The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-03-18
LETTER FROM CHICAGO.

hubbub. Now, it is showing terribly.
and I feel perfectly at home with my
self in the house, with not particle
of longing to get out. So l will self
centre myself at the table d. hote-
only there is nothing to eat on it
to dispense to my friends, among your
readers, little plain fare.
l have just returned from my first
trip to Joliet, notable for q very large
boarding and lodging house kept
there at the expense Of the State. /
never could tell why the establish
ment was set up at Joliet until l
made this visit. First of all, it is near
its base of supplies. Chicago can
furnish a large number of boarders,
and ought to have good many more
there than she has; then it furnishes,
mainly, its table d'hote, particularly
potatoes, shin bones and corn meal.
Don't think, however, l put up at that
house. l am, my modesty leads me
to judge, not sufficiently advanced for
that. Certain humane people found
me and took me in, and l was thor
oughly satisfied with the way they
did it, for have rarely found a more
pleasant people, outside of the Peni-
tentisry, than | found in Joliet.
But another reason why it seemed
eligibly located was that nature had
deposited in that region of the coun-
try, some of the finest limestones /
have ever laid eyes on. The quarries
have the tdnsindl of stones laid In
them so smoothly and evenly, that all
that is necessary is to take them out
and square the corners. In the nat
ural deposit they seem as if built up
of blocks cut by hand. | thought in
my Presbyterian way, that, if it was
foreordained that the Joliet House
should be here, that the Aeons had
laid the material to hand. But /
moralize In this way. If the prison
house was to be built here, are you OF
l, or, is anybody under obligations to
debase himself so much that he must
take lodgings in it?
No one can get an idea Of the i'm
mense tonnage or shipping of Chicago,
unless be goes the length Gifts miser-
able river, as he does, in part, In
passing over the Alton Road.
1t is surprising, even in winter, what
forest of masts rises up in the city.
Now they are ice,bOund, but 10 a
month, like birds of spring, they will
sweep out from their hibernal fast
nesses, and upon white wings skim
the waters Of our proud lakes, things
of beauty, because they are things of
life. And what are we without life
What, If it is not in us to do and dare,
and accomplish? Well hath our poet
said, Scr the soul is dead, that slum-
bers."
The Alton Road also takes you
along the Immense lumber yards OF
the city. Chicago claims to have
the largest lumber trade in the
country. But any one who knows the
city, and the cities and towns of the
prairie State, can well understand.
Take the broad side walks of the city
alone, and then the miles upon miles
of Nicholson pavement, and streets a
hundred feet wide, many of them,
and the pavement seven inches thick /;
think also, that every city in the State
has its vast miles of plank walks,
and there is only this astonishment,
where can they find timber to ad-
minister to this wide aud ever to be
renewed convenience. Another thing
that has astonished me, is that Chi
cago seems so insensible to the idea
of fire limits. Every where, except
in a very contracted centre, in COM
pactly built portions of the city, you
! find balloon houses of the most COM
bustible material, multiplying as fast
as if people were building on the Pa
cifie Road, and thought that next
year they were to strike tent and
move to the front, or to another point.
The matter of house moving is mere
sport here. But the fire moves a
great many. While write, the
alarm bell is sounding a removal.
As you may notice by the papers,
the people here are excited by dis
aster to the wings of the Court House
building, right in sight of the Sher-
man House. They have been erected
at immense cost, and were so far COM
pleted that only the plastering and
painting remained to be done. On
Saturday the roof of the west wing
gave way, wounding some seven or
eight men, several Of them fatally, it
is feared. The excitement was in
tense. A committee was appointed,
with first class " architects at their
service, to report the condition of the
other wing. They made the survey
the VielC Gttentire, as we would call
lt-and made their oraeular and sci
entihc report; but, as happened, had
hardly been safe, as a committee, by
vacating the building, before the roof
also fell IN with hideous ruin
fraught: Of course all sorts of in
vestigations and reports are to be
made, and these, as in all such
things-take the burning of the Amer
lea and United States steamers on our
own riyer-it will be like the wake
after the parting keel: the waters will
close over it, and there will be no
public trace. But alas for the hearts
that have been made desolate, and
the homes darkened by these results
of human eupidlty and human care
lessness and thoughtlessness. Who
will give the widow back her hus-
band, and who will give the mother
back her boy?
One item more, and l stop. On
Friday morning last, at the corner of
Lake and Wabash Avenue. four
painters were painting the front of
five story building, near the roof,
some eighty feet high. it is said. The
staging was coupled In the middle
with a ring and catch, the suspension
being at either end; the iron of the
central catch broke, and three of the
men fell and were almost instantly
killed. The fourth was near enough
to the suspension rope, and had pres
ence of mind enough to clutch It as
the break occurred, and was lifted M