As I inspected, among the manifold exhibits contributed by the State of
New York, the specimen work from the best pupils of the Art Students'
League, some sketches from life and drawings from the antique attracted my
special attention. They bore the signature of a young gentleman from
Schenectady--Walter M. Clute--a name which, I am certain, will be widely
known in future years as that of a prominent artist of this country.
We spent the following day--Sunday--in Chicago which is perhaps the most
remarkable city in the world for its rapid growth. Its history dates back
to the year 1803, when Fort Dearborn was erected. Abandoned at the
beginning of the war with Great Britain in 1812, it was destroyed by the
Indians; but rebuilt in 1816. The town was organized in 1833, and the
first charter of a city passed by the Legislature, March 4, 1837. A number
of outlying suburbs of Chicago were annexed by popular vote so that the
present area of the city covers 181 square miles; its population being
about 1,400,000. When we consider the fact that in 1871 a great fire,
sweeping over the business center of Chicago, laid more than 2,000 acres
in ruins, and then reflect on the city of to-day, rebuilt in a style of
great solidity and magnificence, with its innumerable handsome buildings
of stupendous proportions--its six hundred beautiful churches--and its
vast number of educational institutions, we cannot but admire the spirit
of enterprise which evolved such wondrous prosperity in little more than
two decades.
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