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P
 P
.
A hotel that has averaged five hundred and fifty daily arrivals for a dozen
years. This naturally awakens interest; where is it? Who built it? How does
it look? In answer, we speak of the Palmer House, of Chicago, the 'Palace
Hotel of America,' built by Potter Palmer. The building is as nearly fire-
proof as any building can be made, and is swarming with servants.
You are accommodated with a room which satisfies your desires
financially; and upon entering the dining-room you can choose between the
American and European plans. This hotel is, indeed, first-class in every
respect. It certainly enjoys the widest reputation as such of any on the
continent, and is undoubtedly the finest hotel in America, save possibly the
Palace Hotel, in San-Francisco, which is a rival in magnificence.
Mr. Palmer was born near Albany, New York, where he worked summers
among the farmers as a day-laborer, and attended the district school winters.
This kind of life was maintained until he was nearly nineteen years of age
when he entered a store at Durham, New York, as a clerk. Here he allowed
nothing to escape his attention and, by industry, coupled with frugality, he
was enabled to enter a business on his own account when twenty-one. Mr.
Palmer, like all other young men who have risen from poverty to affluence,
was constantly alive to the problems of the day; especially did the subject of
this narrative watch the indications of progress in his native country.
Being filled with the idea that Chicago was to be the city of America, he
in 1852 moved 'West' to that city. Here he opened a dry-goods business
which grew to mammoth proportions for those days. After fourteen years of
successful trade he retired, investing heavily in real estate. When the great
fire came much of his vast gains were swept away, but with that
indomitable will and courage which has always characterized his efforts, he
succeeded in forming a company which successfully brought to completion

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the magnificent hotel before mentioned. Probably no man has been more
closely identified with the project of improving the streets of Chicago.
When Palmer first entered the city he found it situated in a slough. It was
generally supposed that the ground upon which the city was built was a
natural swamp, and when Palmer, among others, advocated the idea of
raising the streets they were ridiculed. But subsequent tests proved that
beneath the surface there was a solid rock bottom, therefore it was
impossible for the water to leach through. When this was an established
fact, and therefore the grumblers were deprived of this excuse, the cry was
raised that the city could not afford it. Against all obstacles the measure was
carried, however, and State Street was widened, making it one of the
grandest and most 'stately' streets among any that can be found in any city
on the entire globe. Indeed, it is difficult to estimate the possible benefit
Chicago may have derived, directly or indirectly, through the influence of
Potter Palmer.

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