The Project Gutenberg eBook of Great Cities of the United States, by Gertrude Van Duyn Southworth.

HISTORICAL, DESCRIPTIVE, COMMERCIAL
INDUSTRIAL

BY

GERTRUDE VAN DUYN SOUTHWORTH
AUTHOR OF “BUILDERS OF OUR COUNTRY,” BOOKS I AND II,
“THE STORY OF THE EMPIRE STATE,” AND
“A FIRST BOOK IN AMERICAN HISTORY”

AND

STEPHEN ELLIOTT KRAMER
ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, WASHINGTON, D.C.

IROQUOIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc.
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY
GERTRUDE VAN DUYN SOUTHWORTH AND STEPHEN ELLIOTT KRAMER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
316.3

PREFACE

Just as the history of a country is largely the history of its great men, so the geography of a country is largely the story of its great cities.

How much more easily history is grasped and remembered when grouped around attractive biographies. With great cities as the centers of geography-study, what is generally considered a dry, matter-of-fact subject can be made to attract, to inspire, and to fix the things which should be remembered.

This book, “Great Cities of the United States,” includes the ten largest cities of this country, together with San Francisco, New Orleans, and Washington. In it the important facts of our country's geography have been grouped around these thirteen cities. The story of Chicago includes the story of farming in the Middle West, of the great ore industry on and around the Great Lakes, and of the varied means of transportation. Cotton, sugar, and location are shown to account largely for the greatness of New Orleans. In a similar way, the stories of the other cities sum up the important geography of our country.

Enough of the history of each city is given to show its growth and development. The distinctive points of interest are described so that one feels acquainted with the things which attract the sight-seer. The commercial and industrial features are made to stand out as the logical[vi] sequence of fortunate location for manufacturing, for securing raw materials, for markets, and for convenient means of transportation.

In order to make uniformly fair comparisons, local statistics have been ignored and all data have been taken from the latest government reports.

The authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to the historical societies, to the chambers of commerce, to those in the various cities who have furnished material and reviewed the manuscript, and to all others who have rendered assistance.

It is hoped that by the use of this book our country, in all its greatness, will mean more and will appeal more to the boys and girls of America than ever before.

To the publishers of Allen's “Geographical and Industrial Studies: United States” we are indebted for the use of the map appearing at the end of the text.

LIST OF MAPS

NEW YORK

“Drop anchor!” rang out the command as the little Dutch vessel furled her sails. On every side were the shining waters of a widespread bay, while just ahead stretched the forest-covered shores of an island.

All on board were filled with excitement, wondering what lay beyond. “Have we at last really found a waterway across this new land of America?” they asked. There was only one way to know—to go and see. So on once more, past the[4] island, glided the Half Moon. From time to time, as she sailed along, the redskin savages visited her and traded many valuable furs for mere trifles.

But at last the Half Moon could go no further. This was not a waterway to India, only a river leading into the depths of a wild and rugged country. Sick with disappointment, her captain, Henry Hudson, turned about, journeyed the length of the river which was later to bear his name, once more passed the island at the mouth of the river, and sailed away. All this in 1609.

Manhattan was the Indian name for the island at the mouth of the Hudson River. Tempted by Henry Hudson's furs, the thrifty Dutchmen sent ship after ship to trade with the American Indians. And as the years went by, these Dutchmen built a trading post on Manhattan, and[5] a little Dutch village grew up about the post. Soon the Dutch West India Company was formed to send out colonists to Manhattan and the land along the Hudson. A governor too was sent. His name was Peter Minuit.

Now Peter Minuit was honest, and when he found that the Dutch were living on Indian land to which they had helped themselves, he was not content. So he called together the tribes which lived on Manhattan and, while the painted warriors squatted on the ground, spoke to them in words like these: “My brothers, we have come to trade with you. And that we may be near to buy your furs when you have gathered them, we wish to live among you, on your land. It is your land, and as we do not mean to steal it from you, I have asked you to meet me here that I may buy from you this island which you call Manhattan.” Then, in payment for the island, Peter Minuit offered the Indians ribbons, knives, rings, and colored beads—things dearly loved by the savages. The bargain was[6] soon closed, and for twenty-four dollars' worth of trinkets the Dutch became the owners of Manhattan Island.

The Dutch settlement on Manhattan was called New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam was a pretty town, with its quaint Dutch houses built gable end toward the street and its gardens bright with flowers. Dutch windmills with their long sweeping arms rose here and there, and near the water stood the fort.

But though New Amsterdam grew and prospered in the years after Peter Minuit bought Manhattan, life there did not run as smoothly as it might. In time Peter Stuyvesant came to be governor, and a stern, tyrannical ruler he was. He always saw things from the Dutch[7] West India Company's point of view, not from the colonists'. Disagreement followed disagreement till the people were nearly at the end of their patience.

Then, one day in 1664, an English fleet sailed into the bay. A letter was brought ashore for Governor Stuyvesant. England too, so it seemed, laid claim to this land along the Hudson River, and now asked the Dutch governor to give up his colony to the Duke of York, a brother of England's king. This done, the Dutch colonists could keep their property, and all their rights and privileges. In fact, even greater privileges would then be given them.

In a towering rage Governor Stuyvesant tore the letter into bits and stamped upon them and called upon his colonists to rise and help him repulse the English. But the colonists would not rise. They felt that there was nothing to gain by so doing. The English promised much, far more than they had had under the rule of tyrannical Peter Stuyvesant and the Dutch West India Company.

What could the governor do? Surely he alone could not defeat the English fleet. So at last, sorrowfully and reluctantly, he signed a surrender, and the Dutch Colony was given over to the English.

Once in possession, the English renamed New Amsterdam, calling it New York. Now followed a hundred years of ever-increasing river, coast, and foreign trade, of growing industries, of prosperity. And then—the Revolution.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, George Washington and his army were in New York, guarding the city from the English. But before the close of the year he was forced to retreat, and the English took possession. By the close of the Revolution, in 1783, the English had robbed the city of much of its wealth and had ruined its business.

After the war the thirteen states who had won their freedom from England joined together, drew up a constitution for their common government, and chose their first president. Then came the thirtieth of April, 1789. The streets were crowded, and a great throng packed the space before New York's Federal Hall. This was Inauguration Day, and on the balcony stood General Washington[9] taking the oath of office. It was a solemn moment. The ceremony over, a mighty shout arose—“Long live George Washington, president of the United States.” Cheers filled the air, bells pealed, and cannons roared. The new government had begun, and, for a time, New York was the capital city.

Already New York was recovering from the effects of the war. Her trade with European ports had begun again, and it was no uncommon sight to see over one hundred vessels loading or unloading in her harbor at one time.

New York harbor is one of the largest and best in the world. Add to this the city's central location on the Atlantic seaboard, and it is no wonder that a vast coasting trade grew up with Eastern and Southern ports.

Without doubt, however, the greatest business event in the history of New York City was the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. The canal joined the Great Lakes with the Hudson River, making a water route from the rich Northwest to the Atlantic, with New York as the natural terminus. So with nearly all of the trade of the lake region at her command, New York soon became a great commercial center, outstripping both Boston and Philadelphia, which up to this time had ranked ahead of New York.

A few years later the building of railroads began. The first railway from New York was begun in 1831, and it was not long before the city was the terminus of several lines and the chief railroad center of the Atlantic coast. As the railroads did more and more of the carrying, and the Erie Canal lost its former importance, New York did not suffer from the change, but still[10]
[11] controlled much of the trade between the Northwest and European nations. Besides, as time went on, she built up an immense traffic with all parts of the continent, being easily reached by rail from the north, east, south, and west.

The first half of the nineteenth century saw the arrival of many thousand immigrants from Europe. These, with the thousands of people who came from other parts of America, attracted by the city's growing industries, made more and more room necessary. First, about 13,000 acres across the Harlem River were added to the city. Then, in 1895, the city limits were extended to the borders of Yonkers and Mt. Vernon. And finally, in 1898, New York, Brooklyn, Long Island City, and some other near-by towns were united under one government, forming together Greater New York, the largest American city and the second largest city in the world.

New York to-day covers about 360 square miles, its greatest length from north to south being 32 miles, its greatest width about 16. The city is divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond. The Borough of Manhattan, on the long narrow island of that name, lies between the Hudson and the East River. North and east of Manhattan, on the mainland, lies the Borough of The Bronx. Just across the narrow East River, on Long Island, are the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn; while Staten Island is known as the Borough of Richmond.

As more and more people came to the city the business area on Manhattan proved too small, and with water to the east, to the west, and to the south, there was no possibility of spreading out in these directions. Yet[12] business kept increasing, and the cry for added room became more and more urgent. Finally, the building of the ten-story Tower Building in 1889 solved the difficulty. It showed that, though hemmed in on all sides, there was still one direction in which the business section could grow—upwards. And upwards it has grown.[13] To-day lower Manhattan fairly bristles with huge steel-framed skyscrapers which furnish miles and miles of office space, twenty, thirty, forty, in one case even fifty-five, stories above the street level. The supplying of office and factory space is not the only use that has been made of these steel buildings. Great apartment houses from twelve to fifteen stories high provide homes for thousands. Mammoth hotels covering entire city blocks furnish temporary homes for the multitudes which visit the city each year. Fifteen of the largest of these can house more than 15,000 guests at one time—a good-sized city in itself. Thus has Manhattan become one of the most densely populated areas on the globe. In the boroughs of Queens and Richmond, on the other hand, large tracts of land are given over to farms and market gardens.

Manhattan is at once the smallest and the most important borough in the city. Here are the homes of more[14] than 2,000,000 people, the business section of Greater New York, and the chief shipping districts.

When building the narrow irregular streets of their little town on lower Manhattan, the inhabitants of New Amsterdam little dreamed that they would one day be the scene of the enormous traffic of modern New York. Those old, narrow, winding streets to-day swarm with hurrying throngs from morning till night and are among the busiest and noisiest in the world.

The newer part of the city from Fourteenth Street north to the Harlem River has been laid out in wide parallel avenues running north and south. These are crossed by numbered streets running east and west from river to river. Fifth Avenue runs lengthwise through the middle of the borough, dividing it into the East and West sides. On the East Side you will find the crowded homes of the poorer classes, where many of the working people of Manhattan live. On the West Side are many[15] manufacturing plants, lumber yards, and warehouses. On the upper stretch of Fifth Avenue, and on the streets leading off, are the homes of many of New York's wealthiest residents. Opposite Central Park are some of the most costly and beautiful mansions in the city.

In this regular arrangement of streets, Broadway alone is the exception to the rule. Beginning at the southern[16] end of the island, it runs straight north for more than two miles, then turns west and winds its way throughout the whole length of the city. About its lower end, and on some of the neighboring streets, center the banking and financial interests. Here are many of the city's richest banks and trust companies.

Wall Street, running east from Broadway about one third of a mile from the southern end of Manhattan, was named from the wall which the Dutch, in 1683, built across the island at this point, because they heard that the English were planning to attack them from the north. Though only half a mile in length, Wall Street probably surpasses all others in the extent of its business.

North of the banking center is the great wholesale region, where merchants from all parts of the country buy their stock in large quantities, to sell again to the retail merchants. Beyond the wholesale region are the large retail stores—New York's great shopping district. In these retail stores the merchants who have bought from the wholesalers sell direct to the people who are to use the goods. In this middle section of the island are also most of the better-class hotels, restaurants, clubs, and theaters, which have been gradually making their way further and further uptown, crowding the best resident section still further north.

The customhouse, where the government collects duties on goods brought into the port of New York from other lands, was built at the extreme southern end of the island, where Fort Amsterdam used to stand. The United States Sub-Treasury, in Wall Street, stands on the site of Federal Hall, where Washington was inaugurated. Here are stored[18] large quantities of gold, silver, and paper money belonging to the government. In and about City Hall Park are the post office, the courthouse, and the Hall of Records. The new public library, on Fifth Avenue between Fortieth and Forty-second streets, is the largest library building in the world.

The city's parks are many. Central Park, in the center of Manhattan, ranks among the world's finest pleasure grounds. It is two miles and a half long and one-half mile wide, and has large stretches of woodland, beautiful lawns, gleaming lakes, and sparkling fountains. Here, too, are the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Cleopatra's Needle—an obelisk thousands of years old, presented to the city by a ruler of Egypt. And here are reservoirs which hold the water brought by aqueducts from the Croton River, about forty miles north of the city. This river was for many years the sole source of Manhattan's water supply. In 1905, however, the city began work on an immense[19]
[20]
[21] aqueduct which is to bring all the drinking-water for all five boroughs from reservoirs in the Catskill Mountain region.

The tomb of General Grant is at the northern end of Riverside Park, which is on a high ridge along the Hudson River above Seventy-second Street. Riverside Drive, skirting this park, is one of the most beautiful boulevards in the city.

Then there are Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt parks in The Bronx. The city zoo and the Botanical Gardens are in Bronx Park. And in addition to all these there are more than two hundred smaller open spaces and squares scattered over the city.

Columbia University, New York University, Fordham, the College of the City of New York, and Barnard College are among the most noted of New York's many educational institutions.

About five million people live in this wonderful city, and to supply them all with food is a tremendous business in itself. During the night special trains bring milk, butter, and eggs; refrigerator cars come laden with beef;[22] and from the market gardens of Long Island fruits and vegetables are gathered and taken to the city during the cool of the night that they may be sold, fresh and inviting, in the morning.

Great numbers of New York's inhabitants are from foreign lands. Several thousand Chinese manage to exist in the few blocks which make up New York's Chinatown. A large Italian population lives huddled together in Little Italy, as well as in other sections of the city. Thousands upon thousands of Jews are crowded into the Hebrew section on the lower east side of Manhattan. There is also a German and a French colony, as well as distinct Negro, Greek, Russian, Armenian, and Arab quarters. Most of[23]
[24] these are in lower Manhattan, and in consequence lower Manhattan is by no means deserted when the vast army of shoppers, workers, and business men have gone home for the night.

The necessity of carrying these shoppers, workers, and business men to and from their homes in the residence sections of the city and in the suburbs gradually led to the development of New York's wonderful rapid-transit system. Within the borders of Manhattan itself, horse cars soon proved unequal to handling the crowds that each day traveled north and south. So the first elevated railway was built. Then six years later, a second line was constructed. Others soon followed, not only in Manhattan but also in Brooklyn and The Bronx. Raised high above[25] the busy streets by means of iron trestles, and making but few stops, these elevated trains could carry passengers much faster than the surface cars, and for a time the problem seemed to be solved.

The traveling public was rapidly increasing, however, and before the close of the nineteenth century both the surface cars, now run by electricity, and the elevated trains were sorely overcrowded during the morning and evening rush hours. More cars were absolutely necessary, and as there was little room to run them on or above the surface, New York decided to make use of the space under the ground, just as it had already turned to account that overhead.

The work was begun in 1901. A small army of men was set to blasting and digging tunnels underneath the city streets,—a tremendous task,—and in 1904 the first subway was opened. Electric cars running on these underground tracks carry passengers from one end of the island to the other with the speed of a railroad train.

But what of the means of travel for those living outside of Manhattan? Years back, business men living on Long Island had to cross the East River on ferry boats. This was particularly inconvenient in winter, when fogs or floating ice were liable to cause serious delays. Besides, as New York grew, such numbers crossed on the ferries that they were overcrowded. Relief came for a time when,[28] in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was built over the East River from Brooklyn to New York. This bridge is over a mile long. Across it run a roadway, a walk for foot passengers, and tracks for elevated trains as well as for surface cars. Two even longer bridges, the Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge, have since been built between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Then, too, there is the Queensboro Bridge, between Manhattan and the Borough of Queens.

Though thousands and thousands daily crossed the East River over these bridges, men soon foresaw that the time was not far distant when ferries and bridges together would be unable to take care of the ever-growing traffic. Further means of travel had to be provided, and the success of the city's underground railway suggested a[29]
[30] practical idea. As early as 1908, the subway was continued and carried under the East River to Brooklyn. Several tubes have since been built under the Hudson, connecting Manhattan with the New Jersey shore. To-day New York is building many miles of new subway under various parts of the city as well as under the Harlem and East rivers. Carrying passengers under water has proved as great a success as carrying them underground.

Over and above all these means of rapid transit, Greater New York has at its service ten of America's great railroads. The Pennsylvania Railroad has an immense station in New York, one of the finest of its kind. Tunnels under the Hudson and East rivers carry its trains to New Jersey and Long Island.

The new Grand Central Station is the greatest railroad terminal in the world. The station is a beautiful building of stone and marble, large enough to accommodate thirty thousand people at one time. Between railroads and tunnels, bridges and ferries, surface cars, elevated trains, and subways, New York's rapid transit system is one of the best in the world.

With such advantages as a receiving and distributing center, it is small wonder that the city has become the nation's chief market place. It is without a rival as the center of the wholesale dry-goods and wholesale grocery businesses. More than half of the imports of the United States enter by way of New York's port, and its total foreign commerce is five times that of any other city in the country.

Rubber, silk goods, furs, jewelry, coffee, tea, sugar, and tin are among the leading imports. Cotton, meats, and breadstuffs are the most important exports.

Besides being the principal market place of the United States, New York is also its greatest workshop, as it makes over one tenth of the manufactures of the country. In the manufacture of clothing alone, more than a hundred thousand people are employed. There are comparatively few large factories for carrying on this work, as much of it is done in tenement houses and in small workshops. The growth of this industry has been largely due to the abundance of cheap unskilled labor furnished by the immigrant population of the city.

Second in importance is the refining of sugar and molasses, carried on chiefly in Brooklyn along the East River, where boats laden with raw sugar from the Southern states and the West Indies unload their cargoes.[33] New York City leads in the refining of sugar as well as in its importation.

Added to these, printing and publishing, the refining of petroleum, slaughtering and meat packing, the roasting and grinding of coffee and spices, the making of foundry and machine-shop products, cigars, tobacco, millinery, furniture, and jewelry are the leading industries of the many thousands which have grown up in the city. All this is largely due to the ease with which raw materials can be obtained and finished articles marketed. Thanks to its commercial advantages, New York leads all American cities in the value of its manufactures and surpasses them in the variety of its products.

At the southern end of Manhattan Island is the Battery. In the old days the Battery was a fort. Now it is used as an aquarium. From the Battery New York's docks extend for miles along both sides of lower Manhattan and line the Long Island and New Jersey shores as well. The wharves are piled high with bales and bags, boxes and barrels. Ships from the South come with cargoes of cotton, others bound for England take this cotton away. Tank steamers from Cuba bring molasses; similar ones are filled with petroleum destined for the ends of the earth. Cattle boats take on live stock brought from the West, grain ships load at the many elevators built at the water's edge, and vessels from all the larger ports of the world put ashore goods of every description. Along both shores of the Hudson River are the piers of the great trans-Atlantic steamship companies, the landing places of the largest and fastest passenger vessels in the world. Here also are the docks[36] of the many river and coastwise lines which carry passengers to and from the cities and towns on the Hudson and the Atlantic coast. Half the foreign trade and travel of the United States passes over the wharves of lower Manhattan.

The entire harbor includes the Hudson and East rivers and the upper and lower New York Bay with the connecting strait known as The Narrows. The upper bay, New York's real harbor, can be entered from the ocean in three ways—a narrow winding channel around Staten Island, a northeast entrance through Long Island Sound and the East River, and an entrance through The Narrows from the lower bay.

Among the islands in the upper bay is Ellis Island, where immigrants are inspected before being allowed to enter our[37] country. On another island stands the splendid bronze statue of “Liberty Enlightening the World,” given to the United States by the people of France. It is now America's greeting to her future citizens as they sail up the harbor.

What a different picture the harbor presents to-day from the one Hudson saw over three hundred years ago! The quiet undisturbed waters of that time are now alive the year around with craft of every sort, from the giant ocean liner to the graceful sailboat. Vessels freighted with merchandise, tugs towing canal boats, ferries for Staten Island, barges loaded with coal, river steamers, excursion boats, and battleships from far and near, day and night, pass in an endless procession where the solitary Indian used to glide in his silent canoe.

When the Dutch bought Manhattan it was a beautiful wooded island inhabited by Indians who supplied their simple wants by hunting and fishing. What a change the island has undergone since that time! The Indians have disappeared with the forest. In their place live and struggle vast armies of human beings gathered together[39] from all the corners of the earth. Where squaws used to pitch their wigwams, giant skyscrapers tower up toward the clouds. The stillness of the forest has been succeeded by the noise and bustle of a busy city. The lazy monotonous life of the savage has given way to a ceaseless activity and hurry.

The twenty-four dollars which bought the whole island—less than three hundred years ago—would not now buy a single square inch in the center of the city. The hunting and fishing ground of the red men has become the heart of the greatest city of the Western Hemisphere.

NEW YORK

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), nearly 5,000,000 (4,766,883).

First city in population in the United States.

Second city in population in the world.

Divided into five sections, called boroughs.

Carries on more than half the foreign trade of the United States.

Leads all American cities in the value of its manufactures.

One of the best harbors in the world.

Connected by great railway systems with all parts of America.

Connected with the Great Lakes by the Hudson River and the Erie Canal.

A city of skyscrapers.

Wonderful system of underground, overhead, and surface transportation.

1. Why did the Dutch settle on Manhattan Island? How did the Dutch governor secure the land from the Indians?

2. What great ceremony connected with the establishment of the government of the United States took place in New York? Why was this ceremony held in New York?

3. What was the most important event in advancing the business growth of New York?

4. What effect did the arrival of vast numbers of immigrants have upon the city?

6. Name some of the principal streets and their chief features; name some of the colleges and universities.

8. Give some idea of the size of New York, its population, and the nationalities that comprise it.

10. In what respects does New York rank first of all the cities of the United States?

13. What are the chief manufactured products of New York City, and how can it produce so much without many great factories?

15. From a New York newspaper find out the foreign countries and the cities of this country to which vessels make regular sailings from New York.

CHICAGO

“Chicago is wiped out.” “Chicago cannot rise again.” So said the newspapers all over the country, in October, 1871. And well they might think so, for the great fire of Chicago—one of the worst in the world's history—had laid low the city.

The summer had been unusually dry. For months almost no rain had fallen. The ground was hot and parched, the whole city dry as kindling wood. Then about nine o'clock on a windy Sunday night, the fire broke out in a poor section of the West Side. It seemed as if everything a spark touched, blazed up. While the firemen stood by, helpless to check the flames, rows of houses and blocks of factories burned down.

In a short time the lumber district was a great bonfire, the flames shooting hundreds of feet into the air. On and on swept the fire along the river front. Then the horror-stricken watchers saw the flames cross to the South Side. All had thought that the fire would be checked at the river, but the wind carried pieces of burning wood and paper to the roofs beyond.

The business section was burning! The firemen worked desperately, but in vain. Hundreds of Chicago's finest buildings—stores, offices, banks, and hotels—were swallowed up by the flames. The city had become a roaring furnace, and the terrified people rushed madly for safety.

Once more the fire crossed the river, this time to the North Side, with its beautiful residence districts. Here too wind and flame swept all before them till Lincoln Park was reached, where at last the fire was checked[43] in its northward course; there was nothing more to burn. It had raged for two nights and a day, laying waste a strip of land almost four miles long and one mile wide.

Tuesday morning saw seventeen thousand buildings destroyed and one hundred thousand people homeless. The best part of Chicago lay in ruins. What wonder that men everywhere thought the stricken city could not rise again!

At the time this terrible disaster happened, Chicago had been a city for a little less than thirty-five years.

The mouth of the Chicago River had been a favorite meeting place for Indians and French trappers long before permanent settlement began. In 1777 a negro from San Domingo, who had come to trade with the Indians, built a log store on the north bank of the river. This store was bought in 1803 by John Kinzie, another trader and Chicago's first white settler.

The next year the United States government built Fort Dearborn on the south side of the river, not far from the lake. Though Fort Dearborn was nothing more than a stockade with blockhouses at the corners, a little settlement gradually grew up around it.

