It Employs About 70,000 Tons Of Shipping,
Nearly One-Half Being Steamers And Propellers.
The lumber-trade, which is
chiefly carried on with Buffalo, is becoming very profitable.
The exports
of Chicago, to the East, of bread-stuffs for the past year, exceeded
13,000,000 bushels; and a city which, in 1840, numbered only 4000
inhabitants, is now one of the largest exporting grain-markets in the
world.
Chicago is connected with the western rivers by a sloop canal - one of the
most magnificent works ever undertaken. It is also connected with the
Mississippi at several points by railroad. It is regularly laid out with
wide airy streets, much more cleanly than those of Cincinnati. The wooden
houses are fast giving place to lofty substantial structures of brick, or
a stone similar in appearance to white marble, and are often six stories
high. These houses, as in all business streets in the American cities, are
disfigured, up to the third story, by large glaring sign-boards containing
the names and occupations of their residents. The side walks are of wood,
and, wherever they are made of this unsubstantial material, one frequently
finds oneself stepping into a hole, or upon the end of a board which tilts
up under one's feet. The houses are always let in flats, so that there are
generally three stores one above another. These stores are very handsome,
those of the outfitters particularly so, though the quantity of goods
displayed in the streets gives them rather a barbaric appearance.
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