Chicago Tribune: WINDY CITY: Where did it come from?

[Mullins, Bill]

The Chicago Tribune allows stories to be emailed from their web site; why
not email it to the ADS List?  Also, for those who wish to read the story
from the Trib's site, which requires registration, www.bugmenot.com provides
username/password combos for many newspapers, so you don't have to provide
your own personal info.

Another early cite, which supports but does not predate Barry's work:

_The Quincy [Illinois] Daily Whig, 3 May 1884, p. 7.

"She Won't be Interviewed
[Cincinnati Times-Star.]

As is well known in newspaper circles, Mrs. Langtry this year has not
allowed herself to be interviewed.  She has even refrained from seeing
reporters, and all their cards have been returned with the frigidly polite
notice that the Lily was engaged.  In now appears that a Chicago journalist
is to blame for this condition of affairs.  A year ago, when she was in the
windy city, she was called upon by one of the young men on The Inter Ocean,
who chatted very pleasantly with her.  All at once he startled her by the
request:

  "Mrs. Langtry, will you be kind enough to show me your feet?"

  She was so utterly taken aback that she meekly complied with the odd
request -- which is not so odd for Chicago -- but she was shocked and
horrified.  In her opinion all newspaper men at once became boors and rough
creatures who were seeking to say evil things about her, and this explains
her positive refusal to be interviewed."