Washington sentinel., 1854-06-10
A View Of Chicago.

The opening OF the Chicago and Rock Island
railroad, and the excursion up the Mississippi
to the falls of St. Anthony, have attracted i'm
mense crowds Of visitors from the northern and
eastern States to that region. Among these
we see noticed the arrival of ex-Presdent Fill
more.
The following sketch of Chicago we extract
from the New York Heralds correspondence
from that place:
GA stranger visiting Chicago for the first
time, will at once be struck with astonishment
with its commerce, its trade, and the industry
of its citizens. There is no city in the interior
of the country which possesses the water aud
rail advantages which this now does. Its COM
merce is as extensive as the western lakes. 1t
has communication with all the harbors on
lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and soon will
have with Superior. Its railroad facilities are
now more extensive and varied than any other
point; and when the population of Illinois,
Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Nebraska, and Kan
sas become what it will be in twenty years, no
man can now begin to predict the Importance
which this city is ultimately destined to occupy.
Within the last five years great attention has
been paid to the erection of warehouses; stores
private residences, &c. Within that period
hundreds OF large, elegant, and substantial
buildings have been erected. There are twelve
hundred in course Of construction, many with
white marble, as elegant as Stewards, near the
Park, in New York. The attention paid to the
erection Of private dwellings, has called out the
skill of the architects here; and any one tax
ing view of some of the mansions, particu-
larly several in Michigan avenue, will find them
nearly equal in exterior splendor to those Of
the merchant princes in your Fifth avenue.
The most costly are built with Milwaukee brick,
such as are in the Trinity buildings, in Broad
way, New York, which, with paint Of the
same light cream color and white pencilling,
render4he exterior beautiful in the extreme.
The mechanics here are, however, deficient in
New York architecture, which should at once
be introduced
The Chicago river, or rather canal, runs
| through the northeastern and eastern sections
of the city. On either side are storehouses and
grain elevators of immense magnitude All
the vessels trading with this port. enter this
canal on the easterly side Of the city from Lake
Michigan, and are towed those with sails only
by small tugs to all points in the canal. This
keeps half dozen draw-bridges in pretty gem
eral motion, to the great annoyance Of the hum
dreds Of carts, carriages and other vehicles, be-
sides constant stream of pedestrians, crossing
between the north and the south part Of the
city. The bridges are easily and expeditiously
moved, and two Of them are probably the great
est span, allowing more space for vessels, than
any other in the country. The plan upon which
they are built ought to be used for the bridge
at Albany, on the Hudson, in case one is con-
structed there. The docks and storehouses are
piled mountains high with merchandise and
other freight, destined for the farther west and
south. More merchandise arrived here yester-
day, than way received in whole season ten
or twelve years ago. This is destined to be the
great distributing port of merchandise, and the
mammoth receiving depot of the productions of
the west.
More railroads centre here than at any
other point on this continent, extending in
every direction east, south, and west-pene-
trating as far as civilization and population will
warrant. Many of them are adding largely to
their space and dimensions in this city the
most extensive, however, is the Illinois Central
Some twenty acres of the lake shore, on the
east, is being prepared for business and passen-
ger accommodations. Immense freight houses
are being constructed, and in short time
storehouses and grain elevators win be erected
to receive and discharge into Buffalo vessels
the wheat from the granaries Of the far distant
prairies. This must evidently become the great
mart for this controlling staple, and dealers and
shippers in New York and Boston will be COM
PEELED to locate themselves here, as the business
win be too immense to pay commissions as is
now, and always has been the case, to agents
and runners.
This whole city, now boasting Of its sixty
thousand souls, is scene of activity not known
west of the seaboard. Indeed, the magnificent
steamers and heavy draught schooners, with
shrouds, and ropes, and rigging creaking in q
| nor'wester, together with the wide expanse of
this inland ocean, remind person very forci
bly, Of the New York crowded South and West
streets, with their ships alongside Business of
all kinds, especially mechanical, is driven at a
| 2:40 speed. Not an idle person is seen in the
streets-not even beggar. Wages for me-
chanics and laborers are nearly up to New
| York; as, for instance, stone cutters lately
struck for and obtained two dollars and fifty
| cents dav, quitting at FIVE o'clock on Satur-
| day afternoon, and their weekly pay regularly
| in cash.
"There is one kind of business, however,
which is being overdone, and that is, jobbing
in real estate. Spectators are as thick as
June bugs, and as impudent and importunate
as the old clothes dealers in Chatham street.
Their plan has been to purchase a plot Of
ground in the suburbs of the city, of FIVE or ten
acres, cut it up in lots of about twenty-five by
one hundred feet, and then offer them for sale
to any person who will advance Fifty dollars on
lot, the entire sum running from FIVE hundred
to two or three thousand dollars lot. This
first instalment generally covers the original
cost to the speculator, and the remainder he
gives credit on for ten years or So by securing
an annual payment. Many thousands of dol
lars have been annually accumulated by shrewd
Yankees, who come as perfect strangers. This
mania has reached the business portion Of the
! city. Landlords are now receiving rents, in
many instances, much higher, in comparison
with their investments, than anything in New
| York out of Wall street and Broadway. This
speculating mania is now at its extreme height
lit has reached its maximum, and must re-
| cede. Many of the shrewd ones are aware
that panic must ensue in the traffic of real
estate, and are preparing to meet it. No per-
son should come here, during the present or
coming year, for the purpose Of locating on real
estate. Some thirty-three per cent. can be saved
| by remaining quiet and carefully watching the
movement Of the straws upon the surface Of
4 the water"
4 Ef4 sls