Great Cities of the United States - Historical, Descriptive, Commercial, Industrial

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Title: Great Cities of the United States - Historical, Descriptive, Commercial, Industrial
Author: Kramer, Stephen Elliott, Southworth, Gertrude Van Duyn
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.

*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Great Cities of the United States - Historical, Descriptive, Commercial, Industrial" ***

[Illustration: BUILDING A SKYSCRAPER]

GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES

HISTORICAL, DESCRIPTIVE, COMMERCIAL
INDUSTRIAL

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

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
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.

THE AUTHORS

CONTENTS

PAGE

NEW YORK 3

CHICAGO 41

PHILADELPHIA 67

ST. LOUIS 89

BOSTON 105

CLEVELAND 137

BALTIMORE 155

PITTSBURGH 171

DETROIT 189

BUFFALO 207

SAN FRANCISCO 227

NEW ORLEANS 245

WASHINGTON 265

REFERENCE TABLES 299

INDEX 305

LIST OF MAPS

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

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING]

GREAT CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES

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.

[Illustration: INDIANS VISITING THE _HALF MOON_]

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 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.

[Illustration: "MY BROTHERS, WE HAVE COME TO TRADE WITH YOU"]

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 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.

[Illustration: PETER STUYVESANT]

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 soon closed,
and for twenty-four dollars' worth of trinkets the Dutch became the
owners of Manhattan Island.

[Illustration: NEW YORK IN OLDEN TIMES]

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 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.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON TAKING THE OATH OF OFFICE]

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.

[Illustration: THE FIRST TRAIN IN NEW YORK STATE]

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 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 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.

[Illustration: THE BOROUGHS OF NEW YORK--ENTRANCES TO HER HARBOR]

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.

[Illustration: NEW YORK SKYSCRAPERS]

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 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. 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.

[Illustration: HOW A SKYSCRAPER IS MADE]

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

[Illustration: A MAMMOTH HOTEL]

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 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.

[Illustration: FIFTH AVENUE FROM THIRTY-FOURTH STREET]

In this regular arrangement of streets, Broadway alone is the exception
to the rule. Beginning at the southern 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.

[Illustration: BROADWAY CROSSING SIXTH AVENUE]

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.

[Illustration: WALL STREET]

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 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.

[Illustration: CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE]

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 aqueduct which is to bring all the
drinking-water for all five boroughs from reservoirs in the Catskill
Mountain region.

[Illustration: NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY]

[Illustration: METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART]

[Illustration: MANHATTAN ISLAND AND THE CITY PARKS]

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.

[Illustration: THE TOMB OF GENERAL GRANT]

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; 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.

[Illustration: WHERE THE SEALS LIVE IN BRONX PARK]

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
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.

[Illustration: THE ELEPHANT HOUSE IN BRONX PARK]

[Illustration: VISITING THE BIRDS IN BRONX PARK]

[Illustration: THE OLD AND THE NEW]

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 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.

[Illustration: A NEW YORK ELEVATED RAILWAY]

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.

[Illustration: NEW YORK'S FIRST TWO-STORY CAR]

[Illustration: A SUBWAY ENTRANCE]

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.

[Illustration: SUBWAY TUNNELS]

[Illustration: A FERRY BOAT]

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, 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 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.

[Illustration: NEW YORK'S SUBWAY AND BRIDGE CONNECTIONS]

[Illustration: BROOKLYN BRIDGE]

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.

[Illustration: THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD STATION]

[Illustration: THE GRAND CENTRAL STATION]

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.
New York City leads in the refining of sugar as well as in its
importation.

[Illustration: THE BATTERY]

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.

[Illustration: LOWER MANHATTAN]

[Illustration: NEW YORK CITY DOCKS]

[Illustration: LOADING A FREIGHT STEAMER]

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 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.

[Illustration: A DOCK SCENE]

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.

[Illustration: A GREAT OCEAN LINER]

Among the islands in the upper bay is Ellis Island, where immigrants are
inspected before being allowed to enter our 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.

[Illustration: NEW YORK 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.

[Illustration: THE STATUE OF LIBERTY]

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 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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

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?

5. Why are there such tall buildings in New York?

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

7. Give some facts about Central Park, The Bronx, and Riverside Drive.

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

9. Give a brief account of the means of transportation.

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

11. What are its principal exports and imports?

12. What commercial advantages does New York enjoy?

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

14. Compare the harbor and city of to-day with that of three hundred
years ago.

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.

16. Name all the railroads entering the city.

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.

[Illustration: AFTER THE FIRE]

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 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.

