Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/694

CHICAGO. buildings are the Union, the Chicago and Northwestern, Dearborn, and the Grand Central Railroad stations; and among ecclesiastical edifices are the Cathedral of the Holy Name (Roman Catholic), the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (Protestant Episcopal), and the Second Presbyterian, Plymouth (Congregational), Church of Christ (Christian Science), and the First Unitarian churches.

. Chicago has a splendid system of public parks, covering over 2200 acres, and connected by wide, level boulevards which have aided materially in making the greater Chicago an organic whole. There are about 40 parks, of which seven are of considerable extent. There are, in addition, numerous attractive playgrounds to meet the needs of great masses of children who were without convenient access to the parks. The principal parks are maintained by State funds, and are controlled by a Board of Commissioners for each division of the city, appointed by the Governor; the smaller areas are under municipal control. In the city there are about 45 boulevards, aggregating in length a total of 70 miles. These include the well-known Lake Shore Drive, Sheridan Road, Diversey Avenue, and Ridge Avenue boulevards in the North Division; Humboldt, Washington, and Jackson boulevards in the West Division; Michigan Avenue, Grand, Drexel, and Garfield boulevards in the South Division. The North Side park system centres in Lincoln Park (320 acres), one of the most beautiful in the city, with attractions in the way of a zoölogical collection, conservatories and gardens, and an electrically illuminated fountain. It has, also, statues of Lincoln and Grant (among the most notable of the city), of Linnæus, Schiller, and La Salle, and the Ottawa Indian monuments. Of the South Side parks, the Lake Front (210 acres), adjoining the business section on the east, is noteworthy, being on ground mostly reclaimed from the lake. It contains the Art Institute and the proposed site for the Field Columbian iluseum, now in Jackson Park. Jackson Park (586 acres) has a world-wide reputation, having been the spacious site of the (q.v.), of which a few features remain, the most important being Field Columbian Museum. It was the Fine Arts Building of the Exposition, has a library and scientific collections, and is endowed with $1,500,000. The famous Midway Plaisance (80 acres) leads from Jackson Park past the buildings of the University of Chicago to Washington Park (371 acres), noteworthy for its trees and flowers. The West Side Division has a total park area of 625 acres, including Douglas Park (179 acres), Garfield Park (185 acres), and Humboldt Park (200 acres), all of which contain lakes and special features. In the last-named park is located a fine monument to Humboldt. The distribution of smaller parks and squares throughout the city adds to the effectiveness of the system.

Other notable monuments of the city are the mausoleum and statue of Stephen A. Douglas in Douglas Monument Square; an equestrian statue of General Logan in Lake Front Park; the Police Monument, in Union Square, commemorating the victims of the Anarchist riot of 1886; and the Confederate Monument in Oakwoods Cemeterv. At the end of Michigan Avenue, a tablet marks the site of Fort Dearborn. There

are several cemeteries within the city limits. Of these, Graceland and Rosehill, in the North Division, are worthy of particular mention for beauty.

. Chicago has a carefully planned system of public-school education. In 1847 there were four schoolhouses in Chicago, built at a cost of $5000 each—two-story brick buildings with an assembly-room and four classrooms on each floor. The educational department in 1902 comprised 15 high schools, including English high and manual training schools, and 233 elementary schools, besides a normal school, a reformatory school, a parental school, and institutions for the deaf. The course of elementary instruction inclines to the English public school and the Continental (lycée and gymnasium) systems wherein Latin is offered at an early period. The study of German is introduced as an elective in the grammar grades on account of the large number of Germans in the city's population. Manual training is provided for boys of the seventh and eighth grammar grades, and household training—cooking and sewing—for girls of the same classes. The programme is purely elective for those who are not candidates for graduation.

The school year of 1900-01 closed a decade of remarkable growth. During this period the school population increased from 320,790 to 626,516, or 90 per cent.; while the attendance in the private and parochial schools only increased from 61,916 to 84,737, or 30 per cent. At a total expenditure of $8,855,000 there were erected 103 new buildings. The number of teachers increased from 3,300 to 5,951, or 80 per cent.

The higher educational institutions are the (q.v.); Saint Ignatius's College (Roman Catholic); the Northwestern University (Methodist Episcopal), at Evanston, whose professional schools, excepting the Garrett Biblical Institute, are in Chicago. The Chicago (Congregational), Chicago Lutheran, McCormick (Presbyterian), and Western (Protestant Episcopal), are theological seminaries. There are several medical schools, the most prominent of which are the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Rush, the Homœopathic, the Hahnemann, and the Bennet; several schools of law; also dental colleges, colleges of pharmacy, training-schools for nurses, and a veterinary college, art schools, and schools of music. In the educational work of the city, a prominent place is occupied by the Art Institute, the numerous classes of which are as free as practicable, and are attended by 1000 or more students. Its Art School, which is self-supporting, offers one of the most complete courses in America: besides the usual branches of art, prospective and mechanical drawing, ceramics, and the modeling of ornament are taught by a large staff of professors. There are a year's traveling scholarship in the department of drawing and painting, and two annual scholarships for women. The library and gallery of the museum, as well as the lectures, are open to all students. The fee is from $5.00 to $25.00 for a term of 12 weeks. The Armour Institute of Technology, similar in scope to the Pratt and Drexel Institutes, has been enlarged since its inception in 1893 to include, besides manual and technical training, various courses in engineering, architecture, and science, leading to the degree of B.S. The Lewis Institute, opened in 1896, is an institution for the practical training