The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-05-19
CHICAGO AS SEEN BY THE "STAR
BEECHER

and ransacked the interiors of each continent
until there is nothing new or exciting yet there
IS something in reserve for him which will ex-
cite the most jaded and stated surprise into new
excitement"
OF course he was deeply impressed by the
wonderful growth of the Queen City of the
Lakes. He says:
"Chicago looks like vast railroad freight
depot, and the people have that keen-eyed, rest
less, penetrating look which belongs to railroad
men,"
He sees fine streets and noble buildings, and
is gladdened by the excellence of the building
material. He writes
The buff colored Milwaukee brick and the
straw-colored limestone produce the most
charming effects upon the eye. Nothing can
exceed the exquisite beauty of buildings made
of this buff stone. The eye swims in it as in a
bath of color. 1 am never tired of looking at
it. And it gives an Undesirable cheerfulness to
the confusion Of the tumbled up and down
streets of Chicago. The bricks are so nearly OF
the same color, that brick buildings can be
faced with stone without that shock to the eye
produced by marble or brown stone and red
brick. A large church, composed of these build
ing materials, would surpass in beauty either
marble or common stone. Even that fine stone
of which the Times Office building is COM
go. Though the Caen stone most nearly re-
sembles, it does not equal it.
For forts and magazines, granite has rug
ged and stern effect eminently fit; but it is
too grim and cold for common buildings.
Brown stone, well selected for color, and stand
ing among other kinds of material is good.
But repeating this effect, building after build
ing, through long streets, it grows dull to the
eye and heavy. The same is true of marble,
which lights up neighborhood, if there be but
one or two structures composed of it but if, as
in Philadelphia, it predominates, it produces a
kind of architectural pallor. We think the eye
would bear more of these very delicate yellows
than any other color that we know, except the
old-fashion, honest red. That is real brick "
The manner of the sidewalks, and the screw
ing of the city out of the mud especially com
mands the attention of Henry Ward
"The city of Chicago stood upon ground
which was both fiat and low, and several grades
have been adopted to remedy the evil. But
the latest and supposed final grade is now es-
tablished, and the whole city is to be raised
from five to eight feet First the streets are
raised, and then the houses are pulled up to
level afterwards. And no tongue can describe
the state of a city where is going on at once
the building of sewers, the raising of grades,
and the screwing up of all the houses, intermixed
with an enormous business, which butts and
pushes and lodges through all manner of OBJ
stacles in the most surprising manner
"But it is the sidewalk that gives you the
most original views of possibilities. They are
made of brick, or stone, or plank, and the
grade of the sidewalk varies, we should think,
in some ten or fifteen degrees. First is one
at the old level, FIVE or six feet below the grade
of the street, and you walk down there inside
of curb, or Golfer dam, with your head on
level with the horses feet in the street. But
right in the middle of block shall be one
store built to the new grade, and the side walk
looms above your head some five or six feet, to
which you rise by steps six or eight, and pro
coed the width of the single store But beyond
that you go down two steps, next up three, down
six, up two, then up two more, then down eight,
then up an inclined plane, then mount into an
enclosed board walk, suspended over an awful
chasm, where men are screwing up an enOr-
nous building.
" And if there is a possible modification of
SIX feet through the fundamentally of stairs,
steps, inclined planes, or perpendiculars if
there is possible catalogue of stretches, jumps,
slips, steps, tumbles, or toe-stubbing plunges,
that is not exhausted in the extraordinary va
rieties of Lake street, Randolph street, or Clark
street, then we marvel yet more than ever be-
fore at the infinite divisibiity of matter and
distancei Some waggish editors of neighbor-
ing rival cities say that genuine Chicago man
may be known abroad, as a sailor is off from
ship, by certain mysterious efforts to step up
invisible stairs, or by an accommodating of
himself on a smooth sidewalk to imaginary
obstacles.
But these are only temporary trouble and
when Chicago gets fairly on to her new posi-
ton, she will be comely city as well as a
tremendous place for business And, now,
the process which is going on has one element
OF great interest, VIZ the raising of brick and
stone houses Not that the lifting of brick
houses is a new thing. But if screwing up
whole blocks at once, and lifting whole street.
IS not new in fact it is new to me. Buildings
of brick or stone, one hundred and fifty feet by
two hundred, and five stories high, are raised
eight feet or ten, without crack or the dis
placement of single thing. A hotel contracts
TO be lifted up. In Short time, two thousand
screws are under it, and little by little the house
rises. Nothing is changed within. The kitch-
en- cooks, the dining-room eats, the bar drinks,
and all the rooms smoke, as if nothing was go
ing on. A block of stores and offices begins
this new process of growth, and all the tenants
maintain their usual functions and except the
outrageous heaps of dirt and piles of lumber.
everything goes on as before. The plank into the
door gets little sleeper every day. But goods
come in and go out and customers haunt the
usual places.
" 1t Is worth visit to Chicago to see new
method of digging city out of the mud, and
In great deal better state of preservation than
Pompen and Herculaneum when dug out of
the ashes
ADROIT SwINDLE.-In a city like Washing