BALTIMORE 



Mercantile Library and the libraries connected 

 with the various educational institutions. 

 Besides Johns Hopkins Hospital, the city has 

 md Hospital for the Insane and Spring- 

 field State Hospital. Tlun are homes for 

 aged men, for boys, for young women, asy- 

 lums for orphans, an association for improv- 

 ing the condition of poor children, an asylum 

 for the blind and an almshouse. See JOHNS 

 HOPKINS r.MYiiitsiTY. 



Commerce and Industry. Although Balti- 

 more is industrially the youngest of the great 

 Atlantic coast cities, it has for many years 

 been a prominent seaport, its fame in earlier 

 ing carried far by the world-renowned 

 Baltimore clippers," a picturesque sea-craft 

 no longer in use. One of the largest floating 

 dry-docks in the world, the "Dewey," was 

 constructed here in 1905. Baltimore is the 

 center of an immense import and export trade, 

 owing to its nearness to agricultural, coal and 

 mineral wealth and its facilities for shipment, 

 anchorage and dockage. It is the largest 

 corn-exporting port in the Union, and it sends 

 out enormous quantities of other grain, coal, 

 provisions, live-stock, and tobacco; next to 

 New York it is the largest grain market on 

 the Atlantic coast. Cotton, fruits (chiefly 

 bananas), iron and copper ores are the prin- 

 cipal imports. The freight handled annually 

 is estimated at 48,000,000 tons. 



As a manufacturing center the city is rap- 

 idly forging ahead, making almost every com- 

 modity known to trade. Its largest single 

 product is that of men's clothing; the allied 

 copper, tin and sheet-iron products rank sec- 

 ond. It has one of the largest copper-refining 

 plants in the United States, and the Bessemer 

 Steel Works at Sparrow's Point have a daily 

 capacity of 2,000 tons. Baltimore leads the 

 other great cities in making cotton duck, straw 

 goods and fertilizers, and in canning oysters 

 and fruits; the cotton-duck mills here produce 

 three-fourths of the sail-duck made in the 

 United States. Shipbuilding, slaughtering and 

 meat packing, printing and publishing are im- 

 portant industries. The city has more than 

 1,000 wholesale houses, and the jobbing trade, 

 exclusive of the commission business, amounts 

 to $250,000,000 annually. 



History. The city was named in honor of 

 Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, who 

 founded the colony of Maryland. The town 

 was settled in 1730. In 1732 Jones' Town, on 

 the opposite side of the stream was settled, 

 and in 1745 the two were consolidated. Orig- 



BALTIMORE ORIOLE 



inally the city was included in Baltimore 

 County, of which it became the county seat in 

 1767; later, city and county were separated, 

 and at the present time Baltimore has a iiov- 

 t-rnme-nt independent of the county. During 

 the Revolutionary War the city for two 

 months was the seat of government, when the 

 Continental Congress was forced by the Brit- 

 ish to retire from Philadelphia. Since 1780 it 

 has been a port of entry, and since 179C, when 

 it united with Fell's Point, it has been an 

 incorporated city. In September, 1814, it re- 

 pulsed two attacks by the British, in the 

 battle of North Point and the bombardment 

 of Fort McHenry. In Baltimore, April 19, 1861, 

 was shed the first blood of the War of Seces- 

 sion, when Union troops, passing through the 

 city in response to Lincoln's call for volun- 

 teers, were attacked by citizens; the city re- 

 mained under martial law until the close of 

 the war. In 1888 and in 1890 the area of the 

 city was considerably enlarged by the annex- 

 ation of adjoining territory. 



On Sunday, February 7, 1904, the city was 

 visited by a great fire, which continued for 

 two days and required the combined efforts 

 of sixty-two fire companies to extinguish it. 

 The entire business district was destroyed, the 

 loss being estimated at $125,000,000. Later, 

 the fire was regarded as a blessing rather than 

 a disaster, as this section arose from the ashes 

 in new buildings of the most modern type. 

 Baltimore was the first city in the country to 

 illuminate its streets by gas (1821); the first 

 steam passenger train in the United States 

 was operated on the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 

 way from this point to Ellicott Mills (fifteen 

 miles). To Baltimore from Washington was 

 strung the first telegraph line, and here the 

 first telegraphic message was received, on May 

 24, 1844. A.S.G. 



BALTIMORE ORIOLE, HANGBIRD, FIRE- 

 BIRD or GOLDEN ROBIN, an interesting 

 song-bird that nests in the Northern United 

 States and Southern Canada, Joiown for its 

 splendid plumage and musical whistle, and, 

 above all, for its remarkable skill in nest build- 

 ing. The nest, formed like a long, slender 

 purse, from six to eight inches deep, is woven 

 onto the limb of a tree which has long, droop- 

 ing branches, the elm and the weeping willow 

 being favorites, and hangs at some distance 

 from the ground, protected from sun and rain 

 by the overspreading leaves. The materials 

 used are principally grass, strips of bark, strings, 

 hair and vegetable fibers. The eggs, four to six 



