Chicago City (part 48 of 57)

Estimates of the number of persons in a crowd, on the street or at a great meeting are continually made. Such estimates, when the number is thought to be over one hundred thousand, are a mere guess and entirely unreliable. 1 hat the recorded number of paid admissions October 9th is not excessive is very certain, as the entrance gates mechanically registered all who w^ent in and the cashiers are not likely to have charged themselves and paid for more half dollars than came into their hands. There is thus a very high degree of certainty that 716,881 persons entered at the paying gates. The 45,061 free admissions are not extraordinary. So far as is with any considerable degree of certainty known, the multitude that was at the Fair October 9, 1893, was the largest voluntary assemblage within enclosed grounds, for pleasure, up to that time known in the historv of mankind. In so far as such a matter can be determined by expression and appearance, the exposition afforded great happiness to great numbers of people. The commendation of buildings, eround and exhibits was enthusiastic and universal. The influence of the Fair was civilizing, instructive and promotive of peace. The ends of the earth were brought together. The dwellers upon the mountains and prairies of the west ate bread prepared by Moors and Berbers after the manner of the desert. Artists from Berlin, Paris and Boston listened to and enjoyed the simple plaintive harmonies of the Javanese. There were exhibitions of the toil, the dancing, the feasting, the household gods, belongings and daily living of people in all quarters of the globe. Every kind of instrument by which man yet cultivates the soil and every means of conveyance yet employed were illustrated by examples or models. A large building was devoted to an illustration of methods of transportation. In this, seemingly, copies of all the rafts and boats, save the ark, by which man has sailed upon the water were shown; and likewise the kind of trappings, harness, bridles, yokes and saddles under which beasts of burden have staggered, groaned, run and danced since neolithic man made the horse his companion and Balaam's ass saved and reproved its rider. One looked at these, the drags, harrows, ploughs, sleds, sledges, wagons, carts, they have drawn; the iron bits forced into tender mouths; the wooden saddle trees bound to lacer- ated backs; the heavy yoke carried upon weary necks; the hard harness chafing sore bodies; the sharp spur plunged into bleeding sides; the heavy lash descending upon quivering flesh ; the faithful dog, enduring all suffering, facing all danger, gladly dying to save or serve his master; the patient, uncomplaining ass, toiling through the day, thankful for a thistle at night ; the ungainly camel, providing for man a highway in the desert; the huge elephant that searches the spot whereon he is to step, lest he crush something dear to man; the beautiful, buoyant, intelligent horse, and recalling how these, the uncomplaining dumb, have suffered at the hand of the human, one was almost compelled to say, if man was made but little lower than angels to what depths of hell must he not since have fallen.

The Fair was such a place for finding that the activity of the mind exceeds the endurance of the body. There was so much to see, to study, to come to know well; it was such a school and the time for attendance so brief. Six months - six years would have been too short. People looked, listened, studied, and in the midst of the beautiful and the interesting found themselves fagged out. The states each had houses of rest equipped with lounges and easy chairs - blessed havens they were for the visitor weary with delight. One met such interesting people. Dignified Parsees with their queer hats and their serious conversation. Small Japanese excelling in everything. Dark-skinned Hindoos, overrunning with metaphysical ideas and recondite philosophy. Brahmans who considered ten thousand years a small portion of the time since Brahm was made known to man. Egyptians as ready to bargain as were their ancestors when they bought Joseph from the Midianites and sold corn to his brethren. Hindoos exhibiting and selling all kinds of filigree work'. Natives of Oceanica, termed by Europeans semi-civilized, whose manners and politeness were superior to ours, although their knowledge of machinery and books was less. Esquimaux, paddling their kayaks about the lagoons. Scandinavians who came every inch of the way from Europe to Chicago in a replica of a boat used by the Vikings. Icelanders, hoping to dispose of old Norse silver.

Our fierce democracy, for the nonce, let down its barriers and welcomed to its homes lords and princes, dukes and earls. No rude churls we in those hospitable days; but gentle folk, to the manner born, who bowed low to and made way for the stranger of exalted rank and hit;h degree as graciously and courteously as though we were merchants seeking trade or candidates for office looking for votes, and he a hind who homeward drove the loitering kine.

Mirabile dictu! Wonderful to see. "Prophets and kings desired it long, but died without the sight." We had a Parliament of Religions, to which people of all religions were invited, ca})ic and were HEARD. Not since the untutored savage, dazzled by the lightning's flash, asked the God whose awful voice shook the earth, to spare him and his kin, nor since the primitive Iranian, shivering beside the dying embers of his camp fire, turning uneasily upon the ground on which he lay, prayed for the coming of God - the Sun from whence proceeded warmth and light; to the opening of the Parliament of Religions in Chicago on the nth day of September, A. D., 1893, had there been such a gathering, nor such a communion as wdien, in Chicago, at the request of a communicant of the Chicago Church of the New Jerusalem, the American cardinal of the Roman Catholic church, arose and before the vast audience, who stood with bowed heads, repeated the universal prayer. To Mr. Charles C. Bonney, a lawyer of Chicago, is due the fact that such a parliament was. With untiring zeal and discretion he labored to bring his conception into being. As president of the parliament, his conduct and his wisdom were such that in reference to it he came to be called and con-* sidered "the indispensable Mr. Bonney." In his opening address he said :

"Worshipers of God and Lovers of Man: Let us rejoice that we have lived to see this glorious day; let us give thanks to the Eternal God, whose mercy endureth forever, that we are permitted to take part in the solemn and majestic event of a world's congress of religions.

"If this congress shall faithfully execute the duties with which it has been charged, it will become a joy of the whole earth and stand in human history like a new Mount Zion, crowned with glory and marking the actual beginning of a new epoch of brotherhood and peace.

"For wdien the religious faiths of the world recognize each other as brothers, children of one Father, whom all profess to love and serve, then, and not till then, will the nations of the earth yield to the spirit of concord and learn war no more.

"In this congress the word 'religion' means the love and worship of God and the love and service of man. We believe the^ Scripture that 'of a truth God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him.'

"The program of this General Parliament of Religions directly represents England, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, India, Japan, China, Ceylon, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada and the American states, and indirectly includes many other countries. This remarkable program presents, among other great themes to be considered in this congress. Theism, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism, Catholicism, the Greek church, Protestantism in many forms, and also refers to the nature and influence of other religious systems.

"This day the sun of a new era of religious peace and progress rises over the world, dispelling the dark clouds of sectarian strife. This day a new flower blooms in the gardens of religious thought, filling the air with its exquisite perfume. This day a new fraternity is born into the world of human progress, to aid in the upbuilding of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men. Era and flower and fraternity bear one name. It is a name which will gladden the hearts of those who worship God and love man in every clime. Those who hear its music, joyfully echo it back to the sun and flower.

In 1894 manufacturing, mercantile and transportation interests throughout the country were greatly depressed. The business of all these fell off to an extent that imperiled the solvency of many. As a consequence large numbers of salaried workingmen lost their places. The price of manufactured articles declined so that as to many they could not be sold at what it cost to manufacture them, and wages were lowered.

form so large an organization of railway employees as to render the railroads completely dependable upon tlie services of its members and thus put the Railway Union in a position to dictate to the transportation interests, wages, hours of labor, rules of service, etc.

In 1894 the organization included 150.000 railway employees. In the summer of 1894 a large number of the employees of the Pullman Company struck because of dissatisfaction by them with the wages offered by the Company. The Pullman Company was not engaged in the business of transporting freight or passengers. It merely manufactured cars and sold or leased them to railroads. Nevertheless 4.000 of its employees were admitted into the American Railway Employees Union. In the summer of 1894 a convention of this Union was held in Chicago, which convention on the 22nd of June ordered that unless the Pullman Company should before noon of June 26th adjust the grievances of its employees, the members of the Union should after that date refuse to handle Pullman cars and equipment.

''The railway employees, members of the Union, in obedience to the order of the convention of the Union, on the 26th of June refused to haul Pullman cars. The switchmen in the first place refused to attach a Pullman car to a train, and that is where the trouble began; and then when a switchman would be discharged for that, the switchmen would all quit, as they had agreed to do. One department of the railroads after another was involved until the Illinois Central was practically paralyzed, and the Rock Island and other roads in their turn. After the strike had been in progress five days, the railway managers, as we believe, were completely defeated. Their immediate resources were exhausted, their properties were paralyzed and they were unable to move their trains. That was the condition on the 30th day of June and the ist day of July."

