The City of ST.  LOUIS and the Fair

Long before the colonist from Europe had fought and hewed his way to the Valley of the Mississippi, an earlier population selected the present site of St. Louis for urban pursuits.. Their customs, habits and lives were altogether unlike those of the Caucasians who succeeded them centuries later; but the geographic and utilitarian advantages of the locality responded as readily to the efforts of the Mound Builders as they did in subsequent ages to the purposes of the pioneer trapper and trader. Archaeologists have been unable to fix the precise era in which the Mounds of North America were constructed. But a number of these queer piles—mute messages from a mystic past— have given St. Louis the name of the Mound City.

Aside from the purely speculative interest that clings to these monuments of prehistoric masonry, facts of peculiar significance cluster around the series of mounds which dot the city and its environs. Each mass of strangely-built rock and soil bears silent testimony the fact that aeons ago an unknown people delved and toiled and breathed and lived where now modern modes of trade and traffic have established a bustling metropolis. Each mound links the judgment of the past with the enterprise of the present in the selection of the site for a great city.

But accepted history is eminently practical, and, eliminating the dreams of theorists on what might have been, tells us that Pierre Laclede Liguest, known to his companions as Laclede, was the founder of St. Louis. It was in 1762 that the New Orleans firm of Maxent, Laclede & Co. obtained from the French Governor General of Louisiana, exclusive control of the fur trade with the Missouri and other tribes of Indians as far North as the River St. Peter. It was necessary to establish a trading post in closer touch with the Indians than New Orleans, and an expedition for that purpose was fitted out. Laclede, the junior member of the firm, was peculiarly qualified for the command of this undertaking, and to him it was entrusted.

Leaving New Orleans on August 3, 1763, the hardy band of frontiersmen under Laclede made their way northward to Fort Chartres, where the goods and stores of the party were put away while the members of the expedition pursued their quest for a satisfactory post site. The journey up the Mississippi had consumed three months. Laclede himself, finding the graceful curve in the Mississippi now marked by the Merchants' and Eads' Bridges, declared that he would seek no farther. Returning to Fort Chartres, he announced that he had "found a situation where he intended to establish a settlement which might become hereafter one of the finest cities in America."

But a rigorous winter intervened, and it was not until February 14, 1764, that Auguste Chouteau, then in his fourteenth year, arrived on the site of the future St. Louis with thirty men belonging to Laclede's expedition. Chouteau, though a beardless youth, was one of those prodigies of pioneer days to whom age merely meant seasoning; and it was not regarded as extraordinary at the time that he should be given charge of the clearing party. So, while Laclede is recorded as the founder of St. Louis, it was Auguste Chouteau who directed the felling of the first tree on the tract now occupied by St. Louis.

A tool shed and several log cabins were put together in an open space which was afterward platted into the block now bounded by Washington Avenue, Broadway, St. Charles and Sixth Streets. The settlement was named by Laclede himself. Though the territory had been ceded to Spain in 1762, Laclede—a native of Bion, in Southern France—named the trading post after the patron saint of his sovereign, Louis XV. There was no disposition among the hardy pioneers to transfer their allegiance to the Spanish throne, and in their own rough, honest ways they set about the task of establishing law and order without the aid of the governments across the sea.

On August 11, 1768, Rios arrived to take charge of the colony for Spain, under the authority of Don Juan de Ulloe, viceroy of Louisiana. But the settlers were hostile to Spanish sway, and Rios, exercising rare tact, avoided any rupture by neglecting to assert with anything akin to ostentation the sovereignty of the crown of Spain. So profitless was this occupation that on July 17, 1769, Spanish troops were withdrawn from Upper Louisiana.

During this period the people of St. Louis were living under a unique local administration. They had given to St. Ange de Bellerive the authority of governor, but he was reluctant to assume all the responsibilities attaching to such office. Maintaining a wise military supervision over the affairs of the settlement, he was aided in the discharge of his civil functions by Judge Lefebvre Inglebert Desbruisseau and Joseph Labusciere. This democratic triune inaugurated the system of registering land grants in 1766, Labusciere officiating as notary.

It was in 1770 that the Spaniards formally took charge of the territory, Don Pedro Piernos assuming the governorship. The annals of those days would find fitter place in the pages of romance than in the less flowered records of simple history. Chivalry, courage, hardihood and perilous emprises of varied character and purpose make up most of the anecdotes of that time. The adventurous courtier of Europe, the sun-tinted chieftain of the forest, the silent trapper and the hardy frontiersman met on common terms in the Mississippi trading post. Here came the famous Pontiac to visit friends, and being murdered while on an excursion to Cahokia, here his remains were buried.

St. Louis, together with the rest of the great province of Louisiana, was restored to French sovereignty by the treaty cession of 1800, and three years later through purchase from Napoleon became part of the United States of America.

Through all the turmoil and carnage that distracted the western hemisphere during those trying years, the trading post thrived with relatively rare fortune. Only one Indian attack was suffered in that time—on May 26, 1780—when six" of the settlers were slain. Tradition has it that the massacre would have become general had not the plans of the redskins miscarried.

The first marriage ceremony performed in St. Louis was solemnized on April 20, 1766. The first newspaper of the settlement was established in 1808. The first brick house which the town could boast was erected in 1813, followed three years later by the establishment of St. Louis' first banking institution. In 1817 the people of this frontier settlement heard the whistle of the first steamboat that reached St. Louis, and in the same year the first board of school trustees was organized. The settlement was incorporated as a town in 1809, and was chartered as a city in 1822. Ten years later an epidemic of cholera desolated many homes in the growing city, and in 1849 there was another visitation of this dread plague, and about the same time there was a great fire that destroyed the business section of the city. In 1851, while St. Louis was yet engaged in shaking off the industrial lethargy produced by the joint calamity of epidemic and conflagration two years before, the first railroad built in the Mississippi valley entered the Mound City.

The shock of civil war and the travail and distress of financial panics affected, but they did not stop, the progress of the city. Passing with its sister cities through the national trials and adversities that have befallen the country, St. Louis has been always one of the first to extend aid to the helpless and sympathy to the afflicted. Sharing, too, in the national triumphs and fortunes, St. Louis has outstripped most of her sister cities in growth and advancement, until now, on the threshold of a new century, a world's interest is turning toward the metropolis that is to celebrate with an historic exposition the entry of the Louisiana territory into the dominion of the " Stars and Stripes."

On May 27, 1896, St. Louis was swept by a tornado. The terrible storm caused the sacrifice of nearly as many lives in the town of East St. Louis, across the Mississippi, as were lost in the Mound City; but here it was that the greatest financial damage was suffered. Though there can be no accurate record of the casualties caused by the tornado, it is estimated that 215 lives were blotted out and 1,000 persons injured in St. Louis. The money loss approximated 15,000,000 dollars. Reaching across the Mississippi River, where it destroyed part of the approach to the Eads Bridge, the terrific storm hurled itself through the south central part of the city, demolishing houses and destroying every thing in its path. For several days the community was stunned by the shock. The City Hospital had been razed and the telegraph, telephone, lighting and transit facilities of the community were crippled. But scarcely had the outside world been acquainted with the true extent of the horror before St. Louis arose to the awful occasion. The work of rehabilitation started with the work of rescue and relief. Other cities offered aid, but the mayor of St. Louis declined it. Of course, assistance came in various ways, but practically through her own resources St. Louis picked her way out of the debris and ruins and reared her head aloft, prouder, more beautiful and self-reliant than before.

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St Louis- `today:'

Too far north to be a Southern city, and too southern in its social characteristics to be a Northern city; with all the polish and finish of an Eastern center, and yet toned by all the warmth and spirit and verve of a Western metropolis, St. Louis cannot be exclusively claimed by one section.

"Neither Northern nor Southern, neither Eastern nor Western, but just an all-American city." This is the description proudly applied to his home by a St. Louisianan. It reflects with rare accuracy the virtues and merits of the Mound City. And current history impregnates St. Louis' Americanism with an important significance—a significance that will appeal to the civilized universe through the medium of a World's Fair.

St. Louis has entered the new century with Progress and Advancement for her handmaidens. Incrusted on her diadem of industry is the flaming legend, " Nothing Impossible." The center of universal interest is gravitating toward this forward-pointing figure. And no historic enterprise has promised better or more extensive compensation for the interest of civilized peoples than is contained in the plans for St. Louis' World's Fair—an universal exposition in a thoroughly American city to commemorate a thoroughly American event.

On April 30, 1803, was consummated the purchase from France of the Louisiana Territory, than which no section of the United States has since done more to increase the puissance of American enterprise or to enrich the possibilities of Columbia's future. It is to celebrate the centennial anniversary of this historic event that St. Louis has taken the lead in the movement for a commemorative international exposition. As the city selected to be the scene of a" World's Fair, surpassing in importance and grandeur any previous undertaking of its kind, St. Louis ceases to present merely local interests. It assumes the complexion of the vast domain for which the enterprise stands representative. It becomes the hub of that great, tremendously resourceful and incalculably energetic area once comprised in the Louisiana purchase, but now more properly described, in an inclusive sense, as the Trans-Mississippi States.

St. Louis' strides to the front rank of world's cities were accompanied by an equal advancement on the part of the great section of which she is the metropolis. In the onward career of the United States during the past century, and particularly during the current generation, no region has shared more fully than the Trans-Mississippi States. The census of 1890 showed that the increase of wealth in the Trans-Mississippi section for the decade ended with that year was 470.19 per cent, while the enhancement of property in the remainder of the Union during the same period was only 222.67 Per cent. During the thirty years ended with 1890 more than half of the national increase of population of 99.16 per cent was in the Mississippi River states and west thereof.