[Illustration: Courtesy of Central Trust Company of Illinois, Chicago
HOME OF JOHN KINZIE]

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.

[Illustration: WHERE CHICAGO WAS FOUNDED]

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 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 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.

[Illustration: AN EARLY CHICAGO DRAWBRIDGE]

"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 resources of the rich back country, all
combined to make it the chief commercial center of the Middle West.

[Illustration: WHERE THE STAGECOACH STARTED]

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.

[Illustration: CHICAGO'S CANALS]

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 water to high towers from which all
parts of the city were supplied.

[Illustration: CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL, 1856]

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?

[Illustration: CLARK STREET IN 1857]

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 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.

[Illustration: BUSY SCENE AT ENTRANCE TO CHICAGO RIVER]

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 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.

[Illustration: Courtesy of Central Trust Company of Illinois, Chicago
CHICAGO'S FIRST GRAIN ELEVATOR]

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.

[Illustration: A GRAIN ELEVATOR OF TO-DAY]

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, West, and
North sides. The three divisions of the city are connected by bridges and
by tunnels under the river.

[Illustration: COURTHOUSE AND CITY HALL]

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.

[Illustration: THE NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY STATION]

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 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.

[Illustration: CHICAGO TO-DAY]

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.

[Illustration: WHERE CARS ARE MADE]

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.

[Illustration: THE SKELETON OF A PULLMAN CAR]

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.

[Illustration: THE CAR COMPLETED]

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.

[Illustration: MICHIGAN BOULEVARD]

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, like that of Chicago, has been
marvelous. Already it is one of the largest universities of the country.

[Illustration: © The University of Chicago
THE LAW SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO]

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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. Tell what you can of Chicago's early history.

2. What great disaster befell Chicago in 1871?

3. Give five causes for the wonderful growth of Chicago.

4. What part has the Chicago River played in the development of the
city?

5. Describe a grain elevator. Why are they necessary in handling
grain?

6. Name the advantages which Chicago enjoys on account of its
location.

7. What are the great wheat-growing states of the United States?

8. Give reasons for the development of the following industries in
Chicago:

Iron and steel industries
Meat packing
Lumber trade

9. What are the advantages of water transportation over rail
transportation?

10. In what respects is rail transportation better than water
transportation?

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

12. Where are the workers secured to carry on the great industries of
Chicago?

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

New York City Denver
Boston Seattle
Washington, D.C. San Francisco
New Orleans St. Louis

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

15. Compare Chicago and New York as to exports and value of commerce.

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 welcome. The laws he made were extremely just, and land
was sold to immigrants on very easy terms.

[Illustration: PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS]

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.

[Illustration: PENN'S WAMPUM BELT]

[Illustration: LOCATION OF PHILADELPHIA]

In 1683 Penn laid out in large squares, between the Delaware and
Schuylkill rivers, the beginning of a great 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 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.

[Illustration: THE OLD STAGE WHICH JOURNEYED FROM PHILADELPHIA TO
PITTSBURGH]

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.

[Illustration: OLD IRONSIDES]

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 which one can go where a Philadelphia-made locomotive is
not to be seen.

[Illustration: THE FIRST TRAIN ON THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD]

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 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.

[Illustration: A PRESENT-DAY LOCOMOTIVE]

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 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.

[Illustration: IN FAIRMOUNT PARK]

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, 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.

[Illustration: ONCE THE HOME OF WILLIAM PENN]

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.

[Illustration: LOOKING NORTH ON BROAD STREET]

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.

[Illustration: BALLOON VIEW OF FAIRMOUNT PARK AND THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER,
1000 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND]

[Illustration: PHILADELPHIA'S WASHINGTON MONUMENT]

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:

Market, Arch, Race, and Vine,
Chestnut, Walnut, Spruce, and Pine.

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.

[Illustration: THE CITY HALL]

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
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.

[Illustration: THE CITY-HALL STATUE OF PENN]

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.

[Illustration: PHILADELPHIA TO-DAY]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES MINT]

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
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.

[Illustration: OLD CHRIST CHURCH]

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 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.

[Illustration: INDEPENDENCE HALL]

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 famous buildings whose very names send thrills of
pride through the heart of every good American.

[Illustration: THE LIBERTY BELL]

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.

[Illustration: THE HOME OF BETSY ROSS]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE FIRST UNITED STATES FLAG]

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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. When, how, and by whom was the site of Philadelphia acquired?

2. Compare the city of 1683 with that of to-day.

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.

5. What are the leading exports of the city?

6. Name some of the important industries of Philadelphia.

7. Tell what you can of Philadelphia's great iron and steel works.

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

9. Give some interesting facts about the city's great park.

10. State briefly some of the things which may be seen in a visit to
the mint.

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 French.
Here countless open boats were loaded with skins and furs and then
floated down the Mississippi.

