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V MIDDLE CLASS One is forced to go back to the pre- vious quotation of Edna Ferber, that Wilmette rated "middle class," in order to point up a fact that Young Couples might be slow in under- standing. If the salty pioneers who broke the sod had given way to "middle class", it was due in part possibly to another fact. Evanston was long known as the "classical suburb." Northwestern University had been operating nearly 50 Years and had turned out many North Shore graduates. Yet Culture in this epoch in Wilmette was more poten- tial than real. The Young Couples were to sense this. They perforce asked themselves what they could or should contribute in the circum- stances. What did they bring to the community? The sobriquet "The Gay Nineties" utterly belies the Chicago of the epoch from which the Young Couples migrated for social living. Never be- fore in the Middle West had popular education been so stimulated as by the marvels of the World's Colum- bian Exposition of 1893. About its vacated Midway Plaisance reacti- vated University of Chicago was ris- ing to become one of the educational wonders of the world. Theodore Thomas was organizing and popular- izing symphonic music in the new Auditorium. Opera from New York was a joy for a short season in the same theater; with his chums Young Couple had "suped" in many an opera. Legitimate drama trod the boards of many fine Play-houses. The Art Institute and Armour Insti- tute were born. Bands Played good music in all the city Parks. John Phillip Sousa was the fad. A Chicago school of novelists began to attract national attention. There were so many newspapers in Chicago that the neighboring quarters were called "Newspaper Row'" They were fos- tering the first columnists and car- toonists. The job of foreign corre- spondent was created. The Asso- ciated Press was coming into flower from careful nurture in this same "Newspaper Row." All this devel- oped an overtone which almost put in the shadow Chicago's reputation as the railroad center and industrial giant of America. To be blunt, a relatively small number of Young Couples were col- lege trained. Nonetheless, the cul- tuial overtones of the metropolis had produced a positive effect. The latent possibilities for cultural advance- ment became increasingly apparent to the newcomers. They were to con- tribute an insight and a determina- tion to produce an environment sec- ond to none. This was not snobbish but practical. The growth might be slow. But as one of the steering group which planned the establish- ment of New Trier Township High School, put it, "If the school board has on it enough college trained cit- izens, we shall create a great insti- tution." This vision was borne out (1899), even if one addition was early to be ridiculed for its "tremendous" size as "Louis Gillson's Folly." The conjunction of many Young Couples and their advancing ideas and the wonderful setting of the fron- tier village on Green Bay Trail of the Ouilmette Reservation presented an accepted challenge for all con- cerned. Wilmette marched on! 18