, 1881-01-09
longer stride to the south and to The west
z..1 -.

Llan was ula0e III 4ooos -
4 most notable aud successful instance o1;
the claim of vested rights as reason Wns =
change In the location OF public lnstl1aaon
should not be made was In the case 81
the attempted transfer Of the jail 1Ionl
the basement rooms Of the old Court:
Honse to some other locality. Al tha1
time the fairer portion Of the prisoners mao
rooms fronting OF, Clark street, and by day:
and By night frequently held noisy inter-
views with passers-by. The jul In that local.
,tv YVES an outrage and a nuisance, but When.
the measure was proposed to remove the
prisoners to- some other part OF. tile city, =
.property-ownerso on the four sides OF the square
protested, claiming that that square had been
dedicated, among other purposes: to PUBIC
Z. fail. that under this dedication they had
bought the land and erected costly buildings .
and to now establish a new jail elsewhere
and remove the prisoners would DC most
deplorable instance OF bad faith, fnnlc1lng'
irreparable loss upon all the owners OF prop !
erty fronting that SQUARED: The Board OF
Supervisors yielded to the protest, and the|
iail remained 11ndisturbed until on the morn-
Ing of the 9th of October, 1871, there was a :
hasty departure OF the prisoners betore the
fire. The presentrcmonstrances OF the own
ers of the same property against the removal
of the Board of Trade hall are; no more
earnest than those made years ago against
the removal Of the jail! The arguments are:
identical -
1t Is not so very long ago when the az
temptrto establish a line AIM horse-ratlway on
wabash avenue nearly produced a revolt
ton in the State Government, and created
immense excitement in this city. The 1eg1s-
lation was only defeated by Gov. 1ates IN
terposlng his proclamation dispensing and dis
banding the General Assembly. Who. Is
there now objects to the horse-railway on
that avenue ?. Public and private Interests
have changed, residence property has given
way to business, and Wabash avenue is now
the great business thoroughtare Of the South
Division. In 1869 the passage by the Leg1s-
lature Of the bill authorizing the sale OF three
blocks Of the a. Lake-Front" to the railway
companies for depot purposes created almost
as mnch excitement in Chicago as did .the
arrival OF the tea in Boston Harbor hum
dred years before. The protest against that
act recited the doctrine OF vested rights even
more vehemently than it had ever been recited
before, and the owners Of property along the
Lake Front declared that. they never, never,
| never would consent to such disposition of
the free air and free view which they had
bought with their property. The owners OF
the same property are now petitioners before
| Congress and the City Council that that long
and fiorribly-aRused sale to. the railroads
| may now be permitted to be made.
The men Of 1869 who 50 yaliantly demanded
| that the Lake Park should remain park, SO
that s'generations yet unborn might bless
| those who had preserved 1t from. change"
are now as anxious that the railroad
monopolists should lay their iron rails
upon that tract once so solemnly dedicated
to health, pure air, etc. a>. 49,
| Some years ago public spirit demanded
that there should be free public hospital
established, and the County Board provided
therefor, and. in order to remove 1t beyond
| the inhabited pal IS of the city, located 1t one
| block west Of the corner Of South Clark and
| Eighteenth streets Since then necessity has
| forced the location Of that hospital two miles
or: more further west, where 1t has already
been overtaken and surrounded by the ever
increasing population.
An unesthetic owner of real estate on Wa
4 bash avenue, near Congress street, made the
preliminary steps in the way of erecting
some buildings to be used as stores The
Indignant residents. protested against this
| ruthless attempt to Introduce business - ON
that avenue dedicated to all that was esthetic
and beautiful. The rude man was notified
that not one inhabitant living on the avenue
would ever enter one Of his stores, or have
any dealings with his tenants, and the man
abandoned the work. Times have changed
since then. Business has taken the place Of
the purely beautiful, and Wabash avenue
stores are among the illest and most success
full in the city. .. il: r. :, -
The attempt to limit the expansion Of a
! city like Chicago is as vain as to try to make
| a man wear through life clothes OF the
dimensions and cut that he wore when Is
years of age. The illustrations we have
given OF changes that have taken place un-
der the pressure Of increasing business~ In
creasinR population, aud the demands Of pub
lie convenience,-an these changes are all OF
comparative recent date,-show the folly OF
expecting that because a store, a block, or q
neighborhood once served public use. the
public is therefore forever .debarred from
making change. When the Board Of Trade
moved from South Water and La Sale
streets three blocks south to Washington
street 1t only obeyed that law Of necessity
which was Irresistible, and which at the
same time caused the Baptists, Presby:-
terians, Methodists, and Unftarians to aban~
don their stately church buildings on Wash
ington street and go further south. Since
then business expansion has far ontstripped
the Board of Trade. and Jackson street ia by
no means so far away from tbs business
centre, even now, as was Washington street
fifteen years ago. Long before the new
/ building will be ready for occupancy the
wonder will be not that the ohange was
made, but why it had been SO long delayed,
|
THE MAJOR AND THE CHICAGO RIVER.
We have elsewhere referred to the COM
plants made by the inhabitants of the cities
and towns along the Illinois River, on &C;
count Of the condition of the small and ofen-
siye (because smallJ supply Of water carried
by the canal and enlptfed into that river: We
/ H.. %nfr1