Chicago City (part 49 of 57)

The clearing away of so much that was temporary, unsightly and disgraceful by the fire of 1871 seemed also to have a purifying and stimulating effect upon the civic spirit of the city. Without entering upon the merits of the ordinances relating to the closing of saloons on Sunday, it is material to a delineation of the civic de"- velopment of Chicago to notice that it was during Mayor Medill's administration that the Law and Order and the People's parties were formed, and that upon the initiative of the former he attempted to enforce the law. He believed, with John Wentworth, that as long as statutes were alive they should be enforced. The attempt was a failure, and the situation was full of peril. Meanwhile Mayor Medill went to Europe, and Mr. T. L. Bond, an alderman, taking his place as acting mayor, continued the general policy of Mayor Medill. but. as to tlie Sunday closing law, not to the extent^ of precipitating a contest in which the entire police force, constabulary and militia of the state would probably have been involved with disasters to business and other crimes that it was impossible to tell. Thus matters continued until the approaching election. Under the circumstances, it being evident that the election would turn entirely upon the question of Sunday closing, neither of the political parties made any nominations for city officers other than aldermen. Those in favor of a determined effort to close the saloons on Sunday nominated T. L. Bond, the then acting mayor. Those opposed to such action nominated H. D. Colvin, manager of the United States Express Company. The closed and open Sunday parties each made nominations for city attorney, city clerk and city treasurer. A very vigorous contest followed with the result that the open Sunday ticket was elected by a majority of ten thousand. The message of the incoming mayor was most conciliatory, and rather a departure from the policy inaugurated by Mayor Wentworth, continued by Mayor Aledill and generally acio8 CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY ceptecl by present-day students of municipal government as the part of practical wisdom, viz. : to enforce strictly the laws upon the books, thereby proving either their wisdom or undesirability, or to repeal them in their entirety. He spoke of the ordinances as representing the opinion of "a comparatively small and homogeneous population at the time of their enactment," but as having ceased to be in consonance with public opinion since Chicago had, "by the harmonious co-operation of citizens belonging to the different nationalities, grown from a village to the rank of one of the greatest cities in the world. For a series of years," he continued, "it has been the practice of our municipal administration to treat those ordinances as obsolete, and to refrain from enforcing them. It is not intended to denounce that practice, but merely to state that within the past year they have become distasteful to a large portion of the community. * * * jf |-]^g common council in its wisdom, and having" undoubted full power upon the subject, should determine either to repeal or modify the Sunday prohibitions and Sunday clause in the license law,-or to fully secure the religious exercises of a portion of our citizens from all disturbance, without interfering with the harmless enjoyments of other citizens, it will do no more than its duty toward the majority of the people of this city." The first part of Mayor Colvin's administration was signalized by the talk of repudiating nearly a million dollars of city script which had been issued beyond the legal limit and based upon unlawful assessments; but the old Ogden spirit came to the rescue of the city's financial honor, a mass meeting of citizens pledged themselves to see that the script was paid dollar for dollar, and the legislature legalized the tax levy. A compromise on the saloon question was effected by the passage of an ordinance providing for the closing on Sunday of all doors and windows of saloons which opened upon any street. Such legislation was interpreted as a virtual concession to criminal license, and the administration was what in later-day phrase was denominated "wide open." The spoils of office were generally conceded to the Democratic party which had formed the basis of the People's organization. Through the quarrels of the leaders the latter party was disrupted, and the groundwork was laid for the installation of the strongest machine which the local Democracy of Chicago, or perhaps any other city in the country, has ever founded. In 1875 the people of Chicago adopted* the general incorporation act of the state, and under the act of reorganization the old board of police and fire commissioners was abolished and the distinctive departments created as at present. In 1876 the health department of the city was reorganized, with a commissioner at its head, and that loose division of the civic body, which had been constantly changing and, at times, non-existent, was founded upon its present basis. From this time on, the chief features of the municipality were fixed, and the development of the service was along the lines of efficiency and strength and in harmony with expanding ideas of educators and humanitarians. The Colvin administration was succeeded by two Republican mayoralties, during which occurred the railroad riots and the first forcible exposition to the city of the danger to the public peace of the unchecked promulgation of forci'g'n communism.

The four succeeding administrations of Carter II. Harrison were in many respects the most remarkable in the civic history of Chicago. The personality of the chief executive was unique, and a remarkable combination of practical, earnest, brilliant, humorous and imaginative powers which perhaps have never had another counterpart in the country except in the person of the late Robert G. Ingersoll. His speech, his acts, were all dramatic, and yet it often happened that. in \iew of the elements upon which he depended for the furtherance of his policies, his only hope of advancing the best interests of the city seemed to be to play the demagogue. He was a Kentuckian, polished, widely traveled, finely educated, a lawyer, and the inheritor of broad abilities and ambitions from such as William Henry Harrison, Thomas Jefiferson and John C. Breckenridge. With a broad, massive head, strong features, a fine eye, and a military bearing, although a man of only medium stature, Mr. Harrison was a man of striking appearance, and instinctively won favor before he put into action his elo(|nence and wonderful magnetism. He was a born leader and politician, and seemed instinctively to understand the winniu"- of men in whatever ranks of life thev walked. Inheriting money, he invested it in Chicago real estate in tlic fifties, and had

*The effect of aceepting the general incorporation act was to ^xteud for several months the term of mayor, treasurer, cit-y clerk ami i^'ity attorney elected by the open-Sunday partv. and this liad an iiiMuence in the discussion as to whether the city should accept the general incorporation act.

amassed a fortune before he entered politics, which was about the time of the great fire, as a member of the first board of county commissioners. His creditable service therein was followed by a term in Congress, during which his brilliant oratory in behalf of such measures as the six-year presidential term and the centennial gained him a wide distinction. As a humorist, also, he came from Congress with a reputation second to no public man. Other extended seasons of European travel preceded his first election to the mayoralty in 1879, ^n*i before the conclusion of his third term he was nominated by the Democracy as governor of Illinois. Although not elected, he succeeded in reducing the normal Republican majority about twothirds. -

When Mayor Harrison became head of the municipality, he was the chief representative of a great city of half a million people, a majority of whom were foreigners or of recent foreign descent, many of whom had not yet been educated to discriminate between freedom and license. For the first time in many years the Democracy had elected its entire ticket, and by the executive ability of the mayor was soon- welded into one of the strongest political machines which ever dominated the municipal government. Through it he succeeded himself repeatedly, being in office longer than any other occupant of the chair, and Mayor Harrison's fine abilities were given an opportunity to work out many beneficial results which materially redounded to the civic development of Chicago. He reduced salaries, wiped out a floating city debt of nearly $2,500,000 within three years ; saw to it that the inferior city script was paid off ; erected the city's half of the combined city and county building,* and introduced the telegraph, telephone and patrol to the administration of the police department. He also caused the removal of the unsightly and dangerous telegraph poles, and substituted the underground system; and improvements of the streets, sidewalks and the sewers were constant and generous. It was during- the last term of his administration that the historic Haymarket riot occurred, and that public and civic sentiment came so sternly to the support of law and order, teaching the

* By agreement the exterior design of the buildings was alike. The county was then under control of a board of county commissioners, a majority of whom were corrupt, and a number of these were sent to the penitentiary. The city building was honestly built, and cost considerably less than the east half of the building.

But, although local conditions and abuses were always to be the^ direct forces operating upon the civic development of Chicago, the reform and growth of the municipal body were really an accompaniment of the national movement tending to improve the civil service of the general government. In the first formal discussion at Washington calling the country's attention to the necessity of keeping the public service from the clutches of politics, Webster, Clay and Calhoun, in the midst of their acrimonies of 1835, agreed that "something must be done." When assuming his tumultuous ofiice in i860, Lincoln found what it was to be a martyr to the spoils system. The great southern question pressed upon his heart for solution, but the ofiice-seekers would not let him alone, and he cried out : 'T am like a man so busy letting rooms in one end of his house that he cannot stop to put out the fire in the other." In the late seventies came the threatened disruption of the Republican party, because of a protest against the spoils system by such men as Sumner, Greeley and Schurz, and in 1881 Garfield was assassinated by Guiteau, an officeseeker. The latter tragedy was also a keen thrust at the vitals of the system, and fully aroused the sentiment of the country in support of civil service reform within the national government. President Arthur, the successor of Garfield, signed the act which established the merit system in the civil service of the United States, in direct opposition to the spoils system, and Grover Cleveland unqualifiedly endorsed it, and even improved upon it. Thus Republican and Democratic administrations formally endorsed the principle, and to a large extent the influence of politics upon the civil service has been eliminated. In 1884 laws founded upon the federal statutes were extended to New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Illinois - the state laws of Illinois under which the civil service of Cook county and the city of Chicago was organized were passed in 1S95.

