Chapter I .
THE MAGNET ATTRACTING -- A WAIF AMID FORCES When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago , her total outfit consisted of a small trunk , a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel , a small lunch in a paper box , and a yellow leather snap purse , containing her ticket , a scrap of paper with her sister 's address in Van Buren Street , and four dollars in money .
It was in August , 1889 .
She was eighteen years of age , bright , timid , and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth .
Whatever touch of regret at parting characterised her thoughts , it was certainly not for advantages now being given up .
A gush of tears at her mother 's farewell kiss , a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked by the day , a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs of the village passed in review , and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken .
To be sure there was always the next station , where one might descend and return .
There was the great city , bound more closely by these very trains which came up daily .
Columbia City was not so very far away , even once she was in Chicago .
What , pray , is a few hours -- a few hundred miles ?
She looked at the little slip bearing her sister 's address and wondered .
She gazed at the green landscape , now passing in swift review , until her swifter thoughts replaced its impression with vague conjectures of what Chicago might be .
When a girl leaves her home at eighteen , she does one of two things .
Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better , or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse .
Of an intermediate balance , under the circumstances , there is no possibility .
The city has its cunning wiles , no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter .
There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human .
The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye .
Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman .
A blare of sound , a roar of life , a vast array of human hives , appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms .
Without a counsellor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations , what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear !
Unrecognised for what they are , their beauty , like music , too often relaxes , then weakens , then perverts the simpler human perceptions .
Caroline , or Sister Carrie , as she had been half affectionately termed by the family , was possessed of a mind rudimentary in its power of observation and analysis .
Self-interest with her was high , but not strong .
It was , nevertheless , her guiding characteristic .
Warm with the fancies of youth , pretty with the insipid prettiness of the formative period , possessed of a figure promising eventual shapeliness and an eye alight with certain native intelligence , she was a fair example of the middle American class -- two generations removed from the emigrant .
Books were beyond her interest -- knowledge a sealed book .
In the intuitive graces she was still crude .
She could scarcely toss her head gracefully .
Her hands were almost ineffectual .
The feet , though small , were set flatly .
And yet she was interested in her charms , quick to understand the keener pleasures of life , ambitious to gain in material things .
A half-equipped little knight she was , venturing to reconnoitre the mysterious city and dreaming wild dreams of some vague , far-off supremacy , which should make it prey and subject -- the proper penitent , grovelling at a woman 's slipper .
“ That , ” said a voice in her ear , “ is one of the prettiest little resorts in Wisconsin . ”
“ Is it ? ”
she answered nervously .
The train was just pulling out of Waukesha .
For some time she had been conscious of a man behind .
She felt him observing her mass of hair .
He had been fidgetting , and with natural intuition she felt a certain interest growing in that quarter .
Her maidenly reserve , and a certain sense of what was conventional under the circumstances , called her to forestall and deny this familiarity , but the daring and magnetism of the individual , born of past experiences and triumphs , prevailed .
She answered .
He leaned forward to put his elbows upon the back of her seat and proceeded to make himself volubly agreeable .
“ Yes , that is a great resort for Chicago people .
The hotels are swell .
You are not familiar with this part of the country , are you ? ”
“ Oh , yes , I am , ” answered Carrie .
“ That is , I live at Columbia City .
I have never been through here , though . ”
“ And so this is your first visit to Chicago , ” he observed .
All the time she was conscious of certain features out of the side of her eye .
Flush , colourful cheeks , a light moustache , a grey fedora hat .
She now turned and looked upon him in full , the instincts of self-protection and coquetry mingling confusedly in her brain .
“ I did n't say that , ” she said .
