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J.M. Wing & Company, publishers of the real estate journal The Land Owner,
brought out these two fire anniversary volumes expressly to note, with
unqualified pride and approval, Chicago's resurrection. "The mighty rebuilding
of Chicago, that has followed the terrible conflagration of one year ago,"
declared the preface to One Year After the Fire, "has been no less a wonder to
the world than her original rise from the marshes that surrounded old Fort
Dearborn. While her marvelous activity and seemingly exhaustless resources have
astonished two hemispheres, they have demonstrated also that Chicago is a
necessity to the commerce of the world, else she would never have been built.
Further than this, they have proved that her growth is substantial, and that her
future is almost beyond comprehension." Both volumes were full of illustrations
of new construction projects, all of which were "of the most substantial and
massive character. Nearly all are far more costly and elegant than the
structures destroyed in the fire, which stood on the same sites. Our citizens
have not been satisfied to simply replace the old city, but it has been their
ambition to build it more beautiful and more attractive than it was before it
fell a victim to the restless avalanche of fire." On the top of both covers are
small advertisements by W.D. Kerfoot.
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The New City 