beautiful and important location, is the Buffalo of to-day. The little
settlement of one hundred years ago has become the eleventh city in size
in the United States.
=BUFFALO=
FACTS TO REMEMBER
Population (1920), over 500,000 (506,775).
Eleventh city according to population.
Important lake port.
One of the best harbors on the Great Lakes.
Located at the western end of the Erie Canal.
Great transfer point between lake boats and canal boats and railroads.
Important railroad center.
Center for live-stock trade.
Important center for wheat, lumber, meat packing, and the iron and
steel industries.
Electric light and power obtained from Niagara Falls.
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY
1. How did it happen that the people of New York first came to settle
west of the Appalachian Mountains, and where were these first
settlements?
2. Tell about the beginning of Buffalo, and give its original name.
3. What was the first route from Albany to Buffalo, and why was it
used? How was the journey made between 1811 and 1825?
4. Tell the story of the Erie Canal, and give its effect on Buffalo
and the West.
5. How did Buffalo's location make it one of the great centers of
industry?
6. What three things are necessary to success in manufacturing?
7. How is Buffalo furnished with power for her great manufacturing
interests?
8. Where does Buffalo find a market for her products? How?
9. What great steel company is located near this city? Why?
10. Describe the wonderful coke ovens and blast furnaces near Buffalo.
11. Give some idea of Buffalo's flour mills, slaughter houses, and
lumber yards, and of her importance in these industries.
12. What do you know of Niagara Falls and the power plants on both
sides of the Niagara River?
SAN FRANCISCO
The United States extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and just as
New York is our leading seaport on the Atlantic, so San Francisco is the
leading seaport on the Pacific.
San Francisco's history is inseparably connected with the development of
the resources of California. In 1769 Spain sent an expedition overland
from Mexico to colonize the Pacific coast, and Don Gaspar de Portolá, at
the head of these colonists, was the first white man known to have looked
upon San Francisco Bay.
Seven years later, in 1776, the Franciscan friars built a fortified
settlement on the present site of San Francisco. The Mission Dolores,
which is still standing, was begun the same year, and a little village
slowly grew up around it.
At the close of the Mexican War, in 1848, California was ceded to the
United States, and the Stars and Stripes were raised over the little
settlement, whose name was soon changed from Yerba Buena to San
Francisco.
In 1848, too, came the discovery of gold in California, and San Francisco
suddenly grew from a Spanish village to a busy American town. The
population jumped from 800 to 10,000 in a single year. A city of tents
and shanties quickly arose on the sand dunes. Thousands of people were
leaving their homes in the East to seek a fortune in the gold fields.
Many came by water, either rounding Cape Horn or else traveling by boat
to the Isthmus of Panama, crossing on foot, and reëmbarking on the
Pacific coast. Others came overland in large canvas-covered wagons called
prairie schooners.
These newcomers were men of all classes--ministers, lawyers, farmers,
laborers. Some were educated, others were ignorant. While most of them
were industrious and law-abiding, a considerable number were desperate
and lawless men. These last caused much trouble. Gambling, murders, and
crimes of all kinds were alarmingly common, and the city government was
powerless to punish the lawbreakers. Finally, the better class of
citizens formed a vigilance committee, which hung four criminals and
punished many in other ways until law and order were established.
San Francisco has been called the "child of the mines." It was the
discovery of gold that first made it the leading city of the Pacific
coast. From that day the production of gold has been steadily maintained.
Nearly $20,000,000 worth is mined in the state of California each year,
with a total production of over $1,500,000,000. Later the silver mines in
Nevada were discovered and developed, and their immense output brought
increased wealth to San Francisco.
As time went on, however, people began to see that California's real
wealth lay not so much in her mines as in her fertile farm lands. These,
combined with the wonderful climate, have made California a leading
agricultural state.
