The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-06-28 00:00:00

THE MARVELLOUS PROGRESS OF
CHICAGO.

Under the heading of "The State of Illinois," The Timee
of Wednesday published a letter from Mr. Geo. M. Higginson,
of Chicago, which gives some very interesting particulars
concerning the remarkable growth of that city and the de-
velopment of the State of Illinois. Mr. Higginson com-
mences his letter by saying :

"It has occurred to me that a letter from this part
of the world, written by an American, might be
acceptable to your readers, not only for the gene-
ral icterest which England has in the trade develop-
ments of all parts of the world, but also that there
may be some little novelty in the manner in which
various topics may be treated, as it will be free, at
least, from the prepossessions or prejudice which may
possibly affect the opinions of one born on British soil.
The material development of our business and
mechanical life would be likely to escape the noti-e of
one merely passing through the country without the
time or opportunity to become familiar with charac-
teristics and conditions which do not appear on the
surface. Let me state, then, that I am a native
of Boston, Massachusetts, where I lived till I was
twenty-three years old, at which period I became
engaged in business in the city of New York, and, after
remaining there five years, set my face to the Far West
and settled in Chicago in the year 1843, where I have
remained ever since, or for a period of thirty-six
years. In Boston I entered a counting-house at the age
of fifteen, in the employ of a firm engaged in navi-
gation and foreign commerce, and dealing w.th all
parts of the world. After remaining there for three
years I went with a domestic goods commission house,
which acted as baying and selliug agents for the
various manufactor.es scattered throughout New
England. In New York I wee engaged in the dry
goods jobbing trade for four years and then in the
manufacture of book mnslins or cambrics. Leaving
New York in 1843, I engaged in a general country
trade in Chicago, keeping in stock, as was usual at the
time, dry goods, groceries, hardware, crockery, &c.,
and running also in connexion therewith slumber yard
and the building of 'vessels and saw mills. Subse-
quently I transacted an insurance agency business, and
then in the management and sale of real estate. I
mention these details simply for the purpose of showing
that, as I have had a somewhat varied occupation at
different periods of my life, so I have had opportunities
of forming from personal experience my own opinions
as to the capacities and resources of different portions
of this country, its general statistics, and its present
condition of development, as well as its probable
progress in the future."
The information given at length in Mr. Higginson's letter
Is condensed and commented upon in a leading article in the
same issue of The Times, and from which we make the fol-
lowing extract :

