THE LIBBY PRISON WAR MUSEUM.
Of the many attractions outside of the World's Fair in Chicago there are but few in which there is so much interest centered as there is in the Libby Prison War Museum. In 1889 this celebrated prison was removed from Richmond to Chicago and converted into a War Museum. The project was undertaken by a syndicate of the best known business men of the city, whose enterprise was conceived in a commercial spirit, but has attained a national reputation. A project such as this was never before heard of. To move a brick and stone building the size of Libby more than a thousand miles, across rivers and mountains, was an enterprise that many of the best known contractors in the West refused to undertake at any price. But the move was made with success. Then the famous old structure was filled with war material that represents the work of a lifetime and the expenditure of half a million dollars. The great collection is conceded to be second to none in the country and includes much of the most valuable material that the greatest civil war the world has ever known has left to posterity. The collection includes thousands and thousands of relics of every description, many of which form important links in the history of the nation. The old building itself is fraught with interesting memories, and the story of the celebrated tunnel escape of Feb. 9, 1864, never fails to interest the visitors. One hundred and nine Union officers made their escape through that tunnel, which formed one of the most thrilling events in the history of the war.