CHIBOUQUE, or Chibouk (the Fr. form of the Turk, chib#363;k, literally a stick), a long pipe, often ornamented with precious stones, smoked by the Turks.
CHIC (a French word, either a shortened form of chicane, or derived from the Ger. Schick, tact or skill), a term properly used, in French artistic slang, of a work of art possessing brilliant but superficial technical ability, or of one executed without reference to a model or study of nature. The use of the word in French dates from the reign of Louis XIV. and then denoted a lawyer who was master of “chicane.” “Chic,” in general use, now connotes “smartness,” in dress, speech, &c.
CHICACOLE, a town of British India in the Ganjam district of Madras, situated on the right bank of the river Languliya, here crossed by a bridge, 4 m. from the sea. Pop. (1901) 18,196. Under Mahommedan rule it was the capital of one of the Northern Circars, and afterwards of a British district. Several old mosques remain. The town was famous for its muslins, but the industry is now decayed. The roadstead and lighthouse of Calingapatam are about 16 m. to the north, and the East Coast railway has a station 9 m. inland.
CHICAGO, a city, a port of entry and the county-seat of Cook county, Illinois, U.S.A., the second city of the United States in population, commerce and manufactures; pop. (1900) 1,698,575; and (1910) 2,185,283. It is situated at the south-west corner of Lake Michigan (lat. 41° 50′, long. 87° 38′ W.), about 913 m. distant by railway from New York, 912 m. from New Orleans, 2265 m. from Los Angeles, and 2330 m. from Seattle. The climate is very changeable and is much affected by the lake; changes of more than thirty degrees in temperature within 24 hours are not at all rare, and changes of twenty are common. The city is the greatest railway centre of the United States, and was for several decades practically the only commercial outlet of the great agricultural region of the northern Mississippi Valley. Trunk lines reach E. to Montreal, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore (the nearest point on the Atlantic coast, 854 m.); S. to Charleston, Savannah, Florida, Mobile, New Orleans, Port Arthur and Galveston; W. to the Pacific at Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver, and to most of these by a variety of routes. In 1905 about 14% of the world’s railway mileage centred in Chicago.
With its suburbs Chicago stretches along the shore of Lake Michigan about 40 m. (the city proper 26.5), and the city in 1910 had a total area of 191.4 sq.m.[1] It spreads loosely and irregularly backward from the lake over a shallow alluvial basin, which is rimmed to the W. by a low moraine water-parting[2] that separates the drainage of the lake from that of the Mississippi Valley. The city site has been built up out of the “Lake Chicago” of glacial times, which exceeded in size Lake Michigan. Three lakes—Calumet, 3122 acres; Hyde; and part of Wolf—with a water-surface of some 4100 acres, lie within the municipal limits. The original elevation of what is now the business heart of the city was only about 7 ft. above the lake, but the level was greatly raised—in some places more than 10 ft.—over a large area, between 1855 and 1860. The West Side, especially in the north-west near Humboldt Park, is much higher (extreme 75 ft.). A narrow inlet from the lake, the Chicago river, runs W. from its shore about a mile, dividing then into a north and a south branch, which run respectively to the N.W. and the S.W., thus cutting the city into three divisions known as the North, the West and the South “Sides,” which are united by three car-tunnels beneath the river as well as by the bridges across it.[3] The river no longer empties into Lake Michigan since the completion of the drainage canal. Its commercial importance is very great: indeed it is probably the most important non-tidal stream of its length in the world, or if it be regarded as a harbour, one of the greatest; the tonnage of its yearly commerce far exceeds that of the Suez Canal and almost equals the tonnage of the foreign trade (the domestic excluded) of the Thames or the Mersey. The increase in size of the newer freighters that ply on the Great Lakes[4] has proved one serious difficulty, and the bridges and the river tunnels, which hinder the deeper cutting of the channel, are others. The improvement of the outer harbour by the national government was begun in 1833. Great breakwaters protect the river mouth from the silting shore currents of the lake and afford secure shelter in an outer roadstead from its storms, and there is a smaller inner-basin (about 450 acres, 16 ft. depth) as well. But the river itself which has about 15 m. of navigable channel, in part lined with docks, is the most important part of the harbour. Its channel has been repeatedly deepened, and in rectnt years—especially since 1896, after its control as a navigable stream passed (1890) to the federal government—widened and straightened by the removal of jutting building constructions along its shores. Grain elevators of enormous size, coal yards, lumber yards and grimy warehouses or factories crowd close upon it. The shipping facilities on the river are not so good in some ways, however, as on the Calumet in southeastern (or South) Chicago, whither there has been a strong movement of manufactures and heavy commerce.
