Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 42

HOW CHICAGO WOULD LOOK AS AN AMERICAN VENICE IF PROF. G. E. GILBERT'S PREDICTIONS REALIZED. i f'i -i nil id svi ta fpf ami s-ii, jj.

it. a iiji VcW wtviM i r.i-r; 7-0 1 i -s: "vr -y 1 -h1 i HAVE A RIVAL IN CHICAGO. VENICE Such, flnyuiay, Is the Prediction of Professor 0. K. Gilbert of the United States Geological Survey, Whose Prophetic Eye Sees a Time When Lake Michigan Will Rise and Its Waters Will Seek an Outlet to the Mississippi Assurances That There's flo Immediate Danger.

nil I ft i jLJra; FTICAGO, a futu re Venice, a city of the lake, with canals for streets and gond olas or their equivalent the means of transportation this is the recent prediction of a government scientist 3 LAX If IT1DE01S. Garden City Law and Independent Medical Schools. as he explained them, are somewhat interesting. You never know," he said, when you are going to get your diploma. The Instructor keeps an eye upon your work, and when he thinks you competent he hands you the certificate.

I was in the college only a week bpfore I received my diploma, but I continued to take the lectures for several months afterward." The expressed desire of the applicant to become the possessor of a diploma In tha bhortcst possible time brought out the reply; "As soon as you learn the names of the most common diseases and their usual treatments, so as to converse Intelligently In the presence of physicians, you are entitled to a diploma." In the light of the fact that It ia known that diplomas have been purchased outright from the institution this, reply can cause no wonderment. THEY HAVE QUEER WAYS. How They Make "Lawful" Phy-siciaiis and Lawyers. EASY PATHWAY TO THE BAR. KENTUCKY'S UNLUCKIEST MAN.

ohn R. Magoffin's Brave Struggla Against a Lifelong: Series of Misfortunes. THERK Is no royal road to learning." but there are easy paths to ctrtiiv catea. If be not strangely awry, two of these easy paths are pointed out by the followloe advertisement, which has appeared t' the newspapers: 3IOW tO BKf'OME LAWFUL PHYSICIANS. I-.

-ueiitisi, or lawyers. The eeker for the legal right to practice However, a brief time may be profitably spent worrying about Posterity. The changes which such a state of affairs make in the life of Chlcagoans belong to the category of those things which must be seen to be appreciated," but they would be worth living to witness. Far ahead, in the dim dusk of the future, one can discover the Chicago of that time. The picture is but half defined, yet some things are visible.

It Is a Western Venice. Tall buildings rise In stately majesty from a level lake. Their occupants can throw anything they want to out of the windows, for it will float away and no one can ever leat.i who did it. Besides, there Is no street cleaning department tcf object. Office boys whose employers are absent are fishing from the windows.

Now and then their lines become entangled with boats plying below them, or unprincipled messenger boys steal their bait. In the streets there is bustle and activity. Boats are arriving momentarily at the entrances of the office buildings. Some are the regular omnibus boats, carrying a number of passengers, others are individual craft. Water bicycles dart hither and thither through the crowd.

Blue-coated policemen sit on piles placed at the street intersections and direct traffic. Trains on the elevated roads pass, only a few feet above the water. Newsbovs In kegs, the only craft within their means, paddle among the boats. It is a damp but Inspiriting scene. This is what Chieapo may be In'' BOO years.

If it lasts so long and Professor Gilbert's deductions arf corectly made. But in another "00 years what a transformation! PREDICTS A GREAT TOPOGRAPHICAL TRANSFORMATION- With the completion of the first S0O years from date Professor Gilbert predicts the great topographical changes which are to alter the appearance of tho North American continent, and incidentally destroy Chicago, will begin in earnest. The bed of the old channel of the glacial outlet, he ays, is now about five feet above the highest level of Lake Michigan and eight feet above its mean level. Five hundred years now the lake at Its high stages will reach the level of the channel. At such times the waters will How south and west across the divide to the Mississippi.

