Town." Copiously Illustrated. [Chicago:] Reprinted from The Chicago Record, 1899. 160p.

CONTENTS: The Faithful Watch Dog.--A Question of Moral Courage.--Living Up to Their Reputations.--Information for All.--Search for Silence.--As to Janitor Service.--Roderick.--From an Alley Window.--An Excursion-Boat Divinity.--Gallagher's Dog.--He Caught the Trolley Car.--The Soldier's Return.--The Woes of Julius.--Getting to a Basis.--A Chat with the Marketman.--The Man Who Is Punctual.--August's High Spirits.--The Results of Curiosity.--The Janitor's Philosophy.--Dawson's Double Life.--How to Get Rich.--Beauties of Conversation.--Mme. Grigsby's Visitor.--The Contented Engineer.--The Heroism of Johnny.--About Young Mr. Woodward.--"Old Roffey".--An Expert in Philanthropy.--Getting Ready.--The Romance of a Coffee Pot.--The Other Girl.--The Sympathetic Barber.--In Luck and Out.--Sorrows of a Spanish Brave.--Story of Cyrano.--Mr. Payson's Satire vs. Christmas Good Will.--Every-Day Occurrences in Blankest Verse.--The Hickey Boy's Woes.--The Rise of the Striped Collar.--The Hickey Boy in the Feathers.--America: By a Patriot.--How Mr. Guernsey Fell and Recovered.--Some Difficulties of Dining.--An Adventure with a Watch.--The Cosmic Girl.--Tale of a Folding Bed.--The Mysterious Valentine.--Experiments in Economy.--In the Good Old Days.--A Distinguished Acquaintance.--Providing an Outfit.--Real Bohemians.--When Dewey Gets a Rest.--A Social Call.--The Hickey Boy's Advice.--Woes of the Candidate.

Eighth Series [of] The Chicago Record's "Stories of the Streets and of the Town." Profusely Illustrated. [Chicago:] Reprinted from The Chicago Record, 1900. 128p.

CONTENTS: Mr. Sweet on Needs of the Navy.--"The Commune" Discusses Art.--Trouble of an Usher in a Theater.--"The Commune" Has a Feast.--Duties of the Stage Manager.--Springtime Discussions by "The Commune".--A Fireman's Story.--"The Commune" Discusses Commencement Time.--In the Grasp of the Money Power.--Barney Would Move "The Commune".--Sidney and Mrs. Hodgeon.--Barney and the Waitress.--An Obliging Drug Clerk.--Progress of Barney's "Affair".--A Hot-Weather Monologue.--Concerning Marriage.--The Fourth.--The Fifth.--Resisting Temptation.--Overheard in the Lobby.--Before Breakfast.--The Party Line Telephone.--Her Arrival.--Concerning Johnson.--Experimental Conversations.--An Ancient Ballad.--State Street at Night.--The Man Who Stole an Elephant.--At the Rehearsal.--Seeking Information.--Thanksgiving Dinner at Uncle Bradford's.--At "Larry's Lunch".--On Literature.--Mr. Dubley Makes a Speech.--"Gondola" Wilson's Misfortune.--About Santa Claus.--The British Aristocracy.--An Experiment in Pie.--A Cure for Baldness.--When the Hawkins Family Moved.--Catching a Sucker.--Book Agents and their Ways.--Brockway's Creaky Stairs.--How a Pattern Was Spoiled.--Visiting Childhood's Scenes.--The Man in the Tunnel.--William O'Rourke, Gripman.

Clarence Allen, the Hypnotic Boy Journalist; or, The Mysterious Disappearance of the United States Government Bonds, by George Ade. Author of "Eddie Parks, the Newsboy Detective," Etc. [Phoenix, Arizona: The Bandar Log Press,] Copyright 1903 by George Ade. 28p. (The Strenuous Lad's Library, No. 2)

Clarence Allen is reprinted from the July 10, 1897, Chicago Record in a limited edition of 374 numbered copies. Called a nursery tale by Ade, the point and humor of this story would be lost on a child, for it is a biting satire of the literature that appeared in the pulp magazines of Ade's era. Though delightfully preposterous, Clarence Allen will have limited appeal for most modern readers. This edition is very difficult to obtain; however, the story appears in Bang! Bang! and in Chicago Stories.

The Permanent Ade; The Living Writings of George Ade. Edited by Fred C. Kelly. Indianapolis [and] New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers, [1947.] 347p.

