LAWRENCE J. GUTTER 
 
 Collection of Chicogoono 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 AT CHICAGO 
 
 The University Library 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 CARLI: Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois 
 
 http://archive.org/details/heartofchicagoOOhead 
 

 ., 
 
 
THE 
 
 New England Magazine 
 
 New Series. 
 
 JULY, 1892. 
 
 Vol. VI. No. 5. 
 
 THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 By Franklin H. Head. 
 
 HEN the trav- 
 eller approach- 
 es the city of 
 London, the first 
 object which 
 meets his gaze, 
 in surveying it 
 from a distance, 
 is the stately 
 dome of St. 
 Paul's Cathed- 
 ral. A nearer 
 approach brings 
 into view the 
 less stately tem- 
 ples and public 
 buildings, the 
 of Parliament and Westminster 
 In approaching Paris, the most 
 conspicuous objects are the towers of 
 
 Tower of the Auditorium. 
 
 House 
 Abbey. 
 
 pie of the Muses and Graces which the 
 world has seen, in its hotel and office 
 annex, is made to subserve the purposes 
 of commerce. The contrast is thus strik- 
 ing and significant, illustrating the fact 
 that in the first development of a city, as 
 in an individual, business transcends in 
 importance the questions of religion and 
 art. We are taught that the body is of 
 small importance as compared with the 
 mind and the soul, yet the body is far 
 more clamorous in its demands ; and, as 
 neither a statesman, a seer, poet, nor a 
 human soul can be satisfactorily matured 
 without a body, material wants must first 
 be met. 
 
 Chicago is a city of magnificent dis- 
 tances, — its extreme length, north and 
 south, along the shore of Lake Michigan, 
 being twenty- four miles, and its width 
 
 Notre Dame and the glistening dome of varying from five to ten miles. The 
 
 the Invalides. Long before aught else is 
 visible of the imperial city of Rome, the 
 towering dome of St. Peter's arrests at- 
 tention. And so with most of the great 
 cities of the old world ; the buildings of 
 greatest magnitude and grandeur are the 
 public or government buildings and tem- 
 ples of worship. 
 
 In approaching the city of Chicago, the 
 conspicuous objects are the massive" tem- 
 ples of trade and commerce, the vast 
 warehouses for the storage of grain, the 
 lofty office buildings, or the great Audi- 
 torium, where even the most superb tem- 
 
 heart of Chicago, however, by which is 
 meant its business centre, is comprised in 
 an area something over half a mile square, 
 extending from the main Chicago River 
 south as far as Harrison Street, and from 
 Michigan Avenue west to the south 
 branch of the river. The city thus stands 
 in striking and absolute contrast to the 
 sympathetic and sentimental Mrs. Skew- 
 ton, who, as the readers of Dickens will 
 remember, herself admitted that she was 
 "all heart." Considered, however, in 
 reference to its accessibility by water and 
 by land to all the principal lines of trans- 
 
THE II HART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 Moonlight by the Lake Front. 
 
 portation, the heart of Chicago, like that 
 of the martyred Lincoln, is unquestion- 
 ably in the right place. 
 
 On its northern border is the Chicago 
 River, where are the landings of the 
 steamboat lines radiating from Chicago to 
 all the principal ports of the Great Lakes. 
 In its early days, before the city was 
 reached by railways, its business was 
 largely conducted by water, and South 
 Water Street, along the bank of the 
 Chicago River, was its first, and for 
 many years, its only business street. 
 On its west, south, and east sides 
 are the terminals of all the railroads 
 of this greatest railroad centre in 
 the world, so that the passengers 
 reaching the city by any method of 
 public conveyance are landed in 
 immediate proximity to the very 
 heart of the city ; in fact, the large 
 amount of room acquired for these 
 railroad terminals immediately about 
 the business centre has a tendency 
 to prevent its enlargement toward 
 the south, which would be its natural 
 direction of growth. 
 
 Many people unfamiliar with 
 Chicago are puzzled by the desig- 
 nations, " North," " South," and 
 " West Divisions " ; but these terms 
 will be immediately explained by a 
 glance at the map, which will also 
 show the location of the business 
 centre of the city. It will be seen 
 
 that the river, with 
 its bran c h e s, is 
 something like the 
 
 letter" Y," the main 
 river being about 
 three quarters of a 
 
 mile in length, when 
 it divides into two 
 streams known as 
 the North and South 
 branches. The ter- 
 ritory north of the 
 main river and lying 
 between its North 
 branch and Lake 
 Michigan, forms 
 the "North Divi- 
 sion." South of the 
 main r i v e r and 
 lying between the 
 South branch and the lake is the " South 
 Division," and the area lying west of the 
 North and South branches is the " West 
 Division." The heart of the city is in 
 the north end of the South Division. 
 This territory was entirely burned over 
 at the time of the great fire, so that 
 none of its construction dates back of 
 the year 1872. 
 
