Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-08-26
Chicago in 1850.

there is well written paper on Chicago
which is now of value as material for
history, and is really quite funny as a
piece Of unconscious humor. Superla-
lively unconscious, if 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 10000
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, 10 newspapers, 60 clergymen
and 220 lawyers! 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 in an older community, have COM
bined TO weaken the moral sense Of the people
In regard TO business transactions There is a
leniency exhibited toward sharp bargains, I'M
due ooloring and actual Misrepresentation
which, II allowed 10 go unchecked, will by de-
grees destroy that vital morality which is in
dispensable TO the prosperity Of a commercial
state
Even then thirteen lines of railroad
might be said to center in the young
city, though not nearly 80 many entered
it In 1850 it had apopulation of %, 1858,
and that of 10000 for the winter Of
1855 (when the writer in Putnam was
there) is only an enthusiastically cor
rect, probably, for in 1860 it was 49,
172 and in 1910 it had been but 4,170.
Even in 1856 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 was correct, for in
the calendar year 1855 Chicago received
2O,S67, ZOE bushels of grain, packed 80
$50 hogs and received 800, 547, 401 feet
of lumber and 10S,647, $50 shingles. In
its first tax year the city's valuation was
but 81 1857, AS, and our author was very
properly astonished to learn that in 1855
it was see 5000, s99-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 a peculiar
sort of black, fat mud, which, he added,
'it 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 grow 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 so common that they scarce
ly deserve notice" He also tried the
amusements, and was highly entertained
by ''Norths circus and Mr.. Neafe's ap-
pearance in Jack Cade.'"
Such was Chicago in 1856. Today
the city has 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
1t must continue to grow at nearly the
same rate through its second half cen
tury, for the country naturally tribu-
tary 10 it has but begun to develop.
n