158 



CITIES, AMERICAN. (ANSISTON.) 



trict in the province of Nganwhei, and a part 

 of the overflow reached the sea, six months 

 after the first catastrophe, a long distance south 

 of the ancient mouth of the Hoang-Ho, while 

 the main volume entered the Great Canal near 

 the Hongtsze Lake, and flowed through it 

 into the Yangtse Kiang. "When all efforts that 

 were made in the winter to stop the breach 

 proved useless, the Government set a force of 

 00,000 men at work to dig a deep canal for the 

 purpose of tapping the river ahove Cheng- 

 chow, and leading it into its regular channel 

 at a point below the gap. The barriers that 

 were interposed to confine the river to its bed 

 at Cheng-chow were all swept away by the 

 midsummer freshet caused by melting snows. 

 After the expenditure of over $10,000,000 

 with no satisfactory result, the Emperor de- 

 graded the two high officials who had charge 

 of the work of restoration, and sent them to 

 Manchuria to work on the military roads. 

 There were damaging floods in the province of 

 Manchuria in the autumn of 1888. Moukden, 

 the capital, was innundated, and all the crops 

 in the neighboring district were destroyed. 

 Extending over the country, the floods caused 

 wide-spread misery, and at last reached the 

 port of Newchang, where the foreign quarter 

 was submerged. 



Earthquake in Ynnnan. A destructive earth- 

 quake visited the province of Yunnan late in 

 December, 1887, laying the capital and other 

 towns in ruins. The shocks lasted four days. 

 There were 5,000 persons killed by the falling 

 of houses in the capital district. At Lainon 

 the destruction was almost as great. Farther 

 north, at Lo-chan, 10,000 persons lost their 

 lives, and the aspect of the country was changed 

 by the sinking of tracts of land and the forma- 

 tion of lakes in their place. 



CITIES, AMERICAN, RECENT GROWTH OF. 

 Anniston, a city of Calhoun County, Alabama, in 

 the northeastern part of the State, on the 

 main line of the East Tennessee, Virginia, and 

 Georgia Railroad, at the crossing of the Georgia 

 Pacific, 60 miles from Birmingham, and 100 

 from Atlanta, Ga. It has a population of 12,- 

 000, which is twice what it had one year ago. 

 It lies in the heart of the great iron region 

 of the South. The ore is mined in open cut, 

 without tunneling or underground delving, and 

 the supply seems inexhaustible. A hill, or 

 rather mountain-side, of iron within the corpo- 

 rate limits of the town has been dug from for 

 upward of ten years, with scarcely perceptible 

 results. The hills that surround the town are 

 largely of iron-ore. The Coosa and Cahaba 

 coal-fields, affording the best of coking-coal, 

 are within 25 and 45 miles, and vast forests 

 supply timber at convenient distance. Lime- 

 stone abounds. There was a furnace here dur- 

 ing the civil war to supply iron to the Confed- 

 erate Government; but it was destroyed by 

 the national troops in 1865. The site, with 

 the main deposits of iron-ore, was purchased 

 by a private citizen eighteen years ago, and in 



1872 the Woodstock Iron Company was organ- 

 ized, owning more than 40.000 acres. Messrs. 

 Noble and Tyler were at its head, and the town 

 is named for Mrs. Tyler, " Annie's Town." 

 Prior to 1883 no land was sold. The city was 

 surveyed and laid out, drainage-system per- 

 fected, streets macadamized, buildings, church- 

 es, stores, and school-houses erected, and rail- 

 road connections secured, entailing not one 

 dollar of debt upon the inhabitants, who num- 

 bered at that date 4,000. It is lighted by 

 electricity and gas, and has two daily papers, 

 and five miles of street-railway. It is 800 feet 

 above sea-level, and one of the highest points 

 accessible to railroads in the State. Pure water 

 is supplied by an artesian well, forced to a res- 

 ervoir one mile distant at an elevation of 236 

 feet. A pressure of 100 pounds to the inch 

 renders fire-hydrants sufficient, without steam- 

 engines. Four hundred houses were completed 

 within the first six months of 1888. Anniston 

 owns 30,000 acres of coal-land, and 75,000 

 acres of brown and red hematite iron-ore. Its 

 capital is upward of $10,000,000 more than 

 that of the whole State in 1880. It employs 

 6,000 workingmen, to whom $60,000 are paid, 

 weekly, in wages. Four charcoal-furnaces are 

 in operation, with an annual capacity of 50,- 

 000 tons of car-iron. Two of these were built 

 in 1873 and 1879, and have never known a cold 

 day except for repairs. Two coke-furnaces, to 

 have an annual capacity of 100,000 tons of pig- 

 iron each, are being completed this year. The 

 largest pipe-works in the United States, with 

 a daily output of 200 tons of finished pipe, are 

 in course of construction. The United States 

 Rolling Stock Company has a plant of $1,000,- 

 000 in Anniston, having purchased the car 

 and car-wheel works and car-axle forge of the 

 town. The daily capacity is twenty-five cars. 

 Anniston has the only steel-blomary in the 

 South, and the largest cotton-mill in the State, 

 producing 115,000 yards a week of sheetings 

 and shirtings. Goods have this year been ex- 

 ported to Shanghai, China. There is a cotton- 

 compress with a daily capacity of 1,000 bales. 

 There are two foundries, a rolling-mill, machine- 

 shops, boiler and sheet-iron works, planing- 

 mills, and fire-brick works, a horse-shoe man- 

 ufacturing company, and factories of stoves, 

 agricultural implements, and ice. There are 

 four railroads, two of which are operated and 

 owned by the citizens, viz. : The Anniston and 

 Atlantic, connecting with the Georgia Central 

 at Sylacauga, and the Anniston and Cincin- 

 nati,* connecting with the Cincinnati Great 

 Southern at Atalla. The latter has been com- 

 pleted this year, and cost $1,000,000. The 

 yearly tonnage of the three railroads, in full 

 operation, is 118,765 gross tons. Competitive 

 freight rates are the right of Anniston by lo- 

 cation. New Orleans is 14 hours distant ; 

 Cincinnati, 17; Washington, 26. There are 

 three banks, one National, capital and surplus 

 $300,000 ; one State, and one savings, capital 

 of each, $100,000. There are churches of all 