[Illustration: AN ORANGE GROVE]
The great central valley of California, about 400 miles long and 50 miles
wide, lies between the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Coast Ranges. Its
farms, orchards, orange groves, and vineyards produce immense quantities
of grain, and of grapes, and other fruits. Large numbers of cattle and
sheep are raised. In the southern counties many tropical fruits are grown
successfully. Irrigated groves of orange, lemon, and olive trees cover
thousands of acres. Other important crops are English walnuts, almonds,
prunes, and figs. Copper, silver, oil, quicksilver, and salt are also
valuable products, while the forest-covered mountains supply excellent
lumber. Such is the wealth of California's natural resources, and San
Francisco is the great port and market of this rich back country.
[Illustration: PICKING GRAPES]
As the Sacramento River flows into San Francisco Bay from the north and
the San Joaquin from the south, the two offer cheap transportation up and
down their valleys, being navigable to river steamers for over 200 miles.
The great bay of San Francisco is the largest landlocked harbor in the
world. Here the navies of all the nations could ride at anchor side by
side in safety. Though 65 miles long and from 4 to 10 miles wide, the bay
is completely sheltered from dangerous winds and storms. It is connected
with the Pacific Ocean by a strait called the Golden Gate, which is
2-3/4 miles long and over a mile wide.
[Illustration: THE GOLDEN GATE]
Such advantages have made San Francisco a great commercial and financial
center. Ships from San Francisco carry the products of California
westward to all the countries bordering on the Pacific, while others sail
to the Atlantic seaports of America and Europe.
The outgoing steamers are loaded with wheat, cotton, canned goods, oil,
barley, prunes, flour, dried fruits, leather, machinery, lumber, and iron
manufactures. Incoming steamers bring raw silk, coffee, tea, copra,
nitrate of soda, tin ingots, sugar, rice, cigars, coal, burlap, vanilla
beans, cheese, and manila hemp.
[Illustration: THE SITE OF SAN FRANCISCO]
Already the foreign commerce of San Francisco amounts to more than
$150,000,000 annually, and with the increasing trade of Japan and China
and the shortened route to the Atlantic through the Panama Canal, the
future of its foreign trade cannot be estimated.
[Illustration: A FLOWER MARKET]
In addition to her foreign trade, San Francisco has many growing
industries at home. Printing and publishing, slaughtering and meat
packing, are among the most important. The canning and preserving of
fruits and vegetables is a leading industry of the city. The California
Fruit Canners Association employs many thousands of people during the
fruit season and is the largest fruit-and-vegetable canning company in
the world. It operates thirty branches throughout the state, and its
products are sent to all parts of the globe.
Though iron has to be imported,--there being little mined in
California,--the city does a thriving iron business. In the early days
there was need of mining machinery in the West, and San Francisco at that
time began manufacturing it. She also has one of the greatest
shipbuilding plants in the United States. The famous battleship _Oregon_,
the _Olympic_, the _Wisconsin_, the _Ohio_, and other ships of the
United States Navy were built in San Francisco.
[Illustration: THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO]
In 1906 a severe earthquake shook San Francisco, wrecking many buildings.
Fire broke out in twenty places, and as the earthquake had broken the
city's water mains, the fire fighters had to pump salt water from the bay
and use dynamite to stop the progress of the flames. During the three
days of the fire, four square miles were laid in ruins.
[Illustration: ON SAN FRANCISCO'S WATER FRONT]
Because of occasional slight shocks in former years, the inhabitants had
built their city of wood, thinking it safer than brick or stone. They had
not thought of the greater danger of fire. This earthquake taught them a
lesson. The few skyscrapers in the city had stood the shock remarkably
well, and profiting by this experience thousands of modern
structures--steel, brick, and reënforced concrete--were built to replace
the old wooden buildings. A far more modern and beautiful city has arisen
from the ashes of the ruins.
[Illustration: CHINATOWN]
The city occupies 46-1/2 square miles at the end of the southern
peninsula which lies between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The
site of the city is hilly, especially in the northern and western parts.