The intervening period had embraced three of the eight years of the notoriously political Harrison administration; the administration of John A. Roche, during which a vigorous attempt was made to enforce the ordinances against gambling and midnight closing of the saloons; the Cregier regime, also partisan, during which 128 square miles of the city's present area of 190 square miles, were added, and considerable advances made in the movement toward municipal ownership of the gas and transportation systems of the city; the Washburne term, during which was inaugurated the work of elevating the railroad tracks within the municipal limits, and the final administration of the elder Harrison, culminating in the assassination of the mayor by one who imagined that he had been unjustly treated.

were passed by the legislature in 1895, going into' force on July ist of that year. As to the county, the law places under the merit rule all employes, except appointive heads of departments, that come under the jurisdiction of the board of commissioners. The amendment of 1905 simplifies the removal of employes whose service is unsatisfactory. The attending staff of physicians and surgeons and the internes of the Cook County Hospital are also placed under the merit rule, and by the amendment of 1905 the probation officers of the juvenile court are also placed under the civil service act.

Public sentiment strongly supported civil service reform both in the administration of county and city governments, and, perhaps as much as any one man, Merritt Starr, the widely-known legal author and lawyer, was concerned with the crystallization of the movement into definite legislation and organization. A liberally educated man, both in literature and the law, he had been engaged in the compilation and annotation of the state statutes for many years, as well as enjoyed a professional association with such leaders of the bar as George R. Peck and John S. Miller. He was president of the Chicago Law Institute for two terms. He fathered the general state law providing for the introduction of the merit system, and assisted in its passage, as well as in the enactments bringing Cook county and the city of Chicago within its provisions. He personally drafted the city civil service law, followed it faithfully through the state legislature, was afterward a leader in the charter for a so-called Greater Chicago, and has unquestionably been one of the strongest and most consistent agents in the formation and development -of a high civic spirit, and the promulgation of practical reforms of the many earnest and able citizens who have participated in such municipal movements.

The first Civil Ser\ice Comniission of Chica^'-t) \v:is apiKjiiUcd hy Mayor George B. Swift, aiul consisted of the following menibcrs: John M. Clark, president; Rollin A. Keyes. secretary, and W. K. Ackerman, chairman of the general board of examiners. In the classification of offices and the formulation of the rules, the commission was greatly assisted by John T. Doyle, secretary of the National Civil Service Commission, who visited Chicago for about five weeks for that purpose. On August 26, 1895, the law, classification and rules went into effect. During the first day 2,000 blank applications for positions were filed, and up to December 31st 20,500 formal applications had been made, of wdiich 14,000 were for official service and the balance for labor service. At this formative period of the commission, it was necessary to put in force some efifective system for physically examining applicants for the fire and police department, and after a thorough investigation of the matter the method adopted was that devised by Dr. A. H. Brown of New York City, who came from the eastern metropolis himself to supervise the first examinations. This, of itself, was a large task, as just prior to the taking effect of the law 700 patrolmen had been discharged from the city service on purely political grounds. Although the police and fire departments were in most pressing need of the application of a law which applied the tests of special fitness, moral character and general intelligence to the civil service of the municipal departments, all were honeycombed and weakened by politics and ''pull." When the commission first entered upon its duties it found 40,000 applications for office on file in the different city departments. Of course, under the old regime, this horde of office-seekers swarmed around the harassed mayor of the city; under the civil service rules the slate was wiped clean, and as stated by the commission: "The effect of the adoption of the Civil Service law and rules has been to relieve the mayor and heads of departments from the pressure of applicants for ofiice, thus leaving them to attend to their more important duties." The original rules made forty-five years the age test for entrance to the civil service of the city, but this proxiso was soon abolished. The commission also eliminated from the examinations purely educational tests, as the end was olniouslv to ascertain the applicant's practical ability to till the position for which he is a candidate rather than his scholastic accomplishments. The prime object in an exanynation Vol. 1 - 8.

for the civil service is to bring out the individual qualifications, experience and resources of the applicant, and for this reason, in those employments which do not require special technical education the items of examination known variously as "knowledge of duties," "knowledge for position," etc., have gradually been raised in importance. The service both of the city and county is divided into three classes - official, skilled labor and labor (common). In order to be eligible to the examination, the applicant must have resided in city or county for a year, and be twenty-one years of age, if a man, and eighteen years old, if a woman. Good moral character, temperance and sound health are also given as requisites.

Reverting to the main features of the examinations for the civil service, it may be remarked that they are based on the method long prevalent in the colleges and universities of the country. The examination for each office is divided into several heads, which total from ten to fifteen points, or "weights." For instance, out of a total of ten weights given to the examination for the medical service, technical knowledge . counts four and experience two, for the reason that the education of a physician, or other employe of that department who would be valuable, would necessarily be largely technical, while one of broad and long experience would not be likely to apply for such a position. Seven out of the ten points for a civil engineering examination are covered by technical knowledge and mathematics, and the same items embrace six points in the examination for electrical engineering. On the other hand, the applicant for a position on the fire or police department is required tq have a practical knowledge of the duties which he seeks, and in his position six of the ten points are covered by this heading. The educational test is light, and could be passed by the average graduate of the public school. In the examination of engineers, pilots and stokers, who desire to be admitted to the city service, six points are given to "knowledge of duties" and five to physical qualifications (out of a total of fifteen points), the latter also being an important consideration in the case of. the wouldbe fireman or policeman. In the examinations for positions under the classification, skilled labor, practical tests as to qualifications count three out of the five points and technical knowledge two; when the applicant takes the examination for a foremanship, which position calls for the making out of various reports, spelling and arithmetic count one point each, technical knowledge five and experience two, out of a total of nine points. In considering the necessary qualifications for clerks, stenographers and employes of the public library, on the other hand, penmanship, spelling and letter-writing are naturally raised in "weight."

Although the above gives but a general idea of the development and present status of the civil service of Chicago, it is sufficient to counteract the scoffing attitude of many well-meaning but imperfectly informed citizens, who are disposed to deride civil service examinations as the invention of impractical enthusiasts. The system still has its defects, but it is a vast improvement over the old spoils system of political influence and personal "pull" as the chief motive powers for advancement in the civil service. The public, in fact, is being educated to the idea that these forces are fast vanishing. All employes of the city and county, under the law, are now protected from political persecution, or from discharge on political grounds. Political assessments are no longer a part of the system. A permanent tenure of office or position is ensured during good behavior, and promotion is based on merit after examination. This certainly indicates a very encouraging development of the civic service and the idea of civil service reform. At the present time the most noticeable defect appears to be the grading of positions based on compensation. The great inequality of salaries, even paid to those in the same department whose duties differ little in responsibility or qualifications, is the constant cause of much dissatisfaction and friction, and as stated by the commission, "it is here that favoritism does its most harmful work." But the defect is so plainly evident that the civil service commission is taking up the matter in a practical way with the common council, so that this bald defect in the civil service will be soon remedied.

The firm position which the Chicago Civil Service Commission has attained as an agency in the most advanced forms of civic development is largely due to the favorable attitude and the sustainuig power of the courts, which, in all test cases, have decided that the findings of the commission, or its auxiliary trial boards, are final, unless there is some valid question as to jurisdiction. The board of education even submitted to the decision of the state supreme which, although a corporation of private citizens, is really the father of the official commission itself ajid of several other reformatory bodies. Although there are such as the Civil Service League, Civil Service Reform Association and the Citizens' Association of Chicago, the earliest and still the strongest public sentiment for the advancement of all movements in the interest of law and order, purity of politics, simplicity and economy of government and for a Chicago both greater and better, has found expression and practical action through the Civic Federation. The work of the federation began in the winter of 1893^ during the "hard times" of that year, when thousands of men were out of employment, and hundreds crowded the corridors of the city hall in the day and the rank jails of the city at night. It was at this critical time that it organized the Central Relief Association, which raised and expended $135,000 for the relief of the homeless. At the close of the winter the federation continued the organization, and permanently established it as the Bureau of Associated Charities, bearing all its expenses for the first year. On the third of February, 1894, the federation received its incorporation certificate from the department of state, in which it is stated that its objects are "local municipal improvement and the betterment of civic conditions, the promotion of efficiency in the public service and the furtherance of wholesome legislation." In its early years the federation had its departments of political action, philanthropy, moral improvement and legislation. Each of these had standing committees which did effective work, but it was soon found that they seriously conflicted with each other when conducted by the same controlling body. It was because of this that the Bureau of Charities (already mentioned) and the Municipal Voters' League were organized, the latter having since its organization in 1896 been devoted to the good work of posting the Chicago voter on the moral and official qualifications of the city aldermen.