[Illustration: LOUISIANA PURCHASE]

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 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.

[Illustration: MISSISSIPPI RIVER BOATS]

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 wonders for this inland commerce whose growth kept
pace with the marvelous development of the rich Middle West.

[Illustration: ST. LOUIS AND HER ILLINOIS SUBURBS]

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.

[Illustration: THE MUNICIPAL COURT BUILDING]

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, 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.

[Illustration: THE CITY HALL]

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, 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.

[Illustration: THE NEW CENTRAL 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 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.

[Illustration: THE UNION STATION]

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.

[Illustration: THE ART MUSEUM]

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.

[Illustration: THE EADS BRIDGE]

Other bridges have since been built. In 1890 the Merchants Bridge, used
solely by railroads, was built across 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.

[Illustration: SHAW'S GARDEN]

[Illustration: A PUBLIC BATH]

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.

[Illustration: A MISSOURI COAL MINE]

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 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 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.

[Illustration: MAKING SHOES]

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.

[Illustration: MULES IN A STOCKYARD]

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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. Why did Jefferson buy the country included in the Louisiana
Purchase?

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

3. Tell what you know of St. Louis before the Louisiana Purchase.

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?

6. Describe the St. Louis Union Station.

7. What three bridges were built across the Mississippi at St. Louis,
and why?

8. To what does St. Louis owe her importance as an industrial center?

9. In what lines does St. Louis lead the world?

10. Name some of the products sent to St. Louis from the neighboring
country.

11. What are some of her most important industries?

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

13. In what business has St. Louis held an important place from its
beginning?

14. By consulting a map, find what great railroad systems run to St.
Louis.

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 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.

[Illustration: MAP OF BOSTON AND ITS VICINITY]

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 if they were not known as Boston boys and girls just as much
as those who live in the very heart of the city.

[Illustration: THE WASHINGTON STREET TUNNEL]

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.

[Illustration: A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF BOSTON]

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 take us from
place to place; or we can simply follow the directions of our guide book.

[Illustration: THE SOUTH STATION]

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 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.

[Illustration: DRILLING ON THE COMMON]

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,
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.

[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE COMMON, SHOWING THE SHAW MEMORIAL]

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 flags whose worn and tattered edges tell plainly of the
struggles of their bearers and defenders.

[Illustration: THE STATE-HOUSE CODFISH]

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.

[Illustration: THE STATE HOUSE]

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 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.

[Illustration: BUNKER HILL MONUMENT]

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. 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.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON STREET]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF BOSTON]

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.

[Illustration: BOSTON'S LAND AND WATER CONNECTIONS]

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 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.

[Illustration: A FISHING FLEET]

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
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.

[Illustration: © Dadmun Co. Boston
BOSTON'S NEW CUSTOMHOUSE]

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.

[Illustration: OLD NORTH CHURCH]

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.

[Illustration: THE NORTH END]

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 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.

[Illustration: PAUL REVERE'S HOUSE]

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 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.

[Illustration: COMMONWEALTH AVENUE]

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."

[Illustration: PHILLIPS BROOKS' MEMORIAL]

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.

[Illustration: BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY]

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 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 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, 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.

[Illustration: © Leon Dadmun, Boston, 1903
THE HARVARD YARD]

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 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 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, "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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. Tell something of the settlement and the early history of Boston.

2. Tell of the Boston Tea Party.

3. Tell the story of the naming of Boston's leading business street.

4. Why is Boston's chief park called the Common?

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

6. What is there of interest in Back Bay? in Copley Square?

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

8. Tell something about the street railways and other means of
transportation.

9. Give a brief description of the Boston Public Library.

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.

12. Give some facts about the commercial importance of Boston.

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 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 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, one of the old citizens asked, "What on earth
can the trustees find in this village to spend two hundred dollars on?"

[Illustration: CLEVELAND AND HER NEIGHBORS]

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 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.

[Illustration: A RIVER SCENE]

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.

[Illustration: AN ORE STEAMER ENTERING CLEVELAND'S HARBOR]

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.

[Illustration: COAL DOCKS]

Then came the Civil War, and the manufacturing of iron products for the
government crowded Cleveland's 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.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF 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.

[Illustration: HUGE VIADUCTS SPAN THE VALLEY]

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.

[Illustration: THE HEART OF THE BUSINESS QUARTER]

The heart of the business quarter and the 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.

[Illustration: MONUMENTAL SQUARE]

[Illustration: LOOKING UP EUCLID AVENUE]

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.

