The city owns and operates its water-works system and electriedight plant. The water-sup ply is obtained from Lake :Michigan, cribs having been located at a distance of from two to four miles from the shore, in order to secure uncon taminated water. It is •unVeyed to the city by means of underground tunnels. Notwithstanding this precaution, there was PVidVrICV that the drainage of the city into the hake affected the quality of the water, and consequently the nm nicipality was induced to construct the greatest sanitary engineering work of the country—the Chicago Drainage Canal (q.v.). It was built with a view to ship navigation. When the Illinois Iliver shall have been improved, access to the sea through the Mississippi will he assured.
FIN The per capita receipts and expendi tures of Chicago are low when compared with those of other large cities, and it suffers from in adeouate funds, as the State Constitution places a limit upon tax-rates. in 1 SOS a new leVtillie law was passed, creating a Board of As sessors which levies assessments for the entire county of Cook. Subsequent legislation abnl the nu Mlices of Town Colleetors and made the County Treasurer ex-ollieio collector for all the towns. The munici is compelled to resort in an unusual degree to indirect taxes—such as licenses, fees, tines, etc. Property, real and personal, is now assessed on the basis of 20 per cent. of its lull value. The budgets are determined by commit tees of the council. The total debt is $35,101.000, or the comparatively modest per capita amount of $19.42. The following are the principal items of the receipts and expenditure for the year 1900: The actual income was $20,807,000, of which S14.295,000 was from property tax, and over 83,000,000 each from liquor lieenses, water works, and special assessments, The total expen diture. including loans repaid. was $22,673,000, of which 819.518.100 was for maintenance and opera tion—the items being: Schools. $0,200, 000; police department, S3.773,000; lire depart ment, $1.617,000; interest on debt, $1,313,000: and waterworks, $1,240.000. There are certain items of county and township government not herein included—e.g. the county maintains the charitable institutions- at an annual cost of PoPut.vrtox. No other city has attained any thing like the magnitude of Chicago in so short a time. With but 4470 inhabitants in 1540, the city had increased in 1870 to 298,997, ranking fifth among American cities; in 1880, to 503,185, rank ing fourth: in 1890. to 1.099.850. standing sec ond; in 1900, to 1,69S,575, still holditig second place. Greater New York alone had as great an absolute growth during the last decade: but New York's per cent. of increase was much less. Chi cago's phenomenal growth seems quite natural. however, when compared with the development of the 'Great West.' of which it is a part. Chicago has a remarkably high per eent. (34) of foreign born population. and of the native-born, 59 per cent. are of foreign parentage. Of the foreign na tionalities the Germans are most numerous, ag gregating more than twice the number of Irish— the latter having shown a decided inclination to remain in the Eastern towns. Chicago contrasts
also with Eastern cities in that it has a large number of Swedes and Norwegians, Bohemians, Poles. and Canadians. while the number of Ital ians, Russians. and Austrians is comparatively small. The negro population is given at 30,150. Certain of the foreign nationalities. notably the (1rnians and Swedes, are well distributed over the city: others tend to congregate in limited dis tricts which are overerowded—ehielly those ad joining the central business section of the city. Chicago boasts of the healthfulness of its situa tion and sanitary conditions, having the lowest death-rate (11.08) of any of the large cities in the United States.
IlisToRv. The name 'Chicago' is probably de rived from an Indian word Inca ning 'wild onion'—a plant which grows abundantly in this Before the coming of the whites, the place was a rendezvous for various Indian tribes, and a favorite meeting-plaee for voyageurs and I trailers. In 11;73 both Marquette and Joliet stopped here for a few days. and the former spent most of the winter of 1(74-75 here. Later, the locality was visited by La Salle. Hennepin, and others; and on a map 1 Franklin's) published in Quebee, in 1085, it was designated as Fort Chi cagou, which would seem to indicate the i•xist (met. thus early of a trading-post.
.lean Baptiste Point de Saible, a mulatto refu gee from Haiti, who came about 1779, is gen erally considered the lirst In 1790 he sold his cabin to Le Alai, a French fur-trader, who in turn sold out early in 1801 to John Kin zie, the first white man of American birth to make his home here. The military importance of the place was quickly recognized by the Govern ment, which in 179.1 forced the Indians to cede a tract of land ''six miles sipiare at the mouth of the Chicago liver," mud late in 1504 erected Fort Dearborn (q.v.) on the south bank of the river, near its mouth. August 15, 181g, in accordance with orders received several days earlier, Captain Heald and the garrisons evacu ated this fort, but were ambushed by their Aliami escorts and other Indians, and 3S, .soldiers, two Winne!), and 12 children were killed. and many others captured. On the following day the fort was burned, but it was rebuilt in 1816. III 1830 the town was laid out, and the first map, dated August 4, gives its area as threc-eighths of a square mile. There were then twelve families here, besides the garrison. Three years later Chicago was incorporated as a town, its popula tion being 550, and its area 5110 acres; and in 1837, then having 4170 inhabitants, it was char tered as a city. In 1833, 7000 Indians assembled here and sold a large tract of land in this vicin ity, agreeing to move across the Mississippi. This they did two years later; and the fort, hieing no longer necessary, was abandoned in 1837 and demolished in 1850.