[1] The English word "mason" is from the French, which appears in the
two forms, _machun_ and _masson_ (from the last comes the modern Fr.
form _maçon_, which means indifferently a bricklayer or mason). In O.
H. Ger. the word is _mezzo_, which survives in the German for a
stone-mason, _Steinmetz_. The med. Lat. form, _machio_, was connected
with _machina_--obviously a guess. The Low Lat., _macheria_ or
_maceria_ (see Du Cange, _Glossarium_, s.v. _macio_), a wall, has
been suggested as showing some connexion. Some popular Lat. form as
_macio_ or _mattio_ is probably the origin. No Teut. word, according
to the _New English Dictionary_, except that which appears in
"mattock," seems to have any bearing on the ultimate origin.
MASPERO, GASTON CAMILLE CHARLES (1846- ), French Egyptologist, was
born in Paris on the 23rd of June 1846, his parents being of Lombard
origin. While at school he showed a special taste for history, and when
fourteen years old was already interested in hieroglyphic writing. It
was not until his second year at the École Normale in 1867 that Maspero
met with an Egyptologist in the person of Mariette, who was then in
Paris as commissioner for the Egyptian section of the exhibition.
Mariette gave him two newly discovered hieroglyphic texts of
considerable difficulty to study, and, self-taught, the young scholar
produced translations of them in less than a fortnight, a great feat in
those days when Egyptology was still almost in its infancy. The
publication of these in the same year established his reputation. A
short time was spent in assisting a gentleman in Peru, who was seeking
to prove an Aryan affinity for the dialects spoken by the Indians of
that country, to publish his researches; but in 1868 Maspero was back in
France at more profitable work. In 1869 he became a teacher
(_répétiteur_) of Egyptian language and archaeology at the École des
Hautes Études; in 1874 he was appointed to the chair of Champollion at
the Collège de France.
In November 1880 Professor Maspero went to Egypt as head of an
archaeological mission despatched thither by the French government,
which ultimately developed into the well-equipped Institut Français de
l'Archéologie Oriental. This was but a few months before the death of
Mariette, whom Maspero then succeeded as director-general of excavations
and of the antiquities of Egypt. He held this post till June 1886; in
these five years he had organized the mission, and his labours for the
Bulak museum and for archaeology had been early rewarded by the
discovery of the great cache of royal mummies at Deir el-Bahri in July
1881. Maspero now resumed his professorial duties in Paris until 1899,
when he returned to Egypt in his old capacity as director-general of the
department of antiquities. He found the collections in the Cairo Museum
enormously increased, and he superintended their removal from Gizeh to
the new quarters at Kasr en-Nil in 1902. The vast catalogue of the
collections made rapid progress under Maspero's direction. Twenty-four
volumes or sections were already published in 1909. The repairs and
clearances at the temple of Karnak, begun in his previous tenure of
office, led to the most remarkable discoveries in later years (see
KARNAK), during which a vast amount of excavation and exploration has
been carried on also by unofficial but authorized explorers of many
nationalities.
Among his best-known publications are the large _Histoire ancienne des
peuples de l'Orient classique_ (3 vols., Paris, 1895-1897, translated
into English by Mrs McClure for the S.P.C.K.), displaying the history
of the whole of the nearer East from the beginnings to the conquest by
Alexander; a smaller _Histoire des peuples de l'Orient_, 1 vol., of
the same scope, which has passed through six editions from 1875 to
1904; _Études de mythologie et d'archéologie égyptiennes_ (Paris,
1893, &c.), a collection of reviews and essays originally published in
various journals, and especially important as contributions to the
study of Egyptian religion; _L'Archéologie égyptienne_ (latest ed.,
1907), of which several editions have been published in English. He
also established the journal _Recueil de travaux relatifs à la
philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes_; the
_Bibliothèque égyptologique_, in which the scattered essays of the
French Egyptologists are collected, with biographies, &c.; and the
_Annales du service des antiquités de l'Égypte_, a repository for
reports on official excavations, &c.
Maspero also wrote: _Les Inscriptions des pyramides de Saqqaroh_
(Paris, 1894); _Les Momies royales de Deir el-Baharî_ (Paris, 1889);
_Les Contes populaires de l'Égypte ancienne_ (3rd ed., Paris, 1906);
_Causeries d'Égypte_ (1907), translated by Elizabeth Lee as _New Light
on Ancient Egypt_ (1908).
MASS (O.E. _maesse_; Fr. _messe_; Ger. _Messe_; Ital. _messa_; from
eccl. Lat. _missa_), a name for the Christian eucharistic service,
practically confined since the Reformation to that of the Roman Catholic
Church. The various orders for the celebration of Mass are dealt with
under LITURGY; a detailed account of the Roman order is given under
MISSAL; and the general development of the eucharistic service,
including the Mass, is described in the article EUCHARIST. The present
article is confined (1) to the consideration of certain special meanings
which have become attached to the word Mass and are the subject of
somewhat acute controversy, (2) to the Mass in music.
The origin of the word _missa_, as applied to the Eucharist, is obscure.
The first to discuss the matter is Isidore of Seville (_Etym._ vi. 19),
who mentions an "evening office" (_officium vespertinum_), a "morning
office" (_officium matutinum_), and an office called _missa_. Of the
latter he says: "Missa tempore sacrificii est, quando catechumeni foras
mittuntur, clamante levita 'si quis catechumenus remansit, exeat foras.'
Et inde 'missa,' quia sacramentis altaris interesse non possunt, qui
nondum regenerati sunt" ("The _missa_ is at the time of the sacrifice,
when the catechumens are sent out, the deacon crying, 'If any catechumen
remain, let him go forth.'" Hence _missa_, because those who are as yet
unregenerate--i.e. unbaptized--may not be present at the sacraments of
the altar). This derivation of the word Mass, which would connect it
with the special formula of dismissal still preserved in the Roman
liturgy--_Ite, missa est_--once generally accepted, is now disputed. It
is pointed out that the word _missa_ long continued to be applied to any
church service, and more particularly to the lections (see Du Cange for
numerous examples), and it is held that such services received their
name of _missal_ from the solemn form of dismissal with which it was
customary to conclude them; thus, in the 4th century _Pilgrimage of
Etheria_ (_Silvia_) the word _missa_ is used indiscriminately of the
Eucharist, other services, and the ceremony of dismissal. F. Kattenbusch
(Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklop. s._ "Messe") ingeniously, but with little
evidence, suggests that the word may have had a double origin and
meaning: (1) in the sense of _dimissio_, "dismissal"; (2) in that of
_commissio_, "commission," "official duty," i.e. the exact Latin
equivalent of the Greek [Greek: leitourgia] (see LITURGY), and hence the
conflicting use of the term. It is, however, far more probable that it
was a general term that gradually became crystallized as applying to
that service in which the dismissal represented a more solemn function.
