, 1890-04-02
The Triumph OF Chicago.
Iron the Times J

ives to make Chicago the scene of the
worlds Fair in 1892. The claims of Wash.
lngtOn, st. Louis, and even New York,
nave been set aside, and Chicago is prefer
Fed oy a large majority. 1t is never quite
certain how much accident, the man9uVres
OF the interested, and party politics have
had to DO with such q decision, and the
Senate has still to record It's opinion. Bat
there stands the decision by lI votes
against 107 given to New York on the
anal ballot. That supremacy, social and
commercial, which New York has always
claimed is challenged, aul would seem to
have passed to it's young rival in the West.
Probably most Englishmen, including those
who 1attered themselves that they knew
America, took it for granted that the
choice must fall upon former. They may,
very likely, have so thought nOtwithstand-
ing the strange exhibitions of vacillation,
vanity, and lf-Seeking at Albany, where
the State Legislature OF New York has been
long futilely wrangling over the subject.
1t is one more lesson how swiftly thin
change in the United States, and how the
most accurate knowledge Of them becomes
antiquatrd. De Tocqueville, whose plum.
met Once seemed to go SO deep, is now no
6NNfN NAO oCNiN$t'bRo - 'hAOS 1890
out of date as Cotton Mather's. A traveller
reviSits a Western town after an absence
of half n dozen years, and he does not
recognize in the magnificent blocks of ware
houses and rows of elegant, we'll built pri-
vate houses the site of a squalid heap of
huts and Shantic& all swept away in the
march Of Improvement. An American who
lives abroad for a few years is apt to lose
fnunll Of tba nInliln Avar Shifting facts Of
his country. He fluids the village which he
lett shot mp into an ambitious town, and
the city which he regarded as the focus Of
activity IA helpless laggard in the race, the
jest of its IL ighbours, It's chief hotel sink-
Jag into ruins and lie track of the railway
torn mp. OF all the many miracles OF
growth in the United States that of Chica-
go Is the most marvellous. In a quarter Of
Il century it has become one Of the most
wealthy cities Of the world. The great fire
of 1871, which would have crushed a less
vigorous community, had but II passing
effect on lis progress. IT. rose more pros.
porous than ever from its ashes and i'll
the beauty and SoIidlty of its buildings
new Chicago may court comparison with
any community. 1t now receives signal
recognition of it's proud place. Not only
~ IL lA'l'ilNN w D. 1'OI - o. uAAJ 1 hi
hat even to New York, IA historic city when
the name Of Chicago appeared on no map
and was known only to Indians. We shall
hear Ich hereafter Of this decision. It
will have important consequences, even
should it be reversed in the Senate. It will
be the rext of many essays on the decay OF
New England and the Easl ern States in
general-aiready, by the way, IL favOurite
subject with Western writer's and orators.
1t impreSSivcly notifies to the world that,
in America rs elsewhere, westward the
course OF Empire takes its way, and that
the political and industrial Importance of
the Western and Middle States has rapidly
increased, and is destined to grow still
greater.
For the choice, in point of view of con.
venience, mucl. may be said. To u Europe.
All traveller an extra thirty or thirty-six
hours Journey makes little difference. If
he goes to New York, he must go at least
rs far west as Chicago. The freight will
be a slight drawback to foreign exhibitors
OF heavy, bulky articles. But the railways
communicating with the seaboard carry at
proverbially low rates, and we may look
to promoters of the Fair doing their ut most
to remove this difficulty. To Americans
themselves Chicago is at least as convent.
ent aS New York. Situated in one OF the
most fertile regions OF the world, it is ad-
mirably served by q net of railways, and
the waterways which it commands are
scarcely less useful. Hitherto of little i'm
portance as a manufacturing centre, 1t now
begins to be the rival wen in this respect