The thirty-one fables, thirteen stories, ten essays, and two plays included here are but a sampling of the volume of literature which swept George Ade to fame in the early 1900s. A collection of his best writing, these samples illustrate Ade's proficiency in a variety of literary forms.

CONTENTS: The Fable of Sister Mae, Who Did as Well as Could Be Expected.--The Fable of the Preacher Who Flew His Kite, But Not Because He Wished to Do So.--The Fable of the Copper and the Jovial Undergrads.--The Fable of the Man Who Didn't Care for Story-Books.--The Fable of the Regular Customer and the Copper-Lined Entertainer.--The Fable of the Honest Money-Maker and the Partner of His Joys, Such as They Were.--The Fable of the Adult Girl Who Got Busy Before They Could Ring the Bell on Her.--The Fable of the Author Who Was Sorry for What He did to Willie.--The Fable of the Boston Biologist & the Native with the Blue Hardware.--The Fable of the Husband Who Showed Up & Did the Best He Knew How.--The Fable of Uncle Silas & the Matrimonial Game.--The Fable of the Wise Piker Who Had the Kind of Talk That Went.--The Fable of the Brotherhood of States & the Wife Who Was Responsible for the Jubilee.--The Fable of the All-Night Seance & the Limit That Ceased to Be.--The Fable of This Year's St. George & the 800 Microscopic Dragons.--The Fable of the Day's Work & the Morning After.--The Fable of the Old-Time Pedagogue Who Came Down from the Shelf and Was Sufficiently Bumped.--The Fable of the Low-Down Expert on the Subject of Babies.--The Fable of the Parlor Blacksmith Who Was Unable to Put It Right Over the Plate.--The Fable of the Cut-Up Who Came Very Near Losing His Ticket, But Who Turned Defeat Into Victory.--The Periodical Souse, the Never-Again Feeling and the Ride on the Sprinkling Cart.--The Search for the Right House and How Mrs. Jump Had Her Annual Attack.--The Summer Vacation That Was Too Good to Last.--The Fable of the Lonesome Trolley-Riders and Their Quest of Harmless Amusement.--The Fable of the Family That Worked Overtime in Taking Care of Nellie.--The Fable of What Horace Stood for in Order to Land the Queen.--The Fable of How the Fearless Favorite from St. Louis Flagged the Hot-Looker Across the Way.--The Fable of the Old Fox and the Young Fox.--Hazel's Two Husbands and What Became of Them.--The Coming-Out Girl and a Few of Her Keen Guesses.--The Roystering Blades.--Effie Whittlesy.--Willie Curtin--A Man.--Mr. Payson's Satirical Christmas.--The Judge's Son.--Artie.--On Winning the Affections of a Woman.--On the Transference of Affections.--Doc' Decides to Leave the Hotel.--Il Janitoro.--Mr. Benson's Experience with a Maniac.--Why "Gondola" Was Put Away.--At "Larry's Lunch".--Clarence Allen, the Hypnotic Boy Journalist.--The Joys of Single Blessedness.--Advice.--Putting Up a Front.--Letters of Introduction.--The Old-Time Saloon.--An Incident of Travel.--To Make a Hoosier Holiday.--Getting Sister Laura Married Off.--The Microbe's Serenade.--The Yankee's Prayer.--Marse Covington.--The Sultan of Sulu.

Book Review Digest, 1947, p. 8.

True Bills, by George Ade. Author of "People You Know," "Breaking Into Society," "The Sultan of Sulu." Illustrated. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, MCMIV. 154p.

Twenty-three fables, most of them first printed in 1902 and 1903 in syndicated newspapers throughout the country, appear here with slight revisions and minor title changes. Most of these stories were written after Ade left the Chicago Record, but still display the biting wit of his Chicago days.

