448 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
public resorts in the city. Over 3,000 paid the 25-cent entrance fee July 4.
At the , at a terminus of several north-side car lines,
the vaudeville, not a bad one, holds the attention of the greater part of the people, who sit drinking and smoking about the tables placed in front of the stage. Others stroll about, visiting the booths, which make the whole place resemble the old county fair. Twenty-five cents is the entrance fee.
The on the south side is like the others, but lays
special stress upon its electric fountain. Whether these are pri- marily places of amusement or beer-gardens is hard to determine Ostensibly they exist for amusement, but practically they are beer-gardens.
The fourth, , draws large crowds daily. Among its
attractions are the chutes, a miniature railway, a swing, booths
as at the , and an animal show of circus side-show type.
Soft drinks only are sold.
Chicago has a system of public parks of which in one sense it may justly be proud, but from the point of view of resorts for the laboring people Chicago has no parks. Except on the holidays, or when the children are taken by their kindergarten teachers, a noble company of young women, the parks are, by virtue of their distance from the homes of the masses, inacces- sible. Nearly every park is supplied with a good refectory, and no intoxicating liquors are obtainable in any of them. Band concerts, at which the best music is played, are given, and largely attended by those who already have much of this world's goods.
Washington Park on Thursday afternoons is a veritable parad- ing ground, where these people have an opportunity to display their latest acquisition in bicycle and riding habits, carriages, etc. The park system suggests the passage, "for whosoever hath, to him shall be given ; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he thinketh he hath."
BILLIARD HALLS.
The billiard and pool halls remain to be treated, though they properly come under the head of saloons. There are in
