The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1868-10-14
Twenty Years i'm Chicago.

In ls4e there was no railway leading to
or from Chicago. The whole State bad
but fifty-fve miles of railroad, extending
from Meredosia on the Illinois River,
to Springfield. The Illinois and Michigan
Canal had Just been opened and gave the
first real and great impetus to the trade
and prosperity Of the city. Five days was
then quick time, in the summer, between
New York and Chicago. The route was
by steamer to Albany, thence by rail to
Buffalo, thence by steamer to Detroit,
thence by the Michigan Central Railway
to Kalamazoo, thence by stage to ST. Jo-
seph, and thence by steamer to Chicago.
A suggestion that within twenty years
one would go to New York in palace
sleeping-car, without change. in thirty-six
hours, would have been regarded as pure
sign of insanity. Sixteen miles of the
Galena Railway were opened to Cottage
Hill in lS49, and the opening of the road
to Elgin on the 22d Of January, 1850. was
grand affair. The Michigan Southern
was the first road to reach the city from
the East in February, $50, and the Micbi-
gan Central was opened some three or four
months later.
Our citizens can now clearly understand
the business and social relations of Chica-
90 between lS4S and 1852 From March
until nearly the first of May, the mud vir-
tually shut the city off from the country
and placed an effectual embargo on bust
ness. Sometimes we did not have mail
from the East in q week or ten days-be-
tween the time when the Eastern stages
were forced to stop and the boats COM
menced their trips across the lake to St.
Joseph or New Buffalo. The arrival of
the first steamer was an occasion of great
rejoicing. and well it might be, for it again
brought US into communication with the
outside world, toward the rising sun.
Frink & Walkers stages, starting from
an old sbanty where the Merchants Loan
and Trust Company now is, kept up CON-
munication with the West when the mud
did not effectually stop them-a thing
which they seldom permitted for the mails
must be kept constantly moving, when
that was within the reach of human ener-
gy. Of course we had no telegraph. Lake
and perhaps few other streets. were sup
piled with water pumped into small res
ervoir at the foot OF Lake street, by an
engine which to that duty added the more
oneiOus task of running Mayor Wood
worth's -four mill. The water was distrib-
uted by logs, through which three or four
inch hole had been bored. A large major
ity of the citizens were supplied with wa
ter purchased from water-carts which at
regular intervals perambulated the streets.
Let those who wonder at our tunnel two
miles under the lake and our splendid wa
ter-works remember that all this has been
accomplished within the last fifteen years.
We had no sewerage system; drain was
sometimes dug from the house or sink to
a hogshead, with the lower end knocked
out. set in the ground under the sidewalk
or in the garden, and the refuse water was
expected to sipe away through the sand at
the bottom of it. There was not paved |
street in the city. Even after 1850 we
have seen an empty dray stuck in the mud |
in every block along Lake street, and left |
there because the driver was glad to get |
his horse home safely without it. As mer-
chants clerks had nothing to do, they
would nail a couple of boards crosswise,
put on an Old coat stuffed with straw, and
a hat upon the top, and set it in the street,
exercising their wit with sundry inscrip-
tions, such as: THE last man went down
here "0n his way to China" mo bot
tom here" etc. The sidewalks, where
there were any, were all of wood, and there
were only two stone houses in the city
They were dwellings built of blue lime
stone, and stood on the east side of Michi-
gan avenue, between Lake and South Wa
ter streets. The city was essentially a
wooden affair. There are more brick build
ings now in a score of blocks we can name :
than there we're in the whole city in l848.
Within eighteen years railways have
been opened from Chicago to all cities on
the Atlantic seaboard, between Portland
md New Orleans. The Mississippi is
reached at all important points, the Mis-
souri, is passed and the great Pacific line
mas crossed the Black Hills. and is nearly
finished eleven hundred miles west of the
:ity. In 164S. Chicago had in round num-
1ers $4,000 inhabitants; it now has at least
100000. This shows that it has doubled I
in little more than FIVE
Iears. The same ratio would give us
100000 in twenty years more; but grant
ng that only half the ratio can be kept up, :
Chicago will have million of people in ;
9S8. But we indulge in no predictions. {
let each one make up his mind for him l
elf. Certain it is, that Chicago has now
more elements that foreshadow a rapid
progress and brilliant future than ever
ho had hafora TI;1k,,o T-,La~a