During the War of 1812 the Indians attacked the fort, burned it to the ground, and either massacred or captured most of the settlers while they were fleeing to Detroit for safety.

Fort Dearborn was rebuilt after the war, but settlers were slow in coming. By 1830 there were scarcely a hundred people in Chicago, then a little village of log[45] houses scattered over a swampy plain. Fur trading was still the chief occupation.

A change was soon to come. The southern part of Illinois was by this time being settled and dotted with farms, and each year larger crops were produced. The farmers saw that they must get their products to the Atlantic coast if they wished to prosper, and the Great Lakes were the most convenient route over which to send them.

Lake Michigan extended into the heart of the fertile prairie lands, but its shores were almost unbroken by harbors. Men early saw the possibilities of the mouth of the Chicago River. It could be made into an excellent harbor with little expense, and if once this were done, Chicago would be the natural port of the rich Middle West.

In 1833 the government began improvements by cutting a channel through the sand bar across the mouth of the river and building stone piers into the lake to keep out the drifting sand. Vessels were soon entering the river instead of anchoring in the lake as formerly. Lake trade increased. More and more boats were bringing goods from the East to be distributed among the farmers of Illinois. The new harbor made intercourse with the outer world easy.

The growth of trade, however, was hindered by the absence of good roads. Farmers who wished to bring anything to the Chicago market had to cross the open prairie, which was wet and marshy near the town. Such a ride was an unpleasant experience, as often the wagon would stick in the deep mud, and the poor driver had no[46] choice but to wait until help should happen along. Many preferred to take their crops to the cities farther south, where better roads had been built.

“We too will have roads,” said the people of Chicago, anxious for more trade, and they set about building them with a will. Soon good roads entered the town from all directions, and over them the rich products of the surrounding country came pouring into Chicago.

Business and wealth increased, and more and more settlers arrived. Most of them came by way of the lakes, but many came in prairie schooners, as the immigrants' great covered wagons were called. By 1837 the population had risen to four thousand, and Chicago became a city.

Its growth from this time was marvelous. Its location at the head of Lake Michigan, its fine harbor, the[47] resources of the rich back country, all combined to make it the chief commercial center of the Middle West.

In the early days, when Chicago was only a tiny village, there had been talk of connecting Lake Michigan at Chicago with the Illinois River by canal. As the Illinois flows into the Mississippi, this would furnish a water route from the East down the entire Mississippi valley. In 1836 the canal was actually begun. A few years later hard times came, and the work was stopped for a while, but it was finished in 1848. This was known as the Illinois and Michigan Canal. It extended from La Salle, on the Illinois River, to Chicago—a distance of over ninety miles—and offered cheap transportation between Chicago and the fertile farm lands to the south.

Though the canal was a success, railroads did even more for the city. The year that saw the canal completed also saw the first train run from Chicago to Galena, near the Mississippi, in the heart of the lead country.

Four years later, in 1852, came railroad connection with the East, when the Michigan Southern and Michigan Central railroads entered the city. Other lines soon followed, and it was not long before Chicago was one of the important railroad centers of the country.

But while Chicago was fast becoming rich and big, it was not a pleasant place in which to live. The site of the city was a low and marshy plain, almost on a level with the lake, and the problems of drainage of such a location had to be met and solved.

In the beginning, to keep the houses dry, they were built above the ground and supported by timbers or piles. Cellars and basements were unknown, and the city streets were a disgrace. In spring they were flooded and swimming with mud. Even in summer, pools of stagnant water stood in many places. For years wagons sticking fast in the mud were common sights.

Cholera, smallpox, and scarlet fever swept the city again and again. People, knowing only too well that unsanitary conditions brought on these diseases, did their best to remedy matters. They saw that Chicago would be clean and healthy if only they could find a way to carry off her wastes.

First they decided to turn the water into the river by sloping all the streets towards it. Then came a severe flood which did much damage and showed the folly of digging down any part of the city. Chicago was too low already.

So the people hastened to raise their streets again by filling them in with sand, and this time they made gutters along the side to carry off the water. Heavy wagons soon wore away the sand, however, and the streets were as muddy as before.

Finally, an engineer advised the people to raise the whole city several feet; then brick sewers could be built beneath the street to carry the sewage into the river. At first many refused to listen to such a proposal. The undertaking was so great that it frightened them.

But as things were, business and health were suffering. Something had to be done, and at last the city determined to raise itself out of the mud, and work was begun. Ground was hauled in from the surrounding country, streets and lots were filled in, the buildings were gradually raised, and sewers were built sloping toward the river. It was a gigantic task and cost years of labor, but when it was done, Chicago was, for the first time, a dry city. It must be remembered that the area of Chicago at that time was but a small part of the present city.

Another source of trouble was the drinking-water, which was taken from Lake Michigan. The sewage in the river flowed into the lake and at times contaminated the water far out from the shore, thus poisoning the city's supply. It was therefore decided to build new waterworks, which would bring into the city pure water from farther out in the lake. A tunnel was built, extending two miles under Lake Michigan. At its outer end a great screened pipe reached up into the lake to let water into the tunnel. Over the pipe a crib was built to protect it. On the shore, pumping stations with powerful engines raised the[51] water to high towers from which all parts of the city were supplied.

The first tunnel was completed in 1867. With the growth of the city other tunnels and cribs have been built, farther out in the lake, to supply the increasing need.

By 1870 Chicago had become one of the largest cities in the country. In 1830 the settlement at the mouth of the Chicago River had barely twenty houses. Forty years later it had over three hundred thousand inhabitants. The wonderful resources of the upper Mississippi valley had been largely responsible for the city's growth, and the rapid development of the entire West promised Chicago a still greater future.

Then came the fire, and to the homeless people looking across miles of blackened ruins it seemed that Chicago had no future at all. Had not the fire undone the work of forty years?

The first despair gradually gave way to a more hopeful feeling. Truly the loss was great—the best part of the city lay in ruins. But was not the wealth of the West left, and the harbor and the railroads? These had built up Chicago in the beginning, and they would do so again.

The rebuilding began at once. At first little wooden houses and sheds were constructed to give temporary shelter to the homeless. Help came to the stricken city from all sides. Thousands of carloads of food were sent, and several million dollars were collected in Europe and America.

Two thirds of the city had been built of wood. Now the business blocks, at least, were to be as nearly fireproof as possible. Tall buildings of brick and stone were planned. But such structures are heavy, and if they were built directly on the swampy ground underlying the city, there would be danger of their settling unevenly and possibly toppling over. So layers of steel rails crossing each other were sunk in the ground, and the spaces between them were filled in with concrete. Upon this solid foundation the first skyscrapers of Chicago were built.

To-day concrete caissons are constructed on bed rock, often from 100 to 110 feet below the surface, and upon these rest the steel bases of the modern Chicago skyscrapers.

Work went on quickly. In a year the business section was rebuilt. In three years there was hardly a trace of the fire to be seen in the city, which was larger and more beautiful than before.

After the rebuilding, the water question came up for discussion again. In spite of all that had been done to protect the water supply, the increasing sewage of the city, carried by the river into the lake, at times still made the water unfit to drink. The one way of getting pure water was to prevent the river from flowing into the lake. This could be done only by building a new canal, large and deep enough to change the flow of the river away from the lake. Such a canal was finally completed in 1900, after eight years' work and at a cost of over $75,000,000. It is 28 miles long, 22 feet deep, and 165 feet wide, and it connects the Chicago River with the Des Plaines, a branch of the Illinois River. A large volume[54] of water from Lake Michigan continually flushes this immense drain, carrying the sewage away. The Chicago River no longer flows into the lake, and at last the danger of contaminated drinking-water from this source is past.

One dream of the builders of the canal has not yet been realized. They called it the Chicago Drainage and Ship Canal, in the hope that it might some day be used for shipping purposes as well as for draining the river. This cannot happen, however, till the rivers which it connects are deepened and otherwise improved.

Such has been the history of the growth of Chicago—to-day the greatest railroad center and lake port in the world. It is now the second city in size in America and ranks fourth among the cities of the world.

The port of Chicago owes much to the Chicago River, which has been repeatedly widened, deepened, and straightened. It is to-day one of the world's most important[55] rivers, commercially considered. After extending about one mile westward from the lake, the river divides into two branches, one extending northwest, the other southwest. Many docks have been built along its fifteen miles of navigable channel, and its banks are lined with factories, warehouses, coal yards, and grain elevators.

These grain elevators are really huge tanks where the grain is stored and kept dry until time to reship it. There are many of them along the river, and they bear witness to the fact that Chicago is the world's greatest grain center.

In 1838 the city received only seventy-eight bushels of wheat. This was brought in by wagons rumbling across the unbroken prairie. Canal boats and railroads have taken the place of the wagons of early days and every year bring hundreds of millions of bushels of grain from the West to the elevators along the Chicago River.

Though much of the grain remains here but a short time and is then shipped to other points, a great quantity is made into flour in the city's many flourishing mills.

Of equal importance with the Chicago River harbor is the great harbor in South Chicago at the mouth of the Calumet River. Here ships from the Lake Superior region come with immense cargoes of ore. This ore, together with the supply of coal from the near-by Illinois coal fields, has developed the enormous steel industry of South Chicago.

Vast quantities of steel are turned out. Some of this is shipped to foreign countries, but most of it is used in Chicago's many foundries for the making of all kinds of iron and steel articles, in the city's immense farm-tool factories, and in the shipyards for building large steamships.

Close to the water front, too, are extensive lumber yards, for Chicago is the largest lumber market in the United States. Here boats can be seen unloading millions of feet of timber from the great forests of Michigan and Wisconsin, sent to Chicago's lumber yards to be distributed far and wide over the country. Large quantities are also taken to the factories in the city, to be cut and planed and made into doors, window frames, furniture, and practically everything that can be made of wood.

In addition to her inner harbors, Chicago has a fine outer harbor. This is now being enlarged by the extension of its breakwaters, and a $5,000,000 pier is under construction which will be more than half a mile in length and will greatly increase the shipping facilities.

With all these advantages as a shipping point, thousands of vessels come to Chicago every year. Steamers connect it with the states along the Great Lakes and with Canada and the outer world. Its trade with Europe is large, corn and oats being the chief exports. New York alone in America surpasses Chicago in the total value of its commerce.

Of Chicago's nearly 2,500,000 inhabitants a large percentage are foreign born, Germans, Poles, Irish, and Jews having settled here in great numbers. About forty languages are spoken, and newspapers are regularly published in ten of them.

With its suburbs, Chicago stretches nearly 30 miles along the shore of Lake Michigan and reaches irregularly inland about 10 miles. The city limits inclose an area of over 191 square miles, which the two branches of the Chicago River cut into three parts, known as the South,[58] West, and North sides. The three divisions of the city are connected by bridges and by tunnels under the river.

Though business is spreading to the West Side, the central business section is still on the South Side and extends from the Chicago River beyond Twenty-sixth Street. Most of the great wholesale and retail houses, banks, theaters, hotels, and public buildings are crowded into this area, and here is the largest department store in the world, in which over 9000 people work. The automobile industry alone occupies nearly all of Michigan Avenue for two miles south of Twelfth Street.

Surrounding this crowded business section are most of the terminals of Chicago's many railroads. These connect the city with New York, Boston, and Philadelphia in the East; with New Orleans, Galveston, and Atlanta in the South; as well as with San Francisco and the other large cities of the West. The courthouse and city hall and the new Northwestern Railway Station are among the city's finest buildings.

Elevated railways and a freight subway have been built in recent years and have somewhat relieved the crowded condition of the streets. This subway, opened in 1905, connects with all the leading business and freight houses, and carries coal, ashes, garbage, luggage, and heavy materials of every kind to and from them.

Five miles southwest of the city hall are the Union Stockyards, the greatest market of any kind in the world, covering about five hundred acres. When Chicago was only a small village, herds of cattle were driven across the prairies to be slaughtered in the little packing houses which grew up along the Chicago River. As the raising of cattle and hogs increased in the state, most of them[60]
[61] were sent to the Chicago market, and the stockyards continued to develop until to-day they can hold more than four hundred thousand animals at once.

Near the yards are the famous packing houses of Chicago, where over two thirds of the cattle, hogs, and sheep received in the city are slaughtered and prepared for shipping. The use, during the last forty years, of refrigerator cars has made possible the sending of dressed meats to far-distant points, and a great increase in Chicago's packing business has resulted.

Beef, pork, hams, and bacon from Chicago are eaten in every town and city of America and in many parts of Europe. Other products are lard, soups, beef extracts, soap, candles, and glue, for every bit of the slaughtered animal is turned into use.

In a district of South Chicago, known as Pullman, are the shops of the Pullman Palace Car Company and the homes of its army of workmen. Cars of all sorts are manufactured by the Pullman company, which owns and operates the dining and sleeping cars on most American railroads.

There is no one striking residence quarter in Chicago, but beautiful homes are found in many parts of the city. Among the finest streets are Lake Shore Drive, along the lake front on the North Side, and Drexel and Grand avenues.

The parks of Chicago are nearly one hundred in number, the most important being Lincoln, Washington, Humboldt, Garfield, Douglas, and Jackson. These are connected by boulevards, or parkways, forming a great park system, sixty miles in length, which encircles the central part of the city. Lincoln Park borders the lake on the North Side and covers hundreds of acres, its area having been doubled by filling in along the shores of the lake. Jackson Park, on the lake shore of the South Side, was the site of the World's Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America. This park is connected with Washington Park by what is known as the Midway. Grant Park has been recently constructed on made land facing the central business portion of the city. Here is to be located the Field Museum of Natural History.

Bordering the Midway are the fine stone buildings of The University of Chicago, opened in 1892. Its growth,[64] like that of Chicago, has been marvelous. Already it is one of the largest universities of the country.

But with all its parks, its boulevards, its splendid water front, and its many other advantages, the people of Chicago are not yet satisfied. To-day they are working to carry out a splendid plan which will give the city more and larger parks and playgrounds, better and wider streets, and a really wonderful harbor. All this is being done “that by properly solving Chicago's problems of transportation, street congestion, recreation, and public health, the city may grow indefinitely in wealth and commerce and hold her position among the great cities of the world.”

CHICAGO

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), over 2,000,000 (2,185,283).

Second city in population.

Second only to New York in value of manufactures.

The leading market in the world for grain and meat products.

A great iron and steel center.

Chief lumber and furniture market of the United States.

Greatest railroad center in the country.

Most important lake port in the country.

Has had a remarkable growth in industries and in population.

11. Why was Chicago willing to spend millions of dollars to improve her water supply? How was this done?

13. Make a table, by measurement of a map of the United States, showing the distance from Chicago to the following places:

14. In what respects does Chicago stand first of American cities, and in what two things does she lead the world?

16. What is the benefit of parks to a city? What has Chicago done to make her parks among the best in this country?

PHILADELPHIA

In early days, when there was no United States and our big America was a vast wilderness inhabited mostly by Indians, people who came here were thought very adventuresome and brave.

At that time there lived in England a distinguished admiral who was a great friend of the royal family. The king owed him about $64,000, and at his death this claim was inherited by his son, William Penn. Now William Penn was an ardent Quaker, and because of the persecution of the Quakers in England he decided to found a Quaker colony in another country. King Charles II, who seldom had money to pay his debts, was only too glad to settle Penn's claim by a grant of land in America. To this grant, consisting of 40,000 square miles lying west of the Delaware River, the king gave the name Pennsylvania, meaning “Penn's Woods.” The next year, 1682, William Penn and his Quaker followers entered the Delaware River in the ship Welcome.

Penn believed in honesty and fair play. He was generous enough not to limit his colony to one religion or nationality. All who were honest and industrious were[68] welcome. The laws he made were extremely just, and land was sold to immigrants on very easy terms.

Soon after his arrival in America, Penn wisely made a treaty with the Indians whose wigwams and hunting grounds were on or near the banks of the Delaware River. Beneath the graceful branches of a great elm he and the Indian chief exchanged wampum belts, signifying peace and friendship. In the center of the belt which Penn received are two figures, one representing an Indian, the other a European, with hands joined in friendship. This belt is still preserved in Philadelphia by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

In 1683 Penn laid out in large squares, between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, the beginning of a great[69] city. This city he called Philadelphia, a word which means “brotherly love.” At that time the so-called city had an area of 2 square miles and a population of only 400. To-day Philadelphia has an area of nearly 130 square miles and a population of more than a million and a half. It is America's third city in population, and it ranks third among the manufacturing cities of the United States. Philadelphia is on the Delaware River, a hundred miles from the ocean, but it has all the advantages of a seaport, for the river is deep enough to let great ocean steamers navigate to the city's docks. Philadelphia's easy access to the vast stores of iron, coal, and petroleum, for which Pennsylvania is famous, its location on two tidewater rivers,—the Delaware and the Schuylkill,—and its[70] important railroads, all have helped to make it a great industrial and commercial center. One half of the anthracite coal in the United States is mined in Pennsylvania. Much of it is shipped to Philadelphia and from there by rail and water to many other states and countries.

Some of the greatest manufacturing plants in the United States, in fact in the world, are in Philadelphia. In certain branches of the textile, or woven-goods, industry Philadelphia is unsurpassed. In the making of woolen carpets she leads the world. This industry goes back to Revolutionary times, when the first yard of carpet woven in the United States came from a Philadelphia loom. In 1791 a local manufacturer made a carpet, adorned with patriotic emblems, for the United States Senate.

Other important industries of the city include the manufacturing of woolen and worsted goods, hosiery and knit goods, rugs, cotton goods, felt hats, silk goods, cordage, and twine and the dyeing and finishing of textiles. The largest lace mill in the world is in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia is also noted for the manufacture of iron and steel. The largest single manufactory in Philadelphia is the Baldwin Locomotive Works, which is the greatest of its kind. Pictures of the old Flying Machine, a stagecoach which made trips to New York in 1776, and of Old Ironsides, the first locomotive built by Matthias W. Baldwin in 1832, seem very queer in comparison with the powerful 300-ton locomotives built in Philadelphia to-day. Old Ironsides weighed a little over 4 tons and lacked power to pull a loaded train on wet and slippery rails; hence the following notice which appeared in the newspapers: “The locomotive engine built by Mr. M. W. Baldwin of this city will depart daily when the weather is fair with a train of passenger cars. On rainy days horses will be attached.”

Besides the American railroads using Baldwin locomotives, engines built in this plant are in use in many foreign lands. There is hardly a part of the world to[72] which one can go where a Philadelphia-made locomotive is not to be seen.

Philadelphia holds an important place in the construction of high-grade machine tools. She has great rolling mills, foundries, and machine shops, and one of the most famous bridge-building establishments in the world. Her people smile at being called slow; in fourteen weeks a Philadelphia concern made from pig iron a steel bridge a quarter of a mile long, carried it halfway around the world, and set it up over a river in Africa.

Shipbuilding in Philadelphia began with the founding of the colony. It was the first American city to build ships and was also the home of the steamboat. The first boat to be propelled by steam was built by John Fitch in Philadelphia in 1786. This was more than twenty years before Robert Fulton had his first steamboat on the[73] Hudson River. Robert Fulton, who was a Pennsylvanian by birth, also lived at one time in Philadelphia. Shipbuilding, to-day, is one of the city's great industries.

The art of printing has been practiced in Philadelphia since the very beginning of its history. William Bradford, one of the first colonists, published an almanac for the year 1687. This was the first work printed in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin entered the printing business in Philadelphia in 1723, and six years later published the Pennsylvania Gazette. This was the second newspaper printed in the colony, the first being the American Weekly Mercury, the first edition of which was printed in Philadelphia in 1719. Both of these papers were very small and would appear very odd alongside of the daily papers of to-day. The first complete edition of the Bible printed in the United States was published by Christopher Saur in Germantown, which is now a part of Philadelphia, in 1743. Philadelphia ranks first among the cities of the United States in the publication of[74] scientific books and law books. One of the large publishing houses of the city now uses over a million dollars' worth of paper each year. It is interesting to know that when the Revolutionary War began there were forty paper mills in and near Philadelphia. At that time, and for many years after, it was the great literary center of the country.

When William Penn founded his Quaker town in the wilderness, he made little provision for parks, as at that time the town was so small and was so surrounded by forests that no parks were needed. But Philadelphia now possesses the largest park in the United States. This is known as Fairmount Park, which covers over three thousand acres of land. Splendid paths and driveways give access to every section of this park. On all sides one sees beautiful landscape gardening, fine old trees, and picturesque streams and bridges. Here is a great open amphitheater where concerts are given during the summer months; here are athletic fields, playgrounds,[75] race courses, and splendid stretches of water for rowing; and here also for many years were located the immense waterworks which pumped the city's water supply from the Schuylkill River.

Among the famous buildings in the park are Memorial Hall and Horticultural Hall. They were erected at the time of the great Centennial Exhibition, which was held in Philadelphia in 1876 to celebrate the hundredth birthday of American independence. Memorial Hall is now used as an art gallery and city museum. Horticultural Hall contains a magnificent collection of plants and botanical specimens, brought from many different countries.

Another interesting building in Fairmount Park is the little brick house which was once the home of William Penn. It is said to have been the first brick house erected in Philadelphia. It stood on a lot south of Market Street, and between Front and Second streets. Some years ago it was moved from its original site to Fairmount Park, where thousands of people now visit it. Here too, before the Revolutionary War, was the home of Robert Morris, the great American financier, who, during that war, time and again raised money to pay the soldiers of the American army.

Many statues of American heroes ornament the driveways and walks of Fairmount Park. At the Green Street entrance stands one of the finest equestrian statues of Washington in the country. The carved base, which is made of granite and decorated with bronze figures, is approached by thirteen steps, to represent the original thirteen states.

The streets of Philadelphia, while not broad, are well paved, and many of them are bordered by fine old trees. It was William Penn who named many of the streets after trees. The names of several of the streets in the oldest part of the town are recalled in the old refrain:

Philadelphia is a city of homes. Besides its splendid residential suburbs, it has miles of streets lined with neat attractive houses where live the city's busy workmen.

Perhaps the city hall is the most striking of the notable buildings. It is a massive structure of marble and granite and stands at the intersection of Broad and Market streets. This immense building covers four and a half acres and is built in the form of a hollow square around an open court. The most attractive feature of the building is the great tower surmounted by an immense statue of William Penn. This lofty tower is nearly 548 feet high and is 90 feet square at its base. It is 67 feet higher than the great Pyramid of Egypt and nearly twice as high as the dome of the Capitol at Washington. The Washington Monument exceeds it in[79] height by but a few feet. The great statue of Penn is as tall as an ordinary three-story house and weighs over 26 tons. It is cast of bronze and was made of 47 pieces so skillfully put together that the closest inspection can scarcely discover the seams. Around the head is a circle of electric lights throwing their brilliant illumination a distance of 30 miles. To one gazing upwards, the light seems a halo of glory about the head of the beloved founder of the city.

Philadelphia has many fine schools, both public and private. The two most noted educational institutions are the University of Pennsylvania and Girard College. The University of Pennsylvania was founded largely through the efforts of Benjamin Franklin. It now occupies more than fifty buildings west of the Schuylkill River and is widely known as a center of learning.

Girard College was the gift of Stephen Girard, who, from a humble cabin boy, became one of Philadelphia's richest benefactors. The college is a charitable institution devoted to the education of orphan boys, who are admitted[80]
[81] to it between the ages of six and ten. Girard left almost his entire fortune of over $7,000,000 for the establishment of this great educational home for poor boys. Two millions of this sum were for the erection of the buildings alone.

Other prominent educational institutions are the Penn Charter School, chartered by William Penn; the Academy of Fine Arts; The Drexel Institute for the promotion of art, science, and industry; the School of Industrial Art; the School of Design for Women; and several medical colleges which are among the most noted in the country.

When the United States became an independent nation it was necessary to have a coinage system of its own. In 1792 a mint was established in Philadelphia to coin money for the United States government. All of our[82] money is not now made in Philadelphia. The paper currency is made in Washington, and there are mints for the coinage of gold, silver, and copper in San Francisco, Denver, and New Orleans as well as in Philadelphia.

