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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at|http: //books .google .com/I cj J /7/fJ^.^-^o CO ^arbarb CoUege Itbrarp ROM ins BRIGHT LEGACY One half the Income from this Legacy, which celred In 1880 under the will of WM re- JONATHAN BROWN BRIGHT of Waltham, Mastachasetta, li to be expended for hooka for the College Library. The other half of the income If deroted to •cholanhipt in Harvard Unlveniiy for the benefit of desccndanta off HENRY BRIGHT, JR., who died at Watertown, Mairachoaetts, in 1686. In the abaence of rach deacendanta, other persona are eligible to the scholarahlpa. The will requires that this announce- ment shall be made In every book added to the Library under its proTlsions. BALTIMORE ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE BY VARIOUS CONTRIBUTORS CLAYTON COLMAN HALL, LL.B., A.M. GENERAL EDITOR VOLUME I— HISTORY LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK CHICAGO 1912 us ns'.x'-'.'s.^^o ()) COPYBIGHT, 191 2, BY LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY r PREFATORY NOTE. In the first announcement of Baltimore : Its History and Its People, it was explained that the work would consist of two parts — ^the one historical, and the other biographical. The plan and scope were more exactly defined as follows : "The history will give a narrative of public events, but will also be told by proper classification of subjects rather than as a chronicle. The various subjects will be gathered into groups and treated in their relations to each other. "The narrative of Baltimore will be accompanied by additional vol- umes of biography, which will give not only the personal lives of the makers of its history, but will record the genealogy of their families. Leaders in the various epochs of the city's growth will receive appropriate mention." In order to carry into effect the plan thus outlined, the general editor- ship of the historical portion of the work was committed to Mr. Gay ton C. Hall, of Baltimore, who organized the work by securing the cooperation of a number of able contributors specially qualified to write upon the several subjects which were to receive separate treatment apart from the strictly narrative portion of the municipal history. By this arrangement there has been secured for a number of subjects, treatment by skilled specialists in their several fields. Of the municipal history, the first section comprising the period from the foundation of the town in 1730 until its incorporation as a city in 1797 has been written by Mr. Hall. Finding, however, that the state of his eye- sight did not permit the constant strain involved in the examination and comparison of historical records, Mr. Hall, while retaining a general super- vision as editor, was reluctantly obliged to restrict his work as author to the period named, and the preparation of the subsequent narrative, from 1797 to the present time, was at his request committed to other writers. In the arrangement of the book the name of the author of each sepa- rate section or article is placed at the head of the contribution. For the biographical section of the work, comprising volumes II and III, the personal sketches have been prepared under the direction of the publishers from material in the gathering of which every possible care was taken to ensure accuracy in the facts presented, and all have been sub- mitted in typewritten form to the interested persons for correction. THE PUBLISHERS. '^^ /y^^^^ s^^ ^^ r^^» fcBO f^ni AUG 29 1916 TABLE OF CONTENTS. VOLUME I. Page. Baltimore Town, 1730- i797, with Map of Baltimore, 1801, p. 60, Clayton Colman Hall, LL.B., A.M 9-60 The City of Baltimore, 1797-1850. The Era of the Clipper, the Turnpike, Mill, and Railroad. An Epoch of Commerce and Culture, Ruthella Mory Bibbins, A.B., Ph.M ._63:-i47 History of Baltimore, from 1850 to the close of the Civil War, Matthew Page Andrews, M.A 151-237 ••History of Baltimore, 1875-1895, S. Z. Ammen, LI^D 241-288 «>History of Baltimore, 1870-1912, John M. Powell, A. M. 291-409 Baltimore Water Works, Alfred M. Quick, former Engineer in Charge, .... 413-423 Sewerage System, Calvin W. Hendrick 424-428 Fire Protection, Louise Malloy 429-437 The Parks of Baltimore, Allen Kerr Bond, M.D. 438^^446 ^-Transportation System and Faciuties, J. Wallace Bryan, Ph.D 447-500 -<!k>MMERCE AND MANUFACTURES OF BALTIMORE, E. Emmet Reid, Ph.D. 501-541 Street Car System and Rapid Transit. A Record of Half a Century, published Jul^ 25, 1909, and reprinted bv permission of Mr. William A. House, President United Railways . • . 54^-558 Public Education in Baltimore, Percy Lewis Kaye, Ph.D 559-583 The Progress of Medicine in Maryland, Thomas A. Ashby, M.D 584-597 Johns Hopkins University, John C French, Ph.D S98-607 The Johns Hopkins University Medical Departments Henry M. Hurd, M.D., LLD 608-612 Bench and Bar, William Milnes Maloy, LL^M., J.D 613-635 Art Schools, Galleries, and Libraries, Allen Kerr Bond, M.D 636-650 Drama, Theatres, and Music, Henry G. Shepherd, LL.D 651-655 Charities and Charitable Institutions, Qyde C. Rohr, M.Sc 6sS'6^ Churches and Religious Organizations in Baltimore, Lawrence C. Wroth 678-694 The Roman Cathouc Archdiocese. From notes funished by Rev. Louis O'Donovan 695-701 The Press of Baltimore, William Leigh, Jr. '. 7t»-7i4 Addenda and Index, 715^21 VOLUMES II— III. Biographical \ BALTIMORE HISTORICAL I HISTORY OF BALTIMORE BALTIMORE TOWN I73O-I797. BY CLAYTON COLMAN HALL, LL.B., A.M. I . CEOILIUS OALVKRT. Secoud Baron of Bdltlmotv. FIfnI Ixiril Proprli'tary of Mnryliinil. Fmiii an Engraving b; Blootf llniili. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE BALTIMORE TOWN— 1730- 1797 BY CLAYTON COLMAN HALL, LL.B., A.M. Nearly a century elapsed after the date of the landing of the first colonists of the Province of Maryland on the shores of the Potomac river, before the founding of the little town on the banks of the Patapsco, near the head of tide-water, a town destined to become one of the foremost cities of the land, a busy mart of trade, a seaport of commercial importance, a place of manufacturing industry, a city of distinguished beauty, and the seat of institutions of learning renowned both at home and abroad ; a city, moreover, which has been the scene of stirring events most intimately con- nected with the history of the nation both in peace and war. The colonization of the Province of Maryland, under the charter granted by Charles I., King of England, to Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, was begun on March 25, 1634, that being the date upon which the first colonists landed upop an island in the Potomac river to which they gave the name of St. Qement's, but which is now known as Blakistone's Island. Two days later a settlement was made upon the mainland upon a site purchased from the Indians, and this the colonists called the "City of St. Mary's". It remained the capital of the province for sixty years, until in 1694 the seat of government was removed to Annapolis. The earlier settlements were made in the more southern portion of the province, except one on Kent Island in the Chesapeake, where a post for trading with the Indians had been established by some settlers from Vir- ginia, before the arrival of Lord Baltimore's colonists. The settlements were for the most part upon navigable water, or easily accessible thereto. Of towns there were none, if we except the City of St. Mary's, where the first State House stood, but which is said never to have contained more than sixty houses, the land being generally taken up under the terms of plantation offered by the Lord Proprietary, in large tracts for manors, with the concomitant right on the part of the lord of the manor of holding manorial courts, or courts baron, for the punishment of minor offenses occurring among the tenants of the manor. Except for occasional bridle 9 lo HISTORY OF BALTIMORE paths, communication between the manors was conducted by water, and in like manner the vessels in which interchange of commodities with the old world was conducted called at the various landings designated as *'ports", where the products of the country were assembled for shipment, and where officers were in attendance to levy and collect the port and ton- nage dues. From those plantations which were seated back from the water it was customary to convey the staple product, tobacco, to the nearest land- ing over what were known as "rolling roads", so called for the reason that the hogsheads of tobacco were simply transported by rolling, a pole being inserted through the body of the package to serve as an axle, while the motive power was supplied by oxen. Unlike the township system of New England, the political unit in Maryland was, as it still is, the county. Under these conditions the growth and development of municipal organization was slow. It was not until 1708, fourteen years after it had become the seat of government, that a municipal charter was granted to Annapolis. Early, however, in the eighteenth century there were repeated efforts made to establish other towns elsewhere in the province, and numerous char- ters for this purpose were granted by the Assembly, but nothing came of them. Cities cannot be created by act of Assembly. There must be the time, the place and the need. Upon several of these projected towns, whose existence, or rather whose right to exist, was evidenced only by the act authorizing their foundation, the name of Baltimore was bestowed in honor of the Lord Proprietary of the province. His title in the Irish peerage, inherited from his ancestor, George Calvert, upon whom it was conferred in 1625 by James I., King of England, was Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore, in the Kingdom of Ireland. James had previously granted to George Cal- vert a manor of 2,300 acres in County Longford, near the center of Ireland, and this estate was made the manor of Baltimore when Calvert was elevated to the Irish peerage.^ There is no record extant of the date of the erection of Baltimore county. The first mention of the county to be found in the Archives of Maryland is in a record of the Assembly summoned to meet on February 28, 1659-60, for which a writ was issued to the sheriff of Baltimore county, and in which the county was represented by four delegates (Archives I, 382). The area of the county then included all the north- eastern portion of the province, but the inhabitants were few in number and widely scattered, so that at a session of the Assembly held in October, 1663, Baltimore and Talbot counties were exempted from a general law requiring "pillory, stocks and ducking stool in every county," — ^the simple instruments for the summary punishment of offences, — ^till a further settle- ment of the said counties should be made. At the same session it was ^ Browne, George and Ceciiius Calvert, p. 11. The manor is to be distinguished from the seacoast town of the same name in County Cork. Wilhelm, Sir George Cal- vert, p. 118. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ii provided that the Baltimore county court should be held the first Tues- day in September, November, January, March and June, "at the usual place appointed." There was also an act passed at this session, upon the petition of the burgesses of Baltimore county, "for seating of lands" in that county, it having been represented that land had been taken up in such large tracts by persons who made no eifort to settle the same, that the county was unable to defend itself against hostile Indians by reason of the small number of inhabitants. It was therefore enacted that any land that was not settled within two months should be forfeited, and become available to a new grantee, who in turn should be allowed two months in which to settle the same with at least three able hands, under penalty of reversion to the original owner; when if after two months it should still be vacant it would again be f orfeited, and so on. This act, however, was disallowed by the Lord Proprietary. In 1659 there were recorded a number of grants of land in Baltimore county in tracts ranging from 300 to 500 acres in extent, some of them upon the Patapsco river, close to the site of the future city, and some in- cluded within its present area. Conditions of trade during the first quarter of the eighteenth century are described as follows : "Whilst the produce raised on the borders of the Patapsco was insufficient for the loading of ships in any reasonable time, they continued to be stationed off North Point,' where they could as conveniently take on board that which came from other rivers, or even from the other side of the bay; nor was there on any one river a sufficient number of inhabitants for the consumption of whole cargoes imported, so neither was it thought necessary at that time, nor for a long time after, to have more than three Custom House districts on each side of the bay, the chief places of which, on this shore, were St. Mary's, St. George's and Annapolis. There were however Naval Officers or tide waiters, at many little towns or ports of trade, having the privilege of landing goods or shipping produce generally. But the demands and the quantity of produce increasing with the increase of population, the mutual interest of the shipper and owner, brought the ships into our river,* though not at once to the head of it. "In 1723 there were five ships in Patapsco up for freight for London, to which place the trade was then carried on extensively, but one of which only is said to lay in the Northern Branch. And there are persons yet living who have seen as many vessels of burthen anchored at the same time at the point between the south and middle branches of Patapsco as in the north branch, where the town is situated." * Such apparently were the conditions existing in what is now the har- bor of Baltimore at the time of the laying out of the little town, the plant- ing of the seed from which the future city was to grow. As early as 1706 a "port of entry," — that is, a place of loading and un- loading of ships, — ^had been established by act of Assembly upon the tongue of land extending into the harbor known as Whetstone's Point, upon the 'At the mouth of the river. * Patapsco. * Griffith, Annals of Baltimore, (1824) p. 12. 12 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1729] extremity of which Fort McHenry is situated, but there is no evidence of any settlement there at that time. It was not until 1729 that "the inhabitants of Baltimore county" ad- dressed a petition to the General Assembly for the erection of a town upon the Patapsco river. The choice of those interested in the establishment of the town first fell upon a site upon what is called the middle branch of the river to the southwest of the location finally selected; and they applied to the owner, Mr. John Moale, a merchant from Devonshire, England, for ground for the project. But that gentleman believed his land to be rich in iron ore, and deemed the digging of the ore more to his advantage than selling town lots, and therefore refused to enter into negotiations. The attention of the promoters was thus, fortunately for the success of the project, turned to the northwest branch of the river, and here a site was chosen and its sale agreed to by the owners, Charles and Daniel Carroll. As already noted, there was at this time no commercial centre in the province, and it is obvious that those even who deemed the erection of a town on the Patapsco advisable had but a faint perception of the possi- bilities before them. The area asked for and allotted was sixty acres, less than one-tenth of a square mile. Now, one hundred and eighty years later, the city of Baltimore embraces an area of nearly thirty-two square miles, with a population of nearly 600,000 persons, exclusive of the closely built up suburbs known as Canton and Highlandtown adjacent to the city on the east, and connected with it by continuous lines of streets. Extensive suburbs to the north, containing the residences of many persons whose active life is wholly identified with the city, also lie beyond its corporate limits. The petition to the legislative body of the province for authority to erect a town on the north bank of the Patapsco river was accompanied by a written agreement on the part of Charles and Daniel Carroll, who de- scribed themselves as "proprietors of the land mentioned," consenting to the passage of the act prayed for. Apparently there was some doubt as to whether the title to the land was fully vested in these gentlemen, for in the preamble to the act author- izing the erection of the town the site is specifically described as "part of the tract of land wherein a certain John Fleming now lives, and sup- posed to be the right of the heirs of Charles Carroll, Esq., deceased, which said tract is commonly known by the name of Cole's Harbour." The tract called Cole's Harbour was said to contain 550 acres. It was surveyed for Thomas Cole in 1668. Its eastern boundary was at Har- ford Run, at about the point of its intersection (at Central avenue) with what is now Baltimore street, and extending thence westerly to about the present location of Howard street, and northerly to about what is now Madison street. In 1698 the land was resurveyed for James Todd, who had obtained a warrant for it, and the surveyers were able to find 510 [1729] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 13 acres only under the title. The tract was patented to the new possessor on June i, 1700, under the name of "Todd's Range," but the old desig- nation of Cole's Harbour seems to have clung in popular usage. The area of sixty acres directed by the act of Assembly to be sur- veyed and laid out as the site of the town, was situated at about the centre of the south side of the tract referred to as Cole's Harbour, and bound- ing upon the water as the act prescribed. The water front, though its line has been considerably removed to the southward by the filling up of shoal lands then existing, and the building of piers, is now represented by the wharves on Pratt street and Light street. Without reciting the surveyors' returns of the laying out of the area of Baltimore town by metes and bounds, it may be briefly stated that the survey began at a "banded red oak," at a point not far distant from the present northeast comer of Charles and Pratt streets; thence the line ran easterly by various courses following the shore line, which was then nearly where Water street and Exchange place are now, to the marsh which was on the west side of the stream known as Jones Falls; thence due north along the edge of the marsh to a point on Lexington street between Holliday and Gay streets, thence westerly by various courses following the bank of the Falls to a point on Monument square, south of Lexington street, where the stream then flowed through a deep bend and under the bluff which then overhung its western bank, thence north- westerly to a point near the intersection of Saratoga and St. Paul streets ; thence southwesterly to a point at the intersection of German and Sharpe streets ^Hopkins place) ; and thence southeasterly to the place of be- ginning, j Portions of the last two courses indicated coincide very nearly with the lines of Crooked lane, McQellan's alley and Uhler's alley, which apparently mark the course of a path or trail which skirted the western border of the town as first laid out. By the terms of the act creating the town, Mr. Thomas ToUey, Mr. William Hamilton, Mr. William Buckner, Dr. George Walker, Mr. Rich- ard Gist, Dr. George Buchanan and Mr. William Hammond, or any three of them, were appointed commissioners for buying and purchasing the sixty acres provided for out of the tract specified, such as lay "most convenient to the water, and for surveying and laying the same out in the most convenient manner into sixty equal lots, to be erected into a town." It was further provided that the commissioners named, or a majority of them, should at some time before the last day of September, 1730, meet together and treat with the owners for the purchase of the sixty acres of land provided for; and, after purchase thereof, should cause the same to be surveyed and layed out, marked, staked out, and divided into convenient streets, lanes and alleys "as near as may be into sixty equal lots" marked by some posts or stakes towards the streets or lanes, and numbered respectively from one to sixty; and that the owners of the land should have th^ first choice for one lot, the remaining to be taken up by 14 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [i7^3ol others, but no one to be permitted to take up more than one lot during the first four months after the laying out of the town; and the right to purchase lots was limited to inhabitants of the county until after the lapse of six months, when the purchase should be open to all. Provision was made, in case the owner or owners should refuse to sell or should be incapacitated by reason of non-age or other cause, for ob- taining the property by condemnation proceedings and award by jury. Such action did not, however, become necessary, as an agreement was reached with the owners who were able to give a clear title to the purchasers of lots, or "takers," as they were called in the act. It was further required that each purchaser of a lot should improve the same within eighteen months (under penalty of forfeiture) with a house cover- ing 400 square feet, — sl condition that would be complied with by a struc- ture measuring twenty by twenty feet. After the lapse of seven years any lots not taken up were to revert to the original owners of the land. On Monday, the first day of December, 1729, Messrs. Richard Gist, William Hamilton, George Buchanan and George Walker, being four of the seven commissioners appointed by the act of Assembly, met and agreed with Charles Carroll, acting for himself and his brother Daniel, who was absent, for the purchase of the sixty-acre tract at the price per acre of forty shillings "current money of Maryland," or else tobacco "at one penny per pound," until it amount to forty shillings value per acre. On the twelfth day of January next ensuing (1729-30) the same commissioners, with the addition of Mr. William Buckner to their num- ber, met and caused the town to be surveyed by the county surveyor. There was evidently no great or general appreciation of the future possi- bilities of the new town, for the taking up of lots was very slow, and those first chosen were upon the water front, convenience for shipping being apparently the dominant factor in the determination of choice. In accordance with the act of Assembly the first choice was exercised by Mr. Charles Carroll, one of the owners of the site, and he selected lot No. 49, situated at what is now the northeast comer of Calvert and Water streets, the south side of which at that time fronted on the water as the name of the adjacent street indicates. The second lot selected was No. 37, taken up by Mr. Philip Jones, the county surveyor, by whom the town had been laid out. It was at about the middle of the block now bounded by Charles, Light, Lombard and Pratt streets, but at the time of choice it had water fronts on both the south and east sides. The choice of lots went on but slowly after the first year, at the rate of three or four lots a year, and numbers of those taken up apparently with a view to a modest speculation, were subsequently forfeited by the failure of the subscribers to comply with the terms of the act of Assembly by erecting a house upon the lot within the time limited. In 1732 an act was passed by the General Assembly for the erection of "a Town on a creek, divided on the East from the Town lately laid out [1732] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 15 in Baltimore County, called Baltimore Town, on the land whereon Edward Fell keeps store." The creek referred to is the stream called Jones Falls, so named from David Jones who took a tract of three hundred and eighty acres on the east side of that stream in 1661, two years after the establish- ment of Baltimore county. He built a house near the intersection of Front and French streets, and is said to have been the first settler within what is now the area of the city of Baltimore. By this act of Assembly, Thomas Sheridan, John Cockey, Robert North, Captain John Boring and Thomas Todd, or any three of them, were appointed commissioners for buying ten acres of the tract named, in such part as lay most convenient to the water, and for surveying and laying out the same into twenty equal lots to be erected into a town. The area thus proposed was, it will be observed, but one-sixth the area of Baltimore Town, and the lots were each to contain but one-half acre, less the space required to be allowed for streets, lanes and alleys, the location of which was to be marked with posts and stakes. The owner of the land was entitled to first choice of a lot, and then the selection was to be open to the inhabitants of the county; but no person should take more than one lot during the first four months, and if any lots should remain unsold at the end of six months after the laying out of the town, such lots should be open for sale to any person or persons. It was a condition that each "taker-up" of a lot should improve the same within eighteen months by erecting thereon a house to cover 400 square feet, and in default thereof his claim would be forfeited and the lot open to a new purchaser. The name of the town was to be Jonas (Jones) Town. On the 4th day of November, 1732, the commissioners met on the land, and William Fell, the supposed owner, having acknowledged his in- ability to give title to the land, a jury which had been previously summoned found by verdict that the rightful owners were the orphans of Colonel Richard Colgate, deceased, and awarded as the price to be paid three hun- dred pounds of tobacco per acre for the ten acres. On the 22nd day of November, Mr. Philip Jones Jr., the county surveyor, was directed to sur- vey and lay out the town, and on the 20th day of July, 1733, the taking up of lots began. Four only were taken on that day by John Gardner, Ed- ward Fell, William Fell and Thomas Bond respectively. The progress was slow. The next lot was taken up on August 13th, then one on the i8th, two on the 20th, one on September 2nd, and then no more until the next year. In response to a petition of the inhabitants of the two nearly contigu- ous towns, an act of Assembly was passed in 1745 incorporating them into one under the title of Baltimore Town. The petitioners represented "that the said Towns are very conveniently situated in regard to the back in- habitants, and navigation on the head of the northwest branch of the Patapsco River." These advantages of situation in respect both to do- mestic and foreign commerce have now a wider significance than was then i6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [i74S] recognized. At the date of this petition the expression "back inhabitants" referred merely to the settlers in the western portion of the province away from tide-water, in the region now constituting Frederick and Washington counties. By the terms of the act consolidating the two towns, the bridge by which they were connected and which had been erected by the inhabitants, was made a public bridge to be maintained thereafter for "man, horse, cart or wagon." at the expense of the county. Seven commissioners, Major William Hammond, Captain Robert North, Captain William Sheridan, Doctor George Buchanan, Captain Darby Lux, Mr. Thomas Harrison and Mr. William Fell, were named for carry- ing into effect the provisions of the act and of former acts relating to the towns. They were directed to have the land re-surveyed and to in- clude therein "the branch over which the bridge is built." The risks and inconvenience of municipal elections were avoided by making the commis- sioners a self-perpetuating body with power to fill all vacancies arising in their number by death, removal from the county or refusal to serve. They were required to meet at least once in each year, and at such time to see that the boundaries of the several lots were all substantially marked, and any decayed or missing stakes replaced. The commissioners were to ap- point a clerk and a surveyor, the compensation of the former to be pro- vided by a tax to be levied by the commissioners upon the inhabitants of the town, and that of the latter by a tax upon the inhabitants of the county to be imposed by the county court. The commissioners were given au- thority to collect any moneys that might be due and unpaid on lots pre- viously sold, and to sell such as had not yet been purchased. There was a general confirmation of title to former and subsequent purchasers of lots and to such as had or should thereafter make improvements upon the water front by the construction of wharves, or of buildings upon land reclaimed from the water. Finally it was declared to be unlawful for any person or persons "to keep or raise any swine, sheep or geese within the said town unless they be well enclosed in some lot or pen." The erection of a fence to enclose the town having been determined upon, an agreement was made on March i6, 1746, with Captain Robert North to fence in that part of the town over the falls formerly called Jones Town, his compensation to be at the rate of £8 per thousand for oak rails, and £3 per thousand for the stakes. At the same meeting it was agreed with Colonel William Hammond to set up three gates in the fence, — ^two of them ten feet wide and one five feet wide, "the posts white oak framed and locust posts and sills." According to tradition this fence was erected as a protection against apprehended Indian raids. It seems quite as likely, however, especially in view of the mode of construction (post and rail) that the object in view was to prevent the wandering swine, sheep and geese already mentioned from going too far afield. Some of the inhabitants seem to have found in the good oak rails a [1746] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 17 convenient supply of fire-wood. On September 10, 1750, the accounts of Mr. William Rogers for "fencing in the town" and also for "making up the fence" were allowed, and the same day John Walker was employed "to keep up" the town fence for the compensation of forty shillings cur- rency, per annum. But the depredations continued and the town commis- sioners were without authority to prosecute the offenders ; therefore, but a little more than two years later, on November 21, 1752, it having been found that so many rails had been "taken away and destroyed" as to render the remainder useless, such as were left were disposed of at the price of five pounds ten shillings per thousand, and the clerk to the commissioners was prudently directed to make delivery to the purchaser on the next day. The number was evidently diminishing rapidly. Although the two portions of the town were connected at what is now Gay street by a bridge spanning the stream called Jones Falls, mentioned in the act of consolidation, north and south of that point they were sepa- rated by low lying and marshy grounds, that to the north being known as Steiger's meadow, and that to the south as Harrison's marsh. These lands were subsequently drained, though they long remained subject to occasional inundation when in time of freshet the Falls, suddenly transformed from a sluggish stream into a rushing torrent, would overflow its banks and spread over the low-lying ground. The terms "meadow" and "marsh" long adhered to these localities, the former being applied to the area east of Cal- vert street between it and Holliday and extending from Saratoga to Centre street ; while the Centre market house, which prior to its destruction in the great fire of February, 1904, fronted on Baltimore street opposite the foot of Harrison street, was generally called the Marsh Market. On account of the earlier settlement having been made on the east side of the falls, Jones Town came to be called Old Town, a name which still clings to the neighborhood which was once its site. Immediately north of Gay street bridge the course of the falls was very different from its present channel. From a point at or near the bridge on Bath street the stream turned to the southwest, continuing nearly to Calvert at Saratoga street, and thence southerly to Calvert and Lexington streets, the most westerly point of this loop or bend being in the bed of Calvert street, near the northwest comer of the Post Office. Thence the course was easterly to the present channel at a point directly north of Gay street bridge. This loop was de- stroyed by a canal constructed in a straight line from Bath street to Gay street ; but the drained land not having been filled in to a sufficient eleva- tion, in time of freshet the stream used often, before it was substantially walled in, to seek its natural channel again and cause much damage to property. At a session of the Assembly begun on July 8, 1747, an act was passed for the surveying and laying out into lots of this meadow land lying be- tween Baltimore Town and Jones Town, which was accordingly done, Nicholas Ruxton Gay being employed as the surveyor. The land was di- i8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1747] vided into eighty-four lots numbered from 61 to 144. The area thus sur- veyed comprised the land between the original eastern boundary of Balti- more Town (between HoUiday and Gay streets) and Jones Falls, and from the bend or loop in the falls above described, southward to the harbor. It included all of Harrison's marsh. In 1750 an act of Assembly was passed adding to the town area twenty- five acres lying to the northeast and directly adjacent to what was for- merly Jones Town. Edward Fell had settled upon the eastern side of the Falls as early as 1726 and had a store there at the time of the incorporation of Jones Town with Baltimore Town in 1732. In 1730 his brother William Fell, a ship carpenter, also came to the Patapsco and took up land and built a house upon the point which from his settlement there is still known as Fell's Point. Intervening between this point and the town site was a tract called Montenay's Neck, lying on both sides of Harford Run, for which Alexander Montenay had obtained deeds as early as 1661. The tract was resurveyed in 1737 for William Fell as escheat land. But a number of years were yet to elapse before this land to the eastward was added to the town.* Overhanging the Falls at the deep bend which then reached to Calvert street, where Monument Square is now, and extending northward to the west of the stream, was a high bluff, the cutting away of which, in order to make traffic possible, has left the steep grades between Calvert and Charles streets on each of the streets between Fayette and Centre. How little the future possibilities of the town were foreseen at the time of its founding is indicated not only from the limited area but from the character of the site selected, with hills to be cut away on the north and marshes to be drained on the east before any growth or expansion in those directions was possible. To the north and west the land rises rapidly and the drainage from the higher land seeks its natural outlet in the Patapsco river. As a consequence, the area of the city is traversed by four streams, the general course of which is from north to south. Of these, two empty into the northwest branch of the river. They are Harford Run, which now flows through a tunnel under the bed of Central avenue; and Jones Falls which flows between stone walls through the central portion of the city.* Chatsworth Run, tunneled under the beds of Pearl and Arch streets, and thence southwesterly, and Gwynns Falls, in the western section of the city, both empty into the middle branch of the Patapsco south of the city. A rough water color sketch made in 1752 by Mr. John Moale, of which the original hangs in the rooms of the Maryland Historical Society, gives probably a faithful representation of the appearance of Baltimore Town at that date. The picture with improvements as to artistic execu- ■Jt was done in 1781. •At the session of the Legislature in 1910 the issue of a city loan to the amount of $1,000,000 for the purpose of constructing a boulevard over this stream was auth- orized. [1755] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 19 tion, but without violation of the facts as shown on the original sketch, has been reproduced repeatedly. The accompanying print is from one of these reproductions. The view was obviously taken from Federal Hill on the south side of the basin or inner harbor. It appears from this drawing that thirty-two years after the founding of the tovm it contained but twenty-five dwellings, one church and two taverns, — Rogers' and Ka- minsky's. The latter was the last of the buildings shown in this sketch to remain standing. It was located at the northwest comer of Mercer (now German) and Grant streets, near Light street, and was torn down to make room for the construction of the CarroUton Hotel, which was destroyed in the fire of February, 1904. The church which is shown on the highest point in the town is Saint Paul's, the parish church of the Church of Eng- land. It stood near the intersection of Lexington and St. Paul streets, which were then called respectively Church street and St. Paul's laneway, and within the same block as the present St. Paul's Church at the comer of Charles and Saratoga streets. This entire block, beside som» other land adjacent on the south side of Lexington street, was included in the land originally taken up by the vestry of Saint Paul's Parish as a site for the parish church,^ which had previously been situated in the county south- east of the town, apparently on the North Point road and near SoUers Point. It appears from Mr. Moale's sketch that at its date but four of the dwelling houses in the town were built of brick. Ii^ 1755 21 number of the French settlers transported by the English from Acadia arrived in Baltimore. These "French neutrals," as they were called, dispossessed of their homes in Nova Scotia, were dispersed among the English colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia. Sent in fearfully overcrowded ships, with insufficient food, their sufferings were great, and being obliged to leave the greater portion of their possessions behind, they arrived for the most part in a destitute condition among a people alien to them in race, language and religion, upon whom the burden of caring for these unhappy exiles was thmst by the British authorities. It is gratifying to note that the colonists received these unfortunates with sympathy and kindness and help. Nine hundred of them were landed at Annapolis, whence they were distributed and assigned to the several counties with the exception of Fred- erick county, which then included all the western portion of the State.^ The cause of this exception was the apprehension lest they should find means of communicating with their compatriots in the French settlements upon the Ohio river, and so prove to be dangerous guests. *Lot No. 19, the highest and northernmost point in the town in the original plat was taken up by the vestry on February 22, 1 730-1. Lots 18 and 20, adjacent, appear to have been also acquired, though the date of purchase does not appear in the town records. •Sellers: Account of the Acadians transported to Maryland, Maryland Histori- cal Magazine, III, i. 20 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1755] A number of these Acadians were sent to Baltimore, how many is unknown, but a sufficient number to cause the portion of the town in which they mostly settled to be long known as "French Town." Upon their first arrival some of them were received in private houses, while others were quartered in a large brick dwelling which stood on the north side of Fayette street, between St. Paul and Calvert streets, belonging to Dr. Edward Fotterell, an Irish gentleman who had begun its erection, but returning to Ireland had left it unfinished. It was said to be the first brick building erected in the town. In this house the Acadians established a pri- vate chapel which was the first Roman Catholic place of worship in the town, as at that time there were but few of that communion among the inhabitants of the northern portion of the province. In an account pub- lished in 1824 * these people are thus described : "At first assisted by public levies authorized by law, these emigrants soon found means by their extraordinary industry and frugality to get much of the grounds on South ^harles street, erecting many cabins or huts of mud and mortar which part was long distinguished by the name of French Town. By the same means they or their children converted these huts into good frame or brick buildings, mostly by their own hands, and there are yet some of the original French settlers living there at the age of eighty-five years and upwards. Among these French neutrals Messrs. Guttro, Gould, Dashiel, Blanc (White) and Berbine, who had suffered least perhaps, attached themselves mostly to navigation, and the infirm picked oakum.^ Several houses erected on the west side of the street, from timber cut on the lots by them- selves, and yet standing were occupied by some of them more than sixty years." It was not until 1770 that the number of Roman Catholics resident in Baltimore had increased sufficiently for them to undertake the erection of a church. This building was on the north side of Saratoga street, west of Charles, and the congregation which worshipped there in what was called Saint Peter's Church, eventually formed the nucleus of that of the Cathedral Church subsequently established one block to the northward. Before its completion this church was closed on account of financial em- barrassments, and the congregation worshipped temporarily in a private house on South Charles street, probably one of those erected by the French settlers. It was summarily reopened about the beginning of the Revolutionary War, upon the demand of a ccMnpany of soldiers under Captain Galbraith, who, desiring to attend the services of their church on Sunday, refused to permit the claims of the contractors to stand in the way.^^ It was not until some years later that a resident priest was secured, the congregation being dependent until then upon occasional visits by the domestic chaplain from Doughoregan Manor, the seat of the Carroll fam- ily, about fifteen miles from the town. When the French troops under Count Rochambeau passed through Baltimore in 1781 on their way to Yorktown to take part in the campaign •Griffith: Annals of Baltimore, p. 36. **Used for caulking ships. "Griffith: Annals of Baltimore, p. 47. [1768] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 21 against Lord Comwallis, their chaplain, I'Abbe Robin, celebrated mass and preached for the little congregation. That the worshippers were then chiefly composed of the Acadians is shown by the account of this visiting priest who preached to them in the French language.*^ In 1763 the town had grown to sufficient size to justify the provision of more efficient means than had previously existed for protection against fifes. In that year a company of volunteer firemen was organized under the name of the Mechanical Company, and a hand engine, imported from Holland and hence called the "Dutchman," was purchased for it in 1769. Prior to this time, the houses being widely detached, the sole reliance for protection against fire appears to have been placed in ladders which each householder was required to keep, such as would enable a "bucket brigade," composed of neighbors, to apply water to a burning roof or blazing chim- ney. There seems to have been difficulty in compelling some of the resi- dents to comply with even this simple requirement and observe other rea- sonable precautions as to the condition of the chimney flues ; for in the act of Assembly of 1747 extending the town limits, the insertion of the follow- ing provision was secured, so as to give to the fire regulation the force of law: "Any inhabitants of the said town who shall after the first day of Decem- ber next ensuing permit his, her or their chimney to take fire so as to blaze out at the top shall pay ten shillings current money for every such offence; and every person having a house in the said town with a chimney and in use who shall not, after the first day of December, keep a ladder high enough to extend to the top of the roof of such house shall also forfeit and pay ten shillings cur- rent money." Resolutions adopted from time to time by the town commissioners, and followed by domiciliary visits of inspection, show that there was laxity in observing even this simple requirement. The organization of other fire companies followed, the Union in 1782, the Friendship in 1785, and the Deptford (at Fells Point) in 1792. The Mechanical Company in later years developed into a sort of civic club, whose members were active in promoting the public welfare and, when occasion arose, in rendering military service; but the history of the fire department belongs elsewhere in this volume. The infant town soon became the most important settlement in the county, and in 1768 an act of the Assembly directed the erection of a court house and jail in Baltimore Town, which thus became the county seat of Baltimore county. Previous to this the location of the court house had several times been changed. Originally the sessions of the county court were held in private houses, but as early as 1683 mention is made in the records of the "town land on the Bush river, near the Court House," and upon the map of Maryland made by Augustin Herrman in 1670 there is marked a town on the north side of that river named Baltimore. This ^ Robin : Nouveau Voyage dans VAmirique septentrionale, p. loi. 22 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1768} was undoubtedly the first county seat. Subsequently at some date be- tween 1686 and 169s (probably in 1691 ^•) the court house was removed to a location at the forks of the Gunpowder river, and again in 1712 it was removed to the town of Joppa, situated on the east side of the Gunpowder river (in what is now Harford county), and about one-half of a mile northwest of the present bridge of the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Wash- ington railroad, which traverses the broad estuary of that stream. Scarcely a vestige of that town now remains. The various highways in Baltimore and Harford counties which bear the name of "]opp3, Road," and over which the former inhabitants travelled to the county seat, alone perpetuate its memory. The act for the removal of the court house provided that the commis- sioners named therein, — Messrs. J. B. Bordley, John Ridgely Jr., John. Moale, Robert Adair, Robert Alexander, William Smith and Andrew Buchanan, — should acquire land "on the uppermost part of Calvert street near Jones Falls," upon which to erect the court house and prison. Calvert street ended then a short distance north of the site of the Battle Monu- ment, at a high bluff overlooking the stream which flowed across the north- east comer of Monument Square. The commissioners, at a meeting held in July, 1768, decided to ac- quire land on both the east and west sides of Calvert street, being part of lots 8, II, 12, 137 and 138 adjacent to the street, as shown upon the map. They also determined that the jail should be built of stone, and be not more than forty feet square, and that the court house should be of brick and not exceeding sixty feet by forty feet in area. At a meeting in August, held for the purpose of negotiating for the purchase of the land, no one appeared to claim ownership of the lots on the west side of the street, but Mr. Alexander Lawson, claiming "as pro- prietor the land lying to the eastward of Calvert street and included in the survey" which the commissioners had caused to be made, appeared "and demanded the sum of two hundred pounds 'running money' as a consideration for the sale of his title to the said land." It would appear from the price asked either that there had been a remarkable increase in the value of land in the town within a very short time, or else that the owner believed that the establishment of the court house warranted a notable advance in price. The commissioners rejected this offer as exorbitant, and determined to proceed by condemnation under the powers conferred upon them by the act. Apparently they abandoned the attempt to deal with Mr. Lawson, for the court house was built directly at the head of the street as provided in the act, and the jail to the west, near the comer of St. Paul and Lexington streets. No land was taken on the eastenr side of the street. The buildings were erected of the dimensions and material already "Ritchie. Early County Scats and Court Houses of Baltimore Country; Mary^ land Historical Magasine, I, i. 99. iL [1772] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 23 mentioned, each of them being two stories in height, and the court house surmounted by a cupola. For the cost of building, nearly £900 currency was raised by subscriptions, chiefly among the inhabitants of the town, as the removal of the court house was not viewed with favor by those living in the northern portion of the county. Pending the completion of the new buildings, the sessions of the court were held in a hall over the market, then situated at the comer of Baltimore and Gay streets, while prisoners were lodged in a log building on South Frederick street. The new buildings, modest as were their dimensions, continued to be used, the prison until 1800, when a new county jail was erected on the site, then far in the country, upon which stands the present city jail, and the court house until i8og, when a new one begun in 1805, was completed upon the northeast portion of the block occupied by the present court house. In order to render more efficient the relief of the poor of the town and county, and to obviate the abuses incident to outdoor relief which was often sought by able-bodied vagabonds, provision was made in 1772 for the building of a county almshouse and workhouse, the former for the reception of the poor and the latter for "such vagrants, beggars, vaga- bonds and other offenders" as might be committed thereto. Land com- prising about twenty acres was purchased north of Madison street, near Eutaw and Howard (those streets did not then exist) upon which the necessary buildings were erected. Subsequently an addition of ten acres for pasture land was made to the almshouse property, the area of which then extended eastward to what is now Park avenue. This continued to be the location of the almshouse until the purchase in 1819 or 1820 of a new site on the Franklin road, which included a farm of 306 acres. The buildings near Madison and Eutaw streets were demolished in 1827. The time had now arrived when the conflict between the Crown of England and the American colonies was rapidly reaching the point at which recourse to arms was inevitable. The Stamp Act had been tried and failed. But England had not abandoned her determination to derive a revenue from the colonies by taxation. The imposition of import duties and the prohibition of certain manufactures in the colonies, led to the formation of associations for "non-importation" of English goods, and finally to associations for **non-intercourse" with the mother country. No- where were the merchants and inhabitants more prompt than those of Baltimore Town to engage in such associations, or more faithful in ad- herence to their terms. Annapolis was, however, the seat of government, and consequently it was there and not at Baltimore, the growing com- mercial metropolis, that the active conflicts took place. It was f rcnn thence that the stamp distributers were expelled before the repeal of the old Stamp Act, and it was there, when the duty on tea had become the chief issue, that the owner of the brig Peggy Stewart was compelled on Oc- tober 19, 1774, to bum both vessel and cargo on account of a quantity of 24 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1774] tea, upon which he had paid the resented duty, forming part of the cargo. And in the following year, on July 18, 1775, the ship Totness, bound from Liverpool to Baltimore with a cargo of salt and other articles contrary to the non-importation agreements, having gone aground in West river be- low Annapolis, a number of the associators went aboard the vessel where it lay, and after notifying the crew to go ashore with their personal effects, burnt the vessel and cargo. Although for the reasons just stated, Baltimore was not at the begin- ning of the war the principal centre of political activity in the province, the growing commercial town was full of zeal for the American cause. In the Maryland Journal of May 28, 1774, it is recorded that on the Tuesday preceding, a few hours after the arrival of an express from Phila- delphia relative to affairs in Boston, a number of ''merchants and respect- able mechanics" met at the court house and appointed a committee to corre- spond with the neighboring colonies as the exigency of affairs might make it occasionally necessary. The committee then appointed called a general meeting of the free- holders and gentlemen of the county to be held at the court house on May 31st. At this meeting a series of resolutions was adopted declaring it to be the duty of every American colony to unite in the most effectual means to obtain a repeal of the late act of Parliament for blockading the harbor of Boston ; concurring in the view expressed in the Boston resolutions that a joint resolution of the colonies to stop importations irom and exports to Great Britain and the West Indies would be the means of preserving North America and her liberties; agreeing to join in an association to stop intercourse ; providing for the appointment of delegates to a provincial convention to be held at Annapolis, and delegates to a general congress in which all the colonies would be represented, and providing for breaking off all trade and dealing with any colony, province or town that refused to be bound by similar resolutions. On June 4th the Baltimore committee transmitted a copy of these resolutions to the committees at Boston and Philadelphia and other places. The letter to the Boston committee, manifesting as it does the recognition by the men of Baltimore that the time for petitions and remonstrance was past, and that the time for action had come, has been thought worthy of reproduction in full. It is as follows : — "Gentlemen : — "On the 2Sth ultimo we received (by express) from Philadelphia, a copy of your letter of the 13th to the gentlemen of that city, and a copy of their reply thereto, together with the votes of your own town meeting on the truly alarming situation of your affairs by the late Act of Parliament, for blocking up the harbor of Boston. "Could we remain a moment indifferent to your sufferings, the result of your noble and virtuous struggles in defence of American liberties, we should be unworthy to share in those blessings which (under God) we owe, in a great measure, to yoiir perseverance and zeal in support of our common rights, that they have not, ere now, been wrested from us by the rapacious hand of power. [1774] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 25 "Permit us, therefore, as brethren, fellow citizens and Americans, embarked in one common interest most affectionately to sympathize with you, now suffering and persecuted in the common cause of our country, and to assure you of our readiness to concur in every reasonable measure that can be devised for obtaining the most ef- fectual and speedy relief to our distressed friends. "Actuated by these sentiments, we immediately on receipt of the letters afore- said called a meeting of the principal inhabitants and appointed a Committee of twelve persons to correspond with you, the neighboring colonies, and particularly with the towns of this province, to collect the public sense of this important concern. "We procured a general meeting of the freeholders and gentlemen of this County, the 31st ult., when the enclosed resolutions were agreed on, with a spirit and har- mony which we flatter ourselves, prevails very generally through all parts of this province. The resolve of a general Congress of Deputies in order to invite the sense of the whole Colony on this interesting occasion, will, we have reason to hope, be attended with success. "Having addressed every County for that purpose, and the gentlemen of An- napolis concurring in the same design, as soon as the result of this Congress is de- termined, we shall make you acquainted therewith. "In order to inspire the same zeal in others with which we are actuated for your cause we have transmitted copies of the papers we received to the gentlemen of Alexandria, Norfolk and Portsmouth in Virginia, and have taken the liberty of recom- mending to our friends in Philadelphia the necessity of setting a good example, as their influence would greatly preponderate in your favor. Although the gentlemen of Philadelphia have recommended a general congress for proceeding by petition or re- monstrance, we cannot see the least grounds of expecting relief by it. The contempt with which a similar petition was treated in 1765, and many others since that period, convince us that policy or reasons of State instead of justice and equity, are to pre- scribe the rule of our future conduct, and that something more sensible than suppli- cations will best serve our purpose. The idea of a General Congress, held forth by our resolves, is merely to unite such colonies as will associate in a general system of non-exportation and non-importation, both to be regulated in such degree and manner as most suitable to the circumstances of each Colony, and as to enable us (if necessary) to hold out longer without aggrieving one more than another. "Permit us, as friends, truly anxious for the preservation of your and our common liberties, to recommend firmness and moderation under this severe trial of your patience, trusting that the Supreme Disposer of all events will terminate the same in a happy confirmation of American freedom. 'We are, with much sincerity, 'Your truly sympathising friends, 'Samuel Purviance, Chairman, "William Buchanan, "In behalf of the Committee." On June 22nd the Provincial Congress, composed of delegates from the several county committees, met in Annapolis, and adopted non-impor- tation resolutions, and undertook the collection of contributions for the relief of Boston. Delegates to the Continental Congress were also chosen. This Congress met in Philadelphia on September 5th and adopted similar resolutions in relation to non-importation, and recommended the appointment of county and town committees throughout the colonies. Hitherto the committees and delegates appointed from Baltimore county included the representation of the town, but at a meeting of freeholders 26 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1774I held at the court house on November 12th there were chosen, in pursuance of the recommendation of the Continental Congress, two committees, — one of twenty-nine from the town, and a separate committee of thirty-eight from the county. From the total ntunber of these, eight delegates, — five from the county, and three from the town, — were appointed to attend general meetings at Annapolis. Five members of the town committee were constituted a Committee of Correspondence, of which Samuel Pur- viance was chairman. On December 8th the delegates met at Annapolis and resolved that they would maintain the association just entered into by Congress, recommended the enrolment of the militia, and a voluntary contribution of £10,000 (of which £980, or less than one-tenth of the whole, was assigned as the proper proportion of Baltimore county) for the purchase of arms and ammunition. The local committee apportioned the levy for Baltimore county among the different districts and hundreds, and the small estate of Baltimore Town at that time is shown by the fact that while the amount apportioned to Back River, upper, was iii2, the amount assigned to Baltimore Town, west, was £72 7s. 6d., and to Baltimore Town, east, (Fells Point) £26 12s. 6d. The contributions were to be voluntary, and the htunane disposition of the committee in asking for contributions is shown by the following clause embodied in their resolutions: — "Care ought to be taken to avoid laying any part of the burthen upon the people of narrow circumstances, hoping that those whom Providence has blessed with better fortunes, will by their generosity, supply the necessity of calling on those whose fortunes are confined to the mere necessaries of life." Not only were the inhabitants ready to promote the cause of the colonies by the policy of non-intercourse which put a stop to exportation of tobacco, Maryland's staple commodity at that time, but they were equally ready to contribute to the needs of fellow colonists upon whom the hand of oppression had fallen more heavily. The friendly relations be- tween Baltimore and Boston at this time were close and intimate. The Boston committee wrote under date of July i6th to the committee in Baltimore, that "The part taken by the Province of Maryland must henceforth stop the mouths of the blasphemers of humanity who have affected to question the existence of public virtue. So bright an example as you have set cannot fail to animate and encourage even the luke-warm and indifferent ; more especially such honest men as wish to be assured of support before they engage in so weighty an enterprise. The noble sacri- fice you stand ready to make of the staple commodity of your Province, so materially affecting the revenue of Great Britain, and your generous interposition in our favor, have our warmest acknowledgments." On August 29th the following item appeared in a Boston paper: — "Yesterday arrived at Marblehead, Captain Perkins, from Baltimore, with three thousand bushels of Indian com, twenty barrels of rye, and twenty- one barrels of bread sent by the inhabitants of that place for the benefit of [1775] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 27 the poor of Boston, together with one thousand bushels of corn from An- napolis, sent in the same vessel and for the same benevolent purpose." During this year the British Ministry removed Benjamin Franklin from the office of deputy postmaster-general and placed the control of the mails in the hands of English agents. Thereupon William Goddard, editor and proprietor of the Maryland Journal, established an independent post service from Massachusetts to Virginia and afterwards to Georgia. For this he was rewarded by appointment as surveyor of post roads by Con- gress; but Dr. Franklin having been subsequently restored by the Conti- nental Congress to his former office of deputy postmaster-general, Mr. Goddard felt that he had been superseded without proper recognition of his services. He therefore retired for the time from active participation in affairs and left the management both of the newspaper and of the Balti- more post office to his sister, Miss Mary K. Goddard, who conducted both with credit and ability. In the editorial woric she had the assistance of a number of gentlemen who were willing contributors, and the post office she retained until the adoption of the constitution of the United States and the organization of the Post Office Department in 1789. The preparations for the approaching struggle continued unabated. Before the encounter on April 19, 1775, at Lexington, in Massachusetts, several military companies had been formed in Baltimore Town and county, of which one, composed of maturer men, was commanded by General Buchanan, the county lieutenant, and another, composed of younger men, who provided themselves with "an elegant scarlet uniform," was commanded by Captain (afterwards General) Mordecai Gist. Of this company Richard Carey, from New England, a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, was appointed adjutant and drill- master. William Eddis, writing home to England from Annapolis in July of this year, said: — "In Annapolis there are two complete companies, in Baltimore seven, and in every district of this Province the majority of the people are actually under arms; almost every hat is decorated with a cockade, and the churlish drum and fife are the only music of the times." ^* This statement incidentally shows the relative increase of population in Baltimore. An unofficial count of the inhabitants made this year by cer- tain gentlemen of the town showed a total of 564 houses and 5934 in- habitants. In view of the gravity of the situation, and in deference to a resolu- tion of Congress, the committee on April 15th prohibited the annual fair in Baltimore, which was an established institution, but had become the occasion of much disorder and dissipation. The committee also urged the inhabitants to refrain from horse racing, cock fighting and such like pas- times, as being inconsistent with the gravity of the times. On May sth the delegates from Virginia, among whom was George "Eddis: Letters from America, p. 216. / 28 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1775] Washington, and those from North Carolina, arrived in Baltimore on their way to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. They were met by a military escort which accompanied them to the Fountain Inn, and fired a salute in their honor, and the following day the visitors were entertained at a banquet given at the court house. On June 17th occurred the battle of Bunker Hill, by which the War of the Revolution was actually begun. Two days before, upon nomination by Thomas Johnson, of Maryland, George Washington had been chosen by the Continental Congress as commander-in-chief of the American forces. In August the provincial convention assembled at Annapolis, and en- tered into articles of association agreeing to "support the opposition as well by arms as by the Continental Association." It was also determined to raise forty companies of minute-men, of which five, or one-eighth of the whole number, were assigned as the quota of Baltimore county. Among volunteers who went from Baltimore Town at this time to join the Conti- nental army assembled at Boston under General Washington, were Rich- ard Carey, David Hopkins and James McHenry, of whom the last named, who was a student of medicine, received an appointment as surgeon. As an important means of local defense, a water battery, designed by James Alcock, was erected at Whetstone Point, upon the present site of Fort McHenry, the command of which was given to Captain Nathaniel Smith. Three massive chains supported by floating blocks of wood were stretched across the harbor, leaving c^n a narrow passage for vessels on the side next the battery and directly under its guns. The channel was further ob- structed by sunken vessels. The manufacture of munitions of war was early begun in Baltimore and its vicinity. In December, 1775, provision was made for the estab- lishment of a mill for making gunpowder not more than fourteen miles or less than six miles from the town. This was the origin of the Bellona Powder Mill,^' about eight miles north of the city. Early in 1776 con- tracts for the casting of cannon were given to furnaces at Antietam, Balti- more and Georgetown. This activity continued throughout the war. As late as 1780 an accident which occurred while testing cannon at the North- ampton furnace in which several persons were injured, and Captain Ful- ford, an officer of artillery, was killed, shows the manufacture of ordnance still in operation.** Shipbuilding had been developed in Baltimore early in its history, both at the town and at Fells Point. Its situation was especially favorable for the building and fitting out of war vessels and privateers to prey upon the enemies' commerce, and many such sailed from this port, the naval history of which began early in the war. "This mill, established by Mr. Samuel Purviance, chairman of the committee of observation, was long operated by members of his family. The ruins of the maga- ;zine are still standing (1911) near the west banks of Lake Roland. ''Griiiitli: Annals of Baltimore, p. 87. [1776] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 29 In October, 1775, the sloop of war Hornet, accompanied by the Wasp, sailed from Baltimore, the former under the command of Captain William Stone, with Joshua Barney, second officer. This vessel is said to have dis- played as its ensign, the first "Star Spangled Banner" to be seen in the town where forty years after it gave the inspiration for the national anthem. These vessels eluded the British fieet blockading the mouth of the Chesapeake, and joined the little fieet under Commodore Hopkins in the Delaware Bay. This fieet proceeded to New Providence, one of the Ba- hamas, and found the town and fort with a large quantity of guns, ammu- nition and other stores an easy capture. Upon returning, the Hornet went aground and was wrecked in the Delaware. In March, 1776, the inhabitants of Baltimore were thrown into great alarm by the appearance below the town of the British ship of war Otter, accompanied by two tenders and some prizes that had been taken. The Maryland ship Defence was then in the harbor in process of conversion from a merchantman into a man-of-war. Her commander, Captain James Nicholson, immediately prepared for action, and hastily taking on board Captain Smith's company of militia in the capacity of marines, he suc- ceeded in driving away the invader and recapturing the prizes. On June 5th, Captain Nicholson received from Congress his commis- sion as captain in the United States Navy, where he was the ranking of- ficer. Soon after he took command of the frigate Virginia, a Baltimore built vessel. In October following. Captain William Hallock was com- missioned to command the Lexington, mounting 16 guns, and Lieutenant Joshua Barney sailed from Philadelphia in the Andrea Doria, a brig of 14 guns, commanded by Captain Robinson. Among other vessels from Baltimore which infiicted injury upon the enemy were the Buckskin, Enterprise, Sturdy Beggar, Harlequin and Fox. In May or June of this year, certain correspondence between the British authorities and Governor Eden of Maryland having been inter- cepted and forwarded to General Charles Lee, commanding the American forces in the south, the latter despatched them to Mr. Samuel Purviance, chairman of the Committee of Safety at Baltimore, recommending that Governor Eden be forthwith deprived of all power for doing mischief. Mr. Purviance applied to the military authorities for aid, and Captain Samuel Smith's company was dispatched by Major Gist to Annapolis under orders from the committee at Baltimore to apprehend the person and papers of Governor Eden. Captain Smith upon his arrival reported to the Council of Safety and was told by that body that his services were not required, and he was directed to return to Baltimore. The people of Maryland had no personal quarrel with Governor Eden, who was a brother-in-law of the last Lord Baltimore, and the Council determined to act with moderation. They therefore notified him that he was at liberty to leave the province un- molested, which he did on June 24th. on the British ship Fowey, which came to Annapolis under fiag of truce for the purpose of taking him off. 30 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1776] 4 There was perhaps another motive which influenced the action of the Council, of which Thomas Johnson was chairman. They deemed that General Lee's communication should properly have been addressed to them instead of to the chairman of the Baltimore conunittee, and that Mr. Pur- viance had exceeded his authority. Writing of the matter more than forty years after, General Smith said : — ''The fact was of notoriety that General Lee had more confidence in Mr. Purviance than he had in the Council, and he conveyed information to Mr. Purviance when it would have been more proper to have put it to Mr. Thomas Johnson. At which the Council were justly offended, for there was no better Whig than Mr. Johnson was ever after that transac- tion." " On July 3rd the delegates assembled in the Maryland convention adopted a declaration in which they announced their determination ''to join with a majority of the United Colonies in declaring them free and in- dependent States." On the following day, July 4th, the Declaration of Independence of the United States was adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. It was published in Baltimore in the columns of the Maryland Journal on July I ith, and on July 29th it was publicly read and proclaimed from the court house in the presence of the military and a large concourse of peo- ple, amid the loudest applause, accompanied with the firing of a salute by the military. At night the town was illuminated, and an effigy of the king, after being paraded through the streets, was publicly burned. Mr. Robert Christie Jr., sheriff of the county, was invited to read the Declaration, but he declined on the ground that it would be inconsistent with his oath as an officer appointed and commissioned by the provincial government. His scruples were respected by the community in general, but not by everyone. Certain threats of violence having been made to him, the committee on July 30th adopted a vigorous resolution expressing their utter disapprobation of all threats or acts of violence, and insisting that civil officers must be protected in the discharge of their duty. On July loth the regiment of regulars which had been raised in obe- dience to the instructions of Congress was embarked to proceed to Phila- delphia and report for service. Six companies under Colonel Smallwood were embarked at Annapolis, and three companies under Major Gist at Baltimore. Upon arriving at the head of Elk river, the command marched to Philadelphia, from whence it moved to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where it was incorporated in the Continental army. The story of the gal- lant service it rendered soon after at Long Island belongs to the history of the war, or of the Maryland Line, rather than to that of Baltimore. The provincial convention adjourned after issuing writs for the elec- tion of delegates to a convention for framing a constitution for the State ^Maryland Historical Magazine, V., 151. (1777] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 31 of Maryland, and conferring the power of government during the interval upon the Council of Safety. Baltimore county had hitherto sent five delegates to the convention, which included the representation of the town ; but in the provision for the constitutional convention the growing importance of Baltimore town for the first time received political recognition as entitling it to separate repre- sentation. It was provided that the county should send four delegates and that the town should send two, the same number as allowed to Annapolis, which had been the seat of government since 1694 and a chartered mu- nicipality since 1708. The delegates elected from Baltimore Town were John Smith and Jeremiah T. Chase. The convention met at Annapolis, and on November 3rd the Declara- tion of Rights was adopted, and five days later, on the 8th, the Constitution and Form of Government were agreed to. This instrument, though several times amended, continued to be the basis of the constitution of the state until the adoption of a new constitution in 185 1. In view of the discouraging condition of military affairs in New Jer- sey, and apprehensions lest the British should secure possession of Phila- delphia, the Continental Congress adjourned in that city on December 12th, to meet in Baltimore on the 20th. Here it reassembled in a large build- ing which had been erected by Jacob Fite at the southwest corner of Sharpe and Baltimore streets. This was the farthest brick house west in the town, and was long after known as ''Congress Hall." The warehouse that stands on the site of the old building is marked with a bronze tablet bearing a representation in bas-relief of the original structure, with an inscription commemorating the fact that in it the sessions of the Continental Congress were held. In the following March (1777) all fears of the immediate capture of Philadelphia having been removed by Washington's victory at Trenton, the Congress returned to that city. Early in February there was formed an association under the name of the Whig Club. The state government was yet in process of formation, and this association was ostensibly formed to supply the lack of duly con- stituted authority, particularly in the arrest and punishment of persons who were found to be "enemies to their country." The club was in fact a body of regulators, and though numbers of prominent citizens, merchants of the town and others who subsequently rendered distinguished military service to the cause of American liberty were among its members, the pro- ceedings of this self-constituted tribunal were at times both lawless and violent. In the Maryland Journal of February 25th (1777), Congress being still in session in Baltimore, there appeared, over the name "Tom Tell- truth," a communication congratulating the writer's fellow countr)rmen upon the terms of peace offered by Great Britain through Lord Howe, and expressing gratitude to the "patriotic, virtuous King, the august, incor- ruptible Parliament and the wise disinterested ministry of Britain." 32 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1777] Upon the refusal of Mr. William Goddard, the proprietor of the to disclose the name of the author, he was brought before the Whig Qub on the evening of March 4th, and upon his persisting in his refusal to dis- close the authorship (though disclaiming it for himself) he was treated with some roughness and indignities and ordered to leave the town by noon of the next day and the county within three days. This order was ap- parently ignored by Mr. Goddard, for on the momii^ of March 25th a delegation of members of the Whig Qub visited the newspaper office, and after roughly handling Mr. Goddard and some of the workmen who re- sisted them, haled him a second time before the club, where he was offered the alternative of leaving the state within six hours or else to ''suffer the original designs." What those designs were they refused to disclose, but he was left in no reasonable doubt that they consisted in dragging him in a cart about the town and then administering a coat of tar and feathers. The sentence of banishment was finally modified to the original require- ment of leaving the town within one day and the county within three, and not to return until the new form of government was established. Recog- nizing that he was exposed to personal violence, Mr. Goddard consented to leave, and placing himself under the protection of Captain Galbraith, commander of the provost guard, he departed the next day for Annapolis* where he laid a complaint of his treatment before the Assembly. That body unanimously adopted resolutions condemning the action of the Whig Club as a ''most daring infringement" of the constitution of the state, and requesting the Governor to issue his proclamation declaring all bodies of men associating together for the purpose of usurping the powers of gov- ernment to be unlawful assemblies, and requiring them to disperse. The resolutions also invoked for Mr. Goddard the protection of the law. On April 17th Governor Thomas Johnson issued his proclamation in accord- ance with the terms of the resolutions. This action has been referred to as the first vindication of the liberty of the press in Maryland. About this time there was an uprising in Worcester and Somerset counties of persons disaffected toward the American cause, who raising the standard of Great Britain bid defiance to the authority of the state. A force was hastily gathered, consisting of the independent company of Baltimore and a detachment of troops from Virginia which chanced to be in Baltimore on its way to New Jersey. These were embarked from Fells Point and joined by another body of soldiers with a company of artillery from Annapolis. This expedition was put under the command of General Smallwood and Colonel Gist, who were in Baltimore superintending the reorganization of the Maryland Une. The revolt on the Eastern Shore was quickly suppressed, and to the militia from Baltimore was assigned the duty of hauling down the British fiag. By act of the Assembly at the April session, the number of troops to be raised in Maryland at this time was placed at 2902, of which 281, or about one-tenth of the whole, was fixed as the quota of Baltimore county. [1778] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 33 including the town. As indicating the relative distribution of population at that time it may be noted that the largest quota, 309, was called for from Frederick county, and the smallest, 74, from Calvert county. On August 2ist, the British fleet under Admiral Howe having sailed up the Chesapeake Bay, anchored near the mouth of the Patapsco, causing much consternation in the town. But Philadelphia was the objective point of attack, and the fleet proceeded to the Elk river, where the troops were landed. Meanwhile Governor Johnson ordered two companies from each battalion of militia to march to the head of the bay and join the Conti- nental army. Captain Sterrett's independent company of Baltimore went as mounted infantry, the men supplying their own horses, to reconnoitre and patrol the bay shore; but upon arriving at headquarters were ordered back by General Washington for the protection of their own homes. In the battle of Germantown, on October 4th, in which the Maryland troops took part. Captain James Cox of Baltimore and several of his fellow townsmen were among the killed. During this year the skill of Baltimore shipbuilders and the daring of Baltimore seamen became conspicuous through the achievements of the blockade runners and privateers which sailed hence. The topsail schooners built here were found best adapted for this service in consequence of their ability to sail close to the wind, a course which the heavy warships of the British were unable to follow. Among others, the Antelope, built at North Point creek, made many successful and adventurous voyages under Cap- tain Jeremiah Yellott, while the Fidelity, Captain Folger, the ship Buckskin, Captain Johns, the Nonesuch, Captain Wells, and other vessels, made voy- ages to France and back, eluding the British on both sides of the Atlantic. The activity of the privateers, and the consequent necessity for the dis- posal of their captures, led to the establishment of a court of admiralty. The famous legion composed of cavalry and infantry and commanded by the Polish Count Pulaski, was organized and partly raised in Balti- more, whence it departed in 1778 for service in the southern campaign. During the ensuing year its gallant commander fell in battle at Savan- nah. A silken battle flag which was embroidered by the Moravian nuns at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, and by them presented to Count Pulaski, was subsequently brought back by Captain Benthalou, of Baltimore, upon whom the ccmunand of the legion devolved upon the death of its leader, and is now preserved among the collections of the Maryland Historical Society. Goods of British and other foreign manufacture having become scarce, there was, in spite of the suspension of trade and commerce incident to the war, a distinct impulse given to manufacturing enterprise, and many in- dustries, which had been prohibited in the colonies under the English policy of securing in them a market for her own manufactures, now sprang into existence. Among those established in and around Baltimore at about 34 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1779] this time, were a bleach yard, a linen factory, paper mill, slitting mill, card factory, woolen and linen factory, two nail factories, and dye works. In May of this year (1778) news of the French alliance was received, and the hopes of the people were greatly cheered by the arrival of a French fleet under Count D'Estaing off Chincoteague, near the capes of the Chesapeake. Early in 1779, Sir Henry Qinton, who had superseded Lord Howe in command of the British army, applied to General Washington for permis- sion to send a vessel to Baltimore in order to convey supplies and money for the prisoners of war held at Fort Frederick, in Maryland, and at Win- chester, Virginia. General Washington perceiving that admission to the port of this growing town might afford to the British navigators some very useful information in respect to the channel and harbor, refused the permission asked, but authorized the delivery of the supplies at Hampton, Virginia, where they would be taken on board American vessels and so conveyed to their destination. He wrote to the Governor of Maryland upon this subject as follows : — "Head Qu asters, Muwlebrook, ist March, 1779. "Dear Sir: Sir Henry Qinton, in order to supply the British prisoners at Fort Frederick and Winchester with necessaries and money, has twice requested a passport for a vessel to go with the same to the port of Baltimore. As it is necessary that the prisoners should be supplied, I have granted permission for a schooner to proceed to Hampton Road — where the cargo is to be received into some of the bay craft, and sent to Alexandria and Georgetown, under the conduct and escort of our own people, and from thence to its place of destination. I refused the passport to Baltimore es- pecially, as it was twice pressed upon me. As that port did not appear to be the nearest to Fort Frederick and Winchester, and as it might be made use of for the purpose of exploring a navigation with which they may be in some measure unac- quainted. I have been thus particular lest, under cover of bad weather, the vessel should run toward Baltimore. "I have the honor to be your Excellency's most obedient servant, "Geo. Washington." The navigation of the bay was at this time protected against British marauders by armed galleys, conspicuous among which was the galley Conqueror, the command of which was given to Commodore Nicholson, after the loss of the frigate Virginia, which was run aground near the en- trance to the bay while seeking to elude the blockading squadron. The Maryland Line, now freshly recruited, was divided into two brigades, and the command of the second brigade was given to Colonel Mordecai Gist, of Baltimore, promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. In this year Mr. Goddard, proprietor of the Maryland Journal, who was a native of Rhode Island, again incurred the wrath of some of the zealous patriots of Baltimore. On July 6th there appeared in the Journal some "Queries, political and military, humbly offered to the consideration of the public." The communication was dated at Philadelphia, and the ob- ject of the queries was to reflect adversely upon the military administra- [1779] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 35 tion of General Washington, his fitness for the position of command, and to excite ill-will against the French nation with which an alliance had but recently been concluded. This publication caused great indignation, and a demand was imme- diately made upon Mr. Goddard for the name of the author. This was at first refused, but finally, upon the insistence of many citizens, Mr. Goddard admitted that the "Queries" were written by General Charles Lee. Gen- eral Lee had recently been tried and condemned by court martial for in- subordination and disobedience at the battle of Monmouth, and had in consequence become an implacable enemy of General Washington, of whom he had previously been bitterly jealous. It was not discovered until later that Lee was in fact guilty of treason. Indignation against Mr. Goddard, whose loyalty to the American cause had before been doubted, ran high, and the popular excitement was great ; so that finally, fearing personal violence and the probability of being seized by the mob and carted about the town with a rope about his neck, he consented to sign and publish in the next issue of the paper a repudia- tion of his own act, and with it, copies of the letters from General Lee enclosing the "Queries." Mr. Goddard's card concluded as follows : "I, William Goddard, do hereby acknowledge* that by publishing certain 'Queries, political and military,' in the Maryland Journal of the 6th inst., I have transgressed against truth, justice and my duty as a good citizen, and in reparation I do now humbly beg his Excellency General Washington's pardon, and hope the good people of this town will excuse my having published therein a piece so replete with the non- sense and malevolence of a disappointed man. --« , . ^ T . » "W. GODDARO. ''Baltimore-Town, July 9, 1779.' • Mr. Goddard immediately addressed a memorial to Governor Johnson in which he claimed the liberty of the press under the constitution of the state, defended his action in publishing the ''Queries,'' gave his version of the treatment and violence to which he had been subjected, and, taking to himself the fimctions of the lower house of Assembly, declared that he fm- peached the county justices, whom he accused of having failed to extend to him the protection of the law. A week later, on July 17th, Mr. Goddard published in the Journal another statement in which he declared that "By publishing certain queries, pcrfitical and military, in the Maryland Journal of the 6th inst., I have not transgressed against truth, justice, or my duty as a good citizen; and as I have never given just cause or offence to his Excellency Gen. Washington or the good people of this town, I have no reparation to make them, or pardon to solicit." In spite of this retracticMi and a defiant attitude toward the sentiment of the community in which he lived, Mr. Goddard remained in Baltimore without further molestation. The proceedings against him were the acts of an indignant populace become turbulent from excitement; but this was a lime of war, and a critical period, when feeling ran high, and utterances 36 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1780] savoring of disloyalty to the cause of American liberty were not easily brooked. In 1780 a custom house was established in Baltimore, and for the first time the merchants and shipowners of the town were enabled to obtain Baltimore registers for their vessels, and make entrances and clearances without the delay and inconveniece of having to transact this business through the custom house at Annapolis. These offices were conducted un- der the authority of the State of Maryland, and so continued until the adop- tion of the Federal Constitution. During this year some impetus was given to internal improvements by means of the money obtained from the sale of the confiscated property of persons who being hostile to the American cause had left the state. Among the holdings thus sold were those of Dr. Edward Fotterell, a native of Ire- land, who had returned to that country some years before the commence- ment of hostilities. Besides certain mill property on the line of the falls near Bath street, he owned a large lot on the west side of Calvert street at Fayette street, comprising the eastern portion of the lot upon which the court house now stands. It was here that he had begun the erection of a brick mansion in which some of the French Acadians were quartered when they were transported hither from their homes in Nova Scotia in 1755.** On November 6th, General Nathaniel Greene, who had been ap- pointed to supersede General Horatio Gates in the conduct of the southern campaign, passed through Baltimore on his way south. He was accom- panied by General Baron Steuben, who, an old staff officer of Frederick the Great, was largely instrumental in bringing the soldiers of the Mary- land Line to the high degree of military efficiency which they signally manifested in the ensuing campaign. The Assembly had sought to protect the navigation of the bay by pro- viding an armed galley and four large barges, but this defence did not prove adequate, for ships of the enemy succeeded early the next year in traversing the bay to its head, burning and plundering on both shores, and on April 26th six hostile ships anchored oft North Point at the mouth of the Patapsco, causing great alarm for the safety of the town. The As- sembly ordered the bay defences to be increased by the addition of four galleys and eight barges, but a lawless sort of warfare, with pillaging of settlements, and depredations upon trading vessels, was kept up in the Chesapeake by galleys and barges flying the English flag until the close of the war.^* Early in 1781 the news of the victory at Cowpens was received, and was the occasion of great rejoicing among the inhabitants, especially on account of the gallant part taken by one of their fellow townsmen, Colonel John Eager Howard, who at the end of the battle had in his possession the swords of seven British officers who had surrendered to him personally. **Sce page 19, supra, ^* Cruising in the Chesapeake, Md. Hist. Mag., Vol. V, p. 123. [1781] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 37 The movement northward of the troops under Lord ComwalHs, as a result of the campaign in North Carolina, led to apprehension lest Baltimore should be his next objective point, and the militia was hastily assembled in the town to the number of 2800 men; but it soon became evident that Virginia was to be the immediate field of operations. The shifting of the activities of the war to the south led to the detachment of troops from the army under General Washington and their hasty transfer to the new theatre of action. Consequently, when on May 20th Lord Comwallis ar- rived at Petersburg after his retreat from North Carolina, he found the Marquis de Lafayette already at Richmond with a force of 3000 men. There was yet uncertainty as to the point at which the French fleet under the Count de Grasse would approach the shores of America, whether at New York or at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, and upon this de- pended the movements of the American army in order that there might be prompt co-operation at whatever point the support of the fleet should be offered. On May 22nd there was a conference upon this subject between General Washington and the Count de Rochambeau at Wethersfield, near the headquarters of the former at West Point, but it was not until August 14th that a despatch was received from the Count de Grasse announcing that he was about to sail from the West Indies for the capes of the Chesapeake. But everything was in readiness. On August 19th the march tnym West Point began, and on September 5th the troops arrived at the head of the Chesapeake before the British commander, who was in ignorance of the movements of de Grasse, had suspected their destination. Governor Lee of Maryland was called upon to provide vessels at Elk river for use in transportation, an appeal to which he responded to the ex- tent of his power, and in addition Quartermaster-General Pickering and Commissary General Stewart of the Continental army confidently appealed to the merchants of Baltimore for supplies of flour, provisions and money for the troops in transit, an appeal which also met with a prompt and generous response. The best efforts of the local authorities were unequal to the task of providing at short notice water transportation for an army. The Rev. Abbe Robin, a chaplain with the French troops, wrote from Baltimore un- der date of September 14th, as follows : — "The army did not find at Head-d-Filque (Head of Elk) sufficient transports, scarcely enough boats, mostly open, for the Grenadiers, the Chasseurs, and some American regiments. In case of bad weather, these troops will suffer much and be much exposed. General Washington and the Count de Rochambeau have taken the advance guard by land, in order to co-operate with M. de Grasse. The Baron de Viomesnil, at the moment in command of the French army, has decided to send it by land."" ■• Translated from Robin, Nouveau Voyage dans fAmMque Septentrionale, p. 97. The barges referred to apparently conveyed the troops from the head of the bay to An- napolis, where the march was resumed. 38 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1781I Thus proceeding by various routes, the army began to arrive before Yorktown on September i8th, and on the 26th was completely concentrated at Williamsburg. The fleet under Count de Grasse had arrived off the capes on August 31st. Than began the investiture of Yorktown which re- sulted in the surrender of Comwallis and the termination of the war. During the passage of the Marquis de Lafayette through Baltimore, the merchants of the town cheerfully lent to him, upon his personal obliga- tion, a considerable sum of money for the use of his troops. The loan was subsequently repaid, but in addition to it he received generous gifts of supplies from the ladies of the town. At a ball given in his honor, at which he seemed to be depressed, he said in reply to one of the ladies who asked the cause, "I cannot enjoy the gaiety of the scene while so many of the poor soldiers are in want of clothes." "We will supply them," was the prompt response. The next day the ballroom was transformed into a busy scene of manufacture. The merchants of the town freely gave the material, which by the ready and willing fingers of the ladies was quickly fashioned into clothing for the troops. It is said that Mrs. David Poe, wife of the local quartermaster for the Continental army, cut out five hundred gar- ments with her own hands, and directed their completion. The Marquis never forgot this lady. Upon the occasion of his visit to Baltimore more than forty years later (in 1824) he paid a high tribute to her at a public banquet, and learning that she was still living, a venerable widow, he hastened the next day to call upon her and renew his expres- sions of appreciation and gratitude. On September 8th, during the passage of the army to Virginia, Gen- eral Washington, accompanied by the Count de Rochambeau, General Hand, Baron de Viomesnil, General Chatelux and General Qinton, ar- rived in Baltimore on the way south. The town was illuminated in their honor, and, according to the custom of the time, an address of welcome and God-speed was presented to General Washington on behalf of the citizens, and fittingly responded to by him. On the same day was fought the battle at Eutaw, in which the Mary- land Line under Colonel Otho H. Williams bore a distinguished part, and in which Captains Dobson and Edgerly and Lieutenants Duvall and Gould were killed, and many wounded, among the latter being Colonel Howard, Captains Gibson and Hugon, and Lieutenants Ewing, Woolford and Lynn. During Lafayette's Virginia campaign in the summer he was assisted by a troop of volunteer cavalry which went from the town for a service of sixty days, under the command of Captain N. Ruxton Moore. A num- ber of prominent men of the community served in this expedition. After the surrender of the British army at Yorktown, the citizens of Baltimore were, as the annalist of the times records, "soon favored with opportunities which they joyfully embraced, to offer their congratulations to the Commander-in-Chief, the Marquis de la Fayette and others, who had shared in the glorious event.'' [1782] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 39 The thirteenth day of December was appointed and observed as a day of general thanksgiving for this final and conclusive victory for the Ameri- can cause. During the period of the Revolutionary War, the growth of Baltimore Town was notable both in population and commercial importance, but there had been no corresponding development in the form of its political organi- zation. The town commissioners, deemed sufficient for the needs of the vil- lage community, still constituted the sole administrative authority. The powers of this body were limited, so that whatever was to be done that required the exercise of authority, whether it were the draining of a marsh or the maintenance of a bridge, necessitated a special act of Assembly to authorize the work and confer the power to execute it. The commission- ers were moreover a self-perpetuating body filling vacancies in their own number as they occurred. With the increase of population, the inadequacy of this governmental arrangement and the absence of any real representa- tive character in its organization became more and more felt. With the cessation of active hostilities, there came a demand for mu- nicipal improvement, and the development of Baltimore advanced with rapid strides. The paving of streets first received attention, and the need was sore, as until this time there were no paved streets at all, and Baltimore street, the principal thoroughfare, was described as practically impassa- ble during the early spring and late autumn, from the depth of the mud in the neighborhood of the market which then stood at the comer of Gay street. In providing for carrying into effect the proposed improvements, the ''town commissioners" were disregarded and a new board of ''special commissioners," seven in number, was appointed by the Assembly to direct and superintend the grading, leveling and paving of streets, beginning with Baltimore street between Calvert and Gay streets, and then from place to place as convenience required, and also the building and repair of bridges. To meet the cost of these improvements the landowners were assessed twelve shillings and six pence current money (equal to about $1,662-3) per front foot of abutting property on streets that were to be improved, and one-half that amount upon alleys. The same law contained regulations as to the projection of porches and cellar doors upon the foot way, the tread of carriage wheels and the removal of nuisances. These special commissioners were constituted a body politic and corporate, with power to fill vacancies in their number, appoint a treasurer, collect fines and appoint constables. The new board appears to have in effect succeeded to the powers of the old town commissioners and to have exercised some which the latter never possessed. They would seem to have superseded them altogether except that they were required by the act to render to them accounts of their transactions. The self-perpetuating fea- ture was soon recognized as placing too much power in the hands of a small number of persons, so the next year the office of commissioner was 40 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1782] made indirectly elective, the selection being made by nine electors, who were in turn chosen by the qualified voters of the town, while the term of office was fixed at five years. Individual public spirit also contributed to the extension and develop- ment of the town. Colonel John Eager Howard, now returned from his brilliant military service, laid oflF a tract of land to the west of the town, and caused all that portion which lay east of the street to which in com- memoration of American victory in the south, he gave the name of Eutaw, to be annexed to the town ; while at the intersection of this street with one which after the first conflict in Massachusetts he named Lexington, he set apart a lot for a market, which however was not established until twenty years later. West of Eutaw street he oflfered to the State of Maryland a site for the public buildings of the State, on condition that the General Assembly would within twenty years remove the seat of government from Annapolis to Baltimore. This offer was rejected by the House of Delegates by a ma- jority of one, the vote standing twenty opposed to the removal, with nine- teen in its favor. Hostilities between Maryland vessels and British galleys and barges continued on the Chesapeake Bay, which afforded a ready field for piracies, for some time after the surrender of Cbmwallis at Yorktown and the termination of legitimate warfare on land. On July 5th, Captain Simmons commanding the Maryland Boy Ranger, beat off two barges, killing Cap- tain Barry of the one, and wounding a famous bargeman named Whaland, who was in command of the other, and in November and December seri- ous fighting occurred between barges under the American and British flags in which Captain Whalley, commanding the American forces, was killed.^^ Captain Joshua Barney, of Baltimore, after many vicissitudes in naval warfare, was given the command of the Pennsylvania ship Hyder AH, mounting sixteen guns, six-pounders. On July 5th, 1782, he captured the British ship General Monk, with an armament of twenty g^ns of nine pounds. This vessel, which was formerly the United States ship General Washington, and had been captured by Admiral Arbuthnot, was rechris- tened the General Washington, and its command given to Captain Barney. In recognition of the achievement the legislature of Maryland presented Captain Barney with a sword. During the whole period of the war the Maryland privateers had in- flicted much damage upon the British shipping, and it was a form of ad- venture in which the merchants and mariners of Baltimore were peculiarly fitted to engage with efficiency. In the Naval Records of the American Revolution, published by the Library of Congress in 1908, there is a list of the letters of marque issued by the Continental government from 1775 to the conclusion of the war. Of the whole number, 224 were issued to *See Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. IV, 115. J1782] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 41 Maryland vessels, though this number is probably in excess of the actual number of vessels on account of the inclusion of reissues of letters to the .same vessel under a new name or under different classification. Included in this list of Maryland vessels, of which the greater number were owned in Baltimore, are five ships, twenty-one brigs, twenty-seven brigantines, ninety-seven schooners and fifty-one sloops, besides some smaller craft. During this year (1782) some additions were made to the area of the town by the inclusion of certain tracts on the south and east, and authority was given to include other tracts with the consent of the owners, without a special act of the Assembly. At this time a line of stages was established between Philadelphia and Baltimore, which was afterwards extended to Alexandria. In July the Count de Rochambeau, returning from the south with the troops under his command, halted in Baltimore on his way northward. The troops were encamped in and about the town, the legion commanded by the Duke de Lauzun, which was composed of both cavalry and infantry, upon the ground where the Roman Catholic Cathedral now stands, and the remainder of the division, including the regiments of Bourbonnois, Deux Fonts, Saintonge and Soissonnois, north of the town, on the high ground toward the York Road. The cheers, including beside those already men- tioned the Count Dillon, Baron de Viomesnil, General La Valette and •others, were lodged with private families. On July 29th the merchants of Baltimore presented an address of wel- come and appreciation to the Count de Rochambeau, to which he cour- teously responded. On August 3rd, Governor Thomas Sim Lee, of Maryland, accom- panied by several persons of distinction, arrived in Baltimore from An- napolis, and on the following day was received at the French encampment with a salute of twenty-one guns. In the afternoon a review of the troops I0 the number of 5000 men was held in honor of the governor. On August 22nd the greater part of the French troops departed, marching northward in five divisions, and two days later they were fol- lowed by their commanding officer, the Count de Rochambeau. A small -detachment of five hundred men remained for some time longer encamped near the town under the immediate command of General La Valette. The good order and discipline maintained among the troops com- mended them much to the citizens and led to the establishment of the most cordial and friendly relations. Before the departure of the Count de Rochambeau, the merchants of Baltimore presented him with a second address, expressing their appreciation of these facts, and received from him a response cordially acknowledging the courtesies and hospitalities ex- tended to him and his officers in receiving them as guests in private houses, and expressing his appreciation of the good will thus so pleasantly mani- fested. The cessation of hostilities was formally ordered by Congress on April 42 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1783] II, 1783, and ten days later the establishment of peace was enthusiastically celebrated in Baltimore, with an illumination of the town at night. With the exception of Cornelius Howard, the father of Colonel John Eager Howard, no one of the citizens of Baltimore who had been specially prominent in its founding and early history, died during the period of the War of Independence; but in the first year of peace there occurred at Annapolis the death of Charles Carroll, from whom was purchased by the commissioners for laying out the town, the sixty acres of land which con- stituted the original site ; in the town died Thomas Harrison, owner of the land upon which the Centre Market was built, and town conmiissioner in 1745 ; at Mount Gare, Charles Carroll, barrister, one of the framers of the state constitution, and member of the Senate; and at his residence in the county, Walter Tolley, formerly a member of the House of Delegates and of the Convention of 1774. Internal improvements were actively continued by the special commis- sioners in the widening, opening and improving of streets, but when the need of improving the harbor and channel to meet the requirements of an increasing commerce was recognized, still another board was created by the legislature to take charge of this part of municipal development. A board of "port wardens" was established with authority to make a survey and chart of the basin, harbor and Patapsco river, ascertain the depth and course of the channel, and provide for cleaning the same. Port dues upon vessels entering or clearing were levied to meet the cost of these improve- ments. The port wardens were also given authority to make rules re- specting wharves and wharfage and keeping them in repair. The area of the inner harbor or basin was then about double what it is now, but little of the shore line having yet been extended by filling in, and there was but one public wharf, situated at the foot of Calvert street. The most impor- tant private wharves were those of Messrs. Spear, Smith and Buchanan, at the foot of Gay and Frederick streets."* The depth of the water at mean tide was nine feet at the head of the basin, and eighteen feet at Fells Point. The echoes of the war were occasionally awakened by the return of war-worn troops, and the tributes paid from time to time to those who had rendered conspicuous service to the American cause. On July 27th, Brigadier General Mordecai Gist, with the last detachment of the Mary- land Line, ntunbering about five hundred men, arrived in Baltimore from Annapolis, whither they had been conveyed in transports from Charles- ton, South Carolina. On September 30th a banquet was given to General Greene, returning from the Carolinas, and on December i8th one was given to General Washington, then on his way to Annapolis, there to resign to the Congress of the United States his commission as Com- " Since the great fire of February, 1904, these have all been superseded by the new piers and docks constructed and owned by the city along Pratt street from Light street eastward. [1784I HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 43 mandcr-in-Chief of the army. On September ist of the following year (1784) General Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette were enter- tained at a public dinner, when the latter responded to a congratulatory address from the citizens. The General Assembly, having no titles to bestow, conferred upon the Marquis de Lafayette and his heirs male forever the citizenship of Maryland. Further progress in town administration is shown by the provision in 1784 for lighting the streets at night, and for policing; but for the lat- ter service three constables on duty during the day, and fourteen watch- men at night were deemed, and apparently found, a sufficient force for the preservation of order and the protection of property. The authority for these new administrative functions, — ^lighting and policing the town, — was conferred by the General Assembly upon the town commissioners, who were authorized to levy a tax not exceeding one shilling and six pence on every one hundred pounds' worth of property in the town to meet the increased expense involved. One feature of the legislation of this year is that providing for the widening of Hanover lane to the standard width of sixty-six feet. By the special acts authorizing this improvement, the commissioners of Baltimore Town were authorized to award damages to those whose property might be required, and to "assess and ascertain what sum or sums of money each individual interested and benefited by opening the said lane shall contribute towards reimbursing and compensating those who shall be injured." '' It has been thought that this is one of the earliest practical applications of the method of special assessments for benefits in the United States.'* The first circulating library in the town was established by William Murphy, bookseller, on the south side of Baltimore, or Market street, one door east of Calvert. It was subsequently acquired and continued by Hugh Barkley. The old market house which had long stood at the comer of Baltimore and Gay streets being recognized as insufficient for the growing needs of the town, the erection of a new one was determined upon. The selection of a site led to much rivalry and contention, but finally the matter was set- tled by the offer of the executors of the late Thomas Harrison of a site on Baltimore street, at the head of Long dock, and opposite the foot of Harrison street. This offer was accepted, and the market there established was for many years the largest retail market in the city. It was officially known as the Centre Market, but from the original character of the re- claimed land upon which it was built, it was popularly and generally known as the Marsh Market. Its site, now used for wholesale dealings only, has since the fire of 1904, in which all the old buildings were destroyed, been known as Market Place. For the convenience of residents at the west end, or Howard's hill as it was called (the vicinity of Eutaw and Paca *Acts of 1783, chapter 22; 1784, chapter 46. "•Hollander: Financial History of Baltimore, p. 38. 44 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1785] streets) the Hanover Market was established at the comer of Hanover and Camden streets, and the legislature, in directing the sale of the old market at Baltimore and Gay streets, ordered that three-fourths of the pro- ceeds should be applied to the new Centre Market, and the remaining one- fourth to the cost of the Hanover Market. Meanwhile the residents at Fells Point had established a market in that locality on land appropriated by the late Edward Fell for that purpose. This is now the Broadway Market. The same year witnessed the tunneling of Calvert street under the old court house. By the extension of Calvert street to the north and the con- sequent grading down of the bluffs which overhung the falls, the build- ing had been left standing in the line of the street but high above its level. Objection being made to its demolition, the difficulty was solved by under- pinning the structure and ccmstructing a passageway under it by means of an arch twenty feet high in the clear. The cost of this work was pro- vided by voluntary subscriptions, and it was successfully accomplished by Mr. Leonard Harbaugh as engineer and constructor. Beside the arch stood the whipping post, pillory and stocks, the use of which in those early days instead of a jail sentence for the punishment of minor offences ex- plains why a very small prison was sufficient. This picturesque build- ing was removed upon the completion of the next succeeding court house in 1809, ^^^ ^ ^^^ years later the Battle Monument was erected on its site. The increase and development of industries were marked by the es- tablishment of a sugar refinery on the east side of Hanover street between Conway and Camden streets ; and the glass works, which in 1799 were re- moved to Baltimore and erected on the south side of the basin, were es- tablished at the Monocacy river, in Frederick county. Among the memorable events that occurred in the town was the as- sembling here on Christmas Day of this year, December 25, 1784, of the first general conference of the Wesleyans, which was held under the super- intendence of Dr. Thomas Coke. At this meeting the Methodist Episcopal Church was first organized as an independent religious society distinct and separate from the Church of England. At the same meeting the Rev'd Francis Asbury was constituted a superintendent of the new organization. In 1785 a new general assessment of property throughout the state, as a basis of taxation, was ordered by the legislature, and the gradual sev- erance of town and county administration is shown by the fact that for the first time the property in the town and its precincts was ordered to be assessed separately from the rest of the county, a board of five assessors being appointed for that purpose. The precincts comprised certain por- tions of Baltimore county lying immediately outside the limits of the town, and which were not included within the corporate limits of the city until 1817. A new survey of the town was ordered and agitation for a municipal [1785] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 45 charter was begun. The inhabitants of the town had become weary of the disorganized condition of the town administration, in which there was no central authority and consequently no responsibility. There were instead of the town commissioners, the special commissioners and the port wardens, each charged with special duties but with authority often overlapping and clashing. There was a multiplicity of public dues to pay, but in the case of a grievance it was doubtful to whom to apply for redress. There was moreover no real local self-government. Even for such a purely munici- pal matter as the sale of an old market house and the building of a new one, a special act of the legislature was required. Accordingly, a bill for a municipal charter was introduced in the As- sembly. It was a cumbersome measure, providing for the election of alder- men by a city council, and of the mayor by the aldermen and council to- gether. This indirect method of selection of municipal officers was not satisfactory to the people, and the bill was consequently opposed and de- feated. The continued expansion of the commerce of the port was marked by the arrival on August 9th of the ship Pallas, direct from Canton, China, with a cargo of goods from that country, the first of direct importation to be brought here. It is said that the name of Canton was bestowed upon the eastern suburb of Baltimore in commemoration of this first establish- ment of trade with the far East. Shipping facilities were increased in the harbor by the extension of Harrison's wharf on the east side of South street by Mr. Daniel Bowly, one of the executors of the late Thomas Harrison. Bowly's Wharf, as it was called, was a busy landing place in the inner harbor imtil the reconstruction of the wharf front after the con- flagration in February, 1904, and the site of the warehouses of some of the foremost commercial houses during the greater part of the nineteenth century; while of later years it was the principal scene of the fruit trade with the West Indies. The increase of commerce naturally caused a demand for insurance upon marine risks, but as there were as yet no incorporated companies formed for the transaction of this business, the risk of insurance was as- sumed by private individuals with whom others were associated as under^ writers, in the same manner as the famous underwriters at Lloyd's Coffee House in London. Mr. Hercules Courtenay, for many years one of the town commissioners, and Captain Jacob Keeports, who during the Revolu- tionary War was purchasing agent at Baltimore for the Continental army, conducted offices for the transaction of this business. For the better ordering and policing of the town under the authority recently conferred upon the town commissioners it was divided into six wards as follows : First : All that part of the town south of Pratt street. Second: All that part of the town north of Pratt street and west of Charles. 46 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1786I Third : All east of Charles street and west of South street. Fourth: All east of South street and west of Jones Falls. Fifth : All east of Jones Falls and west of Harford street.'* Sixth : All east of Harford street. For the protection of the night watchmen from the inclemency of the weather, the clerk to the town commissioners was empowered to contract for "twelve watch houses of four feet square and six and a half feet high, with a door, a lock and key to each." James Brown, the contractor for these shelters, appears to have given good measure, for at a meeting of the commissioners on May 14th he presented his accotmt for £89 12s. 6d., current money, for making thirteen watchboxes, which was duly allowed and paid. Watchboxes such as these continued to be in use until the for- mation of a uniformed police force in 1858. In 1786, on August 17th, a new theatre was c^ned in Baltimore by Messrs. Hallam and Henry, in a building specially constructed for that purpose east of the Falls, near the intersection of Queen (now Pratt) and Albemarle streets. The managers, Messrs. Hallam and Henry, were the first to introduce regular theatrical performances in America, having opened a theatre at Annapolis in 1752, and the same year one at Williams- burg in Virginia. Theatrical entertainments though suspended, upon rec- ommendation of Congress, during the progress of the war, were fesumed in Baltimore shortly after its termination, in a building on Baltimore street, near what is now called Central avenue, — ^then Harford street. Both of these early theatres were east of Jones Falls, and situated about midway between the original site of the town and Fells Point, so as to serve the convenience of the residents of both sections. The intervening space east- ward to Fells Point was tmtil many years later practically an c^n country. While the first theatre in America was established at Annapolis, Balti- more was for many years the cradle of the drama on this continent. This was in marked contrast with conditions elsewhere in the American colonies. "In New York and Philadelphia the stage was frowned upon and plays and players pronounced immoral. But there remained many towns of lesser note where the actors were made welcome and rich. Such an one was Baltimore, for the city, small as it then was, had already achieved a high reputation for jollity." '* The liberal patronage of the drama in Baltimore was a distinctive feature of the town, and many famous actors first found here a field for the display of their talents before a critical and appreciative audience. In this year, on October sth, occurred one of those freshets which re- curred from time to time until the enclosure nearly a century later of Jones Falls within substantial walls of adequate height, resulted in the over- flow of the lower portion of the town with much loss of property. Several of the bridges, which were all constructed of wood, were carried away, and ^ Now Central avenue. * McMastcr's History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, p. 83. [1787I HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 47 Mr. John Boyce lost his life in attempting to cross the stream, then be- come a raging torrent, at the ford near Hanson's dam, which was situated near what is now Bath street. Two other persons, Mr. Alexander Grant, a cooper, and Mr. Edward Ryan, a butcher, were drowned in the same freshet. In order to provide better facilities for the education at home of the youth of the town in classics and mathematics, a school for that purpose was established through the united efforts of Rev. Dr. Carroll, afterward Roman Catholic Archbishop of Baltimore; Rev. Dr. William West, rector of St. Paul's Parish, and Rev. Dr. Patrick Allison, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church ; the venture did not prove successful, and before long was discontinued. It is interesting, however, to note that upon this and other occasions these three clergymen, representing distinct schools of re- ligious thought and affiliation, always acted in cordial cooperation for the prcxnotion of the good of the community. In 1787 the first fire insurance company was organized under the name of the Baltimore Fire Insurance Company. This was soon after- wards succeeded by the Maryland, but twenty years later the original name was restored. Vigorous efforts were made to improve the condition of the principal roads leading to the town, and as a means to this end important charters were obtained from the legislature for the formation of turnpike com- panies. This was the first step in the development of inland communica- tion, although the construction of canals as inland waterways had been proposed as early as 1783, in which year a company was formed for the construction of one upon the Susquehanna river. The establishment of a company to supply the town with water was also proposed, but the project was not carried into effect until some years later. The year 1788 was signalized by the ratification of the constitution of the United States, which had been adopted by the federal convention at Philadelphia in September of the previous year. Among the signers of the constitution in the ccxivention was James McHenry of Baltimore, who was one of the five delegates from Maryland to the convention. On April 28th, the vote of the Maryland convention in session at Annapolis was cast in ratification of the constitution. Maryland was the seventh state of the thirteen to vote favorably upon this momentous question, and by making a majority in its favor wielded a strong influence upon the final result, the issue of which, on account of opposition in the populous states of Virginia and New York, had previously seemed somewhat doubtful. The action of the Maryland convention was celebrated in Baltimore by a procession of artisans and others, one feature of which was a boat fifteen feet long, which had been converted into a miniature full-rigged ship, and was carried in the procession upon a float. Of this craft, to which the name Federalist was given, Captain Barney, of Revolutionary fame, was commander, with a crew composed of sea captains who enter- 48 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1788J tained the populace by hoisting, lowering and shifting sails during the progress through the streets. After passing through Fells Point and the town, the procession ended at the hill on the southwest side of the basin, which is said to owe its name of Federal Hill to this occasion. Here the celebration was continued in the evening with bonfires and fireworks. It was determined to present the miniature ship to General Wash- ington; whereupon the vessel was duly launched and was sailed by Cap- tain Barney down the bay and up the Potomac to Mount Vernon, where the presentation was made on behalf of the merchants of Baltimore. General Washington, in acknowledging the gift, took occasion to express appreciation of the skill of the shipbuilders manifested in its construction, and also to express the hope that the action of Maryland in ratifying the federal constitution would not be without its influence upon Virginia. His letter with his anticipations of the future commercial development of Balti- more is of interest. It is as follows : 'Mount Vernon, 8th June, 1788. 'Gentlemen: Captain Barney has just arrived here in the miniature ship called The Federalist, and has done me the honor to offer that beautiful curiosity as a present to me on your part. I pray you, gentlemen, to accept the warmest expression of my sensibility for this specimen of American ingenuity, in which the exactitude of the proportions, the neatness of the workmanship, and the elegance of the decorations, which make your present fit to be preserved in a cabinet of curiosities, at the same time that they exhibit the taste and skill of the artists, demonstrate that Americans are not inferior to any other people whatever in the use of mechanical instruments and the art of ship-building. The unanimity of the agricultural State of Maryland in general, as well as of the commercial town of Baltimore in particular, expressed in their recent decision on the subject of a general government, will not, I persuade myself, be with- out its due efficacy on the minds of their neighbors, who, in many instances, are inti- mately connected, not only by the nature of their produce, but by the ties of blood and the habits of life. Under these circumstances, I cannot entertain an idea that the voice of the Convention of this State, which is now in session will be dissonant from that of her nearly allied sister, who is only separated by the Potomac. You will permit me, gentlemen, to indulge my feelings in reiterating the heart-felt wish, that the happiness of this country may equal the desires of its sincerest friends, and that the patriotic town of which you are inhabitants, and in the prosperity of which I have always found myself strongly interested, may not only continue to increase in the same wonderful manner it has formerly done, but that its trade, manufactures and other resources of wealth may be placed permanently in a more flourishing situation than they have hitherto been in. "I am with great respect, &c., "Geo. Washington." The business before the county court had become so large as to justify the separation of the civil and criminal proceedings. A criminal court was therefore established for the town and county, of which Samuel Chase, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and aft- erwards one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, was appointed chief judge. With him were four associates selected from the county justices, but these latter were not necessarily of the legal pro- [1789] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 49 fession. To the new court was given the authority over the constables and the night watchmen, which had been previously vested in the town commissioners. The ship Chesapeake, of Baltimore, trading in the Orient, was the first vessel to display the flag of the United States in the river Ganges. Lord Comwallis, who seven years before had surrendered to that flag at Yorktown, was then governor general of India, and upon being applied to by the puzzled local authorities as to the manner in which the new flag should be recognized, sent the laconic reply, — "On the same footing with those of other nations." On April 17, 1789, General Washington having been unanimously elected President of the United States under the new Constitution, arrived in Baltimore on his way to New York for the inauguration ceremony. He was entertained by the citizens at a banquet, and responded to an ad- dress of congratulation and happy augury for the future which was pre- sented to him. With the establishment of the federal authority the collection of cus- toms duties passed to the general government. A United States custom house was thereupon opened in Baltimore, and General Otho H. Williams was appointed collector of the port. The United States District Court was also established. Of this court William Paca, who had been governor of Maryland from 1782 to 1785, was appointed judge, with Richard Potts, aft- erwards United States Senator, as district attorney. Colonel Nathaniel Ramsay, a gallant officer of the Revolutionary army who had been se- verely wounded at Monmouth, was marshal, and Captain Joshua Barney, the naval hero, was clerk. During the early years of its existence the court occasionally held sessions at Annapolis and at Easton. During this year the physicians engaged in practice in the town formed a medical society, and a school of medicine was projected, but its successful establishment was not accomplished until some years later, when the Uni- versity of Maryland was formed. Meanwhile lectures upon medical sub- jects for the benefit of students were given by individual practitioners. A canal for straightening the course of the Jones Falls was cut by Engelhard Yeiser and others, owners of land in the vicinity, from the mill-dam which was then situated at Bath street to Gay street bridge, thus avoiding the loop or horseshoe curve through which the stream originally flowed, and which traversed in its course the northeast comer of Monu- ment Square near the northern end of the post office building. The old channel was then filled up, but the ground not having been sufficiently raised, it was often the scene of overflow during freshets in subsequent years. The disturbance caused in Europe by the outbreak of the French revolution and the consequent demoralization both in production and trade on that continent, led to a sudden increase in the demand for American wheat, one of the staple products of Maryland, and a corresponding in- so HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1790] crease in the price of that commodity, which rapidly advanced about fifty per cent. The stimulus thus given to the trade of the port served oppor- tunely to remove an industrial stagnation, the result of reaction from the abnormal activities of the war, and which some public-spirited citizens had sought to relieve by devising artificial means of providing work for the unemployed. In November, 1790, the General Assembly granted to certain of the prominent citizens of Baltimore a charter for the Bank of Maryland, the first bank to be established in the town. Of its authorized capital of $300,- 000, two-thirds was subscribed within a fortnight. The business of this bank was very profitable during its early years. The story of its disas- trous termination forty-five years after belongs to another portion of this narrative. In 1792 a branch of the Bank of the United States, chartered by Con- gress in 1790, was established in Baltimore, and three years later the Bank of Baltimore, with a capital of $1,200,000, was chartered. In granting this charter there was reserved to the state of Maryland the right to sub- scribe to a portion of the capital, and to appoint two of the . seventeen directors. This was the banning of the long story of the participation by the state in private business corporations. The duration of the bank's charter was limited to twenty years. During the autumn of 1789 and the spring of 1790 the town was visited by a severe epidemic of influenza, a disease which resulted fatally in a number of cases. The preceding summer had been unusually hot, and the prevailing malady was at the time attributed to ''vegetable putrifac- tion." «^ On May 7th the first session of the United States Circuit Court was held in Baltimore, Mr. Justice Blair, of the Supreme Court, and District Judge Paca, presiding. Virginia and Massachusetts and the other States which laid claim to the western territory having, as a result of Maryland's insistence in the Continental Congress, ceded their rights to the general government, a territorial organization was created by Congress in 1787, of which Gen- eral Arthur St. Qair was appointed governor. Settlements were soon made beyond the Ohio river, but these were viewed with hostility by the Indians as encroachments upon their rights. Attacks were made upon individual settlers, so that it was found necessary to raise and organize a military force for their protection. Several citizens of Baltimore received commissions in this expedition, among whom were Messrs. William Bu- chanan, Campbell Smith and George Chase. On November 4, 1791, General St. Clair, with a part of his army, was attacked near the Miami river and surrounded by a horde of Indians, "It is curious to note that a severe epidemic of this same disease, but then more generally known by its French designation la grippe, reappeared exactly one hundred years later. [1792] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 51 through which the American troops bravely fought their way with a loss of eight hundred men killed and wounded. Ensign Chase, of Baltimore, was among the killed, and Captain Buchanan was among the wounded. In the last engagement, fought on August 20th, 1794, when the Indians were finally brought to submission, Captain Smith, of Baltimore, was severely wounded. With the imperfect and anomalous provisions for the local government of the town and the limited power vested in any of the several boards of conmiissioners for levying taxes for municipal purposes, the public rev* enues were at all times uncertain and inadequate. Consequently many public improvements were accomplished only by means of voluntary sub- scriptions on the part of citizens, supplemented occasionally by a lottery conducted for the purpose. Prior to the adoption of the federal constitu- tion the expenses of the port wardens had been chiefly met by the tonnage and port dues which they were authorized to impose ; but when the power of levying customs duties passed to the government of the United States this source of revenue was cut off. To meet this deficiency without directly increasing the public burden, the legislature authorized the special commis- sioners to raise annually by lottery a stun not exceeding £3500, of which sum two-thirds was to be paid over to the port wardens. By the same act the holding of private lotteries in the town was prohibited.^* Another interesting revenue measure of this period is the house tax authorized in 1792. In this case the duty of assessment and levy was laid upon the justices of the criminal court of Baltimore county, who were required to appoint one or more persons to make an enumeration of all dwelling houses, storehouses and warehouses in the town, noting the names of the occupants and the number of stories of each building. They were then to levy taxes according to the following schedule : — On every dwelling house, storehouse or warehouse, of three stories in height, fifteen shillings current money; of two stories in height, ten shill- ings ; if but one story in height, five shillings. But if any three-story house had a frontage of not more than eighteen feet the tax was but ten shill- ings, and upon any two-story house having more than thirty feet front, the tax was fifteen shillings. One-third of this tax was to be paid by the owner of the premises, and two-thirds by the occupant or tenant.** The proceeds of the tax was specifically appropriated for "regulating the night watch and the erection of lamps in the said town, and for no other purpose." The amount collected was to be paid by the justices to the treasurer of the town commissioners, and an account rendered to the town comptrollers. Dr. Hollander makes the following comment upon the tax : "It seems likely that the idea of a house tax was suggested by the use of this fiscal device in England. On the other hand the curious adjustment of tax to •Acts of 1 791, chapter 59. Hollander, p. 22. *Acts of 1792, chapter 69. Hollander, p. 41. 52 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE [1793] height and frontage, and the division of burden between owner and occu- pier, appear to be distinctive features of the Baltimore tax/' •* This tax continued until 1795 when it was repealed, and authority given to the justices of the county court to provide by direct taxation for die maintenance of the town watch and the street lamps. As a result of the horrors of the servile insurrection which occurred at this time in San Domingo, a large number of refugees from that island sought and found homes and safety in Baltimore. On July 9, 1793, fifty- three vessels arrived in the harbor bringing one thousand white fugitives and five hundred negroes who had fled from the disaster.'^ These people were hospitably received, many of them being taken into private houses, and the sum of $12,000 was raised for the relief of such as were destitute. Some of them, however, were possessed of capital and engaged in trade, while some, who were artificers, established new industries, and others in- troduced improved methods of French husbandry, which they had brought to the new world. An epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia led to energetic measures for the protection of the town against its introduction. Governor Lee es- tablished a strict quarantine upon vessels entering the port from infected places, appointed Doctors John Ross and John Worthington as special health officers, and caused a temporary hospital to be provided for the re- ception of mariners who might be detained in quarantine. All intercourse with the stricken city was forbidden, and companies of Maryland militia were encamped along the northern boundary of the state at the intersec- tion of roads leading from Philadelphia to prevent infection being brought in by travelers upon these routes. The subject of a municipal charter for the town continued to be agi- tated, and in 1793 a provisional act for the purpose was passed by the General Assembly, subject to confirmation at the next session, but its terms, lacking as they were in the directly representative features demanded by the people, were not satisfactory, and the opposition to it, especially on the part of the residents at Fells Point and of the carpenters and the members of other mechanical trades was so strong that it failed of final adoption at the ensuing session of the Legislature in 1794.'' The persistent assertion of Great Britain of supremacy upon the high seas led to constant apprehensions of an outbreak of hostilities, and while Mr. Jay was trying in England to negotiate a treaty that would avert war and at the same time be acceptable in America, preparations for the strug- gle that seemed inevitable were pushed with energy. The fort at Whet- stone Point was repaired, and the star fort with ramparts and bastions constructed of brick work, was added. The entire fortification was after- ■• Hollander: Financial History of Baltimore, p. 43. •* Griffith: Annals of Baltimore, p. 140. " Griffith : Annals of Baltimore, p. 141 ; Thomas : City Government of Baltimore, p. 16. [1794] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE S3 wards ceded to the United States and received the name of Fort McHenry, in honor of James McHenry, of Maryland, who was Secretary of War in the cabinet of President Washington. The militia of the state was also reorganized, with the appointment of commanding officers for divisions and brigades and a general enrolment. The militia organization contained all branches of the service, including cavalry, riflemen, and a company of artillery. Captain Barney resigned his position as clerk of the United States District Court and took command of a merchant vessel, which was cap- tured by the British and taken to Jamaica, where the vessel was condemned and Captain Barney accused of piracy. He was, however, promptly re- leased upon the demand of President Washington, and indemnity was paid for the captured vessel. The government arranged for fitting out war vessels at Baltimore, adopting it as a base of naval supplies, and the com- mand of a frigate to be built here was offered to Captain Barney. He was dissatisfied, however, with the relative rank assigned to him, and de- clining the appointment went to France where he entered the naval service of that country then at war with both Great Britain and Spain. It was in 1794 that the so-called "Whisky Riots," incited by the distill- ing interests in revolt against the imposition of the excise tax, broke out in Pennsylvania. The house of Mr. Nevil, the excise officer, near Pittsburgh, was burned, and other violence committed. For the suppression of this insurrection the President called out a force of militia, and in response to his demand a body of over five hundred men was dispatched from Balti- more on September 8th under the command of General Smith, with Colonels Strieker and Qemm. This force marched to Cumberland, where it was assembled under the chief command of General Richard Henry Lee, — ^the Light-Horse Harry Lee of Revolutionary fame. The insurrection was suppressed without bloodshed, but some of the soldiers called suddenly from their homes for service in the field died from the effects of exposure and hardship. The troops returned h<Mne before the end of the year, and under date of November 26th, General Lee addressed to Governor Lee of Maryland a letter commending most highly the "firmness and zeal" with which the untried soldiers had performed their military service and the "toils and privations inseparable from military life." Notwithstanding the precautions that had been taken to prevent the introduction of yellow fever, the disease made its appearance in Baltimore. There were three hundred and forty-four deaths in the town, from the fever and other causes combined during the months of August and Sep- tember, among the ntmiber who died being Captain James Allen, who had started with his company of riflemen for service in putting down the in- surrection in Pennsylvania, but was obliged to return invalided, when he had gone as far as Frederick. This epidemic led to the selection of a site for a hospital by Captain 54 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE I179SI Yellott and others for the accommodation of strangers and mariners. It was afterwards, in 1798, purchased of them by the commissioners of healthy but subsequently leased to Doctors Sm}^ and Mackenzie, who in addition to their private patients received the seamen by contract with the authori- ties. Eventually this property was acquired by the State for hospital use, and after the removal of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane to Catons- ville (Spring Grove Asylum) it was purchased by the late Johns Hopkins. It is now the site of the extensive buildings of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, of which he was the founder. The epidemic of yellow fever caused numbers of the residents to leave the town and establish their homes in the surrounding country, where their families would be free from the danger of infection. In spite of the these untoward conditions a new theatre, a small wooden one, was erected on HoUiday street during this year, to be rebuilt twenty years later of brick. This was the beginning of the HoUiday Street Theatre, at one time famous in the annals of the American stage, and upon whose boards during more than half a century appeared all the most noted actors of that period. In 179s the rectory of St. Paul's Parish was completed on the lot on Saratoga street which had been given for the purpose by Colonel John Eager Howard. The funds for building the rectory were provided in part by means of a lottery, — ^the usual financial resource of the period, — for the holding of which a "faculty" was granted to the vestry by the legislature. In the same year the vestry purchased as a chapel of ease the Dutch Cal- vinist Church which had been erected on Baltimore street at the bridge, but was badly damaged in the freshet of 1786. The church was restored, given the name of Christ Church, and a spire erected, in which was installed a chime of six bells. The location of this church was subsequently changed to the comer of Gay and Fayette streets. The growing commercial importance of the town is shown by the rec- ords of the United States custom house for the first five years of its ex- istence,— from 1790 to 1795. The exports for the entire State for that period amounted to $20,026,126, of which there went from Baltimore Town alone $13,444,796, or two-thirds of the total. For the last year, which ended October i, 1795, the exports from Baltimore were $4,421,924, or more than one-fifth of the total from the entire state during the whole period included. Other activities of the town are shown by the contemporary develop- ment of milling enterprises. Mr. John Taggart and Mr. Josias Pennington, of whom the latter had married a daughter of Mr. Hanson, owner of the flour mills on Jones Falls, near Bath street, constructed a mill race from a point at the old Belvedere bridge (which was near the present entrance to Greenmount Cemetery), thus increasing the water power for the lower mills, while the Messrs. ElHcott, who drew their power from Gwynns Falls, west of the town, erected three flour mills on the Frederick road close [1796] HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 55 by that stream. New corporations for both fire and marine insurance were formed. Cokesbury College^ which had been established by the Methodists at Abingdon in Harford county, was destroyed by fire on December 4, 1795. In order to replace it, a building adjoining the Methodist church on Light street, which had been erected by the proprietor of the Fountain Inn for the purpose of assemblies and balls, was purchased, and an academy and free school were established there. But on December 4, 1796, the first anniversary of the former disaster, both church and school were burned. This double calamity suspended any immediate efforts for the restoration of the school. In 1795 the Library Company of Baltimore was established by a num- ber of prominent citizens, the leaders among whom were the Right Rev. John Carroll, RcHnan Catholic Bishop of Baltimore, the Rev. Dr. Joseph G. J. Bend, Rector of Saint Paul's Parish, and the Rev. Dr. Patrick Alli- son, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. This company acquired a large and valuable collection of books and for a long period had a most useful career. Eventually its collection, containing many books which it would now be difficult if not impossible to replace, was transferred to the Maryland Historical Society, the Library Company having become merged with that Society. In 1796 extensive improvements in the inner basin of the harbor were undertaken, including the construction of Light street wharf from Pratt street to the south side of the basin, and the filling in of the low land lying eastward of Charles street. Finally, on the last day of the year, after many years of effort on the part of the inhabitants of Baltimore, was passed an act of Assembly con- ferring a municipal charter upon the town, by which it was constituted "The City of Baltimore" and incorporated under the title of "The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore." The residents at Fells Point were con- ciliated by exemption from taxes levied for the improvement of the upper harbor or basin, and the town now became the city. The act was first made to operate for two years only; but having proved upon trial to be acceptable, it was at the ensuing session of the Legislature in 1797 made perpetual. On January 13th of that year the town commissioners met and ap- pointed judges of election to hold the elections required by the charter for members of the first branch of the city council, and for electors to make choice of a mayor and members of the second branch of the council. And on March 2ath following, their functions being ended, the town commis- sioners delivered their records into the custody of Mr. Richard H. Moale who had been appointed by the newly constituted city authorities to re- ceive them. Having followed now in outline the narrative of the principal public S6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE events that marked the history of the town during more than sixty years, and its growth and evolution into a city, it is time to pause and review briefly the social conditions that prevailed during this period, the people and their mode of life. The sketch of Baltimore made in 1752, twenty years after its founding, shows a straggling village with perhaps twenty-five scattered houses, the streets mere country roads. But soon the growth became more rapid. At the time of the Revolutionary War the town had already acquired consid- eration by its commercial growth, and we find its committee of observa- tion in active correspondence with those of the older and more populous towns of Philadelphia and Boston. The location of Baltimore was fixed on account of the situation being favorable for trade, and its early life and growth were distinctly commercial. In public action taken, and ad- dresses made to public men, we find almost invariably mention of the ''Merchants of Baltimore," rarely of the citizens. The merchants consti- tuted the influential class. Annapolis was the seat of government and the scene of political activities. There the convention met, and there the prin- cipal courts were held. After a brief time of stagnation, during the "critical period in American history" which followed the War of the Revo- lution, the growth of the town became even more rapid both in population and in importance. By the census of 1790 the population of Baltimore Town was 13,503, and ten years later, by the census of 1800, taken three years after its incorporation as a city, the population had nearly doubled. It was then 26,114, while the entire population of Anne Arundel county, including the dty of Annapolis, was but 22,623. The social life of the place was that of a small provincial community, in which was preserved much of the stately courtliness of manner that belonged to the old world. At the same time the town was noted for its gayety. Balls and assemblies were frequent, so that ccnnmodious and well-appointed halls were built for their accommodation. The Fountain Inn, which stood on the east side of Light street, south of Baltimore, a famous hostelry in its' day and the scene of many festivities, was built after the pattern of many hotels in Europe, in the form of a hollow square, enclosing a space with grass and trees, and a fountain in the centre. The rooms overlooking this interior space opened out upon galleries which ran with every story. Until this inn was torn down to make way for the CarroUton Hotel " (which latter was destroyed in the great fire of Febru- ary, 1904), the rooms which had been occupied by General Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette were carefully preserved with furniture and dec- orations unchanged, for the reverent inspection of visitors. "The building known as Kaminsky's Tavern, the last to remain of those shown in the sketch of Baltimore made in 1752, was also torn down to make way for the CarroUton Hotel. It stood at the northwest comer of Mercer (now German) street and Grant alley. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 57 In McMaster's History of the People of the United States (Vol. I, p. 83), this passage, descriptive of the town, occurs : "Market street"* was the fashionable quarter, and ran out from the crowd of shops and taverns, far into the green fields and orchards of what was then the coun- try, but is now covered with blocks of houses. The street was lined on either side by an endless succession of low rambling houses, and was the particular pride of the citizens. They boasted that neither Philadelphia nor New York could show a street so long, so beautiful and so gay. Nor was this pride altogether unfounded. The houses, brightly colored, some white and blue, and some yellow, lighted up the dull shade of the locust trees, while here and there loomed up the brick mansions of the rich merchants with quaint entrances and great patches of wall between the windows. Along this highway too, in the cool of the Summer evening, sauntered a great throng of young men and damsels dressed in their best clothes, flirting, jesting and enjoying the air. The spectacle, un imposing as it would seem to a generation accustomed to much finer ones, was still attractive to strangers, and led not a few of them to put down in their journals comments on the beauty of the women, on the gallantry of the men, and the rich display of brocades, of taffetas and of hoops." A graphic contemporary sketch of Baltimore society in 1782, and especially of its women, is contained in the journal of the Baron de Closen, an aide-de-camp on the staff of the Count de Rochambeau, who stopped in Baltimore with the French troops returning from the victory at Yorktown. The officers were lodged and hospitably entertained in private houses. The Baron's account of his impressions is as follows : — *^ "1 must say here, that to my taste, the women of Baltimore have more charm than the rest of the fair sex in America. Most of them have a very white skin, and it is true that in order to preserve the delicacy of their coloring they wear capuchons^ of an enormous size. They are delightful too for their freshness and the brilliant vivacity of their eyes. Many are to be seen with slender figures perfect in form, with very beautiful little hands, fair and plump, with dainty feet marvelously well shod (better than anywhere else). They arrange their hair with infinite taste and attach great importance to the French fashions; those especially who have fine long hair have the knack of making the most of it by arranging it very low, and leaving a lightly twisted curl, and ringlets falling carelessly, to float over their beautiful shoul- ders,— and other charms, — ^as white as alabaster ! ! ! " They are over fond of perfumes, but as to that they have it in common with all the fair sex of this continent (I might say, methinks, of two continents). "As I was well acquainted in their society, they asked me to give a dance my- self, there being a very fine hall which my hostesses offered me for that purpose. I could not say no to their insistence, and after the example of several persons in the army, I gave, on the 8th," a little ball. I invited to it all my acquaintances; my hostesses invited theirs, and I engaged my friends and a certain number of dancers from the army to come. "The generals and the chiefs of corps also did me the honor to attend, and I sought to make the evening pass for such a charming and also large company, both agreeably and gaily, as it depended on me. ''This was the name by which Baltimore street was popularly known. " Translated from the Journal of Baron de Qosen, Rochambeau Papers, Vol. II. ; Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. V, 231. "Hoods shaped like a monk's cowl. "August 8th, 1782. S8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE "There were several rooms adjacent to the hall in which they danced, and so there was sufficient space for those who looked on without being crowded. The sup- per which followed was very mediocre it is true, but gayety reigned, and that is the principal thing. The dancing and games at cards continued until three o'clock in the morning before every one had gone home. "It is pleasant to render these courtesies to persons who daily give evidence of good will, and it was thus with me in the matter of inviting many persons of the army from whom I had received similar attentions. "The next day I called at the houses of all the ladies of my ball, who had the courtesy to assure me that they had greatly enjoyed themselves. "Mme. Lee the wife of the Governor was of the number." The theatre or playhouse in Baltimore, where the drama was well ap- preciated from the earliest date, was but a primitive structure, thougfh good actors appeared and good plays were presented upon its stage. The au- dience was distributed between the pit, where the orchestra chairs are now, but which was then occupied by a rough and often boisterous assem- blage ; the boxes arranged in a tier above, and occupied by the gentry, the beauty and fashion and aristocracy of the town; and the gallery over these, for the tradespeople and apprentices. Social gradations were dis- tinctly marked in those days. Notices upon some of the early play bills well illustrate the primitive character of the arrangements. The rougher part of the audience called, it seems, for certain popular airs to be performed by the musicians, which gave offence to the more refined, it was therefore announced that "some tunes having been called for by persons in the Gallery which have given offence to others, the Managers have resolved that no music shall be played, but such as they shall order the Day before the Representation." Other notices were as follows : — "Children in Laps will not be admitted." "The Manager requests gentlemen and ladies who procure tickets at the office of the Theatre, would in future, always bring the exact change, as no change can be given, owing to the confusion it occasions in the hurry of busi- ness." "The ladies and gentlemen are requested to send their servants to keep places by a quarter before five o'clock, and to direct them to with- draw as soon as the company are seated, as they cannot on any account be permitted to remain." The doors were opened at half-past four and the performance began at six. During the eighteenth century, Baltimore could boast of no great schools of learning within its borders, but it must not be thence inferred that its citizens were unlettered or lacking in the graces of refinement. As has been already remarked, the activities of the place were commercial ; but the minds and hearts of its merchants were not cramped by the modem spirit of commercialism. The late Honorable John P. Kennedy, in an ad- dress entitled "Baltimore Long Ago," delivered fifty years since, during the time of the Civil War (1863), paid them this tribute: "There was a grander race of merchants in those days ; . . . they were larger in their views, and larger in their hearts,— gave more time and money to public enter- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 59 prise, were more elegant and more generous in their convivialities, more truly rep- resentative of a refined upper class, more open of hand and more kind to the world, than any society we have had since. . . . They were of the Venetian stamp, and belong to the order of what the world calls merchant princes ; — ^not so much in mag- nificence as in aim and intention. What a roll could I call of those departed spirits who made their names the favorite household memories of Maryland and famous in the history of commercial venture in every port of Europe, and down along the coast of either continent 'to utmost Indian isle/ " Mr. Kennedy spckt thus half a century ago during a period of great national strife, and which in Baltimore, owing to its proximity to the seat of war and the severance of its intimate trade relations with the southern states, was one of great depression, in which all normal activities were suspended. He died in 1870, and therefore did not live to see the city again become famous for the enterprise of its citizens, and also as the seat of great schools and institutions for the cultivation of arts, of letters and of science. The following pen-sketches of Baltimore at the close of the eighteenth century taken from the same address are of interest. Of the old court house, beneath which the street had been tunneled, Mr. Kennedy said : "That was a famous building which to my first cognizance suggested the idea of a house perched upon a great stool. It was a large dingy, square structure of brick, elevated upon a massive basement of stone, which was perforated by a broad arch. The buttresses on either side of this arch supplied space for a stairway that led to the Hall of Justice above, and straddled over a pillory, whipping-post and stocks which were sheltered under the arch, as symbols of the power that was at work upstairs. "This magisterial edifice stood precisely where the Battle Monument now stands on Calvert street. It has a notable history, that old Court House. When it was first built it overlooked the town from the summit of a hill some fifty feet or more above the level of the present street and stood upon a cliff which, northward, was washed at the base by Jones Falls, — in that primitive day a pretty rural stream that meandered through meadows garnished with shrubbery and filled with browsing cat- tle, making a pleasant landscape from the Court House windows." And again: — "In the days I speak of, Baltimore was fast emerging from its village state into a thriving commercial town. Lots were not yet sold by the foot, except perhaps in the denser marts of business : — rather by the acre. It was in the rus-in-urbe category. That fury for levelling had not yet possessed the souls of City Councils. We had our seven hills then, which have been rounded off since, and that locality which is now de- scribed as lying between the two parallels of North Charles street and Calvert street, presented a steep and barren hillside, broken by rugged cliffs and deep ravines washed out, by the storms of Winter, into chasms which were threaded by paths of toilsome and difficult ascent. On the summit of one of those cliffs stood the old Church of of St. Paul's, some fifty paces or more to the eastward of the present church, and surrounded by a brick wall that bounded on the present lines of Charles and Lexing- ton streets. This old building ample and stately, looked abroad over half the town. It had a belfry tower detached from the main structure, and keeping watch over a grave-yard full of tomb stones, remarkable, — ^to the observation of the boys and girls €o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE who were drawn to it by the irresistible charm of a popular belief that it was 'haunted,' — ^for the quantity of cherubims that seemed to be continually crying above the death's heads and cross-bones, at the doleful and comical epitaphs below them." Such were the social conditions in Baltimore and such some of its principal physical features at the time of its transmutation from town to <:ity. THE CITY OF BALTIMORE, 1797-1850. THE ERA OF THE CLIPPER SHIP, THE TURNPIKE, MILL AND RAILROAD. AN EPOCH OF COMMERCE AND CULTURE. By Ruthella Mory Bibbins, A.B., Ph.M. THE CITY OF BALTIMORE 1797-1850. THE EHA OF THE CLIPPER SHIP, THE TURNPIKE, MILL AND RAILROAD. AN EPOCH OF COMMERCE AND CULTURE. By Ruthella Mory Bibbins, A.B., Ph.M. Upon the eve of the new century, Baltimore Town became invested with new dignities, new powers, and a name more befitting these honors, as an earnest of the larger destinies which awaited her. On December 31st, the last day of the year 1796, she received from the Legislature, as an appropriate gift for the New Year and the new century, the long-coveted charter of self-government, and became known, henceforth, as the "City of Baltimore." The "little Town on the Patapsco," as she had been somewhat super- ciliously termed by the flourishing port of Annapolis, had by the sterling devotion of her settlers and the unrivaled advantages of her situation, drawn within her borders at the turn of the century, 31,514 inhabitants; 26,514 in the Town and about 5,000 in the "precincts." Since the first federal census had given her 13,758 in 1790, it was evident that she had more than doubled her population within the past decade, while in less time she had increased her exports over sevenfold. These had risen from $2,027,770 in 1790, to $2,500,000 in 1792, $10,000,000 in 1798, and by reason of exceptional causes noted later to over $16,000,000 in 1799.* She had thus become the third commercial port of the Union, leaving Aimapolis now shorn of the official prestige and patronage of pre-Revolu- tionary days, far in the rear. She had even eclipsed those older seaboard cities, Boston and Charleston, though the former, founded in 1630, had the advantage of exactly a century in the matter of start. Of the two cities which surpassed her in trade, but which possessed twice her population to achieve this result. New York (as New Amsterdam) was founded in 1614, and Philadelphia in 1682. Baltimore was, therefore, at this time the youngest of the chief commercial cities of the seaboard. Her growth within * The Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Advertiser, December 2, 1799 (Md. Hist Soc.)t gives the "Comparative amount of exports from the following cities:" 1792. 1798. 1799. Philadelphia $8,000,000 $10,000,000 Not in hand New York S,SOO,ooo 13,000,000 Not in hand Baltimore 2,500,000 10,000,000 $16,610,000 63 64 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE seventy years compared with that of other cities of double her population and twice or thrice her age was all the more surprising and significant. In view of this remarkable commercial expansion it was therefore high time for a fuller recognition of the political privileges which her citizens had been demanding. The new charter provided for the enactment by municipal authority of ordinances in the exercise of a general police power, the laying of taxes» the survey of the city, the locating and bounding of streets and the pres- ervation and deepening of the inner harbor. From taxation for the latter purpose the section called Deptford Hundred or Fell's Point, on deep water, was to be exempted. It authorized the establishment of markets, fire companies and fire districts, and in short, provided for the concentra- tion and harmonizing of the powers previously distributed among the Town Commissioners, special Commissioners and port wardens of the town. The municipal authority was now vested in one "body politic and corporate, The mayor and city council of Baltimore." The council consisting of two branches, was chosen in part by direct election. The city was divided into eight wards, as nearly equal in popula- tion as possible. The first branch of the city council was to consist of six- teen members, two from each ward, to be chosen anually by direct election, from among "the most wise, sensible and discreet of the people." A glance* at the names of the councilmen shows that men of this type deemed it a duty and a privilege to serve the new civic interests. The mayor, and second branch of eight members, were to be chosen every two years, by a board of eight electors, one from each ward. This last feature was evidently a reflection of the national electoral system, re- cently adopted for the election of the President. As representative govern- ment "of the people, by the people," was yet in its extreme infancy in this new republic, it was deemed safer to trust the selection of the chief official of the city as of the nation and of the upper branch of the Council to chosen electors.* These privileges conferred on the City by the Legisla- ture were, however, but the just recognition of the constructive ability of her settlers, and the exceptional advantages of the town>site they had chosen — ^the factors which had contributed so largely to the upbuilding of the Town. These factors were three in number : the harbor, the roadway and the falls. The harbor was the chief object in the minds of the petitioners for the Town. This was at the time when tobacco was the principal export. The value of the other two factors did not appear until later. Then they exercised their constructive force in effective combination when the road* brought crops to the mill for grinding, and carried flour and meal to the ♦The direct election of the members of the second branch in 1808, and of the- mayor in 1833, marked the further triumph of the democratic principle in city govern- ment, a result, it was said, of the waves of democracy which swept over the nation, during the administrations of Jefferson and Jackson. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 65 port for shipping. Then it was that the Town,, at first only a tobacco port, became the greatest grain port in the country. The junction of road and falls had attracted the first settlers to this vicinity. The first homes and business enterprises were located at this point. David Jones, the Quaker, the first settler, who had bought Cole's Harbour (Dec. 8, 1679 ^) from Charles Gorsuch and his wife, daughter of Thomas Cole had built his house where the roadway crossed the Falls. John Hurst, a little later, opened his Inn nearby, the first place of enter- tainment for man and beast, where the old roadway was now joined in crossing the falls by the eastern road from the north, from Joppa and Philadelphia. A few years later in 171 1, the discerning Jonathan Hanson built his stone mill across the Falls on the west side, where it stood for more than a century at the north-west corner of HoUiday and Bath streets, the pioneer and forerunner of the great milling industry of Baltimore. This little group of homestead, inn and mill, at the junction of roadway and falls, was the nucleus, the prophecy of Baltimore's greatness. It lacked one feature to permanent success. That was the harbor, the outlet to the outside world, and this the new town-site supplied. There can be no doubt as to the harbor's chief importance in the town project. The rest of its bounds were deemed subordinate. Much needless criticism has been directed toward the town surveyors for the many ob- stacles to progress they are said to have included in its limits. As a matter of fact, the surveyors had little discretion in the matter. They were en- joined to lay out ''sixty acres of Cole's Harbour, in and about the place where one John Fleming now lives," with the express stipulation that it be "such part, as lies most convenient to the water." The commissioners, guided by Richard Gist, the skilled surveyor of the Western Shore, and Philip Jones the county surveyor, first incorporated practically all of the waterfront available in Cole's Harbour, as shown upon the plat. They then proceeded with the rest of the bounds, and in so doing builded better than they knew. For with the harbor, the chief end in view, as their southern boundary, the remaining confines included by force of cir- cumstances, the other most essential factors, the roadway and the falls. So momentous did these three natural agencies become in the guidance of the destinies of the town, that it will be worth while to follow the sur- veyors at their task. The start was made at the most strategic point. This was near where the run on which John Fleming lived, (one of the chief tributaries of the Basin) emptied into the harbor. From this starting point,' where a "locust post was set up," they fol- lowed the north side of the Basin eastward ^ along its full frontage, until • Record Office, Liber I. R., pp. 1663-1705, fol. 46. ' This point has been ascertained to be 79 feet east of Charles street, and 165 feet north of Pratt street, near the site of the old Maltby House. * See Survey, First Records of Baltimore Town, p. i, and chart 3, W. F. Coyle, (City Library). 66 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE they reached a salt marsh bordering the west side of the falls. This was later filled in and developed by Holliday, Frederick, Gay and Harrison streets. Making a virtue of necessity, they turned due north and con- stituted these obstacles the marsh and the falls, the eastern boundary. To the northward the falls still proved the limit, as it curved around in a deep horseshoe bend northwestward to its bed in Calvert street under the forty-foot cliffs which later became the court-house and St. Paul's Church hills. Here, at last, behind the latter high bluff, the surveyors found a wel- come outlet at the ''great Eastern road" from Philadelphia, said to have been the Indian trail ^ which crossed the falls at the ford nearest to die head of tide, near the present site of Bath Street bridge. They followed the old road southwestward down the hill, along what is now Crooked lane (from Lexington street just west of Charles), and McQellan's alley, until at what is now Sharpe and German streets they again struck the little branch long known as Uhler's Run, and letting the old road proceed south- westward to Moale's Point and Annapolis beyond, they followed the run (down what is now Uhler's alley) back to the starting point, where the stream emptied into the harbor. The bounds of the little Town formed, by force of circumstances, the prophetic shape of an Indian arrow head, pointing due west, the direction as it came to pass, of the future destinies of the city. And this small cir- cumscribed area of sixty acres was to prove the nucleus of the future great port, the maritime City of Baltimore. Within these seeming barriers, the shallow basin, the narrow pathway, the towering cliffs and the confining falls, lay all the essentials when prop- erly combined by time, tide and the energy of a free townsfolk, for the acccMnplishment of municipal greatness. One after another, each of these factors, the harbor, the roadway and the falls, became potential in turn, until later in forceful combination they exercised their united power in the expanding growth of the city. The story of the harbor was the story of the first settlers, the first half-century. Every pathway led to it, every dwelling faced upon it, every industry centered about it. The first lot-takers, Charles Carroll, Richard and Christopher Gist, Philip Jones and William Hammond, chose lots close to the water's-edge. The first ship-owners. Captain Darby Lux and Nicholas Rogers, dwelt dose beside it, sailed and lived upon it John Moale's view a score of years later in 1752 shows what a 'The Susquehannough Indians, who roamed southward from the Susquehannough river, were found expelling the peaceful Yoacomicos from the site of St. Mary's, when Leonard Calvert arrived in 1635. They were also found by the Puritans upon the site of Annapolis, on the Severn, where a treaty of peace was made with them in 1652, it is said, beneath the ancient tulip poplar still standing upon the campus of St John's College. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 67 centre the harbor had become; how the meager footpaths, later the great trade thoroughfares Charles, Light and Calvert streets, converged at the Basin, the first at the "Cool Spring," the towns folks' chief resort, (No. 23, in the sketch, now built over at Charles and Camden streets), the last at the County wharf, (No. 29) at the foot of Calvert street, from which Nicholas Rogers sped his square-rigged brig, the Philip and James, to the far West Indies. Captain Darby Lux had availed himself of the valuable privilege of making land out of the water. He had built a wharf in front of his brick store and dwelling (No. 9) on Light street, opposite Bank (the river bank), where he did an increasing business* and loaded his cargoes upon the busy sloop Baltimore, which John Moale shows (No. 25) in front of his home at the north-west comer of the Basin. Nearby, adjoining Captain Lux's store, was the first "Tobacco Inspec- tion House," on Charles street (No. 7), which shows there was already freight awaiting the sloop and the brig, as well as the London ships, whose sailors hastened ashore to greet the townspeople at the "Cool Spring" and quench their thirst with the first refreshing draught after a long sea voyage. As Maryland's new port on the Patapsco was constrained by the Navi- gation Act to trade only with Great Britain or her colonies, it was but natural that its trade at the start should be largely confined to the only product for which there was a European demand — tobacco. Captain Robert North had sailed to the Patapsco for tobacco in his good ship Content as early as 1723.'' He had anchored chiefly at North Point where meeting fair Frances Todd, daughter of Thomas Todd, he had resolved to cast anchor permanently along the shores of the Patapsco, and had been among the first lot-takers in the new Town. He probably brought with him on one of his voyages John Moale, Senior, the Devon- shire merchant who settled about 1723 upon Moale's Point, the first choice for the town-site on the Middle Branch of the Patapsco. It was not long before these and other enterprising merchants sailed their Maryland-built schooners, and the port on the Patapsco soon de- veloped its own markets, as well as the crops and products best suited to them. John Frazier launched sloops at his shipyard at Calvert and Saratoga streets, where the old City springs entered the deep bend of the Falls, (and where the substantial structure of the Mercy Hospital now stands). Others were set afloat in the deeper water oflF Fell's Point. The story of these pioneer boats would remain a sealed book were it not for some time-yellowed lines in the English archives and in two ponder- ous parchment volumes at the Maryland Historical Society, the Records of the Port of Annapolis, 1756-1776. Before the Revolution, and before Baltimore became a port of entry, these Baltimore-owned vessels were obliged to enter and clear at the ofiicial port, Annapolis. Some years ago * Griffith's Annals. ^From data a£Forded by Mr. Walter deC. Poultney. 68 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the writer searched carefully through the port records of Annapolis, sent hcxne to England and preserved among the official archives of the mother- country, for the connecting links in the story of the early commerce of the port of Baltimore. It was therefore, a double satisfaction to find on re- turning home that some of these links were even nearer at hand. They afford, with other data secured, a fairly graphic picture of the trade of the Town at its very beginning. From the records showing the dates when these vessels were built, it is evident that the local trade had been active some years before John Moale sketched the town's modest outlines. Captain Lux's sloop, Baltimore Town, of 36 tons • and a crew of five men, had been built in Maryland in 1746; while the square-rigged brigantine Philip and James, of 60 tons, with seven men and two guns, was also a Maryland-built brig of 1750. It is of particular interest to note that the old colonial staple, tobacco* is giving place in these earliest shipments to the promise of Baltimore's future great cargoes, grain, flour, food-stuffs, iron and lumber. The newer resources of the northern part of the Province on which Baltimore's success depended were already in evidence. It was on June 12, 1756, as the record shows, that Nicholas Rogers, having loaded his sturdy brig the Philip and James with a most valuable cargo, entrusted her to good master Captain James Cole, who on this day "cleared from the port of Annapolis" for the Barbados, carrying as regis- tered: I hogshead tobacco; 3,000 bushels Indian com; 40 barrels flour; 60 barrels bread ; 2 tons iron ; 3,000 staves and heading ; with also 20 barrels pease; 14 barrels beans; and 2 barrels hams; — ^a very goodly showing for the infant trade of the small port. Baltimore had thus early begun to be the granary of the West Indies. She had commenced to inaugurate that notable commerce in food-stuffs which speedily put the Town upon its feet and made it a coming world-port. The stalwart brig was back in port, entering at Annapolis Nov. 2, 1756, with the customary West Indian cargo: 4,590 gallons of rum and 6,660 pounds of sugar. After another prosperous journey to the Barbados, Rogers had the brig made ready to join William Govane's sloop Unity, a square-rigged, Maryland-built bark of 30 tons, in a voyage to Cork in Ireland. The Unity had just returned from Halifax, as had Bryan Phil- pot's schooner. Good Intent, a lute of 35 tons, Maryland-built in 1750. No doubt these hopeful barks from Baltimore Town on the Chesapeake will pass close in under the shadow of the towers of Old Baltimore high up on the hoary cliffs of Baltimore Bay. Its fishermen's hopes, wrecked by the Barbary pirates long years before, have left it stranded a desolate place. It would seem now the irony of fate to think that a century after the ruin of its promising prospects, these two frail boats should push pluckily past to unload in beautiful Cork harbor the first fruits of the gallant new-world 'Maryland Historical Society, Port Records of Annapolis, 1756- 1776. Entries and Qearances, 2 vols. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 69 port bearing its name across the sea. On this initial journey to Ireland they brought with them some of the same substantial staples with which Balti- more has been supplying the Old World ever since. The Philip and James carried in her hold, 860 bushels of Indian com ; 395 barrels of "Patapsco" flour (even if not so labeled at this early period) ; 62 barrels of bread; 2 tons of iron; 4,800 shingles and 13 barrels of pork. The Unity bore with her a cargo of 1,1 11 bushels of corn, 68 barrels of flour and 500 shingles. But Messrs. Rogers, Lux and Govane, with Philip Jones's ample brig the Henrietta, of 90 tons, just in from Anguilla, by no means have the field to themselves. A new shipper and a new bark appear upon the scene. This is the schooner, Sharp Packet, and though it is the smallest of them all, but 25 tons in burthen, yet so observant and sagacious is its owner, Dr. John Stevenson, that it will not be long before its coast-wise voyages will create a demand for a new cargo which will turn the green fields of the Maryland planters from waving com and tobacco to golden grain, and revolutionize for all time the trade of the port on the Patapsco. A word as to this notable newcomer and his brother. Doctors John and Henry Stevenson, whose far-sighted vision soon led them to discover in the situation and natural advantages of the Town those splendid hostages to municipal fortune which they so soon became. University bred men, fresh from Oxford and the best medical training England could afford, these young Scotch-Irish Presb)rterians arrived from Londonderry, Ireland, about 1745, "when the Town had but eleven houses," according to family tradition,* not half the ntunber in Moale's prosperous sketch. Their travel and experience, however, led them to gauge its prospects with the keen-eyed intuition of European scholars and men-of-affairs. In fact, so impressed was Dr. John Stevenson with its great possibilities as a trade centre that he forsook his profession, remained a bachelor, and until his death in 1785 (at his home at Baltimore and Grant streets), devoted himself to building up the commerce of the port which nowhere within its bounds bears to-day a tribute to his memory. His brother was no less an eminent pioneer in medical science. After showing his faith in the Town by the erection in 1754 of the spacious man- sion of "stone, rough-cast," which he called "Pamassus," from its com- manding position high up on the hill above the Falls on the York road (north of the present jail), he converted this costly mansion with its slop- ing terraces and gardens into a hospital in 1768 for the inoculation of small- pox. It was long the only small-pox hospital in America, and he was called by the Maryland Gazette the most successful inoculator on this continent. Here at his home and through the Province he inoculated successfully over 1,800 patients,^® thirty years before Jenner's discovery was announced to the world. While he devoted his genius to combating this terrible scourge, *, *• From data afforded by a descendant, Miss Catherine Cradock, of "Trentham," Pikesville. 70 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE then so prevalent, his brother was building up the welfare of the Town in another direction. William Eddis, the Royal Collector of the Port of Annapolis, an of- ficial particularly well informed as to the cause of the Town's rise, wrote to a friend in London in 1771, "So impressed was Dr. John Stevenson with the peculiar advantages ^^ it possessed as to the trade of the frontier counties of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, that he first conceived the impor- tant project of rendering this port the grand emporium of Maryland." He contracted for wheat, the new crop, which he shipped in large quantities to other coast cities and across the sea to Ireland, with the most encouraging returns. "A trade so lucrative soon became an object of universal atten- tion," says Mr. Eddis. "Persons of a commercial and enterprising spirit emigrated from all quarters to this new and promising scene of industry. Wharves were constructed ; elegant and convenient habitations were rapidly erected ; marshes were drained ; spacious fields cultivated ; and within forty years frcnn its first commencement, Baltimore became not only the most wealthy and populous town in the Province, but inferior to few on this continent. When Sir William Draper arrived in Baltimore shortly after- ward on a tour of the country, he was so astounded by the Town's rapid progress, that when introduced by Governor Eden *to the worthy founder of its fortunes, he elegantly accosted him by the appellation of the American Romulus.' " The first wheat recorded as shipped from the port of Baltimore was 1,000 bushels exported by Dr. Stevenson on March 13, 1758, to New York, with I hogshead of tobacco, 15 barrels of flour, 16 barrels of bread, and i barrel of bees-wax. So successful was this enterprise that when Captain Benjamin North, who shared with Dr. Stevenson in the venture, had un- loaded the return cargo, 500 pounds of logwood, i cask indigo, i cask coffee and 12 casks of sugar, which he bought from a French prize condemned at New York, the little schooner, the Sharp Packet, was off a week later on March 21, with 900 bushels of wheat for Rhode Island. The shipments to New York grew apace, the next being 1,063 bushels of wheat as the staple cargo, with flour, bread and flax-seed as the side issues. William Lux, John Ridgely and others promptly follow this profitable lead and are soon shipping wheat to New York and elsewhere, the latter, no doubt, from the broad acres of the "Hampton" estate between the York and Harford roads, and the former, from Captain Lux's beautiful country-seat, Mount Airy, on the York road, to-day the spacious property of the Sheppard Asylum. The roadways have now become quite as important a factor of success as the harbor. If the grain is to be converted into flour or bread for ship- ment, the ponderous teams will stop on their way to Town and cross the bridge at the fording place to Hanson's old mill, now the property of Will- iam Moore, an enterprising merchant from Pennsylvania, also interested in " Scharf, Chronicles of Baltimore, p. 70. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 71 shipping. Moore bougfit the mill in 1762 from Edward, son of William Fell, the Quaker shipwright and founder of Fell's Point, who obtained it in 1 74 1. Here at the mill the teams will be met by others from the Perry Hall estate of Harry Dorsey Gough, on the Perry Hall (or Belair) road, or from the Van Bibber farms on the Philadelphia road, or the Todd and Gorsuch hcxnesteads down the Neck at North Point. From the Reisters- town road come down the crops from the Worthington and Green Spring Valleys from which Christopher Gist II., son of Richard Gist, has long since departed after selling his inheritance the "Green Spring" (now ''Chattolanee") and its fertile plantations to Captain Robert North. He has marked out ere this a new route westward along which Baltimore trade will soon follow. It is to him, the ''first great English explorer" sent by Major Lawrence Washington and the Ohio Company to open up the wilder- ness, that Baltimore and the East will soon owe the pathway to the Ohio and the rich regions beyond, the pioneer trail of the great National high- way to the West, the avenue for American conquest and civilization. What fast-widening interests are centering now in the Town and the harbor! To accommodate the increased shipping, John Smith (father of General Samuel Smith), William Buchanan and William Spear have ar- rived here from Ireland and Scotland by way of Pennsylvania, and built extensive wharves at Gay and Water streets, of pine cord-wood, a thou- sand feet in length out into the channel. William Spear, moreover, has erected a bakery on an island at the end of his wharf and is now ready to turn the flour into that much-needed article on the return voyage, ship- bread. Among those who are attracted to Baltimore by the rising tide of trade are James McHenry, David Stewart, John McKim, James Calhoun, David Poc, Jesse HoUingsworth, William Patterscm, Robert Oliver, the Purviancc brothers, and Messrs. Eichelberger, Lindenberger, Yeiser, Presstman, Grif- fiftfa, Lemmon, Dugan and a host of others from Pennsylvania and also from abroad. The growing demand for bread and flour from Europe and the West Indies has dotted the waterways of both Jones' and Gwynn's Falls with numerous mills, and it is evident that the union of interests of roadway, falls and harbor has become complete. William Moore has sold his upper mill seat in 1763 to Messrs. Joseph EUicott and Hugh Burgess, from Bucks county, Pennsylvania, who built the mill opposite the jail. Mr. EUicott soon after returned to Pennsylvania. The demand for wheat and flour at Balti- more, the possibilities of the fertile uplands of the Patapsco region for wheat culture, and its boundless water power, had, however, greatly im- pressed him. He accordingly returned in 1772 with his brothers, John and. Andrew, and established the great milling industry at Ellicott's Mills, which as Patapsco Mills has remained in successful operation ever since. To be nearer the shipping after the Revolution they established mills on Jones' and Gwynn's Falls, with wharves at Light and Pratt streets. 72 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE At the close of the Revolution, a new course of trade was opened up. Annapolis had lost her prestige as court centre and port of entry, with the loss of the Proprietary Governor and Royal Collector. In the new democratic regime, with so many Revolutionary leaders and enterprising merchants in her midst, Baltimore became not only the social but the com- mercial centre of the State and the chief port of entry. The tobacco crops, vrhich, before 1776, had been sent direct to England by the watchful London agents stationed on the rivers at the head of tide, now came to Baltimore. As the staple was no longer controlled and monopolized by England, the old trade with Holland was once more renewed. German and French merchants, who had settled here before and at the close of the Revolution, now shipped direct to their own home ports. The West Indies continued to buy tobacco and also large quantities of grain, flour and food-stuffs, as did also Spain and Portugal. France had drunk deep of the cup of liberty, but in misguided zeal was writhing in the throes of the French Revolution. A little later she is fighting Napoleon's war for supremacy with England. Agriculture is at a standstill. Mary- land wheat in the swift Baltimore clippers eludes capture and serves to keep the combatants from starvation. The "troubles of other countries have become stepping-stones to Baltimore's progress." The state of war in Europe interrupts trade between England, France and their West Indian colonies. The tropics depend upon England and Germany for cotton goods and linens. The carrying trade thus fell to the United States. The Ameri- cans became the carriers for Europe and the East, and Baltimore, by rea- son of her superior ship-models, and her good fortune in eluding capture, received her full share of the traffic. It was no wonder her exports in 1790 amounted to over $2,000,000, and her local tonnage to 13,564. But this result was meagre compared to the gains of the next seven years, when, with flour at $9 and $10 per barrel, and bread almost priceless during the Revolution at San Domingo, her exports are said to have reached over $10,000,000, with a local tonnage of 59^37 tons. This was at the auspicious moment when the Town became a City. Her enterprise and generosity had surely by this time proven her right to the privilege of municipal incor- poration. A glance at what constituted these exports will reveal the natural sequence between the infant commerce of the Port in 1760, and the shipping three decades later in 1790 (the only year when the amounts are given for comparison). The same cargoes fill the holds as they did thirty years be- fore, but they have grown vastly greater in proportion. Their continuity as staples is the best proof as to the wisdom of the choice the first town commissioners and surveyors made when they selected the site of Baltimore Town. In place of the modest sloop and brig of thirty years before, there were in 1790, 102 vessels belonging to the port: 27 ships, 31 brigantines, 34 schooners, i scow and 9 sloops, a total of 13,564 tons, which, seven years HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 73 later when the Town becomes a city, has quadrupled in amount to 59,837 tons. The exports in 1790 *^ are an index to the story of the century which is about to close. They also furnish an open sesame to the trade of the new century close at hand. They show how the first modest shipments of Cap- tain Lux and Nicholas Rogers, of tobacco, com, flour, bread, iron and lum- ber, have become the great staples of the port. In this year of grace 1790, Baltimore ships 9,442 hogsheads of tobacco, 203,195 bushels of Indian com, 2,954 barrels of com meal, 4,145 bushels of beans and pease, 2,152 casks of flax-seed. The lumber trade has grown to considerable proportions. To properly cask the hogsheads of nun, molasses and sugar from the West Indies, requires now the export of 874,593 staves, while 2,113,724 shingles and 516,690 feet of scantling are also in demand there and elsewhere. It is interesting to note the development of John Stevenson's promising wheat cargo, which from his first shipment of 1,000 bushels to New York, has become 223,062 bushels of wheat,^' sent now the world over, with 127,234 barrels of flour and 5,533 barrels of bread in addition. The Pa- tapsco farms and river plantations have contributed beef, pork, candles, cheese, butter, bees-wax and other domestic produce to the list of exports, while rice and cotton from the South are being shipped for re-exchange abroad. The products of the cleared pine woods of the river shores are 1,140 barrels of tar, and 50 barrels of turpentine. The Chesapeake and its rivers have inaugurated their later notable shipments with 1,344 barrels of £sh, while there are 20 packages of furs and 51 packages of deerskins to suggest that the forests have still many of the native denizens left. A new product, "Baltimore bricks," appears on the list, of which there were 16,100 exported. These were probably made from the splendid brick- <:lay terraces sweeping down to the river-side just beyond Barrister Car- roll's imposing mansion, "Mount Qare" (Carroll Park), which was said to have been built of "imported brick." This fine old structure, frequently visited by Washington and Lafayette, now Baltimore's oldest colonial me- tnorial, was erected in 1754, when no one supposed its brown clay hill- slopes on Gwynn's Falls would later yield a royalty of $25,000 to $30,000 annually for the mere privilege of developing the clay. The region near the mouth of Gwynn's Falls, which produced the noted brick clay of the Mount Qare estate east of the Falls, proved even richer still in iron-ore deposits on the west side of the stream, where lay the extensive iron-ore lands, and furnace of the Baltimore Iron Works Company. This enterprise was established about 1732 as an American rival to the English or Principio Company, which owned lands at Whetstone Point as well as in Cecil county. It existed for over half a century, during which period it added very ma- terially to the family fortunes of its founders. Dr. Charles Carroll, father ** Griffith's Annals. "In 1912 two vessels loading at Baltimore, one for Rotterdam, the other for England, took on board, the former 264,764 bushels of wheat, and the latter 250,000, an each case more than the whole export of wheat in 1790. 74 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE of the Barrister; Charles Carroll, Esq., father of the "Signer;" Daniel Carroll, Benjamin Tasker and Daniel Dulany, as well as to those of the Town whose rich mineral deposits gave it existence. In 1764 " the annual revenue of the Company was over £2,000. It owned 150 slaves and 30,000 acres of land, which became in part the property of Charles Carroll of Car- rollton, whose lands extended as far as Catonsville, which took the name of his daughter and her husband, Richard Caton, for whom he built the old homestead known as Castle Thunder. The early shipments of iron in Roger's brig to the West Indies in 1756 were probably from these iron-works, or those of the Principio Company no doubt, as was much of the 571 tons of pig iron and 4 tons of bar iron ex- ported with the bricks in 1790. "Patapsco flour" and the Baltimore Com- pany's iron had become two of the most distinctive and profitable products of this region. It was the remarkable union of agricultural and mineral resources in her immediate vicinity which gave Baltimore her rise and permanent pros- perity. The chief secret of Baltimore's success was her location at the head of tide, on the Fall line, at the junction of the two great classes of soils; those of the lower water-laid coastal plain, with the higher Piedmont region. This gave her the fortunate conjunction of harbor, diversified crops, abundant water-power to grind and prepare the grain for foreign markets, and a safe and ample anchorage to await wind and tide to carry her sailing vessels out to sea. Annapolis and Joppa possessed the harbor and the tide-water soils, but they lacked water-power and the upland grain soils. They also lacked the superior advantages of location on a coastwise thoroughfare at the head of tide, the great Eastern or Philadelphia roadway from east to west. It was Baltimore's good fortune that the free unoccupied lands of the Fall line region, to the north of the Province between the Patapsco and Susquehanna, were opened for settlement and cultivation just at a time when the lower tobacco lands were becoming exhausted, and when, by the exigencies of war and the European situation, there was to develop a demand for the new crop, wheat, which these higher lands were particularly adapted to produce. The sedimentary or water-laid soils of the Province, in the sec- tions first settled along the rivers of the tide-water region farther south, were especially suited to the colonial staple, tobacco. Thus the fortunes of the early planters were assured at a time when this was the only crop for which England found a demand in the European market. These soils be- came exhausted, and many of their owners were ready to migrate north- ward to the higher and more salubrious part of the Province, just as Balti- more County was opened up to settlement. Here the advantage of the site selected for the Town on the Fall line, where the resistant ledges of g^ranite in the streams created waterfalls and therefore water-power, became ap- parent just as the settlers found these higher mica soils less adapted for ''Rowland, Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, vol. I, p. 60. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 75 tobacco and better suited for the new grain crops for which they now came to have a demand. Before the Revolution, England, having no need of wheat, and pro- tecting the interests of her own landed proprietors, discouraged its produc- tion in the colonies. Baltimore, accordingly, shipped its first cargoes to other coastal cities and to West Indian and Mediterranean ports. After the Revolution, trade was free, the markets of the world were open to her, she shipped where she pleased, and wheat and com, instead of tobacco, be- came her great staples. Her first local shipments to the West Indies were, tobacco, com, pease and beans, iron and lumber. Most of these products came frcxn the sedimentary or water-laid soils along the riverf ronts, and the fine trucking region of Patapsco Neck. As the settlements extended farther inland, back from the rivers, into the "back country," they reached the new soil to be observed in traversing the old Reisterstown road near Dmid Hill turnpike gate, or Charles street extended, near Cold Spring Lane, or the Harford road beyond Lake Monte- bello. In each case, is found the same sparkling mica soil, showing the residual earth, formed by the decomposition of the highly varied "crystal- line" rocks of this upland region. These were the rich diversified soils for wheat and other grain, for flour and bread, the new cargoes on which Balti- more's future depended. They were discovered just as the market was ready for these crops. The world now came to her doors in gallant ships tugging at anchor in her harbor waiting to be filled, and eager to be off in the wake of the swift-sailing clipper to the hungry nations over sea. This is the story of a city's rise from the union of its natural factors — harbor, roadway and falls — ^in forceful combination about the primal factor, the rich, diversified soils of its environment. It was this fortunate combina- tion of natural agencies, so ingeniously grasped and utilized by her progres- sive citizens, which yielded the remarkable advance in trade and population chronicled at the close of the eighteenth century. It was the result of these propitious circumstances which led Washington to assure Richard Parkin- son, the "Lincolnshire farmer," who visited him at Mount Vernon at this time, while looking about for an American farm, that "Baltimore was and would be the risingest town in America, except the Federal City." ^* Wash- ington had great hopes for the national capital. The observant English- man, however, could not wait for these promising prospects to develop, and "there being," as he remarks, "many things necessary to get the produce conveyed to the Federal City, that now goes to Baltimore — such as navig- able cuts, turnpike roads, etc., I made up my mind to settle near Baltimore." Baltimore's rapid rise had profoundly impressed Washington. He had taken pains to express his felicitations and his unbounded confidence in its future, when frequently stopping in the Town to break the long and weari- some joumeys between Mount Vemon and the scenes of his official duties at Philadelphia and New York. The last expression of his good will was "A. T. Morison, George Washington, 76 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE called forth by the affectionate tribute paid him by the mayor and city council when he passed through Baltimore on March 14, 1798, on the occa- sion of his retirement from the presidency. The corporation made haste to assure General Washington "amongst the first exercises of their corporate capacity," none was more gratifying to their sensibilities than to be able to express their deep sense of appreciation "of the prosperity arising fi-om your unwearied attention to the welfare of your country; to admire that firmness which has never been disconcerted in the greatest difficulties, and which has acquired vigor in proportion to the exigency;" and to testify their "lively gratitude for your public services, their sincere regret for your retirement, their affectionate and heartfelt attachment to your person and family." Washington's response was of peculiar interest, as perhaps the final utterance of his official career. In leaving Baltimore, he was about to take up the last stage of the journey from the crowded arena of public life in which he had been the central and most commanding figure of the century, to withdraw to the rural quiet and retirement of a private country life. He replied with the simple directness and manly dignity which always characterized his conduct and utterances : "To meet the plaudits of my fellow citizens for the part I have acted in public life, is the highest reward next to the consciousness of having done my duty to the utmost of my abilities, of which my mind is susceptible; and I pray you to accept my sincere thanks for the evidence you have now given me of your approbation of my past services. . . . Let me reciprocate most cordially all the good wishes you have been pleased to extend to me and my family for our temporal and eternal happiness. "George Washington." This closing expression of Washington's official life delivered to the mayor and city council of Baltimore City was the fitting epitome of his career. Devotion to duty, no matter what the sacrifice to his personal com- fort or welfare, was the key-note of his life. That it has rung true through a long century of criticism and animadversion, is evident from the crown- ing chorus of veneration which grows stronger as the true value of the man's signal services to the cause of freedom and humanity are more fully recognized. The death of Washington, which occurred December 14, 1799, at the close of the century which he had made illustrious, would have been a greater national calamity were it not for the splendid heritage of indi- vidual worth and duty which he left to posterity. It was a timely bequest, these ideals of self-sacrifice and devotion, at the threshold of the century that was to be confronted almost in the same hour by the ambitious and revolutionary schemes of the great imperialist. Napoleon. Contrast the scene of Washington's masterly self-effacement at the moment of his greatest power, when he voltmtarily resigned his military commission at Annapolis — which a discerning critic has called "one of the greatest events in the world's history" — ^with the scene which ensued when the news of his death reached Paris.*' *• Thiers, History of the Consulate and the Empire of France, vol. I, p. 121. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 77 It was then that Napoleon first assumed the reins of power and in- stalled himself in the former royal palace of the Tuileries, on the ''skilfully contrived" occasion of an "imposing memorial service in honor of the death of Washington. The speaker of the day (M. de Fontanes) drew a com- parison between Washington and Bonaparte, giving the preference to the latter. In obedience to Napoleon's orders, no mention whatever was made of Washington's brother-in-arms, Lafayette." ^^ For more than a decade, the ideals of ambition, disruption and conquest were to paralyze the world as an off-set to the lofty bequest of Washington, of self-sacrifice, union and independence. There could be no doubt as to which would win in the long run, but for the time there was chaos and bewilderment. All Europe was convulsed in the struggle. Before it was ended, America and even Balti- more came to share a vital part in the question whether the tyranny of empire or the right of national freedom should eventually win out. Ameri- can interests had already become involved before Napoleon assumed em- pire. Washington had left a solemn legacy to his countrymen in his fare- well address as President, declaring it the only true American policy, to steer clear of entangling alliances with foreign powers. Realizing America's feebleness and her need of peace to ensure prosperity, he did not hesitate to break with France when that precipitate Republic declared war against England. This policy was the only wise and proper alternative for America as her history has proven, but for the time the results seemed grievous. While saved from exhausting warfare when she most needed peace, America had to bear the brunt of attack by sea from both belligerents, a feeble neutral between two hostile foes. When France calmly intimated that immunity from attack could only be bought with money, public senti- ment passionately echoed the ringing declaration of Pinckney in Congress : "Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute." The country accordingly prepared for defence. In the spring of 1798, the first three vessels of the new American navy were fitted out for sea, the Constitution, the United States and the Constellation, The frigate Constel- lation had been built at David Stodder's navy-yard on Harris' Creek, Fell's Point; the location of the upper part of this famous ship-building stream being now marked by the lake in Patterson Park. The Constellation has been described as "one of those happy first products of our navy that were never afterwards surpassed. In beauty of hull she was not even equaled by the famous Constitution. The easy swell of her sides and the general harmony of her prc^ortions were incomparable." *• She was rated as a 36-gun frigate with 340 men and a tonnage of 1265 tons. She was not a very large craft, but one of the eminently superior models of the expert Baltimore ship-builders to whom the government gave many orders, the Chesapeake being the next frigate launched here from De Rochebrun's shipyard in June, 1800. When the Constellation sailed out of the Patapsco " Emerson, History of the Nineteenth Century, vol. I, p. 60. " Paullin, Life of Commodore Rodgers. 78 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE in August, 1798, on her maiden voyage, she carried with her, four officers who were to shed undying lustre on the new American navy and to become four of its future commodores. These were 2nd Lieutenant John Rodgers and Midshipman David Porter, Jr., both Baltimore men, and Midshipmen Sinclair and MacDonough, the last of whom defeated the British fleet on Lake Champlain in September, 1814, when Rodgers was helping to per- form the same service at Baltimore in the defence of Fort McHenry. Lieut. Rodgers had learned his fine seamanship under Captain Benjamin Folger, the commander of the famous pioneer clippers Antelope and Felicity, whose daring captures were proverbial during the Revolution. He later carried young Rodgers, son of Col. John Rodgers, of Havre de Grace, with him on his merchant voyages to L'Orient, Bordeaux, and other French and Dutch ports, sailing for John and Samuel Smith, well-known Baltimore merchants. In 1793, before he was twenty, Rodgers sailed from Smith's wharf with Baltimore exports for European ports, and for four or five years thereafter as captain of the Jane. Midshipman Porter was the son of Captain David Porter Sr., who had established the ingenious signal sta- tion on Federal Hill, from which anxious merchants and shipowners could see displayed the house flag of their incoming vessels from the far east and elsewhere, as soon as, rounding the Bodkin, they entered the Patapsco and could be sighted from the observatory. The Constellation, commanded by Commodore Truxton, left the Pa- tapsco with the merchant-ship Baltimore of this port, the latter armed with twenty guns, and under command of Captain Isaac Phillips. They were to convoy home a fleet of American merchantmen the French were blockading in the port of Havana. The Constellation returned safely to Hampton Roads with sixty vessels, worth a million dollars with their cargoes, and Truxton was congratulated by the Secretary of War for his success in beating off the French privateers. Phillips was not so fortunate. He en- countered a British squadron under Admiral Loring, who invited Captain Phillips on board his flagship, and in the meantime took off fifty men as "British seamen" from the Baltimore. Phillips vigorously protested at this outrageous performance, and all but five men were returned. Trusting that the government would be able to insist on further redress for this grievance, Phillips hoisted his flag and sailed away, but as a consequence of his action, he was summarily dismissed from the service without a trial. Truxton desired Lieut. Rodgers to have the vacant command of the Baltimore.^^ Had he received it, he would probably have missed the great victory which followed in the capture by the Constellation of the French Insurgente — ^"the first governmental ship of consequence captured by the United States since she became a nation." Before the date of this capture, Feb. 9, 1799, the only larger vessel taken by American arms had been the "Serapis," the prize of John Paul Jones. The Insurgente was a 40-gun ship with 411 men. Truxton ordered Rodgers to take possession of her "Paullin, Life of Commodore Rodgers. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 79 as prize-master, which he did with Midshipman Porter and 11 seamen. There were 163 prisoners left on board the Insurgente, and noting the weakness of the prize-crew, they attempted to retake the ship. Rodgers drove the mutineers into the hold, and with armed sentinels at the hatch- way to prevent escape, he navigated the ship aided by young Porter, for two days and three nights during a fearful gale, until they could rejoin the Constellation, The victory of the Constellation had been widely celebrated all through the Union. At Hampton Roads a great welcome was given to Truxton and Rodgers. When Rodgers returned to Baltimore, he was car- ried through the streets July i, 1799, by the seamen of the Constellation in a chair elegantly decorated, and on passing Market street (Broadway), Fell's Point, the procession was saluted by a discharge of cannon. The Insurgente was bought by the government and added to the navy, and Rodgers received $1680 as his share of the prize-money. This, the first United States naval prize was unfortunately lost at sea, in the equinoctial gale of 1800, while in charge of Captain Fletcher, but the capture of this man-of-war had added greatly to the renown of the American flag. Rodgers was ordered to Baltimore to equip and command the sloop-of-war Maryland, of 26 guns and 180 men, which had been built by the generosity of the merchants of Baltimore, and presented to the government. Rodgers, who was the first lieutenant of the new navy to be promoted to a cap- taincy for his gallant conduct, sailed with the Maryland to the West Indies. Returning to the Chesapeake, President Adams chose him and his vessel to convey the Treaty of Peace, as amended by the United States, to France. On the return of the Maryland to Baltimore, August 28, 1801, Captain Rodgers again entered the merchant service. President Jefferson had determined to cut down the small navy begun by Washington and Adams, and trust to a few gun-boats, which soon, however, proved unequal to the task of protecting the now vast carrying trade of America. Rodgers loaded the schooner Nelly with much needed Baltimore pro- ucts and sailed for San Domingo, where he witnessed the burning of Cape Frangois by the French fleet sent by Napoleon to reduce the revolted Governor, Toussaint L'Ouverture and the island to sulxnission. As Na- poleon aimed to establish a colonial empire in America to include the French West Indies, Florida and Louisiana, he proposed to subdue San Domingo as the preliminary step to this end. With the French fleet and General LeQerc was the latter's wife. Napoleon's favorite sister, Pauline, whose beautiful statue, "Victorious Venus," by Canova, still remains a noted work of art. Her brother, Jerome Bonaparte, accompanied the ex- pedition and later with his suite visited Baltimore and was entertained by Commodore Barney, who had received many courtesies in Paris from Napoleon, then First Consul, while he was endeavoring to obtain a settle- ment from the government for large amounts of flour and provisions he had shipped from Baltimore for the relief of San Domingo and France. It was during this visit to Baltimore and while attending the Govane's 8o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE races that young Bonaparte first saw the beautiful Elizabeth Patterson, with whom he contracted the fateful alliance notable in the city's annals. It was one of the ever curious anomalies of romance that she should be the daughter of the devoted and patriotic William Patterson, who had so generously helped to equip Lafayette's tattered forces in Baltimore, and had enlisted under him for the final struggle at Yorktown, which ended in the surrender of Comwallis. The nuptials were celebrated on Christmas eve, 1803, between these two complacent and adventurous young people, who tranquilly fancied that this alliance was a purely personal matter, by no means subservient to the pleasure of an august and imperious brother- in-law. The old Patterson "Homestead," where they are said to have spent much of the first unmolested months of wedded life, unless speedily pre- served in a small park with Mr. Patterson's grave adjoining will soon yield its lofty eminence (on Jenkins Lane south of Gorsuch Avenue) to the exi- gencies of city street-opening through the once spacious Patterson estate, another victim to Baltimore's suburban advance. The traditional attractiveness of Baltimore's fair women had already become apparent at this early period. General Reubel, who accompanied young Bonaparte, also surrendered his heart to the charming daughter of a French gentleman, who, like Lafayette, had come to the aid of America during the Revolution, and had later found Baltimore a prosperous and congenial home. General Reubel, who was an accomplished soldier and man-of-science, after serving as commander-in-chief of the army of West- phalia, when Jerome Bonaparte was appointed by Napoleon, King of that country, returned later to America and engaged in the production of white lead and other chemical products for the first time manufactured in Baltimore. At this juncture, it is interesting to know what the Baltimore of this period was like, (when visited by these distinguished strangers.) What were its business inducements, and what the alluring attractions of the many charming mansions, which, like "Homestead," dotted its environs, since the city had become by its affluence the social center of the State? For this purpose Warner and Hanna's Map of Baltimore and environs in 1801 will afford some idea of her rapid progress at the beginning of the eventful nineteenth century. From the outline of the original bounds it will be seen that the harbor had been filled up from the curve of Water street, the original waterfront, southward to Pratt street, where the wharves project into the Basin in close array. Bowley's, Spear's, and Smith's wharves are now joined by O'Don- nell's, Dugan's and McElderry's, long familiar names in shipping circles. The Ellicott brothers after having inaugurated the fine Frederick road westward from Ellicott 's Mills to Frederick county, which had become the richest wheat growing county in the country, have established numerous mills near the city on Gwynn's and Jones' Falls, and have built their own HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 8i wharf at Light and Pratt streets. Charles street is still the westward boundary of the Basin, The "Cool Spring" has been surrounded, and "Deep Point" where it emptied into the Basin has become the site of wharves erected by James Calhoun, first mayor of the city ; Philip Rogers, probably a son of Nicholas Rogers, and David Poe, grandfather of Edgar Allen Poe, who came to Baltimore in 1775, and had been one of its early shipping merchants. From these historic wharves now fare forth swift brigs and schooners, clipper-built, to every part of the world. A glance at their far distant ports and the names of the men who send them forth will show how extensive and world-wide has become the demand for the products of this port. On January 5, 1804, a few days after William Patterson had anxiously beheld the precarious venture of his daughter Betsy and her French spouse, young Bonaparte, fairly launched upon the wave of fortune, he turned with much more assurance to the fate of his good brig, Fair Amerv- can, and his sturdy schooner Hornet, which he sped on their journey to Jamaica and St. Lucia. So varied were his interests that these were fol- lowed a few weeks later in March and April, by others to Bordeaux, Am- sterdam and St. Barts, Guadaloupe and Batavia, and the following year to Antwerp, Cowes, and Leghorn.'** Philip Rogers, who ably sustained the pioneer place of his family in the shipping circles of the harbor, was sending vessels in these early days of 1804, to San Domingo, Trinidad and Bordeaux. "Smith and Buchanan" kept up the distant record of the vessels from their famous wharf, sailing whence Baltimore's future Commodores, Joshua Barney and John Rodgers had learned the skillful seamanship which was soon to become the pride and defense of the nation. Their ships now sailed not only to Curacoa and the West Indies, but to Leghorn, Smyrna and far away India. Others who shipped to Aux Cayes, Surinam, St. lago, Curacoa, St. Thomas, and the West Indies were Robert and John Oliver, Hollins ft McBlair, Chris- topher Johnston, David Stewart, and the McKims; while the Olivers and Hugh Thompson also shipped to Liverpool, David Stewart to Naples, and Senegal, and Robert Gilmor to Leghorn and India ; Nathan Levering and Robert Gilmor exported to Amsterdam, as did also James Sterrett and Thomas Tennant; Richard Curson, Mark Pringle and Robert Barry to Oporto; George Grundy and David Winchester to Barbadoes; Von Kapf and Brune to La Guayra, Embden and Copenhagen; John F. Kennedy to Santa Martha and Carthagena ; Wm. Wilson and Sons to Amsterdam, Liv- erpool and Cork ; Jeremiah Yellott to far Canton, John Donnell to the Isle of France; and the Frenchmen, Lewis Pascault, Carrere, Guestier and Henry Messoniere to Bordeaux, Porto Rico, La Guayra and Cayenne. Other ports for these Baltimore vessels of which 42 cleared in February, 37 in March, and 43 in April, J804, increasing to over 50 per month the next year, were Cadiz, Lisbon, Grenada, Rotterdam and Londonderry. ^ Qcarances from the Port of Baltimore, 1804-1806. Custom House Records. 82 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE So great had become the European and West Indian demand for wheat and flour, that there were now within eighteen miles of the town fifty mer- chant mills, twelve of them on Jones Falls near the city, and four on other streams. A few of these, Moore's Lower and Upper Mills, Pennington's and Stump's Mills are shown on the Map of 1801. The result of all this travel and traffic from country to town had led to the demand for the im- provement of the three main roads, the York, the Reisterstown and Fred- erick Roads, which soon after (in 1805) were tumpiked, and as a result a new era in the erection of country seats set in. The Philadelphia road no longer crosses the Falls at the old fording place, to Moore's Lower Mill (8).*^ The deep bend in the Falls beneath the Court House bluff has been obliterated by the canal which conducts the Falls discreetly eastward, away from its Calvert street bed, and under the bridge known now as Gay street bridge. The Philadelphia road accord- ingly enters Town directly, down Bridge or Gay street to the market at Gay and Market (now Baltimore) streets. One market has, however, proved insufficient for this growing community of good-livers. Three others have arisen. Centre Market, replacing the old market, and more familiarly known as Marsh Market, from the unsavory marsh which once lay along the Falls, Hanover Market for those to westward, and Fell's Point for those to east- ward. From the cut of the boat in the canal-slip in the lower right hand comer of the Map, it will be seen that it was once proposed to convert the marsh along Harrison street into a canal to allow boats to come up to Baltimore street, but instead the marsh was filled in and the Market erected. These three markets supplied the needs of the different neighbor- '^The numbers refer to the Map of 1801, on another page. The references are as follows : 6. Original Bounds of the Town, indicated by the arrowhead outline. The curve at the bottom of the arrowhead is the original waterfront line of the Basin now filled in to Pratt Street 7. The Old Fording place of Jones' Falls, at French and Baltimore Streets, where the first roads converged to cross the Falls at the head of tide. 8. Moore's Lower Mill (Hanson's Old Mill) on west side of Falls. 9. New crossing place by the bridge (now Gay Street bridge). 10. Parnassus. Dr. Stevenson's mansion, built 1754, York Road, east of Falls. 11. Belvedere. Colonel Howard's mansion, Calvert and Chase Streets. 12. Site of Washington Monument, Howard's Park. 13. Greenmount. Robert Oliver's estate (now Greenmount Cemetery). 14. Hospital. Market Street (now Broadway) and old Philadelphia Road, present site of Johns Hopkins Hospital. 15. St. Paul's Rectory, at head of Liberty Street. 16. James McHenry's seat (now Alexandrofsky, the Winans property), Baltimore Street, west of Fremont. 17. Schroeder residence (now Nursery and Child's Hospital, Schroeder Street). 18. Bolton, George Grundy's mansion (now site of Fifth Regiment Armory). 19. Rose Hill, Dr. Gibson's residence. 20. Poor House, Eutaw and Madison Streets. 21. Warner residence, Alexandria Road (now Columbia avenue). HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 83 hoods until 1803, when Col. Howard's previous gift of the space on How- ard's Hill was utilized, and the ''gastronomic centre of the universe/' as the Lexington Market has been called, was erected, and became a famous mart for all the delicacies of the table. Outside of its cosmopolitan harbor, Baltimore in 1804 was not much of a "show place" to the European visitor. The quaint old Court House of 1769, perched high up on its pedestal bluff and archway, like a boy on stilts, was soon like the bluff to be leveled to the ground, and give place to the more imposing Court House of 1809, designed by Mr. George Milleman, at the comer of Calvert and Lexington streets. The question was at once agitated, ''What shall take the place of the old Court House in the Square?" from which the Declaration of Inde- pendence had been read with the discharge of cannon July 29, 1776. For the square was now to be the social center of the new residence section, as the merchants and shippers were beginning to flock westward from crowded Fell's Point where its busy shipping industry had filled its streets with newcomers as they first came ashore and sought a permanent abode. The decision was however deferred until after the War of 1812. The other public buildings contemporary with the old Court House were the Exchange, the new jail on Jones' Falls, and the Custom House, where no longer the stern foster-mother England, but the custodian of the Republic, her distinguished Revolutionary General, Otho Holland Will- iams, sat at the receipt of customs, and handed over to the U. S. Treasury from Baltimore over a million dollars annually. He was succeeded as col- lector of the port by Robert Purviance. But little of this splendid revenue produced for the government by Baltimore's advantages of location was ever restored to the city except by the building of government vessels, such as the frigate Constellation at an outlay of $314,212, and the purchase of the merchant ships Baltimore and Montezuma at about $55,000 each, and the repair of the Insurgente at $56,000.'= The Baltimore merchants them- selves generously presented to the government, the sloop-of-war Maryland, launched June 3, 1800, from Price's shipyard, Fell's Point, at a cost of $70,000. The early development of Fell's Point due to its deep harbor and ship- building activity is shown by its closely crowded streets with their English names, Thames, Fleet, Philpot, Shakespeare, Lancaster, George, Queen, Caroline, Ann, and Pitt, all suggesting the English origin of its founders. The movement of the prosperous merchants and ship-owners was now, how- ever, westward toward the upper portion of the Town, and northward to the wheat-growing suburbs, where the country-seats of the citizens dot the landscape in ever-increasing number. The first pretentious house in the vicinity, Dr. Henry Stevenson's stone mansion "Parnassus," (10) also the first hospital of the city, which stood east of the Falls and north of the new jail, had been joined across the Falls on the west side, on another stately 'Griffith's Annals, Appendix. 84 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE site hewn out by the stream, by Colonel Howard's spacious country-seat "Belvedere" (ii) begun in 1786, for his bride, fair Margaret Chew of Ger- mantown. It was not completed with its wings until 1794, when it became, as its owner had planned a "proper house and home" for the famous Revo- lutionary hero, who here entertained with lavish hospitality his friends and colleagues, to whom it became the social mecca of the city. It stood for nearly a century near the intersection of Calvert and Chase streets, where it could witness the rapid inroads made by the City upon the broad Howard estate at its feet, which extended southward from Jones' Falls as far as Pratt street, and from Paca to Liberty, where Colonel Howard gave the site for St. Paul's rectory (15) built in 1 791, and still standing at Liberty and Saratoga streets. Other fine mansion-sites elevated above the sloping val- ley of the Falls were those to the northwestward of "Belvedere," where the charming residence of the young Englishman George Grundy, which he named "Bolton" (18) in remembrance of his Yorkshire home, Bolton Le Moors, remained intact from its building in 1785, until the erection of the Fifth Regiment Armory upon its site at Bolton and Hoffman streets. Adjoining "Bolton" was the residence of Dr. William Gibson, "Rose Hill," near what is now Lanvale and Eutaw Place ; and still farther northwestward was the McCuUoch mansion, the home of James H. McCulloch, an officer of the Revolution and of the War of 1812 (now the School Administration Building), bordered by McCulloch, Lafayette and Madison avenues. Nearer to "Homestead," the Patterson mansion, near the intersection of Charles street and Merryman's lane, was "Homewood," of such rare symmetry and classic proportions that it may well serve as the key-note in the archi- tectural scheme of the new buildings of the Johns Hopkins University now in process of erection here. The house, built of brick laid in the Flemish bond of the period, was adorned with ornate trimmings, window-caps and sills of fluted Aquia Creek freestone from the Potomac river, a stone easily carved and used largely in all the colonial mansions of the period before the fine white marble of this region was employed in its first native monu- ments. The charming mansion with its graceful portico, its doorways framed with rare oval fluted columns, and its fine interior decoration was erected in 1800 by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, as a wedding gift to his son Charles Carroll and Harriet Chew, another Baltimore bride from the old Chew mansion at Germantown where Colonel Howard had met his romantic fate in the very citadel of one of the most thrilling of the Revo- lutionary battle-fields. Not far northward of "Belvedere" and "Parnassus" was the estate of Robert Oliver ( 13) . Here to-day upon the gentle hill-slopes, transformed into Greenmount Cemetery, many noted citizens of Baltimore sleep their last sleep near where the stately home once stood, high upon the "Green Mount," which with its Gothic chapel now attracts the eye as one enters the gates of the cemetery. Not far from "Green Mount" on the York Road was "Bel- mont," on the Harford road (both of them to-day still bordering on North HAMPTON, 17TS. HOMBWUOD. Krect«<l hr Oharlpa Carroll MOUNT UliARE. WliiBs rfstored lltlO. FACSIMILE OF ORIOINAI, FORT McHENRY FI-AR («lx8« FEETI WHICH INWPIRKD KEY'S S<)N(1. NOW IN NATIONAL MUSEUM, WA8HISHTON CITV, HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 85 avenue). The latter (now the Samuel Ready School property) was one of the chief show-places of the town for foreign visitors, from the fact that its owner, the wealthy French consul Chevalier d'Anmour, one of the faithful French allies who remained in Baltimore after the Revolution, had set the example for American memorials, by erecting here on October 12, 1792, the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, the first monu- ment in America to Columbus. It is in form an obelisk, and as the use of marble was then undeveloped, it was built of brick covered with cement at a cost of iSoo, and was frequently visited by Frenchmen and Italians who had heard of it in Europe. The estate and its mansion, a gem of colonial architecture removed in 1907, for the present spacious school-house, was at one time the property of Thomas Tennant, a pnxninent Baltimore mer- chant, whose daughter married the gifted Baltimore author, Hon. John P. Kennedy. It is interesting to note that the old estate with its monu- ment to Columbus, should have been owned by a French Revolutionary patriot, and later by an American patriot of the War of 1812, the founder of this Methodist School for Girls, whose military conmiission is proudly displayed upon its walls, and who also owned that most interesting relic of the War of 1812 still standing, the house at the northwest comer of Pratt and Albemarle streets in Baltimore, where Mrs. Pickersgill constructed the great flag, which floating from Fort McHenry, inspired Key's immortal song. Another little group of patriots, Secretary James McHenry and Colonel Nathaniel Ramsay, dwelt at this time to the westward of the city upon the estate of Mr. McHenry on the Frederick turnpike, now West Baltimore street, (16) now familiar as the Winans property, "Alexandrofsky." Its Russian name connecting the fortunes of America and Russia was bestowed by Ross Winans whose successful invention of the pioneer locomotives of the Baltimore and Ohio, the first American railway, sent him later to inaugurate for the conservative country of the Czar, the great transporta- tion system which had its first inception soon after this in progressive Baltimore. With the existence of these handsome and well-appointed homes, supplied with the latest luxuries and fashions from over sea, the gay young life of the city soon demanded a suitable social center for the balls and dances, and famous social functions for which Baltimore was already noted and which had been held hitherto at the Indian Queen and Fountain Inns. This was afforded by the Assembly Room and Library, erected in 1797 at a cost of $30,000 at the northeast comer of Fayette and Holliday streets, adjoining the Theater on the south, from designs by Col. Nich. Rogers, with Messrs. Robert C. Long and others as builders. Some of the curious invitations to these functions printed upon the backs of playing- cards are still in existence. It was a spacious and well-appointed building, and its pleasing and pretentious architecture (as portrayed upon the Map of 1801) shows the rapidly developing taste of the citizens for buildings 86 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE of fine proportions, as already conspicuous in the many imposing homes about the city. When it was superseded by the "New Assembly Rooms" at Lombard and Hanover streets, the old building was used for the Male High School until under the name of the Baltimore City College this was removed to another site. Perhaps the most notable and characteristic feature of the Baltimore of the period (as depicted on the Map of 1801) is the fact that while there are four public buildings, three markets, two banks, and one or two pri- vate enterprises like the Assembly Room, the Theatre, and the Observa- tory on Federal Hill, there are fourteen churches, or as many as all the public buildings put together — one each of the Quaker, English Presby- terian, German Calvinist, German Reformed, German Lutheran, Men- nonist, and Baptist persuasions, two Protestant Episcopal, two Roman Catholic, and three Methodist. This number and diversity of places of worship is as significant as it has been characteristic of Baltimore ever since. It is the reflection of the welcoming influences which brought the early settlers to the region of the Patapsco where they could find freedom of worship as nowhere else, even in Maryland. The Catholic influence was predominant upon the Potomac, the Puritan upon the Severn. When the Quakers, the earliest settlers of Baltimore county, arrived, they found a haven upon the Patapsco, and were speedily joined by Puritan and Scotch Calvinist emigrants, and a little later, by the adherents of the Reformed movement which established the strong German church societies in the Town. The Church of England, which had been made the established Church in 1692, was early organized as St. Paul's parish in this region. Its first church begun in 1739 on "St. Paul's Hill," was now succeeded (in 1801) by the second "St. Paul's," built in 1784, and for which the existing rec- tory, then known as the "parsonage," was erected. The Second Episcopal Church at this time was "Christ's Church" at the northwest comer of Baltimore and Front streets. It had been purchased in 1796 from the German Reformed congregation which became involved in difficulties in its erection. The most venerable place of worship in the vicinity was the Quaker meeting-house built in 1714 and used until 1781 on the Harford Road. The site, now marked by a low granite shaft, lies within the picturesque stone-wall (north of the Belt line) adjoining "Homestead," the Patterson estate on the east, and opposite to "Qifton," the country-seat of Johns Hopkins, whose Quaker kinsfolk lie buried in the shadow of the former log meeting-house. The "Patapsco Meeting," whose records begin in 1688, had removed from this site in 1781 to the Town meeting-house at Aisquith and Fayette, which as the parent society has remained in existence ever since. The Lombard Street meeting-house was erected in 1805 ^7 John Sinclair, architect, for the members on the west side of the city. The strong Calvinistic influence which brought many of the Scotch- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE . 87 Irish settlers to this region was organized into a church for which a site was purchased, and the original meeting-house built about 1763 on East Fayette street near North. A brick church was built about 1772 at the northwest comer of Fayette and North, by Dr. John Stevenson, William Lyon, John Smith, William Buchanan, William Spear, James Sterrett and others. This was succeeded by the fine "Two Steeple Church" erected in 1 79 1, which was the First Presbyterian Church at the beginning of the century, and until the church removed in 1859 to its present beautiful Gothic structure at Park avenue and Madison street. The German Lutheran and German Reformed congregations are said to have worshiped together until 1758, when the former built on Fish street (now Saratoga) a church which was succeeded by another on the same site in 1773, and this by a third structure in 1808 on North Gay street. The First German Reformed Church was built about 1758 on Charles street opposite St. Paul's, with Rev. Christian Faber as pastor. A divi- sion arising, the original society built a second church at Baltimore and Front streets, which was sold to the Episcopal church in 1796, and they then built on Second street, while the opposition members had withdrawn and, under Rev. Philip Otterbein, built the German Reformed Church in Conway street near Sharpe about 1784. This, as the **Otterbein Church," remains the oldest Church in Baltimore, and the only one now standing which was in existence in 1801. The place of worship of the Baptist Church, in 1801 was the meeting- house built in 1773 by Messrs. Griffith, McKim, Presstman and Lemmon, and sustained by members of the Harford Church, a branch of the mother- church at Sater's Ridge. In this church, which stood at Fayette and Front streets upon the site of the present shot-tower, was organized in 1785 the first Baptist Church in Baltimore, which remained there until the erection of the classic structure modeled after the Roman Pantheon in 1817, at Lombard and Sharpe streets. The first Roman Catholics in the Town had consisted principally of the French Acadians who arrived in 1756 and were sheltered in Mr. Fot- terall's deserted house, and occasionally mass was celebrated here. About 1770 St. Peter's Church was begun on land given by Mr. Carroll, at Sara- toga and Charles streets, but owing to the Revolution it was not completed until 1783, when the first resident pastor Rev. Charles Sewall became priest. Under the labors of Rev. John Carroll, St. Peter's was built up, and a larger church being required, the second, St. Patrick's, being too remote at Fell's Point, the Cathedral was begun in 1806 and completed in 182 1, in which most of the principal Councils of the church have been held. The fact that there were three Methodist churches in the Town in 1801, so soon after the organization of the Church in America in 1784, seems to require some explanation apart from the fact that Robert Straw- bridge formed the first Society in America in Maryland about 1762. Two churches had been simultaneously begun in 1773; ^"^ ^t Fell's Point by 88 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Richard Moale, Jesse HoUingsworth and John Woodward, and the other in the Town, on Lovely Lane (German street) by William Moore and Philip Rogers, the latter of which was completed first and dedicated in October, 1774, by Captain Webb, a local preacher and an officer of the British army. The society which had been begun under Wesley's fol- lowers, clergy of the English Church, when most of these returned home at the Revolution, except Francis Asbury, found a wide field for activity, as there were few left to administer the sacraments. When America achieved political independence it led to an immediate desire for inde- pendence in church relations, and many who would otherwise have been deprived of the sacraments connected themselves with the new Society which, when it was organized as the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, December, 1784, in the Lovely Lane Chapel, numbered 15,000 members and 84 native ministers. In 1801, in addition to the churches mentioned, the church on Exeter street had been built in 1789 and Light Street Church had been erected in 1797 on the site of Cokesbury College which, with the first Light Street Church, had been destroyed by fire the previous year. This college was the first classical institution of learning in the Town, and had been rebuilt in Baltimore after its destruction by fire at Abingdon in 1795, where it was established nearly ten years before. The century-old bell which hung in Cokesbury College and which greeted Washington on his way through AlMi^don to be inaugurated President, now (1912) calls to chapel daily, the students of Goucher College, adjoin- ing the First Methodist Episcopal Church, the lineal successor of the Lovely Lane Chapel of 1774. The second destruction of Cokesbury Col- lege by fire with a total loss of $40,000, while it deferred the establish- ment of another college, did not lessen the interest in education. A private Academy was begun, and in 1801 the Male Free School of Baltimore was organized in the Lig^t Street parsonage, and there remained until removed to a new building on Courtland street in 1812. The Asbury Sunday School, the oldest in the city, was also conducted in this building and provided secular as well as religious instruction for those in need of it. The growing interest in the cause of local education is shown in the establishment about this time of St. Mary's Seminary on Paca street, by the R<Hnan Catholic Church which provided theological as well as liberal education for many who became prcxninent in the after-life of the city. The intellectual life of the community was well served by the Library Company established by prominent citizens in 1795, whose collection kept upon the lower floor of the Assembly Rooms was later preserved in the Maryland Historical Society. The wealth and enterprise of the city had led to a desire for more adornment in the matter of public buildings, which was observed in the building of the new Union Bank of Maryland which had been organized in 1804 with William Winchester, president, as an additional place of deposit for the abundant returns received by the merchants for their extensive HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 89 cargoes. It was one of the first buildings of the notably classic design for which the architect Mr. Robert Cary Long became eminent, and which created an epoch in the architectural advance of the city. The structure was of brick, and stood back from the street, surrounded by trees, at the southeast corner of Charles and Fayette streets, and with its quaint g^ard-houses and fine sculptures in marble, executed by Messrs. Qievalier Andrea and Franzoni, was recalled with much regret when it gave place to the need for space in this busy section. The classic influence so prevalent in the Maryland and Chesapeake manor-houses of the period was introduced even more conspicuously into Mr. Long's next design for the University of Maryland, the choice columnar facade of which has given pleasure to many generations of citizens who have passed the century-old structure, still located at the comer of Lombard and Greene streets. The idea of a medical school had been early advanced by Dr. John B. Davidge, who gave lectures on anatomy and surgery at an Anatomical Hall he had erected about 1800 near the southeast comer of Liberty and Sara- toga streets. The hall was, however, demolished by the hostile populace, and the lectures were continued at the County Almshouse until joined by Doctors James Cocke and John Shaw, who had previously given lectures upon physiology and chemistry. These progressive men applied to the Legislature for the privilege of establishing a medical college, and of rais- ing funds by lottery for the hall on Lombard street, which was begun in 1806, and the foundations of the future University of Maryland thus laid. Dr. Shaw, who died shortly after, was succeeded as professor of chemistry by Dr. Elisha DeButts, and the faculty was completed by Dr. N. Potter as professor of the theory and practice of medicine, and Dr. Samuel Baker, of materia medica. Baltimore's precedence in medical science was already well estab- lished by Dr. Henry Stevenson's progressive and disinterested labors in introducing inoculation for small-pox, and the use of his own stately home as a hospital, as early as 1768. The use of vaccine by Dr. Jenner of Austria in 1796, having become well known, Mr. William Taylor in 1801 received from his brother Mr. John Taylor then in London a supply of the newly discovered vaccine which at the instance of Dr. James Smith, the Maryland Legislature was the first in America to provide for its dis- tribution at the expense of the State. A free dispensary was established for the treatment of the indigent and sick, which was incorporated in 1807 as the Baltimore General Dispensary. This institution has just com- pleted the present year (1912) a substantial modem stmcture for its benefi- cent work, at Fayette and Paca streets. It is interesting to note that the site used as early as 1801, for a City Hospital (14) at the junction of what was then Market street (Broadway) and the old Philadelphia road, should have been the spot devoted to the healing art ever since, and now made historic by the location of the Johns 90 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Hopkins Hospital, which has given Baltimore its world-wide preeminence in this department of science. The study of art and anatomy went hand in hand in these days ; and our earliest artists were also our leading anatomists, scientists and found- ers of museums. Charles Willson Peale, the noted Maryland painter who had obtained wide reputation as the ''Artist of the RevoluticHi/' and had now produced most of a splendid collection of 269 historical scenes and portraits including fourteen of Washington that were unrivaled even by Gilbert Stuart, in 1801 added another record to his fame. At the urgent appeal of Baron Von Humboldt, the great German naturalist, Peale, who had informed him of some gigantic bones dug up at Newburg on the Hudson, proceeded at much labor and personal expense in 1801, to the excavation of the two great skeletons of the prehistoric mammolii remains he found there. The remarkable scene of this excavation with its more than fifty figures, eighteen of them portraits of his family and of the scientific men of the day, Peale portrayed upon a six-foot canvas entitled the "Exhuming of the First American Mastodon," in 1807, for the Phila- delphia Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was the founder. This paint- ing was owned later by the Baltimore Museum and by Lloyd Rogers and Dr. Reuling. One of the skeletons became the nucleus of Peale's Museum, which he opened in Philadelphia in 1802, the first natural history museum in America. The other was exhibited by his son, the artist, Rembrandt Peale, to scientific men in Europe in 1803, and created wide comment, as it was the first c<Hnplete skeleton known of this extinct animal ante- dating man, and over 10,000 years old, and Peale's find thus proved an important scientific discovery. Raphael and Rembrandt Peale, his enterprising sons, had for some years previous stimulated artistic and scientific interest by the opening of the Baltimore Museum where they exhibited ''sixty-four portraits of illustrious men distinguished in the Revolution," as well as "upwards of two hundred preserved birds, beasts, amphibious animals, fishes, and also Indian's dresses, ornaments, and utensils for civil and military life, etc." Raphael Peale left Baltimore in 1800, after painting "seventy-two minia- tures since his arrival." Rembrandt on his return from Europe found the interest so great in the stupendous skeleton he had exhibited, which weighed 1,000 pounds and was 31 feet long from tusks to tail (a dinner- party having been given in its capacious frame), that he returned to Bal- timore and began about 1813 the building from a design by Robert Gary Long on Holliday street near Lexington, which still bears upon its notable facade the faded legend "Baltimore Museum, erected by Rembrandt Peale, 1813-1830." The lighting of this "saloon of paintings" by "carburetted hydrogen gas," made upon the premises at Mr. Peak's individual enterprise, liie first building so lighted in the city, was announced by Peale in the papers of June 13, 1816, by a notice, witii the then startling heading: "GAS LIGHTS HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 91 —WITHOUT OIL, TALLOW, WICK OR SMOKE." A Gas Light Com- pany consisting of Rembrandt Peale, Robert C. Long, James Mosher, William Lurman, and William Gwynn, the editor of The Gazette, was chartered Feb. 5, 1817, and live years after London started the premier gas enterprise of the world, Baltimore by reason of the efforts of these pro- gressive men became the first city in America lighted by gas. The cost of Peak's Musetmi, over $14,000, seriously involved him in debt. The build- ing was purchased for the City Hall in 1830, and the Museum removed to the northwest comer of Baltimore and Calvert streets, where it was bought in 1845 by ^^ famous showman P. T. Barnum and later run in con- conjunction with a Theatre which became the training-school for the best actors in the country, including Jefferson, Owens, Clarke, Booth, Wallack, Charlotte Cushman and others. It was destroyed by fire in 1873, and the site then sold to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, is now (1912) occupied by the Emerson Hotel. The initiative and foresight of the leading citizens, whose ships sailed every sea was proverbial at this early period. No enterprise in civic improvement was too casual or unimportant to enlist their interest and personal undertaking. Since Clopper's "Deep Spring^' had been surrounded by the wharves at South Charles and Camden streets, it was determined not to lose the fine natural springs on North Calvert street at Saratoga, where at John Frazier's shipyard vessels were launched in the early days. Accordingly, Jesse HoUingsworth and Peter Hoffman obtained authority in 1810 to purchase the springs and ground for $7,500, and the famous old "City Spring and Square" was constructed there at a cost of $20,000 which, with the fountain and monument erected in honor of Colonel Armi- stead, became the social resort and recreation place of the city's fashion- able life for many a long year afterward, and until the site was occupied by the City Hospital. The Western and Eastern Fountains, Clopper's and Sterrett's springs (South Charles street, and Central Avenue Square) were also purchased in 1819 and improved for the city. So much depend- ence was placed upon these fine natural springs, that the effort to obtain a r^^ular water-supply was intermittent, until systematically provided for as will be described later on. The use of the abundant water power of the city's streams was found one of its chief assets in the new manufacturing arts now made possible by freedom from England's hampering restrictions. Up to this time cot- ton goods for personal wear were little known, linens and woolens being the principal fabrics worn. The Union Manufacturing Company was formed in 1808 to manufacture cotton goods on an extensive scale near the old fiour-milling center, EUicott's Mills on the Patapsco. This was followed the next year by the Washington Company on Jones Falls, the Powhatan Works on Gwynn's Falls, with the Franklin, Independent, and Warren Company on the Gunpowder, following in quick succession, as the demand for these materials called for an increased supply. In 1814, Messrs. 92 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Robert and Alexander McKim had erected works on French street not far from Hanson's old mill, and in this pioneer mill locality they employed the newly applied steam power instead of the water power of the Falls. Mr. Gwinn also introduced steam power into a flour mill, as did Mr. Job Smith into a saw-mill at Chase's wharf. The invention of the steam- boat in 1785 by James Rumsey, the Maryland engineer, and superintendent of Washington's Potomac Navigation Company, had proven such a suc- cess in Fulton's recent experiments with the Clermont on North river, that William McDonald had ordered the first Baltimore steamboat, the Chesapeake, built in 1813 for his line of packets to Frenchtown on Elk river. This epoch-making steamboat, which was still prudently supplied with the old reliable sail in front of the little smdke-stack and paddle- wheel, for use in emergencies, is advertised by a quaint reproduction in the Federal Gazette of the period. It left Bowley's wharf, and was met at Frenchtown by stage-coaches which conveyed the passengers sixteen miles across to New Castle on the Delaware, where another steamboat, the Delaware, transported them to Philadelphia. Before this revolutionary change in transportation had had time to seize upon the enterprising thought of the keen shipping merchants of the port, and while the noisy little craft was busily puffing its way between the lofty-white-sailed schocmers whose skippers watched its antics with amused attention, there had arrived from Congress the stem but welcome mandate which turned these white-winged doves of commerce into swift, avenging couriers of war. The President's proclamation cleared their gun-decks for action and raised their sails to yard-arms, like the call of soldiers to "Attention," while the long furled ensign "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights" floated to the breeze in the resolute conflict in which the ""Baltimore clippers" won foremost place in the defense of the republic, and the final assertion and achievement of national independence. This righteous war was brought about by a long series of despotic events cen- tering in an attack upon a vessel of the same name as the little steamboat, and launched upon the same waters of the Patapsco— the ill-fated frigate Chesapeake. This unprovoked attack, the sequel to many others, had stirred America to a demand for redress and retribution. The truth of Franklin's prophecy that the American war which closed with the surrender of Comwallis was but the War of Rebellion, and that we should yet have to fight a War for Independence, had become more manifest with each succeeding year of the new century. America had achieved political freedom from Great Britain. She found she must fight once again to secure conunercial independence. England not only deplored the surrender of the political control of the colonies, but she resented keenly the immense loss of customs revenue, and was cut to the quick by the new conunercial rivalry of her hitherto subject colonies. No part of colonial America had contributed so largely to British revenues or to the upbuilding of England's commerce and navy as had HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 93 the tobacco trade of the Chesapeake. How considerable was this loss of revenue is shown by the fact that there was paid into the United States Treasury in 1800 from the receipts at the Baltimore Custom House alone, the sum of $i>032,990, which increased to $1,611,164 in 1808, with a sudden drop to $136,580 in 1814, when by the blockade of the Chesapeake and the attack upon Baltimore, England sought to avenge herself for the bitter losses she had sustained. Although, by the restrictions of the Navigation Act and the exclusive monopoly of Maryland and Virginia tobacco for the European market, she had kept the Chesapeake trade in bonds to her interests, she had found it impossible to restrain the natural inclination of its people to trade and navigation. In spite of her burdensome exactions this magnificent water- way, with Baltimore its chief port at the head of the Bay, had bred a fearless race of seamen and of expert ship-builders, who, for the time, contented themselves with the skillful seamanship of the coastwise and West Indian trade. This was later extended by the wheat trade to Medi- terranean and European ports, and in the able training of such men as Barney, Rodgers, Porter, Sterrett, Boyle, Barnes and a host of others, placed them in the vanguard of the splendid defense of the Atlantic coast in the War of 1812. "The Baltimore clipper" which they early commanded was the per- fection of the swift "top-sail" schooner, so deftly handled that it literally "walked upon the wave." The Revolution and the European wars had taught the Baltimore ship-builder that speed rather than bulk was the desideratum; that his craft must elude capture and "show her heels" to the enemy, and trust to her speed to make her cargo safe. He accordingly fashioned her after nature's best nautical model, the waterfowl of the Bay, the swan and duck, "full forward and off aft," "a cat-fish head and a mackerel tail," as the old Baltimore ship-builders termed it; and with these approved lines, trusted her with complacence to the wave and found he was not mistaken in her sailing qualities. The special feature of the Baltimore clipper was its "top-sails." It was these lofty top-sails which proved the Englishman's undoing, if he was so fortunate as to capture a Baltimore prize. He had not the nerve or the wit to manage them, and frankly confessed that he invariably cut down the top-masts, put up bulk-heads and navigated her like the steady hulks to which he was accustomed. These Baltimore clipper-schooners were the craft which invaded England's very harbors in 1812 and made the hazard of the sea so great that insurance was repeatedly refused her vessels for the first time in history. The clipper-schooner with its two masts, and its high top-masts was later supplanted by the larger brigan- tine model, or the clipper-ship for trade, square-rigged, staunch and steady, but still the fleetest craft afloat. "No one cause has contributed so much to the rise of Baltimore as this description of vessel, and it is remarkable," says a competent author- 94 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ity, "that they have never been successfully imitated outside of the Chesa- peake Bay. The ingenious construction of the Water Witch and the Skimmer of the Sea developed a race of hardy and adventurous mari- ners, who handled their craft with a skill peculiar to the great estuary of Maryland." The greatest daring and ingenuity of these Baltimore sailors were to be brought into play to offset the unlawful demands and encroach- ments of England upon what should have been after the Revolution a fully enfranchised American trade. In addition to England's direct loss of customs revenue, the conflict with .Napoleon kept her ships involved in war and diverted her carrying trade to America, which thus again profited at her expense. England's obnoxious press-gangs and other devices to supply her ships, alienated her seamen, and they deserted at every opporttmity to the better-treated Ameri- can marine. The English commanders, thereupon, held up American mer- chantmen to search for deserters or to impress American seamen to recruit their navy. Since 1803, it was said that, British cruisers had not only captured more than 900 American vessels, but had seized over 6,000 Ameri- can sailors. So gross became the affronts that these seizures occurred not only on the ocean, but in our immediate harbors. The worst of these outrages was the ''affair of the Chesapeake," which occurred June 23, 1807, at a time of profound peace. The Chesapeake, a United States frigate, built and launched at De Rochebrun's shipyard, Fell's Point, Baltimore, in 1800, had just left Hampton Roads under Commodore James Barron of Virginia, to complete the chastisement of the Barbary pirates who ex- acted tribute of American vessels in the Mediterranean. She was closely followed by the Leopard, one of the vessels of a British squadron that were watching for some French frigates which had taken refuge at An- napolis. An entire boat's crew of the British ship Halifax had deserted at Norfolk, and Admiral Berkeley had ordered his captains to search the Chesapeake to see if any of the deserters were aboard her. No sooner had the Chesapeake gotten out to sea, when, before she could be put in fighting trim, and, as Barron afterward confessed, while she was entirely "unprepared and unsuspicious," an officer of the Leopard insisted on board- ing her to "deliver despatches," but in reality to search for deserters. When Barron refused to let his crew be mustered for inspection, Captain Humphreys of the Leopard poured a broadside into the Chesapeake, which was followed within fifteen minutes by three additional broadsides. Three American seamen were killed, and eighteen wounded, including the Com- modore. As the Chesapeake was unable to return a shot, Barron ordered his flag hauled down. The captain of the Leopard refused to receive the Chesapeake as a prize, replying that, as he had taken off four deserters, he had fulfilled the admiral's orders. Three of these men, who were sen- tenced to a severe lashing, were afterwards found to be Americans, and through Minister Pinkney's intervention were dramatically restored to the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 95 Chesapeake in Boston harbor in 1812, in time to avenge the gross abuse in the war against Great Britain. Deprived of his flag, disgraced and humiliated, Gnnmodore Barron returned to Hampton Roads, with his crew cut to the quick by this insult to their honor. The affair was never forgiven nor forgotten by the Ameri- can people. The excitement was intense and the country felt the premoni- tion of war. In Baltimore, where the Chesapeake had been so proudly launched a few years before, a town-meeting was held and a vigorous appeal sent to the President to end this disgraceful state of affairs. Jeffer- son, who was opposed to another struggle, ordered all British vessels to leave our waters, and for a time the excitement was allayed. Barron, who was suspended for five years for ''lack of preparation, and for sur- render without having fired a shot," felt himself a victim of circumstances. The saddest sequel to the unfortunate affair came later when he challenged Commodore Decatur, his successor in command of the Chesapeake, and his harshest critic in the court-martial, and left this brave naval hero dead on the duelling ground at Bladensburg, the latest victim to this long-rankling episode of national dishonor. In England, Berkeley and Humphreys were warmly upheld. The mouthpiece of the British foreign office, the Morning Post, vauntingly said : "A few short months of war would convince these desperate politi- cians of the folly of measuring the strength of a rising but still infant and puny nation, with the colossal power of the British Empire." But the "colossal" effrontery and aggressions of this power became so intol- erable that before long there seemed no alternative to Jefferson and the peace-loving Republicans but war. By repeated "Orders in Council," England declared the coast of the Continent under blockade ; and Napoleon retaliated with the famous Berlin and Milan decrees, blockading the coast of Great Britain. All neutral trade or vessels to these ports became forfeit. The heaviest risks and penalties of war thereby fell upon America, the one maritime nation which was at peace with all the rest, and absolute ruin menaced our commerce. As proclamations were cheaper and safer than war, Jefferson decided to indulge in a counter demonstration. He issued an embargo in December, 1807, six months after the "Chesapeake affair," on all shipping from Ameri- can ports. This measure was bitterly opposed by New England, which, having but little agriculture, depended upon her shipping and carrying trade as her means of livelihood. The English and French "orders" and "decrees" had imposed great risks upon her commerce, but the embargo, she claimed, suppressed it altogether. The embargo was made the subject of much ridicule, and the name reversed to read in derision, the "O-grab-me Act." Jefferson had done his best to keep the country from entering upon warfare. With his retirement, the embargo and his cherished gun-boat policy of defense were abandoned; fifty-two of the gun-boats being laid up at New York. Congress repealed the embargo and substituted non- 96 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE intercourse with France and Great Britain. To protect our trade with other countries, Madison placed the old vessels of the navy, as soon as they were overhauled, in commission again, and the navy was reorganized with sixteen vessels and 3,000 seamen. Commodore John Rodgers was placed in command of the North Atlantic division, and Captain Decatur, of the South division. These capable commanders, both of them Chesa- peake-bred and fresh from their victories over the Barbary pirates, saw to it that the new navy was efficiently manned and prepared by valuable practice cruises for the conflict which it was evident could not be much longer avoided. After one of these cruises, Rodgers arrived at Annapolis and exchanged the Constitution, his flag-ship for some years, for thr President, of 58 guns, handing over the Constitution, her officers and crew^ to Captain Isaac Hull, of Massachusetts, whose capture of the Guerriere was to make the Constitution famous at the outbreak of the war. When Congress substituted non-intercourse with France, and Great Britain in place of the embargo, it was with the understanding that which- ever nation should repeal its offensive decrees against neutral commerce would be at liberty to resume trade with the United States. France, with wily discretion, promised to revoke its "decrees" by Nov. ist, 1810, if the English "orders" be revoked at the same time. William Pinkney of Bal- timore, United States minister to England (and brother-in-law of Com- modore Rodgers), so informed the British government, only to be told that the English orders would be revoked ''after the French revocation should have actually taken place." This was an evident subterfuge. Eng- land was resolved to suppress American commerce until her ships were free to resume the carrying trade of the world. Her vindictive purpose was so apparent that further negotiations were useless. Pinkney's ardent patriotism, which had been repeatedly incensed by his long experience with England's duplicity, would stand no more. He demanded his recall by Madison and promptly took "inamicable leave" of England. Since France promised redress and England refused it; since England had captured over a thousand American vessels and impressed more than 6,000 American seamen ; ^* since England had violated the Treaty of Peace of 1783, and for thirty years had refused to surrender the military outposts on our western frontiers from which she supplied the Indians with arms,, and incited them to attacks upon our settlements, it seemed time to call a halt to idle negotiations and humiliating concessions, and proceed to war. As Franklin had plainly foreseen, we must make good our claim to independence. We must wrest freedom from interference from Great Britain on the high seas where she considered herself supreme. It was no light task, but the young Republic, with its new navy and its long-suppressed merchant-marine, was tingling for the encounter. A foretaste of what American seamanship could do was afforded the * The number of complaints filed with the Secretary of State before the war was 6,257, with probably several thousand cases never registered. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 97 year before war broke out, when the Secretary of the Navy determined to give England a timely arrest of thought. The British ship Guerriere was said to have forcibly impressed an American seaman. Commodore Rodgers in ccMnmand of the President was accordingly sent to search for the vessel and mete out a proper reckoning. When Rodgers hailed a vessel he thought might be the Guerriere^ he received a cannon-ball in the mainmast. After other shots had been exchanged Rodgers thought it time to administer a wholesome rebuke for the last affront, and also the similar affair of the Chesapeake. He thereupon responded with a broadside which silenced the enemy's guns. When daylight dawned, he found the hostile ship was the British sloop-of-war, Little Belt, on which eleven men had been killed and twenty-one wounded. She refused any assistance and sailed for home, claiming the President had fired the first shot. Each government accepted the version of its own officers, and there the matter rested. America exulted over Rodgers' punishment of the Little Belt. Madi- son appeared, however, resolved upon nothing but "peaceful warfare," and the newspapers, instead of the administration, took the lead in demand- ing justice and the cessation of the outrages upon our seamen. Of these, the Weekly Register, edited by Hezekiah Niles of Baltimore, "stood in a class by itself for its energy, high literary merit and its broadminded and judicious summary of the news of the world," and especially of the pend- ing situation. No one was so rigorously consistent in the defense of our rights at this time as this patriotic Baltimore editor who was, in truth, a flaming sword in the demand for the prosecution of a just and righteous war. On November 2, 1811,^* Niles wrote: "We are so accustomed to hear of British impressment that our acuteness of feeling has become blunted and our sailors have begun to make a kind of calculation upon it. How base and degrading! How inconsistent 'with our pretensions to sover- eignty and independence I But there are thousands in the United States who justify or palliate the practice; and to this turpitude must be attributed, in some degree, the want of energy in the government in behalf of injured society. ... I do not believe there is a single British vessel upon the ocean that is not partly manned with impressed Americans, many of whom have been detained for eight or ten or twelve years. ... I am not disposed to imitate the conduct of the loth or nth Congress^ I hope the 12th will act/" The new Congress found it needs must act. It was composed of fear- less young leaders, "patriotic by inheritance, and self-reliant by force of circumstances." They had seen the nation grow as at a bound since the Revolution and believed the young Republic capable of any undertaking. John Randolph ridiculed the flight of the "war-hawks," while New Eng- land derided the need of war unless in case of invasion. To all of these attacks, Henry Clay and young Calhoun replied: "The question . . . is reduced to this single point: Which shall we do, abandon, or defend our rights, commercial and maritime, and the personal liberties of our ■•Niles* Register, I., 147. 98 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE citizens employed in exercising them? These rights are attacked, and war is the only means of redress." William Pinkney of Maryland, who had returned from his mission to England, was now Attorney General. He drafted the declaration of war, which consisted of the single, direct and explicit sentence — "that war be and the same is hereby declared to exist" between the United States and Great Britain. There was no mistaking the meaning of this ultimatum. Calhoun clinched the issue in the ringing sentence at the close of Congress : "The restrictive system as a mode of resistance . . . does not suit the genius of our people. . . . We have had a peace like a war; in the name of Heaven, let us not have the only thing that is worse — a war like a peace I" On the i8th of June, Congress declared war on Great Britain. All uncon- scious of this step, but because non-intercourse with America had reduced English exports by a third of their whole amount, five days later, the merchants of England forced the ministry to repeal the obnoxious orders in Council. When the news of repeal reached America, it was six weeks too late. Had Morse's telegraphic code, soon to be inaugurated between Baltimore and Washington, and later to become a world-wide system, been in operation, the war would probably never have occurred. New England bitterly denounced the war, and her Governors promptly refused to call out their militia. This was a curious anomaly in view of what her sailors had suffered from impressment, but was explained by the argument that she did not want to suffer more heavily. The lack of preparation was painfully apparent. The Federal Treasury was nearly empty from the loss of customs revenue by non-intercourse, and the army and navy seemed pitifully inadequate. With a regular army of but 6,700 men, and a host of raw recruits officered by decrepid Revo- lutionary veterans, America was to confront the highly trained English soldiers of the Spanish and Continental campaigns, fresh from victory over Napoleon, the greatest conquerer since Alexander. With a newly improvised navy of 16 vessels and 3,000 seamen, America was to contend against an imperial sea- force of 144,000 seasoned men, and nearly 1,000 vessels, two hundred of which were larger than any American craft. The navy had, however, in reserve a large number of the best-built craft and most expert seamen in the world in her merchant and fishing fleets, and these were to furnish the backbone of the war and the relentless force with which England was to meet her reckoning. The odds seemed so overwhelmingly against the feeble Republic that it was no wonder senti- ment was divided, and that the war was opposed by many as cruel, reck- less and a wanton hazard of life and property. As an evidence of this divided feeling it is interesting to note that while Baltimore-bred commanders and seamen like Commodore Rodgers and Captain Porter were the first to sea and the first into action, almost in the same hour occurred the first bloodshed of the war in this city, as a result of what was deemed the ill-advised declaration of war. On HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 99 June 20th, 1812, two days after the war was declared, and the day before Q>nunodore Rodgers sailed out of New York harbor with the American squadron in search of the English fleet from Jamaica to England, the excitement broke forth in Baltimore by reason of the following far too grim and graphic article in the Federal Republican, edited by Alexander Contee Hanson, grandson of the patriot John Hanson, the President of the Con- tinental Congress: "'Thou hast done a deed whereat valor will weep' Without funds, without taxes, without an army, navy or adequate fortifi- cations— with one hundred and fifty millions of our property in the hands of the declared enemy, without any of his in our power, and with a vast commerce afloat, our rulers have promulgated a war against the clear and decided sentiment of a vast majority of the nation." These sentiments were entirely too true to be palatable, or to afford comfortable reading. Moreover, since the government had declared war, as the only apparent redress for the long series of outrages and humilia- tions we had undergone, the common-sense of this maritime community which did not stop now for hair-splitting log^c, adopted as the only defen- sible slogan, "War — ^whether right or wrong." Anything else they deemed at this juncture to be treason. On the night of the 22nd, a mob sacked the office of the Federal Republican, a wooden building at Gay and Second streets — ^belonging to Robert Oliver and adjoining his fine residence — threw the presses, types and paper into the street and leveled the house to the ground. Hanson, upon the plea of sustaining the liberty of the press, and denouncing the policy of the administration and the complicity of the Mayor and municipal authorities therewith, issued five weeks later on July 27th, an even more virulent attack, from the house of his partner, Mr. Wagner, on South Charles street. He had fortified the house against attack, and some of his friends, including Gen. Henry Lee ('Xight Horse Harry," father of Robert E. Lee), General James M. Lingan, Messrs. Shroedcr, Thompson, Hoffman, Hall, Winchester, Warfield, Gaither, Nel- son, Kilgour, Musgrove, Murray and others stood loyally by him. As an assault seemed to be expected, the mob which had assembled saw to it that they were not disappointed. When on the breaking of some windows, a shot from the house killed a bystander, the crowd became infuriated. The surrender of the inmates to the military guard which appeared and conducted them to the jail for protection seemed to reconcile matters for the nig^t. The mob, mainly of ruffians and roustabouts, increased after dark. There being no adequate guard on duty, and the Mayor being forced away, the jail was broken open and a most brutal attack took place, which resulted in the death of General Lingan and the serious maiming of a number of the company. Mr. Hanson and his friends insisted later that, while their procedure might have been termed "rash and imprudent," it was "strictly and clearly lawful/' They were obliged to learn, however, that in the excited state of public opinion, some things which were "strictly lawful," were "clearly" not "expedient," and that 100 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE it was an exceedingly injudicious thing to defy public sentiment when aroused to the point of national resistance. The atrocities of the unreasoning mob left to itself by the incapacity or secret sympathy of the authorities brought about such a revolution in popular feeling that the Federalists were placed in power in the Assembly at the ensuing State election, and Mr. Hanson was returned a member of G>ngTess. The national peril and the imminence of danger soon obscured local differences and united the people in hearty cooperation for protection and defense. Had Baltimore been disposed to take a narrow view of the war, the loss inflicted on her conomerce would have justified her in the most serious opposition. Maryland's export trade, of which Baltimore furnished by far the most part, had been, as Randolph expressed it, like that of the nation, "embargoed and non-intercoursed into consimiption." It had fallen from $14,580,000 in 1806, to $4,500,000 in 181 1, and to $238,000 in 1814" after the blockade of the Chesapeake the previous year. Her seamen were, however, as will be seen, the first to sea and the first into action both upon the Government vessels and the privateers. Baltimore sent out more privateers and letters-of-marque than any other place. Her captures were nearly double those of all the Government vessels combined, and, in fact, nearly one-third of the total captures made. Out of a total of 1,634 British prizes captured, 254 were taken by the regular navy, later increased to 20 vessels, and 1,380 by the 250 Ameri- can privateers. Baltimore sent forth 61, or nearly one-fourth of the privateers** and letters-of -marque. These captured 476 prizes, or more than one-third of those taken by privateers. If to these be added the 41 prizes taken by Baltimore men in command of government vessels, the 19 captured by Commodore Rodgers* squadron, the i8 by the U. S. frigate Essex, Captain David Porter, and the 4 taken by the Chesapeake, there will be a total of 517 captures made by Baltimore vessels and men, which is not far from one-third of the entire number taken. This splendid show- ing with a list of her privateers, their skillful and daring commanders and captures is compiled from Niles' Register, from "An Authentick His- tory of the late War" by Paris M. Davis, 1829 (who was twice wounded at Bladensburg), and Captain George C. Coggeshall's "History of the American Privateers." Captain Coggeshall of New York was commander of two clipper-schooners during the war, the David Porter and the Leo, the latter of which he proudly terms a "fine Baltimore-built vessel, a re- "Babcock, Amer. Nation Series, vol. 13, p. 134. ■•Davis gives Baltimore 47 privateers, to which Coggeshall, who was personally acquainted with many of their commanders, adds 14. Coggeshall also reckons the total captures as near 2,000. The comparative number of privateers and private armed vessels sent out by other leading coastwise cities is given by Coggeshall as follows: New York, 55; Salem, 40; Boston, 32; Philadelphia, 14; Portsmouth, N. H., 11; Charleston, 10; Marblehead, 4; Bristol, R. I., 4; Portland, 3; Norfolk, 2; New Orleans, 2; Providence, i; Washington, i. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE loi markably fast sailer, and in every respect a superior model." However, after he had taken a number of prizes, he was forced to surrender the Leo by reason of a defective foremast which broke just as he was about to board the English packet Granicus, Captain Wise, his captor, paid a frank and well-deserved tribute to the swift vessels which were bringing the British such frequent destruction and inglorious defeat. He remarked one day : ''Q^geshall, you Americans are a singular people as respects seamanship and enterprise. In England, we cannot build such vessels as your Baltimore clippers; we have no such models, and even if we had them, they would be of no service to us, for we never could sail them as you do. We have now and then taken some of your schooners with our fast sailing frigates. . . . We are afraid of their long masts, and heavy spars, and soon cut them down and reduce them to our stand- ard. We strengthen them, put up bulkheads . . . after which they lose their sailing qualities, and are of no further service as cruising ves- sels." These were the craft which enabled the Baltimore seamen to make the effective showing in the list on page 102. Two days after war was declared Commodore John Rodgers put to sea in charge of the American squadron, with Captain David Porter, his gallant comrade in the capture of the French Insurgente and the stirring blockade of Tripoli a close second, in command of the frigate Essex. Rodgers did not overtake the English merchant fleet on its way from Jamaica to England, but encountered the British frigate Belvidera which he attacked. A gun bursting on the President hurled the forecastle deck with Rodgers in the air and wounded several seamen. The Belvidera returned the fire with considerable effect, but when the President got into action again, the Belvidera cut her cables, threw over her boats and escaped to Halifax, where she reported the news of the war and that the American cruisers were out in force. Captain Vere Broke in the Shannon in charge of the British squadron was forthwith sent to destroy Rodgers, whom he failed to find. The Essex under Captain Porter took several prizes, one a transport filled with British soldiers, which was equivalent to a victory on a battle- field. She was fired upon by the Alert of 20 guns. As her carronades were not suited to long-distance firing, she waited till the enemy approached then suddenly opened her broadside, and eight minutes later the Alert struck her colors. The first capture by a privateer was probably made by the Dash of Baltimore on July loth, when with the energy which its name implies this vessel under Captain Carroway captured in Hampton Roads the Brit- ish government schooner Whiting with dispatches from Great Britain to the United States, its captain being unaware, up to that time, of the declaration of war. About the same day seven privateers sailed from*^ ''The first English prize that arrived at Baltimore was the British schooner Fanny, loaded with sugar valued at $18,000^ and sent in by the Dolphin on July 26th. I02 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Baltimore, including the Rossie commanded by the intrepid Commodore Barney. Within four months there were forty-two of the same swift and resolute craft upon the seas from this port. These first encounters of the earliest vessels to get to sea proved the Baltimore seaman a match for any British foe. The first of the four great sea-duels proved the Baltimokb Privateers and Letters-of-Marque with Names of Their Commanders AND Number of Prizes Taken in War of 1812 vessel Amelia America Ai:go Baltimore Bona Caroline Chasseur Comet Clara Dash Ddisle Diamond Dolphin Enterprise Expedition Fairy Falcon Fox Globe Grampus Harpy Harrison Hornet Highflyer Ida Joseph & Mary.. Kemp Lawrence Leo Leander CAPTAIN Richardson. Dameron.. Almeda. . . Boyle Boyle Carroway. . Stafford... Wilson Jack Murphy... Murphy. . . Nichols. . . . Frost Gavet Westoott.. Jacobs .... Veasy Coggeshall. prizes 21 I 2 29 27 29 2 I 2 I 7 I 4 2 Taken 2 7 7 13 8 7 I 16 15 14 I 220 VESSEL Lion Liberty Lottery Macedonian .... Mammoth Midas. Ned Nonsuch Perry Patapsoo Pike Pilot Revenge Resolution Roger RoUa Rossie. Sabine Sarah Ann Saranac. Siro Sparrow Surprise Syren Tom Tuckahoe Zebec Ultor Wasp Whig York Transit CAPTAIN Pratt Southcomb. . Thompson Dawson. . . Levdy Coleman. . Mortimer.. MiUer. Dewley. Barney. Moon. Burch. . Barnes, Wilson Taylor Staples Richardson 220 15 6 Taken 28 10 I 4 24 3 13 3 9 I II 8 15 5 I 2 I 2 36 7 4 2 19 2 14 10 61 privateers capture prizes 476 * The prizes of a few of these vessels are not quoted. In addition to these, Niles' Register (Sept. 10, 1814) states that the Governor Tompkins, of New York, which was "chiefly owned in Baltimore/' had captured "fourteen enemy vessels in the British channel, besides six other prizes/' making twenty more prizes due largely to Baltimore capital and enterprise. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 103 expert training of the Chesapeake sailor. Captain Hull sailed out of the harbor of Annapolis July 12th, with the Constitution, handed over to him by Rodgers, well-manned by skilled Chesapeake seamen. After three days of most exciting pursuit, during which her crew were constantly in action, she escaped from the British squadron of five ships which had surrounded her, leaving them to account as best they could for the superior American seamanship which rankled deeply in the British sailor's breast. When soon after she chased the Guerriere into close quarters, within thirty minutes this fine frigate was "totally dismasted and cut to pieces and not worth towing into port," as Captain Hull reported, who thereupon ordered her blown up. He added proudly, "from the smallest boy to the oldest seaman not a look of fear was seen. They all went into action requesting to be laid close alongside the enemy." The Guerriere lost 79 men killed and wounded, and the Constitution seven killed and seven wounded. The London Courier had said but a short time before, "There is not a frigate in the American navy able to cope with the Guerriere." Now the London Times' lament was, "It is not merely that an English frigate has been taken . . . but that it has been taken by a new enemy unac- customed to such triumphs, and likely to be rendered insolent and confident by them. He must be a weak politician who does not see how important the first triumph is in giving a tone and character to the war. Never before in the history of the world did an English frigate strike to an American." Although this was the "first triumph," it was only the beginning. Commodore Stephen Decatur, a native of Maryland, ccwnmanding the frigate United States, captured the British packet Swallow with a large amount of specie, and soon after, the English frigate Macedonian of 49 guns and 300 men, of whom she lost 94 killed and wounded, while the United States lost 12. Seven impressed American seamen were found on board, two of whom were killed. Decatur received a great ovation in New York, where he took his prize. Congress presented him a gold medal, with a silver one for each of his officers. A member of Parliament inquired what was to be the result of these strange reverses, when the American navy of only "four frigates and a few sloops has captured two of our finest frigates with only two of theirs." In the first six months of the war the puny American navy had won six splendid victories over English cruisers, while in the same time nearly 300 merchantmen had been captured, most of them by privateers. Of these, the Baltimore vessels were plainly in the lead in numbers and aggressiveness. After a short cruise of forty-five days, ending August 3ath, Commodore Barney in his famous privateer Rossie had captured 15 vessels valued at $1,289,000 which, with additional prizes up to Nov. loth when he returned to Baltimore, gave him a reckoning of 217 pris- oners, and 3,689 tons of shipping valued at $1,500,000. The Rolla, Cap- tain Dewley, had captured 8 vessels, seven of them very rich prizes of the 104 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Cork fleet, worth, it is said, considerably over $2,000,000, with 150 pris- oners. The Comet, Captain Boyle; the Dolphin, Captain Stafford; the Globe, HighAyer, Nonsuch, Liberty, Wasp, Revenge and many others had spread terror wherever their daring exploits had carried them, while their brilliant captures and hair-breadth escapes read like a chapter from the "Arabian Nights." Captain Coggeshall, the New York commander, pays a generous tribute to Baltimore's leadership in this direction. ''When I call to mind the spirit and acts of the Baltimoreans during our last war with England, I am inspired with a feeling of esteem and veneration for them as a brave and patriotic people, which will endure with me to the end of my existence. During the whole struggle against an inveterate foe, they did all they could to aid and strengthen the hands of the general govern- ment, and generally took the lead in fitting out efficient privateers and letters-of-marque to annoy and distress the enemy, and even to 'beard the old lion in his den,' for it is well known that their privateers captured many English vessels at the very mouths of their own ports in the British channel." No matter how engrossed England was, perforce, at this juncture, in wresting European supremacy from France and Napoleon, these blows at her most vital interest, her commerce, were keenly felt, and the hour for retribution eagerly awaited. How closely the course of events was inter^ weaving the destinies of the two continents is seen by a glance at the dramatic occurrences which were hastening into collision the two chief combatants, England and America. As the discerning critic Green has said: "The moment when America entered into the great struggle was a critical moment in the history of mankind. Europe was in the throes of a mighty conflict, and the fate of America as well as of the Continent was involved in the outcome." A few days after Madison had declared war, and just as Rodgers and Porter issued forth to attack the British fleet in American waters. Napoleon entered Russia on his fatal march to Moscow. To punish the Czar for trade with England, he had withdrawn his best troops from the support of his brother Joseph, whom he had placed on the throne of Spain. The day Rodgers left New York harbor, and the day before the Baltimore mob demolished Hanson's office on Gay street (on June 21st), events happened which were to change the scene of activity for the chief actors, from Southern Europe to the region of the Chesapeake and the shores of the Patapsco. On this fateful day the Duke of Wellington flung an army of 60,000 Englishmen and Portuguese upon the depleted French forces in Spain and forced Joseph Bonaparte to flee from Madrid. The burning of Moscow, the fatal retreat of the French through the snow, left but a few survivors of the grand army of 400,000, which had fol- lowed Napoleon into Russia. The spell was broken. The surrender at Paris, his abdication and withdrawal to Elba, followed in quick succes- sion. In the hour of its triumph England's hopes of peace were dashed HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 105 by the repeated news of capture and defeat across the Atlantic. Now that her hands were free she would settle once for all the humiliating losses her ships had sustained, and teach the Americans the power of the Empire they had been rash enough to oppose. It was not the land defeats that annoyed her, for they were trifling compared to her naval losses, as the London Times, in alluding to the WcisP'Reindeer action, said: "It seems fated that the ignorance, incapac- ity and cowardice of the Americans by land should be continually relieved in point of effect upon the public mind by their successes at sea. To the list of their captures which we can never peruse without the most painful emotions is now to be added that of His Majesty's Ship, Reindeer." It is estimated by one writer that while only 6,000 prisoners were taken by our land forces in the War of 1812, fully 30,000 prisoners were taken by our sea forces.** The money value of the prizes of the Government vessels is estimated at $6,600,00, while that of the 1,300 captures of the privateers (at $30,000 each) is reckoned at $39,000,000. As the 190 prizes of 10 Baltimore privateers (the Amelia, Chasseur, Comet, Harpy, Kemp, Lawrence, Rolla, Rossie, Surprise, and York) were valued at $7,500,000, the worth of her remaining 286 prizes would have amounted, at this rate, to $8,580,000 or a total of over $16,000,000, nearly one-half of the value of all the privateer prizes won by the Baltimore vessels. England was well aware that the "nest of pirates" at the head of the Chesapeake was the conspicuous source of a large part of her humiliation and losses. While New England was but slightly annoyed, she blockaded the Chesapeake early in 1813, and the attacks of Admiral Cockbum and Sir Peter Parker upon its shores were brutal and frequent. The hazards of commerce at this time from the retaliation of American privateers in their own harbors became so excessive that in June, 1813, flour was sell- ing '^ in England at $58 a barrel, beef $38, and lumber at $72 a thousand feet ; and a British paper was forced to acknowledge : 'The depredations of the American privateers on the coast of Ireland and Scotland has produced so strange a sensation at Lloyds that it is difficult to get policies under- written, except at enormous rates of premium. Thirteen guineas for one hundred pounds," (about $70, to insure $500), "was paid to insure vessels across the Irish channel 1 Such a thing we believe never happened before !" To add to the indignity, and as a burlesque on the "paper blockades" of Admirals Warren and CxKhrane, declaring the whole coast of North America in a strict state of blockade, while Baltimore vessels were pass- ing in and out of the Chesapeake through the actual blockading fleet of Admiral Cockbum, — Captain Thomas Boyle adopted a most effective means of ridicule. Having himself captured on board the Comet, and the famous brig Chasseur, called the "Pride of Baltimore," 56 rich prizes, and terror- ized the British coast, — ^he had posted at Lloyd's Coffee-House, London, •Maclay, History of American Privateers (1898), preface, p. 8. ■•Maclay, History of Amer, Privateers, preface, p. 16. io6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE an ironical proclamation to the cflFect that "I do therefore, by virtue of the power and authority in me vested (possessing sufficient force), declare all the ports, harbors, bays, creeks, rivers, inlets, outlets, islands and sea- coast of the United Kingdcmi of Great Britain and Ireland, in a state of strict and rigorous blockade . . . And I do hereby caution and forbid the ships and vessels of all and every other nation, in amity and peace with the United States, from entering any of the said ports, etc., etc., under any pretence whatsoever . . . Given under my hand, on board the Chasseur. (Signed) Thomas Boyle." The audacity and appalling success of these American ships and their commanders in their own waters was such a turning of the tables, that British public opinion magnified their number and danger prodigiously. At a meeting of outraged merchants,'^ held in Glasgow on Sept. 7, 1814 (five days before the Battle of North Point), it was unanimously resolved: "That the number of privateers with which our channels have been infested, the audacity with which they approached our coasts, and the success with which their enterprise has been attended, have proved injurious to our commerce, humbling to our pride and discreditable to the directors of the naval power of the British nation, whose flag till of late waved over every sea and triumphed over every rival. That there is reason to believe that within the short space of twenty-four months above eight hundred vessels have been captured by that power whose maritime strength we have hitherto impolitically held in contempt. That at a time when ... in the plentitude of our power we have declared the whole American coast under blockade, it is equally distressing and mortifying that our ships cannot with safety traverse our own channels." Stung to the quick. Great Britain, who had proven herself victorious over the great conqueror Napoleon, was now at liberty to send, if need be, a thousand men-of-war to the chastisement of America. She had already dispatched two powerful war-ships, the Phoebe and Cherub, for the special purpose of capturing, at all hazards, the cruiser Essex which, under the intrepid Captain David Porter, had rounded Cape Horn alone, and by its captures of 12 British vessels had become the flagship of a victo- rious squadron which had destroyed the whale fishery and cut off British commerce to the extent of two and a half million dollars. Finding the Essex laid up for repairs in a neutral harbor, these two men-of-war bom- barded her until she was forced to surrender. Captain Porter wrote the Secretary of the Navy: "To possess the Essex, it has cost the British Government nearly six millions of dollars; and yet sir, her capture was owing entirely to accident . . . and the action is a dishonor to them." Baltimore and the Chesapeake, which had produced David Porter and scores of invincible men like him, were now to be the target for the first attack of the enemy. The following very unmistakable evidence of the British purpose is quoted in Niles' Register ^^ from a London paper of June 17: " Coggeshall, History of Amer. Privateers, p. 302. "Niles* Register, vol. VII, p. 25. The italics and capitals are Mr. Niles'. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 107 "It is understood that the grand expedition preparing at Bordeaux for America, under the gallant Lord Hill, is destined for the Chesapeake direct. Our little army in Canada will, at the same instant, be directed to make a movement in the direction of the Susquehannah ; and both armies will, therefore, in all probability, meet at Washington, Philadelphia or Baltimore. The seat of the American government, BUT MORE PARTICULARLY BALTIMORE, is to be the immediate object of attack. In the diplomatic circles it is also rumored that our naval and military commanders on the American station have no power to conclude any armistice or suspension of arms. They carry with them certain terms which will be offered to the American government at the point of the bayonet. . . . There is reason to believe America will be left in a much worse situation as a naval and commercial power than she was at the commencement of the war." Thus, as Captain Coggeshall in his loyal tribute to Baltimore stated: ''The whole venom of the modem Goths seemed concentrated against the BaltimoreanSy for no other reason but that they had too much spirit to sulxnit to insult and tyrannical expression." And then he adds, ''Many of our eastern people made a grand mistake in counting on the magnan- imity of the British nation to do them justice by mild and persuasive arguments. In making these remarks in praise of Baltimore I do not mean to disparage the noble patriotism of many other cities of our glorious union ; but I do mean to say that if the same spirit that fired the hearts and souls of the Baltimoreans had evinced itself throughout our entire country it would have saved every American heart much pain and mortification, and would, in my opinion, have shortened the war . . . When their own beautiful city was attacked by a powerful fleet and army, how nobly did they defend themselves against the hand of the spoiler!" It was the approach of this ''powerful fleet and army" for which the devoted city was now to prepare itself. From the journal of one of the officers of the expedition we learn of what the European portion of the fleet "" consisted. There was the Royal Oak of 74 guns, the flag-ship of Rear Admiral Malcombe, with General Robert Ross, commander-in-chief of the army on board; the Diadem and Dictator, two 64's; the Pomona, MeneUkus, Franc, Weser, and Thames, frigates; the Meteor and Devasta- tion, bomb-vessels ; with one or two gun-brigs, making in all a squadron of eleven or twelve ships of war, with several store-ships and transports. On board were the 4th, 44th and 85th regiments; the two former mustering 800 bayonets, the last about 600. With the brigade of artillery and other officers and men, the whole amounted to about 2,500 men. When the fleet reached Bermuda and found Sir Alexander GKhrane in H. M. Ship Royal Tonnant of 80 guns, captured from the French, wait- ing to command the expedition, they at last discovered "the secret of our destination ... the bay of Chesapeake is to be the theatre of our operations." Here they were reinforced by a squadron of six frigates and several transports from the Mediterranean, and also took on board "the 2ist Fusileers, a fine battalion of 900 bayonets." "George Robert Gleig, *'The British Army in America in 1814-181$" io8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE On August 14th they anchored at the mouth of the Chesapeake, and on entering were joined by Admiral Cockbum with three line-of-battle ships, several frigates, sloops of war and gun-brigs, by which the squad- ron now mustered ''above twenty vessels entitled to display the pennant, with an equal number of victuallers and transports, over forty in all. On board these ships was a "powerful re-inforcement for the army, a bat- talion of 700 marines, a division of marine artillery, besides a hundred negroes lately impressed and armed while G>ckbum had been in charge of his brutal blockade of the Chesapeake." "We were now become," as officer Gleig says exultingly, "an army formidable from its numbers as well as discipline . . . The sight was therefore altogether as grand and imposing as any I ever beheld; because one could not help remembering that this powerful fleet was sailing in an enemy's bay, and was filled with troops for the invasion of that enemy's country." Wherie the first and most strategic attack should be made and the rea- sons therefor are carefully set forth in a secret letter dated July 17, 1814,** in the Chesapeake, to Admiral Cochrane from Rear Admiral Cockbum, who had been blockading the Bay and terrorizing its shores ever since early the year before. In June, Cockbum's squadron had had a very exciting and memorable encounter in the Patuxent with the flotilla of Qmunodore Barney, the gallant captain of the Baltimore privateer Rossie, who had lately cap- tured 15 British prizes valued at $1,500,000. He was pursued into the Patuxent after chasing several of Cockbum's schooners until they sought refuge under the protection of the Dragon, a 74-gun ship, but he easily escaped by entering St. Leonard's Credc. From this vantage point he three times drove back his pursuers to the cover of their armed ships. Without the loss of a man, he riddled two of their schooners and wounded many on board, and then having forced them down the river, he pushed his flotilla higher up where the enemy was happy to leave him unmolested. Cockburn, in the meantime, became closely acquainted with the region and its accessibility to Washington. He evidently determined to have the flo- tilla punished and to secure an attack on Washington as soon as the expected re-inforcements arrived. He therefore writes Cochrane, the com- mander-in-chief: "The facility and rapidity . . . with which an army by landing at Benedict might possess itself of the Capital, always so great a blow to the Government of a country, as well on account of the resources as of the documents and records the invading army is almost sure to obtain thereby, must strongly, I should think, urge the propriety of the plan, and the more particularly as the other places you have mentioned will be more likely to fall after the occupation of Washington, than that city would be after their capture. Annapolis is tolerably well forti- •*This letter from the recently acquired Collection of Cockbum Papers in the Library of Congress is given in full in the Md. Hist or. Magazine for March, 191 1, vol. VI. p. 16. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 109 fied and is the spot from whence the American government has always felt Washington would be threatened if at all . . . and [is] not to be approached by our larger ships on account of shallowness of the water . . . Baltimore is likewise extremely difficult of access to us from the sea, we cannot in ships drawing above sixteen feet, approach nearer even to the mouth of the Patapsco than 7 or 8 miles, and Baltimore is situated 12 miles up, it having an extensive population, mostly armed and a fort for its protection ... on a projecting point where the river is so narrow as to admit of people c(Hiversing across it, and this fort is a work . . . completed by French Engineers ... at much expense . . . and would require time to reduce, which I conceive it will be judged impor- tant not to lose in striking our first blows, but both Annapolis and Balti- more are to be taken without difficulty from the land side, that is coming down upon them from the Washington Road . . . Baltimore having no defence whatever in its rear." Cockbum's astute scheme that the "main forces should be landed in the Patuxent," with "a good division . . . sent up the Patowmac ... to divide and distract the enemy, amuse Fort Washington, etc.," was followed to the letter, and to this careful strategy we owe without doubt the ignominious destruction of Washington. Gleig, the officer who so graphically narrates the movements of the expedition, says: "To destroy the flotilla was the sole object of the dis- embarkation,"' and but for the instigations of Cockbum who accompanied the army, the capital of America would probably have escaped its visita- tion. It was he who on the retreat of that flotilla from Nottingham, urged the necessity of a pursuit, which was not agreed to without some wavering ; and it was he also who suggested the attack upon Washington, and finally prevailed on General Ross to venture so far from the shipping." In the Battle of Bladensburg, according to this observant military critic, the behavior of Barney (who had ordered the blowing up of his flotilla before the British reached it) and his Baltimore flotilla-men was the only redeem- ing feature of the rout. "This battle by which the fate of the American capital was decided,'* began about one o'clock in the afternoon, and lasted until four. The loss on the part of the English was severe, since out of two-thirds of the army, which were engaged, upwards of five hundred were killed and wounded; [including] several officers of rank and distinction . . . bad they [the Americans] conducted themselves with coolness and resolution, it is not conceivable how the day could have been won. But the fact is, that, with the exception of a party of sailors from the gun boats [barges] under the command of Commodore Barney, no troops could behave worse than they did ... Of the sailors, however, it would be injus- tice not to speak in the terms which their conduct merits. They were employed as gunners, and not only did they serve their guns with a quick- ness and precision which astonished their assailants, but they stood till " Gleig, British in America, pp. 125, 152. " Gleig, British in America^ pp. 125, 152. no HISTORY OF BALTIMORE some of them were actually bayonetted, with fuses in their hands; nor was it till their leader was wounded, and they saw themselves deserted on all sides by the soldiers, that they quitted the field." While Commodore Barney lay wounded and exhausted, Admiral Cockbum appeared, accompanied by General Ross. They were most polite and respectful and offered the immediate assistance of their surgeon. Pres* ently General Ross "who no doubt felt as he spoke, said,'^ 'I am really very glad to see you, Commodore!' to which the Commodore replied with equal sincerity of feeling: *I am sorry I cannot return you the compli- ment. General!' Ross smiled, and turning to the Admiral, remarked, 'I told you it was the Flotilla^mtn !' * Yes, you were right, though I could not believe it, they had given us the only fighting we have had.' " General Ross at once paroled the Commodore, who was carried to Ross's Tavern, Bladensburg, and when the British retreated from Washington the next day, he was left in charge of the more than eighty wounded officers and men in the village. The ignoble rout of the untrained militia at Bladensburg, the conflict of authority on the battle-field, between the President, General Winder and General Armstrong, Secretary of War, who had opposed preparation on the plea that "militia were always most effective when first called out," shows the utter lack of initiative on the part of the Government for this contingency which they could hardly have failed to anticipate. The event was enormously exaggerated in England. By purposely "confounding the capital city of the country with its metropolis," Europe was led to believe that the burning of Washington, a straggling place of eight thousand inhabitants, was equivalent to the fall of London or Paris. The London Times, presuming that the destruction of the seat of Federal Government would mean the Government itself, declared: "The world is speedily to be delivered of the mischievous example of the existence of a government founded on democratic rebellion." "But," as remarks the biographer of Commodore Barney ,'• "when it is taken into consideration, that a British army of veterans more than five thousand strong, were held in check for several hours by less than five hundred seamen and marines, who with five pieces of artillery bravely maintained their ground in defiance of every attempt to disloc^e them . . . that the invaders lost in killed, wounded, prisoners and deserters, not less than eleven hundred men, and that the American loss did not exceed sixty men, fifty of wh<Mn belonged to the gallant band just men- tioned,— we cannot think that the foe had any great reason to boast of their triumph." On the hasty retreat of the British to their ships, a distance of thirty- five miles, "without stopping to rest once during the whole of the night for fear of pursuit," they found the spirit of "democratic rebellion" by "Memoir of Com. Barney, 1826, p. 267. ^Memoir of Com. Barney, p. 272. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE iii no means dead in this region. 'Though there appeared no disposition on the part of the American general to follow our steps and to harass our retreat, the inhabitants of that village [Marlborough], at the instigation of a medical practitioner called Bran [or Beanes] had risen in arms as soon as we were departed, and falling upon such individuals as strayed from the column put some of them to death and made others prisoners. A soldier whom they had taken and who had escaped gave this informa- tion to the troopers, just as they were about to return to headquarters; upon which they immediately wheeled about, and galloping into the village, pulled the doctor out of his bed (for it was early in the morning), and compelled him, by a threat of a violent death, to liberate his prisoners, and mounting him before one of the party, brought him in triumph to the camp."** The British account of the capture of Dr. Beanes, the effort for whose release led to the presence of his friend, Francis Scott Key, with the British fleet at the time of the bombardment of Fort McHenry and the writing of the national anthem, is given literally. It shows the spirited resistance of Dr. Beanes, in contrast to the futile and irresolute conduct of the administration, the latter largely the result, it is said, of the attitude of Secretary Armstrong, who was accused of desiring the destruction of the capital that the seat of government might be removed to a northern city where public opinion would terminate the war. He was forced to resign after the rout of Bladensburg. The escaped soldier*s account is without doubt highly colored. He wished vengeance visited upon the plucky physician, but Dr. Beanes would never have been released by the British, despite the intervention of Madi- son and Key, if he had even attempted to put a soldier to death. The story carries its contradiction with it. In view of the conspicuous ease and "facility" of access to Washing- ton by the Patuxent, so fatally discovered by that shrewd naval tactician, Admiral Cockbum, it seems a curious anomaly that, while the Potomac has been amply fortified, the Patuxent — ^the same easy avenue of approach to the now unrivaled National Capital — ^should be left as defenceless and unprotected as a century ago. The British fleet left the Patuxent, September 6th, and, perhaps at the wily Admiral's suggestion, sailed down the Bay to the Potomac, where on the 9th they "put about and under a heavy press of sail" made towards Baltimore, the concerted point of attack. These careful "maneuvres to de- ceive the enemy and prevent his concentrating his forces or throwing up works for his defence," as the event proved, were a lamentable failure. The week's "maneuvres," so strategically planned to "deceive" Baltimore, proved in fact her salvation. In the interim her citizens rallied as one man to her defence. With the prosaic but effective weapons, picks, shovels, axes and wheelbarrows, they toiled for days, young and old alike, and built up a formidable entrenchment over a mile in length on Hampstead Hill (across •Glcig, British in America, p. 145. 112 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the present Patterson Park to near the site of the Hqpkins Hospital). Behind these commanding fortifications were mounted over a hundred cannon, and the very sight of this appalling armament sent the British, when they approached within a mile of it, back to their ships in full retreat without a single shot. Baltimore had long before this loaned three million dollars to the general government. When she found none of this was to be made avail- able for her own defence she appropriated $20,000 first, and $500,000 later for this purpose. The patriotic ardor of her citizens was expressed by that veteran hero of the Revolution, John Eager Howard, the city's chief land-holder, who when some one hinted at the advisability of surrender in view of the powerful foe approaching, said: "I have as much property at stake as most persons, and I have four sons in the field; but sooner would I see my sons weltering in their blood, and my property reduced to ashes than so far disgrace the country." "Put me down for $50,000 for the defence of Baltimore," said Isaac McKim when he heard of the approach of Ross. While her devoted citizens thus rallied to her aid, Baltimore found her loyal sons, long foremost among the military and naval commanders of the country, at her right hand in her hour of need. Major General Samuel Smith, the hero of Fort MifHin, and now com- mander-in-chief of the city's forces, had pledged his fortune for equip- ment and had for months inspected the discipline of the infantry and artil- lery and the drill of the eager militia at Fort McHenry, which he had ably fortified with the guns of the French frigate L'Eole, a 74-gun ship, nearly wrecked off the coast. These guns carried balls of forty-two pounds weight, which were served red hot. Admiral Cockbum had by strategy found out the year before that these formidable guns were mounted in the fort, and had deferred the attack on Baltimore tmtil strong rein- forcements could join him for a simultaneous assault on the entrenched city by both land and sea. While the faithful Barney lay wounded at Bladens- burg, the commander-in-chief of the navy. Commodore Rodgers, had arrived Sept. 6th, and had assumed command of the 1,200 seamen and marines of Barney's flotilla, with those of his own flag-ship, the Guerriere, With the aid of the Committee of Vigilance and Safety he had seen to it that the channel was blocked adjoining Fort McHenry by the mooring of old hulks, and that batteries and breastworks were ably manned and in prime condition. He had stationed First Lieutenant Gamble, of the Guer- riere, with 100 seamen, in command of the seven-gun battery between the Philadelphia and Sparrows Point Roads, and other officers and seamen of the Guerriere and the Erie in charge of the batteries commanding the Sparrows Point Road, at short distances apart. A fleet of 12 barges, manned by Lieut. Rutter, and 360 men of Bar- ney's flotilla, guarded the entrance passage to the Basin, between the Fort and the Lazaretto. Brave Lieut. Frazier, who at Barney's orders had blown up the flotilla on the Patuxent, with 45 men ccxnmanded the 3-gun HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 113 battery near the Lazaretto. The water-battery of Fort McHenry was commanded by Sailing-master Rodman and 60 men of the flotilla. About a mile to the rear of the fort toward the head of the Middle or Ferry Branch were Forts Covington and Babcock, the latter the six-gun battery in what is now Riverside Park, and the former a little westward, near the present Port Covington. These formed the second line of defence for the harbor, Fort Covington commanded by Lieut. Newcomb of the Guerriere with 80 seamen ; and Fort Babcock by Sailing-master Webster with 50 men of the flotilla. The Commodore's headquarters was the principal battery on Hampstead Hill, Rodgers Bastion, which, with its grim semi-circular earthworks, now marked by an adjoining array of cannon within the west- em gateway of Patterson Park, is one of the most historic spots remaining of this effective and disconcerting entrenchment, completed by the devoted labors of the citizens of Baltimore on the Sunday and Monday previous to the arrival of the British. On Sunday, September nth, the imposing array of nearly 50 vessels, probably the most formidable British fleet ever in American waters, came to anchor off the projecting headland at the mouth of the Patapsco. This headland, historic North Point, was the spot where the first English, the pioneer families of Gorsuch, Todd and others had landed to possess this fertile Neck. Traveling up the Neck trail and across the Falls they had helped to choose the site for the Town which now by its staunch position behind its high hills and its almost land-locked harbor was to prove as never before the strategic advantages of its situation for defence. It was a commanding position which would enable its citizens to resist most manfully the invasion of these English who now for the last time had come to harass and despoil this region and the continent. The British invaders, Nelson's marines, victors of the Battle of the Nile, and of Trafalgar ; Wellington's Invincibles, fresh from the conquest of Napoleon and the triumphs of the Peninsular campaigns, entertained no such forebodings. Exulting over his easy victory at Washington, Gen- eral Ross, chosen by the "Iron Duke" for this his "last command," as he had promised his wife at farewell, declared he "didn't care if it rained militia." He had boastfully fixed upon Baltimore for his winter quarters, announcing that with this as his base he would go where he pleased through Maryland. But he reckoned without his host. There was no vacillation or lack of preparation on the part of the intrepid men who awaited his coming, as he was soon to discover. To weaken the resistance, officer Gleig says, it was determined to make a "simultaneous attack by both land and sea-forces." While they lay at anchor awaiting orders to disembark, "A full clear moon shone in the sky as if in mockery of these deadly preparations ... At three o'clock every ship in the fleet began to lower her boats, which were rowed to land under cover of armed gun-brigs." So fearful of attack were these veteran "Invincibles," that they crawled ashore in the dark on hands and 114 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE knees and were, greatly relieved not to find themselves targets for the Americans as they pulled themselves up the hill and found they were at liberty to stand upright, and form in an open field at 7 o'clock, with abso- lutely no opposition. The column advanced up the North Point Road "for about an hour" when they reached a place where breastworks had been begun with ''a considerable degree of science/' but not completed for lack of time. Elated by the absence of resistance in landing and in the advance, though they "concluded the enemy could not be very far distant/' the troops were allowed to "rest for the space of an hour/' while General Ross and seven other officers, with the army in this precarious situation exposed to attack at any moment, proceeded a quarter of a mile to the left of the road to the Gorsuch farm to order breakfast. The rash hardihood of this challenge to attack invited a punishment, as unexpected as it was disastrous to the enterprise. The fatal skirmish resulting in Ross's death has been much dwelt upon, but the cause of the skirmish — ^the withdrawal of the chief officers from their troops at this critical juncture — does not seem to appear in either the English or Ameri- can accounts. It is probable that the English government was never made aware of the tactical blunder which caused the death of their commander- in-chief. It is, - however, so distinctly set forth in Brigadier General Strieker's official report to General Smith after the battle, that it becomes at once the key to the whole after-situation. The authoritative facts in the case are strikingly brought out in this report dated Sept. 15, 1814. At General Strieker's urgent request. General Smith had permitted him to make the advance movement and bring on the initial engagement with the enemy. The report*® reads in part as follows : "Maj. Gen. S. Smith, Sir — I have the honor to report to you that in obedience to your orders, I marched from Baltimore on Sunday the nth inst with part of my brigade . . . 3,185 effective men. I moved toward North Point by the main road and at 8 o'clock P. M. reached the meeting-house " near the head of Bear creek, seven miles from the city. Here the brigade halted with the exception of the cavalry, who were pushed forward to Gorsuch's farm, three miles in advance, and the riflemen, who took post near the blacksmith^s shop, two miles in advance of our encampment." At 7 o'clock on the morning of the 12th, learning that the enemy were debarking. General Strieker ordered back his baggage and moved forward the 5th and 27th regiments to the head of Long-log lane ; the former to the right of the North Point road, and the latter to the left, with the artillery six four-pounders between. The 39th regiment was 300 yards in the rear of the 27th, and the 51st the same distance behind the 5th regiment; and the 6th regiment thrown back as a reserve "this side of Cook's Tavern a half mile in the rear of the second line." *• Niles' Register, vol. VII, p. 27, Sept. 24, 1814. " This ancient Methodist meeting-house is still standing on the spot where it was used as a hospital for the American troops the next day. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 115 In the General's next statement occurs the crux of the whole dramatic situation : "My videttes soon brought information that the enemy was enjoying himself at Gorsuch's farm. Insulted at the idea of a small marauding party thus daringly provoking chastisement, several of my officers volunteered their corps to dislodge it. Captain Levering's and Howard's companies from the 5th, about 150 in number, under Major Heath of that regiment; Captain Aisquith's and a few other riflemen, in all about 70; one four-pounder with 10 men under Lieut. Stiles and the cavalry were immediately pushed forward to punish the insolence of the enemy's advance; or, if his main body appeared, to give evidence of my desire for a general engagement The latter purpose was soon answered." Before they could reach Gorsuch's farm and chastise the arrogance of these chief officers who had dared to stop an hour for breakfast in the very presence of the foe, as if victory were already assured, "this small volunteer corps (of 350 men) had proceeded scarcely half a mile, before the main body of the enemy showed itself which was immediately attacked." The plucky Americans in the presence of this vastly superior force showed their mettle by leading the charge. Ross, whose overconiidence had led him to invite attack, could not believe that the Americans would dare to act on the offensive. Now that the event had proven exactly what might have been expected, he became "apprehensive," as the "Subaltern in America" nar- rates, "that he had fallen into some serious ambuscade. . . . He rode forward for the purpose of satisfying himself [and] had scarcely entered the wood when an American rifleman singled him out; he fired, and the ball, true to its mark, pierced his side, . . . the reins dropped instantly from his hand ... his horse making a movement forward he lost his seat, and but for the intervention of his aide-de-camp's arm must have fallen to the ground . . . His aide-de-camp (Capt. McDougal), having seen the general laid by the roadside, left him to the care of Admiral Cock- burn and galloped back for assistance." Officer Gleig here takes up the narrative : "We were drawing near the scene of action when another officer came at full speed towards us with horror and dismay in his countenance, and calling aloud for a surgeon. . . . The aide-de-camp had scarcely passed when the general's horse, without a rider, and with the saddle and housings stained with blood, came plunging onwards. ... In a few minutes we reached the ground where the skirmishing had taken place, and beheld poor Ross laid by the side of the road, under a canopy of blankets, and apparently in the agonies of death, ... he lived only long enough to name his wife and to commend his family to the protection of his country. He was removed towards the fleet and expired before his bearers could reach the boats." The scenes and local traditions in the vicinity of the spot where Ross breathed his last, bear out in vivid detail even to this day the circumstances of the tragic event which by the consternation wrought in the British army, and the consequent defeat of the enterprise, brought to an end the last pretence of British rule on the American continent. ii6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Nearly a full century after this fatal occurrence, the writer recently visited the old Gorsuch homestead with its momentous associations. The present farmhouse was erected shortly after the Battle of North Point a few yards in front of the site of the older house in which General Ross demanded breakfast of the owner Mr. Robert Gorsuch, a descendant of the Robert Gorsuch who in 1660 was one of the original patentees of the land hereabouts. Perhaps it was more than a coincidence that this man, the de- scendant of the first Englishman to settle in this region, should have pro- vided the last meal upon earth for the last Englishman who sought to estab- lish once ag^in the dominion of the British Empire over a people who had freed themselves from its rule. As vividly as if it were yesterday, the surviving inmate of the old homestead, Mr. William Stansbury Gorsuch, told how his grandfather had been "forced not only to provide breakfast for the eight officers, but to eat and drink something of every dish that was set before them." It was at this breakfast that General Ross made the boast overheard by Mr. Gorsuch, that he would "eat his supper in Balti- more, or in h !" "Well, he didn't eat it in Baltimore, — ^you can draw your own conclusions ;" remarked with a droll chuckle the venerable owner of the old homestead. Mr. Gorsuch said that the local defenders of the "Neck" were the unseasoned militia and farmer boys of the neighborhood, as he explained "the old fellows were mostly at Bladensburg." After the breakfast was over his uncle and "old man Painter," as he called him, no doubt a youth then, "hurried off up the road to join in the defence." His uncle told him he "cut off two prongs of a sapling to rest his gun in, to take steady aim and pick off some of the officers." But when he saw that terrible array of red-coats with their glistening bayonets, marching straight toward him up the familiar North Point Road, — ^"Well, he got scared and ran off after all his planning," chuckled the old man again, with a keen appreciation of the human side of the memorable encounter. His uncle told him "Ross was advancing in front of his troops, when two young fel- lows hidden behind a gum-tree where the little brook crosses the road about 125 rods this side of the monument, took aim and fired, and he said he saw the smoke. The young fellows ran, and the British pursued and shot them down just about on the rise where the monument is now." So much for the interesting tradition of an American eye-witness, transmitted by word of mouth to his young nephew years ago. He con- tinued, a "stretcher was made out of a blanket and some rails (probably fence rails), and Ross was carried back about a mile toward the ships, and laid by the road-side under a poplar-tree, and there he died." The local accounts place the poplar-tree either in front of, or across the road from the Methodist Stone Chapel erected in 1900, where the severed trunks and charred roots of two large poplar-trees are still in evidence on a slight rise at the side of the road. After his death, the troops which hastened past "this melancholy spec- tacle" were greatly disheartened, and "a sort of involuntary groan ran from HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 117 rank to rank from the front to the rear of the column/' The sudden com- mand of the invading army now devolved upon Colonel Brooke who had found the encounters with Baltimore riflemen were no light matter. Gen- eral Strieker's judicious plan of repeated skirmishes, retiring by files to the strong ground where the 6th was posted in reserve, was therefore thwarted by Brodce's extreme caution, who met the little band as if op- posed to a great disciplined army. The engagement began at half-past two and lasted an hour and twenty minutes.^' Without the 6th (of 620 men) which was in the rear, and the exhausted skirmishers of the morning. Gen- eral Strieker had scarcely 2,000 effective men to oppose a skilled veteran force of three times that number. Nevertheless, the charge was led by the Americans, who "raising a shout" as the English account says, "fired a volley from right to left and then kept up a rapid and ceaseless discharge of musketry." The sth, 27th and 39th regiments delivered what Gleig calls a "galling fire," and while the "duel of artillery" was in progress he is forced to confess that the "Invincibles" "lay down" in the front ranks rather than face the deadly aim of the Americans. The latter "maintained themselves with great determination and stood to receive our fire till scarcely twenty yards divided us." General Strieker states ^* "the fire was incessant till about 15 minutes before 4 o'clock, when finding that my line, now 1,400 strong," [the 51st having ignobly retreated] "was not sufficient to withstand the superior num- bers of the enemy, ... I was constrained to order a movement back to the reserve regiment," the 6th. "The fatigued state of the regiments which had retired, induced me after proper deliberation to fall back to Worthington's hill ... to have the 6th regiment . . . perfect and in good order to receive the enemy on his nearer approach to the city." In this vastly unequal battle the British lost, according to General Smith's report, "between six and seven hundred in killed, wounded and missing," ** the Americans lost "about 150." The British did not attempt pursuit. While they slept the sodden sleep of exhaustion the night of the 12th, the Americans all through the heavy downpour which began about midnight felled trees and so blockaded the ready that it took the enemy the most of the next day to march the seven miles which brought them within sight of the formidable entrenchments at Hampstead Hill (Patterson Park) which they beheld with great dismay. They now discovered that General Strieker's force was but a small detach- ment of what they judged to be the "grand army of twenty thousand men," which had "covered the whole face of the heights with breast-works, with •General Smith's Report to the Secretary of War. Niles' Register, vol. VII, p. 26, Sept 24, 1814. •/&!</., p. 28. ^ The British are said to have lost 300 killed, with many wounded and deserters ; General Ross's two body-servants "deserted," and were later employed in Baltimore by a member of the 5th regiment, their military equipment being carried aloft as a trophy of victory when the citizens held their jubilation. ii8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE a strong fort toward the river, . . . and a chain of field redoubts which commanded the entire ascent." ** "It would be absurd to suppose that the sight of preparations so warlike did not in some degree dampen the ardour of our leaders. At least it would be madness to storm such works ... or assail this position without the aid of the fleet," from which up to this time no intelligence had been re- ceived. Having waited until it was imprudent to wait longer, Colonel Brooke determined, since secrecy and not force was the main object, to dispatch a single officer without an escort to communicate with the fleet. Holding a cocked pistol in one hand, the officer overtook an American soldier whom he compelled on peril of instant death to throw down his rifle and placing his hand on his thigh to guide him to the river, where he discovered a party just landed from the squadron, preparing to seek the camp. "By them he was conducted to the Admiral from whom he learnt that no effectual support could be given to the land forces, for such was the shallowness of the river, that none except the very lightest craft could make their way within six miles of the town, and even these were stopped by vessels sunk in the channel, and other artificial bars, barely within a shell's longest range of the fort." Having brought this "unwelcome news" to headquarters, a council of war was instantly summoned, and after delib- eration this was the official "conclusion of the whole matter." "Without the hielp of the fleet, it was evident, that adopt what plan of attack we could, our loss must be such as to counterbalance even success itself; while success, under existing circumstances, was to say the least of it, doubtful. And even if we should succeed, what would be gained by it ?" Without the ships . . . "we could not remove anything from Balti- more, . . . and while the quantity of booty might have repaid the survivors for their toil, and consoled them for their loss of comrades, . . . if we failed, it was hardly possible to avoid destruction. To draw them from their works would require manoeuvering, and manoeuvering requires time, while every hour brought them re-inforcements. ... It was therefore deemed prudent, since we could not fight at once, to lose no time in returning to our ships." Thus the British "came, they saw — ^and they" retreated! In the dead of night, "three hours after midnight," the same hour at which these "in- vincibles" had crawled ashore, they stole away. Mr. Niles with a caustic wit which is irresistible calls them the "night-retrograders," and remarks : "The soldiers of Wellington are becoming famous for night-retrograding. They ran away from Baltimore in the night, from Plattsburg and Erie in the night," and he might have added "from Washington in the night," but he concludes pithily: "We hope they have stopped!" The British were defeated by the over-confidence of their General, the spirited resistance of the citizens, and the splendid defences of the city. • Gleig. British Campaigns, pp. 187, 192. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 119 General Ross was no doubt an able and fearless commander, but he pos- sessed the infirmities of his virtues. He was young and impetuous, and therefore somewhat rash and presumptuous. Had Ross, fresh from the fleet, pressed straight on and given battle to General Strieker's small de- tachment, after this retired, the road would have been unobstructed, and he would still have been in condition to charge the defences, and have fought as he expected "two battles in one day." His fatal stop invited Strieker's attack, and as he refused to believe himself the responsible cause he pressed to the front and in his oflicer's dress made himself a target for the enemy. The depression of the troops over the death of their leader no doubt led to the overwhelming losses they sustained, over 500 veterans, to the 157 "militia-men" *• they so affected to despise. Their losses discour- aged pursuit, and the obstructed road retarded their advance during most of the next day. Worn, wet and exhausted, late in the evening they con- fronted the superior force and scientific entrenchments of the defenders. Here they learned the disastrous news that the fleet could not support them. The result was as Niles tersely puts it, "Colonel Brooke would not risk the enterprise," and the carefully planned expedition received its death-blow. During the same day while the army was painfully toiling over the ob- structions in the North Point Road, the attack on Fort McHenry had been vigorously prosecuted. At six o'clock on Tuesday morning the enemy's force formed in a great half circle and commenced the attack with sixteen bomb and rocket vessels, which according to an eye-witness was "terribly grand and magnificent." This lasted until 3 o'clock when some of them approached within range of the forts' 42-pounders which gave them a bap- tism of fire from which they retreated in quick order. The situation of Colonel Armistead and his brave associates was peculiarly trying, exposed to a constant shower of rockets and bombs, the latter weighing 220 lbs., while the enemy's distance rendered offensive operations fruitless. Their loss of only four killed and twenty-four wounded was remarkable in the face of the fierce exposure. After Admiral Cochrane's conference with Col. Brooke's messenger, and while the army was retreating, a fiercer bombard- ment than before was executed. Under cover of this cannonade several rocket vessels and barges with 1,250 picked men passed south of Fort McHenry and attempted to enter the Ferry or Middle Branch to land and as- sail the town in the rear. Because in the darkness they had eluded the fort,, they thought themselves safe. They gave three cheers and began to send up rockets of rejoicing, when their cheers were suddenly turned to groans. From Fort Covington where Lieut. Newcombe and a party of Rodgers's really invincible crew were posted, and Fort Babcock where Lieut. Webster and Barney's flotilla-men were in command a pitiless hail rained upon the rash intruders; one barge was destroyed with all on board and the rest compelled to retire. Foiled in this last strategy to obtain a landing, "the enemy precipitately retired, battered and crippled" under fire from the ••The Americans lost only 20 killed, 90 wounded and 47 prisoners. I20 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE barges, and the Lazaretto, until at a safe distance he continued the bom- bardment till near morning — ^in all about 25 hours, during which there were thrown between 1,500 and 1,800 great bombs besides many rocket and round shot.*^ In the midst of this fierce cannonade which might at any moment mean ruin and destruction to the beloved city which contained his relatives and friends, there stood upon the deck of a small vessel, the Minden, a devoted patriot, who true to the behest of friendship had risked peril and exposure to secure the release of his friend Dr. Beanes, With the sanction of the President, and acccnnpanied by Mr. John Skinner, the government agent for flags of truce, Francis Scott Key had boarded the British fleet at the mouth of the Potomac. Serious opposition to the release of Dr. Beanes was encountered especially from Admiral Cockbum, who had used Dr. Beanes' spacious house as his headquarters on the way to Washington, and had been treated with great courtesy. He professed to hold the physician under parole against any resistance until the fleet left the Patuxent, a condition Dr. Beanes did not agree to. The latter deemed capture the only proper punishment for the insolent strag- glers who loitered behind the army to plunder the town. Finally after much persuasion on the part of Key and Skinner, who had letters to the fleet, showing the kind treatment of the British left at Bladensburg, General Ross agreed to release him. Admiral Cochrane trans- ferred them with Dr. Beanes from the frigate Surprise, which he was about to use as his flag-ship in the Patapsco, back to their cartel-ship, the Minden, which was moored within sight of the Fort. Key and his friends paced the deck all night knowing that while the bombardment continued the Fort had not surrendered. It ceased before day, and for a time they were left in most anxious suspense. At length the dawn broke, and eagerly peering through the mist they saw to their joy that "the flag was still there." As they beheld the enemy's wounded carried to their ships, and the fleet hoist sail preparing to depart, baflled and defeated, the great folds of the flag *■ floated triumphantly on the breeze, the prophetic emblem of a free people. Key's pent-up emotions stirred to the depths by patriotic fer- vor and devotion burst forth in an anthem of joy, and his soi^ of rejoicing ("The Star Spangled Banner") has become the Te Deum of the nation. " Report of Lieut. Col. Armistcad to Secy. Monroe, Niles' Register, vol. VII, p. 40. ^This flag, which was of unusual size, being 29x33 feet, is now deposited at the National Museum, Washington, by Mr. Eben Appleton, descendant of Colonel Armistead, the defender of the fort. It is so rapidly disintegrating that Congress can* not take too speedy measures for its preservation and for its proper protection and display in a suitable cabinet. It would be a no less timely and appropriate act upon the part of the Government to provide that a duplicate of this flag should always wave from the spot where it first told its story of deliverance to a waiting nation. Nor would it be a less merited tribute to the city which gave and risked more than any other in the defence of the nation, to constitute Fort McHenry, which maintained this defence, a National Memorial Park and Historical Museum dedicated to the famous men and conflicts which in the War of 1812 "preserved us a nation." HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 121 While they lingered on the deck of the vessel, Key wrote down a few lines on the back of a letter, and completed it in the boat on the way to the shore. He wrote it out as it stands on arriving at the Inn where he re- mained that night (probably Fountain Inn which was near the landing). In the morning he took the song round on Pratt street to his brother-in-law, Judge Joseph Nicholson, who had just returned from the defense of Fort McHenry. It is said the Judge suggested as an accompaniment the air "Anacreon in Heaven," then a familiar tune. He was so much impressed with the song, that his wife took it at once to the printing-office of The Patriot nearby. Within an hour or two the handbills containing the poem with the symbols of liberty, the clipper ship and eagle, were all over town, and as a spontaneous expression of the people's feelings it took its place as a national song.^* The British fleet moved sullenly out of the Patapsco, chastised and vanquished. When they reached their former anchorage in the Patuxent, Sir Alexander Cochrane on the Royal Tonnant, the 8o-gun flag-ship cap- tured from the French at the Battle of the Nile, with an escort of frigates and gun-brigs conveyed the body of General Ross to Halifax, where it was buried with great military pomp on Sept. 29th, in St. Paul's grave yard.'* The effect of his death upon the whole project is clearly emphasized by Gleig in the attitude of the waiting troops in the Chesapeake: "No one talked of a future enterprise, nor was the slightest rumour circulated as to the next point of attack. The death of General Ross seemed to have dis- couraged the whole plan of proceedings, and the fleet and army rested idle like a watch without its main-spring." Two months after his death Parlia- ment voted Ross a public monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. In this emblematic design. Valor is depositing an American flag upon a tomb, while Britannia bends low in grief above it, and Fame descends to place upon the bust of Ross a wreath of laurel. Below is the inscription : "Erected at the public expense to the memory of Maj. Gen. Robert Ross, who having undertaken and executed an enterprise against the City of Washington, Capital of the United States of America, which was a com- plete success, was killed shortly afterwards, while directing a successful attack upon a superior force near the Gty of Baltimore, on the 12th day of September, 1814." •Judge Taney's Preface to Key's Poems, 1857. ** Nearly a century after the Royal Tonnant carried in state the body of General Ross to Halifax, a farmer plowing near the North Point battlefield unearthed a finely executed bronze medal green with age, bearing on one side the legend: "Rear Ad- miral Lord Nelson of the Nile, Europe's Hope, Britain's Pride"; and on the other, a view of the captured French fleet and the words: "Almighty God has blessed his Majesty's Arms. Victory of the Nile, Aug. i, 1798." On the edge was the inscription, "A Tribute of Regard from Allan Davison, Esqr., St. James Square." The medal was privately struck in honor of Lord Nelson, and distributed to the victorious officers and men who had captured the Tonnant and destroyed the fleet One of the victors of Napoleon had, no doubt, like General Ross, fallen a victim upon the battlefield at North Point. 122 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Such are the honors of immortality! — ^graven in stone, which cannot lie! "A successful attack upon a superior force," forsooth! — a little hand- ful of militia-men who had never encountered a foe before. The inscription on the marble sarcophagus at Halifax is even more illuminating, and the brave Baltimore militia-men go down to posterity in glorious guise, for it is written, General Ross was killed At the commencement of an action which terminated in the defeat and rout of The Troops of the United States near Baltimore, Sept. 12, 1814. But why quibble over the somewhat equivocal statement with which a great nation soothes its wounded honor and its sense of loss of the most valued portion of its colonial empire ? While the sculptor chisels upon the marble the tribute which will give the brave GeneraFs descendants the treas- ured right to call themselves ever after "Ross of Bladensburg/' the repre- sentatives of two great nations both free and equal, meet to sign a compact, the Treaty of Ghent, which stamps the United States of America to all time "a free and independent people" ! While the Treaty of Ghent in view of the super-sensitive state of Eng- lish feeling, humiliated by loss of prowess and the capture of nearly 2,000 vessels, did not provide by actual mention for the redress of the two espe- cial grievances which had brought on the war : neutral rights in commerce, and the impressment of American seamen, the adjustment of both these mooted points was implied and understood. America was wise enough at that crucial moment not to stress too much in diplomacy, what she knew she had won in fact — freedom from interference upon the high seas. Eng- land had suffered too severely to attempt interference in either direction again; and America had secured what she so valiantly fought for, "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights," the standard David Porter had nailed to his mast-head, and manfully defended both upon the Atlantic and Pacific. It has appeared difficult to many to gauge the value and results of the War of 1812, because tmlike the Revolution, the signal conflicts and vic- tories did not occur on land, but on the sea. As Jefferson had said "In war it is necessary to wound your enemy in his most vital spot." England's commerce was her life, because it was the source of her existence, of her power and of her supremacy. It was here that she felt most keenly the blows struck by America in the War of 18 12. As wars are usually gauged by the number of prisoners captured, and the damage inflicted on the enemy, a comparison of results achieved by the Revolution and the War of 1812, will make apparent why England was willing to make peace, and hence- forth to cease interference with the Republic she had so long held subject and intimidated. In the Revolution, while Washington took about 1,000 men at Trenton, Gates 8,000 at Saratoga, and 7,000 were taken at Yorktown, with a total of HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 123 22,000 prisoners due to the land forces ; 16,000 prisoners were taken at sea, with 800 vessels, valued at $23,880,000."* In the War of 1812, only 6,000 prisoners were captured on land, while 30,000 were taken at sea, and at least 1,700 vessels, valued at $45,600,000. Over twice as many vessels were captured as in the Revolution, and with twice the loss in value, while the rest of England's commerce was terrorized and at a standstill. "It was not Saratoga nor Yorktown which struck the mortal blows to English supremacy, she could afford to lose a few thousand mercenary Hes- sians, but the loss of her maritime ascendancy touched her to the quick." ^* This final result, American freedom and equality upon the seas, was achieved by the victories of the cruisers and privateers, and in this result, it is not too much to say, that Baltimore and the Chesapeake played a vastly more potential part than any other section of the country. At the close of the war the fighting privateers returned to Baltimore, and with their rich prize money as capital became again the commerce car- riers of the port. They were joined by many more that were building when peace was declared. The race was now to the swift ; the ships first in the field won the best freights and cargoes. From January, 1813, to Feb- ruary 18, 1814, only 43 vessels had arrived from foreign ports, but from the latter date to Dec. 30, 181 5, there were 424; with 520 in 1816, while in the year ending Dec. 30, 1825, 918 vessels came in from foreign ports, most of them belonging to Baltimore. Besides the old staples, the new cargoes were tea from Canton ; coffee from Rio, La Guayra, Aux Cayes and Port au Prince, shipped to Brown and Wilson, and D'Arcy and Didier, and others ; plaster from St. Andrews for Tyson and Qapp, who had zealously begun the renewal of the old soils ; ivory from the Cape of Africa ; mahog- any from Gonaives ; iron from Stockholm, and wool and hides from Buenos Ayres.*^ Baltimore was importing raw materials for manufacture. A brisk trade had opened up with South America for coffee, which was soon to be one of the port's great staples in return for flour. So considerable was the increase in revenue, that the customs receipts rose from $743,367 in 181 5, to $3,614,502 in 1816, falling to the normal rate $1,348,102 in 1820." A small portion only of this revenue remained in Baltimore, where the Government was completing the frigate Jca/a for Commodore Perry at a cost of $275,000, and the sloops Ontario and Erie at $75,000 each. The Baltimore customs receipts were very gratefully received by the Government, which closed the war with a debt of a hundred million dol- lars. The charter of the Bank of the United States had expired in 181 1. There was opposition to its renewal until 181 6, when it was rechartered ■* Maclay, History of American Privateers, p. 8. ''Ibid, preface, p. 14. "* Custom House Records. ** Griffith's Annals, Appendix. 124 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE by Congress for twenty years with a capital of $35,000,000. Branches of the Central Bank in Philadelphia were established in several other cities, including Baltimore, where the subscriptions amounted to $4,044,100 from 15,600 persons. Domestic trade, which had been nearly paralyzed by the lack of currency, was now speedily restored. In the meantime, as there had seemed little prospect of the bank's renewal, several private banks had been chartered by the L^slature to relieve the situation in Baltimore. These included the Conmiercial and Farmers', the Farmers' and Merchants', the Franklin and the Marine Banks. The City Bank was organized without l^slative sanction, and was there- fore regarded with suspicion, which was somewhat reflected upon the rest. To obtain an extension of their charters for twenty years, or until 1835, these banks were obliged to submit to the imposition of a franchise tax to be applied to the completion of the turnpike to Cumberland, the cost of which was about $500,000. This valuable connecting link with the National road was thus secured. The free circulation of capital, added to the rich spoils of the recent privateer captures, brought on a period of speculatimi as well as of trade expansion. Since the Legislature had enlarged the city's bounds in 1816 by the compulsory addition of the "precincts", with 16,000 population, there was an inflation in real estate, marked by the building of the twelve handsome houses by Robert Mills at Calvert and Monimient streets, and the eight on Lexington near Pine, by Lewis Pas- cault, which were, however, too remote from the center of the city to prove profitable investments. The era of inflation was speedily followed by its natural consequence, a period of serious depression emphasized by the failure of the City Bank, and the mismanagement of the local branch of the Bank of the United States. The distress occasioned by this failure came at a particularly try- ing time, when the city was suffering from a visitation of yellow fever in the simimers of 1819 and 1821, so virulent in character that business was practically suspended. While all who could do so left the city, many especially at Fell's Point encamped upon the hills ''on the same spot and in the same tents" which, as a refuge from decimating foe, they had occupied in the grim determination to repel the British in September, 1814. When cooler weather arrived in October, the encampment was broken up and the people returned to the shelter of their homes and to their accustomed employment. The dread visitation of this scourge was a painful contrast to the cele- bration of the anniversaries of the battle of North Point and the siege of Fort McHenry in 1818, when the companies which had assisted in the defence of the fort held a banquet there in honor of Commodore Rodgers and Lieutenant-Colonel Armistead, the former of whom was fittingly re- membered by the gift of a "rich service of silver plate" presented by the city in recognition of his valiant services in its defence. Colonel Armistead had been previously honored by the gift of a silver punch bowl in the shape HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 125 of one of the largest bombshells which fell within the fort, the ladle being fashioned in the form of a shrapnel shell. A few months before this the brave defenders of Fort Babcock, the "six-gun battery", and Fort Coving- ton, Lieutenants Webster and Newcomb, had been similarly honored by the presentation of "elegant swords." On July 28th, 1817, the First Me- chanical Volunteers, a company attached to the Fifth R^ment and headed by Captain Benjamin C. Howard, had erected on the spot where the small advance party under Major Heath had voluntarily engaged the British forces, and near where General Ross fell, a monument to Acquilla Randall, one of their ccmipanions who also met his death in this attack. This in- considerable marker, more in the form of a headstone than a monument, is still (191 2) near the close of a century, the only memorial which marks the scene of one of the most critical and epoch-making eng^ements in American history. The conflict is worthy of a far nobler memorial at the hands of the delivered nation and "Monumental City" whose faithful de- fense here by the feeble advance guard though unequal in numbers and equii»nent turned the tide of events and saved the day for Baltimore and the anxious republic. The decade succeeding the War of 1812 was marked by the passing from earthly scenes of many of the most conspicuous local figures who had borne a prominent part in the life of the city and of the nation. The de- mise of James Calhoun, the first mayor of Baltimore, in 1816, was suc- ceeded in the same year by that of James McHenry, who was speedily fol- lowed by his friend, Colonel Nathaniel Ramsay in 1817. The next year witnessed the departure of the brave defenders, Lieutenant-Colonel Armi- stead and Qnnmodore Barney, with that of the distinguished diplomat, William Pinkney, in 1822. Generals Winder and Strieker passed away in the years 1824 and 1828, and Colonel John Eager Howard, the loyal patriot of two wars, on October 12th, 1827. He was laid to rest in old St Paul's burying ground, the God's acre which he had given to posterity, where already reposed his friend, the statesman and signer of the Declara- tion, Judge Samuel Chase, and the Paul Revere of Maryland, Colonel Tench Tilghman. The year before his death had occurred the decease, upon the same day, July 4th, 1826, of two of the nation's recent chief executives, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the one the author, and both signers of the charter of American liberty, the date of the adoption of which, July 4, 1776, they now again made memorable by their departure from earth a half century later, their great constructive life-work done. A fortnight after their dual demise the city devoted itself to an imposing memorial service on July 20th in Howard's Woods, beneath the shadow of the monu- ment to General Washington, where the vast concourse listened with a deep sense of national bereavement to the oration pronounced upon them by that other statesman and veteran of the Revolution, General Samuel Smith, who notwithstanding his earlier services had become the dauntless 126 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE protector of the city's fate in 1814, and had pledged his private fortune in its defence. That the connecting links between the two centuries were being rapidly sundered had been emphasized in March, 1825, when the death of Mrs. Ellin North Moale removed the presence of the first citizen bom in Balti- more Town, who in her long lifetime had witnessed the town of her birth become a city of 70,000 souls. When she passed away, the city which the youthful John Moale, afterward her husband, had portrayed in 1752 as the town of port and harbor, was turning eager eyes westward to the re- gion which must needs replenish its ships and cargoes, or see it stranded on the shore of the now surging tide of inland competition for maritime supremacy. The extent of the city at this time was graphically set forth by the plat of T. Poppleton, employed by the commissioners for opening streets through the newly-annexed bounds. It had become apparent, however, that it was not enlarged bounds, but rapid and unmolested facilities for inland communication which was the problem Baltimore was forced to solve, and upon this solution the energies of its chief citizens were now set to work. A town meeting was held for this purpose in December, 1823, in the great rotunda of the notable New Merchants' Exchange Building, which was opened in 1820, and afforded spacious quarters to the Exchange Hotel and the branch Bank of the United States, and later on to the post-office and custom house. The judgment of the citizens was sought as to the advisability of canal construction, and to determine whether the first canal should be undertaken to the Susquehanna or the Ohio river. The majority expressed a preference for a canal to the rich Susque- hanna region. A new exigency, however, arose with the completion of the Erie canal from Buffalo to Albany, thus ensuring an unimpeded route from the great lakes to New York. Long before the first boat made the entire journey over the completed canal on November 4, 1825, the benefits of the enterprise were apparent, as well as the certainty of the diversion of trade from its former channels. The cost of freight for wheat fell from the 1820 rate of $88 per ton from Buffalo to Albany, to $22.50, and soon after to $6.50. Travel was so much facilitated that immigration was at once diverted to the fertile regions of Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. The year after the opening of the canal, 19,000 boats and rafts descended the Hudson river loaded with merchandise for New York, whose place as the American metropolis had by no means been assured before. Baltimore, the nearest seaport by many miles to the West, had been the natural eastern metropolis for the great western trade. Her commer- cial prestige had been ensured as long as land routes, turnpikes and road- ways were supreme. With the advent of canals and waterways, new con- ditions must be met. Washington's farsighted scheme to control the West by the old Potomac canal, a waterway between tidewater Potomac and the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 127 Ohio, and eventually the great lakes, was once more revived. The Vir- ginia Legislature passed an act incorporating the Chesapeake & Ohio canal, January ^T, 1824, and the Maryland Legislature passed the act somewhat amended January 31, 1825, the new company being capitalized at $6,000,- 000. In May, 1824, the President had appointed General Bernard to out- line the route and estimate the cost. A representative state convention was held in Baltimore, December 14, 1825, and it was decided that a canal from Baltimore to unite with the Chesapeake and Ohio, and thence diverge to Pittsburg and Lake Erie, was the only solution of the vexed question. The Marylanders and Virginians were resolved to control the commerce of the West, even in the face of the Erie canal, and of a second threatened diversion of trade to the Mississippi and New Orleans by the new rivalry of steamboats. General Bernard's report, however, which reckoned the undertaking at over $20,000,000, made the cost absolutely prohibitive and g^ve the cherished project its death-blow. Even the middle section from Cumberland to the Youghiogheny was estimated at $12,000,000, twice the capital stock, and this without figuring on the construction of the canal from Baltimore to the Potomac. Baltimore's hopes were prostrate for a time. Her dauntless citizens, however, determined that her unrivaled ad- vantages of situation and her undisputed nearness to the West should not be ignored nor supplanted. Philip Evan Thomas resigned the presidency of the Mechanics' Bank of Baltimore, and taking counsel with George Brown, a director of the bank, and second son of Alexander Brown, the founder of the banking firm of Alexander Brown & Co., these two set themselves to face the situa- tion and master it. With a mind open to conviction, Mr. Thomas had visited England and was persuaded that the principle involved in the short ''rail- roads" used for carrying coal admitted of a much broader application. The details of the working of the new "railroads" was supplied to Mr. Brown by his brother, William Brown Esq., the head of the English banking house. The two men now became convinced that the effective execution of this new enterprise, a railway from Baltimore to the Ohio, would soon restore to the city her rightful supremacy in western trade. The project was carefully canvassed and Baltimore's loyal citizens demonstrated their faith in it by a subscription of $4,178,000, including the 5,000 shares ($500,000) taken by the corporation. In the meantime, while the plans were being formulated, and the Chesapeake & Ohio canal from Washington to Cumberland was further matured by its promoters, who refused to relinquish this scheme until time proved its futility, Balti- more was sedulously conserving her coastwise and foreign trade. In 1825 a line of packets was established between Baltimore and Charleston, Savan- nah and New Orleans. Her pre-eminence in shipbuilding facilities was shown at this time by the launching of a beautiful 64-gun ship from Bea- cham's shipyard for the Brazilian government. Baltimore's leading position in foreign trade and shipping was at no 128 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE time more evident than in the year 1825, when 918 vessels, many of them belonging here, were entered from foreign ports. It is interesting to note what these nimierous ships carried out fr<Mn Baltimore in this unusually prosperous year of 1825. She exported 305,- 116 bbls. flour; 9,210 bbls. meal; 3,520 bbls. pork; 1,510 bbls. beef; 4,825 bbls. shad and herring; 175402 kegs of butter; 550,210 casks of lard; 32,120 gals, whiskey; 16,128 hhds. tobacco; and 6,800 kegs of flaxseed.'^'^ With her rapidly growing population she could not afford to export so much wheat as formerly, but reserved more of it for manufacture into flour, and for home consumption. This was necessary as she had seen her population rise from 46,555 in 18 10, to 62,738 in 1820, reaching 80,625 in 1830. As it was considerably over 70,000 in 1825, it had therefore increased ten times in the half century, since the little Town numbered 6755 souls in 1775. It was necessary to be more careful of the food supply in these latter days when she found herself driven to manufactures as a matter of self protection. Before the war there had been two great American indus- tries, agriculture and commerce. To these had been added a third, manu- factures. The embargo and the war had forced people to manufacture for their own needs. When England attempted to flood the markets with her cheaper goods at the close of the war, Congress placed a higher tariff on foreign imports, and soon the inhabitants of the States to the north became a great manufacturing section. Baltimore's exports show that her wealth and trade were agricultural. While the New England delegates prepared for the Hartford Convention to discuss secession from the Union, if the war was not brought to a close^ her loyal militia repelled invasion, her swift ships and skilled seamen fought the fight for commercial independence and achieved liberty for the manu- facturing sections that would not fight for themselves. She was now to feel the sharp rivalry of these interests, and was forced to enter the race as a measure for self-defence. In one field, the manufacture of cotton- duck, she attained a pre-eminence which she has since continued to hold. The era of the harbor and the roadway, of the clipper, and Conestoga wagon must ere long give place to the era of the falls, of whirring mill and factory. Before the old agricultural regime of wind and water, of sail and schooner pass away in the wake of the new steam carrier — ^the railroad,, let us take a glance at the Town of turnpike and tavern whose steps were turned so hopefully to the rising empire of the West. The best proof that the city's site had been well chosen was in its sym- metrical development since. The expansion of the city which had hereto- fore revolved around its trade centre the harbor, to south and east, now radiated along its newly opened turnpikes to north and west. In 1816 the Legislature had annexed the ''precincts," with the addition of about 17,000 to its population, and the extension of its limits to what is now North ave- nue. It is interesting at this juncture to note the names bestowed upon the "Griffith's Annals, Appendix. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 129 streets, since Baltimore's history is reflected in the names of its streets. Each period left its impress on the names of successive localities. The domination of the Lord Proprietary is perpetuated in Baltimore, Calvert and Charles streets. The early loyalty to the royal family of England is in- dicated by York, King George, Queen, Caroline and Hanover. England's mercantile influence is seen in Cheapside, Lombard and Leadenhall streets. A fourth class recalls the revolutionary war, with its heroes and triumphs. Liberty, Lexington, Saratoga, Eutaw, Cowpens, Howard, Lee, Greene, La- Fayette, Washington, Jeflferson, Paca, Chase, Carroll and Franklin. Eng- lish sympathy is recognized in Pitt, Camden, Chatham, Pratt and Barre. Glimpses of the early days of the republic appear in McHenry, Monroe, Madison, Calhoun and Jackson. A sixth class is derived from the names and estates of the historic families of Baltimore, as HoUiday, Gay, Aisquith, Prestman, McCulloch, Chatsworth and Mount Royal. The important question had been decided ere this as to what should take the place of the old Court House in that important civic centre — ^the "Square." A majestic monimient to Washington had been proposed, but so fearful were the residents of the Square that this tall shaft would attract lightning to their "fine dwellings," that fortunately for posterity. Colonel Howard's offer of the unrivaled site in Howard Park, safely detached from the City, was gladly accepted for the memorial to his friend. Here the cornerstone was laid with imposing Masonic ceremonies at noon, July 4th, 1815. The monument costing over $175,000, and finely designed by Robert Mills, was completed by the erection, Nov. 28, 1829, of the 16-foot statue, executed from a 36-ton block of marble (presented from the quarries of Mrs. F. T. D. Taylor) by Henrico Caucici, an Italian sculptor. The elevated place of its erection, carved out like so many of the city's choicest building sites by the meanderings of Jones Falls, became the architectural Mars Hill of Baltimore, a site as pre-eminent in beauty as the monument was first in time to the honor of the man whom Lee had fitly called "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his country-men." The Court House site was made immune to magnetic attraction by the much lower and less pretentious shaft of Battle Monument, designed by Maximilian Godefroy, and executed by Rembrandt Peale and John Finley. The cornerstone was laid September 12th, 181 5, by Generals Smith and Strieker and Colonel Armistead, the men who had commanded the brave de- fenders of the city the year previous. Around this graceful memorial shaft, fittingly erected at the heart of the old Town's existence, the survivors of the gallant defenders clustered on September 12th, of each succeeding year of the century, until they, too, one by one, were gathered to their fathers. In 1805, as has been seen, the main roads converging in Baltimore and its harbor as naturally as do the spokes in the hub of a wheel had been turn- piked. This meant ease of travel and therefore increase of traflic, and I30 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Baltimore speedily became the recognized seaport for the great Western market. Maryland's natural highway to the West was the valley of the Po- tomac, and this civilized man followed, treading in the footsteps of the Indian and the first explorer, Christopher Gist. Military operations during the French and Indian War had necessitated a good road from Frederidc to Hagerstown and Cumberland. In the years succeeding 1806 the great National Road was continued to Wheeling and the Ohio river. Along this splendid turnpike westward for many years the big white-topped Conestoga wagons with their musical bells rumbled unceasingly, carrying needed supplies to the settlers in the Ohio Valley and bringing back for shipment in Baltimore clippers the flour, pork and lumber of these thrifty pioneers. This was already duplicated on the Reisterstown or old Hookstown road to Hanover, Pa., the York, Harford, and Belair roads, and along the great Eastern mail route from Philadelphia to Annapolis and Georgetown, which, passing through Baltimore, made it a natural stopping place and trade center. Many of Baltimore's older citizens vividly recall the days when Penn- sylvania avenue was almost blocked with its long line of Conestoga wagons, with their sturdy Pennsylvania horses and their blue-frocked teamsters, moving slowly down to the Hand House, the Golden Horse, the White Swan or some other of the many inns along Paca, Howard and Eutaw streets, or below Lexington market to the aristocratic General Wayne, the Revolutionary hero, on the swinging sig^ at Paca and Baltimore streets, which had long welcomed Western travelers and cattle dealers. Many others there were — ^the Bull's Head, in Old Town; the Rising Sun, on High street, and Habbersett's, the favorite of Harford county farmers. But chief of all was the old Fountain Inn with its gushing sign and the fountain in its court-yard, which the Eastern Shoremen, as they trav- eled up Light street from the harbor, could never pass by. No place in Baltimore was as popular or so much visited by the notables of the day as 6fiis fine inn, to which Mr. Daniel Grant moved in 1779 from the old Indian Queen Tavern, Hanover and Baltimore streets, and opened "his large, new and elegant house in Light lane." It was pulled down about 1870 and the CarroUton Hotel occupied its site. General and Mrs. Washington stopped here frequently and were always received with a glowing address or a sumptuous repast. General Lafayette and Commodores Rodgers and Perry were lavishly entertained here, and it is firmly believed by the descendants of Francis Scott Key that this was the Inn where he stopped on landing from the British fleet, and the same night wrote out in full the inspiring song since so venerated. It was not long after that old Fountain Inn yielded palm as the entertainer of Presidents and national celebrities to the prime favorite, spacious Bamum's, in Monument Square, from which we are informed by a quaint handbill the "swift U. S. mail coach" which left HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 131 Bammn's at 3 o'clock P. M. would "reach Philadelphia the next day at noon/' and that ''the contractors have always in readiness an excellent boat at the Susquehanna" to ferry their passengers across and so expedite the journey. It was no doubt by a similar conveyance that Charles Dickens reached Baltimore, who describes Bamum's as "the most comfortable of all the hotels of which I had any experience in the United States, and they were not a few, where the English traveler will find curtains to his bed, for the first and probably the last time in America; and where he will be likely to have enough water for washing himself, which is not at all a common case/' Before the visit of Dickens, Baltimore entertained an even more wel- come and distinguished guest, not at up-to-date Bamum's in the Square, but in Washington's rooms at old Fountain Inn. This was the venerable La Fayette, now nearly three-score years and ten, instead of the ardent "boy" in his twenties, whom Comwallis affected to scorn until he had penned him up beyond escape in the Virginia peninsula. When he returned to America he found twenty-four progressive commonwealths extending a thousand miles inland, in place of the narrow fringe of thirteen feeble col- onies he had left along the seaboard. La Fayette was met Oct. 6, 1824, at Frenchtown, by Baltimore's officials, on board "the elegant steamboat United States, fitted out in the most splendid manner," and betokening the great change in transportation. At Fort McHenry he was received by the veterans and survivors of the Revolution, in the tent of Washington, loaned by George Washington Custis, and flanked by a French and an American cannon, both used at Yorktown. His greeting of his old com- rades-at-arms, whom he embraced in warm French fashion, was most fer- vent and impressive. Accompanied in the barouche by the venerable Charles Carroll of CarroUton, Col. John Eager Howard and Genl. Saml. Smith, General La Fayette and his son, Mons. La Vasseur, drove from the Fort and entered the city by South Charles street under arches bearing the significant words "Brandjrwine," "Yorktown/' "Welcome La Fayette." His passage down Baltimore street to Bond, through the martial line of artil- lery, infantry and riflemen, and beneath the beautiful and artistic arches, decorated with portraits of Washington and La Fayette, and with transpar- encies of the surrender at Yorktown, was a continued ovation. At the Ex- change, in response to an address from the Mayor, General La Fayette made reference to the loan of $7,000 here proffered him, in his feeling re- ply : "It was under the auspices of Baltimore patriotism, by the generosity of its merchants, by the zeal of the ladies of this city, at a critical period when not a day was to be lost, that I was enabled in 1781 to begin a cam- paign, the fortunate issue of which has still enhanced the value of the service then rendered to our cause." After his reply the Mayor introduced to him the venerable Baltimoreans, William Patterson, Alexander McKim, Samuel HoUingsworth and Nathaniel Levy, the "small remnant" of the First Baltimore Cavalry who voluntarily repaired to his standard on his call for 132 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE troops and fought under him during the Virginia campaign of 1781. A brilliant illumination at night, and a "splendid ball" at the HoUiday Street Theatre completed a celebration that lived long in the memory of the people, while the General's affectionate inquiry for General David Poe and his wife, who has labored so devotedly to equip his troops, brought the esteemed widow of the Commissary to visit him at Fountain Inn, where he rejoiced her heart by his grateful remembrance of their friendly assistance nearly a half century before. He returned to France in the American frigate Brandywine, named in honor of the first Revolutionary battle in which he fought and was wounded. Congress presented him with a gift of money and a township of land, and the State made him and his heirs citizens of Maryland for all time. Ten years later, just before his death, the proposal of perturbed France to form a new liberal ministry, headed by La Fayette, brought his honored name for the last time again to the fore for the relief of oppression. He died soon after at La Grange, calling for the dead wife whom as a young bride he had left ill and dearly beloved, to sacrifice his wealth and brilliant prospects in the weary struggle of America against the overwhelm- ing power of Great Britain. As has been said with much discernment, ''His presence in the American army, his constant financial sacrifices for the American cause won France over to that offensive alliance ag^nst Eng- land, which turned the tide of war against that country." He was buried in the graveyard of Picpus, Paris, the burial-place of many noble families as well as of 1300 victims of the Terror. His death on May 21, 1834, was followed soon after on Feb. 7th, 1835, by that of the Baltimore patriot so closely associated with him, William Patterson. In his will, in addition to the previous gift of the historic ground on Hampstead Hill (now Patterson Park) which preserved the city from the attack of thd British, he bequeathed a fund (in U. S. bank stock, which bank later failed) for the erection of a temple of liberty thereon, and for two monuments, one to Columbus, the Italian whose genius and perseverence made possible the discovery of the American continent, the other to the de- voted Frenchman, La Fayette, whose love of liberty made possible its per- manent freedom. These merchant princes of Baltimore's Renaissance were a knightly race of men, who in the new era of peace, prosperity and freedom which followed the dark days of 1814, gave as freely of their substance for the up- building of the conmiunity, as they had given their lives and fortunes for its safety and defence. One after another, their benefactions for civic beauty and betterment, for education and religion mark this early period as notably, in proportion to their means, as did the largess of the de Medici to the art and architecture of Florence. Colonel Howard's generous bounty to the city of the choicest monument, market, church, rectory and burial sites, was followed by such munificent gifts as Patterson Park by William Patterson; Union Square by the Donnells; and later Harlem Park by Dr. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 133 Edmundson. The McKim Free School given by John and Isaac McKim, still standing at Baltimore and Aisquith streets, erected in 1822, after the Temple of Theseus at Athens, was a classic model closely followed in the architecture of the first public schools started in 1829. This and the Oliver Hibernian School on North street, made possible by the bequest of John Oliver were among the earliest gifts to education. Years later arose those other beneficent institutions whose influence in ever widening circles continues to this day from wealth acquired at this period by Moses Sheppard, the founder of the Sheppard Asylum ; by John McDonough, the Baltimore youth who, finding greater fortune in New Orleans, conferred it on the splendid schools he established both in his native and his adopted city; and by George Peabody, whose wealth in- augurated in Baltimore at this time, and increased in London returned to bless the Maryland city of his adoption. These benefactions and their donors stimulated the rising tide of art, architecture and literature of the period, which has brought down to us some of the most valuable civic heirlooms we possess ; the first in the un- rivaled portraits and miniatures of the Peales, of Jarvis and others, thus preserving to a grateful posterity the noble faces of the city's patrons and defenders. Besides the two monuments begun in 1815, there long re- mained many of the admirable series of well-planned homes and edifices which created an era in the city's architecture. Of these was the spacious residence of Robert Oliver on South Gay street, long used as the First National Bank, and later as the W. C. T. U. Headquarters until destroyed bj the fire of 1904; that of John Hoffman, designed by Robert Mills at the northeast comer of Franklin and Cathedral streets, recently succeeded by the Young Men's Christian Association; and the two commodious houses at the southwest comer of Charles and Saratoga streets for Benja- min Cohen and William Small, of which the latter was the architect. The new church edifices of this period were all of choice design; the First Independent Church at Charles and Franklin, built in 1817 by M. Godefroy, architect, with Rev. Jared Sparks, later the well-known his- torian, as minister; the finely proportioned third St. Paul's Church, with its "handscxne steeple" designed in 18 17 by Robert Cary Long; the domed structure of the First Baptist Church, built in 1818 at Sharpe and Han- over, and affectionately called "Old Round Top," from the similarity of the design to the Pantheon at Rome, so harmoniously executed by Messrs. Robert Mills and Milleman; the First Methodist Episcopal Church with the classic facade and colonnade, at Charles and Fayette ; and the imposing Cathedral, begun in 1806 and ccmipleted in 1821, in the form of a Roman cross, by Benjamin H. Latrobe, whose work upon that architectural master* piece, the National Capitol, is well-known, as also upon the famous Mer- chants' Exchange Building, begun in 181 5 at Gay and Water streets. Bamum's Hotel, and the Athenaeum at St. Paul and Lexington streets, were designed by William F. Small. These a little later were followed. 134 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE about 1829, by the splendid mansion of brick with the fine portico and pediment supported by lofty marble colimms, at the north-east comer of Franklin and Charles, planned for his residence, by William Howard, son of Colonel Howard, on a part of the old Belvedere estate, while another son completed his handsome dwelling, designed by R. C. Long, about the same time, adjacent to Washington's monument, at the north-east comer of Charles and Monument streets (a site now occupied by Mt. Vemon M. E. Church) in which house Francis Scott Key passed away from earth while visiting his daughter, Mrs. Charles Howard, on January nth, 1843. The charm of Baltimore's architecture and environs at this time is em- phasized by William Wirt, Attomey General of the United States, in a let- ter to his daughter while on a visit to the Court in Baltimore, where he later made his home. He writes on his return from an early morning walk in the suburbs : "No city in the world has a more beautiful country around it than ^s^ Baltimore. The grounds ... lie very finely, . . . rising and fall- ing in forms of endless diversity, sometimes soft and gentle, at others bold and commanding. . . . The sites for the homes are well selected, al- ways upon some eminence, embosomed amid beautiful trees from which their white fronts peep out enchantingly, for the houses are all white, which adds much to the cheerfulness and grace of this unrivaled scene." It was a city of great natural beauty, in which the rising young archi- tects had implanted some of the choicest landmarks which still remain to remind us of a society which in the affluence of its growing commerce at- tracted and encouraged art, architecture, science and literature, as much as its means would allow. Upon its literary side there was a little group of literati known as the Delphian Qub, to which Francis Scott Key belonged, which met in a quaint porticoed house, shaded by five stately elms, in Bank lane, in the rear of Bamimi's Hotel, which they dignified by the name of "Tusculum." Besides Key there were John Pendleton Kennedy, Jared Sparks and Paul Allen the historians, Samuel Woodworth, author of the "Old Oaken Bucket," William Wirt the brilliant lawyer and biographer of Patrick Henry, Rembrandt Peale who painted his famous canvas ''The Court of Death," in Baltimore, Edward Coates Pinkney the poet, bom while his father William Pinkney was minister to England, and William Gwynn the author, and editor of the Federal Gazette, later merged with the Patriot, who presided over the Club. Some of the gifted papers of the Club are to be found in the rare little Red Book published in 1819. The undoubted genius of some of its members may be assured from the fact that Edgar Allen Poe rated Pinkney as the first among American lyrists, and others declared him the equal of Byron. His first volume of poems appeared in 1825, and attracted much attention abroad, but his short span of life, twenty-six years, was too brief to achieve fame. A companion to the Red Book was the Baltimore Book brought out a little later, in 1839, by William Henry Carpenter, one of the editors of the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 135 Baltimore Sun, and T. S. Arthur, the well-known author of "Ten Nights in a Bar-room." Among the contributors were the literary men of this later period, Edgar Allen Poe, S. Teakle Wallis, Nathan C. Brooks, T. S. Arthur and Brantz Mayer. A number of these men, such as Carpenter, Gwynn, Mayer and others, received much of their literary training while connected as editors with the very able newspapers of the period, of which the Federal Gazette, the Patriot, NUe^ Register, the Saturday Visitor, the Baltimore American, and the Sun — ^the "first penny paper," established by the enterprise of Mr. A. S. Abell — ^were all exponents of the keen, awaken- ing spirit of the age. In a class apart stood that universal genius Poe, a product of his age and environment, yet far greater than either, in his world-wide appeal to art and beauty. The ill-starred career of Poe is inseparably interwoven with the annals of Baltimore. Here his grandfather, David Poe, had in- spired trust and respect for his probity as a shipping-merchant ever since his arrival, about 1775. Here his father, a law student with William Gwynn, married Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins, the attractive English actress. Here he b^^ his own career as a man of letters, and here in the home city of his forbears his brilliant but tragic life came to an end. When he severed his relations with his foster-father, Mr. Allen of Richmond, he came to Baltimore and was warmly received into the home of his aunt, Mrs. Oemm, the mother of his 1)eloved bride Virginia, whose devotion to both of the young pair is so exquisitely returned in his poem, "To my Mother." In her home he probably wrote the poem, "The Coliseum," and the story, the "Manuscript found in a Bottle," for the latter of which he received the $100 prize awarded by the Saturday Visitor for the best story and poem offered in competition. The conspicuous ability shown in these writings won for Poe the valued friendship of one of the judges, Jc^n Pendleton Kennedy, the talented author of "Rob of the Bowl," and "Swallow Bam," who secured for him employment on the Southern Literary Messenger at Richmond. After vainly seeking in Philadelphia and New York the rec- ognition and remuneration to which his genius entitled him, he wandered about after the death of his young wife to whom he was passionately de- voted, distraught and discouraged, until passing through Baltimore one evening in the midst of great political excitement he became the victim, as many believed, of foul play, and was carried to the Broadway Hospital (now the Church H(xne) where this master of poetic melody, honored now as a brilliant world-genius, was gathered to his fathers on Oct. 7, 1849. He was laid to rest among his kindred in the old Westminster Graveyard and the place of his burial marked by a granite monument erected in 1875 by the loyal efforts of the school-teachers of the city. While as a discriminating critic '* has said of him, "Poe shows many American charac- teristics, ... no other literature has produced his like ... he was a spirit at large in the world of invention, a genius detached from the "Hamilton Mabie's Introduction to Tales by Edgar Allan Poe. 136 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE soil of racial and national life. ... It was fortunate for a country which had not only its art, but its traditions still to form, that, while there were so many voices to express the ethical movement of the national spirit, there was one voice which sang only of beauty, and one man of genius who cared only for the perfection of his work. . . . Alone among many men of grace and gift, Poe strove for perfection for the sake of perfection . . . [and] set standards of workmanship so high that no later writers have been able to disregard them.'' He concludes, his stories ''are among the most original and distinctive creations of American art, among the very few additions which Americans have made to the literature of the world." Of all the literary men in Baltimore at this period, none was so closely identified with the keen, awakening spirit of the age, nor so typical of the broad interests of an era in which commerce and culture were synonymous, as Poe's friend and patron at the outset of his career, the son of a prosper- ous Baltimore merchant, the gifted author and lawyer, John Pendleton Kennedy. His broad S3rmpathies and wide versatility were shown in the well-deserved tribute of his biographer; "his name gratefully designates a channel of the lonely Arctic sea, and is identified with the initiative ex- periment which established the electric telegraph; with the opening of Japan to the ccwnmerce of the world; with the exploration of the Amazon and the China sea; with the benefactions of Peabody; . . . with all that is graceful and gracious in American letters, and useful and honorable in American statesmanship." This ideal combination of the man of letters, and of affairs, of the interdependence of culture and conunerce, so characteristic of the stately unhurried days of the sailing ship and the trans-Atlantic voyage, of which Baltimore was a world-terminal, was to receive a new impetus and a new trend with the advent of steam, and the introduction of Morse's electric telegraph which Kennedy in Congress had so diligently supported. The coming age was to be an epoch of steam and electricity, of keen rivalry and instant communication. In this forward movement Baltimore found she must be in the forefront, or lose her long-accustomed place as a com- mercial leader. She discovered she must take a fresh start in the race for prosperity. A change had come over the spirit of American trade; "the clipper of the bay was no longer the Aladdin of the counting-houses." The daring war-commerce which had made the fortunes of a generation of Baltimore merchants was superseded by inland canals, and Baltimore saw her trade would go seaward through New York and Philadelphia if she did not pre-empt it. Baltimore was now the largest flour market in the world, exporting 304422 barrels in 1827. The tall masts on Federal Hill shook out at any hour of the day the flag of the merchant whose ship, having made a successful voyage to Brazil, Peru or Mexico, was sighted in the distance. This trade she feared not so much to lose, but that of the Western HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 137 States, with whose grain she was to supply these foreign markets. It was believed, very justly, that he who could soonest reach the vast Western trade by the shortest route would command it. Accordingly, after much thought, as we have seen, had been bestowed upon various canals which did not materialize, it was determined to begin the construction of what was to be the connecting link with the West — the Baltimore and Ohio rail- road. One hundred years before, Richard Gist, the surveyor, had turned the point of the arrow-head which bounded Baltimore's first limits, due west- ward. A century later, on July 4, 1828, the keen-visioned men, whose forbears had taken up lots in Richard Gist's Town, led a great concourse of 60,000 people along the Old Frederick road, over the same route traveled years before by Richard Gist's son Christopher. This skilled surveyor, the first white explorer who pushed into the interior along the Indian Nema- colin's path, had opened up the highway to the empire of the West for the Ohio Company, and in his wake had come a gjeat nation surging swiftly after, whose trade Baltimore now wished to bind to her with fetters of steel. When the vast company reached a spot near Gwynn's Falls, a few hundred yards west of Barrister Carroll's stately mansion "Mount Clare," which lent its name and grounds so generously to this new enterprise and gave it free right of way through this splendid estate, the great procession halted. After the reading of the Declaration of Independence, signed on this day fifty-two years before, the sole surviving Signer of that matchless document for the political enfranchisement of a people, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, assisted by the Masonic order, laid the comer-stone of a project for commercial expansion, which he declared with prophetic vision he be- lieved would be no whit less momentous in the destiny of the people than the first had been. The words of John B. Morris, a director of the road, were no less significant. "We are about opening the channel," he said, "through which the commerce of the mighty country beyond the Alleghanies must seek the ocean. . . . We are in fact commencing a new era in our history. ... It is but a few years since the introduction of steam- boats made those neighbors, who before were far distant from each other. Of an equally important effect will be the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. While the one will have stemmed the Mississippi, the other will have sur- mounted and reduced the heights of the All^hanies." Within the foundation-stone was placed a copy of the charter (the first railroad charter obtained in the United States, and so well-conceived by the able lawyer John V. L. MacMahon, that it became the model for every similar enterprise that came after). Besides the charter was a scroll, stating that the first meeting of the citizens of Baltimore to confer upon this undertaking was held on Feb. 2nd, 1827, that the Act of incorporation was granted by the State on Feb. 28th, of the same year, and that the first stone "was laid, and the construction of the road commenced, July 4th, y \ 138 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 1828, under the following Directors: Philip Evan Thomas, president; Charles Carroll of CarroUton, William Patterson, Robert Oliver, Alexander Brown, Isaac McKim, William Lurman, George Hoffman, John B. Morris, Talbot Jones, William Stewart, Solomon Etting, Patrick Macauley ; George Brown, treasurer." A national salute was fired from a neighboring hilU and the great throng wended its way northward to the Old Frederick road, and then in an impressive procession led by the First Maryland Hussars, along the two-mile route back to the city. Thus curiously enough almost side by side with the old turnpike-road of stage-coach and Conestoga wagon was laid the great iron railroad over which were to be tried in swift succession (for steam was not yet dreamed of) the odd experiment of horse-cars, with "relays" at what is now the Relay House; then what was thought to be the tried and true energy of the wind, a sail-driven car, the "Meteor;" and finally Peter Cooper's di- minutive steam-engine "Tom Thumb," which, however, demonstrated that the right power was at last on the track. The first cars were like a mar- ket-cart on wheels, the next like a large stage-coach, for, as with the motive power, it was necessary to proceed from the known to the unknown until success was reached, when Mr. Ross Winans invented the first eight- wheeled car for passenger purposes, fittingly called the "Columbus." Thus the "first American railroad," the first to receive a charter, the first to convey freight and passengers, the first to use locomotive power, the first to penetrate the AUeghanies, found itself led by the indomitable skill of its chief engineers, Jonathan Knight and Benjamin H. Latrobe, the untiring zeal of its Presidents, Evan Thomas, Louis McLane and Thomas Swann, across the mountains and face to face (on Jan. i, 1853) with the waters of the Ohio at Wheeling. Its promoters, the leading men of Baltimore and Maryland who, with unflagging faith and repeated financial aid reach- ing into the millions, had supported this stupendous enterprise, learned that the mountains were bridged at last, and they knew that the East and West had become one. In her eagerness to reach the West, Baltimore did not, however, neg=- lect to develop her peculiar vantage-ground — ^the traflic of the bay. The same year that the Baltimore & Ohio railroad was inaugurated, two lines of steamboats were established, one from Baltimore to Washington and Alexandria, and the other to Norfolk, Petersburg and Richmond ; and the following year the Baltimore & Rappahannock Steam Packet Company was chartered. This year became notable for yet another historic undertaking. The success which had marked the inception of the connecting link with the Ohio had at once changed the attitude of the promoters of the Susque- hannah project from a canal to a railroad, and on August 8th, J829, the actual centenary anniversary of the day on which the Assembly had passed "an Act for creating a town on the north side of Patapsco and for laying out into lots 60 acres of land," the cornerstone of the Baltimore & Susque- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 139 hanna railroad (now Northern Central) was laid, a connecting link with the fertile inland region to the north, where at York it was to connect with the Pennsylvania canal. It was from this populous section along the old York turnpike road that so many of the stimulating influences had come which had enabled the town of 60 acres and 200 inhabitants to become the third city in the Union, with a population of 80,000 and an area of 900 acres. These initial railroad enterprises were achieved only by great sac- rifices on the part of the citizens and of the municipality. In 18 17 the in- debtedness of the city was but $100,000, and this had been almost all in- curred for defense in the recent war. Ten years later the city's debt was less than $500,000, increased by the need of internal improvements. In 1842 it had become, however, upwards of $5,000,000, or over ten times that amount. This was largely due to the subscriptions to the Baltimore & Ohio of $500,000 in 1828, and of $3,000,000 in 1836, to enable the road, which had exhausted its funds in the construction to Harper's Ferry, to continue to Cumberland and beyond. The subscriptions to the Baltimore & Susque- hanna increased this municipal indebtedness though to a much less extent. In order to readjust the burden of taxation, a revalution of property, real and personal, was made in 1836, when the taxable basis, which had been $3,565,000 in 1832 with a municipal levy of $4.92^ on every $100, was increased to over $42,900,000, which permitted the tax rate to be lowered to $.66^ on the $100. Despite the increasing financial burdens for internal improvements assumed by the city, it was in 1828, the year of the inauguration of the Baltimore & Ohio, that the intelligent citizens who had procured from the L^slature two years previous a law authorizing the City of Baltimore to establish a system of public schools, secured an ordinance from the City Council to levy taxes for their support, and four schools were opened in 1829, two each in the eastern and western sections, of which one was for boys and the other for girls. Rented houses were at first used for the pur- pose. A central high school was established, for which a building was pur- chased in 1844, ^^^ two female high schools were also organized. Five additional schools had been added to the system from 1840 to 1843, ^^^ these were all elevated to the grade of grammar schools when primary schools were opened in 1848, nine such schools being established in 1849-50, when additional accommodations were also afforded to the grammar schools. The Sunday schools of the city, which had been organized generally by most of the churches in 1817, held a great celebration in Howard's Park on August 17th, 1829, at which over 5,000 children and teachers were present. To supply amusement and entertainment, as well as a great assembly hall which the city's varied interests now required, the "New Theatre and Circus" was opened on Front street, on September loth, 1829, the number I40 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE present being estimated at over 3,000 persons. The exercises included a prize address written by Mrs. Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, some eques- trian performances, and a musical farce entitled "The Spoiled Child." Many of the most noted stage attractions of the country made their first appearance at this theatre, known to generations as "old Front Street." Here the centennial anniversary of the birth of George Washington was celebrated on February 22, 1832. A great procession moved from Monu- ment Square to the theatre, passing the town house at Front and Lombard streets, in front of Charles Carroll of CarroUton, whose feeble form stood at the window while the concourse did honor to the notable fact of the Signer's presence still among them at the advanced age of ninety-five years, and then passed on to the assembly hall, where Washington's Farewell Ad- dress was read and an eloquent oration delivered by John H. B. Latrobe. Many of those present recalled with pleasure the tribute paid to Charles Carroll, when a few months later, on November 14th, of the same year, the last survivor of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence passed away in the same house from the scenes in which he had borne such an active and distinguished part. The summer of this year was made memorable by a season of g^eat suffering and bereavement produced by an epidemic of the dread scourge the cholera, from which, despite the devoted labors of the civil authorities, physicians, and the Sisters of Charity, great numbers died, the number of victims at the Alms House alone being 500, of which 125 were fatal cases. It seemed as if these dread inflictions of disease must usually be accompa- nied by other losses. As in the case of the yellow fever a decade before, the visitation was followed by great financial distress brought about by the closing up of the Bank of Maryland in March, 1834. When nearly a year and a half elapsed and no satisfactory statement had been made to the creditors the poor people who had lost largely refused to tolerate longer the "law's delay," or the mutual recrimination of the bank directors. Other institutions had become bankrupt in consequence of this failure, and the people divested of between two and three millions declined to be pacified by further statements. They assembled in front of the residence of Mr. Reverdy Johnson, in Monument Square, on August 6, 1835, but dispersed at the request of the mayor, after breaking a few panes of glass. The mayor, Jesse Hunt, not feeling sure how to proceed, called a public meet- ing at the Exchange, and thus recognized the acuteness of the situation more than was advisable. The rowdy element met upon successive nights, and though strenuously addressed and opposed by the mayor and a guard of citizens, they succeeded in wreaking vengeance upon the homes of Messrs. Johnson, John Glenn and John B. Morris, which were nearly de- molished. They also burnt the furniture of the mayor and Evan Ellicott before their doors, and when the city began to be terrorized at the inability of the authorities to cope with the situation. General Samuel Smith, its for- mer defender, though now in his eighty-third year, "with the alacrity of HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 141 youth," took charge, and under his adequate orders, which were immedi- ately obeyed in the formation of armed defensive parties, order was re- stored, the law once more respected, and the bank directors who had fled the city requested to return, as they were assured their property rights would be enforced and protected. General Smith was soon after elected almost unanimously as mayor of the city, and the community sought to forget the ignoble events precipitated by bad management and lack of con- fidence. The difliculty seemed to be very widespread at this time, as NUes' Register in its vigorous fashion exclaims : "Society seems everywhere un- hinged. . . . We have executions and riots to the utmost limits of the Union . . . thousands attempt to interpret the law in their own way . . . guided apparently only by their own will." There seemed to be a general reaction against restraint and authority, especially where these had been unwisely administered. A recurrence of the mob spirit took place a few years later in what was known as the nunnery riot, when a nun escaped from the Carmelite nunnery on Aisquith street and sought refuge in a neighboring house, on August 18, 1839. ^ "^^^ assembled proposing to demolish the nunnery, but the prcxnpt action of the mayor quelled the disturbance, and an exami- nation by leading physicians having established the insanity of the nun, the excitement was allayed. Much of the financial distress and unrest of the period had been brought about by the refusal of President Jackson to renew the charter of the Bank of the United States, which he deemed ''a monster of special privi- l^e," although Congress, which was also Democratic, believed in the neces- sity for the bank's existence and attempted to recharter it over his veto. His opposition stirred the people to a firm belief in his defense of their liberties, and made them distrustful in a measure of all banks. His hold upon the popular favor was shown by his re-election, and the vigorous man- ner in which he controlled the first Democratic ncmiinating conventions held in Baltimore, which, with the advent of the railroad, had now become the natural convention city. It is interesting to note that the new inventions in transportation and communication came into existence at the time when the need was felt for a more national and representative means of nominating the President and Vice-President, in place of the congressional caucus, and the state con- ventions, which, because of the great distances, and the difliculty of assem- bling delegates, had hitherto selected these candidates. The influence of the railroad in making possible the gathering of political conventions was to prove almost as potent a factor in shaping the destinies of the nation politically as it had already become commercially, for here at Baltimore, as the terminus of the new line, were inaugurated out of the exigencies of these early days, and by the force of personal leadership socat of the his- toric usages, such as the "unit rule" and the "two-thirds rule," which have 142 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE controlled one of the great parties (the Democratic) ever since, though abandoned by the other party some years ago. Of the first seven Democratic conventions, six were held in Baltimore, and the candidate nominated was successful in four instances. The first of the nominating conventions was held by the Anti-Masons in Baltimore in Sep- tember, 183 1. The National Republican Convention followed on December 12, 1831, and nominated Henry Clay unanimously for President. On the ist of May, 1832, the first Democratic convention met at the Athenaeum, and after endorsing Jackson for re-election, his strong personality was seen in the adoption of the famous two-thirds rule, by which his wish for Martin Van Buren as Vice-President so overcame the opposition to him that Van Buren was nominated, not by the customary American majority (as was satisfactory even to the conservative makers of the Constitution), but by two-thirds of the votes of the convention. This thereupon became the rule again at the second Democratic Convention, held in Baltimore, May 20, 1835, when at Jackson's urgent desire, Van Buren was nominated as his successor for the Presidency, and in order "to give a more imposing effect" to the vote, the two-thirds rule prevailed once more. The "unit rule" first came into play at this convention, although there were twenty-two states and two territories represented, 422 of the 626 names on the list came from the nearby states of Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Not wishing to discriminate, Maryland had sent all of the 181 delegates of the state conventions to the National, and the other three states named also sent large delegations. To avoid unfair- ness, it was decided to take the vote by states, each state to vote as a unit. This plan of not allowing a division of the state vote on the basis of the congressional district from which the delegates are elected, or some lesser area than the state as a whole, was soon shown to have the effect of allow- ing the minority — ^the state vote as a unit — ^to thwart the will of the major- ity, the people who elected the delegates. The unit rule, which was used by the Whig Convention (at Harris- burg, in 1839) thus defeated the great Kentuckian, Henry Qay, and led to the nomination of General William Henry Harrison, who was elected over Van Buren, who had again been nominated by the two-thirds rule at the third Democratic convention held in Baltimore, May 4, 1840. Van Buren had, in the meantime, been obliged to stem the terrible panic of 1837, precipitated by Jackson's hostility to "The Bank." The enthusiasm pro- duced by the Whig nomination of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" was very manifest at the Young Men's Whig Convention, which had been timed to meet in Baltimore, May 4th, the same date as the Democratic Convention, and which, with the stirring addresses of Daniel Webster, and Henry Qay, and the pioneer symbols — ^log-cabins, stags' antlers, beaver traps, etc., in the procession, which extended from the General Wayne Inn to beyond Jones' Falls bridge, made the affair a memorable occasion. Harrison was elected, but Tyler became President upon his death shortly after. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE I43 At the next Whig Convention, held in Baltimore, May i, 1844, Henry Qay was unanimously nominated again by resolution. At the fourth Demo- cratic Convention, held May 27 ^ Van Buren was defeated by the very two- thirds rule which had secured him the nomination in '31 and '35. He re- ceived a majority, but not two-thirds by ten votes. He accordingly with- drew, and the first ''dark horse," James K. Polk, a man practically unknown and for whom the people at large had no preference whatever, was nomi- nated by a "stampede," and later elected. A Tyler Convention was held the same day. May 27, but there was little support by the Whigs and Tyler withdrew. The fifth Democratic Convention met in Baltimore May 22, 1848, with the two-thirds rule again in force, and General Lewis Cass was nominated, but was defeated by General Zachary Taylor, who was selected by the Whig convention held at Philadelphia on June 7. It will thus be seen that nine nominatii^ conventions had been held in Baltimore up to 1850, and only two elsewhere "^ as the result of the city's accessibility by the railroads it had promoted. Baltimore's continued interest in facilitating transportation and com- munication had been manifest, when in November, 1843, Samuel Shoe- maker of this city entered into partnership with Alvin Adams, of Boston, Edward Sanford, of Philadelphia, and W. B. Dinsmore, of New York, for the organization of an express line between these cities. This soon became known with its many extensions as the Adams Express Ccmipany, though Messrs. Sanford and Shoemaker were long the actual proprietors. A greater project, however, in which its citizens were to co-operate was already in process of construction. Baltimoreans were soon to dis- cover that the zeal which had planned and executed this vast undertaking was to be rewarded by the opening it afforded to another no less momentous in the history of communication, the laying of the first electro-magnetic telegraph line in the United States, between Washington and Baltimore. In 1837 Professor Morse had petitioned Congress for assistance, but the skeptical legislators had turned a deaf ear to what they deemed this chim- erical scheme. Through the intelligent and determined efforts of John P. Kennedy of Baltimore, Chairman of the House Committee to which the bill was referred, on March 3, 1843, ^he last day of the session, an appro- priation of $30,000 was passed "to test the practicability of establishing" such a system. Professor Morse's purpose was to lay the wires under- ground, encased in lead tubes, along the sleepers of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. The first wires were laid for ten miles from the Mount Qare •* It is an interesting commentary on the growth of popular rule in the past sev- enty-five years, that in view of the demand for presidential primaries so manifest the present year (1912), the possibility of doing away with the nominating convention should be seriously considered. No less significant is it that the Democratic Conven- tion, which meets once again this year in this historic city, will discuss the abandon- ment of the unit and two-thirds rules, inaugurated here so long ago that it is believed by many these rules now prevent a true and direct expression of the voice of the Democratic majority. 144 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Depot at Poppleton and McHenry streets, the pioneer railroad station of this country. It was found the insulation was insufficient, although half the appropriation ($15,000) had been expended in the attempt. Under^ the supervision of Ezra Cornell, later the founder of Cornell College, the re- maining wire was strung upon cross-arms on chestnut poles along the route of the railroad from Washington. The preliminary test was made April 9, 1844, when the railroad cars passed the residence of Charles B. Calvert Esq., a descendant of Sir George Calvert, the founder of the State two hundred years before. As the cars passed this place, six miles out from Washington, the intelligence was flashed into the city and a reply received in a few seconds. Baltimore was, at this time, with its easy access by railroad and water connections, the favorite place for political conventions. On May ist Henry Qay was nominated for President by the Whig Convention then assembled in Baltimore, and the news was announced in Washington when the train was twenty miles from the city. On May 24, 1844, ^^^ lii^^ ^^^ completed, and Miss Annie Ellsworth of Washington, daughter of the Commissioner of Patents, who had given Professor Morse the first word as to the passage of the original bill, was honored with the transmission of "the first formal message ever sent by telegraph — "What Hath God Wrought." On the 27th, the Democratic National Convention, and the Tyler National Convention met in Baltimore. The news of the nominati(His and the reports of these meetings were received by members of Congress, who crowded around the telegraph office at the Capitol, as "responses from the ancient oracle must have been — with wonder and amaze." James K. Polk was nominated for President, and Silas Wright for Vice-President by the former convention. The presiding officer communicated with the latter in Washington to know if he would accept. When he replied "No," the Convention would not receive the dictum of the wire as correct, so the assembly was adjourned for a day while a Committee went over by rail, and came back rather chagrined to announce that the message by wire was reliable, and a fact! While the success of these two revolutionary enterprises in the history of communication — the railroad and the telegraph, was so largely de- pendent upon the initiative and encouragement afforded by her citizens, Baltimore profited but a brief time comparatively, as one of the chief terminals of either. It was not long before it was seen that these projects nation-wide in their scope must deprive Baltimore of this precedence, and again the city which had contributed so largely to the success at least of the former, was forced to sacrifice her local interests to those of the com- munity at large. The old pre-eminence of a water terminal was still hers however, when she sped the swift clippers of the famous Brazilian coffee fleet southward to Rio, or around the Cape to California with the "forty- niners" spurred by the quest for gold, but who remained to people the Pacific coast and cr^te a new link between East and West. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 145 Turning from the victories of peace, she had one more glimpse of the sacrifices of war, when her heroes, ''Baltimore's Own" returned from the defeat of Mexico, and the addition of the great empire of Texas, New Mexico, and upper California to the United States, but with the loss of the brave officers Major Ringgold, Colonel Watson, Colonel Cross, Captain Ridgely, Major Lear and other brave sons. The suspense of the city and nation during the Mexican war was greatly alleviated by the remarkable enterprise of Mr. A. S. Abell, pro* prietor of the Baltimore Sun. As the telegraph had not then been ex- tended beyond the short line between Baltimore and Washington, the diffi- culty of obtaining rapid and reliable news was overcome by the establish- ment of an overland ''pony express" of sixty fast horses, from New Orleans to Baltimore, at an expense of $1,000 per month. The stirring news of the fall of Vera Cruz was thus announced to President Polk, April 10, 1847, two days in advance of the government despatches. On September 15th, the brilliant victories of Contreras and Cherubusco were made known to the country far in advance of word from any other source. The success of the "Daily Pony Express" between New Orleans and Baltimore was completed by the establishment of the "Carrier-Pigeon Express" for the further transmission of news between Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia and New York. The closing days of the half-century were marked by the interment amoi^ his forbears, the merchants of the port, of the mortal remains of America's most original poetic genius Edgar Allan Poe (Oct. 9, 1849). The opening of the Baltimore Athenaeum (at St. Paul and Saratoga streets) the free gift of the citizens of Baltimore at a cost of $40,000 to the Maryland Historical Society, which had been organized in 1844; and the establishment of a regular transatlantic line of packets between Balti- more and Liverpool, recalled the old shibboleth of the Town "culture and commerce," and proved that these two servitors of progress went ever hand in hand in her midst. Baltimore's intellectual advance was always a reflec- tion, an expression of the spirit of the times. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes once remarked that three American poems each the best of its kind were all written in Baltimore, Key's "Star- Spangled Banner," Poe's "Raven," and Randall's "Maryland, my Mary- land." While the last was not written in Baltimore, the scenes which in- spired it occurred here, and the events which produced it were even then in the making. Two of these poems, however, noted by Dr. Holmes belong essentially to this period, the first half of the century. They are in fact, in widely differing ways an epitome of the spirit and genius of the age. Key's fervid song of rejoicing, his glad acclaim of the brave defence made by the beleaguered city, and its joyful result — ^victory and the free- dom of the republic, is a direct echo of the crisal days of 1814, and the de- liverance they brought to the nation. Poe's poem belongs to a later stage of this period, the Renaissance of 146 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE American art and poesy. In its perfection of form it was the outgrowth of the full well-rounded spirit of the age in the plenitude of power and opportunity, in the fervid, luxuriant setting of the Chesapeake region which had reared and inspired him, at a time when the Bay and its world- port Baltimore, the crown of the Chesapeake, was in its glory, the fitting aftermath of war and sacrifice. Baltimore's contributions to this period of American development were rich and manifold. In the perfection of a swift-sailing schooner — ^the "clipper,'' and the skill of the men who sailed it, which did much to make possible the freedom of American commerce, and the final achievement of national independence; in the stimulus to invention, the inception and execution of the grtst engineering project — ^the railroad, the comer-stone of American transportation; in the furtherance of scientific enterprise — the magnetic telegraph, the key-stone of continental communication ; in the patronage of art, and the erection of the first memorials to a nation's heroes; in the awakening of patriotic poesy, and the early encouragement of ''the greatest of American poets," whose genius and art are world-wide in grasp and the perfection of form; these things give her rightful reason to pause at the middle of the nineteenth century, and count the mile-stones to progress she had reared in the less than three-score years since the century began. These years were epoch-making years for the nation. In them the young Republic came into her own. Baltimore, "the Town on the Patapsco," now the city at the head of the Chesapeake, yielded ready and willing service, and all unconsciously she reaped an abundant reward. Her recompense was found in the significance of Washington's last words to her at the beginning of the century, a bequest which long sounded in her ears — "the fittest reward is the reward of sacrifice and service." It may be well to recall, however, that it was not the purpose of Balti- more's resolute sponsors at this period to be content with the record of the past alone. The possibilities of the past were to them but the promise of the future. Sacrifice and service accomplished were but an incentive to the keen-visioned men who stood ready to conquer obstacles to progress almost before they were apprdiended. Achievement was their constant aim — the achievement of the city's manifest destiny, as they saw it, set forth in her location and environment. They did not propose to let artificial barriers nor rival interests, if at all controllable, to stand in the way of the inherent and pre-eminent advantages of situation they knew the city possessed. The natural outlet for the trade of the broad Susquehanna val- ley to the northward, the nearest seaport of the great Potomac and Ohio region to the West, the chief export mart at the head of the greatest inland sea on the Atlantic coast, it was their purpose to see to it that with such a natural converging point as this, interests centered here, and were not allowed to disperse and lose their relative values in other directions. At the beginning of this period, by the wise and systemmatic develop- ment of turnpike roads which converged within her bounds, Baltimore HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 147 speedily controlled and dominated the r^ons north, south, east and west. At the close of the period she was still supreme to westward by the iron bonds forged by the Baltimore & Ohio, though her ties to northward had been partly stmdered by the rival influences of the Pennsylvania canal to Philadelphia, and the Erie canal to New York. But her nearness as a sea- port to the West, her control of her own bay trade, and of the region to the southward, reached by the bay, these were factors still within her grasp and shaping power. If since then she has lost aught in any of these directions, it is by temporary failure to guard against and utilize these agencies ccmimitted to her care. The lesson of the early nineteenth century is no less that of the twentieth. Baltimore is, as then, by right of her position at the head of the Chesapeake and her proximity to the West, the ''natural terminus of internal American trade on the Atlantic seaboard." That her citizens are to-day keenly alive to her superiority of position is shown in the signal victory they have won (June 15, 1912) by the recognition of this fact in the decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission upholding the differ- entials giving this city a lower freight rate to and from the West than any other Atlantic port. If this stimulating concession is rightly pressed upon the export interests of the West, there is nothing to prevent Baltimore becoming otice again a leader among the chief Atlantic seaports and a great world terminal. With this splendid spur to her future progress let the city con again the lesson of the early iSoo's. Let her grasp once more the value of good roads converging at her doors, and since the steam railroad in its trans- continental career cannot stop often enough to gather nearby produce and producers to her bounds, let her bind these to her with the steel girders of the electric railway, and if need be tunnel the bay (as Detroit has done with its two-mile river subway), and make of it a firm connecting link between herself and the growing interests and rich industries of the eastern and western shores. Let state and city unite as in this early period to foster every project that means their mutual upbuilding. It is by the adequate grasp of the old-time factors of sea and soil, and by the forcible and ingenious control of her still commanding gifts of loca- tion and environment that Baltimore should insist upon regaining the domi- nant position she achieved early in the nineteenth century, and which is hers no less to-day by natural right and by municipal inheritance. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE FROM 1850 TO THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR By Matthew Page Andrews, M.A. 1 52 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE accorded to Jenny Lind. A great outpouring of people greeted her, and seats sold at fabulous prices for three days. Four times the famous song- stress appeared at the Front Street Theater to packed houses, the scenes of which were long remembered by Baltimoreans. These and other successes at the Front Street Theater gave fresh im- petus to theatrical enterprise in the city, one of which requires brief mention because of the celebrities who appeared under its auspices. In the early fifties a large building on the northeast comer of Charles and Baltimore streets had been in use for theatrical purposes. This house was first known as "The Howard Athenaeum and Gallery of Arts," and later as "Arnold's Olympic." A local promoting company was formed by William Sperry, who now began to enlarge the Olympic and extend its fame. Here, late in 1853, Laura Keene, and what was generally called "the finest company that had ever played in Baltimore," held the stage with great success for almost an entire season. With this theatre and the Baltimore Museum, Calvert and Baltimore streets, were connected many of the most famous actors and actresses of the age. At this time, and just before leaving for Richmond, in 1854, Joseph Jefferson was an actor-manager. Edwin Adams had achieved his first notable success; and here the Booths won early applause. Edwin Booth played comedian parts, while his associate, John S. Clarke, enacted the tragic roles.* In 185 1 a tragedy in real life which attracted wide attention, and which led to a mass meeting of indignant protest in Monument Square, occurred at Christiana, Pennsylvania. In this affair Mr. Edward Gorsuch, a prominent citizen of Baltimore county, was killed, and Dickinson Gorsuch, his son, was seriously wounded. The Messrs. Gorsuch had gone to Christiana in search of two runaway slaves. These were found at the house of Levi PownelL Upon Mr. Gorsuch's calling on them to surrender, he and his party (includ- ing a United States marshal) were fired upon by a number of negroes known to have been instigated by white men who were in sympathy with the "under- ground railway," and who were desirous of assisting in any kind of violence against slave owners as malefactors under the "higher law." ' The close of the year 185 1 was marked by the mighty welcome ac- corded Louis Kossuth on the occasion of his visit to Baltimore on December 27th of that year. The weather was bitterly cold, and the streets were filled with ice and snow. Nevertheless, great crowds welcomed him on the after- noon of his arrival. After he was escorted to the Eutaw House, the people 1 M' 'The first night's performance at Arnold's Olympic was The Poor Gentleman,' the cast including Charles Burke, the most famous comedian at that time and step- brother to Joseph Jefferson; Maggie Mitchell; Harry Lehr, eccentric comedian, and a man named Arnold, who played the part of Lieutenant Worthington." — ^Charles £. Ford, Records, 'In 191 1 a monument was erected at Christiana to the memory of Gorsuch. The dedication ceremonies were made the occasion of a fraternal gathering of citizens and officials of Maryland and Pennsylvania. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 153 were not to be denied hearing him and the Hungarian patriot was forced to make a short speech. In the evening he delivered a formal and extended address at the Maryland Institute. A few months later, in 1852, Baltimore, by the suspension of business, the half-masting of flags, and the tolling of bells, did special homage to the memory of Henry Clay, regarded particularty as the champion of the patriots of countries less free and fortunate than America, the man of whom the youthful Randall wrote : ''He spoke for Greece, and freedom flew Along her sacred rills, Waking the mighty souls that slept On Marathonian hills."* On June ist, the Democratic National Convention assembled at the Maryland Institute. In contrast to the outcome of the convention of that party held in Baltimore in the preceding presidential election, the delegates on this occasion nominated the successful candidates of the ensuing fall cam- paign, these standard-bearers being Franklin Pierce and William R. King. Almost immediately following the Democratic nomination, the national convention of the Whig^ was held at the same hall, and, after much unsuc- cessful balloting, nominated Winfield Scott, whereupon a great mass meeting and general ratification assembly was held in Monument Square, over which Mayor Jerome presided. A few days later William A. Graham was chosen as General Scott's running mate for the vice-presidency. On July 13th, two years to the day after the destructive lumber yard fire along the banks of Jones' Falls, Baltimore was visited by a devastating flood. Harford Run brought its waters into the city in such volume that the Broadway, Bond, Caroline, and Spring street bridges were washed away. This disaster, however, led to the walling in and over-arching of this stream, so that it caused the city no further trouble. The year 1854 was noted for a terrible railroad wreck near the old ''Relay House" (now HoUins Station), on the Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad (now Northern Central), in which 30 were killed and 100 wounded; and for two destructive fires which swept over large manufacturing dis- tricts. The wreck at the Relay House resulted from a head-on collision be- tween a train going out of Baltimore, and an excursion train bearing back to the city a great crowd of men, women, and children from a Know-Noth- ing celebration on the Fourth of July at Rider's Grove. The second of the fires of this decade was that which destroyed St. Paul's Church, on the comer of Charles and Saratoga streets. The flames were discovered shortly after midnight, and in a few hours the building was reduced to ashes. The fire was a particularly spectacular one, owing to the « •From poem written by the future author of "My Maryland" at the age of nineteen. 154 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE elevation of the ground, which was at that time near the edge of the north- em extension of the city. An awed silence fell upon the crowd of onlookers when the flames mounted the steeple, amid the crashing of large timbers and the fall of the great bell into the ruins below. The next of the important fires, which occurred on October 19th of the same year, started in a sash factory in East Falls avenue, extending over an area of several blocks, and consuming factories and dwellings. So difficult was it to get water, that before the fire companies gained control of the conflagration, it was feared that this section of the city might be wholly wiped out. Another fire began on the afternoon of December 9th, in a warehouse on Baltimore street, near Paca, extending eastward to the Eutaw House, and destroying a number of factories to the west. Still another fire in May, 1856, nearly in the same neighborhood and raging with almost equal destructiveness, led to an investigation of the latest fire-fighting apparatus of the times — ^the steam fire engine. Accordingly, after a demonstration on February 2nd, 1855, of an engine designed for Boston, the city arranged in 1858 for the purchase of the "Alpha," the first steam fire engine ever owned and operated in Baltimore. Rivalries and turbulence characterized the volunteer fire-fighting organi- zation, which was divided into overlarge companies with a number of super- numeraries, hangers-on, and political partisans. These companies would often engaged in pitched and prearranged battles. Some of the fire com- panies were even accused of starting fires in order to provide an opportunity for combat with rival bodies. It is certain that false alarms would be sent in by a company or companies to decoy their rivals of another part of the city into some carefully arranged ambush. Firemen went out to a "call" prepared rather to fight their foes than the fire. Their foes they knew were always real and ready for battle, the fire might be a hoax. To describe, or even enumerate, from time to time, the number of en- counters between the fire companies, would be tedious and unprofitable ; but an unusually outrageous encounter took place August i8th, 1855. Bad blood had existed for some time between the New Market and United Companies on the one hand, and the Mount Vernon Hook and Ladder Company on the other. On the night of the i8th, the former determined thoroughly to thrash the latter. According to a carefully prearranged plan, they rang a false alarm of fire at 10 o'clock, the three companies hurrying to the northward. Upon returning to their quarters, after visiting the scene of the alleged fire, the New Market men fell behind the Hook and Ladder ccxnpany going west on Franklin street. On turning into Franklin from Park, bricks were hurled liberally at the latter, this kind of assault continuing beyond Howard street, when the United appeared coming in from Eutaw street. The Hook and Ladder company now found itself caught between its foes, and the engagement became general. All the available fire-fighting ap- paratus was turned into defensive weapons to meet their opponents, who HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 155 were armed not only with cobble stones, bricks, and missiles of all kinds^ but with pistols as well. The attacking parties were finally driven off by the combined efforts of the besieged and the police, but not until two men had been fatally wounded, and scores of the combatants and spectators more or less severely injured. The last of the larger and more destructive of the fires of this period took place in the spring of the following year (1856). This fire was dis- covered shortly after 8 o'clock in the evening of April 14th, and not only destroyed valuable property, but caused a loss of life greater than any other such catastrophe in the history of the city. Like a number of other fires of this time, it was believed, if not proved, to be of incendiary origin. The fire began in a number of warehouses on South Charles street, north of Lom- bard. From these large five-story buildings the flames leaped to a number of stores on Lombard street, and the following large firms were burned out : On Charles Street : J. S. Robinson ; L. Harrison & Co. ; R. Edwards & Co. ; Norris & Brother ; and Messrs. B. S. and W. A. Loney ; on Lombard street the following property was destroyed: E. L. Parker & Co., occupying a four-story iron building, which was supposed to be fireproof; Hodges & Emack; Hanly & Bansemer; and Gilpin, Bailey & Co. But the scenes which became fixed in the minds of all who witnessed them, and which aroused the city more than the accumulated outrages of past incendiarism, took place in the Hanly and Bansemer building. Here a number of citizens were engaged in salvage work on the lower floor, when the upper stories, already on fire, fell upon them and involved all in fiercely blazing wreckage. Scnne few escaped severely burned or injured; but the charred or disfigured remains of many others were later taken from the ruins. The cries of the victims and the spectacle of the helpless, with hair and clothes on fire, was appalling and unparalleled. Thirteen of the dead were identified, although but one body was found entire. The history of the city for the next few years is very largely con- cerned with partisan politics in a sad story of sordid struggling for the spoils of office, of which, however, the truth must here be told without fear or favor. Throughout the earlier years corruption and violence reigned supreme, and for a time it seemed as if the baser elements were destined to control and ruin the community. Yet peace and order succeeded chaos, the civic conscience was aroused, and public honor achieved a splendid triumph after a veritable reign of terror. As the fall elections of 1856 approached, the lawless element, whose acts had now for some years been winked at by the municipal authorities, grew bolder; and the first of a series of riots occurred on the twelfth of September.* In this tryout of gang violence, the Seventeenth Ward House on Light street was besieged by the Rip-Raps and Wampanoags. When the battle was finally broken up by the police, one man had been killed, and a ^In August a tornado-like storm had done great damage in the city, after which there were minor crimes of looting and robbery. 156 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE score or more severely wounded ; and it should be noted that from now on to the climax of the rioting outrages in 1858 short firearms and pistols were replacing the cruder clubs and brick-bats. This September riot was an introductory episode to those that followed in October and November on the occasion of the municipal and the national elections. The candidates for mayor on October 8th were : Thomas Swann, Know-Nothings and Robert C. Wright, Democrat. Rioting broke out in all parts of the city, to the intimidation of peaceful citizens; but the worst affray was a fierce fight between the Rip-Rap organization and the New Market Fire Company, the recent aggressors of the Franklin street firemen's riot. This combat took place in the Lexington Market, and assumed the aspect of a trained infantry engagement. Firing was regular, and well- defined charges were made until the Rip-Raps gained the day. These cap- ered the stronghold of the enemy, the Market House, and triumphantly sacked it. Incidentally, Thomas Swann was ^elected'' mayor by a majority of 1,575. The warring parties appear to have devoted the remainder of the mcHith o( October to the drilling of their various ''clubs" of stalwarts. Peace- ful and law-abiding citizens looked forward to the day of election with a feeling akin to terror; the municipal authorities were supinely idle, if not actually equipping their partisans for the approaching contest Hence, the scenes were well set for the drama that followed in the presidential election of November 4th. As at this time there was but one polling place in each ward, there would necessarily be, even under proper conditions, a great deal of crowding. This was made the excuse for much pushing, jostling, and shoving of voters, and for the gathering of bands of ^'heelers" and partisan ruffians. No ward in the city escaped instances of -individual brutalities at the voting places. In each ward scores of citizens were insulted, thrust with sharp instruments in the jostling of moving •crowds, or were thrown down and severely beaten.* But the worst outrages of the day occurred in the Second and Eighth wards. In each of these wards many persons were killed outright ; while an indefinite number, perhaps even hundreds, were wounded. Indeed, the newspaper accounts of the fray express astonishment that the fatalities did not run into diree figures. Nearly all the dead and wounded were reported to have been shot, rather than struck down with the usual missiles of the mob. 'In those days there were no registration and no polling booths. The voters cast their ballots at an open window, upon the sill of which the ballots of the various -parties were displayed, so that the voter selected his ballot in plain view. This led to the distribution of ballots at houses, so that the careful voter came with his ballot in his pocket. But the American or Know-Nothing party candidate checkmated this arrangement by having ballots printed on striped paper in such fashion so that it could be recognized at the polls what ticket the voter was offering. Without regis- tration, repeating was .easy, and the ruffians that took part in the riots often came irom other cities. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 157 Men were seen firing singly and by volleys, and pursuing each other singly or in bodies, as one side or the other secured the advantage. The climax, however, was reached in the afternoon in the Sixth ward. Here cannon were brought into play, and a pitched battle developed on Orleans street, near the Belair Market, between the Eighth Ward Demo- crats, who were called to the rescue of their comrades and who were the possessors of the cannon, and the Sixth and Seventh Ward Know-Nothings. At first driven back, but not to be outdone, the Know-Nothings brought for- ward and unlimbered a small swivel, and the battle raged, with varying for- tunes, for several hours. The police finally secured the Democratic artil- lery ; but those who had manned the latter succeeded in capturing and up- setting the Know-Nothing swivel gun, when darkness put an end to the combat During the melee, windows were closed, houses were barred, and women and children sought safety from flying bullets in cellars and garrets. Notwithstanding this, it was astonishing how many boys were engaged in the fighting, and how many of these were shot while looking on. These "elections" resulted in the triumph of the Know-Nothings by a majority of over nine thousand. The Democrats were permitted to record one vote in the Twentieth ward, two in the Eleventh, and from eight to a few score in a number of odiers. The Eighth, however, was controlled by the Democrats, and that ward polled 1,013 votes. In fact, it was said that a number of Democratic voters, frightened from the polls in the other wards, repaired to the Eighth to record their presidential preferences. In the Eighth no objections were made to this procedure. As the city seemed helpless and wholly in the hands of the Know-Noth- ing clubs. Governor Ligon proposed interference by the State militia ; but the governor and the mayor could not agree on any specific course, and matters were allowed to drift along to the municipal elections in the fall of 1857. These were characterized by no such scenes as had taken place in 1856; but such was the fear of the "strong-arm" Know-Nothing organiza- tions that the Democratic voters were virtually disfranchised. Again Governor Ligon endeavored to get the co-operation of Mayor Swann in providing some measures of relief from the ruffianism that pre- vailed in the city, but the latter now openly questioned the authority of the governor. Nevertheless, the governor ordered General George H. Steuart to hold the First Light Division, Maryland Volunteers, in readiness for service, and Major-General John Spear Smith was directed to enroll a force not less than six regiments strong. Upon the issuing of these orders by the governor, Mayor Swann now suggested a compromise measure in which he solemnly affirmed that, enough special police would be summoned for duty in the municipal elections of 1858 to assure good order at the polls. This compromise measure the governor finally accepted, and another election took place on October 13th. The can- didates for the mayoralty were Thomas Swann, Know-Nothing, nominated to succeed himself, and Col. A. P. Shutt, independent or reform candidate. 158 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Early on the day of the election it was seen by all the better element of voters that the balloting was a mere mockery of that sacred privilege of citizenship. Armed ruffians had complete charge of the polls, and it was as much as life was worth to attempt to cast any ballot but the Know-Noth- ing ticket, which was so marked with a blue checked design that what little measure of secrecy was provided for in the old style ballot was in this man- ner entirely done away with. In this election there were no pitched bat- tles between organized bands, but the methods of the party in power were even more effective than before. Those who went to the polls with Know- Nothing tickets were allowed to pass with cries of, "Make way for the vot- ers !" But woe betide the private citizen who selected an unmarked ticket. "Meet him on the ice !" was one signal for the "gang" to push forward, and the shoemaker's awl, now become the emblem of power rather than the bludgeon or the pistol, was brought into effective use upon his person. The independent candidate for mayor, wishing no longer to endanger the lives of his supporters, at noon publicly withdrew his name, and the "election" went to Mayor Swann by a majority of I9>i49 votes out of a total of 24,008. Conditions had now become intolerable. With the exception of The Clipper and possibly one other journal, the newspapers of the city had ranged themselves on the side of law and order ; and, in addition to these, the Daily Exchange was begun on February 22nd, 1858, which became a powerful influence for the reform movement. These papers pointed out that this reign of terror and anarchy in the city was deterring merchants and busi- ness men from buying or trading in Baltimore ; that the city was getting an evil reputation in every section of the country ; that a number of news cor- respondents had given Baltimore the name of "mob town." which oppro- brious epithet was rapidly replacing the title recently gained of "The Con- vention City" ; it was also shown that it was unsafe for women and children to walk alone in many sections of the town; that assaults upon peaceful citizens were of daily occurrence; and nightly robberies excited but little surprise ; that the city authorities were supinely helpless in restoring order ; and that the police were frequently enlisted from the ranks of the political rowdy clubs. However, the dawn of a better era was at hand. The warnings of the press found a growing power of response from the people. Moreover, the very success of the ruffian organizations partially led to their undoing, for the spoilsmen of the dominant party beg^n to quarrel among themselves. The Know-Nothing factions started to fight each other almost as vigorously in the primaries as they had fought the Democrats in previous elections. Respectable men were driven from the party; nevertheless, the Democrats seemed helpless, and were seriously considering abandoning any idea of a contest. But signs of further disaffection in Mayor Swann's adherents became apparent at about this time. The dipper had been the unfailing champion of the political clubs ; this journal, however, had recently failed to secure the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 159 State printing, although it had expectantly established a branch office at Annapolis for that purpose. On the subsequent adjournment of the Legisla- ture, it had fervently thanked "the Creator of all good" for having enabled the community to pass through an epoch of "pestilential vapors — blunting the edge of our highest hopes." Attributing its loss to a rival's "barrel of ivhisky," The Clipper was shortly to join the ranks of the new-formed Re- publican party. The American, from having been a supporter of Mayor Swann, now led the press in pointing out a practical way by which citizens could unite and perfect an organization/ Accordingly, a mass meeting was held on September 8th, where measures leading to the effecting of a practical work- ing organization were put forward and carried by resolution. This reform gathering called forth a counter demonstration from the Know-Nothings, which presented the most remarkable political spectacle in the history of the city of Baltimore, and perhaps in the history of any American municipality. Shameful as it was, the description of it should liave a place in these pages. On the occasion of this "assembly of protest," the Hon. Henry Winter Davis was the chief orator of the evening ; but his appeal to the passions of the mob before him, his denunciation of the Democrats, and his attack on the reformers, are eclipsed in interest by the demeanor and display of the :sundry Know-Nothing clubs. Parading into the square, they came and took their places amidst the discharge of skyrockets, small arms, and even cannon. Nearly all the clubs bore transparencies and carried menacing mottoes. Chief * It should be stated that a similar plan of action to that proposed by the American had been outlined by a correspondent, who was given space in the editorial columns of the Daily Exchange on August 30, 1858, as follows : "The recent very able and judicious articles in your editorial columns in relation to the imperious necessity for such a change in our municipal government as will speedily and surely relieve us from the disgrace into which our city is now fallen on account of the prevalence of disorder and rowdyism, have challenged the sincerest approval of all good men; and you are entirely right in premising that the case is past redemption by any partisan agency. . . . But, however earnestly the universal feeling of this community may respond to the sentiments so gallantly uttered by your paper and seconded by your influential contemporary, the Sun, you may continue to preach till doomsday and you are but Vhistling down the wind,' unless the conservative sentiment you treat of is made powerful and effective by an organization. I do not mean by any political or partisan organization. The mistake of the past has been in the people's consenting to partisan rule in our domestic or municipal affairs. But what does it avail if eight out of twelve thousand voters favor an independent move- ment which could and would give us good government, if not the half of the eight thousand are allowed to vote, or if they were all permitted to vote, if their voice -was unpotential from the fact that they were outnumbered by spurious ballots? That man is insane who will expect any change at the hands of an unorganized people against a secret organization, bound by oath, and fighting for honors to feed a pam- pered vanity, or bread to feed their families. Again, it is a great mistake to suppose that any one man more than another can give success to any independent movement. No man lives in this city who embodies in his character or associations that which can elect him in a contest where the elements opposed to misrule are unorganized." i6o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE among the leaders was a notorious ruffian who hore about his shoulders an enormous awl some four feet in length, and which was later hung over the head of the speaker. Following him came a blacksmith's forge on wheels, which promptly proceeded to "unlimber" and prepare miniature awls for distribution among the crowd. Transparencies representing the bleeding head of a refonner were borne by the "Blood Tubs." Some bore clenched fist designs ; others threw aside all regard for decency and exhibited trans- parencies and mottoes unfit to describe. The election that followed on the second of November marked the cli- max and downfall of the anarchy that had reined supreme at the polls for' the greater part of this decade. Of the Tenth ward, Severn Teackle Wallis said that within a half hour of the opening of the polls, "They were taken forcible possession of by a party of rioters with a volley of bricks and a dis- charge of firearms ; from that time until I left, no man was permitted access to the polls except at the pleasure of the Know-Nothing party, who had so taken possession of them." In every ward, however, the awl, because of its ease of concealment, was the weapon which was generally used to injure and intimidate the inde- pendent or reform voter. In this respect, as Marshal Frey has stated in his Reminiscences of Baltimore, the awl in local politics played the part of the Italian stiletto. But anarchy had had its day. The reform element had a set purpose and organized endeavor ; the State at large, disgusted with the conditions in the city, elected a Democratic and reform majority ; furthermore, the Legis- lature, early in i860, declared that there had been no election because of dis- order and that, therefore, the seats of the city delegation were vacant. During this session of the Legislature, the following important bills affecting Baltimore City were passed: First, the control of the police was taken away from the mayor and put in the hands of a board of five com- missioners chosen by the Legislature. Second, the board was authorized to divide the wards into precincts, the better to protect the polls, and to do away with the crowding which had been the source of so much trouble and violence in the past. The Legislature also successfully petitioned the gov- ernor for the removal of a notorious judge of the Criminal Court of Balti- more City. The newly appointed board did not, however, assume their duties with- out a contest. Mayor Swann refused compliance with the orders of the commissioners, who then secured a mandamus from the Superior Court to compel the mayor to yield them authority. This proceeding was also ap- proved later by the Court of Appeals, and the board went into office on May 7th, i860. In the municipal elections of the following fall, the reform candidate for mayor was elected by a comfortable majority. There was good order maintained at the polls under the new police force, and the reign of the Know-Nothings as a party was ended forever. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE i6i George William Brown was elected Mayor, and amid great rejoicing went into office with a city council composed wholly of the reform move- ment candidates. The new Commissioners of Police were Charles Howard, William H. Gatchell, Charles D. Hinks, and John W. Davis, all of whom, together with the mayor, were, by the irony of fate, to meet later with arbi- trary arrest and imprisonment at the hands of the Federal military regime that was instituted in Baltimore in 1861. It has seemed essential, in order to preserve some continuity of narra- tive, that a complete treatment of the story of municipal politics from 1854 to the great reform victory of i860 be set apart from the rest of the history of this period. A review of these events alone, however, would leave the impression that Baltimore was at this time passing through an era of retro- gression. Such was not the case. Dr. Hollander, in his Financial History of Baltimore, writes: "It is an extraordinary circumstance that these years, although characterized by the use of fraud and intimidation in municipal elections to a degree almost unique in American political history, were, upon the whole, progressive in municipal policy." It is the purpose of this nar- rative to take up now the distinctively constructive elements in the march of events. Mention has been made, at the beginning of this chapter, of the separa- tion of the political jurisdiction of Baltimore city and Baltimore county, of the perhaps unexampled encouragement given to the best theatrical talent in the country; the walling in of Harford Run against flood times; the pur- chase of a steam fire engine in 1858 ; and the splendid triumph of the political reform forces in i860. Reference has been already made to the Democratic and the Whig national conventions held in Baltimore in the summer of 1852. It is now in order to take up and analyze the constructive forces at work in this most interesting decade — forces that worked steadily and mightily by prepress and expansion, despite the fact that a rough minority of profes- sional spoilsmen and their camp followers had for a time usurped political power. Early in this decade, March 13, 185 1, the cornerstone of the Maryland Institute was laid. In 185 1, the first iron building in this country was erected at the comer of Baltimore and South streets, and which was owned and occupied by the Baltimore Sun until 1904, when it was destroyed in the great fire. In 1852, Loyola College was founded, and the Maryland Institute for the Blind established. In 1853, ^^^ Baltimore Orphan Asylum was opened. As early as 1853, Baltimore had secured railroad communication with the West as far as the Ohio river. She was the first city in the East to have such communication, maintaining the chief terminal of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, at that time the longest in the world.^ In the same year ' In 1857 service on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was interrupted by a serious strike and subsequent rioting by the trainmen and other employes of the company. This continued for several days outside of Baltimore and in the vicinity of EUicott's i62 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the Hoe type-revolving cylinder printing presses were first used in the United States in the Sun building. In 1854, the lot for the City Hall was purchased ; and it was in this decade that the cornerstones of no less than ten large churches and charitable institutions were laid, besides some public institutions of lesser importance than such as have had special description. In 1856, Baltimore was the scene of another national political conven- tion, when the Old Line Whigs met at the Maryland Institute on September 19th and endorsed the nomination of Millard Fillmore, the Know-Nothing candidate, for the presidency. On February ist of this year, Mr. Moses Sheppard, by leaving a legacy for its erection, made possible the Sheppard Asylum, now the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. In the same month Mr. George Peabody donated $300^000 for the building and endowment of the institute which bears his name, and which contains a large and valuable public library, a conservatory of music, and a gallery of art. In October, the cornerstone of the Union Protestant Infirmary was laid ; and Lafayette Square was purchased by the city for the sum of $15,000. On Monday, September 28th, the financial institutions of Baltimore be- gan to yield to the money stringency which extended throughout the coun- try, and the banks suspended specie payments on this day. Nevertheless, the true constructive nature of this decade was again evinced, and the finan- cial reverses induced several reforms in municipal management, so much so, in fact, that Dr. Hollander terms the period, beginning at this time and ex- tending to 1897, "the modem era of the municipal history of Baltimore, regarded both in its financial and in its administrative aspects." ' In this year the office of comptroller was established, which department assumed many duties before performed by the city register. Moreover, even during this period of financial stress, Baltimore busi- ness men were optimistic and mindful of future opportunity. An especial record of their foresight and enterprise has been left in the Book of the Great Railway Celebration of 1857, following the completion of railroad con- nections between Baltimore and St. Louis. In 1858, as before mentioned, the first steam fire engine was put into operation in Baltimore; but this was now purchased by the city upon the enactment of an ordinance by the city council in December, by which a paid fire department was established under a board of commissioners. Hence- forth, a new era of fire-fighting began in Baltimore. Thereafter the volun- teer companies ceased to exist, and a notable reform was effected in munici- pal affairs. Mills. Governor Ligon called out the militia, and the trouble between the company and the employes was adjusted a few days later. ^Financial History of Baltimore. On March 8th of the following year, after a meeting of the cashiers of the different banks, a Clearing House was established for the benefit of all such financial institutions. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 163 For a number of years criminals and murderers had too often escaped punishment for their crimes through technicalities of the law, through the connivance of judges of the criminal court, or through executive leniency. On September 22d, 1858, Policemen Benton and Rigdon arrested two ruf- fians for disturbing the peace. Their political associates attempted a rescue, and in the struggle that ensued, Policeman Benton was killed by a man named Gambrill. Gambrill was brought to trial and convicted of murder upon the testimony of Policeman Rigdon, who in giving his testimony showed unsurpassed courage. Because he thus testified, Rigdon was mur- dered on November 5th by two men, Cropps and Corrie. These were also convicted and sentenced to death. On April 8th, 1859, all three were hanged, Gambrill having been convicted by Rigdon's testimony, and Cropps and G}rrie for the murder of Rigdon. This signal act of justice due to this offi- cer's heroism greatly strengthened the hands of the reformers. By the sup- porters of the city administration it was sought to make political capital out of the execution of these two men ; and the funeral of Gambrill on the Sun- day afternoon following his execution was made the occasion of a great demonstration, in which were seen the carriages of a number of prominent citizens. Nevertheless, a notable and salutary lesson was inculcated upon the minds of all classes of people, many thousands of whom had seen the supremacy of the law vindicated in the spectacle of the execution. On March 14th, 1859, ^^ important ordinance was passed by the City Council, which gave permission to William H. Travers to build and operate a city passenger railway system. Consequently, a line was laid and the first horse cars made rtgulzr trips along Broadway on the twenty-seventh of Oc- tober of that year. Of further constructive policies adopted by the city during this memo- rable year was that which established a police and fire-alarm telegraph sys- tem, the ordinance authorizing its construction having been passed in 1858. The closing months of 1859 were marked by great excitement in Balti- more over the news of the John Brown raid. This historic effort to excite a servile insurrection aroused the greatest indignation in the city. Five com- panies of the State militia, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Eger- ton, left Baltimore for Harper's Ferry on the afternoon of the outbreak. The companies thus leaving were the Wells and McComas Riflemen, the Independent Greys, the Law Greys, and the Baltimore City Guard. As the connection between this insurrection and the ideas of many of the prominent Abolitionists became known, and as it became apparent what widespread sympathy Brown and his followers commanded at the North as shown in the attitude of many well-meaning but intolerant pulpit orators and public speakers, active cooperation among slave-holders and emancipation societies almost wholly ceased. The Republican party had held its first meeting in Baltimore under stormy circumstances a few years before. This party was now accused of having incited the outrages at Harper's Ferry ; but through its representa- i64 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE tives in the National Capital it hastened to disclaim any responsibility for sympathy with Brown and his band of "servile insurrectionists." Neverthe- less, it was known that many of its supporters were prominently advocating dissolution of the Union if Congress and the Constitution continued to up- hold slavery. Although this feeling of distrust and the events at Harper's Ferry did much to promote and encourage counter disunion sentiment throughout the South, in Baltimore extremists of either side as yet received scant sympathy and encouragement, and press and people evinced on every hand a marked devotion to the strict maintenance of the national constitu- tion as interpreted and handed down by its f ramers. The year i860, as heretofore described, marked the downfall of the Know-Nothing terrorism in Baltimore, through the constructive measures of the General Assembly. In May the new Police Board assumed its duties, and this department was taken out of the power and influence of the political clubs. Another notable constructive measure was put before the representa- tives of the city and adopted. This was the extension of the City Park System. On June 12th, Mayor Swann noininated Messrs. John H. B. La- trobe, Robert Leslie, William E. Hooper, and Columbus O'Donnell as com- missioners to secure further park grounds. These met in July and decided upon the purchase of the Druid Hill estate of Lloyd N. Rogers. Accord- ii^gly* the deeds were signed in September and the great park was formally opened on the nineteenth of October, which at this time, next to Central Park, New York, was the largest in the country.* i860 was again a year of national political conventions in Baltimore. First to meet was that of the Constitutional Union party, which assem- bled in the old Presbyterian church on the corner of North and Fayette streets. John J. Crittenden, later of Compromise fame, called the conven- tion to order, which nominated Bell and Everett as its candidates for presi- dent and vice-president. Several of the States, equally divided between North and South, were not represented. On June i8th, the Democratic Convention, having adjourned from Charleston, assembled in the Front Street Theatre for a drama that was to result in shaping national events of the greatest import. The occasion has become a part of the history of the entire country, and only that part of it which especially affected Baltimore need be recorded here. It was early seen that there could be but little harmony of action among the delegates. The Hon. Caleb Cushing was chairman, and ruled at once against the calling of the names of those State delegates who had bolted the convention at Charleston. Consequently, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas were not called. The question of the admission of these seceding delegates or the substitution for them of Douglas supporters, was acrimoniously argued for some four days^ the meetings of the morning and afternoon being followed by street mass * See special chapter on the Park System. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 165 meetings of Democrats in the evening. Finally, after one ultra-advocate of slavery had been allowed expression of his views (Delegate Gaulden, of Georgia), the announcement was made by Caleb Gushing of the withdrawal of the larger part of the Massachusetts delegation. One of the delegates thus withdrawing, Benjamin F. Butler, who in 1861 came to be better known in Baltimore, couched his objections to proceedings in the following terms : "We put oar withdrawal before you upon the simple ground, among others, that there has been a withdrawal, in part, of a majority of the States; and further (and that perhaps more personal to myself) upon the ground that I will not sit in a con- vention where the African slave trade, which is piracy by the laws of my country, is approvingly advocated." The results of this withdrawal was to leave the Douglas men in con- trol, and Senator Douglas was enthusiastically nominated for the presidency, with Herschel V. Johnson for the vice-presidency. The second wing of the Democratic party met at the Maryland Insti- tute on the twenty-third of June, and with great harmony put in nomination Jchn C. Breckenridge. Each wing had worked against the weakness of ap- pearing as a sectional party in the selection of their candidates. In the Douglas division were the extremists of the South, representing a minority sentiment. These nominated a Northern candidate, Stephen A. Douglas. The Gushing wing, on the other hand, followed by the party extremists of the North, chose as their standard-bearer a Southerner, Breckenridge, of Kentucky. G>n the loth of October the municipal elections were held under the r^^e of the new Police Board, and thfe balloting was conducted throughout the city in perfect order and decency. The reformers were victorious^ and elected George William Brown to the mayoralty by a majority of nearly eight thousand, almost equalling, in an honest count, the figures of the Know-Nothing majorities of the preceding years, which majorities had been attained by force and falsehood. The election was a revelation of the true sentiment of the people of Baltimore, when such sentiment should be given free opporttmity for its expression. Thus this truly constructive period ends in splendid civic triumph. The next is to usher in the dark era of war times in a border community griev- ously torn by doubt and conflicting emotions. BALTIMORE IN WAR TIMES More than any other city in the United States, Baltimore was pe- culiarly involved in the early issues of the Givil War. It was a Southern city, and identified chiefly with the Southern States in both commercial and social relations. On the other hand, Baltimore was near the border line, and, more than any other Southern community, was identified with Northern enterprise in manufacturing and its allied industries ; in addition. i66 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE it was the nearest large city to the Federal Capital, a fact which helped to mold and influence a strong sentiment against secession and for the perpetu- ation of the Union. This sentiment was so marked in Baltimore in the opening months of 1861, subsequent to the secession of South Carolina and prior to the Federal call for volunteers, that there may be but little hesitation in stating that the expression of the people was then overwhelmingly in favor of the Union and opposed to secession. This question had already arisen; a few had declared in favor of separation, but their opinions had been promptly met by the calling of mass meetings to protest against the taking of such a step. The first of these meetings was held as early as January loth, at the Mary- land Institute, and the building was thronged by citizens of all conditions and walks of life, who applauded to the fullest the Union sentiments of the speakers. In this assembly the chief speakers were the Hon. Reverdy John- son, William H. Collins, Augustus W. Bradford, Benjamin Deford, William E. Hooper, Joseph Cushing Jr., and the Hon. J. A. Pearre.^* On February ist another Union meeting of a somewhat different char- acter was called together at the Maryland Institute Hall. The former as- sembly had represented an expression of positive and unconditional adher- ence to the Union and its perpetuation. The latter meeting partook more of the nature of a deliberative body, which also declared its devotion to the maintenance of the Union ; but which permitted the question and causes of secession sentiment to be discussed in the assembly, and which desired public expression of opinion on the part of all the people of Maryland with regard to it. The first assembly was led and controlled by an element of Baltimore opinion that for the larger part was composed of those more nearly asso- ciated with the North; the second convention represented, for the greater part, a body of men equally devoted to the Union, but a Union under a strict constitutional interpretation and dedicated to a Federal policy of conciliation without coercion. This party was composed of those more closely associated with the South and who called themselves the "Constitutional Unionists." In either gathering there was but a handful of those who openly expressed sympathy with a disunion sentiment. The convention of the Constitutional Unionists met at the Maryland Institute in response to an appeal ''to the citizens of Baltimore who are in '* Archibald Stirling presided over this meeting, the vice-presidents previously selected being: Thomas Swann, Henry May, Johns Hopkins, John P. Kennedy, Enoch Pratt, William Woodward, Galloway Cheston, Thomas Kelso, John J. Abrahams, James C. Skinner, Moses Wiesenfeld, James Hooper Jr., James Muller, Charles F. Mayer, William Heald, Columbus O'Donnell, William Cooke, Charles A. Gambrill, Lewis Turner, Henry D. Harvey, John B. Seidenstricker, John B. Morris, Samuel J. K. Handy. This list is here given in full, the better to illustrate the diaracter of this meeting, and of the men interested in this expression of political opinion. For the same reason the list is given of those citizens prominently connected with the subsequent "Constitutional Union" meeting, an account of which follows. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 167 favor of restoring the Constitutional Union of the States, and who desire the position of Maryland in the existing crisis to be ascertained by a conven- tion of the people." As stated above, both conventions were called in the interest of the perpetuation of the Union, but the very wording of the latter call to the people represented a fundamental difference in the plan and pur- pose of maintaining or restoring the Union. The former would not accept secession as a constitutional possibility; the latter recognized it as a condi- tion, with at least debatable grounds for its existence, and as an evil likely to spread from one State already separated from the Union, to others where it was being seriously considered. At the same time, the majority of these men, representing the larger part of the best citizenship of Baltimore, would have chosen, as did the Virginians, the evil of disunion with a hope for future conciliation to the immediate and possibly permanent ills attending a Union maintained by force of arms. The latter wished the matter laid before the people and discussed in a State convention ; the former would in no wise submit to the people for their consideration a question held by them to be treasonable in itself. The Constitutional Unionists were addressed by ex-Governor Enoch Louis Lowe, Hon. Robert M. McLane, S. Teackle Wallis, William H. Nor- ris, Dr. A. C. Robinson, and J. Mortimer Kilgour.*^ Mr. Wallis made the closing address of the evening — a masterly effort, logical and eloquent. The press of the city was ever alive to the political situation in this crisis of national history ; and perhaps it may be fairly stated that the edi- torial expressions of the Baltimore papers at this period were more inform- ing with illustrative discussions than those of any other city or section of the country. Especially is this true of editorial articles and correspondence in The Sun; while not far behind in force and conviction was the axnment of The American, The Exchange, and, later, The South. It followed that the people of Baltimore, while freedom of discussion was permitted them, u Dr. A. C. Robinson presided at the meeting, the vice-presidents of which were : James Carroll, William T. Walters, S. Teackle Wallis, Robert M. McLane, John V. h. McMahon, Ross Winans, Robert S. HoUins, William Pinkney Whyte, William Henry Norris, Samuel W. Smith, William G. Harrison, Peter Mowell, George S. Brown, James Hodges, Samuel K. George, William H. Graham, S. G. Hand, W. H. Wbitridge, Solomon Hillen, Hamilton Easter, Thomas Winans, Ezra Whitman, G. W. Lurman, J. Mason Gimpbell, Lambert Gittings, George Evans, Adam B. Kyle, Sam- uel H. Tagart, John Sharkey, William H. Ryan, John Hoffman, Charles E. Wethered, Charles D. Slingluff, R. V. Lanier, William Devries, Charles H. Pitts, Dr. J. F. Monmonier, Dr. J. J. Graves, James J. S. Donnell, Morgan Coleman, Edward F. Jenkins, John Spear Nicholas, Wilson M. Cary, Andrew Reid, Frank Sullivan, John S. Donnell, J. Nicodemus, Henry A. Thompson, J. J. Turner, Charles H. Myers, Daniel J. Foley, C. Morton Stewart, Capt. John G. Mattison, George L. Harrison, Jervis Spencer, George W. Dobbin, Thomas M. Lanahan, Alexander Penn, Henry Garrett, Thomas Parkin Scott, H. Strauss, Robert Hough, Hugh A. Cooper, Daniel J. Warwick, Dr. J. Hanson Thomas, Benjamin C. Presstman, Basil S. Elder, Wm. P. lightner, Henry Oelricks, Henry F. Stickney, High Sisson, John W. Bruff, John Yellott, William A. Hack. i68 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE were thoroughly acquainted with the issues of the day in every phase of constitutional interpretation and of contemporary evolution. The American and The Sun deprecated the possibility of conflict with equal emphasis, the former inclining more and more, however, to the Uncon- ditional Union doctrine, while the latter contended for the restoration of the Union by a policy of readjustment and conciliation. The American, in its issue of January 2, 1861, forcibly advocated Union principles by demonstrating the "cost of dissolution," in the following edi- torial article : "The prospects for compromise and conciliation between the two parties whose antagonistic features are becoming every day more sharply defined would be much brighter if the belligerents could be made to see the inevitable consequences of the quarrel. If we are to come to blows, it requires not extraordinary sagacity to pre- dict that the battle will be prolonged and bloody. From the mere chance of actual conflict every man capable of human sympathies shrinks back appalled, because victory on either side will only be less horrible than defeat. Who can think without horror of a battlefield where the contending forces are children of one great family, and where the shout of victory will be mingled with the groans of dying countrymen? Yet such a fate may be in reserve for us if this unhappy strife is allowed to produce its legitimate results. "There is something so revolting in the picture that we instinctively turn from its contemplation, while we take refuge in the oft-repeated assertion that Americans cannot be driven into internecine war. If complete reconciliation is not possible, it is still possible to separate peaceably, and even to form two or more governments out of the ruins of our Confederacy. This seems to be the programme as far as revealed. Among the ultra Disunionists themselves there are very few that can count upon any other than a pacific separation. It is one thing to stand up man- fully for rights that are threatened or placed in danger, but it is quite a different thing to plunge into positive hostilities without due preparation. As a proof of this, it is only necessary to look at the present position of South Carolina. No one sup- poses that this State, with all her war-like preparations, ever dreamed of opposing the available force of the other thirty-two states. And even with the seizure of arsenals and forts and the violent renunciation of all federal authority, she is still negotiating for a treaty, and still confidently relying upon assistance and cooperation from other States whose secession proclivities are well known. If a plan is discovered whereby the demand of those contiguous States can be satisfied, South Carolina will have to retract her steps or be depopulated. "But supposing there is common sense enough left in the dismembered Republic to avoid a profitless contest and to agree upon terms of peaceable dissolution, there are very grave obstacles in the way of continued friendly relations. It is not probable that a tariff agreeing in all particulars will be in operation North and South. The doctrine of protection has always been an unpopular one in non-manufacturing States. The ground of objections is also perfectly understood, and the complaint that every dollar of revenue derived from this source was indirectly drawn from the Southern consumer has been an argument in favor of actual free trade any time these twenty years. So that a tariff constructed upon the strictest revenue basis and free from any shadow of discrimination would not be acceptable to the Republic that openly advo- cates a trade 'free from all restrictions/ Since 1842 there has been no scheme con- cocted in connection with this branch of legislation that has not been a cunningly contrived compromise. The late secretary of the treasury — a Southern man— did not hesitate to resist the change from ad valorem to specific duties, though his chief openly advocated the measure. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 169 "How shaU these conflicting interests be reconciled? If a Southern Republic, peaceably formed, and disposed to cultivate a friendly understanding with its North- ern neighbor, should throw open its ports to the trade of the world, what steps will the North take to prevent frauds and loss of revenue? The border would be the very paradise of smugglers. The more effectually home manufacturers were protected by the imposition of duties, the more certainly would the wide border be studded with trading posts of contrabandists. With all our ports of entry and all our revenue service, there is no telling how much money is now filched from the Natioanl Treasury year by year. And we need not say that we have in our country a race of men who would make the best smugglers in the world. They have all the necessary elements; plenty of pluck to encounter the danger, plenty of enterprise, plenty of adventurous spirit, and no restraints from the laws of the country to which they might owe allegiance. "Out of such complications trouble would inevitably arise. And we have only referred to one among the thousand difficulties in the way of an amicable intercourse between the rival nations. The loss of the manufacturing districts can only be meas- ured by the volume of the trade, whose channels would be obstructed by the founda- tion of our national boundaries. We are sure that no other country would more speedily recover from the ill effects of such a revolution, but none of us can estimate the cost of the experiment. We were better off eighty-five years ago, when we under- took to cope with the most formidable empire the world has ever known, because ivr were then a united people." The Sun had been daily counselling devotion to the Union ; but this in- fluential journal also urged upon the attention of the country the causes at work to effect its dissolution, and by endeavoring to show why the Southern States felt aggrieved, to suggest methods of redress looking towards the ultimate adjustment of sectional differences. In an editorial utterance which some of its readers declared was ''the echo of the eloquent Burke," it thus declared its sentiment on January 12, 1861, three days subsequent to the •first shot upon the Star of the West, in Charleston harbor : "Without entering upon the right of secession, it is well for all of us to consider the great importance of refraining from coercion. Coercion is the precursor of incal- culable difficulties, and can scarcely fail of an irreconcilable division of the Union. It is the maddest project of the crisis, for it is certainly the last thing in the world that can serve as a remedy. Coercion is only another name for conquest; and con- quest, with all its interim of bloodshed and carnage, will be dignified only by the compulsory alliance of an embittered, implacable, and revengeful people. This is the only fruit of coercion and conquest. If coercion should be injudiciously practiced in this emergency, and we could look into the future, we should see only vain regrets that it was ever resorted to. But there may be bloodshed. Granted. South Carolina or any other seceding State may do some imprudent thing, and collision with the general government may take place. The course of the general government may be unintentionally provocative of strife, for it is unstable enough to our present appre- ciation of it, and bloodshed may be the fault of a temporizing or ambidextrous policy. What then? Shall we at once conclude that the door of reconcilation is closed, the temple of Janus thrown wide open for an indefinite term, and an era of bloody strife inaugurated? Let us accept no such proposition as this. On the contrary, in the very zest of a 'sensation,' and the intensity of excitement, let us cherish the hope that not even the sudden clash o^ arms, the boom of cannon, or the shedding of blood shall prove an insurmountable obstacle to the restoration of peace and union. I70 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE It is only in a positive, an organized process of warfare that hope itself will go out, flickering to the last in the gulf which shall then divide the States. "We observe the 'prompt alacrity* with which the intelligence from Charleston of the firing upon the Star of the West was paraded before the people, with the entirely gratuitous announcement: THE WAR COMMENCED BY SOUTH CARO- LINA.' Whether this particular declaration was flashed over the wires from South Carolina, or was tacked on to the news at some way station as a sort of indictment which she was expected to traverse in the premises, does not appear. "It proves, however, how very ready somebody is to do injustice, to prejudge upon the slightest and most shadowy pretext, and to excite and exasperate public sen- timent. There is too much of this. If we want to have peace we must make peace, insist upon it, and in the event of collision still look for peace and reconcilation as the only hope of a future and perpetual Union." In previous editorial articles The Sun had observed that the right of se- cession in the case of at least two of the original thirteen States must be recognized by the national government, drawing inferences therefrom as follows : "It cannot be doubted that Virginia and New York, at least, by the solemn act of their State conventions, practically affirmed this right in 1788. They prescribed no formula by which it should be put into operation, if the occasion required its exercise, but they proclaimed its existence. The Congress of the United States, which examined these two ratifications on the 14th of July, 1788, saw no reservation in the ratifications thus communicated, which ought to hinder the proclamation of the adop- tion of the Constitution by a number of States. Virginia and New York, therefore, at least, may with moral consistency act upon their solemn declaration of rigHt, made when the Union was formed. Nor can they well claim for themselves the exercise of such a right without according it to others. "Now let us look at the other side of the picture. Cong^ss, on the i8th of September, 1850, passed a law in regard to persons escaping from the service of their masters. It gave certain commissioners the power to act to reclaim fugitives, and to deliver them to the person having authority to hold them to service. It provided all the machinery necessary to put that law in effective operation. What has been done by Northern States to nullify this law? Look at the statutes of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. All of these states, by direct or indirect legislation, have as completely nullified the act of 1850 as even South Carolina sought to nullify the act of 182S by her ordinance. They have either made it a criminal offense for a citizen, though a citizen subject to that law, to assist in the execution of that law, or they have for- bidden the use of their jails to the officers arresting such fugitives, or they have trammelled the operation of the act by interposing obstacles which the law did not contemplate, or they have undertaken to divest the master of his property by the direct power of their domestic statutes. There they stand to-day, ten States refusing, by the terms of their solemn legislation, direct and simple obedience to a law, the constitutionality of which no man questions. And yet from the people and presses of these various States is heard to-day the loudest denunciation of the purposes of certain Southern States to disregard the Constitution as any continuing bond of union. Are they without sins that they thus cast a stone at their brethren ?" " "These discussions are here given at some length because they present to the history of the times in which they were produced a real and distinct contribution. In 1861 Baltimore was divided in sentiment and political opinion; and it is better, whenever convenient or possible, impartially to present the arguments of the day and HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 171 In the midst of the general discussion of political issues, a new note of local uncertainty and distrust was added by the unfortunate secret ride of the President-elect through Baltimore on the way to his inauguration. On his journey to the national capital, Mr. Lincoln had reached Harrisburg, when General Scott and some of Mr. Lincoln's closest advisers received a warning from over-excited individuals, or from maliciously inclined agitators, to the effect that a plot was on foot in Maryland to wreck the train of the presi- dential party, and failing in this, to shoot or stab Mr. Lincoln in the streets of Baltimore while he was on the way from one railroad station to the other. President Lincoln yielded to the advice of his friends and passed through Baltimore in the night by a secret and circuitous route through Philadelphia, but he always regretted having done so, especially as this apparent distrust on his part created a most unfavorable early impression on Baltimoreans, many of whom had been extensively preparing for his reception in the city, irrespective of the fact that Republican party doctrines had made but little headway in Maryland by the early sixties.^' Except for those who in person knew the past or those who study the expressions of this period in different and differing journals and in private manuscripts, it is difficult to realize the tense strain of the situation in Bal- timore, and especially the terrible uncertainty in the early months of 1861. No one could say definitely whether the seceding States were to be concili- ated and brought back into the Union by peaceful means and under fresh constitutional guarantees ; or if they were to be allowed to ''depart in peace," as once strikingly advocated by Horace Greeley ; or if they were to be co- erced into reunion by Federal power. The majority of Baltimoreans heartily favored the first of these courses, earnestly deprecated the second, and were violently opposed to the last, pre- ferring any policy rather than war with their Southern brethren, whose thereby permit the reader to observe the development of events as viewed by the par- ticipants in them. This plan should clarify much that is vague with respect to cause and effect. Necessarily, it involves some degree of repetition; but, as between repeti- tion and obscurity the former is greatly to be preferred. On the other hand, broad generalizations are avoided as doubtful or dangerous. "Although the whole story was revived in the Harvard Monthly as late as 1885 by C. C Felton, son of Samuel M. Felton, of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Bal- timore railroad, few historians, writing fifty years after the war, put any confidence in the tales that were widely accepted by the contemporary press and the earlier his- tories with regard to the "Baltimore Plot" In 1861 the New York Tribune took this view of the matter: "One section of the country is only semi-civilized. ... In a society so con- stituted it is not strange that there should be found many persons who could conceive and execute some diabolical plot of slaughter, sparing neither age, nor sex, nor numbers •—such as the destruction of a railroad train — ^that the death of one man might be com- passed in the hope of accomplishing thereby the overthrow of a popular constitutional government. ... It seems probable that had not Mr. Lincoln resorted to this method of escape, neither he nor any of his party would have ever reached Washington alive." 172 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE withdrawal from the Union they had from the first deprecated so strongly that while New York received in port vessels flying the palmetto flag of a seceded State, public sentiment in Baltimore had not as yet permitted its appearance in her harbor. The confusion of political thought and opinion throughout the country is unparalleled in modem history. It extended from the humblest citizens to the highest authorities in the Federal government. Nor was it otherwise in Baltimore. John P. Kennedy, the Maryland novelist and ex-Secretary of the Navy, was proposing in elaborate exposition, a con- federation of the Border States, which should act as an intermediary between the Northern States and the seven Southern States that had seceded. Some measure of political uncertainty was removed when on April 15th, 1861, the Federal government issued a call to the States to furnish a force of 75,000 volunteers to suppress unlawful "combinations in the seven se- ceded Cotton States." This to Maryland meant coercion of and war upon these States, and to this policy she was, for the greater part of her citizen- ship, opposed, as was her sister State, Virginia. Although the appearance of emblems in sympathy with Southern secession had provoked general op- position and attack as late as the sleepless night following the receipt of the news of the firing upon Fort Sumter, local opinion, notwithstanding this evidence of Union feeling, turned violently against the call to arms by the Federal government three days later. No regiments were to be raised in Baltimore for any war on the South, it was freely said, and opposition was proposed to the passage of troops for any such purpose through the city.^* By April 17th, Virginia had withdrawn from the Union, and on the following day the vanguard of the Federal force arrived in Baltimore. This vanguard of several hundred Pennsylvania militiamen and two companies of the United States artillery service arrived at Bolton Station and marched through the city under the protection of the police. It is significant of the occasion and of popular sentiment that the regulars were not molested ; it was generally felt that their duty was to answer the call of the power that employed them ; but the volunteers, to the local mind, were under no obliga- tion to carry out a policy so repugnant to Baltimoreans as the proposed war measures against the South. These would have been severely handled by excited citizens along the line of march to the Mt. Clare station, had not the IxAice protected them from assault. On the afternoon of the i8th Governor Hicks arrived in Baltimore and issued a proclamation which is historically of great interest and importance with respect to the final understanding of subsequent events in the city. In this proclamation, the Governor assured the people that no troops should be ** "The proclamation was received with exultation at the North — ^many dissentient voices being silenced in the general acclaim — with defiance at the South, and in Mary- land with mingled feelings in which astonishment, dismay and disapprobation were predominant. On all sides it was agreed that the result must be war, or a dissolution of the Union, and I may safely say that a large majority of our people then preferred the latter." — Baltimore and the Nineteenth of April, 1861, by George William Brown, in Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 173 sent from the State except for the defense of the National capital, further assuring the people that opportunity would be given them of deciding by the ballot whether they were for the Union or against it. But the following day, the eighty-sixth anniversary of the battle of Lexington, was to witness the first bloodshed in the most terrible of the conflicts of modem times. Baltimore has been much misrepresented in the events of the 19th of April, 1861 ; and her share in the troubles of the day have been exaggerated. It is fitting here to give a complete account of the conflict between the citizens and the Massachusetts regiment that passed through the city on this day. A clear understanding of these events can not be had without taking into account the serious blunder involved in the change of plans which placed all of these Massachusetts troops in an unnecessarily dangerous position, and some of them in an extremely critical one. Further, it must be borne in mind that Federal negligence prevented the civil authorities in Baltimore from making proper arrangements for protecting the troops from violence. No one, acquainted with the facts, can have a reasonable doubt that, if either one of these errors had not been committed, there would never have hap- pened that first bloodshed which helped to send so many Marylanders into the Confederate armies. For the understanding of the first negligence, it is necessary to take into consideration the viewpoint of the troops that were to play a part in the bloody drama. The Sixth Massachusetts was the first fully organized and equipped regiment to respond to the call of the President. In a triumphal passage through New Yoric they had been wildly cheered. Reaching Phila- delphia on the night of the i8th, they were notified (according to President Felton, of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Company), that instead of an ovation in Baltimore, they were likely to meet with serious opposition. Col. Edward F. Jones, the commanding officer, caused "am- munition to be distributed and arms loaded." He also directed: (i) That the regiment was to march through the mile or more of Baltimore streets from station to station in a body ; (2) that the men were not to notice in- sults, abuse or even the throwing of missiles ; that, if however, they were fired upon, the officers would give the order to fire, not promiscuously, but in the direction of the point of attack. This order, in all its parts, is to be highly commended; in no part was it entirely carried out. The first and most serious mistake was in so changing the plan as to prevent efficient self-protection by dividing the regiment into companies, and even parts of companies, for transportation across the city in cars drawn by horses. Such a move seemed to invite attack, if attack were but half intended. This is a simple statement of the first great blunder. For an under- standing of the second, it is necessary to take the view of the much har- assed civil authorities of the border city in its unhappy attempts at main- taining its position of neutrality. It is certain that, whatever may have been the expressed opposition to the passage of troops through the city, the 174 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE mayor and the police of Baltimore were determined to protect the troops that might pass through during the time their protests were under considera- tion by the Federal government. In order to be prepared to afford this protection, it was essential that the police should know when fresh troops were due to arrive^ at what points, and in what number. On the 19th, the civil authorities of Baltimore were utterly unable to secure this information in any particular until too late to provide an adequate escort for the soldiers. This was the second great blunder. No record has been found that assigns any reason for this negli- gence, although attempts were made by the marshal of police to secure the information by telegraphing repeatedly to the offices of the railroad com- pany in Philadelphia. Having in view these facts, the narrative of actual conflict may be taken up, and the bloody events that follow seem less amaz- ing and more the natural outcome of circumstances subject to some degree of explanation. The Massachusetts troops, together with seven unarmed Pennsylvania companies, arrived at the President Street station of the Philadelphia, Wil- mington, and Baltimore Railroad about noon. As intimated above, it was then the custom to convey passengers from this station to that of the Balti- more and Ohio for Washington in detached railroad coaches drawn by horses. This plan of passage through the city was adopted by the troops after their arrival, instead of following the original order of marching in one body. The route lay along President street northward to Pratt street and west for about a mile to Howard street, and then to Camden station of the Baltimore and Ohio. Seven companies, in about nine cars, were successfully conveyed through the city without casualty, although all the cars were jeered and hissed at times, and the last of these thus getting through was damaged by missiles and some of the soldiers were injured. As the troops were being thus drawn through the city, the news of their arrival spread. The number of people along the route increased, and meas- ures were quickly taken to obstruct further passage. Near the comer of Gay and Pratt streets a load of sand was seized and dumped upon the track. Merchants and their clerks, aided by negro sailors from the South, dr^^ged anchors from the near by dock and placed them across the rails. A pile of cobblestones added to these made a formidable barricade. The next car was effectually stopped by these obstructions. The fright- ened driver hitched his horses to the rear and drove it back as rapidly as possible toward the President Street station, turning back the following cars as he met them. The troops thus turned back consisted of four companies, numbering about 220 men. These forthwith formed at the station and the order was given to march forward to Camden. The crowd threatened and pressed upon the soldiers ; and, in the face of this opposition, it is probable that but for the active intervention of the police force that chanced to be at this point the troops would not have been able even to form in companies. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 175 Men that had become detached from their places regained the ranks through the efforts of the police, and the march was begun. Almost immediately there occurred an incident that is, perhaps, unique in history. Some Southern partisans produced a Confederate flag, and in a spirit of g^im humor and with derisive intent displayed it at the head of the soldiers, compelling them to march behind it for about the distance of two squares. This action aroused the ultra-Northern partisans in the crowd, who forthwith attacked the standard-bearers, and in two attempts partially destroyed the flag. This brought down upon the former the wrath of the greater part of the mob, and a refuge was sought behind the Massachusetts troops, who then, by accident or design, were stoned. The attack upon the soldiers became general and one was knocked down at Fawn street. The more brutal part of the mob following set upon the wounded soldier, who was finally rescued by the police. At the comer of Stiles and President streets, one block farther, two soldiers were knocked down by flying stones ; both regained their feet, one was rescued by a police officer and the other escaped. Curiously enough, the muskets thus far lost by the soldiers were turned over to the police, who again warded off the on-pressing crowd. By this time the order to "double-quick" having been given, the soldiers were running at good speed toward the Pratt street bridge. Perhaps it was here that the first firing by the soldiers was begun; some accounts say "acci- dentally," others say ''in a desultory manner and wildly," and still others "by command of the officers." As the troops were certainly firing at will when later they were met and accompanied by Mayor Brown, it is not im- probable that they fired at will from the first and not by definite command. The Pratt street bridge was then undergoing repairs, but the workmen had gone to their dinner, leaving joists, scantling and sawhorses half block- ing the bridge. Some say that stumbling over these obstructions caused the accidental discharge of two muskets ; but it seems certain that the firing of the soldiers became general shortly after the crossing of the bridge. The first citizen shot was Francis X. Ward, a young lawyer, and afterward a captain in the Confederate Army. The mob then again rushed upon the soldiers and attempted to seize their muskets. In two instances the attempt was successful, in one of which the soldier was run through with his own bayonet, said to have been thus killed by the very citizen at whom he was about to shoot. By this time. Mayor Brown, who, with Marshal Kane and a strong police force, had been protecting the troops at the Camden end, learned that other companies were attempting to cross the city under a fierce attack. Sending word to Marshal Kane to follow, the Mayor hastened alone to the scene of the greatest danger. Having ordered the removal of obstructions along the route of march, he met troops running before the mob just west of the Pratt street bridge. In his account, published in 1887, under the auspices of the Johns Hop- kins University Studies in History and Political Science, Mayor Brown 176 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE makes the unexpected statement that, while "the uproar was furious/' the mob did not seem to be a large one. This assertion would seem incredible ; and yet the even more remarkable statement is made by C. W. Tailleure, in the Boston Herald in 1883, that there were about 250 in the attacking party at the first, and 500 was the maximum at any stage of the march. Mr. Tailleure was an eye-witness of the fray, and was then an editor on the staff of a local paper. Whatever may have been the size of the mob it was now thoroughly angry and was pursuing the soldiers "with shouts and stones," to which the soldiers replied by firing wildly, sometimes backward over their shoulders. Immediately upon his arrival at the scene of conflict, Mayor Brown intro- duced himself to the captain in command^ and at once objected to the double- quick as a movement likely to provoke assault. For a while the presence of the Mayor had a quieting effect, but blood had been shed, the mob was re- vengeful, and the attack was renewed with reckless violence. Stones flew thick and fast, and, although nearly one-tenth of the troops were killed or seriously wounded, it is remarkable that so many escaped. The soldiers continued to fire at will without orders, and entirely contrary to the instruc- tion which Colonel Jones had given them while en route to Baltimore. At the corner of South and Pratt streets several citizens were seen to fall, killed or wounded. At the comer of Light street, two squares to the west, a soldier fell mortally wounded, a boy on a vessel in the dock was killed, and the head of the advancing column fired into a group on the side- walk with fatal effect. At the latter comer Mayor Brown called to the sol- diers at his side not to shoot. Then, seeing his own helplessness against further disaster, be retired from the line of march, but not before a boy in the crowd handed him a discharged musket which a soldier had dropped. The action of the boy gave rise to the story incorporated in Colonel Jones's oflicial report, and still in circulation, that the Mayor had "seized a musket from the hands of one of the men and killed a man therewith." The boy was in sympathy with the troops, and may have been the youth who is said to have joined the regiment during this fight, and, not only went with them to Washington, but to the war itself — if his story on record in the Maryland Historical Society and reported in Boston papers after the war, be a true one. As above stated, the retirement of the mayor from the head of the troops was due to his perceiving that he was helpless to protect either the soldiers or the citizens, among whom the greater loss of life fell upon non- combatants and bystanders. The soldiers seem seldom to have fired behind them at the pursuing mob ; but in front they fired with deadly effect. The raw recruits were evidently irresponsible from fear, and shot at all citizens, wherever grouped, as active or potential foes. The troops had now reached a point between Light and Charles streets. Four had been killed and 36 wounded. Eleven citizens had been killed, while an indefinite number had been more or less seriously shot in the fray. The HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 177 temper of the mob had become thoroughly aroused and a third of the dis- tance to Camden had yet to be covered before the detached companies could join their companions. They were in a critical position. But effective intervention was now at hand, and in brief follows a chapter which will always be a bright one in the annals of the Baltimore police. About 40 bluecoats, with the gallant Marshal Kane at their head, were now seen coming from Camden Station at a run. With revolvers drawn and in good order, they quickly placed themselves in the rear of the soldiers and in front of their pursuers, Marshal Kane adding emphasis to the action by shouting: "Keep back, men, or I shoot!" One leading rioter, a young man of excellent reputation in the community, tried to force his way through the line, but the Marshal himself stepped forward and seized him. The fight was now ended, and, under escort of the police, the troops soon joined their comrades at Camden Station. At the station there was much confusion, with attempts at violence. The blinds of the coaches were ordered closed by Colonel Jones, and the train started for Washington at about i o'clock amid the hisses and groans of the crowd. But the death record for the day was not yet complete. A well-known merchant of Baltimore was standing with two friends beside the railroad tracks at the edge of the city. As the train passed by, the mer- chant, ignorant of the events of the city, shook his fist at the troops. He was immediately fired upon from a car window and fell forward into a small ditch, shot through and instantly killed. News of this last casualty flew through the city, and more than all else, seemed to arouse the people. Many now rushed to the Philadelphia, Wil- mington, and Baltimore station, vowing vengeance. The band of the Massa- chusetts regiment was still at the President Street station, together with the unarmed Pennsylvania troops. A number of these, alarmed by the increased hostility of the crowd assembling about the station, scattered through the city, some successfully seeking police protection. The remainder were sent homeward by special arrangement with the railroad company.^* As the news spread, the excitement was intensified. But, however much their opinions differed otherwise, all citizens seemed to be agreed on one thing — ^that no more troops could pass through the city without precipitating even worse bloodshed, and that immediate and decisive steps should be taken to avoid further conflict. The military was called out and Governor Hicks, Mayor Brown, S. Teackle Wallis and others addressed an immense assem- blage in Monument Square. The almost unanimous sentiment of the people was to prevent further bloodshed, or the risk of it, in the streets of Baltimore, or on the soil of Maryland. The voice of the. Unconditional Unionist was wholly lost in the surging resentment of the moment. Gov- ''As given in the newspapers of the time the citizens killed were: Robert W. Davis, Philip S. Miles, John McCann, John McMahon, William R. Clark, James Carr, Frands Maloney, Sebastian Gill, William Maloney, William Reed, Michael Murphy, and Patrick Griffith. 178 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE emor Hicks was publicly swayed far away from his immediately previous attitude, and declared : ''I bow in submission to the people. I am a Mary- lander ; I love my State and I love the Union, but I will suffer my right arm to be torn from my body before I will raise it to strike a sister State." A dispatch had previously been sent to President Lincoln by the Cover* nor and Mayor Brown to the effect that the State militia had been called out to preserve order; but that no more Federal volunteers should be sent through Baltimore. Subsequent to this, the Mayor sent off the following letter: "Mayor's Office, Baltimore, April 19, 1861. "Sir — ^This will be presented to you by the Hon. H. Lennox Bond, and George W. Dobbin, and John C. Brune, Esqs., who will proceed to Washington by an express train at my request, in order to explain fully the fearful condition of affairs in this dty. The people are exasperated to the highest degree by the passage of troops, and the citizens are universally decided in the opinion that no more should be ordered to come. The authorities of the city did their best to-day to protect both strangers and citizens and to prevent a collision, but in vain, and, but for their great efforts, a fearful slaughter would have occurred. Under these circumstances it is my solenm duty to inform you that it is not possible for more soldiers to pass through Baltimore unless they fight their way at every step. I therefore hope and trust and most earnestly request that no more troops be permitted or ordered by the Government to pass through the city. If they should attempt it, the responsibility for the bloodshed will not rest upon me. "With great respect, your obedient servant, "Geo. Wm. Brown, Mayor. "To his Excellency, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States/"* As no reply came from Washington until the following day, and as re- ports were in circulation of the coming of other troops from Harrisburg and Philadelphia, the Governor and the board of police, including the mayor, decided on a radical step to prevent further conflict. This was to bum the railroad bridges leading into the city from the North, so that the troops could not, for the time being, at least, enter the city. This was accordingly done ; but the Governor retired to Annapolis on the 20th and left to the city authorities the responsibility of the recent acts.*^ On that day President Lincoln replied to Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown as follows : <f Washington^ April ao, 1861. Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown: Gentlemen — Your letter by Messrs. Bond, Dobbin and Brune is received. I tender you my sincere thanks for your efforts to keep the peace in the trying situation '*Hon. Hugh L. Bond was the most prominent local Republican at this time, judge of the Criminal Court of Baltimore and later judge of the Circuit Court of the United States; John C. Brune was president of the Board of Trade; and George W. Dobbin was a prominent member of the Baltimore bar. "The Eighth Massachusetts arrived at Perryville by rail on the twentieth, and from there the troops were sent around to Annapolis by boat. Governor Hicks wrote to Gen. B. F. Butler, in command of the regiment, advising against his landing on Maryland soil on account of the excited state of the public mind. Later he made the suggestion by letter to President Lincoln that Lord Lyons, the British Minister, be requested to act as mediator in the political differences of this country. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 179 in which you are placed. For the future troops must be brought here, but I make no point of bringing them through Baltimore. "Without any military knowledge myself, of course I must leave these details to General Scott. He hastily said this morning, in the presence of these gentlemen, 'March them around Baltimore, and not through it.' "I sincerely hope that the General, on fuller reflection, will consider this practical and proper, and that you will not object to it. "By this a collision of the people of Baltimore with the troops will be avoided miless they go out of the way to seek it I hope you will exert your influence to prevent this. "Now and ever I shall do all in my pow<r for peace consistently with the main- tenance of government. Your obedient servant, "A. LiNCOLK."" For several days following the combat of the 19th, it seemed that Balti- more had unanimously joined its fortunes with those of the Confederacy. Southern emblems, which hitherto had been forbidden by the strong Union sentiment, whether that sentiment was ''Constitutional" or "Unconditional" Union in origin, now appeared everywhere. Even the Minute Men, an Unconditional Union Gub with its headquarters on Baltimore street, ran up the flag of Maryland in the stead of the Stars and Stripes, amid the cheers of the assembled crowd. Indeed, if continued ofHcial reports from Washington had not come in to the effect that the troops were designed ''Not only did the civil authorities of Baltimore journey to Washington to con- sult with the President in the day or two following, but delegations of citizens did likewise. In the editorial columns of The Sun of April 23d appeared this account of a remarkable interview with the President: "We learn that a delegation from five of the Young Men's Christian Associations of Baltimore, consisting of six members from each, yesterday proceeded to Washington for an interview with the President, the purpose being to intercede with him in behalf of a peaceful policy and to entreat him not to pass troops through Baltimore or Mary- land. Rev. Dr. Fuller, of the Baptist Church, accompanied the party by invitation as chairman. "Our informant, however, vouches for what we now write. He states that upon the introduction they were received very cordially by Mr. Lincoln, and Dr. Fuller sougfit to impress upon Mr. Lincoln the vast responsibility of the position he occupied, and that upon him depended the issues of peace or war : "'But,' said Mr. Lincoln, 'what am I to do?' •"Why, sir, let the country know that you are disposed to recognize the inde- pendence of the Southern States, and war may be averted.' "To which Mr. Lincoln replies: Then, what is to become of the revenue? I shall have no government — ^no resources.' " This apparently patronizing counsel of Dr. Fuller may seem strange at a later time, but issues were by no means clearly joined in April, 1861. Mr. J. Morrison Harris, a well-known citizen of Baltimore and an ardent Unionist, was one of the second committee of citizens who waited upon President Lincoln on April 20th. In a paper read before the Maryland Historical Society after the war Mr. Harris states that "Salmon P. Chase was present during the discussion at the War Office; and in talking over the conditions of affairs generally expressed to me with much earnestness the opinion that the best way out of the difficulty would be to let the Cotton States go and trust to arrangements of amity and commerce for the preservation of peace and their ultimate return to the Union." i8o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE for defense of the Capital, and not for invasion of the South, it is possible that Maryland would have become at least the earliest battleground of the war, if not the scene of final conflict.** Shortly after the events of the 19th, and subsequent to a hostile demon- stration upon his office, the Unionist editor and proprietor of The American thought it advisable to place the editorial page under the charge of an as- sistant of pronounced Southern sympathies; and on the 226. this journal observed : "It is evident that Baltimore is to be the battlefield of the South- em revolution." Armed companies were then marching into the city from the counties, and several hundred of the best free negro residents of Balti- more tendered their services to the mayor and the city authorities. On Sunday, April 21st, an immediate issue of conflict, affecting not only local but national history, was avoided by the action of President Lin- coln, who had summoned the mayor of Baltimore to Washington for a con- sultation with regard to city and State. With the mayor were George W. Dobbin, John C. Brune, and S. Teackle Wallis; and, in the course of the conference, the President declared that the troops brought through Mary- land were not intended for any purpose hostile to the State, or for aggres- sive measures against the Southern States; but that the troops miist be brought through or the Capital abandoned.^® The del^ation then took their leave ; but, while they were still in Washington, the receipt of a telegram from Mr. John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, announced that 3,000 Northern troops were reported at CockeysviUe ; that they were advancing on Baltimore ; and that terrible bloodshed would follow should they march into the city. The mayor and his party at once returned to the White House ; and it was then that the President, in the presence of General Scott and the Baltimoreans, said that the troops should march around Baltimore, and not through it. When, at this critical juncture, President Lincoln made this definite promise to the small group assembled in the White House, General Scott said with great emotion: "Mr. Presi- dent, I thank you for this, and God will bless you for it." The effects of this decision cannot be calculated. Had it been otherwise, Baltimore and Mary- land must have been plunged at once into the civil conflict, and on the side of the South. On Monday, April 22d, there appeared on the streets of the city thou- sands of copies of "an address to the people of Baltimore," the tenor of which was that the time for action had arrived. "We are in the midst of revolution," it read, "unless for the purpose of repelling aggression — ^peace- ful, solemn revolution. . . . The military and the people have taken up arms to defend the city and have opposed the passage of Northern troc^s "•"It" [the conflict in Baltimore] ''made a great sensation at the time in Europe as well as here, and some thought that it would mean a rising in Maryland which might affect the issue of the war." — Hon. James Bryce, in letter to the writer, dated Washington, D. C, May 11, 1911. * From Mayor Brown's official statement as to the interview, which was prepared by S. Teackle Wallis and published April 21, 1861. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE i8i over the soil of Maryland. It is pretended that these troops are the troops of the United States, and have been legally called forth. This the people of Maryland and the constituted authorities deny.'^ April 23, 1861, is a date to be commemorated in Maryland, because on this day a Baltimore poet immortalized the State in the most stirring stanzas inspired by American issues. It was then, in distant Louisiana, that the youthful James Ryder Randall heard of the first bloodshed in the streets of his native city, the account of which inspired him forthwith to write ''My Maryland," once the battle hymn of the Southern Confederacy, but now regarded by all liberal-minded Americans as a martial measure and heritage, not of the South alone, but of the nation. In this connection, it should be recalled that the conflict at Baltimore elicited more poems than this one by Randall. Among others, Randall's later friend and generous admirer, Oliver Wendell Holmes, essayed the task ; but one of the popular measures of the day in Massachusetts was a poem written on the same day as "My Maryland,'' and which was entitled "The Slain at Baltimore." The first stanza reads : "There's sorrow and there's weeping by mountain, vale, and shore For Freedom's new-slain martyrs — the dead at Baltimore 1 There's a swelling cry for vengeance on those counterfeits of men Who haunt that hold of pirates*— that foul assassins' dent" This poem has passed into oblivion, not because of its war spirit, but because it is commonplace and ordinary. The poem of the Baltimore poet will live, not because of its war spirit, but because it is out of the ordinary, and in- spired. Randall believed that his Mother State was wrongfully invaded; and he breathed into his belief the passion of the true muse of song.^^ ''In one of the newspapers of the day it was stated that, "There was hauled into Holliday Square this morning a steam gun said to have been manufactured at the foundry of Thomas Winans, Esq." This notice referred to the famous Winans steam gun, described as "something like a steam fire engine, and would throw 300 balls per minute." It was later captured by Federal authorities while on the way to intended service in the South. After its capture the Federal forces attempted to make use of it, but their purpose was foiled, it was said, by the inventor's forethought in removing an important piece of the mechanism, which had been withheld for separate shipment. ""It is also worthy of note that Dr. Holmes wrote to Mr. Charles Strahan, January 26, 1886: "My Dear Sir-— I always felt rather than thought there was a genuine ring and a lifelike spirit in that lyric, 'Maryland, My Maryland,' and only regretted that I could not write a 'Massachusetts, My Massachusetts,' that would be at once as musical and as effective on what was for me the right side of the armed controversy. "Believe me, "Very truly yours, "O. W. Holmes." Mr. Douglas Sladen, the English critic, in requesting the privilege of publishing selections of his poems, wrote to Mr. Randall, in part, as follows: "It may gratify you to hear that Dr. Holmes told me in Boston that he thought your great poem the greatest of all poems of the War." i82 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE On the 24th of April, the special election took place to fill those places in the General Assembly declared vacant by the previous Legislature. Only a State Rights ticket was presented, and those elected were Messrs. John C. Brune, Ross Winans, Henry M. Warfield, J. Hanson Thomas, T. Parkin Scott, H. M. Morfit, S. Teackle Wallis, Charles H. Pitts, William G. Harri- son, and Lawrence Sangston. These men formed a remarkable delegation of well-known and highly respected citizens, a majority of whom were nomi- nated in this crisis because of their conservative views and known opposi- tion to radical measures. On the 26th, an order was issued by Mayor Brown which caused the police great trouble while it was in effect, and which materially aided, through the difficulty of its enforcement, in a reaction favorable to Federal sentiment. This order is doubtless unique in the history of this or any other country. It directed that all flags be taken down, whether Federal, State, or Confederate ; and it was issued with a view to alla3ring the excitement and disorders then attending the display of sectional emblems, for at this time the national flag had come to be regarded as the emblem of a party. How- ever, a ntunber of those who displayed the Stars and Stripes refused to obey, their refusal occasioning combats between some of the citizens and the police. Such men as Judge Hugh L. Bond, Henry Winter Davis, and others were accused of provoking resistance to this municipal regulation as affecting the display of the Federal flag, and, as judge of the criminal court. Bond had dismissed all charges against the rioters who resisted the efforts of the authorities to remove the national flag at Federal Hill and at Fdl's Point." The business interests of the city began to suffer keenly from the sus- pension of trade and commerce ; and, on May 2d, the Corn Exchange made a formal plea for the complete reestablishment of the lines of trade with the North. Commerce with the South was suspended by the action of the Fed- eral government ; and the city was truly set between two fires. Those who upheld the coercive measures of the Federal government were eloquent in demonstrating that the interests of the city lay in supporting the Adminis- tration. On the other hand, those who opposed the war urged that Mary- land should at once ally herself with the other Southern States for the pres- ervation of Baltimore's extensive commercial relations with the South, main- taining, in addition, that such an attitude on the part of Maryland would compel the Federal government to offer acceptable terms of reconciliation and readjustment with the secessionists. The General Assembly had in the meantime met at Frederick, instead of Annapolis, for the reason that the State capital was occupied and controlled by Federal troops. On May 3d, Severn Teackle Wallis presented resolu- tions passed by the City Council of Baltimore requesting the Legislature to *On May ist a young man in. the uniform of the Maryland Guard attempted to cut down the United States flag at the Custom House. He was set upon by a mob, and was barely rescued from serious injury or death by the intervention of the police. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 183 make inquiry through accredited agents, "As to the precise position which the general government has determined to occupy toward this State." The tenor of these resolutions is thoroughly indicative of the political uncer- tainty of the times ; and it was further suggested that Messrs. Otho Scott, Robert M. McLane, and William J. Ross be appointed as special commis- sioners to wait upon the President of the United States definitely to ascer- tain the intentions of the Federal government, especially as to the possible military occupation of Maryland soil.** On May 4th, General B. F. Butler, with a strong military force, which included the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, seized the Relay House and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at that point. This "unconstitutional" oc- cupation of Maryland soil called forth a protest from the General Assembly of Maryland, embraced in a set of resolutions prepared by S. Teackle Wallis, of the city delegation. The resolutions, as given below, were embodied in the "Report of the Committee on Federal Relations in Regard to the Calling of a Sovereign Convention"; and by a vote of 49 to 11, ten thousand copies were ordered printed : "Whereas, The people of Maryland, while recognizing the obligation of their State as a member of the Union to submit in good faith to the exercise of all the legal and constitutional powers of the general Government, and sympathizing deeply with their Southern brethren in their noble and manly determination to uphold and defend the same; and ''Whereas, Not merely on their own account and to turn away from their own soil the calamities of civil war, but for the blessed sake of humanity, and to avoid the wanton shedding of fraternal blood in a miserable contest which can bring nothing with it but sorrow, shame and desolation, the people of Maryland are enlisted with their whole hearts on the side of reconciliation and peace ; now, therefore, it is hereby "Resolved, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the State of Maryland owes it to her own self-respect and her respect for the Constitution, not less than to her deepest and most honorable sympathies, to register this her solemn protest against the war which the Federal Government has declared upon the Confederate States of ** "Southern Rights" sentiment was largely in the majority in the Legislature; and this sentiment was rather increasing in power than otherwise, when some of the more radical county members caused a reaction by proposing an extreme measure advo- cating the establishment of a kind of dictatorship which might have equaled the Federal militarism, against the establishment of which the city delegation of Constitutional Unionists had so strongly protested. The bill provided for a "Committee of Safety" to secure the peace and welfare of the people and "avoid the evils and horrors of civil war"; and, although the men nominated for the proposed committee were citizens of the highest character and reputation, they were to be given an almost unlimited power through the proposed bill, the terms of which aroused a storm of protest in the city of Baltimore and aided in a reaction against the entire "Southern Rights" party. It was asserted that no similar measure had been proposed in any of the States since the formation of the Union. In defense of the bill it was maintained by its advocates that it was right and necessary to fight fire with fire; and that this proposal offered the only method of maintaining the dignity and prerogatives of Maryland against the encroachments and usurpation of Federal proceedings. i84 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the South, and our sister and neighbor, Virginia, and to announce her resolute deter- mination to have no part or lot, directly or indirectly, in its prosecution. "Resolved, That the State of Maryland earnestly and anxiously desires the restora- tion of peace between the belligerent sections of the country, and the President, authorities and people of the Confederate States having over and over again, officially and unofficially, declared that they seek only peace and self-defense and to be let alone, and that they are willing to throw down the sword the instant that the sword now drawn against them shall be sheathed, the Senators and Delegates of Maryland do beseech and implore the President of the United States to accept the olive branch which is thus held out to him; and in the name of God and humanity to cease this unholy and most wretched and unprofitable strife, at least until the assembling of Congress in Washington shall have given time for the prevalence of cooler and better counsels. "Resolved, That the State of Maryland desires the peaceful and immediate recognition of the independence of the Confederate States, and hereby gives her cordial assent thereunto as a member of the Union, entertaining the profound con- viction that the willing return of the Southern people to their former Federal rela- tions is a thing beyond hope, and that the attempt to coerce them will only add slaughter and hate to impossibility. "Resolved, That the present military occupation of Maryland, being for purposes, in the opinion of this Legislature, in flagrant violation of the Constitution, the General Assembly of the State, in the name of her people, does hereby protest against the same, and against the oppressive restrictions and illegalities with which it is attended; calling upon all good citizens, at the same time, in the most earnest and authoritative manner, to abstain from all violent and unlawful interference of every sort with the troops in transit through our territory or quartered among us, and patiently and peace- fully leave to time and reason the ultimate and certain reestablishment and vindication of the right. "Resolved, That, under existing circumstances, it is inexpedient to call a sovereign convention of the State at this time or to take any measure for the immediate organi- zation or arming of the militia. "S. T. Wallis, Chairman." The last of this series of resolutions indicated to the more ardent Southern element that Maryland must be inactive in the progress of events ; and then began that exodus of the citizens of Southern sympathies which resulted in the passing from the State to the aid of the Confederacy of over 20,000 of her sons. At this time, an order was issued by the vacillating governor of Mary- land, which technically, at least, complied with the requirements of the gov- ernment for the enlisting of volunteers from the State for the United States army ; but the governor expressly stated that these men thus called out were enlisted with the "written assurance of Secretary Cameron that they shall be required to serve only in Maryland and the District of Columbia." *• On May 13th, the military occupation of Baltimore was begun through "The New York Tribune thus commented on this order: "Considering that every one of the States whose loyalty does not require the stimulus of Federal bayonets are eagerly competing for the privilege of sending more regiments to serve throughout the war, and wherever they might be wanted, we object to the reception of these Marylanders on such conditions, and we decidedly object to any such pledges as Secretary Cameron is said to have given." HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 185 the occupation of Federal Hill by a force under General Butler. During a violent midnight storm^ the troops marched into the city, a proceeding officially described by General Butler as the capture of Baltimore, and for which he was promoted to the rank of major-general. The guns on the Hill were trained upon the city, and General Butler issued a proclamation establishing what was, in effect, martial law. An account, in some degree of detail, with regard to the local incidents and episodes arising from the setting up and the maintenance of Federal military authority in the city of Baltimore, would be extremely interesting and instructive as a sidelight upon the conduct of the severe regime consid- ered necessary by Federal authorities for the control of a doubtful or hostile community, and for the successful prosecution of the war. But this nar- rative aims to present general conditions and, for the most part, leaves the details to biographies, memoirs, and monographs. It is, however, a fact not to be passed over by the historian that in Maryland a military absolutism was set up and maintained that was wholly foreign to American institutions. Spies and informers abounded, and their testimony was taken and rewarded regardless of the character or reputation of the accusers. In many cases the worst element that remained of the Rip- Rap and Blood-Tub organizations of the Know-Nothing era were enlisted on the side of the government in terrorizing and controlling the pro-South- ern and neutral elements of the city. Arrests of prominent citizens were made, usually at night without warrant of law, and houses were searched at all hours by detachments of soldiers for the confiscation of guns, pistols, swords, and including even the relics of former wars. The singing of Southern songs was prohibited; pictures of Confederate officers and men in the possession of their wives and daughters were seized and destroyed ; and even the white and red ribbons worn by nurses and children were torn from them ; while Fort McHenry came to be known to the descendants of its former defenders as the "Bastile of Maryland." Many of her repre- sentative citizens were there confined and crowded together throughout the hot summer months without preferred charge of arrest or chance of trial, and under conditions which forbid description. By May 2 1st, the railroads leading into the city from the North having been repaired, troops again began to march through the city of Baltimore. But the most noteworthy event of the day was the sudden seizure of the telegraph offices and of all the dispatches there on file. This was done by direction of the Federal authorities, and the order was enforced throughout the Union. As a proceeding "without precedent or analogy in American history," a Baltimore newspaper commented on this order as follows : "The outrage committed by the Federal Government yesterday, in the seizure of the telegraph offices and of all the accumulated dispatches, public and private, of the twelve months past, has not its parallel in history. In the mode and manner of its execution it would have done honor to the secret police of Austria or Russia. In the extent of the knowledge which it enables the Government to obtain of the i86 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE private life, history, and business of every citizen of the country, it surpasses anything^ that the police of any country has ever contemplated or attempted." "What we have read of the surveillance exercised in foreign countries over the movements of suspected individuals bears no comparison with the espionage (the system has no name in the English language, never before having been practiced in any country where that tongue is spoken) sought to be installed in America over the lives and actions of a people. Elsewhere we have heard of the correspondence of persons supposed to be in a conspiracy against the Government being seized by special order; here we have the seizure of the correspondence of a nation. [Excerpts from an editorial article in The South.''] Although at this time one startling precedent followed another, even the wannest supporters of military rule in Baltimore were astounded by the events which now took shape. On May 25th, John Merryman, a citizen of Baltimore county, was arrested on a charge of "treason," and for "complicity in the burning of the railroad bridges" on the night of the 19th of April. The following day a writ of habeas corpus was issued by his counsel in Baltimore ; and, as the writ had been already disregarded by the Federal military authorities in the State, application was made in this case directly to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Realizing the gravity of the occasion, Chief Justice Taney himself came from the Federal capital to Baltimore to hear the petition with a view to issuing the writ himself, if necessary, to General Cadwallader, then in command at Fort McHenry, where the pris- oner had been placed in confinement, directing him to produce in court the person in his custody. In the courtroom of Baltimore, on May 27th and 28th, there followed two of the most dramatic scenes in the history of this country. Well past the allotted three-score years and ten, but with his natural force of intellect unabated. Chief Justice Taney took his stand on the principles of Black- stone, Marshall, and Story, that it was not within the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the government to suspend the most prized saf^;uard of English liberties, but that that power was vested in the national legis- lature alone. Notwithstanding this order, General Cadwallader did not honor the writ when returnable on the 27th, pleading military engagements at the Fort. By an aide-de-camp he sent his apologies to the court for not appearing ; and added that inasmuch as he had been authorized by the President to suspend habeas corpus proceedings, he declined obedience to the order in this in- stance. Judge Brown, Mayor of Baltimore, who was present on this oc- casion, has thus described the scene : '^A startling issue was thus presented. The venerable Chief Justice had come from Washington to Baltimore for the purpose of issuing a writ of habeas corpus, "The Brooklyn Eagle, the New York Journal of Commerce, and other news- papers protested in similar vein, but Horace Greeley in The Tribune declared that the order was a master stroke of statesmanship. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 187 and the President had thereupon authorized the commander of the fort to hold the prisoner and disregard the writ. A more important occasion could hardly have occurred." From this account the following passage is taken : "Chief Justice [To the aide-de-camp] — The commanding officer, then, declines to obey the writ? "Colonel Lee — ^After making that communication, my duty is ended, and I have no further power (rising and retiring). "Chief Justice — The Court orders an attachment to issue against George Cad- wallader for disobedience to the high writ of the Court, returnable at 12 o'clock to- morrow." The importance of the Mcrryman case overshadowed every other local event at this time ; indeed, it may be truly said that it overshadowed every event of its day throughout the country. It was not only a direct and ominous clash between the President of the United States and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the greatest republic of the world, but it was made a test between that which best personified law on the one side and that which represented the most powerful development of military force on the other; and the struggle was over an issue as old as is Elnglish liberty itself. On the morning of May 28th, 1861, Chief Justice Taney, leaning on the arm of his grandson, walked slowly through the crowd in front of the courthouse, which silently and with lifted hats made way for him to pass. Entering the courtroom, the Chief Justice took his seat with his customary quiet dignity. He broke the impressive silence that followed by calling the case of John Merryman, and asking the marshal for his return to the writ of attachment. The marshal stated in reply that he had gone to Fort McHenry for the purpose of serving the writ on General Cadwallader ; that he had sent in his name at the outer gate ; that the messenger had returned with the reply that there was no answer to send ; that he was not permitted to enter the gate, and, therefore, could not serve the writ. The Chief Justice then read from manuscript : "I ordered the attachment of yesterday because upon the face of the return the detention of the prisoner was unlawful upon two grounds: "i. The President, under the Constitution and laws of the United States, cannot suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, nor authorize any military officer to do so. "2. A military officer has no right to arrest and detain a person not subject to the rules and articles of war for an offense against the laws of the United States, except in aid of the judicial authority and subject to its control; and if the party is arrested by the military, it is the duty of the officer to deliver him over immediately to the civil authority, to be dealt with according to law. "I forbore yesterday to state the provisions of the Constitution of the United States which make these principles the fundamental law of the Union, because an oral statement might be misunderstood in some portions of it, and I shall therefore put my opinion in writing, and file it in the office of the clerk of this court in the course of this week." i88 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The Chief Justice then orally remarked : "In relation to the present term, it is proper to say that of course the marshal has legally the power to summon the posse comitatus to seize and bring into court the party named in the attachment; but it is apparent he will be resisted in the dis- charge of that duty by a force notoriously superior to the posse; and, this being the case, such a proceeding can result in no good and is useless. I will not, therefore, require the marshal to perform this duty. If, however, General Cadwallader were before me, I should impose on him the punishment which it is my province to inflict — that of fine and imprisonment I shall merely say to-day that I shall reduce to writing the reasons under which I have acted and which have led me to the con* elusions expressed in my opinion, and shall direct the clerk to forward them with these proceedings to the President, so that he may discharge his constitutional duty 'to take care that the laws are faithfully executed/ " After the court had adjourned, a number of citizens went up to the bench to express their thanks to the great Maryland-bom Chief Justice of the United States for thus upholding, in its integrity, the writ of habeas corpus, "the heritage of English liberty." Turning to Mayor Brown, the Chief Justice remarked solemnly : "Mr. Brown, I am an old man, a very old man; but perhaps I was preserved for this occasion." To which the mayor fervently replied : "Sir, I thank God that you were." Samuel Tyler, the biographer of Benjamin R. Curtis, one-time opponent of Taney, says in reference to the Chief Justice in the Merryman case : "If he had never done anything else that was high, heroic, and important, his tioble vindication of the writ of habeas corpus and of the dignity and authority of his office against a rash minister of State, who, in the pride of a fancied executive power, came near to the commission of a great crime, will command the admiration and gratitude of every lover of constitutional liberty so long as our institutions shall en- <dure." The "crime" referred to was the intended imprisonment of the Chief Justice." In pursuance of a plan divulged later during the year, of deposing from -civil authority in Baltimore all who were not originally and steadfastly in favor of the war measures of the administration, the residence of Marshal George P. Kane was surrounded by a military force early on the morning of June 27th. The Marshal was put under arrest and placed in confinement in Fort McHenry.2' "Contemporary opinion expressed in such papers as the New York Journal of Commerce was eulogistic of the action of the Chief Justice; yet it is but fair to state that in the passion of feeling incident to war some dissented. The New York Tribune referred to the Chief Justice as that "hoary apologist for crime," and warmly praised General Cadwallader for his "stinging rebuke.'' "Although Marshal Kane had shown the utmost bravery and devotion in pro- tecting the lives of the Massachusetts volunteers on the 19th of April, he had long been a marked man in the eyes of the Federal officials, who well knew of the sending of two messages which had seemed clearly to indicate to them wherein lay his sym- pathies. The first of these was sent on the i6th of April to an agent of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, and was as follows, the italics indicating the portion that was offensive to Federal opinion: "Dear Sir — Is it true, as stated, that HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 189 On the same day Col. John R. Kenly appeared before the Board of Po* lice Commissioners and read to them an order whereby General Banks ap- pointed him to take charge of the police department of Baltimore. This order was acceded to by the Board of Police, including the mayor, who, however, denied the authority of General Banks in these proceedings. The protest led to the arrest and imprisonment of the members of the Board, with the exception of Mayor Brown, these arrests occurring on the first of July. By this time troops and artillery had been placed in various squares of the city, and any objections to the new order of government were promptly followed up by the arrest of the protestants as persons dangerous to the safety of the nation. The arbitrary and frequently unauthorized methods pursued by the military authorities in arresting suspects through a system of spies and informers so offended Colonel Kenly, himself a Baltimorean, that, upon his request, he was relieved of his police duties within three weeks after his appointment to this ofHce. George R. Dodge was then appointed in his place, Colonel Kenly subsequently seeing long and honorable service in the Federal army.^® During the summer, a number of forts were constructed in and about Baltimore to overawe and control the city in case of an outbreak in favor of the Southern Confederacy. Besides extensive additions to the fortifica- tions of Federal Hill, Fort Marshall, on the east of Patterson Park, was constructed, and, later. Fort Worthington, northeast of the Maryland Hos- pital. In other cases, when lesser fortifications were erected, the property of Marylanders serving in the Confederate army was occupied for the pur- pose, notable among the latter was that of General George H. Steuart, on West Baltimore street. These measures were followed by various military an attempt will be made to pass the volunteers from New York intended to war upon the South over your road to-day f It is important that we have explicit understanding on the subject. Your friend, George P. Kane." The second of these messages still further "incriminated him in treasonable conspiracies"; he had, entirely on his own responsibility, sent the following dispatch to Bradley T. Johnson at Frederick, just after the wild excitement of April 19th: "Streets red with Maryland blood; send expresses over the mountains of Maryland and Virginia for the riflemen to come without delay. Fresh hordes will be down on us to-morrow. We will fight them and whip them, or die." He had by this message, in the view of Mayor Brown, compromised the neu- trality of Maryland and embarrassed the city authorities. At the same time, his services were considered indispensable in preserving the good order of the city of Baltimore, and he could not be dismissed from the police force without jeopardizing the welfare of the community. •John R. Kenly had an exalted sense of civic duty and patriotism. Although a veteran of the Mexican War and the war between the States, he refused to the day of his death to draw a well-earned pension for his services in either conflict. His stand on this point was the more remarkable in that he lived in straightened circum- stances and died almost in poverty, professing that he did not ''enter the service of his country to become a hireling." I90 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE orders repressive of all show of sympathy within the city for the South, these orders frequently leading to the arrest of women and children. Thou- sands of the women of Baltimore had husbands, sons, or other relatives in the Southern armies, and they often succeeded in making themselves un- necessarily obnoxious to the Union soldiers, officers and men, whom they not only heartily hated, but affected also to disdain. In many cases they invited reprisal or arrest by their conduct. The well-known incident of the prominent society woman who haughtily and publicly rebuked an usher for "daring to seat" a Federal officer in her pew at Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, was not without its counterpart in similar episodes. But^ on the whole, the offenses were most numerous and far more ag- gravated on the part of the "army of occupation," as the Federal forces were generally termed by a portion of the Baltimore press, until such expressions were forbidden, or the newspapers forcibly suppressed. In order to prevent the proposed meeting of the General Assembly at Frederick, the following order was issued by Major-General Dixon, on September 12th: "George R. Dodge, Esq., Provost Marshal: Arrest without an hour's delay George Wm. Brown, Coleman Yellott, Stephen P. Dennis, Charles H. Pitts, Andrew A. Lynch, Lawrence Sangston, H. M. Morfit, Ross Winans, J. Hanson Thomas, Wm. G. Harrison, John C. Brune, Robert M. Denntson, Leonard D. Quinlan, and Thos. W. Renshaw." Besides the mayor and the other leading citizens named in the special order to the provost marshal, further arrests of the following day included : S. Teackle Wallis, Frank Key Howard,** T. Parkin Scott, Thomas W. Hall, Jr.,** Benjamin C. Howard, Henry M. Warfield, and Henry May, the latter a member of Congress from the Fourth District. ** Frank Key Howard was editor of the Daily Exchange, a newspaper that was also suppressed, although it appeared five days later under the name of the Maryland Times and under different management. This was shortly superseded by the Mary- land News-Sheet, which published no opinions of its own, but those of other journals and of correspondents in a manner which proved offensive to the military authorities. Although excluded from the mail by the Postmaster-General, it continued to prosper until August 14, 1862, when a squad of soldiers destroyed the newspaper plant Finally this paper was continued for some years under the name of the Gazette, •* Thomas W. Hall Jr. had, as editor of The Exchange, previously given signal service to the great reform movement which had resulted in the overthrow of the Know-Nothing party. On April 22d he had become editor and founder of The South, a journal which had been for some months past championing the issues of State sovereignty as against what it believed to be the unconstitutional acts of the Federal Government. Mr. Hall was arrested in the early morning of September 13th, and the last issue of The South appeared that afternoon. Its editorial column was headed in large bold type, "FREEDOM OF THE PRESS!" After which there was a length of blank space, followed by this explanation: "The above head and what follows demands an explanation from the Printer of The South. The usual hour for the arrival of the editor, Thomas W. Hall Jr., Esq., having passed this morning, an effort was made to obtain admittance to his editorial room. This was easily accom- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 191 Mayor Brown explained the cause of his own arrest as follows : "As the events of the 19th of April had occurred nearly five months previously, and I was endeavoring to perform my duties as mayor, in obedience to law, without ^ving offense to either the civil or military authorities of the Government, the only apparent reason for my arrest grew out of a difficulty in regard to the payment of the police appointed by General Banks. In July a law had been passed by Congress appropriating one hundred thousand dollars for the purpose of such payment, but it was plain that a similar expenditure would not long be tolerated by G>ngress. In this emergency an intimation came to me indirectly from Secretary Seward, through a common acquaintance, that I was expected to pay the Government police out of the funds appropriated by law for the city police. I replied that any such payment would be illegal and was not within my power."" Early in August, the Union element in the city was recognized and strengthened, and employment given to idle mechanics by the award of Fed- eral contracts for the building of United States gunboats. The Pinola was the first of these and was launched from a Baltimore shipyard on the 3d of October. On October 9th an election for members of the First Branch of the City Council was held, and the candidates of the Union party were elected by a total vote of 9,587. No opposition was permitted and the size of the vote polled indicated that the citizens regarded the balloting as a mere formality. On November 6th following, Union candidates for governor, comptroller, plished, for on trying the door it was found that papers and documents had been abstracted. The locks of Mr. Hall's desk and private drawers had been picked with an expertness that would do no discredit to the most accomplished convict, and all the letters and scraps of papers contained in them carried off, as were also the full files of the Exchange and South, the files of the American, Clipper and Sun being left. Whilst looking on with wonder and amazement, the astounding intelligence was brought in that Thomas W. Hall Jr., Esq., had been arrested and was a prisoner in Fort McHenry. The particulars of the arrest of Mr. Hall are as follows: Between the hours of one and two o'clock this morning the bell of the residence of his father was violently rung, when that worthy citizen at once arose and answered the sum- mons. On opening the door he found about a dozen Federal policemen, the apparent leader of whom asked if he were Mr. Hall. On being replied to in the affirmative, the officer arrested him as editor of The South. Tht officer was at once informed of his mistake, when the elder Mr. Hall was forced into the parlor by four of the officers, while a similar number rushed up-stairs into the bedroom of his son and arrested him. After seizing all the letters and papers found on the premises, the officers retired, carrying off Mr. Hall with them, and, although there is no positive information of the fact, it is only reasonable to suppose that he is now an inmate of the American Bastile, formerly known as Fort McHenry. As all communication between the Editor and the Printer of The South is forcibly cut off, the latter is constrained to announce to its numerous readers that its publication, for the present, must necessarily cease with the current number. On behalf of the imprisoned Editor, the Printer takes the occasion to return his sincere thanks to the generous community who have thus far fostered the feeble efforts of that gentleman in the cause of rational liberty, and he invokes them to put their trust in the future— however dark and gloomy that future may now appear." '^Baltimore and the Nineteenth of April, 1861, 192 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE members of the legislature, and other officials, were elected by a large ma- jority. Augustus W. Bradford, an able and energetic Union man, was elected over the Democratic candidate, Gen. Benj. C. Howard. In the early months of 1862 Baltimore was in a state of suppressed ex- citement and unrest, scarcely any one week passing without some action taken by the Federal authorities in the way of censorship of the press, the arrest of individuals, or the search of private dwellings for contraband articles. On the 6th of March following, the General Assembly, now under the control of the Unconditional Union party, passed an act defining treason,, and providing punishment therefor, and for kindred offenses. In the same month an act was passed appropriating seven thousand dollars to the relief of the families of the men killed or wounded in the attack upon the 6tb Massachusetts on the 19th of April, 1861. During this period it had been confidently predicted in Washington, and largely believed in Baltimore and elsewhere throughout the country, that the proposed Union advance upon Richmond would shortly end the war, a feeling that was echoed strongly in the Union press of the city, which had now become extreme in its denunciation of the "rebellion." But in May, on the receipt of the report from the Valley of Virginia of the defeat of Gen- eral N. P. Banks, formerly in command in Baltimore, and of the capture of Col. Kenly and the entire ist Maryland, U. S. V., by their former neighbors and fellow-citizens of the ist Maryland C. S. A., the greatest excitement prevailed in the streets of Baltimore, and especially about the newspaper offices. Serious trouble would have been precipitated had it not been for the action of the new police commissioners,** and especially that of Samuel Hindes, who addressed a crowd at the comer of Calvert and Baltimore streets, urging the people to disperse and return to their homes. The oc- casion was seized upon by the unruly to assault and beat a number of people, either of pronounced or suspected Southern sympathies; and all the news- paper offices were visited by mobs demanding the display of the Stars and Stripes. Early in June, Gen. John A. Dix was transferred from his command in the Middle Department, and was succeeded by General John E. Wool. The extremists in the Union party now proposed in a public meeting held in Monument Square, July 28th, Governor Bradford presiding, that the Presi- dent be requested to "instruct the general in command of this military de- partment to require all male citizens above the age of eighteen years to come forward and take the following oath, and that all persons refusing to take said oath shall be sent through our military lines into the so-called Southern Confederacy:" "I solemnly swear that I will bear true allegiance to the United States, and support and sustain the Constitution and laws thereof; that I will maintain the "The former commissioners had now been superseded by Federal appointees, or a provost guard. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 193 National sovereignty paramount to that of all State, County or Corporate powers ; that I will discharge, discountenance and forever oppose Secession, Rebellion and the dis- integration of the Federal Union; that I disclaim and denounce all faith and fellow- ship with the so-called Confederate States and Confederate armies, and pledge my property and my life to the sacred performance of this my solemn oath of allegiance to the Government of the United States." ** The motion, embodied in a set of resolutions, was passed without a dissenting voice. A few days later the City Council took up the question of test oaths and prescribed forms of allegiance. These were respectfully submitted to General Wool, who, however, summarily rejected them on the ground that such measures would "send twenty thousand more Marylanders to swell the army of Jefferson Davis." At this time, a number of members of the Second Branch of the City Council resigned their positions in that body, their resignations having been suggested by General Wool on account of their action in refusing to concur in an ordinance, passed by the First Branch, appropriating $300,000 to encourage the enlistment of volunteers for the Federal Army. While the measure was under discussion in the Second Branch, and when it was learned that some members were opposing it, a large crowd gathered, threat- ening violence to the obstructionists. On the adjournment of the Council, the mob rushed upon the opponents of the bounty measure and roughly handled them until they were finally rescued by the police. Major-General Schenck superseded General Wool in command in Balti- more on December 19th, and thereafter, under the former, and, later, under General Lew Wallace, the military surveillance of the city was extended in greater detail and severity. On October 8th, 1862, the mayoralty election resulted in the overwhelm- ing success of John Lee Chapman, heading the "Regular Union" ticket, over the opposition "Union" candidates, led by Frederick Fickey, Jr. In the latter part of November a number of the political prisoners from Baltimore, who had been confined in Fort Warren, were released and per- mitted to return to the city. Among these were ex-Mayor Brown, ex-Mar- •*From the Baltimore American, Tuesday, July 29, 1862: "The meeting was not only a glorious success in the numbers that attended it and the brilliancy of its surroundings, but also in the vigorous, unequivocal, unconditional Unionism which was exhibited in the addresses of the different speakers. They were without exception pointed, pertinent, and decisive. The spirit that animated speakers and hearers was that the Government should be assisted, the rebellion suppressed, disloyalty rebuked, and that Baltimore should furnish her full quota of men and means for the achievement of these ends." The vice-presidents of the meeting were : John Lee Chapman, Thomas W. Booze, Capt N. Christopher, Edwin A. Abbott, B. F. Hynson, Wm. Addison, P. G. Sauerwein, Dr. Baltzell, John H. Lloyd, James G. Ramsey, Dr. J. P. Hartman, James Price, Dr. James Armitage, Samuel Wilhelm, David K. Lusky, Henry McElderry, Dr. Joseph Roberts, W. S. Crowley, W. F. Pentz, A. Stirling, C. A. Gambrill, George Rogers, John Rogers, J. B. Seidenstricker, W. DeGoey, J. A. Morgan, Haslitt McKim, B. Deford, B. Crane, Wm. Roberts, Thomas Sewell Jr., George G. Stevens, Dr. Wm. L. Reese, Michael Warner, Aaron Fenton. 194 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE shal Kane, Severn Teackle Wallis, Henry M. Warfield, William G. Harri- son, T. Parkin Scott, Thomas W. Hall, Jr., Charles Howard, Frank Key Howard, William H. Gatchell, Robert Hull, and Charles and Frank Key Howard, the last two being the son and the grandson of General John Eager Howard. On January ist, 1863, Major William S. Fish was appointed provost- marshal in Baltimore, and served in this capacity until January 24, 1864, when he was arrested by order of the Secretary of War on the charge of official corruption and fraud. He was subsequently tried, found guilty, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the Albany penitentiary. Necessarily, the people of Baltimore were aroused to the greatest ex- citement by the invasion of the North by the Confederates after the defeat of the Union forces at Chancellorsville ; and, as the army of Northern Vir- ginia swept through Western Maryland, a detachment of Stuart's cavalry was at one time seen within eight miles of the city. The Union citizens and the military forces of the Middle Department worked night and day to get the surrounding fortifications in condition to repel attack. From a bounty enlistment fund of $400,000 previously voted by the City Council, $100,000 was taken out for the immediate construction of barricades and works of defense. Under this bounty system the principal organizations that had offered their services in June were the Baltimore Union City Guards of East Baltimore, the Washington Light Infantry, and the Independent Grays. But at this time the need was considered so urgent, that men were armed and enlisted without regard to forming special organizations. The Loyal Leagues were called upon for a quota of six thousand men, who were sent forth with three days' rations to occupy the outer defenses. On every hand, men and wagons were pressed into service. Baltimore became a camp, and throughout the period of suspense the houses of disloyal suspects were searched for articles pronounced contraband under the military rules im- posed upon the city. Those who did not prominently show the Stars and Stripes under a special order requiring their display were mariced and many afterwards paid the penalty for this neglect. With the retreat of the Confederates from Gettysburg, scores of Balti- more surgeons and volunteer nurses were sent out to the aid of both sides, and there followed the distressing scenes of the passing of the wounded and captured through the streets of Baltimore ; but in the stress and passion of war the orders of General Schenck were strictly enforced with regard to the recognition of the prisoners by the citizens and the private relief and entertainment of the wounded brought into the city from the battlefield.*' At this time the Federal hospitals and prisons were filled to overflowing with the wounded and the captured, many of whom had relatives in the city ; but these were, except in rare instances, denied access to the prisoners ; and "Jesse Hunt, president of the Eutaw Savings Bank, and an ex-mayor of Balti- more, had been arrested in the preceding April on the charge of raising his hat in recognition of a group of passing prisoners. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 195 their offerings in food and clothes were either turned away or confiscated. Such was the harshness of orders in these times that in the case of the burial of Captain William D. Brown, C. S. A., at Greenmount Cemetery, the friends and relatives attending the funeral were arrested and taken before General Tyler to make an explanation of their treasonable S3rmpathies, par- ticularly in the alleged display of a new Confederate uniform about the body of the buried officer. A few weeks later, the proprietors and editors of the Baltimore Repub- lican, Beale H. Richardson, Francis A. Richardson, and Stephen J. Joyce, were arrested and sent South with orders not to return under penalty of being treated as spies. The paper was suppressed for its alleged treasonable attitude, and especially for the publication of a poem entitled the "Southern Cross," believed to have been written by Mrs. Ellen Key Blunt, the daughter of Francis Scott Key.** Ex-Governor Thomas G. Pratt was arrested for refusal to take the oath of allegiance during this year ; and, at various times, scores of the women of Baltimore who had endeavored to aid the Confed- erates were sent through the Union lines to the South. Many of these un- selfish and devoted women suffered untold hardships. This severity of the military rule called forth an historically interesting comparison in the Baltimore American, which, subsequent to the beginning of the war, was a most ardent supporter of the government. In an editorial article of August 8, of the previous year, that journal truly set forth the general status of the city as being unhappily peculiar to a border com- munity, summing up the situation as follows : "In this connection there is one curious phenomenon apparent which claims the attention of all who regard fairness in dealing with what is traitorous and calculated to cripple the energies of the Government It is this: that what calls for the prompt arrest of men in Baltimore, or almost anywhere in the Border States, appears quite innocuous in Boston or New York. From almost the beginning of the conflict this has been the case ; and what has aggravated the case no little throughout has been the fact that every fling that could be devised in that quarter has been indulged in at what has sneeringly been termed 'Border State patriotism!' Whether it has been because the journals of the northern metropolis were considered too formidable to be meddled with that they have been permitted to assail with savage rancor the plans of the Government, is something to consider; but one thing is certain, that the nearer an approach is made to the seat of war, the more intense and unfaltering has been the display of Unionism amongst those professing to sustain the Government While the great northern cities tolerate treasonable utterances with impunity, the fact is patent to all that not for their lives would the disaffected leaders we have named dare to air their treason here, or at Louisville, or St. Louis; because, although the Govern- meni might tolerate or overlook the offense, the intense Unionism here and in the places mentioned would not for an instant permit it"" "*lt was written by Mrs. Blunt." — McHenry Howard, in message to the writer November 30, 191 1. "The American did not at this time, of course, undertake to criticise the acts of the Federal authorities in any particular, even had it been so disposed. But there is no doubt that the constant plundering and petty persecutions of the "disloyal" materially strengthened and extended Southern sentiment, and that, while the arrest 196 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The Congressional election for 1863 took place on November 4th, in which the entire "Unconditional Union" ticket was successful in Balti- more, whose candidates in the five districts were : First District, John A. J. Creswell; Second District, E. H. Webster; Third District, Henry Winter Davis; Fourth District, ex-Governor Frank Thomas; Fifth District, Col. John C. Holland. In this election the character of the oath administered to voters prevented many citizens who had been out of sympathy with the war from casting their ballots. Voters were compelled to press to the polling places through lines of soldiers on either side ; and the form of allegiance presented to them became known as the "iron-clad" oath. At the same time it is worthy of note that the military authorities permitted a "Conditional Union" ticket to run in a four-cornered contest. Chief among the local events of the autumn were the extensive civil ceremonies of November i8th, attending President Lincoln's brief visit to Baltimore on his way to Gettysburg. And on December 5th following, Brigadier-General Henry H. Lockwood succeeded General Schenck as the commanding officer in the Middle Department, General Lockwood being in turn superseded by General Lew Wallace on March 22d, 1864. On June 7th, 1864, the "Union and Republican" National Convention assembled in the Front Street Theater, the scene, a few years before, of the epoch-making split in the Democratic ranks, which had paved the way for the national triumph of the Republican party. There had been much criticism of the Administration's conduct of the war, and there was already a growing impression among the radical Repub- licans that the President was not in S3mipathy with their desire for drastic reconstruction measures when the anticipated collapse of the Southern Con- federacy should occur. An effort had been made to bring the anti-Lincoln sentiment to a head at a convention which assembled in Qeveland, May 31st, and which nominated John C. Fremont for the presidency, on a platform which declared, among other things, that "the question of the reconstruction of the rebellious States belonged to the people through their representatives in Congress and not to the executive" ; and that "the confiscation of the lands of the rebels, and their distribution among the soldiers and settlers, is a measure of justice." This movement failed ; but the agitation aroused espe- cial interest in the regular Republican, or "Union" convention, as it was carefully designated in Baltimore especially, on account of the greater ac- ceptability of the latter name. This was the first occasion upon which the national leaders of the Re- publican party had gathered in large numbers in Baltimore, and these men of citizens and the general strictness of military rule were doubtless essential to the successful prosecution of the war, it was the many unnecessarily harsh and vindictive acts on the part of both the Federal military appointees and the native Unionists that drove numbers of citizens, wavering between their attachment for the Union and their opposition to Northern coercion, into complete sympathy with the cause of the Southern Confederacy. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 197 were the objects of much curious interest to Baltimoreans, who had known their names and deeds for several eventful years ; but some of whose prin- ciples, at least, they had looked at askance^ whether they had been Unionists or of Southern sympathies. The convention proved to be without any exceptionally exciting fea- tures, however. Lincoln received all of the 541 votes cast, except those of the Missouri delegates, who had been instructed to vote for General U. S. Grant on the first ballot. The platform adopted was much more conserva- tive than that of the abortive anti-Lincoln convention in Cleveland, the dele- gates contenting themselves with a declaration in favor of an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery, the equal protection of all in the government's service without regard to distinction of color, and the prose- cution of the war without compromise with the rebels. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, was nominated for the vice-presidency over Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine ; and thus, for the first time, an attempt was made to nationalize the party by choosing a Southern man as one of its candidates. The war had progressed during the first half of the year 1864 with few features that especially affected Baltimore. But July 9th the news was received in the city that General Wallace had suffered a reverse at the Monocacy river, and that a Confederate force was marching upon Balti- more. Early next morning a general alarm was sounded. Governor Brad- ford and Mayor Chapman joined in a proclamation declaring the danger imminent. Immediately the whole population was astir, the Unionists arm- ing to resist the invaders and the Southern S3mipathizers more or less secretly preparing to comfort the "army of deliverance" with food and supplies. On Monday, July nth, news was received that a squad of Confederate cavalry under ccmimand of Major Harry Gilmor had burned the country residence of Governor Bradford, in retaliation for the destruction of the home of Governor Letcher of Virginia by General Hunter. Meanwhile, Baltimore had, for the third time in as many years, assumed the appearance of an armed camp. The City Council passed an ordinance drafting all able- bodied citizens over sixteen years of age for the defense of the city; but Major-General Edward O. C. Ord, now assigned to the command of the Middle Department and who arrived in the city late in the evening of Mon- day, July I ith, declined the assistance of these raw levies, and, instead, put a large force of colored men to work with pick and shovel to strengthen the fortifications in the suburbs. General John R. Kenly was given command of the defenses west of Jones' Falls and General Lockwood of those east of the stream. Government stores were hastily removed from warehouses, loaded on drays and conveyed to vessels in the harbor preparatory to their removal, if the Confederates should capture the city. General Wallace had arrived at Ellicott's Mills with his wounded and sick on Sunday morning, and soon trains and ambulances began to arrive in the city crowded with the suf- ferers. At 7 o'clock in the evening, the remnant of the defeated force reached Baltimore, and were greeted by crowds of anxious citizens. 