Peculiarities of American cities

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VI. Down the Great River.

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THE FUBLISHKRS.

PECULIARITIES

or

AMERICAN CITIES.

BY

CAPTAIN WILLARD (^LAZIER, lW/

AUTHOR OF "SOLDIERS OF THE SADDLE," "CAPTURE, PRISON-PEN
AND ESCAPE," "BATTLES FOR THE UNION," "HEROES OF THREE

WA-RS," "DOWN THE GREAT RIVER," ETC., ETC.

PHILADELPHIA:
HUBBABD BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,

No. 723 CHESTNUT STREET.
1886.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by

WILLARD GLAZIER,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

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;»UtfPTON ACCESSJOfc

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«4*C«OFT LIBRARY

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WHO IS NEAREST AND DEAREST J
WHOSE HEART HAS ENCOURAGED;

WHOSE HAND HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THB

ILLUSTRATION AND EMBELLISHMENT
OP ALL MY LITERARY WORK,

IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED

BY

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

It has occurred to the author very often that a volume
presenting the peculiar features, favorite resorts and
distinguishing characteristics, of the leading cities of
America, would prove of interest to thousands who
could, at best, see them only in imagination, and to
others, who, having visited them, would like to compare
notes with one who has made their PECULIARITIES a
study for many years.

A residence in more than a hundred cities, including
nearly all that are introduced in this work, leads me to
feel that I shall succeed in my purpose of giving to the
public a book, without the necessity of marching in slow
and solemn procession before my readers a monumental
array of time-honored statistics; on the contrary, it will
be my aim, in the following pages, to talk of cities as I
have seen and found them in my walks, from day to day,
with but slight reference to their origin and past history.

WILLAED GLAZIER.

22 Jay Street,
ALBANY, September 24, 1883.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Portrait of the Author (Steel) FRONTISPIECE.

PAOE

State Street and Capitol, Albany, N. Y 34

Boston, as Viewed from the Bay 38

Soldiers' Monument at Buffalo, N. Y 62

View of Baltimore, trom Federal Hill 92

View on the Battery, Charleston, South Carolina 108

Garden at Mount Pleasant, opposite Charleston, S. C 112

Custom House, Charleston, South Carolina 116

Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina 120

Public Square and Perry Monument, Cleveland, Ohio 150

Euclid Avenue, Cleveland Ohio 156

Bird's-eye View of Chicago, from the Lake Side 160

Burning of Chicago, the Worldrs Greatest Conflagration 164

Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago 170

Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 192

Harrisburg and Bridges over the Susquehanna 200

Jackson Square and Old Cathedral, New Orleans 274

Mardi Gras Festival, New Orleans 278

Bird's-eye View of New York 296

New York and Brooklyn Bridge 318

Pittsburg and its Rivers 336

Night Scene in Market Square, Portland, Maine 3GO

Old Independence Hall, Philadelphia 370

Masonic Temple, Philadelphia 378

Girard Avenue Bridge, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia 394

View of Providence, Rhode Island, from Prospect Terrace... 400

Tabernacle and Temple, Salt Lake City 440

Seal Rocks from the Cliff House, near San Francisco 462

Levee and Great Bridge at St. Louis 492

Shaw's Garden at St. 'Louis, Missouri 602

University of Toronto, Canada 524

East Front of Capitol at Washington 538

State, War and Navy Departments, Washington, D. C 546

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.— ALBANY.

From Boston to Albany. — Worcester and Pittsfield. — The Empire
State and its Capital.— Old Associations.— State Street— Sketch
of Eany History. — Killian Van Rensselaer. — Dutch Emigra-
tion.— Old Fort Orange. — City Heights. — The Lumber District.
— Van Rensselaer Homestead. — The New Capitol. — Military
Bureau. — War Relics. — Letter of General Dix. — Ellsworth and
Lincoln Memorials. — Geological Rooms. — The Cathedral. —
Dudley Observatory.— Street Marketing.— Troy and Cohoes.—
Stove Works. — Paper Boats. — Grand Army Rooms. — Down the
Hudson 25-37

CHAPTER II.-BOSTON.

Geographical Location of Boston. — Ancient Names. — Etymology
of the Word Massachusetts. — Changes in the Peninsula. — Noted
Points of Interest. — Boston Common. — Old Elm. — Duel Under
its Branches. — Soldiers' Monument. — Fragmentary History. —
Courtship on the Common. — Faneuil Hall and Market. — Old
State House.— King's Chapel.— Brattle Square Church.— New
State House.— New Post Office.— Old South Church.— Birth-
place of Franklin.— " News Letter."— City Hall.— Custom
House. — Providence Railroad Station. — Places of General In-
terest 38-56

CHAPTER III.— BUFFALO.

The Niagara Frontier.— Unfortunate Fate of the Eries.— The
Battle of Doom.— Times of 1812.— Burning of Buffalo.— Early
Names. — Origin of Present Name. — Growth and Population. —
Railway Lines. — Queen of the Great Lakes. — Fort Porter and
Fort Erie. — International Bridge. — Iron Manufacture.— Danger
of the Niagara. — Forest Lawn Cemetery. — Decoration Day. —
The Spaulding Monument. — Parks and Boulevard. — Delaware
Avenue. — On the Terrace. — Elevator District. — Church and
Schools. — Grosvenor Library. — Historical Rooms. — Journalism.
— Public Buildings. — City Hall. — Dog-carts and their Attend-
ants 57-71

V

Vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.-BROOKLYN.

Brooklyn a Suburb of New York.— A City of Homes.— Public
Buildings. — Churches. — Henry Ward Beecher. — Thomas De
Witt Talmage. — Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D. — Justin D. Fulton, D.D.
— R. S. Storrs, D.D. — Navy Yard. — Atlantic Dock. — Washington
Park. — Prospect Park. — Greenwood Cemetery. — Evergreen
and Cyprus Hills Cemeteries. — Coney Island. — Rockaway. —
Staten Island.-— Glen Island.— Future of Brooklyn 72-84

CHAPTER V.-BALTIMORE.

Position of Baltimore. — Streets. — Cathedral and Churches. — Pub-
lic Buildings. — Educational Institutions. — Art Collections.—
Charitable Institutions.— Monuments. — Railway Tunnels. —
Parks and Cemeteries. — Druid Hill Park. — Commerce and
Manufactures. — Foundation of the City. — Early History. — Bona-
parte-Patterson Marriage. — Storming of Baltimore in 1814. —
Maryland at the Breaking-out of the Rebellion. — Assault on
Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, in April, 1861. — Subsequent
Events during the War. — Baltimore Proves Herself Loyal. — •
Re-union of Grand Army of the Republic in Baltimore, Septem-
ber, 1882. — Old Differences Forgotten and Fraternal Relations
Established 85-106

CHAPTER VL-CHARLESTON.

First Visit to Charleston.— Jail Yard.— Bombardment of the City.
— Roper Hospital. — Charleston During the War. — Secession of
South Carolina. — Attack and Surrender of Fort Sumter. —
Blockade of the Harbor.— Great Fire of 1861.— Capitulation in
1865.— First Settlement of the City.— Battles of the Revolution.
— Nullification Act. — John C. Calhoun. — Population of the
City. — Commerce and Manufactures. — Charleston Harbor. —
" American Venice." — Battery. — Streets, Public Buildings and
Churches. — Scenery about Charleston. — Railways and Steamship
Lines. — An Ancient Church. — Magnolia Cemetery. — Drives near
the City.— Charleston Purified by Fire 107-120

CHAPTER VTL— CINCINNATI.

Founding of Cincinnati. — Rapid Increase of Population. — Char-
acter of its Early Settlers. — Pro-slavery Sympathies. — During
the Rebellion. — Description of the City.— Smoke and Soot. —

CONTENTS. VU

Suburbs. -— " Fifth Avenue" of Cincinnati.— Streets, Public
Buildings, Private Art Galleries, Hotels, Churches and Educa-
tional Institutions. — "Over the Rhine." — Hebrew Population.
— Liberal Religious Sentiment. — Commerce and Manufacturing
Interests. — Stock Yards and Pork-packing Establishments. —
Wine Making. — Covington and Newport Suspension Bridge. —
High Water.— Spring Grove Cemetery 121-189

CHAPTER VIIL-CLEVELAND.

The " Western Reserve."— Character of Early Settlers.— Fairport.
— Richmond. — Early History of Cleveland. — Indians. — Opening
of Ohio and Portsmouth Canal. — Commerce in 1845. — Cleve-
land in 1850. — First Railroad. — Manufacturing Interests. —
Cuyahoga "Flats" atNigfct.— The " Forest City."— Streets and
Avenues. — Monumental Park. — Public Buildings and Churches.
— Union Depot. — Water Rents. — Educational Institutions. —
Rocky River.— Approach to the City.— Freshet of 1883.—
Funeral of President Garfield. — Lake Side Cemetery. — Site of
the Garfield Monument 140-156

CHAPTER IX.— CHICAGO.

Topographical Situation of Chicago.— Meaning of the Name. —
Early History. — Massacre at Fort Dearborn. — Last of the Red
Men. — The Great Land Bubble.— Rapid Increase in Popula-
tion and Business. -^The Canal. — First Railroad. — Status of
the City in 1871.— The Great Fire.— Its Origin, Progress and
Extent. — Heartrending Scenes. — Estimated Total Loss. — Help
from all Quarters. — Work of Reconstruction. — Second Fire. —
Its Public Buildings, Educational and Charitable Institutions,
Streets and Parks. — Its Waterworks. — Its Stock Yards. — Its
Suburbs.— Future of the City 157-176

CHAPTER X.-CHEYENNE.

Jjocation of Cheyenne. — Founding of the City. — Lawlessness. —
Vigilance Committee. — Woman Suffrage. — Rapid Increase of
Population and Business. — A Reaction. — Stock Raising. — Irri-
gation.— Mineral Resources. — Present Prospects 176-181

CHAPTER XL— DETROIT.

Detroit and Her Avenues of Approach. — Competing Lines. —
London in Canada. — The Strait and the Ferry. — Music on the

viii CONTENTS.

Waters. — The Home of the Algonquins. — Teusha-grondie.— -
Wa-we-aw-to-nong. — Fort Ponchartrain and the Early French
Settlers. — The Red Cross of St. George. — Conspiracy of Pontiac.
—Battle of Bloody Run.— The Long Siege.— Detroit's First
American Flag. — Old Landmarks. — The Pontiac Tree. — Devas-
tation by Fire.— Site of the Modern City.— New City Hall.—
Public Library. — Mexican Antiquities 182-193

CHAPTER XII.— ERIE.

Decoration Day in Pennsylvania. — Lake Erie. — Natural Advan-
tages of Erie. — Her Harbor, Commerce and Manufactures.— t
Streets and Public Buildings. — Soldiers' Monument. — Erie
Cemetery.— East and West Parks.— Perry's Victory 194-198

CHAPTER XIII.— HARRISBURG.

A Historic Tree. — John Harris' Wild Adventure with the In-
dians.— Harris Park. — History of Harrisburg. — Situation and
Surroundings. — State House. — State Library. — A Historic Flag.
— View from State House Dome.— Capitol Park. — Monument to
Soldiers of Mexican War. — Monument to Soldiers of Late War.
— Public Buildings. — Front Street. — Bridges over the Susque-
hanna. — Mt. Kalmia Cemetery. — Present Advantages and Future
Prospects of Harrisburg 199-206

CHAPTER XIV.-HARTFORD.

The City of Publishers. — Its Geographical Location. — The New
State House. — Mark Twain and the "None Such."— The
''Heathen Chinee." — Wadsworth Atheneum. — Charter Oak. —
George H. Clark's Poem. — Putnam's Hotel. — Asylum for Deaf
Mutes. — The Sign Language. — A Fragment of Witchcraftism. —
Hartford Courant.— The Connecticut River 207-215

CHAPTER XV.— LANCASTER.

First Visit to Lancaster. — Eastern Pennsylvania. — Conestoga
River. — Early History of Lancaster. — Early Dutch Settlers. —
Manufactures. — Public Buildings. — Whit- Monday. — Home of
three Noted Persons. — James Buchanan, his Life and Death. —
Thaddeus Stevens and his Burial Place. — General Reynolds
and his Death.—" Cemetery City." 216-221

CONTENTS. ir

CHAPTER XVI. —MILWAUKEE.

Rapid Development of the Northwest.— The " West" Forty Years
Ago. — Milwaukee and its Commerce and Manufactures.— Grain
Elevators. — Harbor. — Divisions of the City. — Public Buildings.
— Northwestern National Asylum for Disabled Soldiers. — Ger-
man Population. — Influence and Results of German Immigra-
tion.— Bank Riot in 1862. — Ancient Tumuli. — Mound Builders.
— Mounds Near Milwaukee. — Significance of Same. — Early
Traders. — Foundation of the City in 1835. — Excelling Chicago
in 1870.— Population and Commerce in 1880 222-235

CHAPTER XVII.— MONTREAL.

Thousand Islands. — Long Sault Rapids. — Lachine Rapids. —
Victoria Bridge — Mont Real. — Early History of Montreal. — Its
Shipping Interests. — Quays. — Manufactures. — Population. —
Roman Catholic Supremacy. — Churches. — Nunneries. —
Hospitals, Colleges. — Streets. — Public Buildings. — Victorin
Skating Rink. — Sleighing. — Early Disasters. — Points of Interest.
—The "Canucks." 236-247

CHAPTER XVIII.— NEWARK.

From New York to Newark. — Two Hundred Years Ago. — The
Pioneers. — Public Parks. — City of Churches. — The Canal. —
Sailing Up- Hill. — An Old Graveyard. — New Amsterdam and
New Netherlands. — The Dutch and English. — Adventurers from
New England. — The Indians. — Rate of Population. — Manu-
factures.—Rank as a City 248-255

CHAPTER XIX.-NEW HAVEN.

The City of Elms. — First Impressions. — A New England Sunday.
—A Sail on the Harbor.— Oyster Beds.— East Rock.— The
Lonely Denizen of the Bluff. — Romance of John Turner. —
West Rock.— The Judges' Cave.— Its Historical Association.—
Escape of the Judges. — Monument on the City Green. — Yale
College. — Its Stormy Infancy. — Battle on the Weathersfield
Road.— Harvard, the Fruit of the Struggle 256-263

CHAPTER XX.— NEW ORLEANS.

Locality of New Orleans. — The Mississippi. — The Old and the
New.— Ceded to Spain. — Creole Part in the American Revolu-

X CONTENTS.

tion. Retransferred to France. — Purchased by the United
States. — Creole Discontent. — Battle of New Orleans.— Increase
of Population. — The Levee. — Shipping. — Public Buildings,
Churches, Hospitals, Hotels and Places of Amusement. —
Streets. — Suburbs. — Public Squares and Parks.— Places of
Historic Interest. — Cemeteries. — French Market. — MardL-
gras. — Climate and Productions. — New Orleans during the
Rebellion.— Chief Cotton Mart of the World.— Exports.—
Imports.— Future Prosperity of the City 264-280

CHAPTER XXI.— NEW YORK.

Early History of New York. — During the Revolution. — Evacuation
Day.— Bowling Green.— Wall Street.— Stock Exchange.— Jacob
Little.— Daniel Drew.— Jay Cooke.— Rufus Hatch.— The Van-
derbilts. — Jay Gould. — Trinity Church. — John Jacob Astor. —
Post- Office. — City Hall and Court House. — James Gordon
Bennett. — Printing House Square. — Horace Greeley. — Broad-
way.— Union Square. — Washington Square. — Fifth Avenue. —
Madison Square. — Cathedral. — Murray Hill. — Second Avenue.
— Booth's Theatre and Grand Opera House. — The Bowery. —
Peter Cooper. — Fourth Avenue. — Park Avenue. — Five Points
and its Vicinity. — Chinese Quarter. — Tombs. — Central Park. —
Water Front. — Blackwell's Island. — Hell Gate. — Suspension
Bridge. — Opening Day. — Tragedy of Decoration Day. — New
York of the Present and Future 281-318

CHAPTER XXII.— OMAHA.

Arrival in Omaha. — The Missouri River. — Position and Appear-
ance of the City. — Public Buildings. — History. — Land Specula-
tion.— Panic of 1857. — Discovery of Gold in Colorado. — " Pike' 3
Peak or Bust." — Sudden Revival of Business.— First Railroad.
— Union Pacific Railroad. — Population. — Commercial and
Manufacturing Interests. — Bridge over the Missouri. — Union
Pacific Depot.— Prospects for the Future 319-325

CHAPTER XXIII.— OTTAWA.

Ottawa, the Seat of the Canadian Government. — History. —
Population. — Geographical Position. — Scenery. — Chaudiere
Falls. — Rideau Falls. — Ottawa River. — Lumber Business.--
Manufactures. — Steamboat and Railway Communications. —

CONTENTS. XI

Moore's Canadian Boat Song. — Description of the City. —
Churches, Nunneries, and Charitable Institutions. — Government
Buildings. — Rideau Hall. — Princess Louise and Marquis of
Lome.— Ottawa's Proud Boast 326-331

CHAPTER XXIV.-PITTSBURG.

Pittsburg at Night. — A Pittsburg Fog. — Smoke. — Description of
the City. — The Oil Business. — Ohio River.— Public Buildings,
Educational and Charitable Institutions. — Glass Industry. —
Iron Foundries.— Fort Pitt Worki — Casting a Monster Gun.
— American Iron Works. — Nail Works. — A City of Workers.
— A True Democracy. — Wages. — Character of Workmen. —
Value of Organization. — Knights of Labor. — Opposed to Strikes.
— True Relations of Capital and Labor. — Railroad Strike of
1877. — Allegheny City. — Population of Pittsburg. — Early His-
tory— Braddock's Defeat. — Old Battle Ground. — Historic Relics.
—The Past and the Present 332-347

CHAPTER XXV.— PORTLAND.

The Coast of Maine.— Early Settlements in Portland.— Troubles
with the Indians. — Destruction of the Town in 1690. — Destroyed
Again in 1703. — Subsequent Settlement and Growth. — During
the Revolution. — First Newspaper. — Portland Harbor. — Com-
mercial Facilities and Progress. — During the Rebellion. — Great
Fire of 1866. — Reconstruction. — Position of the City.— Streets.
— Munjoy Hill. — Maine General Hospital. — Eastern and Western
Promenades. — Longfellow's House. — Birthplace of the Poet. —
Market Square and Hall. — First Unitarian Church. — Lincoln
Park. — Eastern Cemetery. — Deering's Woods. — Commercial
Street. — Old-time Mansion. — Case's Bay and Islands. — Gush-
ing's Island. — Peak's Island. — Ling Island. — Little Chebague
Island.— Harpswell 348-365

CHAPTER XXVI.— PHILADELPHIA.

Early History. — William Penn. — The Revolution. — Declaration
of Independence. — First Railroad. — Riots. — Streets and Houses.
—Relics of the Past.— Independence Hall.— Carpenters' Hall.
—Blue Anchor.— Letitia Court.— Christ Church. -Old Swedes'
Church.— Benjamin Franklin.— Libraries. — Old Quaker Alms-
house. — Old Houses in Germantown. — Manufactures. —
Theatres. — Churches —Scientific Institutions. — Newspapers. —

xn CONTENTS.

Medical Colleges. — Schools. — Public Buildings. — Penitentiary.
— River Front. — Fairmount Park. — Zoological Gardens. —
Cemeteries. — Centennial Exhibition. — Bi- Centennial. — Past,
Present and Future of the City.. 366-398

CHAPTER XXVIL— PROVIDENCE.

Origin of the City. — Roger Williams. — Geographical Location and
Importance. — Topography of Providence. — The Cove. — Railroad
Connections. — Brown University. — Patriotism of Rhode Island.
— Soldiers' Monument. — The Roger Williams Park. — Narragan-
sett Bay. — Suburban Villages. — Points of Interest. — Butter Ex-
change.— Lamplighting on a New Plan. — Jewelry Manufacto-
ries 399-404

CHAPTER XXVIII.— QUEBEC.

Appearance of Quebec. — Gibraltar of America. — Fortifications and
Walls. — The Walled City. — Churches, Nunneries and Hospitals.
— Views from the Cliff. — Upper Town. — Lower Town. — Manu-
factures.— Public Buildings. — Plains of Abraham. — Falls of
Montmorenci.— Sledding on the "Cone." — History of Quebec.
—Capture of the City by the British.— Death of Generals Wolfe
and Montcalm. — Disaster under General Murray. — Ceding of
Canada, by France, to England. — Attack by American Forces
under Montgomery and Arnold. — Death of Montgomery. — Capital
of Lower Canada and of the Province of Quebec 405-414

CHAPTER XXIX.— READING.

Geographical Position and History of Reading.— Manufacturing
Interests. — Population, Streets, Churches and Public Buildings.
— Boating on the Schuylkill. — White Spot and the View from
its Summit. — Other Pleasure Resorts. — Decoration Day. —
Wealth Created by Industry 415-420

CHAPTER XXX.— RICHMOND.

Arrival in Richmond. — Libby Prison. — Situation of the City. —
Historical Associations. — Early Settlement. — Attacked by
British Forces in the Revolution. — Monumental Church. — St.
John's Church. — State Capital. -^Passage of the Ordinance of
Secession. — Richmond the Capital of the Confederate States. —
Military Expeditions against the City. — Evacuation of Petersburg.
—Surrender of the City.— Visit of President Lincoln,— Historical

CONTENTS. xiii

Places. — Statues. — Rapid Recuperation After the War. — Manu-
facturing and Commercial Interests. — Streets and Public Build-
ings.— Population and Future Prospects 421-432

CHAPTER XXXI.— SAINT PAUL.

Early History of Saint Paul.— Founding of the City.— Public
Buildings. — Roman Catholics. — Places of Resort. — Falls of
Minnehaha. — Carver's Cave. — Fountain Cave. — Commercial
Interests. — Present and Future Prospects 433-437

CHAPTER XXXII.-SALT LAKE CITY.

The Mormons. — Pilgrimage Across the Continent. — Site of Salt
Lake City. — A People of Workers. — Spread of Mormons through
other Territories. — City of the Saints.— Streets. -r-Fruit and
Shade Trees. — Irrigation. — The Tabernacle. — Residences of the
late Brigham Young. — Museum. — Public Buildings. — Warm
and Hot Springs. — Number and Character of Population. —
Barter System before Completion of Railroad. — Mormons and
Gentiles. — Present Advantages and Future Prospects of Salt
Lake City 438-447

CHAPTER XXXIII.— SAN FRANCISCO.

San Francisco. — The Golden State. — San Francisco Bay. — Golden
Gate. — Conquest of California by Fremont, 1848. — Discovery
of Gold.— Rush to the Mines, 1849.— "Forty-niners."— Great
Rise in Provisions and Wages. — Miners Homeward Bound. —
Dissipation and Vice in the City. — Vigilance Committee. — Great
Influx of Miners in 1850. — Immense Gold Yield. — Climate. —
Earthquakes. — Productions. — Irrigation. — Streets and Buildings.
'—Churches. — Lone Mountain Cemetery. — Cliff House. — Seal
Rock. — Theatres. — Chinese Quarter. — Chinese Theatres. — Joss
Houses. — Emigration Companies. — The Chinese Question. —
Cheap Labor. — " The Chinese Must Go." — Present Population
and Commerce of San Francisco. — Exports. — Manufactures. —
Cosmopolitan Nature of Inhabitants 448-472

CHAPTER XXXIV.— SAVANNAH.

First Visit to Savannah.— Camp Davidson. — The City During the
War. — An Escaped Prisoner. — Recapture and Final Escape. —
A "City of Refuge."— Savannah by Night.— Position of the
City.— Streets and Public Squares.— Forsyth Park.— Monu-

xiv CONTENTS.

ments. — Commerce. — View from the Wharves. — Railroads.-—
Founding of the City. — Revolutionary History. — Death of
Pulaski. — Secession. — Approach of Sherman. — Investment of
the City by Union Troops. — Recuperation After the War. —
Climate. — Colored Population.— Bona venture, Thunderbolt, and
Other Suburban Resorts 473-486

CHAPTER XXXV.— SPRINGFIELD.

Valley of the Connecticut. — Location of Springfield. — The
United States Armory. — Springfield Library. — Origin of
the Present .Library System. — The Wayland Celebration.—
Settlement of Springfield. — Indian Hostilities. — Days of
Witchcraft. — Trial of Hugh Parsons. — Hope Daggett. — Spring-
field "Republican." 487-491

CHAPTER XXXVI.— ST. LOUIS.

Approach to St. Louis. — Bridge Over the Mississippi. — View of the
City. — Material Resources of Missouri. — Early History of St.
Louis. — Increase of Population. — Manufacturing and Commer-
cial Interests. — Locality. — Description of St. Louis in 1842.—
Resemblance to Philadelphia. — Public Buildings.— Streets. —
Parks. — Fair Week. — Educational and Charitable Institutions.
— Hotels. — Mississippi River. — St. Louis During the Rebellion.
—Peculiar Characteristics.— The Future of the City 492-510

CHAPTER XXXVII.— SYRACUSE.

Glimpses on the Rail. — Schenectady. — Valley of the Mohawk. —
"Lover's Le*ap." — Rome and its Doctor. — Oneida Stone. — The
Lo Race.— Oneida Community.— The City of Salt.— The Six
Nations. — The Onondagas. — Traditions of Red Americans. —
Hiawatha. — Sacrifice of White Dogs. — Ceremonies. — The Lost
Tribes of Israel. — Witches and Wizards. — A Jules Verne Story. —
The Salt Wells of Salina. — Lake Onondaga. — Indian Knowledge
of Salt Wells.—" Over the Hills and Far Away."— A Castle.—
Steam Canal Boats.— Adieux.— Westward Ho! 511-621

CHAPTER XXXVIIL— TORONTO.

Situation of Toronto.— The Bay.— History.— Rebellion of 1837.—
Fenian Invasion of 1866. — Population. — General Appearance. —
Sleighing. — Streets. — Railways. — Commerce. — Manufactures. —

CONTENTS. xv

Schools and Colleges. — Queen Park. — Churches. — Benevolent
Institutions. — Halls and Other Public Buildings. — Hotels. — •
Newspapers. — General Characteristics and Progress 522-527

CHAPTER XXXIX.— WASHINGTON.

Situation of the National Capital. — Site Selected by Washington.
— Statues of General Andrew Jackson, Scott, McPherson,
Rawlins. — Lincoln Emancipation Group. — Navy Yard Bridge.
— Capitol Building. — The White House. — Department of
State, War and Navy. — The Treasury Department. — Patent
Office. — Post Office Department. — Agricultural Building. —
Army Medical Museum. — Government Printing Office. —
United States Barracks. — Smithsonian Institute. — National
Museum. — The Washington Monument. — Corcoran Art
Gallery. — National Medical College. — Deaf and Dumb
Asylum. — Increase of Population. — Washington's Future

,..,52&-568

CHAPTEE I.

- ALBANY.

From Boston to Albany.— Worcester and Pittsfield.— The Empire
State and its Capital. — Old Associations.— State Street— Sketch
of Early History. — Killian Van Rensselaer. — Dutch Emigra-
tion.— Old Fort Orange. — City Heights. — The Lumber District.
— Van Rensselaer Homestead. — The New Capitol. — Military
Bureau.— War Relics. — Letter of General Dix. — Ellsworth and
Lincoln Memorials. — Geological Rooms. — The Cathedral. —
Dudley Observatory.— Street Marketing.— Troy and Cohoes.—
Stove Works. — Paper Boats. — Grand Army Rooms. — Down the
Hudson.

AN exceedingly cold day was February fourth,
1875, the day which marked our journey from
Boston to Albany. My inclination to step outside our
car and tip my hat to the various familiar places along
the route was suddenly checked by a gust of cutting,
freezing, zero-stinging air. A ride of between one and
two hours brought us to Worcester, a stirring town of
about forty thousand inhabitants. Worcester is noted
principally for its cotton factories, and as a political
center in Eastern Massachusetts.

Springfield, Westfield and Pittsfield follow in suc-
cession along the route, in central and Western Massa-
chusetts, the first of which has been made the subject of
a special chapter in this book. The last I remember
chiefly as the place where, in the summer of 1866, I
took my first steps in a new enterprise. Pittsfield has
large cotton mills, is a summer resort, and is the nearest
point, by rail, to the Shaker community at Lebanon, five

25

26 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

miles distant. At Westfield the Mount Holyoke Rail-
road joins the main line, and seini-annually conveys the
daughters of the land to the famous Holyoke Female
Seminary.

Leaving Pittsfield we soon reached- the State line
between New York and Massachusetts. I sometimes
think that after a residence in almost every State of the
Union, I ought to feel no greater attraction for my
native State than any other, yet I cannot repress a
sentiment of stronger affection for good, grand old New
York than any other in the united sisterhood. The
Empire State has indeed a charm for me, and a
congenial breeze, I imagine, always awaits me at its
boundary.

A ride of another hour brings to view the church
spires of Albany, and with them a long line of thrilling
memories come rushing, like many waters, to my mind.
Here, in 1859, I entered the State Normal School; here
I resolved to enter the army; and here the first edition
of my first book was published, in the autumn of 1865.
The work, therefore, of presenting this chapter upon the
peculiar features of the Capital City of New York, may
be regarded as one of the most agreeable duties I have
to perform in the preparation of these pages.

The traveler now entering Albany from the east
crosses the Hudson on a beautiful iron railroad bridge,
which, in the steady march of improvements, has
succeeded the old-time ferry boat. He is landed at the
commodious stone building of the New York Central
and Hudson Eiver Railroad, which is conveniently
sandwiched between the Delavan House and Stanwix
Hall, two large, well known and well conducted hotels.

ALBANY. 27

My first night in a city and a hotel was spent here, at
the old Adams House, located at that time on Broadway
just opposite the Delavan. I was awakened in the
morning by the roll and rattle of vehicles, and the usual
din and confusion of a city street. The contrast to
my quiet home in the Valley of the St. Lawrence was
so marked, I can never forget the impression I then
received, and as I walked up State street toward the
old Capitol, I almost fancied that such a street might
be a fit road to Paradise. Albany was the gate through
which I entered the world, and to my boyish vision the
view it disclosed was very wide, and the grand possibili-
ties that lay in the dim distance seemed manifold. It is
the oldest city, save Jamestown, Va., in the Union,
having been settled in the very babyhood of the seven-
teenth century, somewhere about 1612 or 1614. It was
originally, until the year 1661, only a trading post on
the frontier, the entire region of country to the westward
being unexplored and unknown, except as the "far
west." The red warriors of the Mohegans, Senecas,
Mohawks and the remaining bands of the " Six Nations "
held undisputed possession of the soil, and kindled their
council fires and danced their " corn dances " in peace,
unmolested as yet by the aggressive pale-faces.

The baptismal name of the embryo city of Albany
was Scho-negh-ta-da, an Indian word meaning " over
the plains." The name was afterwards transferred to
the outlying suburban town now known as Schenectady.
An immense tract of land bordering the Hudson
for twenty-four miles, and reaching back from the
river three times that distance, included Albany within
its jurisdiction, and was originally owned by a rich

28 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Dutch merchant, one Killian Van Rensselaer, from
Amsterdam. The land was purchased from the Indians
for the merest trifle, after the usual fashion of white
cupidity when dealing with Indian generosity and
ignorance. Emigrants were sent over from the old
country to people this wide domain, and thus the first
white colony was established, which subsequently grew
into sufficient importance to become the Capital city of
the Empire State.

Before the purchase of Killian Van Rensselaer, a fort
was built somewhere on what is now known as Broad-
way, and was named Fort Orange, in honor of the
Prince of Orange, who was at that time patroon of New
Netherlands, as New York was at first called. Old Fort
Orange afterwards went by various names, among which
were Rensselaerwyck, Beaverwyck and Williamstadt.
In 1664 the sovereignty of the tract passed into the
hands of the English, and was named Albany, in
compliment to the Duke of Albany. In 1686 the
young city aspired to a city charter, and its first
mayor, Peter Schuyler, was then elected. In 1807
it became the Capital of the State. As an item of in-
terest, it may be mentioned that the first vessel which
ascended the river as far as Albany was the yacht Half
Moon, Captain Hendrick Hudson commanding.

Albany, like ancient Rome, sits upon her many hills,
and the views obtained from the city heights are beauti-
ful in the extreme. The Helder bergs and the Catskill
ranges loom blue and beautiful towards the south,
Troy and the Green Mountains of Vermont can be seen
from the north, while beyond the river, Bath-on-the
Hudson and the misty hill tops further away, rim the

ALBANY. 29

horizon's distant verge. The city has a large trade in
lumber, and that portion of it which is known as the
"lumber district " is devoted almost exclusively to this
branch. One may walk, of a summer's day, along the
smooth and winding road between the river and the
canal, for two miles or more, and encounter nothing
save the tasteful cottage-like offices, done in Gothic
architecture, of the merchant princes in this trade, sand-
wiched between huge piles of lumber, rising white and
high in the sun, and giving out resinous, piney odors.
Not far from this vicinity stands the old Van Rensselaer
homestead, guarded by a few primeval forest trees that
have survived the wreck of time and still keep their
ancient watch and ward. The old house, I have been
told, is now deserted of all save an elderly lady, one of
the last of the descendants of the long and ancient line
of Van Rensselaer. Numerous points of interest dot the
city in all directions, from limit to limit, and claim the
attention of the stranger. Among the most prominent
of these is, of course, the new Capitol building now in
process of construction at the head of State street. A
very pretty model of the structure is on exhibition in a
small wooden building standing at the entrance to the
grounds, which gives, I should judge, a clever idea of
what the future monumental pile is to be like. Its
height is very imposing, and the tall towers and minarets
which rise from its roof will give it an appearance of still
greater grandeur. It is built of granite quarried from
Maine and New Hampshire, and is in the form of a
parallelogram, enclosing an open court. -Had I a
sufficient knowledge of architecture to enable me to
talk of orders, of pilasters, columns, entablatures and

30 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

facades, I might perhaps give my readers a clearer idea
of the magnificence of this new structure, which will
stand without a rival, in this country at least, and may
even dare to compete with some of the marvellous
splendors of the old world.

The Old Capitol and the State Library stand just in
front of the new building, and obscure the view from the
foot of State street. The Senate and Assembly chambers
in the old building have an antiquated air, with their
straight-backed chairs upholstered in green and red,
and the rough stairways leading to the cupola, through
an unfurnished attic, are suggestive of accident. In
this cupola, once upon a time, in the year 1832, a certain
Mr. Weaver, tired of life and its turmoil, swung him-
self out of it on a rope. So the cupola has its bit of
romance. In this neighborhood, on State street, above
the Library, is located the Bureau of Military Statistics,
which is well worth a visit from every New Yorker
who takes a pride in the military glory of his native
State. One is greeted at the entrance with a host of
mementos of our recent civil war, which bring back
a flood of patriotic memories. Here is a collection
of nine hundred battle flags, all belonging to the State,
most of them torn and tattered in hard service, and in-
scribed with the names of historic fields into which they
went fresh and bright, and out of which they came
smoked and begrimed, and torn with the conflict of
battle. Here are old canteens which have furnished
solace to true comrades on many occasions of mutual
hardship. Here, too, is the Lincoln collection, with its
sad reminders of the nation's loved and murdered Presi-
dent; and in a corner of the same room the Ellsworth

ALBANY. 31

collection is displayed from a glass case. His gun and
the Zouave suit worn by him at the time of his death
hang side by side, and there, too, is the flag which, with
impetuous bravery, he tore down from the top of the
Marshall House at Alexandria, Virginia. In the same
case hangs the picture of his avenger, Captain Brownell,
and the rifle with which he shot Jackson. In another
part of the room may be seen the original letter of
Governor, then Secretary, Dix, which afterwards be-
came so famous, and which created, in a great measure,
the wave of popularity that carried him into the guber-
natorial chair.

The letter reads as follows : — .

" TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
January, 29th, 1861.

"Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Bresh-
wood, assume command of the cutter, and obey the
order I gave through you. If Captain Breshwood,
after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command
of the cutter, tell Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him
as a mutineer and treat him accordingly. If any one
attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on
the spot.

"JOHN A. Dix, Secretary of the Treasury.''

The captured office chairs used by Jeff. Davis, in
Richmond, the lock from John Brown's prison door at
Harper's Ferry, pieces of plate from the monitors off
Charleston, torpedoes from James River, the bell of
the old guard-house at Fort Fisher, captured slave
chains, miniature pontoon bridges, draft boxes and cap-
tured Rebel shoes, may be mentioned as a few among
the many curiosities of this military bureau. Here, too,

32 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

may be seen the pardon, from Lincoln, for Roswell
Mclntire, taken from his dead body at the battle of
Five Forks ; and near by hangs the picture of Sergeant
Amos Humiston, of the 154th New York Regiment,
who was identified by means of the picture of his three
children, found clasped in his hand as he lay dead on
the field of Gettysburg. In this room, also, is the
Jamestown, New York, flag, made by the ladies of that
place in six hours after the attack on Sumter, and
which was displayed from the office of the Jamestown
Journal. Mr. Daly, the polite janitor of the building,
is always happy to receive visitors, and will show them
every courtesy.

The Geological Rooms, on State street, are also well
worthy the time and attention of the visitor. Large
collections of the various kinds of rock which underlie
the soil of our country are here on exhibition, as, also,
the coral formations and geological curiosities of all
ages. In an upper room towers the mammoth Cohoes
mastodon, whose skeleton reaches from floor to ceiling.
This monster of a former age was accidentally discovered
at that place by parties who were excavating for a
building. In these rooms, also, there are huge jaws of
whales, which enable one to better understand the dis-
position of the Bible whales, and how easy it must have
been for them to gulp down two or three Jonahs, if one
little Jonah should fail to appease the delicate appetite
of such sportive fishes. I couldn't help thinking of the
lost races that must have peopled the earth when this
old world was young — when these fossils were under-
going formation, and these mastodons made the ground
tremble beneath their tread.

ALBANY. 33

Where are these peoples now, and where their unre-
vealed histories ? Shall we never know more of them
than Runic stones and mysterious mounds can unfold ?
These reminders of the things that once had an exist-
ence but have now vanished from the face of the earth,
and well nigh from the memory of men — these things
are full of suggestion, to say the least, and are quite apt
to correct any undue vanity which may take possession
of us, or any large idea of future fame. We may, per-
haps, create a ripple in the surface of remembrance
which marks the place where our human existence went
out, and which, at the furthest, may last a few hundred
years. But who can hope for more than that, or hoping,
can reasonably expect to find the wish realized? "There
are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are
dreamt of in our philosophy."

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, on
Eagle street, is one of the finest church structures in
Albany. It is built of brown freestone, in the Gothic
style of architecture, and its two towers are each two
hundred-and-eighty feet in height. Its cost was six
hundred thousand dollars. The interior decorations
are beautiful, and the rich stained glass windows are
the gifts of sister societies. On Easter mornings the
Cathedral is sure to be crowded by people of all sects
and creeds, brought there to witness the joyous Easter
services which terminate the long fast of Lent.

About a mile and a half from the city, on Patroon's
Hill, is situated the Dudley Observatory, where on
clear summer nights Albanians come to gaze at the stars
and the moon, through the large Observatory refractor.

34 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The structure is built in the form of a cross, eighty-
six feet long and seventy feet deep.

One of the first peculiarities which attracts the
attention of the non-resident of Albany is the appear-
ance of the business portion of State street, in the
forenoon, from eight o'clock until twelve. Any time
between these hours the street, from the lower end of
Capitol Park down to Pearl street, is transformed into
a vast market-place. Meat- wagons, vegetable carts,
restaurants on wheels, and all sorts of huckstering estab-
lishments, are backed up to the sidewalk, on either side,
blocking the way and so filling the wide avenue that
there is barely room for the street-car in its passage up
and down the hill. The descendants of Killian Van
Rensselaer and the aristocratic Ten Eycks and Van
Woerts, of Albany, should exhibit enterprise enough, I
think, to erect a city market and spare State street this
spectacle.

The manufacturing interest of Albany consists largely
of stove works, in which department it competes with
its near neighbor, Troy. This flourishing city, of about
forty-eight thousand souls, is seven miles distant from
Albany, up the river, and is in manifold communication
with it by railroads on both sides of the Hudson, as well
as by street railway. Steam cars run between Albany
and Troy half hourly, during the day and far into the
night, and one always encounters a stream of people
between these two places, whose current sets both ways,
at all times and seasons. Troy is at the head of naviga-
tion on the Hudson and communicates by street car with
Cohoes, Lansingburg and Waterford. Cohoes is a place

STATE STREET AND CAPITOL, ALBANY, NEW YORK.

ALBANY. 35

of great natural beauty, and the Cataract Falls of the
Mohawk River at that place add an element of wild
grandeur to the scenery. One of the large, rocky islands
in the river, known as Simmons' Island, is a popular
resort for picnic excursions, and is a delightful place in
summer, with its groves of forest trees, and the pleasant
noise of waters around its base. The place seems haunted
by an atmosphere of Indian legend, and one could well
imagine the departed warriors of the lost tribes of the
Mohawk treading these wild forest paths, and making
eloquent " talks " before their red brothers gathered
around the council fire.

The Mohawk and Hudson rivers unite at Troy, and
seek a common passage to the sea. Mrs. Willard's
Seminary for young ladies is located in this city, and is
a standard institution of learning. Many of the streets
of Troy are remarkably clean and finely shaded, and
handsome residences and business blocks adorn them.
The city is also a headquarters for Spiritualism in this
section of the country. The Spiritualistic Society has, I
am told, a flourishing, progressive Lyceum, which
supersedes, with them, the orthodox Sunday school, and
the exercises, consisting in part of marches and recita-
tions, are conducted in a spirited and interesting manner.

Foundries for hollow-ware and stoves constitute the
leading branch of manufacture in the city of Troy. To
one not familiar with the process by which iron is shaped
into the various articles of common use among us, a visit
to the foundries of Troy or Albany would be full of
interest and instruction . Piles of yellow sand are lying in
the long buildings used as foundries, while on either side
the room workmen are busily engaged fashioning the

36 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

wet sand into moulds for the reception of the melted
iron. Originally the sand is of a bright yellow color,
but it soon becomes a dingy brown, by repeated use in
cooling the liquid metal.

Each moulder has his " floor," or special amount of
room allotted him for work, and here, during the forenoon,
and up to three or four o'clock in the afternoon, he is very
busy indeed, preparing for the " pouring " operation.
Pig iron, thrown into a huge cauldron or boiler, and
melted to a white heat, is then poured, from a kettle lined
with clay, into the sand-moulds, and in a remarkably
short space of time the greenish-white liquid which you
saw flowing into a tiny, black aperture is shaken out of
the sand by the workmen, having been transformed into
portions of stoves. These go to the polishing room, and
thence to the finishing apartment, where the detached
pieces are hammered together, with deafening noise.

Troy rejoices also in a paper boat manufactory — the
boats being made especially for racing and feats of skill.
They find sale principally in foreign markets, and at
stated seasons divide the attention of the English with
the " Derby." The boats are made of layers of brown
paper put together with shellac.

There is a large society of Grand Army men in Albany,
one Post numbering five or six hundred members.
Their rooms are tastefully decorated, and hung with
patriotic pictures, which make the blood thrill anew, as
in the days of '61. A miniature fort occupies the centre
of the room, and emblematic cannon and crossed swords
are to be seen in conspicuous places.

A trip down the Hudson, in summer, from Albany
to New York, is said to afford some of the finest scenery

ALBANY. 37

in the world, not excepting the famous sail on the castled
Rhine ; and the large river boats which leave Albany
wharf daily, for our American London, are, indeed,
floating palaces. The capital city of the Empire State is
not, therefore, without its attractions, despite the fact
that it was settled by the Dutch, and that a sort of Rip
Van Winkle sleep seems, at times, to have fastened itself
upon the drowsy spirit of Albanian enterprise.

CHAPTER II.

BOSTON.

Geographical Location of Boston. — -Ancient Names. — Etymology
of tLe Word Massachusetts. — Changes in the Peninsula.— Noted
Points of Interest.— Boston Common. — Old Elm. — Duel Under
its Branches. — Soldiers' Monument. — Fragmentary History. — •
Courtship on the Common. — Faneuil Hall and Market. — Old
State House. — King's Chapel.— Brattle Square Church.— New
State House.— New Post Office.— Old South Church.— Birth-
place of Franklin. — "News Letter." — City Hall.— Custom
House. — Providence Kailroad Station. — Places of General In-
terest.

OSTON sits like a queen at the head of her harbcr
1 J on the Massachusetts coast, and wears her crown
of past and present glory with an easy and self-satisfied
grace. Her commercial importance is large ; her ships
float on many seas ; and she rejoices now in the same
Uncompromising spirit of independence which controlled
the actions of the celebrated " Tea Party " in the pioneer
days of ?76. Her safe harbor is one of the best on the
Atlantic seaboard, and is dotted with over a hundred
islands. On some of these, garrisoned forts look grimly
seaward.

Boston is built on a peninsula about four miles in
circumference, and to this fact may be attributed the
origin of her first name, Shawmntt, that word signifying
in the Indian vocabulary a peninsula. Its second
name, Tremount, took its rise from the three peaks of
Beacon Hill, prominently seen from Charlestown by the
firsf settlers there. Many of the colonists were from old
Boston, in Lincolnshire, England, and on the seventh of
September, 1630, this name supplanted the first two.

38

BOSTON. 39

In this connection may be given the etymology of the
word Massachussetts, which is somewhat curious. It is
said that the red Sachem who governed in this part of
the country had his seat on a hill about two leagues
south of Boston. It lay in the shape of an Indian
arrow's head, which in their language was called Mos.
\Vetuset, pronounced Wechuset, was also their name for
a hill, and the Sachem's seat was therefore named
Mosentuset, which a slight variation changed into the
name afterwards received by the colony. Boston, as
the centre of this colony, began from the first to assume
the importance of the first city of New England. Its
history belongs not only to itself, but to the country at
large, as the pioneer city in the grand struggle for con-
stitutional and political liberty. A large majority of
the old landmarks which connected it with the stormy
days of the past, and stood as monuments of its primeval
history, are now obliterated by time and the steady march
of improvements. The face of the country is changed.
The three peaks of Beacon Hill, which once lifted them-
selves to the height of a hundred and thirty feet above
the sea, are now cut down into insignificant knolls. The
waters of the "black bay" which swelled around its
base have receded to give place to the encroachments of
the city. Made lands, laid out in streets and set thick
with dwellings, supplant the mud flats formerly covered
by the tide. Thousands of acres which were once the
bed of the harbor are now densely populated.

The house on Harrison avenue where the writer is
at present domiciled is located on the spot which once
tfas occupied by one of the best wharves in the city.
The largest ocean craft moored to this wharf, on ac-
of the great depth of water flowing around it

40 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The land has steadily encroached on the water, until the
peninsula that was is a peninsula no longer, and its
former geographical outlines have dropped out of sight
in the whirl and rush of the populous and growing city.
A few old landmarks of the past, however, still remain,
linking the now and the then, and among the most
prominent of these are Faneuil Hall, the Old South
Church, which was founded in 1660, King's Chapel, the
Old Granary Burying-ground, Brattle Square Church,
quite recently demolished, the old State House, and
Boston Common. The Common antedates nearly all
other special features of the city, and is the pride of
Bostonians. Here juvenile Boston comes in winter to
enjoy the exciting exercise of " coasting," and woe to the
unwary foot passenger who may chance to collide with
the long sleds full of noisy boys which shoot like black
streaks from the head of Beacon street Mall, down the
diagonal length of the Common, to the junction of
Boylston and Tremont streets. This winter (1874-5),
owing to several unfortunate accidents to passers-by
across the snowy roads of the coasters, elevated bridges
have been erected, to meet the wants of the people with-
out interfering with the rights of the boys. The Com-
mon was originally a fifty-acre lot belonging to a Mr.
Blackstone. This was in 1633. It was designed as a
cow pasture and training ground, and was sold to the
people of Boston the next year, 1634, for thirty pounds.
The city was taxed for this purpose to the amount of
not less than five shillings for each inhabitant. Mr.
Blackstone afterwards removed to Cumberland, Rhode
Island, where he died, in the spring of 1675. It is said
that John Hancock's cows were pastured on the Common
in the days of the Revolution. On the tenth of May,

BOSTON. 41

1830, the city authorities forbade the use of the Common
for cows, at which time it was inclosed by a two-rail
fence. The handsome iron paling which now surrounds
the historic area has long since taken the place of the
ancient fence.

Perhaps the most noticeable, certainly the most fa-
mous object on Boston Common, is the Great Tree, or
Old Elm, which stands in a hollow of rich soil near a
permanent pond of water, not far from the centre of
the enclosure. It is of unknown age. It was probably
over a hundred years old in 1722. Governor Winthrop
came to Boston in 1630, but before that period the tree
probably had its existence. It antedates the arrival of
the first settlers, and it seems not unlikely that the
Indian Shawmutt smoked the pipe of peace under its
pendent branches. In 1844 its height was given at
seventy-two and a half feet — girth, one foot above the
ground, twenty-two and a half feet. The storms of
over two centuries have vented their fury upon it and
destroyed its graceful outlines. But in its age and de-
crepitude it has been tenderly nursed and partially
rejuvenated. Broken limbs, torn off by violent gales,
have been replaced by means of iron clamps, and such
skill as tree doctors may use. In the last century a
hollow orifice in its trunk was covered with canvas and
its edges protected by a mixture of clay and other sub-
stances. Later, in 1854, Mr. J. V. C. Smith, Mayor
of the city, placed around it an iron fence bearing the
following inscription : —

"THE OLD ELM."

"This tree has been standing here for an unknown
period. It is believed to have existed before the settle-
ment of Boston, being full-grown in 1722. Exhibited

42 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

marks of old age in 1792, and was nearly destroyed by
a storm in 1832. Protected by an iron inclosure in
1854."

What a long array of exciting events has this tree
witnessed ! In the stirring days of the Revolution the
British army was encamped aronnd it. In 1812 the
patriot army occupied the same place, in protecting the
town against the invasion of a foreign foe. Tumultuous
crowds have here assembled on election and Independ-
ence days, and its sturdy branches have faced alike the
anger of the elements and the wrath of man. Public
executions have taken place under its shadow, and
witches have dangled from its branches in death's last
agonies. Here, in 1740, Rev. George Whitfield preached
his farewell sermon to an audience of thirty thousand
people ; and here, also, at an earlier date, old Matoonas,
of the Nipmuck tribe, was shot to death by the dusky
warriors of Sagamore John, on a charge of committing
the first murder in Massachusetts Colony. An incident
of still more romantic interest belongs to the history of
the Old Elm. On July third, 1728, this spot was the
scene of a mortal combat between two young men
belonging to the upper circle of Boston society. The
cause of dispute was the possession of an unknown fair
one. The names of the young men were Benjamin
Wood bridge and Henry Phillips, both about twenty
years old. The time was evening, the weapons rapiers,
and Woodbridge was fatally dispatched by a thrust
from the rapier of his antagonist. Phillips fled to a
British ship of war lying in the harbor, and was borne
by fair breezes to English shores. He did not long sur-
vive his opponent, however, dying, it is said, of despair,
shortly after his arrival in England.

BOSTON. 43

Frog Pond, or Fountain Pond, near the Old Elm,
has been transformed from a low, marshy spot of stag-
nant water, to the clear sheet which is now the delight of
the boys. October twenty-fifth, 1848, the water from
Cochituate Lake was introduced through this pond, and
in honor of the occasion a large procession marched
through the principal streets of the city to the Common.
Addresses, hymns, prayers, and songs, were the order
of the day, and when the pure water of the lake leaped
through the fountain gate, the ringing of bells and
boom of cannon attested the joy of the people.

Near the Old Elm and the Frog Pond, on Flagstaff
Hill, the corner-stone of a Soldiers' Monument was laid,
September eighteenth, 1871. Some idea of the style of the
monument may be gathered from the following descrip-
tion : — " Upon a granite platform will rest the plinth,
in the form of a Greek cross, with four panels, in which
will be inserted bas-reliefs representing the Sanitary
Commission, the Navy, the Departure for the War and
the Return. At each of the four corners will be a
statue, of heroic size, representing Peace, History, the
Army, and the Navy. The die upon the plinth will
also be richly sculptured, and upon it, surrounding the
shaft in alto-relievo, will be four allegorical figures rep-
resenting the North, South, East and West. The shaft
is to be an elegant Doric column, the whole to 'be sur-
mounted by a colossal statue of America resting on a
hemisphere, guarded by four figures of the American
eagle, with outspread wings. 'America' will hold in her
left hand the national standard, and in her right she will
support a sheathed sword, and wreaths for the victors.
The extreme height of the monument will be ninety feet.
The arHst is Martin Millmore, of Boston."

44 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

In the year 1668, a certain Mr. Dunton visited
Boston, and wrote the following letter to his friends in
England. It will serve to show the custom of Bos-
touians on training day, and recall some of the scenes
which transpired over two hundred years ago on the
historic Common. "It is a custom here," he says, "for
all that can bear arms to go out on a training day. I
thought a pike was best for a young soldier, so I carried a
pike; 'twas the first time I ever was in arms. Having
come into the field, the Captain called us into line to
go to prayer, and then prayed himself, and when the
exercise was done the Captain likewise concluded with
a prayer. Solemn prayer upon a field, on training day,
I never knew but in K^ew England, where it seems it is
a common custom. About three o'clock, our exercises
and prayers being over, we had a very noble dinner, to
which all the clergymen were invited."

In 1640, Arthur Perry was Town Drummer for all
public purposes. There being no meeting-house bell in
town, he called the congregation together with his drum.
" He joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com-
pany in that capacity, for which yearly service he re-
ceived five pounds. The second additional musical instru-
ment was a clarionet, performed on by a tall, strapping
fellow with but one eye, who headed the Ancient and
Honorable a few strides." The first band of music used in
Boston was in 1790, at the funeral of Colonel Joseph
Jackson. Yearly, for a period of between two and three
hundred years, this military company has appeared on
the Common, to be received by the Governor of the
State, with his aides, who appointed the new commis-
sions for the year to come and received those for the
year just past. Their anniversary occurs on the first
Monday in June.

BOSTON. 45

The Brewer Fountain, the Deer Park and the Tremont
and Beacon Street Malls complete the list of conspicuous
attractions on the Common. The Beacon Street Mall is
perhaps the finest, being heavily shaded by thickly-set
rows of American elms. A particular portion of this
mall is described as the scene of at least one courtship,
and how many more may have transpired in the neigh-
borhood history or tradition tells us not !

The "Autocrat of the Breakfast-table" loved the
schoolmistress who partook of her daily food at the same
board with himself and listened quietly to his wise morn-
ing talks, with only an occasional sensible reply. The
schoolmistress returned his passion, but the young Auto-
crat, uncertain of his fate, rashly determined that if she
said him "nay" to this most important question of his
life, he would take passage in the next steamer bound
for Liverpool, and never look upon her face again. The
fateful hour which was to decide his fate approached,
and the Autocrat proposed a walk. They took the
direction of the Beacon Street Mall, and what happened
next his own charming pen-picture best describes :

" It was on the Common that we were walking. The
mall or boulevard of our Common, you know, has
various branches leading from it in different directions.
One of these runs down from opposite Joy street, south-
ward, across the length of the whole Common, to Boyl-
ston street. We called it the long path, and were fond
of it.

"I felt very weak indeed (though of a tolerably
robust habit) as we came opposite the head of this path
on that morning. I think I tried to speak twice with-
out making myself distinctly audible. At last I got out
the question : — 'Will you take the long path with me ?'

46 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

" ' Certainly/ said the schoolmistress, ' with much
pleasure/

" i Think/ I said, ' before you answer ; if you take the
long path with me now, I shall interpret it that we are
to part no more!' The schoolmistress stepped back
with a sudden movement, as if an arrow had struck her.

" One of the long, granite blocks used as seats was
hard by, the one you may still see close by the Ginko
tree. ' Pray, sit down/ I said.

" ' No, no/ she answered softly, ' I will walk the long
pafh with you.7 ';

Propositions to convert the Common into public
thoroughfares have ever met with stout resistance from
" we the people " — the Commoners of Boston — and
only this winter a meeting was held in Faneuil Hall for
the purpose of protesting against this causeless desecra-
tion. The occasion of the meeting was a clique move-
ment to have a street-car track run through the sacred
ground. One of the speakers — a workingman — waxed
eloquent on the theme of the " poor man's park, where
in summer a soiled son of labor might buy a cent apple
and lounge at his ease under the shady trees."

In 1734, by vote of the town, a South End and
North End Market were established. Before this the
people were supplied with meats and vegetables at their
own doors. In 1740, Peter Faneuil offered to build a
market-house at his own expense, and present it to the
town. His proposition was carried by seven majority.
Faneuil Hall, the " Cradle of Liberty/' was first built
two stories high, forty feet wide, and one hundred feet
in length. It was nearly destroyed by fire in 1761, and
in 1805 it was enlarged to eighty feet in width and
twenty feet greater elevation. " The Hall is never let for

BOSTON. 47

money," but is at the disposal of the people whenever a
sufficient number of persons, complying with certain
regulations, ask to have it opened. The city charter of
Boston contains a provision forbidding the sale or lease
of this Hall. For a period of over eighty years — from
the time of its erection until 1822 — all town meetings
were held within its walls. It is "peculiarly fitted for
popular assemblies, possessing admirable acoustic prop-
erties."

The capacity of the Hall is increased by the absence
of all seats on the floor — the gallery only being pro-
vided with these conveniences. Portraits cover the
walls. Healy's picture of Webster replying to Hayne
hangs in heavy gilt, back of the rostrum. Paintings of
the two Adamses, of General Warren and Commodore
Preble, of Edward Everett and Governor Andrew,
adorn other portions of the Hall. Nor are Washington
and Lincoln forgotten. The pictured faces of these
noble patriots of the past seem to shed a mysterious in-
fluence around, and silently plead the cause of right
and of justice. The words which echoed from this ros-
trum in the days before the Revolution still ring down
from the past, touching the present with a living power
whenever liberty needs a champion or the people an
advocate.

Faneuil Hall Market, or Quincy Market, as it is
popularly called, grew out of a recommendation by
Mayor Quincy, in 1823. Two years later the corner-
stone was laid, and in 1827 the building was completed.
It is five hundred and thirty-five feet long, fifty feet
wide, and two stories high. Its site was reclaimed from
the tide waters, and one hundred and fifty thousand dol-
lars were expended in its erection.

48 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The capital for its construction was managed in such
a judicious way that not only the market was built, but
six new streets were opened and a seventh enlarged,
without a cent of city tax or a dollar's increase 'of the
city's debt.

The Old State House was located on the site of the
first public market, at the head or western end of State
street. It was commenced with a bequest of five hun-
dred pounds from Robert Keayne, the first commander
of the "Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company."
It was known as the Town House, and was erected about
the year 1670. The present Old State House was built
in 1748, on the same site. Its vicinity is historic. The
square in State street below the Old State House, was
the scene of the Boston massacre, March fifth, 1770.
"The funeral of the victims of the massacre was
attended by an immense concourse of people from all
parts of New England." About the same year also, in
front of this Town House, occurred the famous battle of
the broom, between a fencing master just arrived from
England and Goif, the regicide. This English fencer
erected an elevated platform in front of the Town
House and paraded, sword in hand, for three days,
challenging all America for a trial of his skill. At this
time three of the judges who signed the death warrant
for beheading Charles the First, of England, had escaped
to Boston, and were concealed by the people of Massa-
chusetts and Connecticut. Their names were Goif,
Whalley and Dixwell, for whom, dead or alive, Parlia-
ment offered one hundred pounds each. The fencing
master made such a stir about his skill that GofF, hear-
ing of it at his place of concealment in the woods of
Hadley, came to Boston and confronted the wordy hero.

BOSTON. 49

His sword was a birch broom, his shield a white oak
cheese slung from his arm in a napkin. After he had
soaked his* broom in a mud-puddle he mounted the
platform for battle. The fencing master ordered him
off, but Goff stood his ground and neatly parried the
first thrust of- the braggart. The battle then com-
menced in earnest, and the cheese three times received
the sword of the fencing master. Before it could be
withdrawn, Goff each time daubed the face of his antag-
onist with the muddy broom, amid the huzzas of the
crowd which had gathered from all quarters to witness
the contest. At the third lunge into the huge cheese the
swordsman threw aside his small blade, and, unsheathing
a broadsword, rushed furiously upon Goff.

"Stop, sir!" exclaimed Goff; "hitherto, you see, I
have only played with you, and have not attempted to
hurt you, but if you come at me with the broadsword,
know that I will certainly take your life!"

"Who can you be?" replied the other; "you are
either Goff, Whalley or the devil, for there was no other
man in England could beat me !"

Goff immediately retired, amid the plaudits of the
crowd, and the subdued fencing -master slunk away
with chagrin.

The interior arrangement of the Old State House has
been entirely remodeled, and is now used exclusively
for business.

King's Chapel, at the corner of Tremont and School
streets, is another noteworthy point of interest. The
corner-stone was laid in 1750, and four years were occu-
pied in its construction, the stone for the building ma-
terial being imported. Its church-yard was Boston's
first burial-ground, and some of the tombstones date

4 *

50 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

back as far as 1658. Mr. Isaac Johnson, one of th«
founders of Boston, is said to have here found his last
resting place. John Winthrop, his son and grandson —
all governors of Connecticut, lay in the same family
tomb in this yard. Four pastors of the " First Church
of Christ in Boston " are also buried here* The body of
General Joseph Warren was placed in King's Chapel
before it was re-interred at Cambridge, and "dust to
dust" has been pronounced over many other distinguished
men at this stone church. The edifice is constructed in
a peculiar way, with Doric columns of gray stone, and is
sure to attract the attention of the stranger. It was the
first Episcopal, as well as the first Unitarian church iq
Boston, and its pulpit is now the exponent of Unitarian
doctrine, added* to the Church of England service.

Going down Washington street towards Charlestown,
we come to the famous Brattle Square, and its church,
which once consecrated the spot. Here Edward Ever-
ett preached to his listening flock, and here, on July
thirtieth, 1871, Dr. S. K. Lothrop pronounced the last
sermon within its walls. Its ancient bell has ceased to
ring, and the old-fashioned pulpit echoes no more to the
tread of distinguished men.

The first Brattle Square Church was built in 1699.
It was torn down in 1772, and the next year rebuilt on the
same site, the dedication taking place July twenty-fifth.

On the night of March sixteenth, 1776, the British
under Lord Howe were encamped in this neighborhood,
some of the regiments using Brattle Square Church as a
barrack. A cannon ball, fired from Cambridge, where
the American army was then stationed, struck the
church, and was afterwards built into the wall of the
historic edifice, above the porch. On the next night

BOSTON. 51

ten thousand of Lord Howe's troops embarked from
Boston. In 1871 the building was sold by the society,
and a handsome granite block now takes its place.

The new State House on Beacon street is one of the
most prominent geographical points in all Boston, and
the view from its cupola is second only to that obtained
from the glorious height of Bunker Hill monument.
Its gilded dome is a conspicuous object far and near, and
glitters in the sunlight like veritable gold. The land
on which the State House stands was bought by the
town from Governor Hancock's heirs, and given to the
State. The corner-stone was laid July fourth, 1793, the
ceremony being conducted by the Freemasons. Paul
Revere, as Grand Master, at their head. The massive
stone was drawn to its place by fifteen white horses,
that being the number then of the States in the Union.
Ex-Governor Samuel Adams delivered the address.
The Legislature first convened in the new State House
in January, 1798. In 1852 it was greatly enlarged, and
in 1867 the interior was entirely remodeled. Chantry's
statue of Washington, the statues of Webster and Mann,
busts of Adams, Lincoln and Sumner, and that beauti-
ful piece of art in marble, the full-length statue of Gov-
ernor Andrew, in the Doric Hall — all attract the atten-
tion of the visitor. In this rotunda there are also copies
of the tombstones of the Washington family of Bring-
ton Parish, England, presented by Charles Sumner, and
the torn and soiled battle-flags of Massachusetts regi-
ments, hanging in glass cases. In the Hall of
Representatives and the Senate Chamber, relics of the
fast are scattered about, and the walls are adorned with
x>ortraits of distinguished men. The eastern wing of
the State House is occupied with the State Library

52 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Large numbers of visitors yearly throng the building
and climb the circular stairways for the fine view of
Boston to be obtained from the cupola.

The new Post Office is accounted one of the finest public
buildings in New England. It has a frontage on Devon-
shire street, of over two hundred feet and occupies the en-
tire square between Milk and Water streets. It was several
years in building, being occupied this winter for the first
time since the great fire. Its cost was something like three
millions of dollars. Its style of architecture is grand in
the extreme. Groups of statuary ornament the central
projections of the building, and orders of pilasters, col-
umns, entablatures and balustrades add to it their elegant
finish. Its roof is an elaboration of the Louvre and
Mansard styles, and the interior arrangement cannot be
surpassed for beauty or convenience. It has three street
fa9ades, from one of which a broad staircase leads to the
four upper stories. On these floors are located import-
ant public offices. The Post Office corridor is twelve
feet in height and extends across two sides of the im-
mense building. At the time of the great fire of 1872
this structure was receiving its roof, and became a barrier
against the onward sweep of the flames. The massive
granite walls were cracked and split, but they effectually
stopped the work of the fire fiend.

In the heart of the city, at tlie corner of Milk and
Washington streets, stands one of the most famous
buildings in Boston, and perhaps the most celebrated
house of religious worship in the United States. It
was founded in 1669, and received the name of the Old
South Church. The first building was made of cedar,
and stood for sixty years. In 1729 it was taken down,
and the present building erected on the same spot. The

BOSTON. 53

interior arrangement is described as having been exceed-
ingly quaint, with its pulpit sounding board, its high,
square pews, and double tier of galleries. During the
Revolution it was frequently used for public meetings,
and Faneuil Hall assemblies adjourned to the Old South
whenever the size of the crowd demanded it. Here the
celebrated " Tea Party " held their meetings, and dis-
cussed the measures which resulted in consigning the
British tea, together with the hated tax, to the bottom
of Boston Harbor. Here Joseph Warren delivered his
famous oration on the Boston Massacre, drawing te-irs
from the eyes of even the British soldiery, sent thers to
intimidate him. In 1775 the edifice was occupied by
the British as a place for cavalry drill, and a grog-si >op
was established in one of the galleries. In 1782 the
building was put in repair, and has stood without fur-
ther change until the present time, nearly a hund/ed
years. In 1872 it was occupied as a Post Office, wnd
has only been vacated this winter. Its day of religi jus
service is doubtless over. It will probably be used for
business purposes, but never again as a society sanctuary.

Opposite the south front of the Old South Church, on
Milk street, stood the house in which Benjamin Frank-
lin was born. Here, on the seventeenth of January,
1706, the great philosopher was ushered into existence,
and on the same day was christened at the Old South.
When he was ten years old, he worked with his father
in a candle manufactory, on the corner of Union and
Hanover streets, at the sign of the Blue Bell. He was
afterwards printer's devil for his brother James, and at
eighteen established the fourth newspaper printed in this
country. It was entitled " The New England Courant."

The first newspaper of Boston was also the first in the

54 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

colonies, and was printed on a half sheet of Pot paper,
in small pica. It was entitled " The Boston News
Letter. Published, by authority, from Monday, April
seventeenth, to Monday, April twenty-fourth, 1704."
John Campbell, a Scotchman and bookseller, was pro-
prietor.

Now the Boston press stands in the front rank of the
world's journalism, and is commodiously accommodated ;
as the elegant buildings of the Transcript, Globe, Jour-
nal, Herald and other papers, testify. The Advertiser is
the oldest daily paper in the city.

It is impossible to properly describe Boston within the
limits of so short a chapter, and only a glance at a few
other points of interest will therefore be given.

The City Hall, on School street, is on the site of
the house of Isaac Johnson, who lived here in 1630,
and who has been styled the founder of Boston. The
corner-stone of the new building was laid December twen-
ty-second, 1672. It is of Concord granite, and is in the
finest style of modern architecture. Here, under the
arching roof of the French dome, the fire-alarm telegraph
centres, and the sentinel who stands guard at this important
point never leaves his post, night or day. The myste-
rious signal, though touched in the city's remotest rim,
is instantly obeyed, and in less time than it takes to tell
it the brave firemen are rushing to the rescue. A fine
bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin stands in the
inclosure in front of the building.

The Custom House, on State street, is built of granite,
even to the roof. It is constructed in the form of a
Greek cross, and is surrounded by thirty-two granite
columns, a little over five feet in diameter. The site was
reclaimed from the tide waters, and the massive building

BOSTON. 55

rests tipon about three thousand piles. Over a million
dollars were expended in its erection.

The Old Granary Bury ing-ground, once a part of the
Common, received its name from a public granary which
formerly stood within its limits. Some of the most
distinguished dust in history is consigned to its keeping.
Paul Revere, Peter Faneuil, Samuel Adams, John
Hancock, the victims of the Boston Massacre, the
parents of Franklin, the first Mayor of Boston, and a
Jong list of other names famed in their day and ours, lie
buried within this ancfent ground. Near by, between
the Common and the Granary Cemetery, stands the
celebrated Park Street Church, of which W. H. PI.
Murray, the brilliant writer and preacher, was, until
lately, the pastor. It used to be known as " brimstone
corner." This whiter we attended Park Street Church
on the same day with the brunette monarch, Kalakaua
and suite.

v One of the most commodious and elegant stations in
New England, or this country, is that of the Boston
and Providence Railroad. It is about eight hundred
feet in length, and is built of brick, with two shades of
sandstone. The track house is seven hundred feet long,
covering five tracks, and has a span of one hundred and
twenty-five feet. Its cost is somewhere in the neighbor-
hood of six hundred thousand dollars. The interior
arrangement is quite novel in style. The waiting-rooms
open out of an immense central apartment with a balcony
reaching around the entire inner circumference. Theatre
tickets, flower and cigar stands, a billiard room and a
barber shop, are some of the special features of the
station. Refreshment rooms and dressing: rooms, in oak

o /

and crimson, are also an integral part of the building.

56 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Hundreds of interesting places in this singular and
devious city of Boston must go unnoticed in these pages.
The beautiful Tremont Temple and its Sunday temper-
ance lectures ; Music Hall, with its big organ of six
thousand pipes, through one of which Henry Ward
Beecher is said to have crawled, before its erection ; the
Parker House, one of the crack hotels of the city ; the
Revere House, where all the distinguished people stop,
with its special suite of rooms upholstered in blue satin,
where King Kalakaua smoked his cigars in peace ; the
beneficent Public Library ; the Boston Athenaeum, home
of art ; the Boston Theatre, the new and elegant Globe
Theatre, and the suburban limits, including Charlestown
and famous Bunker Hill, Cambridge and Harvard
University, Mt. Auburn, Dorchester Heights, Roxbury
and East Boston, which was formerly known as Nod-
dle's Island, and where now the Cunard line of steamers
arrive and depart — all these tempt my pen to linger
within their charmed localities. But it is a temptation
to be resisted. When, after many weeks' sojourn in the
intellectual " Hub," I was at last seated in the outward
bound train, ticketed for the west, a regret, born of
pleasant associations and a taste of Boston atmosphere,
took possession of me. The farewells I uttered held
an undertone of pain. But the train sped onward,
unheeding, and the city of the harbor seemed to dissolve
and disappear in the smoke of her thousand chimneys,
like a dream of the night.

CHAPTER III.

BUFFALO.

The Niagara Frontier. — Unfortunate Fate of the Eries. — The
Battle of Doom.— Times of 1812.— Burning of Buffalo.— Early
Names. — Origin of Present Name. — Growth and Population. —
Railway Lines. — Queen of the Great Lakes. — Fort Porter and
Fort Erie. — International Bridge. — Iron Manufacture. — Danger
of the Niagara. — Forest Lawn Cemetery. — Decoration Day. —
The Spaulding Monument. — Parks and Boulevard. — Delaware
Avenue. — On the Terrace. — Elevator District. — Church and
Schools. — Grosvenor Library. — Historical Rooms. — Journalism.
— Public Buildings. — City Hall. — Dog-carts and their Attendants.

HOUFFALO is a kind of half-way house between
I ) the East and the West — if anything may be called
west this side of the Mississippi River — and it partakes
of the characteristics of both sections. It was once the
chief trading post on the Niagara frontier, and its vicinity
has been the scene of many a hotly contested battle
between dusky races now forever lost to this part of the
world, and almost forgotten of history. Long ago, the
Eries, or the Cat Nation, lived on the southern shores
of the same lake whose waters now lap the wharves of
Buffalo. They left it the heritage of their name, and
that is all.

The race, in its lack of calculation, did not greatly
differ from many isolated instances of the paler race of
mankind around us now ; for it died of a too o'erreach-
ing ambition. Jealous of the distant fame of the Five
Nations, the Eries set out to surprise and conquer them
in deadly battle, and themselves met the fate they had
meant for the Iroquois. They were exterminated ; and

57

58 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

few returned to the squaws in their lonely wigwams, to
tell the tale of doom.

The noble race of Senecas succeeded the Cat Nation
on the shores of Lake Erie, and after them, from across
the great seas, came the dominant, pushing, civilizing
Anglo-Saxons.

When the war of 1812 broke out, Buffalo was an
exceedingly infant city, and did not promise well at all.
Nobody would have then predicted her importance of
to-day. Later, in 1813, the battle of Black Rock
was fought, and while a few old soldiers made a deter-
mined stand against the onset of the solid British
phalanx, most of the raw recruits fled down Niagara
street in a regular Bull Run panic, chased by the pur-
suing foe. The village was then fired by the enemy, and
every building except one was burned to the ground.
The description of the suffering and flight of women and
children, during that harrowing time, draws largely
on the sympathies of the reader, and sounds strangely
similar to the newspaper accounts of the burning of
Western and Pennsylvania towns, of more recent occur-
rence.

But, though Buffalo was destroyed by-fire, it shortly
evinced all the power of the fabled phoenix, and rose
from its ashes to a grander future than its early settlers
ever dreamed of prophesying for it. The young city,
however, suffered in its first days from a multiplicity of
names, struggling under no less than three. The Indians
named it Te-osah-wa, or " Place of Basswood ; " the
Holland Land Company dragged the Dutch name of
New Amsterdam across the ocean and endeavored to
drop it at the foot of Lake Erie ; and finally, it took its
present name of Buffalo, from the frequent visits of the

BUFFALO. 59

jft merican Bisou to a salt spring which welled up about
three miles out of the village, on Buffalo creek.

I think Bufflilonians have reason to be grateful that
•the last name proved more tenacious than the other two.
Think of the "Queen City " of the most Eastern West
being overshadowed by the tiled-roof name of New
Amsterdam !

It was not until 1822, on the completion of the Erie
Canal, that Buffalo began the rapid advance towards
prosperity that now marks its growth, the muster-roll
of its population, at this writing, numbering the round
figures of one hundred and sixty-one thousand. It now
rejoices in business streets three and four miles long —
full-fledged two-thirds of the distance, and the remainder
embryonic. The harbor-front, facing the ship canal and
the Lake, bristles with the tall tops of huge grain ele-
vators— a whole village of them. A network of railroad
lines, and the commerce of the great Lakes, have com-
bined to build up and carry on a vast business at this
point, and to make it a station of much importance
between the East and the West. The rails of the New
York Central, the Great Western, the Lake Shore, and
the Buffalo and Philadelphia roads, besides many other
lines, all centre here, carrying their tide of human
freight, mainly westward, and transporting the cereals
of the great grain regions in exchange for the manu-
factured products of less favored localities. When the
representative of New York or New England wishes
to go west, he finds his most direct route by rail, via
Buffalo; or, if he desires a most charming water trip,
he embarks, also via Buffalo, on one of the handsome
propellers which ply the Lakes between this city and
Chicago, and steaming down the length of Lake Erie,

60 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

up through the narrower St. Clair and the broad Huron,
he passes the wooded shores of Mackinac's beautiful
island, surmounted by its old fort, and entering Lake
Michigan, in due time is landed on the breezy Milwaukee
banks, or is set down within that maelstrom of business,
named Chicago. Indeed, after Chicago, Buffalo is the
ranking city of the Lakes, and is said to cover more
territory than almost any city in the country outside the
great metropolis — the distance, from limit to limit,
averaging seven and eight miles. Its suburban drives
and places of summer resort, owing to the superior
water localities of this region, are much out of the usual
line. Niagara River, famous the world over, allures
the daring boatman from Fort Porter onward, and the
wonderful Falls themselves are only eighteen miles
beyond that. Fort Porter, about two miles out from
the heart of the city, is located just at the point where
Niagara River leaves the lake in its mad race to the
Falls. Here the banks are high and command a wide
water prospect. Away to the westward the blue lake
and the blue sky seem to meet and blend together as
one; and in the opposite direction the rushing river
spreads out like another lake, towards Squaw Island and
Black Rock. One or more companies of United States
Regulars are stationed here, and the barracks and
officers' quarters surround a square inclosure, which is
used as a parade ground. Graveled walks are laid out
around it, and a grassy foot-path leads from the soldiers'
quarters to the site of the old Fort on the brow of a
gentle elevation just beyond. The Fort was built for
frontier defence, in 1812, and the interior, now grass-
grown and unused, is so deep that the roof of the stone
structure, once appropriated as a magazine, is nearly on

BUFFALO. 61

a level with the high ground at your feet During our
last war the building was occupied as a place of confine-
ment for Rebel prisoners. It is now in a state of
advanced collapse, and the battered walls and open win-
dows expose to view the ruin within. A small, square
outhouse, near one of the embrasures higher up, which
was used for firing hot shot, is still intact. Field pieces,
pointing grimly towards the Lake, and little heaps of
cannon balls lying near, bring freshly to mind the
nation's last war days, when "the winding rivers ran
red " with the mingled blood of comrade and foe. The
sunset gun boomed over the waters while we lingered at
the old Fort, and the fading glow of day bridged the
river with arches of crimson and gold.

Diagonally opposite from this point, one looks across
into the Queen's dominions, where lies the little village
of Fort Erie, historic as the place from which the
British crossed to our shores on the night preceding the
burning of Buffalo.

At Black Rock, about two miles below Fort Porter,
the great International Railroad Bridge, a mile in
length, spans the mighty river, having superseded the
old-time ferry. This bridge is the connecting link
on the Grand Trunk Road, between Canada and the
States.

Near its terminus, on the American side, are located
the immense malleable iron works of Pratt & Letch-
worth, said to be the largest manufactory of the kind in
the world. Their goods certainly find a world-wide
market, taking in New England and the Pacific coast,
Mexico, England a,nd Australia. A pretty picture of
the country seat of Mr. Letch worth, at Portage, New
York, may be seen at the Historical Rooms. It is named

62 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Glen Iris, and is surrounded by handsome grounds,
groves and fountains.

Boating on the Niagara is much in vogue here,
notwithstanding the rapid current and the dreadful
certainty of the Falls in case of accident. The keeper
of a boat house at Black Rock, opposite Squaw Island,
told me that the proportion of accidents on the river
was frightfully large — far greater than ever got into the
public prints.

Forest Lawn Cemetery — Buffalo's city of the dead —
is one of the loveliest burial places between Brooklyn
and Chicago. It is picturesque with hill and dale and
grove, not to mention a large artificial lake lapped in
one of its grassy hollows, and a winding, wide a
rocky-bedded creek running through it. The name of
the creek is spelled S-c-a-j-a-q-u-a-d-a and pronounced
Kon-joc'-e-ta. The Pratt monument, in a remote por-
tion of the grounds, is perhaps the handsomest in the
cemetery. It looks like a gothic gateway with fluted
pillars of Italian marbles. A sculptured image of a
child of one of the Fargos — of the famous Wells,
Fargo & Co. — rests under a glass case on the lap of
earth which marks her grave. The head is peculiarly
noble, reminding one of that of the Belvidere Apollo,
It is said to be a truthful likeness. Decoration Day at
Forest Lawn was a picture long to be remembered. On a
little knoll under the trees at the entrance to the grounds
the military and civic processions assembled to listen to
the eloquent words of Rev. Mr. Barrett, of Rochester.
When the brief address was concluded, and the band
music and singing were over, we followed the commit-
tees of decoration to the scattered graves of the patriot
dead, and witnessed the strewing of flowers upon their

SOLDIERS' MONUMENT AT BUFFALO. NEW YORK*

BUFFALO. 63

sacred dust. A hushed circle above the mound of earth,
a few fitly-spoken words from one of their number who
knew the soldier-hero, and the floral tributes were ten-
derly placed above the sleeper's head. Thus, oh heroes,
shall your memory be kept forever green ! The flowers
were wrought into every symbolic shape by which the
language of affection could be translated. Crowns, and
crosses, and stars, and anchors of hope, spoke their love
and solace. The graves of the Confederate dead were
also decorated, and side by side, under a common mantle
of flowers, the Blue and the Gray received alike the
benediction of the hour.

u Then beautiful flowers strew,
This sweet memorial day,
With tears and love for the Blue,
And pity for the fallen Gray."

At Forest Lawn, also, on the historic seventeenth of
June — the Bunker Hill Centennial — a monument was
dedicated to the memory of nine Spauldings who fought
at that battle, one hundred years before. The granite
cenotaph was erected by E. G. Spaulding, of Buffalo,
descended from the same blood with the heroic nine.
The names of the list inscribed on the Western front of
the monument were headed by that of his grandfather,
Levi Spaulding, who was captain of the ninth company,
third regiment, under Colonel Reed, of the New Hamp-
shire troops, engaged on that day.

" For bright and green the memory still
Of those who stood on Bunker Hill,
And nobly met the battle shock,
Firm as their native granite rock.'"

Speeches reviving Revolutionary memories, and fresh
descriptions of the Bunker Hill contest, were in order.

64 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

There was a semi-military procession, and the interest
felt in the occasion was general. A grand reception at
Mr. Spaulding's residence in the evening, concluded the
patriotic anniversary.

The large park adjoining Forest Lawn is plentiful in
attractions, including the delights of boating on the
Konjoceta and loitering in the shadowy coolness of the
primeval woods. In addition to these, Buffalo is com-
pleting a grand boulevard system which encircles half
the City, beginning at what is called the Front, in the
neighborhood of Fort Porter, and making the circuit of
the outskirts through Bidwell and Lincoln and Hum-
boldt parkways to the intersection of Genesee street
with the Parade, on the opposite arc of the circle. One
is sure to find cool breezes along this drive, though the
day be the hottest of the season. Indeed, the summer
heats are, at all times, shorn of their fervor in this
Queen City of the Lakes, and its climatic advantages
are, therefore, superior.

Delaware Avenue is the leading street of Buffalo for
private residences, and here much of the aristocracy do
congregate. It is about three miles long, and double
rows of shade trees line either side. Fast driving on
this avenue is licensed by city authority, and racing
down its gentle incline is much in vogue. In winter,
when sleighing is good, this is carried to greater excess,
and the snowy road is black with flying vehicles. Main
street, the principal business thoroughfare of the city, at
least for retail trade, is wide, well paved arid straight,
and is built up with substantial business blocks. .Its
sister thoroughfare on the east, Washington street,
towards the lower end as it approaches the lake, degen-
erates into manufacturing, and the buzz of machinery and

BUFFALO. 65

incessant din of hammers break in on the maiden
meditations of the passive sight-seer.

As one approaches the Terrace, which is an elbow of
blocks at one end and a diagonal at the other, one is
confronted by a confusion of cross streets, which look as
if they had been gotten up expressly to demoralize one's
points of compass. They all look out on Buffalo harbor
and the sea-wall beyond. Ohio street, following the
bend of the harbor, is the great elevator district of the
greatest grain mart in the world. Here, when business
is at high tide, between two and three million bushels of
grain per day are transferred by these giant monsters with
high heads. The business places of this department of
Buffalo enterprise are located principally on Central
Wharf, in this vicinity, which fronts the harbor and
which is crowded with offices two tiers deep.

Along the wharf the very air is charged with bustle
and activity. Vessels of all descriptions are arriving and
departing at all hours, and the commerce of the great
lakes pours its flood tide into Buffalo through this gate-
way.

As for churches and schools, the city overflows with
them. It is sprinkled in all directions with handsome
religious edifices, like interrogation points, in stone and
brick, asking the questions of a higher life. And there
are thirty-six public schools, besides the State Normal,
the Central, and the Buffalo Female Academy. This
last is under the able guidance of Dr. Chester. But
even these do not complete the list, as I understand there
are numerous other private institutions of learning.

In one of the triangular pieces of ground where the
three streets of Niagara, Erie and Church make their
entrance into Main street, stands the picturesque struc-

66 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

ture of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. It is built of
brown stone, and the creeping ivy nearly covers one end
of it, from the crosses and minarets at the pinnacle to
the trailing vines on the ground. The gray, gothic
edifice of St. Joseph's Romish Cathedral, fronting on
Franklin street, is also very large, and the interior is
rich in architectural design.

As for the immeasurable realm of books, Buffalo fur-
nishes her children access to this, through her libraries.
Chief est among them is the Grosvenor, which has
a bit of history all by itself. It was founded by a
retired merchant of New York, who had lived in Buffalo
during the earliest infancy of the city, and whose pro-
perty had been destroyed when the then frontier village
was fired by the British and Indians, in retaliation for
the burning of Newark. This generous gentleman also
left thirty thousand dollars to found a reference library
for the High School of New York City. His will pro-
vided a legacy of ten thousand for Buffalo, to be applied
towards a fire-proof building for a library, and the sum
of thirty thousand, the interest of which was to be used
for the purchase of books. The building fund having
been on interest ever since, now amounts to twenty-eight
thousand, and in addition the city has donated what is
known as the Mohawk street property, used at present for
police purposes, which will sell for an amount sufficiently
large, together with the deposit already on hand, to erect
a handsome building. The library is now located over
the Buffalo Savings Bank, facing a pleasant little park
between Washington and Main streets.

In 1870 the interest had more than doubled the
donation, and the Trustees then commenced the work of
making the library a living institution. After a great

BUFFALO. 67

deal of trouble, they at last secured the services of Alex-
ander J. Sheldon, who was willing, without any certain
compensation, to undertake the task of organizing and
superintending the library. Mr. Sheldon, who is an
expert in books, is native to the city, and from boyhood
has been connected with this line of business. The first
year of his hard labor at the Grosveuor was rewarded by
the large sum of five hundred dollars ! It was well for
the institution, however, that Mr. Sheldon was not depen-
dent on his salary for support. He entered into the work
with an enthusiasm which surmounted all difficulties,
and which has brought the library to its present state of
progress, making it a credit to the city of Buffalo.

The large reading room is neatly fitted up with black
walnut cases, nine feet in length, and eight feet high,
opening on both sides, and capable of holding eight or
nine hundred average volumes. There are about thirty
of these cases in the room, with reading tables and easy
chairs interspersed between them. The style of alcove
and arrangement, which was also Mr. Sheldon's sugges-
tion, produces a very handsome effect. The cases stand
on black walnut platforms six inches in height, and are
surmounted by a pretty cornice. The shelves are inter-
changeable, and are of such moderate height that the
necessity for step-ladders is entirely avoided. There are
also dummy volumes, made to resemble books and pro-
perly titled, which, if their mission is to deceive the
uninitiated, certainly accomplish that task. The number
of volumes has now accumulated to about eighteen
thousand, and includes the choicest works in art, science,
literature and the professions. The fiction department
comprehends all the recognized standard works, but the
ma&s of worthless novels, which pass current in some of

68 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

our circulating libraries, is unhesitatingly excluded.
The bindings are nearly ^11 morocco, with gilt or
marbled tops, and the back of each book, as it is added
to the library, is given a coat of white shellac varnish,
which prevents it, in a great degree, from fading, and
renders it easy of renovation.

The small ante-room which is used by the librarian
and committeemen contains several hundred volumes on
bibliography, which is a very important feature of such
an institution. The rooms in summer are breezy, from
the lake winds, and in winter are heated by steam radi-
ators. A heavy cocoa matting deadens all sound on the
floors, and absolute quiet is thus secured. Thanks to
the efforts of Mr. Sheldon, the Grosvenor is undoubtedly
the best library for a student west of the Hudson.

The Historical Rooms deserve notice as one of the
salient points of Buffalo, and though the Society is
young and not by any means wealthy , yet it is fairly
started on its road to distinction. It was founded in
1862, and subsists principally by donations, as it is yet
too poor to make purchases of books or relics. The
Rooms are located at the corner of Main and Court
streets, nearly opposite the ancient site of the old Eagle
Tavern. A picture of this hotel as it looked fifty years
ago rnay be seen among their collection. A huge gilt
eagle surmounted the main entrance, and an enclosed
porch, or what looks like it, at one end of the building,
bore the inscription " Coach Office" in large letters over
the doorway. Here also is the noble looking portrait of
Red Jacket, the great Seneca Chief, together with the
grand-daughter of Red Jacket's second wife — Nancy
Stevenson — taken at sixteen, This bright-eyed, brown
maiden married an Indian named Hiram Dennis, and

BUFFALO. 69

was still living in 1872. Belts of wampum, war
hatchets and pipes of peace, besides numerous pictures,
in oil, of celebrated red warriors, are among the Indian
mementoes connected with Buffalo's early history. The
war of 1812 also contributes its scattered waifs to keep
alive the memory of that time. The sword of Major-
General Brown, worn at the battle of Sackett's Harbor,
and a piece of timber from Perry's ship, on which is
traced the legend " We have met the enemy and they
are ours/' are among the heirlooms of history. Here,
too, is a Mexican lance from the field of Monterey, and
the clarionette used in Buffalo's first band of music,
whose strains helped swell the chorus during the tri-
umphal march of Lafayette through her streets in 1824,
A representation of the first boat on the Erie Canal,
named "Chief Engineer of Rome," looks quaint enough.
The walls of the large apartment devoted to historical
collections are covered with pictures of Buffalo's promi-
nent men, and at one end of the room hangs a handsome
portrait of Millard Fillmore, set in heavy gilt. Their
list of books and directories is also quite large. The
story of a city's growth is always one of deep interest,
and the generations of future years will, no doubt, be
grateful for these landmarks of their early history.

Journalism in Buffalo rides on the top wave, and her
leading papers have achieved an enviable fame. Eight
dailies swell the list, four of which are German, besides
ten weeklies and seven monthly papers. The history
of the Commercial Advertiser dates back to October,
1811. It was issued at that time, under the name of the
Buffalo Gazette, by the Salisbury brothers, from Canan-
daigua. With the exception of a paper at Batavia,
begun in 1807, the Gazette was the only paper pub-

70 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

lished at that time in Western New York. It after-
wards changed its name to the Buffalo Patriot, and
since 1836 it has been issued as the Daily Commercial
Advertiser. The Courier and Commercial are the rank-
ing papers of the city, in point of influence.

Buffalo doesn't seem to be ambitious of display in her
public buildings, judging from the quality of those
already on hand. The new City Hall, however, is a noble
exception to the general rule. It is built of Maine
granite, in the form of a double Roman cross, and the
tower, which is two hundred and forty-five feet high, is
surmounted by four pieces of statuary. Its estimated
cost is over two millions of dollars.

St. James7 Hall and the Academy of Music are the
chief places of amusement in the city, the latter place
being conducted by the Meech brothers, two young
gentlemen of acknowledged ability. Many noted stars
of the stage whose names have blazed forth in histrionic
glory have here made their first conquests, before
applauding audiences. The stock company is unusually
good, Ben Rogers, stage manager and first comedian,
being a host in himself.

The fire department of the city is said to be exceed-
ingly efficient, and the police system has gained a
reputation for thorough work which ought to be the
terror of the criminal class. It embraces a body of
mounted police, a corps of detectives and of patrolmen,
besides the regular force stationed at the harbor.

Among the minor peculiarities of Buffalo may be
mentioned the superabundance of dog carts to be seen
in her streets; not the conventional kind that goes
rolling down Fifth Avenue, among the bewildering
array of splendid equipages — coupes, landaus, landau-

BUFFALO. 71

lets, drags and what not — that daily make their way to
Central Park ; not any of these ; but the original dog
cart, with the dog attached. He is to be seen in all the
varieties of the species, from a muddy yellow to the
fierce-looking mastiff. He is usually harnessed in com-
pany with a collapsed old woman or a cadaverous look-
ing little boy, and he carries all kinds of mixed freight,
from an ash barrel to a load of sticks. The under-
current of Buffalo society does not seem to look upon
the dog in a purely ornamental light.

This chapter on a place so fertile in suggestion might
be prolonged indefinitely ; but we are gazing westward,
along a line of cities whose terminus does not end until
it reaches the Golden Gate and the most famous centre
of population on the Pacific coast. Our steps are bent
toward that far-off goal, and we must say good-bye to
the ancient land of the Eries and the former haunts of
the buffalo.

CHAPTER IV.

BROOKLYN.

Brooklyn a Suburb of New York. — A City of Homes. — Public
Buildings. — Churches. — Henry Ward Beecher. — Thomas De
Witt Talmage. — Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D. — Justin D. Fulton,
D.D. — R. S. Storrs, D.D. — Navy Yard.— Atlantic Dock. —
Washington Park. — Prospect Park. — Greenwood Cemetery. —
Evergreen and Cyprus Hills Cemeteries. — Coney Island. — Rock-
away. — Staten Island. — Glen Island. — Future of Brooklyn.

YORK holds such supremacy over the other
cities of the United States that she almost over-
shadows Brooklyn, which lies so near her as to be sepa-
rated only by the narrow channel of the East River.
Yet Brooklyn in any other locality would be a city of
the first importance, ranking, as she does, the third in the
Union as to size and population, and numbering not
less than six hundred thousand inhabitants. Practically
New York and Brooklyn are but one city, with identi-
cal commercial interests, and a great deal else in com-
mon. Many of the most prominent business men of
the former city find their homes in the latter ; and by
means of the numerous ferries and the great Suspension
Bridge there is a constant interchange of people between
them. The time may come when they will be united
under one municipal government; though, no doubt,
many of the older residents of Brooklyn, who have
helped to build her up to her present extent and pros-
perity, would object to losing her name and identity.
But should such a union ever take place, there will be
at once created, next to London, the largest city of the

72

BROOKLYN. 73

world, with a population of not less than two millions
of people.

Brooklyn is situated on the west end of Long Island,
and overlooks both the East River and the Bay. It
extends nearly eight miles from north to south, and is
about four miles from east to west. Its business is not
so extended or so important as that of New York, nor,
as a rule, are its business edifices so imposing, though
some of them present a very fine appearance. It is, in
fact, a great suburb of the metropolitan city, composed
more largely of dwellings than of commercial houses. Its
business men, each morning, make an exodus across the
East River to Wall street, or Broadway, or other streets
of New York, and then return at night. It is, in fact,
a great city of homes, all of them comfortable and many
of them elegant. There is no squalor, such as is found
in Mott or Baxter streets and the Five Points and
their neighborhood, in its sister city. Handsome man-
sions, tasteful cottages and plain but neat rows of dwell-
ings are found everywhere, and the streets are beautifully
shaded by avenues of trees.

The public buildings of Brooklyn worthy of notice
are few, compared to those of New York. Fulton
street is its principal thoroughfare, and contains occa-
sional handsome edifices. The City Hall, on an open
square at the junction of Fulton court and Joraleman
street, is a fine, white marble building, in Ionic style,
with six columns supporting the roof of the portico.
It is surmounted by a tower one hundred and fifty-three
feet in height. Just back of this, to the southeast, and
facing toward Fulton street, is the County Court House,
with a white marble front, a Corinthian portico, and an
iron dome one hundred and four feet high. Beside the

74 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Court House, to the westward, stands the Municipal
Building, also of marble, four stories in height, with a
mansard roof, and a tower at each corner. The Post
Office is in Washington street, north of the City Hall.
The Long Island Historical Society has a fine edifice
at the corner of Clinton and Pierrepont streets, and
possesses a large library and collection of curiosities.
The Academy of Design, on Montague street, has a
handsome exterior ; opposite is the Mercantile Library,
a striking Gothic structure, containing two reading
rooms and a library of forty-eight thousand volumes.
The building of the Young Men's Christian Association
is on Fulton street, at the corner of Gallatin Place, arid
contains a library and free reading room. The Peniten-
tiary is an immense stone structure on Nostrand avenue,
near the city limits. The County Jail, in Raymond
street, is constructed of red sandstone, in castellated
Gothic style. The Long Island College Hospital is an
imposing building, surrounded by extensive grounds,
on Henry street near Pacific.

Brooklyn is, preeminently, the City of Churches, of
which she is said to contain not less than one hundred.
She has secured the services of the most eminent clergy-
men in the country, and thousands of people each
year make a pilgrimage thither, for the sole purpose
of listening to some one or other of those whom they
have long admired and appreciated at a distance. Most
prominent among all these clergymen is Henry Ward
Beecher, who has been the pastor of Plymouth Church
ever since its organization in 1847. Mr. Beecher came
of a noted family, his father, Rev. Lyman Beecher,
being one of the theological lights of his day and gener-
ation, while his brothers and sisters have all distin-

BROOKLYN. 75

guished themselves in some way. The author of " Uncle
Tom's Cabin " was his sister, Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe, while all of his brothers are, like himself, in the
ministry.

Mr. Beech er's popularity has been unparalleled.
Besides the hundreds who listen to him every Sunday,
each sermon is reported in full and read by thousands
of people throughout the country. He has been a
leader of liberal thought in the Protestant churches;
and it is largely due to his bold and advanced utter-
ances that the church in which he holds communion
has taken a long step ahead of the position which it
occupied early in the present century.

