Chapter III: Part 3

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

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

But now we are tired of buildings, so come into the Public Garden--the gateway to the Back Bay--and 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.

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?"

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

=BALTIMORE=

FACTS TO REMEMBER

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

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

Located near the head of Chesapeake Bay.

Has a fine harbor and a splendid dock system.

An important railroad center.

Has a large and growing foreign commerce.

An important manufacturing center.

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

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

An important center for shipping oysters and crabs.

Associated with the writing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pittsburgh coal is used all over the country. The near-by mines form a great underground city, whose dark passageways, far below the surface of the earth, are lighted by 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.