Market Street, 120 feet wide and the chief business thoroughfare, extends
southwest from the water front and divides the city into two parts. The
southern district contains many manufacturing plants and the homes of the
laboring people. The streets here are level. North of Market Street lie
three high hills--Telegraph Hill, Nob Hill, and Russian Hill. In this
half of the city are the finest residences, Nob Hill having been given
its name in the early days when the mining millionaires built their homes
upon it.
[Illustration: THE UNION FERRY BUILDING]
The main business section is in the northeastern part of the city, facing
the harbor, and is on level ground. It contains hundreds of new office
buildings, many of them from eight to twenty or more stories high. Fine
modern hotels and beautiful banks add much to the beauty of this part of
San Francisco. The most important public buildings are the United States
mint and the post office, which escaped the flames in 1906, the
customhouse, the Hall of Justice, the new Auditorium, and the city hall.
These last two face the Civic Center, which is being created at a cost of
nearly $17,000,000.
At the foot of Telegraph Hill is the largest Chinese quarter in the
United States. It was completely destroyed during the fire, but is now
rebuilt and much improved. Its temples, joss houses, and theaters, its
markets, bazaars, and restaurants, with their strange life and customs
and their oriental architecture, attract crowds of visitors. There are
now about 10,000 Chinese in San Francisco, but their number has been
steadily decreasing since the Exclusion Act was passed, prohibiting
Chinese laborers from entering this country. It was thought necessary to
have this law in order to protect the American workingman on the Pacific
coast, as the Chinese laborers who had already been admitted were working
for wages upon which no white man could live.
[Illustration: FISHERMAN'S WHARF]
At the foot of Market Street, on the water front, stands the Union Ferry
Building, a large stone structure with a high clock tower.
Only one of the cross-continent railroads--a branch of the Southern
Pacific--lands its passengers in the city of San Francisco. All the other
roads, which include the main line of the Southern Pacific, the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, the Union Pacific, and the Western Pacific,
terminate on the eastern shore of the bay and send the travelers to San
Francisco by ferry. In consequence, San Francisco has developed the best
ferry service in the world, all lines meeting at the Union Ferry
Building.
[Illustration: MT. TAMALPAIS FROM NOB HILL]
North and south of the Union Ferry Building stretch eight miles of
wharves and docks and many factories, lumber yards, and warehouses. At
the docks, ships are being loaded and unloaded continually.
In March and April each year a fleet of forty or fifty vessels starts out
for the Alaskan fisheries. San Francisco is the leading salmon port of
the United States, distributing millions of dollars' worth of salmon
yearly. Fisherman's Wharf, at the northern end of the water front, is
full of interest, with its brown, weather-beaten fishermen and their odd
fishing boats. To the south of the Union Ferry Building is "Man-of-war
Row," where United States and foreign battleships ride at anchor.
[Illustration: PRESIDIO TERRACE]
The cities of Alameda, Oakland, Richmond, and Berkeley are directly
across the bay from San Francisco, on the east shore. Like New York, San
Francisco is the center of a large metropolitan district, and the
residents of these neighboring cities daily travel to their work in San
Francisco on the ferries. For several years there has been talk of
uniting these cities with San Francisco. If this plan were carried out,
it would add over 350,000 to San Francisco's present population, which is
between 400,000 and 500,000.
[Illustration: THE TOWER OF JEWELS OF THE PANAMA-PACIFIC EXPOSITION]
The University of California, in Berkeley, has nearly 7000 students,
tuition being free to residents of California. The Leland Stanford
University, 30 miles from San Francisco, is another noted institution in
the state.
[Illustration: IN GOLDEN GATE PARK]
To the north of the Golden Gate is Mt. Tamalpais, 2592 feet high,
overlooking the bay and San Francisco. To the south is the Presidio, the
United States military reservation, covering 1542 acres. Here are the
harbor fortifications and the headquarters of the western division of the
United States Army. Fronting on the ocean beach and extending eastward
for 4 miles is Golden Gate Park, the largest of San Francisco's many
parks and squares.