Plymouth Church is a plain edifice, in Orange street,
near Hicks. It has a large seating capacity, yet every
Sunday it is filled. A goodly proportion of the audience
is composed of strangers, who are not permitted to take
seats until the pewholders are provided for. These
visitors stand in long rows at each of the doors, the rows
sometimes extending out upon the sidewalk, waiting
their turns to be seated. Ten minutes before the hour
of service they are conducted^ to seats, and the pew-
holders who come after that time must take their
chances with the rest. On pleasant Sundays every seat
is occupied, and the aisles and vestibules are crowded-
Mr. Beecher occupies no pulpit, in the strict sense of
the word. In front of the organ and choir is a platform,
upon which are three chairs and three small tables, or
stands. On one of the latter is a Bible, and on the others
a profusion of flowers. One realizes in this church the
grandeur of congregational singing, which is led here by
a choir of one hundred voices, and accompanied by a
magnificent organ. When the entire congregation join .

76 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

in some familiar hymn, the singing is exceedingly
impressive. Mr. Beecher, albeit his reputation is that
of a sensational preacher, makes little attempt at sensa-
tionalism in his manner of delivery. He reads well and
speaks well, with a clear, distinct enunciation, which is
heard in every part of his church. He talks directly to
his point, using plain but forcible language, his sermons
sparkling with original thought and brilliant language,
all based upon a foundation of plain, practical common
sense. He has great dramatic power, yet manifests it
in so unstudied a manner that it is never offensive. He
imitates the voice and manner of the man of whom he
is speaking; the maudlin condition of the drunkard, the
whine of the beggar, the sanctimoniousness of the hypo-
crite; and keeps his audience interested and on the alert.
The Friday evening lectures are also features of this
church, and are conducted without formality, yet in a
decorous manner.

The Brooklyn preacher who is a rival of Beecher, in
the popular estimation, is Thomas De Witt Talmage,
whose church is in Schermerhorn street, and known as the
Tabernacle. It is built Jin Gothic style, semi-circular in
form, like an opera house, and is capable of seating 5,000
persons. It is the largest Protestant place of worship in
the United States, yet every Sunday it is filled nearly, if
not quite, to its utmost capacity.

Talmage was born at Bound Brook, New Jersey, in
1832. After graduating at the Theological Seminary,
at New Brunswick, he preached in Belleville, New
Jersey; Syracuse, New York; and Philadelphia, until
1869, when he came to Brooklyn to be pastor of the
Central Presbyterian Church. Within a year he had
. become the acknowledged rival of Beecher. His church

BROOKLYN. 77

was crowded, and in 1870 a large amphitheatre, called
the Brooklyn Tabernacle, capable of seating four thou-
sand persons, was built. This building was destroyed
by fire in 1872, and while it was being rebuilt in its
present size and form, Talmage preached in the Academy
of Music, to immense crowds. The great organ used in
the Boston Coliseum, during the Musical Peace Jubilee,
accompanies the singing at the Tabernacle, which is
principally congregational, though a choir of four male
singers give one or more voluntaries. The singing was
led by Arbtickle, the celebrated cornetist, but he died in
May, 1883, and was buried on the day of the opening
of the Suspension Bridge.

In 1879, Talmage visited Great Britain, and made
a most successful lecture tour, receiving from five to six
hundred dollars for each lecture, and netting about fifty
thousand dollars for the tour. In this country he has
not been so popular as a lecturer as Beecher. He is a
tall, angular man, with dark hair, red whiskers, light
complexion, large mouth and blue eyes. His pulpit is
merely a platform, about thirty feet in length, built in
front of the organ, between the pipes and the performer ;
and back and forth on this he paces while delivering
his sermon, frequently making forcible gestures, which
have caused him to be caricatured as a contortionist or
gymnast. He is fluent in his style, with much original-
ity of expression, yet with a certain drawl in the middle
of his sentences, and snarl at their end, which renders
his elocution not entirely pleasing. He carries his
audience with him through the heights and depths of
his oratory, now provoking to smiles, again affecting to
tears.

Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., has been pastor of the

78 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church since 1860. He
was born at Aurora, New York, on January tenth, 1822,
and preached in Market street church, in New York City,
from 1853 to 1860. The church edifice where he now
ministers is one of the most spacious and complete, in
all its arrangements, in either New York or Brooklyn,
having seats for two thousand people, while the Sabbath-
school hall will accommodate one thousand.

Dr. Cuyler, during the thirty-seven years of his min-
istry, has delivered five thousand three hundred and
forty discourses, and a multitude of platform addresses.
He has received four thousand and forty-one persons
into church membership, of whom about one-half have
been on confession of faith. He has published several
volumes and over two thousand articles in the leading
religious newspapers. The present membership of the
Lafayette Avenue Church is nineteen hundred and
twenty persons. His congregations are very large on
every Sunday, and he is an untiring pastor, especially
zealous for temperance. He preaches the old orthodox
gospel, with no "modern improvements." His dis-
courses are able and eloquent, while his chief aim in
the pulpit is to reach the heart.

Justin D. Fulton, D.D., is still another eminent
clergyman of Brooklyn. He was born in 1828, in
Sherburne, Madison County, New York, and literally
worked his way through college and to the ministry.
He began his public life in St. Louis, where he was
engaged as editor of the Gospel Banner. Preaching in
the Tabernacle Baptist Church of that city, he delivered
the first Free-state sermon ever heard in St. Louis. He
also put his anti-slavery sentiments into his paper, and
was shortly deposed from his position as editor because

BROOKLYN. 79

he would not believe slavery to be right and defend it.
From St. Louis he went to Sandusky, Ohio, preaching
there a short period; and from thence, in 1859, to Al-
bany, New York, where he became pastor of the Taber-
nacle Church. In 1863 he received a call from the
Tremont Temple Church of Boston, and labored with
that church for ten years, increasing its membership
from fifty to one thousand. In 1873, he became pastor
of the Hanson Place Church, of Brooklyn, leaving it,
however, in 1875, to organize the Centennial Baptist
Church, in the same city. His popularity as a preacher
became so great that it was presently found necessary to
seek a larger place of worship. Therefore, in 1879, the
Rink was purchased, for much less than its original cost,
and was consecrated as a People's Church. The Rink
is an immense edifice, capable of seating nearly six;
thousand persons.

Dr. Fulton is an able writer, having published a
number of volumes, the most prominent among which
is " The Roman Catholic Element in America." In the
old days of slavery he was a most able and eloquent
anti-slavery advocate, and as such created strong preju-
dice against himself in certain quarters. He preached
the funeral sermon of Colonel Ellsworth, in Tweddle
Hall, Albany, in which he said that the war must go on
until the musket should be put in the hands of the
black man, and he was permitted to prove his manhood
on the battle field. This drew down upon him the de^
nunciation of the conservative press; but he was ap-
pointed Chaplain of Governor Morgan's staff, and
served in hospital and camp. He is no less famous
as an advocate of temperance, and devotes much of his
energies to work in this field.

80 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

In person, Dr. Fulton is tall, stout, finely formed,
with black whiskers and moustache, and a somewhat
bald forehead. His manner in the pulpit is full of
earnestness and impetuosity. He sometimes overwhelms
his audience with a whirlwind of words. He has strong
magnetic and nervous power, while he impresses his
listeners with his sincerity and candor. He makes
frequent and expressive gestures, and combines in his
oratory the carefulness of art with the fire of genius.
In belief he is thoroughly orthodox, having no leanings
toward the so-called "liberality" of many popular
clergymen.

R. S. Storrs, D.D., is pastor of the Church of the
Pilgrims, at the corner of Remsen and Henry streets.
He is one of the most noted clergymen of the city, and
was selected to assist in the opening of the New York
and Brooklyn Suspension Bridge, making one of the
addresses of the occasion.

The Unitarian Church of the Saviour, at the corner of
Pierrepont street and Monroe Place, is an elaborate
Gothic edifice, as is also St. Ann's Episcopal Church,
at the corner of Clinton and Livingston streets. The
Roman Catholic Church of St. Charles Borromeo, in
Sidney Place, is famous for its music. The Dutch
Reformed Church, in Pierrepont street, is of brown
stone, in the richest Corinthian style, and the interior
elaborately finished.

The United States Navy Yard is one of the features
of Brooklyn, and is the chief naval station of the
country. It is on the south shore of Wallabout Bay,
and contains forty-five acres. The yard is inclosed by a
high brick wall, and contains numerous foundries,
workshops and storehouses. Vessels of every kind used

BROOKLYN. 81

by the navy may be seen at almost any time at the yard,
and it has also a large and varied collection of trophies
taken in war and relics of earlier times, which prove of
interest to the visitor.

At the other extremity of Brooklyn, a mile below
South Ferry, is the Atlantic Dock, which covers an area
of forty-two and one-half acres, and deserves special
attention. It is surrounded by piers of solid granite,
upon which are spacious warehouses.

In the heart of the city, a little south of the Navy
Yard, between Myrtle and DeKalb avenues, is Wash-
ington Park, or old Fort Greene. It is on an elevated
plateau, contains thirty acres, and commands extensive
views. Its name of Fort Greene dates back to the time
of the Revolution, when it was the seat of extensive
fortifications.

The special pride of Brooklyn is Prospect Park, one
of the finest in America, where art and the landscape
gardener have assisted rather than thwarted nature in
her efforts to produce beauty. It is situated on an
elevated ridge on the southeastern borders of the city,
and from certain localities commands broad views of
Brooklyn, New York, the inner and outer harbor, and
the Jersey shore. It contains five hundred and fifty
acres, which embrace broad, green lawns, grassy slopes,
groves, wooded hills, beautiful with ferns and wild
flowers, lakes and rocky dells. It contains eight miles
of drives, four miles of bridle paths, and eleven miles of
walks. At the main entrance, on Flatbush avenue, is
a large, circular open place known as the Plaza, paved
with stone and bordered by grassy mounds. A fountain
of novel design furnishes the welcome sound of splash-
ing, trickling water, and not far distant from it is a

82 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

bronze statue of President Lincoln. Within the Park,
on an eminence overlooking the cottages and dell, is a
monument, erected in 1877, to the memory of John
Howard Payne, author of " Home, Sweet Home."

On Go wan us Heights, overlooking Gowanus Bay, in
the southern portion of Brooklyn, is situated Green-
wood Cemetery, one of the most beautiful " cities of the
dead" in the world. It was laid out in 1842, and
contains over five hundred acres. At least two hundred
thousand interments have been made in it. It is a
perfect wilderness of beauty. The surface of the ground
is uneven, and hills and valleys, grassy slopes, beautiful
little lakes with fountains playing in their midst, over-
shadowing trees, a profusion of brilliant flowers, and
the white or gray gleam of a thousand monuments,
varied and beautiful in design, all unite in forming an
exquisite spot for the resting place of the dead, which is
a fitting embodiment and expression of the loving
remembrance in which they continue to be held by the
living. Among the many elegant and expensive monu-
ments which this cemetery contains, not one will attract
more attention for its beauty and elaborateness than that
erected to Charlotte Canda, a young French girl, whose
fortune was expended in the marble pile above her
grave. The main entrance to Greenwood, near Fifth
Avenue and Twenty-third street, has a magnificent gate-
way in the pointed Gothic style, and opens upon a most
enchanting landscape. On an elevation to the right of
this entrance, within this cemetery, is obtained an exten-
sive view of Brooklyn and the bay. The cemetery
contains nineteen miles of carriage roads, and seventeen
miles of footpaths.

Four miles to the eastward of Greenwood are the

BROOKLYN. 83

cemeteries of the Evergreen and Cypress Hills, both
beautiful spots, and the latter especially celebrated as
containing the grave of a large number of soldiers of the
late war.

Radiating from Brooklyn, in almost every direction,
are routes leading to some of the most frequented plea-
sure resorts of the country. On the southern coast of
Long Island, just east of the Narrows, is Coney Island,
four and a half miles long, with a firm, gently-sloping
beach. The island is divided into four distinct places
of resort : Coney Island Point, or Morton's, at the west
end, the oldest of the four; West % Brighton Beach, or
Cable's, where there is an iron pier one thousand feet
long, extending out into the ocean, and an observatory
three hundred feet high ; Brighton Beach, connecting
with West Brighton by a wide drive and promenade,
known as the Concourse ; and Manhattan Beach, the
most fashionable resort on the island. At the latter
place are two vast hotels, and an amphitheatre, with three
thousand five hundred seats, upon the beach, for the
accommodation of those who wish to watch the bathers.

Rockaway Beach is to the westward of Coney Island,
and is about four miles long, with surf bathing on one
side and still bathing on the other. A colossal tubular
iron pier, twelve hundred feet long, extends out into the
ocean,' affording a landing for steamboats.

Staten Island, the western boundary of the Narrows,
is a sort of earthly paradise, which separates the Lower
Bay from the Upper. It is a beautiful island, having
an area of nearly sixty square miles, and rising boldly
from the waters of the bays. It commands exten-
sive views over harbor and ocean, and is a favorite
Bummer home or place of temporary resort.

84 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Along the shores of the Sound are many places for
summer rest and recreation. Glen Island, lying in the
East River, is a famous and attractive picnicing spot
for both New Yorkers and Brooklynites.

Brooklyn is a beautiful and an extensive city, a fitting
suburb of the metropolis. The additional facilities for
transit between the two cities afforded by the completion
of the Suspension Bridge will tend to her material
advantage, drawing thither a still larger class of people
to make their homes in its quiet suburban streets and
avenues, out of the noise and whirl of the great city.
Her prosperity musjt keep pace with that of her elder
sister, and so close is the bond of common interest between
them, that whatever benefits one must benefit the other.

CHAPTER V.

BALTIMORE.

Position of Baltimore. — Streets. — Cathedral and Churches. — Pub-
lic Buildings. — Educational Institutions. — Art Collections. —
Charitable Institutions. — Monuments. — Railway Tunnels. —
Parks and Cemeteries. — Druid Hill Park. — Commerce and
Manufactures. — Foundation of the 'City. — Early History. — Bona-
parte-Patterson Marriage. — Storming of Baltimore in 1814. —
Maryland at the Breaking-out of the Rebellion. — Assault on
Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, in April, 1851. — Subsequent
Events during the War.- Baltimore Proves Herself Loyal. —
Re-union of Grand Army of the Republic in Baltimore, Septem-
ber, 1882. — Old Differences Forgotten and Fraternal Rela.ions
Established.

THE first in commercial and manufacturing import-
ance of all southern cities is Baltimore, situated
on the north branch of the Patapsco River, fourteen
miles from its entrance into the Chesapeake Bay, and
one hundred and ninety-eight miles from the Atlantic. It
embraces an area of nearly twelve square miles, about
one-half of which is built up solidly with residences and
business houses. The city is divided into East and
West Baltimore, by Jones' Falls, a small stream running
nearly north and south, and spanned by numerous
bridges. The northwest branch of the Patapsco also
runs up into the heart of the city, forming a basin, into
which small vessels can enter. The outer harbor, or
main branch of the Patapsco, is accessible to the largest
ships. The harbor is a safe and capacious one, capa-
ble of furnishing anchorage to a thousand vessels. At
the point of the peninsula separating the two branches

85

86 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

of the river is situated Fort McHenry, which defends
the entrance, and which was unsuccessfully bombarded
by the British fleet in the War of 1812.

The general appearance of the city is striking and
picturesque. It is regularly laid out, the streets for the
most part crossing one another at right angles, but there
is sufficient diversity to prevent sameness. Thus while
the main part of the city is laid out with streets running
north and south, crossed by others running east and
west, large sections show streets running diagonally to
the points of the compass. The surface of the ground
upon which the city is built is undulating, and its streets
are moderately wide. Baltimore street, running east
and west, is the main business thoroughfare, containing
the principal retail stores and hotels. North Charles
street is the most fashionable promenade, while Mount
Vernon Place, and the vicinity of the Monument and
Broadway are favorite resorts.

The city abounds in handsome edifices. A generation
ago, the Catholic Cathedral, at the corner of Mulberry
and Cathedral streets — a large granite edifice in the
form of a cross, one hundred and ninety feet long, one
hundred and seventy-seven feet at the arms of the cross,
and surmounted by a dome one hundred and twenty-
seven feet high — was the especial pride and boast of
Baltimoreans. At its west end are two tall towers with
Saracenic cupolas, resembling the minarets of a Moham-
medan mosque. It contains one of the largest organs
in America, and two valuable paintings, " The Descent
from the Cross," the gift of Louis XVI, and "St. Louis
burying his officers and soldiers slain before Tunis,"
presented by Charles X, of France. Now other
buildings are found equally as magnificent. The Roman

BALTIMORE. 87

Catholic churches of St. Alphonsus, at the corner of Sara-
toga and Park Streets, and of St. Vincent de Paul, in
North Front Street, are fine in architectural design and
interior decorations. The Unitarian Church, at the
corner of North Charles and Franklin streets, is a hand-
some edifice, faced by a colonnade composed of four Tus-
can columns and two pilasters, which form arcades, and
containing five bronze entrance doors. Grace Church,
Episcopal, at the corner of Monument and Park streets,
and Emmanuel Church, also Episcopal, at the corner of
Reed and Cathedral streets, are handsome gothic struc-
tures, the former of red and the latter of gray sandstone.
Christ's and St. Peter's Episcopal churches, the one at
the corner of St. Paul and Chase streets, and the other
at the corner of Druid Hill avenue and Lanvale street,
are both of marble. The Eutaw Place Baptist Church,
at the corner of Eutaw and Dolphin streets, has a beau-
tiful marble spire one hundred and eighty-six feet high.
The First Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Park
and Madison streets, has a spire two hundred and sixty-
eight feet high, with side towers, respectively seventy-
eight and one hundred and twenty-eight feet in height,
and is the most elaborate specimen of Lancet-Gothic
architecture in the country. The Westminster, at the
corner of Green and Fayette streets, contains the grave
and monument of Edgar Allan Poe. Mount Vernon
"Church, which fronts Washington Monument, at the
corner of Charles and Monument streets, and is in the
most aristocratic residence quarter of Baltimore, is built
of green serpentine stone,with buff Ohio and red Connecti-
cut sandstone, and has eighteen polished columns of Aber-
deen granite. The Hebrew Synagogue, in Lloyd street
near Baltimore street,, is a large and handsome edifice.

88 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The City Hall, filling the entire square bounded by
Holliday, Lexington, North and Fayette streets, built
of marble, in the Renaissance style, was completed in
1875, and is one of the finest municipal edifices in the
United States. It is four stories in height, with a
French roof, and an iron dome two hundred and sixty
feet high, with a balcony elevated two hundred and fifty
feet above the sidewalk, from which a magnificent view
of the city may be obtained. The Masonic Temple, in
Charles street, near Saratoga, is a handsome building,
completed in 1870, at a cost of $200,000. The Exchange,
in Gay street, between Second and Lombard streets, is
an extensive structure, surmounted by an immense dome,
one hundred and fifteen feet high, and fifty-three feet in
diameter, which overarches a spacious and brilliantly
frescoed rotunda. Six Ionic columns, the shafts of
which are single blocks of Italian marble, form colon-
nades on the east and west sides. It contains the United
States Custom House, Post Office, Merchants7 Bank,
and a fine, large reading-room. The Corn and Flour
Exchange, the Rialto Building, Odd Fellows' Hall, Y.
M. C. A. Building, are all modern and elegant struc-
tures. The Merchant's Shot Tower, which stands at the
corner of Front and Fayette streets, is two hundred and
sixteen feet high, and from sixty to twenty feet in
diameter, and is one of the landmarks of the city. One
million, one hundred thousand bricks were used in its
construction.

Peabody Institute faces Washington monument, on the
south, and was founded and endowed by George Peabody,
the eminent American-born London banker, for the diffu-
sion of knowledge among the people. It contains a free
library of fifty-eight thousand volumes, a conservatory

BALTIMORE. 89

of music, lecture hall, and a Department of Art, which
includes art collections and an art school. The Athe-
naeum, at the corner of Saratoga and St. Paul streets,
contains the Merchants' Library, with twenty-six
thousand volumes, the Baltimore Library, with fifteen
thousand volumes, and the collections of the Maryland
Historical Society, comprising a library of ten thousand
volumes, numerous historical relics, and fine pictures and
statuary. The Johns Hopkins University, which was
endowed with over three millions of dollars, by Johns
Hopkins, a wealthy citizen of Baltimore, who died in
1873, has a temporary location at the corner of Howard
street and Druid Hill avenue, but will probably be per-
manently located at Clifton, two miles from the city on
the Harford road. The Johns Hopkins Hospital, to be
connected with the Medical Department of the Johns
Hopkins University, and endowed with over two mil-
lions of dollars by the same generous testator, is in
process of construction at the corner of Broadway and
Monument street, and will be the finest building of its
kind in America. The Maryland Institute is a vast
structure at the corner of Baltimore and Harrison streets,
and is designed for the promotion of the mechanical arts.
The main hall is two hundred and fifty feet long, and
in it is held an annual exhibition of the products of
American mechanical industry. It contains a library ot'
fourteen thousand volumes, a lecture room, and a school
of design. The first floor is used as a market. The
Academy of Science, in Mulberry street, opposite
Cathedral street, has a fine museum of natural history,
embracing a rich collection of birds and minerals, and
including a complete representation of the flora and
fauna of Maryland.

90 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Not only is Baltimore noted for free educational
institutions, but for her art collections as well. Annual
exhibitions of American paintings are held in the
Athenaeum, and the Academy of Art and Science con-
tains a fine collection of paintings, engravings and casts.
The private art gallery of William T. Walters, of No. 65
Mount Vernon Place, is one of the finest in America.

There are numerous charitable institutions in the city,
prominent among which are the Hospital for the Insane,
in East Monument street ; Institution for the Instruc-
tion of the Blind, in North avenue near Charles street ;
State Insane Asylum, a massive pile of granite buildings,
near Catonsville, six miles from the city; Bay View
Asylum, an almshouse, on a commanding eminence near
the outskirts of the city, on the Philadelphia road;
Mount Hope Hospital, conducted by the Sisters of Char-
ity, on North avenue, corner of Bolton street ; Episcopal
Church Home, in Broadway near Baltimore street;
Sheppard Asylum for the Insane, founded by Moses
Sheppard, a wealthy Quaker, situated on a commanding
site near Towsontown, seven miles from the city, and
Mount Hope Retreat for the insane and sick, four miles
from the city, on the Eeistertown road.

But her monuments are the special pride of Baltimore,
and from them she derives her name of " The Monu-
mental City." Chief among them is Washington
Monument, whose construction was authorized by the
Legislature in 1809, the land being donated for the
purpose by Colonel John Eager Howard. The site is
one hundred feet above tide-water, in Mount Vernon
Place, at the intersection of Monument and Washington
streets. It is a Doric shaft rising one hundred and
seventy-six and one-half feet, from a base fifty feet

BALTIMORE. 91

square by thirty-five feet in -height, and is surmounted
by a colossal figure of Washington, fifteen feet high, the
whole rising more than three hundred feet above the
level of the river. It is built of brick, cased with white
marble, and cost $200,000. From the balcony at the
head of the shaft, reached by a winding stairs within, a
most extensive view of the city, harbor and surrounding
country may be obtained. Battle Monument stands in
Battle Square, at the intersection of Calvert and Fayette
streets, and is commemorative of those who fell defend-
ing the city when it was attacked by the British in
1814. A square base, twenty feet high, with a pedestal
ornamented at four comers by a sculptured griffin, has
on each front an Egyptian door, on which are appropriate
inscriptions and basso relievo decorations illustrating
certain incidents in the battle. A fascial column eigh-
teen feet in height rises above the base, surrounded by
bands on which are inscribed the names of those who
fell. The column is surmounted by a female figure in
marble, emblematic of the city of Baltimore. The Poe
Monument, raised in memory of Baltimore's poet, Edgar
Allan Poe, stands in the churchyard of Westminster
Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Green and Fayette
streets. The Wildey Monument has a plain marble
pediment and shaft, surmounted by a group representing
Charity protecting orphans, and has been raised in honor
of Thomas Wildey, the founder of the order of Odd
Fellows in the United States. It is on Broadway near
Baltimore street. The Wells and McComas Monument,
at the corner of Gay and Monument streets, perpetuates
the memory of two boys bearing those names, who shot
General Ross, the British Commander, on September
twelfth, 1814.

92 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The railway tunnels, by which the railroads on the
north side of the city are connected with tide water at
Canton, are among the wonders of Baltimore. That of
the Baltimore and Potomac Road is second in length only
to the Hoosac Tunnel, in America, it being 6969 feet
long, while the Union tunnel is half the length. They
were completed in 1873, at a cost of four million, five
hundred thousand dollars. Previous to their construc-
tion, passengers and freight were transferred through the
city by means of horses and mules attached to the cars.

Federal Hill is a commanding eminence on the south
side of the river basin, and from it extensive views are
obtained of the city and harbor. It was occupied by
Union troops during the civil war, and now contains a
United States Signal Station. It has been purchased by
the city for a park. Greenmount Cemetery, in the north-
ern part of the city, and Loudon Park Cemetery, both
have imposing entrances and contain handsome monu-
ments. Patterson Park, at the east end of Baltimore
street, contains seventy acres handsomely laid out, and
commanding extensive views.

The people of the present day can scarcely compre-
hend the grand scale on which landscape gardening was
attempted a hundred or more years ago. The landed
gentry, themselves or their fathers immigrants from
England, considered a well-kept park, like those of the
immense English estates, an essential to an American one.
To this day may be seen traces of their efforts in this di-
rection, in stately avenues of venerable trees, which the
iconoclastic hand of modern progress has considerately
spared. In some rare instances whole estates have re-
mained untouched, and have become public property, and
their beauties thus perpetuated. Bonaventure Cemetery,

BALTIMORE. 93

near Savannah, is a notable instance of this, where a mag-
nificently planned Southern plantation has been trans-
ferred from private to public hands, and its valuable trees
remain, though the hand of art, in attempting to improve,
has rather marred the majestic beauty of the place.
Lemon Hill, the nucleus of Fairmount Park, in Phila-
delphia, was, in revolutionary times, the estate of Robert
Morris, and though the landscape gardener has been
almost ruthless in his improvements (?), he has been
considerate enough to spare some of the century-old
trees. To the same private enterprise, love of the
picturesque and appreciation of beauty, Baltimore is
indebted for Druid Hill Park, in the northern suburbs
of the city. Colonel Nicholas Rogers, a soldier of the
Revolution and a gentleman of taste and leisure, when
the war was over, retired to his country residence, a
little distance from Baltimore, then a city of some ten
thousand inhabitants, and devoted the remainder of his
life to improving and adorning its extensive grounds.
He seemed a thorough master of landscape gardening,
and all his plans were most carefully matured, so that the
trees are most artistically grouped and alternated with
lawns ; dense masses of foliage are broken into by bays
and avenues, and beautiful vistas secured in various
directions. Also in the selection of his trees a careful
consideration was had of their autumn foliage, so that
fine contrasts of color should be produced at that season
of the year. The result of all this care and labor was
one of the most charming and enchanting private parks
which the country afforded. It contained an area of
nearly five hundred acres.

When Colonel Rogers died, his son, Lloyd N.
Rogers, who seemed to have inherited only in part the

94 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

tastes of his father, devoted himself solely to the culti-
vation of fruit, doing nothing to add to or preserve the
beauty of his domain, but, on the other hand, allowing
it to fall into neglect and decay. However, the harm
that he wrought was only negative, for he did nothing
to mar it, and preserved, with jealous care, the grand
old trees which his father had planted, and with unre-
mitting vigilance warded off interlopers and depredators.
The estate was secluded from the outside world by
fringes of woodland, and though the city had gradually
crept to within a quarter of a mile, few people knew
anything of its beauties. When, therefore, the Commis-
sion appointed to select the site for a new park decided
upon Druid Hill as the most available for that purpose,
it was absolutely necessary to detail its advantages. Mr.
Rogers reluctantly consented to accept one thousand dol-
lars an acre for his estate, and it became city property.
Subsequently, other small pieces of adjoining property
were bought, and Druid Lake and grounds were finally
added, and the people of Baltimore found themselves
in the possession of a park embracing an area of six
hundred and eighty acres, which needed not to be created,
but only to be improved, to be one of the most beauti-
ful in the country.

There has been but little attempt at architectural decor-
ation. A costly and imposing gateway, a Moorish music
stand, bright with many colors, a boat-house crowning a
little island in a miniature lake, a pretty bridge and a
Moorish arch thrown across a ravine, a few handsome
fountains, and, finally, the old mansion, renovated and
enlarged, standing out against the densely-wooded hill
from which the park takes its name — these are about all
which have been attempted in that line. The surface

BALTIMORE. 95

of the Park is gently undulating, with occasional bold
eminences from which tine views may be obtained of
the city and surrounding country. Its special attrac-
tions are its secluded walks, well-kept drives and tree-
arched bridle-paths, its smooth, velvety turf, and the
venerable beauty of its trees, which are the oldest of
those of any park in the country. Its glades and dells
have been left as nature made them, having been spared
the artificial touches of the landscape gardener ; and its
little trickling springs and cool, secluded brooks, have a
isylvan, rustic beauty which is surpassingly delightful.

The future care and improvement of the Park are
well provided .for. About the time that it became a
matter of public interest, the charter for the first line of
street passenger railways was granted, and this charter
stipulated that one-fifth of the gross receipts of the
road, or one cent for each passenger carried, should be
paid to the city, to constitute a Park Fund. This
amount, small at first, but gradually increasing until it
now amounts to more than a hundred thousand dollars
annually, was devoted first to paying the interest on the
Park bonds, and finally to the preservation and improve-
ment of the Park. The Park Commissioners, who
receive no pay for their services, have most judiciously
administered the fund entrusted to their care.

The foreign and coasting trade of Baltimore are both
extensive. Two lines of steamships leave the port
weekly for Europe^ and she commands a large share of
the trade of the West and Northwest. Her shipments
to Europe are principally grain, tobacco, cotton, petro-
leum and provisions. The city contains rolling mills,
iron works, nail factories, locomotive works, cotton
factories and other industrial establishments, nuni-

96 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

bering more than two thousand in all. The rich
copper ores of Lake Superior are chiefly worked
here, and nearly four thousand tons of refined copper
are produced annually. The smelting works in Canton,
a southern suburb of the city, employ one thousand
men. There are also extensive flouring mills, while
oysters, fruit and vegetables, to the value of five million
dollars, are canned annually. Five hundred thousand
hides are also annually made into leather and sent to
New England. Baltimore oysters are renowned as being
among the best the Atlantic seaboard produces, and no
one should think of visiting the city without testing
them. The Chesapeake oyster beds are apparently ex-
haustless, and supply plants for beds all along the coast.

Although the first settlements in Maryland were made
early in the seventeenth century, the present site of
Baltimore was not chosen until 1729, and in 1745 the
town was named Baltimore, in honor of Lord Baltimore,
a Catholic, to whom the patent of the province of Mary-
land had been originally made out. In 1782 the first
regular communication with Philadelphia, by means of
a line of stage coaches, was established, and Baltimore
was chartered as a city in 1787, having at that time a
population of twenty thousand, which, by 1850, had
increased to nearly two hundred thousand ; and, accord-
ing to the census of 1880, the population was 332,190
inhabitants. In 1780 the city became a port of entry,
and in 1782 the first pavement was laid in Baltimore
street.

In 1803 Baltimore became the scene of a romance
which is even yet remembered with interest. Jerome
Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon, born in
Ajaceio, November fifteenth, 1784, found himself, in

BALTIMORE. 97

the year just mentioned, while cruising off the West
Indies, on account of the war between France and
England, compelled to take refuge in New York. Being
introduced into the best society of that and neighboring
cities, he made the acquaintance of Miss Elizabeth
Patterson, daughter of a merchant of Baltimore. The
manner of their introduction was peculiar. In a crowded
saloon the button of young Bonaparte's coat caught in
the dress of a young lady, and as it took a little time to
disengage it, the future King of Westphalia had oppor-
tunity to see that the lady was young, surpassingly
beautiful and charming. This interview, by some who
knew the lady and who were acquainted with her
ambition, thought to be not entirely accidental, resulted,
on the twenty-seventh of December of the same year, in
a marriage between the two, the bridegroom being but
nineteen years of age. Being summoned back to France
by his Imperial brother, he was quickly followed by his
young wife, who, however, was not permitted to land in
France, and retired to England, where she shortly after-
wards gave birth to a son, whom she named Jerome,
after his father. Napoleon annulled the marriage, on
the ground that it had been made contrary to French
law, which stipulates that the consent of parents must
be gained in order to legalize a marriage. Jerome
was compelled, after he succeeded to the Westphalian
crown, to marry Sophia Dorothea, daughter of King
Frederick I, of Wurtemburg. Madame Patterson, as
she was called to the day of her death, though she main-
tained her title to the name of Bonaparte, having an
utter scorn for America and its democratic institutions,
spent much of her life in Europe, where at first her
beauty, and to the last her wit and charming manner^

98 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

secured her admission to the most exclusive salons, and
a sort of acknowledgment of her claims. She never
saw her husband again, save on one occasion, when she
came face to face with him in a European picture-
gallery.

Madame Patterson's aristocratic prejudices were greatly
shocked when her son married a most estimable Ameri-
can lady, the mother's ambition seeking for him an
alliance among the royal or at least noble families of the
Old World. During the reign of Napoleon III, the
Pope recognized the first marriage of Jerome Bonaparte,
and thft Emperor, who had taken offence at his cousin,
the son of Jerome by his princess wife, also legitimatized
the son, and took him into his service. Madame Pat-
terson lived to be nearly a hundred years old, having
spent her last days in her native city, and dying but a
few years ago. Her son Jerome survived her not many
years, leaving two sons, who are known as the Patterson*
Bonapartes.

In December, 1814, Baltimore was made the object
of attack by the British forces, then at war with the
United States. On the eleventh of that month the fleet
reached the mouth of the Patapsco, and on the next day
six thousand men landed at North Point, and proceeded,
under command of General Ross, toward the city. An
army of over three thousand men met them and kept
them in check, in order to gain time to put the forts and
batteries of Baltimore in proper condition for defence.
A battle was fought, and the Americans defeated, with
considerable loss. Among the killed and wounded,
which numbered one hundred and three, were many of
the most prominent citizens of Baltimore. The next
morning the British advanced to the entrenchments

BALTIMORE. 99

about two miles from the city, and at the same time a
vigorous attack was made by the fleet, upon Fort
McHenry, at the entrance of the harbor. The fort was
vigorously bombarded during the next twenty-four
hours, but without visible effect. The troops which had
landed, after hovering at a respectful distance from the
city, until the evening of the thirtieth, then retired to
their shipping, and set sail down the river, leaving
behind them their commander, General Eoss, who had
been killed in the battle of the twelfth. It was during
the siege of Baltimore, while the British fleet lay off
Fort McHenry, and the bombs were raining upon it,
that Philip Barton Key wrote the "Star Spangled
Banner."

From 1814 to 1861, nearly half a century, Baltimore
had nothing to do but develop her resources and
extend her commerce, which she did so well and so
thoroughly, that in 1860 her inhabitants numbered more
than 212,000, and she stood in the front rank as a
manufacturing and commercial town.

At the inauguration of President Lincoln, in 1861,
the sentiments of the people assimilated rather with those
of Virginia and the South, than with those of Pennsyl-
vania and the North. Had it not, by its geographical
position, been so completely in the power of the Federal
government, Maryland would probably have seceded
with Virginia. Great excitement was aroused by the
attack on Fort Sumter, and the State was with difficulty
made to retain her old position in the Union. The only
line of railway from the north and east to Washington
passed through Baltimore, and when, on the fifteenth of
April, the President made his call for seventy-five thou-
sand men, it was necessary that, in reaching the seat of

100 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

war, they should pass through that city. Apprehensions
were felt that they might be disturbed, but the Marshal
of Police, on the eighteenth of April, maintained perfect
order in the city, and summarily quieted all attempts at
riot. He also received from the State Rights Associa-
tion a most solemn pledge that the Federal troops should
not be interfered with. The Mayor issued a procla-
mation invoking all good citizens to uphold and main-
tain the peace and good order of the city.

On the nineteenth, the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment,
the first to respond to the President's call, arrived, by
the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad. A crowd of
two or three thousand persons had gathered at the depot
early in the day, to witness their arrival. Soon after
eleven o'clock in the morning twenty-nine cars arrived
from Philadelphia, filled with soldiers. Horses were
attached to the cars, which were driven along Pratt
street to the Camden station. The multitude hooted and
yelled after the first six cars, but did not otherwise
molest them. The horses becoming frightened by the
uproar, were detached from the seventh car, which moved
without their aid nearly to Gay street, where a body of
laborers were removing the cobblestones from the bed
of the street, in order to repair it. Some thirty or forty
men had followed the car to this point, cheering for Pres-
ident Davis and the Southern Confederacy, and apply-
ing contemptuous and insulting epithets to the troops.
The latter received these taunts in perfect silence; and
when the horses were again attached, and the car com-
menced moving off, a proposition was made to stone it.
Almost instantly, acting on the suggestion, nearly every
window was smashed by projectiles snatched from the
street. The eighth car was treated in a like manner.

BALTIMORE. 101

The ninth car was suffered to pass unmolested, as it was
apparently empty. When the tenth car approached,
after an ineffectual attempt to tear up the track, it was
heaped with paving stones, and a cartload of sand
dumped upon them, and four or five large anchors,
dragged from the sidewalk, completed the barricade.
Progress was impossible, and the car returned to th*
President Street Depot.

Two-thirds of the cars still remained, filled with troops,
besides others loaded with ammunition and baggage.
Mayor Brown hastened to the depot, in order to prevent
any disturbance. The troops were ordered to leave the
cars and form into line. While forming they were sur-
rounded by a dense mass of people, who impeded their
march, threw great quantities of stones, and knocked
down and severely injured two soldiers.

Marching through the city, from the President Street
Depot to the Pratt Street Bridge, they were pursued by
the excited crowd, who continued to throw stones, and
even fired muskets at them. When they reached Gay
street, where the track had been torn up, they were
again violently assaulted by a fresh mob, and a number
knocked down and wounded. At the corner of South
and Pratt streets a man fired a pistol into the ranks of
the military, when those in the rear ranks immediately
wheeled and fired upon their assailants, wounding sev-
eral. The guns of the wounded soldiers were seized,
and fired upon the ranks, killing two soldiers. Reach-
ing Calvert street, the troops succeeded in checking
their pursuers by a rapid fire, and were not again seri-
ously molested until they reached Howard street, where
still another mob had assembled.

The police did their utmost to protect the troops from

102 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

assault, but were pressed back by the excited crowd.
The soldiers left the Camden station about half-past
twelve o'clock, and a body of infantry, about one hun-
dred and fifty strong, from one of the Northern States,
which had arrived meantime, next attracted the malevo-
lence of the crowd. The excitement was now intense.
A man displayed the flag of the Confederate States, and
a general panic ensued. As many as twenty shots were
fired, happily without injury to any one, and cobble-
stones fell like hail. At last the soldiers gained refuge
in the cars. Other troops, by order of Governor Hicks,
were sent back to the borders of the State, and the mili-
tary was called out and quiet restored, by evening. Nine
citizens of Baltimore had been killed, and many wounded ;
while twenty-five wounded Massachusetts troops were
sent to the Washington Hospital, and their dead num-
bered two.

Thus Baltimore shares with Charleston the doubtful
honor of being first in the great civil war which devas-
tated the country and sent desolation to many thousand
homes, both north and south. Charleston fired the first
gun, and Baltimore shed the first blood.

During the succeeding night, a report reaching the
city that more Northern troops were on their way
southward, the bridge at Canton, the two bridges be-
tween Cockeysville and Ashland, also the bridges over
Little Gunpowder and Bush rivers were destroyed, by
order of the authorities of Baltimore. Upon a repre-
sentation of the matter to President Lincoln, he ordered
that " no more troops should be brought through Balti-
more, if, in a military point of view, and without inter-
ruption or opposition, they can be marched around
Baltimore." The transmission of mails, and removal

BALTIMORE. 103

of provisions from the city, were suspended, by the order
of the Mayor and Board of Police. Four car-loads of
military stores and equipments, sufficient to furnish a
thousand men, belonging to the Government, were thus
detained. On the twenty-fourth of the month the city
had the appearance of a military camp. Twenty-five
thousand volunteers had enlisted, and four hundred
picked men left the city for the Relay House, on the
Baltimore and Ohio Road, for the purpose of seizing and
protecting that point, in order to cut off communications
with Washington by that route.

For a week an unparalleled excitement prevailed in
Baltimore, which was succeeded by a counter-revolution,
when the volunteer militia were dismissed, and a large
number of troops landed at Fort McHenry and shipped
for Washington, from Locust Point. On the fifth of
May General Butler removed a portion of his troops to
Baltimore, and they were permitted to enter and remain
in the city without disturbance. As they proceeded on
their way to Federal Hill, they were even greeted with
cheers, while ladies at windows and doors waved their
handkerchiefs and applauded. On the sixteenth of
May the passenger trains between Baltimore and Wash-
ington resumed their regular trips. On the twenty-
seventh of June, Marshal of Police Kane was arrested
and escorted to Fort McHenry, on the charge of being
at the head of an unlawful combination of men organ-
ized for resistance to the laws of the United States and
the State of Maryland. On the first of July the Com-
missioners of Police were arrested, for having acted
unlawfully. On the sixteenth of July General Dix was
put in command of the troops stationed at ^Baltimore,
and the city thenceforth remained tranquil. At the fall

104 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

elections a full vote was east, which resulted in the
Union candidates receiving a very large majority. At
the meeting of the Legislature, it appropriated seven
thousand dollars for the relief of the families of the
Massachusetts troops killed and wounded at Baltimore
on April nineteenth.

On June thirtieth, 1863, Major General Schenck, in
command at Baltimore, put that city and Maryland
under martial law. The value of merchandise exported
that year from Baltimore was $8,054,112, and her
imports during the same time were $4,098,189, showing
that although on the borderland of strife, her commerce
was in an exceedingly healthy condition. During July
a number of her citizens were arrested, on a charge of
being disloyal to the government. On the Fourth of
July all citizens were required by the Commander to
show their colors, from ten o'clock A. M. to six o'clock,
p. M. ; an absence of the national flag being considered
tantamount to a confession of disloyalty. In 1864 the
State adopted a new Constitution, which conferred free-
dom upon the slaves within her borders, and in November
a Freedman's Bureau was established by Major General
Wallace, having its headquarters at Baltimore.

The following year saw the close of the war, and
Baltimore, which had not suffered like her sister cities at
the South, her port being free from blockade, but had
rather witnessed increased prosperity arising from the
demands of the war, continued her prosperous career.
Although many violent disuuionists had found their
homes within the city, the popular sentiment had grown
strongly in favor of the North, and Baltimore had come
to see that she had little to lose and much to gain by the
reestablishment of the Union.

BALTIMORE. 10<N

The bitterness of the old war times has passed away,
and, as if to emphasize this fact, the Grand Army of the
Republic was invited to hold a reunion in Baltimore in
September, 1882. Accepting the invitation, her citizens
vied with each other in honoring the veterans of the
war, and made their visit a regular ovation. Of the
Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, who had passed through
Baltimore on that fateful day in April, twenty -one years
before, and who suffered from the fury of an ungoverned
mob, only one member attended the reunion, Captain
C. P. Lord, a resident of Vineland, New Jersey. He
was lionized on every hand.

This Grand Army reunion had many pleasant and
amusing features. Here men met each other again who
had last parted on the battlefield or in a Southern
prison. Here the dead seemed to come to life, and the
lost were found. Many officers and soldiers of the
Confederate army were also present, and it was as
satisfactory as curious, as more than once happened
during this occasion, to have two men meet and clasp
hands in a cordial greeting, as one of them said to the
other, " The last time we met I tried to put a bullet
hole through you on a battlefield ;" or, " I took you
prisoner when I saw you last;" or, " This empty sleeve,
or these crutches, I must thank you for."

The gathering was .one which will long be remem-
bered by Union and Confederate soldiers, and by the
citizens of Baltimore as well. It was the inauguration
of an era of good feeling between the North and the
South. All personal and sectional enmity had died out,
and this gathering joined those who had represented, on
one side the North and on the other the South, in that
great intestine struggle which is now so long past, and

106 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

the terror of which, thank God, is being gradually
obliterated by time from our memories, in new fraternal
bonds, which are a good augury for the preservation of
our Union. When soldiers who suffered so much at
each other's hands, who were stirred by all the evil
passions which war develops, and who bore the brunt of
the conflict, offering all, if need be, as a sacrifice on
the altar of the cause they had espoused, can so forget
the past, and shaking hands over the chasm which
divided them, look forward to a happy and concordant
future, surely civilians should be willing to bury the
hatred and prejudice which has so embittered the past,
and live only for a common country, made of many parts
whose interests are identical.

CHAPTER VI.

CHARLESTON.

First Visit to Charleston. — Jail Yard. — Bombardment of the City.
— Roper Hospital. — Charleston During the War. — Secession of
South Carolina. — Attack and Surrender of Fort Sumter.—
Blockade of the Harbor.— Great Fire of 1861.— Capitulation in
1865.— First Settlement of the City.— Battles of the Revolution.
— Nullification Act. — John C. Calhoun. — Population of the
City. — Commerce and Manufactures. — Charleston Harbor. —
"American Venice."— Battery. — Streets, Public Buildings and
Churches. — Scenery about Charleston. — Railways and Steamship
Lines. — An Ancient Church. — Magnolia Cemetery. — Drives near
the City.— Charleston Purified by Fire.

MY first introduction to the city of Charleston can
scarcely be said to have been under propitious
circumstances. True, a retinue of troops conducted
my companions and myself, with military pomp, to our
quarters in the city. But these quarters, instead of
being any one of its fine hotels, were none other than
the Charleston Jail Yard, for the year was 1864, and we
were prisoners of war.

After a varied experience of prison life at Richmond,
Danville, Macon and Savannah, I had been sent, with a
number of others, to Charleston, South Carolina, to be
placed under the fire of our batteries, which were then
bombarding the city. We had received more humane
treatment at Savannah than at any previous place of
detention ; therefore it was with a sinking of the heart
that we found ourselves, when we arrived at our destina-
tion, thrown into the jail yard at Charleston, which was
the grand receptacle of all Union prisoners in that city,

107

108 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The jail was a large octagonal building, four stories
high, surmounted by a lofty tower. A workhouse and a
gallows also occupied the yard. The jail building was
for the accommodation of criminals, military prisoners,
and Federal and Rebel deserters, all of whom at least
had the advantage of shelter from sun and storm. The
war prisoners were permitted the use of the yard only,
which was in the most filthy condition conceivable,
having been long used as a prison-pen, without receiving
any cleaning or purification whatever. The only shelter
afforded us were the remnants of a few tents, which had
been cut to pieces, more or less, by former prisoners, to
make themselves clothing.

This jail yard was in the southeastern portion of the
city, and apparently directly under the fire of our
batteries on Morris Island. But though the shells came
screaming over our heads, and proved a subject of
interest, discussion, and even mathematical calculation
among the prisoners, who were thankful for anything
which should take their minds, even momentarily, from
the misery which they endured, so carefully were
they aimed, not to do us mischief, that though they
exploded all about us — in front, behind, and on either
side — not one of them fell within the prison enclosure.
The scene at night was of peculiar beauty. These
messengers of death presented the spectacle of mag-
nificent fireworks, and every explosion sounded as the
voice of a friend to us, assuring us that the great
Northern army was still exerting itself to crush out the
rebellion and open our prison doors and set us free.

Reaching Charleston and its jail yard September
twelfth, 1864, on the twenty-ninth I was transferred to
the Roper Hospital, having given my parole that I

CHARLESTON. 109

would not attempt to escape. The quarters here were
so much more comfortable that it was almost like a
transition from hell to heaven. Leaving behind me
the filthiness of the jail yard, and my bed there on the
chill, bare ground, where I had protection against neither
heat nor cold, storm nor sunshine, to be permitted the
freedom of the beautiful garden of the hospital, and to
sleep even upon the hard floor of the piazza, were
luxuries before unenjoyed in my experience of southern
prisons. And here the Sisters of Charity, those angels
among women, did what they could to alleviate the
sufferings of the sick, and to add to the comfort of us
all. Their ministrations were bestowed indiscriminately
on Rebels and Federals, with a charity as broad and
boundless as true religion.

On October fifth we were ordered to leave Charleston,
and were sent, in the foulest of cattle cars, to Columbia,
the Capital of the State. We left Charleston without a
regret. It was the breeding place of the rankest treason,
the cradle of the Rebellion, and the scene of untold
cruelties to Union prisoners. At the time of our brief
visit to the city, it was undergoing all the horrors of an
actual siege. About one-third of its territory had been
destroyed by fire during the early part of the war,
caused by shells thrown from the Union batteries on
Morris Island. This portion of the city was deserted
by all its inhabitants save the negroes, who, during every
brief cessation in the bombardment, flocked in and took
.possession, rent free, to scatter as quickly when one or
more of them had been killed by the sudden appearance
and explosion of shells in this quarter. The balance of
the city was forsaken by non-combatants, and the block-
ade had put an end to all her commerce. The quiet

1 10 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

industries of peace had given place to all the turmoil of
war. Her streets were filled with military, while the
boom -of the distant batteries, the whiz of the flying
shells> and the noise of their explosion, were daily and
familiar sounds.

During the four years of the war, Charleston was one
of the chief points of Federal attack, though it re-
mained in possession of the Confederate forces until
the beginning of 1865. These were four terrible years
to the city. Yet her sufferings she had brought upon
herself. The first open and public movement in favor
of the dissolution of the Union was made in that city.
South Carolina was the first to call a State convention,
and to secede from the Union. This convention was
held at Columbia, the Capital of the State, but was
adjourned to Charleston, where the Ordinance of Secession
was unanimously passed on the twentieth of December,
1860. Fort Sumter, which was one of the largest forts in
Charleston, a massive fortress of solid masonry, standing
on an island commanding the principal entrance, at the
mouth of Charleston Harbor, was in command of Major
Robert Anderson, with a garrison of eighty men. On the
twenty-seventh of December he ran up the stars and
stripes. Governor Pickens immediately demanded a
surrender of the fort, which was promptly refused.
Early on Friday morning, April twelfth, 1861, the
initial gun of the terrible four years' war was fired by
the Rebel forces from the howitzer battery on James
Island, west of Sumter. Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan
Island, on the northeast, the gun battery at Cumming's
Point, the northwest extremity of Morris Island, and
other batteries and fortifications which the Confederates
had seized and appropriated to their own use, all fol-

CHARLESTON. Ill

lowed in a deadly rain of shells upon Sumter. The
firing was kept up for thirty-five hours, and Sumter
made a vigorous defence, until the quarters were entirely
burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the supplies
exhausted, and the magazine surrounded by flames,
when Major Anderson accepted the terms of capitulation
offered by General Beauregard.

Upon the surrender of the Fort, which was received
as a good omen by the South, troops began to pour into
the city, so that by the sixteenth of the same month as
many as ten thousand had arrived. The blockade of
the port was commenced on the tenth of May, and
continued until the close of the war. In the latter part
of 1861 an attempt was made by the Federal govern-
ment to seal up the channel of the harbor with sunken
ships, to prevent the egress of privateers. On the
twenty-first of December seventeen vessels were sunk,
in three or four rows, across the channel. But this
attempt at blockade proved a failure. The current
washed some of them away, and many passages in a
water front of six miles were left unobserved, and more
vessels ran the blockade and reached the city, than at
any other southern port.

On the tenth of December, 1861, a fire broke out in
the city, which destroyed nearly all its public buildings,
banks and insurance offices, and several churches, besides
many dwellings, reducing thousands to homelessness
and the extremity of want. The loss occasioned by this
conflagration was estimated at ten millions of dollars.

In 1863, the women, children and other non-combat-
tants were ordered out of the city, and free transporta-
tion, food and lodgings were furnished those unable to
pay for them. Morris Island had been captured by the

1 12 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Federal Army, who used it as a point of attack against
Sumter and the city. Its shells had wrought destruction
in all parts of the city, especially in its lower portions.
On February seventeenth, 1865, Charleston, which had
withstood all attacks from the seaward, capitulated to
the Union forces, Columbia having been captured by
Sherman.

The history of Charleston goes back to earliest
colonial times. In 1671 a few persons located them-
selves on Ashley River, at Old Charleston. But in 1680
this settlement was abandoned, and. the foundations of
the present city laid, several miles nearer the sea. The
whole country, up to 1671, between the thirtieth and
thirty-sixth parallel of latitude, was called Carolina,
having received the name in honor of Charles IX, of
France. In that year the division was made between the
Northern and Southern provinces. In 1685 the young
settlement received a considerable influx of French
Huguenot refugees.

During the early part of the eighteenth century the
war of Queen Anne against France and Spain greatly
disturbed the young colony; and a little later the
Indians threatened its existence. All the inhabitants
of the region took refuge at Charleston, which was
vigorously defended.

In 1700, the same year that Kidd was captured and
taken to England, no less then seven pirates were
secured, and executed at Charleston. Subsequently
others shared the same fate.

South Carolina was among the foremost of the
American colonies to strike for independence. On the
twenty-eighth of June, 1776, Charleston was attacked
by the British, an attempt being made to destroy the

CHARLESTON. 113

military works on Sullivan's Island. But Colonel
Moultrie, in honor of whom the fort was subsequently
named, made a gallant defence and repulsed them. In
1779 they made a second attack upon the city, this time
approaching it by land, but were again compelled to
retreat. Sir Henry Clinton, with seven or eight
thousand men, opened his batteries upon Charleston on
the second of April, 1780. Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's
Island, was compelled to surrender on the fourteenth,
and the city yielded on May eleventh. The British
retained' possession of the city until the close of the
war.

Charleston took a prominent part in the passage of
the nullification act by the State, which maintained that
any one of the States might set aside or nullify any
act of Congress which it deemed unconstitutional or
oppressive. The occasion of this nullification act was
the Tariff Laws of 1828, which were not considered
favorable to the Southern States. A convention of the
State declared them null and void, and made prepara-
tions to resist their execution. John C. Calhoun, who
was at that time Vice-President under Andrew Jackson,
resigned his office, became a leader in the nullification
movement, and was the father of the doctrine of State
Sovereignty, the legitimate outcome of the principles
of which was the late attempt to dissolve the Union.

The population of Charleston in 1800 was 18,711;
in 1850, 42,985 inhabitants; in 1860, 40,519; in 1870,
48,956; and in 1880, 50,000 inhabitants. It has not
made so rapid a growth as other cities, even in the South,
but is, nevertheless, a prosperous town, with large com-
mercial, and since the war, large manufacturing interests.
It is one of the chief shipping ports for cotton, and also

114 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

exports rice, lumber, naval stores and fertilizers. Immense
beds of marl were discovered in the vicinity of the city
in 1868, and now the manufacture of fertilizers from
marl and phosphate is one of its principal industries.
There are also flour and rice mills, carriage and wagon
factories and machine shops. The city is learning that
the surest foundation stone for its future prosperity is
its manufacturing interests; and, probably, the political
battle of 1861, could it be fought over again to-day, in
that city, would find the nullifiers largely in the
minority. The city which was so marred and blemished
during its long state of siege, has been rebuilt, and all
traces of the fratricidal conflict removed ; and though
Charleston would not be true to her traditions if she did
not still cherish a strong Southern sentiment, the years
which have passed since the cessation of hostilities have
done much toward softening the asperities of feeling
on both sides.

As a seaboard city, Charleston is most favorably
situated. It has an excellent harbor, seven miles in
length, with an average width of two miles, landlocked
on all sides, except an entrance about a mile in width.
This entrance is blocked by a bar, which, however,
serves both as a bulwark and a breakwater. Of its two
passages, its best gives twenty-two feet in depth at flood
tide, and sixteen feet at ebb.

The harbor of Charleston is impregnable, as the
Union troops learned to their cost during the late war.
Standing directly in the channel are forts Eipley and
Sumter. On a point extending out into the strait,
between the two, is Fort Johnson. Directly in front of
the city, one mile distant from it, is Castle Pinckney,
covering the crest of a mud shoal, and facing the

CHARLESTON. 115

entrance. Sullivan's Island, a long, low, gray stretch of
an island, dotted here and there by clumps of pahnettoes,
lies on the north of the entrance of the harbor, with
Fort Moultrie on its extreme southern point, as a door-
keeper to the harbor. On the southern side is Morris
Island, long, low and gray also, with tufts of pines
instead of palmettoes, and with batteries at intervals
along its whole sea front, Fort Wagner standing near
its northern end. Sullivan's Island, the scene of fierce
conflict during the Kevolution, and later, during the
Rebellion, is to-day the Long Branch or Coney Island of
South Carolina, containing many beautiful cottages and
fine drives, and furnishing good sea bathing. The
village occupies the point extending into the harbor.

As one approaches Charleston from the sea, the
name which has been applied to it, of the "American
Venice," seems not inappropriate. The shores are low,
and the city seems to rise out of the water. It is built
something after the manner of New York, on a long
and narrow peninsula, formed by the Cooper and
Ashley rivers, which unite in front of the city.
It has, like New York, its Battery, occupying the
extreme point of the peninsula, its outlook command-
ing the entire harbor, bristling with fortifications, so
harmless in time of peace, so terrible in war. The
Battery contains plots of thin clover, neatly fenced and
shelled promenades, a long, solid stone quay, which
forms the finest sea-walk in the United States, and has
a background of the finest residences in the city, three
storied, and faced with verandahs. The dwelling-
houses throughout the city are mostly of brick or wood,
and have large open grounds around them, ornamented
with trees, shrubbery, vines and flowers. The city is

116 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

laid out with tolerable regularity, the streets generally
crossing each otfier at right angles. King street, run-
ning north and south, is the fashionable promenade,
containing the leading retail stores. Meeting street,
nearly parallel with King, contains the jobbing and
wholesale stores. Broad street, the banks, brokers7 and
insurance offices. Meeting street, below Broad, Rutledge
street, and the west end of Wentworth street, contain
fine private residences.

The City Hall, an imposing building, standing in an
open square, the Court House, the Police Headquarters,
and the venerable St. Michael's Church (Episcopal), all
stand at the intersection of Broad and Meeting streets.
St. Michael's was built in 1752, after designs by a pupil
of Sir Christopher Wren. The view from the belfry is
very fine, embracing the far stretch of sea and shore, the
shipping, fortresses of the harbor, and near at hand
buildings as ancient as the church itself. It is the
church of the poem — a favorite with elocutionists —
" How he saved St. Michael." Says the poem, in one of
its stanzas, its spire rose

"High over the lesser steeples, tipped with a golden ball
That hung like a radiant planet caught in its earthward fall,
First glimpse of home to the sailor who made the harbor round,
And last slow fading vision,, dear, to the outward bound."

Next in interest among the churches of Charleston is
St. Philip's Episcopal Church, in Church street, near
Queen. The building itself is not so venerable as St.
Michael's, though its church establishment is older.
The view from the steeple is fine; but its chief interest
centres in the churchyard, where lie some of South
Carolina's most illustrious dead. In one portion of the
churchyard is the tomb of John C. Calhoun, consisting

CHARLESTON. 117

of a plain granite slab, supported by brick walls, and
bearing the simple inscription "Calhoun." The ruins
of St. Finbar's Cathedral (Roman Catholic) stand at
the corner of Broad and Friend streets. The building,
which was one of the costliest edifices of Charleston,
was destroyed by the great fire of 1861, and the walls,
turrets and niches still standing are exceedingly
picturesque. Other handsome church edifices abound.
The old Huguenot Church, at the corner of Church and
Queen streets has its walls lined with quaint and elegant
mural entablatures.

The Post Office, at the foot of Broad street, is a
venerable structure, dating back to the colonial period,
the original material for its construction having being
brought from England in 1761. It received considerable
damage during the war, but has since been renovated.

The new United States Custom House, which, when
completed, will be the finest edifice in the city, is of
white marble, in very elegant Corinthian style, and
is situated south of the market wharf, on Cooper
River.

The old Orphan House of Charleston is one of the
most famous institutions in the country. It stands in
spacious grounds between Calhoun and Vanderbuist
streets, and a statue of William Pitt, erected during
the Revolution, stands in the centre of the grounds.
John Charles Fremont, the conqueror of California, and
once a candidate for the Presidency, and C. C. Mem-
minger, Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate
States, were both educated here. The Charleston
Library, at the corner of Broad and Church streets,
founded in 1748, and the College of Charleston, located
in the square bounded by George, Green, College and St.

118 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Philip streets, and founded in 1788, are both spacious
and commodious buildings.

One of the most characteristic sights of Charleston is
to be seen between six and nine o'clock in the morning,
in and about market Hall, in Meeting street, near the
Bay. The Hall is a fine building in temple form, with
a lofty portico in front, and a row of long, low sheds in
the rear.

There is nothing picturesque in the country around
about Charleston. On the contrary, it is low, flat and
uninteresting. Looking across the Ashley River, which
is more than a quarter of a mile wide here, there is on
the opposite side a long, low line of nearly dead level,
with occasional sparse pine forests, interspersed with
fields of open sand. There are no palmettoes, but here
and there are gigantic oaks, hung with pendants of gray
Spanish moss, and occasional green spikes of the Spanish
bayonet. The view across the Cooper is very similar.
Large extents of country in the neighborhood of Charles-
ton, especially that lying along the streams, and stretch-
ing for many miles inland, are low and swampy. The
region is sparsely settled, and furnishes no thriving
agricultural or manufacturing population, which, seeking
a market or a port for its productions, and wanting
supplies in return, helps to build up the city. Several
railways connecting with the North, West and South
centre here; and she is also connected, by means of
steamship lines, with the principal Atlantic seaports
and some European ones. She is also the centre of a
great lumber region, and annually exports many million
feet of lumber.

There are few points of interest about the city. Be-
sides Sullivan's Island, Mount Pleasant, on the northern

CHARLESTON. 119

shore of the harbor, so named, probably, because the land
is sufficiently high to escape being a swamp, is a favorite
picnic resort. The antiquarian will find interest in the
old Church of St. James, about fifteen miles from
Charleston, on Goose Creek. It is secluded in the very
heart of the pine forest, entirely isolated from habita-
tions, and is approached by a road scarcely more than a
bridle-path. The church was built in 1711, and the
royal arms of England, which are emblazoned over the
pulpit, saved it from destruction during the Revolu-
tionary War. On the walls and altars are tablets in
memory of the early members of the organization, one
dated 1711, and another 1717. The pews are square
and high, the pulpit or reading desk exceedingly small,
and the floor is of stone. On the other side of the road,
a short distance from this church, is a farm known as
The Oaks, approached by a magnificent avenue, a quarter
of a mile in length, of those trees, believed to be nearly
two hundred years old. They are exceedingly large, and
form a continuous archway over the road, their branches
festooned with long fringes of gray moss, which soften
and conceal the ravages of age.

Magnolia Cemetery lies just outside the city, on its
northern boundary. It is beautified by live oaks and
magnolias, and contains, among other fine monuments,
those of Colonel William Washington, of Revolutionary
fame, Hugh Legare and Dr. Gilmore Simms, the
novelist. The roads leading out of the city by the
Cooper and Ashley rivers afford attractive drives.
What the scenery lacks in grandeur and picturesqueness
is made up in beauty by the abundance of lovely foliage,
composed of pines, oaks, magnolias, myrtles and jasmines,
exhibiting a tropical luxuriance,

120 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

On the twenty-seventh of April, 1838, Charleston was
visited by a fire which proved exceedingly disastrous.
Nearly one-half the city was swept by the flames, which
raged for twenty-eight hours, and were finally averted
^nly by the blowing up of buildings in their path,
.inhere were 1158 buildings destroyed, involving a loss
of three millions of dollars. The most shocking feature
of the catastrophe was that, in the carelessness of handling
the gunpowder in blowing up these buildings, four of
the most prominent citizens were killed, and several
others injured. The fire of 1861 exceeded this in de-
structiveness, and to it were added the terrific effects of
a four years' besiegement. So that it can be truly said
that Charleston has been purified by fire. She is to-day
fully recovered from the effects, and as prosperous as
her geographical position will permit.

CHAPTER VII.

CINCINNATI.

Founding of Cincinnati. — Rapid Increase of Population. — Char-
acter of its Early Settlers. — Pro-slavery Sympathies. — During
the Rebellion. — Description of the City. — Smoke and "Soot. — •
Suburbs. — " Fifth Avenue" of^ Cincinnati.— Streets, Public
Buildings, Private Art Galleries, Hotels, Churches and Educa-
tional Institutions. — "Over the Rhine." — Hebrew Population.
— Liberal Religious Sentiment. — Commerce and Manufacturing
Interests. — Stock Yards and Pork-packing Establishments. —
Wine Making.— Co vington and Newport Suspension Bridge.—
High Water. — Spring Grove Cemetery.

, whether we consider what its past
history has been, or whether we regard it as it is
to-day, is probably the most matter-of-fact and prosaic
of all our western cities. A generation ago it derived its
chief importance from the pork-packing business, in
which, though it once stood at the head, it is now com-
pletely distanced by Chicago. Its extensive factories and
foundries give it material wealth, while its geographical
situation guarantees its commercial importance. Unlike
most of the towns and cities of this western world, no
interesting historical associations cling around its site.
The Indians seem to have been troublesome and
treacherous here, as elsewhere; but the records tell no
stories of famous wars, terrible massacres, or hair-
breadth escapes. In all the uninteresting accumulation
of dry facts and statistics regarding the founding and
subsequent growth of the city, there is just one excep-
tional romance.

121

122 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

In early times three settlements were made along
the banks of the Ohio River, on what is now the
southern boundary of the State of Ohio. The first
was at Columbia, at the mouth of the Little Miami
River, in November, 1788, on ten thousand acres,
purchased by Major Benjamin Stites, from Judge
Symmes. The second settlement was commenced but
a month later, on the north bank of the Ohio River,
opposite the mouth of the Licking River, Matthias
Denman, of New Jersey, «being the leading spirit in the
new undertaking, he having purchased about eight
hundred acres, also from Judge Symmes, for an equiva-
lent of fifteen pence an acre. Judge Symmes himself
directed the third settlement, which was founded in
February, 1789, and gave it the name of North Bend,
from the fact that it was the most northern bend of the
Ohio River, below the mouth of the great Kanawha.

A spirit of rivalry existed between these three settle-
ments, which lay but a few miles apart. Each one
regarded itself as the future great city of the west. In
the beginning, Columbia took the lead; but North
Bend presently gained the advantage, as the troops
detailed by General Harmer for the protection of the
settlers in the Miami Valley landed there, through the
influence of Judge Symmes. This detachment soon
took its departure for Louisville, and was succeeded by
another, under Ensign Luce, who was at liberty to
select the spot, for the erection of a substantial block-
house, which seemed to him best calculated to afford
protection to the Miami settlers. He put up temporary
quarters at North Bend, sufficient for the security of his
troops, and began to look for a suitable site on which
to build the block-house. While he was leisurely

CINCINNATI. 123

pursuing this occupation, he was attracted by a pair of
beautiful black eyes, whose owner was apparently not
indifferent to his attentions. This woman was the wife
of one of the settlers at the Bend, who, when he per-
ceived the condition of affairs, thought best to remove
her out of danger, and at once proceeded to take up his
residence at Cincinnati. The gallant commander, still
ostensibly engaged in locating his block-house, felt
immediately impelled to go to Cincinnati, on a tour
of inspection. He was forcibly struck by the superior
advantages offered by that town, over all other points
on the river, for a military station. In spite of
remonstrance from the Judge, the troops were, accord-
ingly, removed, and the erection of a block-bouse
commenced at once. The settlers at the Bend, who at
that time outnumbered those of the more favored place,
finding their protection gone, gave up their land and
followed the soldiers, and ere long the town was almost
deserted. In the course of the ensuing summer, Major
Doughty arrived at Cincinnati, with troops from
Fort Harmer, and established Fort Washington, which
was made the most important and extensive military
station in the northwest territory. North Bend still
continued its existence as a town, and was finally
honored by becoming the home of General Wm. H.
Harrison, ninth President of the United States, and
there still rest his mortal remains. Farms now occupy
the place where Columbia once stood.

The unsettled condition of the frontier prevented
Cincinnati from making a rapid growth in its early
years. In 1800, twelve years after the first colonist
landed on the shore of the Ohio opposite the Licking
River, there were but 750 inhabitants. In 1814 the

124 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

town was incorporated as a city. In 1820 its inhabitants
numbered 9,602, and in 1830, 16,230. About this
time the Miami Canal was built, running through the
western portion of the State of Ohio, and connecting
Cincinnati with Lake Erie at Toledo. This gave an
impetus to trade, and during the next ten years the
population increased nearly three hundred per cent.,
numbering in 1840, 46,382 inhabitants. In 1850 it
had again more than doubled, amounting to 115,436.
In 1860 the number was 161,044; in 1870, 216,239;
while according to the United States census returns of
1880 the population in that year was 255,708.

The career of Cincinnati will not compare in brilliancy
with that of Chicago. It has not displayed the same
energy and activity. Outwardly, it has not made the
most of its superior natural advantages , and intellectu-
ally, although it boasts some of the most readable and
successful newspapers in the country, it has fallen
behind other cities. Settled originally by emigrants
from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, descendants of
Germans, Swedes and Danes, its inhabitants were
plodders rather than pushers. They lacked the practical
and mental activity of New Englanders and New
Yorkers. By habits of industry and economy they
were sure to accumulate wealth ; but they cared little
for outward display, and less for educational and
intellectual advancement. The churches met better
support than the schools, " book learning " being held
in small estimation by this stolid yet thrifty race. They
patterned their city after Philadelphia, the most
magnificent city their eyes had ever beheld, and
anything more splendid than which their imaginations
were powerless to depict ; called their streets Walnut,

CINCINNATI. 125

Spruce and Vine, and felt that they should be com-
mended for having built them up with a view to sub-
stantiality rather than to display.

Yankee capital and enterprise, in the course of time,
found their way to Cincinnati, to build up its factories
and stimulate public improvements. But, on the line
between freedom and slavery, its population largely
southern by immigration or descent, and by sympathy,
Cincinnati up to the time of the war was more a
southern than a northern city. Her leading families
were connected by marriage with Kentucky, Virginia
and Maryland ; many of her leading men had immigrated
from those States; and her aristocracy scorned the
northern element which had helped to build up the
city, and repudiated all its tendencies.

Public sentiment had been, from its earliest history,
intensely pro-slavery. In 1836 a mob broke into and
destroyed the office of the Philanthropist, an anti-
slavery paper, published by James G. Birney, scattered
the type, and threw the press into the river, having
previously resolved that no "abolition paper "should
be either u published or distributed" in the town. In
1841 the office of the same paper was again raided and
destroyed, and a frenzied mob, numbering at one time
as many as fifteen hundred men, engaged in a riot
against the negro residents in the city, until, to secure
their safety, it was found necessary to incarcerate the
latter, to the number of 250 to 300, in the county jail.
Houses were broken into and furniture destroyed,
several persons killed, and twenty or thirty more or
less seriously wounded. Yet at this very period,
Salmon Portland Chase, the future statesman and finan-
cier, but then an obscure young lawyer, was living in

126 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Cincinnati, and was already planning the beginnings of
that Liberty party which, after many vicissitudes, and
under a different name, finally accomplished the abolition
of slavery ; and in this same city, but ten years later, Mrs.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote " Uncle Tom's Cabin."

When the war began, Cincinnati found itself in an
anomalous position. Geographically it was on the side
of the north, while to a large extent its social and
business relations allied it with the south. Many of the
leading families furnished adherents to the southern
cause; but the masses of the people, notably the
Germans, who had already become an important factor
in its population, were stirred by the spirit of
patriotism, and casting aside once for all their conserva-
tism, they identified themselves with the cause of the
Union. Trade was greatly disturbed. The old
profitable relations with the south were broken up for
the time being, but Cincinnati did not find herself a
loser. Army contractors made fortunes, and the business
of supplying gunboats, military stores and provisions to
the army gave employment to immense numbers, and
stimulated all branches of trade. From this period
Cincinnati dates her new life. Heretofore she had
stagnated in all but a business sense. With the steady
increase of her population came a new element.
Southern supineness and Middle State stolidity were
aroused and shaken out of themselves, when slavery no
longer exerted its baleful influence over the country
and the city. Fresh life was infused into her people,
and the war marked the dawn of a new era for the city,
an era in which public spirit took a prominent place.

The name, Cincinnati, was bestowed upon the city at
its foundation* as tradition has it, by General St. Clair,

CINCINNATI. 127

who called it after the society of that name, of which
himself and General Hamilton \7ere both members.
The county was subsequently named in honor of General
Hamilton. The young town barely escaped the name
of Losantiville, a word of original etymology, com-
pounded by a pedantic schoolmaster, who, wishing to
indicate the position of the future city as opposite the
mouth of the Licking River, united os, mouth, antl,
against or opposite to, and ville, as meaning city,
prefacing the whole with L, the initial letter of Licking ;
hence u Losantiville." But the name, although accepted
for several months, was not permanently adopted.

Cincinnati is nearly in the centre of the great valley
of the Ohio, being only fifty-eight miles nearer Cairo,
at its junction with the Mississippi, than to its head
waters at Pittsburg. It occupies the half circle formed
by an outward curve of the river, which bends continu-
ally in one direction or another. The plateau upon
which the business part of the city is built is sixty feet
above the low-water mark of the river. Back of this is
a terrace some fifty feet higher yet, graded to an easy
slope, the whole shut in by an amphitheatre of what
appears to be hills, though when one mounts to their
summits he finds himself on an undulating table-land,
four or five hundred feet above the river, which extends
backward into the country. The river flows through
a wide and deep ravine, which the raging floods have,
in the long ages since they began their course, cut for
themselves, through an elevated region of country. In
the remote west these ravines, chiseled through the solid
rocks, are bordered by steep precipices ; on the Ohio
the yielding soil has been washed away in a gradual
slope, leaving the graceful outlines of hills.

128 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The city proper is occupied by stores, offices, public
buildings, factories, foundries, and the dwelling houses
of the poorer and middle classes, over all which hangs a
pall of smoke, caused by the bituminous coal used as fuel
in the city. Cleanliness in either person or in dress is
almost an impossibility. Hands and faces become grimy,
aad clean collars and light-hued garments are percepti-
bly coated with a thin layer of soot. Clothes hung out
in the weekly wash acquire a permanent yellow hue
which no bleaching can remove. The smoke of hundreds
of factories, locomotives and steamboats arises and unites
to form this dismal pall, which obscures the sunlight,
and gives a sickly cast to the moonbeams.

But beyond the city, on the magnificent amphitheatre
of hills which encircle it, are half a dozen beautiful sub-
urbs, where the homes of Cincinnati's merchant princes
and millionaires are found, as elegant as wealth combined
with art can make them, surrounded by enchanting
scenery, and commanding extensive views over the city and
surrounding country. Cincinnati has no Fifth Avenue
like New York, but it has its Mount Auburn, its Walnut
Hills, its Price's Hill, its Clifton and its Avondale,
which are as much superior to Fifth Avenue as the
country is superior to the city, and as space is preferable
to narrowness. As far as the eye can reach, on these
billowed outlines of hills and valleys, elegant cottages,
tasteful villas, and substantial mansions, surrounded by
a paradise of grass, gardens, lawns, and tree-shaded
roads, are clustered. Each little suburb has its own
corporation, and its own municipal government, while
even its mayor and aldermen may do daily business in
the large city below it.

In the city itself Pearl street is noted for its wholesale

CINCINNATI. 129

trade, and for the uniform elegance of its buildings.
Third street, between Main and Vine, contains the
banking, brokering, and insurance offices. Fourth street
is the fashionable promenade and business street. Free-
man street, in the neighborhood of Lincoln Park, is also
a favorite promenade. Both the East and West Ends
contain many fine residences. Along Front street, at
the foot of Main, is the public landing, an open space one
thousand feet long and four hundred and twenty-five feet
wide. The city has a frontage of ten miles on the river,
and extends back three miles.

The United States Government building, occupying
the square bounded by Main and Walnut, and Fifth and
Sixth streets, and accommodating the Custom House,
Post Office, and United States Courts; the County Court
House, in Main street, near Canal street ; the City build-
ings occupying an entire square on Plum street, between
Eighth and Ninth ; the Chamber of Commerce, on
Fourth street between Main and Walnut ; and the
Masonic Temple, at the corner of Third and Walnut
streets, are among the most imposing buildings of the
city. The Exposition buildings, in Elm street, fronting
Washington Park, cover three and one-half acres of
ground, and have seven acres of space for exhibiting.
The Exhibition opens annually, during the first week
in September, and closes the first week in October. The
Springer Music Hall will seat 5,000 persons, and contains
one of the largest organs in the world, having more
pipes, but fewer speaking stops, than the famous Boston
organ. Pike's Opera House, in Fourth street, between
Vine and Walnut, is a very handsome building. Cin-
cinnati is noted for its appreciation and encouragement
of fine music. The Emery Arcade, said to be the largest

130 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

in America, extends from Vine to Race street, between
Fourth and Fifth. The roof is of glass, and in it are
shops of various kinds, and the Hotel Emery.

The late Henry Probasco, on Clifton Heights, and
Joseph Longworth, on Walnut Hills, each had very fine
private art galleries, to which visitors were courteously
admitted, and the city itself occupies a high standard in
art matters. The Tyler-Davidson fountain, in Fifth
street, between Vine and Walnut, the gift of Mr.
Probasco, exhibits a series of basins, one above another,
the shaft ornamented by figures, and the whole sur-
mounted by a gigantic female figure, from whose out-
stretched hands the water rains down in fine spray.
The fountain was cast in Munich, and cost nearly
$200,000.

The Burnet House has been, for more than a quarter
of a century, the principal hotel in Cincinnati. The
Grand Hotel is newer and more elegant. The Gibson
House is large and centrally located. There are various
opera houses, theatres, variety and concerj; halls, a
gymnasium, a Floating Bath, and Zoological Gardens,
with a collection of birds and animals, among the best
in the country.

St. Peter's Cathedral (Roman Catholic), in Plum street,
between Seventh and Eighth, is the finest religious
edifice in the city. Its altar of Carrara marble was
carved in Genoa, and its altar-piece, "St. Peter
Delivered," by Murillo, a work of art of world-wide
reputation. Many of the Protestant churches are
elegant, and some of them actually magnificent. The
Hebrew Synagogue on Plum street, opposite the
Cathedral, and the Hebrew Temple, at the corner of
Eighth and Mound streets, both handsome edifices, one

CINCINNATI. 131

in Moorish and the other in Gothic style, have each of
them brilliant interiors.

Among the educational institutions of Cincinnati are
the University of Cincinnati, having in connection with
it a School of Design and a Law School, St. Xavier's
College (Jesuit); Wesleyan Female College; Seminary
of Mount St. Mary's, a famous Roman Catholic
College ; Lane Theological Seminary, of which Dr. Ly-
man Beecher was once president, and where Henry Ward
Beecher once studied theology for three years; several
medical colleges, and scientific, classical and mechanical
institutes.

A number of parks surround the city, furnishing fine
pleasure grounds, and containing magnificent views of
the river and its shores.

More than a third of the residents of Cincinnati are
of German birth or descent. Besides being scattered all
through the city, they also occupy a quarter exclusively
their own, on the north of the Miami Canal, which they
have named "the Rhine." "Over the Rhine," one
seems to have left America entirely, and to have entered,
as by magic, the Fatherland. The German tongue is
the only one spoken, and all signs and placards are in
German. There are German schools, churches and
places of amusement. The beer gardens will especially
recall Germany to the mind of the tourist. The Grand
Arbeiter and Turner Halls are distinctive features of
this quarter of the city, and specially worthy of a
visit.

The Jews also constitute a proportion of the inhabitants,
respectable both as to numbers and character ; and, what
is worthy of remark, there is an unwonted harmony
between Christians and Hebrews, so that an exchange

132 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

of pulpits between them has been among the actual facts
of the past. Dr. Max Lilienthal, one of the most
eloquent and learned rabbis of the country, presides
over one of the Jewish congregations, and has preached
to Christian audiences ; and Mr. Mayo, the Unitarian
clergyman, has spoken by invitation in the synagogues.
The Jews of the city are noted for their intelligence,
public spirit and liberality, and are represented in the
municipal government, and on the boards of public and
charitable institutions. Quite as worthy of note is the
fact that the Young Men's Christian Association of
Cincinnati is not influenced by that spirit of narrow
bigotry which in certain other cities of the Union
excludes Unitarians from fellowship.

The venerable Archbishop Purcell, who for half a
century had been at the head of the Roman Catholic
Church in this diocese, was a man of genial manners,
sincerely beloved by all. But the closing days of his
life were sadly clouded by a gigantic financial failure,
amounting to several millions of dollars, with which he
was connected. As heavily as the blow has fallen upon
many of his flock, the only blame they impute to the
dead prelate is that of most faulty judgment and general
incapacity in financial affairs. The most singular part
of it all was that the difficulties should have remained
so long undiscovered, until such an immense amount of
property was involved.

Cincinnati's commerce is very extended, and so are
her manufacturing interests. Steamboats from all
points on the Mississippi and the Ohio lay up at her
levee, which extends five or six miles around the bank
of the river in front of the city. The traveler may
take his ticket for St. Paul, New Orleans, Pittsburg,

CINCINNATI. 133

•

high up the Ked River, or any intervening point. The
staple article of trade is pork, though she exports wine,
flour, iron, machinery, whisky, paper and books. In
addition to the water ways, a large number of railways,
connecting the city with every section of the country,
centres here.

The stock yards of Cincinnati are on an extended
scale, though not equaling those of Chicago. The
Union Railroad's Stock Yards, comprising fifty acres on
Spring Grove avenue, have accommodations for 25,000
hogs, 10,000 sheep, and 5,000 cattle. In the pork
packing establishments, thousands of hogs from the
farms of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, are slaughtered
daily. In a single establishment fifty men will slaughter
and dispose of 1,500 hogs a day. Each man has his
own special line of work, the labor being divided among
pen-men, knockers-down, stickers, scalders, bristle-
snatchers, scrapers, shavers, hangers or " gamble-men/1
gutters, hose-boys, slide-boys, splitters, cutters with
their attendants, weighers, cleavers, knife-men, ham-
trimmers, shoulder-trimmers, packers, salters, weighers
and branders, lard-men, bookkeepers, porters and labor-
ers, of whom fifty will unitedly dispose of a hog once
in every twenty seconds. The old saying is that it
takes nine tailors to make a man, but it takes fifty men,
belonging to all the professions named above, to make
one complete butcher. The work is accomplished so
rapidly that the creature has no time to realize what has
happened to him, before the different portions of his
dissected body are slipping down wooden pipes, each to
its appropriate apartment below, to be finally disposed of.

Nowhere east of the Rocky Mountains are grapes
cultivated to such an extent, and such quantities of

134 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

wine manufactured, as on the southern slopes of the hills
which hem in the city of Cincinnati. This business is
mostly engaged in by Germans, who make excellent
wine, which has acquired a world-wide celebrity. But
the grape-rot, which has especially affected the Cataw-
bas, from which the best wine is produced, has of late
years rather checked the industry. Some of the wine
cellars of Cincinnati are famous, not only for the
quantity of native wine which they contain, but for its
quality as well.

Looking across the river, which at low water is,
perhaps, a third of a mile wide, to the Kentucky side,
one sees, on the right bank of the Licking River, the
city of Covington, a mass of black factories and tall
chimneys, from which dense smoke is always ascending,
and spreading out over the valley. On the* left or
opposite bank of the Licking is Newport, the two
towns connected by a suspension bridge. Covington is
also connected with Cincinnati by a suspension bridge,
1,057 feet long from tower to tower, its entire length
2,252 feet, and elevated by two iron cables above the
river, at low water, one hundred feet. Its weight is
600 tons, but it is estimated that it will sustain a weight
of 16,000 tons, and is one of the finest structures of
its kind in the world. This bridge was nine years in
construction, and cost nearly two millions of dollars.
There are also two pier railroad bridges across the Ohio
at Cincinnati.

Along the summit of the steep levee, close to the line
of stores, there is a row of massive posts, three feet
thick and twenty feet high, and forty or fifty feet above
the usual low water mark. The stranger will be
puzzled to imagine their use. But let him visit the

CINCINNATI. 135

city during the spring freshet, and he will speedily
discover their purpose. The swelling of the river at
that period brings the steamboats face to face with the
warehouses on the levee, and they are secured to these
huge posts by means of strong cables, to prevent them
being swept down the stream by the mighty rush of
waters. The usual difference between the high and
low water mark of the Ohio River at Cincinnati is
about forty feet, though a flood has been known to
mark a much higher figure than that. When this
occurs, which it does once or twice in a generation, the
overflowing water carries desolation to all the lower
parts of the city. The ground floors of houses are
submerged, cellars filled, merchandise damaged or
destroyed. People betake themselves to the upper
stories, and make their way about the streets in boats.

The latest and most disastrous flood on record was
that of 1883, when, on February fifteenth, the river indi-
cated sixty-six feet and four inches above low water
mark. Furious rain storms throughout the Ohio
Valley had swollen all the streams to an unprecedented
height, and caused terrible disaster to all the towns and
cities on the shores of the Ohio River. For seven miles
along the water front of Cincinnati the water overflowed
valuable property, reaching from two to eight blocks
into the city, so that the great suspension bridge, entrance
to which is from the top of the decline, could not be
reached except in boats. A. thousand firms were
washed out. In Mill Creek Valley are the large
manufacturing establishments, which employ over thirty
thousand men, women, and children, and these were all
cut off by water. Twelve wards in the city, and seven
townships in the country, were more or less affected by

136 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

the flood. The entire population of the flooded city
districts is nearly 130,000, and one quarter of these,
exclusive of business interests, were sufferers by the
flood, their houses being either under water or totally
destroyed. The waterworks were stopped, and the
city was left in darkness by the submergence of the
gasworks.

On Tuesday, February thirteenth, although the flood
had not yet reached its height, the freight depot of the
Cincinnati Southern Railroad was undermined by the
bursting of a culvert under it, and fell into the surround-
ing water, carrying with it, to certain death, several people.
More than twenty railroad tracks were submerged, some
of them to a depth of twelve feet, so that nearly all
communication was cut off. Policemen patrolled the
streets in boats. The churches were thrown open to
receive the homeless, and nearly every organization in
the city, from the Chamber of Commerce to the ladies'
sewing societies, entered upon the work of relieving the
sufferers. Contributions poured in most liberally from
abroad, the Free Masons of Cleveland alone shipping
twelve large boats, with a generous supply of stores.
Before relief could come to them, many persons suffered
severely, from both cold and hunger. They were
rescued from their flooded homes by the aid of skiffs,
some of them with barely enough clothiag to conceal
their nakedness.

It is estimated that eight square miles of Cincinnati
were under water, five of which were in the Mill Creek
Valley. Provisions became scarce, and commanded
high prices. Newport, on the Kentucky shore, was in
even a more deplorable condition than Cincinnati.
Supplies became entirely exhausted, and on the night of

CINCINNATI. 137

the fourteenth, fifteen thousand people there were without
fuel or provisions.

On the sixteenth of February the waters had begun
to subside, and gradually regained their normal level,
making more apparent, as the flood decreased, the ruin
and desolation which had attended it. A vast deposit
of mud was left upon the streets, many premises had
been undermined by the sucking currents, malaria
haunted the wet cellars, the destruction of merchandise
was found to be very heavy indeed, while thousands of
men were compelled to remain out of employment until
the factories and mills could be put in working condi-
tion. The great flood of 1883 will long be remembered
by the citizens of Cincinnati.

The breaking up of the ice in the river, in the spring,
is also a time of great peril to property. There is usually
more or less rise in the river at that period, with a swifter
current, and the floating blocks sometimes drag boats
away from their moorings, and crush them to either
partial or utter destruction. The Ohio River, known to
the French as La Belle Riviere, so called because of its
high and picturesque banks, is, like the Mississippi, a
capricious stream, and neither life nor property is always
safe upon its bosom or along its shores.

The pride of Cincinnati is Spring Grove Cemetery,
five miles northwest of the city, which is one of the most
beautiful in the West. It is in the valley of Mill Creek,
and is approached by a handsome avenue, one hundred
feet wide. It contains six hundred acres, well wooded,
and so laid out as to present the appearance of a park.
The boundaries of the lots are indicated by sunken stone
posts at each corner, there being neither railing, fence,
nor hedge within the cemetery, to define these lots. The

138 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

graves are leveled off, even with the ground, and the
monuments are remarkable, for their variety and good
taste. The Dexter mausoleum, which represents a
Gothic chapel, will attract special attention ; while one
of the principal objects in the cemetery is the bronze
statue of a soldier, cast in Munich, and erected in 1864,
to the memory of the Ohio volunteer soldiers who died
during the War.

In spite of many changes for the better since the
war, Cincinnati still retains her distinctive character.
She has taken long strides in the direction of intellectual
development, and has now numerous and extensive
public libraries, of which any city might be proud. The
theatres and other places of amusement, which, not long
since, were represented by shaky buildings, third-rate
talent and a general dearth of attractions, and patronized
more largely by the river men than by any other single
class, have risen to take rank among the best in the
country. But she is still a city noted for her wealth ;
for her solid business enterprises and scrupulous honesty,
rather than for that spirit of speculation in which, in
other cities, fortunes are quickly made, and even more
quickly lost. Her prosperity has a solid foundation in
her factories, her foundries, her mills and engine shops.
A man, to be successful in Cincinnati, must know how
to make and to do, as well as how to buy and sell. Men
have risen from the humblest ranks by dint of industry
and energy alone, while they were yet young, to be the
masters of princely fortunes. Even a newspaper pub-
lisher in that city, a few years since, estimated his prop-
erty at five millions of dollars, an instance which,
probably, has not a parallel in the civilized world
Nicholas Longworth died worth twelve millions of

CINCINNATI. 139

dollars, and her living millionaires are to be counted by
hundreds.

Cincinnati stands in the front rank of the manufac-
turing cities of America, and the secret of her financial
success is that she has made what the people of Ohio and
other States needed and were sure to buy. Receiving
their products in return, and turning these to account,
her merchants have made a double profit. As long as
the Ohio River sweeps by the city's front, and as long as
the smoke of her factories and her foundries ascends to
heaven and obscures the fair face thereof, and corn, trans-
formed into pork, is sent away in such quantities to the
Eastern cities and to Europe ; so long as the cotton of
the South, the hay of the blue grass region, and the grain
of the North and West, find a market on her shores, her
prosperity is secure ; and the Queen City of the West, as
she proudly styles herself, will go on increasing in popu-
lation and in prosperity.

CHAPTER VIII.

CLEVELAND.

The " Western Reserve."— Character of Early Settlers.— Fairport.
— Richmond. — Early History of Cleveland. — Indians. — Opening
of Ohio and Portsmouth Canal. — Commerce in 1845. — Cleve-
land in 1850 — First Railroad. — Manufacturing Interests. —
Cuyahoga "Flats" at Night.— The "Forest City."— Streets and
Avenues. — Monumental Park. — Public Buildings and Churches.
— Union Depot. — Water Rents. — Educational Institutions. —
Rocky River.— Approach to the City.— Freshet of 1883.—
Funeral of President Garfield. — Lake Side Cemetery. — Site of
the Garfield Monument.

IN early colonial times, out of utter ignorance of the
boundless territory extending westward, the first
American Colonies were chartered by the Kings of
England with permission to extend westward indefin-
itely. After the close of the Revolutionary War, while
negotiations were in progress in regard to the final
treaty of peace with the United States, which was
ultimately signed at Paris on November thirtieth, 1782,
Mr. Oswald, the British Commissioner, proposed the
Ohio River as the western boundary of the young nation ,
and had it not been for the firmness and persistence of
John Adams, one of the American Commissioners, who
insisted upon the right of the United Colonies to the
territory as far westward as the Mississippi, it is
probable that the rich section of country between these
two rivers would still have formed a portion of the
British dominions, or have been the source of subse-
quent contention and expense. When the Colonies had

140

CLEVELAND. 141

become independent States, many of them claimed the
right of soil and jurisdiction over large portions of
western unappropriated land originally embraced in
their charters. Congress urged upon these States to
cede these lands to the general government, for the
benefit of all. They all yielded to this request, except
Connecticut, who retained a small tract of land in the
northeastern portion of the present State of Ohio, which
was subsequently divided up five counties in length
along the lake, with an average width of two counties.
The lower boundary of this tract of land was 40° 2'
north latitude, and it extended from the Pennsylvania
line on the east, one hundred and twenty miles west-
ward, to a line running north and south, a little west
of the present location of Sandusky City. This tract
of land was called the "Western Reserve of Connecti-
cut."

In 1801 Connecticut ceded all her jurisdictional
claims over the territory, but it continues to be known,
to this day, as the " Connecticut Reserve," the " Western
Reserve," or simply as the "Reserve." This "Western
Reserve" is like a little piece of New England in a
mosaic, representing many sections and many peoples.
It is a peculiarity of the Anglo-Saxon race, that in
emigrating it usually moves along parallels of latitude,
and rarely diverges much either northward or south-
ward. We find to the eastward of Ohio, Connecticut,
and Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, and
all of these States have contributed to her population.
Thus, below the Reserve, the people are largely from
Pennsylvania; still further south, from Maryland and
Virginia ; and the lower section of the State is allied

142 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

more by kindred and sympathy with the South than
with the North. But on the Western Reserve, the
cosmopolitan character of the inhabitants is at once lost.
It is New England in descent and ideas. The little
white meeting house, and the little red school house not
far off, both as bare and homely as a stern Puritan race
could conceive of, were everywhere met in the early
days of its settlement, after the log cabin epoch had
passed away. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont
furnished the principal immigrants, and they built their
neat and thrifty little New England towns over again,
and maintained their New England sturdiness and
simplicity.

The inhabitants of the Reserve have been, and are
still, noted for their thrift, their intelligence and their
superior culture. That section has furnished many
distinguished public men, and one President, to the
country. It was, in the old slavery days, spoken of
contemptuously as " the hotbed of abolitionism/' and
gave both Giddings and Wade to fight the battle against
Southern dominion in the United States Congress.
Here Garfield was born, and here he is buried.
Howells, the novelist, was a native of the Reserve, and
passed his life until early manhood in its northeastern-
most county.

The northern shores of the Reserve are washed by
Lake Erie, one of the shallowest, most treacherous and
least picturesque of the chain of lakes which form our
northern boundary. It embraces the " Great Divide "
between the north and the south, its waters flowing to
the sea by both the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi.
Summit and Portage counties, by their names, indicate
the locality of this Divide.

CLEVELAND. 143

Very early in the present century, the sturdy New
England pioneers, looking for a suitable harbor upon
the lake, discovered the mouth of Grand River, about
thirty-five miles northeast of the Cuyahoga River;
and in 1803, two miles up this river, the first warehouse
on the lake was built.

In 1812 the town of Fairport, at the mouth of
this river, was laid out, and was destined by ltd
founders to be the future great lake city of Ohio.
It had one of the best harbors on the lake, if not
the best, well defended from storms, and easy of
access, so that vessels entered it without difficulty when
they could not make other ports. The water was deep
enough for any large craft, and in the course of time the
government expended a considerable sum of money in
improving the harbor. A line of boats was speedily
established between Fairport and Buffalo, which in those
railroadless days were liberally patronized. Nearly all
the lake steamers bound for other ports stopped there,
and its business constantly increased. A lighthouse
was built, and its future prosperity seemed assured.

During the great period of land speculation, between
1830 and 1840, the town of Richmond was laid out 01
the opposite bank of the Grand River, by wealthy
eastern capitalists, who established their homes there,
and transported to the infant city the wealth, magnifi-
cence and luxurious social customs of the east. During
their brief reign, they gave entertainments such as were
not equaled in that section of the country for many
long years afterwards. A large village was built and a
steamboat was owned there.

Meantime, a little town had been growing up on the
banks of the Cuyahoga. The first permanent settlement

144 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

had been made as early as 1796, and named Cleveland,
in honor of General Moses Cleveland, of Canterbury,
Connecticut. At that period the nearest white settlement
was Conneaut, on the east, and another at the mouth of
the River Raisin, to the west. Immigration at that period
did not march steadily westward, each new settlement
being in close proximity to an older one, but it took
sudden jumps over wide extents of territory, so that for
many years isolated families or small neighborhoods
were far apart. Each little settlement had to be sufficient
unto itself, since, to reach any other involved a long,
difficult and often dangerous journey. Up to nearly
1800 each house in Cleveland had its own hand grist-
mill standing in the chimney-corner, in which the flour
or meal for the family consumption was slowly and
laboriously ground each day. In the spring of 1799
Wheeler W. Williams and Major Wyatt erected the
first grist and saw mill on the Reserve, at Newburg, a
few miles above the mouth of the Cuyahoga.

The first ball ever given in Cleveland was on the
Fourth of July, 1801, in a log cabin, the company
numbering thirty, of both sexes. The first militia
muster was held at Doane's Corners, on the sixteenth
ot June, 1806. The spot is now incorporated in the
city of Cleveland. Never before had been so many
whites collected together in this region as on this
occasion, which was one of general excitement. The
militia consisted of about fifty privates, with the usual
complement of officers, but a surveying party and a
number of strangers were present and added to the
spectators.

