Sharp diary 1918 page 11. Tuesday 8 January 1918 - Chicago
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Document date
Tuesday 8th of January 1918
Transcription Notes
So that we might take no chances we got up at 6, had breakfast at 6.45 and caught the 7.20 to the J. C. station, intending to take the 8.30 train due to arrive at Rockford at 11.15. As my lecture was booked for 2 p.m. this seemed fairly safe. We could get no information from the officials as to what trains were running, nothing but grumpy discourtesy! So we just waited in a large hall which by degrees got fuller & fuller of passengers like ourselves, except that in the usual American way they took it all very quietly. I expect they are used to this sort of thing but the way they docilely accept it means that they will never get any reformation. Well at 10.45 at last a train got in and we boarded it getting a chair in a Pullman car. The train kept stopping and when it did move it crept along very slowly. The track seemed quite clear but there must I suppose have been some reason. At last we got to Rockford at 2.15. A Mrs Brantingham overheard us asking for the Second Congregational Church and offered us places in her motor, which we gladly accepted. When we got to the Hall we found that Shaw had misinformed us about the hour which was 3 not 2! What a lot of anxiety we should have been spared had we known. The lecture went all right but the audience was very sticky and superior like all these Women’s Clubs. No one offered us any hospitality whatsoever! After the lecture we got some very indifferent tea at a hotel and then went to the station to catch the 6.50 which of course arrived late — only 35 minutes however. We got dinner on board and renewed our experience of the morning. The hardest part was to be stuck up for 15 or 20 minutes about _ mile from the J. C. station! Then in intense cold we made for the suburban station where we shivered for 10 min[utes] till a train landed us at 53rd St[reet] at 11.30, and thus ended one of the most tiring and unpleasant days I have ever spent. But I had my cheque ($100) dollars in my pocket in return for all the discomfort!Location
USA : Illinois : Chicago [41.8781136,-87.6297982]
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