136 



CITIES, AMERICAN. (WOKCESTEE, YORK.) 



ployment to 6,877 operatives. These concerns^ 

 pay $2,323,435 annually in wages, and expend 

 $7,730,103 for materials, and their annual 

 product is valued at $11,894,223. Eleven cot- 

 ton-mills produce 35,833,982 yards of sheet- 

 ings, shirtings, and twills, and 5,388,347 yards 

 of prints, using 11,727,500 pounds of cotton. 

 Six woolen-mills consume 3,191,068 pounds of 

 native wool and 1,425,619 of foreign, pro.luc- 

 ing 1,682,692 yards of cloth annually. The 

 industrial classes have over $8,000,000 de- 

 posited in four local savings-banks. More 

 than 500 new buildings, including a million- 

 dollar mill, a railway-passenger station, a 

 dozen business blocks, hospital buildings, two 

 churches, and four school buildings, have been 

 erected since 1880, and a model opera-house is 

 under way. Among the new improvements 

 are extensive public water-works, street-car 

 service, electric fire-alarm, letter-carriers, ex- 

 clusive electric street-lights, a paid fire depart- 

 ment, and a cottage system of hospitals with 

 park. A city charter has been asked from the 

 Legislature, and a bill is before Congress for 

 a public building. 



Worcester, the second city in size in Massa- 

 chusetts, midway between Boston and Spring- 

 field, on the Boston and Albany Railroad ; pop- 

 ulation in 1860, 24,973; in 1870, 41,105; in 

 1880, 58,295; in 1887, estimated at 80,000. 

 The railroad facilities now represent the Bos- 

 ton and Albany, Boston and Maine, and the 

 Fitch burg, the Providence and Worcester, and 

 the New York and New England. The city 

 has a well-equipped street-car service. It has 

 over 50 miles of sewers, 100 miles of water- 

 service, and 200 miles of streets. The water- 

 service, on the elevated storage-reservoir plan, 

 gives a pressure that carries to the height of 

 the tallest buildings. A post-office structure 

 is at once to be erected. Many of the city 

 blocks are costly and notable. The chief edu- 

 cational features of the city are the Worcester 

 Polytechnic, founded in 1868; the College of 

 the Holy Cross, 1843; Worcester Academy, 

 1835 ; Highland Military Academy, 1857; the 

 Massachusetts State Normal School, 1871. 

 Clark University, to the founding of which 

 $2,000,000 have been devoted by Jonas S. 

 Clark, Esq., has just been established. The 

 manufacturing industries of Worcester are 

 many and varied, the largest being the Wash- 

 burn & Moen Manufacturing Company's Wire- 

 Works, which give employment to about 3,500 

 men, with $6,000,000 product annually, or from 

 150 to 200 tons a day. Other large industries 

 are Brussels carpets, of which 1,000,000 yards 

 are made yearly ; envelopes, of which, at three 

 establishments, 3,000,000 are made daily ; ma- 

 chinists' tools, an annual product of nearly 

 $2,000,000, employing 800 men ; two large 

 loom-works, giving about the same figures as 

 the last; fire-arms, wood-working machinery, 

 woolen and worsted goods, wrenches, skates, 

 steam-engines, folding-chairs, wool-cards, and 

 agricultural machinery, all represent large cap- 



ital and product. In boots and shoes 14 estab- 

 lishments give employment to 1,800 hands with 

 an annual product of over $4,500,000, Worces- 

 ter's prosperity has from the first been helped 

 by a healthful and beautiful location. The city 

 is the home of the American Antiquarian So- 

 ciety, with its vast library and collections. The 

 Public Library is one of the best in the United 

 States. The school system is excellent. Tlie 

 whole vicinity is filled with interest and at- 

 tractions. Worcester is the shire town of one 

 of the largest and wealthiest counties in New 

 England. 



York, the county-seat of York County, Penn., 

 on both sides of Codorus creek, 94 miles west 

 of Philadelphia, 57 miles north of Baltimore, 

 26 miles south of Harrisburg. In 1850 the 

 census was 6.863; in 1860, 8,605; in 1870, 

 11,003; in 1880, 13,940. The last census, 

 counting the suburbs, made the population 

 nearly 15,000 ; but since then great accessions 

 have been made in the south and west, as well 

 as in the northeast parts of the city, so that 

 now, adding the suburbs, the figure would be 

 fully 20,000. The public buildings worthy of 

 note are the court-house, built of granite, the 

 jail, almshouse, Orphan's Home, opera-house, 

 Collegiate Institute, and high - school. The 

 Eastern, Western, and City Markets are also 

 three fine buildings. There are 25 churches. 

 The public schools number 50, employing 

 more than 60 teachers. In this connection 

 are also to be noted the Collegiate Institute, 

 the York County Academy, and the Young 

 Ladies' Seminary, besides private schools and 

 business colleges. York is both a commercial 

 and a manufacturing center. It is in the midst 

 of one of the wealthiest and most fertile farm 

 regions in the country. The city contains 12 

 good hotels and 10 banks, with an aggregate 

 capital of $3,000,000. There are agricultural 

 works, a furnace, foundries, machine-shops, 

 car-works, boiler and engine works, planing- 

 mills, chain-works, cigar-factories, candy-fac- 

 tories, scale, lock, and safe works, an organ- 

 factory, shoe-factory, extensive brick-works, 

 tanneries, a book-bindery, and numerous print- 

 ing-offices. Five weekly papers and four dailies 

 are issued. The following are the latest manu- 

 facturing statistics by the census reports of 

 1880: men employed in the shops, 2,055; an- 

 nual wages, $456,616 ; capital invested, $1,232,- 

 848; material consumed, $1,274,131; annual 

 product, $2,285,890. The city has made such 

 rapid strides in the past few years that the 

 annual product of the factories and shops can 

 not now be short of $3,500,000, with the other 

 statistics correspondingly increased. York 

 began to thrive about 1861. In 1884 the city 

 was overwhelmed with a deluging flood that 

 swept away all the bridges and wrecked stores 

 and dwellings. Steady improvement immedi- 

 ately set in the bridges were replaced with 

 large iron structures, seven of which, and one 

 of wood, now span the Codorus. The water- 

 works have been enlarged and improved, the 