198 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE While the city was being prepared against attack, the Confederate cav- alry under Major Gilmor was scouring Baltimore county unexposed, and sometimes approached the city so closely that they could be seen from vari- ous points of vantage. On Monday night Major Gilmor's command rode through Towson, stopping at Ady's Hotel for ref reshments, and recompens- ing the landlord with the present of a valuable horse. The City Council on Monday, July nth, appropriated $100,000 to be expended in adding to the defenses of the city, and on Tuesday, July 12th, Governor Bradford, through General John S. Berry, Adjutant General of the State, called upon the entire militia force to prepare for active service. The citizens generally were ordered to assemble in their wards and be en- rolled. About ten thousand men responded to the call, and all who neglected to do so and who could be found were arrested and put to work on the forti- fications. During the week of excitement and alarm caused by this raid, Balti- more was isolated from the rest of the country, telegraph wires having been cut and bridges burned. Food and fuel became scarce, prices were doubled, and there was much suffering among the poor. Mails for the north were dispatched by steamboat, and travel to the city from that section was only possible by boat .through the bay from Havre de Grace, as the railroad bridges across the intervening rivers had been destroyed. No one was per- mitted to leave the city unless provided with a pass, and passes were issued by the military authorities to none except persons of approved loyalty to the Union. Not until July 24th was the train service on the railroads entirely restored.** Subsequent to the excitement attending the menace of a Confederate occupation. General Ord gave up the command of the Department, and General Wallace resumed his duties. The arrest of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Christie, shortly after the Confed- erate raid, for a time threatened to prove an affair of international impor- tance. They were British subjects, and were accused of having removed an American flag from the room of a Federal officer who had lodgings in the same house with them. The case was referred to the Secretary of War, who directed the release of the couple, at the same time ordering them to leave "A dramatic incident of this raid was the visit of a i>arty of Confederates to the home of Ishmael Day, in Baltimore county. Day was 65 years old, and one of the most micompromising Unionists in the vicinity of Baltimore. The Confederates ordered him to haul down an American flag which he had defiantly raised over the gateway to his home. He firmly refused, saying, "Bum down my house if you will, but I will shoot any man who lays his hands upon that flag." One of the Confederates, William Fields, himself a Baltimorean, seized the halyards to lower the flag, where- upon the old man fired a load of duck-shot into his body, inflicting a wound which proved fatal four days later. Day made his escape, but his house was burned to the ground. There was no poet at hand to immortalize in verse this well-authenticated occurrence, and consequently Ishmael Day has missed the widespread fame which fell to the lot of Barbara Frietchie, the story of whose act, as related by Whittier, having been based on one of the absurd fictions of war times. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 199 the Dq>artment within twenty-four hours, and not to return during the con- tinuance of the war. The Evening Transcript, in consequence of the publi- cation of matter offensive to the military authorities, was suppressed on May i8th, and on September 30th the Evening Post, another of the numerous short-lived journals launched in Baltimore during the war, met with a simi- lar ending. On November ist, the Evening Loyalist followed its predeces- sors to oblivion by order of General Wallace. These incidents, however, were dwarfed by the wholesale arrests of a large number of leading Baltimore merchants and their employees on Oc- tober 17th, charged with having shipped merchandise and supplies to the Confederates. The firms against whom the orders were directed were: Hamilton Easter & Co., Wiesenfeld & Co., Jordan & Rose, Isaac P. Coale & Bro., Chas. E. Waters & Co., A. and F. Friedenrich, and Simon Frank & Co. In all, eighty-four persons were designated to be arrested. They were taken to Washington in a special train, and confined in the old Capitol priscHi ; their stores were closed and guards were stationed at the doors. The arrival of General Lew Wallace in the capacity of Commander of the Middle Department during the preceding March had brought additional severities and some petty punishments more than usually humiliating to the citizens. These may further be illustrated by the order issued on November 9th providing for the creation of a Freedmen's Bureau in the Middle De^ partment, with the additional order providing for a "Freedmen's Rest" for sick and indigent negroes, which was to be established in the dignified old building of the Maryland Club, which, during the war, was regarded by the Federal authorities as a hotbed of disloyal sentiment. For this reason the club doors had been ordered closed some time before; but the proposed measure of General Wallace to convert it into a negro hospital and poor- house, to be supported largely by levying on the disloyal citizens, aroused so much opposition among influential Unionists that the order was rescinded. Similar measures of alleged vindictiveness, besides the frequent confiscations of private property, caused the fires of resentment to bum long after the war ; and for these causes, and on account of their long*<x)ntinued political effect on the fortunes of the State, they are particularly important to the his- torian and to all who would understand the principles of cause and effect even to fifty years and more after the events here described ; for, subsequent to the fierceness of conflict and the long-continued suppression of opinion, political moulds harden as they do not harden under any other circumstances. Dissatisfaction with the existing constitution of Maryland had been felt by the dominant party ever since the Unconditional Unionists had achieved the ascendency ; and, on April 6, 1864, the question of calling a con- vention to formulate a new constitution was submitted to the voters of the State, or at least, to that portion of them which was still permitted to exer- cise the voting function. The total vote of Baltimore, a city of 212,000 in- habitants, was 9,189, of which only 87 votes were cast against calling the convention. Test questions were provided for submission to would-be vot- 200 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ers of doubtful loyalty to the Federal government. These were of such a searching nature that none save the most uncompromising adherents of the Union cause could answer them satisfactorily without incurring the guilt of perjury. On October I2th, a municipal election was held in Baltimore and the people of the whole State voted on the question of adopting the new con- stitution. John Lee Chapman sought re-election as the "Regular Union" candidate, while Archibald Stirling Jr. headed the "Independent Union" ticket. Again, test oaths and interrogatories played an important part at the polls. Chapman received 11,334 and Stirling 3,783 votes. The Democrats had no candidate in the field, concentrating their energies in an effort to prevent the adoption of the proposed new constitution. The constitution, nevertheless, was declared to have received a small majority. It was charged, however, that this result was brought about by fraud in the "sol- dier vote," and that this vote, taken in camp, had been held back until it had been learned how many ballots were needed for the ratification of the new constitution, and the vote modified to meet the desired result. One pro- vision of this constitution was for the abolition of slavery in Maryland. On October 24th, Samuel G. Miles applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to compel Governor Bradford, on the ground of illegality, to reject the soldiers' vote, which had been cast outside of the State. The writ was refused, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision. The political campaign of 1864 in Maryland proved momentous in its ultimate results. The Unconditional Union party, now beginning to be called Republican, nominated Thomas Swann for Governor, the man who was destined later to check the rule of that party in the city and the State. The Democrats named as their standard-bearer Ezekiel F. Chambers, of Kent county. The new constitution was now in force. It contained the following clause respecting the rigid test oath offered to citizens at the polls who were suspected of sympathizing with the South or of opposition to the candidates of the men in person : "Any person declining to take such oath shall not be allowed to vote, but the taking of such oath shall not be deemed conclusive evidence of the right of such person to vote." The election took place on the 8th of November, the same day on which the Presidential election was held. Swann was declared elected by 9,000 majority. The Democrats obtained a majority of two in the State Senate but did not elect a single member from Baltimore to either chamber of the General Assembly. The vote of Baltimore for Lincoln was 14,984, and for McQellan, 2,953. The launching, on December 14th, of the iron war vessel Monocacy, built by A. W. Denmead & Son, was an event of no little interest in Balti- more. The construction of iron sea fighters had progressed steadily since the sensational and epoch-making achievements of John M. Brooke^s Virginia (Merrimac), and the conflict in Hampton Roads between that craft and Ericsson's Monitor. The Monocacy was the largest war vessel HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 201 built in Baltimore during the war ; and she was the second of her class, in point of size, built anywhere in the country. Two events not directly connected with the conflict which had rent the country and which could not yet be wholly dissevered from the all-pervading infection of factional bitterness of the time were the elevation of Martin John Spaulding, Bishop of Louisville, to the Roman Catholic archbishopric of Baltimore, and the death, at the advanced age of 87 years, of Roger Brooke Taney, of Maryland, fifth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The archiepiscopal see of Baltimore carried with it a dignity akin to that of a primate's station through its seniority in date of establishment over other sees in the American Roman Catholic hierarchy. Moreover, the six predecessors of the newly appointed archbishop were men whose capacities and personal accomplishments had added much to the importance of the great office they had held. The first of these men, John Carroll, enjoyed the social prestige attaching to membership in one of America's most im- portant and patriotic families. The second, Leonard Neale, and his suc- cessors, Ambrose Marechal, James Whitfield, Samuel Eccleston, and Patrick Kenrick, were men whose literary and executive talents did much to aug- ment the importance of the see of Baltimore. The last named had been translated from the episcopal office in the larger and wealthier city of Phila- delphia to the Baltimore archbishopric as a step in promotion. Thus the archiepiscopal throne of John Carroll had grown to have a national impor- tance, and at a time when every influence was being sought for enlistment of influence on the side of the Federal government, the selection of a suc- cessor to Archbishop Kenrick was a matter of no little interest even to others than those of his own communion. The Federal government had de- rived considerable benefit from the energetic effort in its behalf of Arch- bishop Hughes, of New York, and it was with some misgivings that the ad- herents of the Union cause learned of the elevation of a Kentuckian to the highest dignity within the gift of a powerful church in America. Arch- bishop Spaulding's tact and resourcefulness, however, proved fully equal to the delicate task of administering a diocese, the population of which was divided by bitter political antagonisms. The death of Chief Justice Taney on the 12th of October brought to a close a long career, singular for the commingled admiration and denuncia-- tion which it had elicited. For twenty-nine years he had sat upon the bench of the highest tribunal in America. His life, before and after his elevation to the judicial bench, had been spent amid political storms, yet his serene and powerful intellect preserved its balance throughout. When the secession movement was launched, he had, like many other Southern men of emi- nence, opposed the step ; and his great influence as "the first citizen in Mary- land" was quietly but forcibly exerted in the early months of 1861 to prevent his native State from following the example of her sister commonwealths. Nevertheless, his devotion to the Union was a devotion to the Union as he 202 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE believed its founders conceived it; for this reason, he threw the weight of his authority on the side of the strict interpretation of the Constitution, an attitude best illustrated by his stand in the Merryman habeas corpus pro- ceedings in May, 1861. Three months of 1865 passed in Baltimore with no change from the general tenor of war time incident. The slow but sure work of attrition which was wearing away the Army of Northern Virginia was also prepar- ing the minds of Baltimoreans for the events of the coming April. The news of the fall of Richmond was received in the city on April 3d, bringing joy to the adherents of the government, and something akin to satisfaction to thousands of others who at first had wished for, but who had now aban- doned hope of Confederate success and longed for peace. The fact that the end of the war was near at hand was recognized and the utmost excitement prevailed. Mayor Chapman issued an order for the general display of flags, and the city abounded in gay bunting. When night came, many stores and dwellings were illuminated and well-known orators addressed the crowds from a stand erected at the comer of South and Baltimore streets. The exultant Unionists were in no mood to tolerate demonstrations hostile to the triumphant Federal government, and there was little to indicate that the events which caused such joy to them had brought sorrow to a large part of the population of the city. On the following day, in honor of General Grant's victory, a salute of one hundred guns was fired from Fort Federal Hill by order of General W. W. Morris, who, in the absence of General Wallace, was in command of the Department. At night there was a more general illumination than that of the preceding evening, many persons whole "loyalty" had previously been ccmsidered doubtful deeming it prudent to unite with the victorious Unionists in the demonstration of joy over the event which practically marked the close of the war and the return of peace. Momentous events followed each other in quick succession during that memorable month of April, 1865. On the loth, the news of General Lee's surrender reached the city, and the demonstrations of the previous week were almost paralleled. While Unicmists were exulting in victory, and the less active Confederate sympathizers were still breathing a sigh, closely akin to one of relief, that the hopeless struggle of the South against the over- whelming resources of the North had come to a close, a blow fell which shocked and stunned right-minded men of all shades of opinion ; and prob- ably nowhere in the country was the regret it occasioned more profound than in Baltimore. The news of the assassination of President Lincoln on the evening of Friday, April 14th, stripped the city of its brightness of bunt- ing and draped it in the somber garb of grief ; and there is no doubt that the emotion of which the latter was emblematical came far nearer to being uni- versally sincere and unqualified than that betokened by the former signs of rejoicing over the triumph of Federal arms. Abraham Lincoln was not then the overshadowing figure in American HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 203 history which he has since become. ''He was still the leader of a party, the President of a section, the prophet of a cult." But already the line of de- marcation between his conciliatory instincts and the fiercely radical designs of many about him was clearly discernible. Moreover, the fact that the as- sassin was a native of Maryland, a long-time resident of Baltimore^ and a well-known actor on the local stage, added a feeling of local shame to that of the general grief over the crime. Following the receipt of the news of the President's death, the most rigorous measures were immediately adopted by the military and civil au- thorities. Apparently they feared that the defeated and crushed Confed- erates might make the deplorable occurrence an occasion for an uprising. Travel to and from the city by railroad, steamboat, or turnpike was sus- pended, with the avowed purpose of preventing the escape of the assassin or his accomplices should any of them have taken refuge in the city; troops were ordered to be ready for service at a moment's notice ; part of a battery of artillery was posted near the provost-marshal's office; the city assumed very much the same appearance it wore at the times when hostile Con- federate armies were believed to be about to attempt its capture. Mayor Chapman called a special session of the City Council. He also requested citizens to display flags at halfmast upon their dwellings and places of business, and the shipping in the harbor to do the same. During the hours between eleven and twelve A. M. and five and six P. M. the bells of the city were ordered to be tolled. There was a very general compliance with these orders and suggestions, and in residential districts and business sections alike, the houses were covered with mourning emblems. En route to the North and West, the remains of the .murdered Presi- dent reached Baltimore in the morning of April 21st. A military and civic escort attended the body to the rotunda of the Exchange,** where the coffin was opened and thousands passed by to look upon the features of the War President. In the afternoon of the same day, again escorted by the mili- tary, the body was taken to the Northern Central Railroad station, where the funeral train was waiting to convey it to Harrisburg. It was naturally to be expected that the assassination of President Lin- coln at the very culmination of the triumphs of the Union cause would ag- gravate the bitter feelings which in Baltimore had marked the four years of warfare. On April 24th, the City Council passed a resolution requesting the military authorities to prohibit Confederate soldiers from resuming their residence in Baltimore which, they asserted, would prove "the worst of dangerous evils." General Wallace responded to this request by issuing an order prohibiting "prisoners of war paroled to return to their homes to await exchange," from remaining in his department on penalty of imme- diate arrest. Following this order, returning Confederates were arrested and sent North, while many others left the city. The City Council also re- " Originally built as a bourse, it was then occupied by the United States Post Office; later the site was chosen for the United States Custom House. 204 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE quested the military commander to order the closing of several Methodist churches, the congregations of which were supposed to consist of Q>nfeder- ate sympathizers. General Wallace on the 19th of April addressed letters to the pastors of all the city churches requesting them to "avoid everything in the least calculated to offend the sensibilities of men and women who es- teem their loyalty only a little less sacred than their religion." General Wallace failed in one instance, however, to measure up to the standard of loyalty which the City Council established for itself. That body had requested the military commander to banish the Rev. J. J. Bullock, the Rev. J. E. Hiamner, and the Rev. T. Lc Fevre, pastors of churches in Balti- more, from the Department. On April 24th, General Wallace notified the City Council that these ministers had taken the oath of allegiance. He added that he trusted that this action would satisfy the City Council. It failed to do so, however. The First Branch notified General Wallace that it wished ''additional guarantees" to be requested of the reverend gentlemen. Com- menting on this, General Wallace wrote in a letter to Mayor Chapman as follows: "I feel sure * * * that I will not suffer in the opinion of these authorities if for once I differ with the Council and respectfully de- cline to accept their reason as sufficient to justify the measures they have advised." General Wallace's rule as military commander was brought to a close July 1 8th, General Winfield S. Hancock succeeding him in the Middle De- partment, with Lieutenant Colonel Adam E. King as adjutant-general. The city was meanwhile slowly emerging from the conditions which war had entailed, and the problems which the new commander had to face were less difficult than those which had confronted his predecessors. That many of the acts of the military commanders, provost-marshals, and municipal officials were petty and ill-judged, is apparent even when al- lowance is made for the passions engendered by war, but on the other hand it is to be remembered that Baltimore was a Union city only nominally and that among a large number of those who were sincerely opposed to seces- sion, the Union sentiment was passive rather than active. In aggressive contrast to these Unionists was a population always eager to aid the Con- federate cause — ^men who refrained from joining the armies of the South for various reasons, but who, in every other capacity than that of soldiers in the field, were eager to vex and embarrass the dominant Unionists. These activities were conducted with so much ingenuity and daring that ordinary methods of defeating them would have been almost fruitless. Arbitrary acts of authority, domiciliary visits, invasions of individual rights, and half a hundred other vexatious and harsh measures were deemed necessary. Many persons wholly innocent of offense must needs suffer annoyance as a result of the exigencies of the times. Under the direction, however, of cool and ju- dicious officers and semi-military appointees, these means might have been employed with much better effect than they were. It so happened that the men who were brought to the front during the greater portion of the time in HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 205 which Baltimore was under a military regime were singularly unfitted by temperament to deal with the local situation. Acts of petty tyranny were in- dulged in that savored of malignity rather than of stern principle. Such acts could not fail to strengthen the opposition to the cause in which they were employed. The coming of General Hancodc did not loosen tlie rein with which Baltimore was controlled, but it brought a cooler head and a less capricious hand to the bridle. Paroled prisoners from the armies of the South were permitted to return to their homes^ provided they registered their names and place of residence with the nearest provost-marshal. Non-resident Confed- erates were only allowed to enter the Department after obtaining the sanc- tion of the commander or of some higher authority. On April 26th, 1865, while the echoes of the war were still reverberat- ing, a local event of national significance and the earliest reunited en- deavor of the sundered sections took place in Baltimore. This event was the laying on North Broadway of the cornerstone of the monument to Thomas Wildey, the founder of a great fraternal order, which embraced in its members and fellowship Federalist and Confederate alike. The move- ment to erect the monument had been begun as early as 1861 by the Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Maryland. The fol- lowing year the Sovereign Grand Lodge had approved of the undertaking, and despite the distraction of the times, a fund was collected, and a design and site for the monument selected in the city where the order had been founded. Accordingly, on September 20th of the same year, the completed shaft was dedicated with imposing ceremonies, in which the chief officials of the order took part, and at which the representatives of the Federal, State and city governments were present. On December 30th, 1865, Henry Winter Davis died. He had played a conspicuous part in two notable periods of the history of Baltimore. In each he had aroused violent antagonisms, and yet his talents and accomplish- ments had wrung tributes of admiration even from those who most heartily deplored his radical views and the methods he employed to promote his pur- poses. His career ended at the early age of forty-nine years, yet during his comparatively short life he had won a high position in the legal profession, had achieved a high reputation for scholarship and oratory, and had gained a place among the leaders of his party in Congress, in which he represented, in the Lower House, a Baltimore district through four terms. In the closing years of his political life he had displayed an independence of thought and action which gave great promise for the future. His death produced a pro- found sensation in Baltimore among friends and foes alike. On the I2th of January, 1866, an order was issued which announced that the provost-marshal's office would pass out of existence on the 31st of the month, its duties, if necessity should thereafter demand, to devolve upon the officer commanding the district of Baltimore. On the 2d of April, 1866, President Andrew Johnson issued a proclama- 2o6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE tion in which he formally declared the war ended. Five years before this official declaration of the restoration of peace, Baltimore stood face to face with conditions which many of its most intelligent and enterprising citizens considered to be fraught with ruin, or at least with defeat for its aspira- tions. The section of which it was the metropolis, the center of conmiercial distribution^ and principal seat of skilled industry, was separated from it by the acts of secession. The markets for its trade seemed irrevocably lost. Its population was "a house divided against itself." What was left of the trade which had enriched and sustained it in the past was embarrassed and harassed by military restrictions. The future of a city so situated presented a dark picture, even though it possessed a population strong in natural re- sources, indomitable courage, and inherent energy and enterprise. The close of the war found the city triumphant over the adverse circumstances which it had faced at the beginning. Its industries had helped to feed armies ; its merchants had reached out after and secured new markets; and its very proximity to the scene of hostilities proved one of the agents of its salvation, rendering it an important distribution center for the many commodities needed by the troops in the field. Moreover, the courage of its citizens never faltered. While the country was trembling from the shock of the greatest battles of modem times, Bal- timoreans were planning new enterprises, erecting new structures, and or- ganizing new enterprises with such energy that its industrial population was amply provided with the means of livelihood, and its position sustained in the front ranks of the great cities of America. BALTIMORE — PERIOD OF READJUSTMENT The decade following the close of the Civil War is especially im- portant from an historical standpoint on account of the formative influences of its politics, influences which were destined to extend over a long period because of the resentment engendered in the minds of a majority of the people by the arbitrary seizure of the machinery of government by a small and partly alien minority. This decade, therefore, is not only distin- guished for the recovery of government by the people ; but it is also marked by many important and rapid changes in social and industrial conditions in Maryland. During the war period there was probably small increase in the popu- lation; but after peace had been declared, large numbers of persons came from the Southern States, the resources of which had been depleted, to seek employment in a new field; and the negro population of the city was increased by the influx of newly emancipated slaves. As the result of these conditions, the census of 1870 showed a decided numerical gain. Though the ordinary channels of trade and the normal industrial ac- tivities were suspended by reason of the war, the city was not idle during ^at period. Its nearness to the scene of hostilities and the facility for com- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 207 munication by water with the Southern coast made this an important depot for military stores, as well as a market for the purchase and manufacture of supplies. Immediately after the close of the War, the restoration and extension of railway lines were largely undertaken; and in 1868, in the field of transatlantic commerce, the North German Lloyd established a regular line between Baltimore and Bremen. From this summary it will be seen that the city shared some of the remarkable war prosperity of so many of the Northern centers of trade and industry. A number of the lucrative army contracts fell to the share of local Unionists ; and whereas in some quarters business enterprises had be- come cramped or even throttled, in others, this partial stagnation was more than made up by the increased opportunities offered by the Federal gov- ernment to its supporters to meet the general necessities of the times. In the domain of letters and of education there was also a new life manifested. In this period the Johns Hopkins University was projected, which was to become a pioneer and leader in university methods in the New World; and the Peabody Institute, with its great Library and Con- servatory of Music, opened its doors to the people. The accumulation of large private fortunes, and the accessions to the population of new elements from the North as well as the South, wrought many changes. The contrast was distinct between the new conditions then arising and the comparatively stationary social life of the past, when the largest fortunes were but moderate, and social position came chiefly by inheritance. The year 1867 was freighted with important political changes for Baltimore and Maryland. The disfranchisement of many of the most sub- stantial and intelligent citizens, while hostilities were in progress, had found an excuse in the necessity which pressed upon the government of having the control of a State strategically important as Maryland in the hands of officials whose hearty co-operation could be depended upon in prosecut- ing the war. The return of peace, while it removed the imperative neces- sity alleged to have existed for maintaining the Unconditional Union party in power, brought with it no restoration of the rights of citizenship to the disfranchised. After the adoption of the State Constitution of 1864, with its rigorous provisions for excluding voters of doubtful loyalty from the polls, elections in Baltimore became a sham. In 1865 the registrars of voters had met in conference and had formulated a series of questions to be iput to applicants for registration which would enable them to exclude not only active sympathizers with the South, but thousands of moderate Union men as well. The voting population of the city at that time was estimated to be forty thousand, but under the system of exclusion adopted, only about ten thousand succeeded in having their names placed upon the voting lists. In the State at large, less than half the estimated number of voters were registered. At the election held on the 7th of November, 1865, the first under the 2o8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE new registration, scarcely more than five thousand ballots were cast in the city. At the presidential election of the previous year, the total vote of Baltimore City had been nearly 18,000, but only 2953 Democrats had been permitted to vote. The provision in the "War-made" constitution that the taking of the oath shall not be deemed conclusive evidence" of the right to vote of the person so taking it, coupled with the fact that the Union sentiments of many citizens were more or less qualified by alleged treason- able feelings of affection for the South, enabled the politicians of the party in power, who knew they were supported by a minority of the people but who were eager to retain control of the city and the State, to exclude f rc»ii the franchise nearly all of those who were inclined vigorously to oppose them. Early in 1867, nearly twenty-one months after hostilities had ceased, an effort was inaugurated to restore majority rule by means of a con- vention of the people and the adoption of a new constitution. A meeting of prominent citizens of the counties was held in Baltimore in January, at which a resolution was adopted appointing a day for holding primary elections to choose delegates to the convention. On the 26th of January the convention met in Baltimore. The Hon. Montgomery Blair, who had held the office of Postmaster General in the Lincoln administration, was called to the chair, with Colonel James Wallace, who had conunanded a regiment of volunteers in the Union army, the Hon. John Wethered, George M. Gill, Oden Bowie, and George Schley, as vice-presidents; and Milton Y. Kidd, William H. Neilson, and Thomas E. Williams as secretaries. An address to the people of Maryland was pre- pared, a committee appointed to appeal for redress of grievances to the General Assembly, and another committee named to obtain signatures to a petition for a modification of the provisions of the constitution. Twenty thousand signatures were soon appended to the petition, which was pre- sented to the General Assembly. The committee was granted a hearing, but the General Assembly refused to accede to the wishes of the petitioners. The State Convention of the Unconditional Union party met in June, and in its platform declared against any relaxation of the registration laws. On the loth of October a municipal election was held, at which but 7,993 ballots were cast. John Lee Chapman was re-elected mayor, receiving 5,392 votes against 2,601 cast for Daniel Harvey, the Conservative candidate. The Hon. Thomas Swann, former mayor of Baltimore, had been elected governor in 1864 as the candidate of the Union party, but shortly after his inauguration he manifested a disposition to break off intimate relations with the extremists in that party. A statute of 1862 had given the governor authority, during a recess of the Legislature, to remove the police commissioners for official misconduct; and one of the functions of the police board at this period was the appointing of judges of elections. It was charged that at the municipal election of 1866 the board had been guilty of gross partisanship. A meeting of citizens was held, at which it HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 209 was determined to appeal to the governor for the removal of Commissioners Nicholas T. Wood and Samuel Hindes. A memorial, with more than four thousand signatures attached and supported by numerous affidavits, was presented to the governor. Among other charges, it was alleged that the police commissioners had appointed judges of elections almost without exception from the political party of which they were themselves mem- bers; and that they had ordered the police magistrates not to hear any cases, nor take any bail, nor release any persons arrested on election day until after six o'clock in the evening of that day. Governor Swann notified Commissioners Wood and Hindes that he would give a hearing in the case on the 22d of October in the executive chamber in Annapolis. The conunissioners denied that the governor had a legal right to try them. Governor Swann proceeded with the hearing, however, and on the ist of November announced that he had decided to remove the commissioners from office. Messrs. William T. Valiant and James Young were appointed to succeed them. The old commissioners appealed to Judge Hugh L. Bond, of the Criminal Court, who was entirely in sympathy with the extreme wing of the Union party. Judge Bond issued a warrant for the arrest of the new commissioners, charging them with inciting a riot, and required them not only to give bail but also to pledge themselves not to attempt to assume the duties of police commissioners. These requirements Messrs. Valiant and Young refused to comply with, and they were committed to jail, as was also Sheriff William Thompson, who had recognized their authority. Counsel for the imprisoned commissioners immediately applied to Judge James T. Bartol of the Court of Appeals, who was at his home in Balti- more, for a writ of habeas corpus. Judge Bartol issued the writ, making it returnable on Monday, the 5th of November. On that date the court was informed that the writ had been served on the warden of the jail but that it was understood that the prisoners would not be surrendered. The court adjourned until the following Thursday, and in the interval the State election was held. There had been a change of registration officers and the new ap- pointees had somewhat relaxed the rigor of the law. Encouraged by this and by the countenance given them by the governor, the Conservatives had • made an active canvass, and for the first time since the military occupation was instituted, they succeeded in carrying an election. In the city the total vote for State Comptroller was 16,006, and the Conservatives had a majority of 720. Discouraged by this severe rebuke at the polls, the supporters of the superseded board of police ccxnmissioners abandoned the struggle. Messrs. Valiant and Young were produced before Judge Bartol on the second day after the election. They were released from custody and en- tered upon the discharge of their duties immediately. On the same day the marshal of police placed the force under their orders, and one week later 2IO HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Messrs. Hindes and Wood gave up the books and other appurtenances of the department. The contest between the old and the new commissioners occasioned great excitement in the city, and for a time there was serious danger of a violent outbreak. While the governor's decision was pending, organiza- tions were formed with the avowed purpose of resisting the deposition of the police commissioners, and there were threats of an invasion by armed men from neighboring States. President Johnson issued orders to the War Department to be prepared to put down insurrection should it occur ; Gen- eral U. S. Grant directed General Canby to hold troops in readiness for any emergency that might arise; and the regiments at Fort McHenry were available at a moment's notice to quell a riot. Messrs. Hindes and Wood had appointed a force of 3500 special policemen to hold the station houses and police headquarters, and Generals Grant and Canby were urged by both factions to support their claims. On the day first appointed by Judge Bartol for hearing the petition for a writ of habeas corpus. General Grant reported that in the morning a collision had seemed inevitable, but that wiser counsel had prevailed, and he was hopeful that there would be no rioting. The radical party which had so long ruled Baltimore did not submit at once to defeat. Its leaders hoped that the extremists then in power in Washington would come to its rescue; and with this idea in mind, Joseph J. Stewart, who had been defeated for Congress by Charles E. Phelps, afterwards a member of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, prepared to contest the election. Charges were drawn up that Maryland had been revolutionized; that Governor Swann had made a corrupt bargain with disloyal citizens; that loyal men, and especially the colored population, were in peril.* The State Committee of the Union Party met in Baltimore on the 28th of March, 1867, and adopted resolutions urging Congress "to protect the loyal majority of the people of Maryland, both white and col- ored, in defeating the scheme of the revolutionists in the Legislature." The City Council of Baltimore also appealed to Congress to intervene in behalf of the defeated faction. On the 20th of March, 1867, the General Assembly authorized a vote of the people on the question of calling a Constitutional Convention. The opponents of a new constitution sought to prevent the vote by filing a petition for an injunction in the Superior Court of Baltimore City. The case was argued before Judge Martin, and on the 2d of April the petition was rejected. On the 13th of the same month the election took place and resulted in a victory for the advocates of a new constitution by a majority of 10,398 in the State. The vote of Baltimore City was 11,013 for, and 9,123 against holding a convention. The convention met and was in session more than three months. On the i8th of September the constitution was * Before the contest had progressed very far, however, Mr. Stewart admitted that the evidence did not support his contention, and abandoned his effort. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 211 submitted to a vote of the people and was ratified by a majority of 24,116. With the adoption of the new constitution, the period of suppres- sion came to an end. The moderate Unionists joined hands with the long disfranchised Southern S3rmpathizers and old-line Democrats to form the Democratic — Conservative party. The Radicals attached themselves to the National Republican party and instead of being the dominant facticm, be^ came for the time being a hopeless minority. The first election in Balti- more under the new constitution was held on the 23d of October, 1867, when a judge of the Court of Appeals, a chief judge, and four associate judges of the city Supreme Bench, and a mayor and City Council were chosen. Robert T. Banks was the Democratic-Conservative candidate, and General Andrew W. Denison was the Union, or Republican candidate. Banks received 18420 votes, and Denison 4,896. On the 5th of November, the State election was held. Oden Bowie, the Democratic candiate for governor, defeated Hugh L. Bond, Republican, with a majority of 41,644. In Baltimore City the vote was: Bowie 19,912; Bond, 4,846. Governor Swann had ceased entirely to act with the Radicals, and in the campaign for the adoption of the constitution, and ag^n in the cam- paign for the election of State ofiicials, he threw himself into the fight for Democratic success with all the energy he possessed. At an immense mass meeting in Monument Square, he formally announced his adhesion to the Conservative party and pledged his best efforts to defeat the purposes of the Radicals. At this meeting, the pent-up enthusiasm of the seven years following the momentous presidential campaign of i860 was poured forth. Marching clubs with banners, transparencies, and lighted torches revived memories of ante-bellum electioneering when Henry Gay and Harrison were candidates, and spectacular processions gave a picturesque aspect to politics. The Legislature chosen at the ensuing election was unanimously Democratic in both Senate and House of Delegates. The opposition party held scarcely an office even of the most unimportant class, in either city or State. A new political era had dawned, new leaders arose, and in the course of a few months or years, alliances were formed which were to last through several decades. The elections of 1868 and 1869, like those of 1867, resulted in decisive victories for the candidates of the Democratic Conservative party. The registered voters of Baltimore in 1869 numbered 44,211. The presidential election of 1868 was held on the 3d of November, and the total vote of Baltimore City was 30,655. Seymour, the Democratic nominee, received 21,553 ^^^ Grant 9,102 votes. On the 27th of October, 1869, an election was held at which members of the City Council were chosen. A Workingman's ticket which was placed in the field, received 750 votes. The Democratic pluralities over the Republicans aggregated about 6,880. At the Congressional elections held on the 2d of November, 1870, the negroes of Baltimore voted for the first time since 1802, when the free 212 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE colored men of the city seem to have been allowed the privilege of partici- pating in the selection of public officials, though, because of their numerical insignificance, they were then scarcely an appreciable force in politics. The advent of this new element in the voting population of the city was attended with no disorder. The negroes availed themselves of their newly acquired rights in large ntmibers, and the day was observed almost as a holiday by the race in general. The aggregate vote of the city was 39,254. At the presidential election held two years earlier, when the negroes had not been given the ballot, the aggregate vote was 8,590 less. The newly enfranchised race was practically unanimous in supporting the candidates of the Re- publican party; but, nevertheless, the Democratic majority in the city suf- fered a reduction of only 3,706 as compared with the majority it received at the Federal election of 1868. A municipal election was held on the 25th of October, 1871, at which the Hon. Joshua Vansant was the mayoralty candidate of the Democratic party. Charles Dunlc^, who ran as the candidate of the "National Re- formers" and received the support of the Republicans, was his opponent. Vansant received 18,157 votes and Dunlop 11,062. At the State election held on the 7th of November the Hon. William Pinkney Whyte was the Democratic candidate for governor and Jacob Tome the nominee of the Republican party. The campaign was conducted without spirit, the Repub- licans recognizing that the reinforcement they had received from the n^jo vote could not lead them to hope for success at the polls. Whyte won an easy victory, although his majority in die State was but 15,058, while Bowie, four years earlier, had been elected with a majority of 41,644. For twelve years following the disastrous disruption of the National Democratic party in i860, Baltimore had ceased to be the favorite meeting place of presidential nominating conventions. Its situation on the border between North and South had caused the contending parties to select it while the issues of the quadrennial campaigns were chiefly those which brought the two sections in antagonism. The prostration of the South after the downfall of the Confederacy, and the growth of the political im- portance of the West, naturally drew the national councils of the great parties to cities nearer the battleground where the results of the elections were to be determined. But, in 1872, the Democratic party once more turned its face to Baltimore, and on the 9th of July, the National Conven- tion of that party met in Ford's Opera House. Overwhelmingly defeated in the electoral college of the last presidential election, and hopeless of victory through the electoral votes of the States then under the shadow of Reconstruction, the party sought success by accepting the leadership of Horace Greeley, who had already been placed in nomination for the presi- dency by a convention held in Cincinnati, composed of dissatisfied members of the party dominant in the Federal government, who styled themselves Liberal Republicans. A helpless minority of the delegates bitterly opposed HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 213 the endorsement of the long-time enemy of the party — ^the man who had said "all Democrats were not horse thieves, but all horse thieves were Democrats" ; — ^but the convention by a vote of 686 out of 732 ballots cast, made Greeley the nominee, with B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, as his run- ning mate, and endorsed the platform of the Liberal Republicans. As if to follow the precedent of i860, about sixty of the delegates who had opposed the nomination of Horace Greeley organized a bolting conven- tion on the 9th of July in the Maryland Institute hall, where they adopted an address to the Democrats of the country, and issued a call for a ''straight out" Democratic Ccmvention to be held in Louisville on the 3d of September. The outcome of this movement was the nmnination of Charles O'Connor, of New York, for the presidency, and Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, for the vice-presidency. Mr. O'Connor de- clined the nomination, but several thousand votes were cast for the electors pledged to him at the ensuing election. At the presidential election in November the antagonism to Greeley on the part of Maryland Democrats caused a great decrease in the party vote, and the majority in the State of 31,917 given to the Se3rmour electors in 1868 was in strong contrast with the plurality of 908 for the candidates of 1872. In Baltimore City the plurality was 5,172, the vote being 24,694 for Greeley and 19,522 for Grant. The municipal election of 1873 resulted in a sweeping victory for the Democratic party. The Hon. Joshua Vansant had been renominated for mayor, as his administration had given general satisfaction. David Carson was his opponent running as a ''Refonn" candidate. The majority for Vansant was 12,657. At the election of 1871, he had been victorious by only 7,095 majority. In the legislature elected in 1873, the Democratic party again had a large majority, but the unlimited power which this party had now en- joyed for seven years led to the formation of powerful political machines. In the city, particularly, as proved to be the case in so many American municipalities, these machines gave rise to a great deal of bargaining, thereby affording an ample field for the labors of the reformers for many years to come. The city machine had already b^^n to feel the influence of I. Freeman Rasin, destined to become the indisputable master of the Demo- cratic organization in Baltimore. Immediately upon the cessation of hostilities in 1865, the citizens of Baltimore began to seek ways and means to aid and comfort the impover- ished communities of the war-stricken section. It was fitting that the chief city of the South, and its one great center of wealth that had emerged from the struggle with its resources undiminished, should take a leading part in thus lifting up and inspiring with renewed hopes a people pros- trated by the devastation of war, and one which was so closely knit to her by ties of kindred and commercial interdependence. In 1865, the Baltimore Agricultural Aid Society was organized by 214 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE citizens, irrespective of political affiliation, to furnish seeds, farming imple- ments, and other requirements to the people of the prostrate States, and more particularly to those of Virginia, who were connected with the people of Baltimore by so many social and business ties. Early in 1866, an effort on a larger scale was inaugurated by many of the ladies of Maryland, who organized the Southern Relief Association. Under the auspices of this association a great fair was opened in the hall of the old Maryland In- stitute building on the 2d of April. The fair was continued two weeks and the net proceeds amounted to the remarkable sum of $164,569.97. CcHn- mittees distributed the relief fund among the Southern States according to their needs, Virginia receiving $27,000; Mississippi $20,625; South Caro- lina $19,500; Georgia $17,875; North Carolina $16,500; Alabama $16,250; Tennessee $12,500 ; Louisiana $7,500 ; Florida $5,500 ; and Arkansas $5,000. The sum of $10,000 was devoted to Maryland for the relief of Southern refugees and for special cases. In the following year the Maryland Legislature voted $100,000 for the relief of the destitution in the States wasted by war. Private individuals in Baltimore and Maryland contributed $21,000 additional in money and provisions. Large quantities of foodstuffs were shipped to North and South Carolina and to Alabama. The Secretary of the Navy, the Hon. Gideon Welles, placed the United States steamship Relief at the disposal of the committee, and a cargo of supplies was shipped on that vessel to Mobile. In addition to this bountiful distribution of relief to the sufferers from the ravages of war, Baltimore extended a hearty welcome to the thousands of refugees from the impoverished section, who, deprived of opportunity in their native States to exercise their business and professional energies and abilities, flocked to the city, and assisted largely in the subsequent ex- pansion of its enterprises. Many of the ablest members of the learned pro- fessions were called from the South to fill chairs in local schools of learn- ing; the Baltimore bar was enriched with talent drawn from the same source, and conmiercial houses gladly enlisted the services of the young and active men who had distinguished themselves in the service of the Confederacy. Southern students by hundreds sought professional training in Baltimore colleges, assured of a sympathetic environment and drawn to the city in some instances by pecuniary concessions grateful to their de- pleted resources. Especially was this true of the medical schools. The influx of this new element in the population and the ties which it cemented between the city and itis tributary territory served greatly to endow Balti- more with the attributes necessary for the exercise of those functions of leadership by which a city is enabled to achieve a metropolitan position. All restrictions on travel had been removed after the 4th of May, 1865, and this deliverance from embarrassments afforded an opportunity for business men of Baltimore to display their inherent energy in regaining the trade of which the war had deprived them. As soon as the stricken South HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 215 was sufficiently recovered from prostration to afford a market for merchan- dise the city which had been prompt to give in time of need, was equally prompt to sell. Throughout the painful and disastrous period of Recon- struction, the efforts of Baltimore to regain its Southern trade were con- tinued, and with the dawn of a brighter era, it could fairly lay claim to its ante-bellum title of "the Queen City of the South." The absorption of the returning soldiers of the two armies into the civil life of the community was effected with no considerable disturbance of industrial conditions. The Union veterans began to return in June, 1865. On the 6th of that month Governor Bradford welcomed General Andrew W. Dennison's brigade with an especial tribute to its achievements in the war, the reception taking place in front of the Mansion House in Druid Hill Park. Other Federal commands arrived from time to time during the en- suing summer and early autumn. The returning Confederate veterans, most of them broken in fortune, met with no public demonstrations of wel- come. On the contrary, as already stated in this narrative, their first ex- perience on their native soil was a denial of the right of residence. But they were the recipients of a sympathetic and helpful greeting from the large and influential body of private citizens who approved of their course during the war. Many of them were destined to become leaders in the principal spheres of activity and usefulness in the life of the city. The hopefulness with which the people of the city looked toward the future, and their confidence in the stability of the prosperity of Baltimore, was not confined to themselves and to those who felt a sentimental interest in the city as the metropolis of their section. Shrewd business men of other sections were quick to perceive the opportunities which it offered for the employment of capital in the extension of its commerce and the develop- ment of its industries. As a result, many new enterprises were inaugurated during the decade which followed the close of the war. The revival of the foreign commerce of the port, once famous for its clipper ships, was one of the subjects which engaged attention when peace between the sec- tions was restored. On the 23d of March, 1869, the steamship Baltimore, the pioneer vessel of the North German Lloyd line between Baltimore and Bremen, arrived in the harbor, and four days later the commercial interests, the civic au- thorities, and the population in general, celebrated the establishment of regular steam communication between Baltimore and Europe with an elaborate demonstration of their gratification.' It was not until after the close of the war between North and South, however, when the extension of the railroads centering in Baltimore had afforded facilities for bringing western grain and other commodities to Baltimore for export, that a seri- "The first steam vessel that had ever crossed the Atlantic, the City of Kingston, visited the port of Baltimore in February, 1838, on her return trip from Jamaica. This was two months earlier than the first arrival of a trans-Atlantic steamer in the port of New York. 2i6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ous effort to establish a r^^lar line of steamers to Europe was inaugurated. In 1865 a line between Baltimore and Liverpool was projected. Four ves- sels of moderate carrying capacity were purchased, but the success of the enterprise proved very limited, owing in part to the fact that the tonnage of the steamships was insufficient to render the long voyage prc^table. This initial attempt, however, bore fruit in a contract between the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad Company and the North German Lloyd, to employ two or more steamships for a term of five years in making monthly trips between Baltimore and Bremen. The importance of this enterprise was fully appreciated by the citizens of Baltimore, and their appreciation was manifested in a banquet to the officers of the first steamer of the line that arrived at Locust Point, and in a military, civic, and industrial parade of unprecedented dimensions. An imposing feature of this parade was the ap- pearance in the line of the newly organized militia regiments, the member- ship of which consisted largely of veterans of the Civil War. The estab- lishment of the North German Lloyd line was a significant event in the history of Baltimore commerce. Other transatlantic lines followed the example set, and large grain-elevators and other modem terminal facilities came into existence. Early in 1872 the first grain elevator of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was completed, and on the 23d of January the first car- load of corn was unloaded into its bins, the forerunner of an immense ex- port trade which for a time made Baltimore the successful rival of all the other Atlantic coast ports. The passage of the first locomotive through the tunnel of the Balti- more and Potomac railroad, on the 26th of June, 1873, and the running of the first train through the Union Railroad tunnel on the 21st of the follow- ing month, presaged the discontinuance of an antiquated and inconvenient feature of the transportation system in Baltimore. From this time, the old method of attaching strings of mules or horses to the cars from the North on their arrival at the President street station and of so transferring them by way of Pratt street to the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at Camden Sta- tion, was abandoned. On the i8th of October, 1867, the cornerstone of the new City Hall was laid. In January, 1865, Mayor Chapman had directed the attention of the City Council to the urgent need for such a building, and on the 9th of June in that year an ordinance was passed and approved by the mayor providing for the appointment of a board of four commissioners, with the mayor as chairman, to superintend the erection of a City Hall. The finance commissioners were directed by the ordinance to issue $500,000 worth of city bonds bearing interest at the rate of six per cent, to provide the necessary money. On the 29th of January, 1866, the General Assem- bly authorized the city to issue bonds to an amount not exceeding $600,000 ; and on the 24th of April, the City Council directed the finance commis- sioners to acquire the property bordering on Holliday and North streets and Orange alley (now Lexington street), owned by Thomas R. and Henry R. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 217 Wilson, for $40,600, the price at which it had been offered. Ground rents on the lots which had been leased from George Brown and John White were also purchased. In the spring of 1867, Mayor Chapman appoined a building committee, the members of which were Thomas B. Burch, John W. Kirkland, Thomas C. Basshor, and James Smith ; and on the 25th of May, George Frederick was chosen as architect and John B. Haswell as superintendent. During the year 1867 a portion of the foundation was constructed. The comer- stone was placed at the southeastern angle, where it remained until Feb- ruary 18, 1869, when it was removed to the northeast corner. In the mean- time, Robert T. Banks, who had succeeded John Lee Chapman as mayor, raised the question whether the city could legally issue bonds to provide funds for the payment of the contractors, contending that one section of the act authorizing the issue had not been confirmed and ratified by the General Assembly. The courts were invdced, and it was not until the 12th of June, 1868, that the Court of Appeals settled the questions by deciding that the ordinance providing for the erection of a City Hall was inoperative until the flaw in the Act of Assembly was remedied. Meanwhile, the Legisla- ture, on the 30th of March, 1868, had passed an act authorizing the city to issue bonds to an amount not exceeding one million dollars, and on the 24th of June, following, the issue was approved by the legal voters of the city, 2,057 voting in favor and 753 against the bond issue. A new building commission was appointed, consisting of the mayor, ex- officio, and George A. Coleman, Jc^n EUicott, George W. Stinchcomb, Thomas J. Griffiths, George A. Davis, and Ogden A. Kirkland. This com- mission was shortly afterward superseded by one of five members elected by the City Council, the latter ccmimission consisting of Joshua Vansant, John W. CoUey, Ichabod Jean, Samuel H. Adams, and J. Hall Pleasants. The great activity in building operations in the northwestern section of the city was a distinguishing feature of this decade. The Citizens' Pas- senger Railway had been incorporated, and was about to furnish facilities for reaching the business center of the city to the residents of the section in the vicinity of Lafayette Square and Harlem Park. Practically a new city had arisen in this section and along the avenues leading to Druid Hill Park. Streets were being extended and paved; churches of pretentious architecture were in course of erection; the Lafayette Market was estab- lished; dwellings were approaching the southern boundary of Druid Hill Park ; and an area of several square miles which, ten years before had been an almost entirely unimproved neutral zone between the city and country, had assumed all the attributes and appearances of urban life. On the nth of November, 1867, the Hon. John H. B. Latrobe, as executor of the estate of Dr. Thomas Edmondson, announced the gift to the city of the nine and three-quarter acres of land now known as Harlem Park, lying between Calhoun and Gilmore streets, and Harlem and Ed- mondson avenues, to be used as a public park, a gift which was destined to 2i8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE add impetus to the building operations in the city. The City Council ac- cepted the park, and August Paul, the civil engineer of the Park Boards prepared a plan for beautifying the grounds. The year 1866 was marked in the annals of Baltimore by the dedication of the Peabody Institute, an institution which shares with the McI>onough bequest the distinction of having been the forerunner of the numerous philanthropic foundations which, in after years, were multiplied in Balti- more. The dedicatory exercises took place on the 25th of October, nearly twelve years after the founder had first intimated his purposes of devoting a large sum of money to the creation of such an institution .• These exer- ■ George Peabody was a native of South Danvers, Mass., (now Peabody). His early experiences in business were gained in New England and in his uncle's dry goods store in Georgetown, D. C. While still a mere boy he enlisted twice as a soldier dur- ing the War of 1812, and served with credit At the close of the war he formed a business connection with Elisha Riggs, in Georgetown, and one year later removed to Baltimore, where the firm established a house at the southeast comer of Baltimore and Sharpe streets. The venture proved very successful, and the firm became one of the most important in the country. Mr. Peabody continued to be a resident of Balti- more until 1836^ when he removed to London, but did not cease to feel an affection for the city in which his success in life had been cradled. As financial agent for the State of Maryland he negotiated a loan of eight millions of dollars abroad, and de- clined to accept a conunission. In addition, he advanced about forty thousand dollars to uphold the credit of the State. In 1854 Mr. Peabody had broached the subject of founding an institution for higher culture in Baltimore in a letter to William £. Mayhew, requesting that gentle- man to confer with John P. Kennedy and other prominent men of the city in regard to the project. Nothing seems to have resulted from this initial proposition, and two years later, on meeting Mr. Kennedy in London, Mr. Peabody revived the subject Definite plans were formulated for an institution with five departments; viz., a refer- ence library, courses of lectures, a conservatory of music, an art gallery, and rewards for merit. Mr. Peabody visited Baltimore in 1857 and signed a credit for $300,000 to be drawn upon for building purposes. A site at the southeast comer of Mount Vernon and Washington Places was selected to which objection was offered because of the price demanded for the property ($106,547) ; but Mr. Peabody overcame this obstacle by adding $50,000 to his original gift. In 1858 he further increased the endowment, making it $500,000; and in 1866, he added another half million dollars. Three years later he presented the institution with Virginia and Tennessee bonds valued at $240^- 000, making the sum total of his benefaction $1,240,000. In the summer of 1857 the erection of the building, which constitutes the western- most half of the present structure, was begun. Its cost was $170,000. It was com- pleted in 1 861, but the contemplated opening of the lecture department was deferred until the close of the war. Meanwhile, friction arose between the trustees and the of- ficers of the Maryland Historical Society which, under the original plan, was to have been associated with the new institution. After a patient investigation, Mr. Peabodly decided to dissolve the connection between the Institute and the Society and made a separate gift of $20,000 to the latter to facilitate the separation. The work of preparing a list of books for the library was begun in 1861 by the Rev. Dr. John G. Norris, an eminent Baltimore clergyman and scholar, who resigned his position as one of the trustees of the Institute to accept the office of librarian. From this list were selected most of the volumes purchased prior to the opening of the library for public use in 1867. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 219 cises had been postponed from May until October in order that Mr. Pea- body might be present. The Hon. John P. Kennedy, president of the board of trustees, was in Eur(^)e at the time, and the address prepared by him for the occasion was read by one of his colleagues in the board. Governor Swann also delivered an address and Mr. Peabody replied, expressing his warm attachment for the city of Baltimore, and announcing his intention of bestowing a second half million of dollars on the Institute. In the evening of the same day, the philanthropist was the guest at dinner of the trustees ; and on the following day, a reception was held for the teachers, graduates, and pupils of the public schools of Baltimore in front of the newly dedicated structure. It was estimated that twenty thousand pupils and ex-pupils passed in review during the two hours or more that the re- ception lasted. Another notable ceremony of this year was the laying of the comer- stone of the new Masonic Temple, on the 20tfa of November. Andrew Johnson, President of the United States and a past grand master of Ma- sons, attended the exercises, and representatives from the grand lodges of many of the States of the Union were also present. A procession of eight diousand members of the Masonic fraternity bearing richly emblazoned banners marched to the site of the Temple <hi Charles street. A fine choir sang appropriate hymns, and John H. B. Latrobe delivered an oration. The gavd used by the Grand Master of Masons, John Coates, was the same with which George Washington laid the cornerstone of the Federal Capitol, and the gold trowel was the one with which the cornerstone of the old Masonic Temple on St. Paul street had been laid a half-century earlier. This trowel had also been used in laying the cornerstones of the Washing- ton Monument in Baltimore, and of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The old Masonic Temple on St. Paul street was sold to the city in the follow- ing year for $45,000, to be used for the accommodation of one of the local courts. On September loth, 1866, the Concordia Opera House was formally opened with an inaugural address by G. W. Noedel, president of the Con- cordia Association, a German society which had erected the structure. The large and elaborately decorated hall was used for several years for the presentation of operas and other entertainments of a high order. Charles Dickens, on the occasion of his last visit to America, gave a reading in this hall. The building stood on the west side of Eutaw street, a short distance south of German street. Its cost was about $160,000. It was destroyed by fire in 1891. On the 3d of October, 1871, an important addition was made to the theaters in the city by the opening of Ford's Opera House, one of the earliest of the modem theaters erected south of Mason and Dixon's Line. The house was crowded with representative citizens and their families. An inaugural address, written by Dr. C. C. Bombaugh, was delivered by Harry S. Murdoch. The play of the evening was Shakespeare's "As You 220 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Like It/' with James W. Wallack as Jacques and Mrs. Caroline Richings Bernard as Rosalind. The acccxnpanying music was sung by the Baltimore Liederkranz. The Fifth Regiment, Maryland National Guard, during the first six years of its existence, was without a suitable armory and drill room. Its fame had become nation wide, and local pride in its reputation as one of the finest regiments in the countiy led the City Council in November, 1872, to tender it the use of the large structure above the Richmond Market As the City Council made no appropriation to cover the cost of fitting up the building as an armory, the members of the regiment contributed $8000 for the purpose. The armory was delivered to the regiment on the even- ing of the 6th of February, 1873. Addresses were made by Governor Whyte, Mayor Vansant, and Colcxiel J. Strieker Jenkins, then in OMnmand of the regiment. Agricultural fairs were among the earliest features of life in Balti- more Town, the first one having been held in 1745. With varying fortune they were continued until the War of Secession temporarily interrupted them and led to the ultimate dissolution of the society which had conducted them since 1848. In 1866, John Merryman, of Hayfields, called a meeting in Baltimore City at which a new agricultural society was formed with Ross Winans as president. This society purchased ground at Pimlico, and on October 26, 1869, opened its first annual State Fair. The First Division of the Maryland National Guard marched to the grounds on the opening day, and every possible means was employed to revive the popular interest which had been taken in such exhibitions before the war. The first fair was attended with moderate success, but the competition of the numerous local Jairs, which had beccmie annual features in the counties, caused a subsequent decline of interest and financial support. Finally the fairs were discontinued and the grounds at Pimlico leased to the Mary- land Jockey Oub. The Maryland Jockey Qub was organized at a meeting held on the 14th of May, 1870, in Bamum's Hotel, a famous hostelry destined to be closely associated with race meetings in Baltimore for many years after- ward. Governor Oden Bowie was the leading spirit in this movement to restore horse racing in Maryland to the favor it had enjoyed before the Revolution, when George Washington was accust(»ned to attend the meet- ings of the original Maryland Jockey Qub at Annapolis.^ At the meeting in Bamum's Hotel Dr. John Hanson Thomas pre^ sided, and a large number of the most influential citizens of Baltimore and of the counties were present. Provisional officers were nominated by 'At that time Colonel Benjamin Tasker, the head of the Maryland turf, with his splendid Arabian steed Selima carried off the laurels from Colonel Byrd's famous Tryall at a match race for five hundred guineas in Gloucester, Virginia, and Baltimore at that time possessed two tracks, one on Whetstone Point and the other in the vicinity of the present siite of the Lexington Market HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 221 a Committee and elected by the club. Governor Bowie was chosen presi- dent, and the other officers were: Vice-presidents, Washington Booth for the Western Shore, and Colonel Edward Lloyd for the Eastern Shore; secretary, Henry Elliott Johnson; race stewards, J. D. Kremelberg, F. M. Hall, George Small, and F. B. Loney. In addition, those who took an active part in the meeting at which the club was organized included Alex- ander D. Brown, W. W. Glenn, E. Law Rogers, John Merryman of Hay- fields, and Philip T. George. Shortly after the restoration of peace, the causes which had, before the war, made Baltimore a favorite meeting place for conventions and kindred assemblages, began again to operate. For five days during the month of July, 1869, the city practically surrendered itself into the hands of the large German element in its population. The occasion was the eleventh annual Saengerfest of the Northwestern Saengerbund, which opened in the city on the 1 2th day of the month. On the 14th, a long procession of singing so- cieties and other organizations marched frcnn the Concordia Opera House on Eutaw street to the Schuetzen Park, where orations were delivered by William Rapp and Robert C. Barry, the former speaking in German and the latter in English. Later in the day, prizes were distributed to the win- ning societies and addresses were delivered by the Hon. Reverdy Johnson, Christian Ax, George P. Steinbach, and several other prominent citizens. The 17th of June, 1871, and the four succeeding days form a period long remembered by the adherents of the Roman Catholic faith in Balti- more. Pope Pius IX had governed the church for a quarter of a century, and was the first in the long line of Sovereign Pontiffs to overthrow the tradition that no Pope would "see the years of Peter," whose pontificate was believed to have covered twenty-five years. In Baltimore, the seat of the senior dignitary of the Roman hierarchy in America, the occasion was attended with peculiar interest on the part of the population generally. On the initial night of the jubilee the city was brilliantly illuminated and decked with American and papal flags, wreaths and festoons of flowers and evergreens, crosses, and colored lanterns. On the following day, Sunday, appropriate services were held in all the Roman Catholic churches. The climax of the celebration came on the evening of the 2ist with a mammoth procession and pageant unparalleled in the re- ligious annals of Baltimore. Again the churches and many of the dwell- ings of the city were ablaze with lights, the illumination surpassing even that of the opening night of the jubilee. Two large stands had been erected, one in front, and the other on the Mulberry street side of the Cathedral. These were occupied by a large number of the most prominent Roman Catholics of Baltimore, and from them addresses were made in the English and German languages. The assemblage on the Cathedral street stand, where the English language was employed, organized itself into a meeting with the Hon. John Thompson Mason as president and nearly a score of vice-presidents. -/ / 222 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE A great national gathering of Knights Templars in Baltimore in 1871, notable in itself for the number of participants and the brilliancy of its display, derived added interest from the fact that it was one of the earliest of the large gatherings of Northern and Southern men of promi- nence in fraternal relations following ^e war between the sections. The fact that the conclave was to meet in a Southern city operated to swell the attendance from the far Southern States, and the proximity of Baltimore to the North brought a large attendance of Knights from that section. Men from the Gulf States and men from New England ex- changed greetings in an environment peculiarly favorable to reconciliation. The conclave, therefore, proved to be one of the most valuable of the early post-bellum steps toward re-union. The sessions of the grand com- mandery and the attendant festivities extended over several days, begin- ning on the 19th of September, when the grand commandiy was escorted to the Masonic Temple by the Baltimore commanderies and welcomed with an address by the Hon. John H. B. Latrobe, Grand Master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Maryland. In the evening there was a banquet at the Maryland Institute, and on the following day an excursion down the Chesapeake Bay. The great parade and review of the many local and visiting com- manderies took place on the 21st and was unsurpassed for display by any similar parades given in Baltimore. Seventy commanderies were in line, many of them headed by excellent bands of music from other cities, while thousands of spectators lined the sidewalks along the five miles route of the parade. This gathering was followed by the meeting in Baltimore in the ensu- ing week of the National Conunercial Convention. Delegates were present from twenty-two States ; and John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, took an active part in the proceedings. On the first day of the following month another gathering which brought to Baltimore representative men from all sections of the country assembled in Emmanuel Church, where the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church began its triennial session. On the 15th of May, 1873, ^^ General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States met in Baltimore, the sessions being held in the Central Church, which, two months later, was destroyed by fire. Five hundred of the most eminent men of the denomination were present as commissioners from the presbyteries. While Baltimore enjoyed marked prosperity during the first post- bellum decade, the city did not escape disasters and minor misfortunes. On May i, 1866, the city was visited by a hail-storm of unusual vio- lence. It was estimated that twenty thousand panes in the southern and eastern sections of the city were broken by the hailstones, many of which measured three or four inches in circumference. Scarcely any unprotected windows facing the north in the path of the storm escaped destruction HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 223 and several persons were severely injured by the icy missiles and the show- ers of bn^en glass. The summer of 1868 was a season long to be remembered in Balti- more. The month of July was excessively hot, the temperature on the i6th reaching a maximum of loi d^rees in the shade. There were thirty cases of sunstroke and twenty-one deaths in the city from the effect of the heat. Eight days later, a combination of causes resulted in the most disastrous flood recorded in the history of the city. At 2 o'clock on the morning of the 24th rain began to fall, accompanied by thunder and lightning. The downpour increased in volume as the day advanced and continued until afternoon. Jones Falls and other streams in the vicinity of the city be- came swollen and began to overflow their banks. A strong south wind caused an unusually high tide in the river and harbor which prevented the escape of the rainfall, and as early as eight o'clock in the morning, the streets in the neighborhood of the Centre Market were under water. Soon Harrison, Frederidc, and HoUiday streets were inundated, and the occupants of the houses along those thoroughfares were forced to ascend to the upper stories to escape the rising waters. By noon the cellars of two thousands houses were flooded, and the waters continued to rise until they fiad reached the ceilings of the first stories of the houses in the lower sec- tion. At the comer of Baltimore and Harrison streets only about one foot of the lamp posts was above the surface of the water. Meanwhile, great quantities of debris washed down Jones Falls from the country to the north of the city, and piling up against the bridges, penned up the raging flood. The confined waters found a vent by way of the low lying r^cxi along the Falls above Saratoga street and came pour- ing down Holliday street in a torrent About 12.30 o'clock a horse car was caught in the flood on Gay street, near the bridge, and was swept from the tracks. The swift current drove it down Harrison street at great speed. Some of the passengers had left the car at the first indication of danger, while others remained, clinging to the straps as it was carried along by the waters, swaying from one side of the street to the other. Finally, four or five of the participants in this involuntary and perilous voyage managed to gmsp the awnings of stores and to make their way into the houses by the second story windows. One of those who escaped sa!d he had seen an old gentleman and a youth perish in the torrent. They had managed to climb upon an awning which was swept away before they could enter the windows, and almost immediately sank beneath the surface of the water. Trees, fences, portions of houses, wagons, timber, barrels, household furniture, and various other sorts of debris were swept through the streets and piled up against the buildings in the path of the flood. The entrance to the old Maryland Institute building facing Harrison street was practically concealed by a huge coUecticxi of wreckage, and the water in the market underneath the main hall was eight or ten feet deep. A theatrical company 224 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE was having a rehearsal in the hall when the flood was at its height. They heard cries from below, and breaking a hole through the floor found a number of persons clinging to the framework above the stalls, unable to escape by way of the ordinary outlets. A rope was procured and more than thirty persons, white and colored, some men and some women, were rescued from their perilous positions. Along North street the flood extended from a point south of Lexing- ton street nearly to Eager street, and in the lower levels in the section known as "the Meadow," extending several blocks northward from Pleas- ant street, the water was from ten to twelve feet deep. Every bridge across the falls north of Pratt street, with the exceptions of the stone arch at Eager street and the old Belvedere bridge, a covered wooden structure which had withstood the floods of half a century, was either so badly damaged as to be unsafe, or was destroyed. The bridges at Qiarles street and Monument street were carried down stream and thrown against other bridges in their course. The abutments of the massive iron span at Fayette street gave way and the superstructure was shattered, and the bridges at Gay, Baltimore, and Pratt streets were partially wrecked, with debris thrown against them on the up-stream side. The damage to business structures and dwellings was immense. The Monticello distillery on Holliday street was practically destroyed, as were also many small dwellings on the east side of the Falls. A frame dwelling on the west bank near Bath street was swept f rcnn its foundations and carried down the stream. At sunset, the waters had subsided, but many dwellings were either in ruins or unfit for occupation. A majority of the sufferers were persons of small means, and so great was the destitution that the City Council voted $50,000 for their relief. One thousand and thirty-two families, numbering in all eight thousand and eighty-three individuals, received succor from this bounty. On the night of the 2d of October, 1869, Jones Falls again gave the residents of the low-lying districts along its course cause for serious alarm. Shortly before midnight, rain began falling and continued through the fol- lowing day. The Falls became a swollen torrent and swept from their moorings several dredging machines which were engaged in excavating the bed of the stream. The dredges were dashed against several of the bridges and did considerable damage, but the waters subsided without repeating the disastrous work done in the preceding year. The great flood of 1868 had directed the attention of the city authori- ties to the necessity of making provision against a similar disaster in the future. A commission of engineers, composed of Benjamin H. Latrobe, John H. Tegmeyer, and General Isaac R. Trimble, was appointed imme- diately after the disaster to formulate a plan for the prevention of future floods. The commission submitted two reports, one recommending the diversion of Jones Falls to a course outside of the city and the other favor- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 225 ing the widening and straightening of the stream within the city limits. Other plans were submitted, but one by Henry Tyson providing for the deepening of the stream and its use as a dock, was approved by the City Council. An enabling act was passed by the General Assembly in 1870 and ratified by a vote of the people, authorizing the issue of bonds to an amount not exceeding $2,500,000. Renewed disputes soon interrupted the work. Plans were modified and the personnel of the commission changed. Finally, on the 24th of April, 1872, the City Council passed an ordinance approving a plan, substantially that of Major W. C. Craighill, U.S.A., and Strickland Kneass, city engineer of Philadelphia, to widen, deepen, and straighten the channel between Eager street and the Basin, and to construct a sewer along the west side of the Falls and to build bridges to replace those destroyed by the flood of 1868. A new commission consisting of three members was appointed, and C. P. Manning was selected as engi- neer. In 1873 it was apparent that the appropriation would prove insuf- ficient. A new issue of bonds to the amount of $1,500,000 was submitted to the people at an election held on the 21st of April, 1874, but the popular vote was adverse. Two issues of bonds were subsequently made, aggre- gating $1,539,600, and the work was continued to completion. A fire of exceptional destructiveness on the 25th of April, 1869, c^^" sumed the oakum factory of R. B. Hanna and C(Mnpany on Thames street, between Ann and Wolfe streets, spread to the lumber yard of the Randolph Brothers, and was not checked until it had devastated the greater portion of the block, twenty business structures and small dwellings being reduced to ruins. The loss was estimated at $150,000. On the ist of November of the same year, the Abbott Iron Company's rolling mill caught fire and was damaged to the amount of $70,000. On November 20, 1870, a spectacular fire occurred in the tobacco warehouse of F. W. Feigner and Company, on South Charles street. The flames also attacked the building occupied by the commission firm of J. B. N. and A. L. Berry. The walls of both buildings collapsed, buiying Fire Inspector Charles T. Holloway and several firemen under the debris. One of the firemen, J. B. Hays, was fatally injured, and Fire Inspector Hollo- way was taken from the ruins in an unconscious condition. In the spring of 187 1, a conflagration attended by a very distressing in- cident, had occurred on Sharpe street near German street, where, on the morning of the 22d of May, the lai^ chemical warehouse of William H. Brown and Brothers and the wholesale drygoods and notions establishment of Stellman, Hendrichs and Company were consumed, and other buildings in the vicinity seriously damaged, the total property loss amounting to nearly a quarter of a million dollars. While the flames were raging, me steam fire engine "Alpha" exploded, killing J. Harry Weaver, member of the First Branch City Council from the Nineteenth Ward, who was stand- ing at the comer of German and Howard streets. The news of the great fire, the most destructive of modem times. 226 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE which had laid a large part of Chicago in ruins on the evening of the 8th of T)ctober, 1871, profoundly appealed to the sympathies of the people of Baltimore, and within forty-eight hours of the beginning of the calamity and before the flames had wholly ceased their work of destruction, the City Council assembled and with the unmistakably hearty approbation of the community, voted the sum of $100,000 for the relief of the stricken sister city. A conflagration which threatened, when at its height, to parallel in ex- tent and destructiveness, the memorable disasters which had ^befallen Chicago and Boston, and one which stood out alone in the record of Balti- more until the great fire of 1904, broke out at 10.15 o'clock on the morning of the 25th of July, 1873, in the sash and blind factory of Joseph Thomas and Sons at the comer of Park avenue and Clay street. The flames were fought stubbornly by the firemen until eight o'clock in the evening, when they were finally subdued. The official report of Fire Inspector Charles T. HoUoway states that one hundred and thirteen buildings were destroyed, including two churches, three two-story and attic brick houses; 64 three- story brick houses ; 18 four-story brick houses ; one two-story f ramehouse ; one three-story frame house; one one-story brick house. Among the structures destroyed were three school houses, two mills, and one silk factory. The loss was estimated at about three-quarters of a million dollars, only one-third of which was covered by insurance. The inflammable material in which the fire originated enabled it to gain great headway before the fire fighting apparatus could be directed against it. The surrounding buildings were chiefly old structures with shingled roofs which had been baked by the summer sun until they were like tinder. Favored by these conditions, the flames spread so rs^idly that egress from the upper floors of the sash and blind factory by the stairs was cut off and the employes were forced to drop from the windows of the second and third floors to escape death. A strong southwest wind swept the flames to the other buildings and scattered embers and sparks over a wide area, causing roofs to take fire hundreds of yards distant. In a brief space of time eighteen houses on Park, Clay, and Saratoga streets were burning. Then the flames leaped across Park avenue to the large livery stable of John D. Stewart, which extended from iii Lexingtcm street through to Qay street. Fortified by the contents of the stable, the fire forced its way up Lexington street from Park avenue nearly to Howard street. The First English Lutheran Church on Lexington street caught fire, and soon nothing but the bare walls remained, and the adjoining par- sonage was badly damaged. On the east side of Park avenue every build- ing in the block south of Saratoga street, except the structure at the comer of LexingtcHi street, had been destroyed and the flames were rapidly ad- vancing along the south side of Sarat(^a street from Park avenue to Liberty street. The Central Presbyterian Church, one of the largest edi- fices of its denomination in the city, stood at the comer of Saratoga and HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 227 Liberty streets ; flying sparks set fire to the cornice of its tall square tower and the falling embers ignited the roof. The structure was soon in ruins, and the fine residences opposite, on the north side of Saratoga street, in- cluding those of Johns Hopkins, A. S. Abell, and Prof. Nathan R. Smith, and the historic old parsonage of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, were in grave danger. The lai^e school house of St. Alphonsus' Roman Catholic parish, on the south side of Saratoga street, extending back to Qay street, had met the same fate as the Central Presbyterian Church, and the roof of St. Alphonsus' Church at the comer of Saratoga street and Paiic avenue, was several times ignited. Qouds of smoke enveloped its graceful spire and the intense heat cracked and blistered it, but almost miraculously the church escaped destruction. Meanwhile, the roof of the building at the northeast comer of Park avenue and Mulberry street had caught fire from sparks, and before an engine could be dispatched from the scene of the main conflagration, six other roofs were ablaze and a one-story structure connected with the academic department of the University of Maryland, then situated on Mul- berry street, was also afire as was the roof of the academic building itself. The greatest alarai was now felt for the venerable Cathedral, the dome of which was soon swarming with men equi{^d with water buckets and wet blankets, who, at the risk of their lives, extinguished the blazing embers that fell in showers upon the roof about them. Relays of volunteer fire-fighters relieved each other every half hour, and to their indefatigable exertions the preservation of the structure was probably due. Shortly before noon. Chief Engineer Henry Spilman, of the Fire De- partment, appreciating the full extent of the peril which menaced the city tel^raphed the chief engineer of the Washington Fire Department to send all the help he could immediately. Upon the receipt of this telegram, Chief Cronin, of the Washington Fire Department, sent two engines fully equipped to Baltimore. The train which brought this help made the trip of forty-two miles in thirty-nine minutes, and brought with it uniformed negro firemen from Washington, a novel sight in Baltimore. Other cities tendered help as soon as the news of the conflagration reached them. Philadelphia offered four full companies of fire-fighters, and the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore railroad notified Acting Mayor Greenfield that it was prepared to mn fast trains, to bring help from Philadelphia to Baltimore. Other cities and towns which volunteered aid were York, Harrisburg, Alexandria, and Martinsburg. However, the aid offered by these cities was declined with thanks. On the day following the fire. Mayor Alexander of Columbia, South Carolina, sent the following tel^^ram to the acting mayor of Baltimore: '^We have heard of your calamity by telegraph this morning. How can we aid you ? The people of Columbia will come to the aid of Baltimore in any way in their power." Mayor Vansant, who had been absent from the city during the fire, but who retumed the following day, replied to this 228 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE offer as follows: ''Your telegram tendering the aid of your noble people, on account of our disaster of yesterday, is received, for which you have our grateful appreciation. From appearances, we will not require aid from our sister cities." On the loth of September the old HoUiday Street Theater was en- tirely consumed by a fire which brc^e out at 2.30 o'clock in the morning. It was in this structure that The Star Spangled Banner was first sung. Erected in 1813 on the site of an older theater which dated back to 1794, one of its earliest performances was a benefit ''for the defense of the City," then threatened and afterwards attacked by the British. The most famous actors of the nineteenth century had trodden its boards, and, after many vicissitudes and changes of ownership, it had, under the management of John T. Ford, achieved the most substantial success it had ever known. The theater was immediately rebuilt, and was reopened to the public in the following year. The old Baltimore Museum building at the northwest comer of Balti- more and Calvert streets was destroyed by fire early in the morning of the 1 2th of December. The structure was erected in 1829 by John Clark, a lottery dealer, and was one of the most architecturally pretentious build- ings in the city at the time. The upper stories were rented to Pcale's Mu- seum in 1830. Among its successive proprietors prior to 1861 were P. T. Bamum, the famous show man, John E. Owens, the eminent comedian, Harry C. Jarrett, and several other men of national fame in connection with the State. In its latter years, under the name of the New American Theater, it had descended to a low level both as to the character of the entertainments and of the persons who resorted thither. The discovery of a defalcation extending over a period of at least twenty-seven years and entailing a loss of nearly $300,000 upon the Na- tional Mechanics' Bank was an event which caused excitement in the city in 1867. On the 26th of February, a national bank examiner found a number of false entries upon the books of the institution, and a careful investigation revealed the fact that systematic embezzlement had been per- petrated by two trusted employes. The length of time the embezzlement had continued without detection was believed to be without a parallel up to that time. The most daring and successful burglary ever perpetrated in Baltimore was effected some time between the close of business on Saturday, the 17th of August, 1872, and the hour of opening on the following Monday morning, when the Third National Bank was robbed. The building then occupied by the institution on South Street was entered by the robbers, and a booty aggregating more than $200,000 carried off, $70,000 belonging to the bank, and the remainder being securities belonging to its patrons and depositors. The burglars had rented the basement of the adjoining building, reached the bank vaults by digging under the partition wall, and entered the bank. After the robbery it was recalled that on opening HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 229 their offices, the criminals had coolly asserted that they were ''engaged in the business of mining." During the autumn of 1872, a malady to which the name of epizootic was given, affected the horses of the city to such an extent as seriously to embarrass business. Few of the draft animals of the city escaped the dis- ease, and on the 4th of November, the street cars, which were then de- pendent upon horses for their motive power, were compelled to cease running. On the 1st of August, 1873, Thomas R. Hallohan and Joshua Nichol- son were executed in the Baltimore City jail yard for the murder of Mr. John Lampley. During the trial of the two men in the circuit court at Annapolis, to which the case had been removed from Baltimore City, Hallo- han leaped from the prisoner's dock, and with an improvised sling shot made a desperate assault on Jacob Frey, then deputy marshal, and after- wards marshal of police of Baltimore City. A violent struggle followed which ended in Hallohan's being overpowered and returned to the dock. A verdict of murder in the first degree was promptly rendered by the jury. Amc»ig the deaths which occurred during this decade were those of several citizens of Baltimore who had achieved nation-wide distinction, and of a considerable number of others whose careers had contributed ma- terially to the various activities of the city. On the 25th of September, 1866, the Hon. Henry May died. He had been a leading member of the bar, and during the stormy war period, a member of the House of Repre- sentatives, in which body he steadily denounced the rigorous methods adopted by the military authorities who practically ruled the city. General John Spear Smith, for twenty-two consecutive years president of the Mary- land Historical Society, expired on the 17th of November following. He was a son of General Samuel Smith, of Revolutionary fame. On January I, 1867, occurred the death of Dr. John Carpenter Monkur, one of the most distinguished physicians of his day. On October 22d of the same year Major-General George H. Steuart died, in the 77th year of his age. He was one of the defenders of Baltimore against the British in 1814, an officer of the State militia for many years, and a representative of the city in the General Assembly early in his career. During the war he took up his residence at Charlottesville, Virginia, and was present as a spectator at the first battle of Manassas, where he was taken prisoner by the Union forces, but released when it was known that he was a non-onnbatant. After the war he resided in Europe until a few months prior to his death. On the i8th of June, 1869, Charles Howard, youngest son of the gallant Colonel John Eager Howard, of Revolutionary fame, died at Oak- land, Maryland. He had served the city as presiding judge of the orphans' court and as city collector, and in 1861, while filling the office of police commissioner, had been deposed by the Federal military authorities and confined in Forts Lafayette and Warren for sixteen months. His health, like that of several other prominent Marylanders who were imprisoned in 230 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE these forts during the war, was seriously affected by the confinement, and continued to be delicate up to the time of his death. During his latter years he served as a trustee of the Peabody Foundation, and in a similar capacity labored in behalf of several other philanthropic institutions with great use- fulness. On the loth of November, in the same year, the Hon. Thomas G- Pratt, governor of Maryland from 1844 to 1847, died at his home in Balti- more, aged 65 years. He had ardently supported the Southern cause in 1861, and had been confined in Fortress Monroe for several weeks by order of the Federal authorities. Jercxne Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, Em- peror of France, and son of Jerome, brother of the Emperor by his Balti- more wife, Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, died at his residence in Balti- more on the 17th of June, 1870. Had the marriage of his mother, which Napoleon I could never induce the Pope to declare null and void, been recognized by the Imperial Court of France, the descendants of Elizabeth Patterson would have become lawful heirs to the Bonapartist claim. Jerome Bonaparte of Baltimore was said to have resembled the great Napoleon more closely in personal appearance than any other of his nephews. He was bom in England, but was brought to Baltimore by his mother when he was a child. He was graduated from Harvard University and studied law, but never practiced the profession. He was allowed to visit France for a short while during the reign of Louis Philippe and was on amicable terms at a later period with his cousin, the Emperor Napoleon III, but the Emperor would never recognize his mother's marriage as valid. On the i8th of August, 1870, the city was robbed by death of its most eminent literary figure, the Hon. John Pendleton Kennedy, who expired at Newport, Rhode Island, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He had fought at the age of nineteen years in defense of the city of his birth, at the battle of North Point; he had studied law, and had served as speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates; but he was best known as the author of three novels illustrative of life in early Maryland, in Virginia, and in South Carolina at the period of the war for Independence. He had also been a member of the Federal House of Representatives for three terms, during one of which he was chairman of the committee on commerce ; and he had been Secretary of the Navy in President Fillmore's Cabinet. He wrote a biography of William Wirt ; and he had been one of the committee who awarded to Edgar Allan Poe the prize which brought the poet into widespread notice. He had spent the closing years of his life in literary pursuits and in varied activities for the promotion of the public welfare. Among the latter services was his work as chairman of the board of trus- tees of the Peabody Institute. He was also a trustee of the Peabody Southern Educational Fund. John Van Lear McMahon, lawyer, orator, and historian, died on the iSth of June, 1871. The last twelve years of his life had been spent in HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 231 comparative retirement owing to partial blindness. Bom in Cumberland, in 180O; he removed to Baltimore in 1826, and at once took high rank at the bar. In 1840 he presided at the Whig National Convention in Balti- more, and delivered an address in which he ''called the nation to order/' and attracted the attention of the entire country to his power as an orator. In the early years of his career he served four terms in the Maryland House of Delegates^ where he was an eloquent advocate of the removal of political disabilities from the Jews. He declined other political honors, in- cluding an offer from President Harrison of any office except one at the bestowal of the nation's Executive. When only twenty-six years of age, he drew the charter of the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad Company, an instrument which served as a model for all subsequent railroad charters in the United States. In 183 1, he pub- lished the first volume of his "History of Maryland," but was prevented by his multifarious activities in other pursuits from writing the contemplated second volume of this valuable contribution to the annals of the State. Martin John Spaulding, Seventh Archbishc^ of Baltimore, died in February, 1872, after filling the highest post in the Roman Catholic church in America for nearly eight years. Although he was a Kentuckian by birth, his parents were both Marylanders. He had won great distinction as a controversial writer, and added to the distinction with which his eminent predecessors had endowed the oldest see in the United States. His suc- cessor was James Roosevelt Bayley, Bishop of Newark, who was installed in the Cathedral on the 13th of October. On the 24th of December, 1873, Johns Hopkins died, in the 79th year of his age. In life and in death it was his lot to be one of the most poten- tial factors in influencing the destinies of Baltimore. He lived during a period when ten millions of dollars was a colossal fortune, when scarcely another such had been amassed in commercial pursuits south of Mason and Dixon's Line, when the earliest steps were being taken towards those vast conceptions in human enterprise which have amazed and sometimes alarmed a later generation, and when the capital at his command, not then dwarfed by twentieth century standards of wealth, was powerful to nurse and nourish infant projects to a lusty manhood. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad, in which he was the largest private stockholder, derived from him the means for its extension at a critical period of its existence, and in after years, at times of stress, was tided over dangerous shoals by his powerful help. The Merchants' and Miners' Transportation Company, an agency of incalculable value to the trade of Baltimore, received the impress of his remarkable sagacity in its initial stages. In the development of the mines of Western Maryland he had an important part. In the financial institu- tions of Baltimore and the territory tributary to Baltimore commercially, he was unquestionably the most important individual figure. His investments in real estate and improvements in warehouse property in Baltimore gave, probably, the first impulse towards the substantiality which began to char- 232 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE acterize the wholesale trade center of the city before the great fire of 1904 and which came to full fruition after the business district had been swept bare by the flames. His capital was invested with numerous firms in which he was a silent partner, and in the stock of almost every notably successful enterprise launched in the city during three or four decades preceding his death. The carefully husbanded and sagaciously amplified fruits of his career in business were destined, after his death, to exert a widely different in- fluence on the city in which he had lived. More than this, they were des- tined profoundly to influence the mental activities of the whole country. It is a fact never denied but much too seldom adverted to, that the endow- ments made by Johns Hopkins were applied to revolutionize the higher education in America. The university they created was the pioneer among the schools of advanced learning on this side of the Atlantic. Its example compelled imitation, and drew forth countless millions from other sources to equip the older schools. The social fabric of Baltimore was materially changed by the great institution which Johns Hopkins endowed. The opening of the institution injected into the life of the city an element of high intellectual achievement which has since molded the thought and shaped the energies of the leaders of the people, and it would be difficult to select any other factor in the city fraught with achievement, and possi- bilities of future achievement, equal to that which the will of Johns Hop- kins brought into being. It was a part of his scheme of a University to found a hospital for use in connection with its medical school. In a letter to the trustees of the cor- poration on the loth of March, 1873, ^^ outlined the plan and scope of the latter institution. The benefactions endowed by him included also a Home for Colored Orphans. The sum total of his bequests amounted to about six and a half millions of dollars. The Federal census of 1870 credited Baltimore with a population of 267,354. In i860, the population had been 212418. Although four years of the intervening decade had been a time of war, when the populati<Hi of the city was depleted by the absence of many of its sons for service in one army or the other, and when many of the normal activities of the city such as attract industrial workers were suspended, the gain in population com- pared favorably with the average gain of preceding decades. The increase in the earlier part of this period was chiefly due to the influx of persons from States further South and of emancipated slaves from the tide-water counties of Maryland and from Virginia. The foreign bom population was 56484, constituting about 21 per cent, of the whole number of inhabitants. The colored population had increased from 27,898 in i860 to 39,558 in 1870; the increase of the white population was from 184,520 in i860 to 227,794 in 1870. In i860 the total assessment was $138,505,765; in 1870, it had risen to $207,181,550, an increase of $68,675,785. This advance in tax valuations was almost wholly made in the last five years of the decade. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 233 the taxable basis in 1865 having been $143,540,022, only $4,834,257 greater than in 1861. In no other city in the South had the evolution of skilled industry ad- vanced so far at the close of the war of secession as in Baltimore. To this fact may be attributed many differences between the city and other Southern communities. Its social life, however, was distinctly Southern in its most important and striking aspects. A simplicity and an interdependence of persons of various social ranks, rarely met with in great centres of popula- tion, marked the intercourse of the people. The activities of the women, even among the hund)ler classes, were confined almost wholly to the do- mestic sphere, or to avocations which brought them into contact chiefly with their own sex. A woman bookkeeper or a stenographer at the close of the war would have been considered almost an anomaly, and the appearance of a woman in the financial districts was sufficiently rare as to attract at- tention. The extremes of wealth and poverty were probably less perceptible than in any other city of equal size in the country. A comparatively mild climate, low rentals, the cheapness of food, and the steadiness of employ- ment reduced the hardships of the poor to a minimum, while the modest standard of luxury established by the wealthier classes discouraged the mad pursuit of colossal fortunes which later times have witnessed. The city was then the twelve-months-in-the-year home of all, save of a small number who could afford to maintain country seats. A vacation of a few weeks spent at the seashore, the mountains, or in visits to friends chiefly in the Maryland and Virginia counties sufficed even for families of considerable means. Suburban development in the modem sense of the phrase had not then been dreamed of. Where the blocks of city dwellings ceased, the farms and country seats began. The real estate enterprises of this period and of the period immediately before the war, had for their centres of crystallization the small parks or squares which dotted and beau- tified the growing sections of the city. Union, Franklin, Lafayette, and Harlem Squares, Eutaw Place, and the avenues parallel to that beautiful boulevard, in turn attracted the tide of emigration from the older sections of the city; and when the bridges across the Jones Falls ravine rendered the northern section easily accessible, the drift of population turned in that direction, soon overlapping the municipal boundary as then established and creating what was called ''the belt." As each of the city parks in turn enjoyed its period of supreme favor, fine residences arose along the streets bounding it, while rows of less pre- tentious dwellings were erected along the neighboring streets or avenues to satisfy the requirements of persons of moderate means. These dwellings, whether pretentious or unpretentious, were planned to meet the social needs of the period. The drawing rooms or parlors, devoted to hospitality, were the largest rocrnis in the houses, and so numerous were the social gatherings that the people had little occasion to seek pleasure in other ways. As a re- 234 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE suit, the city was known to providers of amusements as a poor place for commonplace attractions ; and a visiting manager on one occasion explained the prevailing conditions by saying that the people of Baltimore did not go to the theatre to kill time as people in other cities did ; they went only when the play was sufficiently strong to overcome the attractions of home life. In the sultry summer months the evenings were spent by practically all Baltimoreans in the open air. The front stoop usurped the place of the drawing room. Neighbors passed from door to door exchanging informal visits. But the children were perhaps the most conspicuous figure in the animated picture presented on summer evenings. While their elders oc- cupied the stoops, they gathered on the sidewalks and filled the air with the music of young voices. The whole city rang with laughter and song. Quaint old ballads, handed down through generations after generations, some of them from as far back as the period of the revolution which placed William of Orange on the British throne, were sung, and games of almost equal antiquity were played. The entire city appeared to be en fete at these seasons. The athletic sports of schoolboys had not then been organized and reduced to a science. The term "team work" was yet unborn and its fruits were practically unknown. The streets and vacant lots were the only easily accessible public playgrounds. The abundant supply of truck farm and orchard products from the counties of Maryland and Virginia bordering on the Chesapeake and its tributaries rendered vegetables and fruits very cheap, as compared with the cost in less favorably situated cities. The facilities for rapid distribu- tion to distant sections of the country at this period were limited as com- pared with those of the present day, and the small sailing craft and steam- boats frequently glutted the local markets with such articles, so that prices fell almost to a ncxninal figure. In the height of the peach season, when the yield of the Eastern Shore orchards was large, it sometimes happened that more fruit was received than the people of the city could purchase, or the packing houses dispose of, and on such occasions, large quantities were given away at the wharves along Light street. The green grocery, or provision store, bore a merely supplementary re- lation to the market house during a large part of the period of which we are treating. Such establishments were few and were conducted on a very modest scale. The housewives of Baltimore went at least twice a week to market, and those whose domestic establishments were conducted on an ex- tensive scale sent their butlers or housekeepers in their stead. The streets in the vicinity of the principal markets were lined with carriages, and ladies thronged the sheds, followed by servants carrying huge baskets to receive their purchases. The woman's club had not then become a feature of the life of Baltimore; but the market served as a clearing house for current news and gossip. Cars on the street railways were not run all night until 1899. Before that date the citizen who, from choice or necessity, remained down town after midnight was compelled to return home afoot or hire a HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 235 special conveyance. There was no limit placed by the law on the hours dur- ing which the liquor saloons might be kept open. Many of them, and espe- cially those which were the least respectable in character, welcomed cus- tomers at any hour of the night. The lawless classes availed themselves of the opportunity thus afforded to indulge in intoxicants to excess and nu- merous murders and serious assaults occurred. Finally, public opinion be- came sufficiently aroused to make itself felt in the General Assembly of the State, and an act was passed forbidding the sale of liquor between the hours of midnight and six o'clock in the morning. The condition of the colored people of Baltimore at this period is worthy of consideration. Until 1870, every Federal census had shown that Baltimore had a larger negro population than any other city in the country. In i860, the negroes numbered 27,898, of whom only 2,218 were slaves. In 1870 they numbered 39,558. Prior to 1867 ^o provision for their educa- tion at the public expense had been made, the only schools open to them being those established by a local Association for the Improvement of the Colored People and by other private agencies. In that year the City Council directed that sdiools separate from those provided for white pupils be provided for colored children. The Board of School Commissioners en- rolled one thousand pupils, but no appropriation having been made for the schools, the only income available for their support was the small sum derived from the fee charged for the use of bodes. A question was raised whether the city charter conveyed a legal right to appropriate money for the separate schools for negroes. In order to remove this doubt the Legislature, in January, 1868, authorized the city to raise money by taxation for their support. In the following May the City Council appropriated $3,600 for arrearages and $15,000 for the expenses of the colored schools during the year 1868. Ten schools were organized, white teachers being employed at the start. In after years, when a generation of colored pupils who had en- joyed the advantages of education reached manhood and womanhood, the white teachers were replaced by negro teachers. With scarcely any opportunities for education and without any of the political rights which were later declared to be essential for the economic welfare of the race, the free negroes of Baltimore had, for many years previous to the war, progressed steadily along the pathway to prosperity. The relations between the white and colored people were cordial, the atti- tude of the former toward the latter being distinctly one of helpfulness. Many thrifty neg^roes had accumulated comparative fortunes, and several lines of industry were almost wholly in their hands. With few exceptions the barber shops patronized by the best class of citizens were owned and operated by colored men. The stevedores and other wharf laborers were nearly all negroes, as were also the ship caulkers. A small marine railway on which bay craft were hauled out and caulked was conducted by a com- pany the stockholders of which were colored men. Most of the two- wheeled drays drawn by mules which were long in use in Baltimore for 236 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the transportation of barrels, casks, and other large packages of merchan- dise, were owned by negroes. G>lored storekeepers drove a thriving trade in the neighborhood where the negro habitations were clustered. Colored waiters were employed in all the hotels and leading restaurants of the city and the wealthier white families were served by colored butlers, coachmen, and cooks. In fact, practically all the domestic servants in the city were negroes. Negro churches multiplied in the city, the buildings in many instances being gifts from white congpregations of the same religious denominations. In the course of time, colored physicians, dentists, and lawyers found em- ployment among the lai^ African population of the city. The limitations which had been placed upon the privileges of the negroes were inconvenient in certain respects, especially in the use of public utilities ; but in other respects, they operated to the advantage of the enter- prising members of the race in that they afforded them econcxnic oppor- tunities, free f rcxn Caucasian competition, in purveying to their own people. The most serious inconvenience which rested upon them was, perhaps, their exclusion from the street cars. In April, 1870, their legal right to ride in the cars was tested in the United States Court, where a decision was ren- dered in their favor. The Baltimore City Passenger Railway met this de- cree of the Court by providing special cars for cobred passengers, every third car on each of the several lines in the city bearing a placard which announced that it was intended for colored patrons. The cars not so pla- carded were still at the service of white passengers exclusively. In Novem- ber, 1871, the United States Court decided that this provision was a dis- crimination on account of color, inasmuch as the whites were permitted to use all the cars and the negroes were limited to the use of but one-third of them. Following this decision, the placards were taken down and equal rights of travel for negroes and whites were established. Prior to April isth, 1867, the street cars from the Eastern and Western sections of the city had made Holliday street their central terminus, and passengers going from one section to the other were compelled to change cars at that point. On the date mentioned, through trips from East to West were inaugurated. Less than two weeks later, the first Sunday cars were run in Baltimore, following a controversy extending over a period of five years. The question of running cars on Sunday was first mooted in 1862. A resolution was passed in the Second Branch of the City Council for submitting the proposition to a vote of the people, but the First Branch failed to act on the subject. One year later both branches of the City Council voted in favor of a similar resolution, but it was vetoed by the mayor, who declared that he felt convinced that ''no greater source of demoralization could be legalized." In 1867, however, the proposition was again brought up, and being submitted to a popular vote on the loth of April, was approved at the polls. On Sunday, April 28th, the cars were run for the first time. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 237 With the closing years of this first post-bellum decade of readjustment, there is evident to the student of history the beginning of a complete revo- lution in economic conditions, and of a very marked change in social life. It has been thought worth while to record in some detail phases of a social regime now vanished forever. This part of the history of a people cannot always be gathered from written records, but is only to be had from the verbal testimony of many witnesses, — ^witnesses who have viewed it from every angle ; since, in the lapse of time, some have come to magnify its ex- cellencies, while others have unduly exaggerated its failures. It is to those who have lived through these times, and who have made them what they were that the writer owes this part of the picture of the past years. It is a picture which is ever attractive to the mind of the novelist ; and it is to him that one must turn for its idealization, or, as it may be, its caricature : for, to a greater or less extent, he must color it with lights or shadows to suit his plans or the purpose of his story. BIBLIOGBAPHY FOS PERIOD FROM 1861 TO 1866 Scharf's Chronicles of Baltimore, History of Baltimore City and County; Nelson's History of Baltimore; Howard's The Monumental City; George William Brown's Baltimore and the 19th of April, 1861; John P. Kennedy's The Border States, Their Power and Duty in the Present Disordered Condition of the Country; Folsom's Our Police; Prey's Reminiscences of Baltimore; Tyler's Memoir of Roger B, Taney; Mason's Life of John Van Lear McMahon; Works of Severn Teackle IVallis; Lamon's Life of Lincoln; Schouler's A History of Massachusetts in the Civil War; Hollander's Financial History of Baltimore; Andrews' Historical and Biographical Introduction to The Poems of James Ryder Randall; Piles of the Baltimore newspapers, 1861-66. Special references and illustrative material: Reminiscences in Manuscript of Richard D. Fisher, J. Morrison Harris, William Piatt, Henry C. Wagner, Prank X. Ward, William Keyser, and Ernest H. Wardell; reports of Col. Edward P. Jones and of Marshal Kane; reports of the Baltimore and Ohio, and of the Philadelphia, Wil- mington and Baltimore Railroads; address of Gov. John A. Andrew at the dedication of the Ladd- Whitney monument, Lowell, Mass., June 17, 1865; broadsides of war times, letters of citizens of Baltimore ; journal of the City Council ; Proceedings of the Legislatures of Maryland and Massachusetts; Historical Sketch of the Sixth Massa- chusetts by John W. Hanson, chaplain; article in the Magazine of American History, September, 1885, by John C. Robinson, commandant Fort McHenry; addresses of Benjamin F. Watson, lieutenant-colonel Sixth Regiment; Ammen's Series of Articles in Baltimore Telegram (1879-80), entitled "Maryland Commands in the Confederate Army." "The Stain at Baltimore," by Charles S. Smith; "My Maryland," by James Ryder Randall; and like patriotic poems of opposite sympathies on the first bloodshed in Baltimore. BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR PERIOD FROM 1866-1875 Scharf s Chronicles of Baltimore, History of Baltimore City and County; Nelson's History of Baltimore; Howard's The Monumental City; McSherry- James's History of Maryland; Kent's The Story of Maryland Politics; Prey's Reminiscenses of Balti- more; Folsom's Our Police; Mason's Life of John Van Lear McMahon; Will's Life of Cardinal Gibbons; Hollander's Financial History of Baltimore; Steiner's History of Education in Maryland; Monographs of the Maryland Historical Society; Mono- graphs in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science; Files of the BaJtimore Newspapers, 1866-75. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 1875-95 S. Z. Amuen, A.M., LiTT. D. 242 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE contained civic organism with a new life, new tastes, new ambitions. Its material expansion was coincident with an intellectual awakening which placed it in the front rank of progressive American cities. It retained its individuality, its custcxns peculiar to itself, its society, its code of manners, but it supplemented these with new institutions and new interests. It was the same Baltimore but larger, stronger and better fitted for an era of competition. The year 1875 ^^ fruitful of events indicative of Baltimore's varied civic interests and enterprise. The City Hall, begun in 1866, was finished at a cost, including site, of $2,271,000, or $228,865 within the appropria- tion. An imposing building architecturally, it is noteworthy in that, unlike similar structures elsewhere, it did not cost much more than the original estimate. The New City College building and Academy of Science were also tfiis year brought into use. The Gunpowder Water Works were begun, as also the new wing of the Peabody Library. The Morning Herald was established, competing with the Sun and American. The McDonogh School first opened its doors to pupils in 1875, under the direction of Colonel William AUan,^ formerly a professor in Wash- ington and Lee University. The school was founded by John McDonogh, a merchant of Baltimore and New Orleans, for the practical education of ''poor boys of good character and respectable associations". Its sen- sible curriculum, efficient instruction, and kind but firm discipline, have given it the reputation of being one of the best schools of its class in the United States. There is always a long waiting list, admission being accounted good fortune. The school occupies suitable buildings on a farm of 835 acres near Baltimore, and has an endowment of $930,000. Appreciation of the genius of Edgar Allan Poe found expression in the erection, November 17, 1875, of a marble monument over his grave in the cemetery connected with the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Fayette and Greene streets, Baltimore. This recognition of Poe's literary eminence was due chiefly to the efforts of Miss Sara Sigourney Rice, an Englishwoman, long connected with the Western Female High School, seconded by Dr. Henry E. Shepherd, superintendent of the Public Schools of Baltimore, who made the dedicatory address. From Revolutionary times the Poes have been a Baltimore family. The poet's genius was first developed in Baltimore; here he spent part of his life, and he died here. It was therefore thought fitting that Baltimore should voice its admiration of the poet, and lead in repudiating the misrepresentations by which mali- cious biographers had at that time sought to darken his memory.' *Col. Allan had been an officer in Stonewall Jackson's command, and wrote a history of the Valley Campaign of 1862. 'January 19, 1885, the poet's wife was interred by his side. In 191 1 the grave was made more easily accessible to visitors by putting a bronze gate in the iron fence that encloses the churchyard. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 243 The completion in 1873 o^ ^^^ Union Railroad tunnel and the Balti- more & Potomac tunnel made possible (April 2, 1875) the junction of the Union railroad, the Baltimore & Potomac railroad and the Northern Cen- trd railroad with the Western Maryland railroad, for the common use of the Baltimore & Potomac tunnel and terminal facilities. It also initiated competition between the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and the Pennsylvania railroad for passenger and freight business between Baltimore and Wash- ington and between Washington and New York. The Baltimore & Ohio's monopoly of the former business was at an end. The result was a fierce 'Var" between the two great railways, with the usual incidents of cut rates and demoralization of business. The contest began February 15th and did not end till July 4th. It is to be distinguished from later "wars" of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, waged in the assertion of its claims to a "differential/' as against Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.' The event of 1875 which most strikingly exhibits the early abatement in Baltimore of animosities arising out of the Civil War, and the growth of civic idealism, intent on municipal betterment, was the cooperation of a section of the Democratic party with the Republican party to secure reforms. The latter party was too weak in numbers to gain power unas- sisted, but, aided by a large faction of the Baltimore Democracy, it might hope to win. The recalcitrant Democrats were not so intent upon offices as upon expelling certain objectionable politicians from the control of party affairs. The campaign of 1875 ^^ which they attempted this is known as the Potato Bug campaign. To make it intelligible, it is necessary to refer briefly to preceding events, to sketch the condition of the Democratic and Republican parties, and show in some detail the nature of the evils which the Potato Bug campaign was designed to cure. The political campaign of 1875, commonly called the "Potato Bug*'* campaign, was the most important, as respects ultimate results, in the history of the Democratic party in Baltimore ; and it was also most remark- able for the wit, vivacity, energy, and bitterness with which it was con- ducted. Its importance lies chiefly in the fact that it brought about the organization within the Democratic party of a facticm, or sub-party, called Independent Democrats, who insisted upon reforms. The Independents sought, through occasional alliances with the Republican party, to compel better methods of party management, and particularly to r^^in for capable citizens the right to aspire to a political career without having to obtain the permission of a "Boss." They held that to defeat nominees of bosses, rings, and other evolutions of practical politics, was an efficient means of 'As having the shortest route to Chicago, the B. & O. claimed for Baltimore a right to a lower rate on grain, Ac, than Philadelphia, New York, or Boston enjoyed. The idea was to make Baltimore the shipping point *In the summer of 1875 an unobtrusive yellow bug had destroyed the local potato crop. As the Independents, like the bugs, took their first steps very quietly, and were supposed to intend the destruction of the Democratic party, the reg^ulars called them potato bugs. 244 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE driving them from power. Though often defeated, they persisted in their efforts, and at intervals won great victories. Their success, for example, in the ''New Judges" campaign of 1882, taught the bosses the useful lesson of a pure and independent judiciary. By aiding the Republican party in 1895 to carry Baltimore and the entire State, they obtained for the city the new charter of 1898, which was a long step toward improved municipal administration. The habit of independent thinking and action in politics, created in Baltimore by their arguments and appeals for over thirty years, contributed not a little to Republican success in the gubernatorial fight of 1911. The Independents continued to be Democrats, though they openly opposed unsatisfactory nominations made by "the organization". They did not concede that they were any the less good Democrats when they voted the Republican ticket. "They wear our colors", the regulars com- plained, "while marching in the ranks of the enemy". Many of them were lawyers, and not a few, like Colonel Charles Marshall, R. M. Ven- able, and Joseph Packard, were Confederate soldiers from other Southern States where the boss system was comparatively undeveloped. Their chief leaders were Severn Teackle Wallis, eminent for literary culture, wit and biting invective, and John K. Cowan, counsel of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, a man of great intellectual power and infinite energy. Both were fine speakers, and their political addresses excited the greatest enthusiasm. People flocked in thousands to enjoy the treat of hearing public affairs discussed by men of the first ability. Argument, eloquence, wit, and vituperative sarcasm were employed to prove to delighted audiences that the element that had obtained control of the Democratic party were not fitted by character, or intellect, for the self-assumed task of dictating gov- ernmental policies. There had been discontent in previous years. In 1871, when Joshua Vansant was the mayoralty candidate, there had been complaint that party affairs had fallen into the hands of inferior men of sordid spirit. Self- seeking ward bosses were acquiring control of the party machinery. But the oppressions and proscriptions of the period of the Civil War and of the years subsequent to it up to 1867 were still too fresh in memory to permit any act tending to restore Republican ascendancy, and Vansant received a majority of 7,338 votes over Dunlap, "Independent-Reformer". In 1873, Vansant, again a candidate, had a majority of 10,094 over Car- son, Republican. The election this year of a "Reformer" to the city council was perhaps ominous, but the large majorities received in the congressional elections of the fall of 1874 by Swann and O'Brien, Demo- crats, over Cox and Suter, Republicans, showed that the Democratic pre- ponderance was still very considerable. The "machine" element of the party accordingly ignored the growing discontent, regarding their critics as "sore-heads" and impracticable theorists. The Republican party of Baltimore in 1875 was similarly boss-ridden. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 245 but this condition, in view of the party's exclusion from power in the long interval between 1867 and 1895, was of less importance to the public. The Republican party of 1875, according to Mr. J. V. L. Findlay, a Union man during the Civil War, afterward a Democrat and finally a Republican, was not the Union party of the period of the Civil War. It was not the party in control of Baltimore in 1864. **It was," says Mr. Findlay in 1875, speaking as a regular Democrat, ''the Union party that then controlled. The Republican party was not in power here in 1864. In May, 1866, the Union party split, one portion coalescing with the Democratic-Conserva- tive party, the other with the Republican party. The Radical party never had an existence in this State until the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted. Before that it was only a ring of Federal office-holders. The cry is for reform. Let it begin where it belongs. Only remember that a vote for the Bugs is a vote for the Rads". This bit of partisan oratory is of interest only as emphasizing the fact that the Republican party of Maryland began its existence in 1866, and became numerically important only after the enfranchisement of the negro. In 19 10 the negroes® were 40.3 per cent, of its voting strength. The percentage of negro voters in the Republican party has declined, since 1875, owing to the influx of white Republicans from the North and West, and to the accession of independent Democrats in 1875 and later, and par- ticularly to the alienation of Gold Democrats from their party in 1896. Sometimes in the years between 1867 and 1895 the Republicans, owing to their weakness, made no nominations. When they put up candidates they were uniformly beaten. Their only chance of success was to fuse wiUi the Independents, or, as in 1895, to get the latter to endorse their whole ticket. The Republicans and Independents did not profess to love each other, but made a virtue of necessity. The Democratic State Convention, July 22, 1875, was an exceedingly stormy one, lasting all day and all night, and producing violent animosi- ties. William T. Hamilton, of Washington county, sought the nomination for governor, and had a strong following. He was opposed by A. P. Gorman^ and Rasin, who favored John Lee Carroll, of Howard county. •The voters registered in 1910 as Republican were 39»983> of whom 16,127, or 40.3 per cent, were negroes. The total registration of all parties was 106454, of which number 90,310 were white, and 53>296 were Democrats. Some 13,170, mostly Democrats, "declined" to state their party affiliation. In 1882 there were 54,203 whites and 9,961 colored registered; in 1890, 73*9^9 whites and 11,971 colored; in 1900, 100^778 whites and 18,739 colored. ^Arthur Pue Gorman (bom March 11, 1839^ died June 4, 1906), was for forty years an active politician, for forty-nine years an office-holder, and for thirty years in control of the Democratic organization of Maryland. At the age of four- teen he became page in the House of Representatives at Washington, and later successively page, messenger and postmaster of the Senate. In 1866 he was ap- pointed collecter of internal revenue in the Fifth District, and in 1869 was elected to the House of Delegates. After two sessions he became speaker. Being appointed in 1874 president of the C. & O. Canal, he greatly extended his political power. 246 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Hamilton's supporters were determined; but by unseating some of Hamil- ton's delegates, and by other sharp measures, the Gorman-Rasin combina- tion, forced Carroll's nomination, to the great indignation of many Demo- crats. It was evident that the State ticket would not receive the entire Democratic vote. A few days before this the city Democrats had nominated Ferdinand C. Latrobe for mayor. Seeing the discord in the party, the Independent Democrats, led by Wallis, Cowan and others, hastened at once to execute a scheme, secretly devised, of organizing all the disaffected elements of the party, fusing with the Republicans, and defeating the "regular" Democratic nominees. These were, besides Carroll, Levin Woolford for comptroller, and C. J. M. Gwinn for attorney-general. A ccxnmittee of twenty-five, including Independents and Republicans, named for governor, J. Morrison Harris; for comp- troller, Edward Wilkins, Republican; and for attorney-general, Severn Teackle Wallis, the protagonist of reform. To oppose Latrobe, the fusion nominee was Henry M. Warfield. The campaign that followed was one of extraordinary excitement, violence and fury. When ballots were counted in the mayoralty contest on election day Latrobe was found to have a majority of 2,567. In the following month the regular Democrats carried the State by a majority of 12,924. In the city of Baltimore, Carroll Was credited with a majority of 18,095. ^ ^^ ^^ ''pudding tickets" and stuffed ballot-boxes was raised by the defeated party, and it is still a question whether Carroll was elected. But the net result was, in effect, victory for the party in power. Another result was an immense strengthening of Gorman's influence over the Democratic party in Maryland. The effect of the Independent movement in developing among Baltimore Democrats a new freedom of thought in politics has already been mentioned. In the city's dramatic annals, the year 1875 ^^^ marked by the inaugu- ration, January 5th, of the Academy of Music, on North Howard street, one of the finest structures of its class in the South, erected at a cost of nearly half a million dollars. The places of amusement with which it com- peted were Ford's Opera House, the HoUiday Street Theater, the Con- cordia Opera House, where plays were often presented in the German tongue, Front Street Theatre and the Monumental. The Baltimore stage In 1875 he was elected to the State Senate, and in 1880, 1886, and 1892, to the United States Senate. The Republican victories of 1895 and 1897 for four years prevented his reelection, but the Democratic legislature elected in 1901 returned him to the Senate. His occupation was politics and his will showed him possessed of property valued at $612406. Mr. Gorman was of fine physique, well-shaped, handsome, well-groomed, smooth- faced, suave, mild in manner, of soft voice, courteous, reticent and self-reliant His air and carriage, as well as his attire suggested the gentleman. Without much schooling, his association while a boy at the Capitol with men of affairs was his practical education for a political career. It fitted him to master men less shrewd, less cynical and less industrious than himself. His success was won by taking pains to foresee and prepare political events, using the ambitions of others to advance his objects. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 247 at this time still retained high ideals, the result ih part of traditions handed down by stock companies. The public took an interest in players as well as their plays. Tragedy still held an honored place on the boards, along with tearful melodrama and occasional grand opera. The Hamlet of Booth or Davenport drew full houses. For variety there were Rip Van Winkle, Mulberry Sellers, Dr. Panglos and Count von Puffengruntz. A memorable event in Baltimore's history was the beginning, October 3d, of the work of the Johns Hopkins University, the first real university in the United States. On February 22, 1876 — a date since observed by the university with annual commemorative services — ^Daniel C. Gilman, LL.D., was publicly inaugurated as president, and in an address defined the scope, methods and aims of the new university. As no part of the $3,000,000 * allotted to the institution which began work in 1876 was to be used to erect buildings, a plain house on North Howard street was enlarged and equipped for the Department of Philosophy. At this time little atten- tion was in this country given to post-graduate work. Original research was rare. This was made the leading feature of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, and a three years' graduate course was established, leading to the degree of Ph. D. An undei^aduate, or collegiate, course was added, leading to A. B. The Johns Hopkins Hospital was opened much later — in 1889, and subsequently (1893), in connection with it, a Medical School, which has achieved a great reputation. Both the Hospital and the Medi- cal School, are conducted under the auspices of the University.* The control over elections, which in i860 had been given to the Police Commissioners, was transferred in 1876 to three Supervisors of Election who were appointed by the Governor of the State and confirmed by the Senate. It was made their duty to appoint yearly by the first of August three officers of registration for each precinct of the city, two of them selected from the two leading parties. They were required also to appoint three judges of election for each precinct, such judges having the power to preserve the peace and send to jail the violator of any election law. The public mind was much occupied in 1876 with the contest between Tilden and Hayes for the presidency, and the activity of the Reformers was abated. Most of the Independent Democrats returned to the party fold. A Reformer was nominated in the Third Congressional District to oppose William Kimmell, Democrat, and a Republican in the Fourth District to oppose Thcxnas Swann, Democrat, but both Democrats were 'The original endowment slightly exceeded $3,000,000, nearly half of which was lost by the depreciation of the B. & O. stock, in which Johns Hopkins desired it should continue to be invested. In 191 1, by reason of various gifts, the income- bearing funds had a book value of over $4,500,000, and the University's assets, exclu- sive of the $943,177 pledged by friends in 1910 and the $250,000 to be received from the General Education Board, were about $6,500,000. *In the first year students numbered 89. In 1910-11 the Faculty numbered 193, besides 22 lecturers; students numbered 815, besides loi attendants on college courses for teachers. 248 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE elected by comfortable majorities. The Democrats carried the City Coun- cil election by a majority of 5,780. In the national contest, Baltimore gave Tilden 32,199 votes, against 22,058 for Hayes. The campaign produced an attack by rowdies on a Republican mass meeting at the Cross Street Market Hall, with the object of breaking it up. Pistols were fired, and the intruders captured the speakers' stand. Mr. C. Irving Ditty was badly beaten with a billy. A panic ensued, in the course of which hundreds of alarmed Republicans jumped pell-mell from the hall windows. This was Mayor Latrobe*s first term. One of his measures, which got him into trouble with the ward bosses and prevented his renomination in the following year, was the abolition of the wasteful Port Warden's Department and City Yard, and the substitution therefor of an unpaid Harbor Board. This hastened the deepening of the harbor to twenty-five feet and helped to reduce the year's expenses by $400,000. But it deprived the bosses of an asylum for their henchmen, and greatly excited their ire. Other steps of prepress were the introduction of a system of fire-alarm telegraphic communication; the improvement of Jones' Falls; a large use of Belgian blocks to replace cobble-stones for paving; the exemption of manufacturing plants from taxation, and the refunding of $5,000,000 of 6 per cent, city stock in 5 per cents. The improvement of public school teaching received an impetus from the opening of a new State Normal School on Lafayette Square, Baltimore. The question of rapid transit was at this time a pressing one for a city of the size of Baltimore. Horse-car lines were numerous, but unsatisfactory, and their slowness prevented business men from going far into the country to live. Suburban development was hampered. Much interest was accordingly felt in experiments begun, September 28, on the Gty Passenger Railway Company's line, with a car propelled by steam. The result was unsatisfactory and the advent of electric cars had to be awaited. It was in 1877 that the Baltimore & Ohio succeeded, as against its competitors for western grain shipments, in instituting the system of dif- ferentials. The connection with Chicago which it had effected in 1874 was thus turned to good account, with the result that Baltimore's ship- ments of grain and flour to Europe were largely increased. In 1875 ^c exports of flour to Great Britain were only equal to 14 per cent, of the exports of flour to Brazil ; in 1884 they were 80 per cent." The quickening ^*By this system, adopted as a compromise between New York's demand that rates be based on cost and Baltimore's demand that they be based upon distance, Baltimore was allowed a rate of 3 cents per 100 lbs. less than New York. The dif- ferential is most important in the case of goods of little value in proportion to weight Hence it now attracts grain rather than flour to Baltimore. The B. & O.'s war for the differential broke out in 1876, and the system was a compromise to end that war. War occurred again in 1881 and 1884-85, at the end of which the system was renewed. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 249 of trade at this time manifested itself in the organization, January 25th, of the Merchants' Exchange. In February of this year the Democratic part of the Baltimore public was much exercised with the ''8 to 7" decisions of the Electoral G>mmis- sion at Washington, by which the electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana, Oregon and South Carolina were given to Hayes, thus ending the hope of a Democratic president. Returns of the general assessment of property which first became available in 1877 showed for Baltimore values aggregating $285,166,828; for the State $547,044,271. The opening of the new Y. M. C. A. building, Charles and Saratoga streets, occurred in February. On September 5th the Reformers at a mass meeting renominated Henry M. Warfield for mayor. The speeches made are of interest as indi- cating the general grievances of the Independent Democrats and their Republican allies, and their new grievances arising out of the alleged frauds in 1875. In his speech of acceptance, Mr. Warfield said: ''We want no more political ruffianism at the ballot-box as in 1875." Mr. R. D. Morrison enlarged on the theme: ''Has the Ring abdicated? Have the recent primary elections been decently and fairly conducted? Has ballot- box stuffing with pudding tickets ceased? Have roughs and rowdies ceased to bully and knock down where they cannot otherwise win? If Warfield in 1875, why not now ?" But a Workingman's Convention at Raine's Hall, September 6, by nominating for mayor Joseph Thompson, a blacksmith of Oldtown, with- drew attention from Warfield and completely frustrated the Reform pro- gram. Thompson, being a good speaker and 24)pearing at a time when strikes and the wrongs of labor were much occupying workingmen's minds, produced a tremendous impression all over the city, wherever he spoke. His whirlwind campaign frightened the regular Democrats, especially as the Republicans had made no nominations and might support Thompson. Latrobe being temporarily unavailable, the regulars nominated for mayor an Independent, Colonel George P. Kane, who had voted for War- field in 1875. This was done, it was said, to "perfume" an otherwise mal- odorous ticket. The device succeeded. Mr. S. Teackle Wallis, the chief of the Independents, made speeches for Kane. Of Thompson he said: '*The principles of his new party are communistic. His men justify the burning of railroad depots and other prc^rty. Men who do this and tell you they are not Communists tell you you are fools." On election day, October 24, Kane received 33,188 votes, Thompson 17,367, and Warfield, the Reformer, 536. At the State election of Comp- troller, November 6, T. J. Keating, Democrat, received in Baltimore 28,687 votes; Dr. G. E. Porter, Republican, 6,396. Reaction from the fictitious prosperity of the period immediately sub- sequent to the Civil War had by 1877 culminated in a general depres- sion of business. In almost every line of work employment was curtailed, 250 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE or reductions were made in wages. Railway companies met decreases of earnings by various economies, one of which was the discharging of employees. The Baltimore & Ohio railway sought to deal with the situa- tion, not by the harsh method of turning men adrift, but by a lo per cent, reduction of pay of employees receiving over $i a day. This was unsatis- factory, and on the i6th of July, the day on which the reduction was to take effect, the firemen went on strike, and by the 17th the strike had extended to all divisions of the Baltimore & Ohio railway. Thirty trains were blocked at Martinsburg, West Virginia, and rioting began. A lengthy list of grievances was put forward by the strikers, who represented the wage reduction as only the last straw. On the i8th troops were sent to Martinsburg at the request of the Governor of West Virginia, the Presi- dent having called upon the rioters to desist from violence. On the 20th a riot occurred in Baltimore when the Sixth Regiment was leaving its armory to help restore order, and eleven persons were killed, while many were injured. Camden Station was seized. At Mt. Clare a train of cars was fired, and an effort was made to fire the railway company's shops. Governor Carroll asked President Hayes for troops "to protect the State against violence." Troops were sent from Fort McHenry. Warships came within reach and landed marines, and Gen. Hancock was sent to take command. Young men of spirit volunteered to protect the city. Two new regiments were speedily organized at the Fifth R^ment Armory. The Fifth Regiment at this time added to its reputation for courage and steadiness. On the 22d, fresh crowds having gathered about Camden Station, the police — ^who had already had to fire on the mob— advanced to clear it, making it plain that they would use their pistols if necessary. The determined attitude of the authorities and the presence of abundant troops began at length to tell on the strikers. Their cause was lost. By the 30th of July the railway trains were again running on schedule. The opening, September 30, 1878, of the new Peabody Library marked the completion of the original design. The new wing contains the library proper, with capacity for 500,000 volumes, the public reading room, offices, rooms for statuary, paintings, bronzes, &c., and a gallery of casts from the antique. Among the treasures of the place, in a room to itself, is Rine- hart's Qytie, the gift of John W. McCoy. Another room is given almost wholly to other admirable works of the Maryland sculptor. The construc- tion of the east wing released the west wing for the development of the Conservatory of Music, destined to take rank with the best schools of its class in the United States. The death of Mayor Kane, June 23, 1878, necessitated a new election, and on July 11, Ferdinand Qaibome Latrobe, Democrat, was again chosen mayor to fill out the unexpired term, receiving 14,608 votes, against 1,394 cast for Smith, Greenbacker. The Independent Democrats were, it seems, in view of the partisan decisions of the Electoral Conunission in the Tilden- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 251 Hayes contest, indisposed at this time to cooperate with Republicans, and without such cooperation neither had much chance of winning. A like feeling existed in the following year. The more ardent Republicans, besides, were getting tired of being led by Democrats, and wanted candi- dates of their own. The nominees for Congress this year were, in the Third District, William Kimmell, Democrat, and Joseph Thompson, Labor- Greenback-Temperance ; in the Fourth District, Robert M. McLane, Demo- crat, John C Holland, Republican, Quigley, Labor-Greenback, and Git- tings, Independent Democrat. The issues were not the local bosses, but chiefly national, the Democrats dilating upon the alleged extravagance, folly and immorality of the fiscal policy of the Republican Congress. In the fall election the Democrats won. Kimmell got 11,676 votes, against 4,908 for Thompson. McLane had 11,064 votes, Holland 6,671, Quigley 627 and Gittings 398. Soon after the election, Mr. Rasin, deeming "Honest Joe" Thompson a danger, gave him a clerkship in his office, after which Thompson, now called "ex-Honest" Joe, made excellent Democratic speeches. A "ring" of smaller and larger bosses b^^ to be formed in the ^ legislature of 1870. This year, proud of their many victories, the ring ■ began to call themselves "the Old Guard." Gorman was the chief. Next \ to him in might was the shrewd and sturdy I. Freeman Rasin, after whom ' came the cheerful cynic, John W. Davis, supposed to represent the Balti- more & Ohio railway; then George Cblton, a plausible casuist; Levin Woolford, of Somerset, alert and shrewd; Jesse K. Hines, of Kent, and Michael Bannon, a strenuous fighter of Anne Arundel county. For a quarter of a century they practically controlled legislation, awakening strenuous opposition, not only on the part of the opposing parties, but also within their own. An event of importance for the aesthetic education of Baltimore was the Art Loan Exhibition of March 4, 1879. ^ striking demonstration was made of the extent to which wealthy people of Baltimore are interested in fine pictures and other expressions of cultivated taste, very considerable private collections ^^ were found to exist and an impulse was given to the development of the aesthetic sense. The importation of sugar, like the importation of coffee, favored the exportation of flour and other Baltimore products. A cargo each way was assured. It was gratifying to observe that, although between 1874 and 1879, Baltimore's imports of sugar had declined by $12,363,510, her "About 1865 Mr. William T. Walters, a merchant of Baltimore, began to collect paintings, giving special attention to modem French artists of the Barbizon school. His residence on Mt Vernon Place was enriched with numerous pictures of this scho<ri, besides other valuable works of art. The Walters art gallery became after a few years one of the largest and finest in America. His son possesses his father's interest in art as a means of culture, and has added vastly to the collection, building a fine gallery on Washington Place to contain it. 252 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE total trade in the interval named had increased from $56,815,249 to $62,- 43i»i55. In 1879 ^^^ Republican party of Baltimore, becoming tired of merging its identity in fusion movements which impaired its organization, nomi- nated a straight-out ticket of its own, while the Independent Democrats made nominations only for minor offices. For mayor, the Republicans named William A. Hooper; the Democrats, Ferdinand C. Latrobe; the Greenback-Laborites, Octavius L. Mathiot. The election, October 22, re- sulted in Latrobe's receiving 25,729 votes, against 19,830 for Hooper and 95 for Mathiot. For the gubernatorial contest the candidates were James A. Gary, Republican ; William T. Hamilton, Democrat ; and Howard Meeker, Green- back-Labor. The view taken by a regular Democrat of high character of the problem of correcting party abuses is shown in a speech made at a mass meeting in Baltimore by Mr. Hamilton, the Democratic nominee for governor : 'There is a cry of abuses. Abuses may and perhaps do exist, for there are always unworthy camp followers with strong and victorious parties. Where abuses exist they should be corrected. But this is not to be done by transferring power to the Republican party. Remember that if you elect a Republican governor, you give him power to appoint your supervisors of election and your Police CcHnmissioners. Do you think it expedient to give this power to Republicans?" In so speaking, Mr. Hamilton touched the point in which he knew his hearers were most sus- ceptible— the fear of the placing of negroes in positions of authority over white persons through control of election machinery. At a Republican mass meeting Mr. Gary indicated the importance of carrying Baltimore: "I properly begin my campaign in Baltimore, be- cause it is the victim of excessive taxation and is the principal political factor by which the rest of the State is kept in subjection." When the State campaign came to an end in November, it was found tliat in Baltimore Hamilton had received 29,184 votes; Gary 17,915, Meeker, 338. In the State, Hamilton won by a majority of over 21,000. Mr. William Pinkney Whyte was at this time United States Senator, and expected to succeed himself, while Mr. Gorman wished the place. Mr. Hamilton was named for governor, it was said, with Mr. Gorman's approval, because he was assured that Hamilton would not help Whyte. Meanwhile Mr. Gorman as president of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, and chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, saw to it that the right men were elected to the legislature that would elect Whyte's suc- cessor. Accordingly, early in January, 1880, Mr. Gorman was elected Senator. Twenty-six years later, at Mr. Gorman's death, Mr. Whyte was appointed by Governor Warfield to fill out Senator Gorman's unexpired term. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 255 THE SESQUI-CENTENNIAL The celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of Baltimore was the great event of 1880. The actual anniversary was January 12, but with a view to securing suitable weather for out-of-door exercises, the festivities were deferred to October. From the nth of October to the 19th the city gave itself over to gaiety and enjoyment with an abandon never before known. The city fathers appropriated $10,000 and private citizens added $20,000 to the Sesqui-Centennial fund. Some $500,000 in addition was spent by citizens in preparations. Of the city's 80,000 houses some 30,000 were decorated, including all the business places of the princi- pal streets. The bunting with which buildings were draped was or and sable, the colors of the Calvert family and of the coat-of-arms of Maryland. Of this material there were some 250 miles, besides the national red, white and blue, and flags of foreign countries. By day all the chief thorough- fares were brilliant with color, distributed in tasteful designs; by night they shone with gas jets. Ten triumphal arches were built over the streets and a facsimile of Cleopatra's needle was erected. The city hall and other public buildings were splendidly decorated. On the first day, Monday, the nth, there was a remarkable procession of tableaux on wheels, eight miles in length, illustrating the history and industrial development of the city. It required five hours for this impressive pageant to pass a given point. It contained 30,000 men and 2,000 vehicles^ and gave delight to 300,000 spectators of whom over 80,000 were visitors. The day ended with music and oratory at Scheutzen Park on Belair ave- nue. The second day, October 12, there was a morning procession of 10,000 school boys, 1,200 Knights Templars in showy uniforms, and other large bodies of Masons ; the afternoon and evening were given to music, oratory and poetry at the Academy of Music under the auspices of the Maryland Historical Society. The third day, the defensive resources of the city were illustrated, and these were supplemented with detachments of United States troops, marines and sailors, from the Kearsarge and Vandalia. Besides these, the procession contained visiting militia, firemen from neigh- boring cities, with their apparatus, the city's fire brigade, the police force,, the veterans of 1812, of 1847, of 1861-65, and veterans of the Old Volun- teer Fire Department. The 14th was occupied with a procession of benevo- lent societies of various races and colors, temperance societies. Catholic associations and agricultural organizations; the 15th with a like proces- sion of secret benevolent orders, such as Odd Fellows, Red Men, etc. The crowning spectacle of the wedc was that of Saturday, the i6th, when all the ships in port dressed in their gayest colors. Sixty tugs, trimmed in bunting, with bands playing, passing in review at Fort Carroll, advanced up the river into the interior harbor, the naval vessels, meanwhile, along with Fort McHenry, firing salutes. Many thousands, occupying Federal 254 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Hill, the river shores and piers, enjoyed the splendor of the novel display. Mild' and bright weather still, as on the preceding days, favored the sight- seers. The i8th and 19th were marked by (^en-air concerts given by a New York band of forty-five pieces stationed in a temporary balcony built around the Sun Iron Building. The night of the 19th the whole city, resi- dences included, was magnificently illuminated in honor of the ninety-ninth anniversary of the surrender at Yorktown, the last important fight of the War for Independence. The Sesqui-Centennial was a great success, par- ticularly the industrial display which in variety and extent exceeded all expectation. Oyster-packing has always been an important Baltimore interest. In 1880 the city packed yearly more oysters than any other city in the world and more tiian all the other packing points in Maryland and Virginia combined. In the season — from September i, 1879, to May 15, 1880 — 9i543 vessels brought 7,252,972 bushels of oysters to the city, besides 25,000 bushels brought by steamers. Of this supply 3,769,353 bushels were packed raw ; 2,689,939 bushels were hermetically sealed, and 818,680 bushels were consumed in the city. There were forty-five firms in the packing business, which embraces during the summer fruits and vegetables, with the result that their capital of $2,338,300 was productive all the year round. The canned fruit and v^^etable business alone gave products worth $1,980450. Some of the other larger industries in 1880 were the manufacture of clothing, with products worth $3,002,851; iron foundry work, $1,688,716; fertilizers, $3,945,000; musical instruments, $1,119,196; boots and shoes, $588,600; tinware $985,510; tobacco, $916,877. Takhig all industries into view the value of products in 1880 showed an increase 37 per cent, more than in 1870. The total population of Baltimore in 1880 was 332,190, against 267,354 in 1870. Of the 332,190, 276,176 were natives and 56,014 foreign. There were 3 sugar refineries in 1880 with $260,000 of capital and products worth $840,986. Already the tariff had had a bad effect upon a sugar industry which had formerly been very important. The imports of sugar in hogs- heads which had been 40,293 in 1878 were now but 4,680; bags of sugar, 95,858 in 1878 were in 1880 but 14,840. Molasses had undei^one a similar decline. This cut two ways, the falling off in imports lessening the foreign demand for Baltimore's exports of flour, etc. An important new factor in the promotion of the city's trade was the organization, November 8, of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Asso- ciation. None of the city's trade bodies has been more active in securing progress. Baltimore suffered a loss by fires in 1880 of $546,733, which was larger than in any of the three preceding years, but less than in 1876, 1875, or 1873. In 1873 the loss was $892,628. The growing amity between the sections was illustrated by the visit to Baltimore, April 19, 1880, of the survivors of the Sixth Massachusetts HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 255 regiment, which fared badly at the hands of a Baltimore mob, April 19, 1861. The regiment was cordially received, and the nineteenth anniversary fittingly celebrated. Baltimore's political activity in 1880 was intensified by the excitement of a presidential campaign. Independent Democrats did not, however, push their fight at a time when party feeling ran high, preferring, as a rule, an "oflF year," when municipal reform could be presented in attractive sim- plicity, as a purely business proposition. Moreover, there was no impor- tant city official to be elected, the only contest being for congressmen. In the Third Congressional District, Fetter S. Hoblitzell, Democrat, received 13,639 votes against 9,965 cast for Joshua Horner, Jr., his Republican opponent. In the Fourth District, Robert M. McLane, Democrat, received 15,728 votes; George C. Mound, Republican, 15,389 votes. Like Demo- cratic majorities were recorded in the election of the city council. In the election of President, Hancock, the Democratic nominee, re- ceived in Baltimore 32,672 votes; Garfield, Republican, 23,388 votes. In the State, Hancock won over Garfield by a vote of 93,706 to 78,515. The Festival of the Oriole was celebrated by the city October 10, 11 and 12, 1881, being an echo of the Sesqui-Centennial of the preceding year. The name Oriole was derived from that of the well-known bird, the Balti- more Oriole, whose colors, orange and black, resemble closely those of the arms of Lord Baltimore. These were the colors with which the city decked itself to receive as guests the Marquis de Rochambeau and other distinguished Frenchmen,^' who had been invited by the United States to participate in a conunemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the surrender at Yorktown. The decorations were more profuse,** if possible, and better designed than in 1880. On Monday, the loth, the use of the Gunpowder River water supply was formally begun by Mayor Latrobe. The Battle Monument in Monu- ment Square had been transformed into a gigantic fountain with 1,200 jets, and the outburst of water at the mayor's command was a much- ai^lauded spectacle. Then followed a fine parade of the city's soldiery, the fire brigade and police force. The next day an open-air concert was given in Mount Vernon Place by Gilmore's Band of New York. The chief event of the Festival was the Oriole pageant, which traversed the streets at night. This was a long procession of forty-one tableaux on wheeled floats, presenting various historical personages, scenes, and inci- dents. Some of the floats were quite beautiful, and were enthusiastically applauded by the citizens and by the 150,000 strangers whom they were said to have attracted to the city. The Oriole Festival ended on the ''Gen. Boulanger, who subsequently played a large part in French politics, was of their number. '*The Oriole was financed with a sum of $28,500 contributed by public-spirited citizens. The belief that the trade of the city would be benefited by the influx of visitors, as in the previous year, was thought to justify expenditure on the Oriole. 256 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE evening of the 12th in a grand ball at the Academy of Music in honor of the French guests, and in a display of fireworks in Druid Hill Park. The spirit of enterprise dominant in Baltimore in 1881 is shown in the number of improved facilities for trade inaugurated. Among these must be mentioned the ccnnpletion of the Baltimore Dry Dock at Locust Point, near the three great grain elevators of the Baltimore & Ohio rail- road. This dock excited much interest as tending to make the port attractive to shipping. Being 450 feet long, 113 feet wide and 26 feet deep, it was ample for the period. On either side was a pier 200 feet long, and near by machine shops, besides a warehouse 40 feet wide and 500 feet long for the storage of the cargo of disabled ships undergoing repairs. The site had been given by Congress in 1880 on certain conditions, one of which was that government vessels should be docked without charge. The Calverton & Claremont stockyards were completed, to take care of the increasing receipts of cattle, sheep and hogs. Of cattle the receipts in 1881 were 129,179, against 113,379 *" 1875; of sheep 310,981, against 174,610 in 1875; o* hogs 347,667, against 265,628 in 1875. The figures show progress. The Claremont yards on the line of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, were graded and equipped with buildings chiefly by West- ern men interested in the cattle trade. The depth of the harbor was 24 feet. This depth, Col. Craighill in his report urged, should be increased to 2^ feet to enable the port to engage more fully in the foreign trade, in which larger vessels were com- ing into use. This year, April 13, the Western Maryland railroad first connected with the South via the Shenandoah Valley railroad, and the Baltimore & Delta railroad (Sept. 28) ran its first train. An event which was made much of at the time and affected profoundly the fortunes of the Baltimore & Ohio railway was the purchase by the Pennsylvania railway, March 8, of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railway, while the Baltimore & Ohio was negotiating for it. This necessitated the building by the Baltimore & Ohio of another railway between Baltimore and Philadelphia, a costly work which was the cause, it is said, of the Baltimore & Ohio's going into the hands of receivers some years later. Another event in which Baltimore had a trade interest was the completion in August of the Balti- more & Cumberland Valley railroad to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. As owner of stock of the Western Maryland railway, with which the new railway was connected, the city was also financially concerned in this new development. A matter of interest nearer home was the beginning of the development by the Baltimore & Ohio railway of Curtis Creek. The incorporation, May 3, of the City Gas Light Company, and on May 30 of the Equitable Gas Company, inaugurated a tremendous slump of the stock of the older gas company, with the result of great losses to many citizens. The new companies, having been built to sell out, rather than to operate, sold out as soon as possible, and their purchase by the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 257 older company benefited nobody but the promoters of the new schemes. From this incident the Baltimore public learned the important lesson that natural monopolies require r^^lation rather than competition. The city's large facilities for medical education were augmented by the organization, August 24, of the Baltimore Medical College, and, Sep- tember 25, by the inception of the Hospital for Women. The Stock Ex- change first occupied its present site June 25 of this year. On the first day of the year, lovers of the drama attended the last of five plays presented in Baltimore by Sara Bernhardt, then in the plenitude of her powers. Again in 1881 the Independent Democrats were lethargic. The Dem- ocratic organization nominated for mayor ex-Senator William Pinkney Whyte, and the Republicans put forward no opposing candidate. The only municipal contest was over the city council. For each place in the council there were three candidates — ^ regular Democrat, an Old Line Democrat and a Republican. At the election, October 26, Whyte received 29,244 votes, and a solid Democratic delegation was elected to both branches of the city council. The aggregate vote for the First Branch was. Democrats 23,518; Old Line Democrats 5,074; Republicans 7,235. Among the num- bers of the First Branch was John J. Mahon, of the Ninth Ward. For judge of the Court of Appeals, James L. Bartol, Democrat, was unop- posed and received 11,412 votes. The State official to be voted for in No- vember was the comptroller. The Democratic nominee was Thomas J. Keating; the Republican, Thomas Gorsuch. The former received in the city 24,303 votes; the latter 12,170 votes. The Oriole Festival of 1882 celebrated incidentally, September 12, the 68th anniversary of the successful defense of the city from the attack of the British in 1814. An event, accordingly, of the first of the three days of the festival, was the dedication on Eutaw Place (afterward removed » to Federal Hill), of a monument to Col. George Armistead, a Baltimorean, who commanded at Fort McHenry during its bombardment by the British fleet in 1814. There was also a procession the first day and a competitive drill of military commands. The 13th was marked by a visit of Lord Baltimore (personated by Robert Garrett) to his loyal city, coming by ship, attended by dignitaries of his mystical palatinate. A multitude of steam vessels in the Patapsco welcomed the ''Lord of the Realm," who, being duly saluted, landed and proceeded to the City Hall. Here the mayor, declaring his loyalty, delivered to his lordship on a silken cushion the keys of the city, and representatives of the city's chief industries pre- sented to him humbly the products of their factories. Then passed in review 350 floats, illustrating the employments of the people. The festivi- ties were concluded with a grand pageant at night, including 36 floats representing Southern societies, illustrious women of history, and the Ramayana, "a gorgeous epic of the East." In this pageant, as in the subsequent Oriole ball at the Academy of Music, were representatives 258 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE of the Mystic Societies of New Orleans, Mobile, Galveston, Memphis and St. Louis, who entered into the spirit of the occasion with characteristic Southern enthusiasm. The attendance at the various spectacular displays was large, as many as 150,000 persons being attracted by them to the dty, according to the estimates of the time. The Oriole's chief features, floats with gorgeous tableaux, etc., were borrowed frcmi New Orleans mainly, and ceased after a time to interest a public of colder temperament. After 1880 they began to be estimated from the commercial point of view. The Oriole of 1882 cost $39,596.75- The campaign of 1882 is memorable for the "New Judge" fight, which resulted in victory for the Independents — ^the first they had won. Many r^^lar Democrats aided them now for the first time. On the other hand, there were vacancies in the Independent ranks. Mr. S. Teackle Wallis, for example, the greatest of the Reformers, made no speeches and Mr. Henry M. Warfield, twice the Reform candidate for mayor, actively supported the "old judge" ticket. Mr. J. V. L. Findlay did the same. The fact that Mayor Whyte was something of a boss at this time, and that his approval of the renominations was supported by Rasin and others as active, made opportunity for an anti-boss outcry. The outcry, it is said, was secretly encouraged and promoted by Senator Gorman, the State leader, with the object of destroying what was left of Mayor Whyte's political influence, in order to enhance his own. The Senator after this campaign had no serious competitor in the field of State politics. The "old judges'* were judges whose terms of office were about to expire — Robert Gilmor Jr., Henry F. Garey, and Campbell W. Pinkney. The old judges were nominated in the primary election, but the moral influence of the primary election was impaired by the circumstance that only 8,000 votes were cast. Mr. William A. Stewart, an independent can- didate, not having the support of the party organization, received very few votes. In the judicial convention, held October 5, at Ford's Opera House, the three old judges were promptly renominated, while Mr. Stewart re- ceived but 26 votes. Had Mr. Stewart been substituted for one of the old judges, there would have been, it is said, no new judge movement. His activity after the convention, and the s)rmpathy of his friends, were potent factors. A fourth judge, Mr. William A. Fisher, was nominated to succeed Judge George W. Dobbin, who was retiring from the bench on account of advanced age. About 350 leading citizens on October 14, in a signed address, called upon the people to select candidates without regard to politcs. On the i6th two hundred lawyers approved the movement. On the i8th a mass meeting of reformers nominated William A. Stewart, Democrat, Charles E. Phelps, Republican, and Edward Duffy, Republican, to oppose the old judges. William A. Fisher was on both tickets. The Republican Conven- tion formally approved the "Citizens' Independent Judiciary" ticket, but HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 259 shortly before the election a straight-out Republican ticket was nominated by recalcitrant Republicans ; it received but little over a thousand votes. The campaign was a furious one and characterized by invective and bitter feeling. The city press was divided. The Sun favored the new judge ticket, The News supported the old judges, and The American was similarly disposed. The Independents won by an average majority of 11,022. Stewart, of the new judges, for example, received 33,318 votes; Gilmor, of the old judges, 21,883. Of the Republican nominees, Rey- nolds totaled 492 votes. Mound 1,022, King 1,048 and Kenly 8. The effect has been permanent. In the Third Congressional District, Fetter S. Hoblitzell, Democrat, won over T. F. Lang, Republican, and William Kimmell, Independent Democrat, by a majority of 2,548. In the Fourth District J. V. L» Findlay, Democrat, received 14457 votes, against Henry Stockbridge's 12,793. The city council was this year for the first time voted for under the new arrangement of wards and precincts. Each ward was required to have nine precincts. Early in 1882 Mr. Enoch Pratt, a banker of Baltimore, gave the city $1,083,333.33 ^o found a free circulating library to be known as the Enoch Pratt Free Library, provided the city would grant and create an annuity of $50,000 per annum forever, payable quarterly to a self-perpetuating board of nine trustees named by him. The city, as authorized by the leg- islature of the State, accepted the gift on the terms proposed. The founder erected on Mulberry street, near Cathedral street, a marble structure, 82 feet front by 142 feet deep, with capacity for 200,000 volumes at a cost of $225,000. Fifteen branches have been built in the several quarters of the city. In 191 1 the Central Library, with branches, contained 283,000 volumes. On April of this year the legislature reduced its street car fare from six to five cents, and the tax payable by the car companies on gross receipts from 12 to 9 per cent. At this time there were fourteen companies ifi Baltimore and its suburbs, with an aggregate of 151 miles of line, 304 cars, 2,830 horses and 1,352 employees. In 191 1 the mileage was 401 miles, operated by electricity. In the same month the Baltimore & Delta railroad, a narrow-gauge line, reached Towson. In May the first train was run, via the Western Maryland railroad to Roanoke, Virginia. In February the Canton company had sold the Union railway and tunnel to the Pennsylvania railway for $2,500,000, thus insuring to the latter a link in its Washington-New York line, and the Baltimore & Ohio railroad was preparing to build a railway from Camden Station to Curtis Creek, to further the development of its valu- able holdings there. In July, 1882, the Thurman-Washbum-Cooley Advisory Commission, appointed to investigate and decide the differences between the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and New York Central railroad upon the question of the right of railways terminating in Baltimore to fix a rate three cents 26o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE per 100 lbs. less on certain traffic than New York's rate, announced a decision** in Baltimore's favor. This "diflFerential" attracted grain to Baltimore for shipment abroad, and the certainty of the ccmiparative rate tended to promote the foreign trade of the port. The city was visited in January by Oscar Wilde in his character of aesthete. This perverted genius delivered a lecture, with little apprecia- tion on the part of his audience. In February, Arthur Cayley, the eminent English mathematician, was given a reception by the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, and, in September, Herbert Spencer, the distinguished philosopher, also honored the city with a visit. Already the Hopkins was beginning to attract to Baltimore the best minds in every field of learning. Huxley attended the opening, February 22^ 1876. On June ist the city began to use arc electric lights, and on October I2th the Baltimore Sun introduced the Edison (^s)indescent lamp, using 170 bulbs to illuminate the Sun Iron Building. This was the first use in Maryland of the carbonized bamboo filament made incandescent by an electric current for interior lighting. The year was marked by many other occurrences that suggest enter- prise and a progressive spirit. A system of sewers, for example, was in contemplation to displace surface drainage of storm-water and cesspools; and from William E. Broderick was received a report estimating the cost of a system** of sewers at $3,198,667. In February, the selection of grand juries in Baltimore was trans- ferred from the sheriflF to the Supreme Bench; a registration of voters was effected. In October a Medical College for Women was opened at the comer of McCulloh and Hoffman streets, with twelve professors; in November the cornerstone of a handsome granite post-office building was laid. An extensive program of paving with Belgian blocks was entered upon in May. This was a period marked by unusual activity in education, industry, transportation, trade, political progressiveness, and building. The renomination, October 4, of Ferdinand C. Latrobe for mayor was the signal for a fresh outburst of enthusiasm for reform. Encour- aged by their victory in the new judge campaign of the preceding year, the Independent Democrats again in 1883 fused with the Republicans to capture the city, ncmiinating J. Monroe Heiskell, Democrat, to oppose Latrobe. A few quotations will best indicate the objects of the Reformers and the views of regular Democrats. "Last fall," said Mr. J. Morrison Harris, Republican, in a public address, "we cleaned out our temple of justice. We swept out our court house. Now let us clean the city hall." 14 The "war" in the summer of 1881 was ended by referring the question to this commission of eminent publicists. It broke out again in 1884-85, but the differential was soon reestablished. In recent years the differential has been little respected and the question is now subjudice. ' "This improvement began first to be realized in 191 1, when a system of sewers, the largest — ^in some features — in the world, became ready for use. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 261 Said Mr. Robert D. Morrison: ''Ring rule with all its impurities and tyrannies must go. Mark this : The ring will never abdicate — it must be dethroned." Mr. S. Teackle Wallis and Mr. Charles J. Bonaparte made very witty and cutting speeches at Latrobe's expense. The former told how Warfield was really elected in 1875, and how, when a recount of ballots was demanded to prove it, evil men were let in where the ballots were kept, and, taking out Independent ballots, burned them, after substi- tuting Democratic ballots. "Great God," exclaimed Mr. William M. Ma- rine, who followed, "just think what those emissaries of the ring were doing that Sunday! They were cremating public opinion!" On the other hand, Mr. Bernard Carter, Democrat, who had been with the Independents the year before, was now again with the regular Democrats, and in a public address held that Republican reform was an illusion. "I submit that the record of the Republican party while in power in Maryland is a record of proscription and corrupticHi ; that the same influ- ences that controlled it then control it now; that this fusion movement is a part of the plan to destroy the Democratic party in Maryland, and that there is nothing in the present condition of the Democratic party in this city, or the State, to justify any true Democrat in refusing to support its nominees." In reply to his critics Latrobe thought it sufficient to say: "Baltimore is one of the most economically governed cities in this country." In the election in October, Latrobe won, receiving 29,147 votes, against Heiskell's 25,669. In the gubernatorial election, November 6, Robert M. McLane, Democrat, received in Baltimore 32,186 votes; Hart B. Holton, Republican, 24423. In the State, McLane's majority was 11,987. The Oriole Festival of 1883 was delayed two days by a storm. When Lord Baltimore came again to his own, Thursday night, September 13, the harbor was brilliantly illuminated by fireworks and electricity, and there was a "royal escort" of tugboats and other steam vessels. A large proces- sion escorted him to the city hall, where the keys of the city were sur- rendered into his hands. On the following evening there was a parade of tableaux, one division of twenty floats telling the story of "Atlantis, or the Lost Continent"; a second division, of eighteen tableaux, the story of "the Moors in Spain." The Tivoli disaster, July 23, 1883, by which 34 wcnnen, 23 children and 6 men were drowned at Tivoli, an excursion resort, fifteen miles below the city, on the Patapsco river, is CMie of the saddest events in the history of Baltimore. An excursion had been made to Tivoli under the auspices of the Mt Royal Beneficial Society, the participants including many members of the Catholic congregation of the Church of Corpus Christi, in the north- western part of the city, and friends from other parishes and of Prot- estant dencnninations. A little after 9 P. M., while the excursionists were gathered on the wharf, awaiting admission to the steamer which was to bring them back to Baltimore, some of the rotten timbers supporting the wharf gave way under the unaccustomed load, precipitating everybody 262 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE into the water. Same three hundred perscms were thus endangered. Heroic efforts were made by various persons to rescue the women and children, and most of them were saved. Christopher Doyle saved fifteen persons, and Patrick C. Beatty seven. At the instance of John T. Ford, proprietor of Ford's Opera House, eleven silver medals were struck for the rescuers, Doyle, a sawyer, of Battery avenue, receiving the highest honor. With the hope of obtaining another railway connection with the South, via Lexington, Virginia, the city in 1870 decided to contribute $1,000,000 toward the construction of the Valley railway. On October 20, 1883, the first through train over the Valley railway reached Lexington frcHn Balti- more. The roadbed was completed in large part to Salem, Virginia, to a connection with the Norfolk & Western, but rails were not laid beyond Lexington, and the construction of the Shenandoah Valley railway from Hagerstown to Roanoke, Virginia, with its subsequent ateorption by the Norfolk & Western, seemed to render the Valley railway superfluous. The city has received no return from its $1,000,000 invested in the stock of the Valley railway. Mr. John W. Garrett was this year elected president of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad for the twenty-sixth time, and work was b^[un on the extension of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad to Philadelphia. Gxnmunica- tion with Washington was improved by the construction of a telephone line to that city. It was in 1883 that the new "standard time" was adopted in Baltimore. The abolition, February 19, of the fire commissioners, and making Mr. J. Monroe Heiskell fire marshal in their stead, along with the new marshal's discovery of certain abuses, gave the latter such prominence as to make him the logical candidate of the Reformer$ in the mayoralty election in the fall. Musical and dramatic events abounded in 1883. Among the rest, mention should be made of the concert given May 30, in honor of F. N. Crouch, the venerable composer of the music of the well-known ballad, Kathleen Mavoumeen. The Oratorio Society produced Elijah, with much applause. Mrs. Langtry graced the stage, and George W. Cable lectured at the Hc^kins University. The burial, March 7, of Harry Gilmor, famous as a Confederate guerilla leader, with military honors in Loudon Park Cemetery, was a notable event. Gilmor is remembered for a daring raid he made in 1863 with a small command into the suburbs of Balti- more, burning the residence of Governor Bradford in retaliation for burn- ings in the South. Among the city's distinguished visitors in 1883 were the Due de Momy, a potent personage at Paris during the reign of Napoleon III; Matthew Arnold, the poet and critic; and Lord Chief Justice Coleridge. Baltimore's initiative was illustrated by its establishing in 1884, as part of the public school system, a Manual Training School, afterward enlarged and called the Polytechnic Institute, Though suggested by the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 263 disappearance of the apprenticeship system, through which workmen for- merly learned their trades, the school, knowing the aversion of the Unions to an excess of skilled mechanics, did not aim to teach any special handi- craft— ^to turn out carpenters or blacksmiths — but to teach the use of tools and elementary mechanical processes and arts in wood and metal work. Such instruction was designed to give the eye, hand and brain a training not given in the literary courses of the public schools. The Health Department in August, 1884, reported the existence in Baltimore of 1,122 so-called "tenement houses," with 10,041 rooms, occu- pied by 4,122 families, or 14,838 souls. As the average number of fami- lies per house was but 3.4--or, roughly, a family on each floor — the evil was evidently not such as the word tenement-house is generally supposed to imply. A disaster of the year 1884 was the collapse. May 30, of Hooper's large five-story warehouse at 37 South Gay street, burying a number of persons in the ruins. Seven persons were killed. Mayor Latrobe in August, on the occasion of a parade of the fire department, presented medals, money and flags to firemen who had behaved heroically in rescuing people caught in the ruins. In 1884, ^OT the first time, Maryland had a regular Prohibition ticket. That year William Daniel was named by the National Prohibition Conven- tion for the vice-presidency. The result was so encouraging that two years later Joshua Levering, of Baltimore, became the candidate for Congress in the Fourth District, and received 1,692 votes, or more than the Republi- can candidate. The Board of Fire G)mmissioners was reconstituted this year after a brief trial of the single fire marshal. An event of much local interest was Robert Garrett's election, November 20, to the presidency of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. Among the distinguished visitors to Balti- more were Gen. Heros von Borcke, of the Prussian army, formerly of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's staff, who was accorded a warm reception by the many Confederate officers residing in Baltimore, and Sir William Thom- son, the great mathematician and physicist, who lectured at the Johns Hopkins University to a gathering of eminent scientists from all parts of the country. The lectures were subsequently published as the Baltimore Lectures, and aided materially in attracting the attention of the world to Baltimore as a center of advanced scientific learning. The year 1884 was the year in which Grover Qeveland, Democrat, was first elected President of the United States, largely, it was believed, through Senator Gorman's excellent management of his campaign. At the balloting, November 4, Qeveland received in Baltimore 34,289 votes; J. G. Blaine, Republican, 27,584. In the State Qeveland. had 96,866 votes; Blaine, 85,748. In the Third Congressional District, William H. Cole, Democrat, had a majority of 5,376 over Samuel J. Pentz, Republi- can. In the Fourth, J. V. L. Findlay, Democrat, had 15,726 votes ; Sebas- 264 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE tian Brown, Republican, 14,324. The only city-wide contest was over the city council, which the Democrats won. After the presidential election, Senator Gorman, as chairman of the National Democratic Executive Committee, remained for a time in New York to see that the party's victory was not filched away, as Democrats thought it had been in 1876. In his absence a great mass meeting in honor of Gorman was held, November 10, in City Hall Square, and cheers were given for ''Maryland's favorite son," the organizer of victory. This was followed, December 11, by a banquet in the Senator's honor at the Acad- emy of Music. Mr. Gorman was at this time, in fact, at the zenith of his fame and power — in supreme control of the State, the most potent personage in the United States Senate, and a large factor in national politics. The Brown-Hodges mayoralty campaign of 1885 stands out promi- nently among the many struggles of the Independent Democrats to oust "the regulars." It was not only fiercely fought and the occasion of much witty sarcasm and biting humor — as preceding campaigns had been — but it had dramatic situations, strategems and surprises which ordinary poli- tics commonly lacks. Mr. Rasin, the chief Democratic boss, was aware that the Independents and Republicans were incubating special trouble for him. He expected also that he would this year have to fight two minor Democratic bosses, "Doc" Slater and Frank Morrison, who disputed his ascendancy. He accordingly sought to disconcert his opponents by having the Democratic city convention nominate for mayor a man of the highest standing and who was a leading Independent. There was much demand for the application of business methods to the city's business. A success- ful business man with an anti-Rasin record should be satisfactory, and Mr. James Hodges was such a man. His candidacy, it was believed, would prevent the concentration of the whole Reform vote on the opposition candidate. It would "perfume" the organization's ticket, to use Mr. Rasin's expression. Overtures were made to Mr. Hodges, who, after a conference with Mr. Rasin, consented to accept the nc»nination. He was accordingly ap- proved in the Democratic primaries, and October 8, at Raine's Hall, the city convention with unanimity nominated Mr. Hodges for the mayoralty. The next day the Independents and Republicans, by a preconcerted plan, nominated Judge George William Brown, with tremendous enthusi- asm, to oppose Hodges. The latter, being a merchant, was no match for lawyers like S. Teackle Wallis, John K. Cowen, R. M. Venable, Charles Marshall, Charles J. Bonaparte, W. L. Marbury and J. Hall Pleasants, in wit, eloquence, or dialectic. He was twitted with his apostasy, though J. V. L. Findlay and even such regulars as William Pinkney Whyte were now with the Independents. At the municipal election, October 28, Hodges received 30,897 votes; Brown, 28,667. The victor, as mayor, appointed only Democrats to office, and commonly only such as Mr. Rasin approved. Slater and Morrison, no HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 265 longer having "recognition" in the distribution of patronage, lost their following, and Mr. Rasin became at last the supreme and unopposed boss of the party in Baltimore. Gorman was likewise strengthened by the triumph of his ally. The Reformers, having had great expectations of success, were much disheartened by this defeat, and ten. years elapsed before they fully regained confidence in their ability to win. In the State election of comptroller, November 3, J. Frank Turner, Democrat, won over Francis Miller, Republican, in Baltimore, by 38,593 to 19,113. In the State, the Democratic vote was 102,791 ; Republican 72,294. Baltimore city led the United States in the use of electric traction. The first electric railway operated in America was the Baltimore and Hampden line, which on August 10, 1885, made twenty trips, with a car full of passengers, between Baltimore and Hampden, a suburban village two miles distant. Trial trips were first made June 16, and on August 18 the electric line was being operated on schedule, making a speed of twelve miles an hour. Two cars were used together, one being the motor car and the other a trailer, for passengers. The motor was the invention of Prof. Leo Daft, of Jersey City. The plant included a steam engine of 35 horse-power, operating two dynamos, one being held commonly in reserve. The electricity was carried by a third rail, between the other two, except at street crossings, where it was carried overhead. This elec- tric line was operated for several years. Better motors were found to be desirable, but the feasibility of rapid transit with electricity as the propelling force was amply demonstrated. The record of fires in 1885 was exceptional. In January a fire at 237 North Gay street caused a loss of $30,000. In February there was a disastrous conflagration on Baltimore street between Greene and Paca streets, causing a loss of $72,000 and injury to six persons. The burning of Weisenfeld & Co.'s clothing store at 242 West Baltimore street, April 3d, entailed a loss of $100,000, and the H. Cronhardt fire, 27 Camden street, on the loth, meant a loss of $8,000. In June the Union Hotel, on Pratt street, was badly damaged by fire. July brought four considerable fires, aggregating a loss of $47,000. Fatal injuries to five men resulted from one (Laupheimer's) of the two fires in August. Three fires in September caused losses aggregating $138,000. In November, besides a $15,000 fire at 340 West Baltimore street, there was a collapse of the third and fourth floors of 126 South Eutaw street. In December there was a like collapse of the upper floors of 58 Hanover street, besides three fires which caused an aggregate loss of $32,500. Mt. Vernon Hace was adorned in January, 1885, with a number of pieces of bronze statuary by Barye, the distinguished French sculptor. These were the gifts of William T. Walters. June nth the fine bronze figure symbolizing Military Courage was erected, and August 12th the Gar- rett fountain was finished at Robert Garrett's expense, thus completing the scheme of improvement of the western square. The great bronze lion 266 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE t near the monument to Washington, imperturbable in the majesty of supe- rior might, has been much admired as suggesting the somber conception of the animal formed by primeval man. The art-treasures of the city were further increased by T. Harrison Garrett's purchase of the Qaghom col- lection of engravings. A bronze statue of J. L. Ridgeley, founder of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was unveiled, September 22, 1885, in Harlem Park. Baltimore's devotion to music found expression in its earliest days in the organization of musical societies and the support of schools for the cultivation of vocal and instrumental music. The development of the art in all its forms received a great impulse from the opening of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, with Asger Hamerick, an eminent composer, at its head. The public concerts given at the Peabody Institute were dironged,. and resulted in various outside enterprises. Among these was the organi- zation of the Baltimore Oratorio Society, whose first performance was. given December 17, 1885. An event of this year was the Kermess Enter- tainment, April 28, at the Academy of Music. By the Confederate Bazaar on the 7th of the same month a considerable sum was raised for a special charity. The new Home of the Aged, Baltimore and Payson streets, and the Hospital of the Good Samaritan, were dedicated in 1885, and the new Hotel Rennert was opened. Among events of municipal concern was the acquisition by the city of the Bolton Depot lot, destined to be the site of the Mt. Royal or uptown station of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad ; the creation of a tax commission to revise tax laws ; the opening of the new post-office building ; the inauguration of a line of steamships between Baltimore and Havre; the British steamer Barrowmor^s first use of the new cut-off channel; the beginning of special delivery mail service; the initiation of work on the Baltimore & Annapolis short line, and the acquisition by the Baltimore & Ohio railroad of terminal facilities on Staten Island, near New York City. The gift, Janu- ary 16, by Henry Shirk, of a $40,000 lot on St. Paul street for a Methodist Episcopal school for girls was a first step in the creation of Goucher Col- lege, the cornerstone of which was laid in the following year. Apathy characterized municipal politics in 1886, the year being an "off" year when congressmen were the most important officials to be voted for. In the Third District Harry W. Rusk, Democrat, was nominated to ccHnplete the unexpired term of William H. Cole, deceased, and also for the succeeding term. To oppose him the Industrial Labor Party nominated Henry A. Bosse, whom the Republicans endorsed. Mr. J. V. L. Findlay,. having declared protectionist views, was not renominated by the regulars of the Fourth District, but announced himself an Independent candidate and was endorsed by the Republican Convention. The regular Democratic nominee in the Fourth District was Isidor Rayner. A minority of the Republican convention in this district bolted and nominated J. Emory Weatherby as a straight-out candidate. The impatient feeling of the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 267 straight-outs was expressed by Mr. Weatherby in a public speech : "Every fall a certain element is dissatisfied with the Democratic party and asks Republicans for support, without compensation. Our party has come to be regarded as a sort of chattel mortgage, to be transferred at will for purification purposes." It was felt that the Independents should endorse Republican tickets. At the election, November 2, Mr. Rusk had 13,634 votes; Bosse 3,300; Glass, Prohibitionist, 1,726; Hartley, Republican, 202. Rayner had 14,750 votes, Findlay 7,226; Weatherby 1,569; Levering, Pro- hibitionist, 1,692; Sanks, negro Republican, 25. Of great interest to Baltimore was the elevation June 7, 1886, of Arch- bishop James Gibbons, of the Province of Baltimore, to the cardinalate, placing him at the head of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Cardinal Gibbons was the second American to become a member of the Sacred College, Cardinal McQoskey, Archbishop of New York, having been the first. The latter was made cardinal in March, 1875, and died October 10, 1885. His Eminence, James Car- dinal Gibbons, remained the only Cardinal in the United States till 191 1, when two other American archbishops were made cardinals. Bom in Balti- more, July 23, 1834, and made priest June 30, 1861, His Eminence, by his piety, good sense and genial character, became a great influence among his fellow citizens of every church. At the date of its inauguration, January 4, 1886, the Enoch Pratt Free Library had 20,000 volumes in the main building and 3,000 volumes in each of the four branches. Additional branches were opened from time to time. Their number in 191 1 was fifteen. The growing desire of labor to obtain recognition as a special interest was manifested forcibly in Baltimore in 1886 by frequent demonstrations. On April 14 there was a strike of employees of street-car lines, following the grant of a twelve-hour system on April 2. On the 29th of the same month a demonstration was made for an eight-hour system. A grest trades demonstration occurred August 18. Artisans' Day was celebrated, Sep- tember 7, by a parade of the labor organizations of Baltimore. On the 20th the Bricklayers' Union paraded. The earthquake of August 31, which destroyed much life and prop- erty at Charleston, South Carolina, was felt in Baltimore. When the extent of the fosses of the sister Southern city was known, sympathy was active and $90,000 was sent for the relief of the sufferers. Among municipal events of interest were the opening, April i, of the new Union Station ; ^* the beginning of a renumbering of the houses of the city on a new system ; the introduction of a new police system ; the completion of the Hospital for Women, Lafayette avenue and John street ; the opening of the Real Estate Exchange and the Crescent (political) Gub, and the beginning of the Physical Laboratory building of the Johns Hopkins University. October 5, 1886, was made memorable by the laying ^Replaced in 1911 by a larger one with greatly increased facilities. 268 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE of the cornerstone of the Woman's College," an institution which sounded a new note in the education of women, and has helped materially to give Baltimore its eminence as an educational centre. The Baltimore & Ohio railroad, August 30, consummated its long- opposed desire by opening its route, via the Reading and Jersey Central, to New York. Passenger trains on its Philadelphia division began to run regularly on September 3. The conflagrations in 1886 exceeded those of the preceding year in number and extent of loss and injury. The two fires of January were followed by the burning, February 26, of the Johnston building, 21 South Howard street, with a loss of $80,000. Other fires occurred in April. Vogeler's Drug Store, on South Liberty street, was burned on the 8th with a loss of $60,000, and 318 West Baltimore was burned, entailing a loss of $500,000. June had fire losses aggregating $138,000; August, $74,000; October, $7,000; November, $410,000, and December, $18,000. In the $300,000 fire, 92 Camden street, November 17, two firemen were killed and ten hurt. A fire causing falling walls on Fremont street injured six men. The voting in the Brown-Hodges campaign showed that not a few Republicans were unwilling longer to seek reform by endorsing the nomi- nees of the Independent Democrats. It was the tail wagging the dog, since the Republicans supplied over three-fourths of the fusionist votes. A straight-out Republican ticket was wanted, with aid from the Independ- ents. The Independents, accordingly, decided to endorse the Republican ticket in the 1887 campaign, provided the Republican candidates should be satisfactory. The proviso meant a good deal — that the Independents would try to make them satisfactory. The new departure did not mean therefore that the Independents were going over to the Republican party, but that they hoped in effect to control it. And they did in fact, it is stated, exert a decisive influence in the selection of the heads of the State and city tickets. The Democratic candidate for mayor was again Ferdinand C. Latrobe ; for governor, Elihu E. Jackson. They were denounced by the Reformers as Rasin's and Gorman's creatures. Politics in Maryland in 1887 had become largely a personal fight between Gorman and Cowen. Gorman, with his natural ability and all the resources of the Democratic organiza* tion, fought to retain his leadership. Cowen, equally a boss, though with a difference, had acquired a dominating power in both the Independent and the Republican organizations, swaying them by his resourcefulness, vigor and masterfulness in campaign after campaign. He had behind him also the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, whose purposes Mr. Gorman had opposed. His object was to crush Gorman and politics was an instrument ready to his hand. When the Republican State Convention met, Mr. Cowen with great '^ Since named after its former president and benefactor, Goucher College. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 269 dramatic effect entered the hall, along with Mr. William L. Marbury, and both made forcible anti-Rasin and anti-Gorman speeches, pledging them- selves and the rest of the Independents to support Walter B. Brodcs, the Republican nominee, for Governor, and the Republican candidate for mayor also, if some one like David L. Bartlett, or Alexander Shaw, were nomi- nated. The two speeches produced immense enthusiasm. Bartlett was named for mayor. For State's attorney, Gans, Independent, was endorsed, at the instance, it is said, of Mr. Cowen and Mr. Wallis. The campaign now became furious. The ferocity of epithet and denunciation was unpre- cedented. Democratic leaders and office-holders were declared thieves and scoundrels, and violence began to be apprehended. A new feature of the campaign was the Reform League's putting forward competitive civil service examinations as a specific means of reform. In the municipal election, October 26, Latrobe received 34,770 votes; Bartlett, 30,345. In the State election in November, Jackson's plurality over Brooks was 12,416. The financial difficulties of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, consequent largely upon the excessive^* cost of the Philadelphia Division, attracted much attention at this time. The company had to sell the Baltimore & Ohio telegraph system, the United States Express Company and the sleeping car service (1888). On October 12, Robert Garrett resigned the presi- dency, and, in December, Samuel Spencer was chosen to that office, to be succeeded, in December, 1888, by C. F. Mayer. In June certain election judges and clerks were sentenced by Judge Duffy ^to two years in jail for conspiracy to defraud. They were pardoned by Governor Jackson in the following March. Events of local interest, suggesting growth in facilities for trade, transportation, amusement, culture, and helping the afflicted were ae. fol- lows: in February the launching of a new dry dock at Canton, and the opening of the new station of the Maryland Central railroad on North ave- nue, near the bridge over Jones' Falls ; the opening of the Lycetun Theatre on North Charles street, near Biddle; the unveiling of Rinehart's statue of Chief Justice Taney — ^the gift of Mr. William T. Walters — on Washing- ton Place, near the Monument ; and the dedication of the Home for Incur- ables, Second street and Guilford avenue. The destruction of property by fires in 1887 was very great, suggest- ing the inefficiency of the means of fighting fire. There were three fires in January, causing injury to ten persons and aggregate loss of some $40,000 ; in February there were two large fires, the burning of the Darby Candy factory alone causing a loss of $150,000. June had a $10,000 fire, and the burning of a hominy mill on Buchanan's wharf in July meant a loss of $300,000. At the fire, August 4, at the corner of Ptatt and Charles, Captain Schulte was killed, and $500,000 of values were destroyed. The ^Immense sums had to be spent, it is said, in securing permission from the City Government to enter Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania fighting to make it costly. 270 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Hopkins Place fire of September 22 meant a $50,000 loss. The burning of the Calverton slaughter house in December cost $15,000. A long-desired extension of the limits of Baltimore was effected in 1888. An act of the General Assembly in that year authorized an extension two miles westward, two miles northward and one mile eastward, provided the people in the areas to be thus annexed to the city should separately vote in favor of it. On May 15 the people of the western and northern areas voted for annexation, but the people of the eastern area voted against it and the eastern area still remains part of Baltimore county. In this eastern area 317 persons voted "for" and 485 "against." In all three areas 2,826 voted "for" and 2446 "against"; 1,929 did not vote. Had all three voted as one whole, the majority in favor of annex- ing "the Belt" would have been 380. A large urban area immediately adjacent to the city and in reality part of it, is thus separated from it by an artificial line. Were it included in the city, the latter would in census reports obtain its proper rank among the great cities of the country. The annexation of the western and northern areas took effect June i, 1888. Two new wards were formed, the western area becoming Ward 21 and the northern area Ward 22, each with nine precincts. The popula- tion was increased by 35,980, making the total 416,805, distributed over 22 wards and 198 precincts. The annexed territory remained in the Second and Fifth Congressional Districts, but the Second and Third Leg- islative Districts of the city were enlarged. An effect of the perennial agitation of the Independent Democrats for reforms in Baltimore city was had this year in the enactment by the Gen- eral Assembly of statutes amending the existing registration and election laws. It was complained that the voting lists, owing to infrequent and defective revision, were padded with names of persons dead or removed, so that fraud by "repeaters," personating the dead and absent, was facili- tated. To meet this evil the new law required a new general registration in Baltimore *• every two years, beginning May, 1888, by precincts. Three registers of voters were authorized for each of the 198 precincts, two days to be given to their work in May, two in June, two in July, two in Sep- tember, and two in October. To insure fairness in elections, glass ballot boxes were required, and the minority party was given representation in the board of supervisors of election. It was given representation also in the groups of judges and clerks of election in every precinct of the city. Three supervisors, ap- pointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, were to appoint three registers, three judges of election and two clerks for each precinct, each supervisor having a veto upon proposed appointments. Another court, Circuit Court No. 2, was given to the city at this time. At this time also the mayor became ex-oMcio a member of the city boards. 19 The law did not require an entirely new registration in the counties, but a revision only every year in which there should be an election in the counties. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 271 The severest blizzard ever known in Maryland afflicted Baltimore on March 11 and 12, 1888. On the loth a cold wave extended from Louisi- ana to Lake Superior. This moved northeastward on the nth and seemed to disappear. A secondary disturbance, however, developed on the nth and moved eastward toward Cape Hatteras, where it turned northeastward along the coast. As the centre of the cyclone approached the coast it devel- oped great energy, causing destructive gales, with rains in Virginia and snow from Virginia northward, along with bitter cold. Heavy snow and violent winds prostrated telegraph lines, and railway ccxnmunication was interrupted on the 12th, 13th and 14th, from eastern Pennsylvania as far north as Boston. At Baltimore the storm was at its worst during the night of the nth and all day during the 12th, with the wind thirty-three miles an hour, and the tide low. The bottom of the harbor was exposed in many places, and the water did not rise to its normal height till the i6th. Teleg- raphic communication and railway travel northward were suspended. It was at this time that Boston had to send telegrams to New York by cable via England. The Hopkins Place fire of September 2, 1888, was one of the worst in the annals of the city up to this time, causing the death of seven men, the wounding of two, and a loss of $1,000,000 in the block bounded by Sharpe, Lombard, Hanover and Pratt streets. The fire began at 4 a. m. in the toy warehouse of E. A. Prior & Co., South Sharpe street. It was about to be got under control by 9 firemen on the third floor of an adjoining wholesale house, when a wall fell, burying the firemen in the ruins. But two of the nine men escaped, both much injured. Not till 10 a. m. was the fire subdued. Seven large business places and a number of smaller ones were destroyed. This was only one of many fires* In March, $43,000 was lost by a fire, Baltimore and Wolf streets ; $73,000 by the burning of Gunter's organ factory, and losses ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 were frequent. The candidates for the presidency in 1888 were Benjamin Harrison, Republican, and Grover Cleveland, Democrat. The issue was the tariff. In a ''presidential year" the Independent Democrats were indisposed to press the issue of municipal reform. Mr. William Pinkney Whyte, now again with the regular Democrats, described the situation in a speech at the Crescent Qub: "We are all now under the banner of Qeveland and Thurman. We have buried our political differences till after the election. When the battle is over we shall be free to attend to our affairs and see that power is equally divided, and that no clique, or combine, of a few men shall absorb the force of a whole community." Even Mr. Cowen was this year back in the Democratic ranks. On the part of the RepuUi- cans, the election of Harrison and Morton was urged in the interest of protection. Mr. Daniel L. Brinton, the Republican candidate in the Third Cong^ssional District, declared that ''the American people are unwilling to surrender the system of protection; the result of a blow struck at it 272 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE now will be to retard the development of the industries of the country." Mr. Henry Stockbridge Jr., the Republican candidate in the Fourth Dis- trict, held that the choice was now to be made ''between protection and free trade." A new feature in the politics of the State this year was a conven- tion at the Concordia Opera House in April of the ''State League" of Re- publican Clubs, to confer upon the formation of permanent political clubs. The action of the Independents in the previous year had given new hope of success. At the election, November 6, Qeveland had in Baltimore 44,604 votes ; Harrison 39,559; in the State Qeveland had 106,168 votes; Harrison 99,986. Harry W. Rusk won over Brinton by a majority of over 5,000. Stockbridge, however, beat Isidor Rayner by 80 votes, owing to the dis- affection of a Glassblowers' Union. Six days of September, 1889, ^^^^ given to the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the successful defense of Baltimore against the British, attacking by land and sea. The repulse of Gen. Ross, the British com- mander at North Point, was simulated September 12 by a sham battle at Pimlico. The famous fight was admirably arranged and well produced, in spite of unceasing rain and deep mud. United States troops and volunteer regiments from Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, cooperated with the Maryland commands to personate the various British and American units engaged. Gen. Ross, in a scarlet uniform, was a conspicuous figure. Leading the British advance, he drew the fire of the Americans in the preliminary skirmish in which he fell. After his death, manceuvring began on a large scale, with the result, of course, of a glorious victory for the home patriots. Friday night, September 13, was black and rainy, but over 100,000 people occupied positions from which the mimic bombardment of Fort McHenry might be seen. The water was alive with steamers, ships and small boats filled with eager spectators. The British fleet, represented by the United States warships, the Pensacola, the Ossipee, and the Yimtic and the monitor Passaic, kept up a furious bom- bardment for an hour with heavy guns, and the fort responded. The flash of big ordnance and the glare of rockets, roman candles and bengal fires to sc»ne degree lighted the darkness of the night. The great event of the celebration was the fine pageant of Baltimore industries of September 9, viewed by President Harrison and other eminent personages from a stand at the comer of Madison and Eutaw streets. The persistent demand of the Independent Democrats for reform caused good citizens to consider what reform means and whether it is wholly practicable in a lai^e city under a regime of universal suffrage. Baltimore's experience of misgovemment by ignorant men of low charac- ter was not exceptional. All the large cities of the United States have had the same, or worse, experience. It could not be denied, the pessimist would say, that the ward bosses, and even those higher up, were as a rule fairly representative of the mass of voters in intelligence and sympathies, if not HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 273 in character. Their strength lay in their close touch with the people. That the local ''mixer", popular in his precinct and ward, should after a time develop into a boss, was a natural evolution. There is no getting rid of his type without depriving the class which makes him of the ballot by a prop- erty qualification, or other impracticable means. The concentration of the control of the mass of voters and of the party organization in the hands of a few men of inferior intelligence and character, is no doubt a great evil. Such men will use their power for their own selfish purposes, with little regard for the taxpayer, or for the community whose interprises the taxpayer finances. But to vote one party out of power because of its bosses, only to bring into power another party equally boss-ridden and hungrier, was, by many, held to be no remedy. It was declared that the true remedy was to demand persistently of both the majority and the minor- ity party specific pledges of improved laws and ordinances which would better the municipal administration. This, in fact, is what the Independ- ents did. A stunmary of recent progressive laws is a summary of the benefits conferred on Baltimore by the Independent movement. Among the business men of Baltimore in the summer of 1889 the view prevailed that both the lawyers and the practical politicians were at fault in their views as to the management of the city's affairs, and that true reform consisted in selecting a successful business man for mayor. A municipal corporation should be operated like other business corpora- tions, and what the city wanted was a man accustomed to directing large business enterprises. In this view the Business Men's Democratic Asso- ciation, with Mr. Rasin's approval, nominated Robert C. Davidson, a busi- ness man of large experience. The-iHily State official to be chosen in 1889 was the comptroller, for which office the Democrats in September nomi- nated Victor Baughman. A "Committee of One Hundred," consisting of Independent Demo- crats and Republicans, at once became active. Led still by John K. Cowen and S. Teackle Wallis, they nominated for Baltimore a municipal ticket which the Republican Gty Convention that evening ratified. In the excit- ing campaign that followed, vituperation was carried to g^eat lengths. Gorman replied to his chief assailant by calling him "the man from Ohio," and mentioning railroad reasons for his political activity. Cowen fought back with letters in the newspapers, and hot shots were exchanged. Variety was supplied by the indefatigable Cowen when at a big reform meeting at the Concordia he put on the stage "Bill" Harig and "Charley" Goodman to tell how Gorman and Rasin instructed them to commit election frauds. The Democrats countered by alleging that Cowen had had these worthies with him two hours at the Baltimore & Ohio Building rehearsing for this spectacular performance. The fusionist campaign was this year managed by S. Davies Warfield, son of the Independent candidate for mayor in 1875. At the election, November 5, Davidson polled 41,096 votes; Shaw, the Republican ncxninee, 38,066 votes. In the State election, Baughman had 274 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE in the city 41^93 votes; Wellington, the Republican nominee, 37,790. In the State Baughman had 103,900 votes ; Wellington 96,527, The cessation of dividends from the Baltimore & Ohio stock which constituted the bulk of its endowment*® plunged the Johns Hc^kins Uni- versity in 1889 into serious financial difficulties from which it was for a time rescued by means of an emergency fund of $108,700 contributed by citizens of Baltimore. The institution received also an endowment for the Bruce Fellowship yielding $500 a year, a gift of $20,000 from Eugene Levering for the construction of a Y. M. C. A. building ; $20,000 to endow the Tumbull chair of poetry, and $100,000 from Mrs. Caroline Donovan. In addition, Mr. John W. McCoy gave his library of 8,000 volumes and made the University his residuary legatee. From the proceeds of this legacy McCoy Hall was built. On May 7, 1889, the Johns Hopkins Hospital was opened, with build- ings and equipment of unequaled excellence. Ladies of Baltimore initiated a movement, soon after the opening of the hospital, to establish a medical school to which women should be admitted, and they raised over $100,000 for this purpose. The trustees accepted the fund with the understanding that the medical school should be founded when the fund should be in- creased to $500,000.*^ The University added something, but in December, 1892, Miss Mary Garrett raised the fund to the required $500,000, herself giving over three-fifths of the sum still lacking. The closing of Bamum's Hotel, April 4, was an event much regretted. The place had been the scene of many important occurrences, and was dear to thousands of patrons. A largely attended memorial meeting, on the occasion of the death of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, ex-President of the Southern Confederacy, was addressed by Mayor Davidson. Minor events were the opening of the Baltimore & Sparrows Point railroad; of the Kelso Home, St. Paul and Ninth streets, and an Asylum for the Feeble Minded. On November 10^12, 1889, at the Cathedral, there was a celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States and of the appointment of Bishop John Carroll to the see of Baltimore. Continuity is a characteristic of Baltimore's civic life. The city has never broken with its past. Though ready to welcome useful changes and make experiments, it is conservative, and prefers to progress with delib- eration rather than to take sudden leaps. Its people have been remarkable for initiative, having been leaders in the building of railways, in the intro- duction of the telegraph, in the use of steam for transatlantic transporta- ^ The loss on the 6. & O. stock was $1^1,202. "The Medical School opened, Oct., 1893, with 3 women and 13 men students, and soon took rank with the best medical schools of the world. A training-school for nurses was opened October 9, 1889. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 275 tion, in electric traction, and in the production of the linotype machin< momentous innovations which have profoundly modified modem life. They have been the first in many lines of optimistic enterprise. But they have been bold without being rash. And the same conservatism they employ in banking and in manufacturing industry, they apply also in politics and leg- . islation. They have not moved fast enough, perhaps, to satisfy the enthu- siastic reformer, who wishes to effect a revolution in a day, but every decade shows solid progress. Baltimore has been continuously prosper- ous ever since the Civil War. Some years have been better than others, but every year has brought improvement. The city has an enduring vigor which insures its future. This is shown in the expansion of its area, the finer character of its structures, the multiplication of lines of transporta- tion, the development of great terminals, the increase of manufacturing plants, the growth of great wholesale houses, the larger influx of buyers and enhanced facilities for financing business undertakings. This is the material side of the city's prosperity. But like progress was made in the intellectual and social life of the people. Educational facilities were so greatly developed that Baltimore has taken rank with the best educational centres of the United States. Its universities, colleges, medical and other professional schools, hospitals, charitable institutions, theatres, musical schools and art collections, have advanced with its wealth and conunercial importance. The standard of living has been raised, but also the average of culture. The Independent movement, which had its inception in the Potato Bug campaign of 1875, has been given much attention in this history of Balti- more, because it was a great factor in the development of the city's civic consciousness. Its activities have been traced year by year, because in its successive and changing phases the movement hastened the political edu- cation of the community, clearing away prejudices and directing the public mind to the study of the principles that underlie successful municipal administration. The Reformers did not accomplish their immediate object — ^the abolition of bosses— but the impetus they gave to legislative reforms was invaluable. The agitation favoring ballot reform resulted in 1890 in the enactment by the State legislature of a modified form of the Australian ballot law, and laws prescribing better methods of registration. The two chief objects of the Australian law are to secure the secrecy of the ballot, thus safe- guarding the voter from bribery or intimidation, and to supply the voter at the public expense with an official ballot, furnished at the time and place of voting, containing an accurately stated list of the names of all candi- dates. These objects are accomplished by means of polling booths, with desks and curtains, which conceal the voter from observation while mark- ing his ballot. Being given a ballot by an official, with a pencil provided for the purpose the voter makes a cross-mark in a square opposite the name of the nominee voted for. From its size the ballot has been called 276 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the ''blanket ballot." It is given to the intending voter suitably numbered and folded, and must be returned for deposit in the glass ballot box folded in the original creases. To prevent the voter's giving a briber assurance of having voted as he was paid to vote, special modes of marking are for- bidden. The mark must be a simple cross-mark made wholly within the square. At first the Australian system was applied only to Baltimore city, and fourteen counties — Baltimore county, Caroline, Carroll, Dorchester, Garrett, Harford, Kent, Montgomery and Talbot being exempted; later (1892) it was applied to these counties also. The tabulation of election returns in Baltimore was transferred from the return judges to the three supervisors of elections. The first general trial of the new system was in the election of November 4, 1890. The Democrats still won. The most striking effect was the loss of votes due to mistakes ^^ in marking ballots. The registration act of 1888 was in 1890 amended so as to omit May, June and July sittings of registers and required annual registration and an entirely new registration every two years in Baltimore, beginning with 1890. Rasters were to sit five successive days in September and three successive days in October. Original registries were to be used at the polls, not poll-books as formerly. The same legislature altered the bounds of wards 9, 11, 12 and 20, and of the congressional districts of the State. It also transferred the issue of Baltimore liquor licenses to three commis- sioners and gave the city three-fourths of the revenue from this source.** Politics was dull in Baltimore in 1890, owing partly to its being an "oflF" year — only Congressmen and members of the city council were to be chosen — and partly to factional strife in the Republican party. The Independent Democrats were inactive, and the regular Democrats won at all points. Harry Welles Rusk, Democrat, won over Royal H. Pullman, Republican, in the Third Congressional District by a large majority, and in the Fourth District Isidor Rayner, Democrat, regained his seat in Con- gress by a heavy majority over Henry. H. Goldsborough, his Republican competitor. Sunday, April 2rjy 1890, is notable in Baltimore's annals for a remark- ably fierce and destructive hailstorm from the northwest, which visited the city at 345 p. m., producing panic and large losses. Hardly a house escaped injury from the heavy stones propelled at a speed of forty miles an hour. The Weather Bureau measured a stone which was two and one- eighth inches in diameter, and three weighed at the office of The Sun "In 1903 the rejected ballots were 8.2 per cent; in 1907, 7^ per cent; in 191 1, 7.9 per cent. In 191 1 the rejections were thought to have caused the Democratic Gubernatorial candidate's defeat, voters having mistakenly marked more squares than there were regular candidates for certain offices. " The number of licenses in 1889 was about 3040, producing $395,000 of revenue ; 1902 there was 2153; in 1910, 1415. The high license law of 1908 caused a great re- duction in the number of licenses, at the same time increasing the city's revenue in 1910 from this source. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 277 averaged one-fourth of a pound. Windows were beaten in, and a deluge of rain, which accompanied the hail, flooded many dwellings. A lamentable disaster occurred at 8 p. m., July 28, 1890, when in the P^tapsco river, below Fort Carroll, the steamer Virginia, of the Old Bay Line, collided with the steamer Louise, returning from Tolchester with 1,500 excursionists aboard. The prow of the Virginia cut into the Louise abaft the wheelhouse, where many persons were crowded in the dining room, killing Ave, wounding others, and causing ten persons to drown. The city in 1890 sold its stock ** in the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and ceased to have directors in its management. At this time the Baltimore & Ohio railroad began the construction of its Belt Line Tunnel under How- ard street, to connect Camden Station with Bayview, the southern ter- minus of the Philadelphia Division. The Baltimore & Eastern Shore rail- road opened its line from Ocean City to Bay Ridge. The Peabody Institute began its new music school, and at Mr. Robert Garrett's expense a bronze statue of George Peabody was placed in Wash- ington Place, in front of the Institute. This concurred in date with the opening of the Garrett Hospital for Children, at 27 North Carey street. Destructive fires marked 1890, among them the burning of the Masonic Temple (loss $150,000), Griffin Manion's stable (loss $210,000), Schneider & Fuchs' shops (loss $30,000) and Grain Elevator No. 3, Canton, where a British ship was also burned, causing the death of two sailors. The first Bessemer steel ever produced in Maryland was blown August I at the Maryland Steel Company's works on Sparrow's Point. With this began the practical operation of one of the largest and most complete steel-rail plants in the world. The capacity of the plant was over 600,000 tons a year. The Steel Company has continued to operate its plant with success, using largely imported ores, to the great advantage of the port of Baltimore. A considerable town has grown up about the steel plant and about the shipyard which has been added. Steel vessels and dry docks of large dimensions are constructed. Few enterprises in the vicinity of Baltimore have so much contributed to its prosperity. Another enterprise of importance to the import and export trade of the city, from which much was expected, was the Baltimore sugar refinery, which began operations February 12, 1891. Vessels bringing sugar from abroad could carry back Baltimore products, Hour, &c., more cheaply than they could with cargo only one way. But the refining business has not been able to maintain itself in Baltimore, rival interests by purchase,*' or otherwise, diverting it to other ports. Impatient of the continuance of telegraph poles in the streets, and ** Taken to help forward the completion of the B. & O. R. R. to the Ohio. The city retained its interest in the Valley Railroad, the Northern Central and the Western R. R. From the last-mentioned it profited largely in 1903. "The 1891 Refinery was bought by the Sugar Trust, closed and ultimately de- stroyed by fire. 278 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE wishing all wires removed, the Baltimore public did not take kindly at first to the prc^osal to stretch trolley wires along the streets for electric traction. They wished the wires underground. To meet the objection to overhead wires, the urban street-car companies of Baltimore, desiring rapid transit, undertook the use of wire cables in conduits between the car tracks, and on May 23, 1891, one of the cable lines (Druid Hill avenue) began running on schedule time. A grip passed down from the car through a grooved rail between the tracks to the swiftly-running underground cable, and thus gave motion to the car. The cable system was very expensive and not wholly satisfactory, and after a few years the people — ^pleased with the result of electric traction on North avenue (1890) and on suburban lines — ^acquiesced in the use of the overhead trolley in the principal streets. The cable conduits were torn up and electric traction was installed, but not without having loaded the chief urban car companies with a heavy finan- cial burden which would have been escaped if the overhead trolley had been accepted when first proposed. Among the minor events of 1891 was the Peabody Institute's accept- ance of $go,ooo left to it by the sculptor Rinehart for the promotion of art. This fund, having been discreetly nursed, amounts at present to over $200,000. The fine Odd Fellows' Hall on Saratoga and Cathedral streets was bq^n this year, to serve as headquarters for the entire Odd Fellows' fraternity. The Mercantile Library opened for the first time on Sunday. A fire at 118 North Paca street caused a loss of $70,000, and the burning of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway's Elevator A at Locust Point entailed a loss of $300,000. An event which attracted much attention was the reception tendered ft to Senator Gorman, May 14, 1891, at the Fifth Regiment Armory, by grateful citizens of Maryland, in recognition of his great services to the South in the Senate in effecting the defeat of a Federal election bill, com- monly called the Force Bill. This bill proposed to place elections in the South under the control of armed Federal deputies, on the ground that negroes were deterred from voting by intimidation. Senator Gorman was applauded enthusiastically for his success in staving off the enactment of the proposed law." At the reception in the Fifth Regiment Armory, Mayor Davidson, acting for the Senator's admirers, presented him a handsome testimonial, this being a full dinner service of solid silver, weighing one thousand ounces, suitably inscribed and decorated with illustrations of the various products of Maryland. While the political campaign was warm in 1891, it lacked the vigor of former years, as respects the mayoralty, owing to the fact that Mr. Cbwen and the Baltimore & Ohio railway had made peace with Mr. Gor- man, and Cowen's clarion voice was no longer heard in denunciation of the ring. The Democratic city convention nominated Ferdinand C. Latrobe for mayor, and for State's attorney Charles G. Kerr — ^both organization men. Their names were a challenge to the Reformers. The response HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 279 was made by the Citizens' Alliance, an Independent Democratic organiza- tion, which ncxninated for mayor Mr. S. Davies Warfield, son of Henry M. Warfield, who was the Reform candidate for mayor in 1875. With him on the Reform ticket was Mr. William L. Marbury for State's attor- ney. This ticket was endorsed by the Tax-Payers' Union, an anti-Rasin organization, and also by the Republican City Convention, which supple- mented it with nominations for sheriff, etc. Interest in the municipal fight was quickened by the circtunstance that Frank Brown, of Baltimore, had forced the city and State bosses to nomi- nate him for Governor. In his character as "farmer" and good fellow, Brown was popular, as well as capable. With him in his campaigning all over the city and State went Thomas F. McNulty, singing "Farmer Brown" songs, to the great delight of rural voters. To oppose Brown the Repub- lican convention nominated William J. Vannort. At the city election Latrobe had 40,049 votes; Warfield, 31,185. Kerr's majority was larger than Latrobe's. In the State election Brown received in the city 44,107 votes; Vannort, 26,570. In the State, Brown's plurality was over 30,000. Baltimore's era of great develc^ment of rapid transit facilities is embraced in the period of 1890-93. It has been noted that Baltimore led the United States in electric traction in 1885 ^y operating an electric railway for several years between the city and Hampden, a village two miles dis- tant. Five years later, August 16, 1890, the North Avenue Electric rail- way began running. In 1892 and 1893 some of the principal streets were equipped for cable traction, and the Gilmore Street cable line began run- ning August 30, 1832; the "Blue" line, May 22, 1893; the "Red" Line, July 23, 1893 ; the "White" Line, August 20, 1893. But this use of cables, instead of electricity, was a costly mistake, especially in view of the fact that rival lines were at the same time demonstrating the superiority of the cheaper electric system. The dates at which the electric lines of this period b^^an running are as follows: May 28, 1892, the Baltimore and Curtis Bay Electric Railway ; July 25, 1892, the Pikesville Electric Line ; September 17, 1892, the Central Passenger Electric Line; April 23, 1893, the Lake Roland Elevated Electric Line irom North avenue; April 26, 1893, the York Road Electric Line; May 6, 1893, Lake Roland Elevated Electric Line to City Hall, with Walbrodc division; May 15, 1893, Carey Street Electric Line; May 22, 1893, North Avenue Electric Line, City and Sub- urban; July 23, 1893, South Baltimore part Carey Street Electric Line; July 30, 1893, Wilkens Avenue Electric Line, City and Suburban; August 6, 1893, Highlandtown Electric Line of City and Suburban; September 3, 1893, Maryland Avenue Electric Line of City and Suburban; September 20, 1893; Linden Avenue Electric Line; October 4, 1893, John Street Electric Line of City and Suburban. Following the era of rapid transit, a great development of suburban real estate took place, and the beautiful country north, east and west of Baltimore began to be improved at a speedier rate with handsome resi- 28o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE dences. Suburban towns felt a new impulse. Rapid transit may be said, in fact, to have created Roland Park, and other like rural communities the development of which was controlled chiefly by well-to-do Baltimore business men, and to have recreated older places like Mt. Washington, Catonsville and Towson. Prices of land in areas within fifteen miles of the city were advanced several hundred per cent. The city was in 1892 awake to the importance of improvements called for by its growth and by the increasing sense of public comfort and convenience. At the Novem- ber 8 election the people voted for a $6,000,000 loan, to be thus S4>plied : for a new court house, $1,750,000; paving, $1,600,000; sewers, $1,000,000; bridges, $600,000; schools, $400,000; street improvements, $300,000; con- duits for electric wiring, $225,000; topc^aphical survey, $125,000. Elec- tric lights were ordered for Druid Hill Park. The ship channel to the deep water of the Bay was made 600 feet wide and 27 feet deep. New buildings were erected to the number of 2,157. The foundations of McCoy Hall were laid. Levering Hall having been moved bodily 130 feet to a new site. In 1892, Mr. Alcaeus Hooper added $200,000 to the funds of the Woman's College, of which Dr. Goucher had been elected president in May, 1890. This year the Woman's College for the first time conferred the degree of Bachelor of Arts on its graduates. Druid Hill Park was adorned in March with the fine marble statue of Washington, which had formerly been at Noah Walker's establishment on Baltimore street. In the same month Mr. W. W. Spence presented the city with the colossal bronze statue of Wallace, which overlooks Druid Hill Lake, a replica of the statue on Abbey Craig, near Stirling, Scotland. On October 12 a marble statue of Christopher Columbus, presented by the Italians resident in Baltimore, was unveiled in the park near the Lake, in celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America. A sham bombardment of Fort McHenry, September 17, 1^ the Philadel- phia, the Dolphin and the Vesuvius resulted unhappily in the injuries to four men by an explosion on the Philadelphia, In the following month Mr. Enoch Pratt deeded the old Maryland Club property, corner Franklin and Cathedral streets, to the Maryland Academy of Sciences. At a fire in cotton warehouses on Brown's wharf, one man was killed and five were injured ; the property loss was $500,000. In the presidential election of 1892, Grover Cleveland, Democrat, was opposed by Benjamin Harrison, Republican. ''The two g^eat issues," said Mr. John P. Poe, Democrat, in a campaign speech, "are Federal taxation and the Force Bill." Mr. Isidor Rayner, again candidate for congress in the Fourth District, held that there should be low duties on necessaries of life and high duties on luxuries. "The Force Bill," he said, *'is not a dead issue. It lives and means that local governments in the South shall be overthrown." The Republican speakers were for "protection, a free ballot and a fair count." At the election, November 8, Geveland received in Baltimore 51,098 votes; in the State, 113,866. Harrison had in the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 281 city 36492 votes; in the State, 92,736. These figures are useful as indi- cating the real party affiliations of the voters of a city and State, which were obscured in "oS" years when the Independents were active. In the Third Congressional District, Harry Welles Rusk, Democrat, had 19,806 votes; Herzog, Republican, 13,679. In the Fourth District, Rayner had 21455 votes, A. Worth Spates, Republican, 14,646. The General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church met at Emmanuel Church, October 5, 1892, and continued in session until the 26th. The. work of revising the Book of Common Prayer was completed October 11, and on the 17th a new H3rmnal was adopted. The period between January 16 and January 25, 1893, is famous in Baltimore's weather annals for the sustained low temperature and the freezing of waters seldom covered with ice. The cold spell in Baltimore was the longest on record, and great suffering ensued. The Patapsco was closed by an ice-blockade. John Wiley skated from Baltimore to Annapolis and back. Two men walked on the ice from Milton, Dorchester county, Maryland, to Baltimore. A party of men walked on the ice from Crisfield, Maryland, to Foxe's Island, and several parties walked across Tangier Sound to Smith's Island. The Chincoteague Islanders were cut off from the outside world, and no light shone from the Shark-Fin lighthouse for a week, not till the 23d could five delayed ocean steamships break a way to port. As much as $50,000 was voted by the city council to clear ice and snow from the principal thoroughfares, the c<Hnmissioner of street clean- ii^ on the 26th putting 450 extra men on the job. On the 17th of January, 1893, the workers in the Belt Line tunnel under Howard street met, and the early completion of this important con- nection of the Baltimore & CMiio was in sight. Among evidences of prog- ress in 1893 were, the laying of the cornerstone of the Lyric Theatre on Mount Royal avenue ; the beginning of the Johns Hopkins Medical School ; the completion of the Guilford Reservoir; the dedication of a wing of St. Agnes' Sanatorium; the opening of the Y. W. C. A. at the comer of Franklin Street and Park avenue; the housing of the Woman's Medical College at the comer of McCulIoh and Hoffman streets, and the voting by the city council of a new City College building. The export grain trade was large, one vessel taking out 163,000 bushels of wheat. The Johns Hopkins University this year for the first time conferred the degree of Ph. D. on a woman. In May, 1893, ^ commission was appointed to plan a sewerage system for the city. The need of better methods of disposing of surface water and domestic slops was perceived by the more intelligent. Surface drain- age had always been relied upon to carry off rain water, with the result that Jones' Falls and the harbor were continually needing to be dredged at great expense. The sewage of the residences and business places was for the most part conveyed in pipes to cesspools in backyards. When domestic sewage was carried in pipes to city sewers, it found its way ultimately 282 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE • vinto Jones' Falls, the Basin and outer harbor, rendering the^e waters filthy, malodorous, and in summer often unendurable. The commission now appointed made a useful report, but the cost of carrying its plan into execution seemed prohibitory, and nothing was done till the larger spirit evdced by the crisis of the great conflagration of 1904 nerved the com- munity to undertake a sewerage system of unprecedented extent, at a cost nearly double that of the system proposed by the commission of 1893. Among the disasters of the year was the burning of the Curtis Bay Sugar Refinery (loss over $1,000,000), the burning of a warehouse, 32 West Baltimore street (loss $87,000) and the fire December 2, 1893, at the Heiser Building, 34 South Paca street, which destroyed over $360,000 worth of property. A constitutional amendment adopted at the election, November 7, 1893, empowered the legislature to give the city authority to elect an additional judge of the Supreme Bench. The agreement by which Mr. Gorman ceased to be the target of Mr. Cowen's criticism did not include Mr. Rasin, the city boss, and the latter grew tired of the bitter epithets applied to him year after year. He accord- ingly undertook in 1893 to silence abuse by taking most of his candidates from the ranks of the Reformers. He had William Cabell Bruce nomi- nated for the Senate; Archibald H. Taylor, Thos. S. Baer, J. Hemsley Johnson, C. H. Carter, C. W. Field and Jas. H. Preston for the House of Delegates, Albert Ritchie and Pere L. Wickes for the Supreme Bench. The Independents were amazed and pleased, though they perceived that F. C. Latrobe was on the list for mayor, and others less acceptable for other places. But the ticket as a whole was so good that leading Independ- ents in large numbers supported it. Men who had been calling each other ugly names for years sunk their differences and made speeches from the same platform. For State comptroller, Marion De Kalb Smith was the Democratic nominee. The Republican nominee for mayor was William T. Malster; for comptroller, Perkins. Latrobe defended his frequent candi- dacies. '1 am not," he said during the campaign, "the only mayor who has been elected six times. Mayor Doyl, of Providence, Rhode Island, has had sixteen consecutive terms." At the election, November 7, Latrobe had 38423 votes; Malster, 31,627. At the State election the same day, Smith received in Baltimore 40,753 votes; Perkins, 30,229. In the State, Smith had 98,806; Perkins, 79,954. The dty council and the legislature were overwhelmingly Democratic. The elections of 1894 were for offices of minor importance, but they were contested with vigor, and had results which were very encouraging to the Republican party. Tariff reform had recently been virtually de- feated at Washington, largely by Senator Gorman, the Democratic State boss, and Democratic voters were thoroughly disgusted. Reduction of the tariff tax was the one issue upon which the party in Maryland was fairly united, and when its leader insisted upon converting the Wilson bill. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 283 passed by the House, February i, 1894, into a protectionist measure by mak- ing 632 amendments to it, dismay, suspicion and indignation were felt in every quarter. The effect was seen in the municipal elections of 1894, and more fully in those of the following year. The party deemed itself be- trayed. Party sentiment was expressed plainly at a mass-meeting held May 7, by "Maryland Democrats," at the Lyceum Theatre, Baltimore, to protest against the failure of the Senate to act favorably at once on the tariff bill as it was when passed by the House. But Senator Gorman, for reasons of his own, ignored such protests, as he had ignored the significance of the organization, April 2, in Baltimore, of the Citizens' Reform Association.'* which captured many seats in the city council in the fall campaign. In the election, November 6, 1894, Charles G. Kerr, the Democratic nominee for Judge of the Supreme Bench of the City, was defeated by John J. Dobler, Republican, the vote being 39,983 for the former, and 43,542 for the latter. An even more disquieting event, in the view of prudent Demo- crats, was the capture by the Republicans of the First Branch of the city council, a thing which had not occurred before in twenty-five years. In the Congressional elections the issue was the tariff, "with the ques- tion of State Rights, the Force Bill and the Silver question out of the way," said Mr. Skipwith Wilmer, in a campaign speech, "the only remaining question of moment is that of taxation — ^the tariff." Mr. John K. Cowen was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Fourth District, hav- ing been nominated by Mr. Rasin, it is said, at President Cleveland's re- quest. In a public address Mr. Cowen said: "My Republican friends af- firm that I am inimical to American industries — ^that I am a free trader. I do not deny that I am a free trader. They say this means industrial ruin. I take issue with that statement. Free trade is a developer of indus- tries." Some comment was made upon Mr. Cowen's becoming a "regular." "He has been known," said Mr. George R. Gaither, Republican, "for his tremendous attacks upon the ring of this city, and for his efforts through many years to accomplish its overthrow. Yet we find him suddenly accept- ing a nomination at the hands of the very men he has so villified." At the Congressional election, Mr. Cowen received 17,184 votes ; Mr. Robert H. Smith, Republican, 16,178 votes. In the Third District, Harry Welles Rusk, Democrat, had 16,228 votes; William S. Booze, Republican, The soft-coal strike, ordered April 11, 1894, by the president of the United Mine Workers of America, extended in June to Allegany county, Maryland. The miners of this region were indisposed to strike but were intimidated by emissaries of the strike leaders who used violence to compel cooperation in their movement. County officials having found themselves "Severn Teackle Wallis, the iniator and leader of the Reform movement for twenty years, died April 11, 1894, and was succeeded in the presidency of the Reform League, May 17, by Joseph Packard Jr. A bronze statue of Mr. Wallis, erected 1903, adorns Washington Place, near the Monument to George Washington. 284 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE unable to cope with the rioters, Governor Frank Brown called upon the Fourth Regiment and Fifth Regiment, of Baltimore, to proceed at once to Frostburg, the centre of the disturbance, under command of Gen. H. Kyd Douglas. Col. Howard, of the Fourth and Col. Boykin, of the Fifth, had their regiments ready to go within four hours, and their presence at Frostburg till June 22 restored order. The Maryland Naval Militia, or Naval Reserve, organized in Balti- more, April, 1894, became, under Commander Isaac E. Emerson, an eifr- cient body which served with distinction in the war with Spain. The object of the organization was to discipline a body of volunteers as ma- rines for service at sea in an emergency, just as the National Guard is available for service ashore. The Naval Militia was to have the same relation to the United States navy that the National Guard has to the United States army. The Naval Militia was, however, subject to the command of the adjutant general of Maryland. The command was in two divisions, aggregating 150 men, and was encouraged by the Washington government with the loan of a ship for practice in drill and service afloat. The loan of $6,000,000 voted in 1892 for public improvements was sup- plemented in 1894 by a loan of $4,000,000 for water works extension, $1,000,000 for Clifton and other parks and $1,000,000 additional for the Court House. The period of 1891-95 was marked by the construction of five fine Hebrew temples, or synagogues, erected in the northwestern por- tion of the city. The Hebrews had become a large element of the city's population, prominent in business, in the professions, and in politics, and desired places of worship worthy of their position in the city. On Sep- tember 25, 1891, was dedicated a handsome temple of granite and sand- stone at the comer of Madison avenue and Robert street — ^a building of massive and striking proportions. A year later, September 8, Olub Shalom Synagogue, at the comer of Eutaw Place and Lanvale street, was dedi- cated. This is a beautiful marble temple of Oriental architecture, and an ornament to the city. On September 28, 1894, Har Sinai Temple, Bolton and Wilson streets, was dedicated. Of Romanesque design, less ornate than the buildings just mentioned, it obtains its fine effect by simplicity and dignity. Cbnstmcted of granite, with a wide portico sustained by three massive Doric columns, the temple ranks in beauty and effectiveness with the finest stmctures of the city. Chizuk Amuna Temple, Mosher and McCul- loh streets, the erection of which was begun June 10, 1895, is of the re- naissance style of architecture. It is of roughly dressed granite, and both in exterior and interior finish, as well as general effect, is an admirable stmcture. Till 1882 the fare on Baltimore's street cars was six cents. In that year, in consequence of the reduction of the parte tax on the car companies' gross receipts from twelve to nine cents, the fare was reduced to five cents. On May 31, 1894, the Baltimore Traction Company of its own motion announced Ae granting of free transfers, which had the practical HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 285 effect of reducing the average car fare to 346 cents. In 1909 the 401 ^^ miles of electric street railway had 210 transfer points, and 1,829 direc- tion privileges, so that 57,030,556 persons, or 40 per cent, of the paying passengers, used the transfer privilege. Deducting park tax, the traction company netted receipts of 3.15 cents per passenger. The Topographical survey of Baltimore provided for by the loan voted in 1892, and made in 1893-4, showed an area of 32.21 ^^ square miles including the annex and water areas, or 29.54 excluding water area. The area of the annex was about 17 square miles, or over half of the city. A topographical map was made showing in great detail on sheets 27^ by 27^ inches (drawn to a scale of 200 feet to the inch) all cultivated and wooded areas, contours, streams, buildings, fences, roads, streets, alleys, railroads, parks, &c., and, as far as possiUe, names of owners. It showed also outlines of lots, location of sewers, water mains, fire plugs and character of pavements. The Belt Line tunnel of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad was opened for traffic February i, 1895. The line of which it is part is seven miles long, extending from Camden Station to Bayview JuncticHi. The tunneU from Camden to Mt. Royal Station is one and one-half miles long, or, including open cuts at Camden Station and Mt. Royal Station, nearly two miles long. It passes under a busy part of the city, and at the inter- section of Howard and Lexington streets is but a few feet from the surface. Shafts were sunk, during construction, at various points along the eastern side of Howard street, headings being driven north and south from these points. The first loaded freight train went through January 30, 1895, testing the way. The cost of the seven miles was $7,000,000. To prevent smoke from locomotives fouling the air of the tunnel, three electric locomotives were ordered from the General Electric Ccwnpany, to draw trains through. The first of these was put in service August 4, 1895, being the first ever used to propel trains on steam railways. It gave a draw bar pull of 60,000 pounds, and drew through the tunnel 44 loaded cars and three steam locomotives at a speed of twelve miles an hour. The "February Freeze" of 1895 recalled the severity of the blizzard of 1888, and nearly equaled that of 1893. On February 7 a furious snow- storm, with extremely low temperature, fell upon the city, and till the 21st navigation was hardly practicable. The harbor of Baltimore was frozen fr(»n shore to shore. All the rivers of Maryland were frozen over. Tan- gier and Pocomoke Sounds were closed, as also Sinepuxent Bay and East- em Bay. Snow drifts were extraordinary, reaching in Kent county a height of twenty feet. In Anne Arundel county, John Chew was lost in "The mileage in 1894 was 214 miles, of which 173 were "rapid transit," or op- erated by means of electricity. The car-fender requirement took effect Jan. 7, 1895. "Area prior to Annexation Act, i888^ 13. 202 square miles; area of annex 16.939 square miles; harbor area 1.507 square miles; total 31.648 square miles. The finding of total area is later than that of 1893-4. 286 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE one, and not found for three weeks. People walked across Cedar Straits. Oyster dredging ceased, vessels being fast in the ice. Persons were frozen to death when long exposed in the open. A panic at the Front Street Theatre, December 2j, 1895, produced deplorable results. As the curtain was rung up in the play "Alexander, the Crown Prince of Jerusalem," some one cried "firel" at sight of a small flame from a leaky gas pipe, and scmie one else turned off the gas from part of the building. A stampede ensued, everybody rushing in alarm for the exits, with the effect that 23 persons were killed and 28 injured. No- body was to blame, according to the finding of the Coroner's jury, "except the audience itself," which consisted of 2700 persons, mostly Russian and Polish Hebrews. The leaking gas might have burned for an indefinite time without doing any harm. The cry, the sudden darkness, and the mad struggle for exit, produced the catastrophe. ' Notable fires in 1895 occurred in Joshua Homer's fertilizer factory (loss $100,000), and Acme Hall Qothing House (loss $250,000). In June thirty-eight buildings were damaged by fire in the block bounded by Monument, Forrest, Front and Constitution streets. The year 1895 is memorable in the political annals of Baltimore and Maryland for the disasters it brought upon the Democratic party. . In this year the Independent Democrats, in alliance with the Republicans, suc- ceeded after twenty years of effort in ousting the regular Democracy from power and placing the Republican party, for the first time since 1866, in complete control of both city and State. Gorman and Rasin were beaten and deprived for four years of the spoils of office, the distribution of which is the source of all bosses' power. The Democratic defeat was not due, however, exclusively, or chiefly, to the crusade so long made against the boss system by the Independent Democrats, nor to the desire of voters for improved municipal administration. Various factors operated. Among these may be mentioned the nomination for Governor of the choice of the organization under especially exasperating circumstances of boss dictation and Senator Gorman's action in previously defeating the Railroad Pooling Bill in which the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and Mr. John K. Cowen were interested. But the chief and decisive cause of Democratic defeat in the city and State in 1895 was Senator Gorman's conduct the year before in the United States Senate, when, abandoning Democratic principles and platform pledges, he converted the Wilson tariff-reduction bill into a pro- tectionist measure. This his party could not tolerate. As Boss he could be endured, provided he led to the triumph of the traditional tenets of the national Democracy, but as a protectionist and opponent of President Cleveland, he was odious ^ to the rank and file. Mr. Rasin was known to ""It was not the general increase of [tariff] rates in the Senate that held the attention of the country," says Woodrow Wilson in his "History of the American People," "so much as the very noticeable activity of a group of Senators in the interest of the sugar manufacturers and dealers. These headstrong, stubborn rejectors of HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 287 be on good terms with President Qeveland. It was not he that blundered fatally in this campaign, but the state leader. Various popular men were candidates for the nomination for Gov- ernor in 1895, among them Judge William A. Fisher, Thomas G. Hayes, John Walter Smith, and Spencer C Jones. On August 16 of the preceding year, Mr. Isidor Ra3rner had announced his candidacy, hired a hall, and been acclaimed with gjeat enthusiasm at a mass-meeting, after which he suddenly retired from the fight, saying that the fiat of the bosses *^ was against him. Governor Brown desired to succeed himself, but realizing that Senator Gorman was unfavorable he also retired. Hayes was consid- ered unavailable as a candidate because Rasin would not support him. Judge Fisher would certainly have been nominated, it was believed, but a few days before the convention he gave out an interview in which he de- nounced Gorman as unworthy to be considered a Democrat, after his mutilation of the Wilson tariff bill. This narrowed the field of choice, and when the State Convention met, August i, the State leader had selected John E. Hurst for nomination. Mr. Hurst was an excellent citizen of Baltimore, but the convention resented the dictatorial manner in which he was put forward. It was a stormy convention and rebellious to the last degree. Yells of contempt were hurled at "Gorman's man," and there were loud calls for Fisher and Hayes. But the slate went through on the first ballot. The Baltimore Business Men's Association on October 3 had nomi- nated Henry Williams for mayor. Mr. Thomas F. McNulty wished the nomination for sheriff, but Mr. Rasin refused to permit it, and this refusal is thought to have weakened the ticket actually named. The Republican State Convention, held August 15 at Cambridge, nomi- nated Lloyd Lowndes for Governor, an excellent choice. For mayor of Baltimore, Mr. Alcaeus Hooper was the Republican nominee. Immediately after the Democratic State Convention, and before Lowndes was nominated, numerous influential Democrats announced their hostility to Mr. Gorman's nominees. The Federation of Labor announced its purpose to fight the Hurst ticket. Independent Democrats and Reform- ers of all kinds got together, the feeling becoming general that the ring's cup of iniquity was now full. Hundreds of independent lawyers, led by John K. Cowen, Joseph Packard, J. V. L. Findlay, Charles Marshall, ex- Governor William Pinkney Whyte, William Keyser, Roger W. Cull and others, exerted themselves to rebuke the State and city bosses. The cam- paign was of extraordinary bitterness. Gorman, fearing the demoralization of his supporters, went himself into the fray, making frequent speeches. political obligations wrecked the Democratic program and utterly discredited their party." The "inwardness" of the amendments is here suggested. **It was said that he was required to pay $40,000 for the nomination. Mr. Gor- man is said to have feared that Brown, if re-elected Governor, would want tHe Sen- atorship in 1897. 288 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE He hoped much from a procession of 15,000 Democrats, preceded by a tolling bell, but it failed to put heart into the Democratic organization. The Sun called it a funeral processicm. Several persons were killed in the turbulence of the day of election. Not a few of the Reform League's watchers were assaulted. When the ballots were counted it was found that the Republicans had swept the city and State. They had captured everything. Lowndes received in the city 54,920 votes ; in the State, 124,936 votes. The votes cast for Hurst in the city were 43,320; in the State 106,169. In the municipal contest, Hooper received 53,183 votes; Williams, 45,176. Adding the 2,381 votes cast for the Prohibitionist and Socialist candidates for Governor in Baltimore, it is found that of the 114,433 persons on the registration lists 100,621 voted in this hotly contested election. The results of the defeat of the Democratic organization were nu- merous, and, upon the whole, beneficial. Gorman's pernicious activity in the protectionist interest was rebuked, and his re-election to the United States Senate in 1897 was prevented. The Republicans in power at An- napolis, conscious that their retention of office in a State normally Demo- cratic depended on their making a good record, were disposed to consider legislative proposals somewhat on their merits. Baltimore in 1898 was given a new charter — something that a Democratic l^islature would hardly have favored, seeing that it tended to lessen the influence of the Boss and of smaller politicians in city affairs. The boss system was not destroyed, though the bosses learned a lesson of moderation. Mr. Gorman retained control of the State organization and was in due time re-elected to the Senate, remaining a leader of his party till his death. Mr. Rasin similarly remained in control of the city organi- zation. The good effect of the reform agitation by the Independent Democrats is to be sought, as already shown, in the education of Baltimore voters in matters of municipal concern and in the development of a civic conscious- ness, rather than in any reform of party management. BIBLIOGRAPHY ^ The City Government of Baltimore, by Thaddeus P. Thomas, Ph.D., Johns Hop- kins University Studies, 1896. South American Trade of Baltimore, by Frank R. Ruttcr, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University Studies, 1897. The Story of Maryland Politics, by Frank R. Kent, 191 1. Maryland, Its Resources, Industries and Institutions, by members of Johns Hopkins University, 1893. History of Maryland, by James Mc- Sherry, revised by Bartlett B. James, Ph.D., 1904. History of Baltimore, from its founding to 1S9S, by various collaborators, published by S. B. Nelson, 1898. Remi- niscences of Baltimore, by Jacob Frey, 1893. The Baltimore Sun Almanac, by Norval E. Foard, 1876-1895. Financial History of Baltimore, by J. H. Hollander, 1898. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 1870-1912 By John M. Powill, A.M. 292 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE personnel of which held out little hope of the realization of such aspirations, was accomplished through the cooperation of various elements impelled by motives of the most divergent nature. The real value of the victory over the entrenched enemies of progress lay in the fact that the minority party was fully sensible of its dependence on external aid, and was bound by a contract, which it dared not violate, to accomplish certain specified reforms that neither of the parties of its own initiation and volition would ever have dreamed of undertaking. The conditions which grew out of this victory at the polls were aff favorable to the enactment of l^slation which rendered a return to the abuses of the past difficult if not impossible. Safeguards were placed about the ballot box which gave better assurance that the will of the people would prevail at elections. The method of voting was so changed as to encourage discrimination on the part of the voter between candidates for individual offices, and blind party fealty was proportionately lessened. The tendency toward independent political action was not con- fined to the element which had so long sought to defeat the dominant polit- ical organization, but permeated the whole mass of voters and forced upon party leaders a respect for popular opinion in the selection of candidates and in the enactment of progressive legislation. The introduction of a new issue in national politics in 1896 further weakened party ties, arraying many of the most influential members of the majority party against its presidential candidates and associating them through successive campaigns with the opposition party, which, ever since the War of Secession, had been hopelessly handicapped by the attitude of its national leaders towards the South. The peculiar conditions which caused thousands of voters to favor one party in national politics and the opposite party in local politics operated to place the balance of power at many subsequent elections in the hands of those who proffered no blind allegiance to any party. It was therefore possible for this element to obtain from the lawmakers of the State many measures of almost incalculable value to the city. The granting of a new charter was one of the most important of the objects accomplished by the advocates of reform and progress. Among the most valuable features of this charter was the provision for removing the public schools from the direct control of ward politicians who had pre- viously dictated the selection of members of the Board of School Commissioners. The great innovations in educational methods which fol- lowed were destined to divide public opinion and provoke bitter contro- versy, but viewed in its general aspect, there was little, if any intelligent doubt that the departure from the old system of educational control was vastly beneficial. The legislative session of 1896 was one of exceptional importance in its relation to the interests of the city. The reform of the election methods was a matter underlying all other reforms and for the accomplishment of HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 293 this purpose the General Assembly was very happily constituted. The Senate consisted of fourteen Democrats and twelve Republicans, one of the former, the presiding officer, having very pronounced independent procliv- ities. It was in the power of this Senator to create a tie vote, causing the defeat of any objectionable measure upon which the body was called to pass judgment. The State Executive was a Republican and the lower chamber of the Legislature contained a large majority of members of the Governor's party. Thus neither of the political parties could enact legisla- tion of a partisan character. The Republicans, moreover, were fully conscious that their success in the elections of the previous year were due to the support given them by Democrats who had become dissatisfied with the conduct of their own party and who believed the only cure for the evils of which they com- plained was the drastic one of electing the candidates of the opposite party. This support had been gained by means of specific promises to remedy long standing abuses, and only by the fulfilment of its pledges could the party with a large share of power in city and State hope to retain the confidence of its allies. Under these favorable conditions the paramount task of remodeling the methods of registration and voting was taken up. The Australian ballot law enacted in 1890 for Baltimore city and for fourteen of the counties of the State, and in 1892 extended over the whole State, was fashioned chiefly to secure the secrecy of the ballot and to render the buying and selling of votes difficult. It had in effect put a premium upon voting the entire ticket of one or the other of the parties by its complicated require- ments in cases where the voter divided his support between the candidates of several parties. The General Assembly of 1896 undertook to remedy this evil by simplifying the method of voting a split ticket. It also at- tempted to prevent certain fraudulent practices which were believed to have been employed on such a large scale as to shake public confidence in the results of elections as officially announced. Ballot boxes with glass sides and bottoms were required under the new law. Each ballot was to be provided with a detachable coupon on which the name of the voter receiv- ing it was to be written with ink by the election Judge, who was also re- quired to endorse the ballot with his own name or initials. This was in- tended to insure the use by the voter of the identical ballot given him and to prevent a practice commonly believed to be in vogue by which a voter substituted a ballot secured in advance and carried by him into the polling place. The ballot could then be conveyed outside, and given to a purchased voter after having been marked to suit the purchaser. The second voter, could, in turn, deliver an unmarked ballot to the agent of bribery and thus, by means of one ballot a succession of purchased votes could be secretly de- posited in the box. Under the former law a mark placed after an individual candidate's name on a ballot nullified the mark placed after the party emblem so far as 294 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE all the other candidates were concerned, unless the name of the opposing candidate was stricken out. Under the law of 1896, this was no longer the case, and the voter was relieved of the temptation to vote a straight ticket lest he might, by discriminating between individual candidates, in- validate the remainder of his ballot. The illiterate voter was required to make oath that he needed assist- ance in marking his ballot before help could be afforded him, and the law provided that one clerk representing each of the two leading parties should participate in lending him aid. Electioneering in any polling place, or within one hundred feet of any polling place, was forbidden, and it was provided that watchers or chal- lengers should have the right to be present at the counting of the ballots. The provisions r^farding the r^stration of voters were fashioned in the same spirit of fairness. Supervisors of elections were to be appointed by the Governor, three for each county and three for Baltimore city, and one of the three was required to be taken from the minority party. The power of appointment of judges and clerks was lodged in these supervisors, who were required to select an equal number from each of the two leading parties. Each supervisor was given the right of veto upon the appointment of every judge or clerk of election within the jurisdiction of the board of which he was a member. An annual registration was ordained for Balti- more city. Every voter was given the right to be present at a place of reg- istration and to challenge an applicant. Illiterate voters were required to be registered as such. Many other laws of more than temporary interest to Baltunore were adopted at this legislative session, the most important being the settlement of the question of a reassessment of property for purposes of taxation. This long-vexed matter was disposed of in a series of acts remodeling the tax system of the State, and the first general revaluation of pr(^>erty in twenty years was the result. The new law required the Appeal Tax Court of Baltimore City to revise assessments and valuations every two years. It also required a Uennial listing of all personal property of the ovmers. Among the pledges made in the Republican State platform of 1895 was one that obligated the party, if it secured control of the General Assembly, to enact a law for the application of the merit system to appointments in the civil service. An energetic campaign had been conducted against the spoils system during several years previous to the election, chiefly in Balti- more City, and the minority party had seized upon the issue as one cal- culated to win votes. In neither party, however, had this reform at that time permeated the mass of voters, and after the Republicans had gained control of the State and city administrations, their leaders were by no means eager to relinquish their hold on the public patronage. A bill was introduced in the Senate by Senator William Cabell Bruce of Baltimore City providing that, "Appointments in the Civil Service in the municipali- ties and counties of the State shall be made according to merit and fitness. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 295 to be ascertained so far as practicable, by examination, which shall be com- petitive, except appointments which are subject to confirmation by the Senate." Obstructive tactics were employed by the party in power to prevent the passage of the bill. Democratic members of the legislature, on the other hand, were disposed to favor a measure which would enable them to continue control of the appointive offices, a large majority of which were held by members of their own party. The advocates of the reform in Baltimore City held a mass meeting to arouse public sentiment in behalf of the bill. The meeting was largely attended and was addressed by promi- nent members of either party. Nevertheless, the House of Delegates re- jected the bill. Later in the Session a Constitutional Amendment was proposed, pro- viding for the adoption of the merit system in the Civil Service. The General Assembly adopted a resolution for the submission of this amend- ment to a vote of the pec^le. It subsequently appeared that this effort at reform was prematurely made, for at the State election in the following year the amendment was overwhelmingly defeated. The combined votes at the elections for the heads of the tickets of the two leading parties was 235,152 in the State, and 101,611 in Baltimore City. The total vote on the amendment in the State only 100,691 — much less than half of the total vote cast. In Baltimore City the total vote on the amendment was only 58,636, or less than three-fifths of the combined votes for the heads of tickets. The majority against the amendment in the State was 68,893, and in the city 35,896. The vote in the city in favor of the amendment was only 11,370, consideraUy less than one-fifth of the whole vote cast. Two long-established practices were abolished at this session of the Ic^slature : An Aqt of Assembly approved by the Governor, March 27, 1896, declared that the three days of grace allowed on maturing financial obliga- tions should no longer have legal sanction in Maryland and that except where some express stipulation to the contrary is made, no grace shall be allowed on such evidences of indebtedness. On the same day the Governor improved an act which changed the ancient form of making oath or affi- davit. The new form dispensed with kissing the Bible and substituted the requirement that the right hand be placed upon the open book.^ The election of a United States Senator at the session of 1896 had an important bearing on subsequent political events in city and State. The General Assembly in joint session had a large Republican majority, and 'Two years later the further step of dispensing with the Bible altogether was taken, the Act prescribing that the person making oath shall hold up his hand in token of his recognition of the solemnity of the act and shall say: "In the presence of Al- mighty God, I do solemnly promise or declare, etc.'' The imprecatory words formerly in use, "So help me God/' were expressly prohibited by the act, and respect for re- ligious scruples against taking any oath whatever was shown in the provision that an affirmation in which the name of the Deity was not mentioned might be substituted. 