Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/232

Rh There is a great number of Germans in Chicago, especially among the tradespeople and handicraftsmen. The city is only twenty years old, and it has increased in that time to a population of twenty-five thousand souls. A genuine “baby” of the Great West! but as I have already said, somewhat unkempt as yet. There is, however, here a street, or more properly speaking a row of houses or small villas along the shore of the lake, standing on elevated ground, which has in its situation a character of high-life, and which will possess it in all respects some day; for there are already people here from different parts of the globe who will constitute the sound kernel of a healthy aristocracy.

Chicago bears on its arms the name of “the City in the Garden.” And when the prairie-land around it becomes garden, there will be reason for its poetical appellation.

I have seen here, also, light and lofty school-rooms, and have heard the scholars in them, under the direction of an excellent master, sing quartetts in such a manner as affected me to tears. And the children, how eager, how glad to learn they were! Hurrah! The West builds light school-rooms where the young may learn joyfully, and sing correctly and sweetly! The West must progress nobly. The building of the Temple of the Sun has already commenced.

My friends here deplored the chaotic state, and the want of integrity which prevails in political affairs, and which may be principally attributed to the vast emigration of the rudest class of the European population, and the facility with which every civil right is obtained in the State. A year's residence in the State gives the immigrant the right of a citizen, and he has a vote in the election of the governors both of the city and the State. Unprincipled political agitators avail themselves of the ignorance of immigrants, and inveigle them by fine speeches to vote for the candidate whom they laud, and