[Illustration: IN FRONT OF THE EXPOSITION'S PALACE OF FINE ARTS]
Occupying part of the Presidio and facing the water at the northern end
of the city is the site of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition,
held in 1915 to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal. That the
citizens of San Francisco look to the future was shown at a gathering of
business men in 1910, when more than $4,000,000 was raised in two hours
for this Panama exposition. The climate of the city (averaging more than
50 degrees in winter and less than 60 degrees in summer), the beauties
and wonders of California, the romantic history of the city, exhibits
from many parts of the world--all these, the citizens knew, would attract
thousands of visitors from afar and make known to the world the
advantages and prosperity of the Far West and its chief city, San
Francisco.
=SAN FRANCISCO=
FACTS TO REMEMBER
Population (1910), over 400,000 (416,912).
Eleventh city according to population.
Largest city of the Western States.
One of the finest harbors in the world.
The natural shipping point for the products of the rich state of
California.
Chief center for the trade of the United States with the Orient.
Leads all American cities in the shipment of wheat.
Has great canning and preserving industries.
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY
1. Find by measurements on a map of the United States the distance of
San Francisco from New York City in a direct line.
2. Find by consulting time tables or by inquiry of some railroad
official how long it would take to make the journey from New York
to San Francisco, and what railroad system might be used. Answer
this question, applying it to your own city.
3. Who founded San Francisco, and what was it first called?
4. When and how did San Francisco become an American possession?
5. Of what was the great wealth of California supposed to consist at
first? What is the great wealth of the state considered to be
to-day?
6. What are the chief exports of the city, and to what countries are
they sent?
7. What are the chief imports of the city?
8. What are the great advantages of San Francisco Bay?
9. When did the great fire at San Francisco occur, and what damage was
done?
10. What benefit will San Francisco derive from the completion of the
Panama Canal?
11. Why is the ferry system of San Francisco so important?
12. Name four cities across the bay from San Francisco, and tell how
they are related to that city.
13. Tell something of the fishing industry of San Francisco.
14. Does the name "Golden Gate" seem appropriate to you? Why?
15. Name the chief industries of San Francisco.
16. Describe the location of the city.
17. Find out how many days' journey by steamship are the following
places from San Francisco:
Honolulu Shanghai
Manila Yokohama
Sydney Buenos Aires
NEW ORLEANS
The story of New Orleans, the Crescent City, reads like a wonderful
romance or a tale from the Arabian Nights. As in a moving picture, one
can see men making a clearing along the east bank of the Mississippi
River, one hundred and ten miles from its mouth. It is 1718. The French
Canadian Bienville has been made governor of the great tract of land
called Louisiana, and he has decided to found a settlement near the
river's mouth.
At the end of three years the little French town, named for the duke of
Orleans, stands peacefully on the banks of the great Mississippi, its
people buying, selling, fighting duels, and steadily thriving until the
close of the French and Indian War. Then France cedes Louisiana to Spain,
and for some years New Orleans is under Spanish rule. In 1800, however,
Spain cedes Louisiana back to France, and once more New Orleans has a
French commissioner and is a French possession.
Again the scene changes. Energetic, sturdy men sail down the river, land
in the quaint little town, and march to the Cabildo, or Government Hall,
where they receive the keys of the town. Because of the Louisiana
Purchase, New Orleans with all its inhabitants--Spanish, French,
Italians, and Jews--is being given over to the United States. The French
flag is taken down, and the Stars and Stripes are unfurled over what was,
and is to-day, the least American of all American cities.
[Illustration: WHERE NEW ORLEANS STANDS]
As the history of New Orleans unrolls, one follows the thrilling scenes
of a great battle. It is in the War of 1812, and on the last day of
December, 1814, the British begin an attack on the city, with an army of
10,000 trained soldiers. They mean to capture New Orleans and gain
control of Louisiana and the mouth of the Mississippi.