296 HISTORY OP BALTIMORE the aspirants for the office were numerous. A State law dating back to the year 1809 required that one of the two United States Senators from Maryland should always be an inhabitant of the Eastern Shore, and the senatorship about to become vacant was the one which, under this law, must be filled by an Eastern Shoreman. Nevertheless, the Hon. George F. Wellington, of Allegany county, Congressman from the Sixth Mary- land District, announced himself as a candidate. Wellington, as chairman of the State executive committee, had directed the campaign of 1895 which had resulted in the only victory ever up to that time achieved by the Re- publican party at a gubernatorial election in Maryland. Phillips Lee Goldsborough, of Dorchester county, was the principal aspirant from the Eastern Shore. The territorial limitation prescribed by the local law, how- ever, had no Federal sanction, and consequently would not operate to ex- clude a Senator elected in violation of its provisions, if the legislature saw fit to ignore it. After eight ineffectual ballots, in every one of which Wellington received the highest vote, a Republican caucus was held, at which Wellington and Goldsborough each polled 26 votes. There was then a break in Goldsborough's following, led by Sidney E. Mudd, speaker of the House of Delegates, and Wellington was declared the caucus nominee. On the following day the General Assembly formally elected him Senator in bold defiance of the State law. About five weeks later the Eastern Shore law was inadvertently repealed by the adoption of the election law of 1896. This law as originally drawn excepted the Eastern Shore clause of the old law from repeal, but either designedly or because of the haste with which the measure was rushed through the legislature in the closing days of the session, the exception was omitted from the bill. Only once before in the eighty-five years which had elapsed since the Eastern Shore law was adopted had an attempt been made to elect both Senators from the Western Shore. In 1867, when the Democratic party wished to rec- ognize the service rendered by Governor Thomas Swann in restoring the rights of citizenship to thousands of Marylanders who had been disfran- chised by the Union party, the law was repealed, and re-enacted imme- diately after Governor Swann's election. When Swann, fearing that he would be refused the right to sit in the senate by the radical Republican element then dominant at the Federal capitol, declined the office, an Eastern Shoreman was elected in his stead. The banishment of the Democratic party from office after an incum- bency of twenty-eight years, and the substitution of Republican adminis- trations in city and State was accompanied by many changes in the official personnel. The police board of Baltimore City underwent a change which placed the control of the department in the hands of the Republicans, who had frequently accused the Democrats of abusing the power which such control bestowed. Under the law then in force, vacancies in the board were filled by the General Assembly voting at a joint session. One of the Democratic Commissioners, John Q. A. Robson, had died on the 17th of HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 297 November, 1894, and the legislature not being in session, Governor Brown had filled the vacancy by appointing John C Legg, a Democrat. The Republican majority, at the joint session held on the 25th of March, 1896, substituted Daniel D. Hedinger, a Republican, for Mr. Legg, to serve dur- ing the remainder of the term which was to expire on the 15th of March, 1901. For the six years beginning on the isth of March, 1897, William W. Johnson, Republican, was elected. The third member of the board, whose term was not to expire until the 15th of March, 1903, was Edson M. Schryver, a Democrat. The board, as newly constituted, consisted of two Republicans and one Democrat after the 15th of March, 1897, and whatever influence it could exert on the politics of the city was added to that which the popular elections of 1895 had placed at the disposal of the party which had so long been in the minority. Among the non-political acts of the legislature of 1896 in which Bal- timore was directly or indirectly interested was one for the establishment of a Geological and Economic Survey, the purpose of which was to investi- gate the physical features of the State with reference to their practical bearing upon crops production and other industrial pursuits and the con- sideration of such scientific and economic questions as the commissioners might deem of value to the people of the State. A commission was appointed consisting of Governor Lloyd Lowndes, State Ccmiptroller Rob- ert P. Graham, Daniel C. Gilman, president of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, and R. W- Silvester, president of the Maryland Agricultural College. Work was immediately beg^n under the direction of the State Geologist, William Bullock Qark, professor of geology in the Johns Hop- kins University. Thoroughly equipped men were assigned to each of the divisions of the work, a detached study of the building stone deposits of the State was made with the aid of Prof. George P. Merrill, of Wash- ington, and a magnetic survey was prosecuted, observations upon the declination and inclination of the needle being taken in every county. The preliminary survey was completed during the Summer of 1897, and the first volume of the commissioners' report was published in the same year. The growth of the business of the law courts of Baltimore City had been so great that the dockets had become crowded, and the General Assembly at this session passed an act providing an additional judge for the Supreme Bench to be voted for at the election in the following Novem- ber. At this legislative session an Immigration Commission was created with ofHces in Baltimore city, the purpose of which was to supply infor- mation calculated to bring settlers into the State. It was provided that a superintendent be appointed who must visit Europe once every year to solicit immigration, remaining abroad at least four months on each trip and visiting different countries in the prosecution of his duties. The commissioners were empowered to make contracts with steamship lines for the distribution of immigrants on their arrival in Baltimore and to 298 HISTORY OP BALTIMORE provide for their reception in the city. The new administration at the City Hall was, meanwhile, involved in an unseemly struggle between its several branches over the municipal patronage. The Republican mayor, Alcaeus Hooper, was a man of strong convictions and unbending will. Possessed of a large fortune and being a member of a family identified with one of the most important of the city's industries, he owed his eleva- tion to public office to his availability as a candidate rather than to a par* ticipation in the practical side of party politics. As mayor, he insisted on exercising the right of selecting his own appointees just as he would have selected his subordinates if placed at the head of a business enter- prise. His party had long been forced to content itself with the federal patronage alone, and when at last it had won a victory at a municipal election, the leaders, through their representatives in the city council, demanded a controlling voice in filling the municipal places which were within the appointive power of the mayor. Out of this divergence of views grew a bitter and prolonged controversy. The mayor persisted in^ refusing to recognize the assumed right of the city councilmen; and the council, which was overwhelmingly Republican in both branches, passed ordinances depriving the mayor of the appointive power, lodging it in their own hands. A deadlock ensued, the city council refusing to confirm the mayor's appointments of heads of departments in the city government, and the mayor declining to qualify those chosen by the city council. The matter was taken into the courts, and the court of first instance decided in favor of the city council. The mayor then took an appeal, and finally the court of appeals rendered a decision overruling the decision of the lower court and sustaining the mayor. The mayor succeeded in putting the men he had selected into office, but the bitterness of the contest continued ta manifest itself from time to time during his entire term. A somewhat significant feature of the appointments made by the Republican State and city administrations in this year was the appearance of the names of several women in the list of appointees. At this time the Woman's Club movement was in its incipiency in Baltimore, and the equal suffrage cause had scarcely been given serious consideration. Its propagandists in the North had, for several decades, been regarded as proper targets for wits, rather than as the advance guard of an ag^es- sive movement for a change which was destined to bring the female sex into a participation in public offices. Many of the women of Baltimore had labored successfully as managers of private charitable and philanthropic institutions, and in the promotion of various good causes, and had made their capacity for usefulness in these activities manifest It was, there- fore, by no means an unpopular step which Governor Lowndes toc^ in appointing Mrs. Anne R. Jeffers to be State Librarian, and that which Mayor Hooper pursued in naming Dr. Mary Sherwood a member of the Almshouse Board, and Miss Kate McLean a member of the board of the Female House of Refuge. The mayor, in addition to these appointments,. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 299 selected Mrs. Edward A. Robinson as one of the board of visitors to the Baltimore City Jail. The growing sentiment in favor of the emancipation of women from a state of subordination under the law to the other sex was still more substantially shown two years later in the enactment of a Statute placing husband and wife upon perfect legal equality with reference to property, contracts, etc. The act gave the wife full control of what was hers, with power to dispose of it by deed mortgage, lease, or will. The husband was still held liable for debts contracted upon his credit for necessaries for himself or for his or their children, but the wife's property was not to be liable for the husband's debt. A widow's dower rights in lands held by the husband were also maintained. The close of the legislative session and the reorganization of the city government under Republican auspices ushered in the preparations for the presidential campaign of 1896, which was destined still further to confuse the political situation in Baltimore and in Maryland. The financial panic of 1893 and the subsequent period of business depression had followed close upon the accession to office of a Democratic administration at Wash- ington, and in the congressional elections of 1894 the peqple of the country had substituted for the Democratic plurality of 92 in the House of Repre- sentatives, a Republican plurality of 139. In view of this overwhelming defeat, there was scarcely a ray of hope that a conservative Democratic candidate could be elected president. The radical element in the party which had been clamoring for the abandonment of the single gold standard and for the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold dollars at a ratio of sixteen to one for nearly two decades, became insistent upon the nomination of a presidential candidate in sympathy with its views, and the adoption of a platform by the national convention of the party favor- ing the bimetallic standard. The advocates of silver had, in several pre- vious campaigns, been restrained with difficulty from forcing the n(Mnina- tion of one of their leaders, the argument that such a nomination would inevitably lead to the loss of the electoral votes of several States neces- sary to the success of the ticket being the principal means of thwarting their purpose. Facing almost certain defeat at the coming election and finding their sole hope of success in winning the votes of the sufferers from the financial depression, the bimdtallists took possession of the national convention of 1896 at Chicago, and, carrried away by the elo- quence of William Jennings Bryan, named him as the party standard bearer. One month earlier, the Democratic Convention of Maryland had met in Baltimore and had adopted resolutions favoring the gold standard by a vote of B7j4 to 29^. Baltimore City gave nineteen votes for gold and only two for the double standard, the sentiment of the business and pro- fessional classes being very nearly tmanimous against the free coinage 300 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE of silver. The preamble of the resolutions adopted by the convention was as follows : "Ordinarily, in advance of the assembling of the representations of the whole party in national convention, the framing of the declaration of party principles might well be left to them, but the overshadowing importance at this time of the financial question makes it incumbent upon us to speak with no uncertain sound upon this subject in order that the deliberate views of our people may exert the just influence to which they are entitled, and our delegates may be encouraged and strengthened in strenuously advocating their adoption as a part of our platform." The People's party of Maryland held a convention in Baltimore on the 1 6th of April, at which delegates were elected to a National G>nven- tion which met in St. Louis on the 22d of July. The delegates were not instructed except that they should not support any candidate for the presidency or vice-presidency unless he was avowedly in favor of the principles of the Populist party. An electoral ticket was nominated, but was afterwards withdrawn, the ncnninees of the Democratic National Con- vention being satisfactory to the adherents of the People's party in Mary- land. The action of the National Convention at Chicago administered a crushing blow to the Democratic party in Baltimore, already demoralized by defeat in the local elections of the previous year and by an adverse plurality in the total vote for congressmen in 1894, when a delegation equally divided between Democrats and Republicans had been elected from Maryland. Sectional issues had no longer the same hold on the people which had bound them to the national Democratic party in past campaigns. The great victory of Grover Qeveland in 1892, following the effort of the Harrison administration to shackle the South by means of a Force Bill, was largely due to the votes of citizens of the Northern States. This victory had practically swept out of existence the menace of a revival of the iniquities of the reconstruction era at the hands of the Republi- can party. The race issue seemed to have been settled to the satisfac- tion of a controlling majority of the people of both North and South, and, with the elimination of these perils, the bond of union between the elements which had coalesced to form the post-bellum Democratic Con- servative party in Baltimore was virtually divided. For the time being a new alignment of the voters of the city was effected on the basis of economic issues. The local Democratic organization permitted the election practically to go by default, while the Republican leaders, encourged by the S3rmpathy of a large and influential element in the Democratic party, conducted a vigorous campaign. A Democratic Honest Money League, which included in its membership many of the most influential members of that party, materially aided the Republicans. The call for a National Convention of Democrats opposed to the free coinage of silver to be held in Indianapolis, met with a ready response HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 301 from Baltimore and Maryland. An organization was effected and a committee of one hundred appointed. Among the sponsors for the move- ment were former United States Senator William Pinkney Whyte, former Congressman Isidor Rayner, Colonel Charles Marshall, former Mayor Robert C. Davidson, and others who had either filled high offices or who were conspicuous in commercial or professional pursuits. Delegates were named to the Indianapolis Convention, which nominated General John M. Palmer, of Illinois, for president, and General Simon B. Buck- ner, of Kentucky, for vice-president, and an active campaign was inaugu- rated in behalf of the ticket. The National Prohibition Convention, which met in Pittsburgh, placed Joshua Levering, of Baltimore, in nomination for president, and adopted a platform leaving to every member of the party the freedom of his own convictions upon all political questions other than that of crushing the liquor traffic. In his speech at Baltimore, accepting the ncmiination, how- ever, Mr. Levering firmly asserted his devotion to the gold standard. This was but a reiteration of the statement he had made before the National Convention, when he declared that he would not stand on a platform favoring the free coinage of silver. His declaration led to a bolt from the convention and the nomination of the Rev. Charles E. Bently, of Nebraska, for president, on a silver prohibition platform. The bolters adopted the name of the National party, and Maryland was represented in its national central committee by Mr. A. G. Eichelberger, of Baltimore. The election took place on the third of November, and resulted in a complete rout of the Democratic party, the Republican plurality in the State being 32,232, one of the largest ever given a presidential candi- date in Maryland. Baltimore City's vote was 61,965 for McKinley, and 40,857 for Bryan. Little disposition was shown by Baltimore voters to waste their ballots on "minor party" candidates. Palmer, the Gold Dem- ocratic standard bearer, received only 1,358 votes, and Levering, the Gold Standard Prohibitionist, was given 464 less votes in the city than he had received at the election of 1895, when he was his party's candidate for Governor of Maryland. In addition to winning the electoral vote of Maryland for McKinley, the Republicans elected a solid delegation to the Federal House of Repre- sentatives; in Baltimore City they secured fifteen of the twenty-two seats in the First Branch City Council, and their candidates for the additional judgeships for the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, authorized by an act of the legislature of 1896, were also elected. Meanwhile Mayor Hooper had been meditating a revolutionary step in connection with the administration of the public schools of the city, and almost simultaneously with the entrance of the new city council into office he found himself again at war with the legislative branch of the city government. He launched his project in characteristic fashion. It was not in the nature of the city executive to shun a fight; on the 302 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE contrary, he seemed never so happy as when battling for what he deemed good against those whom he regarded as the enemies of reform. Tact had no part in his make-up. Compromise was a word not included in his vocabulary. He proceeded in a direct path toward his goal, oppos- ing stubborn insistence to what he considered unenlightened or evil- intentioned resistance. The immediate defeats which his temperamental inflexibility often occasioned were in some notable instances the fore- runner of victories, if not for himself, for the ideas which he championed. Such was the care in his efforts to reform the administration of the edu- cational branch of the city government. When Mayor Hooper undertone to remodel the School Board, the members of the board were nominated by the city councilmen, one from each ward, and were confirmed by the whole body of councilmen. The personnel of the board thus chosen was singularly incongruous with its functions. At all times there were a few eminently qualified members appointed who unselfishly and without other reward than the sense of having benefited the community, devoted their best energies to the cause of public education. The bulk of the membership, however, consisted of men appointed not on account of their fitness, but purely for political reasons. While no monumental instances of corruption were brought to light under these conditions, it was more than whispered that favoritism in the award of contracts for bocrics and other supplies prevailed, and that the selection of teachers was largely a matter of political influence. Mayor Hooper made up his mind that he would institute a complete change in the condition of affairs, and on the 6th of January, 1897, he summarily removed a large majority of the school commissioners from office. He supplied their places by appointing a new board with President Daniel C. Gilman, of the Johns Hopkins University, at its head. This step precipitated a bitter contest with the city councilmen, who voted to continue the old board in office. Both boards held meetings and trans- acted business during the three succeeding months. As in the case of his differences with the previous city council, recourse was had to the courts. The case was decided on the eighth of April by the court of appeals. The decision was this time against the mayor, and the board appointed by him was dissolved. One year later, however, a reform of the school board was effected in connection with other reforms through the granting of a new charter to the city. Meanwhile the Republican factions were looking to the approaching mayoralty election of 1897. William T. Malster, who had been the com- petitor of Alcaeus Hooper for the nomination two years earlier, again entered the race. The party leaders accepted as their candidate in the primaries Theodore Marburg, whose nomination was urged by a com- mittee of prominent Republican business men. A controversy between the Republican city committee and the supporters of Mr. Malster over the regulations for the primary elections arose and the courts were again HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 303 invoked. The right of the Republican city committee to adopt the regula- tions to which the Malster faction objected was sustained, whereupon the Malster faction refused to take part in the primaries under the control of the ccxnmittee, and held primaries of its own. When the State Con- vention met at Ocean City in August, the conditions in Baltimore City were chaotic, and the convention disposed of the controversy by throwing out both primaries and ordering a new one. Mr. Marburg did not appear as a candidate at the new primaries, and Mr. Malster was nominated with- out opposition along with a councilmanic ticket composed of his friends. The Den^ocratic party again presented as its candidate Henry Wil- liams, who had been defeated at the mayoralty election of 1895. Demor- alized by the disastrous defeats in city, State, and Nation during the pre- vious two years, and divided by the acrimonious controversy over the proposition to remonetize silver, the Democrats were not yet in form to conduct a successful campaign, and their candidates for the municipal offices at the election held on the second of November were again de- feated. The vote for Malster was 54,624, and for Williams 47,705, a Republican plurality of 6,919. The Republicans elected fifteen of the twenty-two members of the First Branch City Council, and nine of the eleven members of the Second Branch. The Democratic State ticket also went down to defeat, the Republican candidate for comptroller receiving a plurality of 7,109. Outside of the city the Democratic candidate had a plurality of 644 votes, but the Republican preponderance of 7,753 in the city gave the victory to the candidate of that party. The Republicans elected all their other candidates voted for at large in city and State, and controlled the General Assembly with a majority of seventeen on joint ballot, the Senate being composed of eighteen Republicans and ten Demo- crats, and the House of Delegates of forty-nine Republicans and forty-two Democrats. Baltimore returned a solid Republican delegation to the legis- lature. The session of the General Assembly of 1898 was one of the most tumultuous ever held in Annapolis. The Republican majority was torn by factional rivalries. Eleven adherents of Mayor Malster in the House of Delegates refused to enter the party caucus called to select a candidate for speaker, and, combining with forty-two of the Democratic members of the body, defeated the caucus nominee and placed a Malster Repub- lican in the chair. A successor to United States Senator Arthur P. Gor- man was to be chosen, and there were numerous aspirants for the place. Judge Louis E. McComas, former Congressman from the Sixth District, had the support of Governor Lowndes and Senator Wellington, as well as that of John K. Cowen and other influential men among the element which had broken away from the Democratic party in 1895 and made Republican success at the polls possible. Mayor Malster himself was nursing an ambition to go to the Senate, but did not announce himself as a candidate. The animosity between the Republican factions became so intense that 304 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE an agreement had almost been reached between the Malster followers and the Democratic legislators to re-elect Senator Gorman, when pressure from Washington was brought to bear in favor of McCcnnas, and after a seven days' battle, in the course of which ten ballots were taken, McComas was chosen Senator. The subsequent acts of this legislature constituted a record which did much to bring the Democratic party back into power after the next State election, despite the fact that no little share in the disgrace was attributed to the speaker of the House of Delegates whom the Demo- cratic members had aided in electing. Nevertheless, the city of Baltimore owed to this legislature the boon of a modernized form of municipal government. Shortly after the installation of the new government, the agitation which had been in progress during the greater part of a year in favor of a new city charter had taken definite form in the appointment by Mayor Mdlster of a commission to prepare a draft to be submitted to the General Assembly. The men selected by the mayor for this commission were sin- gularly qualified by character, ability, and special equijHnent for the task assigned them. William Pinkney Whyte, ex-Governor of Maryland, ex- United States Senator, and ex-Mayor of Baltimore was named as its president, and the other members were Ferdinand C. Latrobe, seven times mayor of the city, Thomas G. Hayes, ex-State Senator, and destined to be Mayor Malster's successor as executive head of the city government, Daniel C. Gilman, president of the Johns Hopkins University, George R. Gaither, a future candidate for Governor of Maryland, Samuel D. Schmucker, afterwards a judge of the Court of Appeals, Thomas Ireland Elliott, afterwards a member of the Supreme Judicial Bench of Baltimore City, and Lewis Putzel, a prominent member of the Baltimore bar. The secretary of the commission was Frederick T. Dorton. In con- stituting this important board the mayor ignored partisan considerations, dividing the membership about equally between the Republican and Demo- cratic parties. The commission was appointed on the 29th of November, 1897. On the 27th of January following, the president, the Hon. William Pinkney Whyte, and one of the members, George R. Gaither, resigned. The General Assembly, at the session of 1898, acted favorably on the proposed charter, and on the 24th of March, Governor Lowndes signed the act, giving Baltimore a plan of municipal government, which, in its broadly conceived provisions for municipal needs and in its limitations upon opportunities for abuse of powers, was probably far in advance of any kindred instrument ever, up to the time of its adoption, bestowed upon an American municipality. It attracted attention throughout the country, and under its operation the administration which succeeded that of Mayor Malster was enabled to boast that Baltimore was "a city without graft". In connection with the remodeling of the municipal government, the General Assembly provided for a division of the city into twenty-four HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 305 wards instead of twenty-two, the existing number. The act required the new wards to be as regular and as compact in form and as nearly equal in population as was practicable, and no ward was to exceed or fall short by more than fifteen per cent, of having a population equal to one-twenty- fourth of the population of the entire city. The new charter, with a view to divorcing municipal from State and national politics, required that the elections for city officers should be held in May instead of in November. The term of the mayor was lengthened from two to four years. The president of the Second Branch of the City Council and the city comptroller were to be elected by the people of the city at large, their terms being like that of the mayor, four years. The president of the Second Branch was to have all the prerogatives of any other member of the body, and in case of absence of the mayor for any cause, he was to fill the place of the executive. In case of a vacancy in the office of mayor he was to serve out the remainder of the current term, and the Second Branch was to elect a new president, not one of its own members. The city was to be divided into four councilmanic districts consist- ing of six contiguous wards each. Two members of the Second Branch were to be elected from each district for terms of four years, the terms of half of the members expiring every two years. The First Branch of the Gty Council was to consist of twenty-four members, one ftx>m each ward. Their terms were to be two years. A three-fourths vote of the City Council was required to overcome the mayor's veto. The mayor was empowered to veto separate items in all ordinances, if these items were distinct. The mayor was to have the appointment of all heads of city depart- ments subject to confirmaticm by the Second Branch of the City Council, and during the first six months of their term of service he could remove them at pleasure. At the end of that period, they were to become irre- movable except for cause. This provision proved to be of great impor- tance six years later when a mayor died shortly after the prescribed period of six months had expired, and was succeeded by the president of the Second Branch of the City Council who was a member of the opposite party in politics. In every board or commission consisting of more than one member the mayor was required to appoint a minority member or mem- bers from the party which had cast the next to the highest vote at the last municipal election. This provision was not to apply to the school board, as the mayor was required to appoint the members of that board without regard to political affiliation or religious belief. All appointments to subordinate offices were to be made, not by the mayor, but by the heads of the departments. The city register was to be elected for a term of four years by the City Council meeting in joint convention. The charter provided for departments of finance, law, public safety, public improvements, parks and squares, education, charities and correc- 3o6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE tion, taxes and assessment. A Board of Estimates attached to the depart- ment of finance was one of the most important features of the new system of government. It was to consist of the president of the Second Branch of the City C>uncil, who was to be chairman ex-oMcio, and the mayor, the city solicitor, the city engineer and the city comptroller. Three of the members were thus to be elective officers, and the other two appointees of the mayor who, with his two appointees, constituted a majority of the board. One of the functions assigned to the Board of Estimates was that of determining the value of all franchises before they were granted. The Board was also to provide annual estimates of the expense of conducting the municipal government and the cost of new improvements. The City Council was not allowed to make appropriations in excess of the estimates of the Board, but might lower the amounts of the appropriations for indi- vidual items if it saw fit. The use of the city streets was not to be granted in perpetuity for any purpose, but only for maximum periods of twenty-four years, and to the highest bidder, the price to be approved by the Board of Estimates. All franchises granted were to be subject to supervision and regulation by the city. Contracts involving more than five hundred dollars were to be let to the lowest bidder after being advertised by a board of awards consisting of the mayor, the president of the Second Branch of the City Council, the city solicitor, the city comptroller, and the city register, and not by the department for which the work has to be done or the material furnished. No floating debts were to be permitted. No private claim was to be paid unless approved by the Board of Estimates. No appropria- tion exceeding $2,000 was to be made by the Gty Council until reports by the Boards of Estimates and Public Improvement had been made and entered upon the journal of both branches, or after the municipal budget had been balanced. The action of the two boards was not to be binding in the City Council, however, it being permitted to pass the ordinances notwithstanding adverse reports. The tax ratio was to be fixed by the Board of Estimates. Heads of the city departments were entitled to seats in the First Branch of the City Council and were privileged to discuss matters connected with their oflicial functions. The Board of Fire Conunissioners, the Commissioners of Health, the Inspector of Buildings, and the Commissioners of Street Qeaning were to be grouped into a Department of Public Safety. The Board of Police Commissioners, being subordinate to the State government, was not within the scope of the city charter, but nevertheless, the president of the board was made ex-oMcio a member of the Department of Public Safety. The remodeling of the School Board, which Mayor Hooper had stren- uously endeavored to effect, was accomplished under the provisions in the new charter. A Board of Education was created consisting of nine comr missioners to be appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the Second Branch of the City Council. The mayor was to designate a presi- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 307 dent of the Board at the time of making the appointments. The terms of the members of the board were to be six years, three of the nine retiring every two years. The Board was given authority to select the Superin- tendent of Public Instruction and the assistant superintendents, and also one or more visitors to each school, who were to serve without pay. The teachers were to be selected by the Superintendent and his assistants in accordance with the merit system, subject to confirmation by the School Board, except the members of the faculties of the Baltimore City G>llege and the Polytechnic Institute, who were to be elected by the School Board. The visitors were required to reside in close proximity to the schools placed under their supervision, to be accessible at all times, and to keep the Board advised as to the needs of the schools. The term of office for the teachers was to be during good behavior. It was provided in the charter that the first school board under the new system should enter upon the performance of its functions in March, 1900. To Mayor Hayes, who had succeeded Mayor Malster in the preceding year, the task of selecting the commis- sioners fell. He appointed Joseph Packard Jr., a prominent member of the Baltimore Bar as president, with President Daniel C. Gibnan, Thomas S. Baer, ex-Mayor Alcaeus Hooper, Charles H. Evans, Albert B. Cun- ningham, Rabbi William Rosenau, James H. Phillips, and Mrs. Samuel D. Schmucker as the other members. The appointment of Mrs. Schmucker was the first instance in which a woman had been chosen for membership in the school board. The radical departure from old methods of selecting the Commis- sioners of Public Schools ushered in a no less radical change in methods of instruction. The latter change was brought about through the selection of James H. Van Sickle as Superintendent of Public Education. Mr. Van Sickle was at the time of his selection superintendent of schools in Den- ver, Colorado, where his administration had been marked by a wide de- parture from long-accepted theories, and by the application of new ideas in the organization of school work. The former superintendent and assistant superintendent of schools were made assistants to the new super- intendent, and there was no immediate disturbance of the personnel of the teaching corps, but in a short while the demolition of ancient educa- tional landmarks began, and the inevitable outcry of conservatism made itself heard. Powerful support for the new ideas was furnished, how- ever, by leading educators and influential citizens, and during eleven years, an acrimonious controversy raged, which ended in the dismissal of the superintendent but not in a return to the old system of education. A conspicuous part was taken by ex-Mayor Hooper in the intro- duction of these innovations in educational methods into the Baltimore schools. He was also destined, as will be seen later on, to figure promi- nently in the opposition which led to the dismissal of Superintendent Van Sickle. While local affairs were stirring the minds of the people of Baltimore 3o8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE and changes of great moment were being wrought out, a storm of a differ- ent nature was brewing, which was to agitate the entire country. Early in 1898 mutterings of an approaching war with Spain for the termination of intolerable conditions in Cuba were heard, and on the evening of the 15th of February the destruction of the United States battleship Maine by an explosion in the harbor of Havana brought about a crisis. On the twenty-second of April a blockade of the Cuban ports was declared by the American government, and on the following day a call was issued for volunteer soldiers. On the 25th, Congress declared the existence of a state of war from and including the twenty-first of April. Preparations were immediately begun in Baltimore for the coming conflict. Submarine mines were planted in the approaches to the harbor, and batteries at Fort Carroll, Hawkins Point and North Point were garrisoned. Lists of officers and men of the Maryland Naval Militia available for manning warships were sent to the Navy Department, and the military organization in the city and State began to get ready for active service." The principal streets were soon hung with flags, and all classes of citizens, and men of all shades of opinion, vied one with the other in showing that in the presence of a foreign foe the people were a unit for the country's cause. The rehabilitation of the South and the participation of its people on equal terms with those of other sections in the administration of the Federal government during the years which followed the reconstruction period, had long since removed the last vestige of hostility to the restored Union in that section. Confederate veterans and Confederate sympathizers had ceased to look upon the government at Washington as a Northern gov- ernment, and had come to regard it as quite as much their own as the people of New England or of the West. The full measure of their recon- ciliation was perhaps not realized in the Northern States, and it fell to the lot of Baltimore, where the first blood of the war of sections was shed, to give the earliest practical demonstrations of the unanimity with which this revived loyalty prevailed. On the 19th of April, 1861, the Sixth Massachusetts regiment had marched along Pratt street through showers of missiles hurled by angry men, who viewed the New Englanders as invaders bent upon an unjust war of conquest. Another Sixth Massachusetts Raiment, successor of the one which had met with so hostile a reception thirty-seven years earlier, arrived in the city on the 21st of May, 1898, on its way South in response to the call of the president for volunteers to fight in ihe war with Spain. At the earnest solicitation of the people of Baltimore, the regiment was permitted by the Federal authorities to leave the cars at Mount Royal Station and march through the streets of the city to Camden Station. The sidewalks along the line of march and the windows of the houses bordering the streets were crowded with an enthusiastic multitude. Men and women cheered the Massachusetts troops until they were literally hoarse, and. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 309 instead of a hail of cobblestones and bullets, the New Englanders were pelted with flowers. This cordial reception to the Sixth Massachusetts in Baltimore, in which Confederate veterans and sympathizers took a conspicuous part, served a valuable purpose in proving at the very start of the war that there was not the slightest remnant of bitterness left lin- gering in Southern hearts, to weaken the energies of the country when facmg a foreign foe. Two days later, on the 23d of April, President McKinley had asked for one hundred and twenty-four thousand volunteers, and the day fol- lowing the first shot fired in the war, Governor Lowndes called the troops of the Maryland National Guard to their colors; and, on the 25th of the month, a camp was formed at Pimlico. At the outbreak of the war, the militia of the State comprised one brigade, Brigadier-General Lawrason Riggs commanding, aggregating not more than 2,000 officers and men, and, in addition, a naval battalion num- bering about 300 men. In a little over two months this force was recruited up to 3,110 officers and men ashore and afloat. Three regiments, the First, Fourth, and Fifth, went into camp at pimlico, but after two days the Fourth was returned to its armory in the city. So great was the eager- ness to enlist for active service that the ranks of the First and Fifth Regi- ments were quickly filled, each command numbering 1,333 ^^^- T^^^ Fifth Regiment went into camp at Qiickamauga on May 21st, was transferred to Tampa, Florida, on the 5th of June, and to Huntsville, Alabama, on the 21 St of August, and remained in the far South until the 7th of September, when it returned to Baltimore, hostilities in Cuba having ceased several months earlier. The First Regiment, made up of companies from several of the counties of Maryland, was raised to a war footing by the addition of one whole battalion of four companies of 106 enlisted men each, made up from the ranks of the Fourth Regiment in Baltimore City. The First Regiment was sent to Fortress Monroe on the 25th of May, and on the 8th of September, was transferred to Camp Meade, Penn- sylvania. On the 13th of November it was sent to Augusta, Georgia, where it remained until the 28th of February, 1899, when it was mustered out of the Federal service. In addition to those who served in the dis- tinctively Maryland commands, many Marylanders enlisted in the District of Columbia Volunteers, the regular army, the navy, and the Marine Corps. Two companies of the Fourth Immune Regiment, United States Volunteers, were largely recruited in the State, and the First Regiment of Volunteer Engineers also included many Marylanders. The Maryland regiments were not among those sent to Cuba, but both the First and the Fifth suffered severely from disease while in various camps. The Fifth had a large percentage of typhoid and malarial fevers, and the sufferings of the men were allied to have been aggravated by the poor quality of the food furnished by the United States Commissary Department. The death roll of the Fifth Regiment comprised nineteen 3IO HISTORY OF BALTIMORE names, headed by that of Lieutenant-Colonel William D. Robinson, who died of typhoid fever at Atlanta. The First Regiment lost eight men by death, and, in addition to these fatalities from disease and accident, a considerable number of other Marylanders who had undergone exposure to attacks of malaria and other diseases in unsanitary camps, and who had subsisted on the unwholesome food provided by a demoralized com- missary department, returned to their homes with the seeds of death implanted in their systems. While the land forces of Maryland were pining in camps, the Naval Militia esteemed itself more fortunate in being given an opportunity to sustain the prestige the State had gained in the country's earlier wars on the high seas, by active service afloat. Shortly after reporting for duty aboard the receiving ship Dale, at the call of Governor Lowndes on the 23d of April, the men were sworn into the service of the United States, and a majority of them were assigned to the auxiliary cruiser Dixie, Later the remainder were distributed to the Apache, the Ajax, and other government warships. The Dixie and the Yankee had been renamed for the two sections of the country after their purchase by the government from private owners, and it was with no little pride that the Marylanders assumed the part assigned them of upholding the honor of the South. The crew of the Dixie consisted of 267 men, all of whom belonged to the Maryland Naval Reserve except nine who were transferred from the battleship Iowa on the nth of July to replace men sent home on prizes captured from the enemy. The Dixie left Hampton Roads on the 13th of June for Santiago, Cuba, as a convoy to the transport Celtic. After a brief stop at Santiago she was ordered to blockade duty off the southwest coast of Cuba. On the 21st of June she bombarded two block houses near the mouth of the San Juan river. Next day, while passing Trinidad and Port Castilda, she was fired on by a Spanish gunboat. She replied with six inch shell, and the gunboat soon retired. On the 23d of June she bom- barded Port Castilda, destroying much of the enemy's property and killing sixteen Spaniards. The Eagle and the Yankee had been fired on by a Spanish force near Trinidad, and on the 29th of June the Dixie was sent to the assist- ance of those vessels. She promptly compelled the Spanish to retreat, inflicting a heavy loss. On the 6th of July she captured a sloop and a two masted schooner, and on the following day a small steamer. These vessels were sent to the United States in charge of prize crews. The campaign in Cuba was practically ended when Santiago surren- dered on the 14th of July; and the Dixie was selected as one of the fleet of vessels to convey the army of Major General Nelson A. Miles from Guantanama to Guanico, Porto Rico. On the way to that port she cap- tured the French steamer Manoubia and sent her as a prize to Charleston. Arriving in Porto Rican waters, the Dixie, the Annapolis, and the Wasp threatened Port Ponce, but had no occasicm for an attack, the city sur- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 311 rendering on the 27th of July and welcoming the Americans as its deliv- erers from the Spanish yoke. On the 2Sth, Commander Davis, of the Dixie, lowered the Spanish flag in Port Ponce, and raised the Stars and Stripes in its place. Spain having made overtures of peace, the Maryland Naval Militia had no further opportunity to engage the enemy, and on the 23d of August the Dixie was ordered home, arriving in Hampton Roads five days later. On the nth of September she proceeded to Baltimore, where an enthu- siastic greeting was awaiting her gallant crew. The day following her arrival was the 12th of September, the anniversary of the battle of North Point, and the day Baltimore was accustomed to celebrate as its own pecu- liar holiday. The celebration this year was turned into a reception for the Naval Militia who had borne themselves so well during their four months of active service. The Dixie's men marched in procession through the principal streets and received the applause of as many of the inhabi- tants of the city as could find standing room on the sidewalks. At the City Hall they were formally received by the mayor and other members of the municipal government, and duly thanked for the service they had rendered their country and the credit their conduct had reflected on Bal- timore. It had been the purpose of the government to attach the Dixie to the fleet which was to make a descent upon the coast of Spain, but the close of the war put an end to the proposed invasion of Spanish waters. On the 2oth of September most of the crew were mustered out of the service of the United States, and the cruiser proceeded to the League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, where the rest were discharged. On the 1 2th of December, the converted yacht Sylvia, which had been assigned to the Maryland Naval Reserves, went into commission at Nor- folk, and shortly afterwards proceeded to Baltimore. The pride taken by the people of Baltimore in the creditable record made by the Maryland Naval Militia in West Indian waters was almost equaled by the gratification aflForded them by the brilliant part which the warship bearing the city's name took in Dewey's victory over the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. The cruiser Baltimore, commanded by Captain N. M. Dyer, followed immediately after the flagship Olympia in the squadron formation at the beginning of the fight, and participated in the work of destroying the Spanish admiral's flagship, the Reina Chnstina. When the attack was renewed after the withdrawal of the American fleet for break- fast, the place of honor was assigned her, and she made a remarkable battle record of hits, her fire being as accurate as if she were engaged in private practice. She steamed within 2,500 yards of the Cavite batteries and dropped her six- and eight-inch shells into the enemy's waters with deadly eflFect. One of the Spanish shells passed clear through the cruiser, and another ripped up her main deck, disabling a six-inch gun, exploding a box of three-pounder ammunition, and slightly wounding two oflicers and six enlisted men. Her daring and the steadiness of her crew under fire 312 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE won the admiration of the entire squadron and after the fighting ceased she was greeted with hearty cheers and dubbed with the name of "The Tiger". The gunboat Petrel, built at the Columbian Iron Works in Baltimore, also rendered valuable service in the battle. Owing to her light draught she was selected by Admiral Dewey to destroy the small gunboats of the Spanish fleet which were lying in shallow water behind the point of Cavite. "This duty," said the Admiral in his report, "was performed by Comman- der E. P. Wood in the most expeditious and complete manner possible." The gallant captain of the cruiser Baltimore, highly pleased at the plaudits showered upon him by the city for which his ship had been named, testified his grateful appreciation by ofiFering to present to the city a captured Nordenfeldt six-pounder gun, with its complete mount, as a souvenir of the part taken by the cruiser in the battle of Manila Bay. Captain Dyer modestly ofiFered the gift, "In grateful recollection of the generosity of the city of Baltimore in presenting to the cruiser a handsome silver service." "The gun," he added, "was mounted on the starboard bow of the Reina Christina, the flagship of the Spanish fleet, and its shield attests the accuracy of our fire in at least one instance. Should the city see fit to accept the gift and mount it where it can be seen of all, calling to the mind of its youth the fact that they have an interest in our navy, special and peculiar, I shall be proud in having been an instrument in bringing about so happy a result. The cheers and men of the ship join me heartily in so laudable a purpose." The gun was received in Balti- more on the 22d of October, 1898, and placed in position in the rotunda of the Qty Hall where it still remains. The Mayor and City Council sent a vote of thanks to Captain Dyer and his men for the gift, and also voted him a sword of honor. The sword was presented on the 12th of September, 1899, after Captain Dyer's return home from the Philippine Islands. In addition to this recognition by the municipal government of Captain Dyer's gallantry, a handsome silk flag was presented to the cruiser Baltimore by the ladies of the city. A still greater cause for jubilation was afforded the people of Balti- more, in common with all other Marylanders, when news was received of the great naval victory over Admiral Cervera's fleet and of Commodore Winfield Scott Schley's splendid gallantry in the fight. The fact that chance had made him the ranking officer in the battle in die absence of Acting Admiral Sampson augmented their gratification very considerably. There had been some displeasure manifested when he was superseded by Sampson as commander of the blockading fleet, but the circumstances which were later to be the foundations for the most acrimonious contro- versy in the history of the American navy were not then known outside of the official circles, and there was no disposition shown in Baltimore, or elsewhere in Maryland, to deprive the commander-in-chief of a share in the glory of the victory. Indeed, at the first murmur of discontent HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 313 which followed the extraordinary official report of the battle sent to Wash- ington by Acting Admiral Sampson, the press of Baltimore strongly depre- cated a dispute over the laurels, and Commodore Schley's own dictum that there was "glory enough for all," found an echo in the sentiment of the best element amcmg the people of the city. It was only when a well-defined purpose on the part of the Navy Department to rob Schley of his well-earned glory and to discredit the officers who had had a greater share in the destruction of Cervera's fleet than any other single participant in the fight, that the indignation of the people passed beyond restraint. The technical points in the controversy form no part in the history of Baltimore City, and, in fact, had little if any bearing on the ardent support given Ccnnmodore Schley by the citi- zens of his native State. It was the obvious unfairness of the naval clique which sought to make Sampson the official hero of Santiago that stirred the people all over the country to action. They insisted on having a hero who had been shot at and who had fired on the foe, and stubbornly refused to consider the plea of Sampson's friends that, although he was out of range of the enemy's guns and inflicted no damage on the enemy's fleet, he was technically present and in command. During the entire controversy, the people of Baltimore and of Mary- land made the cause of Schley their own. The administration at Wash- ington was Republican, and the government of the city and of the State, during the earlier years in which it drew along its weary length were also in the hands of officials belonging to that political party. Neverthe- less, the protests against the treatment of Schley by the Navy Depart- ment, and against the attitude of President McKinley, who at least did nothing to restrain the persecution of the gallant Marylander, were as energetic as they could have been had they been made by political oppo- nents of the Federal authorities. When, with the suspected purpose of aflFording Sampson an opportunity to pose without a rival as Hie hero of the battle, Schley was assigned to the command of a small squadron for service in the South Atlantic, Governor Lowndes, Senator Wellington, and General Felix Agnus, all of whom were distinguished members of the President's party, went to the White House with the message that the assignment was r^arded as an insult to Maryland, and hotly protested against the sinister plot to injure the man whom the people of the State regarded as one of their foremost fellow citizens. A change of administration in the State government brought with it no change in the attitude of Maryland. The attorney general of the State, Isidor Rayner, volunteered to act as one of the counsel for Schley before the court of inquiry named to pass upon his conduct, and made an elo- quent plea in his behalf which did much in all sections of the country to strengthen the feeling in favor of the persecuted officer. The people were no less energetic than their officials in manifesting their sympathy. Schley's first public entry into Baltimore was made the occasion of a welcome such 314 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE as had rarely, if ever, been accorded a popular favorite. A jeweled medal was presented to him from the State of Maryland bearing the inscription : "Maryland honors her son, Winfield Scott Schley". A silver service weighing fifteen hundred ounces, made entirely of Spanish coin taken from the Christobal Colon, was given the popular hero by his admirers in Balti- more. Among other testimonials received by him was a beautiful jeweled sword from the Royal Arcanum, of which fraternal organization he was a member. The presentation was made in New York City, the Supreme Regent, Edson M. Schryver, of Baltimore, presiding. The war with Spain gave added interest to a test made in the Chesapeake Bay during the sununer of 1898 of the sulxnarine craft invented by Simon Lake, a two-hundred-mile cruise having shown large possibilities of its utility in naval operations. In the development of mod- em submarine navigation it was Baltimore's privilege to play a not incon- spicuous part. In 1897 two submarine boats were constructed at the Colum- bia Iron Works, which were among the earliest practicable vessels of their kind built. The first was the Plunger, designed by John G. Holland as a torpedo boat for the United States navy, and launched on the 7th of August. Twelve days later the Argonaut, designed by Simon Lake for use in searching for sunken wrecks, was placed in the water. In the following December a public test was made of the Argonaut in the Patapsco river. With ten passengers aboard, the craft moved half a mile on the bottom of the river with only the tops of its two masts above water. The passengers dined in a cabin lighted by electricity, the meal being prepared on a gasoline stove aboard the boat. A diver, equipped in submarine armor, left the cabin, explored the bottom, and returned to the vessel without difficulty. The more exhaustive test given the Argonaut in the following summer was equally satisfactory in its results, the boat making a trip from Baltimore to Norfolk with the utmost ease, touching at Annapolis, entering the Patuxent river, and making stops at Crisfield and Hampton Roads. The Congressional campaign of 1898 opened almost immediately after the close of hostilities between the United States and Spain. While the experiment which the people had made in placing the Republican party in control of the local government had not been attended with entirely satisfactory results, the dissatisfaction with the policies of the national Democracy was even more marked. The Democratic party succeeded, however, in regaining the Fourth District in Baltimore City by the small plurality of 596 votes, and also elected its candidate in the Eastern Shore district. The third district in Baltimore City which, before the disrup- tion of the party by the free coinage controversy, had been accustomed to give a larger Democratic plurality than any other district in Maryland was carried by the Republicans, giving a plurality of 122 for Frank C. Wachter, who later became a very important factor in city politics. All HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 315 three of the other districts elected Republicans, the plurality for that party in the total vote of the State being 6,053. Shortly after the close of the Congressional campaign, a Democratic primary election was held in Baltimore City for the reorganization of the Democratic party, preparatory to a determined effort on the part of that party to r^;ain control of the city and State government. Despite the two successive defeats in national elections which had followed the dis- astrous rout of 1895 at the State election, political conditions had so shaped themselves as to give the Democratic leaders substantial grounds for hope that the people would in 1899 reverse their action of four years before. The administration of Governor Lowndes had been productive of much that was good, but his party was disrupted by factional disputes which had reached a stage of bitterness that augured ill for success at the coming election. The scandals of the l^slative session of 1898 had also imposed a heavy handicap upon the party and in addition, it was forced to bear the odium of an increase of lawlessness and self-assertiveness on the part of its large contingent of negro voters, the disorderly element among whom seemed to fancy that Republican control of the police department gave them license to indulge their evil propensities. The Malster administra- tion in the city hall had also been unfortunate in its record and the inde- pendent voters by the aid of whom the Republicans had been put into office made no concealment of their disappointment over the result. On the other hand, the Democratic leaders, deriving wisd<»n from defeat, had abandoned the defiant attitude which they had been accustomed to assume prior to 1895, and had showed a disposition to take heed of popular senti- ment in the choice of candidates and the shaping of local policies. Municipal primaries were held by the Republican party on the 24th of March and by the Democratic party four days later. Former Mayor Alcaeus Hooper contested the Republican ncnnination with Mayor Malster, who sought a second term. The contest was one-sided, Malster receiving 25,264 votes and Hooper only 4,517. In the Democratic primaries, Ferdi- nand C. Latrobe, who had been seven times elevated to the mayoralty, and Thomas G. Hayes, who had been deprived through the intrigue of the party leaders of the gubernatorial nomination in 1895, were the contestants. The Democratic organization ostensibly abdicated the function of naming the party candidate in favor of an organization which assumed the title of the Democratic Association of Baltimore City. Former Governor Frank Brown was the presiding officer of this association and its membership included about twenty-five hundred prominent citizens. With the concur- rence of the party leaders, it was decided that Hayes was the most avail- able man for the mayoralty nomination, and at the primary election was given the support of the organization. The result was that he received 28,638 votes while Latrobe received only 2,231. The municipal election was the first under the new city charter, and was held on the 2d of May, six m6nths in advance of the State election. The campaign was prosecuted 3i6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE with the utmost energy by both parties. The exceptional popular interest in the contest was indicated by the fact that the registration was the largest in the history of Baltimore. Out of a total of 110,772 white and 20,269 colored voters in the city, as shown by the census taken in September, 1899, there were 101,590 white and 19,548 colored voters registered in a total of 121,138. The election resulted in a victory for Hayes by a plural- ity of 8,623, his vote being 57,661, while Malster received 49,038 votes. Thus after two successive defeats in municipal elections and four years of retirement from office, the Democratic party was re-installed in the city hall with a plurality larger than had been given any of its mayoralty candidates since 1891, when S. Davies Warfield was defeated by Ferdinand C. Latrobe, whose plurality was 8,929. The tritmiph of the Democrats at the polls was complete. They elected their candidate for city comptroller, a unanimous Second Branch of the City Council and also the president of the branch who, under the new charter, was voted for at large, and eighteen of the twenty-four members of the First Branch of the City Council. The result of the municipal elec- tion furnished a forecast of the result of the State election in the follow- ing November. The Republicans renominated Governor Ijowndes by acclamation. For the Democratic nomination there were several aspirants, and the contest was spirited. Edwin Warfield of Howard county. Judge William A. Fisher, of Baltimore City, and John Walter Smith, of Worces- ter county, entered the lists. The struggle finally narrowed down to a <:ontest between Warfield and Smith. I. Freeman Rasin, the Baltimore City leader, threw his influence in favor of the latter. Smith was victorious at the primary election in the city by five thousand majority, but Warfield demonstrated his personal strength by polling thirteen thousand votes, with the party organization against him. The city's support assured Smith's success in the convention, and Warfield was induced to put him in nomination. Isidor Rayner, who had made war on the party leaders in 1895, was nominated for attorney-general, and everything possible was done to bring back to the Democratic fold those who had left it four years earlier. The Republican party entered upon the campaign with its leaders warring among themselves. Senator Wellington, incensed at what he considered an affront offered him in the State Convention, refused to serve as chairman of the State Central Committee and predicted the defeat of the ticket. In the canvass that followed, the Democrats for the first time in a number of years brought the race issue into prominence. The election resulted in a sweeping Democratic victory. John Walter Smith received a plurality of 12,123, and the l^islature elected at the same time was heavily Democratic. Of the fourteen State Senators elected, only three were Republicans. Twelve Senators elected in 1897 held over. Of these, eight were Republicans and four Democrats. The Senate there- fore stood: Democrats fifteen, and Republicans eleven. In the House of Delegates the Democrats numbered sixty-five and the Republicans twenty- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 317 six. Thus ended the first lease of power given the Republican party in Maryland. During the four years which had been marked by two political revolu- tions and by a Federal clash with a foreign foe, many events of impor- tance had affected the history of Baltimore. On the 28th of August, 1896, an assemblage of leading members of the legal profession at the Blue Mountain House organized the Maryland Bar Association, which has since exercised an influence of no small value in suggesting and promoting improvements in the administration of justice in the city and State. Chief Justice James McSherry, of the Court of Appeals, was elected the first president of the organization. Among the specific purposes of this asso- ciation were reform in the laws; uniformity in the statutes of the several States of the Union as to marriage and divorce, and also in execution of deeds and wills, and in several branches of mercantile law; the regulation of admission to the bar, and the general elevation of the standard of the legal profession. In April, 1897, a valuable addition to the hospital facilities of the city was made in the opening of a department for the treatment of cases of rabies by the Pasteur method at the Gty Hospital. Financial aid and encouragement was given to this important enterprise by the city govern- ment, and in the succeeding years hundreds of cases of this dread disease from the counties and from nearby States, as well as from the city, were humanely and successfully treated and the victims saved from a terrible form of death. The Pratt bequest of approximately $1,250,000 to the Sheppard Asylum for the Insane gave to Baltimore in 1898 one of the most richly endowed institutions of its kind in the world. Enoch Pratt, next to Johns Hopkins, the most munificent of the philanthropists who have bestowed great benefactions on the city, died on the 17th of September, 1896, and the bequest made to the Sheppard Asylum became available on the 8th of August, 1898, at which time the large sum named was turned over to the trustees of the institution. A condition attached to the gift was that the name of the Asylum should be changed and that it should thereafter be known as the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. The legislature early in 1898 authorized the change of name, and Governor Lowndes approved it on the 8th of March in that year. In 1896 the grave claimed a man whose almost world-wide fame rested upon a single song which had touched the hearts of millions, but whose last years were spent in humble obscurity in Baltimore. On the i6th of August, F. W. Nichols Crouch, composer of "Kathleen Mavour- neen," expired in Portland, Maine, at the age of 88 years. Shortly before his death he had accepted an engagement with a theatrical company to conduct the orchestra during the rendition of his famous song, which was introduced as a feature of the drama which the company was presenting. Prior to this public appearance he had spent many years in obscurity, 3i8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE practically forgotten by the worid which kept on singing ''Kathleen Ma- voumeen". On the i6th of April, 1898, the Hon. Robert M. McLane, ex-Governor of Maryland, and American Minister to France during the first adminis- tration of President Grover Qeveland, died while on a visit to Paris. He had been identified with public affairs from early manhood, having held diplomatic posts prior to the war between the sections, and having served in the lower House of G>ngress, and in the Senate of Maryland after the restoration of peace. J. Thomas Scharf , an industrious worker in the field of local history, died in New York on the 28th of February, 1898, aged 54 years. He was a Baltimorean by birth, and at an early age had entered the Confederate service. After the return of peace he devoted his attention chiefly to his- torical research. He was the author of Chronicles of Baltimore, a History of Baltimore City and County, and a History of Western Maryland, In collaboration with Dr. William Hand Browne he wrote a History of Maryland in three voltmies. He was also a prolific writer for periodicals and the daily newspapers. On the i8th of July, 1898, Dr. Alan P. Smith died. Dr. Smith was a Baltimore surgeon who had gained a unique fame by his remarkable record in the successful performance of the operation of lithotomy. The mortality attending this operation under the conditions which surrounded surgery in the earlier years of Dr. Smith's professional career was very large, yet he performed the operation over thirty times before meeting with a fatal case. This record was without parallel in the surgical annals of the world up to that time. On October 28th of the following year, Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the linotype machine, died at his home in Baltimore. His invention had revolutionized typesetting in the composing ro<Hns of the daily news- papers, enabling the average compositor to set about four times as much reading matter in a given time as the compositor who set type by hand. In a contest several weeks before the death of the inventor, between Wil- liam H. Stubbs, of Baltimore, and William Duffy, of Philadelphia, the Baltimore contestant during four hours and thirty-three minutes averaged twelve thousand three hundred and fifty ems an hour, breaking all pre- vious records. Extremely few of the old-fashioned hand ccnnpositors were able to set two thousand ems an hour. This Baltimore invention, in its value to the g^eat newspapers of the world, ranked second only to the invention of the electric telegraph by Morse, which is also associated with Baltimore, the first line for practical use having been built between that city and Washington and the first formal telegram having been sent from Baltimore. On the 14th of April, 1899, Benjamin F. Newcomer, a wealthy citi- zen of Baltimore, stimulated local interest in the movement to eradicate tuberculosis by a gift of $10,000 for the purchase of a site for a hospital HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 319 for consumptives. This benefaction exercised an important influence in directing the thought of the people of the city and State to a movement which was later to bear fruit in systematic war upon the disease which annually claimed more victims than any other in the list of human ailments. During the second week in February, 1899, the entire South expe- rienced a visitation of wintry weather of extraordinary severity. In Balti- more a temperature of eight d^^rees above zero was recorded on the £th day of the month, and not until the i6th did the mercury rise above the freezing point. The lowest temperature reached during the intervening period was two degrees above zero. On the nth of February a snow- storm rarely paralleled in the latitude of Baltimore began, and reached its height two days later. The snow fall during the twenty-four hours immediately preceding eight o'clock in the evening of the 13th was fifteen and one-half inches, and between the 5th day of the month and the 13th the total precipitation was thirty-two and one-tenth inches. Drifts ten and twelve feet deep impeded travel in some sections of the city, and only a few street cars could be kept moving. Business was practically at a standstill. Many of the stores were closed, and very few persons were on the streets other than those who were compelled by circumstances to brave the storm. Numbers were overcome by exposure, and in one instance the victim fell exhausted and died in the street when near his home. Suburban sections were completely cut off, and travel by steam railroad and boat was interrupted for several days. Ice filled the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, completely blocking navigation and suspending the •operations of the oyster fleets. Many oyster vessels which were caught in the ice, ran short of food, and the crews were compelled to make their way ashore and tramp through sparsely settled sections in search of relief. Numbers reached Baltimore with hands and feet frozen and in a gen- erally deplorable condition. Five oyster dredgers perished from exposure in Calvert county while tramping toward Baltimore. On the 29th of June, 1899, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, after having been in the hands of receivers for several years, was restored to its stockholders and declared solvent. The rehabilitation of the railroad after the financial disasters which had brought it down from its high ^estate was attributed on all sides to the remarkable energy, ability, and devotion of one man, John K. Cowen, whose life work had been woven into its history. The restoration of the road was an event which stirred a deeper feeling in Baltimore than ordinarily attends upon the fortunes -or misfortunes of a corporation, for, while its vicissitudes had robbed it in large measure of the character it once had borne, of a distinctively Bal- timore institution, a sentimental interest continued to cling to the corpo- ration in which local pride had for many years been centered, in which local executive talent had erected for itself a mcmument, and in which the money of the city and State and of local capitalists had been the means of achieving magnificent success. 320 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE John K. Cowen's career in Baltimore reached its climax in this great achievement. Bom in Ohio, of Maryland parentage, he began life in a humble station. He was graduated from Princeton College with the third highest honors ever obtained by a student at that institution, and entered the employ of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad as junior counsel in its legal department. With his interests centered in the railroad alone,, he made himself a power in city and State politics, adapting his activities^ always to the requirements of the company. To his efforts was largely due the overthrow of the Democratic party in the State election of 1895, and the subsequent success of the Republican party in national elections. In 1894 he was elected as a Democrat to the Federal House of Representa- tives, but on the day after he had taken his seat he was called to the receivership of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Abandoning whatever political aspirations he may have entertained, he poured all his energies into the task of restoring its fortunes, and up to the time of his death from overwork, he never ceased to give to it all the service that his great executive ability could bestow. The Pennsylvania railroad had gradually absorbed many of the trans- portation lines on the Eastern SJ;iore of Maryland and Virginia, and had organized them into a system tributary to Philadelphia. On the 4th of September, 1899, ^^^ company extended still further its control of the traffic of the peninsula by die purchase of the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic railway, which controlled most of the lines of steamers engaged in the trade between Baltimore and the Eastern Shore tidewater region. Much dissatisfaction developed in the course of a few years, Baltimore interests claiming that this practical monopoly of a large part of the transportation facilities of the fertile country across the Chesapeake Bay was being used to the disadvantage of the city with the scarcely concealed purpose of diverting as much as possible of the traffic of the peninsula from the steamboat routes to the all-rail route to Philadelphia. The close of the year 1899 witnessed the completion of the splendid structure erected on Monument Square for the accommodation of the courts of Baltimore City, and shortly before this magnificent building received its finishing touches the initial steps were taken for the erection of a new Custom House, an appropriation of $1,500,000 for the building and an^ additional appropriation of $75,000 for the purchase of ground adjacent to the site of the old Custom House, having been secured from Congress. The Court House had been in course of construction during four years. As in the case of the Baltimore City Hall, the appropriations more than covered the expenditures for the building. Mayors Hooper, Malster, and Hayes had been in turn ex-oMcio heads of the commission, and the other members were ex-Mayor Ferdinand C. Latrobe, ex-Mayor James Hodges, Frank N. Hoen, Samuel D. Schmucker, General Felix Agnus^. J. Olney Norris, Henry D. Harlan, James E. Tate, Robert H. Smith, and' Augustus J. Dalrymple. i HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 321 Few buildings in America have received such unqualified praise from ccxnpetent critics as that which has been bestowed on the Baltimore Court House. In its architecture, its adaptation to the uses for which St is intended and its interior embellishment, it has been declared by vis- itors who have traveled in many countries to compare favorably with any temple of justice in the world, and to be tmequaled by any structure of its class in America. It occupies an entire city block, covering the sites of the former court house and several other public buildings, and also those of a number of stores and old-time mansions. The style of archi- tecture is the renaissance classic, and the material Baltimore county marble, with basement of granite fnxn the Woodstock quarries in Howard county. The dominant feature in the Calvert street facade is a loggia with eight monolith columns, each thirty-one feet and two>and-iive-eighths inches in height without the base, procured from the Beaver Dam quarries of Cockeysville, Maryland, which also furnished the monolith columns for the wings of the Capitol at Washington. The building rises three stories above the sub-basement and basement, and the first and second stories have half-stories. There are two hundred and eighteen rooms, including fourteen court rooms. The floor space is about six and a half acres, and the total length of the corridors is nearly one mile. The doors at the main entrance are of bronze in special designs, and the interior of the building is finished in hardwood and costly marbles. The Supreme Bench Court Room has been pronounced one of the most effective chambers of its size in existence. It is entirely surmounted by a dome resting upon walls and sixteen columns of richly colored marble. This marble was procured from a quarry near Rome, which is the prop- erty of the Holy See, and the product of which, owing to its rare beauty and fineness, has long been employed almost exclusively in the construc- tion of altars for chtuxhes. The supply of stone is nearly exhausted and consequently is used sparingly. It was in compliment to Cardinal Gib- bons, whose interest in this, as in all other matters connected with his native city, was active and heartfelt, that the Pope consented that this almost priceless stone should be used to adorn the chamber of the highest legal tribunal in the city which is the seat of the senior prelate of the Roman Catholic church in the United States. The work of removing the old buildings from the site was begun on the 8th of August, 1895; ^^^ cornerstone was laid on the 25th of June, 1896; the building was declared by the contractors to be completed in Drcember, 1899, and its occupation by the court officials took place on the 8th of January, 1900. A fine civic spirit manifested itself in a movement on the part of several oi^anizations and individual citizens to promote the embellishment of the building with mural paintings worthy of its architectural beauty. The Municipal Art Society took the initiative in this direction by offering to donate the sum of $5,000 for the decoration •f one wall space on condition that the city would appropriate $10,000 for 322 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the decoration of two other wall spaces. The city promptly accepted the offer, and a sub-committee of the Court House Commission, in conjunc- tion with Messrs. Theodore Marburg, John N. Steele, and J. B. Nod Wyatt, representing the Municipal Art Society, were entrusted with the task of selecting artists. C. Y. Turner, a Baltimorean by birth and edu- cation, and Edwin H. Blashfield, and John LaFarge of Newport, three of the most distinguished American decorative artists, were chosen by the joint committee. Turner and Blashfield devoted their efforts to the illus- tration of early Maryland history, while LaFarge produced a series of paintings of the great law givers of antiquity. The Maryland Line Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revo- lution subsequently inaugurated a movement which resulted in the addi- tion of a painting of the final American victory in the War of Independ- ence. A gift of $i,ooo was offered by the chapter and was later increased to $2,000. Two citizens added $1,000 each, and the Municipal Art Society contributed a like amount. The City of Baltimore appropriated $8,000, making the total amount available $13,000. Julian LeRoy White and Theodore Marburg secured the services of Jean Paul Laurens, the emi- nent French painter whose frescoes adorn the walls of the Paris Pantheon, and Mr. White devoted much time and thought to the task of supplying the artist with details. After several years Laurens produced the fine painting of the Surrender of Comwallis which has ever since its unveil- ing been regarded as one of the most interesting historical pictures in America. A fine bronze bust of Severn Teackle Wallis, for many years follow- ing the close of the War of Secession a leader of the Maryland bar, was placed in the western corridor of the building at a later date. It was the gift of the Maryland Bar Association. A statue of Cecilius Cal- vert, second Lord Baltimore, the founder of Maryland, was also added to the embellishments of the Court House. It occupies a commanding position at the St. Paul street entrance of the building. The closing year of the century ushered in a Democratic administra- tion of all departments of the State government, and with a Democratic mayor and city council in office in Baltimore City, political conditions seemed at first glance to be much the same as they were before the upheaval of 1895. Such was not the case, however. The old order of things in politics had passed away, never, the people of Baltimore fondly believed, to return. The General Assembly of 1900 gave heed to popular sentiment in many important matters, especially those affecting the City of Baltimore. One of these was a change in the method of appointing members of the Police Board. Up to that year the appointing power had been lodged in the General Assembly. The lack of direct individual responsibility for the selections of members of the board had worked badly, political manceu- vering invariably attending the election. The law of 1898 transferred the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 323 duty of naming the members of the board to the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The terms of the conmiissioners were short- ened from six to two years, and one was required to be chosen from each of the two leading political parties. The third member of the board might be taken from either party. The commissioners were required to make oath that they would not be influenced by political considerations in ap- pointing, prcMnoting, reducing in rank, or discharging any member of the police or detective force. The law also provided for a board of three police examiners who were to be appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, at least one of whom must be a member of the minority party. Their duties were to ascertain by competitive examinations the fitness of all candidates for appointment or prcxnotion except in the case of the marshal, captain of detectives, l^^al counsel, and police surgecHis. Ai^>ointments were required to be made from graded lists of candidates without regaird to religious or political affiliations. The aim and purpose of the law was, as far as possible, to remove the police force from political influence. The inadequate representation of Baltimore in the General Assembly also received consideration at this session. The population of the city had nearly doubled since the adoption of the constitution, while that of the counties of the State had increased less than twenty-five per cent. Yet Baltimore, with only forty-two per cent, of the population of the State, con- tinued to return but three of the twenty-six members of the State Senate, and eighteen of the ninety-one members of the House of Delegates. To remedy this unfair distribution of representation, the General Assembly voted to submit to the people of the State amendments to the Constitution dividing the city into four instead of three legislative districts, with one senator and six delegates from each district. At the election held in the following November these amendments were ratified by the people. A general oyster law was also passed at this session. The decline in the great packing industry in Baltimore City had compelled serious atten- tion to this subject. The law r^;ulated the issuing of licenses to dredgers and tongers, provided rigid restrictions on the taking of small oysters from the beds, and gave to the inspectors and measurers appointed by the State the most ample powers for the enforcement of the provisions of the act. Another act of this legislature created an unpaid Board of Commis- sioners of State Aid and Charities to pass on applications from institutions, penal, reformatory, educational, or charitable, for appropriations from the State treasury, and report to the legislature whether the public interests would be served by granting the aid asked. The ofiice of the commission- ers was to be in Baltimore. The first board appointed consisted of ex- Mayor Ferdinand C. Latrobe, ex-Governors Elihu E. Jackson and John Lee Carroll, James Bond, Samuel Rosenthal, Jr., with James R. Brewer as secretary. The year 1900 was the first, since Baltimore became an incorporated 324 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE city, in which no municipal election was required by law to be held. The federal elections, however, excited unusual interest, and there was a large increase in the number of registered voters as compared with the reg- istration for the hotly contested gubernatorial election of the preceding year. The total number of names on the voting lists was 119,517, being exceeded only by the registration for the mtmicipal election held in the spring of 1899. The Donocratic victories at the city and State elections had shown that the Republican party, despite its success in 1895 and 1897, had gained no material accessions of strength, and that, in so far as local issues were concerned, the shortomiings of the Democratic party had served only to increase the number of independent voters. In national politics, however, the sentiment of the axnmunity had been steadily with the Republican party at every election after that of 1892. The nomination of Bryan by the National Convention was perfunc- torily accepted by the local Democratic leaders, but the business men of Baltimore, nearly three-fourths of whom were or had been Democrats, failed to receive it with approval, even though the free coinage question had been shelved and opposition to the annexation of Spain's captured colonies had been made the paramount issue. The Honest Mon^ Demo- cratic League, which owed its existence largely to the energetic efforts of John K. Cowen and S. Davies Warfield, led a large and influential body of Democrats over to the support of McKinley, while many who refused openly to support the Republican candidates gave only a reluctant and half- hearted support to the Democratic ticket. An unexpected stimulus was, however, imparted to the Bryan cam- paign by the accession of Senator George F. Wellington, former State leader of the Republican party, who vehemently denounced the McKinley administration and boldly declared himself in favor of the Democratic candidate. Wellington had quarreled with the President over the Federal appointments, and had taken issue with him on the question of annexing the islands which had been wrested from Spain. He had been deposed from the leadership of his party in Maryland, and was incensed at what he considered the ingratitude of the Governor and other prominent Re^ publicans who had profited by the success which the party had obtained under his direction. The defection of a United States Senator was a suf- ficient cause for serious alarm to the Republicans, and did much to revive the fainting hopes of Bryan's adherents. Influential newspaper support in Baltimore, which had been wholly lacking in 1896, was also a factor in favor of Bryan in 1900, and, as the campaign progressed, his prospects of success grew steadily brighter in city and State. The very fact of his growing strength, however, served to ensure his defeat at the polls. His opponents put forth increased efforts, and money was spent lavishly to turn the tide against him. The election in November resulted in a second victory for McKinley in Maryland, but his plurality in 1896 of over 32,000 was reduced to one of less than 14,000 in 1900. Baltimore City, which in HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 325 1896 gave McKinley a plurality of 21,093, in 1900 reduced its plurality to 6,906. The Republicans, however, elected their candidates in every con- gressional district in the State, securing the Fourth District in Baltimore City, and the Eastern Shore District, both of which in 1898 had elected Democrats. The dosing year of the nineteenth century was also the year of the twelfth Federal census. The peculation of Baltimore City, according to the count made by the Federal enumerators, was 508,957, of whom 79,258 were negroes, an increase of 17.1 per cent, during the immediately preced- ing decade. While this growth of population had been moderate as com- pared with that of many of the newer cities in the West, and with that of die great industrial cities of the North, it was sufficient to demonstrate the fact that the city was steadily progressing, despite changed conditions which favored the more rapid growth of rival communities. Prior to the War of Secession, Baltimore's prosperity had rested rather upon its commerce than upon its manufactures, although, as compared with other Southern cities, the latter had attained a development which left it practically with- out a rival in its section. Its great national advantages as an industrial centre, its favorable location as a distribution point, its remarkably favor- able climate, its cheap markets and low rents, its abundance of intelligent labor, its extensive near-by water power, and its prestige as the trade metropolis of a great consuming section, had invited the favorable atten- tion of a number of important industries, but not to a degree sufficient to interrupt and divert the current which had during many years borne the bulk of the manufactures of the country in other directions. The nineteenth century had witnessed an increase of an hundred fold in the population, and a vastly greater growth in the wealth of the city. Two years prior to the adopti<xi of the Declaration of Independence, Balti- more was a town of about 5,000 inhabitants, scarcely equaling Annapolis in importance. At the close of the eighteenth century the population had in- creased to 26,144, and the assessed value of its property two years earlier was $699,519. In 1900 the assessment of the city for State taxes was $343>^7'i359 suid its actual wealth was much in excess of that figure, the assessment being admittedly misleading. Immediately after the publication of the figures of the Federal census, suspicion was aroused that gross errors had been made in the count, some of them designedly and some through carelessness. An investigation by the Federal authorities led to the discovery that the enumerators in certain counties had deliberately padded the lists with a view to the augmentation of the representation of those counties in the Maryland House of Dele- gates. Several of the enumerators were prosecuted and sentenced to priscm in consequence of their violations. Baltimore City, on the other hand, lodged complaint against the census figures, claiming that its population was larger 1^ many thousands than the enumerators had represented. Corrob- orative evidence was offered in support of this claim, but the census bureau 326 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE officials declared it was insufficient in their opinion to justify a recount of the city population, and all that they would consent to do was to revise the figures for the counties where the enumeration had been thoroughly discredited. The State of Maryland thereupon determined to have a census taken under its own auspices upon which to base the distribution of repre- sentation in the General Assembly. This census was taken in the following year, and, according to its figures, the population of Baltimore City was 517,035, an excess over the figures of the Federal census of 8,078. In the gubernatorial campaign of 1899 the negro issue had been given pnxninence in the politics of Maryland for the first time since the exciting controversy over the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. In earlier contests between the Republican and Democratic parties, the former organization had been forced to bear the reproach of being de- pendent upon the negro vote for whatever success it had achieved at the polls. This success had up to 1895 been so slight, however, and the negroes as a rule had been so unaggressive, that very little serious opposition to their exercise of the voting function had been engendered in Baltimore City or in the northern tier of Maryland counties. In the tide-water coun- ties, where the colored voters constituted from (Hie-third to a majority of the voting population, means had been found for some years after the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to prevent the Republican party from profiting very greatly through its n^^o following. It was believed, indeed, by many Democratic leaders, that the possession of this following by the opposition was a serious obstacle to the growth of the Republican party in city and State. But the election of a Republican governor in 1895 operated materially to change the views of some of the most influ- ential men in the councils of the Democratic party. Furthermore, the counties in which the negroes were numerous had grown restive under the control of a handful of white men, whose success at the polls was won by means of n^ro votes in the face of immense majorities of the white voters. At the close of the eighteenth century the actual number of negroes in Maryland was larger than the number in any of the other States with the exception of Virginia and South Carolina, about one-third of its popu- lation being of African descent. At the close of the nineteenth century the white population had become about four times as numerous as the negro population. The percentage of negroes was considerably greater than that in any other of the border States, about the same as that of Texas, and not very much less than that of Tennessee. Moreover, the n^ro population was very unevenly distributed. In five counties south of the Patapsco, where the negroes in i860 had outnumbered the whites by about 13,000, the exodus of blacks to the cities had given the whites in 1900 a small pre- ponderance. In the Southern counties on the Eastern Shore the negroes in the same year constituted about one-third of the population. In Balti- more City the negro population had risen from 27,898 in i860 to 79*258 in 1900. According to the figures of the Federal census of that year, the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 327 negro inhabitants of the city outnumbered those of any other city in the country with the exception of Washington, and as the area included in the Baltimore count was only thirty square miles, the number of negroes to the square mile in Baltimore was greater than in any other city in the United States, or, in fact, it is probable that no other thirty square miles on the globe was inhabited by so large a negro population as that of Baltimore. In the sections of Maryland where the negroes formed a large per- centage of the population, the white Republicans were very few in number. At the election for Governor in 1867, when the negroes had not been en- franchised, the total Republican vote was only 274, distributed as follows : Anne Arundel, 150; Calvert, 9; Charles, 7; Prince George's, 78; St. Mary's, 30; in the eight counties on the Eastern Shore south of Cecil, the total Republican vote was but 1476. In the course of thirty years ensuing. Democratic abuses of power and other causes had considerably increased the number of white Republicans in these counties, but the Democratic party still could count upon the support of an overwhelming majority of the white voters. These thirteen counties returned half the twenty-six members of the Maryland Senate and thirty-seven of the ninety-five mem- bers of the House of Delegates, and the elimination of the whole, or even a part of the negro vote, held out to the Democratic party now in control of the city and State governments, the prospect of an impregnable entrench- ment in power. Senator Arthur P. Gorman, the State leader of the Democratic party, had lost his seat in the United States Senate in consequence of the election of a Republican legislature in 1897, and was looking forward to the elec- tion of a Democratic legislature in 1901 which would choose him as the successor of Senator Wellington. There were several important measures engaging public attention early in that year which suggested the idea of calling a special session of the General Assembly. The rectification of the frauds in the Federal census and the passage of an enabling act conferring power upon the mayor and city council of Baltimore to provide a sewerage system for the city, seemed to many distinguished citizens to be matters of pressing importance, and as the next stated meeting of the General As- sembly was a year off, public sentiment in favor of calling an extraordi- nary meeting was developed. The fact that it was in contemplation to alter the election laws was, however, perfectly well understood, and a great deal of opposition sentiment also made itself manifest. Republicans and Inde- pendent voters alike feared that any change in the existing laws which the Democratic leaders might make would operate to restore the political con- ditions which the uprising of 1895 had in a large part corrected. Governor Smith finally decided to call the extra session, and on the 6th of March the General Assembly met at Annapolis. The Governor in his mess^e recommended a State enumeration of the population in order to prevent a disproportionate representation of some sections in the House of Delegates, the reform of "manifest and great abuses" in the election 328 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE laws, and a grant of power to the municipality of Baltimore to construct a sewerage system. Popular interest was centred chiefly in the contemplated changes in the election law as the favorable action of the General Assembly on the two other matters was practically assured in advance. There was some doubt entertained as to whether the Senate would prove tractable, as the Democratic margin in that branch of the legislature was small and there was known to be some opposition to the proposed l^slation. The Re- publicans fought the new election law bitterly, but finally the measure got safely through both houses and was signed by the Governor. One obvious purpose of the law, and perhaps the main one, was to render voting as difficult as possible to the ''illiterates," of whom there were 18,307 whites and 26,616 negroes. The negro illiterates in the tidewater counties where the colored vote was a very important factor in politics largely outnumbered the negroes who could read or write, and it was as- sured that the Republicans would suffer greatly through the operation of the law. In Baltimore City considerably more than two-thirds of the registered negroes could read and write; but even in the city the loss to the Republicans at the polls was expected to prove irreparable. There were other features of the law, however, which commended themselves to all fair-minded citizens, especially those which aimed to prevent the bribery of voters. The act provided for absolute secrecy of the ballot. The candidate of each party had formerly been placed in separate columns with the party emblem above to g^ide the illiterate voter. The new law abolished party emblems, and required that the names of candidates for each office, except in the case of presidential electors, be arranged in alphabetical order under the designation of that office, the only guide to the voter being the party designation after each name. No assistance was to be given the voter by clerks or others in marking his ballot, except in cases of blindness or other physical incapacity, in which case the clerks of both parties must give the assistance. The marking of more names than there were persons to be elected was to invalidate the ballot, and any marie of any kind other than the cross marks called for by the law was to do the same. Penalties of fine or imprisonment or both were provided for any apparent intent on the part of the voter to let it be known how he would mark his ballot, or for any false statement as to physical inability, or for any interference in any way with the secrecy of the ballot. Provision was also made for preventing persons who had taken up a residence outside of the State from continuing to vote in Maryland. An act for the reniunbering of the wards in Baltimore City and rear- ranging the legislative and councilmanic districts was also passed at the extra session, and census and sewerage bills, as had been anticipated, were promptly and favorably disposed of. On the 7th of May, 1901, a new City Council was elected in Baltimore. Mayor Hayes' administration had proved a stormy one. Almost from the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 3^9 start he had been at war with the Democratic organization in the city. A contest in the municipal primaries between candidates favored by the mayor and others favored by the followers of I. Freeman Rasin had evolved so much bitterness that at the general election many of the Democratic candidates were ruthlessly sacrificed. The Republicans elected eighteen of the twenty-four members of the First Branch of the City Council, and four of the Second Branch, being all of the half of the membership of that branch voted for that year. The Democratic plurality of 8,633 ^^ ^^^ mayoralty election of 1899 was wiped out, and a Republican plurality of 2,2Q2 recorded in its stead. Nine days after the municipal election, Presi- dent Skipwith Wilmer, of the Second Branch of the City Council, was compelled by ill-health to resign his office. Henry Williams, who had been the Democratic candidate for mayor in 1895 and 1897, was elected to fill the remainder of the term. During this year, death robbed Baltimore of a number of citizens who had won distinction in various spheres of activity, among them being Pro- fessor Henry A. Rowland, of the Johns Hopkins University faculty, one of the foremost physicists of the world, whose life was ended at the com- paratively early age of 52; Professor Herbert B. Adams, who had occu- pied the chair of history in the same institution, Hon. Robert T. Banks, who was elected mayor of the city in 1867; Benjamin F. Newcomer, one of the leading capitalists of the city, whose constructive energies had done much to advance the business enterprises of Baltimore; and Thomas W. Hall, who had long occupied a conspicuous position at the bar, and an even more conspicuous position as a brilliant and influential writer for the daily press. At the anniversary exercises of the Johns Hopkins University on the 22d of February, 1901, Dr. Daniel Coit Gilman announced that he would retire from the office of president of the institution on the ist day of the following September, at which date he would have completed the seventieth year of his life. Called to the work of organizing the University in 1874, at a time when the leading institutions of learning in America had scarcely dared to approach the great and inviting field of original research, and when post-graduate work on this side of the Atlantic had few avenues open to its pursuers. Dr. Gilman had boldly faced the narrow prejudices of that time, and had employed the Johns Hopkins then unparalled financial en- dowment to organize a university on the advanced German model, devoted to the function of broadening human knowledge rather than to the mere transmission of knowledge gleaned elsewhere. As a pioneer in this field, his work in Baltimore marked an epoch in the history of American education, and, while it conferred on the institution of which he was the creator a world-wide fame, it had an even more important effect in that it re-created other American schools, which grew great in the ripening influ- ence of the Johns Hopkins University's example. Dr. Gilman's successor in the presidency of the University was Professor Ira Remsen, who had been 330 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE at the head of the department of chemistry in the institution and one of the original members of its faculty. On Peggy Stewart Day, October 19, 1901, a monument to the Mary- land soldiers who served in the War for Independence, erected in Mount Royal Plaza, was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies. The monument is of granite and, including the statue of the Goddess of Liberty which surmounts it, has a height of sixty feet and six inches. On each of the four sides of the pedestal is an inscription commemorating the achievements of the Marylanders in the Revolutionary War. One of these is the burning of the cargo of tea brought to Annapolis in the brig Peggy Stewart, on the 19th of October, 1774. A list of the battles in which the Maryland Line participated is also inscribed on the tablets. The monument was erected by the Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. The year 1901 witnessed unusual activity in the construction of steel vessels in Baltimore. A large floating dry dock, built for the government, was floated at Sparrows Point, and later towed to Algiers, Louisiana. At the same works three torpedo boat destroyers for the United States navy, and the Shawmut, the largest vessel ever built in Baltimore, having a dis- placement of about 17,000 tons, were launched during this year. At the State election held on the 5th of November, 1901, the Demo- cratic party, despite the new election law, and perhaps in part because of the purpose which was supposed to have inspired its enactment, narrowly escaped another total rout. Its candidate for comptroller, although person- ally popular, was elected with the small plurality of 121 votes. Its candi- date for clerk of the Court of Appeals was defeated, his Republican op- ponent receiving a plurality of 1,389. In Baltimore City the Republican candidates for comptroller and clerk of the Court of Appeals received sub- stantial pluralities, and the Democratic candidates for the local offices were all defeated except the candidate for the shrievalty, who won with a narrow margin of 892 votes. The Republicans also captured the only senatorial vacancy in a city district, and elected half of the delegates to the lower house of the legislature. The Democratic majorities in the General As- sembly were materially reduced as the result of this election. It was, in- deed, nearly a week before it was clear that they would have a majority on joint ballot, and even then the Republicans threatened to contest the election of a score of members. Several causes had operated to bring this partial reverse upon the Democratic party. The independent voters had been bitterly opposed to the calling of the extra session of the legislature, and were apprehensive that the Democratic leaders were planning to restore the obj^tionable con- ditions which had existed prior to 1895. Their strength went largely against the Democratic party at the polls. But the overshadowing issue at the election was the candidacy of Arthur P. Gorman for re-election to the United States Senate as the successor of George L. Wellington. Gor- man had been retired from the Senate, in which body he was the Demo- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 331 cratic leader, by the Republican legislature of Maryland elected in 1897, and ever since his return to private life had been quietly planning to regain his seat. In the campaign of 1901 his enemies in the Democratic party were even more energetic than the Republicans in their endeavors to thwart his ambition, believing that a defeat at the ensuing elections would perma- nently remove him from the leadership of the Democratic party in Mary- land. The contest was one of the most stubbornly fought in the political history of the State, and with all his resourcefulness and mastery of politi- cal strategy, Gorman barely escaped losing the prize he had labored so hard to gain. A matter of greater importance to the city of Baltimore than the fill- ing of a senatorship was decided at this election when the vote of the people ratified the amendments to the State Constitution, increasing the city's representation in the General Assembly. The amendments added a fourth legislative district to the existing three, thus giving Baltimore an ad- ditional senator and six additional members of the House of Delegates. The counties gave a small majority against the amendment, but the large majority in Baltimore Gty overcame the rural opposition. The General Assembly convened at Annapolis on New Year's Day, 1902, and on the 14th day of the month elected Arthur Pue Gorman United States Senator on the first ballot. The election law adopted at the extra session of 1901 was amended in several respects. The form of the ballot was carefully prescribed, and rigid requirements as to the placing of the cross mark by voters after the names of candidates were made. The projection of the mark beyond the square was made a compelling cause for the rejection of the ballot. This provision subsequently became a target of attack because of the large number of votes it caused to be thrown out. It was also enacted that voters might register without declaring their party affiliation, but by so doing they debarred themselves from participating in primary elections. Among other acts of this legislature was one establishing a court in Baltimore Gty for the trial of juvenile offenders. This court was first opened on the 24th of January, 1902, with Charles W. Heuisler as judge. Another act passed at this session permitted women lawyers to practice in the courts of Maryland. Under this law Miss Etta H. Maddox, a graduate of the Baltimore Law School in the class of 1901, took the prescribed ex- amination on the 9th of July, and was admitted to the Baltimore bar. Miss Maddox was the first of her sex in Maryland to be admitted to practice in the courts of the State. This legislature limited the number of female notaries public in Baltimore City to six, and allowed only one to each court of the State, except Washington county, where no limit was placed on the number. The acts of women notaries public were placed on the same plane with those of men. The L^slature adjourned on the 31st of March, but later it was dis- covered that the State tax law had been overlooked. A special session to 332 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE remedy the oversight was held on the i6th of April. It lasted only two- and-a-half hours. An ice embargo in the Chesapeake during the month of February, 1902, proved to be the worst experienced in a dozen years. For three weeks navigation was impeded, the bay being filled with ice as far south as the mouth of the Potomac. On the 21st day of the month a severe sleet storm broke down the tel^^aph wires, completely isolating Baltimore from the rest of the country. The fire alarm system was thrown into confusion and traffic was interrupted. News from the north and west could reach the city only by way of Richmond. A heavy rainfall and a rise in the tem- perature followed, and on the 26th disastrous floods occurred, causing great damage in Maryland and neighboring States. Following the severe winter, one of the most widely extended and pro- tracted coal strikes in the history of the country was inaugurated, lasting from the 12th of May till the 23d of October, a period of one hundred and sixty-five days. The entire anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania, from which the household supply of fuel for Baltimore was drawn, was involved. The price of coal rose to almost prohibitive figures, and finally coal could scarcely be obtained at any price. Families were compelled to resort to oil and gas stoves for warmth and for the means of preparing food, the scarcity of coal continuing for several months after the. strike was declared off. The struggle was attended with numerous outbreaks ojE violence in which several persons were killed and many injured. Efforts made by the National Civic Association and other agencies to effect a set- tlement proved unavailing. As the summer waned, the leading politicians of the country became apprehensive of the effect of the strike on the au- tumn elections, and exerted themselves strenuously to bring about a com- promise. Governors of States and finally the President of the United States appealed to both parties to end the strike, and the aid of the most powerful financial magnates of the country was invoked. After long continued negotiations a plan for submitting the points in dispute to arbitration was formulated and accepted, and after a loss estimated at $135,000,000 had been sustained, peace was restored, each side making some concessions. The sale of the interest of Baltimore City in tfie Western Maryland railroad to a syndicate headed by E. F. Fuller, representing the Gould, or Wabash system of railroads, was consummated on the 7th of May, 1902, the consideration being $8,751,370.45. This road was projected as early as the year 1830, but its actual beginning dates back only as far as 1852. It was designed to establish communication between Baltimore and the fertile region lying between the city and the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The greater portion of the capital used in its construction was furnished by Baltimore City and Washington county. The route it follows had at- tracted the favorable notice of the engineers who built the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and would have been adopted by them, it has been asserted, had they been able to discover a practicable way across the South Mountain. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 333 Its early history was similar to that of a majority of such enterprises which a^e associated with politics. A good deal of money was wasted in its const^ction, and its management was inefikient until 1874, when John Mifilin Hood, a man of great executive ability and an engineer whose prac- tical experience had covered a wide range, was elected to the presidency of the company. Under his administration the road advanced rapidly toward prosperity. The modem development of vast railroad systems clearly pointed to the fact that the value of the Western Maryland railroad to Baltimore as a feeder of its commerce and a builder of its trade would be promoted by its absorption into one of them, and the proposal of the city to sell its interest in the road led to a lively competition. The principal bid- ders in addition to the Fuller syndicate, and tht sums they offered were as follows: a syndicate headed by W. W. Vamey, $10,100,000; the Reading railroad, $10,001,000; Hambleton & Company, bankers, of Baltimore, in connection with the George D. Code Company of New York and Chicago, $9,350,000. The Wabash system^s bid was the lowest of the four, yet a strong public sentiment developed in favor of accepting it in preference to any other. The need of that system for an outlet at tidewater gave promise of terminals in Baltimore and large advantages to the city's commerce and manufactures. These considerations prevailed over the larger sums of- fered by the other bidders, and the City Council voted to sell to the Wabash, only two members opposing the transaction. On the 15th of July two Baltimore railroads, both of which were a part of the Pennsylvania system, became one by the merging of the stock of the I^iladelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore, and the Baltimore & Potomac into one concern under the name of the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Wash- ington railroad. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Johns Hopkins University was ob- served amid great rejoicing on the part of its friends over two events which prcMnised to exert an important influence upon its destinies. In February, 1902, an extensive tract of land in the northern suburbs of Balti- more was given by eight wealthy gentlemen, a part of which was to be used for the permanent site of the University, another part, contiguous to the first, for a public park, and the remainder for a boulevard to connect Roland Park and Druid Hill Park. The donors were Messrs. William Keyser, William Wyman, Samuel Keyser of New York, Francis M. Jencks, Julian LeRoy White, William H. Buckler, A. J. Uknan, and David H. Carroll. It had been the wish of Johns Hopkins that the institution which he endowed might have its location on his country seat at Qifton. In this matter, however, as in all others, he left those who organized the University free to exercise their own judgment. In the critical period which followed the partial loss of endowment through the bankruptcy of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, the University trustees were compelled to accept the offer of the city for the purchase of the Gifton estate. At the end of a quarter of a century of existence, conditions had so altered as to 334 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE point to the almost imperative necessity of ultimate removal to a location more remote from the traffic of a large city. The picturesque tract pre- sented to the University by the eight gentlemen named was acxnirably suited to the University's requirements, and its environment was ideal. Al- most simultaneously with the announcement of the gift, President Remsen made public the gratifying fact that the task which had been undertaken of raising one million dollars as an addition to the endowment had been completed. During this year, 1902, two other gifts of importance were made to the cause of higher education in Baltimore, both of which were to the Woman's College, later known as Goucher Collie. Mr. Robert Poole gave the in- stitution $25,000, making the total of his benefactions $60,000, and the will of Major Alexander Shaw contained a bequest to that institution of $50,000. Another act of munificence during this year was the gift by Miss Jennie M. Abell of sixty-four acres of land near Timonium in Baltimore county for a country home for children. The purchase of the art collection of Don Marcello Massarentt by Mr. Henry Walters, in May, 1902, and its arrival in New York, where it was appraised at $450,000, aroused g^eat interest in Baltimore, where Mr. Walters already possessed a gallery of paintings illustrative of the best modem school, which was reputed to be the finest private collection in America. By successive purchases he had acquired all the land on the east side of Washington Place in the rear of his Mount Vernon Place resi- dence, and although no announcement of his intention was made at the time of the purchases, it was generally conjectured that he had in mind the erection of some such structure as the handsome art gallery which in the course of a few years rose on this site. The death of Colonel Charles Marshall, nephew of John Marshall, the great Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and himself one of the most eminent members of the Maryland bar, occurred on the 19th of April, 1902. During a life extending over seventy-one years he had won distinction in several spheres of activity. He had served on the staff of General Robert E. Lee during the War of Secession, and had filled the important post of military secretary to that great soldier, a posi- tion corresponding to the office of chief of staff in other armies. Most of the important orders and dispatches of General Lee were written by his hand, and many of them are said to have been of his own composition. He was the most trusted member of the great Confederate leader's family throughout the war, and was the only one present when the terms of surrender at Appomattox were drafted. Without aspiring to official hon- ors. Colonel Marshall had always taken a deep and active interest in poli- tics, and always with a view to the elevation of the moral standards in the public service. The Very Reverend A. L. Magnien, president emeritus of St. Mary's HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 335 Seminary, the oldest Roman Catholic school of theology in the United States, also closed a life of conspicuous usefulness in Baltimore during this year. After long service to the institution, he had retired from active work about four months before his death. Other prominent Balti- moreans who died during this year were Major Alexander Shaw, a wealthy capitalist who had been an influential promoter of many Baltimore enter- prises and had aided largely in the development of the resources of West Virginia ; Reverend Julius E. Grammer, one of the most prominent clergy- men in the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, and for a number of years rector of St. Peter's Church; and Rabbi Benjamin Szold, a leader of national fame in the councils of the Jewish faith. On the 20th of July, 1902, Baltimore was the center of a windstorm which unroofed two hundred houses, seriously damaged shipping in the harbor, blew down many trees, and interrupted the street car, telegraph, telq)hone, and electric light services. Several horses and other animals were killed by contact with live wires and a property loss estimated by the city building inspector at a quarter of a million dollars was sustained. The schooner yacht Olk/e was capsized during the storm, and the wife and three children of Michael Schovler, who were in the cabin, were drowned. In the congressional elections of 1902 the Republican candidates were successful in four of the six Maryland districts. In Baltimore City, the Democrats r^ained the fourth district and came within 184 votes of defeating the Hon. Frank C. Wachter in the third district. In the Second district the Hon. J. Fred C. Talbott regained the seat in Congress which he had lost at the election of 1894, and which in 1901 he had unsuccess- fully endeavored to recover. The first legalized primary election in Baltimore City was held on the 7th of April, 1903. The General Assembly of 1902 passed an act under which nominations might be made for city offices by direct vote of the people, or by party conventions, as the governing bodies of the parties might prefer. It was provided that the legalized primary elections of the party or parties adopting them were to be conducted by the regular elec- tion officials in practically the same manner as a general election, with official ballots and the same penalties for violations of the law. Only those who had, when registering as voters, declared their party affilia- tion, were to be allowed to vote at the primary elections. Both of the leading political parties accepted the method of direct voting for munici- pal candidates in 1903, and in each a spirited contest developed over the mayoralty nomination. Mayor Hayes was a candidate for renomination. He had incurred the enmity of the Democratic city organization early in his administration, and although it was admitted very generally that facts justified his boast that he had made Baltimore ''a city without graft", a number of influential men among the independent voters were opposed to his renomination. Ex-Mayor Ferdinand C. Latrobe and Francis E. 336 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE , f Yewell announced their candidacy for the nomination, but r^either of them received much encouragement from the party leaders. FirLaUy the name of Robert M. McLane, then State's Attorney, was brought iVorward. His unimpeachable official record, his high personal character an^ his influen* tial social connections fitted him preeminently for the purposed of the poli- ticians, who were chiefly desirous of accomplishing the defeati of Mayor Hayes, and were willing to accept any other candidate who gav;e promise of being able to lead them to victory. The mayor had built up an organization of his own, and was very confident that he would be able to defeat any opponent who might be brought out against him. The result of the election, however, was a crushing defeat for him, the returns showing a plurality of 5462 for McLane. The Republican primary campaign developed into a bitter con- test between Frank C. Wachter, who aspired to the mayoralty nomination, and William F. Stone, collector of the port and head of the Republican organization in Baltimore City, who advocated the nomination of William D. Piatt for the mayoralty. The State leaders were soon drawn into the struggle, the enemies of Collector Stone aiding Wachter, while Senator McCcxnas, Charles J. Bonaparte, and other men prominent in Republican councils, strenuously opposed his nomination. The primary election resulted in a victory for WaAter, his majority over Piatt being 2,310. Collector Stone succeeded, however, in nominating E. Qay Timanus for president of the Second Branch of the City Council, and his success in this direction ultimately proved to be of the greatest importance. Preliminary to the primary elections it became necessary to have a registration of voters, with their party affiliations. The number registered was 114,367; of these, 5S,2i8 affiliated with the Democratic party, and 47,783 with the Republi- can party. The remaining 11,366 declined to record their party preferences. This regulation showed that the independent voters held the balance of of power in the city, their number being 3,821 in excess of the Democratic preponderance over the Republicans. The municipal election was held on the 5th of May. The campaign was conducted with much acrimony. Both parties were more or less rent by factional jealousies. The independent vote was also divided, many of those who hadi favored the renomination of Mayor Hayes continuing to harbor distrust of the candidate whose nomination had been effected through the support of the Democratic organization. I. Freeman Rasin, the ac- knowledged leader of that organization, was far too astute a politician, however, to badge the nominee as his personal choice. He had ostensibly abdicated the function of dictator, and had caused McLane to be brought into the field by pr(Hninent independent Democrats. This being done, he proclaimed the willingness of the organization to accept and support the candidate who had been chosen. Under these circumstances, the Reform League was unable to agree to an indorsement of any candidate. Promi- nent Republicans who had long been members of the League and who had HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 337 used it to the fullest extent possible to promote the interests of their own party, for the first time manifested a disposition actually to exercise the independence they had so long professed and to bolt the nomination of Wachter, whose personality and methods were displeasing to them. The election was the closest the city had witnessed in many years, the oJBIicial returns giving McLane a plurality of only 520, and showing the election of the Republican candidates for the presidency of the Second Branch of the City Council and for the city comptroUership. The cry of fraud and trickery was immediately raised by the friends of the defeated mayoralty candidate. In four precincts no return had been made of the vote, the election officials being unable to agree. A long controversy ensued which was finally taken into the courts. A recount of the ballots was ordered, but no fraud was discovered, the result being that McLane's plurality was slightly increased. The Democrats elected sixteen of the twenty-four members of the First Branch of the City Council and three of the four members of the Second Branch who were voted for at this election. The Republicans, however, had all four of the hold-over members of the Second Branch, and also the president of the branch. This gave them a majority of three in that body. In joint convention, however, the party strength was: Democrats 17; Republicans 14. The State campaign of 1903 was peculiar in the fact that the suc- cessful aspirant for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination entered the contest without asking the support of the State or city leaders. Edwin Warfidd, of Howard county, had been a staunch supporter of Senator Gorman for many years, and in 1899, when he first aspired to the gov- ernorship, expected the assistance of the Senator in his canvass. Senator Gorman, however, declared in favor of Jchn Walter Smith, and Mr. War- field was defeated at the primary election. He ceased from that time to look to the State leaders of the party for the prcmiotion of his ambition, and began to build up his own political future. When the time for select- ing a candidate arrived he had developed so much strength with the people that the party leaders, although they would have preferred another candidate, deemed it prudent to permit him to have the mnnination. The Republicans nominated Stevenson A. Williams, of Harford county, a man of high character and great ability, after a bitter contest between the factions in the party. The Democrats had used the negro issue with suc- cess in the campaign of 1899, ^^^ ^^ ^^ ISK>3 campaign they presented it with increased emphasis. ''White Supremacy" was the battle cry of the party and its candidates, and in Baltimore City, as well as in the tide- water counties where the negro vote formed a large part of the Republi- can following, it aroused enthusiasm. The Democratic platform contained the following declaration on the subject: "The good government which we are now enjoying under Democratic adminis- tration cannot possibly be made better by the Republican party; but, on the contrary, dependent for its existence as that party in this State is upon its solid negro vote, it 338 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE is manifest that the defeat of our ticket at the coming election will bring back upon us the evils and dangers from which our triumph in 1899 so fortunately delivered us. ''We believe that the political destinies of Maryland should be shaped and con- trolled by the white people of the State, and while we disclaim any purpose to do any injustice whatever to our colored population, we declare, without reserve, our reso- lute purpose to preserve in every conservative and constitutional way the political as- cendancy of our race." The platform also pledged the Democratic party to amend the election laws with a view to promote intelligent voting, and urged the election of a Democratic General Assembly in order that a man might be sent to the United States Senate from Maryland 'Vho would scorn to malign and attack the white people of the South in their efiForts to properly solve the great questions resulting from the enfranchisement of the negroes." The discussion of the negro question pushed all other issues into the back- ground as the campaign progressed. The Republicans sought in vain to stem the tide by pronouncing it a ''bugaboo". Warfield was elected gov- ernor with a plurality of over twelve thousand, of which the city contrib- uted 6,642, all the other Democratic candidates on the State ticket received substantial pluralities, and in the General Assembly the Democrats had more than three-fifths of the members of each house, which gave them the power to pass amendments to the constitution. In Baltimore City the Democrats elected their candidates for all the oJBIices except that of sheriff, the Republican candidate for which was successful with the small plurality of 142. They also carried three of the four legislative districts by substantial pluralities. On the evening of the nth of May, 1903, the Fifth Regiment of Infantry, Maryland National Guard, was formally placed in possession of the fine armory which had been erected for it through an appropriation of $420,000 by the General Assembly. This structure was, at the time of its erection, the largest of its kind in the United States, covering the greater portion of a double block, bounded on the north by Hoffman street, and on the south by Preston street. Its extreme dimensions are 366 feet in length and 285 feet in width. Built of granite, its frowning frontage suggests the idea of a great fortress, and it could, in fact, be successfully defended against any attack except with artillery. The Hoff- man street front rises thirty feet, while the rear wall on Preston street, owing to the slope of the ground, is fifty-three feet in height. The arched roof at its apex reaches a height of one hundred and four feet above the ground, and rests on trusses, leaving everything clear of obstruction below. The arch is a magnificent span of two hundred feet, and is said to be the largest in any inclosed structure in America. The dimensions of the drill room are three hundred feet in length and two hundred in widdi, the arched roof reaching in the center a height of eighty-five feet above the floor. The seating capacity without crowding is 16,000, and space can be found for 5,000 additional seats when necessary. Provision was made HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 339 in the plans for galleries capable of seating 4,000 persons, making the total seating capacity 25,000, but these had not been introduced at the time of the dedication of the armory. Without seats it is estimated that 40,000 persons could easily find room under the roof of the great hall. In addition to the drill hall, the armory contains twelve company rooms, a gymnasium with hot and cold water baths, reception rooms, store rooms, bowling alleys and shuffle boards, and accommodations for lady visitors. In the basement is a rifle range 320 feet long, and also stabling for the horses of officers. The site of the armory was purchased for $125,000, and the structure itself cost $300,000. The exercises attending the formal transfer of the armory to die Fifth Regiment were simple. Governor Smith made an address extolling the state militia, and Colonel Frank Markoe, the conmiander of the regiment, responded. A regimental parade and hop followed. An assemblage ntunbering between 5,000 and 6,000 witnessed the ceremonies, among whom were many public officials and representatives of the United States army and of various military organiza- tions. The Ladies Auxiliary of the regiment, an organization formed at die time of its departure for the Spanish War, was also represented, a special invitation having been sent to each of its members. This vast structure has proved of great value to Baltimore, in many ways other than that for which it was designed. It has afforded facilities for numerous exhibitions and great assemblages, and was destined ulti- mately to be the means of drawing a presidential ncxninating committee to the city. The first great gathering under its roof was held during the meeting of the Northeastern Saengerbund, in the month following the dedicatory exercises. The feature of this g^eat gathering of German American singing societies was a prize competition for a silver statue of the Minnesinger, the gift of the Emperor of Germany. The President of the United States, the Governor of Maryland, and the Mayor of Baltimore^ were guests of honor on this occasion, and an audience of nearly 10,000 persons was present. The Saengerbund was in session in Baltimore for five days. The Grand Lodge of the Order of Elks held its annual meet- ing in Baltimore in July, with thousands of members of the organizations attending from every section of the country. In September the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows also met in the city, and in October the League of Municipalities gathered in Baltimore for its annual session. Elaborate preparations were made for the entertainment of the hosts of strangers which these conventions drew to the city ; the most interesting feature being an electrical illumination, lasting from die middle of June to the middle of October. The election of a Pope to succeed Leo XIII, who died on the 20th of July, 1903, was of peculiar interest to Baltimore, owing to the fact that, for the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic church, an American Cardinal took part in the Conclave of the Sacred College. James, Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore and senior prelate of the American 340 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE hierarchy, hastened to Rome when the news was received diat Pope Leo was dying, and arrived in time to participate in the election of Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto, Patriarch of Venice, to the papal chair. Early in the gubernatorial campaign of 1903, Isidor Rayner, of Bal- timore City, had announced himself a candidate for the United States Senatorship to succeed Senator McComas. He claimed the support of the city delegation in the General Assembly on the ground that he was the only city man in the contest, and was therefore entitled to recognition as Baltimore's "favorite son." The Ra3mer candidacy awakened a great deal more enthusiasm among the Democratic masses than among the leaders of the party, and, when die legislative session of 1904 opened, a few politicians regarded it as among the probabilities that the Bahimorean would carry off the prize which former Governor John Walter Smith was seddng, and which the State leaders were believed to have promised to bestow upon him. The contest that followed was one of the most remarkable — ^perhaps actually the most remarkable — in the political history of the State. Rayner, while serving as the representative of a Baltimore district in the lower house of Con- gress, had won a national reputation for eloquence. His popularity as a campaign orator was unapproached by that of any other man in Mary- land. His course in politics had been somewhat erratic, however, and the party managers were distrustful of him. They were also fully aware that he had received certain wrongs at their hands which a term in the Senate might afford him an opportunity to avenge. Nevertheless, he received promises of support from a large number of the candidates for the General Assembly, and while he was probably not over trustful that these promises would be redeemed, the strong newspaper backing which was given him in the city and in many counties led him to bdieve that the outlodc for him was not altogether hopeless. The balloting was begun on the 19th of January and continued until the 4th of February. Meanwhile the Democratic caucus was at sea. In addition to Mr. Ra3mer, the aspirants who formally announced their can- didacy for the office were ex-Govcmors John Walter Smith and Elihu E. Jackson, together with Bernard Carter, of Baltimore City, and Joshua W. Miles, of Somerset county. Ex-Governor Smith was serenely confident of ultimate success, basing his expectation of victory on the definite prom- ise he had received of enough votes to elect him. He counted fully on the support of I. Freeman Rasin, the head of the Baltimore City Demo- cratic organization and of Senator Gorman, the leader of the party in the State. On the first ballot in the General Assembly, Rayner held the lead among the Democratic candidates with 35 votes. Smith receiving 29, Carter nine, Jackson five, and Miles four. Two votes were cast for Gov- ernor Warfield, two for John B. Henderson, and 38 for Senator McComas, the Republican incumbent of the ofSce. Meanwhile the admirers of Rayner were holding mass meetings and HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 341 getting up petiticHis all over the State to influence the votes of the legis- lators. Conferences of the party leaders were held in Washington and at Annapolis. I. Freeman Rasin, the city "boss", caused a bitter outcry by taking up quarters in the speaker's rooms at the State House and direct- ing his fcm:es in the legislature from that center. Finally, a conference was held at the federal capital, and it was said that an agreement was reached that ex-Governor Smith should be nominated by the Democratic caucus. The plan involved the withdrawal of Bernard Carter frcMn the contest, but on the following day it was announced that Mr. Carter's friends refused to permit him to withdraw. A week passed and then an- other conference was held at which it was understood that Rasin and Gorman agreed that Smith should be named. A caucus was called and Rasin's followers awaited his instructions. They were delayed until the caucus was in session and when they were given, it was Rayner whom the city leader named. This turned the tide and Rayner was nommated with the additional support of the followers of Jackson, Miles, and other county legislators. For many years Senator Gorman and Rasin had maintained an un- broken alliance. This was the first occasion upon which the city leader had failed the State leader. The breach thus made continued to influence the course of politics in Maryland up to the time of Senator Gorman's death. The gubernatorial campaign of 1903 had been fought upon the prom- ise that the Democratic party, if continued in power, would adopt measures to eliminate the negro from politks. Other Southern States had, one by one, succeeded in reducing the colored vote to an insignificant figure, but in Baltimore City and the populous northern counties of Maryland there had been but little incentive to resort to such drastic measures, owing to the hold which bitter war memories gave the dominant party in an over- whelming maj<Mity of the white citiaenshi^, and to the advantage which absc^ute control of the election machinery afforded that party at the polls. The revolt of 1895, however, had shown the Democratic leaders that the generation which had grown up since the close of hostilities could not be depended upon to bow abjectly to the domination of rings and bosses. A Republican governor and two Republican General Assemblies had been elected. Even the element which still under no circumstaaoes would consent to identify itself with the Republican party, had found a [Jace of refii^e in the ranks of the independents. This latter elenaent in Balti- more City now held the balance of power at the polls. New election laws had been enacted which rendered unfair coimting of the ballots more difficult than in the past. Under these circumstances, the project of a negro disfranchisement amendment to the constitution was evolved. The enthusiasm aroused during the recent campaign by the shibboleth of "White Supremacy" encouraged the leaders to believe that the people would eagerly welcome such an amendment and as there was a three-fifths major- ity of Democrats in each branch of the legislature of 1904, which had 342 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE been elected on this issue, Senator Gorman and his most trusted lieuten- ants proceeded confidently to draft a measure on lines more severe perhaps than any measure of its kind formulated anywhere else in the South. The task of shaping the proposed amendment was entrusted to an eminent Baltimore lawyer, John P. Poe. It imposed the so-called grandfather's clause, which exempted from the rigid tests imposed as a prerequisite to registration all citizens or lineal male descendants of citizens who were entitled to vote on the first day of January, 1869. This provision prac- tically made the proposed tests apply only to the negro race. Another feature of the measure was a requirement that the applicant for registra- tion, in addition to being able to read any section of the State Constitu- tion submitted to him by the officers of registration, must be "able to give" a reasonable explanation "of the same". Mr. Poe is said to have urged strong objections to this latter provision, which constituted the registra- tion officials judges of what was ''a reasonable explanation" of the con- stitution, but the promoters of the amendment were so confident of its approval by the people that they refused to relinquish a feature which would enable diem to disfranchise many of the negroes who could manage to meet the reading test successfully. Strong opposition to the shape given the amendment developed unme- diately upon its introduction in the General Assembly. Governor Warfield vehemently urged a measure drawn up on lines less likely to create antag- onism. The foreign bom white voters and the descendants of foreign bom white voters were agitated by the prospect of having to face the ordeal intended for the negroes. The independent voters saw in the clause investing the registration officers with power to pass upon the reasonable- ness of an explanation given by an applicant for registration, a vast oppor- tunity for limiting the suffrage to those whom the party in power might favor. Nevertheless, the amendment as drafted was pushed through both houses of the legislature by three-fifth votes without any change, and the long struggle which, through two State administrations was destined to enliven the politics of Maryland, was fairly launched. Another amendment to the constitution which die General Assembly of 1904 approved, provided that the General Assembly might appropriate a sum of money not exceeding $400,000 a year to be expended in Baltimore City and the counties of the State for the construction and maintenance of public highways. The purpose of this amendment was to encour^e the gradual construction of a system of good roads in all parts of Mary- land, the State to pay one-half the cost, and the appropriation to be allowed in the direct proportion which the road mileage of each county bore to the total public road mileage of the State. This measure was the forerunner of the more comprehensive scheme of road improvements which has since been inaugurated. Although the election at which these amendments were, in accord- ance with constitutional provision, to be submitted to the people was a HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 343 year and a half off, almost immediately an active campaign against the one dealing with the suffrage was inaugurated by its opponents. It began with an attack upon the measure, led by Grovemor Warfield and the inde- pendent voters, and was conducted with an adroitness rarely paralleled. But in the midst of the political manceuvering at the State Capital a calamity fell upon Baltimore City, which for a time absorbed the attention of the people to the exclusion of all other matters. Some time between ten and eleven o'clock on the morning of the 7th of February, 1904, a lighted match or the stump of a cigarette is supposed to have been dropped accidentally through a deadlight in the sidewalk of the dry goods warehouse of the John E. Hurst Company, at the southwest comer of Hopkins Place and German street, and to have set fire to the blankets and cotton goods stored in the cellar. Forty hours later, 1,343 buildings had been burned, one hundred and forty acres of the business section of the city had been laid in ruins, 2,500 firms had been put out of business, and a property loss variously estimated at from $125,000,000 to $150,000,000 inflicted. No one saw the beginning of this fire, which a finger might have smothered at the start, but which was destined to figure in history as one of the great disasters of modem times. The day was Sunday, and no one was in the building, not even a watchman. An automatic fire alarm appa- ratus called the fire department to the scene, and when they had forced an entrance into the warehouse they found smoke pouring up from the base- ment. Little time was afforded them for investigation, for before they had fairly begun their work a violent explosion occurred and was followed by a second explosion. Almost in an instant the entire building was in flames. Additional engines were summoned, but, fanned by a strong southwest wind, the fire rapidly gained headway. One by one the neigh- boring buildings caught fire and soon a dozen were burning fiercely. A great volume of flame rose from the tall warehouses which were already ablaze, and the high wind sent it swirling and eddying in all directions. Leaping across the streets, it set fire to the neighboring blocks, the blis- tering heat alone sufficing to ignite the more inflammable structures. Near the northest corner of Hopkins Place and German street, diag- onally opposite the starting point of the fire, a case of cartridges or other explosives had been left on the sidewalk of a hardware establishment. In a little while it was blown to fragments and the fronts of several houses were torn away, affording the fire easy access to the inflammable interiors. The entire fire department of the city had now been called into service, and twenty-four engines were pouring heavy streams of water into the heart of the conflagration, but their utmost efforts made no impression upon the great wave of flame that was sweeping northward and eastward before the wind, licking up block after block of buildings and sending its scorching breath into the face of the fire fighters whose puny efforts it seemed to despise. 344 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Night came on with ten blocks of warehouses in ruins or still burning. The fire had then reached and crossed FayMe street on the north and was nearing the retail shopping district. At eight o'clock the wind shifted to the west, sending the flames eastward along Lombard, German, Balti- more and Fayette streets. Long before this hour, a cry for help had been sent out to cities and towns near and far. Special trains with orders to break speed records bore engines and men from north and south to rein- force the Baltimore firemen, who were continuously battling against over- whelming odds and with a giant enemy whose very breath human endur- ance was unable to withstand. At Charles street, three score engines and an army of thousands of trained firemen and volunteers rallied for a desperate stand. The scene was appalling ; a shroud of smoke was spread before the sky, while beneath it the roaring, crackling flame wave sent forth tongues of fire that lidced up iron and stone and brick like so much tinder, and filled the night air with a rain of blazing embers which started new fires wherever they fell on what would burn. No living being could remain within striking distance of that line of fire, with its awful temperature of 250 degrees. Streams thrown in the face of such a monster, had it been possible to approach near enough to throw them, would have been as impotent as Ajax defying the light- ning. To clear a space between the fire and its prey over which it could not leap, was the last hc^ of beaten and baflSed humanity. The pale and frightened multitude that filled the streets were driven back; the danger zone was roped off, and the mighty agent dynamite was invoked to save the city that lay helpless in the path of destruction. The power- ful explosive was placed in buildings on Charles street, near Lombard, and on Baltimore street near Charles, and in a few moments all that was left of them were shapeless piles of debris. But even dynamite failed in its effort to stay the progress of the ruthless red billow that came sweeping eastward. A sullen retreat was the only course left for the defeated fire fighters. Slowly falling back, the engines turned streams into the lesser blazes which here and there gained headway after being started by the fiery showers which the greater fire rained upon the city. At Cheapside and at Frederick street, dynamite was again employed, but no space was cleared over which the flames could not leap. Meanwhile the fire had devoured the buildings along Fayette street, and seemed to gather strength for an attack upon the row of stately public buildings which stretched from St. Paul to HoUiday street. The marble fagade of the magnificent new court house was already lighted up with the glare of the flames. The tall building of the Morning Herald news- paper, directly across St. Paul street, and the Calvert and Equitable c^ce buildings on the south side of Fayette street, were ablaze. Fiery arms reached out from time to time to grasp the marble pile with hungry eager- ness. Eaves and arches and columns were calcined by the toudi of fiery HISTORY OE BALTIMORE 345 fingers, and the beautiful structure, the pride of Baltimore, seemed doomed. ' All the energy and heroism that the firefighters possessed were put forth to save the building, but their efforts would probaUy have availed little had not the wind suddenly shifted to the northwest, turning the tide of destruction southward. For the first time since the fire had got beyond dieir control, the weary and disheartened firemen felt a thrill of pleasure as they saw this fair prize saved from the maw of the devourer. The fire was now advancing toward the water front. The Baltimore and Ohio Central building, a massive brick and stone structure, had been gutted. The supposedly fireproof ''sky-scrapers" near by stood scarred and blackened. The Stock Exchange, the Merchants' Qub, the Chamber of Commerce, the Church of the Messiah, along with hotels, banks, and insurance offices, had all been swept away. The fire was now greedily devouring the ancient warehouses in the vicinity of the harbor. Mean- while fiying embers had started a new fire on the south side of Baltimore street east of Gay, and another in the Maryland Institute building at Baltimore street and Centre Market space. The flames traveled eastward to the west bank of Jones' Falls. The firemen made a brave and suc- cessful fight to save the buildings on the north side of Baltimore street below Frederick, and, aided by the breadi in the line of buildings made by the waters of Jones Falls, also succeeded in holding safe the Monumental Theatre, just across the bridge, until the southward progress of the fire had relieved that structure from danger. All night long and all day Monday the destruction went on. Not till the harbor front was reached, where nothing remained to feed the flames, did they cease their ravages in the center of the city, and then they trav- eled along the docks further east and down West Falls avenue, where the lumber yards fell an easy prey to their attack. But all along its length, Jones Falls, which had so often in the past wrought havoc with its floods, stood guard over East Baltimore, and achieved a victory in opposing the great conflagration which the allied firemen of a dozen cities and towns had been powerless to win. It was 10.30 Monday evening when the firemen, many of whom had been fighting the fire for thirty hours or more, forgetful of peril, fatigue, hunger, and exposure, gazed over the great stretch of smoking ruins, and saw that the end had come. The fire zone extended from the foot of Jones Falls northward to Baltimore street, up Giay street to Fayette, along the west side of St. Paul to Lexington street, across Charles street, but leaving the Central Savings Bank and the O'Neill building standing on their respective comers. From thence its boundaries are traced halfway to Liberty street, southward across Fayette street, and northward again to Liberty street, then down the east side of Liberty to Lombard, where it leaped across at German street to take in the comer block. From thence again it ran eastward along Pratt street to Charles street, down Charles to Balderson street, then half a block eastward and again southward to Pratt 346 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE street, until finally it swept along the water front to the mouth of Jones Falls. Here and there throughout this devasted area, the shattered walls of some tall buildings were left standing. Again, half a dozen low brick structures remained practically undamaged except that their outer walls bore evidence of subjection to the frightful heat. For many days the wreckage continued to smoulder, now and then bursting into flames. A population of half a million, during all these hours of devasta- tion, crowded about the fire zone, or occupied points of vantage to gaze upon the tremendous spectacle of a city burning, or remained terrified in their homes scarcely knowing what fate was in store for them. Any moment a change of wind might drive the wave of destruction into one or the other of the residential sections. Fathers, brothers, and husbands were absent from their families, striving to save goods, ledgers and papers from the flames, and anxiety for their safety was added to the dread which mothers, wives, and sisters felt lest the pitiless fire might attack the roofs that sheltered them. In the first hour of the afternoon, as the people of the city were returning home from the morning services in the churches, it was apparent diat a fire of unusual proportions was raging in the busi- ness section. And, as the afternoon wore on, and the clouds of smoke daricened the sky, the fact was gradually impressed upon them that a great calamity had befallen the city. Then the shrill cries of the newsboys calling "extras" began to be heard, and ere nightfall the whole population, was aroused to an appreciation of the perilous situation. There was then an exodus from the uptown sections; merchants and clerks flocked to the center of the city, wondering if they would find their warehouses and shops in ashes. The means of livelihood of tens of thousands hung on the issue, and anxiety was stamped on nearly every countenance. The necessity of prompt action, if an3rthing was to be saved, was abundantly apparent. A frantic demand for vehicles to transport valuables was quickly created. The hire of conveyances soared minute by minute. Anything on wheels, however humble, could c<xnmand twenty-five dollars or even more, for the transportation of a trifling load the distance of half a mile. In some instances the goods thus removed were transported a second time after the fire had advanced to the place which at first had been deemed far beyond its possible reach. One great firm gathered up its books and valuable papers early in the afternoon, and transferred them from Light street to a depository a dozen blocks away. This depository was next day in ruins, and the books and papers in ashes. At nightfall the flame-lit sky added a weird element to the spectacle as viewed from a distance. Women as well as men left their homes to witness a sight so unwonted. Ropes were stretched by the police to keep the multitude from invading the danger zone. Thousands gathered on roofs and other high places. A foreign artist who was visiting the city climbed to the top of the Washington Monument and sketched the wild panorama of a wind-tossed ocean of flames spread out below. Federal HISTORY OP BALTIMORE 347 Hill was thronged with spectators, and as the flames advanced toward the water front, the glare reflected in the waters of the basin added to the awful grandeur of the spectacle. Along the edge of the fire in the central part of the city many stores were thrown wide open as the flames approached, and all were at liberty to help themselves to what goods they liked. All thought of removal on a large scale, except of articles of great value and small bulk, had by this time been abandoned. Even at the extravagant prices charged for con- veyances, the supply was not equal to a tithe of tiie demand. The stocks of the saloons, as well as those of other places of business, were in many instances freely offered to anyone who thirsted for strong drink. Many of them were abandoned by their proprietors and the doors left open. Nevertheless there was comparatively little drunkenness and scarcely any disorder. The enormousness of the destruction had dazed even the victims of alcohol and the lawless element. For the time being all classes were absorbed in watching with bated breath the Plutonic scene in the long familiar streets which they were never again to behold as they had seen them in the past. A drizzling rain began to fall, but it had no effect in lessening the dirong of spectators. A hail of fiery sparks and cinders poured down upon the multitude, but none seemed conscious of the danger. Women's gowns were set afire by the blazing showers, and the wearers were saved from a dreadful death by men who beat out the flame with their hands. Still they remained. The crumbling of walls and the crash of falling buildings held them with a strange fascination late into the night. Morning dawned, and still the streets on die borders of the confla- gration were thronged. Trains brought reinforcements of spectators from neighboring cities and towns and from die counties of Maryland. The militia had been called out to aid the police, and a strict guard was kept. For many days the burnt district continued to attract numbers such as no other spectacle in Baltimore had ever before drawn. Railroads organ- ized excursions from near and far to view the shapeless and smouldering piles of brick and mortar which had obliterated the streets and made the sites of once well-known buildings indistinguishable, one from another. Figures can only approximate the losses occasioned by the great fire. Estimates varied widely as to die total, even after the most careful can- vass possible had been made. The generally accepted estimate is $125,- 000,000, but in a disaster affecting thousands of corporations, firms and individuals, it must be apparent that any tabulation of direct losses would be imperfect, with the probability strong that many of the smaller indi- vidual losses would fail to be included. The insurance on the property destroyed amounted to $50,000,000, but the local companies were overwhelmed by the extent of die calamity. Many of them were unable to meet their obligations in full, and several of them were completely ruined. The total amount of insurance paid. 348 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE according to a statement issued by the general loss committee of the insur- ance agents, was $32,000,000, leaving a deficit of $18,000,000. A number of the claims were, however, settled outside of the supervision of this ccHnmittee. The statistics of the fire embrace die following figures : extreme length of the burnt district east and west, 3^00 feet; extreme length north and south, 2,900 feet; city blocks destroyed, 73; isolated areas not classed as blocks, 25; banking and trust company buildings, 20 (including ten national and one state bank, six trust companies and three savings banks, but not including numerous private banking and brokerage offices) ; nine hotels, seven daily newspaper plants, nine transportation companies' head- quarters, one club house, and one church. Two groups of problems, related, and yet distinct, confronted Bal- timore when the fire which had swept over one hundred and forty acres of its trade center was extinguished. The more pressing task was to devise ways and means of providing for the resumption of the business activities which had been suddenly halted by the conflagration, and upon which a score of thousands of the population depended for a livelihood. A second task of even greater ultimate importance was that of taking advan- tage of the rare c^)portunity which the clearing of so large an area afforded to correct the unfortunate conditions which inevitably attend haphazard growth from a small town into a great city. The time was long since past when such a calamity as that which had befallen Baltimore could be regarded as fatal to the prosperity of an advantageously situated seat of trade and industry, possessed of an energetic and capable population. London had arisen from its ashes in the seventeenth century greater and better than it was before the great fire that destroyed 5,000 of its old and dilapidated buildings. Chicago and Boston, in the nineteenth century, had gathered new vigor after their purification by fire. There was, therefore, no thoii^ht of despair in Balti- more after it, in turn, had passed under the scourge of flames. Individ- uals had lost their all, insurance companies had been forced into bank- ruptcy, and corporations had been bereft of a large portion of their assets, hut the city as a whole was still possessed of the advantages which had made it great, and it faced the trying situation with courage and confi- dence. The dominant impulse of the leaders of the community was not merely to rebuild, but to rebuild wisely. In order that this might be done, it was essential that the first steps taken should be well considered in advance. The situation of the twenty-five hundred firms and corporations which had been evicted by the fire was embarrassing in the extreme. What the flames had left of their resources was buried under tons of debris in vaults and safes. Their obligations were daily falling due and there was no means of meeting them. The burnt-over area was still under martial law ; the ruins w€re still smoulderii^, and could not for days to come be HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 349 cleared away; tottering walls rendered dangerous any attempt to invade the fire zone, and, even when the peril was incurred, it was almost impos- sible in many instances, owing to the destruction of landmarks and the obliteration of street lines, exactly to locate the sites of particular ware- houses. The gaunt steel frameworic of towering ofSce buildings was still standing, but the walls and floors and the contents of the offices lay in a tangled mass in the cellars. The State authorities afforded a prompt remedy for this condition of affairs. While the ruins were still ablaze, the General Assembly, acting upon the recommendation of Governor Warfield, adopted a resolution making the 8th of February and the succeeding days until the 15th of the month legal holidays, so far as the payment of drafts, notes and bills of exchange was concerned. It also gave the Governor authority to extend the time, which he did, until the 22d of February. Banks and business firms were thus afforded two weeks in which to secure temporary quarters and prepare to meet their obligations. The Governor had called out the militia immediately after hearing of the extent of the disaster, and had placed it under the control of the police commissioners. Owing to this prompt action there was no disaster, no attempt at plundering, and no injury to life and limb through reckless or incautious gratification of idle curiosity. Mayor McLane gave early evidence of exceptional capacity to grasp and organize the extraordinary situation which confronted the city gov- ernment. A Citizens' Emergency Committee was appointed by him on the I2th of February. Its memberships embraced the most eminent business, and professional men of the city, and its function was to consider problems involved in rebuilding. Offers of outside aid came pouring in from other communities. These the mayor proudly but gratefully declined to accept, declaring that Baltimore could and would shoulder its own burden. Before this brave answer, in which the community heartily joined, had been spread abroad, $60,000 had been sent to the city, and offers of addi- tional sums bringing the amount up to $200,000 had been received. Every dollar of the money was returned to the generous donors, with expressions of deep appreciation of the sympadiy which had prompted the offers. An eager search for temporary quarters for the burnt out business firms had meanwhile begun. Every vacant piece of property near the center of the city was quickly taken. Rents rose rapidly, in many instances being double what they had been before the fire. For particularly desirable locations extravagant prices were charged and readily paid. A number of bankers, brokers, and lawyers utilized the parlors of their homes for office purposes, and the business of the city, which had once been concentrated, was scattered over a wide area, causing much inconvenience. One of the most notable of the minor embarrassments following the fire was, indeed, the difficulty experienced pending the publication of a new City Directory, in discovering the whereabouts of business firms. The demand for busi- 3SO HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ness properties far exceeded the supply, and it was not long before the downtown residential section was encroached upon. Handsome old man- sions which through several generations had been the scene of the gracious hospitality dispensed by Baltimore's representative families, and which were still worthy of the memories that clustered around them, were seized upon by prosaic traffic and robbed, permanently in many instances, of their social prestige. In a remarkably brief space of time, most of the mer- chants had established themselves in new quarters, had secured new stocks of goods, and were busy with preparations for the spring trade which was about to open. The newspapers of the city had displayed characteristic enei^ and resourcefulness in meeting the embarrassing situation in which they were placed. At a time when their services were in extraordinary demand, their offices lay in ruins, and they found themselves stripped of every facility for supplying the public with news. Only two small daily news- paper plants in the city had escaped destruction. Nevertheless, no serious interruption of their issues ensued: Three Washington newspaper offices cheerfully responded to appeals for succor, and hospitably welcomed home- less staffs of editors and reporters, who were hurried from Baltimore to the Capital by train. Editions were printed in that city, and brought back to Baltimore for distribution. One daily journal, after utilizing small local plants for several days, arranged to have its typesetting and press work done in Philadelphia. The publisher of another daily newspaper, while the flames were still several blocks distant from his office, took a train for Philadelphia, after arranging that his employes should inform him by telegraph after he had reached that city whether or not the building had been destroyed. Learning that it was in ashes, he at once purchased the plant of a Philadelphia daily paper which had ceased publication, and arranged to have it shipped to Baltimore at once. Plans for new buildings and new equipments were promptly made by all the papers which had been burnt out. These structures were all mod- eled according to the most modem ideas, and, when they were completed, few other cities in the country could boast that their newspapers were so well housed as those of Baltimore. Meanwhile, temporary quarters were secured and equipped, and before the fires had fairly ceased to smoulder in the tangled heaps of iron, brick, and molten type-metal on the sites of the old offices, the regular routine of publication was being pursued with little if any diminution of efficiency. In all sections of the country, admiration for the pluck and energy of the citizens of Baltimore was added to sympathy, and every service possible was offered to enable diem to recover from the wound inflicted on their fortunes. Naturally the South was conspicuous in giving substan- tial tokens of its devotion to the metropolis which had so often in times of stress extended its bounty to the tributary section. Southern merchants hastened to place their spring orders with Baltimore firms, and some who HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 35i had been accustomed to buy in Northern cities, manifested their sympathy by diverting their patronage in whole or in part to Baltimore. Among the greater sufferers by the flames was the Jchns Hopkins Hospital, a large portion of the endowment of which had been invested in warehouse property. Seventy structures belonging to the hospital, the total value of which approximated $1,300,000, had been destroyed. The net loss to the institution, after deducting the insurance money received, was nearly half a million dollars. The attention of John D. Rockefeller was called to the fact that die hospital and the great medical school con- nected with it would be seriously embarrassed by this misfortune, and he promptly sent an agent to Baltimore to investigate the condition of affairs. Immediately after the completion of the investigation, Dr. William Osier, of the medical faculty of the University, received a letter signed by John D. Rockefeller Jr., dated in New York, April 4, 1904, which read as follows: "As a result of your letter to Mr. Gates, written several months since, and a letter at the same time from Dr. Wm. H. Welch to me, both setting forth the losses sustained by the endowment fund of the Johns Hopkins Hospital on account of the recent fire in Baltimore, Mr. Murphy [the agent] has, as you know, made a careful study of the situation, and from his report I learn that the losses, as nearly as can be estimated at present, are about $499,187. "In view of the high character of the work which the hospital and medical school are doing in medical instruction and research, including the training of nurses, which work, he understands, will otherwise be materially curtailed because of the losses, my father will give $500,000 to the Johns Hopkins Hospital. This he will pay in securities or cash, as the trustees may elect" On the nth of March, after a month had been devoted to the more immediate demands of the situation. Mayor McLane took the initial step for extracting good from what seemed so great a calamity, by consti- tuting a board, the function of which was to carry out a scheme of per- manent improvement in the area cleared by the fire. This board was •denominated the Burnt District Commission. Colonel Sherlock Swann was appointed as chairman, the other members being Mayor McLane, Charles K. Ford, Reuben Foster, and John T. Graham. The commission began its arduous labors with a careful study of the area under its super- vision. Its first review was made on the i6th of May, 1904, and this preliminary work was completed on the next following 23d of November. The plans finally adopted provided for the widening or extension of twelve streets, the creation of a system of docks with a sufficient depth of water for large coastwise steamers at the head of the harbor in the heart of the 1>usiness section of the city, a plaza one hundred and twenty feet in width on the west front of the Court House, where there had formerly been a street with a width of only thirty feet, and the reduction of heavy grades in important thoroughfares. The ordinance of the mayor and city council creating this commission conferred on it ample powers to make all improvements within the estab- 352 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Hshed fire lines, which embraced a considerable area outside of, but adja- cent to, the area actually burnt over. It also authorized the conunission to exercise powers granted by the General Assembly to acquire property needed for the improvements either by private purchase or by c(Midenma- tion. The sale of the city's interest in the Western Maryland railroad had, shortly before the fire, put $8,751,000 in the municipal treasury'. Nearly $4,500,000 of this sum was immediately devoted to the improve- ments planned in the burned over area. The total amount appropriated by the city for the purchase of property necessary to carry out the plans as finally shaped was $6,575,000. For the dock improvements a loan of $6,000,000 was proposed. A special election was held on the 17th of May, at which this loan was submitted to a vote of the people. The total vote cast was 41,266, and the majority for the loan was 22,510. This majority was nearly two-and-a-half times as great as the whole vote cast against the loan. The immense task of planning the proposed scheme of improvement and creating the machinery for its execution had barely been finished, when on the 30th of May the city was plunged into profound sorrow by the announcement that its able young mayor had died at his home from a pistol bullet wound in his right temple. The circumstances attending the tragedy were peculiarly sad. Sixteen days before its occurrence^ die mayor had gone quietly to Washington, where he was married to Mrs. Mary Van Bibber, by his personal friend, the Rev. George C. Carter. It was in keeping with the mayor's character that he thus avoided the bustle and excitement which would have attended a public wedding of the head of the city government. Another sad feature of the mayor's death was the fact that it came just when he seemed to be about to reap the fruits of hard-earned and well-deserved public esteem and admiration. He had begun his administraticHi with a questioned title and a scant plurality of 624 over his Republican opponent. His nomination had been brought about with the active aid of politicians who supported him chiefly because they wished to drive from oflice a mayor whom they could not use. At an age at which no other man had been elevated to the office, he had been taken from the position of a public prosecutor, in which he had displayed maiiced ability, to fill an executive office calling for eminent abilities of another sort than those he had shown. During the one year and twenty days of his career in the City Hall he had borne the strain of filling the appointive offices under his administration, and had shown rare judgment and conscientiousness in the selection of his appointees; he had seen the cloud removed from his official title; he had been subjected to an ordeal, after the great fire, unparalleled in the history of the mayoralty, except, perhaps, in the dark days of 1861 ; he had emerged from the trial with a reputation which seemed to promise him a brilliant future. The manner of his death was never established with absolute certainty. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 353 although the official verdict was that the wound was self-inflicted. The theory of suicide was based chiefly upon the presumption that the pro* tracted nervous tension to which he had been subjected had unbalanced his mind. At his home it was stated that he had returned from the City Hall in his usual spirits, and, preparatory to taking an outing with his newly married wife, had gone to his room to empty a wardrobe drawer. In this wardrobe a revolver was kept hanging in a holster. To the official determination of the nature of the mayor's death was opposed the conten- tion that in manipulating the wardrobe drawer he might have jolted the weapon from the peg on which it was hanging, and that its fall to the floor might have caused its discharge. * Under the provision of the city charter, the death of Mayor McLane autcMnatically promoted the president of the Second Branch of the City Council to the mayoralty for the residue of the term for which the late mayor had been elected. The incumbent of that office was E. Gay Timanus, a Republican. He took the oath of office on the day following his predecessor's death. The transition from a Democratic to a Republican executive at the City Hall was unattended by the dismissals from appointive offices which usually take place with a change of party. The city charter provided that heads of departments should be irremovable except for cause, after having been in office six months. Practically all of Mayor McLane's a|^x>intees were protected by this provision, and as the charter also lodged in the heads of departments the power to appoint subordinates, the Republican mayor was unable, even if so inclined, to make removals. The Burnt District Commission, following the death of Mayor McLane and the resignation of Reuben Foster, one of the original members, was reorganized. Sherlock Swann was continued as chairman. Mayor Timanus became, ex officio, one of its members, and John W. Snyder was appointed to succeed Mr. Foster. The commission devoted six months to condemnation proceedings in the acquirement of the property needed for the contemplated improvements. Much difference of opinion developed among the people of the city as to what should be done and what left undone. Two projects were especially 'Robert Milligan McLane was born November 20, 1867. He was the son of James F. McLane, a wealthy capitalist, and a nephew of Robert M. McLane» ex> Governor of Maryland, and Minister to France during President Qeveland's adminis- tration. He was graduated at the Johns Hopkins University when nineteen years of age, earning a post-graduate scholarship, and pursuing his studies at the University another year. He then entered the law school of the University of Maryland, and was graduated at the head of his class. He began the practice of law in 1891, and was appointed an assistant to State's Attorney Charles G. Kerr. In 1895, under State's Attorney Henry Duffy, he was promoted to the position of Deputy State Attorney. He resigned the office in 1897, and spent some time in Europe. In 1899 he was elected to the office of State's Attorney, and served with brilliant success, displaying a large measure of independence as well as legal ability. In 1903, he was elected mayor over Frank C. Wachter, after a bitter campaign. 354 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the subject of controversy. One was the widening of Baltimore street, in the heart of the business district, and the other was the reduction of a street grade on Lombard street, popularly termed "the hump". It was urged that in all probability the opportunity would never again offer to correct the defects in these important thoroughfares except at a prohibi- tive cost. These projects were, however, abandoned on the pleas that the widening of Baltimore street as proposed would make the lots on the north side so shallow as to discourage the erection of a desirable class of buildings, and that the reduction of the Lombard street grade would necessitate also an alteration of the grades of several cross streets. Some alteration, however, was made in the grade of nearly every street in the burnt district. The program of street widening and extension as finally agreed upon and carried out embraced the following items : Hopkins Place, from Lom- bard street to Liberty, extended and widened to seventy feet ; former width, from fifty-two to 55 feet. Hanover street, extended from Baltimore street, its former termination, to Fayette street. Charles street, widened between Lombard and Fayette street to seventy feet; former width, forty- nine and a half feet. Light street widened between Pratt and Baltimore streets to one hundred and eight feet at Pratt street, tapering to one hundred and five feet and eight-tenths of a foot at Baltimore street ; former width, from forty-one to forty-five feet. St. Paul street, widened between Baltimore and Fayette streets to sixty-six feet; former width, thirty feet. Plaza, west of Court House, between Fayette and Lexington streets, one hundred and twenty feet, taking place of St. Paul street, which was thirty feet in width. Calvert street, widened between Baltimore and Fayette streets to eighty feet; former width, sixty- four feet. Commerce street, widened between Pratt street and Exchange Place to sixty feet; former width, forty feet. West Falls avenue, extended from Lombard street, its former termination, to Baltimore street; width fifty feet. German street widened between Hopkins Place and Light street to eighty feet; former width, forty-eight-and-a-half feet between Hopkins Place and Charles street, and fifty-seven feet and seven-tenths of a foot between Charles and Light streets. Lcxnbard street widened between Charles and South street and between Gay street and Centre Market Space, to sixty-six feet ; former width, forty-nine and one-half feet. Pratt street, widened between Light street and Jones Falls to one hundred and twenty feet; former width, from fifty-five to sixty-two feet. In addition to these improvements, the area bounded by Baltimore street. Centre Market Space, Lombard street and West Falls avenue, was acquired and laid out for public market purposes. The improvement of the water front of the upper harbor, or Basin, was one of the most important features of the new Baltimore created after the great fire. The Burnt District Commission's part in this branch of the restoration of the city consisted in acquiring the land bordering the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 355 north side of the water between the mouth of Jones Falls and Light street, for the purpose of constructing a splendid system of municipal docks. Prior to the great fire of 1904, half a dozen narrow and shallow docks indented the shore, most of them reaching up to Pratt street. The prop- erty lying between them was owned for the most part by private citizens. The buildings as a rule were old and shabby. On Pratt street, between Commerce and Light streets, was a stretch of wharfage where hundreds of Chesapeake Bay craft were accustcmied to discharge cargoes of oysters and farm products. Along the Light street side of the Basin, a score of primitive piers afforded similar facilities to the fleet of steamers which plied the waters of the Chesapeake and its tributaries. Pratt and Light streets were overcrowded with drays and other heavy vehicles during the busy hours of the day. On the former street were railroad tracks for the use of freight cars. In earlier times passenger cars carrying travelers between north and south had been drawn along these tracks by strings of horses or mules. It was there that the first fatalities of a great war occurred on the 19th of April, 1861, when the train bearing Northern troops across the city was assaulted by an angry multitude. Light street, narrow and begrimed with the dirt of heavy traffic, but, nevertheless, picturesque, was so choked with vehicles that access to the steamers at the piers was at times almost impossible. With the decline of marine transportation in sailing vessels the value of the property in some of the old docks had greatly depreciated. Their dimensions and shallowness unfitted them for coastwise steamers, and the approaches to them were not such as to invite excursion or bay steamers to use them. The ambitious scheme evolved after the fire provided for a fine busi- ness boulevard to take the place of Pratt street, and supplementary to this, the Burnt District Commission sought and obtained authority to widen Light street from Pratt to Lee street to one hundred and twenty feet and two inches, thus stretching a wide avenue along two sides of the water front, equal to the demand of the great traffic there centered. The land south of Pratt street, which the Burnt District Commission had acquired for the city, was cleared of all the old buildings and a great engineering undertaking was inaugurated. A series of wide and deep docks and massive piers was planned which necessitated putting many acres under water. This great work was done under the direction of Major N. H. Hutton, president and engineer of the Harbor Board, that body, acting as a Dock Improvement Board, having the supervision of the undertaking. The old dock lines could not be adhered to in the plan for the new docks, and consequently there was a great amount of filling as well as excavating done. The following statistics indicate the proportions of the enterprise: Total area of piers, 1,026,882 square feet, or 23 }4 acres of pier space; total length of new water front, 12,523 linear feet; number of piers, six; width of waterway, docks, between piers, 150 feet; Pier i, area, 356 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 70^5 square feet; Pier 2, area 126,788 square feet; Pier 3, area 152,881 square feet, width 200 feet, length, 770 feet; Pier 4, area 193*599 square feet; area of streets on pier, 68,225 square feet; area of power house of United Railways and Electric Company on piers, 69,088 square feet, width of pier, 210 feet, length 925 feet; Pier 5, area 271,329 square feet, width 205 feet, length 1,200 feet; Pier 6, area 202,840 square feet, width 150 feet, length 1450 feet. The large steamers belonging to lines running between Baltimore and Boston, Providence, Norfolk, and Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, and the West Indies discharge and take on cargoes at these piers. These docks and piers are municipal property. They are leased to any respon- sible transportation company at an annual rental of thirty-six cents per square foot. The pier at the foot of Centre Market Space is set apart for the use of market boats, taking the place of the wharf on Pratt street near Light, where the pungies and other small sailing craft were formerly accustomed to unload. Baltimore expended $6,100,000 on its new docks, and they have proved so good an investment that an additional $5,000,000 has been provided for the creation of other municipal docks, and for a recreation pier extending out into the harbor. The Burnt District Commission submitted its final report on the 23d of October, 1907, in which is found the followii^ summary of receipts and expenditures: Total amount appropriated $7,96o4oaoo Expended 7425,318.32 Balance 535,061.68 Benefits (about) 1,000^000.00 The Commissi(Hi, in closing its report made the following comment: "The prediction frequently made at the outset that all of the Western Maryland Railroad fund, and the dock loan, amounting to about $10,000,- 000, would be required for our work, we are happy to now be able to finally prove, was incorrect; in fact, if appropriations had not been made out of those funds for other purposes, we would leave a balance, if the benefit assessments are included, of about $4,175,000 available for pier construc- tion and other purposes." The task of removing the debris preparatory to the erection of new buildings on the site of the ones destroyed by the fire, consumed several months, and the changes contemplated in the street lines further delayed building operations. Nevertheless, at the close of the year 1904 there were 377 buildings either completed or in course of construction, covering ground occupied before the fire by 505 buildings. There still remained 457 lots unimproved, exclusive of 424 lots taken for public use. It was largely due to the encroachment of business upon the residential sections and to the dispersion of several important interests which had formerly HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 357 been confined to one neighborhood, that the owners of many lots delayed rebuilding. Prior to the fire, almost all the business of the city was concentrated in the central section and along one or two streets in each of the outlying districts. The line of demarcation between shc^s and residences was probably more clearly perceptible in Baltimore than in any other city in the country with a population of half a million. After the fire, the compulsory centrifugal movement gave a new trend to trade, and many of the large firms continued to occupy the uptown quarters which had served them in an emergency. South, German, and Calvert streets had, before the fire, constituted the financial center of Baltimore. When the burnt district was rebuilt, many of the banks and brokerage firms returned to their former locations, but others found new habitations further uptown. The westward and northward trend was also noticeable among the large retail stores. The new structures were erected under the provisions of wisely drawn building ordinances, and were in marked contrast with the anti- quated structures they had replaced, most of which were veritable fire- traps. Fine and substantial brick, stone, and concrete warehouses lined the principal streets, most of them larger than the ones the fire had de- stroyed, and practically all of them embodying modem ideas. The expansion of the business section came simultaneously with al great suburban development. The outskirts of the city on all sides were^ rapidly built up with attractive villas, and thousands of families aban- doned their contracted urban homes to enjoy the semi-rural life which a score of these developments offered, with all the conveniences which resi- dents of the city proper possessed, and which were rendered readily accessible by the extension of lines of trolley cars far beyond the old limits of the city. The boldness with which Baltimore, in the very moment of its devas- tation, planned and put into execution a great scheme of public improve- ments, seemed to act as a charm to dissolve the spell of ultra-conservatism, and to inspire the people with a confidence in themselves and in the future of the city which increased in strength with every step it took. A splendid audacity, resting upon a basis of intelligent comprehension, replaced the old-time hesitancy with which large projects had been received. To create rather than to be created became the dominant impulse of the community. To rely wholly upon natural advantages no longer sufficed; the new spirit aroused in the city called for the opening of artificial avenues to prosperity as well. The Burnt District Commission had barely begun to expend mil- lions on the tasks placed under its direction when a still more costly and ambitious scheme of improvements was proposed. This movement was inaugurated by Mayor Timanus, acting in conjunction with a number of the most progressive and influential men of the city. Its purposes embraced the construction of a modem system of sewers, the substitution of smooth roadbeds for the rough cobblestones with which most of the streets were 358 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE paved, the opening and paving of new streets in the northern and western outskirts known as "the Annex", additional public school buildings and fire engines, increased water supply, a Union railroad terminal, and other public enterprises of a kindred character. A permanent organization, the membership of which embraced many of the most eminent citizens, was formed on the 5th of December, 1904, to promote these projects, and a series of municipal improvement OMnmittees was appointed by Mayor Timanus. The executive committee consisted of E. Stanley Gary, chair- man; Qiarles England, secretary; Frank A. Furst, ex-Mayor F. C. La- trobe, President Ira Remsen, of the Johns Hopkins University, James R. Wheeler, Francis K Carey, William F. Porter, Congressman F. C. Wach- ter, Sherlock Swann, chairman of the Burnt District Commission, James H. Smith, E. H. Morgan, George Cator, Geoi^e R. Gaither, Jacob Epstein, William H. Buckler, Charles C. Homer, and Mayor Timanus, ex-oKcio. The chairmen of the other committees were the following: Finance, Michael Jenkins; Fire Department, James R. Wheeler; Union Railroad Depot, William F. Porter ; Sewers and Annex loan, Frank A. Furst ; Streets, ex-Mayor F. C. Latrobe; Schools, Dr. Ira Remsen; Water, Frank C. Wachter; private streets, Sherlock Swann; other improvements, Francis K. Carey. A comprehensive and well-considered plan of municipal improve- ment, each part of which had a direct bearing upon the central pur- pose of metamorphosing the old Baltimore into a modem city, was the outcome of these initial measures. The quiet energy which in past times had made Baltimore a pioneer in many things, but which had, as a rule, been applied only to individual and isolated enterprises, was now mani- fested in a more extended field of action. So little was the city accus- tomed to a sounding of trumpets in what it undertook, that die boldness with which it seized upon its opportunities after the great fire occasioned surprise in many quarters. Indeed, the expenditures which were proposed were on a scale which would probably have staggered the most daring of the advocates of modem improvement a few years earlier. There was no recklessness displayed, nor any of the heedless extravagances which mark what is called in common parlance, "a boom". On the contrary, everything undertaken was subjected to sober consideration and adc^ted or rejected according to whether it promised to be fruitful of profit in proportion to its cost. The determining factor in every instance was not the number of doflars involved, but the amount of benefit to be derived. An enlightened perception of the fact that prudence dictated bold expenditure, judiciously made, rather than hesitating and half-hearted action, characterized all that the city undertook to do at this critical period. In 1904, the year of the fire, the net debt of Baltimore (that is, less sinking funds and productive assets), was only $13,316,582. This debt had accumulated slowly, and representeid buildings and other properties erected or acquired on advan- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 359 tageous terms. It is not a little surprising that a city of such frugal habits should at this juncture so readily engage in expenditures on a compara- tively vast scale, and it is peculiarly creditable that these expenditures should have been so intelligently applied that after years brought no regret for their having been made. Between the year 1904 and the close of the year 191 1, loans for improvements amounting to a total stun of $50,000,000 were approved by votes of the people. In addition, the sum of $6463,604, remaining in the municipal treasury from previous loans, was applied to similar purposes. The principal works undertaken embraced the construction of a sew- erage system, the creation of a system of docks, the substitution of modem roadbeds for the cobble stones with which most of the streets of the city were paved, the opening of streets, and other improvements in the outlying districts known as 'The Annex" ; large additions to the park area, the extension of the system of underground conduits for electric wires, additional school houses and fire engine houses, an increased water supply, the construction of a wide boulevard over the bed of Jones Falls, the establishment of a central system of markets, wholesale and retail, and numerous lesser undertakings. In the work of reconstruction and improvement, the quaint and the picturesque were in some instances necessarily sacrificed; but the concep- tion of the city beautiful was never out of the minds of the builders of the new Baltimore. When it was decided to cover the stream which flows diagonally across the center of the city, sometimes sluggishly, and at other times in a muddy torrent, a scheme of beautification was conceived which promises to endow Baltimore with a civic center such as few cities possess. Baltimore had long presented the ancmialy of a great modem city without a general sewerage system. For many years efforts had been made to create a public sentiment favorable to the correction of this condi- tion, and in 1893 a commission was appointed which prepared plans for the undertaking. Not until after the fire of 1904, however, were any prac- tical steps taken to inaugurate the work. Then an enabling act was secured from the General Assembly, a loan of $10,000,000 was approved by the people, a commission of six members, with the mayor as an additional member ex officio, was appointed to have charge of the undertaking, and the work of construction was pushed with vigor. Few municipal enterprises in America have attracted more attention than the construction of these sewers. It was the first attempt ever made to provide an adequate system and a disposal plant for an entire city of the first class at one time and the engineering problems involved were numerous, novel, and difficult, the more so because it was necessary to construct a double set of subterranean passages, one for carrying off storm water, and the other for conveying sanitary sewage to the disposal plant. This requirement was owing to the fact that the city was not permitted to pollute the waters of the Chesapeake bay or its tributaries by discharg- 36o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ing its ofFal into them without purification treatment. In addition to the problems involved in disposing of gas and water mains, the engineers were frequently ccmipelled to deal with situations where a large storm water sewer met a large sanitary sewer in the same level. This difficulty had to be met by syphoning one under the other. One of these syphons is said to be among the largest in the world. A disposal plant of great capacity, equipped according to the most advanced ideas for the bacterial treatment of sewage, was constructed on the shore of Back river, six miles irom the city. The outflow from this plant will be ninety-five per cent, pure, a higher per cent, than that of the waters into which it is discharged. Two-thirds of the sanitary sewage will flow by gravity to the dis- posal plant, while the other tfiird will be pumped to the outfall sewer at a height of 72 feet, whence it will flow by gravity to the Back river plant. A pumping station has been built with three engines having a pumping capacity of 27,500,000 gallons daily. It is designed ultimately to install two additional engines. A unique feature of the plant is the employment of the outflow to operate turbines which will run dynamos for lighting the plant at practically no cost. Many engineers from other American cities and from foreign coun- tries have inspected the Baltimore sewer system during the period of its construction, and their unanimous verdict is that it will be when com- pleted the most perfect in the world. Its entire cost is expected to be upwards of $20,000,000. Ground was broken for this great undertakii^ the 22d of October, 1906, at the intersection of Ensor and Lanvale streets. When the work had progressed sufficiently, a connection was made with an experimental disposal plant which had been established at Walbrook, but the first con- nection for practical purposes was made on the 27th of October, 191 1, with the premises at 1801 Jefferson street, in the eastern section of the city, whence sewage flowed through the outfall mains to the Back river plant. On that date all the sewers east of Guilford avenue between Chase street and the northern boundary of the city were ready for use. At the close of the year 191 1, the total length of sewers, drains, and connections com- pleted was 181 miles; number of manholes built, 3,804; number of inlets installed, 1,182; length of sewers and drains contracted for, 200 miles. The sewage pumping station had been built and the installation of machinery nearly completed. At the disposal plant, hydraulic tanks and sprinkling filters sufficient to care for the sewage from a population of 275,000 had been constructed. The total expenditures up to the ist of January, 1912, had been approximately $10,500,000. The cobble stone streets of Baltimore had long given the city an unenviable fame. Shortly after the close of the War of Secession, the city began slowly to replace this primitive street pavement with Belgian block in the thoroughfares where traffic was greatest, and at the time HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 361 of the great fire a relatively small street area in the residential sections had been repaired with asphalt and other smooth-surfaced material. Up to 191 1 the sum of $820,614 had been expended in repaying and repairing, of which $653,581 had been devoted to streets within the old city limits, and $167,033 to streets in the annexed, or suburban district. A large part of this expenditure was in the line of experiment, various kinds of material being used. The report of the city engineer in 191 1 showed the street mileage of each material as follows: Cobble stone, 354.82; Belgian block, 4349; sheet asphalt, 19.23; vitrified block, 19.15; wooden block, 1.63; macadam (ordinary), 56.01; macadam (bituminous), 2.73; bitulithic, 10.10; cement surface, 2.01. There was also a street area of 1,517 yards paved with medina block, and 57.73 miles of unpaved streets. The ultimate repaving of the entire street system of the city is a part of the general scheme of improvement contemplated, the cost being estimated by the city engineer as $12,332,088. A loan of $5,000,000 has been authorized, $500,000 of which is to be expended during the year 1912. The development of the park system and the construction of a system of boulevards to connect the larger parks, was one of the earliest under- takings of the city after its recovery from the immediate effects of the fire. A loan of $1,000,000 was issued in 1905, and under the energetic direction of Major Richard M. Venable, president of the Board of Park Commissioners, the latter years of whose life were devoted chiefly to this work, many acres of land in the beautiful suburbs of the city were acquired. Baltimore is peculiarly fortunate in its surroundings. The well- wooded hills and picturesque ravines that hem it in on all sides afford a wealth of natural beauty such as can be found so near to few other cities. The park loan of 1905 was required to be expended in equal parts in acquiring pleasure grounds on all four sides of the city. Commissioners, imbued with the newly awakened spirit of large designs, distributed its purchases in accordance with a general plan, the aim of which was to create a chain of parks around the city. The area in the romantic valley of Gwynns Falls, purchased in 1902, was developed into a park of 374.19 acres bordering both banks of a wild and picturesque stream, every bend of which reveals scenery as striking as that of many regions which tourists travel hundreds of miles to behold. Other notable additions to the park system acquired after the fire were Ashburton Paik, surrounding a new high-service reservoir, 92.65 acres; Venable Park, 60.81 acres; and Herring Run Park, 164 acres. These additions raised the total park area owned by the city, including small plots of ground and public squares under control of the park board, to 2,232.15 acres. The total cost of the land purchased amounted to $3,633,210.73, seventeen pieces of four acres or less, one piece of nine acres, and another piece of twenty-four acres, having been donated to the city. For the development of the outlying northern and western sections of the city, known as "the Annex", a loan of $2,000,000 was issued, which 362 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE was expended in street improvements. Twenty-seven miles of roadway were paved, and the rapid growth of the taxable basis due to the erection of dwellings along the new streets fully justified the expenditure. It is proposed to spend an additional sum of $2,500,000 on improvements in this section. The growth of the city imperatively demanded an increased water supply, and a loan of $5,000,000 was made available for the purpose. The purchase of a large area in the Valley of the Gunpowder river was nego- tiated with a view to the construction of an impounding reservoir. This reservoir was to cover the site of the Warren mills and village. A dispute over the price of the land led to litigation which was still pending in the courts at the close of the year 191 1. Another sum of $1,000,000 was provided for the extension of the electric wire conduit system, which had already removed the unsightly tel^^aph poles and networks of wires from the center of the city. After the fire of 1904, while no charge of inefficiency was brought against the city fire department, the general loss oxnmittee of the insur- ance companies in their report said: "It is apparent that Baltimore has not kept pace in her water supply and fire-fighting defense with the largely increasing area and heights of modem buildings and consequent concen- tration of values in congested districts." Recognizing the fact that this indictment was justified, by existing conditions, the city introduced a high-pressure water-pipe line into the business section as an adjunct to the fire department, at a cost of $1,000,000. This important work was completed early in 1912, and will serve materially to reduce the cost of fire insurance on the valuable property it is designed to protect. In addition to this, the sum of $340,000 was expended for additional appa- ratus and buildings for the fire department. One of the most characteristic undertakings of the reconstructive period was the removal of the wholesale produce market center from the neighborhood of Light street wharf to Centre Market Space, and the estab- lishment there of facilities for the wholesale trade in food supplies which have scarcely a parallel in any other city in the country. Prior to the fire, the Maryland Institute building, the first story of which was used for market purposes, and a series of market sheds, stretched from Baltimore street nearly to the head of the old Long Dock at Pratt street, occupying a portion of the bed of Centre Market Space. These structures were swept away by the fire. A special fund of $1,500,000 was provided for new school houses, a loan of $1,000,000 was proposed for the construction and improvement of police department buildings, and liberal provision was made for numer- ous minor improvements. The Centre Market, established by an act of the General Assembly of Maryland in 1784, as the successor of the first market home in Baltimore town built in 1763, had been for more than a century one of the greatest HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 363 of the city's picturesque open-air marts for the sale of vegetables, meats, and other food products, to householders. Its importance as a retail market had declined somewhat in late years, owing to the drift of population to the northern and northwestern sections of the city, and the problem of its restoration after the fire was one that involved more than the mere recon- struction of the building. On the 5th of December, 1904, Mayor Timanus appointed a commis- sion, with General Felix Agnus as chairman, to supervise the work of restoration. In conjunction with the Maryland Institute trustees, plans were formulated which substituted a broad and unobstructed thorough- fare, one hundred and fifty feet wide, extending from Baltimore street to the head of pier four of the new dock system. For the market struc- tures which had, before the fire, occupied the centre of the Market Space, were substituted three large structures occupying the land between that avenue and Jones Falls. The northernmost of these buildings was designed for a retail market with accommodations for the night classes of the Mary- land Institute on the upper floors, provision being made for twelve hun- dred pupils. Adjoining this structure is a fish market devoted chiefly to the wholesale trade, which has been pronounced the most complete in its appointments in the world. Above the fish market is a hall which will seat twenty-five hundred persons. The third structure is a wholesale produce market^ convenient to the dock set apart for the bay craft, which bring enormous quantities of truck farm products to the city. These boats had formerly tied up at the wharf bordering Pratt street near Light street, and the produce commission merchants were clustered about that vicinity, the houses bordering on Centre Market Space being chiefly used as shops for the sale of second hand goods, lodging houses for bay sailors and oyster dredgers, liquor saloons of a low class, and kindred purposes. The New Market Space assumed a vastly different character. The over-crowded vicinity of Light Street wharf was abandoned to the traffic which scores of bay steamers brought to the city, while the broad avenue faced by the new market houses was quickly occupied by merchants who found it convenient to be within a stone's throw of the pier where the Chesapeake sailing ves- sels unloaded their stores of vegetables and fruits in season. Along this fine avenue, all through the year, vast stores of produce such as few cities in the world can show, are daily displayed for sale, and visitors to the city find it and the neighboring market houses among the most interesting spectacles which Baltimore offers. The cost of these markets was $500,650. The Maryland Institute had suffered a severe loss by the fire. Its building, its large library, and its equipment for the educational woric which had been carried on for many years, were destroyed, ,and its re- sources were unequal to the task of rehabilitation. Its School of Art and Design had developed into one of the most important if not the most im- portant of its kind in the Southern states, and the crippling of its useful- ness would have proved a serious loss to the city. The trustees, after con- 364 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE suiting Dr. Daniel C. Gilman, former president of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, made an appeal to Mr. Andrew Carnegie for financial aid. Mr. Carnegie promptly wrote to Dr. Gilman under date of December 8, 1904, as follows : "As I understand the situation, the total assets of the Maryland Institution are $263,000, i. e., insurance, $70,000; endowment, $i8y00o; contributions from the State, $175,000. The city of Baltimore furnished the Institute with a site, and it seems rea- sonable to expect that it would not do less when the Institute is ready to rebuild. I presume that an amount equal to what it has now, say $263,000, would provide a suitable building, the site being given by the city. If this be arranged it will give me pleasure to furnish that sum, which would duplicate the assets for the erection of a building." The city of Baltimore had planned, as has already been stated, to furnish quarters for the Institute classes in the upper stories of the retail market structure at the comer of Baltimore street and Centre Market Space, but it was the desire of the trustees to secure a more eligible location for the School of Design. One month after the publication of the fact of Mr. Carnegie's willingness to provide the money to pay for a suitable building if a site were given, Mr. Michael Jenkins, a citizen of Baltimore, announced, without solicitation, that he and his family would give a large lot of ground at the comer of Mount Royal avenue and Lanvale street for the purpose. This site, one of the most beautiful and desiraUe that could have been chosen, fronts two hundred feet on Mount Royal avenue, and two htmdred and fifty feet on Lanvale street. Designs for a large and handsome building of white marble were prepared, and on the 22d of No- vember, 1905, the comer-stone was laid with Masonic ceremonies. The Mount Royal avenue building was dedicated on the 23d of No- vember, 1908, Mr. Carnegie being present at the ceremony. In addition to being one of the most beautiful structures in the city, it is conceded to be unexcelled by any other building in the country in its adaptation to the purposes for which it was erected. All the day classes of the School of Art and Design and the free-hand night classes were installed in this build- ing while the mechanical and architectural divisions occupied the Market Space building, which was dedicated one year earlier. The School in its two well-equipped buildings possessed facilities not only for instraction in pure art, but also in many branches of applied art, such as working in pottery, metal, wood and leather, silversmithing, jewelry, and sheet metal pattern drafting. In the winter of 191 1 it had fifty teachers and nearly sixteen hundred pupils. The large expenditure of the city for improvements fully justified themselves in the course of a few years. Par from imposing a heavy financial burden on the community, they stimulated private enterprise and hastened material development. A considerable portion of the outlay had been for self-supporting undertakings, but at the close of the year 191 1 the funded and floating debt of the city, less productive assets, had risen HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 365 to $24,134,079.26. At the same time the valuation of Baltimore City property for purposes of State taxation had attained a remarkable increase from $385,348,528 for 1902 to $723,800,340 for 1912. The city tax rate was $1.95 on each hundred dollars in the former year; in the latter year it had fallen to $1.89. While the rapid growth of the city's taxable basis was in part due to the increased vigilance and energy of the assessors, by far the greater portion was attributable to the improved character of the buildings erected in the burned district, and the building activity along the line of the newly opened or extended streets. The increase is all the more remarkable because of the fact that the suburban development beyond the city limits had caused a large amount of personal property to be taxable in the counties which had previously been taxable in the city. There had been great diversity of opinion at the time when two Mary- landers were to be selected as the subjects of statues to be placed in the old Hall of Representatives in the Capitol building at Washington. The selec- tion of Charles Carroll of Carrollton was almost unanimously approved, but many men who had served the State and the Union of States in war or in peace were suggested for the companion statue. Cecilius Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore, the actual founder of Maryland, and Colonel John Eager Howard, most dashing of Maryland's Revolutionary soldiers were favored by large numbers of citizens, and when the choice of the commis- sion fell upon Carroll, and upon John Hanson, president of the Continental Congress from 1781 to 1782, a sentiment was created in Baltimore in favor of the erection of suitable memorials to Calvert and Howard, which ulti- mately took concrete form. William Wallace Spence, a wealthy and public spirited citizen of Balti- nfiore, was one of the earliest if not the earliest to give practical shape to the movement for the Howard statue. The Municipal Art Society took an active interest in the project, and contributed $1,000 of the cost. Promi- nent citizens gave the remainder of the sum needed, and on the i6th of January, 1904, a handsome equestrian statue in bronze of the hero of Cowpens and Eutaw Springs was unveiled in Washington Place, north of the Washington Monument, on ground which had once belonged to Colonel Howard, north of the site which he had generously donated for the monu- ment to the memory of George Washington. The statue, the only eques- trian one in Baltimore, was designed by E. Fremuit, a noted French sculp- tor, who exhibited it in the Paris Salon of 1903, where it received favorable comment. Tlie dedicatory exercises where held in the Concert Hall of the Pea- body Institute, President Theodore Marburg, of the Municipal Art Society, presiding, and Mr. William Wallace Spence made the presentation address. The statue was accepted for the city by Mayor McLane. Dr. Daniel Coit Gilman, ex-president of the Johns Hopkins University, delivered an ora- tion on the public service of John Eager Howard, and Mr. Julian Le Roy White paid a tribute to Fremuit, the sculptor who modeled the statue. 366 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The year of the great fire witnessed the removal by death of a large number of citizens who had been conspicuously identified with public af- fairs or with the most important material interest of Baltimore. While in no instance was the fire the direct cause of death, the shock of the great calamity may reasonably be assumed to have been a contributary cause in some instances. On the 28th of February, Edwin F. Abell, president of the company which published the Baltimore Sun, and only surviving son of the founder of that newspaper, expired in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His death was attributed to overexertion in meeting the responsibilities which the fire placed upon his shoulders. The City Council of Baltimore and the General Assembly of Maryland adopted resolutions expressive of their appreciation of his distinguished patriotism, his many services to the public, and his labors for the restoration of Baltimore following the destruction of its business section. On the 25th of April, John K. Cowen, whose vast energies had re- deemed the Baltimore & Ohio railroad from bankruptcy, filling in turn the offices of receiver and president, died at the comparatively early age of fifty-nine years. He had been a notable figure in the politics of Baltimore and Maryland, but his life-work was with the Baltimore and Ohio rail- road, in whose service he had been enlisted first as junior counsel, and whose fortunes he followed through good and ill till the end of his career. On the 3rd of June, William Keyscr, one of the city's leading financiers, an ex-vice-president of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and a very active participant in several of the political campaigns which were conducted against the Democratic party organization under the name of reform movements, died aged 69 years. Although the restoration of the burnt district and the launching of a scheme of improvement ambitious beyond any precedent in the history of the city absorbed a large share of the thought and energy of die people of Baltimore, there was only a brief interruption of the ordinary current of events after the great conflagration. The Louisiana Purchase Exposi- tion in St. Louis was opened on the ist of May, less than three months after the fire, yet there was little if any diminution of the part which Baltimore had contemplated taking in the great fair. The Maryland build- ing was formally dedicated on the 8th of June, and Maryland Day was ob- served on the I2th of September. On both occasions there was a lai^e at- tendance of Baltimoreans. Many of the exhibits from Baltimore were of exceptional interest, that of the Johns Hopkins University being awarded the grand prize. The Baltimore & Ohio railroad exhibit was awarded twenty-two gold medals, and numerous other Baltimore exhibitors were the recipients of prizes. An organized effort to stop the ravages of tuberculosis, the annual death rate from which in Baltimore was 17.84 per ten thousand of the white population and 45.04 per ten thousand of the negro population, was inau- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 367 gurated, the initial step being the creation by an act of the General Assem- bly approved by the Governor on the 12th of April, 1904, of the Tubercu- losis Q>mmission of Maryland. The purpose of this commission, the original members of which were Dr. William E. Thayer, of the Johns Hopkins University Medical School, president, and D. W. Hopper, Dr. Warren H. Buckler and Dr. Lillian Welsh, was to investigate "the preva- lence, causes, and distribution of human tuberculosis in the State of Mary- land, to determine its relations to the public health and welfare, to devise ways and means for restricting and controlling said disease, and to investi- gate and report upon the proper construction, cost, equipment, maintenance, and location of a sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis." Popular interest in the work of stamping out this dread disease was stimulated by the activities of the State Commission, and on the 13th of December, 1904, a number of prominent citizens of Baltimore organized the Maryland Association for the Prevention and Relief of Tuberculosis to assist in the undertaking. On the 1 6th of August, 1904, the Johns Hopkins University and the city of Baltimore learned with deep regret that Professor William Osier, one of the foremost authorities on general medicine in the world, had determined to resign his chair in the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, to accept the professorship of medicine in the University of Ox- ford, England. It was the second time that a member of the faculty of the University had been called to Oxford, the first instance being that of Professor J. J. Sylvester, the original incumbent of the chair of mathe- matics. In both instances, the eminent men who left Baltimore's great school to go to the trans-Atlantic institution, were British subjects. The presidential nominating conventions of 1904 were held while the attention of the people of Baltimore was still engaged with the problems growing out of the fire. Nevertheless, there was a lively interest displayed in the campaign. Senator Arthur P. Gorman, of Maryland, had been frequently mentioned in connection with the Democratic nomination for the presidency. After two defeats under the leadership of William Jen- nings Bryan, the trend of sentiment was toward a conservative candidate. This sentiment centred about Judge Alton B. Parker, of New York, after the delegates had deliberated for two days, and the Maryland Senator, who had been merely a receptive candidate for the nomination, allied himself with the supporters of Judge Parker, who received the nomination after one ballot had been taken. The vice-presidential nomination was given to the Hon. Henry G. Davis, of West Virginia, a native of Maryland. Theodore Roosevelt, who had been elevated from vice-president to the presidency, following the assassination of President McKinley, was the Republican nominee. Many Baltimore Democrats who had bitterly opposed Bryan in 1896 and 1900, returned to the party fold to vote for Judge Parker, while, on the other hand, many of the members of the radical wing of the party were either hostile to his candidacy or were languid in their support of the 368 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ticket. In addition to this, Roosevelt's personality attracted to the Re- publican ticket a considerable number of Democratic votes. The Demo- cratic disaffection is indicated by the fact that the total vote cast in Balti- more in 1904 was 15,509 less than the total vote cast in 1900. In the State there was a falling off of over 40,000 votes. The election was, how- ever, exceedingly close and very much mixed, the variation in the vote for individual electors being greater than the plurality given the leading elector, Charles J. Bonaparte, who headed the Republican ticket, and who received a plurality in the State of 51 votes. Mr. Bonaparte alone of the Republican electoral candidates was successful, the seven other electors chosen being Democrats, their pluralities ranging from 504 down to 418. In Baltimore City all the Democratic electors received small pluralities, the largest being 457. During the week of July 5, 1905, the annual convention of the Inter- national Christian Endeavor Society was held in Baltimore, with the largest attendance in the history of the Society. Many thousands of visitors came to the city, all sections of the United States and Canada, and several distant countries being represented. The general meetings were held in the great drill room of the Fifth Regiment Armory, which proved to be singularly well adapted for such vast assemblages. On the 28th of December the immense floating drydock Dewey, built at the Sparrows Point Works of the Maryland Steel Company, left Solo- mon's Island for a voyage of twelve thousand miles to the Philippine Islands, convoyed by the naval colliers Brutus, Casar, and Glacier, and the naval brig Potomac, The voyage was successfully made in one hundred and three days, and was regarded as one of the most remarkable engineer- ing and marine triumphs ever achieved, much doubt having been enter- tained as to whether it would be possible to tow such a structure so long a distance over stormy seas. The dry dock was five hundred feet long, one hundred and thirty feet wide, and sixty-two feet extreme depth when sub- merged. The great unwieldly mass of steel weighed eleven thousand tons gross. After a tempestuous voyage the structure arrived at 01ong<^, Philippine Islands, on the loth of July, 1906, in almost perfect condition, only such minor repairs being necessary as a sea voyage of such length made by any craft would have been likely to necessitate. The elevation of the moral standard of municipal politics in Baltimore ^ which had followed the rebuke administered to the Democratic party in 1895 and to the Republican party in 1899, had borne fruit in a determina- tion on the part of citizens of all shades of political opinion to insist upon the maintenance of improved conditions. In pursuance of this purpose, a meeting was held at the Lyric Theatre on the 23d of February, 1905, at which the Municipal League of Baltimore was organized and a committee of one hundred prominent citizens appointed to carry out the objects of | the League. The principal task assigned this committee was that of in- vestigating the character and records of all candidates for municipal of- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 369 fice, to the end that the voters might be truthfully and thoroughly in- formed of their qualifications for the offices to which they aspired. At the municipal election on the 2nd of May, 1905, the Democrats elected eighteen of the twenty-four members of the First Branch of the City Council. One half of the eight members of the Second branch were chosen on the same day, the Democrats electing three and the Republicans one. Of the four hold-over members of the Second Branch, three were Democrats and one Republican, making the party strength in that branch six Deniocrats and two Republicans. The most striking feature of this election was the defeat in the Seventeenth ward of Hiram Watty, a col- ored politician, who had represented that ward in the First Branch of the City Council during several terms. The negro population of this ward was greater than the white population, but at this election the number of negro voters who were registered was smaller than in the previous year by several hundred, and barely exceeded the white registration. As a re- sult, the Democratic candidate succeeded in defeating the negro with a majority of seven votes. The State campaign which opened almost immediately after the mu- nicipal election, was one of the most exciting ever witnessed in Baltimore, and was marked by intense bitterness. The officers voted for were a 4ximptroller of the State Treasury, a chief judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, a clerk of the City Court, a sheriff of Baltimore, a city surveyor, and members of the General AssemUy. In addition, two con- stitutional amendments were submitted to the people for ratification or re^ jection. Comparatively little attention was given in the canvass to the personnel of the party tickets, interest being concentrated upon one of the amend- ments to the constitution, which was aimed to disfranchise, as far as possi- ble, the negro voters. The enthusiasm manifested at the mass meetings held during the gubernatorial campaign of 1903, at which the proposition to disfranchise the negroes was first broached, had encouraged the leaders of the Democratic party to believe that the people would eagerly welcome such a measure. Governor Warfield had made his very successful canvass for office with this as a paramount issue. No voice in the Democratic party had been raised against it, and when the returns from the election of 1903 showed that the Democrats had secured the three-fifths vote in the General Assembly necessary to the passage of a constitutional amend- ment, preparations were begun at once to formulate a measure as drastic and as far-reaching in its purpose of eliminating the negro vote as was possible without clashing with the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. United States Senator Arthur P. Gorman took charge of the shaping of the proposed amendment, and consulted leading lawyers, not only of Maryland but of other States as well, including many of his col- leagues in the upper house of Congress. There were many entirely disin- terested persons in the city of Baltimore and in the counties of Maryland 370 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE who sincerely believed that the public good demanded the disfranchisement of the ignorant and vicious class of negro voters and even a larger number who regarded the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution as distinctly a blunder, if not a crime. Moreover, many of these citizens considered the Fifteenth Amendment as having no moral force because of the manner in which it had been added to the Constitution. The Confederate States had been forced to give their votes in its favor, and the votes of these States, all of which would have rejected it if allowed to vote according to their will, had been used to make up for the lack of a three-fourths vote of States which had remained in the Union. Had an amendment to the State Constitution aimed simply at ridding the regis- tration books of illiterate negroes, it is probable that at this time a ma- jority of the people of the State would have approved it at the polls. But the leaders who had the shaping of the measures were not content with this. Elevated at the prospect of depriving the Republican party of a large part of its voting strength, and thus freeing themselves from the necessity of catering to what they regarded as the caprices of the independent Demo- cratic vote, they undertook to make the amendment a means of disfranchis- ing nearly all the negroes. With this end in view they engrafted on it a clause which required the applicant for registration to be able not only to read a section of the constitution, but also to give ''a reasonable explanation of the same," the registration officer being constituted the judge of whether the explanation was reasonable or not. Persons who were voters on the 1st of January, 1869, and male lineal descendants of such persons, were exempt from this test, which thus was intended to be made applicable to negroes only. In Maryland only 35.1 per cent of the n^roes were illiterate in 1900, but it was thought that the "reasonable explanation" clause of the amendment would effect the disfranchisement of most of the remain- ing 64.9 per cent. While this measure was pending in the General Assembly, there was much opposition to its provisions, especially to the clause which em- powered the r^strars of voters to exercise judicial functions in deciding on the interpretations of the constitution offered by would-be voters. It was contended that this power might be used not only to disfranchise negroes, but also to prevent the descendants of white foreigners who were not voters prior to the ist of January, 1869, from registering. Objection was also made by persons who believed that negro taxpayers should be exempt from the rigid test prescribed. Governor Warfield bitterly opposed the amendment in the form proposed, and urged the adoption of a less drastic measure, but the General Assembly passed it in its original shape despite his opposition. There arose a controversy as to whether the measure needed the sig- nature of the Governor to become effective. The legislature had passed it by a vote sufficiently large to overcome an executive veto, and it was as- sumed that therefore the Governor's sanction was unnecessary. In order HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 371 to escape the setback which an executive veto would give the measure, it was decided not to submit it to the Governor for his approval. Governor Warfield thereupon refused to issue the proclamation required by law for the submission of the Amendment to the popular vote. Mandamus pro- ceedings were instituted in the courts by the chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, and on the 23d of March the Court of Appeals decided in favor of the contention of the General Assembly. Despite the dissensions in their own ranks, the Democratic leaders entered upon the campaign with some degree of confidence in a successful outcome, especially in Baltimore City. The aggressiveness of the disorderly negro element after the Republican victory in 1895 was still fresh in the memory of the white population. The disposition which the negroes had already manifested to crowd into white residential neighborhoods, and the resultant injury to real estate values, had awakened much ill-feeling. The deterioration of the colored domestic servant class in recent years had ex- tinguished much of the kindly sentiment which had formerly existed. The influx of negroes from other States, many of whom abused the absence of the restraints to which they had been accustomed in the counties of Mar^- land or in sections further South, had aroused additional antagonism in Baltimore against their race. These and many other kindred causes op- erated strongly in favor of the amendment. The advocates of disfranchisement were also hopeful of reinforcement from the ranks of the Republican voters. That party had made some gain in strength among the white population since 1867, when in the tidewater counties it could scarcely be said to have had an existence. In that year the negroes had not yet been given the ballot and the total vote for Judge Hugh Lenox Bond, the Republican candidate for Governor was only 274 in the five Southern Maryland counties. In Calvert county the Republi- cans had cast only nine votes, and in Charles county only seven votes. In the eight Eastern Shore counties south of Cecil, the total vote of the party was but 1476. The total Democratic vote of these thirteen counties was 18,755, o*' nearly ninety-three per cent, of the whole vote. In Southern Maryland it constituted over ninety-six per cent, of the whole. After the lapse of thirty-eight years, notwithstanding the losses which affect every party after a long lease of power, notwithstanding the addition of the col- ored vote representing considerably more than one-third of the entire population of these counties, and notwithstanding the demoralization of the Democratic party consequent upon the free coinage issue, the Republicans had been able in 1903 to elect from the thirteen counties only four of the thirteen State Senators, and only nine of the thirty-seven members of the House of Delegates. In the conservative states of the North where the negro vote was an insignificant and inconspicuous factor in the party, the Republicans, after the disastrous Democratic defeats of 1896 and the two succeeding presidential elections, seemed to have gained a firm hold on local as well as on national elections, even in what had previously been considered 372 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Democratic strongholds. It was contended that the tenacity with which such a conservative State as Maryland, and such a conservative city as Baltimore, clung to Democratic rule in local affairs, could only be accounted for, in the face of the contrary showing elsewhere, on the hypothesis that the negro vote was a fatal handicap to the Republican party. But other considerations which escaped the attention or which were ignored by the advocates of the amendment, were operating to its dis- advantage. The first impulse of the people to welccxne a curb upon the negro when the proposition was put forth in an indefinite way on the hust- ings, gave place to sober thought when it assumed concrete form in a con- stitutional change which promised to entrench the dominant party in power in city and State, and render the Democratic politicians indifferent to the wishes of the independent voters. The Republican politicians, too, were deeply concerned at the prospect of losing the negro vote, which was a de- termining factor in some sections of the State where it was too small to create a prejudice and yet large enough to offset, or nearly offset, the white Democratic majority. In addition to these adverse influences, factional jealousies in the Democratic party operated against the amendment. It was regarded as peculiarly a Gorman measure, and the enemies of that leader saw in its defeat an opportunity to strike a blow at his prestige. Moved by one or the other of these considerations, a large number of the most influential men in the State announced their opposition, among them ex-Governor William Pinkney Whyte, and United States Senator Isidor Rayner. Governor Warfield continued to make bitter war on the amendment, and it became apparent, as the campaign progressed, that the Baltimore City leaders of the Democratic party were lukewarm in their support, if not actually hostile to the measure, being unwilling to jeopardize the suc- cess of their candidates for local oflices by antagonizing the powerful ele- ment arrayed against the amendment. The opposition campaign was adroitly managed. The large foreign element in Baltimore City was thoroughly alarmed by the persistent and insistent cry that the amendment would disfranchise them as well as the negroes. The Independent voters were stirred into activity by the plea that it would make Maryland a one-party State and Baltimore a one-party city. In vain the advocates of the amendment cried out against negro domination, and declared that the amendment would not disfranchise a single white voter. The election was held on the 7th of November, and the amendment was defeated by a vote of 104,286 to 70,228. Baltimore contributed 20,790 of the adverse majority of 34,058, the vote of the city being 27497 for and 48,287 against the amendment. The tenth ward was the only ward in the city which voted in its favor, and only five of the twenty-three counties of the State failed to record their opposition. Although the suffrage amendment which the Democratic organization HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 373 had so ardently supported met with ignominious defeat, the candidate of that party for comptroller of the State Treasury received a plurality of 7*505 in the State, and of 1,224 i° Baltimore City. Judge Harlan, the Democratic candidate for Chief Judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, was re-elected with a plurality of 15,207, and the Democratic candi- date for city surveyor was also successful. The Republicans elected their candidate for sheriff with a plurality of 306. The Democrats very nearly lost control of the lower house in the new General Assembly, the party strength being: Democrats, 51; Re- publicans 46; Independents 3; Fusionists i. Fourteen Senators were chosen at this election, of which seven were Democrats, six were Repub- licans, and one a Fusionist. Of the thirteen hold-over Senators, eleven were Democrats. The General Assembly of 1906 met at Annapolis on the 3d of January. One of the most important acts of the session was the passage of a bill for the promotion of oyster culture, commonly known as the Haman oyster law. The vast industry which had been built up in Baltimore in earlier years, and in which over three scores of large packing and shipping firms had at one time been engaged, was threatened with g^dual decay, owing to the depletion of the natural oyster beds of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries through unrestricted dredging and a lack of intelligent e£Fort for the replenishing of the waters. Competition had already seriously af- fected the local trade. Sections which at one time had been accustomed merely to obtain small or seed oysters in the Chesapeake and plant them in their own waters, where th^ might increase to marketable size, had be- come rivals of Baltimore and the tidewater towns of Maryland in the oyster trade. The remedial measure provided by the legislature aimed at increasing the supply of Chesapeake oysters through the reservation of barren bottoms for private culture. The Board of Public Works of Maryland was em- powered to appoint a Shell Fish Commission to make surveys of natural oyster beds and bars. The first conunission appointed consisted of Walter J. Mitchell, of Charles county, representing the tidewater counties of the Western Shore, Benjamin K. Green, of Somerset county, representing the tidewater counties of the Eastern Shore, and Dr. Caswell Grave, rep- resenting the city of Baltimore. This commission selected as chief hydro- graphic engineer of its surveying corps, Swepson Earle, of Queen Anne's county, formerly connected with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and at the time of his selection an employe of the Federal Light House Board. Dr. Grave and Mr. Earle inaugurated their work by mak- ing a careful study of the oyster producing waters of Connecticut, where an important industry had been developed artificially. Meanwhile an act of the Federal Congress had enabled the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to designate Captain C. C. Yates, of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Dr. W. F. Moore, of the Bureau of Fisheries, to cooperate with the Mary- 374 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE land Q>inmission in making surveys. The first hydrographic work was done in the waters of the Severn river. The field work of the survey was begun on the 29th of June, 1906, and was completed on the 28th of November, 1910. The oyster resources of Maryland, potential and latent, as ascertained and developed by the Shell Fish Conmiission were as follows: about 210,000 acres of natural oyster bar; about 2,500 acres of leased bottom; about 800,000 acres of barren bottom. The provisions of the Haman act were ultimately found to be inadequate as to cultural operations, and supplementary legislation was later sought to perfect the law. Another act passed at this session of the General Assembly created a Department of Legislative Reference for Baltimore City. The object of this department is to collect, compile and index data for the use chiefly of municipal and State officials. Its valuable material is, however, avail- able to anyone who cares to make use of it. There have been collected several thousand books and pamphlets, as well as municipal journals and clippings, consisting largely of charters and ordinances, municipal re- ports, and writings on municipal questions. Baltimore was the first city to establish such a department as this. On the 9th of January, 1906, a bronze statue of Severn Teackle Wallis by the French sculptor Marquestre, was unveiled in the Washington Place Park, south of the Washington monument. The statue was erected by admirers of the distinguished lawyer, orator, historical writer, poet, and political reform advocate, whose death occurred in 1894. Arthur George Brown, of the Baltimore bar, delivered an oration in which he spoke of Mr. Wallis as a typical, and, in many aspects of his life and character, an ideal Baltimorean. Mayor Timanus accepted the statue on behalf of the city. On the 4th of June, 1906, United States Senator Arthur Pue Gorman died in Washington, aged sixty-seven years. Although he had been a citizen of Howard county all his life, his position as senator and as leader of the dominant party for more than a quarter of a century had thoroughly identified him with the metropolis of the State. His political career from the time he displaced William Pinkney Wh3rte in the federal senate, had been a stormy one. His success had been achieved along lines that did not appeal to sentiment or evoke popular applause, and only once in his career could he be said to have tasted the sweets of popularity. This one occasion was after his skillful and successful contest against the Federal election bill, popularly called the Force Bill, during the Harrison adminis- tration. Nevertheless, he was possessed of a remarkable faculty for in- spiring those who were in close contact with him, with an unfaltering loyalty which was as strong in ill-fortune as in good-fortune. His influ- ence in Congress was equaled by few if any of his colleagues, and if their preferences alone had been the determining factor, he would undoubtedly have been a Democratic nominee for the presidency of the United States. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 375 At the age of thirteen years he had been appointed a page in the Senate, and it was his life's ambition to sit in that body as a member. He achieved this ambition in 1880, when he succeeded in forcing Senator Wh)rte out of office. The two were never friends afterward. Senator, Gorman's antagonism to Grover Qeveland's tariff policy, and the open rupture of friendly relations that ensued, had a great deal to do with the one important reverse which he met with in the course of his political career. It caused his retirement from the Senate for six yeiars, the Re- publicans having a majority on joint ballot in the General Assemblies of 1896 and 1898. In 1902, when the Democratic party was restored to power in Maryland, he was elected senator for a fourth term, and died in office. Four days after the death of Senator Gorman, Governor Warfield appointed William Pinkney Wh3rte to succeed him. The appointment was a singularly happy one. In the prime of life and in the midst of a career which promised to lead to a foremost place in the nation's councils. Senator Wh3rte had been driven from public life by his political lieutenant, whose ambition he had probably never suspected. After the lapse of twenty-six years, at the age of eighty-one, he was now to resume the office of which he had been deprived, as the successor of the man who had deprived him. The aged senator was still in possession of all his faculties, and took up the arduous duties of his place with an energy and power of application which men many years his junior might have envied. So popular was his appointment to the senatorship that, when the General Assembly met in 1908, he was, in compliance with the general wish of the people, chosen to fill out the remainder of the term. In September, 1906, the police department of Baltimore took a census of the city, which showed that the population within the municipal limits was 544,708, of whom 264474 were males and 280,234 females. The population consisted of 461,965 whites, 82,456 negroes, and 283 Chinese and Japanese. The General Assembly of 1904 had passed an act for a new general registration of voters in 1906, date subsequent to the vote on the suf- frage amendment being selected, in order that the registration might be in accordance with the fate of the proposed disfranchisement of the negroes. In Baltimore City the total number r^stered was 106,143, of whom 89,- 649 were white and 16494 colored. TTiere were 50,977 who registered as Democrats; 41,663 who registered as Republicans, and 13,503 who declined to affiliate with either party. The only local election held in Baltimore in 1906 was for an additional judge of the Supreme Bench of the city. Thomas Ireland Elliott, who had been a candidate in 1905 against Chief Judge Harlan, was nominated for the associate judgeship by the Republicans, and was elected over the Demo- cratic candidate, with a plurality of 593 votes. The congressional elections of this year resulted in Democratic victories in the two Baltimore City 376 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE districts and in the second Maryland district, which included two city wards. The Fifth District elected a Republican, but the four city wards and five precincts included in the district, which had given a Republican plurality of 1,200 in 1906, gave the Democratic candidate 503 plurality in 1908. On the 17th of December, 1906, General John Mifflin Hood, president of the United Railways of Baltimore City, and former president of the Western Maryland railroad, died aged 63 years. The comparatively early end of his career robbed Baltimore of a citizen whose indefatigable energy and sound judgment had contributed greatly to its prosperity. Banning life as an engineer and serving when still a mere boy in the Confederate army, he developed a capacity for achievement which enabled him success- fully to essay the herculean task of creating out of the almost defunct Western Maryland railroad a valuable property. After having been a grievous burden to the city before General Hood became its executive head, it was disposed of at a time when the millions its sale brought were peculiarly useful to meet in part the vast expenditures rendered necessary by the conflagration of 1904. General Hood's translation to the office of chief executive of Baltimore's extensive car system gave him a field equally important upon which to display his energy and ability, and his death, oc- curring at a time when a few brief years had barely ripened him for achievement in his new sphere of action, was lamented as a serious loss to the community. Two men who had played important parts in Baltimore City politics died within a week of each other in March, 1907: ex-Mayor William T. Malster, whose career as a Republican leader had been meteoric, expiring on the second day of the month, aged sixty-three years, and Isaac Free- man Rasin, for nearly four decades the foremost politician of the city Democracy ending his career on the ninth, at the age of seventy- four years. Ex-Mayor Malster had been a successful man of business before he be- came conspicuous in politics. From modest beginnings he had devebped an important ship-building plant in Baltimore, known as the Columbian Iron Works, at which several of the earlier gunboats of the modem Ameri- can navy were constructed. In 1895, the year in which the Republicans first won the mayoralty he was a competitor for the Republican nomina- tion, his rival being Noble H. Creager. The factional fight resulted in the nomination of Alcaeus Hooper, who was elected mayor. Two years later Mr. Malster was again a candidate for the nomination and succeeded in defeating Mayor Hooper, and also in gaining a victory at the general elec- tion. During the contest for the United States senatorship at the legisla- tive session of 1898, he played an important part, and is said at one stage of the bitter struggle to have come very near being the successor of Senator Gorman. In 1899 he was renominated by the Republican party for mayor, but was defeated by Thomas G. Hayes, the Democratic candidate. After HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 377 this defeat came business reverses, and in the last years of his life he was without a political following. Isaac Freeman Rasin, on the other hand, died as he had lived, the head of the city organization in the Democratic party, having long ruled it as no other man had ever ruled a political party in Baltimore. He had dictated the nominations of mayors, judges, congressmen, State legisla- tors, city councilmen, and other election officials, and had exercised a potent influence in the selection of governors and United States senators. Al- though it was his boast that he had never named an unworthy man for an important office, his domination of the party had been bitterly resented at various times, and during twenty years following the great but temporarily fruitless revolt of Democrats in 1875, the candidates of the organization of which he was the head were almost invariably opposed by an important ele- ment among the Democratic voters. After the disastrous defeat of the Democratic party in city and State in 1895, he displayed his sagacity by recognizing the necessity of deferring to the wishes of the voters whose defection had brought about the success of the Republican party, and his leadership was so adroit that under national conditions which had almost destroyed the party in its northern strongholds, he succeeded in restoring it to power in Baltimore. At every period of his long career he had the sup- port of a large number of leading citizens, and was ever ready to listen to their advice. At the same time he exercised an almost absolute control over most of the ward-workers of his party, and, while sometimes one or more of them were rebellious, his leadership was never seriously threatened. The death of the leader of the City Democracy occurred at the outset of a municipal campaign, the preliminaries of which had been handled by him with characteristic sagacity. Mayor Timanus' administration was drawing to a close. The Repub- lican organization, headed by G>llector of Custcnns William F. Stone was supporting him for the mayoralty ncHnination, while Frank C. Wachter, who had been defeated four years earlier by Mayor McLane in a very close contest, also aspired to the nomination. Mayor Timanus was suc- cessful in the party primary, and the Republicans were hopeful that the record he made while filling out the term of Mayor McLane, whom he suc- ceeded after the mayor's death in office, would gain him the support of a large number of independent voters. The city registration for the munici- pal election showed 56,686 Democrats, 48,081 Republicans, and 9>9i5 voters who declined to affiliate with either party. It was well known that many of the voters who were registered as Democrats were of independent pro- clivities, having affiliated with that party chiefly because they desired to vote at the primary election. It was therefore apparent that the result of the mayoralty election would depend upon the independent vote. Under these circumstances Mr. Rasin perceived that it would be suicidal to name a Democratic candidate who owed his nomination entirely to the party politicians. There were two aspirants already in the field, and 378 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE a third was being urged by many influential citizens to announce his can- didacy. George Stewart Brown, who had served with credit in the City Council, was the first to declare himself. With municipal ownership and independence of party leaders as his shibboleth, he was making a vigorous canvass and had gathered about him an enthusiastic body of supporters. J. Charles Linthicum, a leading member of the State Senate, had also b^^un an energetic canvass and had built up a strong organization of his own. Wflliam Cabell Bruce, whose services as City Solicitor had brought him prominently and favorably under the notice of the community, had made no formal announcement of his candidacy, but was the choice of many of the most influential Democrats in the city. Several other Democrats were receptive candidates, among whom George N. Numsen was the most conspicuous. After long hesitation, Mr. Rasin visited ex-Governor Frank Brown and told him he desired to be freed from the task of selecting a candidate for the Democratic organization to support. He had, he said, ''grown tired of being abused as a boss, and wished to shift the responsibility to other shoulders." He pledged himself to swing the support of the organization to any candidates for the city election officers whom ex-Governor Brown might endorse. The ex-Governor consented to undertake the task. He conferred with politicians, reformers, merchants, and other classes of citi- zens, and finally announced as his selections for the ticket J. Barry Mahool for mayor; George N. Numsen for president of the Second Branch of the City Council, and Harry F. Hooper for city comptroller. Mr. Mahool had been a member of the City Council, and was an aspirant for the seoMid place on the ticket, favoripg Mr. Bruce for the mayoralty n(Mnination. He was reluctant to enter the field, but, after conferring with Mr. Bruce and being urged by that gentleman to do so, he consented to become a candidate. Mr. Rasin was true to his promise, and rallied his followers to the support of the candidates selected by ex-Governor Brown. After a spirited canvass by the three aspirants for the mayoralty nomination, the primary election was held on the 22d of April. It resulted in a decisive victory for Mahool, the vote being : Mahool, 23477 ; Brown, 9,301 ; Lin- thicum, 7,133. The general election was held on the 7th of the following month, and although Mayor Timanus received the support of a large num- ber of independent voters who believed he deserved to be elected in rec- ognition of the excellence of his administration during a trying period in the city's history, Mahool came out ahead in the poll, receiving 48,254 votes while Timanus received 43,584. On the 27th of April, 1907, a pier in course of construction at the Baltimore and Ohio railroad tidewater terminal at Locust Point collapsed, killing several persons and causing a property loss of about $400,000. The pier was being built at a contract price of $750,000, and was to be one of the largest and best equipped in the country. About ten days before the acci- dent it was noticed that the outward edge of the pier was moving, and a i HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 379 close watch was kept by the engineers and contractors. On the day of the collapse an observer stationed on an adjacent pier gave the foreman warn- ing, and ten minutes before the catastrophe occurred the workmen were ordered off the structure. Through recklessness, or delay from some other cause, some of them failed to heed the warning, and were still on the pier when the crash came. One man, after reaching a place of safety, returned for his tools and was killed. Three others retreated an insufficient distance and were crushed beneath a falling wall. The superintendent of the con- tracting c(Mnpany met death while heroically attempting to rescue his men. On the 26th of April, 1907, the Jamestown Tercentenary Exposition was formally opened on a site overlooking the lower Chesapeake Bay, near Norfolk. The State of Maryland and the city of Baltimore made creditable displays of the products of the soil and of their industries, each having a building on the grounds. Day steamers were run from Baltimore, in addi- tion to the regular night lines of boats, and large numbers of Baltimoreans visited the exposition. Maryland Day was one of the most interesting of the special occasions during the continuance of the great fair. Governor Warfield, Senator William Pinkney Whyte, James Ryder Randall, author of ''Maryland, My Maryland," and other Marylanders, made addresses, and Governor Swanson of Virginia, and Harry St. George Tucker, repre- senting the Fair Commission, joined in tributes to the sister State. The Baltimore building was the only one on the grounds maintained by a city, and was visited by thousands of persons. The Maryland building was a replica of the mansion of Charles Carroll of Carrollton at Homewood, near Baltimore. The University of Maryland celebrated its centennial on the 30th of May, 1907, and on the three days next following with interesting cere- monies and social gatherings. The one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the School of Medicine was selected for the celebration. The exercises were attended by a large number of alumni, many of whom came from other States. On the opening day a reception was held on the grounds surrounding the fine old building at Greene and Lombard streets, erected in 1 81 2, and modeled after the Pantheon at Rome. The reception was at- tended by representatives of other universities, alumni of the school, and candidates for degrees, who later in the day inspected the hospitals, laboratories, and other buildings belonging to the institution. In the even- ing there were numerous class reunions and dinners. On the following day academic exercises were held in the Lyric Theatre, where addresses were made and degrees conferred. In the evening a largely attended ban- quet was given at the same place, at which addresses on the history of the University were delivered and reminiscences related by alumni. The third day's exercises were held at St. John's College in Annapolis, and on the final day, Sunday, June 2, the baccalaureate sermon was preached in the Mount Vernon Place Methodist Episcopal Church, by Bishop Luther B. Wilson, a graduate of the medical school of the University. 38o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Another interesting event of this year in the educational field was the decision of the board of trustees of the Johns Hopkins University to admit women who had taken the baccalaureate degree at any institution of learn- ing in good standing, to its post-graduate courses of study. Previous to this time, women students had been admitted to the Medical School, and in one or more exceptional instances women had been permitted to pursue special courses of advanced study in other departments of the University, Imt up to this time, there had been no formal recognition of the status of female students in any departments except that of medicine. The gubernatorial campaign of 1907 found the Democratic party without a recognized leader either in State or city. No one had yet arisen to fill the place of either Senator Gorman or I. Freeman Rasin. In the city, ex-Governor Frank Brown was the nominal leader, but John J. Mahon, who had been one of Rasin's lieutenants at times, and at other times had been his antagonist in Democratic politics, had the largest personal follow- ing of ward workers. Governor Warfield was at war with the county and city leaders, and several of the cotmty leaders were maneuvering with a view of gaining control of the party organization in the state. The Demo- cratic State Convention met in Baltimore on the 8th of August, with three aspirants for the gubernatorial nomination prominently mentioned. Joseph D. Baker, of Frederick county, a citizen of the highest standing in Western Maryland, who had previously taken little active part in politics, was warmly supported by a large and respectable element among the Demo- cratic voters, and would have been a formidable candidate but for his views on the liquor question which were so pronounced that he refused to join the Democratic Club of Baltimore City because intoxicants were sold in the club house. Henry Williams, who had twice been the Democratic can- didate for mayor of Baltimore when the party prospects were darkest, was at one time during the conferences which preceded the convention, prac- tically selected by the local leaders who controlled a majority of the dele- gates, as the ncHninee. Austin L. Crothers, who had been at the head of the Democratic prganization in Cecil county for several years, and who had been elevated to the judicial bench by Governor Warfield, was the third aspirant, with ex-Governor John Walter Smith as his leading sup- porter. At the last moment, Mr. Williams was abandoned by his sup- porters, and Judge Crothers was selected by the committee to be the party's standard-bearer. Governor Warfield, who had been chosen as a del^;ate to the con- vention from Anne Arundel county, offered a resolution providing for a direct vote of the people to nominate two candidates for the United States senatorships which were to be filled by the General Assembly of 1908. The opponents of direct primaries were taken by surprise, and after a futile effort on the part of a few of them to defeat the proposition, it was adopted by the convention, with the modification that instead of a majority of the whole vote of the State dictating the choice of senators, the preferenoQS ex- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 381 .pressed by the people of each county and of each legislative district in Bal- timore City should control the vote of its representatives in the General Assembly. The Republican State Convention met one week later. Phillips Lee Goldsborough, of Dorchester county had been practically selected by the party leaders for the gubernatorial nomination, but the offer of newspaper support led to a change of plan and the substitution of George R. Gaither, of Baltimore City, for Mr. Goldsborough as the head of the ticket. The ill-advised conspicuousness with which the party chiefs dominated the con- vention proved a serious handicap to the candidacy of Mr. Gaither, who was himself a highly respected citizen and an earnest advocate of high ideals in politics, and alienated a considerable number of independent votes. A great ratification meeting was held in Baltimore City shortly after the adjournment of the Democratic Convention, at which Judge Crothers delivered a speech accepting the nomination. He was ill at the time, but managed to perform his part at the meeting. Returning to his hotel, he was prostrated with t3rphoid fever, and was unable to participate further in the campaign. Bitter attacks were made upon the Democratic candidates by an op- position newspaper in Baltimore City. To offset these, Governor War- field, who possessed the confidence of the independent voters, vouched for Judge Crothers' fidelity to his promises. Many of the leading independents in the city pronounced in his favor, and his inability, on account of illness, personally to reply to the attacks, created a great deal of sympathy in his behalf. He was also benefited by a spirited contest in the senatorial pref- erence primaries, held on the same day as the State election, which drew out a large Democratic vote, the candidates being Governor Warfield, Con- gressman J. Fred C. Talbott, and ex-Governor John Walter Smith. The election took place on the 5th of November, and resulted in a victory for the Democratic candidates, Crothers having a plurality over Gaither of 8,158 in the State, and of 4433 in Baltimore City. Dr. Joshua W. Hering, Democratic candidate for comptroller, had a plurality of 14,502, and Isaac Lobe Straus, Democratic candidate for attorney-general, had a plurality of 14,262. The removal of the party emblems, and other changes in the election laws which rendered it difficult for the illiterate voter to avoid invalidating his ballot, proved of great advantage to the Democratic candidates for the General Assembly, especially in sections where the negroes constituted a large part of the Republican strength. Owing largely to these causes, the newly elected General Assembly was strongly Democratic, the Senate con- taining seventeen Democrats and nine Republicans, and the House of Delegates seventy-one Democrats and thirty Republicans. In Baltimore City the Democrats carried tiiree of the legislative dis- tricts, and secured one of the six delegates from the fourth district, a Republican stronghold. They also elected two judges of the City Supreme 382 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Bench, the only ones voted for at this election, three judges of the Orphans' Court, the city surveyor, the sheriff, two clerks of local courts, and the State's Attorney. The Republicans succeeded in electing none of their city candidates except four members of the House of Delegates from the Fourth Legislative District. A great deal of interest attached to the Democratic senatorial primary election, the first ever held in the State. The number of ballots cast was 94f545i which was only 7,622 less than the vote polled by the Democratic candidate for governor. Senator William Pinkney Whyte was unopposed for the remainder of the term of the late Senator Gorman, which would expire on the 4th of March, 1909. The contest in which Messrs. War- field, Talbott, and Smith were engaged was for the term following that date. The three aspirants had made energetic canvasses of the State, one of the principal features being a meeting in the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore City, where each of them presented his claims in an address to a great as- semblage of Democrats. Ex-Governor Smith was successful at the polls, receiving 48,131 votes, a majority of the whole vote cast. Governor War- field, who had been induced to enter the primary chiefly with the view of aiding the candidacy of Judge Crothers for the governorship, and whose organization was hastily formed and very imperfect, received a surpris- ingly large support, having 30,300 votes, and carrying two legislative dis- tricts in Baltimore City. Congressman Talbott carried Baltimore county with a plurality of nearly five thousand over Warfield, and of nearly seven thousand over Smith, and received 16,214 votes in the State. On the 22d of December, 1907, the fine structure erected by the United States government for the accommodation of the customs service and all other federal offices in Baltimore except the postal service and the United States courts, was occupied for the first time and thrown open to the public without formal ceremonies except the raising of the national flag and the revenue flag on the roof. The large increase of business at the port of Baltimore had many years earlier necessitated the removal of one branch after another of the federal service from the old Custom House, and even with the relief thus obtained and with the purchase of the bank building at the comer of Second and Gay streets, the customs c^cials found the space available for their uses insufficient. Efforts to secure an appropria- tion for a new building were not successful, however, until 1899, when the exertions of Senator Arthur Pue Gorman and Representative W. W. Mclntire met with success. The new granite walls had been practically completed when the fire of 1904 swept down into the business section, devouring everything in its path. By a singular freak of fortune, the new structure escaped destruction, although a building on the opposite side of a twenty-foot alley was burnt to the ground, and substantial brick and stone buildings on the opposite sides of the streets bordering its site were reduced to shapeless piles of debris. The exterior was damaged to the amount of about $200,000, many of the large granite blocks being scaled HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 383 and chipped, but strange to say, although the large window spaces offered easy ingress to the flames, scarcely any injury was done to the interior. The new structure was a worthy addition to the series of splendid public buildings which adorned the city. Its exterior is of Maryland and North Carolina granite in classic design. It is four stories in height, in addition to a basement and an attic, the latter used for storage purposes. Its site measures 250 by 140 feet, and it is separated by a parked area from the neighboring buildings.