, 1873-01-05
THE LOST CITY.
The Great Picture in the Trif-
une Counting-Roou1.
Old Clark Street---The Old Trib-
une Building, &C., &c.
a Spirit Of Prophecy that Might Have
Been Uttered Twelve Years Ago.

q cp1T1t or PROPHECY that M15nt H0f{
Been Uttered Twelve Years Ago.
There hangs on the wall Of the new TRIBUNE
countin5-room d picture OF 1. city lost and van
lshed from the earth, and from before tho face
OF nen- Those walk among us who remember
it. and hnve grown but 'Telvo years older since
they looked upon it pSs ~:sely as Shaw's camera
fixed it upon this great panoramic photograph,
twelve feet in length and four feet in breadth-
And yet the city has gone, never to appear
again. Don't tell us here Of tho great rebuild
ing or of restoration. We are writing of the
city that is lost. Rebuilding can never bring it
again. As impossible as to bring back q dead
friend. As for the city that dwell in, und about
the streets Of which We all walk strangely, it is
new to us all. Have you thought Of the fact,
which certainly is a fact, that it will take US
longer to get used to our new city than to re-
build it, To-day it is like the fresh diary for
1873 you opened few lays since, or the new
ledger With its crisp, fresh, blank pages. A his
tory it is to. have, precisely as history these
boots are to bear and record; but time must
make the history. The entire heart aud centre
Of Chicago, every building that pertains in size
without associations. Mo human memories nor
annals attach to them. We go into stores az
new to us as the shops Of Paris the day after
arrival, aud sit in new theatres among
Chicago audiences, all the surroundings as
STANCE and novel to US as il, ten minutes from
ouuhomes, We had como into an unknown city.
NO Stranger in Chicago can experience greater
stzangpesB Of feeling than our own citizens On
T}n~1r Tnfvo
streets o11'e made their intersection the busiest
and most A1niliar spot in Chicago. There arc
thousands o. sober citizens to-day who wonld
pause there am look for the landmarks Of the
1ozlorn Old rehnant of a Court House before
they could declar> their whereabouts. They 80
laundering througl Randolph street for Lake,
mistake clark rDeaborn, get muddled in their
AnteAects IN the V1c.nlY Of Fifth Ayonue and
Lasalle, and, what With te neck-ache from look
ing up At the new stuctua,s and perhaps fall
or two Tor counter Infant, they come to
their homes in the residents quarter Of the
city with dazed sud lost aensstion,-a sense Of
goneness. Well, something is gone that ne
shall never get back. We shall let used to the
ne~, be proud Of the eneW,-wondea perhaps, how
We were 30 proud Of the old city behre the fire.
and finally the sense Of bereavement will wear
out. The new will replace thb OIL It is the
order Of nature. Yes, dear, quain Rip Van
Winkle Jetferson, we are $50 soon tvgot when
we arc gone." In the great sea Of tho past
great craft and small lie in the bolem, depths
eide by side, the gunboat and tls cock
boat, and waves roll, and navis ride
overhead, unknoHing and unheeding to lost.
So We look up at tho gre:t picture aud bck re
50 twelve years, and stand, as the camera +ood.
In the topmost tower Of the old Court Hone Of
1860. Before us is the old first blue kick
Sherman House. it's windows al out, and wek-
men On it's roof tearing down the grubby little
pigeon-house Of a cupola. 1t is to DO rebuilt
Into the new Sherman House in white 1ime
stone, trim and beautiful, and for so man,
years the pride Of our city; yet the new sher-
mnn House is as completely lost as the old
Sherman House, and that equally with the
pristine City Hotel and the squatter's cabin
that preceded al on the same site.
Opposite to where We stand stretches the long,
low, Ted brick block, best known as the quarters
for so many years Of TIE CHICAGO TRIBUNE and
The Chicago Post Office. And as ne look at it cer-
tain once familiar figures come back to people
with Life the old newspaper premises, though all
of them preceded among the 'passeu away" the
old TRIBUNE Block. We can see again the s!en-
der, active form OF Thomas 4. Stewart, and the
eariy associates with the present prop1ietors
that succeeded him, John L. 6c1ipps, dark
eyed, with silver hnir and bea1d, and silver
headed cane, and the full and vigorous
figure OF Dr. Ray, earnest, with power Of
expression with tongue and pen that never
missed it's mark kindly when kindliness Was
most beautiful, resistless when worthy occa-
zion was offered and wrath Was righteous. It Is
easy to live over again In memory the thronging
associations Of the old newspaper office, but
they will fade, 80 much has memory to do with
local associations. It is for this that the SONS
Of men pile battle monuments and rear memo
rials to their dead The world ia full OF name
less, forgotten graves,-namolesB because men
did not put up, or because time pulled down,
the headstones-
Here is Nh old friend, indeed, for the forrnida-
ble presantment Of the Fat Woman swings on |
The canvas screen over Randolph street in front |
Of Woods Museum In that long, low, wooden |
building On the corner OF Clark and Randolph |
streets. where later stood a. Fl. Mil1er's jewelry
store, were nest Of easy-going magistrates, |
with Constables as thick as heas, in attendance |
1pon the retail justice shops Of D'Wolf, and |
aoisington, and Barnum. That skeleton roof !
F1nme grew into the roof OF our new Bryan !
Hall, andtherein, even before the Great Sanitary
Fair, Douglas lay in state, precisely as below u.s.
aere we now stand on the roof OF the old Court
House, a asorTowlng nation lent the martyr Pres
dent for few hours on that sad funeral march
% Springfield. Andn you turn to the northwest,
here N the picture la shown angle OF the Great
Nigwnm where Abraham Lincoln Was nominated
ast year to an Office he will assume next month, |
or We are standing beside the man with 3 |
:ane1a IN bright, clear day in February, 1860.