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This westward trip afforded us every hour a revelation of the surprising
growth of the nation that lives under the Stars and Stripes. My traveling
companions were equally delighted with this course, notwithstanding their
being preacquainted with that portion of the west, whose rapid development
makes it practically a new and another west every ten years. In fact,
America astonishes the world; and it is no common pleasure to study and
note the progress of this great republic of which Chicago is the second
city in commercial importance, as well as in population.
We were anxious to obtain an adequate conception of the site of a city
that is the synonym of push and prosperity, and to which Congress had
awarded the World's Columbian Exposition. Therefore, the yacht was moored
inside the breakwater, near the mouth of the inlet, called the Chicago
River, which runs from the lake nearly one mile westward; then separates
into two branches, one flowing northwest, the other southwest; thus
dividing Chicago into three divisions, connected by more than thirty-five
bridges, and two tunnels laid under the bed of the river. This streamlet
used to empty into Lake Michigan; but a remarkable piece of engineering
caused it to change its course and so to speak, run "uphill.
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