The strike resulted not only in stopping to a great extent the transportation of passengers, mails and freight in Chicago, but throughout the country. Business was very seriously interrupted from Chicago to San Francisco; indeed! the strike extended over the greatest extent of territory, involved the largesi number of employees and caused the most serious interruption to business of an}- strike, before or since. Passengers were in some instances, through the abandonment of trains by the railway employees in charge, at small stations in the mountains and on semi-desert plains, put for days to most serious inconvenience and annoyance, as they could neither go forward to their destination nor return to the homes from which they had come.

"As early as the 28th of June, information was received at Washington by the postoffice department that on the Southern Pacific Railway system between Portland and San Francisco and between Ogden and San Francisco, the carriage of the mails was completely obstructed.

"July 6th six hundred freight cars with their contents were burned in railway yards at Chicago. July 3rd a mob of two to three thousand rioters held possession of a crossing of the Rock Island Railroad in Chicago and prevented passenger and other trains from passing. July 5th a mob of two thousand persons gathered at the Union Stock , Yards, obstructed the movement of trains and overturned twenty-eight cars, which obstructed the passage of all trains, freight, passenger and mail, in the vicinity of the stock yards. July 6th, of the twenty-three railroads centering in Chicago, only six were unobstructed. Thirteen were entirely obstructed, and ten were running only passenger and mail trains. A party of rioters went from 14th to 44th street and Stewart avenue, throwing gasoline on all freight car-s. in that section of the city."

July 5th and July 7th Governor Altgeld sent letters to President Cleveland, protesting against the sending and use of federal troops in the state of Illinois, sajdng that the state was able and ready to maintain order and enforce the laws, and offered to furnish troops to afford the federal authorities all assistance it might need in enforcement of the laws elsewhere.

The Supreme Court of the United States long afterward held that the action of the president of the United States in sending troops to enforce the federal laws against obstructing the mails, interfering with interstate commerce, was justifiable.

In Chicago the destruction of property by the burning of cars and their contents amounted to more than a million of dollars, the loss of which extended to owners throughout most of the states.

Man's earthly education begins with birth, is ended by death. So long as he is content with the instruction given by the pitiless rain, the biting frost, winter's snow, summer's heat, hunger and thirst, disease and pain, love and hate, he remains a savage. Such teaching is forced upon him by the Universe of which he is a part. If despite this he will not toil save when pain compels, nor la}- by in summer food for winter, he perishes, gives way for creatures more teachable.

Out of barbarism he can arise, has arisen only by the aid of systematic instruction. To the toil and the restraint of this he is averse. Nevertheless they are the inevitable concomitant of civilization.

The real upbuilding of Chicago began with the organization of its first school. Whether the instruction given in 1810 to John H. Kinzie, a boy of six, by Robert Forsyth, a lad of thirteen, the educational facilities afforded in 1 816 by William L. Cox to seven or eight children in a log cabin near the place now known as the intersection of Michigan and Pine streets, the teaching by Stephen Forbes in June, 1830, in a structure near where Randolph street and Michigan avenue now meet, or, the town of Chicago having been created and organized on the 5th day of August, 1833, the school opened by John Watkins in a house on the North Side, half way between the lake and the forks of the river, the first term of which was attended by twelve pupils, only four of whom were white, is to be reckoned as the first organized school in Chicago; the educational uplift of Chicago began with its beginning and has kept pace with its growth.

In the fall of 1832, there were twelve pupils, one school and one teacher; in 1908 there were in. the public schools 292,581 pupils and 6,107 teachers. The expenditure for the maintenance of public schools in 1898 was $10,044,271.71. In addition to the taxes they paid for the support of public schools, the parents of 74,196 children voluntarily paid for their instruction in parochial schools.

The influence, the teaching of common learning such as reading, writing, mathematics, grammar, geography, natural philosophy and the natural sciences, is always good ; coupled with this, there is sometimes in the atmosphere of schools a spirit of exclusion, a disdain for others not so fortunately situated or nobly born, which is pernicious. The schools of Chicago ha\e ever been remarkably free from this. Notwithstanding the long existence of statutory laws denying to black men the common rights of lunnanity, statutes intended to keep the negro in hopeless ignorance; the free PubHc Schools of Chicago have always been open to white and black alike, without attempt at exclusion or segregation based upon color; they have been kept in the front rank of educational work and have fitted millions for the struggles of life without which mankind cannot go forward to better things or higher civilization.

The Greeks of a few centuries before the Christian era are regarded as the greatest of artists. The temples built by them are looked upon as triumphs of art. The builders of today are continually asked to construct edifices as beautiful as were the Greek temples. There are in Chicago neither replicas of Greek temples nor attempts at imitation. Our architects have wisely refrained from this. A Greek temple needs space. It should stand alone, upon an eminence, apart from the shops and dwellings of men, beyond sound of the hammers and wheels of commerce, above the dust of the street, outside the route of the crowd, the playgrounds of men ; beyond reach of the cries of the caller and noise of the tramping feet of the multitude. It ought not to recall or suggest strife, labor or decay, impassioned oratory or sound of the lute and the viol. It should seem the embodiment of eternal peace and everlasting beauty; shine like the stars of Heaven and be changeless as they. Outlined against the sky it should look upon the world with the calmness and the dignity of a superior creation, bidding men rise above the fixed earth upon which they tread to the spiritual realms set on high, boundless as space, constant as time, eternal as law, holding in its grasp and clasping in its arms all souls that have been, are and shall be.

A Greek temple was built as the dwelling place of a god, not for the haunts of men. It was not made light, so that people could read or write therein ; nor for the assemblage of multitudes or the gratification of the curious and the stranger. It was a holy place, the shrine or casket of a god. Fronting to the east, the beams of the rising sun passing through the open doorway revealed the image of the divinity dwelling therein.

The problems presented to a Chicago architect were never presented to the builders of Greek temples. The accomplishments of one cannot be compared with the other. The Greek architect did not have to consider cost, space, lighting or heating, ventilation, room for visitors, or an audience; he thought not of acoustic properties or ease

Monroe Street, East From La Salle Street Public Library

CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY yof access. Created as Chicago was and existing as it does because of man's devotion to the peaceful arts of commerce, upon its extended plain there is no place for a Greek temple. Chicago architects have wisely refused to attempt to here construct one. Chicago architects have grappled with the problems presented by the needs of a great commercial city standing upon loose earth ; have bored seventy feet down to bed rock, and built cement piers to meet the steel columns they have devised to carry the entire building, walls as well as interior. Chicago architects revolutionized the practice in regard to the supporting strength of commercial edifices. Thanks to their ingenuity, these are now like the human body in which the hard skeleton carries the flesh and all the working parts as v/ell as the burdens placed upon the shoulders. The great commercial structures of Chicago are thoroughly built, well arranged, commodious, handsome buildings, erected with a view to utility and income therefrom; they respond to the demands of a great commercial city as well as the edifices of any place in the world and, thanks to the sense of fitness possessed by Chicago artists, none of them are so tall that they scratch the feet of the man in the moon when it passes over our city.

Chicago is a modern city; it has no place where a Cock Lane Ghost appeared; no Doomsday Book, although after the great fire of 187 1 it was suggested that she should have one ; no public square in which witches were formerly burned ; no antiquities, no people old enough to be called aged. She is yet young and growing fast - how fast was well told just before the World's Fair. A Chicago journal had an item describing the capture of an escaped wolf in one of the city streets. The New York papers took notice of this and declared that in Chicago wolves were numerous and were frequently seen in the streets. Whereupon the Chicago paper replied that this was true, the fact being that Chicago was growing so fast the wild animals couldn't keep out of the way. Chicago is so confident and hopeful of the future that it has ever relished a joke at its expense. Some years ago, by annexation, considerable territory devoted to farming was taken into the city. Shortly after this Chicago was selected as the place for holding the Columbus Memorial World's Exposition. A few days thereafter an Iowa banker visited New York, and on his way home calling upon his Chicago correspondent, was asked what New York said about the action of Congress in locating the World's Fair. "Oh." he replied.