The plan of the city is in general “regular,” i.e. rigidly rectangular, and the streets are in general wide. The evenness of the plain has saved Chicago from most of the vast expense, incurred by some American cities (notably Boston and San Francisco) in the extension or levelling of their sites and the removal of obstructions unfavourable to their development. The business district is concentrated in a small area of the South Side, just below the main river and between the south branch and the lake. A number of the railway terminals, almost all the great wholesale and retail houses, the leading hotels and public buildings are crowded within an area of about 1.5 sq.m. The congestion of the streets—considerably lessened since the freight-subways have reduced the amount of heavy trucking—is proportionately great, and their din and crush is characteristic of the city. The residential districts, on the other hand, are unevenly and loosely spread; many areas well within the city are only sparsely settled. A belt of “bad lands”—occupied by factories, shanties, &c.—partially surrounds the best business district. The smoke resulting from the use of soft coal has given a drab and dingy colour-tone to the buildings. The low and even relief of the site and the long vistas of the streets do not lend themselves to the picturesque; yet this quality may be claimed for the high and broken skyline, varied colour, massiveness, bustle and impressive commercialism of the business district. Chicago is generally credited with being the original home of the steel-frame “sky-scraper,”[5] though there are now higher buildings elsewhere in America. The unstable soil of sand, clay and boulders that underlies the city is unfavourable to tall constructions, and necessitates extraordinary attention to foundations. The bed-rock lies, on an average, 50 ft. below the level of the lake (in places more than a hundred). To the rock the foundations are often sunk in caissons, the buildings restingon monster columns of concrete and steel.[6] In other cases great “pads” of the same materials, resting or “floating” upon the clay, sustain and distribute the weight of the building. The small extent of the business quarter adds to the effect of its tall structures. The Auditorium (1889; cost, $3,500,000), a huge building containing a hotel and a theatre (5000 seats), is one of the most massive commercial structures of the country. The Masonic Temple (cost, $3,000,000) is the tallest in the city (302 ft.). In 1909 there were some 475 structures ten or more storeys high. Not a few are noteworthy, whether for size—as the Monadnock office building of 16 storeys, with some 6000 occupants, and the new Northwestern Railway station; or for the luxury of their interior fittings—as the La Salle, Blackstone and Sherman hotels; or for boldness and originality in the treatment of the steel-frame type; or for association with the city’s life—as the Fine Arts building, given over to varied purposes of public amusement and artistic or intellectual improvement, or the Railway Exchange (cased in tiles), the University Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trade; and many others are handsome and dignified examples of architecture. The Marquette building, consistently and handsomely decorated with works of art, is one of the finest office-buildings in the country. There are a number of enormous retail stores. The largest, and one of the finest in the world, is that of Marshall Field. The wholesale establishment of the same firm is the work of H.H. Richardson, considered one of his best, and one of the most admirable examples among American commercial buildings. The city hall and county court house (cost, $4,500,000) is an enormous double building in a free French Renaissance style, with columned facades. The new Federal building (finished in 1905; cost, $4,750,000) is a massive edifice (a low rectangle surmounted by a higher inner cross and crowned with a dome). The public library (1893-1897, $2,125,000), constructed of dark granite and limestone, with rich interior decorations of varied frescoes, mosaics, ornamental bronze and iron-work, and mottoes, is one of the handsomest libraries of the country. The Chicago Art Institute (1892-1893; Italian Renaissance), the Chicago Orchestra building (1904), and the Commercial National Bank, are also noteworthy. The finest residence streets are the Lake Shore Drive of the North Side and the “boulevards”—broad parkways that connect the parks of the city—of which Michigan Avenue, Drexel and Grand are the finest. The city’s environs are not of particular beauty, but there are bluffs on the lake to the north, and woods to the south-west, and a fair variety of pretty hill and plain; and though the Calumet and Chicago rivers have been given over to commerce, the valley of the Desplaines will be preserved in the park system. On the South Side are the Union Stockyards, established in 1865, by far the largest in the world. They cover about 500 acres, have about 45 m. of feeding and watering troughs, and can accommodate at one time more than 400,000 hogs, cattle, sheep and horses.