In the narrower sense of "Mass" it is first found in St Ambrose (_Ep._
20, 4, ed. Ballerini): "Missam facere coepi. Dum offero ..." which
evidently identifies the _missa_ with the sacrifice. It continued,
however, to be used loosely, though its tendency to become proper only
to the principal Christian service is clear from a passage in the 12th
homily of Caesarius, bishop of Arles (d. 542): "If you will diligently
attend, you will recognize that _missae_ are not celebrated when the
divine readings are recited in the church, but when gifts are offered
and the Body and Blood of the Lord are consecrated." The complete
service (_missa ad integrum_), the bishop goes on to say, cannot be had
at home by reading and prayer, but only in the house of God, where,
besides the Eucharist, "the divine word is preached and the blessing is
given to the people."
Whatever its origin, the word Mass had by the time of the Reformation
been long applied only to the Eucharist; and, though in itself a
perfectly colourless term, and used as such during the earlier stages of
the 16th century controversies concerning the Eucharist, it soon became
identified with that sacrificial aspect of the sacrament of the altar
which it was the chief object of the Reformers to overthrow. In England,
so late as the first Prayer-book of Edward VI., it remained one of the
official designations of the Eucharist, which is there described as "The
Supper of the Lorde and holy Communion, commonly called the Masse."
This, however, like the service itself, represented a compromise which
the more extreme reformers would not tolerate, and in the second
Prayer-book, together with such language in the canon as might imply the
doctrine of transubstantiation and of the sacrifice, the word Mass also
disappears. That this abolition of the word Mass, as implying the
offering of Christ's Body and Blood by the priest for the living and the
dead was deliberate is clear from the language of those who were chiefly
responsible for the change. Bishops Ridley and Latimer, the two most
conspicuous champions of "the new religion," denounced "the Mass" with
unmeasured violence; Latimer said of "Mistress Missa" that "the devil
hath brought her in again"; Ridley said: "I do not take the Mass as it
is at this day for the communion of the Church, but for a popish
device," &c. (_Works_, ed. Parker Soc., pp. 121, 120), and again: "In
the stead of the Lord's holy table they give the people, with much
solemn disguising, a thing which they call their mass; but in deed and
in truth it is a very masking and mockery of the true Supper of the
Lord, or rather I may call it a crafty juggling, whereby these false
thieves and jugglers have bewitched the minds of the simple people ...
unto pernicious idolatory" (ib. p. 409). This language is reflected in
the 31st of the Articles of Religion of the Church of England:
"Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in which it was commonly said that
the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have
remission of pain and guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous
deceits." Clearly the word Mass had ceased to be a colourless term
generally applicable to the eucharistic service; it was, in fact, not
only proscribed officially, but in the common language of English people
it passed entirely out of use except in the sense in which it is defined
in Johnson's Dictionary, i.e. that of the "Service of the Romish Church
at the celebration of the Eucharist." In connexion with the Catholic
reaction in the Church of England, which had its origin in the "Oxford
Movement" of the 19th century, efforts have been made by some of the
clergy to reintroduce the term "Mass" for the Holy Communion in the
English Church.
See Du Cange, _Glossarium_, s.v. "Missa"; F. Kattenbusch in
Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_ (ed. 1903), s.v. "Messe,
dogmengeschichtlich"; for the facts as to the use of the word "Mass"
at the time of the Reformation see the article by J. H. Round in the
_Nineteenth Century_ for May 1897. (W. A. P.)
MASS, IN MUSIC: 1. _Polyphonic Masses._--The composition of musical
settings of the Mass plays a part in the history of music which is of
special importance up to and including the 16th century. As an art-form
the musical Mass is governed to a peculiar degree by the structure of
its text. It so happens that the supremely important parts of the Mass
are those which have the smallest number of words, namely the _Kyrie_,
important as being the opening prayer; the _Sanctus_ and _Benedictus_,
embodying the central acts and ideas of the service; and the _Agnus
Dei_, the prayer with which it concludes. The 16th-century methods were
specially fitted for highly developed music when words were few and
embodied ideas of such important emotional significance or finality that
they could be constantly repeated without losing force. Now the texts of
the _Gloria_ and _Credo_ were more voluminous than any others which
16th-century composers attempted to handle in a continuous scheme. The
practical limits of the church service made it impossible to break them
up by setting each clause to a separate movement, a method by which
16th-century music composers contrived to set psalms and other long
texts to compositions lasting an hour or longer. Accordingly, Palestrina
and his great contemporaries and predecessors treated the _Gloria_ and
_Credo_ in a style midway in polyphonic organization and rhythmic
breadth between that of the elaborate motet (adopted in the _Sanctus_)
and the homophonic reciting style of the Litany. The various ways in
which this special style could be modified by the scale of the work, and
contrasted with the broader and more elaborate parts, gave the Mass
(even in its merely technical aspects) a range which made it to the
16th-century composer what the symphony is to the great instrumental
classics. Moreover, as being inseparably associated with the highest act
of worship, it inspired composers in direct proportion to their piety
and depth of mind. Of course there were many false methods of attacking
the art-problem, and many other relationships, true and false, between
the complexity of the settings of the various parts of the Mass and of
motets. The story of the action of the council of Trent on the subject
of corruption of church music is told elsewhere (see MUSIC and
PALESTRINA); and it has been recently paralleled by a decree of Pope
Pius X., which has restored the 16th-century polyphonic Mass to a
permanent place in the Roman Catholic Church music.
2. _Instrumental Masses in the Neapolitan Form._--The next definite
stage in the musical history of the Mass was attained by the Neapolitan
composers who were first to reach musical coherence after the monodic
revolution at the beginning of the 17th century. The fruit of their
efforts came to maturity in the Masses of Mozart and Haydn. By this time
the resources of music were such that the long and varied text of the
_Gloria_ and _Credo_ inevitably either overbalanced the scheme or met
with an obviously perfunctory treatment. It is almost impossible,
without asceticism of a radically inartistic kind, to treat with the
resources of instrumental music and free harmony such passages as that
from the _Crucifixus_ to the _Resurrexit_, without an emotional contrast
which inevitably throws any natural treatment of the _Sanctus_ into the
background, and makes the _Agnus Dei_ an inadequate conclusion to the
musical scheme. So unfavourable were the conditions of 18th-century
music for the formation of a good ecclesiastical style that only a very
small proportion of Mozart's and Haydn's Mass music may be said to
represent their ideas of religious music at all. The best features of
their Masses are those that combine faithfulness to the Neapolitan forms
with a contrapuntal richness such as no Neapolitan composer ever
achieved. Thus Mozart's most perfect as well as most ecclesiastical
example is his extremely terse Mass in F, written at the age of
seventeen, which is scored simply for four-part chorus and solo voices
accompanied by the organ with a largely independent bass and by two
violins mostly in independent real parts. This scheme, with the addition
of a pair of trumpets and drums and, occasionally, oboes, forms the
normal orchestra of 18th-century Masses developed or degenerated from
this model. Trombones often played with the three lower voices, a
practice of high antiquity surviving from a time when there were soprano
trombones or _cornetti_ (_Zincken_, a sort of treble _serpent_) to play
with the sopranos.
