The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1871-10-28
Chicago.
[From the New York Tribune.l

form OF TYPICAL SuperlatlVe. w nen
Miss Bremen visited us some score of
years ago, she expressed her anxiety
to go to the West to see Chicago, the
home of Loki and Thor, the superna-
tural Forces" All over Europe there
was the same vague and credulous
wonder as to this marvellous town
which had risen from the marshy bor-
der of the great lake, with the sud-
deness and ease of an explanation.
There was no story too wild to obtain
credence when the scene was laid in
Chicago. It was, after New York, the
best known name in Europe, for every
village and hamlet had sent some of
their enterprising children there, who
wrote letters home full of the strange
vivid life of that strong new land. 1t
was scarcely considered an American
city among the simple peasantry of
Europe. The genial South German
thought it a colony of Austria. The
Swedish farmers regarded it as an ap-
pendage of the Scandinavian race.
Even the home-loving Frenchman felt
that there he would be among friends
and kindred. 1t touched by these
delicate chords of sympathy every ma
ton and every township in the world.
AT home, where no element of fable
entered into our ideas, the city seemed
scarcely less remarkable in its growth
and its robust individuality. With a
less population than many others, it
has for long time claimed, with gem
eral assent, the position of the second
city on the Continent. There was
breadth of municipal life, force and
confident Self-assertion which I'M
pressed the country, and made us take
the lusty young city at its own valua-
tion. In readiness of resource, in the
application of force to the novel pro-
blems arising from its rapid growth
and development, seemed to take rank
with the great capitals, 1T seemed
sufficient for itself liz all emergencies.
To handle the vast volume of grain
which the fruitful prairies poured into
its binds, it invented the Elevator. 1t
lifted itself out of its marshes and
raised its own grade by several feet.
1t moved stone palaces bodily and
held them in the air while it built base
ments under them. When it wanted
fresh water, it burrowed for o mile or
two under lake Michigan, and with
an audacity toward nature never
equaled in history. it tapped the bot
tom of the inland sea. The dates of
its histories seem more fantistie than
any fiction. John Kenzie built his
cabin there i'll 1904. The Indians
massacred the garrison of Fort Dear
born 1872. In 1880 there were I2
houses scattered about the marshes.
sheltering but a hundred parti~colored
squatters, and in 1870, when the hair
of the first born white native of the
town had not begun to grizzle, the CEN
sus.takers found 100000 and gave
mortal otfense to $4,000 more, who
insisted they were not counted. A
week ago Buffalo had in store Cos, 800
bushels of grain; Montreal, 1910;
st. Louis, III ,8SI Milwaukee, 1872
335; Toledo, 1889, ,4s7 Chicago, g.
078, $50. There is magic iii these
ciphers which to the practical Ameli-
can mind means more than any bap-
tism of poetry and romance.
Since yesterday Chicago has gained
another title to pre-eminence. I'm
equaled before in enterprise and good
fortune, she is now unapproachable in
calamity. Her name is inseparably
connected with the greatest disaster
of modern times. The burning of New
York in 1885 has always been regarded
as terrible visitation, and an elderly
gentlemen in Wall street stoutly as
serted yesterday that the Chicago fire
was no greater. But the accounts of
tile time say thatt648 houses We're de.
stroyed-a grave calamity of course,
but trifling when compared with the
Chicago. The great fire of London,
which struck the world with horror
and gave a not unworthy inspiration
to the noble verse of Dryden, ravaged
tract of 426 acres. But five square
miles of blackened and smoking ruin
are the glastly credentials which Chi
eago offers in support of her claim to
pre-eminence in disaster. When Il
tithe of the wealth of a community
perishes, itseems that the very sources
of existence are sapped. 1t is estina-
ted that fully one-half of the value of
Chicago has been annihilated by one
days destruction.
1t is one of those scenes where the
widest words areweak to describe the
devastation. It is only by imagining
New York obliterated from Madison
square to She Battery that we can form
some idea 0f the extent of the catas-
trophe. The fire broke out among
the dry frame buildings Of the South
Division, and was famed and driven
by a Southwest gale-one of those
fierce and unchecked tempests that
blow over the lake and the prairie
into the very heart Of the city, over
theatres, hotels, the courts and the
churches, the enormous business
houses and the enormous dwellings,
that made the young city 10 beautiful
and impressive, until, growing with
what it fed ON, and still scoprged by
the GaIa. it leaned the river and raw