370 . OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK, 



The story of just how Chicago proved herself a ver- 

 itable Phoenix is a very interesting one. 



On the evening of October ninth, only twenty-four 

 hours after the commencement of the conflagration, a 

 car-load of provisions arrived from Milwaukee. By 

 the next morning fifty car-loads had come to the af- 

 flicted city. Donations of food and clothing kept 

 pouring in until Chicago was fairly sated. By Octobei 

 eleventh every person had food enough and each one's 

 pressing physical necessities were attended to. On the 

 eleventh, also, the Board of Trade met and resolved to 

 require the honoring of all contracts. On the twelfth 

 the bankers met and resolved to pay all depositors in 

 full. The State sent an instalment of $3,000,000 

 with which it then voted to re-imburse the city for its 

 expenditures for the canal enlargement, thus placing the 

 city in the possession of much-needed funds. From 

 all over the civilized world came contributions in 

 money for the resurrected city. The amount so re- 

 ceived within three months after the conflagration be- 

 ing about $4,200,000. 



The Relief Society alone built four thousand houses 

 within five weeks of those dreadful days when all 

 seemed lost. 



In two years after the fire, sixty-nine million, four 

 hundred and sixty -two thousand dollars were expended 

 in erecting buildings of brick, iron, and stone, while 

 miles of humble frame houses were built, each costing 

 from $500 to $10,000. 



Now, in place of the original city of wood, there 

 stands by the Great Lake, a city of stone and iron, able 

 to vie with any other city in growth, enterprise and 

 wealth, bearing the distinction of being the greatest 



