Monday, Jul. 12, 1926
McCormick
The McCormick family of Chicago has easily furnished its fellow countrymen with its fair share of daily news. In fact the public is inclined to let the McCormicks off now, let them out of the headlines summa cum laude. The McCormicks are wealthy, accomplished, beneficent, but their special talents and proclivities are by now all cataloged. There is not much news left in them. Yet last week newsgatherers found it necessary to invade the McCormick privacy just once more. Mrs. Cyrus Jr. had done a thing that is almost never done. She had sent her dapper secretary into the Manhattan terminal of the Pennsylvania Railroad to order her a special train to Chicago, a fast one, to leave at once, immediately. The railroad was astonished, but efficient none the less. A very fast train whisked Mrs. Cyrus Jr. to Chicago in the record time of 16 hours, 55 minutes. Mrs. Cyrus Jr., or her husband, paid $7,037 for the ride. Mrs. McCormick, the only passenger, traveled with a full train crew. She tipped the Pullman conductor $50, the porter $30, a passenger agent $50. And that was all there was to that, except that a lone lady seldom hires a special train, as she would a taxicab, and the newspapers simply had to tell about it. There must be some mysterious attraction in Chicago to necessitate such a gesture. No, said the McCormicks, there was nothing mysterious at all; no illness, marriage, divorce, or other sensation. It was a private matter. Of course the newspapers found out in the end. They usually do. Mrs. Cyrus Jr.--ardent Christian Scientist--had wanted to reach Chicago for an international convention of Christian Scientists. No, objected Christian Scientists, that was not it. Mrs. Cyrus Jr. had wanted to, and did, attend the annual meeting of a body called the Bicknell Young* Students' Association. "Oh, well," thought the public? "What's the difference? It was a great train ride. Let those poor, McCormicks be."
*Bicknell Young is a Christian Science lecturer and teacher.