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Show CHICAGO NOTES. (h"i I i A I ' u'lH Hi'ONDBJtl V. ! CmcM.v, Mrtivh 28, 1S74. ' This is tlin first iii!-l;ilmcnt ol these j "notps;" li"W !hr they may extend ; longitudinally the future will chow. It is considered "the thing" to niH-akof Chicago having arisen plKOtiix-liko from her ache.; that her t tores aro vast p:i!;UM , and her caravanscries, or hotels, are immense in their size and i.nparalleled in architectural beauty and design; and that her former form-er magnificence is o total. y eclipsed by her present grandeur ofappeanmco ,th'tt eouiiari;ou pales before tho change. Seemingly a two hundred million dollar tire is to Chicago but an incentive to exertions in enterprise. enter-prise. When the great conflagration of nearly two years and a half ago laid the city in ruins, I ventured the assertion as-sertion that in lcis than five years the Garden City would be rebuilt in a stjle far exceeding that of tho destroyed destroy-ed citi ; and in less than two years it was accomplished. Hero and thero evidences of the catastrophe yet remain; but the long linej of palatial streets, where the skill and art of workers in iron, brass, stone, brick and wood, and of architects, decorators, furnishers and a hundred other occupations have been exerted until one marvels at the result ohow what can bo done by indomitable per-sove'rance, per-sove'rance, resolution and on enterprise enter-prise that strives daily to o'ertop itself. it-self. Chicogoans should be tolerably well accustomed to tho "fire fiend," as the telegraph reporter has got the phrase. Here is the Trcmont House, in which this letter is being written, which tells on the massive pillars gracing its fronts on Dearborn and Lake streets, Jiow it has been three times burned down and three times rebuilt since its first erection in 1S3I3, each succeeding structure far surpassing surpass-ing its predecessor. Across tho way, on the other side of Lake street, our old friend Van Schaack, of Van jSchaack, Stevenson &, Reid, hoists above their new store the sign of "The Old Salamander" he must bo lire-proof; lire-proof; and eo with others. If that futuro sphcro abounds in the active combustible material of which old theologians- loved to tell, and if the average Chicogoan is bound there with a through ticket, travelling on a "lightning express ex-press train," as many later theologians theolo-gians affirm, he should be more than halfaeelimatcd before ho reaches the cud of his journey. But a truce with this; the rapidity with which tho rebuilt re-built city has risen in its fair proportions propor-tions may be imagined by the single fact that one vast store that of M. D. Wells A Co. was commenced in June, and in the September following wa3 occupied ! It is a marvel of aruhitcfture, .strength, and elegance in fittings, and was built at a cost of some ninety thous.md dollars in three months! So with hosts of others; but I may go more into detail at another time. Every city has its peculiarities. Here, it is evidently a popujar amusement-among ladies to have hmos amputated so as to require arti" (icial ones. This surmiso arises from seeing tho phecs of a number of artificial arti-ficial limb-manufacturers, and all the specimens exhibited were decorated as if ti icy were the extensions of feminine humanity. It may be that delicacy forbids them displaying male extremities, or the semblance of them. The "lady temperance crusaders" arc doing their work quietly here. They were somewhat rudely snubbed by tiic Mayor some time ago, who was elected to office on a lager beer platform, when they petitioned him invoking his aid against the repeal of the Sunday closing ordinance. As nobody paid any rcganl to tho ordinance ordin-ance after the election of tho prcwent Mayor, and as he was placid in office by a test vote to show whether the majority of Chicagoans would have beer any day they wished it, tbo ladies i could have little hope of their petition succeeding. But this is a day of largo confidence in temperance reform among many, and tho Press hi firing the flagging zeal of tho crusaders by reporting extraordinary scenes elsewhere; else-where; so that though operations in this city aro confined to week day prayer meetings in churches and business gatherings Of tho ladies in hotel parlors, there is yet a prospect that Chicago may put on her most amiable anti-beer smile, and go out to bear the praying bands in her streets. ' . '. Being tired lail night, and feeling very unlike work, I strolled into Iloolcy's theatre, the leading ono in this city. Tho attraction was "Undine," othcnvlso tho " Naiad 'iucen," and sometimes " Lurley-bcrg." Lurley-bcrg." The picco was presented with nearly everything but tho Jo-nubs cut out and ono very fine scone They had a better ballet than appeared appear-ed in"Lurlcyberg'.'last Winter in Bait Lake and considerably less clolhes;but in everything else Salt Lako was far abend. The characters were personated persona-ted by the veriest set of "slicks " ever congregated on one stage. Yd, the aforesaid "sticks" wero "starred" on tho hoiMo programme, while tbo genuine talent that carried tho spectacle spec-tacle through tbreo weeks, was significantly sig-nificantly treated as a comparative nobody. John Billon and tho regular regu-lar company aro announced for Monday night. Dillon jH un excellent excel-lent comedian anl has been out of town "starring" for a ."liort season. K L. S. |