 As is the case in most large cities, the 
 
 
 ibSsW* 
 
 fjljfli: f. 
 
 to 'If.,. 
 
 tU-la 
 
 iSFltf 
 !t£_ejf 
 
 WmM 
 
 iJeilil 
 
 The W. C. T. U. Building. 
 
THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 553 
 
 different classes of business tend to segre- 
 gate and to concentrate in certain locali- 
 ties. Commencing at the north end of 
 the business district, South Water Street, 
 which is to most of the people of Chi- 
 cago, as well as to the strangers within 
 her gates, a veritable terra incognita, ex- 
 tends across the business district along 
 the side of and parallel with the river. 
 
 wholesale banana houses, a wholesale 
 house in this line indicating that nothing 
 smaller than a cluster is sold. The deal- 
 ers in oranges, in spring chickens of 
 all ages, in cheese and watermelons, in 
 onions and asparagus, in potatoes and 
 cucumbers, in game of all varieties in sea- 
 son and out of season, in strawberries and 
 string beans, in turnips, turkeys, and toma- 
 
 The Lake Front. 
 
 This street is almost entirely given over 
 to the sale of fruits, garden, and farm 
 produce. These products arrive in the 
 city partly by team from market gardens 
 in the vicinity, but more largely by rail 
 and water, and are delivered to the hun- 
 dred or two small stores on both sides of 
 South Water Street. This street is about 
 half a mile in length, and is at all hours 
 a most interesting and picturesque pan- 
 demonium. The sidewalks are packed 
 with boxes and barrels, among which 
 thousands of people elbow their several 
 ways, and the street is so filled with teams 
 that one wonders how any can ever be 
 extricated. There are thousands of small 
 markets and grocery houses in all parts 
 of the city, and from each of these places 
 come express wagons from morning until 
 night to distribute throughout the city the 
 South Water Street wares. Of perish- 
 able fruits and vegetables, nearly all re- 
 ceived in the morning are sold during the 
 day. On this street may be seen the 
 
 toes, in butter of all grades, from delicious 
 freshness to extraordinary power, in eggs 
 old and young, in artichokes, celery, and 
 pineapples, in peanuts and popcorn, — 
 here traffic side by side in interminable 
 confusion and endless hurly-burly. 
 
 The traders on South Water Street, in 
 addition to supplying the million and 
 one half people in Chicago and its sub- 
 urbs with their fruit, their garden, poul- 
 try, and dairy products, supply at least as 
 many more in the outlying towns, send- 
 ing the early products of the South as 
 far west and north as Omaha and Winni- 
 peg, and in like manner distributing 
 northern products throughout the terri- 
 tory between Chicago and the Gulf of 
 Mexico. Over fifteen thousand carloads 
 of California products alone were last 
 year distributed from this tumultuous 
 centre. Forty or fifty carloads of ba- 
 nanas are not an unusual daily delivery, 
 and on one gala day a year or two ago, 
 one hundred and fortv thousand half 
 
554 
 
 ////•; J IK ART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 bushel cases, each containing sixteen 
 theoretical quart boxes o[ strawberries, 
 were received. The word " theoretical" 
 is advisedly used, — the familiar claret 
 
 wpisr 
 
 it'll 
 
 . llliir 
 
 Marshall Field & Co.'s Wholesale Store. 
 
 bottle of Dr. Holmes, which harbored in 
 its roseate bosom " a dimple which would 
 hold your fist," being fairly distanced by 
 the quart berry box of to-day. In addi- 
 tion, too, to supplying from this point 
 the wants of the territory indicated, each 
 of the five great trunk lines between 
 Chicago and the seaboard sends eastward 
 a daily train of refrigerator cars, loaded 
 with poultry, eggs, butter, fruit, and other 
 
 perishable products, for New York, Boston, 
 Philadelphia, and intermediate points, 
 from this same crowded thoroughfare. 
 The next street south, is Lake Street, 
 running substantially parallel with 
 South Water, and this street is sub- 
 stantially given over to the leather 
 and hardware trades. 
 
 The office district commences at 
 Randolph Street, the next street south 
 of the Lake, and extends southward 
 to Harrison Street, occupying a large 
 proportion of the frontage on Dear- 
 born, Clark, and La Salle Streets. The 
 territory between Dearborn Street and 
 Michigan Avenue is largely occupied 
 by retail dry goods merchants and 
 dealers in fancy articles of merchan- 
 dise. West of the office district are 
 the wholesale merchants of various 
 kinds, although the wholesale grocers 
 are largely upon Michigan and Wabash 
 Avenues between South Water and Wash- 
 ington Streets, and the wholesale milli- 
 nery establishments upon Wabash Avenue 
 south of Washington Street. 
 
 In the district described are over 
 twelve hundred tall chimneys and over 
 two thousand steam boilers. A large 
 wholesale house or office building con- 
 sumes for heating purposes and the run- 
 ning of its elevators as much steam power 
 
 Among the Docks. 
 
THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 .>.>& 
 
 as a large factory, and in the 
 small business centre of Chi- 
 cago, nearly one million tons 
 of coal are annually burned. 
 Bituminous coal is sold at 
 about one-third the price of 
 anthracite, which makes its 
 use absolutely imperative, 
 and the careless methods of 
 burning this fuel have given 
 to the city an atmosphere 
 rich in unconsumed carbon, 
 and suggestive of Pittsburgh 
 in her grimiest days. Vigor- 
 ous efforts are now in prog- 
 ress to abate this nuisance, 
 and the workers in the busi- 
 ness district cherish fond 
 hopes of occasional glimpses 
 of the sun itself in the near 
 future. 
 
 The most noticeable fea- 
 ture of the heart of Chicago is 
 its size. The business of this 
 city, covering an area of one 
 hundred and eighty -one 
 square miles, is substantially 
 all done or managed in an 
 area something less than 
 thirty - five hundred feet 
 square. The city has some 
 thirty large banking estab- 
 lishments, nearly all of 
 which would be embraced in a circle 
 with a radius of nine hundred feet. 
 Within this circle, too, would be included 
 the principal office buildings. The con- 
 centration of business into so small an 
 area has its advantages in convenience 
 of communication, which seems thus far 
 sufficient to prevent its spreading to any 
 considerable extent to other parts of the 
 city. This concentration, however, leads 
 to excessive crowding of the streets and 
 sidewalks, amounting to a serious hin- 
 drance to travel. Compared with many 
 of the busiest Chicago streets, the most 
 crowded avenues of New York or Boston 
 are meagrely peopled, and those of Phila- 
 delphia are a desert waste. John Phenix 
 describes a densely packed crowd on the 
 San Francisco wharves to witness the 
 departure of the mail steamer, and men- 
 tions that much suffering was caused by 
 the passing of heavily loaded drays on 
 
 The Masonic Temple. 
 
 the heads of the people. Should the 
 crowd in the Chicago streets increase for 
 the next few years as in the past, this 
 human pavement of the chief thorough- 
 fares may be a necessity, thus doubling 
 their capacity. 
 
 After the great fire, the city ordinances 
 for a time practically prohibited the 
 erection of buildings exceeding four or 
 five stories in height, and the business 
 district was largely covered with struc- 
 tures of this class. The idea underlying 
 the building laws was that no building 
 should be so high as to be beyond easy 
 reach of the appliances for the extin- 
 guishment of fires. When the erection 
 of fire-proof buildings was commenced, 
 greater heights were allowed, and since 
 that time many of the buildings erected 
 twenty years ago have been torn down to 
 be replaced by the ten to twenty-four 
 story structures of to-day. In other cases, 
 
556 
 
 THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 whore the inundations and walls were 
 sufficient, additional stories have been 
 placed upon the older buildings. Within 
 the present year, some of the buildings, 
 which five or six years ago were con- 
 sidered the finest buildings in the city, 
 have been torn down, and the entire cost 
 of the original building sacrificed, that its 
 site might be occupied by a building 
 adapted to the present wants of the city. 
 Of the office buildings, the one known as 
 
 other points ship large amounts of grain, 
 yet the bulk of this grain is owned and 
 marketed by Chicago men and Chicago 
 capital. Omaha, Kansas City, and several 
 other western towns have vast establish- 
 ments for the curing and packing of 
 meats, yet these establishments are owned 
 in Chicago, and their products. are mar- 
 keted from that point. 
 
 Chicago is now and always has been a 
 city of young men. Even now, when the 
 
 ?;";''' 
 
 ilL m 
 
 
 State Street. 
 
 the Rookery is at this time the largest, 
 3,800 people being employed within it. 
 Several of the other office buildings house 
 2,000 people and upwards. 
 
 Chicago is the business centre and 
 commercial metropolis of more than 
 25,000,000 people, and it is scarcely an 
 exaggeration to say that the business of 
 this number of people is transacted upon 
 this space, 3,500 square feet. This is the 
 grain market ot the continent ; for, al- 
 though Duluth, Milwaukee, and some 
 
 city has passed its semi-centennial, very 
 few of its active men of affairs are past 
 middle life. In an article of this 
 character, it would perhaps be unwise to 
 speak largely of instances of individual 
 enterprise, but a few typical cases may be 
 mentioned where large success has been 
 achieved by wise management in different 
 lines of trade carried forward in the 
 heart of this city. 
 
 Mr. Potter Palmer came to Chicago 
 from Madison county, New York, and 
 
THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 oot 
 
 ""•; .... -' \n v' (v r>. ? ■ , j' r rs « v. 
 