"they say Chicago is a great city, a wonderful place ; a merchant said to me, 'Do you know they raise more hay in Chicago than in any other city in the World.' "

Since the beginning of the present century, the franchises of the street railways having lapsed, the city was enabled to dictate terms to the operating companies, which it did with the result that universal transfers are now given and one can ride to any point in the city for five cents, which may be a distance of about twenty-five miles. The city also receives fifty-five per cent of the net revenue. The transportation is certainly as good as that of any surface system in the world. Under the central or downtown portion of the streets, tunnels for the transportation of mails and merchandise have, within a few years past, been completed so as to relieve in some degree the overcrowded surface. The constructive work is yet in progress and doubtless will in time revolutionize the transportation of bulky freight between the railroad depots and warehouses ; if not, the carriage of small parcels and passengers.

Of the multitudinous mechanical devices the twentieth century has brought forth, there has been in Chicago less attention paid to and less work done upon flying machines than in any other place of equal importance. The spirit of Chicago is eminently practical and as to aeronautics, like other matters, it asks, "what will it profit." In what way is the lot of man to be made easier ? What can be accomplished by such flying in the air as is practicable ? Three hundred years before the Christian era, Archytas, a Greek, one of the first who applied geometry to mechanics and built machines on mathematical principles, it is said constructed a wooden dove . which, by means of air enclosed therein, would fly. In 1783 the Montgolfier brothers constructed a balloon capable of holding about half a million cubic feet of air; this having been heated by the fire of burning straw, the balloon carried seven gentlemen to a height of about 3,000 feet and brought the aerial voyagers safely back to earth. Hydrogen gas was already known to be seven times lighter than air, and its substitution for heated air as a lifting force speedily followed. From the ascension of the seven Frenchmen to the present time, voyages by balloon have been frequent and endeavors to devise means for navigating the air constant in most civilized countries. Balloons have long been made use of by meteorologists. The governments of the great nations haVe entered the field and expended large sums in attempts to make navigation of the air practicable. Much has been accomplished, and it is now evident, that for amusement, excursions may be made at small or great heights, and that for the purposes of war, airships will be useful; but in the one hundred twenty-five years since the seven Frenchmen were carried by Montgolfier's balloon to a height of 3,000 feet, not a pound of freight, not one bag of mail or a passenger has been transported commercially; meantime the hard, heavy, unromantic locomotive for rapid progress and great distances has throughout the civilized world supplanted the uncomplaining ox, ass, horse, llama, as well as the wailing camel ; while everywhere on the sea the white sails of commerce are giving way to white puffs of steam. Chicago for the present will remain upon the earth; it is not nebulously inclined; it does not attempt to set bounds to the imagination or the ingenuity of aerostaticians ; it thinks it best that its investments rest upon firm foundations, and does not regard air as in that class.

What of the future of Chicago? To what goal are we moving? In the Universe no thing is at rest. Cities, nations, the world, mankind, individuals, ideals and ideas are ever becoming. Chicago is unique, among other things, in that she presents an example of development, growth, progress, such as in. the same period of time has never been equaled. Toward what is she tending and to what will she come?

Within the past century man has arrived at an understanding of the material forces of nature, the processes of growth and decay which have revolutionized the science of medicine and bid fair to transform methods of cultivation. Of material things we know vastly more than did the generations that preceded the discovery of America. With infinite toil and patience secrets, seemingly purposely hidden, ha\e been wrung from unwilling nature and methods by which mountains and moles, leviathans and lice, men and monkeys, are built up and torn down, constructed and destroyed, have been revealed. In the search no trace of the fabled monsters who swallowed continents and drank up seas has been encountered. On the contrary we have ascertained that by the infinitely little has change been wrought. The vegetable and animal kingdom are products of small things. These are they over which man has ruled, creations he has shaped, moulded and multiplied. The laws of the Universe are eternal. As in the beginning they remain. Our hope is to find them out and accommodate ourselves to their action. Man is a natural and a spiritual being; he has aspirations that are not limited by time nor bounded by space; faith in and hope of an existence after the end of his earthly life; a faith and a hope which have in all ages profoundly influenced his conduct, been in trouble and sorrow the greatest of consolations, raised the humblest to an equality with the highest, made the weak strong, the timid courageous, lifted the slave, crouching beneath the scourge of his master, to contemplation of a realm where for every cruel blow there would be endless recompense and joy ; said to the mother with her lifeless babe in her arms, it has gone to God, whither you will go and where you will find your child.

Not all the constitutions and laws declaring the equality of men as citizens, subjects, rulers and ruled, have practically, to the understanding of the common man, come home, given to him a thousandth part of the sense of equality, the joyful knowledge of his importance, and the infinite care with which he is guarded, that have the promises contained in the words, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without 3^our Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God. Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. And we all know that all things work together for good to them that love God."

Science is to the fore in these days. We naturally, perhaps rationally, conclude that those who by diligent search have established that organic life is everywhere dependent for its nourishment, growth and activity upon bacteria and protozoa, and have by knowledge, thus acquired, pointed out the way to stay the march of pestilence, banish plagues and greatly lengthen the average length of human life, must know more than did our fathers concerning all that enters into human life; and when they tell us that we are immortal only as the human race is immortal, that "every one of us began his life Willi llie 1)cginning- of all life upon earth"; that is lived, -in the immeasurable past, in the protozoan and the primal bacterium, maggot and megatlierium, monkey and man, and will continue to live so long as life upon the earth endures; we are staggered by the presentation of this to us as immortality. We were taught to understand immortality as a soul life after death of the body, with a preservation to some extent and for some time of our natural memory so that we could meet and hold converse with loved ones gone before. It is this faith which in ages past has been and yet is to myriads a solace in trouble and affliction, such as no philosophic reflection can give and no earthly communion affords. It is nevertheless the case that belief in life after death of the body is much less universal than it was in the eighteenth century. Skepticism as to inspiration of the Scriptures, a real life beyond the grave and the existence of God as a loving, thinking, helping Father, taking note of the children of men, understanding their condition, knowing their wants, w^eakness and hope, and meting out to each that which most tends to bring him into communion with heaven is far less universal than it was when north of Springfield there were in Illinois no dwellings that could properly be spoken of as more than huts.

The generation of today may well ask, What doth it profit that the treasures of earth are laid at our feet if hope of Heaven has forever fled? Man is an aspiring being. He is not content to walk the earth and think of it alone. His thoughts rush to the stars, take in the visible and invisible Universe of which he is a part. Since a period back of which there is no record, he has been a religious being, believing in God, in angelic hosts, in the existence and influence of unnumbered multitudes, who, having once lived, as now doth he, have passed into higher and purer realms from whence they look down upon and sympathise with him in his effort to rise above the bonds which hold him close to material things.

Long ago it w^as asked, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul"? In considering what Chicago is to be, we are compelled to take note of the trend of ideas, beliefs, opinions and their influence upon conduct. The Greeks of the age of Pericles carried understanding of and devotion to art far higher than have the centuries since Greece fell before the arms of Rome. There is reason for thinking the happiness of the Japanese people, Vol. 1 - 6.

