e insurance companies. In 1874 another fire consumed 5,000,000
dollars' worth of property. Chicago is the great central depot for
grain, lumber and live stock. In 1888 there were packed at Chicago
4,500,000 hogs, and about 1,600,000 cattle. Chicago has also extensive
iron, steel, wheel, car, flour, furniture, boot and shoe and tannery
manufactures. In driving through I noticed one long street, to the right
and left of the street I was traversing, thickly occupied with
tradesmen's carts, backed on the kerb in the usual fashion, being loaded
from the stores (or shops): there must have been a few hundred of them;
I never saw so many in one street at one time anywhere in any part of
the world. Chicago was cased in frozen snow, and thus was not very
attractive; but I noticed many very fine buildings, and was much struck
with the cosmopolitan character of the inhabitants. During the interval
of waiting for the train on the North-Western to start I was able to see
a little of the place, and found that some persons I spoke to could not
speak English. They came apparently from all parts of the continent of
Europe.

CHICAGO TO SAN FRANCISCO.

The train was due at Chicago (December 2nd) at 9.45 a.m., being exactly
a 23 hours and 45 minutes' run from New York. Having crossed Chicago
from one terminus to another, I found that three trains left Chicago by
which I could travel to San Francisco--two were slow trains, and one a
fast train; but, by whichever train I went, it would make no difference
as to the time I left Omaha, and consequently no difference to the time
I should arrive at San Francisco, so I went on by one of the slow
trains, as I wanted to see Council Bluffs. This train was similarly
fitted to the other, except that it had no drawing-room car, nor
stenographer, etc., nor were the platforms connecting the carriages
enclosed; so that, in passing to the dining car, or any other car, the
sudden change from a hot car to a shower of snow was not pleasant. The
distance from Chicago to Omaha is 492 miles, and the country between the
two places formed a part of the great prairie region, which, 50 years
ago, had no other inhabitant than the Indian and the trapper, but now is
a succession of homesteads, villages, and towns, bearing evidence of
prosperity. At Creston, and many other stations, I noticed that there is
no protection whatever from the railway; the line is unfenced, and the
train runs through the town as openly as a