The huge railroad corporations which had long before recognized the prospects of the place had seized upon vast tracts of land for transfer and shipping purposes.

Street-car lines had been extended far out into the open country in anticipation of rapid growth.
The city had laid miles and miles of streets and sewers through regions where, perhaps, one solitary house stood out alone a pioneer of the populous ways to be.

There were regions open to the sweeping winds and rain, which were yet lighted throughout the night with long, blinking lines of gas-lamps, fluttering in the wind.

Narrow board walks extended out, passing here a house, and there a store at far intervals, portion was the vast wholesales and shopping district, to which the uninformed seeker for work usually drifted.

It was a characteristics of Chicago then and one not generally shared by other cities, that individual firms of any pretension occupied individual buildings.
The presence of ample ground made this possible.