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Chicago

I have looked thee over and taken thy meas- 
 ure thou Golgotha of the west. Thou callest  
  thyself the garden city!
You claim to be the centre of the new dem- 
 ocracy, of the great free west, of the land of  
  plenty.
But with all thy democracy doth a man earn  
  a living easier within thy borders, or have a  
  happier time because thereof?
Does he not toil harder, have coarser fare,  
  longer hours and a lower margin of subsist- 
 ence? For a city of democracy must be judged  
  by the status of its toilers and by the fine  
  houses of her pork-packing princes.
Are not your workers being supplanted by  
  Chinaman, by Polack and by Italian, who  
  live on a much lower plane?
And does not the great blot of slavery show  
  in thy streets more pointedly almost than  
  anywhere else in a lot of diseased niggers?
Blood is the bans of the hustling prosperity  
  that now attends you and an adept pig-sticker  
  is the embodiment of thy manhood!
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