“Chicago is wiped out.” “Chicago cannot rise again.” So said the newspapers all over the country, in October, 1871. And well they might think so, for the great fire of Chicago—one of the worst in the world's history—had laid low the city.

The summer had been unusually dry. For months almost no rain had fallen. The ground was hot and parched, the whole city dry as kindling wood. Then about nine o'clock on a windy Sunday night, the fire broke out in a poor section of the West Side. It seemed as if everything a spark touched, blazed up. While the firemen stood by, helpless to check the flames, rows of houses and blocks of factories burned down.

In a short time the lumber district was a great bonfire, the flames shooting hundreds of feet into the air. On and on swept the fire along the river front. Then the horror-stricken watchers saw the flames cross to the South Side. All had thought that the fire would be checked at the river, but the wind carried pieces of burning wood and paper to the roofs beyond.

The business section was burning! The firemen worked desperately, but in vain. Hundreds of Chicago's finest buildings—stores, offices, banks, and hotels—were swallowed up by the flames. The city had become a roaring furnace, and the terrified people rushed madly for safety.

Once more the fire crossed the river, this time to the North Side, with its beautiful residence districts. Here too wind and flame swept all before them till Lincoln Park was reached, where at last the fire was checked in its northward course; there was nothing more to burn. It had raged for two nights and a day, laying waste a strip of land almost four miles long and one mile wide.

Tuesday morning saw seventeen thousand buildings destroyed and one hundred thousand people homeless. The best part of Chicago lay in ruins. What wonder that men everywhere thought the stricken city could not rise again!

At the time this terrible disaster happened, Chicago had been a city for a little less than thirty-five years.

The mouth of the Chicago River had been a favorite meeting place for Indians and French trappers long before permanent settlement began. In 1777 a negro from San Domingo, who had come to trade with the Indians, built a log store on the north bank of the river. This store was bought in 1803 by John Kinzie, another trader and Chicago's first white settler.

The next year the United States government built Fort Dearborn on the south side of the river, not far from the lake. Though Fort Dearborn was nothing more than a stockade with blockhouses at the corners, a little settlement gradually grew up around it.

During the War of 1812 the Indians attacked the fort, burned it to the ground, and either massacred or captured most of the settlers while they were fleeing to Detroit for safety.

Fort Dearborn was rebuilt after the war, but settlers were slow in coming. By 1830 there were scarcely a hundred people in Chicago, then a little village of log houses scattered over a swampy plain. Fur trading was still the chief occupation.

A change was soon to come. The southern part of Illinois was by this time being settled and dotted with farms, and each year larger crops were produced. The farmers saw that they must get their products to the Atlantic coast if they wished to prosper, and the Great Lakes were the most convenient route over which to send them.

Lake Michigan extended into the heart of the fertile prairie lands, but its shores were almost unbroken by harbors. Men early saw the possibilities of the mouth of the Chicago River. It could be made into an excellent harbor with little expense, and if once this were done, Chicago would be the natural port of the rich Middle West.

In 1833 the government began improvements by cutting a channel through the sand bar across the mouth of the river and building stone piers into the lake to keep out the drifting sand. Vessels were soon entering the river instead of anchoring in the lake as formerly. Lake trade increased. More and more boats were bringing goods from the East to be distributed among the farmers of Illinois. The new harbor made intercourse with the outer world easy.

The growth of trade, however, was hindered by the absence of good roads. Farmers who wished to bring anything to the Chicago market had to cross the open prairie, which was wet and marshy near the town. Such a ride was an unpleasant experience, as often the wagon would stick in the deep mud, and the poor driver had no choice but to wait until help should happen along. Many preferred to take their crops to the cities farther south, where better roads had been built.

“We too will have roads,” said the people of Chicago, anxious for more trade, and they set about building them with a will. Soon good roads entered the town from all directions, and over them the rich products of the surrounding country came pouring into Chicago.

Business and wealth increased, and more and more settlers arrived. Most of them came by way of the lakes, but many came in prairie schooners, as the immigrants' great covered wagons were called. By 1837 the population had risen to four thousand, and Chicago became a city.

Its growth from this time was marvelous. Its location at the head of Lake Michigan, its fine harbor, the resources of the rich back country, all combined to make it the chief commercial center of the Middle West.