This state of affairs will be bad enough for Chicago, unless Chi-cagoans have developed Into amphibians. But the transformation into a Western Vcnico is not all that Professor Gilbert promises the city. To his mlmd the posterity of the Chicagoans of today will have whit Is colloquially termed a hard road to hof." With the passage of the second f00 years the old glacial outlet of the lake will have become a steady outlet again. Then the formation of a mighty river flowing down the bed of the Illinois will begin. As the region of the lakes, following the plans mapped out for it by Professor Gilbert, continues to tip lower and lower at Its southwestern corner, the stream will grow.

Then it is that Chicago will meet its final doom. All the foundations In the city will be floating foundations then. The great buildings will crumble away and go down In ruins. Tho little buildings will pop over the edge of the divide and go down the Mississippi. The only vestige of the city will be gaunt ruins standing In a shallow arm of the lake.

These changes will take some time, but they are only the beginning of what Is promised. CHICAGO RIVER IN THE ROLE OF A JfllGHTY STREAJa. After Chicago has been disposed of the work will go gayly forward. Two thousand years hence. Professor Gilbert says, half tho water discharged from Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Erie will find Its way seaward through this channel.

With the progress of time more and more of the waters will seek this outlet. Five hundred years later the Niagara River will be merely an intermittent stream, flowing at seasons, at other seasons dry. The great cataract will have wasted away to little more than a dribble. At the end of three thousand years the change of outlet will be completed. Niagara will be dry.

The cataract will no longer exist, and In Its place will be a dark precipice blocking a gloomy canon, through which the water has ceased to flow. But the Chicago River of that day will be a thing for wonderment. The waters shut out from the former outlet will be turned to the south and west end will seek the Mississippi and the gulf. The land surrounding Chicago is so flat that they will spread far and wide. An outlet so extensive as to form almost an arm of the lake will stretch south and west through Illinois and the topography of the whole region will be changed.

It is a geographical version of the ancient story of the Ugly Duckling," and the Chicago River, now a thing to be shunned or passed only when one has a bad cold, according to Professor Gilbert, may be a subject of amazement to future generations. How unpleasant these things will be for Chicagoans, especially property owners, may be better imagined than described. There are, however, mitigating features. The affair Is 500 years off, anyway, and is going to take place slowly. It is incidental to another prediction, which sees Chicago a submerged city.

Its ulldings swallowed by the waters and its site a part of the bed of a mighty stream pouring from the lakes Into the Mississippi. Still, there Is no need for a hasty flight to the upper stories of Chicago buildings, the repairing of the North Clark street pavement need not cease, and vehicles and horseflesh are yet valuable property. For the event Is some distance off. It is not booked to take place for several centuries at least, and to the Chlcagoan of the present It need cause no immediate uneasiness. The author of the prediction is Professor G.

K. Gilbert of the United States Geological Survey. For a number of years Professor Gilbert has been watching the waters of the great lakes, taking noteof thecomlngup and the going down of the same. He has observed them himself and studied the observations of others through the records of the government surveys. And from beach marks and water records showing the height of the lake waters in various years at different points, he has come to the conclusion that if a straight line be drawn through the lake region In a direction from northeast to southwest, the northern end of that line will be found to rise six inches In every century and the southern end to sink a corresponding amount.

SAYS LAKES ARE PREPARING FOR A flEW OUTLET. From this Professor Gilbert deduces the submerging and final destruction of Chicago. The great lakes, he believes, are preparing to slop over. The whole district covered by the lakes and their tributaries is undergoing a change of level. At the northeast It Is gradually rising, at the southwest sinking, and he believes it only a matter of time before the outlet to the Atlantic will be closed and a new one through the basin of the Mississippi opened.