farmer, merchant and noble, the security of life and property, in the beautiful isles of the Eastern sea, far greater before Japan came under the baneful influence of European ideas and foreign culture than for many ages it will be again. Rome, having conquered the world, fell before the march of barbarians she had long despised. If our cities become waste places and our civilization be whelmed by hordes rude as the destroying hosts of Jenghiz Khan, it will not be by dark skinned races coming across seas or over mountains. If the civilization of which we boast is blotted out, Chicago laid in the dust, the destruction will be wrought by forces evolved out of conditions here created. The opinions of mankind as to conduct, what should be done by governments and society, what is right and what wrong, are in the long run determined by self interest, that is, by what appears to man to be most likely to bring to him that which he most desires, whether that be honor, fame, peace, security, wealth, power or other earthly or spiritual pleasure. Comparatively few desire great wealth," for riches bring not only great care, but the man known to be rich is the prey and servant of multitudes, as well as an object of hatred and reproach to many. All long for opportunity, a chance to make their way in the world, to show what great and good stuff is in them, live comfortably, be free from poverty and secure from want in old age. Slaveholders were wise when they made it a crime to teach slaves to read, for if the fountains of knowledge were opened to men to whom the door of opportunity was shut, what would come of it! We have not only thrown open the fountains of knowledge, but compel the children of all to drink thereat. Not alone by schools, but in a thousand ways is knowledge thrust upon all. This is the age of schools and machinery. We are fed, clothed, housed, transported, educated, amused, soothed, doctored and buried by the aid of machinery. To produce things cheaply, they must now be produced in great quantities. Combination is for success the order and the necessity of the hour. A century ago the manufacturer and the merchant who had a dozen employees, were each large employers of labor and did what was then considered a great business. Between such employer and his employees there was such personal relation, acquaintance, sympathy and understanding as is impossible when a master gives work to a thousand laborers. Formerly each workman did and reasonably might hope to in time have his own shop, control his own force and in the sea of eoninieree push nut as an uwner. T(-)da\" this not only seems, hut for the threat majority is, impossible. The social station of master and ser\ant was not then widely variant; they lived in the same parish, attended the same church, mingled in the same society and were buried in the same yard. Today they are as severed as are the clouds that pour out life-giving rain, from the fruitful earth upon which it falls. As a consequence in a period of the greatest comfort and i)rosi)erity ever known, there is widespread dissatisfaction and discontent, with organized effort to overturn the entire commercial, political, social and economic order. Discontent has become a cult. There has always been discontent and always will Ijc , things cannot be arranged so as to suit all. In times past business discontent boded no ill to the community; it sought not destruction but upbuilding, was not based ui:)on hatred or despair, I)ut upon a desire for the happiness and prosperity of all. Today the feeling of the majority of wage earners is that they can ne\er l)e employers and consecjuently they have little sympathy with a class to which they cannot hope to ever belong. The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain said that on the morrow the weather would be such as pleased him, because it would be such as pleased God, and whatever pleased God, pleased him The laborer of today does not believe that the modern business order is such as pleases God. He sees that not by force of constitution or statute, but by the trend of events he is practically denied an opportunity to be anything but a laborer, and he would like to see the trend reversed, and is ready to grasp at shadow^s if they seem to be thrown by a real substance. The comniercial structure of today was not created by base men or with base ends in view; it is a natural, an orderly evolution, a product of human effort and human genius. In its building nobody foresaw that the doors of opportunity were being sealed up. They must, they will, be opened, wisely, God ])lease! surely beyond question, and ultimately, surel\' without the destruction of indi\-idualit}', or individual propert}-.

In ages past the wage worker earned and sa\ed less than he does now, but he better kept his savings. Quite frequently they were buried in the earth, hidden in stockings or trusted to the lord of the manor. Seldom did he get interest upon his coin. The custom of taking interest upon barren gold has become universal and honorable in modern times. The rei)roach of usurv is a relic of days when only pro- fessional lenders took interest. Today the man who has money to invest is more eagerly sought for than was the Holy Grail. Circular letters come to him by ever)^ mail. Periodicals are filled with advertisements calling his attention to schemes of every nature. Agents darken his door and invade his home. It is vehemently urged that the government should guarantee the payment of all bank deposits. The loss by investors in governmentally authorized issues of stocks and bonds is a hundred times greater than the loss by depositors in banks. Why should not the state supervise and control all corporations as well as all advertisements offering bonds and stock for sale, and also exact the making and publication each month of verified reports of liabilities, assets and condition, similar to those now required from insurance companies. The stock broker, note shaver and the banks can take care of themselves in these matters ; the ordinary citizen, the laborer, the widow to whom has come the product of a life insurance policy, the devisee who has received a small bequest and the recipient of damages for personal injury, as a rule, have neither knowledge of such matters nor information as to where it can be obtained. It is the business of the state to give to the public knowledge as to these matters. Not only he who has wife and child, but he who has acquired an estate has given bonds to society. Those who would destroy our social order, who wish for the coming of anarchy, rejoice at the loss which the imprudent investor sustains. The enemies of civilization are alert. The humble, the feeble, the unsuspicious and the busy toiler must not only have the door of opportunity kept open for him, but be warned and guarded against the wiles of the visionary and the falsehoods of the untruthful. Each age and each nation has its perils and its duties. Holland has not only successfully kept back the threatening billows of the North Sea, but, advancing upon the stormy waves, pushed her coast line into the waters waste, and made fruitful soil of space the ocean in its wrath had devoured. The wooden walls of England have for centuries kept invading armies off her fields. The pestilence that walketh by noon has been banished from the civilized earth. The foes that threaten us today are the products of our own age, the creations of our genius, the fruit of our industry. It is said, "he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city." Will we be able to rule our spirit, to accommodate ourselves to new conditions ? To govern and to protect all ; to accord to each that which the law declares to be his right? not merely to the high and the learned, the popular and the handsome, the entertaining and the instructive, the elocjucnt and the strong, but to the hated and the despised, the ugly of form and feature, the negro and the mongolian, the Greek and the Jew, the ignorant and the stupid; to all the ecjual protection and opportunity which the constitution we boast of awards. lie who answers this can tell what the future of Chicago, America, the World, will be. Steam and electricity have bound the world together, henceforth no people can live alone. The tinie \\\\\ come when not in Timbuctoo nor London, in Chicago or an isle of the sea, not on the arid plains of Arabia, or the snow-capped mountains of Hindoostan, shall man be thrust aside, cast out and trampled on because of racial antipatliy. The day is at hand when neither in Turkc}- nor Russia, within shadow of the Pyramids or beneath the folds of the American flag, shall a human being, though accused of the most dreadful of crimes, be denied a trial, and in defiance of law, burned at the stake, without a thrill of horror encircling the earth, and the blush of shame mantling the face of each of us. Five thousand American citizens lynched since the close of the Civil \\?i\\ and nobody punished therefor. Five thousand constitutionally guarded human beings defiantly murdered by mobs and the subject not thought worth}- the attention of political conventions, legislatures. Congress or presidents. There was in 1865 a president who said, "But if God wills that the contest go on until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, * * * j^g ^y^g g^}(^ three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, .'The judgments of God arc true and righteous altogether.' "

Shivering beside the dying embers of his camp fire, primitive man wearily turning upon the ground on which he lay, prayed for the coming of God, the glorious, warmth-giving Sun. To his apprehension, with the reddening east, his prayer was answered.

In the evolution of civilization, no influence has been more constant than that of religion. If belief in God as a conscious, working, willing and lo\ing Father is to pass away or be supplanted by a name for an unconscious force deaf to prayer and blind to tears, which controls all and cares for none ; man but a bubble on the ocean of eternity, tossed by its billows, dissolved in its waters and lost in its

Peoples, nations, cities, faiths, arise and pass away; religion remains. Of the great cities of Europe, Rome is the only one that was relatively of commanding importance at the beginning of the Christian Era. In times past, cities, being fortified places, were not infrequently besieged and destroyed as a measure or a result of war. They were sometimes made the spoil of a victorious army or given to the flames for the purpose of blotting out their commercial rivalry. A notable instance of this was the destruction of Carthage by Rome. The prosperity and riches of their former military and political rival inspired the Romans with the idea that only by a total destruction could the rivalry of the Carthagenian merchants be overcome. Carthage, was by order of the Roman senate, fired by its soldiers, and burned for seventeen days, at the end of which the ashes of the expiring flames concealed the site of what had been the greatest commercial emporium laved by the waters of the Mediterranean. As the historian Mommsen truly said : "Where the industrious Phoenicians bustled and trafficked for five hundred years, Roman slaves henceforth pastured the herds of their distant masters."

Such barbarism is not likely to be hereafter repeated, because selfinterest forbids. The ties that now bind the business world together, the extent of credits and co-operation through corporations and otherwise, is such that no section and no city can be destroyed without the loss thus occasioned extending to the antipodes. The Germans during the Franco-Prussian war, might have destroyed Paris, but its destruction would probably have caused the failure of half the banks in Berlin.

When the representatives of South Carolina were in Washington threatening secession and boasting of the consequent greatness of the south, a northern member of Congress said to them: "If South Carolina sets at naught the authority of the United States, I will raise corn in the streets of Charleston" ; a threat which is said to have afterwards been actually carried out, although in a manner that involved the barbarism only of a useless humiliation. .

Mankind, possibly, may in time reach an intellectual and moral standard so great that men will endeavor to uphold or bring about conditions opposed to that which as individuals they desire, hope and seek for themselves, 1)iit ik) siicli Inimans ha\e llius far appeared. Prosperity, ach'ancement, opportunity, must appear to be coming to all and must in reality come to most, or our civilization will be submerged by an advancing flood of the myriads who do not perceive gain to them in the rise of stocks, bonds and lands.

Savings banks, as now existing, are most useful institutions, and would be more so if depositors not only received interest, but, on deposits kept for certain times, a share in the profits of the bank. In England, value of the railroads is represented, principally, by railroad stock; in America such value is mostly represented by bonds. In England elections do not turn upon and parties are not organized with a view to hostility to railroad investments; in America they largelv are.