^ It is of fire proof construction throughout, the .steel framework being concealed by stone work. The main apartment, popularly known as the call room, is monumental in its beauty, and is rendered notable by mural and ceiling decoration from the brush of Francis D. Millet. The principal canvas is 68 by 30 feet, and shows a fleet of sailing vessels of all descriptions, from the majestic full- rigged ship to the small foretopsail schooner. In addition to this huge canvas, which is said to be one of the largest in the United States, there are five lunette paintings and twenty-eight panels, showing the evolution of sailing and steam vessels from the earliest days of navigation down to the present day. The artist made this work a labor of love, expending upon it an al- most infinite amount of careful research. Among the vessels portrayed on his canvases are an Egyptian galley copied from an ancient tomb, a Roman trireme, a mediaeval Venetian galley, a Viking ship, a Spanish caravel, a lumbering East Indiaman, and a graceful Baltimore clipper ship, the per- fection of sailing craft. All of these vessels are delineated with a rare fidelity to detail, the result of painstaking study. The series of paintings was not completed until several years after the occupation of the building by the customs officials. A few years later it was the fate of the artist who had devoted so much study and so much skill to the portrayal of the craft of all ages, to perish in the wreck of the Titanic, on April 15, 1912. The General Assembly of 1908 balloted for senators on the isth of January, and in obedience to the will of the people as expressed at the polls in November, elected William Pinkney Whyte for the unexpired term of Senator Gorman, deceased, and John Walter Smith for the term beginning on the 4th of March, 1909. Senator Whyte survived the election only two months and two days, expiring on the 17th of March, at the age of eighty-three years. Almost up to the time of his death he had performed his duties as a senator with all the energy and application of a man in the prime of life, and in addition had attended to his large law practice. He had achieved before his death the distinction rare in politics of possessing the hearty esteem of men of all parties, and his fatal illness, occurring un- ^expectedly, occasioned general and heart-felt sorrow. He had three times been a member of the United States Senate, twice for a part of a term and once for a full term, and had enjoyed the more unusual distinction of hav- ing been elected mayor of Baltimore by a practically unanimous vote. As a lawyer he had won a prominent place at the bar both in civil and criminal 384 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE practice, and although he had been counsel for the defense at many murder trials, he had the remarkable record of never having lost a case. There remained nearly a year of the senatorial term which had wit- nessed the death of two incumbents, and, the General Assembly being in session, ex-Governor John Walter Smith was elected to fill the vacancy. On the 17th of May, Thomas M. Lanahan, a lawyer of prominence, whose influence for many years had been powerful in Democratic politics although he had never aspired to office himself, died at the age of seventy- nine years. The year 1908 also witnessed the deaths, at the age of sixty- five years, of Judge Charles E. Phelps, Union soldier, jurist, and philo- sophical writer whose services on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City had been exceptionally valuable; Dr. William Keith Brooks, of the Johns Hopkins University, whose researches in marine biology had contributed largely to a prc^r appreciation of the vast possibilities of the Chesapeake Bay as a source of wealth, and Captain Levi F. White, whose adventures while running the blockade from Baltimore in the interests of the Con- federate armies constituted one of the most exciting chapters in the history of Baltimore's connection with tfie great struggle. Up to the time of his inauguration as Governor of Maryland, Austin L. Crothers had been known in Baltimore chiefly as a party leader in Cecil county, and there was much speculation as to the course he would pursue and the qualities he would develop in the high c^ce to which he had been elected. It was not long after his assumption of executive duties that the fact became apparent that he was a man of forceful character, with ideas fashioned on lines of progress, and with a firm determination to carry out the promises of the platform on which he had been elected. He devoted his whole time to the business of the State, and formulated constructive policies which seem destined to make his administration one that will al- ways be remembered. His influence was powerfully exerted on the General Assembly, and to his efforts in their behalf, the enactment of several im- portant measures in which Baltimore City was deeply interested, is attrib- uted. Among these measures was a Corrupt Practice Act for the protection of the purity of elections. The use of money at the polls had grown to be a crying abuse in some sections of the State, and among certain ele- ments in the population of the city. Under the pressure of the executive, the General Assembly passed an act modeled upon the English law, which was in many respects the most effective measure of its kind up to that time adopted in America. Another piece of legislation whkh Governor Crothers successfully advocated and in which Baltimore City was deeply interested, was the creation of a Public Utilities Commission for the regu- lation of public service corporations. But the measure on account of which the Crothers' administration will probably be longest remembered was the Good Roads law, creating a loan of six millions of dollars for the construc- tion of a system of State roads, for the building of bridges, and for a boulevard between Baltimore and Annapolis. Of this sum one million dol- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 385 lars was allotted for improvements within the corporate limits of Balti- more City. The advocates of negro disfranchisement, not wholly convinced by the overwhelming defeat at the polls in 1905 that the people were opposed to the proposition, undertook to have the General Assembly submit to the pop- ular vote a constitutional amendment from which the features chiefly ob- jected to in the former amendment were eliminated. Attorney General Straus was entrusted with the drafting of the amendment, and with him were joined, in an advisory capacity, some of the ablest lawyers in Maryland, including Bernard Carter, ex-Attorney General William Shepherd Bryan, and John P. Poe, who had drafted the first amendment under the direction of Senator Gorman. To these were added several lawyers who had been conspicuously identified with independent political movements, among whom were William L. Marbury, Roger W. Cull, Leigh Bonsai, Arthur W. Machen, W. Cabell Bruce, John E. Semmes, Randolph Barton, and px- Governor Warfield. The amendment agreed upon by these lawyers was adopted in the General Assembly by the requisite three-fifths vote, and approved by the Governor. The verdict of the people was not rendered, however, until the State election of 1909. The Quadrennial General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was held at the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore during the month of May, 1908. Eight bishops were elected at this session. The expansion of the work of the Young Men's Christian Association had rendered the accommodations afforded by the Central building at the comer of Charles and Saratoga streets inadequate to the needs of the or- ganization, and shortly after the great Baltimore fire the fact that a new building of greater dimensions must be erected if the association was to meet the demands made upon it, began to impress itself upon the minds of the managers. In 1906 the project assumed concrete form, and on the 17th of November, 1908, reached fruition in the dedication of a structure facing on Franklin, Cathedral, and Hamilton streets, which is unsur- passed by any other building in the country erected for similar purposes. The money needed to pay the cost of this splendid structure was obtained at a time when the city was just recovering from the effects of the fire, and was the fruit of a remarkable thirty days' campaign organized by Charles S. Ward, international secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association, and conducted by a citizens* committee, a young business men's committee, and a central committee. The latter two committees were di- vided into ten teams each, and an exhaustive canvass of the city for sub- scriptions was inaugurated, the purpose being to raise a half million dollars in thirty days. The campaign was the most spirited of its kind ever con- ducted in Baltimore. When it was ended the sum of $511477 had been raised. The site selected embraced the former home of the Maryland Qub and three adjacent properties. It has a frontage of one hundred and thirteen feet on Franklin street, and a depth of one hundred and forty feet 386 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE on Cathedral street. The building is seven stories in height, with fagade of light gray brick ornamented with granite and resting upon a basement of the latter material. President Ira Remsen of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, Mayor Mahool, and others, made addresses at the dedication, and a large assemblage of prominent citizens interested in the work of the As- sociation inspected the building. The participation of James Ryder Randall, author of the famous war lyric, "Maryland, My Maryland," in the Maryland Day exercises at the Jamestown Exposition, and the poet's subsequent visit to Baltimore, created a widespread desire for the publication of a collection of his poems. Ef- forts had been made at various times to induce Mr. Randall to gather his fugitive pieces, inspired by special events or occasions and published in Southern newspapers, but he had invariably manifested, a singular reluct- ance to undertake the task. Mr. Randall finally yielded to the insistence of his friends and undertook to assemble the poems for publication in book form. Senator William Pinkney Whyte, with whom Mr. Randall had at one time been associated in the capacity of secretary, was especially instru- mental in persuading him to prepare the material for the proposed volume, and he himself wrote an introduction for the book, which was published on the 27th of March, 1908. Before its publication, both the poet and the Senator had closed their earthly careers. After spending several months in Baltimore, Mr. Randall returned to Augusta, Georgia, where he had made his home during several years. His vitality had been lowered by the fatigue and excitement of travel. He contracted pneumonia, from which he died on the 14th of January, 1908, after a short illness, in his 67th year. The volume of poems issued soon after his death had been hurriedly pre- pared. It was very incomplete, and bore other marks of its hasty prepara- tion. Moreover, it lacked an adequate analysis of Randall's literary work. Later, a perfected edition was issued under the editorship of Matthew Page Andrews, prefaced with a biographical introduction. The famous song with which Randall's name is inseparably associated was, like most other war songs, written for a specific purpose. It became the battle hymn of a cause which suffered defeat. But its dominant note of love for Mother State appealed to Marylanders of all shades of political opinion, and for half a century its refrain, "Maryland, My Maryland," has been for them a patriotic inspiration. Broad-minded men have learned to love the song for this quality, as well as for the beauty of its lines, which is scarcely rivaled by that of any other patriotic song in the English lan- guage. Its partisanship, and the denunciatory language of some of its verses, like similar characteristics of the "Star-Spangled Banner," have al- most lost their application with the flight of half a century and the disap- pearance of the issue which gave birth to the song, and it survives now simply as an expression of love for Mother State, moulded into beautiful form. In recc^^ition of the service rendered to the State by Randall in giving it an anthem of world-wide fame, the General Assembly of Mary- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 387 land voted a pension of $600 a year to the family of the poet immediately after his death. The influence of the Johns Hopkins University Medical School in the advancement of medical education in America and in research into the causes and cure of disease, received striking recognition, during 1908 in the gift to that institution by Henry Phipps, of Pittsburgh, a wealthy steel manufacturer and philanthropist, of $750,000 for the establishment of a department for the study and treatment of mental diseases. Mr. Phipps had previously made a gift of $20,000 to the Johns Hopkins University for the creation of a dispensary. His selection of the Johns Hopkins School as the beneficiary of the magnificent endowment which he had con- templated making for the prosecution of the study of psychiatrics, was the outcome of his careful observation of the high ideals and the purely scientific spirit of the institution. The gift was the largest ever received from a single donor by the Medical School, the only others belonging in its class being the $500,000 bestowed by John D. Rockefeller to repair the losses sustained through the great Baltimore fire, the $400,000 endowment for the Harriet Lane Johnston Hospital for Children, and the gift of $300,- 000 made by Miss Mary Garrett just prior to the opening of the school, on condition that women students be received. Further testimony to the pri- macy of this great institution and the eminence among medical scholars of the members of its faculty, was furnished by the inducements offered to the latter to accept chairs in the faculties of the Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, both of which institutions had received rich endow- ments, and were desirous of developing along lines similar to those which had raised the Johns Hopkins School to leadership in American medical education. The academic department of the John Hopkins University was also offered ample evidence of the appreciation of its work in behalf of ad- vanced study. While no one great addition was made to its endowment, a widespread sympathy with its aims was manifested by the financial sup- port accorded it by the people of Baltimore. A pioneer in real university work in America, it had held out no allurements to wealthy young men whose chief purpose in attending an institution of learning was to enjoy college life. A larger percentage of its graduates had devoted themselves to pursuits which do not lead to great wealth than of those of any other university in America. Its original endowment, considered large at the time it was made, had been dwarfed by the immense sums bestowed in later years upon its Northern rivals. The people of Baltimore had rallied to its support, and the legislature of Maryland had given it aid when financial disaster had impaired its fortunes. Its infancy, spent in the heart of the city, had passed away, and generous Baltimoreans had provided it with a site at Homewood, which offered every facility for its expansion. Great expenditure for buildings and equipment was needed, however, to render 388 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE removal to this site feasible. The task of raising $2,000,000 for this pur- pose was courageously undertaken by the alumni and friends of the institu- tion. It was not until near the close of the year 1910, however, that the effort took definite shape. Then, spurred by the offer of $250,000 made by the General Board of Education, conditional on the raising of $750,000 additional, a strenuous campaign was inaugurated to complete the first million of the two needed. At the close of the year, not only had the sum asked for been obtained, but an additional $125,000 had been contributed toward the second million. At the presidential election of 1908, Baltimore for the third time gave a plurality against William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candi- date. However, the plurality for William Howard Taft, the Republican candidate was small when compared with the 21,092 given for McKinley in 1896, and the 6,906 given the same candidate in 1900. The vote for the electors varied considerably, owing to the complexity of the ballot, but every one of the eight Republican electoral candidates received a plurality in the city, the largest being 2,389 and the smallest 1,839. The vote in the counties of Maryland was, however, in favor of the Bryan electors, and the adverse city vote was sufficient in two cases only to overcome the rural plurality. The vote for congressmen cast in Baltimore at the same election showed a net plurality of 1,502 for the Democratic candidates, although that party lost the third district which two years earlier it had carried. On the 19th of January, 1909, the centennial anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe was celebrated in many cities. At the University of Virginia, which numbers him as one of its most illustrious sons ; in Boston, where the poet was bom while his parents happened to be temporarily residing there; at West Point, where he had spent a portion of his youth- ful years as a cadet ; at St. Johns College in Annapolis ; and at educational institutions in every section of the country, tributes were paid to the mem- ory of the poet. In Baltimore, the city of his ancestry, the home of his sur- viving relatives, and the place of his death and burial, the anniversary was celebrated with peculiar impressiveness. Wreaths of flowers were placed upon his grave in the Westminster churchyard at the corner of Greene and Fayette streets by the Woman's Literary Qub of Baltimore, the class of 1909 of the Western Female High School, the Poe Literary Society of the Baltimore Polytechnic School, and the pupils of School Number One. Ex- ercises were held in other schools, consisting of addresses and readings from the poet's works. At the Woman's College of Baltimore (Goucher College) a Poe centennial dinner was given, at which the sentiments at- tached to the list of toasts were expressed in extracts from Poe's writings. The most elaborate recognition of the anniversary in Baltimore was, however, that held under the auspices of the Johns Hopkins University in McCoy Hall. The Rev. Oliver Huckel delivered an eloquent tribute to Poe, in the course of which he said that Poe belonged most naturally to that noble group of Southern singers which includes Francis Scott K^, Father HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 389 Ryan, Henry Timrod, Paul Hamilton Ha3me, James R. Randall, and Sid- ney Lanier. Other addresses were delivered by John Prentiss Poe, former attorney-general of Maryland, and the nearest living relative of the poet, and Professor William Peterfield Trent, of Q>lumbia University, and Miss Lizzette Woodward Reese read an original poem of which Poe was the subject. On the following day the Poe Memorial Association held a meet- ing at the home of its president, Mrs. John C. Wrenshall, at which plans were drawn up for a campaign to obtain the necessary funds for the erection in Baltimore of a suitable monument to Edgar Allan Poe. John Prentiss Poe survived the tribute paid to his illustrious cousin less than nine months, his death occurring on the 14th of October, 1909. He was seventy-three years of age, and had long been one of the most eminent members of the Baltimore bar, to which he had been admitted in 1857. From his earliest manhood he took an active part in public affairs, serving his city and State at various times as school commissioner, State Senator, city counsellor, president of the City and State Tax Commis- sion, and attorney-general. He codified the laws of the State, and filled a chair in the faculty of the law department of the University of Maryland. He was also the author of a valuable text book which is used in many law schools. During a number of years he wrote the platforms of the Democratic State conventions, and co-operated with the national leaders of the party in shaping the platform upon which Alton B. Parker was nomi- nated for the presidency in 1904. There was no municipal election held in Baltimore in the spring of 1909, the General Assembly of 1908 having lengthened the term of the members of the First Branch of the City Council from two years to four years, the same as that of members of the Second Branch. The State campaign was, however, very animated, negro disfranchisement again being the principal issue. The Democratic State Convention, which was held in Baltimore on the nth of August, renominated Dr. Joshua W. Hering for comptroller, and the platform adopted contained the following declaration : "The Democratic party pledged the people of Maryland in the campaign of 1907 that if given the power, it would again submit for their adoption an amendment to our Constitution for the purpose of excluding the illiterate negro vote. That cam- paign resulted in a great Democratic victory, and in the redemption of our pledge a suffrage amendment prepared by a conference of eminent and public-spirited lawyers, was adopted by a Democratic General Assembly and is now before the people. "We declare that the adoption of this amendment is the main and vital issue of the coming election. Proposed as a measure of Democratic policy in obedience to the deliberately expressed sense of the masses of our white people, its adoption is urged on Democrats and Republicans alike as a distinctively non-partisan reform im- peratively demanded by a just consideration of the best interests of the State." The platform further stated that the utmost care had been taken to protect the rights of foreign bom citizens, and that they could not be dis- franchised by any conceivable method under this amendment. Two weeks later the Republican State Convention in its platform, declared: 390 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE "Republicans in Maryland claim help from all good citizens, whatever their poli- tics or party; from all sincere friends of honest government and pure politics in de- feating the proposed amendment to our State Constitution, which we accept as the paramount issue in this campaign. Like the amendment rejected by the people four years ago, this measure would make Maryland a one-party state, subject, with no hope of rescue, to the misrule of those selfish and unscrupulous men, long supreme in the Democratic organization, against whose methods and aims thousands of Democrats have again and again protested at the polls." The Democratic party entered upon the campaign with apparently bet- ter prospects of having the disfranchisement amendment approved by a vote of the people than it had in 1905, when the first effort at eliminating the negro vote was made. Ex-Governor Warfield, who had bitterly opposed the former amendment, gave energetic support to the measure proposed in 1909. Many of the independent voters also gave it their endorsement, and several prominent Republicans were outspoken in its favor. The earlier campaign had, however, so thoroughly committed several elements in the population to the opposition, that the accretion of strength was not suf- ficient to wipe out entirely the immense majority against the proposed dis- franchisement in 1905. The large foreign vote in Baltimore City and in several of the northern counties had been thoroughly alarmed by the as- sertion that their rights as citizens were menaced. A majority of the inde- pendent voters had become convinced that the Democratic party would be rendered invincible if the Republican party were deprived of the n^^ro vote. The white Republicans who had originally been inclined to favor the amendment, believing it would ultimately prove beneficent to their party, had been inspired with the fear that the immediate advantage which the Democrats would derive from its adoption would result in the repeal of the election law under which a fair election and an honest count had been obtained. Many of the Democratic politicians, on the other hand, were inclined to believe that the elimination of the negro vote would deprive them of a valuable political asset, and would lead to a large reinforcement of the Republican party from the ranks of the independent voters, who, as a rule, were loth to declare themselves Republicans so long as that party was largely made up of negroes. Moreover, they were reluctant to risk the defeat of their local candidates by a vigorous support of the amendment which would antagonize its opponents to their tickets. The election held on the 2nd of November resulted in the defeat of the amendment, the majority against it being 16,261 in the State, 11,772 of which was contributed by the city. The majority against the amendment submitted to the popular vote in 1905 had been 34,058 in the State, and 20,- 790 in the city. While the defeat of 1909 was much less pronounced than that of 1905, it was sufficiently decisive to discourage any serious effort thereafter to deprive the negroes of the ballot. Although the Democratic party failed to secure the adoption of the suffrage amendment to the constitution, its candidate for comptroller of the State Treasury, Dr. Joshua W. Hering, received a plurality of 9,739 in the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 391 State, and 1,104 in Baltimore City. Of the fifteen State senators elected, eleven were Democrats. These, with the holdover senators, gave the Demo- crats twenty-one votes in the upper house of the General Assembly, while the Republicans had but six votes. In the House of Delegates, the mem- bership stood: Democrats seventy, and Republicans thirty-one. In Baltimore City, the opposition to the disfranchisement amendment operated to the disadvantage of the local candidates of the Democratic party. The Republicans increased their representation in the House of Delegates, electing six members from the fourth district, four in the first district, and one in the fourth district. They also elected their candidates for sheriff, clerk of the circuit court, city surveyor, and two of the three members of the Supreme Judicial Bench of Baltimore City, who were voted for at this election. On the 6th of November, 1909, the first monument erected by the State of Maryland in honor of the Union soldiers who had fought in the War of Secession was unveiled in Druid Hill Park. For many years fol- lowing the close of the war, neither Unionists nor Confederates had asked the State to aid in honoring their heroes, both sides recognizing the fact that the divided sentiment of the people rendered such a step inadvisable. Maryland had reared a unique monument to her dead on one of the bloodiest battlefields of the war, fought on her own soil at Antietam; it commemorated the valor of all her sons who had fallen in the fight, whether they wore the gray or the blue. A Confederate monument had been erected in Baltimore through pri- vate contributions secured by the local Daughters of the Confederacy; a similar effort on the part of the friends of the Union soldiers had not been successful. The State had made generous appropriations for the support of the Confederate Soldiers' Home of the Maryland Line at Pikesville, and for the Confederate Woman's Hmne, and, after the election of a Re- publican legislature in 1895, the l^slative committee of the Grand Army of the Republic had gone to Annapolis to urge the continuance of the- appropriation for the support of their former foes in their old age. Edwin Warfield, whose two brothers had fought in the Confederate ranks, in an address delivered in Carroll county in 1903, had expressed the hope that a monument to the Union soldiers of Maryland would be erected, and after his election to the governorship he warmly supported the effort to secure an appropriation by the General Assembly of 1906. As a result, the sum of $25,000 was voted. This entire sum was spent upon the monu- ment proper, the city of Baltimore providing money for the preparation of the site. Adolph A. Weinman, of New York, was selected as the sculp- tor. The handsome monument of stone, surmounted by a bronze group, was dedicated in the presence of a gathering of 50,000 perscxis. General John R. King, chairman of the committee in charge of the erection of the memorial, presided at the exercises. Rev. J. Wynne Jones, past chaplain of the Department of Maryland, Grand Army of the Republic, delivered 392 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the invocation, and addresses were made by Governor Crothers, Mayor Mahool, General King, and Major John I. Yellott. A salute of twenty- one guns was fired by Battery E of the Third United States Field Artil- lery, and "Maryland, My Maryland," was rendered by the St. Mary's In- dustrial School Band. During the year 1909, a survey of the entire track system of the United Railways of Baltimore was made. It showed that the company operated four hundred and one miles of main line in the city and suburbs. Statistics for the preceding years showed that there were 193 free transfer stations in the city, with the privilege of changing to 1,615 routes. Forty per cent, of all passengers used transfers, which lowered the per capita fare from five cents to three and forty-five-one-hundredths cents. United States Senator Isidor Rayner, having been unopposed at the primary election in November, 1909, was on January 18, 1910, elected for a second term by the General Assembly* At the same session of that body a bill was passed submitting to the popular vote amendments to the State Constitution enlarging the representation of Baltimore City in the legisla- tive branch of the government. The population of the city had grown faster than that of the counties, and constituted 50.8 per cent, of the whcrie population of the State. Nevertheless, the city had, under the constitution as it stood, only four senators in a total of twenty-seven, and only twenty- four members of the House of Delegates in a total of one hundred and one. The proposed amendments provided that the city should have six senators and thirty-five delegates. A third attempt at negro disfranchisement was attempted at this ses- sion by means of a constitutional amendment imposing a property qualifi- cation on colored voters from the requirement of which the white voters were to be exempt. Inasmuch as the assessable real estate of the 88,065 negroes in Baltimore was but $617,662, and of the 235,064 negroes in Maryland less than $3,000,000, it was very apparent that the proposed amendment would operate almost as effectively to destroy the value of the colored vote as a political asset, as either of the two suffrage amendments which had been submitted at the polls in 1905 and 1909 respectively. On the loth of July, 1910, Major Richard M. Venable, whose services to the City of Baltimore as president of the Board of Park Commissioners and as a city councilman were of an exceptionally constructive and valuable character, and whose activity as a political reformer, lawyer, and volunteer contributor to the press had given him a unique position in the community, expired at his home in Roland Park. It was due to his broad intelligence that the isolated and haphazard pleasure grounds of Baltimore were ex- panded into a park system which, when fully developed, promises to com- pare favorably with any other system in the world. He saw service as a Confederate soldier, acquired a competency sufficient for his needs early in his career as a lawyer, remained a bachelor all his life, and devoted to the public weal all the energies which most men are compelled to giv^*, in part HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 393 at least, to the care of a family. In accordance with his wish, his body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Druid Hill, the beautiful park he had loved so well in life. The l^;alizing of primary elections and the opportunity which an ap- proximately honest count of the votes cast afforded the citizens to deter- mine nominations for office had gradually borne fruit in the decrease of the number of voters who declined to affiliate with any party thus losing the right to participate in the choice of candidates. In 1910 the registration showed a preponderance of Democrats in the city over the combined num- bers registered as Republicans or as unaffiliated, the figures being : Demo- crats, 53,296; Republicans 39,983; unaffiliated, 13,175. Congressional pri- maries were held throughout Maryland on the 30th of August. In every district embracing city wards there was a spirited contest. At the general election on the 8th of November, the Democrats carried five of the six districts in the State, and reduced the plurality in the Southern Maryland district to a small figure. In Baltimore City the aggregate vote for con- gressional candidates was: Democrats, 41,837; Republicans, 40,015; Pro- hibitionists, 983; Socialists, 2,132. The first aviation meeting ever held in Baltimore drew thousands of spectators to Halethorpe, in the suburbs of the city, during the week of the 6th of November. Competitive flying feats were performed by some of the most noted aviators in the world, including Count De Lesseps, Latham, Drexel, Hoxsey, Willard, and Radley. On the 7th of November, Hubert Latham succeeded in making a remarkable flight over the city, a prize of $5,000 having been offered by the A. S. Abell Company, of the Baltimore Sun, for its accomplishment. Starting from Halethorpe in an Antoinette monoplane, he followed the course of the Patapsco river to Fort Mc- Henry. From there he flew to the centre of the city, and then turning east- ward he proceeded as far as Patterson Park. He circled northeast and north Baltimore to Druid Hill Park, and then returned to the centre of the city, from whence he flew over west and southwest Baltimore to Carroll Park and Halethorpe. The distance was about twenty-two and a half miles, and the time consumed was forty-two minutes and twenty-five and a half seconds. The entire population of the city was on the streets or at windows or on housetops to view the novel specatcle. A similar prize was offered by General Felix Agnus, of the Baltimore American, for the break- ing of the altitude record. Latham, Drexel, De Lesseps, and Hoxsey made attempts to win this prize, but none of them succeeded, the greatest height reached being 5,330 feet by the American aviator Hoxsey, while the record at that time was 9,714 feet. The announcement of the result of the enumeration of the population of Baltimore made in June, 1910, for the thirteenth census of the United States, created great dissatisfaction, indicating a3 it did that Cleveland had taken from Baltimore its rank as sixth in the number of inhabitants among the municipalities of the United States. The population of Balti- 394 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE more was given as 558485, while that of Qeveland was given as 560,663. Evidence was soon forthcoming that a large number of residents of the city had been missed by the enumerators, and efforts were made to induce the Census Bureau to order a recount. These failing, the police force of Baltimore was directed to make a count in November of the same year. The experience in census work gained by the police in annual enumerations of the voters of the city, qualified them to make a count far more trust- worthy than that of the comparatively untrained enumerators employed by the census bureau. The result of the police count showed that the actual population within the corporate limits of Baltimore was 566,025, or 5,362 greater than the population of Qeveland. Furthermore, the area covered by the Baltimore census was less than that covered by the census of any other city of half a million population in the United States. The 558,485 persons counted in Baltimore occupied only 31.5 square miles, while the 560,663 persons counted in Qeveland occupied 45 square miles. Pitts- burgh, the city which ranked next after Baltimore, with' a population of 533,905, embraced 41 square miles. Boston, the fifth city in the country in point of population, covered 42.75 square miles, while the four cities ranking still higher ranged in area from 61.33 square miles to 326.66 square miles. The exclusion from the count of the large population residing just outside of Baltimore's corporate limits, rendered the comparison with other cities which had annexed their thickly populated suburbs, wholly valueless for any practical purpose — as much so as if East Baltimore and South Baltimore had been treated as separate communities, and the city had been classed with municipalities which contained only a quarter of a million inhabitants. Recognizing the fact that the rank given cities on the basis of the num- ber of inhabitants within their corporate limits was very misleading, the Census Bureau issued a supplementary bulletin giving the population of the metropolitan districts of cities of over two hundred thousand population. This bulletin corrected the erroneous impression conveyed by the figures of the count within corporate limits, and placed Baltimore ahead of Qeveland. It showed that the city's population, together with that of the suburbs which rightly belonged to it, was 658,715, while the population of Cleveland and its unannexed suburbs together ntimbered only 613,270. The population of Baltimore's suburbs was 100,230; that of the suburbs of Cleveland, 52,607. The thickly populated country adjacent to the suburbs of Baltimore, to- gether with the suburbs, had a total population of 121,159, while the corre- sponding area around Cleveland had only 81,692 inhabitants. The total population of Baltimore and its thickly-settled environs was 679,644, while that of Qeveland and its adjacent territory was only 642,355. The number of persons to each square mile within the corporate limits of Baltimore was 17,729; the number per square mile within the corporate limits of Qeve- land was only 12459. A striking illustration of the deceptive nature of the enumerations regulated by corporate limits was also furnished in the case HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 395 of Boston. That city is credited with a population of only 670,585, while within its metropolitan district there are 1,520470 inhabitants. The police census taken in September, 1910, showed the negro popula- tion of Baltimore to be 88,065. Washington, with 94,446, was the only city in the country with a larger negro population than Baltimore, these two cities being probably the greatest urban centres of negro population in the world. As the area included in the Washington census was about twice that included in the census of Baltimore, the actual difference in the n^ro population of the cities is less than the figures would seem to show. The census showed, on the other hand, a numerical decrease of 2,815 ^^ the negro population of the State as a whole, and a decline in the negro percentage from 19.8 in 1900 to 17.9 in 1910. Every other State in the South except Arkansas and West Virginia also showed a decrease in the percentage of negroes, that of Texas being only 17.7 or two-tenths of one per cent, less than that of Maryland. When the first federal census was taken in 1790, the negroes constituted nearly one-third of the population of Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina being the only States in which the number of negro inhabitants was greater. The population of Balti- more in 1910 constituted 43.1 per cent, of the whole p<q>ulation of Mary- land, according to the federal census figures. This was a slight increase during the decade. At the time of the first federal census in 1790, the population of the city was but 4.2 per cent, of the whole peculation of the State. The statistics of manufactures collected for the census of 1910 showed a healthy growth of Baltimore industries. The city ranked sixth in the number of establishments, and thirteenth in the value of manufactured products, with an increase of 24.5 per cent, for the decade. New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Boston, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Newark, New Jersey, and Cincinnati, outranked Baltimore in the latter respect, but three of these cities, — St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati — ^showed a smaller percentage of in- crease, and in Philadelphia the percentage of gain was very little larger than in Baltimore. The number of establishments had increased from 2,274 in 1899 to 2,502 in 1909; the salaried employees from 5,501 to 9,369; the wage-earners from 66,571 to 71444; the capital employed from $107,- 21^,000 to $164437,000; the salaries paid from $5,871,000 to $10,571,000; the wages paid from $23,493,000 to $31,171,000; the cost of material from $75,233,000 to $107,024,000; the value of the manufactured product from $i35»io8,ooo to $186,978,000; manufactured product from $135,108,000 to $186,978,000; and the value added by manufacture from $59,885,000 to $79,954,000. Again, in this instance the restricted area of Baltimore oper- ated to deprive these figures of significance, the many large industries in the suburbs of the city not being included in the statistics. The completion of the dam and opening of the new plant of the Penn- sylvania Water and Power Company at McCalFs Ferry was an event of 396 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE great importance to the manufacturing interests of Baltimore, affording electrical power for transmission to the city at low cost, and thus aiding in solving the problem of how to build up laige industries from small be- ginnings. Another important step in this direction assumed practical shape in the erection of an industrial building, begun in 191 1, on a site border- ing on Preston street and Qifton Place, convenient to the tracks of the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Western Maryland railroads. This building was conceived by the application of the office buildii^ and apartment house idea to factory purposes. Its plan was to furnish tenants with just the space each might need, however small at the start, and to provide in a single unit all the advantages belonging to a large establish- ment, such as adequate electrical power at low rates, a central freight trans- portation system, fire-proof construction, light and heat, and many other conveniences, at a cost much less burdensome to an infant enterprise than inferior facilities could be had in an individual plant. As the business thrived, more and more space could be added until it became large enough to justify the erection of an independent establishment. This enterprise, while undertaken by a stock company with expecta- tions of profit, assumed a semi-public character, the subscribers for stock being principally public-spirited citizens who recognized its great value to the development of the city as an industrial center. A committee of twenty-four pr<xninent business men was chosen to consider plans, and a sub-c<Hnmittee appointed to inspect similar buildings in other cities. The outcome of tiiese efforts was a structure representing an investment of $300,000, the cost of which was quickly subscribed. The site selected had an area of 32,264 square feet, half of which was covered by the building, and the other half reserved for a second complete unit if needed. The de- sign called for a building of concrete and steel, seven stories high, with basement. Fifty-five per cent, of the wall space was devoted to windows. Freight and passenger elevators, fire protection by sprinklers, live steam and modem sanitary arrangements were provided. On the 13th of January, 191 1, the death of Ferdinand Qaibome La- trobe, seven times mayor of Baltimore, ended a career which had been associated with many of the most important steps forward taken by Balti- more after the close of the war. In 1875, ^^ ^^ ^^^^ elected mayor, and during the ensuing twenty years was at the head of the city government nearly thirteen years, serving six full terms and part of another term fol- lowing a vacancy caused by the death of Mayor Kane. It was owing to his foresight and good judgment that costly bridges were erected across the Jones Falls ravine at Guilford avenue, Calvert street, and St. Paul street. The rapid development of North Baltimore and the large increase in the taxable basis, soon vindicated the wisdom of the expenditure, which had been strenuously opposed by many citizens of prominence. He served the city in many other capacities, and was president of the Board of Park Commissioners at the time of his death. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 397 On the 1 8th of January, the Right Reverend William Paret, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Maryland, died at the age of eighty-four years, after having governed the diocese nearly twenty-seven years. Despite his ad- vanced age, he had performed the exacting functions of his sacred office with little if any abatement of energy up to a short while before his death, and had during the summer of 1910 made a tour of Europe, accompanied by his wife. The Bishop's death occurred at the episcopal residence in Baltimore, while his wife was lying fatally ill at the Johns Hopkins Hos- pital. Bishop Paret was a native of New York. His father was a Frenchman, and many of his relatives resided in France. He was a man of broad learning and great administrative ability. He spoke French fluently and was, besides, a thorough Latin, Greek, and Hebrew scholar. During his episcopate, the Diocese of Maryland, which had increased greatly under his care, was divided, the Diocese of Washington, embracing the federal capital and the counties of Southern Maryland, being separated from it. One of the notable achievements of his later years was the suc- cessful inauguration of the project of erecting a cathedral. A site was purchased in the beautiful northern suburb of Baltimore, near the new situation of the Johns Hopkins University, and plans were prepared for a series of buildings worthy of the old and historic Diocese of Maryland. The bishop's life was spared long enough for him to witness the beginning of building operations. At the banning of the new year he contracted a cold which developed into pneumonia, of which disease he died. Right Reverend John Gardner Murray, who had been elected Auxil- iary Bishop of Maryland in 1909, succeeded Bishop Paret as the head of the diocese. He was a native of Lonaconing, Maryland, and in his early man- hood had been compelled by the death of his father to interrupt his theo- logical studies to take charge of the business interests upon which the fortunes of his family depended. Having successfully performed this duty, he resumed his preparations for the ministry and was ordained a priest in 1894. After doing missionary work in the far South and building up a strong parish in Birmingham, Alabama, he accepted a call to the Church of St. Michael and All Angels in Baltimore in 1903. During his service as rector of this parish, the largest in the Diocese of Maryland, he was offered the bishopric of Kentucky and also that of Mississippi, but declined both offers. When the first election of an auxiliary Bishop of Maryland was impending in 1908, he was the choice of a large number of the clergy of the diocese for the office, but withdrew his name before the final vote was taken. Later, when the clergyman first chosen felt it his duty to decline and to continue the work elsewhere in which he was en- gaged, the rector of St. Michael and All Angels yielded to the wishes of the diocesan convention, and accepted the office. During the month of May, 191 1, two admirable additions were made to the already numerous memorials erected in Baltimore to commemorate the patriotism or notable services rendered to the community by eminent 398 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE citizens. The first of the two to be unveiled was the statue of General John MifQin Hood, under whose administration the Western Maryland railroad had been lifted out of a condition of practical bankruptcy in which it was a burden upon the taxpayers of the city, and developed into a self-support- ing transportation line tapping a rich region and bringing a profitable trade to Baltimore. Dedicatory exercises were held on the i ith day of the month at a stand erected near the statue, at the intersection of Hoptdns Place and Baltimore street. General Andrew C. Trippe, whose intimate friend- ship with General Hood dated back to their early youth when the two were fellow soldiers of the Confederacy, delivered the principal address, de- scribing the almost overwhelming difficulties which General Hood had en- countered and overcome in creating a valuable railroad property out of a seemingly hopeless wreck. Mayor Mahool accepted the memorial in be- half of the municipality. The city appropriated $10,000 of the proceeds of the sale of the railroad to pay for the monument, the General Assembly of Maryland sanctioning the expenditure without a dissenting vote. This appropriation was supplemented by contributions f rcxn a large number of private citizens of Baltimore in grateful recognition of the vast influence which the life-work of General Hood had exerted in behalf of the future prosperity of Baltimore. A more ambitious monument was unveiled to the memory of Francis Scott Key, author of the "Star-Spangled Banner," on the i6th of May, at the intersection of Eutaw Place and Lanvale street. This monument, one of the most unique and most pretentious of its class in the United States, was the gift of Charles L. Marburg, who, on the 15th of December, 1906, made the offer to the city. Mr. Marburg died on the 2nd of February fol- lowing, after providing for the carrying out of his intention. The monu- ment was designed by Antonin Mercie, the French sculptor who designed the tombs of Thiers and Michelet in the Cemetery of Pere la Chaise in Paris, and also the monument to the composer Gounod in the Pare Mon- ceau. The conception is highly imaginative, representing the poet, return- ing, after the bombardment of Fort McHenry, from the British ship, aboard which he had been detained during the memorable battle, in the act of offering to Columbia the anthem which the repulse of the invaders had inspired him to write. A classic structure of caen stone with Ionic columns is in the centre of the design, rising out of the waves, and surmounted by the figure of Columbia in gilt bronze, who holds aloft the Star-Spangled Banner. At its base a boat carved from stone and reposing on waves of the same material, contains the figures of Key and a sailor in verdant bronze. Key stands on the seat in the stem of the boat with eyes up- turned to the figure of Columbia while the sailor, resting on his oars, gazes with rapt attention upon the poet. The waves carved from stone merge into the waters of a basin supplied from concealed fountains. On either of two sides of the stone fabric is a gilded bronze tablet, one picturing the bombardment from the fort while the other represents the battle as seen HISTORY OP BALTIMORE 399 from the attacking fleet. The unveiling of the monument was witnessed by a throng of several thousands. On the temporary stand erected for the occasion were seated many prominent citizens, among whom were Mayor Mahool, Cardinal Gibbons, ex-Governor Warfield, several descendants of Key and members of the Francis Scott Key Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. The monument was unveiled by Mrs. William Gil- mor, a granddaughter of the poet. The orator of the occasion was W. Stuart Symington. On the 6th of June, 191 1, one of the most remarkable demonstrations of esteem and admiration with which an American citizen was ever hon- ored, took place in the vast drill room of the Fifth Regiment Armory, when twenty thousand persons gathered to testify their appreciation of the Christian virtues, the patriotism, and the manifold services to the com- munity of James, Cardinal Gibbons, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Balti- more. The year 191 1 was the fiftieth of his priesthood, and the twenty- fifth of his cardinalate. Provision had been made for the celebration of the double jubilee by his coreligionists, but a spontaneous desire arose in his native city for the recognition of the anniversaries on a broader scale. The entire population of Baltimore was soon interested in the project. Clergy and laymen of all denominations joined in the movement ; the Epis- copal Bishop of Maryland accepted the ofHce of chairman of the committee of arrangements. The movement took the shape of a g^eat public recep- tion in honor of Citizen James Gibbons, whose life had been a gospel of good works, whose voice had ever been raised in behalf of broad Christian charity, whose character pre-eminently typified the spirit which dominated the founders of Maryland, and whose co-operation had always been avail- able in every activity which aimed to benefit city. State or Nation. The proposed demonstration soon attracted attention far beyond the bounds of the city in which it had its origin, and, as a result, the most re- markable assemblage of men of national importance ever seen outside of the capital of the country, and rarely seen even there, took place in Balti- more on the appointed day. On the stage were seated President Taft, ex- President Roosevelt, Vice-President Sherman, Chief Justice White, of the Supreme Court of the United States, Speaker Champ Clark and ex-Speaker Cannon, of the House of Representatives, British Ambassador Bryce, many senators and representatives, Governor Crothers, of Maryland, Mayor Preston, of Baltimore, and hundreds of Baltimore clergymen and promi- nent citizens. The exercises were of a simple character. The great digni- taries of the Republic who were present made brief addresses, and Cardinal Gibbons, deeply affected by the ovation he had received, uttered his thanks in words of characteristic simplicity and modesty. Following this great secular tribute to Cardinal Gibbons as a citizen, the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States, on the isth of October, joined in a religious celebration of his jubilee, in connection with which there was a street parade in which thirty-one thousand persons participated. 400 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The opening of the new Union Station of the Pennsylvania and the Western Maryland railroads on the 15th of September, 191 1, served to relieve Baltimore in part at least, of the reproach of having the poorest passenger stations of any great city in the country. The only modem structure of the sort in the city prior to the opening of this station was the Mount Royal Station of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. There had long been complaint of the accommodations afforded travelers by the old Union Station building, and still more ccnnplaint that the building was unworthy of so important a city as Baltimore. Finally, on the 28th of April, 1909, Gamble Latrobe, general agent in Baltimore of the Northern Central rail- road, and Bernard Carter, counsel for the Pennsylvania railroad, notified the city authorities that the cc»npany was prepared to erect a new station at an expense of five hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of the cost of the approaches, providing certain privileges were granted the railroad in re- gard to increased trackage. There was considerable dissatisfaction ex- pressed at the limited amount proposed to be expended, but finally an agreement was reached, and an ordinance was signed by the mayor provid- ing that the area adjacent to Union Station should be abandoned as a freight yard, that the railroad should erect a new bridge over its tracks at Charles street and make alterations in the bridge at Maryland avenue, that the entrance to the new station should be on the street level instead of by a descending flight of stairs as in the old structure, and that the privileges granted the company by the city should not be regarded in the light of a franchise. Work on the new station was begun in April, 1910, and when the building and its approaches were thrown open to the public, there was no sentiment expressed except one of admiration. The station, although small in comparison with similar structures in northern and western cities, is one of the most beautiful in the country, and its situation serves well to give emphasis to its architectural merits. The dimensions of the building proper are 275 feet by 60 feet, with a covered lobby in the rear 28 feet wide and 330 feet long, extending parallel with the tracks and connecting with the Qiarles street bridge. From the centre of this lobby, at right angles with it and facing a part of it, is an extension 50 feet wide, from which eight flights of stairs descend to the train platforms below, affording travelers access to the trains without crossing the tracks on a level with them. This lobby opens into the main waiting room of the station, a beautiful apart- ment 64 feet wide and 95 feet long, with a height of 35 feet. The walls are of imported marbles, with four fine Corinthian columns in the centre supporting the roof. A balustraded driveway extends along the front facade from Charles to St. Paul streets at the street level, and another driveway from St. Paul street descends to the level of the basement and the tracks. Baggage rooms, ticket offices, a spacious dining room and lunch room, a room for invalids, a barber shop, and all other conveniences found in modem railway stations, are on the first floor, while the upper floors HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 401 are devoted to offices. The train platforms are twenty feet wide and from 600 to 1 100 feet long, accommodating trains of fifteen cars. They are protected from the weather by shelters of concrete and steel. The station and its approaches represent an expenditure of about one million dollars. The city and State elections of 191 1 were preceded by contests for nominations which were marked by exceptional bitterness. The municipal primary election was held on the 4th of April. Mayor Mahool was a can- didate for rencxnination by the Democratic party, but was unacceptable to the leaders of the organization. These leaders, departing from the prudent course followed since the return of the Democratic party to power after its defeat, in 1895, boldly made choice of James H. Preston as their candidate for mayor at the very outset of the campaign. Mr. Preston was victorious in the primaries, receiving a majority of over nine thousand votes, but narrowly escaped defeat at the general election. Ex-Mayor E. Qay Timanus was supported by the Republican party organization for the mayoralty nomination, and won an easy victory in the primaries over his opponent, Charles H. Torsch. After an exciting canvass, the Democratic candidate for mayor was elected with the meagre plurality of 699 votes in a total poll of 96,330. The other candidates of the Democratic party re- ceived much lai^er pluralities, that of the nominee for the city comptroller being 4,119, and that of the nominee for president of the Second Branch of the City Council being 6,401. The Democrats elected nineteen of the twenty-four members of the First Branch of the City Council, and six of the eight members of the Second Branch. During the mayoralty campaign the Democratic candidate had intro- duced as an issue the educational system adopted by James H. Van Sickle, who had been for nearly eleven years superintendent of public schools. This system was, in many of its features, a radical departure from long- established methods, and widespread opposition to the innovation had de- veloped, although they were, in the main, approved by leading educators of the city. The controversy had invaded the school board, where it had caused interminable wrangling which culminated in the resignation of the president of the board, John E. Semmes, and ex-Mayor Alcaeus Hooper, the most aggressive of the oppontnts of the superintendent. A majority of the members of the board when Mr. Preston became mayor were sup- porters of Superintendent Van Sickle. Three of them were, however, un- der the provisions of the city charter, removable from office at the pleasure of the mayor, not having been in office six months. These three commis- sioners were requested by Mayor Preston to assent to the removal of the superintendent, and, on their refusal to promise compliance with his wishes, he summarily dismissed them, that being the only method by which he could carry out his pledge, made on the hustings, to put an end to the friction in the board. This action on the part of the mayor was bitterly denounced by many leading citizens. The deposed commissioners were men of high char- 402 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE acter, one of them being Dr. John M. T. Finney, one of the country's most eminent surgeons, a member of the Johns Hopkins University medical faculty, and a trustee of Princeton University. On the other hand, a large element in the community approved the mayor's course, and also the dis- missal of Superintendent Van Sickle, which took place soon after the va- cancies in the board were filled by the appointments of new commissioners. The supporters of Mr. Van Sickle who were still members of the board, remained in office until after the election of Professor Francis A. Soper, principal of the Baltimore City College. They then tendered their resigna- tions, and were succeeded by commissioners whose views coincided with those of the majority. The gubernatorial campaign of 191 1 opened with the announcement of State Senator Blair Lee, of Montgomery county, that he would enter the primaries for the Democratic nomination. This was followed by the dec- laration of Governor Crothers that he was willing to accept a renomination. State Senator Arthur Pue Gorman, of Howard county, after prolonged de- liberation, finally announced that he also would be a candidate, and the Baltimore City leaders of the Democratic party promptly declared their intention of supporting him in the primaries. Senator Gorman, although a man of unimpeachable personal character, had been trained in a severely practical school of politics and had, as president of the State Senate at the session of the General Assembly of 1910 assumed an attitude hostile to several measures in which the independent voters were warmly interested. Governor Crothers withdrew from the contest after remaining in the field a few weeks, and used his personal influence to promote the nomination of Senator Lee. A spirited canvass of the State was made by both candidates, and the election resulted in a majority of one vote in the State convention for Sena- tor Gorman. The primary election law provided for a direct vote of the people for nominees, but the vote of each county and legislative district of Baltimore City was binding only on the delegates who represented the county or district in the convention. In the agg^^ate popular vote, Senator Gorman had a majority of 13,707, all of which except 256 was contributed by Baltimore City. At the same primary election nominations were made by direct vote for local offices under the State government. Thomas F. Mc- Nulty, an aspirant for the office of sheriff, was declared defeated, no votes for him having been returned in the count of some precincts. Surprised by this unanticipated lack of support, he instituted an investigation. He found numerous voters in precincts where no votes were credited to him willing to make affidavit that they had cast their ballots in his favor. The matter was called to the attention of the grand juty, and the ballot boxes being opened, astonishing differences between the count made by the election of- ficials and the actual vote were detected. A complete recount of the city vote was made by the grand jury and, while the net gains of the defeated candidates was not sufficient to change the result, the evidence of wanton HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 403 violations of the law were deemed sufficient to warrant the indictment of a large number of judges and clerks of election. This scandal threatened to damage vety seriously the chances of the Democratic candidates for State offices at the approaching election, and the expediency of reconvening the Democratic State Convention was dis- cussed, but as Senator Gorman's majority in the city primaries was af- fected very slightly by the recount, this step was deemed unnecessary. Phillips Lee Goldsborough, who had been selected by the Republican leaders for the gubernatorial nomination in 1907, but who had voluntarily retired in favor of George R. Gaither, who was deemed at that time the more available candidate, had been this year given a unanimous nomination for the office. Encouraged by conditions so favorable for Republican vic- tory, that party made an energetic canvass of the State in his behalf. The Democratic party struggled bravely under its handicap, and its candidate won many friends and votes by his personal exertions in the campaign. His defeated rival for the nomination, Blair Lee, and Governor Crothers, who had opposed his nomination, also used their utmost energies to secure his election. Nevertheless he was defeated at the general election, his Re- publican opponent receiving 106,394 votes in the State, while his vote was 103,395. Baltimore City cast 44,827 votes for Goldsborough and 42,958 for Gorman, thus contributing 1,869 ^^ ^^^ plurality of 2,999 given the Repub- lican candidate in the entire State. The Democratic candidate for Governor attributed his defeat to the operation of the election law passed by a Democratic General Assembly, which rendered invalid an entire ballot if it was mismarked in any particu- lar. This law, the Republicans claimed, had been enacted with a view of throwing out negro votes. At this election, however, it served to lessen to some extent at least the vote of Baltimore City for the Democratic candi- dates. The name of an independent candidate for a minor office appeared on the ballot with the designation ''Progressive Democrat" following it, and a considerable number of Democrats had carelessly placed a cross-mark after this name in addition to placing one after the name of the regular party candidate. This blunder necessitated the throwing out of the ballots so marked, and these votes were lost to the head of the ticket as well as to the candidates for the office to which the mishap directly applied. The candidate for Governor was the only Democrat voted for at large in the State who suffered defeat. Emerson C. Harrington, the nominee for comptroller, received a plurality of 7,350, and Edgar Allan Poe, the nomi- nee for attorney-general had a plurality of 8,797. The Democrats elected ten of the fourteen senatorial candidates voted for, who, with their hold- over members, gave them a majority of eleven of the State Senate. Of the one hundred and two members of the House of Delegates they elected forty. The Baltimore City Democracy suffered more severely at the hands of the voters. Thomas F. McNulty, whose investigations of the count of 404 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ballots cast at the Democratic primaty election had led to damaging ex- posures, was on the ballot as an independent candidate for sheriff. He received 2,549 more votes than the regular Democratic candidate, but was defeated by the Republican candidate. The Republicans also elected their candidates for city surveyor. State's attorney and judge of the court of appeals from Baltimore City. For the last named position, however, party lines were not tightly drawn. Amendments to the constitution increasing Baltimore's representation in the General Assembly, giving the city six senators instead of four, and thirty-five members of the House of Delegates instead of twenty-eight, were submitted to the people for ratification or rejection at this election, and were defeated. Every county in the State with the single exception of Somerset voted against the increase, and in Baltimore City 18,817 votes were cast in opposition to a larger representation at Annapolis. The third attempt made in Maryland to disfranchise the larger part of the negro vote suffered a defeat at this election more pronounced than that which had been administered to either of the previous attempts. The Democratic leaders were convinced that the voters of foreign birth or for- eign descent were unalterably opposed to a measure which, they had been led to believe, imperiled their own rights, and that the fear that negro dis- franchisement would make Maryland a one-party State was too deep rooted in the minds of Independents and Republicans to permit of any hope that it might be removed. They therefore permitted the amendment submitted to the people by the General Assembly of 1910 imposing a prop- erty qualification on negro voters, from which white voters were exempt, to go by default at the polls. Except a declaration in its favor contained in the platform adopted by the State convention, practically nothing was heard of it on the hustings during the campaign. It was crushingly de- feated at the polls, the majority against it in the entire State being 37,700, and in the City of Baltimore 13,730. While the negroes were thus con- tinued in possession of the privilege of voting through the unwillingness of the whites to place themselves at the mercy of one political party, they were less fortunate in respect to another privilege which they were ban- ning to use extensively. In March, 191 1, an ordinance was passed by the City Council, the purpose of which was to prevent them from renting or buying dwellings in neighborhoods exclusively tenanted by white families. The ordinance as first adopted was declared by the courts to be improperly drawn, and another was promptly prepared under the supervision of a leading member of the bar of Baltimore. It prohibited the renting or sale of dwellings in blocks occupied entirely by either race, to members of the other race, and its provisions were made to apply to churches and schools as well as to dwellings. The ordinance was introduced by City Council- man Samuel F. West, and was popularly known as the West ordinance. Much ill-feeling had been engendered by the intrusion of colored families into white neighborhoods. Property values had been seriously affected. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 405 and the consequent antagonism to the negroes had manifested itself, in one or more instances, in acts of violence. Whole streets in the northwestern sections of the city had been deserted by white residents; costly church edifices had lost their congregations. St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Qiurch, one of the handsomest in the city, was already in the market for a purchaser, and was ultimately sold to a colored congregation at consid- erably less than half its cost. It was also contended by the advocates of the West ordinance that every neighborhood in the city was at the mercy of any individual property owner who might, through cupidity or in con- sequence of some fancied grievance at the hands of the owners of near-by property, consent to sell or rent a house to colored people. On the other hand, the owners of property on streets already partially appropriated by the negroes contended that it was difficult to find white tenants for their houses. It was also urged that the ordinance would operate to compel prosperous and thrifty negroes to remain residents of ill-conditioned neigh- borhoods. It was still further insisted that the federal courts would de- clare the ordinance unconstitutional. The ordinance was, however, passed by the City Council, all the Democratic members voting in its favor and all the Republican members against it, and was approved by Mayor Mahool. On the 30th of October a notable addition was made to the hotels of Baltimore by the throwing open of the doors of the Hotel Emerson. The structure occupies a site bounded by Baltimore and Calvert streets, and adjoining that on which a score of years earlier stood the historic Bar- num's Hotel. The new building was the product not only of large ex- penditure, but of industrious exploration of American and European cities for novel features. Among its attractions is a restaurant known as the Chesapeake room, the scheme of decoration of which is illustrative of the great body of water which has scarcely a rival in the world as a source of gastronomic delicacies. The hotel also has a unique roof garden, and in its interior adornment and equipment is unsurpassed by any hotel in the Southern States. The formal opening was attended by United States Sena- tor John Walter Smith, Mayor Preston, many prominent Baltimore citi- zens, and numerous visitors from the northern cities. Prior to 1861, Baltimore had been a favorite convention city, owing to its geographical situation, but after the close of the war between the sections the changed conditions had drawn the quadrennial gatherings of the great political parties westward, and only twice after the historic as- semblages of i860 at which the Democratic party was disrupted and a war precipitated, had a presidential candidate been nominated in the border state metropolis. It was with no very brilliant prospect of success, therefore, that a movement took concrete form in Baltimore early in 191 1, aiming to have the Democratic national convention of the following year held in the city. A committee was set to work early to secure subscriptions to the fund of $100,000 needed to cover the expenses of the convention, hotels were in- duced to record pledges that extortionate rates would not be charged dele- 4o6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE gates and others who might attend the convention, and evety fact relating to the facilities which Baltimore could oiffer a national assemblage was ar- rayed for presentation in the most effective manner, the admirable adapta- tion of the great drill room and offices of the Fifth R^^iment Annory, be- ing chief among them. When the National Democratic G>mmittee met to decide on the place for holding the convention, several other cities presented their pleas. Their representatives came armed with promises of financial support, but the Baltimore representatives placed in the hands of the National chairman a certified check for the entire sum needed. This practical argument out- weighed any that rival cities could present, and Baltimore was prcxnptly selected as the place for holding the convention. Early in December of the previous year, the governors of several western and northwestern States had gathered in Baltimore to confer with the railroad officials in the city on the subject of immigration, the impor- tance of the city as a port of arrival for settlers from Europe, and the ad- vantages it offered over those of competing cities in the North having gained recognition even in the most distant sections of the country. At the same time, the governors of a number of southern States came to the city with the purpose of devising, in cooperation with the officials of Maryland, ways i and means of diverting a portion of the stream of desirable immignmts to the comparatively neglected region south of the MasoiTMiHTSixon's Line. The outcome of the conference was the formation of a Southern Settlement and Development Company. It was planned to establish the headquarters of this organization in Baltimore, where a Maryland Immigration Com- mission was already engaged in directing the attention of immigrants to the opportunities offered by the lands of the State. The General Assembly made provision for carrying on this work by making an appropriation of $20,000. The city charter, granted in 1898, and at that time regarded as a model of excellence, had accomplished practically all that could reasonably be ex- pected of an instrument which was necessarily experimental in many of its features, but experience had demonstrated the possibility of advantageous changes. Mayor Mahool, with a view to securing an intelligent study of the subject, had appointed a commission of able men to investigate and re- vise the existing charter. This commission was composed of Joseph Pack- ard, Edwin G. Baetjer, William Cabell Bruce and George R. Gaither, prominent members of the bar, all of whom possessed an intimate acquaint- ance with municipal affairs; Dr. William H. Welch, one of the most emi- nent members of the Johns Hopkins University medical faculty, Waldo Newcomer, and B. Howell Griswold, bankers, David Hutzler, a leading merchant, and Louis M. Duvall, an expert accountant. The fruits of the commission's labors had been submitted to the General Assembly of 1910 and by that body rejected. Both political parties in their platforms of the following year had, however, pledged themselves to support the revised HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 407 charter and a bill for its submission to a vote of the people was introduced at the session of 1912. One of the changes proposed was the substitution of a city council consisting of a single chamber of fourteen members for the existing bi-cameral body. This, and several others of the proposed changes, aroused strenuous opposition on the part of influential politicians in Baltimore and in deference to their wishes, the General Assembly in- creased the number of councilmen to twenty-six before passing the bill. The Charter Commission had assented to other amendments, but regarding the limited number of councilmen as a vital feature, they urged the Gov- ernor to veto the bill, preferring to defer the adoption of a new charter until the meeting of the next General Assembly, rather than to have the instrument changed in this respect. The Governor, in compliance with the wishes of the ccnnmission, declined to approve the charter. An energetic campaign was conducted by the Anti-Saloon League during the legislative session in behalf of a State-wide local option bill. At the close of the year 191 1 there were, in Baltimore, 1,400 saloon licenses, 54 hotel licenses, 22 retail grocers' licenses, and 15 club licenses, yielding a net revenue of $1478,191.18. The controversy between the opponents of saloons and those who believed the high license system established in the city was preferable to prohibition, led to bitter exchanges of personalities and to charges of bribery. The local option bill, after having passed the House of Delegates, was defeated in the Senate during the last hours of the session. A bill establishing ten hours as a maximum working day for female employes in shops and factories, was introduced in the General Assembly, and its passage was energetically urged by prominent Baltimore philan- thropists and labor leaders. Strong pressure was brought to bear, how- ever, to secure its defeat, and, this failing, so to have it amended that de- partment stores and other establishments employing large numbers of women and girls would be exempt from its provisions. All efforts to de- feat or amend the bill failed, except that the canning factories were per- mitted, during a limited season in each year, to extend the hours of work of their female employes. An Employers' Liability Act, a Child Labor Law and a Compulsory Education Law were also enacted. A large number of political reform laws were also placed upon the statute books. Legalized primaries for the direct choice of United States senatorial candidates were established; the recounting of ballots cast at elections, without requiring prima facie evidence of fraud or error, was provided for ; and the Corrupt Practices Act was amended, and the amount of money a candidate might legally expend, materially reduced. A Presidential Preference Primary Bill was also passed by the Gen- eral Assembly at this session, in compliance with a strong demand grow- ing out of the heated contests in both of the great political parties, for the nominations. The act had its first test at the polls shortly after its passage, and, while it proved to be faulty in many respects, the general result was 4o8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE satisfactory. Champ Clark, whose candidacy was favored by the Demo- cratic party leaders in Baltimore City, and Theodore Roosevelt, who was opposed by the Republican party leaders, were the candidates endorsed by the popular vote. Among the important bills of a non-political nature, passed by this General Assembly, was one authorizing the City of Baltimore to contract for a supply of natural gas. The value of this product to the city had long been recognized, but its introduction had been obstructed by a con- troversy over the terms upon which it should be introduced. The General Assembly, despite eifforts to have the bill passed in its original form, in- sisted upon adding a provision that the rates to be charged should be fixed by the Public Utilities CcMnmission. A bill which was passed for the encouragement of oyster culture, en- larging the acreage which could be acquired for planting, promised to restore the oyster packing industry of Baltimore to its former importance; a provision for the further devdcqmient of the good roads system of Maryland, in which Baltimore was to share to the extent of $625,000, presaged greater advantage to the city in enlarging its relations with the counties; an appropriation of $600,000 for the erection of a great Normal College promised to create, in the vicinity of Baltimore, an important ad- dition to the city's educational facilities. The act of this General Assembly which promised to have the most important influence on the future of Baltimore City, and also upon the future of the entire South, however, was the passage of a bill appropriat- ing $600,000 for the establishment of a School of Technolc^y in connec- tion with the Johns Hopkins University, and $50,000 annually for its sup- port. The vast industrial devekqmient of the northern cities and towns, it had long been perceived, was due in large measure to the facilities pro- vided for the education of the youth of that section in applied sciences. Great schoob for advanced study along this line were every year furnish- ing shops and factories with highly trained men whose intelligent labors opened new avenues for enterprise, or expanded old ones. Nowhere south of Mason and Dixon's Line was there opportunity for obtaining such edu- cation. Baltimore had made provision for elementary technological train- ing by engrafting a polytechnic institute upon its school system. This school had been so successful in inadequate quarters that in 191 1 the large lot occupied by the Maryland School for the Blind had been purchased at a cost of $300,000, and plans had been made for the erection of ample build- ings to accommodate the institution*. When the project was broached of supplementing this school with a collegiate establishment under the auspices of the J<^ns Hopkins University, conceived on lines parallel with those of the great institutions in the North, there was considerable (^position, a dis- position on the part of numerous friends of the Polytechnic Institute being manifested to urge that the State's apprc^riation should be devoted to the development of the school already established. This view of the matter HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 409 was entertained also by many of the members of the General Assembly. A visit to the northern schools of technology by a legislative committee served, however, to create a remarkable change of opinion, those of the committee who had left Maryland opposed to the appropriation, returning enthusiastic for the establishment of the school. The bill was finally passed by overwhelming majorities in the General Assembly and was promptly signed by the Governor. In its final form it provided for one hundred and twenty-nine free scholarships, one hundred and two of which are to be allotted to the l^slative districts of Baltimore City and to the counties of Maryland in proportion to the number of members returned by each to the House of Delegates. There are to be six scholarships at large and three allotted to each of the following colleges : Lx>yola, Maryland Agricul- tural, Mount St. Mary's, Rock Hill, St. John's, Washington, and Western Maryland. The holders of scholarships, except of those allotted to col- leges, must be young men who would be financially unable to pay tuition. To each of the twenty-seven senatorial districts of the State is given a scholarship, with a bonus of $200 per aimum attached, to support one stu- dent who would not be able to attend the school even with free tuition. The importance of this technical school to be established in Baltimore was recognized far beyond the limits of the State. Public men, prominent educators and heads of great industries, hailed it as a great boon to the whole South. A prominent trustee of the Johns Hopkins University de- clared that he regarded the School of Technology as "a greater thing for Maryland than the University itself." One of the oldest and most emi- nent members of the University faculty also predicted that the technical school would bring the University into closer touch with the people than ever before. SPEaAL TOPICS BALTIMORE WATER WORKS Alfred M. Quick, former Engineer in Charge. As far back as 1792, when Baltimore was a town, an act was passed at the November session of the Maryland I^slature, supplementary to an act entitled an act to erect and establish a fire insurance company in Bal> timore county, and for other purposes, the ninth section of which provided that the directors of the insurance company might cause a subscription to be opened, divided into shares, for the purposes of supplying the town with water, the subscribers to be a body corporate, with the name of the Balti- more Water Company, to have the right to agree with parties for the use of water to be supplied by the said company. The insurance company did not, however, avail itself of this provision, and the people continued to get their water from wells and springs. The town had become a city in 1797, but it was not until 1800, after public attention had been directed by a visitation of yellow fever to the necessity of good and pure water,, that the Act of 1800, Chapter 77, was passed, enabling the mayor and city council to introduce water into the city. In 1803, at the instance of Mayor Calhoun, the first mayor, an ordi- nance was passed creating a board of twelve commissioners with ample authority to introduce into the city a supply of pure and wholesome water. The plans and efforts of these commissioners, who expected to obtain a water supply from what was known as Carroll's run, were stopped by in- junctions obtained by property holders through whose lands the pipes were intended to be laid, and the year 1803 passed without anything being done. In his next message to the city council the mayor plainly told the council that it was for the members of that body to decide whether it would be possible to ad<^t any measure that would relieve the situation. The council rq)lied by authorizing the mayor to receive proposals at his office until June, 1804, for introducing ''a copious and permanent supply of water into the city by an individual or company", and an advertisement was published to this effect. The citizens then took the matter in hand themselves, and a public meeting was called for April 21, 1804, "to devise some scheme to relieve the city from the unpleasant dilemma in which it was placed". The meetine was held, Gen. Samuel Smith was made chairman, and it was then determmed that a joint stock company should be formed to supply the city with water. A committee consisting of Samuel Smith, William Cooke, Elias EUicott, Robert Goodloe Harper, Thomas McElderry, Alexander Mc- Kim and John Eager Howard, was appointed to prepare articles of asso- ciation, and report to an adjourned meeting on May i, 1804, when conunis- sioners were to be appointed to open books and receive subscriptions for stock of the company. There seems to have been much difficulty in obtaining subscriptions to the stock, but it must be remembered that the Baltimore of a century ago was not a very lar^e city, and it was only by the personal efforts of the commissioners that msurance companies and other public institutions were prevailed upon to come forward and subscribe for the amount required. 413 414 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The board of directors was elected on May 24th, 1804, and Mr. Jonathan Ellicott was employed as surveyor and engineer. After much considera- tion and hesitation between the advocates of Gwynns' Falls and Jones' Falls as a source of supply, the latter was decided upon as affording the better advantages. It now became necessary to secure a site for the erection of the works, and in 1806 a purchase was made of a lot now occupied by the office of the Northern Central railroad, on Calvert street. The works, which were erected under direction of Mr. John Davis, consisted of a wheel and pumps, which forced the water into a reservoir on the southwest comer of Cathedral and Franklin streets. The water was obtained through a common mill race from what was known as Keller's Dam, which supplied Salisbury Mill, the site of which was near the site of the old Belvedere bridge. Judging from what has been disclosed by excavations made in the older streets in the city in recent years, all of the original water pipes and services laid by the water company were of wood. The main pipes were hemlock logs about eight feet long with bores of from one and one-half inches to four inches in diameter. One end of the log was tapered to a spigot, and in the other end a bell was hollowed out. The log^ were joined by being driven tightly together, and then a wrought iron band about two inches wide was ^runk on tightly over the bell end. The main valves were of cast iron with tapered spigot ends, which were driven into the wooden mains, and the valves were opened by lifting the valve plug with a hook. The service pipes were made of cedar logs about six inches in diameter and about six feet long, with a bore of about one inch. These service logs were joined to the main by a large brass ferrule with tapered ends, (Hie of which was driven into the main log and the other into the service log. These Ic^ mains and services have been dug up in nearly all of the old streets near the water front in the Fells Point section, east of Jones' Falls, and in the district west of Jones' Falls comprised within the Imiits of Old Baltimore Town as laid out in 1729. The iron pipes first laid by the water company were imported from England, and were of the conical or tapering joint, for which the parallel joint has long since been substituted. In the fall of 1805 the company was in condition to ascertain if the city would require water and in what quan- tity, to be delivered for public use for extinguishing fires, so that pipes might be prepared and laid adequate to the demand, the company offering to furnish the necessary fire plugs at the rate of $10 per annum for each. This proposition was accepted at a general meeting of the city council, but by a subsequent agreement the city undertook to construct the fire plugs at its own expense. The company soon after this erected a new pumping station on the site afterward occupied by the pearl hominy mill, near the old Belvedere bridge, and built a reservoir on high ground at the northeast comer of what are now Chase and Charles streets, and, in addition, constructed the old Mount Royal Reservoir, which occupied a part of the site now covered by the union station of the Pennsylvania railroad on North Charles street, and was supplied with water by natural flow from the dam of the Lanvale Cot- ton Company. On May 11, 1852, the city council authorized the appointment of water commissioners to inquire into and report upon the present mode of supply- ing the city with water, and its expense, as compared with that of other cities, the quantity and quality of such supply, and the propriety and prac- ticability of obtaining it from some other source. The commissioners ap- HISTORY OP BALTIMORE 415 pointed were John W. Randolph^ James Murray, Joshua Vansant, John King, J. J. Turner, and Ross Winans. The result of their deliberations and intelligent investigation of the whole subject was that the time had arrived when the supply of the city with water ought no longer be left in the hands of a private corporation, no matter how excellent its management, but should be in charge of and subject to the control of the city government. To this proposition no objection was made by the water company, which had again and again proposed to sell to the city and place the whole matter of the supply of water in the hands of the mayor and city council, where, in the opinion of the company, it properly belonged. At the January (1853) sessicHi of the l^slature authority was given to the mayor and city council to issue bonds to the amount of $1,350,000 for the purchase of the water company's property, and subsequently an ordi- nance authorized the purchase from the Baltimore Water Company for that sum of certain of its corporate rights, privileges and franchises, and all of its property comprised within the terms of the proposal of sale dated December i, 1852, made in the ccnnmunication from the president of the company to Joshua Vansant, chairman of the board of water commissioners. This purchase was consummated and the city thus found itself in the place, to all intents and purposes, of the old Baltimore Water G>mpany. It was manifest to the city water commissioners who now had charge of this department that many improvements were necessary to increase the supply, either by a new system of works in connection with Jones' Falls, or by reinforcing it from other sources. The newspapers of that day will show the g^eat difference of opinion prevailing in this connection. The Patapsco, Gwynns' Falls, the Gunpowder River and Jones' Falls all had their strong advocates. The contest finally narrowed to the Gunpowder River and Jones' Falls. Majority and minority reports were made, but the question was finally decided in favor of Tones' Falls. In 1856, Thomas Swann being mayor, the mayor and city council by ordinance authorized the appointment of a water board, of which the mayor was ex-officio chairman. This board was required to mature and decide upon all plans with regard to the general policy of the department, the existing system, and the procurement of an increased water supply from Jones' Falls, the plans in this connection to be submitted to the city council. This board considered several plans that had been suggested for a better supply of water from Jones' Falls, and decided to recommend to the city council the plan of Mr. James Slade, a well-known consulting engineer of that day, as l^ing the best for the city to adopt. This plan was, in brief, to introduce a supply of water from Jones' Falls by natural flow at an elevation of 220 feet above mean tide, by erecting a dam at Relay House, on the Northern Central railway, running an aqueduct four miles long from there to a high service reservoir at Hampden, and from there to run a line of cast iron pipes to supply water direct to the city and also to supply a low service reservoir to be built at the then northern city limits, at North avenue and the falls. In July, 1857, the mayor and city council by ordi- nance authorized the water board to proceed with the construction of these works. Meanwhile the original loan of $1,350,000 authorized in 1853 ^^ purchase the works of the Baltimore Water Company, had been increased by authorization of the legislature of 1855 ^^ $2,000,000, so as to provide for new improvements in the old works, and, on recommendation of the Water Boanl, the legislature of 1856 authorized a further increase of the loan to $3,000,000, so as to cover the cost of installing the new works. Contracts were let and construction was commenced on the dam, aqueduct. 4i6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE and high service reservoir (Hampden reservoir) in 1858. In the following year the rest of the work was started and all of the system was completed in 1862. It comprised: the impounding reservoir Swann Lake, now called Lake Roland, having an elevation of 225 feet above mean tide and an avail- able capacity of about 400,000,000 gallons ; a brick conduit about five by six feet in dimensions and four miles long, extending from Lake Roland to Hampden reservoir; Hampden reservoir, having an elevation of 217 feet above mean tide, a depth of 20 feet, and a capacity of 50,000,000 gallons ; two lines of 30-inch cast iron pipe running from Hampden reservoir to the city, and the low service reservoir, having an elevation of 150 feet above mean tide, a depth of 20 feet, and a capacity of 30,000,000 gallons. As the old Mt. Royal reservoir on North Charles street near the falls was abandoned when this new system was put in service, the name of Mt. Royal was transferred to this new low service reservoir. All this work was done under the supervision of Mr. Charles P. Manning, chief engineer, and its total cost was about $1,313,000. After the completion of this system it was found that the receiving reservoirs (Hampden and Mt. Royal) did not have enough capacity to supply the city during the longest periods when Jones' Falls remained muddy after a rain, and consequently it was decided to construct a new and much larger lake in which to store more of the clear water flow of the falls, at the same elevation as Hampden reservoir. For this purpose a site was selected at the southeast comer of Druid Hill Park, the necessary private land was bought and construction was commenced in 1864. This lake was first called Lake Chapman, but the name was afterward changed to Druid Lake. It has a depth of from 20 to 65 feet, a water surface area of about 53 acres* and an available capacity of about 429,000,000 gallons. It was completed and water first let into it in 1870. It was constructed under the supervision of Robert K. Martin, chief engineer, and cost $1,234,179. At the time of the completion of the system of supply from Lake Roland in 1862 the consumption of water in the city was probably about 7,000,000 or 8,000,000 gallons a day. The system was designed to g^ve the city in the driest year a dependable supply of from 18,000,000 to 20,- 000,000 gallons a day, which, it was estimated at that time, would serve for about half a million people. At this time the city was growing so rapidly toward the high ground to the west and northwest that these works were hardly completed before it was found absolutely necessary to establish a higher service than that from Hampden reservoir and Druid Lake. A committee of the water board was appointed in 1870 to investigate the matter, and early in 187 1 they sent the water and civil engineers of the department to several northern cities to get information. They recom- mended the establishing of a high service system, with a pumping station near Druid Lake, taking a supply from a new 30-inch main to be laid be- tween Hampden reservoir and Druid Lake, and pumping to a small reser- voir to be built on the high ground at the northwest comer of Dmid Hill Park, at an elevation of about 350 feet above mean tide. The contract for the reservoir now called the Westem High Service reservoir was let in 1871. It is 20 feet deep, and has a capacity of about 26,000,000 gallons. A contract for a 3,ooo,ooogallon pump to be installed in the pump house was awarded in 1872, and in 1873 ^ contract was awarded and work begun on the pump house. All of this system, including a 20-inch force main from the pump house to the reservoir and a 16-inch supply main from the reservoir to the city, was completed in 1874, and on June loth of that year the first water from this service was supplied to the high ground in the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 417 northwest section of the city. The entire cost of this high service system, including the 3<>-inch suction main from Hampden to Druid Lake, was about $320,000, all of which was provided for from the surplus revenues of the department. Notwithstanding the confident assertions and opinions of the advocates of the Jones' Falls supply that there would be no want of water at any time after its introduction, in the severe drouth of 1872 it became apparent that unless the Gunpowder was resorted to, Baltimore would encounter the risk of a water famine in every dry summer. So evidently had this been demon- strated that an ordinance was passed by the mayor and city council in 1872, Joshua Vansant being mayor, providing for the construction of a temporary supply, or, as it might be called, a reinforcement of the Jones' Falls supply. In 1874 a dam was constructed at Meredith's ford, on the Gunpowder, from which an engine and two pumps forced through a main over the dividing ridge between the Gunpowder and Jones' Falls into the channel of Roland run, a tributary to Jones' Falls above Lake Roland, 5,000,000 gallons each 24 hours. The cost of this temporary supply was $603,091.11, which was considerably within the estimate of $700,000 on which the work was un- dertaken. The insufficiency of the Jones' Falls supply having thus been thoroughly demonstrated, the water board in 1872 (Joshua Vansant, mayor) authorized and directed Robert K. Martin, civil engineer, to make all the necessary surveys and prepare plans for the construction of proper works providing for the permanent introduction of the waters of the Gunpowder as an addi- tional water supply for Baltimore. These plans and surveys having had the approval of Charles P. Manning, consulting engineer, and being thoroughly discussed and digested by the water board, at the instance of the board an ordinance was enacted February 12, 1874, authorizing the issue of city stock to the amount* of $4,000,000, to construct a proper system of works for obtaining a water supply from the Gunpowder river. The enabling act was passed by the legislature on April i, 1874, and ratified when submitted to the people by a vote of 14,120 to 6,127. After obtaining the proper authority, the water board provided in 1875 to condemn the right of way for the introduction of the supply by natural flow from the Gunpowder river, and in November, 1875, the contracts were made for the construction of the entire line. The water board then con- sisted of Ferdinand C. Latrobe, mayor and ex-oMcio president of the board ; John R. Seemuller, secretary ; John F. Hunter, George P. Thomas, Thomas Bond,^ George U. Porter, and Thomas W. Hall Jr. The introduction of the Gunpowder supply involved the construction of the following works: An impounding reservoir on the river. Loch Raven, having a total capacity when built of about 510,000,000 gallons, a depth of from 4 to 20 feet, a width of about 100 to 800 feet, and a length of about four miles; a dam about 800 feet long and 30 feet high with a 300- foot spillway; a gate house at the dam from which the supply tunnel to the city starts; a supply tunnel 12 feet in diameter and seven miles long extending from Loch Raven to the city ; a receiving reservoir. Lake Monte- bello, into which the supply tunnel discharges, having a capacity of about 500,000,000 gallons and a depth of about 33 feet; a conduit 12 feet in diameter and about a mile long, running from Lake Montebello to a gate house on the "Qifton" estate of Johns Hopkins, then owned by the trustees of Johns Hopkins University; and 40-inch cast iron supply mains running from that gate house to the then northern city limits at North avenue. This work was completed in 1881, and water from the Gunpowder river 418 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE was first sent through the Gunpowder tunnel direct to the city on Septem- ber 28, 1881. The amount of the appropriation for the introduction of the Gunpowder water supply was $4,000,000. Out of this sum the work was built and paid for, and the land and water rights were also purchased or condemned and paid for. The sale of the bonds, with the premium, amounted to $4,122,- 003.73. The total cost of land, water rights and entire work was $4,091,- 375.60, leaving an unexpended balance of $30,628.13. The water board under whose administration the Gunpowder supply was completed, consisted of Ferdinand C. Latrobe, mayor and ex-oHicio president; George U. Porter, secretary; John F. Hunter, George P. Thomas, Thomas Bond, William A. Fisher and N. Rufus Gill. Mr. Robert K. Martin was chief engfineer; Mr. Charles P. Manning, consulting en- gineer; William L. Kenly, principal assistant engineer. The daily consumption of water in the city at that time was about 25,000,000 or 30,000,000 gallons, and the capacity of these works com- prising the Gunpowder river supply and the estimated minimum flow of the Gunpowder river were both so much in excess of the daily water con- sumption mentioned that it was generally believed that the water works thus established would be suflicient to supply as large a population as Bal- timore would ever have. Before the completion of the Gunpowder river supply system it had become evident that it was desirable to have a larger storage capacity for clear water from this source than would be furnished by Lake Montebelk> alone, so as to prevent having to send muddy water to the city. It was determined that the extra storage capacity would be more of a protection to the city if provided in a separate lake. Consequently plans were made for another large storage lake called "Lake Clifton", to have a capacity of 265,000,000 gallons and to be built adjoining the gate house on the ''Qifton" estate at the end of the supply conduit from Lake Montebello. The neces- sary land was purchased from the trustees of the Johns Hopkins Univer- sitv> who at that time owned the ''Clifton" estate, and the construction was started in 1879. ^^ ^^^ planned to pay for this lake out of an anticipated unexpended balance from the $4,000,000 Gunpowder supply loan, and from the surplus of the department, which at that time aggregated over $384,000. Before the lake was completed, however, these funds were exhausted, and the lake remained in an unfinished condition for about two years until addi- tional funds could be secured. For this purpose, and for completing the installation of the additional large mains running into the city from Lake Clifton, the city obtained from the State legislature of 1882 the authoriza- tion of a loan of $500,000. This was approved by the voters in the fall of 1882. A new contract for completing the lake was made and work was resumed in 1883. Before the lake was completed the $500,000 loan was exhausted, and. authorization was asked from the legislature of 1886 for a new loan of $1,000,000 to complete the lake, to provide for a pumping station and reservoir for an eastern high service which the growth of the city to the north and northeast had by that time made necessary, and also to provide for some necessary distributing mains. This loan was made to bear interest at three per cent., and the city could not for that reason sell the bonds. Consequently an ordinance had to be passed increasing the rate of interest to four per cent., and the loan was again submitted to the voters and approved in 1887. In December, 1888, water was Anally turned into Lake Clifton, and it was put in service. In the same year about three and one-half acres of land were bought HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 419 on Gay street, adjoining the P. W. & B. railroad tracks, for the Eastern High Service pumping station and for shops and a storage yard ; and also about 12 acres of land on Cold Spring Lane, west of York road, were bought from the A. S. Abell estate for an Eastern High Service reservoir, which was given the name of the Abell estate, "Guilford". The construc- tion of Guilford reservoir was commenced in the summer of 1888, but the construction of the eastern pumping station was not begun until 1889. In that year also much of the large force main from the eastern pumping station to Guilford reservoir and to the Western High Service reservoir in Druid Hill Park was laid, and a contract was let for the first pump to be installed in that pumping station, a 5,000,000-gallon Worthington hori- zontal ptunp. In 1891 all of the work on the Eastern High Service supply, including Guilford reservoir, the Eastern Pumping Station, and its pump and boilers, the force mains from the station to both Guilford and Western High Service reservoirs^ and the suction main from Lake Clifton to the pumping station, was completed, and the service was started in operation in the fall of that year. Also in the same year the machine shop at the Eastern Station yard was completed and started in operation. In 1888 the city had annexed a large territory adjacent to its northern and western boundaries, and in the early 90's the growth of the city toward the high ground in the northern and nordiwestem sections of this annexed district demonstrated the necessity of largely increasing the high service pumping capacity and of providing a higher service to supply sections of the city that were too high to be supplied by the High Service reservoir in Druid Hill Park. Also at that period the increase in consumption in the older sections of the city, where most of the distributing mains were small, had so reduced the pressure in the higher parts of each service area as to cause a great deal of inconvenience and complaint. As it was evident that the expense of the necessary improvements would be so great that they could not be provided for out of the department revenues and surplus, the water board recommended that provision be made for them in a loan for general improvements which it was contemplated to ask the State legisla- ture of 1894 to authorize. Consequently, out of a loan of $4,000,000 author- ized by the legislature in that year, $2,000,000 was for improvements in the water system. This loan was approved by the voters in 1894, and in 1896 the water board engaged Mr. Samuel M. Gray, the well-known consulting hydraulic engineer of Providence, R. I., to make an investigation and recom- mend how the $2,000,000 should be spent. He recommended the installa- tion of a 10^000,000-gallon pump in place of the old 5,000,000-gallon pump at the Eastern High Service Pumping Station, and the erection of a new pumping station with two 17,500,000-gallon pumps and a new 75,000,000- gallon reservoir to provide for the increasing high service consumption ; the installation of an entirely new service, to be csdled the Upper Service, for the districts that were at too high an elevation to be supplied from the High Service, with new pumping stations taking suction from the High Service reservoirs, and pumping to standpipes; a revision of the service areas so as to throw the low pressure districts in any service area into the next higher service ; and the laying of many additional large mains all over the older parts of the city. In the latter part of 1896 work on these im- provements was started under the administration of Mayor Hooper and the water board, with Major William L. Kenly as water engineer. Early in 1897 Major Kenly was made consulting engineer, and Mr. Nicholas S. Hill Jr. was appointed chief engineer to carry out the proposed A20 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE improvements. In that year a lot was bought at North avenue and Mc- Mechen street for the new pumping station; contracts were let for and work was cwnmenced on the construction of that station; contracts were let for the two 17,500,000-gallon pumps, boilers and other mechanical equip- ment to be installed in that station, and for the new io,000y00O-gallon pump to be installed in the Eastern Ptunping Station; a lot was bought at the highest point in the city at West Arlington for a standpipe ; and contracts were let for and construction commenced on a steel standpipe and masonry tower to enclose the standpipe, the standpipe having a high water elevation of about 550 feet above mean tide and a capacity of about 340,000 gallons. Instead of building new pumping stations to pump from the High Service reservoirs to the Upper Service, it was decided to use the old High Service (Western) Pumping Station near Druid Lake in Druid Hill Park for that purpose, taking suction from Druid Lake. Consequently, in 1897 also, con- tracts were let for remodeling the pumps in that station so as to fit them for the Upper Service pumping. In the same year also about thirty miles of new large supply mains were laid all over the city, and the work of rear- ranging the service areas to eliminate low pressure was conmienced. In 1898 the West Arlington standpipe was completed, the force main from the Western Pumping Station to the standpipe and the distributing mains to West Arlington, Forest Park, and Walbrook were laid, and this section of the upper service, called the Western Upper Service, was put in operation. In the same year about eighteen or nineteen miles more of the additional large distribution mains were laid. In 1899 Mount Royal Pumping Station was completed, and all of its mechanical equipment was installed and the connections made from it to the High and Middle Service distribution systems. Also the 48-inch suc- tion main from Lake Gifton to this station was laid. In addition to this main about seven more miles of large distributing mains were laid, which practically completed the work of that nature recommended by Consulting Engineer Gray. In 1900 the new city charter went into effect, putting the water board on the same footing as other city departments in matters of awarding con- tracts, obtaining of appropriations, disposition of surplus, etc., and making the water engineer the president of the water board. Mr. Alfred M. Quick, who was assistant water engineer under Mr. Hill, was appointed president of the water board and water engineer. The machinery at Mount Royal Pumping Station was tested and started in regular service early in the year. Great progress was made in this year on the rearrangement of the service areas recommended by Mr. Gray, and many areas of low pressure were thereby eliminated. This year was a very dry year, the flow of the Gun- powder River was lower than shown by any previous records, and the con- sumption of water in the city had so increased that for the first time since the Gunpowder supply was introduced, the stream flow of both sources of supply was for a short period only about equal to the consumption. In 1902, on account of the filling up of Loch Raven with sediment and the slow progress made in restoring the Loch to its original capacity with the small dredging plant then owned by the city, it was decided that a new suction dredge should be secured large enough to clear the Loch of sediment in three or four years. Consequently a suction dredging plant was built at the Loch under contract, and started in operation early in that year, the cost of the plant, $100,000, being met from the balance remainii^ unexpended from the $2,000,000 loan obtained in 1894. Finding that this balance was not sufficient to meet the cost of constructing the New High HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 421 Service reservoir recommended by Consulting Engineer Gray in 1896, it was decided to ask for a new loan of $1,000,000 for that purpose, and also to purchase the mains of the Baltimore County Water and Electric Company in the southwestern section of the city, so as to supply that sec- tion with city water, and also to extend the upper service to the high ground in the city, east of Jones' Falls, which could not be supplied from the high service. The authorization of this loan was secured from the State legislature of 1902, and it was approved by the voters in the fall of that year. In the same year the construction of a large fireproof storehouse at Gay street yard was commenced. By 1903 practically all of the changes in the service areas recommended by Mr. uray had been made. In that year, also, work on the Eastern Upper Service system was started, a lot on Roland avenue, just north of the northern city limits, being purchased for a standpipe, and the la3ring of the force main from the Western Pumping Station in Druid Hill Park to that lot being started. Also, preliminary negotiations were entered into for the acquisition of the Baltimore County Water and Electric Company's interests in the southwestern section of the city. In the same year a site for the New High Service reservoir was selected by a commission dele- gated for that purpose in the ordinance of estimates, but on account of the cost of the site and other objections the city council repealed the clause delegating the authority, and the site was not purchased. In 1904 occurred the great fire which destroyed a large part of the commercial and business section of the city. Notwithstanding that many of the mains and large service pipes were broken during the fire, the water supply system was so handled that the pressure and volume of water was maintained and the maximum depletion of any of the reservoirs was not over two and one-half feet. The destruction of mains, fire hydrants and meters, and the cutting off of revenue from the Burned District caused a considerable financial loss to the water department. This was practically compensated for by a special appropriation of $73,000 made to the depart- ment during the year by ordinance of the city council from the fund re- ceived from the sale of the city's interest in the Western Maryland railroad. During this year an ordinance was passed authorizing a board of three arbitrators to be appointed to determine the value of the Baltimore County Water and Electric Company's interests in the southwestern section of the city, which the water board desired to acquire, and Bernard Carter, Esq., John V. L. Findlay, Esq., and Judge Thomas J. Morris were selected as the arbitrators. In the same year contracts were let for the steel stand- pipe and masonry tower for the Eastern Upper Service system, and the work of construction was then commenced. The most importance occur- rence of this year affecting the water service was the decision of the Gen- eral Improvement Conference, called together by Mayor McLane imme- diately after the great fire to consider public improvements, to include in their program a general improvement of the water supply system. The sub-committee on water of this conference asked the water board's views as to the most important developments essential for the improvement, pro- tection and preservation of the water supply. The water board recom- mended as the most important improvements the acquisition of the water- shed of the Gunpowder river and the building of a large storage lake on the river above Loch Raven. The Conference sub-committee on water adopted the suggestions of the water board, and recommended that $25,000 be at once appropriated for surveys and investigations from the $1,000,000 loan obtained in 1902, and that an enabling act be asked from the State 422 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE legislature of 1906 to cover the cost of acquiring such land in the water- shed and building such storage lakes as would be found necessary. Sub- sequently the Conference itself decided to make this enabling act for a $5,000,000 loan. In 1904 also the water board secured from the State legislature an act authorizing the city council to largely increase the board's powers in applying, adjusting, and abating water rates, compelling payment of plumbing bills, and preventing waste of water. An ordinance covering these matters was prepared by the water board and passed by the city council in July. In the same year the water board selected a site for the proposed New High Service reservoir, and introduced into the city council an ordinance making appropriations to pay for that site and for starting construction of the reservoir there, but on account of there being at that time litigation in regard to the site previously selected by the Reservoir Commission the ordinance was not passed. In 1905 the arbitrators appointed to consider the value of the Balti- more County Water and Electric Company's interests in the southwestern section of the city, after hearing expert testimony and legal argument, awarded tthe company $230,618. On the first of November a first payment was made on this purchase of about $196,000, the property was turned over to the city, and the city water service was turned into the mains there. In 1905, al6o, the Roland avenue standpipe and tower, having a high water elevation of 340 feet above mean tide and a capacity of about 213,000 gal- lons, was completed and put into service, supplying the Hampden secticHi of the Eastern Upper Service. In the same year, also, comprehensive plans were made and work was commenced on a revision and enlargement of the distribution system in the Burned District. Two special appropriations were made by ordinance for this work, the first of $60,000, and the second of $40^000. In this year also the water board started preliminary surveys and investigations to determine the proposed improvements to be provided for from the $5,000,000 loan to be submitted to the legislature of 1906. The tentative plans suggested by the water department as a result of these surveys and investigations proposed a 20,000,000,000-gallon impounding reservoir to be built on the Gunpowder river, a short distance above the present dam at Loch Raven, impounding water at a height that would supply the Middle Service district of the city by gravity, that the Jones' Falls supply be abandoned, and that a beginning be made on the purchase and reforesting of land in the Gunpowder river watershed. In 1906 the reconstruction and enlargement of the distribution system in the Burned District was completed, costing about $100,000. Also, final payment was made to the Baltimore County Water & Electric Company, and about $20,000 was spent in laying new and larger mains in the south- western section of the city formerly supplied by that company. A new 75 h. p. boiler was erected in the Western Pumping Station; the Roland standpipe lot was graded, and ornamental walls, walks, steps, pool, etc., were built there, and the old City Hall, used by the department as a store^ room and headquarters for the construction division, was entirely remodeled at a cost of about $15,000. In the same year, after ordinances had been introduced in the city council to purchase two different sites for a new High Service reservoir and one of them had been passed and vetoed by the mayor, the council finally appointed a commission to select a site, com- posed of the mayor, the presidents of both branches of the city council, the city register, and the president of the water board. After considering both sites and getting expert advice this commission recommended the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 423 purchase of the site known as the "Williams" site, which had been originally recommended and consistently advocated by the water engineer. An ordi- nance authorizing the purchase of this site was introduced into the city council in the same year. Also, the $5,000,000 loan for water supply im- provements was submitted to the legislature, but, through the opposition of private corporation and county interests that would be affected by the proposed improvements, the enabling act failed to pass. In 1907 the Reservoir Commission purchased the "Williams" site for the New High Service reservoir, at a cost of about $57,000. At the same time the park board bought from private estates about as much more land adjoining the Williams site to the north and east, and, by agreement be- tween the commission and the park board, Mr. Frederic Law Olmstead, the celebrated landscape architect of Boston, was engaged to suggest plans for location and shape of the reservoir and the parking of the adjoining park grounds. In the fall of 1907 the matter of the $5,000,000 water loan enabling act was again taken up, and the mayor called a conference of the officials of the county and corporations affected by the proposed improve- ments, to adjust matters in dispute before introducing the bill into the legislature of 1908. These disputed points were adjusted by compromising with the county and by the water board agreeing to purchase all of the property of the private corporation at a fixed price. This act was then passed by the legislature of 1908, and in the fall of that year the loan was approved by the voters. In November, 1908, by authority of an ordinance of the city council, the mayor appointed two consulting engineers, John R. Freeman, of Providence, and Frederic P. Steams, of Boston, to investigate and report as to the best method of im- proving the water supply system under the $5,000,000 loan. In 1908, also, contracts were let and work was commenced on the New High Service reservoir. It was completed in December, 1910, and put in service in Janu- ary, 191 1. It has a high water elevation of 350 feet above mean tide, a depth of 30 feet, and a capacity of about 200,000^000 gallons, and it cost about $550,000. In 1909 practically the whole year was spent on the investigation by the consulting engineers by Messrs. Hazen and Whipple, of New York, who were called into consultation as to sanitary, clarification and purifica- tion questions, and by the engineers of the water department acting under their direction. Early in 1910 the consulting engineers made their report endorsing the plans of the water engineer for a large impounding lake on the Gunpowder river just above Lodi Raven impounding water at an ele- vation that would supply the Middle Service districts in the city by gravity, and for abandoning Jones Falls as a source of supply, and also recommend- ing that clarification and purification works, consisting of coagulating and settling basins and a slow sand filter plant, be installed to treat all of the water delivered to the city. This report was adopted by the water board, and the water engineer was authorized to prepare plans at once for the impounding reservoir and filter plant in accordance with the consulting engineer's recommendations. When these improvements are completed Bsdtimore will have a water supply system unsurpassed by any other in this country. SEWERAGE SYSTEM By Calvin W. Hendrick The city of Baltimore, one of the oldest and most aristocratic cities in America, dating back to 1729, is situated on the Patapsco river, a few miles from its entrance into the Chesapeake Bay. It covers an area of 32 square miles, and its population, including the suburbs, is in the neighbor- hood t>{ 700,000 people. Its location, topographically, is ideal, the business section ikmg flat, while the residential section occupies an amphitheater of rolling hilfe-v^jicircling the city, with beautiful suburban property beyond. She has spleimid harbor facilities, with numerous inland, coastwise and foreign steamship^ lines ; three large trunk line railroads, the Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Ohro, and Western Maryland (part of the New York Cen- tral system), radiating to all parts of the country; inexhaustible coal mines within a short distance. It is really the "Gateway to the South". With reference to sanitation and drainage, the city has neglected this to such an extent that she has stood at the bottom of the list of cities in this respect. The early settlers from England adopted the method then in vogue, namely, using cesspools in their yards for disposing of the sewage. On account of the sandy soil underlying the city, and the steep grades throughout, this became very popular and answered the purpose so well that the city continued to put oS the proper solution of its sewerage prob- lem until she finally awoke to the situation that the soil had been overtaxed, and that these conditions could not continue. The necessity of installing a proper sewerage system began to be dis- cussed at least fifty years ago, but on account of the economical method of handling the sewage through these cesspools, sufficient interest could not be aroused to accomplish any results. Finally, as a result of the urgent in- sistence of a small number of far-sighted citizens, a resolution was adopted by the city council in May, 1893, under which in 1895 ^ commission com- posed of Messrs. Mendes Cohen, F. H. Hambleton and E. L. Bartlett was appointed to study and report on the sewerage problem. Their report has been published, showing that they gave the matter a great deal of consid- eration. Two plans were considered at that time — one to carry the sewage to North Point and dump it into the Chesapeake Bay, disposing of it by dilution ; the other to dispose of it by sand filtration over large sandy areas located in Anne Arundel county. Nothing, however, came of this report, other than to increase the interest in the subject. Finally, on account of the continued agitation and the importance of the oyster taking industry of the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore, a bill was passed by the legislature compelling the city to properly treat the sewage before discharging it into the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries; and au- thorizing a loan of $10,000,000 to carry this into effect, and creating a non- partisan commission of seven members, with the mayor a member ex-oMcio, the commission to be named by the mayor. Hon. E. Qay Timanus, mayor of Baltimore, in June, 1905, named the following commission: Brig.-Gen. 424 HISTORY OP BALTIMORE 425 Peter Leary Jr., chairman; Dr. Ira Rexnsen, Mr. Morris Whitridge, Mr. Charles England, Mr. William D. Piatt, and Mr. J. Edward Mohler, who on assuming their duties, called into consultation Messrs. Rudolph Hering, of New York, Samuel M. Gray, of Providence, Rhode Island, and Frederic P. Steams, of Boston, three of the most prominent water and sanitary engineers in the country. After consulting these gentlemen and making inquiries throughout the country as to the best man to take charge of this great work, Mr. Calvin W. Hendrick was chosen as chief engineer. Mr. Hendrick was at that time engineer of sewers for the Rapid Transit Rail- road Company of New York, in charge of readjusting the sewer systems of Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn, necessitated by the construction of the underground railroads being built by the city of New York. He assumed charge in Baltimore on November 20, 1905. A study of the best method of properly treating the sewage in accord- ance with the requirements of the legislative act was at once begun by the three consulting engineers and the chief engineer. After a most exhaustive investigation of the methods suggested by the old commission and other methods being used in Europe, it was decided, on account of the lack of sand fields and the enormous expense of preparing and maintaining them, that sand filtration was out of the question; and dilution, while it might prove satisfactory now, would be questionable later on. It was therefore decided that stone sprinkling beds, in conjunction with hydrolitic tanks and settling basins, would be decidedly the most economical from all stand- points, as by this method the sewage could be satisfactorily taken care of at a rate of 2,500,000 gallons per acre, while sand beds would be unsafe above 100,000 gallons per acre. This methcxl being decided on, a careful study of the surrounding coun- try as to the best location, both as to first cost and the city's future growth, was made. Sites in Anne Arundel county, on Bear creek, and at Back river were all carefully considered and estimated on. It was finally decided that of the three a site on Back river, near Eastern avenue, would be the best from all standpoints as to first cost, operation, and the future growth of the city. It was then decided that on account of the sewage having to be treated, and a large portion of it having to be pumped, that the amount entering the sewers should be reduced to a minimum. In order to accomplish this it necessitated the installation of two systems of sewers— one for the sani- tary sewage (composed of the wastes from toilets, kitchen sinks and bath tubs), and one for the storm water, or rain water, emptying into natural outlets, such as Jones' Falls, Gwynn's Falls, and the basin. Plans were prepared for the complete system, including the disposal plant, a sanitary system covering the entire built-up portion of the city, the pumping station, and the storm water drainage system covering the built-up portion of the city, so designed that it could be extended to provide for 1,000,000 people; and an estimate was made, which, taken from the com- mission's report for the year 1907, reads as follows: "With the aid of the information now at hand I feel safe in saying that the cost of the sanitary sewers outlined in the Commission's Report for 1906 will be about $14,000,000, based upon present prices and the assumption that it will be possible to push the work vigorously. If for anv reason the work should be delayed, an in- creased allowance will have to be made for salaries, office rent and other expenses. If the work is vigorously prosecuted, it is believed that the sanitary sewers as laid out in ^e Commission's Report for 1906 can be fully completed by the year 1914. "The entire storm water system, as outlined in the Commission's Report for 1906, can prolMibly be constructed for about $4,500,000." 426 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The commission at once proceeded in a prompt and businesslike manner to push this work along modem lines, dividing the work into contracts of sufficient size to attract responsible bidders, but not too large to cut out smaller contractors, and letting sufficient contracts at a time so that large contractors with machinery could bid on a sufficient number of contracts to warrant them in moving their machinery. This resulted in keen com- petition from the best contractors all over the United States, resulting in the commission getting the sewers built for almost cost. All materials are carefully inspected and tested by the engineers of the commission before being allowed to go into the work, resulting in securing the very best class of workmanship and material. To give a slight idea of the magnitude of the work and the difficulties to be encountered in constructing a system of this kind, start with the sup- position that water must flow down hill. This means that an eight-inch sewer beginning at Forest Park, 13 miles distant from the disposal plant, must continue on a constantly falling grade, which cannot be flattened beyond certain rates, ever increasing in size as sewers lead into it from valleys and hills covering an area of 32 square miles, in its path crossing Peck's Branch, the Baltimore & Ohio railroad tunnel, over and under Jones' Falls, the Pennsylvania railroad tunnels, crossing ravines, swinging around hills, tunneling through ridges, passing through narrow alleys by the side of tall buildings ; ever continuing on a constant falling grade, ever increas- ing in size until, on reaching the disposal plant, it is large enough to con- tarn two automobiles, one on top of the other. The difficulties are in- creased by having to construct two separate systems of sewers and drains, crossing and recrossing each other in a thousand different places. Two-thirds of the sewage of the city is intercepted and carried to the disposal plant by gravity ; the other third is lifted by enormous pumps, each with a capacity of 27,500,000 gallons a day, from a point 13 feet below tide to the outfall sewer, a height of 72 feet (including friction) ; an un- usually heavy lift, especially as sewage is much more difficult to pump than water. Three of these enormous pumps are constructed and are now being installed ; the pumping station is large enough for two more, to be installed later. The foundations for these pumps have been so constructed, inde- pendent of the foundations for the building, as to absorb all shocks. The system is designed for a population of 1,000,000 people. The filter beds have been built in units, so that they can be added to as needed, thus avoid- ing the burying of large sums of money in the ground to lie idle for a long time. The method of treating the sewage is as follows: At the mouth of the outfall sewers will be installed screens that will catch such things as sticks, rags, etc., which will be removed and burned. The sewage will then pass through the meter house, which will measure its flow; then through hydrolitic tanks about 450 feet long, requiring eight hours for passage, a sufficient length of time to allow the solids to settle, the liquid passing on to an intercepting channel, to and through what is called the gate house, which distributes it to the stone sprinkling filters, located at a level of 15 feet below the hydrolitic tanks, giving a hydraulic head sufficient to spray the sewage over these stone beds through square nozzles, or jets, spaced 15 feet apart. The hydraulic head will be controlled by butterfly valves, causing the sprays to rise and fall, varying from close to the nozzles out to a limit of 15 feet, thus utilizing the entire surface of the stone bed, a large portion of which would be wasted if the sprays were stationary. These nozzles will throw a square spray, thereby saving additional space HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 427 which would be lost if the sprays were circular, as where circles touch there is a lost triangle.'*' The spraying of the sewage through the air is essential to the aeration and purification of the sewage. As the sewage falls on these beds it trickles down through 8J4 feet of broken stone varying in size from one inch to 2>^ inches. The passing of the sewage through these beds forms a gela- tine-like film on the stones, in which certain bacteria multiply by the million, attacking and killing the injurious bacteria in the sewage. We therefore make the bacteria do the work for us by fighting each other. The sewage on reaching the bottom of these stone beds is 95 per cent, pure, and is then carried by intercepting channels leading to a central channel under the stone beds, which finally delivers the purified sewage to the settling basins, requiring three hours to pass through. These settling basins are not for the purpose of causing additional purification, but to clarify the fluid, as there are certain mineral substances in the sewage which the bacteria do not annihilate, such as is found in the Mississippi river water, which is muddy, but not injurious to drink. The sewage then passes with a drop of eighteen feet through the power house, in which turbines are placed, operated by the flow of the sewage. They in turn run dynamos which generate elec- tricity, giving us power to light the plant, run the sludge pumps and lift the clarified sewage to a water tower for flushing purposes. In other words, by the simple gravity flow of the sewage it is purified, and power is ob- tained to light and run the plant at practically no cost. It all comes down to the fact that we are getting nearer to the laws of God as manifested in the operations of nature than ever before, which laws man cannot improve on, but can only strive to follow. For instance : The pumps lifting the sewage from the low level to the outfall sewer may be compared to the sun drawing water from the sea to the cloud ; the flow of the sewage through the outfall sewer to the disposal plant is the cloud drifting through the air; the spraying of the sewage over the stone beds is the rain fallmg from the cloud to the earth ; the trickling of the sewage down through the stones is the rain sinking into the earth; the purified sewage coming out into the settling basins is the spring water bubbling out of the ground; and the electric light produced by the flow of the sewage is the sunshine after the clouds have passed. Thus, without the use of any chemical germicide, but by imitating the processes of nature as closely as it is possible to do with mechanical devices, the sewage when discharged into Back river will be purer than the water into which it is discharged, and will be absolutely innocuous to the oysters and fish inhabiting the waters of the bay. With the completion of the system now in course of construction, Bal- timore will be the best sewered and drained city in the world, raising hef from the bottom to the top of the list of cities in this respect. She will also have the distinction of being the only city of any size that has con- structed as a systematic whole, in practically one operation, a complete, modem sewerage system covering the whole city. The system when com- plete will comprise about 1,000 miles of sewers, drains and connections. In other large cities the sewerage system grows with the city, being added to as the growth of the city demands, but in Baltimore no comprehensive plan for taking care of the sewage had been carried out. As a conse- quence^ when the legislature passed the law prohibiting the discharge of * The sludge from the hydrolitic tanks will be pumped over to the sludge-digest- ing tanks every month or six weeks. It can be retained in the slud^e-digestmg tanks as long as desired, and is then deposited on sand beds, where it dries out. 428 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the city's sewage into the bay or its tributaries without purification, it be- came necessary to design a complete system for disposing of the sewagfe from the entire city. This presented for solution a problem that has given rise to the largest engineering work of its kind ever undertaken. The work is now half completed and is within the estimated time and cost. Considering the enormous amount of details and difficulties to be overcome, it is a record to be proud of. FIRE PROTECTION By Louise Malloy The modern cities of this progressive nation, whose cities, unlike Rome, are built in a day, and in a day of whose resources and inventive power Old Rome never dreamed, furnish themselves with up-to-date fire depart- ments equipped with all the modem improvements. Cities like Baltimore, which antedate the nation itself, can show in successive steps the evolution from which the modern fire department has attained its splendid efficiency. In the early days of Baltimore Town, the arrangements for fighting fire were of the most primitive description. Lights in the streets were so few and far between that when a fire brigade started out, one man bearing a torch went ahead to show the way, and another followed with a fog horn to lead it. Every citizen kept fire buckets marked with his name, and when a fire broke out the population turned out in force, the buckets being taken either by the owners or placed in easy reach of citizens more energetically disposed. When the fire was quenched the buckets were thrown all in a mass on a vacant lot, and the town crier gave lusty notice : "Hear ye, oh, I pray ye, lords and masters, claim your buckets!" The small bov of the period scrambled at this cry in droves to the lot, to get a reward from the owners for finding and returning the buckets. On September 22, 1763, the first fire company of Baltimore was formed, and called the Mechanical Fire Company. It was not, however, exclu- sively as a fire company that it was organized, but as an association of men of Baltimore Town, then comprising about 2,500 souls, for the pro- tection of themselves and of the interests in their charge. The company soon became an important factor in the town's progress, and in the years between its organization and the momentous one of 1776 the members of the company took practical charge of the government of the town, besides acting as a fire protection company. The first home of the Mechanical Company was on the comer of Gay and Baltimore streets, the latter being then popularly called Market street. In July, 1763, an unsuccessful attempt had been made to raise a fund for the purchase of two fire engines by means of a lottery. In 1769 its members bought from the captain of a Dutdi ship an engine made in Holland, which was the first engine ever seen in Baltimore. The purchase price was $264, and it was promptly christened "The Dutchman". The year before the Declaration of Independence the General Assembly passed an act for the protection of Baltimore, compelling every householder to keep two leathern buckets hanging near the door of his house, under a penalty of $25. In 1792 the Commercial Fire Company was organized at die beginning of the year by a number of the leading merchants of the city. The members of the company were elected, and it was supported by regular subscriptions. Each member was compelled to keep at his own cost "two good and sufficient leather buckets, one bag of raven's duck with mnning string, of capacity not less then three pounds, and one basket of not less then one pound", all plainly marked with owner's name, and placed in some convenient spot near the front door of the dwell- 429 430 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ing. Each member was compelled under fine to work with his company. Some of the most prominent names in the city's history are found in this list of members, among them that of William Patterson, the father of the famous Betsey Patterson who married Jerome Bonaparte, the brother of the great Napoleon, and who was the grandmother of Charles J. Bonaparte, ex-Secretary of the Navy and ex-Attorney-Gencral of the United States. When the war with Great Britain ended in 1781 and the Baltimore members of the Maryland militia returned home, those belonging to the Mechanical Company rejoined that organization. Another company was deemed necessary, and the Union Fire Company, the second in the city's service, was formed. About three years later the Friendship Company was organized^ and in 1792 the people of Fells Point, the eastern section of the city, formed the Deptford Hundred, some years later changing the name to the Deptford simply. The Liberty followed in 1794, and gave its name to the present Liberty street, as the company paved a full block of this street, on which its house was situated, at its own expense. The Liberty engine house stood alone on the triangular space formed by the intersec- tion of Liberty, Park and Fayette streets. It is an item of historical interest that the first "Palmetto Flag" displayed in Baltimore floated from this building in 1861, when South Carolina seceded from the Union. In 1799 the citizens of "Old Town" organized the Federal Hose and Suction Com- pany, changing the name two years later to the Independence Company. This was the largest company at the time existing in the growing depart- ment. The engine house of the old Independence Company, at Gay and Ensor streets in Old Town, which is notable for its tower or campanille in Italian style, is now the home of Engine Company No. 6 of the present city fire department. The Vigilant Company came into being in 1800, and was followed by the Newmarket Engine and Hose Company, who in applying for incor- poration asked the city for a better site, but added, "If you do not grant one, we will buy it ourselves". This independent company's request was granted. The Newmarket was so named because it was situated near the newly established Lexington Maiket. In 181 5, when Fells Point asked for another company^ the city objected on account of the expense, saying there was already a sufficient number of companies. However, the citizens went ahead, bought their own apparatus, and organized the Columbia Company. In 1810 a dispute arose in the Mechanical Company, some of the younger members complaining that they were not allowed equal privileges with the older members. This was the first and last division in the Mechanical, but resulted in the dissatisfied ones enlisting a number of recruits and form- ing No. 10 Company, which they called the First Baltimore Hose Company. In the same year a division in the Union Company resulted in the formation of the United Hose Company. The next year the Franklin Engine Com- pany was formed. The war of 1812 engrossed attention in the national struggle with Great Britain. When the citizens of Baltimore had time to turn attention to mat- ters at home the growth of the southern section demanded more fire pro- tection, and the formation of the Washington Hose Company was the answer to this demand. Then came the Patapsco in 1821. This was located on St. Paul street, between Centre and Hamilton. The Howard and the Watchman Engine Company, organized in 1841, were the next in service. In 1842 the Lafayette Company was formed. In 185 1 the first hook and ladder company, called the Monumental, was organized, and caused great excitement as a novelty, some declaring it was a return to the old fire bri- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 431 gade of 1763. But its use was so soon evident that the same year the Pioneer Hook and Ladder company sprang into existence. The Western Hose Company in 1851, the Mount Vernon Hook and Ladder Company in 1853, and the United States Hose Company in 1856, were the next in order. The last named, however, was not a success and disbanded three years later. One interesting point in the history of the old volunteer department is that the first parade ever held by firemen in Baltimore was in honor of General Lafayette, when he visited Baltimore early in October, 1824. An- other is the fact that the volunteer department supplied Baltimore with seventeen of the city's mayors. In 1820 the Mechanical Fire Company passed a resolution enforcing on members and citizens the necessity of using their buckets, owing to the introduction of hose to engines. In 1824 the Washington Hose Company introduced the first riveted hose in Baltimore from Philadelphia, all the hose hitherto used having been sewed. The history of the Mechanical Fire Company is closely associated with that of Baltimore itself. This company antedated the establishment of the postoffice, the birth of the nation itself, and the incorporation of the city of Baltimore, and was organized twen^ years before the oldest patriotic society in the country, the Society of the Cincinnati, formed in 1783. The company furnished some of the first volunteers in the War of Independence, and was next to the oldest military organization in the Union, that one being the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston. In the affairs of the State the Mechanical Company was also foremost. Its mem- bers started the first school house, selected the first town commission, built the first tobacco warehouse and the first market house, the first wharf for shipping, the first sea-going vessel, the first flour mill, and the first hospital — acts each one of which would have been enough to commend any society to the gratitude of posterity. From this organization came the first six mayors of Baltimore, and many of its councilmen. The company was so called because a large number of mechanics were on the roll of membership. David Poe, the grandfather of Edgar Allan Poe and commissary or purchasing agent of the Continental army, was a member of the company. So was Joshua Barney, of naval fame. Fourteen members of the Mechanical were delegates to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. In fact, the members of the Mechanical Company figured prominently in the struggle against Great Britain for the independence of the colonies. The last appearance of the company as a military organiza- tion took place at the laying of the cornerstone of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, the first president of the road, Philip E. Thomas, being a member of the company. The first mayor of Baltimore, James Calhoun, was a mem- ber of the company. It is noted also that the first movement in the United States to observe the celebration of Washington's Birthday was made by the Mechanical Company on February 22, 1800, not quite three months after his death. At the battle of North Point the Mechanical Volunteers took part, and it is the opinion of a historical authority after careful study that General Ross, commanding the British in the attack on Baltimore, was killed by a volley from these volunteers, although one of the members, Henry Mc- Comas, shares with the lad Wells the popular credit of having fired the decisive shot. Many streets of the city were named from members of this company. As an instance of the work done in days of primitive fire service, it is noted in the history of the Mechanical Company that the most disas- 432 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE trous fire when this company was alone in the field was that of the alms- house, when the engine had to be hauled by hand power over rough and unpaved streets. The site of this almshouse was near where Mt. Calvary Church now stands, at the intersection of Madison avenue and Eutaw street. In 1821 the company purchased an engine afterward known to every fireman in Baltimore as "the Old Lady". She proved a fine fire fighter, went through numerous repairs, and was sold in i860 to a fire company in Frederick. At four o'clock a. m.. May 5, 1859, the Mechanical Company attended a fire. At noon of the same day, after active service lasting nearly a century, it ceased to exist, the company being turned over to the city department. Thus the famous company's last hours were spent in active duty. On the "Old Lady" was placed a silver plate, in size 18 by 10 inches, made of eighty-two silver Mexican dollars melted up. This plate was ad- mirably chased by George Warner, a well-known silversmith of the city, and a member of the Mechanical Company. It represented a view of the city and harbor of Baltimore from Federal Hill, and is especially interest- ing, as in the harbor is shown a steamer of the old side-wheel Fulton style, and a full-rigged ship and several schooners of that time. This plate is now on the steamer of No. 4 Engine Company, which replaced the Mechani- cal, and was presented to that company by its predecessor^ with a silver plate bearing this inscription : "Presented to No. 4 Engine Company, Jan. 23, 1873, by members of the Mechanical Fire Engine Company of Balti- more, with request that it so remain for all time". The members of the various fire companies before the establishment in 1858 of the Baltimore City Fire Department were wholly volunteers, and the rivalry among them was bitter and intense. Pitched battles in the streets as the rival companies met going to a fire were no unusual occurrence, the hostile forces even going to the length of firing upon one another. The primitive hand engines were drawn by ropes, and the drawing forces gathered in strength and number as the machine rolled along, and rivalry of the most jealous and aggressive kind was developed. Especially did the rough, idle and disorderly elements delight in the chance thus afforded them of indulging in a fight. When the scene of the fire was reached folded boards on the engine were let down, the handles of the pumps placed in position, and a force of men standing above, another below, the engines were worked energetically, a man standing on the gallery of the engine directing the hose. The sides of these galleries, by the way, were panels in various designs of the painter's art ; some scenes were allegorical^ some portraits of the prominent gentlemen connected with the fire organizations. In 1833 delegates from the fire companies of Baltimore met to organ- ize a united fire company. In accord with the resolutions adopted, seven delegates were appointed from each company ; these delegates met in Janu* ary of 1834 in the old city hall and organized the Baltimore United Fire Department, consisting of fifteen companies, with Jesse Hunt as president. The act to incorporate the new department was passed by the General As- sembly, but as doubts arose as to the legal rights of the delegates to the convention to invest permanently, on interest, the net proceeds of the fund set apart for relief to disabled firemen, a supplement to the act was passed in 1839, giving the necessary power, this act being called "An Act to In- corporate the Baltimore United Fire Department". Rules were adopted for the government of the companies under this federation, looking toward the suppression of the worst features of the volunteer system-— disorderly conduct, rivalry producing injurious conse- quences, and the admission of the rowdy element. Any difference or mis- HISTORY OP BALTIMORE 433 understanding of the companies was to be referred to the standing com- mittee. Some of these complaints, as shown in the records still extant, are as amusing as they are curious. Most of them referred to the cutting of hose by rival companies to prevent the appropriation of fire plugs. One complaint sets forth that while one company was responding to a fire it passed the house of a rival, and the hose of the latter was turned upon the members of the former, incidentally spoiling the Sunday dress of a young lady passing near at the time. Attempts at further discipline were made, and each company was as- signed a district. In 1850 the Mechanical Company inaugurated the sys- tem of ringing bells for an alarm of fire, the bells having previously been struck a number of times. The first steam engine ever owned in Baltimore was bought by the Baltimore Hose Company from Philadelphia builders^ and the first work done by this engine, named the Alpha, was at a fire on the comer of Hanover and Lombard streets, near the spot where the great fire of 1904 started. This fire was the first at which ropes were used to keep the crowd back from the firemen. In 1858 Hon. Thomas Swann, mayor of the city, brought the question of a paid department in a message before the city council, and public opinion backed him. The committee appointed to draft an ordinance submitted two reports, the majority suggesting that the hostler and engineer of each com- pany be paid, other members to be volunteers ; the minority, signed by Henry Spilman alone, urging that all should be paid. The majority report was adopted and an ordinance passed, but vetoed by the mayor, who disap- proved of a mixture of the paid and volunteer systems, he desiring a full- paid department such as other cities possessed. Many volunteers, strongly influenced by sentiment rather than reason, urged the continuance of the old system so dear to them. But in spite of their opposition the ordinance to establish a paid department passed both branches of the council and was approved by the mayor, whose nominations were unanimously confirmed, Qiarles T. Holloway being selected as chief engineer. At the time of the new organization the united department consisted of twenty-two companies, three steam engines^ seventeen hand engines, two hook and ladder trucks, one thousand active members and two thousand honorary or contributing members. The system was voluntary, and was sustained by an annual appropriation of $800 to each company, contributions from insurance companies, business men and others. When the insurance companies bore the brunt of support the houses insured in the companies were maiiced with signs hung on the walls, houses so marked being sup- posed to have the first care of the fire fighters. These old insurance signs are now preserved as interesting relics. The city was divided into two districts, east and west respectively, of Charles street. In February, 1859, the board assumed full control and placed Mr. Holloway over the force, consisting then of three steam engines and one hook and ladder. In the course of a year this force was more than doubled. In the succeeding July the police and fire alarm telegraph was in working order, having been adopted by the mayor and city council the previous year. In spite of their old opposition, the volunteers gave warm and efficient aid to the new system, and in the first year after the forming of the new department there was such a large decrease in the num- ber of fires that the insurance companies lowered their rates twenty-five per cent. The first mention of a fireboat here on record is that made by the chief engineer, John W. Watkins, in his report for 1870, recommending the com- 434 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE missioners to purchase a tugboat with a large engine and two thousand feet of hose, to protect property in the harbor and adjoining places. In 1873 the board asked to do away with the system of call men and make the de- partment a full paid one. But this was not done at the time. In 1877 the mayor and city council transferred the control of the police and fire alarm telegraph to the fire commissioners; the year previous Mr. John M. Hen- nick had been appointed chief engineer. At the famous fire in the Wash- ington Patent Office at this time assistance was sent from Baltimore, and the Baltimore firemen were personally thanked and complimented by Sec- retary of the Interior Carl Schurz, who told them their assistance had been invaluable to the city of Washington and to the whole country in the saving of many valuable records. In 1878 the number of the board was increased to seven commissioners, and the mayor was made a member ex-oMcio. In 1883 the board of Fire Commissioners was abolished, the office of fire marshal created, and J. Monroe Heiskell appointed to the position. But this change was of short duration, for the following year the marshalship was abolished, the board restored with three members, and Messrs. Samuel Kirk, J. F. Hunter and J. Alexander Preston appointed. On the expiration of Mr. Kirk's term he was succeeded by Mr. Samuel Regester, and he in turn in 1890 by Mri George May. A Hayes truck, one of the first to be placed in service in any city of the Union, was added to the department in 188 1, superseding the bank truck in the hook and ladder truck house in Harrison street, and in the early part of 1891 a water tower and the fireboat Cataract were added to the department's force. In 1892 a determined effort was made to eliminate the call system and make the department a full paid one, the call men being on duty at fires only, following other trades, and being paid for the time actually spent at fires. It consisted then of two hundred and thirty-one permanent mem- bers, forty-eight members at call, fifteen steam fire engines, six hook and ladder companies, one fireboat, one water tower, eight chemical engine companies, and in reserve five steam engines, one chemical engine, one Hayes ladder truck and one bank truck. The board of Fire Commis- sioners consisted of Messrs. J. Alexander Preston, president; Mayor Fer- dinand C. Latrobe, ex-ofiicio, John F. Hunter and George May. John F. Hennick was chief engineer, with two assistants for the eastern and west- em sections of the city. The Baltimore American took up the cause of the extension of a full paid fire department, and for the first time the depart- ment was backed by hearty and persistent press support. This awakened public sentiment on the subject and resulted in the abolition of the call system, the establishment of a full paid permanent department, and the re- districting of the city into six districts, each under the charge of a district chief. Chief John M. Hennick and Charles J. McAleese, superintendent of the police and fire alarm telegraph department, in their annual reports had repeatedly urged the necessity of keyless boxes and the removal of over- head wires, in the case of the wires citing the cases of cremation in midair, the accidents happening from this source in other cities, the arousing of public sentiment all over the United States to this peril, the dangers of delay, and this urging never ceased until the final removal of all overhead wires in the congested districts of the business area. The abolition of the call system had added materially to the efficiency of the department, as previously only the engineer and driver of the engine companies and the driver and tillerman of truck companies were permanent men. On May 15, HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 435 1890, the captains of all companies were permanent^ and until the gradual abolition of the call system many of the companies were half permanent and half call members. At the time the request was made for the total abolition of the system, Baltimore, San Francisco and New Orleans were the only cities retaining this drawback to complete efficiency. In June of i80i a water tower was placed in service, and a report of this time urged the placing of firemen and alarm boxes in all places of amusement. On the death of Chief Hennick, in 1893, J. J. Ledden was made chief, and in this year one of the improvements of the system was the firing by pistols of a life line over high buildings for the saving of life. The new chief in the following year asked for more power to be given the fire de- partment over fire escapes and other methods of life saving in buildings, which request the city granted. In 1896 Chief Ledden resigned on a change of municipal administration and William C. McAfee, one of the district chiefs, was chosen for his successor, after District Chief George Horton had declined the appointment in McAfee's favor. The new chief en|^neer was one of the most popular fire chiefs Baltimore ever had, both m the department and with the press and public of the city. Personally, he was recklessly daring, and was presented with a medal by the business men of the city for the rescues he had made, yet he was extremely careful of the safety of his men and was idolized by them. One of his first recommen- dations was for fire drills in the schools and for compulsory portable fire escapes in hotels and other public buildings. Others of his recommendations were for a pipe line system in the business heart of the city and a school of instruction for firemen. In 1898 a new water tower was added to the city's fire defenses, and a new combination of chemical engine and truck. On March i, 1900, another great step forward was taken by estab- lishing an examining board, which means the establishment of civil service rules in the department. In April of that year portable telephones were established on fire circuits, and searchlights were installed on the fire ivagons. In 1901 Chief McAfee resigned and was succeeded by the present chief, George M. Horton. This year witnessed the lighting of engine and truck houses with electricity. In 1904 occurred the great fire, the greatest calamity which Baltimore ever experienced. The largest fire ever known in Baltimore before this took place on July 25, i§Z3- '^hc A^c raged to such an extent that a call was sent to Wash- ington for help, and the engines arrived from that city in a record-breaking time of thirty-five minutes. Telegrams were received from Philadelphia and surrounding cities offering aid, but by the time these messages were received the fire was under control; 113 buildings were destroyed, including two churches, the total loss being $750,000. The insurance was about one- third of the amount. The great fire of 1904 was one of the largest in the history of the world. It broke out Sunday, February 7, in the six-story brick building of John E. Hurst Co., Hopkins Place and German street, wholesale dry goods and notion house. The origin has never yet been satisfactorily ex- plained, but is generally supposed to have been caused by a cigarette stub thrown carelessly aside without being extinguished, and falling through a broken light on the pavement into the basement below, where it smouldered. At 1048 a. m. a thermostat alarm was sent in, the usual response of one engine company, one truck company, one district engineer and one sal- vage corps wagon being made. The fire was found to be in the packing cases in the basement, and as the men went downstairs an explosion took place in which the roof was blown off and the flames broke out with a loud 436 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE whistle. The time between the sending in of the alarm and the explosion was about five minutes. The cause of this explosion has never been deter- mined, and controversy was vigorous concerning it, the question whether it could or could not be due to an acctunulation of smoke being one which agitated the entire fire and fire insurance circles of the cotmtry. By this explosion burning brands were hurled to such an extent that seven buildings were instantly in fiames. The wind, blowing at the rate of sixteen miles an hour, spread the conflagration, and, to add to the fire, a tank of powder nearby, belonging to a sporting goods establishment, exploded, scattering new destruction on all sides. The fact that the day was Sunday and that the business buildings in the vicinity were vacated allowed the fiames to gain great headway, and the force of the wind fanned them, while the vacuum caused by the intense heat was so great that the streams of water turned upon the fire were literally torn to pieces and could not reach the second stories. The fire raged until 11.30 Monday morning, traveling over 140 acres and destroying some 1,526 buildings and four lumber yards. Half an hour after the first alarm it was realized that the fire was beyond control, and telegrams for assistance were sent to other cities. The re- sponses received outside of the state were ten companies from New York, five from Washington, seven from Philadelphia, and others from York, Harrisburg, Chester, Altoona and Wilmington. In all, sixty-two well- equipped fire organizations were at work with an abundant water supply, but it was not until 10.30 Monday night that the fire was under control, having burned eastward to the edge of Jones' Falls south of Baltimore street. This fire was remarkable in many ways. It determined for the business world the stability of fireproof buildings and the reliability of fireproof safes, as the latter yielded up their contents safe and uninjured. Not a life was lost directly by the fire, and after the legal holiday which was pro^ claimed no failures ensued, and no run was made upon the savings banks. No outside financial assistance was accepted, although it was freely offered on all sides, coming as far as from Italy. According to the department records, the loss of that year was the greatest part of the $94,500,000 of the fire losses during the forty-six years of the paid department's existence, as the vast majority of the fire loss for 1904 of $70,000,000 was that caused by the big fire. This fire was also of use to the world at large, dem- onstrating the stability of the insurance business, the approximate insur- ance paid being nearly thirty millions. In 1908 two new city districts were added. The fact of the fire depart- ment being inadequate to the growth of the city was emphasized by the fact that not one engine company was in the burned district, bringing this fact forcibly h(»ne to the city. In 1908 the work was begun of insUlling the high pressure pipe line system. In the same year tihe second water tower was put in service, also, the ambulance for disabled firemen and horses, and automobiles for the use of the chief and his deputy. Automo- biles were also asked in the chief's report for two engine companies and six wagons to be used in connection with the pipe line system. In 1910 incandescent lamps were placed on truck ladders for use at night and for signal work, and in the succeeding year of 191 1 a new steel fireboat. The Delude, was put in service on March 13. The present roster of the department consists of three commissioners, a chief engineer, one deputy chief, eight district engineers, a superintendent and assistant of machinery, superintendent of telegraph, forty eng^e com- panies, seventeen truck companies, 747 uniformed men, two water towers. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 437 two fireboats, one of steel (considered the best model in the country), and a pumping station for the High pressure pipe line system to be completed in October of this year (1911). The department ranks now among the best in the country for efficiency, and is under the civil service rules for promotions and appointments. THE PARKS OF BALTIMORE By Allen Kerr Bond, M. D. During the first half century of her growth Baltimore had no park and made no effort to acquire any. This was due in some degret to the threefold origin of the settlement — Baltimore Town, on the harbor, west of Jones' Falls, being the trading place of the planters, Fell's Point, some miles down the harbor, having its interest chiefly in shipping and ship re- pairs, while Jones' Town, lying between them a little way up the east bank of the Falls, was devoted to milling. This diversity of local interests made the settlement as a whole strong and self-sufficient, but prevented the de^ velopment of public spirit. Moreover, these three little ports (for Jones' Falls at that time had tidewater for nearly a mile from its mouth, and was navigable for small ships) had each immediately back of it the coun- tryside, well forested and pleasant to stroll in, so that recreation could easily be attained by all inhabitants. Outdoor social life during this period centered about the village springs, of which there were several of excellent quality, accessible to each of the neighborhoods mentioned. In earliest days the ''cool spring" figures in the maps of Baltimore Town as located on the waterside at the western edge of die harbor, with convei^ng paths leading down to it from the scattered houses, and gossipers under the trees around it. The Northern Fountain, up Calvert street, at the western edge of the Falls, became the aristocratic gathering place for the wealthy citizens dwelling in that neigh- borhood. Near the boundary between Jones' Town and Fell's Point set- tlement, the Eastern Fountain served as the social meeting place. It was for a long time uncertain which of these three settlements, each of which had its wealthy and ambitious class of inhabitants, would win in the race for population and commercial pre-eminence, and as they were separated from each other by ofttimes turbulent streams — ^Jones' Falls and Harford Run — and by extensive swamps at the entrance of each of these streams into the harbor, it was quite impossible that any respectable park system should at this period be developed. As Baltimore Town little by little forged ahead and took in the other two settlements the common need for formal recreation grounds supported out of the public purse made itself felt. The first known expression of such public need is found in a "Letter to the Inhabitants of Baltimore" published in the Maryland Journal and Commercial Advertiser, June 22, 1790, from the pen of Dr. George Buch- anan, one of the leading physicians of the place. He says, with reference to the death rate among children, "I venture to assert that we would not be witnesses to as much suffering innocence . . . was a little more pains and labor bestowed . . . toward improving a lot of ground upon an elevated situation for the children to play in, morning and afternoon". Whether as a result of this suggestion or not, two plots of ground were as early as 1792 made accessible to the citizens for recreation pur- poses through the bounty of one of the wealthiest landowners in the vicinity. 438 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 439 On an old map of this date there is delineated, on the western edge of the settlement, on Eutaw street near Baltimore, a "Public Square", which as late as 1824 was a playground for the boys. This was a plot of ground offered by Colonel John Eager Howard to the State of Maryland, on con- dition that within twenty years it should be made the site of the State house. The terms were refused by the House of Delegates. The other recreation ground depicted on this old map was "Howard Park", on the northern edge of the settlement, which was the ground about the private residence of Colonel Howard, generously thrown open as a recreation ground for the citizens. This private domain, well wooded and extensive, served the city for at least fifty years as its great public park. Originally the estate of Colonel Howard, a commander of great distinction in the Revolutionary War, extended from Pratt street to the Charles street bridge, and from Eutaw street to the lower course of Jones' Falls. The lower portion of it was inherited through his mother from the Eager family, and the upper portion from the Howard family. From it were donated in succession the sites of Lexington Market, of the Cathedral, and of the Washington Monument. Gradually diminished by sales for building pur- poses, it still retained its princely dimensions throughout Colonel Howard's lifetime. So generously and completely was it opened to the public that it came to be considered as public property. Losing its proper name of Belvedere, it figured on city maps as "Howard's Park", and in both private conversa- tion and public literature was designated by that title. Citizens roamed at will through its groves, and boys played in its open spaces. Its mansion, which retained the name Belvedere, was for a long time a social center of the American colonies. Its doors were thrown open freely to guests of distinction from the colonies and from abroad. This social life was facili- tated by the fact that Colonel Howard, a hero of the struggle for Inde- pendence, had brought to Belvedere as his wife a leading Tory belle of Philadelphia and New York, "who carried into the present century and into republican society the sweet courtesy and stately manners of the older time". A writer of those days says : "Many hearts were lost and won in the beautiful groves of Belvedere. In Howard's Park were held the encamp- ments of the city militia. Fourth of July celebrations, political gatherings and barbacues". At the time of the visit of Lafayette, in 1824, Belvedere was the scene of a great reception given to that hero of two continents, at which the chivalry and the beauty of the new Republic was well represented. At this date the Washington Monument, standing "in touching solitude", as an eye-witness expressed it, surrounded by its scaffolding, in Howard's Woods, was a favorite excursion goal for young and old. Beginning near the Golden Horse Tavern on Howard and Franklin streets, from which the great Conestc^a wagons set out bi-monthly for their trip over the moun- tains to Ohio, "a road well graded and well hedged led through the forest to the Belvedere mansion at the head of Calvert street extended, and pic- nics and May Day parties were held, and volunteer companies drilled in the shade of the great oaks". In 1827 was held a remarkable and impressive memorial service to Adams and Jefferson, in which all the city notables joined. A procession was formed in the center of the city. In the van was a troop of horse, then the city clergy, then, "drawn by six noble black horses with plumed heads and housings of black cloth, came the funeral car bearing upon it two large fiat cofiins shrouded in black. After the car, as chief mourners, 440 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE came Carroll of Carrollton, acccmipanied by Col. Howard and General Smith". Then came the State authorities, then "old, gray-headed men who could tell of '76 as of yesterday*'. "At last the head of the funeral column reached Howard's Park, and, turning into the Belvedere gate, wound through the woods until, after passing the crown of the hill, it de- scended into the natural amphitheater below. In the center of this, sur- rounded by twenty thousand people who looked down upon it, was the platform tor the ceremonies".^ The "broad shadow of its oaks" was at that day a feature which impressed all visitors. Again, an afternoon of August, 1829, is noted, on which there was a monster ''assemblage of the teachers and scholars belonging to the Sunday schools attached to the different churches of the city. They amounted in all to about five thousand, and proceeded to Howard's Park". The last public occasion associated with Belvedere was in 1835 durii^ the perilous banking riots. For a considerable time mobs terrorized the city, but finally the more conservative element asserted itself. An assembly of the better class of citizens was called together in a downtown district, "the flag of the Union was raised, and with it at their head the people marched to Howard's Park, where they were addressed by General Smith". Thence they retired to their homes to arm for the preservation of order. Howard's Park was at this time the home of General Benjamin C. Howard, son of the Revolutionary hero, who continued the generous policy of his father. In 184 1 the estate, much diminished, was sold to members of the McKim family. With the passing of the glory of Belvedere, Baltimore lost not only its chief social center but a great place of public recreation, the loss of which was not replaced until Druid Hill was purchased.^ The first enactments of mayor and city council concerning parks take formal possession and charge in the name of the growing city of places already set apart by common custom or by private donation for public recreation. An ordinance of the mayor and city council in 1812 authorizes certain commissioners appointed for the superintendence of the "City Springs" to make rules and regulations for the preservation of property and other like purposes, such as planting of trees and placing other orna- ments there. This "City Springs" is identical with the Northern Fountain already mentioned. As much as $27,000 was spent in its purchase and em- bellislunent. A temple-shaped dome was placed over it, and the ground about it was well shaded with trees. Several years after the costly decoration of this public park the Eastern Fountain, on the confines of Jones' Town and Fell's Point settlement, was purchased by the city authorities, and ornamented in much the same way, at about the same expense. A resolution of the mayor and city council in 1838 authorizes and directs the city commissioners to plant trees and erect a good and substantial fence about this fountain. ^ The open space in the forest where these ceremonies were held was probably a little valley through which Read street was laid out at a later date. ' Nothing could replace, in one sense, the wanton destruction by the city of this historic landmark. It did not fall into decay, it was cut in half by the prolongation of a street which mig^t by skilful engineering have been made to pass around it The history of Baltimore nearlv to the end of the nineteenth century is rendered painful to the observer by the neglect and destruction of one precious memorial after another, which properly valued would have given to the city a greater attractiveness to its own people, and made it the goal of many pilgrimages. It required the tragedies of the civil War to awaken in Southern hearts a regard for the memories and relics of their past. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 441 At the same time as the Eastern a ''Western Fountain" was laid out (at about the same cost and in the same manner as that on Calvert street) on the corner of Charles and Camden streets. This was the site of the "cool spring", which originally bordered on the harbor.' In 1827 William Patterson, one of the wealthier citizens of the eastern side of Jones' Falls, conveyed by deed of gift to the city thirty-seven acres of land for use as a public pleasure ground. This gift was located at a con- siderable distance from the eastern edge of the town, but it was anticipated that in time it might be of great use to that section. In 185 1 the city council directed the extension of a wooden shed that was there, and the placing of ten benches on the grounds. In i860, 1871 and 1883 it was successively enlarged by purchase until it attained an area of one hundred and six acres ; and subsequently one more addition was bought, bringing its area to a total of one hundred and twenty-eight acres. Its cost to the city has aver- aged about $4,000 to the acre. As the city has grown around and beyond it, this beautiful park, named after its original donor, has fully returned in recreation facilities the money and care expended upon it, serving as the great pleasure ground of the eastern section of the city. Its equipment, with athletic grounds, swimming lake and the like, has been brought up to date.* In historic memories Patterson Park is rich, having been the site of important defenses, from which the British finally recoiled, in the attack upon the city from North Point. Franklin Square, a neighborhood park for the recreation of citizens of the "West End", was purchased by the city in 1839, costing $3,000 an acre. Not far from the preceding is Union Square, likewise covering a single city block. This attractive little neighborhood park was donated to the city in 1847. ^^^ special attraction was a spring of fine water, so abundant that in 1849 the Baltimore & Ohio railroad paid the city $4,000 for the privilege of piping its surplus water to Camden station. In 185 1 attention was again turned toward East Baltimore, where the beginnings of elaborate street ornamentation were made in the purchase and decoration of the first Broadway Squares, at a cost of $5,000 an acre. This improvement was extended with the northward opening of this great eastern boulevard, which became justly the center of East Baltimore pride and social aspiration. Later a similar boulevard was opened in the far west, on Fulton avenue, while the center of the city exhibited in Eutaw Place, begun in 1853, ^ parkway in location and ornamentation equal to the best of those found in America.' South Baltimore about this time demanded a share in park develop- menty and a small lot of ground was purchased on Federal Hill for this purpose. This hill, on the south of the harbor, had from earliest times 'Of these three early parks, the Eastern alone survived, becoming a public play- ground. The Northern was built over by the Mercy Hospital. The Western had an alley run through it. The builder who bought the site, about 1866, for warehouse erection, during many years maintained a little flower bed over the site of the spring, but later it was pav«l for traffic * Having no natural forests, it could never, however, even if doubled in size, as proposed by the Olmstead Brothers, furnish such sylvan retreats as were of old afforded by "Howard's Park". *This type of intra-urban ornamentation has very narrow limitations, difficult to estimate, for while short stretches like Mount Royal and Wilkens avenue developments take well in some districts, the expensive attempt to ornament North avenue in the same way has ended in confessed and dismal failure. 442 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE been a popular resort. Here was located in those days the observatory of Mr. Porter, which signalled incoming vessels, and where for a small fee one might view the shipping as far down as the Bay "through a telescc^ as good as can be got in London". The best view of early Baltimore might be had from this Signal House, including ''the vessels in the harbor, the remarkable edifices of the city, and the handsome villas adjacent to it". In the Civil War Federal Hill was occupied by General Butler, and fortified for the overawing of the somewhat turbulent city. When subse- quently the park was enlarged (the extension being paid for chiefly out of a sum collected by the city from the federal government for ex- penditures made by the city for its defense in this war) the fortifications were cut down, and walks and drives were constructed along their lines. Madison Square, covering a rather large block in the middle of East Baltimore, was probably the most expensive of the city's acquisitions in the direction of pleasure grounds, costing in 1853 about $10,000 an acre. The bill for its purchase was passed by the city council over the mayor's veto. It made a beautiful neighborhood park in a densely populated section of the city, which was very insufficiently supplied with ''breathing spots". The West End next received attention in the purchase by the conunis- sioners of finance in 1859 of a city block at a cost of $5,000 an acre. This was named Lafayette Square, and, several important churches locating upon its borders, became a highly ornamented social center. A commission was appointed in i860 to select a great park domain worthy of Baltimore. After considering a number of sites it selected Druid Hill, the residence of Mr. Lloyd N. Rogers, as the most suitable. There was no cash to buy with, and the city bonds, issued without direct author- ity of the legislature, against the income to be derived from the street rail- way to be built on Baltimore street, were not looked upon with favor by Mr. Rogers. At this juncture eleven public-spirited men, headed by the mayor, Thomas Swann, bought for cash $10,000 worth apiece of the bonds, and induced Mr. Rogers to accept bonds for the balance of the price. The acquisition was a splendid memorial to the financial skill of the mayor and to the public spirit of these eleven citizens. Its opening ceremonies were suitably impressive. The numerous militia organizations, the multitude of gayly dressed citizens, and the choruses of school children who sang an ode written especially for the occasion by Mr. J. H. B. Latrobe, made the slopes about the Mansion House festive indeed. The estate of Druid Hill had come down in the Buchanan and Rogers family (for the members of these neighboring families had several times intermarried) from early times. The father of Mr. Lloyd N. Rogers, a Baltimore architect of distinction, had on his return from service of great merit in the Revolutionary War to his ancestral home laid it out in the very best style of English landscape garden. He had gone so far as to group trees with regard to their autumn tints, and with fine effect. Gold and crimson colors were brought out into strong and beautiful relief by backgrounds of evergreens. The skirting woodlands were converted into bays and indentations. A number of small plots of ground were bought at the time of the chief purchase from various owners to perfect the park. The great lake was built at a later date. The land for the Mount Royal reservoir and avenue was in large part donated to the city by the Bond family. At the time of the purchase of Druid Hill by the city its buildings had fallen into disrepair, and its fields had been planted with fruit trees. The Mansion House, where Mr. Rogers had resided, was remodeled by HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 443 the park board and surrounded by broad porches in a haste that disre- garded architectural beauty. The old colonial mansion, one of the oldest in Maryland, which stood far west of the Mansion House, could not be preserved, and gradually went to ruin. Roads had to be built, trees planted, lawns created — in fact, years of most patient thought and toil had to be expended upon this beautiful domain to make it what it should and could be. Although the makings of a rarely attractive park already existed, in the primeval forests with their great oak groves* and secluded ravines, yet the development of these possibilities should be credited to the park boards and engineers who made this work their enthusiasm. The beautiful promontory named "Tempest Hill", which overlooks Woodberry north- ward, was not included in the original purchase. The people who thronged to the new park discovered this hill and so enjoyed its prospect that the park commissioners added it to their purchase. Druid Hill, thus enlarged and developed, became the peer of any Ameri- can park. It combined natural forest with open woodland and grassy lawn in such a way as to please and refresh all classes of visitors. It afforded opportunities both for social intercourse and for quiet seclusion. The parts near the city presented low levels and easy slopes where flocks of sheep could graze, and open woods where the chattering squirrels came down to solicit nuts from child visitors. The parts more remote shel- tered herds of deer, and in their steep wooded hillsides and deep dells where little streams ran presented all the attractions of remote country districts.^ In 1862 a plot of ground known as Battery Square, lying to the south of Federal Hill, was purchased by the city. It was later increased con- siderably in area by the purchase of adjacent lots, and was named River- side Park. Its cost was about $4,000 an acre." After the close of the Civil War there was a great influx of Southern people into Baltimore, and the western end of the city grew very rapidly in population and in social importance. To this fact is probably due the donation to the city in 1869 of Harlem Park. It was presented by the heirs of Dr. Thomas Edmondson, at the instance of Mr. John H. B. La- trobe. The park covered two city blocks, and was brought speedily to a high state of ornamentation, attracting to its neighborhood many well- to-do people. In 1878 East Baltimore again received attention, Johnson Square being 'The enormous oaks of about eighteen feet circumference, which attracted great admiration at the time of purchase of the park, have died, but many can still be found to-day of five feet diameter. At the Madison entrance of the park is a redoubt which figured as Fort Number Five in the encircling defenses of the city during the Civil War. The old family cemetery in the west end of the park contains the tombs of several colonial heroes, among them being that of Dr. Buchanan, one of the founders of Baltimore, and that of Mr. Rogers, who sold the property to the city. * Even at this time, when the city has grown almost around it, this park pre- serves its note of restfulness and rural beauty. Its baseball grounds, its numerous picnic groves for school children, even its band stand for weekly concerts, are in re- tired places. No trolley car, no traffic van, traverses it. Its entrance lawns show yearly deepening turf. Its trees bear marks of scientific protection against decay. So completely does it meet its purposes that in the critical survey by the Olmsted Brothers, elsewhere referred to^ its sufficiency goes unquestioned. 'This park deserves attention not only because of its usefulness and beauty, but because it is the traditional site of the "Six Gun Battery'', which took part in the de- fense of Baltimore during its bombardment by the British. During the night of the bombardment a British force in small boats stole past Fort McHenry under cover of night and Umded farther up the river. Lossing aeclares that Fort McHenry would certainly have been taken m the rear bv this force had it not been for the splendid execution done by the guns of this little battery. 444 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE purchased — sl city block in extent — at a cost of $8,000 an acre, and devel- oped principally as a garden park; while Collington Square, two blocks in extent, in a newly built neighborhood, was two years later ''leased at a capitalized amount not to exceed twenty-four thousand dollars, for ninety- nine years, renewable forever, the rent to be paid semiannually at four per cent, and to be redeemable at the pleasure of the mayor and ci^ coun- cil at any time within twenty-five years". This groundrent was m 1910 owned by the commissioners of finance of Baltimore. The arrangement enabled the city to acquire a park when the opportunity offered, and to pay for it at a more convenient time. Until the last decade of the nineteenth century, Baltimore had made no effort, as a community, to preserve the old colonial mansions, which had once dominated the site of its streets, or which were being encroached upon by its suburbs. Some of these mansions had been erected at great expense and embodied the best architectural ideals of their time. One after another of these historic dwellings had fallen into premature decay from neglect. In the case of Belvedere, the city engineers had driven a street right through its western wing^ leaving the rest of the mansion many feet up "in the air". No sentiment appeared, to preserve these priceless relics of the city's earlier days. In 1890 the first sign of a new civic conscience was manifested, and the city purchased for a park a part of the colonial estate of one of the Carrolls, with the colonial mansion which stood upon it. A portion of this ancient home of Charles Carroll (called "the Barrister," to distinguish him from Carroll of Carrollton), was found fit for preservation, including a portico of great artistic merit. A brick from the part destroyed is dated 1756. In the wing preserved is a ''Washington room", occupied at one time by General Washington. Out of the thousands of acres which formed the old plantation about one hundred and eighty were reclaimed for a city pleasure ground in which especial attention has been given to the recrea- tions and summer training of children of the southwestern section. It seemed a pity that the city did not secure this old homestead before its abuse as a beer garden, and the mining of brick clay over its lawns. In 1892 a new departure in the acquisition of city parks, very insig- nificant in itself but foreshadowing a movement fraught with great impor- tance in the future, was made in the acceptance from property owners of a little plot of ground situated in the center of a city block, and in the rear of the residences in the block. This block was located on the south side of North avenue, between Bolton and Park avenues. Its listing among city pleasure grounds, to be cared for by the board of park commissioners, never excited general attention, and as it was not visible from the street, its presence was known to few citizens. In the year following, two similar donations were similarly taken in charge by the city — Maple Park, lying inside the block bordered by North avenue, Wilson and Laurens streets, and Bolin Park, lying in the block bordered by Linden avenue, Roberts, Laurens^ and Bolton streets. The second park in size acquired by Baltimore (in 1895) supplied generously the demand of the northeastern section for a wooded pleasure ground, preserved a homestead of enduring interest, and at the same time gave pecuniary aid to its great university. The cost was $2,000 an acre, about twice the average of the Druid Hill purchase. By addition of the grounds surrounding Lake Montebello (constructed by the water board), this parked area embraced altogether two hundred and sixty-seven acres. The home of Johns Hopkins was preserved in the mansion house of the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 445 park. His extensive greenhouses were made the center of the park board's enlarged enterprises in this line. A beautiful outlook was secured by the construction of Lake Clifton in the grounds, and every effort was put forth toward making this park the great outdoor health center of East Baltimore. This acquisition closed the account of the city in the direction of park purchases for the century. An address of Mayor Latrobe on The History of Baltimore City Parks casts some interesting side-lights on the financing of their purchase. Originally the park fund, or revenue derived from city passenger railways, was required only to provide for the maintenance of Druid Hill and Patterson Parks. All the other parks and squares later placed under control of the park commission were provided for both for improvement and maintenance by annual special appropriations by the mayor and city council. In 1891 this was changed so as to put all squares and parks under the park commissioners, to be both improved and main- tained at the expense of the Park Fund.® The new century began with the purchase of two small parks which completed the equipment of the promontory lying between the Middle Branch and Northwest Branch of the Patapsco river. These were named respectively Swann Park and Latrobe Park, after the two mayors who had done so much in the purchase of recreation spaces. These parks had about the same area, twelve acres, and cost about the same, three thousand dol- lars an acre.** In this same year, 1902, a new era of park development was initiated by the purchase of Gw)mn's Falls Park, on the extreme western edge of the city. This was the first instance of dedication to recreation pur- poses of the sides of a ravine which could only with the utmost difficulty be made to conform to the grades fixed for city streets, yet which pos- sessed in its heavily forested declivities important essentials of a suburban recreation park. Beneath these almost mountainous hillsides there flowed a stream which presented at many points beautiful vistas, and half way down their slope there wound an old mill race which was later transformed into a beautiful shaded walk. In the following year a similar tract embracing the steep hillsides of Stony Run was taken over under the name of Wyman Park, with an ap- proach from the northern end of Maryland avenue. This parked tract, filling out and partly surrounding the grounds of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, was obtained largely by donation from public-spirited citizens. The growth of public spirit among well-to-do citizens brought upon the scene at this time a new element more far-seeing and more systematic than had yet appeared. As early as 1890 many progressive American cities 'In a Special Itemised Report of the Board of Park Commissioners, 1901, the assertion is made that "with the exception of $10,000 given by the city council to build a bam and stable, none of the parks of Baltimore have really cost the taxpayers a cent." The street railway income was really required to pay mterest on purchase loans and sinking fund, as well as for improvements and running expenses. Thus, out of $300,000 paid in one year into the park fund by the railways, over $53,000 had to be used to meet these accrued debts before anything could be used for park main- tenance and improvement. Mzyor Swann's financial device has apparently worked much better than even he had anticipated. ^The promontorjr just mentioned has at its point the government reservation of Fort McHenry, with its lawns and parapets, its ancient buildings, and its historic memories, then comes along the middle Ime of the peninsula Latrobe Park, with its playgrounds, while the peninsula has at its base, in the center. Riverside Park, on its northern shore Federal Hill, and on its southern shore Swann Park. As these lie on an average eight blocks from each other, this section of the city is the best equipped with local recreation places of all distinct districts in the city. 446 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE had felt the need of expert counsel in their park development. Cleveland, Boston, and Chicago led the way in this departure from the old haphazard way, and Baltimore was not slow to follow. The stimulus in the case of Chicago was perhaps the self-confidence resulting from the successful issue of the International Exposition, and the extensive parking done in prepa- ration for that event. The movement in Baltimore seems to have been intimately associated with the output of energy as a community which fol- lowed the great fire. A Baltimore associaticm for city beautification, the Municipal Art Society, engaged the firm of Olmsted Brothers, landscape architects, to survey very carefully the whole parking problem of the city, its past accomplishments, its present facilities, its future needs and possibili- ties. Their report was presented to the Board of Park Commissioners in 1893 by the Municipal Art Society, and was at once adopted and paid for. This Report, since published, is worthy of the attention of every public- spirited citizen. It first reviews the work done in other great cities at home and abroad. Charts in black and white are interspersed with the printed text, showing the location of the parks, intraurban and suburban, of these cities, and the relations of park acreage to population are stated. Consid- eration is given by the architects in turn to each of three classes of rec- reation grounds, to small local parks and squares, to boulevards and park- ways^ to great parks in suburban districts. The result of their study is that in each of these particulars Baltimore is at present deficient. In regard to the first class of parks, they are convinced that the devel- opment of these may safely be left to those beneficient forces which are already working together so earnestly for the improvement of particular neighborhoods and for the establishmnt of playgrounds in connection with public schools. They pass on to the descriptive study of every tract adja- cent to the thickly populated portions of Baltimore which might serve as a recreation place. They discuss the merits of each tract, and the location of possible boulevards which might connect these great parks in an orna- mental and useful way. Not only must there be a great, well-forested park within easy reach of each section of our present community ; but more distant parks must be provided, accessible in the same way to the City which is to be. This necessitates, roughly speaking, two circles of forested parks. Druid Hill may be left untouched, as already sufficient to its section. Patterson Park is to be doubled in size, by additions on the east side of it. Canton (which is not in the city), will be left to develop its own parks. A large park is proposed on the point which juts out from the west toward the middle of the Long Bridge. This park is to be made accessible by bridge changes, and will meet the needs of the growing southwest section of the city. The valleys of Gwynn's Falls, Stony Run, and Jones' Falls, are to be parked in unbuilt places, the latter stream being covered in the center of the city as a boulevard leading to a great parked group of public buildings around and to the eastward of our city hall. According to the plan, all of these greater parks, existing or proposed, are to be connected by gracefully wind- ing, beautifully parked boulevards. The construction of one of these boule- vards, the Alameda, running from the great park area near Lake Monte- bello to the great parked area adjacent to the Johns Hopkins University, was at once undertaken; and plans were laid for the covering of Jones' Falls. It is probable that park development in Baltimore and its suburbs during a large part of the Twentieth Century will follow the lines laid down in this admirable Report. TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM AND FACILITIES J. Wallace Bryan, Ph.D. The intimate causal connection between the accessibility and the growth and prosperity of a community is conspicuously revealed in the history of the Town and City of Baltimore. It was the influence of the shipping interests that determined the location of the new settlement ; and, at almost every period, the condition of her facilities of ingress and egress has been an accurate index to the city's prosperity. The importance of the influ- ence exerted by them, moreover, has been consciously recognized almost from the beginning; so that the persistency and success of the attempts made to improve these facilities have measured, not only the extent of her material progress, but the enterprise and commercial ambition of her citizens as well. To the reader who has an eye for the true inwardness of things, therefore, the subject of the present chapter will possess a far deeper interest than many of the more colorful incidents with which the history of Baltimore abounds. The city's economic progress is of more vital and lasting importance than battles and sieges; and the story of the agencies which have contributed so largely to that progress may well claim a corresponding degree of the historian's attention. It must not be supposed, however, that this narrative is wholly devoid of the picturesque element. On the contrary, it teems with human inter- est. The road in every age and country has been redolent of romance. The wagon roads and turnpikes in Maryland, as elsewhere, were the scenes of a multitude of stirring incidents, and developed individualities all their own. Many stories of adventure cluster about the old roads and those who frequented them which may be still read with absorbing interest. The efforts of a later period to win for Baltimore the trade of the awakening West, producing first the National Pike, then the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, and culminating in the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio rail- road, have all the stimulating qualities usually attendant upon the recital of pioneer movements of whatever description. The same is true in an even higher degree of the shipping industry. The memory of the "Qipper" ship is still fresh in the minds of every one who knows the fascination of the sea; and the exploits in peace and in war of these vessels which car- ried the name of Baltimore to the uttermost comers of the earth, consti- tute the subject-matter of many of the most exciting tales of American seamanship. Roads in Maryland Prior to the Founding of Baltimore Town. — Hav- ing regard to Maryland's geographical position, and the site of the earliest settlements upon her soil, we are not surprised to learn that travel by water preceded travel by land. The earliest highways were the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The residents of St. Mary's and the settlements on the water's edges adjacent thereto found it vastly more convenient to move from place to place in boats, after the manner of the Indians, than to clear roundabout ways through the forests and swamps of the interior country. It is significant that the earliest legislation in the Colony looking toward 447 448 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE improvements in modes of transportation was concerned with the estab- lishment of ferries. As the population of the Colony increased, however, and the tide of settlement pressed farther inland, the need of providing facilities for land travel soon obtruded itself. In the beginning it was easily met. Foot and bridle paths were evolved in the first instance by simple user, or else were cleared and opened by the private endeavor of the parties most dependent upon them. They seem to have required and received but little care when once established, and we may suppose that they were not the scenes of a very extensive commerce. Travel at this period was by foot or horseback, and was arduous in the extreme. Freight was carried by pack animals. Neither carts nor carriages made their appearance in the Colony for a number of years after its first settlement ; and in fact did not come into general use until the middle of the i8th century.* It was not until almost a generation had elapsed since the founding of the Colony that the Assembly felt constrained to take any measures for the improvement of land transportation. In 1666, however, there was passed "An Act for marking highways and making the heads of rivers, creeks, branches and swamps passable for horse and foot." This Act pro- vided that the commissioners of each county should "upon the 20th day of October next ensuing meete together in their respective countyes to con- sult of what highwayes are fitt to be made." They were also directed to appoint road-overseers, and to levy tobacco or labor for road purposes upon the taxable inhabitants of their respective counties. Performance of these duties by overseers and laborers summoned by them was enforced by pe- cuniary penalties. (Sioussat, p. 112). This, the first piece of road legislation in Maryland, bears eloquent testimony to existing conditions. It makes no provision for an3rthing like a general system of road construction, but contemplates primarily some slight improvement of existing "roads" through local endeavor, principally by marking their course. Travel by "horse and foot" only is mentioned. It is interesting to note, however, that this Act of 1666 introduced two features which have persisted, with some modifications, until the present time: the office of road overseer, and the system of compulsory labor by citizens upon the county roads. The Act of 1666 was repealed and re-enacted several times during the next thirty years. The ideas embodied in it found their final expres- sion in the Act of 1704, Ch. 21. This important statute, like the earlier one, looked primarily toward the care and improvement of existing roads, though new construction was to a greater degree provided for. It also bears witness to a higher type of road than that described by the Act of 1666. It directs generally that "all public and main roads be hereafter cleared and well-grubbed, fit for traveling, twenty feet wide ; and good and substantial bridges (shall be) made over all heads of rivers, creeks, branches and swamps, where need shall require, at the discretion of the justices of the county courts." The latter were further required to "ascertain and set down" in their records each year the various public roads in their respec- tive counties, and to appoint overseers who should "clear" the roads and keep them in repair, under pecuniary penalty. These officials were author- ized not only to summon individual laborers to work on the roads, but to * For an excellent history of the entire road system of Maryland, sec "Highway Legislation in Maryland, and Its Influence on the Economic Development of the State," by St. George Leakin Sioussat in Reports of Maryland Geol. Survey, 1899, pp. 107-186. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 449 call upon every master as well to send ''all his taxable male servants" for the same purpose. Failure to obey either requisition was punished by heavy fines in tobacco. One of the most interesting features of the Act of 1704 — and one of the most enlightening as to the then state of the roads — was the provision directing that the course of the public highways should be shown by notches and letters branded upon adjacent trees. Destinations as well as direc- tions were shown in this manner ; characteristic markings were supposed to indicate whether a particular road led to a ferry, court-house, church, seated plantation, or the port of Annapolis. This Act was amended and modified from time to time during the ensuing forty or fifty years in several not very important particulars. But the general scheme of road construction and maintenance thereby established continued without radi- cal change until the founding of Baltimore — as indeed it did until as late as 1774, when the new element of State aid, presently to be spoken of, was introduced. The system was simple enough, but let us see how effective it was. The Act of 1666 placed the execution of the law entirely in the hands of the county commissioners and their appointees, the road overseers. A number of important facts with respect to the roads of Baltimore county, in which we are primarily interested, are gleaned from the county records of the period. Thus, the county court proceedings under the date March 6, 1682, indicate that the grand jury presented the "overseers of the high- ways" of the Gunpowder, Patapsco and Spesutia Hundreds "for not mak- ing the highways passable for man or horse." It appears also that by 1685 there was a continuous road from the Patapsco to the Susquehanna. Some five years later "the court ordered that these roads should be made passable for carts." In 1692 it was ordered "that from henceforward the persons above mentioned, their Ma"~ justices doe grant out their warrants and appoint what over-seers they think good for clearing the highways in their respective hundreds, as they shall think fitt." In 1694 the overseers were commanded to take with them "every tythable in their hundred for the making of good highways thirty foote wide, not leaving Loggs, Brush or Roots appearing above ground, or young Saplins in the said Roades." Provision was also made for the construction of "good and sufficient bridges for man and horse to pass over." (Sioussat, pp. 116, 117). Two other items belonging to this early period should be noted. In 1695 ^ ^^^^ from the court house to the Great and Little Falls of the Gunpowder was ordered "cleared." And in 171 1 the construction of a "very fair and spatious road directly leading out of the main road to this town of Joppa" was provided for. The Rolling Roads. — One of the most curious features of early road construction in Maryland is found in the "Rolling Roads," over which tobacco was transported from the interior plantations to places of shipment. The first of these primitive highways were constructed some two years after the removal of the capital to Annapolis, and formed part of the gen- eral schemes for the commercial aggrandizement of the new metropolis. Later on, similar roads were extended to other places, such as Bladensburg, Elk Ridge Landing and Upper Marlborough, at which during the Colonial period agencies were maintained by English merchants for the purchase and shipment of Maryland tobacco. The names of these highways were de- rived from the mode in which transportation was carried on over them. "In order to pass the tobacco hogsheads safely over the 'rolling roads' it was necessary that they should be made and hooped in the strongest manner; / 450 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the tobacco after being dried and stripped from the stems was packed tightly in the hogsheads and 'headed' up; these were then rolled over and over by two men to each hogshead, to the place of shipment." (Tyson, A Brief Accotmt of the Settlement of Ellicotfs Mills, p. 25.) Afterwards, when oxen or horses were utilized for motive power, pins were inserted in each end of the hogshead, to which were attached hoop-pole shafts whose ends were fastened to the animal's collar, so that as he went on his way the hogshead rolled behind him. The importance of the Rolling Roads ended with the Revolution, which drew the foreign factors home to England, whence they did not return after peace was declared. The result was the diversion of the tobacco trade to Baltimore, which alone had the shipping facilities adequate to the task of exporting it. The tobacco was brought to the city by wagons and small bay vessels and sold by the American and German merchants. The above sketch comprises the more important facts concerning the matter of road development in Maryland and in Baltimore county at the time of the founding of Baltimore Town in the year 1730. Road History from the Founding of Baltimore Until the End of the i8th Century, — With the Town's early struggles for existence and later for commercial supremacy over its near-by rivals, notably Joppa, we are only indirectly concerned. The single cause which contributed the most to the rise of Baltimore was the settlement of the western and northern re- gions of the Colony. This movement was preceded and accompanied by the opening and improvement of highways, and the establishment of post roads. In 1712 a road was ordered laid out "from the forks of each branch of the Patapsco to the upper lands of Rock Creek." In 1739 the Monocacy road was laid out as a wagon-road from the upper waters of the Potomac to Hanover, Pennsylvania, where it connected with the Philadelphia road. In 1745 the town of Frederick was founded, and shortly afterward a road was cleared to Baltimore, giving the latter an avenue to the trade of this newly settled western country. Of more immediate influence upon Baltimore's early development was the "Patapsco road," opened in 1741 from Baltimore to Hanover. About the same time a road was likewise opened from York to Baltimore. The result was the commencement of a profitable trade with the regions in the north and on the borderland between Maryland and Pennsylvania. "As long ago as 175 1, in the month of October, no less than sixty wagons loaded with flaxseed, came down to Baltimore from the back country. Five years later, sixty-one overseers were appointed by the justices, each for one section of the road. The resources of the interior had been discovered, highways to the waterside had been begun, and the development of Balti- more was assured." (Sioussat, p. 132). The next quarter of a century witnessed a steady increase in Balti- more's population and commercial importance. Her foreign trade ex- panded, as did also her trafiic with nearby places, and with the towns and districts to the north and west. Her increasing prosperity awakened alarm even in Philadelphia. There is not much of interest concerning roads and road building dur- ing this period to be found. Under the Act of 1704 and its amendments, which, as we have seen, vested the whole matter in the county commis- sioners and overseers, the state of the roads at any particular place depended very largely upon the amount of traffic carried on over them, the capacity and energy of the overseer in charge, the political influence of the persons most affected, and the like considerations. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 45i It is reasonable to suppose that the main highways leading to Balti- more received more attention than did those in more remote districts. That their condition was far from satisfactory, however, is indicated by the passage of the Act of 1766, Ch. 32, authorizing the county commissioners to appoint as many additional road overseers as they deemed necessary, and empowering them to repair the roads by hired labor. Certain other regulations concerning the use and construction of the roads were made, and a county tax of ten pounds of tobacco was laid upon each taxable inhabitant of the county to defray the expense, collectible by the sheriff as other county taxes were collected. These provisions mark a departure from the old system of repairs by compulsory labor, and the introduction of the new idea of financing road repairs by a general tax. (Sioussat, p. 147)- The necessities of the interior country, however, demanded still more radical measures for the improvement of the principal market roads, in order to "render the intercourse and carriage between the parts of this province, distant from navigation and the places from whence the produce of those parts are, and may be most conveniently exported, much easier and cheaper." In this scheme the Colony itself was induced to co-operate, upon the theory that in this way "trade will be increased and the settlement, culti- vation and improvement, of lands, will be encouraged and promoted." The result was the passage of the Act of 1774, Ch. 21, which represents the first attempt at the systematic improvement of the great highways to Balti- more Town. One of the novel features of this Act is the mode devised for the finan- cing of the work. Certain named sums were appropriated out of a general fund to be raised by the emission of bills of credit, and loaned to Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Frederick counties for the improvement of the market roads named in the Act. The share allotted to Baltimore county — ^the sum of $10,666.66 — ^was to be expended upon the roads leading from Balti- more to Frederick, Baltimore to "Royster's" (Reisterstown), and Royster's toward Hanover, Pennsylvania, as far as the county line. The work was devolved upon certain named boards of supervisors, one for each specified section. These officers were directed to cause the roads to be "straight- ened, cleared, grubbed and stoned forty feet wide," and to cause necessary bridges, ditches, posts, &c., to be constructed. They were authorized, as in the Act of 1766, to employ laborers, or to contract for the work. They were also empowered to use timber from adjoining lands when necessary. This contribution by the Colony, however, was only a loan to meet the initial outlay, and was to be repaid by the counties concerned out of a fund to be raised by a special tax — in Baltimore county, 12 pounds of tobacco upon each taxable inhabitant— collected by the sheriff along with other county taxes. For the repair of the reconstructed roads the old system of compulsory labor by the "taxables" was retained. Finally, it was pro- vided that the roads should be public. It does not clearly appear just when this work was completed, or with what success. The probabilities are that it was finished within the next two or three years. The improvement of an existing system, and not the construction of a new one, was primarily intended; and the meager de- scription of the methods to be employed, together with the small amount expended, indicate that no very radical change was contemplated. During the period from 1765 to the close of the century, a great many acts authorizing the opening and construction of single roads in Baltimore county and elsewhere were passed by the Assembly. These roads, being 452 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE what we should now call "private" roads, were usually laid out by commis- sioners especially appointed for the purpose but at the expense of the per- sons immediately benefited; though often, when completed, they were declared be to public roads, and kept in repair at the public expense. They led to mills or plantations, or connected one town or main road with an- other, and the like. In 1779 a general road law was passed by the new state government, which did little more than impose fines for failures on the part of overseers, laborers, and masters for failing to perform duties laid upon them by previous statutes. In 1794, also, another general law established certain uniform rules with reference to the alteration, straight- ening and repair of the roads, and prescribed different rates of taxation for the various counties. With these comparatively unimportant excep- tions, nothing worthy of note was done during the closing years of the i8th century with reference to land transportation in Baltimore county until the beginning of the turnpike system presently to be discussed. Road Construction and Repair. — ^The methods of road construction and repair in vogue during the 17th and i8th centuries were exceedingly primitive and ineflFective. In the days of the bridle path "constructing" a "road" signified little more than clearing a path through the forest, re- moving the stumps, saplings, and undergrowth, draining and filling in the marshy places, and building rude bridges over streams that were too deep to ford. The early wagon roads were wider and doubtless smoother when first laid out. But no serious attempt to reinforce or improve the roadbed itself seems to have been made. The result was that as wagon traffic in- creased the Maryland roads fell into a condition of almost proverbial dis- repair. An interesting description of road methods as late as 1795-1797 is given by a contemporary traveler : "Whenever they attempt to mend these roads it is always by filling the ruts with saplings or bushes, and covering them over with earth. This, however, is done only when there are fields on each side of the road. If the road runs contiguous to a wood, then, instead of mending it where it is bad, they open a new passage through the trees, which they call making a road. It is very common in Maryland to see six or seven different roads branching out from one, which all lead to the same place. A stranger, before he is acquamted with the circumstance, is frequently puzzled to know which he ought to take. The dexterity with which the drivers of the stages guide their horses along these new roads, which are full of stumps of trees, iss astonishing." (Weld, Travels through the States of North America during the Years i795-96-97» P- 22.) The roads passing over the "bottoms" between Baltimore and Wash- ington were said to be particularly bad. On at least one occasion the car- riage of Washington himself came to grief, sinking so deep in the mud that it was necessary to send to a neighboring house for ropes and poles to extricate it. "Over some of these bottoms, which were absolutely impassable in their normal state, causeways have been thrown which are made with large trees laid side by side across the road. For a time these causeways afford a commodious passage; but they do not last long, as many of the trees sinking into the soft soil, and others exposed to the continual attrition of the wagon-wheels in a particular part, break asunder. In this state, full of unseen obstacles, it is absolutely a matter of danger for a person unacquainted with the road to attempt to run a carriage along it. The bridges over the creeks, covered with loose boards, are as bad as the causeways, and totter as a carriage passes over. That the legislature of Maryland can be so inactive and not take some steps to repair this, which is one of the principal roads in the State, the great road from north to south and the high road to the City of Washington, is most wonderful" (Weld). HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 453 Modes of Travel and Conveyance, Early Stage Lines. — It has already been stated that the earliest land travel in Maryland was by saddle horse, the earliest transportation by pack animals. The use of carriages for travel did not supplant the horse except upon the main roads and in places of wealth and fashion such as Annapolis until the time of the Revolution. It was not very long, however, before carts began to be seen in the Q)lony. The earliest official reference to these improved instruments of transporta- tion seems to be the order of the justices of the Baltimore county court, passed in 1695, as already mentioned. By 1704, as we are told by a com- petent authority, "The use of carts for freight transportation by land was becoming more general in the thickly settled parts of the province, although travelers still journeyed almost exclusively upon horseback". The general substitution of wagons for pack-horses came with the development of the western and northern parts of the Colony. It is interesting to note that the usual opposition on the part of the beneficiaries of an established order to the introduction of improved machinery and methods was present in the shape of the indignation expressed by the pack-horse owners against the newer contrivances as being likely to ruin their trade. When once intro- duced, however, the volume of wagon traffic steadily increased wherever the state of the roads permitted. At the same time the wagons themselves were improved. The first of these were entirely of wood, the wheels being "sawed from trunks of the gum or buttonwood tree". With the growth of the iron industry, however, they were improved. The wagon of the i8th and early 19th century reached its highest development in the cele- brated "Conestoga", so largely seen upon the turnpikes, of which we shall have more to say later on. (Sioussat, pp. 121, 132). One of the results of the opening and improvement of the wagon roads was the establishment of numerous stage lines from Baltimore Town to various points. As early as 1757 a line of boats and wagons was run by John Hughes & Co. between Annapolis and Philadelphia. The first stage line from Baltimore to Philadelphia was founded in 1765^ and others soon made their appearance. In 1772 stages started from Baltimore to Philadelphia every Wednesday, the journey taking from two to three days, and the fare being 1 1 shillings. The next year Patrick Hamilton and Joseph Tatlow made the same trip three times a week. A large part of the journey over all these early lines was by water, the favorite route being from Balti- more to the head of the Chesapeake by boat, thence across the Peninsula by wagon to the Delaware Bay, where a second boat was taken for the rest of the trip to Philadelphia. The first stages running to Philadelphia entirely by land seem to have been Van Home's ''carriages," which in 178 1 started from Baltimore and met the Philadelphia stage at Susquehanna. This line also carried mail "every letter one-eighth of a hard dollar, to be paid by the person sending the letter." Six years later the public post stages, under the direc- tion of Messrs. Twining & Van Home, covered the whole distance from Baltimore to Philadelphia in one day. These coaches left Baltimore every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for Philadelphia, returning altemate days. After April ist each year the trip was made by daily packet to Charlestown. The fare was one pound fifteen shillings. Another route to Philadelphia, established 1790, was from Baltimore Town to North Point, thence cross- ing the bay to Gresham College on the Kent shore, and thence through Chestertown to the Delaware boundary. In 1783 Van Home's stages left Baltimore for Alexandria, Virginia, on the same days and at the same hours with the Philadelphia stages, arriving at Alexandria the same evening. By 454 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 1789 the Virginia stages had established a connection with those from Bal- timore, and continued three trips a week to Fredericksburg and Richmond. The same year (1783) bi-weekly stages were run from Baltimore to Fredericktown by Messrs. Davey & Shoebels. In 1788 a daily stage went from Baltimore to Annapolis; and nine years later John Ragan was oper- ating a line three times a week to Hagerstown. The same year a line was running to Lancaster and Philadelphia via York. As time went on other and faster lines were opened to these various points, as well as to Car- lisle, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Wheeling and Cincinnati. (Scharf, History of Baltimore, p. 310). The vehicle used on these early stage lines "was a sort of wagon on springs, an open carriage, with a top to it made of boards; and on each side and at the ends curtains, to be let down, baize on the inside, and a sort of canvas on the outside, tied with leather ties to the supporters of the top, on the sides and at the bottom, catching on a sort of stud like that of a single chaise apron. The coach has three seats within the carriage and one the coachman sits on before. Thus it carries twelve people, three on each seat, as two passengers ride by the side of the coachman ; but the mail coach carries only nine passengers, the mail lying in the inside of the coach". The journey was usually uncomfortable, often picturesque, and sometimes dangerous in places. The Post Roads. — The earliest mail route was established in 1695, ^^ the time and partly as a result of the removal of the capital of the Q>lony to Annapolis. This route started at NeMrton's Point, on the Potomac river, and ran to "Benedict Leonard Town", where it crossed the Patuxent and then proceeded to Annapolis. From Annapolis it passed over the bay to the Kent shore, and took its way up the peninsula, through Chestertown to New Castle, and from thence to Philadelphia. At the Kent shore it branched south to William-stadt, now Oxford. John Perry was appointed "post" at an annual salary of fifty dollars for transporting "all public mes- sages and paquettes eight times a year betwixt Potomack and Philadelphia". This system, however, seems to have been of short duration, and did not long survive the death of Mr. Perry some three years later. There was, however, a post route on the Eastern Shore during the i8th century as well. Its direction varied somewhat from that of the earlier west line by bending further to the north to join the Western shore route at the head of the Elk river, from which point the two routes coincided to New Castle and Phila- delphia. (Sioussat, p. 119). As early as 1727 there was a mail route from Annapolis to Philadelphia along the Western shore to the Susquehanna and New Castle. In its later stage the principal post route of tthe i8th century between the north and south was from Philadelphia to New Castle, thence crossing the Susque- hanna and running in a southeasterly direction, parallel to the line of the Western shore, and passing near Joppa (with which it was connected by a short branch) to Baltimore. From this place the road ran south to An- napolis and London Town, the branches to and from these places forming a triangle. From Annapolis the route lay almost in a straight line to Alex- andria or Belhaven. At a point a little more than one-third of the distance from Annapolis to Alexandria there was a branch which passed through Upper Marlborough and Piscataway to Williamsburg, Virginia. At Pis- cataway another branch detached itself, and passed through Port Tobacco and Leonardtown. Shipping. — The early importance of the shipping interests in Baltimore has been already alluded to. Vessels were built at Fell's Point even prior HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 455 to the founding of the town. As the latter grew her maritime trade did likewise; but she did not acquire especial eminence as a shipping center until the Revolutionary period. Before 1780 the port of entry for Maryland was Annapolis ; all vessels bound to and from Baltimore were entered and cleared in the Annapolis custom house, and thus officially credited to the latter city. Recorded facts, therefore, concerning Baltimore shipping dur- ing her earlier years are scanty. In 1752 only two ships were owned in the town. In 1769 twenty ships were built in the province as a whole. In 1772 the number was only eight. Between January 5, 1770, and January 5, 1771, entries for the entire Colony aggregated 30,477 tons ; clearances during the same period amounted to 32,474 tons. What proportion of this tonnage should be credited to Baltimore it is difficult now to say. She doubtless received a substantial share of the foreign trade, however, and enjoyed in addition an active and growing local commerce with the settled regions on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The Revolutionary War operated as a great stimulus to the shipping industry, and started Baltimore upon the way toward the position of mari- time importance which she afterward .attained. An almost immediate effect of the outbreak of hostilities was to deprive Annapolis of the prestige which she had enjoyed during the Colonial period as the center of the proprietary and royalist influence. Moreover, the necessities created by the war gave a strong impetus to the building of ships throughout the new nation. The effect was increased by the frequent presence in American waters, after the treaty with France in 1778, of numerous French frigates and luggers, which supplied local shipwrights with excellent models for emulation. In addition to these influences, Baltimore possessed an especial advantage in the fact that she was not blockaded during the war. Consequently, her shipyards were almost constantly active. She constructed a number of privateers and vessels of war that did good service. Her merchant marine was steadily growing at the same time. It was during these years that she laid the foundations of her carrying trade and West India traffic, and began to perfect the type of vessel destined shortly afterward to become famous as the "Baltimore Qipper". By reason of this and other causes to be more fully discussed here- after, the volume of shipping in Baltimore grew rapidly during the closing years of the 18th century. In 1780 the custom house was established, and as a result we are able to state the facts with greater definiteness. Thus, during the year 1786 there were entered in Baltimore 50 ships, 57 brigs and 160 schooners; cleared, 20 ships, 57 brigs, and 150 schooners. Five years later there were entered 68 ships and barges, 159 brigs and scows, 94 schooners, 45 sloops and 375 coasters ; cleared, 387 foreign vessels and 662 coasters. In 1795 the entries numbered 109 ships, 162 brigs, 350 schooners, and no less than 5464 bay craft. During the period from 1790 to 1795 the value of the merchandise that passed through the custom house was as follows: Oct, 1790-Oct, 1791 $1,690,000.00 1792 1,782,861.00 1793 •. 2,092,666.00 1 794 345642 1 .00 1795 4421,924.00 Total $13,444,796.00 The total imports for the entire State of Maryland during the same period were valued at $20,026,126.00. (Scharf, History of Baltimore, p. 293)- 4S6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The Turnpike Roads, — No energetic community could long permit its progress to be retarded by roads and road methods such as those which have been described. Experience had taught that no scheme of mere re- pair, no matter how prompt and thorough in its operation, could be expected to yield permanent satisfaction. It came at last to be recognized that nothing short of a radical and scientific reconstruction of the roadbeds fhem- selves would solve the problem of securing good roads. Such a plan would necessarily be expensive in the beginning; but the economies in the cost of transportation and road maintenance certain to result from the construc- tion of highways with uniform, hard surfaces over which wagons could pass with a minimum of friction and damage to the road itself would more than overcome the large initial outlay. These and like considerations came to their fruition in the turnpike roads, whose contributions to the pros- perity of both city and State during the late i8th and early 19th century elevate them into a position of first-rate historical interest. The word "turnpike" originally denoted simply " a road upon whicH pikes were placed to tu^rn travelers thereon through gates, to prevent them from evading the payment of toll. ... It is the contrivance to turn travelers through gates, before mentioned, that makes a turnpike". (Sea- right, The Old Pike, p. 18.) By association with the form which the con- struction of these roads almost invariably assumed in later years, however, the term was broadened to include the additional ideas of a road with a stone-ballasted bed, built and operated by an incorporated company, so that in the end its primary meaning was in large measure obscured by its later connotations. The first American turnpike in this sense was the road from Philadelphia to Lancaster, completed in 1795 by a company char- tered in 1791 (Sioussat, p. 162). -^ TumpOce construction in Marwla^d dated from the year 1787. In- fluenced by representations of the gWnd jury of Baltimore county to the effect that the state of the roads was a ''public grievance and that the usual method of repairs was insufficient", the legislature of that year passed an act authorizing the building by the public authorities of several turnpike roads. The plan exhibited many crudities, and largely failed of its purpose — principally, it would seem, for financial reasons. Nevertheless, the Act of 1787 made important contributions to the cause of turnpike construction both in ideas and results ; and for these reasons it deserves a brief analysis. The preamble accurately pictures the evils to be remedied and the benefits hoped to be secured. It states that the public roads from Baltimore to the western part of the State, "by reason of the great number of wagons that use the same, are rendered almost impassable during the winter season, and the ordinary method of repairing the said roads is not only insufficient but exceedingly burdensome, and the establishment of several turnpike roads will greatly reduce the price of land carriage of produce and merchandise, and raise the value of land in said county, and considerably increase the commerce of the State". Commissioners were then appointed to "examine, survey, lay out and mark a public road from Baltimore Town toward Frederick Town in Fred- erick County, to the line of Baltimore County, sixty-six feet wide, on as straight a line from Baltimore Town to Frederick Town as the nature of the country will permit". Other boards were to "examine, survey, lay out, and mark" public roads of the same width and in the same manner from Baltimore to Reisterstown, from Reisterstown to Westminster-Town, from Reisterstown toward Hanover-Town, to the line of Baltimore county, and from Baltimore-Town toward York-Town to the line of Baltimore county. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 457 A new administrative feature appears in the "Commissioners of Re- view", to whom were to be submitted for examination, correction and ap- proval, the surveys made by the above-mentioned boards. Upon the return of the plans so certified, these boards were to construct the roads accord- ingly, which were forever afterward to be taken as "public roads and com- mon highways". The detailed directions prescribing the mode of construction which are given in the Act throw much light upon the type of road contemplated. When laid out and marked the new highways were to be cut down and well cleared, fifty-two feet wide, grubbed and stoned forty feet wide. On each side of the forty feet ditches were to be cut for drainage purposes. Causeways not less than twenty feet wide were to be raised over miry or low ground, and bridges not less than sixteen feet wide were to be built over branches or runs of water, with stone or brick arches sufficient to allow at all times the passage of water under them. The central strip of 'forty feet was to be raised in the middle not less than i8 inches higher than the sides, with a gradual fall to each side. "Where necessary from the nature of the soil" this strip was to be covered or "crowned" with small stones or coarse gravel. On its south line posts were to be set up not more than 300 yards apart, and on the north line milestones and guide posts were to be erected. The commissioners were given ample powers with respect to the assess- ment of damages and benefits, the use and condemnation of stones, timber, gravel and other material, and the like. Altering, obstructing, or otherwise interfering with the roads, posts, and milestones was' made punishable by fine and imprisonment. The commissioners were also to appoint road "sur- veyors", whose acceptance of office was made compulsory, and whose duty it should be to note and report every four months the condition of the re- spective roads. These new highways were financed by a double method. First of all, a direct tax of 3s. pd. per 100 pounds was imposed upon all property in Baltimore county. An additional charge of 2s. 6d. per 100 pounds was also laid, to begin with the year 1788. The characteristic feature of the scheme of financing lay in the provision for turnpike gates. These were to be es- tablished and the tolls fixed by the commissioners of review, subject to cer- tain regulations. Driving or riding around these gates with intent to escape the toll was made a punishable offense. Finally it was provided that the tolls should be applied to "clearing and making" the roads in the first in- stance, and should afterward belong to Baltimore county in consideration of its maintaining and repairing the roads. The Act of 1787 represents the only attempt ever made in this State to construct and operate a turnpike road by county authority, and thus marks a transition stage in the history of these improved channels of com- munication. It was amended several times during the fourteen years suc- ceeding its passage. In 180 1 additional taxes for road purposes were laid in Baltimore county, new rates of toll were established, and a loan of $160,000 was authorized. But although considerable work was actually per- formed upon these roads, only one of them was ever finished : the Reisters- town road, declared completed and ordered to be so recorded in the year 1802 (Siofissat, pp. 164-166). During the ten years immediately following the passage of the Act of 1787 there was considerable activity in Baltimore county with respect to the building and improvement of roads other than turnpikes. The gen- eral character of this activity has already been indicated. One or two specific 458 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE improvements made during this period deserve separate mention. In 179 1, upon the petition of Mr. Ellicott and others who owned mill sites upon Jones' Falls commissioners were appointed to lay out the Falls road (Act 1791, Ch. 30). The expense was imposed in the first instance upon the owners of the mills served by the new road; but when completed it was to be a public highway. The next year the legislature declared (Act 1792, Ch. 35) that the road which from "time immemorial'* had led from Balti- more to Frederick by the Red Horse Tavern and Poplar Spring should likewise be a public highway as soon as it should be improved as prescribed at the expense of the persons most benefited. The fatal weakness of the scheme of turnpike construction embodied in the Act of 1787 was its failure to provide at the outset the capital re- quired for the speedy and continuous improvement of the roadbeds. It became clear that the necessary initial outlay could not be financed merely by taxes and tolls. Subsequently, therefore, the plan was adopted of en- deavoring to enlist private capital in the work of road improvement. The result was the incorporation of numerous turnpike companies, with capital stocks divided into shares, by the sale of which the necessary funds were to be raised. The appearance of these companies marks the second stage in the history of the turnpike roads of Maryland. The reasons leading to their incorporation were thus expressed in the preamble to the Act of 1797, Ch. 70: "Whereas the great quantity oi heavy articles of the growth and produce of the county, and of foreign goods, wnich are daily transported between the City of Balti- more and the western counties of the State of Maryland and Pennsylvania, requires an amendment of the highways, which can only be effected by artificial beds of stone and pjavel, disposed in such manner as to prevent the wheels of carriages from cutting mto the soil, the expense whereof will be great, and it is reasonable that those who will enjoy the benefits of such highways should pay a compensation therefor, and there is reason to believe such highways will be undertaken by an association of citizens, if proper encouragement be given by the legislature." The first of these turnpike corporations was the "President, Directors of and Company of the Washington Turnpike Road", chartered December 31, 1796, with a capital of $160,000, to "lay out and mark a public (turn- pike) road from the City of Washington to Baltimore Town, on as straight a line as the nature of the country and the public convenience will permit" (Acts of 1796, Ch. 69). The next year a second company, with a capital of $500,000.00, was incorporated to construct a turnpike from Baltimore through Frederick to Boonesborough, with branches to Williamsport, and to Elizabethtown (Hagerstown), (Acts of 1797, Ch. 65). The same year (1797) there was also incorporated the "President, Directors and Company of the Reisterstown Turnpike Roads", to lay out roads from Reisterstown toward Hanover and from Reisterstown toward Westminister, Taneytown and Emmitsburg (Act of 1797, Ch. 70; capital, $300,000). These were to be continuations of the road authorized by the Act of 1787; and it was provided that the Westminster branch might be located on the line of the road already laid out by the justices of Frederick county. It appears, however, that these companies contributed nothing to the objects of their creation except model charters. In 1804-1805, however, several turnpike companies were incorporated which succeeded in building the projected roads. Reciting that "It is represented to this Gieneral As- sembly that by the several laws heretofore passed on this subject the de- sirable object contemplated by the Legislature has not been obtained and the public expectation almost entirely frustrated", the Act of 1804, Ch. 51, HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 459 incorporated three such companies. The first, "The President, Managers and Company of the Baltimore and Frederick Town Turnpike Road", was to build the road from Baltimore through New Market, Frederick and Middletown to Boonesborough. This road practically coincided with that provided for by the Act of 1797, Ch. 65 ; and became, as we shall see, a link in the National Pike. The second company, the "President, Managers and Company of the Baltimore and R6isterstown Turnpike Road", was to lay out a road from Baltimore to Reisterstown, and thence (i) toward Hanover, and (2) through Westminster to the Pennsylvania line, toward Petersburg, as the majority of the stockholders should agree. By a subse- quent Act an extension from Westminster through Taneytown and Em- mittsburg to the Pennsylvania line, as contemplated by the Act of 1797, Ch. 70, was authorized. The third, the Baltimore and York Town Com- pany, was to open its road from Baltimore toward York as far as the Penn- sylvania line. Later on authority was given from time to time to extend these roads to various points ; the most important of such extensions being that of the Frederick Road from Boonesborough to connect with the Na- tional Pike. These roads were to be made over and upon the beds of those laid out and confirmed by the commissioners of review under the Act of 1787. Baltimore county was to be reimbursed for the money previously spent by it in turnpike construction under the former statute, in stock of the companies equal to the value of the roads already tumpiked as ascer- tained by arbitration. Reimbursement was also to be made to Anne Arun- del and Frederick counties for moneys spent by them on road improvement. Other turnpike companies sprang rapidly into existence. In 1804 the Falls Turnpike Company was incorporated to build a turnpike from the crossroad near Richard Caton's lime kiln in Baltimore county along the line of Jones' Falls to Baltimore City. A new Washington Turnpike Com- pany was incorporated in 1812. Others were chartered to build roads from Newcastle to Frenchtown (1809 and 1813), Baltimore to Havre dc Grace (1813), Baltimore to Strasburg (1813), and Westminster to Taneytown and Emmitsburg (1813). (Sioussat, p. 169). Substantially the same type of charter was granted to each of the early turnpike companies, with but little variation from that of the Washington Turnpike Company of 1796. A brief analysis of this charter will throw much light upon the scheme under which the first turnpikes were built. The charter first directed that public subscriptions should be opened for the sum of $500,000, divided into shares, and appointed managers to receive them. As soon as a specified number of shares should be sold the subscribers were to meet and elect twelve directors, who were in turn to meet and elect a president from among the stockholders. The latter were incorporated as the Turnpike Company. The president and directors were then authorized to appoint five commissioners to lay out and mark the road. Damages and compensation for land, stone, gravel, etc., were to be assessed by agreement with the owners, if possible, by condemnation proceedings if necessary. The prescribed method of road construction was quite elaborate and scientific. In this particular the charters of 1796, 1797, and 1804-5 were practically identical. The roads were to be : "Sixty-six feet wide, twenty-one feet whereof in breadth, at least, shall be made an artificial road, which shall be bedded with wood, stone, gravel, or any other hard substance, well compacted together, a sufficient deptli to secure a solid founda- tion to the same; and the said road shall be faced with gravel, or stone pounded, or other small hard substance, so as to secure a firm, and, as near as materials will 46o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE admit, an even surface, rising towards the middle by a gradual arch; and the said road shall be made so nearly level in its progress as that it shall in no place rise or fall more than will form an angle of 4 dejgrees with an horizontal line, and shall ever thereafter maintain and keep the same in good and perfect order and repair." As different sections of the roads should be finished, toll gates might be established by the directors, and tolls not to exceed certain prescribed maximums might be exacted. A curious item was that fixing the toll for "every single horse, camel, ass or mule". These tolls might be farmed out. Driving around the gates to avoid payment of tolls was punished by fines, as had been done by the Act of 1787. The ownership of road and tolls was vested in the corporation, which was required to render yearly reports to the governor and council, showing collections, expenses, etc. After the proprietors should be reimbursed out of the profits for the amount of their subscriptions, with dividends of 15 per cent, per annum, excess profits were to be paid to the State. The road was to be kept in repair out of the 15 per cent, retained by the corporation. After forty years the State was authorized to take over the road at a valua- tion to be fixed in a prescribed way. Accounts were to be kept and pub- lished, and abstracts of the same were to be laid before the legislature every two years. If the net dividend for any year should be less than 10 per cent., the tolls could be raised to yield this amount. If any part of the road should be out of repair, the nearest justice of the peace, upon complaint duly made, was directed to summon three freeholders to meet and inquire of the fact after notice to the company. If they held the complaint to be well founded, the right to take tolls at the gates between which the bad portion of the road should lie was to be sus- pended until repairs were made. Other provisions relating to the use of the road, liability for tolls, setting up mileposts, etc., offenses with respect thereto, etc., need not be set out in detail. The charters of 1804-05 exhibited variations from the earlier type that should be noted. Thus, it was provided that toll gates might be erected only by license to be issued by the governor upon report by three disinter- ested persons appointed by him that successive sections of ten miles of road had been satisfactorily completed. Again, the annual reports were to be made to the treasurer of the Western Shore, who was constituted a "court of inspection". Abstracts of the company's accounts were to be laid before the general assembly every three years until the expiration of two years after the completion of the roads. The net profits of the stockholders were limited to 10 per cent, on their investment. Any surplus over this amount was to be devoted by the court of inspection to the purchase of stock in the respective companies. The State was given the right to purchase the road at any time upon paying the cost of construction and 10 per cent, interest on the investment. The law providing for convict labor on the roads was retained until the turnpikes should be constructed. Finally, provision was made as to the time for the commencement and completion of the roads. In other particulars the earlier form was closely followed. The Frederick road was to be started first, and the York and Reisters- town roads were not to be begun until January i, 1808. Subsequently, however, the earlier commencement of these roadways was authorized : the Reisterstown road by Act of 1805, Ch. 15, and the York road by the Act of 1807, Ch. 144. When once inaugurated the construction of all three roads was pushed steadily forward. The contract for the first twenty miles of the Frederick road was let July 4, 1805, at an average cost of $9,000 per mile (Sioussat, p. 170). Gates were up and tolls were being received by HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 461 April 24, 1807. At this time also (1807) 17 miles further had been con- tracted for at about $7,000 a mile, of which only ten miles had been com- pleted. By 1807 the capital expended on the Reisterstown road amounted to about $200,000. The cost of construction was $10,000 a mile ; ten miles had been completed, and the work was well under way. In 180S and 1809 the legislature authorized the treasurer of the Western Shore to subscribe to stock in the Frederick and the York Turnpike Companies ; and accord- ingly the State acquired stock to the amount of $10,000 in the former com- pany and $5,000 in the latter. By the year 1818 these turnpikes had been practically completed (Sioussat, p. 173). The Frederick road ran to Boones- borough, a distance of sixty miles from Baltimore. The Reisterstown road was finished to Westminster, whence it extended northerly to Chambers- burg, Pennsylvania. The capital invested in turnpike roads at that time aggregated some $2,100^000, the bulk of which was owned in Balti- more City. The National Pike. — No account of turnpike road construction in Maryland would be complete without some reference to the Cumberland road. This famous thoroughfare was the only highway of its kind ever constructed wholly by the Federal government. Such was its importance that it has been often compared with the Appian Way. "From the time it was thrown open to the public, in the year 1818, until the coming of the railroads west of the Allegheny Mountains, in 1852, the National Road was the one great highway over which passed the bulk of trade and travel, and the mails between the east and the west" (Searight, The Old Pike, p. 16). The honor of first conceiving the idea of building the Cumberland road belongs to Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Jeffer- son. It was he who caused to be written into the Act of April 30, 1802, whereby the State of Ohio was admitted into the Union, the clause direct- ing that one-twentieth of net proceeds from the sale by Congress of lands lying within that commonwealth should be "applied to laying out and mak- ing public roads leading from navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic to the Ohio, to that State and through the same, such roads to be laid out under the authority of Congress, with the consent of the several states through which the road shall pass''. By the Act of March 3, 1803, three- fifths of the fund so provided for, or 3 per cent, of the whole proceeds of sales, were to be expended upon roads within the State, and the remaining 2 per cent, to "laying out and making roads from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic to the river Ohio to said State". The first event with important consequences in the history of the Cum- berland road was the report submitted to the Senate on December 19, 1805, by a oxnmittee headed by Mr. Tracy, of Massachusetts. This report stated that a fund amounting to $12,652 from the above source was then available for the construction of a road from the Atlantic to the Ohio ; and then pro- ceeded to discuss at some length the route that such road should take. Three possible routes were considered: (i) From Richmond, Virginia, (2) by way of Pennsylvania, (3) from Maryland. As bearing upon its choice, the committee said: "The mercantile intercourse of the citizens of Ohio with those of the Atlantic States is chiefly in Philadelphia and Baltimore ; not very extensive in the towns on the Potomac, within the District of Co- lumbia, and still less with Richmond, in Virginia. At the present the greatest portion of their trade is with Philadelphia ; but it is believed their trade is rapidly increasing with Baltimore owing to the difference of dis- tance in favor of Baltimore, and to the advantage of boating down the Monongahela river, from the point where the road strikes it, about 70 miles 462 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE by water and 50 by land, above Pittsburgh". After carefully weighing the advantages of the respective routes, the committee finally decided in favor of the Maryland route. A strong factor in bringing about this determina- tion was the "energy and perseverance*' already shown by Maryland in making roads from Baltimore toward the western part of the State. It was thought that if the National Road was built westerly across the moun- tains, Maryland might safely be relied upon to build roads from Baltimore and the District of Columbia to connect with it. Accordingly, the com- mittee "thought it expedient to recommend the laying out and making a road from Cumberland, on the northerly bank of the Potomac, and within the State of Maryland, to the river Ohio, at the most convenient place be- tween a point on the easterly bank of said river opposite to Steubenville, and the mouth of Grave creek, which empties into said river Ohio a little below Wheeling, in Virginia". This suggestion was approved by Congress, and by the Act approved March 29, i&^, the president was authorized to appoint three commissioners to lay out the road over substantially the route so selected. Acting under this authority, President Jefferson chose as com- missioners Thomas Moore and Eli Williams, of Maryland, and Joseph Kerr, of Ohio. With the history of the construction of the Cumberland road, we cannot attempt to deal in this sketch. It will be sufficient for our pur- pose to state that by 18 18 it was completed as far as the Ohio. Subse- quently, between 1825 and 1840, it was extended westerly through Zanes- ville into Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Its total cost was $6,^4,9 19.33. On May 4, 1822, President Monroe vetoed as unconstitutional a bill providing for the establishment upon the Cumberland road of turnpikes, with gates and tolls, and soon afterward that portion of the road lying east of the Ohio was allowed to fall very much out of repair. To remedy this condition it was proposed to turn the road over to the States through which it passed, in order that they might in the exercise of their unquestioned sovereignties, establish the necessary toll gates and keep it in repair. Ohio and Virginia accepted this proposition in 1831. During the same year and the next year Pennsylvania and Maryland signified their willingness to take over their respective sections as soon as Congress should have put them in good repair and appropriated money for the erection of the neces- sary toll gates and toll houses, to be expended under the direction of State commissioners. Congress assented to these conditions by Act of July 3, 1832, and proceeded to make the stipulated repairs. Finally, in 1835, after some discussion and wrangling, the road was accepted by the States con- cerned. State officials were appointed to erect toll gates and keep the road in repair, and from that time it remained under State control. Baltimore was not slow to perceive the commercial advantages to be derived from a turnpike connection with the Cumberland road, thus afford- ' ing one continuous avenue of traffic with the western country. It was also recognized that such connection could be most readily secured by simply extending the Frederick turnpike from Boonesborough to Cumberland. This plan was suggested by Jonathan Ellicott, of the Baltimore and Frederick- town Turnpike Road, in a report made by him to Gallatin in the year 1807. "It may be observed," he wrote, "that from Boonesborough to Cumberland, a distance of y^yi miles, as the road now runs, is as yet without any pro- vision by law for its improvement, further than as common county roads in other parts of the State. ... To bring into full operation the bene- fits contemplated by the general government by the road leading from Fort Cumberland to the Ohio, it becomes necessary that the State of Maryland should either take this matter upon her own account or put it in the power HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 463 of Congress to promote a design which it is to the interest of the Union to carry into effect" (Sioussat, pp. 170-171). The account of the mode in which this suggestion was carried out constitutes a novel and interesting chapter in the history of State banks and public education, as well as turn- pike roads. Upon the expiration of the charter of the Bank of the United States, several private banks were chartered and organized in Baltimore and else- where— among them the Commercial and Farmers', the Farmers' and Mer- chants', the Franklin, and the Marine banks. Others, such as the City Bank of Baltimore, were organized without the sanction of the State (Scharf, Chron, Bait., p. 304). It was the misfortune of these institutions to have excited the distrust and alarm of the legislature. This feeling, however, did not blind that body to the fact that the banks had funds for investment, and that money was needed for the construction of the pro- posed turnpike connection with Cumberland, and for the establishment of a State public school system. Accordingly drastic measures were taken to force the banks to finance both of these enterprises. The Act of 18 12, Ch. 79, supplemented by the Act of 18 13, Ch. 122, was passed, incorporating the president and directors of the several incorporated banks in Baltimore and Hagerstown, the Conococheague Bank and the Cumberland Bank into the "President, Managers and Company of the Cumberland Turnpike Road". This corporation was invested generally with all "rights, privileges, im- munities and advantages held, used or possessed" by the several companies incorporated by the Act of 1804, Ch. 51, and directed to construct a turn- pike road from the west bank of the Big Conococheague through Hancock to Cumberland by the nearest practicable route. The necessary capital was to be supplied by the several incorporated banks in Baltimore City, Allegheny county and Washington county, which were required to subscribe in proportion to the capital "actually employed, subscribed up or in operation by them" for as much stock in the new com- pany "as will raise a fund necessary and sufficient to finish and complete the said road ... to be laid or advanced in due proportion to the amount of each bank subscribed, in such periods and at such times as the same may be wanted". Failure to accept the terms of the Acts on or before the following May ist caused the charters of the non-complying banks to terminate ; the others were to have their charters extended until November I, 1835. As soon as sufficient money "to commence with" should be in hand, the president and directors of each subscribing bank were to choose one "manager" for every $25,000 of stock held by it, and the managers were to elect from among their number the president, treasurer and other officers of the Turnpike Company. The proposed road was to be built in the same manner as the Balti- more and Fredericktown Turnpike. It was not to rise or fall "more than will form an angle of five degrees with the horizontal" and did not have to be stoned in places where such treatment was unnecessary. It was re- quired to be begun within two years and finished within eight years after the passage of the Act, else the company's rights therein were to revert to the State, and the banks' charters were to expire. Each bank was further required to pay to the treasurer of the Western Shore a specified annual tax in proportion to its capital stock to be invested in the stock of the Commercial and Farmers' Bank and the Mechanics' Bank of Baltimore as a fund for the establishment of free schools. Finally, upon their acceptance of the terms of the Act, the faith of the State was pledged to the banks that no further tax should be laid .upon them, and 464 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE that no other bank should be chartered in Baltimore City before January i, 1835. The banks complained bitterly at being compelled to assume a burden so inconsistent with the functions of financial institutions as the obligation to build a turnpike road. "It is," they protested, "a severe and oppressive tax upon the banks, and one which, under present circumstances, their business does not enable them to meet without great embarrassment" {Sioussat, p. 17s). In 1817 Governor Goldsborough recommended to the legislature that the State purchase the road. But in spite of their dissatis- faction, the banks could not afford to abandon the enterprise; so the work was pushed steadily forward to its completion. A new road from Boonesborough to the Conococheague remained still to be built before the connection between Baltimore and the Cumberland road would be complete. In 1815 the Frederick Turnpike Company was empowered to take subscriptions for $160,000 of stock to raise the money for this purpose. This plan not proving successful, the legislature again pressed the banks into service. By the Act of 1821, Ch. 131, it incor- porated the president and directors for the time being of the banks of Bal- timore (except the City Bank) and of the Hagerstown Bank into "The President, Managers and Company of the Boonesborough Turnpike Road", with powers similar to those conferred upon the former company. The new corporation was directed to construct a turnpike from Boonesborough to Hagerstown within four years, and the banks were required to subscribe to its stock and to pay assessments into the school fund. In return they were to have their charters extended until 1845. The completion of the National Road has been justly regarded as one of the most important events in the history of Baltimore. The city was advantageously situated to enjoy the trade of the regions newly tapped by the new highway. ''Its central position, its accessibility as an inland sea- port, and the direction of the water courses made Baltimore the first, as it still is the natural market for the West" (Shepherd, in History of Balti- more). The National Road made it possible for the city to reap in full measure the benefit of these advantages ; and until the coming of the rail- roads she enjoyed what amounted almost to a monopoly of the great western traffic. "Large droves of live stock", writes Jared Sparks, in 1825, "espe- cially hogs, are now driven every year from the banks of the Ohio, in Kentucky, to Baltimore, in preference to being packed on the spot and sent down the river by a more speedy conveyance to the New Orleans market" ("Baltimore", in North American Review, vol. 20, p. 133). The result of this and other factors was to render Baltimore very prosperous during this period. "Within the last thirty years", adds Sparks in the article above alluded to, "the population of Philadelphia has increased to a number three times as great as it was at the beginning of that period; New York to a number four times as great, and Baltimore to a ntmiber five times as great. Among all the cities of America, or of the Old World, there is no record of any one which has sprung up so quickly or to so high a degree of importance as Baltimore. At the commencement of the Revo- lution it was a village of five thousand inhabitants, and at the close of the war it had increased to more than eight thousand. In magnitude it is now the third city in the Union, and has held that rank for nearly twenty years". Scenes and Incidents After the Turnpikes, — A great deal might be written about life and happenings upon the National Pike. One feature was the establishment of the fast western stage lines. In 18 19 there was a stage route "over one of the best roads in the world" from Baltimore to HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 465 Pittsburgh and Wheeling via Fredericktown, Hagerstown, Cumberland, and Brownsville, which started three times a week and ran through in four days. In 1838 the "Good Intent" and "Pilot" stages to Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Cincinnati ran daily, and carried United States mails. An especially interesting feature of the wagon roads of Maryland and the National Road were the famous "Conestoga" wagons. These large vehicles were first seen on the roads leading from western Maryland and southern Pennsylvania, whence they brought farm produce and other freight to and from Baltimore and other points on the seaboard. They also ran in great numbers upon the Maryland turnpikes and the National Road. As used on the latter these wagons have been accurately described by Sea- right in The Old Pike: "The bed of the regular road wagon was long and deep, bending upward at the bottom in front and rear. The lower broad side was painted blue, with a movable board inserted above, painted red. The covering was of white canvas stretched over broad wooden bows, so that the old road wagon, probably more as a matter of taste than design, disclosed the tri-colors of the American escutcheon, red, white and blue". It was drawn by a team of four, six, or eight horses, usually splendid speci- mens of horseflesh — as indeed they had to be in order to move the enor- mous loads which these vehicles often carried. A picturesque feature of the Conestoga wagon were the bells which surmounted the housings of the horses' collars, and were, as described by persons who have heard them, ''carefully attuned and graduated in size, the larger bells being upon the housings of the wheel horses, and the smallest, of higher pitch, upon those of the leaders, and were as musical as the bells now to be heard at evening as the cattle return from pasture at Chamounix and Oberammergau". These bells served also the utilitarian purpose of giving notice of the approach of the wagon through the narrow defiles of the mountains, as did also the cracking of the huge whips carried by the drivers. An average load for one of these wagons was 6,000 pounds, "but loads weighing 10,000 pounds, 'a hundred hundred', as all old wagoners boast- fully put it, were frequently hauled over the roads". The following in- stance will indicate what sort of performances these conveyances were capable of : In 1838 Johns Hopkins engaged Daniel Barcus to haul a load of merchandise weighing 8,300 pounds from Light and Pratt streets, Bal- timore, to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, a distance of 397 miles. Mr. Barcus arrived at his destination in thirty days, and received $4.25 per hundred by way of freight He then loaded 7,200 pounds of Ohio tobacco in hogsheads for the return trip at $2.75 per hundred, and journeyed back without a mishap more serious than the breakage of a "bow" upon his wagon (Sea- right). The increase in traveling consequent upon the building of the turnpikes and the National Road caused the establishment of numerous inns or tav- erns in Baltimore, and along the principal thoroughfares in every direction. These hostelries with their conspicuous signs "were frequent reminders to Englishmen of the country inns found in every British town and hamlet". They were said to have supplied excellent accommodations for both man and beast. They were distinguished by their large stables and wide court- yards, which in the period of the turnpikes were nightly crowded with car- riages, live stock, and Conestoga wagons — these with their fine teams feed- ing from troughs fastened to die wagon poles. The decline of this traffic, however, gradually carried with it the old inns ; and now they have all but disappeared in the face of newer transportation methods. The few that still survive are for the most part abandoned ; but their spacious inn yards \ 466 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE are still eloquent even in their deserted state of the bustling activity which was once theirs, and of a social order which is gone forever. The Pony Express, — In turnpike days the mails were carried for the most part by stage coaches and post-chaises. These conveyances, however, did not always make the desired speed. Accordingly, about 1835, Post- master-General Amos Kendall established the "Pony Express" for the more rapid transmission of light mails. "The Pony Express", says the historian of the National Pike, "was a single horse and a boy rider, with a leather mail pouch thrown on the horse's back, something after the style of the old-fashioned saddle bags. The route for each horse covered a dis- tance of about six miles on the average. The horse was put to his utmost speed, and the rider carried a tin horn which was vigorously blown when approaching a station. . . . The Pony Express' did not remain long on the road, but when it was on old pike boys say 'it kicked up the dust' " (Searight, The Old Pike, p. 18). The Clipper Ships, — We have already noted the stimulating effect of the Revolutionary War upon the shipping industry of Baltimore, and the corresponding growth of her maritime commerce during the closing years of the i8th century. A goodly portion of this new commerce was with the West Indies — a traffic which had become extensive at least as early as 1780. The West India trade grew to large proportions between 1792 and 1815. The almost continuous wars in which were involved most of the countries of the Old World and the presence upon the high seas of numer- ous ships of war and privateers during this period rendered extremely haz- ardous direct trading between Great Britain and her colonies. Accord- ingly, the English merchants adopted the practice of dispatching their goods to the neutral ports of the United States for reshipment under the American flag to the West Indies and nearby places. As a consequence, the ships of this country were in great demand as carriers. Several causes concurred to give to Baltimore a certain pre-eminence in both the export and carrying trade with these islands. Besides being advantageously situated with reference to the wheat regions of Western Virginia and the west generally, she was 48 hours nearer the West Indies than New York — an important advantage in the days of the small coasting vessel. Again, she was the center of a large milling industry. Her people, also, were of the energetic and adventurous spirit characteristic of young and vigorous communities, and possessed a wide knowledge of trade con- ditions (Rutter, South American Trade of Baltimore, pp. 10-13). But the most distinctive advantage possessed by this city lay in her fleet of vessels of the type which became famous as the "Baltimore Qipper", and repre- sented the triumph of Baltimore shipbuilding (Qarke, The Clipper Ship Era, pp. 6, 57). The name "Qipper" is said to have been first applied to the fast priva- teers which sailed from Baltimore during the War of 1812. The type of vessel indicated by it was rather a peculiar one. The "Qipper" was broader and higher in the bows than in the stern, and was characterized by a "great dead-rise at her midship section, long, easy convex water lines, low free- board and raking stern, stern-post and masts" (Qarke, p. 60). This style of hull and the large spread of canvas she carried gave the vessel remarkable stability and speed, and an especial capacity for sailing close to the wind. There is some dispute as to the origin of the "Clipper" model. Tradition attributes it to Talbot county, where shipbuilding secrets were handed down from father to son; and the "Qipper" model was said to have grown out of that of Capt. John Smith's pinnace (Scharf, History HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 467 of Baltimore, p. 294). The later and more probable theory, however, is that the model was supplied by the French luggers which, as has been stated, visited this country during the Revolution, and these, in their turn, exhibit a strong family resemblance to the galley of Venice and Genoa (Clarke, pp. 6-9). But however it originated, the clipper ship was peculiar to the Chesapeake Bay for many years, so that the name of this city is forever associated with the world-wide reputation which it won. The "Baltimore Qippers" of the first third of the 19th century were of brig, brigantine and especially schooner rigs, and were comparatively small, rarely exceeding 200 tons register (Clarke, p. 60). This was the type most frequently engaged in the West India trade, to which it was well adapted. During the 40's, however, the demand for fast vessels of larger size led to the construction of full-rigged "ships" which embodied the lines and peculiarities of the smaller clipper model of early times. This was the be- ginning of the "Clipper Ship Era" properly so called. The pioneer vessel of this type was the Anne McKim, built in Balti- more in the year 1832 for Isaac McKim, of this city. She was of 493 tons register — 3, large vessel for those days — ^and "was really an enlarged clip- per schooner rigged as a ship" (Qarke, p. 60). But although handsome and speedy, she had comparatively small carrying capacity in proportion to her size; and while she attracted much attention, comment upon her was mostly unfavorable. In a letter dated January 17, 1839, from Balti- more to the New York Herald, James Gordon Bennett thus contrasts the McKim with the newly lauched Scotia: "The character of Baltimore for building 'clippers' has been celebrated in former days. Such vessels sac- rifice burden to speed. The Scotia is the first vessel constructed on a new model combining the Baltimore and Boston systems, so as to unite burden with speed. It is calculated that the commercial interest of Baltimore has lost five millions of dollars during the last ten years, arising from the pe- culiar construction of their vessels. A complete revolution is beg^n. The Scotia is the first ship on the new plan. I saw at the wharf the Anne McKim, a beautiful ship built on the old plan for speed at the sacrifice of burden. It was amusing to contrast the great difference between these ships. Shipbuilding", he adds, "is carried on to a considerable extent here, and many merchants of the North have their vessels built here, principally from the superior cheapness of labor as compared with New Yoric" (Scharf, History of Baltimore, p. 293). The experiment represented in the Anne McKim, however, ultimately produced important consequences. The attribute of speed, which she un- deniably possessed to a high degree, was urgently demanded by the neces- sities of the tea and opium trade with China between 1840 and 1850. This demand was finally met by the construction of extreme "clipper" ships after the style of tfie Anne McKim, The first of these new clippers was the Rainbow, launched in 1845 ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ Messrs. Howland & Aspin- wall, of New York, to whom the Anne McKim had been sold upon the death of her first owner. It thus seems clear that this vessel was directly inspired by her earlier Baltimore built proto-t3rpe. The Rainbow was a great success and was immediately followed by many others of similar model. The "Qipper Ship Era" so beg^n was heightened by the stimulating influence of the discovery of gold in California and Australia in 1849 and 185 1. In the latter year there were in commission some thirty-one "Cali- fornia Dippers", many of which were of 1,500 and 2,000 tons register. Beginning about the year 1855, however, the demand for speed at the ex- 468 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE pense of carrying capacity gradually lessened; and as a consequence the popularity of these vessels declined (Qarke, p. 62). The "Qippcr Ship Era" was finally brought to an end by the opening of the Suez canal in 1869. Many of the performances of the clipper ships were fairly astonishing. In 185 1 the Flying Cloud made two trips between Baltimore and San Fran- cisco by way of Cape Horn in ninety days and eighty-nine days, respec- tively. The Sovereign of the Seas went from New York to Liverpool in less than fourteen days, and proceeded thence to Melbourne in eighty days. The Comet, Architect, and Panama also made record trips. The Grey Eagle covered the distance from Rio to Philadelphia in twenty-three and a half days. One of the celebrated incidents of the period was the race between the Banshee and the Greyhound from Baltimore to Rio, the former winning by a margin of twenty-eight hours in a thirty day contest. Many of these vessels were Baltimore built. But the most remarkable sailing ever recorded was done by the John Gilpin, of Baltimore. Her famous voyage was from Baltimore to Batavia (eighty-two days), thence to Gtnton (eleven days) and Manila (five days) ; thence through the straits of Sunda to Val- paraiso (eighty-five days) and Lima (six days seventeen hours). She thus covered an aggr^^ate distance of 34,920 miles in one hundred and eighty- nine days seventeen hours, an average speed of a little more than (Hie hun- dred and eighty-three miles a day (Scharf, History of Baltimore, pp. 293- 294). Canal Schemes. — ^The State of Maryland was well abreast of her sister States to the north and south in her zeal for internal improvement at the close of the Revolution. This enthusiasm generated a multitude of proj- ects for the construction of various canals, several of which deeply con- cerned Baltimore, and aroused a corresponding interest upon the part of her citizens. The canal schemes were so fruitful in ideas and ultimate consequences, and are so instructive as to contemporary trade conditions and movements that their history deserves careful attention, in spite of the fact that they practically all failed. The earliest of the canal companies was the ''Proprietors of the Sus- quehanna Canal", incorporated in 1783 to improve the navigation of the Susquehanna river. It was followed in 1784 by the Potomac Company, chartered jointly by Maryland and Virginia to perform a similar service for the Potomac river, and especially for the North Branch. This purpose was to be accomplished principally by building two small canals around the Great and Little Falls of the Potomac, and removing obstructions from the bed of the river and its principal branches. From the highest navi- gable point on the North Branch a canal was to be opened to Cumberland. Baltimore was only indirectly concerned in these two enterprises. The "Potomac Interest" was to center in Georgetown, which hoped thereby to rival Baltimore as a market. The Susquehanna scheme, on the other hand, promised benefits to this city of great importance. As a consequence, in the bitter contests between these rival interests, Baltimore naturally sided with the Susquehanna Company. The other, however, by reason of the larger number of counties (7 out of 19) affected by it, and the resultant strength of its following in the Legislature, commanded the larger share of the public interest. Gradually, however, these dissensions died away, as it was found that neither project was especially useful, and that Balti- more, notwithstanding either, continued to thrive and rapidly to outstrip Georgetown and Alexandria. In 1799 the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Company was incorporated to build a canal at the Elk river between the bays whose names the com- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 469 pany bore, and in 1817 the Washington & Baltimore Canal Company was chartered for the purpose of constructing a canal from the Severn to the East Branch of the Potomac. Neither plan succeeded. The Chesapeake & Delaware canal was not built until many years later^ and the other was not even attempted, although the general idea embodied in it seems to have lingered for some time. The Western Trade, the Susquehanna Project and the C. & O. Canal. — These earlier schemes were limited in scope, and were concerned pri- marily with the improvement of local trade conditions. About 1820, how- ever, Baltimore began to see her commercial importance seriously threatened by the improved facilities of transportation being planned or constructed in the interests of her rivals. The great Erie canal extending from Albany to Buffalo, completed in 1823, was opening to New York an easy avenue to the regions upon the shores of the Great Lakes and the rivers emptying into them. The State of Pennsylvania was also busy planning canals. The city of Philadelphia confidently expected that the Pennsylvania Union Canal, already b^^n, and intended to connect the Delaware at Philadelphia with the Susquehanna near Middletown, a little above the Conewago Falls, by means of the Schuylkill and the Swatara rivers, would secure to her merchants the trade of the country watered by the Susquehanna and its branches, which had heretofore gone almost exclusively to Baltimore. The states of Virginia and Ohio were likewise meditating and actually executing plans for the extensk)n of their trade and the securing of foreign markets for their produce. Stirred to action by these considerations, the State of Maryland in 182 1 joined with Virginia in appointing a commission to investigate the affairs of the Potomac Company. The commission reported that &e com- pany was hopelessly insolvent and unable to carry out the purposes of its incorporation. It also stated that the general object of improving the navi- gation of the Potomac could best be realized by means of a canal following the course of the river to Cumberland, to which Baltimore should be con- nected by a lateral branch. The discussion occasioned by this report gave birth to the Chesapeake & Ohio canal, which was to extend from Baltimore to Georgetown and along the Potomac Valley to Cumberland, thence across the Allegheny mountains to the Ohio river^ and ultimately to the shores of Lake Erie. The general idea underlying this plan was not entirely new. Such a con- nection between the eastern and western waters had been publicly advo- cated by Washington as early as 1784 ; and he had then regarded the Poto- mac route as being the most practicable of the several suggested. The re- port of the joint ccmimission, however, caused the idea to take definite shape for the first time. The project was formally launched at a conven- tion held in Washington in 1823 and attended by delegates and others from the various States interested, at which the feasibility and advantages of the plan were pointed out, and the State and Federal governments urged to co-operate in its execution. The investigation of the Potomac Company was immediately followed by a revival of interest in the earlier Susquehanna project. The year fol- lowing the appointment of the Potomac commission the Maryland legisla- ture authorized the appointment of a second ccmimission to investigate the practicability, expediency and probable expense of building a canal from the Conewago Falls, on the Susquehanna, to Baltimore. Inis commission in 1823 filed its report, in which it recommended that the plan be carried out, and estimated the expense at the sum of $2,000,000. It further re- 470 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ported that the proposed canal was quite capable of serving as a connecting link between the eastern and the western waters through an extension west- ward along and by way of the Juniata and Allegheny rivers to the Ohio; and that it might be extended north to the St. Lawrence river and the Great Lakes. There were thus laid before the citizens of Baltimore two proposed routes for the desired connection with the Ohio river. A great deal of interest was aroused, but opinion was seriously divided as to which im- provement was the more advantageous to the city. At last, early in De- cember, 1823, the mayor of Baltimore, at the request of parties interested in the two enterprises, called a meeting of citizens for the 20th of the month at the Exchange. At this meeting, which was largely attended, the merits of the respective plans were debated by General Robert Goodloe Harper for the Qiesapeake and Ohio, and Mr. George Winchester for the Susquehanna route. The meeting decided by a large majority in favcM* of the Susquehanna plan. Accordingly, the legislature in 1823 passed an act authorizing the City of Baltimore to build the ''Baltimore canal" to the Susquehanna. But the favorable opinion which had led to the endorse- ment of the plan did not suffice to bring about its execution. Accordingly, in 1825, the "Susquehanna & Potomac Canal Company" was chartered, with a capital of $2,500,000, for the purpose. The "Proprietors of the Sus- quehanna Canal Company" were authorized to subscribe to the stock of the new company, and the old company was extinguished. The new corpora- tion was no more successful than its predecessor had been, and the project was never carried into execution. Meanwhile, the advocates of the Chesapeake & Ohio plan had not been discouraged by the action taken at the meeting of December 20th, 1823. They were fully prepared to go ahead without the co-operation of Baltimore. Accordingly, the legislature, on February 9th, 1824, passed an act incorporating the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Company (Acts of 1823, Ch. i^). The charter of this company was modeled closely upon those of the earlier turnpike companies. It provided that as soon as the Potomac Com- pany, the legislatures of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the Cong^ress of the United States should assent to the provisions of the Act, three C(xn- missioners should be appointed by the executive of each of the several States concerned and by the President of the United States, who were to open subscriptions to the capital stock of the company, not to exceed $6^000,000. Pa3rments of subscriptions could be made in cash, in certifi- cates of stock in the Potomac Company at par, or in claims against the Potomac Company; and the latter was to convey all its property to the new corporation and surrender its charter. As soon as one-fourth or more stock in the new company should be subscribed, it was to organize, build and operate its canal in accordance with elaborate directions. The canal was to be in two sections. The first or eastern section was to "begin in the District of Columbia on tidewater, and terminate at or near the bank of Savage run or creek, which empties into the North Branch of the Potomac at the base of the Allegany mountain ;" the second or western section was to begin at the termination of the eastern section "and extend along the valley of Savage river or creek so far up the same or any branch thereof as may reach some convenient point thereon for connecting the eastern and western waters, by a tunnel through, or an open cut across the dividing ridge between the same, and thence after crossing the said dividing ridge shall proceed to the highest steamboat navigation of the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 47^ Ohio river, or of some one tributary stream thereof in such direction as in the opinion of the said president and directors shall be best calculated for the attainment of the end set forth in the preamble of this Act." An important provision was that declaring the company's property perpetually exempt from "the payment of any tax, imposition or assessment what- ever." Finally, the company was to forfeit its charter unless the canal should be begun and finished within certain specified times. G>ngress was fully alive to the importance of the proposed canal, and appropriated on April 24, 1824, the sum of $30,000 for making a survey of its route and an estimate of its probable cost. This work was done under the direction of General Bernard, and when completed was made the subject of a report which very nearly ended the project then and there. The expense was estimated at no less than $22,375^427.69. This enormous sum staggered the friends of the enterprise, and greatly discouraged Bal- timore in its hope of securing the desired avenue for the western trade. In spite of the dispiriting outlocdc, however, the performance of the work was soon begun. In 1825 the legislature authorized a subscription by the State to $500,000 of the stock of the company. By 1834 the canal had been built as far as Harper's Ferry Falls, and one-half of the eastern section — 100 miles from Georgetown — was expected soon to be completed. Shortly afterward the State again lent its financial assistance to this and other schemes of internal improvement by the passage of the "Eight Million Loan Bill," in which no less than $3,000,000 were appropriated for the canal. The eastern section was finally extended as far as Cumberland. However little confidence Baltimore possessed in the ultimate comple- tion of the C. & O. canal, she was far from disposed to slight whatever opportunity for profit the scheme offered. Accordingly, almost as soon as the construction of the canal had been begun, ^measures were taken to connect its eastern end with Baltimore. In 1825 the "Maryland canal" was incorporated for this purpose, public meetings were held in its behalf, and surveys and estimates of cost were made by Isaac Trimble. The idea lingered as long as there was any probability of finishing the C. & O. canal. In the "Eight Million Dollar Loan Bill," an appropriation for the benefit of the "Maryland canal" was made, dependent upon a certain amount being also subscribed by individuals. The plan was never carried out, however, owing to the construction of the B. & O. R. R. and the consequent decline in the importance of the C. & O. canal as a means of preserving the city's commercial importance. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. — Although inspired by the same impulse which had given birth to the C. & O. canal scheme, and projected as a purely local enterprise, the B. & O. R. R., the first railroad for gen- eral purposes constructed in the United States, possesses an interest not only national but world-wide in its extent. It ushers in the era of the mighty forces that were to revolutionize land transportation, alter the course of trade, make and unmake great cities, and transform the face of the country. Its early history is the history of railroading itself. It was during the period of despondency and discouragement brought on by the Bernard Report upon the Chesapeake and Ohio canal that the scheme of building a railroad from Baltimore to the Western waters was broached; and the feeling akin to desperation which then prevailed may account in some degree for the enthusiasm which the new and strange project aroused. It is probable that the first public suggestion of such "Rail Road" was made by Mr. Evan Thomas. While in England, he had been convinced 472 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE by his observation of the short railroads there used for the transportation of coal, that the principle involved was capable of much wider applica- tion. His enthusiasm communicated itself to his brother, Mr. Philip E. Thomas, president of the Mechanics Bank, and led him to enter upon a dili- gent study of the whole subject. He was assisted by Mr. George Brown, who had also been informed about the English railroads by his brother, Mr. William Brown, a member of Parliament. A careful investigation convinced both of these gentlemen that a road of this character was the very thing needed to save to Baltimore her western trade. Having arrived at this conclusicHi^ these gentlemen, with characteristic energy, lost little time in starting out to give it practical effect. They invited some twenty-five of the leading merchants of Baltimore and a few other persons to meet at Mr. Brown's house on February 12, 1827, ''to take into consideration the best means of restoring to the City of Baltimore that portion of the western trade which has lately been diverted fixHn it by the introduction of steam navigation, and by other causes." At this meeting, which was largely attended, a resolution was adopted, after some general discussion of certain preliminary statements, referring the whole matter to a committee consisting of Messrs. Philip E. Thomas, Benjamin C. Howard, George Brown, Talbot Jones, Joseph W. Patterson, Evan Thomas, and John V. L. McMahon, who were directed to exajnine the same in detail and report at a second meeting to be held Monday, February 19, 1827. The report of this committee is historic. It constitutes probably the best single portrayal extant of contemporary trade additions and ideas. Only a brief indication of its contents, however, can be given here. It recognized the importance of the western trade to Baltimore, and empha- sized the advantages of location possessed by this city as compared with New York and Philadelphia. It pointed out the superiority as instrumen- talities of transportation which the English railroads, and the short three- mile road from the quarries at Quincy, Massachusetts, to Nepcmset, had exhibited over turnpike roads and canals. Finally, it recommended that measures be taken to construct "a double rail road" from Baltimore to a suitable point on the Ohio river by the most direct route. The report was unanimously adopted. The meeting resolved "that immediate application be made to the legislature of Maryland for an act incorporating a }<mt stock company, to be styled 'the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company,' and clothing such company with all the powers necessary to the construc- tion of a rail road, with one or two sets of rails, from Baltimore to the Ohio river;" and appointed a conmiittee of twenty-five persons to make such application. A charter, drawn by Mr. MacMahon, and closely follow- ing the turnpike and canal charters, the only precedents then available, was readily granted by the legislature in substantially the form submitted. The Act of Incorporation, approved Feb. 28, 1827, constitutes Chapter 123 of the Acts of the Legislative Session of 1826. On March 20, 18^7, — a little over a year after the first meeting at Mr. Brown's house — books were opened in Baltimore, Frederick and Hagerstown, for subscriptions to the capital stock of the new corporation. The scene which followed, as we are told by an eye-witness, "almost beggars description". (Latrobe, Personal Recollections of the B. & O. R. R,, p. 6.) "By this time public excitement had gone far beyond fever heat and reached the boiling point. Everybody wanted stock. The number of shares subscribed were to be apportioned if the limit of the capital should be exceeded ; and everyone set about obtaining proxies. Parents subscribed in the names of their children, and paid the dollar on each share that HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 473 the rules prescribed. Before a survey had been made — before annnion sense had been consulted, even, the possession of stock in any quantity was regarded as a provision for old age — and great was the scramble to obtain it. The excitement in Baltimore roused public attention elsewhere, and a railroad mania began to pervade the land. But Baltimore led all the rest — there can be no doubt of that." In twelve days the 15,000 shares offered for private purchase were several times over-subscribed. The City of Baltimore, by resolution approved March 20, 1827, determined to sub- scribe to the five thousand shares reserved for it by the Act of Incorpora- tion, and two special directors to look after its interests were provided for. On March 8, 1827, the State of Virginia confirmed the charter; and sub- sequently, on February 22, 1828, the State of Pennsylvania did the same. On April 24, 1827, the company was formally organized. The twelve di- rectors chosen by the stockholders were Charles Carroll of CarroUton, Wil- liam Patterson, Robert Oliver, Alexander Brown, Isaac McKim, William Lorman, George Hoffman, P. E. Thomas, Thomas EUicott, John B. Mor- ris, Talbot Jones, and William Stewart. These gentlemen elected Philip E. Thomas president^ and George Brown, treasurer, thus giving fitting recognition to the parts they had borne in launching this important enterprise. The next year, Mr. MacMahon, then chairman of the committee on internal improvements in the House of Delegates, succeeded in inducing the State to subscribe to five thousand of the ten thousand shares reserved for it. During the same year — 1828 — ^the capital stock was increased by $1,500,000, which was soon subscribed by individuals, so that the company had a total of $4,000,000 of capital stock issued and subscribed for. In the years 1828 and 1829 financial assistance was requested of the federal gov- ernment ; but this move was finally .defeated and principally, it was charged, by reason of the opposition of the president of the C. & O. canal, who was then chairman of the committee on roads and canals in the House of Representatives. Immediately after the organization of the company, the work of mak- ing preliminary surveys was begun. It was entrusted to Col. Stephen H. Long and Mr. Jonathan Knight, who had been the chief engineer of the National Pike. Several members of the United States Topographical Sur- vey were also detailed to assist in the work. After extended preliminary reconnoissances, the engineers recommended that the road be carried along the Valley of the Patapsco, and thence in the direction of "Bennett Bush," or Linganoir creek, to Point of Rocks, where the Potomac passes Catoctin mountain, — ^a choice of route which was subsequently confirmed by the committee of engineers, sent in the autumn of 1828 to examine the English railroads. The first report of the engineers, submitted April 5, 1828, was duly adopted, and the immediate commencement of the work of con- struction was determined upon. The "first stone" was accordingly laid on July 4, 1828, by Charles Carroll of CarroUton. The occasion was celebrated by "one of the most magnificent processions of military and civic associations, trades and pro- fessions, ever witnessed in the United States." Three days later the defini- tive location of the road was commenced. On July 14, bids were requested upon the grading and masonry over a distance not exceeding 12 miles. Shortly after they were received, contracts were let covering this work upon the 26 sections into which the distance of ii>^ miles to EUicott's Mills had been divided ; the average cost being about $17,000 per mile. By October i, 1828, three of these sections, a distance oi lyi miles, were fin- 474 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ished and ready for the reception of rails. Proposals were also being re- ceived for grading and masonry frcmi Ellicott's Mills westward to the Forks of the Patapsco (12 miles) ; and preparations were being made to place under contract the section from the Forks of the Patapsco to the Potomac river. Interesting as such a recital would be^ we cannot here detail the numer- ous difficulties encountered in the prosecution of this work, or the methods by which they were overcome. Railroad building was a new science, which had to be learned largely through experience. Thus, the city council at the very outset had required the road to be located at an elvation of 66 feet above sea level, thereby making necessary the construction of several costly embankments. A great cut 78 feet deep and 1,300 yards long about 2 miles outside the city threatened to suspend the work altogether; and made necessary an advance of $200,000 by the president and several direc- tors personally. On the other hand, many land-owners ceded land for the right of way and allowed stone to be cut from their quarries, all with- ^ out charge. The work went steadily forward, notwithstanding all difficulties. By the fall of 1829, the grading and masonry upon the first 25 miles had been completed. Early in that year, the first mile and a half of rails had been laid, extending from a depot established at the end of Pratt street, near Poppleton street, upon ground now enclosed in the Mount Qare Yards, to the Carrollton Viaduct. Upon this small section the first trip was made by Charles Carroll of Carrollton and others of the directors, in a small car drawn by a single horse. Afterwards, beginning January 7, 1830, the public was permitted to ride at 12^/^ cents a rounct trip. Thus was earned the first money on a "railroad constructed for general purposes in America." (Latrobe, p. 12.) Finally, on May 22, 1830, the first division of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, extending from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills, a distance of 13^4 miles, was opened for the transportation of passengers. Sufficient cars for general traffic, however, were not obtained until early in the follow- ing June, from which time travel on the road was constant — largely on account of the novelty of the thing. By October ist, the receipts from this section amounted to no less than $20,012.36; and the merchandise and produce offered were ten times as much as the facilities of the company enabled it to convey. From Ellicott City, the road made steady progress westward. On December i, 183 1, it was formally opened to Frederick, which was con- nected with the main stem by a branch road 3yi miles long. The total mileage, including the branch, was now 61 miles. On April i, 1832, the construction of the road to the Point of Rocks was finished, thus bringing into active operation 72}/^ miles of railroad. Here further progress was arrested until the settlement of the controversy with the Chesapeake & Ohio canal. This famous dispute, which did so much to delay the final completion of the B. & O. railroad, arose out of the canal company's claim of the right to a first choice of routes along the north bank of the Potomac river from the Point of Rocks to Harper's Ferry. To protect this alleged right, the canal company secured injunctions forbidding the extension of the railroad west of the Point of Rocks until the canal should have been located between these points. In January, 1832, the Court of Appeals, by a divided court, decided in favor of the canal company's "prior and l>aramount" right of way ; and it was not until the spring of 1833 that th^ construction of the railroad west of the Point of Rocks was begun, under HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 475 an amicable settlement arranged with great difficulty and by the assist- ance of the State legislature. These years between 1829 and 1833 were actively employed and fruit- ful in results. Many things were learned about railroad construction and operation. The proper materials for ties and rails and the method of pre- paring the road bed were being arrived at through costly experiments with granite and wood ties, longitudinal rails, and the like. Devices of funda- mental importance, such as the Winans friction wheel, outside bearings, conical wheel-rims, and others were being perfected by Messrs. Winans, Knight, and their colleagues. But important as all these matters are, the chief interest of the period centers about the experiments being made with motive power, whereby the foundation for the present efficient methods of railroad operation was laid. At the time of the incorporation of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, steam locomotives had hardly been dreamed of. The first cars had been drawn by horses. Almost immediately, however, it had been recognized that some other motive power was essential to the best success of the road. A number of experiments were made. A tread-mill device worked by horse power was tried and discarded. Mr. Evan Thomas contributed the ingenious idea of a car with a sail to be propelled by the wind. Finally, on August 25, 1830, the first American-built locomotive appeared upcMi the rails. This was the Peter Cooper — a small contrivance about the size of a modern hand-car, weighing but one ton, with an upright boiler no larger than a kitchen boiler of the present time. It was designed by a well-known philanthropist and millionaire of New York. But crude as it was, the Tom Thumb demonstrated beyond further question the pos- sibility of steam as a motive power suitable for railroad operations. The next year the company began systematic attempts to secure sat- isfactory American-built engines. Two years before, the Liverpool & Manchester railway had produced a successful locomotive; but it was thought that the English type of engine was not adapted to die conditions of road-bed and country and especially to the sharp curves — such as were met with on the B. & O. railroad. Accordingly, on January 4, 183 1, the company published advertisements that it would pay the sum of $4,000 "for the most approved engine which shall be delivered for trial upon the road on or before the ist of June 1831," and $3,500 for the next best. Three locomotives were submitted, but only one was accepted, the York, . built by Davis & Gartner, of York, Pennsylvania. This engine was oper- ated for some time afterward between Baltimore and EUicott City, with entire satisfaction. At times it developed a speed of from 20 to 30 miles an hour. Its success vastly stimulated the experimental activity of me- chanics and inventors, notable among whom was Ross Winans, whose famous ''Camel" engines subsequently proved to be marvels of size and power. President Thomas, in his report for 1832, said that the York was but "the commencement of a series of experiments which will, even more fully than has yet been done, prove the adiaptation of steam and railroads to every part of our country and for all purposes of trade and travel." The next year Messrs. Davis and Gartner built a second locomotive, the Atlantic, which was larger and heavier than the York, but gave equal satisfaction. In September of the same year (1832) steel springs were put under the York and her tender, and the success of the experiment led to its repetition with regard to freight cars, with equal success. Passenger cars were likewise undergoing a process of rapid evolu- tion during this period. The earliest- of these had been built upon the K^ 476 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE model of the contemporary stage coach. In 1833, however, Ross Winans began the construction of eight-wheeled cars to carry sixty passeng^ers, whose general use soon followed Special cars were provided for bag- gage, which in the beginning had been carried on top of the re^lar coaches. By the summer of this year the company had determined to build its own equipment, and had begun the erection of shops that were to grow into the great Mount Clare works. Ten acres of land for this purpose were donated by James Carroll, to which tract the company after- ward added eleven acres more by purchase. Important construction work was executed elsewhere than upon the main stem during the period under consideration. In April, 1831, the city council, after a long controversy, gave its permission to the laying of tracks in the city streets from the Pratt street depot to the basin, and thence parallel to the water front to Jones' Falls, at which point the city gave the company two blocks of land. The same year, surveys and estimates for the building of the Washington branch from Relay were begun and a charter was granted for the purpose, which was not accepted by the company on account of certain unsatisfactory provisions which it contained. A second charter, passed in 1832, met the same fate. In 1833, however, a third act was proposed, whereby the State was to subscribe for $500,000 of stock on condition that $1,000,000 addi- tional stock be taken by individuals, and was to receive a royalty of one- fifth of the gross revenue of the branch. These terms, though unsatis- factory, were finally accepted. Work was immediately b^;un, and the branch was completed August 25, 1835 — two years after its commencement. The terms of the compromise finally negotiated between the C. & O. Canal Company and the B. & O. Railroad Company after the Court of Appeals' decision in 1832 upon the question of the right of way, were em- bodied in an Act of Legislature passed March 22, 1833. The canal com- pany gave its consent to the joint construction of the two works through the region in controversy, and undertook to prepare the road-bed througtr the passes of the Point of Rocks for the sum of $100,000. On the completion of the road to Harper's Ferry, the railroad company was to subscribe to 2,500 shares of stock in the canal company, and to refrain from extend- ing the road further along the banks of the Potomac until the canal should be complete to Cumberland. The railroad company was also required to build and maintain a fence between the two works to prevent its locomo- tives from doing injury to the tow-horses used in connection with the canal. It was subsequently found, however, that this fence, by obstructing the flow of melted snow and mountain water, continually caused the flooding of the railroad tracks; so that the railroad company was forced to move its trains by horsepower between the Point of Rocks and Harper's Ferry until this clause in the compromise agreement was finally repealed in May, 1836. Under this arrangement the construction of the road was immediately gotten under way. The railroad company paid the canal company the sum of $266,000 in monthly installments in full settlement of the financial obli- gations imposed upon it by the agreement. To meet its urgent necessities, the subscriptions of the city and State to the railroad company's stodc were immediately placed at its disposal, so that upon the completion of the road through the passes of the Point of Rocks the railroad company was able to continue at once the work of construction to Harper's Ferry. The sec- tion of the road from the Point of Rocks to the Maryland side of the Ferry was opened for business on December i, 1834. The friends of the railroad were greatly encouraged by the progress HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 477 made in the face of so many difficulties. The entire practicability of rail- roads for general traffic had now been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the entire country. "Speculation," said President Thomas, "is no longer necessary. Facts now stand in the place of opinions — results in the place of calculations." The earjy completion of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad to the Ohio river was now confidently anticipated. At this time — 1834 — ^there were 81 miles of road in operation. The Washington Branch was well under construction. Previous to July of that year but three locomotives were in use — the Atlantic, York, and Franklin. At that time, four more, the Arabian, Mercury, Antelope and American — all American built, the last two having been constructed in Baltimore by Charles Reeder — ^were added. Eight more locomotives were ordered and under contract by the fall of 1834. At the close of the year 1835 the road's equipment ccHisisted of seven locomotives^ 44. passenger cars, and 1,078 freight cars. For the five months ending October i, 1831, the company's receipts were $31405.24, its expenses were $10,994.87. Dur- ing the year ending October i, 1832, the receipts amounted to $136,937.70; operating expenses, $69,534.47. For the year 1834, the receipts had swelled to $205,436.58, as against expenses of $132,86241. Having guided the destinies of the new enterprise to this point, Mr. Thcxnas resigned his office as president on June 30, 1836. Mr. Joseph W. Patterson served as president pro tern, until succeeded by Hon. Louis McLane, who entered upon his duties in April, 1837. On account of the restriction in the compromise agreement of 1833, which prevented for the time the further construction of the road beyond Harper's Ferry, the general feeling among the directors of the road in 1834 was that the interest of all concerned lay in the completion of the canal to Cumberland, and the extension of the road west from Cumberland. During the year 1835, Mr. Knight caused reconnoissances to be made from Cumberland to Wheeling and Pittsburgh, which were both anxious for railroad connections with the Maryland city. He reported both routes prac- ticable for railroad construction and operation. Accordingly, at the De- cember session of the legislature of 1835- 1836 the company petitioned the State for aid in the completion of the road to these points. A similar application was made to the mayor and city council of Baltimore. Both appeals were successful. The city almost immediately resolved to sub- scribe to $3,000,000 of stock whenever the legal difficulties in the way of the extension of the railroad in an unbroken line to the waters of the west should be removed. After some opposition, the legislature, by Act of 1835, ^' 395 (passed June 4, 1836) also subscribed to $3,000,000 of stocky sub- ject to certain guarantees as to dividends, which in effect constituted this stock a preferred stock. At the same time, after some negotiation and delay, the canal company gave its consent to the immediate construction of the road west from Harper's Ferry. In 1836 the viaduct across the Ferry was finished, thereby establish- ing a connection between the Baltimore & Ohio and the Winchester & Potomac R. R. Co. But the actual work of extending the railroad to Cum- berland was not begun until 1838. Financial conditions prevailing during the years 1836 and 1837 demanded careful management at all times, and more than once became critical. The greatest obstacle, however, arose from the approaching expiration in July, 1838, of the time originally named in the Act of the Virginia legislature confirming the company's charter for the completion of that part of the railroad lying in Virginia. In 1836, Wheeling was still regarded as the necessary terminus of the road. The 478 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE legislature of Virginia accordingly took advantage of this fancied need by refusing to grant the desired extension of time except on condition that that part of the road lying between Harper's Ferry and a point 5>4 miles below Cumberland be built along the Virginia shore of the Potomac, and that Wheeling should be one of the termini. Even then, only a five years' extension was offered. At the same time the State promised a subscription of $1,058^420 to the company's stock — ^two fifths of the esti- mated cost of the Virginia part of the road between Harper's Ferry and Cumberland — in addition to the subscription of $302,100 authorized by the Act of 1836, Ch. 136. These terms, though unsatisfactory, the stockhold- ers felt constrained to accept at a meeting held November 13, 1838. The line of the extension from Harper's Ferry to Cumberland was surveyed and laid out during the summer and fall of 1839, and construc- tion was begun in the spring of 1840. The company still felt the need of ready capital. The condition of the money market threw many difficul- ties in the way of a profitable disposition of the bonds in which the $3,000,- 000 subscription made by the State of Maryland in 1836 had been paid. The city's subscription was utilized by the issuance of scrip against the city stock, in which it had been liquidated. Nevertheless, the road was completed to a point opposite Hancock, 123 miles from Baltimore, on June I, 1842, and to Cumberland, 178 miles, scnne five months later. Here the road remained for six years. Its further progress west- ward was delayed by causes very similar to those which had impeded the beginning and prosecution of the extension to Cumberland. The expira- tion in the year 1843 ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ limited by the laws of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania for the final completion of the railroad would, in the absence of additional legislation, cause the company to forfeit its charter and franchises. The State of Maryland granted an extension of time readily enough (Act of 1842, Ch. 301). But the legislature of Virginia was less tractable. It passed several Acts for the desired purpose which were so qualified by restrictions as to rates, routes, taxation, and the likeT^ that the stockholders of the company rejected them all. Not until March 6, 1847, did the company finally secure an Act acceptable to it This stat- ute (Acts 1846, Ch. 99) likewise contained a number of such restrictions, and canceled the subscriptions of $302,100 and $i/>58420 already men- tioned. The Extension Act of June 20, 1839, passed by the legislature of Pennsylvania, was wholly unacceptable, so that the franchise as to that State was allowed to expire by limitation in 1843. Ever-present financial difficulties still loomed large during this period. The $3,000,000 State bonds were still unsold and seemed in a fair way to remain so, although President McLane went to Europe in 1844 to endeavor to dispose of them. Soon after the completion of the road to Cumberland, it had become necessary to reduce freight and passenger rates 30% and 25% respectively to meet the competition of the Pennsylvania lines. More- over, the western trade over the National Pike to Cumberland had not been as large as had been expected, though the railroad's business increased. These years, however, were filled with important work in the way of reconstructing and improving the existing lines, and correcting the mis- takes of the earlier period. In 1844, the foundations of the coal trade were being laid, through the building of private roads from the mines in Vir- ginia to Cumberland. In 1846 was begun the work of reconstructing the road to Harper's Ferry with new and improved rails better suited for heavy traffic. This work being paid for out of net revenue, dividends were declared partly in scrip representing the 6% second mortgage bonds HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 479 of the company — a practice that was continued until 1856. This work of reconstruction and improvement was continued through 1847 and 1848. Ten first-class engines, ten second-class engines, a third-class engine, 28 passenger cars, and 171 freight cars, were purchased. A branch was built to the ground recently purchased at Locust Point, on the south side of the harbor, for the handling of through freight. Extensive general repairs were made; and large sums of money were expended in straightening and altering the location of the tracks in sundry places. Having brought the road to Cumberland, Mr. McLane resigned his office in 1848, and was succeeded by Thomas Swann. It was well known that the new president was wedded to the policy of completing the road to Wheeling at the earliest possible moment. His was the will and energy to carry out this purpose in spite of the most formidable obstacles, both physical and financial. This portion of the road was to lead through the very heart of the Alleghany mountains for 200 miles. Its cost must nec- essarily be heavy; yet the treasury was in a condition far frcnn encourag- ing. Nevertheless, the work was begun in 1850 and pushed rapidly to its conclusion. Over mountains and ravines, through rocks and spurs, the road pushed its way. At times, the urgent need of money threatened to stop its progress altogether. The State bonds were finally disposed of with the assistance of Baring Bros., of London ; and the funds Vequired for the completion of this part of the road were raised by the sale of the com- pany's own bonds. In 1850, a controversy arose with the city of Wheeling over the route to be taken from Cumberland. The company preferred a southerly route in order to obtain the shortest possible connection with St. Louis and Cincinnati. Wheeling feared the effect of this choice upon its own prosperity, and insisted that the more northerly route by way of Grave creek be taken. The southern route was selected; whereupon that city requested the Virginia legislature to pass an Act forbidding alto- gether the further construction of the road in the State. Finally, in March, 1850, the company yielded to the demands of the city, and consented to build along the Grave credc route. During this period further improvements were being made in antici- pation of the increased business expected to result from the completion of the road to Wheeling. The lines east of Cumberland were kept in first- class condition. New equipment was being constantly ordered, so that in 1853 there were in operation 139 engines, 96 passenger cars, and 2,567 freight cars. In 1852 land was purchased and preparations were made for the building of Qimden Station, which was to be the largest and finest railroad depot in the country. The Mount Clare shops and other proper- ties were enlarged and improved. The growth of the coal trade had led to the construction of new and additional wharves at Locust Point. In 1852, also, the railroad company caused to be chartered a company to run a daily line of steamboats upon the Ohio river "of a class superior to any yet floated upon the western waters," to connect the railroad with Cin- cinnati and Louisville after January i, 1853. The actual construction of the road to Wheeling was completed in about four years, a record-breaking achievement. In 1849, 103^ miles were under contract. On July 21, 185 1, the road was opened to Piedmont, 28 miles west of Cumberland. By June 22, 1852, it was complete to Fair- mont, on the Monongahela river, which was spanned by a viaduct — the largest iron bridge in the United States at that time. Finally, on December 24, 1852, the last spike was driven in Wheeling, 379 miles from Baltimore. The Ohio river had been reached. The first train from Baltimore arrived 48o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE in Wheeling, January i, 1853; and the completion of the road was made the occasion of a great celebration. The road was formally opened for business January 10, 1853. Mr. Swann resigned his (^ce April 13, 1853. He was followed by William G. Harrison, who at the end of four years gave place to Chauncey Brooks. The latter held office only two years, when he was succeeded by J<^n W. Garrett, elected November ly, 1858, under whose administration a large part of the development of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad to its present position as one of the great transcontinental railroad systems of the country took place. The years intervening between the completion of the road to Wheel- ing and the outbreak of the Civil War were devoted principally to the payment of debts, the improvement, devek>ixnent and organization of the road itself, and the estaUishment of connections with the roads west of the Ohio. The most important construction work belonging to this period was the completion in 1857 of the Parkersburg branch, then known as the Northwestern- Virginia R. R. This branch begins at Grafton on the main stem and extends 104 miles to Parkersburg, on the Ohio river. It was begun in 185 1. It was finished before the Marietta and Cincinnati road reached the Ohio river ; but a connection between the two was estab- lished in 1857, thereby opening a through line from Baltimore to Cincin- nati and St. Louis. This was made the occasion of a great celebration in Cincinnati on July 3rd and 4th of that year, to which went President Buchanan in the first through train that ran from Baltimore to Cincinnati. The first train from St Louis and Cincinnati went the following mcMith to Baltimore, where its reception ''was remarkable for its demonstrations.*' A connection with the Central Ohio Railroad Company was estab- lished about the same time, with some difficulty. It had been supposed that this road would be brought to a point opposite Wheeling, and con- nected with the eastern road by ferry boats and ultimately a bridge. The Central Ohio Company, however, decided to cross the river fixHn Bellaire to Benwood, some four miles below Wheeling. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company was left no alternative but to carry its line to this point, and was preparing to do so when the city of Wheeling stopped it with an injunction, grounded upon the earlier statute providing that Wheel- ing should be the terminus of the road. In 1855, }K>wever, the Court of Appeals of Virginia dissolved the injunction, holding that the statute was not intended to forbid the Baltimore & Ohio from connecting with other roads. The junction was soon afterward accomfdished. Further expansion was interrupted by the Civil War. The Baltimore & Ohio railroad had an exciting and honorable part in the great conffict Both armies continually struggled for possession of its lines; and the suc- cess of the Confederates was usually f^lowed by the wholesale destruction of the railroad's tracks, rolling stock, and other prc^rty and equipment in order to cripple the transportation of Union troops. These lo^es were promptly repaired, so that the road was kept open and in operation a large part of the time. It also earned such abundant revenues by transportation of troc^s and supplies that it was able to finance the reconstruction of all damaged property and pay handsome dividends beside. After the return of peace, Mr. Garrett continued the work of estab- lishing and strengthening the Baltimore & Ohio railroad's western con- nections, a policy rendered necessary by recent developments in railroad circles. Other eastern lines had tapped the western country while the Baltimore & Ohio was struggling with the delays and obstacles HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 481 already detailed. Whole systems of railroads were spreading throughout the Mississippi Valley regions, and concentrating the traffic for trans- portation eastward over the various trunk lines. By the time the Baltimore & Ohio railroad was finished to Wheeling, it had become evident that it could secure its share of this through traffic to the east only by developing a similar system of tributary western roads to serve as feeders. This was the task to which Mr. Garrett addressed himself. The Central Ohio road and its tributaries were relied upon to furnish a large amount of through traffic; and in order to attract this trade, the Baltimore & Ohio was obliged to make special low through rates for west- em freight. This policy evoked charges that Baltimore was being dis- criminated against, and that the management of the Baltimore & Ohio was speculating in the securities of the Central Ohio Company — charges which led to an investigation by the legislature of Maryland in 1869. Shortly after the Baltimore & Ohio was completed to Wheeling, it advanced $400,- 000 to the Central Ohio Company to enable it to complete its road to the Ohio river. After the war, preparations to bridge the Ohio from Benwood to Bellaire were begun. Finally, on December i, 1866, the Central Ohio from Bellaire to Columbus (137 miles) was leased by the older company. Two years later, the latter also leased the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark railroad, thereby securing an outlet at Lake Erie. In 1871 the Benwood bridge was completed, and the construction of the Chicago branch begun. This starts at a point on the Lake Erie division, 89 miles north of Newark, Ohio, whence it extends 253 miles to Chicago. It was completed in 1874. As the Parkersburg branch — ^then the Northwestern Virginia R. R. Co. — approached completion, the Baltimore & Ohio was astonished to see the Marietta & Cincinnati R. R. draw away and estaUish its terminus some ten miles up the river, instead of opposite Parkersburg. Nevertheless, a permanent junction between the two lines was soon ma^. After bridging the Ohio at Parkersburg, the Baltimore & Ohio built a thirty-mile connect- ing branch or link which shortened the distance to Cincinnati some ten miles. At a point six miles outside the latter city, another branch was opened to the terminal. The entire line of the Marietta & Cincinnati was soon afterward reconstructed with money supplied by the Baltimore & Ohio to enable it to meet the demands now put upon it as a carrier of heavy through traffic. From Cincinnati, the Baltimore & Ohio secured an exten- sion to St. Louis over the Ohio & Mississippi railroad, which runs in a direct line between the two cities, a distance of 340 miles. To shorten the distance between Washington and points west, the Metropolitan branch was projected in 1865, and opened for travel May 25, 1873. It binds Washington to the main stem at the Point of Rocks, thereby shortening the distance between the National Capital and points west by 48 miles. There are other important extensions that should be mentioned. In 1867, the Baltimore & Ohio leased the Winchester & Potomac, to which were shortly afterward added the Winchester & Strasburg, the Strasburg & Harrisonburg, and the completed portion of the Valley railroad, thus constructing an extension to Staunton and Lexington, where connection was made with the Richmond & Alleghany Road, now part of the Norfolk & Western. In September of the same year the Washington county branch from the main stem at Weverton to Hagerstown, were finished. Some five years later (April 11, 1871), the Pittsburgh branch from Cumberland by way of Connellsville was opened with appropriate ceremonies. This branch was afterwards extended northwest to Youngstown, and thence west in 482 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE almost a straight line to connect with the main stem again at Chicago Junction, thus furnishing an additional through route to Chicago. This line west of Pittsburgh is the parent stem from which proceed branches to Fairport, Cleveland, and Lorain, on Lake Erie. Crossing the Chicago branch at Deshler, Ohio, is a line from Cincinnati to Detroit. Other branches and extensions too numerous to mention connect different parts of the Baltimore & Ohio system with each other, and with important points not on the main routes; so that the system as a whole forms an intricate web-work throughout the heart of the middle western States. While these extensions westward were going on, as well as after- ward, the company had been far from inactive in the east. In 1867, a line of steamships between Baltimore and Bremen was established, one-half the stock being subscribed by the North German Lloyds, the other half by the Baltimore & Ohio. To receive this and other foreign traffic, the piers at Locust Point were improved and extended. In 1872 the first of the gpreat grain elevators at Locust Point was erected — Elevator A, with a capacity of 1,000,000 bushels. Elevator B, capacity 1,500,000 bushels, followed in 1874, and elevator C, capacity 1,800,000 bushels, was completed some six years later. Along the water-front, numerous trestled coal piers have been erected. The company constructed several tobacco warehouses and the Baltimore Dry Dock. It also joined with the P. W. & B. in 1880 in estab- lishing the ferry between Canton and Locust Point, and with the Northern Central railway in building the Union Stock Yards. One of the most noteworthy improvements of this period was the central building at the comer of Baltimore and Calvert streets, completed in the early eighties. The most recent of the important extensions made by the Baltimore & Ohio railroad is the line to Philadelphia and New York. The neces- sity for its construction was created by the long-standing antagonism be- tween the Baltimore & Ohio and the Pennsylvania railroad. In the early seventies, Colonel Thomas A. Scott, of the Pennsylvania system, endeav- ored to bring about an amicable arrangement between the two companies. Briefly stated, his proposition was that if the Baltimore & Ohio would grant the Northern Central railway a free interchange of traffic between Baltimore and Washington, turn over to the Pennsylvania railroad the Pittsburgh & Connellsville railroad, and abandon the proposed extensions to Chicago and Cleveland, the Pennsylvania railroad would transfer to the Baltimore & Ohio the charter of the Baltimore & Potomac, refrain from making certain contemplated extensions to Winchester and Ctmiberland, and grant the Baltimore & Ohio full trackage rights from Pittsburgh to Qeveland, Columbus to Chicago, and Philadelphia to New York, together with terminal facilities in each of the cities mentioned. The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railroad was to remain neutral for the use of both companies. The Baltimore & Ohio refused the proposition, and after completing its western extensions as already narrated, endeavored to pur- chase the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railroad. The failure of this attempt and the acquisition of the latter road by the Pennsylvania rail- road led to certain unsatisfactory conditions which left the Baltimore & Ohio no alternative other than to open a line of its own to the two great northern cities. In 1880, therefore, the Delaware & Western railroad was purchased by a friendly syndicate to serve as a link in the new line, and the seventy remaining miles between Baltimore and Philadelphia were put under ccHi- struction soon afterward. A branch was to be carried from the main stem to the line of Cecil county to connect with the Baltimore & Philadelphia HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 483 railroad, a subsidiary company organized and financed by the Baltimore & Ohio. A bridge across the Susquehanna at Havre de Grace, 6,346 feet long and 94 feet above mean low tide, was also built. The new road was opened to Philadelphia, September 19, 1886. In the meantime, the Balti- more & Ohio had concluded a traffic agreement with the Philadelphia & Reading railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey for the use of their tracks between Philadelphia and Jersey City. It had also secured an entry of its own into New York City by means of a bridge across the Arthur Kill from New Jersey to Staten Island, and a traffic contract exe- cuted in 1885 with the Staten Island Rapid Transit Company. Accord- ingly, the line to New York was put into operation immediately after the completion of the Philadelphia extension. There was as yet, however, no physical connection between the new line and the terminus of the main stem at Camden Station. North-bound passengers and freight had to be transported from Locust Point over the harbor to Canton in steam ferry boats — a system productive of incon- venience and loss of time. Several alternatives were suggested: among them, an elevated railway from Camden Station along Pratt street to Can- ton, and a tunnel under the harbor. The problem found its solution in the Belt Line railway, seven miles in length, with a tunnel from Camden Station to Hoffman and Brevard streets, and several shorter tunnels beyond passing under the north and northeastern parts of the city. In the construc- tion of the tunnels many unforeseen engineering difficulties were encoun- tered. The soil was soft in places, and permeated with spring and surface water. The matter of ventilation gave serious concern. All obstacles, how- ever, were overcome by Mr. Samuel Rea, engineer in charge, and the work proceeded with but few delays of consequence. It was finally completed in 1895, at a total cost of more than $7,000,000. The problem of ventilation was solved by the expedient of pulling trains through the tunnel with elec- tric locomotives, the first used in the world. At the north end of the prin- cipal tunnel, the company purchased a large lot, and erected thereon its handsome Mount Royal Station, with spacious grounds and fine terraces. These improvements had hardly been completed when certain financial difficulties into which the Baltimore & Ohio had fallen culminated in a receivership on March i, 1896. It was this event that developed the constructive genius of John K. Cowen, who was appointed receiver jointly with Mr. Oscar G. Murray. Instead of holding a sale in the approved manner of railroad receiverships of the day, he determined to rehabilitate the road for the benefit of its owners. Accordingly, he proceeded to raise millions of dollars by the issue of receivers' certificates, and to equip the road with new rolling stock and facilities of every kind. This treatment of a bankrupt railroad being quite unprecedented, his policy evoked a great deal of criticism. But the results demonstrated the soundness of his judg- ment. The road was restored to the company in first-class physical and financial condition on July i, 1899, in accordance with the terms of a reor- ganization agreement dated July 22, 1898. Since then it has manifested a very satisfactory condition of efficiency and prosperity. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad has constructed a number of impor- tant local improvements in recent years that should be mentioned. While the Belt Line tunnel was being bored, two great coal elevators were built at Curtis Bay. The company has several times enlarged its terminal facili- ties at Locust Point, Mt. Clare and Camden Station. A splendid $1,000,000 pier has been added at Locust Point. While under construction, this pier suddenly collapsed in 1907^ killing a number of workmen, but was rebuilt 484 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE and brought to completion some two years later. The great Baltimore fire of February, 1904, having destroyed the general offices at Baltimore and Calvert streets, the present fine building at the comer of Baltimore and Charles streets was erected. The bridge across the Susquehanna has been replaced by a new $2,000,000 structure, opened for operation January 6, 19 10. Finally it should be noted that the Baltimore and Ohio railroad is joint owner with the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington railroad of the capital stock of the Washington Terminal Company, which built and owns the splendid new Union Station in Washington. The First Telegraph, — There is an interesting historical connection between the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and the first line of tel^^ph oper- ated in the United States. In 1843, Professor Morse requested leave to string a line of wire along the right of way of the Washington branch between Baltimore and Washington. Though at first regaraed with skep- ticism and disfavor, the request was finally granted, upon the condition that the company should have the right to remove the wires at any time and to use the same without cost, so long as they remained in place. Morse then obtained an appropriation of $30,000 from Congress to construct his line. The wire was carried in trenches except on bridges, where it was elevated on poles. Finally, on May 24, 1844, the first message, ''What hath God wrought," was sent between the two cities. The telegraph was an accomplished fact. The Baltimore & Ohio owned and operated its own telegraph system until it sold out to the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany in 1807. The Northern Central Railway.^ — The failure of the Susquehanna canal projects had by no means destroyed the belief of their originators in the advantages likely to be derived by Baltimore from closer communi- cation with that part of Pennsylvania which is watered by the Susquehanna river. The incorporation of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad revealed a new and better method of accomplishing the general purposes of the earlier scheme. As early as August, 1827, therefore, a ccnnmittee of those inter- ested was appointed to examine into the practicability of a railroad from Baltimore to the Susquehanna. Its favorable report was followed by the incorporation on February 13, 1828, of the Baltimore & Susquehanna Rail- road Company to build a railroad from Baltimore to York Haven, Penn- sylvania, where it was to connect with the Pennsylvania canal. On May 5, 1828, George Winchester was elected president and George J. Brown secretary. The contemporary enthusiasm for internal improvements caused the stock to be over-subscribed within a few days after the books were opened. Surveys having been made soon afterward, and the route selected, the first stone was laid near the present site of the North Avenue Bridge, August 8, 1829, during the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the founding of Baltimore.. The first division of the road extending along the valley of Jones Falls to Relay Station — now Hollins — ^was soon placed under construction, and cars bc^n to run from Baltimore to that point on July 4, 183 1. The friends of the Baltimore & Susquehanna railroad had expected the legislature of Pennsylvania promptly to confirm the company's Mary- land charter, and permit the speedy location of its road from the Maryland line to York Haven. This program encountered the opposition of certain local interests that could not see the advantage of sharing too readily with outsiders the benefits expected from the public works constructed, by the A detailed account of all the constituent lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad system is to be found in Wilson's History of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 2 vols. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 485 State of Pennsylvania. Consequently, it was not until March 14, 1832, that the northward progress of the Baltimore & Susquehanna railroad was made possible by the incorporation, after a strenuous contest, of the York & Maryland Line Railroad, with authority to build the road between the points indicated by its corporate name. In the meantime, upon the completion of the Baltimore & Susque* hanna road to Relay Station, the company's engineers had located its route as far as the Maryland line, and had run an experimental line to York. Nothing more in this direction could be safely hazarded until the outcome of the struggle in Pennsylvania for the additional charter was known. The interval was devoted to building the Green Spring branch, designed to extend in the direction of Westminster^ and ultimately as far as the "head waters of the Monocacy river." This branch was opened on May 26, 1832, to the Green Spring Hotel, a distance of 8 miles from Relay Junc- tion, and 15 miles from Baltimore. Further progress in this direction was arrested by the resumption of work upon the main stem consequent on the incorporation of the York and Maryland Line Railroad. The Western Maryland railroad took over the branch some 25 years afterward, as will be more fully explained below. Unlike the Baltimore & Ohio, the Baltimore & Susquehanna railroad imported its first locomotive from England. This engine, built by Stephen- son, and called the Herald, after the ship which brought it to this country, was put in operation August 6, 1832. The substitution of wheels only 2yi feet in diameter for its original 4-foot wheels adapted the Herald to the short curves which abounded on the first division. For twenty-five years this engine performed satisfactory service and remained in the possessi<xi of the Northern Central railroad until 1859, when it was traded in by way of part payment for a new engine. In 1832 the main stem had been built to Timonium. The cost of the road greatly exceeded all estimates, so that in spite of the financial as- sistance several times extended by both the city and State, the line was not completed to York, Pennsylvania, a distance of sixty miles, until August 30, 1838. One passenger train a day, which made the trip in four hours, was sufficient for all needs. From York, the road was extended 26 miles north to Bridgeport, opposite Harrisburg, by connection with the York & Cumberland Railroad Company, chartered in 1846. This com|>any, beingf closely affiliated with the Baltimore & Susquehanna, was financed largely by interests favorable to the latter. The road from York to Bridgeport cost $735,750, and was opened for travel in February, 185 1. On April 14, 1851^ the legislature of Pennsylvania, in spite of acrimonious opposition offered by local interests, incorporated the Susquehanna Railroad Company to construct a road from Bridgeport to Sunbury. To assist in financing the new road, the York & Cumberland railroad loaned it a half million dollars face value of its bonds, which were guaranteed by the city of Bal- timore. In spite of this assistance the construction of the road was aban- doned in March, 1854, but was resumed, again by the Northern Central railway in 1855, and finished August i, 1855. On December 4, 1854, pur- suant to the Act of the Maryland Legislature approved March 10, 1854, and the concurrent Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature approved May 3, 1854, these four corporations were consolidated into the Northern Central Railway Company. The financial management of the Baltimore & Susquehanna railroad had been exceedingly bad. At the time of the consolidation, there was charged to construction and equipment, exclusive of the Wrightsville road 486 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE built in 1840, and the Westminster branch, the sum of $4,364^10, as against an actual cost of $1,776,216. The difference, $2,588,194^ repre- sented arrearages of interest and other charges resulting from the inability of the road to meet its obligations. It was this burden which brought the Northern Central railroad to the precarious position it occupied at the time its control was acquired by the Pennsylvania railroad. (Wilson, History of Pa, R. R., Vol. I, p. 241.) The way to this acquisition was unintentionally opened by the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad Company, through its efforts to accomplish a result vastly different. The expansion of the Pennsylvania lines had inspired the fear lest the Northern Central railway might seriously compete with the Baltimore & Ohio for the semi-bituminous coal trade, and the traffic from the southwest. Accordingly, the older company planned to destroy this incipient rivalry by ruining the rival. The latter's financial position after the consolidation rendered it particularly vulnerable to attack. It was deeply indebted to both the city and the State, and the controlling interest in its stock and bonds was held in Baltimore, where its rival's posi- tion was strongest. Consequently, the hostile efforts directed against the Northern Central railroad in its already weakened state soon brought it to the lowest ebb of efficiency, and nearly put it out of existence altc^ethcr. At last, in the belief that their work of destruction was accomplished, the road's antagonists relaxed their vigilance. During the panic which followed die election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States, and the prospect of civil war, many owners of its stock, including the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, threw their shares upon the market. This stock was eagerly taken by the Pennsylvania railroad, which saw in the Northern Central railway its opportunity to secure a long-desired entry into Balti- more. Subsequently, the Pennsylvania railroad purchased enough shares upon the London market to give it the controlling interest it was sedcing. This transaction was hardly ccHnplete when the Civil War broke out. The Northern Central railroad soon felt its heavy hand. On April 20, 1861, the principal bridges on the Maryland division were burned by an armed party from Baltimore under the direction of the mayor and the police commissioners, in order to prevent the passage of troops to Wash- ington. The damage done aggregated $117,609.93, and caused a suspen- sion of operations on the southern end of the road until May nth follow- ing. Alarmed by these and other warlike measures, the company moved its general offices to Harrisburg, where they remained during the rest of the year 1861. Other losses and interruptions to business followed during the Gettysburg campaign. Like the Baltimore & Ohio, however, the Northern Central throughout the war performed important services in transporting troops and supplies, the revenue from which traffic was suf- ficient to pay for all losses and to finance the rebuilding and double tracking of the greater part of the main stem. Much money was expended for this purpose, both then and thereafter — a policy which has resulted in placing the road in admirable physical condition as to road-bed^ route and equipment. After the war, the work of extending and improving the road, begun before the cessation of hostilities, was energetically prosecuted. There had been a more or less vague and undefined impression among those interested in the Susquehanna canal and in the Baltimore & Susquehanna railroad, that some day Baltimore might secure an outlet to the Great Lakes. The Northern Central now proceeded rapidly to transmute this dream into a reality. It arranged with the Philadelphia & Erie railroad for the use of HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 487 the latter's road from Sunbury to Williamsport. At this point, the North- em Central made a junction with the Williamsport & Elmira railroad, which it had leased on April 15, 1863, — ^thus extending its line 78 miles farther north. From Elmira, the Northern Central was pushed on to Canandaigua over the lines of three different companies, the Erie railroad, the Chemung railway, and the Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua railroad. In 1863 ^ ^^^^' fie contract was made with the Erie railroad for the use of its four miles of track from Elmira to the southern terminus of the line of the Chemung railway. This arrangement, however, proved unsatisfactory, and led ulti- mately to litigation between the Erie and, the Northern Central. Finally, on May 9, 1872, the latter purchased controlling interests in the stock of the Chemung railway and the Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua railroad, and the next day it executed a 99-year contract with the Erie railroad for the use of the disputed four miles of its track. This arrangement secured to the Northern Central railway an unbroken line to Canandaigua. Here it established a connection with the New York Central railroad, whose facilities it obtained permission to use at Rochester, Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Baltimore was at last joined to the Great Lakes. Not yet satisfied, however, the Northern Central on July i, 1884, purchased the entire capital stock of the Sodus Bay & Southern Railroad Company, which runs directly north from Stanley, on the Elmira & Canan- diagua division, to Sodus Point, on Great Sodus Bay, 34 miles in length, on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Subsequently, on December 31, 1886, the Sodus Bay & Southern Railroad Company^ the Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua railroad, and the Chemung railway companies, were con- solidated to form the Elmira & Lake Ontario Railroad Qnnpany. In the meantime, on December 8, 1874, the Northern Central railroad was reorganized and placed under the management and control of the gen- eral officers of the Pennsylvania railroad, whereby it was brought into absolute harmony with the operating system of the parent road, with whose lines it had been already welded into a complicated and organic physical union by means of a multitude of important branches (Wilson, p. 248). This relationship lasted until the recent execution by the Northern Central of a 999-year lease of its property and franchises to the Pennsylvania rail- road, to go into effect March i, 191 1. The rental reserved was $2,166,368, being the equivalent of 8% upon $27,079,600 par value of stock : an aggre- gate made up of original stodc amounting to $19,342,550, and a stock divi- dend of $7,737,050, issued in connection with the lease* Both the city and State contributed liberally toward financing the construction of the Baltimore & Susquehanna railroad and the Northern Central railway. Baltimore loaned it $850,000, and invested $200,000 in its capital stock beside, making in all, with interest, $1,250,000. This entire debt was liquidated in 1866, by pa3rment of $880,000. The State had also loaned $1,750,000, on which it receives an annuity of $90,000. While the Northern Central railway was extending its line toward the lakes and afterwards, it was busily engaged in making important im« provements in the city of Baltimore. After it had secured its tidewater outlet at Canton by means of the Union railroad, as will presently be de- scribed, it proceeded to erect three large g^ain elevators, a number of piers for various purposes, freight yards, and other accessories. The large export grain elevators at Canton are owned by the company, but are oper- *This lease is now the subject of litigation begun by certain dissatisfied stock- holders of the Northern Central railway, who believe that the rental reserved is inadequate. 488 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ated under lease by the Baltimore Elevator Company. Elevator No. i, with a capacity of 500,000 bushels, was built in 1876. Elevator No. 3, as rebuilt August 10, 1891, has a capacity of 1,000^000 bushels. Elevator No. 2, completed August 20, 1891, with a capacity of 300,000 bushels, is bounded by Jones' Falls, Buren, Madison and Mount streets. The Northern Central also owns and operates at Canton three covered piers, 500, 800 and 800 feet long respectively; three open piers, 160, 500 and 1,200 feet long respectively, and two large general warehouses. The Canton wharves constitute one of the most important railroad and seaboard terminals in the country. Calvert Station was finished in 1850 ; the general offices, at Calvert and Centre streets, on March i, 1876. The warehouse on the west side of North street was put into commission April i, 1868. The various freight sheds now owned by the company in the same neigh- borhood were built subsequently to 1873. Other terminals and facilities should be mentioned. The Bolton Sta- tion is now devoted to produce and fruit. Jackson's Wharf, at the foot of Exeter street, was the company's first freight terminal on the harbor, pur- chased in the fall of 1866. The first grain elevator in Baltimore was erected on this wharf by Mr. J. N. Gardner. It was begun in 1868, and finished January i, 1869. A small freight station was established at the foot ol Patterson's Wharf, on January i, 1875, but was transferred May i, 1893, to the new agency on O'Donnell's Wharf. The Union Railroad and Tunnel, — Although the Union railroad was financed by a private corporation, the need which it supplied was created by the Northern Central railroad, with whose history, as well as with fts physical properties, the Union road is intimately connected. It was this road which afforded the Northern Central an outlet at tidewater, and later served as the connecting link welding the three Pennsylvania lines into a single, unbroken system. Consequently, the Union railroad possesses an importance vastly disproportionate to the length of its track. This road is 9.62 miles in length, and extends from Baltimore to Bay View Junction. Although chartered as early as 1866, active steps to place it under construction were not begun until the fall of 1870. About that time, the Canton Company, mindful of the advantages which it would secure from a direct connection with the Northern Central, undertook to finance the Union road. Accordingly, it purchased $590,000 of the lat- ter's capital stock of $600,000, and indorsed its bonds to the extent of $873,000, taking a mortgage by way of security. The actual building of the road was begun May i, 1871, and on July 24, 1873, the first train passed through the tunnel. As soon as the Union railroad was completed, the Northern Central obtained the right to use it under a contract with the Canton Company. This contract, however, became burdensome as the Northern Central's tonnage increased, so that finally, in February, 1882, it purchased the Union railroad stock from the Canton Company, and assumed control March ist of the same year. The most striking feature of the Union railroad is its tunnel. The latter begins at Bond street, and passes under the bed of Hoffman street to Greenmount avenue, crossing under Dallas, Caroline, Spring and Eden streets. Central and Harford avenues, Ensor, Valley and McKim streets. Its length is 3410 feet. The total cost of road and tunnel was some $3,000,000. The line of the Union railroad commences at its junction with the Northern Central at Guilford avenue, and after emerging from the tunnel HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 489 at Bond street crosses over Broadway and Belair avenue to Biddle street, from which, as originally built, it continued at surface tna Eager street, Ninth street and Fifth avenue. Canton, to the harbor. At Dungan's Lane it connected with the line of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railroad. The growth of the city and the increase of traffic on the Union road subsequently made necessary the elevation of its tracks from Biddle street to Canton Junction, and an increase in their number from two to four. This improvement was finished in January, 1893. A branch of the Union railroad extends to Colgate creek to meet the Baltimore & Sparrows Point railroad, which was built and is owned by the Maryland Steel Company. The Philadelphia, WUftiington & Baltimore, The Baltimore and Poto- mac, and The Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroads, — ^The name "P. W. & B." has been borne by three different railroad corporations. The first had been originally christened Philadelphia & Delaware County Railroad Company, upon its incorporation in Pennsylvania on April 2, 183 1, but its name was changed to "P. W. & B." by Act of March 14, 1836. This company was consolidated February 6, 1838, with the Balti- more & Port Deposit Railroad Company, chartered by Maryland Act of March 5, 1832, and the Wilmington & Susquehanna railroad, chartered by the Delaware Act of January 18, 1832, by which the Delaware & Mary- land railroad, chartered by the Maryland Act of March 14, 1832, had been previously absorbed. This consolidated corporation so organized was also called the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company. Finally, on March 28, 1877, this company was in its turn merged with the New Castle & Frcnchtown Turnpike and Railroad Company, chartered by the State of Maryland in December, 1827, and the State of Delaware on February 7, 1829; the Newcastle & Wilmington Railroad Company, chartered by Delaware Act of February 9, 1839; and the Southwark Rail- road Company, chartered by the Pennsylvania Act of April 2, 183 1 ; and again the joint product retained the original name. It is with the history of the first consolidated Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company that this sketch is principally concerned. As its name indicates, the Baltimore & Port Deposit railroad was intended to be carried to Port Deposit as its terminus, where it was to connect with the Maryland & Delaware, whose line was to run from Port Deposit or any other point on the Susquehanna to the Maryland and Dela- ware State line. A preliminary organization of the Baltimore & Port Deposit railroad was effected in the year 1833, and surveys were made by Benjamin H. Latrobe in 1834. The work of construction did not get under way until the middle of 1835. ^^^ Maryland & Delaware road was started about the same time, and both lines were pushed steadily forward. Before the work had proceeded very far, however, the original plan to make Port Deposit the terminus of the Maryland Company was abandoned at a con- ference held April 18, 1836, between representatives of the Baltimore & Port Deposit and the Maryland & Delaware railroads in favor of estab- lishing a ferry across the Susquehanna at Havre de Grace. Delay had been occasioned in the meantime by the opposition offered by certain owners of land north of the Bush, Bird, and Gunpowder rivers to the construction of bridges across these streams — a difficulty that had finally to be settled by an Act of the legislature. The line of the Baltimore & Port Deposit railroad was completed to the Susquehanna in June, 1837. Here a steam ferry boat — ^the Susquehanna — ^had been provided, with tracks on her upper deck upon which cars could be placed for transportation bodily 490 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE across the river — ^the first vessel of her model in the United States. The Susquehanna was operated successfully until replaced in December, 1854,. by the iron steamer Maryland, which, in her turn, after a period of faith- ful and at times exciting service, was put out of commission by the open- ing of the Susquehanna Bridge in 1866. In the meantime, the construction of the Maryland & Delaware rail- road had been favorably progressing. On April 18, 1836, this company was merged with the Wilmington & Susquehanna, which had been in- corporated to build a road from the Pennsylvania line across the State of Delaware in the direction of the Susquehanna to the Maryland line. The road of this consolidated company was opened July 4, 1837, from Wilming- ton to the Susquehanna. Its franchise to build that portion of the road from Wilmington to the Pennsylvania State line had been previously turned over to the original Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railroad,, formerly the Philadelphia & Delaware County railroad, which was ta open its line from Gray's Ferry, on the Schuylkill river, to Wilmington. On July 22, 1837, therefore, the lines of the Baltimore & Port I>eposit railroad and the Wilmington & Susquehanna railroad were thrown open for regular traffic between Baltimore and Wilmington. The journey from the latter place to Philadelphia was made by the steamboat Telegraph until January 15, 1838, when the completion of the renamed Philadelphia^ Wilmington & Baltimore railroad gave an all-rail route from Baltimore through Wilmington to Gray's Ferry. The completion of these various sections of railroad resulted in the ownership of a small continuous line by three different companies. This unity of interest very naturally led to the consolidation of the three cor- porations into the second Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company on February 5, 1838, as already narrated. During the same year a bridge across the Schuylkill at Gray's Ferry was completed, and the road carried from the Ferry to Broad street in Riiladelphia. Like the Northern Central railway, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore experimented with an English locomotive, the John Bull, wfiich proved so inferior to those of American build that no more were imported. On July 6, 1837, two coal-burning locomotives, constructed by Messrs. Gillingham and Winans, were put into service on the occasion of runnings the first train from Baltimore to Havre de Grace. These proved unsatis- factory, likewise, and were soon replaced by wood-burning engines. In 1838 the road began the use on its night trains of ''sleeping cars" equipped with reclining chairs somewhat similar to those now in use upon the decks of steamers. In its early days, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railroad's terminal facilities consisted of two large warehouses constituting a portion of the Pratt street station of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which the two companies occupied jointly. Freight was loaded by the Philadelphia, Wil- mington & Baltimore railroad at Canton, but passengers were carried thither in horse cars from the Baltimore & Ohio station. The inconveniences of this arrangement finally induced the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railroad to erect the President street station, at the southeast comer of President street and Canton avenue. The new terminal was begun in May, 1849, ^^^ finished April i, 1850. In 1852 a freight building was added. Both freight and passenger traffic were conducted here until 1883, when^ most of the passenger traffic was transferred to the new Union Station. Annex trains, however, still continued to run between President street and Bay View Junction. The old station has remained in use until the present HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 491 time; and a recent proposal by the Pennsylvania railroad to close it to passenger traffic has evoked a spirited opposition. The period between 1838 and the early fifties was a hard one for the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore. The methods of construction employed upon the several constituent lines had been crude and imperfect, and the road's equipment was quite insufficient. Its financial condition was equally unsatisfactory. Dividends were regularly declared, though none had been earned, and its burden of debt was thereby unnecessarily increased. Two large mortgage loans were placed in 1842. On July 30, 1847, it managed to enter into an arrangement with its creditors whereby the loans were consolidated and rearranged, but even this measure afforded only a temporary relief. The road's prospects began to brighten, however, in 185 1, when Mr. Samuel L. Felton was elected president. He managed to reconstruct and improve it, and brought it up to first-class condition for the first time. The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore had an exciting war history, and, like its older contemporaries, performed valuable services. It twice suffered the destruction of its bridges over the rivers between Baltimore and the Susquehanna — once in 1861, by an armed force from Baltimore, and again in 1864 by Major Harry Gilmor, during Lee's Maryland campaign. In the winter time, the passage of the transfer steamer over the Susquehanna at Havre de Grace was frequently impeded by ice, and some- times entirely prevented. Sometimes passengers were transferred to sleighs, and in 1858, during a prolonged freeze, tracks were laid and trains were run over on the ice. To obviate this difficulty, a bridge at this point was planned. The project was at first opposed by strong local influences inter- ested in keeping the Susquehanna navigable as far as Port Deposit. This opposition was finally removed by a promise on the part of the railroad company to construct a four-and-one-half-mile branch road from Perry- ville, at the eastern end of the bridge, to Port Deposit. But although the legislative authority essential to the project was obtained May 12, 1852, the work was not begun until 1862. The masonry was completed in 1866 ; and the wooden superstructure had been nearly all built when on July 25, 1866, it was totally destroyed by a tornado. The masonry was not injured, how- ever, and the work of rebuilding the superstructure was at once resumed, so that the bridge was finally completed November 20, 1866. It was 3,260 feet long, with a draw in the center, and cost in all $2,268,983. The wooden spans were replaced with iron spans between 1874 and 1879, ^^ ^ ^^^^ ^^ $506,621, and the draw span was completed in March, 1880. The bridge has been recently replaced by one built with steel, and raised to a height of 100 feet above the water, whereby the necessity for a draw has been eliminated. The old bridge is used for wagons and horses. The Port Deposit branch road was completed on December 17, 1866, and was subse- quently sold to the Columbia & Port Deposit Railroad Company. In 1878, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore railroad acquired some 1,500 feet of water front on the north side of Baltimore Harbor, extending from Eastern avenue to Patuxent street, Canton, and partly for the accommodation of the traffic from the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, erected a pier 450 feet long at Locust Point. The relations between these two companies remained harmonious until 1880. In that year trouble which had arisen between the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and the Pennsyl- vania railroad over the right of way over the Junction railroad at Phila- delphia led to the formation of a syndicate friendly to the Baltimore & Ohio, to purchase the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore. On Feb- 492 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ruary 22, 1881, announcement was made that the syndicate had secured a controlling interest from Director N. P. Thayer, of Boston, where some 85% of the stock was owned. But the syndicate had reckoned without the Pennsylvania railroad. The latte'r, being aware that Mr. Thayer had sold the stock short at $70 a share, and suspecting that he was not author- ized to offer more than that amount, informed the Boston stockholders that they could obtain a better price for their shares. This informaticm gave rise to a stockholders' committee which soon secured control of more than half the stock. On the 7th of March this committee entered into an agreement to sell the stock to the Pennsylvania railroad at $80 a share. On June i, 1881, the contract was carried out, and the Philadelphia, Wil- mington & Baltimore railroad became part of the Pennsylvania railroad system. The Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Company was organized to fulfill the long-felt need of the Southern Maryland counties for direct railroad connections with Baltimore and the Potomac river. The onnpany was chartered by the State of Maryland on May 6, 1853, to build its road from Baltimore down the Western Shore and across flie lower Potomac to form a junction with the Richmond & Fredericksburg Railroad at Aquia Creek, thus forming a link in what was to be a continuous line from Bal- timore to Richmond. The new company showed no further sign of life until December, 1858, when an organization was effected and a board of directors chosen, who met at Baltimore, January 12, 1859, and elected John Stephen Sell- man president. He was succeeded in 1861 by Oden Bowie, who succeeded in bringing the road to completion, and retained his office until his death in 1894. Hardly had he been elected when the Civil War broke out, put- ting an end to the progress of the new railroad during the next four years. As soon as peace was restored, however. President Bowie resumed his search for necessary capital. At last he approached the Pennsylvania rail- road. The latter, ever since it purchased the Northern Central, had been badly in need of an outlet of its own to Washington. A position hostile to it had been assumed by the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which owned the only existing line between the two cities, and possessed sufficient politi- cal influence to prevent the granting of a franchise to build another. In the Baltimore & Potomac railroad the Pennsylvania was quick to see its opportunity. The former's charter authorized the construction of a road from Baltimore through or near Upper Marlborough and Port Tobacco to the Potomac river between Liverpool Point and the mouth of the St^ Mary's river, with the right to construct "lateral branches" not exceeding 20 miles in length. The Pennsylvania railroad promptly purchased a con- trolling interest in the Baltimore & Potomac railroad ; and in 1867, acting under the clause in the charter just alluded to, the company b^^n active preparations to build the Washington "branch," 18.9 miles in length, which was to leave the main stem at Bowie Junction, 25 miles from Baltimore. Congressional authority for the extension of the branch through the District of Columbia was secured, and the work of construction begun in 1868. The road's enemies used every effort to block its progress. In 1867, ^s soon as the design to build a railroad to Washington under the "lateral branch" clause of the Baltimore & Potomac charter had become ap- parent, a strenuous attempt was made to induce the Maryland legislature to cancel the charter — an attempt which was frustrated by Governor Oden Bowie. The legislation necessary to enable the work to proceed was also strongly opposed in each case. But the new line proceeded in spite of all HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 493 obstacles. On May 29, 1869, the mayor and city council of Baltimore authorized it to use certain streets in the city. Two years later (May 23, 187 1 ) the municipal authorities of Washington granted the company per- mission to establish a station upon government property at 6th and B streets, which permission was confirmed by the Congressional Act of May 21, 1872.* In the meantime, during the years 1870 and 1871, the work of building the road had been rapidly pushed forward. On July 2, 1872, trains began to run from Baltimore to Washington. Six months later (January i, 1873) the main stem was completed as far as Pope's Creek, 73.1 miles from Baltimore. The first trains for Washington left Baltimore at Lafayette Station, on the northwestern boundary of the city, to which passengers were trans- ferred from Calvert Station in coaches. In order to secure a junction with the Northern Central railway and the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore, the Baltimore & Potomac railroad was compelled to open the two great tunnels, a mile and a half in their combined length, which run from the North Avenue bridge under the northwestern section of the city. These tunnels were planned as early as 1869. The work of construction was commenced in June, 1871, and although delayed by several unfore- seen difficulties — among them a strange epizootic influenza which broke out among the horses employed — it was finished July 29, 1873. The total cost was more than $2,500,000. Another tunnel one-third of a mile long was built under the streets of Washington. The Washington branch extended to the south end of the Long Bridge across the Potomac in Washington. This structure, which had been built by the United States government, was turned over in 1870 to the Baltimore & Potomac railroad, upon condition that the company should maintain it in good repair. Shortly afterward, the entire bridge had to be rebuilt, and important parts have been renewed several times since. At the south end of Long Bridge connection was made with the Washing- ton Southern railway, through which the Pennsylvania railroad obtained an entry into the South. The expense of building and repairing the bridge and the tunnels rendered this connection a very costly one ; but it has proven itself nevertheless to be a very profitable investment. The early days of the Baltimore & Potcmiac railroad's operations have been aptly described as "stormy." Its properties and equipment were in- complete and inadequate, its organization imperfect, and the competition of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which very amiably described it as the "sewer route," was active and relentless. Gradually, however, the new road overcame its difficulties and imperfections, and advanced to a high state of efficiency. On November i, 1891, the operation of the Baltimore & Potomac railroad^ with its branches, was assumed by the Philadelphia, Wilmington *This rather extraordinary action on the part of Congress in granting the use rent free of government property for a railroad station is said to have been occasioned largely by the Baltimore & Ohio railroad's requirement that all luggage on its way to or from Washington should be rechecked at Baltimore. The inconvenience and annoyance brought upon members of Congress and their families by the persistent enforcement of this regulation aroused in them a feeling of great irritation toward the management of the road. Finally, the scant courtesy with which a request from Alexander P. Shepherd, a figure of commanding influence in Congress, for a con- ference looking toward an abatement of the objectionable practice, was treated by the president of the road, crystallized the determination to establish a competing line at an^ cost; and Mr. Shepherd had no difficulty in securing for the Baltimore & Potomac railroad the permission to use the property in question for a terminal. 494 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE & Baltimore railroad. Finally, on November i, 1902, the unity for oper- ating purposes of the two roads was made a legal actuality through their consolidation into the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington railroad. This division is now one of the most important links in the entire Pennsylvania system. It is among the best constructed and most efficient roads in the United States, and over it pass the Pennsylvania railroad's finest and fast- est trains running between New York, Baltimore, Washington and the South. Union Station. — The original Union Station was built on its present site in the early seventies, upon the completion of the Baltimore & Poto- mac railroad, and was used by the Baltimore & Potomac, the Northern Cen- tral railway, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore, and the Western Maryland railroads. It was enlarged in 1882 and entirely rebuilt in 1885. But although the new building, opened for business April i, 1886, was the finest station in the city at the time, it became obsolete in its turn. Finally, in 1910, after long continued solicitations and protests, the Pennsylvania railroad, upon being given the privilege of laying certain additional tracks under the Charles street and Maryland avenue bridges and in the vicinity, undertook to erect a new Union Station. The work of tearing down the old structure was begun in the spring of 1910. The new building was completed and opened for business on September 15, 191 1, at a total cost approaching a million dollars. Many people are of the opinion that Balti- more's size and importance demanded and justified a more expensive edi- fice. Consequently, although a great improvement over its predecessor, the third Union Station cannot be said to have evoked a feeling of universal satisfaction. The Western Maryland Railroad. — The probable benefits of a rail- road from Baltimore to the Western Maryland counties traversed by the Frederick road and other turnpikes had been perceived at an early period. The Baltimore & Ohio was deterred from choosing this route in 1830 only by the inability of its engineers, in the then primitive state of the science joi railroad building, to devise a practicable method of crossing South Mountain. A year or two later, as we have seen, the Baltimore & Susque- hanna pushed its Green Spring branch nine miles toward Westminster, with the general intention of ultimately reaching the Blue Ridge, but abandoned it upon resuming the construction of the main stem. Twenty years elapsed before the enterprise was again taken up. On May 27, 1852, however, the Baltimore, Carroll & Frederick Railroad Com- pany was incorporated, with authority to build a railroad to the "head- waters of the Monocacy river," either from Baltimore or from the exist- ing terminus of the Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad ccnnpany's Green Spring branch. The next year its name was changed to "Western Mary- land Railroad Company," and it was given the further power to issue $1,000,000 face value of bonds and to extend its line to Hagerstown. There followed a delay of five or six years, during which practically the only result achieved was a decision to start the road at the terminus of the Green Spring branch, and to use the main stem of the Baltimore & Susquehanna from Lake Roland to Baltimore. It was further arranged that the West- «em Maryland railroad should itself operate the branch until it should build a line of its own to Baltimore, or secure an entry otherwise than over the tracks of the Northern Central railway. The road was put under construction in the late fifties, and opened to Owings Mills on August 11, 1859. By June 15, 1861, it had progressed as far as Westminster ; the end of another year found it at Union Bridge. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 495 From this point it was opened on January 9, 1871, to Mechanicsville^ 59 miles from Baltimore. In the meantime, the line west of the Blue Ridge had been begun in 1866. The same year, an act was passed by the legislature authorizing the county commissioners of Washington county to subscribe to $150,000 of the company's stock, the money to be expended in grading the road from the western slope of the Mountain to Hagerstown. Some time elapsed, however, before it was completed across the mountains. The eastern and western divisions of the road were finally joined on June 6, 1872, when trains began to run to Hagerstown. During the following year, the Wil- liamsport "extension" and Sie "short line" from Baltimore to Owings Mills were built. The Green Spring branch being no longer needed, reverted to the Northern Central railway, which has operated it ever since as part of its system. The Western Maryland railroad was finally opened from Bal- timore to the Potomac at Cherry Run on December 17, 1873. In 1874, the Western Maryland secured from the Baltimore and Potomac railroad the use of its tunnel and tracks into Union Station, and thence to tfie site of Hillen Station, erected in 1875. A large part of the capital employed in building the Western Maryland railroad to the Potomac was supplied by Washington county and Balti- more City. Beside subscribing to the stock just mentioned, the county indorsed $300,000 par value of the company's bonds. Baltimore City like- wise indorsed bonds to the value of $2,375,000, and supplied the funds with which Hillen Station was built. Both city and county were repre- sented upon the company's directorate. As a consequence, political con- siderations entered very largely into its policies and its choice of officers. This may account in some measure for the waste of money in connection with the construction of the road. Although the route presented no ex- traordinary difficulties, the cost per mile of the line from Batlimore to Cherry Run was far greater than that of any other road in Maryland. Its funded debt, exclusive of the amount paid in for capital stock, was $4,205,- 250, or more than $48,000 to the mile of main stem. Its equipment, more- over, was scanty and in bad condition^ and its service caused the road to occupy a very low place in the public estimation. The fortunes of the Western Maryland railroad gradually improved under the presidency of the late John Mifflin Hood, whose term of office extended from 1874 to 1902. Politics were eliminated from the counsels of the company, its debts were paid off or adjusted, the main stem was rebuilt, and the equipment increased. The wisdom of Mr. Hood's policies was not at first perceived, and he was at times subjected to harsh criti- cism. The change of feeling, however, which subsequently came about is evidenced by the firte statue recently erected at Baltimore and Liberty streets to commemorate his work. Important additions to the lines of the Western Maryland railroad were made during this period. The original surveys had carried the main stem through Emmitt^burg and Waynesborough ; but this plan having been altered as a result of the multitude of counsels prevailing bewteen 1867 and 1870, it became necessary to secure connections with these towns by branch roads. In 1875 a branch was opened to Emmittsburg from Rocky Ridge, on the main stem. Waynesborough was reached by the Baltimore & Cumberland Valley lines from Edgemont, which were afterward extended through Chambersburg to Shippensburg, a distance of 33J4 miles in all. These lines were leased by the Western Maryland July i, 1879, and July i, 1881, for fifty years. / 496 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Early in 1880 the Baltimore & Hanover railroad was completed to the main stem at Emory Grove. On September 26, 1880, it was consolidated with the Hanover Junction, Hanover & Gettysburg, and Backman Valley roads, to form the Baltimore & Harrisburg railway. Its line reaches from Emory Grove to Orretanna, Pennsylvania (5843 miles), and from Valley Junction to Hanover Junction (6.2 miles). It was leased October 25, 1886, to the Western Maryland, which owns practically all its stock. Sub- sequently it was extended west from Orretanna to Highfield, and east from Porter's Junction to York; and these extensions were also leased by the Western Maryland, June i, 1889, and January 21, 1896, respectively. Finally, the line of the Washington & Franklin railroad from Hagerstown to Zimfro, Pennsylvania, was leased June i, 1901. Until its purchase* in 1902 by Mr. George Gould and his associates in the management of the Wabash railroad, the Western Maryland railroad business had been principally local in character. Soon after the change of ownership, plans to broaden the scope of the road's operations were formulated. The same year, it acquired control of the West Virginia Central & Pittsburg railway, whose line extended from a juncticMi with the Piedmont and Cumberland railroad near Piedmont, 134.42 miles to Elkins, West Virginia, with branches to Elk Garden, Hartmansville, Davis and Huttonsville. This company had been chartered February 26, 1866, as the Potomac & Piedmont Coal and Railroad Company, but had had its name changed February 23^ 1881. In addition to its railroad property, it owned extensive coal lands on the east slope of the Allegany Moun> tains. On November i, 1905, it sold its railroad properties outright to the Western Maryland railroad. The latter, however, still retains control of the other's coal lands through stock ownership. It now owns or controls in all 132,500 acres of coal land, which it operates through the Davis Coal and Coke Company. In order that the Western Maryland railroad might secure the full benefit of the traffic from the region served by the West Virginia Central & Pittsburg railway, it was obliged to build the trt^in stem across the sixty- mile gap between Cherry Run and Cumberland, v The expected increase in the road's business from this and other sources \ also demanded an out- let at tidewater. Both of these important improvements were at once put under way. The "tide-water extension" from Wajbrook Junction south- west to Port Covington on the south side of the hai^bor, and the terminals there situate, were begun in 1902 and opened for lousiness in September, 1904. The coal pier was completed in February, 19135. In the meantime, the "Cumberland Extension" had been started Augtist i, 1903, and was put into commission June 17, 1906. The branch jlast acauired by the Western Maryland is the George's Creek and Cuiinberlana railroad, 33 miles long, from Cumberland to certain mines neir Lonaconing. The stock of this company was purchased on January 17, j 1907. Present-day interest in the Western Maryland] Railroad is centered upon its recent development as a trunk line, througm an extension to con- nect with the Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad at IConnellsville, Pennsyl- vania. The desirability of such an extension, fronli the viewpoint of tfie Western Maryland railroad, was recognized years Jigo. Plans to make it a reality, however, were not perfected until the period of the Western Maryland receivership. This began in 1908 and lasted until the sale of *This purchase of stock control in the Western l^aryland railroad was made practically from the City of Baltimore, which thereby re«;eived principal and interest of what had been theretofore deemed a practically worthir *ss asset. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 497 all the property of the Western Maryland railroad, on November 19, 1909, in pursuance of a prearranged scheme of reorganization, to a committee who immediately conveyed it to the Western Maryland Railway Company, chartered December i, 1909. The control of the new company was retained by the Goulds. In the meantime, a ninety-nine-year traffic agreement had been concluded with the New York Central Lines for the use of the Pitts- burg & Lake Erie railroad. Accordingly, the new company immediately arranged for the necessary extension of the road to Connellsville. This extension leaves the main stem at a point two miles wes^ of Cumberland^ and will run 87.02 miles to South Connellsville, Pennsylvania, where the connection with the Pittsburg & Lake Erie will be made. About 18 miles of the new line will be constructed under the charter of the George's Creek & Cumberland Railroad Company, the remainder under the charter of the Connellsville & State Line Railway Company, incorporated April 27, 1910. The cost, as estimated, will aggregate $2,700,000. The work of construction is now practically completed, and the line is expected to be opened for business on August i, 191 2. Through this extension the Western Maryland will become the tidewater outlet of the New York Central lines, thus qualifying as a full-fledged trunk line. In antici- pation of the large increase of traiiic expected to result, it is preparing to spend no less than $7,000,000 in the construction of terminal facilities at Hillen Statical and Port Covington. Furthermore, a new line of transat- lantic steamers is in contemplation to handle the augmented export business. The stimulating effects of this development upon the prosperity and commercial importance of Baltimore are awaited with eager anticipation. Minor Railroads, and Railroad Connections, — Besides the railroad sys- tems just discussed, there are several smaller lines that should be men- tioned. The Maryland & Pennsylvania railroad pursues a winding route from Baltimore through Towson, Bel Air and Delta to York, Pennsylvania. The existing company was chartered February 14, 1901, as a consolidation of the York Southern and the Baltimore & Lehigh railway companies. The latter was itself a consolidated company, the senior constituent member of which was the Baltimore & Swann Lake Passenger railway, chartered in 1868, and renamed the Baltimore, Hampden & Towsontown Railway Com- pany in 1874. Four years later this company was merged with the Balti- more & Delta Railway Company, chartered in 1870. The road from Bal- timore to Delta was begun August 23, 1881. Originally narrow gauge, it was changed to standard gauge shortly after the last consolidation. The Maryland & Pennsylvania railroad also leases the line of the Maryland & Pennsylvania Terminal railway, one mile long, connecting its tracks with those of the Baltimore & Ohio. The Maryland Electric Railway Company operates a trolley line be- tween Baltimore and Annapolis. It was chartered in 1906, and consolidated in August of that year with the Baltimore & Annapolis Short Line, which had for a number of years operated a steam railroad between the two cities. The substitution of electricity for steam as motive power took place in 1908. Youngest of all is the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad Company, incorporated March 30, 191 1, also an electric road. The parent corporation was the Potomac & Severn Electric Railway Company, char- tered May 22, 1899, whose name was subsequently changed to Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway. This company completed its line in 1908, but almost immediately went into the hands of a receiver. Its i 498 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE property was sold on foreclosure on March 30, 191 1, and so came into the possession of the present corporate owner. The railroad connections which Baltimore secures through its water lines should not be overlooked in an account of the city's transportation facilities. Several of the bay steamers connect with trains for various points on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Delaware Peninsula, and the seacoast of both States. But most important of all is the connecticMi secured with the great Seaboard Air Line and Southern Railroad systems at Portsmouth, Virginia, through the Baltimore Steam Packet Company and the Chesapeake Steamship Company, respectively. These lines have done much to place Baltimore in the commanding position with reference to the Southern trade which she has so long occupied. Steamboat Namgation on the Chesapeake Bay and Its Tributaries. — The first steamboat upon the Bay was the Chesapeake, owned by the Union Line of Philadelphia packets, which made her initial trip to Ajinapolis on June 12, 1813, and began her regular route to Frenchtown on June 21st She was followed in July, 18 15, by the Eagle, owned by a rival packet line to Philadelphia. The first steamer which ran from Baltimore to Norfolk and Richmond was also named the Eagle and was put on in 1815. Then came the Vir- ginia on August 17, 1817, and the Alabama in 1837. On December i, 1849, the Baltimore and Norfolk line instituted a schedule of regular trips on alternate days; two years later the steamers began to make their trips daily. Such was the origin of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, familiarly known as the ''Old Bay Line," which from that time to this has operated the finest steamers on the Chesapeake Bay. The other regular line between Baltimore and Norfolk is the Chesa- peake Steamship Company, incorporated at a much later date. This com- pany is in reality a branch of the Baltimore and York River Line, which began to ply between Baltimore and Richmond, via West Point, in 1867, and was reorganized in 1873. Steamboat traffic between Baltimore and the Eastern Shore was in- augurated by the steamer Maryland, which began in 1818 to run to Talbot county. She was succeeded by the Paul Jones (1838), the Osiris (1843), the Cambridge (1846), and a number of others at later periods down to 1854. The first of the modem lines of steamboats between Baltimore and the various points along the shores of the Chesapeake and its tributaries was the Eastern Shore Steamboat Company, incorporated June 16, 1869. The first steamer owned by this company, the Maggie, had been put on this route October 26, 1867. She was followed by the Helen (1871), the Sue, and the Tangier (1875), ^'^ of which are still in commission, or were until very recently. Other lines soon followed. On September i, 1894, the Eastern Shore Steamboat Company was consolidated with the Mary- land Steamboat Company, the Choptank Steamboat Company, and the Bal- timore and Eastern Shore Railroad Company, to form the Baltimore, Chesa- peake & Atlantic Railway Company. On January 30, 1905, the Maryland, Delaware & Virginia Railway Company was incorporated, and succeeded under a plan of reorganization to the property and franchises of the Queen Anne Railroad Company, the Chester River Steamboat Company, and the Weems Steamboat Company. In February, 1905, the Baltimore, Chesa- peake & Atlantic Railway Company acquired a controlling interest in the stock of the newly organized Maryland, Delaware & Virginia Railway Com- pany. The stock control of the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 499 in its turn has been purchased by the Pennsylvania railroad, which thus holds a substantial monopoly of the Bay traffic. Practically the only line not owned or controlled by the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway Company is the Tolchester Steamboat Company, whose steamers run to certain points on both sides of the Bay. Mention should be made of the Baltimore & Philadelphia Steamboat Company — the "Ericcson Line" — ^which runs daily boats to Philadelphia via the Chesapeake and Delaware canal. The New York & Baltimore Transportation Company likewise affords Baltimore steamship connection with New York. Ocean Lines, — This city had the honor of greeting the first steamship that ever crossed the Atlantic from Europe to America — ^the City of Kings- ton, which arrived here on her initial trip in February, 1838. In 1865 a line of steamers from Baltimore to Liverpool was established with the co- operation of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, but did not meet with great success. It was succeeded by the North German Lloyd, or Baltimore and Bremen line. This line was instituted as the result of a contract between the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and the North German Lloyds, calling for at least two iron steamers to run between Baltimore and Bremen for not less than five years. In pursuance of this agreement, the Baltimore and the Bremen were put on in 1868 to run in conjunction with the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. The first arrival of the Baltimore in the city of its name in March of that year was made the subject of a public celebration. On April 22d the Bremen arrived with a full complement of passengers and a general cargo. The service thus inaugurated continued under the name of the North German Lloyd Steamship Company with growing success down to the present time. Steamship communication with Boston was opened by the Joseph Whitney in 1856. The existing line was established in 1864 by the Mer- chants & Miners Transportation Company, whose fine steamers now ply regularly between this city and Boston, Providence, Savannah and Jack- sonville. Other coastwise lines are the New York & Baltimore Transportation Company and the Baltimore & Carolina Steamship Company, which con- nects this city with Georgetown and Charleston, South Carolina. Regular steamship lines run from Baltimore to Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Belfast, Leith, Cardiff, Dublin, and occasionally Newcastle, all in the United Kingdom; and to Hamburg, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Ant- werp* Havre, and at times to Amsterdam, on the continent. Steamers sail from Baltimore with some regularity to Colon, Panama ; and fruit steamers sail to Jamaica, Santo Domingo, Sama, Cuba, and Central America. Plans have also been discussed for the establishment of a new line from Baltimore to the Pacific coast via the Panama canal. The Baltimore fire of 1904 destroyed a large part of the waterfront on the north side of the harbor. In the spirit of progress awakened by that great catastrophe, the city seized upon the opportunity so offered to improve its facilities for water transportation by constructing a number of large modem docks. This enterprise was financed by municipal loans au- thorized by the legislature and ratified by popular vote. The docks were put under construction shortly after the fire, and as completed one by one they have been leased on favorable terms. January i, 191 1, the first eight docks had been virtually finished, at a cost of $4,824,016.61. Others are projected or actually under construction on both sides of the harbor. With regard to the extent of its municipally 500 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE constructed and owned dock system, Baltimore is said to stand in the lead of all other American cities except New York ; and with respect to rapidity of progress in the construction of municipal docks she leads the metropolis itself. The harbor facilities have been improved in other particulars as well. During the past few years the channel has been dredged to a minimum depth of twenty-four feet in the inner basin, and becomes gradually deeper as it proceeds southward. Just below the Lazaretto Light is the head of a fine channel thirty-five feet deep and six hundred feet wide, extending all the way to the capes. Agitation is now directed toward widening this channel to one thousand feet and deepening it to forty feet ; and also toward dredging to thirty-five and thirty feet the harbor channels to the Inner Basin. To render the harbor more accessible, the city is constructing and planning a line of highways which, when completed, will encircle practically the entire waterfront with a continuous thoroughfare. Within the city limits there are said to be about eighteen miles of waterfront property and 137,000 front feet of wharf room, which is capable of very great expansion. And when the extent of waterfront along the shores of Canton Hollow and branches, the Middle Branch, Spring Gardens, and the Patapsco proper is considered, it is readily seen that Baltimore has water facilities which, when developed, will ensure her a commandii^ posi- tion among the ports along the Atlantic seaboard. COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES OF BALTIMORE E. Emmet Reid, Ph. D. If life is ''adjustment to environment/' then Baltimore is truly a living organism, for the commercial history of Baltimore is a story of continuous adjustment to a rapidly and radically changing environment. This life may be divided into a number of distinct periods, each conditioned by a different set of external circumstances and characterized by a different sort of response on the part of the civic organism. The first of these periods, that of small beginnings, is from flie found- ing of Baltimore Town in 1729 to about the middle of the eighteenth cen- tury; while the second period, that of restrained but steady development, brings us up to the outbreak of the Revolution. The third period, that of self-realization and phenomenal development, includes the two wars with England and the interval between. The fourth period, that of disappoint- ment and readjustment, reaches to somewhere about 1830, and shades into the fifth period, that of steady growth, which was terminated by the dis- astrous and bewildering years of the Civil War. The sixth period, that of the "differential," began with the recovery from those dark years and continues to the present time. Through the many vicissitudes of these widely different periods the pluck of Baltimore's men and women has never failed, and has ever trans- formed the reverse of a day into the victory of the morrow. The unique location of the city, which determined her early growth, has ever remained the one unfailing source of her strength and inalienable guarantee of her future. These periods will be briefly sketched in order, and then some account will be given of a few of the prominent industries of the city, more than one of which has made Baltimore famous. Period of Small Beginnings. — ^This period comprises the interval of time from 1729, when Bsdtimore consisted of 60 vacant lots for sale at $10 each, with tardy buyers even at that price, when the entire city tract would have been bartered for nine hogsheads of cheap tobacco f. o. b., till the time of the making of Moale's famous sketch in 1752, when 27 buildings, includ- ing one church and two taverns, had been erected, and 200 people had linked their fortunes with those of the new metropolis. The commerce of the colony was at that time carried on in small sailing vessels of light draught which penetrated without difficulty the myriad intricacies of the estuaries of the Chesapeake and found passable landii^s almost everywhere. No farm in the colony was far from the water, and many of the planters had their own wharves. Dozens of centers of trade sprang up, each with a harbor good enough and large enough for all that there then was of com- merce. The best was slow in winning over the many good-enoughs. In these twenty-three years the shipping of the future American Venice — for Baltimore was the Venice of America at the end of the i8th century, as 501 S02 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE she bids fair to be the Liverpool of America a century later — had grown to two vessels: a sloop, the Baltimore, and a brig, the Philip and Charles, so proudly exhibited in the above-mentioned drawing, and belonging re- spectively to Mr. Lux and Mr. N. Rogers, The combined capacity of these was some 40 tons, or the load of a moderate-sized freight car of the present day. Annapolis, as the seat of government and as a well-established center of wealth and culture, completely overshadowed Baltimore. Elkridge Land- ing, Joppa, and other places to which farmers rolled their tobacco, were close competitors of Baltimore, and it was a long time before the splendid natural advantages of Baltimore won the contest for her. The manufacture of pig iron had begun in this region even before the founding of Baltimore Town, and the prospects of profit from this industry were so great that John Moale, on whose level land between the middle and southern branches of the Patapsco it was proposed to locate the town, thought the iron ore on the land of more value than the proposed city, and brought about the defeat in the Assembly of the bill locating the town on his property. In 1710-11 Maryland and Virginia exported some three tcHis of iron to England. In 1729 Maryland exported 852 tons of pig iron* and nearly double as much in 1730. The numerous deposits of ore and the abundant water power around Baltimore concentrated the industry in this vicinity, though little iron was ever made in the town. Whetstone Point, the present site of Fort McHenry, was so named from a deposit of "hone" iron ore. It is hard to think of this, the present priceless possession of the Nation, as at one time belonging to an individual who in 1725 was willing to part with it to one Johns Giles for the consideration of one pound sterling. Abundant water power around Baltimore led to the erection of mills to grind the wheat and com which grew so abundantly on the Maryland plantations. In 171 1 Hanson had a mill on Jones' Falls, and soon all the streams which converge toward Baltimore were turning millstones or blow- ing furnaces. Many of the mills had bakeries attached for making ship biscuit. The working of clay, subsequently so important to the city, was begun in 1730, when Charles Wells made 100,000 bricks in Baltimore for the erec- tion of St. Paul's Church, though bricks were brought from England for other structures. Captain Lux started the first tannery on Exeter street in 1743- In 1748 there was an influx of Germans, who brought with them their trades of spinning wool and flax, weaving of linen and woolen goods, mak- ing harness and saddles, and other trades of use to the community. In this year the two Barnetz brothers, from York, Pennsylvania, erected a brewery on the southwest corner of Baltimore and Hanover streets. In 1742 regular shipments of tobacco from Baltimore began, and in 1750 a tobacco inspection warehouse was erected on the west side of Charles street, and a public wharf commenced at the foot of Calvert street. Baltimore was becoming a center of trade and was taking an active part in the general development of the Colony, of which an official report in December, 1748, says: "The trade of the Province consists chiefly in the exportation of tobacco to England in vessels yearly sent thither from thence." Engaged in this trade were about 200 vessels of some 12,000 tons, navigated by 4,000 men. The vessels owned in the province were about 50, of 4,000 tons burden, manned by about 400 men. Period of Restrained but Steady Development — In 1752 Baltimore was one of a number of little settlements on the Chesapeake, while by 1776 An- napolis was its only remaining rival in Maryland, and Baltimore had evolved HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 503 into continental importance as a center of trade and influence and was beginning to compete with Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Perhaps the greatest triumph and the proudest moment in the whole race was when, in 1768, Joppa, situated on the Gunpowder river, was passed, and the county courthouse and jail transferred from Joppa to Baltimore Town, which thereby became the county town, with all the dignities and privileges thereto appertaining. William Eddis, in 1771, in Letters from America, wrote of the 4 1 -year-old town of Baltimore: 'The commencetnent of a trade so lucrative to the first adventurers soon became an object of universal attention. Persons of a commercial and enterprising spirit emigrated from all quarters to this new and promising scene of industry . . . and within forty years from its first commencement Baltimore became not only the most wealthy and populous town in the Province, but inferior to few on this continent either in size, number of inhabitants, or in the advantages arising from a well* conducted and universal and commercial connection." At this time it is hard to understand the restrictions that were put upon colonial trade. In 165 1 the British navigation act was passed by which direct trade of the colonies with all foreign countries was cut off, as all goods had to be landed in England and pay duty there. Even this trade was restricted to English-built ships. In 1699 it was enacted by Parliament that "no wool, yarn, or woolen manufactures of the American plantations" should be shipped to the mother country or sent thither en route to other countries. In 1719 it was further resolved by the British Commons that "the erection of manufactories in the colonies tended to lessen their depend- ence on Great Britain." Even Lord Chatham, so often the champion of our rights in other matters, grew indignant at the thought of American manufactures and exclaimed: ''I would not permit them to make a hob nail." A certain amount of greatly restricted trade was permitted with the south of Europe. These restrictions rendered the development of any considerable amount of commerce and manufacturing impossible, though, doubtless, the laws were sometimes evaded with great profit to the daring ship owners of Baltimore. Business in the Colony of Maryland was always hampered by the lack of suitable and sufficient currency, and trade was car- ried on largely by barter, the Assembly making tobacco and corn legal tender in 1732. In 1761 the annual exports from Maryland were 28,000 hogsheads of tobacco, besides wheat, lumber, corn, flour, pig and bar iron, with small quantities of skins and furs, amounting to a total value of £80,000. The manufacture of iron was discouraged by the English, who offered a bounty on iron exported from England to the colonies. As early as 1719 the Mary- land Assembly attempted to stimulate the manufacture of pig iron by grant- ing 100 acres of land to any one putting up a furnace. American iron was made to pay a duty of 3s. 6d. per ton for pig and £2 is. 6d. on bar iron. This duty was removed in 1752 but the erection of additional mills was forbidden. For a time the manufacture of pig iron in America was en- couraged in order to save English forests and to check importation from Sweden, but every effort was made to prevent the colonists from working up the crude pig iron. The manufacture of flour was continuously and profitably carried on, \ particularly around Baltimore. The splendid water-power so near to the 1 city aided greatly in the development of mills, furnaces, forges, and finally v cotton factories. The following table, giving the fall in each stream, the horse-power, and the estimated possible mills or possible spindles, strikingly shows the extent and availability of this power : S04 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Watbr Power of Streams near Baltimorb. Patapsoo Great Gunpowder Little Gunpowder. . . Jones Palls Uwinn's PaUs Herring Run Union Kun Winter's Run Pateuxent w. branch Pateuxent n. branch Total WrrHiN 10 Milks or Baltimorb Pan in Feet 193 36 » ■ • • ?59 372 150 106 Pain of 6ft.niill- ■tones 176 33 • • • 43 62 5 2 323 Spindle 352,000 66,000 86,000 124,000 10,000 4,000 642,000 Horw trOfWfT 1,760 330 • ■ » » 430 620 50 20 3»2IO OVBR 10 MILES BUT WITHIN 20 Pan in Feet 264 250 I • • • 60 150 160 250 Pain of 6ftjniU. 69 242 42 Spindlet H 25 53 486 339,000 484,000 82,000 6,000 50,000 104,000 106,000 697 2420 420 • • « • 30 250 520 530 971,000 4.867 Domestic manufactures, that is, the making of articles for home con- sumption in the home or on the plantation, were carried on with increasing success, so that in 1753 Comptroller Weare, British consul at Madeira, wrote, from his own dt>servation, that in spite of the poor quality of the wool and the high price of labor, ''the planters of Maryland almost entirely clothe themselves in their own woolens, and that generally people are slid- ing into the manufactures proper to their native country." From 1763, when England disposed of her troubles with France and had her hands free to deal with the colonies, she systematically set about curbing the growing spirit of independence that was everywhere manifest. Fresh burdens and restrictions were put on American manufactures. The political effect of these measures is well known, but the material effect as relates to the industries of the country is scarcely less important. Of what avail would political independence have been, had not industrial independ- ence been won also? That famous Fourth of July declaration of political independence in 1776 was preceded by the non-importation agreement of 1769. As the one was made good by the tramp of soldiers and the gleam of bayonets, so the other was backed up by the sound of hammers and the hum of spindles. As class after class of British goods was put on the non- importation list, one after another line of manufactures had to be taken up by the colonists. When it became unpopular to wear British cloth the do- mestic article had to take its place. Much ingenuity and labor were fre- quently required to meet the demands thus suddenly thrown upon what were then really infant industries of the country. The bravery and efficiency of the Maryland Line in the field of battle have been celebrated in song and story, but the final success of the struggle depended ultimately quite as much on the captains of industry and their industrious cohorts. In the prepara- tion for the war and in its prosecution the industrial soldiery of Baltimore took a prominent part. Baltimore mills were ready with flour for the army, Baltimore furnaces and forges were chiefly depended upon to supply cannon and balls, and muskets as well, and Baltimore shipbuilders were the quick- est and most efficient in putting ships to sea for the common cause. The man behind the gun was undoubtedly brave, but he could not have accom- plished much without the gun, and in the Revolution the gun was ''made in Baltimore," or at one of the forges of this district. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 505 Previous to 1780 all vessels to or from Baltimore had to be entered and cleared at Annapolis, but in that year a custom house was opened in Baltimore. During all this period the growth of Baltimore was steady, though quiet, and the external restrictions which were put upon her growth served only to make that growth more solid. It would seem that the plant was being topped and cut back, and kept from blooming for a long time, in order that it might put its stored up strength into a marvelous bloom. At any rate, this is what came to pass in the succeeding period in which Bal- timore did bloom out, and bloomed as few cities ever have done. Period of Self -Realization and Phenomenal Development. — ^This is the most romantic period in the history of Baltimore, and is unsurpassed in the story of any other American city. . For a generation Baltimore was the Venice of the New World. Her sails whitened every sea from China, all the way around to India; her merchants were known in every port where there was aught to sell or buy. They bought from all the world, they sold to all the world, and, besides, carried what others bought and sold. Those who know the present conservative Baltimore are hard pressed to imagine the Baltimore of that time, when her merchants and sailors were among the most daring and reckless that ever went down to the sea in ships. They cheerfully embarked on voyages on which the rate for insurance was 50 per cent. They gambled with death in all its forms. They were, in turn, privateers attacking British ships in the English Channel, even at the en- trances of their home ports, fighting anything anywhere, and, in turn, blockade runners carrying contraband of war, or anything else that had a price, into and out of ports all over the world, no matter what navy was bloctcading the ports, risking life and cargo on a breath of wind or the turn of a tide, but no other ships ever built would sail so close to the wind, and few sailors ever sailed who would steer so close to destruction. The bare chronicles of the period make the most highly wrought tales of adventure seem tame in comparison, but only the commercial side of these events can be touched on here. When, in 1775, Congress decided to create a fleet, Baltimore was the first community to answer the call. In the next year Congress began to license privateers, and fighting became a business. From April, 1777, to April, 1783, Baltimore sent out 250 of these privateers of an aggregate of 19,840 gross tons, carrying 1,810 guns and 640 swivels. The men on these vessels are variously estimated at from five to seven thousand. The total population of Baltimore at the beginning of the Revolution was only about 7,000. French, Spanish, and Dutch merchants sent money to Baltimore to be in- vested in privateers in this war. The chief factor in this period was the famous "Baltimore Clipper," which is claimed to have been the fastest and staunchest craft ever built. Captain W. F. Wise, R. N., of the British frigate Granicus, said : "In Eng- land we cannot build such vessels as your 'Baltimore clippers.' We have no such models, and even if we had them they would be of no service to us, for we could never sail them as you do." The model is said by some to have originated in St. Michaels, in Talbot county, though others say the original was the "Virginia pilot boat." Still another theory ascribes the design to improvements matde by the Baltimore shipbuilders upon lines copied from French vessels which had put in for repairs. Upon the clipper model was later built the yacht America, which carried off the prize in the international races off the Isle of Wight in 1851. The model was peculiar in being higher and broader in the bow than in the stem. It seems to have So6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE combined stability, great speed, and ability to hold its course. The masts were long and slender, with an unusually large spread of canvas, cut so perfectly that none of the force of the wind was lost. The model is still copied in swift sailing craft. These "skimmers of the sea" were famed for speed and for being able to sail within 4^/^ points of the wind — ^nearer to the wind than any other craft upon the seas. They were exactly adapted to the perilous trades of privateering and blockade running. As privateers they were able to over- take their prey and to elude their enemies ; as blockade runners their speed was also useful and their ability to sail close to the wind was of great ad- vantage, for if they could only maneuver to windward of their pursuers they were entirely safe from capture. In the log boc^s of these elusive craft a frequent entry which told the story briefly but comprehensively was, "Chased by a frigate; outsailed her." "More than any other single cause they contributed to the early commercial development of Baltimore." In later years a brig, the John Gilpin, built on the clipper model, made what is considered a record voyage of 34,920 miles in 189 days, averaging over 183 miles per day. Another reason for the success of Baltimore in this period was the cosmopolitan character of the population which the fame of her adventures had brought together. There were among her citizens hardy men from all quarters of the globe, inured to hardship of every sort, acquainted with the opportunities of trade in every port, and ready to undertake any adventure. While there was a patriotic side to privateering, after all it was a business — a business attended with great risks, it is true, but one which, to the skillful skipper in speedy craft, brought enormous gains, running frequently into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for a cruise of a month or two. The Revolution made Baltimore commercially and industrially. The cutting oflF of the supply of English goods, on which the country had so long depended, created an enormous demand for something to take their place. This stimulated manufacturing. Major-General Greene, on his way north in 1783, passed through Baltimore and wrote in his diary: "Balti- more is a most thriving place. Trade flourishes and the spirit of building exceeds belief. Not less than 300 houses are put up in a year. Ground rents are little short of what they are in London. The inhabitants are men of business." In the same year General George Washington said in a speech here: "... It is my earnest wish that the commerce, the improve- ments, and universal prosperity of this flourishing town may, if possible, increase with even more rapidity than they have hitherto done." Millions of dollars' worth of money, ships, and goods had been accumulated by the operations of Baltimore privateers during the war, to be reinvested in other enterprises on sea and land. Before the Revolution the tobacco trade was entirely in the hands of British firms, who, at convenient river landings throughout the State, such as Bladensburg, Upper Marlboro, Annapolis, Elk Ridge Landing, etc., had agents and warehouses to buy up the crop and supply the planters with credit or goods in return. Poles were stuck through the hogsheads of tobacco, which were then rolled by oxen along the specially constructed "rolling roads" to these landings. The road to Elk Ridge Landing, though its name has been changed to Catonsville avenue, is still called "Rolling Road." At that time the Patapsco was navigable to that place for boats up to 200 tons. These English agents shipped the tobacco in English ships to England, where much of it was resold to the rest of Europe. The profits in retailing British goods to the planters were enormous, the rates of profit HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 507 being 50 per cent, for cash, 100 per cent, for barter, and 150 per cent, for credit sales. On the establishment of peace these agents returned to their old haunts with abundant capital and endeavored to re-establish the old order. In 1784 a large firm from Holland settled in Baltimore and began to buy tobacco for direct shipment. Other houses from Bremen and Ham- burg followed until the Baltimore merchants began to handle the crop and ship directly in their own ships to all parts of Europe. The result was the final exclusion of the English agents and the concentration of the tobacco, and with it the grain trades in Baltimore. The trade thus established grew with the settlement of the back country, and expanded with the extension of roads into the west. Over-speculation in tobacco and consequent losses about 1798 caused its culture to be nearly abandoned for a time, and gave a great impetus to the growing of wheat. In December, 1797, Baltimore Town was raised to the rank of a city. There were at that time owned here 103 ships, 162 brigs, 350 sloops and schooners, and hundreds of small coasters. In 1799 the streets were lighted. The high cost of overland transportation caused goods to seek the shortest possible route to the sea, and the peculiar location of Baltimore made it the natural outlet for a large and rich territory, including Maryland and reaching into Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The great roads from this large region came to a focus in Baltimore. From Columbia to Phila- delphia, 74 miles, over a good turnpike, the cost of hauling, including tolls, was $10 a ton. The importance of the harbor began to be realized, and in 1783 a commission of nine men was appointed to survey and keep clear the chan- nels. To defray the expense of this work a tax of id., and subsequently 2d., per ton was levied on all vessels entering or clearing from Baltimore. Streets were improved and markets and bridges built. In 1785 John O'Don- nell arrived from Canton, China, in the good ship Pallas, with a full cargo of Chinese goods. The French revolution and other wars caused a suspension or diminu- tion of agriculture in much of Europe, and created a great demand for American grain and flour, which then, as now, could best be supplied through Baltimore, and oiir merchants were quick to grasp the opportunity. At that time the West Indies and other large portions of the New World were colonies of one or another European power. The colonial systems then in vogue permitted these colonies little or no trade with any part of the world except the "mother country." During the numerous wars in Europe these restrictions on the trade of the colonies were frequently sus- pended and were more frequently impossible to enforce. On account of the danger of capture on the long voyage to Europe, the West Indies, in particular, were compelled to seek in America a market for their produce and a place for the purchase of needed supplies. An active trade sprang up, and such was the success of the "Baltimore clipper" in this trade that Baltimore became the depot and clearing house in which Europe and the West Indies exchanged their products, the goods usually making both voyages in Baltimore vessels. Whole cargoes of rich West Indian goods were regularly sold at auction in Baltimore. Besides this trade through Baltimore, our ships, in consequence of their own swiftness, the daring of their seamen, and the enterprise of their owners, acquired an important share in the general carrying trade of the world, particularly between Europe and the West Indies. In 1793 some 3,000 French refugees from Cape Frangois settled in Baltimore. This circumstance had much to do with the establishment of trade between Baltimore and the West Indies. 5o8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The European peace of 1801 caused a tightening up of the restrictions of the colonial policies and for a time the occupation of the Baltimore ship- owners was gone, but the interruption was of short duration, as hostilities were resumed in 1803, and opportunity was again offered for the old trade. Although the powers of Europe sought by "Orders in Coimcil" and decrees to close each other's ports, the adventurous merchants and daring seamen of Baltimore succeeded in maintaining their trade, though not quite so splendidly as in the golden period of 1793 to i8co, until practically all trade was cut off by the embargo of 1807. From the removal of the em- bargo in 1809 to the outbreak of the War of 1812 Baltimore ships were largely engaged in supplying the English army in Spain. By 18 10 Balti- more had opened up trade with all the cotmtries on the east coast of South America. Much of this trade was blockade running and exploitation. But the immense quantities of goods imported could no more have been used in Baltimore than the great quantities of grain exported could have been grown in her streets. Baltimore enterprise had been busy ex- tending a magnificent system of roads through the west to the navigable waters of the Ohio, and the lines of pack horses moving in single file over the narrow trails of the mountains had been replaced by the hiige white canvas-covered "Conestoga" wagons, which, with jingling bells, traversed old Braddock's road and other splendid turppikes far into Uie growing west. Baltimore brick, even, were sold in Louisville. The relics of this day re- mained till recently in the large wagon yards of some of the old inns of Baltimore. The progress of Baltimore in this period is shown by the growth in population, which was 13,500 in 1790, 31,514 in 1800, and 46,555 in 1810. In 1800 there were 170 warehouses near the waterfront, and the leading* manufactures were sugar, rum, snuff, tobacco, paper, wool and cotton <:ards, nails, saddles, boots, shoes, and shipbuilding in all its branches. In 1805 the main roads converging in Baltimore were tumpiked and in 1809 three turnpikes aggregating 150 miles were built at a cost of $1,500,000. One of the best roads in the world led from Baltimore to Wheeling. This and six other great roads poured grain and dairy products into Baltimore for foreign shipment. In the War of 181 2 Baltimore was again at the front with her famous ^'clippers." During this war Baltimore sent out 58 privateers ; New York, 55 ; Salem, 40 ; Boston, 32 ; and Philadelphia, 14— of a total of 250 sent out by the whole United States. As in the previous war, these were a great success from.the financial point of view. Two of the most spec- tacular are mentioned, though many others did things of the same sort on something like the same scale. The Rossie in 45 days captured 15 vessels, of which she destroyed 9, and took 2,914 tons of prizes, valued at$i,289,ooo. After ten days in port she started on a second cruise, in which she took 217 prisoners and 3,698 tons of prizes worth $1,500,000. In 1814 the Sur- prise in one month captured 20 British vessels, and in a second cruise of the same duration took an equal number. Of 2,000 vessels lost by the Eng- lish during the war, two-thirds were captured by privateers. (Scharf, BiU- timore City and County, vol. I, pp. 104, 109.) In this war, at least for a time, England seemed to regard the States of the Union as partially inde- pendent sovereignties and directed hostilities especially toward Maryland and several other States that had been most active in opposition to her tyrannical measures, while much of the New England coast was exempt from blockade. Baltimore and the "p'^ates of the Chesapeake" were specially marked out for vengeance. During the first year of the war Baltimore HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 509 vessels were able to get in and out and to carry on some trade, but by the end of the second year it was impossible for a ship to return to Baltimore, so closely was the Chesapeake blockaded. Vessels from Baltimore which were on the high seas returned to other ports and kept trade going as best they could by sending the goods overland to Baltimore. In this way our merchants managed to keep much of their trade. Meanwhile manufactures were being increased. In 1802 John Morton built a furnace on the south side of the basin^ and in 1812 William Barker built one on North Calvert street, where he made castings, etc. In 1808 the Union Manufacturing Company was formed to manufacture cotton goods on a large scale, and built works on the Patapsco, near EUicott's Mills. In the next year the Washington Company began works for the same purpose on Jones' Falls. These were soon followed by others. About 1800 Baltimore had 50 flour mills located on all the streams in the vicinity. A map published about this time shows five of these on Jones' Falls within the present city limits. The first was about where Bath street crosses the Falls, the second near East Monument street, the third between Chase and Biddle, the fourth near Bolton freight yards, and the fifth a little above the present North avenue bridge. In 1812 John Berry began the manufacture of fire bricks and fine pressed brick. In 181 5 Levi HoUingsworth's Gunpowder copper works had a yearly capacity of 100 tons of rolled copper. In 1815 the first gas company in the United States was organized in Baltimore and the streets of the city were lighted by gas the next year. About 1822 there were on streams around Baltimore 60 flour and grist mills, 57 sawmills, 13 spinning and paper mills, 6 foundries, and 3 powder mills. In 1817 to 1819 poor wheat crops in England caused a strong demand for our grain and flour. In 1825 Jared Sparks said: ''Among all the cities of America or of the Old World, in modem or in ancient times, there is no record of any one which has sprung up so quickly to so high a degree of importance as Baltimore." From 1790 to 1820 Baltimore increased practically fivefold in population and even more rapidly in wealth and influence. Period of Disappointment and Readjustment. — After the close of the Napoleonic wars, the nations of Europe quit fighting and went back to raising their own crops, and, what affected American ship owners still more, resumed their old habits of carrying their own goods in their own ships. This left our ships empty and our sailors idle. In times just past fabulous sums had been made on all sorts of ventures. Money was easy and credits were long. Business had been risky, but, on the whole, extremely profit- able. In many cases, however, temporary success had lured men on to final failure. Even the swiftest clipper with the shrewdest skipper may take one chance too many. This had happened sometimes. The checking of commerce and the distrust and uncertainty which it brought caused cur- tailment of credit and when this began it was difficult to stop. The banks were caught short of quickly available resources and the currency, which was based largely on confidence, began to depreciate. Gold and silver almost disappeared from public view. The reorganization of the Bank of the United States brought a temporary gleam of hope and $4,014,100 of its $28,000,000 capital was eagerly subscribed in Baltimore, but it soon went down with a crash that brought much distress in Baltimore. Finan- cial distress due to unstable currency and unsafe banking methods was widespread in the country at large and Baltimore had her full share. Race horses are seldom good for the plough, and the Baltimore clipper, though the wonder of the world at blockade running, was not efficient when it 5IO HISTORY OF BALTIMORE came to commonplace cargo carrying in times when there were no block- ades to run. The darkest time in the history of Baltimore was about 1819, when, it is said, there were 20,000 people out of employment, and thousands of others were working for half wages. Rents on Baltimore street alone decreased $250,000. The population even decreased rapidly for a time. New York built the Erie canal, by which the trade of the vast territory contiguous to the Great Lakes became her permanent possession. Phila- delphia had strengthened her connections with the back country. What was far worse, the rich Ohio country from Pittsburgh to Louisville, which had been the mainstay of Baltimore's trade by land, on the advent of the steam- boats on the great rivers, found it nearer to New Orleans by water than to Baltimore over the mountain roads. Baltimore saw, with alarm, the contraction of her trade territory and all sorts of suggestions were made, except the one of quietly sitting down and submitting to fate. Canals seemed to be the solution to the difficulty and for a time canals were planned in every direction. Committees and commissions were appointed and sur- veys^ reports, maps, public meetings, and subscription lists trod upon each other's heels. The two most advocated were the Susquehanna project of a canal along the Susquehanna river to be continued by one, at about twenty feet above tide, from Havre de Grace to Baltimore, crossing the Gun- powder and other rivers in great sluices, and the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. The first was to be ultimately extended to Lake Erie, and possibly to the Ohio and the other to link the Ohio river to the Potomac. The Chesapeake and Ohio canal had the disadvantage as viewed from Baltimore of bringing the trade more immediately to Georgetown and Alexandria, but Baltimore was generous enough to back the undertaking provided a lateral canal was brought to Baltimore. Engineers pronounced both ot these canals feasible, yet the estimated cost was great, and the water routes to be obtained tedious, at best, and probably inadequate. Two merchants of Baltimore, Philip E. Thomas and George Brown, were not satisfied with a costly and doubtfully efficient copy of New York's canals, and dared to propose something new, something that New York and other cities would be compelled to imitate. Baltimore's birthright was a ''differential" in her favor of nearly 200 miles of actual distance from the west as compared with the eastern cities, and to secure the full benefit of the advantage of position, produce must follow the shortest course and therefore move in straight lines. These gentlemen had heard of the rail- roads being started in England, and boldly proposed the building of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. On February 12, 1827, a public meeting was called ''to take into consideration the best means of restoring to the City of Baltimore that portion of the western trade which has lately been diverted from it," and on the 19th of the same month an adjourned meeting was held at which the committee of seven, ai^x>inted at the first meeting, re- ported the recommendation "that means be taken to construct a double railroad between the city of Baltimore and some suitable point on the Ohio river." A company was at once incorporated, and so great was the en- thusiasm that the stock of $1,500,000 was soon subscribed. On July 4, 1828, the cornerstone was laid by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and on the same day the Chesapeake & Ohio canal was begun. Only a little more than a year later, on August 8, 1829, the Susquehanna railroad was started. Thus three great undertakings were heroically begun, but the completion of them called for far greater heroism. By the last of the year the road had been completed from the west end of Pratt street to Gwynn's Falls, and one of the tracks had been laid. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 511 This consisted of bar iron fastened to pine scantlings, which were in turn supported by crossties of locust and cedar. On December 14 the inaugural trip took place, when 37 persons in a car, drawn by a single horse, made the trip to Gwynn's Falls. It was, however, on the 28th of August, 1830, that the most significant as well as the most spectacular trip was made. Peter Cooper had come to Baltimore and had constructed his wonderful steam engine. After a preliminary trial of his engine on the 25thy Peter Cooper invited the cheers of the road and some other friends to this trial trip. Eighteen were seated in a small car, and five more rode with Cooper on the engine. The trip to Ellicott's Mills was made without difficulty, and the return trip of 13 miles, with the grade in their favor, was covered in 57 minutes. It was on the way back that the dramatic feature of the trip took place. The engine was of about one horse-power. Thus early it was seen by Cooper that a locomotive must work under forced draught, and a fan had been provided to keep the fire going. This fan was run by a cord from a pulley on the engine. At Relay House, on their return. Cooper and his party met Stockton and Stokes, prominent liverymen of the time, who were driving a magnificent gray horse to a car on the other track. The race was on. For a time the horse led, as the steam in the boiler was low, but as the engine got under way and caused the fan to operate, quickening the fire, the steam pressure rose and finally^ as the engine sped faster and faster, the steam began to rush from the safety valve. The engine began to gain and gain till it was neck and neck, and then, with hissing steam and shouting passengers, the eifgine passed the noble steed. But the shouts of victory were premature, steam had not yet conquered. The cord slipped from the pulley of the fan, steam ceased to hiss from the safety valve, steam pressure went down till the engine began to wheeze and gasp. Peter Cooper lacerated his hands trying to get the cord back on the pulley and finally succeeded. The engine got up steam again and sped nobly on, but too late — ^the race was lost. It is curious that the passenger rate on these primitive cars was orig- inally fixed at three cents a mile, which through all the changing conditions of railroad traffic has remained a standard rate. When the railroad from Baltimore to Washington was chartered the freight rate was to be one cent a mile per ton for toll and three cents a mile per ton for hauling, which comes to eight cents a hundred pounds from Baltimore to Washington. Period of Steady Growth. — This period really stretches well back into the preceding period of disappointment, since the times of severest trial were the days when the men of Baltmiore, more resolutely than ever, went to work to recover what had been lost and thereby laid the foundations for a far greater and far more secure prosperity. The shaking down of that part of the commercial fabric that had been built upon unnatural and tem- porary conditions was of real advantage to the portion of that structure which was securely built on the rock. This period is characterized by the^ linking up of Baltimore by rail and telegraph to all parts of the Union, by which Baltimore lost her distinctive character as the Venice of America and became an important organic part of the life and commerce of the Nation. The railroad systems of America and the telegraph system of the world started out from Baltimore. As is shown in the growth of population and as will appear in the tables of exports and imports to be given later on, the growth of the city along all lines was steady and sure. Year by year new industries and new factories were added, and, with the extending railroads, old houses pushed their trade into territory further and further from home. Balti- 512 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE more has shared in the national panics of 1837 and 1857 and has had some troubles of her own, but the real growth of the city has never stayed. The wonderful development of transportation by land and sea and the tremendous growth of manufacturing and trade in the country at large, combined with Baltimore's unique position as the gateway between the factories of the North and the plantations of the South and the natural meeting place of the East and the West, made Baltimore a great wholesale and jobbing center. Of scarcely less importance than Baltimore's inter- mediate position geographically has been her intermediate position sym- pathetically. The people of Baltimore have ever been bound by ties of sympathy and blood to those of North and South, and these ties, though never exploited for gain, have been efficient in making Baltimore the com- mercial bond between the two sections, and have added much to the pros- perity of her trade. The gathering war clouds of 1861 found Baltimore in a period of great prosperity. She sold millions of dollars' worth of her own and of others' manufactures to the rich planters of the South, and in turn bou^t southern cotton, grain, and tobacco for her own and for northern mills. There was scarcely a southern railroad or other industrial institution of im- portance that did not have Baltimore brains and money in it. Baltimore was then, as now, on the great artery of travel between the North and the South. We will pass quickly over those dark days of fratricidal strife. The dual sympathy with the two sections, which had been Baltimore's source of strength in times past, came now near being her undoing. The war at once cut off her best customers and the disturbances incident to the con- flict paralyzed railroad and other means of transportation to and from the West. Period of the Differential. — Grain from the wide fields of the West accumulates in Chicago and flows in golden streams toward the Atlantic. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are the points at which these streams reach the sea, but what shall determine the relative size of these streams? There's the rub. Ever since the B. & O. reached Chicago over its own rails, in 1874, there has been more or less of a continuous rate war between the great trunk lines serving these four ports. Many truces have been patched up, but there has been no lasting peace, nor is there likely to be any. The B. & O. has offered lower rates tiian the roads to the other cities on the ground that the distance is much less to Baltimore, but the other roads have met these rates for the reason that they wanted to haul the grain. It matters little to them just how far they haul it, but whether they haul it or not is a vital question. Since continuous fighting is disas- trous to the roads and demoralizing to the traffic, many efforts have been made to reach an agreement satisfactory and fair to all concerned. In 1876 it was agreed to make the rates proportional to the actual distances, but this proved so advantageous to Baltimore that within six weeks the New Yoric lines withdrew from the agreement. Since 1877 a differential of one cent per hundred over Philadelphia and three cents over New York has been in force. This has enabled Baltimore to rather more than hold its own with the other three ports. As appears in detail in a table given below, from 1875 ^^ 1910, inclusive, Baltimore has exported grain '(count- ing in flour and meal calculated as grain) to the amount of 1,327,000,000 bushels, Philadelphia 782,000,000, New York 2,668,000,000, and Boston 650,000,000, or calculating each one as percentage of the sum of the four we have 24.4 per cent., 14.4 per cent, 49.2 per cent., and 11.8 per cent. If, however, the percentages are calculated on the amounts exported from HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 513 1896 to 1910, inclusive^ they are in the same order 25.8 per cent, 20.9 per cent., 41.4 per cent, and 11.9 per cent. From this it is seen that while for the whole period Baltimore has exported only half as much as New York, yet for the latter portion of that period Baltimore has handled nearly two-thirds as much as that port. New York's advantage over Philadelphia and Baltimore is that it is able to absorb almost any sort and amount of return cargo. Baltimore is well provided with facilities for handling this enormous amount of grain, and, in fact, could easily take care of vastly more. Her elevators have a storage capacity of 5,500,000 bushels and can unload 570 cars, or deliver on shipboard 900,000 bushels in a single day. The handling of this immense amotmt of grain has meant much to the commerce of the port. The elevator fees for its transfer, even at the small rate of three-quarters of a cent per bushel^ amount to over two million dollars. For the past fifteen years the average total amount of grain exported has been 40,000,000 bushels, which weigh 1,200,000 tons. To carry away this amount it is necessary for a large number of ships to visit the port and the owners of each one will endeavor to secure a cargo to this port as well as away from it. Besides, for provisioning these ships and by their crews a considerable amount of money is spent in the city at each visit. Baltimore has always been a wholesale and jobbing center, and in re- cent years has steadily grown in importance in this respect. This trade now amounts to some $400,000,000 a year and is steadily growing. As compared with their competitors in New York, our jobbers and whole- salers have the advantages of lower warehouse rents and a more central location and, particularly, greater proximity to the rich Southland, which has always been our special territory. Recent progress has been due not only to the energy and initiative of a large number of strong individual firms, but also to combined effort manifesting itself in the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association and similar movements. In manufacturing Baltimore has made steady and substantial progress as appears in the figures from the United States census given below. The variety as well as the extent of the manufactures is noteworthy. Nearly every class and discription of goods can be had with the label ''Made in Baltimore." Copper, ready-made clothing, fertilizers, canned goods, steel rails, steel ships, cotton duck, and bells are among the best known. The cotton duck industry was established at Woodberry, a village ad- jacent to Baltimore upon the north, and now included within the corporate limits, in 1839. The Woodberry Mill was built in 1843, ^^^ i^s size was doubled in 1845. The Mount Vernon Mill was built about the same time, and the Qipper Mill and Druid Mill and others followed soon after. Prior to the consolidation of the cotton duck mills of the country into one cor- poration, Woodberry was the most extensive center for the manufacture of cotton duck in the world, and its products used for sail cloth, tents and awnings found its markets the world over. When the world's commerce was carried in vessels propelled by sails it was estimated that two-thirds of the sail cloth used in the United States was manufactured at Woodberry. In manufacturing the largest item of expenditure is wages and in this there is a differential in favor of the Baltimore manufacturer. As will be seen from the tables below, which are taken from a report of a commission sent over here by the British government, the Baltimore workingman can rent a house of the same size for less money than his cousin in any other city comparable to Baltimore, and his wife can fill her market basket for less than his cousin's wife can in any eastern city. Since the woiicingman 514 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE can live here cheaper^ he can maintain the same standard of living on a somewhat smaller wage, or if he gets the same money he can be more comfortable on it. The unrivalled markets of Baltimore are a factor of importance in the labor problem, since strikes are rare among the well-fed. Present day manufacturing is done on such small margins that even a slight differential may determine whether a certain industry is prc^table or not in a particular locality. Baltimore's water-borne traffic is carried oil by three classes of craft: First, an innumerable host of small vessels of various kinds which bring all manner of produce, etc., as well as oysters, fish, and crabs, to the city from the Chesapeake; second, tramp steamers which carry large amounts of grain, ore, and other heavy freight; third, steamship lines to foreign countries with regular sailing days, notably the following lines: Johnstcm Line, to Liverpool; North German Lloyd, to Bremen; Puritan Line, to Antwerp; Blue Cross Line, to Havre; Neptune Line, to Rotterdam; Lord Line, to Belfast and Cardiff; Furness Line, to Leith; Atlantic Transport Line, to London ; Hamburg- American Line, to Hamburg ; Donaldson Line, to Glasgow ; Red Star Line, to Antwerp ; Scandinavian-American Line, to Copenhagen and Christiania. In addition are the following lines trading on this side of the Atlantic : United Fruit Company, to Jamaica ; Atlantic Fruit Company, to Jamaica ; Joseph R. Foard Company, to Colon and Central America ; L^uiasa & Goffe Importing & Steamship Company, to Jamaica. Engaged in the coastwise and bay trade : The Merchants' & Miners' Transportation Company, with 14 vessels; the New York & Baltimore Transportation Line, 4; Baltimore Steam Packet Company (Old Bay Line), 6; Chesapeake Steamship Company, 6; Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic and Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Railway Companies, 33; Baltimore & Philadelphia Steamboat Company, 4 ; Tolchester Company, 5 ; Baltimore & Carolina Steamship Company, 2. Tables showing relative cost of rent, food, and rent and food oxnbined, 1 :3, in representative American cities, taken from a report of an English committee sent to America to investigate wages and cost of living. New York is taken as 100. Relative Cost. RENT FOOD I RENT + 3 FOOD St. Louis, lOI Atlanta, 109 Atlanta, XOI New York, 100 Newark, 106 Brockton. New Yort, xoo Pittsburg, 94 Brockton, 106 100 Memphis, 93 Boston, 105 Pittsbuxg, 100 Cincinnati, 93 Lawrence, 105 Boston, 99 Brockton, 83 Savannah, 104 Memphis, 99 Boston, 82 Augusta, 103 St. LouLs, 98 Birminghani, Philaddphia, 81 Birmingham, 102 Birmingham, 97 79 Pittsbuxg, 102 Savannah, 96 Minneapolis & St. Paul, 77 Lowell, 102 Lawrence, 95 Atlanta, 76 Fall River, lOI New Orleans, 93 New Orleans 72 Memphis, lOI Cincinnati, 92 Savannah, 71 New Orleans, 100 Louisville, 92 Louisville, 71 New York, 100 Augusta, Phuadelphia, 93 Chicago, 70 Paterson, 100 93 Milwatikee, 66 Cleveland, 99 Minneapolis & St, P&ul, 91 Lawrence, 64 Louisville, 99 Paterson, 91 Cleveland, 64 Mtmde^ 98 Qeveland, 90 Paterson, 62 St. Louis, 97 Pall River, 90 Providence, 59 Providence, 97 Lowell, 90 Augusta, 58 Baltimore, 97 Chicago, 88 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 51S RENT FOOD I RENT + 3 FOOD Detroit, 57 Philadelphia, 96 Providence, 88 Pall River. 55 Dulttth, 96 Baltimore, 86 Baltimore, 54 Minneapolis & St. Paul, 95 Milwaukee, 86 Lowelly 52 Chicago, 94 Munde, 85 Muncie, 44 Milwatikee, Cincinnati, Detroit, 93 92 91 Detroit, 83 %! Grain, — ^The first wheat was shipped to Europe from Baltimore in 1 77 1. Since then this has been an important grain port. The growth as well as the erratic variations of the trade can be seen from the table below, which gives the exports of wheat and com in bushels for each year since 1850. Besides these two cereals, which make up the bulk of the trade, im- portant but irregulsLr amounts of oats, rye, clover and timothy seed have been exported. The bulk of this grain comes from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, lowa^ Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. When winter ice closes the Erie canal this area is extended further into the northwest. Great Britain is our best customer, but large amounts of our grain go to Ger- many, Holland, Denmark, and Belgium. Baltimore's facilities for handling this enormous grain trade are of the best. The location of the railroad tracks and elevators right on deep water enables the grain to be handled with the utmost dispatch and at minimum cost. Exports of Grain in Bushels from Baltimore, 875. 876. 877. 878. 879. 880. 881. 882. 883. 884. 885. 886. 887. 888. 889. 890. 891. 892. 893. 894. 895. 896. 897. 898. 899. 900. 901. 902. 903- 904- 905 WHBAT 2,046430 1,659,861 5479,567 19,610,791 32,144,349 33,768,985 19,676,640 17,564407 15,375,093 16,511,340 4,575,262 10,575,290 10,717,353 4,161,129 4,507,165 4,817,614 16,074,292 16,661,559 13,048,702 8448448 3,977,261 6,589,856 15,304,037 18,542,034 9,549,270 4,529,811 19,962,737 9460,012 3,373,689 140,262 2,076,035 CORN 6,989,607 20,953,724 19,268,725 16,953458 21,327419 14,686402 12,735,083 1,371,823 10,012,247 4,993,759 14,752,196 14,076,379 7,158432 4,173,343 16,617,177 18,854,951 4,096,234 18,995,907 7486403 7,758,377 9,645,758 26,382,182 43,048,008 45,096477 46,786,127 40,535,023 24,711,790 4,501,555 19,113,566 7,714,808 15415,604 TOTAL GRAIN 9,048,861 22,655,738 24,835,301 36,666,999 53,577,379 48472,212 32421,758 18,942492 25478,909 21,909,979 18,394,881 24,652,899 18,048,979 8,339,184 21,256,362 24,579,323 21,191,713 36,704,655 22,359,681 16,375.991 13,842,198 41,034,875 66,923456 73,202,018 61,727,093 49,216,800 48,854,100 15426,924 23469,950 7,939,933 22,754,652 Si6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Exports of Grain in Bushds from Baltimore, 1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 1910. WUBAT CORN TOTAL GRAIN 4,803,980 24,708,695 31,991,301 8^21,087 19,785,174 28,126,953 9,166,368 10,606,954 20,346,346 2,991,527 6,772,958 9,866,184 4,931,062 8,500,937 13452,984 Elxports of grain from the ports of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Yoric, and Boston. In this table flour and commeal are calculated back to grain. Oats, barley, etc., are included. Figures given are for bushels: BaltixDore. 875 11411,029 876 24,918,888 877 26,809,300 878 39,702,633 879 55,848,889 880 50,987,711 881 34,317,615 882 21,045,991 883 27467,611 884 23,873,687 885 23,321,591 886 32,137,067 887 31,834,882 888 19,610,284 889 31,779,116 890 32,207,554 891 33404,859 892 53,398,185 893 37,373»35o 894 29,667,974 895 25,312,740 896 54,865,523 897 77,593,375 898 86,335.145 899 77,093404 900 63,002,ij7 901 63,929,825 902 29,284,738 903 39,010425 904 13,683^012 905 27,5957303 906 38,681,595 907 36,601485 908 26405,399 909 13,919,510 910 13,867,195 PbiUdelphiA. 8,873,015 22,162,509 13,692,336 29,748,349 32411,382 31,697,604 16,322,605 7,623,698 ",792,565 8,928,906 12,946,313 9,838424 13,654,379 3,758,080 6,774,297 21422,218 15,178,966 38,157,699 15,953,683 12489,909 8,973,076 17,090,514 36,783,272 50,363,706 ^1410,0x2 5g447,679 4a;T44;C07 23,235,731 24,036,905 12,005,666 19,674,654 29,021,323 30,907,160 24,518,586 17485,573 9,385,967 New York. 50,599,710 55,253,686 62,815405 107,819,044 126,279,637 136,956,705 91,881,506 64,615,271 69,031,307 63,647,366 66,781,639 68,785,695 74,297,266 43,680446 59,876,995 64,551,064 85,572,189 97,503,253 84,557,077 63,271,619 62406,646^ 87,364489 140,038,059 147404,191 113,542,270 9&4I4.I92 79401,688 46,888489 54,809,978 25,223490 55,523,996 60,190,245 60,056,039 42,824,361 31432,937 24,049,598 3,685,231 6460,786 7,075,916 13,209424 16,064,987 19,621,231 15,799,773 10424,1x2 13,595,104 15,832,5x4 13,394,613 14,786,573 14,819,900 11,150451 13436,780 ",933,606 13,579,925 18,940,813 17,997,390 17,349,522 16,356,322 24,637,370 29450,956 39,735,557 42,331,246 37,578434 38,770,813 13,676,854 13,058,658 6,879,781 15,105,135 ",896,930 I3,634,66x 7,177,214 5,073,885 5,155,666 These figures show a wide fluctuation in the amount of grain exports at each of the four ports, while the place of Baltimore has throughout been second to that of New York. The proportion of grain exported from Bal- timore increased gradually from the year 1875, when the amount was less than one-fourth of that exported from New York to be regularly more than one-half and in 1901 was more than three-fourths as much as the exports from that city. Flour, — ^The numerous favorable mill sites in all directions in the inmiediate vicinity of Baltimore attracted many flour and grist mills, even before the founding of the town. The first within the present city Ifmits was built as early as 171 1 on Jones' Falls near the Bath street bridge. ' The fact that grain seemed to flow from the surrounding country as nat'.arally HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 517 as the water over the mill wheels stimulated the growth of these mills, which growth was still further aided by the fact that Baltimore ^ips car- ried the flour to ready markets all over the world. In 1772 Joseph, Andrew, and John Ellicott migrated to the Patapsco and located at what is now known as Ellicott City, where they opened their mills in 1774. They were inventors and pioneers, making so many improvements in machinery and methods and working on such an enlarged scale that they started a new era in milling and have been regarded as fathers of that industry. Many years ago Baltimore flour acquired a great reputation, particu- larly in South America. Flour has long been the basis of our lat^e trade with Brazil. The flour and coffee trade have been mutually supplementary and have supported each other. Ships must have cargoes both ways. The fact that we were able to supply return cargoes of flour to the coffee ships has kept the coffee pouring in here, and the fact that Baltimore has been able to distribute to advantage these large quantities of coffee has kept the ships coming here for our flour. For a time Richmond competed with Baltimore in shipping the flour, but could not so well handle the return cai^oes of coffee, and fell behind. From early times Baltimore maintained regular inspectors of flour as of other important articles. The table below gives the amounts of these flour inspections for most of the years since the incorporation of the city. These figures tell the story of the gradual growth of this important industry. 876 1^89,538 877 1,171,248 878 1412,653 879 1,333,232 880 1,378,587 881 1,248,257 882 1,227,264 883 1,158,380 884 1,200,345 885 1,589,063 886 1,928,194 887 3,151,263 888 3,015.648 889 3,189,572 890 3,388,937 891 3,099,339 892 3,555447 893 3,867,985 894 3,818,083 895 3,779,596 896 4,104,986 897 3,398,333 898 3,828,776 899 4,265,763 900 3,841,388 901 4,212,167 902 4,142,013 903 4,395,958 904 2,096,709 905 2,278,039 906 2,837,338 907 3,040,094 908 2456,869 909 2,254,543 910 2,212487 Flour Inspections. 1798 255,852 1799 273,530 1800... • 273410 1801 359,551 1802 369,633 1803 406,708 1804 260,843 1805 335491 1806 350,774 1807 490,200 1808 258,183 1809 423,278 1810 363,955 1811 530,052 1812 552,699 1813 291,393 1814 156,165 1815 388,342 1816 394,976 1817 398,783 1818 444,391 1819 465,703 1820 582,053 1821 483,803 1832 432,961 1823 442468 1824 544,900 1825 510,066 1826 506,348 1827 572,719 1828 546451 1829 473,718 1830 597,807 1831 577,220 1841 628,974 1842 558,282 1843 560431 1844 499,501 1845 576,745 1846 850,116 1847 959456 1848 736441 1849 761,519 1850 896,592 1851 912498 1852 1,307,166 1853 1,183,704 1854 837,195 1855 957,739 1856 940,314 1857 855,914 1858 906487 1859 854,185 i860 966,515 1861 890404 1862 967,632 1863 1,102,858 1864 1,033433 1865 948,021 1866 913,134 1867 714,746 1868 888410 1869 1,051,351 1870 1,117,314 1871 1,123,028 1872 1,175,967 1873 1,312,612 1874 1,560,997 1875 1,391,843 Si8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Exports of Flour in Barrels 1824. 1825. 1826. 1827. 1828. 1829. 1830. ,294,288 305,116 .282,120 304,422 ,296,120 258,910 .308,116 1866. 1867. 1868. 1869. 1870. 179,298 ,161,260 ,246446 359,121 338,932 1873 1874 1875 1876. 359,566 474,758 453,000 426,094 1877 369,519 1878 590,150 1879 447,134 1880 497,042 1881 413,923 1882 463,878 1883 441477 1884 437,713 1885 1,093,093 1886 1,662,504 1887 3,081,246 1888 2417,874 1889 2,332,805 1890 2,62A^2 I89I 2,703,715 1892 3,661,623 1893 3,331,374 1894 2,943,562 1895 2,539,981 1896 3,065,845 1897 2,325,803 1898 2313,166 1899 3,367485 1900 3/»3,787 1901 3,324,953 1902 3,074.335 1903 3489,618 1904 1,281,266 1905 1,226,033 1906 1,547.891 1907 1,823407 1908 1,347,098 1909 906,169 1910 879,046 Tobacco. — One of the chief industries of the colony from the beginning was the raising of tobacco. It was the Maryland staple, and was the basis of values, being by law legal tender for all debts, public and private. The shipping of this crop was originally scattered among the many little towns upon the estuaries of the Chesapeake, in each of which, up to the Revolu- tion, English houses maintained warehouses and buyers. We have already seen how after that time the trade was concentrated in Baltimore and passed into the hands of our own merchants. From early times, for the protection of both buyer and seller, all incoming tobacco has been officially inspected and a number of extensive warehouses have been maintained for that purpose. Baltimore has handled the Maryland and Ohio crops with small amounts from Kentucky and other States. From 1848 the Maryland prod- uct gradually increased from 24,000 to its maximum of 50,000 hogsheads, and then decreased to about 26,000 in 1870. For the most of this period the Ohio crop was 15,000 to 17,000 hogsheads. In colonial times, of necessity, our tobacco went to England, but since then Bremen, Rotterdam, and France have been our best customers. The manufacture of smoking tobacco and snuff was hegan here in early times and has been carried on on a large scale, but the great bulk of our tobacco has been of low grade and has never been largely consumed in America. Before the absorption by the American Tobacco Company of the en- tire business of tobacco manufacture in America, the separate manufactur- ing firms in Baltimore enjoyed an enviable reputation. The firms of G. W. Gail & Ax, Marbui^ Brothers, and F. W. Feigner & Son were widely known throughout the country as manufacturers of high grades of smok- ing tobacco and snuff, and their products were everywhere held in high esteem. From the statistics of inspections and exports, given below, it appears that in some years the exports approached or even exceeded die receipts in amount, this being due to the large amounts held in reserve by the warehouses. Up to 1880 the figures given are for total inspections, while from 1880 down inspections of Maryland and Ohio tobacco are given sepa- rately. Since 1880 practically all the tobacco received at Baltimore is from these two States. A hogshead of Maryland tobacco averages 650 pounds, while one of Ohio averages 800 pounds. From 1880 the total exports of leaf tobacco are given in pounds, while all other figures are in hogsl'neads : a HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 519 Year loipectiooi 1824 1832 32,055 184I 37,672 1842 45,038 1843 43,082 1844 47,503 1845 66,560 1846 69,889 1847 49400 1848 33,906 1849 45,601 1850 41,833 1851 42,742 1852 48,332 1853 48,667 1854 38,970 1855 39,558 1856 52,852 1857 47,305 1858 70,669 1859 62,801 Exports (hhds) 15,523 38,890 51,924 44,368 34,124 54,813 50,688 45,192 36,392 55,798 47,562 66,534 55,974 Year Impections i860 77,503 1861 67,571 1862 58,699 1863 55,975 1864 52,873 1865 43,952 1866 47,660 1867 63,747 1868 37,959 1869 44,548 1870 41,510 1871 49,571 1872 51,209 1873 65,067 1874 57,965 1875 40,357 1876 60,898 1877 62,263 1878 64,191 1879 54,725 1880 45,367 Bsporti (hhds) 67,142 85,237 55,447 44,137 45,052 42,605 52,663 61,930 32,800 44494 32,519 51,146 49,983 52,065 49,241 33,070 52,714 46,322 58,020 48,674 48,352 Ykar. 1880. 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. 1888. 1889. 1890. 189I. 1892. 1893. 1894. 1895. 1896. 1897. 1898. 1899. 1900. 1901. 1902. 1903. 1904. 1905. 1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 1910. 1911. Maiylaod 36,871 27720 35,891 33,105 35,149 32,649 41,081 37,064 32,174 26,165 16,884 26,556 22455 25497 30,842 28,085 29,629 34,875 36,292 31484 34,570 31438 34,662 35,035 36,276 33,677 30,782 21,363 26,980 27,072 29,890 30459 Ohio 8,285 12443 8,215 7,650 5,866 8,698 14436 14,639 6476 5494 5.759 5461 6,059 7,720 10,723 6,899 ^,360 8,043 5,970 7,224 3453 4443 4,818 5,016 4,231 4,919 6,507 4,149 2,218 1,988 3,249 4,733 Lbs. Exports 59,149,631 51,535442 40482,879 40,365,644 31,088,969 33,270,262 46,526,218 61,145,056 58,160,700 40,881,716 55,905,539 48,386,175 59,895,584 68,590,338 72,868,530 87*353,096 84,975,614 76,227,310 87445,660 74,767,888 65,598,262 70,501,707 79,622,832 105,177,780 97,105,169 91,235,015 93,279,562 77,008,058 Cattle. — ^While in the case of grain a difference in the freight rate is the only diff/srential in favor of Baltimore over ports more distant from the fields, in ca;:tle shipments the time in transit is also of importance, since S20 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE every hour's confinement and worry in the cars tells on the condition of the cattle. Baltimore has good facilities for handling this trade, which has become of importance in recent years as shown by the statistics below : 1880. 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887 1888. 1889. 1890. 1891. 1892. 1893 1894 1895 Exports of Cattle from Baltimore for Fiscal Years. Number 8457 7,502 3,688 8,714 17486 16,385 14,726 14.127 21,683 30,945 85.918 77,718 63436 43,554 54i96i 47,145 Value Number Value •777,846 1896 50,802 •5,035,910 688,2^ 1897 60,664 5,987,880 444,130 1898 51,579 5,145,636 862,676 1899 43,858 4,369,110 1,867,750 1900 48,840 4,838,850 1,891,745 1901 49,582 4,935,370 1,572,610 1902 29,587 2,926,355 1448405 1903 51,601 5,098,090 1,829,335 1904 62,533 6.103,830 2,635,125 1905 52,244 5,168,950 7,139,050 1906 51488 5,080,920 6452,270 1907 37,538 3,700,150 5,272,503 1908 30,034 2,948,040 3,684,001 1909 15,032 1484,570 5,291,130 1910 13,617 1,366,125 4,584,845 Cotton. — Though Baltimore is at a considerable distance from the cot- ton fields, still a considerable amount of the staple continues to be exported from this port. Some sea island is exported in addition to the amounts of upland cotton given in the table below. These figures are for fiscal years : Bales Value Bales Value 1880 112,880 •6,386,960 1896 141,649 •5,259,191 I88I 152,980 8,523,856 1897 174,369 6407,319 1882 161,565 8,850,651 1898 220,227 6463,132 1883 244,369 13,041,203 1899 241,782 6,913410 1884 179,740 9,310,579 1900 197,578 8,001,051 1885 173,270 8,639482 I901 159,352 7,386,291 1886 161,771 7,799,665 1902 133,081 5.603,844 1887 138,992 6,634,977 1903 121,395 5449438 1888 153,702 7,153499 1904 93,844 5458.571 1889 201,329 9,829,896 1905 178,541 7,914,566 1890 122,762 6,090,305 1906 165406 9,210,316 I89I 176,712 8,649,075 1907 "7,559 9,167459 1892 281,292 11,993,192 1908 118,122 6,778,895 1893 226,721 9,725,001 1909 119,536 5,887,944 1894 214,962 8,356,205 I910 60^357 4,178,526 1895 281,080 8,279,645 Coffee. — For nearly a century Baltimore has been one of the chief centers for the importation and distribution of coffee. The Baltimore Qip- per was the main factor in the early development of the trade, but the busi- ness became so well established here that it has remained and flourished long after the passing of the famous clipper. The strength and enterprise of the firms engaged in this line constitute one cause for this success; the other causes have been Baltimore's advantages as a distributing center and the fact that we have had the flour with which to load the vessels on the return voyage, until with the transfer of the South American trade to steamships the "white wings*' of the famous coffee fleet of Baltimore grad- ually vanished from the seas. The steamship trafiic soon became practically concentrated at New York, where large return cargoes were more easily obtained. Statistics are given showing the number of ba^^ of coffee HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 521 imported each year for a number of years. These show an irr^^ular but gradual growth of the trade, except during the period of the Civil War. Bag! 1848 204485 1849 186,173 1850 144492 1851 256,142 1852 ..224,080 1853 185,980 1854 200,829 1855 249,060 1856 197,985 1857 203,560 1858 188,019 Bags 1859 230,984 i860 181,292 1861 I37»3«> 1862 77,775 1863 73,957 1864 91,184 1865 86,725 1866 160487 1867 266,926 1868 263,632 1869 333,842 Pounds Value 1880 • 67,957,965 18,473,698 I88I 58,650,548 6,787,382 1882 49,308,142 4,390,150 1883 51,967,258 3,673,825 1884 39438,262 3,261,589 1885 72,226460 5,256,719 1886 57,864,635 3,800,370 1887 33,300,141 3,036,023 1888 17,968,632 2473,067 1889 . 47,003,879 5,548,701 1890 24,129,203 3,248,072 I89I 28,366,712 5446,577 1892 17,793448 3,608,610 1893 . 29,216,530 3,924,169 1894 31,060,283 4,741,643 Bags 1870 499,258 1871 566,995 1872 372,895 1873 376,803 1874 379,571 1875 670,202 1876 475,737 1877 513,958 1878 481,184 1879 531,401 Bags 1880 431,289 1881 415474 1882 1883 1884 451,903 1885 491,553 1886 315,932 1887 1888 1889 Pounds 1895 31,626,173 1896 25,976,584 1897 24,651420 1898 30,404,916 1899 23,573,954 1900 33,121,755 1901 32,604,095 1902 30,091,237 1903 16,808,526 1904 19,249443 1905 16,600,630 1906 7,965,281 1907 6462,943 1908 14,736 1909 25477 Value •4,053,852 3,296,155 2,151,580 1,842,754 1,296,255 1,849,940 2,064,316 1,783,013 936,824 1,159,847 1,304499 693,576 503,507 1,804 3,284 Oyster and Fruit Canning, — ^The oyster beds of the Chesapeake have been a source of enormous profit to Maryland and to Baltimore. There are natural beds 193 square miles in area, producing twelve to fifteen mil- lion bushels each season. It is said that the productive area is capable of extension to nearly 2,000 square miles, yielding an annual product of 40O»- 000,000 bushels. A law of the State now provides for the complete survey of the natural oyster beds and barren bottoms in the Chesapeake Bay, and for the leasing of these barren bottoms for the planting and culture of oysters. It is expected that under this system the yield of oysters will be enormously increased. The survey has been completed under the direction of the State Shellfish Commission, but sufficient time has not elapsed for the results of oyster culture to be fully developed. Scmie years ago it was discovered that oysters could be preserved by sealing them up in airtight cans, and a small factory was started on Fed- eral Hill. The discoverer imagined that his secret could be kept and that he could retain the whole business. The canning industry, including fruits and vegetables, has now grown to enormous proportions so that in 1905 8,978 people were engaged in it. This packing industry is partly distributed among the smaller towns that lie upon the Chesapeake, but contributes indirectly in a number of ways to the commerce of Baltimore. In order to utilize the large canning plants during the warm months, in which no oysters can be handled, the canning of vegetables has been taken up and has developed to enormous proportions. In 1900 75 per cent, of the can- ning industry was located in Baltimore, but in 1905 only 48 per cent. The need of 200,000,000 tin cans to contain each season's pack has stimulated, the manufacture of tinware in Baltimore. 522 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Canning and Psbsbrving Fruits, Vbgbtablbs, and Oysters in State of Maryland, 1900 and 1905. Kind of Prch>uct Aggregate. Canned vegetables, total. Beans Com Peas Pumpkins Sweet potatoes. . Tomatoes Other vegetables. Canned fruits, total. . Apples Blackberries. Cherries Peaches Pears Plums. ..... Raspberries. Strawberries . Other fruits. Ovsters AU other products. 1900 Poitndc 279,58«.30i 19443,408 40,750,032 27,150,792 346,320 4,274,088 187,160,705 462,956 50484,850 6,186,720 3460,176 1,201,584 26,070,248 5,798,904 20,830 2,131,704 5,614,684 Value •13,993,663 6,260,691 470,314 1,070,096 957436 6,315 85,020 3,659,137 12,373 1422,968 137,884 88425 42,096 758,919 151,012 434 71,190 173,008 823^67 5486437 1905 Pounds 437,585,552 42494,376 77,153,340 30,014,208 1410,600 8,121,264 263,301,396 15,090,368 57438,966 3449,064 2,820,384 1445,010 25,516,596 9472,644 283,296 1461,216 3,597,384 9,393,372 6,666,148 Value '$12,789,702 9,640,018 1,046,511 2,029,500 1,023,377 24,283 153,733 5,003,102 359.512 1,785408 71,864 81,164 47,869 757,667 207486 9,383 47,349 135.676 426,950 548,646 815,630 includes $102,991 products of establishments, classified as "pickles, preserves and sauces." Clay Products. — ^There are in the vicinity of the city many beds of clay specially adapted for brick makings which from early times has been an important industry. Baltimore bricks were hauled to the west in wagons long before the time of the railroads. While great quantities of coarse brick are made, yet the strong close clays which abound are specially suited for the finer grades of pressed brick, and these have long been made in enormous quantities, supplying the building (derations of Baltimore and leaving great quantities to be shipped to other cities. Gays are also found suitable for making firebrick and have been largely used for that purpose. Besides, there are clays at hand for the coarser grades of pottery, though the materials for the finer grades of pottery, which have so Icxig been made here in great quantity, are brought from some distance. The flint, which is vein quartz, comes from Harford, Carroll, and Howard coun- ties, the soda feldspar from Cecil, while the potash feldspar is brought from Pennsylvania. For the highest grade of ware some china clay is im- ported from abroad. Marble and Granite. — There are several extensive marble quarries ad- jacent to Baltimore. This marble is a fine white saccaroidal dolomite of great compactness and durability. It contains as much as 40 per cent, mag- nesitmi carbonate. The marble at Texas, also in Baltimore county, is more coarsely crystalline and is nearly pure calcium carbonate, containing not HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 523 more than 5 per cent, magnesium carbonate. It has less strength and dur- ability and is largely used as a flux in iron furnaces. The marble quarries of Baltimore county have furnished the material for some of the most notable buildings in the country. The monolithic columns forming princi- pal ornaments of the Capitol at Washington, the Washington Monument^ and the General Postoffice in that city, as well as the Washington Monu- ment, the City Hall, the Courthouse, Peabody Institute and Maryland In- stitute in Baltimore, are all constructed of marble from these quarries. The great gneiss quarry adjacent to Druid Hill park was mentioned as early as 181 1. There are in Baltimore county two important granite quarries — Water- ville and Fox Rock. The former of these has supplied much fine granite for Baltimore buildings, and has been used to some extent in the Capitol, Postoffice, Patent Office, and Congressional Library at Washington. Cod. — ^The first coal used in Baltimore was cannel coal from Rich- mond. This was just prior to 1800. On August 3, 1801, there appeared this notice: Benj. Humphrey "respectfully informs tihe citizens of Balti- more that he has opened a coal mine on the lands of Charles Ri(^eley, Esq., of Hampton, 8^ miles from this town, and is now ready to deliver good pit coal on the following terms for cash, viz. : 10 cts. per bushel at the pit or 18 cts. delivered in Baltimore, and to those persons who buy 100 bushels and upwards, 2 cts. less." The early growth of the coal business can be seen from the table below, which shows the total coal brought to Baltimore year by year. Up till 1850 all of this came over the B. & O. railroad, which carried 17,548,434 tons of the total amount handled up to 1870. In 1850 the C. and O. canal began to handle coal also, and furnished 8,585,960 tons. The Pennsylvania railroad began hauling coal here only a little before 1870 and brought 204,281 tons. Coal bkougbt to Baltuiosb Tom 1842 1,708 1843 10,082 1844 14,890 1845 24,653 1846 29,795 1847 52,940 1848 79,571 1849 142^9 Tom 1850 196,848 1851 257,679 1852 334,178 1853 553,979 1854 659,681 1855 662,272 1856 706450 Tons 1857 582486 1858 649,656 1859 724,354 i860 788,909 186I 269,674 1862 317,634 1863 748,345 TOOM 1864 657,996 1865 903,495 1866 1,079,331 1867 1,193,882 1868 1,330443 1869 1,882,669 1870 1.717,075 BiTUMmous Coal Exfoktbd from Baltimosb for Fiscal Years Tom 1880 44,888 1881 29,079 1882 45430 1883 43,344 1884 36,947 1885 46,817 1886 65,822 1887 55,562 Tons 1888 49,098 1889 27442 1890 34,872 189I 106,366 1892 97,385 1893 136,878 1894 174,682 1895 115,844 Tom 1896 45,338 1897 61,069 1898 98,856 1899 234497 1900 384,310 I9OI 526,086 1902 375,858 1903 120,986 1904 1905 1906. 1907 1908. 1909. I9IO. Tom 115,660 266,109 381,216 489,273 528,874 270,251 450,591 Chrome. — Perhaps the most unique of the many lines of manufacture in the city is that of chromium compounds. For making the world bright and keeping it so few things can surpass our chrome yellow. Baltimore and the Tyson family are world figures in the chromium line. The first chromite or chrome iron ore to be discovered in America was found in 1827 at Bare Hills, six miles from the city, on the farm of Mr. Isaac Ty- son Jr. Soon afterward this gentleman noticed a dark stone propping up 524 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE a cider barrel in Belair Maiicet, and on inquiry found that it had come from near Jarrettsville. This locality he found covered with boulders worth $ioo a ton in Liverpool. He purchased the property. Mr. Tyson's interest in stones of this variety caused the discontinuance of the former use of them for road making. In 1838 Mr. Tyson discovered, 12 miles from Port De- posit, what proved to be the richest chrome mine ever found in America. A number of other mines were also developed. From these some 100,000 tons of valuable ore have been taken out. They are far from being ex- hausted, but are not being worked at present, as it is thought best to hold them in reserve while ores are easily obtained, as they are at present, from large mines near Constantinople and Antioch, in Asia. The ore was shipped to Glasgow, Scotland, till 1844, when the Baltimore Chrome Works were established. The original process of working up the ore was crude. Tyson was one of the first in this country to realize the paramount value of scien- tific training in the industries and applied to Yale University for a chemist^ This resulted in great improvements in the process. Copper, — The occurrence of copper ores in Maryland caused copper working to be carried on in Baltimore from early times. Baltimore men and money got interested in copper, and have maintained and even in- creased the importance of this city as a copper center long after the local ores were exhausted. The Maryland deposits are in three localities — along the Linganore hills in Frederick county, with the New London, Dollyhide, and Liberty mines near Sykesville, with Springfield, Mineral Hills, and Patapsco mines, and Bare Hills near Mt. Washington. The Liberty and Mineral Hills mines were opened by the English in 1750, and must have produced considerable copper, for the slags remain- ing from these early operations were profitably reworked nearly a century later in Baltimore. The Springfield mine was opened by Tyson in 1849, and produced well down to a depth of 1400 feet on the incline, but as it was impossible to renew the 21-year lease, the mine was robbed of its pillars and caved in beyond recovery. The Bare Hills mine was opened by Pcthcr- ick in 1845 ^^^ produced till 1889. In 1804 Levi Hollingsworth started a rolling mill, and by 1810 was working 100 tons a year. In 1814 he built the extensive Gunpowder Cop- per Works, II miles from the city, spending $100,000 on them. Most of the copper came in pigs of about 96 per cent, from Chili. This enterprise is in a way carried on still in the present copper works. About 1830 one of the sights of the city was Isaac McKim's copper rolling mill on Smith's wharf. This was driven by a "stupendous steam engine," and ran from 1827 to 1845, making sheathing for ships. In 1845 ^^^ Baltimore and Cuba Smelting and Mining Company was organized, and erected a furnace on Little Cuba street, and added a rolling mill in 1849. Their Cuban mines did not materialize, and the smelter was kept going on ore purchased in Cuba and Chili till 185 1, when the work was given up. In demolishing the works three years later much copper was found in furnace bottoms and slags. So much was realized by the sale of this that new life was put into the venture and the company was reorganized with increased capital. The Baltimore Copper Smelting Company was organized in 1850 ?md built works in Canton. The two companies were consolidated in 1864 ^^^^^ all the works moved to Canton. The company failed in 1869. In these years the great difficulty which had hindered all of these enterprises was the uncertainty of the ore supply and the distance to the mines. It was HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 525 a long way from the west coast of South America to Baltimore by sail. In 1870 the remains of the business were in the hands of William Keyser, J. W. Garrett, and Johns Hopkins, who were about to give it a decent burial when Arizona and Montana ores came upon the market. Work was resumed with these ores, of which the supply was more abundant and far more certain. While there have been ups and downs and some unsuccess- ful ventures, on the whole the copper interests of Baltimore have gfrown immensely since 1870. For some time past the ores have been smelted at the mines and now the copper comes to Baltimore from different western states in the shape of pig containing about 98 to 99 per cent, copper, various quantities of silver and gold, as well as impurities. Important work in 3ie development of electrol)rtic refining of copper has been done in Baltimore, and when improvements now in progress are completed it will have the largest refinery in the world. Baltimore electro- lytic copper is well known and in demand throughout Europe, and it is the most valuable export of this port. Sheet copper manufactured in Baltimore is sold throughout the United States and Canada. The following statistics give a good idea of the growth of the copper industry in Baltimore in recent years. In 1890 $4,382,766 worth of ore was exported and in 1891 $4,554,470 worth. Since 1892 little ore has been exported. CoPFBR Exported from Baltiicorb for Fiscal Years Pounds Value Pounda Value 1880 none 1896 58494,356 $6,332,852 I88I 97 » 17 i«97 87,121,392 9,664,652 1882 none none 1898 94430,786 10,576,571 1883 405,00s 57,091 1899 81,928,041 ",713,548 1884 69,031 9,3" 1900 .. 100,731,320 16,655,872 1885 5495i443 612,360 1901 65,010,303 IO4OI474 1886 4,553 639 1902 82,502,340 10,764.383 12,108,865 1887 1,120,000 103,600 1903 95499,909 1888 283,500 42,200 I9<H .. "3,097,650 14,272,300 1889 ncme 1905 .. 174,571,773 24,153,776 1890 568,459 58,606 1906 .. 161,378,005 27,603,483 I89I 3,365,628 436,849 1907 . . 137,667,734 29,779,563 1892 11,806,294 1467,288 1908 . . 109,274,165 15403,959 1893 3,337,3«o 381,195 1909 .. 131,538,344 17,361.185 i«94 43,381,834 4,369,242 1910 . . 169,865,518 21,813,742 1895 35,299,369 3,525457 Iron and Steel. — ^The iron, copper, and chrome industries are alike in their histories in Baltimore. All three began here and had their early de- velopment on account of the discovery of ores in this vicinity, and all three have long survived the working of the deposits which determined their location. The development has been entirely continuous in the chrome in- dustry, and nearly so in the copper, but the present iron and steel industry bears little relation to that of early times. A belt of ore beds containing both oxide and carbonate of iron extends from near Washington in a northeast direction across the State of Maryland. It was on this belt that the early iron furnaces were located. The iron made from these ores has for nearly two centuries been noted for its purity, and on that account some of these small furnaces were long able to hold their own against the modem monsters that invaded their territory. In early times there were many furnaces scattered around wherever iron ore, water-power, and fuel could be got together, and there were many such places in Uiis vicinity, but the furnace, or, more exactly, combination of furnaces, called the Principio looms large in the early history of iron 526 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE making, not only in Maryland, but even in the whole of America. About 1719 Joseph Farmer, of England, came to this country, and about three years later organized the Principio Company, which began with a furnace in Cecil county, near the mouth of Principio creek. About 1725 Augustus and Lawrence Washington, father and half-brother to the "Father of his Country," became interested in this company. The Principio Company soon outranked all others in America, owning other furnaces and forges in Mary- land and Virginia. It might have become the original steel trust of America had it not suffered so severely in the two wars with Finland. About 1780 most of its properties were confiscated and sold by the State on account of their British ownership, and during the War of 1812 the main works, which were at that time largely engaged in making cannon, were destroyed by an expedition of Cockburn's fleet. These were rebuilt after the war and were producing iron at Principio on the P. W. & B. railroad till recently. Some years ago several pigs of iron labeled "Principio, 1750," were dug up in the bed of the Patapsco river, opposite Fort McHenry. They prob- ably were from the furnace once located on Whetstone Point. In 1761 there were in Maryland 8 furnaces making 2,500 tons of pig iron and 10 foi^es producing 6c)0 tons of bar iron each year. The early furnaces were com- paratively small, being 30 to 33 feet high, and with boshes 6 to 8 feet in diameter. They used charcoal for fuel, and the one tuyere was supplied with cold blast, usually blown by water-power. Some 2a horse-power was required for a furnace. One furnace would furnish employment for about 150 men and some 30 horses and mules, as mining the ore and cutting the wood, with which to make the charcoal, were part of the operation of the furnace. The output would be about 1,100 tons for the nine months' blast Until the introduction of new methods had completely revolutionized the business of iron manufacture, Baltimore charcoal pig iron held a high reputation for its purity and malleable quality. The ore used in the old Baltimore blast furnaces was mostly taken from ore banks situated in Bal- timore county, and the timber used for charcoal was brought alongside the furnaces by the sailing bay craft. The quality of the iron produced was so highly esteemed that it was often used by founders in small quantities to mix with other iron in order to raise the quality of the product. In 1828 the Canton Forges, on the eastern side of Baltimore, were owned and operated by Peter Cooper, of New York. Later they passed into the possession of Horace Abbott, who had removed to Baltimore from Massachusetts, and under the name of the Abbott Iron Works became widely known for enterprise and achievement in the field of manufacture of wrought iron. The works comprised four rolling mills, of which the last was completed just before the beginning of the Civil War. Here was made the armor for Ericsson's iron-clad Monitor, the first armor plate made in America, and the armor for all the vessels of the monitor type that were built during the Civil War upon the Atlantic seaboard. Among the early iron-clads for which the armor was made at these works were the Roanoke, Agamenticus and Monadnock, At these works also was con- structed the first large shaft made in America for a steamship; it was for the Russian frigate Kamschatka, which was built in New York, and the shaft, when exhibited in that city, attracted much attention as a notable achievement in iron manufacture. Some idea of the production of iron in early times may be g^ned from the following statistics of iron imported from Maryland into England. The figures given represent tons. A small amount, some 20 to 30 tons a year, in addition to this, was taken by Scotland. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 527 Pig Bar 1718 3 I729-- 852 1730...:.... 1,526 1731 2,081 1732 2,226 1733 2,309 ... 1734. • 2,042 ... 1735 2,362 44 Pig Bar 1739 2,242 ... 1740 2,020 5 I74I 3,261 5 1742 1,926 ... 1743 2,816 1744 1,748 57 1745 2,130 4 1746 1,729 193 Pig Bar 1747 2,119 82 1748 2,017 1750 2,'5oi8 5 1751 2,950 3 1752 2,762 16 1753 2,347 97 1754 2,591 153 1755 2,132 299 The contrast between ancient and modem metallurgical operations is strikingly seen when we compare the scale and methods of these old-time furnaces with those of the present great works at Sparrow's Point. Each of th*se modem furnaces is 85 feet high and 22 feet in diameter, having a cubical capacity about twenty times as great as that of the old-time fur- nace. One of the old style would make two to four tons of pig iron per day. The making of Bessemer steel was begun here in 1891, and is car- ried on on a very large scale, much of the product being converted into steel rails. The tugboat Pennwood, launched May 30, 189 1, was the fore- mnner of a long line of steel ships to be built at Sparrow's Point. These great steel works were not located either by chanc^ or by sentiment, but were put at the exact spot at which ores from Cuba, Spain, and Algiers could be most cheaply brought together with Pennsylvania coke and Bal- timore county limestone, and from which steel rails and odier products may be most advantageously distributed. Here the Maryland Steel Com- pany has built a considerable number of torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers for the Federal government, also colliers for the navy, and large ships for use in the trade with the Hawaiian Islands and elsewhere. Here also was built the famous floating dock ''Dewey", the towing of which around the world from Baltimore and through the Suez C^nal to Manila was a notable event. Hats, — ^The manufacture of hats, a leading industry in Baltimore, had its beginning in the eighteenth century. During the colonial period this was one of the many forms of industry which was prohibited in the Eng- lish colonies. In 1731 it was forbidden by law under a penalty of £500 for a colonist to wear a hat of other than British manufacture. The industry seems to have been begun in Baltimore by David Shields, who had a shop at 14 Gay street, and whose name appears upon the records as early as 1769, when he subscribed for the purchase of a fire engine. The names of nineteen hatters appear in the city directory for 1796, and by 1800 Baltimore-made hats were regarded as superior to the imported article both in quality and style. Jacob Rogers, who learned his trade with Shields, may, however, be regarded as the founder of the hat industry in Baltimore. About 1805 he erected a four-story building 150x40 feet in area, in which he employed 100 hands, and had the most extensive hat business in the United States. Apprentices in his factory were subsequently leaders in the business, and his influence was dominant until the industry declined and died out about i860. The productions of the old industry were silk hats and beavers. Until 1845, when H. A. Wells invented a machine that changed the entire system of manufacture, hats were made largely by hand, 'fiie Baltimore hatters seem to have been slow to adopt the new method, and so fell out of the race. But there came a revival of hat manufacturing in a new form. Soon after the close of the Civil War several dealers in Baltimore intro- 528 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE duced the mackinaw straw hat, which immediately became very popular. The manufacture of these and other kinds of straw hats was taker \ up and rapidly developed, with the result that Baltimore is now (1911) biown far and wide for its manufacture of straw hats, which are made here in larger quantities than anywhere else in the world. Vessels cleared from the Port of Baltimore. For foreign ports for the last 40 years; coastwise for the last 12 years: 870. 871. 872. 873. 874 875. 876. 877. 878. 879. 880. 881. 882. 885. 884. 885. 886. 887. 888. 889. 890. 891. 892. 893. 894 895 896. 897. 898. 899- 900. 901. 902. 903 904. 905 906. 907, 908. 909 910. StMin Sidl 85 918 99 1260 95 1254 184 1513 276 1538 297 133I 280 884 306 509 381 445 415 297 339 290 474 268 484 241 360 196 552 160 676 165 619 189 745 164 620 158 534 164 481 147 698 119 888 136 890 145 858 109 761 122 737 131 611 99 636 72 545 67 693 65 764 90 759 38 632 40 526 24 561 26 Pofdcn Tonnage 130,863 232402 274,990 334,154 412,742 436,372 752,234 879,481 1,098,895 1,389,072 1,348,240 1,039,321 744,504 722,996 641,920 535,239 700,246 723,348 566,649 831,759 1,070,679 1,010,810 1,283,374 1,066,748 949,303 922,220 1,256,242 1,589,563 1,752,621^ 1,762,010 1,633,341 1,635,354 1,186479 1,316,143 1,082,005 1,389438 1,576,550 1,540,213 1,257,888 1,066,262 1,226,385 Anoricsn Tonnace 93,092 92,332 99,388 "8,935 125,893 127,795 97,917 91,515 126,277 92,899 81,145 63,063 61,939 64,399 64,396 70,006 58,254 57,081 45,756 42,117 39,620 54,315 49,632 55,355 67,805 62,152 64,135 69,599 54,344 35,909 53,261 70,596 32,026 70,183 46,230 46,001 16,649 12,120 16,790 7,979 7,505 Number 2,086 2,268 2,227 2,123 2,233 2,165 1,972 2,194 2,149 1,767 1,935 2,077 2^118,964 2,595,925 2,644,331 2,673,319 2,791,548 2,712,108 2,615,646 2,905,946 3,074,791 2,673^12 3,045464 3,353352 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 529 IlIFOKTS AND EXFORTS AT THE PORT OF BaLTIMORB Year endioc Oct. 1. Imports 1791 $1,690,930 1792 1,782,861 1793 2,092,660 1794 3456421 1795 4.421,924 Bxports 1806. 1807. 1808. 1809. Prom State, abont H f'om Baltimore $14,580,905 14,308,984 2,721,106 6,627,326 1822. 1823. 1842. 1843 1844. 1845 1846. 1847. 1848. 1849 1850. I851. 1852. 1853 1854- 1855 Prom Baltimore 4,052,260 3,607,733 4,251,883 3,356,670 4,238,760 4,146,743 5,245,894 5,291,566 6417,113 7,243,963 5,978,021 6,331,671 7,750,387 7,772,591 4,520,656 5,263,909 4448,946 4,740,042 4,622,063 6,256,276 6,710,559 9,826,479 7,209,609 8,660,982 8,530,971 6,466,160 7.549,768 9,086,910 11,306,012 ",675,996 Piacal year endioc Jnne 30 1856 9,119,907 1857 10,581,208 1858 8,930,157 1859 9,713,921 i860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 9,784,773 9449.105 3,696,620 4484,399 5,835,503 4,816454 8,155,991 1867 12,209,509 10,856,637 13405,393 9,878,386 9,074,511 8,804,606 12,949,625 8,375,303 11,013,871 8,741,755 ",794,546 10,804,012 10,995,348 Imports 1868 12,930,733 1869 15,863,032 1870 19,512468 1871 24,672,871 1872 28,836,305 1873 29,387,603 1874 '29,302,138 1875 27,788,992 1876 22,340,629 1877 22,327,928 1878 16,938,628 1879 19,945,991 1880 18,643,253 Por Calendar Years Bzports 13,857,391 13,657,530 14,330,248 15,037,855 18,325,321 19,344,177 27,513,111 27,515,657 31,216,807 39,206,274 45492,527 76,220,870 73,994,910 1881 16,278,946 1882 14,658,006 1883 12,308,392 1884 12,090,261 1885 11,193,695 1886 11,785,113 1887 13,055,880 1888 12,098,629 1889 15409,234 1890 15,339,312 189I 18,270,000 1892 14,258,575 1893 15,011,839 1894 11,936,015 1895 14,009,531 1896 10,326,594 1897 11,126,557 1898 8,206,764 1899 14,021,383 1900 19,688461 I90I 21,363,963 1902 25,219,075 1903 25,374418 1904 18,761,963 1905 25,226,618 1906 35,364,145 1907 36,184,322 1908 23,722,054 1909 27,418,567 I9IO 32,377480 55,779461 43,500,798 50,085,814 43488457 34,748,264 46,810,870 49,545,970 45,099,334 62,077,610 72,120,083 79475,175 93,126,389 74,701,951 66,220,022 60,171,591 81,508,836 98,560,604 1 15,820,274 109,235,932 111,357413 99,005,271 74,335,900 84,317,904 84,099,727 103,550,042 107,609,144 99,322,342 81,874,087 79424,914 72,944,146 Total exports of principal articles from Baltdiorb during 1910 Articles Dollars Valne Principal Countries to which Exported Agncultturai Implements Casings for Sausages Animal foods, tons , . 1,857,308 32,972 307,985 0 984 189,576 7,069 185,661,337 $2,823,763 165,937 880432 36,^ 0 143 16,793 3,959 719,695 23,151,189 107,532 Russia. Germany, Norway, Sweden. Germany, Prance, England. Bacon and Hams, lbs Fresh Beef, lbs Germany, Netherlands, Russia. Canned Beef, lbs Germany. Cured and Salted, lbs Carrias^es and oarts. ,...,. t - Germany. BeUnum. Cattle, live. No England. Copper, ingots and bars Chemicals, drugs, etc England, Netherlands, Ger- many. Germany, Prance. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Total exports op pbincifal articles fbom Baltdiors during 1910 (Contiaued) Coal, tons Coke, tons Cotton, raw, lbs Cotton, doljis, yards Flour, bbla Fruit Glucose, lbs Hair Com, bushels Iron and Steel, tons Lard, lbs Leather Machinery Oats, bushels Illn, Oil, gals Lub. Oil, gals Cotton seed, lbs Oil Cake and Meal, lbs. . . . Neutral Lard, Oleo Oil, lbs. Paper Paraffin Wax, lbs Pork, lbs Rye Sheep Starch, lbs Steel Rails, tons Tallow, lbs Timber and Mnfrs of Leaf tobacco, lbs Tobacco Stems, lbs Wheat, bushels AU other small articles, Total I Vklae Principal Coaatiica to whidi Bsponal Cuba, Mexico. Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica. England, Germany. England, Germany. All prindral countries. Eogbnd, Germany. England, Gennany, Irdand, England, Gennany, Irelaod. Scotland. England, Panama* Germany, Ireland, Netherlds. England, Ireland. Be&um, Sweden. British West Indies. Germany, Belgium, Ireland. Germany, Belgium. Irdand. Germany, England. Gennany, Belgium, Prance. Germany, Netherlds, Scotld. Germany, England. England, Ireland. Germany. Netherlands, England. Australia, Cuba, Mexico. Netherlands, Germany. England, Six>ttand, Ireland. England, Germany. England, Germany, Nethlds. France, Gennany Scotland- totai expobts by countries for Port op Coantric* VbIum Austria, Hungary ^^3 Belgium 3,739,958 Bulgaria 61 ,543 Denmark 554.336 France 6,146,334 Germany 32,613,589 Netherlands 13,893477 Norway 4'5.535 Roumania 70,373 Russia in Europe 3435. '9^ Finland 167,653 Spain 58,039 Sweden 334.802 England 11,301,117 Scotland 2,136,750 Ireland 3,365,007 Panama 2,033,051 French Oceania 900 Dutch Guiana 4,263 THE Calendar Year 1910, pboh t Baltimore. CoontiiH Argentina Brazil Chinese Empire Portuguese Africa. . Turkey in Europe. . German Oceania. . . Straits Settlements, New Zealand Guatemala French W. Indies.. British W. indies.. Australia and Philippine Islands. Cuba British India British W. Africa. 900 n>8,«93 9,a65 41.069 84,097 4,800 479 3430 101,837 17.149 1.7 '9.566 87.903 930,659 69.033 394,646 38,098 331,748 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 531 Total Exports bt Ck>uNTRiBs for thb Calendar Year 1910, from the Port of Baltimore. (Continued) Countries British South Africa. Morocco Danish W. Indies. . . Malta, Goza, Etc... Switzerland Uruguay German Africa Italy Value 2,440 600 3»39i 10 200 30,569 37,501 62,011 Countries Canary Islands French Africa Egypt Canada Costa Rica Turkey in Asia Value 9,8l2 123,512 6,918 165,551 110,926 3,251 $74,067,406 Statement of the Principal Commodities, Free and Dutiable, and Gross Values OF all Merchandise Imported into the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, During the Calendar Year, 1910. Free of Duty COMMODITIES. Ammonia, sulphate of. . Bananas. Chrome ore Clover seed Cocoanuts Coir yam Copper, pigs, bars Corkwood Pertiliaers, Bone Fertilizers, Guano Fertilizers, Kainit Fertilizers, Other Hair, unmanufactured. . Licorice root Manganese ore Palm oil Paper stock Pepper, unground Potash, can>onate of . . . Potash, mtuiate of Potash, sulphate of Soda, nitrate of Sulphur or brimstone. . Sulphur ore Tea Tin, pigs, bars, etc All other free goods Total Free Values. Ammonia, muriate of. . Bottles, empty Bristles, sorted Broom com Burlaps Champagne Cheese China, decorated China, plain Clays or earths Cork,mfrs Cotton cloth Cotton hose Cotton laces Cotton, other mfrs UNIT OF QUANTITY. QUANTITY. VALUE. pounds bunches tons pounds pounds tons tons tons tons pounds pounds tons pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds tons tons tons pounds pounds 27,069,886 4,145,192 10,000 3,337,901 785,020 20,699492 12,510 5,331 98,780 53,541 3,527,030 51,309,252 131,526 5478,007 1,051,145 4,990,732 96,197,602 10,974,960 67,084 4,312 103.385 226,627 860,807 $670,145 1,303,590 121,663 389.762 63,343 26,163 2,514,670 944,502 288,369 94,150 373,710 578,883 157,039 491,328 910,902 376,371 167,706 70,754 164,761 1,258,034 163,504 1,684.813 80,756 440,231 33,817 270,623 1,170,895 Subject to Duty pounds pounds pounds tons pounds doz. qts. pounds 5,016,173 552,914 90,759 875 14,001,973 1,695 376,859 tons 25,536 sq. yds. doz. prs. 378,943 66,363 $14,810484 238,241 9,021 43,399 109,670 638,045 28413 74,287 1,347,774 199,779 153,065 1,519,881 58,166 62,770 335,821 85,891 532 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE SuBjBCT TO Duty (Contiiiued) Enameledware, iron Glass, plate Herring, salted Iron, bar (charcoal) Iron, pig Iron ore Lime, chloride of Linens Mackerel, salted Marble and mfrs Matting, straw Mineral Waters Molasses Oil dotti and Lindleum. . Paper mfrs Rice, broken Salt Spirituous liquors Steel ingots Tobacco, leaf Toys Wine in casks Woodpilp Wool dress goods All other dutiable goods. Total dutiable values. Total Free Values Total Dutiable Values. sq. ft. pounds pounds . tons tons pounds sq. yds. pounds sq. yds. doz. qts. gallons sq. yds. pounds pounds gallons pounds pounds gallons pounds sq. yds. Grand Total. 544,«50 2,050,265 14,561,165 81,860 1,118,716 6,645444 677,157 1,698,821 3,936,255 36,136 263,592 1,195,820 47,796,670 11,165,510 172,341 4,626,308 267,176 42,444 20,542,630 282,370 14,810484 17,566,996 32,377480 $80,187 117,081 81,375 256,950 2495,866 3.442,959 59,599 83.074 75,002 207,360 258,152 20,057 49,677 246,162 211,901 730,877 13,598 195.829 56,580 110,147 1,279,524 35.922 329,3" 52,128 2.173455 •17.566,996 Statbmbnt of Imports, bt Countries, into thb Port of Baltdcorb, Maryland, FOR THB Calendar Year, 1910. Austria-Hungary Azores and Madeira Islands Belgium Demnark Prance Germany Gibraltar Greece Italy Neuierlands Norway Portugal Russia in Europe Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey in Europe England Scotland Ireland Bermuda Canada Panama Mexico Newfoundland and Labrador. Egypt and Soudan $587,330 1,314 429,919 246 832,514 6,750435 3 8,554 471,532 869,315 69437 350,512 17,942 2,993.170 473,298 75426 2,158 8,126,681 787,096 49,171 17 9,930 127 1,122 917 1,066 British West Indies Cuba Dutch West Indies Santo Domingo Argentina Chile Brazil Colombia Ecuador Uruguay Chinese Empire British East Indies, India . . British East Indies, Other . . Dutch East Indies Hongkong Japan Russia in Asia Turkey in Asia Philippine Islands Korea British South Africa Canary Islands French AMca Liberia Morocco Portuguese Africa •1,324,346 3,728,727 11,508 36,000 21,550 1,684,888 227,244 20.927 7 33,972 131.018 994,727 16,208 31,192 57453 226,635 431,675 362,054 134 963 2 645 3,824 486 400 121,663 Total from all countries $32,377480 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 533 Statistics of Baltimore Manufactories. — The progress of Baltimore as a manufacturing center can be well studied in the tables given below, the figures for which are taken from the U. S. Census publications. Data for 1910 are given under only 26 headings, but these are much more compre- hensive than the designations of industries in previous reports. The figures from various censuses have been grouped so as to show as nearly as may be the progress of each line of industry, but, owing to changes of classifi- cation from one census to another, this is in many cases impossible. In the table of totals the figures are taken from the latest census publications and do not quite agree with those published previously owing to revision of ''totals to include data only for those establishments located within the corporate limits of the city." It will be noted that some of the figures given, particularly as to num- ber of establishments, show an alarming decrease from 1890 to 1900. The returns for 1890 include 714 custom and repair shoe shops with a product worth $1^5,000. It is well known that shoemakers are no less numerous and no less useful in our city than of yore, but they are no longer listed by the census authorities among our manufacturers. Along with these, 187 establishments for blacksmithing and wheelwrighting, 43 for dyeing and cleaning, 88 for furniture repairing and upholstering, 26 for lock and gun- smithing, 220 for painting and paper hanging, 33 for photography, 116 for plumbing and gas-fitting, 96 for repairing watches and clocks and jewelry are no longer enumerated among manufactories as they were in 1890. Excluding these and other trades with their numerous small shops, accounts for the sudden shrinking of our manufacturing establishments from 5,265 in 1890 to 2,274 in 1900. The figures given for 1870 apply to the whole county, and of course include some not enumerated in the other censuses; hence the progress from 1870 to 1880 was greater than appears from the table. The restrictions as to locality and classification have been more and more strict in each succeeding census, so that the progress made is even greater than appears from the figures given. In many industries the number of establishments has become smaller from year to year owing to modem tendencies to consolidation. In some cases this has led to the disappearance of a line of manufacture from the table as, in order not to disclose the operations of individual firms, statistics are not published for industries carried on by less than three firms. For this reason one of our very largest industries, that of copper, does not appear in the table except in the 1910 census und^r the broad title of "cop- per, tin, and sheet iron products." Many interesting tendencies of modern manufacturing can be traced in the figures given. In 1870 $26,000,000 of capital invested worked $36,- 000,000 of materials and turned out $59,000,000 of products, or $1 capital was able to handle $1.40 of materials and produce $2.30 of results, while in 1910, an investment of $1.00 takes care of only 67 cents' worth of mate- rials, which it converts into $1.14 worth of marketable goods. The return for capital invested is just half what it was in 1870. The increase in wages is seen from the fact that while tHe number of wage-earners has doubled, their compensation has trebled. Much of the increased capital has gone into labor-saving machinery. Improvements of machinery and methods have increased the returns from labor so that now, on the aver- age, one worker turns out in the course of a year, $2,600 worth of product, while in 1870 the amount was $1,790. In 1870 17 per cent, of the value of the produc.s was paid for labor, while in 19 10 16 per cent, was so paid. The most noteworthy increase has been in the number and compensation 534 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE of salaried c^cials, clerks, etc., and in the compensation paid them, and in the miscellaneous expenses. The dates given are those of the censuses, while the figures actually apply to the operations of the year preceding the census: Table of Totals fok Industries OF Baltdiorb. Ymt No. of BcUb- liflh- ments Capital Sd«ri«l Officials. Qerks. Ac. Salaries Wa«e Baners Wages Materials Value of Pradoct Z9Z0 X905 1900 1800 3.503 3.Z58 i^ 3.683 3.759 Iz64.437.000 z46.96z.000 Z07.3Z7,000 92.723.677 38.S86.773 36.049.040 9.369 6.753 5.S0Z ■ • • • • • • • • • • • Iz0.s7z.000 6.997.000 537Z.OOO 7Z.444- 65.050 66.57Z 33.Z83 831.x7z.000 35.507.000 33.403.000 3S.9z4.8s4 z5.zz7.489 ZO.3S3.078 8z07.0a4.000 8o.sss.ooo 75.333.000 73.770.00z 47.974.397 36.z44.43s 8z86.978.00o x50.z7z.ooo i3S.io8.ooo x88o 78.417 .30a X870 c9.txo.oA3 Dbtailbd Statbmbnt of Manufactures w Baltdiorb. AitiDeial nomn and Aviiiugi and Bskii«and and viDowware ntlaB,aBd BsKiBg ami hose, and mbbsr.. . . oooUbODim and ODuBv* •••■••• Boots and incenls in(i.. . . Booto and dMM. in( enl stoA and fin^ do. inehiifing and Boot and iboe vsptn,. IflOB 1900 1880 1808 1900 1890 1890 1908 1900 1890 1880 1908 1900 1890 1880 1910 1906 1906 1900 1890 1906 1900 1890 1880 1900 1906 1900 1890 1880 1870 1906 1900 1890 1880 1906 1900 1890 1880 Na of Birtafc 8 5 8 10 21 8 7 4 4 17 88 17 16 4 4 4 8 8 14 21 16 17 14 14 18 87 6 18 21 11 6 6 10 18 Ctapital 876.018 88.006 2.148 64.724 87390 1104^16 4.800 266308 97.888 149360 70306 48.164 40.100 12.908 6.110 828.000 680.048 8318 890 784 80360 110.896 90306 91.768 878300 480320 468390 848.486 886387 14366 28390 78349 7.700 71.760 67.088 66.900 10.326 OOebli and CIsiks Na 4 6 8 8 • * • • 44 48 12 86 81 10 16 66 66 87 1 8 88.108 6320 8312 2390 44387 413S4 18380 2.400 49300 42380 800 8.049 10388 84300 48362 46368 1360 2382 _Waie 116 887 6 97 188 41 176 106 78 28 47 86 46 18 279 11 6 12 188 196 184 207 694 661 848 1388 2384 2,186 80 16 98 40 112 88 111 80 Wagai 884384 86.180 2.860 41.486 473I8 84.778 7.900 66.408 88364 26302 18300 18.048 12.980 17380 6.168 87300 71.160 8.170 1.800 2387 66368 70302 71390 81398 289,900 286372 618.648 980361 * 11 .427 6396 46318 11.766 87,478 27.982 41398 16.188 812.174 6388 6.409 7388 8.180 281388 26,778 2314 18368 11.188 I3I8 80388 841 8386 18,461 7381 68.101 86388 80378 1367 13O6 8.908 4.472 1.740 8386 UHd 888.188 88.788 13tt 88387 88.468 147.468 18308 881.108 819.408 188,788 111310 48318 49.484 18381 8386 409381 8366 8387 8,466 88.184 42319 88304 818300 686378 686,484 716368 l.< 10308 88347 87380 17378 84300 64348 66301 88388 VahHof 114388 6308 187381 878318 86488 7M388 846378 192.448 188388 88384 88368 18386 I3I8.O88 704,747 11384 7328 7366 187341 171,186 180388 18S388 1.481390 1311388 1386307 1318381 8.411,788 8318368 88348 40.080 170.108 87378 188.488 86.784 188368 68322 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 535 Dbtailbd Statement of Manufactures in Baltimoke. — Continued. BttSt^L. WOOdflA DftAlFinff ^^^^■^■^R^PB W^r^F^^^PHV ■^■^^■■'■^i^^p • and fin- B«ll and faiMi f oimdriei Brndud othar pradoeti BriekandtOe. Braomi and brahca.. CSMuiiiK and . Canning ftvita and tablaaoBljr CSMBung fniita, tablaa and ogratHB. ■iag »«• andwafoomap GaniafBa and vagoni andmatcriah. GaniafBa and vaeom. . da ndodininpaiia.. •naandwaaona.. Gaia and fansal riiop ooHtraalioD and i^ pain hf ataam lail- nad Mnui Ciothf yongmg and i^ No. of &tab- Yaar l"_^ menta 1906 16 1000 11 1890 12 1880 8 1906 13 1000 16 1890 14 1880 13 1870 17 1906 0 1900 0 1890 7 1880 10 1870 4 1010 376 1906 841 1000 880 1890 361 1880 316 1870 160 1006 3 1890 26 1880 28 1870 86 1906 33 1000 37 1890 26 1880 28 1870 10 1010 61 1906 26 1000 23 1890 38 1880 41 1870 13 1000 310 1890 222 1880 114 1906 8 1000 13 1890 36 1880 17 1006 8 1890 4 1010 40 1006 62 1000 02 1890 76 1880 37 1870 30 1010 8 1006 7 1000 6 1006 3 1000 6 1890 10 1006 8 Capital 8610.140 136.706 140.708 34.020 676.116 606.764 368.883 130.012 133.610 80.006 1.472.361 10.600 2.666.000 1.666.440 1.743.666 1.031.716 832.872 4.410.308 1.041.068 640A)0 611.466 246.062 246317 83.118 3386.000 3367341 2368.467 2.004300 1.060.100 1.666332 610.110 1.107390 42.160 20316 38316 23326 162300 100.174 641.000 610.071 476361 630304 223.700 3.471.000 1388.066 2336388 1.627.076 1371372 1.066316 68.116 aadGerla Na Salariea 66 32 814318 16368 48 28 47.883 26,022 16 7 26364 7382 206 146 177 34 47 17 • • • • 246 231 148 • • • * • • • • 46 • • * « 6 4 8 37 12 10 818 168 41 26 « • • • 106.000 107,781 116.766 30.000 66.673 10360 238.000 228.782 172326 43363 2360 3.000 7388 37.000 6.072 14.780 220300 141.062 72.074 61364 41.474 3.000 Waee 602 366 460 207 080 640 362 207 107 86 1.187 33 68 1.682 1.460 1.460 1.401 766 887 743 1314 1320 806 386 360 368 173 3.166 4.086 4360 6380 10328 2.476 2327 1.482 1386 66 113 62 84 60 67 413 481 663 666 372 241 4.163 8.712 2.488 328 376 616 33 Waeei 8181.008 77.800 106300 33317 208.707 204306 273366 147377 44.487 27344 668.066 16370 760300 667.646 663.164 666324 261.468 261364 640.102 322330 128.482 112382 120304 74.768 844.000 050362 906307 1380.711 816313 1.160.100 006316 674.064 10.722 20306 22366 10321 31.784 24,470 236.000 280300 242.666 336337 147301 2.706.000 2.163.780 1367.020 141.107 206.020 223.087 17.086 MiaoeOa- 860.712 24.076 16300 116.068 67.436 26.606 16306 6342 80.662 442.000 237348 142.776 83.637 20.708 187.786 63.781 14.687 17.630 310.000 416.080 800,085 00.063 643331 45.100 4.420 7.138 3.142 8.146 0322 44382 83.488 31.710 47.000 88,670 38361 164.068 81346 75.000 3.730 Ua«l 8221364 126.473 116.646 88388 066308 064.440 466322 300373 182.420 121.382 785346 83.741 3.680300 2.670308 2.106301 2313345 1.440.460 06,006 146,407 166.648 460367 265.102 312361 156.078 4317.000 4353.710 6.432.415 8314318 8354350 2374.600 007,172 1.006330 52.480 76387 46.000 23378 06.606 48.045 278300 244338 211.770 240.104 156378 4383300 2.064356 2.150314 588397 661307 761301 1.626 Value of Plodueta 8406.670 206313 280.100 140.635 1382.488 1350308 804326 531,000 268.700 818367 208383 1308360 71.101 168.485 5.716300 4.488387 8311324 3304376 2.172382 1.144368 812330 1366308 826318 88736& 786.48» 400388 572306 208,610 286.738 5381.000 5361341 8.477.178 5.7^352 5301368 2.606.038 4.007.885 3.420300 3316.028 01.000 154362 80.745 48306 157358 106.100 732,000 670301 600.860 781.474 807340 820.078 7365.000 4.477318 8320.060 1.081.778 1.078300 1388.470 84.786 536 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Dbtailbd Statement of Manufactures in Baltimorb. — Continiiei. IKK ■Ufli. , , . , CloOiag. moi'i. Cbthmg, men't, ouitam and GloCliing, meny boMgn kolflg OoCliing. women's OoCliing. mnUng. ..... OoffM and ^m, mg and gnodinc Oqpptr, tm, and dieet BOB PRMlUOla* c Oo lithiag and DpparamitniBi a ■bait won woncuig. OopygMwiUhinit. CulkiTlaiid edga teda. Dngiand diMnioaii. »S^. and nih Ihinntif'T^ and EngmviBi and dionnk' li* Year 1910 1906 1900 1890 1880 1900 1890 1908 1900 1910 1906 1900 1890 1880 1900 1890 1906 1900 1890 1880 1910 1906 1900 1890 1880 1870 1906 1900 18B0 1880 1870 1910 1906 1880 1906 1900 1890 1880 1906 1900 1890 1880 1906 1900 1906 1900 1890 1880 1906 1900 1906 1900 1890 1880 No. of 834 116^ 187 126 188 860 11 8 61 68 21 87 670 170 12 11 U 18 80 48 118 96 63 28 10 86 42 48 84 68 8 8 8 16 10 0 10 8 17 6 6 7 6 8 6 4 4 3 7 7 7 819.288.000 8.946.618 8.484J»6 2.114.020 3,848361 1.642.908 666.900 14.496 7.296 1.686.000 1.162.036 828.620 266.440 136.860 328.767 211.410 439347 227.400 79360 124,780 2.701300 1.124.688 936.401 193.000 880.766 266384 896321 72300 220300 20.666300 294.464 20300 7.990 10300 45300 22360 2353.902 389375 18,900 662300 127316 149.803 20387 12.826 16.047 17325 1,639.496 1.437314 11344 9368 7.426 1326 and CMa No. 1.621 874 759 • • • » • • • • 176 145 180 • • • • 17 ■ • ■ 80 268 178 147 12 14 607 27 • » • • 94 214 81.768300 794.728 717.907 109306 18 16 1 1 102 74 526 270.000 121.751 127.641 113S2 4o.v4a 107.603 277,000 165.066 121364 9384 10.780 662300 18316 206.841 268380 14348 15316 350 900 142.798 60347 1300 .Wage 18396 8366 9,690 13.004 11,157 1387 1380 71 39 2372 1.742 1379 006 527 1340 768 7! 97 ISO 1364 1,049 991 864 322 85 219 840 518 371 288 4,173 258 21 11 15 41 24 626 439 26 236 65 64 87 27 38 31 1397 1,136 13 14 14 6 Wagei 87326.000 2,768.645 8.174.172 4.178.971 1322301 66O3I8 871,401 27.470 11364 878.000 561396 506.475 206378 84.996 800.696 231368 80.726 85.087 78.456 24303 459300 292364 297,065 278,682 110,718 120,166 153.617 268369 146382 1,675300 152,443 11,900 5,445 7,164 23,030 9300 190319 122.799 8.645 78.114 24388 29.603 19326 9367 20393 10.166 386397 316.417 6.987 6.900 10.188 3300 88362300 2.776.188 1300.908 406.166 446360 78i826 8.707 1,687 3483B0 102.061 44,187 65321 24367 57304 22.774 18.686 428300 204.791 114360 96,442 24.114 27.968 16378 1379,000 20320 778 842 4388 9183B0 187.184 4367 14379 14318 4.002 1.604 2386 103.784 29340 1394 2.138 I3I8 Uaed 820.672300 11311,416 10323386 6.123378 6313388 8283S4 6318 4374 2379300 13M300 1361.120 4473M 286.182 80438O 028.061 1300^168 l«4^83V* 22I4O6 8.11630O I3O8.6OO 1396368 1.106309 781.782 218,720 848340 606398 8,172300 192388 15300 2313 4.188 10.189 11.186 1378382 23I8 628.486 62.100 86310 9398 8.444 8386 7360 911,4 788372 2.146 11384 1361 1/ Vi 18386.474 173903S Iffjfttl.f84 8^488388 4ML7tt 1471388 1371387 8n3M 6jOil308 4ii3n 478.486 ii3n 18382 80366 1388344 24311 87S32S U4388 188.781 48318 28388 1380.488 16347 84339 I73I8 14389 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 537 Dbtailbd Statbubnt of MANUFACTuass iM Baltdiorb. — Continued. mgphla pnomg Iknr and |Mt rood Fonndiy And Foa Iron ..^...-.^.^.w. . IdMlUMil F^coodn «d 01ml ete OfBMBMMJ KHdiiive.. Hill and mga, other than fflh, tftratw and Fwod do., not hwhufiiig for i^andmcL do., not mdodiBK wool Yew 1M6 1900 1800 1906 1900 1890 1880 1870 1905 1900 1890 1880 1900 1890 1880 1870 1906 1900 1890 1880 1910 1906 1900 1890 1880 1870 1870 1870 1906 1900 1890 1880 1906 1900 1890 1910 1906 1900 1890 1880 1870 1900 1890 1880 1870 1906 1900 1890 1900 1890 1880 1906 1900 1880 1906 1900 1890 1880 No. of Birtafc 7 8 7 12 17 36 18 1 7 U 4 6 4 11 8 8 9 19 4 8 101 63 74 66 68 10 4 11 • 11 9 4 17 19 83 34 38 36 36 71 64 8 9 7 3 4 8 6 4 4 6 6 9 6 11 30 18 6 Gmital 814.407 14,336 3,010 4,266,300 4,449,768 3,978,907 3,241^70 31,916 38,644 16,700 8,300 678,600 1.006.048 663,000 167.040 164.010 56,180 4,060 7,863,000 6,501.669 4.971,434 4,623.007 3.340,004 46.450 67.677 07396 30.000 611.003 617.003 383.706 1.900.963 1.471.378 1.333.444 871303 318360 737.611 406,000 11.400 39316 13,475 88.687 113370 101300 46309 96318 18.100 77.136 1.134390 724.457 36.900 Offiebb and CMa No. 2 6 113 149 14 10 33 30 11 433 366 337 1 6 68 103 163 163 139 3 4 • • • • • • • • 8 10 67 81360 3300 149,116 186360 8380 3300 48378 18314 11300 644300 370.136 370.711 900 3.700 37378 145300 186.123 111.969 4300 1386 3300 4384 3,468 3.784 93388 Waia 36 38 18 834 706 638 661 58 14 19 131 240 96 20 92 101 30 16 3,719 2380 3375 3,436 2.676 406 124 141 31 48 106 762 1391 1336 1,167 1,776 1.637 1371 1374 816 1,184 613 244 23 21 40 60 36 109 1.117 66 Waeei 816.173 15375 0388 340393 320388 390.741 264366 1.118 8303 6366 6374 60.140 172348 46.118 27371 32346 12.964 2,415 2306,000 1319.180 1306371 1337,460 1333341 12,106 23300 34390 8.126 194.000 466.062 296383 548300 799.140 745364 647.786 448365 139384 696.901 234364 8344 16396 16364 10,022 15.406 10354 16326 10311 13344 57.669 335.935 806.072 13.416 88.174 1361 665 324362 243.186 197316 11324 6.184 1363 127306 162340 37376 9313 4310 1.096.000 964366 403.106 231308 6308 7.760 7.978 12437B 67344 220300 266.186 145.996 74.782 0.419 31302 13U 2302 1,727 8,479 3342 5331 3363 5,187 127367 86,673 Uaid 87478 8.606 134A 3341394 2.479.062 2366377 2.689323 24367 22.410 15.166 16360 2348303 2.776.780 1.173368 208.016 133316 86310 16300 4304300 1368371 2448,408 1.793,716 1387,481 76386 73383 78318 10.686 726.n6 916322 760376 1314300 1307.121 1396.784 1333311 902,432 87.469 239.128 239382 10,767 18306 12.460 44,412 187.424 2U,440 24317 86,176 14,100 08,401 830.146 607380 33400 VahNoT 839361 42,400 17376 4.667302 3,752320 3,957346 4387396 86O3OO 68364 83344 34300 31400 2,321398 3386.115 1327384 667466 826310 268.166 132,788 26300 9,074,000 6372326 8,119373 4.718.189 3,930,717 406388 236300 220,168 118,C 187320 147,600 33313 1320,708 1,720,676 1,488300 2.197300 2364,406 2.600.610 2366.419 1.791,184 1,146.740 820305 1300347 687300 244300 32300 65,164 41,104 68361 220.736 268321 76,450 166,112 37304 313324 1.619326 1361323 68380 538 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Detailed Statememt or Manufactcbes in Baltimobe. — Ctmimmed. profca- and •BdOTfw !f«u oT IflO 7 I tijmjM IflO ins 1900 U ■ IJM^OOO , t ijmjsn ' 6 W7479 ! 1900 1910 190S 1900 1910 lithompUaf and «- Lombtr sad timkMr pradneli - mfll pradoeti, iadadiBg ■Mb* doon aod Mw>4t lltffaie and ftoiM woriE. Ifa« bads and i|«iBf 1970 1910 1900 1»0 1870 1910 1900 1000 1870 1006 1900 1890 1906 1900 1800 1880 1910 1906 1900 1800 1910 1906 1900 1800 1880 1870 1905 1900 1800 S 7 7 6 12 0 8 4 S4 7 8 10 12 14 6 9 7 6 1 U 16 12 84 21 8 6 6 4 10 87 32 81 48 21 21 29 48 28 27 28 40 14 18 18 14 29J64 46.970 4t4no 198J99 170,121 210 J» ii;mo OlOjOOO OTIjOOO OOljOOO 148.000 88»489 I4DJ60 208,788 1.172.000 1.921.0tt 1.08S37B 1,402.478 5.830JOOO 6.664,408 9.004)87 4.465,871 1.148.480 679.450 400.416 814,800 248.760 801,808 6024162 118,660 2.868.000 1,208.880 1328AS4 1.629.101 1,190,000 1,067.000 571.000 1,042.188 661,701 2894M6 194,906 68.688 Hai I Salaiiaa .1 W, 118 1906 : 6 1 1.461,866 81 21 4 8 7 4 86jD60 80UM7 6 6 6 C779 C486 664n9 604100 64100 6.290 ClOO I IJOt 146 U 81 81 78 77 417 isi4no 84J8I 44,191 9484 16J86 1SJ878 18,214 9,744 14S4MI0 1614100 86 126 120 16 48 198 110 66 86 084100 68328 28,686 1744M» 214JI2 188,978 44.670 224M0 17.282 80.166 2064XX> 94.681 46360 168.000 170.000 46,000 24.470 10.678 147 142 181 101 160 88 146 20 281 197 648 2,016 786 708 14m 742 796 727 160 112 02 66JQ8 68,716 80486 88,486 424100 98,464 91324 4614100 608306 861382 97361 200.689 127301 128.766 99.417 1004178 206370 98368 8044100 806385 840308 6OO3O6 486.000 487300 881.000 887.020 828,480 70364 48.028 86362 86301 I23O6 4349 1400 C4fl 8301 12347 8.770 7.4U 81.: 1361468 141319 Sim 18314 28,4tf 78488 479300 86,746 8377 113B6 68,017 1,467320 13M300 1361.458 1,1803U 947368 66368 61326 22,410 86361 88320 64300 118318 80.140 114376 92360 88398 162,988 48366 16,414 8,008 187484 4743n 617.181 8S13Q0 728.104 424.126 688361 1,111387 682.401 I32I.I88 488,788 281,488 88,781 194.460 618,147 100.40 84K2,00O 1.124348 1.780389 758300 778J00O 480300 661308 4473Q0 852304 101.181 8U47300 S7430 54444 19.120 73,748 187372 >12.4» 88400 456318 1321.480 918380 2318360 4486470 8384388 480361 816382 0414)86 40^428 1,787.408 1300382 1,701300 1361300 148a4M» 130U28 880.807 640.776 866380 18631S HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 539 Detailed Statement of Manufactures in Baltimorb. — Continued, IfiDiiHnr and hoe toodi lliiMnl and lodA wtten Blodah •nd . BOi tBOhldiBC llodebttidpftttant. •od tonb- BIiidiki(B ud pMte. fifld. not daTi and BMlariidi. BIiiti«sl BMDH.. do.. and «kJ not and FkiBii. aod draf I^itnt imfflftiimii aod imfflftiimii aod and Fhololilinmpluag and Yaar No. of Birtab- Ikb. menta 1006 1000 1890 1880 8 11 0 11 1006 1000 1800 1880 16 24 13 17 1006 1000 1880 1880 0 7 8 8 1006 1900 1890 11 80 20 1006 8 1006 1800 1880 8 7 0 1006 1000 1890 1880 8 4 4 8 lilli 4 4 4 4 0 1006 1000 6 7 1000 1800 16 7 1006 1000 1880 1880 1870 11 12 11 10 4 1010 71 1006 1900 1800 1880 64 48 20 88 1870 10 1006 1000 1890 1880 10 1006 1800 •77,287 180.700 60.076 70.100 161.101 218.440 110.186 00.900 28.400 17.841 31.606 1.460 170.088 202^000 122.310 77,600 0.876 4.680 4.000 88.778 37.100 87.713 10Jt60 1.607.666 1.184.060 1.008.987 038^182 78.000 83340 784.271 010.307 448,600 200.177 400.108 887.200 4.060^00 843.704 000.804 1.060 70.641 76.714 13.068 23.410 30.716 0.060 OOeUi and Clski No. Sabriea 24 23 812.881 14.802 10 16 0.612 18.088 2 2.000 7 4 • • • • 0.682 6j000 12 8 3 67 31 21 20 77 66 20 • • ■ • 680 101 114 12 10 • « • • 17 14,706 4.210 2.180 117346 41380 8.176 0,420 80348 60.708 26300 744300 166.078 178364 8,008 14.440 14.887 Waee 103 206 107 106 118 136 •3 84 38 29 31 6 01 187 143 2 13 4 21 21 41 407 447 737 381 20 1.410 2.710 182 110 100 100 00 1,180 436 006 267 7! 30 00 20 14 Wi 836.434 81.068 63.088 36300 60.140 48310 40.064 33.763 21,421 16324 10.063 2360 60,004 04.027 74,786 4.000 1320 0.702 1306 13338 13,106 20377 8300 283.087 222,748 682.100 200,968 0.406 7,088 370391 000,140 73.007 46373 68.688 38341 420300 78317 134320 240328 08.407 13.482 23346 7360 7.002 20326 7306 Miieeil*- 813.702 12382 6,422 20.171 21.702 4306 3342 2.421 1306 7.700 12.168 6.900 26.700 000 044 3304 2361 2.062 278388 83.007 128.400 10,140 7320 07368 41.071 42.422 22.148 17363 828300 427388 200390 16.009 37.000 2313 6.000 1386 Und 8118380 138.460 00300 148340 82322 06374 54343 106.086 17304 0328 8.110 1.700 81307 180.412 02,730 37316 980 2.848 1376 11341 18300 24,000 24310 179326 366.030 400302 167,009 101320 00380 1.724318 1366.043 410384 286388 106.720 102.186 2.136300 400367 407316 770.461 438.087 61.( 06300 41.147 16361 10322 3301 Value of Plodueti 8103.400 207347 166300 220.400 220.076 213367 180.070 100.007 68.833 37.140 37.780 8.100 223360 336,003 180.017 •3300 7,110 13.088 7.400 60.070 44,440 08376 41300 1.182300 827371 1301.106 634390 066.400 106368 162.640 2304 306 3.704347 O8O3OO 441.744 337334 338.868 1.017300 6.471300 I37738O 1.707380 1.047360 040.403 286.000 106334 220.440 03.000 88368 17.000 540 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Detailed Statement of Manufactuses in Baltimorb. — CatUituiei. VkiOm, and Ihoohtn fin-dajpralMti... and onbr. •od jc mmmmotn and pan* Ftantus aod ^bwhitt^. and andraoiMa*. flMtdkiyaBd fiUpbaOdiag. n boaiMS^ Oirti 'flBvwBithiBt and b* fluff amaia m Sbo^ttarag and maat paeUnc.... IfM^paddiig Soap Tear IflOB 1900 1800 1880 1906 1900 1890 1909 1900 1910 1906 1900 1890 1906 1900 1800 1880 1870 1906 1900 1906 1900 1890 1906 1900 1890 1880 1906 1900 1890 1890 1870 1906 1900 1910 1006 1900 1890 1880 1906 1900 1890 1880 1870 1906 1900 1890 1880 1910 1906 1900 1890 1880 1870 1906 No. of fiirtat 19 28 10 0 6 S 4 8 9 124 142 99 61 40 28 47 82 4 4 7 8 6 8 48 • 20 78 100 76 48 7 4 IS 12 19 19 08 U 84 IS 88 19 6 6 6 4 48 41 40 14 6 1 8160.107 126,846 S8|828 21360 614,748 1.066.006 296319 4223S9 6.026.000 1.461304 1385.080 718360 2.006387 1386.181 977.684 1.964300 21.600 12.000 08,107 60316 86.160 19310 82.492 169.496 687300 706.622 690368 804,626 86.440 16.766 2,078300 944366 1,688,606 1366,422 1,408376 8,480368 1,178,989 418.400 818.980 807,042 221386 41.178 96,708 2.862.000 967.000 1.002.000 968321 706,000 168308 OOflkliaBdCMa No. 41 16 41 29 26 1371 211 148 674 884 2 3 18 14 7 6 61 69 80 80 246 138 20 16 168 61 86 Sabriea 824,846 10360 41,628 68394 26.680 36,798 1,199.000 m301 188.600 660361 864.113 8309 400 18348 11390 4386 3310 41348 46316 67.000 47366 62,747 188308 136,661 24.986 16,710 313,000 60,793 26,000 20,976 Waia 87 74 86 27 684 662 876 406 601 2366 1376 1,178 930 648 1,166 791 387 11 31 184 67 40 66 146 47 807 481 696 644 10 666 460 1398 976 887 4368 3,476 1311 i.r 116 69 88 806 466 421 194 34 70 Wagai 688318 22.660 14,166 6382 207.728 284368 174,964 t.761 199.m 1,747300 676,612 606,906 414382 488,904 626,186 708.926 409351 6.476 7396 42384 20.606 20364 17.673 37.068 16,769 137.474 156.943 388,166 M87 11361 4363 840,000 821392 764.756 616.410 68437S 1,156,428 628,760 846.407 807367 HUSO 67,479 46314 26,979 479,000 250.000 184300 325.112 86300 21311 632,778 0311 1311 108497 88,748 36376 67,786 36384 1371300 189368 196.111 64331 668,780 817.486 3n318 4407 13343 3,700 7366 1319 14,668 67381 46306 80,411 I3I6 817 68,177 93363 91348 567317 800,666 48366 87388 17.789 3368 434,000 1S7368 "76383 4i.n6 8111.7a 30M84 41330 474411 S87,7V8 316378 160.191 33^300 779300 487,1X1 8n360 16,U4 1U7S 92.797 56361 16388 88310 71,487 1QB3M 86,460 430314 617,788 451368 1,M438I 84 308321 701388 683,740 707.086 587368 436347 108364 76328 84384 48343 8353300 4.649.169 6.088,000 8,668,147 3366388 143.133 S73M 1S740 MUtt njtt! SIXUI 138I4B 1463B 87130 umm 134530 6.71040 838638 l,lfl3« M83M 1S730 80BJB ]fl8JO vxjm 1038230 831330 43a4S 8.76MO 83640 11130 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 541 Dbtailbd Statbmbnt of Manitfactukbs in Baltimorb, — CotUinu9d. 8oip iiid **"it*nt 8o4», teOoir and etudlai Stampod wtre tooliyijiiig fllof ■ mmI funiMni. not t IM and oO ofriutiml iratworiE. . . Timwe TobMoo Tobaeeo, ehewiag, ■■okiBf,aiia Totaeeoaod Tafiaod IWalaaDd Wiadoir diadci and fii- Wiodmr blinda and WKt npa and oabb Year 1000 1890 1880 1870 1905 1900 1908 1006 1006 1006 1906 1810 1900 1870 1800 1880 1906 1900 1890 1880 1006 t006 1000 1890 1880 1010 1006 1000 1890 1890 1906 1900 1890 1906 1000 1890 1880 1006 1900 1890 1880 1906 1900 1890 No. of Mab 6 4 7 IS 3 8 4 7 8 36 SIS 8 10 818 844 10 18 SO 16 8 0 10 16 8 4 4 8 6 4 8 IS IS 8 4 6 7 11 8 8307;»S 480,863 360.483 1,790^1 1.864.601 80;M0 688373 678.017 U.060 18.870.860 6.44S.000 I3O6.8II 'sjuoiio 808.800 4.903.860 1.886.496 1.831.670 688.383 18.360 87.188 68.608 37.180 34.160 837.000 487.987 890.60S 161.116 8.660 814.100 881.300 1.188.73S 108,443 68.066 81.096 6.800 S08.178 316.840 88.976 8S.600 14.386 30^60 36.036 3.680 Offidab and Ckcka No. 30 16 48 87 6 144 810 130 188 160 16 17 111 66 88 36 37 14 0 16 8 4 8S8/»74 m.880 88.740 13.660 68.810 88.366 3.386 186.410 880,000 360,884 138.816 104^41 1.800 13334 8300 144.000 40.168 8O3IO 44307 34,086 11.144 8390 10.940 14336 3.804 8313 Waia ISO 161 88 104 881 838 U 1378 8394 8,003 1.057 1331 1.066 3.830 8.088 3.081 13«0 18 110 68 78 66 614 871 168 10 818 888 788 80 83 47 34 173 160 87 44 16 38 63 31 Wi 868388 79.800 48.146 330.084 19316 171361 163.474 4336 637.418 1,187300 664373 '"874.i6i 166.107 088.884 684378 886308 483.000 8.418 83300 83.100 80.048 10338 188300 94.186 100.173 48,003 3.080 180.171 800.080 388376 0.486 14340 38380 8300 73,448 60.180 86383 34.000 6308 8.063 38308 8300 818,067 39317 195.787 41.706 9.061 61314 83.778 1387 168.789 8388313 "tn.QSS 1360.844 608,188 883.064 3,706 10,181 0.403 4,481 163,008 30,047 7304 63388 37394 34,773 17.496 8,083 33O6 38,733 10366 1366 1.188 1398 8.788 Ua«l 8186.768 86O3I8 316388 1.176,116 8OI3OO 8344 183393 479388 8368 4303387 638O3OO 3.486,107 1304306 1.163.908 1318380 98S.7S4 968.481 817386 8.464 68384 38378 48.7tt 88310 1370300 7993tt 746384 197388 8308 878.000 871,406 113318 110.188 48380 11300 86.743 84.766 S8377 S83OO 8383 18.718 38304 9310 VahNor Ptpodnoli 8379387 614.134 838360 774,700 3,439.187 138930O 64,861 666.161 84138S 18376 6.706.960 10370.000 7364.160 1348383 8318347 1381.434 S388388 8380.086 1361314 84366 163380 84.068 110300 76,488 I36O3OO 1371380 1.083.761 17.400 1384383 1344,160 1370,488 178,718 198300 83,180 18,800 880307 186349 77.419 77300 S138S 43376 88.796 38,480 STREET CAR SYSTEM AND RAPID TRANSIT A RECORD OF HALF A CENTURY. PUBLISHED JULY 2$, IQOQ, AND REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF MR. WILLIAM A. HOUSE^ PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED RAILWAYS. The First Car. — ^"This morning at 8 o'clock a car, with eight gray horses attached, will start on the City Passenger Railroad at the foot of Broadway, and will run up the track to North and Baltimore streets. Those of our citizens who desire to try this new mode of city travel can be accommodated by applying to the conductor, Mr. Charles Hancock." — DaUy Exchange, July 26, 1859. To-morrow will be the fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of street railways into Baltimore. During the half century that has passed since that July 26, 1859, when tramcars were regarded as a novelty — a sort of switchback road on which a not too dignified citizen might ride to see how it felt, this public utility has grown to be one of the most essential institu- tions in the life of our city. The story of that growth, as it gains in detail, becomes a history of the commercial, the industrial, the social and even the moral life of the city itself. In certain features, of course^ the record of Baltimore's street railways finds a parallel in the history of car systems in almost any other older American city. At first opposed by an overconservative element of the population and forced to gain its privileges against great odds, it became in time an enormous contributor to the ^owth of the city, increasing com- merce, nourishing manufactures, enhancmg the value of real estate, filling the city's coffers and adding materially to the convenience and comfort of the people. This much the street railways of other cities have done just the same as the cars lines of the Monumental City. But there are certain other features about the local street railway — features as old as the institution itself — that are peculiar to Baltimore. The most notable of these, perhaps, is the creation and maintenance of a series of unequaled public parks and squares — ^an accomplishment of the street railways in Baltimore which finds no counterpart in the history of any other American city car system. Another feature not common to the aver- age street railway is the pioneer record of the Baltimore companies in the work of making practical rapid transit, and in the Monumental City not only was there established the first commercial electric railway in America, but the local railways — ^then having separate existence — ^spent millions upon millions of dollars in solving the problems of rapid transit, and as a result of their daring and energy not only did their patrons profit, but the less aggressive and progressive street railway managers throughout the country were benefited. The story of Baltimore's street railways falls, naturally, into three parts — ^the first period is from the introduction of horse cars up to the time when rapid transit became a reality ; the second covers the temporary use of cables as a means of locomotion and the later developments of electric systems; and the third part comprises the years in which the various com- 542 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 543 panies were gradually merged into one company and the lines of the giant system reconstructed so as to accomplish the results that had been aimed at in the unification. The street car is so vital a part of the life of a modem city that it is difficult to conceive of a large urban center in which this public convenience has no part. In 1859, however, when the history of street railways in Baltimore had its beginning, there lived in the Monumental City — ^then containing a little over 13 square miles — 169,054 people. This is almost exactly one-third as many persons as lived in Baltimore at the census of 1900, when the city's area was over 31 square miles. City Travel Fifty Years Ago, — ^What was the mode by which these 169,054 Baltimoreans of 1859 traveled about the city? There were, of course, a number of people who owned their private conveyances, just as there are now, but the number who were so favored was by no means as large proportionately as it is to-day. But in 1859 to carry the 169,054 Baltimoreans from any part of the city to another, whether on business or social duties bent, there were several lines of omnibuses. It must not, however, be supposed that these buses covered the city adequately or sys- tematically. Indeed, a list of the bus lines that were operated at that time and a glance at their respective routes brings up the question whether the means of city travel thereby afforded could be regarded as very much of a public service. Bus lines were operated on the following routes : 1. Franklin S9uare, Baltimore street, Gay street and Madison Square. 2. Pennsylvania avenue, Baltimore street, Broadway and Fells Point. ^. Madison street, Howard street, Baltimore street. Gay street, Pratt street and Broadway. Each of these lines was in service during business hours on week days, the wagons running on a schedule of five minutes, although this service naturally varied when travel was not heavy. At the same time, from the routes here given it will readily be seen that the accommodations on Balti- more street and a few other prominent thoroughfares were superfluous, that the service afforded those living off from the several principal arteries of travel and in the outskirts of the city was not available. In addition to the three bus lines already mentioned there were several coach lines traveling into the country. These reached the following points : 1. Mount Olivet, Loudon Park Cemetery, Paradise Hotel and Catonsville, the coaches leaving Genera] Wayne Inn, at the comer of Paca and Baltimore streets, at 7, 9 and II o'clodc in the morning and at 2 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon. 2. Baltimore Cemetery, coaches leaving the comer of South and Baltimore at various hours. 3. Govanstown and Towsontawn, coaches leaving the comer of Holliday and Fayette streets at 8 A. M. and from Baltimore and South streets at 3 o'clock m the afternoon. From time to time there were other lines of coaches reaching points outside of Baltimore on their routes to more distant points, such as Reis- terstown, Belair, etc. In addition to this omnibus service, which was available to those who were fortunate enough to have their business upon or close to the restricted routes of the buses, the citizen could, of course, avail himself of a hackney coach, although the fare for this conveyance was not low enough to make it attractive to the person of moderate means. The rate of fare for hackney coaches — established by municipal officials — was 50 cents for one passenger from any steamboat landing or railway station to any hotel or private residence and 37^ cents per person for two 544 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE or more passengers. The same fare was charged to a steamboat landing or railway depot, except that an additional 50 cents was added when the coach was sent specifically from the stables. On the other hand, for traveling about the city the fare on hackney coaches was by no means as reasonable as the size of the town would seem to have warranted, while the rate after 8 o'clock p. m. in summer and after 7 o'clock p. m. in winter was higher by almost 100 per cent, than during the day. There is little danger of overestimating the importance to the develop- ment of Baltimore in the substitution of street cars for omnibuses. The buses had been first introduced in May, 1844, and during the next 15 years of their operation the service grew only to such small proportions as have been indicated by the routes already mentioned. The street railways came in 1859, and within less than a year thereafter the city boasted 22 miles of car tracks and 65 passenger cars, which were run regularly. Moreover, within a few years after the opening of the first tram service a fine network of street railways had been woven over the entire area of the city and every section had its service. Street Cars vs. Omnibuses, — ^Another notable thing is that the buses were practically parasites upon the public exchequer. Although they re- ceived more consideration from the municipality than was ever accorded the car lines, they contributed next to nothing to the city's finances. The omnibuses paid an ordinary two-horse wagon license fee and the com- panies paid taxes on their real property. But other than this they con- tributed nothing. At the same time they did considerable damage to the public highways — ^more than could possibly have been done by an ordinary two-horse wagon, since they weighed more and traveled over a great dis- tance in the course of a day. Then, too, although the omnibus added to the people's convenience, it never proved a potent developer of a ccxnmtt- nity, because, by the mere nature of its existence, the bus traveled where traffic was heaviest and almost invariably a new line sought out Baltimore street as a part of its route, in the hope of pidcing up business there. But the omnibus could never have been a developer in the sense that a car line will go into virgin territory and undertake to build up unprofitable territory into a paying section. The impression has worked its way into certain historical records that the introduction of street railways in Baltimore was violently opposed in 1859, because of the people's aversion to such innovations. This is not exactly true, although at one time there was opposition to any form of a street railway by the property owners along certain portions of the pro- posed route. As early as 1854 there had been agitation for a street rail- way, when it was pointed out that tram cars were being successfully oper- ated in New York. But opponents to the proposition suggested that the matter of a street railway in Baltimore was of sufficient importance to be submitted to a vote of the people. The aim was to lose the subject in this way, and the enemies of a car line succeeded in burying the proposition for several years. Opposition to Tramcars, — In 1858, when the subject was again agi- tated, every merchant on Baltimore street but two signed against a city railway on that thoroughfare ; but shortly after this petition was completed a change of sentiment occurred, and subsequently more than 500 property owners on Baltimore street presented a memorial to the mayor and city council in favor of a tram line. From this it will be seen that where opposition was strongest against HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 545 the street railway, where it could not be broken down, the opposition was generally based on selfish motives of property owners, who felt that a car track should be off the main avenue of traffic, not realizing that the railway itself was the most certain means of securing to any important highway its position of commercial supremacy. Where the historical records have come to hold that the opposition to a street railway was pronounced at the time of the beginning of the citv passenger railway is in the bitter denunciations which were hurled at Bal- timore's first car company, when its promoters sold their control to Phila- delphia interests. This transaction occurred before the line was actually opened, even before the tracks were laid, and public sentiment in Baltimore for a period was riotous in its disapproval of the whole transaction. In 1858 the promoters of the Baltimore City Passenger Railway had gone before the legislature with a request to be incorporated. The petition was refused. At the same time other petitions from various interests, includ- ing a combination of the several proprietors of bus lines, were presented and refused. In February of the next year two bills were presented to the city council of Baltimore for the right to lay tracks for car lines in Baltimore. One bill represented the interests that had been back of the previously proposed city passenger railway; the other bill represented omnibus pro- prietors. The former bill was successful, while the second one was defeated. Swarm's Park Hobby. — ^When this first bill went for the signature of the mayor, however, it encountered the iron will of the man who was re- sponsible for imposing on Baltimore's street railways the park tax. Mayor Thomas Swann, the city magistrate at that time^ vetoed the bill in the form presented and announced that he would turn down any like measure unless provision was made that 20 per cent, of the gross receipts of the railway company should be contributed to the city for the erection and maintenance of public parks and squares. The veto power of the mayor in that day was of vital importance in the passage of city legisla- tion, and the council was duly impressed. When the bill was passed a second time, receiving the approval of the First Branch on March 23d and of the Second Branch on March 25, 1859, it was with the stipulation that out of every five-cent fare collected one cent would be for Baltimore's parks. In this form the measure was signed by Mayor Swann on March 28, 1859. Although the promoters of the City Passenger Railway had been un- able to secure authority from the legislature to incorporate, they went ahead under the sanction of the city council, which had granted them the privilege of establishing a street car service in Baltimore, and in the latter part of May, 1859, ground was broken on Broadway for the construction of one of the proposed routes of the company. Within less than two months the Broadway tracks were down, and much progress had been made in carry- ing the line up Baltimore street from Broadway to North, and also out Baltimore street and Pennsylvania avenue, in the western section of the city. At this time property owners along Baltimore street from North to Sharp streets secured an injunction restraining the railway company from laying more than one track on that portion of the thoroughfare. As a consequence no work at all was done here until after the dissolution of the injunction in the fall, when the railway was permitted to put down double trades. In the meantime, however, the lines in the western part of the city and the section from Baltimore and North streets down Baltimore and Broadway to Fells Point were completed and operated as separate lines. 546 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Arrival of the First Car. — On July 12 of this year (1859) the railway company ran a car over the Broadway section of its system as an experi- ment. A great throng of people went to the eastern part of the city to witness the performance, and as no fare was charged the traffic was heavy. A press report of the day relates : "Yesterday, according to promise, a car was placed on the City Passenger Rail- way, on Broadway, and a considerable number of persons assembled to witness the start During the entire morning the car on every trip was crowded to excess with men and hoys, particularly the latter, who were present by the hundreds ^k1 those of them who could not get a seat inside dung to the platform and sides of the car. In the afternoon a number of women and children rode." The novelty of the thing was not exhausted in a day. After the line had been extended to North and Baltimore streets, there appeared in a contemporary newspaper the following item: "The conductor of the car has at present two duties to attend to — that of col- lecting the fare from the passengers, and that of keeping the boys from being injured Crowds of boys follow the car along the entire route seeking every opportunity to jump on it while it is in motion." The running of the first car on July 12th was not the actual starting of street railways in Baltimore, for the service was free; it was not ac- cording to any schedule ; the extent of territory covered was only nominal, and the car was withdrawn after a day's trial and demonstration. But on July 26th announcement was made in the morning paper quoted at the head of this article, that the car service would be inaugurated, and the Exchange of the following day adds confirmation to this date as the beginning of street railway service in Baltimore with the following item: ''Yesterday morning at 8 o'clock the passenger car, drawn by four horses, Mr. Charles Hancock conductor, started at the foot of Broadway and ran to the intersection of Baltimore and North streets. During the day the trip was repeated several times. The car was crowded on every trip. Owinp^ to the amount of dirt on that part of the street newly paved, the car was several times thrown from the track on Baltimore street, west of Central avenue. No difficulty, however, was experienced in replacing the car on the track when thrown off, as the wheels took the rail again within a few feet The motion of the car is very easy, and where the track was clear it moved rapidly." City Passenger Railway, — This line, from Fell's Point Market to Bal- timore and North street, was but part of the planned route, the line west- ward having been paused, as already pointed out, by an injunction of prc^ erty owners against the laying of a double track on Baltimore street between North and Sharp streets. As the railway company was not dis- posed to put down a single track, the matter was held in abeyance until the court settled the question by dissolving the injunction. On August 24, 1859, ^^^ City Passenger Railway Company b^;an to operate the route which subsequently became the Green or Pennsylvania avenue line. These cars started from Baltimore and Sharp streets and ran up Pennsylvania avenue to the boundary. On September 12th of the same year cars were put upon the line extending out Baltimore street to Franklin Square, thus inaugurating the service which is now known as the Baltimore street line. In passing it may be noted that when the first line was opened the public, including men and boys, was permitted for a few days to ride free. By experience, however, the company seems to have learned a valuable lesson, for when the Franklin Square service was started the free list was restricted to "ladies and misses." HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 547 During the first several years of its existence the City Passenger Rail- way was unable to obtain a charter from the legislature, and with every fresh attempt to gain authority to incorporate there was a bitter contest in the General Assembly. Durine^ this time the company operated under its ordinance from the city council. Its lines were gradually extended and the system improved. By November 18, 1859, the White Line was extended out Madison to Boundary avenue; on December 11, 1861, the Red Line was diverted from Baltimore street, east of Gay, and carried out Gay street, and the Blue Line (the present St. Paul street service) was put into opera- tion as far north as Boundary avenue, on December 4, 1862. The City Passenger Railway was the pioneer in the field, and it ac- quired the most desirable streets for its lines. It will be seen that by 1862 the company had succeeded in covering somewhat adequately the city, and with the extension of its Blue Line down Light street, it reached every section of the city. The City Passenger Railway planned so well its sys- tem that during the 40 years that it continued in operation prior to the complete unification of Baltimore's street railways, it found it possible, with its original lines, to be one of the strongest — if not the strongest — operating company in the city. It was in the 8o's that the company assumed control of the Harford avenue and the Orleans street lines, and in 1898 it gained control of the Central line. Other Companies in the Field. — ^The street railway field was too allur- ing a one for a single company long to have a monopoly of it ; moreover, the antagonism of the people toward the City Passenger Railway, because of the behavior of its earliest promoters, was in itself sufficiently warm to nourish a competitive enterprise, and in due season there was brought into being the Citizens' Passenger Railway. The Citizen Company was not the first to follow the City Passenger, but it was the first one that upon the start assumed big importance within the city. The Catonsville and EUicott Mills Railway Company was incorporated in March, i860, and it had its line to Catonsville open on July 23, 1862. But at that time the railway was in a measure an extension of the City Passenger (its line began at the West Baltimore street terminus of the Franklin Square route) and it was more an independent continuation of the City Passenger into the sub- urbs than a competitive concern. The York road cars were also early put into operation, the Towson- town Railroad Company, incorporated on March 9, 1858^ had its tracks completed as far as Govanstown on May 27, 1863, and shortly thereafter reached Towson. But the York road line, which started from the comer of Baltimore and North, used the tracks of the City Passenger Railway through part of the city, and was for a time closely related to that company. The Citizens' Passenger Railway Company obtained from the city June 25, 1868, an ordinance to build a line from Druid Hill Park to Patter- son Park, and the line was constructed from Druid Hill Park via Penn- sylvania avenue, Cumberland, Gilmor and Townsend streets. Republican (now Carrollton) avenue, Fayette, Howard, Lombard, Exeter and Pratt streets to Patterson Park, the cars returning via a slightly modified route. In 1872 the city council passed an ordinance granting the Park Rail- way Company the privilege of building a line from German and South, via Charles, Saratoga, Park, Franklin, Howard, Dolphin, Bolton and Mc- Mechen to the northern city limits. The franchise was acquired by the Baltimore, Peabody Heights and Waverly Passenger Railway Company, incorporated in 1872, and this company purchased, in 1874, the Peabody Heights Railway, thus giving it a through line from German and South Il I il ll II I li 548 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE via somewhat the route of the present Linden avenue line to Boundary avenue and then to Waverly. There was incorporated in 1870 the Bal- timore and Hall Springs Passenger Railway, which constructed a line from the City Hall and North street, via Fayette, Aisquith and Madison streets and Central avenue to the Harford road, where connection was made with another car for Homestead and Hall Springs. Finally, in 1876, the People's Passenger Railway Company was in- porated. This concern built a line from Druid Hill and Bounda^ avenues to Fort McHenry, the first car being run on August 9, 1879. The Balti- more, Calverton and Powhatan Railroad, incorporated in 1870 to build a line from the city to Wetheredsville, Franklintown and Powhatan, had been authorized to acquire the franchise of the Hookstown and Pimlico and the Randallstown Branch and consolidated them into one company, and this concern operated a line from the western terminus of the City Pas- senger Railway's Franklin Square line to Powhatan. This, then, was the progress which street railways had made in Balti- more up to 1880; there was the City Passenger, operating about six lines; the Citizens, operating a Druid Hill Park-Patterson Park service; the People's, covering the city from Druid Hill avenue and the boundary to Fort McHenry; the Baltimore, Peabody Heights and Waverly Line ivom South and German via Bolton street to Waverly ; the York road to Tow- sontown; the Catonsville, and the lines to Powhatan and to Hall Springs. The subsequent growth of Baltimore's street railways is largely con- cerned with the gradual consolidation of the various lines, a process which found its consummation in the formation of the United Railways and Elec- tric Company. This growth from 1880 to 1900 will be discussed hereafter, but in the meantime a few words may be said about certain little phases of the growth of street railway service up to 1880. The Polite Conductor. — In one of the earliest newspaper items con- cerning Baltimore street railways there appeared the statement : "'Car No. 2 has been placed on the eastern section of the road under charge of the polite and gentlemanly conductor, Mr. Thomas Dukehart." This would seem to indicate that the fame of Baltimore's car conductors for courteous treatment of passengers — a thing which every stranger visiting the Monu- mental City notes, and which every Baltimorean going to another city has brought forcibly home to him by his experience there — ^had its foun- dations laid in the infant days of our city railways. Shortly after the starting of the City Passenger Railway the company began to operate an all-night car. This was on December 17, i860. The car ran every half hour and a double fare was charged, but the experi- ment lasted only one week, when the plan was abandoned. It was not until February 9, 1899, t^** ^^^ all-night-car scheme was revived, at which time it was put in operation on the Carey street line. At first there was serious (^position to Sunday cars. In 1862 the agi- tation for cars on Sunday began and in September of the following year the city council passed a bill for taking the sense of the people upon the matter. The mayor, however, disposed of the subject summarily by de- claring that he would not put his signature to any measure that would have so demoralizing an effect upon the public. In 1867 the question was again revived ; the council once more took action upon it, submitting it to a vote of the people, by whom the plan for Sunday cars was heartily in- dorsed on April 10, 1867. Beginning April 28, 1867, cars were run on Sundays. In the first decade of the street railway operation in Baltimore n^joes HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 549 were not allowed to ride. On April 27, 1870, the United States Circuit Court for Maryland decided that the street railways were required to carry colored persons on the same terms and in the same class of cars as white people, and on May 2d following special cars were run for negroes, on which hung a sign: "Colored persons are permitted to ride in this car." But the United States Circuit Court rendered another decision on November 11, 1871, to the effect that railway companies had no right to discriminate between negro and white passengers, and two days later the ''colored persons" signs disappeared and thereafter white and colored pas- sengers rode in the same cars. Progress in Rapid Transit. — The story of rapid transit in Baltimore dates from 1876, when the Citizens' Passenger Railway made an effort to substitute steam for horses. The company had a small, smoke-consuming steam engine of lo-horsepower built and commenced running it with a passenger car attached. This engine, put into service on September 28, 1876, was run under a special permit from the city and covered a period of 60 days. The experiment was continued during the life of the permit, but when the 60 days had expired the company withdrew its experimental rapid transit locomotive. The next step in rapid transit in Baltimore was the so-called Daft motor. It was in 1885 that Leo Daft equipped for the Baltimore Uni(Hi Passenger Railway Company a line running from the outskirts of the city through the village of Hampden and adjacent territory, covering a dis- tance of about two miles. For this line two locomotives were built, the motors being placed low down on the floor of the car and motion from the armature shaft to the car wheels being obtained by internal gears. The track was equipped with a third rail to supply current, placed midway between the outer rails, which served as the return circuit. Part of the system was also equipped with an overhead trolley service, as the third rail then in use was unsafe at crossings. This suburban road — ^the first regularly equipped electric railway in America — was opened on August 10, 1885. It gave Baltimore the distinction not only of trying out the first commercial third rail electric system, but also in the matter of the portions that were equipped with overhead trolley Baltimore has claim to being the pioneer in the use of a strictly commercial overhead trolley service. There were certain serious obstacles in the way of successfully operating this Baltimore-Hampden road, and it was finally changed back to a horse line, although it later became part of the network of electric railways that now extend over Baltimore and its suburbs. In the matter of blazing the way for the modem electric street rail- way Baltimore was also the pioneer in establishing an elevated electric service, for the operation of the Lake Roland cars in later years over the elevated structure on North street was the first service of its kind in America. Six years after the beginning of the Hampden electric line the Balti- more Traction Company — a corporation that had been formed of some of the car lines previously mentioned — started a new era in the history of Baltimore's street car lines by opening up its first cable line, the Druid Hill avenue system. This service was started on May 23, 1891, and con- tinued for just five years, when the same line was electrified. Cable lines involved the companies in an enormous expense for construction work; the cost of maintenance was also high, but at that time the trolley system had not been brought to a stage of reliability where it was accepted as the most practical motive power for street cars and the Baltimore railway 550 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE managers were not only anxious to provide their patrons with efficient service, but they were willing to work out with costly experiments the problems of rapid transit. The two leading city railways at that time accepted the cable as the most serviceable power and in the city more than $10,000,000 were spent upon cable systems, although the product of this enormous expenditure was later largely made useless by the acceptance of electricity as a more effective motive power. From 1 89 1 to October 4, 1893, ^^ rapid transit lines were opened in Baltimore. As late as August 20th of this latter year the caUe road was still favored, for on that date the City Passenger Railway inaugurated a cable service on its Madison avenue line. After this, however, no more cable lines were constructed in Baltimore, although a number of horse car lines were converted into trolley systems. And beginning with 1895 ^°^ continuing through to 1899 there was a period of reconstruction of the earlier cable routes into trolley lines. Consolidation of Railways, — In the closing decade of the nineteenth century there was a general movement in the railroad world toward con- solidation. This tendency was inevitable in solving the economic problems of the American transportation systems, and it affected the street railways and the interurban companies fully as much as it did the steam roads. This unification of the street railways in Baltimore had its climax in the formation of the United Railways and Electric Company, by which organization the entire system of the city at that time was brought under one management. But prior to that there had been a gradual tendency toward consolidation, and by stages this joining of various lines resulted in the creation, in June of 1897, of the Baltimore Consolidated Railway Company. A somewhat earlier stage in the unification had been the formation of the Baltimore Traction Company, which absorbed the Citizens' Passen- ger Railway, the People's Railway, the North Baltimore Passenger Rail- way (a company which has not been previously mentioned, but which com- prised the Linden avenue, the Edmondson avenue, the Maryland avenue and several other car lines), the Baltimore, Pimlico and Pikesville Rail- way, the Gwynn Oak and Powhatan Railway, the Shore Line and the Cur- tis Bay Railroad. This consolidated company — ^the Baltimore Traction — was combined with the City and Suburban, and the Lake Roland Elevated in the Baltimore Consolidated Railway, which acquired by purchase in 1898 the EUicott City branch of the Columbia and Maryland Electric Railway. By the formation of the Baltimore Consolidated Raflway the old his- toric City Passenger Railway found a very formidable competitor, and it was but a matter of time before one or the other of these two systems would consume its rival. The City Passenger Railway owned no miles of tracks; the Balti- more Consolidated Railway owned 200 miles of track, and the remaining two companies — ^the Baltimore and Northern Railway and the Baltimore, Middle River and Sparrows Point Railway, owned respectively 40 and 15 miles of track. These four companies constituted the entire street rail- way system of Baltimore in the beginning of the year 1899. The Central Line, which had had a separate existence during its early years, had been acquired by the Baltimore City Passenger Railway in the month of Jan- uary, 1897. Finally, by articles of agreement of consolidation, dated March 4* 1899, the United Railways and Electric Company of Baltimore was brought HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 551 into being, and as a result all of these lines were merged into a single system. Reconstruction of Railways, — Of course, the gains from such a uni- fication in the efficiency of the service, in the economy of operative cost and in the improved accommodations to the public, including the universal free transfer privilege were considerable. At the same time, however, the new company undertook a liberal plan of improving its system. In 1899 the company operated a little over 350 miles of single track, and this mileage has now been increased to over 400 miles. Of the total track- age, 234 miles are city lines, 188' miles of which have been either recon- structed since the consolidation (largely with nine-inch girder rails of the most improved pattern), or when the rail justified it tfie joints have been cast and electric welded. Since the consolidation nearly all the smaller cars in use at that time have been discarded and the company's equipment today is largely of the most modem double-truck, semiconvertible type, equipped with air brakes and high speed cars with multiple control. At the time of the consolidation the company's power-houses had a capacity of 12,000 kilowatts; today it has a modern, thoroughly equipped central power-house with generating capacity of over 35,000 kilowatts and operates six substations, four of which are entirely new, with 27,000 kilo- watts capacity. The carbarn capacity has been increased 35 per cent., and since the fire of 1904 the company itself has erected or has leased from the Maryland Electric Company, five barns of the most approved concrete construction. These bams are models of completeness in respect to the housing of the company's valuable equipment and provide comfortable quarters for em- ployees and waiting-rooms for patrons. In the great fire of February 7-8, 1904, the United Railways was one of the chief sufferers. Beside the heavy losses in property and business, directly chargeable to the fire, there were heavy indirect losses, due to irregularities of service, caused by the unusual use of streets in connection with their improvement, the removal of fire debris and the prosecution of rebuilding operations. But the company recovered with surprising rapidity from the effects of the fire and in restoring its property to working order made many improvements upon the system as it had existed prior to 1904. City Parks and the Railways, — No account of the street railways in Baltimore is complete unless it contains a more or less exhaustive treatise on the parks and squares of the Monumental City. These two subjects — Baltimore's railways and Baltimore's public parks — ^are so closely united that the line of separation is not always clear. Sometime early in the '50s the people of Baltimore came to appreciate the necessity of making better provision for the health of the residents by the erection of public parks. The Monumental City to-day is famed — ^not only at home, but abroad — for its beautiful natur^ pleasure parks. But back 50 or 60 years ago the parks that in later times won the city this fame not only were not realities, but they seemed very unlikely possibilities. In 185 1 some far-sighted citizens began an agitation for a general beautifying of the city, for securing to the people the means of finding recreation in public grounds, and for guaranteeing the little children of less wealthy parents the means of romping over green fields in quest of health and good lungs and strong bodies. In short, the cry went forth for "Public parks!" 