Slowly, he says, the waters of Lake Huron are sinking away from their shores, slowly those of Lake Michigan arc rising, and the great fresh-water ocean within the bowl of the lakes Is preparing to overflow its western edge, to the Infinite discomfort of Chicago and the decided aggrandizement of the Chicago River. For It is in the neighborhood of Chicago that Professor Gilbert has located the natural outlet of the overflowing waters. In the good old days when utrange beasts pursued prehlstorio man across the plains of Illinois the low marsh which has been filled in to form a foundation for the city was part of an old channel, the outlet of the glacial lake. The land Is still the lowest along Lake Michigan's western shore. The waters of the lake, according to Professor Gilbert, are rising at the rate of one inch every ten years, and each inch of rise brings them that much nearer to the level of the land upon which Chicago stands.

DRAINAGE CANAL IN THE LIGHT OF A PROPHESY. Back of the city a low divide, through which the drainage canal is now being cut, alone separates the waters of the lake from those of the Illinois River. When the canal is completed and the lake begins to discharge its waters into the Illinois for the Illinois to carry to the Mississippi and to the gulf, the event will be prophetic of the future. It will be an advance agent of the day when all the waters of the lakes will seek an outlet over Chicago's ruins. Not that.

In Professor Gilbert's opinion, the drainage canal will have anything to do with th matter. It will be merely a forerunner and an anticipation of the natural overflow which he declares Is bound to come. The trouble will begin when the waters of the lake begin to encroach upon the land. Slowly the Chicago River will lose its character of Impenetrability. This Is at least a mitigating circumstance.

Slowly its sluggish character will be changed for a more rapid flow, carrying the waters of the lake to the canal. With the passing years it will rise nearer and nearer to the top if its banks. Then from lake and river the city will be overflowed. The old channel which in the past served as the outlet of the glacial lake will again come Into use. Through it Lake Michigan will begin the discharge of Its waters Into the basin of the Illinois.

Stately ships will move In slow procession up State and Dearborn streets. Yachts bright with bunting will move joyously along Michigan avenue. Ga pleasure craft will be moored to the second-story windows of the theaters. Heavier-looking craft, broad of beam and dumpy, will frequent the alleyways with cargoes of merchandise. Rapid delivery boats will ply the streets or He before the express offices and big stores.

Sleepy A. D. T. messenger boats will congregate on corners, while their passengers discuss the ball game or pitch pennies with corks tied to them. Dissolute-looking bumboats ill lounge up and down South Clark street.

And all will go merry as a wter carnival. The consummation of this change will take 500 years. On this account there Is no Immediate reason for uneasiness. essary for the practice of law stated his needs to Dr. Armstrong.

Dr. Armstrong excused himself for a moment and from the recesses of the building summoned Charles M. Hovey. Mr. Hovey," he said, can determine what ycu want better than I can." Mr.

Hovey" name does not appear on the list of the faculty of the law school. On that of the medical school It is down as M. Hovey. Ph. LL.

MedicalJurl.spru-dence." Mr. Hovey has no ofhee in Suit The demand for space ia apparently givater than the available supply, and he has a desk in a printing office on the ground floor. For reasons unnecessary to state It was necessary that the applicant obtain a diploma as soon as possible and Mr. Hovey was Informed of the fact. He asked whether the applicant had ever read any law.

Ves," he had. How much? This was a poser, because the applicant had never read any law and did not know tho names of any law books. However, Mr. Hovey came gallantly to his aid. He nmed a number of law bookSi beginning with Biackstone and Kent, and tb.

applicant admitted that in a desultory way, in odd moments, he. had perui-ed portions of those works. A few further questions, however, displayed an admirably dense ignorance of their contents. This was discouraging, but'Mr. Hovoy declared as his opinion that If tho applicant would make aflidavit that he had read law equivalent to one year's work and take an examination from Dr.