If in the United States there were five million individual owners of dividend-paying railroad stock, we should hear upon the hustings, in newspapers, magazines and legislative halls no more of railroad barons, lawyers, legislators and governors than we now do of farmer barons, lawyers, legislators and governors.

A store with six thousand employees, in which may be purchased everything desired for a cottage with a family of three, as well as all needed for a hotel capable of accommodating a thousand guests is at once a con\-enience, an exhibition and a delight to the people who take pride in showing its wonders to strangers; but one thousand small stores such as our grandparents purchased the w^edding outfit and the family belongings in, would be far more useful socially, politically and, in the coming years, commercially.

At present, in Chicago and Illinois, we seem to be entering upon an era of oppressive taxation, and may have to stagger for many years under the burdens thus created ; the people will in time, as some seventy years ago they did, call a peremptory halt upon visionary schemes and reckless expenditure. Each generation inherits the savings of the past. If man in ages past had consumed all he produced, we should be shivering in the nakedness, groping in the darkness and toiling in the ignorance of our barbarian ancestors. The greatest benefactors of the race are those who ha\e taught man to accumulate and hand down to his successors.

He who has turned one rood of desert land into fruitful soil, redeemed one acre of miasmatic swamp and made it a garden, as he who has builded a home and left it for those who shall live after him, has beyond question done something to justify his having been.

Many men serve God without knowing it. Those who made Chicago what it is, those who shall keep it a place where the door of opportunity is opened wide to all, all, all, to the sons of Ham, the sons of Shem and the sons of.Japhet; the children of the free and the descendants of the bondman, will not only deserve the thanks of millions yet to be, but above the scroll that holds their names, the Recording Angel will write, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."

Astok. Lknox And

The material development of Chicago has taken its place as one of the striking facts of history, having long since outgrown even national distinction. Its civic development could not, of necessity, keep pace with the expansion of its commerce, trade, industries and territorial expansion, since men must live and thrive before they will pay close attention to the higher duties of citizenship. Although the civic spirit, or local patriotism, has always been pre-eminent in Chicago, the strong development of its municipal institutions has been of comparatively recent date, and the subject in its entirety has received little attention. As is usual in all movements of special force its beginnings and its early progress have centered in certain personalities. who have possessed in an unusual degree those traits which call forth from their associates that enthusiasm which is founded on confidence, and which is proof against obstacles and adversity.

Chicago as the "good friend of the Indians." A Canadian by birth and an Indian trader over the line, as well as a noted silversmith of Detroit, Mr. Kinzie had an estal> lished reputation, both among the red men and his white co-workers, before he settled outside of Fort Dearborn, the crude stockade completed during the previous year. Here he again established himself as a trader, and, with the passage of years, it became evident that he was one of the enduring men of the world, who seldom turn back for long after they have once set their shoulders to the tasks before them. When. ]\Ir. Kinzie first came to this new field of work the war department had established an Indian agency at Fort Dearborn. This was one of the first authoritative recognitions of the geographical importance of the locality, and when the energetic, fair-minded trader and silversmith was appointed a sub-agent in 1816 the government did a wise act; for not only was Kinzie a thorough Indian linguist and a good judge of the savage character, but his straightforward dealings as a trader had secured him the confidence of the savages and as long as he held the position the settlers outside the fort had little fear of a repetition of the massacre of 1812. His son-in-law, Dr. Alexander Wolcott, was afterward appointed Indian agent, and Mr. Kinzie was retained as sub-agent.

In 1823 what is now Chicago was embraced in Fulton county, and the settlement was then for the first time recognized as a voting precinct. But the dwellers in the few huts outside the stockades required no civic org'anization ; a military company was more applicable to the conditions and the times. On September 2, 1823, an election for a major and company officers of the Seventeenth Regiment of Illinois Militia was ordered to be held; and there was only one place to hold it - Mr. Kinzie's log house, which in comparison with the other huts was a most commodious polling place. The Fulton county authorities gave the order, but there is no record of- the election. The first one recorded as having been held in Chicago, was that of August 7, 1826, -when a solid vote of thirty-five was cast for Ninian Edwards for governor, and Daniel P. Cook for congressman. Most of the voters were French half breeds, traders and others connected with the fort, or in government employ; but John Kinzie was the chief judge of the election and it was held at his house, so he still continued to be the principal civic functionary of these parts. In July of the previous year he had been appointed justice of the peace^ for Peoria county, and in the latter portion of the same year (1825) agent of the American Fur Company. In 1827 he took final leave of the old house, in which had so long resided the foremost Indian trader and peace-maker of this section ; and in which had been born a crude governmental organization, guaranteeing judicial and civil protection to the few white men who possessed the hardihood to make their homes along the reedy and swampy Chicago river. At the time of his death in 1828 Mr. Kinzie was residing with his friend. Colonel Beaubien, a fellow spirit in the life of those times. Without basing his actions on any religious motives, John Kinzie was the William Penn of Illinois, and the esteem in which he was held by the Pottawatomies is shown by the treaty made with them in the September following his death, in which they gave "to Eleanor Kinzie and her four children by the late John Kinzie, $3,500, in consideration of the attachment of the Indians to her deceased husband, who was long an Indian trader, and who lost a large sum in the trade, by the credits given them, and also by the destruction of his i)roperty. The money is in lieu of a tract of land, which the Indians gave the late John Kinzie long since, and upon which he lived." It may not be too much to say that to tliis deep affection of the Pottawatomies for Mr. Kinzie, more than to any other cause, was due the fruitless efforts of Black Hawk and his emissaries to arouse their enmity against the settlers of Chicago. Thus he was the primary agent in founding the proper conditions of peace for the material and civic development of the infant town.

and aggressive John Kinzie. Daniel P. Cook was the man - the brilliant Kentucky lawyer, four times a congressman from Illinois territory, its first attorney general, the admired associate of Clay and Calhoun, Adams and Alonroe, and the beloved son-in-law of the state's first governor, Xinian Edwards. He lived the thirty-three years of a burning consumptive, evincing a remarkable brilliancy of both mind and practical achievements. His accomplishments were so great in his comparatively brief career as a congressman that his friends could not but believe that he foresaw his early end and was possessed with a feverish desire to do all within his power within the short time allotted to him. The last five years of his life brought him especiall}^ close to the hearts of the settlers around Fort Dearborn, and the final act of the general government providing a generous grant to aid in the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal was the culmination of his earthh- labors. The act, which was passed on the 2nd of March, 1827, granted the alternate five sections of land on each side of the canal, amounting to more than 300,000 acres of land, and embraced the site of the city of Chicago. Before its final passage its earnest, able author, had been confined to his bed, and, after a vain attempt to find health in Cuba, (lied at his old Kentucky home October 16, 1827. He certainly earned the honor of oivino- Cook countv his name, four vears later, and to him Chicago owes its location on the map, and its consequent creation as a civic body. L'nder authority of the congressional act. which he so faithfully fathered, the commissioners appointed by the state legisla- ture located the canal, laid out towns and sold lots to obtain funds for the construction of the work. As one of these towns, Chicago was surveyed on section 9, township 39, range 14; the plat was filed August 4, 1830, and although work upon the canal was not inaugurated until six years thereafter, Chicago was a town upon the map. It was backed by something substantial and its further civic development depended upon settlement and local initiative.

In 1830, the year prior to the organization of Cook county, elections were held at the house of James Kinzie (son of John) for justice of the peace and constable and for state officers. The county was named and created in January, 1831, its territory then embracing what are now Lake, McHenry, DuPage and Will counties. The only voting place within this extensive area was Chicago, the county seat. A political organization was not effected until March, 1832, when three commissioners were elected, two of whom were residents of Chicago, which thus early dominated as the governing power of Cook county.

It appears that the dominant personal force in the affairs of the county, as centered in Chicago, resided with one Samuel Miller, one of the three county commissioners. His urban associate was Gholson Kercheval, connected with the Indian agency, and the third member of the board resided on DuPage river and seems often to have been absent from the sittings of the court. Mr. Miller had married a daughter of John Kinzie, was proprietor of a log hotel on the north side, part owner of the ferry and soon after his election to the county commissionership built the first bridge in Chicago over the north branch. The first public building ever erected in Chicago was called the "pen," a small, roofless wooden structure used in the sobering of obstreperous citizens, and Mr. Miller completed this structure, under contract, for twenty dollars ; but the commissioners induced him to accept twelve dollars, charging that he did not do his work according to contract. A couple of years later a more metropolitan log jail was built, under other than the Miller auspices.