 •„^FiS« ; --.■.'■' >S' ; ->:h'. : - v 1 ; rf'i 
 
 rii 
 
 k» lis 1 nwml iw' ; : ;^ ^ 
 
 , «a F u i,n 41. »^. |;_ rirf^-4n ^?; r ijL!l ' 'Ol^W 
 
 built up what was 
 for many years the 
 leading dry goods 
 business of the 
 city. Foreseeing 
 the future growth 
 of the town, he 
 retired from the 
 business some 
 twenty -five years 
 since, investing his 
 capital in Chicago 
 real estate. He 
 was the pioneer 
 in the construc- 
 tion of fine mer- 
 cantile buildings, 
 and before the 
 great fire was the 
 owner of many of 
 the finest build- 
 ings of this char- 
 acter in Chicago, 
 all of which were 
 then destroyed. 
 His enormous 
 losses in no way 
 discouraged him. 
 His belief in the 
 future of Chicago 
 real estate has 
 never wavered, 
 and the great for- 
 tune which he has accumulated by wise retirement from the dry-goods trade, 
 investments in this line is the best The business of his house is now the 
 commentary upon his foresight and largest of any mercantile house in its line 
 sagacity. Mr. Palmer was active and in- in America, the annual sales being nearly 
 fluential in securing the location of the $40,000,000, and this in a strictly mer- 
 World's Fair in Chicago ; and Mrs. cantile business. A single house in New 
 Palmer, as president of the women's York can possibly show larger aggregate 
 branch of this great enterprise, has dem- annual sales, but this house acts as the 
 onstrated that one who had heretofore agent for various cotton and woollen 
 been known as a devoted wife and factories in New England, selling their 
 mother, a beautiful and accomplished goods upon commission, so that the sales 
 hostess, and with active sympathies with of goods purchased by themselves and re- 
 all that is best in literature and art, pos- sold are much less than those of their 
 sesses a remarkable power of organiza- Chicago rival. 
 
 tion, which will be illustrated by the Mr. Philip D. Armour's name is fa- 
 
 grandest exhibition yet seen of women's miliar throughout the world as the great 
 work. packer of meats : but few people, per- 
 
 Mr. Marshall Field came to Chicago haps, realize the fact that Mr. Armour 
 when a young man, from a Massachusetts does by far the largest mercantile business 
 village, and was the senior member of the in the world. His yearly aggregate sales 
 firm which bought the merchandise and of packing-house products exceed S70,- 
 goodwill of Mr. Potter Palmer upon his 000,000. His customers are in every 
 
 BftMl. 
 
 The Rookery and Board of Trade. 
 
558 
 
 THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 city of every continent. In his office arc 
 a half-dozen telegraph Instruments, each 
 with its operator, and messages arc re- 
 ceived hourly from every principal mar- 
 ket in the world. In addition to his busi- 
 ness in meats, he is the largest dealer in 
 grain in America, and through the tele- 
 graph wires clicking constantly in his 
 office his linger seems to be upon the 
 pulse oi the whole commercial world. 
 
 Mr. George M. Pullman, a native of 
 western New York, has a name which is, 
 too, a household word with the whole 
 world of travellers, whose comfort he has 
 so long and ceaselessly labored to pro- 
 mote. The first inventor of a practicable 
 sleeping-car, he has given to the develop- 
 ment of his ideal the years of his business 
 life. His system of sleeping, drawing- 
 room, and dining cars is co-extensive 
 with the railway system of the continent ; 
 while not covering all the lines of railway, 
 his constant study to give to the travelling 
 public all possible comforts and con- 
 venience has compelled others to hold 
 
 have also erected within its border many 
 of its finest buildings. The wholesale 
 warehouse of Marshall Field, covering an 
 entire square, was built by Richardson, 
 and is the finest building of its kind in 
 America ; while the Pullman Building was 
 the first of the model office structures of 
 the city. 
 
 The successful business men of Chi- 
 cago are, too, as a rule, men of great 
 public spirit, active in the duties of citi- 
 zenship, and enthusiastic in their belief in 
 the future of the city. All enterprises of 
 public or charitable nature aimed at the 
 upbuilding or development of the city re- 
 ceive from them a cordial and generous 
 support. New York possesses im- 
 measurably greater accumulated wealth 
 than Chicago, having garnered, doubtless, 
 a greater number of dollars than Chicago 
 has cents ; yet it is easier, in behalf of a 
 public measure for the good or glory of 
 the city, to raise dollars in Chicago than 
 cents in New York. There is in Chicago 
 almost no inherited wealth. The capital 
 
 The Auditorium and Lake Front Perk. 
 
 their traffic by the adoption of his 
 methods. 
 
 The four citizens who have been named 
 have fitting place in an article on "The 
 Heart of Chicago," since they are not 
 merely among its most successful and 
 widely known men of affairs, but they 
 
 is thus far largely in the hands of those 
 who have accumulated it, and they seem 
 to realize that the city and its marvellous 
 growth and opportunities have been 
 factors in their success, and are willing to 
 recognize their public obligations. The 
 Armour Mission, with its Kindergarten, 
 
THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 559 
 
 Manual Training, and 
 other schools, wherein 
 thousands of waifs 
 have been taught the 
 possibility of a higher 
 and better life and 
 fitted for its attain- 
 ment, with its ample 
 endowment for future 
 work, will doubtless 
 preserve the memory 
 of its founder long 
 after his wonderful 
 commercial achieve- 
 ments have been for- 
 gotten. The new 
 University of Chi- 
 cago, the endowment 
 of which has been so 
 munificently com- 
 menced by Mr. 
 Rockefeller, has for 
 its site a large and 
 valuable tract of land donated by Mr. 
 Field ; while the hand and purse of Mr. 
 Pullman are ever open for every worthy 
 cause. 
 
