Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1890 — IT READS LIKE FICTION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IT READS LIKE FICTION.

MARVELS SUGGESTED BY THE CENSUS REPORT. The Phenomenal Growth of Chicago—Population Which Increase* by Malttplicatlon.Not Addition—Doubling Bight Times in Fifty Tears—Living Chicagoans Hunted Wolves In the Present City Limits— The Great Fire, and the Wonderful City Which Resulted from It—Many Thiugs In Which the World's Fair City Leads the Universe.

ABLES of statistics have come to be regarded, and very properly it would seem, as the driest of all reading matteh. If any of l our readers,howlever,- in obediJence to a custom f which has assumed the force o f habit, have //“skipped” the 'two linos of figures given above and designed as a text, or more properly theme, for the present article, they will do well to look them over once

more and read them attentively. They are tho footings—the last unofficial —of the population of tho city of Chicago, taken from the United States Census Reports of the years 1840 and 1890, respectively. Between them lies an interval of only one half century—a half century of such marvelous growth and wonderful development as to well nigh make one doubt the evidences of his own senses, and imagine it a section of that long past ago when genii waved magic wands and palaces like tha.t of Aladdla rose to perfection in a single night. Chicago is at present, and for throe years and more to come will be, for that matter, a cynosure for the eyes of the entire civilized world. In 1893 the World's Columbian Fair will be held there, and all previous international expositions completely eclipsed. But amid the brilliancy and wonders of it all, the city itself will stand out as the greatest of all “exhibits.” Many pens are writing accounts of the rise and progress of the famous city, and many pencils depicting tho magnificent work of her architects and engineers, yet there seems no danger of the matter

being soon overdone, or the interest, of tho public becoming satisfied, much less cloyed. C-hicago began life as a city in 1837. It had a population of 4,170, which, at the taking of the sixth national census, in 1840, 1 was found to have increased to 4,479, or about 100 a year. In the fifty years which have elapsed since the latter date, it has doubled eight times, and left a margin of about 50,000 besides. Taking this item into account, its people have doubled every six years since! 1840. This advancement by a geometrical progression (by multiplication rather than addition) breaks all the records |of the world, and discounts the wildest dreams of all the enthusiastic bubble-blowers and boomers who in the past have predicted her mighty future. Chicago is now tho first city of the nation in point of area, the second in the matter of population, and the third in nothing of importance. The first white resident of Chicago was a negro from San Domingo, named Jean Baptiste Point au Sable. This Hibernicism has been attributed to one William Caldwell, a local celebrity of later years. Jean Baptiste w T as a politician, and that of nd mean order, so far as his ambition was concerned. His first scheme was to ingritiato himself with the Indians, become a chief, and, planting a colony of his own native San Domingoans, rule all as grand sachem, and attain perhaps to thle title of king. Falling in his ambition, as scores of would-be politicians have) before his time and since, he abandoned his cabin on the river, withdrew in disgust from the scene of his defeat, and ended his days at Fort Clark, now the city of Peoria. Aii Sable arrived in the summer of 1779: Before that time the site of the future great city had been several times visitecl. Probably the first man to arrive was a missionary priest, Pere James Maripjette, who came in 1673. Seven years later arrived ’an Indian trader, Robert C. LaSalle, in whose honor was named the street at the head of which the Board of Trade now stands. As LaSalle and his companion approached In an open boat, he exclaimed: “Already I see the countless millions who will tome time h habit these fertile valleys.”

Perhaps something of prophetic visioti was given him, and he saw a picture of what the swampy morass about him would be at the end of two centuries of time. In 1800, Illinois and Indiana vtere organized together into the Indian Territory, with tho seat of government at Vincennes, Ind., In 1804 a frontier military post was established at Chicago, and a block fort erected, and named Fort Dearborn, after Gen. Henry Dear-’ borg.c - • The same year came John Kinzie, an Indian trader from St. Joseph, on the Michigan side of the lake. He purchased and repaired the old cabin of Au Sable, residing there with his family. Upon tho breaking out of the war with England in 1812 tho Indians took to 'the war-path, and through their usual treachery succeeded iq massacring over fifty people at Chicago, including a number of women and children. In 1816 the fort was rebuilt, and occupied for twenty-one years. It was demolished in 13,36.. , ( A number of people are stiil living in Chicago who were there when it was incorporated as a city in 18,37, and there are a few much older residents. “Old settlers’ picnics” are annually held. There one may hear many amusing and startling stories of the olden time. It seems incredible, but it is true, that within tho memory of men now living in Chicago, where stately build-

