ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
NEW VOLUMES.
CHICAGO.
Chicago, the second city in size in the United States, situated in Cook county, state of Illinois, in 41° 50' IST. lat. and 87° 34' W. long. It stretches along the west shore of Lake Michigan for nearly 30 miles. The Chicago river, which empties into the lake, is about a mile long, being formed by the junction of branches from the north-west and south-west. The main river and the branches are an important part of the harbour, vessels being docked all along the banks. A series of breakwaters protect the mouth of the river from the lake storms and make a secure basin. The rivers divide the city into three divisions, the north, south, and west sides. The streets generally intersect at right angles. The total area of the city is 190lr square miles. There are 4074 miles of streets and alleys—improved and 2804‘6 unimproved. The extreme length of the city is 26|- miles and the extreme breadth 14J miles. In 1880 the population numbered 503,185; in 1890, 1,099,850; and in 1900, 1,698,575. The native-born population (1900) was 1,111,463, and the foreign-born 587,112 ; the total coloured population was 31,435,ofwhom 30,150 were negroes, and the balance Chinese, Japanese, and Indians. Out of 511,048 males of voting age (21 years and over), 20,572 were illiterate (unable to write), of whom 19,336 were foreign born. Of the total number of males of voting age, as given above, 237,688 were native-born and 273,360 were foreign-born. Of the latter number, 186,660 were naturalized, 10,398 had filed their first naturalization papers, 35,897 were aliens, and the citizenship of 40,405 was returned by the U.S. census enumerators as unknown. The number of births registered in 1900 was 29,568. The number registered is thought to be perhaps 80 per cent, of the total. The number of deaths in the census year ending 31st May 1900 was 27,533, showing a death-rate of 16‘2 per thousand. In 1890 the death-rate was 19T. As the number of births is only slightly in excess of the number of deaths, it is obvious that the growth of the city in population comes mainly from immigration.
Railways.—Chicago is one of the great railway centres in the United States. Trunk lines reach east to Montreal, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore; south to Charleston, Savannah, Florida, Mobile, New Orleans, Texas; west to the Pacific by all the overland routes. Nearly all the traffic between the northern Atlantic seaboard and the Far West passes through Chicago, and the trade of the city extends in every direction. The Illinois and Michigan canal connects the Chicago river with the waters of the Mississippi for small craft, and it seems not unlikely that some day the new drainage canal will become a ship canal, thus making it possible for large vessels to ply between New Orleans and Chicago. Local transit is provided partly by the trunk railways, partly by four elevated railways, one on the south side, two on the west side, and one on the north side, all worked by electricity. The trams are operated by cables or electricity. The local lines, both elevated and tram, belong to private corporations which hold charters for a term of years from the city. One important effect of the abundant provision for local travel is seen in the concentration of business in the comparatively small area south of the main river and between the south branch and the lake. Another effect is the wide diffusion of the residential quarter, there being many areas within the city limits very sparsely built up. In consequence of the enormous value of land in the down-town district, the erection of very high buildings for business purposes has become imperative. The highest is the Masonic temple, which has 22 storeys, with a total height of 302 feet. The Monadnock, an office building, has no less than 6000 occupants, and constitutes a postal district by itself—as is the case, indeed, with other such buildings.
Education.—Education, as generally in the United States, is largely in the hands of the state, but is liberally supplemented by private effort, by corporations endowed from private munificence, and by church schools. Besides the usual primary, secondary, and higher institutions, there are technical and professional schools and a variety of
