Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-08-11
Letter from Chicago.
CHICAGO, Aug. 5, 1880.

heard of Chicago many times, though the
story is a current joke here that not many
years ago an etherealized individual rom
this borough knocked at the pearly gates OF
Heaven and in reply to the questions OF 81.
Peter, the supposed custodian thereof, an
himself as direct from Chicago. The
ancient spiritual patriarch metaphoricaliy
scratched his puzzled brain in trying to re-
collect the place. but his memory, though
good. would not aid him, and he was only
convinced that there really was such ter
restrial abiding place by an examination OF
the very latest map of the Earth, where sure
enough after patient search in the region IN
Dictated bv the applicant, he found the name.
Thereupon ST. Peter without further quizzlng
opened the gates TO the man from Chicago,
with the remark that as he was the first per-
son who had attempted TO get in from Chi
cago he would give him trial. Up to
that time the wicked people Of Chicago had
been too modest to attempt TO enter Heaven,
but emboldened by that mans success, the
Chicagoan commenced to develope mafa and
mariHa rapidly, until now a citizen of no
other town can Guido him in ''blowing his
own trumpet" There is great deal oftruth
in the saving that the farther you go West
the more brag you find. Natives OF the Piney
State know how loftily BostoniaDs deport
themselves. Boston they think a little ahead
of any other place on the Western Continent
at least: while the conceit of the Hub is
laughed at by New Workers who are hardly
willing to admit that there is any place out
side of that city worth living in this side Of
Paris or London but when you come to Chi
cago YOU find the metropolis of the West,
destined ere long its people believe, to be al
so the chief city of the Continent; and when
we consider her unparalleled growth in the
history of either ancient or modern cities this
prophecy does not seem presumptuous. For
~ years ago Chicago was only village.
while the census just taken shows over half
a million. and over four hundred thousand of
this has been gained within twenty years.
The Chicago man speaks loftily of his town.
and counts among its suburbs st. Louis and
Milwaukee, although the former is 300
anu tIe ldtttI w hhSS VIII
waukee and Chicago twenty wears
ago were close rivals, but that rivalship
has long since ceased, and this years census
puts st. Louis likewise out OF the race. and
Chicago stands to-day the proud and undis-
puted queen of the West, with none to modest
or make her afraid. So all must acknowl-
edge that we have good foundation for our
brag. Half century since Chicago was a
miserable mud hole only known as an In
dian Trading Post and Government Fort now
it is the largest grain, lumber and live stock
market in the world.
The calculations of her most enthusiastic
citizens that she would show half a million
people in 1880. have been fulfilled; an in
crease since 1870 of about two hundred and
ten thousand, or an average of over twenty
thousand people a year, and this in the face
of circumstances the most discouraging; the
great fire by which nearly all the business
and one thir,! of the residences of the city.
entailng loss TO its people of two hundred
millions of dollars. was wiped out in Il lrrid
blaze in a single day: followed the next wear
by the ''epizootic' during which such great
houses as Field and Letter, and Jno. V. Far
well ( Co.. and many others were compelled
to transport their goods through the city by
OK power, and people could hardly get out of
grip sack that in turn followed closely
by the terrible financial panic of 1873, by
which Chicago probably suffered more than
any other city in the Union. from various
causes, more especially the runous deprecia-
ton of the value of real estate, which was mt
the time the panic came way up in the clouds
and gradually dropped. dropped. dropped I'M
til people began to think the bottom had drop-
ped ont. and thousands who in 1873 were rich
found themselves almost or quite beggars a
few years afterwards.
1t was simply terrible: after the fire the
city was rebuilt with amazing rapiditv on
borrowed capital from the east at ten per
cent. per annum. at time. too, when labor
and material were very high The conse-
quence was that as the effects of the panic
were felt, Chicago found herself bankrupt
yes. literally bankrupt not one firm in ten
escaped nnscathed, while thousands of her
most substantial business men went under:
Boston, and other eastern money lenders
were compelled to bid in at trustees sale.
and at onsiderable loss. the real estate mort
gagged to them, when at the time they made
the loans the security was considered worth
two, three. and even four times the amount
for which it was pledged, A friend in Bos-
ton told me that out of eight loans he had
here he had been compelled to buy in the
land in four cases, and such had been its de-
probation that he expected at the time the
land was sold to lose considerable sum, but
by holding on to it he will probably come out
all right. This depreciation was at least so
per cent. on inside city property. while on
suburban unimproved acre property it was
often as high as one thousand per cent: that
is property that was rated at $1,000 an acre in
the spring of 1873, three years later found no
purchasers even at 500.
But now the times are changed. and with
renewed business activity the CITY begins to
present the old-time aspect of the ..boom-
ing" period after the war. when the rush and
whiri of business and speculation almost in
toxicated the senses. The writer was at that
time living in Chicago and being absent in
the East during the summer months of 1860
on returning he hardly knew the business
portion of the city, so many of the old land
marks had disappeared. From 1874 to 1877
8, the population remained almost stationary:
people were glad to rent buildings at three
per cent of their cost, and thousands of
dwellings were vacant even at such low rent
ais; rents went down on an average so per
cent; but now a vacant building either in
the business or residence portions of the CITY
Is rarely seen. and rents advanced on the
hrst of last Nav (the general beginning of
the rental year here) % per cent. and even
at thar still increase there was no difficulty in
hndIng tenants. so great was the demand for