Chicago And Cook Couma' 117

which has liad a bearing on the civic development of Cliicago in which it has not been either the prime mover, or an active participant. A brief account of its work is therefore all tiiat can be given. In the first year of its incorporation it organized the Associated Bureau of Charities from its original committee on philanthropy ; convicted and sent to the penitentiary several thugs who had committed frauds at the city polls and assaulted election judges and clerks, and (after the great railroad strike) called a conference on arbitration, attended by representative men from every section of the United States, and which resulted in the present state arbitration law. In the following year (1895) a joint committee organized by the Civic Federation and composed of representatives of the leading clubs of the city secured the drafting of the present civil service law, secured its passage and afterward organized the campaign which resulted in its popular adoption by a majority of over 50,000. It did not stop there, but put a corps of detectives on the trail of those who attempted to violate the law. and sent them to jail. Cases of violation are constantly being taken before the Civil Service Commission by the federation's committee on civil service, and in many instances prosecuted in the courts. With the courts, the Civic Federation of Chicago is the great support of civil service reform in Chicago. In the line of economics the federation demonstrated, in i8g6, what could be accomplished by an organized body of earnest and honest citizens. For six months of that year it cleaned the down-town streets for $10 per mile (the city liaving been paying $18.50 per mile for worse service). As long thereafter as the contract system was in force the figures did not exceed $10.50. During 1896, also, it organized the Municipal \'oters' League out of the federation committee on political action and inaue'urated the movement for vacation schools, conducting the first one through its educaticMial committee. In 1897 it organized the citizens' committee, which drafted the new revenue law and began a campaign for its adoption. It also organized a campaign for primary election reform, and founded the Penny Savings Society, of which Rev. R. A. White is the special author. The federation gave the society office room for tw^o years, the project was officially endorsed by the board of education, and the society has now numerous stations and thousands of depositors among the school children, newsboys and bootblacks of the city. During ihc Spanish-. \merican war over 900 families of soldiers at the fnnU were cared tor by the Armv and Navy League of Illinois, which was organized by the philanthropic committee of the Civic Federation, and in the same year it inaugurated the first national conference on primary election reform, which was held in New York City in January and resulted in radical legislation in Ihinois, New York and other states. The question of parental schools had become of such general interest that eight or ten organizations had been formed to consider the problem, all working for the same general result but along slightly different lines. In 1898 the federation succeeded in unifying these various organizations into a joint committee, which eventually secured the desired legislation. In co-operation with the Chicago Real Estate Board, in 1899, the federation secured the passage of a much-needed revenue law, and the following year it defeated the proposed issue of $1,500,000 in bonds for the remodeling of the court house. Through its continuous efforts the legislature passed a revised primary law in 1901, and in the same year placed upon the statute books the township consolidation law, the much-needed measure applying to seven townships lying wholly within the city and whose officials for years had been saddling an unnecessary expense upon its tax payers. The movement for a new Chicago charter was also inaugurated by the federation in 1902, by organizing the first convention to consider the subject, which was composed of delegates from twenty-three civic bodies, boards and clubs. The president and secretary of the federation, Joseph Powell and Thomas J. Corcoran, respectively, were made chairriian of the campaign committee and permanent secretary of the convention. In the main the federation conducted the campaign for the adoption of the new charter constitutional amendment, and was at the back of the Chicago charter convention, held in December, 1905, the main purpose being to frame a comprehensive, elastic and yet simple framework for the municipal government. The convention was composed of delegates representing the mayor, city council, governor, legislature, board of education, sanitary trustees, county board, public library and park boards. The completed charter was taken to Springfield in the early part of 1907, and, although the legislature made several radical changes in it, such as the substitution of the old primary system for the one proposed, the measure was passed in May of that year. Although the charter provided for a much-needed consolidation in the municipal government of the powers vested in vari- oiis other bodies, when it was submitted to popular vote at the special election of September 17th it was defeated by the decisive vote of 121,935 to 59,786. The provision providing for municipal ownership of public utilities, including railroads, telephones, telegraphs and lighting, heating, refrigerating and power plants, was considered by the mass of citizens of doubtful practical value, and was doubtless one of the chief causes for the defeat of the charter. The new Municipal Court bill was voted upon favorably, however, and the justice system closed forever. In the meantime, also, the federation had organized an investigation of the meat and milk inspection conducted within the city limits, and in 1904 appointed a health and sanitation committee. This committee published bacterial analyses of three hundred samples of milk gathered from twenty-three wards of the city, and the published results of its secret service work showed the general worthlessness of both the milk and meat inspection in Chicago. Of late this movement has taken the special form of protecting the health of children, as the health authorities have ascertained that fully a quarter of the infant mortality in the city is the result of impure milk. A commission was originally organized by the Children's Hospital Society for the rehef of the children of the poor, but it is now an independent body, its supplies of sterilized, modified and absolutely pure milk being distributed from twenty or thirty stations located in the poorer districts of the city.

Perhaps the two subjects in which the Civic Federation is at present most deeply interested and most earnestly active are those relating to a revision of the state revenue laws and the proposed formation of a new park commission, or what is popularly known as an Outer-Belt Park Board. In the interest of the former it has entered into an investigation of the tax systems of various states, and appointed a revenue committee which has recommended the creation of a special tax commission to make a thorough study of the subject ; also advised an amendment of the revenue article of the state constitution so as to make the desired changes possible. The Special State Tax Commission has been recommended by the legislature and vetoed by the governor, but the federation has prepared another bill which it believes will be acceptable to the chief state executive.

I20 Chicago And Cook County

As its working members virtually comprise the cream of Chiacgo's citizenship, it would be obviously impossible to ^select one man, or even half a dozen figures, around which its numerous reformatory movements have revolved, and yet it is probable that none will take exception to a kindly and enthusiastic mention of the name of John M. Clark, the first president of the commission, a pioneer citizen of balanced, rounded character, who, in his old age, has the same eager interest in the highest development of the civic spirit and municipal 'institutions that he possessed as a young and vigorous civil engineer and soldier. Of a younger generation are Robert A. Waller and Alexander H. Revell, and when the last word shall be spoken regarding the civic development of Chicago, the names of the late W. K. Ackerman and John W. Ela will stand well to the fore. Western Starr, also, the brother of Merritt Starr, who drafted the original act, had a large share in the establishment of the merit system as the basis of the civil service of Chicago, both from his identification with the Civic Federation and the Civil Service League. But the movement is now so general and is supported by such variety of ability and strong personality that the individual is almost absorbed in the importance and intensity of the work.

From the general subject, as it is presented today, the two working bodies which stand out most prominently in the civic development of this city are its Civil Service Commission and the Civic Federation of Chicago. The former is the formal endorsement of merit, as against politics and the personal influence of those already in authority in the administration and development of the municipal service; the latter is a federation of private citizens in which is crystallized the most advanced civic spirit of Chicago - a body not only productive of original and virile ideas, but working for practical reforms, whether originating within or without its organization. In a word, these two bodies are the most signal births of the civic spirit which has done more than all else to make Chicago a great city.

^ He was a projection of the old-time Virginia gentleman into the raw, bustling life of the great western city, and in young manhood, middle age and as a wiry, bright- eyed, vencral)Ie man of nearly eighty, held his own for over half a century with the al)lest, most energetic, most polished characters which Chicago brought into the activities of her brilliant history. Up to the day of his death, the citizens of the western metropolis who had known him so well and loved him so much, although his hair was white, refused to think of him as an old man. To almost the last, his step was sprightly, his word was cheery and he looked the world in the face, and particularly the Chicago part of it, with head erect and eyes full of hope and confidence that all things were working for the best. One of the most marked, the strongest, most lovable and inspiring traits in the many-sided character of Thomas B. Bryan was his optimism, and this firm faith in the triumph of good was the means of removing difficulties in his pathway which seemed at first sight mountainous and immovable.

As stated, Mr. Bryan was a Virginian, born at Alexandria. December 22, 1828, and was the son of Daniel and Mary (Barbour) Brvan. His father served in the senate of Virginia, and tw^o of his mother's brothers, James and Philip Barbour, held such government positions as cabinet minister, speaker of the house of representatives, judge of the United States supreme court, minister to England and governor of the Old Dominion. As blood will tell, it is not strange that Thomas B. Bryan should have naturally come by his high ability and unfailing courtesy. In 1848 he was graduated from the law school of Harvard University, and shortly afterward entered upon the practice of his profession at Cincinnati, Ohio, in partnership with Judge Hart of that city.

In 1852 Mr. Bryan came to Chicago, and. although it had been a city in name for fifteen years, it was still little uK^re than an overgrown and unformed village. He soon became a member of the firm of Mather, Taft & Hatch, which was successively changed to Bryan & Borden and Bryan & Hatch. The most of his period as a practitioner in Chicago, however, was passed as an independent office counselor, and in this capacity his standing was unapproachable by any member of the profession. \\'ith the exception of several years spent in Washington, Colorado and in European travel, he also made the city his home for the greater portion of half a century. He succeeded Governor Shepherd as executive of the District of Columbia, and his administrati(^n was marked by (he same ability, lion- esty and conservative financing which always characterized his management of other interests entrusted to him. At his resignation a memorial was presented to him as a farewell testimonial, expressive of deep regret at his departure and warm appreciation of the high character of his administration. It was signed by all the prominent citizens of the district, being headed by the philanthropist, Corcoran.

