mbraces
the city and forty-three square miles of Cook County. The main channel
is twenty-eight miles long and the cost was about thirty millions.

In their commercial aspect the famous Stock-yards have greater interest
than as a show place. They cover four hundred acres, the plant is valued
at four million dollars, and about twenty millions of animals are killed
and packed in a year. Similarly imposing are the statistics of most of
Chicago's enterprises. The Board of Trade is one of the most remarkable
sights in the country. Its public galleries are usually filled with
spectators of the feverish bidding of the grain operators, whose
slightest nod affects the markets of the world. The Stock Exchange is
yearly taking a more important share in the money market. The financial
institutions of Chicago and the West have more than once saved the East
from impending panic, and immense loans are constantly being renewed,
insuring the speedy recognition of the city as a force in the money
markets of the nations.

More interesting is the honor-roll of Chicago's intellectual enterprise.
The Columbian World's Fair of 1893 astonished the world with its beauty,
its perfection of artistic skill and taste. It gave an impetus to the
pursuit of the beautiful and refining which has borne substantial
results. Near the site of the Fair is a cluster of buildings
constituting the University of Chicago, dating from 1891, to which a
single donor has given nine million dollars, and loyal citizens are
continually adding to its possessions. The heads of the University count
on an endowment fund of fifty millions. Nowhere is Chicago enthusiasm
for progress more finely manifested than here. The great public
libraries of the city are envied by foreign visitors. The central Public
Library is a splendid triumph of architecture, next in interior
elegance to the Library of Congress. It is valued at three millions,
exclusive of its books. The Newberry and Crerar libraries form special
branches of the system. The city's churches and charities are doing
nobly in ameliorating the condition of the toilers and the handicapped
in life's race. The name and fame of Miss Jane Addams and the Hull House
settlement are world-wide. How difficult the task is may be conceived
from the fact that out of a million and seven hundred thousand people in
the city, nine hundred thousand are Americans, German, and Irish; the
remainder represent twenty-four nationalities, exclusiv