A visit to the Philadelphia mint is most interesting. Visitors are conducted through the many rooms of this great money factory and are shown the successive processes through which the gold, silver, nickel, and copper must pass before it becomes money.

We first see the metal in the form of bars or bricks. In another room we find men at work melting the gold and mixing with it copper and other metals to strengthen it. Coins of pure gold would wear away very rapidly, and so these other metals are added. The prepared metal is cast into long strips, about the width and thickness of the desired coins. In still another room these strips are fed into a machine which punches out round pieces of the size and weight required. These disks are then carefully weighed[83] and inspected, after which they are taken to the coining room to receive the impression of figures and letters which indicates their value. One by one the blank disks are dropped between two steel dies. The upper die bears the picture and lettering which is to appear upon the face of the coin, and the lower, that which is to appear on the reverse side. As the disk lies between them the two dies come together, exerting an enormous pressure upon the cold metal. The pressure is then removed, and the bright disk drops from the machine, stamped with the impression which has changed this piece of metal into a coin of the United States. All coins are made in much the same way.

In our brief visit we see many wonderful machines for counting, weighing, and sorting the thousands of coins which are daily produced in this busy place. At every step we are impressed with the great precautions taken to safeguard the precious materials handled.

The old parts of Philadelphia are even more interesting than the mint, because of their historic associations. Within the distance of a few squares one may visit[84] famous buildings whose very names send thrills of pride through the heart of every good American.

Old Christ Church, whose communion service was given by England's Queen Anne in 1708, is perhaps the most noted of Philadelphia's historic churches. In this old church Benjamin Franklin worshiped for many years, and when he died he was buried in its quaint churchyard. And here too George Washington and John Adams worshiped when Philadelphia was the capital city.

Carpenters' Hall and Independence Hall ought to be known and remembered by every boy and girl in America. When the Massachusetts colonists held the Boston Tea Party, England undertook to punish Massachusetts by closing her chief port. This meant ruin to Boston. All the English colonists in America were so aroused that they determined to call a meeting of representatives from each colony, to consider the wisest course of action and how to help Massachusetts. It was in Carpenters' Hall that this first Continental Congress met, in September, 1774. The building was erected in 1770 as a meeting place for the house carpenters of Philadelphia—hence its name.

On Chestnut Street stands the old statehouse, which is called Independence Hall because it was the birthplace of our liberty. Here it was that, when all hope of peace between the colonies and England had been given up, the colonial representatives met in 1776 in the Continental Congress and adopted the Declaration of Independence, which declared that England's American colonies should henceforth be free and independent. While the members of Congress discussed the Declaration and its adoption, throngs packed the streets outside, impatiently waiting to know the result. At last the great bell rang out—the signal of the joyous news that the Declaration of Independence had been adopted.

Independence Hall was built to be used as a statehouse for the colony of Pennsylvania. The old building has been kept as nearly as possible in its original condition[86] and is now considered “A National Monument to the Birth of the Republic.” This sacred spot is under the supervision of the Sons of the American Revolution and is used as the home of many historic relics. Among these may be found the Liberty Bell, which hung in the tower of the statehouse for many years. It was later removed from the tower and placed on exhibition in the building. It has made many journeys to exhibitions in various cities, such as New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, Charleston, Boston, St. Louis, and San Francisco. The old bell is now shown in a glass case at the main entrance to Independence Hall.

On Arch Street, not far from Independence Hall, is the little house where it is claimed the first American flag was made by Betsy Ross.

For ten years, from 1790 to 1800, Philadelphia was the capital of the United States. In this city Washington and Adams were inaugurated for their second term as president and vice-president, and here Adams was inaugurated president in 1797.

Philadelphia to-day is a great city: great in industry, great in commerce, and great in near-by resources. Every street of the old part of the town is rich in historic memories. William Penn dreamed of a magnificent city, and the City of Brotherly Love is worthy of her founder's dream.

PHILADELPHIA

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), over 1,500,000 (1,549,008).

Third city in rank according to population.

Place of great historic interest:

Founded by William Penn.
Home of Benjamin Franklin.
First Continental Congress met here in 1774.
Declaration of Independence signed here in 1776.
Capital of the nation from 1790 to 1800.
First United States mint located here.

A great industrial and commercial center.

Ranks third in the country as a manufacturing city.

Principal industries:

Leads the world in the making of woolen carpets.
Has the largest locomotive works in the United States.
Manufactures woolen and worsted goods.
Ranks high in printing and publishing, the refining of sugar, and shipbuilding.

Deep-water communication with the sea.

3. How does Philadelphia rank in size and manufactures among the great cities of the United States?

4. Name several advantages which have helped to make the city a great industrial and commercial center.

8. Tell something of the history and the present importance of printing in Philadelphia.

11. What events of great historical interest have taken place in Carpenters' Hall and Independence Hall?

ST. LOUIS

Soon after Thomas Jefferson became president of the United States, he bought from France the land known as Louisiana for $15,000,000. This sum seemed a great deal of money for a young nation to pay out, but the Louisiana Purchase covered nearly 900,000 square miles and extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. So when one stops to think that the United States secured the absolute control of the Mississippi and more than doubled its former area at a price less than three cents an acre, it is easier to understand why Jefferson bought than why France sold.

When Louisiana became part of the United States in 1803, St. Louis was a straggling frontier village, frequented mostly by boatmen and trappers. It had been established as a trading post back in 1764 by a party of French trappers from New Orleans, and had, from the first, monopolized the fur trade of the upper Mississippi and Missouri River country. Here hunters and trappers brought the spoils of distant forests. Here the surrounding tribes of Indians came to trade with the friendly[90] French. Here countless open boats were loaded with skins and furs and then floated down the Mississippi.

Notwithstanding this flourishing trade, the growth of the settlement was slow. In 1803 the population numbered less than one thousand, made up of French trappers and hunters, a few other Europeans and Americans, and a considerable number of Indians, half-breeds, and negro slaves.

But as soon as Louisiana belonged to the United States, a new era began in the West. Emigrants from the Eastern states poured over the Appalachian Mountains. St. Louis lay right in the path of this overland east-to-west travel. From here Lewis and Clark started, in 1804, on their famous exploring trip of nearly two years and a half, up the Missouri River, to find out for the country what[91] Louisiana was like. It was here that emigrants headed for the Oregon country stopped to make final preparations and lay in supplies. The remote trading post of the eighteenth century was suddenly transformed into a wide-awake bustling town.

Furs were now no longer the only article of trade. The newly settled Mississippi valley was producing larger crops each year. Because of the poor roads, overland transportation to the markets on the Atlantic was out of the question, and trade was dependent on the great inland waterways. Early in the century, keel boats and barges carried the products of field and forest down the Mississippi. Then came the arrival of the first steamboat, the real beginning of St. Louis' great prosperity, working[92]
[93] wonders for this inland commerce whose growth kept pace with the marvelous development of the rich Middle West.

St. Louis, lying on the west bank of the Mississippi, between the mouths of the Ohio and Missouri rivers and not far from the Illinois, became the natural center of this north-and-south river traffic. By 1860 it was the most important shipping point west of the Alleghenies.

Meanwhile railroad building had begun in the West. Ground was broken in 1850 for St. Louis' first railway, the Missouri Pacific. Other roads were begun during the next two years. In a short time the whole country was covered with a network of railroads, and a change in the methods of transportation followed. The steamboats were unable to compete with their new rivals in speed—a tremendous advantage in carrying passengers and perishable freight—and their former importance quickly grew less.

St. Louis lost nothing by the change. Many of the cross-continent railroads, following the old pioneer trails,[94] met here. To-day more than twenty-five railroads enter the city, connecting it with the remotest parts of the United States as well as with Canada and Mexico.

St. Louis now has about 700,000 inhabitants and occupies nearly 65 square miles of land, which slopes gradually from the water's edge to the plateau that stretches for miles beyond the western limits of the city. The city is laid out in broad straight streets, crossing each other at right angles wherever possible and numbered north and south from Market Street.

The shopping district lies mainly between Broadway,—the fifth street from the river,—Twelfth Street, Pine Street, and Franklin Avenue. The financial center is on Fourth Street and Broadway, while Washington Avenue,[95] between Fourth and Eighteenth streets, is one of the greatest “wholesale rows” in the West.

Besides its public schools—which include a teachers' college—and private schools, St. Louis has two higher institutions of learning, Washington University and St. Louis University.

Among the most important public buildings in the business section are the municipal court building, the city hall, the courthouse, and the public library.

The St. Louis Union Station, used by all railroads entering the city, is one of the largest and finest stations in the world. Pneumatic tubes connect it with the post office and the customhouse, while underground driveways and passages for handling bulky freight, express, and mail matter radiate from it in all directions.

Almost directly west of the business section, on the outskirts of the city, lies Forest Park, the largest of St. Louis' many recreation grounds. It covers more than[96] thirteen hundred acres of field and forest land, left largely in a natural state. Here is the City Art Museum, which was part of the Art Palace of the world's fair held in St. Louis in 1904 to celebrate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase.

The beautiful Missouri Botanical Garden, generally known as Shaw's Garden, is open for the use of the public. Compton Hill Reservoir Park, on the South Side, though small, is one of the finest in the city. Its water tower and basins are a part of the municipal water system, costing more than $30,000,000. The city water is pumped from the Mississippi River and purified as it passes into great settling basins.

Though St. Louis' attractive houses are found almost everywhere outside the strictly business quarters, the real residence section has gradually been growing toward Forest Park, and many of the city's business men have built homes in the suburbs beyond the western limits of the city. One of these suburbs, University City, bids fair to become America's most beautiful residence town.

Unlike most of our large cities, St. Louis has no sharply defined factory district. Its manufacturing establishments are distributed over nearly the whole city. An important part of its manufacturing interests centers on the eastern bank of the Mississippi in the city's Illinois suburbs.

The industrial development of these Illinois suburbs was greatly increased by the opening of the Eads Bridge in 1874. Before this time there had been no bridge connection over the Mississippi. Passengers and freight ferries had plied regularly between St. Louis and her suburbs across the river, but there were seasons when floating ice made the river impassable, sometimes cutting off communication between the two shores for days.

The Eads Bridge is 6220 feet long and is so built that the railroad tracks cross it on a level lower than the carriage drives and foot paths. With its completion, communication between opposite sides of the river became as easy as between different parts of the city.

Other bridges have since been built. In 1890 the Merchants Bridge, used solely by railroads, was built across[98] the Mississippi three miles to the north of Eads Bridge, and now there is the McKinley Bridge between the two. In addition to these the city is building a bridge which, when completed, will be open to traffic without toll charges.

Among the Illinois suburbs thus brought into closer touch with the western side of the river are East St. Louis,—a growing city of about 75,000,—Venice, Madison, Granite City, and Belleville. Being principally manufacturing communities, these cities contribute in no small degree to St. Louis' importance as an industrial center.

St. Louis' importance, however, is mainly due to the city's favorable location at the heart of one of the world's richest river valleys. The vast natural resources of the Middle West are at her command. Raw materials of every kind abound[99]
[100] almost at her door. Missouri ranks high as an agricultural and mining state. Its position in the great corn belt makes hog raising a highly profitable industry. The prairies to the north furnish extensive grazing areas for cattle. The Ozark Mountains to the southwest afford excellent pasturage for sheep and yield lumber as well as great quantities of lead, zinc, and other minerals. In addition, the state has large deposits of soft coal, while only the Mississippi separates St. Louis from the unlimited supply of the Illinois coal fields. As a result, the cost of manufacturing is low and the city's many and varied industries thrive. Chief among these is the manufacture of boots and shoes. Though this business is comparatively young in the West, St. Louis already ranks among the three leading footwear-producing cities[101] of the country, turning out over $50,000,000 worth of boots and shoes yearly. Most of these are of the heavier type made for country trade, but the output of finer footwear is steadily increasing.

Next in importance are the tobacco, meat-packing, and malt-liquor industries. St. Louis is one of the leading cities in the country in the manufacture of tobacco. The meat-packing establishments, including those in East St. Louis, hold fourth place among America's great packing centers. Its mammoth breweries lead the country in the output of beer. Flour mills, foundries, and sugar refineries also do an immense business. Street and railroad cars, stoves of all kinds, paints, oils, and white lead are made in scores of factories, while hundreds of other industries flourish in the city, making it one of the greatest workshops in the United States.

Important as St. Louis is as a manufacturing city, it is even more noted as a distributing center, its location making it the natural commercial metropolis of the Mississippi valley. It markets not only its own manufactures but products which represent every section of the country. The vast territory to the west and southwest depends almost entirely on St. Louis for its supply of dry goods and groceries. Other staples are boots and shoes, tobacco, hardware, timber, cotton, breadstuffs, cattle, and hogs.

In the handling of furs St. Louis leads the cities of the world. She also holds a high place among the great grain markets. In this country her annual receipts of corn, wheat, and oats are exceeded only by those of Chicago and Minneapolis. Shipments of grain and breadstuffs to Central and South America, Cuba, Great Britain, and Germany constitute the city's leading exports.

As a live-stock market it is no less important. The National Stockyards, located on the Illinois side of the river, contain several hundred acres. Though packing houses and slaughtering houses occupy some of this land, the main part is covered with sheds, pens, and enclosures for the reception and sale of live animals. Millions of cattle, hogs, and sheep are handled here every year. St. Louis also buys and sells hundreds of thousands of horses and mules, being the largest market for draft animals in the world.

Just as the frontier trading post of the eighteenth century grew into the thriving river port of the nineteenth, so the river port of the nineteenth century has developed into one of the leading railroad and commercial centers of the twentieth. And the fourth city of America in size is now St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), nearly 700,000 (687,029).

Fourth city according to population.

Well located; center of the Mississippi valley, between the mouths of the Missouri and Ohio rivers.

Important shipping point by rail and water.

A great railroad center.

The leading market in the world for furs and draft animals.

One of the greatest boot-and-shoe-manufacturing centers.

One of the chief markets in the United States for grain, flour, and live stock.

2. Give a brief account of the Louisiana Purchase; from whom purchased, the cost, the territory included.

4. What brought about the sudden and rapid growth of St. Louis after the purchase?

5. What effect did the railroads have upon St. Louis' water transportation? Why?

12. Name some of the things which St. Louis supplies to other sections of the country.

BOSTON

Let us take a trip to New England and visit Boston. Boston is New England's chief city in size, in population, in historic interest, and in importance. It is the capital of Massachusetts and the fifth city in size in the United States.

If we were going to visit some far-away cousins whom we had never seen, we should surely want to know something about their age, their appearance, and their habits. Would it not be just as interesting to find out these things about the city we are to see on our journey?

In the early days the Indians called the district where Boston now stands Shawmut, or “living waters.” The first white man to come to Shawmut was William Blackstone, a hermit who made his home on the slope of what is now Beacon Hill. Though Blackstone liked to be alone, he was unselfish. So when he heard that the settlers of a Puritan colony not far away were suffering for want of pure water, he went to their governor, John Winthrop, “acquainted him with the excellent spring of water that was on his land and invited him and his followers thither.” Blackstone's offer was gladly accepted. The[106]
[107] Puritans purchased Shawmut from the Indians and in 1630 began their new settlement, which they named Boston in honor of the English town which had been the home of some of their leading men.

Originally Boston was a little irregular peninsula of scarcely 700 acres, entirely cut off from the mainland at high tide. It did not take the colonists long, however, to outgrow these narrow quarters. They soon filled in the marshes and coves with land from the hills. They spread out over two small islands and made them part of Boston. Then, one by one, they took in neighboring settlements. And from this start Boston has grown, until to-day it has an area of about 43 square miles and a population of nearly 700,000.

We must get a clear idea of these various districts of Boston. If not, we shall be puzzled to meet friends from Roxbury or Dorchester and hear them say that they live in Boston. There is Boston proper, the old Boston before it annexed its neighbors; East Boston, comprising two islands in the harbor which joined Boston in 1635 and 1637; then, annexed from time to time, come Roxbury, Dorchester, Charlestown,—the scene of the Battle of Bunker Hill,—West Roxbury, and Brighton; and last, Hyde Park, which, by the vote of its people and the citizens of Boston, joined the city in November, 1911. These have all kept their original names, but have given up their local governments to share Boston's larger privileges and advantages. So remember that when we meet friends from Roxbury, West Roxbury, Dorchester, Brighton, East Boston, South Boston, or Hyde Park, they are all Boston people. The children from these districts would resent it[108] if they were not known as Boston boys and girls just as much as those who live in the very heart of the city.

While we have been reading all this, our boat has been drawing closer to the city, and now we must gather up our wraps and bags and be ready to start out. We see a very busy harbor, its noisy tugs drawing the sullen-looking coal barges; its graceful schooners loaded to the water's edge with lumber; and its fishing boats with their dirty sails, not attractive but doing the work that has placed Boston first in importance as a fishing port. Crowded steamers and ferryboats pass swiftly by, while huge ocean steamships may be seen poking their noses out from their docks at East Boston and South Boston or heading toward the city with their thousands of eager passengers.

As we hurry along with our fellow travelers we must decide how best to reach our hotel. There are taxicabs and carriages for some; electric cars, both surface and elevated, for the many. Boston has excellent car and train service. The Boston Elevated Railway Company controls most of the car lines in the city as well as in the outlying towns. This makes it possible for us to ride for a nickel an average distance of at least five miles.

A line of elevated trains running across the city connects West Roxbury on the south with Charlestown on the north. Some of these trains pass through the Washington Street tunnel, from which numerous well-lighted, well-ventilated stations lead directly to the shopping and business section of the city. On this elevated road are two huge terminal stations, into which rush countless surface cars, bringing from all points north and south the immense crowds of suburbanites who come to Boston proper each day, to work or on pleasure bent.

Chelsea folks come to the city by ferry or by electric car, while those from East Boston have two ferry lines as well as a tunnel for cars under the harbor.

The city proper has two immense union railroad depots, the North and the South station, where hundreds of local, as well as long-distance, trains leave and arrive each day. The railroads entering Boston are the Boston & Albany, which, by means of the New York Central lines, connects with the West; the Boston & Maine, leading northward to Maine and Canada; and the New York, New Haven & Hartford, which connects by way of New York with various points in the South.

All these transportation advantages have made Boston an excellent place in which to live, as its suburbs afford the benefits of country life while yet they are within a few minutes' ride of a big city.

There are several ways in which we can see Boston. We may climb into one of the great sight-seeing autos and ride from point to point while the man with the megaphone calls our attention to the interesting landmarks and gives their history; we can engage a guide who will[111] take us from place to place; or we can simply follow the directions of our guide book.

No trip to Boston is complete without a visit to the State House, or capitol, whose gilded dome is seen glittering in the sunlight by day and sparkling with electric lights by night. It is situated on Beacon Hill, the highest point of land in the city proper. Up to 1811 one peak of the hill was as high as the gilded dome is now, and on its summit a beacon was set up as early as 1634, to warn the people in the surrounding country of approaching disaster. It seems, however, that the beacon was never used, and during the Revolution the British pulled it down and built a fort in its place.

Even if there were no gilded dome on the State House, the building itself is handsome enough to attract attention. It was designed in 1795 by Charles Bulfinch, a famous architect. The front of the building to-day is the[112] historic Bulfinch front. But as Boston grew, so also did the State House, and additions were made in 1853, in 1889, and in 1915, until now we have the impressive building we are about to enter.

But stop after climbing the main steps, turn around, and look at the green field before you. This is Boston Common, the famous Boston Common where the people of long ago used to pasture their cows; where the British in the early days of the Revolution set up their fortified camps during the siege of Boston; and where, at the present time, the admiring relatives of the high-school boys assemble yearly to see them go through their military drill. Situated as it is in the very heart of the city,[113] Boston Common is the resting place, the breathing place, for thousands. It is the people's playground. Fireworks, band concerts, public speaking, all prove that its public character has never been lost, and that it is now as much of a Common as it was in 1649, when it was first laid out. By a wise clause in the city charter, this Common cannot be sold or leased without the consent of the citizens.

The Common contains many memorials erected by a grateful people. The most conspicuous is the Army and Navy Monument, which reaches far above the trees. Directly opposite the State House is the Shaw Memorial, a wonderful bronze bas-relief by Saint Gaudens, showing the gallant Colonel Shaw and his colored regiment.

The sight of Shaw's earnest young face amid his dusky followers prepares us for entering Doric Hall in the State House, set apart as a memorial for those who died in their country's cause. We look with awe and reverence on the[114] flags whose worn and tattered edges tell plainly of the struggles of their bearers and defenders.

Let us peep into the Senate chamber and into the hall of the House of Representatives with its historic codfish suspended from the ceiling, a reminder of a most humble source of Massachusetts' wealth. We will then climb to the dome and see Boston before a cold east wind sweeps suddenly in, covering the city with fog and making all misty and uncertain. As we reach the highest point, it really seems as if the fog had rolled in, but it is only a fog of smoke from the many chimneys of the city's countless factories.

As our eyes get accustomed to the view, the mist seems to roll away, and the city lies before us. That blue line to the east is the harbor, and between us and the harbor[115]
[116] is the business section of Boston, the noisy, throbbing heart of a big city. Directly back of us as we stand facing the water is the West End, once a fashionable section where Boston's literary men held court, now a district largely given over to tenements and lodging-houses. To the north and south lie the North and South ends; the former, the oldest of the city and the great foreign district of the present time, where children from many lands have their homes.

That broad winding stream of water that we see is the Charles River. Just beyond it to the north is Charlestown, its Bunker Hill Monument towering up for all to see. The city of Cambridge is just across the Charles River to the west, and next to it, skirting the southern bank of the river, is the district of Brighton. South Boston, Roxbury, West Roxbury, Hyde Park, and Dorchester lie toward the south.[117] Among the many islands in the harbor, East Boston is the most crowded and the closest to the city proper. Towards the southwest, between us and the Charles, lies Back Bay, once tidewater but now filled in and made into land. Look around you and notice how the surrounding parts of Boston form a chain about their parent, a chain broken only by Cambridge—the seat of Harvard University—and Brookline,—Massachusetts' wealthiest town,—which refuses to become a city or to join its larger neighbor.

As we leave the State House, a few minutes' walk brings us to the heart of Boston's great shopping district and to Boston's leading business street. You will be glad to know that this street is called neither Main Street nor[118]
[119] Broadway, but Washington Street. Originally, part was known as Orange, part as Marlborough, and part as Newbury. But when, at the close of the Revolution, Washington rode through the city at the head of a triumphal procession, the people renamed the street along which he passed, Washington, and so it is called to-day in all its ten miles of length. Washington Street is very narrow in parts, and as it is lined on both sides with some of Boston's largest and finest department stores, it presents a very animated appearance on a week-day afternoon.

Stop for a moment on busy Newspaper Row. Here a bystander may read the news of the world as it is posted hourly upon the great bulletin boards of the various newspaper offices.

Parallel to Washington Street, and connected with it by many short streets, is Tremont Street, another old historic road. Originally Tremont Street was a path outlined by William Blackstone's cows on their way to pasture; now it is second only to Washington Street in importance.

Washington Street is really the main dividing line between the retail and wholesale parts of the city. The water front is the great wholesale section. Here there is a constant odor of leather in the air, and great heavy wagons laden with hides are continually passing to and from the wharves and stations. When we stop and consider that Boston and the neighboring cities of Brockton and Lynn are among the largest shoe-manufacturing cities in the world, then we do not wonder at the leather we see. It is no vain boast to say that in every quarter of the world may be seen shoes that once, in the form of leather, were carted through the streets of Boston.

What is true of leather is also true of cotton and wool. Lowell, Fall River, and New Bedford are calling for cotton to be made into cloth in their busy mills, while Lawrence is the greatest wool-manufacturing city in the country. Boston, with its harbor and great railroad terminals, is constantly receiving these materials and distributing them to these cities.

The finished cloths often return to Boston to be cut and made into clothes, and an army of men and women cut and sew from day to day on garments for people far distant from Boston as well as for those near home.