In the beginning of the century the Indians were in
the habit of meeting every autumn, at Cleveland, piling

CLEVELAND. 145

their canoes up at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, and
scattering into the interior of the country, which
constituted their great winter hunting ground. In tlie
spring they returned, disposed of their furs, and entering
their canoes, departed up the lake for their villages, in
the region of Sandusky and Maumee, where they raised
their crops of corn and potatoes. Many local names
are of Indian origin ; Cuyahoga means " crooked river."
Geauga, the name of an adjoining county, signifies
" raccoon." Their encampment on going and returning
was usually on the west bank of the river, and in their
drinking bouts, in which they occasionally indulged,
they were sometimes quarrelsome and dangerous, but do
not seem, on the whole, to have given the settlers much
trouble. On the twenty-sixth of June, 1812, an Indian
named McMic was hanged for murder, on the public
square of Cleveland. There were fears that the Indians
would rally to his rescue, and a large number of citizens
from Cuyahoga and adjoining counties, armed them-
selves and attended the execution, prepared for any
outbreak. The Indians remained peaceable, but the
prisoner, at the last moment, refused to ascend the scaf-
fold. Finally, his scruples were overcome by a pint of
whisky, which he swallowed with satisfaction before
yielding to the inevitable.

In 1813 Cleveland became a depot for supplies and
troops during the war, and a permanent garrison was
established here, a small stockade having been erected
on the lake bank, at the foot of Ontario street. The
return of peace was celebrated in true American style.
The cannon which was fired in honor of the occasion was
supplied with powder by one Uncle Abram, who carried

an open pail of the explosive material on his arm. An-

10

146 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

other citizen bore a lighted stick with which to touch off
the gun. In the excitement, the latter swung his stick
in the air; a spark fell into Uncle Abram's powder, and
that worthy, whether from astonishment or some other
cause, suddenly sprang twenty feet into the air, his
ascent being accompanied by a deafening report. When
he came down again, his clothing was singed oif, and he
vociferously protested that he was dead. But the
multitude refused to take his word for it, and it was not
a great while before he had completely recovered from
the accident.

The Ohio Canal, which connects Lake Erie at thia
point with the Ohio River at Portsmouth, was completed
in 1834, and from that date her prosperity seems to have
been established. She was incorporated a city in 1836.
About this time the great western land bubble burst,
and with it the hopes of Fairport and Richmond. The
latter city speedily disappeared from the face of the
earth, and its name from the map. Its houses were
taken up bodily and removed to adjacent towns. Boats
still continued to stop at Fairport, but they began to stop
more frequently at Cleveland, and while the business of
the former point was at a standstill, that of the latter
continued to increase. In 1840 its population was over
6,000, and its supremacy fairly established. In 1850
Fairport was still a little hamlet, the boats passing her
far out in the lake without giving her so much as a nod
of recognition ; while the wharves of Cleveland were
lined with shipping, and her population did not fall far
short of 20,000.

Besides the Cleveland and Portsmouth Canal, which
opened up a line of traffic with the south and southwest,
communication was also had with the East, by means of

CLEVELAND. 147

canal to Pittsburg and to New York, and the lakes were
a highway, not only to the East but to the North and
West. Cleveland became the great mart of the grain-
growing country. Its harbor was extended and improved
by the erection of piers each side of the mouth of the
river, two hundred feet apart, and extending out several
hundred feet into the lake, furnishing effective break-
waters, and ample room for the loading and unloading
of vessels. A lighthouse was erected at the end of each
pier, and one already stood upon the cliff.

In 1845 the number of vessels which arrived by lake
was 2,136 ; and of these 927 were steamers. The tonnage
then owned at that port amounted to 13,493, and the
number of vessels of all kinds eighty-five. The total
value of exports and imports by the lake for that year
was over $9,000,000. Cleveland occupied a small region
on the cliff at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Ontario
street was filled with boarding-houses and private resi-
dences. Euclid avenue and Prospect street extended
for a few squares, and were then lost in the country.
The flats through which the river wound its devious
way were occupied as pastures for the cows of persons
living in the heart of the city. The business portion of
the town was contained, for the most part, in the two
squares on Superior street, west of Ontario. Ohio City
was a separate corporation, a straggling, dilapidated
town, looking like a country village, on the western bank
of the Cuyahoga, connected with Cleveland by means of
drawbridges.

In the fall of 1852 the first whistle of the locomotive
was heard down by the river side, in the city of Cleve-
land. It started the city into new life, and woke all the
farmers within the sound of its hoarse screech into,

148 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

renewed energy. That fall and winter there was a butter
famine in all that region. The market being opened to
New York, butter went suddenly up from eight and ten
cents a pound, to twelve, sixteen, and then to twenty
cents. Buyers could afford to pay no such fancy price
for an article which might be dispensed with ; and pro-
ducers were equally unwilling to put upon their own
tables anything which would yield them such a hand-
some profit on selling. And so many families, not only
of mechanics, but of farmers as well, went without butter
that winter ; the latter happy in receiving, first twenty,
then twenty-two, and finally twenty-five cents per pound
for the products of their dairies.

This first railroad gave the city a fresh start, and
presently others found their terminus here. Population
and business have both steadily increased since then,
until in 1880 the former was 160,142, and its commerce
immense, especially with Canada and the mining
regions of Lake Superior. Since 1860 the city has
rapidly developed in the direction of manufacturing
industries. The headquarters of the giant monopoly,
known as the Standard Oil Company, Cleveland is the
first city of the world in the production of refined petro-
leum. The old pasture grounds of the cows of 1850 are
now completely occupied by oil refineries and manufactur-
ing establishments; and the river, which but a genera-
tion ago flowed peaceful and placid through green fields,
is now almost choked with barges, tugs and immense
rafts. Looking down upon the Cuyahoga Flats, from
the heights of what was once Ohio City, but is now
known as the West Side of Cleveland itself, the view,
though far from beautiful, is a very interesting one.
There are copper smelting, iron rolling, and iron

CLEVELAND. 149

manufacturing works, lumber yards, paper mills,
breweries, flour mills, nail works, pork-packing estab-
lishments, and the multitudinous industries of a
great manufacturing city, which depends upon these
industries largely for its prosperity. The scene at
night, from this same elevated position, is picturesque
in the extreme. The whole valley shows a black back-
ground, lit up with a thousand points of light from
factories, foundries and steamboats, which are multi-
plied into two thousand as they are reflected in the
waters of the Cuyahoga, which looks like a silver
ribbon flowing through the blackness.

Cleveland is acknowledged to be the most beautiful
city of the many which are found upon the shores of
the great lakes. It stands on a high bluff overlooking
Lake Erie. It is laid out, for the most part, with
parallel streets, crossed by others at right angles ; and
even in the heart of the city nearly every house has its
little side and front yard filled with shrubbery and
shaded by trees, a large majority of the latter being
elms. The great number of these trees fairly entitle
Cleveland to be known as the "Forest City/' The
streets are very wide, and the principal ones are paved.

The main business thoroughfare and fashionable
promenade is Superior street, which is one hundred
and thirty-two feet wide, and lined with handsome
hotels and retail stores. From the foot of this street,
and on a level with it, was completed, in 1878, a great
stone viaduct, connecting the East Side with the West
Side, reaching the latter at the junction of Pearl and
Detroit streets. This roadway is 3,21 1 feet long, and
cost $2,200,000. Some years before a bridge had been
constructed in the same locality, at a sufficient elevation

150 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

to permit the passage under it of various craft; but
even at this height there was quite a descent to reach it,
and an equal ascent on leaving it on the other side.
The drawbridge near the mouth of the river was
totally inadequate to meet the needs of business, and
was often open for long periods of time while vessels
were passing through.

Ontario, Bank, Water, Mervin and River streets and
Euclid avenue are other important business streets on
the East Side. Detroit, Pearl and Lorain are the
principal thoroughfares on the West Side.

Monument Park is a square ten acres in extent, in
the centre of the city, crossed by Superior and Ontario
streets. It is divided by these streets into four sections
and is shaded by fine trees. In the southeast section
stands a monument to Commodore Perry, the hero of
the battle of Lake Erie, erected in 1860, at a cost of
$8,000. It contains a colossal statue of the Commodore,
in Italian marble, standing on a pedestal of Rhode
Island granite, the entire monument being about twenty
feet in height. In front of the pedestal is a marble
medallion, representing Perry in a small boat passing
from the Lawrence to the Niagara, in the heat of battle.
In the southwest corner of the Park is a pool and
cascade, and in the northwest a handsome fountain. In
this park was erected the large catafalque under which
the casket containing the remains of the late President
Garfield was laid in state until and during the grand
public funeral, after which it was taken to the cemetery.
This park is surrounded by very handsome churches
and public buildings, among which latter are the
Custom House, Post Office, Federal Courts, County
Court House and City Hall, all magnificent edifices.

CLEVELAND. 151

Case Hall, near the park, contains a concert hall capable
of seating fifteen hundred persons, a library, reading
room, and the rooms of the Cleveland Library Associa-
tion. The Opera House, a new and handsome building,
is on Euclid avenue. There are, besides, an Academy
of Music and the Globe Theatre and several minor
theatres.

The business portion of Euclid avenue extends from
the Park to Erie street, beyond which it is lined with
handsome residences, elegant cottages and superb villas,
the grounds around each being more and more extensive
as it approaches the country. It is one of the finest
avenues in the world, and is not less than ten miles in
length, embracing during its course several suburbs
which a generation since were remote from the city, and
are now considerably surprised to find themselves brought
so near it. Euclid avenue crosses the other streets
diagonally, and was evidently one of the original roads
leading into the city before it attained its present
dimensions. The majority of the streets are parallel
with the lake front, which pursues a course from the
northeast to the southwest. But Euclid avenue runs
directly eastward for about three miles, to Doane's
Corners, one of the historic spots in the neighborhood
of Cleveland, and then turns to the northeast, following
nearly parallel to the course of the lake. Prospect
street runs parallel to Euclid avenue, and is only second
to it in the beauty and elegance of its residences. St.
Clair street is also a favorite suburban avenue, extending
parallel to the lake, a little distance from it, far out into
the country, and containing many handsome residences.

Newburg, once three miles from the city, and the site
of the first saw and grist mill on the Reserve, is now

152 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

included as a suburb of Cleveland, and contains exten-
sive iron manufactories.

The Union Depot, erected in 1866, is one of the finest
and largest in the country. It is built on the shore of the
lake, below the bluff, and near the mouth of the Cuya-
hoga. Streets more or less steeply graded furnish access
to it for carriages and vehicles of all descriptions, while
a long flight of massive stone steps conduct the pedestrian
directly to the summit of the cliff, where horse-cars,
leading by various routes to all quarters of the city,
are waiting for him. All the railroads leading out of
the city centre here. In the keystone over the main
entrance of the depot is a bas relief portrait of Mr.
Amasa Stone, under whose supervision it was built.
Similar portraits of Grant and Lincoln are found upon
keystones at either end of the building.

The waterworks stand near the lake, west of the
river, and by means of a tunnel extending some six
thousand feet out under the lake, pure water, forced by
two powerful engines into a large reservoir upon the cliff,
is supplied to the entire city. This reservoir is a popular
resort for pleasure seekers, and furnishes a fine view of
the city, lake and surrounding country.

Cleveland enjoys superior educational facilities. Her
schools are not excelled by any in the country, and
she has, besides, several large libraries. The Western
Reserve College, until recently located at Hudson, a
small village about twenty miles to the southeast, has
been, within the last few years, removed to this city.
The Medical College, a branch of the Western Reserve
College, founded in 1843, occupies an imposing building
at the corner of Erie and St. Clair streets. Near this
college, on the shore of the lake, stands the extensive

CLEVELAND. 153

United States Marine Hospital, surrounded by grounds
nine acres in extent, beautifully laid out and well kept.
There are a number of parks and gardens in the
suburbs of Cleveland, one of the most extensive having
been a donation to the city by Mr. Wade, one of her
millionaires. The favorite drive, however, next to the
avenue, is across the Cuyahoga and seven miles west-
ward to Rocky River, which flows into the lake through
a narrow gorge between perpendicular cliffs which
project themselves boldly into the lake. Here a park
has been laid out, and all that art can do has been done
to add to the natural beauties of the place. From this
point a distant view of the city may be obtained, its
spires pointing to the sky out of a billow of green. To
the west is Black River Point, with its rocky promon^
tories, and on the north stretches out an unbroken
expanse of water, with here and there the long black trail
of a steamer floating in the air, its wake like a white
line upon the water ; or white specks of sails dotting the
horizon. The coast between Cleveland and Rocky
River is high and precipitous, the emerging streams
rushing into the lake by means of rapids and waterfalls.
On this inhospitable coast, which affords no landing for
even a small boat, more than one frail bark came to
grief in the early days of the white man's possession of
the land, and nearly all its living freight found a watery
grave. In 1806 a man by the name of Hunter, his
wife and child, a colored man named Ben, and a small
colored boy, were driven by a squall upon these rocks.
They climbed up as far as possible, the surge constantly
beating over them, and finally they died, one after the
other, from exposure and hunger, and after five days
only the man Ben was rescued alive. A similar

154 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

occurrence transpired the following spring. Of the
eighteen deaths which took place at Cleveland during
the first twelve years after its settlement, eleven were
caused by drowning.

Twenty or thirty years ago nothing more desolate or
devoid of beauty can be imagined than was the lake
and river approach to Cleveland. The cars ran along
the foot of the cliff, while the space between the tracks
and the table land upon which the city is built was
given up to rubbish and neglect. Little huts, the size
of organ boxes, were perched here and there, swarming
with dirty, half-clad children and untidy women, and
festooned with clothes-lines, from which dangled a
motley array of garments. Blackness, dirt and decay
were visible everywhere ; and the vestibule of the most
beautiful city in America presented to the visitor the
opposite extreme of repulsiveness. But now all this is
changed ; one enters the Forest City through a continuous
park. Coming from the east, the waves of the beautiful
inland sea almost wash the tracks. On the left the
steep slope is covered by green grass, shrubbery and
trees, the line broken here and there, perhaps, by private
grounds no less beautiful, while the United States Marine
Hospital crowns the cliff, at Erie street, with its ample
and well-kept grounds. Reaching the depot the
traveler at once ascends the cliff, and avoids the
necessary ugliness of the immense railroad yard, with its
gridiron of tracks. Even the river, once so unsightly,
presents to view the ceaseless movements of multifarious
business, all of which indicate the prosperity and
thriving industry of the city.

It is a peculiarity of western cities that they give so
much thought and spend so much money in public

CLEVELAND. 155

improvements, and especially those which are merely
decorative. Cleveland is in no wise behind the rest.
No city in the east, though many of them boast extensive
and expensive public parks, bestows so much thought,
labor and money, to make her general appearance
beautiful and attractive to the stranger. If first
impressions count for much, as it is said they do, then
Cleveland has proved herself wise. She possesses many
natural advantages of position. She is not in a slough,
like Chicago, being built on a gravelly plain about one
hundred feet above the lake. Nor is she subject to
inundation, like Cincinnati, most of her business sites
and residences being far above the water. The Guya-
hoga River sometimes, however, does damage to the
manufacturing establishments along its shores. In
February, 1883, a freshet occurred, which raised the
river ten feet above its ordinary level, and flooded all
its valley. Enormous quantities of lumber and shingles
were washed from the lumber yards. The Valley
Railroad was several feet under water ; paper mills,
furnaces and other property submerged nearly to the
top of the first story. The Infirmary Farm, further up
the river, was under water, and the damage of the flood
was estimated at not less than a million dollars. The
water was higher than at any period since 1859, when
a similar disaster occurred.

All eyes were turned towards Cleveland, when, in
September, 1881, a mournful cortege proceeded thither,
accompanying the remains of the murdered Chief
Magistrate. A mighty concourse of people assembled
in the park to assist at the last sad rites, and then the
funeral procession passed out the beautiful Euclid
avenue to Lake View Cemetery, where the casket was

156 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

deposited in a vault prepared for it, and was guarded
by soldiers night and day ; and there, on a spot over-
looking the lake, and surrounded by a lovely country,
varied by hill and dale, cultivated farms and elegant
suburban residences, all that is mortal of James Abram
Garfield has found its last resting-place, while his
memory lives in fifty millions of hearts, and his fame is
immortal. The youngest son of his mother, and she a
widow, reared in poverty and obscurity, by dint of his
unswerving integrity and overmastering intellect, he
rose to occupy the highest position which man can
accord to his fellow man, that of being the chosen head
of a free, intelligent and powerful people. Cut off as
he was, in the prime of his life, a nation mourned her
dead, and Lake View Cemetery is to-day a spot of
national interest. It is five miles from the city, contains
three hundred acres, and lies two hundred and fifty feet
above the level of the lake. It commands extensive
views, and though opened as late as 1870, is already
very beautiful. It was here that Garfield expressed his
desire to be buried. Here, on a knoll commanding one
of the finest views the cemetery affords, his tomb will be
eventually constructed, and a monument reared to him,
as a mark of the nation's appreciation of his character
and sorrow at his untimely death.

CHAPTER IX.

CH ICAGO.

Topographical Situation of Chicago.— Meaning of the Name.-'
Early History. — Massacre at Fort Dearborn. — Last of the Red
Men. — The Great Land Bubble.— Rapid Increase in Popula-
tion and Business. — The Canal. — First Railroad. — Status of
the City in 1871. — The Great Fire. — Its Origin, Progress and
Extent. — Heartrending Scenes. — Estimated Total Loss. — Help
from all Quarters.— Work of Reconstruction. — Second Fire. —
Its Public Buildings, Educational and Charitable Institutions,
Streets and Parks.— Its Waterworks.— Its Stock Yards.— Its
Suburbs.— Future of the City.

two things in the United States, if nothing
else — see Niagara and Chicago/' said Richard
Cobden, the English statesman, to Goldwin Smith, on
the eve of the departure of the latter to America. And
truly, if one would obtain a proper sense of America's
wonders and achievements, then Niagara and Chicago
may be accepted as respectively the highest types of
each. Niagara remains the same yesterday, to-day and
forever. But if it were a desirable thing to see Chicago
at the time of the visit referred to, how much more so
is it to-day, when, Phoenix-like, she has arisen from her
own ashes, turning that which seemed an overwhelming
disaster into positive blessing; drawing her fire-singed
robes proudly about her, crowning herself with the
diadem of her own matchless achievements, and sitting
beside her inland sea, the queenliest city of them all.

Situated upon a flat and relatively low tract of
country, Chicago is yet upon one of the highest plana

157

158 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

elevations of our continent. Lake Michigan represents
the headwaters of the great chain of American lakes,
through which, in connection with the St. Lawrence,
much of the rainfall of that city finds its way to the
Atlantic; while through the canal to the Illinois River,
its sewage is borne to the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps
no more hopeless site could have been selected for a
city than that seemed half a century ago. A bayou or
arm of the lake penetrated the land for half a mile or
more, but a sand-bar across its mouth prevented the
ingress of all but the smallest craft. This bayou, called
by courtesy the Chicago River, separated into two
branches, the course of one of which was in a northerly
direction, and of the other in a southerly one. The
land was barely on a level with the lake, and at portions
of the year was a vast morass, some parts of it being
entirely under water. Teams struggled helplessly
through the black ooze of its prairies, and a carriage
would sink three or four feet in mud and mire within
two miles of where the court house now stands. Some-
times in this slough a board would be set up, with a
rude inscription: "No bottom here." But American
enterprise has found a bottom and reared a city, the
history of whose seemingly magical building almost
rivals the tales of the Arabian Nights.

Chicago is an Indian word, signifying the widely-
varying titles of a king or deity, and a skunk or wild
onion. In its early history, while drainage it had none,
and its water supply was mere surface water, foul with
all the accumulated impurities of the soil, and while
from the lagoon, which lay stagnant for twelve or fifteen
miles, a horrible, sickening stench constantly arose, the
latter appellations seemed singularly appropriate, and

CHICAGO. 159

no doubt originated in these conditions. But since the
city has been purified by fire, and its sanitary conditions
made such as they should be, it has earned its right to
the nobler titles.

The first white visitors to the site of Chicago were
Joliet and Marquette, who arrived in August, 1673.
The year following his first visit Pere Marquette
returned and erected a rude church. Later the French
seem to have built a fort on the spot, but no traces of it
now remain. Very early in the nineteenth century John
Kinzie, an Indian* trader, and agent of the American
Fur Company, having traded with the Indians at this
point for some time, probably influenced the government
to build a fort here. Accordingly, in 1804, Fort
Dearborn was built and garrisoned with about fifty men
and three pieces of artillery. Mr. Kinzie removed his
family to the place the same year.

In 1812, Fort Dearborn was the scene of a bloody In-
dian massacre. Captain Hull, then in command of the
fort, having placed too great confidence in the professions
of fidelity of the Pottawatomie tribe, and trusting to an
escort of that tribe to convey the soldiers and inhabitants
of the fort to Fort Wayne, saw his entire party either
killed or taken prisoners, and found himself a prisoner.
The fort stood at the head of Michigan avenue, below
its intersection with Lake street. Abandoned and
destroyed at this period, it was rebuilt in 1816, and
finally demolished in 1856.

For four years the place was deserted by the whites,
and even the fur traders did not care to visit it. In
1818 two families had established themselves upon the
spot. In 1 820 some dozen houses represented the future
city, and in 1827 a government agent reported the

1 60 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

place as a collection of pens and kennels, inhabited by
squatters, " a miserable race of men, hardly equal to the
Indians." The population numbered seventy in 1830.
In 1832 there were six hundred people in the miserable
little town. In September, 1833, the United States
purchased of the Indians 20,000,000 acres of land in
the northwest, the latter pledging themselves to remove
twenty days' journey west of the Mississippi. Seven
thousand redskins attended the making of this treaty,
which was ratified by the chiefs in a large tent on the bank
of the river. A year later four thousand Indians returned
to receive an annuity of $30,000 worth of goods. The
distribution of these goods was the occasion of, first, a
fierce scramble, followed by a bloody fight, in which
several Indians were killed and others wounded ; the
scene closing by a wild debauch, so that on the following
morning few of the recipients were any better off for
the property which had been given them. Similar
scenes, with similar results, were enacted in 1835. But
that was the last Chicago saw of the red men. In
September, a train of forty wagons, each drawn by four
oxen, conveyed away on their far westward march the
children and effects of the Pottawatomies, while the
squaws and braves walked beside them. It took them
twenty days to reach the Mississippi, and twenty days
longer it took them to attain a point which can now be
reached from Chicago in fifteen hours.

In 1827, Major Long, a government agent sent to
visit the place, spoke of the site as "affording no
inducements to the settler, the whole amount of trade
on the lake not exceeding the cargoes of five or six
schooners, even at the time when the garrison received
its supplies from the Mackinac." In 1833 the tide of

CHICAGO. 161

immigration began. At the end of that year there
were fifty families floundering in the Chicago mud. In
1834 there were nearly two thousand inhabitants of the
town, and at the close of 1835 more than three
thousand. In 1835-6 Chicago became the headquarters
of a great land speculation. Multitudes of towns
sprang up in every direction, on paper. The country
was wild with excitement. Even eastern capitalists
were seized with the mania, and fortunes were made
and lost in this wild gambling in prospective cities. The
bubble shortly burst, resulting in great business depression.
The State was bankrupt, and Chicago languished. But
not for long. Turning from the frenzy of speculation, its
inhabitants wisely gave their attention to developing
legitimate business interests. The United States had,
in 1833, spent $30,000 in dredging out the Chicago
River, and in the spring of 1834 a most timely freshet
had swept away the bar at the mouth of the river,
making it accessible for the largest craft. In 1838 a
venturesome trader shipped from that port seventy-eight
bushels of wheat. In 1839 four thousand bushels were
sent. In 1842 the amount of wheat exported arose all
at once from forty thousand bushels to nearly six hundred
thousand bushels. In 1839 three thousand cattle were
driven across the prairies, and sent to the eastern market;
and every year thereafter showed a surprising increase.
Yet with all this accumulating commerce, the streets of
the city were still quagmires, and many a farmer came
to grief with his load of grain within what is now city
limits. Before there was a railroad begun or a canal
finished, Chicago exported two and a quarter millions
of bushels of grain in a year, and sent back on the
wagons which brought it loads of merchandise.

1G2 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The Illinois River is connected with the Chicago
River, and through that to Lake Michigan, by a canal
which enters it at La Salle, ninety-six miles from
Chicago. This canal was begun in 1836 and completed
in 1848. It gave a fresh impetus to the youthful
western town, and established its future prosperity.
Connected as it already was with the east by the
magnificent lake and river system of our northern
borders, this canal opened up communication with the
south and west, and made Chicago the portal, so to
speak, between the different sections of our country.

In 1849 the first railroad had approached within ten
miles of the city. In 1852 direct communication with
the east was gained by the completion of the Michigan
Central and Michigan Southern railroads, while more
than one western railroad was projected, and some of
them were in actual progress of construction. To-day,
Illinois and its adjoining States are literally gridironecj
with iron roads, nearly all of which centre at Chicago.
In 1857 there were living beside the still stagnant
waters of the Chicago River one hundred thousand
people.

In 1871 Chicago was the fourth city of the country,
claiming a population of 334,000 persons. By a chef
d'ouvre of engineering, the waters of the river had been
turned backward, and made to carry away its sewage to
fertilize the shores of the Illinois and the Mississippi.
The streets had been drained, hollow places filled up,
and their grade had been gradually raised, until it stood
twelve feet higher than at first. Some of the buildings
were raised at once to the latest established grade, and
others remained as they had been built. The conse-
quence was that the plank sidewalks became a series of

CHICAGO. 163

stairs, adapting themselves to the buildings which they
fronted. The principal streets were paved with stone
or with the Nicholson pavement. The triple river was
spanned by no less than seventeen drawbridges, while
two tunnels afforded uninterrupted travel between the
opposite sides. Efficient waterworks had been con-
structed to provide pure water for the use of the city.
The total trade for the year previous to the great fire
was estimated at $400,000,000. Its grain trade had
reached such enormous proportions that seventeen large
elevators, with an aggregate capacity of 11,580,000
bushels were required for its accommodation. Eighteen
banks were in operation, with an aggregate capital of
§10,000,000 and with nearly $17,000,000 of deposits.
The city was beginning to give its attention largely to
manufactures, and its lumber trade had grown into
something almost fabulous. Miles of lumber yards
extended along one of the forks of the river, and its
harbor was sometimes choked with arriving lumber
vessels. In a single day, three or four years before the
fire, a favorable wind blew into port no less than
two hundred and eighteen vessels loaded with
lumber. One hundred passenger and one hundred
and twenty freight trains arrived and departed daily;
and seventy-five vessels unloaded and loaded at her
wharves every twenty-four hours.

Chicago Eedivivus should bear upon her shield a cow
rampant. Oil the evening of the eighth of October,
1871, Mrs. Scully's cow kicked herself into history, and
Chicago into ruin and desolation. Chicago is divided
by the river and its branches into three different
sections, known as the north, south and west sides. The
principal business portion of the city is on the south

164 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

side, and along the margins of the lake and streams.
Tiie "burnt district," which even yet the Chicagoan
will outline to the visitor with peculiar pride, was
confined almost wholly to the south and nortk
sides.

On the evening of October seventh a planing mill had
caught fire on the west side, and the conflagration had
spread over a territory embracing about twenty acres,
destroying a million dollars7 worth of property. This
fire, terrible as it seemed, probably saved the west side
from destruction on that fatal night of the eighth,
imposing as it did a broad banner of desolation, when
the flames essayed to leap across the river.

At about nine o'clock in the evening of Sunday, Octo-
ber eighth, 1871, a cow kicked over a lantern among
loose, dry hay, in a stable at or near the corner of
Jefferson and DeKoven streets, on the west side. There
had been no rain of any consequence for fourteen weeks,
and roofs and wooden buildings were as dry as tinder.
There was a strong wind blowing from the southwest,
and before the engines could reach the spot, half a dozen
adjoining buildings were wrapped in flames. The
buildings of that quarter were mostly of wood, and
there were several lumber yards along the margin of
the river. The flames swept through these with resist-
less fury, and then made a bold and sudden leap
across the river into the very heart of the business
portion of the south side. Many of the buildings
here also were of wood, while the wooden side-
walks, and wooden block pavements, the latter filled
with an inflammable composition, seemed constructed
especially tc aid and hasten the work of the flames.
The fire marched steadily toward the north and east,

CHICAGO. 165

destroying everything in its course. Even fireproof
buildings seemed to melt down as it touched them.

The wind increased to a gale, and all night long the
fire wrought its terrible will, like a devouring demon ;
and at sunrise it had already leaped the narrow barrier
of the river, and was devastating the northern side,
sweeping away block after block of the wooden
structures which occupied to a large extent that quarter
of the city. The flames seized upon the shipping in the
river, and when it left it only blackened hulls remained.
The water supply, upon which the city had founded
hopes in case of such extremity, failed. The walls of
the buildings, weakened by the overpowering heat, had
fallen in upon the engines, and hope was quenched in
that quarter.

The flames spread southward as far as Taylor street,
and to the northward they only paused when, at Fuller-
ton avenue, the broad prairie lay before them, and there
was nothing more to burn. The track of the fire was
nearly five miles in length, running north and south,
and averaged a mile in width. It continued from
nine o'clock on Sunday night until daybreak Tuesday
morning, and then nothing was left of all the business
portion of Chicago, save avast blackened field on which
the flames still smouldered, with piles of rubbish,
formed by fallen buildings, and here and there portions
of walls still standing. Every bank, insurance office,
hotel, theatre, railroad depot, law office, newspaper
office, most of the churches, all but one of the wholesale
stores, and many of the warehouses and retail stores, six
elevators, fifty vessels, and sixteen thousand dwellings,
including many elegant mansions, besides numberless
humble homes, were destroyed ; two hundred persons

166 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

killed, and a hundred thousand people suddenly found
themselves homeless and penniless, without food to eat
or clothes to wear.

The scenes accompanying the fire were terrible and
heart-rending. They were a mingling of the horrible
and grotesque, the tragic and the ridiculous, such as was
probably never witnessed before on so grand a scale,
and we trust will never be repeated ; and over it all the
smoke hung like a pall, stifling and blinding, and the
flames cast a baleful glare, which lit up the scene and
made it seem like a literal inferno.

The fire spread with a rapidity which baffled all
attempts to check it. Many made a feeble effort to
save their household goods, an effort which was too
often futile, while others barely escaped with their lives,
clad only in their scant night garments. The streets
were filled with a frantic multitude; vehicles of every
description, laden with movable property ; men, women
and children, some of them burdened with their belong-
ings, and others nearly naked, forgetful of all but the
terrible danger of the hour, all wild with the insanity
born of fear, and all fleeing from the pursuing demon
which pressed on behind them, and whose hot breath
scorched their garments and singed their hair. Many
took refuge in the river or the lake; but the hissing
flames stooped down and licked the water, and the
poor victims were made to feel the tortures of a double
death. Very few of these escaped with their lives.

The progress of the flames was so swift that many
were overwhelmed by the crumbling walls of their
houses or workshops before they had time to escape,
and found in them a fiery tomb. Others were suffo-
cated by the smoke. Children were separated from

CHICAGO. 167

parents, and young and old sought safety wherever they
could find it, and a mad panic reigned everywhere.
Many saloons were thrown open, and whisky flowed
freely, and the turbulent riot of drunkenness was added,
to increase the confusion and despair of the dreadful
night. Sneak thieves and larger depredators found
spoil on every hand. In this terrible calamity each
one seemed to throw off his mask, and become what he
really was — the brave man, the noble gentleman, the
selfish coward, the bully or the thief.

A single leaf of a quarto Bible, charred around its
edges, was all that was left of the immense stock of the
Western News Company. It contained the first chapter
of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, which begins with the
following words : " How doth the city sit solitary that
was full of people ! how is she become as a widow !
she that was great among the nations, and princeas
among the provinces, how is she become tributary !
She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her
cheeks : among all her lovers she hath none to comfort
her."

The amount lost by the insurance companies, Ameri-
can and foreign, by the Chicago fire, was $88,634,133.
More than 2,200 acres were swept by the flames in the
space of thirty hours. The value of buildings alone
consumed was estimated at $75,000,000, while their
contents were at least as much more. The total loss
probably was not much less than $200,000,000.

No sooner had the news of the dreadful calamity
gone abroad to the world, than the spirit of generosity
prompted efficient aid from all quarters. St. Louis,
Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Cleveland, New York, Boston,
Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Montreal, cities and towns in

168 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

the north, south, east and west, sent generous, and some
of them princely, donations. Even China forwarded
§1,290. By December first the public cash donations
had reached $2,508,000. The naked were clothed, the
hungry fed, the homeless housed in at least temporary
quarters, and Chicago set herself to the task of recon-
struction. -

The smouldering ruins were yet glowing with heat,
and the smoke was still ascending here and there, when,
ou Wednesday morning, the work of regeneration began.
Within a month, five or six thousand temporary
tenements had been erected. Meantime the foundations
for the permanent structures were being laid, on a scale
far surpassing those of the past. In a year not a trace
of the fire remained.

Nearly three years later, on July fourteenth, 1874,
another great fire swept over the devoted city, destroying
eighteen blocks, or sixty acres, in the heart of the city,
and about $4,000,000 worth of property. Over six
hundred houses were consumed, but by far the larger
number were mere wooden shanties.

To-day Chicago counts her great fire as one of her
chief blessings. " The city is entirely rebuilt, but not with
rickety wooden structures, the previous plenitude of
which had rendered her so easy a prey to the devouring
element. Solid, substantial, handsome, and in many
instances magnificent, the stranger can scarely realize
that these blocks of buildings are not the growth of a
century, or of a generation even, but have sprung from
the ground almost in a night. The new Chicago is sur-
passingly beautiful and grand. The visitor will walk
through squares and squares of streets, each teeming
with life and commercial activity, and bearing no trace,

CHICAGO. 169

save in increased elegance, of the disaster of little more
than a decade ago ; and is forced to the conclusion that,
for courage and enterprise, Chicago has proved herself
unsurpassed by any city in the world.

Chicago has a water frontage of thirty-eight miles,,
of which twenty-four are improved, without including
the lake front, where an outer harbor is in process of
construction. The rivers are now spanned by thirty-five
drawbridges,, while a tunnel, 1,608 feet long, with a
descent of forty-five feet, connects the south and west
sides of Washington street, and another tunnel, with a
total length of 1,854 feet, connects the north and south
sides* on the line of La Salle street.

State street, on the south side, is the Broadway of
Chicago. Eandolph street is famous for its magnificent
buildings, among which are the city and the county
halls. Washington street is one of the fashionable prome-
nades, lined with retail stores, though Dearborn street
closely rivals it. The United States Custom House and
Post Office, a magnificent structure, costing upward of
$5,000,000, occupies the square bounded by Clark,
Adams, Jackson and Dearborn streets. The Chamber
of Commerce, a spacious and imposing building, with
elaborate interior decorations, is at the corner of Wash-
ington and La Salle streets, opposite City Hall Square.
Its ceiling is frescoed with allegorical pictures represent-
ing the trade of the city, the great fire and the rebuild-
ing. The Union Depot, in Van Buren street, at the
head of La Salle, is among the finest buildings of the
city. The Exposition Building is a vast ornate struc-
ture of iron and glass, occupying the lake front, extend-
ing from Monroe to Jackson street, and with a front of
eight hundred feet on Michigan avenue. The centre of

170 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

the edifice is surmounted by a dome one hundred and
sixty feet high and sixty feet in diameter. Annual
expositions of the art and industry of the city are held
here every autumn.

Among the hotels of Chicago the Palmer House takes
the lead. This house was destroyed by the fire, but has
been rebuilt with a magnitude and elaborateness far
exceeding its former self, and constituting it one of the
finest, if not the finest, in the world. It is entirely fire-
proof, being constructed only of incombustible materials,
brick, stone, iron, marble and cement. It has three
fronts, on State and Monroe streets and Wabash
avenue, and the building and furnishing cost $3,500,-
000. It is kept on both the American and European
plans, and continually accommodates from six hundred
to one thousand guests. The Grand Pacific Hotel is
but little inferior to the Palmer House. It occupies
half the block bounded by Jackson, Clark, Adams and
La Salle streets. The Sherman and Tremont Houses are
fine hotels and centrally located.

There are about three hundred churches in Chicago,
including those untouched by fire and those which have
been since rebuilt. The great Tabernacle, on Monroe
street, where Messrs. Moody and Sankey held their
meetings, is used for sacred concerts and other religious
gatherings, and will seat ten thousand persons.

In literary and educational institutions Chicago holds
a foremost place. Its common schools are among the
best in the country, with large, handsome, convenient
and well-ventilated buildings. The University of
Chicago, founded by the late Stephen A. Douglas,
occupies a beautiful site overlooking the lake, and boasts
the largest telescope in America, It has a Public

CHICAGO. 171

Library containing 60,000 volumes. The Academy of
Sciences lost a valuable collection of 38,000 specimens in
the fire, but has erected a new building and is slowly
gathering a new museum and library. There are three
Theological Seminaries, and three Medical Colleges,
three hospitals, and a large number of charitable insti-
tutions within the city. The fire department is most
efficiently organized, and its annual expenses are scarcely
less than $1,000,000.

Chicago has the most extensive system of parks and
boulevards of any city in the United States. Lincoln
Park, lying upon the lake to the northward, contains
310 acres, and served, during the great fire, as a place
of refuge for thousands of people driven thither by the
raging element. The Lake Shore Drive, the great north
side boulevard, extends from Pine street to Lake View,
and is one of the finest drives in the world. Humboldt
Park, Central Park and Douglas Park extend along
the western boundaries of the city, are large, contain
lakes, ponds, walks, drives, fountains and statuary, and
are connected with each other by wide and elaborately
ornamented boulevards. The great South Parks are
approached on the north by Drexel and Grant Boule-
vards. Drexel Boulevard is devoted exclusively to
pleasure, all traffic over it being forbidden. The most
southerly of the two south parks extends upwards of a
mile and a half along the shore of the lake. Union
Park is located in the very centre of the residence
portion of the west side.

Whatever Chicago accomplishes is on so gigantic a
scale that strangers almost hold their breath in astonish-
ment. Among the titanic achievements of this youth-
ful giant are the waterworks, which supply pure

172 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

drinking water to its six hundred thousand population.
The water supply is by means of a tunnel sent out
under Lake Michigan for a distance of two miles, the
water being forced by numerous engines into an
immense standpipe, 154 feet high. The works are
situated at the foot of Chicago avenue. In tunneling
under the lake, excavations went on simultaneously at
the land end and two miles out in the lake; and so
accurate were the^ calculations that when the two tunnels
met in the centre, they were found to be but seven
and one-half inches out of the line, and there was a
variation of but three inches in the horizontal measure-
ments. This tunnel, which is made of iron, protected
by heavy masonry, is large enough for a canoe to pass
through it when it is but partially filled with water, it
being nine feet in diameter. The exit at the lake end of
the tunnel is protected by a breakwater, and securely
anchored to its place by means of heavy stones. Storms
never affect it, save sometimes to produce a light
tremor ; and even large fields of ice, which grate by it
with a fearful, crunching noise, have thus far failed to
shake its foundations.

Chicago ships a considerable portion of her grain in
the shape of flour, there being extensive flouring mills in
the city. The present annual export of flour is probably
not less than 3,000,000 barrels. Chicagoans have also
found it possible to pack fifteen or twenty bushels of
corn in a single barrel. " The corn crop," remarks Mr.
Ruggles, "is condensed and reduced in bulk by feeding
it into an animal form, more portable. The hog eats
the corn, and Europe eats the hog. Corn thus becomes
incarnate, for what is a hog but fifteen or twenty bushels
of corn on four legs ?" The business of pork-packing

CHICAGO. 173

has attained enormous proportions in Chicago. It has
entirely superseded Cincinnati, the former " Pork-
opolis," in this branch of trade. Cincinnati, Louisville,
St. Louis, Indianapolis and Milwaukee do not together
furnish a total number of head slaughtered equal to
that of Chicago.

The stock yards, just outside the city limits on the
southwest, are the largest in the world. They cover
hundreds of acres, and constitute what has been styled
" The Great Bovine City of the World." This bovine
city is regularly laid out in streets and alleys crossing
each other at right angles. The principal street is
called Broadway, and it is a mile long and seventy-five
feet wide. On either side are the cattle pens, and it is
divided by a light fence into three paths, so that herds
of cattle can pass one another without wrangling, and
leave an unobstructed road for the drovers. These
yards are connected with all the railroads in the west
centering in Chicago. The company have twenty-five
miles of track. A cattle train stops along the street of
pens ; the side of each car is removed, and the living
freight pass over a declining bridge into clean, planked
inclosures, where food and water is quickly furnished
them. A large and comfortable hotel furnishes accom-
modation for their owners ; there is a Cattle Exchange,
a spacious and elegant edifice; a bank solely for the
cattle-men's use ; and a telegraph office, which reports
the price of beef, pork and mutton from all parts of the
world. The present capacity of the yards is 25,000
head of cattle, 100,000 hogs, 22,000 sheep, and 1,200
horses. A town of five thousand inhabitants has grown
up in the immediate vicinity of these stock yards.

In some of the yards not less than five hundred beeves

174 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

are slaughtered daily. Much of this beef is sent in
refrigerator cars to the Atlantic cities, while enormous
quantities are cooked and packed in cans and sent all
over the world.

Suburban towns have spread out from Chicago, in
every direction, over the prairie. South Chicago, one of
the principal of these, is twelve miles to the southward,
at the mouth of the Calumet river, and has a large
amount of capital invested in iron and steel works. The
sloughy morasses which still exist between the parent
city and its thrifty offshoots are fast being filled up,
and bridged over with pavements, so that the mud,
which a generation ago was the chief distinguishing
feature of Chicago and its vicinity, but which is now
confined to outlying sections, will soon be a thing of
the past. Chicago is itself extending rapidly in all
directions, and numberless suburban streets are lined
with pretty cottages, whose rural surroundings have
given to the city its appropriate name of " The Garden
City."

Taking its past as a criterion, who shall dare to
predict the future of Chicago? It has by no means
come to a stand-still, but is to-day increasing its popula-
tion, developing its resources, and extending its
commercial enterprises to a degree that is scarcely
credible, save as one is faced by actual facts and figures.
These miles of streets, filled with the incessant roar of
business; these lofty temples, magnificent warehouses
and elegant residences; these public institutions of
learning; this gigantic commerce, this high degree of
civilization ; all of which have been attained by older
cities after a prolonged struggle with adversity, are here
the creations and accumulations of less than two

CHICAGO. 175

generations. Up the Chicago River, where considerably
less than a century ago the Indian paddled his solitary
canoe, and John Jacob Astor annually sent his single
small schooner to bring provisions to the garrison and
to take away his furs, there swarms a fleet of vessels
of all descriptions, bringing goods from, and sending
them to, every quarter of the world. Where, no later
than 1834, a grand wolf hunt was held, and one bear
and forty wolf scalps were the trophies of the day, the
bears of the Stock Exchange alone rage and howl, and
the only wolves are human ones. Chicago is a great
and a magnificent city, embodying more perfectly than
any other in the world the possibilities of accomplish-
ment of the Anglo-Saxon race, given its best conditions
of freedom, independence and intelligence.

CHAPTER X.

CHEYENNE.

Location of Cheyenne. — Founding of the City. — Lawlessness. —
Vigilance Committee. — Woman Suffrage. — Rapid Increase of
Population and Business. — A Reaction. — Stock Raising. — Irri-
gation. — Mineral Resources. — Present Prospects.

is the half-way house, on the Union
Pacific Railroad, between the civilization of the
East and that of the West. It is situated on Crow
Creek, a branch of the South Platte River; just at th_>
foot of the Rocky Mountains. A few miles away to the
westward the ascent of the Black Hills begins, the road
ascending over the rugged granite hills, and winding in
and out of miles of snow sheds. It is five hundred
and sixteen miles from Omaha, and has an elevation 01
more than six thousand feet above the sea, being one
thousand more than Denver, and with an atmosphere
proportionately rarer and dryer.

The city is a child of the Pacific Railroad, being,
during the building of that road, its winter terminus.
When it was found that Cheyenne was probably to
become an important railroad point, there was a grand
influx of roughs, of all classes and of both sexes, to the
spot. Habitations sprang up as if by magic, and were
of the rudest construction, some of them being mere
dug-outs in the sand hills. Town lots ran up to fabu-
lous prices. The first city government was organized in
August, 1867, and the first newspaper, the Cheyenne
Leader, published on the nineteenth day of the following

176

CHEYENNE. 177

month. On the thirtieth of November, 1867, the track
layers reached the city limits, and were greeted by music
and a grand demonstration on the part of the people.
The first passenger train arrived the next day.

In the winter of 1868 Cheyenne contained not less
than six thousand inhabitants. Lawlessness wras the
order of the day, and gambling, drinking and shooting
were the favorite recreations. Knock-downs and rob-
beries were matters of course, and murders of too frequent
occurrence to cause special excitement. During these
early days of its history the young city acquired two
names, both of which were exceedingly suggestive, not
to say appropriate. Its rapid growth fastened upon it
the name of " Magic City of the Plains ; " the desperate
character of its inhabitants, that of " Hell on Wheels."

When the city was but six months old, the patience
of the order-loving people was tried beyond endurance.
A Vigilance Committee was formed, and justice came
swift and sure, without the intervening and delaying
processes of the law. Its first public demonstration
occurred in the following manner. Three men had
been arrested on January tenth, 1868, charged with
stealing $900, and put under bonds to appear at court.
On the morning of the day after their arrest they were
found on Eddy street, walking abreast and tied together,
with a placard attached to them, bearing the following
inscription, in conspicuous lettering :." $900 stole;
$500 returned ; thieves, F. S. Clair, W. Grier, E. D.
Brownville. City authorities, please not interfere until
10 o'clock A. M. Next case goes up a tree. Beware of
Vigilance Committee." During that year no less than
twelve desperadoes were hung and shot, and five sent to
the penitentiary, through the agency of the Vigilance

12

178 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Committee. The condition of affairs was at once
materially improved.

In 1871 the Territorial Legislature passed a bill
giving universal suffrage, without distinction of sex.
The ladies at once made use of their newly-acquired
political right, with an earnestness and universality
entirely unexpected by those who had conferred
its exercise upon them. In their capacity as grand
jurors, they closed every gambling saloon and
brothel in the city, put restrictions upon the liquor
traffic, brought criminals to justice who had heretofore
defied the law, and, in brief, made a clean sweep of the
city, raising its social and moral standard. Women of
all classes voted, and, strange to say, even the worst
women voted for law and order. Political parties
found it necessary to put up men with a good moral
record, as well as those politically sound, for the women
would not vote for a bad man. All classes recognized
the good results of woman suffrage, and all opposition
to it was speedily overcome.

Cheyenne is now one of the best governed and
most orderly cities in the country; and every Governor
of the Territory, whatever his political complexion,
has given his unqualified testimony in favor of women
at the polls. Women not only deposit their ballots
unmolested, but are treated with the utmost courtesy,
and the polling places are made comfortable, and even
elegant, for their reception. It is no uncommon thing
for husband and wife to vote opposing tickets, but no
divisions or even disturbances in families have resulted,
thus far.

On the first of July, 1867, there was but one
house in Cheyenne, standing on what is now Eddy

CHEYENNE. 179

street, between Sixteenth and Seventeenth streets, built
of logs, smoothly plastered outside and in, and owned
by Judge J. R. Whitehead. Six months thereafter
there were no less than three thousand houses in the
city. The first lots were offered for sale in July, 1867,
at one hundred and fifty dollars. Thirty days after-
ward they sold at one thousand dollars each, and in
two or three months later for two thousand five hundred
and three thousand dollars. Stores were erected with
marvelous rapidity, in its early history, a good-sized
and comparatively substantial warehouse being put up
in forty-eight hours. The business of the first six
months was enormous, single houses making sales of from
ten thousand to thirty thousand dollars per month. In
two months after the Post-Office was established, it
averaged twenty-six hundred letters a day.

As the railroad progressed westward across the
mountains, and finally reached the Pacific, Cheyenne
suffered a reaction from its sudden and wonderful
prosperity. The road took much of its business with it;
and the town fell dead. But the discovery of gold in
the Black Hills gave a fresh impetus to its business
interests. It is also located in the midst of a great stock-
raising region, and is surrounded by ranches of
stock-men engaged in raising cattle, horses and sheep for
market. The cattle and horses find sustenance the year
round in the native grasses, and Cheyenne is the natural
centre and trading post of these ranch-men. Each year
the business increases, and the shipments from the city
become larger. Wool is becoming an important export,
being produced in great quantities on the large sheep
farms.

The railroad has constructed extensive machine and

180 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

repair shops at Cheyenne, which furnish employment
for a large number of workmen. The rickety structures
of its early days are fast giving place to substantial brick
buildings. There is a fine Court House and Jail, a
City Hall, Opera House, and several Public School
buildings. In proportion to its population, Cheyenne
has now more substantial and handsome business houses
than any other western city.

Stock raising is the only agricultural pursuit for
which Wyoming is adapted. The soil about Cheyenne
is barren, and in no way suited for farming purposes.
The rainfall during the year is very slight, and it has
been found necessary to resort to irrigation. Therefore,
ditches run through the streets, supplying water for the
gardens throughout the city, and, by means of this
irrigation, what was once a desert is becoming green
with trees and shrubbery.

The mineral resources of Wyoming are very rich.
Silver and gold are both found in the ranges of hills
and mountains to the north and west. Moss agates,
opals, topaz, garnets, amethysts, onyx and jasper have
all been found in the immediate neighborhood of
Cheyenne, and some of the specimens are exceedingly
beautiful.

The high elevation of the city gives it a delightful
climate. The winters are mild, and the summers free
from excessive heat.

Cheyenne has a special niche in my memory, since,
in making my horseback journey from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, in 1876, it was the last place at which I
dined before entering the Black Hills and falling into
the hands of the treacherous Arrapahoes.

The rapid growth which Cheyenne made at the

CHEYENNE. 181

beginning of her existence, and the feverish activity of
her business enterprises, have given place long since to a
slower but more healthy life and development. Her trade
interests are being placed on a firmer foundation, and
when the resources of the surrounding country are
utilized to the fullest advantage of the city, its pros-
perity will be assured,

CHAPTER XL

DETROIT.

Detroit and Her Avenues of Approach.— Competing Lines. —
London in Canada. — The Strait and the Ferry. — Music on the
Waters. — The Home of the Algonquins. — Teusha-grondie.—
Wa-we-aw-to-nong. — Fort Ponchartrain and the Early French
Settlers. — The Red Cross of St. George. — Conspiracy of Pontiac.
— Battle of Bloody Run. — The Long Siege. — Detroit's First
American Flag. — Old Landmarks. — The Pontiac Tree. — Devas-
tation by Fire. — Site of the Modern City. — New City Hall. —
Public Library. — Mexican Antiquities.

FOUR lines of railway leading westward from
Niagara, place Buffalo and Detroit en rapport
with each other, through their connecting steel rails, and
compete for the patronage of the traveler. In addition
to this, there are not less than two lines by water, thus
affording the tourist — if he develops a desire to tempt
the waves of Old Erie — ample scope for his choice.
The Lake Shore route takes one through a continuous
succession of ever-changing landscapes on the southern
shore of Lake Erie, and skirts the two great States
of Ohio and Pennsylvania before reaching Michi-
gan. It is, perhaps, the preferable route by rail,
looking at it from a purely aesthetic standpoint. The
Great Western Road crosses, at Suspension Bridge, the
famous chasm cut by Niagara, in its recession from
Ontario, and gives a faint conception, as seen in the
distance, of the glorious Falls themselves. The roar
and rush of water — at the rate of twenty-five million

182

DETROIT. 183

tons per minute — is borne down the deeply-cut channel,
and clouds of spray are visible from the car windows.
Below the bridge the swift drifts and eddies can be seen
foaming on their way to the whirlpool, a mile and a half
further down. This route also takes the traveler
through London, Canada, a quaint old English town of
twenty thousand inhabitants, on the Thames River. The
place is brimming over with localities the names of
which, carried in the affections of her settlers across the
ocean, serve as reminders of the old London left forever
behind them on Britannia's Isle. Blackfriar's Bridge
and Westminster Bridge both cross the new Thames,
and Kensington and Covent Garden market belong also
to the transplanted nomenclature. On Saturdays the
great square in the heart of the town is filled with
marketers and hucksters of all descriptions, and every
kind of merchandise, from a feather bed to a table
knife, is there bought and sold. Squaws and Indians
and quaintly dressed women commingle with the crowd
and sell their various wares. The scene is very
picturesque, and wears an atmosphere of being a
hundred years old.

The Grand Trunk Road — the most northerly of the
three routes leading through Canada — has nothing
except its easy-going time to recommend it to favor.
The traveler on this road stands a fair chance of missing
his connecting links in the great railway chain which
interthreads the continent east and west, or of being
delayed for hours at a time by running off the rails.
The Canada Southern is a newly completed road, and is
said to be the most direct and shortest of all the com-
peting lines. This route follows the windings of the
northern shore of Lake Erie, just opposite from the Lake

184 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Shore Road on the southern side, and the shifting land-
scapes are perhaps quite as full of natural beauty.

Detroit, the fair " City of the Strait," spreads itself
along the river front for miles, and the approach from
Windsor, on the opposite shore, is suggestive of the pic-
tured lagoons of Venice, Queen of the Adriatic. The
Detroit River, or strait, is one of the most beautiful water
avenues west of the Hudson. It is from half a mile to
a mile wide, is always of a clear green color, and is never
troubled by sand bars or anything which might affect its
navigation. It has an average depth of twenty-five
feet at the wharves and perhaps forty or fifty feet in the
centre of the river bed. No floods disturb its calm flow
or change the pervading green of its waters. It is, with
reason, the pride of the city, and the ferry boats of the
several lines plying between Detroit and Windsor are
of the most attractive type. In summer a corps of
musicians are engaged for the regular trips, and are con-
sidered as indispensable to the boat's outfit as the captain
or pilot. Their syren strains entice the lounger at the
wharf, and he may ride all day, if he chooses, for the sum
of ten cents. Whole families spend the day on the river,
in this way, taking their dinner in baskets, as they would
go to a picnic. The people of Detroit, perhaps, inherit
the pleasure-loving characteristics of their French ances-
tors, or at least they do not seem to have their minds
exclusively concentrated on the struggle after the al-
mighty dollar..

Detroit, as the principal mart of the Peninsular State
— the nucleus which gradually crystallized into the heart
of Michigan — has an early history of thrilling interest;
the site of the present populous city of a hundred and
twenty thousand souls was long ago, in the shadowy

DETROIT. 186

years of its Indian lore, the home of a dusky tribe of
the Algonquin family — a race which was once as popu-
lous and widespread as the waves of the ocean.

In 1610 the first white man who set foot on these wild
and unexplored shores found it occupied by the clustered
wigwams of a peaceful Indian village named Teusha-
grondie.

11 Beside that broad but gentle tide

» * * * * 4
Whose waters creep along the shore
Ere long to swell Niagara's roar,
Here, quiet, stood an Indian village ;

Unknown its origin or date ;
Algonquin huts and rustic tillage,

Where stands the City of the Strait.

* * * * * *
From dark antiquity it came,
In myths and dreamy ages cast."

Another of its ancient names was " Wa-we-aw-to-
nong," meaning round by, in allusion to its circuitous
way of approach.

"No savage home, however rare,

If told in legend or in song,
Could with that charming spot compare,
The lovely Wa-we-aw-to-nong."

In 1679, the Griffin, under La Salle — the first vessel
that ever sailed these inland seas — anchored off the
group of islands at the entrance to Detroit River. Peace-
ful Indian tribes were scattered along the banks, and the
white man was received with friendly overtures.

In 1701, La Motte Cadillac founded Detroit. He
erected a military fort on the site of the future city,
which he named after his French patron, Pontchartrain.
It was surrounded by a strong stockade of wooden
pickets, with bastions at each angle. A few log huts

186 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

with thatched roofs of straw and grass were built within
the enclosure, and as the number of settlers increased
the stockade was enlarged, until it included about a
hundred houses closely crowded together. The streets
were very narrow, with the exception of a wide carriage
road or boulevard which encircled the town just within
the palisades. The object of the establishment of this
military post was to aid in securing to the French the
large fur trade of the northwest, and it was also a point
from whence the early Jesuit fathers extended their
missionary labors.

The little military colony was the centre of the settle-
ment, and the Canadian dwellings were scattered up and
down the banks above and below the fort for miles.
The river almost washed the foot of the stockade —
Woodbridge street being at that time the margin of the
water — and three large Indian villages were within the
limits of the settlement. Below the fort were the
lodges of the Pottawattomies, on the eastern shore dwelt
the Wyaudots, and higher up Pontiac and the Ottawas
had pitched their wigwams.

Fort Pontchartrain remained in the possession of the
French until 1760, when, by the fall of Quebec, it fell
into the hands of the British, and was surrendered to
Major Robert Rogers on the twelfth of September. The
Red Cross of St. George now supplanted the Fleur-de-
lis of France, and the change to British rule was ill
relished by the surrounding Indian tribes, who had
been the firm friends and allies of the French. The
well known Pontiac conspiracy grew out of this change
of administration, and a general massacre of the whites
was determined upon. Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas,
was the leading spirit of the bloody plot, and so well

DETROIT. 187

laid were his plans that ten out of the thirteen posts
which were simultaneously attacked fell before their
savage onsets. The post at Detroit, at that time under
command of Major Gladwyn, was only saved through
the timely betrayal of Pontiac's plot, by Catherine, a
beautiful Ojibway girl, who dwelt in the village of the
Pottawattomies, and who had become much attached to
Major Gladwyn, of the Fort. The day before the
intended massacre she brought him a pair of moccasins
which she had made for him, and then revealed the
intended surprise of Pontiac. The garrison and occu-
pants of the fort were supported by two small vessels,
the Beaver and the Gladwyn, which lay anchored in
the river.

On the morning of May sixth, 1763, a large flotilla of
birch canoes, filled with warriors lying flat on their faces,
crossed the river above the Fort, landing just beyond
the banks of Bloody Run, or Parent's Creek, as it was
then called. About ten o'clock, sixty chiefs, with
Pontiac at their head, marched to the Fort and
demanded admittance. It was granted, but all prepara-
tion was made on the part of Gladwyn to repel the first
sign of treachery. Every soldier was armed to the
teeth, and the eagle eye of Gladwyn watched every
movement of Pontiac, as that brave made a speech
of mock friendship. When the savages discovered the
failure of their plans, their disappointed rage knew no
bounds, and after passing out of the gates of the Fort,
their mad thirst for blood was only glutted by mas-
sacres of isolated families, and the tomahawk and
scalping knife sealed the doom of many an unhappy
victim who that day crossed the path of Pontiac's
warriors.

188 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

From this hour Detroit was in a state of siege, ancl
for eleven long months the siege continued. Bravely
the little band at the Fort held out until reinforcements
arrived — Captain Dalzell, with a force of three hundred
regulars, coming to their aid. A few days afterwards
— at two o'clock on the morning of July thirty-first —
an attack was made on the Indians, who were stationed
along the banks of Parent's Creek, about a mile and a
half from the Fort. The troops neared the narrow,
wooden bridge which spanned the creek, when sud-
denly, in the gloom of night, the Indian war-whoop
burst on their ears, and a blaze of leaden death followed.
Captain Dalzell rushed to the front across the bridge,
leading his men forward, but their foes were not to be
seen.

Bewildered in the gloom, the English troops were
obliged to fall back to the fort and wait for daylight
before renewing the attack. Hundreds of Indians lay
in ambuscade along the river, whither the soldiers were
obliged to pass on their way to the Fort, and the creek
ran red with their blood. The waters of the little
stream, after this crimson baptism, were re-christened
with the name of Bloody Run. The survivors entered
the Fort next morning with a loss of seventy killed and
forty wounded.

During the war of the Revolution, Detroit was sub-
jected to greater annoyance from Indian tribes than
before, but this was the only way in which the war
affected it. Through the treaty of Greenville, made
by General Wayne with the red men, in August, 1795,
Detroit and all the region of the northwest became the
property of the United States, and in 1796 Captain
Porter, from General Wayne's army, took possession of

DETROIT. 189

the post, and flung to the breeze the first American
banner that ever floated over the soil of the Peninsular
State.

"Pontiac's Gate" was the eastern entrance to the
town, and occupies the site of the old United States
Court House. In 1763, a rude chapel stood on the
north side of St. Ann street — nearly in the middle of
the present Jefferson avenue — while opposite was a
large military garden, in the centre of which stood a
block house, where all the councils with the Indians
were held. These were the only public buildings in
the town.

The "Pontiac Tree," behind which many a soldier
took shelter on the night of the bloody battle at Parent's
Creek, and whose bark is fabled to have been thickly
pierced with bullets, stood as an old landmark for years,
on the site of the ancient field of conflict, and many a
stirring legend is told of it.

On June eleventh, 1805— just five months after
Michigan was organized as a territory — Detroit was
laid in ruins by a wholesale conflagration, which left
only two houses unharmed. An act of Congress was
passed for her relief, and thus, through baptisms of fire
and blood, and through tribulation, has she arisen to her
present proud estate. The stranger landing on these
shores now is struck with the handsome general
appearance of the city — its clean, wide streets, varying
in width from fifty to two hundred feet — its elegant
business blocks and pervading air of enterprise. The
ground on which the city stands rises gradually
from the river to an elevation of thirty or forty feet,
thus affording both a commanding prospect and excellent
drainage. Detroit is an authorized port of entry, and is

190 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

about seven miles distant from Lake St. Clair and eighteen
miles from Lake Erie. Ship and boat building has
been an extensive branch of business here, and in 1859
there were nine steam saw mills located in the city,
sawing forty million feet of lumber annually. There
are also works for smelting copper ore two miles below
the city, or rather within that suburban portion of the
city known as Hamtramck.

Among the first objects of interest which attract the
stranger's attention are the new City Hall and the
Soldiers' Monument. The City Hall, fronting on one
side of the square known as the Campus Martius, is a
structure of which any city in the land might be proud.
It is built of Cleveland sandstone, and faces on four
streets, — being two hundred feet long on Woodward
avenue and Griswold street, with a width of ninety
feet on Fort street and Michigan avenue.

It is built in the style of the Italian renaissance,
with Mansard roof and a tower rising from the centre
of the building, adorned at its four corners with co-
lossal figures fourteen feet high, representing " Justice"
" Industry," " Arts" and " Commerce" Its height
from the ground to the top of the tower is a hundred
and eighty feet, and the three ample stories above the
basement furnish accommodation to the city and county
offices, in addition to the Circuit and Kecorder's Courts.
The walls are frescoed, the floors laid in mosaics of
colored marbles, and the Council Chamber and other
public rooms are furnished with black walnut chairs
and desks, and paneled in oak. With these exceptions,
there is no woodwork about the immense building.
Everything, from basement to dome, is brick and iron
»nd stone. Even the floors are built in delicate arches

DETROIT. 191

of brick and iron, and iron staircases follow the wind-
ings of the tower to its dizzy top. It is reckoned fire-
proof. The exterior is curiously carved, and two large
fountains adorn the inclosing grounds. The estimated
cost of the building is about six hundred thousand
dollars.

From the airy outlook of the City Hall Tower,
Detroit appears like a vast wheel, many of whose streets
diverge like spokes from this common centre, reaching
outward until they touch, or seem to touch, the wooded
rim of the distant horizon. The hub of this immense
wheel is the triangular open space called the Campus
Martius, and the Soldiers' Monument, occupying the
centre of the Campus Martius, is also the centre of
this imaginary hub. Michigan avenue — one of the
long arms of the wheel — loses itself in the western
distance, and is called the Chicago road. Woodward
avenue leads into the interior, toward Pontiac, and
Gratiot avenue goes in the direction of Port Huron.
Fort street, in yet another direction, guides the eye to
Fort Wayne and the steeples of Sandwich, four miles
away. Toward the southern or river side of the city,
the resemblance to the wheel is nearly lost, and one sees
nothing but compact squares of blocks, cut by streets
crossing each other at right angles and running parallel
and perpendicular to the river. Between the Campus
Martius and Grand Circus Park there are half a dozen
or more short streets, which form a group by themselves,
and break in somewhat on the symmetry of the larger
wheel, without destroying it. This point gives the best
view of Detroit to be obtained anywhere about the city.

The Soldiers' Monument is a handsome granite
structure, fifty-five feet in height, the material of which

192 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

was quarried from the granite beds of Westerly, Rhode
Island, and modeled into shape under the superintend-
ing genius of Randolph Rogers, of Rome, Italy. It is
surmounted by a massive allegorical statue, in bronze, of
Michigan, and figures of the soldier and sailor, in the
same material, adorn the four projections of the
monument ; while bronze eagles with spread wings are
perched on smaller pedestals in the intermediate spaces.
Large medallions, also in bronze, with the busts of
Grant, Lincoln, Sherman and Farragut, in low relief,
cover the four sides of the main shaft, and higher up
the following inscription is imprinted against the white
background of granite : —

" ERECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF MICHIGAN
IN HONOR OF THE MARTYRS WHO FELL

AND THE HEROES WHO FOUGHT
IN DEFENCE OF LIBERTY AND UNION."

The bronzes and ornaments were imported from the
celebrated foundry at Munich, Bavaria, and the cost of
the monument — donated exclusively by private sub-
scription— amounted to fifty-eight thousand dollars.
The unveiling of the statue took place April ninth,
1872.

Another feature of the city is the Public Library,
founded in March, 1865, and at present occupying the
old Capitol, until the new and elegant Library building
now in process of construction is completed.

Beginning entirely without funds, ten years ago, it
can now exhibit a muster roll of twenty-five thousand
volumes, and is fairly started on the high road to
fortune. There is a kind of poetic justice in the fact
that its principal source of revenue accrues from county
fines and penalties. Here is a knotty question for the

DETROIT. 193

divinity doctors, for in this case, at least, good is born of
evil. The library is under the control of the Board of
Education, and was given an existence from the State
constitution. Some very rare volumes of Mexican
antiquities have recently been purchased from England
by the School Board and added to the library, at a cost
of four hundred dollars. They contain a pictorial and
hieroglyphic history of the Aztec races occupying
Mexico when Cortes came over from a foreign shore
with his Spanish galleons. The earliest date goes back
to 1324, and the strange figures in the centre of the page
are surrounded by devices indicating cycles of thirteen
years, four of which made a great cycle, or a period of
fifty-two years. The deeds of the Aztec king, Tenuch,
and his successors, are here recorded, and through the
efforts of an English nobleman who devoted his life to
these researches, we have the translation rendered for us.

The city has a scientific association, two years old, and
also a Historical Society, in which her citizens manifest
considerable pride.

Detroit has been called, with reason, one of the most
beautiful cities of the West. Transformed from the
ancient Teushagrondie into the present populous "City
of the Strait," she sits like a happy princess, serene, on
the banks of her broad river, guarding the gates of St.
Clair. Backed by a State whose resources are second to
none in the Union, emerging from an early history of
bloody struggle and battle, rising like the fabled
Phoenix, from the ashes of an apparent ruin, contributing
her best blood and treasure to the war for liberty and
union, she may well be proud of her past record, her
present progress, her advancement toward a high
civilization and her assured position.

CHAPTEE XII.

ERIE.

Decoration Day in Pennsylvania. — Lake Erie. — Natural Advan-
tages of Erie. — Her Harbor, Commerce, and Manufactures. —
Streets and Public Buildings. — Soldiers' Monument. — Erie
Cemetery. — East and West Parks. — Perry's Victory.

I TOOK my fourth ride from Buffalo westward, on
the Lake Shore Road, on the afternoon of May
twenty-ninth, 1875, the day set apart that year by the
patriotic citizens of Pennsylvania, for the decoration of
her soldiers' graves. Passing the State line or boundary
between New York and Pennsylvania, a little beyond
Dunkirk, an unusually large assemblage of citizens and
soldiers, with bouquets and a great profusion of flowers,
at nearly every station, betokened the earnest patriotism
of the old Keystone State. Pennsylvania will never
be behind her sister States in doing honor to the brave
men who gave up their lives while fighting her battles;
and the demonstrations of each Decoration Day are
evidences that she will not soon forget their deeds, or
their claim upon her deepest gratitude.

A beautiful sight opens to the view of the tourist as
he turns his eye toward the broad, blue expanse of the
lake, which may be seen at intervals from the car
windows, from Buffalo to Toledo. The mind is quite
naturally occupied with grand commercial schemes, on
viewing such wonderful facilities for the promotion of
enterprise. We have here, in Lake Erie, the connecting
link in a chain of fresh- water oceans, which stretch from

194

ERIE. 195

the Atlantic, westward, almost to the Rocky Mountains.
Our internal prosperity is largely due to this great chain
of lakes, which secure and facilitate cheap transportation,
and have made possible the great inland cities, the pride
of our Middle States.

Erie is an intermediate point between Buffalo and
Cleveland, and having a most excellent harbor, would
seem destined to take rank among the first cities of
America. But by that inscrutable law which, seemingly
beyond reason, governs and controls the foundation
and growth of cities and towns, natural advantages do
not always seem to count ; and as a large fish swallows
a smaller one, so has Erie been dwarfed by her older
rivals, who, getting an earlier foothold upon the shore
of the lake, have absorbed its trade, and continued to
maintain the advantage they at first secured. An
increase of commerce on Lake Erie will undoubtedly
throw a share to the city of Erie, and thus she may
eventually succeed in occupying the position to which
her harbor and railroads entitle her.

Erie is on the lake, about midway of the brief stretch
of shore which the narrow section of Western Pennsyl-
vania, jutting up between New York and Ohio, secures
to that State. It is her only lake town of any importance,
is a port of entry, and has a population of nearly thirty
thousand inhabitants. The harbor is the largest and
best on Lake Erie. It is about four miles in length,
one mile in width, and in depth varying from nine to
twenty-five feet, thus permitting access to the largest
lake vessels. It is formed by an island four miles in
length, which lies in front of the city, and which, from
its name of Presqne Isle, indicates that within the
memory of man it has been a peninsula. The bay is

196 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

known as Presque Isle Bay. It is protected by a
breakwater, and three lighthouses guard the entrance.
Several large docks, furnished with railroad tracks,
permit the transfer of merchandise to take place
directly between the vessels and the cars. The terminus
of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, and connected
by the Lake Shore Railroad with all important points
in the east and west, the city is fast developing into a
strong commercial centre. A canal connecting with
Beaver River, a tributary of the Ohio, facilitates
commerce in the western section of Pennsylvania, and
furnishes extensive water-power, of which various kinds
of mills avail themselves. These mills and the many
factories and foundries of the city — for Erie is a manu-
facturing town of considerable importance — produce
iron ware, cars, machinery, organs, furniture, brass,
leather, boots and shoes, and send them, by the various
methods of transportation, to markets in the States and
Canada. The great forest and mining regions of
Pennsylvania find, at Erie, an outlet for their lumber,
coal and iron ore ; while the numerous productive farms
which lie in the vicinity of the lake send quantities of
grain to be shipped at this port.

The city is built upon an elevated bluff, commanding
an extensive view of the lake. It is regularly laid out,
with broad streets crossing each other at right angles,
and its general appearance is prosperous and pleasing.
In the centre of the city are the Parks, two finely shaded
inclosures, intersected by State street, and surrounded by
handsome buildings. A Soldiers' Monument stands in
one of them, erected to commemorate the memory of the
brave men who fell in the War of the Rebellion. It is
surmounted by two bronze statues of heroic size. There

ERIE. 197

are also two handsome fountains within the Park inclo-
sure. Near by is the classic structure used as>a Court
House. The Custom House is erected in a substantial
style, near the shores of the lake. A new Opera House
is also one of the features of the city. The Union
Depot is an immense building, nearly five hundred feet
in length, in the Romanesque style, two stories in height
and surmounted by a cupola forty feet high. State
street is the principal business thoroughfare.

The Erie Cemetery, on the south side, is one of the
most beautiful in the country. It is on a bluff overlook-
ing the city and the lake, and comprises seventy -five acres,
in which tree-shaded walks, elegant drives, velvet
turf, running water, masses of shrubbery and brilliant
flowers, together with the plain white headstones and
the elaborate monuments which mark the resting-places
of the dead, are united in a harmonious effect, which is
most satisfactory to the beholder. Erie is very proud
of this cemetery, and spares no pains to perfect it, while
every year adds to its beauty.

East and "West Parks lie, as their names indicate, in
opposite directions within the city, and are beautiful
breathing places where its citizens resort for rest and
recreation. Art has joined with nature in rendering
these places attractive, and their trees, shrubbery, lawns,
walks and drives, and general picturesqueness, combine
to make them very charming spots.

Erie has historical associations which render her of
interest to one who would gather facts concerning his
country. Lake Erie was the scene of a naval engage-
ment between the British and Americans, on September
tenth, 1813, in which the latter were victorious.
Commodore Perry, in command of the American fleet.

198 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

sailed from this port on the memorable day, and when
the engagement was concluded, brought thither his
prizes. Several of his ships sunk in Lawrence Bay,
and in fair weather the hull of the Niagara is still
visible.

The development of Western Pennsylvania is con-
tributing more and more, as the years go by, to
the prosperity of Erie. Her exceptionally fine harbor
is already beginning to be recognized by commerce,
and though the city may never rival Cleveland or
Buffalo, the time may come when Erie will take rank
as only second to them on Lake Erie, in commercial
importance.

CHAPTER XIII.

HARRISBURG.

A Historic Tree.— John Harris' Wild Adventure with the In-
diana.— Harris Park. — History of Harrisburg. — Situation and
Surroundings.— State House.— State Library.— A Historic Flag.
— View from State House Dome.— Capitol Park. — Monument to
Soldiers of Mexican War.— Monument to Soldiers of Late War.
— Public Buildings. — Front Street. — Bridges over the Susque-
hanna.— Mt. Kalmia Cemetery.— Present Advantages and Future
Prospects of Harrisburg.

A CENTURY and a half ago, John Harris, seeking
1\_ traffic with the red men of the Susquehanna,
built a rude hut, dug a well, and thereby began a work
which, taken up by his son, led to the founding of the
Capital City of Pennsylvania, a city destined to take
rank among the first of a great State. The stump of
an old tree, in a beautiful little park which skirts the
Susquehanna, on a line parallel with Front street,
marks the scene of an early adventure of Harris with
the Indians, and tells the stranger of his birth and
death. About 1718 or 1719, Harris, who had settled
at this point on the Susquehanna, as a trader, was
visited by a predatory band of Indians returning from
the " Patowmark," who made an exchange of goods with
him, for rum. Becoming drunken and riotous, he finally
refused them any more liquor, when they seized him
and bound him to a tree, dancing around their captive,
until he thought his last day had come. His negro
servant, however, summoned some friendly Shawnees
from the opposite side of the river, who, after a slight

199

200 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN' CITIES.

struggle with the drunken Indians, -rescued Harris from
his bonds and probably from a death by torture. The
stump referred to is that of the historical tree, which was
a gigantic mulberry, eleven feet seven inches in circum-
ference. Here also is the grave of Harris, which is
surrounded by a strong iron fence, and a young mulberry
tree has been planted, by one of his descendants, to take
the place of the one whose trunk alone stands as a
monument of the past.

During the summer months this romantic spot is the
favorite resort of the boys and girls of the neighborhood,
and whenever the weather is favorable, a large troop of
juveniles may be seen spinning their tops, rolling their
hoops and playing at croquet on the lawn. What a
contrast is here unfolded to the imagination, as we stand
at the grave of the venerable pioneer, and contemplate
the wonderful change that has characterized the progress
of events during the past hundred years. But little
more than a century ago there was a solitary trader
with his family upon the borders of a great river in the
wilderness. His goods were brought on a pack-horse,
and his ferry was a row boat. To-day a thriving,
beautiful city takes the place of the log cabin ; children
sport where once the treacherous Indian sought the life
of the hardy frontiersman ; the river is spanned by
wonderful bridges ; and a hundred railroad trains pass
through its streets in the course of twenty-four hours.

Harrisburg was laid out by John Harris, Jr., the
son of the pioneer, in 1785; it was incorporated as a
borough in 1791; became the State Capital in 1812;
and received a city charter in 1860. Its population in
1880 numbered more than thirty thousand persons.

Harrisburg is most picturesquely situated, on the

HARRISBURG. 201

Susquehanna River, at the eastern gateway of the
Alleghenies. The river is here a mile wide, shallow at
most seasons of the year, but capable of becoming a
turbulent torrent, carrying destruction along its banks.
On the opposite side of the river to the south are the
Conestoga Hills; while to the northward are the bold
and craggy outlines of the Kittatinny or Blue Moun-
tains. But five miles away is the gap in these mountains
through which the Susquehanua forces its way, and the
summits of these sentinels are plainly visible. Although
on the very threshold of the mountainous region of
Pennsylvania, the pastoral beauty of landscape which
characterizes eastern Pennsylvania creeps up to meet
the ruggedness which predominates beyond; and the
two are here blended with most charming results ; the
softness of the one half veiling the ruggedness of the
other; while the picturesqueness of each is heightened
by contrast.

The handsomest and most noticeable building of
Harrisburg is the State House, which is conspicuously
placed on an eminence near the centre of the city. It
is T-shaped, having a front of one hundred and eighty
feet by eighty in depth, and with an extension of one
hundred and five feet by fifty-four feet. It is built of
brick, and is three stories high, including the basement.
A large circular portico, sustained by six Ionic columns,
fronts the main entrance. The building is surmounted
by a dome, reaching an altitude of one hundred and
eight feet. A State Library, with accommodation for
one hundred thousand volumes, and possessing at the
present time thirty thousand volumes, is one of the
features of the Capitol. This library contains a number
of portraits, curiosities and art treasures, prominent

202 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

among which are two small portraits of Columbus and
Americus Vespucius, the work of a celebrated Floren-
tine artist; a picture of the event already narrated in
the life of John Harris; and a reflecting telescope,
purchased by Benjamin Franklin, and through which
was taken the first observation in the western hemis-
phere, of the transit of Venus.

In the Flag Room of the State House, where are
preserved the Pennsylvania State flags used by the
different regimental organizations in the war for the
Union, is a flag captured by the Confederates at Gettys-
burg, and afterwards recaptured in the baggage of Jeffer-
son Davis. We find the following brief account of the
capture of this flag in the " Harrisburg Visitors' Guide/'
prepared by Mr. J. R. Orwig, Assistant State Librarian,
to whom we are indebted for favors in our literary
work. " It was on the evening of the first day; all the
color guard were killed, the- last being Corporal Joseph
Gutelius, of Mifflinburg, Union County. When sur-
rounded, and almost alone, he was commanded to
surrender the flag. His mute reply was to enfold it in
his arms, and he was instantly shot dead through its
silken folds." He lies buried at Gettysburg.

The view from the State House dome is exceptionally
grand. I stood on that eminence one bright morning,
during the early part of my sojourn at Harrisburg, in
the spring of 1877. To eastward is a picturesque,
rolling country, varied by hill and dale, field and wood-
land, with villages or isolated farmhouses nestling here
and there in their midst, the brilliant green tint of the
foreground melting imperceptibly away into the soft
purple haze of the far distance. In front of the city
to the westward lies the broad river, gleaming like a

HARRISBURG. 203

ribbon of silver in the sunlight, dotted with emerald
islands, and winding away to the southeast, between
sloping banks and rocky crags, until it at last loses itself
in the misty horizon. To the northward is distinctly
seen the gap in the mountains through which the river
approaches the city. The bold and abrupt outlines of
the mountains are plainly traced, and the scenery in
this region is exceptionally grand. Immediately sur-
rounding the State House is the city, spread out with its
labyrinth of streets, its factories and furnaces, its stately
public buildings, and its elegant private residences,
presenting a panorama fair to look upon, and evidencing
the prosperity and industry of its people. To obtain a
view from this dome is well worth a visit to Harris-
burg.

The State House is surrounded by Capitol Park,
embracing thirteen acres, and inclosed by an iron fence.
These grounds gently slope from the centre, and are
ornamented with stately trees, beautiful shrubbery and
flowers and closely-shorn greensward. The site was set
apart for its present purpose before Harrisburg was a
city, by John Harris, its public-spirited founder. Fine
views are obtained from it of the suburb of East
Harrisburg and the Reservoir, Mt. Kalmia Cemetery,
the tower of the new State Arsenal, and the dome of the
State Insane Asylum. The prominent feature of this
park, next to the State House, is, however, the beautiful
monument erected to the memory of the soldiers who
fell in the Mexican War. It is one hundred and five
feet high, with a sub-base of granite, a base proper,
with buttresses at each corner surmounted by eaglesr
and a Corinthian column of Maryland marble, sur-
mounted by a statue of Victory, the latter executed at

204 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Rome, of fine Italian marble. The sides of the
are paneled, and contain the names of the different
battles of the Mexican War. The monument is sur-
rounded by an inclosure constructed of muskets used by
the United States soldiers in Mexico. In front of the
monument are a number of guns, trophies of the
Mexican war, and several others presented by Genera]
Lafayette.

Another monument, at the intersection of State and
Second streets, is in its design purely antique, being
founded on the proportions of the pair of obelisks at
the gate of Memphis, and of that which stands in the
Place Vendome at Paris. It contains the following
inscription : "To the Soldiers of Dauphin County, who
gave their lives for the life of the Union, in the war for
the suppression of the Rebellion, 1861-5. Erected by
their fellow-citizens, 1869."

In East Harrisburg, or "Allison's Hill," as it is
called, will be seen Brant's private residence, built in
the style of the Elizabethan period ^ the massive stone
Catholic Convent, and St. Genevieve's Academy. On
State street is Grace M. E. Church, one of the most
costly and beautiful churches in the State. Not far
away is St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral. The State Lunatic
Asylum is a vast and imposing edifice, a mile and a half
north of the city.

Front street, which overlooks the river, is the favorite
promenade of the city. Here may be seen the broad
river, with its craft and numerous islands, the villages on
the opposite shore, and the delightful landscape beyond.
Here the citizens often congregate on fine evenings, to
watch the sunset views, which are especially fine from
this point. On the ridge opposite, is Fort Washington

HARRISBURG. 205

and the line of defenses erected in 1863, in expectation
of an invasion of the Southern army. Front street is
by far the finest street in the city, containing the most
imposing residences, being bordered by trees, and
forming a most attractive drive. From State street to
Paxton, it presents an almost unbroken range of
palatial buildings of brick, stone, marble or granite.
On this street is found the residence of the Governor,
presented to the State by the citizens of Harrisburg, in
1864, as the Executive Mansion. A more desirable
location for a residence can scarcely be imagined than
that of Hon. J. D. Cameron, on the southeast corner
of State and Front streets, overlooking the Susque-
hanna. Near the corner of Front street and Washing-
ton avenue is the old " Harris Mansion," originally
erected in 1766, by John Harris, and remaining in the
Harris family until 1840, but now the home of Hon.
Simon Cameron.

The Market street bridge spans the river, resting
midway on Forster's Island, the western end being an
ancient structure, dating back to 1812, while the eastern
end, having once been destroyed by flood, and once by
fire, was rebuilt in modern style in 1866. The second
bridge across the river is at the head of Mulberry
street, but it is used for trains alone. This bridge is
also divided by Forster's Island. It has once been
destroyed by fire, and was entirely remodeled in 1856.

Mt. Kalmia Cemetery is a charming resting-place of
the dead, on the heights overlooking the city. Its
natural beauties are many, and they have been
enhanced by art. It is reached from East State street.

Harrisburg has extensive iron manufactories, and is
the centre of six important railways. More than one

206 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

hundred passenger trains arrive and depart daily, and
ie\v cities have a greater number of transient visitors.
It is one of the most prosperous cities of the Common-
wealth; situated in a fertile valley, in view of some of
the grandest scenery in America, with railroads, canals
and macadamized roads, diverging in all directions,
and connecting it with every section of the country;
with important business interests, and an intelligent,
industrious and prosperous population; the political
centre of one of the chief States of the Union ; it has
much to congratulate itself upon in the present, and
more to hope for from the future. Another decade will
see vastly increased business interests, and a population
nearly if not quite double that of to-day.

CHAPTER XIV.

HARTFORD.

The City of Publishers. — Its Geographical Location. — The
State House. —Mark Twain and the "None Such."— The
"Heathen Chinee."— Wadsworth Atheneum.— Charter Oak.—
George H. Clark's Poem. — Putnam's Hotel. — Asylum for Deaf
Mutes. — The Sign Language. — A Fragment of Witchcraftism. —
Hartford Courant. — The Connecticut River.

HAYING decided to pitch our tents in Hartford,
we moved from New Haven by rail, on the
afternoon of September eighth, 1874. A hot, dusty day it
was, indeed, with mercury at ninety-two in the shade,
and dust enough to enable passengers of the rollicking
order to inscribe monograms on the backs of their
unsuspecting neighbors.

The distance, according to recent time tables, is one
dollar, or an hour and fifteen minutes. The scenery
encountered on this route is less varied than that from
New York to New Haven, and yet there is much to
interest the careful observer. The only town of any
importance between these rival cities is Meriden, an
enterprising city of twenty thousand souls, standing
midway between them.

Hartford, the capital of nutmegdom, is the second city
of Connecticut, having, as shown by the last census, a
population of thirty- seven thousand. Pleasantly situ-
ated on the Connecticut River, and enjoying now the
advantage of exclusive legislation for the State, Hartford
is destined to become one of the most important cities of
New England.

207

208 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Authors, artists and publishers have ever found
Hartford a fruitful field for the development of brains
and enterprise. It is, perhaps, not exaggeration to say
that in no other city of the United States of the same size
is there so large a proportion of the population devoted
to literature. The American and Hartford Publishing
Companies, the firms of Burr, Scranton, Worthington,
Dustin, Oilman and Company, and many others of less
note, are located here.

The new State House, now in process of erection, is
destined to be one of the finest buildings in the country.
The site commands a view of the city and its surround-
ings for many miles. Among the objects of interest to
be found here are the residence of " Mark Twain" and
the State Insane Asylum. "Mark's" house is at the
end of Farmington avenue, on a little eminence, at the
foot of which flows a nameless stream.

Its style of construction is so unlike the average
house that it has won for itself the characteristic title
of " The None Such."

It is still iu the hands of the architect, and will prob-
ably not be ready for occupancy before November. If
this building is not. regarded as a marvel, then I will
confess that, after nearly twenty years of travel, I have
yet to learn the meaning of that term as applied to
architecture. The plat of ground on which the house
and adjacent buildings stand was selected and purchased
by Mrs. " Twain" — so said the gentlemanly architect
who replied to our inquiries. As the genial " Mark "
desires the maximum quantity of light, his apartments
are so arranged as to give him the sun all day. The
bricks of the outer walls of the house are painted in three
colors, making the general effect decidedly fantastic.

HARTFORD. 209

Taking it all in all, I have nowhere seen a more
curious study in architecture, and hope, for the satisfac-
tion of its eccentric owner, that it will quite meet his
expectations.

The Celestials, or representatives from China, are now
so often seen, from California eastward to New England,
that they have ceased to be considered objects of special
interest in any part of the United States. I have met
them more or less in my journey ings during the last two
years, and have often wondered if others see their strange
characteristics from the same standpoint that I do. To
me, Ah Sin is ingenious, enterprising, economical, and
the essence of quiet good humor.

Opposite my quarters here in Hartford are two of
these odd-looking Chinamen, whom I will, for conve-
nience, name Ching Wing Shing and Chang Boomerang.

My rooms being directly opposite the store of Boome-
rang and Company, an excellent opportunity is afforded
me for witnessing their varied devices to invite trade and
entertain their customers. Although only tea and coffee
are advertised, Chang's store will be found, on close in-
spection, to strongly resemble the " Old Curiosity Shop,"
described by Dickens, there being a small assortment oi
everything in their line, from tea and coffee to water-
melons.

Chang and Ching invariably wear a smile upon
their " childlike and bland " features. School children
passing that way seem to take pleasure in teasing
these mild-mannered China merchants, and unfortunate
indeed is the firm of Boomerang and Company, if their
backs are turned on their youthful tormenters; for these
mischievous urchins seem to think it no crime to pilfer
anything owned or presided over by their pig-tailed

210 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

neighbors. Should Chang or Ching discover then
sportive enemies gliding away with the tempting fruits
of their stands, it is useless to pursue, for a troop of
juvenile confederates will rush into the store the moment
it is vacated and help themselves to whatever may
please their fancy.

THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM.

While taking a stroll down Main street the other day
my attention was arrested by a three-story brownstone
building, standing on the east side and back some
distance from the street. I had only to glance at the
large, bold lettering across its front to be told that it
was the Wadsworth Atheneum. Deciding to take a
look at the interior of this receptacle of antiquities, I
soon made the acquaintance of "W. J. Fletcher, the
gentlemanly assistant librarian of the Watkins Library,
who seemed to take an especial pleasure in showing
me everything of interest, and who spared no pains in
explaining everything about which I had a question
to ask.

There were so many curiosities of ancient as well as
modern pattern, that it would be impossible to notice all
in a work of this magnitude, and hence I shall content
myself with presenting a few subjects which, to me at
least, were of striking interest. Stepping into the
Historical Rooms my attention was first called to the
stump of the famous Charter Oak, which will ever form
an interesting chapter in Connecticut history. A very
comfortable seat or arm-chair has been moulded from
this aged relic, and while sitting within its venerable
arms, I copied the following poem by George H.
Clark, the manuscript, of which is framed and hung

HARTFORD. 211

up over the chair. I cannot endorse the sentiment of
the poet, but will record his lines.

September 10th, 1858.

DEAR SIR : — You seem to take so much interest in my
lines on the destruction of the old oak, that I have thought
you might be pleased with a copy in the author's
handwritingj and accordingly inclose one. Yours,

GEO. H. CLARK.
THE OAK.

1. "Yes — blot the last sad vestige oat —

Burn all the useless wood ; .

Root up the stump, that none may know

Where the dead monarch stood.
Let traffic's inauspicious din

Here run its daily round,
And break the solemn memories

Of this once holy ground.

2. "Your fathers, long the hallowed spot

Have kept with jealous care,
That worshippers from many lands

Might pay their homage there ;
You spurn the loved memento now,

Forget the tyrant's yoke,
And lend Oblivion aid to gorge

Our cherished Charter Oak.

Z. " 'Tis well, when all our household gods

For paltry gain are sold,
That e'en their altars should be razed

And sacrificed for gold.
Then tear the strong, tenacious roots,

With vandal hands, away,
And pour within that sacred crypt

The garish light of day.

4. "Let crowds unconscious tread the soil

By Wordsworth sanctified,
Let Mammon bring, to crown the hill,
Its retinue of pride,

212 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Destroy the patriot pilgrim's shrine,

His idols overthrow,
Till o'er the ruin grimly stalks

The ghost of long ago.

6. "So may the muse of coming time

Indignant speak of them
Who Freedom's brightest jewel rent

From her proud diadem, —
And lash with her contemptuous scorn

The man who gave the stroke
That desecrates the place where stood

The brave old Charter Oak."

It appears to me that no more sensible thing could
have been done after the tree fell to the ground, August
twenty-first, 1859, than to preserve it here, where it will
outlive, by centuries, its rapid decay in an open field,
exposed to sun and storm. Thousands may now see the
famous oak that otherwise might never know its location
or history. It stood on the grounds formerly owned by
Samuel Wordsworth, near Charter Oak Avenue, and its
top having been blown down and broken during a
violent storm, it was afterwards dug up and taken to the
Historical Rooms of the Wads worth Atheneum.

After occupying two hours in looking through the
Historical Department, we came to a corner of the room
devoted to an exhibition of the relics identified with the
history of General Israel Putnam, the Revolutionary
patriot, who was commander-in-chief of the American
forces engaged at the battle of Bunker Hill.

Connecticut takes a lively interest in anything that
pertains to her favorite hero, and we were engaged not
less than half an hour in an examination of the various
articles impersonating "Old Put." Most Americans
are familiar with the story of his early life and adven-

HARTFORD. 213

tures, but I think few are aware of the fact that at one
time he was a country landlord. Here at the Atheneum
they have the very sign-board that attracted the traveler
to " Putnam's Hotel/' A life-size portrait of the
gallant General Wolfe, who was slain while leading his
army against Quebec, is painted on the board, which is
three feet long by two and a half wide. Imagine now,
the hero of a hundred battles and adventures, perform-
ing the duties of "mine host" — at once hostler, bar-
tender and perhaps table girl in the dining room.

The character of the man who had the ability to rise
from the position of an humble farmer and inn-keeper
to that of Senior Major-General of the United States
armies, is an index to the character of the American
people. Often on the battle-field were the titled nobility
of Great Britain compelled to fly before the crushing
blows of this sturdy yeoman, who, leaving his plow in the
furrow, rushed to the field of danger and glory. Cast-
ing aside the habiliments of the farmer, he buckled on
his armor and dared to lead where the bravest dared to
follow. Israel Putman

" Sleeps the sleep that knows not breaking,"
but his glorious deeds will never be forgotten while the
blessings of liberty are appreciated by the descendants
of that galaxy of devoted patriots who rallied around
the standard of George Washington.

The Deaf and Dumb Institute, situated on Asylum
Hill, is the oldest institution of the kind in the United
States, having been established in 1817, by Rev. F. H.
Gallaudet, a noble and generous philanthropist, who
devoted his life and fortune to the elevation and enlighten-
ment of the afflicted. A monument recently erected to
his memory, in front of the Institute, attests the regard

214 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

in which he is still held by those who revere him as
their benefactor.

It was my pleasure, while in Hartford, to attend a
lecture in the sign language, by Professor D. E. Bartlett,
who is reputed to be the oldest teacher living, and who
commenced work at this institute forty years ago. I
shall never forget my emotions as I eagerly watched
sign and gesture, and at the same time noted its effect
upon the features of each face in his attentive audience.
What a noble mission, to thus lead these children of
silence from the prison darkness of ignorance into the
beautiful light of knowledge ? May those who devote
their lives to such a cause reap the rich reward which
their benevolence deserves !

In 1652 Hartford had the honor of executing the first
witch ever heard of in America. Her name was Mrs.
Greensmith. She was accused in the indictment of
practicing evil things on the body of Ann Cole, which
did not appear to be true ; but a certain Rev. Mr. Stone
and other ministers swore that Greensmith had con-
fessed to them that the devil possessed her, and the
righteous court hung her on their indictment.

What would that court have done with the spiritual
manifestations rife in these parts to-day? It is a
bitter sarcasm on our Plymouth Rock progenitors that,
having fled from the old country on account of religious
persecution, they should inaugurate their freedom to
worship God on the shores of the new world by hang-
ing witches !

The leading paper of the city is the Hartford Courant,
which is ably edited by General Joseph R. Hawley, and
is a powerful political organ throughout New England.
General Hawley distinguished himself during the late

HARTFORD. 215

war as a brave officer, entering the army as captain and
rising to the rank of brigadier general. The Courant,
like its soldier-editor, may always be found fighting in
the van.

The Connecticut Kiver at Hartford is about a quarter
of a mile wide, and sweeps onward in a swift current,
through sinuous banks, until it mingles with the waters
of the Sound at Saybrook. The valley through which
this river seeks a passage to the sea is one of the
loveliest to be found anywhere, and gazing down upon
it from the surrounding heights, as it lies veiled in blue
distance, is like looking upon a dream of Arcadia.

CHAPTER XV.

LANCASTER.

First Visit to Lancaster. — Eastern Pennsylvania. — Conestoga
Kiver.— Early History of Lancaster.— Early Dutch Settlers.—
Manufactures. — Public Buildings. — Whit-Monday. — Home of
three Noted Persons.— James Buchanan, his Life and Death.—
Thaddeus Stevens and his Burial Place. — General Reynolds
and his Death.—4' Cemetery City."

MY first visit to Lancaster was made on a bright
morning in the early part of April, 1877. We
rode out of the West Philadelphia Depot in the eight
o'clock accommodation, which we were told would make
sixty-five stops in a short journey of seventy-three miles.
I did not count the stations, but should have no
hesitancy in fully indorsing my informant. The
frequency of the halts gave us an excellent opportunity
to explore the surrounding country, and reminded one
of street-car experiences in metropolitan cities, where
one is brought to a stand at every crossing. Eastern
Pennsylvania is beyond question the finest section of the
State ; and the tourist who sojourns at Bryn Mawr,
Downingtown, Bird-in-Hand, and many of their sister
villages, will see abundant evidences of the wealth
and prosperity of an industrious people. The country
is sufficiently rolling to be picturesque, without any of
the ruggedness which characterizes the central and
western portions of the State. Sometimes from the car
windows the roofs and spires of several villages may be
seen in different directions, while substantial farm-
houses with their commodious out-buildings, are on

216

LANCASTER. 217

every hand. The land is brought to a high state of
cultivation, and the entire region seems almost like
an extensive park.

Lancaster, the county-seat of Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, is situated on the Conestoga River,
seventy-three miles from Philadelphia. This river,
which is a tributary of the Susquehanna, is made navi-
gable by nine locks and slack- water pools, from Lancaster-
to its mouth at Safe Harbor, eighteen miles distant.
Considerable trade is brought to the city by its means ;
while Tidewater Canal- opens up navigable communica-
tion to Baltimore, by way of Port Deposit. Lancaster
was, from 1799 to 1812, the seat of the State
government; it was incorporated in 1818, and was at
one time the principal inland town of Pennsylvania.
The oldest turnpike in the United States terminates at
Lancaster, connecting that city with Philadelphia. It
has now something more than twenty-five thousand
inhabitants, largely descended from the early Dutch
settlers, whose names are still borne, and whose language,
corrupted into " Pennsylvania Dutch," is still a most
familiar one in that region.

The city is principally a manufacturing one, producing
locomotives, axes, carriages and cotton goods, and being
particularly celebrated for its rifles. It has many fine
buildings, both public and private. The Court House
and County Prison will both attract attention, the
former being in the Corinthian and the latter in the
Norman style of architecture. Fulton Hall, near the
Market-place, is a large edifice used for public
assemblies. Franklin and Marshall College, organized
in 1853 by the union of Marshall College with the old
Franklin College, founded in 1787, is found on James

218 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

street, and possesses a library of thirteen thousand
volumes. It has a large number of both daily and
weekly newspapers, and not less than fifteen churches.

