Part 7

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

=BALTIMORE=

FACTS TO REMEMBER

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

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

Located near the head of Chesapeake Bay.

Has a fine harbor and a splendid dock system.

An important railroad center.

Has a large and growing foreign commerce.

An important manufacturing center.

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

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

An important center for shipping oysters and crabs.

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

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. What advantages of location does Baltimore possess?

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

3. What are the leading exports of this city?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PITTSBURGH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

=PITTSBURGH=

FACTS TO REMEMBER

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

Eighth city in rank, according to population.

Has the largest structural-steel plant in the world.

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

Has the largest commercial coal plant in the United States.

Has the largest pickling plant in the world.

Has the largest electrical manufacturing plant in the world.

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

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

One of the foremost commercial distributing centers.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DETROIT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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