One glance at the wharves along Atlantic Avenue and Commercial Street and our glimpse of busy Boston will be ended. Here are wharves and piers jutting out into the harbor, where are boats of every kind from every land. New York alone among American cities outranks Boston in the value of her foreign commerce. From one large steamer thousands of green bananas are being carried. They will be sold to the many fruit dealers, from those whose show windows are visions of beauty, to the Greek or Italian peddler who pushes his hand cart out into the suburbs.

Some of the steamers are already puffing with importance as if to hasten the steps of travelers who are on their way to board ship for different ports in the South, for Nova Scotia and other points north, or perhaps to cross the Atlantic.

Two of the wharves—T Wharf and the new fishing pier—are devoted to the fishing industry. From the banks of Newfoundland and the other splendid fishing grounds along the coast from Cape Cod to Labrador, fishermen[122] are constantly bringing their catches to Boston, their chief market. In addition, Gloucester and other fishing ports re-ship most of the fish brought to them to the Boston market. Is it any wonder that Boston ranks first of all the cities of the United States in the fish trade? In 1910 Boston received and marketed $10,500,000 worth of fish—more than any other American city, and exceeded by only one other port in the world.

In this neighborhood too is a tablet marking the site of Griffin's Wharf, where the Boston Tea Party of the Revolution took place. We remember how the people of Boston refused to pay the tax on tea; how the shiploads[123]
[124] of tea sent from England remained unloaded at the wharf; and how, finally, after an indignation meeting had been held at the Old South Meeting House, a band of men and boys, disguised as Indians, boarded the vessels, ripped open the chests, and emptied all the cargo into the harbor. It was rightly called the Boston Tea Party.

As we are so close to the North End, we may as well go there at once. The North End is the oldest section of Boston. It was here that Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and other patriots had their headquarters during the troublous times before the Revolution. Paul Revere, of whose famous ride we have all read in Longfellow's poem, lived and carried on his business in this very district. If we wish, we can see his home as well as the famous Old North Church, where his friend hung the lanterns warning him of the movements of the British.

But to-day there is little else to remind us of the past. As we cross North Square and see the gesticulating, dark-skinned men, the stout, gayly kerchiefed women in the doorways, and the hordes of dark-eyed children on street and sidewalk, we wonder if by mistake we have not entered some city in southern Europe. To-day the North End of Boston is the great foreign section of the city. Here live the Jews, Italians, and Russians. They tell us that more than one third of the entire population of the city are foreigners.

But when a group of boys rushes toward us, each begging to be our guide to the Old North Church, to Paul Revere's house, or to the famous Copp's Hill Burying[126] Ground,—all for a nickel,—we are sure we are in America and gladly follow our leader through the narrow, crooked streets.

From among the parents of these children come the fruit peddlers, the clothing makers, the street musicians, and the great army of laborers which helps to keep the city in repair.

Are we tired of the noise and confusion of the crowded tenement district? If so, let us go to the broad streets and beautiful parks of the Back Bay, the abode of the wealthy. The Back Bay, as its name suggests, was originally the Back Cove, and where these houses now stand, the waves once danced in glee. But Boston filled in the marshes and coves and laid out fine streets on the newly made land. Here is the famous Beacon Street, and parallel to it is Boston's most beautiful thoroughfare,—Commonwealth Avenue,—two hundred and twenty feet wide, with a parkway running through the center. See the children with their nurses, playing on the grass or[127] roller skating on the broad sidewalks, apparently no happier than the little ones of the North End.

But it is not merely its fine streets and homes that make the Back Bay the handsomest part of the city. In this section are many of Boston's finest public buildings. Come to Copley Square, the most beautiful in the city. Here stands Trinity Church,—Phillips Brooks' church,—a magnificent structure of granite with sandstone trimmings. Phillips Brooks was for a brief year the Protestant Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts. He was loved by those of all denominations. After his death the citizens of Boston united in erecting a splendid memorial, in token of their love for him and their gratitude for his services. The statue is by Augustus Saint Gaudens and is considered one of the greatest works of that great sculptor.

On Copley Square we see also the New Old South Church and the Boston Public Library.

Boston is very proud of her public library, and rightly so, for it is not only one of the finest buildings in Boston but also one of the finest libraries in the country. Look at the magnificent marble staircase, the curiously inlaid floor and ceiling of the entrance hall, the graceful statues, the wonderful paintings, and the fine courtyard with its sparkling fountain. On the floors above are the children's room with its low tables and chairs and rows upon rows of interesting books; Bates Hall, a most attractive reading room; Sargent's mystical paintings; and Edwin A. Abbey's series of paintings, which are called “The Quest of the Holy Grail.”

Besides the main library there are branch libraries or reading rooms in every section of the city. Altogether the Boston Public Library contains over one million volumes, making it the largest circulating library in the United States.

But there are other buildings in the Back Bay which rival those on Copley Square. We should see the Christian Science church with its massive dome; the Boston Opera House; and Symphony Hall, the home of the famous Boston Symphony Orchestra, known the country over.

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts stood originally on Copley Square, but in 1909 a new and magnificent building was opened, farther out in the Back Bay. Not far from the new museum stands the Harvard Medical School, an imposing group of five white-marble buildings.

But now we are tired of buildings, so come into the Public Garden—the gateway to the Back Bay—and[130] while you rest I will tell you about Boston's parks. Sitting in the beautiful Public Garden, it will not be hard for you to believe that the park system of Boston is the finest in the country. The first park was, as we have seen, the Common. For many years the Common was not a place of beauty. Edward Everett Hale spoke of it as a “pasture for cows, a playground for children, a training ground for the militia, a place for beating carpets.” Many changes have taken place on the Common since the old days, but two of the characteristics still remain. Boston Common is still a playground for children, and military drills are still to be seen there from time to time.

The Common is just across Charles Street from the Public Garden—the second great park to be laid out in Boston. This Public Garden was reclaimed from the marshes, and at present covers about twenty-four and a half acres. It is truly a garden, and during the spring, summer, and fall nearly every species of beautiful flower, plant, and shrub may here be seen—a riot of color and beauty.

But the people of Boston did not stop even with the Public Garden. The city of Boston has, besides, numerous small squares at intervals through the city. She also has vast tracts of rural land, which, unlike the Public Garden, are left to their own wild beauty. Owing to Boston's expanse of water front, it is possible for her to have both inland and ocean parks, where may be found all kinds of open-air sports and recreations.

Some of the most important of these parks are Franklin Park, the Fens, the Arnold Arboretum, Marine Park, and[131] the Charles River Basin. In the Arnold Arboretum, the property of Harvard College, are rare shrubs and trees. Fortunate is the one who can visit it in lilac time, when scores of varieties of lilacs, both white and many shades of violet, scent the air with their delicate perfumes.

The best example of the ocean parkways is Marine Park. There one finds extensive bathhouses, a good beach, lawns, and a long pier extending several hundred feet out into the water. Connected with Marine Park by a long bridge is Castle Island, the site of Fort Independence.

The Charles River Basin is a popular promenade. This river, until recently, showed for many hours of the day the uncovered mud flats of low tide. Now by means of a dam it has been turned into a great fresh-water lake. Cambridge and Boston have laid out parkways on either side of the river, and before long further improvements will make this basin even more attractive.

Through the influence of Boston the surrounding cities and towns have given certain large areas of great natural beauty to form the Metropolitan Park System. This Metropolitan Park System consists of 3 forest reserves of 7000 acres of woodland, 30 miles of river park, 10 miles of seacoast, and 40 miles of connecting parkways.

Two great ocean parks in the system are Revere Beach and Nantasket, both favorite summer resorts, while the most noted inland reservations are the Blue Hills and the Middlesex Fells.

A Roman matron of long ago, when asked to show her jewels, pointed to her sons with pride, saying, “These are my jewels.” And so it is with Boston. She is proud of her history, her fine public buildings, her busy thoroughfares,[132] her parks, her great centers of industry, and her commerce; but most of all, she is proud of her more than ninety thousand school children.

From the earliest times Boston's schools have ranked among the best in the country. The first public school in America was established in Dorchester, and some of the greatest educators, such as Horace Mann and Charles W. Eliot, have been associated with Boston or its suburbs.

Boston is the home of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a famous training college in applied sciences; Simmons College for women; the Harvard Medical College; Boston College (Roman Catholic); Boston University; the Normal Art School; the Conservatory of Music; the Emerson School of Oratory; and other schools of high standing. Harvard, the oldest and largest university[133] in the country, has its home in Cambridge. Radcliffe, a college for women, whose pupils receive the same courses of instruction as the students in Harvard, is also in Cambridge. Tufts College is in the neighboring city of Medford, while in the beautiful hill town of Wellesley, a suburb of Boston, is Wellesley College, a woman's college of high rank.

But now, if we hurry, we shall be just in time to see the children flocking in crowds to one of their many playgrounds. Here they find swings and other apparatus for sport; and here they may play tennis, baseball, or football in the spring, summer, and fall. In the winter months they may make use of the ice, which is kept in good condition for the skater. In the various districts, also, are swimming pools and indoor gymnasiums, where old and young meet for recreation as well as for physical training.

Having seen Boston at work and at play, we now ask ourselves where the food comes from to feed this vast multitude. Its meats, flour, and grain of all kinds are brought into its huge freight stations from the West. Its great ocean trade with the ports in the South as well as in Europe and Asia supplies other food necessities and luxuries. New England is a great dairy center, and much of the city's milk, butter, and other dairy products comes to Boston each morning from New Hampshire, Vermont, and western Massachusetts. The purity of the milk is carefully watched, and it is impossible to buy even a pint of milk in anything but a sealed jar.

Boston's drinking-water is equally well guarded. The water, as well as the sewage, is under the control of the Metropolitan Water and Sewage Commission. There is a[134] high-pressure distributing station at Chestnut Hill, which gives power sufficient to force water to the highest of Boston's buildings.

The sewage of the down-town sections of the city is collected in a main drainage system, pumped through a tunnel under Dorchester Bay to Moon Island, held in large reservoirs, and discharged into the water when the tide is going out. The sewage of the outlying districts is conveyed to various places in the harbor and discharged into the water at a depth of thirty or forty feet, where it can be quickly carried out to sea.

Our stay in Boston is now at an end. Not only have we traveled over many miles of her streets and visited her famous State House, her busy wharves, and her interesting playgrounds, but we have reviewed many events of her thrilling history. What of all we have seen or heard is it most important for us to remember? First, that Boston is the fifth city in size in the United States; second, that she is the capital city of Massachusetts; third, that she is the chief trade center of New England; and fourth, that among America's cities she ranks second only to New York in foreign commerce. Then we must not forget the important place she holds in the early history of our country.

As we traveled into Boston, so we will journey out again. And with the last of the great city fading from our view, we call to mind the large-hearted Blackstone and say to ourselves, [135]“Quite a change from the hermit's home on the sunny slope of Beacon Hill.”

BOSTON

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), nearly 700,000 (670,585).

Fifth in rank according to population.

Ranks first among American cities in fish and wool trades.

Chief trade center of New England.

Principal industries (as measured by value of products):

Printing and publishing; manufacture of boots and shoes, of clothing, of foundry and machine-shop products.

Place of great historical interest.

One of the leading educational centers of the United States.

5. Compare the North End during Revolutionary times with the same district to-day.

7. Describe some of the busy scenes which may be observed along the wharves of the city.

10. Tell what you know of Harvard University. What other noted schools are in or near Boston?

11. Name some of the advantages which Boston enjoys on account of her splendid harbor.

13. In the manufacture of what three products does Boston, with her neighboring cities, rank high?

14. Why is a codfish suspended in the hall of the House of Representatives in the State House?

CLEVELAND

In the days that followed the Revolution, Connecticut claimed certain lands south of Lake Erie. A large part of these she sold to the Connecticut Land Company, who wanted to colonize the country and establish New Connecticut.

It was in 1796 that the Connecticut Land Company sent General Moses Cleaveland west, to survey the land and choose a site for a settlement. After surveying about sixty miles, Cleaveland fixed on a plateau just south of Lake Erie, where the Cuyahoga River runs into the lake. Soon the settlement was laid out with a square and two main streets and was very properly called Cleaveland. The name was spelled with an a, just as Moses Cleaveland spelled his name. There is no a in the city's name to-day, the story being that the extra letter was dropped, and the new spelling adopted, in 1831, through a newspaper's claiming that the a would not fit conveniently into its headline.

At first the new settlement did not prosper. The soil was poor, and commerce along the Ohio River attracted immigrants into the interior. Those that stayed in Cleveland[138] had a hard struggle with fever. The mouth of the Cuyahoga River was frequently choked with sand, making the water in the river's bed stagnant and furnishing a breeding place for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. During the summer and autumn of 1798 affairs were in a desperate condition. Every one in the settlement was miserable. There was no flour, and for two months Nathaniel Doan's boy was the only person strong enough to go to the house of one James Kingsbury, on the highlands back of the town, for corn. This he carried to a gristmill at Newburgh, six miles to the south, and had it ground into meal for the sick.

Besides the suffering caused by fever, there was danger of Indian attacks and the ever-present dread of the wolves and bears which prowled about the settlement, so that no one dared go out at night unarmed, and no door was left without a loaded musket to guard it.

But in spite of the dangers of these early years, the settlers for the most part led a busy, happy life. The women especially had their hands full—keeping their houses clean and neat; doing the cooking and baking; spinning, weaving, cutting out, and sewing the clothes for their families (usually large) and knitting their stockings. Then there were the sick to be visited and nursed, and the neighbors to be helped with their quilting.

When a new settler arrived, all the men would pitch in and help in the “cabin raising,” finishing the work in short order. They often ended up with a jolly dance, though the music was sometimes nothing more than the whistling of the dancers.

For the first ten years Cleveland was only a hamlet of a few dozen people. Still it continued to exist, and[139] in 1815 was incorporated as a village. Another year saw the first bank started, and before long its first newspaper was printed. This paper was supposed to be a weekly, but often appeared only every ten, twelve, or fifteen days, at the convenience of the editor.

Already, in supplying her own needs, Cleveland was laying the foundation for some of her future industries. In fact, soon after the settlement was founded, Nathaniel Doan built a blacksmith shop on what is now Superior Avenue. Though the shop was only a rude affair built of logs, it deserves the name of Cleveland's first manufacturing plant. Here Nathaniel Doan not only shod the few horses which needed his services but made tools as well. A gristmill and sawmill came next, and then began the building of small schooners.

In the early years of the nineteenth century there was practically no way of communicating with the settlements on the Ohio River. And except for an occasional party of French and Indians, there was no means of hearing from Detroit. In 1818, however, regular stage routes began to be opened. One line went to Columbus, one to Norwalk, and one to Painesville. This last route advertised that its stage would leave Cleveland at two on Friday afternoon and would reach Painesville on Saturday morning at eight—a journey which to-day can easily be made by automobile in a little more than an hour. Turnpikes soon displaced these rough stage routes, and over them great six-horse wagons drew freight into Cleveland.

Though all these things helped Cleveland, it was still nothing more than a village—and so primitive a village that when two hundred dollars was voted for improvements,[140] one of the old citizens asked, “What on earth can the trustees find in this village to spend two hundred dollars on?”

Finally, came two events which were the making of Cleveland. In 1827 the Ohio Canal was opened from Cleveland to Akron and later to the mouth of the Scioto River, which flows into the Ohio at Portsmouth; and in 1828 a channel was cut through the bar at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. Consider what this meant to Cleveland. The Ohio Canal connected the village with[141] the Ohio River, thus putting Cleveland in touch with the rich coal, iron, oil, and coke lands of western Pennsylvania. Travelers, too, found the canal boats much better to journey on than the old stagecoaches.

The deepening of the mouth of the Cuyahoga River gave Cleveland a harbor and a place to build the enormous docks which to-day line the river's shore for the last few miles of its length. A few years earlier an effort to protect lake vessels had been made by building a pier out into the lake near the sand bar. The lake soon tore the pier to pieces, however, and the vessels still had to be hauled over the bar to safety. But with the sand bar cut, boats could sail in and out of the river at their pleasure.

Splendid results followed. The population increased, frame houses gradually came to take the place of log cabins, business greatly improved, and in 1836 Cleveland became a city.

The year 1851 saw a great celebration in Cleveland over the opening of the first railroad. This brought added prosperity to the city. Then, too, iron ore began to arrive by water from the Lake Superior mines. At the same time more and more coal was being received. The manufacturers commenced to appreciate the tremendous advantages of living at a natural meeting place of these two great necessities. Cleveland awoke to a new business activity.

Then came the Civil War, and the manufacturing of iron products for the government crowded Cleveland's[143] factories. During the years of the war the refining of coal oil developed into one of the city's leading industries. It was then that the great Standard Oil Company was organized. Many came to the city, attracted by these growing industries, so that what proved a disastrous period in many sections of our country was really a time of growth for Cleveland.

Soon after the war East Cleveland was annexed to the city, and in 1873 Newburgh too became a part of Cleveland. Then, in 1893, West Cleveland and Brooklyn were taken in, and when Cleveland celebrated the anniversary of its founding in 1896, it had become a city of great importance in the country.

At present Cleveland extends for over 14 miles along Lake Erie and covers more than 50 square miles. The larger part of the city lies to the east of the Cuyahoga River. The valley of this river is filled with car tracks, lumber yards, car shops, coal sheds, ore docks, and shipyards. Being in the valley, these are partially hidden from the city. Huge viaducts span the valley and unite the east and west sides of Cleveland.

The heart of the business quarter and the[146] center of the street railway lines is Monumental Square, which lies about a mile from the lake shore. From this square radiate the streets in a fan shape, at every angle from northeast to west. Euclid Avenue is Cleveland's most famous street, having for years enjoyed the reputation of being one of the country's finest avenues. The lower end is taken up with business, but farther out are many splendid residences surrounded by extensive and beautifully kept lawns. Cleveland is called the Forest City, and it is to the old trees which grace its parks and line both sides of Euclid Avenue that it owes its name. Another important business street is Superior Avenue, which runs through the main business portion of the city.

Though Cleveland is a beautiful city, its importance really lies in the fact of its occupying just the position that it does. Being on Lake Erie puts it in touch with the copper fields of Michigan, the iron mines of Minnesota and Michigan, and the huge forests along the Great Lakes. Through railroad connections it is also in touch with the coal, oil, and iron supplies of western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Thus, lying in the center of eastern and western commerce, Cleveland has become a great manufacturing center, and the Cleveland district is the largest ore market in the world. Lake vessels bring the ore to Cleveland's enormous docks, where huge machines quickly transfer it to cars waiting to carry it to Pittsburgh and other cities.

Cleveland, also, has several blast furnaces and immense factories of iron and steel supplies. It holds first rank in America for the making of wire and nails. More ships are built in the Cleveland district than anywhere else in the world except in the shipyards on the Clyde River in Scotland. Then, too, Cleveland makes steel bridges[149]
[150] and buildings, automobiles, and gas ranges. Quantities of women's clothing are made in Cleveland. Slaughtering and the wholesale meat-packing business are other important industries.

It is a simple matter to ship Cleveland's manufactures in every direction. The main lines of the New York Central and the Nickel Plate pass through Cleveland, and it is a terminal city of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, & St. Louis Railroad,—commonly known as the Big Four,—the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Wheeling & Lake Erie railroads. More than this, Cleveland is the center of a vast network of interurban electric railways that carry both passengers and freight and keep the city in hourly communication with the many smaller cities of northern Ohio.

Cleveland gets its water supply from Lake Erie through tunnels built out under the lake, which connect with two intake cribs, one of which is five miles from the shore. Natural gas, pumped through large mains from the gas fields of West Virginia, more than 200 miles away, is sold to the people of Cleveland at 30 cents a thousand. The street railway service is among the best in the country, and the fare is lower than in any other large American city.

Cleveland has excellent educational advantages. Western Reserve University, founded in 1826, is especially noted for its law and medical schools. In Cleveland, also, are the Case School of Applied Science, the Cleveland School of Art, St. Ignatius College, the Homeopathic[152] Medical College, and the University School. The public schools of the city are among the best.

Cleveland has a beautiful park system. The different parks are connected by boulevards, which form a great[153] semicircle through the residence districts. There are also numerous small parks and playgrounds in the more congested districts. A plan for grouping the city's public buildings about a broad parkway is being carried out. Several of the buildings are already completed. When finished, this will be one of the most beautiful and most imposing spectacles in America.

All of these things, added to the great possibilities for occupation offered by the city's many lines of work, have given Cleveland a population of over 560,000. To-day the little settlement of Cleaveland, made in 1796 at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, has become the second of all lake ports and the sixth city in size in the United States.

CLEVELAND

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), over 500,000 (560,663).

Sixth city in rank according to population.

Important manufacturing center.

Center of the largest ore market in the world.

Ranks first in America in making wire and nails.

Great shipbuilding center.

A center of trade in copper, iron, lumber, coal, and oil.

Important railroad center.

2. Tell something of the dangers and difficulties of the first settlers of Cleveland.

3. What was Cleveland's first manufacturing plant, and what others did it soon have?

4. What means of communication with other cities did Cleveland have in the early days of its history?

11. Mention some of the things that make Cleveland a pleasant place in which to live and a good place for business.

BALTIMORE

Near the head of Chesapeake Bay stands Baltimore, the largest of our Southern cities and the seventh city in size in the United States.

Because of her importance as a Southern railroad center and her excellent harbor on the largest bay of the Atlantic coast, Baltimore is called “The Gateway to the South.” Great ships from all parts of the world unload their cargoes at her docks and take in return products from nearly every section of the United States.

The railroads bring to Baltimore vast quantities of iron, coal, and grain from the West, and up from the South ships and trains come laden with raw sugar, tobacco, fruits, and vegetables. Here the oysters, fish, and crabs from Chesapeake Bay and the products of the rich farm lands of Maryland and Virginia find a ready market.

Knowing these things, one can surmise what the city's leading industries and exports must be. Baltimore is the world's greatest oyster market, she leads the world in the canning of vegetables and fruits, she is one of the country's largest banana markets, and more corn is exported from this city than from anywhere else in America.

Baltimore is a great sugar-refining center, she leads the world in the making of straw hats, and among her foremost industries are the manufacture of clothing and the making of tobacco goods.

Thanks to the coal and iron she receives, Baltimore builds cars, ships, and almost everything made of iron and steel. Then, too, the city has the largest copper-refining plant in America.

If this story had been written a few years ago, it would tell you that Baltimore's streets were narrow, that miles of them were paved with cobblestones or were not paved at all, and that the city generally was developing very slowly. But to-day we have a quite different Baltimore.

On February 7th and 8th, 1904, a great fire swept the business section of the city, destroying $125,000,000 worth of property. While the ruins were still smoldering, the courageous people, refusing all help from outside, began to plan a bigger and better Baltimore.

The work began in the burned part of the city. The narrow down-town streets were widened and paved, and new and better buildings took the place of the burned ones. Most of these new buildings are three or four stories high, though a few tall ones range from ten to sixteen stories. Fortunately three of Baltimore's oldest and most imposing buildings escaped the fire—the post office, the city hall, and the courthouse.

Two important streets cross this newly built business section—Charles Street, running north and south, and Baltimore Street, running east and west. Baltimore Street is the chief business thoroughfare, and north and south of it are the wholesale, financial, and shipping districts.

The city owned little wharf property of importance before 1904, but the fire made it possible to buy all the burned district fronting the harbor. This the city purchased and laid out in a wonderful system of public wharves and docks open to the commerce of the world.

Pier 4, at the foot of Market Place, has been set aside for the use of market boats, and here small crafts bring much of the fruit, vegetables, fish, crabs, and oysters which make the markets of Baltimore among the most attractive in the United States. There are eleven of these markets, and on market days they are a most interesting sight with their busy jostling crowds all eagerly buying or selling.

But these great improvements in the business center and along the water front are only part of the good results which have followed the fire. In past years Baltimore had many miles of open sewers, an unhealthful arrangement which caused much sickness. The very year after the fire, work was begun to do away with this evil, and to-day the city has a sanitary, up-to-date sewer system.