[Illustration: ORE DOCKS]

[Illustration: WHEELING & LAKE ERIE BRIDGE]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE UNIVERSITY CIRCLE]

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.

[Illustration: A DRIVE IN GORDEN PARK]

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 Medical
College, and the University School. The public schools of the city are
among the best.

[Illustration: THE CITY HALL]

[Illustration: THE NEW COURTHOUSE]

Cleveland has a beautiful park system. The different parks are connected
by boulevards, which form a great 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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. Give the history of the name and the settlement of Cleveland.

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?

5. To what two events does Cleveland chiefly owe its rapid growth?
Why?

6. What two products found a meeting place at Cleveland, and with
what results?

7. How did the Civil War help the growth of the city?

8. What benefits does Cleveland derive from its location on Lake Erie?

9. What are the most important industries of the Cleveland district?

10. What railroad facilities has Cleveland to-day?

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.

[Illustration: AN OYSTER BOAT]

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.

[Illustration: THE BALTIMORE FIRE]

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.

[Illustration: THE BURNED PART OF THE CITY]

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.

[Illustration: PIER 4]

[Illustration: ONE OF THE NEW WHARVES]

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.

[Illustration: THE POST OFFICE]

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.

[Illustration: THE CITY HALL]

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.

[Illustration: LEXINGTON MARKET]

[Illustration: FALLSWAY]

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
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.

[Illustration: McCALL FERRY DAM]

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.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF BALTIMORE]

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

[Illustration: THE FIRST WASHINGTON MONUMENT]

[Illustration: PATTERSON PARK SWIMMING POOL]

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

[Illustration: A PORTABLE BATHHOUSE]

[Illustration: A JOHNS HOPKINS BUILDING]

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 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.

[Illustration: LOCATION OF 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."

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. What advantages of location does Baltimore possess?

2. Why is Baltimore called the gateway to the South?

3. What are the leading exports of this city?

4. In what industries does Baltimore rank first in the United States?

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?

6. What educational institution has won a splendid reputation for
Baltimore?

7. Tell something of the settlement of Maryland and the city of
Baltimore.

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:

New York City Atlanta
Philadelphia Norfolk
Washington, D.C. Richmond
Pittsburgh New Orleans

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 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.

[Illustration: FORT DUQUESNE]

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.

[Illustration: BLOCKHOUSE IN FORT DUQUESNE]

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.

[Illustration: THE PITTSBURGH DISTRICT]

[Illustration: FILLING MOLDS WITH MOLTEN METAL]

The famous Homestead mills make armor plate for battleships. At Braddock
are steel works, where great furnaces turn out enough rails 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.

[Illustration: BLAST FURNACES OF THE CARNEGIE STEEL COMPANY]

[Illustration: MINERS AT WORK]

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.

[Illustration: IN A MODERN COAL MINE]

[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE TO A COAL MINE]

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 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 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.

[Illustration: SCENE IN A COAL MINE]

[Illustration: PITTSBURGH COAL IS SENT ALL OVER THE WORLD]

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.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH]

Much of the coal is made into coke by burning out certain gases in
open-air ovens. Thousands of these 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.

[Illustration: THE BUSINESS DISTRICT]

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 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.

[Illustration: WOOD STREET AT SIXTH AVENUE IN 1902]

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 of at least thirty
nationalities. Side by side stand English, Germans, Welsh, Irish, Scotch,
Negroes, Jews, Italians, Syrians, Swedes, Greeks, Slavs, Poles, and
Hungarians.

[Illustration: WOOD STREET AT SIXTH AVENUE IN 1915]

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.

[Illustration: A FOREIGN QUARTER]

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 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.

[Illustration: AN INCLINED PLANE]

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, whose summit is four hundred feet above the river, the
railroad runs through a tunnel and brings the passengers out upon a high
bluff.

[Illustration: FROM THE HEIGHTS ABOVE THE CITY]

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 "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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. Compare Pittsburgh with New Orleans in location and in interests.

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

3. Where does Pittsburgh get her iron ore, coal, and petroleum?

4. In what manufactures does the city lead the world?

5. What great advantages does its location on the Ohio River give
Pittsburgh?

6. Where are her great steel works, and what do they manufacture?

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

8. How is petroleum obtained? What products in daily use are made from
it?

9. Give some facts about natural gas and its use in Pittsburgh.

10. Why is Pittsburgh called the "workshop of the world"?

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

In population, Detroit is the ninth city of the United States.

In the value of its manufactured products, it is fifth.

In the value of its exports, it is the leading port on the Canadian
border.

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 every hardship, endured every privation, and very often fell
victims to the cruelty of the savages.