 The owner of inherited wealth, as a 
 rule, feels less strongly than the worker, 
 his duties to the State, but even to this 
 rule Chicago affords some shining ex- 
 ceptions. The names of Peck, Mc- 
 Cormick, Hutchinson, and Ryerson re- 
 call to us young men inheriting ample 
 fortunes, who in older communities might 
 have been fops and idlers ; but who in 
 this atmosphere of enthusi- 
 asm and abounding life are 
 among the most public- 
 spirited citizens, acting upon 
 the theory that relief from 
 the necessity of labor entails 
 upon them the obligation to 
 devote time and energy to 
 the promotion of the public 
 good. 
 
 The architecture of the 
 business centre of Chicago 
 is not of especial excellence. 
 The building of twenty years 
 ago was of thick and sub- 
 stantial walls and deep -set 
 windows, the interior neces- 
 sarily somewhat dark and 
 gloomy. The latter idea 
 
 Hallway in Auditorium. 
 
 is to make the walls as thin as is con- 
 sistent with safety, the windows large and 
 numerous, and the interior as light and 
 airy as possible. 
 
 The concentration of the city's busi- 
 ness into so small an area has enormously 
 increased the value of real estate in this 
 favored locality. Lots upon the business 
 streets are usually from ioo to 150 feet in 
 depth, and, as a rule, prices are fixed by 
 the front foot rather than by the square 
 foot, as is the usage in some of our 
 eastern cities. It is but a few years since 
 
 Dinmg-Ro 
 
560 
 
 THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 Clark Street. 
 
 the first sale of land at $1,000 per front 
 foot was recorded, and the most hopeful 
 of our real estate dealers conceded that 
 the price was excessive and that it would 
 be long before this valuation would be 
 exceeded ; but within the last two years 
 several sales and leases have been made 
 based upon a valuation as high as $10,000 
 per front foot, and even at this valuation 
 
 Marshall Field & Co. 
 
 it is claimed that the property when im- 
 proved with the best style of lofty office 
 or mercantile building will earn a reason- 
 
 able interest upon its cost. High rentals 
 would seem to be a serious drawback in 
 lines of business open to general compe- 
 tition ; yet merchants appear to find it to 
 their advantage to pay the extravagant 
 rents necessitated by the high price of 
 central property, rather than to remove to 
 equally commodious quarters half a mile 
 distant at one-tenth the annual rental. 
 One reason of this may be that all 
 the four hundred miles of intramural 
 lines of transportation, in the way 
 of horse-car, cable, and elevated 
 roads, terminate in the business 
 centre of the city, and thus bring 
 the customers of the merchants from 
 all parts of the city to their very 
 doors. 
 
 In construction, no deep base- 
 ments or sub-cellars are practicable, 
 as the city is built upon land but a 
 few feet above the level of Lake 
 Michigan. It stands upon a bed of 
 clay of varying thickness and density, 
 which is a most unsatisfactory ma- 
 terial upon which to place founda- 
 tions. The best method yet devised 
 is to cover substantially the whole 
 area of the building with pads of steel 
 and cement. Steel rails are placed paral- 
 lel with each other and six or eight inches 
 
THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 oGl 
 
 apart, the spaces between them filled 
 with cement, another similiar course 
 placed above these and at right angles 
 to the first, and so on for four or five 
 courses. Buildings upon this foundation 
 settle but little and settle uniformly, so 
 that no damage is done to the walls. 
 The method used elsewhere • in swampy 
 locations, of driving pile foundations, 
 has not been satisfactory in Chicago. 
 The Government Building for the Post- 
 Office and Federal Courts is built upon 
 piles, and while it has been completed 
 for many years, is constantly settling, 
 
 greatest possible amount of room in a 
 given area, so that many of the lofty 
 buildings are as unpicturesque as a dry- 
 goods box pierced with holes for windows. 
 The Women's Temple, however, which 
 was the latest work of Mr. John W. Root, 
 an architect of brilliant promise, whose 
 early death was a public calamity, the 
 great Auditorium, the Venetian Building, 
 and the Masonic Temple are exceptions 
 to the general monotony, and examples 
 of possibly the best results achieved in 
 buildings of this class. The sky-scraping 
 buildings are now almost entirely of steel 
 
 Interior of Board of Trade. 
 
 and its absolute collapse seems im- 
 minent. A local statistician of unchal- 
 lenged accuracy has computed that, at its 
 present rate of travel toward China, the 
 highest point of the roof will, in sixty 
 years, be forty feet below the level of 
 Lake Michigan, which would necessitate 
 the employment of submarine divers for 
 the entire clerical force of the Post Office 
 and the removal of the Federal Courts to 
 other quarters, except during the trial of 
 cases in admiralty. 
 