In the early days, when Chicago was only a tiny village, there had been talk of connecting Lake Michigan at Chicago with the Illinois River by canal. As the Illinois flows into the Mississippi, this would furnish a water route from the East down the entire Mississippi valley. In 1836 the canal was actually begun. A few years later hard times came, and the work was stopped for a while, but it was finished in 1848. This was known as the Illinois and Michigan Canal. It extended from La Salle, on the Illinois River, to Chicago—a distance of over ninety miles—and offered cheap transportation between Chicago and the fertile farm lands to the south.

Though the canal was a success, railroads did even more for the city. The year that saw the canal completed also saw the first train run from Chicago to Galena, near the Mississippi, in the heart of the lead country.

Four years later, in 1852, came railroad connection with the East, when the Michigan Southern and Michigan Central railroads entered the city. Other lines soon followed, and it was not long before Chicago was one of the important railroad centers of the country.

But while Chicago was fast becoming rich and big, it was not a pleasant place in which to live. The site of the city was a low and marshy plain, almost on a level with the lake, and the problems of drainage of such a location had to be met and solved.

In the beginning, to keep the houses dry, they were built above the ground and supported by timbers or piles. Cellars and basements were unknown, and the city streets were a disgrace. In spring they were flooded and swimming with mud. Even in summer, pools of stagnant water stood in many places. For years wagons sticking fast in the mud were common sights.

Cholera, smallpox, and scarlet fever swept the city again and again. People, knowing only too well that unsanitary conditions brought on these diseases, did their best to remedy matters. They saw that Chicago would be clean and healthy if only they could find a way to carry off her wastes.

First they decided to turn the water into the river by sloping all the streets towards it. Then came a severe flood which did much damage and showed the folly of digging down any part of the city. Chicago was too low already.

So the people hastened to raise their streets again by filling them in with sand, and this time they made gutters along the side to carry off the water. Heavy wagons soon wore away the sand, however, and the streets were as muddy as before.

Finally, an engineer advised the people to raise the whole city several feet; then brick sewers could be built beneath the street to carry the sewage into the river. At first many refused to listen to such a proposal. The undertaking was so great that it frightened them.

But as things were, business and health were suffering. Something had to be done, and at last the city determined to raise itself out of the mud, and work was begun. Ground was hauled in from the surrounding country, streets and lots were filled in, the buildings were gradually raised, and sewers were built sloping toward the river. It was a gigantic task and cost years of labor, but when it was done, Chicago was, for the first time, a dry city. It must be remembered that the area of Chicago at that time was but a small part of the present city.

Another source of trouble was the drinking-water, which was taken from Lake Michigan. The sewage in the river flowed into the lake and at times contaminated the water far out from the shore, thus poisoning the city's supply. It was therefore decided to build new waterworks, which would bring into the city pure water from farther out in the lake. A tunnel was built, extending two miles under Lake Michigan. At its outer end a great screened pipe reached up into the lake to let water into the tunnel. Over the pipe a crib was built to protect it. On the shore, pumping stations with powerful engines raised the water to high towers from which all parts of the city were supplied.

The first tunnel was completed in 1867. With the growth of the city other tunnels and cribs have been built, farther out in the lake, to supply the increasing need.

By 1870 Chicago had become one of the largest cities in the country. In 1830 the settlement at the mouth of the Chicago River had barely twenty houses. Forty years later it had over three hundred thousand inhabitants. The wonderful resources of the upper Mississippi valley had been largely responsible for the city's growth, and the rapid development of the entire West promised Chicago a still greater future.

Then came the fire, and to the homeless people looking across miles of blackened ruins it seemed that Chicago had no future at all. Had not the fire undone the work of forty years?

The first despair gradually gave way to a more hopeful feeling. Truly the loss was great—the best part of the city lay in ruins. But was not the wealth of the West left, and the harbor and the railroads? These had built up Chicago in the beginning, and they would do so again.

The rebuilding began at once. At first little wooden houses and sheds were constructed to give temporary shelter to the homeless. Help came to the stricken city from all sides. Thousands of carloads of food were sent, and several million dollars were collected in Europe and America.

Two thirds of the city had been built of wood. Now the business blocks, at least, were to be as nearly fireproof as possible. Tall buildings of brick and stone were planned. But such structures are heavy, and if they were built directly on the swampy ground underlying the city, there would be danger of their settling unevenly and possibly toppling over. So layers of steel rails crossing each other were sunk in the ground, and the spaces between them were filled in with concrete. Upon this solid foundation the first skyscrapers of Chicago were built.