Chicago appeared in 1833 as a specific civic body, albeit only in the form of a town. It was an epochal year in many respects. Its slaughtering industry was then inaugurated, its harbor improvements commenced and the Indians who still held lands in northeastern Illinois relinquished them for the government reservations of the Indian was signed by as many of the leading men of the United Nation of Chippewa, Ottawa and Pottawatomie Indians as could be gathered, and, with the departure of the last named from the Chicago region also went nearly all the half-breed families, leaving a goodly stock upon which to build the future citizenship of Chicago. This exodus has been anticipated by immigrants to the west, who in the spring of 1833 poured into the muddy streets of the settlement, and during the building season nearly one hundred and fifty frame structures added to its importance. It was obviously fitting that such a vigorous young community should have a civic body. In the August preceding the signing of the Indian treaty, its citizens voted in favor of furnishing it with one, and the town election on the loth of the month resulted in the election of five trustees, of which body Colonel Owen became president. It seems historic injustice that our popular friend, who ushered the Indians out of the country and ushered in the new town of Chicago, should not have survived long enough to really enjoy the sight of any civic development, for he only lived until October, 1835.

For two years after the incorporation of the town and the opening of the Pottawatomie lands to settlement a flood of emigrants poured into Chicago, greatly stimulating its trade, building powers and industries. In 1835 the government opened a land office in Chicago, in 1836 the first ground in the actual construction of the canal was broken in the towm. real estate took a tremendous boom in the place and Chicago became the seething center of the land craze which swept over this western country, and culminated in the panic and crash of 1837. For about three years Chicago was an Oklahoma City at its best - and worst.

It will be readily conceived that such a congested condition of afifairs would as seriously strain the unorganized civic body of Chicago as its hotels, lodging houses and general living accommodations. In fact, it w^as found entirely unequal to its seething and straining population, its bridges, sidewalks and streets, at best only temporary makeshifts for a small, quiet populace, were as straw and paper against the wear and tear of such a torrent, and the town authorities were at last forced to the unheard of expedient of borrowing money to- make necessary pubHc improvements. On October 2, 1834, they voted to borrow sixty dollars, the first authorized loan on the faith of the corporation. But that was a drop of what was really required. An engine house was built and a hose company equipped, and as all the bridges were worn to things of shreds and patches, it was evident that if public improvements were to keep pace with the rapid strides of population the day for trying the credit of the town on a lalrger scale had arrived. Therefore in July, 1836, the trustees resolved to borrow $50,000 to be ex-

. pended on public improvements. The president of that body applied to the Chicago branch of the State Bank for half the loan, which was refused. The civic pride of Chicago was stirred, and in its indignant extremity it turned to one of its most notable newcomers, William B. Ogden, who was made the fiscal agent of the town with full authority to negotiate the loan, and, with corporate sanction, to make the necessary expenditures. The records of the town show that he accomplished his purpose, and a week after obtaining the loan purchased two more fire engines. A new street was also at once projected from the town to the fort. Chicago had now a population of about four thousand, and Mr. Ogden was to be the leading figure in its new municipal era for many years to come.

ture of the. Empire state, and had been a strong advocate of state aid to the New York and Erie canal. Naturally attracted to a locality which was seeking development along the same line, he sought an even wider field for his practical activities in a locality whose future was bright with unmeasured possibilities. In the midst of the land craze he located in Chicago as the representative of a number of eastern capitalists who were making large investments in this locality. Here he. established a loan and trust agency, -and as his fellow townsmen came within the radius of his influence they instinctively gave him their confidence and recognized in him a born leader. As has been already seen, he was appointed fiscal agent of the town, and, doubtless through his eastern connections, secured the loan which was necessary to start the corporation alon.i;' the hroad highway of pubHc improvements and civic development. In this capacity he pnrchased the two engines and the thousand feet of hose, which was the first practical step in the founding of something more than a "paper" fire department. Heretofore, the department had consisted only of ordinances passed by the town board and acts by the state legislature. The police department consisted of one constable, and the public school system had made but little more progress. It is true that various private schools had been taught from a period antedating the massacre of 1812; that Stephen Forbes and his good wife had a school of some proportions at the corner of Randolph street and Michigan avenue in 1830, and that in 1833 Colonel Richard J. Hamilton, commissioner of school lands for Cook county,- had collected a fund of $39,000 by the sale of lands in the congressional township now covering the business district of Chicago. Four blocks were reserved from the sale. Had the entire township been held and its title been vested in the city school board, the public educational system of Chicago would have been the wealthiest municipal institution of the kind in the world. But the town needed the money badly then, and it is easy, in the light of the present, to see what a gigantic financial blunder was made seventy-five years ago. In 1835 a special school system (on paper) was established for Chicago, and late in the year the town was divided into four districts; at wliicli time three public and four private schools were taught in town. But with the coming of the city, under the mayoralty of William B. Ogden, a new era of municipal development, all along the line, was in store for Chicago, although it was to be brought about through the travail of deep depression and disorganizing panic.

The widespread craze for land speculation in the west, which was in reality a reflection of the general speculative mania which possessed the cqDitalists of the east, was even stimulated (if that were possible) by the vast system of internal improvements inaugurated by the state in 1837, and which embraced not only the expansion of the scope of the canal scheme but the construction of railroad lines throughout the state. Currency of uncertain value flooded tlic west, all values were inflated and everything was at high pressure prior to the inevitable reaction of panic, depression and gloom. As the metropolis of the new west. Chicago felt the effect of the re-action more sevcrclv than any other locality, and when Mr. Ogden went into office in the spring of 1837 it was like walking into a graveyard to attend his own funeral. The municipality itself seemed but a storehouse of buried hopes, and his own business as a land agent hopelessly crushed. In this crisis the man's gigantic nature came to the relief of the new-born city, and more than any other personal force sustained its drooping courage for the succeeding five or six years of critical struggles. He was not only untiring and courageous in his official position, endeavoring especially to place all public improvements on an enduring basis and make Chicago something more than a make-shift city, but proved his faith in the ultimate founding of a substantial municipality by paying for street improvements out of his own pocket, or from the purse of those associated with him in local real estate. In the midst of the deepest gloom of this period, a cry for relief, for repudiation of what seemed like unbearable financial burdens, went forth from the citizens of Chicago, and even from the city as a municipal body. In the city a meeting was held by frightened debtors to repudiate the municipal debt. Mr. Ogden arose in the midst of the despondent and inflammatory speakers, and with calm, manly eloquence, championed the city's honor. "Above all things," he proclaimed and advised, "do not tarnish the honor of our infant city." As the first mayor of Chicago, and its foremost citizen, he then and there saved the civic honor from debasement, and his spirit was reflected throughout the state to other communities whose temptations had also almost overpowered their virtues. More than this ; the highest standard of civic honor in regard to financial obligations was fixed by William B. Ogden for all time, and, within the intervening seventy years since he did this great work, in all financial crises when the cry of Repudiation has gone forth some strong, brave man has risen to still it with the inherited spirit of Chicago's first mayor.

With the coming of the city charter the common council, was given' the power to re-organize the educational, police and fire departments, which it proceeded to do. Heretofore the fire department had elected its own chief and the schools had been loosely connected with the county administration. The police department was the most backward in development of all the municipal divisions, and for nearly twenty years consisted only of a high constable and an assistant for each ward. Although Mr. Ogden was only mayor for one term, i1 was the Ogden spirit which (loiiiinated civic affriirs and sustained the city (hirini^ the tryini^- period which cuhiiiiiatcd in the coHapse of the State bankint^- system in 1843. ^1'*-' canal improvement, with continut)us expenthtures thereon and sales of land at the land-ollice, was about the only material force which sustained and encourag-ed the city. At a still later day. when the building of railnjads had come to monopolize the public and especially the Chicago mind, it was Mr. Ogden, then dominant as the Railway King of the West, who illustrated methods of straightforward "promotion'' which earned him the friendship of farmers and citizens throughout the state and might well serve as an example for the masters of these days. He virtually founded the forerunner of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, the father of Chicago's vast system. In 1868 he retired from the presidency of the road, having personally sustained it during the panic of 1857. He spent the later years of his life at liis beautiftil estate on the Harlem river. New York, from whose repose he was again called to be a pillar in upholding- the civic spirit of the victim of October, 1871. The day after the Chicago fire he started to view the ruins of his lumber interests in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and do his great part in the alleviation of the terrible suffering of that region. In August, 1877, he died at his country seat, Boscobel, on the Harlem. Guizot, the French historian, said of him, when looking tipon his i)ortrait, "This is the representative American, especially of the mighty west; he built Chicago." Many great men have been engaged in the building of Chicago and the west since Guizot spoke these words, but William B. Ogden will remain tln-ough all time as the man who gave Chicago its first broad outlook into the field of public improvements and established it on a high and endin*ing plane of civic honor.