[Illustration: THE GREAT LAKES]

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 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 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.

[Illustration: DETROIT IN 1820, AND STEAMER _WALK-IN-THE-WATER_ (From an
old print)]

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 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.

[Illustration: A DRY DOCK]

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 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.

[Illustration: A PASSENGER STEAMER]

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.

[Illustration: A LAKE VESSEL BUILT IN DETROIT]

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.

[Illustration: WHERE AUTOMOBILES ARE MADE]

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 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 location, as you know, has very
much to do with the growth of cities.

[Illustration: THE DETROIT RIVER TUNNEL]

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.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF DETROIT]

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 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.

[Illustration: NORTH WOODWARD AVENUE]

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 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.

[Illustration: AT BELLE ISLE]

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
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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

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?

4. Describe Detroit and its surroundings in 1701.

5. How and when did the English first acquire Detroit?

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

7. Tell about its growth since 1760, and give three causes.

8. Name and describe some of the industries of the city.

9. Tell something of its vast wholesale and retail trade.

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, 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.

[Illustration: A LOCKPORT LOCK]

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 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.

[Illustration: Barge canals shown by solid lines; Erie and other canals
by dotted lines.
NEW YORK'S CANALS]

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 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.

[Illustration: TRAVELING BY CANAL]

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 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."

[Illustration: THE BARGE CANAL NEAR BUFFALO]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE SITE OF BUFFALO]

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.

[Illustration: LACKAWANNA IRON AND STEEL COMPANY]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE ELECTRIC BUILDING]

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 than a
dozen companies in Buffalo operating flour mills which turn out over
3,000,000 barrels of flour in a year.

[Illustration: THE BUFFALO HOME OF THE NEW YORK TELEPHONE COMPANY]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF BUFFALO]

[Illustration: THE ARMORY]

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.

[Illustration: WADING POOL IN HUMBOLDT PARK]

[Illustration: A PUBLIC PLAYGROUND]

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.

[Illustration: THE ALBRIGHT ART GALLERY]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE McKINLEY MONUMENT]

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
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.

[Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS]

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 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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

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?

2. Tell about the beginning of Buffalo, and give its original name.

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.

5. How did Buffalo's location make it one of the great centers of
industry?

6. What three things are necessary to success in manufacturing?

7. How is Buffalo furnished with power for her great manufacturing
interests?

8. Where does Buffalo find a market for her products? How?

9. What great steel company is located near this city? Why?

10. Describe the wonderful coke ovens and blast furnaces near Buffalo.

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 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 wonderful climate, have made California a leading
agricultural state.

[Illustration: AN ORANGE GROVE]

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 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.

[Illustration: PICKING GRAPES]

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 strait called the Golden Gate, which is
2-3/4 miles long and over a mile wide.

[Illustration: THE GOLDEN GATE]

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.

[Illustration: THE SITE OF SAN FRANCISCO]

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.

[Illustration: A FLOWER MARKET]

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_, and other ships of the
United States Navy were built in San Francisco.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF 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.

[Illustration: ON SAN FRANCISCO'S WATER FRONT]

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. 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.

[Illustration: CHINATOWN]

The city occupies 46-1/2 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.

[Illustration: THE UNION FERRY BUILDING]

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 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.

[Illustration: FISHERMAN'S WHARF]

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 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.

[Illustration: MT. TAMALPAIS FROM NOB HILL]

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 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.

[Illustration: PRESIDIO TERRACE]

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 carried out,
it would add over 350,000 to San Francisco's present population, which is
between 400,000 and 500,000.

[Illustration: THE TOWER OF JEWELS OF THE PANAMA-PACIFIC EXPOSITION]

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.

[Illustration: IN GOLDEN GATE PARK]

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 and extending eastward
for 4 miles is Golden Gate Park, the largest of San Francisco's many
parks and squares.

[Illustration: IN FRONT OF THE EXPOSITION'S PALACE OF FINE ARTS]

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
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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

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.

3. Who founded San Francisco, and what was it first called?

4. When and how did San Francisco become an American possession?

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?

6. What are the chief exports of the city, and to what countries are
they sent?

7. What are the chief imports of the city?

8. What are the great advantages of San Francisco Bay?

9. When did the great fire at San Francisco occur, and what damage was
done?

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

11. Why is the ferry system of San Francisco so important?

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

13. Tell something of the fishing industry of San Francisco.

14. Does the name "Golden Gate" seem appropriate to you? Why?

15. Name the chief industries of San Francisco.

16. Describe the location of the city.

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

Honolulu Shanghai
Manila Yokohama
Sydney Buenos Aires

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, 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.

