the West Side pumping works at the corner of Blue Island and Ashland avenues.

It is six miles long, and passes under and across the entire city.

THE CRIB.

July 25, 1865, the giant crib for the east end of the tunnel was launched, and, after being towed out to its destination, was sunk.

It is forty feet high and ninety-eight feet in diameter. It is built of logs one foot square, and consists of three walls eleven feet apart, leaving a central space twentyfive feet in diameter, within which is fixed the iron cylinder running from the water line of the crib to the mouth of the tunnel, sixty-four feet below. This crib contains 750,000 feet of lumber, 150 tons of iron bolts, and is filled with 4,500 tons of stone. In 1869 a new lake tunnel was built, and the capacity of the two is 150,000,000 gal✓ lons daily.

The largest engine in the world is one of the four that pumps this water from the tunnel and distributes it to the city. This was built at an expense of $200,000, and at each stroke it pumps 2,750 gallons of water, It is of 1,200 horse power, with a fly-wheel twenty-six feet in diameter. The four engines combined are equal to 3,000 horse power.

When the fire of 1871 swept away the works the water supply was cut off, but almost before the stones were cold the pumps were put in motion again, and Chicago was spared the misery of a water famine.

Last year the city used 24,150,943,884 gallons of water as against 15,346,922,158 gallons in 1876, which shows an increase of 8,804,021,727 gallons in six years.

and the Illinois and Michigan Canal widened and deepened so as to permit large vessels from the lakes to pass through to the Mississippi River. This was proposed nearly a century ago, when emigrants began to "go West" on the Ohio River.

THE RIGHT OF WAY.

In 1822 Congress granted to Illinois the right of way across the public lands from Chicago to LaSalle for canal purposes, having before obtained a strip of land for that purpose by treaty. A belt of land ninety feet wide on each side of the canal for its use was at the same time donated by Congress to the State of Illinois. In 1827 Congress donated alternate sections of land five miles wide on each side of the canal, the proceeds of the sale of which were to be applied to the construction of the canal.

William F. Thornton, Gurdon S. Hubbard, and W. B. Archer were appointed Canal Commissioners, with power to locate a route and proceed with the work. William Gooding was chief engineer. In May, 1836, Mr. Hubbard was able to present two plans for the work to Governor Duncan. One of these was for a ship canal and the other of less dimensions. The former was adopted, and in June the bids for the work were advertised for. July 4, 1836, the first ground was broken for the work at Lockport and Bridgeport, as now called. It was a great day for Chicago, and was so celebrated. Chicago went to Bridgeport to see the first sod turned in this work.

WORK BEGUN.

All

The work on the canal was commenced

THE CANAL.

COMMUNICATION WITH THE INTERIOR.

In 1836 there were two important events in Chicago. One was the location of a branch of the State bank here, and the other the ceremony of breaking the first ground for the Illinois and Michigan Canal.

The latter event was of vital importance to Chicago, and may be looked upon as one of the principal agents in pushing the city into prominent notice before the world. The railroads had not yet been thought of in this country, and the proposition to build a water way from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi was a grand scheme which attracted attention everywhere. This would enable the pioneers of the West to pour their wealth into the lap of the East, and would establish easy communication between the two sections of the country. It was a grand undertaking, and the original plan has not yet been fully carried out, and will not be until the Hennepin Ship Canal is constructed,

to get rid of sewage by means of the canal, donated $2,500,000 to deepen the canal so that the waters of Lake Michigan would flow continuously up the South Branch from the mouth, and through the canal to the Illinois River. This work was finished in July,1871. After the great fire the State Legislature refunded to Chicago the money she had donated for this public work.

STREET RAILWAYS.

EARLY MODES OF LOCOMOTION.

It is said that Chicago turned out in procession when Colonel J. B. Beaubien brought the first two-wheeled pleasure carriage to the town, and when Philo Carpenter and his bride drove down Lake street one day in the summer of 1834, it was an event not second in importance to the coming of the first locomotive fifteen years later, or the advent of street cars in 1859. The "one-hoss shay" and the two-wheeled pleasure carriage of Colonel Beaubien have long since gone, and to-day all Chicago, without regard to condition in life or purpose in view, goes by street car. The millionaire and the boot-black have like opportunities for hang

ing on by the eyebrows, and the society belle and the scrub-woman are crushed together in a heap in these most democratic of institutions.

