Table, twelve feet wide by six feet deep, and a very small octagon Vestry, measuring seven feet across, out of which there was a staircase through the East wall leading into the Pulpit; the Choir had to be placed at the West end of the Church. The new work, though

of a more massive character, and of better material than the old, is not out of keeping with it.

Everyone will be struck by the wonderful improvement in the appearance of the Church: the Chancel not only being good in itself, capacious and substantial, but also showing the whole Church to greater advantage than before. In addition to the main gift, we have received several kind and beautiful presents. The Reredos, not yet completed, is the gift of Mrs. and Miss Crawshay; the Altar cloth and all the cushions and mats for sedilia, altar rails, desk, &c, are the work and gift of Miss Loraine and her sisters. The Pulpit lights are given by W. C. Loraine, Esq.

Great credit is due to Messrs. George Green and George Day, of Sonning, and Messrs. Wheeler, of Reading, for having so ably fulfilled their promise to have their work done by the day fixed for the opening. The work itself is all that can be desired. The Chancel is built from designs by J. Turner, Esq. and Son, Architects, 15, Wilton Street, Grosvenor Place, London.

We trust that the enlarged and beautified Church may be still further adorned by fuller congregations, and increased devotion, by a more perfect offering of heartfelt praise and thanksgiving and prayer from those who meet within its walls for the worship of Almighty God.

CHICAGO.

Readers of this magazine may be interested in a short paper upon that wonderful city whose terrible destruction by fire has been the last and not the least of the horrors which have terrified the world during the past year. It is necessary, first of all, that all men should know how to pronounce the name Chicago, because the Americans are very much teased by Englishmen who sound the "ch" hard as in the word "chicken," and they make a great deal of noise on the subject for this reason, that the English are supposed to be always thinking of America and to be jealous and finding fault, but as they frankly admit the marvellous things of Chicago, the most has to be made of their miscalling the name; indeed it is a pity that some understanding could not be reached when the treaty of Washington was being discussed this year. Pronounce the name Shickargo, and the State of which it is the capital Illinoy, though spelt-nois. Nothing but practice can keep people right about the names of American states and towns: they are not only promiscuously taken from Latin, Indian, English, Mexican, and French, but they are pronounced regardless of either derivation or consistency. There is St. Louis in which the is sounded in English fashion, but in Louisville the s is left out as in French; New Orleans has a style of its own, and sounds like Orleens; Americans say Omahaw and Ioway though both words end with the same simple a, Omaha and Iowa; Kansas is pronounced as it is written but Arkansas is Arkansaw. The worst word of all is Cincinnati, the last two syllables of which are spoken in infinite ways. The best or most common pronunciation seems to be Cincinnatter: Chicago 'self, which is at present in question, is known as Chicaggo and Chicawgo no less than as has been said above. A year ago,

when the writer was there, Chicago was one of the finest and busiest commercial cities in the world; not like London, because, as a merchant of Chicago himself said, "though there are many great cities here and elsewhere with any of which we can compare, there is only one London; " it is tolerably certain that there never was a city so remarkable for natural position, rapid growth, and imposing effect of the mercantile quarter.

The city is at the South end of one of those large fresh-water seas which are the boundaries between Canada and the United States, and is thus at the same time in the centre of the corn-growing lands of America, and a port connected with the ocean more than a thousand miles off. To a farmer in the boundless plains at the head of the Mississippi, Chicago is the obvious point for his corn to seek, whether he would have it go to the markets of the East coast by land or sea; if he would send his produce by railway, all roads must pass ronnd that corner of the lake which reaches far down into the country, and there is Chicago; if he would rather ship the grain, there is the nearest port from which cargoes can go direct through the seas of Michigan, Huron, and Erie, thence either by the Erie canal to New York, or by the Welland canal to Ontario, the St. Lawrence, and the Atlantic Ocean. On the other hand, this same point is the natural depot to which the manufacturers of the sea-board states and the importers from Europe send all their goods which are to be distributed among the Western farmers, or to go away beyond even them and to reach the seekers after silver, the searchers after treasure hidden in those Rocky mountains, which were long supposed to be the impassable screen of the night chamber of the sun. Such being the position of Chicago, the very rapid growth which astonishes everyone who hears it, is only natural; since the United States became independent the increase of population has been very great and very quick; the many mouths on the coast of the Atlantic cried out for the corn which the earth was of its own accord longing to pour forth, and when the lands of the Eastern States became densely covered with houses, and both insufficient and too dear for the cheap supply of many new cities, when a state of things was arising such as is familiar to Englishmen and to the peoples of Europe, then the great harvests of Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, &c. were eagerly reaped and Chicago became the storehouse of the grain and the corn exchange of America.