[Illustration: WHERE NEW ORLEANS STANDS]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE CABILDO]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS]

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, who was born near this city,
is another of the beautiful parks of New Orleans.

[Illustration: CANAL STREET]

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 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.

[Illustration: A CREOLE COURTYARD]

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. 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.

[Illustration: JACKSON SQUARE AND THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. LOUIS]

In the French Quarter is Jackson Square, which was the center of
governmental life in the early years of the city. 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.

[Illustration: BAYOU ST. JOHN]

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.

[Illustration: ST. ROCH'S CHAPEL]

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 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.

[Illustration: ST. CHARLES AVENUE]

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 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.

[Illustration: A SUGAR-CANE FIELD]

[Illustration: A SUGAR REFINERY]

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 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 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.

[Illustration: A BANANA CONVEYOR]

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 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.

[Illustration: MARDI GRAS PARADE]

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 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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. Tell briefly the story of the settlement of New Orleans.

2. Can you tell why it was important for the United States to own
New Orleans?

3. Describe the city's part in two wars. What wars were they?

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.

7. What is interesting about Jackson Square?

8. Tell what you can of the river front.

9. What are the chief imports and exports of New Orleans?

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

11. Do you know why so much cotton is sent to foreign countries?

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

13. Tell what you can of the Mardi Gras carnival.

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

15. Why was New Orleans called the Crescent City?

WASHINGTON

THE CAPITAL CITY

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. 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 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.

[Illustration: MOUNT VERNON]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA]

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, 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.

[Illustration: LOOKING WEST FROM THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL]

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.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF WASHINGTON]

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.

[Illustration: A VIEW OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE]

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 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 3-1/2 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.

[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL]

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 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.

[Illustration: WHEN PRESIDENT WILSON WAS INAUGURATED]

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
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.

[Illustration: STATUARY HALL, IN THE CAPITOL]

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
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 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.

[Illustration: THE OPENING OF CONGRESS]

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 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 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.

[Illustration: INAUGURAL PARADE ON PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE]

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 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.

[Illustration: BOTANICAL GARDENS]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE WHITE HOUSE FROM THE NORTH]

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.

[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES TREASURY]

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.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING, "UNCLE SAM'S MONEY
FACTORY"]

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 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.

[Illustration: A CIRCLE AND ITS RADIATING AVENUES]

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
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 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.

[Illustration: CONTINENTAL MEMORIAL HALL]

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, Georgetown, Howard University for colored people, the
Catholic University, and the American University, where graduates from
other colleges take advanced work.

[Illustration: ANNEX AND GARDEN OF THE PAN-AMERICAN UNION]

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?

[Illustration: UNION STATION]

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, 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.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON MONUMENT FROM CONTINENTAL MEMORIAL HALL]

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 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.

[Illustration: THE CITY FROM ARLINGTON HEIGHTS]

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 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.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S TOMB]

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 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.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

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

2. What interesting buildings are located here, and for what are they
used?

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

4. After whom was the city named?

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

6. Describe the plan of the city, and name one of its famous streets.

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

8. What are some of the natural beauties of the city?

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?

13. Why do we have two lawmaking bodies?

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.

15. Tell what you know of the White House.

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

17. Describe the making of paper money.

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.

20. How are the city of Washington and the District of Columbia
governed?

21. Name some places of interest in Washington not already mentioned.

22. Describe the splendid monument by which our greatest hero is
honored.

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

=============+===================================++====================
| POPULATION || RANK
CITY |-----------+-----------+-----------++------+------+------
| 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

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
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

[Illustration: SOME OF THE GREAT RAILROADS OF THE UNITED STATES]

INDEX

Abbey, Edwin A., 128

Adams, John, 84, 87

Adams, Samuel, 124

Alameda, 240

Allegheny, 182, 184

Allegheny River, 171, 172, 182

Baldwin, Matthias W., 71

Baldwin Locomotive Works, 71

Baltimore, 155-170
railroad center, 155
harbor, 155
industries, 155, 156
exports, 155
fire of 1904, 156
public markets, 160
settlement of, 167

Baltimore, Lord, 168

Barge canal, 212

Belleville, 98

Berkeley, 240

Bienville, Governor, 245

Blackstone, William, 105

Boston, 105-136
capital of Massachusetts, 105
settlement of, 105
divisions of, 107
harbor, 108
trade center, 119
foreign commerce, 121
industries, 121