Chicago goes to business and to the theater and rides more than twice around the globe every twenty-four hours. The witch that Mother Goose sent on a journey to the moon, and the man that Jules Vernes sent to the same place in a bomb fired from a mortar, could go by quicker time in a Chicago street car, if all in use were used as relays and stationed so as to get the aggregate miles traveled, in a direct line.

IF ST. LOUIS WERE A SUBURB.

And the number of passengers these cars carry every day would be equal to the entire population of St. Louis, so that it would not be difficult to make that town a suburb to

Chicago, carrying every man, woman, and child into town every day. The cars in a blockade would extend from State street to Oak Park.

But Chicago people did not always have street cars to depend upon. In 1833 they walked, and had no difficulty in going from the business quarter to the residence part of the town, except to get over some of the sloughs.

It is just a quarter of a century since the first street-car track was laid on State street from Lake to Madison. That was the beginning made by the Chicago City Railway Company in the fall of 1858. There were no cars run, and the short track was but a promise of what would be. The next spring a single track was completed to Twelfth street, and on May day the first car was run over this. It was an important event even at that time in Chicago's history. The company had five cars built at Detroit, four of them for two horses, and one for one horse. The schedule running time was twelve minutes. In July, 1859, the company completed its track to Nineteenth street, and a few weeks later to Twenty-second street, and along that street to Cottage Grove avenue, and on that to Thirty-first street.

THE UNITED STATES FAIR.

In 1860 the United States Fair was held in Chicago, and from Adams street to Cottage Grove avenue the line was made double track. The line on Cottage Grove avenue and that on State, north of Adams street, were left single track. In 1859 the lines reaching to the West Side were begun and a track laid on Madison street to Bull's Head, where the Washingtonian Home now stands. In 1860 a double track was laid on Randolph street west as far as Ann, and from there to the stables, at the corner of Madison street and Ogden avenue, a single track was laid.

The car stables were first at the corner of Randolph and State streets, where the Central Music Hall now stands. In 1861 the car stables were burned, and nine horses and eight cars were destroyed by the fire. This was the first street-car history in Chicago. It was then in the hands of one company.

In 1860 the North Chicago line was built by another company, and opened Aug. 26 the same year. There was a double track on Clark street from Kinzie street to Division,

and a single track to the city limits at Fullerton avenue.

The company had six cars and forty horses, and ran the cars every twelve minutes. In that first year the company carried 727,476 passengers. Now they carry 48,000 passengers every day, or 15,000,000 last year.

ON THE WEST SIDE.

Company

In 1863 the West Division was organized and purchased from the City Railway Company its interests on the West Side, and also certain franchises in the South Division. When the company started it had eleven cars; six on Randolin street, running every twelve minutes to Ann street and every twenty-four minutes through to Bull's Head. There were five cars on Madison street, running to Bull's Head every fifteen minutes, and through to Western avenue, where the beer gardens were then located, every half hour. The track from Bull's Head to Western avenue was a single one.

The beginning was not very great, but like everything else in Chicago it has had a surprising growth. Chicago has become a city of street cars, and there is no city in the world where they are so much depended upon. Everybody rides in these cars, and better humored crowds could not be found anywhere than are packed together in them. The crowds carried down town every morning and all through the day are one of the best indications of the growth of Chicago. There are now on every down-town street where car lines can be laid to advantage as many cars as can be handled, and yet not enough to carry the people who want

to ride.

A conductor on a box-car says "a load" is about eighty-five people. In that case at the busy time of the day, when people are going home in the evening, the West Side cars would carry nearly 20,000 people in an hour.

As to the miles of track in Chicago, there are fifty-seven miles in the South Division, thirty-five miles double track in the West Division, and fifteen miles double track and two miles single track in the North Division. Over these tracks the South Division run 300 cars, and send them out every two minutes on the State street and Cottage Grove avenue lines. There are 100 grip cars and 200 passenger cars, and they make an average of eight trips every day. The cable system is equal to 2,070 horses, and there are 1,000 horses used on the extensions.

In the West Division there are lines of double track on Madison, Randolph, Lake, Van Buren, Halsted, Canal, Indiana, Clinton, Jefferson, and Twelfth streets, and California, North, Milwaukee, Chicago, Ogden, Western, and Canalport avenues, and over these run 563 cars, with 3,038 horses. They make 2,738 round trips and travel 20,500 miles every day.

THE TIME SCHEDULE.

On Madison street the cars run every minute and a half, on Van Buren every two and a half minutes; on Milwaukee avenue Indiana street, Blue Island, and South Hal.

sted streets, every three minutes; on Lake and Randolph streets and Ogden avenue, every four minutes, and on Chicago avenue, Twelfth, and Canal streets, every five minutes.