Whit-Monday is by far the greatest social holiday
with the Germans of Lancaster city and county, and,
as such, is the scene of general festivities among the
city folk and a large influx of country visitors. On
the return of this day in Lancaster, the venders of beer,
peanuts, colored lemonade and pop-corn are stationed
at every corner, and are unusually clamorous and busy.
The pic-nics, shows and flying horses are well patron-
ized ; but I am told that the scene in the public square
is not so animated as in former days, when soap venders
and the razor strop man monopolized the attention of
the rustic lads and lasses. Public ceremonies have no
apparent place in the observance of this anniversary.

Lancaster is noted for having been the residence of
three persons who have played an important part in
the affairs of the nation : James Buchanan, our fifteenth
President; Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, the champion of
the slave; and General Reynolds, the gallant soldier,
who fell at Gettysburg. These all sleep their last sleep
within the city limits. James Buchanan, though born
in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, made his home at
Lancaster during all the years of his statesmanship,
finding at Wheatland, his country residence, in the
vicinity of the city, relaxation from the cares of public
life. Born in 1791, in 1814 he was elected a member
of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. In
1820 he was elected Congressman, holding that position
until 1831, when he was appointed ambassador to
Russia. In 1834 he was made Senator; in 1845
Secretary of State under President Polk, and Ambas-

LANCASTER.

sador to England in 1854. In 1856 he was elected
President of the United States, the close of his admin-
istration being signalized by the secession of South
Carolina, and the incipient steps of the Rebellion. He
died at his home at Wheatland, in Lancaster, on June
first, 1868.

The remains of Thaddeus Stevens, for so many years
one of the most fearless champions of the anti-slavery
cause in Congress, lie buried in "Schreiner's Cemetery,"
in a quiet and retired corner at the side furthest from
its entrance on West Chestnut street. An exceedingly
plain stone, with a simple but expressive inscription,
tells the stranger the date of his birth and death, and
the reasons which led him to request that his remains
should be laid in this, the most unpretentious cemetery
I have ever seen within the limits of any city. The
word Stevens is clearly cut in large letters on the west
end of the stone. On the opposite end I noticed a
gilt star. On the north side is the following inscrip-
tion : —

"THADDEUS STEVENS,
BORN AT DANVILLE, CALEDONIA Co., VERMONT,

APRIL 4TH, 1792.

DIED AT WASHINGTON, D. C.,

AUGUST HTH, 1868."

On the south side of the monument are found these

" I repose in this quiet and secluded spot,
Not from any natural preference for solitude,
But finding other cemeteries limited as to race,
By charter rules,

I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death
The principles which I advocated through a long lifs :
Equality of man before his Creator."

220 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

General Reynolds was among the first to fall at the
battle of Gettysburg. On the evening of June thirtieth,
1863, while commanding the First, Third and Eleventh
Corps of the Army of the Potomac, he encamped near
the village of Emmetsburg, Maryland. He was or-
dered by General Meade to move early in the morning,
with his First and Third Corps, in the direction of
Gettysburg. The Third Cavalry Division, under Gen-
eral John Buford, was attacked on Wednesday morning,
on the Charnbersburg pike, about two miles west of the
village, by the vanguard of the Rebel army, which,
however, were driven back upon their reserves, but
advanced again and, with greatly augmented numbers,
drove the Union troops before them. General Wads-
worth, hearing the sound of the conflict, came up with
his men and seized the range of hills in the direction of
Chambersburg, overlooking the battle ground from the
northwest. While Wadsworth was getting into posi-
tion, Reynolds rode forward, unattended, to gain an idea
of the position and numbers of the enemy. He discov-
ered a heavy force not far distant, in a grove, and, while
reconnoitring through his field-glass, one of the enemy's
sharpshooters took aim at him, with fatal effect. He
fell to the ground, never to rise again. He was a
brave and dauntless soldier, who had already won such
distinction on the battlefield that few were entrusted
with as heavy responsibilities as he. Had his life been
prolonged, no doubt he would have been promoted still
higher, and his name might have been written among
those of the successful generals of the war0 His ashes
repose at Lancaster, where due honor is done them.

Lancaster might not inappropriately be called the
Cemetery City, for every principal street seems to lead

LANCASTER.

221

to a cemetery. Here, in these cities of the dead, lie
those who have passed away for many generations back.
Numerous venerable stones record, in Dutch, the names
and virtues of Herrs and Fraus who lived and died in
the last century, while more modern tombstones and
monuments are erected over the later dead. Few
places are more interesting to one who would study a
people and their history, than an old graveyard ; and
few cities furnish the visitor more numerous or better
opportunities than Lancaster.

CHAPTEE XVI.

MILWAUKEE.

Rapid Development of the Northwest.— The " West" Forty Years
Ago. — Milwaukee and its Commerce and Manufactures.— Grain
Elevators. — Harbor. — Divisions of the City. — Public Buildings.
— Northwestern National Asylum for Disabled Soldiers. — Ger-
man Population. — Influence and Results of German Immigra-
tion.— Bank Riot in 1862. — Ancient Tumuli. — Mound Builders.
— Mounds Near Milwaukee. — Significance of Same. — Early
Traders. — Foundation of the City in 1835. — Excelling Chicago
in 1870. — Population and Commerce in 1880.

THERE is no more astonishing fact connected
with the history of our country than the rapid
settlement of the Northwest, the development of its vast
agricultural and mineral resources, and the almost
magical growth of towns and cities along the margins of
its lakes and rivers. A person who has not passed
middle age can remember when the " West" indicated
Indiana and Illinois, which were reached by the
emigrant after many days of weary travel in his own rude-
covered wagon, and before starting on his journey to which
he bade kindred and friends a solemn adieu, scarcely
hoping to meet them again in this world. Then the
present great trade centres of the west were mere villages,
with ambitious aspirations, it is true, but contending for a
successful future against fearful odds. A man who has
reached threescore and ten can remember when most
of these towns and cities had no existence save as Indian
trading posts, and when most of the country west of the
Mississippi was as yet unexplored and regarded either as

222

MILWAUKEE. 223

a desert waste or a howling wilderness. Only the brave
Jesuit missionaries had at that period dared the perils of
something even more dangerous than a frontier life, and
established missions throughout the Northwest, on the
sites of what are to-day thriving towns.

But the genius and daring of the Anglo-Saxon race
have changed all this. Civilization has impressed itself
so deeply on our Northwestern territory, that were it, by
any unfortunate contingency, destroyed or removed to-
day, it would take longer time to obliterate its footprints
than it has required to make them. '

Among the cities of the West remarkable for rapid
growth, Milwaukee, on the western bank of Lake
Michigan, is especially prominent. First settled in
1835, and not chartered as a city until 1846, she has
made such rapid strides in both population and com-
merce, that in 1880 her inhabitants numbered 115,578,
and in 1870 she claimed the rank of the fourth city in
the Union in marine commerce, a rank which she has
since lost, not by any backward steps on her own
part, but because of the sudden and astonishing develop^
ment of other cities.

A rival of Chicago, Milwaukee shares with that citj
the commerce of the lakes, and is connected by steam,
boats with many points on the opposite side of Lak^
Michigan and with more distant ports. She is the lak%
terminus of a large number of railroads which drain an
agricultural region of great extent and fertility; while
her nearness to the copper mines of Lake Superior and
the inexhaustible iron mines distant but from forty to
fifty miles to the northward, contribute to make her a
manufacturing centre. A single establishment for the
manufacture of railroad iron was established, at a cost of

224 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

a million of dollars. She has other iron works, and manu
factures machinery, agricultural implements, car wheels
and steam boilers, large quantities of tobacco and cigars ;
furnishes the Northwest with furniture, and has extensive
pork packing establishments, while the products of her
flouring mills and lager beer breweries find markets in
every quarter of the United States, and have a reputation
all their own. The rolling mill of the North Chicago
Rolling Mill Company is one of the most extensive in
the West.

As a grain depot, Milwaukee takes high rank.
There are six immense elevators within the limits of the
city, with a united capacity of 3,450,000 bushels ; the
largest one, the grain elevator of the Milwaukee and St.
Paul Railroad, being one of the largest on the continent,
and having a storage capacity of 1,500,000 bushels.
The flour mills of E. Sanderson & Company have a
daily capacity of one thousand barrels of flour.

The harbor of Milwaukee is the best on the south or
west shore of Lake Michigan. It is formed by the mouth
of the Milwaukee River, and the largest lake boat can
ascend it for two miles, to the heart of the city, at which
point the Menomonee River unites with the Milwaukee.
The course of the Milwaukee River is nearly due south,
while that of the Menomonee is nearly due west ; and
by these two rivers and their united stream after their
junction, the city is divided into three very nearly equal
districts, which are severally known as the East, being
that portion of the city between the Milwaukee River and
Lake Michigan; the West, that portion included between
the two rivers ; and the South, or the territory south of
them both. The city embraces an area of seventeen
square miles, and is laid out with the regularity char-

MILWAUKEE 225

acteristic of western cities. The business quarter lies in
a sort of hollow in the neighborhood of the two rivers,
whose shores are lined with wharves. The East and
West portions of the city are chiefly occupied by resi-
dences, the former being upon a high bluff, overlooking
the lake, and the latter upon a still higher bluff west of
the river.

Milwaukee is known as the "Cream City of the
Lakes/7 this name being derived from the cream-colored
brick of which many of the buildings are constructed.
It gives to the streets a peculiarly light and cheerful
aspect. The whole architectural appearance of the city
is one of primness rather than of grandeur, which might
not inappropriately suggest for it the name of the
" Quaker City of the West." The residence streets are
shaded by avenues of trees, which add to the cjieerful
beauty of the town. The principal hotels and retail
stores are found upon East Water street, Wisconsin
street and Second avenue, which are all three wide and
handsome thoroughfares. The United States Custom
House stands on the corner of Wisconsin and Milwaukee
streets, and is the finest public building in the city. It
is of Athens stone, and contains the Post Office and
United States Courts. The County Court House is also
a striking edifice. The Opera House, used for theatrical
purposes, is worthy of mention ; while the Academy of
Music, which was erected in 1864, by the German
Musical Society, at a cost of $65,000, has an elegant
auditorium, seating two thousand three hundred persons.
The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. John, and the new
Baptist Church, are fine church edifices, but the finest
which the city contains is the Immamial Presbyterian
Church. A Free Public Library possesses a collection of
it

226 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

fourteen thousand volumes, and a well-supplied reading
room. Several banking houses have imposing buildings.
The most prominent among the educational institutions
of the city is the Milwaukee Female College, which was
finished in 1873. There are three Orphan Asylums, a
Home for the Friendless, and two Hospitals. One of the
chief points of interest to the visitor is the Northwestern
National Asylum for disabled soldiers, which furnishes
excellent accommodation for from seven hundred to
eight hundred inmates. It is an immense brick edifice,
located three miles from the city, in the midst of grounds
four hundred and twenty-five acres in extent, more than
half of which is under cultivation, and the remainder
kid out as a park. The institution has a reading room,
and a library of two thousand five hundred volumes, for
the use and benefit of its patriot guests.

No one who visits Milwaukee can fail to be struck
with the semi-foreign appearance of the city. Breweries
are multiplied throughout its streets, lager beer saloons
abound, beer gardens, with their flowers and music and
cleanly arbor-shaded tables, attract the tired and thirsty
in various quarters. German music halls, gasthausen,
and restaurants are found everywhere, and German
signs are manifest over many doors. One hears German
spoken upon the streets quite as often as English, and
Teuton influence upon the political and social life of the
city is everywhere seen and felt. Germans constitute
nearly one-half the entire population of Milwaukee,
and have impressed their character upon the people and
the city itself in other ways than socially. Steady-going
plodders, with their love for music and flowers, they have
yet no keen taste for display, and every time choose tne
substantial rather than the ornamental. Milwaukee is a

MILWAUKEE. 227

sort of rendezvous for the Scandinavian emigrants, who
are pouring in like a mighty tide to fill up the States of
Wisconsin and Minnesota. Danes and Swedes, and
especially Norwegians, stop here, and it may be, linger
for a longer or shorter period, before they strike out
into the, to them, unknown country which is to be their
future home. Domestic service is largely supplied by
the Norwegians, who prove themselves honest, indus-
trious and capable.

This mighty influx of the Germanic and Scandinavian
races into our Northwest is certain to produce a perma-
nent impression upon the social condition of those States.
Yet our system of government is adapted to the successful
\nanagement of such immigration. It cannot, perhaps,
do so much with the immigrants themselves. Many of
them intelligent, but more of them ignorant and stupid,
they remain foreign in their habits and ideas to the end
of their lives. But it makes citizens of their sons,
trains them up with an understanding of democratic
institutions, gives them an education, for the most part,
forces them to acquire our language, and instead of
making them a separate class, recognizes them as an
undivided part of the whole population. In brief, it
Americanizes them, and though habits and traits of
character and race still cling to them in some degree,
their original nationality is soon lost in the great
cosmopolitan tide of civilized humanity which swells
and surges around them. Different races intermarry
and blend, and form a composite of personnel and
character which is fast becoming individualized and
recognized as the type of the true American. After a
few generations but little remains save the patronymic

228 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

to remind the descendants of these immigrants of theii
original descent.

Wherever the German race has settled it has taken
substantial prosperity with it. The members of that
race have proved themselves honest, industrious, and
preeminently loyal. To the " Dutch " St. Louis owed
her own modified loyalty during the late civil war.
The German element of Cincinnati also turned the
tide of popular sentiment in favor of the North, and
secured for that city, during war times, an immunity
from disturbance, and a prosperity unexampled during
her previous history. They bring with them not only
thrift, but an appreciation for the refining arts which is
not found in any other class of immigrants. The Ger-
man quarter of a city may nearly always be discovered
by the abundance of flowers in windows and balconies,
and growing thriftily in secluded courts. The German
better appreciates his beer when sipped in the midst of
natural beauties, and to the sound of music. To this
music-loving characteristic of her German population
Milwaukee owes her finest music hall, the Academy of
Music already described. They are not quick of thought,
but even their stolidity, when it is offset and modified by
the almost supernatural sharpness and quickness of wit
of other nationalities which also look to America as
a refuge from oppression, produces a useful counter-
balance, and the offspring- of the two will be apt to
possess stability of character with intellectual alertness.
The Germans have their faults, undoubtedly, but they
are less obnoxious than those of some other classes of
immigrants, and when modified often become virtues.

Milwaukee, since her existence as a city, has had a

MILWAUKEE. 229

comparatively uneventful history. She has not been
ravaged by flood, like Cincinnati, nor by fire, like
Chicago, nor by pestilence, like Memphis, nor by famine,
like many cities in the old world. She has moved on
in the even tenor of her way, increasing her commerce
and adding to her industries, perfecting her school
system and enlarging her own domain. The only
disturbance which is recorded against her in the chron-
icles of her existence, occurred in June, 1862, when
there was a riot, in consequence of the rejection, by the
bankers of Milwaukee, of the notes of most of the banks
of the State. The banks of Wisconsin being governed,
at that time, by a free banking law, modeled, in a great
measure, after that of New York, had purchased largely
the bonds of different Southern States, and deposited
them with the State Comptroller as a security for their
issues, the bonds of said States usually being lower than
those of the Northern States. When the Southern
States withdrew from the Union there was, in conse-
quence, a rapid reduction of the value of these securities,
and an equally rapid depreciation of the value of the
bank notes based upon them. Their issues were finally
curtailed, occasioning severe loss and great bitterness of
feeling on the part of those who held them. The riot
consequent on this state of affairs resulted in a consider-
able destruction of property, though no lives were lost.
It was finally quelled by the State authorities.

Of the original inhabitants of Wisconsin, we have no
knowledge whatever. The only traces they have left of
their existence are numerous ancient mounds or tumuli,
which are scattered at various points all over the State.
Their antiquity is attested by the fact that trees of four
hundred years' growth are found standing upon them.

230 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Discoveries in the Lake Superior copper regions, of
mines which had once been worked, over which trees of
a like age were growing, seem to indicate that the
same people raised the mounds and worked the mines.
In all probability their antiquity extends further back-
ward than this. The Indians, improperly called the
aborigines, have no traditions concerning the construc-
tion of these mounds, which are evidently none of their
handiwork, but belong to a race which has been sup-
planted and disappeared from the globe. The similarity
of these mounds to those discovered in Central America
leads to the conclusion that they were both the work of
one and the same race; but whether they were constructed
as tombs or as places for altars, there is a division of
opinion. Those in Central America were evidently once
surmounted by temples or places of worship and sacrifice.
These mounds vary in size, shape and height. At
Prairie du Chien one of the largest of these tumuli was
leveled to furnish a site for Fort Crawford. It was
circular in form, having a base of some two hundred
feet, and was twenty feet high. The circular form is the
most common in those mounds, although there are many
different shapes. Some appear like wells, inclosing an
open space; others like breastworks with angles; still
others have a space through them, as if they formed a
sort of gateway. On the dividing ridge between the
Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers mounds are found in
the form of birds with their wings and tails spread; of
deer, rabbits and other animals. One even bears a
marked resemblance to an elephant. There are also a
few mounds representing a man lying on his face.
They are three or four feet high at the highest points,
rounding over the sides.

MILWAUKEE. 231

One of the most singular characteristics of these
mounds is that they seem invariably to be composed of
earth brought from a greater or less distance. The
surface of the surrounding ground usually comes up to
the base of the mound in a smooth level, when it does
not already possess a natural elevation ; but there is no
evidence of the ground anywhere in the neighborhood
having been disturbed to furnish the earth for their
construction. In some instances the soil of these tumuli
is of an actually different character, the like of which has
not been discovered within several miles of the mounds.

These antiquities constitute the only mementos and
annals transmitted to us, of the mysterious race which
once peopled our western territory, and extended as far
east as the shores of the Ohio, as far north as the great
lakes, and westward and southward to Central America.
It seems a pity that no systematic effort has been made
to perpetuate them, if not for the benefit of future
generations whose interest and curiosity should be excited
at beholding them, at least out of a consideration for the
unknown race whose work they are, and as enduring
monuments to whose numbers and industry they have
remained up to the present time, when all else has
perished. The plow, the hoe and the spade, those
iconoclastic weapons of civilization, are fast effacing them
from the surface of the country. When the plow once
breaks the sod which has covered them and preserved
their form, the wind and rain each lend speedy assist-
ance to the work of destruction, and but a few years
will elapse before most of them will have disappeared
altogether, and the places which have known them for
untold centuries will know them no more forever.

It is a fact worthy of mention that these mounds

232 PECULIARITIES OF AMEEICAN CITIES.

have most frequently been found on sites selected for
modern towns and cities, as though ancients and
moderns alike had instinctively chosen for their abid-
ing places those localities most favored by nature for
the uses of man. Numerous earthworks about Mil-
waukee attest the favor in which the locality of that
city was held by this pre-historic race. These works
extend from Kinnickinnic Creek, near the "Indian
Fields/' where they are most abundant, to a point six
miles above the city. They occupy high grounds near
but not in immediate proximity to the lake and streams,
and are most varied in their form, while many are of
large extent. They are chiefly from one hundred to
four hundred feet in diameter, and represent turtles,
lizards, birds, the otter and buffalo, while a number
have the form of a war club. Occasionally, a mound is
elevated so as to overlook or command many others, as
though it was a sort of high or superior altar for the
observance of religious or sacrificial rites. Milwaukee
is to be commended for her failure to manifest that
spirit of modern vandalism which, in other sections,
has sacrificed the relics of a by-gone age and people to
the fancied utility of civilization. The Forest Home
Cemetery incloses a number of these mounds, and so
they are preserved for the benefit of the antiquary and
curiosity seeker. We trust she will continue to cherish
sacredly these few monuments left as the sole legacy of
the ancient inhabitants of the West.

The early Indian name of the river upon which the
city of Milwaukee now stands was Mellcoki. So says
one tradition. Another gives the name as Man-a-
wau-kee, from the name of a valuable medicinal root
known, as Maq-wau- hen.ce, the land or place of the

MILWAUKEE. 233

Man-wau. Still another gives the Indian name as
Me-ne-wau-kee — a rich or beautiful land. The Indians
had a village on the site of the present city. The Mil-
waukee tribe were troublesome and difficult to manage.
About the first trader who ventured to establish a post
among them was Alexander Laframboise, who came
from Mackinaw and located on the spot previous to or
about 1785. This trading post, having been misman-
aged, was discontinued about 1800, and another soon
took its place. A succession of trading posts and fur
stations followed, until about 1818, when Solomon
Juneau, a Frenchman, established himself there per-
manently, with a little colony of half-breeds, who built
themselves log cabins on the banks of the stream, two
miles from the lake, near the junction of the Menomo-
nee. Below them, on the river flats, where now extend
the business streets of the city, the low marshy ground
was overgrown by tall reeds and rushes, while away
back from the river stretched the boundless prairie.
The place was known, thenceforth, as Juneau's Settle-
ment. This settlement gradually attracted, first, other
traders, and finally immigrants. In 1825 it was still
nothing more than a trading station, but ten years later
it had become a settlement and called itself a town,
taking the name of Milwaukee, from the river upon
which it was built.

Chicago had already begun her marvelous growth,
and was at that very time extending herself to extra-
ordinary dimensions — on paper. The little town of
Milwaukee had then no thought of rivalry, but wag
content to plod along for eleven years more before it
received its city charter. By 1850 its growth had been

234 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

remarkable, and it numbered more than twenty thous-
and inhabitants. In 1860 it had more than doubled
this population, recording over forty-five thousand in-
habitants, and in 1870 it had almost doubled again, the
census reporting more than seventy-one thousand persons
for that year. In the same year Milwaukee received
18,466,167 bushels of wheat, actually exceeding Chicago
by about a million of bushels. The shipments of wheat
the same year were 16,027,780 bushels, and of flour
1,225,340 barrels. Her exports for that year also in-
cluded butter, hops, lumber, wool and shingles, of all
which commodities she shipped immense quantities.
From 1870 to 1880 the increase of population and
commerce was equally astonishing, while her manu-
factures had grown in like proportion.

The vast lumber regions to the northwest help to
build up her business; new towns which spring up
throughout the State become tributary to her ; and the
farms which are multiplying in that fertile region send
a share of their products to find a gateway through her
to the eastern markets and to Europe. She divides
with Chicago the trade which, by means of the great
lakes and the great railway trunk lines, is busy going to
and fro in the land, from east to west and from west to
east. When the Northern Pacific Kailway furnishes a
continuous route of travel and freight between Lake
Superior and the Northern Pacific States, the business of
Milwaukee will be naturally augmented. But her
future prosperity depends largely upon the prosperity
of the agricultural population which surrounds her,
which fills her elevators and warehouses, and fur-
bishes freight for her boats with its products, and has

MILWAUKEE. 235'

need of her manufactures in return. And thus we
see illustrated the fundamental principle of political
economy, that that which concerns one must concern
all; that one class or section of people cannot suffer
without affecting in some degree all classes and sec-
tions. All are interdependent, and all must stand or
fall together.

CHAPTER XVII.

MONTREAL.

Thousand Islands. — Long Sault Rapids. — l.^chine Rapids.-^ •
Victoria Bridge.— Mont Real.— Early History of Montreal.— Its
Shipping Interests. — Quays. — Manufactures. — Population. —
Roman Catholic Supremacy. — Churches. — Nunneries. —
Hospitals. — Colleges. — Streets. — Public Buildings. — Victoria
Skating Rink.— Sleighing.— Early Disasters.— Points of Interest.
—The "Canucks."

THE traveler who visits Montreal should, if
possible, make his approach to that city by a
descent of the St. Lawrence River, that he may become
acquainted with some of the most beautiful scenery in
America. Leaving Kingston, at the outlet of Lake
Ontario, he will wind his way through the mazes of the
Thousand Islands, which will seem to him as if belong-
ing to an enchanted country. These islands, situated at
the head of the St. Lawrence, extend down the river for
a distance of thirty miles, and are innumerable and of
every size and shape. Wolf Island, about fifteen miles
in length, is the largest; while some of the smallest
seem like mere flower-pots rising out of the water, with
but a single plant. They are most picturesque in
appearance, their rocky foundations being veiled and
softened by the trees and shrubbery which cover them.
In past ages mythology would have made these islands
the sacred abodes of the gods, and peopled their woods
and dells with nymphs and fauns, while the intervening
channels would have been presided over by naiads. A
little more than a generation ago, a single inhabitant, a

236

MONTREAL. 237

freebooter, who levied toll upon the passers up and
down the river, and who concealed his ill-gotten booty
in his numerous lurking-places in the islands, turned
this terrestrial paradise into a pirate's den. To-day the
Thousand Islands have become famous summer resorts
for the denizens of our northern cities ; and large and
small are studded with attractive cottages and imposing
villas ; while nature, already so beautiful in its wild
state, has been trained into the tamer beauty of modern
landscape gardening.

Beyond the islands the majestic St. Lawrence rolls on
until it reaches the rapids, celebrated in song by Thomas
Moore. Here the river narrows, and the current rushes
impetuously over and between the rocks which jut from
its bottom ; while the pilot, with watchfulness and skill,
guides the boat through the treacherous channel, and
lands her safely in the smoother waters beyond. These
rapids are known as the Long Sault Kapids, and are
nine miles .in length. A raft will drift this whole
distance in forty minutes. The passage of boats down
these rapids was considered impossible until 1840, when
the famous Indian pilot, Teronhiahere, after watching
the course of rafts down the stream, attempted it, and
discovered a safe channel for steamboats. Many of the
pilots are still Indians, who exhibit great skill and
courage in the undertaking. There has never yet been
a fatal accident in shooting these rapids. The Cornwall
Canal, eleven miles long, permits vessels to go around
the rapids in ascending the river.

The Lachine Rapids, nine miles above Montreal,
although the shortest, are the most dangerous. It is
easy enough to descend these rapids, if one is not
particular as to results; but it is difficult enough to

238 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

descend them safely. The faint-hearted had better
commit themselves to the more placid waters of the
canal, or take to the railroad. But to the brave
traveler there is a certain exhilaration in thus toying
with and conquering danger. The rapids fairly passed,
one can distinguish the long line and graceful archways
of the Victoria Bridge, and the towers and spires of
Montreal.

Montreal is on an island thirty-two miles in length,
and with a width at its widest of ten miles. It is at
the junction of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa, both of
them noble rivers, and is connected with the mainland
by two bridges, one of them spanning the Ottawa by a
series of immense arches ; and the other, the Victoria
bridge, thrown across the St. Lawrence. The length of
the latter bridge is nearly two miles. It rests upon
twenty-three piers and two abutments of solid masonry,
the central span being three hundred and thirty feet
long. Its total cost was about $6,300,000. It was
formally opened to the public by the Prince of Wales,
on the occasion of his visit to America during the
summer of 1860. The railway track runs through an
iron tube, twenty-two feet high and sixteen feet wide.
The river rolls nearly a hundred feet below, in summer
a sweeping flood, and in winter a sort of glacier, the ice
masses piled and heaped upon one another, as they have
been upheaved or hurled in the contentions between the
current and the frost-king.

The city of Montreal is distinctly outlined against
Mount Royal or Mont Real, which rises back of it, its
edifices showing dark and gray, except where the sun
catches its numerous tin roofs, making them glitter like
burnished steel. It takes its name from Mont Real, the

MONTREAL. 239

mountain already referred to, which closes it in on one
side, and rises seven hundred and fifty feet above the
river. Its eastern suburb, still known as Hochelaga,
was the site of an Indian village when it was discovered,
in 1535, by Jacques Cartier, and this explorer it was
who gave the name to the mountain. In 1642, just
one hundred and fifty years after the discovery of
America, it was settled by the French, retaining its
Indian name for a century later, when that appellation
was replaced by the French one of " Ville Marie." In
1761 the city came into the possession of the British,
and received its present name. In 1775 it was
captured by the Americans under General Montgomery,
and held by them until the following summer.

Montreal was, under both French and British rule, an
outpost of Quebec until 1832, when it became a sepa-
rate port. The shallower parts of the river being deepened
above Quebec, Montreal became accessible to boats draw-
ing from nineteen to twenty-two feet of water. It is
now the chief shipping port of Canada. It is five
hundred miles from the sea, and ninety miles above
tidewater ; and being at the head of ship navigation of
the St. Lawrence, and at the foot of the great chain of
inland lakes, rivers and canals which connect it with
the very centre of the American continent, its commerce
is very important. At the confluence of the Ottawa
with the St. Lawrence, it is also the outlet of a vast
lumber country. It feels, however, the serious disad-
vantage of being, for five months in the year, blockaded,
and made, to all intents and purposes, an inland city, by
the closing of navigation during the winter. Then, by
means of the Grand Trunk and other railways, it be-
comes tributary to Portland, Maine, and finds, at that

240 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

city, a port for its commerce. Its two miles of quays,
including the locks and stone-cut wharves of the Lachine
Canal, all built of solid limestone, would do credit to any
city in the world ; while a broad wall or esplanade ex-
tends between these quays and the houses which over-
look the river. Montreal takes a front rank in its
manufacturing interests, which embrace all kinds of
agricultural and mechanical implements, steam engines,
printing types, India-rubber shoes, paper, furniture,
woolens, cordage and flour. In 1874 its exports were
valued at over twenty-two millions of dollars.

The population of Montreal in 1779 was only about
seven thousand inhabitants. In 1861 it had increased
to 70,323; and in 1871 the census returns made the
population 115,926. Of these inhabitants, probably
more than one-half are Roman Catholics, representing
a great variety of nationalities, among which, however,
French Canadians and Irish predominate. The Catho-
lics were, at first, under French dominion, in exclusive
possession of the city, and the different religious societies
gained vast wealth. Ever since Canada has passed .into
the hands of England they still hold their own, and
exercise an influence over the people, and display a
magnificence in their edifices and appointments, un-
known in other sections of America.

No city of the same size in the United States has such
splendid churches. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of
Notre Dame, fronting on the Place d'Arrnes, is the
largest on the continent. It is two hundred and forty-
one feet in length, by one hundred and thirty-five feet
in width, and is capable of seating more than ten
thousand persons. It is a massive structure, built of
stone, in the Gothic style^ with a tower at each corner,

MONTREAL 241

and one in the middle of each flank, numbering six in
all. The towers on the main front are two hundred
and twelve feet high, and furnish to visitors a magnifi-
cent view of the city. In one of these towers is a fine
chime of bells, »the largest of which, the " Gros Bour-
don," weighs twenty-nine thousand four hundred
pounds. But as large as is this cathedral, it will be
surpassed in size by the Cathedral of St. Peter, now in
process of erection at the corner of Dorchester and
Cemetery streets, and built after the general plan of St.
Peter's at Rome. This cathedral will be three hundred
feet long by two hundred and twenty-five feet wide at the
transepts, and will be surmounted by five domes, the
largest of which will be two hundred and fifty feet in
height, supported on four piers and thirty-two Corin-
thian columns. The vestibule alone will be two
hundred feet long by thirty feet wide, and will be
fronted by a portico, surmounted by colossal statues
of the Apostles. It will, when, completed, be by far
the finest and largest church edifice in America. St.
Patrick's Church at the west end of Lagauchere street,
is noticeable for its handsome Gothic windows of
stained glass, and will seat five thousand persons. The
Church of- the Gesii, in Blewry street, has the finest
interior in the city, the vast nave, seventy-five feet in
height, being bordered by rich composite columns, and
the walls and ceilings beautifully frescoed.

The Roman Catholic churches undoubtedly exceed
in size and number those of the Protestants, though
some of the latter are worthy of note. Christ Church
Cathedral — Episcopal, in St. Catherine street, is the
most perfect specimen of English Gothic architecture in
America. It is built of rough Montreal stone, with

18

242 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Caen stone facings, cruciform, and surmounted by a
spire two hundred and twenty -four feet high. St.
Andrew's Church — Presbyterian, in Radegonde street,
is a fine specimen of Gothic architecture, being an
imitation, on a reduced scale, of Salisbury Cathedral.
Zion Church — Independent, in Raclegonde street, near
Victoria Square, was the scene of the riot and loss of
life on the occasion of Gavazzi's lecture in 1852.

Like Quebec, Montreal is famous for its nunneries.
The Gray Nunnery, founded in 1692, for the care of
lunatics and children, is situated in Dorchester street.
This nunnery owns Nun's Island, in Lake St. Louis,
above Montreal, once an Indian burial ground, but
now in a high state of cultivation. In Notre Dame
street, near the Place d'Armes, is the Black or Congre-
gational Nunnery, which dates from 1659, and is
devoted to the education of girls. At Hochelaga is the
Convent of the Holy Name of Mary. The Hotel
Dieu, founded in 1644, for the cure of the sick, and St.
Patrick's Hospital, are both under the charge of the
Sisters of St. Joseph. The Christian Brothers have
control of numerous schools, and render material aid
to morality and religion. The Seminary of St. Sulspice
is a large and stately building, devoted to the education
of Catholic priests. Nuns and priests are familiar
objects upon the streets, and not always a welcome sight
to the Protestant eye; nevertheless, the good works in
which they engage are numerous and not to be under-
valued.

The number of hospitals, scientific institutions,
libraries, reading-rooms, schools and universities of
Montreal is remarkable. Many of them are under
Catholic control, and all are worthy of a highly

MONTREAL. 243

civilized and prosperous community. First among the
educational institutions of the city is McGill College,
founded by a bequest of the Hon. James McGill, in
1811, and erected into a university, by royal charter, in
1821. It is beautifully situated at the base of Mount
lloyal, and, besides a large corps of able professors,
possesses one of the finest museums in the country.

Montreal is a beautiful city. Its public buildings
are constructed of solid stone, in which a handsome
limestone, found in the neighborhood, predominates.
Its churches, banks, hospitals and colleges are all
edifices of which to be proud. Its private dwellings
are, a majority of them, substantially built, while many
of the roofs, cupolas and spires are covered with metal,
which, seen at a distance, glitters in the sun. The most
elegant private residences are found upon the slope of
Mont Real, surrounded by ample grounds containing
fine lawns, trees and shrubbery. From these hillside
residences the scenery is most lovely, looking over a
panorama of city, river and country, with the bluo
tops of the mountain ranges of New York, Vermont
and New Hampshire plainly perceptible on clear
days.

St. Paul street is the chief commercial thoroughfare,
and extends nearly parallel to the river, but a square or
two back from it, the whole length of the city. Com-
missioner street faces the quays and monopolizes much
of the wholesale trade. McGill, St. James and Notre
Dame are also important business streets. Great St.
James and Notre Dame streets are the fashionable prome-
nades, while Catherine, Dorchester and Sherbrook streets
contain the finest private residences. At the intersection
of McGill and St. James streets, in a small public square,

244 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

called Victoria Square, is a fountain and a bronze statue
of Queen Victoria. A number of fine buildings surround
this square, prominent among which are the Albert
buildings and the beautiful Gothic structure of the
Young Men's Christian Association.

Bontecour's Market, a spacious stone edifice in the
Doric style, is one of the handsomest buildings in the
city. It fronts the river at the corner of St. Paul and
Water streets, is three stories high, surmounted by a
dome, from which the view is exceptionally fine. The
new City Hall, at the head of Jacques Cartier Square,
containing the offices of the various civil and corporate
functionaries, is an elegant structure, spacious and per-
fect in all its appointments. The Court House, in Notre
Dame street, is three hundred feet long by one hundred
and twenty-five feet wide, in the Doric style, and
erected at a cost of over three hundred thousand dollars.
It includes a law library of six thousand volumes.
Back of it is the Champs de Mars, a fine military
parade ground. The Custom House is between St.
Paul street and the river, on the site of an old market-
place, and is a massive structure with a fine tower.
The Post Office is an elegant building near the Place
d'Armes, in great St. James street. In the Place
d'Armes, is the Bank of Montreal and the City Bank,
Masonic Hall, the headquarters of the Masons of Canada,
and several other of the principal banks of the city.
Mechanics' Institute, in great St. James street, though
plain externally, has an elaborately decorated lecture
room. The principal hotels are the Windsor, in Dor-
chester street, one of the finest of its kind in America;
the St. Lawrence, in Great St. James street ; the Ottawa
House, corner of St. James and Notre Dame streets;

MONTREAL. 245

Montreal House, in Custom House Square ; the Riche-
lieu Hotel, and the Albion.

One of the principal points of attraction in both
winter and summer is the Victoria Skating Rink, in
Dominion Square. This extensive building is used
during the milder months of the year for horticultural
shows, concerts and miscellaneous gatherings. In the
winter the doors of this place are thronged with a crowd
of sleighs and sleigh drivers, while inside, skaters and
spectators form a living, moving panorama, pleasant to
look upon. The place is lighted by gas, and men and
women, old and young, with a plentiful sprinkling of
children, on skates, are practicing all sorts of gyrations.
The ladies are prettily and appropriately dressed in
skating costumes, and some of them are proficient in
the art of skating. The spectators sit or stand on a
raised ledge around the ice parallelogram, while the
skaters dart off, singly or in pairs, executing quadrilles,
waltzes, curves, straight lines, letters, labyrinths, and
every conceivable figure. Now and then some one
comes to grief in the surging, moving throng ; but is
quickly on his or her feet again, the ice and water shaken
off, and the zigzag resumed. Children skate ; boys and
girls ; ladies and gentlemen, and even dignified military
officers. Some skate well, some medium, some shockingly
ill ; but all skate, or essay to do so. It is the grand
Montrealese pastime, and though the ice is sloppy, and
the air chill and heavy with moisture, everybody has a
good time.

There is one other amusement of the public, and that
is sleighing. The winter in the latitude of Montreal is
long and cold, and sometimes the snow falls to a depth
of several feet, lying upon the ground for months.

246 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

When winter settles down upon the city, the river
freezes over, leaving the island an island no longer, but
making it part and parcel of the surrounding continent.
Then the people wrap themselves in furs and betake
themselves to their sleighs, and glide swiftly along the
well-beaten roads, between the white drifts. Vehicles
of every description, from the most elegant appointed
sleigh down to the rough box sled, are seen upon the
road, and the jingle of bells is everywhere heard, as the
sledges follow, pass and repass one another on the snowy
track. Ladies closely wrapped in furs and veils, and
their cavaliers in fur caps with flaps brought closely
around ears and chin, alike bid defiance to the tem-
perature, which is not infrequently in the neighborhood
of zero ; and the blood seems to course more quickly for
the keenness of the atmosphere.

During its long history, Montreal has had disas-
ters as well as successes. Something over a hundred
years after its founding as a French colony it was nearly
destroyed by fire, and a little later it became a favorite
point of attack during the two American wars. But to-
day it is the most thriving city of the British provinces.
It has pushed its railway communications with great
energy, and so long as peace is maintained between
Canada and the United States it will continue to pros-
per. In the event of war, the city lies in an exposed
position, and during the winter its only outlet, by rail
to Portland, would be cut off.

The Nelson Monument i»j Jacques Cartier Square,
and near it the old Government House, will prove
objects of interest to the visitor, though the former is in
somewhat of a dilapidated condition. The city is sup-
plied with water by works which are situated a mile or

MONTREAL. 247

so above it, in the midst of beautiful scenery. Mount
Royal Cemetery is two miles from the city, on the
northern slope of the mountain. One of the most beau-
tiful views in the neighborhood of Montreal is the famous
around the mountain drive, nine miles in length, and
passing by Mount Royal Park.

First settled by the French, their descendants, the
French Canadians, form a considerable proportion of
the population of Montreal. But whatever they may
have been in the past, they have degenerated into an
illiterate, unenterprising people. The English, Irish
and Scotch, who during the past century have been
emigrating to Canada in such numbers, have monopo-
lized most of the business, and have rescued Montreal,
as well as Lower Canada generally, from a stagnation
which was sure to creep upon it if left in the hands of
the descendants of the early French settlers. Arcadian
innocence and simplicity have developed, or rather
degenerated, into indolence, stolidity and ignorance.
The priests do the thinking for these people, who, appar-
ently have few ambitions in life beyond meeting its
daily wants. Thus, though the streets of Montreal
still bear the old names, and though its architecture still
retains much of the quaintness which it early assumed,
the business is largely in the hands of the Anglo-Saxons
and Celts, who are its later settlers; and English pluck,
Irish industry, Scotch thrift and American push, are all
brought into marked contrast with the sluggishness and
lethargy of the " Canucks." The names over the
principal business houses are either English, Scotch or
Irish; and the sympathies of the intelligent people are
entirely in harmony with the government under which
they live.

CHAPTER XVIII.

NEWARK.

From New York to Newark.— Two Hundred Years Ago.— The
Pioneers.— Public Parks.— City of Churches.— The Canal.—
Sailing Up-Hill. — An Old Graveyard. — New Amsterdam and
New Netherlands. — The Dutch and English. — Adventurers from
New England. — The Indians. — Rate of Population. — Manu-
factures.— Rank as a City.

"1VTINE miles, in a westerly direction, from New
_L > York, on a lovely morning in the early autumn
of 1880, by the comfortable cars of that most perfect
of all railways, the "Pennsylvania," brought our little
party to Newark, which I had often heard spoken of
as the leading commercial and manufacturing city of
New Jersey.

Situate in the northeastern corner of the State, on
the west bank of the Passaic, three miles from its
entrance into Newark Bay — the city of Newark occu-
pies the most delightful spot in a State famed for its
beauty. In our short journey from New York we
passed over broad, level meadows, bearing some resem-
blance to a western prairie. The Passaic and the
Hackensack rivers traverse these prairie-like meadows,
while rising abruptly in the distance you behold the
historic Bergen Heights.

Disembarking at the conveniently located Market
Street Depot, we sought and found a temporary home,
and then lost no time in gratifying our native curiosity,
by exploring the city and learning something of its
origin and history.

248

NEWARK. 249

Newark is over two hundred years old, and yet is
regularly laid out ; its wide and well paved streets are
adorned and shaded with grand old elms — some of them
coeval with the founding of the city. Its chief business
thoroughfare, Broad street, running north and south,
through the central part of the city, has many fine busi-
ness blocks, and a finer avenue cannot be found than the
south end of Broad street, lined with wide-spreading
elms, and extending, apparently, into infinitude. One
peculiarity that absorbed my attention, was the vast
number of manufacturing establishments here, located,
for the most part, outside of the central streets, and these
are doubtless the source of her prosperity.

About two hundred years ago Newark was an obscure
hamlet of some sixty odd settlers. Since that time it
has grown into a city of one hundred and thirty
thousand inhabitants. The handful of original settlers
were, for the most part, upright, earnest and sturdy
mechanics, of Anglo-Saxon blood, acid they laid the
foundation of what is now one of the most important
cities of the Union, ranking, indeed, among the foremost
of the world's industrial bee-hives — a monster work-
shop, whose skilled labor cannot well be surpassed
anywhere. They called their village after the old
English town of Newark-oii-Trent ; and Newark-on
Passaic has now grown into a city ten times greater
than its ancient namesake.

The public parks possess a startling interest to the
stranger visiting Newark for the first time. Seldom
have I found so many, and of such extent, in a city that
measures only five miles long, by five broad. Possessed
of such breathing places, a town must of necessity be
healthy, and I accordingly found this strongly indicated

250 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

in the faces of all I met, more especially of the blooming
young maidens and their mammas. We are told that
when the first settlers purchased the site of Newark and
its surrounding lands, of the native Indians, and laid
out their embryo city, they wisely reserved certain tracts
for public purposes, and that most of these still exist as
ornaments of the city. Besides those set apart for
churches and graveyards, the principal reservations were
the u Training-place," the " Market-place," and the
" Watering-place." The Training-place is now Military
Park, on the east side of Broad street, near its centre ;
and the Market-place is now Washington Park. These
and several others in various parts of this favored city,
form delightful retreats from the sun's rays — shaded by
majestic elms — a veritable rus in urbe. The suburbs
also are passing beautiful, extending to Orange on the
west, and to within a mile of Elizabeth on the south —
both busy towns.

Like Brooklyn, Newark may be called a city of
churches, and its enlightened and industrious citizens
are a church-going people. The Reformed Dutch
Church dates from 1663; and the First Presbyterian
from 1667. These were the parent churches, and their
progeny are manifold and prosperous, as noted in the
exceptionally high standard of morality that generally
characterizes the peaceful workers in this hive of
industry.

I was especially struck with the canal which flows
under Broad street, and the ingenuity displayed in
surmounting a hill that crosses it, by the barges
navigating its waters. Here it may be almost said
that among their numberless other inventions, the in-
habitants of Newark have discovered the art of sailing

NEWARK. 251

np a hill ! Instead of a lock, by which similar diffi-
culties of inland navigation are usually overcome, the
barges are drawn in a cradle up an inclined plane, by
means of a stationary steam engine placed at the top of
the hill, where the canal recommences, and the barges
are re-launched to continue their course westward.

In my rambles down Broad street, on its well-paved
sidewalk, flanked by flourishing stores, in which every
commodity, from a five hundred dollar chronometer
down to a ten cent pair of men's socks, is presented for
sale, I stopped at an arched gateway on my right, my
attention being arrested by a patch of green sward
behind it. The gate stood invitingly open, and passing
through, I found myself in a venerable and disused
graveyard.

" This is the oldest of the city graveyards," said an
elderly gentleman, to whom I addressed myself for
information, " and is of the same age as the city itself.
It is the resting-place of many of the original inhabit-
ants. The first church of Newark stood here, and
around, you will observe, are tomjbs, bearing dates of
two centuries ago." Such, I found, on investigation, to
be the case. These old stones — most of their inscrip-
tions now undecipherable, — were erected to commemorate
the dead colonists' names and virtues, more than one
hundred years before Washington was born, or they had
dreamed of casting off the authority of mother England.
I reflected : what was Newark like in those far-away
days, two hundred years ago? How did she compare
with Newark in the year of grace 1880?

In 1608 Henry Hudson descended the noble river
which bears his name, and the settlement of New Amster-
dam by the Hollanders soon followed. Next, New

252 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Netherlands was added to the territory of the Dutchmen,
then a great maritime people. Down to the beginning of
the seventeenth, century the colonization of New Nether-
lands, on the western banks of the Hudson, had made
but little progress. It was all a wilderness, peopled
only by Indians. The white man had scarcely penetrated
its fertile valleys. The story is told, Jiowever, that
some of Hudson's hardy crew had sailed in their boats
through the Kill-von-Kule, at the north of what is now
Staten Island, and passed northward into the Passaic
River. The enterprising Dutch traders were no doubt
fully cognizant of the boundless possibilities of the
country, whose fairest spot was destined to form the site
of the city of Newark.

But these Dutchmen were only lawless adventurers.
By right of discovery, a priority of title to all the lands
in North America was claimed by England, who de-
clared war upon Holland and all her reputed possessions.
New Amsterdam and the province of New Netherlands
were among the first to succumb, and in 1664 England
obtained complete command of the Atlantic coast. New
Amsterdam then became New York, in honor of the
Duke of York, brother of King Charles II ; and New
Netherlands became New Jersey, in compliment to the
Countess of Jersey, a court favorite. To this conquest
by England we owe our English tongue, for had the
Hollanders vanquished the English, and retained pos-
session, we should doubtless all be speaking "low
Dutch " to-day, instead of English. But this is a
digression.

Colonization rapidly followed when the phlegmatic
Dutchmen were turned out, and the first English gov-
ernor of the province of New Jersey inaugurated a very

NEWARK. 253

liberal form of government. This induced many adven-
turers from New England to unite their fortunes with
the colonists of New Jersey. Under the leadership of
the enterprising Captain Treat, these New Englanders
proceeded to select a site for their new town. They
soon found a spot exactly suited to their wishes ; a fer-
tile soil, beautiful woodlands, and a navigable stream;
while away to the eastward was a wide and sheltered
bay.

In May, 1666, about thirty families, John Treat
being their captain, laid the foundation of Newark. A
conference was held with the Indians, which resulted
satisfactorily to all. They transferred the land to the
white men, and received in payment for what now
constitutes the county of Essex, "Fifty double-hands
of powder, one hundred bars of lead, twenty axes,
twenty coats, ten guns, twenty pistols, ten kettles, <ten
swords, four blankets, four barrels of beer, two pairs of
breeches, fifty knives, twenty hoes, eight hundred and
fifty fathoms of wampum, two ankers of liquor, or
something equivalent; and three troopers' coats, with
the ornaments thereon."

A few years later a second purchase was made, by
which the limits of the city they were building were
extended westward to the top of Orange Hill, the
equivalent being "two guns, three. coats and thirteen
cans of rum."

For many years, Newark grew and prospered.
In 1681 she was the "most compact town in the
province, with a population of 500." In 1713 Queen
Anne granted a charter of incorporation, thus making
the township of Newark a body politic, which continued
in force until the Revolution. "With the successful

254 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

close of the war, Newark entered on a new and pros-
perous era, and the population increased very largely.
In 1795 bridges were built over the Passaic and the
Hackensack. In 1810 the population is given as
6,000, and in 1830 it had increased to 11,000. From
this date its rate of progress has been very rapid, and
at the present time Newark ranks as the thirteenth city
of the Union in population.

I cannot conclude this chapter without a few words
on the manufactures of Newark. The early settlers
were, as we have said, in the main, mechanics and arti-
sans, and from this circumstance the growth of the city
lay in the direction of manufactures. Newark, to-day,
is among the foremost cities of the Union in intelligent
industry. So early as 1676 efforts were made to pro-
mote the introduction of manufactures. The nearness
of the city to New York, the chief market in the Union,
with shipping facilities to every quarter of the globe ;
with the great iron and coal fields easy of access, and a
thrifty and industrious people, Newark drew to her
mills and factories abundant capital and skilled work-
men. She has contributed more useful inventions to
industrial progress than any other American city. The
Newark Industrial Exposition was originated in 1872,
for the purpose of holding an annual exhibition of her
local manufactures-. The enterprise met with signal
success. We have counted no less than four hundred
distinct manufactories in operation in this extraordinary
city, a list of which would occupy too much of our
space. Hardware, tools, machinery, jewelry, leather,
hats, and trunks seem to predominate. Of the last-
named indispensable article, Newark has the most exten-
sive manufactory in the world, 7,000 trunks per week,

NEWARK.

255

or about 365,000 yearly being produced here. It is said
that in the manufacture of the best steam fire-engines,
Newark ranks first. The number of persons finding
employment in the factories is about 25,000, and the
amount of wages paid weekly averages $250,000, or
about $13,000,000 per year. The annual value of the
productions of all her manufactories amounts to about
$60,000,000.

Thus it is seen that Newark has developed into one of
the principal producing cities of the United States, ihe
value of her diversified manufactured products mak*ng
her, in this respect, the third, if not the second city of
the Union,

CHAPTER XIX.

NEW HAVEN.

The City of Elms. — First Impressions. — A New England Sunday.
—A Sail on the Harbor.— Oyster Beds.— East Rock.— The
Lonely Denizen of the Bluff. — Romance of John Turner. —
West Rock. — The Judges' Cave. — Its Historical Association. —
Escape of the Judges. — Monument on the City Green. — Yale
College. — Its Stormy Infancy. — Battle on the Weathersfield
Road. — Harvard, the Fruit of the Struggle.

LEAVING New York by the New York, New
Haven and Hartford Railroad, we found our-
selves, at the end of a three hours' ride, in New Haven,
the beautiful "City of Elms."

Everything here bears the impress of New England,
with the special peculiarities of Connecticut, land of
smart sayings and of the proverbial wooden nutmegs
and oak hams. Stepping from the cars, my ears were
first saluted by the salutations of two genial Yankees,
one of whom, I inferred from the conversation, had
just arrived from Bridgeport, and the other at the
depot had awaited his coming. Compliments were
passed by the latter, who saluted his friend with —

" Well, old boy, where have you been all summer? I,
see you have got your dust full of eyes."

The reply to this salute was in entire harmony with
the interrogation, and both walked away from the
station, amusing each other with odd maxims and
witty retorts.

It being our intention to remain several weeks in
New Haven, we decided to take up our abode at a

256

NEW HA YEN. 267

private house, and with this object in view we started
in pursuit of suitable accommodations.* It was soon
discovered that in the matter of board we were compet-
ing with " Old Yale," students always being preferred,
owing to the prospect of permanency.

A reconnoissance of several hours, during which we
eaw more stately elms than I ever expect to see again
in so short a period, brought us to 66 Chapel street,
where we were pleasantly lodged, with an excellent
table, and favored with a Yankee landlord from the
classic banks of the Rhine.

Universal quiet on the streets, and an inexhaustible
supply of brown bread and beans at the breakfast
table, was an unmistakable evidence that we had
reached a New England Sunday. After breakfast, the
weather being fine, I was invited to accompany some
young gentlemen in a sail down the harbor. Being
uncertain as to the propriety of such a proceeding on
the seventh day, I was promptly assured that the Blue
Laws of Connecticut would not be outraged in case I
had taken a generous ration of brown bread and beans
before starting.

A ride of half an hour, with but little wind in our
sails, carried us down through the oyster beds, to a
point nearly opposite the lighthouse at the mouth of
the harbor. A novel sight, in my judgment, is a
multitude of oyster plantations staked out in such a
manner as to show the proprietor of each particular
section his exact limit or boundary.

To those of my readers who are familiar with hop-
growing regions, I would say that an oyster farm is not
unlike a hop field which seems to have been suddenly
inundated by water, leaving only the tops of the poles

258 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

abovo the surface. Oyster raising is one of the leading
features of New Haven enterprise, and the Fair Haven
oysters, in particular, are regarded among the best that
are- cultivated on the Atlantic coast. On our return
trip up the harbor the tide was going out, and as the
water was extremely shallow in many places, and also
very clear, we could see oysters and their less palatable
neighbors, clams, in great abundance. I was strongly
tempted to make substantial preparation for an oyster
dinner, but on being informed that such a course would
be equivalent to staking out claims in a strange water-
melon patch, I concluded to desist, and contented myself
with seeing more oysters in half an hour than I had
seen in all my life before.

EAST ROCK.

One of the famous places of resort in the neighbor-
hood of New Haven is East Rock, an abrupt pile of
red-brown trap rock, lifting itself up from the plain to
a height of four hundred feet. The summit of this
monumental pile spreads out in a wide plateau of twenty-
five or thirty acres, sloping gradually back towards the
meadow lands which border the winding Quinnipiac
River. It is owned and occupied by a somewhat ec-
centric individual, rejoicing in the name of Milton
Stuart, who related to me the story of his life in this
strange locality since taking up his abode here, some
twenty years ago. On being told that I would commit
to paper some account of my wanderings about New
Haven, he seemed to take an especial pleasure in show-
ing me his grounds and telling me everything of interest
concerning them.

With ready courtesy he pointed out a heap of stones

NEW HAVEN. 259

on the western slope of the bluff, which he said was all
that remained of a hut formerly occupied by one John
Turner, who made a hermit of himself on this rock,
years ago, all because the lady of his love refused to
become Mrs. Turner. He met her while teaching in the
South — so the story ran — and all his energies seemed to
be paralyzed by her refusal to listen to his suit. He
came to East Rock and built this wretched hovel of
stone, where he lived in solitude, and where one morn-
ing in that long ago, he was found dead on the floor of
his hovel. How many romances like this lie about us
unseen, under the every-day occurrences of life !

WEST BOOK

is a continuation of the precipitous bluff of which East
Rock is one extremity, and is about a mile further up
the valley. It is not so high nor so imposing as East
Rock, and the view from its wooded top fades into tame*
ness beside the remote ocean distance and the flash of
city spires to be seen from East Rock. But it makes up
in historical interest what it may lack in other attrac-
tions; for here, about a quarter of a mile from its
southernmost point, is located the "Judge's Cave,"
famous as the hiding-place of the regicides who tried
and sentenced King Charles the First, in the seventeenth
century.

On the restoration of Charles II to the throne of his
father, three of the high court which had condemned
the first Charles wisely left England for the shores of
the New World. Their names were Goffe, Whalley and
DLxweil. Whalley was a lieutenant-general, Dixwell
was a colonel, and Goffe a major-general. These noted
army officers arrived at Boston, from England, July

260 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

twenty-seventh, 1660, and first made their home in
Cambridge. Finding that place unsafe, they afterwards
went to New Haven.

The next year news came from England that thirty-
nine of the regicide judges were condemned, and ten
already executed, as traitors. An order from the king
was sent to the Colonial governors of Massachusetts and
Connecticut, for the arrest of the judges. They were
thus compelled to fly for their lives, and sought refuge
in the cave on West Rock, which afterwards bore their
name. Here they lived concealed for some time, being
supplied with food by Richard Sperry, who lived about
a mile west of the cave. The food was tied up in
a cloth and laid on a stump near by, from which the
judges could take it unobserved.

One night they beheld the blazing eyes of a catamount
or panther, peering in upon them at their cave, and were
so frightened that they fled in haste to the house of Mr.
Sperry, and could not again be induced to return. Seve-
ral large boulders, from twenty to thirty feet in height,
thrown together, doubtless, by some volcanic convulsions,
unite to form the cave.

Dixwell afterwards lived in New Haven, under an
assumed name, and the graves of all three may now be
seen, at one side of Centre Church, on the City Green.

The following inscription is on a marble slab over
the ashes of Dixwell, erected by his descendants in
1849 :—

" Here rests the remains of John Dixwell, Esq., of the Priory of
Folkestone, in the county of Kent, England. Of a family long
prominent in Kent and Warwickshire, and himself possessing large
estates and much influence in his county, he espoused the popular
cause in the revolution ot 1640. Between 1640 and 1660 he was
Colonel iii the Army, an active member of four parliaments, and

NEW HAVEN. 261

thrice in the Council of State ; and one of the High Court which
tried and conderncd King Charles the First. At the restoration of
the monarchy he was compelled to leave his country, and after a
brief residence in Germany, came to New Haven, and here lived in
seclusion, but enjoying the esteem and friendship of its most worthy
citizens, till his death in 1688-9."

The little brown headstone which first marked his
resting place bore only his initials and the date of his
death : —

"J. D. ESQ.
Deceased March Ye 18th in Ye 82" Year of his age 168f."

That was all — his name being suppressed, at his
request.

The headstones of Goffe and Whalley are marked in
the same obscure way.

Yale College adds largely to the importance of New
Haven, and the elegant new College buildings now in
process of erection, built of brown freestone, cannot
well be surpassed in style of architecture. " Old Yale"
was originally a small school, established in Saybrook
by Rev. Thomas Peters, who lived at that place, and
who bequeathed his library to the school at his death.
It soon acquired the title of the "Illustrious School/'
and about the year 1700 was given a charter of incorpo-
ration from the General Assembly, making it a college.

It was named Yale, after its greatest benefactor, who
was at that time governor of one of the West India
islands. The historian, Dr. Samuel Peters, who wrote
nearly a hundred years ago, said that Greek, Latin,
Geography, History and Logic were well taught in this
seminary, but it suffered for want of tutors in the
Hebrew, French and Spanish languages. He remarks,
incidentally, that "oratory, music and politeness are
equally neglected here and in the Colony." The

262 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

students, numbering at that time one hundred and
eighty, were allowed two hours' play with the foot ball
every day, and were seated at four tables in the large
dining room. This ancient historian says the college
was built of wood, was one hundred and sixty feet long
and three stories high, besides garrets. In 1754 another
building, of brick, one hundred feet long, with double
rooms and a double front, was added. About 1760 a
chapel and library were erected, which was described as
being " very elegant." The " elegant " structure of a,
hundred years ago will soon be discarded for the new
one of brown freestone.

In the year 1717 the seminary was removed from
Saybrook to New Haven, but it had a hard time in
getting there. A vote was passed to remove the college
from Saybrook, because, as the historian says, Saybrook
was suspected of being too much in sympathy with tho
Church of England and not sufficiently alienated from
the mother country. But there was a division in the
vote, the Hartford ballot being in favor of removing
the college to Weathersfield, while the New Haven
party declared in behalf of their own city. A small
battle grew out of this split between the Weathersfield
and New Haven factions. Hartford, in order to carry
its vote into execution, prepared teams, boats and a mob,
and privately set off for Saybrook, seizing upon the
college apparatus, library and students, which they
carried to Weathersfield.

This redoubled the jealousy of the " saints " at New
Haven, who thereupon determined to fulfill their vote,
and accordingly, having collected a mob, they set out
for Weathersfield, where they seized by surprise the
students and library. On the road to New Haven they

NEW UATEN. 263

were overtaken by the Hartford faction, who, after an
inglorious battle, were obliged to retire with only part
of the library and part of the students. From this
affair sprang the two colleges, Yale and Harvard.

The Massachusetts Bay people acted the part of
peacemakers, and settled the difficulty between these
two hostile factions, which resulted finally in placing the
college at New Haven. So it seems our Puritan ances-
tors had their little disputations then, much as our
Alabama and Arkansas brothers do now.

What a flaming head-line that college battle doubtless
furnished the bulletin boards and colonial press of 1717!
Imagine a column beginning with this : —

Sharp Fight on the Weathersfield Road !
Large Captures of Students !

New Haven Victorious I

But out of revenge for the victory^ the sons of Hartford
were not sent to Yale College to be educated. No,
rather than go to Yale they went much further away,
at greater expense, and where fewer educational advan-
tages could be obtained. What were such disadvantages,
however, compared to the satisfaction of standing by
their party and ignoring the New Haven vote ?

But old Yale grew and flourished, despite the stormy
days of its childhood, and has now a world-wide repu-
tation. Many distinguished men of letters call her
" Alma Mater," and in all their wanderings carry her
memory green in their hearts.

CHAPTER XX.

NEW ORLEANS.

Locality of New Orleans. — The Mississippi. — The Old and the
New. — Ceded to Spain. — Creole Part in the American Revolu*
tion. — Retransferred to France. — Purchased by the United
States. — Creole Discontent. — Battle of New Orleans.— Increase
of Population. — The Levee. — Shipping. — Public Buildings,
Churches, Hospitals, Hotels and Places of Amusement. —
Streets.— Suburbs. — Public Squares and Parks.— Places of
Historic Interest. — Cemeteries. — French Market. — Mardi-
gras. — Climate and Productions. — New Orleans during the
Rebellion.— Chief Cotton Mart of the World.— Exports.—
Imports. — Future Prosperity of the City.

AS the traveler proceeds down the Mississippi, from
its source to its mouth, a unique phenomenon
strikes his attention. «• The river seems to grow higher
as he descends. The bluffs, which on one side or the
other rise prominently along its banks in its upper
waters, grow less bold, and finally disappear as he pro-
gresses southward. And if it should be the season of
high water, he will find himself, as he nears New Orleans,
gliding down a river which is higher than its bordering
land, and which is restrained in its penchant for destruc-
tion, by massive dykes, or levees, as they are termed in
this section.

New Orleans, the commercial metropolis of Louisiana,
known as the " Crescent City/7 is situated on the eastern,
or, more correctly speaking, the northern bank of the
Mississippi River, which here, after running northward
several miles, takes a turn to the eastward. Originally
built in the form of a crescent, around this bend in the

264

NEW ORLEANS. 265

river, it has at the present time extended itself so far up
stream that its shore line is now more in the shape of a
letter S. It is one hundred and twelve miles from the
mouth of the Mississippi, 1,200 miles south of St. Louis,
and 1,438 miles southwest of Washington. The city
limits embrace an area of nearly 150 square miles, but
the city proper is a little more than twelve miles long
and three miles wide. It is built on alluvial soil, the
ground falling off toward Lake Pontchartrain, which is
five miles distant to the northward, so that portions of the
city are four feet lower than the high water level of the
river. The city is protected from inundation by a
levee, twenty-six miles in length, fifteen feet wide and
fourteen feet high. The streets are drained into canals,
from which the water is raised by means of steam
pumps, with a daily capacity of 42,000,000 gallons,
which elevates it sufficiently to carry it off to Lake
Pontchartrain.

The geological history of this section of the country
is extremely interesting. The whole region south of
New Orleans is made land, having been brought down
from the Rocky Mountains and the western plains, by
that tireless builder, the Mississippi, which has heaped
it up, grain by grain, probably changing the entire
course of its lower waters in doing so, filling up old
channels and wearing itself new ones, until it finally ex-
tends its delta, like an outstretched hand, far out into
the waters of the Gul'f of Mexico. The river has a his-
tory and a romance, all its own, beginning with the time
when French and Spanish, alike, were searching for the
"Hidden River" — that mysterious stream which, accord-
ing to Indian tradition, "flowed to the land from which
the sweet winds of the southwest brought them health

266 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

and happiness, and where there was neither snow no*
ice," and which was known by so many different names — >
and ending with the construction of the gigantic jetties,
which have given depth and permanence to the channels
of its delta.

The visitor finds the city very unlike northern towns
with which he has been familiar. To the Creole
quarter especially there is a foreign look, which is
intensified by the frequent sound of foreign speech. It
js as if one had stepped into some old-world town, and
left America, with its newness and its harshness of
speech, far behind. But it is not so far away, either. It
is only around the corner, or, at best, a few squares off*.
New Orleans of the nineteenth century jostles New
Orleans of the eighteenth on every hand. It has seized
upon the old streets, with their quaint French and
Spanish names, and carried them to an extent never
dreamed of by those who originally planned them. It
has reared modern structures beside those hoary with
age, and set down the post common school building and
the heretical Protestant church beside the venerable
convent and the solemn cathedral.

The main streets describe a curve, running parallel
to the river, and present an unbroken line from the
upper to the lower limits of the city, a distance of about
twelve miles. The cross streets run for the most part at
right angles from the Mississippi River, with greater
regularity than might be expected from the curved
outline of the river banks. Many of the streets are
well paved, and some of them are shelled; but many
are unpaved, and, from the nature of the soil, exceed-
ingly muddy in wet weather, and intolerably dusty in
dry. The city is surrounded by cypress swamps, and

NEW ORLEANS. 267

its locality and environments render it very unhealthy,
especially during the summer season. Yet, notwith-
standing its insalubrity, it is constantly increasing in
population and business importance. Certain sanitary
precautions, adopted in later years, have somewhat
improved its condition.

New Orleans has a history extending further back
than that of most southern towns. While others were
making their first feeble struggles for existence with
their treacherous foes, the red-skins, New Orleans was
stirred by discontent and insurrection. In 1690,
d'Iberville, in the name of France, founded the pro-
vince of Louisiana, and Old Biloxi, at the mouth of
the Lost River, as the Mississippi was still termed, was
made the capital. The choice of site proved a disastrous
one, and the seat of government was moved to New
Biloxi, further up the river. Meantime, Bienville, his
younger brother, laid out a little parallelogram of
streets and ditches on a crescent-shaped shore of the
river, in the midst of cypress swamps and willow
jungles. A colony of fifty persons, many of them
galley slaves, formed this new settlement. Houses were
built, a fort added, and the little town received its
present name, in honor of the Regent of France, the
Duke of Orleans. In the same year John Law sent
eight hundred men from La Rochelle. They had no
sooner landed than they scattered to the four winds, a
number of Germans among them alone remaining in or
near the promised city. Amid many discouragements
the town prospered, and when, one after another, three
cargoes of women were sent out from the old country,
to furnish wives for the new settlers, their content was
complete. Thus many of the proudest aristocrats of

268 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

New Orleans trace their descent from these " Filles de
Casette," as they were called, each one being endowed
with a small chest of property.

Here the French Creoles were born, and lived a wild,
unrestrained life, valorous but uneducated, and became
such men and women as one would expect to find in a
military outpost so far from the civilized world. For
sixty-three years the little colony struggled for life,
enduring floods and famines, and the terrors of Indian
warfare, when, in 1762, the province of Louisiana was
transferred by an unprincipled king to Spain. The
news did not reach the remote American settlement
until 1764. It was hardly to be expected that a colony
so separated by time and distance from the mother
country should be intensely loyal, but the people felt
themselves to be French and French only, and they
resented this unwitting transfer of their allegiance as an
unendurable grievance.

The Spanish Governor, Ulloa, did not land in Xew
Orleans until two years later ; and though he showed
himself to be a man of great discretion, and inclined to
adopt a conciliatory policy, the people made the little
town so hot for him, that in two more years he was glad
to return to Spain. They sent a memorial after him,
which, being a most unique document, is worth record-
ing, in substance. Says a recent historian, Mr. George
W. Cable :—

" It enumerated real wrongs, for which France and
Spain, but not Ulloa, were to blame. Again, with these
it mingled such charges against the banished Governor
as — that he had a chapel in his own house ; that he
absented himself from the French churches; that he
inclosed a fourth of the public common to pasture hb

NEW ORLEANS. 269

private horses ; that he sent to Havana for a wet nurse;
that he ordered the abandonment of a brick-yard near
the town, on account of its pools of putrid water ; that
he removed leprous children from the town to the inhos-
pitable settlement at the mouth of the river ; that he
forbade the public whipping of slaves in the town ;
that masters had to go six miles to get a negro flogged ;
that he had landed in New Orleans during a thunder
and rain storm, and under other ill omens ; that he
claimed to be king of the* colony ; that he offended the
people with evidences of sordid avarice ; and that he
added to these crimes — as the text has it — ' many others,
equally just and terrible P "

In 1769 the colony was in open revolt, and was con-
sidering the project of forming a republic. But the
arrival of a Spanish fleet of twenty-four sail checked
their aspirations towards independence, and paralyzed
their efforts, and they yielded without a struggle.

In 1768 New Orleans was a town of 3,200 persons,
a third of whom were black slaves. After the establish-
ment of Spanish rule, although the population was
thoroughly Creole, and opposed to the presence of
English traders, the government at first winked at their
appearance, and finally openly tolerated them, so that
English boats supplied the planters with goods and
slaves, and English warehouses moored upon the river
opposite the town disposed of merchandise.

In 1776, at the breaking out of the American Revolu-
tion, the Creole and Anglo-American came into active
relations with each other, a relation which has since
qualified every public question in Louisiana. The
British traders were suddenly cut off from communica-
tion, and French merchants commanded the trade of

270 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

the Mississippi. Americans followed close after the
French, and the tide of immigration became Anglo-
Saxon. France was openly supporting the American
colonies in their rebellion against England, and in 1779
Spain declared war against Great Britain, so that the
sympathies of the Creoles were led, by every tie, to the
rebels. Galvez, then Governor of Louisiana, and also
son of the Viceroy of Mexico, a young man, brave,
talented and sagacious, who had adopted a most liberal
policy in his administration, discovered that the British
were planning the surprise of New Orleans. Making
hasty but efficient preparations, with a little army of
1,430 men, and with a miniature gun fleet of but ten
guns, he marched, on the twenty-second of August, 1779,
against the British forts on the Mississippi. On the
seventh of September, Fort Bute, on Bayou Manchac,
yielded to the first assault of the Creole Militia. The
Fort of Baton Rouge was garrisoned by five hundred
men with thirteen heavy guns. On the twenty-first of
September, after an engagement of ten hours, Galvez
reached the fort. Its capitulation included the sur-
render of Fort Panmure, a place which, by its position,
would have been very difficult of assault. In the Mis-
sissippi and Manchac, four English schooners, a brig
and two cutters were captured. On the fourteenth of
the following March, Galvez, with an army of two
thousand men, having set sail down the Mississippi,
captured Fort Charlotte, on the Mobile Eiver. On the
eighth of May, 1781, Pensacola, with a garrison of
eight hundred men, and the whole of West Florida,
surrendered to Galvez. One of the rewards bestowed
upon her Governor for his valorous achievements was
the Captain-generalship of Louisiana and West Florida.

NEW ORLEANS. 271

He never returned to New Orleans, however, and four
years later succeeded his father as Viceroy of Mexico.
Thus, while Andrew Jackson was yet a child, New
Orleans was defended from British conquest by this
gallant Spanish soldier.

In 1803 Louisiana was transferred to France by
Spain, and great was the rejoicing of the Creole colon-
ists, who, during the forty years of their Spanish
domination, had never forgotten their French origin.
But their joy was quickly turned to bitterness by the
news which speedily followed, that Louisiana had been
sold, by Napoleon I, to the United States. The younger
generation, and those who had a clear apprehension of
all in the way of prosperity which this change might
mean to them, were quickly reconciled, and set about
the business of life with renewed interest. But to the
French Creoles, as a class, who, during their long
alienation had still at heart been thoroughly French, to
become a part of a republic, and that republic English
in its origin, was intensely distasteful. This was the
deluge indeed, which Providence had not kindly stayed
until after their time. They withdrew into a little com-
munity of their own, and refused companionship with
such as sacrificed their caste by accepting the situation,
and adapting themselves to it. But in spite of these
disaffected persons, the prosperity of the city dated from
that time. Its population increased, and its commerce
made its first small beginnings.

New Orleans was incorporated as a city in 1804, having
then a population of about 8,000 inhabitants. In 1812
the first steamboat was put upon the Mississippi, though
it was not until several years later that, after a period
of experiment and disaster, success was attained with

272 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

them. Yet without steamboats the development of the
great Mississippi Valley, and the creation of the ex-
tended cities upon its banks, would have been well-nigh
impossible. Its winding course, its swift current, its
shifting channel, and the snags which line its bottom,
make navigation by other craft than steamboats well-
nigh impossible. Canoes, batteaux and flat-boats might
make the voyage down the river with tolerable speed
and safety, but to return against the current was a
difficult thing to do; and a trip from St. Louis or
Louisville to New Orleans and return required months.
Where, then, would have been the mighty commerce of
the West, but for the timely invention of the steam
engine, and its application to water craft ?

On January eighth, 1815, New Orleans was success-
fully defended against the British by General- Jackson,
who threw up a strong line of defences around the city,
protected by batteries, and who, with a force of scarcely
six thousand men, defeated fifteen thousand British,
under Sir Edward Packenham, the enemy sus-
taining a loss of seven hundred killed, fourteen hundred
wounded, and five hundred taken prisoners, while the
American loss was but seven men killed and six wounded.
The old battle field is still retained as a historic spot.
It is four and one-half miles south of Canal street,
washed by the waters of the Mississippi, and extends
backward about a mile, to the cedar swamps. A marble
monument, seventy feet in height, and yet unfinished,
commemorative of the victory, overlooks the ground.
In the southwest corner of the field is a national
cemetery.

The old city bears the impress of the two nations to
which it at different times belonged. Many of the

NEW ORLEANS. 273

streets still retain the old French and Spanish names, as,
for instance, Tchapitoulas, Baronne, Perdido, Toulouse,
Bourbon and Burgundy streets. There are still, here and
there, the old houses, sandwiched in between those of a
later generation — quaint, dilapidated, and picturesque.
Sometimes they are rickety, wooden structures, with
overhanging porticoes, and with windows and doors all
out of perpendicular, and ready to crumble to ruin with
age. Others are massive stone or brick structures, with
great arched doorways, and paved floors, worn by the
feet of many generations, dilapidated and heavy, and
possessing no beauty save that which is lent them by
time.

The city is made up of strange compounds, which
even yet, after the lapse of more than three-quarters of
a century since it became an American city, do not per-
fectly assimilate. Spanish, French, Italians, Mexicans
and Indians, Creoles, West Indians, Negroes and
Mulattoes of every shade, from shiny black to a faint
creamy hue, Southerners who have forgotten their foreign
blood, Northerners, Westerners, Germans, Irish and
Scandinavians, all come together here, and jostle one
another in the busy pursuits of life. The levee at New
Orleans represents all spoken languages ; and the popu-
lar levee clerk must have a knowledge of multitudinous
tongues, which would have secured him a high and
authoritative position at Babel. The Romish devotee,
the mild-faced " sister," in her ugly black habiliments
and picturesque head-gear, the disciple of Confucius, the
descendant of the New England Puritan, the dusky
savage, who still looks to the Great Spirit as the giver
of all life and light, the modern skeptic, and the black
devotee of Voodoo, all meet and pass and repass each

274 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

other. All nationalities, all religions, all civilizations,
meet and mingle to make up this city, which, upholding
the cross to indicate its religion, still, in its municipal
character, accepts the Mohammedan symbol of the
crescent. Added to the throng which comes and goes
upon the levee, merchants, clerks, hotel runners, hack-
men, stevedores, and river men of all grades, keep up a
general motion and excitement, while piled upon the
platforms which serve as a connecting link between the
water-craft and the shore, are packages of merchandise
in every conceivable shape, cotton bales seeming to be
most numerous.

Along the river front are congregated hundreds of
steamers, and thousands of nondescript boats, among
them numerous barges and flat-boats, thickly inter-
spersed with ships of the largest size, from whose masts
float the colors of every nation in the civilized world.
New Orleans is emphatically a commercial town, de-
pending in only a small degree, for her success, upon
manufactures.

New Orleans is not a handsome city, architecturally
speaking, though it has a number of fine buildings. Its
situation is such that it could never become imposing,
under the most favorable circumstances. The Custom
House, a magnificent structure, built of Quincy granite,
is, next to the Capitol at Washington, the largest build-
ing in the United States. It occupies an entire square, its
main front being on Canal street, the broadest and hand-
somest thoroughfare in the city. The Post Office occu-
pies its basement, and is one of the most commodious
in the country. The State House is located on St. Louis
street, between Royal and Chartres streets, and was
known, until 1874, as the St. Louis Hotel. The old

JACKSON SQUARE AND OLD CATHEDRAL, NEW ORLEANS.

NEW ORLEANS. 275

dining hall is one of the most beautiful rooms in the
country, and the great inner circle of the dome is richly
frescoed, with allegorical scenes and busts of eminent
Americans. The United States Branch Mint, at the
corner of Esplanade and Decatur streets, is an imposing
building, in the Ionian style. The City Hall, at the
intersection- of St. Charles and Lafayette streets, is the
most artistic of the public buildings of the city. It is
of white marble, in the Ionic style, with a wide and
high flight of granite steps, leading to a beautiful portico.
The old Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Louis is the
most interesting church edifice in New Orleans. It
stands in Chartres street, on the east side of Jacksou
Square. The foundations were laid in 1793, and the
building completed in 1794, by Don Andre Almonaster,
perpetual regidor of the province. It was altered and
enlarged in 1850. The paintings in the roof of the
building are by Canova and Rossi. The old Ursuline
Convent, in Conde street, a quaint and venerable build-
ing, erected in 1787, during the reign of Carlos III,
by Don Andre Almonaster, is one of the most interest-
ing relics of the early Church history of New Orleans.
It is now occupied as a residence by the Bishop.

The Charity Hospital, on Common street, was founded
in 1784, has stood on its present site since 1832, and is
one of the most famous institutions of the kind in the
country. Roman Catholic churches, schools, hospitals
and asylums abound, some of them dating back for
nearly or quite a century.

The St. Charles Hotel is one of the institutions of New
Orleans, and one of the largest and finest hotels in the
United States. It occupies half a square, and is bounded
by St. Charles, Gravior and Common streets. The city

276 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

has a French opera house, an academy of music, and
several theatres and halls. Like those of St. Louis, its
inhabitants are passionately fond of gayety, and places
of amusement are well patronized. Sunday, as in all
Catholic cities, is devoted to recreation, and the inhabit-
ants, in their holiday garments, give themselves up to
enjoyment. Theatres, concert rooms and beer gardens
are filled with pleasure-seekers.

Canal street, the main business thoroughfare and
promenade of New Orleans, is nearly two hundred feet
wide, and has a grass plot twenty-five feet wide, in the
centre, bordered on each side by trees. Claiborne, Ram-
part, St. Charles and Esplanade streets are similarly
embellished. They all contain many fine stores and
handsome residences. Royal, Rampart and Esplanade
streets are the principal promenades of the French
quarter. The favorite drives are out the Shell Road to
Lake Pontchartrain, and out a similar road to Carrollton.
The lake is about five miles north of the city, forty
miles long and twenty-four wide, and is famous for its
fish and game. Cypress swamps, the trees covered with
the long, gray Spanish moss peculiar to the latitude, lie
between the lake and the city, and render the drive in
that direction an interesting one.

Carrollton, in the north suburbs, has many fine public
gardens and private residences. On the opposite shore
of the river is Algiers, where there are extensive dry
docks and ship-yards. A little further up the river, on
the same side, is Gretna, where, during Spanish rule, lay
moored two large floating English warehouses, fitted up
with counters and shelves, and stocked with assorted
merchandise.

New Orleans has a few small, tastefully laid oul

NEW ORLEANS. 277

squares, among which are Jackson, Lafayette, Doug-
lass, Annunciation and Tivoli Circle. The City
Park, near the northeast boundary, contains one hun-
dred and fifty acres, which are tastefully laid out, but
which is little frequented. Jackson Square has a historic
interest, it having been the old Place d'Armes of colonial
times. It was here that Ulloa landed in that ill-omened
thunder storm, and here that public meetings were held
and the colony's small armies gathered together. The
inclosure, though small, is adorned with beautiful trees
and shrubbery, and shell-strewn paths, and in the centre
stands Mills' equestrian statue of General Jackson.

The city is not without other objects of historic
interest. During the Indian wars barracks arose on
either side of the Place d'Armes, and in 1758 other
barracks were added, a part of whose ruin still stands,
in the neighborhood of Barracks street. Then there is
the battle field, already referred to, and many buildings
belonging to a past century, some of which have dis-
tinctive historic associations. Near Jackson Square is
the site of the oldest Capuchin Monastery in the
United States. Sailing down the Mississippi, the
voyager will reach a portion of the stream which flows
almost directly south. Here is a point in the river
which bears the name, to this day, of the English Turn.
Up the mouth of the Mississippi sailed one day, in the
seventeenth century, a proud English vessel, bent on
exploration and acquisition of territory to England.
Threading for a hundred miles the comparatively direct
course of the stream, it had then made two abrupt
right-angled turns, when, coming around a third point,
in advance of it, it saw a French ship, armed and
equipped, and bearing down stream under full sail.

278 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The English ship was given to understand that the
Mississippi was "no thoroughfare" for boats of its
nationality, and commanded to turn and retrace its
course, which it reluctantly, but no less surely did.
fJence the name " English Turn."

The Cemeteries of New Orleans are most peculiar in
their arrangement and modes of interment. The ground
is filled with water up to within two or three feet of
the surface, and the tombs are all above ground. A
great majority of them are also placed one above another.
Each "oven," as it is called, is just large enough to
admit a coffin, and is hermetically sealed when the
funeral rites are over. A marble tablet is usually
placed upon the brick opening. Some of the structures
are, however, costly and beautiful, being made of
marble, granite or iron. There are thirty-three ceme-
teries in and near the city, and of these the Cypress
Grove and Greenwood are best worth visiting.

The most picturesque and characteristic feature of
New Orleans is the French Market, on the Levee, near
Jackson Square. The gathering begins at break of
day on week-days and a little later on Sunday morning,
and comprises people of every nationality represented
in the city. French is the prevailing language, but it
will be heard in every variety, from the pure Parisian
to the childish jargon of the negroes.

Mardi-Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, is observed in New
Orleans by peculiar rites and ceremonies. Rex, King
of the Carnival, takes possession of the city, and passes
through the streets, accompanied by a large retinue, his
staff and courtiers robed in Oriental splendor. The
city gives itself up to mirth and gayety, with an abandon
only paralleled by that witnessed in Italy on the same

NEW ORLEANS. 279

occasion; and the day is concluded by receptions,
tableaux and balls.

New Orleans boasts a semi-tropical climate, being
situated in latitude 29° 58' north. The summers are
oppressively hot, but the winters are mild and pleasant,
with just sufficient frost to kill any germs of disease
engendered by her unhealthful situation. Semi-tropical
fruits, such as the orange, banana, fig and pine-apple,
grow readily in her gardens, where are also cultivated
many of the productions of the temperate zone. The
neighboring country is clothed with a rich and luxuriant
Bemi-tropical vegetation, and forests of perennial green,
in which the cypress and live-oak predominate.

New Orleans had a population, in 1820, of 27,000.
In 1850 it had increased to 116,375, and in 1860 to
168,675. In common with other cities of the South,
New Orleans suffered in her business interests severely
during the war of the Rebellion. Louisiana having
seceded from the Union in 1861, New Orleans was closely
blockaded by the Federal fleet, and on April twenty-
fourth, 1862, the defences near the mouth of the river
were forced by Commodore Farragut, in command of an
expedition of gunboats. On the surrender of the city
General B. F. Butler was appointed its military
Governor, and held possession of it until the close of
the war. Its commerce was entirely destroyed during
that period, its business interests crushed, and many of
its leading men impoverished, and, in addition, the
State was disturbed by intestine troubles, which kept
affairs in an unsettled condition. New Orleans did not
rally as quickly as St. Louis from the effects of the war.
Nevertheless, in 1870 its population had increased to
191,418, and in 1874 the value of its exports, including

280 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

rice, flour, pork, tobacco, sugar, etc., but excepting
cotton, were estimated at §93,715,710. Its imports the
same year were valued at more than §14,000,000. It
is the chief cotton mart of the world, and its wharves
are lined with ships which bear this commodity to
every quarter of the globe. In the amount and value
of its exports, it ranks second only to New York,
though its imports are not in the same proportion,
which always speaks well for the business prosperity of
a city. The census of 1880 gave it a population of
216,140, showing that its progress still continues. No
longer cursed by the presence of the "peculiar institu-
tion/' its former slave marts turned into commercial
depots or abolished altogether, and its population num-
bering to a greater degree every year the industrious
class, New Orleans will do more in the future than
maintain her present prosperity; she will build up
new industries, and originate new schemes of advance-
ment; so that she is certain to continue her present
supremacy over her sister cities in the South.

CHAPTER XXI.

NEW YORK.

Early History of New York. — During the Revolution. — Evacuation
Day. — Bowling Green. — Wall Street. — Stock Exchange. — Jacob
Little.— Daniel Drew.— Jay Cooke.— Rufus Hatch.— The Van-
derbilts. — Jay Gould. — Trinity Church. — John Jacob Astor. —
Post-Office. — City Hall and Court House. — James Gordon
Bennett. — Printing House Square. — Horace Greeley. — Broad-
way.— Union Square. — Washington Square. — Fifth Avenue. —
Madison Square. — Cathedral. — Murray Hill. — Second Avenue.
— Booth's Theatre and Grand Opera House. — The Bowery. —
Peter Cooper. — Fourth Avenue. — Park Avenue. — Five Points
and its Vicinity. — Chinese Quarter. — Tornbs. — Central Park. — •
Water Front. — Blackwell's Island. — Hell Gate. — Suspension
Bridge. — Opening Day. — Tragedy of Decoration Day. — New
York of the Present and Future.

ESS than three hundred years ago the narrow strip
I J of territory now occupied by what its wide-awake
and self-asserting citizens delight to term " The Metropo-
lis of the New World/' was a broken and rugged
wilderness, which the foot of white man had never trod,
not, at least, within the memory of its then oldest inhabit-
ants, a few half-naked savages of the Manhattan tribe,
from whom the island derives its name of Manhattan.
In 1609 Henry Hudson, an English navigator in the
service of the Dutch East India Company, landed near
the present site of the Battery, securing, by right of dis-
covery, the territory to the States of the Netherlands.
Dutch traders soon followed, and in 1614 a small fort
and four houses were erected in the neighborhood of
what is now Bowling Green. The infant metropolis

281

282 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

was christened New Amsterdam, and Peter Minuits sent
out, in 1626, as its first Governor. He purchased the
island from its native owners, for goods, about twenty-
four dollars in value. Minuits was recalled in 1631,
his successors being Wonter Von T wilier, 1633 ; Wil-
liam Krift, 1638; and Peter Stuyvesant, 1647. In
1644 a fence was built nearly along the line of what is
now Wall street, and in 1653 palisades and breast-
works, protected by a ditch, were added along this line.
These palisades remained in existence until near the
beginning of the present century.

Peter Stuyvesant was the last of the Dutch Governors.
In 1664 Charles II, of England, gave the territory to
his brother James, Duke of York, and an expedition
was sent out under the command of Colonel Richard
Nicholls, to take possession of it. The fort was easily
captured, and the name of the settlement changed to New
York. In 1673 the town was recaptured by the Dutch,
who agaiu changed its name to New Orange ; but the
following year it was restored to the English by treaty.

In 1689 Jacob Leister instituted an insurrection
against the unpopular administration of Nicholls, which
he easily overthrew, and strengthened the fort by a
battery of six guns outside its walls. This was the
origin of the "Battery." In 1691 he was arrested and
convicted on a charge of treason and murder, condemned
to death, and executed.

Negro slavery was introduced into New York at an
early period, and in the year 1741 the alleged discovery
of a plot of the slaves to burn the city and murder the
whites resulted in twenty negroes being hanged, a
lesser number being burned at the stake, and seventy-
five being transported.

NEW YORK. 283

From the very first the mass of citizens of New York
took an active part in the struggle for independence. In
1765 the "Sons of Liberty" were organized to resist
the Stamp Act; in 1770 a meeting of three thousand
citizens resolved not to submit to this oppression; and in
1773 a Vigilance Committee was formed to resist the
landing of the tea, by whom, in the following year, a
tea-laden vessel was sent back to England, while
eighteen chests of tea were thrown overboard from
another. On the eighteenth of September, 1776, as a
result of the disastrous defeat of the American troops,
under General Washington, on Long Island, New
York fell into the hands of the British, who held it
until the twenty-sixth of November, 1783, when they
evacuated it. The day is still annually celebrated, under

e name of " Evacuation Day."

From 1784 to 1797 New York was the Capital of the
>tate, and from 1785 to 1790 the seat of government of
United States. The adoption of the National Con-
stitution was celebrated in grand style in 1788 ; and on
April thirtieth, 1789, Washington was inaugurated at
the City Hall, as the first President of the United States.

In 1791 the city was visited by yellow fever. In
1795 and 1798 it reappeared, with added violence, over
two thousand persons falling victims to it during the
latter year. It made visits at intervals until 1805, after
which it did not reappear until 1819. It came again in
1822 and 1823, occasioning considerable alarm, but
since then its visits in an epidemic form have ceased.

In 1820 the surveying and laying out of Manhattan
Island north of Houston street, after ten years of labor,
was completed. The opening of the Erie Canal, in 1825,
gave the city a fresh impetus on the road to prosperity.

284 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The first steam ferry between New York and Jersey
City was started in 1812. In 1825 the city was first
lighted by gas ; while the great Croton Aqueduct, through
which it receives its immense water supply, was not
completed until 1842.

In December, 1835, the most disastrous fire ever
known in the city destroyed over $18,000,000 worth of
property. In July, 1845, a second conflagration con-
sumed property to the amount of $5,000,000. Both
these great fires were in the very heart of the business
portion of the city.

In July, 1853, an industrial exhibition was opened,
with striking ceremonies, in a so-called Crystal Palace,
on Reservoir Square. This building, in the form of a
Greek cross, was made almost wholly of iron and glass,
being three hundred and sixty-five feet in length each
way, with a dome one hundred and twenty- three feet
high. The flooring covered nearly six acres of ground.
This structure was destroyed by fire in 1858.

New York has been the scene of several sanguinary
riots within the past half century. In 1849, when
Macready, the English tragedian, attempted to play a
second engagement at the Astor Place Opera House,
the friends of Forrest attacked the building, resulting
in calling out of the military, the killing of thirty-two
persons, and wounding of thirty-six others. In July,
1863, a mob, made up of the poorer classes of the popu-
lation, rose in fierce opposition to the draft rendered
necessary by the requisition for troops by the general
government. For several days this mob was in practi-
cal possession 0f the city, and it was dispersed only by
a free use of military force. This mob resulted in the
death of one thousand persons, and the destruction of

<M zr\c\ nr

NEW YORK. 285

$1,500,000 worth of property. In 1871 a collision
occurred between a procession of Irish Orangemen, who
were commemorating the Battle of the Boyne, and their
Catholic fellow-countrymen, during which sixty-two
persons lost their lives.

The summer of 1871 was made memorable by the
discovery that the most stupendous frauds upon the public
treasury had been carried on for several years, by certain
city officials, some of whom had been extraordinarily

pular. A mass meeting, called at Cooper Institute
u the fourth of September, appointed a committee of

venty-six to take measures for securing better govern-

ent for the city. The elections in November following
resulted in a complete sweeping out of the obnoxious
officials, many of whom were subsequently prosecuted,
convicted and imprisoned, or obliged to fly the country.

New York City, the greater portion of which lies on
Manhattan Island, is situated at the mouth of the
Hudson River, some eighteen miles from the Atlantic
Ocean. Its extreme length north from the Battery is
sixteen miles, while the average breadth of the island is
one and three-fifths of a mile. The city has an area of
about 27,000 acres, of which 14,000 are on Manhattan
Island, and about 12,000 on the main land; while the
remainder is in the East River and the Bay, and
includes Ward's, Blackwell's, Randall's, Governor's
Ellis', and Bedloe's Islands. It is bounded on the north
by the town of Yonkers ; on the east by the Bronx and
East Rivers ; on the south by the Bay ; and on the west
by the Hudson River. Manhattan Island is separated
on the north, from the main land, by Spuyten Duyvel
Creek and Harlem River, both names recalling the
Dutch origin of the city.

286 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The more ancient portion of New York, from Four-
teenth street to the Battery, is laid out somewhat irregu-
larly. As far north as Central Park, five miles from the
Battery, it is quite compactly built. Various localities
in the more northern and less densely built-up part of
the island are known by different names ; as York vi lie,,
near Eighty-sixth street ; and Harlem, in the vicinity of
One-hundred-and-tweuty-fifth street, on the eastern side ;
and Bloomingdale and Manhattan ville, opposite them, on
the western. North of Manhattanville, near One-hun-
dred-and-fiftieth street, is Carmansville, and a mile and
a half further north are Washington Heights ; while
In wood lies at the extreme northwestern point of the
island. All these are places of interest, and offer
numerous attractions to the visitor.

That part of New York lying on the mainland, com-
prising the twenty-third and twenty-fourth wards, was
added to it in 1874, and contains many thriving towns
and villages. Prominent among them is Morrisania,
with avenues running north and south, and streets
crossing them at right angles, and numbered in continu-
ation of those of Manhattan Island. Numerous other
towns, with a host of beautiful country residences, are
scattered over the high and rolling land of which this
late addition to the area of the city is composed ; but
with the exception of Morrisania it has not yet been
regularly laid out for building purposes. The whole
country in this section of the city, with a romantic
natural beauty, to which wealth and artistic taste have
largely contributed, is a perfect paradise of picturesque-
ness.

The foreigner who visits New York usually ap-
proaches it from the lower bay, through the " Narrows/'

NEW YORK. 287

a strait lying between Staten Island on the left and Long
Island on the right. From the heights of the former,
a beautiful island, rising green and bold from the water's
edge, frown the massive battlements of Fort Wadsworth
and Fort Tompkins ; while on the latter is Fort Ham-
ilton ; and in the midst of the water, gloomy and barren,
is Fort Lafayette, famous as a political prison during
the late war. New York Bay is one of the most
beautiful, if not the most beautiful, in the world.
Staten Island rises abruptly on one shore, with hills and
valleys, green fields and trees, villages and villas ; and
on the other shore are the wood-crowned bluffs of Long
Island. Within the bay Ellis7 Island is near the
Jersey shore ; Bedloe's Island is not far from its centre,
and is the selected site of the colossal statue of Liberty
which France has presented to New York ; while Gov-
ernor's Island, the largest of the three, lies to the right,
between New York and Brooklyn. Each island is
fortified, the latter containing Castle William and old
Fort Columbus.

The bay is dotted with the shipping of every nation.
Ocean steamers are setting out on their long journeys,
or just returning from foreign shores. The finest steam-
boats and ferry boats in the world dart hither and
thither, like water spiders on the surface of a glassy
pool. Tugs, oyster boats, and sailing vessels of every
size and description, are all represented. It is a moving
panorama of water craft. As the city is approached,
gradually, from the distant haze which broods over it,
is evolved the forms of towers, spires, and roofs, and all
its varied and picturesque outlines. The city presents a
beautiful view from the bay. It rises gradually from the
water's edge, some portions of it to a considerable

288 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

lion. A prominent feature in its outline is the graceful,
tapering spire of Trinity Church, while higher still rises
the clock-tower of the Tribune building. Other towers,
spires and domes, break the monotony of roofs and
walls. Approaching the mouth of the East River, the
most striking objects are the massive towers of the
Suspension Bridge, one on either shore, while between
them is the bridge, swung upon what seem at a distance
like the merest cobwebs.

At the extreme southern end of Manhattan Island is
the Battery, already referred to, a park of several acres,
protected by a granite sea wall. It presents a beautiful
stretch of green turf, fine trees and wide pathways.
On its southwest border is Castle Garden, a circular
brick structure, which has a history of its own. It was
originally constructed for a fort, and was afterwards con-
verted into a summer garden. A great ball, to Marquis
Lafayette, was given in it in 1824; and General Jack-
son in 1832, and President Tyler in 1843, held public
receptions there. Then it was turned into a concert
hall, and is chiefly famous, as such, as being the place
where Jenny Lind made her first appearance in America.
It is now an emigrant depot, and on days of the arrival
of emigrant ships, it is very entertaining to watch the
troops of emigrants, with their quaint gait, unfamiliar
language, and strange, un-American faces, passing out
of its portals, and making their first entrance into their
new life on the western continent.

