Evening star., 1933-08-20
lXEK TALE OF CHICAGO. BY Edgar Lee Mas
tsfs New York: G. p. Putnam's Sons.

HICAGO as the temple Of the Gen.
tury of Progress has sponsored not
only q small business boom in the
Middle West, but also q literary
u boom. Many writer's who compose
with facility and are not 50 meticu-
luas as to require long time for revision of
manuscript have seized the favorable moment
to turn out fiction or history either about Chi
cago or about our machine age. Mr.. Masters.
whose reputation securely established In
the field of free poetry by his Spoon River
Anthology" turned to history and biography
with his Lincoln the Man." which was not
well liked by Lincoln lovers nor much admired
By supporters of accurate research in history.
His tale of Chicago" extracts from many
sources the almost epic story OF the transforma-
ton In two and half centuries of the Indian
settlement near the place where the Checagou
River and the lake met, which La Sale hap
pened upon in his wanderings over that country
in 1879, into a huge city, Nth largest in the
world. whose lake front Is lined with sky
scrapers in 1888 1t is q dramatic tale, told
with spirit and obvious enjoyment on the part
Of the author and with a literary style often
lacking in more formal histories.
Chicago first became of commercial impor-
tance when Mad Anthony Wayne bought six
square miles of land at the mouth of the Chi
cago River from the Indians in 1895 In 1903,
when Jefferson President, the unprotected
territory, then very far West, about Lake Mich
igan. worried him and his Secretary of War,
Henry Dearborn. Illinois was the haunt OF
many Indian tribes, whose intentions no one ever
knew, and the British also might have it in
mind to descend from Canada at any time and
regain some of the territory lost in the Revo-
luton of the rebellious American colonies. So
. fort seemed to the President and his Secretary
10 be indicated, and Fort Dearborn was built,
with the Pottawatomies standing about watch
ing the work. In the following year John Kin
ne arrived at Fort Dearborn from Michigan.
He has often been called the father of Chi
eago. for the beginning of the citys history is
reckoned from the building of the fort, and he
and his son were important political and social
figures for half century. The early days of
the fort and the settlement which grew up out
side It were days of Indian terrors, hasty warn
hes, barricadings killings and scalpings. The
hostility of Tecumseh over the entertainments
Of the whites on what he considered the land
Of the Indians and the battle Of Tfppecanoe,
fought in 1911 by William Henry Harrison, Gov
ernor of the Northwest Territory from 1893 to
1900, did not make Fort Dearborn safer. The
War of 1872 was at hand Tecumseh wrathy,
went to Canada and joined the British forces In
April, 1872, after attacks threats and warm
ings from friendly Indians, Capt. Heald de-
cided to evacuate the fort. With their band
cheering them by the Dead March" the little
company. troops and settlers, marched out along
what was afterward Michigan avenue, past the
places to be occupied few years later by the
Public Library and the Art Institute. Mr. Mas
tiers remarks sardonically that they also passed
the ground which in less than SO years would
be the noisy habitat Of the Illinois Central
Railroad land which that corporation would
take from the people, as the people had taken
Il from the indians Many OF those who left
we're soon killed in an Indian attack and the fort
vas p&undered and burned. So the first Chi
oa0o fire obliterated the beginnings Of the city.
The second fort was built tn 1916. Settle
nsnks were increasing, the fur trade was profit
abls and needed protection, and the Indians
Wsse st1u troublesome. John Ktnde returned
from imprisonment by the British and bigger
snd better Chicago began to emerge. John
Jacob Astor's American Fur Co., while 1t lasted,
helped to boost Chicago business The city's
history was now made rapidly. Andrew Jack
sons victory at New Orleans salvaged the Mis-
stssippi River for the whole central West and
Chicago was insured commercial future.
Steamboats, began to arrive via the Erie Canal.
The first locomotive arrived in 1848. Lots were
sold. hotels sprang up, the town was incor-
porated, the city was Incorporated, the first city
election was held (honestly, we hope, there was
. land and building craze the packing business
began, shipping grew on the river and lakes.
BY this time the city outstripping its COM
petitOrS. The grain and cattle industries were
making Chicago one of the greatest Of railroad
centers The Civil War days found Chicago at
the center of the Lincoln campaign and the
spell binding Lincoln Douglas speeches. Then
came the great fire, in 1871, and wooden Chi
eagO went up IN smoke. Some theologically
minded people attribute the disaster to the sins
ef the city. If there was truth in the belief,
then perhaps it was because the simmer was
ypung that recuperation was rapid. more
substantial city of brick and stone grew up on
the ruins. Its later history has been turbulent
. mingling of success and deep depression, Of
Tremendous energy and widespread corruption
a culture and anarchy And in 1893 Mr.
Dawes opened the Century Of Progress Exposi-
tiOn IN Chicago
THE FARM. BY Louis Bromheld New York:
Harper g. Bros.