 But few even of the latest office build- 
 ings have any architectural features of 
 excellence, the effort being to get the 
 
 construction, the spaces between the 
 thoroughly braced steel framework being 
 filled with hollow tiles, and the inner 
 partitions made from the same material. 
 This style of building is much less weighty 
 than those constructed of solid masonry, 
 a building twelve stories high carrying no 
 greater weight upon its foundations than 
 a brick or stone building of seven or 
 eight stories. This method of construc- 
 tion is new, and the world is waiting lor 
 an architect who will design a building 
 of this class which will happily illustrate 
 its method of construction, the present 
 idea being to simulate in these light and 
 
5 62 
 
 THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 Court House and City Building. 
 
 airy buildings the massive mason-work 
 of earlier days. 
 
 Within the limited area to which our 
 attention has been devoted, nearly every 
 imaginable business is transacted. Four 
 of the principal clubs, the Union League, 
 Chicago, University, and Athletic Clubs, 
 own their quarters in this district. The 
 Union League Club was organized with 
 plans similar to those of the New York 
 Club for which it was named, and has 
 given much attention to municipal affairs 
 in the direction of promoting honest city 
 government. 
 
 In addition to the national banks, a 
 considerable number of banks have been 
 
 organized under 
 state laws, w h i c h 
 are substantially the 
 same as the national 
 banking laws, except 
 that the state banks 
 issue no circulating 
 notes. The aggre- 
 gate deposits of the 
 state and national 
 banks at the date of 
 their last report was 
 something over 
 $208,000,000, the 
 leading national 
 bank alone owing to 
 depos i t o r s over 
 $29,000,000. 
 
 In the business 
 district are also the 
 publication offices of the different news- 
 papers. Several of the newspaper com- 
 panies own their buildings, and the latest 
 one completed, the Herald office, is con- 
 ceded by authorities to be the most con- 
 venient and best equipped newspaper 
 establishment in the country. Chicago 
 has long been noted for the excellence 
 and enterprise of its public journals, 
 there being none in the country which 
 display greater push and energy in se- 
 curing the latest and most reliable news 
 matter. It is pleasant to note also that 
 these purveyors of intelligence have in a 
 pecuniary way been liberally rewarded, 
 sundry comfortable fortunes have been 
 
 Twilight on Lake Michigan. 
 
THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 5C3 
 
 Interior First National Bank. 
 
 acquired by their proprietors. Mr. 
 Joseph Medill, the Nestor of Chicago 
 journalists, is the editor-in-chief and 
 principal proprietor of the Tribune, 
 which, in circulation, enterprise, and 
 earning capacity, is one of the first of 
 American journals. Mr. Medill has ac- 
 quired a competency in his profession, 
 and now spends much of his time in 
 home and foreign travel. 
 
 The Inter Ocean is also a paper of 
 wide circulation and influence, which has 
 long been edited and managed with sig- 
 nal ability by Mr. Wm. Penn Nixon. 
 The prosperity of the Inter Ocean has 
 recently enabled Mr. Nixon to transfer 
 much of his detail work to his business 
 associates, and, having taken as his 
 motto, "Inter otiuni cum dignitate," he 
 will doubtless hereafter, in comparative 
 ease, enjoy the rewards of an industrious 
 life. 
 
 Ex-mayor Harrison has recently pur- 
 chased the Chicago Times, being anxious 
 for new worlds to conquer, and hopes to 
 restore to this paper the prestige which 
 it enjoyed under the management of the 
 late Wilbur F. Storey. 
 
 Mr. James W. Scott, the publisher and 
 largely the proprietor of the Herald and 
 Post, by his admirable management and 
 his genial personality has obtained a 
 large clientage for his papers in a much 
 
 shorter period than is usually necessary 
 to secure the public confidence and sup- 
 port. 
 
 Mr. Victor F. Lawson's paper, the 
 Daily News, in its three editions, morn- 
 ing, noon, and evening, enjoys an enor- 
 mous circulation. Mr. Eugene Field is 
 one of its editorial staff, and by his quaint, 
 humorous, artistic, and breezy paragraphs, 
 in prose and verse, has helped to win for 
 
 Potter Palmer. 
 
564 
 
 THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 Marshal! Field, 
 
 the journal its hosts of friends and ad- 
 mirers. 
 
 Chicago is a city wherein are repre- 
 sented divers nationalities, and many of 
 these have papers published in their na- 
 tive tongues, with wide circulation among 
 their especial clientage. There are also 
 several religious journals, ably edited and 
 having a wide denominational circulation, 
 as well as sundry others depicting the 
 social life and gossip of the town, and 
 multitudes of weekly papers, agricultural 
 
 or devoted to the interests of special 
 lines of trade. 
 