Finding that the old cemetery, which now forms a portion of Lincoln Park, was becoming undesirable, in view of the encroachment of the north side population, Mr. Bryan founded Graceland cemetery, now one of the most beautiful and majestic homes of the dead in the United States. He purchased the original tract of land on which it was plotted, and was at one time its sole proprietor. He also built Bryan Hall on the present site of the Grand Opera House, and within its walls were held some of the most notable gatherings of the Civil, war period. Bryan Hall, in fact, became a synOnym for Chicago and western patriotism. Altliough a southerner, Mr. Bryan was in mind, heart and soul a Union man, and his attitude was so pronounced that in 1865 he was chosen president of the great Northwestern Fair for the relief of Union soldiers. As a direct result of his masterly management and wise direction of its affairs over $300,- 000 was passed over to the invalid soldiers' fund, and for years after those who were widowed and orphaned as a result of the war looked upon Mr. Bryan as their special benefactor. The Soldiers' Home was also built under his direction and with money advanced by him, he was for many years its president and never failed in his loyalty to it, to the full extent both of his time and means. It was to Mr. Bryan's forethought and enterprise that Chicago owed the Fidelity Safe Depository, which survived the fire of 1871, and saved manymillions to the people of this city.

At the time of the energetic contest between New York and Chicago for the location of the World's Columbian Exposition Mr. Bryan was in his sixty-third year - an age when most men, who had labored as hard and accomplished as much as he, would have sought repose. But the occasion seemed to arouse in him the vigor and versatility of youth, and his eloquent appeals, both by speech and pen, brought him forward as Chicago's most masterly champion. When the final contest was fought before the senate committee at Washington, Mr. Bryan had as his opponent Chauncey Depew, con- siderecl par excellence the most seductive and polished advocate before any legislative body in the country. But Mr. Bryan's wit, humor and sarcasm, his thorough knowledge of the merits of his case, and his compelling earnestness and straightforwardness, carried the day. He was afterward chosen first vice president of the exposition, and until the triumphant conclusion of the great fair his services were secpnd to none for faithfulness, effectiveness and tact fulness. If any one man is to be selected as the father of the World's Columbian Exposition it is probable that the majority of the votes will be cast for Thomas B. Bryan.

In 1850 Mr. Bryan married Miss Byrd Page, of Virginia, and the issue of the marriage w^as a daughter and a son - Charles P. Bryan a well-known journalist and litterateur, who served in the legislatures of Colorado and Illinois, and most creditably upholds the splendid name of his father.

which brought the Chicago Tribune from the obscurity of a failing enterprise to the rank of one of the greatest newspapers in the world. He was honorable, sturdy, versatile, wise and brilliant, born of Scotch-Irish parents on the 6th day of April, 1823. in the city of St. John, New Brunswick. There the family remained until 1832, when it emigrated to Massillon, Stark county, Ohio. The little city of Canton was only sixteen miles away, and after the youth had' grounded himself in the common branches he commenced to walk thither, on Saturday afternoons, for the purpose of studying Latin, logic and natural philosophy under the guidance of a Methodist clergyman of that place. He completed his education in the village academy of Massillon, from which he graduated in 1843. and in the following year cast his first vote for Henry Clay and began the study of law with Hon. Hiram Griswold. Admitted to the bar in 1846, he was for some time the partner of George W. Mcllvaine. afterward chief justice of the supreme court of Ohio. After an association of three years with that gentleman, several considerations induced him to abandon the law for journalism. Since early boyhood he had taken an intense interest in the great questions which stirred such men as Webster and Clay, and with the undoubted reahzation of his own knowledge and strength he longed to participate in the stir and molding of public policies. There were also three younger brothers in the family whose welfare he generously assumed, and one of his earnest desires was to place them in the way of honorable advancement. In 1849 ^'^^ became the proprietor of the Coshocton (Ohio) Whig, and thus commenced the realization of both his personal ambition and his brotherly desire. His brothers became compositors and job printers, valued assistants in the mechanical progress of the enterprise, while Mr. Medill devoted himself to the furtherance of its editorial policy and general development. At the outset he changed its name to the Coshocton Repviblican, stating that this was the proper appellation both of the party and its organs. In 1852 he sold his business and founded the Daily Forest City at Cleveland, giving his support to Scott and the Whig cause which was so overwhelmingly defeated. The unfortunate outcome of this presidential campaign upon a platform which he considered little short of cowardly convinced him that the time was ripe for the formation of a new Republican party, which should take its stand on the principles of equal rights, anti-slavery, the sovereignty of the general government and protection to American industries. In 1853 ^^ ^^'^' solidated his interests with those of John C. Vaughn and Edwin Cowles, the former publisher of a Free-soil organ known as the True Democrat, and the latter a skillful job printer. The result was the Cleveland Leader, a highly successful newspaper. Mr. Medill continued to advocate the formation of a new party with the name Republican, abandoning forever the English cognomen of Whig, and commenced a general correspondence with party leaders over the proposed change. Horace Greeley replied to one of his letters : "Go ahead and get it adopted in Ohio; it is too soon for us in New York to advocate the name. We must first suffer another bad defeat." In 1853 the conservative wing of the Whig party suffered a disastrous defeat, the liberal candidate of the party taking the gubernatorial chair, solidly backed by a 60,000 majority and the strong influence of Mr. Medill's paper. In April of the following year a number of prominent anti-slavery Whigs, Democrats and Free-soilers met at the editorial office of the Cleveland Leader and organized a new party under the name of National Republican, with opposition to slavery as its corner stone. In January, 1855. Mr. Medill sc^kl tlie Leader io Edwin Cowles and in company with Mr. \^au^-hn and Dr. Ray, of Galena, Illinois, bought the waning Chicago Tribune. Within a few years Mr. Medill was its editor and proprietor, and from that time until his death kept pace with Chicago, and even led it in the race. He was not only the watch dog of details, but brought everything into conformity with some well-arranged general pLan or policy. He drew Lincoln to his editorial office by his power and practical wisdom, and the country lawyer while in Chicago spent many hours with him in the discussion of slavery and the issues in which they were to co-operate so closely and effectively in the few years to come, each in his exalted station before the people. No one influence in the country did more to make Lincoln president than the Tribune, under the steady guidance of Joseph Medill. The plan bv which Union soldiers were authorized to ballot in the field was also his. and upheld the president's conduct of the war by again placing him in office with a decisive majority. The system was generally adopted by the northern states, and under it the governor appointed special commissioners to go to the front, receive the soldier ballots, which were sealed and not opened and counted except in the resident districts of the voters. The editor of the Tribune was even nidre radical than the president on the slavery question, insisting from the first tliat emancipation without remuneration was the only possible solution of the problem. Mr. Medill also fought, through his paper, for the constitutional amendment enfranchising the ex-slaves, and, with the partial settlement of the most pressing national issues, gave more of his personal and editorial attention to the affairs of the city and state. In 1869 he was unanimously elected a member of the constitutional convention of Illinois, being the only delegate to be thus honored. Among other important provisions which owe their origin to him is that of minority representation in the legislature. In 1 87 1 he was appointed a member of the first national civil service commission by President Grant, antl in November of the same year was elected mayor of Chicago by a three-fourths' vote. The stress of those times immediately succeeding the fire were ttio much toi even his strong constitution, and in September. 187^^. he resigned the oftke and went to Europe for a year's recreation. In the meantime the ceaseless and unusual expansion of the Tribune in all its depart- ments had necessitated the infusion of outside capital, but upon Mr. Medill's return to Chicago in November, 1874, he purchased a controlHng interest in the estabHshment and reorganized the business as the Tribune Pubhshing Company. He resumed active control of its editorial policy also, and at once infused into it the vigor and momentum of the old times. One of the local measures which he advocated with unfailing earnestness during the later years of his life was an increase in liquor licenses, and the effect of his work is largely seen in the present law, which has placed millions of dollars of revenue in the city coffers and helped sustain the cause of popular education, as well as other beneficial institutions. Mr. Medill's death occurred at San Antonio, Texas, March 16, 1899. As an editor and a molder^ of public sentiment, he was one of the greatest which the country has produced, and for many years the Chicago Tribune stood in the west much as the New York Tribune in the east, both dominated by masters of journalism and masters among men.