Boston Tea Party, 84, 122

Braddock, 173

Bradford, William, 73

Brockton, 119

Brooklyn, 11, 24, 28, 30

Brooks, Phillips, 127

Bruceton, 178

Buffalo, 207-226
settlement of, 207, 208
named, 209
Erie Canal, 210
lake port, 211
importance of location, 212
trade with Canada, 212
manufacturing center, 213
Niagara power, 213, 216, 224-225
iron industry, 214
flour mills, 216
important live-stock market, 217
important lumber market, 217
harbor, 221

Buffalo River, 207, 221

Bulfinch, Charles, 111

Cadillac, Antoine de la Mothe, 191

Calumet River, 56

Cambridge, 116, 117, 131, 133

Carnegie, Andrew, 184

Carnegie Steel Company, 175

Centennial Exhibition, 75

Charles River, 116

Chicago, 41-66, 180
fire of 1871, 41
settlement of, 43
harbor, 45, 56, 57
becomes a city, 46
important railroad center, 54
greatest lake port, 54
grain market, 55
steel industry, 56
largest lumber market, 57
exports, 57
center of packing industry, 61
Pullman, 62

Chicago drainage and ship canal, 54

Chicago River, 41, 43, 45, 53, 54, 57

Civil War, 247

Cleaveland, General Moses, 137

Cleveland, 137-154, 180
settlement of, 137
harbor, 141
becomes a city, 142
industries, 142, 143, 148
importance of location, 148
manufacturing center, 148
largest ore market in the world, 148
center of shipbuilding, 148
important lake port, 153

Cleveland, Grover, 224

Clinton, De Witt, 209

Coal, 56, 70, 100, 142, 172, 175, 213, 214, 215, 257

Coal mines, 175

Commerce, foreign, 35, 57, 121, 231, 259

Cotton, 257, 258, 261

Croton River, 18

Custis, Martha, 294

Cuyahoga River, 137, 138, 140, 141, 145

Declaration of Independence, 8, 85

Delaware River, 67, 68, 69

de Portolá, Don Gaspar, 227

Des Plaines River, 53

Detroit, 139, 189-206
leading port on Canadian shore, 189, 199
founded, 191
early history, 191
growth, 192
trade center, 194
harbor, 195
shipbuilding industry, 195
becomes industrial city, 196
center of automobile trade, 196
industries, 197
immense wholesale trade, 198
railroad center, 200

Detroit River, 191, 200, 205

District of Columbia, 267, 288, 289

Doan, Nathaniel, 139

Dutch West India Company, 5

East River, 27, 36

East St. Louis, 98

Erie Canal, 9, 193, 209, 210, 212

Exports, value of, 301

Fall River, 121

Farragut, David, 248

Fillmore, Millard, 224

Fish industry, 121, 239

Fitch, John, 72

Fort Dearborn, 44

Fort McHenry, 169

Fort Myer, 294

Fort Pitt, 171

Foreign-born population, 300

Franklin, Benjamin, 73, 84

French and Indian War, 171, 191, 245

Fulton, Robert, 72

Girard, Stephen, 79

Gold, 227

Golden Gate, 231, 241

Grain industry, 55, 102

Granite City, 98

Gunpowder River, 163

Hale, Edward Everett, 130

_Half Moon_, 3

Hancock, John, 124

Homestead, 173

Hudson, Henry, 4

Hudson River, 4, 30, 35, 36, 207, 209, 210

Hull, General William, 192

Illinois and Michigan Canal, 47

Illinois River, 47, 53, 93

Imports, value of, 302

Increase in population of our great cities, 299

Iron industry, 171, 172, 214, 233

Jackson, Andrew, 246

Jefferson, Thomas, 89

Key, Francis Scott, 169

Kingsbury, James, 138

Kinzie, John, 43

Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company, 215

Largest cities in the world, 299

Lawrence, 121

Lee, Robert E., 294

Lewis and Clark expedition, 90

Louisiana Purchase, 89, 245

Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 96

Lowell, 121

Lumber, 57, 100, 217, 257

Lynn, 119

Madison, 98

Manhattan, 4, 11

McCall Ferry dam, 163

McKeesport, 173

McKinley, William, 224

Mexican War, 227

Mints, 81, 82, 237

Minuit, Peter, 5

Mississippi River, 47, 89, 91, 96, 97, 171, 245, 248, 249

Missouri River, 90, 93

Mohawk River, 207, 209

Monongahela River, 171, 172, 182

Morris, Robert, 75

Mt. Vernon, 267, 294

Natural gas, 151, 181, 185, 213

New Amsterdam, 6, 14

New Bedford, 121

New Orleans, 171, 245-264
early history, 245
in the War of 1812, 246
in the Civil War, 247
building the city, 249
the French quarter, 251, 252
the American quarter, 251, 255
important lumber market, 257
important cotton market, 258, 261
Gulf port, 261
second export port in America, 261
exports, 261
important sugar market, 257, 261
Mardi Gras, 263

