The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-07-06
THE PAST OF CHICAGO.
The Garden City Of 1lipois Has q
Wonderful History
A Few Interesting Facts-How CanAls
Railroads and the Great Lakes Have
Helped the Western Metropolis-Chi-
cago to the Mississippi by Water.
lCoPYRlGHT, 1893. |


cago to the Mississippi by Water.
COPYRIGHT, lYy3
In the latter part of May went
east, and have returned to the city in
which Potter Palmers wonderful man
sion and some astonishing perpetra-
tions in the gardeners art are located,
not to mention worlds fair. The
journey set in contrast this fair to the
continental relations east and west.
Two general facts stood out-namely,
the rising utility of coal or fuel to the
whole country, and the extension of
the manufactures into the heart of the
west. l saw at GAINESVILLE, an old and
dullish town in Ohio, one of the most
extensive potteries on the globe, seem
ing to cover a hundred acres, on the
banks of the Muskingum river. About
twelve years ago l went to lecture in
GAINESVILLE, and they were making
few wheelbarrow loads of colored
tiles for interior paving and fireplaces.
Some son of genius had come along,
without the means to pay for his
nights lodging, and told them that
they had beautiful tile clay. Through
the tariff a standard of protection was
obtained which insured eastern capital
lists to buy the plant, and now the
harmonious pottery cylinders and
chimneys stud the plain, making the
place a miniature Stoke.
The iron education of Pittsburgh
has served as a great university and
training school to advance into Ohio
and out to the great lakes. Wheeling,
which was a neglected little town
in the Panhandle of Virginia, has be-
come another furious Pittsburgh. I
passed Fostoria, where Charley Foster
failed, between the dates went east
and returned, through his. enterpris
ing town in the Black Swamp of Ohio.
Looking over this town one seems to
see it's volatility, with more glass fac
tories than are necessary, with rail-
roads drawn through the place to
whoop it up, and, though the develop
ments have been Important, no.
ticed large number of the oil der
ricks idle, as if the product had been
pumped out. A liberal politician Gre
ates expenses originally not necessary.
Like the habit of tipping walters, the
result is that at last one cannot get
his breakfast unless he pays extra for
it. So, assisting Legislators in their
election expenses establishes prece-
dent, in which gratitude is lively
sense of favors to come. Though
wheat dropped to about sixty-nine
cents bushel on the 1st of June, it
was fourteen cents higher than in
1861, and twenty-five cents higher
than in 1852, when Pierce had
been elected president. Ohio and
Pennsylvania have much better
farm and town improvements than
either West Virginia or states west of
Ohio. The country is developing along
the new railroad lines, as if fifty years
hence it might look like France, with
brick instead of shanty improvements.
At nearly every station of size saw
tile works, to drain the fields, and in
structed wandering Oklahoma farmer
beside me upon the mystery of these
tiles, absorbing water through their
pores and passing it down the channel
or cylinder so as to dry the fields. Said
this farmer to me: 81 have just secured
my one hundred and twenty-five acres
of land in Oklahoma, where waited
for months to get my piece, almost
starving to death meantime. 1t is as
good land as they have in the world,
and the Indians have taken their par
cells in severalty, like the whites. Ok
lahoma City and Guthrie will be the
chief places"
Studying the country, as l came
along, made one or two novel discov-
cries. For instance, there is only one
county of Illinois between Chicago and
Wisconsin. The county of Cook, in
which Chicago stands, reaches to the
Indiana line. On the other side of the
Indiana line are only three counties of
Indiana interposed between Illinois
and Michigan, and these support three
strong lake ports. Chicago therefore,
is the emporium of Wisconsin, Indiana,
western Michigan and Illinois.
If were to ask almost any grown
man whether Michigan was east of
Chicago or west of it he would say:
Certainly, east.' Yet Michigan
reaches one hundred and fortv miles
90 ~
,,z.aAE