3. _Symphonic Masses._--The enormous dramatic development in the
symphonic music of Beethoven made the problem of the Mass with
orchestral accompaniment almost insoluble. This makes it all the more
remarkable that Beethoven's second and only important Mass (in D, _Op._
123) is not only the most dramatic ever penned but is, perhaps, the last
classical Mass that is thoughtfully based upon the liturgy, and is not a
mere musical setting of what happens to be a liturgic text. It was
intended for the installation of Beethoven's friend, the archduke
Rudolph, as archbishop of Olmütz; and, though not ready until two years
after that occasion, it shows the most careful consideration of the
meaning of a church service, no doubt of altogether exceptional length
and pomp, but by no means impossible for its unique occasion. Immense as
was Beethoven's dramatic force, it was equalled by his power of sublime
repose; and he was accordingly able once more to put the supreme moment
of the music where the service requires it to be, viz. in the _Sanctus_
and _Benedictus_. In the _Agnus Dei_ the circumstances of the time gave
him something special to say which has never so imperatively demanded
utterance since. Europe had been shattered by the Napoleonic wars.
Beethoven read the final prayer of the Mass as a "prayer for inward and
outward peace," and, giving it that title, organized it on the basis of
a contrast between terrible martial sounds and the triumph of peaceful
themes, in a scheme none the less spiritual and sublime because those
who first heard it had derived their notions of the horror of war from
living in Vienna during its bombardment. Critics who have lived in
London during the relief of Mafeking have blamed Beethoven for his
realism.
Schubert's Masses show rather the influence of Beethoven's not very
impressive first Mass, which they easily surpass in interest, though
they rather pathetically show an ignorance of the meaning of the Latin
words. The last two Masses are later than Beethoven's Mass in D and
contain many remarkable passages. It is evident from them that a
dramatic treatment of the _Agnus Dei_ was "in the air"; all the more so,
since Schubert does not imitate Beethoven's realism.
4. _Lutheran Masses._--Music with Latin words is not excluded from the
Lutheran Church, and the _Kyrie_ and _Gloria_ are frequently sung in
succession and entitled a Mass. Thus the _Four Short Masses_ of Bach are
called short, not because they are on a small scale, which is far from
being the case, but because they consist only of the _Kyrie_ and
_Gloria_. Bach's method is to treat each clause of his text as a
separate movement, alternating choruses with groups of arias; a method
which was independently adopted by Mozart in those larger masses in
which he transcends the Neapolitan type, such as the great unfinished
Mass in C minor. This method, in the case of an entire Mass, results in
a length far too great for a Roman Catholic service; and Bach's B minor
Mass, which is such a setting of the entire test, must be regarded as a
kind of oratorio. It thus has obviously nothing to do with the Roman
liturgy; but as an independent setting of the text it is one of the most
sublime and profoundly religious works in all art; and its singular
perfection as a design is nowhere more evident than in its numerous
adaptations of earlier works.
The most interesting of all these adaptations is the setting of the
words: "Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi
saeculi.--AMEN." Obviously the greatest difficulty in any elaborate
instrumental setting of the _Credo_ is the inevitable anti-climax after
the _Resurrexit_. Bach contrives to give this anti-climax a definite
artistic value; all the more from the fact that his _Crucifixus_ and
_Resurrexit_, and the contrast between them, are among the most sublime
and directly impressive things in all music. To the end of his
_Resurrexit_ chorus he appends an orchestral _ritornello_, summing up
the material of the chorus in the most formal possible way, and thereby
utterly destroying all sense of finality as a member of a large group,
while at the same time not in the least impairing the force and contrast
of the whole--that contrast having ineffaceably asserted itself at the
moment when it occurred. After this the aria "Et in spiritum sanctum,"
in which the next dogmatic clauses are enshrined like relics in a
casket, furnishes a beautiful decorative design on which the listener
can repose his mind; and then comes the voluminous ecclesiastical fugue,
_Confiteor unum baptisma_, leading, as through the door and world-wide
spaces of the Catholic Church, to that veil which is not all darkness to
the eye of faith. At the words "Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum" the
music plunges suddenly into a slow series of some of the most sublime
and mysterious modulations ever written, until it breaks out as suddenly
into a _vivace e allegro_ of broad but terse design, which comes to its
climax very rapidly and ends as abruptly as possible, the last chord
being carefully written as a short note without a pause. This gives the
utmost possible effect of finality to the whole _Credo_, and contrasts
admirably with the coldly formal instrumental end of the _Resurrexit_
three movements further back. Now, such subtleties seem as if they must
be unconscious on the part of the composer; yet here Bach is so far
aware of his reasons that his _vivace e allegro_ is an arrangement of
the second chorus of a church cantata, _Gott man lobet dich in der
Stille_; and in the cantata the chorus has introductory and final
symphonies and a middle section with a _da capo!_
5. _The Requiem._--The _Missa pro defunctis_ or _Requiem Mass_ has a far
less definite musical history than the ordinary Mass; and such special
musical forms as it has produced have little in common with each other.
The text of the _Dies Irae_ so imperatively demands either a very
dramatic elaboration or none at all, that even in the 16th century it
could not possibly be set to continuous music on the lines of the
_Gloria_ and _Credo_. Fortunately, however, the Gregorian _canto fermo_
associated with it is of exceptional beauty and symmetry; and the great
16th century masters either, like Palestrina, left it to be sung as
plain-chant, or obviated all occasion for dramatic expression by setting
it in versicles (like their settings of the _Magnificat_ and other
canticles) for two groups of voices alternatively, or for the choir in
alternation with the plain chant of the priests.
With modern orchestral conditions the text seems positively to demand an
unecclesiastical, not to say sensational, style, and probably the only
instrumental Requiem Masses which can be said to be great church music
are the sublime unfinished work of Mozart (the antecedents of which
would be a very interesting subject) and the two beautiful works by
Cherubini. These latter, however, tend to be funereal rather than
uplifting. The only other artistic solution of the problem is to follow
Berlioz, Verdi and Dvorák in the complete renunciation of all
ecclesiastical style.