Longrien he might by attending lectures once or twice a week get a diploma In one year time. This estimate was afterwards reduced to thirty-live weeks, and there it was left. X6v," said Mr. Hovey, you have noticed the postscript to my letler, relating to commissions." The letter had been in reply to the applicant's answer to the advartisement and had been signed James Armstrong. Sect." The postscript had been to the effect that a commission would be allowed the applicant on such students as he brought into the school.

The applicant remembered tho postscript and betrayed a pardonable curiosity as to the amount of the commission This, of course, is confidential," said Mr. Hovey. Twenty per cent of ail fees paid to the school by pupils you introduce to us ill be turned over to you." And there for a time the matter rested. Printed Lint of QueMionn. Before the next visit of the applicant to the institution he received a letter.

It Is as follows: Dear Sir: When you were In this p. m. I was out of printed Questions such as we send correspondents by mail. I send you one therefore by mail that you may see some of the questions our professors sometimes ask. Of course ihey may not ask you Just these questions when they bo to grade you, but they will ask some of them.

Respectfully. CIUS. M. HOVEY. On a second visit Mr.

Hovey was found a his home in an apartment building at Jackson boulevard. The applicant announced himself much discouraged at the length of time necessary to obtain a diploma and declared himself ready to give the whole matter up if It could not be got through with sooner. The laws of Illinois are very strict in the specification of two years' study of law before being admitted to the bar," sa'd Hovey, and as holders of our diplomas are admitted on motion and without examination we have to be correspondingly careful. Let'5 see. You never read Blackstone or Kent." How about Greenleaf on The applicant had stated before that he had read Blackstone and but he cheerfully surrendered them and took Greenleaf instead.

The change seemed to cause Mr. Hovey no sui-priso. How much law rou say that you have read? Do you think you could make it a year and a half?" The applicant thought he could. Then the time might be shortened. It might be six months or three months or even less.

Did you get that list of questions I sent you?" Yes." In the conversation which followed Mr. Hovey, after first declaring that there was no certainty that any particular ones among the questions would be asked in the examination, came at last to the following statement: If you will look up the questions on that list as far down as you have time, I will ar- Common Law and Medical Jurisprudence; J. H. Randall, Ph. M.

Professor of the Science of Political Economy and International Law; Justin Melville Dall, Professor of the Law of Corporations and ReiU Property; John C. Wilson, Professor of Constitutional Law and Kquity Jurisprudence; Alva E. Taylor, LL. Professor of the Law of Torts, Commercial Papr, and Domestic Relations; W. Clyde Jones.

LL. B. M. Professor of Criminal Jurisdiction and Patent Law; Aristidei, E. Baldwin, LL.

M. D. J. Professor and Lecturer on Procedure of United States Courts. The instructors," says the announcement, "are practical teachers of large, experience in the schoolroom, and personal attention is given to the work of every Of the names on the list four appear in the Chicago Law Directory.

They are those of W. Clyde Jones, 100 Washington street; John Wilson, Jutin Melville Dall, and James H. Longden, the last three In the employ of the Title and Trust company at 100 Washington street. Mr. Jones was much surprised when shown his name among the faculty.

I never heard of the school before in my life," he said. I certainly gave no permission to use my name in connection with it. and the use of it is an unpardonable liberty. I know Longden only through having been a member of the same class at law school. We are in the same building, and 1 occasionally see him in the halls.

We seldom speak more than to say How are you? and he has never made any mention of the law school to me. use of my name in this connection is unpardonable, and I shall take legal steps to have It stopped." 1 Justin Melville Dall said at first: have never heard of the school, and have no Idea how my name came upon the faculty list." Later he added: I now remember to have seen some papers of incorporation of the Garden City Law School on Longden's desk. However, he never asked me to deliver lectures or in any other way take part In the work of the school. I never gave any permission for my name to be used in conection with the institution, and no one had any right to put it to such a use. I shall look into the matter and have my name removed." John Wilson said: I have known for some time that Longden was interested in a law school, and he asked me some time Jigo whether, if he wished it, I would be willing to deliver some lectures.

