CHICAGO

a city of Illinois, second city in the Union in point of population, situated in Cook county on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. It has an area of 199.4 square miles. The land is low and flat, having an average elevation of only 25 feet above Lake Michigan. The beginning of the city settlement dates baclz.to 1777 when a San Domingo negro settled there as an Indian trader. He sold his house in 1803 to John Kinzie, the first American settler. In 1804, a stockade with two block houses was built and named Fort Dear born. It h a garrison of one company of antry and stood on a reservation of square miles, ceded by the Indians to the United States in 1795. In the War of 1812 the fort was captured, and the entire garrison together with women and children was ma acred. The fort was reconstructed in 1816 and about it rose a small village which has grown into the present Chicago. The growth of the city, though slow at first, finally became very rapid, and its area was enlarged by succe ive annexations. In 1837 the city had 4,479 residents. The census of 1920 gave it 2,701,705. The city is incorporated under the general laws of the state. It is governed by a mayor and city council, the latter body consisting of seventy members. The city’s debt in 1923 was $62,331,670. 635,240. The water works system which has cost over $70,000,000 is owned by the city. There are approximately 3,100 miles of streets and 1,600 miles of alleys, apart from the many miles of parkways _ and boulevards under the supervision of the various park boards. The city is served by twenty-three through lines of railroads. It has enormous busine interests, chief of which are meat packing, agricultural implement works, iron and steel manufactures. It is by far the greatest stock-yard and packing center in the world. Its elevator warehouses have a capacity of over 50,000,000 bushels of grain. The situation of the city on Lake Michigan gives it a vast marine commerce through the Great Lakes. Municipal appropriations for all purposes in 1922 amounted to $138,076,- 688 97. The value of manufactures was $3,658,740,000. Bank clearings in 1921 were $25,974,692,057. In the city and suburbs there were 226 national and state banks. Newspapers and_periodicals numbered 820. The city has 1,200 churches, chapels and mi ions, 297 public schools, 27 libraries and 137 asylums. There are 623,910 homes and the public schools have 439,211 pupils. A terrible fire in 1871 swept the greater part of Chicago from the earth, An area of 2,024 acres was burned over, and the value of the property destroyed was valued at over $187,000,000. About 300 people are believed to have lost their lives in the disaster. The undaunted spirit of her citizens, however, arose to the emergency, and in a little over two years the burned area was covered with more solid and handsome buildings than those that had been destroyed. In a sense the fire was a ble ing, since it marked the beginning ae new and more prosperous era for the city. In 1892 the Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago, an area of 666 acres in Jackson Park with a frontage of two miles on Lake Michigan being laid aside for that purpose. The entire cost of the fair was estimated upward of $43,000,000, and the whole number of admi ions during its progre was 27,529 401,