The Mound City itself, at the beginning of the century, finds itself in the midst of the country's centers of production and population. The center of area is west of her, in Smith County, Kan.; the center of population, constantly moving westward, was, in 1890, in Decatur County, Ind.; the center of wheat production that year was in Hancock County, 111, close to the border of Iowa; the center of corn production was in Lewis County, Mo. ; and the center of manufactures was near Canton, O., pursuing a westerly trend.

But the relatively phenomenal growth of St. Louis cannot be better indicated than by the fact that in forty years its assessed valuation has increased nearly eight fold. In 1860 the municipal assessor's rolls showed property valued at 57,537,415 dollars; in 1880 the figures were 160,493,000 dollars; in 1896, 345,940,150 dollars; and in 1900, 380,779,280 dollars. Even more remarkable is the tremendous swelling of the volume of St. Louis' manufactures. In 1860 the value of the city's manufactured products aggregated 27,000,000 dollars. Since then they have increased more than 1000 per cent, so that for the year 1901 their value becomes beyond the accuracy of computation, and well-informed men hazard the estimate that the amount will approach a billion dollars. In 1880 the value of these products was 114,333)375 dollars in 1895 it was 300,000,000 dollars, and in 1900 it was 350,000,000 dollars.

It would be difficult for the most fanciful imagination to conceive a picture of progress equal in scope and extent to that offered by the St. Louis of to-day as compared with the trading post founded by Pierre Laclede Liguest. From a settlement of a few scores of inhabitants it has worked its way by bounds and leaps into the fourth rank of American cities, with a population in round numbers of 600,000. This count does not include adjacent towns and residence districts reached by electric cars. Counting these, the population of St. Louis approaches the 800,000 mark. The remote trading post of the eighteenth century has become a trade, financial, manufacturing, industrial and social center whose influence and importance are felt in the furthermost circles of civilization. St. Louis trade-marks penetrate to the antipodes and find their way to Kamschatka; they are sought in the marts of Europe and are found as well in the shops of the Caucasus and the Ind ; they carry fixed values to the trader of Africa and are common in the markets of South America. St. Louis capital has quickened the pulse of industry in every quarter of the globe; St. Louis manufactures are sold to every people of every tongue who barter and trade with civilization ; St. Louis banks and financial institutions rate in every counting-house of the world as first-class, solid institutions.

With a people whose intelligence and virtues are reflected by social standards than which there are none higher or more liberal in Christendom ; with an enterprise and thrift that are typified by the marvelous growth of the city herself; with a wealth that finds its proof not only inside her corporate limits but on the bourses of Europe as well as in the stock exchanges of all America; with a business conservatism that has given her name to proverbial use among financiers; with every adjunct of the highest order of civilization— schools, art galleries, universities, libraries, musical conservatories, churches, hospitals, technical academies, scientific exhibits and an annual exposition and fair, St. Louis is proud of her distinction as the most American of American cities.

And in this pride, confident of her unfailing capabilities and resources, dowered with the trust of her sister cities and inspired by her eager interest of a nation and the attention of a whole world, she is preparing to set the crowning jewel in her crest—the record of the Louisiana Purchase Commemorative Exposition of 1903.

There is no feature of community life that holds forth more importance than that of the common government. In this regard, St. Louis is at once unique and interesting. It is an independent municipality, sometimes termed the Free City of the West. In an era of intermingling judiciaries and executive functions, St. Louis is peculiarly untrammeled by any of the elaborate technicalities that go to confuse the corporate entities of most cities with the workings of county affairs. The Mound City has its own judiciary, its own legislature and its own executive, re-enforced by an ample constabulary and all those elements that belong to and are necessary for the maintenance of law, order and security. Indeed, St. Louis is unusually fortunate in its method of municipal government. The city administration is modeled after the best plan of government in the world—that of the United States. There are three divisions of authority: the legislative, judicial and executive. The first named is vested in two houses—fashioned after the national Congress— and the executive. The lower House is composed of Delegates, the apportionment of whom is fixed at one for each ward. The upper chamber or City Council is composed of twelve councilmen chosen from the city at large. The judicial authority is exercised by circuit, criminal, correctional, police and justice courts, the territorial jurisdictions of which are co-extensive with the city limits. The executive authority is vested in the mayor, who serves for four years, as do also the Councilmen, while the Delegates are chosen biennially.

St. Louis has its own shrievalty, its own coroner, its own assessor, its own collector, its own constables and all of those offices which in other cities are compelled to divide their attentions between county and municipal matters. Beside these there are located in St. Louis the headquarters of the United States Circuit Court for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, the United States District Court, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals and the St. Louis Court of Appeals. The position of the city and its importance as the metropolis of the state have caused the headquarters of various officials to be established here instead of at the state capital. Among these offices headquartered in St. Louis are those of the State Board of Health, the Inspector of Oils, the State Grain Inspection Department, the Excise Commissioner, the Barbers' Examining Board, the Department of Beer Inspection, the Fish Commissioner, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Tobacco Inspector and the Butterine Inspector.

No community is desirable for residence purposes unless it offers those safeguards for peace and security which every householder demands from a well regulated government. In these features of municipal life, St. Louis is peculiarly fortunate. Its police department has for decades enjoyed a reputation ominous to evil-doers and gratifying to law-abiders. Its detective department has run down the culprits in some of the most mysterious cases contained in criminal annals. The annual expenditure for the police force approximates 1,265,000 dollars, representing the salaries of 850 regular patrolmen, 250 probationary patrolmen, twelve captains, twelve lieutenants, thirty-five turnkeys, ten patrol wagon drivers, 100 sergeants and twenty-five detectives, beside the chief and assistants chief of police, chief and assistant chief of detectives, and the superintendent of the Bertillon system. The department was reorganized under a state law on August 21, 1899.

Every public need and convenience has been provided for, and St. Louis has a water supply double in capacity to the present consumption. The source of this supply is in the Mississippi River. The waterworks became municipal property in 1835. The water is drawn chiefly from the river at the Chain of Rocks, at the extreme northern limit of the city. From the settling basins it flows by gravity to a system of reservoirs, whence it is pumped through standpipes and the distributing conduits to the main reservoir. The main conduit is seven miles long, with a carrying capacity of 100,000,000 gallons per day. There are additional pumps for high-service needs. There are more than 4,000 water-meters in the city and fully 500 fire hydrants.

Ranking among the best fire departments in the world is St. Louis' corps of flame-fighters. Indeed, the Mound City's fire department service has won the encomiums of officials the world over. Its best commendation is found in its surpassingly effective record and in the low fire insurance rates that are granted on St. Louis buildings. The municipal fire department embraces thirty-nine engine companies, twelve hook and ladder companies and two water towers. Its system of control is sedulously maintained on a basis of merit so regulated as to procure the best possible results. Every appliance that modern ingenuity can suggest to facilitate the work of the fire-fighters has been added to the department, among the valuable adjuncts of which is a telegraph signal service that enables the transmission of alarms with the certain accuracy of infallible mechanism and with the marvelous rapidity of electricity. In addition, there is the Salvage Corps, maintained by the local underwriters for the purpose of minimizing property losses. This energetic brigade works with the fire laddies, but not to extinguish the flames. Dashing into burning structures, its members exert themselves to protect goods from damage by water. Tarpaulin sheets are thrown over the more valuable contents of buildings, while asbestos spreads are employed wherever they are available. Altogether, St. Louis' fire department is a model organization.

However amply St. Louis be provided with governmental agencies for the security of the community, its correctional and eleemosynary institutions are no less generous in proportions and capacities. In addition to the municipal establishments, there are scores of charitable concerns, instituted and operated by organizations of every character and purpose. In addition to the City and Female Hospitals, the municipality numbers among its institutions the Quarantine and Small-pox Hospital, the Insane Asylum, the City Poorhouse, the Workhouse and the House of Refuge. Among these the Female Hospital stands out as an unusual eleemosynary establishment, conducted, as it is, exclusively for women.

Asylums, convents, hospitals, dispensaries, havens of refuge for unfortunates, homes for orphans, and sheltering abodes for all manners and kinds of frailer persons—deaf, dumb, blind, crippled and destitute—are distributed throughout the city to the number of more than 150. Nearly all of these are conducted by organizations solely intended for charitable purposes. Others form adjuncts to societies with more material aims, but all serve the one end of aiding and caring for the unfortunate. The fact that there is very little actual poverty in St. Louis is explained by the systematic work done by the Provident Association, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the Hebrew Relief Society, three great charitable organizations conducted respectively by the Protestants, Catholics and Hebrews.

A Financial fortress:

"Peace hath Her victories no less renowned than War." In reckoning the world's military resources, no asset stands forth with a show of more intrinsic importance than Britain's possession of Gibraltar. That rock-ribbed, rock-bowled, rockrooted fortress gives to England a strength of leverage that, in the light of war values, is possessed by no holding of any other power.

What Gibraltar is to Britain's political puissance, St. Louis is to America's financial solidity. The art and ingenuity which have improved the strength of the natural fortress that frowns above the Straits of Gibraltar, can scarcely deserve a moiety of the credit due the integrity, energy, enterprise and well-tempered conservatism which have established in the world's greatest republic its financial Gibraltar. The battlemented structure is a sinister monument to War's horrors; the great city, no less a factor of national strength, is a smiling promise of beneficent resource. A whole world shudders at the ugly menace of the fortress' guns; a happy people count with conscious pride the vast elements of progress and prosperity that are garnered in the bustling thoroughfares of the great city. The Gibraltar of the Rocks is the world's greatest concentration of destructive agencies; the Financial Gibraltar of the Western Plains is the world's greatest concentration of constructive capacities.

In everything that pertains to finances, St. Louis can be fully described only with superlative terms. Statisticians assert that the per capita wealth of the Mound City is the largest of any municipality in the world. This would mean that in real and personal property it is the wealthiest community that the sun brightens. With a population of 600,000, it has an assessed valuation of 380,779,280 dollars. The rate of assessment is 60 per cent of the real value, giving the city a wealth, fairly estimated, of about 700,000,000 dollars.