Carter H. Harrison, four successive terms mayor of Chicago, and after an interregnum of three administrations, assassinated during his fifth incumbency of the ofhce, was a

15th of February, 1825. His great-great-grandfather was the ancestor of President William Henry Harrison, and his grandfather a cousin of Thomas Jefferson, he himself being a cousin of John C. Breckenridge. The fever of politics was therefore in his blood. His father dying when he was eight months of age, he was left to the sole care of his mother, a daughter of Colonel William Russell, of the United States army, and one of the pioneers of the northwest. The home of the half-orphan was a log house and it is said that his first cradle was a sugar trough; but, despite this rude entry into the world, the brilliant and versatile traits of such an ancestry were evident in his character at a very early age. Most of his education before he entered Yale College as a sophomore was obtained under Dr. Marshall, brother of the chief justice and father of Tom Marshall, the great orator. Graduating therefrom in 1845 he commenced the study of law, but did not enter practice at once, devoting himself rather to his mother, for whom he always evinced the deepest affection and whose strong and inspiring character was, perhaps, the leading force which, in his early manhood, brought him into the front rank of the emancipationists of Kentucky. In 1851 he went abroad, travehng for two years in Europe, Asia and Egypt, and in 1855, after a prospecting tour through the northwest, selected Chicago as his residence. He at once invested his means in real estate, and his ventures in this line proved so profitable and such an absorbent of his time, that he abandoned his intention of becoming a practicing attorney, and when he actively entered politics, in 1870, he was a citizen of fortune. Tn 1871 Mr. Harrison was elected a member of the first board of county commissioners, holding that ofiice until December, 1874, when he took his seat as congressman from the second district of Illinois. He spent the summer recesses of 1874 and 1875 ^^ Europe with his family. He was elected mayor of Chicago in 1879, 1881, 1883, 1885 and 1893, but was defeated for the governorship in 1884, although he cut down the normal Republican majority from 40,000 to 14,500; he found, on the whole, that he was not as strong a candidate among the agricultural and interior classes as with the city populace. The mayor is known to have aspired to the presidency and was often mentioned by his party as a promising candidate for the vice presidency, but, even under the circumstances, his defeat for the governorship seriously checked his national advancement as a politician.

Mayor Harrison was a choice spirit in the initiation and development of the World's Columbian Exposition, and his last public appearance was at Music Hall, Jackson Park, on All Cities' Day of the World's Fair (October 28, 1893), when he was the central figure among the chief executives of the American municipalities, and, with characteristic mannerisms and magnetism, delivered an address of welcome which could not have been more typical of the Chicago spirit of unbounded faith in the future, based upon the great achievements of the past. Although he was in his sixty-ninth year, those who were present will never forget his stalwart and inspiring appearance upon the stage, as he exclaimed "There is a city that was a morass when I came into the world sixty-eight and a half years ago. It was a village of but a few hundred when I had attained the age of twelve years in 1837. What is it now? The second city in America. The man is now born - and I myself have taken a new lease of life, and I believe I will see the day when Chicago will be the biggest city in America and the third city on the face of the globe. I once heard

Tom Corwin tell a story of a man who was about to be put on the witness stand over near the eastern shores of Maryland. He was fifty years old. He said he was thirty-six. 'But,' said Mr. Corwin, 'you look fifty.' Whereat the witness answered 'During fourteen years of my life I lived in Maryland, and I don't count that.' I don't count except from the past year, 1892, the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America. I intend to live for more than half a century, and at the end of that half a century London will be trembling lest Chicago shall surpass her, and New York will say 'Let us go to the metropolis of America.' "

From that brilliant scene, to whose life and significance he had contributed so much. Mayor Harrison went to his beautiful home, modeled after the generous and open architecture of the south, and after his evening meal with son, daughter and a sweet woman whom he was soon to wed, he retired to an upper room for his accustomed nap. Soon the servant summoned him to see a visitor on important business, and descending to the vestibule he met the advancing figure of a young man with outstretched hand. Both from policy and temperament Carter Harrison never resisted the promptings of courtesy and proffered friendship, but no sooner had he held out his hand than four pistol reports echoed through the mansion and he fell bleeding to the floor. The man turned, ran into the street, eluded his pursuers and within an hour surrendered himself to the police. Patrick Eugene Prendergast, the assassin, was what is vulgarly called a "ward heeler," and in the past had done some work for the party which, he imagined, should be signally rewarded by the chief executive of the city. No benefits had come to himi, so he purchased a revolver and shot the mayor to his death. A city paper, commenting on the act, says : "The assassin of Mayor Harrison is almost' an exact counterpart of that of President Garfield. A vicious system pursued to its logical conclusion poisoned the mind of a man not too wise under favorable conditions, destroyed his sense of responsibility, exaggerated his ideas of the wrongs he had suffered, until to his distorted fancy murder seemed not a monstrous remedy for his imaginary injuries." As the murder of President Garfield hasiened the inauguration of the merit system in the civil service of the general government, so did the assassination of Mayor Harrison emphasize the evils of the spoils system as entrenched in the civil service of

Chicago-. Mayor Harrison was twice married, his first wife, who died in Europe in 1876, being Miss Sophy Preston, a lady of distinguished southern family. Their son, the present Carter H. Harrison, whose education and training were parallel to those of his father, was also mayor of Chicago for four successive terms - elected in 1897, 1899, 1901 and 1903. The two cases furnish a unique illustration of personal strength and family popularity in the history of municipal politics in the west.

I30 Chicago And Cook County

It was to be' expected that a city of so democratic a spirit as Chicago would show marked and original development in its public educational system, whose remarkable outward growth has been considered as but a natural index of its general advancement. It seems a prodigious stride from half a thousand scholars and half a dozen teachers, in the early forties, to nearly a third of a million pupils and six thousand teachers of the present. But the sixty intervening years has made such a magical transformation of Chicago as a whole that the special strides of its public school system are merged in the grandeur of the general forward movement. The same is true, in large measure, of those independent influences and institutions, which have tended toward the education and culture of the people, through their mental activities, their aesthetic tastes and their moral sensibilities.

The tendency of the intellectual and educational movements in Chicago was fixed quite early in its history; for the Lyceum, founded in 1834, and the Mechanics' Institute, organized in 1837, were designed to encourage the talents of the cultured, as well as to diffuse useful knowledge and found institutions for the benefit of the working classes. They both had libraries, and some of the successful agricultural and mechanical fairs held in Chicago during the fifties were conducted by the Institute. But, while such destructive forces as the panic of 1857 and the fire of 1871 all but scattered the Mechanics' Institute, the Chicago Lyceum passed its library and its good will into the keeping of the Young Men's Association, and the movement thus inaugurated developed, in about a quarter of a century, into the great public library of Chicago. Organized in 1841, the Young Men's Association first opened a reading room at the northwest corner of Lake and Clark streets, the nucleus of its little library being furnished by Walter

L. Newberry, its first president. Prominent citizens p made continuous donations to it ; the Lyceum collecj tion of 300 or 400 volumes was absorbed in 1845; the panic of 1857, which seriously crippled the Mechanics' Institute, brought important accessions to the shelves of the Association library, and by 1866 the collection had reached 9,000 voln umes. In 1868 the Young IVIen's Association was rc-organized as the Chicago Library Association, both to distinguish it from the Young Men's Christian Association and to give it a name descriptive of its chief object. In its earher years the Hbrary was supported by membership dues, voluntary contributions and the proceeds of lecture courses. The depletion of its membership as a result of the war brought acute financial embarrassment upon the association, and shortly before the fire of 1871 strenuous attempts were made both to unite with the Young Men's Christian Association and to transform the collection into a free library supported by the public revenue's. So that although the fire destroyed the property and the corporation of the Chicago Library Association, it did not even retard the movement already under full headway for the establishment of a public library.

For from proving an obstacle to the movement, the great fire hastened the realization of a free city library and was the direct cause of its founding. The destruction of the only considerable collection of books in Chicago (18,000 volumes) strongly appealed to the sympathy of Queen Victoria and many noble men of letters in England. Thomas Hughes, then a member of parliament, led the movement among his associates to collect from the authors, publishers and booksellers of the British Isles the nucleus of a Chicago public library, and an appeal for contributions, headed by the queen, was signed by such authors as Spencer, Carlyle, Disraeli, Gladstone, Tyndall, Tennyson, Hughes, Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John Lubbock. The responses were so prompt and generous that within a few weeks authors, societies, publishers, book-sellers and libraries had contributed something like 7,000 volumes. The British Museum, Oxford University, the British government and Queen Victoria personally were well represented in the list of donors. The Queen contributed "The Early Years of the Prince Consort," with her autograph appended to the inscription ''Presented to the city of Chicago toward the formation of a public library, after the fire of 1871, as a mark of English sympathy, by her majesty, Queen Victoria." In January, J 872, prominent citizens of Chicago held a meeting in old Plymouth church to discuss the enterprise, at which Mayor Medill presided and Thomas lioyne was appointed chairman of a committee to prepare a free library bill and present it to the legislature. This measure became a law March 7,

1S72, although there is some dispute as to whether the Hoyne bill was the first one introduced into the Illinois legislature for the establishment of free libraries in the state. As the books were received from England, they were stored in an iron tank, around which was built the temporary city hall, or Rookery, corner of LaSalle and Adams streets. In the second story of this building a public reading room was opened January i, 1873, with addresses by Mayor Medill, President Hoyne and others, and placed in charge of William B. Wickersham, the secretary of the board. Mr. Wickersham, who died in October, 1908, had held that office continuously and was the Nestor of the officials connected with the Chicago public library.

