The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-04-29
Cl1lCAGO'S GREATNESS.
why Chicagoans Boast So Extravasantly
and Incessantly.
Especial correspondence.

Especial Correspondencel
CHICAGO. April 20-It is a common saying
among Travelled men that there are only two
really great cities in this country-Chicago
and New York. True Chicago is great
city, but in one respect she breathes the air
and wears the color of a youthful and bound
ing Village scarce out of her town-lot swad-
ding clothes in the eager west This is in
the habit INDUCED frequently and enthusi-
astically by all true Chicagoans, of boasting
of themselves, their city, their future and
their past In his home praise-singing the
Chicago man is not selfshs he boasts not
only of his own greatness, but of his neigh
boris and his rival So everything in or
about Chicago is food for his swelling. Chi
cago's bigness. and the big things which may
be found within or just without her wide
borders, are the especial and favored subjects
of his Wanting discourse.
"Why, Just think of it." exclaims the
/ Chicago man; "over on the north side lives
Emdon Hubbard, who came to Chicago trad
ing with the Indians when there weren't a
| half-dozen white men here There are plenty
of men still living in town who voted at the
first city election, fifty years ago next spring.
Then Chicago had a population OF 4,OOO now
| look at her"
And then the Chicago man waves his right
hand. looks proud and invincible. and Incl
dentally mentions that 1--WE are crowding g
million pretty close"
Here the visitor smiles incredulously, and
points to the census report of 1880, which
gives Americas interior metropolis 5O3,OOC
souls.
Incredulity is not uncommon concerning
population claims of western cities The re-
markable growth of western cities is some
thing which jewellers in the effete east cannot
understand. Thirty-fve years ago New
Yorks population was greater than
Chicago's, according to the last federal
census, and yet here comes Chicago,
talking about /, 900, 600, while New York had
but /, POO. 900 in 1880. When New York was
one of the worlds great cities, with more
than 500, 900 inhabitants, Chicago was a
country town only as big as Burlington, la.
Four thousand in 1896, 100000 in 1886
what audacity!
But truth before all things. Chicago has
not 600 600 population, nor anything like it.
In May, 1884, she had 63O,OOO Next May
another school census will be taken, and will
show about 100000 The federal census
enumerators of 1890 will find not more than
5O.0OO, and not until the next decade has
rolled two or three Of its fertile summers
over us will Chicago rise to the dignity of @
millionaire among the worlds bare dozen Of
millionaire cities.
Nevertheless, Chicago is big. Moreover
she is full of big things Vastness seems in
digenous to the soil which reared this young
piant of the west Great establishments grow
here like weeds in springs sunshine. Scat
tered about ON this muddy prairie, skirtine
thesandy shores of the lake or pressing close t.
the oozy banks of an unsavory bayou, are 81
many things noteworthy and immense tina
one hesitates for a suitable beginning of theil
enumeration.
If Chicago is distinguished for anything, i
is for her grain market There are in thi
city twenty-eight grain elevators-huge struc
lures $50 feet high, towering above surround
ing objects like ieudal castles above the howell
of women. Railroad trains run in and on
of these Goliaths, and big steamers shelte
their black lulllis within the shadows Will
their holds are being filled with the colder
grain. No other city in the world has s.
many elevators, no other such storage ca
pacity no other handles such vast quantitie
of cereals. In these structures may be house,
more than 81, 0O0, 900 bushels Of grain, equa
TO solid column 100 feet square and 800
feet high, or to the average wheat crop Q
any one of the great wheat-growing states
California alone excepted. From ou
of the fertile west might come a
impossible freight train composed of 42,0O
box cars, all laden with wheat, and, wit
their locomotives, reaching more than hal
way from Chicago TO Omaha, and thes
mighty receptacles could swallow up all til
grain, and still cry for more. One elevate
could alone contain almost the entire whea
crop of the state of New Jersey, or Of all Me-
England, with that Of little Delaware throw
in for good measure. Two-seventbs of a
wheat and one half of all -four exported fror
the United States in 1884 were shipped froI
Chicago. Naturally enough, the grain quote
tons made in Chicago are virtually the quo
tations for the world. Two hundred thor
sand cars of grain arrived in Chicago las
year-equal, with their engines, to soil
train l,325 miles long Next to her graf
business, Chicago is famous for her slaughte
houses As a sticlker Of pigs and killer {
beeves she leads the world In this kind {
bloodshed she has no rival More than 1000
900 hogs and 100000 beeves meet their fat
here every year. Annually Chicago ships