Another important work of the city-betterment plan has to do with a stream called Jones Falls, which used to flow in an open channel right through the center of the city. This stream now flows through great concrete tubes, over which is a broad highway running diagonally across[162]
[163] the city, all the way from the docks to the railroad terminal. Then, too, the city has a new water system, great enough to supply the entire city with purified water from Gunpowder River. And besides all these a great dam, the third longest in the world, has been built across the Susquehanna River at McCall Ferry, furnishing electric power which lights the streets, runs the cars, and supplies power for many of the city's factories.

From the harbor Baltimore stretches away to the north and west, covering thirty-two square miles. Within the city are green hills and pleasant valleys, and a chain of beautiful parks with many splendid old trees bordering the boulevards which connect them. Two of these parks, Mount Vernon Place and Eutaw Place, are near the center of Baltimore. The former is cross shaped, and here stands the famous monument to George Washington, the first statue erected to his memory in this country. Eutaw Place is a long parkway made beautiful with statuary, flowers, fountains, and winding walks, and on either side stand handsome residences.

Covering seven hundred acres of picturesque rolling land is Druid Hill Park, with its miles of driveways, its ancient oak trees, its athletic grounds, tennis courts, botanical palace, zoo, and a large reservoir lake. The rugged scenery of Gwynn's Falls Park challenges Druid Hill's claim to unequaled beauty. In Patterson Park there is the largest artificial swimming pool in the United States.

Besides its many swimming pools and indoor baths, the city has organized a system of portable baths—small[165] houses which are moved from corner to corner in the crowded sections, supplying hot- and cold-water shower baths to many thousands each year.

Baltimore has won a reputation as an educational center[166]
[167] through the splendid equipment and wonderful accomplishments of Johns Hopkins University, which is noted throughout the world, especially for its work along medical lines.

Goucher College, for women, ranks with the best women's colleges in the South. The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery is the oldest college of its kind in the world. The Walters Art Gallery, and the Peabody Institute with its art gallery, conservatory of music, and library, afford opportunities for the study of art, music, and literature.

With its more than 550,000 inhabitants, Baltimore, like Philadelphia, is a city of homes and is renowned for its good old Southern hospitality.

Way back in 1634, a company of Catholic pilgrims[168] came to America to found a colony where their religion would not be interfered with. King Charles I of England granted to these people a certain territory north of the Potomac River, which he named Maryland in honor of his wife, Mary, who was also a Catholic. The founder of the province was Lord Baltimore, and from the very beginning, settlers of all beliefs were made heartily welcome.

About one hundred years after the planting of this Catholic colony, sixty acres of land on the north side of the Patapsco River was purchased and laid out for a city. To honor the generous-hearted founder of Maryland, the place was named Baltimore.

One of the most thrilling events in Baltimore's history led to the writing of our national song—“The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Francis Scott Key, of Baltimore, was a prisoner on a British man-of-war in 1814, when the British attacked Fort McHenry. Fort McHenry guarded Baltimore, and if the fort fell, the city too must go. All day the English ships fired shot and shell at the fort. During all the night the attack went on. Anxiously Key watched through the darkness. Could the fort hold out against such a terrible bombardment? From time to time, by flashes from bursting bombs, he could see the outlines of the fort. Then came the dawn. In the early morning light Key saw our flag still waving, and in his joy he wrote on the back of an old letter the words of the song that has since become so famous.

A wide thoroughfare which follows the curve of the water front for several miles is named in honor of Francis Scott Key. Key Highway, it is called, and it leads to Fort McHenry, which the War Department has lately given over to the care of the city of Baltimore.

BALTIMORE

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), over 500,000 (558,485).

Seventh city in rank, according to population, in the United States.

Located near the head of Chesapeake Bay.

Has a fine harbor and a splendid dock system.

An important railroad center.

Has a large and growing foreign commerce.

An important manufacturing center.

Ranks first among the cities of the United States as a canning and preserving center.

The world's chief center for the manufacture of straw hats.

An important center for shipping oysters and crabs.

Associated with the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

5. What great disaster visited Baltimore in 1904, and how did the people of the city make this great trouble result in a better city?

8. Tell the story of the writing of a famous song of which Baltimore is justly proud.

9. Find by inquiry or by consulting time tables the time required to reach Baltimore from the following places:

PITTSBURGH

Pittsburgh and New Orleans—both of vast commercial importance—are connected by one of the greatest water highways in the world. Never were two cities more unlike. New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi, with its French and its Southern population, might be termed the Paris of our country—this gay, fashionable town, with its fine opera houses, its noted restaurants, and its brilliant Mardi Gras pageants. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, at the head of the Ohio River, in the heart of a famous coal-and-iron region, is well named the “workshop of the world.”

Many years ago, when the governor of Virginia sent George Washington to drive the French from the Ohio valley, there stood, where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers unite to form the Ohio River, a small fort which the French called Fort Duquesne. This fort was captured in 1758 by the British and renamed Fort Pitt, in honor of England's great statesman, William Pitt. To-day the place is known as Pittsburgh, and is the center of the most extensive iron works in the United States.

At first the little settlement was important as a break in transportation, for here cargoes were changed from the[172] lighter boats used on the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers to the heavier barges on the broad Ohio. Even then Pittsburgh was recognized as a gateway of the West.

Gradually the settlement became a trading center, which soon developed into a big, busy, manufacturing city. Now Pittsburgh has a population of over half a million and is the eighth city in size in the Union.

In her countless factories, her mammoth steel mills, and her huge foundries, she uses the products of the rich surrounding country as well as an enormous amount of iron ore from the Lake Superior mines.

Although western Pennsylvania too furnishes iron ore, its chief contribution to Pittsburgh is a vast amount of coal, which the city in turn supplies to the world.

Pittsburgh leads the world in the manufacture of steel and iron, glassware (including plate and window glass), armor plate, steel cars, air brakes, iron and steel pipe, tin plate, fire brick, coke, sheet steel, white lead, cork wares, electrical machinery, and pickles.

To carry on these important industries, Pittsburgh, the city of McKeesport, the boroughs of Homestead and Braddock, and many other places,—all together known as the Pittsburgh district,—have more than 5000 manufacturing plants and employ over 350,000 people. The amount paid the laborers in these factories in prosperous times is over $1,000,000 a day.

The famous Homestead mills make armor plate for battleships. At Braddock are steel works, where great furnaces turn out enough rails[174]
[175] in a year to span the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The great Carnegie Steel Company has its headquarters in the city of Pittsburgh and leads the world in the production of structural steel, steel rails, and armor plate.

Perhaps your knife blade is made of steel manufactured in one of the huge factories in this busy district. The car tracks of your town, the street-car wheels, and the great locomotives, to say nothing of the heavy steel beams and girders of your fireproof buildings, may all be products of this mighty workshop.

Pittsburgh coal is used all over the country. The near-by mines form a great underground city, whose dark passageways, far below the surface of the earth, are lighted by[176] tiny electric lights. More than fifteen thousand men find employment in this weird city. Day after day the brave miners go down into the mines, never sure that they will see the sunlight again, for many are the perils of mining. Who has not read of the terrible disasters caused by suffocation from fire damp, by flood, the falling of walls, or the explosion of coal dust? Small particles of coal dust are constantly floating in the mines, and much is stirred up by the cars used to carry the coal to the outside world. A tiny spark may ignite this dust and cause it to explode with terrific force. Sometimes even the presence of much oxygen in the air will make the dust explode, tearing down[177]
[178] great blocks of coal which bury the poor miners or stop up the passageways so that there is no escape unless the victims are dug out before they die.

But the world must have coal, for, used for our great boilers, it drives our powerful locomotives, sends mighty vessels plowing across the ocean, and supplies the power which turns the wheels of industry, both great and small. Yes, the world must have coal. So Uncle Sam, in pity for the miners who brave these awful dangers, has bought a mine at Bruceton, a short distance from Pittsburgh. There the government is making experiments to find out the causes of explosion, aiming in this way to protect the miners by lessening their dangers.

Much of the coal is made into coke by burning out certain gases in open-air ovens. Thousands of these[179]
[180] ovens are located in the Pittsburgh district, and their fires at night illuminate the country for miles. The coke is used as fuel in the steel furnaces of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, and other cities.

A little more than fifty years ago petroleum, or rock oil, was discovered near Pittsburgh, and although oil has since been found in many other places, Pittsburgh is still one of the great centers for this product. Crude petroleum as it comes from the earth is a liquid, formed from the decay of plants and animals long ago buried underground. It is obtained by sinking wells, or pipes, into oil-bearing rock, which is very porous. Sometimes the pipes are sunk a quarter of a mile deep. The average yield is from 50 to 75 barrels a day, and[181] occasionally a pipe well is found which yields as high as 1000 barrels.

Sometimes a well stops flowing. Then the oil must be pumped from the earth or else forced out by the explosion of dynamite. Such a well is spoken of as a “shot well.” When a well is shot, a vast column of oil is thrown into the air, just as water is thrown up in a geyser or hot spring, by the action of gases under ground.

Pittsburgh makes great storage tanks for the oil, as well as apparatus for drilling wells, and supplies these not only to our own country but to every foreign land in which oil is found.

When petroleum is heated it gives off vapors, varying according to the heat. These vapors are then condensed and form many products which are now in every-day use, such as kerosene, gasoline, naphtha, and benzine. Vaseline is what remains in the vats after heating the petroleum. Paraffin is another product. Pittsburgh manufactures all these and supplies them to the world.

The discovery of natural gas about twenty-five years ago, and its use as a fuel, attracted the attention of the world to Pittsburgh as a center of cheap fuel. Natural gas is found in and around oil fields, so it is supposed that the gas and the oil have the same origin. The porous rock in which the gas is found is usually covered with clay rock, or shale, which prevents the gas from escaping. Natural gas, like petroleum, is obtained by sinking pipes. When the gas is reached, it rushes out with great force. Large quantities of it were formerly used in Pittsburgh's glass factories and iron works, but its greatest use to-day is for lighting and heating.

The city of Pittsburgh stretches for 7 miles along the Allegheny, about the same distance on the Monongahela, and entirely covers the space between. The city of Allegheny, across the Allegheny River, has recently been annexed, thus giving Pittsburgh an area of 38 square miles. The two cities, with the river between, remind us of Brooklyn and Manhattan.

The city's water supply is taken from the Allegheny River and is purified in the largest single filtration plant in the world.

The main business section covers the V-shaped space between the two rivers—known as the Point—and extends into the streets further back. Still beyond are heights upon which are many beautiful parks, fine residences, and splendid public buildings, including the Carnegie Museum, Library, and Technical Schools, and the buildings of Pittsburgh University.

Though the population of the “Steel City” was at first mainly Scotch-Irish, it now includes citizens from almost every nation in Europe. The workmen in its factories are[183] of at least thirty nationalities. Side by side stand English, Germans, Welsh, Irish, Scotch, Negroes, Jews, Italians, Syrians, Swedes, Greeks, Slavs, Poles, and Hungarians.

In one section of the city there is a distinct German center, whose inhabitants speak German and have German newspapers. Another section has received the name of Little Italy because of the number of Italians who have come there to live. Six papers are published for these people in their own tongue. In Little Italy are many of the fruit stands and market places which in this country seem to furnish a favorite employment for the sons of Italy.

In still another section, which is called the Ghetto, live the Jews, whose conversation is largely carried on in Yiddish, and whose newspapers are printed in that language. All of these foreign-born people have adopted the dress of American citizens, and their descendants will soon become Americanized in manners and language. To-day their foreign ways make them the more interesting.

But the laborers are by no means the only inhabitants of Pittsburgh. There are many wealthy residents, whose palatial homes, built beyond the reach of the soot and smoke, far away from the noises of the great business thoroughfares, are in great contrast to the workmen's simple homes near the furnaces.

Pittsburgh can boast of many great men. It is the home of Andrew Carnegie, whose reputation for wealth and benevolence is world wide. He it was who conceived the idea of founding free libraries in different cities, they in turn to support these libraries by giving an annual sum for that purpose. His first offer was to his own city. In 1881 he proposed to give Pittsburgh $250,000 for a free public library if the city would set apart $15,000 each year for its care. The offer was refused, and the library was given to Allegheny instead. Later Mr. Carnegie gave Pittsburgh an Institute and Library combined, for the support of which the city gives $200,000 each year. The Carnegie Institute is a massive[185] and beautiful building in Schenley Park. It covers 5 acres of land and is filled with treasures of art and literature. To-day there are nine Carnegie libraries in Pittsburgh, containing over 360,000 volumes.

George Westinghouse was another Pittsburgh capitalist. His early days were spent in making agricultural implements in Schenectady. He was called Lazy George because he was always making pieces of machinery to save doing work with his hands. Later, by his invention of air brakes for trains, he became rich. Choosing Pittsburgh as his home, he established in and near the city the great Westinghouse Electric Company. It was Mr. Westinghouse who gave to Pittsburgh natural gas, conveying it through forty miles of pipe from Murrysville.

Towering above Pittsburgh are high hills, which are reached from the business districts by inclined planes. Passengers and freight are carried up the inclines in cable cars. Up the steepest of these planes, the Monongahela,[186] whose summit is four hundred feet above the river, the railroad runs through a tunnel and brings the passengers out upon a high bluff.

From the heights above the city one views the surrounding country—a wonderful panorama of hills and valleys, with the three great rivers, spanned by seventeen splendid bridges, stretching away in the distance. In every direction are towns called “little Pittsburghs,” where live the workers engaged in the gigantic industries of the Pittsburgh district. And looking down, one sees the Point—the center of this great city, the heart of the [187]“workshop of the world.”

PITTSBURGH

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), over half a million (533,905).

Eighth city in rank, according to population.

Has the largest structural-steel plant in the world.

Has the largest glass-manufacturing plant in the United States.

Has the largest commercial coal plant in the United States.

Has the largest pickling plant in the world.

Has the largest electrical manufacturing plant in the world.

Leads the world in the manufacture of iron, steel, glass, electrical machinery, steel cars, tin plate, air brakes, fire brick, white lead, pickles, and cork wares.

Place of great historical interest in connection with the development of the West.

One of the foremost commercial distributing centers.

2. Tell how Fort Pitt grew into the great city of Pittsburgh and give two causes for its growth.

7. Describe the mine cities and the miners. Tell of their dangers and how these are to be lessened.

11. Name two famous men of Pittsburgh and tell what they have done for the city and for the world.

12. Examine a map and find what shipping ports are within easy access of Pittsburgh.

13. Find by what route ore and other material shipped by way of the Great Lakes reach Pittsburgh.

DETROIT

With these facts in mind it will be interesting to learn something of the history of Detroit; something of the goods it manufactures and the reasons for its growth and prosperity.

During the years when the French governed Canada, manufacturing and agriculture played a very small part in their affairs. Their business men were chiefly interested in the fur trade; their governors were interested mainly in extending the territory over which floated the banner of their king; and the teaching of Christianity to the hordes of Indians who inhabited the country seemed of the greatest importance to their priests and missionaries.

So, because it served the purpose of each, all three classes—the fur traders, the crown officers, and the missionaries—worked hand in hand in exploring and in penetrating the wilderness in every direction. They suffered[190] every hardship, endured every privation, and very often fell victims to the cruelty of the savages.

In those days of French rule, railroads were unheard of, and wagon roads were almost as scarce. Travel was sometimes through the woods, along the trails made by the Indians; but usually it was by the water courses, over which the Indian canoes carried furs to be traded for the goods of the French.

Now if you will look at a map which shows the Canadian border of the United States and follow the course of the Great Lakes, you will see that at four places their broad waters narrow into rivers or straits. These places are first, the Niagara River; second, where the waters of Lake Huron pass into Lake Erie; third, at the Sault Ste. Marie; and fourth, at the Straits of Mackinac.

Between the East and the West, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River formed the main artery of travel. To control the narrow rivers and straits that connect the[191] Great Lakes was to control the travel over them, and as the French extended their rule from Quebec to the West, they fortified these narrow places one by one.

Fort Niagara was built at the mouth of the Niagara River. Then on July 24, 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac landed on the banks of the Detroit River and began the work of building a palisade fort, almost where the river widens into Lake Saint Clair.

Cadillac thought that at Fort Detroit he had found one of the garden spots of the country. In the pine forests of the Michigan peninsula game of every sort abounded, and their skins enriched alike the Indians and the French. The waters of Lake Saint Clair swarmed with wild fowl. In the woods wild grapes grew in profusion, and the rich lands bordering both sides of the river assured plentiful crops, depending only upon the industry of those who tilled the soil. However, in spite of his enthusiasm over the beauty of the site, Cadillac proceeded to lay out a very ugly little town with rude dwellings huddled along narrow muddy streets.

Such as it was, Detroit remained under French rule for fifty-nine years, becoming one of the most prosperous of the French outposts. The Indians were, for the most part, friendly with the French, and in 1760 the place had a population of 2500, which made it of great importance in the sparsely settled West.

Then came the years of the French and Indian wars, and finally the French, having lost Quebec, were obliged to surrender to the English. So in November, 1760, Detroit was given up to Major Robert Rogers in command of a detachment of British regulars and American militia.

The English were not allowed to remain long in undisturbed possession of their new outpost. Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas and one of the craftiest of all Indian warriors, was friendly to the French. In 1763, through his immense influence with all the Western tribes, he organized a conspiracy to drive the English from the territory which they had won with such difficulty. Detroit was one of the first places to be attacked. The siege lasted several months, but in spite of the cruelty and cunning of the attack, the garrison held out until at last relief came. Thus by their bravery they did much to prevent the success of Pontiac's Conspiracy, as the uprising is called.

Then came the Revolution. At its close, the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783. By the terms of this treaty, Detroit, together with the other British outposts in the West, became the property of the United States. However, it was not until 1796 that the place was actually occupied by American troops.

Sixteen years later Detroit again passed into the possession of the British. This was during the war of 1812 and followed the defeat of General William Hull's ill-fated expedition into Canada. Falling back to Detroit, Hull was attacked, and surrendered to the British after a half-hearted resistance.

A little more than a year later, however, in October, 1813, Oliver Hazard Perry won the famous battle of Lake Erie. This gave the Americans control of the lake, and the British soon abandoned Detroit, which has since remained in the possession of the United States.

Detroit had prospered but little since 1760. Its inhabitants were for the most part easy-going Frenchmen. They[193] were not suited to the strenuous work of city building. Detroit, instead of growing larger, was becoming smaller; and when, in 1820, the United States took a census of the place, it had but 1442 inhabitants as against the 2500 that Major Rogers found in 1760.

But from 1820 the growth of Detroit has been continuous. In 1825 the Erie Canal was opened, furnishing an easy means of communication from the East to the West. Then came a great tide of immigration to all the states bordering on the Great Lakes. Michigan was one of the first to profit, and Detroit was the gateway to Michigan.

Most of the pioneers who sought homes in the West were farmers. The life of cities and villages offered few attractions to them. The number that stayed in Detroit[194] was small as compared to the number that passed through into the back country to clear the woodlands and take up the work of agriculture.

But as the back country filled up, there came a demand for the things in which cities deal, while at the same time there came the need of places where the products of the farm could be gathered together ready for transportation to the Eastern market.

In this way Detroit began its great growth. It bought the wool and wheat which the Michigan farmers raised, and shipped them East. It bought from the East the dry goods, hardware, and various other things which the Michigan farmers needed, and distributed them. It grew[195] prosperous as the country back of it became more populated, and as this population became richer and able to buy larger amounts and more expensive goods, Detroit reaped the advantage.

Then too the traffic on the lakes became more important, requiring larger and better vessels. Detroit has one of the best harbors on all the Great Lakes, making it splendidly suited for the building and launching of vessels. Always engaged more or less in shipbuilding, Detroit improved its shipyards and kept pace with the demand. To-day it builds all types of vessels, from magnificent passenger steamers to the great steel ore ships which carry the iron ore of the Lake Superior districts.

It was in 1860 that Detroit began to take its place among the industrial cities of the country. Now it is fifth among the cities of the United States in the value of its manufactured products. Let us see what its chief industries are.

First of all comes the manufacture of automobiles and the parts of which they are made. It is estimated that more than half of all the automobiles made in the United States are built in Detroit factories. Until 1899 there was not a single automobile factory in the city. To-day there are over thirty, many of them covering acres of ground.

As few of the automobile factories make all the parts of their machines, there are in Detroit many shops for the manufacture of steel, aluminium, and brass castings, and of gears, wheels, and various other automobile parts.

Another of Detroit's important industries is the manufacture and repair of steam- and electric-railroad cars. These are largely freight cars, although many passenger cars are also made.

Other lines of business include foundry and machine-shop products, the making of druggists' preparations, the manufacture of flour, the packing of beef and pork, and the preparation of other food stuffs.

Then Detroit makes great quantities of soda ash and alkalies. This industry Detroit owes to the fact that here are found both limestone and salt, which is obtained from wells driven along the river bank. Both of these materials are required in the manufacture of soda ash.

The printing-and-publishing business gives employment to thousands; so does the manufacture of paints and varnishes. In stoves, ranges, and furnaces, Detroit leads[198] every other city in the country. It is interesting to know that Detroit makes great numbers of adding machines, that it is the largest producer of overalls in the country, that it is a center of the brass industry, that it turns out more than 300,000,000 cigars each year, and that it is one of the largest producers of wrought- and malleable-iron castings.

The entire business of a city is, of course, never wholly manufacturing. Part of its business is always the distribution of things to supply the needs of its inhabitants and of the people who live in the surrounding country.

When these goods are sold in large quantities to merchants who in turn sell them to the person using them, the business is known as a wholesale business. When they are sold by the merchant directly to the user, he does what is called a retail business.

The wholesale business of Detroit is very large. Its merchants do the larger part of the wholesale business through the entire state of Michigan and in parts of northern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. They even furnish certain supplies to some parts of Canada. Dry goods, drugs, hardware, and groceries are the principal things in which Detroit wholesalers deal.

Detroit has also many large retail stores, which supply not only the people who live in the city of Detroit but those in the surrounding country as well. Thanks to the many suburban electric railroads and the many steam roads, the people who live in the smaller places are able to come to Detroit to purchase things they want.

Now let us take our map again and notice the location of Detroit in relation to the rest of the country, for[199] location, as you know, has very much to do with the growth of cities.

We find in the first place that it is separated from Canada by only the width of a river. So we are not surprised to hear that Detroit is one of the principal points for the exchange of goods between the two countries. The two most important Canadian railroads have terminals at Windsor, on the Canadian side of the water, and also at Detroit. A very large part of the United States finds Detroit the most convenient point from which to send its products into Canada, since goods can so easily be brought to Detroit by water or rail.

Statistics issued by the United States government show that of the eighteen customhouses on the Canadian border the one at Detroit does the largest volume of business.

Then too, by the lakes, Detroit can reach all of the American lake ports, and from Buffalo, through the Erie Canal, it can even reach New York.

The many railroads which serve Detroit give it excellent communication with all parts of the United States. The Michigan Central Railroad dives under the river, from Detroit to Windsor, through one of the most remarkable tunnels in the world. For years the cars of the Michigan Central Railroad, both passenger and freight, were carried across the river on ferryboats. This, of course, was a very slow way of crossing, but a bridge was impractical for various reasons, so at last it was decided to build a tunnel.

When the engineers studied the river bottom, they found that it was covered with mud so deep that it was impossible to build a tunnel under it. Instead they built the tunnel of steel on the river bank, and when it was completed they sank it in sections and then fastened it together.

Two belt-line railroads, extending from the river bank, circle through Detroit. One is some two miles from the center, the other, six. Along these railroads are many factories which have switches directly into their plants. This makes shipping a simple matter for the Detroit manufacturers.

Now, having learned something of the history of Detroit, something of the manufacturing which it does and the commerce it carries on, let us take a look at the city itself.

