Page:Chicago and Its Resources Twenty Years After, 1871-1891.djvu/9



T has been about one year and a half since the work of preparation for this volume was begun. Although some of the early patrons may have lost sight of it and have supposed that it "died a bornin'," the interest has not flagged for a day, but has increased steadily from the start. In fact, the suggestion of the work met with such generous and substantial encouragement that the publishers were enabled to enlarge its scope and add such improvements in its artistic execution, beyond what was at first contemplated, as cannot fail to gratify every patron, and greatly increase its circulation.

In picturing the growth and development of Chicago during the "Twenty Years After" the great fire, it has been necessary to go back to its earliest history in order to trace the principal causes of that phenomenal growth. While, too, we have given an outline sketch of that growth in the body of the work, we have depended mainly upon the actual history of its representative business houses to enable our readers to grasp the full significance of that growth. By a presentation of the portraits and biographies of the men who have built up Chicago, who have been identified with every step of its advance in all its varied interests, and by a recital of the achievements of its great mercantile and manufacturing concerns, the best possible idea of that advance can be obtained. The profuse illustrations will still further fix in the mind its realization.

Confident that its execution is fully equal to pledges made, and that the work will realize the highest anticipations formed for it, we hereby respectfully dedicate it to our patrons and the public.