ings now stand, wild animals were hunted and shot. In the early days tho prairies were infested with wolves, and wolf hunts upon ground now covered with fino residences are prominent among the memories of the early settlers. From 1840 the growth of the city was steady and rapid. In 1850 it contained 29,963 people, which, in the next decade, had become 109,206. The war proved a great stimulus to Chicago, not only adding to its population but vastly increasing its manufactories and commercial importance. In 1870 it had passed the three hundred thousand mark ind taken its place among the foremost cities of the country. i As the great civil war is used as a point of time from which the most of our people date and antedate events, so tfie Chicago fire has provided the £eside»ts of the city with a starting point from which all historical occurrences arid private experiences are reckoned. Great in her successes and triumphs, Chicago is not to be outdone even in her misfortunes. On the night of Oct. Bth, 1871, the kicking of a cow overturned a lamp In a stable in the West Division not far from the river, and kindled the most disastrous conflagration of which the annals of history make mention. The preceding day the greatest fire in the history of tho city had swept away several blocks in the West Division, but this had boen lost sight of and forgotten in the awful holocaust which ensued on the Bth and 9th. At midnight of that dreadful Sunday the flames leaped across the river and assailed the commercial quarter of the great metropolis. Despite the frantic

efforts of the brave firemen, its cor rse could not be stayed. It soon bursl all attempted bonds of restraint, and, like an insatiate demon, swept on, through blocks devoted to squalor, vice, and poverty, to the brick and marble palaces beyond. So rapid was the march of the fire fiend that within two hours long lines of magnificent “fire-proof” buildings had gone up in flame and smoke, and down in twisted iron and broken fragments of brick and stone. At 3 o'clock the Court House, with its invaluable records, succumbed to the enemy, the great bell pealing what seemed a parting knell as it went crashing down. From this moment the city was doomed. The fire swept on, crossed the river to the northward, and devastated the section lying along the lake for a distance of two and a half miles. As a spectacle, it was, beyond dotibt, the grandest as well as the most appalling ever presented to the eyes of mortal; From an elevated position the appear*

fence wa« that of a huge 3ca of flame, sweeping in vast breakers and billows over 'the doomed city. A square of substantial buildings would be submerged like a child’s tiny heap of sand upon the beach of the ocean. Often the de» vouring element seemed to the horrified spectators to take personal form, and sweep mockingly down upon piles o' massive marble, which seemed to disappear in the twinkling of an eye. Including streets, an area of three and a third square miles was burned over. The number of buildings destroyed was more than 17,000, while 100,000 people were rendered homeless. About 200 persons lost their lives. It is estimated that the actual property loss, not including depreciation of real estate or delay-, ing of business, amounted to nearly 5200,000,000, upon which comparatively little insurance was recovered. So remarkable is the energy of the people of the Garden City, that business was not long interrupted. Residences yere turned into stores, wooden buildings were extemporized, and before the first snow of winter*had fallen trade began to assume something of its wonted proportions. About three years later, July 14, 1874, another great fire swep?

over the devoted city, destroying sixty acres, or eighteen blocks, in the heart of the city, and about £4,000,000 of property. The “great fire” ruined thousands of people, and broke up and forever destroyed no end of happy homes. So far as the city was concerned, however, it proved a substantial benefit. The Chicago of ante-fire days contained many handsome and costly buildings, but they were interspersed with others of a poor kind, the entire effect being in no sense striking. The Chicago of 1890 is the finest-built city of America, and, many well-informed people say, of the world. Progress and improvement is now more than ever before the watchword. Buildings to which tho Chicagoan poirited with pride a dozen years ago are now being torn down, to be replaced with magnificent structures of from twelve to sixteen stories in height. In many regards Chicago leads all competitors. Its manufactories are enormous. It is the greatest grain, cattle, hog, cured meat, and lumber market in the world. As a railroad center it has no rival on the globe. Its system of parks and driveways leads those of the entire earth.

It has one great advantage over the older cities. This is unlimited space, which enables Industrious and thrifty workers of all kinds to possess houses of their own. The city at present includes 174 square miles within its limits and bids fair to extend them before many years have passed by. To enumerate the remarkable institutions of tho Chicago of to-day, lts 1,T00,C00 people, would require a volume or a long series of articles. After all, wrlt-

ingconveys but a poor idea of the situation. To fully appreciate or even realize the immensity and grandeur of the city by the lake, it must be visited by all who desire to keep, in any sense, abreast of the wonderful march which our civilization is making in these latter days. Dwight Baldwin. CmcAoo, 111.

THE DREAM OF LA SALLE

JEAN BAPTISTE'S CABIN.

OLD FORT DEARBORN, ERECTED IN 1804.

FORT DEARBORN, 1830.

A WOLF HUNT IN EARLY DAYS.