Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-09-06
chicago {. 1859.

In Pntnam's Monthly for June, 1856,
there is well written paper ON Chicago
which is now Of value as material for
history, and Ia really quite funny rs a
piece Of unconscious humor. Superla-
lively unconscious. II one may say so.
for the writer evidently meant to be i'm
pressively serious, but he ventures on
prophecy and points out some evils
which may become serious If allowed to
go unchecked.
He Is astounded that city of 90, 900
people should have sprung up there in
one generation: he ventures TO guess
that the newly discovered stone "on the
line Of the canal" Joliet marble) will
prove Of great advantage If the city con-
tinues to grow, and assures his readers
that there really are in the city omni-
bus routes l6 newspapers, 60 clergymen
and 220 lawyersl He then warns the
people Of certain dangerous tendencies.
winding up with these words;
Speculation and too great eagerness TO get
rich, with a lack OF those healthful restraints
which exist 10 an older community, have COM
bined to weaken the moral sense OF the people
In regard to business transactions. There Is q
leniency exhibited toward sharp bargains, un-
due coloring and actual misrepresentation
which, IL allowed TO 90 unchecked, will by de-
grees destroy that vital morality which is In.
dspenssble 10 the prosperity Of a commercial
state.
Even then thirteen lines of railroad
might be said to center in the young
city, though not nearly so many entered
it. In 1850 it had population of 30, 1868,
and that of 10000 for the winter of
1856 (when the writer in Putnam was
there) is only an estimate-nearly cor
rect, probably, for in 1860 it was 49,
l72 and in 1910 it had been but ALTO.
Even in 1855 Chicago claimed to be ''the
first grain market in the world, the first
lumber market in the world and the
third city in the Union in postoffice rev.
enues."
Probably the claim wascorrect, for in
the calendar year 1866 Chicago received
20,367 ,702 bushels of grain, packed S0.-
$50 hogs and received 6.547 ,401 feet
of lumber and 08,647, $50 shingles. In
it's first tax year the city's valuation was
but 81 1857, ,445, and our author was very
properly astonished to learn that in 1865
it was sec, 1902, ,S93-possibly the valua-
ton of one of the leading wards Of to-
day. 1t is scarcely necessary to add
that he found the going very bad, even
on the principal streets, and discovered
that the city was built on peculiar
sort of black, fat mud" which, he added,
lit is hard to describe for English read
ers." He was sure, however, that there
was nothing like it in London. Verify,
there was not.
He ventures to predict that tunnels
will be put under the Chicago river, but
the place "must ever remain the city Of
bridges" If it continues to ogrow it will
"some day rival Venice in this particu-
lar" "Stone is as yet too expensive for
pavements, and SO the sidewalks and
carriageways are planked; the planks
actually float and the carriages send up
jets of muddy water" In the line of
eating, at the Briggs House he found
prairie chicken, whitefsh. venison and
wild goose 80 common that they scarce
ly deserve notice." He also tried the
amusements, and was highly entertained
by ''Noith's circus and Mr.. Neafie's ap-
pearance in Jack Cade.'"
Such was Chicago in 1856. Today
the city hes at least 100000 inhabit-
ants. The story of its growth in other
lines need not be repeated. Rhetoric is
badly out of place. The plain figures
are more eloquent than the most impas-
stoned eulogy. Chicago is indeed the
wonder of the modern world. No other
city ever grew so rapidly for 80 many
years. and so far as human eye can see
it must continue TO grow at nearly the
same rate through its second half cen.
tury, for the country naturally tribu-
tary to it has but begun to develop.