CITIES, AMERICAN. (HASTINGS, HrTcniNsox, JACKSONVILLE.) 



165 



natural vapor-bath?. The water is clear, and 

 not unpleasant in taste or smell when hot and 

 fresh. They contain an unusual quantity of 

 solid ingredients, such as salts of soda, mag- 

 iron, and lime, with sulphur and carbonic 

 acid, and are believed to possess remedial qual- 

 ities of a high order. The altitude of the 

 locality is r>.2nO feet, and the air and water of 

 that purity to be expected among the mount- 

 ains. The town is well built, and contains 

 school-houses, churches, and business blocks 

 that would do credit to a far older and more 

 populous place. There are three newspapers, 

 two of which are dailies; two banks, with a 

 capital of 100,000 each ; and two large hotels. 

 "Water is supplied by a gravity system from a 

 mountain brook ; and the streets and most of 

 the larger business-houses and dwellings are 

 lighted by electricity. 



Hastings the county-seat of Adams County, 

 in the southern central part of Nebraska, on 

 the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, 

 180 miles west of Omaha. This city has grown 

 up during the past ten years with phenomenal 

 strength and vigor. It has a population of 

 >. and, besides the main line of the Bur- 

 lington system, has branches of the Union Pa- 

 cific (St. Joseph and Grand Island Railroad), 

 the Missouri Pacific, and the North western 

 (Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Rail- 

 road). Other railroads are surveyed to reach 

 this point. The surrounding country is fertile 

 and well settled. Corn is the principal crop, 

 but the rearing of live-stock is an equally im- 

 portant industry. The city is solidly built, in 

 its business part, while its more scattered resi- 

 dence portion possesses many handsome houses. 

 The principal streets are paved and sewered, 

 and the whole city is lighted by gas and elec- 

 tricity. Twenty miles of horse-car tracks 

 have been laid. There are two daily newspa- 

 pers, a board of trade, several banks, a power- 

 ful loan-and-investment association, and con- 

 siderable wholesale business. In addition to 

 the public schools, which occupy large brick 

 buildings, there is here the nucleus of a uni- 

 versity in Hastings College, an institution un- 

 der the control of the Presbyterians, which is 

 well endowed and offers a full course of 

 collegiate instruction. This school admits 

 both sexes to equal privileges, and has about 

 two hundred students. All the leading relig- 

 ious denominations have churches, and the 

 Young Men's Christian Association, the Ma- 

 sonic, and other societies, maintain their 

 organizations. There is a large and handsome 

 opera-house. 



nntthinson, a city, the county-seat of Reno 

 County, Kansas, on Arkansas river, at the 

 point first reached by the Atchison, Topeka, 

 and Santa Fe Railroad. The population, by 

 official census returns, has increased more than 

 10.000 in three years. It was founded in 1872 

 by Clinton C. Hutchinson, and all deeds to town 

 lots contained forfeiture clauses prohibiting 

 the sale of intoxicating liquors and keeping of 



gambling resorts. The first newspaper was 

 published in 1872, and .Vino roj.k-s were printed 

 and sent East as advertisements. At the same 

 date a population of 600 incurred a debt of 

 $100,000 for public improvements. Four 

 bridges (one 1.6SO feet long) and a court-house 

 were built. The growth was slow and substan- 

 tial, and proportioned to the settlement of the 

 county, a rich agricultural region. There are 

 two other lines of railroad, and two more are 

 approaching. Hutchinson has twelve salt com- 

 panies. A recent drill for natural gas resulted 

 in the discovery, at a depth of 425 feet, of a 

 salt-deposit from 300 to 320 feet thick, and 10 

 miles square. Salt is brought to the surface 

 by saturation of water in wells, which is 

 pumped to large tanks and evaporated. The 

 tanks present a curious appearance, owing to 

 crystallization of salt through the leaks. The 

 ground beneath often resembles snow-drifts. 

 The aggregate capacity of the works in opera- 

 tion is 5.700 barrels of salt a day. The freight 

 on lumber for the year was 150,000 ; on coal, 

 8150.000; and on building-stone, $100,000. 

 The business-houses are of brick and stone 

 131 of these and 1,380 dwelling-houses were 

 constructed during the year past. Hutchinson 

 is fast becoming a meat-packing center and 

 manufacturing point. The capacity of a meat- 

 packing establishment in operation is 2,000 

 hogs a day. A contract was signed at Chicago, 

 in September, 1888, for the erection of a large 

 lard-refinery and cotton-seed-oil factory and a 

 pork-packing house. The buildings and plants 

 will cost 500,000. A stock-yard and salt com- 

 pany has paid $98,000 for grounds, and it is 

 contemplated that $500,000 will be invested. 

 The city is lighted by gas and electricity, has 

 water-works, street-car lines, a daily news- 

 paper, telephone facilities, and comfortable 

 hotels. The schools are excellent; the churches 

 numerous and well supported. There is a 

 handsome Masonic Temple. 



Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, a com- 

 mercial city and winter resort, on St. John's 

 river, 15 miles from the ocean, in the north- 

 eastern part of the State. The population is 

 25.000. During the winter season from 60,000 

 to 70,000 visitors register at twenty hotels, 

 in addition to others in boarding-houses. It 

 is lighted by gas and electricity, has street- 

 railways, daily newspapers, telegraph, ocean 

 and domestic, and telephone facilities; 2 Na- 

 tional, 3 private, and 2 savings banks; 8 

 miles of cast-iron water-main, with water- 

 supply from artesian wells, and 9 miles of 

 terra-cotta sewers. The sanitation is elaborate, 

 but during the year there were 4,711 cases of 

 yellow fever, and 412 deaths. The tide rises 

 three feet in the river. The city has an ocean 

 port, the harbor being improved by jetties at 

 the mouth of the river, in operation since 1879. 

 There is a foreign and coastwise commerce. 

 The river traffic has decreased of late years, 

 by reason of increase of railroads, of seven of 

 which Jacksonville is the terminus. The total 