The lowest estimate the conductors give for a round trip is sixty passengers, and at this rate they would carry every day 170,280 passengers.

The North Division have 251 cars, of which 100 are summer or open cars, and 1,375 horses. The cars travel about 10,000 miles a day and carry about 48,000 passengers. That was the average for ten months of the last year. In October the line reported 39, 103 trips, of which 38,124 were

in the city limits and the others on the single

track to Graceland.

In the South Division the cars in solid trains move through the streets without visible power of locomotion, the wonder of all visitors and many residents. The motor is hid from view, and even when it is explained that under the ground are miles of endless iron cables which propel the cars, one cannot believe it until he visits the shops and sees the cables coming in from their underground passageways and encircling the great drive wheels put in motion by the ponderous engines.

This cable system was an experiment in Chicago, although it had been proven a success in California before undertaken here. It was an experiment here for the reason that it had never been operated where there were severe winters and much snow and ice. The experiment was tried, however, and cost over $3,000,000, but it has been demonstrated a complete success. To explain the system in detail would be useless without a demonstration at the shops. It may be said, simply, that this system consists in moving cars by means of an underground endless cable. This cable passes over iron pulleys in an arched trench under the track, and at each termination of the line passes round a large pulley which carries it from one track to the other. At the shops, located

at Twentieth street, all the cables pass in and around the drive wheels which give them their motion. These cables travel continuously at a rate of eight miles an hour, and furnish the locomotive power for the cars by means of a grip. The gripcar has a lever reaching from the center down through the bottom and the slot or small opening of the track that contains the cable. On the end of the lever is a grip or lever slide which can be made to take hold of the cable by means of a smalier lever attacned. When the driver gets his signal to start he moves his lever so that the jaws of the grip come together on the cable and he is carried forward. When he receives the signal to stop he moves the lever so as to loosen the grip and applies the brake. The cable moves through the loose grip and the car stops.

The cable system has been put in the State and Wabash and Cottage Grove lines, and is a

great success. It saves time and horseflesh, is a smaller roadbed, and any number of cars desired can be carried in solid trains.

THE CHICAGO CITY RAILROAD Co. THE CABLE SYSTEM.

New enterprises which are predicated upon new ideas with which the general public is not familiar, are almost always destined to receive more or less unfriendly criticism. The critics are almost invariably ignorant of the subject concerning which they are so free to pass opinions, and it not unfrequently

happens that the theory or project which

was assailed the most remorselessly in its inception, in the end attains a high degree of popularity and its most violent enemies finally become its warmest and most outspoken friends.

or

the rural advance in

The foregoing general statement is especially applicable to all railroad enterprises which contemplated any departure from some old humdrum notion, from the date of George Stevenson's first experiments with the locomotive engine to the present day. Railroads in the abstract were severely frowned upon by the wise men (?) in silverbowed spectacles of fifty years ago, and after the irresistible logic of events had demonstrated that the locomotive was superior to the gentle mule as a moving power, and a Pullman palace car was, all things considsidered, a preferable conveyance to the old Concord stage coach the lumber wagon of districts, every attempted the methods of railroading has had to encounter a certain amount of stupid opposition, and too frequently also from sources whence stupidity was unexpected and inexcusable. The "cable road," as it is popularly known in Chicago, has had its unpleasant experiences in the direction above indicated, but, like all really meritorious enterprises, it has survived malicious slander, ignorant censure, and spiteful innuendo, and is to-day one of the acknowledged great successes of this city of successes. Many of the property-owners along the great thoroughfares through which this system of passenger transportation runs, were almost laughably apprehensive three years ago that these streetcars moved by an unseen power-which was apparently under perfect control, nevertheless-were rather "spookish" in their nature, and were destined in some occult, unexplained, and unexplainable way to destroy or seriously impair the value of their real possessions; but these same men are now ready to admit, with the frankness of true Chicagoans-who are never afraid to say that they were wrong when fairly convinced of the fact that this same system of street railroads has advanced the value of their property from 100 to 200 per cent. This sounds like an exaggerated

statement, but the writer is satisfied that it is substantially true. A sound reason for this is not hard to find by any thinker. A city of the territorial extent of Chicagoinhabited by people whose distinctive characteristic is impatience over the loss of time -required not only safe and comfortable, but rapid transit from the suburbs to the center of business. All these accommodations the cable road managers promised to give the public, and it is no more than just to add that the promise has been fulfilled honorably. As might have been expected, there were more or less accidents when the system first went into operation; the public had to become familiar with the rapidly moving trains and learn to keep out of the way, while the company had to acquire experience in the manage ment of powerful, extraordinary machinery and to organize from the raw material a force of experts to do expert work. All this has been accomplished, and it is no longer a matter of doubt that the cable road-which transports passengers at nearly double the rate of speed attempted by the old-fashioned mule lines-is the safest and most comfortable street railroad in the city.