 The city has also in its business- dis- 
 trict the general offices of all the great 
 railway systems west of Chicago, repre- 
 senting nearly one-third of the railway 
 mileage in the United States. Thousands 
 of clerks are employed in these offices, 
 where the transportation facilities for 
 twenty-five million people are regulated, 
 wrangled over, and controlled. 
 
 Chicago is the largest lumber market 
 in the world, and the offices of the hun- 
 
 life" 
 
 Geo. M Pul'man 
 
 Philip D. Armour. 
 
 dreds of lumbermen and lumber com- 
 panies are found within this same limited 
 area. Here, too, is the Chicago Board 
 of Trade Building, an architectural mon- 
 strosity, in and about which are hundreds 
 of offices occupied by the members of 
 the Board. Here is transacted the bulk 
 of the vast business of the city in grain 
 and provisions, as well as probably one 
 hundred times as much in fictitious trades, 
 through puts, calls, options, or futures, 
 through which instrumentalities the Chi- 
 cago man of speculative tendency gambles 
 in the specialties of the market, as his 
 Eastern brother bets upon the prospec- 
 tive value of railway or industrial stocks 
 or bonds. Near by are the numerous 
 offices of the Columbian World's Fair, 
 from which go forth daily thousands of 
 letters and circulars to arouse the in- 
 
THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 alio 
 
 terest of the world in the coming Exposi- 
 tion of the arts and industries of all 
 nations. 
 
 The arrivals and clearances of vessels 
 at Chicago exceed in number those of 
 the port of New York, although not equal 
 to New York in tonnage, and in the busi- 
 ness district are the offices of all the 
 great marine transportation companies. 
 
 There is but one church, the First 
 Methodist, in the business quarter, 
 although two other large audiences are 
 gathered each Sunday to listen to the 
 ministrations of Prof. David Swing and 
 Dr. H. W. Thomas in Central Music 
 Hall and in McVicker's Theatre. These 
 two brethren have been suspected of 
 heresy, as not subscribing to a belief in 
 the damnation of all unbaptized infants, 
 and other cheerful and comforting doc- 
 trines of the ancient regime, and are thus 
 outside denominational lines. It cannot 
 be claimed that Professor Swing attracts 
 his large and intelligent audiences by the 
 graces and charms of the orator. His 
 power is due to the fact that he has 
 something to say, that he is a genial, 
 wise, and scholarly teacher, and, as an 
 essayist and a man of letters, is unques- 
 tionably the first in Chicago and the 
 West. 
 
 The dozen leading hotels of the city 
 are also located in the crowded business 
 centre. No worker in this district has 
 time to go to his home for lunch. The 
 hotels, even when kept on the American 
 plan, have cafe annexes, and these, with 
 the clubs and scores of restaurants, are 
 thronged for an hour or two in the middle 
 of each day. Multitudes of saloons are 
 also scattered throughout this district. 
 The writer recalls reading in his youth a 
 book called " Riley's Narrative," wherein 
 were graphically depicted the perils of 
 the captain and crew of an American 
 brig wrecked on the African Coast, and 
 their fearful sufferings from thirst while 
 wandering over the great desert. This 
 book had a mission, and since that time, 
 even in a frontier town like Chicago, 
 there are thousands of people who have 
 forsaken other means of livelihood for 
 the purpose of opening resorts where the 
 agonies of thirst may be averted, and who 
 devote their leisure moments to the study 
 
 of certain recondite problems of muni- 
 cipal government. Even should Lake 
 Michigan go dry, no citizen of Chicago 
 need die from thirst, a parched and dusty 
 death. 
 
 In the same limited area are also the 
 half dozen principal theatres and opera 
 houses. Amusements both good and bad 
 are liberally patronized, but it is to the 
 credit of our population that dramatic 
 artists like Henry Irving and Booth, and 
 singers like Patti and Materna play longer 
 engagements and to larger audiences in 
 Chicago than in any other American city. 
 Like credit is fairly earned from the fact 
 that, as has often been publicly stated by 
 Mr. Phelps, our late Minister to England, 
 Chicago supports by far the largest and 
 most complete retail bookstore in the 
 world. 
 
 The City and County Buildings occupy 
 a square in this crowded quarter. Here 
 hundreds of faithful as well as unfaithful 
 public servants are busily at work, or 
 actively avoiding work, and in and about 
 the vast buildings throng the grim)i crowd 
 of idlers and vagabonds, to whom courts 
 and public offices are ever a fascinating 
 resort. 
 
 The enormous business transacted in 
 Chicago by its great jobbers of groceries, 
 hardware, and metals is familiar to all 
 those interested in such affairs. 
 
 The sales of the Illinois Steel Company 
 of its own product for the last year ex- 
 ceeded $30,000,000, the company pro- 
 ducing 1,000,000 tons of pig iron from 
 1,500,000 tons of ore, and of this metal 
 itself converted 800,000 tons into finished 
 steel products. 
 