Just east of the Battery is Whitehall, the terminus of
numerous omnibus and car lines, and the location of the
Staten Island, South and Hamilton ferries. There, too,
is the depot of the elevated railways, which extend in
four lines, two on the eastern side and two on the

NEW YORK. 289

western, the entire length of the city. The Corn Ex-
change, an imposing building, is at the upper end of
Whitehall. At the junction of Whitehall with Broad-
way is a pretty, old-fashioned square, shaded with trees,
and surrounded by an iron fence, called Bowling Green.
This was the aristocratic quarter of the city in its early
days. No. 1 Broadway, known as the u*old Kennedy
House," was built in 1760, and has been, successively,
the residence and headquarters of Lords Con wall is and
Howe, General Sir Henry Clinton and General Wash-
ington, while Talleyrand lived there during his stay in
America. Benedict Arnold concocted his treasonable
projects at No. 5 Broadway. At No. 11 General Gates
had his headquarters. A few of the old buildings still
remain, but they have many of them already given way
to more modern and more pretentious structures. The
posts of the iron fence around Bowling Green were once
surmounted by balls, but they were knocked off and
used for cannon balls during the Revolution. An
equestrian statue of King George III, which once orna-
mented the Square, was melted up during the same
period, and furnished material for forty-two thousand
bullets. '

The stranger in New York sometimes wonders why its
principal business street is called Broadway, since there
are many others which are quite as broad, some of them
even broader. But if he will visit the extreme southern
portion of the city, he will quickly comprehend. The
old streets are narrow, being scarcely more than mere
alleys, with pavements barely broad enough for two to
walk abreast, so that Broadway, when originally laid
out, seemed a magnificent thoroughfare.

As already described, Wall street formed the northern

290 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

boundary of the young colonial city. In that early day,
as now, wealth and fashion sought to avoid the more
plebeian business streets, and so withdrew to the neigh-
borhood of this northern boundary, and established,
first their residences, and then their commercial houses.
Wall street then became what it has since remained,
the monetary centre of the city, only that now it is
more than that; it is the great monetary centre of
the entire country. On it and the blocks leading from
it, all embraced in comparatively a few acres, are prob-
ably stored more gold and silver than in all the rest of
the United States put together, while the business inter-
ests represented extend to every section, not only of the
continent, but of the world.

Nowhere else in America are there such and so many
magnificent buildings as in this section of the city. The
streets are narrow, and overshadowed as they are by
edifices six or more stories in height, seem to be dwarfed
into mere alley-ways. Nearly every building is worthy
of being called a temple or a palace. White marble and
brown stone, with every style of architecture, abound.
The United States Sub-Treasury Building, at the corner
of Wall and Nassau streets, is a stately white marble
structure in the Doric style, occupying the site of the
old Federal Hall, in which Washington delivered his
first inaugural address. Opposite is the white marble
palace, in the style of the Renaissance, known as the
Drexel Building. A little further down the street, at the
corner of William, is the United States Custom House,
formerly the Merchants7 Exchange, built of granite. It
has a portico supported by twelve massive columns, and
its rotunda in the interior is supported by eight columns
of Italian marble, the Corinthian capitals of which were

NEW YORK. 291

carved in Italy. Opposite this building is the handsome
structure of the Bank of New York. Banks, and
bankers' and brokers' offices fill the street, and are
crowded into the side streets.

On Broad street, a short distance below "Wall, is the
Stock Exchange, a handsome, but not large building,
which in point of interest towers over all others in the
locality. Here are daily enacted the comedies and trage-
dies of financial life, and here fortunes are made and
fortunes lost by that system of gigantic gambling which
has come to be known as " dealing in stocks." The
operations of the Stock Exchange and Gold Room
concern the whole country, both financially and indus-
trially. Here is the true governmental centre, rather
than at Washington. Wall and Broad streets dictate to
Congress what the laws of the country concerning finance
shall be, and Congress obeys. The Bankers' Association
holds the menace over the government that if their in-
terests are not consulted, they will bring ruin upon the
country ; and it is in their power to execute the threat.
This power was illustrated on the twenty-fourth of.
September, 1869, a day memorable as Black Friday in
the history of Wall street. By a small but strong com-
bination of bears, gold was made to fall in seventeen
minutes, from 1.60 to 1.30, after a sale of $50,000,000
had been effected, and thousands of men, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, were ruined. Money was locked
up, and could not be obtained even at a premium of one
hundred per cent. This was the forerunner of the panic
which came four years later, in 1873. Then the Union
Trust Company failed, carrying with it Jay Cooke, Fisk
and Hatch, Henry Clews, Howe and Macy, and other
houses. For the first time during its existence the Stock

292 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Exchange was closed. Without its closing, not a mer-
chant or banker could have survived. With its doors
shut no contract could be completed nor stocks trans-
ferrred, and it gave people time, which was absolutely
needed, to do what they could ; or else universal and
overwhelming ruin would have swept over the country.
As it was, not less than twenty thousand firms went
under, and the stringency of the times was felt through-
out the nation, depressing business and checking indus-
try, until Congress took measures for its relief.

The names of Jacob Little, Leonard W. Jerome,
Daniel Drew, Jay Cooke, Augustus Schell, Rufus Hatch,
James Fisk, Jr., Jay Gould, Commodore Yanderbilt,
Wm. H. Vanderbilt, and others, are permanently asso-
ciated with Wall street. Jacob Little was known as the
" Great Bear of Wall street." He originated the daring,
dashing style of business in stocks, and was always
identified with the bears. Meeting many reverses, he
died at last, comparatively poor, the Southern Rebellion
having swept away his little remaining fortune.

Leonard W. Jerome was at one time financially the
rival of Vanderbilt and Drew, with a fortune estimated
at from six to ten millions. He assumed an unequaled
style of magnificence in living ; but reverses came, and
his splendid property on Madison Square, including
residence, costly stables and private theatre, passed into
the hands of the Union League Club, and was occupied
by them until they went to their new quarters in Fifth
A venue. He himself is now forgotten, although a man
scarcely past the prime of life; but his name is perpetu-
ated in the Jerome Race Course.

Daniel Drew came to New York a poor boy, and, by
persistent industry and business capacity, worked hia

NEW YORK. 293

way up to the highest round of the commercial ladder.
In 1838 Drew put an opposition boat upon the Hud-
son, with fare at one dollar to Albany; and shortly
afterward established the People's Line, which has been
so successful. The panic of 1873 affected him seriously,
but he staved off failure until 1875. He died in 1879,
leaving next to nothing of the millions he had made
during his lifetime. St. Paul's Church, in Fourth
avenue; the Methodist Church at Carmel, Putnam
County, New York, his native place; and Drew Theo-
logical Seminary, are monuments of his munificence
while money was at his command.

Jay Cooke, having been already tolerably successful
in business, amassed his millions by negotiating the war
loan. He was regarded as one of the most prominent
and safe financiers in the country ; but in 1873 his fail-
ure was complete, and he has not since been heard of in
financial circles.

Rufus Hatch is one of the successful stock operators
of New York. Beginning life with nothing, and meet-
ing reverses as well as successes, he is now known as one
of the boldest and most gigantic of street operators.

The name of James Fisk, Jr., is associated with that
of the Erie Railroad. He commenced life as a peddler.
In 1868 he was appointed Comptroller of the Erie Road,
and immediately set about building up the fortunes of
that corporation. He appeared on Wall street as an
assistant of Daniel Drew ; made himself master of the
Narragansett Steamship Company, and changed th«
condition of its affairs from disaster to success. He was
one of the conspirators on Black Friday of 1869. He
purchased the Opera House and the Fifth Avenue
Theatre, finding them both good investments. He

294 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

was shot by Edward S. Stokes, both himself and Stokes
having become entangled with a woman named Helen
Josephine Mansfield. After his death his supposed
great private fortune dwindled into a comparatively
small amount.

Commodore Vanderbilt also started in life a penniless
boy, and became, eventually, the great King of Wall
street. He built up the Harlem River Railroad, origi-
nated gigantic enterprises; sent a line of steamships
across the ocean; gained control of the Hudson River
Railroad and other roads; and died in 1877, worth not
far from $100,000,000, the bulk of which he left to his
eldest son, William H. Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt
name has lost none of its lustre in the hands of the
second generation. In less than ten years, after a
career of unequaled brilliancy in the financial world,
William H. Vanderbilt retired, with a fortune probably
double that of his father.

Jay Gould also achieved success from small begin-
nings. He was in company with Fisk in the control of
the Erie Railroad, and an associate in bringing about
the disasters of Black Friday. Soon after the death of
Greeley he secured a controlling interest in the New
York Tribune. He is still a power in Wall street, and
a great railroad magnate.

Broad street still has historical associations clinging
about it. At the corner of Broad and Pearl streets is
the famous De Lancy House, built early in the last
century by Stephen De Lancy, a Huguenot refugee
from Normandy. In this house, on the evening of
November twenty-fifth, 1783, Washington and his staff,
with Governor Clinton, celebrated the evacuation of
the city by the British troops, and a few days later

NEW YORK. 295

Washington bade his officers farewell, before departing
for Annapolis to resign his commission. The house,
having passed through successive stages of degeneration,
had at one time sunk so low as to have become a
German tenement house, with a lager beer saloon on the
third floor. It has recently been renovated, and has
again put on an air of respectability. It still bears
upon it the words : " Washington's Headquarters."
All about it are, here and there, the relics of the past, in
the shape of houses which once were homes of the gen-
tility, in colonial times.

Pearl street is said to have been originally a cow-path,
and it is certainly crooked enougM to justify such an
origin. It is the locality of the Cotton Exchange and
the cotton brokers.

On Broadway, at the head of Wall street, is Trinity
Church, whose spire 'was, until a recent period, the highest
in the city, being two hundred and eighty-four feet in
height. In the early days, when the aristocracy were
seeking the select neighborhood of Wall street, this
church corporation established itself upon the utmost
northern confines of the city. Its original edifice was
destroyed by fire, and the present one was erected in
1846. It is of brown stone, in pure gothic architecture,
and one of the most beautiful in New York. In the
rich carving of the exterior numerous birds have built
their nests. It has stained glass windows, and the finest
chime of bells in America. Within the church is a
costly reredos in memory of John Jacob Astor. A
venerable graveyard lies to its north, where repose the
remains of Alexander Hamilton, Captain Lawrence, of
the Chesapeake, Robert Fulton, and the unfortunate
Charlotte Temple. Some of the headstones, brown and

296 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

crumbling with age, and bearing grotesque carved
effigies of angels, date back for more than a century. In
the northeast corner is a stately monument erected to the
memory of the patriots who died in British prisons in
New York during the Revolution. Trinity Parish is the
oldest in the city, and fabulously wealthy, the corpora-
tion having been granted, by Queen Anne, in 1705, a
large tract of land west of Broadway, extending as far
north as Christopher street, known as the " Queen's
Farm." The land, at that time remote from the city,
now embraces some of its most valuable business por-
tions. It is all leased of Trinity Church by the occu-
pants, and the churth, when the leases expire, becomes
possessed of the buildings and improvements upon the
ground, and is thus constantly augmenting its wealth.
The claims of the Jans Anneke heirs involve this vast
estate. It has three chapels, one of which, St. Paul's,
is a few blocks above, on the corner of Broadway and
"Vesey streets, and is surrounded by a graveyard almost
as ancient as that of Trinity.

At the northwest corner of Vesey street and Broad-
way is the Astor House, which, when it was built,
something more than a generation ago, was a marvel of
size and splendor, though it is now thrown in the shade
by more modern structures. John Jacob Astor, its
builder, was born near Heidelberg, in Germany, in 1765,
and came penniless to the new world, to seek his fortune.
After serving as a clerk, he then engaged in a small way
in the fur business, which eventually grew to the pro-
portions of the American Fur Company, and brought to
its founder a large fortune, though no one outside his
family ever knew its exact amount. He settled most
of his aifairs before his death, selling the Astor House

"•I

li

1 ' fi

NEW YORK. 297

to his son William, for the consideration of one dollar.
Much of his property was in real estate, which constantly
increased in value. He died in 1848, and his senior
son being an imbecile, William B. Astor, the younger
brother, inherited most of his father's fortune. The son
became vastly richer than his father, dying in 1875,
leaving behind him a fortune of $50,000,000, which
was mostly bequeathed to his eldest son, John Jacob,
who is now the head of the house.

The Post Office stands opposite the Astor House, on
the east side of Broadway, at the southern extremity of
City Hall Park. It is a massive structure, of Doric and
Renaissance architecture, four stories in height, beside a
Mansard roof, costing $7,000,000.

Half a century ago the City Hall Park was the chief
park of New York, and the elegance and aristocracy of
the city gathered around it. The City Hall stands in
the park, and back of it is the new Court House, still
unfinished, a massive edifice in Corinthian style, which,
when completed, will have a dome two hundred and ten
feet above the sidewalk.

On the western side of Broadway, opposite St. Paul's,
is the splendid building of the New York Herald. The
Herald is the representative newspaper of New York,
and is probably the most enterprising sheet in the world.
James Gordon Bennett, its founder, was born in Scot-
land in 1795, and came to America in 1819. After
various literary ventures, he decided to establish a paper
which should embody his ideal of a metropolitan journal.
On the sixth of May, 1855, the first number of the
New York Herald was issued, being then a small penny
sheet. Mr. Bennett was editor, reporter and corres-
pondent. He was his own compositor and errand boy,

298 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

mailed his papers and kept his accounts. His rule, from
the very first, was never to run a dollar in debt. He
succeeded in establishing a paper which has no parallel
in history, while, since his death, his son's enterprise has
still further increased its scope and popularity. Young
Bennett, the present proprietor of the Herald, named
after his father, was trained especially for the duties
which were to devolve upon him. He is thoroughly at
home in French, German, Italian and Scotch. He is a
skilled engineer, and can run either the engines or
presses of his establishment. He is a practical printer,
and can also telegraph with skill and accuracy. He gives
strict personal supervision to the affairs of his immense
establishment, which yields him a yearly income equal-
ing that of a merchant prince.

Extending from the Herald Building northward, on
the eastern side of City Hall Park, is what is known as
Printing House Square, including the offices of the
principal daily and weekly papers. The magnificent
granite structure of the Stoats Zeitung faces this square on
the north. The immense Tribune Building, nine stories
high, with its tall clock tower, flanks it on the east, on
Nassau street. The Sun modestly nestles in the shadow
of the Tribune. TJje Times Building is found on Park
Row, where also is the World office. Truth lurks in a
basement on Nassau street. But a square or two below
is the Evening Post Building, where the venerable poet
Bryant labored at his editorial duties for so many years.
A statue of Franklin occupies a small open triangular
space in the midst of the square.

Horace Greeley's name is inseparably associated with
that of the Tribune, which he founded. Honest and
single-minded, he wielded a mighty influence, and his

NEW YORK. 299

paper was a great political power in the country. He
often made enemies by his honesty and straight-forward-
ness ; but both enemies and friends respected him. In
1872 the Liberal Republican and Democratic parties
nominated him as their choice for President. Believing
that he could rally around him men of all parties who
desired to see reform in political methods, he accepted
the nomination ; and was attacked so bitterly by those
whom he had supposed to be his friends, and met such
overwhelming defeat in the contest, that, taken with the
death of his wife within a week of the election,
he was crushed completely, his reason left him, and
before the end of a month he died a broken-hearted
man.

North of the City Hall Park, on the corner of
Chambers street, is the old wholesale house of A. T.
Stewart, now devoted to other purposes, and having two
stories added to its top. Here, a generation ago, the
belles of New York City came to do their shopping, it
having been originally built for the retail trade, as a few
years later they flocked to the new retail store on Broad-
way, between Ninth and Tenth. The name of A. T.
Stewart is no longer heard in New York, save in con-
nection with the past. It was a power in its day and
generation. Few men had more to do with Wall street
than Stewart, and his mercantile business was carried on
in the Wall street style. He " cornered " goods, " sold
short," "loaded the market," and "bought long."
Having emigrated from the north of Ireland, he first
opened business in a small way, himself and wife living
in one room over their store. Beginning at the very
lowest round of the ladder, he worked with the fixed
resolution of becoming the first merchant in the land.

300 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

He always lived within his income, and never bought a
dollar's worth of merchandise that he could not pay
cash for. In the days of his prosperity he built for
himself and wife a marble palace, at the corner of Fifth
avenue and Thirty- fourth street, the most finely-finished
and elegantly-furnished residence in the country. He
died in 1876, worth, probably, $50,000,000. The theft
of his remains from the graveyard of St. Mark's Church,
at Ninth street and Second avenue, was the nine days'
wonder of the time ; and the vault prepared for their
reception, in the fine Cathedral at Garden City, Long
Island, remains empty.

Broadway, almost from the Battery, is bordered by
magnificent structures. The lower eno>of this thorough-
fare is devoted principally to insurance, bankers' and
brokers', railway and other offices, and to the whole-
sale trade. Above Canal street the retail stores begin
to appear at intervals, and as one approaches Ninth
street ladies multiply on the western pavement. From
Ninth street up, the retail trade monopolizes the street,
and on pleasant afternoons the pavement is filled with
elegantly dressed ladies who are out shopping. At Tenth
street Broadway makes a bend to the westward, and on
the eastern side of the way, facing obliquely down the
thoroughfare, is Grace Church and parsonage, both
elegant structures. Grace Church is a fashionable place
of worship, and the scene of the most exclusive wed-
dings and funerals of the city.

Union Square is reached at Fourteenth street. It is
oval in form, with beautiful green turf, trees and walks,
and contains a fine fountain in the centre, a colossal
bronze statue of Washington on a granite pedestal, and
statues of Hamilton and Lafayette. Along its northern

NEW YORK. 301

end is a wide plaza for military parades and popular
assemblies. Union Square was once a fashionable resi-
dence quarter, but it is now occupied almost wholly by
business. At Twenty-third street, Broadway runs
diagonally across Fifth avenue, touching the south-
western corner of Madison Square — not so very long
since the most genteel locality in New York, but now,
like Union Square, becoming occupied by hotels and
business houses.

Fifth Avenue, the most splendid avenue in America,
makes a beginning at Washington Square, a lovely public
park embowered in trees, which was once Potters7 Field,
the pauper burying ground, and where one hundred
thousand bodies lie buried. New York University and
Dr. Hutton's Church face the square on the east. The
southern side is given up to business, but the north and
west are still occupied by handsome private residences.
Fifth Avenue is a continuous line of palatial hotels,
gorgeous club-houses, brownstone mansions and mag-
nificent churches. No plebeian horse cars are permitted
to disturb its well-bred quiet, and the rumble of ele-
gant equipages is alone heard upon its Belgian pave-
ment.

Business is already invading the lower portion of the
avenue, piano warehouses being especially prominent.
On Madison Square are the Fifth Avenue Hotel and
the Hoffman House. Opposite the latter house is a
monument erected to General Worth, a hero of the
Mexican war. Delmonico's and the Caf6 Brunswick,
rival restaurants, occupy opposite corners of Twenty-
sixth street. The Stevens House is an elegant family
hotel on Fifth Avenue and Twenty-seventh street,
running to Broadway. At Twenty-ninth street is the

302 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Congregational Church, a stately granite edifice; and
on the same street, just east of the Avenue, is the Church
of the Transfiguration, popularly known as " the little
church around the corner/' a name bestowed on it by a
neighboring clergyman, who, refusing to bury an actor
from his own church, referred the applicant to this. At
the corner of Thirty-fourth street is the Stewart marble
palace already referred to. From Forty-first to Forty-
second streets is the distributing reservoir of the Cro-
ton Water-works, with walls of massive masonry in the
Egyptian style. The Crystal Palace of 1853 occupied
this square. The Avenue has at this place ascended to
a considerable elevation, and the locality, embracing
several streets and avenues, is known as Murray Hill,
the most wealthy and exclusive quarter of the city. At
Forty-third street is the Jewish Temple Emanuel,
the finest specimen of Moorish architecture in the
country.

Occupying the block between Fiftieth and Fifty-first
streets is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Patrick,
commenced in 1858, and with the towers still incom-
plete. It is of white marble, in decorated Gothic style;
and the largest and handsomest church in the country.
It is elaborately carved, the numerous rose windows
seeming almost like lace work. When completed it
will have two spires, ornamented with buttresses, niches
with statues, and pinnacles, and three hundred and
twenty-eight feet in height. The interior is as beauti-
ful as a dream. It is entirely of white marble. Mass-
ive pillars with elaborately carved capitals support the
arched roof, while the light is softened and subdued by
beautiful stained-glass windows. The building is in
such perfect proportion that one does not realize its

NEW YORK. 303

immense size until he descries the priest at the altar,
so far away as to seem a mere child.

But eight, squares away is Central Park, the great
breathing-place of the city. Looking back, down the
Avenue, from the entrance to the Park, there is seen a
forest of spires rising from magnificent churches which
we have had no space to mention, and blocks upon blocks
of palatial residences, the homes of the millionaires of
the city. The eastern side of Fifth Avenue, facing the
Park for a number of blocks, is occupied by elegant
private residences.

Madison Avenue starts from Madison Square, running
through to Forty-second street. It, with parallel ave-
nues and places, shares the prestige of Fifth Avenue, as
being the aristocratic quarter of the city.

Fourteenth street, once a fashionable thoroughfare, is
now fast being occupied by large retail stores.

The avenues, commencing at First, and numbering
as high as Eleventh, run north and south, parallel to
Fifth A venue, already described. They are supplemented
on the eastern side, at the widest part of the island, by
avenues A, B, C, and D. Most of these avenues com-
mence on the eastern side at Houston street, the north-
ern boundary of the city in the early part of the present
century. On the western side, with the exception of
Fifth and Sixth, they commence but little below Four-
teenth street. They are mostly devoted to retail trade,
and, on seeing their miles of stores, one wonders where,
even in a great city like New York, all the people come
from who support them.

Second Avenue is almost the only exception among
the avenues. Early in the century it was what Fifth
Avenue has become to-day, the fashionable residence

301 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

avenue; and even yet some of the old Knickerbocker
families cling to it, living in their roomy, old-fashioned
houses., and maintaining an exclusive society, while they
look down with disdain upon the par venues of Fifth
avenue. Stuy vesant Square, intersected by Second ave-
nue, and bounded on the east by Livingston Place, and
on the west by Rutherford Place, is one of the quarters
of the ancient regime. Here still live the Rutherfords
and the Stuyvesants. Here is the residence of Plamil-
ton Fish and William M. Evarts. St. George Church,
with the largest seating capacity of any church in the
city, faces this square.

Booth's Theatre is on the corner of Sixth avenue and
Twenty-third street. It is the most magnificent place
of amusement in America; built in the Renaissance
style, with a Mansard roof. Opposite is the Masonic
Temple, in Ionic and Doric architecture. At the corner
of Eighth avenue and Twenty-third street is the Grand
Opera House, once owned by James Fisk, Jr.

New York is at once spendthrift and parsimonious in
the naming of her streets. Thus, she sometimes repeats
a name more than once, and again, bestows two or
three names upon the same street. There is a Broad-
way, an East Broadway, a West Broadway, and a
Broad street. There is Greenwich avenue and Green-
wich street. There are two Pearl streets. There is a
Park avenue, a Park street, a Park row, and a Park
place. On the other hand, Chatham becomes East
Broadway east of Bowery; Dey street is transformed
into John street east of Broadway ; Cortlandt becomes
Maiden Lane at the same dividing line; and other
streets are in like manner metamorphosed. Fourth
Avenue, beginning at the Battery as Pearl street, changes

NEW YORK. 305

to the Bowery at Franklin Square. At Eighth street,
without any change in its direction, it becomes Fourth
Avenue ; from Thirty-fourth to Forty-second streets it
is Park Avenue, and then relapses into Fourth Avenue
again. This is one of the most interesting avenues in
the city; as Pearl street, its windings and its business
occupations have been referred to.

Bowery has a character all its own. It takes its name
from Peter Stuyvesant's "Bowerie Farm/7 through
which it passes. * In it is probably represented every
civilized nation on the globe. It is unqualifiedly a
democratic street. While Fifth Avenue represents one
extreme of city life, the Bowery represents the other.
Here are the streets and shops of the working classes,
consisting of dry and fancy goods, cigar shops, lager
beer saloons, shoe stores, confectionery stores, pawn-
brokers' shops, and ready-made clothing, plentifully
besprinkled with variety and concert saloons and beer
gardens. There are no elegant store fronts or marble
stores here. The buildings are plain brick edifices,
three or four stories in height, the upper stories occu-
pied by the" families of the merchants, or as tenement
houses. The Germans visit the beer gardens with their
wives and families, to listen to what is sometimes excel-
lent music, and to drink beer. The concert saloons are,
some of them, the resorts of the lowest of both sexes.
Near Canal street is the site of the old Bowery Theatre,
which, having been thrice destroyed by fire, has been
thrice rebuilt, the last time, quite recently, and is now
known as Thalia Theatre. A generation and a half ago
the gamins of New York reigned supreme in the pit.
Now that they have been relegated to the gallery, they
still criticise the performance with the frankness and

306 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

originality of expression characteristic of the " Bowery
boys " of old. One should visit the Bowery at night,
when the workmen and shop girls, having finished
their daily labor, are out for recreation and amusement.
Then he will gain an idea of one phase of city life and
people which he would not obtain otherwise.

At Seventh street, where Third avenue branches off,
looking down the Bowery, and occupying the entire
block to Eighth street, is Cooper Institute, containing
a free library, free reading-room, free schools of art,
telegraphy and science, and a hall and lecture room.
Peter Cooper was one of the representative men of New
York. Acquiring a large fortune by strictly honorable
methods, he devoted a generous portion of it to charit-
able objects, and this Institute is one of the lasting
monuments of his generosity. He was a true philan-
thropist, a man of broad thought and kindly impulses,
whose name was honored by all classes of the commu-
nity. He died in April, 1883, at a ripe old age.

Occupying the block between Third Avenue and the
Bowery, which is now dignified by the name of Fourth
avenue, is the Bible House, the largest structure of its
kind in the world, except that of London. Here the
Bible is printed in almost every known language, and
here are congregated the offices of the various religious
societies of the city and country. The Young Men's
Christian Association and Academy of Design occupy
opposite corners at Twenty-third street, on the west side
of the avenue. The exterior of the latter is copied from
a famous palace in Venice, and it is peculiar as well as
beautiful in its appearance. From Thirty-second to
Thirty-third streets is the immense structure intended
by A. T. Stewart as the crowning charitable object of

NEW YORK. 307

his life, to be, perhaps, in some sort, an atonement for
injustice of which he may have been guilty toward the
working classes. It was designed as a hotel for work-
ing women, but in its very plan indicated how little its
founder understood the nature or needs of that class.
At its completion, after his death, it did not take many
weeks to demonstrate that working women preferred a
place more home-like, and fettered by less restrictions
than this palace-prison ; and so the edifice was turned
into an ordinary hotel.

Park avenue commences at Thirty-fourth street, being
built over the track of the Fourth avenue car line.
In the centre of this avenue, over the tunnels, are little
spaces inclosed by iron fences, and containing a profu-
sion of shrubbery and flowers. The avenue abounds in
elegant churches and equally fine residences. At Forty-
second street is the Grand Central Depot, seven hun-
dred feet in length, its exterior imposing, and with
corner and central towers surmounted by domes. At
Sixty-ninth street, between Fourth and Lexington
avenues, is the new Normal College, an ecclesiastical-
looking building, the most complete of its kind in
America.

Retracing our steps to near the foot of Bowery, we
come to Chatham street, where the Jews reign supreme,
and which is the vestibule of the worst quarter of the
city. Passing along a pavement festooned with cheap,
ready-made clothing, one comes to Baxter street, and
from thence to the Five Points, once the most in-
famous locality of New York. Here, a generation
ago, a respectable man took his life in his hands, who
attempted to pass through this quarter, even in broad
daylight. It was the abode of thieves, burglars, garot-

308 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

ters, murderers and prostitutes. Hundreds of families
were huddled together in tumble-down tenement houseSj
living in such filth and with such an utter lack of de-
cency as is scarcely to be credited. But home mission-
aries visited the quarter, established mission-schools and
a house of industry, tore down the disgraceful tenement-
houses and built better ones in their place ; and to-day
the old Bowery, Cow Bay and Murderers' Alley are
known only in name. The Five Points is at the cross-
ing of Baxter, Worth and Parker streets, and is really
five points no longer, the carrying through of Worth
street to the Bowery, forming an additional point. The
locality is still dreadful enough, with all its improve-
ments. Drunken men, depraved women, and swarms of
half-clad children fill the neighborhood, and even the
" improved tenement houses/7 as viewed from the out-
side, seem but sorry abodes for human beings. This is
the heart of a wretched quarter, which extends westward
to Broadway, and almost indefinitely in other directions.
Mott, Mulberry, Baxter, Centre, Elm and Crosby
streets are all densely populated, containing numberless
tenement houses. It is possible to walk through some
of these streets and never hear a word of English.
Mulberry and Crosby streets are especially the homes of
Italians, who on Sunday mornings pour out of the
tenements upon the pavement and street below in such
throngs that a stranger can scarcely elbow his way
through. The Chinese have taken possession of the
lower part of Mott street, and established laundries,
groceries, tea-houses, lodging-houses, and opium-smok-
ing dens. The latter are already attracting the atten-
tion of the public, and a feeble effort has been made by
the city government to put a check upon their evil in-

NEW YORK. 309

fluence. These streets are a festering sore in the very
heart of the city, and require attention.

The Tombs, the city prison, famous in the criminal
history of New York, is located in the midst of this
quarter, on Centre street, occupying an entire block.
It is a gloomy building, constructed of granite, in imi-
tation of an Egyptian temple. Within these forbidding
walls is the Tombs Police Court, where, early each morn-
ing, petty cases are disposed of by the magistrate upon the
bench ; and here prisoners are kept awaiting trial.
Eleven cells of special strength and security are for
murderers awaiting trial or punishment. There is also
a special department for women. In the inner quad-
rangle of the building murderers are made to suffer the
utmost penalty of the law, and the last act of many a
tragedy which has excited and horrified the public has
been performed here.

It will be a relief to turn from the gloom and wretch-
edness of the Tombs to the sunshine and freedom of
New York's great breathing place. Central Park con-
tains eight hundred and forty-three acres, and embraces
an area extending from Fifth to Eighth avenues, and
from Fifty -ninth to One-hundred-and-tenth streets.
Originally, it was a desolate stretch of country in the
suburbs of the city, varied by rocks and marshes, and
dotted by the hovels of Irish and Dutch squatters, its
most picturesque features being their goats, which picked
up a scant living among the rubbish with which it was
covered. Its whole extent is now covered with a heavy
sod, planted with trees and shrubbery, and furnishes
many miles of drives and walks. Every day in the
year it has numerous visitors, but on Sunday, one must
fairly elbow one's way through the crowds. In the

310 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

southeast corner are the Zoological Gardens and the
old State Arsenal; the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
recently opened, is north of Belvidere, on the east side
of the Park. The Egyptian Obelisk stands on an emi-
nence west of the museum. Winding paths conduct
the visitor to the Mall, a stately avenue shaded by
double rows of elms, and ornamented at intervals with
bronze statues of celebrated American and European
statesmen and poets; also a number of groups which
are especially fine. The Terrace is at the northern ter-
minus of the Mall, and leads by a flight of broad, stone
stairs to Central Lake, the prettiest body of water in
the Park, dotted by gondolas. A fountain, with im-
mense granite basins, and a colossal statue of the Angel
of Bethesda, stands between the terrace and the lake.
Beyond the lake is the Kamble, consisting of winding,
shaded paths, and covering thirty-six acres of sloping
hills. From the tower at Belvidere, a magnificent piece
of architecture, in the Norman style, may be obtained a
fine bird's-eye view of the Park. Just above Belvidere
are the two reservoirs of the water works, extending as
far north as Ninety-sixth street. Beyond that the Park
is less embellished by art, and is richer in natural beau-
ties. From the eminence upon which stands the old
Block House, on the northern border of the Park, a
magnificent and extensive view may be obtained of the
hills which bound in the landscape, and including High
Bridge.

One should visit the water front of New York, which
circles the city on three sides, to gain an idea of its im-
mense commerce. A river wall of solid masonry has
been commenced, which, when completed, will make
the American metropolis equal to London and Liver-

NEW YORK. 311

pool in this respect. A perfect forest of masts lines the
wharves, representing every kind of craft, and almost
every nation that sails the seas. Twice a week Euro-
pean steamships leave from the foot of Canal street;
while from various points along the wharves, indicated
by handsome ferry or shipping houses, boats go and
come, to and from every port on the river or on the
Atlantic coast. At Desbrosses and Cortlandt streets
ferries connect with Jersey City. South, Wall and
Fulton ferries give access to Brooklyn ; while other
ferries convey passengers to other points on the rivers
and bay.

Passing up the East Kiver, with the ship-thronged
wharves and docks of New York on one hand, and the
Brooklyn Navy Yard on the other, the visitor soon
obtains a view of Blackwell's, "Ward's and Randall's
islands. Blackwell's Island is at the foot of Forty-sixth
street, and is one hundred and twenty acres in extent.
Upon it are located the Almshouse, Female Lunatic
Asylum, Penitentiary, Work House, Blind Asylum,
Charity, Smallpox and Typhus Fever hospitals.
These buildings are all constructed of granite, quarried
from the island by convicts. They are plain but sub-
stantial in appearance.

Leaving Blackwell's Island, the boat passes cautiously
through the swirling waters of Hell Gate, once the terror
of all sailors, but now robbed of most of its horrors. It
was originally a collection of rocks in mid channel,
which, as the tides swept in and out, caused the waters
to rush in a succession of whirlpools and rapids. But a
few years ago United States engineers undertook and
accomplished a gigantic excavation, directly under these
threatening rocks and reefs. When it was completed a

312 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

grand explosion, effected by means of connecting wires,
blew up these dangerous obstructions, and left a compara-
tively clear and safe channel for vessels. The few remain-
ing rocks which this explosion failed to disturb are being
removed, and with its dangers, much of the romantic
interest which attached to Hell Gate will pass away.

Ward's Island, embracing two hundred acres, and
containing the Male Lunatic Asylum, the Emigrant
Hospital, and the Inebriate Asylum, divides the Harlem
from the East River. Randall's Island is separated
from Ward's Island by a narrow channel, and is the last
of the group. It contains the Idiot Asylum, the House
of Refuge, the Infant Hospital, Nurseries, and other
charities provided by the city for destitute children.

The visitor in New York should, if possible, make
an excursion to High Bridge, a magnificent structure by
which the Croton Aqueduct is carried across Harlem
River. It is built of granite, and spans the entire width
of valley and river, from cliif to cliff. It is composed
of eight arches, each with a span of eighty feet, and with
an elevation of a hundred feet clear from the surface of
the river. The water is led over the bridge, a distance
of fourteen hundred and fifty feet, in immense iron pipes,
six feet in diameter. Above these pipes is a pathway
for pedestrians. At One-hundred-and-sixty -ninth street,
a little below the High Bridge, is the site of the
elegant mansion of Colonel Roger Morris, and the
head-quarters of General Washington during active
operations in this portion of the island. The situation
is one of picturesque and historic interest.

Rising grandly above all the shipping of the East
River, on both its sides, are the massive towers of the
Suspension Bridge, connecting the sister cities of New

NEW YORK. 313

York and Brooklyn. Ponderous cables swing in a single
grand sweep from tower to tower, supporting the bridge
in its place. It does not seem very much elevated above
the river, and you feel that a certain majestic sailing
vessel which is bearing down upon it will bring the top
of her masts in contact with it. But she sails proudly
beneath the structure, never bowing her head, and there
is plenty of room and to spare ; for the bridge is one hun-
dred and thirty-five feet above high water mark. The
distance from tower to tower is one thousand five
hundred and ninety-five feet, while the entire length of
the bridge, from Park Place to its terminus, on the
heights in Brooklyn, is six thousand feet, or a little more
than a mile. Its width is eighty-five feet, affording
space for two railways, besides two double carriage-ways,
and one foot-path. It was commenced in 1871, and
cost $15,000,000. Its formal opening took place on
May twenty-fourth, 1883. The day was a rarely beau-
tiful one, and was observed as a general holiday by the
people of both cities. President Arthur and his Cabinet,
the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Ehode
Island, with many other distinguished persons, were
among the guests, while the honors of the occasion were
done by the Mayors of New York and Brooklyn. Every
street in the neighborhood of the bridge was packed with
a dense throng of spectators, while windows, balconies
and roofs were filled with curious sight seers.

Shortly after noon the procession moved down Broad-
way, and a little after one o'clock the President and other
distinguished guests entered the gateway of the bridge,
preceded by the Seventh Regiment, the procession
headed by a company of mounted policemen, while
Cappa's band played " Hail to the Chief." When the

314 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

party reached the New York tower, they were met by
President Kingsley of the bridge trustees, and there were
introductions and welcomes, and the march was resumed.
At the Brooklyn tower Mayor Low met the President,
and the Seventy- third Regiment presented arms. In
announcement of the fact that the bridge was crossed,
cannons thundered forth salutes, the steam whistles of
vessels and factories screamed, bells rang, and deafening
cheers went up from the watching multitude. The fur-
ther ceremonies of the day took place in a pavilion on
the Brooklyn end, when Mr. William E. Kingsley,
the President of the Bridge Association, Mayor Low,
of Brooklyn, Mayor Edson of New York, Hon.
Abram S. Hewitt and Rev. B. S. Storrs, made able
addresses. A reception was tendered in the evening, at
the Academy of Music, by the City of Brooklyn, to the
President and the Governor of the State, previous to
which there was a fine display of fireworks from the
bridge.

During all the excitement of the day, while cannon
thundered and the multitude cheered, an invalid sat
alone in his house on Columbia Heights, and regarded
from afar the completion of his toil of years. John A.
Roebling, the elder of the two Roeblings, first conceived
and planned the bridge which connects New York and
Brooklyn. He had built the chief suspension bridges
in the country, and to him was intrusted the task of
putting his own plans into tangible form. While testing
and perfecting his surveys, his foot was crushed between
the planking of a pier; lockjaw supervened, and the
man who had designed the bridge lost his life in its
service. He was succeeded by his son, Colonel Wash-
ington A. Roebling, who was equally qualified for the

NEW YORK. 315

undertaking. He labored with zeal, giving personal
superintendence to his workmen, until in the caissons
he contracted a mysterious disease, which had proved
fatal to several men in his employ. From that period
he was confined to his home, a hopeless invalid, his
intellect apparently quickened as his physical system
was enfeebled. He has never seen the structure, save
as it stands from a distance; but from his sick-room
he has directed and watched over the progress of
the enterprise, his active assistant being his wife, of
whom Mayor Edson, in his address on the occasion,
spoke in the following terms : " With this bridge will
ever be coupled the thought of one, through the subtle
alembic of whose brain, and by whose facile fingers,
communication was maintained between the directing
power of its construction and the obedient agencies of
its execution. It is thus an everlasting monument to
the self-sacrificing devotion of woman." After the con-
clusion of the address, the President and his Cabinet,
the Governor, and hundreds of others, paid their respects
to Colonel Roebling, and did honor to the man the com-
pletion of whose work they were celebrating. After it
was over Roebling replied, to the suggestion that he
must be happy, " I am satisfied."

The great bridge was opened to the public at mid-
night, and the waiting throng, which even at that hour
numbered about twenty thousand persons, were permitted
to enter the gates and cross the structure. A represent-
ative of the New York Herald was the first to pay the
toll of one cent demanded, and the first to begin the
passage across. With the completion of this bridge the
continent is entirely spanned, and one may visit, dry

316 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

shod and without the use of ferry boats, every city from
the Atlantic to the Golden Gate.

But the great bridge was not to be consecrated to the
use of the public without a baptism of blood. On Deco-
ration Bay, which occurred the seventh day after the
opening of the bridge, there was a grand military parade
in New York, reviewed by President Arthur from a
stand in Madison Square, and impressive ceremonies at
the various cemeteries in Brooklyn. From early morn-
ing a steady stream of pedestrains poured each way,
across the bridge. About four o'clock in the afternoon
there came a lock in the crowd, just at the top of the
stairs on the New York side, leading down to the con-
crete roadway Men, women and children were wedged
together in a jam, created by the fearful pressure of two
opposing crowds, extending to either end of the bridge.
Some one stumbled and fell on the stairs. The terrible
pressure prevented him or her from rising, and others
fell over the obstacle thus placed in the pathway. Those
immediately behind were hopelessly forced on over
them. A panic ensued. Women screamed and wrung
their hands; children cried and called pitifully for
" help !" Men shouted themselves hoarse, swore and
fought. A hundred hats and bonnets were afterwards
found upon the spot, trampled into shapelessness. Clothes
were torn off, and many emerged from the crush in only
their undergarments. Parents held their children aloft
to keep them from being trampled upon. Hundreds of
men climbed with difficulty on the beams running over
the railroads, and dropping down were caught by those
in the carriage-way beneath. A number of women also
escaped in that manner.

NEW YORK. 317

At last, after almost superhuman efforts, the crowd
was pressed back sufficiently to gather up the prostrate
bodies, which 'were taken to the roadway below, and
ranged along the wall, waiting for ambulances to convey
them away. Twelve persons were found dead, some of
them bruised, discolored, and covered with blood, and
others apparently suffocated to death. The list of injured
was very much larger — how much will probably never
be known, since many, assisted by their friends, returned
to their homes without reporting their hurts. The dead
and wounded were most of them conveyed to the City
Hall Police Station, and were there claimed by their
friends ; and the day which had begun so joyously
ended in gloom.

New York is one of the most wonderful products of
our wonderful western civilization. It is itself a world
in epitome. Thoroughly cosmopolitan in its character,
almost every nationality is represented within its bound-
aries, and almost every tongue spoken. It is the great
monetary, scientific, artistic and intellectual centre of the
western world. Containing much that is evil, it also
abounds with more that is good. It is well governed.
Its sanitary arrangements are such as to make it pecu-
liarly free from epidemic diseases. The record of its
crimes is undoubtedly a long one ; but when the num-
ber of its inhabitants is considered, it will be found to
show an average comparing favorably with other cities.
Thousands of happy homes are found throughout its
length and breadth. Hundreds of good and charitable
enterprises are originated and fostered within its limits,
and grow, some of them, to gigantic proportions, reach-
ing out strong arms to the uttermost confines of the
country and even of the world, comforting the afflicted,

318 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

lifting up the degraded, and shedding the light of truth
in dark places. It is already a great city, a wonderful
city. But what it is to-day is only the beginning of
what those who live fifty years hence will behold it.
There is still space upon Manhattan Island for twice or
thrice its present population and business ; and the no
distant future will undoubtedly see this space fully
occupied, while it is among the possibilities that New
York will become, in point of inhabitants and commer-
cial interests, the firs, city in the world.

CHAPTER XXII.

OMAHA.

Arrival in Omaha. — The Missouri River. — Position and Appear-
ance of the City. — Public Buildings. — History. — Land Specula-
tion.— Panic of 1857. — Discovery of Gold in Colorado. — u Pike's
Peak or Bust." — Sudden Revival of Business.— First Railroad.
— Union Pacific Railroad. — Population. — Commercial and
Manufacturing Interests. — Bridge over the Missouri- — Union
Pacific Depot. — Prospects for the Future.

ON the afternoon of October twenty-first, 1876, I
sat in the saddle upon the eastern bank of the
Missouri River, opposite Omaha, Nebraska, having that
day accomplished a horseback journey of twenty-two
miles, on my way from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Paul Revere, the faithful horse who had borne me all
the way from Boston, declined entering the ferry boat,
it being his firm conviction that rivers should either be
crossed by bridges or forded. At last, being gently co-
erced, the horse reluctantly consented, and the muddy
current of the river was soon crossed. At three o'clock
I entered the city of Omaha, the half-way house across
the continent, it having been a little more than five
months since I dashed out of the surf; my horse's
hoofs wet and dripping with the brine of the Atlantic.

Omaha lies on the eastern boundary of Nebraska,
opposite Council Bluffs, on the western bank of the
Missouri River, a turbulent stream, which is never satis-
fied with its position, but is constantly shifting and
changing, and making for itself new channels. A bottom
land about three miles wide stretches out between Omaha

319

320 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

and Council Bluffs, and through this the Missouri rolls,
a swift, muddy stream, slowly but surely carrying the
Rocky Mountains down to the Mississippi, which, in its
turn, deposits them in the Gulf of Mexico, and helps
to extend our Gulf coast. The Missouri vibrates like
a pendulum, from one side of this bottom land to the
other ; now being near one city, and then near the other,
At the period of my visit its current washed the front
of Omaha, leaving Council Bluffs some distance off on
the opposite side ; but it was already beginning its back-
ward swing. Thus the boundary line between Nebraska
and Iowa is being continually shifted, and one State is
augmented in territory at the expense of the other.

Omaha is built in part upon the low bottom lands
which border the river, and which may at any time be
menaced by the swollen and angry stream, unless pre-
cautions are taken, in the building of high and substan-
tial stone levees along the river front. The town lies
also in part upon the table lands beyond, and is
extending to the bluffs which rise still further away.
Its business is chiefly confined to the lower portion,
where magnificent blocks attest the prosperity of the
city. Streets of substantial dwellings, and numerous
most elegant private residences, with large and hand-
somely ornamented grounds, are discovered as one passes
through the city. A striking edifice, of Cincinnati free-
stone, four stories high, is occupied as a Post Office and
Court House. Its High School building is one of the
finest in the country. When the State Government was,
in 1866, removed from Omaha to Lincoln, the Legis-
lature donated the Square and Capitol Building at the
former place for High School purposes. The old Capi-
tol was demolished, and a magnificent school building

OMAHA. 321

erected on its site, at a cost of $250,000, while other
fine school edifices, aggregating in cost about $150,000
more, were erected in other sections of the city. The
High School building is on the summit of a hill, over-
looking a large extent of country, and has a spire one
hundred and eighty-five feet high. The Depot of the
Union Pacific Railroad is also a noteworthy edifice.

Omaha was first laid out in 1853, and thus named,
after a now nearly extinct tribe of Indians. The first house
was built, and the first ferry established in that year ;
and a year later the first brick-kiln was burned, and the
first newspaper — the Omaha Arrow — established. Where
Turner Hall now stands, in 1854 was dug the first
grave, for an old squaw of the Omaha tribe who had
been left by her kindred to die. Whittier's description
of the growth of western cities seems particularly appli-
cable to Omaha : —

" Behind the squaw's light birch canoe

The steamer smokes and raves,
And city lots are staked for sale
Above old Indian graves."

The first Legislature of Nebraska convened in Omaha
in the winter of 1854-5; and in 1856 the Capital was
definitely located in that city, and the erection of the
capitol building commenced. For a year or two there
was a great land-boom, and city property and " corner
lots" were held at fabulous prices. But in 1857 a crash
came, and for a time the infant town was prostrated.
However, in 1859 the discovery of gold in Colorado gave
it a fresh impetus. The miners who marched in a per-
petual caravan across the plains, in white-topped wag-
ons, marked " Pike's Peak or bust," made Omaha their
final starting-point, taking in at that place supplies for

T>22 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

their long journey. Two years previous all who could
get away from the apparently doomed town had gone to
other sections, to begin anew the fight for fortune. Only
those remained who were too poor to go, but these were
now in luck. Fortune came to them, instead of their
being compelled to undertake an ignis fatuus chase after
her. At that time the business men of the city laid the
foundations of their wealth and prosperity.

In 1857 the town was incorporated as a city ; but
up to 1867 its only means of communication with the
east was by stage-coach, across Iowa, and by steamers
on the Missouri, which latter ceased running in winter.
In 1865 the population of the town was but four thou-
sand fi\*e hundred persons. In 1867 the first train of
cars arrived in the city, on the Chicago and Northwest-
ern Railroad. It was not long before other railroads,
one after another, made it their western terminus, and
its prosperity was established. Then came the Union
Pacific Railroad, which started on its long journey across
the plains and mountains from this point. The trade
to the Pacific coast thus necessarily passed through
Omaha, which became a gateway on the route, while
many travelers and emigrants paused to breathe and
rest before proceeding further, and to take in large
quantities of supplies. In 1875 its population had in-
creased to twenty thousand inhabitants, and in 1880
had run up to thirty thousand.

Strange as it may seem, the building of the Union
Pacific Railroad has diminished rather than increased
the local trade of the city. In overland times single
houses sometimes traded as much as three million dollars'
worth in a year ; but the railroad has so dispersed and
distributed business, that now none reach even half that

OMAHA. 323

amount. The city, however, does an immense manu-
facturing business. Within its limits is located the
largest smelting works in America, employing nearly
two hundred men, and doing an annual business of
probably not less than five millions of dollars. One
distillery alone, in 1875, the year previous to my visit,
paid the government a tax of $316,000 ; while there
are extensive breweries, linseed-oil works, steam-engine
works, and pork-packing establishments. The engine
shops, car-works and foundry of the Union Pacific Road
occupy, with the round-house, about thirty acres of land,
on the bottom adjoining the table land upon which the
city is built. Over one million dollars is paid out
annually in these establishments, for manual labor alone,
without including payments for merchandise and sup-
plies. A notable industry is the manufacture of brick,
over five millions being turned out annually from the
four brick-yards of Omaha. The city is also the head-
quarters of the Army of the Platte, which annually
distributes nearly a million of dollars.

The first postmaster of Omaha used his hat for a
post office, and carried around the mail matter in that
receptacle wherever he went, delivering it by chance to
its owners. Twenty years later the city possessed the
finest government building west of the Mississippi,
while the post office receipts are to-day upwards of a
million dollars annually. Hides, buffalo robes, and
furs, to the value of one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars, are annually collected and shipped from Omaha ;
while two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is the
extent in a single year of the sewing machine business.
The Pacific Railroad ships from Omaha vast quantities
of grain to the Salt Lake Valley, and brings back io

324 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

return supplies of Utah fruit, fresh and dried. The first
shipment of fruit, made in 1871, amounted to three
hundred pounds. In four years the quantity had in-
creased to nine hundred thousand pounds, and is still
greater to-day. The Grand Central Hotel was the finest
hotel between Chicago and San Francisco, having been
erected in 1873, at a cost of three hundred thousand
dollars ; but it was destroyed by fire in 1878.

The visitor to Omaha will probably reach that city
by means of the great bridge across the Missouri River.
This bridge is two thousand seven hundred and fifty
feet long, with eleven spans, each span two hundred and
fifty feet in width, and elevated fifty feet above high
water mark. One stone masonry abutment, and eleven
piers, each with two cast iron columns, support this
bridge. Its construction was commenced in February,
1869, and completed in 1872, during most of which time
not less than five hundred men were employed upon it.
Each column was sunk in the bed of the river until a
solid foundation was reached. One column penetrated
the earth eighty-two feet below low water, before it
rested on the bed-rock. The approach to the bridge from
the Council Bluffs side is by means of a gradually
ascending embankment, one mile and a half in length.
This bridge was constructed at a cost of two million six
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and brings an annual
revenue of about four hundred thousand dollars. It is
now, by act of Congress, considered a part of the Union
Pacific Railroad, making the eastern terminus of that
road really at Council Bluffs. Its total length, including
its necessary approaches by embankment on the eastern
shore, and by lengthy tressel-work on the western shore
is nine thousand nine hundred and fifty feet, or nearly
two miles.

OMAHA. 325

The old depot grounds of the Union Pacific Railroad
were on the bank of the river, directly under the
present bridge. In order to complete the connection
between the bridge and the road, a branch line, seven
thousand feet in length, was laid down directly through
the city, and a new, spacious and most commodious
depot constructed, on higher ground. And from this
depot the westward-bound traveler takes his departure
for that western empire toward the setting sun, and may,
perhaps, continue his journey until he has reached and
passed the Golden Gate, and only the solemn immensity
of the ocean lies before him.

Situated midway of the American continent, on a
navigable river, which drains the northwest, and opens
communication with the east and south ; a prominent
point on the great road which clasps a continent and
unites the Atlantic with the Pacific ; and at the same
time a terminus for lesser roads which open up to it
the trade and commerce of the interior; and on the
borders of two states rich in agricultural and mineral
wealth, and settled by a thrifty, intelligent and enter-
prising people ; Omaha can scarcely fail to become the
greatest city west of St. Louis. Founded but a generation
ago, its business is already stupendous, though it is
really but a beginning of what it promises to be in the
future. As Iowa, Nebraska, and the States and Terri-
tories still further to the northwest, become* more thickly
settled, with their resources developed, it will form their
natural commercial centre, to which they will look for
supplies, and where they will find a market or a port
for their produce and manufactures. With such an
outlook, who will dare to limit Omaha's possibilities in
the future, or say that any flight of the imagination
really exceeds what the actuality may prove?

CHAPTER XXIII.

OTTAWA.

Ottawa, the seat of the Canadian Government. — History. —
Population. — Geographical Position. — Scenery. — Chaudiere
Falls. — Rideau Falls. -^Ottawa River. — Lumber Business. —
Manufactures. — Steamboat and Railway Communications. —
Moore's Canadian Boat Song. — Description of the City. —
Churches, Nunneries, and Charitable Institutions. — Government
Buildings. — Rideau Hall. — Princess Louise and Marquis of
Lome. — Ottawa's Proud Boast.

OTTAWA was, in 1858, selected by Queen Victoria
as the seat of the Canadian Government. When,
in 1867, the British North American Possessions were
reconstructed into the Dominion of Canada, Ottawa con-
tinued to be the Capital city. It was originally called By-
town, after Colonel By, of the Royal Engineers, who was,
in 1827, commissioned to construct the Rideau Canal, and
who laid out the town. In 1854 it was incorporated as
a city, and its name changed to Ottawa, from the river
upon which it stands. Since that time it has increased
rapidly in population and importance, and has at the
present time not far from twenty-five thousand inhabit-
ants. It is situated on the south bank of the Ottawa
River, at the mouth of the Rideau, one hundred and
twenty-six miles above Montreal. The scenery around
it is most magnificent, and is scarcely surpassed by any
in Canada. At the west end of the city the Ottawa
rushes, in a magnificent cataract, over a ragged ledge,
two hundred feet wide and forty feet high, in what is
known as the Chaudiere Falls. Chaudiere signifies

326

OTTAWA. 327

caldron, and in the seething caldron of waters at the
base of the falls a sounding line three hundred feet in
length has not touched bottom. Immediately below
the falls is a suspension bridge, from which a most
satisfactory view can be obtained. At the northeast
end of the city the Rideau tumbles, in two cataracts,
into the Ottawa. These cataracts are very picturesque,
but are exceeded in grandeur by the Chaudiere. The
Des Chenes Eapids, having a fall of nine feet, are found
about eight miles above Ottawa.

The Ottawa River is, next to the St. Lawrence, the
largest stream in Canada. Rising in the range of
mountains which forms the watershed between Hudson
Bay and the great lakes, it runs in a southeasterly direc-
tion for about six hundred miles before it empties into the
St. Lawrence. It has two mouths, which form the
island upon which Montreal is situated. The entire
region drained by it and its tributaries measures eighty
thousand square miles. These tributaries and the
Ottawa itself form highways for, probably, the largest
lumber trade in the world. The clearing of great tracts
of country by the lumbermen has opened the way for
agriculturists; and numerous thriving settlements are
found upon and near their banks, all of which look to
Ottawa as their business centre. As these settlements
increase in number and size, the prosperity of Ottawa
will multiply in proportion. The navigation of the
river has been much improved by engineering, especially
for the transportation of lumber, dams and slides having
been constructed for its passage over rapids and falls.

This immense supply of lumber is, much of it, arrested
at Ottawa, where the almost unequaled water power is
utilized in saw-mills, which furnish the city its principal

328 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

employment, and from which issue yearly almost in-*
credible quantities of sawed lumber. There are also
flour mills, and manufactories of iron castings, mill
machinery, and agricultural implements, which give it
commercial importance, and a sound basis of prosperity.
Ottawa is connected by steamer with Montreal, and
by the E-ideau Canal with Lake Ontario at Kingston,
while the Grand Trunk Railway sends a branch line
from Prescott. The Ottawa River is navigable for one
hundred and eighty-eight miles above the city, by
steamers of the Union Navigation Company, but there
are numerous portages around falls and rapids. The last
stopping place of the steamer is Mattawa, a remote port
of the Hudson Bay Company. Beyond that outpost of
civilization there is nothing but unexplored and un-
broken wilderness. Moore's Canadian boat song makes
mention of the Ottawa River : —

" Soon as the woods on shore look dim,
We'll sing, at St. Ann's, our parting hymn.

'* Ottawa's tide, this trembling moon
Shall see us afloat on thy waters soon."

Ottawa is divided into Upper and Lower Town by
the Rideau Canal, which contains eight massive locks
within the city limits, and is crossed by two bridges, one
of stone and iron, and the other of stone alone. The
streets of the city are wide and regular. Sparks street
is the fashionable promenade, containing the principal
retail stores. Sussex is also a prominent business street.
The principal hotels are the Russell House, near the
Parliament Buildings ; Windsor House, in the Upper
Town ; and the Albion, on Court House Square.

The most prominent church edifice in the city is the
Roman Catholic Cathedral of Notre Dame, which is of

OTTAWA. 329

stone, with double spires two hundred feet in height.
The interior is very fine, and contains as an altar piece
Murillo's "Flight into Egypt." St. Patrick's, Roman
Catholic, and St. Andrew's, Presbyterian, are also strik-
ing churches. At the corner of Bolton and Sussex
streets is the imposing stone building of the Grey
Nunnery, while the group of buildings belonging to the
Black Nunnery is to the eastward of Cartier Square.
' There are, besides, in the city, two convents, two hos-
pitals, three orphan asylums, and a Magdalen asylum,
all under the control of the Roman Catholics. The
Ottawa University is also a Roman Catholic institution,
and has a large building in Wilbrod street. The Ladies'
College, in Albert street, is a Protestant school.

But all these structures sink into insignificance when
compared to the Government Buildings, which constitute
the most prominent feature of the city of Ottawa. They
are situated on an eminence known as Barrack Hill,
which rises one hundred and fifty feet above the river,
and were erected at a cost of about four millions of
dollars. They form three sides of a vast quadrangle,
which occupies nearly four acres. The Parliament
House is on the south side or front of the quadrangle,
and is four hundred and seventy-two feet long, and the
same number of feet deep, from the front of the main
tower, to the rear of the library. The Departmental
Buildings run north from this main structure, forming
the east and west sides of the quadrangle. The eastern
side is five hundred and eighteen feet long, by two
hundred and fifty-three feet deep, and the western side
is two hundred and eleven feet long, by two hundred
and seventy-seven feet deep. These latter buildings
contain the various government bureaus, in the west

330 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

block being also found the model room of the Patent
Office, and the Post Office. The entire structure is of
cream-colored sandstone, with arches and doors of red
Potsdam sandstone, and the external ornamental work
of this sandstone. Its architecture is in the Italian-
Gothic style. Green and purple slates cover the roof,
and the pinnacles are ornamented with elaborate iron
trellis work. The columns and arches of the legislative
chambers are of marble. These chambers are capacious
and richly finished, and have stained glass windows.
The Chamber of Commons is reached by an entrance to
the left of the main entrance, under the central tower,
and the marble of its columns and arches is beautiful.
The Senate Hall, which is entered from the right of the
main entrance, contains the vice-regal canopy and throne,
and a portrait of Queen Victoria. There are also full-
length portraits, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of George III,
and Queen Charlotte. The Library is a circular struc-
ture, on the north front of the Parliament House, with
a dome ninety feet high, and contains about forty
thousand volumes. A massive stone wall incloses the
fourth side of the quadrangle, and the inclosure is laid
out with tree-shaded walks.

Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor
General, is in New Edinburgh, a suburban town on
the opposite side of the Rideau River, connected with
Ottawa by a bridge. Rideau Hall has been for several
years past the home of the Marquis of Lome, Governor
General of the Dominion of Canada, and the Princess
Louise, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. The love
which the Canadians bear their Queen was most loyally
manifested on the arrival of the Governor General and
the Princess, his wife. Every honor was shown the

OTTAWA. 331

Marquis which was due his official and hereditary
rank ; but the most extravagant marks of affection and
veneration were lavished upon the Princess, who was
regarded as a representative of her mother. Whenever
she proceeded through the Dominion, her progress was
a triumphal procession. The people crowded to catch
but a glimpse of her face, or to hear the tones of her
voice. She is described as an extremely affable lady, the
beauty of Her Majesty's family, caring less for the
traditions and observances of royalty than her imperial
mother, with great native shrewdness and marked
ability as . an artist. She has traveled extensively
throughout the dominion of Canada, having reached its
extreme western limit, and crossed the United States
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is said she does
not greatly admire Canada, and proposes to spend as
little time at Ottawa as possible, regarding the some-
what primitive society there as almost semi-barbaric.
But when she returns permanently to the island of her
birth she will go with greatly enlarged views, and a
knowledge of the world, and especially of the people of
the new world, which ought to constitute her an efficient
counsellor in affairs of state.

The Marquis of Lome, Governor General of Canada,
is described as an extremely handsome gentleman of the
Scotch type, with large literary attainments, and with a
desire to conciliate the people over whom he has been
sent to rule. For many generations to come it will
undoubtedly be Ottawa's highest boast that it has
numbered among its citizens the son of one of the
proudest nobles of the British realm, and a princess of
the blood.

CHAPTER XXIV.

PITTSBURG.

Pittsburg at Night.— A Pittsburg Fog. —Smoke.— Description of
the City.— The Oil Business.— Ohio River.— Public Buildings,
Educational and Charitable Institutions. — Glass Industry. —
Iron Foundries.— Fort Pitt Works.— Casting a Monster Gun.
—American Iron Works.— Nail Works.— A City of Workers.
—A True Democracy.— Wages.— Character of Workmen.—
Value of Organization.— Knights of Labor.— Opposed to Strikes.
— True Relations of Capital and Labor. — Railroad Strike of
1877.— Allegheny City.— Population of Pittsburg.— Early His-
tory—Braddock's Defeat.— Old Battle Ground.— Historic Relics.
—The Past and the Present.

BY all means make your first approach to Pittsburg-
in the night time, and you will behold a spectacle
which has not a parallel on this continent. Darkness gives
the city and its surroundings a picturesqueness which
they wholly lack by daylight. It lies low down in a
hollow of encompassing hills, gleaming with a thousand
points of light, which are reflected from the rivers,
whose waters glimmer, it may be, in the faint moon-
light, and catch and reflect the shadows as well. Around
the city's edge, and on the sides of the hills which
encircle it like a gloomy amphitheatre, their outlines
rising dark against the sky, through numberless apertures,
fiery lights stream forth, looking angrily and fiercely up
toward the heavens, while over all these settles a heavy
pall of smoke. It is as though one had reached the
outer edge of the infernal regions, and saw before him
the great furnace of Pandemonium with all the lids
lifted. The scene is so strange and weird that it will

332

PITTSBURG. 333

live in the memory forever. One pictures, as he be-
holds it, the tortured spirits writhing in agony, their
sinewy limbs convulsed, and the very air oppressive
with pain and rage.

But the scene is illusive. This is the domain of
Vulcan, not of Pluto. Here, in this gigantic workshop,
in the midst of the materials of his labor, the god of fire,
having left his ancient home on Olympus, and estab-
lished himself in this newer world, stretches himself
beside his forge, and sleeps the peaceful sleep which is
the reward of honest industry. Right at his doorway are
mountains of coal to keep a perpetual fire upon his altar ;
within the reach of his outstretched grasp are rivers of
coal oil ; and a little further away great stores of iron for
him to forge and weld, and shape into a thousand forms ;
and at his feet is the shining river, an impetuous Mer-
cury, ever ready to do his bidding. Grecian mythology
never conceived of an abode so fitting for the son of Zeus
as that which he has selected for himself on this western
hemisphere. And his ancient tasks were child's play
compared with the mighty ones he has undertaken
to-day.

Failing a night approach, the traveler should reach
the Iron City on a dismal day in autumn, when the air
is heavy with moisture, and the very atmosphere looks
dark. All romance has disappeared. In this nineteenth
century the gods of mythology find no place in daylight.
There is only a very busy city shrouded in gloom. The
buildings, whatever their original material and color,
are smoked to a uniform, dirty drab ; the smoke sinks,
and mingling with the moisture in the air, becomes of a
consistency which may almost be felt as well as seen.
Under a drab sky a drab twilight hangs over the town,

334 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

and the gas-lights, which are left burning at mid-clay,
shine out of the murkiness with a dull, reddish glare.
Then is Pittsburg herself. Such days as these are her
especial boast, and in their frequency and disrnalness, in
all the world she has no rival.

In truth, Pittsburg is a smoky, dismal city, at her best.
At her worst, nothing darker, dingier or more dispirit-
ing can be imagined. The city is in the heart of the
soft coal region; and the smoke from her dwellings,
stores, factories, foundries and steamboats, uniting,
settles in a cloud over the narrow valley in which she is
built, until the very sun looks coppery through the
sooty haze. According to a circular of the Pittsburg
Board of Trade, about twenty per cent., or one-fifth, of
all the coal used in the factories and dwellings of the city
escapes into the air in the form of smoke, being the finer
and lighter particles of carbon of the coal, which, set free
by fire, escapes unconsumed with the gases. The conse-
quences of several thousand bushels of coal in the air at
one and the same time may be imagined. But her
inhabitants do not seem to mind it; and the doctors
hold that this smoke, from the carbon, sulphur and
iodine contained in it, is highly favorable to lung and
cutaneous diseases, and is the sure death of malaria and
its attendant fevers. And certainly, whatever the
cause may be, Pittsburg is one of the healthiest cities
in the United States. Her inhabitants are all too busy
to reflect upon the inconvenience or uncomeliness of this
smoke. Work is the object of life with them. It
occupies them from morning until night, from the
cradle to the grave, only on Sundays, when, for the
most part, the furnaces are idle, and the forges are silent.
For Pittsburg, settled by Irish-Scotch Presbyterians,

PITTS BURG. 335

is a great Sunday-keeping day. Save on this clay her
business men do not stop for rest or recreation, nor do
they " retire" from business. They die with the
harness on, and die, perhaps, all the sooner for having
worn it so continuously and so long.

Pittsburg is not a beautiful city. That stands to
reason, with the heavy pall of smoke which constantly
overhangs her. But she lacks beauty in other respects.
She is substantially and compactly built, and contains
some handsome edifices ; but she lacks the architectural
magnificence of some of her sister cities; while her
suburbs present all that is unsightly and forbidding in
appearance, the original beauties of nature having been
ruthlessly sacrificed to utility.

Pittsburg is situated in western Pennsylvania, in a
narrow valley at the confluence of the Allegheny and
Monongahela rivers, and at the head of the Ohio, and
is surrounded by hills rising to the height of four or five
hundred feet. These hills once possessed rounded out-
lines, with sufficient exceptional abruptness to lend them
variety and picturesqueness. But they have been leveled
down, cut into, sliced off, and ruthlessly marred and
mutilated, until not a trace of their original outlines
remain. Great black coal cars crawl up and down their
sides, and plunge into unexpected and mysterious
openings, their sudden disappearance lending, even in
daylight, an air of mystery and diablerie to the region.
Railroad tracks gridiron the ground everywhere, debris
of all sorts lies in heaps, and is scattered over the earth,
and huts and hovels are perched here and there, in every
available spot. There is no verdure — nothing but mud
and coal, the one yellow the other black. And on the
edge of the city are the unpicturesque outlines of fac-

336 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

lories and foundries, their tall chimneys belching forth
columns of inky blackness, which roll and whirl in
fantastic shapes, and finally lose themselves in the gen-
eral murkiness above.

The tranquil Monongahela comes up from the south,
alive with barges and tug boats; while the swifter
current of the Allegheny bears from the oil regions, at
the north, slight-built barges with their freights of crude
petroleum. Oil is not infrequently poured upon the
troubled waters, when one of these barges sinks, and its
freight, liberated from the open tanks, refuses to sink
with it, and spreads itself out on the surface of the
stream.

The oil fever was sorely felt in Pittsburg, and it was
a form of malaria against which the smoke-laden at-
mosphere was no protection. During the early years of
the great oil speculation the city was in a perpetual
state of excitement. Men talked oil upon the streets,
in the cars and counting-houses, and no doubt thought
of oil in church. Wells and barrels of petroleum, and
shares of oil stock were the things most often mentioned.
And though that was nearly twenty years ago, and the
oil speculation has settled into a safe and legitimate
pursuit, Pittsburg is still the greatest oil mart in the
world. By the means of Oil Creek and the Allegheny,
the oil which is to supply all markets is first shipped
to Pittsburg, passes through the refineries there, and
is then exported.

The Ohio River makes its beginning here, and in all
but the season of low water the wharves of the city are
lined with boats, barges and tugs, destined for every
mentionable point on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
The Ohio River is here, as all along its course, an un-

PITTSBURG. 337

certain and capricious stream. Sometimes, in spring, or
early summer, it creeps up its banks and looks men-
acingly at the city. At other times it seems to become
weary of bearing the boats, heavily laden with mer-
chandise, to their destined ports, and so takes a nap, as
it were. The last time we beheld this water-course its
bed was lying nearly bare and dry, while a small, slug-
gish creek, a few feet, or at most, a few yards wide,
crept along the bottom, small barges being towed down
stream by horses, which waded in the water. The giant
was resting

The public buildings and churches of Pittsburg are,
some of them, of fine appearance, while the Mercantile
Library is an institution to be proud of, being both
handsome and spacious, and containing a fine library
and well-supplied reading room. The city boasts of
universities, colleges, hospitals, and asylums, and the
Convent of the Sisters of Mercy is the oldest house of
the order in America. There are also two theatres, an
Opera House, an Academy of Music, and several public
halls.

But it is not any of these which has made the city
what she is, or to which she will point with the greatest
pride. The crowning glory of Pittsburg is her monster
iron and glass works. One-half the glass produced in
all the United States comes from Pittsburg. This
important business was first established here in 1787,
by Albert Gallatin, and it has increased since then to
giant proportions. Probably, not less than one hundred
millions of bottles and vials are annually produced here,
besides large quantities of window glass. The best wine
bottles in America are made here, though they are in-
ferior to those of French manufacture. A great numbei

338 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

of flint-glass works turn out the best flint glass produced
in the country.

In addition to these glass works— which, though they
employ thousands of workmen, represent but a fraction
of the city's industries — there are rolling mills, foundries,
potteries, oil refineries, and factories of machinery. All
these works are rendered possible by the coal which
abounds in measureless quantities in the immediate
neighborhood of the city. All the hills which rise from
the river back of Pittsburg have a thick stratum of
bituminous coal running through them, which can be
mined without shafts, or any of the usual accessories of
mining. All that is to be done is to shovel the coal out
of the hill-side, convey it in cars or by means of an
inclined plane to the factory or foundry door, and dump
it, ready for use. In fact, these hills are but immense
coal cellars, ready filled for the convenience of the
Pittsburg manufacturers. True, in shoveling the coal
out of the hill-side, the excavations finally become galler-
ies, running one, two or three miles directly into the
earth. But there is neither ascent nor descent; no low-
ering of miners or mules in great buckets down a deep
and narrow shaft, no elevating of coal through the same
means. It is all like a great cellar, divided into rooms,
the ceilings supported by arches of the coal itself. Each
miner works a separate room, and when the room is
finished, and that part of the mine exhausted the arches
are knocked away, pillars of large upright logs substi-
tuted, the coal removed, and the hill left to settle gradu-
ally down, until the logs are crushed and flattened.

The "Great Pittsburg Coal Seam" is from four to
twelve feet thick, about three hundred feet above the
y/ater's edge, and about one hundred feet from the

PITTSBUBG. 339

average summit of the hills. It is bituminous coal
which has been pressed solid by the great mass of earth
above it. The thicker the mass and the greater the
pressure, the better the coal. It has been estimated as
covering eight and a half millions of acres, and that it
would take the entire product of the gold mines of
California for one thousand years to buy this one seam.
When we remember the numerous other coal mines,
anthracite as well as bituminous, found within the limits
of the State of Pennsylvania, we are fairly stupefied in
trying to comprehend the mineral wealth of that State.

The coal mined in the rooms in these long galleries
is conveyed in a mule-drawn car to the mouth of the
gallery, and if to be used by the foundries at the foot of
the hill, is simply sent to its destination down an inclined
plane. Probably not less than ten thousand men are
employed in these coal mines in and near Pittsburg5
adding a population not far from fifty thousand to that
region. Pittsburg herself consumes one-third of the
coal produced, and a large proportion of the rest is
shipped down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, some of
it as far as New Orleans.

The monster iron works of Pittsburg consume large
quantities of this coal, and it is the abundance and con-
venience of the latter material which have made the
former possible. No other city begins to compare with
Pittsburg in the number and variety of her factories.
Down by the banks of the swift-flowing Allegheny most
of the great foundries are to be discovered. The Fort
Pitt Works are on a gigantic scale. Here are cast those
monsters of artillery known as the twenty-inch gun.
Not by any means a gun twenty inches in length, but a
gun with a bore twenty inches in diameter, so accurate

340 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

that it does not vary one-hundredth part of an inch from
the true line in its whole length. The ball for this gun
weighs one thousand and eighty pounds, and costs a
hundred and sixty-five dollars. The gun itself weighs
sixty tons, and costs fifty thousand dollars, and yet one
of these giants is cast every day, and the operation is
performed with the utmost composure and absence of
confusion. The mould is an enormous structure of iron
and sand, weighing forty tons, and to adjust this properly
is the most difficult and delicate work in the foundry.
When it is all ready, three streams of molten iron, from
as many furnaces, flow through curved troughs and pour
their fiery cataracts into the mould. These streams run
for twenty minutes, and then, the mould being full, the
furnaces from which they flow are closed with a piece of
clay. Left to itself, the gun would be thirty days in
cooling, but this process is expedited to eighteen days,
by means of cold water constantly flowing in and out of
the bore. While it is still hot, the great gun is lifted
out of the pit, swung across the foundry to the turning
shop, the end shaven off, the outside turned smooth,
and the inside hollowed out, with an almost miraculous
precision. The weight of the gun is thus reduced twenty
tons.

The American Iron Works employ two thousand five
hundred hands, and cover seventeen acres. They have
a coal mine at their back door, and an iron mine on
Lake Superior, and they make any and every difficult
iron thing the country requires. Nothing is too ponderous,
nothing too delicate and exact, to be produced. The
nail works of the city are well worth seeing. In them
a thousand nails a minute are manufactured, each nail
being headed by a blow on cold iron. The noise arising

PITTSBURG. 341

from this work can only be described as deafening. In
one nail factory two hundred different kinds of nails,
tacks and brads are manufactured. The productions of
these different factories and foundries amount in the
aggregate to an almost incredible number and value,
and embrace everything made of iron which can be used
by man.

George F. Thurston, writing of Pittsburg, says, it
has "thirty-five miles of factories in daily operation,
twisted np into a compact tangle; all belching forth
smoke ; all glowing with fire ; all swarming with work-
men ; all echoing with the clank of machinery. Actual
measurement shows that there are, in the limits of what
is known as Pittsburg, nearly thirty -five miles of manu-
factories of iron, of steel, of cotton, and of brass alone, not
mentioning manufactories of other materials. In a dis-
tance of thirty-five and one-half miles of streets, there are
four hundred and seventy-eight manufactories of iron,
steel, cotton, brass, oil, glass, copper and wood, occupy-
ing less than four hundred feet each ; for a measurement
of the ground shows that these factories are so contigu-
ous in their positions upon the various streets of the city,
that if placed in a continuous row, they would reach
thirty-five miles, and each factory have less than the
average front stated. This is tf manufacturing Pitts-
burg." In four years the sale and consumption of pig
iron alone was one-fourth the whole immense production
of the United States ; and through the Ohio and Mis-
sissippi rivers and their tributaries, its people control
the shipment of goods, without breaking bulk, over
twelve thousand miles of water transportation, and are
thus enabled to deliver the products of their thrift in
nearly four hundred counties in the territory of fifteen

342 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

States. There is no city of its size in the country which
has so large a banking capital as Pittsburg. The Bank
of Pittsburg, it is said, is the only bank in the Union
that never suspended specie payments.

Pittsburg is a city of workers. From the proprie-
tors of these extensive works, down to the youngest
apprentices, all are busy ; and perhaps the higher up
in the scale the harder the work and the greater the
worry. A man who carries upon his shoulders the
responsibility of an establishment whose business
amounts to millions of dollars in a year; who must
oversee all departments of labor; accurately adjust the
buying of the crude materials and the scale of wages on
the one hand, with the price of the manufactured article
on the other, so that the profit shall be on the right side ;
and who at the same time shall keep himself posted as
to all which bears any relation to his business, has no
time for leisure or social pleasures, and must even stint
his hours of necessary rest.

Pittsburg illustrates more clearly than any other
city in America the outcome of democratic institutions.
There are no classes here except the industrious classes;
and no ranks in society save those which have been
created by industry. The mammoth establishments,
some of them perhaps in the hands of the grandsons
of their founders, have grown from small beginnings,
fostered in their growth by industry and thrift. The
great proprietor of to-day, it may have been, was the
" boss" of yesterday, and the journeyman of a few years
ago, having ascended the ladder from the lowest round
of apprenticeship. Industry and sobriety are the main
aids to success.

The wages paid are good, for the most part, varying

PITTSBUEO. 343

according to the quality of the employment, some of them
being exceedingly liberal. The character of the work-
men is gradually improving, though it has not yet
reached the standard which it should attain. Many are
intelligent, devoting their spare time to self-improve-
ment, and especially to a comprehension of the relations
of capital and labor, which so intimately concern them,
and which they, more than any other class of citizens,
except employers, need to understand, in order that they
may not only maintain their own rights, but may avoid
encroaching on the rights of others.

Too many workmen, however, have no comprehension
of the dignity of their own position. They live only
for present enjoyment, spend their money foolishly, not
to say wickedly, and on every holiday give themselves
up to that curse of the world ngman — strong drink.
While this class is such a considerable one, the entire
ranks of working men must be the sufferers. And
while ignorance as well as vice has been so prevalent
among them, it is not to be wondered at that they have
been constantly undervalued, and almost as constantly
oppressed.

The prosperity of the country depends upon the pros-
perity of the masses. With all the money in the hands
of a few, there are only the personal wants of a few to
be supplied. With wages high, work is more plentiful,
and everybody prospers. The gains of a large manu-
facturing establishment, divided, by means of fair profit
and just wages, between employers and employed, instead
of being hoarded up by one man, make one hundred
persons to eat where there would otherwise be but one;
one hundred people to buy the productions of the looms
and forges of the country, instead of only one ; one

344 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

hundred people, each having a little which they spend
at home, instead of one man, who hoards his wealth, or
takes it to Europe to dispose of it. It means all the
difference between good and bad times, between a pros-
perous country, where all are comfortable and happy,
and a country of a few millionaires and many paupers.

No description of Pittsburg would be complete with-
out a reference to the Knights of Labor, which has taken
the place of the old trades unions and guilds. While
the latter were in existence, that city was often the
scene of violent and disastrous strikes. The great rail-
road strike of 1877, in which a number of lives were
lost, and millions of dollars' worth of property destroyed,
culminated at Pittsburg, and for days the city was
stricken with panic. The cause of this strike was the
decision of the railroad corporation to reduce to one
dollar a day the wages of a certain class of its employees,
which were already too low. The cause of these strikers
was just, but their methods were reprehensible. The
institution and spread of the Knights of Labor has
rendered such another strike an impossibility, as that
Order, which has a large membership among the work-
men of Pittsburg, aims to settle, as far as possible, the
difficulties between employers and employees by arbitra-
tion ; and its spread will, we trust, if it does not pass
under the control of demagogues, eventually result in a
Better understanding between capital and labor, and in a
recognition of the fact that their real interests are iden-
tical.

Pittsburg has no park or public pleasure ground.
Its people are too busy to think about such things, or to
use them if it had them. On Saturday nights its thea-
tres and variety halls are crowded, to listen to entertain-

PITTSBURG. 345

ments which are not always of the best. When its
people wish to visit a public park, they must cross to
Allegheny City, on the west bank of the Allegheny
River, where there is a park embracing a hundred acres,
containing a monument to Humboldt, and ornamented
with small lakes. The Soldiers' Monument, erected to
the memory of four thousand men of Allegheny County
who lost their lives in the war of the Rebellion, is also in
this latter city, on a lofty hill near the river, in the eastern
part of the city. Many of the handsome residences of
Pittsburgh merchants and manufacturers are to be seen
in this city, which is also famous for its manufacturing
interests, and is connected with Pittsburg by five bridges.
Birmingham is a flourishing suburb on the opposite
bank of the Monongahela River, containing important
glass and iron manufactories.

The present population of Pittsburg is 156,381
inhabitants. The first settlement upon the site of the
city was in 1754, when a French trading post was
established and named Fort Duquesne. On July ninth,
1755, General Braddock, in command of two thousand
British troops, accompanied by Colonel Washington
with eight hundred Virginians, marched toward Fort
Duquesne with the intention of capturing it. When
within a few miles of the fort, they were surprised by a
large party of French and Indians in ambush, and
Braddock, who angrily disregarded Washington's advice,
saw his troops slaughtered by an invisible enemy. The
English and colonists lost seven hundred and seventy-
seven men, killed and wounded, while the enemy's loss
was scarcely fifty. Braddock himself was mortally
wounded, and died upon the battle field, and in order
that his remains might not be disturbed, Washington

346 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

buried him in the road, and ordered the wagons in their
retreat to drive over' his grave. Washington himself
escaped unhurt, though he had two horses shot under
him, and had four bullets sent through his clothes. An
Indian who was engaged in this, battle afterwards said
that he had seventeen fair fires at Washington during
the engagement, but was unable to wound him.

In 1758, Fort Duquesne was abandoned by the French,
and immediately occupied by the English, who changed
its name to Fort Pitt, in honor of William Pitt. As a
town its settlement dates from 1765. In 1804 it was
incorporated as a borough, and in 1816 chartered as a
city. Its population in 1840, was a little more than
20,000. In 1845 a great part of the city was destroyed
by fire, but was quickly rebuilt, its prosperity remaining
unchecked.

A little less than ten miles from Pittsburg is the
village called Braddock's Field, which, in the names of
its streets, perpetuates the old historic associations. The
ancient Indian trail which led to the river is still pre-
served, and the two shallow ravines in which the French
and Indians lay concealed when they surprised Brad-
dock's troops are still there, though denuded of the
dense growth of hazel bushes which at that period
served the purpose of an ambush. From an old oak in
this neighborhood many bullets have been pried out by
persevering relic hunters ; while in the adjacent gardens
the annual spring plowing invariably turns up memen-
toes of that historic event, in the shape of bullets, arrow-
heads, and even bayonets. A sword with a name en-
graved upon it has also been found.

The Pennsylvania Railroad now crosses the location '
of the thickest of the fight, and at the time of its con-

PITTSBURG. 347

struction a considerable number of human bones were
dug up and reinterred, the place of the later interment
being surrounded by a rough fence of common rails.
Children now play where once the forces of their nation
engaged in deadly warfare. The hillside, which was
then pierced by bullets, is now perforated near its sum-
mit by large openings, through which emerge car-loads
of coal. Thus the present and the past strike hands
across the century, and modern civilization, with its im-
plements of industry and its appliances of commerce,
supersedes and obliterates the traces of savagery, and of
the deadly enmity of man toward man. The sword is
turned into the plowshare, and peace triumphs over
bloodshed.

CHAPTER XXV.

PORTLAND.

The Coast of Maine. — Early Settlements in Portland.— Troubles
with the Indians. — Destruction of the Town in 1690. — Destroyed
Again in 1703. — Subsequent Settlement and Growth.— During
the Revolution. — First Newspaper. — Portland Harbor.— Com-
mercial Facilities and Progress. — During the Rebellion. — Great
Fire of 1866.— Reconstruction. — Position of the city. — Streets.
— Munjoy Hill. — Maine General Hospital. — Eastern and Western
Promenades. — Longfellow's House. — Birthplace of the Poet. —
Market Square and Hall. — First Unitarian Church. — Lincoln
Park. — Eastern Cemetery. — Deering's Woods. — Commercial
Street. — Old-time Mansion. — Case's Bay and Islands. — Cush-
iug's Island. — Peak's Island. — Long Island. — Little Chebague
Island. — Harpswell.

hungry ocean has gnawed and ravaged the New
JL England coast, until along almost its entire length
it is worn into ragged edges, forming islands, capes, pro-
montories, bold headlands, peninsulas, bays, inlets and
coves. In this coast are united the grand, the pictur-
esque and the beautiful. Soft masses of foliage are in
close juxtaposition with rugged rocks and dashing surf.
Violet turf sweeps down to meet the sands washed up
by the sea. Bays cut deeply into the land, forming safe
harbors, and emerald islands innumerable dot their
surface.

In 163$ George Cleve and Richard Tucker landed on
the beach of a peninsula, jutting out into a broad and
deep bay, and sheltered from the ocean by a promontory
at the south, now known as Cape Elizabeth, and by a
guard of islands which clasped hands around it. Here

348

PORTLAND. 349

Cleve built, of logs, the first house on the site of what is
now the city of Portland. After a time other colonists
came, devoting themselves to fishing and buying furs of
the Indians. When the people of this distant colony
wanted to go to Boston, they rode horseback along the
beach, which formed the original highway. The settle-
ment was first known as Casco, but its name was changed
to Falmouth in 1668, though a portion of it, where
Portland now stands, continued to be known as Casco
Rock. In 1675 there were but forty families in the
town, and the Rock was still almost covered by a dense
forest. In that year the Indians, who had long borne
grievous wrongs at the hands of the settlers with patient
endurance, arose, under King Philip, to avenge them. The
inhabitants of Falmouth were either killed or carried
into captivity, and the little town was wiped out of
existence.

Three years later Fort Royal, the largest fortification
on the coast, was erected on a rocky eminence, near the
present foot of India street, where the round-house of
the Grand Trunk Railway now stands, and settlers
began to return. A party of French Huguenots settled
there, mills were set up, roads cut into the forest, and
trade established between Falmouth and Massachusetts
towns. The little settlement existed under varying
fortunes until 1690, when the French and Indians, after
a few days' siege, captured the fort, destroyed the town,
and carried the commanding officer and his garrison
captives to Quebec. The war continued until 1698,
during which time the place was only known as "de-
serted Casco." In 1703 the war broke out again, and
what few inhabitants had straggled back were killed,
and the place remained desolate until 1715, when the

350 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

re-settlement began. Three years later twenty families
had banded themselves together for mutual defence,
clustering about the foot of India street, and eastward
along the beach. The second meeting-house of the town
was erected at the corner of India and Middle streets,
where Rev. Thomas Smith, in 1727, commenced his
ministry, which extended over a period of sixty-eight
years.

The town was incorporated in 1718, and at that time
the Neck above Clay Cove was all forest and swamp.
A brook flowed into the Cove, crossed by bridges at Fore
and Middle streets. The old bridge at Middle street
remained until early in the present century. The trails
stretching out into the forest gradually grew into streets,
and the three principal ones were named Fore, Middle
and Back streets. The name of the latter was, late in
the century, changed to Congress street.

After a period of sixty years of steady growth, the
town had extended only as far westward as Centre street,
and the upper portion of the Neck was still covered with
woods. The Indians gave the town little trouble after
1725, having made peace in that year, and gradually
dwindled away, and emigrated to Canada. In 1755 it
was no longer a frontier post. Its population had in-
creased to nearly 3,000 inhabitants, commerce had been
established, and the town was a most peaceful and a
prosperous one. At the commencement of the Revolu-
tion 2,555 tons of shipping were owned in Falmouth.

When the colonies began to resist the encroachments
of England, Falmouth took a prominent and patriotic
stand. In October, 1775, Captain Henry Mo watt, with
a fleet of five vessels, opened his batteries on the
town, and, firing the houses, laid it in ashes. Over four

PORTLAND. 351

hundred buildings were destroyed, leaving only one
hundred standing. The place was again deserted, the
people seeking safety in the interior.

On January first, the Falmouth Gazette and Weekly
Advertiser, the first newspaper of the town, was pub-
lished by Benjamin Titcomb and Thomas B. Waite.
In 1786 the town was divided, the Neck receiving the
name of Portland, having at that time a population of
about two thousand. In 1793 wharves were extended
into the harbor. In 1806, its commercial business and
general prosperity were unexampled in New England.
The duties collected at the Custom House reached, in
that year, $342,809, having increased from $8,109 in
1790. But in 1807, the embargo which followed the
non-intercourse policy of 1806 resulted in the suspen-
sion of commerce and the temporary ruin of the ship-
ping interests. Commercial houses were prostrated, and
great distress prevailed. The harbor was empty, and
grass grew upon the wharves. In the war of 1812
privateers were fitted out here, some of which damaged
the enemy, while others were captured. After the peace
of 1815 commerce revived but slowly, and the popula-
tion as slowly increased. *,

In March, 1820, Maine was separated from Massachu-
setts, and admitted into the Union as a State^ and Port-
land became its capital. In 1 832 the capital was removed
to Augusta. In 1828 the first steamboat anchored in
the harbor of Portland, having arrived from New
York to run as a passenger boat between Portland and
Boston. The Portland Steam Packet Company was
organized in 1844, and has continued in successful
operation ever since.

Portland has one of the deepest and best harbors in

352 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

the world, with a depth of forty feet at low tide. Its
surroundings are exceptionally favorable for a commer-
cial city, and were it not for its geographical location, it
being so far north of the great areas of population, it
would undoubtedly have gained a prominence over most
of the Atlantic cities. But Boston and New York drew
all but the provincial trade and commerce, and with a
sparsely settled country at its back, there was little to
build up Portland and give it great prosperity. In 1850
the Cumberland and Oxford Canal, connecting the
waters of Sebago Lake with Portland Harbor, was
completed. This was not a great enterprise, certainly,
as compared with modern undertakings ; but the Port-
landers thought a good deal of it at the time. Between
1840 and 1846, the city endured another season of de-
pression. Railroads had given to Boston much of the
business that had formerly found a natural outlet through
Portland ; but .in the latter year a railroad was planned
to Canada, which, when completed, in 1853, brought it
into connection with the cities of the British prov-
inces, and with the vast grain-growing regions of the
west. A winter line of steamers to Liverpool followed,
and the rapidly increasing commerce of the city soon
resulted in the construction of a wide business avenue,
extending a' mile in length, along the whole water front
of the city. This new street was called Commercial, and
became the locality of heavy wholesale trade. Closely
following, came the opening up of railroads to all sec-
tions of the State, and the establishment of steamboat
lines along the coast, as far as the Lower Provinces.
Trade that had hitherto gone to Boston was thus re-
claimed, new manufacturing establishments sprung up,
and an era of prosperity seemed fairly inaugurated.

PORTLAND. 353

Portland manifested her patriotism during the war of
the Rebellion, contributing 5,000 men to the army, of
whom four hundred and twenty-one returned. In June,
1863, the United States Revenue cutter, Caleb Gushing,
having been captured by Rebels, and pursued by the
officials of the city, and becoming becalmed near the
Green Islands, was blown up by her captors, the latter
taking to the boats, only to be captured and sent to Fort
Preble as prisoners of war.

On the fourth of July, 1866, a fire-cracker, carelessly
thrown in a boat builder's shop, on Commercial, near
the foot of High street, resulted in a fire which laid in
ruins more than half the city of Portland. The fire
commenced about five o'clock in the afternoon. The
sparks soon communicated with Brown's Sugar House,
and thence, spreading out like a fan, swept diagonally
across the city, destroying everything in its track, until
a space one and one-half miles long, by one and one-
fourth miles broad, was so completely devastated that
only a forest of tottering walls and blackened chimneys
remained, and it was difficult to trace even the streets.
The fire was fanned into such a fury by a gale which
was blowing at the time, that the efforts of the firemen
were without avail, and the work of destruction was only
stayed when, as a last resort, buildings in its path were
blown up before the flames had reached them. The
entire business portion, embracing one-half the city,
was destroyed. Every bank and newspaper office,
every lawyer's office, many stores, churches, public build-
ings and private residences were swept away. Fire-
proof structures, which were hastily filled with valu-
ables, in the belief that they would withstand the flames,
crumbled to the earth, as though melted by the intense

23

354 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

heat. Only one building on Middle street stood un-
scathed, though the flames swept around it in a fiery
sea. The fire did not burn itself out until early in the
morning of the following day, when it paused at the
foot of Mountjoy Hill. When morning came, the in-
habitants looked with terror and dismay upon fifteen
hundred buildings in ashes, fifty-eight streets and courts
desolated, ten thousand people homeless, and $10,000,000
worth of property destroyed.

The work of succor and reconstruction immediately
began. The churches were thrown open to shelter the
homeless ; Mountjoy Hill was speedily transformed into
a village of tents; barracks were built; contributions
of food, clothing and money poured in from near and
far ; the old streets were widened and straightened, and
new ones opened ; and before the year had closed many
substantial buildings and blocks had been completed,
and others were in process of erection. The new Port-
land has arisen from the ruins of the old, more stately,
more beautiful and more substantial than before ; and
after the lapse of so many years, the evil which the fire
wrought is forgotten, and only the good is manifest.
Railroads have since been built, and travel and commerce
is each year increasing. The population of Portland in
1880 was 33,810.

The approach to Portland is more beautiful, even, than
that to New York. The city is built upon a small
peninsula rising out of Casco Bay, to a mean central
elevation of more than one hundred feet. This penin-
sula projects from the main land in a northeast direction,
and is about three miles long, by an average breadth of
three- fourths of a mile. An arm of the Bay, called
Fore River, divides it on the south from Cape Elizabeth,

PORTLAND. 355

and forms an inner harbor of more than six hundred
acres in extent, and with an average depth, at high water,
of thirty feet. Vessels of the largest size can anchor
in the main harbor, in forty feet of water at low tide.
The waters of the Back Cove separate it on the north
from the shores of Deering, and form another inner basin,
of large extent and considerable depth.

At the northeasternmost extremity of the Neck,
Munjoy Hill rises to a height of one hundred and
sixty-one feet, and commands a beautiful view of the
city, bay, adjacent islands and the ocean beyond. At
the southwestern extremity is BramhalPs Hill, rising
to one hundred and seventy-five feet, and commanding
city, bay, forests, fields, villages and mountains. The
land sinks somewhat between these two elevations, but
its lowest point still rises fifty-seven feet above high
tide. The elevation of its site, and the beauty of its
scenery and surroundings, are fast attracting the atten-
tion of tourists, and drawing to the city hosts of sum-
mer visitors.

The peninsula is covered with a network of streets
and lanes, containing an aggregate length of fifty miles,
while it has thirty wharves to accommodate the commerce
of the port. Congress street, the main thoroughfare of
the city, is three miles in length, and extends from
Bramhall to Munjoy. Running parallel to it for a
part of its length, on the southern slope, are Middle
street, a business street, devoted principally to the
wholesale and retail trade ; Fore street, the ancient water
street of the city, but now devoted to miscellaneous
trade ; and Commercial street, which commands the
harbor, and is principally devoted to large wholesale
business. At the west end there are other streets between

356 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Congress and Commercial, including Spring, Danforth
and York. Cumberland, Oxford, supplemented on its
western end by Portland, Lincoln, along the shore of
Back Cove, also supplemented on its western end by
Kennebec street, are on the northern slope of Congress
street. The cross streets are numerous. India street,
at the eastern end, was the early site of population and
business; Franklin and Beal streets are the only ones
running straight across the peninsula, from water to
water; Exchange street, devoted to banks, brokers'
offices and insurance agencies, and High and State
streets, occupied by private residences, are the principal
ones. There is partially completed around the entire
city a Marginal Way, one hundred feet in width, and
nearly five miles in length.

Munjoy Hill is a suburb, which is almost a distinct
village, being occupied by residences of the middle class,
who have their own schools, churches, and places of
business. From its summit, at early morning, one may
see the sun rising out of the ocean, in the midst of
emerald islands. On this hill, in 1 690, Lieutenant Thad-
deus Clark, with thirteen men, was shot by Indians in
ambush, the hill being then covered with forest. On
the same hill, in 1717, Lieutenant-Governor Dammer
made a treaty with the Indians, which secured a peace for
many years.; and in 1775 Colonel Thompson captured
Captain Mowatt, in revenge for which the latter sub-
sequently burned the city. In 1808 the third and last
execution for murder took place here; and in 1866 here
arose the village of tents after the great conflagration. The
Observatory, built in 1807, is upon Munjoy, having been
erected for the purpose of signaling shipping approach-
ing the harbor. It is eighty-two feet high, and from it

PORTLAND. 357

one can obtain the best view of the city and its surround-
ings. Casco Bay lies to the northeast, dotted with
islands. To the eastward, four miles distant, beyond
its barrier of islands, the Atlantic keeps up the never-
ending music of its waves. To the southward is the
city, with the harbor and the shipping beyond. Far away
to the northeast is Mount Washington, faintly outlined
upon the horizon, prominent in the distant range of
mountains. Adjoining the Observatory is the Congress
street Methodist Episcopal Church, a beautiful edifice,
its slender, graceful spire being a most conspicuous
object from the harbor and the sea, and rising to the
greatest height of any in the city.

The western end, including Bramhall Hill, is the
fashionable quarter; and having been spared in the
conflagration of 1866, many ancient mansions remain,
surrounded by newer and more elegant residences. The
houses are in the midst of well-kept lawns and gardens,
and the streets are shaded by stately elms, some of them
of venerable age. The views through these avenues of
trees, through some of the streets leading down to the
water, are delightful beyond description, the overarching
foliage framing in glimpses of water, fields, distant hills
and blue sky. At evening, from BramhalPs Hill, one
looks over a beautiful and varied landscape, brightened
by the glow of sunset on the western sky. The Maine
General Hospital stands on Bramhall Hill, an imposing
edifice, and one of the most prominent features of the
city.

