Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1869-09-30
[For the Hszaid-l
Le<tor Fren chicago.

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For the Hszah.l
retter Frea chicago. asslet
CHICAGO. Sept 80, 1861
People out here in Chicago have given
Themselves up to great dslusion. They
VIII insist upon asserting that what toI
me is north b really the east
To be sure the sun. i victim Of the1
same deluion, and obstinately releases 70
rise in the east, but comes up impudently
in the north.
The peopls cite this a proof that @ny1
NORTH i in reality the east. But did not
receive my education in Vermont,whArs
tho old Green Mountains point unmistAk-
ably to the north7 And is it supposable
that I shall renounce my opinion in favor
Of the crazy Chicagoans, who have no
mountains Of immoveable rock to preserye|
points of the compass ? Whatever j. my
duty on this point. I am utterly unable
to think any differently. II what people
tell me is true, east and north have sim
ply ''swapped" places, and have persuad-
ed the sun, stars, nd all existence-ex-
oept myself-to agree in this new arrang-
ment.
I wish to enter aprotest against this
obvious slight, and request your infiu-
ence to secure Strengthening out of this
matter; for if you should invite me to
tea, and should accept, should be
hunting out your Office in the principal
city of Alaska.
But Chicago people are more sane on
other points. A very noticeable feature
of them is their interest in the personal
welfare of others, whether those others
are strangers or not. Stop in the streets
of Troy q will not say Of Rutland) and
ask civilian the way to 291 River street,
and, as like as not, he win tell you to fol-
low your nose, which is an exceedingly
dubious direction in some cases could
name. But native of Chicago, if yon
ares successful in stopping him from his
John Gilpin speed, will go with you
around the corner, point up the street,
and, if necessary, secure the services OF
reliable boy to show you the exact spot,
and then ask you if there is anything else
you wish to know. Then he will dart off
at Chicago pace, as though he were
Jove's Messenger, sent on mission of
love to Juno. This feature marks, as far
as my experience goes. all the citizens.
Even the boot blacks seem to understand
the syllable no, which, with the class as
whole, is either Insignificant, or has, for
the OCCASION, an affirmative meaning.
Chicago boot blacks, in distinction from
those who have chased me up and down
the streets of the principal cities of the
East, and who would almost follow from
one city to another, are high-minded and
mannerly set.
Hackmen are as respectable as their
calling will allow. suppose it is enjoin-
ed upon them, by the regulations of the
Hackmen's Union, to speak to travellers
in the soothing tones of an enraged hyena
and to greatly persuade them to act the
part of wise men, by pulling them first
this way and then that; for. if this is not
enjoined upon them, I cannot account for
the unanim;ty with which they perform.
I felt when got safely through that bevy
of hackmen, as though had gone through
sugar refinery, and was really thankful
that the case was no worse. Chicago
hackmen are as decent as they can be con-
sistently.
But boot-blacks and hackmen are not
the only inhabitants of Chicago, nor is
theirs the only craft in active operation
here. Chicago is the heart of the inte-
rlor, and it's pulsations force along the
lines of the railroads, which are truly
arteries on large scale, the sustenanoe
of the extremities. To be sure it gets its
supply of wheat and livestock by sort
Of venal arrangement of railroads, but
here is the place where those same como
dities receive the impulse that carries
them to the proper spot. Hogs, cattle,
were, to receive their orders-to see where
their ruler, the public. demand, will have
them 60 This is no sooner found out
than off they go to supply the demand
that called them here. The statistics are
perfectly astonishing, and sometime if it
is your desire, I will write you an article
concerning the cattle trade of this city,
giving the exact numbers.
But Chicago is not 80 busy in supplying
the wants of adjacent districts that it can
not attend to internal improvements
Nicholson pavement is spreading itself
rapidly, over the city. Tunnels are
thrusting themselves under the river,-
yes and even two miles under the lake,
which lacustrine tunnel brings out from
the bed of lake Michigan its purest, and
coolest waters, and deals them out all
over the city.
This alone demands column of your
paper for, certainly. it is one Of the great
successes of modern engineering. Just
think of putting a tunnel under lake
Bomoseen in your owp beautiful county
and you will have some idea of the magni-
ficence of the work.
Tunnel building seems to be the mania
just now. Since the completion of one un-
der the lake and of the one under the
river, the commencement of one or two
more has been conte mplated. In five
years from this, it will not be strange if
every street has it's own sub-fuvial passage
way, through which its inhabitants may
pass dry shod. If Chicago was on the At
lantic shore, John Bull would have no
cause of surprise, if he saw her inhabit-
ants emerging some fine morning from a
''hole under the ocean,"
But space fails me to speak of the grad
ing, the park making. the raising of the
whole city from the mud. the board of