Brahms's _Deutsches requiem_ has nothing to do with the Mass for the
dead, being simply a large choral work on a text compiled from the Bible
by the composer. (D. F. T.)
MASSA, a town of Tuscany, Italy, the joint capital with Carrara of the
province of Massa and Carrara, and sharing with it the episcopal see, 20
m. S.E. of Spezia by rail, 246 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 10,559
(town); 26,118 (commune). The Palazzo Ducale (now the prefecture) was
erected in 1701, and was a summer residence of Napoleon's sister, Elisa
Baciocchi, princess of Lucca, who caused the ancient cathedral opposite
to be destroyed. The hills round the town yield marble, and there is a
narrow-gauge railway to the Marina d'Avenza, where the marble is
shipped.
MASSACHUSETTS (an Indian name, originally applied to a tribe of
Indians), one of the original thirteen states of the American Union,
bounded on the N. by Vermont and New Hampshire, on the E. by the
Atlantic, on the S. by Rhode Island and Connecticut, and on the W. by
New York. It lies approximately between 41° 15´ and 42° 50´ N. lat. and
69° 55´ and 73° 30´ W. long. The bulk of its area--which is about 8266
sq. m. (of which 227 are water)--forms a parallelogram of 130 m. E. and
W., 46 m. N. and S., the additional area lying in a projection at the
S.E. and a lesser one at the N.E., which give the mainland a breadth of
90 m. where it borders upon the ocean, while the general irregularity of
the coast-line gives a sea frontage of about 250 m.
_Physical Features._--The east and south-east portions are in general
undulating or level, the central hilly and broken, and the west rugged
and mountainous. (For geological details see UNITED STATES: _Geology,
ad fin._) The Hoosac Hills (1200-1600 ft. high), separating the
valleys of the Housatonic and Connecticut, are a range of the
Berkshires, a part of the Appalachian system, and a continuation of
the Green Mountains of Vermont, and with the Taconic range on the west
side of the Housatonic Valley--of which the highest peaks are
Greylock, or "Saddleback" (3535 ft.), and Mt Williams (3040 ft.)--in
the extreme north-west corner of the state, form the only considerable
elevated land.[1] Bordering on the lowlands of the Connecticut, Mt Tom
(1214 ft.) and a few other hills (Mt Holyoke, 954 ft.; Mt Toby, 1275)
form conspicuous landmarks. East of this valley the country continues
more or less hilly and rocky, but the elevations eastward become
increasingly slight and of little consequence. Mt Lincoln (1246 ft.)
and especially Mt Wachusett (2108 ft.), to the east in a level
country, are very exceptional. The Blue Hills in Milton are the
nearest elevations to the coast, and are conspicuous to navigators
approaching Boston. The south-east corner of the state is a sandy
lowland, generally level with a slightly elevated ridge (Manomet)
south of Plymouth, and well watered by ponds.
With the exception of this corner, Massachusetts is a part of the
slanting upland that includes all of southern New England. This upland
is an uplifted peneplain of subaerial denudation,[2] now so far
advanced in a "second" cycle of weathering and so thoroughly dissected
that to an untrained eye it appears to be only a country of hills
confusedly arranged. The general contour of the upland, marked by a
remarkably even sky-line, is evident at almost every locality in the
state. In the nature and position of the upland rocks--mainly
crystalline schists and gneisses, excessively complicated and
disordered in mass, and also internally deformed--there is found
abundant proof that the peneplain is a degraded mountain region. The
upland is interrupted by the rivers, and on the coast by great
lowlands, and is everywhere marked by hills somewhat surmounting the
generally even skyline. Monadnock (in New Hampshire, near N.E.
Massachusetts), the Blue Hills near Boston, Greylock, in the
north-west, and Wachusett in the centre, are the most commanding
remnant-summits (known generically as "Monadnocks") of the original
mountain system. But in the derivant valley peneplains developed in
the present cycle of denudation, and there are residual summits also;
in the Connecticut Valley trap ridges, of which Mt Tom and Mt Holyoke
are the best examples; at Mt Holyoke, lava necks; occasionally in the
lowlands, ridges of resistant sandstone, like Deerfield Mountain near
Northampton; in the Berkshire Valley, summits of resistant schists,
like Greylock, the highest summit in the state. The larger streams
have cut their channels to very moderate gradients, but the smaller
ones are steeper. The Housatonic and Millers (and the Connecticut
also, but not in its course within Massachusetts alone) afford
beautiful examples of the dependence of valley breadth upon the strike
of soft or harder rocks across the stream. The Connecticut lowland is
cut from 5 to 18 m. wide in soft sandstones and shales. The glacial
era has left abundant evidences in the topography of the state. The
ice covered even the Monadnocks. Till drumlins, notably abundant on
the lowland about Boston and the highland near Spencer; morainic
hills, extending, e.g. all along Cape Cod; eskers, kames and river
terraces afford the plainest evidences of the extent of the glacial
sheet. The Berkshire country--Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire and
Franklin counties--is among the most beautiful regions of the United
States. It is a rolling highland dominated by long, wooded
hill-ridges, remarkably even-topped in general elevation, intersected
and broken by deep valleys. Scores of charming lakes lie in the
hollows. The district is often called the Lake Region of America,
partly from the comparableness of its scenic beauties with the English
Lake Country (Matthew Arnold, however, wrote: "The country is pleasing
but not to be compared with Westmoreland. It is wider and opener, and
neither hills nor lakes are so effective."), and partly from the
parallelism of literary associations. It has become since 1850, and
especially in much more recent years, a favoured resort of summer
residents. Owing to topography, and also to the manner in which
Massachusetts was settled, the western counties were long connected
commercially more closely with New York than with Massachusetts, and
this territory was long in dispute between these two states.
The Connecticut is the most considerable stream, and is navigable by
small craft. Its valley, much the richest portion of the state
agriculturally, is celebrated for the quiet variety and beauty of its
scenery. The Housatonic, in portions placid, in others wild and rapid,
winding along the deflecting barrier of the Hoosac Hills, is the most
beautiful river of the state, despite the mercantile use of its
water-power. The Merrimac, the second stream of the state in volume,
runs in a charming valley through the extreme north-east corner, and
affords immensely valuable water-power at Lowell, Lawrence and
Haverhill.