The older parts of most great cities are badly laid out. In very few cases do men realize that their little settlements are to grow into large cities. And so they pay little[201]
[202] attention to laying out streets, but in building their houses follow the farm lanes and often the paths made by the cows as they are driven to and from the pastures.

This is not always the case however. Washington was laid out long before it ever became a city, and, in consequence, it has magnificent broad streets and many parks.

Detroit was one of the badly laid-out settlements, but in 1805 a fire burned every house in Detroit with one exception. Now at that time Judge Augustus B. Woodward was a prominent figure in the city government. When the fire wiped out the old town, the judge thought that a plan should be made for Detroit just as had been done for Washington. His idea was to have a great circle, called the Grand Circus, in the center of the town. Two streets, 120 feet wide, were to cross this circle, dividing it into quarters, and from the circle[203] other broad avenues were to radiate in all directions. As the city grew, other circles were to be built with streets radiating from them.

Unfortunately the citizens of Detroit did not have the belief in the growth of their city that Judge Woodward had, and so his scheme was only carried out in part. That part, however, gave to Detroit its Grand Circus, its broad avenues, and its down-town parks, and did much to earn for it the title of the City Beautiful.

Detroit to-day has many splendid and costly residences. It has also street after street filled with comfortable medium-priced houses where the workmen live, and its people are fond of boasting that it is a city of homes.

Woodward Avenue, which is 120 feet wide, is named after Judge Woodward. This avenue runs from the river bank right through the entire city. At its lower end it is the principal retail street of the city, while further out are many fine residences.

As the town grew, a boulevard was built, which, starting at the river, runs completely around the city at a distance of some two and a half miles from the center. This boulevard is known as the Grand Boulevard and is more than 12 miles long and from 150 to 200 feet in width. In the center is a narrow strip upon which are grown flowers, trees, and grass, while upon either side run macadam roads.

The most popular of Detroit's parks is Belle Isle. This is on an island of about 700 acres, directly opposite the city. Originally the island was for the most part a swamp infested with snakes. In order to get rid of the snakes a drove of hogs was turned loose on the island, and for a[204] long time it was known as Hog Island. Then the city bought it and turned it into a park. The swamps were drained, and lakes and canals were built, which in the summer time are covered with canoes and boats. In the winter they make excellent places for skating. Playgrounds, baseball fields, and picnic grounds were laid out and a zoo was built, as well as one of the best aquariums in the country. And here, too, is a horticultural building, where many rare plants and flowers are grown. A large part of the island was covered with woods, and this was left in its native state, with winding roads built through it. The island is connected with the mainland by a broad bridge.

The health conditions of Detroit are excellent. Its water supply is taken at a depth of 40 feet from the Detroit River, just where it leaves Lake Saint Clair. The city has an ample sewerage system. It has many fine public schools, and here also are the University of Detroit and the Detroit colleges of law and medicine. In short, from every point of view Detroit is a good place in which to live.

A short time ago prizes were offered to the public-school pupils in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades for the five best essays on “Why I am Glad I live in Detroit.” Here is what one sixth-grade boy wrote about his home city:

“What a beautiful city is Detroit,” says the world-wide traveler, as he passes along its broad avenues, in the shade of its magnificent trees. “Detroit has a fine commercial center,” says the enterprising manufacturer as he surveys its busy wharves. “What an excellent situation this city has,” says the farmer, as he comes trudging to town with his load of produce. “In Detroit life is worth living,” says the happy pleasure seeker, as he whiles away his time, either on the lake or in its many parks and boulevards. “You can have loads of fun at Belle Isle,” whispers the small boy, as he thinks of the many pastimes which so appeal to every child. “What an interesting history has Detroit,” says the historian, as he recalls its many struggles, first with the Indians, then with the French, and last of all the English.

Many strangers will come to our city during the next few months, and I know that after they have seen it and go to their homes again, they will tell their neighbors and friends of our beautiful city, and I, who live here, will be very proud of it.

DETROIT

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), more than 450,000 (465,766).

Ninth city in rank, according to population.

Important shipping and manufacturing center.

Important center for trade with Canada.

Most important center in United States for the automobile industry.

Place of great historical interest.

1. How does Detroit rank among our great cities in population, manufactured products, and exports?

2. What were the ambitions of the French governors, traders, and missionaries of Canada in the early days?

3. Why did the French build forts on the narrow rivers and straits that connect the Great Lakes?

6. How did the development of the farm lands about the city help the growth of Detroit?

10. Show how the location of Detroit influences its commerce and contributes to its growth.

11. Name three products in the manufacture of which Detroit leads all other cities in the country.

12. What conditions have made Detroit a great center for commercial relations with Canada?

BUFFALO

About 1783 Cornelius Winne, a trader, built a little log store at the mouth of Buffalo River, which empties into Lake Erie. That was the beginning of Buffalo, the queen city of the lakes, the home to-day of more than four hundred thousand people.

To understand the wonderful growth of this city we must go back to the days of the Revolution and see New York in those early times. Almost all the people of the United States then lived on the narrow strip of land lying between the Atlantic Ocean and the Appalachian Highlands. The high forest-covered mountains made a barrier that kept the colonial settlers from attempting to push out toward the west.

But in New York State nature had left an opening between the mountain ranges, along the courses of the Hudson and the Mohawk rivers. Settlers had early followed these streams and built homes in their valleys. Beyond lay the trackless hunting grounds of the Indians—the great West.

With the close of the Revolution things began to change. New York made a treaty with the Indians,[208] whereby they agreed to sell large tracts of their lands. Pioneers pushed their way into the unknown wilderness of the western part of the state and found a beautiful fertile country. Their reports led hundreds to follow them. Soon central and northern New York were dotted with settlements. More and more immigrants kept coming, all seeking the land beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The great western movement of the nineteenth century had begun.

Winne had built his trading post before this westward movement reached Lake Erie. For some time he lived in his log cabin in the midst of the forest, with no neighbors except the Indians with whom he traded. But gradually[209] other settlers came and built homes near him. By 1804 there were about twenty houses in the little settlement, which, for a short time, was called New Amsterdam.

By 1812 the name had been changed to Buffalo, and the town had a population of 1500. That year war with England broke out, and in 1813 a body of British soldiers with their Indian allies crossed the Niagara River during the night, took the Americans by surprise, and burned Buffalo. Of its three hundred houses, just one escaped the flames. But nothing daunted, the men began to rebuild their homes, and in a few years no traces of the fire were to be seen.

In early times the Indians going from the seacoast to the Great Lakes had followed the Hudson and Mohawk rivers and then gone on directly west to Lake Erie. With the coming of the white man the Indian pathway grew into a road, and in 1811 stagecoaches began to run over this road between Buffalo and Albany.

But carrying passengers and freight by stagecoach was very expensive, and a few men, headed by Governor De Witt Clinton, began to say that the state ought to[210] build a canal connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson River. Many laughed at this idea. They knew very little about canals and thought it foolish to waste millions of dollars on a useless “big ditch,” as they called it.

However, those in favor of the scheme finally won, and the work of building the Erie Canal was begun in 1817. It very nearly followed the old trail between Albany and Buffalo and was 363 miles long. Eighty-three locks raised and lowered the boats where there was a difference of level in the canal. Lockport, a city 25 miles northeast of Buffalo, was named after these locks, there being 10 of them there.

In 1825 the work was completed; the Erie Canal was opened, and at last there was a waterway between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic. All the towns along the canal held a great celebration. None had better reason for rejoicing than Buffalo. In 1825 Buffalo was a little hamlet on the frontier. Thanks to the Erie Canal, it was soon to become one of the leading cities of the country.

It was not long before the “big ditch” was known as the “path to the great West.” A rush of emigration further west followed, and all these travelers stopped at[211] Buffalo, for here they had to change from the flat-bottomed canal boats to the lake vessels. Hotels were crowded, business flourished, and Buffalo became “a great doorway of the inland sea.”

During the first years after its completion little freight was carried over the Erie Canal, but settlers kept flocking into the West, and before many years these Western pioneers were raising far more grain than they could use. Lake commerce began. Hundreds of ships brought wheat, lumber, and furs to Buffalo from the West and returned laden with manufactured goods. Buffalo was the chief lake port, and for many years shipping was its leading industry.

Then came the railroads. The first railroad to Buffalo was completed in 1836. A few years later, trains ran[212] between Albany and Buffalo, and in time carloads of grain were shipped by rail. Though shipments by canal continued and even increased for a time, the railroads gradually did more and more of the carrying, and finally robbed the canal of much of its former importance.

Still, shipping by canal was cheaper. Improvements have been made in the Erie Canal from time to time, and in 1903 the state voted $101,000,000 for the enlargement of the Erie, Oswego, and Champlain canals into the 1000-ton-barge canal. When this is completed it will be 12 feet deep and will float much larger barges than did the Erie Canal.

But to return to Buffalo. The city's location naturally made it one of the great centers of the country. Only the Niagara River separates the city from the most thickly settled part of Canada, and it is therefore a most convenient meeting place of the two countries. Already Buffalo's trade with Canada amounts to over $50,000,000 a year.

Besides being one of the chief commercial centers of the country, Buffalo is an important manufacturing town. Three things are necessary to success in manufacturing—raw materials, power, and a market where the finished goods can be sold. Buffalo has all of these near at hand. The country round about is singularly rich in natural resources. Forests, fertile farm lands, and rich iron and coal deposits are all within easy reach of the city and supply it with raw material at small cost for transportation.

No city in the world has greater advantages than Buffalo in the matter of power. The Niagara Falls furnish an unlimited supply of electric power, which is a substitute for coal and, for many purposes, more convenient. Buffalo's nearness to the coal fields of Pennsylvania makes the cost of both hard and soft coal low. Natural gas and oil furnish about one fifth of the power now used in the city. Both are found near Buffalo, stored in the pores and cavities of rocks. Holes are bored into the rocks, and the petroleum or rock oil is pumped into huge tanks. The gas is carried by underground pipes to the city, where it is used in heating and lighting thousands of homes and factories.

Lastly, Buffalo does not have to ship its products far to find a market. Within 450 miles of the city live almost 50,000,000 people, and lakes, canals, and railroads offer cheap and rapid transportation to all parts of the country. Thirteen steamship lines and 18 railroads enter the city. There are 2 trunk lines from New England; 5 from New York; 1 from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington; 1 from St. Louis; and 4 from Chicago.

The richest iron mines in the world are located south of Lake Superior, but there are no coal deposits in this region, and coal is necessary for the manufacturing of iron and steel. As it was cheaper to ship the ore to the coal than to carry the coal to the ore, there were men who, as early as 1860, saw that iron and steel could be manufactured with profit in Buffalo. Though blast furnaces were built from time to time, the industry did not attract great attention until 1899. In that[215] year the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, moved to Buffalo and built an immense metal-working plant. This plant is south of the city and extends several miles along the shore of Lake Erie. The company has built a ship canal over half a mile long, which the largest lake vessels can enter. On one side of this canal are hundreds of coke ovens and the storage grounds for coal; on the other side are the ore docks, a row of huge blast furnaces, and the steel works with their numerous mills, foundries, and workshops.

In the coke ovens millions of tons of soft coal are every year turned into coke, which is really coal with certain things removed by heating. This coke is used in melting the iron in the blast furnaces—so called because during the melting strong blasts of air are forced into the furnaces. These furnaces are almost a hundred feet high, are made of iron, and lined with fire brick. Tons of coke, limestone, and iron ore are dropped in from above by machinery, and the intense heat of the burning coke melts the iron, which sinks to the bottom of the furnace while the limestone collects the impurities and forms an upper layer. At the bottom of the furnace there are openings where the fiery-hot liquid runs off into molds, or forms, in which it cools and hardens. The waste matter, called slag, is also drawn off at the bottom. More coke and ore are added from above, and the smelting goes on night and day without interruption until the furnace needs repair. After the iron has been separated from the ore, it is taken to the foundries where it is made into steel rails and many other kinds of iron and steel goods.

Other iron and steel companies have sprung up in Buffalo, and the city and its vicinity is now manufacturing enormous quantities of pig iron, steel rails, engines, car wheels, tools, and machinery.

Back in the first half of the nineteenth century New York was the leading wheat-raising and flour-producing state. The first flour mill in the Buffalo district was run by water power furnished by the Erie Canal. As larger mills followed and steam took the place of water power, Buffalo became an important flour-milling center. Later, wheat began to be raised further west, and the Central States soon took the lead in wheat growing and flour milling. But Buffalo had the advantage of an early start. Its mills were already built and working. Grain from the West kept pouring into the city to be stored in its great grain elevators, and the production of flour increased. Larger mills were built, some of them making use of the Niagara water power. To-day there are more[217] than a dozen companies in Buffalo operating flour mills which turn out over 3,000,000 barrels of flour in a year.

Buffalo's slaughter-house products for a single year are worth millions of dollars. There are two large meat-packing firms in the city, slaughtering over a million cattle and hogs each year. They both had small beginnings in the butcher business more than fifty years ago. In 1852 the first stockyards were opened, and the city's live-stock industry began. Shipments of live stock from the grazing states of the West increased until the city became the second cattle market in the world, Chicago alone handling more live stock than Buffalo.

When first settled, the lake region was covered with forests, and lumber was one of the first products sent eastward by lake steamers. Millions and millions of feet of pine were towed down the lakes on barges and transferred to canal boats at Buffalo, and the city became one of the great lumber markets of the country. Although shipments from the Northern forests have not been so[218]
[219] great in the last twenty years, the lumber industry continues to be of great importance to Buffalo. In addition to pine from the lake region, the city receives hard wood from the South. You see enormous piles of lumber in the yards of the city itself, and Tonawanda, a suburb ten miles north of Buffalo, has the largest lumber yards in the world. These yards carry on a large wholesale and retail trade, and sawmills, planing mills, and many lumber industries have grown up around them. Mill work, doors, mantels, piano cases, and furniture are some of the things made in the Buffalo workshops.

While commerce and industry were thus developing, the city itself was growing in size, population, and beauty. It extends about ten miles along the shore of Lake Erie and the Niagara River. In the residence section there are thousands of beautiful homes, set well back from broad streets and surrounded by wide lawns and gardens. Delaware Avenue, with its branching boulevards and parkways, is the finest of these residence sections.

Several large parks and many smaller squares are scattered throughout the city, while swimming pools, wading ponds, and public playgrounds delight the hearts of the children. Lake breezes make the city cool in summer, and altogether Buffalo is one of the cleanest, most healthful, and most beautiful cities of the country.

Through the southern part of the city flows the sluggish and winding Buffalo River. In the early days the mouth of this stream was the only harbor of the port, although it was then very shallow. Millions of dollars have been spent in deepening and improving this inner harbor, while a larger outer harbor has been made by inclosing a part of the lake by breakwaters. The harbor of Buffalo is now one of the best on the Great Lakes.

About two miles north of the mouth of Buffalo River is The Front, a park overlooking the water and giving a beautiful view of Lake Erie, the Niagara River, and[222] the Canadian shore. It is a government reservation, and here is Fort Porter. Further north the International Railroad Bridge connects Canada with the city of Buffalo.

Delaware Park, in the northern part of the city, is the largest and most beautiful of Buffalo's parks. Near the northeastern entrance is the zoölogical garden, with a seal pool, bear pits, and many strange and interesting animals. In the western part is the Albright Art Gallery, a beautiful building of white marble. Here, too, is the Buffalo[223]
[224] Historical-Society Building, which was the New York State Building during the Pan-American Exposition which was held in Delaware Park and on the adjoining land in 1901.

In the center of Niagara Square stands the McKinley Monument, erected by the state of New York in honor of President William McKinley, who was shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, on September 6, 1901. It was in this city that President Roosevelt took the oath of office after President McKinley's death. It is also worthy of note that Buffalo was the home of two of our presidents—Fillmore and Cleveland.

The business district of Buffalo is only a short distance from the harbor. The most important business streets are Main Street and Broadway.

Twenty miles north of Buffalo the Niagara River plunges over a precipice more than one hundred and fifty feet high, forming the world-famous Niagara Falls. The width of the river, the beauty of the mighty waters as they rush thundering over the edge of the precipice, the foam and spray rising from the foot of the cataract, all combine to make Niagara Falls the greatest natural wonder on the American continent. In the middle of the stream lies Goat Island, which divides the Falls into the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side and the American Falls on the New York side.

Hardly less interesting than the Falls are the power plants on both sides of the river, which are making the force of Niagara do a mighty work. It has been reckoned that the volume of water which passes over the Falls is two hundred and sixty-five thousand cubic feet each[225] second. Think of it! This tremendous rush of water, the experts tell us, represents five million horse power. To make this gigantic power of use to man, canals have been built above the Falls to bring water from the river to the power houses where its great force turns huge water wheels and produces electric power. Cables of copper wire raised high in the air carry this power to all the surrounding country. It runs many of Buffalo's factories, lights the city streets, and moves its trolley cars as well as those in Syracuse, one hundred and fifty miles away.

Such then, with its wonderful power, its command of material, its beautiful and important location, is the Buffalo of to-day. The little settlement of one hundred years ago has become the eleventh city in size in the United States.

BUFFALO

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1920), over 500,000 (506,775).

Eleventh city according to population.

Important lake port.

One of the best harbors on the Great Lakes.

Located at the western end of the Erie Canal.

Great transfer point between lake boats and canal boats and railroads.

Important railroad center.

Center for live-stock trade.

Important center for wheat, lumber, meat packing, and the iron and steel industries.

Electric light and power obtained from Niagara Falls.

1. How did it happen that the people of New York first came to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains, and where were these first settlements?

3. What was the first route from Albany to Buffalo, and why was it used? How was the journey made between 1811 and 1825?

4. Tell the story of the Erie Canal, and give its effect on Buffalo and the West.

11. Give some idea of Buffalo's flour mills, slaughter houses, and lumber yards, and of her importance in these industries.

12. What do you know of Niagara Falls and the power plants on both sides of the Niagara River?

SAN FRANCISCO

The United States extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and just as New York is our leading seaport on the Atlantic, so San Francisco is the leading seaport on the Pacific.

San Francisco's history is inseparably connected with the development of the resources of California. In 1769 Spain sent an expedition overland from Mexico to colonize the Pacific coast, and Don Gaspar de Portolá, at the head of these colonists, was the first white man known to have looked upon San Francisco Bay.

Seven years later, in 1776, the Franciscan friars built a fortified settlement on the present site of San Francisco. The Mission Dolores, which is still standing, was begun the same year, and a little village slowly grew up around it.

At the close of the Mexican War, in 1848, California was ceded to the United States, and the Stars and Stripes were raised over the little settlement, whose name was soon changed from Yerba Buena to San Francisco.

In 1848, too, came the discovery of gold in California, and San Francisco suddenly grew from a Spanish village[228] to a busy American town. The population jumped from 800 to 10,000 in a single year. A city of tents and shanties quickly arose on the sand dunes. Thousands of people were leaving their homes in the East to seek a fortune in the gold fields. Many came by water, either rounding Cape Horn or else traveling by boat to the Isthmus of Panama, crossing on foot, and reëmbarking on the Pacific coast. Others came overland in large canvas-covered wagons called prairie schooners.

These newcomers were men of all classes—ministers, lawyers, farmers, laborers. Some were educated, others were ignorant. While most of them were industrious and law-abiding, a considerable number were desperate and lawless men. These last caused much trouble. Gambling, murders, and crimes of all kinds were alarmingly common, and the city government was powerless to punish the lawbreakers. Finally, the better class of citizens formed a vigilance committee, which hung four criminals and punished many in other ways until law and order were established.

San Francisco has been called the “child of the mines.” It was the discovery of gold that first made it the leading city of the Pacific coast. From that day the production of gold has been steadily maintained. Nearly $20,000,000 worth is mined in the state of California each year, with a total production of over $1,500,000,000. Later the silver mines in Nevada were discovered and developed, and their immense output brought increased wealth to San Francisco.

As time went on, however, people began to see that California's real wealth lay not so much in her mines as in her fertile farm lands. These, combined with the[229] wonderful climate, have made California a leading agricultural state.

The great central valley of California, about 400 miles long and 50 miles wide, lies between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Coast Ranges. Its farms, orchards, orange groves, and vineyards produce immense quantities of grain, and of grapes, and other fruits. Large numbers of cattle and sheep are raised. In the southern counties many tropical fruits are grown successfully. Irrigated groves of orange, lemon, and olive trees cover thousands of acres. Other important crops are English walnuts, almonds, prunes, and figs. Copper, silver, oil, quicksilver, and salt are also valuable products, while the forest-covered[230] mountains supply excellent lumber. Such is the wealth of California's natural resources, and San Francisco is the great port and market of this rich back country.

As the Sacramento River flows into San Francisco Bay from the north and the San Joaquin from the south, the two offer cheap transportation up and down their valleys, being navigable to river steamers for over 200 miles.

The great bay of San Francisco is the largest landlocked harbor in the world. Here the navies of all the nations could ride at anchor side by side in safety. Though 65 miles long and from 4 to 10 miles wide, the bay is completely sheltered from dangerous winds and storms. It is connected with the Pacific Ocean by a[231] strait called the Golden Gate, which is 2¾ miles long and over a mile wide.

Such advantages have made San Francisco a great commercial and financial center. Ships from San Francisco carry the products of California westward to all the countries bordering on the Pacific, while others sail to the Atlantic seaports of America and Europe.

The outgoing steamers are loaded with wheat, cotton, canned goods, oil, barley, prunes, flour, dried fruits, leather, machinery, lumber, and iron manufactures. Incoming steamers bring raw silk, coffee, tea, copra, nitrate of soda, tin ingots, sugar, rice, cigars, coal, burlap, vanilla beans, cheese, and manila hemp.

Already the foreign commerce of San Francisco amounts to more than $150,000,000 annually, and with the increasing trade of Japan and China and the shortened route to the Atlantic through the Panama Canal, the future of its foreign trade cannot be estimated.

In addition to her foreign trade, San Francisco has many growing industries at home. Printing and publishing, slaughtering and meat packing, are among the most important. The canning and preserving of fruits and vegetables is a leading industry of the city. The California Fruit Canners Association employs many thousands of people during the fruit season and is the largest fruit-and-vegetable canning company in the world. It operates thirty branches throughout the state, and its products are sent to all parts of the globe.

Though iron has to be imported,—there being little mined in California,—the city does a thriving iron business. In the early days there was need of mining machinery in the West, and San Francisco at that time began manufacturing it. She also has one of the greatest shipbuilding plants in the United States. The famous battleship Oregon, the Olympic, the Wisconsin, the Ohio,[234]
[235] and other ships of the United States Navy were built in San Francisco.

In 1906 a severe earthquake shook San Francisco, wrecking many buildings. Fire broke out in twenty places, and as the earthquake had broken the city's water mains, the fire fighters had to pump salt water from the bay and use dynamite to stop the progress of the flames. During the three days of the fire, four square miles were laid in ruins.

Because of occasional slight shocks in former years, the inhabitants had built their city of wood, thinking it safer than brick or stone. They had not thought of the greater danger of fire. This earthquake taught them a lesson.[236] The few skyscrapers in the city had stood the shock remarkably well, and profiting by this experience thousands of modern structures—steel, brick, and reënforced concrete—were built to replace the old wooden buildings. A far more modern and beautiful city has arisen from the ashes of the ruins.

The city occupies 46½ square miles at the end of the southern peninsula which lies between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The site of the city is hilly, especially in the northern and western parts. Market Street, 120 feet wide and the chief business thoroughfare, extends southwest from the water front and divides the city into two parts. The southern district contains many manufacturing plants and the homes of the laboring people. The streets here are level. North of Market Street lie three high hills—Telegraph Hill, Nob Hill, and Russian Hill. In this half of the city are the finest residences, Nob Hill having been given its name in the early days when the mining millionaires built their homes upon it.

