Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-02-27
Correspondence of the YOrkville Enquirer
LETTER FROM CHICAGO.
"rhe great and wonderful city,

LETTER FROM CHICAGO.
CHICAGO, February 20, 1873.
'"rhe great and wonderful city,
The proud and magnificent city,
The Queen of the North and the West"
came up from Cincinnati last night in a
little less than twelve hours, distance two
hundred and ninety-6ve miles. Upon ava
king this morning, and looking out of the
window, saw snow. In some places the
drifts were five and six feet deep. There were
not many Of them, for the country is as level
as a pancake, and drift has to have an OBJ.
ject to clean against" before it will amount to
anything. Fences, railroad cuts and hillocks
cause them to form, and sometimes they be-
come ofhuge size. Thirty or forty miles out
from the city, timber began to get scarce, and
at some points there was absolutely none
at all visible. The country is perfectly level,
and dotted over with towns, villages, farm
houses, barns and hay-stacks. The soil ap-
pears to be very rich and noticed that all
the stock looked sleek and we'll fed. A great
many horses, cattle and hogs were.frozen to
death, however, in the late storm. At one
point some twenty miles below the city, saw
over two thousand dead hogs piled up by the
side of the road. They had frozen to death
in the stock cars during the recent terrible
storm. They were very large, fine ones; some
of them I should think would weigh over
four hundred, and the average would be fully
three hundred. A great many stock trains
were caught in the drifts and compelled to
take the storm in all its violence, and the loss
has consequently been very great.
AS we approached the city, railroads began
to multiply in all directions. Look which
way you would, you could see trains darting
over the boundless plain like things of life.
1t was pretty picture in the early morning
sunlight, to see the dark wreaths of smoke
ascending from dozen, or more, iron horses,
as they coursed over the plain. The air was
crisp and cold, but everybody seemed to be
out and at work. That is the great secret of
the marvellous growth of this country-every-
body works. Winter, spring and summer,
they are always working, and rapidly accu-
mulated wealth is the consequence. Cold,
bleak wind that would drive southerner
into his hole in fifteen minutes, is not consid-
cred anything here, and all sorts of people
take it from morning till night.
I have just returned from two hours walk
in the "burnt district" The wind blows a
steady gale, and to me, fresh from southern
cline, it was decidedly uncomfortable; but the
people here call the day pheasant" "Im
glad to see this nice weather." said my land
lady, "but fear it won't last long," For my
own part hope it will not. Twas we'll wrap
ped up, and kept on the sunny side of the
streets, but suffered considerably, notwithstan-
ding.
The growth and rebuilding of the city
since the great fire, is without an equal in the
history of the world. Not less than sixty
in row-of splendid new build
ings have gone up in fifteen months, and the
cry is more, more! In every part of the city
the sound of the hammer and trowel is heard,
and the work progresses in all sorts ofweather.
In growth, energy, "get up" pluck, and 60
aheaditiveness, Chicago stands without rival
in the world. In travelling the busy streets
the observer is continually astonished by the
grand buildings that loom up in every direc-
ton. How so many miles and miles of these
grand structures could have been built in so
short time, is, to the stranger, a perpetual
wonder.
1t is the great Northwest that has made
Chicago. The wealth of half continent is
poured in here. Cities, towns and villages
are strung all along all the dozen or more
leading to the city. Thrift, enter
prise, rapid developement, wealth and pros
perity are written in unmistakable characters
everywhere. 1t is the sudden building up Of
this vast section that has sent Chicago ahead
upon her career of unexampled prosperity.
The great Northwest belongs to Chicago, "by
right of geography" and no fire can ever de-
stroy her that does not destroy that also. She
is the Queen of the Northwest, and with such
a vast and rich territory pouring its trade,
traffic and travel into her lap, she cannot be
destroyed. The flames may sweep over her
again, but the life principle cannot be de-
stroyed, and she will again rise from her ashes
grander than ever.
AS for money, there appears to be an abun-
dance of it here. Everybody seems to have
money to rebuild, or at least to make start
This is readily accounted for. Men of wealth
in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and in
fact all over the country, were largely inter-
ested in real estate here before the fire, and,
not being seriously injured by the burning Of
the tenements thereon, they set about imme-
diately to rebuild. Men who have made for
tunes in Chicago town lots do not propose to
from the field, and they pour in
their money to keep things going. Rents are
higher than before the fire. Real estate huc-
tuates good deal, as centers of trade are
formed, and the localities for public buildings
fixed, but amid all the fluctuations there is,
taking the city over, a steady advance, not
very slow, but very sure.
For some time after the fire there was
great scarcity of building material. Brick
went up to sixteen and eighteen dollars a
thousand. A brick is small thing, reader,
but if we were idolatrous, worshiping craven
images, Chicago would carve her god out ofa
brick. The country has been drained of this
useful article for hundred miles around.
For some four months after the fire neither