ELMIRA 



2017 



EL PASO 



some species is used in dyeing and sugar refin- 

 ing. One species, the slippery elm, a small tree 

 with rough, hairy foliage, furnishes a gluey 

 inner bark which boys like to chew, and which 

 is used in medicine, especially in cases of sore 

 throat. The inner bark of the white elm fur- 

 nishes a strong fiber for cordage and cloth 

 making. The cork, or rock, elm, with its corky 

 bark, is the species of elm from which were 

 made the hubs of the "wonderful one-hoss 

 shay," made famous in Oliver Wendell 

 Holmes's The Deacon's Masterpiece. 



In the New England states elms are numer- 

 ous and beautiful in both country and cities. 

 There, in Cambridge, Mass., stands the "Wash- 

 ington Elm," under which General Washington 

 took command of the Continental army in 

 1775 (see REVOLUTIONARY WAR, for illustration). 

 A beautiful white elm in Lancaster, Mass., is 

 "the pride of the state." New Haven, Conn., 

 is often called the "City of Elms." 



Elm-Leaf Beetle. In 1837, the pest of Euro- 

 pean elms, the elm-leaf beetle, appeared in 

 the United States and Canada and has since 

 spread throughout America. It is a yellow- 

 ish-brown beetle about a quarter of an inch 

 long, with three indistinct stripes on the wings. 

 The grub of this beetle is like a caterpillar, 

 first black, gradually changing to yellow, with 

 three dark stripes. The United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture advises that a week or 

 two after the grubs come out of the pupa stage 

 and feed on the elm's new foliage, the tree 

 should be sprayed with Paris green. M.S. 



ELMI'RA, N. Y., the county seat of Che- 

 mung County, in the south-central part of the 

 state, 147 miles southeast of Buffalo and 274 

 miles northwest of New York City. It is situ- 

 ated along both banks of the Chemung River 

 and is on the Delaware, Lackawanna & West- 

 ern; the Erie; the Lehigh Valley, and the 

 Pennsylvania railroads. The Tioga division of 

 the Erie Railroad, a line forty-six miles long, 

 extends to the Pennsylvania coal fields. Inter- 

 urban lines connect the city with neighboring 

 towns and with the picturesque state park, 

 Watkins Glen. The population in 1910 was 

 37,176; by a Federal estimate of 1916 it was 

 38,120. 



Elmira covers an area of seven square milss, 

 in a wide and fertile valley. Its parks include 

 Eldridge, Rorick's Glen, Riverside, Brand, 

 Diven, Grove, Maple Avenue and Wisner. The 

 city has a Federal building, county courthouse, 

 state armory, a state Memorial Library, Arnot 

 Art Gallery, Arnot-Ogden Memorial Hospital, 

 127 



the Elmira Orphans' Home and the Home for 

 the Aged. 



The city is the seat of Elmira College (the 

 first college for women in the United States), 

 the Elmira Free Academy and the New York 

 State Reformatory. The latter, a state prison 

 for first offenders between the ages of sixteen 

 and thirty, was the first institution of its kind 

 to be opened in the United States, and has been 

 a model for similar institutions in various parts 

 of the world. 



Elmira is an important railway center and 

 has extensive railroad repair shops. Among 

 more than 350 industrial establishments are 

 steel plate works, rolling mills, fire-engine con- 

 struction works, glass works, boot and shoe 

 manufactories, boiler and engine shops, lumber 

 and planing mills, iron and steel bridge works, 

 factories, for tobacco products, also silk mills, 

 knitting mills and hardwood finishing works. 



In 1779 the Battle of Newton was fought near 

 the site of Elmira between American and Tory 

 and Indian forces. After the War of Inde- 

 pendence there were a few settlers here. A 

 permanent settlement was made in 1788, and 

 in 1815 it was incorporated as the village of 

 Newton. In 1828 it was reincorporated as 

 Elmira and became a city in 1864. 



EL PASO, el pah' so, TEX., the county seat 

 of El Paso County, is the only large city along 

 2,000 miles of Mexican border, and the largest 

 city within a radius of 600 miles. It occupies 

 the extreme western point of the state, 645 

 miles west and south of Dallas, 830 miles south 

 and west of Denver and 815 miles east and 

 south of Los Angeles. El Paso, on the Amer- 

 ican bank of the Rio Grande, and the interest- 

 ing old Mexican town, Ciudad Juarez, are 

 joined by a famous international bridge and 

 an electric line. 



The first railroad, the Southern Pacific, was 

 built to the 'city from the west in 1881. It 

 is now entered by the Atchison, Topeka & 

 Santa Fe; the Texas & Pacific; the Mexican 

 Central; the Mexico North Western; the El 

 Paso & Southwestern; the Chicago, Rock 

 Island & Gulf; and the Galveston, Harrisburg 

 & San Antonio roads. Overland automobile 

 routes pass through the city. During the thirty 

 years from 1880 to 1910, El Paso grew from a 

 settlement of a few adobe houses with a pop- 

 ulation of 736, to a modern city of 39,271 

 inhabitants. In 1916 there were 63,705 inhab- 

 itants, of whom nearly fifty per cent were 

 Mexican. 



Near El Paso is the lowest pass between the 