South of Cohasset the shore is sandy, with a few isolated rocky ledges
and boulders. About Boston, and to the north of it, the shore is rocky
and picturesque. Cape Cod, like a human arm doubled at the elbow, 40
m. from shoulder to elbow and 30 from elbow to hand, is nowhere more
than a few miles broad. It is a sandy ridge, dotted with summer
resorts and cottages. Cape Ann has a rugged interior and a ragged,
rocky coast. It, too, is a summer recreation ground, with much
beautiful scenery. Boston Harbor (originally known as Massachusetts
Bay, a name which now has a much broader signification) is the finest
roadstead on the coast. The extreme hook of the Cape Cod Peninsula
forms Provincetown Harbor, which is an excellent and capacious port of
refuge for vessels approaching Boston. Salem Harbor is the most
considerable other haven on Massachusetts Bay; on Buzzard's Bay New
Bedford has a good harbour, and on the Atlantic coast are the
excellent harbours of Gloucester and Marblehead, both frequented by
summer residents. Gloucester has the largest fishery interests of any
place in the country, and is one of the chief fishing ports of the
world. Buzzard's Bay is also a popular yachting ground, and all about
its shores are towns of summer residence. Wood's Hole is a station of
the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and a marine biological
laboratory is there.
The principal islands lie off the south coast. The largest is Martha's
Vineyard, about 20 m. long, with an extreme breadth of about 9½ m. It
has in Vineyard Haven (Holmes's Hole) a spacious harbour, much
frequented by wind-bound vessels seeking a passage round Cape Cod. The
island is covered with stunted trees. Its population was formerly
dependent wholly upon the sea, but its climate has made it a popular
summer resort, Oak Bluffs being one of the chief resorts of the
Atlantic coast. Farther east, Nantucket, a smaller island of
triangular shape, is likewise the home of a seafaring folk who still
retain in some degree primitive habits, though summer visitors are
more and more affecting its life.
_Flora and Fauna._--Massachusetts lies entirely in the humid area of
the Transition life-zone, with the exception of the extreme
north-western corner of the state, which lies in the Boreal zone. Thus
the original native trees and plants were those common to New England
and northern New York. The presence of a dense population has driven
out some, and brought in others, including some noxious weeds. The
larger wild animals have disappeared, excepting an occasional black
bear or deer. Of the smaller fur-bearing animals, the beaver was long
ago exterminated, the otter is seen very rarely, and the mink only in
the most isolated districts; but foxes, skunks, weasels, musk-rats,
rabbits, and grey and red squirrels are not uncommon. Copperhead
snakes and rattlesnakes arc occasionally seen, and there are several
species of harmless serpents. Of game birds the most characteristic is
the partridge (ruffed grouse), exclusively a woodland bird; the
Wilson's snipe and the woodcock are not uncommon in favourable
localities, and several species of ducks are found especially in the
bays and marshes near the coast during the seasons of migration. A
stray eagle is sometimes seen. Very interesting to ornithologists are
the few heath hens, the eastern representative of the prairie hen
(pinnated grouse), which are found on the island of Martha's Vineyard,
and are the sole survivors in the eastern states of one of the finest
of American game birds, now practically exterminated even on the
western plains. There are many insectivorous birds; among the song
birds are the hermit thrush, the wood thrush, the Wilson's thrush, the
brown thrasher, the bobolink, the catbird, the oven bird, the house
wren, the song sparrow, the fox sparrow, the vesper sparrow, the
white-throated sparrow (Peabody bird), the gold-finch and the robin.
Brook trout are found, especially in the streams in the western part
of the state, and bass, pickerel, perch and smaller fish occur in the
rivers and other inland waters. Fish are so abundant on the coast that
the cod is sometimes used as an emblem of the state; thus a figure of
one hangs in the representatives' chamber at the State House. The
artificial propagation and preservation of salmon and other edible
fresh-water fish have been carried on successfully under the
supervision of a state commission. The commonwealth has expended large
sums since 1890 in a vain attempt to exterminate the gipsy moth
(_Ocneria_, or more exactly _Porthetria, dispar_), accidentally
allowed to escape in 1869 by a French naturalist.
_Climate._--The climate is trying, showing great extremes of
temperature (20° F. below zero to 100° above) and marked local
variations. The south-eastern coast and islands are mildest. The mean
average temperature of Boston is 48° F. In the interior it is slightly
lower. The mean summer temperature generally over the state is about
70° F. Changes are often sudden, and the passage from winter to summer
is through a rapid spring. The ocean tempers the climate considerably
on the seaboard. Boston Harbor has been frozen over in the past, but
steamtugs plying constantly now prevent the occurrence of such
obstruction. In the elevated region in the west the winters are
decidedly severe, and the springs and summers often late and cold.
Williamstown has a winter mean of about 23° F. The yearly
precipitation is about 39 to 45 in., decreasing inland, and is evenly
distributed throughout the year. Fogs are common on the coast, and
east wind drizzles; the north-east winds being the weather bane of
spring and late autumn. In the summer and the autumn the weather is
commonly fine, and often most beautiful; and especially in the
Berkshires a cool, pure and elastic atmosphere prevails, relatively
dry, and altogether delightful.
_Agriculture._--The soil, except in some of the valleys, is not
naturally fertile; and sandy wastes are common in the south-east
parts. High cultivation, however, has produced valuable market-gardens
about Boston and the larger towns; and industry has made tillage
remunerative in most other parts. The gross value of agricultural
products is not great compared with that of other industries, but they
are of great importance in the economy of the state. The total value
of farm property in 1900 was $182,646,704, including livestock valued
at $15,798,464. Of the increase in the total value of farm property
between 1850 and 1900 more than half was in the decade 1890-1900; this
increase being due partly to the rising value of suburban realty, but
also to a development of intensive farming that has been very marked
since 1880. The total value of farm products in 1899 was $42,298,274
(expenditure for fertilizers $1,320,600); crops representing 54.7 and
animal products 45.3% of this total. The leading crops and their
percentages of the total crop value were hay and forage (39.1%),
vegetables (23.9%), fruits and nuts (11.7%), forest products (8.4%),
and flowers and plants (7.1%). Of the animal products 67.3% were dairy
products, and 20.8% poultry and eggs. Cereals[3] have been for many
years declining, although Indian corn is a valuable subsidiary to the
dairy interest, which is the most thriving farm industry. The value of
farms on which dairying was the chief source of income in 1900 was 46%
of the total farm value of the state; the corresponding percentages
for livestock, vegetables, hay and grain, flowers and plants, fruit
and tobacco, being respectively 14.6, 10.2, 8.0, 4.2, 3.2, and 1.8%.
