[1] In 1889 the total area (land and water) was increased from 43.8
to 169.9 sq.m.; in 1890 the land area was 163.49 sq.m.
[2] About 15 ft. in elevation; hence the possibility of the drainage
canal.
[3] Among the last are many swing and "jack-knife" bridges, bascules,
and a lift-bridge that can be lifted bodily 155 ft. above the
channel. Steam, compressed air and electricity are used as power.
[4] By 1900 almost all were being built of a length exceeding 400 ft.
[5] The highest value ever paid in Chicago for land actually sold,
up to 1901, was $250 per sq. ft. (1892); a few rental contracts have
been based upon an assumed higher value. A municipal ordinance
placing the extreme construction at 150 ft. was repealed in 1902.
[6] This is true of all the new large buildings. The "old" post
office, completed in 1880 at a cost of $5,375,000, was practically a
crumbling ruin within fifteen years; its foundations were
inadequate. Years were spent in sinking the foundation of the new
Federal building that replaced the old.
[7] Total excavation, 42,397,904 cub. yds.; of solid rock, 12,265,000.
[8] It has been conclusively proved that the Illinois is purer than
the Mississippi at their junction. The undiluted sewage of the old
canal drove the fish from, the river, but they have come back since
the opening of the new canal.
[9] The cut was almost entirely through firm clay. It was estimated
(1905) that the total freight handled weekly in the business
district was nearly 500,000 tons, and the subway was designed to
handle this amount when completed. The tunnels are 12.75 x 14 and
7.5 x 6 ft., all concrete. The cars are drawn by trolley wire
locomotives on a track of 2 ft. gauge.
[10] The Illinois Central enters the business centre by tracks laid
along the lake shore. Certain rights as to reclaiming land were
granted it in 1852, but the railway extended its claims indefinitely
to whatever land it might reclaim. In 1883 began a great legal
struggle to determine the respective rights of the United States,
the state of Illinois, Chicago, and the Illinois Central in the
reclaimed lands and the submerged lands adjacent. The outcome was
favourable to the city.
[11] There were 50 m. of them in 1904.
[12] Thomas Hughes was a leader in gathering English gifts for such
a library immediately after the "great fire." A nucleus of 10,500
volumes--7000 from England and 3500 from other countries, especially
Germany--was thus secured.
[13] In 1900-1904 the average freight rate per bushel of wheat to
New York was $0.04998 by the all-water; $0.10554 by the all-rail
route. In 1859 it cost $0.1575 to send a bushel of corn to Buffalo
by water; in 1890, $0.019.
[14] It has been above 1,000,000,000 ft. since 1870, and has in some
years risen to 2,000,000,000.
[15] This is for the entire Chicago customs district, including
Waukegan and Michigan City.
[16] The number of hogs packed yearly averaged 7,255,245 in 1900-1904;
the cattle packed, 1,955,765; the sheep shipped (partly live),
616,476 (one-fifth those received).
[17] _e.g._ in the most skilled labour, the speed was increased 87.5%
from 1884-1894. In 1905 a gang of 230 men would dispose of 105
animals hourly; equivalent to 131 minutes for one man in taking the
animal from pen to refrigerator; the average wage was $0.21 per hour
(highest 0.50) and the average cost per bullock, $0.46.
[18] Cook county is Republican in politics generally, the rural
districts being so strongly so as often to overbalance the normal
Democratic plurality in Chicago. Thus another ground of jealousy is
found In the distribution of county offices.
[19] An amendment of 1904 provided that the legislature should enact
the consolidation of the townships with the city in matters of
taxation, but no further steps had been taken to the end of 1907.
[20] The net revenue per million gallons in 1890-1899 was $35.04.
[21] Prof. C.D. Buck in _Decennial Publications of the University of
Chicago_ (1903, vol. 6).
[22] There was an insurance of $88,634,122 on the losses, of which
about a half was recovered. F.L. Olmsted estimated that one-third of
the roof surface and one-half the cubic contents of the city's
buildings were destroyed.
[23] Four were hanged, 1 committed suicide, 2 had their death sentence
commuted to life-imprisonment, the eighth was sentenced to
imprisonment for 15 years. 981 men were panelled in selecting the
jury. Governor J.P. Altgeld in 1893 pardoned the three in prison on
the ground that the jury was "packed" and consequently incompetent,
that no evidence connected the prisoners with the crime, and that
the presiding judge was prejudiced. See an article by Judge J.E.
Gary, who presided at the trial, in the _Century Magazine_ (April
1893).