More than this I have had nothing to do with it. I am surprised to see that my name is among the faculty, and I certainly authorized no such statement ol my connection with the institution as is made in the annoucement." James H. Longden admitted that he was at the head of the school and Its organizer. I canot understand," he said, why Dall and Wilson deny that I spoke to them of the school. I mentioned it to Dall when 1 first put the project into execution, and Wilson has had a number of the announcements for some time.

I admit that I have never spoken of It to Mr. Jones, but I Intended to, and thought he could have no objection to the use of his name. As to whatever Dr. Armstrong and Mr. Hovey said to you, It cannot concern the school In any way.

The school is all that it claims to be, and neither of them 13 connected with it in any way." Considering the fact that Dr. Armstrong appears on the printed matter relating to the school In the guise of Vice President and Secretary, and that Mr. Hovey is the one who makes all arrangements with prospective students, this last Is a remarkable assertion. Independent Medical School. The Independent Medical School is an old story.

Its methods have been the subject of more than a little comment; its guilding genius, Dr. Armstrong, has been in hot wrater with the State Board of Health more than once, and its announcement is of a nature to betray to considerable extent what the school Is. The school of dentistry-is one of its departments and is conducted on the same lines. An aspirant for those things necessary for the lawful practice of medicine was turned over by Dr. Armstrong to J.

Gus Weaver, 222 South Western avenue, a former student of the institution. Dr." Weaver asked just enough questions to make prominent the fact that the applicant knew nothing whatever of medicine in any of its branches, and then pronounced him a promising student. The methods of the school, Lexington, Ky Aug. 31. The most unfortunate man in Kentucky Ift John Russell Magoffin, a nephew of Kentucky's war Governor.

He is blind, paralyzed, and without moans of livelihood, and this at the age of 5(5. after having made a plucky fight against misfortune all his ife He was born In Mercer County. lie) learned to shoot when he was 10 years oldiv and when he was 16 he was blinded by thet explosion of his gun one day while His father sent him to the school for the blind at St. Louis. There he learned the.

violin, using his right hand to finger tha strings and holding the bow in his ltft, which had been mutilated by the gun explosion. He organized and led an orchestra composed of blind musicians, and then-music was one of the wonders of St. Louis during the first years of the war. His father and two brothers enlisted in the Confederate army, and John cried to go, but. of course, his infirmity was such a barrier that his wishes could not be gratified.

His father's 'property was swept away by the war, and he was left poor. Realizing that he must earn a living, he set to work to learn the trade of broom-making. Although handicapped by blindness and a maimed hand he soon mastered the details of the trade, and within two years he could make a perfect broom. He then rented a large farm and went into the cultivation of broom corn extensively. At that time the price of marketable broom corn was $50 a ton, and for several years the Blind Planter," as he was called, made money rapidly.

Then the price of corn dropped to $50 a ton and he quit growing it. but began manufacturing brooms near Sedalia, Mo. He did fairly well for a while at this business, but it soon became overdone, and he abandoned it and went to the blind asylum at Louisville to learn a new trade. He entered into the task of learning upholstering, and within eighteen months from the time he began he had learned the business so well that his work received the highest commendation from the leading furniture men of the Falls City. In 1872 a gentleman from Chattanooga visited the blind asylum and saw Magoffin at work.

At that time Magoffin not only worked In the uphol-i sterlng business but also led an orchestra, and the Chattanooga gentleman told him that if he would come to Chattanooga City and open a shop he would guarantee him all the work he could do' at his trade, and would assist him in organizing a local orchestra to furnish music for the Chattanooga Opera-House. Accordingly, John went to the Mountain City, but he had established himself only a few weeks when one morning bo woke up paralyzed. The unfortunate man could not remain idle, and after seeking employment in several dilfcrent lines of work he began selling: lottery tickets. Then the lotteries were suppressed and he again lost his means of livelihood. He goes about the city without a guide, feeling hlg way with a cane.

