colors. This forerunner of Barbara Frietche had nothing to say about "shooting her old gray head," but simply seized a convenient broomstick and charged. Whether practice in domestic warfare had rendered her a veteran in the use of this equipment or not, certain it is that she carried all before her. Her adversary was skilled in broadsword exercise, in resisting saber thrust and bayonet charge, but nowhere in his manual of arms was there direction as to repelling an attack with broomsticks. He fled ingloriously, and the revolution closed with a sweeping victory for the patriot matron. England justly esteems as one of her crown jewels that mighty rock which rears its leonine front at the gateway of the seas-a superb bastion of an empire's strength. But the womanly courage and resource of the revolutionary war taught the world. that home was a fortress more invincible than the wave-washed crag-that home is the American Gibralter. The Mothers of the Revolution were characterized by Self-forgetfulness. Verily theirs was ofttimes a pitiable plight. They could scarcely have been worse if they had been afflicted with la grippe. Their circumstance make as pathetic appeal as the little fellow who became its victim, and cried: "Oh, mamma, both my eyes is a rainin' and one of my noses won't go." But like him who had no time to make money, they had no time to catalogue their griefs. They were great in their unconsciousness. They did sublime things and esteemed them trifles. They tasted death and dreamt not that it was heroic. Theirs was an unhistoric heroism. No laurels were the meed of their suffering. No way ing banners inspired their endeavor. No trumpetings of renown pealed forth. their sacrifices. Theirs was uncrowned royalty-theirs an ungazetted nobility. Tennyson chants in melodious numbers his "Dream of Fair Women." No poet's harp is strung to celebrate their heroism. There were not wanting brilliant pens to write of those spectral woes that haunted Valley Forge in the midnight hours of the revolution, or the passage of the Delaware on that bleak December night, when the troubled river was "chafing with her shores ; " or of the heated fray in the quiet churchyard of Monmouth. But there is no Bancroft to tell of the physical weakness, of the heart sickness, and of the mental anguish, of the darkness unstarred and the cloud unrifted amid which these noble spirits paced the sentinel beat of the fireside. The Hessians fought for hire. They wrought for love. The nobility of their service was its sole reward. Suffering and death were praised by them, if only their children might be free. What more shall I say? The time would fail me to tell that rosary of noble names, Adams, Schuyler, Warren, Winthrop, Livingston, Hancock, Phillipse, Motte and Beckman; of Puritan and Knickerbocker matrons, of Hugenot and Quaker mothers, of the fair women of Virginia and the Carolinas, who through their sublime faith in their country's destiny, "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness and put to flight the armies of the alien." Hear the parable of the anchormaker. In a by-way of the city the old blacksmith is hammering out a cable chain. He could make ten more links a day by skimping work, but lives and fortunes are dependent on his fidelity. Each link must be truly wrought; so he hammers on until his life work ends, and he sleeps beneath the church yard. His chain lies upon the deck of a noble vessel, coiled limp and rusty around an anchor. As the passengers march up and down it seems only a hindrance to their promenade. But sunshine goes-darkness comes. The storm wind whistles and growls in fury. Angry waves leap like sea monsters. The yards snap. The masts go over the side. The vessel drives helplessly toward the shore. Little bower-anchor gone. Great bower-anchor gone. "Stand by, men. Let go the sheet anchor." Out runs the chain into the boiling surges, till at last the plunging vessel is brought to bay, and the anchor chain is drawn as taut as the harp string of a Titan. Smitten by the giant fingers of the gale, it rings with a song of triumph. It is the old blacksmith fighting singlehanded this mighty war of elementsthe one man against sea and wind and storm, and the one man wins because of the faithful heart that had been in him, Not otherwise were forged the chains that lend an anchor hold to our ship of state in its hours of darkness and of tempest. Their unyielding strength was not wrought out in splendid fortresses nor well-stocked arsenals nor proud fleets. The hills and dales of America were dotted over with quiet houses. Beneath the roof-tree dwelt noble women. Their garments were homespun, but the habits of the soul were God-born. Their living was plain, but their thinking was high. There they cradled and nurtured their children. They wove the clothing for their bodies, while they lined their hearts with scripture and the catechism. They wore slippers, whose two soles, so their children say, "did often beat as one." They breathed patriotism in their cradle songs. They imbedded loyalty in their infants prayers. They exalted freedom in fireside talk, until the home was atmosphered with lofty principles-until love of country all molten with mother's love was poured into youthful hearts, and the hot hatred of tyrants was fanned into furnace flame by the breath of motherly affection. "In such a forge and such a heat Were shaped the anchors of our hope." chivalric loftiest nobility, with its motto, "Honi soit qui mal y pense. For us of America no emblem can surpass in grandeur the old-time cracle of the Mothers of the Revolution, in which they nursed the infancy of American Liberty, that to-day girt with the thews and sinews of a giant stands forth among the nations, baptized with an immortal youth. And upon that Cradle let this legend be inscribed: 'Honor to whom honor is due." "The bravest battle that ever was fought, Shall I tell you where and when? On the maps of the world you'll find it not 'Twas fought by the mothers of men. Nay, not with cannon or battle shot, But deep in a walled-up woman's heart- No marshaling troop, no bivoauc song, CHICAGO PRIOR TO 1840. XI. ON THE THRESHOLD OF ITS SECOND DECADE. The reorganization of the school system of Chicago, under the new charter, was effected in 1840, when the city was divided into four school districts. Hon. Wm. H. Brown, known among the early settlers generally as "Cashier" Brown, by reason of his connection with the Chicago branch of the State Bank of Illinois-was elected agent of