The Western Promenade, a wide avenue planted with
rows of trees, runs along the brow of BramhalPs Hill.
The hill is named after George Bramhall, who ir 1680
bought a tract of four hundred acres, and made h. inself

358 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

a home in the wilderness. Nine years later he was
killed at the foot of the hill, in a fight with the Indians*
From the summit of the hill may be seen the waters of
Fore River on the one hand, and of Back Cove on the
other. Beyond is a wide stretch of field and forest,
broken by villages and farmhouses, with the spires of
Gorham in view, and far away, behind them, Ossipee
Mountain, fifty-five miles distant, in New Hampshire.
To the east is the church of Stand ish, Maine, and Clio-
corue Peak rising behind it ; Mount Carrigain, sixty-
three miles away, the line of the Saddleback in Sebago,
and far beyond, the sun-capped summits of the White
Mountains.

The Eastern Promenade is on Munjoy's Hill, and
commands views equally beautiful.

The Preble House is in Congress street, shaded by
four magnificent elms, which have survived from the
days of the Preble Mansion. Next to it, sitting back
from the street, and also shaded by elms, is the first
brick house built in Portland. It was begun in 1785,
by General Peleg Wadsworth, and finished the following
year, by his son-in-law, Stephen Longfellow. It is
known as the Longfellow House, but it is not the place
where the poet was born. He lived here in his youth,
and frequently visited the house in later days ; and it is
still in the possesesion of his family. But Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow first saw the light on February
twenty-seventh, 1807, in an old-fashioned wooden house,
at the corner of Fore and Hancock streets. The sea at that
period flowed up to the road opposite the house, which
commanded a fine view of the harbor. New-made land
crowds it further away, and the trains of the Grand
Trunk Railway run where the tide once ebbed and

PORTLAND. 359

flowed. Not far off is the site of the first house ever
built in Portland, by George Cleves, in 1632.

Nathaniel P. Willis was also born in Portland, but a
little more than a month earlier than Longfellow. Both
his father and his grandfather had been publishers, the
latter having been apprenticed in the same printing office
with Benjamin Franklin. Sarah Payson Willis, subse-
quently Mrs. James Parton, still better known as Fanny
Fern, a sister of the poet, was also a native of Portland.
John Neal, born in Portland August twenty-fifth, 1793,
was a man well known as a poet, novelist and journalist.
Seba Smith, author of the Jack Downing Papers, Mrs. E.
Oakes Smith, Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Allen, Nathaniel
Deering, Rev. Elijah Kellogg, Mrs. Ann S. Stephens,
Mrs. Margaret J. M. Sweat, and other well-known
authors, have been either natives of or residents in
Portland. General Neal Dow, who served in the late
war, and so famous as an advocate of prohibition, finds
his home in Portland, at the corner of Congress and Dow
streets. William Pitt Fessenden, late Senator and Sec-
retary of the Treasury, claimed Portland as his home.

Market Square is in the heart of the city, surrounded
by stores, hotels, halls, and places of amusement. Mili-
tary Hall stands almost in- the centre of the square, and
was built in 1825, as a town hall and market place. The
building contains a history in itself. Here, before the
city charter was obtained, in 1832, town meetings were
held, and subsequently it was the headquarters of the
city government. Military companies had and still have
their armories here ; and it has been the place of many
exciting political meetings. In it Garrison uttered his
anathemas against slavery, and Stephen A. Foster was
assaulted by a brutal pro- slavery mob. Suinner, Fes-

360 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

senden, and other great orators, have poured forth their
eloquence within its hall, and parties have been made and
unmade. On holidays Market Square is crowded with
an animated throng, and at night, when peddlers and
mountebanks take their stands and display their wares
by the light of flaming torches, the scene is especially
picturesque.

On Congress street, not far from Market Square, is
the First Parish (Unitarian) Church, which was rebuilt
in 1825, on the site which the old church had occupied
since 1740. This church is remarkable for its long
pastorates, there having been but four pastors from 1727
to 1864, a period of one hundred and thirty-seven years.
The present pastor is the Rev. Dr. Thomas Hill, ex-
President of Harvard College.

Lincoln Park is a public square, bounded by Con-
gress, Franklin, Federal and Pearl streets. It contains
a little less than two and one-half acres, in the middle
of which is a fountain. This park .is in the centre of
the district swept by the conflagration of 1866, and
looking on every side, not a building meets the eye
which was erected previous to that year.

The largest and most costly church in Portland is the
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, fronting on
Cumberland street. It is one hundred and ninety-six
feet in length, by one hundred in width, with a spire
rising in the air two hundred and thirty-six feet. It is
of brick, and is imposing only on account of its size.
Ifs interior, however, is finished and decorated in a
style surpassed by few churches in the country.

The Eastern Cemetery, on Congress street, is the
oldest graveyard in Portland. For two hundred years
it was the common burial ground of the settlement, and

PORTLAND. 361

here, probably, all the early colonists sleep their last
sleep, though their graves are forgotten. The oldest
tombstone which the yard seems to contain is that of
Mrs. Mary Green, who died in 1717. On the opposite
side of the yard, near Mountford street, are the monu-
ments erected to the memory of William Burroughs, of
the United States Brig Enterprise, and Samuel Blythe,
of His Majesty's Brig Boxer, who fought and died to-
gether, on September fifth, 1813, and were buried here.
Lieut. Kerwin Waters, of the Enterprise, wounded in the
came action, lies beside them. Of him Longfellow sung :—

u I remember the sea fight far away,

How it thundered o'er the tide !
And the dead captains, as they lay
In their graves o'erlooking the tranquil bay,

Where they in battle died."

There is a white marble monument to Commodore
Preble, and the death of Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth,
uncle of the poet Longfellow, who fell before Tripoli in
1804, is also commemorated here.

Congress Square, at the junction of Fore street, has
an elevated position, and is surrounded by churches of
various denominations. From Congress street, near
its junction with Mellen street, the visitor can look off
to Deer ing's Woods, which rise on the borders of a
creek, running in from Back Cove. This tract of wood-
land has come into possession of the city, and will be
preserved as a park. Longfellow sings of

"The breezy dome of groves,

The shadows of Deering's Woods."
Again : —

" And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair,

And with joy that is almost pain
My heart goes back to wander there,
And among the dreams of the days that were
I find my lost youth again."

362 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The reservoir of the Portland Water Works is at the
junction of Bramhall and Brackett streets. It has an
area of 100,000 square feet, with a capacity of 12,000,-
000 gallons, and is supplied with water from Lake
Sebago, seventeen miles distant.

The extensive premises of the Grand Trunk Railway
lie at the foot of India street, where are wharves for the
great freight business between Canada and Europe, and
whence the Dominion and Beaver Line of steamships,
every fortnight, from November to May, send ships to
Liverpool. The scene during the winter season is a
busy one, and the amount of freight handled and shipped
is immense. Then begins Commercial street, the modern
business avenue of the city, which runs its whole water
front, with a railroad track in the middle of it. On
this street is the old family mansion of the widow of
Brigadier Preble, built in 1786, on the site of his father's
house, destroyed by fire in 1775. It then occupied a
beautiful and retired locality, looking out upon the
harbor, and surrounded by ample grounds. But now
it is strangely out of keeping with its neighbors. Oppo-
site it now stands the grain elevator of the Grand Trunk
Railway, having been built in 1875, with a capacity of
200,000 bushels. All around are wholesale shipping
and commission houses, and wharves for ocean steamships
extend up and down the shore.

When Captain John Smith, famous in the early
history of Virginia, and the first tourist who ever visited
Maine, made his famous summer trip thither, in 1614,
he described the place as follows: — "Westward of
Kennebec is the country of Ancocisco, in the bottom of a
deep bay full of many great isles, which divide it into
many great harbors." Ancocisco was very soon abbre-
viated to Casco, and the bay is still filled with many

PORTLAND. 363

great isles. Casco Bay, extending from Cape Elizabeth,
on the west, to Cape Small Point, on the east, a distance
of about eighteen miles, with a width of, perhaps, twelve
miles, contains more islands than any other body of
water of like extent in the whole United States. It is a
popular belief that these islands number three hundred
and sixty-five — one for every day in the year ; but a
regard for truth compels us to state, that of the
named and unnamed islands and islets, there are only one
hundred and twenty-two, while a few insignificant rocks
and reefs would not swell the number to one hundred
and forty. These islands are divided into three ranges,
the Inner, Middle and Outer. The Inner range con-
tains twenty islands; the Middle range, twenty-four;
and the Outer range, seventy-eight. Besides these
islands, the shore is very much broken, and extends out
into the bay in picturesque points or fringes, the
creeks, inlets and tidal rivers extending far inland. In
this bay was discovered, by a mariner named Joselyn, in
1639, a triton or merman, and the first sea serpent of
the coast. Seals breed and sport on a ledge in the inner
bay, off the shore of Falmouth, and its waters abound
with edible fish and sea-fowl.

Ferry boats convey an endless stream of pleasure-
seekers to the different islands, during the summer season.
Cushing's Island lies at the mouth of Portland Harbor,
forming one shore of the ship channel. Its southern
shore presents a rocky and precipitous front, culminat-
ing in a bold bluff nearly one hundred and fifty feet
high, known as White Head. The island looks out
upon the harbor from smiling fields and low, tree-bor-
dered beaches. It furnishes good opportunities for
fishing and bathing, and is fast becoming a popular

364 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

summer resort. It is five miles in circumference, and
commands magnificent sea views.

Peak's Island is separated from Cushing's Island by
White Head Passage, and with the latter forms an
effectual barrier to the ocean. Like it, it presents a bold
front to the sea, and smiles upon the bay. It is about
a mile and a half long, by a mile and a quarter
wide, and rises gradually to a central elevation of,
perhaps, one hundred feet, commanding extensive
views of the ocean and harbor, and of the mountains,
eighty miles away. It is one of the most beautiful of
all the islands of Casco Bay, and has a resident popula-
tion of three hundred and seventy persons, who are
largely descendants of the first settlers.

Long Island lies northeast of Peak's Island, and is
separated from it by Hussey's Sound. It has an area
of three hundred and twelve acres, presenting a long,
ragged line of shore to the sea. Its population was, in
1880, two hundred and fifty-two, the men being en-
gaged in fishing and farming.

Little Chebague lies inside of Long Island, and is
connected with Great Chebague by a sand bar, dry at low
water. A hotel and several summer cottages stand upon
the island, and it is an attractive place.

Harpswell is a long peninsula, about fourteen miles
down the bay, and is much resorted to by picnic
parties. To the eastward lies Bailey's Island, one of the
most beautiful of the bay, and to the northward is Orr's
Island, the scene of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel,
"The Pearl of Orr's Island." Eising between Bailey's
Island and Small Point Harbor is the Elm Island of
Rev. Elijah Kellogg's stories. Whittier has written a
poem entitled " The Dead Ship of Harpswell," in which

PORTLAND. 365

he describes a spectre ship which never reaches the land,
and is a sure omen of death : —

" In vain o'er Harpswell's neck the star

Of evening guides her in,
In vain for her the lamps are lit

Within thy town, Seguin !
In vain the harbor boat shall hail,

In vain the pilot call ;
No hand shall reef her spectral sail,

Or let her anchor &U."

CHAPTER XXVI.

PHILADELPHIA.

Early History. — William Penn. — The Revolution. — Declaration
of Independence. — First Railroad. — Riots — Streets and Houses.
— Relics of the Past. — Independence Hall. — Carpenters' Hall.
— Blue Anchor. — Letitia Court. — Christ Church.— Old Swedes
Church. — Benjamin Franklin. — Libraries.— Old Quaker Alms-
house. — Old Houses in Germantown. — Manufactures. —
Theatres. — Churches. — Scientific Institutions. — Newspapers. —
Medical Colleges. — Schools. — Public Buildings.— Penitentiary.
— River Front. — Fairmount Park. — Zoological Gardens. —
Cemeteries. — Centennial Exhibition. — Bi-Centennial. — Past,
Present and Future of the City.

IN" the year 1610, Lord Thomas de la War, on his
voyage from England to Virginia, entered what
is now Delaware Bay, and discovered the river flowing
into it, to which he also gave his name. The Dutch
made a prior claim to the discovery of the land which
bordered this river, and retained possession for a time.
But there were difficulties in maintaining their settle-
ments, and in 1638 the Swedes sent out a colony from
Stockholm, and established a footing on the west bank
of the river, afterwards known as Pennsylvania. The
Dutch at New York, however, would not submit to this
arrangement, and under Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of
Manhattan, demanded the surrender of their fort — now
called Trinity Fort — which was yielded. The Dutch
authority lasted for a short time only. In 1664 the
English captured Manhattan and expelled the Dutch,
and in the same year an expedition under Sir Robert

366

PHILADELPHIA. 367

Carr came to the Delaware, fired two broadsides into
Trinity Fort, landed storming parties, assaulted the fort,
killed three Dutchmen, wounded ten, and in triumph
raised the flag of England, which was thereafter supreme
on the Delaware for nine years.

In 1672 the Dutch tried their strength again, and
summoned the English fort at Staten Island to surren-
der. This summons was complied with, and the Eng-
lish of New York swore allegiance to the Prince of
Orange. The people upon the banks of the Delaware
soon accommodated themselves to the change of masters,
and welcomed the Dutch. But this was their last ap-
pearance upon the Delaware. In the next year, 1673,
their settlements in America were all ceded, through the
fortune of war, to Great Britain, and this territory
once more passed under the English flag.

About this time the name of William Penn enters
into American history. The British Government being
largely indebted to his father, Admiral William Penn,
the son found little difficulty in obtaining a grant for a
large tract of land in America, upon which to found a
colony. This was in 1681. He immediately sent out
to his wooded possessions, which he named Pennsylvania,
his cousin, Captain William Markham, who had been
a soldier, with a commission to be Deputy Governor, and
with instructions to inform the European inhabitants
already settled there of the change in government,
promising them liberal laws. Markham was also to
convey a message of peace to the Indians, in the name
of their new " proprietor." He was soon followed by
three commissioners, who had power to settle the colony,
and among other things, to lay out a principal city, to be
the capital of the province, which William Penn, who

368 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

was a member of the Society of Friends, directed should
be called Philadelphia — a Greek compound signifying
" brotherly love." He himself arrived on the great
territory of which he was sole proprietor in 1682, and
found the plans of the city and province to his satisfac-
tion. He at once convened an Assembly, and the three
counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester were
created, and proper laws passed for their government.

In less than two years, however, Penn was obliged to
return to England, and shortly after, in 1692, the British
Government took possession of the colony, and placed
it under the jurisdiction of the Governor of New York.
But in 1694, the government was restored to Penn, and
Markham was again made Lieutenant-Governor. Penn,
himself, did not return to America until 1699. He
found his capital very considerably improved. Instead of
the wilderness he had left, fifteen years before, there were
streets, houses, elegant stores, warehouses, and ship-
ping on the river. The population was estimated at
four thousand five hundred persons. His visit was,
however, brief. In 1701, he set sail again for England,
intending to return in a few months, but this intention
was never carried out. In 1708, his pecuniary embar-
rassments were so great, that he was arrested for debt in
London, and thrown into the Fleet Prison, where he
continued for nine years. In 1712 his health and mind
gave way, and during six years he lingered as an im-
becile, childish and gentle in his manners, the sad wreck
of a strong mind. He died in July, 1718.

The government of Pennsylvania was administered
for a time by his widow, and subsequently went into the
hands of his children and their descendants, as propri-
etors. They usually delegated the administration to

PHILADELPHIA. 369

*

lieutenant-governors, though they sometimes exercised
their authority in person, until the American Revolution
put an end to all the colonial governments.

The history of Philadelphia during the period of the
Revolution is largely connected with that of the whole
country. At a large meeting held in the State House
in Philadelphia, in April, 1768, it was resolved to cease
all importations from the mother country, in consequence
of the exorbitant taxes levied upon them. In 1773,
the British East India Company being determined to
export tea to America, a second meeting was called at
the State House, at which it was patriotically resolved
that " Parliament had no right to tax the Americans,
without their consent," and that "any one who would
receive or sell the tea sent out to America would be
denounced as an enemy to his country/'

The ship Polly, Captain Ryers, was to bring the tea
to Philadelphia. Handbills, purporting to be issued
by the "committee for tarring and feathering," were
printed and distributed among the citizens. They were
addressed to the Delaware pilots and to Captain Ryers
himself, warning the former of the danger they would
incur if they piloted the tea ship up the river, whilst
Captain Ryers was threatened with the application of
tar and feathers if he attempted to land the tea.

Christmas Day, 1773, the Polly arrived. A commit-
tee of citizens went on board, told Captain Ryers the
danger he was in, and requested him to accompany them
to the State House. Here the largest meeting was
assembled that had ever been held in the city. This
meeting resolved that the tea on board the Polly should
not be landed, and that it should be carried back to
England immediately. The captain signified his wil-

24

370 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

*

lingness to comply with the resolution, and in two hours
after, the Polly, with her freight of tea, hoisted sail and
went down the river.

In September, 1774, the first Congress, composed of
delegates from eleven Colonies, met at Carpenters7
Hall, on Chestnut street, Philadelphia, to consider the
condition of the Colonies, in their relation to the mother
country. This Congress resolved that all importations
from Great Britain or her dependencies should cease.
Committees of " inspection and observation," were ap-
pointed, which exercised absolute authority to punish all
persons infringing the order of Congress.

On April twenty-fourth, 1775, news of the battles of
Concord and Lexington reached the city. A meeting
was immediately called, by sound of gong and bell, at
the State House. Eight thousand persons assembled,
who resolved that they would " associate together, to
defend with arms their property, liberty and lives."
Troops were at once raised, forts and batteries built on
the Delaware, floating batteries, gunboats and ships-of-
war constructed, with all the speed possible, and chevaux
de frize sunk in the river, to prevent the passage of
British ships. In May, 1776, the English Frigate Roe-
buck, and Sloop-of-war Liverpool, attempting to force
their way up the river, the Americans opened fire on
them, and a regular naval action took place. The
British managed to escape, and retired to their cruising
ground, at the entrance of the bay.

On July second, 1776, Congress, sitting at the State
House, resolved in favor of the severance of all connec-
tion between the American Colonies and Great Britain,
and independence of that power. On July third and
fourth, the form of the declaration of independence waa

OLD INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA

PHILADELPHIA. 371

debated, and adopted on the latter day. July eighth,
the Declaration was read to the people in the State
House yard, and received with acclamations, and evi-
dences of a stern determination to defend their inde-
pendence with their lives. The King's Arms were at
once torn down from the court room in the State House,
and burned by the people. Bells were rung and bonfires
lighted, the old State House bell fulfilling the command
inscribed upon it, when it was cast, twenty years before :
"Proclaim Liberty throughout the land, unto all the
inhabitants thereof."

In September, 1777, the British army, under General
Lord Howe, entered Philadelphia. October fourth,
Washington attacked it at Germantown, and although
he did not win a victory, compelled the British com-
mander to respect him. The English remained in
possession of the city, but the Americans held the coun-
try around. The Philadelphians having closed the
Delaware by the chevaux de frize, the royal army was
in effect hemmed in and cut off from communication
with the British fleet, which had entered the Delaware,
but was prevented from approaching the city by the
American forts and batteries. It had brought but a
moderate supply of stores, and as these diminished, the
troops suffered from scarcity of food.

On November twenty-sixth, British frigates and trans-
ports arrived at the wharves of the city, to the great joy
of the royal troops and of the inhabitants, provisions
having become very scarce and famine threatened. Beef
sold at five dollars a pound, and potatoes at four dollars
a bushel, hard money. The British army remained in
Philadelphia until June eighteenth, 1778, about nine
months from its first occupation of the city. During

372 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

that time the officers gave themselves up to enjoyment.
They amused themselves with the theatre, with balls,
parties, cock-fights and gambling: and a grand fete was
celebrated in honor of their commander, Lord Howe.
This fete, in the style of a tournament of chivalry, took
place in the lower part of the city, and while it was in
progress the Americans in considerable force made an
attack upon the lines north of the city, set fire to the
abattis, and brought out the entire body of the royal
troops to repel the attack.

Upon the evacuation of the city, in June, General
Benedict Arnold was immediately sent with a small
force to occupy it. He remained in military command
for several months. It was discovered by many that
he had become largely involved in certain speculating
transactions, and the shame of the discovery stimulated
the traitorous intentions which finally carried him over
to the British army.

After the inauguration of Washington as President
of the new republic, it was determined by Congress that
Philadelphia should be the seat of the United States
government for the ensuing ten years, after which it
should be removed to Washington City. The scheme
of the Federal Constitution was framed and adopted in
September, 1787, by the Convention sitting at the State
House, with George Washington as President. The
final adoption of the Constitution of the United States
of America was celebrated in Philadelphia on the Fourth
of July, 1788 by a magnificent procession.

The principal officers of Congress removed their resi-
dences to Philadelphia in the latter part of 1790. At
that period Washington lived in Market street near
Sixth, in a plain two-story brick house, which had been

PHILADELPHIA. 373

the residence of Lord Howe during the British occupa-
tion of the city. The locality is now occupied, if I
mistake not, by the mammoth clothing house of Wana-
maker & Brown. John Adams, Vice-President, lived
in the Hamilton mansion at Bush Hill; and Thomas
Jefferson, Secretary of State, at 174 Market street,
between Fourth and Fifth, on the south side. Congress
assembled for the transaction of business on State House
Square.

During the stay of the Federal government in Phila-
delphia, Washington and Adams were inaugurated as
President and Vice President (March fourth, 1797),
in the chamber of the House of Representatives.

In 1793, 1797, and 1798, a fearful epidemic of the
yellow fever, visited Philadelphia and created great
alarm, the mortality being dreadful.

The removal of the Federal government to Washing-
ton, in 1800, deprived Philadelphia of the prominence
she had enjoyed as the Capital of the nation. In the
year 1808 steamboats began to ply regularly on the
Delaware River. During the war which commenced in
1812 between the United States and Great Britain,
Philadelphia maintained her loyalty, and fulfilled her
duty to the country. Several volunteer companies were
formed, and there was an engagement in July, 1813,
between British war vessels and the United States
gunboat flotilla on the Delaware, in which the Phila-
delphians proved themselves brave and patriotic.

The first railroad, running from Philadelphia to
Germantown, was built in 1832. The Pennsylvania
Railroad was projected in 1845, and chartered in the
following year.

In 1834 a spirit of riot and disorder which passed

374 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

over the United States, reached Philadelphia, and led
to disturbances between whites and blacks. The houses
of colored people were broken into, a meeting-house
torn down, and many other outrages committed. Again,
in 1835 attacks were made on the blacks, and houses
burned. In 1838 all friends of the abolition of slavery
were violently attacked, and much damage done to
property in the city.

But the most terrible riots which Philadelphia has
known occurred in 1844. A meeting of the Native
American party was attacked and dispersed. The
" Natives" rallied to a market house on Washington
Btreet, where they were again attacked, and fire-arms
used on both sides. Houses were broken into and set
on fire. The Roman Catholic churches of Saint
Michael and Saint Augustine, and a female Catholic
seminary, were burned, and many buildings sacked and
destroyed. All the Catholic churches were in great
danger of sharing the same fate. A large number of
persons were killed on both sides. On July fourth, of
the same year, the Native Americans had a very large
and showy procession through the streets of the city.
On Sunday, July seventh, the church of Saint Philip de
Neri, in South wark, was broken into by the mob. In
clearing the streets, the soldiers and the people came
into collision. The former fired into the crowd, and
several persons were killed, and others wounded. This
occurrence caused intense excitement. The soldiers
were attacked with cannon and with musketry, and they
responded with artillery and with musketry. The rioters
had four pieces, which were worked by sailors. The
battle continued during the night of the seventh and the
morning of the eighth of July. Two soldiers were

PHILADELPHIA. 375

killed, and several wounded. Of the citizens seven
were killed, and many wounded. This was the most
sanguinary riot, and the last of any importance, which
ever occurred in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia possesses many characteristic features
which distinguish her from her sister cities. The visitor
will be at first struck by the extreme regularity of the
streets, and the look of primness which invests them.
They are laid out at right angles, the only notable
exceptions being those roads, now dignified by the name
of avenues, which usually led from the infant city into
the then adjacent country. These avenues, of which
Passyuuk, Germantown and Ridge are the principal
ones, are irregular in their course, but take a generally
diagonal direction ; the first southwest, and the other
two* north west. The houses are mostly of brick, with
white marble facings and steps, and white wooden
ehutters to the first story. The streets running east and
west, frcm the Delaware to the Schuylkill, are, in the
original city, with few exceptions named after trees.
Thus Codar, Pine, Spruce, Locust, Walnut, Chestnut,
Filbert, Mulberry, Cherry, Sassafras and Vine. Cedar
became Scmth street, and Sassafras and Mulberry became
Ilace and Arch, the latter so named because in the early
days of the city Front street spanned it by an arch.
Callowhill street was originally Gallowhill street, the
word indicating its derivation. The houses on these
rtreets are numbered from the Delaware, beginning a
new hundred with every street. Thus all houses between
Front and Second streets are numbered in the first hun-
dred, and at Second street a new hundred begins ; the
even numbers being on the southern side, and the odd
ones on the northern side of the street, The streets run-

376 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

uing parallel to the river are numbered from the river,
beginning with Front, then Second, Third, and so on,
until the furthest western limit of the city is reached.
Market street, originally called High street, runs between
Chestnut and Filbert, dividing the city into north and
south. The houses on the streets crossing Market begin
their numbers at that street, running both north and
south, each street representing an additional hundred.
With this naming of streets and numbering of houses,
no ^stranger can ever lose himself in Philadelphia. The
name and number of street and house will always tell
him just where he is. Thus if he finds himself at 836
North Sixth street, he knows he is eight squares north
of Market street, and six squares west of the Delaware
River.

The original city was bounded by the Delaware River
on the east, and the Schuylkill on the west, and extended
north and south half a mile on either side of Market
street. Even before the present century it had outgrown
its original limits in a northerly and southerly direction,
and a number of suburbs had sprung up around it, each
of which had its own corporation. The names of these
suburbs were, most of them, borrowed from London.
Southwark faced the river to the south ; Moyamensmg
was just west of Southwark ; Spring Garden, Kensington,
Northern Liberties, Germantown, Roxborongh, and
Frankford were on the north, and West Philadelphia
west of the Schuylkill. In 1854 these suburbs, so long
divided from the " city " merely by geographical lines,
were incorporated with it ; and the City of Philadelphia
was made to embrace the entire county of Philadelphia
— a territory twenty-three miles long, with an area of
nearly one hundred and thirty square miles. It thus

PHILADELPHIA. 377

became in size the largest city in the country, while it
stands only second in population.

The old city was laid out with great economy as to
space, the streets being as narrow as though land were
really scarce in the new country when it was planned.
Market street 'extends from the Delaware westward — a
broad, handsome avenue, occupied principally by whole-
sale stores. It is indebted, both for its name and width,
to the market houses, which from an early date to as
late as 1860, if not later, occupied the centre of the
street; long, low, unsightly structures, thronged early
in the morning, and especially on market days, with
buyers and sellers, while market wagons lined the sides
of the street. The same kind of structures still occupy
certain localities of Second, Callowhill, Spring Garden
and Bainbridge streets. But those in Market street
have disappeared, and substantial and handsome market
buildings have been erected on or near the street,
instead of in its centre.

A century ago the business of Philadelphia was con-
fined principally to Front street, from Walnut to Arch.
Now Second street presents the most extended length
of retail stores in the country, and business has spread
both north and south almost indefinitely, and is fast
creeping westward. Market street presents a double
line of business houses, from river to river. Chestnut,
the fashionable promenade and locality of the finest
hotels and retail stores, is invaded by business beyond
Broad, and Arch street beyond Tenth ; while Eighth
street, even more than Chestnut the resort of shoppers,
is, for many squares, built up by large and handsome
retail stores. Broad street, lying between Thirteenth
and Fifteenth, is the handsomest avenue in Philadel-

378 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

phia. It is fifteen miles in length, and one hundred
and thirteen feet in width, and contains many of the
finest public buildings and private residences in the
city. Ridgway Library, the Deaf and Dumb Asylum,
Horticultural Hall, Academy of Music, Broad Street
Theatre, Union League Club House, Masonic Temple,
Academy of Fine Arts, besides some of the most elegant
religious edifices, are located on this street.

At the intersection of Broad and Market, where were
once four little squares left in the original plan of the
city, and known as Penn Square, are being constructed
the vast Public Buildings of the city. They are of
white marble, four hundred and eighty-six and one-half
feet long by four hundred and seventy feet wide, and
four stories high, covering an area of four and one-half
acres, not including a large court in the centre. The
central tower will, when completed, be four hundred and
fifty feet high, and the total cost of the buildings over ten
millions of dollars. This building presents a most
imposing appearance, whether viewed from Market or
Broad streets. The Masonic Temple, just to the north,
is one of the handsomest of its kind in America. It is
a solid granite structure, in the Norman style, most
elaborately ornamented, and with a tower two hundred
and thirty feet high. Its interior is finished in a costly
manner, and after the several styles of architecture.
The Academy of Music is one of the largest opera
houses in America, being capable of seating three
thousand persons.

Third street is the banking and financial centre of
Philadelphia; on Walnut street are found the greatest
proportion of insurance offices ; South street is the cheap
retail street, and is crowded with shoppers, especially

MASONIC TEMPLK, I'HILADKLPHIA.

PHILADELPHIA. 379

on market days, and the Jews reign here supreme. Bain-
bridge street (once Shippen) east of Broad represents
the squalor and crime of the city. " Old clo' " and
second-hand stores of all descriptions alternate with low
drinking places, and occupy forlorn and tumble-down
tenements. All races and colors, and both sexes min-
gle here, and the man who sighs for missionary work
need go no further than this quarter.

Chestnut street is, next to Broad, the handsomest in
the city. The buildings are all of comparatively
recent construction, and are many of them handsome and
costly. On Market street the past century still mani-
fests itself in quaint houses of two or three stories in
height, sometimes built of alternate black and red
bricks, and occasionally with queer dormer windows,
wedged in between more stately and more modern
neighbors. It will be some time before the street
becomes thoroughly modernized, and we can scarcely
wish that it may become so, for the city would thus lose
much of its quaint interest.

One of the characteristics of Philadelphia which,
strikes the traveler is that it wears an old-time air,
far more so than Boston or New York. Boston cannot
straighten her originally crooked streets, but her thought
and spirit are entirely of the nineteenth century. New-
York is intensely modern, the few relics of the past
which still remain contrasting and emphasizing still
more strongly the life and bustle and business of to-day.
Philadelphia is a quiet city. Its people do not rush
hither and thither, as though but one day remained in
which to accomplish a life work. They take time to
walk, to eat, to sleep, and to attend to their business.
In brief, they take life far more easily and slowly than

380 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

their metropolitan neighbors. They do not enter into
wild speculative schemes; they have no such Stock
Exchange, where bulls and bears roar and paw the
ground, or where they may make or lose fortunes
in less time than it takes to eat one's dinner. They are
a steady, plodding people, accumulating handsome for-
tunes in solid, legitimate ways. There is little of the
rustle and roar of the elder city; save for the continual
ring and rattle of the street cars, which cross the city in
every direction, many of its quarters are as quiet as a
country village. Its early Quaker settlers have stamped
it with the quiet and placidity which is the leading
trait of their sect; and though the Quaker garb is seen
less and less often upon the streets, the early stamp
seems to have been indelible.

Philadelphia retains more of the old customs, old
houses, and, perhaps, old laws, than any other city in
the country. The Quaker City lawyer carries his brief
in a green bag, as the benches of the Inner Temple used
to do in Penn's time. The baker cuts a tally before the
door each morning, just as the old English baker used
to do three centuries ago. After a death has occurred
in it, a house is put into mourning, having the shutters
bowed and tied with black ribbon, not to be opened for
at least a year. There are laws (seldom executed, it is
true, but still upon the statute-books), against profanity
and Sabbath-breaking, and even regulating the dress of
women.

Some of the streets of Philadelphia bear strongly the
marks of the past. Those, especially, near the river,
which were built up in the early days, have not yet been
entirely renovated; while some ancient buildings of
historic interest have been preserved with jealous care.

PHILADELPHIA. 381

First and foremost among the latter is Independence
Hall, occupying the square upon Chestnut street between
Fifth and Sixth streets — no doubt, considered an impos-
ing edifice at the time of its erection, but now over-
shadowed by the business palaces which surround it.
It was here that the second Colonial Congress met;
here that the Declaration of Independence was adopted ;
and here that the United States Congress assembled,
until the seat of the General Government was removed
to Washington, in 1800. In Congress Hall, in the
second story of this building, Washington delivered his
Farewell Address. The building is now preserved with
great care. The hall where the Declaration of Inde-
pendence was signed is decorated with portraits of the
signers, and contains, among other objects of interest, as
before stated, the bell which pealed out freedom to all.

Next in historic importance is Carpenters' Hall,
between Third and Fourth streets. The first Conti-
nental Congress met here, and here the first words
pointing toward a collision with the mother country
were spoken in Philadelphia.

When William Penn made his first visit to Philadel-
phia, on October twenty-fourth, 1682, he set foot upon
his new possessions at the Blue Anchor Landing, at the
mouth of Dock Creek, in the vicinity of what is now
the corner of Front and Dock streets. Here stood the
Blue Anchor Inn, the first house built within the
ancient limits of the city. Then, and long afterwards,
Dock Creek was a considerable stream, running through
the heart of the town. But, in course of time, the water
became offensive, from the drainage of the city, and it
was finally arched over, and turned into a sewer. The
winding of Dock street is accounted for by the fact that

382 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

it follows the former course of the creek. Sloops onct
anchored and discharged their cargoes where now stands
Girard Bank, on Third street, below Chestnut.

Between Chestnut and Market streets, Second and
Front, is found Letitia street, where long stood the
first brick house built in the Province, erected for the
use of Penn himself, and named after his daughter
Letitia. He directed that it should " be pitched in the
middle of the platt of the town, facing the harbor."
The bricks, wooden carvings and other materials, were
imported from England. At the time of its construc-
tion a forest swept down to the river in front, forming
a natural park, where deer ranged at will. Letitia
House became a lager beer saloon, the front painted with
foaming pots of beer. But business interests claimed
the site and the old house was removed and carefully
re-erected in Fairmount Park.

The old Slate Roof House, long one of the ancient
landmarks, on Second street below Chestnut, the resi-
dence of William Penn on his second visit to this coun-
try, during which visit John, his only " American" son
was born, and where other noted persons lived and died,
or at least visited, was removed in 1867, to make room
for the Commercial Exchange.

Not far off, on Second street, north of Market, is
Christ's Church, occupying the site of the first church
erected by the followers of Penn. The present edifice
was begun in 1727. Washington's coach and four
used to draw up proudly before it each Sabbath, and
himself and Lady Washington, Lord Howe, Cornwallis,
Benedict Arnold, Andre, Benjamin Franklin, De Chas-
tellux, the Madisons, the Lees, Patrick Henry and
others whose names have become incorporated in

PHILADELPHIA. 383

American history, have worshiped here. In the aisles
are buried various persons, great men in their day, but
forgotten now. The chime of bells in the lofty tower
is the oldest in America, and were cast in London. This
chime joined the State House bell on that memorable
Fourth of July, when the latter proclaimed liberty
throughout the land. Just opposite this church is a
small street, opening into Second street, its eastern end
closed by a tall block of warehouses. This street con-
tained Stephen Girard's stores and houses.

The great elm tree, at Kensington, under which Penn
made his famous treaty with the Indians, remained until
1800, when it was blown down. An insignificant stone
now marks the spot, being inclosed by a fence, and
surrounded by stone and lumber yards. An elm over-
shadows it — possibly, a lineal descendant of the historic
tree.

There is an older religious edifice in Philadelphia
than Christ's Church. It is the old Swedes' Church,
erected in 1697, not far from Front and Christian
streets, by early Swedish missionaries. Though insig-
nificant, compared with modern churches, it was regarded
as a magnificent structure by the Quakers, Swedes and
Indians, who first beheld it. The inside carvings, bell
and communion service, were a gift of the Swedish king.
In the graveyard which surrounds it are found the dead
of nearly two centuries ago, some of the slate-stones over
the older graves having been imported from the mother
country, Here sleeps Sven Schute and his descendants,
once, under Swedish dominion, lords of all the land on
which Philadelphia now stands. None of his name
now lives. Here lie buried, forgotten, Bengtossens,
Peterssens, and Bonds. Wilson, the ornithologist, was

384 rECULIAEITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

a frequent attendant at this church, early in the present
century, and he lies in the church yard, having been
buried there by his own request, as it was " a silent,
shady place, where the birds would be apt to come and
sing over his grave." The English sparrows have built
their nests above it.

An ancient house possessing special historic interest
stands on Front street, a few doors above Dock.
It is built of glazed black bricks, with a hipped roof,
and, though it was a place of note in its day, occupied
by one generation after another of the ruling Quakers, it
has now degenerated into a workingmen's coffee-house.
To it the Friends conducted Franklin on his return from
England. War was not yet declared, but there were
mutteriugs in the distance; all awaited Franklin's coun-
sels, sitting silently, as is their wont, waiting for the
spirit to move to utterance, when Franklin stood up
and cried out : " To arms, my friends, to arms ! "

Franklin has left many associations in the city of his
adoption. As a boy of seventeen he trudged up High,
now Market street, munching one roll, with another
under his arm, friendless and unknown. Even his
future wife smiled in ridicule as he passed by. To-day
statues are erected to his memory, and institutions
named after him. The Philadelphia Library, the
oldest and richest in the city, claims him as one of its
original founders. In 1729, the Junto, a little associa-
tion of tradesmen of which Franklin was a member,
used to meet in the chamber of a little house in Pewter-
platter alley, to exchange their books. Franklin sug-
gested that there should be a small annual subscription,
in order to increase the stock. To-day the library
contains many thousand volumes, with many rare and

PHILADELPHIA. 385

valuable manuscripts and pamphlets. This library
contains Penn's desk and clock, John Penn's cabinet,
and a colossal bust of Minerva which overlooked the
deliberations of the Continental Congress. In an old
graveyard at the corner of Fifth and Arch, a section of
iron railing in the stone wall which surrounds it
permits the passer to view the plain marble slab which
covers the remains of Franklin and his wife.

Speaking of libraries, the Apprentices' Library, on
the opposite corner of Fifth and Arch, overlooks
Franklin's grave. It was established by the Quakers,
and dates back to 1783. The apprentice system has
died out, and the library is almost forgotten.

As late as 1876, stood the old Quaker Almshouse, on
"Wil lings alley, between Third and Fourth streets, of
which Longfellow gives this description in his poem,
" Evangeline : " —

"Then in the suburbs it stood, in the midst of meadows and

woodlands ; —

Now the city surrounds it ; but still with its gateway and wicket,
Meek in the midst of splendor, its humble walls seem to echo
Softly the words of the Lord: 'The poor ye always have with

you.' "

Here Evangeline came when the pestilence fell on the
city, when —

"Distant and soft on her ear fell the chimes from the belfry of

Christ Church,

While intermingled with these, across the meadows were wafted
Sounds of psalms that were sung by the Swedes in their church at

Wicaco."

And here Evangeline found Gabriel. The ancient
building is now leveled, and only the poem remains.

Germantown, now incorporated in Philadelphia,^
rich in historic associations. Steuton, a country seat

386 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

near Germantown, was for generations the centre of the
social life of the Quakers. It was built in 1 731, by Jamea
Logan, and was finished with secret passages and
underground ways, to be used in case of attack by
Indians and others. The Chew House at Germantown
was, during the Revolution, used by Colonel Musgrove
and six companies, for a long time. The old Johnson
House had its hall door, which is still preserved,
riddled by cannon. In many private lawns and
gardens of that suburb royalists and rebels sleep peace-
fully side by side. A house, now quaint in its an-
tiquity, at the intersection of Main street and West
Walnut lane, was used during the Revolution as a.
hospital and amputating room. The old Wistar House,
built in 1744, played a part in the events of the last
century, and contains furniture which once belonged to
Franklin and Count Zinzendorf. There is a room
filled with relics of early times.

In 1755 the corner stone of Pennsylvania Hospital
was laid. This corner stone having been recently
uncovered, in making alterations to the building, the
following inscription, of which Franklin was the author,
was discovered : " In the Year of Christ, MDCCLV,
George the Second happily reigning (for he sought the
happiness of his people) — Philadelphia flourishing (for
its inhabitants were public spirited) — This Building,
By the Bounty of the Government, and of many private
persons, was piously founded For the Relief of the Sick
and Miserable. May the God of Mercies Bless the
undertaking ! "

A noticeable and commendable feature of Philadel-
phia is its many workingrnen's homes. In New York
the middle classes, whose incomes are but moderate, are

PHILADELPHIA. 387

compelled to seek residences in cheap flats and tenement
houses, or else go into the country, at the daily expense
of car or ferry rides. But in Philadelphia flats are
unknown, and tenement life — several families crowded
under a single roof — confined almost entirely to the
more wretched quarters of the city. There are streets
upon streets of comfortable and neat dwellings, marble-
faced and marble-stepped, with their prim white shutters,
two or three stories in height, and containing from six
to nine rooms, with all the conveniences of gas, bath-room
and water, which are either rented at moderate rates or
owned outright by single families, who may possibly
rent out a room or two to lodgers. Philadelphia may
have less elegant public and business edifices than New
York, but her dwelling houses stand as far more desir-
able monuments to the prosperity of a people than the
splendor united with the squalor of the metropolis.

The manufactures of Philadelphia furnish the foun-
dation of her prosperity. Her iron foundries produce
more than one-third of the manufactured iron of the
country, and number among them some of the largest
in America. The Port Richmond Iron Works of I. P.
Morris & Company cover, with their various buildings,
five acres of ground. The Baldwin Locomotive Works,
on Broad street, founded in 1831, employ a large force of
men. It takes eighteen hundred men one day to com-
plete and make ready for service a single locomotive ;
yet these works turn out three hundred locomotives a
year. Some of the largest men-of-war in the world
have also been built at the navy yards in Philadel-
phia and League Island. Among them is the old
Pennsylvania, of one hundred and twenty guns,
Beskks her iron works there are many mills and facto-

388 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

ries. Miles of carpet, of superior quality, are woven
every day, besides immeDse quantities of other woolen
and cotton goods and shoes. Her retail stores, taken as
a whole, will not compare in 'size and elegance with
those of New York, though there are two or three
exceptions to this rule.

The headquarters of the Pennsylvania Railroad is at
Philadelphia, and there is a grand depot on Broad
street, near Market, which is palatial in its appoint-
ments.

Of her places of amusement, the Academy of Music
ranks first in size. There are numerous theatres, among
which the Walnut Street Theatre is the oldest, and the
Arch Street Theatre the most elegantly finished and
furnished, and the best managed. With these and other
places of amusement, are associated the names of all
the prominent musicians, actors and actresses of the past
and present. The Academy of Music was not built
when Jenny Lind visited this country, but it was ready
for occupancy only a few years later; and has witnessed
the triumphs of many a prima donna, now forgotten by
the public, which then worshiped her. Forrest began
his theatrical career in Philadelphia; and the names
of noted tragedians and comedians who have come and
gone upon her boards are legion.

Of churches Philadelphia has many, and beautiful
ones. On three corners of Broad and Arch streets tall
and slender spires point heavenward, rising from three
of the most costly churches in the city. Surpassing
them all, however, is the Roman Catholic Cathedral of
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, ou Logan Square. It is of
red sandstone, in the Corinthian style, and is sur-
mounted by a dome two hundred and ten feet high.

PHILADELPHIA. 383

The interior is cruciform and richly frescoed. The altar
piece is by Brumidi.

Also, fronting on Logan Square, at the corner of
Nineteenth and Race streets, is the Academy of Natural
Sciences, containing a library of twenty-six thousand
volumes, and most extensive, valuable and interesting
collections in zoology, ornithology, geology, mineralogy,
conchology, ethnology, archaeology and botany. The
museum contains over two hundred and fifty thousand
specimens, and Agassiz pronounced it one of the finest
natural science collections in the world. It also con-
tains a perfect skeleton of a whale, a complete ancient
saurian, twenty-five feet long, and the fossil remains of a
second saurian so much larger than the first that it fed
upon it.

Franklin Institute is devoted to science and the me-
chanical arts, and contains a library of fifteen thousand
volumes. The Mercantile Library occupies a stately
edifice, on Tenth street below Market, and contains over
fifty thousand volumes, exclusive of periodicals and
papers. On an average, five hundred books are loaned
daily, from this institution.

The newspapers of Philadelphia rank second only to
those of New York. The Ledger has a magnificent
building at the corner of Sixth and Chestnut, complete
in all its appointments, from engine rooms, in the base-
ment, to type-setting rooms in the top story. The Times
building, at the corner of Eighth and Chestnut, is also
very fine. The Public, Record building, newly finished,
on Chestnut street above Ninth, near the new Post Office,
surpasses all others. It represents the profits of a daily
penny paper, giving news in a condensed form, to meet
the wants of a working and busy public.

390 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Philadelphia once represented the literary centre of
the country. It took the lead in periodic literature
half a century ago, and claimed, as residents, some of the
most brilliant novelists, essayists and poets of the day.
But the glory of that age has departed. The Continent,
a weekly magazine, sought to revive the prestige of the
city, but soon removed to New York, where it died.

The Medical Colleges of Philadelphia have long
stood in the front rank, and have attracted students from
all parts of the country. A Woman's Medical College
is in successful operation, with a fine hospital connected
with it.

Philadelphia has an educational system embracing
schools of different grades, and a High School. But it
pays its teachers less salaries than most of the other
cities, and the standard of the schools is not so high as
it should be, in consequence. Girard College should not
be overlooked, while speaking of educational institu-
tions. Architecturally, it is a magnificent marble build-
ing, in Grecian style. It is located near the Schuylkill
River, on Girard avenue. When Girard selected the
location for his proposed college, it was so far out in the
country, that he never thought the city would creep up
to it. But to-day the college is inclosed by it, and its
high stone walls block many a street, to the inconveni-
ence of the people of the neighborhood. It was estab-
lished for the practical education of orphan boys, and
one of the provisions of its founder — himself a free
thinker — was, that no religious instruction should be
imparted to the pupils, and no clergyman be permitted
to enter its doors ; a provision which is widely inter-
preted, to the effect that no sectarian bias is given in the
college.

PHILADELPHIA. 391

The United States Mint, located on Chestnut street,
above Thirteenth, is copied from a Grecian temple at
Athens. It contains a very valuable collection of coins,
embracing those of almost every period of the world
and every nation. The Custom House is an imitation
of the Pantheon at Athens. The new Post Office is on
Ninth street, extending from Chestnut to Market. It
is a spacious granite structure, in the Renaissance style,
four stories in height, with an iron dome, and when
completed will cost about four millions of dollars.

On the opposite corner from the Post Office is the
Continentel Hotel, a spacious structure which, when
erected, was the largest of its kind in the country. It is
now exceeded in size by several other hotels in other
cities, but it is noted for the elegance and excellence of
the entertainment it offers its guests. Girard Hotel is
immediately opposite, and ranks second only to the
Continental.

The Eastern Penitentiary is on Fairmount avenuo, on
what was once known as Cherry Hill. In it is practiced
the plan of solitary confinement for prisoners. When
Dickens paid his first visit to America, more than forty
years ago, he visited this prison, and was so moved to
pity by the solitude of its inmates, that he wrote a touch-
ing account of one of the prisoners, in whom he was
especially interested. But this very prisoner, when he
was set at liberty, soon committed another crime which
sent him back to his silent and solitary cell, and every
subsequent release was followed by a subsequent crime
and subsequent imprisonment. Finally, when Dickens
had been in his grave for years, the old man, still hale
and hearty, but bearing the marks of age, was once
more set free. Attention was attracted to him by the

392 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

newspapers, as having been the prison hero of Dickens.
The public became interested in him, and an effort was
made to place him beyond the temptation of crime, so
that he might go down to his grave a free man. But
before many months had elapsed, life in the outer world
became irksome to him, and he returned, by his well-
beaten path, back to the penitentiary. He was very
proud of the notice which Dickens had bestowed upon
him, and it seemed to more than compensate for the loss
of his liberty.

When Penn visited Philadelphia, in its infant days,
he wished to preserve the bluff overlooking the Dela-
ware, to be forever used as a public park and promenade.
But the traffic of Front street now rattles where he
would have had green trees and grass. Philadelphia
has no pleasant outlook upon the river, to correspond
with the Battery of New York. The wharves are lined
with craft of every description, and the flags of many
nations are to be seen in her harbor; but commerce
creeps down to the very shores, and Delaware avenue,
which faces the river, is dirty and crowded with traffic.
Seen from the river the city makes a pleasing outline
against the sky, with its many spires and domes. Smith's
Island and Windmill Island lie opposite the city, a
short distance away, and Camden is on the New Jersey
shore. Ferry boats continually ply across the Delaware,
carrying to and fro the travelers of a continent.

Philadelphia is not without its public breathing places,
where the residents of its narrow streets may enjoy fine
trees and green grass. When the city was first planned,
four squares, of about seven acres each, were reserved in
its four quarters, two each side of Market street, and are
now known as Washington, Franklin, Logan and Kit-

PHILADELPHIA. 393

tenhouse Squares. Washington Square is at Sixth and
Walnut, and was once a Potters' Field. Many soldiers,
victims of the smallpox and camp fever, were buried
there during the Kevolution. Franklin Square, at Sixtli
and Race was also once a burying, ground. A fountain
now occupies its centre. At Eighteenth and Race is
Logan Square, where in 1864 was held the great Sani-
tary Fair. The entire square was roofed over and
boarded up, the trunks of the trees standing as pillars in
the aisles of the large building. Its companion, Ritten-
house Square, at Eighteenth and Walnut streets, is the
centre of the aristocratic quarter of the city. It is sur-
rounded by most elegant mansions and costly churches.
Independence Square lies back of Independence Hall.

There are a few other smaller and newer squares
scattered throughout the city, but its great pride is
Fairmount Park, which is unsurpassed in its natural
advantages by any park in the world. This park con-
tains nearly three thousand acres, embracing eleven
miles in length along the Schuylkill and Wissahickon
rivers. The nucleus of this park was the waterworks
and reservoir, the former situated on the Schuylkill, in
the northwestern part of the city, and the latter on a
natural elevation close by, from which the entire park
takes its name, while a small tract of land between the
two was included in the original park. There was added
the beautiful estate of Lemon Hill, once the country
seat of Robert Morris, with the strip along the Schuylkill
which led to it. In course of time Egglesfield, Belmont,
Lansdowne and George's Hill, on the opposite side of the
river, were added, either by gift or purchase, and eventu-
ally the tract of land on the eastern bank, extending
from Lemon Hill to the Wissahickon, and along both

894 PECULIARITIES GF AMERICAN CITIES.

banks of the latter as far as Chestnut Hill. This park,
besides the beautiful river and romantic stream which it
incloses, includes hills and valleys, charming ravines
and picturesque rocks.

While the city has gained much, the true lover of
nature has lost something, by the conversion of this tract
of land into a park. While it was still private property,
nature was at her loveliest. Wild flowers blossomed
in the dells, and little streams gurgled and tumbled over
stones down the ravines, while vines and foliage softened
the rugged outlines of the rocky hillsides. But the
landscape gardener has been there. The dells are
converted into gentle slopes ; the wild flowers and ferns
which beautified them have given place to green sward ;
one of the prettiest of the brooks has been converted into
a sewer and covered over. The Wissahickon, once the
most delightful of wild and wayward streams, is now, for
a considerable part of its way, imprisoned between banks
as straight and un picturesque as those of a canal. The
pretty country lanes have been obliterated, and the trees
which overshadowed them have disappeared. Primness
and stableness is now the rule. Art has sought to im-
prove nature, and has almost obliterated it, instead. Yet
even the landscape gardener cannot succeed in making
the Schuylkill entirely unattractive ; and velvet turf
and trees waving in the wind, even though the latter be
pruned into a tiresome regularity, are always more
grateful than the cobble stones and brick pavements of
the city streets, and thousands every day seek rest or
recreation at Fairmount.

Belmont Mansion is now a restaurant. Solitude, a
villa built in 1785 by John Penn, grandson of William
Penn, and the cottage of Tom Moore, not far from

PHILADELPHIA. 395

Belmont where he spent some months during his visit
to America, are among the attractions of the park.

The Zoological Gardens are included in the park, and
are situated on the western bank of the Schuylkill,
opposite Lemon Hill. Here is found the finest collection
of European and American animals in America, and the
daily concourse of visitors is very great. The several
bridges which span the Schuylkill are very picturesque.
In the winter, when the river at Fairmount, above the
dam, is frozen over, the ice is covered with skaters, and
the bank is thronged with spectators.

Laurel Hill, one of the most beautiful cemeteries of
the country, adjoins Fairmount Park, and is inclosed by
it, seeming to make it a part of the park. Mount
Vernon Cemetery is nearly opposite Woodlands, in West
Philadelphia, and contains the Drexel Mausoleum, the
costliest in America.

Fairmount was the site of the Centennial Exhibition
in 1876, and numerous and costly buildings were erected
there. Of these many were removed at once at the
close of the Exhibition. The main building, a mammoth
structure, covering eleven acres, was retained for several
years for a permanent exhibition building, but was
removed in 1883. Memorial Hall, erected by the State.
at a cost of $1,500,000, standing on an elevated terrace
between George's Hill and the river, and used as an art
gallery during the Exhibition, still remains, and is
designed for a permanent art and industrial collection.
North of Memorial Hall stands the Horticultural
Building, a picturesque structure, in the Mooresque
style. It is a conservatory, filled with tropical and
other plants, and is surrounded by thirty-five acres
devoted to horticultural purposes.

396 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

In October, 1882, Philadelphia celebrated her Bi-cen-
tennial, and commemorated the landing of Penn, who
first stepped upon her shores two hundred years before.
This Bi-centennial lasted for three days, which were
celebrated, the first as " Lauding Day," the second as
" Trades' Day," and the third as u Festival Day." On the
first day, October twenty-fourth, the State House bell
rang two hundred times, and the chimes of the churches
were rung. The ship Welcome, which two hundred
years before had conveyed Penn to our shores, made a
second arrival, and a mimic Penn again visited the Blue
Anchor, still standing to receive him, held treaty with
the Indians, and then paraded through the city, followed
by a large and brilliant procession, which presented the
harmless anachronism of the Proprietor of two hundred
years ago hob-nobbing with the city officials and others
of the nineteenth century. On the second day the dif-
ferent trades and manufacturing interests made a great
display. In the evening Pennsylvania history was
represented by ten tableaux ; eleven tableaux presented
the illustrious women of history ; and ten tableaux gave
the principal scenes in the Romayana, the great poem of
India. The display of this night pageant was gorgeous
and beautiful beyond anything ever before seen in this
country. On the third day the morning was devoted
to a parade of Knights Templar, and the evening to a
reception at the Academy of Music and Horticultural
Hall. A musical festival was held during the day;
also a naval regatta upon the Schuylkill, a bicycle meet
at Fairmount, and archery contests at Agricultural Hall.
During the entire three days Philadelphia held holiday.
Her streets and pavements were crowded with throngs
of people from the country, and elevated seats along

PHILADELPHIA. 397

the principal streets were constantly filled, at high
prices.

If William Penn could really, in person, have stepped
upon the scene, and beheld the city of his planning as
it is to-day, he would undoubtedly be astonished beyond
expression. In magnitude it must exceed his wildest
dreams; in commercial and manufacturing enterprises
its progress reads like some fable of the east. He would
look almost in vain for his country residence upon the
Delaware, once surrounded by noble forests, and we fear
he would scorn the Blue Anchor and all its present
associations. Time works wonders. Nearly a million
people now find their homes where, in 1683, one year
after Penn's arrival, there were but one hundred houses.
In 1684 the population of Philadelphia was estimated at
2,500. In 1800 it had increased to 41,220. In 1850 it
was 121,376. From this period to 1860, its growth was
almost marvelous, at the latter period its inhabitants
numbering 565,529. The census of 1880 gave it a
population of 846,984.

The residents of Philadelphia include every nation-
ality and class of people. The Quakers are in a small
minority, though they have done much to mould the
character of the city. Irish and Germans predominate
among foreigners. Italians, French, Spanish, and
Chinese are not so numerous as in New York. The
society of the Quaker City bears the reputation of great
exclusiveness. While culture will admit to the charmed
circle in Boston, and money buys a ready passport to
social recognition in New York, in Philadelphia the
door is closed to all pretensions except those of family.
Boston asks " How much do you know ?" New York,

398 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

" How much are you worth ?" but in Philadelphia the
question is, " Who was your grandfather ?"

Philadelphia ranks fourth in commerce among the
cities of the Union. As a manufacturing city it occupies
the very front rank. With the inexhaustible coal and
iron fields of Pennsylvania at its back, her manufactur-
ing interests are certain to grow in extent and importance,
maintaining the ascendency they have already gained.
Its prosperity has a firm basis. Likt all large cities,
there is squalor, misery and crime within its borders ;
but the proportion is smaller than in some other cities,
and the aggregate amount of domestic content, owing to
its many comfortable homes, much greater. Thus
Philadelphia offers an example, in more than one direc-
tion, which might be emulated by her sister cities. What
she will have become when her tri-centeunial comes
around, who shall dare to predict ?

CHAPTER XXVII.

PROVIDENCE.

Origin of the City. — Roger Williams. — Geographical Location and
Importance. — Topography of Providence. — The Cove. — Railroad
Connections. — Brown University. — Patriotism of Rhode Island.
— Soldiers' Monument. — The Roger Williams Park. — Narragan-
sett Bay. — Suburban Villages. — Points of Interest. — Butter Ex-
change.— Lamplightin^ on a New Plan.— Jewelry Manufacto-
ries.

IN the year 1630, Roger Williams, a clergyman,
persecuted and banished from Massachusetts on
account of his peculiar religious views, came to Rhode
Island and laid the foundation of a city, naming it
Providence, in gratitude for his deliverance from per-
secution. This renowned pioneer not only laid the
corner stone of a great and growing city, but ineffaceably
stamped his character upon all her institutions, public
and private.

Providence is the second city of New England in
respect to wealth and population. It is pleasantly
located at the head of Narragansett Bay, thirty-five miles
from the ocean. Its commercial advantages are unsur-
passed, and as a manufacturing town it ranks among
the first in the Atlantic States. The city is divided into
two unequal portions by a narrow arm of the Bay, which
terminates near the geographical centre of the town, in
a beautiful elliptical sheet of water, about one mile in
circumference, called the cove, or basin. This basin is
inclosed by a handsome granite wall, capped by a sub-

399

400 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

stantial and ornamental iron fence, and is surrounded by
a green about eighty feet in width, filled with a variety
of beautiful and thrifty shade trees.

The eastern portion of the city rises from the water,
in some places gradually, in others quite abruptly, to
the height of more than two hundred feet. This ele-
vated land is occupied by elegant private mansions sur-
rounded with numerous shade trees and ornamental
gardens, making one of the most delightful and de-
sirable places for residence to be found in any city.

The western portion of the city rises very gradually
until it reaches an elevation of about seventy-five feet,
when it spreads out into a level plain, extending a con-
siderable distance to the southwest. The northern por-
tion, recently annexed to the city, is more sparsely
populated, and portions of it are quite rural in appear-
ance and abounding in hills, numerous springs and
small streams of water.

Providence is about forty-three miles from Boston,
the same distance from Worcester, ninety miles from
Hartford, fifty miles from Stonington, and twenty miles
from Fall River, with each of which places it is con-
nected by numerous daily trains. It also has railroad
connections with New Bedford and southern Massachu-
setts, with Fitchburg, and thence with Vermont and
New Hampshire. There is now in process of construc-
tion another route to Northern Connecticut, Spring-
field and the west. It is also closely connected with
Newport, and other places on Narragansett Bay, by
steamboats.

Brown University is one of the distinguishing fea-
tures of Providence, and, as an institution of learning,
stands in the front rank of American colleges. Founded

PROVIDENCE. 401

more than one hundred years since, this college has come
down from the past, hand in hand with Yale and Har-
vard. Among the renowned graduates of Brown Uni-
versity may be mentioned Charles Sumuer, the great
statesman, the devoted patriot, the champion of the
negro, whose fame and good works will live while free-
dom is the heritage of the American people.

President Wayland, of this institution, was the origi-
nator of the public Library System of New England — a
system whose wonderful power for good is markedly on
the increase.

During the war no State of the whole sisterhood evinced
more patriotism than little Rhode Island, and Provi-
dence was largely represented in the Union army. A
Soldiers' Monument stands in the triangular space near
the Boston and Providence Railroad Depot, inscribed
with the names of Rhode Island soldiers who were
killed in battle. The Monument is surmounted by a
statue in bronze of the Goddess of Liberty, and in nichas
of the granite pillar below this figure each arm of the
service is represented by soldiers in bronze. The work
is finely executed, and it is one of the first objects which
attracts the attention of the stranger. The Artillery-
man stands behind his cannon in grim silence; represent*
atives of the infantry, the cavalry and the marine arms
of the service are his coadjutors, and the entire group
is sternly suggestive of war's sad havoc.

About a mile and a half from the heart of the city,
along a beautiful McAdamized road leading to Paw-
tuxet, is situated the Roger Williams Park, a tract
of land containing about thirteen hundred acres, which
was bequeathed to the city by a descendant of Roger
Williams, in consideration of five hundred dollars, to be

402 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

raised by the Providence people, for the erection of a
monument to the city's illustrious founder. The sum
to be appropriated for that purpose was equivalent to
twenty-six hundred dollars at the present time.

The embryo park is yet a wilderness, unreclaimed, and
primeval forest-trees fill the wide enclosure. The ground
is undulating with hill and dale, and pleasant drive-
ways under the dark pines and hemlocks are already
laid out.

The memory of Roger Williams is held in great
veneration by the citizens of Providence, and he is
ranked with William Penn in the category of noble
pioneers. Plenty of eulogistic essays and poems have
been written concerning him, and his great love of liberty,
exemplified in his life, is a matter of history. The
following fragment of verse, by Francis Whipple, one
of JLihode Island's poets, places the memory of the two
heroes side by side : —

" When warlike fame, as morning mist shall fly,
And blood-stained glory as a meteor die,
When all the dross is known and cast away,
And the pure gold alone allowed to stay,
' Two names will stand, the pride of virtuous men,
Our Roger Williams and good William Penn."

Many of the suburbs of Providence are of some note
as places of summer resort. The coast scenery along
Narragansett Bay is full of charming water-pictures,
and numerous rocky islands may be seen, on which are
erected little white cottages, for summer occupation.
The islands are sometimes connected with the shore by
foot-bridges, but often the only means of communica-
tion with land is by boat.

Nayatt Point, six miles distant from Providence
by rail, is, as its name implies, a jutting point of land,

PROVIDENCE. 403

reaching out into the bay, where beautiful drives along
the beach and through the neighboring groves, added to
the salt sea air, are the chief summer attractions. Rocky
Point, directly opposite Nayatt, is famous for its clam
bakes, and on moonlight nights in summer, excursion
parties from Nayatt, Barrington or Warren, glide
over the smooth waters of the bay to this lovely spot.
The red glow of Rocky Point Light can be seen through
the night, for miles and miles along the coast and down
the bay.

Westminster street is the principal avenue of Provi-
dence, and is handsomely built up with substantial and
elegant business blocks. A very large hostelry, to be
called the Narragansett Hotel, is in process of erection
at the corner of Dorrance and Broad streets. Just back
of this building, the new Providence Opera House, a
structure of recent date, furnished with all the modern
appliances for the stage, opens its doors to lovers of the
histrionic art. The What- Cheer building, the Arcade,
and the Butler Exchange are all well known business
centres. The last named place owes its existence to a
clause in a Scotchman's will. A large inheritance was
left to a gentleman in Providence, with a stipulation
that a certain amount of its yearly income should be
used in the erection of public buildings in the city.
The Butler Exchange is one of the children of this
proviso.

A recent improvement in Providence is that of light-
ing the city lamps by means of electricity. Only one
person is required to light the streets of the entire city.
A single turn of the screw which commands the net-
work of wires leading to the lamp posts, sets every gas jet,
far and near, aflame, in one instantaneous blaze. It is a

404 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

marvelous advance on the old way of doing things, and
will greatly lessen the expenditures of the city.

Providence is justly celebrated for its manufacture of
jewelry. The largest establishments of the kind in
New England are in operation here, and the work
turned out is of the most skillful pattern. A visit to
the lapidary establishments is full of interest. A
shining array of precious stones, from the white bril-
liance of the diamond, to the mottled moss agate, greets
the bewildered gaze, and skillful workmen are deftly
transforming them into the beautiful gems which shine
in the jeweler's window.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

QUEBEC.

Appearance of Quebec. — Gibraltar of America. — Fortifications and
Walls. — The Walled City. — Churches, Nunneries and Hospitals.
— Views from the Cliff. — Upper Town.— Lower Town. — Manu-
factures.— Public Buildings. — Plains of Abraham. — Falls of
Montmorenci. — Sledding on the "Cone." — History of Quebec.
— Capture of the City by the British. — Death of Generals Wolfe
and Montcalm. — Disaster under General Murray. — Ceding of
Canada, by France, to England. — Attack by American Forces
under Montgomery and Arnold. — Death of Montgomery. — Capital
of Lower Canada and of the Province of Quebec.

OF all the cities and towns on the American conti-
nent, not one wears such an Old- World expression
as Quebec. Not even St. Augustine, in Florida, with
its narrow streets, and quaint, overhanging balconies, so
takes the traveler back to a past age, as that fortified
city on the lower St. Lawrence. It is not French in any
modern sense. But the city and its inhabitants belong
to a France now passed away, the France of St. Louis,
the fleur-de-lis, and a dominant priesthood. An offshoot
from such a France, now blotted out and forgotten in the
crowding of events during the last century, it has re-
mained oblivious of all the changes in the parent country,
and not even British rule, and the infusion of Anglo-
Saxon and Celtic blood have been able to more than
partially obliterate its early characteristics.

Quebec is situated at the confluence of the St. Charles
River with the St. Lawrence, on the northern side of a
point of land which projects between these two rivers.

405

406 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

This point ends in an abrupt headland, three hundred
and thirty-three feet above the level of the river ; and
its precipitous sides, crowned with an almost impregnable
fortress, have won for it the name of the " Gibraltar of
America." The most elevated part of this promontory
is called Cape Diamond, since at one time numerous
quartz crystals were found there; and upon this is
placed the citadel, occupying forty acres. From the
citadel a line of wall runs towards the St. Charles River,
until it reaches the brow of the bluff. Continuing around
this bluff towards the St. Lawrence, it finally completes
a circle of nearly three miles in circumference, by again
connecting with the citadel. This encircling wall origi-
nally had five gates, but four of these were removed
some time ago. They are now being replaced by more
ornamental ones. The old St. Louis Gate, opening upon
the street of that name, is being replaced by the Kent
Gate, in honor of Queen Victoria's father, who spent
the summer of 1791 near Quebec. Dufferin Gate is
being erected on St. Patrick street ; Palace and Hope
gates are to be replaced by castellated gates; while a
light iron bridge is to occupy the site of the Prescott
Gate.

The old city is contained within this walled inclosure,
and here, in the narrow, tortuous, mediaeval streets, are
the stately churches, venerable convents, and other
edifices, many of them dating back to the period of the
French occupation of the city. The houses are tall,
with narrow windows and irregular gables, two or three
stories high, and roofed, like the public buildings, with
shining tin. A very large part of the city within the
walls is, however, taken up with the buildings and
grounds of the great religious corporations. Monks,

QUEBEC. 407

priests, and nuns, seemingly belonging to another age
and another civilization than our own, are jostled in the
street by officers whose dress and manners are those of
the nineteenth century. French is quite as frequently
heard as English ; and everywhere the old and the new,
the past century and the present, seem inextricably
mingled. The past has, however, set its ineffaceable
stamp upon the city and its people. There is none of
the hurry and push of most American cities, seen even,
to a degree, in Montreal. To-day seems long enough for
its duties and its pleasures, and to-morrow is left to take
care of itself. Even the public buildings have the stamp
of antiquity upon them, and are, in consequence, inter-
esting, though few of them are architecturally beautiful.
The churches of Quebec have none of the grandeur
of those of Montreal. Most prominent among them is
the Anglican Cathedral, a plain, gray stone edifice in
St. Ann street. The Basilica of Quebec, formerly the
Cathedral, is capable of seating four thousand persons,
and with a plain exterior, contains some invaluable art
treasures in the form of original paintings by Vandyke,
Caracci, Halle and others. The remains of Cham-
plain, the founder and first governor of Quebec, lie
within the Basilica. The Ursuline Convent is in
Garden street, north of Market Square, and is composed
of a group of buildings surrounded by beautiful
grounds. It was founded in 1639, originally for the
education of Indian girls, and is now devoted to the
education of girls of the white race. The remains of
Moutcalm are buried within the convent grounds, in
an excavation made by the bursting of a shell, during
the engagement in which he lost his life. The Gray
Nunnery, the Black Nunnery, and H6tel Dieu with its

408 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

convent and hospital, under the charge of the Sisters of
the Sacred Blood, of Dieppe, are among the Roman.
Catholic religious institutions of the city. In the
hospital of the Hdtel Dieu ten thousand patients are
gratuitously cared for annually.

Durham Terrace lies along the edge of the cliff over-
looking the St. Lawrence. It occupies the site of the
old chateau of St. Louis, built by Champlain in 1620,
and destroyed by fire in 1834. The outlook from this
terrace is one of the finest in the world ; though the view
from the Grand Battery is conceded to be even finer.
Looking down from an elevation of nearly three
hundred and fifty feet, the lower town, the majestic St.
Lawrence and the smaller stream of St. Charles rolling
away in the distance, and a vast stretch of country
varied by hills and plains, woodlands and mountains,
are spread out before the spectator, making one of the
most beautiful pictures of which it is possible to conceive.

The walled city, with the suburbs of St. Louis and
St. John between the walls to the eastward, and the
Plains of Abraham to the westward, is known as the
upper town. The lower town is reached from the
upper by the C6te de la Montagne, or Mountain street,
a very steep and winding street, and lies below the cliff,
principally to the northward, though it encircles the
base of the promontory. Here, in the lower town,
is the business portion of the city, with all -its
modern additions. The narrow strand between the
cliff and the rivers is occupied by breweries, distilleries,
manufactories, and numerous ship-yards; while the
many coves of the St. Lawrence, from Champlain street
to Cape Rouge, are filled with acres of vast lumber
rafts. Quebec is one of the greatest lumber and timber

QUEBEC. 409

markets in America, supplying all the seaboard cities of
the United States. It also builds many ships, and
produces sawed lumber, boots and shoes, furniture, iron
ware and machinery.

The Custom House occupies the extreme point
between the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers. It
is Doric in architecture, surmounted by a dome, and
has a columned fa$ade reached by an imposing flight of
steps. The Marine Hospital, built in imitation of the
Temple of the Muses on the banks of the Ilissus, is
situated near the St. Charles River. The Marine and
Emigrants' Hospital is not far away. The General
Hospital, an immense cluster of buildings further up
the river, was founded in 1693, and is in charge of the
nuns of St. Augustine.

The Plains of Abraham, lying back of Quebec, near
the St. Lawrence, and the scene of the famous encounter
between the forces of Wolfe and Montcalm, are fast
being encroached upon by suburban residences, large
conventual establishments, and churches. The Mar-
tello towers are four circular stone structures, erected
upon the Plains to defend the approaches of the city.
On the plains, near the St. Foye road, is a monument
composed of a handsome iron column, surmounted by a
bronze statue of Bellona, presented by Prince Napoleon,
and erected in 1854, to commemorate the victory won
by the Chevalier de L£ris over General Murray, in
1760. The Mount Hermon Cemetery, beautifully laid
out on the edge of the precipice which overhangs the
St. Lawrence, lies about three miles out, on the St. Louis
road.

It is imperative upon the stranger, in Quebec, to visit
the Falls of Montmorenci, eight miles distant, and

410 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

among the most beautiful in America. A volume of
water fifty feet wide makes a leap of two hundred and
fifty feet, down a sheer rock face, into a boiling and
turbulent basin. During the winter the spray which is
continually flying from this cataract congeals and falls
like snow, until it builds up an eminence which is
known as the Cone. This Cone, in favorable seasons,
sometimes reaches an altitude of one hundred and
twenty feet. To visit the Falls in sleighs, over the
frozen river, and to ride down the Cone on hand-sleds, or
"toboggins," as they are locally called, is considered
the very climax of enjoyment by the inhabitants of
Quebec. The Cone is in the form of a sugar loaf, quite
as white and almost as firm. Up its steep sides the
pleasure seekers toil with their sleds, and then glide
from the top, impelled by the steepness alone, rushing
down the slope with fearful velocity, and sometimes out
on the ice of the river for hundreds of yards, until the
force is spent. The interior of the Cone is not unfre-
quently hollowed out in the shape of a room, and a bar
is set up, for the benefit of thirsty pleasure seekers.

About a mile above Montmorenci Falls are the
Natural Steps, a series of ledges cut in the limestone
rock by the action of the river, each step about a foot
in height, and as regular in its formation as though it
was the work of man.

There are points of interest nearer Quebec, among
which are the Isle of Orleans, a beautiful and romantic
place, laid out with charming drives, and reached by
ferry; Chdteau Bigot, an antique and massive ruin,
standing at the foot of the Charlesbourg mountain ; and
still further away, Lorette, an ancient village of the
Huron Indians.

QUEBEC. 411

Quebec, the oldest city in British America, was settled
in 1608, the spot having been visited by Carrier, in
1534. Its history is an exceedingly interesting and
varied one. Twenty-one years after its founding it was
seized by the British, who did not restore it to France
until 1632. In 1690 and in 1711 the British made
unsuccessful maritime assaults upon it It continued
to be the centre of French trade and civilization,
and of the Roman Catholic missions in North America,
until, in 1759, it fell into the hands of the British.
The Fleur-de-lis fluttered from the citadel of Quebec
for two hundred and twenty years, with the exception
of the three years from 1629 to 1632, when Sir David
Kirke placed the fortification in the hands of England.

In 1759, during the Seven Years7 War, the English,
under General Wolfe, attacked the city and bombarded
it. An attempt had been previously made to land
British troops at Montmorenci, which had been frus-
trated by Montcalm, resulting in a loss of five hundred
men. But on the occasion of the present attack Wolfe
had conceived the idea of landing his troops above the
town. He pushed his fleet stealthily up the river,
under the brow of the frowning precipice and beneath
the very shadow of the fortifications. Passing above
the city, he effected a landing where the acclivity was
a little less steep than at other places, and the troops
dragged themselves up, and actually brought with them
several pieces of ordnance. All this was under cover of
night ; and when day dawned the British army with its
artillery was found in line of battle on the Plains of
Abraham. Wolfe had eight thousand men, while the
French troops numbered ten thousand. Montcalm be-
lieved he could easily drive the British into the river or

412 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

compel them to surrender, and so threw the whole force
of his attack upon the English right, which rested on the
river. But in the French army were only five bat-
talions of French soldiers, the balance being Indians
and Canadians. The French right, composed of these
undisciplined troops, was easily routed and the French
left was ultimately broken. Five days later the British
were in complete possession of Quebec. But before this
victory was fairly assured to the English troops, both
the French and English armies had lost their com-
manders.

The spot where "Wolfe fell in the memorable battle of
September thirteenth, 1759, is marked by an unpre-
tending column. A monument was shipped from Paris,
to commemorate the death of Montcalm, but it never
reached Quebec, the vessel which conveyed it having
been lost at sea. A lengthy inscription upon this
monument, after giving the Marquis de Montcalm's
name and many titles, and depicting in glowing words
his character and his brilliant achievements as a soldier,
says: "Having with various artifices long baffled a
great enemy, headed by an expert and intrepid com-
mander, and a fleet furnished with all warlike stores,
compelled at length to an engagement, he fell — in the
first rank — in the first onset, warm with those hopes of
religion which he had always cherished, to the inex-
pressible loss of his own army, and not without the
regret of the enemy's, September fourteenth, 1759, of
his age forty-eight. His weeping countrymen deposited
the remains of their excellent General in a grave which
a fallen bomb in bursting had excavated for him, recom-

O 7

mending them to the generous faith of their enemies."
Whether the "generous faith" of their friends was

QUEBEC. 413

equally to be trusted each one must judge for himself;
for in the chapel of the Ursuline Convent of Quebec,
among the curiosities exhibited to the visitor, is the
skull of the Marquis de Montcalm.

In April, of the following year, the British very
nearly lost what Wolfe had gained for them. General
Murray went out to the Plains of Abraham, with three
thousand men, to meet the French, under Chevalier de
L£ris, losing no less than one thousand men, and all his
guns, which numbered twenty, and being compelled
to retreat within the walls. The arrival of a British
squadron brought him timely relief, and compelled the
French to retreat, with the loss of all their artillery. The
treaty of peace made between Louis Fifteenth and
England, in 1763, ceded the whole of the French
Canadian possessions to the British. In December,
1775, during the war of the Revolution, a small Ameri-
can force, under General Montgomery, made an attack
upon the fortress, but was repulsed with the loss of their
commander and seven hundred men. Arnold preceded
Montgomery, making an astonishing march, and endur-
ing untold perils, by the Kennebec and Chaudiere.
Following the course pursued by Wolfe, he placed his
troops upon the Plains of Abraham ; but when Mont-
gomery joined him, from Montreal, it was found they
had no heavy artillery, and the only alternatives were,
to retreat, or to carry the place by storm. Deciding on
the latter course, two columns, headed by Arnold and
Montgomery, rushed forward. The latter carried the
intrench ment, and was proceeding toward a second work,
when he and the officers who followed him were swept
down before a gun loaded with grape. Arnold was

414 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

carried from the field, wounded, and the attempt on
Quebec was a most disastrous failure.

Quebec remained the chief city of Canada until the
western settlements were erected into a separate Pro-
vince, as Canada West, when it became the Capital of
Canada East. In 1867, the British North American
Provinces were united, in the Dominion of Canada.
Canada East, or Lower Canada, as a Province, took the
name of the city, and the city of Quebec became the Capi-
tal of the Province. The population of Quebec was, in
1871, 58,699, of whom a large proportion are descend-
ants of the early French settlers, though many English,
Scotch and Irish, have domiciled themselves within it,
and form, really, its most enterprising and energetic
citizens.

CHAPTER XXIX.

READING.

Geographical Position and History of Reading. — Manufacturing
Interests. — Population, Streets, Churches and Public Buildings.
— Boating on the Schuylkill. — White Spot and the View from
its Summit. — Other Pleasure Resorts. — Decoration Day. —
Wealth Created by Industry.

TREADING, the seat of Justice of Berks County,
_1_X Pennsylvania, is beautifully situated near the
junction of the Tulpehocken with the Schuylkill River,
and is midway between Philadelphia and Harrisburg,
on the Philadelphia and Heading Railroad. It was
named after the ancient borough of Heading, a promi-
nent market town of Berkshire, England, which it is
said to resemble in some of its geographical surround-
ings. Attention was first called to Reading in the fall
of 1748, by the agents of Richard and Thomas Penn,
who represented it as " a new town with great natural
advantages, and destined to become a prosperous place."
It was incorporated as a borough in 1783, and as a city
in 1847. The original settlers were principally Germans,
who gave character to the town, both in language and
customs. For many years the German tongue was almost
exclusively spoken, and it is still used in social inter-
course and religious worship by more than one-half the
present population.

The manufacturing interests of Reading are second to
no city of like population in the United States; while it
is the third city in Pennsylvania in its manufactures,

415

416 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Pittsburg and Philadelphia alone exceeding it. Among
these manufactures the working of iron holds the first
rank. Much of the ore is obtained from Penn's Moun-
tain, on the east of the town. Eolling mills, machine
shops, car shops, furnaces, foundries, cotton mills and
hat factories, from their number and extent, establish
beyond question the claim of Reading to be considered
one of the first manufacturing towns of America. The
shops of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad alone
employ two thousand men. From an early hour in the
morning the eastern bank of the Schuylkill rings out
the discordant music of numberless factories, betokening
the enterprise of her productive industries.

Reading has, at the present time, a population num-
bering not far from fifty thousand. It is delightfully
situated on an elevated and ascending plain, which rises
to the eastward into Perm's Mountain, and to the south-
ward into the Neversink Mountain. The city is abund-
antly supplied with pure water, by streams flowing from
these mountains. It is surrounded by a rich farming
country, which looks to it for supplies. The streets
cross each other at right angles, and the chief hotels and
stores are built around Penn's Square, which occupies
the centre of the city. It contains thirty-one churches,
most prominent among which is Trinity, German Luth-
eran, an antique building with a spire two hundred and
ten feet in height. Christ Church, Episcopal, is a
handsome Gothic edifice of more recent date, and with a
spire nearly as high. The Grand Opera House and
Mishler's Academy of Music furnish amusements for the
pleasure-seekers of the city.

The Schuylkill River is one of the most charmingly
picturesque in America. Taking its rise among the rocky

READING. 417

heights of the Blue Ridge, when it reaches Reading it
has left all the ruggedness of the mountain region
behind, and flows between gently sloping banks, which,
though sometimes rising in the background to consider-
able elevations, never lose their softness of outline and
their pastoral beauty. One evening we strolled down
to this river, and took a most delightful boat ride from
the Lancaster bridge to the dam opposite the White
House and Neversink. Two boats were placed at the
disposal of our party. It was a lovely May evening,
the air soft and warm, yet with all the freshness of
spring. We glided down the stream, the trees upon the
banks overhanging the water, and catching reflections
of themselves in its depths. Our downward progress
was easy and pleasant. The current aided our efforts,
while the tranquil waters, rippled only by a passing
boat, offered no resistance to us in our course. When
we turned and headed up stream, we found it quite
another matter. Then we had to bring all our energies
and wills to aid us in the labor of rowing. This is
something that a man is apt to discover many times in
his life, that, in both material and moral matters, it is
easier to float with the current than to make headway
against it.

A call from Mr. W. H. Zeller, of the Reading Eagle,
paid me early one day, before the sun was up, was an
indication that that gentleman was ready to pilot me to
" White Spot," the famous resort of Reading. Starting
as soon as possible, we walked up Franklin street,
crossed Perkiomen avenue, and took a " bee line " for
our destination. Up and up and up we walked, ran
and jumped, over gulches and stones, and from log to log,
halting occasionally for breath, and to discuss the city and

418 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

landscape at our feet. It was but half-past five o'clock
when we reached the goal of our walk. Taking in a
view from its elevated heights, I felt that rny visit to
Reading would have given me a very indefinite idea of
its natural beauties, had I not seen it from this point.
White Spot is upon Penn's Mountain, one thousand feet
above the river. I would but mislead the imagination
of the reader, were I to attempt to convey a faithful
impression of the magnificent panorama which, for a
while, almost bewildered me. But let him imagine, if
he can, a vast girdle of far-off, misty, blue hills, faintly
defined by the horizon ; against them to the north and
west jut rows of towering but withal gently sloping
mountains, purple, black, or darkly blue, just as each
drifting cloud shadows them; within these encircling
hills and mountains scatter the loveliest landscape fea-
tures of which the human mind can conceive; green
meadows, wooded hills, enchanting groves, dotted here
and there with the most charming irregularity ; farm-
houses and farms, in themselves a little Arcadia ; roads
diverging from a common centre, and winding about until
in the distance they look like the tiny trail which a child's
stick makes in the sand ; a clear, silvery river, looking
in the sunshine like liquid light, reproducing on its
mirrored surface the wonderful beauty which clothes
either bank, studded with green isles that " blossom as
the rose," spanned by splendid bridges as delicate in
their appearance as lace work or filigree, yet supporting
thousands of tons daily; in the heart of all a city,
whose factories, furnaces, churches, majestic public
buildings, handsome private residences, and attractive
suburbs betoken prosperity, intelligence, culture, wealth
and constant improvement ; over the whole throw that

READING. 419

peculiar couleur d& rose with which the heart in its
happiest moments paints all it loves, and he will have a
faint conception of the aspect of Reading and its sur-
roundings as seen from White Spot.

After resting on the summit, and taking in, to the
full, this magnificent view, we returned to the city by
the way of Mineral Spring, another delightful resort,
which lies surrounded by charming natural beauties,
about a mile and a half east of Reading. White House
Hotel, a mile and a half to the southeast, on the Never-
sink Mountain, three hundred feet above the river, is
still another favorite visiting place, from which a fine
view of the city and surrounding country may be
obtained, though not equal to that of White Spot.

I was particularly fortunate in finding myself still in
Reading on Decoration Day, that day which has become
a national holiday, and is universally observed through-
out the northern States. The occurrence of this anni-
versary is hailed by the " Boys in Blue" as affording
a blessed opportunity for doing honor to their dead
comrades, and renewing their devotion to the flag which
they followed through a four years' war for the pre-
servation of the Union. Reading manifested her patri-
otism by a parade of all her civic and military organiza-
tions, and by invitation I was permitted to participate
in the decoration exercises, at the Charles Evans Ceme-
tery. The people of Reading are truly loyal, as indus-
trious and order-loving people are sure to be. The
perpetuation of the Union means to them the protec-
tion of their homes and the encouragement of their
industries.

Although the manufacturing interests of Philadel-
phia and Pittsburg are exceedingly large — those of the

420 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

latter without parallel on the continent, if, in the world
— a visit to Reading is, nevertheless, desirable, for one
who would gain a comprehensive idea of the industries
of Pennsylvania. The city is not a large one, but it is
almost wholly a city of workers. With the great coal
and iron regions of the State at its back, their products
brought to it by river, railroad and canal, its manufac-
turing enterprises are multiplied in numbers, and are
almost Cyclopean in their proportions. Here the brawn
of the country, with giant strength united with surprising
skill, hammers and fashions the various devices of an
advanced civilization, which its brain has already
imagined and planned. Here wealth is created by the
sturdy strokes of industry, and the permanent pros-
perity of the State secured.

CHAPTER XXX.

RICHMOND.

Arrival in Richmond. — Libby Prison. — Situation of the City. —
Historical Associations. — Early Settlement. — Attacked by
British Forces in the Revolution. — Monumental Church. — St.
John's Church. — State Capital. — Passage of the Ordinance of
Secession. — Richmond the Capital of the Confederate States. —
Military Expeditions against the City. — Evacuation of Petersburg.
— Surrender of the City. — Visit of President Lincoln. — Historical
Places. — Statues. — Rapid Recuperation After the War. — Manu-
facturing and Commercial Interests. — Streets and Public Build-
ings.—Population and Future Prospects.

ON the morning of October twenty-third, 1863, a
large company of Union prisoners, including the
author, made an entry into Richmond, which was the
reverse of triumphant, we having been, four days
before, made prisoners of war in the cavalry fight at
New Baltimore, in Northern Virginia. A brief stay
in Warrenton jail, a forced march on a hot day, for a
distance of thirty miles, to Culpepper, and then a transfer
by march and rail, landed us at last at Libby Prison,
Richmond. The " chivalry " and the descendants of
the F. F. V's did not impress us very favorably, as we
inarched from the depot, through some of the principal
streets, to the James River. Contemptuous epithets were
bestowed freely upon us, while the female portion of
the community was even more bitter in its expressions
of hatred, and a troop of boys followed in our rear,
hooting and yelling like young demoniacs.

Libby Prison was situated at the corner of Fourteenth
421

422 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

and Gary streets, and was an old, dilapidated three-story
brick structure, which still bore upon its northwest
corner the sign " Libby & Son, Ship Chandlers and
Grocers." The windows were small and protected by
iron bars. The story of my stay in this prison-house
I have recorded in " Capture, Prison-Pen and Escape."
It was my abiding place until the seventh of the following
May, when, in a filthy, rough box-car, a number of
prisoners, including myself, were shipped to Danville.
It is needless to say that my prolonged stay in Richmond
did not materially alter or improve my impressions in
regard to the city. True, our view of the city from our
prison windows was limited, but memories only of suf-
fering, privation and unnecessary barbarity, prompted
by the cruel nature of those who had us in charge, are
associated with it. The city was at that time the heart
and centre of the then Southern Confederacy, the seat
of the Rebel government, the rendezvous of troops, and
the hatching place of treason and rebellion.

Yet one who views Richmond at the present day,
unbiased by the untoward circumstances which threw
their baleful influence over us, will see much to admire
in and about the city. It is situated on the north bank
of the James River, about one hundred miles by water
from Chesapeake Bay, and the same distance a little
west of south of Washington. It is built upon several
eminences, the principal ones being Shockoe and Rich-
mond hills, separated by Shockoe Creek. Like so many
other Southern cities, its residences are surrounded by
gardens, in which are grass plots, shrubbery and flowers;
and in the business quarter are many substantial edifices.

The Richmond of to-day is very different from the
Richmond of war times. The loyal city has been

RICHMOND. 423

literally reconstructed upon the ruins of the rebellious
one. There are few cities around which so many his-
torical associations cluster, as around Richmond. It is
on the site of a settlement made as early as 1611, by Sir
Thomas Dale, and in honor of Prince Henry called
Henrico, from which the county afterwards took its
name. An early historical account says it contained
three streets of framed houses, a church, storehouses and
warehouses. It was protected by ditches and palisades,
and no less than five rude forts. Two miles below the
city a settlement had been made two years previously.
In 1644-5 the Assembly of Virginia ordered a fort to
be erected at the falls of the James River, to be called
" Forte Charles." In 1676 war was declared against
the Indians, and bloody encounters took place between
the aborigines and their white neighbors. Bloody Run,
near Richmond, is so named, according to tradition, on
account of a sanguinary battle which one Bacon had
there with the Indians; though it is stated on other
authority that its name originated from the battle in
which Hill was defeated and Totopotomoi slain.

In 1677 certain privileges were granted Captain
William Byrd, upon the condition that he should settle
fifty able-bodied and well armed men in the vicinity of
the Falls, to act as a protection to the frontier against
the Indians. Richmond was established by law as a
town in May, 1742, in the reign of George II, on land
belonging to Colonel William Byrd, who died two
years later. The present Exchange Hotel is near the
locality of a warehouse owned by that gentleman. In
1779 the capital of the State was removed to Richmond,
from Williamsburg, the latter, its former capital, being
in too assailable a position. In 1781 the traitor Arnold

424 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

invested the city with a British force. As soon as he
arrived he sent a force, under Colonel Sirncoe, to destroy
the cannon foundry above the town. After burning
some public and private buildings, and a large quantity
of tobacco, the British forces left Richmond, encamping
for one night at Four Mile Creek. The village at that
time contained not more than eighteen hundred inhabit-
ants, one-half of whom were slaves. In 1789 it
contained about three hundred houses. At that period
all the principal merchants were Scotch and Scotch-Irish.
Paulding describes the inhabitants as "a race of most
ancient and respectable planters, having estates in the
country, who chose it for their residence, for the
sake of social enjoyments. They formed a society now
seldom to be met with in any of our cities. A society
of people not exclusively monopolized by money-making
pursuits, but of liberal education, liberal habits of
thinking and acting; and possessing both leisure and
inclination to cultivate those feelings and pursue those
objects which exalt our nature rather than increase our
fortune." In 1788, a convention met in the city, to
ratify the Federal Constitution.

At the corner of Broad and Thirteenth streets stands
the Monumental Church, in commemoration of a terrible
calamity which once befell the city. On the twenty-
sixth of December, 1811, a play entitled " The Bleeding
Nun " was being performed in the little theatre of the
city, and proved such a great attraction that the house
was crowded, not less than six hundred people being
present on the eventful night. Just before the conclu-
sion of the play the scenery caught fire, and in a few
minutes the whole building was wrapped in flames.
The fire falling from the ceiling upon the performers

RICHMOND. 425

was the first notification the audience had of what was
transpiring. A scene of the wildest confusion ensued.
There was but one door through which the entire
audience, composed of men, women and children, could
make its exit. The fire flashed from one portion of the
interior to another, catching on the garments of the
frantic people. All pressed in a wild panic toward the
door. People jumped and were pushed out of the
windows. Many were rescued with their clothing
literally burned off from them, and no less than sixty-
nine persons perished in the flames, among them George
W. Smith, Governor of the State, and many other
prominent men and women. A great funeral was held
in the Baptist meeting-house, and the entire population
of the city attended, as mourners. The remains of the
unfortunates were interred beneath a mural tablet which
is now in the vestibule of the church that was subse-
quently erected on the site of the theatre.

St. John's Church, on Church Hill, at the corner of
Broad and Twenty-fourth streets, dates back to ante-
Eevolutionary times, and in it was held, in 1775, the
Virginia Convention, in which Patrick Henry made his
famous speech, containing the words a Give me liberty 01
give me death I" It was subsequently the place of
meeting of the Convention which, in 1788, ratified the
Federal Constitution. Among the members of this
Convention were James Madison, John Marshall, James
Monroe, Patrick Henry, George Nicholas, George
Mason, Edmund Randolph, Pendleton and Wythe.
Rarely has any occasion in a single State presented such
a list of illustrious names as we find here. This church
is a plain, unpretending edifice, built in the style of a
century ago, to which has been added a modern spire.

426 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The State Capitol stands on the summit of Shockoe
Hill, in the centre of a park of eight acres. It is of
Graeco-Composite style of architecture, with a portico
of Ionic columns, planned after that of the Maison cass£e
at Nismes, in France, the plan being furnished by Thomas
Jefferson. Beneath a lofty dome in the centre of the
building is Houdon's celebrated statue of Washington,
of marble, life size, representing him clad in the uniform
of a revolutionary general. Near by, in a niche in the
wall, is a marble bust of Lafayette. This building has
been the scene of many noted political gatherings. In
it, on January seventh, 1861, was read Governor
Letcher's message to the Legislature, in which he de-
clared it was " monstrous to see a government like ours
destroyed merely because men cannot agree about a
domestic institution." Nevertheless, on the seventeenth
of the same month, the Capitol Building witnessed the
unanimous passage of the following resolution : —

" Resolved, That if all efforts to reconcile the unhappy
differences between sections of our country shall prove
abortive, then every consideration of honor and interest
demands that Virginia shall unite her destinies with
ber sister slaveholding States."

And on the thirteenth of February, the same edifice
saw a State Convention meet within its walls ; on the
sixteenth of April, Governor Letch er refused the requisi-
tion of the Secretary of War for troops to assist in
putting down the Rebellion in South Carolina; and the
next day the Ordinance of Secession was passed, two
months having been given to an active discussion of its
expediency, pro and con. The Confederate flag, with
eight stars, was raised from the dome of the Capitol, and
the Custom House, which stands on Main street, between

RICHMOND. 427

Tenth and Eleventh, had the gilt sign on its portico,
" United States Court," removed. A citizen writing
from Richmond, on April twenty-fifth, says : " Our
beautiful city presents the appearance of an armed camp.
Where all these soldiers come from, in such a state of
preparation, I cannot imagine. Every train pours in its
multitude of volunteers, but I am not as much surprised
at the number as at the apparent discipline of the country
companies. * * But the war spirit is not confined to
the men nor to the white population. The ladies are
not only preparing comforts for the soldiers, but arming
and practicing themselves. Companies of boys, also,
from ten to fourteen years of age, fully armed and well
drilled, are preparing for the fray. In Petersburg,
three hundred free negroes offered their services, either
to fight under white officers, or to ditch and dig, or any
kind of labor. An equal number in this city and across
the river, in Chesterfield, have volunteered in like
manner."

A resolution was passed by the Convention inviting
the Southern Confederacy to make Richmond the seat
of government. The Ordinance of Secession having
been submitted to the people, the vote in the city
stood twenty-four hundred in favor and twenty-four
against, being less than half the vote polled at the
Presidential election in November previous. Richmond
became a general rendezvous for troops.

The Confederate Congress met in Richmond, in the
hall of the House of Delegates, on the twentieth of
.July, 1861, and the seat of government continued there
nntil the taking of the city marked the fall of the Con-
federacy. A school-house in the vicinity of the rear of
Monumental Church, was at that time known as

428 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Brockenburg House, and was the residence of Jefferson
Davis, president of the Southern Confederacy. Two
tobacco warehouses, under their former titles of Libby
& Son and Castle Thunder, together with Belle Isle,
were military prisons during the war, and in the former
of these, as already narrated, the writer was confined for
several months.

About the middle of May, 1862, the Federal forces
having passed Yorktown and Williamsburg, began to
move directly upon Richmond. Consternation seized the
city, all who could get away packed up everything and
fled southward. Even President Davis took his
family and hastened to North Carolina. It was
resolved to destroy the city by conflagration as soon as
the Union troops reached it. The Federal army was,
however, compelled to abandon the Peninsula, and
Richmond was safe for the time being. On February
twenty-ninth, 1864, General Kilpatrick, with his divi-
sion of cavalry, commenced his march upon the city,
and came within six miles, when he was compelled to
withdraw to Median icsburg. The next day he made a
second attempt, advancing by the "Westham or river
road, but was confronted by superior forces, and again
compelled to fall back, and shortly after he returned
down the Peninsula.

From the beginning of the war Richmond had been
the objective point of a series of formidable expeditions
for its capture, under Generals McDowell, McClellan,
Burnside, Hooker, Meade and Grant. The strong
earthworks which were drawn around the city for its
protection still remain as mementoes of the great
struggle. On July thirtieth, 1864, the Union forces
advanced as far as Petersburg, and after destroying one

-RICHMOND. 429

fort, were repulsed. It was not until April second,
1865, that the Rebel forces were obliged to surrender
that outpost, and on the following day, General Weitzel,
with his troops, entered the city of Richmond.