In October of that year Dr. William F. Poole was called from Cincinnati, whose public library he had established and developed for the four previous years, and placed in charg-e of the Chicago enterprise. His talents as a librarian had been evinced even when he was a student at Yale, when he also laid the foundation of "Poole's Index to Periodical Literature." He afterward served for thirteen years as librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, whose collection was the largest in the Hub, and at the conclusion of that service established himself as an expert in the organization and management of libraries. In this capacity, during the five years which preceded his noteworthy Chicago career, he had organized, re-arranged or catalogued the Brown library at Waterbury, Connecticut, the Naval Academy library, at Annapolis, Maryland, the Newton and Easthampton libraries of iVIassachusetts, the Athenseum library of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and the Cincinnati public library. He entered upon his duties in this city on the ist of January, 1874, and retired August i, 1887, to give the balance of his life to the founding of the Newberry library of Chicago. When the public library was first thrown open it contained about 17,000 volumes, and when Dr. Poole retired thirteen years later it had on its shelves, or in general circulation, not far from 125,000. Both scholarly and genial in temperament, a master of both the practical details and the science of library administration, he received the strong support of the intelligent and wealthy men of the city, as well as of the great reading public. And while this splendid enterprise was thus progressing under his guiding hand and brain, the services of Dr. Poole as a consultant were in demand everywhere in the United States where libraries were to be founded or improved.

Chicago And Cook Couxtv 133

and his writings on the organization and management oi pnhlic Hbraries are still standards of the world. lie was honored with the presidency of the American Library Association, received the degree of LL. D. from the Northwestern University, and when he passed directly from the librarianship of the city institution to that of the Newberry library he was one of the foremost of his profession in the world. At the time of his death, March i, 1894. he had placed the latter great collection of reference literature on a practical working basis, and Chicago is indebted to him more than to any other one man for the broad and free facilities now enjoyed by its people in the acquisition both of solid knowledge and intellectual culture.

From the old Rookery building the city library was removed in 1874, to rooms at the corner of Wabash avenue and Madison street; after several years it was again transferred to the Dickey building. Lake and Dearborn streets; in 1887 to the fourth story of the new city hall on LaSalle street, and ten years later (October 11. 1897) to the magnificent structure on Michigan avenue, occupying the site of the old Dearborn park. It was erected at a cost of more than $2,000,- 00b, and both in its interior embellishments and practical arrangements is considered one of the American models. Dr. Poole's resignation occurred soon after the library had been fairly established in its city hall quarters, his successor being Frederick H. Hild, who had also entered the library service in 1874, and who had been assistant librarian for many years. Mr. Ilild is still its head and during his twenty-one years of able and popular administration the library has increased three-fold, now numbering over 350,000 volumes. To facilitate the delivery of books, seventy stations have been established in various sections of the city. There are also ten branch reading rooms and a branch library (Blackstone memorial) at Forty-ninth street and Lake avenue.

The Newberry library was founded on the munificent gift of $2,149,000 made by the laic Walter L. Newberry, who died November 6, 1868, leaving one-half of his estate for the

When Mrs. Newberry, the widow and only surviving heir, died in 1885, the executors commenced active steps to carry out the provisions of the will. As the larger portion of the estate was in real estate, the available fund has constantly increased in value. On the ist of July, 1887, the trustees laid the ground work of the institution by christening it the Newberry library, and decided that its books should be for reference only and be consulted solely on the premises. Although steps were taken for the. erection of a permanent building in 1888, the library occupied temporary quarters on the north side for six years. Its present site on Walton place, opposite Washington square, was the historic "Ogden block," and was selected in 1889. A massive building of gray granite was commenced in the fall of 1890 and virtually completed three years later. It is four stories in height, covers half a block, and houses books and pamphlets to the number of nearly a quarter of a million. It is particularly rich in historical and art literature. For years it also contained a large medical department, but this is now installed in the Crerar library. Dr. Poole, who had conducted the work of collecting and organizing the library through its various removals and other discouragements of the preliminary steps, lived happily to see the completed structure in all its grandeur and completeness. As his experience and thorough knowledge extended to the construction of library buildings, the Newberry structure (and to a great extent the Public library building) was mainly his creation, as well as the systems by which its contents were classified and catalogued. Dr. Poole was succeeded by John Vance Cheney, the present librarian, who, although born in New York, where for a year he was a practicing attorney, had been for seven years librarian of the San Francisco public library and a litterateur of standing before he made a reputation as a librarian. He has since increased his reputation in both fields. The president of the Newberry library is E. W. Blatchford, who was one of the original trustees of the Newberry estate. He was a personal friend of the founder and from first to last has stood by the enterprise, his ceaseless work and his wise counsel having always been esteemed as among its strongest assets.

experience as the Newberry, its advancement being retarded for two years by the efforts of the heirs to break the will. The decisions of the circuit, appellate and supreme courts sustained its validity, aiid the library has since steadily increased in size and working efficiency. Like the Newberry library, it is purely for reference, but its collection of some 220,000 volumes and 50,000 pamphlets relate chiefly to social and physical subjects, and the natural and medical sciences. The department of medical science, long a strong feature of the Newberry library, is now a portion of the John Crerar library, being logically related to the designed scope of the latter institution. The quarters occupied by the Crerar library in the Marshall Field building have always been considered temporary, and there is every likelihood that its permanent home will be on the Lake Front and stand in Grant park as a companion piece to the Art Institute and the Field Museum of Natural History.

c collections of books, maps, pamtmgs and mementoes arc designed to chietly refer to local history, but with the expansion of Chicago from a small to a great city and from a metropolis to cosmopolis, the scope of the society which would fairly represent it broadened in proportion. Organized April 24, 1856, its original constitution allowed considerable latitude for future developments, providing for not only the collection of material illustrating the settlement and growth of Chicago and the investigation of the aboriginal remains within the state, but for the founding of a general collection of books, manuscripts, docmiients, relics and antiquities. The most prominent citizens of Chicago were connected with it, and many of them gave it their liberal support. Walter L. Newberry, one of its earliest members, furnished a large room in a building belonging to him at the corner of Wells and Kinzie streets, and its 13,000 volumes were stored therein during 1858. The col- lection constantly increased during the following decade, both from local donations and outside accessions. Among its most liberal gifts was the bequest from the estate of Henry D. Gilpin, of Philadelphia, made in i860 and rendered available in 1892, by the death of Mrs. Gilpin. The entire fund had then reached an amount exceeding $115,000, the accrued interest of $60,000 being applied toward the construction of the present building on the corner of Dearborn avenue and Ontario street. Another bequest, which greatly facilitated the erection of the building' now occupied, was that of John Crerar, one of its members, amounting to $25,000. In 1868 the Chicago Historical Society took possession of its first building, erected on the corner of Dearborn avenue and Ontario street, at a cost of $60,000. This was destroyed by the fire of 1871, with its library of 60,000 volumes, nearly 2,000 files of newspapers and many thousand valuable manuscripts, in the last named class being the original draft of President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation. Although stunned by this blow, the society gathered the nucleus of another library within the succeeding three years, only to lose it in the fire of 1874. All that was then left of its original treasures comprised a catalogue of the books, and a few portraits and records. Under the presidency of Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, the enterprise was revived and fifteen members of the society contributed funds for the erection of a temporary building on Dearborn avenue, which was occupied from October, 1877, to August, 1892, when it was demolished to make room for the present building. The nucleus of the society's third library consisted of about two hundred books, which were removed from the ofBce of E. H. Sheldon, its former president and faithful patron, to the Ashland block, and after being stored there for some time were transferred to the old building on Dearborn avenue. In 1878 the society received a remarkable addition to its collections as a bequest from Mrs. Elizabeth E. Atwater, a former resident of Chicago, who died at Buffalo, New York. The so-called Atwater collection consists of books and pamphlets, medals and badges, coins and paper currency and other relics, relating chiefly to the American wars. It is one of the most unique in the country. In 1879 Miss Lucretia Pond, a parishioner of Rev. William Barry, first secretary of the society, bequeathed eight valuable lots on the corner of Superior and Market streets and many rare books, maps and paintings. The proceeds from the sale of this real estate added nearly 1,500 volumes to the library. The most imposing work of art in the rooms of the society is the allegorical painting of the Chicago fire, which was presented to the city shortly after the fire by the London Graphic. With the opening of the fine granite edifice on the corner of Dearborn avenue and Ontario street, in 1894, the collections . were re-catalogued and re-arranged, and now form not only a remarkably complete exposition of local and northwestern history, but an attractive museum and portrait gallery, all free to the public. The library proper now comprises 40,000 volumes and 75,000 pamphlets, and a large collection of maps, views and manuscripts covering much of Americana outside of northwestern history.