Andrew Jackson commands the American forces, made up of regulars,
militia, pirates, negroes, and volunteers, numbering only about half the
attacking British army. Day after day goes by with no great victory
gained on either side, until Sunday, January 8, dawns. With the daylight,
the British commence a furious assault. But Jackson and his men are ready
for them. Rushing back and forth along his line of defense, the commander
cries out, "Stand by your guns!" "See that every shot tells!" "Let's
finish the business to-day!" Many of Jackson's men are sharpshooters.
Time and again they aim and fire, and time and again the enemy advance,
fall back, rally, and try to advance once more. But in three short hours
the British leader and more than 2500 men have dropped, hundreds shot
between the eyes. It is no use! In confusion the British turn and flee.
Jackson has saved the city.
[Illustration: THE CABILDO]
In the Civil War the turn of affairs is different. Louisiana was one of
the seven states to secede from the Union in 1860 and form themselves
into the Confederate States of America. Of course this made New Orleans a
Confederate city. Naturally, the north wanted to capture New Orleans in
order to control the mouth of the Mississippi River. This time the
attacking force is a Union fleet, and the defenders of the city are
stanch Confederates who have done all in their power to prevent the
approach of the Northerners. Across the river, near its mouth, two great
cables have been stretched, and between the cables and the city are a
Confederate fleet and two forts, one on each side of the river.
The Union fleet under David Farragut appears, opens fire on the forts,
and keeps up the attack for six days and nights. Still the forts hold
out. Then Farragut decides that since he cannot take the forts he will
run his ships past them. But there are the cables blocking his way. The
steamer _Itasca_ undertakes to break them and rushes upon them under a
raking fire from both forts. The cables snap. That night the Union ships,
in single file, start up the river. At last the forts are passed and the
Confederate ships overcome, but not the spirit of the people of New
Orleans. They fight to the finish as best they can. Cotton bales are
piled on rafts, set afire, and floated downstream among the Union ships.
Still the ships come on. At least the Northerners shall not take the
valuable stores of cotton, sugar, and molasses! So the cotton ships are
fired, and hogsheads of molasses and barrels of sugar are hurriedly
destroyed. When the Union forces land and takes possession, the people of
New Orleans, though heartbroken, know that they have done their best.
Then comes peace. The war is over, and New Orleans is once more a city of
the United States.
To-day New Orleans presents the unusual combination of an old city, full
of historic interest, and a splendid new city, a place of industry,
progress, and opportunity.
The successful building of a great city on the site of New Orleans is a
triumph of engineering skill. As the city lies below the high-water mark
of the Mississippi, it was necessary to build great banks of earth to
hold back the water in the flood season. These levees, as they are
called, form the water front of the city.
In the early days the only drinking-water in New Orleans was rain water
caught from the roofs and stored in cisterns. Imagine a city without a
single cellar. Then not even a grave could be dug in the marshy soil. The
cemeteries were all aboveground. In some cemeteries there were tiers of
little vaults, one above the other, in which the dead were laid. In
others, magnificent tombs provided resting places for the wealthy. Such
was old New Orleans. To-day modern sewers and huge steam pumps draw off
the sewage and excess water, discharging them into the river, while a
splendid water system filters water taken from higher up the river,
giving a supply as pure as that enjoyed by any city in our land. The
marshes have been drained by the construction of canals, which are used
as highways for bringing raw materials from the surrounding country to
the factories of New Orleans. Many of these canals extend for miles into
the interior of the state of Louisiana.
[Illustration: THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS]
The city proper covers nearly two hundred square miles and is laid out in
beautiful streets, parks, and driveways, crossed in many places by
picturesque waterways. Here are splendid trees, belonging both to the
temperate zone and to the tropics. Palms and cypresses abound. In the
City Park is one of the finest groves of live oaks in the world. Audubon
Park, named for the great lover of birds, who was born near this city,
is another of the beautiful parks of New Orleans.
[Illustration: CANAL STREET]