Los Angeles herald., 1892-01-03
FROM CHICAGO.
A Journey East Via the
Santa Fe.
Fasteners Headed for the
Pacific Coast.
Facts and Features of the New
Chicago.
A Monster Trade Palace and the Fate OF
Its Owner-The Worlds Fair aud
the California Exhibit.
ETC., Etc.
Correspondence of the HERALD.

|
made between Chicago and the Pacific
coast since starting west five and one
half years ago. Travelling over the road
twelve times sets man to figuring
little, and he finds that he has travelled
more than $4,000 miles in performing
those journeys. And yet it does not
take one quarter as long to make the
trip twelve times as it did to perform a
single journey in the old days, when OK
and mule teams logged across the des-
erts, plains and mountains to the Pa
cfic coast, where now the higher civii
zation prevails and beckons to millions
still in the east to come to Goods coun-
try" A journey from the coast to Chi
cago over the Santa Fe route, with the
splendid equipments, solid roadbed and
smooth Rtracks that are features of the
Santa Fe, is enjoyable in summer or
winter. And to me, the distance be-
| tween the Pacific ocean and Lake Mich
| igan seems not half so great as it did
when had just completed the first trip.
From Santa Fe officials, excursion
agents and Major Truman (who admi-
rably "holds the fort" at the permanent
exhibit and gallantly entertains hun
dreds of visitors every day. learn that
travel to the Pacific coast has been very
heavy since the first of November, and
js yet brisk, though slackening little
on account of the holidays. After New
| Years look out for a greater rush than
has yet been since the davs of our fool
boom. In this connection l would say
that the passenger department of the
Santa Fe system will soon issue new
and an elegant pamphlet which is to
contain vast collection of facts and
pointers that will be valuable to every
body who ever expects to visit California
or who even has an uncle, cousin, aunt
or friend who is liable to go there.
To man who has spent the past five
winters in the salubrous climate of
Southern California the meteorological
conditions in Chicago seem strange and
not particularly pleasing. However, I
did not come here after climate, but as a
matter OF business. All the climate
worth mentioning | left behind. Chi
cago is forging ahead, probably with
greater rapidity than any other city
the world ever saw. Building opera
tions of all kinds are being pushed right
| along regardless Of storm, cold or any
| other obstacle. In some instances build
ing and trade are commingled and more
4 or less mixed up under the same shelter.
For instance, on State street, in the
business center, there is an immense
establishment containing several hun
dred distinct departments, where goods
of almost every conceivable variety are
sold to the extent of millions of dollars
worth annually.
A few weeks ago the managers of the
establishment proceeded to enlarge the
building for the third or fourth time
since it was opened. Since the enlarge
ment the structure extends through
from State to Dearborn street, with a
long frontage on each. The height of
the rather odd-lookirg edifice varies in
different parts from five to eight stories.
| 1t is not yet completed, however, but a
| large section of it is going higher and
| higher, week by week. Trade is con-
Quoted on one story, while the next
above it is being built. As soon as that
is completed it is filled with goods, and
trade there is at once opened up. Thus
do the statesmen steadily follow the ma
sons, carpenters, plumbers and other
workmen on the upward journey into
| space. am informed that the Dear
born street half of the gigantic estab-
lishment will be run to the enormous
height of twenty-five stories. The
| twenty-frst story will be used chiefly
! for restaurant purposes, and the top
story as sleeping rooms for female en-
ployees who may not have homes OF
their own. The business of this con-
Germ is enormous, but cannot give fig
ures. The delivery wagons sent out
thel efrom several times each day to all
parts of the city and suburbs would, if
placed in line, make procession prob
ably mile in length. | we'll remember
that few years ago the proprietor of
this stupendous trade palace set up shop
in little, dingy, wooden building on a
small corner of the present site. His
trade grew. and made his build
ing grow correspondingly. Today it
is one of the greatest, and
| in some respects most wonderful
retail commercial establishments in the
world. he wealth of the proprietor is
counted by millions, and he is yet only
in middle life. The reader will doubt
less envy this man his success and hap
piness. But hold onl He is not the
happiest man in the world. He is and
for several years has been an incurable
lunatic, confined within the walls of
the Bloomingdale asylum. in New York.
| The tremendous mental strain involved
in the management of such business
by one person unbalanced his mind and
he became raving maniac. And now,
while his business is continued by other
heads and hands and his wealth is being
still further augmented, the poor
wretch, with reason dethroned, is kept
in confinement, helpless prisoner, at
tended by physicians, watched by spies
and treated as though he were an un-
ruly child. The reader can draw his
own moral.
California and the Columbian exposi-
tion are the more prominent themes of
talk and discussion here. OF course,