We have frequently pointed with praise to the speed with which the German North Side is being re-transformed from a desert of ruins and rubbish to a dwelling place for human beings...However, also a different point of view is possible...Will not the thousands of huts and little houses, hastily nailed together from boards, remain for years without being replaced by better homes? Will not the North Side give the impression of poverty-stricken shabbiness? This fear one hears daily expressed by many German citizens of the North Side, and is so urgent that it will no doubt be moved soon in the city council to extend the fire confines ( inside of which no permanent wooden structure may be built) at least to Division Street, possibly to North Avenue. Two things that so far have been proposed would considerably contribute to rehabilitate the North Side, not only equally as well as before the fire, but in far better shape, and would raise the value of its real estate. The first would be the removal of the breweries from the lake shore of the North Side; the second would be the building of a central passenger depot (not a freight yard) in the South Western corner of the North Side.

What good did it do that one could buy building lots on the North Side within fifteen minutes distance from the mainbusiness district, few the only finished steps from the only finished work of the city, in the most enchanting closeness to the lake -for half the price as at 30th Street? There was no demand, because the district was not fashionable. And it was not fashionable on account of the breweries with their gigantic smoke stacks, colossal ice-houses, the smell of mash and the noisy traffic of the brewery wagons.... Without the breweries the whole part of the North Side, north of Ohio Street, would be as popular and as noble a residential district as the Avenues south of 12th street, In the surroundings of the park, inhabited as it is mostly by Germens, every foot of building space might become worth twice asmuch as it was before the fire....

Immediately the Astor subdivision which was, up to the fire, covered with miserable shacks, would be divided by broad, beautiful streets,. Lake Shore Drive could be continued to the waterworks, and a district that, previous to the fire, was rather an ugly blot on the North side than an adornment, in a few years would become a companion piece to Indiana, Prairie, Calumet 3and Kankakee Avenue.

The construction of a central railroad station would be the second lever. Such a depot would immediately encourage hotels to rise, comparable in importance to the Fremont and Sherman houses on the North Side, and, as a corollary, many fashionable shops,...The North Side can be worth in five years twice as much as it was before the fire-as it may be worth only half as much. The first will be the case if the advantages that Lincoln Park offers are fully made use of by men who are enterprising, public spirited, or a sure instinct in business, mobile and active. The second alternative, however, will become reality if shortsightedly a provisory adjustment, that the need of the moment excuses, is made permanent.

(Note: This is an article written brilliantly and with imagination, showing considerable change of attitude on the side of the Staats-Zeitung. In all probability written by Hesing immediately on returning to Chicago.)