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.
Reading, the seat of Justice of Berks County, 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 Reading Railroad. It was named after the ancient
borough of Reading, a prominent market town of Berkshire, England, which
it is said to resemble in some of its geographical surroundings.
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 intercourse 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, 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 Mountain, on the
east of the town. Rolling 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 numbering not far from
fifty thousand. It is delightfully situated on an elevated and ascending
plain, which rises to the eastward into Penn's Mountain, and to the
southward into the Neversink Mountain. The city is abundantly 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 Lutheran, 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 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 considerable 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
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 my 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 features of which the human mind can conceive; green
meadows, wooded hills, enchanting groves, dotted here and there with the
most charming irregularity; farmhouses 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 peculiar _couleur de 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 surroundings 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 Neversink 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 throughout the northern States. The occurrence of
this anniversary 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 preservation of the Union. Reading manifested her patriotism by a
parade of all her civic and military organizations, and by invitation I
was permitted to participate in the decoration exercises, at the Charles
Evans Cemetery. The people of Reading are truly loyal, as industrious
and order-loving people are sure to be. The perpetuation of the Union
means to them the protection of their homes and the encouragement of
their industries.
Although the manufacturing interests of Philadelphia and Pittsburg are
exceedingly large--those of the 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
manufacturing 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 prosperity of the State secured.