Welcome To Illinois, Come For The Hospitality Stay For The Weirdness.

When I sat down to write today I thought it would be remiss if I did not pay mad props for the state that spawned a creature such as myself, The great State of Illinois. For the few times that I’ve traveled outside the state that I love and call home I have been asked where I call home, usually the response I receive from those that I meet is all the same, “Illinois, isn’t that the state with all the corn and the cows?” These people are lucky I don’t offend easily otherwise that would receive a sound downhome, midwest thrashing, I joke of course. The one thing that most people do not understand that, although cow tipping is the best way to pass the time in the Prairie state, Illinois is one weird place.

Illinois runs the gambit and gets the booby prize for being home to some of the strangest phenomenon known to our mysterious planet. The first American serial killer called Illinois home. We have, perhaps, more haunted cemetaries per capita than any other state in the Union, folks driving lonely back roads late at night are taken aboard the bitchin’ rides of ETs, and the son of Satan once ungraced the Land of Lincoln with his nefarious presence. Yep, Illinois is one weird wonderful place and in this series you will learn why and perhaps even pay us a visit and sit a spell.

Son Of Satan In Chi-town.

Those of us who live in the northern portion of the wind swept prairie state all know and love the windy city, sweet home Chicago. Chicago is a world class city with posh trendy clubs, and many great venues to see your favorite musical group. Or perhaps restaurants and food is your thing, chicago pizza is the best. Yes sir, Chicago is truly one great place for everything you can possibly imagine. However things have not always been this way, Chicago has not always been the favorite playground for midwest yuppies. At one time in it’s history Chicago, was a much different place, one could say downright deadly.

Chicago of the nineteenth century was not such a fun place to call home. Violent roving gangs of cutthroat miscreants wandered the streets and back alleys looking for some poor sap to victimize. Houses of ill repute or brothels stood proudly on practically every street corner offering every unmarried and not-so-unmarried man the oppurtunity to get their freak on with their pick of a lady of the night. The city was also home to a poor immigrant class who’s only desire was to come to the land of oppurtunity and make a life for themselves but instead they found a city where they not welcome and the natural born American citizen hated them with every fiber of their being. However there was one faint glimmer of hope in an otherwise cesspool of a city, a place where the poor and downtrodden could go and learn how to read, write and receive medical care. That place was Hull House on the cities near west side and it’s mistress, Jane Adams.

Jane Adams, was the daughter of a wealthy Chicago Merchant and like some rich kids, Jane began searching for the meaning of life and her special purpose. When her father passed away, Jane and her close friend, Ellen Starr, traveled to Europe to taste the elite culture of the Continent. On their stop in Jolly Old England, Jane found something other than elite culture, Jane discovered London’s famed West End and that discovery would prove to change not only her life but the way she viewed her fellow man.

Walking the dirty feces covered roads of the West End, Jane could not help but reminisce of the faint glimpses that she caught of her hometown of Chicago as her family drove through the areas that she was told to stay away from. Upon her visit to Toynbee Hall, a home that was famous for feeding the poor and educating the iliterate, Jane was impressed how the children of elite London society gave up their fancy clothes and manor houses and served those who could not serve themselves. After spending a few days at Toynbee, Jane, came to the conclusion that the poor of Chicago needed such a place and Jane Adams made it her personal mission in life to give it to them.

Shortly after returning to Chicago, Ms Adams purchased Hull House, an old ramshackle mansion on the cities near west side that had been abandoned for a number of years. In the early days of 1889, Jane Adams, the wealthy heiress of a large fortune, opened Hull House for all those who needed it the most. Almost immediately Hull House became a haven for the hungry and the abused. Immigrant women came by the hundreds to learn how to speak english, learn to read and write and learn how to take better care of their children. Not only was Hull House and it’s dedicated workers the first place in the city to offer job training courses, Hull House was also the first place to open a fully functioning library that offered every book a new reader could hope to find. Hull House was definately what the grimy city of Chicago needed to fight back poverty and crime, but something sinister was rumored to call Hull House home.

As time passed and Jane Adams gained popularity as a successful social worker, frightening tales of Hull House began to filter down through the poor immigrant classes that sought refuge from Jane Adams. It was reported that the house was haunted by the mad spirit of the house’s builder, Charles Hull. Others told tales of the shadowy forms of Monks witnessed by many walking down the main stairs. On more than one occassion even Jane Adams had admitted to witnessing the apparitions of the monks as well as coming face to face with the shade of the former mistress of the house. The strangest tale of all to come out of the house was the story of a grotesque little imp that called the house home, The Devil Baby of Hull House.

No one is exactly sure when the rumor started that the son of satan came to inhabit the house. Upon hearing the rumor from immigrant women who came to the house desiring to see the devilish child, Jane Adams did everything she possibly could to dispel this rumor. However these women of the old world would have none of it, they were convinced that a child born with horns, red skin and a pitchfork shaped tail called the social reform house it’s abode.

Many claimed that they were present when Ms Adams, and one of her workers attempted to have the child baptized. The story goes that when Jane presented the priest with the child, the devil baby leapt from Jane’s grip and ran around the church laughing and blaspheming God’s name. Jane Adams; was so mortified by the experience she never returned to the church nor did she take the devilish child out from behind the safe confines of Hull House again.

One thing is certain, even if a demon child did not live at Hull House, the immigrant woman who came from such countries as Italy, Ireland and Jewish Russians, believed the story adding their own special ethnic flare from their old world beliefs to the story.

The Italian Job

Perhaps the most common story often told about the origins of the devil baby came from Italian women. The story goes that a poor Italian woman married a very abusive man who claimed to be an atheist and constantly mocked his wife’s faith. One day the woman attempted to hang a picture of the Virgin Mary on the wall when her husband burst through the door and declared that he would rather have his wife give birth to the devil himself than for her to hang that on the wall. Sure enough nine months later, the wife gave birth to a grotesque demonic child. The husband was so horrified he demanded that his wife throw the child away. Instead the wife brought the child to safe confines of Hull House.

More Than Just Blarney

The second most popular tale tells of a poor Irish Family who already had twelve children. One day the wife discovered that she was pregnant with a baker’s dozen, unlucky thirteen. When she told her husband of the impending joyousness, the husband cursed the child saying that he would be a devil. I guess the jerkoff got what he wished for.

The Un-Mitzvah

And lastly, a young Jewish girl had a hot love affair with a nice young gentile boy against the wishes of her parents. When her parents discovered that she was pregnant with a half goyim child her father, a Rabbi, flew into a rage and told her that no child of his would give birth to a half breed. Angered by her father’s reaction the young girl ran off and married her lover. Upon hearing of the happy ocassion the father cursed the child declaring that he would be the devil in the flesh.

Looking back it is difficult to understand why such a nasty rumor would have been made about a house and a woman who gave her heart and soul to those who obviously spread the rumor. Jane Adams spent the last remaining years of her life declaring time and time again that no such creature called the house home she even made brief mention of it in her book (a great read), “My Years at Hull House.” Jane could never escape the nefarious tale of the alleged devil baby at Hull House and the rumor injured her greatly.

Was there ever really a devil baby at the house that was on the cutting edge of social reform? Highly unlikely. The child and it’s hellish pedigree was probably a poor child with severe deformities that gave it the appearance of something unearthly. At that time children born with mental retardation, handicaps or deformities were usually discarded by their unloving parents that did not want them into an uncaring world that would rather see them dead. If such a child did exist that child found a loving person in Jane Adams and a caring home in Hull House.

Rick E. Hale
t_seeker@hotmail.com