Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-07-26
A CHICAGO LETTER
CHICAGO. July u. l9'

ways db icdSC 10 see chicago. FlrSU
you can buy little book from street
vender or at news stand second,
you may go to see things for yourself
and in your own way, and this is the
most fun either in Chicago er any
where else on earth.
Chicago is a forge, shop, huge
food stOrehouse. To establish this
commercial and industrial supremacy,
Chicago has let some of the claims of
beauty. cleanliness and order wait.
Chicago is the continental divide
from which the streams of traffic
flow west, south, and east, as the
Columbia, the Colorado and the
Missouri, which originate at a COM
mon source Oh a mountain in Yellow
stone Park, seek the Pacific, the Gulf
of California, and the Gulf of Mexico.
No other city in the United States is
within SO short a distance of more
than one-half the American people as
Chicago, No other American city
iS~NhCS ooSu oil CAOCuSiNC OCIIlOOIy
with direct and unbroken rail COM
municatiOn.
There are thirty-two lines of rail-
road entering Chicago over which
1889 trains arrive OF depart C,aily.
There are 82l suburban passenger
trains that carry 100000 passengers
daily. There are four lines of ele-
waited roads in the city all using the
union loop which is an interesting
mechanical proposition. 1t is two
miles around and the density of
traffic is greater than on any two
miles of double track in the world.
This line has 1916 trains per day or
train every 81 seconds. The average
number of passengers haadled for two
hours from 5 to p. m. is sixty thou
sand. Within this loop is metro
politian business life raised TO its
highest power. Here is the strenuous
American in typical form. Here
several hundred thousand people work
longer hours and with greater energy
than any other community on earth.
The street railroads of Chicago handle
more than $4,000 passengers daily.
The value of Chicago'S manufactured
products alone equaled two-thirds of
the gross earnings of al! the railroads
in the United States.
The Pullman Car Gu. and associated
industries employ between 1000 and
5000 persons, and can build 50 freight
cars and three passenger cars of any
class a day. The Mccormick Harves-
ter works often ship between 80 and
100 cars Of machines day. Complete
machines are turned out at the rate
of one every "a seconds and the
following are the varieties: harvesters,
mowers, reapers, rakeS, headers,
header binders, corn harvesterS, corn
ShockerS, corn Shredders. The Hi
nois Steel company, cover $50 acres,
employs about 5000 men. Here 540O
tons of finished rails are made in
twelve hours, and the total production
for 1905 amounted to 1000 tons, an
equivalent at eighty pounds to the
yard of more than 5000 miles Of track.
1.-THE Chicago Commercial ASSocia-
tion has membership of 1000 as
against ninty-tive year ago. Through
its excursion bureau it attracted $4,000
wholesale buyers to Chicago during
1905. This year it expects to bring
5000 visitors here through it's con-
vention and excursion bureau" Nc
class of people are doing more fol
Chicago than the five thousand seven
hundred and seventy two public school
teachers who preside over 1851
pupils. There are 1900 mail carriers
who deliver two million pieces of mail
daily. There are over five hundred
papers published in Chicago. This is
counting the daily, weekly and
monthly publications.
The city has a bonded debt of
S24, 6lS.000 The expenditures for last
year were $4,000, 900, nearly 81, ZOO, 0OC
of this going to the 5000 men compos-
ing the police force. While the 1900
tiremen were paid sl,SS0,OO0. During
the past year there were 6633 fires and
the police made 6S, 1852 arrests, and re-
sponded to IS, 16l calls with a patrol
wagon. There were 1000 vessels
entered the harbor representing seven
million tons of tonnage. AT present
Chicago has ten considerable parks,
with seven new ones well under way.
Into one Chicago office building
go 1000 telephone wires. London has
less telephones than Chicago. The
best elevator service in the city at
present is found in the Railway Ex-
change and the Marquette buildings.
In the Railway Exchange twelve
elevators are operated, six local and
six express-the express do not stop
below the eighth floor. Many of the
largest and most expensive office
buildings in the city Of Chicago, for
some unknown reason, afford the
poorest elevator service. The facili-
ties are adequate and strictly up-to-
date, but the operation seems to lack
system-what the foot ball players
, would call "team work." In caring
for the offices, the janitors preserve
every scrap of refuse, be it rubber
bands, Irvine, burlap, or paper ia
whatever form, and pack it in sacks
for the markets-there is market in
Chicago for anything. The revenue
from this source in the Railway Ex-
change building, for instance, aver
ages S120 per month.
The retail house OF Marshall Field
and company is museum in exhibits,
shop universal in trade. The floor