The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-08-26
CHICAGO-A BRILLIANT PICTURE.


From tie atlantic MOnthly,l
Chicago the Wondrous, sits amid her wealth,
like a magnificent sultana, hafreclining over
great oval mirror, supplied by that lake of Lakes
the fathomless Michigan. Perhaps the resemblance
might be unpoetcally traced to particulars; Tor
are told by lotos-e eating Travellers that Oriental
beauties with all their splendor, not especially
clean. Certain it is that Occidental sultana
dresses her fair head with towers and spires, and
hangs about her neck long of gems in the
shape of stately and elegant dwellings-yet, de-
scending to her feet, we sink in mud and mire, or
tumble unguardedy into excavations set like traps
for the unwary, Gust whole colonies of rats from
beneath plank walks where they have burrowed
securely since improvements" began. At
seasons, indeed, there is no mud, because the
high winds from the lake or the prairies turn the
mud into dust, which blinds our eyes, fills our
mouths, and makes us Quakers in appearance and
anything but saints in heart.
Chicago walking resembles none but such as
Christian encountered as he fled from the City of
Distinctions yet in this the ills those of
city of Construction-sure to disappear soon as
the builders find time to for such tries. Chi
cago people, it is well known walk with their heads
in the clouds, and, naturally, do not mind what
happens to their feet. 1t is only strangers who
claim, and sometimes more than exclaim, at the
dangers of the way. Cast-away carriages lie along
the roadside, like ships Fire Island beach. No
body minds them. If you see a gentleman at a
distance, progressing slowly with Ia gliding or oun-
dering pace, you conclude he has horse under him
and, perhaps, ON nearer approach, you see bride
and headstall.
This is in early spring. while the frost is coming
out OF the ground. AS the season advances, the
horse energies, and you Just getting fair sight
OF him when the dust begins and he disappears
again. So say the scoflers and those who would,
but do not any city lots in that favored vcini
ty; and to the somewhat heated mind of the travel
er who encounters such things for the first time,
the story does not seem very much exaggerated.
Simple wayfarers like myself, however, tell no such
wicked tales of the Garden City: but remember
only bnr har pdnnr bnrcr rif hnp hos
tally, her weight of cares, her immense achieve
ments, and her sure promise of future metropoitan
splendors.
The vicinity of Chicago is all dotted with beauti-
full villa residences. To drive among them is like
turning over book of architectural drawings-sC
great is their variety, and so marked the taste which
prevails. Many of them are the fine light coloreo
stone found in the neighborhOod and their substan
tial excellence inspires feeling that all this pros
perty is of no ephemeral character. People do not
build such country houses until they feel settled
secure. The lake shore is of course the line OF at
traction, for it is the only natural beauty of thu
| place.
But what trecsl Several of the streets of Chca
60 may easily become as beautiful drives as the far
| famed Cascine at Florence, and will be before
her population doubles agan-which is giving bu
| a short interval for the Improvement No parks as
| yet, however. Land on the lake-shore is too pre-
| ciOus and the fats west of the town quite de
| spised. Yet city parks do not demand very une
| quail surface, and it would not require very pc
| tent landscape gardener or an unheard-of amount
of dollars to make fine driving and riding ground
where the carriages of the forum ate might b,
aired and the fine horses of the gay exercised, dur
| ing good part of the year.
To describe Chicago, one would need all the su
| perlatives set In row. Grandest, tiattest-mud
diest, dustiest-hottest, coolest wettest, driest-
| farthest north, south, east and west from Other
places, consequently most central-best harbor OF
Lake Michigan, worst harbor and smallest river any
| great commercial city ever lived on-most elegan
in architecture, meanest in hovel-propping-
in speculation, solidest in value-prOudest in self
esteem, loudest in neutrality-suspicious. lavish
most grasping-most public spirited in some things
bEndest and darkest on some points of highest in
| terest.
fascinating, or most desolate, according as one
goes there, gay and hopeful to find troops of pros
porous friends, lonely and poor with the distant
hope of lettering broken fortune by struggling
among the driving thousands already there on the
same errand. There is perhaps, no place in the
world where it is more necessary to take bright
and hopeful view of life, and none where this is
more difficult: There is too much at stake. Those
who have visited Baden-Baden and her Kursaal sis
tiers in the height of the need not be told
that no "church-tace" ever equaled in solemnity
the countenances of those who surround the fatal
tables, waiting for the stony lips of the crouper to
announce "Noir pcrd," or Rouge gogne." At Chi
ago are wider table, higher stakes, more despe-
rate throws, and Fate herself presiding, or what
seems Fate, at once partial and memorable
But, on this great scale, even success fails to
Drng smiles The winners SIT with hair on end at
their own wonders and half fearing that such
golden showers have some illusion about them and
may prove fairy favors at last Next to this feeling
comes the thirst for more Enlarged means bring
enlarged desires and ever extending plans. The
repose and ightneSS of heart that at first to
be the reward of success recede farther and farther
into the dim distance, until at last they are lost
sight of entirely, confessed with sigh to be unat-
tainable.
How can people in this State wear cheerful coun-
tenances? When one looks at the gay and social
faces and habits of some little German town, where
are cultivated people, surrounded by the books and
pictures they love, with leisure enough for music
and dancing, and tea garden chat, for deep friend
ships and lofty musings, it would seem as if our
shrewd Yankee-land and its outcroppings at the
West had not yet found out everything worth