Year: 1872




| have been over the greater portion
of the burnt district, but can only at
tempt brief general description with
out going into details. Here YOU will
see what is to be seen nowhere else in
the world-a living city and dead one
occupying the same ground 1t is n
strange cOnglomeration of ruins, shan
ties, substantial buildings and rubbish.
Here you Will see the blackened ruins.
the gloomy walls of palace gutted by
the flames, and next to it rough board
shanty with one window, and a stove
pipe running up through the roof. Then
next to that is handsome five story
brick, put up since the fire, and filed
from top TO bottom with merchandise;
then more shanties, then great bare
walls Of buildings in course of erection,
then more of the blacklist, gloomiest,
saddest ruins human eye ever looked
upon.


And, withal, the streets are well nigh
impossible. Teams that no man can
number, loaded down with building
material, file through them; heaps of
brick, rock, lumber, lime, sand and rub
bish are "stacked" all along. There are
no sidewalks, and getting about in the
burnt district is matter of extreme diff
ficulty. Every few blocks you will
come upon a lam" A wagon has run
against a brick pile; another wagon has
run against that; teams going each way
are blOckaded and can't turn back on
occount of every possible obstruction
being on the ground that ever went into
a building, and q regular Broadway jam
is the consequence. 1t is almost impOs-
sible to go through the burnt district
with carriage during work hours. The
best way is to walk, and then you are
frequently delayed, or at least have to
climb over stacks of lumber and piles of
brick and sand.


The scenes along the principal streets
remind one of pictures of the building of
Babel. Every block has its grand army
of workmen, and there seems to be about
as much confusion all the time as there
was at Babel Immediately after the con-
founding of language. But it is n con-
fusion of teams and material, and not
of tongues, for hammers, saws and trow-
els make such fuss that voices are
lost.


The number of buildings under way
in the burnt district, in all stages of con-
struction, from corner stone laying to
roof fitting, is enough to convince the
most skeptical that Chicago will live
again as grand and massive as ever.


Steadily through the winter months;


in cold and snow and rain, the work of


rebuilding has gone on. And it will


continue to go on until the burnt dis
trict is covered by the new Chicago. No


one who Will observe the amount of
work already done under the disadvan-
: tages of Indictment weather and high


prices can doubt this But, much rs


has been done this winter, ten times as
much will be accomplished this sum-
mer With April will begin an amount
of building incomprehensiblet to any one
| not here to see what there is to build,
, and the plans to be pursued.


a singular fact in connection with
these gigantic operations and plans of
operations, is the abundance of funds.
; Everybody seems to have money to re-
build, or, at least, to make q start. The


money to rebuild Chicago seems to be


already at hand. Currency is abundant,
more abundant than bricks, in fact.
This is readily accounted for. Men Of
wealth, in Boston, New York, Philadel-
phia, and, in fact, all over the country,
I were largely interested in real estate
here before the fire, and, not being seri-


ously injured by the burning of the tene-
ments thereon, they set about immedi-


ateIy to rebuild. Men who have made


fortunes in Chicago town lots do not


propose to withdraw from the field now
: now when there is as good a chance


for remunerative investments as ever


Rents are two and three times as high


as before the fire, and Notwithstanding


the amount of building done still remain


at the stiff figure Chicago Corresponds


eRt Cincinnati Commercial.