President Davis was attending church at St. Paul's
Episcopal Church, at the corner of Grace and Ninth
streets, when a messenger brought him a dispatch from
General Lee, announcing that Petersburg was about to
be evacuated. The officers of the Southern Confederacy
stood not on the order of their going, but went at once.
Jefferson Davis took his family and left the city
immediately. The Eebel authorities took with them
what stores and treasures they could convey away,
burned what they had to leave behind, and set fire to
the warehouses, public buildings, and bridges across
the James River. The flames communicated to adjacent
Btructures, and it was thought the entire city would be
destroyed. A large portion of its business section was
thus laid waste; the number of buildings destroyed being
estimated at one thousand, and the entire loss at eight
millions of dollars.

On the fourth of April, President Lincoln reached
Richmond, and entered the house which had but two
days before been occupied by Jefferson Davis, but
which was now the headquarters of General Weitzel.
He came unattended, and walked up from the river into
the city, without parade, as any ordinary citizen might
have done. The news of his presence soon spread, and
the colored people flocked around him, with strong de-
monstrations of joy. " God bless you, Massa Linkum ! "
was heard on every hand, while the tears rolled down
the cheeks of some, and others danced for joy. And
here, perhaps all unconsciously, the second father of hia

430 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

country emulated the first. It is told of Washington,
that, a colored man having bowed to him, he returned the
bow with stately courtesy. Being remonstrated with for
bowing to a colored person, he replied that he did not
wish to be outdone in politeness by a negro. At Rich-
mond a colored man bowed to Lincoln, with the saluta-
tion, "May de good Lord bless you, President
Linkurn!" Lincoln returned the bow with cordiality,
evidently, like Washington, determined not to be
outdone in politeness by a negro. But that bow
not only indicated the noble nature of the man who
recognized a humanity broader than a color line, and
over whom already hung the dark shadow of martyr-
dom ; but it also was a foretoken of the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution and the Civil Rights
act, which so quickly followed the quelling of the
Rebellion.

In the soldiers' section of the Hollywood Cemetery, in
the western limits of the city, overlooking the James
River, are the graves of hundreds of Confederate dead,
from the midst of which rises a monumental pyramid
of rough stone. In the same cemetery, on a hill at its
southern extremity, a monument marka the resting-
place of President Monroe. General J. E. B. Stuart,
commander of Lee's cavalry, is also buried here.

The Tredegar Iron Works, which are still in active
operation, and whose buildings cover thirteen acres of
ground, were the great cannon manufactory of the Con-
federacy. Several battle fields and national cemeteries
are within a few hours' drive of the city. The old
African Church, a long, low building in Branch street,
near Monumental Church, is famous as a place of
political meetings, both before and during the war.

RICHMOND. 431

Crawford's equestrian statue of Washington, in the
esplanade leading from the Governor's house to the
Capitol Square, will recall the early days of the Repub-
lic. The statue is of bronze, representing a horse and
rider of colossal size, the horse thrown back partly upon
its haunches, on a massive granite pedestal, and around it
are grouped bronze figures of Patrick Henry, Thomas
Jefferson, John Marshall, George Mason, Thomas Nelson,
and Andrew Lewis, all illustrious sons of Virginia. In
the Capitol Square, north of the Capitol Building, is
Foley's statue of General "Stonewall" Jackson, of
heroic size, on a granite pedestal, and near it a life-size
marble statue of Henry Clay. In the State Library,
which contains forty thousand volumes, are many his-
torical portraits.

Richmond has rapidly recuperated since the war. Her
streets have been rebuilt, and, in common with many
other Southern cities, she has, since the abolition of sla-
very, and the consequent elevation of labor and attraction
of Northern enterprise and capital, developed many indus-
trial interests. The Gallego and Haxall flour mills
are among the largest in the world. It has a large
number of cotton, and a still larger number of tobacco
factories ; and contains also forges, furnaces, paper mills,
and machine shops. Its chief exports are, however, to-
bacco and flour. Richmond owes its present flourishing
condition to its river facilities, and the immense water
power supplied by the falls. It is alike the manufac-
turing and the commercial metropolis of the State.
Vessels drawing ten feet of water can come within a
mile of the centre of the city, those drawing fifteen feet,
to three miles below. A canal around the falls gives
river navigation two hundred miles further into the

432 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

interior. Steamboat lines connect it with the principal
Atlantic cities, and railroads and canals open up com-
munication with the North, South, and West.

The city is regularly laid out, the streets crossing each
other at right angles. Those parallel with the river are
named alphabetically, A street being on the river. The
cross streets are named numerically. The principal
thoroughfare is Main or E street, which is the centre of
business. The fashionable quarter is on Shockoe Hill,
in the western part of the city, where are also the chief
public edifices. The Penitentiary is in the western
suburbs facing the river, and is a massive structure three
hundred feet long and one hundred and ten feet deep.
The Almshouse is one of the finest buildings in the city.
There are a large number of churches, thirteen colleges,
and an orphan asylum. Five bridges across the James
River connect it with Spring Hill and Manchester, the
latter a pretty town containing two cotton mills.

The population of Richmond, by the census of 1880,
was 63,803, which showed an increase of more than ten
thousand persons in ten years. Unlike Charleston, S.
0., it is surrounded by a populous rural region, whose
products find a market here, and whose population look
largely to the city for their supplies. It will never attain
the commercial consequence of Savannah or of Norfolk,
but as the centre of the tobacco region, and the seat of
large manufacturing interests, it will always possess a
certain importance and prosperity.

CHAPTER XXXI.

SAINT PAUL.

Early History of Saint Paul. — Founding of the City. — Publio
Buildings. — Roman Catholics. — Places of Resort.— Falls of
Minnehaha. — Carver's Cave. — Fountain Cave. — Commercial
Interests. — Present and Future Prospects.

THE first white man who ever visited the locality
where Saint Paul now stands, was Father
Hennepin, wno made a voyage of discovery up the
Mississippi, above the Falls of Saint Anthony, in 1680.
But for more than a century and a half after nis visit
the entire section of country remained practically in the
possession of the Indians. - Eighty-six years afterwards
Jonathan Carver made a treaty with the Dakotas, and
in 1837 the United States made a treaty with the Sioux,
throwing the laud open to settlement.

The first building in Saint Paul was erected in 1838,
but for a number of years afterwards it remained
merely an Indian trading-post. In 1841 a mission was
established on the spot by the Jesuits, and a log chapel
dedicated to Saint Paul, from which the city afterward*
took its name.

The land upon which Saint Paul is built wa*
purchased in 1849, at the government price of one
dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. The same year
the town was made the capital of the State, while it was
yet a hamlet of a few log huts. Four years later it had
nearly four thousand inhabitants, with handsome public
buildings, good hotels, stores, mills, factories, and other
28 433

434 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

constituents of a prosperous town. In 1846 the town
had but ten inhabitants. In 1856 it had ten thou-
sand. Steamers were coming and going; loads of
immigrants were arriving; drays and teams were
driving hither and thither; carpenters and masons
were hard at work; yet could not put up houses
fast enough ; shops and dwellings were starting out
of the ground, as if by magic. In 1880 the popu-
lation had increased to fifty thousand, and was steadily
and rapidly multiplying.

Saint Paul originally occupied the western bank of
the Mississippi, but has now extended to the eastern
bank as well. It is divided into a lower and upper
town, the former lying on the low shore between the
bluff and the river, and containing the wholesale houses,
shipping houses and factories. The latter occupies no
less than four plateaus rising one above another, in a
semicircle around the bend of the river, the first plateau
being nearly a hundred feet in height. Here are the,
retail stores, public buildings, churches and private resi-
dences. The streets in the central portions of the city
cross one another at right angles, but become irregular
as they approach the boundaries. They are graded and
paved and lighted by gas. Two bridges connect the
opposite shores of the river, and horse cars traverse all
sections of the city. Its general appearance is pleasing
in the extreme. Many of the houses are built of blue
limestone, which is found underlying one of the terraces
in great quantities.

The State Capitol building is now in process of con-
struction, and will, when completed, be a very handsome
edifice, occupying an entire square. The United States
Custom House, an opera house, a large number of

SAINT PAUL. 435

handsome churches, and several public school buildings
are among the objects worthy of note in the city.

Although Saint Paul is settled largely by people from
New England and New York State, the Roman Catho-
lics still hold an important place in the city. The first
to take possession of the spot, they will be the last to
relax their hold. They have a number of large and
handsomely finished church edifices, and have estab-
lished an orphan asylum. There is also a Protestant
orphan asylum, and three free hospitals.

The city boasts an Academy of Sciences, which has a
very full museum, a Historical Society and a Library
Association, each of the latter having fine libraries.

Saint Paul is in the midst of a charming and romantic
country, and the throngs of people who seek a transient
home within its borders during the heat of summer find
abundance of delightful drives and places for picnics
and excursions. White Bear Lake and Bald Eagle
Lake, but a short distance away by rail, furnish boat-
ing, fishing and bathing for pleasure seekers, as we/1 a*
most enchanting scenery for the lovers of nature. The
city park is but two miles away, on the shores of Lake
Como, and is also an attractive place.

All lovers of the romantic should thank Longfello\V
that by means of his exquisite poem of Hiawatha he has
rescued the beautiful Falls of Minnehaha, meaning in the
Dakota language " laughing water," from being known
as Brown's Falls, a name which some utilitarian egotist
had bestowed upon it. From a high bank, covered with
shrubbery, the clear, silvery stream makes a sudd in
leap of about fifty feet into the chasm beneath. A vail
of mist rises before the falls, and the sun shining ujon
it spans the cataract with a rainbow.

436 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

On the eastern side of the city, in Dayton Bluff, near
the river, is Carver's Cave, so named after Jonathan
Carver, already referred to, who, in this cave, in May,
1767, made his treaty with the Indians, by which he
secured a large tract of land. The cave contains a lake
large enough to have a boat upon it.

Two miles above Saint Paul, on a beautiful clear
stream that flows into the Mississippi, is Fountain Cave,
a most wonderful and interesting production of nature.
It seems to have been formed by the action of the stream
which finds an outlet through it. It has an arched
entrance with a vaulted roof, the entrance being twenty
feet in height by twenty-five in width, while roof, sides
and floor are of pure white sandstone. This cave con-
tains a number of chambers, the largest being one
hundred feet in length by twenty-five feet in width, and
twenty feet in height. The cave has been penetrated
for a thousand feet or more, and still has unexplored
recesses.

Saint Paul stands at the head of navigation of the
Mississippi River, the Falls and Rapids of Saint An-
thony, a short distance above, effectually barring the
further upward progress of craft from below, though
above the falls small steamboats thread the waters of the
youthful Mississippi to the furthest outposts of civiliza-
tion. At this point the immense grain fields of the north-
west find an outlet for their annual products, and to this
point comes the merchandise which must supply the
needs of an already large and constantly increasing
agricultural, mining and lumbering population. Nu-
merous railroads connect it, not only with the great trade
centres of the east and south, but with a hundred thriving
towns and villages in Minnesota and Wisconsin, who

SAINT PAUL. 437

look to it for supplies; and when the Northern Pacific
is completed, the entire northwest will be brought into
communication with Saint Paul, and as the Mississippi
will share with the lakes the transportation of produce,
manufactures and ores of an inexhaustible but now
scarcely populated region, Saint Paul will derive im-
mense advantages from this gigantic enterprise.

Saint Paul is already a town of the greatest import-
ance on the Upper Mississippi. Her streets teem with
business, and boats of all descriptions lie at her wharves.
Already a populous city, what she is to-day is but the
beginning of what the future will behold her. A
generation hence she will count her inhabitants by
hundreds where now she counts them by tens; her
business will have increased in likb proportion ; and in
the no distant future she wili be known as the great
metropolis of the North weeV,

CHAPTER XXXII.

SALT LAKE CITY.

The Mormons. — Pilgrimage Across the Continent. — Site of Salt
Lake City. — A People of Workers. — Spread of Mormons through
other Territories. — City of the Saints. — Streets. — Fruit and
Shade Trees. — Irrigation. — The Tabernacle. — Residences of the
late Brigham Young.— Museum.— Public Buildings.— Warm and
Hot Springs. — Number and Character of Population. — Barter
System before Completion of Railroad. — Mormons and Gentiles.
— Present Advantages and Future Prospects of Salt Lake City.

OF all the cities which have sprung into being and
grown and prospered, since the discovery of the
American continent, there is not one with which is asso-
ciated so much interest, and which attracts such universal
curiosity as Salt Lake City. From the time of the so-
called discovery of the Book of Mormon, in 1827, by
Joseph Smith, through all the wanderings of the adherents
of Mormonism, beginning with the organization of the
"Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," in Man-
chester, New York, including its removal to Kirtland,
Ohio, and the establisment of a branch church in Jackson
County, Missouri ; its transplanting to Nauvoo, Illinois ;
the temporary sojourn of its adherents in Iowa ; and the
final exodus, in 1847, over the then almost unknown and
unexplored plains and mountains of the great west,
until they reached the Land of Promise, lying between
the Wasatch Range and the Sierra Nevadas, and there
settled themselves permanently, to build up literally a
"Kingdom of Christ upon the earth," the Mormons
have been in more senses than one a peculiar people.

438

SALT LAKE CITY. 43&

They have been unpleasantly peculiar in their advocacy
and practice of polygamy, and during their early sojourn
at Salt Lake, in their defiance of the United States Gov-
ernment. In some other respects they have challenged
the admiration of the world, and have set patterns in
industry, and in a system of government, which seems
to consider the well-being of all, both of which might
be imitated to advantage by the "Gentiles" who affect
to despise them.

After a weary pilgrimage through a wilderness far
greater than that traversed by the Israelites in days of
old, the Mormons found their Canaan in an immense
valley, from four thousand to six thousand feet above
the level of the sea, and walled in by mountain ranges
which seemed to furnish natural barriers against the
incroachments of an antagonistic civilization. This
valley, the geologist said, was the bottom of a great,
pre-historic sea, which by some mighty convulsion of
nature had been lifted up from its original level, and its
outlet cut off, and, like the Caspian Sea and others, was
left to shrink by evaporation. In the deepest depression
of this valley still remained all that was left of this ancient
inland ocean, reduced now to seventy-five miles in length
and thirty in breadth, with an average depth of but
eight feet. Still holding in solution a large proportion
of the salts of the greater sea, its waters form one of the
purest and most concentrated brines in the world, con-
taining twenty-two per cent, of chloride of sodium,
slightly mixed with other salts. All through the valley
of the Great Salt Lake there are salt and alkaline
deposits, evidencing the former presence of water. The
valley seemed barren and uninviting ; yet in it, as
offering a refuge from the persecutions which they had

440 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

suffered in the east, the Mormons decided to establish
their church and build their homes. They found
the soil, barren as it looked, would grow grass, grain
and fruits; and though the climate is changeable, the
winter cold, with deep snows, and the heat of summer
intense, they had faith to believe that they could endure
whatever natural disadvantages they could not over-
come, and that they should in time receive the reward
of their piety and industry.

Their chief town and ecclesiastical capital was located
on the eastern bank of the river Jordan, between Lake
Utah, a beautiful body of fresh water lying to the south-
ward, and Great Salt Lake, lying twenty miles to the
northward. The new settlement was eleven hundred
miles west of the Mississippi, and six hundred and fifty
miles east-northeast of the then scarcely heard of city of
San Francisco. Its site extended close up to the base
of the great mountains on the north, while to the south-
ward its view spread over more than a hundred miles
of plain, with a range of rugged mountain peaks, snow-
capped and bold, lying beyond. A grander outlook
could scarcely be imagined.

In the laying out of the city the fact was kept in view
that it was for a people of workers, each one of whom
must be self-sustaining. In truth, the great success of
these people is due to the fact that no class of drones
has been recognized and provided for. All, from the
highest to the lowest, were expected to work, church
officials as well as laymen ; and prosperity has attended
industry, as it always does. The wilderness and solitary
place were glad for them, and the desert was made to
rejoice and blossom as the rose ; and a mighty nation
within a nation has been built up in the valley of Utah,

SALT LAKE CITY. 441

protected by its mountain fastnesses. The Mormons
have become a strong and prosperous people, and have
not only possessed themselves of Utah, but have sent
out colonies to Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyom-
ing, Idaho and Arizona, which have prospered and
increased, until they now practically control those
Territories.

It is not my province to speak of the Mormons from
either a religious or political standpoint. Their material
prosperity one cannot fail to see, and a truthful historian
must note it. The " City of the Saints," as Salt Lake
City is sometimes called, is doubly interesting, from its
history and from its peculiar features, so unlike those
of any other city. The streets are one hundred and
twenty-eight feet wide, crossing each other at right angles,
an eighth of a mile apart, each square thus formed con-
taining ten acres. Each square is divided into eight
lots, measuring ten by twenty rods, and containing one-
fourth of an acre. Several of the squares in the business
quarter of the town have been cut across since the
original laying out, forming cross streets. The streets
are lined with trees, while streams of running water
course down each side of every street, being brought
from the neighboring mountains, ten thousand feet high,
furnishing a pure water supply, and irrigating the
gardens. Almost every lot has an orchard of pear,
apple, plum, apricot, and peach trees, and Utah fur-
nishes large quantities of fresh and dried fruit for the
eastern markets. Apricots, which in the east are almost
unknown, sometimes grow as large as eastern peaches,
from six to eight inches in circumference. Locust,
maple and box-elder are the favorite shade trees, and
these grow luxuriantly. When, however, their roots

442 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

strike soil from which the alkali has not yet been washed,
their leaves turn from a dark green to a sickly yellow.
But irrigation washes out this alkali, and the trouble
from it grows less every year.

Salt Lake City is divided into twenty wards, nearly
every one of which has a square. Every ward has its
master, who superintends the public improvements, and
sees that every man does his share without shirking.
The houses are generally of adobe (sun-dried bricks),
though a few of the newer business blocks are handsome
and commodious stone structures. Most of the dwelling
houses are small, and but a single story in height, having
separate entrances when there is more than one wife in
the family. The city is not an imposing one. The
wide streets, large grounds around each dwelling, and
low, small houses, give it more the appearance of an
overgrown village than that of a city. Nevertheless,
it cannot be denied that the plan upon which it is built
secures to its inhabitants the maximum of comfort,
health and cleanliness. There are no narrow and stifling
streets, overshadowed by tall buildings ; no dirty alleys ;
no immense crime and pestilence-breeding tenement
houses. Each little dwelling has its garden and orchard,
securing to each family the blessings of fresh vegetables
and fruit, and making each in a measure self-dependent.
The air is pure, blowing down the valley from the
mountain heights ; and no foul vapors from half pro-
tected sewers or reeking courts poison it.

The chief business thoroughfares are Main and Temple
streets. The former is entirely devoted to trade, while
church edifices are found in the latter. The Tabernacle
is, of course, the most prominent object which meets the
eye of the traveler as he arrives in Salt Lake City,

SALT LAKE CITY. 443

standing out, as it does, in all its huge proportions, sur-
rounded by the tiny homes of the people. It is on Temple
street, in the heart of the city, and is entirely without
architectural beauty, its predominant features being its
hugeness and its ugliness. It is an enormous wooden
structure, oval in form, with an immense dome-like
roof, supported by forty-six sandstone pillars. It will
seat fifteen thousand persons, and is used for the services
of the church, lectures and public gatherings. It con-
tains one of the largest organs in America. It is inclosed
within a high wall, and a little to the east of it, within
the same inclosure, are the foundations of a new temple,
estimated to cost ten millions of dollars, but which will
not probably be finished for many years to come. An
inferior adobe building, also within the walls, is the
celebrated Endowment House, where are performed
those sacred and mysterious rites of the Mormon Church
which no Gentile may look upon, and where the Saints
are sealed to their polygamous wives.

On South Temple street, east of the Tabernacle, is the
group of buildings known as Brigham Block, inclosed,
like the former, by a high stone wall, and comprising
the Tithing House, the Beehive House, the Lion House,
the office of the Deseret News, and various other offices
and buildings. The Beehive House and the Lion
House constituted the residences of the late Brigham
Young and eighteen or twenty of his wives. A hand-
some structure nearly opposite, the most pretentious
structure in Salt Lake City, and known as Amelia
I&lace, was built by Brigham Young, for his favorite
wife, Amelia. The theatre is a large building with a
gloomy exterior, but handsomely fitted up inside. It is
ft favorite resort of the Saints, who make it a source of

444 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

innocent recreation, and entertain no prejudices against,
it, permitting their wives and children to appear upon
its boards. One of the daughters of Brigham Young
was at one time an actress at this theatre.

On South Temple street, opposite the Tabernacle, is
the Museum, containing interesting products of Mormon
industry ; specimens of ores from the mines of Utah, and
precious stones from the desert ; P. fair representation of
the fauna of the Territory ; relics of the mound builders ;
articles of Indian use and manufacture, and other curi-
osities, which the visitor may behold on the payment of
a small admission fee. The City Hall, which is at the
present time used by the Territorial Government, is a
handsome building, erected at a cost of sixty thousand
dollars. In its rear is the city prison. A co-operative
store in successful operation will be found occupying a
handsome building on East Temple street. The Deseret
National Bank, at the corner of East Temple and South
First streets, is also a fine building. The two principal
hotels of Salt Lake City are the Walker House, on Main
street, and the Townsend House, at the corner of West
Temple and South Second streets. With all its quaint-
ness and want of resemblance to other cities, it has
adopted the system of horse cars, which run on the prin-
cipal streets, and make all parts of the city accessible.

About one mile distant from the city are the Warm
Springs, issuing from the limestone rock at the foot of
the mountains. The water of these springs contains lime,
magnesia, iron, soda, chlorine, and sulphuric acid, and
their temperature is lukewarm. A bath in themes
delightful, and beneficial, if not prolonged. Private
bathing apartments are fitted up for the use of bathers.
A mile further north are the Hot Springs, also strongly

SALT LAKE CITY. 445

sulphurous, and with a temperature of over 200°. Eggs
may be boiled in these springs in three minutes, ready for
the table. The water from these springs forms a beau-
tiful lake, called Hot Spring Lake, which practically
destroys all agriculture and vegetation for hundreds of
yards within the vicinity. Strange as it may seem, the
hot water does not prevent the existence of some kinds
of excellent fish, among which have been seen some very
fine, large trout.

The population of Salt Lake City is something over
twenty thousand persons, of whom about one-third are
Gentiles and apostate Mormons. This population is
made up of all nationalities, apostles and missionaries
being continually sent out to nearly every part of the
civilized world, to make proselytes, and bring them to
the fold. These converts to the faith are usually from
the lower classes, ignorant and superstitious; and as a
consequence the intellectual and social standards of Salt
Lake City are not high. But with their new faith these
people acquire habits of industry, if they never possessed
them before ; and the conditions of the city are favorable
for growth in certain directions. Their children are
educated and brought up to a higher position than that
occupied by their parents ; so that whatever may be our
opinion as to the advantages or disadvantages, from a
religious point of view, in their conversion to the Mor-
mon faith, materially, intellectually and socially they
have many of them undoubtedly made a change for the
better. They are taken away from the stationary con-
ditions of life in the old world, and transplanted into a
new and growing country, where there is plenty of room
and incentive for progress and expansion. Though the
first generation do not always avail themselves of thii

446 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

room, nor even the second, to its fullest extent, ultimately
these people will come to compare favorably with other
classes of American citizens.

The completion of the Union Pacific Railroad, although
it deprived the Mormons of that isolation which they
sought, has been of vast benefit to them in material ways.
It is said that when the city was first settled the whole
community could not have raised one thousand dollars
in cash. And up to the completion of the railroad nine-
tenths of the business of the Mormon people was con-
ducted on a system of barter. A writer thus facetiously
describes the condition of things at that period : UA
farmer wishes to purchase a pair of shoes for his wife.
He consults the shoemaker, who avers his willingness to
furnish the same for one load of wood. He has no
wood, but sells a calf for a quantity of adobes, the adobes
for an order on the merchant, payable in goods, and the
goods and the order for a load of wood, and straightway
the matron is shod. Seven watermelons purchased the
price of a ticket of admission to the theatre. He paid
for the tuition of his children seventy-five cabbages per
quarter. The dressmaker received for her services four
squashes per day. He settled his church dues in sorghum
molasses. Two loads of pumpkins paid his annual
subscription to the newspaper. He bought a ' Treatise
on Celestial Marriage ' for a load of gravel, and a bottle
of soothing syrup for the baby with a bushel of string
beans."

There are not the most harmonious relations existing
between the Mormon and Gentile people of Salt Lake
City. Each regards the other with suspicion. The
former look upon the latter as hostile to their faith, and
determined to destroy it. The Gentiles regard certain

SALT LAKE CITY. 447

practices of the Mormons with abhorrence, and them-
selves as at heart rebellious to the government to which
they have been compelled to submit. The leading papers
of the two factions are very hostile, and keep alive the
feeling of antagonism.

Lying between two prominent mountain chains, the
chief city in a vast valley which the enterprise of rnan
has demonstrated to be fertile ; furnishing a depot of
supplies, and a mart and shipping place for produce and
manufactures ; Salt Lake City is destined to become an
important point in the western section of our country.
Her future is assured, even though the people who
founded her, together with the faith to which they cling,
should disappear from the face of the earth, and be
forgotten, like the lost tribes of Israel, which they believe
themselves to represent. Essentially American in all
her features — since no city of the Old World, either
ancient or modern, furnishes a prototype — and in her
very plan including certain sure elements of success, as
our Western States and Territories become filled up with
a thriving and industrious people, she will find herself
the natural centre of a vast agricultural and mining
population, and continue to increase in importance and
prosperity.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

SAN FRANCISCO.

San Francisco. — The Golden State. — San Francisco Bay. — Golden
Gate. — Conquest of California by Fremont, 1848. — Discovery
of Gold.— Rush to the Mines, 1849.— "Forty-niners."— Great
Rise in Provisions and Wages. — Miners Homeward Bound. —
Dissipation and Vice in the City. — Vigilance Committee. — Great
Influx of Miners in 1850. — Immense Gold Yield. — Climate. —
Earthquakes. — Productions. — Irrigation. — Streets and Buildings.
— Churches. — Lone Mountain Cemetery.— Cliff House. — Seal
Rock. — Theatres. — Chinese Quarter. — Chinese Theatres. — Joss
Houses. — Emigration Companies. — The Chinese Question. —
Cheap Labor. — " The Chinese Must Go." — Present Population
and Commerce of San Francisco. —Exports. — Manufactures. —
Cosmopolitan Spirit of Inhabitants.

SAN FRANCISCO is situated on the best harbor
which our Pacific Coast affords, a little below the
38th parallel of latitude, and about a degree further
south than St. Louis, Cincinnati and Washington. It
is the western terminus of the Central Pacific Railroad,
American gateway to Asia and the far East.

As the traveler proceeds thitherward from the Valley
of the Mississippi, on descending the western slopes of
the Sierras, he finds himself fairly within the Golden
State; and in more senses than one does California
deserve that name. If it be the summer season the very
air seems filled with a golden haze. In leaving the
mountains all freshness is left behind. Trees and fields
are yellow with drouth, which lasts from April to
November. Dense clouds of dust fill the air and settle
upon everything. Whole regions, by the means of

448

SAN FRANCISCO. • 449

extensive and destructive mining operations, have been
denuded of all verdure, and lie bare and unsightly,
waiting until the slow processes of time, or the more
expeditious hand of man, shall reclaim them. But
mines have now given place to vast grain and cattle
farms or ranches; and great fields of golden grain and the
cattle on a thousand hills are on either side of the track.
If it be later or earlier in the year there is a wealth of
bloom such as is never dreamed of in the East. The
ground, sometimes, as far as the eye cap reach, is brilliant
with color, a golden yellow the predominating hue. In
the rainy season the Sacramento valley, the occasional
victim of prolonged drouth, is sometimes visited by a
freshet, which carries destruction with it ; a mountain
torrent, taking its rise near the base of Mt. Shasta, and
fed by the snows of the Sierras, it is fitful in its
demeanor. It finds its outlet through San Francisco
Bay and the Golden Gate to the Pacific.

San Francisco is on a peninsula which extends between
the bay of that name and the ocean. Its site is nothing
more than' a collection of sand hills, which, before the
building of the city, were continually changing their
positions. The peninsula is thirty miles long and six
wide, across the city, which stands on the eastern or
inner slope.

San Francisco Bay is unsurpassed in the world, except
by Puget Sound, in Washington Territory, for size,
depth, ease of entrance and security. The entrance to
the bay is through a passage five miles in length and
about two in width, with its shallowest depth about
thirty feet at low tide. Rocks rise almost per{>endicu-
larly on the northern side of the entrance, to a height of
three thousand feet. A lighthouse is placed on one of

29

450 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

these, at Point Bonita. Fort Point, a fortress built on
solid rock, commands the entrance from the south, and
beyond it, until San Francisco is reached, are a series of
sand dunes, some of them white and drifting and others
showing green with the scant grass growing upon them.
The entrance to the bay is called the Golden Gate, a
name applied with singular appropriateness, since
through its portals have passed continuous streams of
gold since the discovery of the latter in 1848. Strangely
enough, the name was given before the gold discovery,
though at how early a date there seems no means of
knowing. As far as can be ascertained, it first appears
in Fremont's " Geographical Memoir of California,"
published in 1847. Six miles eastward from its entrance
the bay turns southward for a distance of thirty miles,
forming a narrow peninsula between it and the ocean,
on the northeastern extremity of which the city is built.
It also extends northward to San Puebla Bay, which
latter extending eastward, connects by means of a narrow
strait with Suisun Bay, into which the Sacramento Eiver
discharges its volume of water. These three bays
furnish ample and safe harborage for all the merchant
fleets of the world.

San Francisco Bay is about forty miles in length, its
widest point being twelve miles. At Oakland, directly
east of San Francisco, it is eight miles in width. Alcatraz
Island, in the centre of the channel, six miles from the
Golden Gate, is a solid rock rising threateningly above
the water, and bristling with heavy artillery. It is
sixteen hundred feet in length, and four hundred and
fifty feet in width. Angel Island is directly north of
Alcatraz, and four miles from San Francisco, contains
eight hundred acres, and is also fortified. Midway

SAN FRANCISCO. 451

between San Francisco and Oakland is Yerba Buena, or
Goat Island, which, too, is held as a United States
military station. Red Rock, Bird Rock, the Two
Sisters, and other small islands dot the bay.

In 1775 the first ship passed the portals of the Golden
Gate, and made its way into the Bay of San Francisco,
This ship was the San Carlos, commanded by Caspar
De Portala, a Franciscan monk and Spanish Governor
of Lower California, who set out on a voyage of dis-
covery and exploration. The same man had six years
previously visited the sand hills of the present site of
San Francisco, being the first white man to set his foot
upon them. Portala named the harbor San Francisco,
after the founder of his monastic order, St. Francis. A
mission was founded there six years later, on the twenty-
seventh of June, by Friars Francisco Paloa and Bonito
Cambou, under the direction of Father Junipero Serra, wh(?
had been commissioned by Father Portala as president of
all the missions in Upper California. This was the ^ixth
mission established in California, and up to the year
1800 the Fathers labored with great zeal and industry,
had established eighteen missions, converted six hundred
and forty-seven savages, and acquired a vast property in
lands, cattle, horses, sheep and grain. Presidios or
military stations were established for the protection of
these missions, and the Indians readily submitted them-
selves to the Fathers, and acquired the arts of civilization.

The Franciscan friars continued complete sovereigns
of the land during the first quarter of the present
century, and increased in worldly goods. Mexico
became a republic in 1824, and in 1826 considerably
curtailed their privileges. In 1845 their property was
finally confiscated and the missions broken up. The

452 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

priests returned to Spain ; the Indians to their savagery ;
and only the crumbling walls of their adobe houses, and
their decaying orchards and vineyards, remained to tell
the tale of the past history of California. From that
period until 1847 California was a bone of contention
between Mexico and the United States, her territory
overrun by troops of both nations. On the sixteenth of
January, 1847, the Spanish forces capitulated to Fremont,
and peace was established.

With the exception of the Mission Dolores, there was
no settlement at San Francisco until 1835, when a tent
was erected. A small frame house was built the follow-
ing year, and on the fifteenth of April, 1838, the first
white child was born. The population of San Francisco,
then known as Yerba Buena, in 1842 was one hundred
and ninety-six persons. In 1847 it had increased to four
hundred and fifty-one persons, including whites, Indians,
negroes and Sandwich Islanders. In March, 1848, the
city contained two hundred houses, and eight hundred
and fifty inhabitants. In November of the same year,
the first steamer, a small boat from Sitka, made a trial
trip around the bay. In this year the first public school
and the first Protestant church were established.

This year marked the great era in the history of San
Francisco. In the fall of 1847, Captain John A. Sutter,
a Swiss by birth, who had resided in California since
1839, began erecting a saw mill at a place called Colorna,
on the American River, a confluent of the Sacramento,
about fifty miles east of the city of that name. James W.
Marshall, who had taken the contract for erecting the
mill, was at work with his men cutting and widening the
tail-race when, on January eighteenth, 1848, he observed
some particles of a yellow, glittering substance. In

SAN FRANCISCO. 453

February specimens of these findings were taken to San
Francisco, and pronounced to be gold. The truth being
soon confirmed, the rush for the gold fields commenced.
People in all sections of California and Oregon forsook
their occupations, and set out for the mines. The news
spread, increasing as it went ; until the reports grew
fabulous. Many of the earliest miners acquired fortunes
quickly, and as quickly dissipated them. The journal
of Rev. Walter Colton, at that time Alcalde of Monte-
rey, contains the following paragraph, under date of
August twelfth, 1848 :—

" My man Bob, who is of Irish extraction, and who
had been in the mines about two months, returned to
Monterey about four weeks since, bringing with him
over two thousand dollars, as the proceeds of his labor.
Bob, while in my employ, required me to pay him every
Saturday night in gold, which he put into a little leather
bag and sewed into the lining of his coat, after taking
out just twelve and a half cents, his weekly allowance for
tobacco. But now he took rooms and began to branch
out ; he had the best horses, the richest viands, and the
choicest wines in the place. He never drank himself
but it filled him with delight to brim the sparkling
goblet for others. I met Bob to-day, and asked him how
he got on. 'Oh, very well/ he replied, 'but I am off
again for the mines/ 'How is that, Bob ? you brought
down with you over two thousand dollars; I hope you
have not spent all that; you used to be very saving;
twelve and a half cents a week for tobacco, and the rest
you sewed into the lining of your coat/ ' Oh, yes/ replied
Bob, ' and I have got that money yet. I worked hard
for it, and the devil can't get it away. But the two

454 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

thousand dollars came aisily, by good luck, and has gone
as aisily as it came ! ' ;

Reports of the new El Dorado reached the States, and
during 1849, from Maine to Louisiana came the gold
seekers. From every country in Europe, from Australia
and from China, additions were made to the throng of
pilgrims, who, by the Isthmus, around the Horn, across
the seas, and by the terrible journey overland, all rushed
pell mell up the Sacramento, stopping at San Francisco
only long enough to find some means of conveyance.
We have no space to tell the story of that time. Men
came and went. Some made fortunes. Others returned
poorer than they came. Many who attempted the over-
land route left their bones bleaching on the plains.
Some went back to their homes, and others remained to
become permanent citizens of California. What the
F. F. V.s are to Virginia, and the Pilgrim Fathers to
Massachusetts, the "Forty-niners," a large number of
whom still survive, will be, in the future, to California.

During 1848 ten million dollars' worth of gold had
been gathered on the Yuba, American and Feather
rivers. The city of San Francisco had, in January,
3849, two thousand inhabitants, and these were in a
hurry to be off to the mines as soon as the rainy season
was over. Ships began to arrive from all quarters, and
July of that year found the flags of every nation floating
in the bay. Five hundred square-rigged vessels lay in
the harbor, and everybody was scrambling for the mines.
These multitudes of people, though they thought only
of gold, yet had to be fed, clothed and housed after a
fashion. There were no supplies adequate to the demand,
and provisions went up to fabulous prices. Apples sold
for from $1 to $5 apiece, and eggs at the same rates.

SAN FRANCISCO. 455

Laborers demanded from $20 to $30 for a day's work,
and were scarcely to be had at those figures. The miners
probably averaged $25 a day at the mines, though some
were making their hundreds. But at the exorbitant
prices to be paid for everything, few were able to lay up
much money.

Late in the year of 1849 the reaction came. The
steamers were filled with downcast miners, thankful that
they had enough left to take themselves home. Others
having acquired something, stopped at San Francisco,
and plunged into the worst forms of dissipation. The
city during this and the following year held a carnival
of vice and crime. Women there were few or none, save
of the worst character, and gambling dens, dance houses,
and drinking hells flourished on every street. In 1850
a Vigilance Committee was organized by the better class
of citizens, which soon exercised a wholesome restraint
upon the criminal classes. In the same year California
was admitted to the Union without the preliminary of a
Territorial Government, and San Francisco was chartered
as a city. Courts were established, and the lawless
community came under the dominion of law and order.

By this time the great haste which seized everybody
in his eagerness to obtain gold and return home to enjoy
it, had somewhat subsided. Men began to realize that
there were other means of making money besides
digging for it. Gardens were planted and orchards set
out, and it was discovered that the apparently barren
soil of the State would yield with a fruitfulness unpar-
alleled in the East. San Francisco began to be more
than a canvass city. Mud flats were filled in and sand
hills leveled, houses, hotels and stores erected, and a wild
speculation began in city property. Lots which a few

456 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

days before had been purchased for two or three thous-
and dollars, were held at fifty thousand dollars. A
canvas tent, fifteen by twenty feet, near the plaza, rented
for forty thousand dollars per annum. The Parker
House, a two-story frame building on Kearney street, also
near the plaza, brought a yearly rent of one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars. Board in a hotel or a tent was
eight dollars per day, and provisions were proportion-
ately high. To build a brick house cost a dollar for
each brick used. Twenty-seven thousand people arrived
in San Francisco, by sea or land, during 1850. In 1853
thirty-four thousand gold seekers returned home, the
yield of gold that year having been $65,000,000, the
largest annual yield of the State. The imports of San
Francisco in the same year were -over $45,000,000. As
early as this period it was the third city in tonnage
entrances in the United States, New York and New
Orleans alone exceeding it. In 1856 the bad state of
public affairs again necessitated the interference of a
Vigilance Committee, but since that time the city has
been orderly.

The site of San Francisco was fixed by chance. More
desirable places might have been selected, but the influx
of miners dropped upon the first spot convenient for
them to land, from which to start post-haste to the
mines, and that spot is indicated by the present city.
Owing to its location its climate is not in all respects
desirable. The general climate of the coast is tempered,
both in summer and winter, by a warm ocean current,
which, flowing northward along the coast of China and
Siberia, takes a turn to the south when it reaches
Alaska, and washes the western coast of the continent
of America. It is so warm that it produces a marked

SAN FRANCISCO. 457

effect upon this coast, just as the Gulf Stream tempers the
climate of the British Islands. But it has been sensibly
cooled by its proximity to Arctic seas, and so sends cool
breezes to fan the land during the heat of summer.
These summer sea breezes rushing through the narrow
opening of the Golden Gate become almost gales, and
bring both cold and fog with them. The air of winter
is mild and spring-like. This is the rainy season, but it
does not rain continuously. It is the season of verdure
and growth, and frosts are both slight and infrequent in
the latitude of San Francisco. Not a drop of rain falls
during the summer. The mornings are warm and
sometimes almost sultry ; but about ten o'clock the sea
breeze springs up, growing more violent as the day
advances, and frequently bringing a chilly fog with it,
so that by evening men are glad to wrap themselves in
overcoats, and women put on their cloaks and furs.
The sand, which is still heaped in dunes to the westward
of the city, and lies upon its vacant lots, is lifted and
whirled through the air, falling almost like sleet, and
stinging the faces of pedestrians.

Thunder storms are of rare occurrence at San Fran-
cisco, but earthquakes are exceedingly frequent. Prob-
ably not a year elapses in which slight shocks are not
felt in the State. Sometimes these shocks extend over
vast areas, and at other times are merely local. On
October twenty-first, 1868, a severe earthquake occurred
at San Francisco, swaying buildings and throwing down
numbers in process of erection. The houses of the city
are mostly built with a view to these disturbances of
nature. The dwelling housas are seldom more than two
and one-half stories in height, while the blocks of the

458 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

business streets do not display the altitude of structures
in the eastern cities.

The climate is so mild and so favorable that the pro-
ductions of California embrace those of both temperate
and semi-tropical latitudes. The sand hills of San
Francisco were found, with the help of irrigation to
produce plentifully of both fruits and flowers, and the
suburbs of the city display many greenhouse plants
growing in the open air. Roses bloom every month in
the year, and strawberries ripen from February to
December. In San Francisco the mean temperature in
January is 49° and in June 56°. The average temper-
ature of the year is 54°.

The California market, between Kearney and Mont-
gomery streets, extending through from Pine to Cali-
fornia streets, displays all the fruits, vegetables and
grains of the northern States, raised in the immediate
neighborhood of the city, while oranges, lemons and
pomegranates are sent from further south. The tenderer
varieties of grapes flourish in the open air, and the State
produces raisins which command a price but little below
those of Europe. The thrift of the fruit trees of Cali-
fornia is most remarkable. Most trees begin bearing
on the second year from the slip or graft, and produce
abundantly at three or four years of age. Their growth
and the size of their productions are unequaled on the
continent. The above mentioned market is one of the
sights of the city, and should not be missed by the
visitor.

Irrigation has been found necessary to render the
sand hills about San Francisco productive, and wind-
mills have become familiar objects in the landscape, their
long arms revolving in the ocean breeze, while little

SAN FRANCISCO. 459

streams of water trickling here and there vivify the
earth. As a result, though trees are scarce, what few
there are being mostly stunted live oaks, whose long
roots extend down deep into the soil, there are flowers
everywhere. On one side of a fence will be a sand-bank,
white with shifting sand, on the other, flourishing in the
same kind of soil, will be an alfresco conservatory, bril-
liant with color and luxuriant in foliage.

Montgomery street is the leading thoroughfare, broad
and lined with handsome buildings. Toward the north
it climbs a hill so steep that carriages cannot ascend it,
and pedestrians make their way up by means of a flight
of steps. From this elevation a fine view is obtained
of the city and bay. Kearney and Market streets are
also fashionable promenades, containing many of the retail
stores. The principal banks and business offices are
found on California street, and the handsomest private
residences are on Van Ness avenue, Taylor, Bush,
Sutter, Leavenworth and Folsom streets, Clay street
Hill and Pine street Hill. The city extends far beyond
its original limits, having encroached upon the bay.
Solid blocks now stand where, in 1 849, big ships rode at
anchor. It is laid out with regularity, most of its streets
being at right angles with one another. The business
streets are generally paved with Belgian blocks or cobble
stones, and most of the residence streets are planked.
The city does not present the handsome and showy archi-
tecture of many cities of the east, though here and there
are fine edifices. It is yet too new, and too hurriedly
built, to have acquired the substantiality and granduer
of older cities. Between fine brick or stone structures
several stories high are sandwiched insignificant wooden
houses of only two stories, the relics of a past which is

460 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

yet exceedingly near the present. The public buildings,
especially those belonging to the United States, are fine.

The City Hall will, when finished, be surpassed by
few structures in the country. The Palace Hotel, at the
corner of Market and New Montgomery streets, is a vast
building, erected and furnished at a cost of $3,250,000.
It is entered by a grand court-yard surrounded by colon-
nades, and from its roof a birds-eye view of the whole city
can be obtained. Baldwin's Hotel, at the corner of
Marshall and Powell streets, is another palatial struc-
ture, costing a quarter of a million more, for building,
decorating and furnishing, than the Palace Hotel. The
Grand Hotel, Occidental, Lick House, Russ House
and Cosmopolitan are all established and popular
hotels.

The largest and finest church edifice on the Pacific
Coast is that of St. Ignatius, Roman Catholic, in
McAlister street. The finest interior is that of St. Pat-
rick's, also Roman Catholic, in Mission street between
Third and Fourth. The First Unitarian church, in
Geary street, is one of the finest churches in the city,
remarkable for the purity of its architectural design and
the elegance of its finish. The Chinese Mission House,
at the corner of Stockton and Sacramento streets, will
prove interesting to strangers. The Roman Catholics,
who number among their adherents all the Spanish
citizens, make no concealment of their intention to gain
a majority of the population. But though they are a
power in the community, and have many churches,
the different Protestant sects are largely represented.
Indeed, San Francisco is thoroughly tolerant in matter
of religion. Not only do Catholics and Protestants find
their own appropriate places of worship, but the Jews

SAN FltANCISCO. 46 1

have two Synagogues, and the Chinese Buddhists three
Temples or Joss Houses.

There is but one road leading out of the city, but
within the city limits there are many modes of convey-
ance. Cars propelled by endless wire cables, which
move along the streets without the assistance of either
horse or steam power, intersect the city in every direc-
tion. Omnibuses run out on the Point Lobos road to
the Cliff House ; and he who has not ridden or driven
thither and watched the seals on Seal Rock, has not seen
all of San Francisco. This is the one excursion of the city ;
its one pet dissipation. Everybody goes to the Cliff. A
drive of five or six miles, on a good road, over and through
intervening sand hills, brings the visitor to the Cliff House.
This road leads by Laurel Hill, or as it was formerly
called, Lone Mountain Cemetery, two and one-half
miles west of the city, within whose inclosure a conical
hill rises to a considerable height above the surrounding
level country. On its summit is a large wooden cross,
a prominent landmark, and within the cemetery are
several fine monuments, conspicuously that of Senator
Broderick, and a miniature Pantheon, marking the rest-
ing place of the Ralston family. The Lone Mountain
possesses an unrivaled outlook over city, bay, ocean and
coast range.

The Cliff House is a large, low building, set on the
edge of a cliff rising abruptly from the ocean, and facing
west ; and from it you have a grand view of the Golden
Gate, while ocean ward you strain your eyes to catch
some glimpse of China or Japan, which lie so far away
in front of you. But you see instead, if the day be
clear, the faint but bold outlines of the Farallon Islands,

4G2 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

and the white sails of vessels passing in and out of the
Golden Gate.

Late in the year of 1876 I completed my horseback
journey across the continent, dashing with my horse into
the surf to the westward of the Cliff House. A long
and wearisome, but at the same time interesting and
reasonably exciting ride, was at an end, and after view-
ing San Francisco, I was free to enjoy those luxuries of
modern civilization, the railway cars, on my homeward
route.

The Farallones de los Frayles are six islets lifting up
their jagged peaks in picturesque masses out in the ocean,
twenty-three and one-half miles westward of the Golden
Gate. The largest Farallon extends for nearly a mile
east and west, and is three hundred and forty feet high.
On its highest summit the government has placed a
lighthouse, and there the light-keepers live, sometimes
cut off for weeks from the shore, surrounded by barren-
ness and desolation, but within sight of the busy life
which ebbs and flows through the narrow strait which
leads to San Francisco. These islands are composed of
broken and water-worn rocks, forming numerous sharp
peaks, and containing many caves. One of these caves
has been utilized as a fog-trumpet, or whistle, blown by
the force of the waves. The mouth-piece of a trumpet
has been fixed against the aperture of the rock, and the
waves dashing against it with force enough to crush a
ship to pieces, blows the whistle. This fog whistle
ceases entirely at low water, and its loudness at all times
depends upon the force of the waves. The Farallones
are the homes of innumerable sea birds, gulls, mures,
shags and sea -parrots, the eggs of the first two being
regularly collected by eggers, who make a profitable busi-

SAN FRANCISCO. 463

ness of gathering them at certain seasons of the year. In
1853 one thousand dozen of these eggs, the result of a three
days' trip, were sold at a dollar a dozen. Gathering the
eggs is difficult and not unattended by danger, as
precipices must be scaled, and the birds sometimes show
themselves formidable enemies. The larger island is
also populated by immense numbers of rabbits, all
descended from a few pairs brought there many years
ago. Occasionally these creatures, becoming too numer-
ous for the resources of the island, die by hundreds, of
starvation. Though their progenitors were white, they
have reverted to the original color of the wild race.
The cliffs of these islands are alive with seals, or sea-
lions, as they are called, which congregate upon their
sunny slopes, play, bark, fight and roar. Some of them
are as large as an ox and seemingly as clumsy; but they
disport themselves in the surf, which is strong enough
to dash them in pieces, with the utmost ease, allowing
the waves to send them almost against the rocks, and
then by a sudden, dextrous movement, gliding out of
danger.

The Cliff House has also its sea-lions, on Seal Rock,
not far from the hotel, and the visitors are never tired of
watching them as they wriggle over the rocks, barking
so noisily as to be heard above the breakers. Formerly
numbers of them were shot by wanton sportsmen, but
they are now protected by law. "Ben. Butler" and
"General Grant" are two seals of unusual size, which
appear to hold the remainder of the seal colony in sub-
jection. If two begin to fight and squabble about a
position which each wants, either " Ben " or the " Gen-
eral " quickly settles the dispute by flopping the mal-
contents overboard. The higher these creatures can

464 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

wriggle up the rocks the happier they appear to be; and
when a huge beast has attained a solitary peak, by dint
of much squirming, he manifests his satisfaction by
raising his small pointed head and complacently looking
about him. As soon as another spies him, and can
reach the spot, a squabble ensues, howls are heard, teeth
enter into the contest, the stronger secures the eminence,
and the weaker is ignominously sent to the humbler and
lower regions.

An early drive to and a breakfast at the Cliff House,
with a return to the city before the sea-breeze begins, is
the favorite excursion of the San Franciscan. The road
passes beyond this hotel to a broad, beautiful beach, on
which, at low tide, one can drive to the Ocean House, at
its extreme end, and then return to the city by the old
Mission grounds, which still lie in its southwestern
limits. The Mission building is of adobe, of the old
Spanish style, built in 1778. Adjoining it is the ceme-
tery, with its fantastic monuments, and paths worn by
the feet of the Mission fathers and their dusky penitents.

The largest and finest theatre of the city, and one of
the finest in the United States, is the Grand Opera
House, at the corner of Mission and Third streets. Four
other theatres and an Academy of Music, furnish amuse-
ments to the residents of the city. "Woodward's Gardens,
on Mission street between Thirteenth and Fourteenth
streets, contains a museum, an art galley, and a menag-
erie. There are also two Chinese theatres, one at 618
Jackson street, and the other at 625J Jackson street.

The Chinese Quarter of San Francisco, which has
become famous the world over, occupies portions of
Sacramento, Commercial, Dupont, Pacific and Jackson
streets. It is a locality which no stranger should fail to

SAN FRANCISCO. 465

see. Here he steps at once into the Celestial Empire.
Chinamen throng the streets, dressed in their semi-
American, semi-Asiatic costumes, the pig-tail usually
depending behind, though sometimes it is rolled up,
out of sight, under the hat. The harsh gutturals of the
Chinese language, nearly every word ending in ng, are
heard on every hand, mingled with the grotesque pigeon
English. The signs exhibit Chinese characters, and the
stores and bazaars are filled with Chinese merchandise.

Women are scarce in this quarter, and only of the
courtezan class ; but here and there one meets you, dressed
usually in Chinese gown and trowsers, with hair arranged
in the indescribable Chinese chignon, and carrying a fan
— for all the world as though she had stepped off a fan
or a saucer — and not more immodest in demeanor than
the same class in our eastern cities. There are few or
no Chinese wives in San Francisco. Chinese immigra-
tion takes the form of an immense bow, beginning at
China, stretching to the Pacific coast of America, and
retiring again to its starting point ; for every Chinaman
expects to return to his native land, either alive or dead.
He does not take root in American soil. He comes
here to make a little money, leaving his family behind
him, and, satisfied with a very modest competence,
returns as he came. If he dies here, his bones are
carried back, that they may find a resting-place with
those of his ancestors. Therefore the women imported
are for the basest purposes.

But to return to this Chinese Quarter. Here is the old
St. Giles of London, the old Five Points of New York
magnified and intensified. Here congregate the roughest
and rudest elements, and here stand, shamelessly revealed,
crime and bestiality too vile to name. In one cellar

30

466 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

is a gambling-hell, for John Chinaman's besetting weak-
ness is his love of gambling. The mode of gambling is
very simple, involving no skill, and the stakes are small ;
but many a Celestial loses there, at night, his earnings of
the day. Near by is an opium cellar, fitted up with
benches or shelves, on each of which will be found a
couple of Chinamen lying, with a wooden box for a
pillow. While one is preparing his opium and smoking,
the other is enjoying its full effects, in a half stupor. The
Chinese tenement houses are crowded and filthy beyond
description, and the breeding places of disease and crime.
They are scattered thickly throughout the quarter.
Their theatres, of which there are two, already referred
to, have only male performers, who personate both sexes,
and give what seems to be passable acting, accompanied
by the clash and clang of cymbals, the beating of gongs,
the sounding of trumpets, and other disagreeable noises
regarded by the Chinese as music. The entire audience
are smoking, either tobacco or opium.

The Joss houses, or temples of the Chinese, are more
in the nature of club houses and employment bureaus,
than of religious houses. The first floor contains the
business room, smoking or lounging room, dining room,
kitchen, and other offices, which are used by the Emigra-
tion Company to which the building belongs. The second
floor contains a moderate-sized hall, devoted to religious
rites. Its walls are decorated with moral maxims from
Confucius and other writers, in which the devotees are
exhorted to fidelity, integrity, and the other virtues.
The Joss or Josh is an image of a Chinaman, before
whom the Chinese residents of San Francisco are expected
to come once a year and burn slips of paper. Praying
is also done, but as this is by means of putting printed

SAN FRANCISCO. 467

prayers into a machine run by clockwork, there is no
great exhaustion among the worshipers.

The Chinese have no Sunday, and are ready to work
every day of the week, if they can get paid for it. Their
only holiday is at New Year, which occurs with them
usually in February, but is a movable feast, when they
require an entire week to settle their affairs, square up
their religious and secular accounts, and make a new
start in life. The Chinese have one savijg virtue.
They pay their debts on every New Year's day. If they
have not enough to settle all claims against them they
hand over their assets to their creditors, old scores are
wiped out, and they commence anew.

The six Chinese Emigration Companies, each repre-
senting a Chinese province, manage the affairs of the
immigrants with a precision, minuteness and care which
is unparalleled by any organization of western civilization.
Before the passage of the anti-Chinese law, when a ship
came into port laden with Chinamen, the agents of the
different companies boarded it, and each took the names
of those belonging to his province. They provided
lodgings and food for the new comers, and as quickly as
possible secured them employment ; lent them money to
go to any distant point; cared for them if they were sick
and friendless, and, finally, sent home the bones of those
who died on American shores. These companies settle
all disputes between the Chinese, and when a Chinamen
wishes to return home, they examine his accounts, and
oblige him to pay his just debts before leaving. The
means for doing all this are obtained in the shape of
voluntary contributions from the immigrants. These
companies do not act as employment bureaus, for these
are separate and thoroughly organized institutions.

468 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

These latter farm out the work of any number of hands,
at the price agreed upon, furnishing a foreman, with
whom all negotiations are transacted, who, perhaps, is
the only one speaking English, and who is responsible
for all the work.

The English spoken by the Chinese is known as
" pigeon English," " pigeon" being the nearest approach
which a Chinamen can make to saying " business."

Most English words are more or less distorted. L is
always used by them for r, mi for I, and the words
abound in terminal ee's.

The Chinese problem is one which is agitating the
country and giving a coloring to its politics. The
Pacific States seem, by a large majority of their population,
to regard the presence of the Mongolian among them as
an unmitigated evil, to be no longer tolerated. Eastern
capitalists have hailed their coming as inaugurating the
era of cheap labor and increased fortunes for themselves.
Hence the discussion and the disturbances. A lady who
had made her home in San Francisco for several years
past, says, in a letter to the writer of this article, " A
person not living in California can form no conception
of the curse which the Chinese are to this section of the
world."

Yet without them some of the great enterprises of the
Pacific coast, notably the Central Pacific Railroad, would
have remained long unfinished ; and they came also to
furnish manual labor at a time when it was scarce and
difficult to obtain at any price. The Chinaman is a
strange compound of virtue and vice, cleanliness and
filth, frugality and recklessness, simplicity and cunning.
He is scrupulously clean as to his person, indulging in
frequent baths ; yet he will live contentedly with the

SAN FRANCISCO. 469

most wretched surroundings, and inhale an air vitiated
by an aggregation of breaths and stenches of all kinds.
He is a faithful worker and a wonderful imitator. He
cannot do the full work of a white man, but he labors
steadily and unceasingly. He takes no time for drunken
sprees, but he is an inveterate opium smoker, and some-
times deliberately sacrifices his life in the enjoyment of
the drug. He is frugal to the last degree, but will
waste his daily earnings in the gambling hell and policy
shop. Scrupulously honest, he is yet the victim of the
vilest vices which are engrafting themselves upon our
western coast. Living upon one-third of what will
keep a white man, and working for one-half the wages
the latter demands, he is destroying the labor market of
that quarter of our country, reducing its working classes
to his own level, in which in the future the latter, too,
will be forced to be contented on a diet of " rice and rats,"
and to forego all educational advantages for their chiU
dren, becoming, like the Chinese themselves, mere
working machines ; or else enter into a conflict of labor
against labor, race against race.

The latter alternative seems inevitable, and it has
already begun. China, with her crowded population,
could easily spare a hundred million people and be the
better for it. Those one hundred million Chinamen, if
welcomed to our shores, would speedily swamp our
western civilization. They might not become the con-
trolling power — the Anglo-Saxon is always sure to
remain that — but as hewers of wood and drawers of
water, as builders of our railroads, hands upon our
farms, workers in our factories, and cooks and chamber-
maids in our houses, a like number of American men
and women would be displaced, and wages quickly

470 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

reduced to an Asiatic level ; and such a time of distress
as this country never saw would dawn upon us.

There seems to be no assimilation between the Cauca-
sian and the Mongolian on the Pacific slope. In the
East an Irish girl recently married a Chinaman ; but in
San Francisco, though every other race under the sun has
united in marriage, the Chinaman is avoided as a pariah.
White and yellow races may meet and fraternize in
business, in pleasure, and even in crime ; but in mar-
riage never. Chinamen rank among the most respected
merchants of San Francisco, and these receive excep-
tional respect as individuals; but between the two races
as races a great gulf is fixed. The Chinese immigrant
takes no interest in American affairs. His world is on
the other side of the Pacific. And the American people
return the compliment by taking no interest in him. It
is undeniable that, by a certain class of San Francisco
citizens, popularly known as Hoodlums, the treatment
of the Chinese population has been shameful in the
extreme. A Chinaman has no rights which a white
man is bound to respect. Insult, contumely, abuse,
cruelty and injustice he has been forced to bear at the
hands of the rougher classes, without hope of redress.
He has been kicked, and cheated, and plundered, and
not a voice has been raised in his behalf; but if he has
been guilty of the slightest peccadillo, how quickly has
he been made to feel the heavy hand of justice !

It seems a pity that before the cry was raised with
such overwhelming force, " The Chinese must go ! "
some little effort had not been made to adapt them to
Western civilization. They are quick to take' ideas
concerning their labor; why not in other things? We
have received and adopted the ignorant, vicious hordes

SAN FRANCISCO. 471

from foreign lands to the east of us, and are fast meta-
morphosing them into intelligent, useful citizens. We
are even trying our hand upon the negro, as a late
atonement for all the wrong we have done him. But the
Indian and the Chinaman seem to be without the pale of
our mercy and our Christianity. It might not have
been possible, but still the experiment was worth the
trying, of attempting to lift them up industrially,
educationally and morally, to a level with our own better
classes, instead of permitting them to drag us down.
Returning to their own country, and carrying back with
them our Western civilization, as a little leaven, they
might have leavened the whole lump. It is too late for
that now, and the mandate has gone forth : " The Chi-
nese must go ! " Considering all things as they are,
rather than as they might have been, it is undoubtedly
better so, and the only salvation of our Pacific States.

San Francisco had, in 1880, a population of 232,956.
The commerce is very large, and must every year increase
as the West is built up. The chief articles of export
are the precious metals, breadstufis, wines and wool.
She has important manufactures, embracing watches,
carriages, boots and shoes, furniture, iron and brass
works, silver ware, silk and woolen. California seems
peculiarly adapted to the silk industry, and her silk
manufactures will probably assume marked importance in
the future. The wonderful climate and unequaled
productiveness are constantly attracting immigration,
and the Pacific Central, which spans the continent, has
vastly improved on the old methods of travel by caravan
across the plains and over the mountains.

The population of San Francisco is cosmopolitan to
the last degree, and embraces natives of every clime and

472 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

nearly every nation on the globe. Yet in spite of this
strange agglomeration she is intensely Yankee in her
go-ahead-ativeness, with Anglo-Saxon alertness intensi-
fied. In fact, as San Francisco is on the utmost limits
of the West, beyond which there is nothing but a vast
expanse of water until we begin again at the East, so
she represents the superlative of Anglo-Saxon enterprise
and American civilization, and looks to a future which
shall far outstrip her past.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

SAVANNAH.

First Visit to Savannah. — Camp Davidson. — The City During the
War. — An Escaped Prisoner. — Recapture and Final Escape. —
A "City of Refuge."— Savannah by Night.— Position of the
City. — Streets and Public Squares. — Forsyth Park. — Monu-
ments.— Commerce. — View from the Wharves. — Railroads. —
Founding of the City. — Revolutionary History. — Death of
Pulaski. — Secession. — Approach of Sherman. — Investment of
the City by Union Troops. — Recuperation After the War. —
Climate. — Colored Population.— Bonaventure, Thunderbolt, and
Other Suburban Resorts.

MY first visit to Savannah was made on the twenty-
ninth of July, 1864, when I was brought there
as a prisoner of war. I found the city with its business
enterprises in a state of stagnation, and the streets
thronged with soldiers in Confederate uniforms. About
four thousand troops were doing garrison duty in the
city, which was thronged with refugees, -and the entire
population was suffering from a paralysis of all indus-
trial enterprises, and from the interruption of its com-
merce by the Federal blockade at the mouth of the river.
Camp Davidson, where we were confined, was in the
eastern part of the city, near the Marine Hospital, with
Pulaski's Monument in full view, to the westward.

The camp was surrounded by a stockade and dead-
line, and the principal amusement and occupation of the
prisoners was the digging of a tunnel which was to
conduct them to liberty beyond the second line of senti-
nels, without the stockade. But our little camp, like

473

474 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Chicago, had a cow for an evil genius. This luckless
creature broke through the tunnel, as it was nearing
completion, and suddenly ended it and our hopes together.

The nearest Union forces were at Pulaski, at the mouth
of the Savannah River, and Savannah was one of the
most important military posts of the Confederate army.
Our treatment at Camp Davidson was exceptionally kind
and considerate, and the ladies of the city, in giving
suitable interment to the remains of a Union officer who
had died in the camp, proved themselves to be possessed
of generous hearts. Therefore it was with regret that
we received the order to leave Savannah for Charleston.

I next visited Savannah a few months later, when the
war was drawing to a close, after General Sherman and
his army had made their successful entrance into the
town. On the sixteenth of December, myself and a com-
panion found ourselves twenty miles from Savannah, after
having been many weeks fugitives from "Camp Sorg-
hum/' the prison-pen at Columbia, South Carolina. We
were on the Savannah River Road, over which Kilpat-
rick's Cavalry and the Fourteenth Army Corps had passed
only a week before. Emboldened by our successes and
hairbreadth escapes of three weeks, when we at last felt that
deliverance was close at hand, we pursued our way, only
to fall suddenly into the hands of the enemy. Hope
deferred maketh the heart sick. But who shall describe
the terrible sinking of the heart — the worse than sick-
ness— when hope is thus suddenly crushed and turned
to certain despair ? Our second captivity was not, how-
ever, of long duration. Death was preferable to bondage
under such masters. Taking our lives in our hands, a
second escape was effected, and on December twenty-
third, but two days after Sherman's occupancy of the

SAVANNAH. 475

city, Savannali proved itself, indeed, a city of refuge.
Union troops welcomed us with open arms, and we were
soon despatched northward.

The traveler who visits Savannah to-day will view it
under very different auspices. The white wings of
peace have brooded over it for more than half a genera-
tion, loyalty has taken the place of treason in the hearts
of her people, and prosperity is visible on her streets and
wharves. Let him, if he can, approach the city from
the sea, and by night. Fort Pulaski stands like a senti-
nel guarding the entrance to the harbor, the lighthouse
upon the point keeping a bright eye out to seaward. As
he glides up the river, which winds in countless lagoons
around low sea islands covered with salt marshes, at last
he will see in the distance the lights of the city set on a
hill, and of the shipping at her feet. A distant city is
always beautiful at night, though it may be hideous by
daylight. Night veils all its ugliness in charitable
shadows ; it reveals hitherto unseen beauties of outline,
crowns it with a tiara of sparkling gems, and enwraps
the whole scene in an air of romance and mystery which
is charming to the person of poetic nature. But whether
seen by night or day, Savannah is indeed a beautiful city,
probably the most beautiful in all the Southern States.

The Savannah River winds around Hutchinson Island,
and the city is built in the form of an elongated crescent,
about three miles in length, on its southern shore. It
is on a bluff about forty feet above the stream, this bluff
being about a mile wide at its eastern end, and broaden-
ing'as it extends westward. Surrounding it are the low
lands occupied by market gardens, for Savannah is a
great place for market gardeners, and helps to supply
the northern market in early spring.

476 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The streets of Savannah are laid out east and west,
nearly parallel to the river, with others crossing them at
right angles, north and south. They are wide, and
everywhere shaded with trees, many of the latter being
live oaks, most magnificent specimens of which are found
in the city. Orange trees also abound, with their fragrant
blossoms and golden fruit, stately palrnettoes, magnolias
and oleander, rich in bloom, bays and cape myrtles.

The streets running north and south are of very nearly
uniform width, every alternate street passing on either
side of a public square, which is bounded on the north
and south by narrow streets running east and west, and
intersected in the centre by a wide street taking the same
direction. These public squares, twenty-four in number,
and containing from one and a half to three acres, are a
marked feature of the city. They are placed at regular
intervals, as already described, are handsomely inclosed,
laid out with walks, shaded with evergreen and orna-
mental trees, and in the spring and summer months are
green with grass. In a number of these are monuments,
while others contain fountains or statuary. These squares
or plazas are surrounded with fine residences, each having
its own little yard, beautiful with flowers, vines, shrub-
bery and trees. In these premises roses thrive and bloom
with a luxuriance unknown in the North, and the stately
Camelia Japonica, the empress among flowers, grows
here to a height of twelve or fifteen feet, and blossoms in
midwinter. Savannah, the most beautiful city of the
South, if not in the United States, is more like the
wealthy suburb of some large city, than like a city iteelf.
It is embowered in trees, which are green the whole year
around ; and shares with Cleveland, its northern rival
Jii beauty, the soubriquet of the "Forest City."

SAVANNAH. 477

Forsyth Park, originally laid out in the southern
suburb of the city, is now the centre of a populous
quarter, abounding in handsome edifices. Many of the
original trees, the beautiful southern pines, are left
standing in this park, and other trees and shrubbery
added. Sphynxes guard the Bull street entrance, and in
the centre of the old park, which was ten acres in extent, is
a handsome fountain, modeled after that in the Place de
la Concorde, in Paris. This fountain is surrounded by
a profusion of flowers, while shelled walks furnish path-
ways through the park. It has recently been increased
in dimensions to thirty acres ; in the centre of the new
or western portion stands a stately monument in honor
of the Confederate dead.

Pulaski Monument stands in Monterey Square, the
first plaza to the northward of Forsyth Park. The steps
of the monument are of granite, and the shaft of fine
white marble, fifty-five feet high, surmounted by a statue
of Liberty holding the national banner. This monu-
ment covers the spot where, in 1779, Count Pulaski
fell, during an attack upon the city, while it was occupied
by the British. In Johnson Square, the first square
south of the river intersected by Bull street, is a fine
Druidical pile, erected to the memory of General
Greene and Count Pulaski. The corner-stone of this
obelisk was laid in 1825, by Lafayette, during his visit
to America.

Savannah was founded in 1733, by General James
Oglethorpe, whose plan has been followed in its subse-
quent erection. Upon each of the twenty-four squares
were originally left four large lots, known as "trust lots,"
two on the east and two on the west. We are told by
Mr. Francis Moore, who wrote in 1736, that " the use

478 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

of this is, in case a war should happen, the villages
without may have places in town to bring their cattle
and families into for refuge; and for that purpose there
is a square left in every ward, big enough for the out-
wards to encamp in." These lots are now occupied by
handsome churches, conspicuous public buildings, and
palatial private residences, thus securing to all the
squares a uniform elegance which they might otherwise
have lacked.

Bay street is the great commercial street of the city.
It is an esplanade, two hundred feet wide, upon the brow
of the cliff overlooking the river. Its southern side is
lined with handsome stores and offices. At the corner of
Bay and Bull streets is the Custom House, with the
Post Office in the basement. Its northern side is occupied
by the upper stories of warehouses, which are built at
the foot of the steep cliff fronting the river. These
upper stories are connected with the bluff by means of
wooden platforms, which form a sort of sidewalk, span-
ning a narrow and steep roadway, which leads at
intervals, by a series of turns, down to the wharves below.
Long flights of steps accommodate pedestrians in the same
descent. The warehouses just spoken of are four or
five stories high on their river fronts, and but one or two
on the Bay.

One should walk along the quay below the city to
gain a true idea of the extent of its commerce. Here,
in close proximity to the wharves, are located the
cotton presses and rice mills. Here everything is dirty
and dismal, evidently speaking of better days. The
beauty of the city is all above. The buildings are some
of them substantially built of brick, but begin to show
the ravages of time. There is an old archway, which

SAVANNAH. 479

once had pretensions of its own, but the wall has fallen
away, and it is now an entrance to nowhere. Yet in
spite of this general dilapidation, there is all the bustle
and activity of a full commercial life. The wharves are
piled with cotton bales, which have found a temporary
landing here, awaiting shipment to the North, or perhaps
across the sea. For Savannah is the second cotton port
in the United States. But cotton is not its only export.
It is the great shipping depot for Southern produce
bound for Northern markets. Some sheds are filled
with barrels of rosin, while great quantities of rosin
litter the ground. From others turpentine in great
quantities is shipped to various ports. The lumber
trade of the city is immense, the pine forests of Georgia
furnishing an apparently inexhaustible supply. The
city is also in the centre of the rice-growing region, and
sends its rice to feed the North. Steamships from all
the Atlantic ports lie along its wharves, while those of
foreign nations are by no means scarce. Vessels of too
large a draft to lie alongside the wharves discharge and
load their freight three miles below the city.

The view from the river front is over the river itself,
filled with craft of all sorts, from the tiny ferry boat
up to the immense ocean steamer, across to Hutchinson's
Island and the Carolina shore. The island, which is
two miles long by one wide, has upon it numerous lumber
yards and a large dry dock. Rice was formerly culti-
vated upon it, but is now forbidden by law, because of
its un health fulness. The river is about seven hundred
and twenty feet wide in front of the city, with a depth
of water at the wharves varying from thirteen to twenty-
one feet. The portion of South Carolina visible is low
and flat, dotted here and there with palmetto trees.

480 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

There is little of the picturesque about this river view
except the busy life, which keeps in constant motion.

Savannah has extensive railroad connection with all
parts of the United States. She has direct communica-
tion by rail with Vicksburg on the Mississippi. She
also offers an outlet, by means of railroads, for the
products of Georgia, Florida, and portions of Alabama
and Tennessee. She has unbroken railroad connection
with Memphis, Mobile, Cincinnati, Louisville, and the
principal commercial cities of the "West and North.
Her water communication is established with all the
great Northern and Southern seaboard cities. Her
harbor is one of the best and safest on the South Atlantic
coast, and she is the natural eastern terminus of the
Southern Pacific Railroad, being almost on the same
parallel of latitude with San Diego, its western terminus.

The corporate limits of Savannah extend backward from
the river about one and one-half miles, and embrace a
total area of three and one-half square miles, but addi-
tions are fast being made to the southward, which will,
in time, greatly extend its area, and add to the popula-
tion, which, in 1880, was 30,681.

Savannah's history goes back to the early days of the
colonies. Its site marks the first settlement in Georgia.
General Oglethorpe, with a hundred and fourteen men,
women and children, having landed at Charleston,
in January, 1733, sailed from that port with a plentiful
supply of provisions and a small body of troops for
their protection, and landed on Yamacraw Bluff, on the
Savannah River, eighteen miles from its mouth. On
the bluff General Oglethorpe laid out a town and called
it Savannah, and by the ninth of February the colony
commenced the erection of buildings. The colony sur-

SAVANNAH. 481

vtved various haps and mishaps until 1776, when, in
the War of the Revolution, the British attacked the city,
but were repulsed. On December twenty-ninth, 1778,
they made a second attack, surprised the American forces,
who attempted to fly, but were mostly killed or cap-
tured. On the morning of October fourth, 1779, the
American and French troops made a direct assault upon
Savannah, attempting to take it from the British, but
were obliged to retire with heavy loss. Count Pulaski,
a Polish nobleman, who had been expatriated for par-
ticipating in the carrying off of King Stanislaus from
his capital, was wounded in this battle, and soon after-
Wards died. Pulaski Monument, as already stated, \ras
erected on the spot where he fell.

Savannah received its city charter in 1788. In 1850
it had a little more than fifteen thousand inhabitants,
and in 1860, 22,292. When Secession cast its shadow
upon the sunny South, it fell like a pall upon Savan-
nah, no less than upon the other Southern cities. All
her business was suspended, and grass grew in her
streets. On the northeast corner of Bull and Broughton
streets stands the building known as Masonic Hall,
where, on January twenty-first, 1861, the Ordinance of
Secession was passed. On the sixteenth of March the
State Convention assembled in Savannah, adopted the
Constitution of the Confederate States of America,
Georgia being the second State to adopt this Constitu-
tion without submitting it to the people. The mouth of
the river was blockaded by United States gunboats, and
all commerce prevented. On April fifteenth, 1862,
Fort Pulaski was captured by the Federal troops, and
great excitement prevailed in the <iity. Women and

482 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

children left their homes, and property and furniture
were sent into the interior.

During the following years a number of unsuccessful
attempts were made by the Union naval forces to
capture the city. In December, 1864, Sherman was
making his famous march to the sea, and was steadily
drawing nearer the city, while southern chivalry fled
before him, and the now emancipated slaves gathered
and rolled in his rear like a sable cloud. On the twen-
tieth, heavy siege guns were put in position by his
forces between Kingsbridge and the city ; and General
Hardee, suddenly awakened to a sense of the danger
which menaced them, set his troops hurriedly to work to
destroy the navy yard and government property ; while
the ironclads, the " Savannah " and " Georgia," were
making a furious fire on the Federal left, the garrison,
under cover of darkness and confusion, were being
transported on the first stage of their journey to Charles-
ton. Before leaving, they blew up the iron clads and
the fortifications below the city. On the twenty-first,
General Sherman received a formal surrender from the
municipal authorities. On the following day, the twen-
ty-second, he sent a dispatch to the President, presenting
him, "as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah." On
December twenty-eighth, 1864, Masonic Hall, already
historical, witnessed a gathering of loyal citizens cele-
brating the triumph of the Union army. Sherman,
when he entered the city, encamped his forces on the
still vacant "trust lots." This triumphant conclusion
of Sherman's march from Atlanta broke the backbone
of the Confederacy, and was the prelude to the down-
fall of Richmond and the surrender of Lee's army.

SAVANNAH. 483

Prosperity eventually followed in the wake of peace.
The blockade lifted, the deserted wharves were soon
filled with the shipping of all nations. Her silent and
empty streets grew noisy and populous with the rush of
business, and Savannah is now one of the most prosper-
ous of our Southern cities. Her architecture is not
striking for either its beauty or its grandeur; neverthe-
less she has many fine public and private buildings.
The City Exchange is one of the former, and it also
possesses a historical interest, General Sherman having
reviewed his troops in front of it in his investment of
the city. From its tower the best view of the city and
neighborhood may be obtained. The Court House, the
United States and Police Barracks, Artillery Armory,
Jail, Chatham Academy and St. Andrews7 Hall, are all
conspicuous buildings. The Georgia Historical Society
has a large and beautiful hall, with a fine library and
interesting relics. St. John's and Christ's Episcopal
churches, the Independent Presbyterian Church, and
the Roman Catholic Cathedra1, are all striking edifices.
Trinity Church, in Johnson Square, is near the spot
where John Wesley delivered his famous sermons.
"Wesley visited Savannah in its early days, having been
invited thither by Oglethorpe. At Bethesda, about ten
miles from the city, where the Union Farm School is
now located, was the site of the Orphan House estab-
lished in 1740 by Whitefield, Wesley's contemporary
and companion.

The benevolent, literary and educational institutions
of Savannah are numerous and well sustained, some of
them being among the oldest in the country. The
Union Society, for the support of orphan boys, and the
Female Society, for orphan girls, were founded in 1750.

484 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Savannah is situated just above the 32d parallel of
latitude, and possesses a mean temperature of 66° Fahr.
Being within the influence of the Gulf Stream it enjoys
all the mildness of the tropics in winter, while the
summers are less oppressive than at New York or
Washington. It is a favorite resort for northern invalids,
being comparatively free from malarious fevers and
pulmonary diseases.

Colored people abound in Savannah, constituting about
three-eighths of the entire population. They do most
of the menial work of the city, being laborers, waiters in
the hotels and public houses, and stevedores upon the
wharves. It is astonishing to see the number of colored
men it takes to load and set afloat a steamship ; and one
of the last sights which meets the eye of the traveler and
lingers in his memory, as he leaves the city by means
of the river, is the long row of upturned black faces,
most of them beaming with good humor and jollity, on
the wharf, as the vessel casts off her lines and turns her
head down stream.

Savannah possesses certain famous suburban attractions,
without seeing which the traveler can scarcely say he has
seen the city. In a bend of the Warsaw River, a short
distance from its junction with the Savannah, and about
four miles from the city, is the famous Bouaventure
Cemetery. A hundred years ago this was the country
seat of a wealthy English gentleman, who, upon the
marriage of his daughter, made her a wedding present of
the estate. The grounds were laid out in wide avenues,
and shaded by live oaks, and the initials of the young
bride and her husband were outlined with trees. In
course of time the property was converted into a cemetery,
and for many years has been devoted to that purpose.

SAVANNAH. 485

It is filled with monuments to the dead, some of them
bearing historic names. Meantime the live oaks have
grown to enormous dimensions, their gigantic branches
meeting and interlacing overhead, forming immense
arches, like those of the gothic aisles of some great cathe-
dral, under and through which are visible bright vistas
of the river and the sea islands lying beyond. The
branches are fringed with pendants of the gray Spanish
moss, yards in length, which sway softly in the breeze,
and by their sombre color add to the solemnity of the
scene. The steamers on the Sea Island route to Fern-
andina, Florida, pass Bonaventure, and afford glimpses
of white monuments through the avenues of trees.
Bonaventure is a favorite drive from the city, and is also
reached by the horse cars.

Thunderbolt, so named, tradition tells us, because a
thunderbolt once fell there, is a short distance from
Bonaventure, down the Warsaw River, and is a popular
drive and summer resort. A spring of water flows from
the spot where the lightning is supposed to have entered
the ground. Jasper's Spring is two and one-half miles
west of the city, and is the scene of the exploit of Ser-
geant Jasper, who at the time of the Revolution succeeded,
with only one companion, in releasing a party of Ameri-
can prisoners from a British guard of eight men. Another
fashionable drive is to White Bluff, ten miles distant
from the city. The latter, with Beaulieu, Montgomery
and the Isle of Hope, furnish salt water bathing and
delightful sea breezes for the summer visitors.

There is but one line of horse cars in the city, running
on South Broad street, and then out the Thunderbolt
road to Thunderbolt, Bonaventure, and the other sub-
urban resorts. This company, we are told, has been so

486 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

reckless in regard to the limitations of its charter, that the
municipal government refuses to charter a second road.
If our Northern cities were as scrupulous, we wonder
where their many horse railroads would be !

Since the war Northern men and Northern capital have
helped to build up the various interests of Savannah.
Planing mills, foundries, flouring and grist mills, have
been established, furnishing employment to a consider-
able number of workingmen. Old channels of commerce
have been extended, and new ones opened ; and the
natural advantage of her position, added to the public
spirit which her citizens manifest in the accomplishment
of great enterprises of internal improvement, give a
guarantee of increased prosperity in the future.

CHAPTER XXXV.

SPRINGFIELD.

Valley of the Connecticut. — Location of Springfield. — The United
States Armory. — Springfield Library. — Origin of the Present
Library System. — The Wayland Celebration. — Settlement of
Springfield. — Indian Hostilities. — Days of Witchcraft. — Trial of
Hugh Parsons. — Hope Daggett. — Springfield "Republican."

A JOURNEY up the Valley of the Connecticut at this
1\ season of the year is a positive luxury to the
tourist or professional traveler. It is a broad, beauti-
ful road, winding through hill and dale, with grand old
forests and mountains in the background, their foliage
tipped with variegated colors by the fingers of Autumn,
as an artist would put a finishing touch to his landscape.
A ride of twenty-fi^e miles northward from Hartford
brought us to Springfield, the most enterprising and
important town in Western Massachusetts. The United
States Armory, located here, gives to the city a national
consequence. No city in the Union did more to crush
out the Rebellion than Springfield, through her Armory.
Two or three thousand men were kept constantly
employed here during the war, turning out the various
arms used in the Federal service. The force now
employed is considerably less than in war times. All
hands are engaged just now upon the Springfield rifled
musket, which has recently been adopted by the Govern-
ment. The military precision with which every detail
is attended to is the admiration of all who are shown
through the Armory.

487

488 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

A visit to the City Library, on State street, cannot fail
to interest every person who feels a pride in the public
institutions of New England. A fine, large, brick and
stone building, with plain exterior and artistically finished
interior, is the Springfield Public Library. Over forty
thousand volumes cover its shelves, and are so systemati-
cally arranged that the librarian or his assistants can
produce at once any work named in the catalogue. The
oblong reading room is furnished with black walnut
tables; and winding staircases, painted in blue and gold,
lead from the columned alcoves to the galleries above.

The library owns some very old and valuable books
of engravings. A room on the first floor is devoted to
stuffed birds, geological specimens, preserved snakes, and
a wonderful assortment of curious relics obtained from
all parts of the world. Icelandic snow shoes and
Hindoo gods occupy places on the same shelf, in peace-
ful proximity, and catamounts, paralyzed in the act
of springing, glare at you harmlessly behind their glass
cases. Patriotic mementoes are not wanting, as the
bullet-riddled battle-flags of Massachusetts regiments
will testify.

The free public library system is distinctively a New
England institution, and wields a mighty influence for
good. It was originated in 1847, by Eev. Francis
Wayland, President of Brown University, Providence,
Rhode Island. On Commencement day of that year
Mr. Wayland expressed a wish to help the inhabitants
of the town of Wayland, Massachusetts, to a public
library, and tendered a donation of five hundred dollars
to the town for that purpose, upon the condition that
another five hundred should be added by the town.
The required fund was quickly raised, by subscription,

SPRINGFIELD. 489

and President Way land immediately placed bis dona-
tion in the hands of one of their prominent citizens,
Judge Meilen. This was the beginning of the move-
ment which resulted in the "Library Act," of May,
1851, in the State of Massachusetts.

The people of Wayland bought their library and
provided a room in the " Town House " for its safe
keeping. A librarian was chosen, whose salary was paid
by the town, and the institution made its first delivery of
books August seventh, 1850. Rev. John B. Wright was a
member of the Massachusetts Legislature, from Wayland,
during the session of 1851, and through his agency the Act
"to authorize cities and towns to establish and maintain
public libraries " was passed. A " Library Celebration57
took place in Wayland, August twenty-sixth, 1851, and
was a most interesting affair. Thus it came to pass that
through the practical working of this man's idea public
libraries were established, not only all over the State of
Massachusetts, but throughout New England.

Springfield was founded in 1636 by William
Pyncheon, who with seven other men settled here, with
their families, on May fourteenth of that year. They
were bound together by mutual contract, with the
design of having their colony consist of forty families.
There was an especial provision that the number should
never exceed fifty.

The early prosperity of Springfield was considerably
retarded by Indian hostilities.

In October, 1675, the brown warriors of King
Phillip made a descent upon the place, burning twenty-
nine houses and killing three citizens — one of them a
woman. The timely arrival of Major Pyncheon, Major
Treat and Captain Appleton, with their troops, prevented

490 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

further destruction and repulsed the attack of the In-
dians. Springfield was also the scene of operations
during the troubles of 1786-87. At that time, General
Shepperd was posted here, for the defence of the Armory.

Thus, through much tribulation, has the thriving
town attained its present prosperity.

In its infant days, Springfield cherished a strong be-
lief in witchcraft, as the following incident will testify :
In the same year that Hartford set such a bad example
to her northern neighbor on the Connecticut, by hanging
Mrs. Greensmith, Springfield, not to be outdone, pre-
ferred a charge of witchcraft against one Hugh Par-
sons— a very handsome and pleasing young man, it
seems, with whom all the women fell in love. Of
course, this was not to be tolerated by the male popula-
tion of the place, who hated him, as a natural conse-
quence ; and, accordingly, the handsomest man in Spring-
field was indicted and tried, on the grave accusation of
being in league with the powers of evil. It is not sur-
prising that the jury found him guilty. But, through
some influence not explained, the judge, Mr. Pyncheon,
stayed proceedings in his behalf until the matter could
be laid before the General Court, in Boston. There the
decision of the Springfield jury was reversed, and Mr.
Parsons set at liberty. Whether after this his dangerous
attractions were duly husbanded, or whether he went on,
as of old, winning such wholesale admiration, we are not
informed.

One of the sensations of the hour during my sojourn
in Springfield, was an encounter between the State Street
Baptist Church and Hope Daggett, one of its members.
The disaffected sister had at sundry times and in divers
manners made herself so obnoxious to the congregation,

SPRINGFIELD. 491

by her strong-minded peculiarities, that an officer was
called upon the scene and requested to eject by force,
if necessary, the eccentric and uncompromising Hope.
Officer Maxwell, suiting the action to the word, seized
the unruly sister, and without stopping to consider the
sudden fame which this act would launch upon him,
thrust her into the street, amid the cheers and taunts of
friends and enemies. Now it was the peculiar misfortune
of Miss Daggett to have a wooden leg, and on the day
following this tragic affair the press of Springfield was
devoted to various accounts of the engagement, in which
Maxwell and the wooden leg figured alternately.

I cannot leave Springfield without some mention of
its leading paper, the Springfield Republican, which for
many years has been one of the solid papers of the Bay
State, and a representative organ in politics and litera-
ture. Its editor, Samuel Bowles, is an energetic business
manager and a stirring politician, who has fought his
way up from obscurity to a position in the front rank of
American journalism.

CHAPTEE XXXVI.

ST. LOUIS.

Approach to St. Louis. — Bridge Over the Mississippi. — View of the
City. — Material Resources of Missouri. — Early History of St.
Louis. — Increase of Population. — Manufacturing and Commer-
cial Interests. — Locality. — Description of St. Louis in 1842. —
Resemblance to Philadelphia. — Public Buildings.— Streets. —
Parks. — Fair Week. — Educational and Charitable Institutions.
— Hotels. — Mississippi River.— St. Louis During the Rebellion.
— Peculiar Characteristics. — The Future of the City.

r | THE visitor to St. Louis, if from the east, will prob-
I ably make his approach over the great bridge
which spans the Mississippi. This bridge, designed by
Captain Eads, and begun in 1867, was completed in
1874, and is one of the greatest triumphs of American
engineering. It consists of three spans, resting on four
piers. The central span is 520 feet in width, and the
side ones 500 feet each. They have a rise of sixty feet,
sufficient to permit the passage of steamers under them,
even at high water. The piers are sunk through the
sand to the bed-rock, a distance of from ninety to one
hundred and twenty feet, the work having been accom-
plished by means of iron wrought caissons and atmos-
pheric pressure. Each span consists of four ribbed
arches, made of cast steel. The bridge is two stories
high, the lower story containing a double car track,
and the upper one two horse-car tracks, two carriage-
ways and two foot-ways. Reaching the St. Louis
shore, the car and road ways pass over a viaduct of
five arches, of twenty-seven feet span each, to Washing-

492

ST. LOUIS. 493

ton avenue, where the railway tracks run into a tunnel
4,800 feet long, terminating near Eleventh street.
Bridge and tunnel together cost eleven millions of
dollars.

This wonderful structure, which has few if any equals
upon the continent, will impress the traveler with the
commercial magnitude and enterprise of the great western
city to which it forms the eastern portal. Looking from
the car window he will see, first, the Mississippi, which,
if at the period of low water, disappoints him with its
apparent insignificance ; but which, if it be at the time
of its annual flood, has crept, on the St. Louis side, nearly
to the top of the steep levee, and has filled up the broad
valley miles away on the hither side, a rushing, turbu-
lent river, turbid with the yellow waters of the Missouri,
which, emptying into it twenty miles above, have scarcely,
at this point, perfectly mingled with the clearer Missis-
sippi. He will see next the river front of St. Louis —
a continuous line of steamboats, towboats and barges,
without a sail or mast among them ; the levee rising in
a steep acclivity twenty feet above the river's edge ; and
multitudinous mules, with their colored drivers, toiling
laboriously, and by the aid of much whipping and swear-
ing, up or down the steep bank, carrying the merchan-
dise which has just been landed, or is destined to be
loaded in some vessel's hold. Beyond the river rises the
city, terrace above terrace, its outlines bristling with
spires, and prominent above all, the dome of the Court
House.

St. Louis is situated in the very heart of the great
Mississippi Valley, and a large share of its rich agricul-
tural products and mineral stores are constantly poured
into her lap. Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain, both

494 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

containing inexhaustible supplies of the useful ore, are
not far distant. The lead districts of Missouri include
more than 6,000 square miles. In fifteen counties there
is copper. In short, within one hundred miles of St.
Louis, gold, iron, lead, zinc, copper, tin, silver, platina,
nickel, emery, cobalt, coal, limestone, granite, pipe-clay,
fire-clay, marble, metallic paints and salt are found, in
quantities which will repay working. In the State
there are twenty millions acres of good farming lands ;
five millions of acres are among the best in the world
for grapes ; and eight millions are particularly suited to
the raising of hemp. There is, besides, a sufficiency of
timber land. With all these resources from which to
draw, it would be surprising if St. Louis did not become
a leading city in the West. Situated, as she is, on the
Mississippi River, about midway between its source and
its mouth, the junction of the Missouri twenty miles above,
and that of the Ohio about one hundred and seventy-five
miles below, and being the river terminus of a compli-
cated system of western railways, the towns and cities,
and even the small hamlets of the north, south and
west, and to a limited extent of the east also, all pay her
tribute. As Chicago is the gateway to the East, by
means of the great chain of lakes and rivers at whose
head she sits, so St. Louis holds open the door to the
South and the East as well, through the Mississippi and
the Ohio rivers.

In many respects the business rival of Chicago to-day,
it has a history reaching half a century further back.
While Chicago was still a howling wilderness, its only
inhabitants the warlike Pottawatomies, who sometimes
encamped upon the shores of its lake and river, St. Louis
-had a local habitation and a name. On February

ST. LOUIS. 495

fifteenth, 1764, Pierre Laclede Siguest, an enterprising
Frenchman, established at this point a depot for the furs
of the vast region watered by the Mississippi and
Missouri, and gave it the name of St. Louis. This was
done by permission of the Governor General of Louisi-
ana, which was then a French province. In the course
of the year cabins were built, a little corn planted and
the Indians placated. The Frenchmen seemed to have
gotten along with the Indians tolerably well in those
days. They had no hesitation in marrying squaws, even
though they already possessed one lawful wife; they
were good tempered and merry, and attempted no con-
version of the Indians with a Bible in one hand and a
sword in the other. So the two races got along nicely
together.

The peace of 1763 gave the country east of the Missis-
sippi to the English, and the Frenchmen who had
settled upon the Illinois made haste to remove to St.
Louis, to avoid living under the rule of their " natural
enemy." This was scarcely accomplished when the
more terrible news reached them that Louis XV had
ceded his possessions west of the Mississippi to Spain.
For the next thirty years the town was a Spanish out-
post of Louisiana, in which province no one not a
Catholic could own land.

To go to New Orleans and return was a voyage of
ten mouths; but in that early day, and under such
surprising difficulties, St. Louis began its commercial
career. It exported furs, lead and salt, and imported
the few necessaries required by the settlers, and beads,
tomahawks, and other articles demanded by the Indians
in exchange for furs. In 1799 the inhabitants num-
bered 925, a falling off of 272 from the previous year.

496 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

In 1804, SU Louis passed to the United States, togethet
with the whole country west of the Mississippi. In
1811 the population had increased to 1400, and there
were two schools in the town, one French and one
English. In 1812 the portion of the territory lying
north of the thirty-fifth degree of latitude was organized
as Missouri Territory. In 1813 the first brick house
was erected in St. Louis. In 1820 its population was
4,928. In 1822 it was incorporated as a city.

After the cession of Louisiana to the United States,
the law forbidding Protestant worship, and requiring
owners of land to profess the Catholic faith, was repealed,
and men American born but of English descent began
to pour into the town. In 1808 a newspaper was estab-
lished, and in 1811 many of the old French names of
the streets were changed to English ones. In 1812 the
lead mines began to be worked to better advantage, on a
larger scale, and agriculture assumed increasing import-
ance. In 1815 the first steamboat made its appearance.

In 1820 St. Louis cast its vote for slavery, and settled
the question for Missouri. The population then was
4,928, which in 1830 had increased to 5,852; 924
additional inhabitants in ten years ! From 1830 to 1860
its population trebled every ten years, the census returns
of the latter year giving it 160,773. In 1870 it had
nearly doubled again, the number being 310,864 inhabit-
ants. According to the United States Census report of
1880, the population was 350,522, which made St. Louis
the sixth city in the Union. Since that time it has been
rapidly on the increase.

St. Louis is among the first of our cities in the manu-
facture of flour, and is a rival of Cincinnati in the
pork-packing business. It has extensive lumber mills,

ST. LOUIS. 501

architecturally speaking, is the Columbia Life Insurance
building, which is of rose-colored granite, in the Renais-
sance style, four stories high, with a massive stone cornice
representing mythological figures. The roof is reached
by an elevator, and affords a fine view.

The city abounds in handsome churches. Most promi-
nent among them all is Christ Church (Episcopal) at the
corner of Thirteenth and Locust streets. It is in the
cathedral gothic style, with stained -glass windows and
lofty nave. The Catholic Cathedral, on Walnut street,
between Second and Third streets, is an imposing struc-
ture with a front of polished freestone faced by a Doric
portico. The Church of the Messiah (Unitarian), at
the corner of Olive and Ninth streets, is a handsome
gothic structure. The Jewish Temple, at the corner of
Seventeenth and Pine streets, is one of the finest reli-
gious edifices in the city. There are many others which
will challenge the visitor's attention and admiration as
he passes through the streets of the city.

The wholesale business of St. Louis is confined to
Front, Second, Third and Main streets. Front street is
one hundred feet wide, and extends along the levee,
being lined with massive stores and warehouses. Fourth
street contains the leading retail stores, and on every
pleasant day it is filled with handsome equipages, while
on its sidewalks are found the fashion and beauty of the
city. Washington avenue is one of the widest and most
elegant avenues in St. Louis, and west of Twenty-seventh
street contains many beautiful residences. Pine, Olive
and Locust streets, Chouteau avenue and Lucas Place,
are also famed for their fine residences. Lindell or
Grant avenue, running north and south, on the western
boundary of the city, and slightly bending toward

502 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

the river, is its longest street, being twelve miles in
length.

The corporate limits of St. Louis extend eleven miles
along the river, and about three miles inland. The
densely built portion of the city is about six miles in
length by two in width. Its public parks are one of its
striking features. They embrace an aggregate of about
2,000 acres. The most beautiful is Lafayette Park, lying
between Park and Lafayette, Mississippi and Missouri
avenues. In it are a bronze statue of Thomas H. Ben ton,
by Harriet Hosmer, and a bronze statue of Washington.
It is for pedestrians only, is elaborately laid out and
ornamented, and is surrounded by magnificent residences.
Missouri Park is a pretty little park at the foot of Lucas
Place, containing a handsome fountain. St. Louis Place,
Hyde Park and Washington Square are all attractive
places of resort. Northern Park, on the bluffs to the
north of the city, is noted for its fine trees, and contains
180 acres. Forest Park is the great park of the city.
It lies four miles west of the Court House, and contains
1350 acres. The Des Pares runs through it, and the
native forest trees are still standing. With great natural
advantages, it requires only time and art to number it
among the handsomest parks in the country. Tower
Grove Park, in the southwest part of the city, contains
227 acres, offers delightful drives among green lawns
and charmingly arranged shrubbery.

Adjoining this park is Shaw's Garden, which contains
109 acres. It possesses a peculiar interest, from the
manner in which it is arranged. It is divided into
three sections, the first being the Herbaceous and Flower
Garden, embracing ten acres, and including every flower
which can be grown in the latitude of St. Louis, besides

ST. LOUIS. 503

several greenhouses containing thousands of exotic and
tropical plants. The second section, called the Fruti-
cetum, comprises six acres devoted to fruit of all kinds.
The Arboretum, or third section, includes twenty-five
acres, and contains all kinds of ornamental and fruit trees.
The Labyrinth is an intricate, hedge-bordered pathway,
leading to a summer-house in the centre. There are
also a museum and botanical library. This garden is
entirely the result of private taste and enterprise, having
been planned and executed by Henry Shaw, who has
thrown it open to the public, and intends it as a gift to
the city.