dealers to pay a license advanced to $300. I lie opposition was composed almost entirely of the German element, and Mayor Boone's trouble with the saloon keepers commenced soon after his induction to office, when he issued a proclamation notifying them that he should strictly enforce the Sunday-closing provision. . The manifesto appeared on Saturday. March 17th. and many who were arvoi. 1 - 7.

rested for its violation, on the following day, claimed insufficient notice. On the following Sunday the saloons were generally closed. Several of the saloon cases were tried, however, before Justice H. L. Rucker, of the police court, although the defendants denied his jurisdiction. While these trials were progressing the city council fixed the liquor-selling license at $300 until July i, 1856, when the prohibitory law was to go into effect if the voters so willed at the June election. Some dealers paid the fee and others carried their protest tO' the courts, while frequent meetings of saloon keepers, brewers and allied representatives, were held in opposition to the enforcement of both the Sunday-closing and license measures. A large number of the cases were to be tried before Justice Rucker on Friday, April 20th, and, by prearrangement, before the time for the assembling of the court on that day about one hundred malcontents marched to a position on Randolph street, opposite the court house. Upon learning that Justice Rucker was out of town, however, they dispersed, but on the following day, as they rounded the corner of Clark and Randolph to assume their former position, they were met by the police, who ordered them to disperse. This they not only refused to do, but some of the more hot-headed of the rioters fired into the crowd before them. The policemen returned the fire. The result was the killing of a rioter, and the wounding of two policemen and peaceful citizens. Some seventy of the rioters were arrested, of whom fourteen were brought to trial between June 15-30, before the recorder's court. For several days after the riot the local militia and artillery, with a squad of special policemen, patrolled the streets, but there was no more bloodshed. The liquor dealers, as a body, denied that they had countenanced opposition to the laws, except through the courts, which was doubtless true; but the trial of the actual rioters resulted in the acquittal of all but two of' the fourteen, and they were Irishmen who had been imperfectly defended. Each was sentenced to a year in the penitentiary, but, although a new trial was granted them, they were never again brought into court for a rehearing. The "beer riots," as they are known in local history, marked the real commencement of the fight between the saloon and anti-saloon elements in Chicago, which also reappeared with marked intensity in the administrations of Mayors Medill and Colvin, and is not yet concluded.

reputation in his native state, a dusty giant from VVentworth. ""^^^^ Hampshire tramped along the streets of Chicago, with his name and his fortune yet to make. John Wentworth had passed his majority some months before, was a Dartmouth College graduate, and had probably attained his physical growth - something like six feet, four inches. In these particulars he was complete; otherwise quite raw and unformed. Some talent as a politician had already been discovered in him, according to the letter which he bore in his pocket from the governor of New Hampshire, and he had always evinced both literary and oratorical abilities. But he had walked from Michigan City during two dry October days, and. although he was a giant in physical and mental mold, his talents did not shine outwardly. But he soon met friends from the east and made new ones in Chicago, commenced to study law and was promptly sidetracked by his stanch admirers into the editorial office of the Chicago Democrat. His pungent, yet sturdy editorials, met the approval of the home people, and he was induced to remain with the paper and furnished the means to purchase it outright. Under him Chicago's first newspaper became a power in sustaining honorable currency and honest civic measures. One of his first public appearances was at a citizens' meeting called to consider whether application should be made to the legislature, then sitting at Vandalia, for a municipal charter. His voice rang loud and true for municipal honor, and in the springelection of the following year he was one of William B. Ogden"s strongest supporters, both personally and through the columns of the Democrat. Within the succeeding ihree years Mr. Wentworth made his paper widely known for its denunciation of "Wildcat Currency," and its earnest advocacy of more s}Stematized educational measures. He founded a daily edition, completed his law studies, and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1841. In August, 1843, ^^^ ^^as elected to Congress from the fourth Illinois district, being the youngest member in that body, and was re-elected to succeed himself, as well as for the session commencing 1848, which was the year of the admission of Wisconsin into the Union as a state. Before his election to Congress, Illinois had had no representative of the lake district, and until the admission of Wisconsin he continued to be the only member of Con-- gress who resided on the shores of Lake Michigan. As the generous grant of lands to IlHnois for the encouragement of the Ilhnois and Michigan canal was the first formal admission on the part of the general government of the importance of the northwest, so Mr. Wentworth's election to Congress for three successive terms was a formal acknowledgment on the part of the state of the civic and political importance of Chicago ; and notwithstanding that he was quite untried in the halls of Cohgf^s he proved a masterly representative in advocating the city's best interests and maintaining her reputation for enterprise and public spirit: What Mr. Ogden had done on home ground ten years before, Mr. Wentworth continued in the legislative arena at Washington; and no public man who ever lived in Chicago more thoroughly enjoyed a vigorous fight as a champion of his city, or of what he believed to be a righteous cause. During his earlier political career someof his acts were perhaps open to criticism, and his great ambition may have overstepped dehcate scruples, but when it came to a question of upholding Chicago as a municipality, and of attempting to improve her organizations and public polity, John Wentworth could always be depended upon, whether in Congress or in municipal office. In 1847 he served as chairman of the committee which called the National River and Harbor Convention, and, with such men as William B. Ogden, Isaac N. Arnold, Grant Goodrich, J. Young Scammon and George Manierre, of this city, was the means of practically starting the movement for the improvement of the Chicago harbor and river, which was to supplement the work of the canal in establishing the city as the grand emporium of the great lakes and valleys of the United States. Mr. Wentworth served one more term in Congress prior to his election as mayor in 1857, and in his official capacity was present at the inaugurations of Presidents Polk, Tyler, Fillmore and Pierce. He was also present when John Quincy Adams fell in his last illness on the floor of the house of representatives, and was one of the committee appointed by the speaker to escort the remains of the venerable statesman to his home in Massachusetts. Mr. Wentworth was elected mayor on a fusion ticket, and previous to the casting of the ballots publicly announced that if elected he wished it distinctly understood that he should enforce all the laws of the city. He stated that he did not desire the salary; that he could not attend to the duties without encroaching upon his private business, and that the main consideration which imhiced him to accept the nomination was that he beheved the great mass of citizens who ouglit to take it were deterred from doing so from the certainty that thev wonld thereby STeatly increase their enemies. But, of all considerations, this would have the least weight with him. Those who knew the man best were inclined to believe that this consideration, if anything, would lead him the more enthusiastically to accept.

John Wentworth assumed the mayoralty at as critical a period in the history of the municipality as did William B. Ogden twenty years before. It is a coincidence that the year of his induction into office was also clouded by deep depression and financial panic. His watchwords therefore became Liberty and Economy ; and yet, although he was obliged to cut expenditures to the quick, in many departments, he inaugurated numerous improvements of radical importance. While he cut down the police force to such a measure that he was severely criticised, despite the hard times, one of his first acts was to call a board of engineers together and establish the present street grade. He introduced the first steam fire engine into the city in 1858, and replaced the old-time, loose-jointed volunteer department with the paid system ; and this in spite of mobs and persistent opposition from the ancient regime. It was during his second term in 1859 that the first street railway was laid along State street. Mr. Wentworth's election was bitterly contested ; there were riots and bloodshed at the polls ; and, from his inauguration in the spring of 1857 until the close of his second term four years later, he was the storm center of the municipality. He stood by his promise to enforce the laws, establishing a civic bureau to hear complaints regarding their violations and to devise prompt action against wrong-doers. He did not rest with the starting of the machinery, but delighted to personally direct the onslaught. With the hard times and the throwing upon the streets of idlers and tramps, crime was on the increase, and it was still further encouraged by the reduction of the police force. But the month following his election Mayor Wentworth put himself at the head of a body of policemen, and during the following two days a disreputable district on the north side, near the lake, was literally depopulated - the shanties and houses which harbored the most degraded characters being either torn down or burned. Raids on gambling houses were of almost daily occurrence, and probably no occupant of the mayor's chair has been more feared and hated than John Wentworth. He even raided the merchants who persisted in obstructing the sidewalks, or placing their signs beyond the legal line, and although this respectable element complained at his severity the nuisance was abated.

