In the central portion was the vast wholesale and shopping district, to which the uninformed seeker for work usually drifted.It was a characteristic of Chicago then, and one not generally shared by other cities, that individual firms of any pretension occupied individual buildings.The presence of ample ground made this possible.It gave an imposing appearance to most of the wholesale houses, whose offices were upon the ground floor and in plain view of the street.The large plates of window glass, now so common, were then rapidly coming into use, and gave to the ground floor offices a distinguished and prosperous look.The casual wanderer could see as he passed a polished array of office fixtures, much frosted glass, clerks hard at work, and genteel businessmen in "nobby" suits and clean linen lounging about or sitting in groups.Polished brass or nickel signs at the square stone entrances announced the firm and the nature of the business in rather neat and reserved terms.
The entire metropolitan centre possessed a high and mighty air calculated to overawe and abash the common applicant, and to make the gulf between poverty and success seem both wide and deep.