Bellefontaine Cemetery is the most beautiful in the
West. It is situated in the northern part of the city,
about four and one-half miles from the Court House, and
embraces 350 acres. It contains a number of fine
monuments, while the trees and shrubbery are most
tastefully arranged. Calvary Cemetery, north and not
far distant, is nearly as large and quite as beautiful.
Here, in these quiet cities of the dead, far from the bustle
of the great town, the men and women of this western
metropolis, whose lives were passed in turmoil and
activity, find at last that rest which must come to all.

The people of St. Louis are supplied with water
from the river, the waterworks being situated at BisselPs
Point, three and one-half miles north of the court house,
Two pumping engines, each with a daily capacity of
17,000,000 gallons, furnish an ample supply for all the
needs of the great city.

Fair week, which is usually the first week in October,
is the great holiday and gala season of St. Louis. The
writer of this article was once so fortunate as to visit the
city early in this week. Every train of cars on the

504 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

many lines which centre at St. Louis, and every steam-
boat which came from up or down the river, brought its
living freight of men and women, who were out for a
week's holiday, and, it may have been, paying their
annual visit to the greatest city west of the Mississippi.
The country roads leading to town were black with
vehicles of all descriptions, and laden with men and
merchandise. The laborers and mules upon the levee
were busier than ever, receiving and transporting the
articles to be exhibited and sold. Every hotel was
crowded, and the surplus overflowed into boarding and
lodging houses, so that their keepers undoubtedly reaped
a golden harvest for that one week, at least. The streets
were thronged with an immense and motley multitude :
business men, on the alert to extend their trade and
add to their gains ; working women, who found an
opportunity for a brief holiday ; ladies of fashion who
viewed the scene resting at their ease in their carriages ;
farmers from the rural districts, looking uncomfortable
yet complaisant in their Sunday suits, and trying to take
in all there was to see and understand ; their wives, old-
fashioned and countrified in their dress, and with a tired
look upon their faces, which this week given up to idle-
ness and sight-seeing could not quite dispel ; sporting
men, easily recognizable by their flashy dress and
" horsey " talk ; gamblers and blacklegs by the score,
whose appearance and manners were too excessively
gentlemanly to pass as quite genuine, and whose gains
during the week were probably larger and more certain
than those of any other class ; western men, with their
patois, borrowed apparently from the slang of every
nation on the globe ; Southerners, with their long hair,
slouched hats and broad accent ; river hands, whose most

ST. LOUIS. 497

linseed-oil factories, provision-packing houses, manu-
factures large quantities of hemp, whisky and tobacco,
has vast iron factories and machine shops, breweries,
lead and paint works. In brief, it takes a rank second
only to New York and Philadelphia in its manufactures,
to which its prosperity is largely due. In 1874 the
products of that year were valued at nearly $240,000,000,
while it furnished employment to about 50,000 work-
men. Great as are Chicago's manufacturing interests,
St. Louis excels her in this respect, while she rivals the
former city in her commercial interests. The natural
commercial entreport of the Mississippi Valley, the
commerce of St. Louis is immense. It receives and
exports to the north, east and south, breadstuff's, live
stock, provisions, cotton, lead, hay, salt, wool, hides and
pelts, lumber and tobacco.

St. Louis is perched high above the river, so that she
is beyond the reach of all save the highest floods of that
most capricious stream. She is built on three terraces,
the first twenty, the second one hundred and fifty, and
the third two hundred feet above low-water mark.
The second terrace begins at Twenty-fifth street, and the
third at Cote Brillante, four miles west of the river.
The surface here spreads out into a broad, beautiful
plain. The highest hill in the neighborhood of the city
was the lofty mound on the bank of the river, a relic of
prehistoric times, and from which St. Louis derived its
name of the " Mound City." Greatly to the regret of
antiquarians a supposed necessity existed for the removal
of this mound, and now no trace of it is left.

In 1842 Charles Dickens published his American
Notes, in which is found the following description of
St. Louis : —

498 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

" In the old French portion of the town the thorough-
fares are narrow and crooked, and some of the houses
are very quaint and picturesque, being built of wood,
with tumble-down galleries before the windows, ap-
proachable by stairs, or rather ladders, from the street.
There are queer little barber shops and drinking houses,
too, in this quarter ; and abundance of crazy old tene-
ments, with blinking casements, such as may be seen in
Flanders. Some of these ancient habitations, with high
garret gable windows perking into the roofs, have a
kind of French spring about them; and, being lop-
sided with age, appear to hold their heads askew,
besides, as if they were grimacing in astonishment at
the American improvements."

There is nothing of this now seen in St. Louis, except
iu the narrower streets along the river, which remain a
lasting relic of the ancient city. Yankee enterprise has
obliterated, in the appearance of the city at least, all
trace of its French and Spanish origin. The work of
renovation must have commenced soon after Dickens'
visit, for Lady Emeline Wortley, visiting St. Louis
in 1 849, describes it as follows : —

" Merrily were huge houses going up in all directions.
From our hotel windows we had a long view of gigan-
tic and gigantically-gro wing-up dwellings, that seemed
every morning to be about a story higher than we left
them on the preceding night; as if they had slept, during
the night, on guano, like the small boy in the American
tale, who reposed on a field covered by it, and whose
father, on seeking him the following day, found a gawky
gentleman of eight feet high, bearing a strong resem-
blance to a Patagonian walking stick."

If Chicago is a western reproduction of New York,

ST. LOUIS. 499

•with its characteristic alertness preternaturally devel-
oped, St. Louis takes Philadelphia for her prototype.
The merchants and statesmen plodding wearily across
the continent during the latter part of the last century
and early in this, found Philadelphia the chief city of the
country, and went home with their minds filled with the
distinguishing features of that city. These they repro-
duced, as far as was practicable, in their own young and
growing town. They laid it out with regularity, the
streets near the river, which describes a slight curve,
running parallel to it. Further back, they describe
straight lines, while the streets running from east to
west are, for the most part, at right angles with those
they cross. Imitating Philadelphia, the streets are
named numerically from the river. Those crossing
them have arbitrary names given them, while many
Philadelphia nomenclatures, such as Market, Chestnut,
Pine, Spruce, Poplar, Walnut and Vine, are repeated.
The houses are also numbered in Philadelphia fashion,
the streets parallel with the 'river being numbered north
and south from Market street, and those running east
and west taking their numbers from the river. In
numbering, each street passes on to a new hundred;
thus No. 318 is the ninth house above Third street on
one side of the way.

Not only in these superficial matters is Philadelphia
imitated, but the resemblance is preserved in more sub-
stantial particulars. Many of the buildings are large,
old-fashioned, square mansions, built of brick with white
marble trimmings. There is less attempt at architectural
display than in Chicago, apparently the main thought
of the builders being to obtain substantiality. Yet there
are many handsome buildings, both public and private.

500 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

One of the finest structures of its kind in the United
States is the Court House, occupying the square bounded
by Fourth, Fifth, Chestnut and Market streets. It is
in the form of a Greek cross, of Grecian architecture,
built of Genevieve limestone, and is surmounted by a
lofty iron dome, from the cupola of which it is possible
to obtain an extensive view of the city and its surround-
ings. The building cost $1,200,000. The fronts are
adorned with beautiful porticoes. The Four Courts, in
Clark avenue, between Eleventh and Twelfth streets, is
a handsome and spacious building, constructed of lime-
stone, at a cost of $1,000,000. A semi-circular iron jail
is in its rear, so constructed that all its cells are under
the observation of a single watchman. A Custom House
and Post Office has recently been erected, at the corner
of Olive and Eighth streets. It is of Maine granite,
with rose-colored granite trimmings, three stories in
height, with a French roof and Louvre dome, and occu-
pies an entire square. The cost of the structure was
$5,000,000.

The Chamber of Commerce is the great commercial
mart of the city, the heart of enormous business interests,
whose arteries sometimes pulsate with feverish heat,,
and whose transactions affect business affairs to the
furthest extent of the country. The edifice is the hand-
somest of its kind in America. It is five stories high,
wholly built of gray limestone, and cost $800,000. The
main hall of the Exchange is two hundred feet long, one
hundred wide, and seventy high. In the gallery sur-
rounding it strangers can at any time witness the proceed-
ings on the floor, and watch how fortunes are made and
unmade.

The most imposing and ornate building of the city,

ST. LOUIS. 509

was most bitter and keen. There was no neutrality,
and there could be none. All were either for or against;
families were divided in deadly strife ; and while the
city suffered to a terrible degree from this condition of
affairs, in back counties whole sections were depopulated.
The population being largely southern, either by birth
or descent, its sympathies were with the South. The
class truly loyal was the Germans, who numbered about
60,000 of the population, and who were characterized

by the Secessionists as the "D Dutch." The

blockade of the river reduced the whole business of the
city to about a third of its former amount. Yet, when
the war was ended, St. Louis was quick to recover her
prostrated energies. In 1866, and but two years after
the war, the city did more business than in any preceding
year ; and, relieved from the incubus of slavery, which
had retarded its progress, it aroused itself to new life.

With the Quaker-like simplicity of its outward ap-
pearance, its absence of business rush, and its general
tranquillity, St. Louis' resemblance to the Quaker City
ceases. It is a town of composite character, but from
its earliest existence has been under Roman Catholic
domination. Even now the Roman Catholic element
predominates in its population. And its French and
Spanish founders, though their quaint buildings are torn
down and replaced by more modern ones, and their very
streets re-named, have left their impress upon the city.
Its many places of amusement, compared to its popula-
tion, its general gayety, its stores closed by sunset in
winter, and before sunset in summer, its billiard rooms
open on Sunday, and its ball-playing on the same day,
all give indication of its being the home of a people
whose ancestors had no New England prejudices against

510 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

worldly amusements, and in favor of sobriety, decorum,
industry, and the observance of the Sabbath.

St. Louis presents a pleasing contrast to many other
western cities. Its prosperity is substantial — not a sham.
The capital which has paid for these costly places of busi-
ness and elegant residences, and is invested in these gigan-
tic enterprises, has been created out of the immense material
wealth of the State — not borrowed on a factitious credit.
Its merchants do not make princely fortunes in a day,
but what they acquire they keep. With so satisfactory
a past, the errors of its youth atoned for, the future of
St. Louis cannot fail to be a brilliant one.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

SYRACUSE.

Glimpses on the Rail. — Schenectady. — Valley of the Mohawk. —
" Lover's Leap."— Rome and its Doctor.— Oneida Stone.— The
Lo Race.— Oneida Community. —The City of Salt.— The Six
Nations. — The Onondagas. — Traditions of Red Americans. —
Hiawatha. — Sacrifice of White Dogs. — Ceremonies. — The Lost
Tribes of Israel. — Witches and Wizards. — A Jules Verne Story. —
The Salt Wells of Salina.— Lake Onondaga. — Indian Knowledge
of Salt Wells.—" Over the Hills and Far Away."— A Castle.—
Steam Canal Boats. — Adieux. — Westward Ho I

THE distance from Albany to Syracuse by rail, on
the line of the New York Central, is about one
hundred and forty-two miles, or reckoned by language
on the dial, between six and seven hours.

Schenectady, the first stopping point on the route out-
ward, was once hovered under the motherly wings of
Albany — her lawful progeny. The embryo city, how-
ever, had aspirations of her own, and set up in the world
for herself. She now rejoices in a population of about
twenty-five thousand, and has separated herself from
the maternal skirt by seventeen miles of intervening
country. Union College, the alma mater of many of
the sons of New York and her sister States, is located
at this point.

The route from Albany to the junction of the Water-
town and Ogdensburg lload, at Home, takes us through
the Valley of the Mohawk — one of the loveliest valleys
in the State. At Little Falls the scenery is wild and
rugged, and looking out from the car window to the

511

512 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

opposite hillside, where the waters break into foam over
the rocks, set in a dark framework of pines, the imagi-
native traveler conjectures at once that this must be the
scene of the " Lover's Leap " — a bit of romance rife in
this region. But the Mohawk rushes on, unmindful of
those legendary lovers; the heartless conductor, who
cares nothing about dreams, shouts " all aboard ! " from
the platform, and the screech of the engine whistle
echoes down the valley, as the train is once more in
motion.

At Utica we make a longer stop. This point is the
largest place between Albany and Syracuse, and is as
handsome a city as sits on the banks of the Mohawk.
The Black River Railroad joins the main line of the
New York Central here, and it is also the location of the
State Lunatic Asylum.

Rome comes next in order, in importance and popula-
tion, and is the last place of any note on the road to
Syracuse. It is a stirring little city of about ten or
eleven thousand inhabitants, and at least some of its
citizens have mastered the art of advertising, if one may
judge from the pamphlets which flood the arriving and
departing trains. We are repeatedly made aware of the
fact that one of the dwellers in Rome is a doctor, and
that he doats on curing — not corns, but cancers.

The Midland Road from Oswego, and the Watertown
Road — those connecting arterial threads from Lake On-
tario and Northern New York — unite with the main
artery, the Central, here, and the flow of human freight
down these channels is continuous and unceasing.

The second station from Rome, on the road to Syra-
cuse, is Oneida — so named from the tribe of red men
•who, less than a century ago, occupied this particular

ST. LOUIS. 505

noticeable accomplishments seemed to be disposing of
tobacco and inventing new oaths; negroes, whose facile
natures entered heartily into the occasion, and on whose
sleek, shining countenances the spirit of contentment
was plainly visible; eastern men, with the Yankee
intonation; Germans, in great numbers, patronizingly
endorsing their adopted country, and selling lager beer
with stolid content; Irishmen, whose preference was
whisky, and who were ever ready for fun or a fight;
beggars, plying their vocation with an extra whine,
adopted to conceal an unwonted tendency to cheerful-
ness ; magnates, who looked pompous and conscious of
their own importance, but who were jostled and pushed
with the democratic disregard for rank and station which
characterizes an American crowd.

Probably in no city in the Union would one find quite
so cosmopolitan a multitude, representing all sections
and all nationalities so impartially. In the business and
populous centre of our country, here came all classes and
peoples who had been born under, or had sought the
protection of, our flag, to worship one week at the
shrines of Ceres and Pomona.

The fair grounds of the St. Louis Agricultural and
Mechanical Association are three miles northwest of the
Court House, and embrace eighty-five acres handsomely
laid out and containing extensive buildings. The
Amphitheatre will seat 40,000 persons. The street cars
leading to these grounds were at all times filled with
people, and in addition there was a constant procession
of carriages, wagons and carts, going and returning.
Within the enclosure the dense throng surged and swayed
like a human whirlpool. The displays in the agricultural
and mechanical departments were something astonishing;

506 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

for where in the world is there such grain grown and in
such quantities, as in the Mississippi and Missouri val-
leys ? Where are there such fat oxen, such sleek, self-
satisfied cows, with such capacity for rich milk ? Horses,
hogs and sheep were all of the best, and indicated that the
West is very far advanced in scientific stock raising. The
farm implements displayed all sorts of contrivances for
lightening and hastening the farmer's toil. It needed
but a glance to show that farming in this region was no
single-man, one-horse affair.

In art the East as yet excels ' the West ; for in the
scramble after material gain the artistic nature has not
been greatly cultivated, and its expressions are, for the
most part, crude. But they give promise of future
-excellence. St. Louis has no picture gallery worthy the
name, but excells in scientific and educational institutions.

The Mercantile Library, .at the corner of Fifth and
Locust streets, contains 50,000 volumes, and its hall is
decorated by paintings, coins and statuary, among which
latter may be mentioned Miss Hosmer's life-size statue
of Beatrice Cenci and (Enone; a bronze copy of the
Venus de Medici, a sculptured slab from the ruins of
Nineveh, and marble busts of Thomas H. Benton and
Robert Burns. The library with its reading room is
free to strangers.

Besides the library there is a public school library of
38,000 volumes; an Academy of Science, founded in
1856, with a large museum and a library of 3,000 vol-
umes; and a Historical Society, founded in 1865, with
a valuable historical collection. Washington University,
organized in 1853, embraces the whole range of univer-
sity studies except theology. With it is connected the
Mary Institute, for the education of women, the Poly-

ST. LOUIS. 507

technic School, and the Law School. The public school
system of St. Louis is one of the best in the country, and
its school-houses are cornmendably fine. The Roman
Catholic College of the Christian Brothers has about
four hundred students, and a library of 10,000 volumes.
Concordia College (German Lutheran), established in
1839, has a library of 4,500 volumes. Besides the num-
erous public schools, the Roman Catholics, who embrace
a majority of the inhabitants, have about one hundred
parochial, private and conventual schools. They have
also a number of convents, charitable homes, asylums
and hospitals.

The hotels, chief amongst which are the new Southern
Hotel, Lindell House, Planters' Hotel, Laclede Hotel
tnd Barnum's Hotel, will compare favorably, in point of
attendance, comfort and elegance, with any in the coun-
try. Horse cars traverse the city in every direction,
rendering all points easily accessible, and carriages are in
waiting at the depots and steamboat landings. Ferries
ply continually to East St. Louis, on the Illinois shore,
from the foot of Carr street, north of the bridge, and from
the foot of Spruce street, south of it, the two points of
departure being about a mile apart.

So long as the Mississippi River washes the levee in
front of the city, the citizens of St. Louis are in little
danger of long remaining dull, for want of excitement.
That river, one of the uneasiest of water courses, con-
stantly furnishes fresh themes of interest, and even of
anxiety. It has a singular penchant for a frequent
change of channels, and occasionally threatens to desert
to. Illinois and leave St. Louis an inland town, with its
high levee a sort of rampart to receive the mocking
assaults of Chicago. Then, every spring, there is th*

508 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

annual freshet, which, once in ten or fifteen years, creeps
up over the top of the levee, and finds its way into
cellars and first floors of stores and warehouses. Occa-
sionally there is a severe winter, when ice is formed upon
the river as far south even as St. Louis ; and when it
breaks up in the spring, mischief is sure to ensue. A
hundred steamboats are in winter quarters along the
levee, their noses in the sand, and their hulls extending
riverward, fixed in the ice. At last the great mass of
congealed water, extending up the river hundreds of
miles, begins to move down stream. The motion is at
first scarcely perceptible ; but, suddenly, the ice cracks
and breaks, and fragments begin to glide swiftly with
the current of the river. The various masses create con-
flicting currents, and, presently, the surface of the stream
is like a whirlpool. Some boats are crushed like egg
shells between the floes ; cables snap, and others are
drawn out into the midst of the whirling waters and are
fortunate indeed if they are not overwhelmed or forced
upon the ice. Meantime, consternation reigns upon the
levee. The multitudes are powerless to prevent, yet
make frantic and futile efforts while they watch, the dis-
aster. At the breaking up of the ice in 1866, seventeen
steamboats were crushed and sunk in a few minutes.
Then there are other river disasters ; steamboats burned ;
others struck on snags and sunk ; and now and then a
boiler explosion makes up the tale of horrors and pre-
vents the Mississippi from ever becoming monotonous
or uninteresting.

St. Louis was most unfavorably affected by the war,
and made to expiate her political sin of 1820. On the
border land between the North and the South, the con-
flict was carried on in her very midst. Sectional strife

513

region. A tradition once existed among the Oneidas
that they were a branch of the Onondagas, to whom
they were allied by relationship and language. Long
ago they lived on the southern shore of Oneida Lake,
near the mouth of the creek, but afterwards their
habitation was made higher up the valley. The famous
" Oneota" or Oneida Stone became their talisman and
the centre of their attractions. Many of their tribe
were distinguished as orators and statesmen.

The Oneida " Community " live about two miles back
from the station, and, notwithstanding their peculiar
religious belief and social practices, they have achieved
a reputation for quiet thrift, industry and harmony,
which their more Puritanic neighbors would do well to
emulate.

But, at last, our train enters the outskirts of Syracuse,
and penetrating the heart of the city, rumbles inside the
gates of the New York Central Station at this place.
Outside, all is hurry and bustle, and confusion, as we
descend the steps and elbow our way through the crowd,
to run the gauntlet of hack drivers and baggage express-
men, with their plated caps and deafening calls.

Syracuse is sometimes known as the Central City, on
account of its location near the geographical centre of
New York. It was first settled in 1787, and did not
pass the limits of a small village until the completion
of the Erie canal, in 1825. Two canals and three or
four lines of railway now centre here, and contribute to
the growth of this enterprising city. The region sur-
rounding Syracuse is rife with the romantic history of
that once powerful Indian Confederacy known as the
Six Nations, now fast fading from the memory of men.
The site of their ancient Council House was on Onon-

514 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

daga Creek, a few miles distant from the city, and is
still held sacred to their traditions by the remnant of the
lost tribes now occupying the Indian reservation. The
Onondagas became the leading nation of the Confed-
eracy. No business of importance, touching the Six
Nations, was transacted, except at Onondaga. They held
the key of the great Council House; they kept the sacred
council fire ever burning. From what portion of the
country they emigrated before occupying this region is
unknown, but there is a very early tradition among them
that, many hundred moons ago, their forefathers came
from the North, having inhabited a territory along the
northern banks of the St. Lawrence. After a lapse of
time there was an exodus of the powerful tribe to the
hills and hollows of Onondaga.

The River God of this nation was named Hiawatha —
which meant "very wise." He always embarked in a
white canoe, which was carefully guarded in a lodge
especially set apart for that purpose. Their favorite
equipments were white. White plumes, from the heron,
were worn in their head-bands when they went on the
war path ; white dogs were sacrificed. The yearly sacri-
fice of the dogs, among the Onondagas, was a ceremony
of great importance with the tribe, and occurred at one
of the five stated festivals of the Six Nations. On the
great sacrificial day it was the habit of the people to
assemble at the Council House in large numbers. Early
in the morning, immense fires were built, guns were dis-
charged, and loud hallooing increased the noise. Half
a cord of wood, arranged in alternate layers, was placed
near the Council House, by a select committee of man-
agers, for the sacrificial offering. The two officiating
priests for the occasion, as well as the high priest, were

SYRACUSE. 515

dressed in long, loose robes of white. At about nine
o'clock in the morning the two priests appear. The
white dogs following them are painted with red figures,
and adorned with belts of wampum, feathers and
ribbons. The dogs are then lassooed and suffocated, amid
yells and the firing of guns. After some intervening
ceremonies, the details of which are too long for recital
here, a procession is formed, led by the priests in white,
followed by the managers, bearing the dogs on their
shoulders. A chant is sung as the procession marches
around the burning pile three successive times; the dogs
are then laid at the feet of the officiating priest, a prayer
is offered to the Great Spirit and the high priest, lifting
the dogs, casts them into the fire. After this, baskets of
herbs and tobacco are thrown, at intervals, into the fire,
as propitiating sacrifices.

Their idea of these sacrifices was, that the sins of the
people were, in some mysterious manner, transferred
yearly to the two priests in white, who, in turn, conveyed
them to the dogs. Thus the burnt offering expiated the
sins of the people for a year.

These ideas and customs are so singularly similar to
the ancient Jewish religious rites as to suggest a possible
origin from the same source. The mystical council fire
of the Six Nations, which was kept always burning by
the Onondagas, who had charge of it, and which, if ex-
tinguished, was supposed to prophesy the destruction of
the nation, may have a deeper meaning than that at-
tached to it by the chiefs themselves. It may possibly
point to a common parentage with the ever-burning
flame in the Vestal Temple at Rome, whose eclipse en-
dangered the safety of the city. Another point of
resemblance may be noted. Time, which is reckoned

516 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

among the Red men by moons, also suggests the Jewish
year, which began with the new moon, and was reckoned
by lunar months.

The Six Nations had a firm belief in witches and
wizards, and executed them, on the discovery of their
supposed witchcraft, with a zeal and spirit worthy of our
early Christian fathers. One old Indian used to relate
a story something on the Jules Verne order. He said
that, as he stepped out of his cabin one evening, he sank
down deep into an immense and brilliantly-lighted
cavern, full of flaming torches. Hundreds of witches
and wizards were there congregated, who immediately
ejected him. Early next morning he laid the matter
before the assembled chiefs at the Council House, who
asked him whether he could recognize any whom he
saw ? The sagacious Red man thought he could, and
singled out many through the village, male and female,
who were doomed to an untimely execution, on the evi-
dence of this person's word.

The Senacas, another numerous and powerful nation
of the Confederacy, were always noted for the talent
and eloquence of their orators and statesmen. Corn
Planter, Red Jacket, and other celebrities, came of this
tribe.

Syracuse is celebrated for its salt, the country over;
and the most singular thing about it is that the salt
wells surround a body of fresh water. This sheet of
water bears the name of Onondaga Lake, and is six
miles long by one rnile wide. It is about a mile and a
half from the heart of the city. A stratum of marl,
from three to twelve feet thick, underlaid by marly clay,
separates the salt springs from the fresh waters of the
Jake. The wells vary in depth, from two hundred to

SYRACUSE. 517

three hundred feet, and the brine is forced from them,
by pumps, into large reservoirs, which supply the evapo-
rating works. The salt is separated from the water
partly by solar evaporation and partly by boiling. The
reservoirs for the solar salt evaporation cover about
seven hundred acres of land. The brine is boiled in
large iron kettles, holding about a hundred gallons,
which are placed in blocks of brick work, in one or two
long rows, the whole length of the block. It takes
about thirty-three and a fourth gallons of brine to make
a bushel of salt, which will average from fifty to fifty-
six pounds in weight.

These salt wells were known to the Indians at a very
early period — Onondaga salt being in common use
among the Delawares in 1770, by whom it was brought
to Quebec for sale.

Le Moyne, a Jesuit missionary, who had lived among
the Hurons, and who first came to Onondaga in 1653,
with a party of Huron and Onondaga chiefs, is supposed
to be the first white man who personally knew about
the springs, though Father Lallemant had previously
written of them. In a .letter which Colonel Comfort
Tyler wrote to Dr. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, in 1822,
the first manufacture of salt at this place by the whites,
in 1788, is described. He says: "In the month of
May, 1788, the family, wanting salt, obtained about a
pound from the Indians, which they had made from tht
waters of the springs upon the shore of the lake. The
Indians offered to discover the water to us. Accordingly,
I went with an Indian guide to the lake, taking along
an iron kettle of fifteen gallons capacity. This he
placed in his canoe and steered out of the mouth of
Onondaga Creek, easterly, into a pass since called Mud

518 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Creek. After passing over the marsh, then covered with
about three feet of water, and steering toward the bluff
of hard land (now that part of Syracuse known as
Salina), he fastened his canoe, pointed to a hole, appa-
rently artificial, and said : " There is the salt ! "

Salina, or the first ward, as it is frequently spoken of,
lies partly upon the shores of this lovely lake of Onon-
daga, and enjoys the advantages of a close proximity to
the saline atmosphere of the wells. The drives in the
vicinity of the lake and about the neighboring localities
afford an ever-shifting panorama of beautiful views, with
glimpses of the blue Onondaga at all points. On a
breezy day, in the early part of May, 1875, when the
air was soft with hints of coming summer, and the vio-
lets along the river banks were just putting on their
hoods of blue, I took one of those long and delightful
drives which so exhilarates the blood and gives a kind
of champagne sparkle to the mind. If there are any
known remedial agents which can possibly be an im-
provement on pure air and sunshine, will you tell us
what they are, Dr. Dio Lewis? My companion was
keen-witted and full of jollity; we had a spirited
animal, and miles upon miles of space quickly vanished
behind us, as we sped onward over the smooth roadway.
The hills seemed to open wide their portals and close
again as we passed ; the valleys allured us with their
romantic, winding roads, and Lake Onondaga, viewed
from all points of the compass, tossed itself into a mul-
titude of little waves which sparkled in the sunshine like
a thousand diamonds. The sky, changeful as April,
alternated between floating fields of atmospheric blue
and pillars of gray cloud. As we rounded the last
curve of the lake, the tall chimneys and long, low

SYRACUSE. 519

buildings of the salt works at Salina came into view,
forming a more conspicuous than elegant feature of the
landscape.

The principal street for retail business in Syracuse is
named Salina, and it always wears an air of brisk trade
and enterprise. The large dry goods houses of McCarthy
and of Milton Price are located on this street. Some
of the public edifices are built of Onondaga limestone,
quarried a few miles out of the city. It makes very
handsome building material, as the Court House and
other structures will testify. The ranking hotels of
Syracuse are the Vanderbilt and Globe, though the
Remington, Syracuse and Empire Hotels are well-kept
and well-conducted houses.

The Erie Canal runs through the heart of the city,
and the bridges over it are arranged with draws. The
first steam canal boat I ever saw lay moored at this
place, at the corner of Water and Clinton streets. It
was gay with new paint and floating pennons, and
created quite a sensation on its first trip out. It belonged
to Greenway, the great ale man, and was named after
his daughter.

The High School, on West Genesee street, has a
delightful location on the banks of Onondaga Creek,
and combines with its other advantages that of a public
library. It has a free reading room, thrown open to the
city at large, and a choice collection of many thousand
volumes adorn its shelves. Sitting at the open window
and listening to the noisy waters of the creek as it flows
past, intermingled with an occasional bird carol over-
head, I could almost imagine myself out in the heart of
the country, away from the struggling masses of the
crowded marts, in their mad race after wealth — with

520 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

nothing more inharmonious around me than the bird
orchestra of some imaginary June sky, the low sweep
of waters and the sound of the summer wind among
the pines.

Syracuse rates herself sixty thousand strong, and I
am unable to say whether the hard figures will bear her
out in this assertion. Perhaps, however, a small margin
of egotism ought to be subtracted from our estimate of
ourselves, especially when " ourselves " means a city.

James street is decidedly the handsomest thoroughfare
in Syracuse. It is wide, well paved, and two miles or
more in length. On it are congregated, with a few
exceptions, the finest residences of the city. These are
surrounded, for the most part, by spacious grounds, and
some of them by groves of primeval forest growths.
The street is an inclined plane on one side, with a gentle
declivity on the other. From its top, quite an extensive
prospect opens to the view, taking in most of the city of
salt, and its enclosing amphitheatre of hills. Looking
down the street, and over across the valley, the gray
turrets of Yates' Castle can be seen, nearly hidden by
its surrounding trees.

"A castle?" I hear my imaginary reader question.
" Yes," I answer, a castle, — the real, genuine, article —
towers, turrets, gate-keeper's lodge and all; nothing
lacking but moat and drawbridge, to transport one to
the times of tournament and troubadours — of knight-
errantry and fair ladies riding to the chase with hawk
and hound.

A Latin motto, on the coat of arms adorning the
arched gateway, points to an ancestry of noble blood.
But, alas for greatness! not even the lodge-keeper's
family knew the meaning of the Latin inscription. We

SYRACUSE. 521

learned, however, that the armorial emblems were of
English origin, and belonged, possibly, to the times of
the royal Georges. The grounds about the castle are
quite in keeping with the building itself. Winding
roads, rustic bridges, statuary, summer-houses and foun-
tains, fitly environ this antique pile.

Just opposite this place, on the hill-top, stands the
Syracuse University — its white walls outlined in bold
relief against the sky. It is a Methodist institution, and
its chief office is to prepare young men for the ministry,
and teach the youthful idea how to shoot, in accordance
with modern theology. The location is breezy enough,
and high enough, to satisfy almost any one's aspirations,
and, if height has anything to do with ideas, the thoughts
of these young students ought to be well-nigh heavenly.

But, at last, we are compelled to say good-bye to
Syracuse, and all its pleasant associations, to say nothing
of its salt. Westward the star of Empire takes its way,
and we have engaged a seat on the same train. It is
with real regret that we part company with these cities of
our beloved New York — Syracuse not the least among
them. But the arrival of the midnight " Lightning
Express" for Rochester cuts short our musings, and we
are soon whirling away in the darkness, leaving the
country of the Onondagas far behind us, slumbering in
the arms of night.

CHAPTEE XXXVIII.

TORONTO.

Situation of Toronto.— The Bay.— History.— Rebellion of 1837.—
Fenian Invasion of 1866. — Population. — General Appearance. —
Sleighing. — Streets. — Railways. — Commerce. — Manufactures. —
Schools and Colleges. — Queen's Park.— Churches. — Benevolent
Institutions. — Halls and Other Public Buildings. — Hotels. —
Newspapers. — General Characteristics and Progress.

, the capital of the Province of Ontario,
_JL is situated on the northern shore of Lake Ontario,
on a beautiful and nearly circular bay, about five miles
in length, formed by a long, narrow, curved tongue of
land, extending out into the lake in a southwest direction.
This harbor is capable of receiving the largest vessels
upon the lake, and is defended at its entrance by a fort
upon the extreme end of the peninsula, which is called
Gibraltar Point. This fort was thoroughly repaired in
1864, and mounted with the most efficient modern
ordnance.

Toronto was founded in 1794, by Governor Simcoe,
who gave it the name of York. In 1813, it was twice
captured by the Americans, who burned the public
buildings and destroyed the fortifications. It was in-
corporated as a city in 1834, when its name was changed
to Toronto, an Indian word, signifying " The place of
meeting." It was the headquarters of the Rebellion in
1837, when Sir Francis Head, then Governor of Upper
Canada, dissolved the House, for having stopped the
supplies, as a retaliatory measure upon his refusal to grant
an elective legislative council. Sir Francis had sent

522

TORONTO. 523

away from Upper Canada the whole of the Queen's
army, but putting himself at the head of the militia, he
succeeded in suppressing the insurrection. The city
also suffered severely from the fire of 1849. It has no
manufactures of any importance, but, like most of
Western Canada, is chiefly dependent upon agriculture.

The growth of Toronto has been more rapid than
that of any other city in Canada. Though of such
recent origin compared with many Canadian towns, it is
now second only to Montreal in size and population, the
former having increased from twelve hundred in 1837 to
upwards of eighty thousand at the present time. The
site of the city is low, the surrounding country being
level, but free from swamp and perfectly dry. The
ground rises gently from the shores of the lake. The
scenery in the vicinity is tame and comparatively mo-
notonous, though not un pleasing. The city lies along
the shores of the lake for something over two miles, and
extends inward about a mile and a half.

As one approaches Toronto its outlines appear pic-
turesque, being varied and broken by an unusual number
of handsome spires. The traveler will be pleasantly
surprised, as he enters the city, at the extent and excel-
ence of its public edifices, the number of its churches,
and its general handsome and well-to-do aspect. Many
of the houses and business structures are built of light-
colored brick, having a soft and cheerful appearance.
The streets are laid out regularly, crossing each other at
right angles, and, as a general thing, are well paved. In
the winter time they are filled with sleighs, and the air
is alive with the music of sleigh-bells. These sleighs
are, some of them, most elegant in form and finish, and
provided with most costly furs. Every boy has his

524 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

hand-sled or " toboggan." At the same season of the
year skating upon the bay is a favorite amusement.
King and Yonge streets are the leading thoroughfares
and fashionable promenades, being lined with handsome
retail stores which would do credit to any city in
America. Other important business streets are Front,
Queen, York, Wellington and Bay.

Five railways centre at Toronto, connecting it with
every section of Canada, the West and the South. The
principal of these are the Grand Trunk and Great
Western railways, which connect the city by through
lines with the East and West. While navigation is
open magnificent steamers connect it with all points on
the lake, and carry on an extensive commerce. It
imports large quantities of lumber, both manufactured
and unmanufactured; wheat and other grain, soap, salt
and glue ; while foundries, distilleries, breweries, tan-
neries, rope-walks, paper and flour mills, furnish
products which reach markets throughout the Provinces
and States.

Toronto is the centre of the Canadian school system,
and its educational institutions are numerous and of the
highest order. It has Normal and Model schools, in
the first of which teachers exclusively are trained.
These schools, with the Educational Museum, built in
the plain Italian style, are picturesquely grouped in
park-like grounds, on Church street. The Museum
contains a collection of curiosities, and a number of good
paintings and casts. The University of Toronto exhibits
the finest buildings in the city, and the finest of their
kind in America. They stand in a large park, ap-.
proached by College avenue, half a mile in length, and
shaded by double rows of trees. The buildings, whioh

TORONTO. 525

are of Norman architecture, of gray rubble stone, trimmed
with Ohio and Caen stone, form the sides of a large
quadrangle. It was founded in 1843 ; possesses a
library of twenty thousand volumes, and a fine museum
of natural history, and has attached to it an observa-
tory. Knox College, Presbyterian, is situated a short
distance north of the University, and is a large building,
in the Collegiate-Gothic style. Trinity College, in Queen
street west, overlooks the bay, and is an extensive and
picturesque structure, turreted and gabled, and sur-
rounded by extensive grounds. Upper Canada College
is found in King street near John.

Adjoining'the University grounds is Queen's Park,
embracing the most elevated quarter of the city, and
including fifty acres, handsomely laid out. In this park
a brownstone shaft, surmouated by a colossal statue of
Britannia, perpetuates the memory of the Canadians who
fell in repelling the Fenian invasion in 1866. This
park is from one hundred to two hundred feet above the
level of the lake, and is surrounded by handsome public
buildings and private residences.

The Episcopal Cathedral of St. James, at the corner
of King and Church streets, is a spacious edifice, in the
early English style, with lofty tower and spire, and
elaborate open roof. It was built in 1852, and is
surrounded by well shaded grounds. The Roman
Catholic Cathedral of St. Michael, fronting on Bond
street, is a large, decorated Gothic structure, with stained
windows, and a spire two hundred and fifty feet high.
The Wesleyan Methodist Church, in McGill street, is
the finest church of that denomination in America. Its
massive tower is surmounted by graceful pinnacles, and
its interior is tastefully and richly decorated. Knox'g

526 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Church has a beautiful spire. One of the finest church
edifices in the Dominion is the Jarvis street Baptist
Church, in the decorated Gothic style. St. Andrews
Presbyterian is a massive stone structure, which dates
back to the Norman style of architecture.

Toronto contains many benevolent institutions, hospi-
tals and asylums. Prominent among them is the
Provincial Lunatic Asylum, a large and handsome
building, situated west of the city, and surrounded by
two hundred acres of handsomely ornamented grounds.
The General Hospital is a fine structure, east of the city,
in Don street, near Sumach.

The Normal School Building, with its beautifully
laid out grounds, is one of the most attractive spots in
the city, and the building is said to be the largest of
the kind in America. There is very little fine scenery
in the environs.

One of the most strikingly beautiful buildings of
Toronto is Osgood Hall, in Queen street, an imposing
structure, of elegant Ionic architecture, the seat of the
Superior Law Courts of Upper Canada, and contain-
ing an extensive law library. St. Lawrence Hall, in
King street, is a stately structure, in the Italian style,
surmounted by a dome, containing a public hall and
reading-room. Masonic Hall, an attractive stone
building, is in Toronto street. The city contains two
Opera Houses : the Grand, capable of seating two
thousand persons, and the Royal, with accommodations
for about fifteen hundred persons. The Post Office, a
handsome stone building, stands near the head of Toronto
street. The Custom House is of cut stone, of imposing
proportions, extending from Front street to the Espla-
nade. The City Hall stands in Front street near ths

TORONTO. 527

Lake Shore, in the midst of an open square, and is an
unpretentious structure, in the Italian style. Near by is
the extensive Lawrence Market. The Court House
is in Church street.

Of the hotels, the Rossin House, corner of King and
York streets; Queen's Hotel, in Front street; the
American House, in Yonge street; and the Revere
House, in King street, are the most noteworthy.

Toronto takes a front rank in literature, a large num-
ber of newspapers and periodicals, daily, weekly, and
monthly, being issued from its presses. It is unlike, in
many respects, its sister cities of Lower Canada. It has
more of a nineteenth century air, and more of American
and less of European characteristics, than Montreal and
Quebec. The French Canadians form a smaller pro-
portion of its inhabitants. The people in the streets are
well dressed and comfortable looking, stout and sturdy,
though not so tall, on an average, as the people of New
York. An educated population is growing up, and
Toronto already ranks well, in general intelligence and
public enterprise, with other cities of like magnitude
in the States while it outranks all others on Canadian
soil.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

WASHINGTON.

Situation of the National Capital. — Site Selected by Washington.
— Statues of General Andrew Jackson, Scott, McPherson,
Rawlins. — Lincoln Emancipation Group. — Navy Yard Bridge.

— Capitol Building. — The White House. — Department of
State, War and Navy. — The Treasury Department. — Patent
Office. — Post Office Department. — Agricultural Building. —
Army Medical Museum. — Government Printing Office. —
United States Barracks. — Smithsonian Institute. — National
Museum. — The Washington Monument. — Corcoran Art Gallery.

— National Medical College. — Deaf and Dumb Asylum. —
Increase of Population. — Washington's Future Greatness.

^TTTASHINGTON, the Capital of the United States
V V of America, is situated in the District of
Columbia, on the left bank of the Potomac, between the
Anacostia or eastern branch of that river, and about one
hundred and eighty-five miles from the mouth of Chesa-
peake Bay. At an early period, indeed, before the clamor
of war had fairly ceased, or the proud standard of
England had been driven from its shores, the necessity
of a territory which should be under the exclusive
jurisdiction of Congress had engaged the attention of
the founders of the new Republic. The possession of
such a territory formed an important feature in the
debates upon the framing of the Constitution, and it was
only forty-eight days after the last act of ratification
that the Capital City was, by solemn enactment of
Congress, located on the eastern shore of the beautiful
Potomac.

528

WASHINGTON. 529

The site of the Capital was selected by General
Washington, the beloved first President of the Republic,
and covers an undulating tract on the east bank of the
river. From the rugged elevations on the borders of
Rock Creek, a crescent-shaped ridge crosses the northern
portion of the city, which is abruptly sundered, as it were,
to admit the passage of a small stream called the Tiber.
From this point the ridge ascends, gradually expanding
into the extensive plateau of Capitol Hill, overlooking
the Anacostia on the east. Within this encircling ridgo
the surface declines, in gentle slopes and terraces, down
to the banks of the Potomac. From the lower falls of
the river at Georgetown, beyond the outlying spurs of
the Blue Ridge, a chain of low wooded hills extend
across the north, which, continuing along the opposite
shores of the Anacostia and Potomac, emerge again in
the hills on the Virginia side of that river, presenting
the appearance of a vast amphitheatre, in the centre of
which stands the Capitol.

The mean altitude of the city is about forty feet above
the ordinary low tide of the Potomac ; the soil on which
it is built is generally a yellowish^clay intermixed with
gravel. In making excavations for wells and cisterns,
near New Jersey avenue, trees were found, in a good
state of preservation, at a depth of from six to forty-
eight feet below the surface.

The Tiber, a little stream, with its tributaries, passes
through the city. Tradition affirms that this stream
received its name more than a century before Washing-
ton city was founded, in the belief and with the predic-
tion that there would arise on its banks, in the future, a
Capital destined to rival in magnificent grandeur that
which crowned the banks of its great historic namesake.

530 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The streams forming this river have their source
among the hills to the east, and enter the city in several
directions, the principal branch winding off to the south-
west, around the base of Capitol Hill, across Pennsyl-
vania avenue, to the Botanical Gardens. Originally its
course continued along the Mall and emptied into the
Potomac immediately west of the "Washington Monu-
ment, but subsequently it was diverted into the canal,
the filling up of which caused still other changes. The
Tiber and its tributaries were utilized by diverting them
into the sewerage system of the central and southern
portions of the city ; consequently, although the stream
traverses one of the most populous sections, its course is
not visible, the current flowing beneath heavy brick
arches upon which buildings have been erected, and
avenues, streets and parks laid out. In primitive days
the banks of the Tiber were covered with heavy forests,
while shad, herring and other fish, in their season, were
taken from its waters, under the very shadow of the hill
upon which the Capitol now stands.

There is no city in the Union which presents to the
thoughtful and truly patriotic American so many
objects of interest as does the city of "Washington. First
of all, this feeling is intensified by the fact of its having
been located and founded by the great, immortal Pater
Patrice whose illustrious name it has the honor of
bearing. A plan of the city was prepared in 1791, by
Peter L' Enfant, a French engineer of fine education
and decided genius, who had served in the Continental
army with such distinction as to attract the attention of
General Washington. He was assisted in the work by
the advice and suggestions of Thomas Jefferson, who,
while diplomatic representative of the United States,

WASHINGTON. 531

had studied the plans of the principal cities visited in
Europe, with a view to the future wants of his country,
and was prepared, by the aid of his personal knowledge
of their details, to contribute valuable information and
suggestions.

It is evident that the predominating object in design-
ing a plan for the city, was first to secure the most
eligible situations for the different public buildings, and
to arrange the squares and areas so that the most
extended views might be obtained from every direction.
The amplest arrangements were also made by the found-
ers of Washington for its rapid growth and expansion,
while they evidently designed and anticipated its being
magnificently built up and embellished. The indifference
of the Government and people has permitted these sug-
gestions to remain too long unheeded; yet it is consoling
to those possessing an intelligent patriotism and proud
love of country, to know that the neglected condition of
the Capital of the "United States for nearly three-fourths
of a century was not the result of any defect in the de-
sign originated by its noble founders.

Any one who has visited the royal residence of the
kings of France, will immediately recognize the resem-
blance between the plans of Le Notre for Versailles, and
L'Enfant for Washington City. The grand avenues,
dc Sceaux and St. Cloud, diverging from the Cour Royal,
are reproduced in Pennsylvania and Maryland avenues,
radiating from the east front of the Capitol. Its broad
.thoroughfares are among the principal attractions of
Washington, and are the finest possessed by any city in
the world. The avenues, twenty-one in number, radiate
from principal centres and connect different parts of the
city ; the original number was thirteen, named for the

632 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

States constituting the Union at the time the Capital
was laid out. The first in importance is Pennsylvania
avenue; its width varies from one hundred and sixty to
one hundred and eighty feet ; its length is four and
one-half miles, traversing the finest business portion
of the city, as well as being the most popular and
fashionable thoroughfare for driving. The War and
Treasury departments, Washington Circle, and the
President's House, are each located on this superb street,
which, winding up and around Capitol Hill, finds its
terminus on the banks of the Anacostia.

The spaces at the intersection of the more important
avenues form what are called Circles. Washington
Circle, at the intersection of Pennsylvania and New
Hampshire avenues, contains the equestrian statue of
General Washington, which was ordered by Congress,
and cannon donated for the purpose, in 1853. The
great hero is represented at the crisis of the battle of
Princeton ; the horse seems shrinking from the storm
of shot and shell and the fiery conflict confronting him;
his rider exhibits that calm equanimity of bearing so
eminently his characteristic. This statue was executed
by Clark Mills, at a cost of fifty thousand dollars.

At the western base of Capitol Hill stands the naval
monument, termed in the resolutions of Congress, the
" Monument of Peace." It was designed by Admiral
Porter, and erected by subscriptions started by him among
the officers, midshipmen and men of his fleet, immediately
after the fall of Fort Fisher. The height of this monu-
ment is forty-four feet; it is built of Carrara marble
and cost $44,000. The surmounting figures repre-
sent History recording the woes narrated by America,
who holds a tablet in her hand on which is inscribed :

WASHINGTON. 533

They died that their country might live. This monu-
ment is exceedingly well executed, and was considered,
iu Rome, one of the finest ever sent to America.

Lafayette Square, comprising seven acres lying north
of the President's House, is beautifully laid out with,
rustic seats, ^graveled walks, and adorned with a rare
Variety of trees and shrubbery. In the centre of this
square stands an equestrian statue of General Andrew
Jackson, by Clark Mills, originally contracted for by the
friends and admirers of the General composing the
Jackson Monument Association, who subscribed twelve
thousand dollars towards its erection. Congress after-
ward granted them the brass guns and mortars captured
by General Jackson at Pensacola. In 1850 an addi-
tional donation of guns was made; in 1852 another
appropriation sufficient to complete the work was granted,
and Congress assumed possession of the monument. The
figure of the horse is weighted and poised without the
aid of rods, as in the celebrated statues of Peter the
Great, at St. Petersburg, and Charles I., at London.
This was the first application of the principle, and re-
sulted in the production of one of the most graceful and
astonishingly beautiful works of its kind in existence.
The statue is of colossal size, weighing fifteen tons, and
was erected at a cost of $50,000.

Scott Square, lying north of the White House, con-
tains a bronze statue* of General Win field Scott, made
of cannon captured by the General during his Mexican
campaign, and donated by Congress in 1867. The
work was executed by Brown, of New York ; with the
pedestal, it is twenty-nine feet high, and cost $20,000.
The General is represented in full uniform, mounted on
his war-horse, surveying the field of battle.

634 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The Circle of Victory, at the intersection of Massa-
chusetts and Vermont avenues, contains a bronze
equestrian statue of General George H. Thomas, of the
Army of the Cumberland. The statue confronts the
South, in the direction of the General's native hills of
Virginia. On the site of this monument a salute of
eight hundred guns was fired in commemoration of the
capture of Petersburg and Richmond on the third of
April, 1865; and, a few days later, five hundred guns
were fired from the same spot in honor of General
Lee's surrender and the fall of the Southern Confederacy.

On East Capitol street, at a distance of about one mile
from the Capitol, is a square comprising six and a
half acres, beautifully laid out and adorned with trees,
shrubbery and walks. In this enclosure a bronze group
called Emancipation has been erected ; Abraham Lin-
coln is represented holding in his right hand the procla-
mation which gave freedom to the negroes of the South.
A slave kneels at his feet, with manacles broken, and in
the act of rising as they fall from his hands. This
monument is said to have been built exclusively of funds
contributed by the negroes liberated by Lincoln's pro-
clamation of January first, 1863. The first contribution
of five hundred dollars was made, it is stated, by Char-
lotte Scott, formerly a slave in Virginia, out of her first
earnings as a freed-woman, and consecrated by her, on
hearing of President Lincoln's death, to aid in building
a monument to his memory. The interesting memorial
was unveiled with appropriate ceremonies, on the anni-
versary of his assassination, April fourteenth, 1876, the
President and his Cabinet, foreign ministers, and a vast
concourse of white and colored citizens being present.
Including the pedestal of Virginia granite, the structure

WASHINGTON. 536

is twenty-two feet in height, and cost $20,000. It was
in this square, now called Lincoln Square, that, accord-
ing to the founder's original plan of embellishment, a
grand Historic Column was to have been erected, to
serve as an itinerary column, from which all geographical
distances within the boundaries of the United States
should be calculated.

McPherson Square, on Vermont avenue, contains a
bronze equestrian statue of General James Birdseye
McPherson, who was killed near Atlanta, at the head
of the Army of the Tennessee, in 1864. He is repre-
sented in full uniform, with field-glasses in hand, sur-
veying the battle-ground. A vault was constructed
beneath the statue, for the purpose of receiving his
body, but the devoted opposition of the people prevented
its removal from his native place.

Farragut and Eawlins squares contain respectively
colossal, but not equestrian statues of Admiral Farragut
and General Rawlins.

Mount Vernon Place, at the intersection of New York
and Massachusetts avenues, is handsomely laid out and
planted with trees ; in the centre, occupying an elevated
circular space, is a superb fountain of bronze.

There are numerous smaller spaces at the intersection
of various streets and avenues, called triangular reserva-
tions, all of which are highly adorned with trees, shrubs
and beautiful small fountains.

The Government Propagating Gardens cover an area
of eighty acres on the banks of the Potomac, south of
Washington's Monument. The Botanical Garden, an
instructive place of public resort, lies at the foot of
Capitol Hill, between Pennsylvania and Maryland ave-
nues. North of the Conservatory is found the Bartholdi

536 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

Fountain, which is supplied with water from the aque-
duct, its highest stream reaching an altitude of sixty-five
feet. This fountain is the work of Frederic Augustus
Bartholdi, a French sculptor and pupil of Scheffer. It
will be remembered by all who visited the Rational
Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, where it was
exhibited, and afterward purchased by Congress for the
inadequate sum of six thousand dollars. The lower
basin is twenty-six feet in diameter, and from its centre
rises a pedestal bearing aquatic monsters and fishes
spouting water; three female caryatides, eleven feet high,
support a basin thirteen feet in diameter; a smaller basin
above this is upheld by three infant Tritons, the whole
being surmounted by a mural crown. Twelve lamps,
arranged around the lower basin, and lighted by elec-
tricity, give the most beautiful effects of light and water.
On the plaza in front of the Treasury Department, is
another fine fountain, in the form of an immense granite
urn, the tassa of which measures sixteen feet in diameter.

Immediately in front of Washington city the Potomac
expands into a broad, lake-like body of water, a mile
and a quarter wide and at least eighteen feet deep. The
Anacostia River, at its mouth, is almost the same width
and fully as deep. Improving the navigation of the
Potomac and the construction of a canal to the head
waters of the Ohio River, were enterprises that began
with the founding of the National Capital.

In 1872, Congress appointed a board of officers with
a view to the improvement of the channel of the river
and water fronts of Washington and Georgetown, for
commercial purposes, as well as the reclamation of the
malaria-infected marshes opposite the city. These im-
provements will necessitate the rebuilding of Long

WASHINGTON. 537

Bridge for railroad and ordinary traveling purposes, and
reclaim more than a thousand acres of valuable land. It
is proposed to remove the National Observatory and use
the earth for filling up the marshes.

The Navy Yard Bridge crosses the Anacostia River,
at the foot of Eleventh street, having supplanted the
wooden structure built in 1819, over which Booth made
his escape after the assassination of Lincoln.

The various buildings occupied by the Executive and
Legislative branches of the Government are worthy of
especial notice. The Capitol is considered one of the
largest and finest edifices of the kind in the world,
and in point of durability of structure and costliness of
material, it certainly has no superior. It stands on the
west side of Capitol Hill, very near the centre of the
city, and one mile distant from the Potomac River.
The main or central building is three hundred and fifty
two feet in length, with two wings or extensions, each
having a front of one hundred and forty-three feet on
the east and west, and a depth of two hundred and
thirty-nine feet along the north and south facades, ex-
clusive of the porticoes. The entire length of this great
edifice is seven hundred and fifty feet; its greatest depth
three hundred and twenty-four feet ; the ground plan
covering three and a half acres.

The central and original Capitol building is of free-
stone, taken from the Government quarries at Aquia
Creek, forty miles below the city, which were purchased
for that purpose, by the Commissioners, in 1791. This
building is now painted white, to correspond with the
extensions, columns and porticoes of white marble. From
the centre rises the great dome, designed by Walter, to
replace the original one removed in 1856, after the ad-

538 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

ditions to the building had rendered it out of propor-
tion. The apex is surmounted by a lantern fifty feet
high, surrounded by a peristyle, and crowned by the
bronze statue of Freedom executed by Crawford in
1865. The height from the base line to the crest of this
statue is three hundred and eight feet, making the dome
of the Capitol rank fifth in height with the greatest
structures of the kind in Europe.

The great dome is visible from every elevated point
in the District for miles around, and from its windows,
as far as the 'eye can reach, is extended a panorama of
wooded hills, beautiful valleys, with the majestic cloud-
capped spurs of the Blue Ridge raising their lofty heads
in the distance. The eastern fa9ade of the building
looks out upon the extended plain of Capitol Hill, with
its background of green hills reaching far beyond the
Anacostia. On the north a broad valley extends, until
it unites with the encircling hills of the city ; on the
south the majestic Potomac and Anacostia rivers are
seen to meet and mingle their placid waters ; while from
the west are beheld the lawns and groves of the Botanic
Garden, the Mall, and handsome grounds of the Presi-
dent's house, with Georgetown Heights and the glitter-
ing domes of the Observatory in the distance.

The main entrance, from the grand portico into the
rotunda is filled by the celebrated bronze door modeled
by Rogers, in Rome, 1858, and cast in bronze at Munich,
by Miller, in 1860. On the panels of this door are
portrayed, in alto relievo, the principal events in the life
of Christopher Columbus, and the discovery of America.
The key of the arch is adorned with a fine head of the
great navigator ; in the four corners of the casing are
statuettes, representing Asia, Africa, Europe and America,

WASHINGTON. 539

with a border in relief of ancient armor, banners and
heraldic designs emblematic of navigation and conquest.
Bordering each leaf on the door are statuettes, sixteen in
number, of his patrons and contemporaries; the nine
panels bear alto relievo illustrations of the principal
events in his life ; while between the panels are a series
of heads, representing the historians of the great dis-
.coverer and his followers. Altogether, this justly
celebrated bronze door, besides being wonderful as a work
of art, constitutes in itself a small volume of the most
interesting and important events belonging to the history
of our country.

The rotunda into which the door leads is embellished
With eight large historical paintings, by different artists.
Four of these were executed by Trumbell, who served
as aid-de-camp to Washington in 1775, and reproduced
in his figures the likenesses of the actors in the scenes
portrayed. In arranging the characters for the " Declara-
tion of Independence," in which the Congress of 1776
is represented in the act of signing that great instrument
of American liberty, the artist conferred with Jefferson,
the Author of the Declaration, and John Adams, both
of whom were present and signers. The individual
costumes, the furniture, and the hall itself, are represented
with scrupulous fidelity, all of which tends to increase
the interest inspired by this painting.

The National Library was founded by act of Congress
in 1800, and the following year, after the report of John
Randolph, of Roanoke, had been submitted, setting forth
the necessity for further legislation on the subject, a
second act was passed, which placed it on a permanent
basis. The number of volumes first contained in the
library was three thousand, but appropriations were

540 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

annually made by Congress to increase the number. In
1814 the Capitol was burned by the British, and the
library destroyed ; a few months later, Thomas Jefferson
offered the Government his private collection of 6,700
volumes, among which were many rare and valuable
works obtained in Europe, and these were purchased for
the sum of $23,950. In 1866 the Smithsonian Library,
containing forty thousand volumes, was added, and a
year later, the Peter Force collection was purchased by
Congress, for $100,000; constant additions have in-
creased the number, until the library now contains nearly
four hundred thousand bound volumes, and one hundred
thousand pamphlets. It is enriched also by journals,
manuscripts, and maps relating to the history and topo-
graphy of the country; in respect to the latter, being
only approached by the library in the British Museum.
The Library halls occupy the principal floor of the entire
west projection of the Capitol.

In the Vice President's Room hangs the original paint-
ing of Washington, taken from life by Rembrandt Peale,
and purchased by the Government in 1832, for the sum
of two thousand dollars.

The Senate Reception Room is a beautiful and brilliant
apartment, about sixty feet in length, with its vaulted
and arched ceiling, divided into four sections, adorned
with allegorical frescoes of Prudence, Justice, Temperance
and Strength, executed by Brumidi, in 1856. The ceil-
ing is heavily gilded throughout ; the walls finished in
stucco and gilt, with a base of Scagliola, imitating the
marbles of Potomac and Tennessee. A finely executed
fresco, in oil, by Brumidi, adorns the south wall, repre-
senting Washington in consultation with Jefferson and
Hamilton, his Secretaries of State and Treasury.

WASHINGTON. 541

The President's Room is an equally magnificent apart-
ment, with groined arches embellished with numerous
allegorical figures in fresco, the decoration, by Brumidi,
being, in general design, the same as in the private audi-
ence chamber of the Vatican at Rome. The work
throughout is very fine, being richly decorated with
arabesques on a groundwork of gilt; the luxurious furni-
ture of the apartment is entirely in keeping with this
high order of artistic finish.

The old Hall of the House of Representatives is a
magnificent apartment, designed and planned after the
theatre at Athens, with fourteen Corinthian columns of
variegated marble, forming a circular colonnade on the
north. The bases of these columns are of freestone, the
capitals of Carrara marble, designed and executed in Italy,
after those in the temple of Jupiter Stator, at Rome ;
the paneled dome overhead is similar to that of the Pan-
theon. This venerable apartment was occupied by the
House of Representatives for thirty-two years ; its at-
mosphere must, in consequence, ever continue redolent
with historic associations. On its walls, in the old days,
hung the full-length portraits of Washington and
Lafayette, presented by the latter on his last visit to
this country ; and the exact spot is pointed out where
stood the desk of the venerable Ex-President, John
Quincy Adams, when that aged patriot and senator
was stricken by death. When, on the completion of the
new, the old Hall was abandoned, in 1857, it was set
apart, by Congress, as a National Statuary Gallery , and
the President authorized to invite the different States
to contribute statues, in bronze or marble, of such among
their distinguished citizens as they might especially de-
sire to honor, the number being limited to two from

542 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

each State. These contributions have been coming in
slowly from year to year, besides which, many valuable
statues and paintings have been purchased and added,
by the Government.

The new Hall of Representatives is said to be the
finest in the world ; its length being one hundred and
thirty-nine feet, width ninety-three, and height thirty-six
feet, while the galleries will seat twenty-five hundred
persons. The ceiling is of cast-iron, with panels gilded
and filled with stained-glass centres, on which are rep-
resented the coat-of-arms of each of the different States.
The walls are adorned with valuable historical paintings
and frescoes.

The Supreme Court Room, formerly the old United
States Senate Chamber, is a semicircular apartment,
seventy-five feet in diameter; its height and greatest
width being forty-five feet. The ceiling is formed by a
flattened dome, ornamented with square caissons in stucco,
with apertures for the admission of light. Supporting a
gallery back of the Judges7 seats extends a row of Ionic
columns of Potomac marble, with capitals of white Italian
marble, modeled after those in the Temple of Minerva.
Along the western wall are marble brackets, each sup-
porting the bust of a deceased Chief Justice.

When occupied by the Senate, the Hall contained
desks for sixty-four Senators. It was in this chamber
that the Nation's purest and most profound statesmen
assembled, and the great " Immortal Trio," Clay, Web-
ster and Calhoun, made those wonderful forensic efforts
which gave their names forever to fame and the admi-
ration of posterity.

The New Senate Chamber, first occupied in 1859, is a
magnificent apartment, belonging to the new extension

WASHINGTON. 543

of the Capitol, one hundred and thirteen feet in length
by eighty feet in width, and thirty-six feet high. The
Senators' desks are constructed of mahogany, and
arranged in concentric semicircles around the apart-
ment. The galleries rise and recede in tiers to the
corridors of the second floor, and are capable of seating
twelve thousand people.

Immense iron girders and transverse pieces compose
the ceiling, forming deep panels, each glazed with a
symbolic centre piece ; the walls are richly painted, the
doors elaborately finished with bronze ornaments. From
the lobby we pass into the Senate Retiring Room, hand-
somely furnished, and said to be the finest apartment of
the kind in the world. The ceiling is composed of
massive blocks of polished white marble, which form
deep panels, resting upon four Corinthian columns, also
of white Italian marble. Highly polished Tennessee
marble lines the entire walls, in the panels of which are
placed immense plate glass mirrors, enhancing the
brilliancy and already striking effect of the whole.

The limits of this chapter wrill not admit of further
description of the numerous apartments gorgeously
furnished ; the palatial corridors beautifully designed ;
magnificent vestibules with fluted columns of marble;
richly gilt paneled ceilings and tinted walls; grand
stairways of marble and bronze, with the statues, busts,
paintings and bronzes, which enrich the Capitol, many
of them being masterpieces of art, and none devoid of
merit. A detailed account of all would fill a small
volume; we are compelled, therefore, to reluctantly leave
the subject, and proceed to the description of the Public
Buildings.

The President's House is situated in the western

544 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

of the city, distant one and a half miles from the Capitol.
A premium of five hundred dollars was awarded James
Hoban, architect, of South Carolina, for the plan, and
the corner stone laid, with Masonic honors, October
thirteenth, 1792. John Adams was the first presidential
occupant; he took possession during the month of Novem-
ber, 1800, after the Government offices had been removed
to Washington. This building was burned by the British
in 1814; the following year Congress authorized its
restoration, committing the work to the original archi-
tect, Hoban, by whom it was completed in 1826, in all
its details. It is built of freestone, one hundred and
seventy feet in length, eighty-six in width, with grand
porticoes on the north and south fronts, supported by
Ionic columns. The main entrance is on the north, by
a spacious vestibule handsomely frescoed. The Blue
Room, in which the President receives, on both public
and private occasions, is an oval-shaped apartment,
finished in blue and gilt, with draperies and furniture
of blue damask. Communicating with this is a second
parlor called the Green jRoom, from the prevailing color
of the furniture and hangings. In this apartment are
found the portraits of Presidents Madison, Monroe,
Harrison and Taylor. The East jRoom, which closes the
suite, is a truly royal apartment, magnificently decorated
in a style purely Grecian, the ceiling frescoed in oil,
mantles of exquisite wood carving, immense mirrors in
magnificent frames, with the richest furniture, and win-
dow drapery of the costliest lace and damask. A full
length portrait of Washington adorns this apartment,
purchased by Congress in 1803. When the Capitol was
burned, in 1814, this painting was rescued from destruc-
tion by Mrs. Madison, who had it removed from the

WASHINGTON. 545

frame and carried to a place of safety. A portrait of
Martha, the wife of Washington, also hangs in this
room, painted by Andrews in 1878.

The numerous other apartments in the President's
House exhibit the same lavish style of adorning, the
furniture being constantly changed and renewed ; but
the vandal spirit of change has not, as yet, dared to lay
its sacrilegious hand upon or to alter the construction of
the house, which remains the same as when, almost a
century ago, it was first occupied by the elder President
Adams. It is not difficult, therefore, to evoke the spirit
of the past while standing among these ancient apart-
ments, halls and corridors, and behold in fancy the long
line of true statesmen, incorruptible patriots and noble
men, who have successively lived and moved among
them, in the early days of the Republic. And it is to
be devoutly hoped that the vanity and caprice of the
rulers who, in these later years, are being cast into high
places, will not prevail in the effort to have this vener-
able home of the Presidents, hallowed by the memories
of the nation's past, cast aside, and another building,
modern and meaningless, substituted in its stead.

Immediately west of the President's House stands
the Department of State, War and Navy, a vast and
imposing structure in the Doric style, combining the
massive proportions of the ancient with the elegance
of modern architecture. The Diplomatic Reception
Room is a magnificent apartment, decorated and fur-
nished in the most sumptuous manner, with ebonized
woods and gold brocade, after the Germanized Egyptian
style. The portraits of Daniel Webster and Lord Ash-
burton, by Healy (purchased by Congress from the
widow of Fletcher Webster, 1879), adorn the walls,

546 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

and over the mantels are busts, in bronze, of Washing-
ton and Lafayette. In the Diplomatic Ante-room is
seen a full-length portrait of the Bey of Tunis, sent by
special envoy in 1865, with a letter of condolence to the
Government, on the death of Lincoln. Above this
apartment is the library, containing a valuable collection
of works on diplomacy, and many objects of interest,
including the original draft of the Declaration of Inde^
pendence, with the desk on which it was written, pre-
sented to the Government by the heirs of James
Coolidge, of Massachusetts, to whom it was presented
by Thomas Jefferson. The original document, signed,
is also here, together with the sword of Washington,
purchased by Congress in 1880, and his commission as
Commander-in-Chief; the staff of Franklin; original
drafts of the laws of the United States, the Federal
Constitution, and other valuable and interesting historic
documents, from the foundation of the Government.
The entire building contains one hundred and fifty
apartments, and cost five million dollars.

The Treasury Department is situated east of the
President's House; it presents a most classic appearance,
with its three stories in the pure Ionic style of archi-
tecture, upon a basement of rustic work, surmounted
by an attic and balustrade. It has four fronts and
principal entrances ; the western front, consisting of
a colonnade, after the style of the temple of Minerva,
at Athens, is three hundred and thirty-six feet long,
with thirty Ionic columns, and recessed porticoes on
either end. This building contains the vaults in
which the current funds and National Bank bonds of
the Government are kept. The Secretary's office is
a beautiful apartment, on the second floor. The walls

WASHINGTON. 547

being formed of various kinds of highly polished mar-
ble. This building contains two hundred apartments,
exclusive of the basement and attic, and cost six mil-
lion dollars.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, a branch of
the Treasury Department, occupies a separate building,
recently erected, at a cost of three hundred thousand
dollars. It is a handsome structure, of pressed brick, in
the Romanesque style, is entirely fireproof, and situated
between the Agricultural Department and the Washing-
ton Monument.

The Patent Office, an immense building covering two
squares, or two and three-fourths acres of ground (which
in the original plan of the city had been set apart for
the erection of a National Mausoleum, or church), is
in the Doric style of architecture, after the Parthenon
at Athens, and impresses all who behold it with the
grandeur of its proportions. The Museum of Models,
a collection of inventions, both native and foreign,
patented by the Government, occupies the four immense
halls on the second floor, and contains upwards of one
hundred and fifty-five thousand models, which have
accumulated since the fire of 1836. In December, of
that year, the old building was destroyed, containing
four thousand models, the accumulation of half a cen-
tury. But for this calamity, the progress of mechanical
arts in the United States could be traced back to the
foundation of the Government. The south Hall of the
Museum is a magnificent apartment, two hundred and
forty-two feet long, sixty-three feet wide, and thirty
feet high, decorated in the Pompeiian style, the entire
structure of the room being in solid masonry. Among
the historical relics contained here, are the uniform

548 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

of Washington, worn at the time he resigned his
commission, and his sword, secretary, compass, and
sleeping tent, with camp utensils for cooking, etc. The
number and variety of models contained in these
four large halls are almost bewildering, and afford
material for hours of study. The cost of this immense
structure was two million, seven hundred thousand, but
the entire sum has been principally liquidated by the
surplus funds received, which annually amount to at
least two hundred thousand dollars.

The General Post Office building is immediately op-
posite the Patent Office ; it is a most imposing edifice,
constructed of white marble, from the quarries of New
York, and was built — the portion fronting on E street —
in 1839. The northern half of the square was afterward
purchased by the Government, and the extension begun
in 1855; the building, as now completed, being three
hundred feet in length, by two hundred and four in
depth, with a large courtyard in the centre, entered on
the west front by a carriage way, where the mails are
received and sent out. Above the basement, on every
side of this noble structure, arise monolithic columns
and pilasters, surmounted by handsomely wrought
capitals, upon which rests a paneled cornice. The main
entrance is adorned with Doric columns, and the ceiling,
walls and floor finished with white marble. In the
office of the Postmaster-General is a fine collection of
photographs and crayons of those who have filled this
position since the appointment of Samuel Osgood, by
Washington, in 1789. The cost of this building was
one million seven hundred thousand dollars.

The Agricultural Building is a large and handsome
structure, built of pressed brick, in the renaissance

WASHINGTON. 649

style of architecture, with trimmings of brown stone.
Immediately in front of the house is a flower garden,
beautifully laid out, and planted with an almost count-
less variety of flowers ; the remaining grounds adjacent
to the building have been laid out as an arboreture, with
walks and drives winding through forests of trees and
shrubs, all of which have been planted according to the
strictest botanical rules. The experimental grounds,
occupying ten acres in the rear of the house, contain
artificial lakes, rivers and swamps, for the cultivation of
water and marsh plants. The building is handsomely
finished and the various apartments and offices elegantly
furnished, including a handsome library, thoroughly
equipped laboratory, and an Agricultural Museum,
which occupies the main building, and is replete with
objects of interest and beauty too numerous to admit of
description. The Plant Houses are immense conserva-
tories, in which the fruits and flowers of every clime
and country may be found growing. The main structure
is three hundred and twenty feet long, by thirty wide,
with a projecting wing giving one hundred and fifty feet
additional. On the north bank of the Potomac is the
Naval Observatory, one of the principal astronomical
establishments in the world. The Observatory was
founded in 1842, the location being selected by Presi-
dent Tyler. The site had been called "University
Square," from the fact that it had been the cherished
intention of Washington, from the foundation of the
city, to urge the erection upon this spot of a National
University. The central building of the Observatory
was completed in 1844 — a two-story building, with
wings, and surmounted by a dome. The great telescope,
purchased in 1873, cost forty-seven thousand dollars,

550 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

and is the most powerful instrument in the world, the
refracting glass being twenty-six inches; the focal
length thirty-two and a half feet. The library contains
six thousand volumes, a number of them very rare,
dating back to 1482.

The Army Medical Museum was formerly Ford's
Theatre, in which President Lincoln was assassinated on
the fourteenth of April, 1865. The building was pur-
chased a year later, by Congress, remodeled and converted
to its present use. No trace has been left to indicate the
exact location of the murder. The Chemical Laboratory,
on the first floor, was the restaurant in which Booth took
his last drink ; among the relics and curiosities is a por-
tion of the vertebrae taken from the neck of the assassin.
The first floor is occupied by the record and pension
division of the Surgeon General's office, and upon the
registers are inscribed the names of three hundred thou-
sand of the dead. The Museum is on the third floor,
and contains about sixteen thousand medical, surgical,
and anatomical specimens.

The Government Printing Office is a large four-story
building, in which the printing of the two Houses of
Congress and other Departments is done. In 1794 an
appropriation of ten thousand dollars was made, and
sufficed, for u firewood, stationery and printing ; the
amount required at the present time to meet the expenses
of this department is two million five hundred thousand
dollars per annum, showing the rapid advance of the
country, in extent, population, and the prodigality of its
representatives as well.

The United States Barracks, formerly the Arsenal, is
situated at the extreme southern point of the city. A
Government Penitentiary was erected on the grounds in

WASHINGTON. Bancroft

1826 ; in one of the lower cells was buried the body of
Booth, and afterward those of the other conspirators. The
Penitentiary was taken down in 1869, at which time the
family of Booth was permitted to remove his body to
Baltimore, where it was interred in the family burial
lot at Druid Hill, the grave remaining unmarked. In
front of the old buildings, the grounds, since the war,
have been beautifully laid out, and contain a number of
cannon captured by the Government forces in different
conflicts. There is a brass gun with a ball shot into its
muzzle at the battle of Gettysburg, and two captured
Blakely guns, one of which bears the inscription : " Pre-
sented to the Sovereign State of South Carolina, by one
of her citizens residing abroad, in commemoration of
the twentieth of December, 1860." There are also
British, French, and Mexican cannon, captured from
those nations, some of them dated as far back as 1756.

On the Anacostia, three-fourths of a mile from the
Capitol, is the Navy Yard, formally established by act
of Congress in 1804, and in those early days standing
unrivaled, as it sent out such famous vessels as the
Wasp, Argus, and Viper ; and frigates, carrying 44 guns
each, were built in its shops. But the gradual filling up
of the channel in which ships of the line formerly
anchored, and the increased facilities of other later estab-
lished stations, have deprived the old yard of its import-
ance as a naval constructing port, although it is still
one of the most important for the manufacture of sup-
plies. The Marine Barracks, organized in 1798, are
but a short distance from the Navy Yard gate ; the
building is seven hundred feet in length, with accom-
modations for two hundred men. The Barracks were
burned by the British in 1814, but were at once rebuilt.

552 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

The Smithsonian Institute, by name, is generally
familiar, while comparatively few are acquainted with
its origin, the design of its founder, his antecedents
or history, all of which are peculiarly interesting,
and deserving of a more extended notice than our
sketch will permit. James Smithson was an English-
man, the son of the first Duke of Northumberland, and
a grand nephew, on his mother's side, of Charles, the
proud Duke of Somerset. Whether or not any secret
romance was connected with his life, we are not informed;
all that is known is, that he devoted himself to litera-
ture and science, was never married, and died at Genoa,
Italy, in 1828, bequeathing his fortune to his nephew,
Henry James Hungerford, during life ; at his death to
become the property of the United States ; in the lan-
guage of the will, " To found, at Washington, under
the name of the Smithsonian Institute, an establishment
for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."
The Government accepted the bequest, which was at its
disposal as early as 1836, and the original fund, of up-
wards of five hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, was
deposited in the Treasury. A little more than ten years
later the Smithsonian Institute was organized, a board
of Regents appointed, and the corner-stone laid, with
masonic ceremonies, May the first, 1847. The building
was completed in 1856, the accrued interest being mere
than sufficient to cover all the expenses of its erection,
and leaving a permanent fund of six hundred and fifty
thousand dollars in the Treasury for its future main-
tenance. In less than a year after the close of the war
the main building was partially destroyed by fire, to-
gether with the papers and reports of the Institute, and
the personal effects of its founder. It was immediately

WASHINGTON. 553

restored, however ; but the Library, comprising a large
collection of valuable scientific works, was removed to
the Capitol. It would seem that this immense building,
so generously endowed, could, and should, be made to
advance " the increase and diffusion of knowledge
among men," in a more direct and individual manner,
by being devoted to educational purposes. But further
than its use in conducting exchanges between the Gov-
ernment and scientific bodies at home and abroad, and
the care of the National Museum, the Smithsonian In-
stitute has contributed nothing toward " the advance-
ment of knowledge among men/7 and those, generally, of
the country whom it was especially intended to benefit.

The National Museum, completed in 1879, is situated
a very short distance east of the Institute, and covers
nearly two and a half acres of ground. It is a handsome
structure, of the modernized Komanesque style of archi-
tecture ; having four entrances and eight lofty towers ;
the principal entrance being approached by granite steps,
thirty-seven feet wide, to a richly tiled platform. Above
the inscription plate on the globe of the nave, is an
allegorical group representing Columbia as the patroness
of Science and Industry. The whole is surmounted by
a dome ; the windows filled with double glass imported
from Belgium ; in fine, the entire building is externally
and internally complete, being finished and furnished in
the most costly and elegant manner. The large collec-
tions of the Museum in the Smithsonian Institute, are
to be divided ; objects of purely natural history being
alone kept in the Institute, the second floor of which
will be devoted to archaeology, including the antiquities
of the " Stone Age."

South of the President's House, and but a short dis-

554 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

tance from the stone which marks the centre of the
District stands the National Monument to the Father
of his Country, designed by Mills. It was completed
on Saturday, December sixth, 1884, by the setting of its
marble cap-stone. The idea of this National Monument
took definite shape in 1833, when the Washington
National Monument Association was organized, com-
posed of some of the most distinguished men of the
country. The design was to build it by means of popu-
lar subscriptions, of individual sums, not to exceed one
dollar each. In 1847 the collections amounted to
$87,000, and with this sum it was determined to begin
the work. On the Fourth of July, 1848 the corner
stone of the monument was laid ; in 1854, the funds of
the National Monument Association were exhausted.
The structure had then reached a height of one hun-
dred and seventy feet, and during the succeeding twenty-
four years only four feet were added to its altitude.
August twenty-second, 1876, Congress passed an Act,
creating a commission for its completion, and made the
necessary appropriation, which was to be continued
annually. Before resuming work on the monument, it
was deemed best to strengthen the foundation by placing
under the shaft an additional mass of concrete, one hun-
dred and twenty-three feet, three inches beyond the old
foundation. Th3 weight of the mass then worked under
was 32,176 tons. The total pressure on the foundation
as it now stands is 80,378 tons.

The monument is a marble obelisk, the marble having
been brought from the quarries of the Beaver Dam
Marble Company, Baltimore County, Maryland. The
shaft, from the floor, is 555 feet, 4 inches high, being
thirty feet, five inches higher than the spires of the great

WASHINGTON. 555

cathedral of Cologne. The present foundation is thirty-
six feet, eight inches deep, making an aggregate height,
from the bed of the foundation, of 592 feet, the loftiest
work of ancient or modern times. The walls of the
obelisk, at its base, are over fifteen feet thick, and at
the 500 feet mark, where the pyramidal top begins,
eighteen inches thick. The total cost of the monument
has been $1,130,000. Within the obelisk is an elevator
and a stairway. On the latter there are nine hundred
steps, and about twenty minutes are required to make
the descent.

The Corcoran Art Gallery is one of the most in-
teresting and valued institutions belonging to the
National Capitol, and the last that our limits will per-
mit being described at length. The building stands on
the corner of Pennsylvania avenue and Seventeenth
street, and is constructed of brick, in the Renaissance
style of architecture, finished with freestone ornaments
and a variety of beautiful carving. On the avenue
front are four statues, in Carrara marble, executed by
Ezekiel, in Rome, of Phidias, Raphael, Michael Angelo,
and Albert Durer, representing respectively, sculpture,
painting, architecture and engraving. In the vestibules
and corridors are casts of ancient bos reliefs, with nu-
merous antique busts and statues in marble. The Hall
of Bronzes contains a very large and interesting collec-
tion of bronzes, armor, ceramic ware, etc. The Hall of
Antique Sculpture, almost one hundred feet in length,
contains casts of the most celebrated specimens of an-
cient sculpture. The Main Picture Gallery is also
nearly one hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, with a
collection of paintings ranking among the first of this

656- PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

country, and more than one hundred and fifteen in num-
ber. The Octagon Chamber contains the original Greek
Slave, by Powers. In the East Gallery is displayed a
valuable collection of portraits of distinguished Ameri-
cans, painted by the best native artists ; in the West
Gallery , is a large number of paintings, historical, land-
scape and other subjects.

The Corcoran Art Gallery was presented to the city
and country by W. W. Corcoran, Esq., in 1869. This
magnificent gift, including the donor's private collection
of paintings and statuary, cost three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, to which he added an endowment
fund of nine hundred thousand dollars more. Mr.
Corcoran has also erected and elegantly furnished, a large
and beautiful building, called the Louise Some, at a cost
of two hundred thousand dollars, with an endowment fund
of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The Home,
the only institution of its kind in the entire country, is
an asylum for ladies of education and refinement
who have been reduced in fortune. The house is
furnished in a style of subdued elegance, with every
luxury and convenience to be found in the best
appointed private residence ; while the ladies are waited
iipon and treated with the'same attention and respect as
if they were each paying an extravagant rate of board.
There are ample accommodations for fifty-five ladies,
who must have reached the age of fifty-years, as a gen-
eral rule, and who make their application for admission
in writing. There is no charge for admission, nor ex-
pense of any kind, nor limit to the time of remaining at
the Louise Home. This beautiful institution, in which
charity is bestowed in so refined and delicate, yet mag-
nificent a manner, has been erected and endowed by the

WASHINGTON. 557

Founder in memoriam of a beloved wife and only daugh-
ter and child. It is but due to this great philanthro-
pist, to mention here, that in addition to his gifts named
above, the National Medical College, of Columbian Univer-
sity, was his gift, in 1864, and cost forty thousand dol-
lars. The original grounds of Oak Hill Cemetery, com-
prising ten acres, were also donated by him, together with
an endowment fund of one hundred and twenty thousand
dollars ; the grounds were incorporated by Congress in
1840. It were fortunate for mankind if the number of
such benefactors were greater, and the wisdom displayed
by Mr. Corcoran ofteuer imitated by the rich, who, if
they give, permit their good deeds only " to live after
them," instead of planning, and directing with their own
hands, the schemes of benevolence they desire to inaug-
urate for the benefit of their unfortunate fellow beings.

There are many places of historical interest that mfght
be described, as well as numerous Halls, Colleges, Hos-
pitals, etc., but the limits of this paper will not permit.
We shall only refer to the Government Hospital for the
Insane, situated at the junction of the Potomac and
Anacostia rivers, and one of the finest and largest insti-
tutions of the kind in the world. It is seven hundred
and fifty feet in length by two hundred deep, containing
five hundred single rooms, and accommodations for
more than nine hundred patients. The Deaf and Dumb
Asylum and College are also conspicuous among the
Public Institutions, built in the pointed Gothic style,
and costing the Government $350,000.

During the late war Washington was converted into
a vast fortress, and made the base of operations for the
entire forces of the Union. The hills surrounding it were
covered with the camps of soldiers, while its vast streets

5o8 PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN CITIES.

and avenues hourly echoed the tread of moving troops,
and the heavy crushing roll of artillery. At the close
of the contest the city was found to have risen high upon
the wave of revolution ; a new element had been
infused into its population, and the march of improve-
ment had begun. In ten years the number of inhabit-
ants had increased fifty thousand. With the continuance
of peace, and the spirit of improvement and progress
remaining unchecked, it may reasonably be predicted
and confidently anticipated, that the close of the Nine-
teenth Century will find the Capital City of this great
Republic approaching in splendor and importance the
realization of the proudest hope and dream of magnifi-
cence ever cherished in the hearts of its worthy founders,
and in itself a monument worthy of the immortal, name
of WASHINGTON.

TESTIMONIALS. 5(55

COMMENDATIONS

OF

Peculiarities of American Kities,

Buffalo Sunday Times.

" Peculiarities of American Cities" is the title of the latest work of Captain
Willard Glazier, whose numerous books show great versatility and vivacity.
The work before us contains sketches of thirty-nine of the principal cities of
the United States and Canada. It is replete with interest. The pages are not
filled with a massof dry statistics or mere description, but record the personal
observations of the author, detailed in an easy, familiar style.

Hamilton (Canada) Tribune,

The" Peculiarities of American Cities" contains a chatty description of the
leading American and Canadian cities. A bright, descriptive style gives
piquancy to the work, which is a gazetteer without seeming to be so. The
Canadian cities described are Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec, and the ac-
counts givf n of them are accurate. This being so of our own land, the prob-
ability is strong that the accounts given of the American cities are so too.

Rock Island Union.

Captain Willard Glazier, whose war stories have proved so attractive, has
turned his attention to another field, and proved that he can write enter-
tainingly while imparting information to his readers of permanent reference
value. His new book is entitled " Peculiarities of American Cities," and
embodies the results of his personal observations and studies in the lending
towns of the country. There are thirty-nine chapters, and each one is
devoted to a different city, and may be said to be complete in itself. The
classification is alphabetical, oeginning with Albany and ending with Wash-
ington. The descriptive work has been well and faithfully done, and the
prominent features of each city have received especial attention. This is the
special point of the work— to show the distinct peculiarities and character-
istics of our cities— and the charm lies in the fact that every city is treated in
accordance with Its local color, instead of in a stereotyped manner, as is
usually the i-ase. The book is a valuable one, and should be perused and
studied by old and young.

566 TESTIMONIALS.

Detroit Journal.

Under the title of " Peculiarities of American Cities," Captain Willard
Glazier, the author of half a dozen successful volumes, has lately produced a
very attractive book of nearly six hundred pages. It is written in a graceful
style, as one would describe a trip through the country from East to West,
including visits to the chief cities, and touching upon their most notable
characteristics. The author gives his readers the salient and significant
points, as they strike an observing man and a skilled writer, and in this he
has been very successful.

Madison State Journal.

Captain Glazier is a noted American traveler. His canoe trip down the
Mississippi and his extended horseback tour through the States made him
quite famous at the time. The volume before us presents the peculiar fea-
tures, favorite resorts, and distinguishing characteristics of the leading cities
of America, including Canada. The author launches into his subject with
directness, treating them with perspicuity and in an easy, flowing, graphic
style, presenting a series of most admirable pen pictures. The book is prac-
tically invaluable in households where there are children and youth.

Chicago Tribune.

In this work Captain Glazier has entered upon a new field in literature,
and his researches are at once unique and interesting. The first chapter
opens with a visit to Albany, the quaint old Dutch city of the Hudson, and
here at the outset the author discovers " peculiarities" without limit. Boston
is next taken up, and then follow in succession thirty-seven of the leading
cities of the United States and Canada. The book is a compendium of his-
torical facts concerning the cities referred to which are not given in any
other work with which we are acquainted, making this volume a valuable
addition to any library.

Saginaw Courier.

" Peculiarities of American Cities " is a handsome and attractive volume,
descriptive of the characteristics of many of the cities of North America, by
one who seems to be thoroughly familiar with the subject, and who has
developed an aptness in grasping the peculiarities of modern city life, as well
as the power to graphically portray them. To those who may never be able
to visit the places described, as well as to those who have seen them, the pen
pictures will be both interesting and entertaining. The author gives his
readers the salient and significant points as they strike an observant critic
and a fascinating writer.

Racine Daily Times.

" Peculiarities of American Cities " is a work that will give to the person
Who has only money to stay at home an intelligent idea of how the great
cities of the country look, and what their people do to gain a livelihood, and
•what objects of interest there are to be seen. Through the medium of this
work one can wander through the streets of far-off places ; he can watch the
rush of the multitude and hear the roar of the industries thathelp to make
our country the great land that it is. He can gaze upon the palaces of the
rich or hurry through scenes where poverty is most pitiful and vice most
hideous. It is a work that ought to be in every house.

TESTIMONIALS. 567

Alton Democrat.

One of the most entertaining books is "Peculiarities of American Cities "
by Captain Willard Glazier, whose pen has enraptured thousands by descrip-
tions of battle scenes and heroic adventures. The book is almost a necessity,
as it familiarizes one with scenes in travel and history. The author has
the faculty of making his readers see what he has seen and feel the im-
pressions which he has felt in the view. The style is easy and flowing, not
complicated and wearisome, The great cities are described in a way which
makes the reader familiar with them— their history, society, manners, cus-
toms, and everything relating to their past, present, and future. The book
will be a companion of many a leisure hour.

Buffalo Courier.

The books written by Captain Willard Glazier have had a very wide, almost
a phenomenal circulation ; in myriads of volumes they have been distributed
throughout the country. From the time When a very young man, and just
after the war, in which he served, Captain Glazier published his first book,
they have, until the one just out, been all founded on and descriptive of
events and scenes of the Revolution and the Rebellion. Now, however, he
has turned from the beaten path and taken an altogether different topic,
as is clearly explained in the title of his new work, " Peculiarities of Amer-
ican Cities." There are thirty-nine chapters, in which as many different
cities have their noteworthy characteristics set forth in a pleasing and very
interesting style, with handsome illustrations.

Hamilton (Canada) Spectator.

"Peculiarities of American Cities" is a work by Captain Willard Gla.
zier, who has earned some fame as a writer of books describing the in-
cidents of the War of the Rebellion. The present work is a compilation of
facts concerning thirty-nine of the principal cities of the continent, including
Toronto, Quebec, and Montreal, and the information the work contains is
brought down to recent date. The history, growth in commerce, progress in
art; and science, and architectural arulphysical characteristics of each city
are treated of in a very interesting way. Few people who have traveled at
all but have visited one or more of these cities, and will read the work with
pleasure. Others will find it intensely interesting because it gives them in
detail much they have often wanted to know of the cities of America.

New York Herald.

The author talks of cities as he has seen them ; describing their appearance,
their public resorts, and the peculiarities which characterize them and their
people. He leads the reader through the streets, into the public parks,
museums, libraries, art galleries, churches, theatres, etc. ; tells him of great
business schemes, marts, and manufactories ; sails to suburban pleasure
resorts; describes the many avocations and ways of picking up a living
which are peculiar to large cities and the phases of character in men and
women which are to be found where men most do congregate. The book
will prove to be an interesting and instructive one to those who have not
seen the cities it describes, and interesting to those who have traveled
&g a review and comparison of views from an experienced traveler and
chronicler.

TESTIMONIALS.

Detroit Christian Herald.

"Peculiarities of American Cities " contains brief studies of the history,
general features, and leading enterprises of thirty-nine cities of the United
States and Canada. The author states in the preface that he has been a resi-
dent of one hundred cities, and feels qualified to write largely from personal
observation and comparison. It is not a dry compendium of facts, but ia
enlivened by picturesque legends, striking incidents, and racy anecdotes.
Though the author has attempted no exhaustive description of these promi-
nent centres of interest, he has shown taste and judgment in selecting the
things one would most like to know, and skill in weaving the facts into an
entertaining form.

Davenport Democrat.

This is the fifth of a readable series of popular books by the soldier-author,
Captain Willard Glazier. Many renders have become familiar with "Soldiers
of the Saddle," " Capture, Prison-pen, and Escape," " Battles for the Union,'
and " Heroes of Three Wars," and they will welcome the volume under
notice as one of the most attractive of the list. Captain Glazier does not
compile— he writes what he has seen. He has a trained eye, a facile pen, and
a power of graphic description. " American Cities " is a work devoted to a
pen-portraiture of thirty-nine cities, and those who have not or cannot visit
these cities have in this book an easy and most fascinating way of acquaint-
ing themselves with their distinguishing characteristics. All readers ought
to know something of our American cities, each of which has features

peculiar to itself.

Syracuse Herald.

" Peculiarities of American Cities" is the title of a new book by Captain
Willard Glazier, author of" Soldiers of the saddle," " Battles for the Union,"
and several other popular works. In its pages the favorite resorts, pe-
culiar features, and distinguishing characteristics of the leading cities of
America are described. Dry statistics are avoided, the facts which the general
jeader most desires being given in the style of graphic description for which
the author is noted. The book not only contains a great deal of information in
regard to America's principal cities as they exist to-day, but many important
events in local history are cleverly worked in. The Herald feels safe in com-
mending this book as both instructive and entertaining. It will be read with
interest by those who have "been there," and seen for themselves, as well as
by those who can at most see only in imagination the places treated.
Indianapolis Educational Weekly.

This book occupies a niche in the literature of the country peculiar to
itself. It describes thirty-nine cities of America, including all the largest
cities and some others which, though not quite so large, are rapidly growing,
and seem destined to occupy positions of importance. Still other sketches
possess peculiar interest for their historical associations. Of the lattei class
are the stories of Savannah, Charleston, and Richmond. It is said that
Americans too often rush off to Europe without knowing that America pos-
sesses a Niagara Falls, Yosemite Valley, and Yellowstone National Park.
The same may be said of our reading. Many books descriptive of European
cities and places of interest are widely circulated and read. And if they are
reliable they should be read. But America might, with profit, be studied
more-. This book offers a splendid opportunity to learn something of' ir
\merican cities.

TESTIMONIALS. 569

AUoona Times.

The reader will find a great abundance of useful information contained in
a small compass and very pleasantly imparted in Captain Glazier's " Peculi-
arities of American Cities." Those who have little time to gather their
information from more extended sources will find this a valuable work
that will supply a vacant place in their library. It is certainly a book very
much in advance of the volumes of like import that from time to time our
people have been solicited to buy.

Boston Transcript.

Captain Glazier's style is particularly attractive, and the discursive, anec-
dotal way in which the author carries his readers over the continent, from
one city to another, is charmingly interesting. He lands his reader, by the
easiest method, in a city ; and when he has got him there, strives to interest
an.3 make him happy by causing him to glean amusement and instruction
from all he sees. Every page of the book is teeming with interest and infor-
mation. Persons are made conversant with the chief characteristics and
history of cities they may never hope to visit. The book has apparently
been written principally for the purpose of presenting the truth about the
various chief centres of trade in the country, and the writer has adopted a
pleasant conversational style, more likely to leave the impression desired
than all the histories and arid guide-books ever published. It is a delight-
ful book, full of happy things.

Pittsburgh Sunday Olobe.

"Peculiarities of American Cities," by Willard Glazier, will be found dte-
appointing to those who look for an ordinary re-hash of musty data
about leading cities, as, aside from the numerous illustrations, which are far
above the average book illustrations in accuracy, the work will be found to
contain pleasantly written chapters on the industrial and social features of
New York, Pittsburgh, Washington, Montreal, Portland, Savannah, Boston,
Albany, Quebec, Omaha, Chicago, Buffalo, St. Louis, Hartford, Cleveland,
Richmond, Providence, Baltimore, New Orleans, San Francisco, Cincinnati,
Philadelphia, etc. The chapter on Pittsburgh embraces a summing up of its
features as an iron, glass, and oil centre, while the descriptions of our people
and the labor organizations, banking, and business interests are well-timed
and as comprehensive as the limits of the work will permit. It will make a
valuable addition to any library.

Fort Wayne Gazette.

The author gives his views concerning the history, character, or " peculi-
arities" of some forty prominent American cities. The subject is an inter-
esting one, familiarizing the reader with what belongs particularly to his
own country. Persons may visit a place frequently, yet know nothing in
regard to its history or the events connected with it which make the same
memorable. Such matters have been carefully collected by the author and
properly arranged Into a systematic narrative. The chapters are exceedingly
entertaining aside from the information they convey. The author has the
ability to present what he wishes to communicate in an admirable way, and is
tedious in nothing he has written. We know of no work on this subject from
which so much that is valuable can be obtained in so concise a form. It Is a
book that will never weary or lO5»e in interest, and can be placed in the
library among the valuable works.

570 TESTIMONIALS.

Milwaukee Sentinel.

" Peculiarities of Americai) Cities " is a book rather unique in character, and
may be said to occupy a place somewhere between the regular guide-book and
the volume of travels. As people who stay at home are not generally given
to reading guide-books, and as volumes of travel embracing the same route
as that gone over by our author are not common, " Peculiarities of American
Cities" fills a niche that has hitherto been vacant, and meets a want not
before satisfied. The writer takes up the most important cities of the United
States and Canada in alphabetical order, beginning with Albany and ending
with Washington, and gives a more or less extended description of each,
commencing usually with a slight historical outline, particularly where it
would be of general interest, as in the case of Boston, but devoting the greater
part of his space to the treatment of their present condition. The natural
advantages of each pl^ce are considered, its commerce and manufactures
discussed, its public parks and buildings described, and illustrations of a
number of the latter given.

New York World.

To become well acquainted with the principal cities of the Union is not a
matter of secondary importance, but should be one of the first duties of an
American citizen. It is at once a source of pleasure and profit to know the
points of interest in the various places ; to be able to give an account of the
commercial transactions, the people and customs; and, in fact, to know
about other communities what you find it necessary to learn of your own.
To the great majority of Americans the opportunity is not given of person-
ally becoming acquainted with the various cities of import, and the only
way we have of knowing the peculiarities of our sister cities is by the few
scraps we read now and then in the newspapers. The want of some method
by which to instruct the people in this matter has long been manifest, but
what to do has often been asked and remained unanswered. Educators
recommend the compilation of statistics of the various places, and many
plans were suggested by which a knowledge of the subject could be diffused
among the masses. It has finally been solved by Captain Willard Glazier, of
whom the country has heard in civil and military life on many former occa-
sions. Captain Glazier has traveled over the entire continent since the late
war, and has become well acquainted with the principal cities, and the thought
struck him to write a book on the points of interest he has visited in the
various places. For a number of years he has been at the work, and finally
gives to the public his latest literary effort, which he has appropriately en-
titled " Peculiarities of American Cities." The book is just what is needed
in every public and private library in the country, and will awaken a deep
interest in the citizens of each city on which the work treats. The public
cannot fail to be interested in the work, for it treats on a live subject, and,
furthermore, the author's style is far too pleasing to permit of any lack of
interest. Captain Glazier is the author of a number of books, all of which
have become popular, and we predict for this, his latest effort, the success
which it merits.

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