CONTENTS: The Fable of the Lonesome Trolley-Riders and their Quest of Harmless Amusement.--The Fable of the Poor Woman Who Had to Live in a House That Was Overrun by Anecdotes.--The Fable of the Divided Concern That Was Reunited Under a New Management.--The Fable of the Family That Worked Overtime in Taking Care of Nellie.--The Fable of Successful Tobias and Some of His Happy New-Years.--The Fable of the Red-Letter Night at Smartweed Junction.--The Fable of What Horace Stood For in Order to Land the Queen.--The Fable of the Boy with the Steadfast Ambition.--The Fable of the Unfortunate Has-Been and the Sympathetic Conductor.--The Fable of Another Brave Effort to Infuse Gentility into our Raw Civilization.--The Fable of How Gertrude Could Keep It Up until Ten O'Clock in the Morning.--The Fable of How the Fearless Favorite from St. Louis Flagged the Hot-Looker Across the Way.--The Fable of the One Who Got What Was Coming to Him and then Some More.--The Fable of the Society-Trimmers and What Broke Up the Experience Meeting.--The Fable of the Girl Who Wanted to Warm Up When It Was Too Late.--The Fable of What Our Public Schools and the Primary System Did for a Poor but Ambitious Youth.--The Fable of the Two Ways of Going Out After the Pay Envelope.--The Fable of the Misdirected Sympathy and the Come-Back of the Proud Steam-Fitter.--The Fable of How the Canny Commercial Salesman Guessed the Combination.--The Fable of the Taxpayers' Friend Who Ran to an Empty Grand Stand and Finished Outside the Money.--The Fable of the Single-Handed Fight for Personal Liberty.--The Fable of the Never-to-be Benefactor Who Took a Brand-New Tack.--The Fable of the Old Fox and the Young Fox.

Literary World, 12/1904, p. 380. N. Y. Times Book Review, 12/3/1904, p. 839.

Joe Phenix in Chicago; or The Serio-Comic Detective, by Albert W. Aiken. New York: Beadle & Adams, Publishers; 92 William Street, February 3, 1897. 31p. (Beadle's Dime New York Library, No. 954)

Carroll Berkeley, a wealthy Englishman, and his brother Marshall become separated while touring the United States, and Marshall disappears in Chicago. After two months of searching and waiting for his return, Carroll gives up in despair and decides to return home alone. Taking the advice of an old friend whom he accidentally encounters, Carroll hires Joe Phenix, a New York detective of some renown, to conduct a thorough investigation. Joe Phenix and his assistant Mignon Lawrence, who disguises herself as a serio-comic, travel to Chicago; Mignon obtains a job in a music hall which Marshall is known to have frequented; and together they ferret out the truth of Marshall Berkeley's robbery and murder. Joe Phenix in Chicago is anything but good literature. Yet, it is representative of a popular type of fiction that circulated widely during the nineteenth century, but of which few copies exist today. This particular title is set in Chicago during 1893, the year of the Columbian Exposition, and describes one small phase of the economic and social developments resulting from the fair.

How Bob and I Kept House; A Story of Chicago Hard Times, by Bessie Albert. New York: The Authors' Publishing Company; 27 Bond Street, [1880.] 65p.

In this riches-to-rags story, Leonora Wetherow, daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Chicago, marries real estate broker Robert Mortimer, in a grand ceremony with only the cream of Chicago's social elite in attendance. After the most fabulous wedding tour of the century, the two settle down in the most beautiful house in Chicago to live their lives in perfect marital bliss. But the economic panic of 1873 ruins them financially. Forced to show their mettle, they dismiss all of their servants but one; move into a six-room house; and Bob becomes a wage earner at $2,000 a year. In her most philosophic manner, the author sums up her story with the observation that, "Poverty is no disgrace, but then it is just a trifle inconvenient." Unfortunately, she is serious!

Luke Walton; or, The Chicago Newsboy, by Horatio Alger, Jr. Author of "Ragged Dick Series," "Luck and Pluck Series," Etc. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, [1889.] 346p.

Virtue will be rewarded, a theme which Alger uses again and again in his novels, once more appears in the story of Luke Walton. Luke spends most of his days selling newspapers on the corner of Chicago's Clark and Randolph Streets to help support his mother and seven-year-old brother. Honesty, goodness, and reliability are strong forces in Luke's character, and profit him tenfold as a steady procession of worthy people stop on his corner to buy papers and to help him get on in the world. One fine gentleman makes Luke a gift of $10.00, which enables him to buy his mother a sewing machine. A lady offers him a better job after he saves her from being run down by a streetcar. Still another man helps him expose the crook who earlier cheated the Waltons of their rightful inheritance. Although the story is ordinary, predictable, and didactic to an extreme, it has merit. Typical of the writing of Alger it is a fine example of the literature of faith and optimism that was immensely popular with boys and young men during the second half of the nineteenth century.

The Train Boy, by Horatio Alger, Jr. Author of "Tattered Tom," "Tom Thatcher's Quest," "Ragged Dick," "Luck and Pluck," "Dan, the Detective," "The Errand Boy," Etc. Etc. New York: G. W. Carleton & Co.; Publishers, Street & Smith, New York Weekly, MDCCCLXXXIII. 298p.

Paul Palmer, a poor but honest train boy, makes the round trip daily from Chicago to Milwaukee selling books, magazines, and papers to weary travelers in search of a moment's diversion. In the course of his work, he encounters pickpockets, thieves, confidence men, and murderers. Striving always to right any wrongs that he observes, and ever willing to help any worthy unfortunate who comes his way, Paul attracts the attention of a wealthy lady, then a kindly gentleman, who together help him to improve his lowly state and provide the means for the building of his future. As in the past Horatio Alger pits good against evil, with the balance heavily weighted in favor of good. Yet, despite its predictable plot, the story is lively and entertaining, and presents a good view of 1880s Chicago at many social levels.

Walter Sherwood's Probation, by Horatio Alger, Jr. Author of "Ragged Dick Series," "New World Series," Etc. Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Co., 1897. 351p.

While attending college, Walter Sherwood does not apply himself to his studies, so his guardian withdraws support forcing him to drop out of school and seek employment. With $100 in his pocket, Walter sets out for Chicago. He quickly learns the ways of the world as he encounters the ruthless employers, confidence men, thieves, and bullies who lie in wait for the unsuspecting. Discouraged, he secures employment with a kindly old man who operates a medicine show. Fortune smiles on Walter at last, and at the end of the year, he returns home with $1,000 in his pocket, a wealth of experience in his past, and a bright future before him, which includes returning to college to finish his course. A typical Alger hero, Walter Sherwood has ingenuity, integrity, and intelligence, but must be taught to use them. Though the lessons may be painful and the moralizing too obvious, the story is entertaining and quite authentic in social and geographic detail.

Marching Men, by Sherwood Anderson. Author of "Windy McPherson's Son." New York: John Lane Company; London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; Toronto: S. B. Gundy, MCMXVII. 314p.

When Beaut McGregor deserts his home in Coal Creek, Pennsylvania, to seek his fortune in Chicago, he finds the city suffering from an overabundance of able-bodied men and a grave shortage of jobs. Beaut manages through a display of brute strength, to obtain employment in a warehouse where he works himself up to the position of foreman. Studying at night he becomes a lawyer, wins fame through his brilliant defense in a criminal trial, and begins to amass his fortune. Enabled at last to help his people, Beaut begins to organize the Chicago labor force into a unified army marching toward a common goal. Sherwood Anderson's familiarity with Chicago has enabled him to write authoritatively of the social ills and injustices perpetrated on the poor of the city before the time of the labor union. Although Marching Men is idealistic, romanticized, and often didactic, it presents an excellent view of a society in the throes of industrialization.

Book Review Digest, 1917, p. 13-4.

Windy McPherson's Son, by Sherwood Anderson. New York: John Lane Company; London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, MCMXVI. 347p.

Sherwood Anderson's first published novel, Windy McPherson's Son relates the story of Sam McPherson Caxton, Iowa newsboy and son of the town drunk, who makes his fortune in Chicago. Following the advice of John Telfer to "Make money! Cheat! Lie! Be one of the men of the big world!" Sam claws his way to prominence among the money kings of Chicago around the turn of the century. Wealthy and influential Sam begins to puzzle over the meaning of his success, and determines that his life has meant little. Anderson is not at ease with the long narrative and comes close to ruining a good story by his philosophizing and moralizing. Yet, the Chicago setting is beautifully drawn, and the historical aspects of the novel are quite accurate, making this an excellent reflection on a small segment of Chicago's history.

Book Review Digest, 1916, p. 14.

Chicago After Dark, by Shang Andrews. Author of "Cranky Ann," "Wicked Nell," "Irish Mollie, the Courtesan Queen," and other Romances. Chicago: [H. B. Mathews' Sons,] 1882. 75p.

Written to expose vice and corruption in Chicago during the years immediately following the Civil War, Chicago After Dark describes gambling, drunkenness, procuring, and prostitution in terms bordering on the sensational. A young man, Harry Nelson, becomes intrigued by gambling, and is enticed into other vices in the course of an evening; while at the same time, two young girls, Carrie Gray and Julia Bradley, are about to be initiated into the world's oldest profession. All are delivered from their fates by circumstance, in what must be the most dreadful piece of writing done in 1882. In spite of its poor quality the novel has value as a piece of authentic Chicagoana in which names of actual people and locations have been retained by the author.

Cranky Ann, The Street Walker; A Story of Chicago in Chunks, by Shang Andrews. Author of "Wicked Nell," "Chicago After Dark," "Irish Mollie, The Courtesan Queen," and Other Romances... Chicago: R. H. Andrews... 1886. 87p.

Alanson Baldwin, a retired gentleman well-known in Chicago's business world, assumes as his special cause the expulsion of sin and depravity from Chicago's streets and brothels. Introduced to night life by Harry Harper, a former employee who has gone astray, and Cranky Ann, a reformable prostitute, Mr. Baldwin attacks the situation cautiously until he learns of a plot against his own daughter's virtue. Incensed by the evil of the people involved, he works untiringly at rescuing his daughter and at seeing that her abductors get their just deserts. Although offensively didactic, Cranky Ann presents what appears to be a first-hand view of Chicago low-life in the 1870s.

Irish Mollie; or, A Gambler's Fate. The True Story of A Famous Chicago Tragedy, by R. H. Andrews, [pseud.] Chicago: Published by Cha[rle]s J. Heck; 320 to 326 Dearborn St[reet,] 1893. 108p.

Irish Mollie is an enlarged edition of Andrews' previous publication, Chicago After Dark. The text varies little from the earlier work except for the addition of chapters thirty-one through thirty-five.

Wicked Nell; A Gay Girl of the Town, by Shang Andrews. Author of "Cranky Ann," "Chicago After Dark," "Irish Mollie, The Courtesan Queen," and Other Romances. Chicago: [H. B. Mathews' Sons,] 1880. 73p.

Nellie O'Brien, at the tender age of thirteen, has earned herself the name, Wicked Nell, and the reputation of a harlot. She drinks, swears, lies, steals, fights, and takes delight in her lowly state. She scoffs at law, authority, and mother-love but is miraculously rescued from the road to self-destruction by Mr. Brown who loves her in spite of her past. By any literary standard this novel is poor. Yet, it is fascinating for its picturesque descriptions of pre-fire Chicago.

Byrd Flam in Town, Being a Collection of that Rising Young Author's Letters, Written at Chicago, and Published in The Trumpet, A Paper of General Circulation, at True's Mills, Indiana----Being Furthermore Shrewdly Construed as a Gentle Roast of Certain Business, Social, Political, Religious and Military Flams of a Great City. Chicago: John Bearhope Company, Publishers; Masonic Temple, First Quarter, October, 1894. 139p. (Shadows Library, Volume 1 Number 1)

J. Byrd Flam, everyman's image of the country bumpkin, arrives in Chicago from True's Mills, Indiana, with an abundance of money, a minimum of experience, and an assignment to write his impressions of the city for his home-town newspaper, the True's Mills Trumpet. Flam's encounters with confidence men, ladies of the street, gamblers, thieves, and sundry other unsavory characters of the slums and suburbs parallel other stories by other authors written on similar topics. But his impressions of the Chutes is a classic in American humor; his experiences with bicycles and bicycle riders are unequaled for hilarity; and his interpretations of the theater, literature, and the arts draw forth many a chuckle. Eighteen letters, of which sixteen have appeared in the Chicago Herald constitute this delightful spoof of the best and the worst of Illinois' greatest metropolitan area.

CONTENTS: First Letter, Containing a Modest Account of His Travels to the City, and His Unexpected Meeting with Two Guileful Gentlemen who Seriously Contemplate Robbing Him.--Second Letter, Being Seized with a Spirit of Amusement He Ventures on a Moonlight Excursion, in the Company of Vastly Agreeable Young Women.--Third Letter, Recounting a Day's Adventures which Terminated in a Sorry Encounter Between the Valorous Flam, and the Proprietor of a Pretty Young Bicyclist.--Fourth Letter, Being in Part Devoted to the Shocking Manner in which a Depraved Con Man Relieves Him of His Cash.--Fifth Letter, Having to do with the Mystery of the Chutes, no less than Flam's Annoying Encounter with an Ancient Maiden Lady.--Sixth Letter, Flam, Possessing the Fortunes of a Festive Sucker, Wins Large Loads of Wealth on the Wheel.--Seventh Letter, Being a Faithful Account of His Most Paralyzing Appearance in New and Shining Apparel.--Eighth Letter, Consisting in Part of a Plausible Account of His Large and Repeated Winnings at the Horse Race, and the Musical Mood in which He Re-entered the Town.--Ninth Letter, Describing a Distant Relative, Together with the Veracious Annals of a Jag.--Tenth Letter, Beguiled by Beauty on Wheels the Sagacious Flam Learns to Ride a Bicycle, and Having Conquered That Terror, Valiantly Assails a Frightful Holocaust.--Eleventh Letter, Escaping the Meshes of a Levy Haberdasher He Courageously Goes Against a Hop Joint, and is Even Emboldened to Proffer Good Counsel to the Mayor.--Twelfth Letter, How a Millionaire when Properly Chaperoned, Lifts the Burdens from Toiling Slaves, and is then Skillfully Permitted to Buy the Dinner.--Thirteenth Letter, Being Devoted Exclusively to Sylvan Scenes and Rustic Pastimes at the Stock Yards, with Melodies of Maids, and Men whose every Occupation is a Dream.--Fourteenth Letter, Informing the Reader of His Heroic Combat with the Army, not Concealing His Vanquishment by a Ginger-Whiskered Man in Cavalry Attire.--Fifteenth Letter, Which Recounts at Some Length the Events of an Evening Spent in the Company of a Poet who Mooned about Nature, Instead of Writing Odes Applauding Progress.--Sixteenth Letter, Wherein the Chivalric Flam Routs a Mob in the Banquet Room, and Secures Some Luncheon for Beauteous Society Leaders; thus Surprising Them, and Considerably Damaging His Apparel.--Seventeenth Letter, Containing Much Evidence of Flam's Commanding Position in Chicago, no less than His Quick Appreciation of Female Beauty as Seen at the Play.--Eighteenth Letter, Which is Written in the Passenger Station at True's Mills, Indiana, while Waiting for the 'Bus from the Central House to Come and Carry Him Up Town, where He Expects a Rapturous Welcome.

Dan Gunn; The Man From Mauston; A Countryman Who Did Up the Town, by LeRoy Armstrong. Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally & Company, Publishers, [1898.] 235p.

When Alice Morrison, the fairest maiden in Mauston, Iowa, is enticed to run away to Chicago by a traveling roue posing as a photographer, Dan Gunn vows that he will find her or die. To that end, he follows the couple to Chicago, where he encounters high life, low life, confidence men, gamblers, destitution, prostitution, and assorted other symptoms of an ailing society before his task is completed. After aiding the police in capturing the photographer who is, in fact, a notorious counterfeiter, Dan finds Alice, marries her, and the two return to Mauston to live out their lives in the peacefulness of rural America. This novel is similar to any number of others written during the nineteenth century. Exaggerated personality traits, contrived plot, and an offensive naiveté limit the value and enjoyment of this novel of the 1890s, although it does give a cataloged account of varied social ills that plagued Chicago during one of her major periods of expansion and growth.

Literary World, 5/27/1899, p. 167.

Washington Brown, Farmer, by LeRoy Armstrong. Author of "An Indiana Man." Chicago: Charles H. Kerr and Company, 1893. 326p.

A Kansas farmer organizes his fellow farmers, corners the Kansas wheat supply, and uses friendly persuasion, political influence, and finally strong-arm tactics against Chicago wheat buyers and railroad magnates to get a fair market price for the Kansas wheat crop.

Belle Boyd, The Girl Detective; A Story of Chicago and the West, by Allan Arnold. Author of "Old Dodger, The New York Detective," "1000 Miles in a Second; or, The Lightning Clew," etc. New York: Frank Tousey, Publisher; 34 & 36 North Moore Street, August 29, 1891. 31p. (The New York Detective Library, No. 457)

Belle Boyd, eighteen-year-old girl detective of the Allan Pinkerton force, and terror of the criminal class of Chicago, falls into deadly peril as she pursues Burt Scruggs' gang of thieves and cutthroats through Chicago's slums. Employing her superior wit and strength to best advantage, and relying heavily on conveniently placed trap doors, carefully concealed weapons, foolproof disguises, and chance, Belle destroys the Scruggs gang, recovers the loot from a $100,000 robbery, clears the name of one wrongly accused of the theft, releases four of the gang's captives, and finds love--all in the course of duty. For quality, Belle Boyd, The Girl Detective ranks among the atrocious, but a reader may become enthralled by the absurdity of plot and unintentional humor and be forced to suppress an urge to hiss the villain and cheer Belle on to greater feats of daring.

Connie Bell, M. D., by Helen Tann Aschmann. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, [1963.] 301p. (Winner of Dodd, Mead Librarian and Teacher Prize Competition)

Braving public condemnation, family disapproval, and physical harm for her convictions, Connie Bell persists in her determination to become a doctor. This is the story of one of the first graduates of the Chicago Women's Medical College, who, after her graduation in 1871, begins her crusade to improve the status of women in the medical profession.

A Woman of Genius, by Mary Austin. Author of "The Land of Little Rain," "The Arrowmaker," "Isidro," "Christ in Italy," etc., etc. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1912. 510p.

Her genius for acting, the one compelling force throughout Olivia's life, is the basis for both her failures and her successes. Her marriage fails because of her frequent absence from home. Shying away from a second marriage, she loses her lover because she refuses to be tied down. With each failure, she devotes herself more completely to her career, until it becomes master of the woman. The plot has been compared to Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, since both Carrie and Olivia are country girls who find similar fates in Chicago.

Book Review Digest, 1912, p. 19.

Full Harvest, by Dora Aydelotte. New York [and] London: D. Appleton-Century Company, Incorporated, 1939. 333p.

Lyddy Miller, ambitious matriarch of the Miller family, wants her children to have the advantages which only growing up in town can provide. Much persuasion is needed to convince the family, but Lyddy finally succeeds in moving husband and children from the farm into town. Unfortunately, town life has an adverse effect, and their return to the farm following a financial crisis is a move welcomed by all. Set in central Illinois around the turn of the century, Full Harvest provides a pleasant account of rural life in the Midwest some eighty years ago. Details of church socials, an auction sale, the county fair, and various farm chores strike a note of nostalgia for those who remember, as the author presents a true rendering of the times.

Book Review Digest, 1939, p. 40-1.

Green Gravel, by Dora Aydelotte. Illustrated by James Daugherty. New York [and] London: D. Appleton-Century Company, Incorporated, 1937. 249p.

Often reminiscent of Tom Bailey in Story of a Bad Boy, Judy Clement, the ten-year-old heroine of Green Gravel captures the hearts of young and old alike. Set in downstate Illinois before the turn of the century, the novel presents a wealth of information concerning life and customs in the prairie towns of the middle west before industrialization.

Book Review Digest, 1937, p. 44.

Long Furrows, by Dora Aydelotte. New York [and] London: D. Appleton-Century Company, Incorporated, 1935. 262p.

The youth, courtship, and marriage of Barb'ry, eldest daughter of John and Lyddy Miller of Green's Grove, provide the focal point for this novel of Illinois farm life around 1900. Offering nothing more interesting than a Fourth of July picnic the unexpected marriage of Aunt Min, the near drowning of two younger brothers, and preparation for the annual harvest, Long Furrows is an accurate image of the routines, the joys, and the sorrows of daily living.

Book Review Digest, 1935, p. 37.

Measure of a Man, by Dora Aydelotte. New York and London: D. Appleton-Century Company, Incorporated, 1942. 250p.

As the citizens of Prairie Home, Illinois, go about the chores of daily existence, they live plainly and self-sufficiently, depending on the world outside Prairie Home for little, until the twentieth century, with its innovative automobiles, its mail-order catalogs, and its advanced methods of communication and advertising introduces them to a world few have seen and most cannot imagine. Measure of a Man is the story of John Patten's struggle to keep his general store in operation as he and the other merchants of Prairie Home adjust their lives to compensate for the infringement of outside forces on their businesses. This is more than a story of business and enterprise, however, for John Patten is not only a believable tradesman and civic leader who commands the respect of friends and neighbors as he shows the way to avoid financial ruin, but he is also a lovable husband and father, facing such domestic tasks as suggesting to his daughter's beau that it is time to go home. Herself the daughter of a small-town storekeeper named John Patten, Dora Aydelotte presents village life and the problems of the small-town merchant as remembered from her youth, with authenticity and accuracy. Few novels can equal Measure of a Man for re-creating a time period.

Book Review Digest, 1942, p. 30.