The shrinkage of cereal crops has been mainly responsible for the idea
that Massachusetts is agriculturally decadent. Parallel to this
shrinkage was the decrease in ranging sheep (82.0% from 1850-1900;
34.2% from 1890-1900), and cattle, once numerous in the hill counties
of the west, and in the Connecticut Valley; Boston, then ranking after
London as the second wool market of the world, and being at one time
the chief packing centre of the country. Dairy cows increased,
however, from 1850 to 1900 by 41.9% (1890-1900, 7.3%). The amount of
improved farmland decreased in the same period 39.4%, decreasing even
more since 1880 than earlier, and amounting in 1900 to no more than
25.1% of the area of the state; but this decrease has been compensated
by increased value of products, especially since the beginning of
intensive agriculture. An unusual density of urban settlement,
furnishing excellent home markets and transportation facilities, are
the main props of this new interest. Worcester and Middlesex counties
are agriculturally foremost. Tobacco, which has been cultivated since
colonial times, especially since the Civil War, is grown exclusively
in the Connecticut Valley or on its borders. In the swamps and bogs of
the south-east coast cranberry culture is practised, this district
producing in 1900 three-fifths of the entire yield of the United
States. "Abandoned farms" (aggregating, in 1890, 3.4% of the total
farm area, and 6.85% in Hampshire county) are common, especially in
the west and south-east.
_Mines and Mining._--Granite is the chief mineral, and granite
quarrying is the principal mineral industry of the state. In 1900 the
value of manufactures based primarily upon the products of mines and
quarries was $196,930,979, or 19% of the state's total manufactured
product. In 1906 Massachusetts led all states in the value of its
granite output, but in 1907 and 1908 it was second to Vermont. The
value of the product (including a small output of igneous rocks) was
in 1903, $2,351,027; 1904, $2,554,748; 1905, $2,251,319; 1906,
$3,327,416; 1907, $2,328,777; 1908, $2,027,463.
Granite boulders were used for construction in Massachusetts as early
as 1650. Systematic quarrying of siliceous crystalline rocks in New
England began at Quincy in about 1820. The Gloucester quarries, opened
in 1824, were probably the next to be worked regularly. The principal
granite quarries are in Milford, (Worcester county), Quincy and Milton
(Norfolk county), Rockport (Essex county) and Becket (Berkshire
county). Of the fourteen quarries of "Milford granite," twelve are in
the township of that name, and two in Hopkinton township, Middlesex
county. B. K. Emerson and J. H. Perry classify this granite as
post-Cambrian. They describe it[4] as "a compact, massive rock,
somewhat above medium grain, and of light colour. The light flesh
colour of the feldspar, and the blue of the quartz give it in some
places a slight pinkish tint, and it is now much used as a
building-stone under the name of 'pink granite.'"
The Quincy granite district lies around the north-east end of the Blue
Hill region, about 11 m. south of Boston. For monumental purposes this
granite is classified as "medium," "dark," and "extra dark." Quincy
granite takes a very high polish, owing to the absence of mica and to
the coarser cleavage of its hornblende and augite. The lightest of the
monumental stone quarried at Quincy is called gold-leaf; it is
bluish-green gray, speckled with black and light yellow brown. Another
variety has small, rather widely separated cherry-red dots.
The Rockport granite is found along or near the seashore, between
Rockport and Bay View, and within about three-quarters of a mile of
Cape Ann. The granite is of two kinds, known commercially as "grey
granite" and "green granite." Both varieties are hard and take a very
high polish.
The Becker granite (known as "Chester dark" and "Chester light") is a
muscovite-biotite granite varying from medium grey to medium bluish
grey colour, and fine in texture. It is used principally for
monuments.
In 1907 Massachusetts ranked sixth among the states in the value of
its trap rock product ($432,604), and eighth in sandstone ($243,328).
The value of the marble produced in the same year was $212,438, the
state ranking fifth in the value of the total product and fourth in
building-marble. Other minerals are emery, limestone and quartz. The
state ranked fifth in 1906 in the total value of stone quarried
($4,333,616), and eighth in 1908 ($2,955,195). The output of lime in
1908 was 107,813 tons, valued at $566,022. Second in value to the
various stones were the clay products of the state, which were valued
in 1906 at $2,172,733 (of which $1,415,864 was the value of common
brick) and in 1908 at $1,647,362 (of which $950,921 was the value of
common brick). There are many mineral springs in the state, more than
half being in Essex and Middlesex counties. The total amount of
mineral waters sold in 1908 was valued at $227,907. In that year the
total value of the minerals and mining products of the state was
$5,925,949. Gold has been found in small quantities in Middlesex,
Norfolk and Plymouth counties.
_Manufactures._--Though only four states of the Union are smaller,
only three exceeded Massachusetts in 1905 in the value of manufactured
products (six exceeding it in population); and this despite very scant
native resources of raw materials and a very limited home market.
Historical priority of development, exceptionally extensive and well
utilized water-power, and good transportation facilities are largely
responsible for the exceptional rank of Massachusetts as a
manufacturing state. Vast water-power is developed on the Merrimac at
Lawrence and Lowell, and on the Connecticut at South Hadley, and to a
less extent at scores of other cities on many streams and artificial
ponds; many of the machines that have revolutionized industrial
conditions since the beginning of the factory system have been
invented by Massachusetts men; and the state contains various
technical schools of great importance. In 1900 the value of
manufactures was $1,035,198,989, an increase from 1890 of 16.6%; that
from 1880 to 1890 having been 40.7%. In textiles--cottons, worsteds,
woollens and carpets--in boots and shoes, in rubber foot-wear, in fine
writing paper, and in other minor products, it is the leading state of
the country. The textile industries (the making of carpets and rugs,
cotton goods, cotton smallwares, dyeing and finishing textiles, felt
goods, felt hats, hosiery and knit goods, shoddy, silk and silk goods,
woollen goods, and worsted goods), employed 32.5% of all manufacturing
wage earners in 1905, and their product ($271,369,816) was 24.1% of
the total, and of this nearly one-half ($129,171,449) was in cotton
goods, being 28.9% of the total output of the country, as compared
with 11% for South Carolina, the nearest competitor of Massachusetts.
There is a steadily increasing product of fine grade fabrics. The
output of worsted goods in 1905 ($51,973,944) was more than
three-tenths that of the entire country, Rhode Island being second
with $44,477,596; in Massachusetts the increase in the value of this
product was 28.2% between 1900 and 1905. The value of woollen goods in
1905 ($44,653,940) was more than three-tenths of the entire product
for the country; and it was 44.6% more than that of 1900. The value of
boots and shoes and cut stock in 1905 was $173,612,660, being 23%
greater than in 1900; the value of boots and shoes in 1905
($144,291,426) was 45.1% of the country's output, that of New York,
the second state, being only 10.7%. In this industry, as in the
manufacture of cotton goods, Massachusetts has long been without
serious rivalry; Brockton, Lynn, Haverhill, Marlboro and Boston, in
the order named, being the principal centres. The third industry in
1905 was that of foundry and machine-shop products ($58,508,793), of
which Boston and Worcester are the principal centres. Lesser
interests, in the order of importance, with the product value of each
in 1905, were: rubber goods ($53,133,020), tanned, curried and
finished leather ($33,352,999), in the manufacture of which
Massachusetts ranked second among the states; paper and wood pulp[5]
($32,012,247), in the production of which the state ranked second
among the states of the Union; slaughtering and meat packing
($30,253,838); printing and publishing ($33,900,748, of which
$21,020,237 was the value of newspapers and periodicals); clothing
($21,724,056); electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies
($15,882,216); lumber ($12,636,329); iron and steel, steel works and
rolling-mills products ($11,947,731; less than in 1900); cordage and
twine ($11,173,521), in the manufacture of which Massachusetts was
second only to New York; furniture ($11,092,581); malt liquors
($11,080,944); jewelry ($10,073,595), Massachusetts ranking second to
Rhode Island; confectionery ($9,317,996), in which Massachusetts was
third among the states.