But it is not only in the holdings of real and personal estates that St. Louisianan find the firmest anchorage for the financial superiority of their city. The solidity of its institutions, the world-noted integrity of its business men and the commercial confidence that its name inspires throughout the country win St. Louis' preeminence. Monetary panics may rock and shake the money centers of other sections; failure and reverse may paralyze the trade of other cities ; financial syncope may come to the mercantile life of other places; but amid the crashing of values and the tumbling of prices, St. Louis has always presented, will always present, the firm front of an unimpaired credit.

No better instance of this could be given than by the records of the money stress that perturbed the United States during the early part of the decade just ended. Despite the gloom and hysteria that pervaded business circles from one end of the nation to the other, and even communicated their distressful influences to the financial activities of Europe, the progress of the Mound City continued. Arrested in a measure, of course, by the stoppage of trade throughout the immense industrial and agricultural area of which it is the hub, the severest shocks were not sufficient to totally suspend the city's onward march.

The percentage of failures was smaller and the depreciation of values less extensive in St. Louis than in any other of the American business centers. And when the revival did come, and forges flashed again with the fires of renewed industry, and the nation exulted in a new era of prosperity, it was St. Louis that bounded to the forefront of commercial expansion. It was she who rode the crest of the on sweeping current of business rehabilitation, while the strength of her investments and the support of her patronage bore on to restored solvency and success her vast tributary sections.

Capitalists of other cities and Other countries have marveled at the stability of St. Louis' resources and, marveling, sought the reason. Their answer is contained in the balance of her business men and the equipoise of her financiers. With a conservatism that is a contrast beside fogyism, they are always ready to foster new enterprises and engage in new ventures. Novelty does not deter them; all they require is that the investment be legitimate and reasonably safe.

"Gilt-edge" is the description given St. Louis securities in every exchange and bourse of the world. The public and private credit of the city has come to constitute a financial maxim. It is the index to the sources of the community's money strength. St. Louis has for generations stood in the lexicon of finances for soundness. A merchant in the remotest corner of the trade world is predisposed in favor of a credit transaction with a dealer whose environment bespeaks integrity. For this reason, it has been easy for St. Louis capitalists and wholesalers to reach out for the custom, concessions and business of the furthest regions. St. Louis capital has flowed through the channels of development into South America, Africa, Asia, and even far-off Australasia.

It is no wonder, then, that the enormous task of financing a World's Fair, the disbursements in connection with which are practically certain to reach the tremendous aggregate of 50,000,000 dollars, is confidently intrusted to the business leaders of such a city. As the name, St. Louis, attached to any asset, is a certain warrant of worth, so the fact that St. Louis is to devote its energies and genius to the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition is a guaranty of the success of that enterprise.

At the end of the fiscal year 1899-1900 the outstanding bonded debt of the municipality of St. Louis amounted to 18,916,278.30 dollars, beside 189,315.59 dollars advanced out of the treasury in anticipation of the revenue for the sinking fund for the year 1900-1901, giving a total indebtedness of 19,105,593.89 dollars. The reduction of the debt during the year amounted to 397,790.92 dollars. The annual interest charges on the municipality's debt outstanding amount to only 778,409.28 dollars, or an average of 4.115 per cent.

In the presence of these figures it is instructive to recall that an issue of St. Louis 3^ per cent bonds, under date of June 1, 1898, was sold at 1,045.42 dollars per 1,000  dollar bond.

The total taxes in St. Louis amount to 1.95 dollars on the 100 dollars on a basis of a 60 per cent valuation. On a cash valuation, this would mean 11.70 dollars per  1,000 dollars. These figures indicate that St. Louis, as a municipal corporation, will have little difficulty in floating the 5,000,000 dollar bond issue projected in connection with and for the advancement of the coming World's Fair.

 In touch with the world:

Decades ago, before the rush and clang of steam engines, great caravans of wagons and mules, threading the untrammeled prairies and forests of the continent in their search for the Western El Dorado, found St. Louis the most important point in their itinerary. It was here that the great wagon trains of the voyageurs were organized, the teamsters engaged and the supply stores gathered. Emigrants, commencing the long journey from points further East, found St. Louis the depot where final preparations must be made for the plunge into the wilds of the Great Further West.

And as the wealth of the products of wood and plain, floating down the tawny bosom of the Mississippi to the Gulf, grew in volume and value, St. Louis came to be the entrepot not only for the river trade North and South, but for the overland commerce East and West as well. Geography made St. Louis a natural center of transportation and trade; and the readiness of the hardy fronts tiersman to discover convenience of place and travel accentuated the importance of the Mound City as the starting and relay point of arteries of communication leading to and from the center of the country in all directions to and from all sections. So long as opulence and prodigality remain features of trade traditions the story of the Mississippi River traffic of St. Louis' early days will find eager listeners. It is claimed in some quarters that the wealth accumulated here through the enormous shipping on the great Father of Waters furnished the foundation for those fortunes and resources which in later days made the city the financial giant that it is.

The advent of the railroad revolutionized commercial communication. Of course, it resulted in loss to those peculiar lines of trade which depended for their subsistence exclusively on river traffic. The superb sleeping cars of the rail, with their incomparably greater expedition, displaced the floating palaces and their accompanying expensiveness of languid leisure. Perishable freight, which could not survive the longer period required for a boat trip down or up the river, was shipped on the swift-running trains ; and merchants and tradesmen grew to rely on the iron horse rather than the palatial and slower rolling river craft.

But the Mississippi boat-owners struggled vigorously against the railroads. And the fight brought an enhancement of accommodation and facility in both methods of transport. 

Modern utilities present no more notable industrial monument then the great St. Louis steel bridge across

the Mississippi River. It deservedly holds place in the front rank of the world's structural and engineering feats. The genius of Capt. James B. Eads and the triumph of St. Louis' progressiveness find lasting union in this memorial of steel and stone.

Seven years were occupied in building the great structure. The contract for the masonry work was let 'in August, 1867, to James Andrews, of Allegheny, Pa. The first stone in the western abutment pier was laid on February 25, 1868; the first stone on the caisson of the east channel pier on October 25, 1869 ; and the first stone on the caisson of the west channel pier on January 15, 1870. The total cost of the entire bridge, including the approaches, was 6,536,729.99 dollars, but when the charges for interest, commissions for charters and financial agents, damages, hospital expenses, etc., are added the sum is swelled to nearly ten millions. The bridge was completed and opened to public travel on May 23, 1874, an elaborate celebration to commemorate the occasion being held on the following Fourth of July.

The structure is without its equal in the world in the way of bridges of the arch or truss pattern. It is the greatest bridge over the greatest river in the world. On June 9, 1874, it supported the first railroad train that crossed the Mississippi from Illinois to Missouri.

Each of the side arches of the bridge has a span of 502 feet in the clear, while the central arch stretches 520 feet over deep water. The three magnificent steel arches are fashioned with such engineering finesse that the utmost tensile strength is procured, and the burden that can be supported is far beyond the probabilities of ordinary use. The bridge is a two-story structure, the great arches carrying double-track railways with a broad highway, seventy-five feet in width, above. On this highway are promenades on either side, with four tracks or iron tramways for street-cars or other carriages between. Thus four vehicles may easily travel abreast' along this great structure without blocking traffic.

The purposes for which the bridge was built required the construction of a tunnel through which trains could reach the St. Louis approach; and this undertaking was in itself a great industrial task. The distance from the entrance of the tunnel at the southern terminus to the terminus of the railway approach east of Cahokia Creek in East St. Louis is two miles 146 yards and two feet, which is really the length of the bridge railway.

Fifteen years after the completion of the Eads bridge, a number of the railway companies operating east and west lines through St. Louis opened to traffic the second structure that spans the Mississippi River at the Mound City. It is intended exclusively for railroad uses and is known as the Merchants' Bridge. It is in itself a structure of unusual magnitude and strength, stretching across the great Father of Waters from Bissell's Point in North St. Louis to a point on the Illinois shore opposite the town of Madison.

Following the great double railway tunnel that leads from the western approach of the mighty Eads bridge,

out under Washington Avenue to Seventh Street, along a curve from that point to Eighth and Locust Streets and thence under Eighth to Poplar Streets, a run of a few blocks brings the traveler to another of St. Louis' architectural wonders, Union Station.

When, on September 1, 1894, ceremonies were conducted in celebration of the formal opening of the St. Louis Union Station, an epoch was marked not only in the accomplishments of modern architecture, but in the history of railroads as well. No other transit depot in the world is entitled to comparison with this magnificent edifice. Affording conveniences and facilities for traffic the recital of which would crowd columns of tabulated statements, the station is at the same time an artistic and engineering marvel. It furnishes one of the world-famous spectacles of St. Louis.

On Market Street facing north, the Union Station extends from Eighteenth Street west to Twentieth Street, a distance of 606 feet. The station proper, or head house, and the Midway between it and the train shed cover 497,092 square feet or eleven and one tenth acres. The yards south of -the train shed, between it and the power-house, contain 465,970 square feet, making a total area for the Union Station itself, exclusive of all the main track approaches, of 963,062 square feet, or twenty acres. In this space of activity, there are .nineteen miles of railroad track, of which the thirty-one tracks under the train shed compose three and one-half miles.

The largest inter-locking system in the world is employed in the yards. It is worked by 122 levers and controls 130 switches and 103 signals. The station electric lighting plant has a capacity for 300 arc and 5,000 incandescent lamps. At the Eighteenth Street end of the great station building, the clock tower rises to a height of 232 feet above the track level and 247 feet above the structure's bottom foundation. It lifts itself from a base forty feet square and its conical roof shelters an arcade and a balcony.