schools on a non-partisan ticket, and accepted the office, stipulating himself that no salary should attach to the position. He was a man of great executive ability, thoroughly systematic in whatever he did, and it was largely due to his efforts that order was brought out of the somewhat chaotic condition of affairs which had existed up to that time in the conduct and management of the schools. He gathered together the scattered fragments of the school fund, placed them in safe hands, and during his long guardianship of this trust-a period of a dozen years or more--he never made In No. 9 of this series of papers, published in the May Magazine, a typographical error made the name of Chicago's first brewer Wm. Till. It should have been Wm. Lill, an uncollectable loan of these public moneys. The amount of the available school funds in 1840 was $38,625.47, and the only thing necessary to an efficient and satisfactory system of schools was that the organization should be entrusted to capable hands. The necessity for this appears to have been generally appreciated, and united efforts were made in that direction. Good teachers most of whom came from the eastern States, were secured, a uniform system of text-books was adopted, new school houses were built, and in a comparatively short time the inhabitants of the little western city began to point with pride to its educational advantages, and they have continued to do so ever since. The end of the decade in which Chicago began making history, found it with a well organized volunteer fire department, composed entirely of men. who volunteered their services for the protection of the city. They were men who occupied leading social and official positions, and it is doubtful if any fire department ever organized in the United States has had a membership composed of so large a number of individuals who achieved distinction in after life. In those days in addition to being "firemen," they were ambitious and enterprising young business men and professional men. In later years they were jurists, statesmen, diplomats, bankers, capitalists, railroad presidents and millionaires. not reached the same degree of efficiency. There was in fact no organized force, but there were four police constables chosen, one from each of the city wards, each of whom exercised to some extent the authority of a modern metropolitan policeman in preserving order and enforcing a proper obserance of the laws and ordinances of the city and the State of Illinois. The first City Marshal was elected two or three years later. The water works improvement or perhaps one should say the enterprise designed to supply the city with water, had only been gotten fairly underway in 1840. The obligation of the town to the inhabitants thereof, in the way of supplying them with water, was first recognized by Chicago in 1834, when the Town Trustees paid $95.50 for digging a well for public use, but it was many years later that an adequate system of water supply was provided at the city's expense. Between 1834 and 1840, water was a commodity, and it was dealt in and peddled from door to door in Chicago. Enterprising individuals secured strong two-wheeled carts, upon which they mounted hogsheads which were filled with water from the lake. With these carts they drove about town, backed up to the doors of their customers, and supplied them with the "crystal fluid" at "so much" per measure. In 1836, when the city was at the zenith of its early prosperity, what was styled "The Chicago Hydraulic Com The police force of that period had pany," was chartered by act of the State Legislature, with a capital of $250,000. The first president of the corporation was George W. Dole and Edward Casey was its first secretary. Gurdon S. Hubbard, Captain, (afterward general), David Hunter, Gholson Kercheval and William Forsyth were directors, and James H. Campbell, R. A. Kinzie and Solomon Wells, were other incorporators. The financial crash of 1837, the general collapse of business and the pinching times which followed, prevented the corporation from proceeding with the contemplated enterprise, and it was not until Mathew Laflin—the venerable Chicago millionaire, whose biography was published in the June number of this magazineand others, became interested in the work that it was pushed to completion. This system of water works was succeeded by the present system controlled entirely by the city government. His predecesbeen Wm. B. Morris, (afterCook County The mayor of the city at the beginning of the year 1840, was B. W. Raymond, who afterwards became so conspicuous a figure in connection with the world-renowned watch manufactory at Elgin, Illinois. sors in this office had Ogden and Buckner S. ward a judge of the Courts,) in the order named, and all three had been faithful and efficient of ficials. It had not been in the power of the city government, however, to stay the tide of business depression which had swept over the place, nor to make any public improvements of consequence during this peroid. The condition of affairs in general was such as to limit the resources of the city as well as of individual inhabitants, and rigid economy had to be practiced in the conduct of public as well as of private affairs. Under its charter the municipal government was authorized to raise a sufficient amount of money, by tax on real and personal property, "to defray the expenses of lighting the city streets, supporting a night watch, making and repairing bridges, and paying the operating expenses of the city." It was further provided, however, that this tax should not exceed one half of one per cent. of the assessed valuation of property in the city, and the anticipated revenues were greatly reduced by the depreciation in valuations of realty. In 1835 and 1836, the appreciation in the value of real estate had been extraordinary, but in 1838 it could hadly be disposed of at any price. The assessed valuation of all the real estate inside the corporate limits of the city, in 1837, was $236,842. In 1838, the value was $235,936. In 1839, the value dropped to $94,803, and in 1840, to $94,437. In 1835, the sales of public lands at the Chicago land office had amounted to $370,043. In 1836, the sales were $202,315. In 1837, they dropped to $15,647, and in 1838, only reached $87,891. While these figures are affected to some extent of course by the fact, that the public lands in the district covered by entries made at the Chicago land office, had been rapidly disposed of, leaving as a natural con |