[Illustration: Map of Massachusetts.]
Many of these industries have a history going back far into colonial
times, some even dating from the first half of the 17th century.
Textile products were really varied and of considerable importance
before 1700. The policy of the British government towards such
industries in the colonial period was in general repressive. The
non-importation sentiment preceding the War of Independence fostered
home manufactures considerably, and the Embargo and Non-Intercourse
Acts before the war of 1812, as well as that war itself (despite the
subsequent glut of British goods) had a much greater effect; for they
mark the introduction of the factory system, which by 1830 was firmly
established in the textile industry and was rapidly transforming other
industries. Improvements were introduced much more slowly than in
England, the cost of cotton machinery as late as 1826 being 50-60%
greater in America. The first successful power loom in America was set
up at Waltham in 1814. Carding, roving and spinning machines were
constructed at Bridgewater in 1786. The first cotton mill had been
established in Beverly in 1788, and the first real woollen factory at
Byfield in 1794. Woolcard machinery destined to revolutionize the
industry was devised by Amos Whittemore (1759-1828) in 1797; spinning
jennies were in operation under water-power before 1815.
Carpet-weaving was begun at Worcester in 1804. "Not a yard of fancy
wool fabric had ever been woven by the power-loom in any country till
done by William Crompton at the Middlesex Mills, Lowell, in 1840"
(Samuel Lawrence).[6] The introduction of the remarkably complete
machinery of the shoe industry was practically complete by 1865, this
being the last of the great industries to come under the full
dominance of machinery. At Pittsfield and at Dalton is centred the
manufacture of fine writing papers, including that of paper used by
the national government for bonds and paper money. Four-fifths of all
loft-dried paper produced in the country from 1860-1897 was made
within 15 m. of Springfield; Holyoke and South Hadley being the
greatest producers. Vulcanized rubber is a Massachusetts invention.
Most of the imitation jewelry of the United States is produced at
Attleboro and North Attleboro, and in Providence, Rhode Island. In
1905 Boston produced 16.4% of all the manufactures of the state, and
Lynn, the second city, which had been fifth in 1900, 4.9%. Some
industries which have since become dead or of relatively slight
magnitude were once of much greater significance, economically or
socially: such as the rum-distilling connected with the colonial slave
trade, and various interests concerned with shipbuilding and
navigation. The packing of pork and beef formerly centred in Boston;
but, while the volume of this business has not diminished, it has been
greatly exceeded in the west. For many years Massachusetts controlled
a vast lumber trade, drawing upon the forests of Maine, but the growth
of the west changed the old channels of trade, and Boston carpenters
came to make use of western timber. It was between 1840 and 1850 that
the cotton manufactures of Massachusetts began to assume large
proportions; and about the same time the manufacture of boots and
shoes centred there. Medford ships began to be famous shortly after
the beginning of the 19th century, and by 1845 that town employed one
quarter of all the shipwrights in the state.
Fishing is an important industry. Drift whales were utilized in the
earliest years of the colony, and shore boating for the baleen (or
"right") whale--rich in bone and in blubber yielding common oil--was
an industry already regulated by various towns before 1650; but the
pursuit of the sperm whale did not begin until about 1713. The former
industry had died out before the War of Independence; the latter is
not yet quite extinct. Nantucket and New Bedford were the centres of
the whaling trade, which, for the energy and skill required and the
length (three to five years when sailing vessels were employed) of the
ever-widening voyages which finally took the fishermen into every
quarter of the globe, contributes the most romantic chapters in the
history of American commerce. At one time it gave occupation to a
thousand ships, but the introduction of petroleum gradually diminished
this resource of the lesser ports. The Newfoundland Bank fisheries
were of greater economic importance and are still very important.
Gloucester is the chief centre of the trade. The value of fishery
products in 1895 was $5,703,143, and in 1905 $7,025,249; and 15,694
persons were engaged in the fisheries. Though cod is much the most
important fish (in 1905 fresh cod were valued at $991,679, and salted
cod at $696,928), haddock (fresh, $1,051,910; salted, $17,194),
mackerel (value in 1905, including horse mackerel, $970,876), herring
(fresh, $266,699; salted, $114,997), pollock ($267,927), hake
($258,438), halibut ($218,232), and many other varieties are taken in
great quantities. The shell fisheries are less important than those of
Maine.
_Commerce._--Already by 1660 New England products were an "important
element in the commerce and industries of the mother country"
(Weeden). Codfish was perhaps the truest basis of her commerce, which
soon came to include the West Indies, Africa and southern Europe. Of
fundamental importance was the trade with the French West Indies,
licit and illicit, particularly after the Peace of Utrecht (1713).
Provisions taken to Newfoundland, poor fish to the West Indies,
molasses to New England, rum to Africa and good cod to France and
Spain, were the commonest ventures of foreign trade. The English
Navigation Acts were generally evaded, and were economically of little
effect; politically they were of great importance in Massachusetts as
a force that worked for independence. Privateering, piracy and
slave-trading--which though of less extent than in Rhode Island became
early of importance, and declined but little before the American War
of Independence--give colour to the history of colonial trade.