To-day concrete caissons are constructed on bed rock, often from 100 to 110 feet below the surface, and upon these rest the steel bases of the modern Chicago skyscrapers.

Work went on quickly. In a year the business section was rebuilt. In three years there was hardly a trace of the fire to be seen in the city, which was larger and more beautiful than before.

After the rebuilding, the water question came up for discussion again. In spite of all that had been done to protect the water supply, the increasing sewage of the city, carried by the river into the lake, at times still made the water unfit to drink. The one way of getting pure water was to prevent the river from flowing into the lake. This could be done only by building a new canal, large and deep enough to change the flow of the river away from the lake. Such a canal was finally completed in 1900, after eight years' work and at a cost of over $75,000,000. It is 28 miles long, 22 feet deep, and 165 feet wide, and it connects the Chicago River with the Des Plaines, a branch of the Illinois River. A large volume of water from Lake Michigan continually flushes this immense drain, carrying the sewage away. The Chicago River no longer flows into the lake, and at last the danger of contaminated drinking-water from this source is past.

One dream of the builders of the canal has not yet been realized. They called it the Chicago Drainage and Ship Canal, in the hope that it might some day be used for shipping purposes as well as for draining the river. This cannot happen, however, till the rivers which it connects are deepened and otherwise improved.

Such has been the history of the growth of Chicago—to-day the greatest railroad center and lake port in the world. It is now the second city in size in America and ranks fourth among the cities of the world.

The port of Chicago owes much to the Chicago River, which has been repeatedly widened, deepened, and straightened. It is to-day one of the world's most important rivers, commercially considered. After extending about one mile westward from the lake, the river divides into two branches, one extending northwest, the other southwest. Many docks have been built along its fifteen miles of navigable channel, and its banks are lined with factories, warehouses, coal yards, and grain elevators.

These grain elevators are really huge tanks where the grain is stored and kept dry until time to reship it. There are many of them along the river, and they bear witness to the fact that Chicago is the world's greatest grain center.

In 1838 the city received only seventy-eight bushels of wheat. This was brought in by wagons rumbling across the unbroken prairie. Canal boats and railroads have taken the place of the wagons of early days and every year bring hundreds of millions of bushels of grain from the West to the elevators along the Chicago River.

Though much of the grain remains here but a short time and is then shipped to other points, a great quantity is made into flour in the city's many flourishing mills.

Of equal importance with the Chicago River harbor is the great harbor in South Chicago at the mouth of the Calumet River. Here ships from the Lake Superior region come with immense cargoes of ore. This ore, together with the supply of coal from the near-by Illinois coal fields, has developed the enormous steel industry of South Chicago.

Vast quantities of steel are turned out. Some of this is shipped to foreign countries, but most of it is used in Chicago's many foundries for the making of all kinds of iron and steel articles, in the city's immense farm-tool factories, and in the shipyards for building large steamships.

Close to the water front, too, are extensive lumber yards, for Chicago is the largest lumber market in the United States. Here boats can be seen unloading millions of feet of timber from the great forests of Michigan and Wisconsin, sent to Chicago's lumber yards to be distributed far and wide over the country. Large quantities are also taken to the factories in the city, to be cut and planed and made into doors, window frames, furniture, and practically everything that can be made of wood.

In addition to her inner harbors, Chicago has a fine outer harbor. This is now being enlarged by the extension of its breakwaters, and a $5,000,000 pier is under construction which will be more than half a mile in length and will greatly increase the shipping facilities.

With all these advantages as a shipping point, thousands of vessels come to Chicago every year. Steamers connect it with the states along the Great Lakes and with Canada and the outer world. Its trade with Europe is large, corn and oats being the chief exports. New York alone in America surpasses Chicago in the total value of its commerce.

Of Chicago's nearly 2,500,000 inhabitants a large percentage are foreign born, Germans, Poles, Irish, and Jews having settled here in great numbers. About forty languages are spoken, and newspapers are regularly published in ten of them.

With its suburbs, Chicago stretches nearly 30 miles along the shore of Lake Michigan and reaches irregularly inland about 10 miles. The city limits inclose an area of over 191 square miles, which the two branches of the Chicago River cut into three parts, known as the South, West, and North sides. The three divisions of the city are connected by bridges and by tunnels under the river.

Though business is spreading to the West Side, the central business section is still on the South Side and extends from the Chicago River beyond Twenty-sixth Street. Most of the great wholesale and retail houses, banks, theaters, hotels, and public buildings are crowded into this area, and here is the largest department store in the world, in which over 9000 people work. The automobile industry alone occupies nearly all of Michigan Avenue for two miles south of Twelfth Street.

