Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-10-27

All the London papers make the Chicago fire
the subject of leaders. We give extracts from
two of them. The Times says
at is strange that the city which has been
thus suddenly destroyed should have arisen with
rapidity scarcely less astonishing. Tbir.v-
five years ago Chicago was nothing but mill
tary post among Indians, with whom handful
OF white men carried on precarious trade in
iurS. A standard book on the western world
published at that date, made no mention what
ever of the city. Even in 1910 it contained less
than hive thousand inhabitants. But as the re-
sources of the vast west were developed il was
seen That Chicago was the natural outlet for its
trade, and the Americans seized on its opportu-
mites with even more than their customary
energy The side ofthe lake was soon lined with
immense warehouses, in which elevators lifted
the grain from the railway cars and transferred
1t directly to the ships; and then it reached Eu-
rope by direct water carriage through the lakes
aud the St. Lawrence. Millions of hogs and
hundreds of thousands of cattle were annually
collected in extensive pens, killed and packed
for expectation. By these trades, in addition TO
That IN lumber Chicago had become the com
iherclal capital of the west 1t numbered three
hundred thousand inhabitants, and ranked with
any city in the Union for the wealth. the enter
PRISE and the public spirit of its inhabitants.
MOI content with a scheme for divert
ing the Chicago river into the Miss
lsSippl' ana thus avoiding the necessity
TOWN
sewerage, they were entertaining dreams of
turning the overflow of the upper lakes into the
same channel, and thus materially modifying
the whole course of the northwestern commerce
In 1858 a traveller called 1t "a little mushroom
town. 1t has risen, indeed, with the ranilitv
of mushroom, aud il has been burnt up as
suddenly When Mr.. Golden complained that
English school boys were taught all about a
trumpery Attic stream called the lissus. but
knew nothing of Chicago, it should have been
remembered in fairness that at that time Chi
cago had barely existed long enough to be
known by any but merchants. 1t will now not
soon be forgotten. We may he confident, how
ever, that the natural resources Of the place and
the native energy of the Americans will more
than repeat the marvels of the original develop-
ment of the city. The novelty and rapid growth
OF American civilization render the people far
more indifferent to such calamities than dwell
ers IN Older countries who are conscious that
lhelf possessions are the accumulation of cen
turles. Al the same time with the news of the
nie inc telegraph informed us that IFS mercan-
NE effects were already being discounted in New
loIk, and we have no doubt there are numbers
OF entelprising spectators who see their wav
70 fortune through the speedy reconstruction of
the clly. The most cordial sympathy will he
felt in this country with individual sufferers.
and we can only wish the great mercantile com
munlty oil the west the prompt recovery which
their energy deserves"
The Daily Telegraph, in a characteristic arti.
NlJy SdAos lhG CtlN Ol NnlCanO n RI
umpbant monument of unfagging industry and
enterprise. Almost us soon as twas born. This
young Hercules set TO the Strangling of serpents
Until the year 1881 Chicago was merely an In
dian trading post; ten years later it did
not shelter more than five thousand inhabi-
tants. Its growth within the last decade has
been absolutely marvellous; and, as the great
grain and provision emporium of the west, it
held, and will hold again, a ran among COM
mercial cities Yeiug with that enjoyed by Liv
erpoo, Glasgow and Hamburg. In 1850 its
population was 2S269; in 1857 the number was
l5O,0OO, and at the beginning of the present
week Chicago probably contained a quarter of
million souls. II is idle TO suppose that
such city is destined 10 become a Tadmor in
lhe wilderness, or TO sink into the chronic de-
cadence OF SebastOpol after the bombardment.
hesufgam might be written on every brick Of
tne Duint,np houses OF Chicago. 1t will rise
aSdli' ana with vengeance Luckily no ven
cradle cathedrals, no historic palaces. no monu-
ments OF art, no hoary relics Of antfouity have
perlshed IN the colossal Gre. Chicago has
blaled away with the rapidity of lace curtains
or OF ornaments ~ drawing-room crate. Tie
articles were handsome aud expensive. but tbey
can be replaced. To repair the injury done iii
that is wanted is a certain amount OF resour,es
energy and pluck; and IN pluck energy and
resources the American people will never he
bankrupt. ~
"Bntare we in England to sit idly by after