552 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE A proposition advanced was for the construction of a boulevard about the limits of the city as it then existed. The promoters of this plan ob- tained estimates, and it was found that the cost would be a little over $600,000. But these figures were appalling to the public mind and a new and more economical plan was devised, with the result that the cost was reduced by about 50 per cent. But this estimate, calling for about one- third of a million dollars, by which means ample breathing space was to be permanently provided for the people of Baltimore, was r^[arded as so high as to be prohibitive and the whole scheme was for a time abandoned. There was no change in the situation up to the close of the decade 1850-1860, and the people continued to do without parks. At this time the population of Baltimore was about one-third of what it is to-day. Then, too, the city was warmer in summer, for the houses were lower, the roofs afforded less protection from the sun, the provisions for ventilation were not upon the same scientific basis that they are to-day; there was more danger, because of scant police protection, from robbers, so that windows could not be left open, and, finally (from what statistics show), families were larger then, more children were reared and there was consequently more urgent need of fresh air for babies and little children. At the same time, men of moderate circumstances could not take their families into the suburbs or country during the heated months since the means of getting to and from the city made such a thing prohibitive to the man with modest means. At this opportune time, within a few years after the proposal to build a boulevard about the city was abandoned, the promoters of a street rail- way came along with a proposition to construct their lines on the city streets. The city magistrate, who had considerable power in the matter of vetoing bills, insisted that the railway should be granted permission to operate in the city only upon condition that a large percentage of its gross receipts would go toward the creation and preservation of public parks and squares. The railway company gained the privilege of laying tracks, it assumed the obligation of paying the proposed park tax, and it immediately became an enormous factor in the development of Baltimore from the standpoint of the people's health as well as from that of municipal beauty. Park Taxes of $9,000,000. — ^A comparative study of the public parks and squares existing in 1859 — ^the squares which the city wanted to im- prove, but could not afford to — with the public parks and squares of to-day, for whose creation and improvement the street railways of Baltimore have contributed $9,000,000 in 50 years, present some interesting food for thought. In 1859 the public squares of Baltimore were : Union, at the head of Lombard street, consisting of two and one-half acres ; Franklin, at Fayette and Carey streets, and containing four acres; City Springs, a little plat on Calvert, near Saratoga; Eastern Fountain, at Pratt and Eden streets; Patterson Park, "an area of over six acres of ground * * * but little improved"; Madison, at Madison and Eden streets; Jackson, east of Broadway; Lafayette, and Federal Hill Park. These few city public grounds were nearly all enclosed with iron railings; the majority of them were scantily, if at all, improved, and sev- eral were simply open lots. Yet this was the size of the- "lungs" of the city in 1859. In the 50 years that street railways have been operated in Baltimore, the city's "lungs" have been wonderfully developed and enlarged. Of HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 553 course, not all the subsequent acquisitions are to the sole credit of the rail- ways' park tax, but such additions as were not acquired directly with this money could not have been acquired or accepted or maintained if it had not been for the surety which the street railways' existence gave that am^de funds would be forthcoming. What change was wrought by the instrumentality of the street rail- ways! The first year after the cars were started Druid Hill Park was purchased, being opened on October 19, i860. Since then the parks have been enlarged and new ones secured, until to-day the city boasts the finest parks for natural beauty in the country. Their area is : Druid Hill, 672 acres; Clifton, 311 acres; Patterson, 125 acres; Carroll, 176 acres; Riverside, 17 acres; Federal Hill, 8 acres; Wymans, 163 acres; Swann, 1 1 acres ; Latrobe, 10 acres ; Gwynns Falls, 334 acres ; Holl3rwood, 51 acres, and New Reservoir, 103 acres. This makes a total of nearly 2,000 acres of parks ; practically all but the original six acres of Patterson Park and Federal Hill acquired since the beginning of street railways, and the majority of it bought and improved with money received from the car lines. This amount of park acreage is augmented by the area of the city squares, amounting to more than 87 acres, and increasing the total to 2,071.78 acres of public grounds in Baltimore. Moreover, the records of the city's annual budgets supply an excel- lent index to just what change was wrought in the management of Balti- more's parks by the introduction of car service. In 1850, when Baltimore's omnibuses were far past an experimental stage, the city spent but $8,000 on the parks and squares for that year. Within the following several years it was found necessary to contract this source of expense, so that the sum put into squares and parks in 1855 was only $6,000. In i860, after the street railway had been well established under the mayor's proposal that it pay a percentage of its gross receipts as a park tax, the city found itself in a position to spend $57,76445 on its pleasure parks, and this without putting any tax whatever upon the ordinary tax- payer. Furthermore, within the following five years — 1860-65 — ^^^ ^^'' penditures for parks were increased, because of the growth of the receipts from park tax, until they reached in the latter year $152,825.55. The City's Requirements. — Not only is the United Railways and Elec- tric Company a large contributor to municipal finances, but there are sev- eral particulars in which the car lines of Baltimore are required to serve the city in things that are peculiar to the Monumental City. These, as set forth by the United, follow: For instance, the gauge of the car tracks in Baltimore is greater than in any other city in the country. Upon the surface of things this may not seem a large item, but it proves to be the source of considerable additional expense to the railway company, which had no voice in determining the width of gauge. The car tracks in Baltimore are 5 feet 4^ inches wide. The standard gauge is 4 feet Syi inches. This difference of 8 inches in the gauge was imposed upon the Baltimore street railway companies by the people of the city in order that those who owned wagons might be spared f rcmi driving over the rough cobbles and could utilize the company's rails for their teams, the wheels of an average wagon being 5 feet 4j4 inches apart. There are several reasons set forth why this wide gauge is more expensive than a narrower gauge would be. First of all, by utilizing the tracks for wagons in the way that Baltimore's early citizens had planned the teamsters should do, the wear and tear to the rails by trucks running 554 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE in and turning out of the tracks is considerable. Indeed, in sections of the lines where wagon travel is heaviest, the damage done by the wheeb of trucks is greater than that done by cars, and new rails have to be put down because worn out by wagons, while the portion over which the car wheels travel is still in good condition. But this matter of gauge adds more burdens than that of wear to the tracks. The railway company is required to maintain the pavement between its tracks and for two feet on either side of its tracks in repair. With the widening of the gauge to 5 feet 4^ inches, as compared with 4 feet 8>4 inches — ^the standard gauge — ^the amount of pavement to be maintained by the railway company is increased eight inches on each track, or a foot and a third where the tracks are double. In other words, by the ruling of the people of Baltimore that the gauge should be as it is, so as to afford a smooth highway for trucks, the railway company contends that it has had its burden in the matter of maintaining streets increased nearly 10 per cent, over what it would have been with a standard gauge. Moreover, there is a further increase in the matter of rolling stock. A car built upon a standard gauge scale, with trucks measuring 4 feet 8j/i inches from wheel to wheel, is not as costly as a car built for a Baltimore road, with trucks running 5 feet 4^ inches. In the matter of construction, the cost of excavation, of foundation for tracks and of ties is also greater. Then, too, the cost of building the cable systems at the beginning of the era of rapid transit involved the companies in an enormous amount of unnecessary expense because of the difference between the Baltimore gauge and the standard gauge. Maintaining the Streets. — The United Railways has 234 miles of single track within the city limits, and of this amount only 19 miles are laid with tee rails. The greater part of the remaining portion, amounting to 215 miles, is upon paved streets. In the City of Baltimore, on the other hand, there are 432.46 miles of paved streets, aggregating just 7,425,549 square yards of paved area. The law, which requires the railway to maintain the pavement between its tracks and for two feet on either side of the tracks, imposes upon the local company the cost of maintenance of nearly 20 feet of pavement running parallel with its lines where the tracks are double and on paved thoroughfares. Where the tracks of the railway are double (of course, where a single track occupies the bed of the street the proportion of paving placed under the company's care is somewhat greater), the United Railways will be found to maintain the pavement of 11,363 square yards of street for every mile of its lines, and with the enormous mileage of the company upcm city streets, it will readily be seen what a large part of the 7,425,549 square yards of city's pavement is kept in order by the railway. There are other costly requirements placed upon Baltimore's car com- pany by the municipality and by the state legislature. For example, a comparatively small matter may seem the sprinkling of streets, required of the railway in summer months, but when the actual cost of this work is taken into account it will be seen that it amounts up, and the company pays well for adding to the comfort of the traveling public as well as of those who live along its lines. The business of the railway makes it necessary that it should remove snow from its tracks in winter. Just what this means, how much of an aid it is to the municipality in keeping streets open to traffic, is duly im- pressed upon the minds of those who remember winters in the old horse- car days, and the difficulty with which wagons then weathered the storm HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 555 as compared with the ease with which such travel is now kept open even in blizzards. More could be added to the list of things required by Baltimore of her street railways. Various items are not capable of being priced and set down at their actual cost, but in its report for 1908 the United Railways gives some idea of how the several expense items count up. The ccmipany is put down as paying a park tax of 9 per cent, upon its gross receipts on lines operated on city streets, but the city's share in the company's income for 1908, when the gross earnings of the company were $63381042.27, totaled $722,864.55, or more than 10^ per cent. This included park tax, cost of paving streets, track changes necessitated by regrading streets, sew- erage work, widening of streets, licenses, etc. It may be mentioned, paren- thetically, that the company is charged with a car license of $5 for every car it operates upon its own tracks over the street maintained by it. Another requirement of the Baltimore railway is the giving of uni- versal transfers. By the city charter, which was approved March 24, 1898, a year prior to the consolidation, the railway companies were authorized to charge a fare of 5 cents and a transfer fee of 3 cents. About a year after the consolidation, or on April 5, 1900, the legislature passed a law, to take effect on July i, 1900, leaving the rate of fare unchanged provided the company |;ave free transfers. During the past nine years the company has been unceasing in its efforts to improve and extend this transfer feature. In 1900 there were 71 transfer points in the city and 544 direction privileges; by 1908 the transfer points had been increased to 193 and the direction privileges to I9615, while the use of the transfer had increased from approximately 30,000,000 in 1900, to 54,000,000 in 1908. Its Constructive Influence. — The boundaries of Baltimore were ex- panded in 1816 so as to accommodate the growing population, and the city's area was accordingly increased to 13,202 square miles. That wa^ in 1816, and in 1859, when the railways began, the area of the city (then having a population of over 160,000 people) was the same. No immediate enlargement resulted from the coming of street cars, but the manner in which these lines were managed made expansion inevitable sooner or later. The initial service of the car lines reached out to the boundaries of the city. In no instance is this better shown than in the matter of Boundary (now North) avenue. Every car line traveling northward worked its way to the boundary, which the omnibuses had regarded as somewhat too far removed from profitable traffic. When the car lines first reached Boundary avenue the section about there was made up of farm lands — ^it was well in the country. From three or four points, however. Boundary avenue was reached. Within a few years the car company felt warranted in extending its system farther northward, and, following its tracks, houses were built and in time the population, that had been crowded into the comparatively small area of the city as it had existed after 1816 was gradually scattered over the close-by farm lands, then being rapidly built up with rows of dwellings. Without the car lines Baltimore would undoubtedly have grown a few miles in area within the next 20 or 30 years, but with the car service oper- ated along progressive lines development was rapidly carried in every direc- tion into the city's suburban sections and Baltimore had actually grown to much larger proportions than its arbitrary size prior to 1888, long before the annexation of the Belt, in that year, made its area 31,648 square miles. The same marked development can be found in the commercial activities 556 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE of the city. Just one illustration of this will be necessary to suggest count- less others. One of the greatest factors in a city's business is its great department stores. These have opened up refined and remunerative em- ployment to a great army of wage-earners, especially women, who without the department store would find it difficult to earn their livelihood, no matter how hard pressed they might be to do so. And this giant commer- cial industry — ^the department store — could not only never have been created without rapid transit, but if rapid transit were now withdrawn from the larger cities the first industry to succumb would be these very establish- ments. The same will be found to hold true in a large measure in the manu- facturing world. In i860 there was invested in manufacturing plants in Baltimore about $23,000,000. With three times as large a population in 1900 the capital invested in manufactories had reached nearly seven times as great proportions. Of course, the fact remains that in this same period there had been a widespread increase in manufacturing industry through- out the country, but the influence of the street railway upon the estab- lishment and operation of factories is potent. A Help to Industry, — For example, years ago certain capitalists wished to establish a large manufacturing plant near Baltimore. The land within the city was too high to be available for their purpose, but prop- erty was found some distance outside of the city, moderate in price and possessing every attraction except a car line to the city. And the first question which these prcxnoters settled was whether a street car service could be obtained. When it was found that the car line would be estab- lished between their proposed plant and the city and that the factory could draw upon the city for its labor, the site immediately became satisfactory for their purposes. But not only does the street railway, in this way, prove an important factor in nourishing new industries, but to a large suburban manufactory, even though old established, street car lines become a necessity in the operation of the plant upon a profitable basis. Labor is not willing to be completely isolated in a manufacturing center, and the street railway con- nection in such instances as Sparrows Point satisfies *the demand of the worker for the means of easy and cheap conununication with the large nearby city. When such a car line puts at the service of the worker and his family the means of getting to the citv, where other industries are open to him if he is thrown out of work, both he and his family are recon- ciled to their surroundings. On the other hand, the manufacturing con- cern itself is in a position to get efficient workers at reasonable wages in a way that would be impossible without the car line. SubiMrban Development. — It is doubtful if the layman mind ever grasped the full significance of the influence that the city railways have had upon the development of suburban sections. In the city proper it is difficult to draw finely the line between the railway's influence and that of other agencies; but in the suburbs it is not injpossible to trace somewhat accurately the accomplishment of the car lines— especially the trolley roads. The cable line solved, in a measure, the problem of rapid transit within the thickly populated portions of the city, and if the street-car com- panies had taken no account of those possible patrons who wished to have their homes in rural sections and yet not be many more minutes farther from the center of the city than people who lived on closely built town streets, then the cable lines might have been continued indefinitely. The electric railway, however, solved one of the greatest and most per- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 557 I plexing problems that has confronted the political economist and the sociol- ogist. With the growing of great cities, the development along gigantic lines of urban industries, and the crowding of wage earners into the cities, the health, and sometimes the morals, of the nation were gradually im- periled. There was no possibility of arresting this movement of the bread- winner to the city, either by legislation or by argument. But at the oppor- tune moment the electric railway came along and solved the problem in its own peculiar way. While the city might still be the scene of activity for the wage earner — no matter how far up in the scale of earning capacity or how low down he might go — ^he need not carry his family with him into the crowded city. In short, because of the electric railway, the very modest wage earner, no less than the prosperous business man, might leave his wife to breathe fresh country air and his children to romp over green fields, and yet not be further removed from them in point of time than if they were crowded into some sunless, damp court. The full import of this suburban development is well illustrated by maps of Baltimore City now in the City Library, in the City Hall. One made in 1882, when the horse cars were still in operation, shows the lines going into the country and the rate of fare charged. In 1882 the horse car lines reached Point Breeze, Catonsville, Pikesville, Towson and Hall Springs. The fare to Point Breeze was 10 cents, the fare to Catonsville was 20 cents, the fare to Hall Springs was 15 cents, and to the other three points, Powhatan, Pikesville and Towson, a charge of 25 cents prevailed. From these figures it will readily be seen how impossible residence in the suburbs would have been in those days to the man with a moderate income. The map of 1909 shows the surrounding territory almost as completely occupied as the city itself, although, of course, the houses are not as close to one another. The fare to Pikesville is 10 cents, while the railway has been carried on to Emory Grove; a line has been built to Mount Wash- ington^ with a city fare; a line to Lakeside has resulted in the remarkable building up of the land between Baltimore and Roland Park; the fare to Towson has been reduced to 10 cents ; the fare to Hamilton (formerly the Hall Springs route) is 5 cents ; a line has been carried out Belair road and rows of houses have sprung up on either side of it several blocks thick, and service has been given to the suburbs south of Baltimore by the Middle River, the Sparrows Point, the Curtis Bay and the Halethorpe lines. Moreover, the fare to Catonsville has been reduced to 10 cents, and a line has been built out to Ellicott Mills. Increase to Taxable Basis, — ^The benefit from this development has been threefold. There came with the gain to the country-loving wage- earner a development of suburban land. While the railway carried to the suburbs and little nearby towns the city's workers it increased the value of the property so settled through its instrumentality. It is not difficult to ascertain the result in the enhancement of real estate values produced by the extension of car service into the suburbs. Where a bit of country is not traversed by an electric line land is not worth much more to-day than it was five or ten years ago, even though it may be but a short dis- tance from the city. But where a section is reached by the electric cars ground that was purchased before the coming of the railway by the acre is now priced by the front foot. A striking example of this is furnished by the country about the new Boulevard line. Land that was purchased not so many years ago at a figure per acre and that has not been improved a particle since 558 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE purchased is to-day held at a price per building foot that is in excess of that put upon improved land — ^lots with magnificent residences upon them — in some of the most fashionable thoroughfares in the more central parts of the city. And here is the third side to the benefit that the electric railway has wrought the community by going into the suburbs. In addition to benefit- ing the life of the citizen, who is now able to enjoy the air of the country without being far removed, either in time or money, from his work; in addition to the benefit to the property-owner, whose real estate has been increased in value; by this very enhancement of the value of property the city — where land is within the city limits, and the county — ^where the prop- erty is past the city lines, has been benefited by the increased value placed upon assessable land. In this way the railway lines have, indirectly, been generous contributors to the taxes paid both city and county. i.1 « m r PUBLIC EDUCATION IN BALTIMORE Percy Lewis Kaye, Ph.D. Prior to the establishment of the public schools in 1829, the people of Baltimore had only such facilities for education as were afforded by private schools or seminaries. Of these there were a sufficient number to indicate the existence of an insistent demand for educational oppor- tunities. Some of these schools and academies prospered and some were failures. In 1820 we find mention of three colleges with power to grant degrees, several private institutions for secondary and primary education, and charity schools for the poor. For some time, however, efforts had been made to improve this con- dition by securing the establishment of a system of public schools sup- ported by public taxation. Public meetings were held throughout the city and in the several wards; after an agitation covering a period of sevend years the city council of Baltimore and the Legislature of Maryland were petitioned to come to the support of public education. This movement at length bore fruit. By an Act of the Legislature in 1825 provision was made for the establishment of public schools throughout the state. The counties were to be divided into districts and were authorized to levy a tax and expend the proceeds thereof for the creation and support of schools which were to be under the direction of boards of commissioners to be elected in the respective counties. Each county had the option of adopting or rejecting the plan. Thirteen counties adopted it. Others rejected or ignored it and so far as securing a state system of schools was concerned the law was a failure. By the terms of this law, the mayor and city council of Baltimore were empowered to establish a separate system of schools for the city of Baltimore, provided that if they did not take advantage of this option within five years the city was to be included in the provisions of the gen- eral law. In 1826 the law was supplemented by an act authorizing the city to levy taxes for the support of the schools. This act was accepted by the city council in February, 1827. The city authorities, however, pro- ceeded but slowly. In March, 1828, an ordinance was adopted creating a board of school commissioners, six in number, to be elected by the coun- cil for one year. The mayor was to be president ex-ofHcio of the board. The city was to be divided into six districts and one school, on the moni- torial plan, to be established in each district. Each school was to be in two parts, male and female. A superintendent was to be elected annually by the board. No pupil over ten years of age was to be admitted to the schools, and a tuition fee of $1.00 per quarter was to be charged all pupils. Such were the provisions of the ordinance. But with no funds at hand, the law was for several years a dead letter. However, as the five years of grace in which the city might secure its own system of schools free from state interference were expiring, the authorities were constrained to take some definite action. The ordinance was amended in 1829 by 559 56o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE granting the board of commissioners discretion as to the number of schools to be established. Finally, at a meeting held July 26, 1829, the board resolved to establish at once four schools, one for each sex in the eastern part of the city and similarly in the western district. This resolution was carried into effect on September 2, 1829, by the selection of Mr. Thompson Randolph and his daughter to conduct the male and female schools in the eastern district, and Mr. W. H. Coffin and Miss Margaret McConkey for the schools in the western district. Rooms were advertised for and two rooms secured on Bond street for the eastern schools and one room under the Presbyterian Church on Eutaw street for the western male school. No room could be secured for the western female school at this time. The western school was opened on September 21st and the eastern seven days later. Within sixty days the room on Eutaw street was crowded with 112 pupils and Mr. Coffin was refusing admission to other applicants. Such were the modest beginnings of that institution, the Public Schools of Baltimore, which has grown steadily into the great system we know to-day. The history of this development falls naturally into four periods. The first period was one of trial, during which the schools had a hard struggle for existence, and extends to the establishment of the high schools in 1839. The second, extending from the founding of the high schools to the creation of the office of superintendent of schools at the close of the civil war, 1866, was a time of great growth and expansion. The third period covers the years between 1866 and the reorganization of the schools under the new charter for Baltimore City in 1900 by which their man- agement was fundamentally changed. And the fourth period extends from that reorganization to the present day. The ro<Hns in which the schools were first opened were soon crowded and the board began to experience that difficulty which it has never, with the exception of brief intervals, been able to free itself from, viz., over- crowded school rooms. In its first report the board asks that at least one building be erected large enough to accommodate 400 pupils in one apart- ment. One-third of a mill tax is asked for to accomplish this purpose. The board was destined to realize its desires more promptly than have many boards since. In 1830 the council levied a tax of 12^ cents CHi the hundred dollars for the support of schools and authorized the board to lease buildings, or purchase lots and erect buildings. By 1834, the board could report that five buildings were in use, four having been erected and one leased; 3,000 pupils could be accommodated and so far as elementary schools were concerned nothing further would be required for some time and the board could look forward to the establishment of "a higher grade of schools." The total cost of the schools for the first quarter was the modest sum of $767.35, including salaries, books, and fixtures. Of this sum, tuition of the pupils, at the rate of $1.00 per quarter, furnished $231.00. The board was at first uncertain as to the wisdom of furnishing books and charging a fee^ or making the schools free and compelling the pupils to fumi^ their own books. After due consideration the former plan was adopted and was adhered to until 1884. From the very beginning there appears to have been no doubt as to the wisdom of segregating the sexes. But in its first report the board, in recommending the grading of the schools as grammar and primary, suggest the employment of only female teachers for the latter, both for the sake of the saving in money and Because the instruction would be better for boys of that age ; and while the two g^des of schools were not distinguished in this period, in 1834 it was arranged that boys from 4 to 7 years of age should go to the female schools. The curriculum in this early period embraced the subjects of spelling, HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 561 reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography and history. One school is mentioned as giving instruction in bookkeeping; and the female schools each devoted a certain portion of two days in each week to "needlework." The method of teaching employed was the monitorial system so popular at that day throughout the country, a system by which the master im- parted information to the older pupils acting as monitors who then re- peated the instruction to the younger pupils. By this plan it was claimed one master could instruct upward of 400 pupils. The board from the very first complimented Mr. Coffin for his management of his 112 pupils and expressed confidence that under proper conditions he could "profitably instruct three times the number he now has under his care." During this first decade the board struggled hard in the face of many difficulties to make the schools a success. Owing to the need of arousing greater interest in the schools and the work involved in managing them die membership of the board, on its own recommendation in 1834, was increased to nine, and in 1839 ^^ ^3* ^^^ while in some years results seemed encouraging, on the whole this was a time of discouragements. The board calls upon the members of the council to interest themselves in the schools and visit them so that the schools might be made "to feel the authority of the city." The great obstacle to be contended with was the opposition and contempt of those who denominated the public schools "pauper schools" and the education there dispensed as "charity educa- tion." In some instances this opposition was manifested by defacing the newly erected school buildings. With one exception the press is spoken of as being unfriendly. Some of the buildings were located in unfortunate places; thus, one female school^ it is stated, was over a watch house where "drunken and disorderly persons are sometimes introduced during the day time." Moreover, the monitorial system of teaching, though both commissioners and teachers were enthusiastic in their praise of it, was proving to be unsatisfactory. Parents objected to having their children act as monitors. Almost every report of the board during these ten years contains a defense and description of the monitorial plan. But clearly it was doomed. And when one reads of the way in which one master was supposed to impart instruction to over 300 pupils of all ages from 4 to 14 years, it is not strange that the schools did not increase rapidly in numbers and popularity; the wonder is that such an impossible method of instruc- tion should have been seriously contemplated within so recent a ^ period. By 1839 it was evident that a decided change in the organization and management of the schools was necessary if they were to fulfill their proper function. Accordingly the board of commissioners was completely reorganized; by resignations and new appointments it came about that but one old member was left on the board in 1839. The new board cast about for the cause of the dissatisfaction and came to the conclusion that the schools were incomplete and that the system of instruction was faulty. To remedy the first defect, the board resolved to establish a "High School" ; to correct the second, the monitorial system of teaching was ak>lished and the division of the schools into classes and the employment of assistant teachers begun. To begin with, but one high school was established, at first known as the Male High School, later, 1850, called the Central High School, and after 1866, Ae Baltimore City College. This beginning was followed in 1844 by the establishment of two female high schools, one in the eastern and one in the western section of the city. From the very start these schools exerted a beneficial influence on the system of public education. S62 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The addition of this higher grade placed the public schools <hi a basis of equality with the private academies and seminaries and made it possible for the pupil of the public schools to carry his education as far as the pupils of any other school. Speaking of the influence of the Male High School in 1840 the board says it "will bear ccxnparison with the very best seminaries of learning in the city. ... It will stimulate the boys in the primary schools to diligence in their studies. . . . Pupils cannot gain ad- mission to the high schools without passing through one of the primary schools. The board highly appreciates this branch of the school system as a most potent agent in dissipating any prejudice that may possibly exist against the schools." The same pride was taken in the female high schools. In fact, by establishing these schools Baltimore placed herself in this respect in the lead in educational progress in the country. No other city at this time could boast of such a school. When in 1850 an investigation and compari- son of the schools in Baltimore and other cities was made, it was found that opinion in New York was against the establishment of such schools at public expense and that Boston was considering the subject as a new departure. Not only did these schools exert the same bendicial influence on the lower grades of female schools as the boys' high school, but it was at once found that they offered a means of educating a supply of teachers who would in time be able to enter the service of the board in the lower schools. Thus the board reports in 1855, "the system will be self- sustaining, as regards instruction; and we indulge the hope that our high schools, under your fostering care, will, at no remote period, become nur- series of teachers sufficient for all the wants of our system of public in- struction." In furtherance of this hope the board in the same year adopted the following resolution : "Each full graduate of the Several High Schools shall, without further examination be eligible to the situation of a Second Assistant in a Male or Female Grammar School, or of Assistant in a Male or Female Primary School." Stimulated by the incentive which the opportunity for entering the high schools afforded, the attendance in the lower schools increased rap- idly. In 1839 there were but 675 pupils enrolled in all schools; by 1844 this had increased to 3,366; in 1850 there were 7,093 pupils enrolled; by 1866 the attendance had increased to 17,550. To provide for this increase in attendance was a tax on the resources of the board which could not always be met satisfactorily. There was a constant struggle to secure the necessary buildings and equipment. The earlier schools had been started in leased buildings or buildings constructed on the monitorial plan and when the attendance increased these continued to be used beyond their capacity. Owing to the rapid change in the physical surroundings attend- ant upon the growth of the city, buildings were sometimes hardly opened before it was found that the location was undesirable. In 1 85 1 the board referred with pride to the completion of the Eastern Female High School at a cost of $11^000, but immediately complained of the proposal to open a street along the whole side of the building, which would take up a good part of the school lot, bring the noise of traffic close to the classroom windows, and thus destroy the expected advantage of a quiet, retired location. Overcrowding of classrooms and unsatisfactory location of buildings led to other evils. Frequently the board had to meet the complaints of parents about the bad sanitary conditions in the schools. In 1846 the board expressed the opinion that "the physical health and education of pupils in all the schools is a matter of too much importance HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 563 to be overlooked." Better abolish a school than to continue one found to be "located in an unhealthy situation, or in improperly lighted or ven- tilated apartments." In wrestling with this situation the board was much hampered by lack of funds. In the first place the appropriations allowed by the city council were inadequate. A report drawn up in 1850, comparing the cost of buildings in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia with those in Balti- more shows that the expenditures for this purpose in Baltimore were much lower than in the other cities named. Another difficulty was the very faulty financial administration employed. The Board of School Commissioners was regarded by the city as a distinct financial unit, along with several other city boards. Thus, the board had its own treasurer, at first one of the commissioners, but after 1849 ^ salaried employee, who acted as the receiving and disbursing agent for school funds. When the estimates of the board were approved by the council a tax sufficient to provide the amount was levied. The city register, however, instead of placing this full amount to the credit of the boards paid it over in installments as collected. But it was rarely, if ever, all collected. Thus, in 1852, of $74,510 appro- priated but $55,900 was collected, leaving a shortage of $19,310. The result was that the board, having started operations for the year based on the appropriation, found itself before the close of the year facing a deficit. The remedy was to borrow, cither in anticipation of collections or on the basis of the next year's estimate. Ofttimes loans had to be made to pay salaries of teachers. Year after year the board was compelled to carry over from one year to another a large deficit. Moreover, when loans were made they were negotiated, not by the city, but by the board. But other city boards were doing the same thing, with the result that several city boards often found themselves competing in the money market. After many pro- tests against this financial system^ the council in 1859 relieved the situa- tion by directing the register to pay to the board the full amount appro- priated without waiting for collections. At the same time a sufficient amount was appropriated to relieve the board of its indebtedness and for the first time in many years the board found itself in a position to ''know exactly what they can and what they cannot do." Finally, in 1866, the office of school treasurer was abolished and all school money was hence- forth handled by the register. The school curriculum in this period was made broad enough to meeit the economic needs of the community. In addition to the usual subjects, t. e,, spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, and grammar, geography and history appear to have had a place from the beginning. As early as 1831, bookkeeping was introduced in one school and needlework was practiced two days in each week in every female school. In 1843 inusic was intro- duced at first as an experiment, classes meeting on Saturdays ; but as there appeared to be a popular demand for this subject, a regular teacher was employed, and two years later the city was divided into two districts and a music teacher assigned to each. For a number of years after the establishment of the high schools the board recommended the division of the lower schools into primary and grammar grades. This reform was accomplished in 1848. The principle of segregation of the sexes was maintained, separate schools being provided in both grades. And the board even recommended that for the grammar grades the boys and girls schools should not be in the same building. Boys who were able to spell, read, write, and had progressed in arithmetic as far as long division were to go to the grammar schools. But boys from ages of 4-8 who had not S64 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE these qualifications were to be placed in the girls' primary schools, while boys from 8-14 who had not the qualification were placed in boys' primary schools. Female teachers were in charge of primary schools for both sexes. In the year following the division of the schools the curriculum was reorganized and enlarged. At this time the board reports the following subjects as comprising the work of the grammar schools: natural philos- ophy, physiology, history, composition, elocution, bookkeeping, geography, use of the globes, arithmetic, grammar, reading, and writing. Evidently this group of subjects aroused some comment for the board in speaking of it remarks: "The new branches of education which have been intro- duced into the schools are such as are, at this day, made the subjects of instruction in every institution in which a proper system of intellectual training is pursued. The course of instruction is designed to train the scholars, not only to recite the lessons and answer a few important ques- tions, and learn the elements of the branches, but also to understand, analyze, and apply rules and principles, so that their intellectual faculties may become the actors in executing the exercises of the school." In 1855 we find in addition to the above, algebra, geometry, and mensuration. In the primary schools the subjects were spelling, reading, writing, arith- metic, geography, and music. At the beginning, the boys' high school offered two courses, an Eng- lish course in which the studies of the grammar schools were carried fur- ther, and a Latin course. In 1846, German, and in 1848, French and Span- ish were added to the curriculum. Spanish, however, was soon dropped. In 1850, with the inauguration of Dr. F. G. Waters as principal, the studies were arranged in departments of which there were eight: i. Belles Lettres and History; 2. Mathematics; 3. Natural Science; 4. Moral, Men- tal, and Political Science; 5. Ancient Languages; 6. Modem Lao^fuag^; 7. Graphics, including Drawing and Writing; 8. Music. These subjects were still arranged in two courses, the English and the Classical. The pupil must select one of these courses and, after the expiration of three months, was not allowed to change. ''As many of the youths educated in the High School are intended for mercantile and mechanical life, in- creased attention is paid to the classes in Modem Languages and Book- keeping, and Drawing." At first the English course was most popular. But with the raising of the standards of admission, under Principals Mor- rison and Baird^ the crowded schedule of the high schools was relieved so that greater stress could be given to fewer subjects. Moreover, the holding of commencements and granting of certificates which began in 185 1, had the effect of keeping a greater proportion of the pupils through- out the four years. The result was a greater tendency to select the classi- cal course. The course was made more rigid, fewer optional studies being offered. The faculty also threw its influence on the side of the classics, until finally in 1865 ^^^ English course was abolished. This does not mean that English subjects were dropped, but that Latin was required of all students. Greek was the only optional study. This continued to be the rule for eleven years. The course of study in the girls' high schools covered a period of only three years. The curriculum was much the same as in the boys' high school, except for the striking fact that all foreign languages, as well as draw- ing, were omitted. Even more attention than in the boys' high school was given to the studies, such as spelling, reading, writing, that properly belonged to the grammar school. In 1854 the board recommended the introduction of drawing and modem languages in order that the g^rls HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 565 might have additional opportunities for employment and become more "independent of man for the means of a livelihood." But this perfectly humane recommendation was not adopted until 1864 when the course was extended to four years. Great difficulty was experienced in arriving at a proper adjustment of the several grades of schools in relation to each other. The real devel- opment of the schools dates from the establishment of the high schools. These schools^ throughout this period, served as a goal, to reach which was the ambition of the pupils in the lower schools. Consequently there was much crowding forward all along the line in order that, before the pupil should be compelled to leave school, his ambition to reach the high school might be realized, if only for a few months. Promotion was entirely by examination conducted by the board of commissioners, but in spite of this, primary pupils worked their way into grammar schools, and grammar pupils into the high schools before being properly prepared, with the result that the proper work of the upper grades was hampered. Almost every report of the board and more particularly the reports of the high school principals, complain bitterly of this state of affairs. Thus in 1857 Pro- fessor Baird reports that of the 130 pupils admitted to the high school in the preceding September, "71 reached the full requirement of the present low standard of examination ; 62 approximated the standard, and were ad- mitted by the committee, and 7 were afterward admitted by special reso- lution of the board. ... At the close of the fall quarter it was found yj only of these had obtained quarterly averages of 60 and upwards; 50 fell below 60, and three withdrew." In the following year the standards of admission were raised somewhat, particularly in algebra and geometry, and the examination made more difficult. The result was that only about one-third of those sent up from the grammar schools were admitted. This reform had a beneficial effect upon the entire school system. Without adding to the number of subjects taught in the grammar schools more time was g^ven to the proper and thorough teaching of those subjects. From the grammar schools the reform spread downward to the primary schools. Here also promotion from class to class and to grammar schools was by examination. But these examinations were held quarterly and promotions made correspondingly. This resulted in the crowding and hampering of the upper classes in the grammar schools in the latter half of the year, inasmuch as promotion to the high schools was made annually. Principals of grammar schools objected strenuously to this but the advan- tages of quarterly promotion were thought to outweigh the disadvantages, and the practice continued. It was coming to be the view of the board that greater attention than formerly should be given to the work of the grammar schools ; they were to be viewed not only as preparing for the high schools but fitting a large number of young people for business life who could never carry their studies further. Much of this lack of proper adjustment was due to the fact that the school system grew up and continued until 1866 without any adequate provision for a central and consistent supervision. In the original school ordinance, 1828, the board was empowered to appoint a superintendent annually, but this was not done at the beginning, and what little super- vision was required in the early days was furnished by the members of the board. The practice thus developed was continued. As the schools in- creased and the duties became more onerous, the membership of the board was increased to 9, to 13, and finally to 20, one member from each city ward. It is one of the surprising things about the history of the school system S66 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE that a board of 20 members, representing the wards of the city, all of whom were elected annually by the city council, should, without the aid of a superintendent, undertake to regulate and supervise all the details of the administration of a school system which by 1866 had come to involve the welfare of more than 17,000 children. In order that the work could be accomplished at all it was necessary to have committees, one for each school, whose duties were to "visit the schools, assist the teachers by their advice, and provide whatever may be necessary for the proper conducting of the schools." These committees directed the examinations for promotion of pupils, provided for the grading of the pupils in classes, passed judgment on books, and held the examina- tions for applicants for positions to teach in the schools. The burden of this work became oppressive to the members of the board as early as 1846. They accordingly recommended the appointment of a superintendent from among tbeir own number. By becoming familiar with the schools, it was urged, he could improve the studies, introduce system, and lessen the need for corporal punishment or expulsion; by supervising the purchase of books and supplies he could avoid waste and duplication. The following year, 1847, a committee of the board was ai^inted to inquire what reform, if any, was necessary to elevate the character and increase the usefulness of our Public School System. The committee addressed an inquiry to a number of cities in surrounding states and made a comparative study of conditions in Baltimore and elsewhere. On the basis of this study it recommended the appointment of a superintendent and the reduction of the board to 10 members. The members of the com- mittee were of the opinion that a saving of one-third could be made on books by putting their selection under the supervision of a superintendent; they found an unnecessary variety of books, many of which were useless, and favoritism in their adoption. But owing to a division in the board no action was ever taken on these recommendations. In 1852 the principal teachers in each school were authorized to visit the classrooms of assistants and supervise their work. In 1857 the board reports that the system has not been based on the plan of having a super- intendent as such, "though that office is a part of all the school systems with which we are acquainted." To the treasurer of the board~had fallen the duty, together with his financial duties, of a "general visitor and exam- iner, together with the local committee." But as the financial operations grew in magnitude the treasurer had less and less time for visiting schools. Two recommendations were made. Either relieve the treasurer of most of his financial work by transferring to the city register the handling of the school funds, or "render the board, by greater permanency of diar- acter, more efficient in its operations, and more capable of persisting in the pursuit of a uniform policy." Members who are found to be efficient and active should be reappointed and the law changed so that only a portion should retire at one time. And again in 1863 ^^^ board felt called upon to remind the entire Council "that changes in the board should be made with great consideration and caution, and that in the election of new mem- bers, such persons should be chosen for that trust as are especiaUy inter- ested in its well-being and have the leisure to give it full attention." Relief was afforded, however, not by reconstituting the board, but by relieving its treasurer of some of his financial work. This was done in 1859 and from this time forward to the creation of the office of superin- tendent in 1866 we have reports of the treasurer on the condition of teach- ing in the schools. The treasurer was, however, still treasurer, and his HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 567 supervisory duties were not recognized by law, so that although he visited the schools faithfully and exerted all his influence for their improvements, his eflForts were limited to suggesting and recommending. He could do nothing. The man who held the position of treasurer and pseudo-superintend- ent at this time was Rev. J. N. Mcjilton. He was a man of culture, high ideals, and possessed untiring zeal in the cause of education. For more than 20 years he was immediately connected with the schools, first as a teacher, then as commissioner and lastly as treasurer. In the latter capac- ity he spent much time and energy in visiting the schools. In i860 when there were more than 80 schools he spoke of visiting them all and some 4 or 5 times. He found lack of uniformity and a great deal of rote or mechanical teaching. This method is made the subject of many criticisms. Rote teaching he asserts came into vogue with cheap books. Parents often complain and inquire how their children can be taught ''without the load of books." Few books are really necessary in elementary teaching. Rote teaching is the committing of words not ideas. It has been entirely "ex- ploded by the best educators of the age," but some of the teachers in Bal- timore seem not to have learned that fact. He frequently approaches a building and hears the lesson being recited in concert in such loud voice that the attention of passers-by is arrested. For instance, in spelling — b-a, ba ; k-e-r, ker, baker ; c-a, ca ; p-e-r, per, caper. This teaching of words as abstractions is absurd. It is not necessary that the pupil be a good speller before he learn to read; the two should go hand in hand. Often, months are spent learning words that, so far as the pupil's ability to use them is concerned, might as well be Greek as English. He is then thought ready to read; but when he opens his reader few of the words he has learned are there. The treasurer spoke with great pride of the system of educatipn, call- ing it repeatedly and almost affectionately "our system." Thus, "Our system is essentially our own. No part of it has been taken from other states or cities." The authorities have sometimes profited by compari- son with other systems, but that in use here is "adapted to the peculiarities of our locality — ^between the Northern and Southern portions of our country. In the internal working of our schools, our system has claims to originality of character and action. Our form of examination, plan of transfer, reports, etc., are essentially difiFerent from those in other places." This idea he reiterated with great emphasis. Writing in 1864, when, on account of the adoption of the new constitution of the state, it was feared that the school system of Baltimore might be interfered with by the state authorities, he refers to his 20 years' connection with the schools and says» it "has been my chief study to prevent the agglomeration of a piecemeal system. ... I invite no comparison between our public school system and those of other localities in regard to their qualities and perfections,, but I do emphatically state that ours has grown up with our necessities and is well adapted to our peculiarities and that it would be dangerous to work experiments upon it either by introduction of foreign material or by any such changes as would interfere with its organic construction." Throughout the period under consideration eflForts were constantly being made to increase the eflSciency of the teachers and improve the quality of teaching. Teachers were appointed for one year only and were subject to dismissal at the discretion of the board. The salaries were low, many of the assistant teachers receiving as low as $150 per year. The result was frequent changes and transfers of teachers which could not S68 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE but be detrimental to the schools. So numerous were these chang^es in 1854 that the matter was the subject of comment by the board. It was ''surprising that one hundred changes should be required among a body of teachers amounting in all to 20S." Shortly after the establishment of the high schools it was thought that these schools would furnish an abun- ant supply of teachers "reared among us, imbued with the spirit of our institutions, educated in our schools, accustomed from childhood to our mode of instruction, and familiar with the operation of our s)rjstem in all its details.'' Reference has already been made to the rule by which grad- uates were appointed as assistants in the lower grades without examination. In 1857, however, this practice was abandoned and it was made the rule to appoint and promote only on examination. And in 1863 this rule was so amended that assistants in grammar school should be appointed only from among the assistants in the primary schools. But it soon became apparent that something more than a high-school course or the passing of an examination was needed to qualify for teach- ing the primary grades, and something more than experience in the primary grades for teaching the grammar grades. G>mplaints came in from parents that their children ''do not advance in their studies under certain teachers." The board in 1854 admits that these complaints are mostly well-founded. But the defect is not the lack of faithfulness on the part of the teachers but their slavery to "mannerism" and the mechanical way in which they go about their work, and the conclusion is reached that "the teacher must himself be taught." "The time has passed," the board asserts, "when persons that fail in every other pursuit can adopt with success, the busi- ness of teaching. The preparation of the teacher seems to have beocxne as necessary as that of the mechanic, the tradesman, and the professional man, for their several avocations." And the board with praiseworthy broad-mindedness urges that local pride be set aside by parents and the work of educating their sons and daughters be entrusted confidently to whoever is found to possess the proper qualification. Already, in 185 1, steps had been taken to provide for the training of teachers by the formation of normal classes in the hig^ schools. An additional year was allowed high-school pupils for this work. Classes met on Saturday morning in the girls' high schools. Newly appointed teachers were required to attend tiiese classes for six mondis and the classes were open to others who wished to prepare themselves. Teachers were selected from the schools to take charge of the classes. Primary and grammar school subjects were reviewed, methods illustrated, and the mem* bers of the class required in turn to take charge of the class and conduct the recitation. The work proved sufficiently beneficial to warrant its being kept up throughout this period. Again and again the board appealed to the dty and the state for better support for this school. The action of other states was cited and reference also made to the training schools established in England to show that the movement was a legitimate one. Without such a school, teachers were necessarily obtained from other states. As the great sectional struggle approached this practice was more and more frowned upon, and began to create a prejudice against the public schools. This, the board asserts, could be avoided by the establishment of a normal school where the state could train up its own teachers. No aid from the state was, however, forthcoming. Efforts were made in other directions also to improve the quality of teaching. Thus the rules for 185 1 include an article on "Instructions HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 569 to teachers for Conducting Exercizes in all Schools/' in which it is urged that teachers ''must not content themselves with merely hearing the reci- tations of the different classes and ascertaining the text has been cor- rectly committed to memory. They are required to teach the subjects. . . . They shall require the pupils to analyze the several subjects of study and give views and opinions in their own language." Another method of securing improvement was by the formation of "Teachers' Institutes," or associations, a step which was recommended by the treasurer in i860. The practice of other states was appealed to in support of this step. By meeting and interchanging ideas much could be accomplished in the way of estab- lishing uniformity and the teachers would be enabled to make continual progress and improvement. Accordingly in 1862 two associations were formed, one for the eastern and one for the western sections of the city. The board granted permission to dismiss the schools on the first Friday afternoon of each month to enable the teachers to attend the meetings. The proceedings were devoted to lectures, essays, and discussions of topics bearing on the business of the teacher. The Civil War appears to have had but little direct effect upon the public schools of Baltimore. In the male grammar and high schools the attendance declined slightly and no new buildings were provided between 1862 and 1867. I^ 1^2 ^c council required of all teachers an oath of allegiance to the United States which caused the dismissal of 26 teachers who refused to take the oath. Otherwise the regular school work was not interrupted. But at the close of the war in 1865 ^^^ ^^^ ^ number of changes were made. In the former year the l^slature enacted a law providing for a system of public schools throughout the state. While the law did not interfere with the independent government of the schools of Baltimore, it did affect the administration of the school system of the City by providing for the establishment of a State Normal Sdiool and by re- quiring the support of schools for colored children. In 1866 the office of treasurer was abolished and the office of Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion created. The course of study in the high schools was lengthened by the addition of one year; the name of the Central High School was changed to the Baltimore City Collie, it was opened to otfiers than those promoted from the grammar schools, and an effort was made to have the legislature authorize it to confer academic degrees. These several changes would seem to mark the beginning of a new regime in the educational system of the city. It was thought that the opening of the normal school would accomplish what the city had so long desired, the effective training of an adequate supply of teachers, and would relieve the city board of the necessity of supporting the Saturday normal classes. While the opening of the colored schools added to the burden of public education, it enlarged the scope of activity and increased the oppor- tunities of the school system. And the creation of the (^ce of superintend- ent and the extension of the courses in the high schools gave promise of more thorough supervision of the work of the schools and higher standards in education. Yet here the forward movement appears to have stopped for many years. From 1866 to the reorganization of the schools of 1900 under the new city charter, but few significant changes or improvements were made. In fact it would not be amiss to speak of this period as one of stagnation and depression as compared with the preceding period. Whereas, the years preceding 1866 witnessed the abandonment of the moni- torial and the introduction of the class system of instructi6n, the separa- tion of the grammar from the primary grades, the establishment of high S70 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE schools for girls as well as boys, provision for night schools, the intro- duction of sewing into the girls' schools, and the experiment of a floating school for sailors, in the three decades following the reorganization incident to the close of tlie Civil War, almost the sole instance of a noteworthy improvement is the provision made for manual training. In almost aU other lines where improvement might be most expected, in the number and material equipment of buildings, in the enrichment and administra- tion of the curriculum, in the methods of supervision and management of the schools, and in the arrangement for the training, appointment and pro- motion of teachers, the public schools failed to keep pace either with the growth of the city or the advance made in educational standards and ideals in other parts of the country. In 1866 a committee of school officials from the City of Boston visited and inspected the schools of Baltimore. They were enthusiastic in their praise of the schools found here, especially ol the Female High Schools, and gave to Baltimore "the credit of supporting the only schools of the kind in existence in this country." Aroused by the reports made by this committee, a similar committee from Philadelphia subsequently came to Baltimore, and after an inspection of the schools, gave an equally favorable report. It is doubtful if a committee from any city in the country could have bestowed such unqualified approval of the public schools of Baltimore in 1898. As regards the material equipment of the schools there was constant complaint. After the temporary suspension of building during the war, the board began to provide accommodations to meet the demand^ made by the increasing population of the city, but it was never able to keep pace with the increase in attendance. The average attendance increased from 17,550 in 1866 to 65,170 in 1898, or at the rate of 1,448 per year. During this same period the number of schools grew from 88 to 166 and the teachers employed from 402 to 1,827. In 1870 there were 58 buUdings in use, 8 of which were rented, and in 1898, 134, of which 36 were rented. Many of the buildings in use in 1870 were built prior to 1850 and a number of these were still in use in 1898. As the attendance increased and the number of pupils became too large they were divided, i. e,, a granunar and primary school formed when there had been but one, the separate schools continuing to use the same building, or one school was shifted to a part of a building already occupied by another school. Many instances o! this kind of development are cited in the reports. It was inevitable that this process should involve much overcrowding. In other cases, rooms, halls, or parts of buildings wholly unfitted for school purposes were rented for the use of classes. Under these circumstances it is not strange that there was much dis- satisfaction with the sanitary conditions in the schools. Parents refused to send their children, or withdrew them from the schools on account of the injury to health caused by overcrowding, bad ventilation, and poor light. In 1876 the Inspector of Health took the matter up and rqx>rted many classrooms unfit for use. Two years later an investigation was made by the State Board of Health and some astonishing conditions were found to exist. Many classrooms were found to contain from two fo three times the number of pupils warranted by the allowance of floor and air space. The official who made the examination reported that the air in some of the rooms was '*so bad that it could be perceived before reaching the school-rooms; and the children . . . had their clothes and hair perceptibly impregnated with the foetid poison." He then went on to show the evil HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 571 effects on children of being confined each day in rooms of this character and pointed out the proper methods of remedying the evils. The astonishing fact here is not that such conditions existed in the schools at that time. They were common in other cities as well. But that these conditions were allowed to continue so long without being reme- died is worthy of comment. Year after year the school board quoted from the report above referred to and asked for an appropriation to make im- provements; and year after year passed without anything bein^ done. In 1880 the Inspector of Buildings found 30 school buildings with but one stairway from the second story and this frequently "narrow, contracted, and tortuous," while there were from 250 to 400 pupils occupying the sec- ond floor of the building. In 1885 the school board reported that the number of new buildings was not keeping pace with the growth of the city; that whereas the population had increased in the past five years 50,000, during this period and for some years prior no additional primary schools were erected; and that six additional buildings were needed for children "now applying for admission." In 1887 the board reported that but little had been done to improve conditions since the report of the state board of health and asked that the council take up the subject and authorize another examination. The board also asked for authority to appoint a Sanitary Superintendent who should be a physician, and whose duty it should be to supervise plans for buildings and sanitation, examine the health of school children, and give lectures on school hygiene. No notice was taken of either request. But at last, in 1889, the council conducted an examination of the school buildings and as a result recommended that provision be made for 13 new buildings out of the proposed bond issue for public improvements. As early as 1885 it had been proposed to use the city's borrowing power to provide buildings. In 1887 the council authorized a bond issue of $500,000 for schools but the legislature refused its assent. The next year, however, the legislature authorized a loan of five millicm for public improvements in the city, and out of this the council directed that $400,000 should be expended for lots and buildings for public schools. Temporary relief was thus obtained but the rapid increase in attendance soon produced unfavorable conditions again. In 1895 the board requested another half million loan, and in the year following the Health Department again re- ported that many schools were unsanitary and overcrowded. As regards methods of supervision and management of the schools there was practically no change during the period extending from 1866 to 1900. The city council continued to be the real authority in school mat- ters. No lot could be purchased, no building erected, without the approval of the council. No salary could be increased and no new office created without the same authorization. In fact nothing could be decided upon, aside from the routine supervision of the schools, by the Board of School Commissioners into whose hands the government of the schools had sup- posedly been given. This board was composed of 20 members, one from each ward, elected in joint session of the two branches of the city council. Prior to 1877 the entire board was chosen annually ; in that year the term was lengthened to four years with the arrangement that one-fourth of the members should retire each year. This change was made in response to the frequent complaint of the board that the short term and frequent change in membership greatly handicapped it in its work. Although the election of members was by law vested in the council, in practice the nomination of the first branch councilman from each ward was equivalent to an elec- J72 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE .tion. By means of this ''councilmanic courtesy," responsibility was dis- persed and the way opened for political influence. The existence of these conditions was well known and was the occa- sion for many attacks on and criticisms of the school board and its manage- ment of the schools. The board was compelled, or at least felt called upon, to defend itself again and again, in fact in almost every annual report, against charges of partisanship, mismanagement, and even corruption. In 1877, on motion of the council, the mayor appointed a commission of five residents of Baltimore to inquire '^whether the school system has any de- fects and how they may be remedied.'' The commission consisted of Messrs. Geo. W. Brown, Frederick Raine, John T. Morris, E. G. Hipsley, and Richard M. Venable. After an investigation extending over many weeks^ this commission strongly recommended a complete change in the organization of the school board as of first importance for the improve- ment of the schools. Their plan was to have a board of nine members, appointed by the mayor without regard to residence in a particular ward, for a term of six years, three members to retire every two 'years. Into the hands of this board should be given complete l^slative, executive, and judicial power over the schools, subject to the laws and ordinances of the state and city. In submitting this recommendation the commission set forth briefly but convincingly the known defects in the existing constitu- tion of the board and the advantages of the proposed change. But no action was ever taken looking to the adoption of this or any of the other recom- mendations of the commission^ several of which were equally wise and judi- cious. The creation of the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1866 was a step forward in the matter of supervision. But it must be noted that the restrictions placed upon the superintendent by the ordinance of 1866 made it impossible for that officer to initiate improvements to correct the defects which his study and observation of the schools revealed. The ordinance provided that the superintendent should be a resident of Balti- more and that his term of office should be four years, subject to removal by the board. "It shall be the duty of the superintendent to devote his time and attention entirely to the general supervision of the public scfaoc^ oi the city, subject to such rules and regulations as the Board of School Commissioners may establish." Having inquired into all matters, he was required to ''make a monthly report of the matters thus specified" to the school board. The superintendent could investigate and report but had no authority to act. The office was held in turn by J. N. Mcjilton, Wm. R. Creery, Henry E. Shepherd, and Henry A. Wise. These gentlemen were active and faithful in the work of visiting the schools, and assisting and encouraging the teachers, but their recommendations for the improve- ment of the schools were almost uniformly disregarded. Year after year they urged the establishment of a training school for teachers and a change in the method of appointing and promoting teachers, the improvement of the curriculum to meet modem requirements, the establishment of kinder* gartens, the adoption of a definite plan or model for school buildings, and a more strict adherence to the rules in the promotion of pupils irom the grammar schools to the high schools, only to see these important matters constantly ignored by the board or postponed from one year to another. In 1872 the office of Assistant Superintendent was created and the incumbent assigned to the supervision of the primary schools. But as the number of. teachers increased the need for more supervisors was increas- ingly felt. In 1888 the superintendents recommended a plan to give tiie HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 573: principal in each school greater supervisory authority. Th principal was to be relieved of most of his teaching duties and given more time for supervision; one principal was to have authority over all the schools estab- lished in one building as well as those in other buildings in the same neigh- borhood. While this plan might require some additional teachers it would economize in the most expensive kind of ability, the ability to supervise. It was eight years before any action was taken by the board to relieve the superintendents in this matter. In 1896 provision was made for assistants to the principals who were then directed to give two hours daily to visit- ing the classrooms and supervising the work of the teachers in their schools. The quality of work accomplished in the schools is, of course, depend- ent mainly upon the ability and professional attitude maintained by the teachers. In this respect the years between 1866 and 1900 show somewhat conflicting tendencies. On the one hand there was manifested a desire on the part of the teachers, fostered very materially by the superintendents, for improvement both in mastery of the subjects taught and in methods of imparting knowledge. But on the other hand, the authorities in charge of the schools remained persistently blind to the demand for facilities for the proper training of teachers for their work and the provision of such regulations for their appointment and promotion as would insure the greatest degree of fitness. With regard to the first tendency, a number of activities were under- taken by the teachers with the approval and support of the superintend- ents. In 1873 the Saturday normal classes, abandoned when the State Normal School was established, were reorganized. At first an experiment, with 150 teachers in attendance, the school was regularly organized the following year and the attendance increased to 187. Mr. Wm. F. War- denburg was made principal and announced as the object of the school to consider ''what to teach and how to teach it." The old rule that all new appointees must attend at least 26 sessions of the school was renewed. Many associations of teachers were also organized for mutual benefit ; there were meetings organized for principals of grammar schools, principals of primary schools, and principals of the English-German schools. Teachers in the grammar schools also organized "grade meetings" held once a month; the object of these meetings was stated to be: (i) to increase the efficiency of the teachers, (2) to secure greater uniformity in the work, and (3) to correct prevailing faults. Groups of teachers also organized themselves into classes for reading and study of subjects connected with their work and the securing of lectures. The Johns Hopkins University responded to the demand for instruction by providing lectures especially adapted to the needs of school teachers. Between 1^0 and 1896 under the direction of the Public School Teachers' Association, various courses of class lectures were given by Hopkins professors and others. In 1898 a more systematic provision was made for the special benefit of Balti- more school teachers. Two courses of lectures were arranged in history and science, consisting of 20 lectures each, and involving the payment of fees, the reading of assigned books, and the submission of written exercises in answer to questions set by the lecturer. These courses were attended throughout by from 250 to 300 teachers who manifested keen interest in the subjects discussed. These expedients, however, proved to be entirely inadequate to meet the constantly increasing necessity for better training and professional equipment of teachers. The Saturday normal class was not popular; the attendance dropped by 1878 to 72, and soon afterward the class was 574 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE discontinued. In 1877 the superintendent reported that the imperfect qualifications of quite a large proportion of appointees constitutes beyond comparison the weak point of our Public School System." He flien pro- ceeded to recommend the establishment of a training school for teachers. From this time on this recommendation was repeated with ever-increasing force. It was pointed out that not 15 per cent, of the teachers had ever attended the State Normal School and that even those that had attended had not received the special training needed for teachers in the city schools. A training school was found to be a part of the school system in all cities the size of Baltimore. In 1887, ten years after the first recommendation of the superintendent, the board took the matter into consideration and five years later decided to ask authority from the council to establish a training school. There the matter rested until after the adoption of the new char- ter in 1898. Meanwhile the superintendent in 1891 had reported that many teachers "have given no evidence of scholastic attainments necessary to teach the subjects assigned to them." The responsibility for this condition was with the school board, and the root of the difficulty is to be found in the method of appointing teach- ers. New appointments to positions in the schools were made by the board from a list of eligibles. This list was made up by admission of graduates of the high schools and the State Normal School who had attained an average scholarship of 80 or 85 per cent., and others who passed an exam- ination conducted by the board. These examinations were held usually twice a year, and were not of a sufficiently high standard to insure a high grade of scholarship. The evidence of this is seen in the fact that at a time when the salaries were complained of as very low, and when there were but 963 teachers, the list of eligibles contained 501 names. Once a name was placed on the list it remained there for three years, if the person were not sooner appointed. Year after year the eligible list contained more than half as many names as there were positions in the schools. And year after year the board advised those seeking positions in the schools to find other employment. From this large ungraded list of eligibles, the board selected teachers to fill new positions. In 1884, for example, there were only about 30 positions available and the list of eligibles contained 394 names. Not <Mily did this method open the way for the entrance of per- sonal favoritism and political intrigue { it resulted in getting into the schools many incompetent teachers. More than once the superintendent was moved to protest in no uncertain terms against this manner of the appointment of teachers. Nor was this all. The new appointee served a probation of 90 days and then was regularly elected for one year. All teachers were elected annu- ally. The salaries were arranged in an ascending scale from the position of second assistant in the primary schools through the several g^des of the grammar schools to the high schools. When a vacancy occurred in any grade above the lowest grade in the primary schools it was filled if pos- sible by promotion from the next lower grade. The eflFect of this arrangfc- ment was a constant changing of teachers in the several grades, more espe- cially the primary. In 1877 ^^ superintendent reported that in one primary school with 12 teachers there were 12 changes in two years. Such a shift- ing of teachers was demoralizing to a school and the superintendent urged that the primary schools should be put on the same basis as the g^rammar schools in respect to salary and that teachers who developed skill in the primary schools should be kept there. Down to 1890 promotions were made on examination; but in that year the examination was done away HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 575 with and teachers who had served successfully for one year were made eligible to any position in the schools for a period of ten years. Against this method of appointment and promotion and the annual election of teachers there were many protests. The commission of 1877 above referred to strongly urged in its report that the terms of teachers who had proved themselves satisfactory should be during good behavior. It was pointed out that the annual election was useless; that whereas it did not result in getting rid of all the undesirable teachers, it did keep many who were efficient but who did not take pains to be on good terms with the local committee of the board, in a constant state of uncertainty and thereby hindered them in their work. The commission urged that the probationary period should be lengthened to one year and that then the successful teacher should feel secure in his position and free to devote all his time and energy to his work in the school. The eligible list should be reduced by instituting a higher standard of examination and should be made com- petitive, u e., those passing the highest examination should be placed at the head of the list and appointments made from those standing highest on the list. These recommendations had the backing of every superintendent and assistant superintendent during the period. The disadvantages of the ex- isting and the advantages of the proposed method were pointed out year after year by these officers. The subject was often discussed in the board meetings but nothing was done until 1895 when the whole scheme of reform was adopted. It was called the "merit system." A new list of eligibles was to be prepared by the superintendent arranged according to the rank in the examination. Vacancies were to be filled by appointment from those standing highest on the list. After a successful probation of one year, the teacher was to be elected for good behavior. As soon as the new list could be prepared by the superintendent the new method was put into operation, and in 1898 that official reported that the "merit system has been most successful in securing the appointment of a class of teachers who will, as they acquire more and more experience, add materially to the efficiency of the teaching force." In the matter of the curriculum and the internal organization of the schools there is evidence of a good deal of dissatisfaction. It was urged by some that the number of studies was too great, that the pupils were overworked, and that the result was an imperfect knowledge on the part of the pupil of any one subject. In 1868 the board directed the "superin- tendent to ascertain" whether the number of studies in the schools are greater than should be assigned to the pupils with a proper regard to their health and mental improvement. As a result, some reduction of the num- ber of subjects was made in the female high schools and the grammar and primary schools ; two years later the course in the high schools was reduced to thre^ years and in the City College to four years as had been the rule prior to 1866. There was a strong feeling against "crowding studies upon pupils," and it was asserted that the "necessary studies" are few in number and when well mastered will do more for real education than skipping over the whole circle of sciences. The curriculum in the high schools was rigid, there being but one optional study in the City College (Greek), and none in the female high schools. Against this narrow and rigid organization of the curriculum. Super- intendent Creery in his last report, 1874, made a vigorous protest. "No course of study should be so inflexible as not to permit of alterations to meet the demands of the times." No one set of studies produces culture. 576 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Education should fit for the particular demands which life will make upon the individual. Natural sciences should be brought in so that the pufMl may be taught to observe and appreciate nature. The three "Rs" are not sufficient for an education. There is no danger that the pupils will have too much to do but there is real danger that they will not acquire habits of work and study. But with the advent of Mr. Shepherd it was again urged that the number of studies in the girls' high school be reduced by one-fourth. He deprecated the 'inflation of study, diffusion of mental energy, and dissipation of mental strength/' and advocated a return to the ''educational parsimony of a previous age." Under this influence the number of studies in the girls' high schools was reduced by dropping moral philosophy, chemistry, bookkeeping, and mensuration from the curricu- lum and directing the time to study periods. Teachers were admonished by the board not to assign a greater amount of work than could readily be accomplished. Much difficulty was experienced throughout this period in arriving at a proper adjustment of the relations between the grades and a satis- factory standard for promotion. There was constant complaint that pupils were rushed from primary to grammar and from grammar to high-school grades without properly completing the work of the lower grade. Promo- tions were made quarterly in the grades of grammar and primary schools and annually from the grammar to high schools. Examinations were held regularly for promotion but this did not prevent unprepared pupils from being promoted. It was an established custom to ignore the result of the examination in some one subject, and in the promotions to the high schools a list was regularly made up of those who had not passed but who were nevertheless admitted to the high schools. The influence of parents and friends as well as of the commissioners was brought to bear to accomplish this result. In fact the teachers were made to feel that their standing depended on their ability to promote pupils. To remedy these defects the frequency of promotions was reduced first to semi-annual and later to annual periods. In 1876 the course in the high schools was again lengthened by adding an intermediate grade of one year. This gave opportunity to add studies and establish a course for those who did not care to prepare themselves for graduation. In 1885 the grades in the primary and grammar schools were rearranged and made to correspond with the school year. Thus there were three primary grades and five grammar grades, the two together covering a period of eight years. By this arrangement the grammar period was lengthened f rcxn 3>4 years to 5, and geometry, physics, physiology and hygiene added to the curriculum. By this process the work of the several grades was suffi- ciently well co-ordinated that pupils could pass from one to the other on the recommendation of their teachers, and in 1893 examinations for pro- motion were abolished. Gradually the curriculum was broadened to meet the demands of the patrons of the schools. Music and drawing, two branches of study that had found a place in the schools from their earliest period, were fostered and encouraged. More time was given to history and science in the high schools. The study of the German language was introduced into the lower grades by the establishment of English-German schools in which both languages were used in imparting instruction. But the one great forward movement in this line was the establishment of the Manual Training School in 1884. This action was taken by the city authorities in response to a wide- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 577 spread popular demand for industrial training. The school was modeled on the plan of the Manual Training School of Washington University, St. Louis. That school was visited and inspected by a committee from Balti- xnore, and in February, 1884, its Director, C. M. Woodward, visited Bal- timore and delivered an address on the ''Fruits of Manual Training" in McCoy Hall. The result was the determination by the school board to establish such a school here. This was the "first instance when a school entirely devoted to manual training has been organized on the same plan and grade as a part of any public school system." The object of the school as expressed by the board was to furnish instruction and practice in the use of tools and the necessary instruction in mathematics, drawing and English branches. The tool instruction included carpentry, wood- turning, pattern-making, iron-chipping and filing, forge work, brazing. The first director of the school was Mr. J. D. Ford, Passed Assistant Engineer, U. S. N., who was detailed for this work. Although the intention at first was to limit the number of pupils to 50, there were soon 125 on the roU. By 1898 the attendance had increased to 484. A new building was erected for the use of the school which was occupied in 1890. In 1893 the name was changed to the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Stimulated by the success of the Manual Training School, the school authorities extended the usefulness of the schools in other directions. Sew- ing had been made a part of the school work for girls in the very early days. It was now, 1887, reintroduced as a regular part of the curriculum and special teachers employed to give the necessary instruction. In 1893 a class in cooking was started in one of the schools by an association of public-spirited ladies and met with such success that the board, two years later, asked for permission to establish a cooking school at public expense. In 1898, physical training was introduced into all the schools and a director of physical training and 8 assistants were appointed. The Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor was granted the use of school buildings for Vacation Schools and the Children's Play Ground Association was granted use of school yards. There was a growing de- mand for the establishment of kindergartens but no action was taken by the board on this subject. Prior to 1866 a few schools for the instruction of colored children had been established by the Association for the Improvement of the Col- ored People. In that year, in accordance with the provision of the law of the state, the city assumed charge of the education of colored children and proceeded to organize schools on a basis of equality with the schools for white children. Nine schools already opened were taken over from the Association. Others were added as fast as the means could be pro- vided. At first only primary instruction was given, but in 1867 provision was made for grammar grade instruction. White teachers were employed exclusively in Uiese schools during a period of 20 years. Then as high- school instruction was introduced and the colored pupils given opportunity for more advanced work, colored teachers were employed in new schools as they were established. A high-school department having been for some years conducted in connection with the grammar schools, in 1895 ^ separate Colored High School was established. In 1892 industrial training was provided by the opening of the Colored Manual Training School. In 18^ a new charter was adopted for the City of Baltimore which embodied a system of government for the public schools essentially dif- ferent from that which had prevailed prior to that date. By the terms of this charter a department of education was created and placed on an equal 578 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE footing with the other departments of the city government. The head of this department was designated as a board of nine school commissicxiers to be appointed by the mayor with the consent of the Second Branch of the city council and without reference to residence in any particular secticm or ward of the city. These commissioners were to hold office for six years, and after the expiration of six months from the time of appointment could be removed by the mayor only after the presentation of charges and a public trial had. The president of the board was to be designated by the mayor at the time of appointment. It will be observed that this was substantially the plan of government recommended by the investigating commission in 1880. The powers of this board of school commissioners were not very clearly defined by the charter. In general the board was entrusted with full authority for the government of the schools subject only to such re- strictions as the charter imposed on all departments of the city government. Thus, the budget for school expenses must be prepared by the board of estimates and passed by the city council. The inspector of buildings was given charge of the construction and repair of all school buildings; the selection of sites for buildings was entrusted to a commission composed of the mayor, comptroller, and the president of the school board ; the selec- tion of designs and the architect for buildings was placed in charge of the architectural commission ; and the awarding of contracts for buildings was entrusted to the board of awards. In another way also the powers of the school board were limited by the provision in the charter for the appointment of a superintendent and assistant superintendents of public instruction and the specification of the duties and powers of these officers. The superintendent and his assistants were constituted a board of superintendents and required to hold r^^ular meetings. In addition to the usual work of supervision it was made the duty of these officials to ''ascertain . . . the training, knowledge, aptness for teaching, and character" of candidates and to '*report to the Board of School Commissioners graded lists of those whom they deem qualified for appointment, from which graded lists all nominations of teachers shall be made by the Superintendent of Public Instruction and his Assistants to the Board of School Commissioners." These graded lists were to be prepared by competitive examinations of applicants and all nominations made "in the order in which the names of the nominees appear upon such graded lists." The board was limited to the confirming or rejecting of such nominations of teachers. This provision for the appointment of teachers, however, was not made to apply to principals or professors in the secondary schools who were to be appointed by the board itself without reference to any graded lists. The charter also created the offices of supervisor of school buildings and secretary to the board. The duties of the secretary were not speci- fied, but the supervisor of buildings was required to aid the superintendent in ascertaining the sanitary condition of the schools and in recommending repairs and improvements, and was given general supervision of the heat- ing, plumbing and ventilating of school buildings. In all other matters the board of school commissioners was made the governing authority in school affairs. It was empowered to appoint and remove at its pleasure all clerks, secretaries and employees; to fix salaries of all appointees ; to remove teachers after charges preferred by the super- intendent and trial had; to instruct the inspector of buildings regarding plans for proposed school houses, and to purchase all text-books and sta- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 579 tionery needed for the schools. And the two prominent tendencies thus indicated in the charter, i, e., the independence of the school board from control by the city government, and the independent field of authority created for the superintendent, were, in effect, emphasized by the practice which obtained during the first ten years under the new regime. During this period the board was allowed, without serious interference by the other departments of the city government, to direct the general policy of the schools and to issue rules and regulations to govern the operation of the schools and the conduct of instruction ; while, on the other hand, the rules of the board made the position of the superintendent still more independent in all professional matters by designating him the executive officer of the board with authority to assign and transfer teachers, define their duties, call meetings, and regulate by his orders the operation of the schools in any manner not inconsistent with the rules. Since 191 1, however, the opposite tendency has prevailed. The city government has made its in- fluence felt in the management of the schools, and, to a still greater degree, the school board has restricted the authority and freedom of action of the superintendent. The first board of school commissioners appointed in conformity with the provisions of the new charter, with Mr. Joseph Packard as president, assumed control of the school system in March, 1900. The offices of the board were moved from the city hall to their present location at the comer of Madison and Lafayette avenues in the building since known as the school administration building. In April, after careful consideration, the board elected Mr. James H. Van Sickle, of Denver, to the position of super- intendent of public instruction. The former superintendent and assistant superintendent were retained as first and second assistant superintendents respectively. In 1906 Dr. Henry S. West, formerly principal of the West- ern Female High School, was elected as assistant superintendent and desi|^- nated as "Assistant to the Superintendent." Mr. Van Sickle continued m the office of superintendent until 191 1, when he was displaced and Pro- fessor Francis A. Sopcr, who for more than twenty years had been prin- cipal of the Baltimore City College, was elected to fill that office. Under the advice of the board of superintendents thus constituted the board of school commissioners began in 1900 the introduction of a number of changes in the school system, most of which had been repeatedly recom- mended in whole or in part by the former superintendent, and which were calculated to bring the system of public instruction in Baltimore into some- what closer accord with the prevailing tendencies in public education mani- fested in other parts of the country. Of first importance in this connection was the provision for the training of teachers, a move which had been frequently recommended by the former superintendent during a period of ten or fifteen years. The need for this kind of education was now recog- nized and was met by the establishment of two training schools for teachers, one for white and one for colored teachers. The course of study in these schools comprised the theory and practice of teaching and covered a period of two years. Practice classes were provided for, where the pupils were g^ven charge of the class under the direction of critic teachers. Admission to the training schools was open to graduates of the several high schools and the completion of the course was required of all candidates for posi- tions to teach in the elementary schools. Provision for more adequate supervision was made by the introduction of the group system and the consolidation of the grammar and primary schools into one class designated as elementary schools in distinction from 58o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE the high schools, which were classed as secondary schools. Under the old method each school had been under the immediate control of the local committee of the board. The authority of the board was thus more or less dissipated and uniformity in the management of the details of the schools made impossible. Moreover, in each building there were from two to four principals, each in charge of one of the several so-called schools, so that uniformity and system was still further prevented. The distinction between primary and grammar grades was abolished in 1901 and the grades num- bered from one to eight consecutively. The schools were arranged in twenty groups, each group comprising frcmi three to five or six school buildings, located within a convenient radius and placed in charge of a group principal. In each building the leading teacher was made an as- sistant or vice-principal. The group principal established his c^ce at the central school of the group, where he was within easy reach of all the schools and accessible to the parents of the pupils. On the other hand, he was directly responsible to the superintendent. By frequent visits to the schools of his group and by calling meetings of the teachers the prin- cipal was able to unify the work of the several schools in his group, while by a system of meetings and conferences of principals and teachers with the superintendents the work of the schools in the different groups was reduced to a greater degree of uniformity and system. This system of supervision was productive of many good results and appeared to work satisfactorily for a number of years. It was open to the objections, how- ever, that it did not secure sufficient uniformity as between the several groups, and that it left the separate school buildings without the immediate presence of an authoritative supervisory officer, and in 191 1 it was abol- ished and the plan of having district superintendents, five in number, and a principal in each school building was substituted in its place. In line with the passing of the sharp distinction between primary and grammar ^ades was the arrangement for greater facility for promoting bright pupils from one grade to another. In the place of annual promo- tions in the lower grades, which often delayed the progress of bright, active pupils and necessitated the repetition of an entire year's work by those pupils not able to keep up with their class, mid-year or even more frequent promotions from grade to grade were permitted to those pupils who were able to complete the work in less than the usual time. Where the number of pupils warranted it, two or even three rates of progress were arranged in a single grade, the bright pupils being grouped in one class, those re- quiring more time in another class, and others who experienced especially difficulty in a third class. In this way capable pupils were able to save a year in passing through grades one to six. For the brighter pupils in the seventh and eighth grades special preparatory centers, at first one, later five in number, were established. In these schools some of the subjects of the secondary curriculum were introduced, i. e,, Latin and French or German, for which credit toward graduation was given when the pupil reached the high school. By this arrangement another year might be saved by the intelligent, active, and healthy pupil in passing through grades seven to twelve. The result of this co-ordination and adjustment of the grades was to increase greatly the percentage of attendance in the upper grades of the elementary schools and in the secondary schools. Another change which further increased the tendency of pupils to re- main in school longer and so reach the higher grades was accomplished by modifying somewhat the courses of study. The time devoted to arithmetic in the elementary schools was reduced slightly and the method of instruc- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 581 tion diverted away from the older system of drilling and memorizing tables. Nature studies were introduced. A step was taken toward the introduc- tion of vocational education by providing for instruction in manual train- ing and pooking. At the beginning of the year 1902 four manual training centers and one cooking center were opened. Since that date these centers have been increased in number to 17 and 20, respectively. Pupils in grades above the sixth were allowed to attend the classes in these school centers one or two hours per week. Below the sixth grade manual training was provided by the regular teachers in the class rooms, the materials used being cardboard and scissors the tools. Sewing continued to be taught in these grades as before. In the high schools the elective system was in- troduced in the place of the rigid single course of study formerly pre- scribed for all pupils. The curriculum was broadened by the addition of stenography and typewriting and more courses in science and history. Among the larger numbers of studies thus oHered the pupils were allowed to select those which best suited their needs, there being certain required studies which must be taken by all. The standard of the girls' high schools was raised so as to prepare completely those desiring to go to college. The course of study in the City College was reduced to a four-year basis. The Colored High School and the Colored Manual Training School were ccHn- bined and thus greater uniformity and efficiency secured. The course of study in the Polytechnic Institute was lengthened to four years and strengthened so that the graduates were enabled to enter the second year of the technical colleges. In many other ways the administration of the school system was re- adjusted during the period 1900-11 to meet the requirements of the times. A compulsory school attendance law having been enacted, it was put into operation by means of attendance officers, tihe Juvenile Court and Parental School ; kindergarten classes were established at several points in the city ; special provision was made for unusual classes of pupils such as epileptics and over-aged children ; the regular hygienic inspection of school buildings was provided for in connection with the Health Commissioner's office; the maximum salaries of teachers in the elementary schools was increased and a system of promotional examinations arranged whereby the maximum salary could be attained by those who gave proof of increasing efficiency. The promotional examinaticms, however, met with considerable opposition, and since 191 1 have been abolished and the former plan of promotion ac- cording to length of service restored. As regards buildings and their equipment this period witnessed great improvement. During 1900, 1901, and 1902 no new buildings were con- structed. But between 1902 and 1910 18 new buildings were erected or provided for. And in the latter year a municipal loan of one million dol- lars was made in order to provide additional school accommodations. The new buildings already provided for and those made possible by this loan have greatly relieved the crowded and congested condition of the former period. In appropriating money for buildings the board has, since 1900, adopted a somewhat different plan than that usually pursued prior to that time. It has been its object to secure larger lots in localities where the growth of business would not in a few years render the property unsuit- able for school purposes. On these lots, large enough to secure ample air and light, larger buildings were erected and thus the number of small buildings in crowded districts lessened. It was found that a twenty-four- room building was the most economical and satisfactory, and wherever 582 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE circumstances permitted and the needs of the community warranted such buildings have been erected. The result has been not only to increase the accommodations and relieve unsanitary conditions to a large extent, but also greatly to improve the appearance and attractiveness of the school buildings and make them structures to which the conmiunity can point with some degree of pride. The history of public education in Baltimore would be incomplete without some reference to several prominent institutions not comprised under the head of public schools. Among these may be mentioned, as the most noteworthy, the following : Gaucher College. — This noted institution of learning had its origin in the celebration of the centennial of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1884. At its session in Washington in that year the Baltimore Annual Conference adopted a reccnnmendation for the "founding and endowment of an institution of first grade for the higher education of women." Sub- scriptions within a year amounted to $200,000, and accordingly an act of incorporation was obtained from the legislature of the State tmder the name of the Woman's College of Baltimore. The college was €^>ened for in- struction on September ly, 1888, and from that day to the present has held a high rank among colleges for the education of women in the United States. This success is to be attributed in no small degree to the efforts of Rev. John F. Goucher, who was president of the college from 1890 to 1908 and who bestowed upon it gifts amounting to more than $200/xx). The most prominent of the college buildings was named in his honor, Goucher Hall, and soon after his retirement from the presidency, in recog- nition of his services and his support, the name of the institution was changed to Goucher College. 5*/. Mary's College, — ^This celebrated institution was founded in 1799 in connection with St. Mary's Seminary under the direction of French priests belonging to the Community of St. Sulpice. In 1803 its doors were opened to students of all nationalities and religions and two years later it was, by the legislature of Maryland, raised to the rank of a uni- versity and empowered to confer all academic degrees. From this date for a period of fifty years it continued to be the principal seat of coll^ate training in the State of Maryland. Among the 240 graduates of this college are to be found the names of many of Maryland's most famous sons, some of the more prominent being William Howard, Charles H. Carroll, S. Teackle WalHs, and Reverdy Johnson Jr. The Sulpician So- ciety, however, had always claimed as its principal object the work of training clerical candidates in ecclesiastical knowledge. Accordingly in 1852, in anticipation of the founding of Loyola College by the Jesuits, St. Mary's College was closed and the educational work of the Sulpicians has since been confined to the theological branches taught in the seminary. The secular academic education thus abandoned was taken up and carried on with marked success by Loyola College, which has become a well-recc^- nized factor among educational institutions in the city. The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. — The first lectures on den- tal surgery ever delivered in America were given by Dr. Horace H. Hayden in 1837 in the University of Maryland. And the first institution in the world founded for the special purpose of giving regular instruction in den- tistry was the College of Dental Surgery chartered by the legislature of Maryland in 1839. ^^ ^841 the first graduation from the college toc^ place, when two students, both from Maryland, received what was then a new degree, that of doctor of dental surgery. Since then the college has HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 583 enrolled students from all parts of the civilized world and is represented with honor in all countries where dentistry is practiced. The University of Maryland, founded in 1807, is notable chiefly for its professional schools, especially its School of Medicine, to which there was allied in 1882 a department of dentistry, and in 1904 a department of pharmacy through the inclusion in the University of the Maryland College of Pharmacy, which was incorporated in 1841. The School of Law was suspended during a number of years, but reopened in 1869, and under a faculty composed of distinguished jurists enjoys a high reputation as a school for instruction in the law. Besides these professional schools, this institution for many years maintained a college or school of letters, liberal arts and sciences, which was attended by a large number of students. Its building, which stood on the south side of Mulberry street, was torn down for the opening of Cathedral street through to Saratoga. In 1907 the academic department of the University was restored by the association with it of St. Jean's College at Annapolis, which was founded in 1696, under the name of King William School. The great work of the Johns Hopkins University in advanced fields of learning is told of in a separate chapter in this volume. THE PROGRESS OF MEDICINE IN MARYLAND Thomas A. Ashby, M. D. The practice of medicine is perhaps nearly as old as the human race. From the very beginning of social order and government the physical needs of mankind have called for the services of men and women who were in some measure qualified to treat accidents and disease, and to extend relief to human suffering. Before man had discovered the use of fire, or even had formulated a spoken language, the art of medicine was employed in its crudest forms. The priest physicians, the divinator and the medicine man have from pre- historic times to the present day, among savage and untutored people, exer- cised an authority and influence of the highest importance. The earlier history of medicine is lost in tradition, and it only emerges into notice about four hundred years before the Christian era. The great medical historian, Hippocrates, is the first author of note. His writings cover many subjects, and present a large collaboration of the art and prac- tice of medicine as understood in his age. He has been justly called the "Father of Medicine." The knowledge of medicine, as presented by Hippocrates, indicates that considerable progress had been made by his predecessors in the up- building of a rational system for the prevention and treatment of disease. Historic medicine, beginning with Hippocrates, extends through an un- broken chain of authors, Arabian, Greek, Roman and Saracen, down to the middle of the sixteenth century, when the scientific period was in- augurated by Ambrose Pere, A. D. 1550. From Pere's time to our day the march of scientific medicine has been slow but progressive; within the past thirty years more has been accomplished in medical art and science than during many previous cen- turies. This rapid growth has been brought about through the introduc- tion of research investigations, and the vast improvement in hospital con- struction and equipment. Scientific thought has revolutionized the art of medicine and has brought to the aid of the study of disease the laboratory, the dead house and the hospital, the storehouses wherein the student can employ every method of precision and of investigation. The history of medicine in Maryland is only a local application of the growth of medicine in this country. Maryland shares the same distincti<xi which belongs to other states and communities. From Colonial days down to the present time the progress of medicine in Maryland shows first a tardy development, then a gradual expansion, and, more recently, a most phenomenal activity and growth. During the Colonial period the medical profession and medical interests were at their lowest stage. There were comparatively few medical prac- titioners in the State. There were no hospitals and no educational in- stitutions. The medical practitioner, as a rule, was for the most part self- taught. Few of them were graduates of medical schools or had enjoyed educational advantages. The leading physicians of the State were gradu- 584 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 585 ates of European schools. These men for the most part were located in die larger centers of population, chiefly in Baltimore and Annapolis, and a few in the lower counties. At this period almost the only education the student of medicine received was secured by attending the office of a prac- ticing physician. There were no medical sdiools in America prior to 1768. The first medical diploma granted to a physician was issued by the College of Medicine of Fliiladelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) to John Archer, of Harford county, Maryland, June 21, 1768, who there- fore was the first medical graduate in America. This diploma is now in the Library of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland. The first attempt at a systematic course of medical lectures in Mary- land was made in 1789-90 by Drs. Andrew Wiesenthal and George Buch- anan, of Baltimore, who after pursuing medical studies in Europe returned to Baltimore and entered upon the practice of medicine. The results of their efforts to impart medical knowledge were so feeble and indifferent that the course was soon discontinued. In 1788 the first medical society in Maryland was organized in Bal- timore with nineteen members. It was known as the "Medical Society of Baltimore," with Dr. Frederick Wiesenthal as president and Dr. Frederick Dalcho as secretary. The life of this society was of short duration. On January 20, 1799, the legislature granted a charter to the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, in which loi incorporators were named. Many of the incorporators were graduates of European schools, and represented the highest culture and talent of the profession of the State. These men were actuated by the highest spirit and pride, and they set in motion an organization which has come down to our day crowned with traditions and with efficient service to the medical profession and to the people of Maryland. The first meeting of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty was held at Annapolis, June 3, 1799, at which officers were elected, and a consti- tution and by-laws were adopted. The venerable Dr. Upton Scott, of An- napolis, was elected president; Dr. Ashton Alexander, a young, active and cultivated physician from Baltimore, was chosen secretary, and Dr. John Thomas Schaaff was made treasurer. Boards of examiners for the West-^ em and Eastern shores were elected from among representative physicians in these sections of the State. The work of organization having been perfected, the Faculty entered upon the orderly functions provided in its charter. The primary object of the Faculty was to regulate the practice of medicine in Maryland by licensing only such physicians as were morally and educationally qualified to treat the sick. The secondary object was to promote a high spirit of professional ethics, to strengthen cordial and fraternal relations between the members of the profession, and to set in operation those agencies and influences which would bring about the highest attainments and scientific culture in professional work. These objects foreshadowed the highest good to the physicians of the State, and the highest benefit to the people. An orderly, well-trained and efficient professional service by the medical pro- fession could result in none other than the best results to the people whose health and lives were placed under their protection and professional skill. The founders of the Faculty had high ideals of the work which the organi- zation had in view. They erected standards which have come down to our day, illustrating the wisdom and beneficence of their purposes. The Faculty was the seventh in date of organization of the State Medical Societies of the United States. To-day every State in the Union \- - 586 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE has a State Medical Society in successful operation, all conforming in gen- eral plan to the work now carried on by the Faculty in Maryland, but all bearing the name of State Medical Society, or Association. The following was the order of foundation: New Jersey, 1766; Massachusetts, 1781 ; Delaware and South Carolina, 1789; New Hampshire, 1791; G>nnecticuty 1792 ; Maryland, 1799. It will be observed that New Jersey was the only colony which had organized a medical society prior to the Revolution, and before the establishment of the Union of States. The status of the medical profession in Maryland is best illustrated by the fact that of the members of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty in Maryland in 1807, numbering 241 names^ but 43, or 17 per cent, had any medical degree, and of these 37 held the degree of Doctor and 6 that of Bachelor in Medicine. Prior to the Revolution, in all the territory now embraced by the United States, it is estimated that there were less than 4,000 physicians, and that not more than 400 had received a medical d^ree. But 51 degrees had up to this period been conferred by the two medical colleges in this country — King's College, New York, and the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania. In Kent county, where the first settlement of Englishmen in Mary- land was made, there was not a single graduate of medicine in 1791-96. This statement shows the deplorable condition of the medical profession, not only in Maryland, but in all of the States of the Union prior to the year 1799, when the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty was organized. The early history of the Faculty is clouded with much obscurity. The records of its meetings were indifferently cared for, and those which re- main give but little information as to the character and scope of its work. It is known that meetings were held bi-annually for a number of years, at which officers were elected, addresses were delivered by orators selected for the occasion, and papers and discussions on medical and surgical topics made up the larger part of the program of the meeting. The rofitine of business was devoted to reports of officers and especially to the work of the boards of examiners for the Western and Eastern shores. The main function of the Faculty in the first year of its organization was to regulate the practice of medicine in the State. It was a licensing body, and under its charter no one could engage in the practice of medicine without its license. Its authority was frequently violated hy unlicensed practitioners. Censors were appointed to prosecute illegal practitioners, who continued to increase and multiply as the population of the State grew larger and larger from year to year. The work of the censors- was of great service for a number of years, as it held in restraint the violations of law made by charlatans, irregular practitioners, and venders of pro- prietary medicines. The function exercised by the Faculty as a licensing body was gradu- ally suspended by the increase of uneducated and irregular men who claimed the right to treat disease without having either the moral or edu- cational training for such work. They obtained, however, the material support of a rapidly growing population in both city and State, incapable of exercising a sound judgment and intelligent discrimination between ignorance and assurance on the one hand, and educational training and high ethical standards on the other. Charlatanism finally won out, and the licensing function of the Faculty ceased. The doorway was thrown widely open, and for over forty years any man calling himself a physician, however destitute of training or ability, was at liberty to engage in the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 587 practice of medicine in the State. During this period Eclectic medicine, Thompsonianism, Homoeopathy, and the prc^rietary medicine vendor made their beginnings. Through the influence of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty and its work of professional organization, the body of the medical profession had greatly enlarged and improved by the addition of well-educated physi- cians of highest character and professional worth. These men rallied around the standard of the Faculty and widened its scope of work in other directions, looking to the improvement of its membership in scientific cul- ture and in ethical practices ; while the Faculty had ceased to be a licensing body, it became the only doorway through which the physicians of the State could enter into fraternal relations with the representative members of the profession. Its membership was now sought as a distinction and honor, and its privileges were only within the reach of those who were able to pass its board of examiners. It sought the co-operation of the worthy, it turned aside those men whose principles and qualifications were not in harmony with its high standards. This position of the Faculty was eminently wise and beneficial. Having lost its legal control over the pro- fession, it erected a moral and ethical standard, which conferred the largest advantages upon its membership and upon the public. In 1830 the Faculty set in motion the movement for a medical library in this city. This became the nucleus for the splendid library and hall which in our day has become an ornament and pride to the medical pro- fession and people of Maryland. Beginning in a very small way, with a very few txx^s and periodicals, housed in a rented hall or room, this library was carried on until in 1858, when the Faculty purchased a building on North Calvert street as a permanent home. Here it lived until early in the Civil War; its books during that period were stored in boxes until about 1868, when a hall was purchased on Courtland street for its use. Conditions during and following the Civil War for several years made it impossible for the Faculty to give any attention to its library until all fraternal strife had ceased and the ranks of the Faculty were reunited in a common cause of upbuilding its professional work, which had practically been suspended for some six or eight years. The few old books and pamphlets left were brought out of old boxes and hiding places, were stored on shelves and tables in rented halls, with no permanent arrange- ment, until both time and patient work brought a new era of growth, of progress and achievement. It was not until 1893 that the Faculty was able to own its own home, and house its own collection of books, pamphlets, periodicals, pictures and memorial^ of a long and useful career. This home was purchased on Hamilton Terrace, now numbered 843, and here the recent prosperity of the Faculty had its beginning. Before taking notice of the Faculty and its scope of work as it stands to-day, some reference should be made to its scientific work and to its in- fluence upon medical journalism and medical education in Maryland. In the early life of the Faculty its primary purpose seems to have been ethical, social and educational in its character; its chief aim was to license men who sought to engage in medical practice. While this purpose was, from the point of view of laymen, a selfish one, and apparently in the interest of an educated class, its broadest object was to put & premium upon efficiency, and to remove the dangers of incompetency. Medicine being regarded one of the most responsible of all callings, the physician holding in his hands, as it were, the balance between life and death, his services can only be valuable in proportion to his knowledge and skill. Those men 588 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE who have the keenest sense of responsibility are usually those of widest knowledge and efficiency; hence, it has been the aim of all professional leaders to encourage the highest standards of training and of moral con- duct. This seems to have been the spirit which led the founders of the Faculty to secure a charter from the State which gave to the Faculty the right to say who should and who should not practice medicine in Maryland. In a new country where liberty not infrequently degenerates into li- cense, where restraint, however temperate, just and bendicent, is consid- ered an infringement upon individual privileges, it is difficult to protect the public against practices which lower standards, and to enforce measures which improve conditions. The highest standards of medical practice have had more to contend with in combatting ignorance and charlatanism than from any other source. These are always the enemies of a progress the end of which is to benefit the human race. The Faculty was unselfish in its early efforts to resist the inroads of charlatanism ; when it lost its authority it at once set in motion the higher purpose of improving the efficiency of its membership. If it could not control the licensing of all doctors, it could at least improve the fitness of a few, and this it did. Its meetings, though only held once a year, were in their day love feasts for its members. From all parts of the State they came on horseback or in slow coach to the place of assembly, and there in meeting read and discussed papers, subjects or cases, relat^ experiences, and discussed progress in medicine and surgery and their branches made during the year. These men of dignity, earnestness and purpose did not come together in vain. They were a chosen band bent on hi^h aims and duties. Their work comes down to us to-day as an in- spiration. In an age where commercialism colors every action, when men lead for self-advancement rather than from higher motives, we are seldom able to fully appreciate the work of the men who made medicine in Mary- land over a half century ago a dignified, sacred and unselfish calling. Very early in the history of the Faculty an effort was made to pablish a medical journal under its auspices. This effort was put into successful operation when in 1839 the Faculty began the publication of a periodical entitled The Maryland Medical and Surgical Journal, edited by a committee consisting of Drs. G. C. M. Roberts, Nathaniel Potter, J. M. Miller, Robert A. Durkee, J. R. W. Dunbar and Samuel G. Baker. The first number was issued in October, and it appeared quarterly until March, 1843, when it was discontinued for want of financial support. This journal was well edited, and creditably represented the profession of that period. Its fate was in keeping with that of similar medical publications in the State which had preceded it. As early as 1809 the first medical journal published in Maryland was brought out under the editorial and business management of Dr. Tobias Watkins, entitled The Medical and Physical Recorder. This was monthly, .which only lived through the two numbers of volume I. No less than 13 medical journals were established in the State between 1809 and 1877, of which all were discontinued for want of financial support after very short lives. The Maryland Medical Journal, which was founded in May, 1877, by Drs. H. E. T. Manning and T, A. Ashby, is still pub- lished in this city, after 34 years of successful conduct and of efficient service to the profession of this State and country. At the time of this venture in journalism, the Faculty very early gave much attention to the subject of vaccine and variolous matter, which bad not then reached the plane of scientific accuracy in preparation of the present day. There was need in that early period of scientific activity in the State, HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 589 of the fostering care and patronage by the Faculty of the different agencies brought forward for professional use. Crude drugs, crude instruments and crude appliances were among the only weapons the physician and surgeon could employ in the contest with disease. There were no sugar- coated pills and castor oil capsules, no hypodermic syringes and compressed tablets to aid the busy practitioner or soothe his refractory patient. We of the present day look back upon the work of our predecessors and mar- vel at dieir success with the poor equiixnent in the armamentarium which made up their outfit. We should bear in mind that these men were re- sourceful, patient and efficient in the management of diseases which even now test the judgment and skill of experienced and trained physicians. The annual meetings of the Faculty, as far down as the beginning of the nineties, were conducted along lines which had their origin in the times when periodical literature was scant, when months and even longer periods intervened before the facts of recent progress were banded out for publication or for trial. The various departments of medicine and surgery were divided into sections with a chairman and his associates. Long and detailed reports were made, not only by the chairman, but not infrequently by members of the section. These reports, after discussion, were published in the annual volume of Transactions for distribution among the members. With an annual oration from an invited orator, with the president's address^ with reports of officers and committees, especial memoirs and with volunteer papers from members, the annual meeting was lengthened out some three or four days, and the annual volume to some 400 or 500 pages. These volumes contain the history of the Faculty for some twenty-five years. As memorials of bygone days they have a present value. They served their purposes, but with the methods of to- day they have parted company, and, like the horse car and the stage coach, have been assigned to the junk shop. Medicine and surgery have been so completely revolutionized and made over within the past twenty years that all that relates to the teaching of the medical student, to the instruc- tion of the medical practitioner, to the building and management of hos- pitals and asylums for the care of patients, to the care of the public health, must conform to the modem system, with its scientific standards and nor- mal conceptions of efficiency and results. The Faculty has readjusted its organization and scope of work. To- day it is housed in a splendid building of its own. Its library is becoming a vast treasure house of knowledge, both ancient and modern, in medicine and affiliated sciences. Its halls are open to lectures, conventions and as- semblies^ where both health and disease are studied, where charity and humanity are promoted, where efficient service to the profession and to the laymen can be found, where the services of the nurse are sought for, or where investigation into the cause of disease asked for. The aim of the Faculty, with over 1,000 members, representing the brains, talent, industry, humanity and noble spirit of the medical profes- sion of Maryland, is to make its work the highest work for human kind. To educate die public, to safeguard the public, and to pr(nnote earnest co- operation between the medical profession and the people they serve, are the ideals which the Faculty has now before it. The highest standard should be to encourage its membership not to work for shorter hours and more pay, but to strive to diminish the dangers which surround humanity. While the Faculty represents in its membership the larger number of the profession in the State, it has been instrumental in organizing local medi- cal societies in the different counties, which are so many branches ccm- S90 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE tributing to the strength and efficiency of the parent society. In Baltimore its sections meet regularly under the direction of the Baltimore City Medi- cal Society, which is the local representative body of the Faculty and its largest agency. Before the Faculty was reorganized under its present constitution, there were some four or five local medical societies in the city doing independent work and representing different professional constituencies. These socie- ties came into being soon after the close of the Civil War, and for some years performed a most useful function to the profession of the city. They had their day, and only ceased to be when the purpose they had in view was better served by the sections of the Faculty. The tendency in medicine, as in the commercial world, has been to consolidate its professional organizations by the stronger taking over the weaker body. At the head of this gigantic professional guild is the Ameri- can Medical Association, with a membership of many thousand, and with a weekly medical journal with a larger circulation than any other medical periodical in the world. The growth of the medical profession in the United States has been so rapid and large that a strong parent organization has become necessary to give leadership and authority to the ethical, educa- tional and scientific interests of the profession. Under the guidance and leadership of the American Medical Association, the standard of education has been raised in all of the medical schools of our country: State Boards of Examiners for granting license to practice have been established by law in nearly every State, public health measures have been improved, pure food laws have been enacted, and a death blow has been given to many vicious and worthless proprietary medicines imposed upon an unsuspecting public under the guise of false advertising schemes. The work of the American Medical Association has been constructive. It has built up a powerful organization in support of an efficient^ capable and learned professional body. It has pulled down chicanery, ignorance and incompetency wherever possible. Its work is only beginning — it is destined to accomplish a great reform in the benefits of which the medical profession^ and public will equally share. The spirit of scientific medicine has been so broad and progressive that American surgery and medicine have in recent years come into the front rank among the nations of the world. In original research and in the clinical field, the medical profes- sion in America can hold its own with the profession in foreign countries. It is no longer necessary for the student of medicine or practitioner of medi- cine to seek instruction in the medical centers of Europe. He can find in the medical and scientific centers of this country all the facilities and oppor- tunities for advanced courses of instruction to be found abroad. So rapid has been the growth of scientific medicine, surgery, pathology and phys- iology in our country, that to-day the European school is sending its rep- resentatives to American institutions. The progress of our day is so rapid and wide reaching, so thorough and advanced in every line of original research that America may be said to be in the advance guard of this move- ment for new methods and results. Institutions devoted to special lines of research, with most liberal endowments, such as the Rockefeller Insti- tute of New York, universities, and hospitals with their laboratories and clinical material, are springing up all over our country as if by magic, giving to medicine and surgery in every department a handcraft and readcraft such as the world has never before witnessed. Reference must now be made to the growth of medical education in Maryland. The first attempt to give instruction to a class of medical stu- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 591 dents in Baltimore was made, as has been already mentioned, during the win- ter of 1789-90, by Dr. Andrew Wiesenthal and Dr. George Buchanan. This led to the organization of a medical school in the spring of 1790 with a full faculty. This movement met with such poor success that it was soon abandoned. It was not until 1807 that any further organized effort was made to found a medical school in this city. During the autunm of this year^ Dr. J. B. Davidge and Dr. John Shaw began a course of medical instruction which led to the organization of the Medical G>llege of Mary- land, a charter for which was granted by the legislature, December 18th, 1807. This charter created a board of regents which held its first meeting on December 28th, at the home of Dr. Davidge, and organized by electing Dr. George Brown, professor of the practice and theory of medicine; Dr. John B. Davidge and Dr. James Cocke, joint professors of anatomy, surgery and physiology; Dr. John Shaw, professor of chemistry; Dr. Thomas E. Bond, professor of materia medica, and Dr. William Donald- son, professor of the institutes of medicine. Dr. Brown resigned, and Dr. Nathaniel Potter was elected to his chair. Dr. Davidge was elected dean, and Dr. James Cocke secretary of the faculty. With this modest beginning, the first course of lectures was delivered by Drs. Davidge^ Cocke and Shaw, at their residences. Drs. Bond, Brown and Donaldson soon retired from the chairs to which they were elected. During the early months of 1808 the Faculty secured a building located near the present southwest corner of Fayette and Hanover streets, which served for college purposes until the present building, located on the north- east comer of Lombard and Greene streets, was completed during the winter of 1812-13. Dr. Shaw was compelled to resign from the Faculty by reason of ill health during the fall of 1808. The vacancies in the chairs of chemistry and materia medica were filled by the election of Dr. Elisha De Butts and Dr. Samuel Baker. The session of 1808-09 opened with a class of ten students. During the session of 1809-10 the class had increased to 18. The first public commencement was held in April, 1810, and degrees were conferred on five graduates. During the year 1812, Dr. William Gibson was elected to the chair of surgery, and Dr. Richard Wilmot Hall was made adjunct professor of obstetrics. The present university building, modeled after the Pantheon at Rome, so massive in structure and imposing in appearance, was begun in May, 1812^ and so far completed by the time for the opening of the fall session that it was partially tenantable when the session began. From that year until the present time this building has been occupied by the Faculty of Physic of the University of Maryland. There can be little doubt of the fact that the erection of this noble building led to the founding of the University of Maryland. An Act of the Legislature, passed December 29th, 1812, authorized the Medical College of Maryland to constitute^ appoint and annex to itself three colleges or faculties, viz. : The Faculty of Divin- ity, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; the four faculties or colleges thus united were constituted a university, by the name and under the title of the University of Maryland. After the passage of the act incorporating the University, the Medical College of Maryland became the Medical Department of the University, with a faculty known as the Faculty of Physic. The session lasted from November ist to Feb- ruary 28th. The Medical Library was opened in the fall of 1813. Dr. William Gibson resigned the chair of surgery in 1819, and Dr. Granville Sharp Pattison was elected to the chair of surgery. Professor Pattison was regarded as a brilliant but erratic Scotchman, who brought J 59^ HISTORY OF BALTIMORE much distinction and introduced a number of innovations which left their impress upon the school. Among other things, he founded the Museum, which still contains a number of valuable specimens collected at the time — anatomical, pathological and embryological, in fair state of preservation. This Museum, inaugurated with much eclat, was for a number of years a striking feature of the University, and no doubt in its day added to the prestige of the institution. It was housed in a building erected at mudi expense for its care. Various contributions of valuable specimens were added to it from time to time, and it is still an object of interest to visit- ors and students. The Library connected with the University was the outgrowth of the establishment of the Museum, though antedating it in its birth. The next important feature in the development of the Medical De- partment of the University was the erection of the Baltimore Infirmary, now the University Hospital, on the southwest comer of Ixxnbard and Greene streets, in 1823. This was among the first movements upon the part of any of the medical schools of this country to provide for adequate clinical instruction by the erection of its own hospital, available at all times for the use of students. The University Hospital, under the exclu- sive management of the Faculty of Physic, is tonday one of the best- equipped institutions in the country for clinical teaching. Its wards, pri- vate rooms, accident and outdoor departments, furnish Sie greater variety and amount of material for class and interne instruction, and provide the students of the University with systematic and practical clinical work. It is probable that no feature of die Medical Department has added so much to the distinction and usefulness of its educational work as the clini- cal instruction given in the University Hospital. With the introduction of hospital instruction, the classes of students increased rapidly. The session of 1824-25 showed over 300 students in attendance. During the year 1826 differences arose among members of the Fac- ulty, which led to an open rupture and to important changes in the act of incorporation. By an Act of the Legislature passed March 6th, 1826, the board of regents was removed and a board of trustees was intrusted with the management of the University. This act of the legislature was contested unsuccessfully in the courts. From 1826 to 1839 the affairs of the University were administered by the board of trustees. Professor Davidge^ by reason of ill health, resigned the chair of sur- gery in 1827, and Prof. Nathan R. Smith, at that time 30 years of agt, was elected his successor. He at once became a leading figure in the work of the University, and, perhaps, by reason of his "imperious character", added more to the reputation of the school than any one ever connected with the Faculty of Physic. He was a bold, original surgeon, self-wiUed, determined and ccnnmanding. His long connection with the University and his personal characteristics gave to him the title of "Emperor", by which he is best known to former students who sat under his instruction. Dr. Davidge, one of the founders of the Medical College of Maryland, died August 23d, 1829. His long connection with the University and his valuable services made his loss deeply felt by the school he had done so much to honor and develop. Dr. Benjamin Lincoln was appointed lecturer on anatomy to succeed Dr. Davidge, but retired from the work in 183 1. Dr. Eli Geddings was elected to the chair of anatomy and phys- iology in 183 1, but resigned the chair in 1837 to accept a chair creat^ for him in the Medical College of South Carolina. He was a man of strong intellect and character, and for many years was the Nestor of the profes- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 593 sion in Charleston, South Carolina. Prof. Geddings died October 7th, 1878, at the age of 79. Prof. Elisha De Butts, who had held the chair of chemistry since 1809, died April 3d, 1831. His connection with the University had been very useful and brilliant. His death was deeply felt by his colleagues. The next change in the personnel of the faculty occurred in 1833, when Prof. Samuel Baker and Prof. Maxwell McDowell resigned, the former having entered the Faculty in 1809 and the latter in 18 14. Prof. Robley Dunglison succeeded Prof. Baker in the chair of materia medica, but resigned in 1836 to accept a chair in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Prof. Dunglison subsequently became one of the most distinguished writers and teachers of his day. Professors Geddings and Ducatel resigned from the Faculty after the close of the session of 1836-37. Prof. R. E. Griffith, of Philadelphia, succeeded Prof. Dunglison, but held the chair only one year. During the year 1837 a second revolution occurred in the manage- ment of the affairs of the University, which restored the same to 9ie board of regents, which had been superseded by a board of trustees by an Act of the Legislature in 1826. The revolution was brought about by the appointment of Dr. Henry W. Baxley to the chair of anatomy as the suc- cessor of Prof. Geddings. Prof Baxley was not popular with the student body, and his colleagues of the Faculty favored the appointment of Prof, Samuel G. Baker. The act of the trustees in making the appointment was considered arbitrary and injudicious. The Faculty resolved that if the trustees should make an appointment to the chair of anatcmiy of the indi- vidual now proposed by them, in direct opposition to the nomination of the Faculty, the professors would resign. As soon as the official announce- ment was received of Dr. Baxley's appointment, their resignations were delivered to the chairman of the board of trustees. "Drs. Potter and Hall, senior members of the Faculty, in resigning their appointments under the trustees, expressly retained those formerly held from the regents under the charter of 1812". (Cordell, Hist, of Univ. of Atd.) Two bodies — the regents and trustees — were now contending for the control of the affairs of the University. The contention was carried to court, which restored the regents to the power exercised by them prior to 1826. The affairs of the University have since 1837 been administered by the board of regents. Under the management of the board of trustees, the affairs of the University were conducted in the main in a judicious, busi* nesslike and successful manner. There are many evidences to show a large and liberal policy. But the restoration of the board of regents brought harmony in the Faculty and a gradual development of the medical depart- ment along conservative lines. With the management of the affairs of the University again invested in the hands of the board of regents, the work of the University began to revive and the number of students increased. In the fall of 1836, Prof. W. E. Aiken was elected to the chair of chemistry, and filled this chair until 1883, a period of 47 years. During the session of 1839-40 the duties of the chair of surgery were discharged jointly by Prof. Wilmot Hall and Prof. W. N. Baker, Prof. N. R. Smith having accepted temporarily a chair in the University of Transylvania. During the year 1841, Prof. Samuel G. Baker and his brother. Prof. Wil- liam N. Baicer, died. They were the sons of Prof. Samuel Baker, who had been professor of materia medica from 1809 to 1833. Prof. Samuel Chew was elected to the chair of materia medica, and Dr. A. C. Robinson was made lecturer on anatomy in 1841. In 1842, Dr. Joseph Roby, of 594 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Boston, was elected professor of anatomy. Prof. Nathaniel Potter died on January 2d, 1843, after having been professor of theory and practice of medicine since 1807. Prof. Richard S. Steuart was chosen to succted Prof. Potter, but never lectured. At the present time over sixty teachers are engaged in giving instruc- tion in the different branches now taught by the Faculty. So rapidly has this work grown that the junior faculty is now giving the major portion of the course of instruction in the laboratories and hospital clinics. The widening out of the course of instruction at the University is best shown by a comparison of the present system with that in force as late as the year 1865. At the close of the Civil War, the board of regents numbered eight professors in the Department of Medicine. The course of instruction bqgan October ist and ended March ist. The course extended through two years. Oral examinations were given at the end of the second year. At the present time the board of regents numbers eight professors, but the corps of teachers and instructors contains over fifty. The course of instruction begins October ist and ends June ist^ and extends through four years, with graded instruction and class examinations at the end of each year. All examinations are in writing, and the student must pass all branches with an average grade of at least 75 (in a scale of 100) before receiving a diploma. The growth of laboratory and clinical work has kept pace with the progress of the day. The laboratories of physiology, chemistry, pathol- ogy, bacteriology and clinical medicine are well equipped with appliances for practical as well as experimental work. The University Hospital, rebuilt in 1897, is one of the best-equipped hospitals in the country, with over 200 beds, beside outdoor and accident and lying-in departments, giving the greatest abundance and variety of material for clinical instruction. In the lying-in department over 600 deliveries were attended during the year 1910 by the students of the Uni- versity, assigned in classes to the individual cases, under the supervision of a graduate physician in charge. While from the foundation of the University of Maryland the policy of the Faculty of Physic has been one of wise conservatism, it has at the same time never been behindhand in 'the march of educational progress, and, while retaining for so long a time as they were of real value those features of older educational methods which were wisest and best, they have often been first, and always among the first, in the adoption of all measures tending to improvement in methods of teaching, and to true elevation of the standard of medical education. In illustration of this we may mention the following facts: / The School of Medicine of the University of Maryland was the first ^-"rnedical school in America to make dissecting a compulsory part of the curriculum (1833). It established one of the first medical libraries in the country (1813). It was among the first to teach hygiene and medical juris- prudence (1^3). It was the first to give instruction in dentistry (1837). It was among the first to meet the modem demand for instruction in spe- cialties (1866). It was the first medical school in America to establish separate and independent chairs of diseases of women and children (Jan- uary, 1867), and of eye and ear diseases (1873). I* was among the very first to provide for adequate clinical instruction by the erection of its own hospital, available at all times for the use of the students. It is the aim of the present Faculty of Physic of the University of HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 595 Maryland to carry out this policy established by its predecessors. With this end in view, the Faculty has in the last few years expended and is still expending large amounts in the establishment and equipment of its Lying-in Hospital, its Laboratories of Chemistry, Histology, Pathology, and Bacteriology, in the erection of the University Hospital, which was completed in 1897, and in the erection of a new Laboratory Building, just completed, and is therefore in a position to offer to students of medi- cine and graduates a course of combined didactic, clinical and laboratory instruction which will compare favorably with that offered by any medical school in the United States. The Washington Medical College of Baltimore was organized in 1827 in Baltimore as the Medical Department of Washington College, Pennsyl- vania. Its first faculty were Horatio Jameson, M. D., professor of surgery and surgical anatomy; Samuel K. Jennings, M. D., professor of therapeutics and materia medica; William H. Handy, M. D., professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children; Jas. H. Miller, M. D., professor of theory and practice of medicine; Samuel Annan, M. D., pro- fessor of anatomy and physiology ; John W. Vechake, M. D., professor of chemistry and medical jurisprudence. The first course of lectures was delivered in a building erected for the use of the college on HoUiday street, opposite the old City Hall. At its first commencement the degree of M. D. was conferred on 12 students. The new college at once became a strong rival of the University of Maryland, which at that time was having trouble in its faculty and board of management. In 1833 the college obtained an independent charter from the legisla- ture of Maryland. In 1838 it erected a building on north Broadway, being a part of that now occupied by the Church Home and Infirmary. This building was used both as a general and Marine Hospital, and as a place for medical teaching. In its new location the college prospered for a time. A new charter was obtained from the legislature which gave it the title of Washington University, with authority to annex to itself the faculty of law, divinity, arts and sciences. The latter authority was never exer- cised, but the Washington University continued until 1849 ^o conduct its work in its building, on North Broadway. At that time its location was so far from the center of population in the city that it was decided by its faculty to abandon the Broadway site and to locate on the northeast comer of Lombard and Hanover streets. A building long known as the "New Assembly Rooms" was erected by the University, and occupied for sev- eral years, when financial embarrassment overtoc^ the faculty and brought about a suspension of the university work for the next fifteen years. After an existence of 24 years, during which time it had enjoyed a fair degree of prosperity, the active work of the institution was brought to an unfor- tunate end. In 1867 Dr. Edward Warren, afterward distinguished as a surgeon in the Egyptian army, and a few of his associates, secured the old charter of Washington University and reorganized a medical college which found a location in a large building on the northeast comer of Calvert and Saratoga streets, now occupied by the new building of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. An appropriation was obtained from the State which enabled the reorganized university to secure a hospital and other facilities for medical instruction. In its new location it enjoyed for several years good classes of students and an appearance of prosperity. In 1872, owing to disagreement in its faculty, Dr. Wamer resigned, and in associa- tion with several prominent physicians in this city organized the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which in the spring of 1877 ^ook over the 596 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE property and franchises of the Washington University and put an end to the latter's checkered career. The College of Physicians and Surgeons was incorporated under the general laws of Maryland with the following names as corporators: Ed- ward Warren, M. D., professor of surgery ; Thos. Opie, M. D., professor of obstetrics; John S. Lynch, M. D., professor of principles and practice of medicine ; W. W. Murray, M. D., professor of materia medica, etc. ; Peter Goolrich, M. D., professor of medical jurisprudence and toxicology. Its first course of lectures began in October, 1872, in the "New Assembly Rooms". Numerous changes in its faculty were made in the first years of its life. Dr. Warren, a moving spirit in its organization, soon resigned to accept a high position in the service of the Khedive of Eg)rpt. In attend- ance upon its first course of lectures were forty-two students, of whom eighteen were graduated at the end of the session. In 1874 the Matemite was opened on Lombard street, the first l)ring-in hospital ever established in Maryland. The taking over of the franchise and property of the Washington Uni- versity in 1877 ^t once placed the College of Physicians and Surgeons on a successful and permanent basis. Its faculty was privately reorganized and greatly strengthened by numerous resignations and additions. Zeal, energy and co-operation characterized its teaching staff, its property inter- ests were strengthened ; and a spirt of progress soon placed the institution in the front rank of the medical schools in this country, a position which it now holds. The College of Physicians and Surgeons now owns a valuable coU^e building locat^ on the site of the old Washington University, at the northwest comer of Calvert and Saratoga streets, connected with the Mercy Hospital under the management of the Sisters of Mercy, one of the largest and most up-to-date hospitals in the country. The College has large classes of students and is equipped with every facility for medi- cal teaching. It has graduated hundreds of physicians, who occupy useful and distinguished positions in the medical profession. It has contributed an honorable fame to Baltimore as a center of medical education. The next venture in the work of medical education in Baltimore was made by the Baltimore Medical College, organized and incorporated in 1881, reorganized and re-established between 1882 and 1889. The first few years of this college were characterized by a very inefficient and un- successful career. It was handicapped with a number of conditions which affected its progress and impaired its usefulness. It was not until numer- ous changes had been made in its faculty and a new life was given to its work by the reorganization of the faculty and the purchase of proper^ on North Howard street, that it found its proper position among the medi- cal schools of Baltimore. The real life and prosperity of the collie began about 1888-90, when its faculty had drawn to its membership a number of active, industrious and zealous teachers who, realizing the opportunities presented for the upbuilding of an influential and progressive medical school in Baltimore, at once set in motion a work of construction which soon gave the college a hospital and college building well adapted to edu- cational work. The members of the faculty, pledging their private for- tunes, borrowed large sums of money and erected the present Maryland General Hospital, the Dental and Laboratory Building, and the handsome college building on the northeast corner of Linden avenue and Madison street. These buildings were constructed and equipped at a cost of over HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 597 $175,000. They were built for the work of medical instruction, and give the college a plant of great utility and efficiency. The growth and pros- perity of the Baltimore Medical College have been phenomenal within a period of some twenty years — ^the school has grown into the front rank; it has drawn classes of medical students from every section of this country and from foreign lands. Its graduates are now scattering far and wide the reputation of Baltimore as a medical center, and the fame of the Balti- more Medical College as an institution of professional learning. Other medical schools have from time to time been opened in Balti- more, some of which have been of but brief duration and left but little impress on the field of medical education. Of the great work accomplished by the Johns Hopkins Medical School, established by the munificence of Johns Hopkins, in connection with the University which bears his name, and of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, no mention is made here as that subject will be treated in a separate chapter. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY John C French, Ph.D. The Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital are the result of the laudable and not unnatural desire of a man of wealth to create a monument which shall take the form of a lasting contribution to the welfare of mankind. Whether the form that he selected was original with himself or suggested by another, Johns Hopkins at all events recog- nized that there would always be need for the advancement and imparting of knowledge, and also need for relief of suffering. He decided therefore to give to his benefaction the dual form of a university and a hospital, linking the two institutions together by means of the medical school so that they should work harmoniously, and giving to both his name. The fortune which he thus devoted to the public service had been accumulated in Baltimore. Johns Hopkins was bom of Quaker stock, in Anne Arundel county, Maryland, in 1795. At the age of seventeen he began in Baltimore, in his uncle's grocery, the business career that ulti- mately made him president of the Merchants' National Bank, a director of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and one of the wealthiest and most influen- tial men in his State. His city home still stands on Saratoga street, in the midst of the business section ; Clifton, his country estate, is now a city park. In 1867, several years before his death, Mr. Hopkins took the first steps toward the realization of his cherished project. He carefully selected the men who should administer the trust after his death, and caused them to be authorized by articles of incorporation to carry out the purposes for which his will provided. Two separate boards, of twelve trustees each, were created for the two institutions, their co-operation being assured by the fact that nine gentlemen were members of both. On December 24, 1873, in the 79th year of his age, the founder died. When a few minor legacies had been disposed of, it was learned that he had left about $7,000,000 to be equally divided between the two foundations. Besides the Clifton estate of 330 acres, the University received 15,000 shares of Bal- timore & Ohio railroad stock, then very valuable (worth about $200 per share), and miscellaneous securities worth about $750,000. The hospital received valuable real estate in the business section of Baltimore and a tract of thirteen acres on Broadway, designed as the site of the hospital buildings. The men to whom these resources were to be committed had been wisely selected. Of the University trustees, Galloway Cheston, a success- ful merchant and prominent in the management of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, was president; Lewis N. Hopkins, a nephew of Johns Hopkins, was secretary ; and Francis White, who had married a niece of Mr. Hop- kins, and was one of the executors of his will, was treasurer. The other members of the board were as follows: George W. Dobbin, a judge of the supreme bench of Baltimore ; Charles J. M. Gwinn, who had drafted the will of Johns Hopkins, a prominent lawyer and afterward attorney- general of Maryland; Reverdy Johnson, Jr., a graduate in law of the 598 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 599 University of Heidelberg, and valuable to the board for his ready scholar- ship; George W. Brown, chief judge of the supreme bench; Thomas M. Smith, like the founder a member of the Society of Friends; Francis T. King; John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and a neighbor of Johns Hopkins at Clifton; William Hopkins, a nephew of the founder; and John Fonerden, M. D., who died before the organization of the university, and was succeeded by Dr. James Carey Thomas. The trustees of the hospital were Francis T. King, president; William Hop- kins, secretary; John W. Garrett, George W. Dobbin, Galloway Cheston, Thomas M. Smith, Richard M. Janney, Joseph Merrifield, Francis White, Lewis N. Hopkins, Alan P. Smith, M. D., and Charles J. M. Gwinn. The trustees of the University found themselves entrusted with a bequest which was notable not only for its munificence — it was far larger than any previous single gift to an institution of learning in America — but also for its freedom from restrictions. They were directed to provide a number of scholarships for students from Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina — in which States chiefly Johns Hopkins had made his money — and they were forbidden to use their capital for buildings. In all other respects they were left perfectly free to create such a University as they saw fit. At a time when institutions of learning were so generally bound either to a sect or by State control, such complete freedom was full of promise of large things for American education. Splendid as the opportunity obviously was, the promise held out by the Hopkins millions might easily have been defeated if the trustees had been less far-sighted. They might have assumed that it was their duty merely to establish another Yale or Harvard, and to indulge local pride by the erection of showy buildings and the assembling of a large body of students at Baltimore. Indeed, this is just what they were urged by the local press to do. Instead, they began carefully to study the problem by collecting books, by visiting American colleges, and especially by bringing to Baltimore various eminent college presidents, whom they consulted at length as to the best use of their endowment. Upon the independent recommendations of three of these eminent men, the board made overtures to Daniel C. Gilman, then president of the Uni- versity of California, to become the head of the new institution. Mr. Gil- man was a native of Connecticut, and an A. B. of Yale in the class of 1852. He had spent a year in post-graduate study at Harvard, had lived abroad, and had shown, during sixteen years of service as a member of the faculty of Yale and a briefer period as president of the University of California, unusual executive ability and mastery of administrative detail. When asked, at a preliminary interview with the trustees^ what he would recommend as to the character of the proposed University, he replied, ac- cording to the published reports, "that he would make it the means of pro- moting scholarship of the first order, and this by only offering the kmds of instruction to advanced students which other universities offer in their post-graduate courses." He pointed out the total lack of such an institu- tion in America, and the need of it as shown by the failure of our intellec- tual progress to keep pace with our progress in the accumulation of wealth and in the mechanical arts. That the trustees were not blind to such con- siderations had been shown by one of the questions asked of a college presi- dent before Gilman was heard. They now fell in heartily with his sug- gestions, elected him president, and sent him abroad commissioned to per- fect their plans for the University. The result was the adoption of a plan of organization similar in many respects to that of the German universi- 6oo HISTORY OF BALTIMORE ties, though not rigidly modeled after them, and the assembling of a faculty of scholars and investigators. The first member of the new faculty was Henry A. Rowland, then an obscure instructor in a polytechnic school in New York State, but already marked by the discerning as a scientist of great promise. He had accom- panied President Gilman to Europe in order to select equipment for the new department of physics. In London, J. J. Sylvester, a mathematiciaii whose reputation was already secure and whose connection with the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich had recently been severed, was secured as professor of mathematics. Henry Newell Martin, a graduate of London University and of the University of Cambridge, and the assistant at Hux- ley, was called to the chair of biology, then practically a new science. Still another Englishman, Charles D'Urban Morris, an Oxford graduate and fellow of Oriel College, became a member of the new faculty as coll^iate professor of Greek and Latin. Two Americans completed the list: Basil L. Gildersleeve, who had brought honiie from Gottingen the best traditions of German scholarship, and had already won distinction as a teacher of Greek at the University of Virginia; and Ira Remsen, also a doctor of Gottingen, and already distinguished for his researches in chemistry. No- where did the new president better display his fitness than in the selecticm of these men. It will be observed that in this small groujp of men who com- posed the original faculty there were included three graduates of English universities and two graduates of a German university. To their delib- erations, therefore, was brought the experience derived from a familiar knowledge of the methods which had been tried and approved in the famous seats of learning in the old world. It had been determined from the beginning that the motto of the Johns Hopkins University should be "men, not buildings." The men had been secured; yet even now there was little concern about buildings. The desire to be near the Peabody Library, a collection of 60,000 volumes selected for the needs of students and scholars rather than general readers, and a disposition to make haste slowly, led the trustees to defer the use of Clifton as a site for the University. They purchased and remodeled two dwellings on North Howard street^ and put up an unpretentious struc- ture to supplement them. Fellowships were thrown open to the most promising graduate students in the country, distinguished teachers were engaged as non-resident lecturers in various subjects, and in October, 1876, the work of the first academic year was quietly begun. Although the chief .concern of the faculty was the promotion of pro- ductive scholarship by university, as distinguished from collegiate, methods of instruction, undergraduate courses were also provided from the first Ignoring the traditional four-class system of college organization, they arranged groups of studies to be elected by the student at the outset, and to be chosen with regard to his purpose in life. All such groups led nor- mally in three years after matriculation to the degree of A. B. University work, carried on chiefly in seminaries and laboratories in intimate relation with the directors, and attested at completion by a published dissertation, led to the degree, then somewhat unfamiliar in America, of doctor of philosophy. The response to the opening of the University settled at once the question which had been raised when the president's plans were announced, namely, whether there was a need for such a school. For the twenty fel- lowships which it was decided to offer, there were one hundred and seven eligible candidates, and it was possible to select a list of young men HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 6oi nearly all of whom won high distinction in after life. Including the fel- lows, 89 students, 54 of whom had already received academic degrees, were enrolled the first year. It was widely recognized that university educa- tion in the strict sense of the word, education for which American students had hitherto gone chiefly to Germany, was now available at Johns Hop- kins; and the work went forward with an enthusiasm the story of which has become a familiar tradition. The trustees of the Hospital proceeded even more deliberately. In a letter written in March, 1873, Johns Hopkins had directed them to provide for a Hospital which should ''in construction and arrangement compare favorably with any institution of like character in this country or in Europe," and had impressed upon them the importance of a ''most careful and deliberate choice of plan." For three years after the death of Mr. Hopkins the trustees were engaged in the consultation of experts and the study of hospitals at home and abroad. In 1877 the plans were finally adopted and the first building was begun, as use of principal for buildings was forbidden. The work of construction proceeded slowly. In 1889, twelve years later^ the completed hospital was opened, the whole cost of the buildings having been paid out of the income of the endowment. In the painstaking study which had been given to the planning and construction of these buildings, the trustees had already made the Hospital an example that had profoundly influenced hospital methods in this country. Dr. Henry M. Hurd, the first superintendent, was able to say, "Had the Hospital never received or treated a single patient, the work it has already accomplished in showing the way to better hospital construction would have fully justified the expenditure of every dollar it cost." The Hospital was, however, destined to be useful in many other ways. In accordance with the directions of the founder, a training school for women nurses was at once established. Courses in medical subjects for graduates in medicine were given in anticipation of the establishment of the Medical School of the University, and the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin and Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports, publications devoted to the advancement of medical knowledge, were inaugurated. One of the most significant sentences in the letter of Johns Hopkins to the trustees of the Hospital was the following: "In all your arrange- ments in relation to this Hospital, you will bear constantly in mind that it is my wish and purpose that the institution shall ultimately form a part of the Medical School of that University for which I have made ample provision by my will." The provision had indeed seemed ample. The endowment of the University consisted chiefly of common stock in the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which the founder in his will advised the trustees not to sell. The railroad became less prosperous, however, and in 1887 ceased to pay dividends. Under these conditions it was impos- sible for the University to proceed at once to the establishment of a medical school. The trustees deemed an additional endowment of $500,000 nec- essary for this purpose. In the autumn of 1890 a committee of women oflFered to the University the sum of $111,731.^ to be applied to medical instruction on condition that women be admitted to the medical school on the same terms as men. By a gift of $306,977 made on the same condi- tions by Miss Mary Garrett in 1892, the endowment known as "The Wom- en's Medical School Fund" reached with its natural increment and the addition of the value of a lot already purchased by the trustees, the re- quired amount of $500,000, and the opening of the school was now pos- sible. 6o2 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The nucleus of a notable medical faculty had already been assembled. Dr. William H. Welch had been since 1884 professor of pathology in the University, and now became the first dean of the Medical School. Dr. William Osier had been appointed professor of medicine and was chief physician to the Hospital. Dr. William S. Halsted in surgery, and Dr. Howard A. Kelly in gynecology, completed the little group whose fame is made the more secure by the great Sargent painting of "The Four Doc- tors", the gift of Miss Mary Garrett to the University. These men, with the associates whom they called about them, organized the medical work of the University, admitting the first class in the autumn of 1893. The need of new ideals and new standards in medical education had long been apparent. In a report to his trustees in 1878, President Gibnan had said, "So far as I am aware there is but one medical school in this country which requires any preliminary examination for entrance to its courses." He went on to urge two things: first, the adoption of ^ proper standard of admission to medical colleges; and secondly, the establish- ment of a course of study expressly preliminary to medicine. The second of these requisites had been provided for in the planning of the collegiate work of the University. One of the seven groups of studies leading to the degree of A. B., a course consisting of biology, chemistry, and physics, with due attention to modern languages and philosophy, was designed spe- cifically for "one who looks toward a course in medicine." The first could now be supplied. The new Medical School not only announced fixed standards of admission, but it made its standards far higher than those of any other medical college in the country — ^as high, indeed, as those of any university in the world. Every student who entered himself as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Medicine was required to give evidence in advance that he had acquired a reading knowledge of French and German and that he had pursued the study of physics, chemistry, and biology, each through a course of one year's instruction which included laboratory work. The medical course was four years, including opportunities for laboratory and clinical instruction not hitherto available in American coU^es. To many persons, the requirements both for admission and for gradua- tion seemed "almost absurdly high." Yet the school did not lack for students, nor was it long in winning high repute at home and abroad. The effect of its example upon other schools was soon manifest, and in a few years the medical faculty had the satisfaction of knowing that they had done for the study of medicine in the United States what the philosophical faculty had done a score of years earlier in other fields of post-graduate study. The growth of the Medical School has continued steadily; and it remains to-day what it so speedily became — one of the foremost schools of medicine in the world. After twenty-five years of service. Dr. Gilman, having been president of the University since 1875, and being now seventy years of age, resigned his office. The trustees chose as his successor Professor Ira Remsen, head of the department of chemistry since the opening of the University, who assumed the duties of the office September i, 1901. The following Com- memoration Day, February 22, 1902, was celebrated as the twenty-fifth anniversary of the University — the first Commemoration Day having been February 22, 1877. On this day, in the presence of a large gathenng of alumni and distinguished guests, including official representatives of other institutions of learning. Dr. Gilman delivered his farewell address, and President Remsen was formally inaugurated. This occasion, the first official celebration of the sort since the opening of the University, was HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 603 naturally a time of retrospect. It was r^^rded as the culmination of the career of President Gilman, and the press of the whole country paid trib- ute to his personal worth and his significance in the development of higher education in America. It was also looked upon as the close of an era in the life of the University, and as such is a convenient point from which the achievements of the first quarter of a century may be reviewed. The first decade was a period of enthusiasm and steady growth. The enrollment of students increased from 89 to 355, of which number more than two-thirds were graduate students. The degree of doctor of philos- ophy had been conferred upon eighty-four students, and the University was already recognized as a training school for college teachers of the highest rank. The publications of the University, notably The American Journal of Mathematics, The American Chemical Journal, and The Ameri- can Journal of Philology, had won immediate recognition in the world of learning ; and the proceedings of its learned societies, such as the Philolog- ical Association and the Scientific Association, were of interest to scholars everywhere. Then followed a period of difficulty and anxiety. The depreciation of the Baltimore & Ohio stock not only delayed the opening of the Medical School; but the suspension of dividends so reduced the income of the University as to hamper very seriously the work which was already being carried on. By an economical use of their resources in previous years, the trustees had been able to lay aside a reserve fund which was now of great value, but which could only temporarily postpone disaster. Public-spirited citizens, however, raised an emergency fund of $107,800, which made the work of the University secure for the next two or three years. The next few years in the history of the University were a time of grave con- cern for those who were immediately responsible for its administration, but the activities of faculty and students suffered no diminution. The most serious result of the straitened circumstances was the fact that at a time when other institutions were generously expanding their work in direc- tions suggested by the example of Johns Hopkins, that University was forced to be content merely to maintain the work already undertaken. Sev- eral important gifts made about this time gave partial relief. Mr. John W. McCoy, a merchant of Baltimore, who died in 1889, left the University his library of some 8,000 volumes, and funds which amounted to about $500,000. Mrs. Caroline Donovan, of Baltimore, gave $100,000 to found a professorship of English literature. A convenient building for the Young Men's Christian Association of the University was provided at a cost of $20,000 by Mr. Eugene Levering, of Baltimore. A readjustment of the investment of railroad stock, though affording only a greatly reduced return, seemed likely to produce a steady income; and, in his report for 1890 President Gilman felt able to say of the University, "It has passed the crisis in its affairs. Its present income is assured. Its friends have rallied to its support." From time to time, as the need became pressing, laboratory buildings had been erected for chemistry, physics, and biology, provision had been made for geology, and a gymnasium had been put up. The need for a general academic building, including a public hall and a main library room, had become more and more urgent. The trustees accordingly applied a part of the bequest of Mr. McCoy to the erection of such a building, known as McCoy Hall. This structure, plain and unpretentious, but in most respects admirably adapted to its purpose, was occupied in 1894. The erection of such a building was evidence that the location of the Uni- 604 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE versity on North Howard street, at first intended to be merely temporary, was likely to continue for an indefinite period. The convenience of the site and the lack of funds for any adequate development of Qifton had brought the trustees — ^not without vigorous dissent within the board and without — to the conclusion that removal to the suburbs was unwise. Por- tions of the estate had already been taken by the city for a reservoir and by the Baltimore & Ohio railroad for its "Belt Line". The remainder, something less than 300 acres, was now purchased for a public park by the city by condemnation proceedings, for $710,000. Financial difficulties continued to involve the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- road and to narrow the circumstances of the University. In 1896 citi- zens of Baltimore, influenced by the needs of the institution, and apprehen- sive lest President Gilman might, on account of the weight of his burden, yield to an insistent call for his services as superintendent of the schools of New York City, raised a relief fund of $250,000. The help thus afforded was supplemented in 1898 by the State of Maryland, when the State Leg- islature appropriated for the use of the University $50,000 a year for two years. Somewhat less than half this amount was granted in 1900, and since that time successive legislatures have appropriated $25,000 a year, in recognition of which the University offers twenty scholarships to young men of Baltimore City and of the counties. Meanwhile the work of the various departments had gone steadily on. The news of the urgency of financial problems had led in some quarters to an exaggerated idea of their effect upon the University ; but although many inviting avenues of development were closed by the lack of funds and de- served increases in salaries could not always be granted, the actual needs of research and instruction had been supplied as they arose, and the Uni- versity had kept out of debt. No one was better qualified to give a calm and disinterested estimate of the value of the work of these twenty-five years than Charles W. Eliot, the veteran president of Harvard — one of the advisers to the original board of trustees. In the course of his address at the Commemoration exercises on February 22, 1902, President Eliot said: "President Gilman, your first achievement here, with the help of your colleagues, your students, and your trustees, has been to mv thinking — ^and I have had good means of observation — ^the creation of a school of graduate studies, which not only has been itself a strong and potent school but which has lifted every other university in the country in its department of arts and sciences. I want to testify that the graduate school of Harvard University, started feebly in 1870 and 187 1, did not thrive until the example of Johns Hopkins forced our faculty to put their strength into the development of our instruction for graduates. And what was true of Harvard was true of every other university in the land which aspired to create an advanced school of arts and sciences. "Next I congratulate you, sir, on the prodigious advancement of medical teach- ing which has resulted from the labors of the Johns Hopkins faculty of medicine. The twenty-five years just past are the most extraordinary twenty-five years in the whole history of our race. Nothing is done as it was done twenty-five years ago ; the whole social and industrial organization of our country has charged; the whole university organization of our country has changed, but among all these changes there is none greater than that wrought in the development of medical teaching and research, and these men whom you, sir, summoned have led the way. . . . Among the achievements of the Johns Hopkins University in the last twenty-five years, let this improvement of medical teaching be counted as one of superb beneficence. "And thirdly, sir, I wish to mention as an achievement of this University under your leadership, that it has promoted, and taught others to promote, research, scientific investigation, the careful probing of external nature and man's nature in the hope of discovering some new thing which may lead on another new thing. This is a very genuine, substantial, and durable achievement of this young university, and I HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 605 desire here to coi^pratulate you all upon it, and to recognize the full scope and meaning of the policy which led to this great issue." To this impressive and generous tribute from the president of Har- vard University may fitly be added extracts from two others of more recent date. The Hon. James Bryce, British Ambassador to the United States, and himself a professor of law in the University of Oxford, in an address to the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association in Washington on April 16, 1910, said of this University : "It has realized in the concrete that large and noble conception of a university which makes it not only a place for giving a general liberal education and for preparing men for the various professions and avocaticois in life to which they mean to applv their activities, but also for providing advanced courses of study in various great departments of knowledge which might be followed by those who had com- pleted their liberal education and who desired to devote themselves to the discovering of new truths. Never in America, nor in England or Scotland, so far as I know, had this view of a university's function ever been carried into effect until Johns Hopkins appeared. It is a pioneer and has set an example which many other seats of learning have now followed to their own great profit." And in an editorial article in the New York Evening Post of May 12, 1910, the following passage occurs in relation to the widespread influence of the Johns Hopkins : "American science and scholarship were placed on a new plane ; in the course of fewer years than anyone would have supposed possible, the standards of the leading American universities were brought up to the European level. Systematic research in every department of human knowledge gradually became a fully recognized function of our universities. Before the advent of Johns Hopkins, it had seemed part of the order or nature that these things belonged to Germany or France, but that America must be content to utilize the results which European investigators had obtained. The time, indeed, was ripe for a change; but it might have been twenty years longer in coming had not Johns Hopkins University taken the first and clear-cut stand that it did." The beginning of President Remsen's term of office was marked by the consummation of the most important gift made to the University since the original bequest. Mr. William Wyman, in a letter sent to the trustees early in 1901, offered to the University as a future site some sixty acres of land, admirably situated on the northern edge of the city. In order that his gift might not be a burden rather than a benefit, he made his offer sub- ject to the condition that the sum of $1,000,000 be given to the University by others, as an addition to its endowment. Subsequently five other friends of the University: Messrs. William Keyser, Francis M. Jencks, Julian Le Roy White, and William Buckler of Baltimore, and Samuel Keyser of New Yoric — joined with Mr. Wyman in offering adjacent pieces of land, so that the whole gift constituted, as President Gilman said in his last report, "a tract of one hundred and seventy-six acres, diversified in surface, partly wooded, partly open, approached by one of the finest ave- nues of the city (North Charles street extended), in all its surroundings a most desirable place as the seat of an institution of learning." When the effort to raise the required million dollars by a specified time fell short of success, the donors generously renewed their gift without conditions, ex- cept the requirement that a certain part be given to the city for a park; and the offer was accepted by the trustees on March 10, 1902. A renewed effort to complete the fund was now made, and on July i, 1902, the com- mittee in charge was able to report that the entire sum had been sub- scribed. In order to prepare the way for the appropriate use of the new site. 6o6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE called "Homewood," after the name of Mr. Wyman's estate, Mr. R. Brent Keyser, president of the board of trustees, gave $10,000 to defray the expenses of preparing suitable plans for the proposed new buildings. A permanent advisory board of experts was appointed to have charge of the matter. Under their direction an architectural competition was throwa open to a few representative firms. The result of the competition was the adoption of plans prepared by Messrs. Parker and Thomas, of Boston and Baltimore, as a basis for the development of the site. The plans pro- vided for the present needs of the University and admitted of OMisistent extension to meet the growth of years. They obeyed the injunction of the advisory board that the buildings should be "not elaborate and expensive in general scheme or detail, but rather — simple and dignified, with char- acteristics indicative of their purpose and as inexpensive as may be con- sistent with thoroughly good construction in all cases." The University was now in possession of a suitable site and carefully prepared plans for its development. The buildings on North Howard street were becoming seriously inadequate, and it was apparent that the growing collegiate department, particularly, needed a more open and attrac- tive site. As the whole income of the endowment was needed for the carry- ing on of its regular current work, there was, however, no possibility of moving to "Homewood'' until a special building fund could be provided. A stimulus to the raising of such a fund was afforded in May, 1909, by an oflFer from the General Education Board. The board offered to con- tribute to the endowment of the University the sum of $250,000 on condi- tion that a supplemental sum of $750,000 should be contributed on or before December 31, 19 10, and on the further condition that of the million thus to be secured not more than $500,000 should be used for buildings. Committees of the trustees and of the alumni at once made plans to meet the conditions. Their appeal to the people of Baltimore met with an en- couraging response and a few days before the specified time, they were able to announce that the fund was complete. ''Homewood" had already been improved by the equipment of an excellent athletic field and of a botanical garden. The trustees now took up actively the problem of the erection of buildings, and they contemplate the removal of the University in the near future. The Johns Hopkins University at the time of its founding was con- sidered one of the most amply endowed of American universities. The financial changes that the last third of a century has witnessed, and the lavish gifts made to other institutions out of colossal private fortunes which have grown up within that period, have changed these conditions. It is no longer among the richest. Nevertheless it is in a financial condition to do well all that it undertakes. It has steadily maintained the high aims which were at the first adopted and established for it, and its ideals have never been lowered. It may perhaps be said as truly of a university as of an individual, that its life does not wholly consist in the abundance of the material things that it possesses. The endowment of the University exclusive of the fund of 1910, which is still in process of payment, consists now of income-bearing funds to the value of $4,580,000, and buildings, lands, etc., estimated in value at $1,900,000, making a total of $6,480,000. The investments and plant of the hospital amount to $6,300,000, making the total assets of the two affiliated foundations about $13,000,000. Previous to 1910 the University had received in gifts, chiefly from citizens of Baltimore, about $3,640,000 — a sum larger than the original bequest of Johns Hopkins. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 607 At the present time, thirty-five years after its beginning, the Jc^ns Hopkins University has the largest enrollment in its history*^790 for the year 1910-1911, of which number 603 are gradtiate students. The retarded expansion of previous years has been made good by the addition of new departments and the extension of the work of others. More than twenty ^aduate seminaries are engaged in research in a wide range of subjects. The coll^iate course leading to the degree of A. B., originally three years, has recently been changed to four, and continues to provide undergraduate instruction of the highest grade. For several years the University has co-operated^ with the State of Maryland in the work of three State Bureaus, namely^ the Maryland Geological Survey, the Maryland Weather Service, and the Maryland Forestry Bureau College. Courses designed chiefly for teachers are given at late afternoon hours in co-operation with the faculty of Goucher College. In the summer of 191 1 a summer session, making use of all the resources of the University and offering instruction in a variety of subjects, was successfully inaugurated. For the future, several important lines of extension are under consid- eration, and halt only for lack of funds with which to maintain them. One of these is a school of higher engineering, which might bear to other tech- nical schools the relation that the university proper bears to the college. Another is a school of jurisprudence, which would provide instruction in the higher branches of law and opportunity for scientific research — ^histor- ical, comparative, and critical. A third new field would be occupied by a Department of Preventive Medicine, established in connection with the Medical School. All three of these are undertakings fully in accord with the original purpose of the university and proper subjects for the exercise of the pioneer spirit which it has already shown in other lines. Still an- other desirable extension contemplated by the trustees is the establishment of a training school for teachers, which would be of great service to the South and particularly to the State of Maryland. WiSi an early removal to the new site now assured, with a more active interest on the part of alumni than has ever before been shown, and an increasingly cordial feel- ing toward the University manifest in the city and State, the outlook for the Johns Hopkins University is brighter than ever before in its history. THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT Established in Connection with THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL Henry M. Hurd, M.D., LL.D. Tradition informs us that when the late Johns Hof^ins sought counsel from a friend as to the final disposition of his property, he was advised to divide his fortune between a University and a Hospital, because for all time the ignorant would require instruction, and the sick poor, medical care. The Johns Hopkins University and the Jc^ns Hopkins Hospital were accordingly established and liberally endowed by his will. In a letter in 1873 to the trustees of the Hospital, a few months before his death, Johns Hopkins used the following words : ''In all your arrangements in relation to this Hospital you will bear constantly in mind that it is my wish and purpose that the institution shall ultimately form a part of the Medi- cal School of the University, for which I have made ample provision in my will." The University was established in 1876, and opened in part during the same year, but the Medical School was not opened until 1893, when through the enlightened liberality of Miss Mary E. Garrett and the women of Maryland, and of the United States, an additional endowment was pro- vided. The Johns Hopkins Hospital, which was designed by the founder to provide clinical facilities for the students of the Medical School, had been opened in 1889 and was in successful operation when the Medical School was in position to use its facilities for the instruction of classes. The Medical School is in every sense an integral part of the Univer- sity, and its faculty is co-ordinate with the other faculties of the University. The association of the Medical School with a University of high ideals and conspicuous reputation has proved of great mutual benefit. Although the University and the Hospital are distinct corporations under separate boards of trustees, several members are common to both boards. These boards have always worked in entire harmony with each other. The working relations of the Hospital to the Medical Department of the University are so clearly set forth in the letter of Johns Hopkins, are so thoroughly established in practice, and are so definitely and unani- mously agreed upon by the two boards, that there can be no possibility that they will ever be disturbed. The University and the Hospital being thus closely linked together through the Medical School, which in a sense belongs to each, there natu- rally follows a sharing of the expense of maintenance of the school — those departments of medical science which are not directly concerned with the work of the Hospital, such as anatomy, physiological chemistry and pharma- cology, being sustained by the University from the special revenues of the school ; while those departments which are indispensable for the conduct of the Hospital, such as pathology, medicine, surgery, gynecology and obstet- 608 JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL ANH BROADWAY. NORTH TKAKT.KS HTRKKT. FROM MOUNT VERNON PI.ACK. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 609 rics, are sustained in part from the endowment of the Hospital, which thus, in addition to the facilities for clinic instruction afforded, is a direct con- tributor to. the support of the medical school. In order to maintain the highest degree of efficiency, the professors in the Johns Hopkins Medical School are expected to devote their ener- gies to the work of teaching, of investigation and of hospital practice. They are not expected to have professional engagements outside the Hos- pital otherwise than in a consulting capacity. The patients in the Hospital and the students in the school are entitled to the first consideration and to the best service in time, energy and thought on the part of the members of the medical staff. The original members of the medical faculty to whom was entrusted the inauguration of the school included Doctors William H. Welch, pro- fessor of pathology ; William Osier, professor of the principles and practice of medicine; William S. Halsted, professor of surgery; Howard A. Kelly, professor of gynecology; and Henry M. Hurd, professor of psychiatry and superintendent of the Hospital. Of this group, Dr. Osier resigned in 1900 to accept an appointment as regius professor of medicine in the Uni- versity of Oxford, and in 191 1, upon the occasion of the coronation of King George V., received the rank of baronet in recognition of his distinguished services to medical science. In 191 1 Dr. Hurd, after twenty-two years of service was, at his own request, relieved of the duties of superintendent, but continued his connection with the hospital in an advisory capacity. The other members of the original faculty are still (in 1912) engaged in the active prosecution of the work of the medical school which they helped to shape. The opening of the Jc^ns Hopkins Medical School in 1893 marked a universally recognized and urgently needed advancement in the standards and methods of medical education in this country. The requirements for admission prescribed by the terms of the special endowment of the school, being the holding of a college degree in arts or sciences, with evidence of a specified practical training in the sciences fundamental to medicine (l^ys- ics, chemistry, and biology), and a reading knowledge of French and Ger- man, are as high as those of any medical school in the world. Doubtless the time has not yet come for the general adoption in this country of equally high requirements, but experience has shown that there is room for one or more schools with such standards. The increasing prosperity of the Johns Hoi^ins University Medical School has been due in no small meas- ure to the severe requirements for admission, which have been an incentive rather than a bar, and has led to the admission of a superior grade of students. The most radical innovation in methods of teaching introduced by the Medical School consisted mainly in the abandonment of didactic lectures as the principal mode of instruction and the adoption for every subject taught of courses of practical personal training in the laboratories, in the dispensaries, or in the Hospital. The work of the first two years is conducted at the Medical School proper, which is situated upon an ample site adjoining the Hospital, where have been erected commodious buildings for the instruction of students in anatomy, physiology, physiological chemistry and pharmacology. Here the work is mainly in laboratories, and the instruction is wholly by labora- tory methods. Here medical students are taught how to use instruments of scientific precision and to observe phenomena at first hand. Knowledge is not poured into them, but they are expected to observe, and to think accu- 6io HISTORY OF BALTIMORE rately and correctly for themselves. Connected with these laboratories is also a laboratory known as the Hunterian Laboratory for animal experi- mentation in all branches fundamental to medicine. These animal experi- ments take a wide range, and are conducted in the field of medicine, sur- gery, physiology^ pathology and pharmacology. It is not expected that all medical students can or will fit themselves for original investigation or research work of a profound character, but all are enabled to appreciate and to make practical use of scientific methods and to become thoroughly familiar with their application to all forms of investigation. The Medical School work of the last two years of the course is con- ducted wholly in buildings upon the grounds of the Hospital, and in the wards of the Hospital or in the Out-patient Department. Here medical students study pathology, bacteriology, and clinical microscopy in con- nection with actual disease. They learn to recognize disease in its vari- ous forms, and are taught the methods of its investigation and treatment at the bedside. They daily see medical cases, surgical operations, accidents and diseases, gynecological diseases and operations, the care of lying-in cases, the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the lungs, of the heart, and of other vital organs. The medical, surgical, g3mecological and lying- in wards of the hospital are open to advanced students and they observe the patients under treatment in them daily, until they thus acquire a famil- iarity with disease and the problems of diagnosis and treatment. The weak point in our better American medical schools has not been so much on the laboratory side as in the lack of correspondingly good opportunities for the training of undergraduate medical students in hospi- tals during the last two years of their course. Much more is needed than attendance upon clinics held in an amphitheater, or even upon classes per- mitted to accompany an instructor through the hospital wards. The student should be brought directly in contact with patients ; he should have a per- sonal first hand knowledge of disease and its treatment. The members of the medical faculty and of the Hospital staff have recognized from the outset that one of the chief functions of a great hos- pital and medical school should be the improvement of medical knowledge. A controlling consideration in the selection of the professors in the Medi- cal School has been the possession of an ability to conduct and to stimulate investigations in the science and art of medicine. As a rule, those with the capacity and the desire for original research are also the best teachers, especially when the methods of instruction are personal and practical, and an atmosphere of investigation and work has in itself a high educational value to the student. It is hardly possible and it does not seem necessary to enumerate the titles of several hundred papers and monographs embodying the result of work done in the various laboratories of the Medical School and in the Hospital which have been published during the past fifteen years, or even to point out the particular value of these publications. The international reputation of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School has been acquired largely through these contributions, and it is this side of the work of these institutions which is in other lands most widely known and appre- ciated. Many of the larger monographs will be found in the Reports of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, of which sixteen volumes have been published, and the shorter papers in the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, which has now completed its twenty-second annual volume, but much of the work has appeared also in various medical journals and in separate books. Contributions have been made both to the various medical sciences HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 6ii and to medical and surgical practice in its different branches. Among the contributions from the Medical School and Hospital of especial practical importance may be specified those relating to amoebic dysentery, blastomy- cetic dermatitis, the malarial fevers, typhoid fever, the disinfection of the skin and other matters of surgical technique, the healing of wounds, the radical treatment of cancer of the breast, the radical cure of inguinal hernia, the surgical treatment of aneurisms, methods of intestinal suture, the sur- gical treatment of thyroid disease, cancer of the uterus, catheterization of the ureters, prostatic surgery, diabetes, diseases of the bladder, diseases of the pancreas, etc. The range of subjects has been so wide it is not pos- sible in limited space to give even a reasonably complete summary. An important feature of the work of the hospital has been the train- ing of nurses. The Training School for Nurses was established in October, 1889, with Miss Isabel Hampton, of Chicago, a graduate of Bellevue (N. Y.) Hospital Training School, as the first superintendent. The object of this school is to train women in the science and art of nursing, so that they may be fitted to nurse the sick whether in hospital or private home, not alone to alleviate suffering, but also to give them sufficient knowledge to enable them to see that hygienic conditions are established, and in the absence of the physician to note and report upon conditions and changing S3miptoms, and to act promptly in case of any emergency. The first class of trained nurses was graduated from Johns Hopkins Training School in 1891, and since that date there has gone forth yearly a band of women trained for this most important and beneficent work. All the nurses em- ployed in the Hospital are thus trained and many graduates are engaged in other hospitals, in private nursing or in public service, in district nursing, child-saving, or in the warfare against tuberculosis. Their field of activity is constantly extending. In 1906 the sum of $30,000 was given by Miss Helen Wilmer to erect a wing to the Nurses' Home for the accommodation of 60 nurses, in mem- ory of her father, the late Skipwith Wilmer. This is the largest sum of money which has been given to the Training School for Nurses. There are at present comfortable accommodaticms for about 200 pupil nurses. The Phipps Dispensary, — In July, 1903, Mr. Henry Phipps, of New York, gave to the trustees of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, to increase the facilities of the Out-patient Department, for the prevention, care and treat- ment of tuberculosis in Baltimore and Maryland, the stmi of $20,000. The money was used to rebuild and furnish a substantial brick building for the accommodation of dispensary patients, which is now known as the Phipps Dispensary. At later periods Mr. Phipps has given about $50,000 besides, to build a substantial addition to the building, to furnish it with a library, laboratory, classroom and treatment rooms, and to defray the expenses of nurses, medical officers and research workers in connection with the Dispensary. The work accomplished by this dispensary has been most useful, not only in the city of Baltimore, but also in connection with the examination of patients for the local Sanitarium at Eudowood and the State Sanitarium at Sabillisville. From the Research Laboratory, established in connection with the Phipps Dispensary, and maintained through the liberality of Mr. Phipps, a number of interesting and valuable publications have been made and widely distributed. In 1910 Mr. Phipps began the erection of a large hospital building to be known as the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Qinic for the study and treat- ment of mental and nervous diseases. This department of the Hospital is 6i2 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE to accommodate about eighty patients, and to contain all necessary labora* tory equipment, hydro-therapeutic and mechano-therapeutic apparatus and many other modem facilities for treatment. This building will cost about $700,000. Arrangements have also been made by the dcmor to supply facilities for instruction in psychiatry and allied branches to students of medicine. Funds for the maintenance of the Clinic and for the promoticxi of investigations in psychiatry have been guaranteed for a period of ten years. The whole gift will exceed $1,000,000. The building is to be opened in October, 1912. By her last will Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston, of Washington, D. C, left the sum of about $400,000 to establish in Baltimore the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children as a memorial of two sons who had died in. childhood. In order to give this Home the largest usefulness, the trustees decided to erect it upon the grounds of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and to open its wards for the instruction of nurses and physicians in the care and treatment of the diseases of children. The building, which will ac- commodate about 100 children, is now completed. It will afford unusual facilities for the study of all diseases of children, including those of an infectious nature. The i^ysician to the Harriet Lane Home is also pro- fessor of pediatrics in the Johns Hopkins University. BENCH AND BAR William Milnes Maloy, LL.M., J. D. While the work of which this chapter is a part is intended to be a history of Baltimore City only, yet as the adminstration of justice in early times was a Provincial and later a State function, and as the founding of Baltimore City occurred at a period when the judicial system of Maryland already had undergone marked development, herein will be considered the courts of a larger area than Baltimore, and will be recounted events in the history of the Maryland Bench and Bar of a date anterior to the settlement of our city. The scheme of government planned for the Province of Maryland under the charter granted to Lord Baltimore constituted one of the most centralized and absolute systems ever devised for the rule of an enlightened people. Drafted in the light of Sir George Calvert's ill-fated colonization experience in Avalon, the document presented to Charles I for the royal signature vested in the Lord Proprietary not only the almost regal powers that had once been exercised by the feudal Bishop of Durham within the County Palatine of Durham, but granted still further and greater execu- tive, legislative and judicial authorit}' that made Lord Baltimore a more absolute monarch in Maryland than was the then King in England. The Proprietary ruled over land and sea. He could wage war, confer titles and dignities, found towns, cities and boroughs, and could grant lands to be held of the Lord Proprietary directly and not as tenant of the King, a privilege not accorded to the greatest noblemen of England. The plan of judicial administration devised for the new government exhibited that extreme degree of centralization which characterized the other features of the charter. Lord Baltimore was empowered to punish and pardon, entrusted to constitute judges with jurisdiction extending over land and sea, and authorized to do all things belonging to judicial tri- bunals, court proceedings and the completion of justice. Lord Baltimore did not go in person to Maryland, but in his stead sent his brother, Leonard Calvert, appointing him governor of the Province. The earliest commission of Governor Calvert has not been preserved, but from the written instructions that were given and from the later commis- sions which are extant^ we learn that Lord Baltimore settled ample execu- tive, legislative and judicial powers on his representative and delegate. Leonard Calvert was commissioned not only governor and admiral, but was vested with all the rights and powers of chancellor, chief justice and chief magistrate, and authorized to appoint inferior magistrates and court officers. The judicial history of Maryland is similar to that of other coloni- zation communities. For a time Governor Calvert personally performed all the judicial functions that were necessary. The people who settled Mary- land were familiar with certain institutions and customs in the home coun- try, and as soon as history raises the curtain on the scene at St. Mary's we find high constables, coroners and other officials, known to the colonists when in their former home, appointed and exercising their duties without 613 6i4 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE any apparent authorization except common consent. From the evidences that recent historical research has disclosed, it is certain that courts were established soon after the first settlement in the Province. That this judicial arrangement was not a matter of legislative regulation is attribu* table to the pendency of a controversy between the people and the Pro- prietary that followed the attempted assertion by Lord Baltimore of the assumed exclusive right to initiate legislation. This struggle ended in a victory for the people and the prompt yielding by the Proprietary of this claimed prerogative. The first assembly of the people was held about a year after the settle- ment of St. Mary's, and, while the records have not been handed dawn, yet later references show that at this session legislation concerning the courts was attempted, but not fully enacted, because of the continuance of the controversy relative to the claimed right of the Proprietary to origi- nate legislation. By the next commission of Governor Calvert there was created a coun- cil of advisers to the governor^ and the latter 's judicial powers were more clearly defined. The Assembly of 1638 considered an elaborate scheme of judicial administration which included a county court, praetorial, chancery and admiralty tribunals, and justices of the peace, together with rules of procedure and recording, all embodied in acts probably sent over by the Proprietary. These proposed laws, however, were not pleasing to the As- sembly and failed of adoption. In lieu thereof there was passed a measure providing courts for St. Mary's and also for Kent Island, the latter after the Claiborne occurrences having come under the Proprietary control. This law was in effect a legislative ratification of an arrangement that had already been made and was then in operation. The governor was made original and appellate judge in all civil cases, the council sitting in an ad- visory capacity. In criminal matters the governor was constituted judge, except where the penalty was loss of life or member, and then two of the council sat with him. In these serious criminal cases the offender was re- quired to be indicted and tried by a jury of at least twelve freemen of the Province. The secretary of the Province was made keeper of the records, chief of the land office and judge in probate matters. In Kent Island the executive officer, known as the commander, sat as judge in civil cases, and in minor criminal cases, with the right of appeal from his judgments to the governor of the Province. In early Maryland, as in almost all similar settlements and conununi- ties, we find the legislative body of the people arrogating to itself judicial powers. In the old shiremoot of Anglo-Saxon times, and in the County Palatine of Durham, prototype of Maryland, the freemen of the soil in assembly acted as a judicial as well as a legislative body, as did also the early Parliaments of England. It is hot surprising, therefore, to find the early assemblies of Maryland hearing civil cases, rendering judgments, im- posing sentences and granting pardons. The government formulated for Maryland represented an attempt to reproduce in the New World a feudal scheme that had been outg^wn by the English people several centuries before. Against the bonds and re- straints of this administrative and judicial absolutism the liberty-loving people of Maryland struggled, with tardy but inevitable success attending every effort, for nearly a century and a half. The inspiring story of this heroic struggle, replete with ominous warnings to the modem advocates of centralization of power and the removal of the barriers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, and with every HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 615 page bearing witness to the great services rendered to the cause of liberty by the eminent lawyers of Maryland, lies within the domain of the general historian. In this wonderful charter granted to Lord Baltimore were several obscure clauses vesting the people of Maryland with the rights of Eng- lishmen, and making essential their concurrence to legislation, which were quickly seized upon and advanced by the men of the Province as the bases of their claim to freedom. The victory attained in the early struggle against the contention of the Proprietary vastly strengthened the spirit of popular opposition to the evils incident to the Proprietary form of government. The even-handed justice administered by that wise and liberal gover- nor, Leonard Calvert, obviated the dissatisfaction which might be expected to have been found with that feature of the judicial system whereby the same judges heard cases in the original court and on appeal, and whereby these same officials were called upon to discharge legislative and adminis- trative duties. The objections to this feature of the charter government did not become pronounced until a later period in the Provincial history, but when they did arise the agitation against the obnoxious system was productive of some relief. The excessive fees exacted by officials con- nected with the courts evoked complaint almost from the beginning of the colonization of Maryland. The outcries of the people against these unreasonable exactions resulted in a gradual reduction of the charges, al- though even at the time of the Revolution of 1776 there was still well- grounded cause for complaint. The historic dispute engendered by the claim of the people of Maryland to the benefit of the laws of England as an inherent and just right and the denial of this right by the Proprietary, who contended that the English statutes should be administered in the courts of Maryland only when the justices of his courts should find such laws consistent with the condition of the Province, extended from the early years of the Province until a compromise determination in favor of the G>lonists was brought about in 1732. With this brief account of that splendid struggle that extended throughout the entire Provincial period, made by the people of Maryland against the judicial system of the charter^ we will next trace the develop- ment of the courts during the period of Proprietary control. The Proprietary. — ^It is due to no lack of attempt at succinct statement that makes the writer confess an inability to define clearly the jurisdictional boundaries of the courts during the Provincial period. It is remarked by all writers on Colonial matters that the judicial system of early Maryland is characterized by continual change. At no time before the American Revolution was there a settled judicial organization, although the other colonies had in the meantime developed and established a stable plan of judicial administration. Under the charter Lord Baltimore embodied all judicial power in the Province. In theory all writs issued from him and all offenses were com- mitted against his peace and dignity and not of the King. The judges and magistrates were commissioned by him and were removable at his pleasure. In the judicial system he was sovereign, yet he appeared as plaintiff in his own courts and was frequently made a defendant, a feature which evoked much academic discussion among the lawyers of Maryland and of England when cases involving the Proprietary grants came before the State courts after the American Revolution. While it is true that the Proprietary was in effect the personification of all judicial authority, yet, 6i6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE to be accurate, it should be stated tbat there were periods in the Provincial history when the Proprietary did not bear this relation. During the years of Ingle's rebellion, from 1644 to 1647, and for the period from 1654 to 1657, when Cromwell's G>mmissioners had charge, and for the twenty-six years from 1689 to 1715, when the Province was under Crown rule, the Lords Baltimore lost both administrative and judicial control. With these exceptions of common knowledge and historic cause, the successive Pro- prietaries were sovereign with respect to the courts of Maryland from the settlement until the American Revolution. Appeal to England, — In the early days it seems that the right of appeal from the courts of Maryland to the Proprietary was claimed^ and, in fact, attempted to be exercised. In the main, however, the delegation of the judicial authority by Lord Baltimore to the governor seems to have been regarded as absolute and treated as exhaustive. When an appeal was taken from the highest courts of the several American Colonies, it was heard by the King in Council, represented by a standing committee of the Privy Council, generally known as the Lords of Trade and Plantations. Over the Crown Colonies certainly, and in controversies involving affairs of state frcMn Maryland, if not in cases between individuals, the Lords of Trade and Plantations early exercised a revisory jurisdiction in the matters of statutes and judgments. The troubles arising out of the controversy between Lord "Baltimore and William Claiborne of Kent Island, concerning the territorial limits of Lord Baltimore's grant, were heard by this com- mittee, and there are evidences that this board always had a general appel- late jurisdiction, even though not invoked. During the early Proprietary period this appellate jurisdiction was not clearly defined, but during the time of Crown control the right of appeal to England was not only exer- cised, but was a matter of legislative recognition and existed thereafter until Revolutionary times. The Governor and Council, — ^Although Lord Baltimore appointed his brother governor and chief magistrate of the Province, yet he early desig- nated a council to assist in the performance of these delegated duties. The governor and his council were the germ of all later developments in the judiciary of Maryland. At first advisory in civil suits and slightly active in the more serious criminal cases, the council eventually developed into a court whose members, as the governor became busied with administra- tive matters, largely performed the judicial functions. Certain members of the council, appointed because of their knowledge of the law and pe- culiar fitness for the office, came to be more influential in judicial affairs than their fellow-councillors, and were in reality the judges of the Prov- ince. This part played by certain members of the council became more prominent when the council ceased to sit with the elected members of the Assembly, and finally sat as the upper house of the legislative body of the Province. As time went on the council also underwent another change in its judicial character, and evolved into an appellate judicial body. This was, of course, gradual and of slow accomplishment. When the Province consisted solely of St. Mary's county, comprising the settled portions of the Western Shore, and of the Isle of Kent, embracing practically all the populated portions of the Eastern Shore, the governor and council were the court of original jurisdiction in St. Mary's, and in more important matters for Kent, and the appellate tribunal for the courts of inferior juris- diction provided for Kent. Appellate jurisdiction for St. Mary's was also attempted. The futility of appeal in St. Mary's from the governor and council to the same judges sitting as a court of appeal must have been HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 617 apparent, but it seems that such appeals were taken and in some instances a reversal obtained. Complaint against this manifestly improper arrange- ment brought about a change whereby the judges who heard a case orig- inally were disqualified from sitting with the rest of the council on appeal. Another result obtained at the time of greatest complaint was the desig- nation of one of the council as chief justice, but at later periods there were lapses from this desirable arrangement. The records show that the suc- cessive governors frequently sat as Chief Justice in the trial of cases, and that during the period when the third Lord Baltimore resided in Mary- land the Proprietary himself sat in judgment in the courts. County Courts, — ^The most important change brought about by the agitation against the judicial system was the establishment of inferior courts in the counties with the Provincial Court, composed of the governor and council sitting as an appellate tribunal at Annapolis. Kent Island furnishes the first instance of a county court in Maryland. The commander of the Island had been constituted a judicial officer, but to assist him was appointed a council, certain named members of which were required to sit with him in the trial of cases. Later the ofiice of commander was abolished. In lieu of this official were appointed commissioners or justices who sat as a court as well as formed the administrative machinery for the county. These officials are still retained in our local coupty government as the county commissioners, although they have long since lost judicial power. As the population of the Province increased and spread public demand led to the creation of more judicial divisions. Other counties, which in eiirly Maryland were largely judicial districts only, were created from time to time. St. Mary's, Kent and Providence (or Anne Arundel) counties were of early organization, and were followed by the establishment of Charles, Calvert, Baltimore and other counties as necessity was found. The creation of the county courts was brought about in compliance with the wishes of the people. The county tribunals were presided over by jus- tices from the county where the court sat, and hence the judges were some- what in sympathy with the purposes of the people and not wholly sub- servient to the Proprietary administration. The trial being had in the county where the case arose and the litigants lived, the cost of summoning witnesses was greatly reduced and other expenses curtailed. As may be supposed^ the establishment of these county courts was a popular move. In response to further popular demand the jurisdiction of the county courts was increased from time to time and thus serious encroachments gradually made on the domain of the Provincial Court. These inroads on the juris- diction of the higher court were brought about through the efforts of the county court justices, who were, in most cases, elected to the Assembly by the people of their counties. These assemblymen used their influence to secure legislative extensions of the power of the county courts. Our State Constitution to this day makes justices of the peace eligible to mem- bership in the legislature, while other State officials, as a rule, are disquali- fied. Of the justices appointed for each county, certain named officials were required to sit when cases were heard in the county courts. A still further division of judicial power was brought about in obedience to pub- lic opinion when a single justice was empowered to hear and determine cases involving small amounts, with the right of appe.al from the justice's judgment to the county court for the county. Chancery, — Governor Leonard Calvert was commissioned chancellor as well as chief magistrate, and discharged the duties of both offices. When the council became more prominent in judicial matters, both equity and 6i8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE common law cases were heard by the governor and council sitting as the Provincial Court. The separate office of chancellor was later created, and for a time this officer sat in equity cases with the other members of the Provincial Court, and during the residence of the Proprietary in the Prov- ince sat with Lord Baltimore as the court of chancery. As the distinction between the law and the equity jurisdiction became more marked the chancellor commenced to sit alone. Certain of the successive chancellors received a formal commission from Lord Baltimore, while others were in- ducted into office by the delivery to the appointee of the Great Seal by the Lord Proprietary in person. As the county courts grew in importance limited equity jurisdiction was conferred upon them, and from time to time increased. The equity jurisdiction of the county courts was removed frcHn 1676 to 1723, but was restored in the latter year and remains at the present time in our circuit courts for the counties. Probate, — In probate matters the early judicial scheme was deficient. The lacking feature was later supplied by the appointment, in 1638, of the secretary of the Province as probate judge, and this official immediately upon his appointment to the office proceeded to settle those estates admin- istration of which had been delayed. Jurisdiction in testamentary matters was centered at St. Mary's, but the commander in Kent was empowered to take such steps as he might deem necessary to preserve the estate until the will had been filed at the seat of government and letters of administration there granted.. From time to time the duties of probate judge were transferred from one official of the Provincial government to another as was found advisable or as it was desired to divert the fees and emoluments of the office. While there was always a centralization of power io probate wills, yet as the counties grew in number there was designated in each county some local official authorized to take prompt measures for the conservation of the assets of an estate, this power being at one time reposed in the justices of the county tourt. By legislation there was later created an c^ce known as the com- missary-general, the incumbent of which sat at Annapolis, performing pro- bate duties and having general jurisdiction in testamentary matters, with deputies of more limited authority in the several counties of the Province. From the decisions of the commissary-general an appeal lay to the gover- nor or to a court of delegates appointed by the governor, the latter means of review being generally granted. Of the fees charged by the probate officers there was continual complaint during the entire Proprietary period. Admiralty. — For the purpose of affording judicial protection to the interests of the Mother Country, and with a view of sustaining the claim asserted by England to a monopoly of the trade of her possessions, ad- miralty courts were established in the several colonies. These tribunals were vested with authority in prize cases, were empowered to proceed according to the course of admiralty without a jury in all revenue matters, were authorized to punish violators of the laws of navigation and trade, and also directed to enforce the statutes for the preservation of pine trees for the use of the navy. A vice-admiralty court was established in Mary- land in 1715, and was presided over by one of the justices of the Provin- cial Court sitting as judge in admiralty. Manorial Courts. — The original scheme of Provincial organization had in view the creation of baronies and manors. A number of manors of large area were established in Maryland, and on these were set up courts- leet and courts-baron. Of the proceedings of these courts some records have been handed down. The court-leet heard cases involving minor HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 6ig offenses committed by the people of the manor, while the court-baron was the manorial civil court. The steward of the manor presided at the sit- tings of the court, but the manorial freeholders were the judges. The dis- tinction between the court-leet and the court-baron does not seem to have been observed in the courts of the Maryland manors. These minor local courts were gradually superseded by the local justices' courts. Municipal Courts of AnnapolisL^-When the Port of Annapolis was incorporated by legislative act, the charter authorized the holding of a municipal court of judicature with limited civil and criminal jurisdiction. To this charter Annapolis tenaciously clung, and in the early State Con- stitution and Amendments its rights as an incorporated city and in the present constitution as the seat of government are made matters of organic declaration. The semi-annual fair which the city of Annapolis was em- powered to have gave rise to the holding of a court of "pypowdry" (so called from the dusty feet of those attending the fair), where, as its name signifies, justice could be had ''as speedily as dust can fall from the foot." At this court trials were had immediately in order that those attending the markets who were required to resort to law or to answer legal actions might not suffer from the law's delays. Courts for Baltimore. — ^The judicial history of Baltimore after its es- tablishment and during the Proprietary period is merely the recital of the development of judicial matters in Baltimore county, whose history differed in no respect from that of the other counties of the Province. The account of the disastrous attempt to found Joppa on the Gunpowder, the trouble that followed the building of a courthouse at Joppa on a site title to which had not been acquired, with the later abandonment of Joppa and the sub- sequent rapid growth of Baltimore Town, will be narrated in other por- tions of this volume. The Assembly as a Court, — At the outset of the Provincial period the Assembly claimed and exercised judicial power. During the time of rule by the Protector we find the General Assembly declaring itself to be the highest court of judicature in the Province. The judicial acts of the early Assemblies were numerous and varied, but that wise and tactful Governor, Leonard Calvert, does not seem to have taken offense at this usurpation by the legislature of the powers delegated to him by Lord Baltimore. The right to sit as a court seems never to have been yielded by the Assembly, and almost up to the beginning of the Revolution judicial powers were exercised by the law-making body, although the cases thus tried in the later years of the Proprietary period concerned only the acts of public officials and matters of a like public nature. Land Office. — ^Lord Baltimore as the owner of the soil made many grants of land, some embracing as much as ten and twenty thousand acres, others being of much smaller area, and also promulgated general condi- tions under which settlers could obtain small tracts. These grants, as a rule, reserved a quit-rent to the Proprietary, but the land subject to this rent passed by descent and was subject to voluntary alienation. In con- sequence of the carelessness of officials and in some instances of their lack of integrity, confusion arose over the boundaries of tracts and disputes developed over the priority of grants. A surveyor-general was early ap- pointed to help remove the existing uncertainty of titles. At first the re- cording of title papers was entrusted to the Secretary of the Province, but when the land transactions grew in number a Land Office was created. The character and functions of this institution changed from timie to time, but in addition to the issuance of patents the officials of the Land Office 620 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE uniformly exercised judicial powers in determining those questions of title which arose in the department. In performing these judicial duties the Chancellor at a later period assisted. While the Land Office was private in its relation to Lord Baltimore, the landlord of the Province, yet in as much as it was the depository of the muniments of title of the holders of land, and as its officials determined controverted matters of title, it was to a great degree a public institution. The secretiveness manifested by the officials of the office, the dissatisfaction found by the people with the ar- bitrary actions of the judge and register in cases of caveats entered against the issuance of patents and other matters within the jurisdiction of the Land Office, and the excessive fees exacted by the register, were g^evances of long standing in the Province. The feeling against the Land Office had become very bitter toward the end of the Proprietary period and would doubtless have brought about important changes had not the institution, together with the rest of the Proprietary system, been abolished as a result of the American Revolution. Attorney-General. — From the early days of the settlement there was an official of the Provincial government who occupied the position of law c^cer to the administration. The duties were first performed by the sec- retary of the Province, who appeared in court when the landed interests of the Proprietary were involved, and exercised a general supervision over the Proprietary rents and estates. When the matters connected with the Proprietary lands were performed by officials appointed for that particular purpose, the attorney-general became distinctly a legal officer. From the middle of the seventeenth century the attorney-general continued to be an official charged with the duties of acting as chief prosecuting attorney in criminal cases, as the attorney for the Proprietary in all suits where his landed interests were involved, and as the legal adviser of the governor, the council and the Greneral Assembly. It was one of the most desirable offices within the gift of the Proprietary and brought to its incumbent large emoluments in the way of fees. During the Proprietary period the office was frequently filled by men of great learning, as evidenced by their opin- ions, some of which have been preserved. Judges and Lawyers of the Period. — While the space herein devoted to an account of the successive changes in the judiciary system of Mary- land precludes, if this chapter be kept within the prescribed limits, that consideration of the lives of the eminent men of the Maryland bar which their attainments and professional achievements merit, yet the treatment of our subject would lack all semblance of completeness were not mention made of some of the many illustrious names on the roster of Maryland lawyers. During the Proprietary period members of the legal profession played a more important part in public affairs in Maryland than did their brethren in the other Colonies. The lawyers here occupied somewhat that same position of prominence held by the clergy in the northern colonies. To the land laws and the commercial system that prevailed may be at- tributed the fact that the lawyers always maintained leadership in the Province. Antagonism to the profession early developed among the planters and cannot be said to have died out entirely at any time before the Revo- lution. In 1669 ''privileged attorneys" were declared by the Assembly to be one of the "grand grievances" of the Province. At this time only those' lawyers who were in favor and had complied with certain requirements were permitted to practice in the courts, and over the conduct of the at- torneys the judges exercised careful supervision. An act had been passed regulating the practice of law as early as 1666, and by subsequent legisla- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 621 tion still further restrictions were placed on the lawyers. In 1698 the fees of attorneys were fixed by statute and severe penalties in addition to dis- barment were imposed upon practitioners for exacting fees in excess of the prescribed charges. By the Act of 17 15 the fee for trying a case in the Provincial Court was set at four hundred pounds of tobacco, for ser- vices in the chancery court at six hundred pounds, and in cases appealed to the governor and council at six hundred pounds. At no time was there ever an absence of complaint of the charges of the lawyers, and, on the other hand, during the last hundred years there was continual dissatisfac- tion expressed by the attorneys at the shrinkage of their fees because of the decline in the value of tobacco, with the consequent decrease in the money equivalent of the fees. John Lewger, who arrived in the Province in 1637, was the first Maryland lawyer. As member of the governor's council he gave advisory legal opinions^ as secretary of the Province he sat as judge in probate mat- ters and was head of the land registration system, and as attorney-general was the legal adviser of the governor, chief prosecuting crfficer and repre- sentative in court of the Proprietary's interests. John Lewger was an im- portant man in the early days of Maryland, and his services were of great benefit to the new settlement. Mistress Margaret Brent, who is a conspicuous figiire in Maryland history, has the honor of being the first woman lawyer in America. We find Mistress Brent frequently appearing in court as attorney in her own cases and in suits which she instituted as executrix of Governor Leonard Calvert. Among other prominent lawyers of the time were Thomas Notley, Giles Brent, Cuthbert Fenwick and Thomas Gerrard, while the old records show as sdso practicing in the early courts James Cauther, Cyprian Thor- oughgood, Peter Draper, George Manners, John Weyvill, Marks Pheypo, and William Harditch. These lawyers were succeeded by another generation, among whom were Robert Ridg^ly, an active practitioner of the law and at one time the register of the High Court of Chancery ; Daniel Jenifer, lawyer and legis- lator; Kenelm Cheseldyne, prominent at the bar and in public affairs, speaker of the lower house of the Assembly and also commissary-general ; Robert Carville, member of the Assembly and later attorney-general ; Ed- ward Wynne, at one time attorney-general ; Philip Calvert, secretary of the council and chancellor ; Henry Jowles, lawyer, soldier, and chancellor after the Protestant Revolution of 1689; Charles Carroll, educated at the Uni- versity of Douai in France, student of law in the Inner Temple, London, prominent in the defense of the Catholics in the Protestant times, attorney- general, and at one time judge and register of the Land Office ; and others whose names are preserved in the Provincial court records. During the last fifty years of the Proprietary period among the lawyers of Maryland were men who would have adorned any land or any age. A commanding figure of this period is Daniel Dulaney, admittedly the leader of the Maryland bar and the peer of any lawyer on the continent. His valuable services in the legislature and in the long controversy over the extension of the English statutes to the colonies earned him the well-de- served gratitude of the people. He filled with distinction the high offices of attorney-general, commissary-general and chancellor. Dulaney's most prominent rival for leadership at the bar was Thomas Bordley, also a great man of the period. Among the prominent contemporaneous lawyers were 622 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Edmund Jennings, Stephen Bordley, Edward Dorsey, Philip Key and Thomas Johnson. The famous Daniel Dulaney was the father of an equally gifted son, who likewise became the acknowledged leader of the Maryland bar. Dan- iel Dulaney, father of Daniel, was bom in 1721, studied at Eton and Cambridge in England, entered as a student in the Temple, and began the practice of law in the Province in 1747. After having rendered signal service to the people and having filled with distinction important public offices, he espoused the cause of Governor Eden in the famous Fee Bill controversy, and in consequence suffered a loss of popular favor. Although he lived until 1797, his activities after the Revolution were confined to the courts. The younger Dulaney, writing under the pen name of "Antilon," participated in a controversy over the merits of the Fee Bill with the then youthful but earnest patriot, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, as his dis- putant, the latter assuming the nom de plume of "First Citizen." These essays were published in the columns of the Maryland Gazette, and are not only of historical interest, but are ranked among the finest examples of controversial writing that literature affords. In the turbulent years preceding the American Revolution, Maryland lawyers were the spokesmen of their times. History pays due tribute to their patriotism and courage. Among those who were most prominent in the Pre-Revolutionary period were Samuel Chase, Charles Carroll of Car- rollton, Charles Carroll, barrister, William Paca, Nicholas Thomas, Thomas Johnson Jr., Thomas Jennings, William Murdock, Thomas Ringgold, John Hall, Thomas Bond, Philip Key, and Edward Lloyd. The activity of some of these men extended through the trying times of the Revolution and the early years of the statehood of Maryland. As the members of the governor's council who sat as the Provincial Court were not necessarily and, as a rule, were not lawyers, it followed that the bar of the Province was much stronger than the bench. The opin- ions of the leading lawyers, especially in contested land title cases, were acquiesced in and received as the law of the land. In consequence of the political wisdom of some of the Provincial governors in tendering office to those lawyers who, from time to time, were most active in the popular cause, some of the leading lawyers of the Colonial period, as we have seen, were called to the governor's council and thus became members of the Provin- cial Bench. It is not surprising that the great lawyers of early Maryland should have resided at Annapolis, as that city was the seat of government and there were held the sessions of the Assembly, the sittings of the Provincial Court and of the High Court of Chancery. Annapolis was then the OMn- mercial, social and intellectual center of the Province. Shortly before the Revolution we find among the eminent lawyers residing at Annapolis Dan- iel Dulaney of Daniel, John Beale Bordley, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Thomas Johnson, William Paca, and Robert Goldsborough. While these members of the profession frequently journeyed to the Baltimore county court, yet their practice was found largely in Annapolis. At the same period the prominent attorneys residing in Baltimore were Jeremiah Townley Chase, Robert Alexander, Benjamin Nicholson, Thomas Jones, George Chalmers, Robert Smith, Robert Buchanan, Francis Custis, and David Mc- Mechen. The rapid growth of Baltimore in population and importance soon led the leaders of the bar to take up their residence in this city, and at the end of the Revolution Baltimore had become, as she has ever since re- mained, the legal as well as the commercial metropolis of Maryland. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 623 The Judiciary Under the ProvisiofuU Government, — ^Tfie Proprietary government existed from the settlement of Maryland, with the exception of the three interruptions to which reference has already been made, until a few months prior to the Revolution. The change from the old to the new was gradual. Before the formal Declaration of Independence a Pro- visional government had been established, which later was replaced by the new State government. The Maryland Convention of 1774 was formed for commercial opposition to the British government and did not purpose to interfere with the Proprietary rights. The judges and magistrates still held their commissions from Governor Eden, and no attempt was made to remove them. Steps were taken, however, by the convention which amounted virtually to a direction of judicial proceedings. The convention ordered that in all pending suits in which there was no real dispute, settle- ment should speedily be made, and that where there were disputes that prevented settlement, the proceedings should be discontinued. Measures were taken, however, to prevent limitations from applying and to ensure the future reinstatement of the cases. A committee was created with powers to grant permission for the trial of certain classes of actions in which it was to the public interest that an early decision be rendered. While the Proprietary courts still exercised their functions, it may be seen that the Convention largely controlled judicial action. Maryland was still loyal to the Mother Country and the Proprietary government, and courts were interfered with only so far as was necessary to carry out the plan of cc»nmercial opposition upon which the Province had entered. By resolution the convention authorized the commissioned officials, with the exception of the customs officers, to continue in the performance of their duties until the next Convention should replace them. Maryland Declaration of Rights (1776). — With the departure of Gov- ernor Eden on June 24, 1776, the Proprietary government may be said to have come to an end. The convention early began the task of forming a new government. A committee prepared a Declaration of Rights and Constitution, both of which were adopted in November, 1776. As might be expected, the new form of government contained many traces of the Proprietary institutions to which the colonists had been accustomed, and also embodied solemn declarations of some of the rights which as English- men the men of Maryland had so highly prized, or as Provincials had so dearly won in the struggles of the previous century and a half. The Dec- laration forcibly asserts the right of the inhabitants of Maryland to the common law of England and trial by jury, and after this reference to the provisions of the Magna Charta comprehends the results attained in the long struggle for the benefit of such of the English statutes as had been found applicable to conditions in Maryland. The evils that ensued the occupancy of several offices by the same per- son from which Maryland had so long suffered, in consequence of the practice of the Proprietary so to reward his favorites or relatives, as well as the unwise practice of appointing the judiciary to other offices, are in- veighed against in the Declaration. It is not surprising to find the people who had so lately been suffering from the imposition of unjust and ex- cessive charges in the administration of justice also declarifig against the exaction of fees by the judiciary and officers connected with the courts. The executive, legislative and judicial powers were to be sei>arated under the new instrument in accordance with the accepted theory of government, and this separation, the Declaration enjoined, should be kept intact. That the acts of a judiciary dependent upon the continued good favor of the 624 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Proprietary were still fresh in the memory of the framers of the new organic law is evidenced by the incorporated avowal that independency and uprightness in the judges are essential to the impartial administration of justice and are a great security to the rights and liberties of the peoi^e. Constitution of 1776. — In accordance with the principles enunciated in the Declaration, the new Constitution provided that the judges of the State, while in office, should be ineligible to hold any other governmental position^ should be paid fixed salaries, and should be given no other fees or per- quisites for the performance of their duties. Traces of the Proprietary form of government were found in the provisions relating to the legisla- tive department, which was made to consist of two branches, the House, or more popular branch, strictly elective, and the Senate, or upper branch, chosen through the medium of an elected body of delegates. The gover- nor was elected by joint ballot of both houses of the legislature. To assist the executive in an advisory capacity, a council of five members was pro- vided. It was required of the governor and of the members of the judiciary that they take oath that in the performance of those duties which required them to vote for officials they would consider qualifications alone, and further that they would not receive any fees or rewards for performing their duties. They were ordered, in addition, to forswear allegiance to Great Britain, to bear true allegiance to the State of Maryland, and also to declare their belief in the Christian religion. This religious qualification prevailed for about fifty years, and until abolished the Jewish people were ineligible to c^ce in Maryland. The judicial system under the new gov- ernment consisted of judges appointed by the governor by and with the advice and consent, of the council, and removable only for misbehavior or by the governor upon request of the legislature. The Court of Appeals was made a judicial body separate and distinct from the trial courts. The appellate bench was to be composed of persons of integrity and sound judgment in the law, whose decision should be final and conclusive in all appealed cases. The Provincial Court of the Proprietary government was merged into a tribunal called the General Court, consisting of three judges. The Gen- eral Court sat on both the Eastern and Western shores. Constitutional recognition of the existence of the county courts was contained in the new instrument, but it required legislative enactments to complete the organization of the county tribunals. By these measures three or more of the county judges were empowered to sit as a county court, but in 1790 the county courts were more effectually organized, each with a chief judge and two associate judges who held their crffice during good behavior. The justices of the peace who heard petty cases, with appeal from their decisions to the county courts, were made appointive by the Governor with the approval of the council. A chancellor to sit in the Chancery Court and a special justice to pre- side over the Admiralty Court were provided by the new Constitution. Instead of the commissary-general, with deputies throughout the coun- ties, who had exercised probate functions, the General Assembly estab- lished Orphans' Courts for each county to be held by special justices ap- pointed by the Governor with the consent of the council. The raster of wills (an office new to Maryland) was created by the Constitution of 1776- The office of attorney-general was continued, and it was required that he should be appointed by the governor and council in the same manner as were the other officials connected with the administration of justice. The Court of Appeals in this judicial organization heard appeals from HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 625 the General Court, the Court of Admiralty and the Court of Chancery. The suspension of cases by the convention had greatly confused judicial , business and legislative action was necessary to restore order. It was ; enacted by the Assembly that suits might be begun and all civil actions pending at the time of the adoption of the resolution by the Convention of Safety should be reinstated in their former condition. Legal procedure under the Proprietary government was declared valid under the new ad- ministration, and from time to time reforms in judicial procedure that were found necessary were brought about by acts of the General Assembly. The people were backward in putting into effect the new form of gov- ernment. Governor Thomas Johnson assumed office on March 20, 1777. - He early appointed the attorney-general and justices, and then named the chancellor, judges of the General Court, the Admiralty Court, and the registers of wills. On June 4, 1777, the justices to sit in the several Orphans' Courts were designated, but the five judges of the Court of ^ Appeals were not appointed until December 2, 1777. The movements of the British troops and vessels and the difficulty of 2 communication between the sections of the State, and the attendance at the Assembly of the attorneys, caused irregularity in the holding of the courts, and necessitated often repeated postponements of the courts to ac- commodate the members of the Assembly and frequent acts for the ad- journment and revival of the several county courts. A consideration of the judicial development of Maryland of this period does not require an account or presuppose the existence of any judicial body exercising control throughout the Thirteen Colonies,- for Maryland from the inauguration of the State government, February 5, 1777, ^^ ^^^ final ratification of the Articles of Confederation, March i, 1781, was an independent State entering into the deliberations of Congress as a sov- ereign ally. The Court of Admiralty provided for in the Constitution of 1776 was abolished, perforce, upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1789, and thereafter admiralty cases were heard in the Federal Courts. Constitutional Amendment of 1805, — By a Constitutional Amendment, ratified in 1805, the old courts were abolished and the judicial system of Maryland considerably changed. The plan substituted provided courts to be held nearer the homes of the litigants and thus brought about a great reduction in the cost of court cases. Under this amendment the State was divided into six judicial districts, two embracing the Eastern Shore coun- ties and four comprising the counties of the Western Shore. Baltimore and Harford counties made up the sixth district. For each of the dis- tricts three judges were to be designated, each of whom was required to be a resident of the State and district for which named at the time of his appointment, and during his term of office. In each district, one of the three judges was commissioned Chief Judge, who with his two asso- ciates composed the several county courts for the counties in the district. The judges held their commissions during good behavior and were remov- able only upon conviction in a court of law or by the governor upon the address of two-thirds of each House. A clause prohibited any decrease in the salaries of the judges during their continuance in office. This amendment authorized the removal of civil and criminal cases from one county to another within the same district whenever it should appear that a fair and impartial trial could not be had in the county court where the case was pending. The Court of Appeals was reorganized and made to consist of the chief judges of the several judicial districts of the State. 626 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE The appellate power exercised by the old Court of Appeals, as well as the appellate jurisdiction theretofore exercised by the General Court, were given to the new appellate body. Sessions of the Court of Appeals were to be held on both the Eastern and Western shores. Three of the judges of the Court of Appeals constituted a quorum, but the judge who heard the case in the lower court was prohibited from sitting in the case on appeal. The judicial system of the Constitution of 1776, as changed by the constitutional amendments to which reference has been made, endured until 185 1. Courts for Baltimore County, — Baltimore, together with Anne Arun- del and Harford counties, constituted the third district county courts as reorganized by legislative act passed in 1790. The principal court under the Constitution of 1776 was the Gieneral Court, which sat on either shore up to 1805, when, as has been stated, the judicial system was changed. After 1805, Baltimore and Harford counties comprised the sixth district. In 1793, a court of "Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery", as an addi- tional tribunal, was created for Baltimore County. A chief justice and four associates sat in this court exercising jurisdiction mainly criminal. Numerous changes in the jurisdiction of this court were made from time to time before 1816, when the name of the court was changed to the Bal- timore City Court, the number of the judges reduced to three, and its jurisdiction limited to a certain prescribed urban territory, set apart from Baltimore county. The appointing of constables and the issuing of licenses were imposed upon the City Court. Agitation for Constitutional Reform, — For a long period anterior to 1 85 1 there had been widespread dissatisfaction with certain features of the old Constitution, and a growing demand for change in the organic law. The discontent with the judicial system concerned the tenure of office of the judges and the expense attendant upon the trial of cases. It was contended that the annual cost for the salaries of judges and the costs of litigation were greater than in other States larger and more populous. A reduction in the number of judges and limitations on the fees of the county clerks and of the registers of wills were demanded. It was alleged that not only had the appointing power been abused but the choosing of judges for a term of years would be conducive to a better administration of jus- tice, and that a reduction in the number would not result in any less prompt dispatch of judicial business. The appointment of the judges by the Gov- ernor and the tenure of office for good behavior which was found, in practice, equal to a life tenure, were declared to be, as the phrase went, "contrary to the spirit of American institutions". Governor Thomas, in his message to the General Assembly, in 1842, asserted that there was not a State in the Union, notwithstanding several of the States were four times as large in population as Maryland, where the number of law judges and the amount of their salaries were not less than in Maryland. He further complained that there were no effectual means provided in the Constitu- tion to get rid of judges once commissioned as promptly as public interest might demand. As has been seen, the system of compensating the judiciary by fees paid by the litigants, which had prevailed under the Proprietary govern- ment, was condemned by the Constitution of 1776. Notwithstanding this denunciation, in Maryland, as in other States, fixed salaries could not be ascertained or secured to the judges owing to the financial condition of the State. During the first nine years the salaries of the State judiciary were settled by annual appropriations or by mere resolutions of the General HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 627 Assembly which varied according to the fluctuations of revenue. In 1785 an act was passed regulating the salaries of the judges, the chancellor receiv- ing the highest salary, the judges of the General Court somewhat less, while the judges of the Court of Appeals were paid less than one-third of the amount paid the chancellor and less than one-half the allowance to each judge of the General Court. The judicial salaries were matters of legislative determination from time to time until after the reorganization of the courts under the Amendment of 1805, when by law the salary of the Chief Judge of each judicial district was fixed at $2,200, and of the associate judges at $1400. The chancellor's compensation had been estab- lished by the Act of 1798 at $3,400, and this was not disturbed, although an effort to reduce the allowance was made by the Gieneral Assembly of 1824. At the time of greatest public discussion of the cost of the State judiciary, a report submitted by a legislative committee showed that the chancellor received $3400 per annum, the chief judge of the Court of Appeals $2,500, each of the chief judges of the other five judicial districts the sum of $2,200, each of the twelve associate judges $1400, the chief judge of the Baltimore City Criminal Court $2,400, and his two associates $1,500 each. A committee appointed by the House of Delegates in 1844 recommended a reduction in the number of judges but not of their salaries. In the agitation for a Constitutional Convention, the number of judges and their life tenure were the arguments most strongly urged in favor of con- stitutional reform. Constitution of 18 51, — ^The Constitution of 185 1 was framed by a convention which met at Annapolis in November, 1850, and was ratified by the people on June 4, 1851. In the campaign, of which the adoption of the Constitution was the one great issue, the opposition was directed chiefly against the proposed judicial system. It was also argued that the new Constitution abolished the old courts and removed the old law judges, but did not provide for any method of judicial regulation during the interval between the adoption of the Constitution and the time when the new instrument by its provisions should become effective. While based upon some foundation this last objection gave rise to no difficulty after the adoption of the Constitution. The new Constitution reduced the num- ber of State judges, lessened the cost of the judicial organization, and substituted for the practical life tenure of the judges the elective system with a term of ten years for the members of the bench. The form of gov- ernment both in its administrative and judicial branches represented a reaction against the aristocratic and conservative method of administration under the Constitution of 1776. Under the plan devised by the framers of the Constitution of 1851, for the make-up of the Court of Appeals, a purely appellate tribunal, the State was divided into four judicial districts, Baltimore county being a part of the first and Baltimore City (which by this Constitution was separated from Baltimore county and made a distinct political division) comprising the third. From each district, by the voters thereof, was elected a judge of the Court of Appeals, whose term of office was ten years or until he reached the age of seventy years. The judges of the Court of Appeals and all other judges of the State were made subject to removal for incom- petency, neglect of duties, or misbehavior in office on conviction in a court of law or by the governor upon address of the General Assembly, two- thirds of each house concurring. These appellate judges were required to be members of the legal profession, thirty years of age, residents of the State for five years and of the district from which elected at the time of 628 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE their election. The chief judge of the Court of Appeals was designated from among the members of the appellate bench by the governor for the time being by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Gov- ernor's Council that confirmed the judicial appointments under the Con- stitution of 1776 had been abolished by the Constitutional Amendment ratified in the year 1837, and thereafter, as well as under the Constitution of 1 85 1, the Senate confirmed appointments by the Executive. The salary of each of the judges of the Court of Appeals was fixed at $2,500, and could not be increased or diminished during his continuance in office. The judges were prohibited from receiving fees or perquisites in addition to their salaries, and were disqualified from sitting in cases where they had any pecuniary interest, were related to the litigants, or had been of counsel. Three members of the Court of Appeals constituted a quorum. In the event that no judgment could be rendered by the court because of the disqualification of tiie judges, the governor was empowered to commission the requisite number of lawyers to sit as judges in the case. In the arrangement for the courts of original jurisdiction, the State was divided into eight judicial circuits, Baltimore City being the fifth. For each of the circuits, except the fifth, one judge was elected to hold c^ce for a term of ten years at an annual salary of $2,000, which could not be increased or diminished during his term. These circuit judges were likewise prohibited from receiving any fees or commissions in addition to their salary for the performance of any judicial duty. The judges of the Circuit Courts were empowered to exercise the jurisdiction of the former county courts, and in their several circuits the jurisdiction formerly exercised by the Court of Chancery. Provision was made for the sitting of the Baltimore county judges within the limits of Baltimore City until the location of a county seat and the erection of a courthouse for the county. The occupant of the circuit bench was required to be elected by the voters of the circuit from among the members of the State bar, must have resided in the State at least five years, be above the age of thirty years, a resident for two years of the judicial circuit from which elected, and was further required to reside in that circuit so long as he continued to act as judge. For Baltimore City there was provided the Court of Common Pleas with civil jurisdiction in cases where the amount involved was over $100 and did not exceed $500^ also with general insolvency jurisdiction, and jurisdiction in all cases of appeal from the judgment of justices of the peace in the city. The Constitution of 1851 also created for Baltimore City the Superior Court, with equity jurisdiction in the city, together with common law juris- diction in cases where the amount involved was over $500, and, in addition, the Criminal Court of Baltimore with criminal jurisdiction. An Orphans' Court and justices of the peace for each of the counties and for Baltimore City were continued as part of the system for judicial administration. The chancellor, who held office under the old Constitution, was em- powered to remain in office for two years after the new instrument should go into effect, to finish the business then pending, but after this period the open cases were to be transferred to the circuit courts for the counties and to the Superior Court of Baltimore City. Under the Constitution the General Assembly was empowered to create another court for Baltimore City whenever the legislature might think the same expedient, this court to consist of one judge to be elected by the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 629 voters of the city, holding office for the same term and to receive the same compensation as the judge of the Court of Common Pleas. The jurisdic- tion of this court, if established, was to be prescribed by the legislature. In 1853 the legislature established the Circuit Court of Baltimore City in pursuance of the constitutional authority. This court was given concur- rent jurisdiction with the Superior Court of Baltimore City in equity cases. Until 1 84 1 divorces were granted by the legislature, and no court was vested with power in divorce matters. By the Act of 1841 divorce juris- diction was conferred upon the equity courts, but it was held that this did not divest the powers of the legislature. After the office of chancellor had ceased to exist, the equity courts had exclusive jurisdiction in divorce mat- ters, and hence the Superior Court and the Circuit Court were alone em- powered to grant divorces in Baltimore City. The judges of the courts in Baltimore City were to hold office for ten years, were required to be taken from those admitted to practice law in the State, and to have the same qualifications and be subject to removal for the same causes as the circuit judges. The salary of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas and of the Superior Court was fixed by the Con- stitution at $2,500 each, while that of the judge of the Criminal Court for Baltimore City was $2,000. All of the judges of the Baltimore City courts were to be elected by the voters of the city. The judges of each of the Orphans' Courts for the several counties and for Baltimore City were three in number, all three elected at the same time for a term of four years. The members of the Orphans' Court bench were not required to be lawyers, and were to be paid a per diem to be fixed by the legislature, but paid by the county or city for which they were elected. A law enacted soon after the adoption of the Constitution of 1776 had fixed the number of judges of the Orphans' Court at seven for some counties and at five for others, but later uniformly reduced to three, and by the Constitution of 1851 was definitely fixed at three. The office of Attorney-General was discontinued by the Constitution of 185 1, and in its stead was provided an official known as the State's Attor- ney, to be elected by the voters in each county and in the City of Baltimore. The Attorney-General had been an official of the Provincial government and had been retained in the form of government set up under the Con- stitution of 1776. In 1816 the crfHce was abolished, but soon thereafter re-established. Objection was made in the convention that framed the Con- stitution of 1 85 1 to continuing the office of Attorney-General because of the method of his appointment, his tenure of office and to the large fees charged by the occupant of the office and his deputies in the counties of the State. The duties formerly discharged by the Attorney-General were in a great measure imposed upon the several State's Attorneys. The State's Attor- neys were elected for a term of four years and were paid in fees regulated by law. As has been shown, the system of appointing the officials con- cerned with judicial administration in Maryland was abolished by the Con- stitution of 1851, and the new organic law of the State made elective all judicial officials from the judges of the Court of Appeals to justices of the peace and constables. Constitution of 1864. — ^That the adoption of the Constitution of 1864 was the result of the influence of the Civil War is of historical knowledge and of conclusive internal evidence. This Constitution was defeated by a substantial vote at the polls, but, through a provision which it contained, permitting soldiers in the field to cast their ballots, received a majority of 375. Governor Bradford issued a proclamation declaring it adopted, and 630 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE it went into effect on November i, 1864. In the convention an attempt had been made to have the judiciary made appointive, but this resolutioa failed. Owing to widespread complaint that the courts did not sufficiently expedite business, the number of courts and judges was somewhat in- creased. The salaries paid the judges were slightly raised and the term of office increased from ten to fifteen years. By this G>nstitution the <^ce of Attorney-General was restored, with a term of office of four years and an annual salary of $2,500. The crffice of State's Attorney for the counties and the city was also preserved. The Court of Appeals was made to con- sist of five judges elected from five judicial districts by the voters of the whole State, for fifteen-year terms, at salaries of $3,000 per annum, the chief judge being designated from among the members of the Court of Appeals by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The State was again divided into thirteen judicial circuits, the City of Bal- timore forming the thirteenth. For each of the circuits (except the thirteenth) there was provided one judge at a salary of $2,500 per annum. The circuit judge was directed to sit in each county of his circuit as the circuit court for that county. For Baltimore City there were created the Superior Court of Baltimore City, the Court of Common Pleas, the Circuit Court of Baltimore City and the Criminal Court of Baltimore. Each of the courts for Baltimore City consisted of one judge elected by the voters of the city for a term of fifteen years, at an annual salary of $3,000. The Superior Court exercised common law jurisdiction in Baltimore City and appellate jurisdiction in cases decided by the commissioners for opening streets of the city. The Court of Common Pleas exercised civil jurisdiction where the amount involved exceeded $100 and was not over $1,000, had appellate jurisdiction in civil appeals from justices of the peace in the city, and was the insolvency court for the city. The Circuit Court of Baltimore City had concurrent jurisdiction in equity with the Superior Court, and was expressly denied habeas corpus jurisdiction in criminal cases. The jurisdiction of the Criminal Court of Baltimore City, as its name implies, was criminal only. As in the Constitution of 185 1, provision was made for an Orphans' Court in Baltimore City and in each of the counties with elec- tive judges. The register of wills likewise was continued by this Consti- tution. Justices of the peace were to be appointed by the governor, subject to confirmation by the Senate, while the county commissioners of the sev- eral counties and the mayor and city council of Baltimore were authorized to appoint such number of constables as might be prescribed by law. Under the previous Constitution the justices and constables were elective officers. While the former Court of Appeals, Circuit Courts and Courts of Balti- more City were abolished by the new Constitution, yet provision was made for the continuation in office of the old judges until their terms had ex- pired and their successors had been elected and had qualified. Constitution of 1867, — The Constitution of 1864 was never satisfactory to the people of Maryland. It was framed by a Convention in which the bitter feelings engendered by the Civil War were predominant, and the legal adoption of the instrument was always disputed. As in previous agi- tations for changes in the organic law, dissatisfaction with the judiciary was one of the causes impelling the call. There was widespread opinion that the Court of Appeals as an independent tribunal was somewhat too technical, and that an appellate court composed of members who traveled on circuit would be an improvement. Of the one hundred and eighteen members of the Convention that framed the Constitution of 1867, forty-five were lawyers and one a conveyancer. As many of these lawyers were HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 631 leaders of the bar, and truly representative of the legal profession in the State, it will be seen that the legal fraternity evidently shared the popular belief that the judicial reforms aimed at in the Constitution of 1867 were a necessity. All of the old judges were legislated out of office by the new instrument. The Constitution of 1867, which with but slight amendments is still in force, provides for the division of the State into eight circuits instead of thirteen as before, the eighth circuit being Baltimore City. The Court of Appeals consists of eight judges, seven of whom are the chief judges of the first seven of the several judicial circuits and the eighth a special judge elected from Baltimore City as judge of the Court of Ap- peals. One of the judges of the Court of Appeals is designated as chief judge by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. This court is of appellate jurisdiction only, and is the highest tribunal of the State. Under the Constitution all cases stand for hearing at the first term after the record reaches the court. This provision was intended to prevent delay and to do away with the setting of special cases for early trial. Under the Constitution rules respecting appeals and general rules regulating equity practice in the courts of the State are directed to be formulated by the Court of Appeals, which duties have been performed. Each of the first seven circuits has a chief judge, who is also a member of the Court of Appeals, and two associate judges, all elected by the people of the circuit. These judges, one of whom constitutes a quorum, sit in each county of the circuit as the Circuit Court for the county. The Circuit Courts exercise original, common law and equity jurisdiction and also are appellate tribunals in cases appealed from the justices of the peace in the county. While one judge may sit in the Circuit Court, provision is made for the consideration of a point decided by one of the judges of the cir- cuit before the three circuit judges sitting in bcmc for the purpose. Orphans' Courts are provided for each county of the State and for Baltimore City, presided over by three judges, who are not required to be lawyers. Justices of the peace for each county and for the City of Baltimore, with limited trial jurisdiction, are provided for by the Constitution. The justices are appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate. The Constitution of 1867 continued the offices of Attorney-General of the State and of State's Attorney for each county and the city. For Baltimore City, which was the eighth judicial circuit, a special arrangement of courts was provided. Five courts were created and the judges of these five courts were united into another court called the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City. It was originally intended that the Supreme Bench should be an intermediate appellate tribunal between the local courts of Baltimore City and the Court of Appeals, and should also assign the judges to the several city courts and hear motions for new trials in civil and criminal cases. By the Act of 1870 the final determination of motions for new trials in civil suits was given to the judge of the trial court, but the Supreme Bench still hears motions for new trials in criminal cases. It also sits to hear charges of professional misconduct against members of the bar, to assign the judges to the several courts of the city, and for re- forming or modifying rules of practice in the several courts. The distinctions between the jurisdiction of the common law courts as to debt or damage claimed and amount recovered in the Constitutions of 185 1 and 1864 were removed by the Constitution of 1867. Three com- mon law courts, of concurrent common law jurisdiction where the amount involved exceeds the jurisdiction of the magistrates' courts, were created, 632 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE to be known as the Superior Court of Baltimore City, the Court of Com- mon Pleas and the Baltimore City Court. Insolvency jurisdiction was given to the Court of Common Pleas, and appellate jurisdiction from decisi(xis of justices of the peace was allotted to the Baltimore City CcMirt. The Criminal Court of Baltimore, with criminal jurisdicticHi, and the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, with exclusive equity jurisdiction, were created. A constitutional provision, designed to meet future contingencies, gave the General Assembly power to create an additional court for Baltimore City whenever it should think the same proper and expedient. Under this pro- vision, the Circuit Court No. 2 of Baltimore City was created in 1888, with a judge empowered to exercise concurrent jurisdiction with the Circuit Court of Baltimore. By an amendment to the ConstituticHi, ratified in 1892, authority was given to the General Assembly to create new courts when occasion should seem to demand. Under this authority the legislature pro- vided for an additional judge, who was elected in 1894, and later two addi- tional judges elected in 1896 and 1897, respectively, and still another in 1907, provided for in the Act of 1906. The Criminal Court No. 2 of Bal- timore City was created by rule of the Supreme Bench in 1897, and one of the additional judges assigned to it. These judges have all been elected and the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City now consists of one chief judge, elected as such, and of nine associate judges, who are assigned annually, as a rule, to sit in the various courts for Baltimore City and to discharge such judicial duties as may be a^orticHied to them by the Supreme Bench. The judges of the Court of Appeals, of the Circuit Courts for the counties, and the members of the Supreme Bench are elected for terms of fifteen years, and are eligible for re-election until they reach the age of seventy. The term of a judge in office, when reaching the age limit, may be continued by the General Assembly for such further time as the l^s- lature may deem fit. The judges are removable by the Governor upon conviction in a court of law or upon address of the legislature. In case of incapacity of a judge the legislature, with the approval of the governor, may make provision for his retirement. , By the Constitution of 1867, a slight increase was made in the salaries of the judges. That of the chief judges of the circuits and of the judge of the Court of Appeals from the City of Baltimore was fixed at $3,500, and of the associate judges of the Circuit Courts at $2,800 per annum, which was increased by the General Assembly of 1892 to $4,500 for the chief judges and $3,600 for the Circuit Court judges. By the Act of 1908 the salaries of the judges of the Court of Appeals was made $5,800. In Baltimore City the salary of the members of the Supreme Bench was fixed at $3,500 by the Constitution of 1867, with the privilege to the City of Baltimore to pay $500 additional, which privilege was exercised. The compensation of the members of the Supreme Bench was increased by the Act of 1892 to $4,500, paid by the State, and $500 additional paid by the City of Baltimore. The Orphans' Court judges, who are not required to be lawyers, are paid a per diem regulated by law, and paid by the county or the City of Baltimore for which elected. The justices of the peace are paid fees, except those designated to sit as criminal committing magistrates in Baltimore City and certain other sec- tions of the State, some of whom receive fixed salaries. The Constitution of 1867 has continued to be the organic law of the State for nearly forty-five years, and during that time has been but slightly amended. It will be seen that one of the principal causes leading to the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 633 calling of constitutional conventions and the adoption of new constitutions by the pec^le of Maryland has been dissatisfaction with the judiciary. So general has been the satisfaction with the judges since 1867 that this is accepted as the chief reason why the periodic agitations for the calling of a constitutional convention have invariably met with public disfavor. Lofwyers and Judges Since 1776. — ^While the biographies of the great lawyers of Maryland since 1776 have been written ere this by authors better qualified for the task, by both talents and research, yet this chapter must necessarily include some brief mention of the men who have adorned the bench and bar of our City and State. The services of Carroll, Johnson, Chase, Paca and Bordley in the Provincial Convention and Councils of Safety continued during the years of the Revolution. The names of promi- nent Maryland lawyers appear among the signers of the Declaration of Independence, on the roster of the continental forces, appended to the Ar- ticles of Confederation, among the framers of the Federal Constitution, and on every list of the honored soldiers and patriots of the early years of the Republic. As governors of our State and in every executive and legislative position, the members of the legal profession have freely devoted their time and talents to the public cause. No State in the Union may more justly boast of its eminent Attorneys-General than Maryland, where among the renowned men who have held the office we find such illustrious names as Luther Martin, William Pinkney, John Johnson, Rc^er B. Taney, Charles J. M. Gwinn, William Pinkney Whyte, and John P. Poe. The judges of the Court of Appeals of our State have been men of great learning, and their opinions are accepted by courts throughout th« Union as audioritative. The eminent jurists who have successively held the office of chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals are Benjamin Rumsey, Jeremiah Townley Chase, John Buchanan, Stevenson Archer, Thomas Beale Dorsey, John C. Le Grand, Richard Johns Bowie, James Lawrence Bartol, Richard Henry Alvey, John Mitchell Robinson, James McSherry, and the present incumbent, Andrew Hunter Boyd. The famous men who held the office of chancellor, before that office was abolished under the Constitution of 185 1, were Alexander Contee Hanson, William Kilty, Jc^n Johnson, Theodoric Bland, and John Johnson, the last chancellor, who remained in office until 1854. The judges of the General Court prior to its abolishment in 1805 were, as a rule, men of remarkable learning and ability. Three of the judges of that court became Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. In the Baltimore City Court Nicholas Brice, William McMechen and Alex- ander Nisbet for many years occupied the bench. Under the Constitu- tional Amendment of 1805, Baltimore county became a part of the Sixth Judicial District of the State. The chief judges of this District were suc- cessively Joseph Hopper Nicholson, Walter Dorsey, Stevenson Archer and William Frick. Under the Constitution of 185 1 Baltimore City became a distinct political division, and William Frick was elected judge of the Superior Court, William L. Marshall judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and Henry Stump judge of the Criminal Court. Judge Frick died in 1855 and was succeeded by Z. Collins Lee, and the latter in 1859 by Robert N. Martin. When the Circuit Court of Baltimore was created in 1853, Wil- liam George Krebs was elected judge. John C. King succeeded Judge Marshall as judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1861, and after Judge Stump was removed from office for misconduct,* in i860, Hugh Lennox ♦Judge Stump was removed by the governor upon the joint request of the two houses of the Legislature, in the manner provided by the Constitution of State. 634 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE » Bond became judge of the Criminal G>urt. Judge Krebs was succeeded by William Alexander as judge of the Circuit Court in 1863. Judge Lc Grand, who was elected to the Court of Appeals from Baltimore City under the Constitution of 1851, was succeeded, in 1861, by Silas M. Cochran. Under the Constitution of 1867, which abolished the old courts, the following were elected as members of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City: George W. Dobbin, Robert Gilmor, Campbell W. Pinkney, Henry F. Garey, and T. Parkin Scott, the last named being chosen as chief judge. Upon the death of Judge Scott, in 1873, George William Brown was elected in his place. In 1882 the terms of all the judges of the Supreme Bench, except that of Chief Judge Brown, expired, and Charles E. Phelps, Edward Duffy, William A. Fisher and William A. Stewart were elected. Upon the resignation of Judge Fisher, J. Upshur Dennis succeeded. The Circuit Court No. 2 of Baltimore City was established in 1888, and the term of Chief Judge Brown soon thereafter expiring, Daniel Giraud Wright and Henry D. Harlan were elected members of the Supreme Bench, the latter as chief judge. Judges Duffy and Stewart died in 1892, and Pere L. Wickes and Albert Ritchie succeeded. As additional judges, provided under legislative enactment, John J. Dobler, Henry Stockbridge and George M. Sharp were elected. Thomas S. Baer succeeded Judge Ritchie, deceased, and upon the death of Judge Baer, Alfred S. Niles was appointed and subsequently elected. Thomas Ireland Elliott was elected in 1906 and James P. Gorter in 1907. Upon the retirement of Judges Dennis and Phelps, Conway W. Sams and Charles W. Heuisler were appointed to the bench, Judge Heuisler being subsequently elected. Judge Sams having died before the election, Martin Lehmayer was appointed, but at the election was de- feated by Henry Duffy. H. Arthur Stump became a member of the Supreme Bench upon the retirement of Judge Wright, and in the places of Judge Stockbridge (elected to the Court of Appeals), and of Judge Sharp, de- ceased, Walter I. Dawkins and Carroll T. Bond were elected. Upon the resignation of Judge Niles, James M. Ambler was appointed. The Supreme Bench now consists of Henry D. Harlan, Chief Judge, and the following Associate Judges : John J. Dobler, Thomas Ireland Elliott, James P. Gorter, Charles W. Heuisler, Henry Duffy, H. Arthur Stump, Walter I. Dawkins, Carroll T. Bond, and James M. Ambler. Since 1867 the judges of tiie Court of Appeals from Baltimore City have been James Lawrence Bartol, William Shepard Bryan, Samuel D. Schmucker, and the present incumbent, Henry Stockbridge. The Court of Appeals of Maryland now consists of Chief Judge Andrew Hunter Boyd, and the following associate judges: John R. Pattison, James Alfred Pearce, Nicholas Charles Burke, William H. Thomas, Hammond Umer, John Parran Briscoe, and Henry Stockbridge. Maryland has contributed her full quota of lawyers to the Federal service. Among the Maryland men that have held the office of Attorney- General of the United States are Robert Smith (in the cabinet of Jefferson), William Pinkney (in the cabinet of Madison), William Wirt (in the cab- inet of Monroe), Roger B. Taney (in the cabinet of Jackson), John Nelson (in the cabinet of Tyler), Reverdy Johnson (in the cabinet of Taylor), and Charles J. Bonaparte (in the cabinet of Roosevelt). The following Mary- land lawyers have served in the United States Supreme Court: Associate Justices Robert H. Harrison (1789-1790), Thomas Johnson (i79i-i793)» Samuel Chase (1796-1811), Gabriel Duval (1811-1836), and Chief Jus- tice Roger Brooke Taney (1836-1864). Space will not permit more than mere mention of some of the cele- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 635 brated men who have attained great distinction at the Maryland bar, and whose reputation has extended beyond the borders of our State. Among the eminent lawyers who practiced in the Maryland courts after the Revo- lution were the eloquent and elegant William Pinkney, statesman and diplc^- mat, and one of the greatest advocates in American legal history; the famous Reverdy Johnson j Roger B. Taney, afterward Chief Justice of the United States; William Wirt, counsel in many celebrated cases in the Supreme Court; Luther Martin, whose fame extends to this day, and for whose maintenance and support in his advanced years a grateful State im- posed a tax upon every practitioner of the law; Robert Goodloe Harper; John Nelson; John V. L. McMahon, one of the famous names of the American bar; John P. Kennedy, author, statesman and lawyer; Gabriel Duval and Robert Smith, later Attorneys-General of the United States; William Kilty and Theodoric Bland^ each of whom became Chancellor; William Winder, lawyer and soldier ; and Francis Scott Key, famous as a lawyer, but more renowned as the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner." These men were succeeded by Charles F. Mayer, a counselor of great ability; Thomas G. Pratt, who later as governor prevented State repudia- tion and placed the finances of Maryland on a firm foundation; Henry Winter Davis, of high rank as an orator and statesman; George William Brown, John Mason Campbell, Charles J. M. Gwinn, George R. Richardson, Robert J. Brent, Robert M. McLane, John H. B. Latrobe, William Schley, and Thomas S. Alexander. A few years later we find among the great men at the Maryland bar, I. Nevett Steele, leader of the bar of his day; Montgomery Blair, attorney in the Dred Scott and many other famous cases^ and the strong advocate of Tilden in the contested presidential elec- tion; and Severn Teackle Wallis, considered by many one of the greatest men that Maryland has ever produced. Among the men of conspicuous ability remembered by the present gen- eration were John P. Poe, Attorney-General of the State, lawyer, author, orator and prominent in the political councils of the State and Union; William Pinkney Whyte, who filled with credit and honor almost every office within the gift of the State; Charles Marshall, William A. Fisher, Thomas W. Hall, Richard M. Venable, John K. Cowen, James McSherry, Andrew K. Syster, and others whose names are still household words in Maryland. The present generation of Maryland lawyers embraces men equally brilliant in advocacy, sound in council and profound in learning as the great men who have preceded them. Specializing in the law has, no doubt, decreased the number of well-rounded and well-equipped trial lawyers^ but in their place we have men whose ability as organizers and pilots of indus- trial and financial enterprises will elicit admiration and praise from the lawyers of generations yet to come. There has been no retrogression by the legal profession of Maryland. We confidently state that the future historian will hold the leaders of the present Maryland bar the peers of the legal giants of any preceding generation, will consider the integrity and uprightness of its members tantamount to the standard of its predecessors, and the learning and ability of the average lawyer of to-day paramount to those of the profession in any period of the proud history of the Balti- more bar. ART SCHOOLS, GALLERIES, AND LIBRARIES Allen Kerr Bond, M. D. The Maryland Institute Art School. — ^The Maryland Institute was or- ;ganized in 1825 upon the same lines as the Franklin Institute of Philadel- phia, for the promotion of the mechanic arts. F6r ten years it pursued a very successful career^ being housed, after a few mcmths' sojourn in the Concert Hall on South Charles street, in the (first) Athensum building-, on the corner of St. Paul and Lexington streets.^ Here it accumulated a valuable library and provided courses of lectures on popular topics tending to the promotion of self-culture. Lecture classes were also conducted in various branches of science. Great pride was taken in the annual exhibi- tions of articles of American manufacture. Its membership, of about 700 citizens, "c(»nprised much of the intelligence, public spirit and skill of Baltimore." In 1835 the Athenaeum was destroyed by fire, and "produced a speedy dissolution of the Institute," which lost its entire property in the con- flagration. Thirteen years later the Institute was revived under a new charter, and entered upon a very prosperous career as one of the leading educational agencies of the city. It included in its curriculum a School of Design, in addition to the opportunities formerly offered. With the rapid growth of the city other agencies presented in more attractive form the older facilities of the enterprise, and the School of Design, at its foundation in 1849 ^ night school only, absorbed more and more of the hall space and energy of the Institute. The first commencement of this department, held in its rooms over the city postoffice while the great hall over Marsh Market was nearing completion, showed a class of one hundred and fifty pupils in free-hand, mechanical, and architectural drawing. The term of instruction in the night school gradually increased from two to four years, and day classes were added along such lines as seemed most needed for the equipment of pupils, the idea being a ''grammar school of art," sup- plementing in a way the public school system of the city. The fire of February, 1904, destroyed the Hall of the Institute, with all its equipment for art work. Within two weeks after this second con- flagration, the Institute art schools were in active operation again in bor- rowed quarters. The State made a large donation toward a new building ^ This must not be confused with the (second) Athenaeum building, which was erected in i^y on the comer of St. Paul and Saratoga streets. The earlier building owed its erection to an association of gentlemen which was formed in 1823 for the establishment of an Athenaeum. Their design seems to have been not only to build a home for literaiy culture but to afford literary privileges as well, for they purchased a considerable library of choice books at this time. Later they seem to have limited their efforts to the maintenance of a building where various societies for the promo- tion of culture might find shelter. In 182^ the comer stone of their Athenaeum was laid with impressive ceremony. When this building was burned in 1835, it was "the home of the Maryland Institute," After this fire twelve years elapsed before the second Athenaeum was erected, a block north of the first, and the relations of the Maryland Institute to the Athenaeum enterprise were not resumed. 636 MARYI.ANII INSTITUTE, MT. ROYAI, AVENUK. COURT HOUBB AND BATTLE MONUMENT. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 637 for the work, which was nearly doubled by Andrew Carnegie. Michael Jenkins, of Baltimore, presented a site for the new location, on Mt. Royal avenue, and a thoroughly equipped home for the Art Department was dedicated in the autumn of 1908. The city contributed to the good cause two upper stories of a new market house on the old site of the Institute for the use of the evening schools. The stronghold which this historic Institute had obtained upon the respect of the community, manifested by its rapid rehabilitation, has been strengthened by its subsequent progress. The patient efforts of its man- agement to elevate the standard of instruction and at the same time to pre- serve the practical relationship of its teachings toward the actual business needs of our city youth, have been rewarded by increased attendance and enthusiasm. In 191 1 the Institute reported fifty teachers and nearly sixteen hundred pupils. The courses embrace drawing, design, oil and water color painting, clay modeling, illustration, and the industrial features of mechani- cal and architectural drawing, design and applied art, carried on in the actual materials — clay, wood, metal and leather. Evening classes are given in jewelry and silversmithing, and in sheet metal pattern drafting. In other words, "in the various employments requiring a knowledge of drawing and designing every graduate of the Institute is well equipped to make drawings and to read drawings intelligently. The practical instruction they have received fits them for the business of life as industrial art workers. As the result of this, it is rare that a graduate has long to wait for agree- able and lucrative employment." The Institute is now unhindered by the distraction of income collect- ing, and is able to confer many free scholarships upon deserving students of art and design who else would have been deprived of these opportunities for self development. The Institute is assembling a small library of special works for the use of its students. Peabody Institute Art Gallery, — ^The art ealleries connected with the Peabody Institute, although comparatively small, possess very considerable value, and every year they become better known to the citizens of Balti- more, to whom they are freely open at all times. A large hall is devoted to a collection of about one hundred casts of antique statues, a donation from the late John W. Garrett. The Gytie Room contains marbles and bronzes by Rinehart, Ezekiel, Keyser, and others, donated by citizens of Baltimore. The Clytie, the mas- terpiece of Rinehart, from which the room is named, was the gift of John W. McCoy, who presented many other objects in this rodm. In the Rinehart Room and adjacent corridors are assembled other works of Rinehart and copies of his works, so that probably all of the works of that eminent sculptor are in one way or another represented in this Peabody collection. The objects of interest associated with the memory of this artist include a number of original casts of portrait busts from his studio in Rome, deposited here by his executors, with his professional in- struments and a laurel wreath made by artists in Rome and laid upon his coffin. The Gallery of Pictures is mainly the gift of John W. McCoy, donor of the Clytie. The pictures include many by Baltimore painters of great local interest as well as artistic merit, with a number of portraits of Balti- moreans and Marylanders of note, loaned by the Oliver Hibernian Society and by individual citizens. Still another and very extensive part of the Peabody Institute Gallery is devoted to gifts from Charles J. M. Eaton. These include paintings in 638 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE oil by various artists, paintings in water colors, sketches in ink, crayon and pencil, engravings and etchings, miniatures of unusual merit, bronzes, marble busts and porcelain vases — with about eight hundred ancient and modem coins and medals. The Charcoal Club. — ^The Charcoal Qub was organized in 1885 for the purpose of bringing the artists of the city together socially, and for the purpose of advanced study of drawing from the "life" model. The first president was John W. McCoy, well known in the city as an art con- noisseur and patron. The first quarters of the Qub were on Mulberry street, where Calvert Hall has since been erected. The Club later moved to better rooms 00 Charles street, and still later, in order to acconunodate its increased mem- bership, to the comer of Franklin and Howard streets. The presidents of the Club have been: John W. McCoy, Fans C. Pitt, Thomas J. Shryock, W. T. Brigham, Joseph Evans Sperry, Thomas C. Corner and Fred. H. Gottlieb. The instructors of the Club's classes have been such well-known men as Qinedinst, Mayer, Newell, Castaigne, and Whiteman. For a number of years the classes offered the only opportunity in the city for the study of the nude model, and for daily classes in painting from the head. Most of the artists of the city are indebted to the Club for much of their art education. The Club has always insisted on a high standard of merit, and has aimed to be a school for the student who intends to pursue art as a profession, and not for the amateur. Besides conducting classes for the study of art, it has, during its whole history, held at frequent intervals exhibitions of local and out-of-town art works. These exhibitions have been of great educational value, and have done much to promote interest in art in Baltimore. They have given the artists of the city an opportunity to become known to a large public, and also to see their work in com- parison with the best from out of the city. The Qub has been one of the institutions of the city to propose a member of the City Art Commission, in which body it is now represented by Mr. Sperry. It has availed itself of every opportunity to promote the art interests of the city, and has proven by its various activities its g^eat value to the community. The Club has an Art Library, and on its tables are found the best art periodicals of the day. On its walls can always be seen pictures of merit and beauty.* The Walters Art Gallery. — This gallery is located on the comer of Charles and Centre streets, on one of the parked squares which radiate from the Washington monument. The foundations of the collection were laid most unpretentiously in the early "sixties" by Mr. William T. Walters, a merchant of Baltimore. On his numerous trips to Europe he purchased privately the best pictures to be had in the lines in which he was especially interested. Many wealthy citizens pursued the same method of home ornamen- tation, but Mr. Walters' steady persistence throughout the latter part of his life placed him easily in the forefront of this circle of art lovers. After a time his collection became so large that he erected a gallery for it in the rear of his home on Mt. Vernon Place. Mr. Walters was one of the first connoisseurs in America to take an interest in the Barbizon school of paint- ings. His very earliest purchases show this advanced taste, consisting prin- cipally of works by Corot, Diaz, Rousseau, Troyon, Millet, Daubigny, and "The above description is taken directly from a private letter from the Club, obtained through the courtesy of Mr. Comer. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 639 Dupre. A little later he added examples of the work of Fortuny, Baron Leys, Meissonier, Alma-Tadema, and others. He gradually assembled in his art gallery a large collection of Barye bronzes, and in the early "eighties" he presented to the city the beautiful group of bronzes by this sculptor which were placed on the grounds of Mt. Vernon Place. For several years before the death of Mr. Walters, which occurred in 1894, his son, Mr. Henry Walters, a capitalist interested in railway development, collaborated with him in these artistic pursuits. About 1905 Mr. Henry Walters began the erection of a building of grander proportions, in a modified renaissance style of architecture, which should stand as a memorial to his father and should house and exhibit in a more satisfactory manner the original art collection with the valuable additions which he himself had made and proposed to make in the future. In this great gallery, one of the most complete under private owner- ship in America, the following component collections may be mentioned: Paintings of the various Italian schools; works by eminent artists of the French, English, German, Spanish, Flemish, and Dutch schools; a very beautiful assemblage of miniatures of distinguished personages, represent- ing the various schools of miniature painting, beginning with the seven- teenth century and coming down to the present day ; a collection of watches, snuff boxes and jewels, the majority of which are French, of the eighteenth century, and also fine goldsmith's work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and bronzes; the collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelains and pottery and other works of Oriental art made by Mr. William T. Wal- ters, to which his son has added notable specimens of English porcelains, Italian, French, Moorish and Arabic pottery ; numerous specimens of Greek, Roman, Etruscan and Egyptian work in bronze, terra cotta and marble; a collection of textiles, which is very remarkable in its tapestries, rugs, ecclesi- astical vestments, etc. ; about two hundred Japanese swords, with Japanese and Saracenic armor; a large and valuable collection of carved crystals, jade and ivory, of Oriental workmanship; a very beautiful and complete exhibit of carved woods, dating from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries, most of them of French origin, from ancient churches and chateaux. The gallery is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays of January, Febru- ary, March and April, and on Washington's Birthday and Easter Monday. The proceeds of the half-dollar admissions go to the poor. The Maryland Institute Art Collections. — Through the beneficence of Mr. George A. Lucas, a native of Baltimore, who died in 1909, after a residence of fifty years in Paris, the Maryland Institute has come into possession of several remaiicable art collections assembled by that eminent connoisseur. Mr. Lucas, a lover of art from his youth, was during his residence in Paris the intimate friend of most of the noted artists of that city, and his home was a center of artist life. In recognition of what he had done in the interest of art, the French government offered him the decoration of the Legion of Honor. He bequeathed his entire collection of art objects to Mr. Henry Walters, to be delivered by him to the Mary- land Institute, for the promotion of its art instruction. It is now distributed for exhibition in several halls of the Institute on Mt. Royal avenue. The paintings thus displayed number nearly three hundred, and are said to constitute one of the best galleries of small paintings in America. They are the work of contemporaries of the donor, and to many of them are attached memoranda concerning the artist or his picture. The gift of Mr. Lucas included also a number of sketches and drawings adapted 640 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE for class-room and studio instruction, with about ten thousand eng^vings, etchings, proofs and prints, and a working library of about fifteen hundred volumes on art criticism and the lives and methods of great artists. In the Barye room are six hundred bronzes representing with great fulness the work of this great sculptor, with twenty of his paintings and sketches. The variety of patina effects presented in this collection of bronzes is perhaps without equal. About fifty of these bronzes and thirteen of the sketches were exhibited by Mr. Lucas (on request of the manage- ment) at the great exposition of the works of Barye given at the Beaux- Arts in 1889. On the Terrace Gallery is displayed in a long crystal case the Lucas collection of objects in pottery and porcelain, about fifty in number, illus- trative of Chinese and Japanese art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A very interesting portion of the donation of Mr. Lucas is his collec- tion of palettes of about seventy of his artist friends, many of them bear- ing dedications or sketches by the users, and many more with notes con- cerning their acquisition or use in celebrated paintings, appended by Mr. Lucas. The Garrett Collection of Prints. — ^The Garrett Collection of Prints is now in Washington^ having been placed as a loan in the Library of Congress by the owner, Mrs. T. Harrison Garrett, of Baltimore. No com- plete account of it is at present attainable, but through the courtesy of the owner some facts concerning it may be given. The nucleus of the collection, to which many valuable additions have been made by members of the Garrett family, is the collection brought to- gether in his private gallery by the late James L. Qaghom, of Philadelphia. In 1885 it was purchased intact irom his estate by Mr. Robert Garrett, at that time president of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. By Mr. Garrett it was brought to Baltimore. It was fortunately removed from Baltimore just one week before the gpreat fire, which destroyed the building in which it had been stored. An indication of its artistic value may be gained from the fact that in the exhibition of Rembrandt's work held in the Congres- sional Library on the tercentenary of the birth of that great master, of the five hundred and odd prints displayed, covering all of the artist's works, nearly one-half were obtained from the Garrett collection. Although a description of the Garrett collection, as a whole, is not obtainable, an account of the portion purchased from Mr. Claghom has been printed, in connection with its sale. In the private ^gallery of this Philadelphia art lover and patron were found between thirty and forty thousand line engravings, etchings, mezzotints, aquatints, and prints of every imaginable description. They include the work of all the better known and many of the semi-obscure etchers, engravers and mezzotinters who have lived in the past three centuries. Earliest of all, perhaps, is a tiny print, "The Crowning of the Virgin," one of the few existing fac-similes of an impression made by Finiguerra in 1452. Tomasso Finiguerra was a goldsmith of Florence, and had en- graved the coronation on a silver pax for one of the churches. It occurred to him that he might make a print from this pax, and, although he did not appreciate the value of his discovery, he is now honored as the orig- inator of this beautiful department of art. There is a folio full of the prints of Martin Schongauer, who died in 1499. Israel Von Meckenen and Lucas Von Leyden are well represented. There are one hundred and eighty-five Rembrandt etchings. The collection is very rich in Albert Durer etchings, of which eighty-five were catalogued. Among more recent art HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 641 works may be noted a very complete set of the etchings of Seymour Haden. The art of mezzotinting is fully represented, from the time of Von Siegen, the accredited inventor of the process, to the latest workers in this line of engraving. Other Art Collections, — From the beginnings of Baltimore there have been valuable collections of art objects in the homes of her wealthier citi- zens which might favorably compare with those of other American cities. Even if there were no actual records of such possessions, theiV existence might be inferred from the numerous portraits and miniatures, many of them possessing high artistic value, which are treasured by the descendants of the aristocracy of the old town. Printed records and tradition abundantly confirm these inferences. Thus, in an address delivered at the Maryland Institute Mr. Clarke says : "It is besides not to be forgotten that one of the earliest and most famous of the private collections of art in the United States was made by Mr. Gilmor, of Baltimore, and that from that day to the present time one or more of notable art collections have found home in this city." Howard, in his history, says, "in matters of art, Baltimore has made much unostentatious progress, and to-day (1873) there are collections of pictures, growing little by little, in the possession of some of her citizens which promise in the near future to assume proportions of national in- terest." After a tribute to Mr. Walters* gallery he proceeds, "Colonel Strieker Jenkins comes next, with a large and extremely valuable collec- tion, a majority of pictures in which were painted upon direct commissions from the owner. The most distinguished names in contemporary art are to be found in it. There are several other prominent collectors, foremost among whom may be mentioned Mr. John King, Jr., vice-president of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad; Mr. George Vickers, a retired merchant; Mr. Samuel Early, a Baltimore editor; Mr. B. F. Newcomer, Mr. D. L. Bart- lett. Dr. George Reuling and others." The Maryland Historical Society had until recently on exhibition a valuable loan collection of portraits belonging to citizens of Baltimore and illustrating in a very interesting manner the history of the city from earliest times. Among other private citizens who have made valuable art collections may be mentioned Dr. and Mrs. Jacobs, Mr. Theodore Marburg, and Mr. W. W. Spence. Mr. Spence has also given to the city two of its most beautiful and impressive statues, the Christus Consolator in the rotunda of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Wallace statue overlooking Druid Lake. Among the outdoor statues and groups that in increasing numbers beautify our American cities and stir the patriotism of our citizens, there is none more truly artistic in its design and in its setting than that of the Scotish patriot and warrior who gave his life for the principles which underlie our American liberties. Libraries of Baltimore. — From the foundation of Baltimore in 1729 until its incorporation as a city, in 1796, the library needs of the popula- tion were met partly by the private libraries of wealthy citizens and partly by collections of books owned by book dealers and circulated among sub- scribing customers. As the books had for the most part to be imported from Europe, enterprising importers of the town could most conveniently maintain such libraries. A very successful enterprise of this sort was begun in 1784 by William Murphy, on Baltimore street, near Calvert street, and after a prosperous career of many years under his care was continued by Hugh Barkley. 