New York, 3-40
settlement of, 4
surrendered to English, 7
named, 8
capital city, 9
harbor, 9, 36
becomes Greater New York, 11
boroughs, 11
nation's chief market place, 32
imports, 32
exports, 32
nation's greatest workshop, 32
industries, 32

Niagara Falls, 213, 224

Niagara River, 190, 191, 209, 212, 219, 224

Oakland, 240

Ohio Canal, 140

Ohio River, 93, 137, 139, 140, 171, 172

Ore, 56, 142, 214

Packing industry, 59, 61, 101, 217, 233

Panama Canal, 233, 242

Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 242

Pan-American Exposition, 224

Patapsco River, 168

Penn, William, 67, 74, 75, 76

Perry, Oliver Hazard, 192

Petroleum, 180, 213, 257

Philadelphia, 67-88, 167
settlement of, 67
manufacturing city, 69
commercial center, 70
industries, 70
United States mint, 81
Continental Congress, 84, 85
Declaration of Independence signed at, 85
capital of the nation, 87

Pitt, William, 171

Pittsburgh, 148, 171-188
workshop of the world, 171
named, 171
trade center, 172
manufacturing city, 172
center of steel industry, 173
industries, 173
Pittsburgh district, 173
mines, 175, 177
petroleum, 180
natural gas, 181

Pontiac's conspiracy, 192

Population of our great cities, 299

Potomac River, 267, 272, 292

Pullman, 62

Puritans, 105

Quakers, 67

Railroads, 9, 49, 58, 70, 93, 110, 142, 150, 200, 211, 213, 238
Pennsylvania, 30, 150
New York Central, 32, 110, 150
Michigan Southern, 49
Michigan Central, 49, 200
Missouri Pacific, 93
Boston & Albany, 110
Boston & Maine, 110
New York, New Haven & Hartford, 110
Nickel Plate, 150
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis, 150
Erie Railroad, 150
Baltimore & Ohio, 150
Wheeling & Lake Erie, 150
Southern Pacific, 238
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, 239
Union Pacific, 239
Western Pacific, 239

Revere, Paul, 124

Revolution, War of the, 8, 75, 111, 112, 119, 122, 192, 207, 266

Richmond, 240

Rogers, Major Robert, 191, 193

Roosevelt, Theodore, 224

Ross, Betsy, 86

Sacramento River, 230

St. Gaudens, 113, 127

St. Lawrence River, 190

St. Louis, 89-104
frontier village, 89
trade center, 93
railroad center, 94
favorable location, 98
industries, 100
distributing center, 102
fur, grain, and live-stock market, 102, 103

San Francisco, 227-244
early history, 227
growth of, 227, 228
"child of the mines," 228
San Francisco Bay, 230
trade center, 231
exports, 231
imports, 231
industries, 233
United States mint, 237
leading salmon port, 239

San Joaquin River, 230

Sargent, John S., 128

Sault Ste. Marie, 190

Saur, Christopher, 73

Schuylkill River, 68, 75

Scioto River, 140

Shaw, Colonel, 113

Shortest railway routes from Chicago, 301

Shortest railway routes from New York, 300

Silver, 228

Standard Oil Company, 143

Steel, 56, 71, 173, 180

Straits of Mackinac, 190

Stuyvesant, Peter, 6

Sugar, 32, 257, 261

Susquehanna River, 163

Thevis, Father, 255

Tonawanda, 219

Touro, Judah, 257

Trumbull, John, 275

Union Stockyards, 59

University City, 96

Venice, 98

War of 1812, 44, 192, 209, 246, 268

Washington, 202, 265-298
the capital city, 265
location, 265
story of, 266
District of Columbia, 267, 288, 289
plan of the city, 268
capitol, 272
House of Representatives, 277, 289
Supreme Court, 279
Senate, 279, 289
Library of Congress, 280
White House, 282
National Treasury, 284, 286
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 285
Washington Monument, 291
Post Office Department, 294
Arlington National Cemetery, 294

Washington, George, 8, 84, 87, 119, 171, 267, 282, 294

Westinghouse, George, 185

Westinghouse Electric Company, 185

Winne, Cornelius, 207, 208

Winthrop, John, 105

Woodward, Augustus B., 202

World's Columbian Exposition, 63

York, Duke of, 7

* * * * *

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.

Index entries out of sequence have not been corrected.

Text in italics has been marked with underscores (_text_) and text in
bold with equal signs (=text=).

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

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Great Cities of the United States - Historical, Descriptive, Commercial, Industrial" ***

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