The first ground for the construction of the Union Station was broken on April 1, 1892. The cost of the site, the buildings and the entire system of tracks and other improvements exceeded $6,500,000. The train shed is 700 feet in length and 606 feet in breadth; it covers an area of 424,000 square feet and shelters thirty-one tracks, on which are operated the railroads of twenty-two companies.

But the great host of utilitarian devices that are assembled in this magnificent structural area do not outrival in interest the beauty of the architectural ingenuity with which the whole is garnished. The massive front of Bedford limestone which first greets the beholder on Market Street gives an augury of the artistic taste with which the arrangement of the interior is carried out. Magnificent vestibules, spacious corridors and waiting rooms, exquisite alcoves and dormers, superb frescoing and allegorical figures, all surrounding and leading to the superb grand central hall, make up an array of separate and collective beauties well worth considerable travel by the artistic sight-seer. This grand central hall, 74 x120 feet, with a floor area of 8,880 square feet, laid with mosaic tiles, with a barrel-vaulted ceiling sixty feet above and pierced at either end with arches forty feet in diameter, is one of the most notable chambers designed by modern architects. Altogether, St. Louis' Union Station is a monument of genius and progress in which the great city might well take one of its chiefest prides.

A decade has worked wondrous changes in the downtown architecture of St. Louis. One who visited the city in 1890 and returned at the beginning of the twentieth century would be immeasurably astonished by the character of the office buildings that have meanwhile lifted themselves skyward. Indeed, practically all of the great edifices that make St. Louis one of the architectural leaders of the world have been erected in the past ten or fifteen years. It is little more than a decade since two stories were added to the Equitable building at Sixth and Locust Streets, and that structure became the solidly imposing pile that it is.

The two tallest structures in St. Louis adjoin each other on the North side of Olive between Seventh and Eighth Streets. They are the Union Trust and Chemical Buildings, the former being fourteen and the latter sixteen stories in height. Perhaps no other city in the world can boast finer office structures. 

The Laclede Building at Fourth and Olive Streets holds the contested credit of being the first fire-proof  "sky-comber" erected in St. Louis. The Commercial Building at Sixth and Olive Streets soon followed, and then came the Odd Fellows' Hall on Ninth and Olive Streets. Adjoining the Chemical Building on Eighth Street, opposite the mass of granite that composes the Post Office, is the Turner Building, which, though not as lofty as some of its neighbors, is one of the most substantial office structures in existence. Next to and north of the Turner Building is the Columbia. 

On the other side of the Post Office or Federal Building, on Ninth and Olive Streets, is the Century Building, one of the largest and finest office structures in the world. The Holland Building, on the west side of Seventh, between Olive and Pine Streets, vies with its neighbor, the Union Trust, in loftiness of elevation. Half a block south is the Fullerton Building, at Seventh and Pine Streets. It, the Carleton Building at Sixth and Olive Streets, and other of the newer office structures are perhaps a trifle more ornate in appearance than the downtown edifices that were erected half a dozen years before ; but no office buildings in the world present a larger measure of comfort or a more assuring sense of solidity than such as the Globe Democrat Building at Sixth and Pine Streets, the Houser Building at Broadway and Chestnut Streets, or the Security Building at Fourth and Locust Streets.

The Rialto Building at Fourth and Olive Streets and the Wainwright Building at Seventh and Chestnut Streets are of the newer patterns, with the latest architectural conceits of symmetry and airiness.

The western half of Forest Park and territory adjacent thereto, selected as the site of the great Exposition commemorative of the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase, is considered an ideal location in every respect. The combined wisdom, experience and foresight of men identified with the progress and prosperity of the community, selected the Forest Park site after most careful deliberation and mature consideration ; and their choice was unanimously approved by the National Commission. The location is so easy of access from all directions that it might almost be considered in the heart of the city. From the Union Station it is only twenty minutes ride by electric car, and less than half an hour allows ample time to reach the location from either of the big down-town hotels or from the business center. The system of transfers in operation will land a passenger by trolley car on the grounds from the extreme limits of the city in any direction for one fare—five cents.

Forest Park, the western half of which will be occupied by the Fair, is in the central western part of the city. A line due west from the post office, the court house, Union Station, City Hall, Four Courts, or either of the present large down-town hotels, will strike an entrance to the park. It is the second largest city park in the United States, Fairmount Park in Philadelphia alone exceeding it in size. The exact area is 1371.94 acres. The- eastern half is splendidly cultivated and artistically arranged to the limit of the landscape gardener's skill and talent. The western half is as nature made it—almost primeval forest. This portion of the park includes 668 acres. Take a map of the city, and, beginning at a point on the southern edge of Forest Park, about midway between Euclid Avenue and the Skinker road, trace a line northward across the park to a point on " The Concourse," directly west of the pagoda, keeping Mirror lake and the music stand to the east, and the big lake to the west; thence northwestwardly to and following the Wabash Railroad to its intersection with Delmar Boulevard; thence west along Delmar Boulevard to Skinker Road; south along Skinker Road to the northern line of the park; west again 2500 feet; south again to a point directly west of the southern boundary of the park; thence in a straight line east to the point of beginning. Within the figure thus described lies the World's Fair site. The total area is 1028 acres.

The "jog" or notch at the northwest corner of the site is made necessary by the location of the magnificent new buildings of Washington University, now in course of construction. The University will overlook the western part of the Fair. There is, however, no obstacle, either legal or physical, to extending the Fair site area almost indefinitely on the west, north or south. Because of the natural condition in which the western half of Forest Park has been kept it has come to be known as " The Wilderness." Over the entire stretch tall, stately shade trees grow luxuriantly. A single driveway, an extension of the Concourse, penetrates this portion, climbing hills and winding around ridges until the level plateau is reached, and then penetrating almost to the western boundary of the park. The eastern portion for perhaps one-third of the distance to the western line of the park is hilly. There is a succession of three or four of these hills, none of them very high and all with gentle slopes. From the Catlin tract on the north and near the Skinker Road on the west, the river Des Peres enters the park and coils and winds about down to the eastern limit of the park site and thence into the improved portion of the park. No less than six small tributaries enter it as it journeys to the eastward before reaching the boundary of the Fair grounds. The largest lake in Forest Park is included in the Fair site. Its most eastern limit and that of the site itself are practically identical. Just to the west of the lake is the large track and hippodrome of the Gentlemen's Driving Club, the diagonal line drawn in a northwesterly direction in tracing the boundaries of the site almost touching the grand stand. Close by are the smoothly-surfaced lawn tennis courts. All of these of course will be wiped out at almost the first stroke of World's Fair work in the park.

The land outside the park included in the area as now laid out is hilly on the west, and unimproved. On the north it is perfectly level and has been platted for residence purposes. A portion of it, known as the Catlin tract, is classed as among the highest-priced residence ground in the city. On the south the land is high, and a portion of it is improved.

The existing facilities of  an approach to the Fair site render the problem of transportation, always a serious one in affairs of this kind, easier of solution than is generally the case with enterprises of so vast a nature. Forest Park is the western terminus of practically all the east and west street railway lines of St. Louis. Inside of the park there are now three street railway stations. In addition five steam railways run in close proximity. The Laclede Avenue and Market Street electric lines terminate at a pavilion at the eastern limits of the park, and the Olive Street line at the northeast corner. The Delmar Avenue line enters a pavilion on De Baliviere Avenue, inside the site. The Transit Company's Clayton line runs on Skinker Road, the western limit of the park, and included in the Fair grounds. All of these lines have their eastern termini in the center of the downtown business district of the city. A line of the Suburban Railway crosses from the north on Union Boulevard and forms a loop inside of the park. For all of the lines not actually entering the Fair grounds, possibilities of extension are offered. At Forsythe Junction, one block north of the park, and included in the contemplated limits, is a station of the Wabash and Colorado railroads. The Missouri Pacific, Frisco and Iron Mountain lines enter the city a few blocks south of Clayton Road. Between their tracks and the Fair grounds the land is such as to make the construction of switches and extensions an easy matter. The proposed belt line contemplates the location of a station inside of the grounds.

For drivers, bicyclists and patrons of automobiles the grounds are of easy access. The approaches on all sides are thoroughfares of the very finest of street paving construction. Lindell Boulevard, on the north limit of the park, is nationally famous as a driveway. Delmar, McPherson and Maryland Avenues, approaching from the east, all are splendidly paved, beautiful residence streets. Union Boulevard and Goodfellow and Hamilton Avenues, which extend to the grounds from the north, are popular for driving and wheeling purposes. Skinker Road, on the west, and others of the adjacent county roads are macadamized and always are in the best of condition.

Forest Park is the undisputed property of the city of St. Louis, the municipal park board having assumed charge in 1874. The adjoining properties whose use is contemplated will be leased from the owners, or secured through condemnation proceedings, for which careful provision has been made by law.

The use of the park portion of the site was made possible by the passage of an ordinance by the Municipal Assembly. When suggestions for sites were called for, seven locations for the fair were suggested. All these had their ardent advocates; but when the Forest Park site selection was announced all sectional or factional feeling faded, and, with that spirit of civic pride that is characteristic of St. Louisianan, everybody approved. What little opposition was shown by people whose love for Forest Park prompted them to protest against the destruction of any of its attractions, disappeared when it was made plain that the eastern half of the park would be preserved, and that the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company was obligated to set aside an ample fund for the complete restoration of the park immediately after the close of the great Exposition.

Chronology of the Exposition:.

With a World's Fair assured on a scale of magnificence never before attempted, in which the Nation, the City of St. Louis as a corporation, and the people of St. Louis are equal factors, the story of how and why the great project was commenced and brought to full fruition is replete with interest for all the world. It is now an accepted fact that the nations of the earth will assemble in St. Louis in 1903 to join in the celebration of the centennial of the purchase by the United States of that vast area known as the Louisiana Territory.