642 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE There was a small parish library of well-selected books (some of which are still preserved in the Diocesan Library) donated by the Rev. Dr. Bray, when commissary to the colony in the early years of last century, to St. Paul's parish. The leading physicians of the town, graduates of the uni- versities of Europe, and men of wide culture had choice private libraries, and were in the habit of clubbing together in a small way for the importa- tion of the best European medical journals. The Baltimory Library Company. — ^Thcre can be no better proof of the literary culture which had developed in Baltimore town than the energy with which, at the time of its incorporation into a city in 1796, it set about the establishment of its first public library.* This enterprise was headed by the Right Rev. John Carroll (Roman Catholic), the Rev. Dr. Patrick Allison (Presbyterian), Rev. J. G. J. Bend (Protestant Episcopal), Dr. George Brown (Master of Arts of Glasgow University), and several wealthy citizens. The plan was to form a public library suited to the needs of all classes of the community. A stock ccxn- pany was formed, each member subscribing to a single share, at the par value of $20, with an annual assessment of $4. Sixty persons subscribed, and the Library Company of Baltimore was formed. The Library, **a splendid collection of the best works of the day and age/' was lodged first in a private house and later in the Assembly Rooms. In 1798 its members numbered nearly three hundred (out of a population of about twenty-five thousand), and the printed catalogue of that date, in the words of a mod- em librarian, "covers in a well-rounded way the various branches of learn- ing, and might serve as a model for a similar catalogue at the present day." In 1809 the Library had increased to 7,000 volumes, and the membership had increased to 420, the standard of the books, many of which later be- came exceedingly rare, being maintained at a very high level. After a successful career of fifty years the Library Company ceased to meet the demands and needs of the community and wound up its affairs, giving its books into the care of the rising Mainland Historical Society, on condition that its members should be life members of the latter society. In 1912 only one member of the Baltimore Library Company survived, Mr. W. W. Spence. The Friends' Library, — The Friends' Library is located on the lot of the Friends' Meeting House, comer of Park avenue and Laurens street. Although containing not more than five thousand volumes, it exhibits sev- eral points of especial interest. The first suggestion that it should be estab- lished was made to the Meeting as early as 1799, and apparently it ¥ras initiated at that date, being, in that case, the second circulating library founded in Baltimore. It appears to have pursued its way, after the man- ner of Friends' institutions, without interruption, and with steady growth from this start with "one hundred dollars' worth of chosen books," having an appointed librarian and a definite home. Apparently, at an early date, it instituted also "a traveling library system for country meetings." In a fireproof rocwn it has a collection of over 300 volumes of manuscript rec- ords, in consecutive, complete series, of the Society of Friends, dating from 1672, and referring to the settlement of Friends in Maryland, Penn- sylvania and Virginia. The Medical Library, — ^The Library of the Medical and Chirargical *For many facts in this article the writer is indebted to the Seventh Annual Report of the State Library Commission, a commission established in 1902 for the promotion of libraries throughout Maryland. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 643 Faculty of Maryland (the State Medical Society) was founded in 1830.^ An annual appropriation from the faculty, devoted to the purchase of new books, amounted, during the next ten years, to an average of $200 a year. As many as two hundred and seventy books were imported by the faculty for this purpose during a single banner year. For older books, dependence was placed upon donations from members of the society. The physician who acted as librarian received a respectable salary, and it is preamble that the books were for many years displayed in the home of the inctunbent of this office. In 183 1 a fee of one dollar a year was required from each of the frequenters of the library, which grew rapidly throu|[h donations from its members, and was the center of medical life in the city. After the year 1838, when the legislature, in violation of the faculty's charter, threw open the doors of medical practice to all, however ignorant, who chose to enter upon it, the license fees on which the society depended for support fell off, the Library ceased to thrive, and physicians of tlie city lost interest in it. In 1850 there was a temporary revival of enthusiasm, and a catalogue, still extant, was printed. Later, a hall was secured for the books and for society meetings ; but the dissensions which accompanied the Civil War proved almost fatal to Library interests, and for a considerable time the books were boxed up for safe keeping. After many vicissitudes, mitigated by the devotion of a few lovers of medical literature, and after several removals, a very satisfactory Library hall was secured in 1886 on the lower floor of the Athenaeum Building, on the comer of St. Paul and Saratoga streets. From this date the Library grew rapidly in size, and in popularity with city physicians, obtaining p^enerous support from the treasury of the faculty, and receiving many donations of medical books from private libraries of members. In 1896 the faculty purchased a new home on North Eutaw street, where a hall was built for medical meetings, and attractive readings rooms were equipped for members by the Frick family, in memory of the late Profes- sor Qiarles Fridc, a surgeon of Baltimore, who lost his life in the attempt to save that of a patient. The development of the faculty in all its varied activities at home and throughout the State was so rapid, partly, no doubt, as a result of the estab- lishment here of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School, with the attendant impulse to all medical interests of the ccMnmunity, that the need of a new building, erected and equipped especially for its purposes became evident to all. The recent establislunent in the faculty of a more stable financial policy directed by a permanent board of trustees in the place of the democratic methods which in previous years had baffled the efforts of the wisest of its treasurers, stirred the members to greater bold- ness and self-reliance. A site for the new medical home was acquired on Cathedral street in 1908, and without aid from outside of tiie profession the handscHne building now occupied by the faculty was speedily pushed to completion. The Library is still, at its foundation, the center round which the in- dustries of the faculty group themselves. It is housed in a stack room of latest design, capable of shelving 60,000 books. On the same floor with the stack room are the librarians' offices, the journal room and a hand- somely equipped reading room. The number of books reported in 191 1 *Dr. Cordell, in his Medical Annals of Maryland, states that nine years before this date Webster^s Medical Library and Reading Room opened on Sharpe street, with an equipment of more than one thousand volumes. It was apparently a short-lived private enterprise. 644 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE was about 25,000, exclusive of duplicates. Every effort is made to keep the Library abreast of the times. Large donations of money are appro- priated by the faculty annually for this purpose, and voluntary associations of members, as in previous years, contribute generously toward the pur- chase of certain classes of medical publications. Some additional revenue is available for such purposes from donations received by the faculty at various times in its history. The Library rooms are so constructed and arranged as to be safe from any ordinary conflag^tion. Members of the faculty throughout the State can have books sent them for a limited period on payment of expressage both ways. Other Medicd Libraries, — ^The Medical School of the University of Maryland has a library numbering 13,000 volumes. Its nucleus was the private library of Dr. John Crawford, purchased by the faculty of the school in 181 3. Since that time several other important additions have been made, notably the private library of the late Dr. Barton Brune. The Johns H<^kins Hospital has a reference library of 10,000 volumes, and the Johns Hopkins Medical School a students' library of 5,000 vol- umes." Through the courtesy of the medical staff these carefully selected libraries form an important part of the literary resources of the members of the profession engaged in literary research. The Mercantile Library, — ^The Mercantile Library was formed in 1839, to afford of^rtunites for general reading and technical study to clerks in mercantile houses. It was located at the comer of Baltimore and Holiday streets, in the center of the business section. Its membership con- sisted of honorary members (apparently employers), and active members, whose voting privileges ceased when tiiey went into business for them- selves. In £e report at the end of the first year the president said : ''Di- rectors of the association, sensible that, while the colleges of the land afford to the professional man all the requisites for the attainment of the knowl- edge he seeks, none of them offer to the clerk, in a condensed and tangiUe form, that information which is requisite to make him an accomplished merchant : we are determined that this institution should supply this want." The library was to be a part of a sort of business college, witii classes and lectures which, the directors hoped would develop into "the first great Mer- chants' College in the country". The enterprise, however, became diverted from its original aims, and narrowed to the maintenance of a reading and circulating library, with more or less of a social element in it. As such it had considerable success. In 1848 it removed outside of the conunercial district to the Athenaeum building, which it occupied jointly with the Historical Society. It left this friendly shelter in 1880 for a location still more distant from its "clerks", and four years later was obliged for want of support to close its doors and offer its books for sale.* These books were kept together, and later were taken over by a new corporation, the New Mercantile Library, which will be described on another page. ' It is well known that the importance of a library of any sort is not at all com- mensurate with the number of volumes which it contains, but depends much more on die character of its books and their accessibility to those who need the information which they contain. Medical libraries are especially liable to become in time cluttered with useless material, such as the many-editioned text book which was originally com- {)iled in haste for the use of students in their recitations. In many of the older ibraries tihese old text books are the despair of the librarian. On the contrary, the writings of original observers and thinkers preserve their value to all time. * In i88a a society was formed for the purpose of loaning useful books to the youths of the city. Its library was called the Apprentices' Library. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 645 The Bar Library. — The Library Company of the Baltimore Bar (an association of lawyers in the city, members of the Baltimore bar) was incorporated by Act of the Legislature in 1840, and its first meeting was held in April of that year. Its home was in the old court house on Lexing- ton and Calvert streets, where the county commissioners who had charge of the court house fitted up a small room between the superior court and the court of common pleas for the books. These books were purchased from moneys collected as subscriptions or as dues. The Library was open to members, and to others by permission.^ The first catalogue, by Mr. J. C. Dory, in i860, is still extant. The first president of the company was Hon. John V. L. McMahon, the leading constitutional lawyer of Maryland, and author of the charter of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, after which all railroad and express company charters have been modeled. He presented a record book in which all the proceedings of the Library Company were kept until 1904. The first board of directors were : J. V. L. McMahon, George W. Dobbin, George William Brown, I. Nevett Steele, Hugh Davey Evans and John M. Campbell. The nucleus of the Library was made up of books donated from the private libraries of these gentlemen, which still remain in posses- sion of the company. During the erection of the new court house the Library was for five years located in the Equitable building. In July, 1900, on completion of the new Baltimore City court house, the books were moved to the new library room in that building, and the Library was formally opened with a total of 17,000 volumes on its shelves. The members at this date numbered forty-four. In its new location the Library grew rapidly. In 1912 there were 32,000 choice volumes on the shelves, and the membership numbered nearly eight hundred. Donations have been received of $3,000 in 1904 from Charles Alfred Welch, a leader of the Boston bar, formerly resident of Baltimore, and of $5,000, given in 1878, but not yet available, for the establishment of an alcove in memory of the donor, Mr. Orville Horwitz. Among the rarer contents of the Library are: Colonial Reports of Decisions, Digests, and Statutes of Maryland; Statham's Abridgement (of English Court Decisions), the first law book known to have been printed; Trott's Laws of British Plantations of America, 1721 (the only other copy in America is in the Maryland Diocesan Library) ; Caroli Molinaei (by D. D. Gothofredi), 1613, folio, Paris (the librarian has been unable to learn of any duplicate of this work). The court house, in which this Library is located, was only slightly damaged by the g^eat fire of Baltimore, and may therefore be certified as fireproof. Odd Fellows^ Library. — ^This library was established by the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows of Maryland in 1840, having been assem- bled during the four years preceding through donations of "good moral" books and of money from lodges and from individual members. The funds for its maintenance are raised by voluntary contributions from lodges. Books may be taken out by subscribers. In 191 1 it contained about 30,000 volumes. The Maryland Historical Library. — ^The Library most distinctively Baltimorean in character is that collected and owned by the Maryland His- torical Society. It was organized in 1844 by a number of cultured and pub- *For these facts the writer is indebted to the courtesy of the librarian, Mr. Andrew H. Mettee, who, since his appointment in 1899, has earnestly labored to im- prove the collection. 646 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE lie-spirited citizens, who felt the necessity of "collecting and preserving material relating to the history of the State, and of arousing in their fellow- citizens an interest in historical study." Its home has always been in the (second) Athensum Building, on the comer of St. Paul and Saratoga streets, in which it has now complete ownership.* The Library is entirely a reference library, accessible only to its sub- scribers and to those admitted for special lines of investigation by the (^cers of the Society which owns it. Its early collections of historical material were reinforced in 1855 ^y ^^ possessions of the defunct Balti- more Library Company, amounting to 12,000 volumes of well-chosen books. From its foundation it was a depository of the documents issued by the United States government, of which it has an exceptionally com- plete collection. These are arranged so as to be easily accessible. In 1882 the Historical Society became the custodian of the Provincial Records of Maryland, which were then removed from Annapolis and placed in a fire- proof room in the Athenaeum. In this fireproof room are also placed for security the Calvert Papers, a large collection of family manuscripts bought by the Society from a descendant of the Lords Baltimore. In the Library are many interesting historical portraits and several small collec- tions of manuscripts, donated or purchased, from time to time, such as the Bland Papers, Gist Papers, Hill Papers, and the Gilmor collection. The Society has copied out and indexed the records of over forty old Mary- land churches. The publications of other historical societies are r^^larly received, and the collection of newspapers and books bearing upon Mary- land history is very large and important.* The Society's own Journal and research publications (made possible by a small endowment in 1867 from Mr. George Peabody) are a valuable part of their literary assets. The Peabody Institute Library. — ^This great reference library was founded in 1857 by George Peabody, an American banker, then resident in London, who had made a considerable part of his large fortune in Bal- timore. Within ten years after its foundation he had endowed it, in common with the other departments of his Institute, to the extent of a million and a quarter dollars. The Library, however, was to have the first place in his generous scheme. Mr. Peabody, ''recognizing the need of a great collection of books for scholars, desired that the library should not be organized after the usual plan of a public library, nor of the circulating library, but that it should be a treasury of learning contained in books not ordinarily obtainable in the private libraries of the country". Without haste, without rest, the twenty-five original trustees, friends of Mr. Peabody, laid broad and deep the foundations of this collection of chosen books, which in 191 1 reached a total of nearly 200,000 volumes. These represent an expenditure of half a million of dollars, only the income 'The first Athenaeum is described on the page devoted to the Maryland Insti- tute. The relations, if any, between the first Athenaeum promoters and those who erected the second, are not given by annalists. It is probable that after the destruc- tion of their building b^ fire the earlier promoters turned their moneys into the fund which the Maryland Historical Society was raising toward the erection of a building for housing literary societies. In the account of the impressive inau^ration of this new Athenaeum in 1847 it is stated that it was "the free ^ft of the citizens of Balti- more to the Maryland Historical Society." There are indications that the Mercantile Library Association, which became joint occupant of the building in the following year, had some share in its promotion and ownership. For a short time, just before its disbandment, the Baltimore Library Company was housed on a floor of the Athenaeum. * It is almost incredible that this great Historical Library, of 45,000 volumes and 100,000 pamphlets, should be allowed by the community, whose past it treasures and cherishes, to continue in an antiquated building without sufficient protection from fire. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 647 from the endowment being used. In 1879 ^^ addition was built especially for the Library, capable of holding 500,000 volumes, and the books were moved into it. Several donations of valuable library collections have been received from scholarly citizens of Baltimore. Great care is taken to pre- serve the standard of excellence set by Mr. Peabody, and to exclude all books which are neither scholarly nor useful to scholars. An undated circular states the distribution of 127,000 volumes as follows: History, 42,000 volumes; Literature and Science, each 30,000; Theology and Church History, 10,000; Encyclopaedias, 8,000; Fine Arts, 5,000; Music, 2,000; and Philosophy, 2,000. Archaeol(^;y, works on Ori- ental literature, the Greek and Latin classics, philology, voyages and travels of ancient and modem times, are each largely represented. Works which have been jealously guarded as unique treasures in one or another of the public libraries of England or France have been reprinted by subscription, and substantial copies have been secured for the Peabody. The printing clubs of England and Scotland, such as the Spencer Society, the Chaucer Society, the Early English Text Society, the Fuller Worthies Library, pub- lishing choice literary gems from private libraries, are also well repre- sented. The Library has been carefully catalogued from the beginning, and is recognized by Uie great scholars of America as a valuable aid to their studies. Its priceless contents are cheerfully placed at the disposal of all lovers of literature and research in Baltimore. The Library of Loyola College. — ^This Library began to take definite form probably in 1869, when the Rev. James Dolan, of St. Patrick's Church, Baltimore, willed a great many miscellaneous books to the coUege.^^. Since that date a number of private collections have been donated. One of the most recent of these was the gift by Dr. Louis Knight of a number of mis- cellanous books, together wiSi medals and other precious articles. The total number of volumes in 1912 was estimated at about thirty thousand volumes. The Library contains many books of English Literature, Sacred Biography, Latin and Greek classics — Catholic Philosophy, Theology and Holy Scripture, most of these in Latin. It is not regularly a circulating Library, outside of the college. It is stated in the Historical Sketch of Loyola College, prepared by the Rev. John J. Ryan, S. J., for the Golden Jubilee of 1902, that the earli- est home of the College, on HoUiday street, contained no library, and that in 1899, when an extension of the buildings on Calvert street was erected, suitable library accommodations formed a noteworthy feature of the college development, consisting of "a well-lighted Library, spacious enough to ac- commodate the large number of books of the college, and many more that may be added". The Diocesan Library, — ^The Diocesan Library of the Protestant Epis- copal Church is located on Madison avenue, near Preston street. Its nu- cleus was formed by the convention of this church in 1871, when it accepted from the late Bishop Whittingham his offer to make over to the church his private library, with a building containing it, on condition that the Library (which he wished to bear the name of Stinecke Library), with its house, should be secured forever to the use of the Bishop of Maryland and his successors. The library building was erected mainly out of a legacy be- queathed to the bishop by Mr. Henry Stinecke. "* These statistics are contained in a personal letter from the Rev. Father Ryan — the only answer to letters of enquiry addressed to many Roman Catholic institutions of Baltimore reported to have important library collections. 648 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE At the time of Bishop Whittingham's death, in 1879, the Library con- tained 12,000 volumes. As it grew in size, through legacies from clergy- men and others, particularly one of 8,000 volumes from Rev. E. A. Dal- rymple, a building next door to the original Library was remodeled to con- tain the additions, the Stinecke Library remaining in the old building. Among the 30,000 volumes now on the shelves are "more than forty pieces of incunabula (published in the very dawn of printing, before A.D. 1500) , eighty other volumes printed in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, a superb collection of early liturgical literature", and numerous records, in manuscript or printed, bearing upon the colonial history of the church in Maryland. Many books of minor value are loaned to clergy of subscribing parishes. The incunabula, letters of bishops, and other literary treasures of especial value, are kept in a fireproof vault recently built for their preserva- tion. In this Diocesan Library may be seen (among the old books of St. Paul's Parish) about forty-five volumes from the library which were ob- tained for that parish by the Rev. Thomas Bray, and sent by him from Eng- land at about the beginning of the eighteenth century. The fact that this diminutive parish library was the expression of a deliberate purpose to supplement the rather meager education of the clergy in other branches of learning besides theology ^^ justifies its mention as the earliest Baltimore library which has survived to the twentieth century. The City Library, — ^This municipal library, located at the City Hall, was organized in 1874 in pursuance of an ordinance of the mayor and city council. In this ordinance the city librarian, who is head of this department, was authorized to take charge of all books, documents and archives of the city." The scope of the collection is limited in some degree to literature concerning Baltimore and Maryland, their history, laws, municipal affairs and relics of early days. Its 20,000 volumes form an excellent municipal reference library, affording information of all sorts concerning the city government, reports of the various city departments, ordinances of the mayor and city council from 1797 to date, council journals and State re- ports, with a comprehensive index of books and data. The Library staff are well informed in matters municipal, and expect to assist in making extensive researches for inquirers.^' Books are loaned to responsible persons. The City Library is a depository of the Government Printing Office, and receives all of its publications. The original plats of the city are found here, with the proceedings incident to the opening of streets. The picture gallery connected with this Library deserves mention here, for the reason, as the librarian justly remarks, that it is "not Art, but History". In the two thousand prints, pictures, and photographs of this valuable collection which cover the walls of the library rooms and overflow into adjacent corridors, may be traced the growth and develop- ment of Baltimore from its beginnings in colonial days to the present time. The librarian is greatly interested in the development of this gallery, "For details of this noble enterprise of Rev. Dr. Bray, which embraced every parish in Maryland — St. Ann's, in Annapolis, receiving more than one thousand choice volumes — ^the reader is referred to the work of Rev. Theodore C. Gambrall on Church Life in Colonial Maryland. ^In addition to his library duties the librarian has the charge of purchasing all supplies for the city departments in the line of stationery, printing and blank books, being responsible for the expenditure of about $20^000 a year in addition to the $5,000 appropriated to the Library. ''These facts concerning the history and conduct of the library have been fur- nished the writer through the courtesy of Mr. W. F. Coyle, the librarian. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 649 which, being in a reasonably fireproof building, offers an excellent deposi- tory for old family treasures of this sort. Old city records and plats which have become dilapidated are restored without leaving the library rooms. In addition to his other labors, the librarian, as shown in his annual reports, has issued a Handbook and Guide to the City of Baltimore, and a series of Records of Baltimore, in five volumes, covering the records of Baltimore and Jonestown from 1729 to 181 3, and the Records of City Commissioners — general, special, and precinct — from 1797 to 1817. Johns Hopkins University Library. — When the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity was established in 1876, considerable discussion arose as to the equipment of its Library. The proximity of the great student library of the Peabody Institute, on the one hand, and of the popular Enoch Pratt Foundation, on the other, made it evident that any effort to duplicate these collections would be unwise. The University Library, was, therefore, lim- ited to the special needs of University students. For a considerable num- ber of years the books were kept together in one hall, but in time they became, to a large extent, distributed among the numerous departments throughout the university buildings, each important department or semi- nary having its own little library of books easily accessible. A single library committee, however, controls and purchases for the whole, on request from the heads of the departments. In the total of 134,000 vol- umes are included many valuable private collections of eminent American and European students, donated or acquired by purchased. Among these are the Rowland Memorial Library of Spectroscopy, the Dillman Oriental Library, the Strouse Library of Semitic Literature, and the Abbe Library of Meteorology — ^the collection of Professor Bluntschli, of Heidelberg (presented by German citizens of Baltimore) ; a collection of works on the labor question, forming through the ^ifts of a citizen of Baltimore; a collection in Southern literature and history; the Bimey collection of works on slavery; the Creswell library on international arbitration; the educational and historical library of the late Professor Adams. The Uni- versity Library is supported by annual appropriations from the trustees, having no separate endowment.** The Enoch Pratt Library. — Enoch Pratt, a wealthy citizen of Balti- more, established in 1882 the great, many-branched free circulating library which bears his name. The manner in which he set about this beneficent enterprise was in several respects deserving of attention. He was deter- mined not only to bestow upon the city a great benefit, but to make every taxpayer to a certain degree a stockholder in his libraries, and also to ensure the establishment of the enterprise in accordance with his own wishes. He therefore presented his plans to the mayor and city council at a period in his career which gave him, as events proved, fourteen years for the personal direction of the work. In 1882 he offered to the city a library building and money, to a total of a million of dollars, on condition that the city would in return pay toward the support of the Library annually $50,000. This proposition was accepted by the citizens at the next elec- tion. A managing board of trustees, self-perpetuating, was appointed by Mr. Pratt, and in 1886 the Library was opened, with 32,000 volumes on its shelves. Mr. Pratt apparently thought his endowment sufficient for all future ^ For an account of the Johns Hopkins medical book collections see under "Medi- cal Libraries." 650 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE needs, as he willed the residue of his fortune to a hospital, but this expec- tation was not realized. As the city grew, many branch libraries were established, each supplied with several thousand volumes, with the privi- lege of drawing on the Central Library for others. Aid from private sources was received in the establishment of sev- eral of the branches. That in Woodberry and Hampden was donated by citizens of that thriving milling suburb, headed by Mr. Robert Poole, who had since 1886 conducted there a free reading-room and circulating library at his own expense. Upon his solicitation, also, a room in this branch library was rented to a savings bank, for the encouragement of thrift among the readers. In Walbrook, another suburb, the branch library was housed first in a public schoolhouse, then in a street railway waiting station, then in a donated frame building formerly used for re- ligious services. Another branch library, near Fort McHenry, was located first in a cigar store, and then in a Social Settlement building. Aid in the establishment of still other branch libraries was received from the (woman's) Arundel Good Government Qub, from the Old Town Mer- chants' and Manufacturers' Association, from the Maccabeans (Jewish) and the Daughters in Israel, from St. Paul's Guild House Association (Episcopal), from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, from the city, and from other sources, all of which testified to the widespread appreciation of the foundation and its work. In June, 1905, the Library began sending books for the blind, to be read by touch, tfiroughout the State. The collection of books for the blind in the Library is one of the first circulated in the United States. Boxes of books were sent to public and private schools, reformatory institutions, Sunday schools, playgrounds and clubs, postoffices, police sta- tions, as a desire for them beoune manifest. The growth of the work became so rapid that it was evident that the endowment of Mr. Pratt could not meet its demands. In 1906, therefore, an appeal was made to Mr. Carnegie for aid. Mr. Carnegie responded favorably, stating in a letter that *'Enoch Pratt was my pioneer — I visited him, saw his Library, and then gave Pittsburgh the Institute. I owe much to Baltimore, and am grateful for the kind fate which has enabled me to make some return". He offered to give $500,000 for the erection of twenty branch libraries on city lots to be maintained out of the city treasury. This was accepted. In 1910, $20,000 were appropriated by the city out of the taxes for the equipment and maintenance of the branch libraries already established. In 1 91 2 the Enoch Pratt Library, including its thirteen branches and two ''stations", was reported to have on its shelves or in circulation a total of about 300,000 volumes. The New Mercantile Library. — ^The books and other property of the old Mercantile Library (the remarkable deviations of which from its origi- nal purpose, and subsequent failure are described on another page) were bought by a number of public-spirited citizens at the suggestion of the late President Daniel C. Gilman, and an effort was made to resuscitate it. When this effort failed, a new enterprise with a new charter assumed in 1886 the old title and took over the old books. The original "mercantile" aspect of the institution was by this time, however, completely forgotten, and tiie New Mercantile Library proceeded frankly as a circle of upper class lovers of light literature, with a cosy reading-room and a well-devel- oped system for circulating the newest books among .its subscribers. The new library was an immediate success, having at the end of its first year more than a thousand subscribers. It numbers 75,000 volumes. DRAMA, THEATRES, AND MUSIC Henry G. Shepherd, LL.D. The dramatic instinct had begun to reveal itself in America long- before the close of the colonial era. Thomas Godfrey (i 736-1763), a native of Philadelphia, and son of the Godfrey who invented the quadrant in 1759, published the 'Trince of Parthia", a work of more than ordinary merit, which may be regarded as the first distinct utterance of the dramatic muse upon American soil. Among those who were marked by a strong passion for the theatre was George Washington, but the opportunities for the gratification of his taste for the drama had not been developed except in crude form, so that he died without being able adequately to indulge that which was probably his most marked intellectual or literary tendency. Maryland was one of the earliest States to develop and cultivate the dramatic spirit. As early as the middle of the eighteenth century (1752) a theatre was in active operation at Annapolis, one of the plays put upon the stage being Gay's unique and unfading fantasy, ''The Beggar's Opera". "The Merchant of Venice", and Farquhar's "Beaux Strategem", were also included in the program of 1752. The troop of players which acted at Wil- liamsburg, Virginia, as well as at Annapolis, was known as Mr. Lewis Hallam's Gmipany, or the American Company, having been brought to Virginia in May- June, 1752. These two ancient and historic cities, Wil- liamsburg and Annapolis, afford the first distinct and clearly defined exam- ples of theatrical development within the colonial period of American history. From an early day the theatre was a recognized institution in Balti- more. In 1773 ^ large warehouse that stood at the corner of Baltimore and Frederick streets was at times improvised into a theatre, in which the company of Messrs. Douglass and Hallam played to the audiences of the fast vanishing colonial epoch. So marked was the encouragement re- ceived by the company that it induced them to erect a small theatre at the comer of Water and Albemarle streets, where they continued their per- formances until the coming of the Revolution, 1775. All dramatic amuse- ments behig then placed under the ban, they withdrew to the British West India Islands. In 1781, the year which marked the closing stage of the Revolutionary struggle, die first theatre built of brick was erected in Baltimore. It was on East Baltimore street, nearly opposite Lloyd street, and was formsdly completed during Christmas week. On the 15th of January, 1782, its announcements were made in the press of the day. Shakespeare's "Henry VI." and a farce of "Miss In Her Teens", were conspicuous among die inducements offered the playgoer. The plays of Otway, the comedies of Farquhar, and the farces of Foote, were eagerly sought after. No character was in greater demand than that of Jerry Sneak. In 1786, several years after the restoration of peace, Messrs. Hallam and Henry, who had returned to America, erected a new theatre near Pratt and Albemarle streets. It was formally opened on the 17th of August. The season was introduced by that peerless comedy, "The School 651 652 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE for Scandal", which seems to have been presented with rare skill and suc- cess, and to have produced a profound impression. All the appointments, scenery, decorations, etc., of this new theatre, represented the most ad- vanced stage which artistic taste had at that time attained. The year 1794 marks another notable development in the history of the theatre in Baltimore. On the 19th of the month, the New Theatre of Messrs. Wignell and Reinagle announced that there remained only five shares, $100 each, of unappropriated stock. The company contained actors and actresses whose fame had passed beyond local limits. Perhaps dis- tinguished above the rest of the troupe was Miss Oldfield. The Maryland Journal extols the New Theatre in language which may be described as high flown and grandiloquent in a marked degree: the style is distinctly sophomoric. The nature of the plays presented is inferior to those that had appeared in the earlier theatres. John P. Kennedy, who was bom in 1795, has left on record his childish impression of the new playhouse, conveyed with his characteristic charm and sweetness of style. It is an exquisite idealization of the theatre as it was revealed to the eye of youth, but youth dowered with the gift of discernment and the faculty of divina- tion. On May 10, 1813, another New Theatre (known to all the world as the Holliday Street Theatre) and erected by Colonel Mosher, b^[ins its long and distinguished career. In the retrospect of a century, it still holds the field. The managers were William Warren and William Wood, who, like the famous manager of the Shakespearean age, also wrote "Rec- ollections of the State". The Holliday Street Theatre did not enter upon its regular career until September, 1813, as the completion of the building had been delayed for several months. Upon its stage was sung in public ''The Star Span- gled Banner", which had its inspiration in the unsuccessful attack of the British fleet upon Fort McHenry, September 13th. The song had all the charm and freshness of novelty, and, though called for night after night, it seemed never to lose its magic or to be touched by a suggestion of weariness. This auspicious incident gave the theatre a fame that speedily became national in its range, and carried its renown even beyond the seas. Every American actor, and celebrities of the European stage, aspired to appear upon its boards. John Howard Payne, whose "Home, Sweet Home" has passed into the consciousness of the language, won at Holliday street his title of "Young Roscius"; and here George Frederick Cooke, then in the maturity of his greatness, and Edmund Kean, supreme lord of the Shakespearean drama, Macready, the cultured and philosophical, upon whom "Shakespeare's bland and universal eye, looked down well pleased, a hundred years and more", all contributed in ripe measure to the new and broadening dramatic light. Nor does this enumeration more than faintly suggest the increasing glory of the old Holliday Street Theatre. There appeared the elder Booth, the father of a race of actors, one of them, at least, unexcelled in all the annals of the stage ; Forrest, Fanny Kemble, Ellen Tree, Cooper Vanden- hof the elder, Murdoch, Burton, Charles Kean, the elder Wallack, and the elder Jefferson, father of the adored and inimitable "Bob Acres" and "Rip Van Winkle". In times more nearly approaching the present, there were seen upon its boards such stars of histrionic and vocal art as Owens, Qarke, Davenport, Holland, the Florences, Laura Keene, Maggie Mitch- ell, Ristori, Charlotte Cushman, Mario, Bosio, Grise, Sontag, Patti, Picco- lomins, and Madam Bishop. In September, 1846, the Holliday Street Theatre became involved in HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 653 legal complications which led to the closing of its doors in accordance with an injunction issued by the chancellor of the State, at the instance of Mendes I. Cohen, one of the original subscribers. In consequence of the financial embarrassment in which it was involved, this charming center of the dramatic muse remained for a series of years in a state of suspended animation. Every attempt to extricate and restore it seemed only to ren- der the situation more acute, and for nearly a decade the most popular home of the drama in Baltimore stood cold and unfrequented. In the autumn of 1854 an association of |[entlemen who were possessed of wealth as well as enterprise and the spirit which appreciates and fosters the de- velopment of culture, in both the literary and artistic sphere, purchased the theatre and refitted it upon an elaborate scale at an expense of $12,000. Brilliant actors were engaged, generous salaries were paid, but the genius of financial disaster still brooded over the enterprise, and the season closed with an actual loss of $15,000. On the I2th of August, 1855, a new era in the expansion of the drama arose in Baltimore. Upon that auspicious day, Mr. John T. Ford assumed the absolute control of the Holliday Street Theatre, which he purchased fifteen years later, 1870, for $100,000. An adequate impression of its advance in value under the direction of Mr. Ford may be formed from the fact that in 1856 it had been disposed of at public sale for $32,000. Nature had marked out Mr. Ford as an ideal theatrical manager. In addition to his unvarying affability, his genial humor, and power of adap- tion to circumstances or conditions, however varying, Mr. Ford was en- dowed with an acute and discriminating dramatic instinct. His taste was unfailing in its accuracy, his judgment at once grasped the salient features of a play, its fitness or its lack of fitness, to the demands of the stage and the fleeting fancy of the passing day. He may be pronounced, without a touch of overwrought eulogy, but with the calmness and simplicity of truth, the most gifted manager and perhaps the most successful, from a financial point of view, ever associated with the dramatic history of the city of Baltimore. The closing scene which marked the passing of the Holliday Street Theatre was tragical, and almost pathetic in character. On August 11, 18739 the season, which was doomed to so speedy and disastrous an end- ing, was introduced by a spectacular drama, "The Ice Witch", with every promise of brilliant and assured success. On September 8, "After Daric" was placed upon 'the stage, and repeated on the ninth. In less than five hours after die play had closed, the building was utterly destroyed by fire. It is a suggestive and almost prophetic circumstance that the last words spoken upon the boards of this historic theatre, were, "After Dark the Light Has Come". The fire also destroyed the City College, which adjoint the theatre. More than one leading dramatic light began his or her career at the "Old Drury", which had been so suddenly swept into darkness. It was rebuilt by Mr. Ford in accordance with designs more modem, but the ancient charm had vanished, and later structures, such as the Academy of Music and Ford's Opera House, have reduced it to a secondary and subor- dinate rank. The Grand Qpera House, which perpetuates Mr. Ford's name and memory, was formally inaugurated October 3, 1871, with impressive ceremonies and a crowded house. The address of welcome, written by Dr. C. C. Bombaugh, was delivered by Mr. Harry S. Murdock. The first play presented upon the new stage was Shakespeare's inimitable comedy, "As You Like It". Mr. James W. Wallack assumed the role of Jacques, 654 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE and Mrs. Caroline Richings Bernard, dear to the lovers of the opera, sus- tained the part of Rosalind. During this same season, the opera of ''Lu- cretia Borgia" was placed upon the boards of the new opera house, Parepa Rosa being included in the caste. The famous Wharton trial was then pending, and the opera excited more than usual interest, as Mrs. Whar- ton was referred to, in the current language of the time, under the name of the modem Borgia. The Academy of Music traces its origin to 1870. On the 22d of March the Academy was organized at the Mount Vernon Hotd, Dr. J. Hanson Thomas presiding, and Israel Cohen, Esq., actii^ as secretary. The stock was fixed at $300,000, the shares being $50 eadi, each iK^der of twenty shares and his assigns being conceded the privil^;e of a free seat at all dramatic and operatic representations, "so long as the stock was held in one block". The directors were Israel Cohen, William T. Walters, Thomas H. Morris, S. T. Wallis, A. Shumadier, A. J. Albert, W. F. Frick, W. P. Smith, Werner Dressel, Dr. J. Hanson Thomas, J. Hall Pleasants, and John Curlett. From an architectural point of view, the Academy of Music takes precedence of any similar structure in Baltimore, and ranks amcmg the foremost buildings of its type in the country. The fagade is especially im- pressive, and the interior is marked by grace, symmetry, a sense of ex- pansion, a comprehensive harmony which appeals to the imagination and presents every feature of the situation in the most attractive light Within die last two years. The Maryland, of which James L. Keman is proprietor, has been added to the theatrical attractions of Baltimore. llie "New Theatre and Circus", in later times known as Front Street Theatre, was formally opened September loth, 1829, under the manage- ment of Mr. W. Blanchard, and with strong promise of assured success. The number attending the first performance was estimated at 3,000. With notable exceptions, such as the elder Booth, the performers do not seem to have been of the first order, and the same general characterizaticMi may be applied to the plays presented. No one event in its history is more vividly remembered thian the visit of Jenny Lind to Baltimore, December 8, 1850. This queen of song gave four concerts at Front Street Theatre, for which ^e received $60,000. This incident keeps alive die memory of the Theatre, which long ago lost its dramatic association, and was devoted to political conventions and ceremonial assemblies. The city was aflame with excitement to see and hear the "Swedish Nightingale"; the theatre was opened hours in advance of the time fixed for the beginning of the per- formance, and Front street was a dense mass of surging humanity, min- gling wiUi vdiicles of every description. One who was present has de- scribed her charming girlish manner. As the curtain was raised, she ran like a child across the stage and took her stand in front of the audience. The advancement of musical culture in Baltimore, considered apart f r<»n personal or individual enterprises, such as the Oratorio Society, and directed by institutions or associations designed for its promotion, has been for tfie most part represented by the Concordia Opera House, de- stroyed l^ fire in 1890; the Lyric, and the Peabody Conservatory of Music. As the Peabody Conservatory is devoted to the higher phases of musical science and has been a potent agency in the diffusion of musical attain- ment in the critical sphere, it is entitled to especial recognition, even in a concise outline of musical development in Baltimore. The Peabody Conservatory, which is a coordinate department of the Peabody Institute, was opened for instruction of pupils October 12, 1868. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 655 Its original designation was the Peabody Institute Academy of Music. It I began its labor at what was then 51 Mount Vernon Place, a building be- longing to the Institute. During the first term, the enrolbnent was 93 ^ students in special branches (singing, piano, violin, harmony), to which a successful chorus class was added. The first director was Professor ^ L. H. Southard, of Boston; Professor B. Courlander, a native of Copen- ' hagen, and a musician of rare attainments and brilliant gifts, was in charge of the piano- forte instruction; Professor Southard, who is said to ^ have been admirably equipped for his work, directed the organ instruc- ' tion, harmony, and singing. Mr. Southard retired in 1871, and was sue- ' ceeded by Professor Asger Hamerik, a Dane by birth, and a musician of ^ the rarest capabilities. Mr. Hamerik was succeeded in 1898 by Dr. Harold Randolph. The Peabody Conservatory has for more than forty years i been a potent agency in elevating the musical standards that have pre- vailed in Baltimore. Its class instruction is distinguished by critical accu- racy and scientific method; its concerts and recitals have rendered access- ible the ripe fruits of musical culture, and have regulated as well as puri- fied the popular taste. Its influence as an educative influence can scarcely i be estimated too highly. For several years Sidney Lanier was a member : of the Peabody Orchestra. His mastery of the flute has been described t by Professor Hamerik in a passage of rare beauty and delicate apprecia- ; tion« No such phenomenon of musical genius blending into harmony with : a gift of verse and a subtlety of criticism, rarely surpassed, has been re- [ vealed to the modem world. CHARITIES AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS Clyde C. Rohr^ M. Sc. Of the early forms of charitable relief in Baltimore, the records are few and meagre, and chiefly to be culled from the columns of contempo- rary newspapers. These indicate that the work of charity, though unsys- tematic, was at least liberal. Prior to the city's growth to any consider- able size, the plan of almsgiving was doubtless that in vogue to-day in many small towns throughout the United States, f. e,, either by a church congregation or by an informal association, or more frequently through the generosity of well disposed and prosperous individuals. That churches have always taken a leading part in works of charity goes almost without question. Should any doubts be raised, there is to be found abundant proof to justify the conclusion. It is rare to find a church keeping record of its activities or expenditures along these lines, but, in the answer to every inquiry, the firm conviction manifested itself that the church had been doing tliat sort of thing from its earliest history. Many churches throughout Europe are to-day the chief centers of charitable expression, and are but doing that which has come down with them from primitive times.^ Hence we can safely attribute to their American off- spring the same customs. The benefactor, in the mediaeval period, doubt- less distributed most of his alms through the church as almoner. Lai^e sums of which no record was made were given within the present year during the rigorous weather, by liberal gentlemen for distribution by the clergy generally. In early times a custom prevailed among the police or watchmen of referring alms-seekers to the residences of charitably disposed citizens. The Sun, of December 21, 1848, contains an instance of where a police- man was approached by an apparently respectable female on a certain street. After hearing her story of privation and want, he sent her to tfie residence of a charitable citizen, Captain Hamill, where she was hospit- ably received and sheltered for the night. It appears she was an impostor, and abused her benefactor's hospitality by arising during the ni^t and making off with some valuable silverware belonging to the captains wife. This incident does not, however, adequately portray the general conditions of relief woric, as from almost the very beginning of its community exist- ence Baltimore has always risen to the demands upon its generosity. In 1756 many French neutrals, forcibly deprived of their pr<^rty in Nova Scotia, or Acadia, reached Baltimore. Some were received into private homes and others were quartered in Mr. Fotterall's deserted house. At first they were supported by public levies authorized by law, but after- ward supported themselves and were assimilated into the community. In 1769 Dr. Henry Stevenson devoted part of his mansion, "Parnassus", on the little York road, in the rear of what is now Baltimore city jail» to the purpose of an inoculating hospital, and opened it to all who applied. 'Trior to 1773 the relief afforded to the poor was determined by the jus- * Ijoch's Charity and Social Life, 656 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 657 tices, who levied annually from 400 to 1,200 pounds of tobacco for each person, and there were about 200 at this time who received the value of these levies themselves, or by the hands of some reputable neighbor, as was the practice in all the counties until within a few years."* The sys- tem was liable to great abuses, and had become very burdensome, so that the State government loaned £4,000 sterling to the county, and Messrs. Charles Ridgely, William Lux, John Moale, William Smith, Samuel Pur- viance (of Baltimore Town), and Andrew Buchanan and Harry Dorsey Goug^, of Baltimore county, were appointed trustees of the poor, with corporate powers, at the session of tfie Assembly in November, 1773. They erected an almshouse for the reception of the poor, and with it a workhouse for "reception and lodging" of vagrants and other offenders committed. The law constituting the trustees provided for the employ- ment of the poor, as well as the workhouse for the vagrants, and placed relief at the discretion of the trustees "affording no certainty to tempt idleness". "Experience soon proved the benefit of the system, and it has tmdergone (1824) no material change in tihis respect"* This combined almshouse and workhouse was first erected in the square formed by Eutaw, Biddle, Garden and Madison streets, or what was then the head of How- ard street. This move represents the first real attempt to organize or systematize relief. The following year finds the citizens very active in collecting and forwarding a shipload of supplies and necessities to Boston, reduced to straits by the effects of blockade. In 1798 a large amount of money, raised by subscription at a town meeting, was sent to Philadelphia, then stricken with yellow fever. The winter of 1779-80 was one of unusual severity, and the sufferings of the poor were very acute, and £9,000 sterling was subscribed by the more fortunate inhabitants to relieve the distress of the poor in their own homes. No record is had of the number of families helped, but at that time £9,000 represented a very large stun, and the aihount of relief must have been quite considerable and many families been benefited thereby. Just ten years later, the sufferings produced by a severe winter caused an association to be formed by Messrs. Caton, Van Bibber, A. McKim Townsend and others to carry on the manufacture of cotton jeans and velvets, so as to provide an opportunity for the poor to subsist through their own efforts. This fact is of special significance in determining the growth of the modem standards of benevolence. Here for the first time in Baltimore and probably in America, is a definite move taken toward raising dependence to independence. Baltimore Town again became the haven for French unfortunates in 1793, for in that year $12,000 was raised by private subscription for such as were destitute of 1,000 white and 500 black French refugees from Hi- spaniolia. The next year saw the establishment with funds from the State^ the city of Baltimore, and by private benevolence, of a general hospital "as a temporary retreat for the strangers and sea-faring people". This was bought in 1798 by the local committee of health, and maintained for a number of years by city and state appropriations. This hospital was built on the site now occupied by the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and was the fore- runner of Spring Grove, the State Hospital for the Insane. In 181 1 it was greatly enlarged by a grant from the legislature, while in 1814 it received many of 3ie wounded from the battle of North Point. The State ' Griffith's Annals, *lbid. 658 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE in 1828 assumed control of it and vested it in a corporation styled the "President and Board of Visitors of the Maryland Hospital". It was further enlarged in 1840, and devoted entirely to "lunatics and insane". It was removed to "Spring Grove" in 1872, after its site had been bought by Johns Hopkins. The last notable work of this century was the found- ing of the Charitable Marine Society in 1796. In the last year of the eighteenth century the Benevolent Society of the City and County of Baltimore was incorporated. It is an adjunct of St. Paul's P. E. Church, and was supported for years by ccHitributions fn»n St. Paul's and Christ churches. Through legacies, however, and in- crease in the value of its real estate holdings, it has an income bearing capital of $200,000, besides owning its buildings at Charles and Twenty- fourth streets. Its object is the care and education of destitute girls. The population of Baltimore at this time had greatly increased, num- bering 26,114 in 1800, and the various foreign nationalities were banning to differentiate their several social and charitable activities, and the decade following 1790 finds many societies and organizations springing up. Even prior to this there is every reason to presume that racial ties attracted and bound the various small groups of foreigners into small ccnnmunities, and the more unfortunate received much at the hands of their fellow country- men. In 1786 a sufficiently large colony of Jews lived in Baltimore to justify the purchase of a cemetery. Since Mosaic times the Jews have maintained regularly in a synagogue a means for the distribution of charity, even in small communities, and Baltimore surely was no exception. In the first two decades after 1800, the following societies were or- ganized for the specific purposes of caring for foreigners or their de- scendants: The Hibernian Society of Baltimore, a non-sectarian, non- political association, "to advise, assist, redress and protect every native of Ireland or descendants of such or relict of any member of the Society" ; and the Society of St. George, to relieve emi|^rants from England, were started in 1803. In 1806 the St. Andrew's Society began its long and use- ful career. It received its charter in 1816, a full year before the Hibernian Society and the German Society, which had been active since 1784. These decades, aside from giving birth to the foreign organizations named above, stand out in clear relief for the number of other charities brought into existence and for their lasting character, no fewer than twelve of which are still in existence. They include orphanages, aged people's homes, schools, hospitals and other elemosynary institutions. The Baltimore Orphan Asylum, chartered in 1801 as the Female Hu- mane Association Charity School, had probably existed several years prior to incorporation. Its name was later changed to the Orphaline Charity School, and in 1827 to Baltimore Female Orphan Asylum, while the l^s- lature of 1846 enlarged its powers, making it a male as well as a female institution. It is now (191^ located on Strieker street, near Lexington. The Anglican or Episcopal Church in 1806 established St. Peter's Sdiool and Orphan Asylum, with an endowment provided by Jeremiah Yellott and James Corry. A Roman Catholic orphanage, St. Mary's Female Or- phan Asylum, was organized in 1818 and chartered the next year. The schools of this period include St. Patrick's, a free school ohi- ducted by St. Patrick's Benevolent Society, organized by Rev. John Francis Moranville, a Roman Catholic priest, to educate poor females, irrespec- tive of their religious affiliations. This society also relieved the poor by alms, following their non-sectarian policy. John McKim, who died in 1817, devised $600 annually in ground rents to support a school under HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 659 guidance of the Friends' Society. The building erected by his son Isaac for the school, and opened in 1822, stands at the comer of Aisquith and Baltimore streets, and its chaste Grecian architecture, surrounded by more sordid neighbors, makes it a conspicuous landmark in East Baltimore. With these schools should be classed the Oliver Hibernian Free School, endowed in 1823 by John Oliver with a bequest of $20,000 for the educa- tion of the poor of both sexes, without r^[ard to religious tenets. It may be said to be the child of the Hibernian Society, Mr. Oliver being an ardent supporter of the principles of that organization. In 1808 the General Hospital was leased to Drs. Smyth and Mac« Kenzie for a term of fifteen years, and the lease extended in 1814 to twenty-five years, the city paying for public patients at a fixed rate. It maintained a general control over the institution by a board of five visi- tors. In this connection may be mentioned the Baltimore General Dis- pensary, formed in 1801 by Emmanuel Kent, Elisha Tyson, William Mc- Creery, Richardson Stewart and others, to furnish medical relief to the poor gratuitously. It received its charter under the above name in 1807, and had had up to that year 6,263 patients. Its present location (1912) is in a new and commodious structure just finished at the northwest cor- ner of Fayette and Paca streets. A second dispensary was incorporated by the legislature early in 181 7, but it long ago passed out of existence. Tlie venerable institutions at Calhoun and Lexington streets, the Aged Men's Home and the Aged Women's Home, owe their existence to the Female Humane Association organized at the residence of Bishop Carroll on January 7, 1802. Its early work consisted of the employment and relief of widows and the education of orphans. It was incorporated in 181 1 as the Humane Impartial Society, and each religious denomination in the cit^ was represented on its board of trustees. A very useful career was developed along these lines until 1850, when it was changed by an act of the legislature to the Baltimore Humane Impartial Society and Aged Women's Home, with enlarged powers. The idea of maintaining such a home seems to have been originated by Miss Margaret S. Purviance, a Baltimore lady deeply interested in charitable work. By a still further enlargement of its powers, an Aged Men's Home was added in 1864, ^^^ opened the next year. This decade is memorable also for the reason that the first distinct municpal agency for poor relief was formed. In 1818 the mayor and city council were directed to select from each ward of the city one "sensible and discreet" inhabitant as manager to the poor, with powers to commit indigent sick and defectives to the county almshouse. This constituted the local relief board, but no record exists to show whether or not they gave outdoor relief. This board is antedated, however, by one provided for in the ordinance of November i8, 1800, "To investigate the distress occa- sioned by the late prevailing fever". It called for a "sensible and discreet" inhabitant from each ward as manager of the poor to investigate the con- dition of the poor resident therein, and to issue recommendations to the board of health to any in real distress, for relief at the public expense. In 1822 ^e city supported 353 inmates in the almshouse and 94 out- pensioners at a small average cost monthly. "In this year the alms- house was moved from Madison and Eutaw streets to Calverton, where it was continued under the joint control of the city and county until 1858. Power to separate the management had been given in the Constitution of 1 85 1, but no action was taken for over six years. In 1858 the property at Calverton was offered for sale and bought by the county. The city then 66o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE leased it, but continued to share the cost of maintenance with the county. In 1861 the city assumed direct control, agreeing to maintain county pau- pers at a fixed rate. This arrangement continued until the establishment in 1864 of the city's great almshouse, Bay View." If the charity "instinct" has any marked characteristic, it is its ten- dency to soup and to soup-houses. There is no record of the first soup- house in Baltimore, but it is probable that the dispensation of charity here, as elsewhere, took this form at an early date. The very severe winter in 1804-05 brought a citizens' meeting, wherein visitors were appointed to solicit contributions and distribute charity. The resources gathered were soon exhausted, and the mayor, Thorogood Smith, prevailed upon the visi- tors to appropriate $100 to establish a soup-house. The ccxnmittee to put the plan in operation opened on January 23, 1805, in the rear of 2rj Harri- son street, a kitchen which was supported mainly by donations from the market people of Marsh Market. Scharf, the chronicler of Baltimore, records that in 1819 a society was organized for the gratuitous distribution of soup to the necessitous, and soon after one for the prevention of pauperism generally. Of the first of these we have the following record : ''In view of the dullness of busi- ness conditions and the severity of the winter, the mayor, Edward Jcrfin- son, called a public meeting, and the Baltimore Economical Soup Society was originated." The meeting was held in the mayor's office, November 6, and by-laws adopted governing it. ''Kitchens" were established in the vicinity of Marsh Market and elsewhere. Early in January of the same winter a "pay" soup-house, in addition to those already established, was opened at Frederick and Second, or what is now Frederick and Water streets. It proved a great success. The city's growtfi from 1820 to i860 was steady, and consequently quite a number of associations were formed to meet increased demands for charity. While new ones were formed, older ones were adapted to changing conditions. The municipality was especially active along these lines. The old managers of the poor were succeeded by the trustees of the poor, who took over in 1808 the almshouse from the county and man- aged it as a city institution, and who maintained a large number of out- patients, or pensioners. They also contributed liberally to organized soci- eties, besides maintaining pay patients in the various hospitals and asylums. This policy of aiding private charities, though liable to gross abuses, seems not to have been much abused, as we have no records of complaints con- cerning it; and surely if so, public-spirited men who have always been in existence, would have railed against it. The Maryland University Hospital was established in 1823 as the Baltimore Infirmary, to provide clinical instruction for the medical school then, as now, at Greene and Lombard streets. Prior to its founding, the clinics were occasionally held at the Broadway (Maryland) Hospital, men- tioned in a previous paragraph, and at the almshouse. The professors at the medical school, from their own private purses, raised $7,109, and bor- rowed $7,000 from the Bank of Baltimore to pay the cost of its construc- tion. The ninety-nine-year lease to the ground at the southwest comer of Greene and Lombard streets was taken in the joint names of Professors Davidge, Potter, Hall, De Butts, Baker, McDowell and Pattison. It grew from year to year, and at present enjoys a prestige surpassed by few institutions of its kind in the entire country. It opened a free dispensary in 1875. The period from the early 30's to the late 40's doubtless was responsi- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 66i ble more than any other for the largest growth of pauperism in the city's history. The village days when each man knew his neighbor had passed, and a community of comparative strangers had succeeded. Societies for relief had multiplied; churches, fraternal orders, volunteer fire companies, military organizations and secret societies had greatly increased in number, and practically all of them doing some charity work, and it is of small wonder that many unscrupulous persons found easy means of avoiding that great bugbear, work. We must bear in mind, too, that there was no cooperation in or coor- dination of charitable endeavor. Each organization worked as an inde- pendent unit, and the only limit to the profits of mendicancy were the beg- gar's ability to present a plausible excuse. Pauperism grew apace, and became so pronounced that early in the 40's serious men began to view it with alarm, and from that time until 1849 frequent reference is made in the columns of The Sun and The American to the growing evil. The crys- tallization of this sentiment in 1849 marks a new epoch in Baltimore's charity, and this year stands out as the pivotal one — in which the pendulum swung slowly back from riot and waste to order and conservation. In this year the organization of charitable effort took definite form. During the preceding thirty years Baltimore was twice visited by seri- ous epidemics. The plague of yellow fever in 1820 and the urgent need of nurses, brought from Philadelphia the first of that group of devoted w(Hnen, the Sisters of Mercy. They were again especially useful in 1833, when the city was stricken by the great plague of Asiatic cholera. Their work in behalf of the suffering has never since ceased here. Several of the largest hospitals are now conducted by them. In this period also began the real development of Jewish charity. As noted in a preceding paragraph, they doubtless, as has been their custom for ages, began their charitable operations on a small scale back in 1786. But it remained for the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, now the Madison Avenue Temple, formed in 1826, to give it an impetus that would send it on with increasing momentum. Dr. Blum, in his History of Jews in Balti- more, writes : **For over two decades the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation did the work that was later done by different benevolent societies." The "Irisch Chevra", said to have held services as early as 1832 at Bond and Fleet streets, was incorporated by the legislature in 1834 as the United Hebrew Benevolent Society, and boasted of a long and useful career ex- tending over a period of fifty years. With the increase in immigration and the multiplication of congrega- tions of Jews, it was found advisable to create agencies for the purpose of dealing exclusively with the needs of the poor and the sick, the orphans and the friendless strangers. For this purpose the Hebrew Humane Society was organized in 1^3. Nine years later the Hebrew Educational Society started its useful career. It now occupies a fine new building at Aisquith and Jackson streets, with a student enrollment of over 350 members. TTie modem or new epoch of Jewish charity began, however, in 1856, when the old Hebrew Humane Society was reorganized upon broader lines, with William S. Rayner as its first president. The Hebrew Hospital and Asylum Association also took life in this year, as did the Hebrew Ladies' Sewing Society. Both have had long and active lives. The hospital was erected in 1S6S on Monument street (opposite the Johns Hopkins Hospital grounds), as a shelter for the indigent and sick, by the Hebrew Benevolent Society; upon its completion it was turned over to the Hospital Associa- tion. These, with the Society for the Education of Hebrew Poor and Or- 662 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE phan Children, form the nucleus from which has grown the present splendid system of Jewish philanthropy. The Baltimore Sun, of November 30, 1848, contains the following editorial : "The Winter and the Poor. — ^Alreadv many families of the poor and the afflicted are dependent upon private benevolence tor those additional supplies to the domestic nature which the season makes necessary. Though ^e weather is bland and spring- like now and though it should continue so for a few weeks longer, we must of course expect some displays of the severity of Winter before next March. Our citizens have no doubt pretty generally laid in flannels and fuel : blankets upstairs and coals in the cellar, and with a market within a pleasant walk ot a frosty morning before breakfast, and money in both pockets, we hope they are generally able to take stem old North- man by the very beard. But before they take it quite cosily themselves, they have been in the habit of making an effort to provide to some extent for those who, by reason of adversity have been unable to provide sufficiently for themselves. And b^ond fpiestion the performance of the duty, though it may have been attended with some ittle disagrimens, has yielded zest to their own enjoyment." "Bv a concerted effort a snug little fund could be speedily collected and laid out in wood, which is perhaps the most important article of household comfort next to food. It is a thing too that involves a heavy expenditure for the poor, but himished with fuel there are few but find themselves able to struggle through the winter. In a city like Baltimore we do not hesitate to say, moreover, that something much more than this should enter into the contemplation of the philanthropists of the day. We should like to see the distribution of a good stock of articles of domestic wear and use among all the deserving poor, not as a gratuity but as a thing to which they have a natural right. And for all who choose to partake, there should be a daily provision of good, wholesome nourishing soup in some ward. The cost of all this to each individual capable of contributing would be in proportion to his means, but a very insignificant sum; yet the amount of 'aid and comfort' it would impart throughout that class of our fellow citizens who might be di^>osed to share it is incalculable." This editorial, together with letters from correspondents, probably had the effect of aggravating the conditions leading to pauperism, for the papers of this winter are filled with notices of benefits and collections for the poor, especially in the churches, the Methodists at this time being especially active. This conclusion, while not supported by direct evidence, is greatly strengthened by the letters of "Howard" and "Old Citizen", appearing in the correspondence columns of the dailies. They were direct^ particu- larly against the extravagances of the previous winter (1848-49). Their influence was of such character that the mayor called a meeting to devise some methods of relief. Prior to this meeting, or late in October, 1849, notices had appeared in The Sun, warning citizens against impostors in the shape of small boys soliciting charity b^ various false pretenses. The first resolution adopted at the citizens' meeting, November 8, 1849, contained the following : "Resolved, that the need for a remedy for existing system of poor relief is imperatively demanded, that such relief can be found only in a regularly organized and permanent association em- ploying efficient means, etc." The executive committee named by the mayor on this date consisted of the following prominent Baltimoreans : William McKim, George Brown, Rev. Sher Guitteau, William G. Baker, John W. Randolph, Thomas Kelso, Edward Laroque, William G. Harri- son, Joseph King, George W. Norris, John Wilson, James H. Carter, Ed- mund Prey, Otis Spear, John R. Kelso, Dr. John Farrenden, Dr. Thomas E. Bond, Charles Z. Lucas, George Dodge, David Creamer. This OMn- mittee met in the council chamber, City Hall, on November 13, and a sub- committee of Messrs. Carter, Wilson, Guitteau, Randolph and Farrenden was selected to prepare subjects for subsequent meeting. The Sun, of No- vember 14, reports as follows : HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 663 "We have recently reported the action of two meetings of our fellow citizens, having in view the object of affording relief to the necessitous poor whom we have amongst us. It appears to be a conceded point that although large amounts have been contributed heretofore, yet from the mode of distribution, many really deserving poor have failed to get relief, while those who have no claim on the community reaped the benefit. There has been want of system which has led to evils." This is followed by a description of the society which it was proposed to organize. On the 21st the special committee reported with the recom- mendation that the system then in use by the New York Association for the Relief of the Poor be adopted, and presented a constitution modelled after that organization. Two thousand copies were ordered printed and distrib- uted. On the following day Mayor Stansbury issued a proclamation call- ing for ward meetings to choose delegates to a general meeting in the coun- cil chamber to meet and confer with the committee chosen to provide the system outlined above. Five delegates from each ward were selected, and on December 3 about sixty persons, representing seventeen wards, gathered at the City Hall. Mr. Carter outlined the plans, the constitution was read and adopted. A subscribers' list was started and $469 collected that night. Thus came into existence the Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor. The organization was perfected on December 17, with John Wilson as president, George Brown, John R. Kelso, John King Jr., Captain James Frazier and Galloway Preston as vice-presidents ; Jesse Hunt, treasurer ; Dr. John Farrenden, corresponding secretary ; and Charles Z. Lucas, recording secretary. The board of managers was made up of three persons from each ward, while the active management was lodged in an executive committee of twenty members chosen from the managers, one from each ward. The first office was opened in the Franklin building, on North street. The education of the public alon^ correct philanthropic lines was attempted by the publication and distribution of a Visitor/ Man- ual, wherein the habit of indiscriminate almsgiving was characterized as inadequate and injurious, making for pauperism and vagrancy and urging its discontinuance. During the first eleven months, December 18, 1849, ^^ November 18, 1850, $8,69i6.97 was collected and $3,448.90 distributed. The balance was expended in wood for the next winter. The work was done entirely by volunteers, and appeared unsatisfactory from the outset, for in May, 1852, a resolution was passed acknowledging defects of volunteer service and recommending four paid agents for the four districts into which the city was to be divided, and that they be required to give their entire time to the needs of the poor. In October of this year the paid service began in the four sections, with a central office which was also under a paid secre- tary. The Society had in 1852 a budget of $13,735.64, and helped 3,716 families, or 12,603 persons. In 1858, 5,000 needy families, or 19,000 per- sons in want, were helped, while 3,900 different persons contributed to its funds. It may be remarked here that practically the entire income came from voluntary subscriptions, the city government donating but a small por- tion of it. The history of this society really represents the history of charity in Baltimore from its foundation in 1849 ^^^^^ ^^ organization of the Charity Organization Society in 1881. Its policy represented the ultimate ex- pression of the ''charity instinct'' in its time. It is doubtful if any organiza- tion ever exercised a greater influence upon the city's life in the way of philanthropy than did the A. I. C. P., and too much prominence cannot be given to its history. 664 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE A study of its reports reveals a very slight increase in its work during- the Civil War period, when much suffering in a city so close to the seat of war would naturally be expected. As a matter of fact, much want and privation did prevail, and the explanation of the above phenomena is had in the number of societies organized especially for the emergencies daily arising. So many different bodies were called into being and so much special work was done, that in a more extended discussion of the subject a complete chapter would be given to it. On account of the many regiments passing through Baltimore for dis- tribution to the various army corps, a number of citizens used to meet them at the depot and give them water and food. This led to the formation on January 28, 1861, of a relief association. Prominent in this movement were Archibald Stirling, William Robinson, William S. Rayner, Marcus Denison and John T. Graham. From giving relief to passing r^^ents, attention was turned to the families of Maryland soldiers. Supplies of various sorts were given them and hospital facilities for sick soldiers also were provided. A female auxiliary was soon formed, and did volunteer work, both in camp and hospital. Five thousand, four hundred and one Maryland families, or 21,604 persons, were aided in 1861, while, in 1862, $15,036,64 were expended for relief. This society continued in existence until the close of hostilities. At the suggestion of Mr. Goldsborough S. Griffith, early in 1861, the Baltimore Christian Association was formed to minister to the physical and spiritual wants of soldiers. It was the forerunner of similar societies in Philadelphia, New York and elsewhere. It ministered to both sides alike, and was a very popular movement, meeting ready response, alike from sympathizers of both sides. Much good was done at Camp Parole, Annap- olis, in the hospitals, and at the Confederate Prison Camp in St. Mary's county. Over $250,000 were expended during the war, and the balance given at the close of the war to the Soldiers' Home and the Union Orphan Asylum. In 1862 the mayor, city register, and city comptroller, as a committee, expended a large balance of the $700,000 bounty loan for the benefit of the families of all local volunteers. In 1864 the General Assembly authorized the city to raise an amount of money not exceeding $300,000 in any one year for the relief of families of those enlisted in the service of the United States as a part of the local military quotas. The ordinance provided, how- ever, for only $100,000 for continuation of relief to the families of soldiers then in receipt thereof. The city also contributed much relief through the various relief societies. Appropriations had been regularly made by the Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor since its organizaton, as it in reality was a child of the city, but the war seems to have furnished an excuse for other societies to secure city appropria- tions. Professor Hollander, in his Financial History of Baltimore, writes the following: "In 1864, probably as a result of the greater drain upon their ordinary resources from the prolonged militaiy operations, a number of private relief agencies made suc- cessful application for municipal aid. The action was promptly accepted as a precedent and within a decade indirect contribution to the support of dependent and defective classes had become the established municipal policy." The desolation and distress throughout the South after the war, was responsible for the formation of still other societies in the years inmiediately following the great struggle. Mr. Griffith, so active in the Baltimore Christian Association, was a leading factor in bringing forth the Maryland HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 665 Union Commission. On April 5, 1865, it was formed by prominent clergy and laity "to cooperate with the people of the South in rendering assis- tance to those in want and who had been impoverished by the ravages of war and to save by timely generosity the thousands of refugees whom the tide of war had cast upon our hands". At first it was auxiliary to that of New York, but subsequently became distinct and independent. In the twelve months of its existence, $12,402.64 in cash and an equal amount in supplies was distributed. In the same year (1865) the Baltimore Agricultural Aid Society was formed by Baltimoreans, irrespective of party, to supply the South, and particularly Virginia, with stock, farming implements and seed. Over $80,000 was raised and distributed. The largest outpouring of Southern relief came in 1866, when at the fair gotten up by Baltimore ladies $164,569.97 were raised and distributed among the Southern States. This fair was one of the most memorable ever held in Baltimore. Contri- butions came from all over the State, and included supplies of every de- scription. Even race-horses and prize stock could be bought. These represented the gifts of people who felt they could not contribute cash. In 1867 the State gave $100,000, to which was added over $21,000 in money by Baltimoreans, besides an enormous amount in supplies. Steam- boat and railroad companies transported these free of charge to the stricken States. Other miscellaneous societies with special objects in view were also organized during the war and the period immediately following it. The period from the founding of the Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor in 1849 ^^^^^ ^^^ close of the war is also marked by the establishment of some notable charities. Among them were the House of Refuge in 1849, ^^ Baltimore Orphan Asylum in 1853, ^^^ Home of the Friendless and the French Benevolent Society in 1854 (incorporated in i860) for relief of needy Frenchmen. Much of its relief is now (1912) £^iven through the Federated Charities. This year also witnessed the founding of another of Baltimore's famous institutions, i, e., the Union Protestant Infirmary at 15 16 Division street, free to those unable to pay. In 1857 ^^^ Sheppard Asylum was built. It was endowed with $66,000 by Moses Sheppard for the indigent insane, the capital to be accumulated at interest until a sufficient sum was reached, and further endowed with over a million dollars later by the late Enoch Pratt, when the name was changed to the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. The Protestant Episcopal Brotherhood of Baltimore for the care and relief of members of that com- munion was organized in 1856, and has had a long and useful career. In this same year the Church Home Society of the City of Baltimore was incorporated. It united later with St. Andrew's Infirmary, and in 1857 o*^" tained and occupied its present location. The building was orginallv the Wadiington University Hospital, but has been much enkirged since. While under the Protestant Episcopal Church, it receives patients without refer- ence to religion and maintains free beds in the infirmary. The war period saw the founding of the German Orphan Asylum in 1863, and the Samuel Ready School for Female Orphans in 1864 with an endowment of $400,000. In 1865, St. Joseph's House of Industry was founded by the Sisters of Charity of the Roman Catholic Church. Its very laudable purpose was to provide a home for girls grown too large for asylums, but still too young to be thrown upon the world without guidance. They were trained to useful and practical emplo3rments. It forms the last link in a chain of institutions under the Roman Catholic Church, whereby a foundling can be passed through successive stages of institutional care, 666 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE and, as it were, graduated into a useful career. It was for many years located at Lexington and Carey streets, but now occupies a magnificent home in the northern section of the city. Two hospitals, St. Agnes* Sana- torium and St. Joseph's Hospital, were founded respectively in 1863 and 1864, the former by the Sisters of Charity, the latter by the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. The fine building at Caroline and Oliver streets, occupied by St. Joseph's, was erected in 1871, while St. Agnes' Sana- torium was moved from the building on Lanvale street, given by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dougherty, to their present location in the southwestern suburbs in 1875. In 1864 the House of the Good Shepherd was established on Mount and Hollins streets, in the old Donnell mansion presented to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd by Mrs. Emily McTavish. Its purpose was "to reclaim and reform fallen and unfortunate young girls and children in danger of being led to ruin". It is one of the g^eat institutions founded by the Roman Catholic Church that have left their impress upon the community's life. Two years later the Female House of Refuge was located at Baker and Carey streets, with the same end in view. Botfi are used by the courts for the purpose of committing and incarcerating wayward white girls. The Homt for Fallen Women, founded as a sequence to the Female City Mission in 1869, and the Florence Crittenden Home, established at 837 Hollins street, in 1896, perform the same work for women, the difference being that the residence of their inmates at the homes is purely voluntary. Obviously it is impossible to mention each charity in this article, but worthy of more than a passing notice are each of the following: The Asylum for Aged Poor, founded by the Little Sisters of the Poor, at Chase and Valley streets, in 1869, and the Free Burial Society, endowed by Nathan Schloss for impecunious Jews. The last year of the war, 1865, saw the establishment in five parishes, "conferences" of what was destined to become the most representative Roman Catholic charity, the St. Vincent de Paul Society. These parishes were Immaculate Conception, St. Ignatius (Loyola College), St. Joseph's, St. Mary's (Cathedral), and St. Peter's. The society was incorporated in Maryland in 1869, having in view five objects — ^the practice of a Christian life, visiting the poor in their own homes and carrying succor in kind, pro- moting instruction, both elementary and religious among poor children, dis- tribution of moral and religious books, and to undertake any charitable work. It is a man's society, composed of volunteer workers. It now (1912) has twenty-five conferences in as many parishes. While each con- ference is essentially independent, it is affiliated with a central body. A Ladies' Auxiliary was organized in 1880 to assist in making and distributing clothing, caring for the sick and aiding unemployed to find work. In 1906 the Society established in an unfinished building belonging to St. Charles* College, near Catonsville, a home known as the St. Vincent de Paul Summer Home for Children. When the college near EUicott City was destroyed by fire in 191 1, it took possession of its place at Catonsville, thus ousting the Qiildren's Home. Since then this work by the St. Vincent de Paul Society has been temporarily abandoned. The home was for years erroneously known as "Qoud Cap '. The war period was notable for the activity of Roman Catholic charity in Baltimore ; for, besides the founding of St. Joseph's House of Industry and the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the celebrated industrial school for boys, St. Mary's, was organized. It began its career in 1866 as a charity industrial school and protectorate for destitute boys bereft of their parents HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 667 by the war. Mrs. Emily McTavish devised 100 acres as a site, and in 1867-68 a building was erected at a cost of $60,000. In 1874 its charter was revised and it became a quasi-public institution to provide a home, edu- cation and industrial training for orphan, destitute or incorrigible boys and to reform juvenile delinquents. The Xaverian Brotfiers manage it. When a good home or emplo3rment cannot be found for a boy leaving the institu- tion, he is sent to St. James' Home, which was opened in 1878 at High and Low streets, and maintained by the same order. In 1871 Henry Watson bequeathed $100,000 to the Children's Aid So- ciety on condition that it should bear his name. This society had been founded in i860 by Mr. G. S. GrifEth and others interested in prison reform work, who had found that many small children were committed to the jail or penitentiary for petty offenses, and there rapidly developed into hard- ened criminals. They therefore organized the Society to help them. Refer- ence is made in its first annual report to "stray" children wandering about the streets and begging as a means to existence. The Civil War period, when many husbands and fathers were drafted into the military service, leaving families to be supported by the mothers, greatly added to the work of the new society. Its chief object was to find homes for the many chil- dren who had become objects of public charity, and it was the first agency in the United States of which the sole function was the bringing together the homeless child and the childless home. In 1864 the courts began the practice of committing children to its care, which policy is yet (1912) in force. It was first incorporated in 1862, but reincorporated in 1872 to meet the conditions of Mr. Watson's will. Lar|;er powers were granted to it in 1876. The Maryland Children's Aid Society was incorporated in 191 1 to cooperate with it in rendering the same service to the counties which the ori^nal society gave to Baltimore. Soup-houses also formed a part of the relief work of the period prior to and including the Civil War. A famous one was established in January, of 1858, by Mrs. Thomas Winans, near Alexandrofsky, her mansion on Baltimore street, where the poor, frequently numbering 600 persons daily, were supplied with soup and in some instances fuel, under her own super- vision. In 1861 Mrs. George Brown established one in the rear of her resi- dence, Cathedral and Madison streets, and in the same year other private citizens opened a "kitchen" on Biddle street, near Madison avenue. This was reopened in 1863. During the 70's the highwater mark for soup-houses seems to have been reached, no fewer than three having been established by one organization, the Ladies' Relief Association, in 1873. In 1877 the German Relief Association had one at 10 Caroline street, while at the old Patterson mansion, near Lafayette Market, 1,000 persons were supplied daily. Since then there has been less recourse to them as measures of relief. The extreme weather of January, 1912, was responsible for the establish- ment of but one — ^that by a department store, for the obvious purpose of advertising. The period following the Civil War, when the return of prosperity greatly augmented the growth of Baltimore, saw a corresponding growth in the number of philanthropic agencies, especially hospitals and dispen- saries. Five general hospitals were established — ^the Johns Hopkins, the Baltimore University, the Baltimore City, the Maryland General and the Hospital of tibe Woman's Medical Collie. Each maintains free beds and free dispensaries. The largest of these and probably the most famous in the world is the Johns Hopkins, founded in 1873, on the site of the first General Hospital, by Johns Hopkins, with an endowment of $3,000,000. 668 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Connected with it is the medical department of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity. The university was also founded by Mr. Hopkins. Together they probably form, not from the standpoint of cost, but in the realm of educa- tional advance and influence, the greatest philanthropy of modem times. The hospital has received three large gifts in recent years — $500,000 from Mr. Rockefeller, to offset losses incurred in the great fire of 1904, and two separate gifts from Mr. Henry Phipps, of Pittsbur^^h, Pa. One is the Phipps Dispensary, and the other the Phipps Psychiatric Institute. It is the only hospital in Baltimore maintaining a social service department under a trained worken The Baltimore City Hospital, opened in 1875 ^ the Washington Uni- versity, is now called the Mercy Hospital, and is conducted by the Sisters of Mercy. In 191 1 a large annex, greatly enlarging its capacity, was dedi- cated. The institution is under medical supervision of the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons (successor of the Washington University), and is located on the "Old City Spring" lot, at the northwest comer of CaJvert and Saratoga streets. In 1910 the Maryland General Hospital passed from the control of the Sisters of Mercy to a corporation from the Methodist Conferences. Besides these general hospitals, a number have been established for special pur- poses. The principal ones in the order of their founding are, viz. : Mary- land Maternity, established 1874, at 113 West Lombard street; the building was destroyed in the great fire of 1904, the patients having previously been moved to the City Hospital; it now forms part of that institution. The Thomas Wilson Sanitarium ; the Presbyterian Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital ; and the Nursery and Child's Hospital. The Thcxnas Wilson Sanitarium was established in 1875 by an endow- ment of $500,000 under the will of Thomas Wilson, of Baltimore. Mt. Wilson, in Baltimore county, was purchased-, and improvements made. The special purpose of the sanitarium is to cooperate with all dispensaries and charitable institutions interested in the care of children, and to furnish a place for treatment and care of children under five years suffering from summer complaints. Besides this charity, Mr. Wilson endowed with $100,- 000 the Fuel Saving Society bearing his name, in 1880. Its activity is con- fined to receiving small sums of money in summer from the poor to assist in purchasing coal in the winter, and in aiding women to buy sewing ma- chines. This work has steadily increased, over 2,000 families having been helped in the purchase of coal, and 400 women in the purchase of sewing machines in 191 1. The Presbyterian Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital is chiefly supported by members of the Presb)rterian Church, but places no restric- tions upon admission. Since its founding in 1877, i^^ny thousands have been treated in its dispensary and free wards. All curable cases of trachoma in emigrants arriving at Locust Point on vessels of the North German Lloyd are treated at this institution, and paid for by the Steamship Company. The Nursery and Child's Hospital had its beginning in a room of the Maryland Maternite, as the Protestant Infant Asylum. It was incorporated under the present title in 1878, and established at Franklin and Schrocder streets, in the old mansion of the Schroeders. Wings were added to this property, and, together with the grounds, extends over an entire city block. The Baltimore Southern Dispensary was opened in 1870 at 106 West Hill street, for needy persons living south of Pratt and east of Fremont L. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 669 streets, including Locust Point. It is supported by subscriptions and by a share of the fines imposed upon "disorderly" houses.* In the same year the Aged Men and Women's Home for Colored People was opened at 214 and 216 West Lee street. Two years later the Boys' Home, at Calvert and Pleasant streets, and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, at Calverton, were organized. In November of 1872 the present grounds on Rayner avenue and a building were given by Mr. and Mrs. William S. Ray- ner, long prominent in Baltimore's charities. The building was burned in 1874. A new building was erected with the money received from insur- ance, and there was left a surplus of $13,000. The Kelso Home for Orphans of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with an endowment of $100,000, the Johns Hopkins Colored Orphan Asylum, and the McDonough School, were founded in 1873. The Hopkins Orphan Asylum b^^an its activities during the war as a shelter for colored children, notably contrabands (i. e,, negro slave refugees from the Southern States), and chiefly by efforts of members of the Society of Friends. After Mr. Hopkins' death in 1873, its management was assumed by the trustees of the fund for colored children, provided in his will. McDonough School, for the education of poor boys, is famous for its success. It was established through a legacy of John McDonough, a native of Baltimore, but for years a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana. He died in 1850, leaving $1,500,000 to be divided equally between Baltimore and New Orleans for the education of the poor. The war and litigation de- layed for years the execution of the trust. A board created in 1868 by the city to carry out the provisions of the bequest, bought in 1872 the farm of 835 acres in Baltimore county where the school stands, at a cost of $127,500. The endowment consists of $728,500 in Baltimore city stock, some land in Louisiana, and $80,000 from the estate of Dr. Zenus Bamum, given for the promotion of mechanical instruction and manual training. In 1875 the Free Summer Excursion Society began its free water trips for poor women and children. They are transported on the city iceboat to Chesterwood on the Patapsco. Here a farm of 16 acres, donated by Balti- more merchants in 1880, is kept for their benefit. The chief societies and homes founded in '78 and '79 are : the Society for the Protection of Children from Cruelty and Immorality of Baltimore City, the Decorative Art Society, St. Elizabeth's Home for Colored Children, and the Women's Industrial Exchange. The useful careers of these, in their respective fields, gives each a just claim to recognition as factors in the city's progress. During Ae seventies the matter of extravagance in relief giving, doubt- less a heritage of the war period, again came under discussion. Much criti- cism was leveled at the methods in vog^e, which, it was claimed, fostered begging and pauperism, this too, despite the fact that George W. Howard, writing in 1875, says, "Due to lack of tenement houses and the genuine spirit of benevolence, a street beggar is a rarity in Baltimore". (Howard, The Monumental City,) As in the 40's, this sentiment was destined to crystallize and evolve a 'The custom prevails in Baltimore of bringing into court, under indictments of the grand jury, the keepers of houses of prostitution and assessing upon them a nominal fine. These fines are collected through the sheriff's office and apportioned among such dispensaries as make sworn statements that 2,000 or more patients were under their separate diarge during the year, etc A growmg sentiment of opposition to this sjTStem has sprung up, due to agitation of the Anti-Vice Society, which makes the point that such fines are de facto licenses and that thus in a measure vice is legalized. 670 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE new epoch in the charity work of the city. This epoch was ushered in by the founding in 1881 of the Charity Organization Society. During these years, also, the municipal system of relief underwent a great change. In the early days of the city, ordinances appropriating money for various chari- table purposes were frequent. In 1820, $960 was appropriated to pay physi- cians for medicine given to the poor during tfie prevalence of yellow fever, while in 1821 Dr. J. C S. Monsur was granted $100 for services to the poor of Fells Point. Amounts representing from 45 to 65 cents per hundred on the tax rate were levied for the poor in the almshouses and for out-pen- sioners during the years from 1820 to 1845. The last appropriation for outdoor relief under the trustees of the poor was made in 1862, when $962 were expended. This form of relief seems then to have been given over to private organizations altogether, the dty in the meantime granting subsidies to these agencies. The Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, from its beginning in 1849, had received annually from the city sums of money ranging from $2,000 to $4,000. In 1875, by a decision rendered by Judge Alvey, of the Court of Ap- peals, the city was forbidden to make appropriations to private benevolences without a special act of the legislature. This decision was given in the case of St. Mary's Industrial School vs. George S. Brown and others. Appro- priations have since been made from time to time in accordance with l^s- lative enactments, the most recent being $5,000 annually to the Maryland Workshop for the Blind in 191 2. The decision, however, did not prevent the city from contracting with private institutions for the care of the sick and other public charges. The policy since then has been one of quid pro quo at a fixed per diem rate.^ The dissatisfaction with methods in vogue, and other circumstances, were responsible for the ushering in of the new era. The immediate in- fluence, however, was the attendance of Dr. Daniel C. Gilman, president of the Johns Hopkins University, at the Social Science Association at Albany in 1 88 1. There he heard a very interesting account of the London Charity Organization Society. Upon his return to Baltimore he called a few |^entle- men to a meeting in his office, and there the Baltimore Charity Organization Society was started. Judge William A. Fisher became its first president. It was incorporated in 1885. Among its principles were the giving of ade- quate relief and many special forms not within the province of existing organizations. It rapidly built up a system of investip^tion and registration of all cases in a central exchange. Among other activities was the publica- '"City Appropriations to Private Institutions." — Hollander, Finandai History of Baltimore, p. 244: "The experience of Baltimore in granting public subsidies to private chanties confirms in every detail the results attained in other American cities. The cost to the city was probably less than municipal institutions would have involved, but the bendlts derived were certainly less satisfactory. Municipal subsidies stimulated the ors[anization of unnecessary agencies and resulted in the wasteful duplication of institutions. The development of the system was, moreover, entirely unaccompanied by any of the checks upon which its successful working depends. No provision was made for thorough inspection of subsidized institutions or for systematic auditing of the accounts. The municipality had no voice in controlling the affairs of the institu- tions, including the terms of admission and dischaive. Finally the city appropriations were made in bulk and not on the principle of specific payment for specific work." Number of Year Institutions Estimated appropriation 1870 7 $22,000 1880 IS loo/xx) 1890 32 183,990 1896 51 277,275 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 671 tion of a charities directory from time to time, the last in 1901, and the education of the public to sound methods of philanthropy. Probably no society ever encountered so much bitter opposition, and the wonder is that it survived the storm of abuse and adverse criticism. Too much credit cannot be given the devoted leaders who gave of their time or funds, ofttimes both, to its welfare. Prominent among them were John Glenn, Charles J. Bonaparte, Jeffrey R. Brackett, and later John M. Glenn and Dr. C. C. Shippen. Its history has been one of progress, standing always for the highest ideals of its type. Early in its career it formed a working alliance with the A. I. C. P., and the history of one practically becomes the history of the other. In 1907 the difficulties of financing the needs of both organizations led to the appointment of a joint finance board and the employment jointiy of a general secretary. Tne first joint report under the name of the Federated Charities was published in 1908. Each society still maintained its separate list of officers and managers, Eugene Levering being president of the A. I. C. P., and Dr. Ira Remsen of the C. O. S. The actual management, however, of the combined activities was vested in joint executive, finance, and other com- mittees» selected from the managers of each. In 1910 they were incorpo- rated into the Federated Charities of Baltimore, with Eugene Levering as president. It enjoys an income from endowments in the hands of the §afe Deposit and Trust Company amounting to $11,878 per annum. The re- mainder of its budget of approximately $00,000 is derived from the sale of tickets to the Walters' Art Gallery, which is generously opened each year for tl^e benefit of the Society, and from private subscriptions. Just prior to the founding of the Charity Organization Society, the Hospital Relief Association was organized. Incorporation papers were given it in 1886. It is famous as the mother of the Home for Incurables, the Hos- pital Saturday and Sunday Association, St. Lukeland, and the Society for First Aid to the Injured. Each of these have had successful and useful careers. As in the '70's, the growth in the number of hospitals and other chari- table institutions was quite marked during the 8o's. In 1881 the Maryland General Hospital established a lying-in asylum with 150 free beds. The next year saw the establishment in a house on McCullough street of the Hospital for Women of Maryland. This was moved to its present home on Lafayette avenue, comer of John street, in 1884. The building was greatly enlarged during 191 1 through popular subscription. The Baltimore Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital on Franklin street was also founded this same year and incorporated in 1885. In 1885, 1886 and 1887, Hollywood Summer Home for Children, Miss Barnwell s Dispensary and Free Day School for Deformed Children, and the University of Maryland Lying-in- Asylum, were respectively established. The factor most responsible in this period for the increase in charitable institutions among the Jews was the influx of Russian Jews in 1882, follow* ing the restrictive edicts of the Russian government. They came in great numbers and were especially poor and destitute. The existing organiza- tions, founded for the most part by the German Jews, took care of the first of their co-religionists. When these had become established, however, they soon organized institutions of their own, the first of which was the Talmud Torah, a free day school. Others were the Friendly Inn and Daughters of Israel, founded in 1890, and later the Hebrew Children's 672 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE Sheltering Home. A free loan, a free burial, and other societies, were founded later. In 1885 a dispensary was started on Caroline street. It was known as Grace Church EHspensary, though maintained by Mrs. Robert Garrett. Three years later this was moved to 27 North Carey street, becoming the Robert Garrett Hospital for Children. During the heated term the patients are taken to the Robert Garrett Sanitarium for Children at Mt. Airy, Maryland. Both are maintained as a memorial to the late Robert Garrett, by his widow, who is now the wife of Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs. Added to the list of Baltimore's hospitals are the Franklin Square Hospital, incorporated in 1901, and established at the comer of Fayette and Calhoun streets. It is the successor of the National Temperance Hospital of Baltimore, and is under the medical supervision of the faculty of the Maryland Medical College. The Maryland Homeopathic Hospital on Mount street was incorporated in 1899; the South Baltimore Eye and Ear Free Dispensary in 1901 ; St. Luke's Homeopathic in 1908; and Syden- ham Municipal Hospital for minor infectious diseases in 1910. St. Luke's was established when the Maryland Homeopathic Hospital was closed to the students of the Atlantic Medical College, in order that its students might have hospital and dispensary practice. Sydenham is operated by the City Health Department, and maintains both free and pay wards. The Hospital for Consumptives, Eudowood Sanitarium, the Jewish Home for Consumptives and the Hospital for the Relief of Deformed and Crippled Children each deserve special mention. The Hospital for Consumptives was incorporated in 1884, the first patients being received in a small house on Hoffman street. During the summer of 1899 ^^^ present grounds and one building, at Eudowo(xl, in Baltimore county, were purchased through a gift of $10,000 from Mr. B. F. Newcomer. Many additions and improvements have been added through the generosity of Victor G. Bloede, Mrs. Theodore L. Hooper, Mrs. Nel- son Perin, Mrs. Mary E. Bums, and many others. It now enjoys the reputation of one of the country's most efficient institutions. The Jewish Home for Consumptives was established in 1907 through a gift of $35,000 from Mr. Jacob Epstein, and twenty-three annual siS>- scriptions of $500 each from as many prominent Jews. It was incorpo- rated that same year, and the site for a building was chosen on the West- minster road, near Reisterstown. It is now called Mt. Pleasant Sani- tarium, and, like Eudowood, has been enlarged by a number of gifts, nota- bly those of Louis, Sigmund and Simon Kahn and the Mayer family. The last of these three, the Hospital for Deformed and Crippled Chil- dren, has a very interesting history. It was established at 2000 North Charles street, in 1895, and incorporated the next year. Free to children of Maryland, and under careful management, it soon became a celebrated institution. In 1910 Miss Mosby wrote Mr. James L. Keman, who had amassed a fortune in the theatre and hotel business, asking for a donation toward renting a piano for the Hospital. He responded by sending a piano. This was the beginning of a very active interest in its work on his part. While visiting a cemetery in the western suburbs some time later, he was struck with the possibilities of Radnor, the Ferguson Home, and purchased it. The estate contains 65 acres and was improved with a colonial mansion. After an expenditure of $30,000 it was made ready for the reception of patients. Its endowment will consist of $20,000 per annum at the death of Mr. Keman. Plans are now being made for the erection HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 673 of seven new buildings at a cost of $500,000, which will increase its capacity from 85 to 250 children. Its name was changed to the James Lawrence Kernan Hospital and Industrial School for Crippled Children of Maryland, and in the words of its chief benefactor, it is "non-sectarian, universal and free." The most recent addition to the above type of institution is the Wil- liam Painter Memorial Children's Hospital School, which was dedicated in May of 1912. It is a memorial to the late William Painter, by his widow. Located on Green Spring avenue, near Druid Hill Park, and giving accom- modation to 65 patients, it is in a position to beccnne of great service. Seven years prior to the dedication of its new home, it began its career in Catonsville, in a house loaned by Mr. B. N. Baker, and was known as the Children's Convalescent Infirmary, or Hollywood. The Country Home for Children of Baltimore City was established at Orange Grove, Baltimore county, Maryland, on the B. & O. R. R., in 1887, and incorporated the next year. It annually cares for over 300 children, giving each a two weeks' stay in the country. In addition, a kin- dergarten is conducted at the home. Aside frcxn the hospitals enumerated above, the "new era" was sig- nalized by the establishment of a large number of special charities, among them the Sisters of the Convent of Bon Secour, who began their work in Baltimore in 1881. They are a branch of a Roman Catholic order founded in Paris, France, in 1822, and whose special work is free nursing in homes without regard to race or denomination. Of this same type are the various Deaconess Societies of the Protestant churches. In addition to nursing they also do ''settlement" and mission work. The Deaconess Home of the M. E. Church was established in 1892 at 708 West Lombard street, and later at 1301 Madison avenue, while the Lutheran Deaconess Mother House and Training School was opened in 1895. It now occupies a fine granite building with spacious grounds on West North avenue. In connection with this subject mention should be made of the All Saints' Sisters of the Poor, a religious community of the Anglican church, of which the mother house in America is located at 801 North Eutaw street. This community has in charge a training school for girls on War- wick avenue, Walbrook, and a homt for little colored boys at Gilmore and Presstman streets. The Instructive Visiting Nurse Association, incorporated in 1896, with headquarters at 1123 Madison avenue, probably exercises a greater influence upon the health of the community than any other nurses' institution. The association is supported by small fees and voluntary subscriptions. The nurses go into the hcnnes of the indigent sick and instruct their families and friends in the proper care of the sick and teach the simpler rules of hygiene. In 1891 the Children's Fresh Air Society was organized to give chil- dren between the ages of seven and twelve, of worthy poor, two weeks' holiday in the country during July and August. The Society now owns a farm at Fallston, where the children are boarded. The money is provided by popular subscription and through the means of street fairs conducted by children in every quarter of the city. The movement is a very popular one, and during the years 1909- 10- 11 approximately $8,000 annually was raised by these methods. . Prom 1880 to 1900 no fewer than 95 different organizations and insti- tutions were founded. They embrace hospitals, charity organizations, or- 674 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE phanages, settlements, loan societies, free burial societies, and a multitude of other special charities or quasi-charitable associations. Besides these, the growth of church activity along such lines was marked, the organiza- tion of perhaps a hundred clubs, guilds or auxiliaries. No attempt has been made even to enumerate them here. The most important only, and those representative of special groups, have been mentiond, and not all of these. No period of the city's history was signalized by the birth of so many and so varied types of charitable organizations. The majority of them are still in existence, while many have grown to commanding posi- tions of importance and influence. The new century has brought its increase also. The Playground Asso- ciation, the Public Athletic L^igue, the Consumers' League, the Women's Civic League, the Maryland Association for the Prevention and Relief of Tuberculosis, are products of the first decade. Of these, probably the most important is the Maryland Association for the Prevention and Relief of Tuberculosis. While not purely a local association, the most of its activities naturally center about Baltimore. Its object is educational and remedial, seeking to educate public opinion as to causes and prevention of tuberculosis, and to arouse general interest in securing proper care for tuberculous patients in their hcxnes and by in- crease in number of hospitals and sanatoria. It is the outgrowth of an act of the Maryland legislature of 1902, creating the first Maryland Tubercu- losis Commission charged with the investigation of actual conditions in the State as to tuberculosis. This commission reported to the legislature in 1904, which enacted into law the recommendation of the ccxnmission that all tuberculosis cases must be reported to the State Board of Health by physicians or others knowing them, etc. In January of 1904 a tuberculosis exhibit was held in McCoy Hall, Johns Hopkins University, in order to arouse public sentiment. A letter was shortly thereafter sent out by the Commission, calling for volunteers to help enforce the laws and to carry out the work already begun. The result of this letter was a meeting at which the Maryland Association for the Prevention and Relief of Tuber- culosis was organized, with Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs as the first president. The most active supporter of the Public AUiletic League is Mr. Robert Garrett. It was organized in 1908 to carry on in a more thorough way the work in athletics started in 1903 in several public parks, and to enlarge its scope so that the boys and girls of the entire city could benefit thereby. It came as a reaction from the policy of overtraining our children men- tally to the neglect of their bodies, which had been in vogue so long. Its growth has been very rapid, the system of municipal games attracting many thousands of youths. Besides the athletic training afforded, the movement is of deeper significance in that medical inspection is furnished die participants, not alone in the sense of inquiring into their physical fitness to enjoy die sports, but to eradicate, so far as possible, physical defects and disease. This is not done directly through the League, but by the League's physician reporting needy cases to the parents' and family's medical adviser. Besides his great interest in the Public Athletic League, Mr. Garrett has instituted the Social Service Corporation, an organization to bring under one management the several social activities with which he is identi- fied. It is the application of the principle of economical administration to groups of social activities. At present it embraces the Public Athletic League, the Boy Scout Movement, the Lawrence House, the Warner House and the Social Workers' Bureau. The Boy Scout Movement has HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 675 been allied closely to the Public Athletic League since its organization in Baltimore last year, 191 1. The Lawrence and the Warner Houses are social settlements, one in southwest and the other in West Baltimore. The chief charitable phase of the Women's Civic League, organized in 1910, is the department of Home Gardens. Vacant lots are, through the influence of the League, loaned by their owners to the poor, who till and plant them, thus raising a part and in some cases all their summer vegetables. This phase has been a marked success and large sections of the "desert" have been made to "Woom". The Consumers' League, organized in 1907, has as its object the rais- ing of the standard of wages in factories and shops, the betterment of working conditions, both moral and sanitary, in factories, both for the sake of the worker and the consumer. It was very active in 1912 in secur- ing the passage of a ten-hour bill for women workers in Maryland. In February, 1904, Baltimore was visited by the Great Fire, which practically swept away the business section, throwing out of employment thousands of employees. The legislature, then in session, plac^ at the disposal of the governor, the comptroller, the treasurer, the chairman of the senate finance committee and the chairman of the ways and means committee of the House of Delegates, $250,000. They were empowered to employ such agencies as they thought best to distribute as much of the fuxid to the relief of the fire sufferers as might become necessary. The commission conferred with the Citizens' Relief Committee appointed by Mayor McLane several days after the fire, and determined to work directly through them as an advisory board. The relief was given to the various sufferers through their own friends and associates: to the Jews throt^h the Hebrew Benevolent Society, the Germans through the German Society, the Roman Catholics through the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and through the Federated Charities to all not included under special organizations. Ten thousand dollars advanced by charitable individuals was repaid the first week out of the state appropriations, and a total of $23,000 disbursed. The Citizens' Committee reported as follows: ''In view of the enormous losses, the remarkably small showing of only $23,000 disbursed proves that the virility and self-respect of Baltimore's citizens cannot be easily matched, and the spirit of independence and self-help calls forth, even in this pro- gressive age, wonder and admiration." The amounts expended wefe as follows : Federated Charities $4,774.00 Hebrew Benevolent Society 4f2g640 Italian Relief Committee 3f999Q2 German Society 614.75 Visiting Nurse Association 250.00 Transportation 691OI Gifts 5*986.03 Loans 1,037.00 Expense i»a6g.oo St. Vincent de Paul Society 917.58 In 1904 the trustees of the Thomas Wilson Sanitarium, in order to increase the scope of their work and to provide for babies that could not go to Mt. Wilson, established four milk stations in Baltimore. This was accomplished largely through the generosity of Jacob Epstein. The in- creasing demands upon these stations led to the founding in 1906 of the Babies' Milk Fund Association. The Sanitarium has continued to be the largest contributor to the maintenance of the work, the remainder of the 676 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE expense being met by voluntary subscriptions. In 191 1 more than 1,200 infants were supplied with modified milk at a cost of ten cents per bottle. Such infants whose parents could not pay the price were supplied free by the Federated Charities working through the Association. The Associa- tion is now incorporated as the Maryland Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality and is the Maryland branch of the National Association. The increasingly difficult problem of raising sufficient funds to prop- erly finance the various Hebrew charities, coupled with the annoyance to merchants from solicitors for charity balls, benefits, etc., the overlapping and waste of charitable disbursements, and finally the desire to protect the community from the launching of unnecessary benevolent schemes, led to the union of the various Jewish organizations into two central bodies in 1907. Those of the east section, seven in number, formed the United He- brew Charities, while twelve other societies formed the Federated Jewish Charities. Many of the constituent societies of both of these have been noted in preceding paragraphs, especially their early history. Each still maintains this separate existence, but is financed through the general body. Probably the most urgent need to-day is a general federation of all the charities of the city. This, however, owing to the wide diversity of inter- ests and aims, coupled with prejudices and other inharmonious factors, will not be accomplished in the near future. The next best thing is the standardization of philanthropic expenditures, both public and private, and a charities endorsement plan whereby the citizen and business man can give intelligently to the societies doing the work that should be done and doing it in the way it should be done. Looking to this end, former Mayor Mahool during the last year of his administration appointed a committee to devise ways of an endorsement plan. No formal report has yet (1912) been made. The situation is by no means hopeless, as there is a constantly growing tendency to intelligent cooperation in all forms of charity among all types of institutions. This is manifested in the growing use of the Conndential Exchange of Information, started by the Qiarity Organization Society and maintained by the Federated Charities, where nearly 100,000 records of charity cases are kept. Twenty-eight important organizations were regular correspondents of it in 191 1. In addition to the over 400 social and charitable organizations in Balti- more, the city itself annually expends over $500,000 along philanthropic lines. This expenditure is made through the department of City Charities, organized in 1900 as the Supervisors of City Qiarities. Its scope is out- lined in the following extract : "The Supervisors of City Charities is a non-partisan board of nine members who serve without compensation, three of whom are appointed every two years by the Mayor. The department is divorced by law frcrni all political influence. "The various private charitable associations in the city attend to all of Baltimore's out'door relief; the city spends nothing. The Board of Supervisors of City Chanties is responsible for all indoor relief, which consists of the care of the city's msanc, the destitute and neglected children, the sick in hospitals, the transportation of the poor, temporary care of homeless men and women, the dispensaries, and Bay View Asylum, which is the almshouse. "Connected with the almshouse, which shelters a total of about 1,700 persons, is a Tuberculosis Hospital with 165 patients, a general hospital with about 200 chronic patients and a hospital for the insane with about 430 inmates. The almshouse proper has about 900 inmates. The almshouse is owned by the city and controlled and managed by the Board of Supervisors of City Charities. "For the care of all the other classes of the poor enumerated, the supervisors HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 677 contract with various institutions on a per capita basis, as, for example, during the year many persons require hospital treatment. The Supervisors, therefore, select such private hospitals as they mav need, requiring them to live up to the highest standard, contracting with them for the coming year at so much per day for as many patients as will likely need treatment. Before such patients can be charged to the city, the hospital is required to have a written order from the supervisors. "The same applies to the insane in hospitals other than that connected with the almshouse and the children's institutions which house the little ones sent them by the city until the children are placed in free private homes found by the supervisors and and afterwards visited re^larly by the ag^ents. "The careful inspection given the Dispensaries have enabled the Supervisors to solve this problem and control the multitude of applicants that impose upon charity to a d^ee that has been attained by no other large city. "The institutions are regularly visited, each of the general hospitals are inspected by two trained visitors twice a week, where all city patients are tactfullv interviewed. Should a patient be found in desperate circumstances, he is put in touch with proper private charitable association before leaving the hospital, or if it is discovered that he is able to pav for hospital treatment, the hospital is notified not to include the name on the monthly bills rendered against the Supervisors. "The expenditures of the almshouse with its various departments will this ^ear run up to about |ao2,ooa This amount does not include $75,000 for new buildings, $17,000 for other improvements. The grounds of the almshouse cover over 200 acres, the hospitals on these grounds are located some distance from the almshouse proper." The scope of this article is by no means exhaustive, and many societies and institutions performing useful service are not mentioned ; indeed those whose names appear have for the most part been treated in the briefest possible manner. CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS IN BALTI- MORE. Lawrence C. Wroth. As the ecclesiastical center and earliest diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in America, the see city of the second diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the birthplace of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a center of Presbyterian activity, and an early stronghold of the Friends, Baptist and Reformed societies, Baltimore has claims to the sentimental consideration of nearly all the great religious bodies in the United States. There are about twenty-five denominations represented in Baltimore, requir- ing for their use nearly six hundred churches. It will be possible here to treat only of those which from a historical standpoint are of especial im- portance, placing them as nearly as possible in chronological order. The Friends. — In Griffith's Annals of Baltimore, page 21, is the state- ment that ''Down to the year 1758 we have no Icnowledge of any other churches or meetings for worship here, but of the Established Churches, and of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, of which latter society it ap- pears a very great portion of the first settlers of Baltimore county con- sisted". Accepting the general truth of this statement, it should be added that there were a German Reformed and a Roman Catholic congregation in Baltimore before 1758; the year 1750 is a more accurate point of divi- sion than the later date given by the annalist. During the visit of George Fox to Maryland, in 1672, the scattered Quakers there were brought together in regular meetings, and the whole Western Shore as a result of this organization came under the jurisdiction of the West River Monthly Meeting. In the settlements along the Patap- SCO there were many Friends who held occasional cottage meetings, but these were not organized into a regular meeting until nearly ten years after the visit of Fox. The society's records make it possible to set the date of their organization, for one of the earliest entries that have been pre- served tell of a "Man's Meeting at Thomas Hookers, ye 12th day of ye 6th Month 1681". Although a Church of England clergyman, the Rev. John Yeo was doing missionary work in Baltimore county at this time, there is no trace whatever of a regular congregation of his people in the neighborhood of the present city for another ten years or more. For a generation after 1681 the Friends' Meetings were held in pri- vate houses, but in the year 1714 this Patapsco Meeting, as it was called, built a house for the purpose, which was the first religious edifice to be erected within the present limits of the city of Baltimore. The exact site of the building was for a long time doubtful, but after twenty years of seardi, Mr. Kirk Brown, the Friends' historian, discovered a document in which John Wilmot, Richard Taylor and JonaUian Hanson beg the court to make record of the situation of their meeting-house in the Darly Hall tract, on the Harford road, just north of the present Darlev Park. No evidences of the former uses of the spot remain save the well-filled grave- yard, and the tablet which a few years ago was set up to mark the situa- 678 S HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 679 tion of the building^ which once stood there. The parish church of St. Paul's although built sixteen years before this, stood near Colgate Creek, at a point still beyond the city limits. As early as 1749, Friends in Baltimore Town, for the Darly Hall tract was well outside the city bounds, established for their convenience a Pre- parative Meeting, but it was not until 1776 that the mission became strong enough to consider building a meeting-house. Gunpowder Monthly Meet- ing, which had jurisdiction over Patapsco Meeting, consented to the under- taking, and by the year 1781 a house with a seating capacity of 600 persons was built on the lot now bounded by Baltimore, Central avenue, Fayette and Aisquith streets, which had been purchased some years before by John Comthwaite and Gerard T. Hopkins. The old building on the Har- ford road was abandoned, and the name changed to the Baltimore Monthly Meeting. From 1784 until 1792, Baltimore, Gunpowder and Little Falls held the Monthly Meeting in turn, but in the latter year the Quarterly Meeting separated the first from the other two and established it as a regular Monthly Meeting. The membership of the new meeting was 244, and on its roll were such names as Hayward, Trimble, Townsend, McKim, Duncan, Hopkins, EUicott, Tyson, Carey, Mitchell, Reese, James, Marsh, Hicks, Dukehart, Riley, WeUs, Helm, McDermot, Fisher, Kelso, Shepherd, Naylor, Dyer and Beall, representatives, many of them, of wealthy and influential fami- lies. The Society of Friends has always wielded an influence in the civic, social and religious life of Baltimore out of all proportion to what one would expect from a body which has never numbered more than a thou- sand souls. In the closing decade of the century, Baltimore had a season of very pronounced growth and prosperity. Attracted by this a tide of immigra- tion from surrounding states and counties made a large increase in its population. Many Friends were added to those already living in the city, and, in 1799, Elk Ridge Preparative Meetin|[ united with these, bringing to them 76 persons. As evidences of material prosperity in this and the following decade are to be noted the establishment of the Baltimore Monthly Meeting Friends' Library in 1799, and in 1800 the Baltimore Monthly Meeting Friends' School. In 1805 ^^^ largely increased membership and the westward growth of the city made necessary the building of a Preparative Meeting House on Lombard street, and two years later this became a Monthly Meeting, claiming all Friends west of Calvert street, as well as the 102 members of the Elk Ridge Preparative Meeting. Under this arrangement the meetings in the city were known as the Monthly Meeting of Baltimore for the Eastern District and the Monthly Meeting of Baltimore for the Western District. The membership of these was 375 and 476 respectively, making a total of 851. In 1900 the whole number of Friends in Baltimore was 881, of whom the Hidcsites claimed 617 and the Orthodox 264, a gain of thirty in a century. In 1809 a feud broke out between the two Baltimore meetings, which lasted, as far as the continuance of ill-feeling may be said to count, through the second generation. The Western District Meeting claimed equal right in the land, graveyard and tenements owned by the old Baltimore Monthly Meeting, and at this time held by the Eastern District organization. The Yearly Meeting, when appealed to, gave them the right of interment in the old cemetery on the Harford road, but not satisfied, they appealed to the legislature in 1809 and again in 1819. This body regarded their con- 68o HISTORY OF BALTIMORE tention as improper, but finally in 1819, by "doubtful proceedings", their historiographer says, the Quarterly Meeting directed the flourishing Eastern District Meeting to discontinue its activities and join itself to the Western Meeting. The mandate was obeyed, and ever since the elder meeting has continued as a Preparative Meeting, doing a small but consistently good work, especially in its First Day School for children. In 1828 came the general schism in the American Society of Friends. Elias Hicks, a popular mipister of Long Island, b^an teaching a doctrine in regard to the nature of Jesus Christ which soon became the accepted belief of the Society. Everywhere, however, there were a few of the old school who held to the Trinitarian doctrine, and in Baltimore, as in other places, these withdrew and formed an independent meeting with the same general polity as the Hicksites. The Orthodox Meeting in Balti- more has a fine meeting-house on the corner of Eutaw and Monument streets. The school founded by the Baltimore Meeting in 1800 was conducted in rented rooms and buildings until 1849, when a house was erected for it in the rear of the Lombard Street Meeting House. It moved from this point in 1889 to the situation which had been provided for it next to the new meeting-house on the comer of Park avenue and Laurens street. This establishment is said to be the finest Friends' Meeting House in exis- tence, and although the Society of Friends in Baltimore is not a growing body, yet its adherents are so loyal and so steadfast in the faith of their fathers that every religious organization in the city has cause to envy it the possession of the devotion which they give to its interests. Protestant Episcopal Church, — ^It is curious that the two bodies which alone were on the ground in Baltimore before 1750 should have been those two which perhaps of all in the Province were most unfriendly to each other. The Quakers fought the establishment of the Church of England in Maryland with eveir possible weapon save the carnal ones, and when churdimen ceased to fear them, they began to regard them as heathen. The clergy of the Province raised a fund to send missionaries to Penn- sylvania to convert the Friends to Christianity. The northern common- wealth was chosen because it "does most of all abound with that sort of Unbelievers". By the Act of 1692, the Church of England was established, the Prov- ince divided into parishes, and a yearly tax of forty pounds of tobacco per poll declared for building churches and supporting the ministers. The parish became a very important unit in the political organization of the day. Its six elected vestrymen were empowered to warn against and punish the violation of the basic moral laws, and to have oversight in cer- tain specified ways of the moral and religious life of the community. It performed the function of a moral police in a country where none of the other religious organizations were strong enough to wield such an influ- ence. In spite of the fact that this was a very real service, it became a decidedly unpopular body among the very people whom it was intended to serve. The injustice of the poll tax, the weakness of its clerical adminis- tration and its connection with England and monarchy gave it an aspect in the eyes of the people which hindered its progress for fifty years after the Revolution. Baltimore county was divided into three parishes, one of which, Patap- sco or St. Paul's, included the whole southern part of the county west of Middle river, and in lines not clearly defined ran north to Penn^lvania. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 68i Griffith, in the Annals of Baltimore, page 9, says, ''it is probable that the people of that society (Le,, Protestant Episcopal) assembled to worship in P^tapsco Neck long before they had parishes created". There is other evidence to the truth of this statement, but it was not until 1698 that a brick church was erected near Colgate creek, about six miles from the situ- ation of the present parish church of St. Paul's. Those who attended the first recorded meeting of the vestry in 1693 were : George Ashman, Nich- olas Corban, John Terry, Richard Sampson, Francis Watkings and Richard Cromwell. The first regularly inducted rector was the Rev. William Tibbs, whose incumbency seems unfortunately to have been a succession of quar- rels with his vestry, the Governor and the Provincial Assembly. He held the charge from 1701-1732, and in one of his reports he complains that St. PauFs owns neither **Surplice, pulpit Cloth, Cushion, nor Plate for the Communion Service but pewter". In the year 1730, the Assembly author- ized the vestry of St. Paul's to purchase a lot in Baltimore Town, laid out a year before, for the purpose of erecting a parish church. The lot bounded by Charles, Saratoga, St. Paul and Lexington streets was secured, but it was not until 1739 that the new church was erected in the center of it. Around this second St. Paul's were the graves of the parishioners, and here they lay until 1817, when they were removed to the newly pur- chased cemetery on German and Fremont streets. From time to time outlying sections of St. Paul's territory were taken away to form new parishes, but it was not until 1795 that a second church became necessary in the city. In 1779 the third St. Paul's Church was built with money raised, as was often done in that day, by a lottery, but the great expansion of the city from 1790 to 1800 made even this too small for the accommodation of the people. For this reason a church was bought from the German Reformed congregation, on the comer of Baltimore and Front streets, and in Christ Church, established here as a chapel of ease, the people of Old Town found a place of worship at their doors. St. Paul's Parish now had two rectors, called associate rectors, who officiated alternately in the two churches. This advance was made during the rectorship of the Rev. J. G. J. Bend, D. D., one of the first citizens of Baltimore, a man prominent in every good work, educational, philanthropic and religious. Dr. Bend, Bishop Carroll and the Rev. Patrick Allison, of the First Presbyterian Church, a triumvirate of great churchmen, were personal friends whose names were to be found at the head of every subscription list and among the directors of every non-religious movement for civic betterment that had birth in their day. This was the pleasant beginning of the harmony that has generally marked inter-church relations in Baltimore. One characteristic of St. Paul's has been the high standing of its clergy. The colonial rectors were, with the exception of the unfortunate Mr. Tibbs, men of unusual worth. The Rev. Messrs. Joseph Hooper, Bene- dict Bourdilon and Thomas Chase (father of Samuel Chase the Signer) were men of honor and importance in the community. Their successors were the Rev. Messrs. William West, J. G. J. Bend, the Rt. Rev. James Kemp, Bishop of Maryland, William Edward Wyatt, Milo Mahan, J. S. B. Hodges and the present rector, the Rev. Arthur B. Kinsolving, all of them men who have stood well, not only in the church in Maryland, but who have been leaders in the church at large. The fourth St. Paul's, built in 1817, was burned in 1854, but immedi- ately upon the same site and with the same walls the present church was constructed. The old parish controls several charitable institutions, doing 682 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE much-needed work, and as it possesses a good endowment, there seems no likelihood of an early cessation of its activities. In 1802, twenty-six years before Christ Church became a separate con- gregation with its own rector and vestry, a third Episcopal church was established in Baltimore. This was St. Peter's, an ancient and well-loved name in Baltimore church history. It has had a prosperous, interesting, and sometimes, a stormy career. Its first church on Sharpe street was abandoned for a handsome building on Druid Hill avenue and Lanvale street, and this in the past year (1911) has been given up, and its congre- gation has combined with that of Grace Church, founded as one of its own missions in 1850. It has had several distinguished clergymen for rectors, among them Bishops Henshaw and Atkinson, and the Rev. Messrs. Gram- mer, Qampett and Falkner, The Rev. Romilly F. Humphries, the past rector, has become the associate rector with the Rev. Arthur Chilton Pow- ell, of the newly formed church of Grace and St. Peter. Christ Church has known a long period of usefulness. Its second building, on the comer of Gay and Fayette streets resounded with the voices of a series of great preachers from 1836 until the last removal of the congregation in 1872 to the comer of St. Paul and Chase streets. The remnant left behind at this move formed themselves into an independent congregation in 1875, and by outside aid and personal sacrifice purchased the old building. Ever since, on that downtown comer, as the congrega- tion of the Church of the Messiah, they have carried on a useful work. The old building was destroyed by the fire of 1904, but another has been put up in its place and continues its mission. The roll of rectors of Christ Church consists of the Rev. Messrs, John and Henry Van Dyke Johns, L. P. W. Balch, T. G. Addison, Francis L. Hawks, Benjamin F. Brook, Henry A. Wise, Thomas U. Dudley, afterward Bishop of Kentucky, C. G. Currie, and the present rector, Edwin Bames Niver, all of them prominent in the general church as preachers and scholars. From St. Peter's and Christ Churches the principal Episcc^l churches in the city have descended, St. Paul's, of course, being the mother of them all. The Church of the Ascension (1839), Mt. Calvary (1843), Grace CTiurch (1850), Emmanuel (1853), Memorial (i860), and the Church of St. Michael and All Angels (1877) are all of them vigorous congregations known familiarly not only in Baltimore but throughout the entire Church in America. Baltimore is the see city of the Diocese of Maryland, and the names of its bishops are and will be long remembered among all denominations. The present and seventh bishop, the Rt. Rev. John Gardner Murray, D. D., maintains the traditions of Qaggett, Kemp, Stone, Whittingham, Pinkney and Paret. It is likely that future generations will know him as the Cathe- dral builder, for at his hand is the difficult task of erecting the stmcture, material and spiritual, which its founders expect to be a center of active work along religious, charitable and educational lines among rich and poor alike. The recently purchased site on the comer of Charles street avenue and University Parkway has been chosen with every consideration for the purpose to which it is to be put. In its missions in the lower sections of the city, the Episcopal church keeps up an active social work, and it maintains besides a hospital and twelve schools and orphanages, mainly for the poor of the city and state. It looks forward to an active and useful future in this sort of work. German Churches, — The German settlers of Maryland and Pennsyl- vania were among the first to see the advantages of Baltimore Town as a HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 683 place of ccMnmerce and trade, and a numerous colony of them, principally of the German Reformed Church, is to be found here before the city was many years old. For a long time they worshipped in private houses and in rooms rented for that purpose, but as more prosperous times came they set about building a church for regular use. In 1756 they bought a lot on Charles street, north of Saratoga, and a building committee was appointed consisting of Andrew Steiger, Frederick Meyer, Jacob Kuhbord, John Sol- ler, Valentine Loersh and Conrad Smith. The diurch was erected imme- diately, and in it the German Reformed congregation and the Lutherans of the city worshipped at the same services. For a short time they had no regular pastor, but the Rev. John Christian Faber soon afterwards took charge of tihe congregation. After the year 1758, the Lutherans formed a separate organization, and conducted their own services at a different hour. The evangelical part of the German Reformed Congregation, be- coming dissatisfied with Mr. Faber's teaching, withdrew and wim the Rev. Mr. Swope as pastor organized the Second Reformed Church. Mr. Faber's successor as pastor of the First Reformed Church was the Rev. Charles Boehme, who was followed in 1783 by the Rev. Nicholas Pomp. Under the latter pastor, in 1785 a new church was erected on the comer of Baltimore and Front streets, and to the building costs of this structure Michael, Daniel and Peter Diffenderfer, Frederick and Jacob Myers gave amounts indicative not only of generosity but of a very marked prosperity on their part. The building had not been long finished when Jones' Falls rose and swept away one end of it. Other misfortunes seemed to pursue it until its finances became so crippled that monetary help from St. Paul's Parish and the First Prcsb)rterian Church was gratefully ac- cepted. There are abundant evidences of this sort of the existence of a rare interdenominational charity and good feeling in the Baltimore of one hundred years ago. The Rev. George Troldenier succeeded Mr. Pomp in 1789, and in 1795 the church building was sold to Christ Church, newly established as a chapel of ease for the people of St. Paul's Parish who lived in Old Town. The third building occupied by this congregation was placed on Second street, where Holliday was afterwards cut through. A matter of great moment in this congregation was the question of the language of its services. The pastors, from 181 8 until the question was finally settled, seemed to prefer the use of English in the services. Many of the congregation naturally demanded the tongue of the Fatherland, and it may well be believed that these did not voice their demand in a whisper. Others, however, encouraged the use of English, and as time went on German gradually became unknown in the services of this church. The congregation was in a flourishing condition at the time of its centenary, celebrated in 1850, somewhat in advance of the proper time. Some years after this it became necessary, through the opening of Holliday street, for the situation of the church to be changed, and in 1867 a new building was erected near the comer of Calvert and Read streets, where under the Rev. Joel T. Rossiter, the congregation is in good condition today. The successor to Mr. Swope as pastor of the Second Reformed Church was one of the most interesting figures in the religious history of Balti- more— ihe Rev. Philip William Otterbein, afterwards a bishop of the Uni- ted Brethren Church. He came to Baltimore in 1774 after many useful 3rears in Pennsylvania, and from the start his pastorate here was a marked success. His congregation outgrew three buildings, and finally in 1786 the last one was built on Conway street, near Sharpe. Here it stands today, 684 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE known as the Otterbein Church, the oldest church building in the city with the exception of the Friends* Meeting House on Aisquith street. Mr. Otterbein was born in Germany, where as a young pastor he was noted for his missionary zeal. In theology he belonged to the school known as evangelical, so that when he came to Baltimore as the pastor of an independent congregation, he was not slow to seize the opportunity of teaching with emphasis the doctrines of ''Spiritual rebirth", "conviction of sin" and "experimental religion", which became of the most essential im- portance in his teaching, and following him his congregation gradually departed from its former position as an independent reformed church. It adopted for its government a set of twenty-eight rules, which afterwards became the basis of the United Brethren discipline, and in which it named itself the Evangelical Reformed Church. Its pastor was a close friend of Asbury and of other leading Methodists, and of one Martin Boehm, a Mennonite whose extreme evangelicism had brought him into disfavor even in that primitive body. There were scattered ones similarly minded in various places all over the country, laboring manfully to bring back into the world some of that heat towards God, ''wherewith whole shoals of martyrs once did bum". In 1789 they came tc^ether in formal conference. Seven ministers, German Reformed and Mennonite, were in attendance, who after deliberation drew up a Confession upon which is founded the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. In the conference of 1800, Messrs. Otterbein and Boehm were elected bishops, and the name as given above formally determined upon. The church has now six congr^;ations in Baltimore, and although small in numbers it is animated as of old by a sturdy missionary spirit. Its members give to missions in a tremendously larger percentage than those of many larger and more prosperous bodies. It should be remembered that Mr. Otterbein, although one of the founders and the bishop of a new sect, retained his connection with the German Reformed Church until his death. The whole movement, even to this de- tail, is curiously parallel to the history of John Wesley and Methodism. The first Lutheran Church was built on Saratoga street, near Charles, in the year 1773. A lottery was organized and its profits applied to the building fund. Among its early pastors were the Rev. Messrs. Gerock, Kurtz and Scheid, under the last of whom the congregation dissolved its connection with the Lutheran Synod and established itself in the inde- pendent position which it still maintains. The present fine church, stand- ing in an enclosed yard in a crowded business section on Gay street, near Lexington, was built in 1808, and is an ornament to that part of the city. In 1826, some English Lutherans in Baltimore, Jc^n Reese, David Bixler, George Stonebraker, Joshua Medtart, Frederick Segler, Philip Uhler and Andrew Hack, representing them officially, decided to build a church for themselves. A building was erected on Lexington street, and the Rev. John G. Morris served the congregation for thirty-three years, when he was placed at the head of the Peabody Institute. At the time of his resignation, one hundred of the congregation withdrew and purchased a churdi on Eutaw street, near Saratoga. The congregation of the old church removed to the corner of Fremont and Lanvale streets, the situation which it occupies today. The Roman Catholic C/t«rc/t.— The Roman Catholic population of the southern counties seems to have been sIqw in moving to the northern parts of the Province. As late as 1708 there were only 53 of that faith in Balti- more county. In 1654, under the Puritan predominance, a short-lived law had been passed which restricted their liberty of worship and imposed HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 685 disabilities upon them in matters of religion, and again in 1764, after the first law had long been inoperative, the anti-popery acts adopted under Wil- liam of Orange were extended to the Maryland colony. For a century after the first legislation, there was not a smgle church built by them in the province, and the faithful were forced to be content with occasional ministration by the private chaplains of their wealthier co-religionists. If this bloodless persecution did no more than to draw its victims closer together, it had a salutary effect. Out of it emerged a loyal, compact body with institutions better adapted to environment that would have been the case after a hundred years of prosperity. To this and to the presence among its clergy of certain ones of far-seeing and statesman-like qualities must be given credit for the decidedly American tone which this church in the United States has always maintained. Dr. Bernard C. Steiner enunci- ates this view in a recent number of the American Historical Review, in which he says: "It has seemed to the writer that the character of that Church in our country has owed much to the fact that its first leaders were Maryland Jesuits. ... in that province alone were there strongly established families of Roman Catholic gentry; and that Church in the province was so dominated by the Jesuits, . . . that if a Maryland youth entered the priesthood he naturally became a Jesuit. . . . Thus the American character of the Roman Catholic Church was stamped upon it from the first organization." The Roman Catholics in Baltimore Town probably received occasional ministrations from the chaplains at Doughoregan, White Marsh and other surrounding manors, the lords of which were of their faith, but as the author of the Cathedral Records says, "There is no record of any congre- gational or even private mass before 1756". In that year some hundreds of Acadians, the story of whose banishment is familiar to every American child, were brought to Baltimore and there landed without money or re- sources. Many were quartered in a deserted brick house, built a few years before by Mr. Edward Fotterel, on the northwest comer of Calvert and Fayette streets, where the court house now stands. In one of the rooms of this building the pious Acadians set up an altar which was served now and then by the priests from White Marsh and Doughoregan, notably by the Rev. John Ashton of White Marsh, who ministered to the exiles once a month. These ''Neutral French" and a few Irish formed the basis of the Roman Catholic Church in Baltimore. Among them were Messrs. Gut- tro, Gould, Dashield, Blanc (White) and Berbine, who in later years be- came prominently connected with the life of the city. During the French Revolution their ranks were further increased by a number of refugees, and in the year 1787 alone there were 147 baptism recorded. In 1764 the little congregation purchased a lot on the northwest comer of Saratoga and Little Sharpe streets, and six years later saw the comple- tion of the modest church known for many years as St. Peter's. Owing to the builder's financial difficulties, however, it was four years before the congregation could use the building, and it was not until after the Revolu- tion that the debt upon it was completely discharged. The Rev. Bemard Diderick served St. Peter's for many years, dividing his time between Doughoregan Manor, called the Elk Ridge Mission, and the church in Baltimore. The first service held on the site now occupied by the Cathedral was a picturesque one, entirely in keeping with the great destiny of that com- manding hill top. Here the troops of Count Rochambeau encamped on their return from Yorktown. A mass of Thanksgiving was ordered by the 686 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE king of France, and with the regiments drawn up in a hollow square, colors flying, bands playing, and the whole city looking on, high mass was celebrated by the chaplain of one of the French regiments. This was some years before there was any thought of building a cathedral on this spot. In 1783 the clergy in America asked the Pope to appoint a Superior over them with power of confirmation, and fearing that a foreigner might be made bishop over them, they protested against the consecration of any bishop whatever at this juncture. They saw that if the church was to become an influence in America it could only be as a national church with its policy formed and executed by native priests and prelates. At this time it was simply a mission under the Vicar Apostolic of London, and the Church of Rome in England was and long remained nothing more than an Italian mission. The Pope a year later declared the American Church distinctly a national one, and appointed as his Prefect Apostolic the Very Reverend John Carroll. In 1789 in Baltimore the first general meeting of the clergy in the United States requested that a Roman Catholic see be established in Balti- more with Dr. Carroll as its bishop. The Pope gave order for this, and on November 6, 1789, Dr. Carroll was made Bishop of the Diocese of Bal- timore. This city was chosen because at that time out of a total of 25,000 Roman Catholics in the United States, 18,000 were inhabitants of Mary- land. Bishop Carroll was a native of Maryland, who had been educated in the Jesuit School on Bohemia Manor. He went thence to St. Omer, in France, and was advanced to the priesthood in 1759. He seems to have been one compounded of every virtue of thought and conduct ; pious, schol- arly and industrious, he was a favorite with all classes, and admired by his fellow citizens of every denomination. The decade following his elevation to the episcopate was taken up by his church in looking around to see where it stood and to what places it might advance. In 1791 Bishop Carroll held his first synod. In 1792, all property held by the church was placed in the hands of a legally incorpo- rated body known as the ''Corporation of the Roman Catholic Clergymen of Maryland". In 1793 the communicant list was greatly increased by the arrival of a large number of refugees from San Domingo, among them several afterwards prominent in the life of the city. In 1795 was K>rmed the corporation which is still the ofiicial body of die church in Baltimore, "The Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church in Baltimore Town", the inception of the trustee system, the continuance of which is now a question at issue between clergy and laity all over the United States. The members of this first board were Bishop Carroll, the Rev. Francis Beeston, Messrs. Robert Walsh, James Barry, David Williamson, Charles Ghequiere, Charles O'Brien, Luke Tieman and George Rosensteel. About this time also a mission was b^[un in a hired room on Fell's Point which became the nucleus of St. Patrick's Church. But more immediately of interest to Baltimore was still another movement that began in this decade of activity and progress. The first meeting of the trustees was held December 29, 1795, and the most important business transacted was the passage of a resolution providing for the opening of a subscription for the building of a new Cathedral Church. In i70, 1803 ^^^ 1808, Bishop Carroll sent out appeals asking for one dollar a year for four years from every Roman Catholic family in the United States, and suggesting that they buy shares in the lottery which was being organized in favor of the building fund. In 1806 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 687 the lot bounded by Exeter, Pratt, Gough and Stiles streets, where it was at first intended to build the Cathedral, was condemned as being out of the trend of the northward moving population, and the present lot was bought and the cornerstone of the building laid in July. Mr. Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the Capitol in Washington, proceeded with the erection of the great Romanesque building, which adorns the summit of the Charles street ridge. In 1808 the Pope erected Baltimore into a metropolitan see, and three years later Bishop Carroll was invested with the archbishop's pallium. He died four years after this, a widely lamented prelate and gentleman, and the Most Reverend Leonard Neale sat in his place for two years. The third archbishop was the Most Reverend Ambrose Marechal, whose tenure of office was from 1817 to 1828. The Cathedral, although not quite fin- ished, was dedicated on May 31, 1821. In all temporal affairs the church prospered under the scholarly, but energetic, clear-headed man of affairs who ruled it in these years. He was succeeded by the Most Reverend Jamies Whitfield, who was followed by Archbishop Samuel Eccleston. Under him in 1839 ^^^ Cathedral Fund Association was organized to pay the debt on the building. This was done, and the Cathedral finally completed in 1851. Following this the archiepiscopal chair was occupied by Archbishops Kenwick, Spalding and Bayley, under the last of whom in 1876 the great church was consecrated. Archbishop Gibbons was consecrated in 1877, and in 1886 received the higher honor of Cardinal. His twenty-fifth anni- versary has just been celebrated in several of his principal cities, and a civil celebration in Baltimore was attended and addressed by the President of the United States and many others in high official life who gave willing testimony to a life of courage, dignity and usefulness, lived in peace and charity with all men. It would be impossible to tell here of the many schools, convents, semi- naries, hospitals and orphanages which the Roman Catholic Church con- trols in Baltimore. One should mention, however, St. Mary's Seminary, founded in 1791, by French Sulpicians, the members of which, in addition to an important work in the field of theological education, have made the Cathedral services notable for dignity and impressiveness. Loyola College, a Jesuit institution, does a great work in scholastic education among boys and young men, while several convents have large and well patronized schools for girls. The foreign Roman Catholic population of Baltimore is very large, and the church is of no little value as a leavening element in the Americanization of the diverse elements which immigration brings to our doors. The Presbyterian Church. — The Presbyterians of Baltimore, although not as numerous as the adherents of some other bodies, have been always a marked influence for good in the city and prominent in the ranks of its progressive merchants and men of affairs. Sprung chiefly from North Irish and Scotch stock, they have exhibited the quality of citizenship which has characterized the Scotch-Irish settlers in every part of America. As early as 171 5, some residents of Baltimore county asked a Presby- terian minister to settle among them, but he and others in 1751 and 1760 evidently felt that the congregation was too small for a chance of good work^ for all three of them declined the invitations. In 1740, Mr. White- field, the flaming brand of Methodism, reported considerable opposition to his preaching by the Presbyterians of Baltimore. It is likely that the Presbyteries of Donegal and Newcastle sent occasional ministers to the 688 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE scattered few on the Patapsco, but it was not until 1761 that the Rev. Patrick Allison determined to undertake the permanent charge of the work in Baltimore, where with real foresight he saw an opportunity for develop- ment. In later years he wrote that "In 1 761 the advantageous situation of the town of Baltimore induced a few Presbyterian families to remove here from Pennsylvania, and these, with two or three others of the same persuasion who had emip;rated directly from Europe, formed them- selves into a religious society, and had occasional supplies, assembling m private houses, though liable to persecution on this account, as the province groaned under a religious establishment." Among the members of this little congregation who had come from other places were Dr. William Lyon, John Smith, William Buchanan, Wil- liam Smith, James Sterret, Mark Alexander, John Brown, Benjamin Grif- fith, Robert Purviance, William Spear, Jonathan Plowman and Drs. John and Henry Stephenson. In 1763 the Society leased two lots on Fayette street, in the rear of where the Church of the Messiah now stands. Here they worshipped for about three years in a rough log building, which they abandoned for a small brick church on the southeastern corner of the present postoffice lot, about at the comer of Fayette and North streets. This building was enlarged in 1771, and in 1789 a much larger church was begun on the same site. It was finished in 1791, and for more than seventy years its commodious audi- torium served the needs of the congregation of First Church. The first pastor, the Rev. Patrick Allison, was a strong man and a leader. Althougfa on the friendliest terms with Dr. Bend, of St. Paul's, yet immediately after the Revolution he opposed with great spirit and tenacity the passage of the Declaration of Rights made by the Episcopal Church in Maryland. He was always bitter against the Establishment, and he saw in the Declaration a step toward the formation of another state connection. The bill was passed, but Dr. Allison, or ''Vindex", as he signed himself in the contro- versy, came near to success in his endeavor to defeat it. He was a cul- tured, zealous man, who was looked upon as the foremost Presbyterian divine of his day, and his denomination in Baltimore must always remem- ber him as one who laid its temporal and spiritual foundations and laid them firmly. Among the members of the committee of First Church dur- ing his pastorate were Messrs. John Stephenson, William Lyon, William Buchanan, James Sterret, Samuel Purviance, William Neill, Hugh Young, David Stewart, Joseph Donaldson, Robert Gilmor, Christopher Johnson, William Patterson and John Swan. The successor of Dr. Allison, upon his death in 1802, was the Rev. James Inglis, whose pastorate covered a period of great increase in the population and prosperity of Baltimore, a growth which was reflected in the temporal affairs of First Church. In i&>4 the organization was made regular for the first time, and Messrs. Robert Purviance, David Stewart, Christopher Johnson, George Salmon and Ebenezer Finley were elected ruling elders. In 1802 certain disaffected members withdrew and built the Second Church, on the corner of Baltimore and Lloyd streets, calling to its charge the Rev. John Glendy, who had been their choice for the office of assistant to Dr. Allison. The election of Mr. Inglis instead of their own candidate had been the cause of their separation from the old organization. The pastorate of Mr. Inglis' successor was remarkable for the spiritual revival which the congregation underwent. In 1824, the Rev. Mr. Summer- field, a Methodist preacher, began a series of revivals in Baltimore, and the extent of their influence is evidenced by the unanimity with which the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 689 other evangelical bodies followed the Wesleyan example. Few churches which were in existence between 1820 and 1840 have not a story to tell of remarkable spiritual experiences and great numerical increase following upon these revivals. It was the great reaction and protest which the Eng- lish speaking world made against eighteenth century rationalism. Under Dr. Nevins, himself no mean preacher, there were two great revivals in First Churdi, one in 1827 and another in 1831. The third pastor died in 1835, and one year later the Rev. John C. Backus came to the vacant church. Perhaps the signal happening of his eistorate was the erection of the present fine building on the comer of ark avenue and Madison street, the ground for which was broken in 1854. The spire of this handsome Gothic church, soaring in graceful, harmonious lines, surpasses everything in the city for sheer beauty of design and con- struction. Here ever since has worshipped the congregation of First Church, a strong body, zealous for missions and generous in all lines of diaritable endeavor. The old graveyard on Fayette and Green streets was for a time in danger of condemnation, but the difficulty was solved by the building of a church in the midst of the graves. This was done in 1852, and Westminster Church, after a long struggle as a mission, has of later years become a self-supporting congregation. The gravestones in Westminster Church- yard are a roster of well-known Baltimore families, and the cemetery is of national interest as being the burial place of Edgar Allan Foe. There has been through the century a steady multiplication of Presby- terian churches in Baltimore. Franklin Street was incorporated in 1844 and joined the Southern Presb3rtery iii 1866. It had as its pastor from 1870 through the close of the century one whose name is well remembered in Baltimore, the Rev. W. Urwick Murkland. The old Central Church, organized in 1853, now on Eutaw Place near Dolphin street, had as a long- time pastor the well-remembered Rev. Joseph T. Smith. Brown Memorml on Park avenue, near Lafayette, was built in 1870 in memory of Mr. George Brown, the banker. It had as one of its well-loved rectors, the Rev. Malt- bie Babcock. After his melancholy death in Europe, his friends here and in other places contributed to the erection of the handsome Babcock Memorial Church on the comer of Madison and North avenues. Pres- byterians of Baltimore are among the largest contributors to missions of any of the bodies in the city, and their orphanages, schools and splendid hospitals contribute to the well-being of people o7 all denominations. The Methodist Churches. — ^The societies founded by John Wesley for the purpose of stimulating spiritual life in the Church of England, of strik- ing a more personal note in the religion of its adherents, were at first in Ei^land and America simply orj^anizations of devout laymen within that church. Wesley remained a priest of the Established Church and was a regular attendant upon its services until his death. Until 1784 his preach-^ ers were laymen, who, save in rare cases, made no claim to the purely priestly function of administering the sacraments. The story of their labors for the enlightenment of men's souls is a religious epic, and their exertion awakened the English church to an evangelicism which it has never lost. Had there been one leader among the bishops great enough and wise enough, the schism need not have occurred. When Wesley in 1784 ordained the Rev. Mr. Coke, a Church of England clerg3maian, to be bishop or superintendent over the Methodist societies in America, he opened a breach far wider than he or any other has since been able to close. 690 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE There has been great debate as to the location of the first Methodist Society established in America. New York City and Frederick county, Maryland, have almost equal claims to the distinction, but conservative writers give Robert Strawbridge's meeting on Pipe Creek the second place. But first or second, Maryland and its metropolis have from the earliest times been strong centers of the Methodist interest. During the Revolution when for political reasons many of the parishes of the Established Church were without rectors, the Methodists gained many followers, and in the years that followed, when the church was reaping the sad harvest of an ill-judged state connection, the newly formed Memodist Episcopal Church drew to itself many who could no longer be satisfied with what tiiey looked upon, but how mistakenly time has shown, as a broken and dying organi- zation. The Rev. Mr. Whitefield, whose life was spent in a tireless preaching of the Gospel all over England and in America from Georgia to Maine, and whose last breath was spent in exhorting a listening crowd from a doorstep, preached in Baltimore as early as 1740. He ''makes some to laugh and some to cry", wrote a Marylander who heard him a few years later than this, but, laugh or cry, his words were not forgotten, and he and those occa- sional ones who followed him, including Asbury in 1772, prepared the way for the growth of a strong body. In November, 1773, Jesse Hollingsworth, George Wells, Richard Moale, George Robinson, John Woodward and others, influenced and en- couraged by Asbury, built the first meeting-house in Baltimore on Fell's Point. This was commonly known as the Strawberry Alley Meeting House, and was one of Mr. Asbury's regular stations. In the following year William Moore and Philip Rogers took up subscriptions for a new church to be built in Lovely Lane, a thoroughfare which ran from Calvert to South street, immediately south of Baltimore, now included in the bed of German street. The meeting-house was about on the spot now occu- pied by the Merchants' Qub building. This church soon became of im- portance in the city and throughout the country. A general conference of Methodist ministers was held in Lovely Lane in 1776, and at the eighth conference, held here in 1780, were passed the first official strictures upon all members of the society who held slaves, the rift within the lute which was afterwards to cause a great discord. But it was a still more important action than this which makes the Lovely Lane Church of importance to each succeeding generation of Methodists. After Wesley's ordination of Mr. Coke in i;^, a general conference of ministers met in the Lovely Lane Meeting House, and or- ganized officially the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. The new body grew with such rapidity that by the year 1809 there were five of its churches in Baltimore alone, one of them being for n^^oes; and in Varle's View of Baltimore, published in 1833, one reads that there are eight Methodist churches in the city. A new meeting-house, erected on the comer of Light street and Wine alley, succeeded the Lovely Lane Meeting House in 1786. This was de- stroyed by fire nine years later and rebuilt in 1797 on the opposite comer of Wine alley on a lot bought by James McCannon, William Hawkins, Isaac Bumeston, Samuel Owings, John Hagerty, Job Smith, Caleb Hew- itt, Walter Simpson and Philip Rogers. Here the congregation remained until 1869, when it purchased from the Charles Street Methodist Church, now Mt. Vernon Church, the building on the corner of Charles and Fay- ette streets. In 1885 it removed once more to the corner of St. Paul and HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 691 Twenty-second streets, where it occupies a beautiful site adjoining that of Goucher College. The first step taken by the Methodists in the matter of education was the foundation of an ill-starred college at Abingdon, in Harford county. This, the first Cokesbury College, was burned down in 1795, when it was removed to Baltimore and reopened in a building on the other side of Wine alley, opposite the Light Street Church. The fire which destroyed the church a year later wiped out of existence an institution which prom- ised to be of great value to church and to city, for its promoters, discour- aged by successive misfortunes, made no more attempts to further their laudable project. It was not tmtil 1885 ^^^ another attempt at collegiate education was made by the Methodists in Baltimore. In this year the Rev. John F. Goucher, pastor of the First Church, offered to give a liberal start to an educational institution to be controlled by the conference. In accepting the offer, the conference decided to make this a college for women. Dr. Goucher gave the site and the first building ; other interested persons gave buildings and money, and within a decade the Woman's College, one of the best-known colleges for women in the country, had grown up in Balti- more. About two years ago, upon the resignation of its founder and second president, a new name was given to the institution. As Goucher College it is a decidedly distinctive institution, with every prospect of future growth and usefulness. An English Methodist minister, writing of his tour through the United States in 1848, says, "It is thought by some * * that Methodism has made greater progress and holds a more commanding position, in the city of Baltimore, than in any part of the United States. '^^ '^^ If spacious and beautiful churches, large and most respectable congregations. Chris- tian and kind-hearted families * * * are to be taken as proofs of prog- ress, then, most assuredly, Baltimore must be considered as ranking very high in a religious point of view". Another writer comments upon the high character of the Methodist preachers in Baltimore about this time and earlier, and from various sources one gathers the impression that Baltimore has from the beginning been the Jerusalem of American Methodism. With this in mind, it is not surprising to learn that here the so-called reform battle of the decade 1820-1830 raged the fiercest. In 1824, in Bal- timore alone, eleven local preachers and twenty-two laymen were expelled from the church. In 1827 these and other rebellious ones assembled in Baltimore and prepared a memorial for the General Conference. Three years later another convention of these determined irreconcilables met here and framed the constitution of the Methodist Protestant Church. The new body is strongly represented in Baltimore, which has the distinc- tion of being the birthplace of the two great branches of the Wcsleyan sect in America. Some of the greatest names of American Methodism are connected with the church in Baltimore. It was one of the regular stations of Francis Asbury, afterwards the second bishop of the church. TTie Rev. George Roberts, M. D., was one of the best-known preachers and citizens of Baltimore of his day. Bishop Emory had a charge here. Sheer, Tip- pett and a score of others are remembered in the community for their lives and good works. Bishops Asbury, Emory and George are among those buried in Mt. Olivet, the cemetery of the First Church. The influence of these and other leaders shows in the great numerical strength of the 692 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE church in Baltimore, in its contribution to missionary and philanthropic endeavor and in the strict integrity which its members commonly display in the affairs of daily life. The Baptist Church, — The First Baptist church in Maryland was organized in 1742 by an Englishman named Sater, at Qiestnut Ridge, in Howard county. Twelve years after this, fourteen members who differed frcxn the others on a point in the doctrine of election withdrew, and formed a "Particular Baptist Qiurch" at Winter's Rtm in Harford county. This congregation, known as "Harford Baptist Church", became the pro- lific mother of several Maryland churches, and in 1785 eleven of its mem- bers organized the Qiurch of Baltimore, with Elder Lewis Richards as pastor. The infant congregation built a church on the comer of Fayette and Front streets, the spot now occupied by the shot tower. The situaticm commended itself to these believers in baptism by immersion, by reason of its nearness to Jones' Falls, in which stream the sacrament was per- formed for many years. The church belonged to the Baltimore Baptist Association, founded in 1793, to include the whole Western Shore of Maryland. Doctrinal dissension prevented the growth of this body, so that until the strongly evangelical and missionary Maryland Baptist Union was formed in 1836 there was small hope of Baltimore becoming a Baptist center. The lot upon which the church was built had been purchased for the purpose by some far-sighted Baptists as early as 1773, but the Revolu- tion intervening, the society had not been formed until 1785. The constit- uent members of the congregation were the pastor, David Shields, and wife; George Presstman and wife; Richard Lemmon; Alexander McKim; Thomas Coale and wife; William Hobby and Mrs. Eleanor Thomas. Mr. Richards was pastor until 1818, when he resigned the office, but retained his membership in the congregation. He was succeeded by Rev. Edmond J. Reis. In the meantime, in 1795, three families, headed by Elder John Healy, belonging to the ''New Connexion" of Baptists, came to Baltimore from England. They settled on Fell's Point, where Dr. Bend, of St. Paul's, allowed them the use of his mission room for the conduct of their wor- ship. In 1797 they found themselves strong enough to build a church. This was located on the comer of Bank and Eden streets, and it was known as the Second Baptist Church. This congregation claims to have started the first Sunday school in Maryland, some time between 1797 and 1803. The church had a severe struggle against various misfortunes at first, but the Rev. John Healy was a stubborn fighter who brought it through successfully. In 181 1 a new church was built on Canton avenue, whence years later the congregation moved to Broadway and Pratt street It joined the Maryland Union in 1848. In 1818 the second building of the First Church was erected on the comer of Lombard and Sharpe streets. It was circular in shape, sur- mounted by a great dome. An older generation of Baltimoreans knew it as "Old Round Top Church", and it was long a landmark of its section. Soon after this, certain of the congregation who disliked Mr. Reis built tfie Third Church, and a little later he himself, with a small following, separated from the congregation and organized the Ebenezer Baptist Church. The Rev. John Finlay became pastor of the old church in 1821, and by the exercise of firmness brought the congregation to a more regular and desirable form of government with a resultant increase in discipline and unity. The "Old Round Top Church" was abandoned in 1878 for a HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 693 more desirable location on the comer of Fremont street and Lafayette avenue. There are three distinct milestones in the progress of the Baptist church in Baltimore. The first of these was the formation of the Maryland Baptist Union in 1836, an action which marked a change from weak inac- tion to vigorous, evangelical, missionary activity in all branches of work. The second point of advance starts with the great wave of revivals which swept over the English speaking world. The Rev. Jacob Knapp held a series of revivals in 1839 which resulted in doubling the congregation of First Baptist Church, increasing it from 565 to 1,183 members, and the third milestone was the coming of the Rev. Richard Fuller as pastor of the Seventh Church. This great preacher and godly man came to Balti- more at a time when the leaders of the different churches were engaged in unpleasant differences on various points of doctrine and policy, and, in spite of the recent spiritual revival, the day that Richard Fuller stood up to preach in the General Baptist Convention in Baltimore in 1841, the church here was in a serious plight. His text was, ''And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me'', and his almost inspired words of ''sweet reasonableness" brought together the factions, and re- newed in them a spirit of activity which has never since abated. The principal event of recent Baptist history is the erection in 1871 of Eutaw Place Baptist Church, by members of the Seventh Church. Mr. Hiram Woods gave the land, and Messrs. Eugene Levering, Daniel Chase and Samuel Bevan gave $5,000 each to the cost of the building. Since its beginnings this church has been a Baptist stronghold. There should be some mention of Baptist work among n^roes. As early as 1818 there were occasional attempts made to reach £e colored population, but not until 1836, when an ex-slave, the Rev. Moses Qayton, began his missionary work abong them, were there any noticeable results. The negro Baptists are now a strong and numerous body in Baltimore, and have the ownership of many fine church properties. The Jewish Congregations. — ^The history of Judaism in Baltimore is the history of its five principal Jewish congregations — the Baltimore He- brew, Har Sinai, Oheb Sholem, Chizzuk Amoonah and Shearith Israel. Of these the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, founded in 1829, is the parent. During the colonial period and for the first three decades of the nine- teenth century, the Jews of Maryland labored under certain political dis- advantages, not the least of which was their inability to hold office of any sort whatever. Early attempts to remove this disability failed, and the celebrated "Jew Bill" of 1825 narrowly escaped the same fate. One of the beneficial effects of its passage, however, was the introduction in the next legislature three years later of a bill asking leave to organize a con- gregation among the Jews in Baltimore. A few months later in this year of 1829, the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation was formed, with John Dyer, Moses Millem, Lewis Silver, Levi Benjamin and Joseph Osterman as charter members. For the next fifteen years meetings were held in various rented rooms and buildings, but in 1845 the first synagogue in Maryland was built by this congregation on Lloyd street. The first rabbi of the congregation, the Rev. Abram Rice, was one of the best known supporters of Orthodox Judaism in the United States. He was fixedly opposed to the reform movement, and he fought it so determinedly with voice and pen that he finally drove a portion of his own congregation into secession. In 1843, Har Sinai Congregation secured a 694 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE charter, and with the Rev. Max Sutro as rabbi began to worship in a house on High street. Its third rabbi, the Rev. David Einhom, occupied in the Reform party in the United States much the same position of leader- ship that Abram Rice held in the Orthodox wing. Baltimore Jews are proud of their connection with these two great leaders of Judaism in America. During Mr. Einhom's six years in Baltimore, and largely through his influence, Reform Judaism assumed the characteristics which have since marked its progress. He edited throughout the years that he was here a monthly journal, The Sinai, the eight volumes of which are still full of inspiration and stimulus for the Reform rabbi. But an even more important work than this was his compilation of the "Olath Tamid", the best prayer bode in use by the Reform congr^ations. Har Sinai Con- gregation, with the Rev. C. A. Rubenstein as rabbi, worships at present in the building on the comer of Bolton and Wilson streets, one of the several substantial and handsome s3magogues which adorn the city. Strengthened by immigration, the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation has continued in prosperity in spite of this and other secessions from its fold. With the Rev. Adolf Guttmacher as rabbi, it worships in a beauti- ful synagc^;ue on the comer of Madison avenue and Robert street. In 1853, the changing trend of Jewish population in Baltimore moved another party to withdraw from the mother body, and the Oheb Sholem congregation was organized with a place of worship on Hanover street. Later die congregation built the present synagogue on the comer of Eutaw Place and Lanvale street, the great dome of which dominates everything surrounding it. The Rev. William Rosenau is the present rabbi of the congregation. The Chizzuk Amoonah Congregation, on the comer of McCuIloh and Mosher streets, left the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in 1871. The Reform movement had not been without its influence even upon a people trained in the Orthodox tradition by the Rev. Abram Rice, and, when the effect of the newer thought began to evidence itself, certain of the more conservative members of die elder society formed themselves into a separate organization. The Rev. Henry W. Sdineebei^er has been rabbi of the Chizzuk Amoonah since 1876. The Shearith Israel Congregation, worshipping now in a fine new synagogue on McCuUoh and Bloom streets, was formed in 1876 by the consolidation of two small Orthodox bodies in southwest Baltimore. It is considered the most nearly orthodox of the five principal congregations here described. The Rev. S. Schaeffer has been rabbi for seventeen years. These five are only a few of the many congregations in the city formed by Russian and other immigrant Jews in recent years. Baltimore is regarded as a center of Jewish religious life, and the charities and philanthropies of its congregations deserve a more extended treatment than can be given to them here. Its different bodies represent the ex- tremes of Orthodox and Reform Judaism, and it has now and from the beginning has had among its rabbis men representative of the best thought and culture of each school. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE. From Notes Furnished by Rev. Louis O'Donovan. Maryland was the only English colony established in America that was founded under the guidance and control of members of the Roman Catholic Church, and Baltimore was the first Episcopal see created; and its bishop was the first in the United States to be elevated to the archiepis- copate. In Baltimore, under the presidency of the archbishop, have been held each of the three plenary councils of the Church that have been con- vened in this country. The position of the archdiocese of Baltimore is therefore exceptional and of distinct interest. Colonial or Missionary Period, 1634-1789, — ^Though the Diocese of Baltimore was not established until April 6, 1789, yet its roots reach back to the coming of the Jesuit fathers, Andrew White and John Altham, with the first colonists, in The Ark and The Dove, on March 25, 1634. Here in this "land of sanctuary" of which Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, was the first Proprietary, and his brother, Leonard Calvert, the first lieu- tenant-governor, religious liberty was established from the very outset. A site for a town. Saint Mary's City, having been obtained from the Indians by purchase, one of the first cares of the settlers was to set apart one of the houses as a chapel for the use of the Jesuit fathers. From this humble beginning sprang the future Diocese of Baltimore. Leonard Calvert, the lieutenant-governor, died in 1647, ^^^ ^^^ years later, in an assembly convened at Saint Mary's by William Stone, whom Lord Baltimore had appointed governor, was enacted the famous "Act Concerning Religion". Although religious liberty had been established at the time of the first settlement fifteen years before and had been steadily maintained, the wise Proprietary thought it best that the principle should be confirmed by statute enacted by the people themselves. This act, the declared object of which was "for the more peaceable government of the province, and the better to preserve mutual love and amity amon|^ the inhabitants", provided that "no person or persons what- soever withm this province . . . professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be anyway troubled or molested, or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof within this province . . . or in an3rway compelled to the belief or exercise of any other religion against his or her consent". This act did not originate religious liberty in Maryland, the purpose of its enactment at this time being to secure and perpetuate it. And yet but five years later, under the influence of the Commissioners of Parliament, by whom Lord Baltimore's rule had been temporarily displaced, an attempt was made to repeal it. In the early years of the province the majority of the landed pro- prietors constituting the govemmg classes were Roman Catholics, but in later years, through a greatly increased Protestant immigration and the enactment, during the sway of governors appointed by the Crown of Eng- land, of penal laws against the practice of the Roman Catholic Religion, the relative proportions became reversed. In 1708 it was estimated that 695 696 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE less than one-twelfth of the population (2,979 out of about 40,000) were Roman Catholics, most of whom were resident in St. Mary's and diaries counties, with only 52 in Baltimore county. However, as early as 1677 a school had been established by the Jesuit fathers, where the humanities were taught, and in 1745 a classical school was opened on Bohemia Manor, in Cecil county. In this school ''J^^^'* Carroll, afterward to become Archbishop of Baltimore, was among the first group of about forty pupils. Govemor Horatio Sharpe, of Maryland (a Protestant), writing in 1755, paid this tribute: "The Papists behave themselves peacefully, and as good subjects. They are, I imagine, about one-twelfth of the population, and many of them are men of pretty con- siderable fortune". As already mentioned, the Roman Catholics were not numerous in the northern portion of the State, and in Baltimore Town there were but few. In 1755, however, some nine hundred exiled Acadians were landed in Maryland, and those of them that were sent to Baltimore at- tended mass in a chapel which they arranged in a dwelling house which stood on Fayette street, on a portion of the lot now occupied by the court house. From the foundation of the colony in 1634 until the year 1700, the clergy serving in the province included about thirty-five Jesuits, six Fran- ciscans, and two secular priests, the latter having been sent at the special request of Lord Baltimore in 1642, at the time of a dispute with the Jesuits about land grants. 'Most of these missionaries were Englishmen, and the majority were self-supporting by means of agriculture and farming. Archbishop Carroll, — In 1789, one hundred and fifty-five years after the colonization of the province of Maryland, the Diocese of Baltimore was created, to which see the first American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church was consecrated. John Carroll, who became a veritable Moses to his people, at once law-giver and leader, wisely counselling and faithfully leading through critical and troublous times, was bom at Upper Marlboro, in 1735. Of Irish ancestry, he was related to his contemporary, the patriot Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, through his mother, whose name was Damall. When twelve years of age he was entered in the Jesuit school in Cecil county, and later won honors abroad at St. Omer's College, in Flanders. He was ordained priest in 1761, and after teaching philosophy and the- ology at Liege returned to Maryland in 1774. In 1776 he went at the request of the Continental Congress on a mission to Canada to endeavor to persuade the Canadians to remain neutral in the approaching struggle for American independence. In 1770 the first Roman Catholic church in Baltimore was built on Saratoga street near Charles street. This was old St. Peter's, of which the congregation was subsequently merged with that of the Cathedral, situated a short distance to the northward. This church was served monthly by Rev. Bernard Dideriell, a Belgian priest, from 1775 to 1782. The first resident pastor was Rev. Charles Sewall, of St. Mary's county. After the close of the war of the Revolution, six priests assembled at Whitemarsh on June 27, 1783, and sent a petition to Rome, in response to which, on June 9, 1784, Rev. John Carroll was made superior of the missions in the thirteen United States of North America. Prior to this they had been under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the vicars apostolic of England and of London successively. In October, 1784, the priests HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 697 were convened in a chapter, and adopted rules or regulations for the con* duct of the clergy, the salary for each priest being fixed at $175 a year. The subject of the appointment of a bishop caused great anxiety, there being apprehension lest a foreigner should be designated for that office, a possibility which the American priests greatly deprecated. Under these circumstances the name of Father Carroll was proposed and strongly urged. Father Carroll was a member of the Society of Jesus, but that Society being then under temporary suspension, he was in some of the contempo- rary correspondence referred to as an "ex- Jesuit". Having been appointed Vicar Apostolic, his official reports made to Cardinal Antonelli as to the condition of the church in Maryland are of significance. He wrote that there were then 15,800 Roman Catholics in Maryland, among whom were included a few of the leading families, but also 3,000 negro slaves. His comments upon the religious conditions of those under his care are for the most part favorable, but at the same time he found occasion to con- demn a prevalent tendency to frivolity among the young, and neglect of home teaching in religion both of children and slaves. In 1787 the outlook for successful mission work in Baltimore Town was so unpromising that Father Sewall wished to abandon the field; but at this time the Very Reverend Dr. Carroll having determined to fix his own residence there, his preaching and his civic activities soon awakened a response. On November 5, 1789, Dr. Carroll was designated by Pope Pius VI as bishop and pastor of the Church of Baltimore, and the following y<sar, on August 15, 1790, he was consecrated to the episcopal office at Lulworth Castle, England, by Bishop Walmesley, Vicar Apostolic. While in Europe for his consecration he arranged with the fathers of the community of St. Sulpice in Paris to establish a seminary in Baltimore. This was done in 1 791, upon the site now occupied by St. Mary's Seminary, on Paca street, where four acres of land were obtained, with the "One Mile Tav- ern". Between the years 1791 and 1798 seventeen French priests came to Baltimore, among whom were included several men of prominence and one future Archbishop of Baltimore. During the same year (1791) the first synod was held in old St. Peter's Church ; and in 1793 Bishop Carroll held the first ordination in his diocese, conferring priest's orders upon the Rev. Stephen Badin. And on December 7, 1800, Bishop Carroll consecrated the Rev. Leonard Neale as bishop coadjutor of the See of Baltimore. The cornerstone of the present Cathedfa] was laid by Bishop Carroll upon land purchased from Colonel John Eager Howard. The architect was Mr. Benjamin H. Latrobe, who also designed the Capitol at Washington. With the growth of the country and increase of population, it soon became evident that additional dioceses were required, and in April, 1808, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Bordstown were erected into sepa- rate dioceses, while Baltimore was advanced to the rank of archdiocese. The newly created bishops met in synod in Baltimore under the presidency of Archbishc^ Carroll in 1810, and adopted a number of regulations per- taining to religion and morals. After some years of failing health. Archbishop Carroll died on De- cember J, 1 81 5. He was a man of judicious temper, executive ability, and Christian virtue, called to a most responsible post at a most critical period. The results of his work are the evidence of his wisdom. He was active in measures for the advancement of the welfare of the ccxn- 698 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE munity, and it is interesting to record that in these activities he was in cordial sympathy and cooperation with the rector of Saint Paul's Parish (Anglican) and the pastor of the Presbyterian Oiurch. He was a worthy associate of his illustrious contemporaries in the founding of the nation — George Washington and Charles Carroll of CarroUton. Archbishop Neale. — Archbishop Neale, who had been bishop coad- jutor since 1800, succeeded to the archiepiscopal dignity upon the death of his predecessor. He also was a native of Maryland, but widely unlike Archbishop Carroll in temperament. He was ascetic in his mode of life, and of a retiring nature, mingling but little in public affairs. During his brief administration he ordained four priests, and had the gratification of seeing a free school established under church auspices. He died on June 18, 1817. Archbishop Marechal, — Ambrose Marechal was one of the French Sulpician fathers who came to Baltimore at the instance of Archbishop Carroll to establish St. Mary's Seminary. He declined the appointment as Bishop of Philadelphia, not wishing to be separated from his woric as a teacher of theology, but afterwards became coadjutor to Archbishop Neale, and so succeeded him in office. Although by this time a number of dioceses had been erected within the original area of the mother diocese of Baltimore, including Richmond and Charleston to the south, there remained a vast territory, including Alabama and Mississippi, still forming part of the Baltimore diocese. Through this extended field. Archbishop Marechal made an official visita- tion, confirming about 2,500 persons. His most earnest efforts were direc- ted to secure the completion of the Cathedral in Baltimore, seeking con- tributions to that end far and wide. His efforts were crowned wim suc- cess, and in 1821 mass was for the first time said in the new edifice. The population of the country had rapidly increased, many immi- grants coming from Latin countries, and as a consequence the number of souls under the cure of the archdiocese had greatly increased, and the number of priests had increased to sixty-two. Their nationalities afford an approximate index of the distribution of nationality among their flocks. There were: American 25, Irish 12, French 11, Belgian 5, German 2, Italian 2, English, Polish, Bavarian and Mexican i each. In the city of Baltimore there were at this time five Roman Catholic churches, namely: the Cathedral; old St, Peter's on Saratoga street (afterwards merged with the Cathedral) ; St. John's (now St. Alphonsus'), with a German cong^re- gation; St. Patrick's at Fell's Point; and St. Mary's Seminary Ch^>el. Archbishop Marechal died January 28, 1828, and was buried in the crypt of the Cathedral. Archbishop JVhitHeld, — ^The fourth Archbishop of Baltimore, although like his predecessors a Sulpician, was a native of England, bora in Uverpool, in 1770. In 1829 the first Provincial Council of Baltimore was held, and at- tended by five bishops and the vicar apostolic of Philadelphia. Two bish- ops of the Province of Baltimore, those of New York and Mobile, were absent in Europe. The decrees of the council related chiefly to matters of ecclesiastical discipline and the education of the young. In 183 1, St. Charles' College, in Howard county, was established as a preparatory school for St. Mary's Seminary. When in 1833 ^^ scourge of Asiatic cholera visited Baltimore, the archbishop offered his own resi- dence as a hospital, and two priests and three Sisters of Mercy fell victims HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 699 to the plague as the result of their heroic and devoted care of the sick. Aidibi^p Whitfield died in October, 1834. Archbishop Eccleston. — Samuel Eccleston was bom in Kent county, Maryland, in 1801, of Protestant parents. When eleven years old he was sent to St. Maiy's College, Baltimore, where he received his education, and finding a religious vocation was ordained priest in 1825 and became a member of the community of St. Sulpice. In 1834 he became fifth arch- bishop of Baltimore, having for a short time previous been bishop coadjutor. In 1837 the third Provincial Council of Baltimore was held, and dur- ing the same year the Convent of the Visitation was established, the nuns of the order being devoted to the education of young ladies. In 1839 much excitement was caused by what has been called the nunnery riot", which occurred on Sunday, August i8th. It was precipitated by a de- mented nun, who, going upon the street in her religious habit, created excitement by begging for protection from the conventual life in the Car- melite Convent, then situated on Aisquith street. The impression was created that women were held in the convent against their will, and a crowd which was gathered quickly became a mob. The military was called out, and a special body of police formed for the preservation of the place from threatened assault. The unfortunate woman who had started the excitement was conducted to the Washington University Hospital on Broadway, and after examination was found by the medical faculty to be insane and mentally irresponsible. Meanwhile, at the request of the religious authorities, a committee of citizens with the mayor inspected the convent, questioned the nuns, and reported that all of them declared them- selves entirely content with the cloistered life they had adopted. The excitement, which during its continuance had been intense, was thus ended. In 1840 the fourth Provincial Council of Baltimore was held. Its proceedings related to matters of church discipline, the condemnation of secret societies, the encouragement of temperance, and the formatk>n of total abstinence societies. In 1843 the fifth Provincial Council was held. Its decrees related chiefly to the use of churches for secular purposes,, their financial management, and the subject of marriage and divorce. The death of Archbishop Eccleston occurred on April 22, 1851. Archbishop Kenrick. — Francis Patrick Kenrick, sixth Archbishop of Baltimore, a native of Ireland, was translated from the see of Philadelphia. He was a theologian and scholar of rare gifts and accomplishments. Under his presidency was held in 1852 the first Plenary Council of Balti- more, which was attended by five archbishops and twenty-four bishops. During the administration of Archbishop Kenrick occurred the begin- ning of the Civil War, whereupon he directed the "prayer for peace to be said at all masses, and under his direction many priests and sisters of charity went forth to minister to the sick, wounded and dying, in the camps and military hospitals of both armies. His death occurred suddenly on July 7, 1863, and his last recorded words were, "I hope we soon have peace." Archbishop Spalding. — Martin John Spalding, descended from a Maryland ancestry, was translated to Baltimore from the see of Louis- ville, Kentucky. Less distinguished than his predecessor as a scholar, he was more a man of affairs. Under his presidency as Delegate Apostolic, the second Plenary Council of Baltimore was held in 1866, attended by seven archbishops, thirty-four bishops and three vicars apostolic. The 70O HISTORY OF BALTIMORE decrees of the council related to matters of faith, church government and discipline, religious conununities and education. Amon^ the notable works of charity established under church influ- ence at this time were St. Mary's Industrial School, the House of the Good Shepherd, and the Asylum of the Little Sisters of the Poor. Archbishop Spalding attended the Vatican Council of the Church, held in Rome in 1869, and after a painful illness, died on February 7, 1872, surrounded by those whom he loved to call ''his good and devoted priests". Archbishop Bayley. — ^James Roosevelt Bayley was brought up in the Protestant Episcopal church, to the ministry of which he was ordained. Subsequently he became Roman Catholic Bishop of Newark, from which see he was promoted to the archbishopric of Baltimore in 1872. Through his earnest efforts the debt by which the Cathedral was encumbered was finally paid off, and he found the reward of his labors in the consecration of the sacred edifice by him in 1876. His death occurred the following' year, on October 3, and he was buried at Emmitsburg, where his aunt. Mother Seton, had established the mother house of the Sisters of Charity' in America. Cardinal Gibbons. — James Gibbons, ninth Archbishop of Baltimore, is the first native of the city to hold that office. Ordained priest in 1861, he served first at St. Patrick's Church, at Fell's Point, and St. Bridget's, at Canton. In 1868 he became Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina, and in 1872 Bishop of Richmond. In 1877 ^^ ^^ appointed Archbishop of Baltimore. Under his presidency the third Plenary Council of Baltimore was held in 1884, attended by eleven archbishops and more than fifty bishops. Two years later, on June 7, 1886, Archbishop Gibbons was created a Cardinal, the second American prelate to hold that dignity. Two notable events occurred in 1889 — ^the celebration of 3ie centen- nial of the Baltimore Diocese, and of the establishment of the episcopate in the United States, and the holding of the Catholic Congress, which was attended by a notable assemblage of prelates, clergy and laymen. In 1893 the silver jubilee of the consecration of Cardinal Gibbons to the episcopate was observed and participated in by nearly all the bishops in the country. On this occasion the enlarged sanctuary of the Cathedral was opened, the dimensions of which had by the liberality of Cardinal Gibbons been much increased. The activities of Cardinal Gibbons have been great, as has been also the growth of the churches under his charge. In 1903 he attended the meeting of the College of Cardinals which elected Ae present Supreme Pontiff, Pope Pius X. During the year 191 1, at the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination as a priest and the twenty-fifth of his elevation to the rank of Cardinal, the respect and affection with which Cardinal Gibbons is held by his fellow citizens and by men of all creeds and of no creed was most abundantly and emphatically manifested by remarkable public demonstrations. Among those participating were Mr. Taft, President of the United States, and others of national prominence. It was remarked above that in 1820 there were but five Roman Catho- lic churches in Baltimore. At the present time (1911) the number is forty- seven. The population of the city in 1820 was 62,738, and according to the government census in 1910 the number had increased to 558,485. The population and the ntunber of churches have each increased more than ninefold in ninety years. During the same period the proportion of for- eign-bom inhabitants has greatly increased, and in order to meet the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 701 needs of these people churches have been established in which the teaching is often given in the native language of the worshippers. In this way, in the forty-seven churches mentioned are included five German congrega- tions, one Bohemian, one Polish and one Italian, besides three devoted to work among the colored people. In the field of education, most of the churches maintain parish schools in which a primary or grammar school education can be obtained. And there are also several high schools, including that under charge of the Qiristian Brothers, as well as Loyola College, for boys, and a number of convent schools for girls and young ladies. In the domain of higher education mention should be made here of the Catholic University in Washington, which, though not within the city of Baltimore, is within the archdiocese, and of which the Archbishop of Baltimore is ex-oMcio the chancellor. This institution affords broad courses of study not only in theology but also in science, philosophy, letters and law. In respect to strictly theolc^cal schools, mention has already been made of St. Mary's Seminary on Paca street, of which St. Charles' Col- lege is a preparatory school. There are also the Jesuit House of Studies at Woodstodc, and, for priests who are to labor among the colored people, St. Joseph's Seminary, for which Epiphany College is the preparatory school. In the works of charity and mercy conducted by the church or by religious orders belonging to it, such as the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Franciscans, are orphan asylums for both boys and girls, and two day nurseries; St. Vincent's Infant Asylum, to which has been added a hospital for maternity; Reformatories, such as St. Mary's Industrial Sdiool for Boys; St. Joseph's School for Girls, and the House of the Good Shepherd; A Home for the Aged, conducted by the Little Sisters of the Poor ; and of Hospitals : St. Agnes', St. Joseph's, and Mercy Hospital for the physically sick and injured, and Mt. Hope Retreat for the mentally diseased. There are also a number of minor, but none the less useful, institu- tions of mercy for helping the unfortunate, and finally the St. Vincent de Paul Society, introduced in Baltimore in 1865, and which affords the means for mutual cooperation among the various charitable institutions and organizations acting under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. THE PRESS OF BALTIMORE. By William Leigh Jr. In this account of the newspapers and periodicals of Baltimore, prece- dence will be given, in chronological order, to those publications now in existence. Next in order the newspapers and perio<&cals which are do longer aUve will be dealt with. More or less space, according to relative merit, will be given to living publications. Of those which are defunct, some will be described, while mention of the names and of the dates of the others will be given in an appended list. The American,— On May 14, 1799, Alexander Martin issued from his own office at 39 Bond street, Fell's Point, the first number of The Bal- timore American and Daily Advertiser, This newspaper has alwajrs claimed to be a continuance of the Maryland Journal, using the Inietti- gencer to bridge the gap between 1797 and 1799, and there are some groun(is for the claim, as may be seen from the sketches of the Journal and of the Intelligencer. Yet Alexander Martin himself did not ocmsider the American any sort of continuation. His view of the matter is clearly indicated by the following quotation, taken from a sketch of the paper which was published over his signature in the American of June g, 1800: "On the 14th of May, 1799, the American first commenced. It had then no subscribers previously engaged. Like a friendless stranger, it threw itself before the generosity of the public; nor were its hopes misplaced. Many of the hospitable doors of the citizens were thrown open for its reception; and at this period, nine hundred citizens daily take it in." Though Mr. Pechin was now no longer a partner of Martin's, die two former partners were in close political sympathy, and Pechin's violent Anti-Federalist feelings were fully expressed in the early numbers of the American, It seems that the mob spirit was strong in tbt Federalists of Baltimore in those days, for on June 18, 1799, a Federalist mob, headed by military officers, went hunting for Martin. Martin escaped that day, but both he and Pechin were persecuted all that summer and autumn, not only by riotous citizens, but by government troops. To the everlasting credit of these gentlemen, however, the American never abated its zeaL The office had to be put in a state of defense, garrisoned by the friends of Martin and Pechin ; but the American held to its course, and its enemies gave up the fight. On November 15, 1803, Alexander Martin sold his interest in the paper to his former partner, William Pechin, and Leonard Frailey, of Pittsburgh. The office was then moved to 31 South Gay street. The plant was considerably enlarged, and the circulation greatly increased. Frailey withdrew in August, 1805, leaving Pechin sole proprietor. In 1810 Pechin formed a partnership with G. Dobbin and Murphy. The new firm enlarged and improved the paper still further and opened an additional cS&ct at 10 Baltimore street. During the year 1810, single issues of the American frequently contained from 24 to 28 columns of 702 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 703 advertising matter. Thus the paper continued to grow and prosper, until in 1812 it was very influential. During the summer of 1814, when Baltimore was so seriously threat- ened by the British, the American played a truly useful and patriotic part. Despite the panic in the city, the paper was never suspended, but published editorial after editorial full of good advice and encouragement; and in September, 1814, the sincerity of all these editorials was satisfactorily proven, for, from September loth to September 20th, the American sus- pended publication in order that its whole force might go to the defense of Baltimore at the battle of North Point. In 181 5, Mr. William Bose was made a member of the puUishing firm, and the style became that of Pechin, Dobbin, Murphy & Bose. Under this firm the American continued to grow, in a steady, conservative way, for the next thirty-eight years. But on June 30, 1853, this venerable and patriotic newspaper started on a new career. It was then that the old firm was dissolved, and Charles C. Fulton became copartner with Robert A. Dobbin. Mr. Fulton was bom in Philadelphia, September 20, 181 6, and had learned the trade of printer in that city. When he came to the American he had already gained ample experience as printer, reporter and editor, with The Baltimore Sun, In addition to all this experience Mr. Fulton had an unusual amount of enthusiasm and optimism, well seasoned with common sense. He was farsighted and very progressive, an ideal newspaper man, in short. Mr. Dobbin, who was in very bad health, vir- tually gave the entire control of the paper to his partner, who went rap- idly on with his work of making the American a great metropolitan news- paper. Mr. Dobbin died in 1862, and in 1864 his son, who had in the meanwhile taken no active part in the management, sold out to Mr. Fulton, who was now sole proprietor. The American was always a strong supporter of its political party. Not only did the paper fight secession with all its might, but Mr. Fulton, as a private citizen, contributed materially to the success of the Union cause. Mr. Fulton was not only a great newspaper manager, but also a great special correspondent. He was with the Army of Ae Potomac in 1862-63-64, during the most important campaigns of those years, and gave the American the full benefit of his observation. Consequently the American was frequently ahead of all other newspapers with the war news. Mr. Fulton's son, Albert K. Fulton, was an engineer on Admiral Farragut's flagship, the Hartford, and sent to his father's paper the first and most vivid accounts of all of Farragut's naval engagements. After the close of the war, Mr. Pulton traveled extensively in the United States and abroad, keeping up a constant correspondence with his paper. Until his death, in 1883, he remained a consistent and aggressive Republican, but his newspaper was always broad and progressive. Colonel Scharf , in his Chronicles of Baltimore, written in 1874, writes : "Consider- ing that the American is published in a city in which for the last fifteen years the preponderating political sentiment has been against it, the won- derful success it has achieved can only be attributed to substantial merits which politics cannot aflFect." Ever since the death of Mr. Fulton, in 1883, his son-in-law. General Felix Angus, has been the publisher and manager of the American, Under his management the progressive and public-spirited policy of the paper has been ably sustained. The great fire of 1904 destroyed the building at Baltimore and South streets which the American had occupied since 1876, but within a year the 704 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE present building, ''a monument to the American's faith in Baltimore*', built on the old site, had been completed, and a souvenir edition was issued on February 7, 1905. The Sun. — On May 17, 1837, The Baltimore Sun came forth a full- fledged, real newspaper from the great brain of Arunah S. Abell. Mr. Abell, who was bom in Providence, in 1806, had gained a thorough experi- encc in newspaper work in Providence, Boston, and New York, by the time he was thirty years old. In 1836 he formed a partnershq> with Messrs. Swain & Simmons for the purpose of publishing the Public Ledger in Philadelphia. After the Ledger had been running for a year, Mr. Abdl conceived the plan of establishing the Sun in Baltimore, which he believed an ideal city for a newspaper of the right sort. His partners were not enthusiastic over the plan, but consented to his proposition, on the condi- tion that he would assume the responsibility and the work connected with the new enterprise. There was great financial distress throughout the country in 1837 ; but for this very reason, Mr. Abell reasoned, the cost of setting up the printing establishment would be less. Baltimore had no "penny newspapers" at the time, nor any kind of newspaper at all similar to what Mr. Abell intended the Sun to be. Most of the newspapers of the day were an3rthing but pro- pressive. They were, in fact, mere party organs, containing much invective and little news. Moreover, they sold for sixpence. Mr. Abell's plan was to give Baltimore a paper that would publish all the important news ob- tainable by human enterprise, whose opinions on public matters could be relied on as unbiased by religious or political consideration, a paper that should be the public voice. With full confidence in the success of such a plan, he ordered the most improved printing materials, set up the Sun office at 21 Light street, and on May 17th, 1837, printed enough copies of ^e Sun's first issue to leave one at the door of nearly every house in Balti- more. Within six months the paid circulation of the paper was 8,500, which had grown to 12,000 by May 17, 1838. The population of Baltimore at that time was only 80,000, and there were already six well estaUished rival news- papers in the city. The first year of trial had proven the success of Mr. Abell's plan, and established the reputation of his paper. This first year of the Sun's life has been called ''the beginning of the newspaper revolution." The era of the old-fashioned partisan "sixpennies" was ending. People were beginning to feel the need of more news and less discussion, more public spirit, and less party politics. The Sun took its place at once in the very front rank of the progressive forces. It began reporting regularly the proceedings of the courts, the Legislature, and of Congress, a thing which no Baltimore newspaper had done theretofore. It made practical arrangements to gather true news and to print it without delay. The Sun's first great "scoop" was in December, 1838, when it printed the President's message two days ahead of all its contemporaries. The printed copy of this message was brought by pony express direct from Washington to the Sun office, where it was reprinted and distributed to the crowd within two hours. The pace thus set for itself by the Sun was con- sistently kept up. Every time there was any important piece of news to be published, the Sun was equal to the occasion, and regularly published it ahead of the other Baltimore papers. When, in 1844-45-46, the New York papers b^an running expresses with European news from Halifax and Boston, the Sun joined m their en- terprise, and was thus able to supply the freshest foreign news, not only to the people of Baltimore, but also to the President and Cabinet in Washing- HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 705 ton. It was, indeed, to the Sun, that the southern and western papers were in the "forties" chiefly indebted for their foreign news. But the Sun's opportunity to "beat" all the other newspapers in the United States came with the Mexican war. Early in 1846, Mr. Abell, of his own initiative, and without previous arrangement with any other paper, established a "horse express" from New Orleans to Baltimore, exclusively for the Baltimore Sun. The postoffice authorities opposed the enterprise, and did what they could to obstruct it, but, in spite of that, the Sun's "horse express" almost always brought the news from New Orleans to Baltimore at least thirty hours ahead of the Great Southern mail. As the war progressed, several of the Northern papers joined the Sun in keeping up this express. Throughout the war, the news of each battle was reported in Washington and Baltimore by the Sun first of all, and the government itself depended for its earliest information about the war upon the Sun, Mr. Abell used pigeons as well as horses for procuring news. He kept four or five hundred of them, and used them principally for bringing news from Washington, and from incoming steamers. This was the first pigeon express organized in the United States, and was kept up regularly until superseded by the telegraph. As soon as the telegraph came forward, Mr. Abell began to patronize it, and did all in his power to assist the construction of an experimental line from Washington to Baltimore. The first presidential message ever sent by telegraph was sent exclusively to the Sun on May 11, 1846. This was the longest message that had ever been transmitted by telegraph for any paper in the world. Again, in 1858, during the very short life of the Atlantic cable of that year, the first news telegram from London to be received and pub- lished in Baltimore was sent to the Sun. In 1876 the Sun joined with the New York Herald, and copies of both the daily and weekly Sun were sent to the Pacific Coast by Jarrett & Palmer's transcontinental train, in eighty- four hours. After the news had been gathered with unprecedented swiftness by means of ponies, pigeons, and electricity, the Sun was always prepared to print that news with proportionate rapidity. Mr. Abell never lost an oppor- tunity to buy the very newest presses ; he was a pioneer in all branches of newspaper enterprise. The rotary press, which is now in universal use among newspapers, was first oflFered to the publishers of New York, but they declared it to be impracticable. Mr. Abell, however, decided that it was practicable and used it successfully for some time before its use by any other newspaper in the world than the Sun. In 1839, ^he Sun office was removed from 21 Light street to the south- east corner of Gay and Baltimore streets. The Sun building, the first iron building erected in the United States, was completed in 1851. In i860 Mr. Abell bought the property in fee simple. This iron building was destroyed by the great fire of 1904, but the Sun was printed as usual on the morning after the fire, being the only morning paper printed in Baltimore that day. Two years later it moved into one of the most palatial newspaper homes in America, its present home at* the comer of Charles and Baltimore streets. The editorial policy of the Sun was outlined in the first issue as follows : "We shall give no place to religious controversy nor to political discussions of merely partisan character. On political principles and questions involving the honor or interest of the whole country we shall be firm and temperate. Our object will be the common good, without regard to section, factions, or parties, and for this object we shall labor without fear or partiality." A comparison of the files of the newspaper with the history of Baltimore and 7o6 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE of the country at large will show that the principles laid down above have been followed with admirable consistency. The Sun has always been what its great founder intended it to be — the public voice. Also, it has ever been the public "eye and ear". This great monument to Mr. Abell's genius had for some time the dis- tinction of being the most progressive, farsighted, and reliable newspaper in America. It is still recognized as one of the two leading newspapers south of Philadelphia. Der Deutsche Correspondent. — Colonel Frederick Raine, the founder of Der Deutsche Correspondent, was bom in Minden, Prussia, in 1823, being descended on both sides of his family from literary ancestors. At tht age of fourteen he began his journalistic career as apprentice in the printing and publishing house of his uncle, Frederick Wundermann, in Miinster, and became in the course of time assistant editor of the Westphaiische Zeitung. Meanwhile he used all his leisure time studying ancient and modem lan- guages. In 1840 he came to Baltimore and entered the office of the Demo- cratische Whig, which was then conducted by his father, William Raine. The Whig soon expired, and on February 6, 1841, young Raine started Der Deutsche Correspondent, as a weekly of four columns to the page. There were only eighty subscribers to begin with. Mr. Raine himself composed, set up the type, printed and carried the paper. After two years of quiet, steady growth, the paper was made a bi-weekly, and in the same year (1843) ^ tri- weekly. In 1844 Mr. Raine ventured to publish the Corre- spondent daily, but finding that his support was not yet strong enough, went back to the tri- weekly until 1848, when the daily Correspondent came to stay. The Correspondent, though small, and edited by a very young man, was thoroughly deserving of success from the beginning. All that it needed was a sufficiently large German population to support it. In 1841 there were comparatively few Germans in Baltimore, but within the next ten years a great tide of immigration from Germany to Baltimore had set in, and the Correspondent's subscription list had grown proportionately. Mr. Raine kept his paper constantly abreast of the times. He purchased the newest and best printing presses as they came into use, and was indefatigable in securing the latest news, both domestic and foreign. All the important offi- cial documents, municipal, State and national, were published in full, Mr. Raine translating them into German and printing them in his paper with remarkable promptness. A striking instance of his energy and enterprise was his translation of President Tyler's message, and his publishing it in his paper simultaneously with its publication by most of the other Baltimore papers. Another great "beat" ascribed to Mr. Raine by Jacob Scharf, in his History of Baltimore City and County, was the publication of the Corre- spondent, on the day of the Presidential election of 1872, in thirteen differ- ent languages : English, Spanish, Polish, Danish, Bohemian, Hebrew, Latin, and Anglo- African (sic).* The Correspondent was first published at the northeast comer of Balti- more and HoUiday streets. After having moved several times, it finally, in 1869, occupied its permanent home in Mr. Raine's $200,000 building at Balti- more street and Post Office avenue. Der Deutsche Correspondent has always been much more than a mere news sheet. It has been a very influential factor in all movements for the ♦From the files of the Correspondent, however, it appears that Col. Scharf was guilty in this instance of a slight exaggeration. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 707 good of Baltimore, and especially for the good of the city's German popu- lation. Mr. Raine's constant efforts to encourage German immigration have helped greatly to develop the State of Maryland. The politics of the Correspondent hsLve been consistently Democratic; but the paper has never sacrificed its independence, nor regarded the behests of any **ring" or political "boss." The paper has always been truly representative of the best in Baltimore's German-American population. Mr. Raine received many recognitions during his lifetime of his valu- able services to the public, and in 1868 Governor Bowie bestowed on him the title of Colonel. He died in 1893, and was succeeded in the manage- ment of the paper by his brother, Edward Raine. On the death of Mr. Edward Raine, in April, 191 1, Miss Annie Raine and Mr. Heintz took charge of the Correspondent, and they are conducting it at the present time. The News. — The News was the first successful evening paper to be published in Baltimore after the Civil War. Niunerous other evening papers had been begun, only to fail in a very short while. On November 2, 1872, Mr. Hermange issued the first number of the Evening News, In a few months the paper was very popular, as it has been ever since. Mr. Hermange, who had for sixteen years been connected with the Baltimore Sun, showed the results of his excellent training in journalism. His paper was a success from the beginning. In 1874 Mr. Hermange formed a partnership with James R. Brewer, who then took charge of the paper as editor-in-chief, while Mr. Hermange remained at the head of the business department. Mr. Brewer, who was then thirty-four years of age, had been actively engaged in newspaper work since his eighteenth year. In addition to his journalistic experience and ability, Mr. Brewer had distinct literary talent. He gave the editorial columns of the News a well deserved reputation for prophecy and origi- nality, which reputation has been well sustained down to the present time. He was always a prominent Democrat, but the News itself has never been a party organ. It has, rather, been independent in politics, independent Democrat originally, and now independent Republican. On October 4, 1875, ^^^ ^^st number of the Sunday News was issued, being at the time the only Sunday newspaper in Baltimore. The News continued to be published by the firm of Hermange & Brewer until 1892, when it was bought by a syndicate headed by Charles H. Lart^, who managed the paper until 1908, when Frank A. Munsey added it to his chain of city dailies. The News now occupies the newest and handsomest news- paper building in Baltimore, and is easily one of the leading afternoon journals of the country. Das Bayerische Wochenblatt. — This Bavarian weekly newspaper was established in 1880 by Louis Heise, and has since 1890 been published by August Strauff & Company. It is the only Bavarian newspaper published in the United States, and is the official organ of the Bavarian National Society of North America, and of all the Bavarian Societies in the United States. The Baltimore Journal and Sonntags Post. — ^The Baltimore Journal was established as a German daily newspaper in 1881 by August Gismond, and a number of colleagues, all of whom had been employed by the German Correspondent. In 1886 Die Sonntags Post was begun by the publisher of the Journal, as a Sunday German paper. A stock company, known as the "Journal Company of Baltimore City", was formed in 1891, and has since conducted with marked success the Journal and Sonntags Post. Both 7o8 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE papers are thoroughly progressive and have a large circulation, especially among the German element of Baltimore City. The Daily Record. — ^The Daily Record, which is the successor of the Maryland Law Journal, was started in 1888 by the Daily Record Publish- ing Company. John Warfield Esq. has been manager of the paper since its beginning. The DaUy Record is the official l^al and financial publica- tion of Baltimore and of Maryland. It has a large circulation among lawyers, bankers, and brokers, being almost indispensable to all three classes. The Star, — ^The Star was first published in 1908 by the American Company. It is an evening daily newspaper, having its policy and aims identical with those of the American. The Evening Sun. — The Evening Sun was begun in 1910 by the A. S. Abell Company, and continues to flourish. This paper, during its short life, has admirably measured up to the high standards of the Sun, Prior to the year 1773, Baltimore had no newspapers. In fact, the only printer in the town was a Pennsylvania German named Nicholas Has- selbach, who had come to Baltimore from Germantown, bringing his print- ing outfit with him. Hasselbach died in 1769, and in 1773 his widow sold his printing materials to William Goddard. As Hasselbach was the original printer of Baltimore, so Goddard was the founder of journalism in that town. This Goddard, who was bom in 1740, at New London, Connecticut, had failed in several newspaper ven- tures in Providence, New York, and Philadelphia, respectively, when in 1773 he came to Baltimore. Here on August 20 of the same year, from his office at South and Baltimore streets, he issued the first number of The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, a weekly newspaper. The Journal was a folio, eighteen inches by twenty-four, printed from ex- cellent t3rpe on heavy book paper. Four and a half of the twelve columns were filled with advertisements, while the body of the paper contained let- ters on public matters, such news as Goddard could get hold of, and "moral pieces from the best writers". The editor also undertook to pay special attention to "agriculture and every branch of husbandry", and to chronicle regularly "the arrival and departure of ships, the course of exchange, the prices current, &c". The motto of this popular journal was a verse from Horace : "Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci, Lectorem delectando, pariterque monendo." True to its motto, the paper was in fact useful, agreeable, amusing, and instructive, so that it had a deserved success from the very beginning. The rapid growth of his paper encouraged Mr. Goddard to undertake the establishment of a mail system first from Baltimore to Philadelphia, and then throughout the colonies from Maine to Georgia. With this object in view he went north in October, 1773, leaving his sister. Miss Mary K. Goddard, in charge of the paper. He succeeded in establishing a special post to Philadelphia and returned to Baltimore in the latter part of Novem- ber. By the aid of this special post the Journal was able to publish very promptly in December a full account of the "Boston Tea Party". The same number of the Journal which published that exciting news contained a very bold editorial article on the subject, praising "the unexampled, spir- ited, and noble conduct of our brave countrymen, who disdain to wear the chain, and who are unalterably determined to be free". The expres- sion of such sentiments, and the zeal with which Goddard supported the HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 709 Revolutionary cause, naturally added to the Journal's influence and popu- larity. In the summer of 1774, Goddard's mail system throughout the colonies had been completed. His office at Baltimore was the center of the system, and Miss Goddard was postmistress. Subsequently the Continental Con- gress established a postoffice system, with Benjamin Franklin as postmaster- general, and Goddard as "Surveyor of the Roads, and Comptroller of the Offices". On Franklin's retirement, Goddard, naturally, expected to be postmaster-general; but he was disappointed, and, what was more, very much disgusted. From this time he was suspected of being a reactionary, his enemies charging that he had gone back on his political principles out of spite aeainst the Continental Congress. However much truth there was in these charges, the office of the Journal was twice molested once in 1777, by the Whig Qub, and again in 1779 by the townspeople. The reason for the latter attack was that the Journal had published General Charles Lee's "Queries, Political and Military", hostile to Washington. Notwithstanding Goddard's temporary unpopularity, and the extreme difficulty of getting paper, the Journal was published throughout the Revo- lution without an omission. And on February 19, 1783, Siis enterprising newspaper published an extra called The Olive, announcing ahead of any other paper in America that the preliminary articles of peace had been signed at Paris. This important news had been brought direct from Paris to Baltimore by a Baltimore "clipper". From October, 1773, to January i, 1784, the Journal had been pub- lished in the name of Miss Mary K. Goddard, though Goddard himself had really controlled the policy of the paper. On January i, 1784, the style of the firm became William and Mary K. Goddard. William God- dard, after having taken into partnership first Edward Longworthy and then James Angell, finally, in March, 1793, sold out to Angell. Miss God- dard retained a small share, but took no active part in the paper from that time. In November, 1793, the Journal became a tri-weekly. After several changes in the ownership and management of the Jour- nal, it was finally bought in September, 1799, by William Pechin, who published in its stead the Baltimore Intelligencer. Pechin had come to Baltimore from Philadelphia in 1795 and opened a printing and publishing office. He was a very enthusiastic politician of the Anti-Federalist per- suasion, and used the Intelligencer primarily as a party organ. He soon tock into partnership with him Alexander Martin, a native of Boston, and then withdrew from the paper, leaving Martin in full control. Martin discontinued the Intelligencer and in May, 1799, began the American, which has been growing and improving ever since. The Patriot, — In the autumn of 181 1 The Whig abandoned President Madison. The leading members of the administration party recognizing the need of a paper in Baltimore to support Mr. Madison, induced Isaac Monroe and Ebenezer French, then connected with the Boston Patriot, to establish such a paper in Baltimore. Accordingly, the Patriot was first published by Monroe & French, on September 28, 1812, as an afternoon daily. In 1814 the name of the paper was changed to the Baltimore Patriot and Evening Advertiser. It was in the Patriot of September 20, 1814, that the words of "The Star Spangled Banner", which had been written a few days before, were first printed. The honor of having first printed the words of this great song has usually been claimed by the American, but the files of the two newspapers show that the Patriot was a day ahead of the American in printing them. 7IO HISTORY OF BALTIMORE On October 4, 1848, the office of the Patriot was attacked by a mob of rioters, who broke all the windows in the building, but did not interfere with the publication of the paper. The Baltimore Clipper. — ^The Clipper was first published as a morning daily on September 7, 1839, ^Y John H. Hewitt & Company, editors and proprietors. It was subsequently bought by Messrs. Bull & Tuttle. In 1844 the name of the paper was changed to the American Republican, but in 1847 ^^6 former name was resumed. Always Republican in politics, the Clipper was throughout the Civil War a very aggressive Unionist paper, defending unquestioningly the most high-handed acts of the military power in Baltimore, and condemning equally without question the slightest expres- sion of sympathy with the cause of secession. In July, 1864, Mr. Edmund Wailes became sole proprietor of the paper, and continued to publish it until September, 1865, when the Clipper was discontinued. The Daily Exchange and Gazette, — In the year 1857, Baltimore had reached the depths of political disgrace. The Know-Nothing party con- ducted a veritable reign of terror, scorning all semblance of decency. Few were so bold as to use voice, pen, or ballot against this usurping monster. It was on Washington's birthday in 1858 that the Daily Exchange came forth to battle in the cause of righteousness. In physical appearance the Exchange was worthy of its spirit and of its aims, being printed in large, distinct type, on clear, bright pages, several columns to the page. From the beginning this eminently deserving paper was rewarded with success. Messrs. Ovaries G. Kerr and Thomas W. Hall Jr. had the honor of beginning the paper, they being the original editors and proprietors. In January, of the next year, Mr. Henry M. Fitzhugh became equal part- ner with Messrs. William H. Carpenter and Frank Key Howard, who at that time formed the firm. Mr. Howard soon became the leading member of the editorial staff and by his great ability gained for the Exchange a high rank among the leading newspapers of the country. A frequent and very valuable contributor to the editorial columns of this paper was Severn Teackle Wallis, a most valiant, brilliant, never-failing champion of the right. The chief object of the Exchange was to destroy the iniquitous Know- Nothing party; and the editors began the attack without delay. Scorn- ing to show any deference or any spirit of ccxnpromise toward a foe which they thoroughly abhorred, they soon drew upon the Exchange first threats of violence, and then actual violence at the hands of Know-Nothing minions. On the morning of August 12, 1858, the office of the paper was invaded by thugs, who destroyed what books, papers, and furniture they could, and assaulted the employees. Respectable citizens volunteered to defend the office from a night attack, and did assemble for that purpose several nights in August. This prevented subsequent invasions of the Exchange office, but the editors were often threatened and followed about by hostile ruffians. The only effect of all this persecution was to make the editorials of Messrs. Howard and Wallis more scathing than ever, and to increase the popularity of the paper among all good citizens. The heroic efforts of this newspaper soon gained not only financial success for itself, but success for the cause of reform. Under its leadership and example there was organized a reform party, and of this party the Exchange was naturally the official organ. The paper persisted in its denunciation and exposures until finally, on October 10, i860, a reform mayor and city council were elected, and Baltimore was freed from mob rule. Early in the year i860 the control of the paper had passed to Messrs. HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 711 Glenn, Howard & Carpenter. Under their management the Exchange, having disposed of the Know-Nothings, took up the cause of John C Breckinridge, the State's Rights candidate for President in 1860. The fight against coercion of the States and against the Hicks faction in Maryland was carried on with characteristic boldness. In May, 1861, a record era of persecution began for the Exchange, But this time the persecution was at the hands of the Federal Government. The institution of a military regime in Baltimore under General B. F. Butler brought forth bitter protests from the Exchange. Throughout the summer of 1861, in spite of repeated warnings, the paper continued to denounce what it con- sidered the tyrannous and unconstitutional acts of the government, until early in September it was forbidden the mails. This interdict the Ex- change, on the following day, September 11, protested against in an editorial article more bitter than any which it had previously published. That very night, when the members of the Maryland legislature were arrested, Mr. Howard was arrested along with them, and on the 14th Mr. Glenn was arrested. Mr. Carpenter, the only editor and owner of the paper left free, was not deterred by the fate of his partners from expressing himself in an editorial on the afternoon of September 14. This was the last editorial of the Exchange. That number of the dauntless paper was suppressed by the military authorities ; and so ended the Daily Exchange, uncompromising and unafraid to the very end. On September 19, Mr. Edward F. Carter, business manager of the late Exchange, and William H. Neilson, foreman of the pressroom, under the firm name of Carter & Neilson, published the Maryland Times, which was identical with the Exchange in physical appearance. Glenn & Company were to share in the profits of the new firm, while Mr. Carpenter was editor of the paper. The Maryland Times was discontinued on September 24, 1861, and the Maryland News Sheet took its place. This paper ex- pressed no opinions of its own, but published opinions enough of other journals and persons. It was offensive to the Federal authorities, and was forbidden the mails, but flourished nevertheless until August 14, 1862, when it was suppressed by order of the government. In October, 1862, Messrs. Carter & Neilson regained possession of the paper and held it for Glenn & Company, the virtual owners. On October 7, 1862, the first number of the Baltimore Daily Gazette was published by Carter & Neilson, acting for Glenn & Company. This paper was a continuation of the News Sheet, as the News Sheet had been of the Times, and the Times of the Exchange. It was looked upon by the military authorities with suspicion, and was constantly suspected by them. In September, 1863, it was suspended by force, and Mr. Carter was arrested. But in October, Mr. Carter was released, and the Gazette resumed publication. The Gazette, from that time on throughout the war, refrained from expressing any opinions and was allowed to continue, although frequently made the victim of petty annoyances. Early in 1865 Carter & Neilson, who had held the property as agents for Glenn & Company, restored the paper to its real owners, Messrs. Glenn, Howard & Carpenter. On June 21, 1865, the Gazette published its first editorial article, the subject being: ''The Tribune and Negro Suffrage". Mr. Howard retired from the firm in 1868, and in 1872 the firm of Glenn & Carpenter was dissolved. The Gazette then passed through the hands of several successive owners, until in 1881 it was acquired by Mr. George Colton. Under Mr. Golton's able management the Gazette did full honor to the noble traditions of the Exchange, having throughout the remainder 712 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE of its existence a most enviable reputation for cleanness and independence. The South, — ^The South was first published April 22, 1861, as an afternoon penny newspaper, "devoted to the South, Southern Rights, and Secession", Mr. Thomas W. Hall Jr. bein^ the editor. The editorial col- umns of the South were particularly brilliant, and the paper was highly popular among friends of the Confederacy. On September 13, 1861, Mr. Hall was arrested by the Federal military authorities, and the South was suspended for six days. On September 19, 1861, it was resumed by John M. Mills & Company, being printed on a halfsheet. S. S. Mills & Brother enlarged it to a full sheet in February, 1862 ; but after four days, on Febru- ary 17, 1862, the paper was finally suppressed by the Federal authorities. Other Newspapers and Periodicals, — 1775, The Maryland Gazette, or The Baltimore DaUy Advertiser; 1791, The Baltimore Daily Repository — the first daily paper published in Baltimore ; 1793, Baltimore Dculy Intelli- gencer; 1794, Federal Intelligencer and Baltimore Daily Gazette; 179S, FelVs Point Telegraph; 1796, Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Adver- tiser; 1802, The American Patriot, The Republican, or Anti^Democrai; 1804, The Porcupine, The Companion and Weekly Miscellany; 1805, Bal- timore Evening Post and Mercantile Daily Advertiser; 1808, The Whig, The North American and Mercantile Daily Advertiser; 1809, Baltimore Weekly Messenger, The Federal Republican and Commercial Advertiser; 181 1, NUe^ Register, a very valuable weekly paper (The files of this paper are a "rich mine of historical facts". It was begun in Baltimore in 181 1, removed to Washington in 1837, and in 1839 returned to Baltimore, where it was published until 1848, when it was discontinued) ; 1813, National Museum and Weekly Gazette; 181 5, Mechanics^ Gazette and Merchant/ Daily Advertiser; 1816, The People's Friend, The Portico; 1818, The Maryland Censor, a Democratic weekly, which in 1819 had its name changed to The American Farmer; 1819, The Morning Chronicle, The American Farmer, The Red Book (published by members of the Delphian Qub), The Sunday Messenger (the first Sunday newspaper published in the United States) ; 1824, The Saturday Herald, The Morning Post; 1825, The Mechanics^ Press (Weekly) ; 1827, The North American (a weddy journal of politics, science, and literature), The Marylander, The Baltimore Republican, The Portico; 1828, The Itinerant, or Wesley an Methodist Vis- itor (bi-weekly), Mutual Rights and Christian Intelligence (monthly). The Emerald & Baltimore Literary Gazette (Rufus Dawes and John H. Hewitt, weekly) ; 1829, American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine. Other publications mentioned in Scharf's Chronicles as having been published about 1829: Itinerant Weekly, Genius of Universal Emancipa- tion, Huntress, Amethyst, American Museum, Dispatch, Freeman's Banr- ner, American Whig, Temperance Herald, Odd Fellow^ Magazine, Log Cabin, Wreath, Baltimore Intelligencer, Wanderer, Baltimore Iris, Colum- bia Democrat, Penny Magazine; 1830-1831, The Chronicle of the Times (mechanics, manufactures, and general information, became Baltimore Times), The Metropolitan, or Catholic Monthly Magazine; 183 1, The Free- man's Banner (weekly Whig paper). National Magazine or Ladies' Com- panion; 1832, Guardian and Temperance Intelligencer, Statesman and Maryland Advertiser, The Saturday Morning Visitor (John H. Hewitt, editor; E. A. Poe was among its contributors; popular at first, it turned abolitionist and then merged into a Washington abolitionist paper) ; 1834, Baltimore Medical-Surgical Journal and Review, Baltimore Young Men's Paper; 1835, The Maryland Colonization Journal (quarterly), Baltimore Athenaeum; 1836, The Jefferson Reformer (daily). The Monument HISTORY OF BALTIMORE 713 (weekly). The Baltimore Daily Transcript (first penny paper published in Baltimore), The Baltimore Spy, Baltimore Literary and Religious Maga- zine, The Daily Intelligencer; 1837, The Family Magazine, The Merchant, The Baltimore Price Current and Counterfeit Detector, The Sunday School and Family Gazette, The Athencsum, The Baltimore Express (which be- came the Baltimore Kaleidoscope and Weekly Express), The Citizen (Democratic penny paper), The Trade Union; 1838, The Sunday School Friend, The Musical Olio; 1839, The Journal of the American Silk Society, Baltimore Clipper; 1840, The Maryland Medical and Surgical Journal (quarterly, official organ of the United States army and navy) ; 1840-184I; The Pilot (two-penny Whig paper) ; 1840, The Spy, The Saturday Even- ing Express, The Magician (supported Van Buren), Daily Evening Ga- zette; 1841, The Baltimore Monthly Budget (science, art and literature)^ Baltimore Phoenix & Budget (afterwards called Monthly Visitor), Youths Athenaeum, Juvenile Mirror, Independent Press (bi-weekly), Cloyite (weekly), Baltimore Counterfeit Detector, Christian Family Magazine, Baltimore Privateer; 1842, Maryland Temperance Herald, The Hibernian Advocate (weekly), Baltimore Daily Whig, Baltimore Messenger (Demo- cratic daily). The Religious Cabinet (Catholic monthly; changed in 1843 to United States Catholic Magazine) ; 1843, ^*^ Time Catholic Protestant Episcopal (monthly) ; 1844, Democratic Sentinel (weekly) ; 1845, ^^^ ^oy (weekly), The Odd Fellows^ Minor, The Baltimore Mechanic and Literary Gazette, The Light Ship, The Wctshington Constitution; 1846, The Cul- turist (agricultural), The Western Continent (literary folio, fine talent), The Flag of the Union, The People's Gift and Temperance Advertiser; 1847, The Maryland Statesman (weekly Democratic), Baltimore Daily News (Democratic), Morning Star, The Enterprise (William Taylor and N. Forde; Sardonic) ; 1848, The Enterprise (miscellaneous Sunday paper), Maryland Democrat (German daily) ; 1849, Baltimore Pathfinder (mer- cantile), Buena Vista, The Emerald (Irish), Investor^ Journal (weekly), Parlor Gazette (changed same year to Ladies* Newspaper), Parlor Journal, The True Union (Baptist paper), Bankers^ Magazine (State Financial Register), Temperance Herald, Paul Pry {published by N. Nardo), Young American (H. M. Garlond), Plough, Loom & AnvU (John S. Skinner), Baltimore Bank Note Reporter; 1850, Baltimore Price Current (weekly). Journal of Commerce, Catholic Mirror (leading Catholic weekly), German Baltimore Herald (tri-weekly), Maryland Reformer (Democratic campaign paper), Baltimore Olio and American Musical Gazette (William C. Peters) ; 1851, Sunday Morning Dispatch (independent folio weekly), The Constitu^ tion (Democratic campaign paper), Baltimore Weekly (daily German paper). Daily Morning News (Whig), The Flag of Liberty (Whig weekly) ; 1852, Evening Picayune and Baltimore Daily Advertiser (lived one month ) , The Fatherland ( German ) , The Times, ( daily penny paper ) , The Old Defender (Whig weekly) ; 1853, The Novellen Zeitung Metropolitan (Catholic monthly), Sunday Morning Atlas, Industrial School Advocate (monthly), DcMy American Times (chsingtd to Dtmocrsitic), Daily Republic, Daily Sories, Literary Bulletin, Monumental Literary Gazette; 1854, Sun- day Dispatch (second of name), Baltimore Public Ledger (united with DaUy American Times), The Literary Journal, The Huntress, The True American, True Union (Baptist weekly) ; 1855, Daily Register (containing hotel arrivals), American Democrat (campaign paper in behalf of Fill- more), Christian Review (Baptist quarterly) ; 1856, The Elevator (literary, science, and art, monthly) ; 1857, The Monitor (P. E. monthly), Balti- more Stethoscope (medical journal), Baltimore Illustrated Times and Lo- 714 HISTORY OF BALTIMORE cal Gazette; 1859, The Evening Star, Real Estate Register, Weekly Bulle- tin, Weekly Freeman, The Lily of the Valley, American Nautical Gazette, Our Newspaper, The Revival Register (semi-monthly) ; 1861, Sunday Morning Times; 1862, The Retrospect (well known and popular weekly) ; 1863, Southern Herald, Evening Transcript (suppressed by military) ; 1864, Evening Post (suppressed in 1864; resumed after war, but finally suspended in 1868), Maryland Farmer (monthly), Lyceum Observer (first paper published and devoted to negroes), Communicator (negro semi-monthly). Evening Legalist (suppressed in November, 1864), Bal- timore Advertiser, Baltimore Evening Bulletin (suppressed in August, 1864), Evening Times; 1865, Young Men's Journal (Y. M. C A.), Balti- more Underwriter (insurance journal) ; 1866, Compolite (military maga- zine), Baltimore Episcopal Methodist (moved from Richmond), Home Circle (weekly quarto), Chronotype (small Republican paper); 1867, The Educational Journal (monthly), Daily Laborer (penny morning. General Dubb Green), Southern Home Journal, The Southern Society (fine liter- ary weekly, changed in 1868 to The Leader, merged into The Statesman), The Southern Review (monthly periodical) ; 1868, People's Weekly, Tern- perance Advocate, Baltimore Law Transcript, Southern Magazine (monthly literary); 1869, Saturday Night (weekly). Southern Metropolis and Catholic Miscellany (weekly). Evening Star, Young Men's Friend, (Y. M. C A. monthly), Baltimore Journal of Commerce, Saturday Bulle- tin (weekly), Baltimore Christian Advocate; 1870, The Olio (monthly), Baltimore Medical Journal; 1872, Enquirer (weekly literary), Baltimore Dispatch (weekly). Law Reporter, Monitor and Sentinel (temperance weekly). Good News (Y. M. C. A.), Southern Educational Monthly, The Physician and Surgeon, The Monthly Argus, Baltimorean (illustrated weekly of merit), Amateur Journal (monthly, changed in 1873 ^ Monu- mental Journal); 1873, American Engineer (monthly), People's Appeal; 1874, Bench and Bar Review, Enterprise (Hibernian monthly), Evening Record, North Baltimore (monthly temperance) ; 1875, The Herald (started in 1875 ^is the Baltimore Bee, only penny paper published in Bal- timore after i&Si, a very forcible and original weekly paper). Monthly Chronicle of Religion and Learning (devoted to the elevation of negroes). The Times (small evening penny paper, edited by James Randolph — ^sus- pended same year), Conservative Churchman (P. E. journal), Sunday Herald (succeeded Saturday Night), True Democrat; 1877, Maryland Medical Journal (still living). Daily Workingman, Every Saturday (weekly, spicy, literary and artistic), Saturday Post; 1878, Spectator (illustrated weekly), Butchers' and Drovers' Gazette (monthly and semi- monthly), Irish-American Citizen (weekly), Maryland Law Record; 1879, Baltimore Volks-Freund, The Sunday Telegram, The Baltimore Mirror, The Evening Bulletin, The Baltimore Church News; 1880, The Independ- ent Practitioner; 1889, The No-Name Magazine (monthly) ; 1908, The Current Maryland Digest. ADDENDA In "Transportation System and Facilities", by J. Wallace Bryan, Ph. D. : On various pages, for "C. & O." read "Chesapeake & Ohio"; for "B. & O." read "Baltimore & Ohio"; and for "P. W. & B." read "Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore." Map on page 23; "New and accurate map of Baltimore Towne, dedicated to Thos. Langton, Esq., by G. Gould Presbury. This made the 12th day of August, 1780." INDEX Abell, A. S., 145 Baltimore Agricultural Aid Society or- Abel], Edwin R, 366 ganized, 213 Academy of Music, inauguration of, 246 Baltimore clipper, 93 Acadia, arrival of settlers from, 19 Baltimore county, first record, 10; early Adams Express Company, 143 area and laws enacted, 10 Adoption of Constitution, celebration in Baltimore Fire Insurance Company or- nonor of, 47 ganized, 47 Adoption of new Constitution, 211 Baltimore "Sun," 393 A^icultural fairs, 220 Bank of Maryland established, 50 Aid to war sufferers, 214 Banks, other early, 50 Allison, Rev. Dr. Patrick, 47 Bar, first woman admitted, 331 Andrea Doria, brig, 29 Barney, Joshua, 29, 40, 47, 49, 53, 108 Annapolis, municipal charter granted to, Barron, Commodore James, 94 10; meeting of delegates, 26; militia Battle Monument, 129 enrolled and contributions levied, 26; Bav traffic enlarged, 138 provincial convention assembled at, Bellona Powder Mill, 28 28 Bench and Bar. Province of Maryland, Area of town increased, 41 613; judicial power of governor, 614; Armory, Fifth regiment, 338 courts for St. Mary's and Kent Isl- Art Schools, Galleries, and Libraries. and, 61 a; justice of Governor Leon- Maryland Institute Art School, 636; ard Calvert, 615; excessive official Peabody Institute Art Gallery, 637; fees, 615; TThc Proprietary, 615; ap- The Charcoal Qub, 638; Walters Art peal to England, 616; the governor Gallery, 638; Maryland Institute Art and council, 616; county courts, 617; Collections, 639; Garrett Collection Chancery, 617; Probate, 618; Admi- of Prints, 640; other art collections, ralty, 618; Manorial courts, 618; Mu- 641; Libraries of Baltimore, 641; nicipal courts of Annapolis, 619; Baltimore Library Company, 642; courts for Baltimore, 619; the As- Friends' Library, 642; Medical Li- sembly as a court, 619; Land office, brary, 642; Mercantile Library, 644; 619; attorney-general, 620; judges Bar Library, 645; Odd Fellows' Li- and lawyers of the period, 620; the brary, 645; Maryland Historical Judiciary under the Provincial gov- Library, 645; Peabody Institute Li- emment, 623; Maryland Declaration brary, 646; Library of Loyola Col- of Rights (1776), 623; Constitution lege, 647 ; Diocesan Library, 647 ; City of 1776, 624; constitutional amend- Library, 648; Johns Hopkms Univer- ment, of 1805, 625; courts for Balti- sity Library, 649; Enoch Pratt Li- more county, 626; agitation for con- brary, 649; New Mercantile Library, stitutional reform, 026; constitution 650 of 1851, 627; constitution of 1864, Asbury, Rev. Francis, ^ 629; constitution of 1867, 630; law- Assembly Room and Library, 85 yers and judges since 1776, 633 Assessment, new general ordered, 44 Bills passed, new, 407 Aviation, first meeting, 393 Bladensburg, battle of, 109 715 7i6 INDEX Blair, Mr. Justice, 50 City of St Mary's, 9 Blizzard, 271 City prepared for attack, 197 Bonaparte, Jerome, 7% 230 City Spring and Square, 91 Boston, contribution to the poor of, 26 Clay, Henry, nominated, 144, 153 Boy Ranger, ship, 40 Cleveland election, 263 Bo^le, Captain Thomas, 105 Clipper ships, 72 Bricks, manufacture and export of, 73 Coke, Dr. Thomas, 44 Brown, George W., 161, 165 Cokesbuiy College burned, 55, 88 Brown, John, raid, 163 Cole's Harbour, 12 Bryan campai^, 324 Colonization of Province of Maryland, 9 Business conditions, 234 Columbus, first monument in America to, Butler, Benjamin R, 165 85 Commerce and Manufactures. Increase o^f 45f 54; Period of small begin- Calvert street, tunneling of, 44 nings, 501; Period of restrained but Carroll, Charles, 12, 42, 140 steady development, 502; period of Carroll, Rev. Dr., 47 self-realization and phenomenal de- Celebration of defence of Baltimore, 272 velopment, 505; period of disappoint- Census, 232; twelfth Federal, 325, 375; ment and readjustment, 509; period thirteenth Federal, 393 ; police, 395 of steady growth, 511 ; period of the Centre market, 362 differential, 5x2; grain, 515; flour, Changes after fire of 1904, 355 516; tobacco, 518; cattle^ 519; cotton. Charities and Charitable Institutions. 520; coffee, 520; oyster and fruit Early methods, 656; Dr. Henry Ste- canning, 521; clay products, 522; venson's Inoculating Hbspital, 656; chrome, 523; copper, 524; iron and first almshouse, 657; aid given to steel, 525; hats, 527; vessels cleared Boston, 657; General Hospital estab- from port during forty years, 526; lished, 657, 659; Benevolent Society tables of imports and exports, $29; of the City and County of Baltimore, statistics of Baltimore manufactories, 658; charitable societies organized, 533; tables of totals for industries, 658; orphans' asylums and schools 534; detailed statement of manufac- established, 658; General dispensary, tures, 534 659; charitable homes for men and Commissioners, duties of early^ 16 women established, 659; municipal Commissioners for purchase ox tract for relief orgaaized, 659; soup houses, town^ 13 660; Jewish charity, 658^ 661, 671, 672, Communication, early means of, 10 676; efforts of Baltimore "Sun," 662; Comparative amount of exports, 63 citizens' meeting which resulted in Congress Hall, 31 the organization of the Association Conqueror, galley, 34 for the Improvement of the Condi- Constitution and form of government, 31 tion of the Poor, 662; Baltimore Continental congress, 31 Christian Association, 664; Maryland Comwallis, Lord, 37 Union Commission, 664; Baltimore County almshouse and workhouse, 23 Agricultural Aid Society, 665; other Court house and jail, first, 2z; new, 320 institutions, 665; hospitals, 667; Cowen, John K., 283, 286, 320^ 324, 366 homes for men, women and children, Cowi>ens, victory at, 36 669; Baltimore Charity Organization Criminal court for town and county es- Society, 670; dispensaries and hos- tablished, 48 pitals, 672; associations for the relief Crothers, Austin L., 381, 384, 402 of the sick poor, 673 ; Maryland As- Crouch, F. W. N., 262, 317 sociation for the Prevention and Re- Cushing, Hon. Caleb, 164 lief of Tuberculosis, 674; leagues. Custom house established, 316; new, 382 674; milk stations established, 675. Charter, 55, 64; new granted, 305; changes, 406 Davis, Commander, 311 Chase, Samuel, 48 Davis, Henry Winter, 205 Cholera epidemic, 140 Deaths of notable pe<^le, 229, 318, 329, Churches and Religious Organizations. 37^1 384 Early churches, 86; the Friends, 678; Decatur, Stephen, 95, 103 Protestant Episcopal church, 680; Declaration of Rights, 31 German churches, 682; Roman Cath- Defence, Maryland ship, 29 olic church, 684; Presbyterian church. D'Estaing, Count, 34 687; Methodist churches, 689; Baptist Dewey, Admiral, 312 church, 692; Jewish congregations, Dewey Drydock, 368 693 Dickens, Charles, 131 City improvements, special commissioners Dispensary, first free, 89 for, 39; new city hall, 216, 242 Douglas, Stephen A., 165 INDEX 717 Drama, Theatres, and Music Early the- French troops, departure of, 41 atre at Annapolis, 651; first theatre Freshet, great, 46 in Baltimore, 651 ; Holliday Street Theatre, 652; Grand Opera House, Garrett, John W., 262 653 ; Academy of Music, 654 ; New Garrett, Robert, 263, 265, 277 Theatre and Circus, 654; Peabody Garrett, T. Harrison, 266 Conservatory, 654 Gas light companies, 256 Dyer, Captam N. M., 3" Gas lights, first, 90 General Asssembly at Frederick, 182 Early shipbuilding port, 28 General Washington, ship, 40 Early social life, 56 Gcrmantown, battle of, 33 Eastern Shore, revolt on, 32 Gibbons, Cardmal, 267, 339. 399 Eden, Governor of Maryland, trouble S?|™^» ?/• Daniel C, 329 with 29 Gilmor, Harry, 262 Election 'campaign of 1907, 380 9^^K ^?Kl??».^°^^^*^'' 34; return, 42 Elections, control of. 247 Goddard, William, 32. 34 ^ ^ Election reforms, 207, 270 Gorman, Arthur P., 24S. 252, 263, 278, Electors chosen, first, 40 ^» 286, 327, 33i, 3^7, 369, 374, 380, Electric arc lights first used by city, 260 _ 382, 402 Electric traction, 265, 278 Goucher College, 334 ^ . . . « Emerson, Commander Isaac E., 284 Grasse, Count de, 37; fleet of arrived, 38 English taxation, opposition to, 23 Greene, General Nathaniel, 36, 42 Enoch Pratt Free Library, 259, 267 Growing importance, 31 Entrenchment at Hampstead Hill, iii Epizootic epidemic, 229 Hailstorm, great, 276 Equal suffrage, 298 Hallock, Captain William, 29 Eutaw, battle of, 38 Haman oyster law, 373 Events of municipal concern, 266 Hamilton, William T., 252 Expansion of city, 128 Hancock, General Winfield Scott, 204 Exports, 72, 73 Hanson, Alexander C, 99 Extension of city limits, 270 Harbor improvements, 42, 55, 65 Harlem Park, 217 "February Freeze," 285 HS^Ih%'e„Tm;n?"7Z^^'„'/ v;. Federal contracts for gunboats. 191 SSril^f^nV, ^ "^ ' ^ Fell's Point. 18; development, 83 Ho^7^Jt«S /; A .f,f„, «« Fifteenth Amendment discussion. 370 9^,^*?' A*"^, *^;k ^^ ' ^ Fire Protection. First. 21 ; first hand en- g^„'' ^a/or, 301, 306. 307 trine 21 • fir<st stMm fire <>ntptnr ifia "OP"""*! Johns, 231 f^' V,U« rn^h!^. A-J^^rci K^l Homet, slooo of war. 29 433; early methods. 429; first fire tjom* ean Knt idt ^^f^^it^li 'Sl^lZiS' I'X' Hos"taf for s?rang^rs and mariners. S3 ^•fi?sf ff aS ladrTc1;,p^y: "^S,"!!-^" ^*^'-*' """^ Brf4h ^'^i^: S£nJ":^:^'irf ett; H-Al"!. ^oLel John Eager. 36. 54. "^ "Old Lady," 432; methods of old tt^J^L rn«,«i;.,c .0 volunteer comranies, 432; Baltimore 8?,n r;nS^^ n,' ^ United Fire feepartmSTt organized, S""ii^5l?,'"' '^^ 432; first mention of a firebont. 433; Hvder AH shm aq assistance given at Patent Office fire SJ^Hrn««in»i;!« fnrl^v o^. in Washington, 434; full paid depart- Hydrographic survey. 374 ment established, 434; overhead wires removed, 434; fire drills in Ice blockade, 281 schools and portable fire escapes in Immigration commission created, 297 hotels, 435 ; other improvements, 435 ; Important new buildings, 219, 281 examining board established, 435; Incorporation with Jonas (Jones) town, notable fires, 435; high pressure pipe 15 lines and automobiles, 436 Independence, Declaration of adopted, 30 Fires, 151, 153, 154, 155, 225, 254, 265, 268, Indians, trouble with, 50 269, 271, 278, 282, 286, 343 Industries, increase and development, 44, Floods, 153, 223 54, 241, 254 Flour mills, 71 ; increase in number, 82 Influenza, epidemic of, 50 Fort McHenry, attack on, 119 Insurance, 45 Fountain Sun, 130 Insurgents, capture of, 78 France, fleet for war with, 77 Intellectual advance, 145, 241 French fleet, arrival of, 34 Iron shipments, first, 74 French revolution, influence of on trade, Jamestown, Tercentenary Exposition, 279, 49 7i8 INDEX Johns Hopkins Hospital, 374 Local changes, 83 Johns Hopkins University, 247; meeting Locust Point pier collapses, 378 of scientists, 363; financial difficulties, Lowndes, Governor, 310^ 313, 316 274; twenty-fifth anniversary, 333, 367; women admitted, 380, ^7; ■^.. ^^ . ,„ School of Technology, 408; origin ?J*" S***™' '3° , and establishment, 5^ fiSt building Manufactures, increase of, 33. 9i: statis- fpr hospital begun, 601; medical pub- MarSSli h^^ hcations, 601, 603; financial losses, w,Lfu»j n a • »• • j 601; gifts, 6OI-606; high standard of fc,'?"^ ww^.*^,*'°° organized, 317 admission to Medicaf School, 602; JJ?^!"^ fe^'***^^^i? - ^ twenty-fifth anniversary, 602; addi- JJ '^,'*"^ Jockey Qub ojijanijed, 2ao tional buildings, 603; opinions of Maryland Journal, objectionable article; eminent men, 604; endowment, 606; w.^.,' T kt i -t-*- -o plans for the future, 607 JJ"'^ *"j II*7'^""''*'*'^*%, j_ Johns Hopkins University Medical De- Maryland Steel Company's Works. 277 partment in Connertion with the 5J^S^!:^«^T«m«°*!.'; *^ Johns Hopkins Hospital. Desire of Sj^Sf",'^' ^^*?i *l' 5?,.„- Johns Hopkins, 608; gifts of Mary E. K^ *^W?'* B*!S'*-^"'*"k ^ ^'^ Garrett ind other women, 608; JJ'I?"*' "?"" ****"* **' ^'^ ^' ^ boards of trustees and maintenance, Jj!!?!!^'^' ^*?*f' 3J7 608; original members of medical fa- Jj!^!?' ''^S^pViLf "V '?"^J?. 010; iraming oi nurses, oii; iNurses T :*» — w 1 • Y V — - \- — "^•^•'' Home, 6ii; Phipps Dispensary, 6ii; American Medical Assoaation SQO; Bequest of Harriet Lane Johnston 5^1.^ J^*^!l?" i ^r ,,^^'^^^^''' (5i2 dents, 590; Medical College of Mary- Johnson, President Andrew, 205 ^?"<*' ^iP^iir "T^ ^"^^^ J? R"'^; Jonas (Jones) town, 14; incorporation, IV*^^:?^ ^!i{7^^"'*' r^HJ \,>^^"^ with Baltimore town. 15 J?^,?'^^ ^''S?^- ?^ Baltimore, 595; Tones Falls straightened, 49 9^1^^^ u- ^^^^'iS^^^ V'n S"'***^ Joppa 22 55J6; Baltimore Medical College, sg6 Juvenile court established, 331 5J"*l"^. *° "^'^"^u ^VL"?^^ '^r""*' '^ ' *'*' Merchant princes, benefactions of, 133 Merryman, John, 186 Kane, Colonel George P., 249, 250 Methodist Episcopal church, first organ- Kennedy, John Pendleton, 136, 230 ized, 44 Key. Francis Scott, in, 120; monument Miles, Major-General Nelson A., 310 to, 298 Military companies formed, 27 Kossuth, Louis, 152 Military occupation begun, 184 Moale, John, sketch by. 18 Labor interests, 267 Monocacy. launching of, 200 La Fayette, Marquis de, 37 ; ball in honor Monuments 39i of. 38; publfc dinner to, 43; second $J°°^''\S''P*'''\ ^; ?" * visit ni Morse telegraph, 143 Lake Simon 314 Mount Qare, 73 Latrobe, Ferdinand C, 248, 250, 252, 260, Municipal charter, first desired, 45; *«ita- 268 278 282 IIS %o6 ^ ' ^ ' ' tion for, 52 Lauzun! Duke de. 41 Municipal government 241, 3CH La Valette, General, 41 Municipal improvement and developinent. Law courts, growth of business, 297 ,, ^^: ,7; ^. Lee. General Charles. 35 Municipa law changes, 323 Lee, General Richard Henry, 53 Municipa Le^e organized, 368 Lee. Governor Thomas S., 37, 41 Municipa politics 266 Ugislative Reference, department of ere- Municipal transit facilities, 279: car fares. ated 't7J. ^^5 Letters if marque issued, 40 Murray, John Gardner, 397 Levering, Joshua. 301 Lexington. American ship, 29 Napoleon, yy Library Company of Baltimore estab- National and other public gatherings, 222 lished, 55, 88 ^ /Negro conditions. 235 Libraries. 19, 641 ^ Negro question, 326 Ligon, Governor, 157 Negro vote, 211 Lincoln, President, 171 ; visit to Balti- New Assembly Rooms, 86 more, 196; assassination, 202 "New Judge" fight, 258 Lind, Jenny, 152 "New Theatre and Circus" opened, 139 •A INDEX 719 Nicholson, Captain James, 29, 34 North German Lloyd Line, 216 North Point, British ships at, 36 Old Town, 17 Original area of the town, 13 Oriole, Festival of the, 255, 257, 261 Otter, British ship of war, 29 Oyster industry, 254, 408 Paca, William, 49, 50 Packets, transatlantic line of established, I4S Paret, William, 35^7 Parks, 361; first public plots, 438; How- ard's Park, 439; City Springs, 440; Eastern Fountain, 440; Western Fountain, 441; Patterson Park, 441; smaller parks, 441 ; Federal Hill, 441 ; Madison and La Fayette squares, 442; Druid Hill, 442; Battery Square, 443; Harlem Park, 443; Johnson Square, 443; Collington Square, 444; Colonial mansions, 444; small plots donated, 444; Lake Montebello, 444; small parks purchased, 445; Gwynn's Falls Park, 445; Wyman Park, 445; Report of Municipal Art Society, 446 Pasteur treatment, 317 Patterson, Elizabeth, 80 Patterson, William, 80, 132 Paving of streets, first, 39, 260, 360 Peabody Institute, 218; Library, 250; Conservatory of Music, 266 Peace, establishment of celebrated, 42 Peale, Charles Willson, 90 Peale, Raphael, 90 Peale, Rembrandt, 90 Peggy Stewart monument, 330 Pennsylvania Water and Power Com- pany, 395 Petition for the erection of the town, 12 Pickering, Quartermaster- General, 37 Pickersgill, Mrs., 85 Pinkney, William, 96; drafts declaration of war, 98 Poe, Edgar Allan, 135. 145, 242, 388 Poc, John Prentiss, 342, 389 Poe, Mrs. David, 38 Police board changes, 322 Political conventions. 142, 153, 164, 197 Political reforms, 163, 2ci8, 272, 275, 293, 407 Political struggles, 155, 249, 251, 260, 264, 268» 279^ 282, 286, 302, 314, 330, 335, 340, 389, 401 Polk, James K., 144 Polytechnic Institute, 262 Pony Express, 145 Porter, Captain David. loi, 106 Port wardens, board of established, 42 Post office, 2(5o Post service, independent, established by William Goddard, 27 Potato Bug" campaign, 243 Potts, Richard, 49 it Pratt, Enoch, bequest to Sheppard Asy- lum, 317 Presidential elections, 271, 280, 299, 367, 388 Press, The. The American, 702; The Sun, 704; Der Deutsche Correspond- ent, 706; The News, 707; Das Baye- rische Wochenblatt, 707; The Balti- more Journal and Sonntags Post, 707; The Daily Record, 708; The Star, 708; The Evening Sun, 708; The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser^ 708; The Patriot, 709; The Baltimore Qipper, 710; The Daily Exchange and Gazette, 710; The South, 712; other newspapers and periodicals, 712 Primary election, the first legalized, 335 Proclamation of Governor Hicks, 172 Progress, 275 Prohibition ticket, first, 263 Provincial congress, meeting of, 25 Public buildings erected, 161, 320 Public celebrations, 274 Public loans, 284, 361 Public Education. Petition to legislature, and provision made for, 559; four schools established, 560; early ex- penses and curriculum, 560; opposi- tion, 561; change in organization and management, 561; first high school. 561 ; comparison with schools of other cities, 562; Eastern Female High School, 562 ; lack of funds, 563 ; curriculum broadened, 563; curricu- lum reorganized and enlarged, 564; high school studies, 564; examination standards, 565; lack of central super- vision, 565; early methods of teach- inRf 567; selection of teachers, 567; state school system, 569; Baltimore City College, 569; schools for colored children, 569; visit of Boston school officials, 570; general statistics, 570; sanitary conditions, 57b; methods of supervision and management, 571 ; superintendent and assistant-superin- tendent of public instruction, 572; change in duties of principals, 573; instruction for teachers, 573; meth- ods of appointing and promoting teachers, 574 ; merit system, 575 ; chansres in curriculum. 575; manual training established, 576: schools for colored children, 577; effects of char- ter of 1898, 577 ; training of teachers, 579; changes in grading and promot- ing pupils, 580; buildings and equip- ment, 581; Goucher College, 582; St. Mary's College, 582; Baltimore Col- lege of Dental Surgery, 582; Univer- sity of Maryland, 583 Public revenues, the raising of, 51 Public school system established, 139; changes, 301 Pulaski, Count, 33 Queen City of the South, 215 720 INDEX Railroads, Baltimore & Ohio, origin, 137; Baltimore & Susquehanna, 138; influence of, 141 ; improvements, 216 ; tunnels, 243, 259, 262, 269; city stock in Baltimore & Ohio sold, 277; Belt Line tunnel, 281, 285; Baltimore & Ohio declared solvent, 319, 320, 332; New Union Station opened, 400 Ramsay, Colonel Nathaniel, 49 Randall, James R., 181, 38(5 Rasin, Isaac F., 336, 34i, 376. 377, 380 Rayner, Isidor, 340, 372, 392 Reform measures, 160, 243 Regulars embarked to join Continental army, 30 Relay House and Baltimore & Ohio Rail- road seized by General Butler, 183 Remsen, Professor Ira, 329 Republican party, beginning, 200, 245 Richmond, fall of, 202 Riggs, Brigadier-General L., 309 Riots, 155 Road improvement, efforts for, 47; in- crease, 129 Road transportation, increase of, 71 Robinson, Captain, 29 Rochambeau, Count de, 37, 41 Rodgers, Commodore John, 96, 97, 112, "5 Roman Catholic Archdiocese. Colonial or missionary period, 695; Archbishop Carroll, 696; Archbishop Neale, 698; Archbishop Marechal, 698; Arch- bishop Whitfield, 6^; Archbishop Eccleston, 699; Archbishop Kenrick, 699; Archbishop Spalding, 699; Arch- bishop Bayley, 700; Cardinal Gibbons, '2^\ golden jubilee, 399, 700; gen- eral information, 700 Roman Catholic church, first, 20; jubilee of Pope Pius IX, 221 Roosevelt, Theodore, 367 Ross, General Robert, 107, no, 121 Saengerfest, annual, 221 Sale of town lots, 14 Sampson, Admiral, 312 San Domingo, refugees from, 52 Schley, Commodore Winfield Scott, 312 School for classics and mathematics es- tablished, 47 Sesqui-centennial, 253 Sewerage system, 260, 281, 359; com- mission appointed, 424; two systems installed, 425; method of treatment of sewage, 426; comparison with na- ture's methods of purification, 427 Shipbuilding, increase, 33; activity in steel construction, 330 Shipping trade, 68, 81 Simmons, Captain, 40 Sixth Massachusetts regiment, trouble with, 173; visit. 254, 308 Smallpox hospital, first in America, 69 Social conditions, 233 Soil, description of, 74 Southern Settlement and Development Company, 406 Spanish-American war, 308 Spencer, Herbert, 260 Stages established between Philadelphia and Baltimore, 41 Star Spangled Banner, The, 120 State constitution, revision of, 151 State militia reorganized, 53 Statistics, general, 254 Statues, 305 Steamboat, first of the city, 92 Steamships between Baltimore and Europe, 215 Steamship disaster, 277 Steuben, Baron, 36 Stevenson, Eh*. Henry, 69 Stevenson, Dr. John, 69 Stewart, Commissary-general, 37 St. Mary's Seminary, ^ St Paul's Parish rectory, 54 Strauss, Isaac L., 381, 385 Street Car System and Rapid Transit The first car, 542; city travel fifty years ago, 543; street cars versus om- nibuses, 544; opposition to tramcars, 544; Swann's park hobby, 545 ; arrival of the first car, 546; City Passenger railway, 546; other companies in the field, 547; the polite conductor, 548; progress in rapid transit, 549; consol- idation of railways, 550; reconstruc- tion of railways, 551 ; city paries and the railways, 551; park taxes of nine millions of dollars, 552; the city's requirements, 553; maintaining the streets, 554; its constructive in- fluence, 555; a help to industry, 556; suburban development, 556; increase to taxable basis, 557 Streets, lighting and policing of, 43 ; wid- ening and extending, 354 Strikes, 250; soft coal, 283; coal, 332 Submarine craft, 314 Suburban real estate development, 260 Swann, Mayor Thomas, 156, 157, 206^ 211 Taney, Roger B., 186, 201 Telephone, 262 Theatres, first, 46; Front Street, 152; Ar- nold's Olympic, 152 Timanus, Mayor E. Clay, 353, 358, 377f 401 Tivoli disaster, 261 Todd's Range, 13 Tolley, Walter, 42 Topographical survey, 285 Town survey, a new, 44 Tract annexed to city through efforts of Colonel Howard, 40 Trade facilities, improvement in, 256 Transportation System and Facilities. Roads in Maryland prior to the founding of the town, 447; the rolling roads, 449; road history from the founding of Baltimore until the end of the eighteenth century, 450; road construction and repair, 452; modes of travel and conveyance, early stage lines, 453; the post roads, 454; ship- INDEX 721 ping[, 454; turnpike roads, 456; the National pike^ j6i; Conestoga wa- gons, 465: the Pony Express, 466; Clipper ships, 466; canal schemes. 468; the western trader the Susque- hanna project and the Chesapeake & Ohio canal, 469 : Baltimore & Ohio railroad, 471; first telegraph, 484; Northern Central Railway, 484; Union Railroad and tunnel, 4)88; the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Balti- more, the Baltimore & Potomac, and the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Wash- ington railroads, 489; Union station, 494; the Western Maryland Railroad. 494; minor railroads, and railroaa connections, 497; steamboat navi^- tion on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, 498; ocean lines, 499; dock and harbor facilities, 499 Treaty of Ghent, 122 Tribute to Baltimore by Captain Cogge- shall, 107 Troops, transportation of, 37 Tuberculosis, fight against, ^56 Union Bank of Maryland, 88 United Railways of Baltimore, 392 United States Circuit Court, first session, 50 United States Custom House opened, 49 United States District Court established, 49 United States flag, the first in the Orient, 49 Unit rule, 142 University of Maryland, origin, 89; cen- tennial, 379 Venable, Major Richard M., 392 Victory at Yorktown, celebration of, 39 Virginia, frigate, 29 Wallace, General Lew, 199, 204 Wallis, S. Teackle, 244, 246, 249, 258, 273, 322, 374 Walters, William T., 265, 269, 334 War of 1812. Causes, ^ 9k; declared, 98; progress, loi; list ot Baltimore vessels engaged and prizes taken, 102 ; Baltimore a special point of attack, 107: value ana results, 122 Ward aivision, 45 Warfield, Governor Edwin, 316, 337, 342, 369, 372, 375. 379, 380, 381, 390 Warfield, Henry M., 249 Washington, George, and other delegates, arrival on way to Continental con- gress at Philadelphia, 28; letter to Sir Henry Qinton, 34; arrival in Balti- more on way south, 38; banquet to, 42; public dinner to, 43; letter to merchants of Baltimore, 48; arrival on way to inauguration in New York, 49; appreciation of Baltimore, 76; monument, 129 Wasp, sloop of war, 29 Watch houses, 46 Water Works. Commissioners appointed, 413; joint stock company formed, 413; early site and method of con- struction, 414; passes into control of city, 415; water board appointed, 415 ; new methods, 415 ; Slaae plan adopted, 415; Druid Lake, 416; Lake Roland supply, 416; Western High Service reservoir, 416; insufficiency of Jones Falls supply, 417; Gunpow- der supply authorized, 417; Lake Gifton, 418; Eastern High Service supply, 419; Upper Service, 419; Mount Royal Pumping station, 420; suction dredging plant built at Loch Raven, 420; System well handled during fire of 1004, 421 ; General Im- provement Conference decision, 421; New High Service reservoir, 422; Baltimore County water and Electric Company interests acquired, 422; re- construction of system in district de- vastated in 1904, additional sites, 422 Weather, unusually severe, 319, 332 West, Rev. Dr. William, 47 Whalley, Captain, 40 Wharves. 42 Wheat snipments, 70 Whetstone Point, water battery erected at, ^; fort repaired, 52; name changed to Fort McHenry, 53 Whig Qub, 31 Whiskey Riots in Pennsylvania, influence of, S3 . Whyte, William P., 252, 301, 304, 372, 374, 375, 379, 383, 386 Wilde, Oscar, 260 Williams, Colonel Otho R, 38; General, 49 Winans, Ross, 85 Wood, Commander E. P., 312 Yellow fever, measures against introduc- tion, 50; epidemic, 53 Yorktown, gathering at, 38 Young, M. C. A., 335 / u 31 *. « • • ** -I i% «i* i: .tt. 2r'« :tit I m I ■ * I
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