The main business section is in the northeastern part of the city, facing the harbor, and is on level ground. It contains hundreds of new office buildings, many of them from eight to twenty or more stories high. Fine modern hotels and beautiful banks add much to the beauty of this part of San Francisco. The most important public buildings are the United States mint and the post office, which escaped the flames in 1906, the customhouse, the Hall of Justice, the new Auditorium, and the city hall. These last two face the Civic Center, which is being created at a cost of nearly $17,000,000.

At the foot of Telegraph Hill is the largest Chinese quarter in the United States. It was completely destroyed during the fire, but is now rebuilt and much improved. Its temples, joss houses, and theaters, its markets, bazaars, and restaurants, with their strange life and customs and their oriental architecture, attract crowds of visitors. There are now about 10,000 Chinese[238] in San Francisco, but their number has been steadily decreasing since the Exclusion Act was passed, prohibiting Chinese laborers from entering this country. It was thought necessary to have this law in order to protect the American workingman on the Pacific coast, as the Chinese laborers who had already been admitted were working for wages upon which no white man could live.

At the foot of Market Street, on the water front, stands the Union Ferry Building, a large stone structure with a high clock tower.

Only one of the cross-continent railroads—a branch of the Southern Pacific—lands its passengers in the city of San Francisco. All the other roads, which include the[239] main line of the Southern Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, the Union Pacific, and the Western Pacific, terminate on the eastern shore of the bay and send the travelers to San Francisco by ferry. In consequence, San Francisco has developed the best ferry service in the world, all lines meeting at the Union Ferry Building.

North and south of the Union Ferry Building stretch eight miles of wharves and docks and many factories, lumber yards, and warehouses. At the docks, ships are being loaded and unloaded continually.

In March and April each year a fleet of forty or fifty vessels starts out for the Alaskan fisheries. San Francisco is the leading salmon port of the United States, distributing[240] millions of dollars' worth of salmon yearly. Fisherman's Wharf, at the northern end of the water front, is full of interest, with its brown, weather-beaten fishermen and their odd fishing boats. To the south of the Union Ferry Building is “Man-of-war Row,” where United States and foreign battleships ride at anchor.

The cities of Alameda, Oakland, Richmond, and Berkeley are directly across the bay from San Francisco, on the east shore. Like New York, San Francisco is the center of a large metropolitan district, and the residents of these neighboring cities daily travel to their work in San Francisco on the ferries. For several years there has been talk of uniting these cities with San Francisco. If this plan were[241] carried out, it would add over 350,000 to San Francisco's present population, which is between 400,000 and 500,000.

The University of California, in Berkeley, has nearly 7000 students, tuition being free to residents of California. The Leland Stanford University, 30 miles from San Francisco, is another noted institution in the state.

To the north of the Golden Gate is Mt. Tamalpais, 2592 feet high, overlooking the bay and San Francisco. To the south is the Presidio, the United States military reservation, covering 1542 acres. Here are the harbor fortifications and the headquarters of the western division of the United States Army. Fronting on the ocean beach[242] and extending eastward for 4 miles is Golden Gate Park, the largest of San Francisco's many parks and squares.

Occupying part of the Presidio and facing the water at the northern end of the city is the site of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, held in 1915 to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal. That the citizens of San Francisco look to the future was shown at a gathering of business men in 1910, when more than $4,000,000 was raised in two hours for this Panama exposition. The climate of the city (averaging more than 50 degrees in winter and less than 60 degrees in summer), the beauties[243] and wonders of California, the romantic history of the city, exhibits from many parts of the world—all these, the citizens knew, would attract thousands of visitors from afar and make known to the world the advantages and prosperity of the Far West and its chief city, San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), over 400,000 (416,912).

Eleventh city according to population.

Largest city of the Western States.

One of the finest harbors in the world.

The natural shipping point for the products of the rich state of California.

Chief center for the trade of the United States with the Orient.

Leads all American cities in the shipment of wheat.

Has great canning and preserving industries.

1. Find by measurements on a map of the United States the distance of San Francisco from New York City in a direct line.

2. Find by consulting time tables or by inquiry of some railroad official how long it would take to make the journey from New York to San Francisco, and what railroad system might be used. Answer this question, applying it to your own city.

5. Of what was the great wealth of California supposed to consist at first? What is the great wealth of the state considered to be to-day?

10. What benefit will San Francisco derive from the completion of the Panama Canal?

12. Name four cities across the bay from San Francisco, and tell how they are related to that city.

17. Find out how many days' journey by steamship are the following places from San Francisco:

NEW ORLEANS

The story of New Orleans, the Crescent City, reads like a wonderful romance or a tale from the Arabian Nights. As in a moving picture, one can see men making a clearing along the east bank of the Mississippi River, one hundred and ten miles from its mouth. It is 1718. The French Canadian Bienville has been made governor of the great tract of land called Louisiana, and he has decided to found a settlement near the river's mouth.

At the end of three years the little French town, named for the duke of Orleans, stands peacefully on the banks of the great Mississippi, its people buying, selling, fighting duels, and steadily thriving until the close of the French and Indian War. Then France cedes Louisiana to Spain, and for some years New Orleans is under Spanish rule. In 1800, however, Spain cedes Louisiana back to France, and once more New Orleans has a French commissioner and is a French possession.

Again the scene changes. Energetic, sturdy men sail down the river, land in the quaint little town, and march to the Cabildo, or Government Hall, where they receive the keys of the town. Because of the Louisiana Purchase,[246] New Orleans with all its inhabitants—Spanish, French, Italians, and Jews—is being given over to the United States. The French flag is taken down, and the Stars and Stripes are unfurled over what was, and is to-day, the least American of all American cities.

As the history of New Orleans unrolls, one follows the thrilling scenes of a great battle. It is in the War of 1812, and on the last day of December, 1814, the British begin an attack on the city, with an army of 10,000 trained soldiers. They mean to capture New Orleans and gain control of Louisiana and the mouth of the Mississippi.

Andrew Jackson commands the American forces, made up of regulars, militia, pirates, negroes, and volunteers, numbering only about half the attacking British army. Day after day goes by with no great victory gained on either side, until Sunday, January 8, dawns. With the daylight, the British commence a furious assault. But Jackson and his men are ready for them. Rushing back and forth along his line of defense, the commander cries out, “Stand by your guns!” “See that every shot tells!” “Let's finish the business to-day!” Many of Jackson's[247] men are sharpshooters. Time and again they aim and fire, and time and again the enemy advance, fall back, rally, and try to advance once more. But in three short hours the British leader and more than 2500 men have dropped, hundreds shot between the eyes. It is no use! In confusion the British turn and flee. Jackson has saved the city.

In the Civil War the turn of affairs is different. Louisiana was one of the seven states to secede from the Union in 1860 and form themselves into the Confederate States of America. Of course this made New Orleans a Confederate city. Naturally, the north wanted to capture New Orleans in order to control the mouth of the[248] Mississippi River. This time the attacking force is a Union fleet, and the defenders of the city are stanch Confederates who have done all in their power to prevent the approach of the Northerners. Across the river, near its mouth, two great cables have been stretched, and between the cables and the city are a Confederate fleet and two forts, one on each side of the river.

The Union fleet under David Farragut appears, opens fire on the forts, and keeps up the attack for six days and nights. Still the forts hold out. Then Farragut decides that since he cannot take the forts he will run his ships past them. But there are the cables blocking his way. The steamer Itasca undertakes to break them and rushes upon them under a raking fire from both forts. The cables snap. That night the Union ships, in single file, start up the river. At last the forts are passed and the Confederate ships overcome, but not the spirit of the people of New Orleans. They fight to the finish as best they can. Cotton bales are piled on rafts, set afire, and floated downstream among the Union ships. Still the ships come on. At least the Northerners shall not take the valuable stores of cotton, sugar, and molasses! So the cotton ships are fired, and hogsheads of molasses and barrels of sugar are hurriedly destroyed. When the Union forces land and takes possession, the people of New Orleans, though heartbroken, know that they have done their best.

Then comes peace. The war is over, and New Orleans is once more a city of the United States.

To-day New Orleans presents the unusual combination of an old city, full of historic interest, and a splendid new city, a place of industry, progress, and opportunity.

The successful building of a great city on the site of New Orleans is a triumph of engineering skill. As the city lies below the high-water mark of the Mississippi, it was necessary to build great banks of earth to hold back the water in the flood season. These levees, as they are called, form the water front of the city.

In the early days the only drinking-water in New Orleans was rain water caught from the roofs and stored in cisterns. Imagine a city without a single cellar. Then not even a grave could be dug in the marshy soil. The cemeteries were all aboveground. In some cemeteries there were tiers of little vaults, one above the other, in which the dead were laid. In others, magnificent tombs provided resting places for the wealthy. Such was old New Orleans. To-day modern sewers and huge steam pumps draw off the sewage and excess water, discharging them into the river, while a splendid water system filters water taken from higher up the river, giving a supply as pure as that enjoyed by any city in our land. The marshes have been drained by the construction of canals, which are used as highways for bringing raw materials from the surrounding country to the factories of New Orleans. Many of these canals extend for miles into the interior of the state of Louisiana.

The city proper covers nearly two hundred square miles and is laid out in beautiful streets, parks, and driveways, crossed in many places by picturesque waterways. Here are splendid trees, belonging both to the temperate zone and to the tropics. Palms and cypresses abound. In the City Park is one of the finest groves of live oaks in the world. Audubon Park, named for the great lover of birds,[250]
[251] who was born near this city, is another of the beautiful parks of New Orleans.

Canal Street divides New Orleans into two sections, with the Old Town, or French Quarter, on one side and the New Town, or American Quarter, on the other. This is the main thoroughfare of the city. It is a wide street, well-kept and busy. Here are many of the great retail stores, and to this street comes every car line. From Canal Street one may take a car to any section of the city, and a car taken in any part of New Orleans will sooner or later bring one to Canal Street. On this street are handsome stores, club buildings, hotels, railroad stations, and the United States customhouse. The upper end of the street is a beautiful residence section, whose[252] houses are surrounded by spacious lawns and fine trees. Almost all of these houses have wide galleries, or verandas, upon which their owners may sit and enjoy, all the year round, the balmy air of the southern climate. Very seldom does the temperature drop below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Usually it is between 50 and 60 degrees, and even in summer it varies only between 75 and 90 degrees. New Orleans is really cooler in summer than some of our northern cities, being so surrounded by river and lakes.

The old New Orleans lies northeast of Canal Street. Here the early settlers established their homes, and in this French Quarter the French language is still in common use, and many old French customs are observed.[253] The streets, many of which bear French names, are narrow and roughly paved and are closely built up with old-fashioned brick buildings ornamented with iron verandas. Open gateways in the front of many a gloomy-looking house give us a glimpse of attractive interior courts, gay with flowers and splashing fountains. Many other courts, alas, are deserted or neglected, for this is no longer the fashionable section of New Orleans. Most of the city's creole population lives in the French Quarter. These people are the descendants of the early French and Spanish inhabitants.

In the French Quarter is Jackson Square, which was the center of governmental life in the early years of the city.[254] Here are the Cabildo—the old Spanish court building—and the Cathedral of St. Louis, an old and beautiful church. On Chartres Street is the Archiepiscopal Palace, said to be the oldest public building in the Mississippi Valley.

The French Market is one of the world's famous market places. In the long low buildings occupying four city blocks may be found fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, and game in wonderful variety. To the Oyster Lugger Landing come the oyster boats, bringing from the bays of the Gulf coast some of the finest oysters in America. Other points of interest in the French Quarter are the Royal Hotel, formerly known as the St. Louis Hotel; the United States mint; the Soldiers' Home, whose gardens are noted for their beauty; Bayou St. John, a picturesque waterway; and Jackson Barracks.

Two other places must not be slighted. In the Ursuline convent stands a statue before which, on January 8, 1815, the nuns prayed for the success of the Americans in the battle of New Orleans. Then there is St. Roch's Shrine, a chapel built by Father Thevis. Each stone in it was placed by his own hands, in fulfillment of a vow that “if none of his parishioners should die of an epidemic, he would, stone by stone, build a chapel in thanksgiving to God.” This ancient shrine is visited by thousands of people every year.

To the southwest of Canal Street is the American Quarter. This was originally a tract of land, known as the Terre Commune, reserved by the French government for public use. But after a while the land was laid out in streets. Soon the merchants of this section began to trade with the North and West. The river boats landed in front of the Faubourg St. Marie, as this part of the city was then called, bringing tobacco, cotton, pork, beef, corn, flour, and fabrics. Commercial buildings sprang up, and as the[256] trade was distinctly American, the district came to be known as the American Quarter.

In the days when the French Quarter was all there was of New Orleans, the city was in the shape of a half moon or crescent. The newer part of the city follows the course of the river and makes the New Orleans of to-day more like a letter S.

St. Charles Avenue is the most beautiful residential street in the American Quarter. It is a wide avenue with driveways on either side of a grassy parkway. Rows of trees, many of them stately palms, border the avenue. Here are splendid homes, each with its flower beds and gardens of tropical plants.

Churches and charitable institutions abound in New Orleans. One of the latter, Touro Infirmary, covers an entire city block. This infirmary was endowed by Judah Touro, a Jew, and is supported by Jews, but receives sufferers of any creed. In its courtyard is a fountain erected by the Hebrew children of New Orleans.

Tulane University is the most renowned educational institution in the city, and is noted for its medical and engineering departments. On Washington Avenue is the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College for young women, which is the women's department of Tulane University.

The great hotels and many restaurants of the city are noted throughout the United States. The creole cooks have made famous such dishes as chicken gumbo, chicken à la creole, and pompano.

The country around New Orleans is one of the richest in the world. Within a few hours' ride of the city are great fields of cotton, sugar, and rice. Two hundred miles from the city are immense deposits of sulphur and salt. Oil fields are within easy reach, and coal is brought by water from the mines of Alabama and even from Pennsylvania. Great forests to the north furnish lumber which is transported by water to the city, making New Orleans one of the foremost ports in lumber exportation.

The immense sugar-cane fields of the South look very much like the cornfields of the more northern states. Negroes cut the cane close to the ground, as the lower part of the stalk has the most sugar. After the leaves and tops have been trimmed off, the stalks are shipped to the presses, cut into small pieces, and crushed between heavy rollers. The juice is strained, boiled, and worked over to[258] remove the impurities, and then, in a brownish mass called raw sugar, is sent to great refineries to be made by more boiling and other processes into the white sugar we use daily. This sugar industry is very important, as figures show that each American, both grown-ups and children, consumes an average of more than seventy pounds of sugar a year.

Away down South is the land of cotton as well as the land of sugar, and there is no more beautiful sight than a field white with the opening bolls of the cotton plant. Between the long white rows pass the picturesque negroes with their big baskets into which they put the soft fleecy cotton as they pick it from the bolls. The raw cotton is[259] then sent to the cotton gin, where the seeds are taken out to be made into cottonseed oil. The cotton itself is shipped to factories where it is made into thread and cotton cloth of all kinds. In addition to the immense quantities sent to the mills in various parts of the United States, New Orleans ships to Europe each year over $100,000,000 worth. When the cotton reaches the city it is in the form of bales covered with coarse cloth and bound with iron bands. The great steamers waiting at the dock must fill their holds to the best advantage in order that they may carry as large an amount as possible[260] on each voyage. The cotton as it comes from the plantation presses occupies too much space. It is interesting to stand near the steamship landings and see the workmen cast off the iron bands and place the bales between the powerful jaws of huge presses which seem, almost without effort, to close down upon the mass of fleecy whiteness and cause it to shrink from four feet to about one foot in thickness. While the cotton is still under pressure, iron bands are once more placed upon it, and the bale is then taken from the press. After this process four bales can be loaded on the steamer in the space which one plantation bale would have occupied.

The location of New Orleans near the mouth of the Mississippi and close enough to the Gulf of Mexico to be called a Gulf port makes it naturally the great port of exchange of all the products of the Mississippi Valley, the islands of the Gulf, and the countries on the north coast of South America. It is the second largest export port in America and is the world's greatest export market for cotton. Oysters and fish in abundance are brought to the city from the Gulf, making New Orleans one of the largest fish-and-oyster markets in the United States. More bananas arrive at New Orleans than at any other port in the world. The great bunches of fruit are unloaded by machinery, placed upon specially designed cars, and sent by the fastest trains to the various parts of the United States. With the sugar-producing districts so near, New Orleans is, of course, one of our country's chief sugar markets. The largest sugar refinery in the world is located here.

We have already mentioned the water front, but this important and interesting part of the city deserves more attention. For fifteen miles along the river, the port of this great city stretches in an almost unbroken line of wharves and steel sheds. The steamboat landings are near the foot of Canal Street, and here may be seen the river packets from Northern cities and the little stern-wheelers which run up Red River. Above is the flatboat landing, and further on still are the tropical-fruit wharves and miles of wharves for foreign shipping.

Just below Canal Street are the sugar sheds, where barrels and hogsheads of sugar and molasses cover blocks and blocks. At Julia Street are huge coffee sheds where[262] more than 80,000 bags of coffee, each bag holding about 138 pounds, can be stored in the large steel warehouses. At Louisiana Avenue are the huge Stuyvesant Docks, which cover 2000 feet of river frontage. One of the big elevators here will hold 1,500,000 bushels of grain, another 1,000,000 bushels. Each one can unload 250 cars a day and deliver freight to 4 steamships at the same time.

While the people of this interesting Southern city are great workers, they are quite as fond of play as of work. Their love of music is shown by their[263] fine opera house, where celebrated French operas are given. Because of its gayety, which attracts many visitors, especially in winter, New Orleans has been called the Winter Capital of America.

The city's great holiday is the Mardi Gras carnival, which is celebrated just before Lent. The keys of the city are then given over to the King of the Carnival, and all day long high revelry holds sway. Brilliant floats, representing scenes of wonderful quaintness and loveliness, parade through flower-garlanded avenues thronged with people who have come from every quarter of the globe. Carried away by the spirit of the fête, these guests join with the citizens in turning New Orleans for the time into a fairy city of wonder and delight.

NEW ORLEANS

FACTS TO REMEMBER

Population (1910), nearly 350,000 (339,075).

Fifteenth city in rank, according to population.

The natural port of export and exchange for the Mississippi Valley.

The second largest export port in the United States.

The world's greatest export market for cotton.

The center of a great sugar industry.

A great import port for tropical fruit and coffee.

Splendid harbor and shipping facilities along the river.

Excellent communications by water and rail with other great American cities.

Protected by great levees from overflow of the Mississippi River.

Holds annually a great Mardi Gras carnival.

4. What great natural disadvantages were overcome in improving the city of New Orleans, and how was it done?

5. State some facts about the principal business street of the city. What unusual arrangement of street cars is found in New Orleans?

6. Contrast the French Quarter of the past with the same section as it is to-day.

10. Give a brief account of the preparation of cotton, from the field to its being loaded for shipment to foreign lands.

12. Tell how sugar is made from the sugar cane. Do you know from what else we get sugar?

14. Find by reference to a map of the United States the great cities which may be reached by river steamers from New Orleans.

WASHINGTON

Washington, the capital city of our nation, is the center of interest for the whole country. Every citizen of the United States thinks of the city of Washington as a place in which he has a personal pride.

Here one may see in operation the work of governing a great nation. The representatives whom the people have chosen meet in the splendid Capitol to make laws for the whole country. The home of the president is here, and here are located the headquarters of the great departments of our government.

The capital city is a city of splendid trees, of wide, well-paved streets and handsome avenues. At the intersection of many of the streets and avenues are beautiful parks and circles, ornamented by statues of the great men of the nation.

“How,” we are asked, “did it happen that the capital of a great nation was built almost on its eastern boundary?” The distance from Washington to San Francisco is 3205 miles. In other words, Washington is almost as near to London as to San Francisco. The answer is simple.[266] The site was chosen when the settled part of our country lay between the Allegheny Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. At that time most of the land west of the Alleghenies was looked upon as a wilderness whose settlement was uncertain, while no one dreamed that the infant nation would extend its boundaries to the Pacific Ocean.

“And why was it decided to build a new city as the nation's capital, on a site where there was not even a settlement? Why was not some city already established chosen to be the chief city of the nation?” The story is interesting.

Before the Revolutionary War the colonies were much like thirteen independent nations, having little to do with one another, but during the war a common peril held them together in a loose union. With the danger passed and independence won, this union threatened to dissolve, but thanks to the influence of the wisest and best men in the country the thirteen states finally became one nation and adopted the Constitution which governs the United States to-day. Then discussion arose as to the site of the new nation's capital. Several states clamored for the honor of having one of their cities chosen as the government city. The men who framed the Constitution were wise enough, however, to foresee difficulty if this were done, and insisted that the seat of government should be in no state but in a small territory which should be controlled entirely by the national government.

After much debate the present location was chosen, and the two states of Maryland and Virginia each gave to the federal government entire control over a small[267] territory on the Potomac River. The two pieces of land formed a square, ten miles on each side. The territory was named the District of Columbia, and the city to be built was called Washington in honor of our first president, whose home, Mount Vernon, was but a few miles away. Later, in 1846, the Virginia part of the District was given back, so now all the District is on the Maryland side of the Potomac and is no longer in the shape of a square.

A firm belief in the future of Washington led to the making of very elaborate and extensive plans for laying out the city. But as the public buildings began to rise, with great stretches of unimproved country between them, many thought the plans much too elaborate and feared that the attempt to build a new city would end in failure. It was in the fall of 1800 when the government moved to Washington. Then, in 1814, when things had taken[268] a start, a dreadful misfortune happened; just a few months before the close of the war of 1812, the British attacked the city and burned both the Capitol and the White House. In spite of these early discouragements and years of ridicule, the capital has fully justified the plans and hopes of the far-seeing men who built not for their own day but for the years to come.

Perhaps one gets the best idea of the city to-day from the height of the Capitol's beautiful dome that rises over three hundred feet above the pavement. There is a gallery around the outside of the dome, just below the lantern which lights its summit, and from here one can see for miles in any direction.

Our view of the city from this height shows us that most of the streets are straight and run either north and south or east and west. The east and west streets are lettered; those running north and south are numbered. One might easily imagine four great checkerboards placed together, with the Capitol standing at the point where the four boards meet. I say four checkerboards, because from the Capitol three great streets go to the north, the south, and the east, while a broad park runs away to the west,[269] thus dividing the city into four sections. Running across the regularly planned streets of these checkerboards are broad avenues, many of which seem to come like spokes of wheels from parks placed in different sections of the city. These avenues are named for different states.

Close about us is a splendid group of majestic buildings. The Capitol, upon the brow of the hill overlooking the western part of the city, is the center of the group. To the north and south of the Capitol rise the beautiful marble buildings for the use of the committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives. To the east is the Library of Congress, the most beautiful building of its kind in the world.

Toward the northwest and southeast runs Pennsylvania Avenue, one hundred sixty feet wide, the most famous street in the city. About a mile and a half up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol is another imposing group of public buildings. Here are the Treasury Department, the Executive Mansion,—the home of the president,—and the State, War, and Navy Building. Pennsylvania Avenue leads past the fronts of these buildings and on for more than two miles to the far-western part of the city.

Directly west from the Capitol we look along the fine parkways which divide the city in that direction just as do the main streets which run from the Capitol to the north, east, and south. This handsome series of parks is called the Mall. In the Mall are a number of public buildings placed in an irregular line stretching west from the Capitol, with sufficient distance between them[272] to allow spacious grounds for each building. Here we find the home of the Bureau of Fisheries, the Army Medical Museum, the National Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the Washington Monument.

As we walk around the gallery of the Capitol dome, we see that almost every street and avenue is lined on either side with beautiful shade trees which give the city a gardenlike appearance. And looking toward the south we see the eastern branch of the Potomac meeting the main stream and flowing away in a majestic river, over a mile in width. On all sides of the city the land rises in beautiful green hills, guarding the nation's capital as it lies nestled between the river's protecting arms.