There are libraries scattered throughout the city of a less public character than those mentioned. The Academy of Sciences library in Lincoln park is rich in the literature of the natural sciences, especially zoology, while of the university libraries that of the University of Chicago takes the lead; in fact, with its 460,000 volumes and 170,000 pamphlets, it is the largest in Chicago. A good scientific library is connected with the Field Museum at Jackson park, and the Ryerson library, although primarily for the students of the Art Institute, is practically a free reference library on fine art. The theological, law and medical libraries, connected with various institutions and societies, are more exclusive in their character, although often consulted by the non-professional. The library connected with the Chicago Law Institute, comprising 40,000 volumes, is one of the most complete in the country, but is exclusively for the use of the legal profession. The Western Society of Engineers also has a good library, being principally for its members, but opened to the public during the day.

of the citv, who were also enthusiasts in other sciences than their own, and by several public-spirited business men. including E. W. Blatchford. whose record as a supporter of the higher educational movements in Chicago has not been excelled. The pioneer members subscribed about $1,500 toward the establishment of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and a room was engaged in the old Saloon building, but tlie panic of 1857 and the hard times of the succeeding two years put a temporary quietus to the ambitions of the institution. In the meantime a new force in the person of Robert Kennicott, son of Dr. John A. Kennicott, had come into the affairs of the Academy. Since early boyhood he had shown a burning enthusiasm and a decided genius for investigations in natural science, and, as he had been consistently encouraged by his scholarly father, his exploring expeditions had increased in range and importance. By the time he was twenty-four he had largely traveled over the northwest and had done a great work in arranging and classifying his specimens. It had long been a favorite idea with him to build up a museum of natural history in Chicago, and it was largely through his valuable contributions, in connection with the improved financial conditions, that the enterprise was firmly established. In the year of its incorporation under its present name (1859) Mr. Kennicott led an exploring expedition into British and Russian North America, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. The field of his three years' work stretched from Hudson's Bay to Bering Strait, and, under an agreement with the Smithsonian Institution, he presented the Chicago Academy of Sciences with a full series of these remarkable specimens. Under the impetus of this generous- donation the academy was re-organized under a new charter, in 1862, and Mr. Kennicott was appointed the first director of its museum. The specimens were arranged by him in rooms provided for the purpose in the old Metropolitan building, corner of Randolph and LaSalle streets, and, with constant additions made by the members of the revived academy, within the three succeeding years, formed a very respectable basis for a museum of natural history. In the original collection was also included Mr. Kennicott's specimens so broadly representative of the northwest, this feature of the museum having been continuously developed. To Professor Agassiz is also due much of the credit for the establishment of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, as he was present during one of its critical early meetings soon after Mr. Kennicott's return from his first northern expedition, and spoke in such warm terms of the value of the latter's labors that $60,000 was at once raised to make them a part of the history of the Academy. In March, 1865, Mr. Kennicott headed a party of naturalists for an expedition into Alaska, under the auspices of the Western Union Telegraph Company, the museum being placed in charge of Dr. William Simpson, who was also secretary of the Academy. While engaged in this work Mr. Kennicott suddenly died on the banks of the Yukon river, and Dr. Simpson assumed his labors in Chicago as a permanent director. Before coming to Chicago, Dr. Simpson had been connected with the Smithsonian Institution for many years and his authority was especially high on questions of zoology. He died in 1872. During his term of office the academy met two serious reverses. In 1866 a portion of its collection in the jMetropolitan building was destroyed by fire, and two years afterward it erected what was considered a fire-proof building on Wabash avenue, north of Van Buren. So secure was this building supposed to be that it became the favorite depository of special collections and private libraries, generally relating to the natural sciences. The result was that when the structure was crumpled and destroyed like paper by the fire of 1871, Chicago was almost drained of its educational resources in that field. The loss and the shock were so great to Dr. Simpson that they are thought to have hastened his death, which occurred in the following May.

After the fire of 1871 a new building was erected on the old site, but financial embarrassments brought about its sale in 1883. and for several years thereafter its collections were stored in the Inter-State Exposition building on the lake front. They remained in that building until its demolition in 1892 to provide for the building of the new Art Institute. But the Academy of Sciences was not long to be without a permanent home, for Matthew Laflin donated $75,000 in that year, to which the Lincoln Park commissioners added $25,000, and with these sums as the basis of a Iniilding fund the cornerstone of the present imposing structure (which fronts the main entrance of the park) was laid on the 9th of October, 1893. The subsequent progress of this institution has placed it among the strong educational forces of the city, and all those who are especially interested in the natural history of Illinois and the northwest make a generous use of the library and museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences.

tion material was laid m purchases 01 World s tair exhibits. Since the original organization of the museum, many expeditions have been dispatched to all parts of North America and other countries for the purpose of obtaining material for deposit and exchange, and many donations have been received from institutions engaged in similar investigations. The museum proper embraces collections of mammals and birds reaching many thousand specimens, a taxidermy two stories in height, a section devoted to North American ethnology, a herbarium of 260,000 sheets, and fully equipped laboratories and assaying rooms. That the title of the institution is not fairly descriptive of its scope is also evident from the fact that it has a remarkably complete library of 50,000 titles, and a well equipped printing office from which issue the publications devoted to the investigations and expeditions conducted under its management. The four grand divisions of the museum are those of anthropology, botany, geology and zoology. The Field Museum is, in many ways, a development of the World's Columbian Exposition, this being especially true of its management. Harlow N. Higinbotham was president of both the Exposition and the Museum, and Frederick J. V. Skiff, still secretary and director of the Museum, was at the head of the department of mines and mining of the Exposition, as well as deputy director general. He has since been the great organizing and developing power behind the Chicago institution, and has also become the greatest exposition manager in America. The superb building for the Museum, projected as one of the features of the Lake Front park, will be erected as a result of another princely gift from the late Marshall Field, who at his death in 1906 bequeathed $8,000,000 to it. Of this sum $4,000,000 is to be expended in the erection of a building and $4,000,000 for endowment.

those interested in the natural sciences. It has been one of the strongest of the local forces ever put in operation to dispel the delusion entertained by an ignorant few that Chicago virtually has no life except that which centers in its worship of mammon and its contributions to commerce, trade and the industries. Charles L. Hutchinson, for twenty-six years president of the Art Institute and since boyhood a resident of the city, once president of the Chicago Board of Trade, prominent as a banker, and also a cultured patron of education and art, speaks of this subject with the authority of wide experience in both fields. "Chicago," he says, "is a metropolitan city; therefore it is the center of many influences. Some of them are evil, but many of them are good. Morally the city is no ]:)etter or no worse than other large cities of the world. In speaking of Chicago one is more apt to associate it with things commercial than with things educational or artistic. You may assert without dispute that Chcago is a center of finance, a great railway center and a center of manufactures. You may also add that it is a center of agitation for the whole country. But there are those who would hesitate to call it a great educational center, or a center of art.

"Nevertheless, it is a fact that no citv in our countrv is of sfreater importance as an educational center than Chicago. When you take into consideration the unique position of Chicago and the great population tributary to it, you cannot overestimate the importance of all that is done in the city, be it in the world of commerce, politics, religion or art. You may also justly assert that Chicago is a center of art. An art center is a place where people come for inspiration and education; a place from which an artistic influence radiates; where a professional artist may gain a livelihood by following his profession ; where there are collections of artistic objects, and a considerable number of people who appreciate the good in painting, sculpture and architecture. Chicago possesses all these qualifications. I think all will admit that the center of art in Chicago is the Art Institute."