Fifteen million dollars have been subscribed for stock in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company— five million by the United States Government, five million by the City of St. Louis, and five million by popular subscription. The State of Missouri has appropriated one million dollars to be expended in making a fitting exhibit of the State's resources. Other States have made or will make similar provision for a like purpose. The Government has appointed a board of commissioners to act in an advisory capacity and guard the Government's interest. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company has perfected organization and got the work under such splendid progress, directed by men of such energy, that there is every reason to feel assured that the gates of the great exposition will be thrown open on time.

In the spring of 1897 the Missouri Historical Society and the press began the agitation of a plan to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the acquisition of the " Louisiana Purchase" by the United States, and the citizens of the States within the Territory were invited to make suggestions bearing on the celebration.

In September, 1898, the Missouri Historical Society appointed a committee of fifty to decide upon the manner of holding the celebration, and the committee, in turn, appointed a committee of ten to consider the various methods proposed and to suggest the best and most practicable.

November 26, 1898—The committee of ten reported to the committee of fifty, advocating a celebration by all the States in the Purchase, and the committee of fifty approved the recommendation. It was forwarded to Gov. Lon V. Stephens, with a recommendation that a convention of representatives of the Louisiana Purchase States be called for St. Louis, to decide upon the place of holding such celebration.

December 13, 1898—Gov. Stephens issued a call for a convention in St. Louis for January 10, 1899.

January 10, 1899—Representatives of all the Louisiana Purchase States met in St. Louis at the Southern Hotel, and decided that a World's Fair would best commemorate the event, and that it should be held in St. Louis in 1903.

January 11, 1899—An executive committee was appointed, with former Gov. David R. Francis as chairman, and a committee of fifty was named to carry out the World's Fair idea. .

February 11, 1899—The general committee was raised to two hundred and organized, with Pierre Chouteau as chairman and Jas. Cox as secretary. Finance and legislative committees were appointed, with Wm. H. Thompson and Frederick W. Lehmann as chairmen, respectively.

February 25, 1899—The Senators and Representatives of the States of the Louisiana Purchase were tendered a banquet at Washington by members of the general committee.

April 23, 1899—A citizens' mass-meeting was held at Music Hall, and $4,244,670 was subscribed toward the 5,000,000 dollars fund which St. Louis was pledged to raise.

April 27, 1900—Hearing at Washington, D. C., of the World's Fair plan by the special committee of Congress, members of the executive committee, and representatives from most of the Purchase States appearing in its behalf.

June 4, 1900—Passage by Congress of the Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill carrying an amendment pledging the National Government's support of the World's Fair project, together with an appropriation of 5,000,000 dollars, conditioned on the raising of $5,000,000 by popular subscription, and the appropriation of 5,000,000 dollars by the City of St. Louis.

January 12, 1901—Popular subscription of $5.000,000 by citizens of St. Louis completed and certificate to that effect prepared for submission to authorities at Washington.

January 25, 1901—Certificate of the fulfillment of St. Louis' obligation presented to special committee of Congress, and Tawney bill read.

March 4, 1901—Appropriation finally made by United States Senate after some opposition, and the national government became a stockholder in the World's Fair enterprise, without a vote, to the extent of 5,000,000 dollars.

March 30, 1901—Appointment by President McKinley of the national World's Fair Commission, with instructions to the same to meet within thirty days after the passage of the World's Fair bill.

April 23, 1901—The national commission met at the Southern Hotel, in St. Louis. The World's Fair company was incorporated, under the name " Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company," with a capital stock of  6,000,000 dollars. A banquet was given by the Business Men's League of St. Louis at the Planters' Hotel to the national commission and members of Congress who were foremost in effecting the passage of the bill.

April 24, 1901—The national commission met at the Southern Hotel and organized, with ex-Senator Thomas H. Carter as president, ex-Congressman Martin H. Glynn as vice-president, and Mr. Jos. Flory of St. Louis, secretary.

May 3, 1901—Meeting of the directors and election of the following officers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition :

President, David R. Francis; treasurer, Wm. H. Thompson; secretary, Walter B. Stevens; vice-presidents, Corwin H. Spencer, Samuel M. Kennard, Daniel M. Houser, Cyrus P. Walbridge, Seth W. Cobb, Chas. H. Huttig, August Gehner and Pierre Chouteau. The president, treasurer and eight vice-presidents were appointed as a committee on organization to report at the next meeting recommendations on number and formation of standing committees ; draft of by-laws of incorporation; suitable offices for temporary headquarters of incorporation; director general; general counsel for corporation.

May 9, 1901—The Committee on organization reported. By-laws were adopted and Mr. Jas. L. Blair, recommended by the committee as counsel general, was elected unanimously.

May 10, 1901—Municipal Assembly passed ordinance authorizing the use of city parks for the World's Fair if desired by the organization.

May 28, 1901—Nine Standing Committees of the company appointed, as follows: Executive; Press and Publicity; Ways and Means ; Transportation ; Finance ; Grounds and Buildings; Concessions; Insurance; Foreign Relations,

May 29, 30, 31, June, 1, 1901—Seven proposed sites inspected by Executive Committee.

June 4, 5, 6, 1901—Executive Committee listened to arguments of advocates of the seven proposed sites.

June 8 to 23, 1901—Daily meetings of Executive Committee to consider proposed sites, the problem of transportation facilities for materials for building and for exhibits proving a difficult one. Meetings also of Press and Publicity Committee, at which methods of advertising the Fair, and applications for positions were considered.

June 24, 1901—Executive Committee decided on the Forest Park, but did not announce decision.

June 25, 1901—Meeting of Board of Directors at which selection of Forest Park site was announced and unanimously approved.

June 26, 1901—Meeting of National Commissioners. Forest Park visited.

June 27, 28, 1901—National Commissioners approved the site selection, and formulated a declaration of the legal responsibilities, duties and rights of the Commission.

June 30, 1901—Officers, Members of the Executive Committee and prominent citizens went to Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo.

July 2, 1901—Dedication of Louisiana Purchase Building at Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo,

 The Louisiana Purchase:

The  acquisition of the territory of Louisiana from France in 1803 may be regarded, from several points of view, as the most important event in the whole history of the United States. It added 1,171,931 square miles to the United States—a territory greater by 300,000 square miles than the entire domain of the nation as it then existed. The thirteen States and two territories which have since been carved out of the Purchase have, by the census of 1900, a population of 17,777,081, or nearly one-fourth of the population of the United States. Missouri, the fifth State in the Union, is in the Louisiana territory, as is also Texas, the sixth. As the crowning glory of the vast reaches of mining, agricultural and grazing lands embodied in the old Louisiana territory there have arisen great cities—St. Louis, the fourth city in the United States; San Antonio, one of the oldest towns in the country; the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, centers of the summer resort region and the inland lakes; Hot Springs, whither people go by the thousands to regain their health; New Orleans, with its Mardi Gras, its opera and its whirl of gay society; Denver, the Mecca of all who seek a tonic of ozone ; rapidly growing Omaha; and the five towns, Dubuque, Des Moines, Davenport, Burlington and Council Bluffs, in that State of Iowa which calls itself proudly the '' State of large towns and no cities." Great navigable rivers—the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Rio Grande, the Arkansas, the Red, the White, the Platte, and the Iowa—sweep through the Louisiana territory to their ultimate outlet in the Gulf of Mexico.'Pike's Peak, and a large portion of the Rockies, kings among the mountains of the earth, are within old Louisiana's borders, and here also is the Yellowstone National Park, set apart by the United States government as a place of sight-seeing for all future generations. But greater than all this is the fact that the purchase of the Louisiana territory, and the opportunities for development that it afforded, forever prevented the nation of the United States from being merely a province, a small portion of land set down on the Western Continent between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean, with opposing powers on every side except the east. Instead of this narrow future there was secured for the youthful nation a vast extent of possession which should be bounded, in the words of the enthusiastic statesman, "on the east by the Atlantic, on the west by the Pacific, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the north by the Day of Judgment."

The treaty by which the United States purchased the territory of Louisiana from France bore the date of April 30, 1803. That territory has since been divided into thirteen States and two territories. The States—the number identical, by an odd coincidence, with the thirteen original States which formed the Union — are Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and a part of Texas. The two territories are Oklahoma and the Indian Territory. The fact that only a part of Texas was contained in the Purchase was the reason why an invitation to the Governor of Texas was omitted in the preliminaries incident to the Louisiana Purchase Conference in January, 1899. Nevertheless, the Governor of Texas excused the oversight, and was a member of that body.

Although it was early in the history of the United States as a nation that Louisiana became a part of its possessions, the territory of Louisiana had been named and was known to the civilized world more than a century before the year 1803. La Salle, sailing down the Mississippi in 1682, bestowed upon all the unknown region west of that river the name of Louisiana, in honor of his sovereign, Louis XIV., King of France. The far-reaching limits of this magnificent and fertile territory became better known in the next century; and as the island of New Orleans was soon colonized and grew to be the depot of supplies for the entire region, that small portion of land east of the Mississippi became naturally a part of Louisiana, although all the rest of the territory was west of the river.

Louisiana was claimed by France until 1762, when the treaty of Fontainebleau transferred it from France to Spain, to repay Spain for losses suffered in the French and Indian War. The people of Louisiana— for by that time the territory, especially New Orleans, had been settled by many traders and planters—objected to this transfer, protesting so strongly that it was not until 1769 that Spain actually took possession. From that time forward it was the hope of the French to recover this splendid territory for their own. The Americans—by which name the citizens of the United States were called even at that early period—were, on the other hand, better satisfied that Spain should possess Louisiana than that this extensive territory should be owned by France. In case any jealousy or enmity should arise, the Americans argued that Spain would be a more sluggish adversary than France. The situation, from the American standpoint, was expressed in the words of Montesquieu, afterward quoted by Robert R. Livingston, United States minister to France: "It is happy for trading powers that God permitted Turks and Spaniards to be in the world, since they are of all nations the most proper to possess a great empire with insignificance."

