300 PITTSBUKG FIKE. [CHAP. XXXVII. 



greater inland, or farther north, than in the south, 

 or nearer the Gulf of Mexico. 



April 16. There had been so hard a frost in 

 the night, that the roof of our steamer s cabin was 

 glazed with a thin sheet of ice as we approached 

 Pittsburg, and we heard fears expressed that the 

 fruit trees would be injured. Four years had elapsed 

 since we were last at Pittsburg, and, in the interval, 

 a considerable part of the city, covering sixty acres, 

 had been burnt to the ground, the great roofed bridge 

 over the Monongahela, all built of wood, having shared 

 the same fate. A light suspension bridge has already 

 replaced that structure of ponderous aspect, and al 

 though the conflagration only happened in April of last 

 year, new streets have sprung up everywhere from 

 the ashes of the old, and the town has very far from 

 a ruined or desolate look. Commanding the naviga 

 tion of three great rivers, and an inexhaustible supply 

 of coal, it has every advantage save that of an at 

 mosphere free from coal smoke. 



I learnt that there had recently been a strike of 

 the factory girls here for ten instead of twelve hours 

 of daily labour. Their employers argue that they 

 are competing with rivals who work their girls twelve 

 or more hours per day, and the strike has failed ; yet 

 many are of opinion, that even without legislative in 

 terference, a ten hour rule will be eventually esta 

 blished. 



Most of our companions in the steamer were 

 agents of commercial houses going to look out for 

 orders at Pittsburg. On the whole they were very 

 intelligent, and conversed well on a variety of sub- 