"Mr. Higginson is really a man who has learned his
lesson in the school of experience, and wile, after
having lived and laboured for thirty-six years in the
city of Chicago, has earned the right to a hearing when
he records his impressions.
"We concur with what he tells us about the mar-
vellous progress of Chicago. The inventive faculty of
Queen Scheherazade never produced a more extra-
ordinary tale than tha true story of the Garden City
on Lake Michigan. When Mr. Higginson first visited
it, in 1840, the inhabitants numbered 4,000. He
might have said that ten years previously there were
but 100 persons there, of whom but a few were white
men. It was then a small Indian trading post. In
1837 it was incorporated as a city, and year after year
its inhabitants increased with a rapidity of which
there is no parallel, the estimated population
now being half a million; and, if the prospective
increase keeps pace with the calculated amount,
there will be two millions of people in Chicago by the
year 1890. Quite as noteworthy as the rate of increase
is the good sense and forethought which the citizens
have shown in rendering their city comfortable and
healthy. For several years after its foundation it was
found that fever prevailed, owing to the houses being
built on too low a level. In 1856 this drawback was
removed by raising the houses to the height of eight
feet above the shore of the lake; while the work was in
progress business went on as usual, the houses continu-
ing to be inhabited notwithstanding they were slowly
rising above their foundations, The water supply
was next found defective, the water at the margin
of the lake being contaminated with sewage. To remedy
this a tunnel was carried for two miles into the lake in
1864, a second being added ten years later, both cost.
lag enormous sums, and both subserving the purpose
of affording an excellent supply of pure water. The
river which winds through the city being found an
obstacle to traffic, first one and then another tunnel
was driven under its bed in order to facilitate the pas-
sage of foot passengers and vehicles. In 1871, when
at the height of its prosperity, Chicago was the scene
of a fire quite as disastrous as that which ravaged Lon-
don in 1666. Three miles and a half were burned over,
the area having been covered, before the fire
made it a waste, with 17,450 houses, inhabited by
98,500 persons. The damage done amounted
to 166,000,000 dole., after deducting 30,000,000 dole.
paid for insurance. Before another year elapsed
the greater part of the city had been rebuilt in a
style far more substantial and effective than before.
Three years later a second fire devastated sixty acres
in the heart of the city, causing a loss of 4,000,000
dols. At present the city's prosperity continues as if
nothing had ever occurred to check it. It is now,
what it was as far back as 1834, the greatest depot in
the world for grain. As a cattle market no other can
surpass it. During the year 1878 nearly half a million
pigs and 65,000 cattle were killed and exported. The
trade in lumber is also a large one, while manu-
factories of various kinds give employment to 50,000
peraoue.
"it it were not for the State in which it occupies the
first place among populous and rising cities, Chicago
would be as unimportant a mart for the transaction
of business as Springfield, which has the honour of
being the capital. The area of the State of Illinois
is nearly the same as that of England, yet in one thing
alone—that is, Indian corn—the production is usually
three times in excess of the production of wheat in this
country. The wheat crop is estimated at 30,000,000
bushels, and other cereals yield largely. Mr. Higginson
might have rendered his picture still more attractive
had he said something about the capability of the State
for producing fruit. One of the eights of Chicago,
during the season, is to watch the fruit trains arriving
from the part of the State called Egypt, filled with
strawberries and peaches. Yet it is not this great and
fertile State wilful alone furnishes Chicago with pio-
duce for consumption and export. Sixteen trunk lines
of rail centre in the city, and they bring the products
of many other States to find a market there; the re-
ceipts of grain in a single year have been as much as
97,00,000 bushels. Not only is it a converging
point for railways from all parts of the Union, but it
is also a port of no mean importance, though a thou-
miles distant from the sea. In the inland waters of the
lake 500,000 tons of shipping are employed. It is pro-
bable that steamers will regularly carry cargoes direct
froniChicago to Liverpool now the Welland Canal has
been deepened ; sailing ;Wilt have already made the trip
and there is no reels= why lines of steamers should not
compete for the trade, which must be large and pro-
fitable. It is true that for one half of the year the
navigation of the St. Lawrence and the Lakes is im-
peded by ice, yet, during the other half, the crops
could be cheaply transported from Illinois to England.
Tian prospect of this form of transport being still
further facilitated has lately been wonderfully in-
creased, A project is in contemplation for making a
ship canal between Lake Huron and Lake Ontario.
If this canal were available, the saving in distance
between. Chicago and Liverpool, compared with
the route through the Erie Canal, would be
Ws miles; the saving, as compared with the route
, through the Welland Canal, would be 320 miles;
while the estimated reduction in the cost of carrying
freight would be three dollars a ton. This scheme
was carefully examined by a Select Committee ot the
Ontario House of Assembly last Session, and was pro-
nounced to be both feasible and desirable. Thus we see,
on the one hand, a prodigious increase in the produc-
tion of articles of food in the United States and
Canada, and, on the other, improved means for
transporting the surplus from North America to
Europe. The agricultural development of Illinois
is not more extraordinary than that of the States
of Kanzas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Even
the Territory el Dakota, which was not regarded as a
place for the production of wheat, is already becoming
a rival to the neighbouring State of Minnesota; while
the Canadian Province of Manitoba bids fair to
surpass all rivals. Not wheat only, but barley also,
has become an important article of export from these
western States, It has been found that the barley of
Celorado causlot be equalled in certain particulars,
and the demand which has sprung up for it
in thia country, however large, will not soon exhaust
tho most illimitable supply. The prospect of meat
arta grain being cheaper in England than has ever
been known in living memory becomes stronger as
new land is brought under cultivation on the other
aide of the Atlantic, and as the cost of transport from
the place of growth to the place of consumption is
lessened. Cheaper food for the whole body of the
English people means increased contentment and
capazity for progress."