The cable road now operates twenty miles of line extending out into the best residence districts. It runs 100 grip and 300 box cars, and employs about fifteen hundred men.

The day is not far distant when this system of street railroads will supersede all others in the enlightened West.

CEMETERIES OF CHICAGO. ROSE HILL A BEAUTIFUL RESTING PLACE FOR THE DEAD.

As in almost every feature that is of importance to the establishmment of a large and crowded city, Chicago is peculiarly for

tunate in at least one of it rural cemeteries. The projectors of Rose Hill have wisely selected grounds far enough from the city proper to insure no molestation of the ashes of the dead in the future, and have

those

chosen grounds high enough for the purposes intended, and also susceptible of improvement at a slight expense. They are of easy access both by rail and drives, which is certainly a desirable feature. A representative of THE INTER OCEAN was detailed to make a tour of inspection of the different cemeteries, and for his pains was rewarded with a sight at Rose Hill that, barring the knowledge of being in the presence of the dead, was as pleasing and interesting as any that Chicago or surroundings can afford.

HOW TO REACH ROSE HILL.

The grounds embrace a scope of 500 acres, and are from thirty to forty feet above Lake Michigan, and mostly covered with native timber. The distance from the city is only six and one-half miles, and is accessible by the Chicago and Northwestern, the Lake Shore drive and Green Bay Roads-all these lines starting from the heart of the city. The character of the soil is such as to forever preclude the possibility of dampness-the cemetery, as a matter of fact, being located on a gravel ridge, and having an elevation above the surrounding country

of

feet.

an average of fifteen The undulation of the surface as well as its elevation above the lake, referred to else.where, are perhaps the two great natural advantages that have made this cemetery so acceptable. What may be said of the buildings can be regarded as truthful when the statement is made that they are in perfect keeping with everything else connected with the institution. The receiving vault alone is a marvel in its way, possessing capacity for holding 250, and so arranged as to permit of the handling of coffins without the possibility of the slightest damage.

OTHER ADVANTAGES OF AN ARTIFICIAL CHARACTER.

An artesian well, sunk to a depth of 2,278 feet, furnishes an inexhaustible supply of water, that is conveyed to all parts of the cemetery by a complete system of water pipes, laid below the frost line, and all the modern sprinkling apparatus attached thereto. The sewer system is also perfect in all respects, and everything of an unpleasant nature that may collect is carried off at

once.

The artificial lakes add greatly to the beauty of the grounds. The avenues, drives, and walks have been made with a view both to symmetry and permanency, while the large and handsome green-houses and conservatories are constantly filled with the choicest of plants, vines, and flowers to supply the demand for these ornaments. The fact is, there is no cemetery in this country upon which has been spent more money, time, and study than Rose Hill, and the result has been both profitable to the proprietors and pleasing to the patrons. The public will be surprised to learn that the uniform price in all parts of the cemetery is only 50 cents per square which affords those desirous of foot, selecting family lots an opportunity of making their own choice without any additional charge. Lots can be obtained from the small 10x15, in regular gradation, up to 100x100 feet. Parenthetically it may be of interest to state that the board of managers of Rose Hill are now discussing the advisability of advancing prices at least 100 per cent, as they are of the opinion that they should not dispose of their property at less figures than other cemeteries.

A CONTEMPLATED RAISE IN PRICES.

This being a matter of interest to the residents of Chicage desiring to purchase family burial plats (as all must sooner or later), the officers of the Rose Hill Company were called upon to learn at what time the proposed advance in prices would be made. They informed the writer that, while it was true that such an advance was contemplated in the near future, the public would be duly notified of it through the press and otherwise before going into effect, that they knew of no good reason why they should continue to sell the finest and most desirable grounds for cemetery purposes that could be found anywhere near or of easy access from Chicago for 100 per cent less than many citizens pay elsewhere for low, wet prairie; that the great expense of labor and permanent improvements made in Rose Hill during the past four years was the result of a firm determination on the part of its managers to make it not only a beautiful cemetery, but the rural cemetery of Chicago, and that the improvements would go steadily and rapidly on until this object was accomplished; that the location, extent-500 acres