Having this picture of the general plan of Washington, let us visit some of the buildings; first of all the Capitol, for it is the most imposing as well as the most important building in the city. For a good view of the building, walk out upon the spacious esplanade which extends across the eastern front. Even here it is hard to appreciate that the Capitol is over 751 feet long, 350 feet wide, and covers more than 3½ acres of ground. The eastern front shows the building to have three divisions, a central building and a northern and a southern wing. Each division has a splendid portico with stately Corinthian columns and a broad flight of steps leading to the portico from the eastern esplanade.

Every four years a new president of the United States is elected, and March 4 is the day on which he takes office. On this day a great stand is put up over the steps leading to the central portico of the Capitol, and upon[273]
[274] this platform a most imposing ceremony takes place. Here the new president, in the presence of all the members of Congress, the representatives of foreign nations, many distinguished guests, and an immense throng of people, takes upon himself the obligations of his high office. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court holds a Bible before the president, who places his hand upon it and repeats these words: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” After the president has delivered his inaugural address, a splendid procession escorts him to his new home, the Executive Mansion.

Above the central division of the Capitol building, which for many years served as the entire Capitol, rises the imposing dome from which we have just come. It is crowned with a lantern upon the top of which is placed the statue of Freedom.

Across the western front of the Capitol is a marble terrace overlooking the lower part of the city. Though the western front is ornamented with colonnades of Corinthian columns, it lacks the splendid approaches of the eastern side.

This immense building, representing the dignity and greatness of our nation, is given over almost entirely to the work of lawmaking. In the central part is the large rotunda beneath the lofty dome. The northern wing is occupied by the Senate of the United States, while the southern wing is the home of the House of Representatives. We enter the rotunda by the broad stairs leading from the eastern esplanade and find ourselves in a great circular hall, almost a hundred feet in diameter, whose walls curve upward one hundred and eighty feet. At the top a beautiful canopy shows the Father of his Country in the company of figures representing the thirteen original states. About these are other figures, personifying commerce, freedom, mechanics, agriculture, dominion over the sea, and the arts and sciences. Encircling the upper part of the walls, but many feet below the canopy, is a frieze of scenes from the history of the United States.

Around the lower part of the walls are eight great paintings. Four of them are the work of one of Washington's officers, Colonel John Trumbull of Connecticut, and are of great interest because the figures are actual[276] portraits of the people represented. These paintings show the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and the resignation of General Washington at the close of the Revolution.

From the rotunda, broad corridors lead north to the Senate Chamber and south to the House of Representatives. Following the corridor to the south, we come to a large semicircular room. When the central division of the building was all there was to the Capitol, this room was occupied by the House of Representatives, and here were heard the speeches of Adams, Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and many other famous statesmen. It is now set[277] apart as a national statuary hall, where each state may place two statues of her chosen sons. As many of the states have been glad to honor their great men in this way, a splendid array of national heroes is gathered in the hall. Among the Revolutionary heroes we find Washington, Ethan Allen, and Nathaniel Green. A statue of Fulton, sent by New York, shows him seated, looking at a model of his steamship. Of all these marble figures, perhaps none attracts more attention than that of Frances Elizabeth Willard, the great apostle of temperance, and to the state of Illinois belongs the distinction of having placed the only statue of a woman in this great collection.

Leaving Statuary Hall, we go south to the Hall of Representatives. Here representatives from all the states gather to frame laws for the entire nation. Seated in the gallery it seems almost as if we were in a huge schoolroom, for the representatives occupy seats which are arranged in semicircles, facing a white marble desk upon a high platform reached by marble steps. This is the desk of the Speaker of the House. The Speaker's duty is to preserve order and to see that the business of this branch of Congress is carried on as it should be. Before delivering a speech, a representative must have the Speaker's permission. The Speaker is a most important person, for all business is transacted under his direction. The representatives come from every state in the Union, and even far-off Hawaii, Alaska, and the Philippines are allowed to send delegates to this assembly to represent them in making laws. Think what a serious matter it would have been to the people of the far West to have the capital of their nation in the extreme Eastern[278] section of the country if the development of the railroads, the telegraph, and the telephone had not made travel and communication so easy that great distances are no longer obstacles.

But we can pay only a brief visit to the House of Representatives, for there is another body of lawmakers in the northern end of the Capitol which we wish to see. Back to the rotunda we go and then walk along a corridor leading to the northern, or Senate, end of the Capitol. Each day, for a number of months in the year, an interesting ceremony takes place in this corridor promptly at noon. Nine dignified men, clad in long black silk robes, march in solemn procession across the corridor[279] and enter a stately chamber which, though smaller, resembles Statuary Hall in shape. These men make up the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest court of justice in the land.

Often in cases at law a person does not feel that the decision of one court has been just. He may then have his case examined and passed upon by a higher court. This is called “appealing,” and some cases, for good cause, may be appealed from one court to another until they reach the Supreme Court. Beyond the Supreme Court there is no appeal. What this court decides must be accepted as final. The room in which the Supreme Court meets was once used as the Senate Chamber, and many of the great debates heard in the Senate before our Civil War were held in this room.

The Senate Chamber of to-day is further down the north corridor. This room is not unlike the Hall of Representatives in plan and arrangement, though it is somewhat smaller. Instead of having a chairman of their own choosing, as is the case in the House, the Senate is presided over by the vice president of the United States. This high official, seated upon a raised platform, directs the proceedings of the Senate just as the Speaker directs those of the House of Representatives. There seems to be an air of greater solemnity and dignity in this small group of lawmakers than in the House of Representatives. It is smaller because each state is entitled to send but two senators to the Senate, whereas the number of representatives is governed by the number of inhabitants in the state. The populous state of New York has thirty-seven representatives and but two senators, the[280] same number as the little state of Rhode Island whose population entitles it to only two representatives.

The purpose of having two lawmaking bodies is to provide a safeguard against hasty and unwise legislation. In the House of Representatives the most populous states have the greatest influence, while in the Senate all states are equally represented, and each state has two votes regardless of its size and population. Since every proposed law must be agreed to in both the Senate and the House before it is taken to the president for his approval, each body acts as a check on the other in lawmaking.

Just to the east of the Capitol grounds stands the magnificent Library of Congress. This wonderful storehouse of books is a marvelous palace. It covers almost an entire city block, and its towering gilded dome is visible[281] from almost every part of the city. Once inside, we could easily believe ourselves in fairyland, so beautiful are the halls and the staircases of carved marble, so wonderful the paintings and the decorations. Every available space upon the walls and ceilings is adorned with pictures, with the names of the great men of the world, and with beautiful quotations from the poets and scholars who seem to live again in this magnificent building which is dedicated to the things they loved.

In the center of the building, just beneath the gilded dome, is a rotunda slightly wider than the rotunda of the Capitol, though not so high. Here are desks for the use of those who wish to consult any volume of the immense collection of books.

The books are kept in great structures called stacks, 9 stories high and containing bookshelves which would stretch nearly 44 miles if placed in one line. Any one of the great collection of 1,300,000 volumes can be sent by machinery from the stacks to the reading room or to the Capitol. When a member of Congress wants a book which is in the Library, he need not leave the Capitol, for there is a tunnel connecting the two buildings through which runs a little car to carry books.

The Librarian of Congress has charge of the enforcement of the copyright law. By means of this law an author may secure the exclusive right to publish a book, paper, or picture for twenty-eight years. One of the requirements of the copyright law is that the author must place in the Library of Congress two copies of whatever he has copyrighted. Hence, on the shelves of this great library may be found almost every book or paper published in the United States.

Leaving the Library we once more find ourselves upon the great esplanade east of the Capitol. In the majestic white-marble buildings to the north and south,—known as the Senate and House office buildings,—committees of each House of Congress meet to discuss proposed laws.

Having seen the lawmakers at work in the Capitol, let us visit the officials whose duty it is to enforce the laws made by Congress.

Chief among these is the president of the United States. His house is officially known as the Executive Mansion, but nearly everybody speaks of it as the White House. The first public building erected in Washington was the White House. It is said that Washington himself chose[283] the site. He lived to see it built but not occupied, for the capital was not moved to the District of Columbia until 1800, a year after Washington's death.

This simple, stately building is a fitting home for the head of a great republic. In the main building are the living apartments of the president and his family, and the great rooms used for state receptions; the largest and handsomest of these is the famous East Room. Other rooms used on public occasions are known, from the color of the furnishings and hangings, as the Blue Room, the Green Room, and the Red Room. There is also the great State Dining Room, where the president entertains at dinner the important government officials and foreign representatives.

In the Annex, adjoining the White House on the west, are the offices of the president and those who assist him in his work. In this part of the building is the cabinet room, where the president meets the heads of the various departments to consult with them concerning questions of national importance.

Across the street from the president's office is the immense granite building occupied by the three departments of State, War, and Navy. The secretaries in charge of these departments have their offices here, together with a small army of clerks.

On the opposite side of the White House from the State, War, and Navy Building is the National Treasury. The Treasury Building is one of the finest in the city. To see the splendid colonnade on the east is alone worth a journey to Washington. From this building all the money affairs of the United States government are directed.

In the Treasury Building and in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing one may see the entire process of manufacturing and issuing paper money. In the Treasury we see new bills exchanged for old, worn-out bills, which are ground to pieces to destroy forever their value as money.

But to understand the story of a dollar bill or a bill of any other value we must visit the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This building, which is some distance from the Treasury Building, reminds us of a large printing office, and that is just what it is. Here we are shown from room to room where many men and women are at work, some engraving the plates from which bills are to[286] be printed and others printing the bills. The paper used is manufactured by a secret process for United States money, and every sheet is most carefully counted at every stage of the printing. Altogether the sheets are counted fifty-two times. Many clerks are employed to keep a careful account of these sheets, and it is almost impossible for a single bill or a single piece of paper to be lost or stolen. After the money is printed it is put into bundles, sealed, and sent in a closely guarded steel wagon to the Treasury Building, where it is stored in great vaults until it is issued.

At the Treasury we find the officials sending out these crisp new bills in payment of the debts of the United States or in exchange for bills which are so tattered and torn that they are no longer useful. This exchanging of new money for old is a large part of the business of the[287] Treasury and calls for the greatest care in counting and keeping records, in order that no mistakes may be made.

After the old bills are counted they are cut in half and the halves counted separately, to make sure that the first count was correct. When the exact amount of money has been determined, new bills are sent out to the owners of the old bills, and the old bills are destroyed.

When we have seen enough of the counting of old money, our guide takes us down into the cellar of this great building, where we walk along a narrow passageway with millions of dollars in gold and silver on either hand. All is carefully secured by massive doors and locks, and none but trusted officials may enter the vaults themselves. These gold and silver coins are made in the United States mints in Philadelphia, Denver, New Orleans, and San Francisco.

You see the paper bill is not real money but a sort of receipt representing gold and silver money which you can get at any time from the Treasury. As we peep through the barred doors of the vaults and see great piles of canvas sacks, it is interesting to know that some of the silver and gold coins they hold are ours, waiting here while we carry in our pockets the paper bills which represent them.

In addition to issuing money, the Treasury Department has charge of collecting all the taxes and duties which furnish the money for the payment of the expenses of the government.

Washington is a government city. Of its population of over 330,000, about 36,000 are directly engaged in the various departments of the government, while most of the[288] other lines of business thrive by supplying the needs of the government's employees and their families. Very little manufacturing is done in the District of Columbia, and such articles as are manufactured are chiefly for local use.

People from almost every country in the world may be seen on the streets, for almost all civilized nations have ministers or ambassadors at Washington to represent them in official dealings with the United States. These foreign representatives occupy fine homes, and during the winter season many brilliant receptions are given by them as well as by our own high officials.

The people of Washington have built fine churches and many handsome schools, to which all, from the president to the humblest citizen, send their children. In or near the city are the five universities of George Washington,[289] Georgetown, Howard University for colored people, the Catholic University, and the American University, where graduates from other colleges take advanced work.

The citizens of the District of Columbia do not vote nor do they make their own laws, as it was feared there might be a disagreement between Congress and the city government if people voted on local matters. All laws for the District of Columbia are made by the Congress of the United States and are carried out by three commissioners appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate. Many inhabitants of the District are citizens of the states and go to their homes at election time to cast their votes. Isn't it strange that there is a place in the United States where the citizens cannot vote?

You are, no doubt, beginning to think that the places of interest in Washington must be very numerous. This is true, for few cities in the world have so many interesting public buildings. Among these are the Corcoran Art Gallery; the Continental Memorial Hall, the majestic marble building of the Daughters of the American Revolution; and the palatial home of the Pan-American Union, a place where representatives of all the American republics may meet. Then there is the Patent Office, for recording and filing old patents and granting new ones; the Pension Office, from which our war veterans receive a certain sum each year; the Government Printing Office, whose reports require over a million dollars' worth of paper each year; Ford's Theater,[291] where President Lincoln was shot; the naval-gun factory, for making the fourteen-inch long-range guns used on our battleships; and the Union Railroad Station, whose east wing is reserved for the use of the president.

There is one almost sacred spot, upon which the nation has erected a splendid memorial to our greatest hero, George Washington. The Washington Monument is a simple obelisk of white marble, that towers 555 feet above the beautiful park in the midst of which it stands. Those openings near the top which seem so small are 504 feet above us and are actually large windows. On entering the door at the base of the monument, we pass through the wall, which is 15 feet thick, and find an elevator ready to carry us to the top. If we prefer to walk, there is an interior stairway of 900 steps leading to the top landing. At the end of our upward journey we find ourselves in a large room with two great windows on[292] each of the four sides. From here we get another view of the hill-surrounded city, and the scene which lies before us is inspiring.

The Washington Monument is near the western end of the Mall, that series of parks extending from the Capitol to the Potomac River. Near by are the buildings of the Department of Agriculture, which has been of the greatest help to the farmers of our land by sending out important information concerning almost everything connected with farm life. Through the Bureau of Chemistry this department did much to bring about the passage of the Pure Food Law, which protects the people by forbidding the sale of food and drugs that are not pure.

In the spacious park adjoining the grounds of the Department of Agriculture is a building which looks like an ancient castle. This is the Smithsonian Institution, which carries on scientific work under government control.

The National Museum, which is under the control of the Smithsonian Institution, has a fine building of its own. This museum is a perfect treasure house of interesting exhibits of all kinds. Here may be seen relics of Washington, of General Grant, and of other famous Americans; and here are exhibits showing the history of the telegraph, the telephone, the sewing machine, the automobile, and the flying machine. Stuffed animals of all kinds are arranged to look just as if they were alive. So numerous are the exhibits that it would require a large book simply to mention them. Many of the boys and girls of Washington spend their Saturday afternoons examining the wonderful things which have been brought to this museum from all parts of the world.

Washington has also a zoölogical park where there are animals from everywhere. It is on the banks of a beautiful stream on the outskirts of the city and is part of a great public park which covers many acres of picturesque wooded country.

We must not omit the Post Office Department, for that is the part of the federal government which comes nearest to our homes. Here are the offices of the postmaster general and his many assistants. To tell of the wonders of our postal system would be a long story in itself. If all the people employed by the Post Office Department lived in Washington, they would fill all of the houses and leave no room for anyone else. Of course this great army of employees are not all in any one city, for the work of the post office extends to every part of the United States, and, through arrangement with other nations, to every part of the civilized world.

In the country surrounding the city of Washington are several important and interesting places. Just across the river, in the state of Virginia, are Fort Myer, an army post, and the famous Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington was the home of Martha Custis, who became the bride of George Washington. At the opening of the Civil War it was the home of the famous Confederate general, Robert E. Lee. Then it passed into the hands of the United States government and is now the burial place of over sixteen thousand soldiers who gave their lives for their country.

On the Virginia shore of the Potomac River, sixteen miles south of the city of Washington, is Mount Vernon, the home and burial place of George Washington. The spacious old mansion in the midst of fine trees and shady[295] lawns looks out over the wide peaceful river which Washington loved. To this home Washington came to live shortly after his marriage. He spent his time in farming on this estate until he was called to take command of the American army. After our independence was won he returned to his home and his farm. Once more he was called upon to leave this quiet country life to become the first president of the new nation. When he had served his country two terms he gladly retired to Mount Vernon, where he lived until his death in 1799.

To-day the house and grounds are preserved with loving care. The rooms of the house are furnished with fine old mahogany furniture, many pieces of which belonged to Washington. In the grounds, not far from the stately mansion, is the simple brick tomb where rest the bodies of Washington and his wife. During the years which[296] have passed since his death, thousands of his countrymen have come to this tomb to do honor to his memory.

As we sail up the Potomac toward the city after our visit to the home of the great man whose name it bears, the Washington Monument, the White House, the State, War, and Navy Building, the Capitol, the Library, and the post office tower above the surrounding buildings and, shining in the golden light of sunset, make a picture never to be forgotten.

This city of parks, of broad avenues, of beautiful buildings, belongs to the Americans who live in the far-distant states as well as to those who live and work in the capital itself. It is our capital and we may justly be proud of it, for it is one of the most beautiful cities in all the world.

WASHINGTON

FACTS TO REMEMBER

The capital of the nation.

Population (1910), nearly 350,000 (331,069).

Sixteenth city in rank, according to population.

Center of the federal government of the United States.

Governed entirely by Congress under provision of the Constitution.

Chief offices of every department of the federal government located here.

Splendid streets, avenues, parks, and monuments.

Many magnificent public buildings.

Very few manufacturing industries.

A city of homes of government employees.

One of the most interesting and beautiful cities in the world.

1. Give some reasons why every citizen of the United States should be interested in Washington.

3. What were some of the reasons for selecting the location of the capital city?

5. In what year did Washington become the capital city, and what disaster visited it a few years later?

7. Name three interesting groups of buildings: one on Capitol Hill, one on Pennsylvania Avenue, and one in the Mall.

9. Give some idea of the size and beauty of the Capitol and of the imposing ceremony which takes place there every four years.

10. Describe briefly the House of Representatives when in session and the duties of its members.

11. Where does the Supreme Court of the country sit, and why is it called the Supreme Court?

12. How does the Senate differ from the House of Representatives? What are the duties of senators? How many come from each state?

14. Name some of the attractions of the Library of Congress. Tell how its books are stacked and how they are sent to the Capitol, and give some facts about the copyright law.

16. What two fine buildings are on either side of the White House, and for what is each used?

18. What are the duties of the Treasury Department, and what may be seen in the Treasury vaults?

19. Tell something about the people of Washington, their chief occupation, and why so many foreign diplomats have their homes here.

23. Tell why you would like to visit the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum, and the Zoölogical Park.

24. Why are Fort Myer, Arlington, and Mount Vernon very interesting to all citizens of the United States?

25. To whom does the beautiful city of Washington really belong, and why should we be proud of it?

REFERENCE TABLES

LARGEST CITIES OF THE WORLD ACCORDING TO POPULATION
	Rank
London	1
New York	2
Paris	3
Chicago	4
Berlin	5
Tokio	6
Vienna	7
Petrograd	8
Philadelphia	9
Moscow	10
Buenos Ayres	11
Constantinople	12

INCREASE IN POPULATION OF OUR GREAT CITIES— NATIONAL CENSUS
City	Population	Rank
1910	1900	1890	1910	1900	1890
New York	4,766,883	3,437,202	1,515,301	1	1	1
Chicago	2,185,283	1,698,575	1,099,850	2	2	2
Philadelphia	1,549,008	1,293,697	1,046,964	3	3	3
St. Louis	687,029	575,238	451,770	4	4	5
Boston	670,585	560,892	448,477	5	5	6
Cleveland	560,663	381,768	261,353	6	7	10
Baltimore	558,485	508,957	434,439	7	6	7
Pittsburgh	533,905	321,616	238,617	8	11	13
Detroit	465,766	285,704	205,876	9	13	15
Buffalo	423,715	352,387	255,664	10	8	11
San Francisco	416,912	342,782	298,997	11	9	8
Milwaukee	373,857	285,315	204,468	12	14	16
Cincinnati	363,591	325,902	296,908	13	10	9
Newark	347,469	246,070	181,830	14	16	17
New Orleans	339,075	287,104	242,039	15	12	12
Washington	331,069	278,718	230,392	16	15	14

THE FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION OF OUR GREAT CITIES
City	Leading Countries of Birth of Foreign-Born Population—1910
First	Second
Baltimore	Germany	Russia
Boston	Ireland	Canada
Buffalo	Germany	Canada
Chicago	Germany	Austria
Cincinnati	Germany	Hungary
Cleveland	Austria	Germany
Detroit	Germany	Canada
Jersey City	Germany	Ireland
Los Angeles	Germany	Canada
Milwaukee	Germany	Russia
Minneapolis	Sweden	Norway
New Orleans	Italy	Germany
New York	Russia	Italy
Newark	Germany	Russia
Philadelphia	Russia	Ireland
Pittsburgh	Germany	Russia
St. Louis	Germany	Russia
San Francisco	Germany	Ireland
Washington	Ireland	Germany

SHORTEST RAILWAY TRAVEL—DISTANCE FROM NEW YORK CITY
San Francisco	3182 miles
New Orleans	1344 miles
St. Louis	1059 miles
Chicago	908 miles
Detroit	690 miles
Cleveland	576 miles
Pittsburgh	441 miles
Buffalo	439 miles[301]
Boston	235 miles
Washington, D.C.	226 miles
Baltimore	186 miles
Philadelphia	92 miles

SHORTEST RAILWAY TRAVEL—DISTANCE FROM CHICAGO
San Francisco	2274 miles
Boston	1021 miles
New Orleans	923 miles
New York	908 miles
Philadelphia	818 miles
Baltimore	797 miles
Washington, D.C.	787 miles
Buffalo	523 miles
Pittsburgh	468 miles
Cleveland	339 miles
St. Louis	286 miles
Detroit	272 miles

TO WHOM WE SELL THE MOST The Amount for 1914
Great Britain	$594,271,863
Germany	$344,794,276
Canada	$344,716,981
France	$159,818,924
Netherlands	$112,215,673
Italy	$74,235,012
Cuba	$68,884,428
Belgium	$61,219,894
Japan	$51,205,520
Argentina	$45,179,089
Mexico	$38,748,793

FROM WHOM WE BUY THE MOST The Amount for 1914
Great Britain	$293,661,304
Germany	$189,919,136
Canada	$160,689,709
France	$141,446,252
Cuba	$131,303,794
Japan	$107,355,897
Brazil	$101,303,794
Mexico	$92,690,566
British India	$73,630,880
Italy	$56,407,671

INDEX

Transcriber's Notes:

The original spelling and minor inconsistencies in the spelling and formatting have been maintained.

Inconsistent hyphenation and accents are as in the original if not marked as a misprint.

Captions have been added to the maps on page 69 and 268 as listed in the "List of Maps" at the beginning of the book.

The table below lists all corrections applied to the original text.
frontpage: BOOKS I AND II → BOOKS I AND II,
p. 160: here small craft → crafts
p. 225: Important center for. → Important center for
p. 227: Pacific coast, and Don Gasper → Gaspar
p. 239: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe → Fé
p. 248: forces land and take → takes
p. 306: de Portolá, Don Gasper → Gaspar

	PAGE
The Boroughs of New York—Entrances to her Harbor	10
Manhattan Island and the City Parks	20
New York's Subway and Bridge Connections	29
Where Chicago was Founded	44
Chicago's Canals	48
Chicago To-day	60
Location of Philadelphia	69
Philadelphia To-day	80
Louisiana Purchase	90
St. Louis and her Illinois Suburbs	92
Map of Boston and its Vicinity	106
The City of Boston	118
Boston's Land and Water Connections	120
Cleveland and her Neighbors	140
The City of Cleveland	144
The City of Baltimore	164
Location of Baltimore	168
The Pittsburgh District	173
The City of Pittsburgh	179
The Great Lakes	190
The City of Detroit	201
New York's Canals	209
The Site of Buffalo	212
The City of Buffalo	218
The Site of San Francisco	232
The City of San Francisco	234
Where New Orleans Stands	246
The City of New Orleans	250
The District of Columbia	268
The City of Washington	270
Some of the Great Railroads of the United States	303

Honolulu	Shanghai
Manila	Yokohama
Sydney	Buenos Aires

GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES