Theodore Dreiser

A Book About Myself Theodore Dreiser

But this comment on local life here and now, these trenchant bits on local street scenes, institutions, characters, functions, all moved me as nothing hitherto had. To me Chicago at this timeseethed with a peculiarly human or realistic atmosphere. It is given to some cities, as to some lands, to suggest romance, and to me Chicago did that hourly. It sang, I thought, and in spite of what Ideemed my various troubles-small enough as I now see them-I was singing with it. Theseseemingly drear neighborhoods through which I walked each day, doing collecting for an easypayment furniture company, these ponderous regions of large homes where new-wealthy packersand manufacturers dwelt, these curiously foreign neighborhoods of almost all nationalities; and, lastly, that great downtown area, surrounded on two sides by the river, on the east by the lake, andon the south by railroad yards and stations, the whole set with these new tall buildings, the wonderof the western world, fascinated me. Chicago was so young, so blithe, so new, I thought. Florence inits best days must have been something like this to young Florentines, or Venice to the youngVenetia