[Newspaper]
Publication: The New York Times
New York, NY, United States
vol. 49, no. 15659, p. 17, col. 1-2
CHICAGO’S LAND TROUBLES
Gratification Over Lake Front
Decision of the Supreme Court
THE CAREER OF WESLEY JUKES
Wonderful Things That Barnum's Old
Assistant Accomplished — Carelessness
In Use of Firearms.
Special to The New York Times.
CHICAGO, March 17. — The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States rendered this week concerning the water front is one of the most important in which the city has been interested. The matter has been fought step by step for years, and the conclusion has been a happy one to Chicago. It settles for all time the long disputed and conflicting claims between the city and the Illinois Central Railway concerning the ownership of the land, natural and made, along the lake front. During the progress of the legal fight the railway company has gone on filling in the lake with earth and debris and building thereon tracks, round-houses, and shops. This has had the effect of pushing the lake front streets further and further inland, destroying the lake view and increasing the frontage property of the railway company.
The mandate of the court restricts the ownership of the land so far an the company is concerned to 200 feet from the original right of way. According to the city authorities this will result in much land now occupied by the railway company reverting to the municipality. Some idea of the magnitude of this filling-in process may be had from the statement that there are no less than twelve acres of land so made at the foot of Randolph Street, opposite the very heart of the city, and now occupied by a network of tracks and switches. At Twelfth Street there are six acres, and between there and Fifty-first street there are several smaller strips.
The court decision denies the company's ownership to any submerged lands whatever, and the city will set up claim to all the made land ed in by the company. The value of this property is estimated at several million dollars. Officials of the company will not discuss the matter, but it is plain that the corporation will not give up without a struggle the valuable holdings which it has so long occupied. In the City Corporation Counsel's office it is thought that the matter inflow in such shape that any one who may file a bill to compel the company to dredge out the filled land as a nuisance. At any rate, the decision has put the company in a position, where. If it would continue to use the land. It will have to get the permission of the city to do so.
The Sanitary Trustees have decided that the Chicago River, with the centre pier bridges existing in it, is not large enough to allow the passage of the amount of water necessary for the canal without causin [sic] causing obstruction to navigation. They have accordingly decided to remove the centre pier bridges as soon as the city will turn control of the river to them. They will consult with the city authorities immediately with a view to assuming that control as soon as possible. When that power is in their hands they will arrange to issue bonds to the extent of [dollar:$3,000,000]. With this money they expect to erect bascule bridges at all points on the main river where centre pier bridges now exist. It is understood that the Sanitary Trustees will not attempt to lower the tunnels, as it has not jurisdiction over them. It is the wish of the Trustees to assume police powers over the river and to maintain police boats upon the stream, to see that the new rules of navigation made necessary by the increased current are obeyed.
Two shocking examples of the careless use of firearms occurred this week with the result that two persons are dead and two families bereaved. A father brought home to a seven-year-old son a present of a revolver. A few minutes later the boy shot and killed his mother. in the second instance a young lad fatally shot his little brother. He used his father's revolver for the purpose. Since Jan, 1 there have been twenty-one accidental killings of this kind. Besides this there have been a still larger number of people wounded. The carrying of firearms is very much more common in this city than it was a few yearn ago, owing largely to the increase of lawlessness. In several instances the police have advised people to go armed against the footpads which infest the city. The law against carrying concealed weapons long since became a dead letter.
The Young Men’s Club of the South Congregational Church on the South Side has been dissolved by the body of the church. It was organized for the purpose of furthering the work of the church, but it very soon became apparent that it had other ends in view. It degenerated into a social organization, the object of which seemed to be to play poker. They gave the church sums of money from time to time, and the church officials do not seem to have looked into the club’s affairs very closely. At last the pastor learned of the carousals which had been going on in the club rooms, and he called the officers to account. The result disclosure that cards had been played there for money, and that some the funds turned over to the church were "profits" from the games.
There died in this place this week a man who had much to do with the success of Barnum in the palmy days of the great showman. This was Wesley Jukes, who was not only an associate of Barnum, but also of Coup, Robinson, and other old-time circus men. He was born in Pittsburg in 1837, and established museums early in the sixties in New Orleans, Indianapolis, and other places. Afterward he constructed automatic figures for John Robinson, the veteran circus man. In 1870 he appeared with Barnum as a glass blower at the old Wood Museum, at Broadway and Thirtieth Street, New York. When Barnum took out his first big show, Jukes went with him, and was responsible for many of the things with which Barnum astonished the natives. He constructed the Melchlor organ and made the automatic talking figures whose flexible mouths were worked by air pressure. He next invented Gideon’s Hand, also made out of paper, some of the figures having movable limbs, eyes, &c., and some operating musical instruments. structed the first steam calliope, and placed it on top of Barnum’s Museum in New York City. The automatic chess player which created so much talk a quarter of a century ago was also the invention of Jukes. Probably the bit of work of which Jukes was most proud was a complete glass model in full working order of the famous Corliss engine at the Pullman works. It was Jukes who suggested the Cardiff Giant to Barnum, and it was he who planned the construction and "finding" of this memorable hoax. The illusion of the "half woman" was also his device. His last engagement was with local dime museum as a glass blower. Hutchinson of the Barnum show once said of Jukes: "He is the most wonderful man I ever knew. There is not a musical instrument on which he cannot play, and play well. He can make anything he has ever seen, and many more that he never saw. Much of Barnum’s original success should be credited to Jukes." R. B. P.