Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-12-15

| learned Inab my preCOncelNcu opinions OF
st. Louis were unfounded in fact. The
place is trimming over with public spirit,
and its citizens propose to put in their
| best licks from this time on. They predict
| that ten years from now they will be away
| up toward the front
Already" said n loyal and enthusias-
| tic St Louisan with whom took dinner
| today. this city has gone n long way to-
ward Transforming itself from an easy GO
| ing town of the old fashioned southern
| type into n hustling settlement of the most
progressive modern sort And we are
! proud to say that the hustling has been
, done mostly by natives and rising young
men from our own state too. Yes, the city
is smoky, very smoky, worse than any
other town know of. pcrhaps-almost
bad, in fact, as was PittsburG at its worst.
But where there is smoke there is also fire,
| and the smoke here means that we arc
burning the fires OF business in many
great manufacturing establishments now
adays whereas in the old times VIC not
only furnished very small quota of man
ufacturcd articles TO the world, but We
bought most of our own too. Let me tell
you few things.
During the ten years between 1850
and 1890 the number of persons employed
| in the industries here increased from II,
600 to 81, o00. or III per cent. The amount
of wages raid out annually increased 200
per cent in the same time, the figures for
1880 l,cing $i2 0OO, 600 The amount uf
capital invested in manufacturing estab-
liShuCuts i'll the decade grew from sou
OOO CUO to- $3.50. GOO. 600. and the annual
value of tn" product Mt net wholesale fac
tory prices doubled, the figures for 1S9O
bCing $22j. QUO. 600. Now. since 1SaU.
when the last census was taken, and from
which l get my detailed information.
there has hCcn n moderate net increase
Notwithstanding the depression that began
in 1898, Though just how much in any
line l can't undertake to- say.
Big Things In st. Louis
Now. let me tell You some more things.
Boston is the center of the greatest boot
and shoe manufacturing industry in the
country and the greatest distributing
point. but not all the shoes are made in
Boston. Lynn and BrOCkton and half Il
dozen other smaller nearby cities help to
make the enormous output of footwear
that is distributed from the Hub, and to-
day st Louis makes morr boots and shoes
than any other single American city. is
the next largest distributing point after
Boston OF footwear and has the largest
shoe mandatory under one roof in the
world. St. Louis is the greatest tobacco
market in the world and possesses the big
gcst tobacco factory This factory contrib
utes more to [ nClc Sans strOngbox than
for companions the biggest brewery in the
country and the most extensive drug
house. Its hardware and wOOdenware C.
Establishments are so much larger than any
others ON this earth that doubt il you'd
believe me wcrc l to give their output
Il am not yet done either St Louis
makers Of stoves and cooking ranges man
ufaCturc more of those necessary things
than are made in any other city in the
world. more saddlory and harness are made
here than anywhere else in America, the
town has the biggest blank book maDufac-
tory anywhere to be found, it is the great
est horse and mule market in the world.
more pressed bricks are made here than in
any other American city, and its dealers
in hard wood lumber buy and sell more ex-
tcnsively than the dealers of any other city
in the United States All this is to be ex-
pectcd when you come to think of the fact
that our town, which some people consider
a little slow going, is the largest city on
the longest river in the world and Is there
| fore the chief port on the greatest system
of inland navigation anywhere, though
unfortunately our great river Is not tho
grand highway for freight and passenger
business that ii once was
The railroad system centering here i
not To be sncczcd at either. 1t may lIC
! inferior to ChicagOs, but the mileage of
| lines of steel csntering in IT. Louis is fully
10, 900 miles greater than the entire sys-
tenn OF either England or France. -.
Louis Is. in fact. the grand jumping of
| point. the transfer station, so to speak
| between the regions east and west of tho
| Mississippi, and since the completion Of
| the great Union depOt-the finest and big
| cest in America, by the way-the intricate
work of transferring passengers arriving
| from and bound to the most remote parts
| of the country has been unequaled any
| where
st. Louis Now Erecting Fine Buildings.
1t has not been possible for me to prove
| or disprOve all that my enthusiastic st
| Louis acquaintance had to say, but he is
certainly right in his praise of the big de
| pot The passenger trains Of &c distinct
railroads arriyc in and depart from its
| broad train shed. Three hundred and
| twenty four passenger trains arrive and
| depart every ~ hours, or one every min
1 utes and - seconds. As the major part of
them arrive and depart in the daylight
| hours, there are trains going and coming
| much oftencr than that between in the
morning and in the evening. 1t is truly
| bewildering to the stranger about to leave
| ST. Louis who looks cut in the train shed
| and sees the many trains, all ready to
| steam out He is pretty certain to wonder
| II he may not make some blunder in
Letting the proper train for himself, but
| so perfect are the arrangements for pre-
venting travellers mistakes and so atten-
tive aro the employees whose duty it is to
carry out those arrangements that lie
must be stupid and self willed to boot who
could get upon the wrong train The
number of freight trains arriving and de-
parting here il still larger and more diff
cult to arrive At, too, but it IS estimated
that it is between $50 and $50 day on an
average There ART, two general freight
terminal syStcTns-onc in the Mill creek
valley, and one in the neig h',orhOOd of the
new Merchants bridge The latter was
tablishcd at a comparatively recent date,
and millions of dollars We're expended in
the land and Improvements required
! But the big Union depot and the build
ings of the freight terminals are not the
only structures worth mentioning in this
letter The most interesting one to me is
the courthouse, though St. Louisans do
not talk about il as they do about some of
the other buildings 1t is an old fashioned
pile built years and years ago, of massive
blocks of stone, in that so called classic
style of which many great pillars arc n
prominent external feature. 1t is only
two stories high, but its ceilings are lofty,
and it is topped by a dome from which,
but for the dense black smoke that hangs
| over the town, every street and alley of
St Louis and the country for miles about
could be clearly seem Originally the
courthouse was of the color of gray free
stone which is probably the material that
was used in building IL, but the outside
walls have been lately painted a glarine
white, and this makes 1t, independent Of
IL 81 Ill a.