Surrounding this crowded business section are most of the terminals of Chicago's many railroads. These connect the city with New York, Boston, and Philadelphia in the East; with New Orleans, Galveston, and Atlanta in the South; as well as with San Francisco and the other large cities of the West. The courthouse and city hall and the new Northwestern Railway Station are among the city's finest buildings.

Elevated railways and a freight subway have been built in recent years and have somewhat relieved the crowded condition of the streets. This subway, opened in 1905, connects with all the leading business and freight houses, and carries coal, ashes, garbage, luggage, and heavy materials of every kind to and from them.

Five miles southwest of the city hall are the Union Stockyards, the greatest market of any kind in the world, covering about five hundred acres. When Chicago was only a small village, herds of cattle were driven across the prairies to be slaughtered in the little packing houses which grew up along the Chicago River. As the raising of cattle and hogs increased in the state, most of them were sent to the Chicago market, and the stockyards continued to develop until to-day they can hold more than four hundred thousand animals at once.

Near the yards are the famous packing houses of Chicago, where over two thirds of the cattle, hogs, and sheep received in the city are slaughtered and prepared for shipping. The use, during the last forty years, of refrigerator cars has made possible the sending of dressed meats to far-distant points, and a great increase in Chicago's packing business has resulted.

Beef, pork, hams, and bacon from Chicago are eaten in every town and city of America and in many parts of Europe. Other products are lard, soups, beef extracts, soap, candles, and glue, for every bit of the slaughtered animal is turned into use.

In a district of South Chicago, known as Pullman, are the shops of the Pullman Palace Car Company and the homes of its army of workmen. Cars of all sorts are manufactured by the Pullman company, which owns and operates the dining and sleeping cars on most American railroads.

There is no one striking residence quarter in Chicago, but beautiful homes are found in many parts of the city. Among the finest streets are Lake Shore Drive, along the lake front on the North Side, and Drexel and Grand avenues.

The parks of Chicago are nearly one hundred in number, the most important being Lincoln, Washington, Humboldt, Garfield, Douglas, and Jackson. These are connected by boulevards, or parkways, forming a great park system, sixty miles in length, which encircles the central part of the city. Lincoln Park borders the lake on the North Side and covers hundreds of acres, its area having been doubled by filling in along the shores of the lake. Jackson Park, on the lake shore of the South Side, was the site of the World's Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America. This park is connected with Washington Park by what is known as the Midway. Grant Park has been recently constructed on made land facing the central business portion of the city. Here is to be located the Field Museum of Natural History.

Bordering the Midway are the fine stone buildings of The University of Chicago, opened in 1892. Its growth, like that of Chicago, has been marvelous. Already it is one of the largest universities of the country.

But with all its parks, its boulevards, its splendid water front, and its many other advantages, the people of Chicago are not yet satisfied. To-day they are working to carry out a splendid plan which will give the city more and larger parks and playgrounds, better and wider streets, and a really wonderful harbor. All this is being done “that by properly solving Chicago's problems of transportation, street congestion, recreation, and public health, the city may grow indefinitely in wealth and commerce and hold her position among the great cities of the world.”

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. Tell what you can of Chicago's early history.

2. What great disaster befell Chicago in 1871?

3. Give five causes for the wonderful growth of Chicago.

4. What part has the Chicago River played in the development of the city?

5. Describe a grain elevator. Why are they necessary in handling grain?

6. Name the advantages which Chicago enjoys on account of its location.

7. What are the great wheat-growing states of the United States?

8. Give reasons for the development of the following industries in Chicago:

Iron and steel industries

Meat packing

Lumber trade

9. What are the advantages of water transportation over rail transportation?

10. In what respects is rail transportation better than water transportation?

11. Why was Chicago willing to spend millions of dollars to improve her water supply? How was this done?

12. Where are the workers secured to carry on the great industries of Chicago?

13. Make a table, by measurement of a map of the United States, showing the distance from Chicago to the following places:

New York City	Denver
Boston	Seattle
Washington, D.C.	San Francisco
New Orleans	St. Louis

14. In what respects does Chicago stand first of American cities, and in what two things does she lead the world?

15. Compare Chicago and New York as to exports and value of commerce.

16. What is the benefit of parks to a city? What has Chicago done to make her parks among the best in this country?

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