“ Oh , ” he answered , in a very pleasing way and with an assumed air of mistake , “ I thought you did . ”
Here was a type of the travelling canvasser for a manufacturing house -- a class which at that time was first being dubbed by the slang of the day “ drummers . ”
He came within the meaning of a still newer term , which had sprung into general use among Americans in 1880 , and which concisely expressed the thought of one whose dress or manners are calculated to elicit the admiration of susceptible young women -- a “ masher . ”
His suit was of a striped and crossed pattern of brown wool , new at that time , but since become familiar as a business suit .
The low crotch of the vest revealed a stiff shirt bosom of white and pink stripes .
From his coat sleeves protruded a pair of linen cuffs of the same pattern , fastened with large , gold plate buttons , set with the common yellow agates known as “ cat 's - eyes . ”
His fingers bore several rings -- one , the ever-enduring heavy seal -- and from his vest dangled a neat gold watch chain , from which was suspended the secret insignia of the Order of Elks .
The whole suit was rather tight-fitting , and was finished off with heavy-soled tan shoes , highly polished , and the grey fedora hat .
He was , for the order of intellect represented , attractive , and whatever he had to recommend him , you may be sure was not lost upon Carrie , in this , her first glance .
Lest this order of individual should permanently pass , let me put down some of the most striking characteristics of his most successful manner and method .
Good clothes , of course , were the first essential , the things without which he was nothing .
A strong physical nature , actuated by a keen desire for the feminine , was the next .
A mind free of any consideration of the problems or forces of the world and actuated not by greed , but an insatiable love of variable pleasure .
His method was always simple .
Its principal element was daring , backed , of course , by an intense desire and admiration for the sex .
Let him meet with a young woman once and he would approach her with an air of kindly familiarity , not unmixed with pleading , which would result in most cases in a tolerant acceptance .
If she showed any tendency to coquetry he would be apt to straighten her tie , or if she “ took up ” with him at all , to call her by her first name .
If he visited a department store it was to lounge familiarly over the counter and ask some leading questions .
In more exclusive circles , on the train or in waiting stations , he went slower .
If some seemingly vulnerable object appeared he was all attention -- to pass the compliments of the day , to lead the way to the parlor car , carrying her grip , or , failing that , to take a seat next her with the hope of being able to court her to her destination .
Pillows , books , a footstool , the shade lowered ; all these figured in the things which he could do .
If , when she reached her destination he did not alight and attend her baggage for her , it was because , in his own estimation , he had signally failed .
A woman should some day write the complete philosophy of clothes .
No matter how young , it is one of the things she wholly comprehends .
There is an indescribably faint line in the matter of man 's apparel which somehow divides for her those who are worth glancing at and those who are not .
Once an individual has passed this faint line on the way downward he will get no glance from her .
There is another line at which the dress of a man will cause her to study her own .
This line the individual at her elbow now marked for Carrie .
She became conscious of an inequality .
Her own plain blue dress , with its black cotton tape trimmings , now seemed to her shabby .
She felt the worn state of her shoes .
“ Let 's see , ” he went on , “ I know quite a number of people in your town .
Morgenroth the clothier and Gibson the dry goods man . ”
“ Oh , do you ? ”
she interrupted , aroused by memories of longings their show windows had cost her .
At last he had a clew to her interest , and followed it deftly .
In a few minutes he had come about into her seat .
He talked of sales of clothing , his travels , Chicago , and the amusements of that city .
“ If you are going there , you will enjoy it immensely .
Have you relatives ? ”
“ I am going to visit my sister , ” she explained .
“ You want to see Lincoln Park , ” he said , “ and Michigan Boulevard .
They are putting up great buildings there .
It 's a second New York -- great .
So much to see -- theatres , crowds , fine houses -- oh , you 'll like that . ”
There was a little ache in her fancy of all he described .
Her insignificance in the presence of so much magnificence faintly affected her .
She realised that hers was not to be a round of pleasure , and yet there was something promising in all the material prospect he set forth .
There was something satisfactory in the attention of this individual with his good clothes .
She could not help smiling as he told her of some popular actress of whom she reminded him .
She was not silly , and yet attention of this sort had its weight .