He plays dominoes, and, is very expert at the game. In speaking at his life he said: It Is remarkable only the number of misfortune which have overtaken me." law. Biedlclne. or dentistry nnds himscir, VPn answering the advertisement, directed to two Side institutions, which, like the three rings of the circus under one tent." jiest'e. side by side under one roof.

They are the Garden City Iaw School and the Independent Medical College. Their nesting place is the People's Institute Building, at the corner of Van Buren and Lavitt streets. On the second floor, in the west end of the building, are the rooms and cfllces. The door Is marked: Suite B. "Walk In." Behind the door is a hall, made by the shutting Arf tt tha two Fides of the rooms within by pavilions of match boarding, roughly paintef red.

into smaller rooms and offices. The doors of the smaller rooms thus made are marked br tin or paper sipns with Yarious names: Dr. Van Noppen." Dr. Longden," Dr. Armstrong." and others.

Apparently there are lut twa rooms devoted to the use of students; the rest are offlce3. "Object" of tlie: Sebool. The object of the Garden City Law School, according to the announcement, is to promote the cause of legal education and to provide instruction and guidance to men and women -who desire an education in the law and cannot afford the time and money to attend the regular law schools." fro obtain a diploma it is net necessary to 'attend the school personally, but the course "may be carried on, after the pattern of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, by correspondence. However, the school possesses what the announcement terms the added advantage over the C. L.

S. C. by requiring regular examinations whenever the student has completed a certain subject or text book." The course of study," says the announcement. occupies two years of thirty-six weeks each. Tuition fees are $20 a term, payable in Advance, or for the entire college year, paid in advance." The school was incorporated, the announcement says, on March 22, Into thi3 unprepossessing hallway there stepped, a little more than a week ago.

a youthful but comparatively intelligent in- dividual, with a Ke wanted to become a lawful. lawyer ia as short time as possible if It could be done without work. Whether the prospective student desires jto take up law, medicine, or dentistry, he eees Dr. J. Armstrong.

Dr. Armstrong, in regard to institutions with which ho has been connected, has been several times the object of comment on the part of those interested in the discouragement of unworthy and has been noticed more than -once by tho State Board of Health. Dr. iArmstrong Is down on the letter head of -the Garden City Law School as James Armstrong, Ph. M.

Vice and Secretary." The applicant for the Qualifteattous. nec 1 1 i range It so that they are the ones asked you In examination. I can do it by suggesting to Dr. Longden that perhaps it might be well to ask questions from the list so that In case of his absence I can take his place without having any appreciable difference In the examinations. In that case, if you can look up enough of them to make a presentable showing I am certain that you will have to wait only a short time for a diploma, perhaps two months.

I can't prom ise more than that because the laws are particularly strict on that point. Considering the fact that the laws of Illinois are explicit in requiring at least two years of regular work, either in a law school or in a lawyer's office before admission to the bar, this seemed as short a cut to a diploma as could be expected. The faculty of the Garden City Law School Is far from the least peculiar thing about the Institution. As given in the announcement. it is as follows: Board of Trustees James Longden, Ph.

LL. i. James Amytrong, Ph. M. D.

Randall, Ph. M. D. Thomas M. Officers of the Board of Trustees James IL Longden, Ph.

LL. President and Treasurer; James Armstrong, Ph. M. Vice President and Secretary. Faculty James H.

Longden Ph. LL; IX, Dean, Professor of Common Law and the Principles and Practice of Pleading at Law and Equity James Armstrong, Ph. M. Professor of Ml i Mg. awwwjm u.

i ii i ii 1 1 i 1 1 i I TsHEATfcR EAfTAN. SOME OF THE PLACES THAT WOULD LOSE THEIR VALUE AS PAYING BUSINESS PROPERTIES IN THE AMERICAN VENICE." 'I.