The history of this growth is one of forty years from beginning to end, from the one longhut up to the city of four hundred thousand men. Illinois was first visited by the French Jesuits, in the last part of the seventeenth century, in days which are being nearly forgotten now, when the English were in the United States and the French in Canada; and it is worth observing that in America as in India, China, Japan, and so to speak, everywhere, the French Jesuits have been the pioneers of Europe, but never have founded abiding cities. The names of English Wolff and American Washington recall the facts that first the French and then the mother country had to retire before the destinies of America. In 1830 there was nothing but sameness and prairie grass on the Southern shores of the lake of Michigan ; a river there ran in with flat grassy banks like the Thames at Sonning, of the same width and depth; on one side might be seen a Red Indian's pointed hut of mats, on the other, bisons might be cooling their great shock heads after their long travels over undisturbed (Continued at end.)

plains: grouse, partridges, prairie dogs, and rattle-snakes were the other fluttering, scampering and wriggling lords of the place. The Americans advancing towards the West and needing defence against the Indians, to whom civilization there means extermination, put up at this important point a block house for a few soldiers who could watch the quick moving enemy whether they were tracking on the land or trying to cross the lake in their canoes. In ten years the Indian and the wild game had disappeared and a large town was standing on both banks of the river; signs of hasty building were to be seen everywhere, all the houses were of wood, seldom of more than one storey; the streets were covered with planks, as quicker and easier made roads than pavement or concrete: schooners which had brought the wood for building from the Northern shores of the lake were now filling with grain from the neighbourhood of Illinois; a railroad was already opened, and Chicago with ten thousand inhabitants was already a well known city. Another ten years and the population had increased to fifty thousand, a state house of fine proportions was built to hold the legislature of the State of Illinois, many railways were open in different directions, the banks of the river were walled and covered with wharves, some large buildings of stone on the Eastern side of the river were beginning to form the body of the city and the old wooden part was hardly seen beside the rising grandeur of the place, which was now recognised as the future seat of the corn supply of the United States.

When 1860 was reached the name of Chicago was known throughout the world as well as at home; travellers in North America made a point of going there, and if money making is the highest aim of men, then the men of Chicago were all that is great and good. The city was one of the most populous in the United States, and only yielded to New York and Philadelphia; the streets were laid out in the most imposing manner, the principal railway was carried along the shore of the lake on a long viaduct of wood in front of the town, the great terminus was near the mouth of the river, and close by were the largest elevators in Chicago. These elevators were a contrivance for doing the chief work in the grain trade: a train of wagons full of corn was run under a wooden building of several storeys high and the contents were shot out into binns at the side; from these binns the corn was passed up by a machine like a dredging engine to the top of the house, and was there diverted by canals into great butts standing on weighing machines; from these again the corn was either shot out into ships moored below, or into the wagons of another railway, or into great storing binns, out of which there were wooden pipes so as to shoot out the grain whenever required; a train could be emptied, the corn weighed, and a ship loaded all in three or four hours. Besides the group of elevators near the railway station there were others on the bank of the river, which now looked like the river in Reading rather than the Thames at Sonning. Parallel to the line of the shore ran the principal streets, and facing the water were rows of fine houses, the houses of the richest merchants. Wabash avenue was the most notable of the dwelling-house parts, being very long and wide, with trees between the footway and the road, with very smart detached houses and several handsome churches. Here was the fashionable walking and driving place of the inhabitants, who proved the flourishing state of Chicago by the fineness of their clothes and

the smartness of their horses, for it is only in England that people imagine that in Republics rich men do not keep their money for themselves. Other great streets cross at right angles those which are in a line with the lake, and thus are formed square blocks of building which are often seven or more storeys high, with great French roofs above, strongly and beautifully decorated in every fashion of iron and stone a single hotel or a single great warehouse would sometimes take up a whole block. The plank streets were still to be seen in some parts of the city, but generally pavement and macadamised roads had taken their place, and through them all ran double lines of tramways for the street cars which do the work of our omnibusses. Among the great sights of Chicago must be mentioned the great stock yard at the East end and the water works at the West end; the former is for receiving the immense herds of cattle which come there for transhipment to the East and also includes a place where pigs are turned into ham and bacon with a rapidity and ingenuity of machinery that is very curious; the latter is a colossal pumping engine which draws the water from the lake through a tunnel reaching into the unadulterated water more than a mile from the shore, so that a pure and abundant stream of the best water is supplied throughout the city. In September of 1870 a fire broke out in an upper room of one of the finest blocks of building in Chicago, in the premises of a Mr. Farwell, the greatest draper in the West of America; the fire was not quenched till the whole block was gutted, the fire engines could not reach the highest storey where the chief mischief was, and the owner lost £200,000. It was evident that the great buildings of Chicago could burn, also that the enterprise of the loser was not to be checked, for he opened business three days after the disaster, and gave orders for a new block to be built even while the fire was raging. A year after that fire Mr. Farwell suffered again, but this time not alone; his grand new warehouse was in the centre of that ghastly ruin which has lately been shewn in all the admirable pictures of the illustrated papers. The old wooden Chicago of 1840 was the fuel upon which was laid the glorious new Chicago, and as the Farwell block had burnt the year before so did the city burn again, and the pillars and girders and tall roofs were like draughty sieves for the flames to race through. The stock yard remains at one end and the water works are unhurt at the other, and some of the elevators are still prominent from the lake, but the heart of the city has been utterly destroyed. Not the heart of the people, however; encouraged by the ready sympathy which has sent them help from home and from abroad, they have faced their difficulties, and the whole city will soon be as if the fire had not passed over the place. Among the feelings which the story of Chicago arouses, wonder at the success of men, the prizes of industry, and the glories of a great city, horror at the sudden overthrow and the terrible warning of insecurity, admiration for the endurance and resolution of the sufferers, not the least must be the feeling of love for that spirit of compassion and mutual help which has been called forth from Europe as well as America. This is a spirit which is truly noble, and the evidence that such feelings are not yet dead in the world is more valuable than all the elevators, stock yards, and blocks of streets, which ever were burnt or shall be builded up again.

K. M. M.