Although the Chicago Academy of Design was formed some six years prior to the organization of the Art Institute, in 1879. its membership was confined to the artistic element and the first has joined both elements in its organization with the result that it has accomplished the double purpose of inspiring and instructing both students and the people at large. In the conduct and development of this institution two men have stood from its organization as the foremost of its official workers in the practical and everyday management of its artistic and business affairs. William M. R. French has been director of the Chicago Art Institute since its incorporation May 24, 1879, and during the first three years also performed the duties of secretary. A Harvard graduate, he had practiced his profession of civil engineering and landscape gardening for twelve years in the east before coming to Chicago (1877) and becoming connected with the School and Museum of Art. When he assumed his official duties in connection with the Art Institute he was thirty-six years of age, and his assistant was Newton H. Carpenter, a young man his junior by a decade, who had received a military education at West Point, but had abandoned his ambitions in that direction, and for three years before joining forces with Mr. French had been in the employ of the Academy of Design. With the expansion of the institute's affairs, in 1882 the duties of the directorship and secretaryship were divided, and since that year Mr. Carpenter has devoted every waking hour to the latter office. Broadly speaking, for more than a quarter of a century Mr. French has practically directed the purely artistic affairs of the institute and Mr. Carpenter, those matters relating to its executive and business details. In both instances the well-being of the Chicago Art Institute has been the main purpose of their lives, and its fine standing is largely a monument to their faithfulness and ability. During the entire period of its life, which covers nearly three decades, the Art Institute has had but three presidents - George Armour, L. Z. Leiter and Charles L. Hutchinson, Mr. Armour serving but one year and Mr. Leiter only two years. It is Mr. Hutchinson's remarkable combination of business judgment, administrative ability, diplomatic tact and artistic culture which has generally directed the Art Institute along such an unvarying upward course that the 660,000 people who visit its museum represent the largest attendance of any other art museum in the country, not excepting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. New York and Philadelphia only established a school of art and design earlier than Chicago, and this fea- ture of the Art Institute is perhaps the most comprehensive, as it is certainly the largest, in the United States. The school of instruction includes departments of painting, sculpture, decorative designing and architecture. There arc classes for beginners and advanced pupils and. depending upon their occupations and objects, the 2,500 students are divided into day, evening and Saturday classes and the summer school. For the first three years of its existence the Art Institute occupied rented quarters at the southwest corner of State and Monroe streets, but in the spring of 1882 land was purchased at the southwest corner of Michigan avenue and Van Buren street. During the same year a brick building containing exhibition galleries and school rooms was built upon the rear of the property, fronting on Van Buren street, and in 1887 was completed the four-story building on Michigan avenue, which, four years later, was sold to the Chicago Club. The Art Institute had entered into an agreement with the directors of the World's Columbian Exposition to erect a permanent building in Grant park, on the lake front opposite Adams street, the city having contributed the site. Of the original cost ($785,000) the Exposition paid $200.- 000, the first, but only temporary, use of the structure being for the holding of the World's Congresses of Religions. The ownership of this palace of art was vested in the city of Chicago until 1904, when it was turned over to the South Park commissioners; its use and occupancy are vested in the Art Institute so long as it shall fulfill the purposes for which it w^as organized. A special provision was also made for throwing it open free to the public, three times a week - Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Until the transfer of the building to the park commission the support of the institute, amounting to some $100,000 annually, was derived wholly from dues, membership fees and voluntary contributions, but since that time that body has, by legislative authority, levied a tax iov that purpose, as well as for the maintenance of the Field Museum of Natural History, to be permanently located in Grant Park south of the Art Institute. This has been of great advantage, as the entire income has since been applied to the purchase of works of art alone. It will thus be seen that the Art Institute is largely a city institution, and constitutes by far the greatest artistic influence in Chicago.

league is merely advisory and is not vested with any municipal authority, its objects being to promote the beautifying of streets and public buildings and grounds, as well as to stimulate civic pride among private property owners, and bring about a general artistic improvement of the entire city. Since its incorporation the league has been a real inspiration along these lines, both to the municipality and the individual. All the efforts of private citizens, organizations and the municipality to keep the public thoroughfares clean are in line with the v/ork of beautifying Chicago, and have received the hearty support -of lovers of the city. One of the most practical reforms (unfortunately of short duration) was the placing of boxes along the chief business thoroughfares for the reception of newspapers and other litter.

When Chicago is considered as an educator of the mind, without reference to the esthetics of life; as a trainer for the scholastic and professional activities, her standing makes her one of the greatest centers of mental and practical force in the world, and her advancement within the past twenty years has been marvelous. As a "university town" the record commences with the establishment of the Northwestern University, under the auspices of the Methodist conferences of the northwest, in 1853. Although the first classes, under Rev. Clark W. Hinman, of the Michigan conference, were taught in Chicago, the following year (1854) the institution was removed to the quiet of Evanston, still the home of its College of Liberal Arts and its theological seminaries - Garrett Biblical Institute (founded in 1856) and the Norwegian-Danish and the Swedish Theological seminaries. The school of music, the school 'of oratory. Dearborn observatory, Orrington Lunt library and other institutions are also in Evanston. The schools of law, pharmacy, dental surgery and medicine are in Chicago, the three departments first named being installed in the old Tremont House, and the last named (known as the Northwestern University Medical School), with its affiliated hospital, is on Dearborn street, near Twenty-fourth. Both the law and medical scliools were founded in 1859, the former as a department of the old Chicago University and the latter in affiliation with old Lind University. In 1869 the Chicago Medical School became a department of the university, and as the law school was under the joint management of the Northwestern and the Chicago universities, from 1873 to 1891, it was known, during this period, as the Union College of Law. The Woman's Medical School, founded in 1870, was finally absorbed by the general medical department. The dental department was opened in 1887. Northwestern University now stands eighth among the great universities of the country, its total enrollment of about three thousand six hundred students placing it in the same class with the University of Wisconsin. The splendid settlement work of the Northwestern University is mainly conducted in the northern part of the city, with its four-story brick house, corner of Augusta and Noble streets, as the center, 'lliis is in the edge of the large Polish quarter and in the heart of perhaps the most densely populated district in Chicago. Open reading rooms, medical and legal bureaus, and all the other means provided for intellectual, social and religious improvement, are conducted by the "resident group" of the university, composed of educators and professional and public men and women, who are giving the utmost of their lives to this high phase of university work.

University of Illinois has also located all its professional schools in Chicago, because of superior facilities, a larger field and a location convenient to its "main source of supply." The former College of Physicians and Surgeons is now its medical department.

were at the head of the old university during the last years of their lives. Perhaps more than any other men, they stirred the mental energies of the city and centered them on the project of founding an institution of higher learning which should go far toward justifying Chicago's claim that her people were by no means given wholly to Mammon.

The first University of Chicago closed its work- in 1886, and within a few months John D. Rockefeller, the most munificent patron of the general education board, was considering the founding of its successor on a scale befitting the city. Since he came to his final determination to take up the enterprise, the university has furnished one of the most striking examples in educational history of the powerful combination of money and brains. In the fall of 1888 Mr. Rockefeller confided his project to Professor Harper, of Yale University, for whom he formed a great admiration, and finally entered into correspondence with Rev. F. T. Gates, secretary of the American Baptist Educational Society. In December of that year Mr. Gates brought the matter before the board of the society, which heartily approved it, and at the annual meeting held in Boston, during May, 1889, the society as a body resolved to take irrimediate steps for the founding of a well equipped college for the city of Chicago. Mr. Rockefeller at once subscribed $600,000 toward its endowment fund, its paymen'' being provisional on the obtaining of pledges amounting to $400,000 before June i, 1890. This was accomplished, and on that date the society held its annual meeting in Chicago, there adopting articles of incorporation for the University of Chicago. On the loth of September it was chartered under its present name, the incorporator? named in the charter being John D. Rockefeller, E. Nelson Blake, Marshall Field, Fred T. Gates, Francis E. Hinckley and Thomas W. Goodspeed. Mr. Blake had been one of the leading contributors to the old university. At the first meeting after incorporation. Professor Harper was chosen president, entering into his duties July i, 1891, and continuing them with a tireless assiduity and a wonderful breadth of judgment until his death, January 10, 1906. His prodigious work in the promotion of the university both in its material and educational development, brought him the admira-- uion and love of Chicago and the west, and earned him a high place among the world's foremost scholars, not only in the broad sweep of his learning, but especially in the field of comparative thcolog-v. Professor Harper was a great, strong man, and a deep, lovable character, an American ideal of a university president, and the $22,cxxd,C)00 which John D. Rockefeller has piled into the treasury of the University of Chicago since its organization eighteen years ago is largely a tribute to the personal worth of its late lamented president.

On July II, i8gi, the executors and trustees of the estate of William B. Ogden announced that seventy per cent of the portion devoted to benevolent purposes was donated to the University of Chicago, and it is expected that from this source half a million dollars will eventually be realized for the Ogden School of Sciences. Thus does one of the founders of the old Chicago University hand down his name and influence to the new and greater institution. Work on the first building was commenced November 26, 1891, and when the university was opened to students, October ist of the following year, its structures consisted of Cobb Lecture Hall and the graduate and divinity dormitories. Mr. Rockefeller's original donation of $600,000 was followed by his gift of $1,000,000, by which the boy's academy at Morgan Park was established and the Baptist Union Theological Seminary became the university's divinity school. In December, 1895, Miss Helen Culver of Chicago presented the university wnth property valued at $1,000,000, the entire fund to be devoted to biological sciences. The College for Teachers, now the University College, was established in 1898, and March 19, 1901, President Harper made announcements to the following effect : That the Collegiate Institute, founded by Mrs. Emmons Blaine, was to be the University School (School of Education); that the South Side Academy was to be one of the secondary institutions, and. with the Chicago Manual Training School, would be connected with the University School of Education, and that the two combined preparatory schools would be designated the University High School. At the beginning of the academic year 190 1-2 the freshman and sophomore years of Rush jMedical College were transferred to the university, and in October, 1902, the university law school was founded. At the death of President Harper, in 1906, Dr. Harry Pratt Judson was chosen acting president, and on February 20, 1907, succeeded to The full title. In the discussion of Dr. Harper's successor, several leading educators were mentioned who had not heretofore been con- nected with the constructive work of the university; but Dr. Pratt Judson had been one of the original faculty, as head professor of political science and dean of the faculties of arts, literature and science. He had evinced his abilities not only as a profound scholar, but as a broad and practical administrator of university affairs, and during Dr. Harper's last illness had faithfully and successfully carried many heavy burdens upon his shoulders. The final decision of the management, by which he became premanent head of the university, was generally deemed an act of wisdom, justice and gratitude.