 But it is useless, as well as almost im- 
 possible, to undertake to catalogue the 
 endless variety of occupations which are 
 represented in the heart of Chicago. 
 The writer confesses, however, to a novel 
 experience, on recently entering a small 
 shop where nine or ten men were em- 
 ployed, and learning that the business 
 carried on was solely the manufacture of 
 shoes for corpses. The proprietor stated 
 that he sold exclusively to undertakers, 
 who required a tidy-looking shoe, the 
 wearing qualities of which were not im- 
 portant. 
 
 The business centre of Chicago, until 
 
THE HEART OF CHICAGO. 
 
 a comparatively recent time, has been 
 
 largely built with borrowed capital. The 
 
 average Chicago man has been a large 
 borrower, believing that he could afford 
 to pay liberal rates of interest by reason 
 of the growth in value of his property. 
 The city has been largely settled from 
 New Kngland and New York, and our 
 kinsmen of those parts have been willing 
 to loan their capital for the purpose of 
 the development and upbuilding of the 
 city, so long as they could secure for it 
 better rates of interest than prevailed at 
 home. The maxims of the economist 
 are numberless to the effect that the bor- 
 rower is the slave of the lender, and 
 bound to be by him ultimately devoured ; 
 yet in the large majority of cases in Chi- 
 cago these maxims have been disproved 
 by the rapid increase in the value of city 
 real estate. Some years since, at a ban- 
 quet of the Real Estate Board, a well- 
 known operator, feeling that confession 
 was good for the soul, frankly admitted 
 
 Pullman Building. 
 
 that from the beginning of his business 
 career he had been lying incessantly as to 
 the prospective growth of the city ; but 
 claimed that the city had overtaken and 
 
 passed all his lies, and made them to 
 rank with the inspired prophetical books 
 of the Old Testament. 
 
 The business centre of Chicago is 
 bounded on the east by Michigan Avenue ; 
 and between this and Lake Michigan is a 
 strip of land 400 or 500 feet wide and a 
 mile in length, extending along the shore 
 of the lake, which is used as a public park. 
 The beauty of this park is sadly marred 
 by the continual passing along its front of 
 the trains of the Illinois Central and 
 Michigan Central railways. Negotiations 
 are pending, the result of which, it is 
 hoped, will be the moving of these rail- 
 way tracks eastward about 1,000 feet, the 
 filling of the lake to that point, and the 
 addition of this land to the present park. 
 This will be something unique in the 
 building of a city, and will give immedi- 
 ately, beside the most crowded business 
 district in the world, a spacious and 
 picturesque park, beyond which will be 
 the panorama of the lake, beautiful in 
 itself, and rendered more beautiful by the 
 continual passing of the hundreds of steam 
 and sailing craft on its bosom. 
 
 The growth of Chicago, and of the 
 manufacturing, commercial, and mercan- 
 tile interests represented in its business 
 centre has been phenomenal, and it is a 
 question of interest whether this growth 
 is to continue or has nearly reached its 
 limit. A city originates no wealth, but 
 lives by adding new value, either in labor 
 or transportation, to the products of the 
 fields, forests, and mines. The principal 
 business of Chicago is to the westward of 
 the city, although the states of Michigan 
 and Indiana are among its tributaries. 
 The country lying west, northwest, and 
 southwest is a region of unexampled fer- 
 tility. In any of these directions a per- 
 son may travel from 700 to 1,000 miles 
 beyond Chicago and scarcely see an acre 
 of unproductive land. In no other region 
 in the world can be found so large an 
 area yielding so rich a return to farmers. 
 The growth of a city is necessarily de- 
 pendent upon the growth, development, 
 and prosperity of the country tributary to 
 it ; and looking at the matter from this 
 standpoint, Chicago would seem yet to 
 have large capacity for growth. Con- 
 sidering the territory within 500 miles of 
 
THE MEANING OF THE SONG. 
 
 5G7 
 
 the city, to this time, not one-half of the 
 land has ever been ploughed or cultivated. 
 Outside this limit not one-tenth part has 
 ever known the labors of the husband- 
 man. The country tributary to Chicago 
 is increasing more rapidly in wealth and 
 population than any other part of the 
 nation, so that vastly larger numbers of 
 people than are at present resident in the 
 city can doubtless in the future find occu- 
 pation and business in ministering to the 
 constantly increasing wants of its tribu- 
 tary territory. The great improvements 
 made within the last generation, in all 
 
 kinds of agricultural machinery, enable a 
 single farmer to cultivate and care for 
 several times as much land as he could 
 have managed forty years ago, and this is 
 a large factor in the growth in population 
 of our cities as compared with rural dis- 
 tricts. A lesser number of people on 
 farms can produce the food of the world. 
 It would seem to be settled that hence- 
 forth an increasing proportion of our pop- 
 ulation will be residents of cities. This 
 appears from many standpoints to be an 
 evil ; but who shall say what conditions 
 are most fitting in these changeful days? 
 

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