Trade with China and India from Salem was begun in 1785 (first voyage
from New York, 1784), and was first controlled there, and afterwards
in Boston till the trade was lost to New York. The Boston trade to the
Canadian north-west coast was begun in 1788. The first regular
steamship line from Boston to other American Atlantic ports was
established in 1824. In commercial relations the chief port of
Massachusetts attained its greatest importance about 1840, when it was
selected as the American terminus of the first steamship line (Cunard)
connecting Great Britain with the United States; but Boston lost the
commercial prestige then won by the failure of the state to promote
railway communication with the west, so as to equal the development
effected by other cities. The decline of commerce, however, had
already begun, manufacturing supplanting it in importance; and this
decline was rapid by 1850. From 1840 to 1860 Massachusetts-built ships
competed successfully in the carrying trade of the world. Before 1840
a ship of 500 tons was a large ship, but after the discovery of gold
in California the size of vessels increased rapidly and their lines
were more and more adapted to speed. The limit of size was reached in
an immense clipper of 4555 tons, and the greatest speed was attained
in a passage from San Francisco to Boston in seventy-five days, and
from San Francisco to Cork in ninety-three days. The development of
steam navigation for the carrying of large cargoes has driven this
fleet from the sea. Only a small part of the exports and imports of
Massachusetts is now carried in American bottoms.[7] The first grain
elevator built in Boston, and one of the first in the world, was
erected in 1843, when Massachusetts sent Indian corn to Ireland. When
the Civil War and steam navigation put an end to the supremacy of
Massachusetts wooden sailing ships, much of the capital which had been
employed in navigation was turned into developing railway facilities
and coasting steamship lines. In 1872 the great fire in Boston made
large drains upon the capital of the state, and several years of
depression followed. But in 1907 Boston was the second port of the
United States in the magnitude of its foreign commerce. In that year
the value of imports at the Boston-Charlestown customs district was
$123,411,168, and the value of exports was $104,610,908; for 1909 the
corresponding figures were $127,025,654 and $72,936,869. Other ports
of entry in the state in 1909 were Newburyport, Gloucester, Salem,
Marblehead, Plymouth, Barnstable, Nantucket, Edgartown, New Bedford
and Fall River. A protective tariff was imposed in early colonial
times and protection was generally approved in the state until toward
the close of the 19th century, when a strong demand became apparent
for reciprocity with Canada and for tariff reductions on the raw
materials (notably hides) of Massachusetts manufactures.
At the end of 1908 the length of railway lines within the state was
2,109.33 miles. The Hoosac Tunnel, 5¾ m. long, pierces the Hoosac
Mountain in the north-west corner of the state, affording a
communication with western lines. It cost about $20,000,000, the state
lending its credit, and was built between 1855 and 1874. The
inter-urban electric railways are of very great importance in the
state; in 1908 the total mileage of street and inter-urban electric
railways was 2841.59 m. (2233.85 m. being first main track). The Cape
Cod canal, 12 m. long, from Sandwich on Barnstable Bay to Buzzard's
Bay, was begun in June 1909, with a view to shortening the distance by
water from Boston to New York and eliminating the danger of the voyage
round Cape Cod.
_Population._--The population of the state in 1910 was 3,366,416, the
increases in successive decades after 1790 being respectively 11.6,
11.6, 11.9, 16.6, 20.9, 34.8, 23.8, 18.4, 22.4, 25.6, 25.3 and 20%.[8]
With the exception of Rhode Island, it is the most densely populated
state in the Union, the average number to the square mile in 1900 being
349 (in 1910, 418.8), and the urban population, i.e. the population of
places having above 8000 or more inhabitants, being 69.9% in 1890 and in
1900 76.0% of the total population (in places above 2500, 91.5%; in
places above 25,000, 58.3%). The female population is greater (and has
been since 1765, at least) than the male, the percentage being in 1900
greater than in any other state of the Union (51.3%; District of
Columbia, owing to clerks in government service 52.6%). In 1900 less
than 1.3% of the population was coloured; 30.2% were foreign-born (this
element having almost continuously risen from 16.49% in 1855), and 62.3%
of all inhabitants and 46.5% of those native-born had one or both
parents of foreign birth. Ireland contributed the largest proportion of
the foreign-born (29.5%), although since 1875 the proportion of Irish in
the total population has considerably fallen. After the Irish the
leading foreign elements are Canadian English (18.7%), Canadian French
(15.8%) and English (9.7%), these four constituting three-fourths of the
foreign population. Since 1885 the natives of southern Italy have
greatly increased in number. Of the increase in total population from
1856-1895 only a third could be attributed to the excess of births over
deaths; two-thirds being due to immigration from other states or from
abroad. Boston is the second immigrant port of the country. A large part
of the transatlantic immigrants pass speedily to permanent homes in the
west, but by far the greater part of the Canadian influx remains.
According to the census of 1910 there were 32 incorporated cities[9]
in Massachusetts, of which 6 had between 12,000 and 20,000
inhabitants; 3 between 20,000 and 25,000 (Gloucester, Medford and
North Adams); 11 between 25,000 and 50,000 (Maiden, Haverhill, Salem,
Newton, Fitchburg, Taunton, Everett, Quincy, Pittsfield, Waltham,
Chicopee); 7 between 50,000 and 100,000 (New Bedford, Lynn,
Springfield, Lawrence, Somerville, Holyoke, Brockton); and 5 more than
100,000 (Boston, 670,585; Worcester, 145,986; Fall River, 119,295;
Lowell, 106,294; Cambridge, 104,839).
Taking quinquennial periods from 1856-1905 the birth-rates were 29.5,
25.3, 26.0, 27.6, 24.2, 25.0, 25.8, 27.6, 27.0 and 24.2 per 1,000; and
the death-rates 17.7, 20.7, 18.2, 20.8, 18.8, 19.8, 19.4, 19.8, 18.0
and 16.4.[10] Pneumonia and consumption, approximately of equal
fatality (15 to 18 per 10,000 each), exceed more than twofold the
diseases of next lower fatality, cancer and cholera infantum.
Of males (1,097,581) engaged in 1900 in gainful occupations 47.1% were
engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits (77.9 in every 100 in
1870 and 73 in 1900), 27.1 in trade and transportation, 14.2 in
domestic and personal service, 7.4 in agricultural pursuits and 4.2 in
professional service. The corresponding percentages for females
(1,169,467) were 46.4 in manufacturing (in 1890, 52%), 32.3 in
domestic and personal service, 13.6 in trade and transportation, 7.1
in professional service and 0.6 in agriculture. Formerly farmers'
daughters of native stock were much employed in factories; but since
operatives of foreign birth or parentage have in great part taken
their places, they have sought other occupations, largely in the
manufacture of small wares in the cities, and particularly in
departments of trade where skilled labour is essential. Household
service is seldom now done, as it formerly was, by women of native
stock. The federal census of 1900 showed that of every 100 persons
employed for gain only 37.5% were of native descent (that is, had a
native-born father). Natives heavily predominated in agriculture and
the professions, slightly in trade, and held barely more than half of
all governmental positions; but in transportation, personal service,
manufactures, labour and domestic service, the predominance of the
foreign element warranted the assertion of the state Bureau of
Statistics of Labour that "the strong industrial condition of
Massachusetts has been secured and is held not by the labour of what
is called the 'native stock,' but by that of the immigrants." After
the original and exclusively English immigration from 1620 to 1640
there was nothing like regular foreign immigration until the 19th
century; and it was a favourite assertion of Dr Palfrey that the blood
of the fishing folk on Cape Cod was more purely English through two
centuries than that of the inhabitants of any English county.