The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-15 00:00:00

TSB: WESTERN STATES.

(From the Bpecial Correspondent of the Times.)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, Aug. 30.

There are drawbacks and hardships enough con-
nected with A.meric an travelling ; but there is one
peculiar advantage more than counterbalancing all
the evil. In America there is nothing to see ; there
are no lions to kill. The town you arrive at to-day
is nothing but the town you quitted yesterday all
over again. Not only is there nothing to see, but
nothing that yen are pressed or even expected to
see. You alight from the cars, are driven to your
hotel, write down your name in a bolk at theoffice,
are shown to your room, go down to your breakfast,
—the same printed bill of fare, same table atten-
dants ; yo u have travelled 300 miles, but find your-
self preci& ely as you were. Your palatial inn, the
broad stre a t before it, the still wider avenue at right
angles wi it, the lofty warehouses, the spacious
stoles, the trim villas and gardens, are all fiimiliar
objects, II hotel itself being by far the greatest
wonder of: the town. Connu! Connu you have
seen a hundred towns like the one now before you.
There wi) I be no cicerone or valet de place to plague
you with medimval minsters, or to break your shins
against tl le remnants of Roman rubbish. No picture
gallery t D inspect, no cradle of genius, no martyr's
shrine to worship at, nothing to see. It is the
easiest tramelling in the world.
Take a 3 a sample this Chicago, this "Queen of
the West,,'' this big city of the big State of Illinois;

a bran nr Ay place sprung up in one night as if by

magic. Five-and-twenty years ago I lived in Ame-
rica; I resided for three years in the States, and
even travelled west as far as the Mississippi, yet I
never he and the name mentioned ; the site of Chi-
cago was hardly marked on the map. "In 1831,"
now leavn, "it was an Indian trading post; in
1840 it toasted 5,000 inhabitants." Its population
exceeds at the present day 150,000 souls. Its
main tho roughfares stretch out seven miles in length.
Wonderful as its growth has been, it has, however,
fallen short of the expectation of its sanguine foun-
ders, who were bent on making it the biggest city
of the Union. At the time of my first visit to Ame-
rica Cincinnati was the city of golden hopes. It
was she that then bore the proud title of " Western
Queen," and the removal of the seat of the Federal
Government to her hills on the bank of the Ohio was
looked upon as a probable, and by no means remote,
contingency. Since then the shine has been taken
off Cincinnati by this new upstart on the shore of
Lake Michigan. Cincinnati has been designated
under the new appellation of " Porkopolis," and
even to that distinction she scarcely has any good