Mr. Wentworth left the mayor's chair with a reduction of current expenses and the municipal debt to his credit, and with the honor of having instilled a wholesome respect for the law. He taught the municipality a lesson which it has yet to thoroughly learn, but which is being assumed as a subject by civic organizations outside the municipality, viz. - that it is the duty of every good citizen to either enforce living statutes or kill them legally. With the coming of better times, however, the citizens petitioned the state legislature for better police protection through an expansion of their existing system. This was obtained in February, 1861, by the passage of a legislative law creating three commissioners of police, to be first appointed by the governor and afterward elected by the people. In 1861 Mr. Wentworth refused a re-nomination, withdrew from the newspaper field, acted as a delegate to revise the state constitution, was chosen a member of the city board of education, and after serving in that capacity for three years was appointed a police commissioner. As police commissioner he was one of the dominant forces which destroyed the conspiracy for the liberation of Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas, afterward served another term in Congress and four more years on the board of education, and throughout his entire career, until his death in 1888, was one of the most picturesque figures of physical and mental energy and massiveness which Chicago and the west have ever seen. He accomplished all his work either for himself or the city by downright power. He had few of the genial and lovable traits which gave Mr. Ogden his greatest influence, and although Johm Wentworth had many friends, in their attachment to him there always seemed to lurk a certain substratum of fear ; and his enmities were so bitter - often life-long - that this feeling was justifiable. Judged as a contributor to the civic development of Chicago, the public owes him much; but no greater gratitude than because of his dramatic, and perhaps often selfish demonstration, that just laws may always be enforced if citizens in authority will evince the same bravery in civic matters that they would on the field of battle, were their country endangered. By precept and ex-

The period of the Civil war witnessed a grand outflow of patriotism from Chicago, which both expanded and elevated its civic spirit. In i860 the national Republican convention had been held which had nominated Lincoln, the typical man of the west, in opposition to Seward, the favorite of New York and the east. It had been the first time in the history of American politics that a great party had conceded the importance of the territory tributary to the Mississippi valley, and the selection of Chicago was an acknowledgement that she was the natural metropolis of that vast region. It was the beginning of her career as a convention city, in which she has never been found wanting as a gracious, generous and enthusiastic hostess. Selected by the Republicans in i860, 1868, 1880, 1884, 1888, 1904, and 1908; by the Democrats in 1864, 1884, 1892 and 1896, and by the Greenback, Anti- Monopoly, Socialistic-Democratic, Prohibition and other minor parties in other years, the city of Chicago has fairly earned its title. These gatherings of public men from all over the country have served to stimulate civic pride and spirit, by placing the city and its institutions under general and close inspection. During the Civil war, however, her development in this direction was comparatively slow, and it was not until the latter part of 1865 that the paid fire department and the commencement of the present system of water works had fairly materialized. Something was done in the building of new bridges, but little in the improvement of the streets. As Chicago merchants and manufacturers participated in the vast work of maintaining the Union armies in the field, commerce and trade were stimulated to the fever pitch.

The most beneficial effect of the Civil war upon the civic development of Chicago, was an elevation and expansion of sentiment, which found expression in some of the noblest of works and the most beneficent of institutions for the relief of the soldiers at the front. It is difficult to specify when so many were unsparing of their strength presence was but lately removed by death, was the author of Bryan Hall, erected by him the year preceding the war. There were held those great popular meetings, which stirred the blood of patriots, not alone in Chicago, and which first gave assurance to the country that while her lusty children might fight among themselves the civic spirit would always sustain the constituted powers which stood for a united country and equal rights. Early in her career she had refused to besmirch her honor by the repudiation of her just debts; that was local patriotism : now, as a city, she upheld the honor of the country and stood as the champion of a broader patriotism. She poured her wealth and the strength of her people into the work of the great sanitary commissions, of which Mark Skinner and Thomas B. Bryan, Mrs. Hoge and Mrs. Livermore, were leading figures. Fairly worn out by his tremendous labors as president of the commission from 1861 to 1864, Judge Skinner was obliged to retire in 1864, Mr. Bryan continuing in the harness. He was president of the great Northwestern Sanitary Fair of 1865, and founded the Chicago Soldiers' Home largely out 'of his private means. The untiring heroines of this era also endured until the last gun was fired, .relinquishing their connection with the work in July, 1865.

At the close of the war, which was a period of such local, as well as national disorganization, the public works and public departments of Chicago assumed signs of distinctive development. The first lake tunnel of the water works was pushed to completion, and by March, 1867, water was flowing through the pipes and hydrants to the grateful citizens; the long-neglected streets and sidewalks were repaired, and the first tunnel (Washington street) was thrown under the river to relieve the congested condition of the bridges ; harbor improvements were resumed ; more commodious and beautiful houses of amusement were erected, and the general character of all new buildings was more substantial and metropolitan. At a later period prior to the Great Fire, the city hall was enlarged, the park system much extended, many new school houses erected, and determined preparations made to place Chicago on a metropolitan basis. But the retarding and disorganizing effects of the "Civil war were only partially repaired when the city was called upon to meet the greatest crisis through which a municipality has ever passed.

Chicago And Cook Couxtv 105

is (l(nibtful whether the people of the city fully appreciate how imich it has contributed to their hi^h ci\ic reinitation for unconcjuerahle spirit. It showed to the world that Chicago was not an accident, but that her geographic location in relation to the producing sections and the great channels of transportation predestined her to assume vast power; it also demonstrated to Chicago that, despite the jeers and rudeness of other municipalities, deep in their hearts they kept a warm place for their young brother. Xe\er l)efure has there been such an outpouring into the lap of a stricken city ; and from that time the rancor against Chicago's pretensions commenced to abate. Her newspapers, especially, voiced her spirit, as illustrated by these words which came from the ruins of the Chicago Tribune: ''In the midst of a calamity withmit parallel in the world's history, looking upon the ashes of thirty years' accumulations, the people of this once beautiful city have resolved that Chicago shall be rebuilt. Chicago must rise again. The worst is already over. In a few days more all the dangers will be past, and we can resume the battle of life with Christian faith and western grit. Let us all cheer up." This trumpet blast to had saved his party during the war by pushing forward that legislation wdiich legalized the votes of soldiers in the field, and who. in the month following the fire, was elected mayor of the shattered city. Within two years he accomplished a large part in the work of reorganization, and lived to see the rebuilt city which he prophesied. The following from Munsell's "History of Chicago'' is a resume of the situation which confronted Mayor IMedill and of what was accomplished during his administration : "The task set before the new executive was indeed beset with difficulties well nigh insuperable. A new city hall, school houses, engine houses and police stations were to be erected, burnt bridges and viaducts to be replaced, miles of sidewalk to be rebuilt, and fire apparatus, hydrants and pipes to be purchased. To meet these requirements, all of them essential to the city's rehabilitation, required the expenditure of large sums of money, and the mayor found himself confronted with a depleted treasury. The rescinding by the last council of $1,442,790 of the taxes of 187 J on account of the fire, and the provision by law for rebates on deio6 stroyed property, involving large sums in the aggregate, deprived the new administration of half its resources. And to add still further complications to a situation already surcharged with difficulties, the newly organized supreme court of the state, overruling all former precedents, had lately decided several cases, in which parties were resisting the payment of taxes on special assessments involving $790,000, adversely to the city. The assumption by the state of the city's canal debt, amounting to $2,955,340, however, a large portion of which was paid in December, enabling the mayor to provide for interest coming due and to meet other pressing obligations, afforded great relief. Retrenchment in the city's outlays and needed reforms in administration were insisted upon by the mayor, and measures to that end were adopted by the council with so little friction that the action was practically unanimous. By, March, 1873, the work of rebuilding the bridges and viaducts destroyed by the fire was about completed at a cost of $526,921 for the former, and $189,573 ^^^ ^he .latter. Commendable progress had also been made in street improvements and in replacing other public losses by the fire." The direct effect of the fire upon Chicago as a city was to obliterate for all time wooden fire traps from its business district ; to replace makeshift buildings by substantial structures of steel, brick and stone; to increase the efficiency of the fire department ; to extend the congested business district much further to the south, and to make a recurrence of a conflagration on ar greatly extended scale a virtual impossibility. The city thereafter was to develop along the lines of a great metropolis, and could no longer be designated "an overgrown village."