The people of the present generation, or even of the preceding generation, can with difficulty appreciate the importance of the Mississippi River in the year 1800. Railroads were unknown, neither were there any good wagon roads west of the State of Pennsylvania. One who wished to go, for instance, from Nashville, Tenn., to New York, must ride in a flatboat—for steamboats were not yet invented—down the Cumberland river to the Ohio, down the Ohio to the Mississippi and on to the mouth of that river, then by sailing vessel out on the Gulf and along the Atlantic coast. It was the only means of travel. For commerce the rivers were an absolute necessity, and the Mississippi outranked all other rivers. Madison said of it: "It is the Hudson, the Delaware, the Potomac, and all the navigable rivers of the Atlantic States formed into one stream."

New Orleans was the key to the Mississippi River. Without it as a depot the western products could not be taken to a market and western commerce was paralyzed. Therefore, when Morales, Intendant of New Orleans, on October 16, 1802, arbitrarily suspended the right of deposit at New Orleans to all " foreigners," his act excited the greatest indignation among the people of the United States.

It was supposed by American statesmen that this decree came from Spain, but that it was dictated by France, for by this time there was a strong suspicion in the minds of Americans that France had succeeded in her cherished desire of regaining Louisiana from Spain. As far as Morales' decree was concerned, the light of subsequent history shows that the decree was his own officious act, sanctioned neither by Spain nor France. Nevertheless, France had actually secured possession of Louisiana by the secret treaty of St. Ildefonso on October 1, 1800. Napoleon, with his wondrous power over men, had accomplished this by an empty promise of giving to the Spanish King's son-in-law the kingdom of Tuscany, yet he was afraid to let his triumph be made known, lest England with her great navy should prevent French occupation of Louisiana. It was impossible for Napoleon to send troops to Louisiana at once because of the rebellion against France in St. Domingo, where brigade after brigade was brought low by tropical fever as rapidly as they could be transported.

In the meantime Rufus King, U. S. Minister in London, had sent Jefferson positive proof that Louisiana now belonged to France (November 20, 1801), and the President had dispatched Robert R. Livingston as minister to France. The excitement in America was intense. The Westeners went so far as to say that if Congress and the president could not secure for them the right of deposit at New Orleans and the free navigation of the Mississippi they would form a separate government of their own. James Ross, of Pennsylvania, made an impassioned speech in the Senate counseling strong measures. " Plant yourselves on the rivers," he said, " fortify the banks, invite those who have an interest at stake to defend it. When in possession you will negotiate with more advantage."

Mr. Livingston arrived in Paris, in December, 1801, and for the next twelve months consumed his energies in what seemed fruitless measures—first, to learn the truth about the retrocession from Spain to France, and, second, to make some terms with France. This was slow work. On September 1, 1802, Livingston wrote to Madison, Jefferson's Secretary of State: "There never was a government in which less could be done by negotiation than here. There are no people, no legislators, no counselors. One man is everything. His ministers are mere clerks, and his legislators and counselors parade officers."

Rumors were current that Napoleon intended to plant an army in Louisiana. First it was Gen. Gollet, a disgraced French officer, who was to be sent with a great company of disaffected and exiled English, Scotch and Irishmen. Then a reputed Frenchman named Francis Tatergem appeared on the scene, pretending that he had great friendship with the Creek Indians, that they hated Americans and loved the French, and that he could raise an army in Louisiana of 20,000 Indian warriors. These reports were received in America with varied emotions. Perhaps the most sensible, albeit the mildest view, was that taken by Senator Jackson, of Georgia, who said: " Should Bonaparte send an army of 40,000 men here and should they not be destroyed by our troops, they would within twenty years become Americans and join our arms. No other people can long exist in the vicinity of those of the United States without intermixing and ultimately joining with them."

With all the web of mystery which Napoleon wove around himself, however, he was nevertheless seriously considering the advances made on behalf of the United States. Livingston had been aided in France by Dupjont de Nemours, a Frenchman, who was a friend of both Jefferson and Bonaparte, and pressure was brought to bear also from Spain through Charles Pinckney, U. S. Minister at Madrid. Some of Napoleon's advisers urged, moreover, that since restoration of slavery had brought about a rebellion in St. Domingo, its existence as an institution in Louisiana might also breed trouble for the French. But the fear of England was a more powerful argument than any other. Jefferson did not hesitate openly to threaten that if the French occupied Louisiana, the United States • would form an alliance with England. "From that moment," he said, "we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation." On January 11, 1803, President Jefferson nominated James Monroe as a special Minister to France to assist Livingston and Pinckney, as the commission stated, " in enlarging and more effectually securing our rights and interests in the river Mississippi and in the territory eastward thereof." At first, it will be seen, the President did not contemplate the purchase of the vast territory of Louisiana. He desired New Orleans and the Floridas, if he could get them, and for these possessions Monroe was instructed that he might pay a sum not to exceed 10,000,000 dollars. Monroe sailed March 8, 1803, and arrived in Paris April 7. After all, Livingston and Pinckney might have performed the work unaided, for Monroe found ripened fruit ready for the gathering. Napoleon was as anxious to sell Louisiana as the United States was to buy New Orleans, and there only remained a little haggling over terms, and the consent of the United States to take Louisiana along with New Orleans. The Floridas were impossible at that time, as when the truth was known it was found that France did not own them.

Monroe was presented to Napoleon April 16, 1803, and negotiations were immediately opened between the two countries. It was agreed to include in the purchase price the claims of certain American citizens for indemnity against France, amounting to 3,750,000 dollars . The sum agreed upon for the territory itself was 11, 250,000 dollars, making a total of 15,000.000 dollars. The treaty was signed May 2, and the copies in English were made out so that they were all done about May 8 or 9, but the date of the treaty was fixed at April 30, as this was the actual time of the agreement between the ministers.

When the treaty was concluded there was a general handshaking among the ministers. Both sides were pleased with the transaction. Livingston said: "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our lives;" and Napoleon declared: "This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the United States. I have just given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride." Gayarre, a distinguished historian who died a few years ago, spoke of the treaty as '' the most important ever signed in the nineteenth century, if it be judged by its consequences to the United States and to the rest of the world."

The United States Senate ratified the treaty October 19, 1803, and the ratifications of the two countries were exchanged October 21. Jefferson signed the document on November 10, and on December 20, 1803, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana peacefully surrendered the province to Laussat, a commissioner appointed by Napoleon, who immediately passed it over to the government of the United States—a little less than eight months after the signing of the treaty.

Thus came to a conclusion that great event in history, the 100th anniversary of which is to be celebrated in St. Louis in 1903 with the Louisiana Purchase World's Fair.

St. Louis  Facts  and  boasts:

Population 575,238.

6,500 factories of all kinds.

A river front of 19.15 mile.

482.08 miles improved streets.

An area of 62'/2 square miles.

20 public parks; acreage 2176.59.

The best credit of any city in America.

$5,000,000 invested in public school property.

Several profit sharing concerns on a large scale.

A waterworks plant which cost more than $30,000,000.

An average elevation above the level of the sea of 504 feet.

A bank and trust company capitalization and surplus aggregating $42,785,537.

Largest wholesale shipping station in the world (Cupples' station).

The largest railroad interlocking switch system in the United States.

Owns its waterworks plant.

Most charitable city in the world.

Most hospitable city on the continent.

The terminus of twenty-four railways.

On the best of terms with all the world.

Independent of Eastern money lenders.

Home of the brainiest and bravest men.

The largest millinery market in America.

Makes 35,000,000 pounds of candy annually.

A city where bank failures do not occur.

The third largest grocery market in America.

The third largest clothing market in America.

Fourth city of the United States in population.

The largest horse and mule market in the world.

The largest hardwood lumber market in America.

A great center for the manufacture of freight cars.

The third largest dry goods market in the country.

Fourth in rank of American manufacturing centers.

Makes more street cars than any other city on earth.

Home of the most beautiful and best-dressed women.

The first city in the world that used electric mail cars.

The second largest shoe distributing point in America.

Reduces its bonded debt at the rate of $375,000 annually.

Manufactures more chairs than any other city in America.

The largest inland coffee distributing center in the Union.

World- famous for its production of wagons and carriages. America's largest receiving and shipping market for fruits.

The second city in the world in tile production of wheat flour.

The commercial metropolis of the richest river basin on earth. . Third in the rank of American furniture manufacturing centers.

Manufactures three-fourths of America's output of plug tobacco.

First city in America to sprinkle its streets by municipal contract.

Ships and sells more than 75,000,000 pounds of barbed wire yearly.

Third city in the United States in the shipment of second-class mail.

The world's greatest distributing center for agricultural implements.

The third city in the United States in the manufacture of furniture.

Manufactures more tobacco than any other city in the United States.

The first city in America that illuminated its streets and alleys uniformly with electricity.

The only city in the world that has held eighteen consecutive and self-supporting expositions.

Leads in the production of reclining chairs.

Leads in the manufacture of boots and shoes.

Leads in the manufacture of hats for America.

Leads in the manufacture of caps for America.

Leads in the manufacture of gloves in America.

Leads in the manufacture of caskets and coffins.

Leads in the output of American-made chemicals.

Leads in the manufacture of crackers for the world.

Leads in the manufacture of jeans clothing for America.

Leads in the production of America's proprietary medicines.

Leads in the manufacture of trunks for the western hemisphere.

Leads in the saddlery and harness business of the United States.

Leads in the sale of bags and bagging for the western hemisphere.

St. Louis was founded on February 14,1764.

St. Louis' first bank was established in 1816.

St. Louis' first post-master was Rufus Easton.

St. Louis' first brick house was erected in 1813.

The Eads Bridge was dedicated on July 4,1874.

In 1822, St. Louis purchased its first fire engine.

St. Louis suffered from cholera epidemic in 1832.

In 1804, St. Louis' first post office was established.

The Southern hotel fire occurred on April 11,1877.

In 1818, the first street paving was laid in St. Louis.

St. Louis' first Methodist Church was erected in 1821.

In 1821, St. Louis' first brick-paved sidewalk was laid.

Martial law was declared in St. Louis on August 14,1861.

St. Louis was incorporated as a town on November 9,1S09.

St. Louis was swept by a devastating tornado May 27,1896.

A Federal mint branch was established in St. Louis in 1829.

The Marquis de Lafayette visited St. Louis on April 29,1826.

Washington University was chartered in 1853 and opened in 1859.

Pierre Laclede Liguest, founder of St. Louis, died on June 20,1778.

St. Louis reverted to French dominion by the treaty of October 1,1800.

In 1830, construction of St. Louis' first waterworks plants was begun.

The first directory of St. Louis was published by John A. Paxton in 1821.

On December 7,1812, the first territorial general assembly met in St. Louis.

In 1832, St. Louis received it first supply of water from municipal works.

St. Louis' first American court of justice was established in the winter of 1804-5.

First line of telegraph from the East reached St. Louis in December, 1847.

The first steamboat to reach St. Louis was the Pike, which arrived on August 2,1815.

On May 26,1780, St. Louis was attacked by Indians and a half a dozen residents slain.

Pierre Laclede Liguest, aided by Auguste Choutean, selected the site which became St. Louis.

The first overland mail from California (24 days 18% hours) arrived at St. Louis on October 9,1858.

The first English school in St. Louis was opened by Messrs. Hatchford and George Tompkins in 1808.

The municipality of St. Louis was separated from the County of St. Louis under legislative act of 1875.

St. Louis' first American governor was Capt. Amos Stoddard, whose Jurisdiction included the whole territory of Louisiana.

St. Louis' first theater was erected in 1819.

In 1822, St. Louis had a population of 4,800.

The first railroad entered St. Louis in 1851.

In 1801, St. Louis was visited by a smallpox epidemic.

Pontiac, the great Indian chief, visited St. Louis in 1769.

In 1799, a census of St. Louis showed a population of 925.

The first term of the St. Louis University opened on November 2, 1821).

St. Louis' greatest fire occurred on May 17, 1849, the loss aggregating

3,000,000 dollars. Missouri's first constitutional convention was held in St. Louis on September 18, 1820.

Francis L. McIintosh, Missouri's first victim of lynch law, was burned to death in St. Louis in 1836. 

The territory of Upper Louisiana was formally transferred to The United States in St. Louis by Amos Stoddard on March 10, 1804.

St. Louis is the home of Ruckstuhl, the sculptor.

St. Louis' Fair Grounds have an area of 143 acres.

St. Louis holds its Forty-first Annual Fair in 1901.

St. Louis received 169,082 horses and mules during 1900.

Tower Grove Park is on Grand near Magnolia Avenue.

There arc 75 Christian Endeavor Societies in St. Louis.

The salary of the St. Louis post-master is 6,000 dollar a year.

The finest jewelry palace in the country is in St. Louis.

The Southern Hotel is at Broadway and Walnut Street.

The Union Station is at Eighteenth and Market Streets.

Number of railway postal clerks paid at St. Louis office, 350.

Thirty boys handle the special delivery letters for St. Louis.

Mary N. Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock) lives in St. Louis.

The total number of employees in the St. Louis post office is 1,380.

Winston Churchill, author of Richard Carvel, lives in St. Louis.

There are 538 clerks and 30 substitute clerks in the St. Louis post office.

The St. Louis Post Office ranks fifth in the country in money receipts.

St. Louis is unique in its interdenominational Woman's Missionary Society.

The St. Louis Post Office ranks first in the country in ratio of expenses to receipts.

A law establishes the rate of cab fare in St. Louis, and provides penalties for violation.

The Four Courts building (Police headquarters) is at Twelfth Street and Clark Avenue.

The 5,000 dollars window at St. James Memorial Church is considered the finest in the West.

Sufferers by the Chicago fire in 1871 received 150,000 dollars from the St. Louis Merchants' Exchange.

St. Louis is the home of Kate Chopin, noted as a writer of charming stories of southern life.

Fee Fee Baptist Church was the first Protestant house of worship west of the Mississippi.

The Eads bridge spans the Mississippi from the foot of Washington Avenue to East St. Louis.

The Southern Methodist Orphans' Home in St. Louis is the best equipped in the country.

The first 5 dollars for the 100,000 dollars Lindell Avenue M. E. Church was subscribed by a washerwoman.

The highest church spire in St Louis is that of St. Alphonsus' Church, 235 feet high; the next, Pilgrim Church, 229 feet; the the next, SS. Peter and Paul's, 222 feet; and the fourth highest is that of the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 208 feet high.

Susan E. Blow, a St. Louis woman, is famous as the Mother of the Kindergarten in America.

St. Louis' mayor receives a salary of 5,000 dollars per annum.

St. Louis' chief of police receives 5,000 dollars per year in salary.

Texas flood sufferers in 1900 received $80,000 from St. Louis.

The bonded debt of St. Louis at the end of the fiscal year 1899-1900 was only 18,916,278 dollars.

The new Holy Trinity Catholic Church is the grandest church building west of New York.

Merchants' Exchange contributed 267,450 dollars for relief of victims of the St. Louis cyclone in 1896.

90 laundries serve St. Louisianans.

31 breweries brew St. Louis beer.

St. Louisianans drink at 1927 saloons.

St. Louisianans eat at 311 restaurants.

Milk is furnished St. Louis by 347 dairies.

Only 53 undertakers bury St. Louis' dead.

St. Louisianans buy bread from 468 bakeries.

St. Louis is served by 543 carpenter shops.

St. Louisianans are shaved at 846 barber shops.

St. Louisianans are attended by 1672 physicians.

St. Louisianans patronize 293 blacksmith shops.

St. Louisianans buy medicines at 365 drug stores.

St. Louis buys sweets from 259 confectionaries.

St. Louis' legal affairs are adjusted by 737 lawyers.

St. Louisianans get their meats from 712 butcher shops.

94 furniture stores supply St. Louis' household goods.

Provisions are sold St. Louisianans at 921 retail groceries.

St. Louisianans have their clothes made lit 603 tailor shops.

St. Louisianans buy tobacco at 536 cigar and tobacco stores.

100 livery stables supply horses and vehicles for St. Louisianans.

St. Louisianans' teeth are cared for by 228 dentist establishments.

Insurance is written for St. Louisianans by 262 insurance agencies.

St. Louis houses are decorated by 139 wall paper establishments.

St. Louis women have their gowns made at 1074 dress and cloak making establishments.

St. Louis' watches are regulated at 174 watch-making establishments.

Gambling is prohibited by law in St. Louis.

47 retail hat stores sell hats to St. Louisianans.

St. Louisianans buy dry goods at 349 retail stores.

264 plumbing shops aid in St. Louis' sanitation.

St. Louis buildings are painted by 326 paint shops.

St. Louis' 73 miles of public sewerage cost 4,730,000 dollars.

The seating capacity of the Century Theater is 1,600.

The seating capacity of the Havlin's Theater is 2,800.

The seating capacity of the Olympic Theater is 2,508.

The seating capacity of the Imperial Theater is 2,048.

The Odeon and Masonic Temple are at Grand and Finney avenues.

The seating capacity of the Columbia Theater is 1,887.

The seating capacity of the Grand Opera House is 2,269.

Beethoven Conservatory is one of the most artistic buildings in St. Louis.

The first Veiled Prophet pageant and ball took place in 1878.

St. Louis has one thousand and seventy-one streets and avenues.

St. Louis' Union Station was formally opened on September 1, 1894?

The corner-stone of St. Louis' Union Station was laid on July 8,1893.

The first ground was broken for St. Louis' Union Station On April 1, 1892.

The Chamber of Commerce building on Third Street was erected in 1873. 

The Grand Commander Knights Templars of Missouri resides in St. Louis. 

The seating capacity of Grand Music Hall in the Exposition Building   is 3,524.

St. Louis' Union Station grand central hall has a floor area of 8,880 square feet.

Heroic statues of Shakespeare, Humboldt and Columbus arc in Tower Grove Park.

The statues of Washington, Lafayette and Benton, in Lafayette Park, are world-famous.

More than 250,000,000 pieces of mail were handled in the St. Louis  Post Office during 1900.

The Grand Secretary and Grand Recorder of the State Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, Grand Encampment, Grand Commandery, Grand Council Royal and Select Masters, and Grand Council O. H. P.,

Masonic bodies, reside in St. Louis.

Natives of New England, New York, Indiana, Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois, resident in St. Louis, have clubs.

St. Louis' longest and largest completed sewer is the Mill Creek, 4.75  miles long, with a 24-foot section, and costing 1,784,000 dollars. 

The Nielson mulberry in Tower Grove Park grew from a slip cut from the tree that shades Shakespeare's tomb at Stratford-on-Avon.

558 music teachers instruct St. Louisianans.

19 foreign consuls are located in St. Louis.

The famous Grant statue is in City Hall Park.

St. Louis' sewerage cost to construct 11,392,800 dollars.

The High School on Grand Avenue was built in 1898.

142 millinery establishments serve St. Louis' fair sex.

The sites of the present City Hall and Exposition were city parks.

St. Louis has paid out 4,926,087.85 dollars in the purchase of land for parks.

St. Louis' realty transfers in 1900 involved a total value of 26,010,000.90.

31 breweries brew St. Louis beer.

St. Louisianans drink at 1927 saloons.

St. Louisianans eat at 311 restaurants.

Milk is furnished St. Louis by 347 dairies.

Only 53 undertakers bury St. Louis' dead.

St. Louisianans buy bread from 468 bakeries.

St. Louis is served by 543 carpenter shops.

St. Louisianans are shaved at 846 barber shops.

St. Louisianans are attended by 1672 physicians.

St. Louisianans patronize 293 blacksmith shops.

St. Louisianans buy medicines at 365 drug stores.

St. Louis buys sweets from 259 confectionaries.

St. Louis' legal affairs are adjusted by 737 lawyers.

St. Louisianans get their meats from 712 butcher shops.

94 furniture stores supply St. Louis' household goods.

Provisions are sold St. Louisianans at 921 retail groceries.

St. Louisianans have their clothes made lit 603 tailor shops.

St. Louisianans buy tobacco at 536 cigar and tobacco stores.

100 livery stables supply horses and vehicles for St. Louisianans.

St. Louisianans' teeth are cared for by 228 dentist establishments.

Insurance is written for St. Louisianans by 262 insurance agencies.

St. Louis houses are decorated by 139 wall paper establishments.

St. Louis women have their gowns made at 1074 dress and cloak making establishments.

St. Louis' watches are regulated at 174 watch-making establishments.

Gambling is prohibited by law in St. Louis.

47 retail hat stores sell hats to St. Louisianans.

St. Louisianans buy dry goods at 349 retail stores.

264 plumbing shops aid in St. Louis' sanitation.

St. Louis buildings are painted by 326 paint shops.

St. Louis' 73 miles of public sewerage cost 4,730,000 dollars.

The seating capacity of the Century Theater is 1,600.

The seating capacity of the Havlin's Theater is 2,800.

The seating capacity of the Olympic Theater is 2,508.

The seating capacity of the Imperial Theater is 2,048.

The Odeon and Masonic Temple are at Grand and Finney avenues.

The seating capacity of the Columbia Theater is 1,887.

The seating capacity of the Grand Opera House is 2,269.

Beethoven Conservatory is one of the most artistic buildings in St. Louis.

The first Veiled Prophet pageant and ball took place in 1878.

St. Louis has one thousand and seventy-one streets and avenues.

St. Louis' Union Station was formally opened on September 1,1894.

1 he corner-stone of St. Louis' Union Station was laid on July 8,1893.

The first ground was broken for St. Louis' Union Station On April 1, 1892. 

The Chamber of Commerce building on Third Street was erected in 1873. 

The Grand Commander Knights Templars of Missouri resides in St. Louis.

The seating capacity of Grand Music Hall in the Exposition Building is 3,524. 

St. Louis' Union Station grand central hall has a floor area of 8,880 square feet.

Heroic statues of Shakespeare, Humboldt and Columbus are in Tower Grove Park.

The statues of Washington, Lafayette and Benton, in Lafayette Park, are world-famous.

More than 250,000,000 pieces of mail were handled in the St. Louis Post Office during 1900.

19 foreign consuls are located in St. Louis.

The famous Grant statue is in City Hall Park.

St. Louis' sewerage cost to construct 11,392,800 dollars.

The High School on Grand Avenue was built in 1898.

142 millinery establishments serve St. Louis' fair sex.

The sites of the present City Hall and Exposition were city parks.

St. Louis has paid out 4,926,087.85 dollars in the purchase of land for parks.

St. Louis' realty transfers in 1900 involved a total value of 26.010,000 dollars.

St. Louisianans buy their footwear at 720 boot and shoe establishments.

Eads Bridge is 6,220 feet in length.

Calvary Cemetery embraces 262 acres.

Bellefontaine Cemetery contains 360 acres.

O'Fallon Park is on Broadway near Bircher.

Carondelet Park is on Ninth Street near Kansas. 

The salary of St. Louis' fire chief is 4,000 dollars per annum.

St. Louis' Union Station cost approximately 6,500,000 dollars.

The St. Louis Star is published at Ninth and Olive streets.

The St. Louis Transit Company is capitalized at 90,000,000 dollars.

The St. Louis Exposition has been running eighteen years.

The United States sub-treasury at St. Louis has 19 employees.

United States sub-treasury in Louis handles 105,000,000 dollars a year.

The St. Louis Republic has its office at Seventh and Olive streets.

The salary of the United States sub-treasury at St. Louis is 4,500 dollars.

The America of St. Louis is printed on Third street, near Chestnut.

The Westliche Post of St. Louis has its office at Broadway and Market

Street. St. Louis' water supply comes from the Mississippi river at Bissell's  Point. 

The Christian Brothers' College of St. Louis is noted throughout the world. St. Louis University, world famous, is located on Grand avenue, between Lindell and West Pine Boulevards. St. Louis is completing a city hall, the approximate cost of which is 2,000,000 dollars.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is established on Olive between Broadway and Sixth street. The St. Louis Globe- Democrat building is on the southwest corner of Sixth and Pine streets. 

The City Hall fronts on Twelfth and Market Streets and Clark Avenue.

St. Louis' largest park contains 1,371.94 acres.

The total cost of the Eads Bridge was 10,000,001 dollars.

St. Louis' hog receipts in 1899 numbered 2,155,144.

St. Louis' sheep receipts in 1899 numbered 434,133.

St. Louis' cattle receipts in 1899 numbered 795,800.

The St. Nicholas Hotel is at Eighth and Locust Streets.

St. Louis' wool receipts in 1900 were valued at 8,000,000 dollars.

St. Louis' Dank clearings in 1900 amounted to 1,688,849,494 dollars.

St. Louis' longest east and west street is Arsenal—5.82 miles.

St. Louis' grain receipts in 1900 aggregated 61,144,804 bushels.

St. Louis' public parks represents more than 10,000,000 dollars in values.

St. Louis' longest north and south street is Broadway—15.2 miles.

St. Louis' manufacturing plants represent investments of 700,000,000 dollars.

A St. Louis building contains the largest plate-glass window ever made. The Lindell Hotel is on Washington Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets. The cash receipts of the St. Louis Post Office in 1900 amounted to

2,031,664 dollars.

The letters originating in the St. Louis Post Office during 190O numbered nearly 150,000,000.

The Beers Hotel is on the northwest corner of Grand Avenue and Olive Street. 

The  Merchants' Bridge stretches from the foot of Ferry Street to the Illinois bank. 

The Custom House building is between Olive, Locust, Eighth and Ninth Streets. 

St. Louis Court House is between Broadway, Fourth, Chestnut and Market Streets. 

The Grand Avenue Hotel is on the southeast corner of Olive Street and Grand Avenue. 

St. Louis  manufactured products for 1901 are expected to approach 1,000,000,000 dollars  in value. 

St. Louis' leading hardware house occupies more floor space than any other building extant. 

Washington University is one of the most comprehensive educational institutions in the world. 

Fifteen thousand dollars was sent by the Merchants' Exchange to the Johnstown flood sufferers in 1889. A transfer ticket will take a street car passenger from any part of St. Louis to Shaw's Garden or Forest Park. 

The annual interest charges on St. Louis' outstanding municipal debt amounts to 802,209.28 dollars, or 4.867 per cent, per annum. 

Shaw's Garden is at Tower Grove Avenue and Old Manchester Road.

St. Louisianans buy their footwear at 720 boot and shoe establishments.

St. Louis' largest park contains 1,371.94 acres.

The total cost of the Eads Bridge was 10,000,001 dollars.

St. Louis' hog receipts in 1899 numbered 2,155,144.

St. Louis' sheep receipts in 1899 numbered 434,133.

St. Louis' cattle receipts in 1899 numbered 795,800.

The St. Nicholas Hotel is at Eighth and Locust Streets.

St. Louis' wool receipts in 1900 were valued at 8,000,000 dollars.

St. Louis' Dank clearings in 1900 amounted to 1,688,849,494 dollars.

St. Louis' longest east and west street is Arsenal—5.82 miles.

St. Louis' grain receipts in 1900 aggregated 61,144,804 bushels.

St. Louis' public parks represents more than 10,000,000 dollars in values.

St. Louis' longest north and south street is Broadway—15.2 miles.

St. Louis' manufacturing plants represent investments of 700,000,000 dollars.

The Fullerton Building is twelve stories high.

The Carleton Building is ten stories in height.

The Equitable Building is ten stories in height.

The Security Building is eleven stories in height

The Union Trust Building is fourteen stories high.

The Holland Building is thirteen stories in height.

The Chemical Building is sixteen stories in height.

The Lincoln Trust Building is twelve stories in height.

The Merchants' Bridge of St. Louis was erected in 1889.

Union Station was formally opened on September 1,1894.

St Louis' cotton receipts in 1900 aggregated 1,011,587 bales.

St. Louis' street railways carried 103,953,411 passengers in 1900.

The Archiepiscopal residence of Archbishop Kain is in St. Louis.

Forest Park main entrance is at Kings Highway and Lindell Boulevard.

Bishop D. S. Tuttle, of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, lives in St.

Louis. Illuminating gas is sold to ordinary consumers in St. Louis for 1 dollar per 5,000 feet. St. Louis erected in 1900, 2,059 houses with an aggregate value of  8,400,000 dollars. Merchants' Exchange has contributed 700,000 dollars for charitable purposes since 1866. 

The only shrine in the West blessed by the Pope is at the Visitation 

Convent, Cabannc. St. Louis' total city tax, exclusive of public schools and state taxes, is 1.30  dollars per 100 dollars of valuation. Kev. Dr. J. M. Fitzgerald, Kesident Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal

Church, lives in ft. Louis. In 1892 Mississippi River flood sufferers wore given 94,000 dollars by the St.

Louis Merchants' Exchange. St. Louis' rate of taxation in 1900 was 1.95 dollars per 100 dollars of valuation, which

is on a basis of about 60 per cent.

Lee  Gaskins'    AT THE FAIR  The 1904 St. Louis World's   Fair  

                     Web  Design and Art/Illustration   copyrighted  2008 

Main

Misc.

The City of St. Louis circa 1903/4

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