title nowadays, seeing that the pork trade itself
flourishes at Chicago with greater activity than at
the rival city ; and I am assured by some very ear-
nest patriots here that " we beat Cincinnati by a
1838 Chi
i cago
yearly average of 40,000 hogs !" In
only exported 78 bushels of wheat ; n 1862 the ex.
port of breadstuffs exceeded 70,000,000 bushels. No
doubt Chicago, as the centre of three or four States
of unrivalled agricultural wealth, could not fail to
become a vast city. The inhabitants laid out a plan,
allowing ample room for any future extension.
They traced the widest streets in the world, planned
the broadest avenues. Everything was conceived
on that colossal, superlative scale which seems par-
ticularly to delight this biggest of nations. The
consequence is that we have as yet only the magnifi-
cent sketch and embryo of a town, we have dust
and glare, empty spaces, inconvenient distances.
I came to the West, as you are aware, with a
hope to be enabled to solve to my own satisfaction
the problem which puzzled my brain—" How do
these people fare under the scourge of this civil
war, and who is to pay for it ?" The answer that
is given here to my question is by pointing to the
buildings at this moment in progress in every quar-
ter of the city. The town had originally been laid
on a dead level along the lake shore ; anything like
wholesome drainage was a material impossibility ;
the people have been and are now striving against
the evil by raising every house and street seven or
eight feet above the ground. The primitive settlers
had no other building materials than wood or brick,
but magnificent quarries of white stone have lately
been discovered a few feet under the level of the
prairie, a few miles from the city ; and a miracle
such as the imperial nephews of great uncles
achieved in Rome and at Paris is being reproduced
here. Such glorious fl igs for the side-walks, such
excellent white blocks for the houses, the world
hardly ever saw. Chicago, which is only half• built,
is being rebuilt all over. It is at this very moment
undergoing this transformation ; a proof that the
war not only never stopped, but rather hastened
and strengthened, its growth and prosperity.
Well, as to the town ; but what about the coun-
try ? In the country, lam told, most people have
profited by the war. There was no country in the
world where the minor landowners, farmers; and
labourers were more deeply in debt than in these
fertile Western districts. Over speculation in land,
successive bad harvests, and the decreased demands
from Europe had compelled the farmer to raise the
wind on any terms. The landed property was
heavily mortgaged ; the rural population was
on the brink of ruin. The war brought the
remedy of all evils. Provisions found a brisk,
open market near home. The man who owed
1,000 dols. could pay hie debt in greenbacks to that
a mount, although in reality he hardly gave 500 dole,
real value, he received his full acquittal for the
whole sum. That what was benefit to the debtor
must be dead loss to the creditor is sufficiently evi-
dent; but, somehow, hardly one as yet feels in-
clined to complain. The spirit of enterprise, of gam-
bling in these countries exceeds all belief. The State
of Illinois had in 1852 only 95 miles of railway ; it
boasts now no less than 3,003 miles. By what
amount of jobbery, of downright robbery, these ex-
tensive lines have been achieved it would be idle to
inquire. The railways, et any rate, are there. The
end is attained—what signifies the means ? Ame-
ricans seem to be of Butler's opinion about " the
pleasure being as great in being cheated as to cheat."
Their eagerness for money-getting is equal to their
recklessness about money-losing. Their fortunes are
like so many castles of cards, which they delight to
see blown down at one breath. The aUdmited issue
of Mr. Chase's greenbacks has been a glorious s vvio-
die in the American style. It works wonderfully
well for the d iy ; who gives a thought to the mor-
row ? The gain for the millions is immense; who
would trouble his head about the few who may hap-
pen to belosers by and by ? Thu man who comes to
this country with Old World notions has reason to
feel very small, and to look very foolish in his own
eyes. " There is nothing like civil war to fatten a
country ; nothing like civil war and paper money!"
Refore the war," we are informed, " the total
circulation of the whole country' North and South,
was 362,000,000 dols. between paper money, gold,
and silver. Now, in the North alone, with only two-
thirds of the population, the circulation is computed
at 605,000,000 dols. Mr. Chase has, besides, the au-
thorisation by Congress to issue 300,000,000 dols.
irredeemable back paper, besides 850,000,000 dols.
now 200 new
of legal-tender money. . There are
banks being organised to issue Treasury paper, and
there is no limit to the amount to be issued:,
There is no doubt but by this prodigious shower
of greenbacks the whole country has been enor-
mously fertilised. " The stocks have advanced on
an average fully 300 per cent. The Erie Railroad,
which formerly sold for five, is now 120. The Ga-
lena and other roads of this State, which were down
to 30 and 40, are now up to 130 and 140."
The saint, rule applies to every other branch of
commercial, agricultural, or industrial enterprise.
Howevur fictitious and illusory, however ephemeral
this prosperity of the country may be, it behoves
every man to make hay while the sun shines. How-
ever worthless the greenbacks may he in them-
selves, the lands that can be bought, the houses that
can be guilt with them, are solid goods. The stretch
of private and public activity here is immense; the
travelling- on every Lee of railway, the crowding of
all hottf:s, might well exceed all belief. Indeed, the
social machine is going at so stupendous a rate at
this moment that
i people are only anxious as to
what may happen n the event cf its coming to a
full stop. Were the war to come to an end, and the
time for settlement to arrive, then it seems natural
to anticipate "a general smash, both financial and
commercial." The expriscs of the war must fall
upon somebody, and the " vanquished enemy " will
in this case hardly be in a condi(ion to bear the costs.