Haussmann never overlooked the great and broad lines laid down by his predecessors; so that to a considerable extent his work was but the continuation of the plans prepared by Louis XIV. in the later years of the seventeenth century. His peculiar task, however, was to provide adequate means of circulation within the old city, by cutting new streets and widening old ones, by sweeping away unwholesome rookeries, and by opening up great spaces in order to disengage monuments of beauty and historic interest. He placed the great railway stations of Paris in a circle about the old center of the city, and opened up fine avenues of approach to them. At times he found it less expensive, and also less disturbing, to build a new street through the blocks, rather than to widen old streets; and it was his special care to create diagonal thoroughfares in order to shorten distances, and also to give picturesqueness to the street system by the creation of those corner lots which the architects of Paris have learned so well how to improve.[4] The task which Haussmann accomplished for Paris corresponds with the work which must be done for Chicago, in order to overcome the intolerable conditions which invariably arise from a rapid growth of population. At the time he began, the population of Paris was half a million less than the population of Chicago to-day. The work was accomplished at a cost of $265,000,000. That portion of the improvements relating to the palaces was borne entirely by the nation, the remainder being divided between the nation and the city, the former paying one-third and the latter two-thirds of the expense. It was Haussmann’s theory that the money thus spent made a better city, and that a better city was a greater producer of wealth. Experience has amply justified his contention. The convenience and beauty of Paris bring large returns in money as well as in æsthetic satisfaction.[5]