Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1882-04-20
By P. N. CHRISTENSEN.
On THE OCEAN. Mch. 2

for the first two days. | have not had
any inclination to take down any mem
oranda since we left New York, until
to-day. The cars found very poor
place to write, although nearly all the
postals | sent back were written on
the train. The trip from Grand Rap
IDS to Chicago was made mostly in the
night and without any interesting in
cidents. Between Milwaukee and
Chicago I noticed one fact which sur
prised me and that is, that there SEEM
ed to be good deal of uncultivated
land that one would think it would be
too valuable to leave idle. At the de-
pot In Chicago [ was welcomed by our
worthy townsman, Nels johnson, who
was down buying goods, which was
great relief to me, as one who is not
we'll acquainted in such place and
alone, generally hesitates about which
way to turn. One queer incident in
travelling, is that one will meet ac-
quaintances where he least expects to.
Between Milwaukee and Chicago [ fell
in with three we'll known persons from
Marsh6eld who were going to Canada.
In Chicago [ learned the value of my
friend Nels johnson who is we'll &C.
quainted there. In the first place I
was taken to frst-class hotel and had
my inner wants supplied, a great salts
faction after travelling all night. |
then went with Mr.. J. and his esti-
mable lady to the large wholesale dry
goods house Of Field, Letter & Co :,
which is a great and grand establish
ment, and as near as [ could judge,
one of the largest in Chicago. If [
remember rightly the building is six
stories high and each story contains
three or four very large apartments,
and each apartment is again subdivided
by colonnades into two and three sub
divisions, in each of which is display
ed seperate classes of goods, for in
stance, one would be devoted entirely
to a display Of buttons of all kinds
more than most persons have any idea
exists. Then again, another would be
devoted to ribbons, and another to
shawls, and SO on for all conceivable
articles in the dry goods and notion
line. In the afternoon | took a rest.
In the evening [ attended Haverley's
theatre, where very nice piece was
played, representing California, life.
Next day we went out to see Lincoln
Park. 1t is beautifully laid out strip
of land lying along the lake OF
course, we did not see the Park in its
full glory, but we saw enough to salts
fly US, that it must be very beautiful
place In Summer. There is in it arti-
fetal and natural hills and Wales, canals
running IN all directions, in which one
can see swans, geese, ducks and other
waterfowls. The canals were spanned
by many bridges and of almost every
known description, from the modern
truss and iron down to the simplest
rustic and wooden bridges. An abund-
ance of seats, rustic and otherwise, are
also placed all over the Park. Car
riage roads and walks were also in first
rate order. There was also quite a
menagerie there. We saw two very
interesting specimens of Sea Lion, of
which the male seemed to be very
vicious. There was an alligator and
several kinds of bears, wolves, rae
coons, squirrels, eagles. owls. quails,
prairie chickens, prairie dogs and 9TH
er specimens too numerous to mention,
also a very large and beautiful con-
servatory, in which was a large assort-
ment of tropical plants, shrubbery and
flowers. After leaving Lincoln Park,
we went to examine the North Chicago
Water Works. These are really the
grandest works [ have ever seen. It
astonishes one to see how much can be
accomplished by the small atom of
dust and soul, called man; here in
one building were four very large pow
erful engines forcing the water, which
is drawn from crib built several miles
out into the lake, up into tower 200
feet high, which stands opposite the
street from the engine house. and from
this reservoir in the tower the water is
distributed through pipes over a large
part of the city. The court house and
city hall is also magnificent struct-
ure covering a whole square. but had
no time to take more than a casual
view of it from the outside. The
streets in the part of Chicago 1 visited
we're wide, well paved and enclosed
with large buildings, nearly all from
Eve to eight stories high and evidently
,nlidlu hnilt I left Ghinann an thn