OUNT VERNON has in recent years become more than ever the American Mecca. This is due to the facility with which one may reach the historic estate. A trolley line runs from the end of Newspaper Row to the north gate at Mount Vernon, and the cars are dispatched every hour. Formerly visitors were obliged to patronize a boat which ran on schedule time. While the river trip is picturesque, it consumes the better part of the day. The tourist may now board an electric car and be at the mansion in an hour.

Through woods which still retain the leaves of autumn, across the Hunting creeks, "Big" and "Little," suggestive of rare sport with gun and dog, the car speeds.

their arrangements to watch them accordingly. The word "watch" is used advisedly. At present, with cars arriving every hour with their loads of sightseers, the task of the guardians is a serious one. The grounds are closed at 4 o'clock each day, with the exception of Sunday, when they are not opened to the public at all. It is not creditable to the Mount Vernon pilgrims that they cannot be trusted to view the home of Washington without attempting to despoil it of its treasures.

Even with the increased force of guards made necessary by the advent of the railway, relic hunters succeed in doing much damage. One who is not a vandal cannot gaze upon the carved mantlepiece of

By and by a white fence, with a background of huge trees, comes into view. It is the northern boundary line of Mount Vernon. When Washington was alive the estate comprised about 8,000 acres, much of it the territory now traversed by the electric line. At present there are about 240 acres. The surrounding country has not changed materially, and the visitor with active imagination loses nothing by reason of the curtailment of the plantation.

When the steamers landed their passengers at Mount Vernon at stated hours the superintendent and his assistants had a comparatively easy time. They knew just how long the visitors could remain, and made

Carrara marble in the banquet hall without anathematizing the whole race of relic hunters. This exquisite work has been mutilated in the most outrageous way by people who undoubtedly would resent the charge that they are worse than thieves.

One may walk a few steps to the old north entrance proper, near the four giant trees planted by Washington himself, or follow a well kept road around to the west entrance, which was used by the former occupants of the mansion. There is an arched gateway, and passing through it the visitor finds himself in the curved course which incloses the west lawn, which Washington was wont to call his "bowling

green." From this point is secured the fine view of the mansion which the guidebooks have made familiar. The curved course is over half a mile in circumference, and in the old days many a gay party galloped over it.

Magnificent trees line it. Tradition has it that all of them were selected and many planted by Washington. There are poplars, gums, aspens, lindens, beeches, pines, mimosas, wild cherries, Spanish chestnuts and hickories. The vegetable garden is on the right as one faces the mansion; the flower garden on the left. The former is unattractive enough these days. The latter abounds with box figures and old fashioned flowers. On a summer day it is a beautiful spot.

No matter how often one has visited the place it is always interesting. An indescribable interest possesses one as he wanders through halls and rooms where walked, slept, ate and drank the great central figure in the stirring events from which our nationality was evolved. Stand

ing in Martha Washington's sitting-room, one cannot help thinking of the many long, anxious hours she passed there while her husband was making history. It is saddening to look into the small attic chamber where the loyal Martha spent the last days of her life. From the little dormer window the first tomb of Washington can be seen in the distance. At this window the widow used to sit for hours. Only one

piece of the original furniture remainsa small, plain mahogany corner toilet stand.

The thought is ever present with the observant visitor that the Washingtons were not thoroughly comfortable at Mount Vernon. The mansion, although covering a large area, possesses no architectural beauty, and the interior is far from being well arranged. The rooms of the General and Mrs. Washington were in the south end; these were reached by a side hall on the east. To gain the sleeping-rooms on the north, over the state parlor, one had to pass through the rooms opening from the main hall, which must have been somewhat embarrassing when the house was full of company. The kitchen, with its huge fireplace, its crane and spits, is on the west side, thirty feet or more from the main building, from which all the dishes for the dining-room had to be carried through a covered colonnade. What would Bridget or Gretchen or Chloe say to such an arrangement in these days of speaking tubes, electric bells and dumb waiters?

The furniture now on exhibition at Mount Vernon, which for the most part was used by the family, is neither beautiful nor comfortable. No wonder they kept early hours in those days. Who could enjoy sitting any length of time in one of those awful chairs?

There is an air of comfort about the huge old mahogany bedsteads, but the steps

beside them are suggestive of stumbles in the dark and damaged toes. It must have required careful calculation to mount into one of those mountainous feather beds after extinguishing the candle. noticeable that the bed in which Washington breathed his last is lower than some of the others, particularly the one in Nellie Custis's chamber. It is some distance from the dressing-table to the bed, and possibly after a few unfortunate experiences in scaling the downy heights Washington had the posts cut down.

Few changes are perceptible at Mount Vernon from year to year. Every sign of decay is obliterated by the superintendent as soon as it appears. The natural beauties of the historic place, of course, increase.

The trees which Washington planted rear their heads with added girth and height. The four already mentioned as guarding the west entrance have stood more than a century. Two are poplar and two ash, each a perfect specimen of its kind. The trees about the old place have a fascination for many visitors. Washington planted them, tended them, watched them grow. In the shade of many still standing he was wont to walk.

In the deer park, which occupies the slope of the river bank facing the east front of the mansion, deer feed as in the old days, and fawns scurry about. This park was restored a few years ago and stocked. An iron fence separates it from the grounds proper.

ITTSBURG is the unique city of our great Republic. In the one hundred and forty years of its existence it has continually run the gamut of conquest and disaster. The past has seen the flags of three nations and the banners of two provinces successively waving in victorious possession o'er its blood-consecrated soil. Twice captured in war, once desolated by fire, once the scene of internal strife and insurrection, the record of its eighteenth century life bears a bar sinister with blood, through Shawnee savagery and the barbarities of European mercenaries. For over half a century it was the pivotal point around which circled the intrigues of European courts. It was the one spot on the horizon of the New World whence sprang the clouds of war which hovered over Europe when the lilies of France drooped in defeat beneath the Royal Cross of St. George upon its soil. Here, in the heart of a great wilderness, part of the renowned organization which had been perfected by Turenne and Luxemburg, which had sustained glory on the fields of Belgium, had ravished the Palatinate and had been marshaled against the Stadtholder king and Marlborough were brought face to face with their immemorial foemen, and here were fought over the conflicts of Namur and of Landen.

In the history of her first one hundred years Pittsburg's ships have told the story of her progress to foreign countries. The city has always been the cradle of a stern religious faith, and today it is a magnificent monument to the tireless energy of its people. From the blood and toil and travail of its early days has risen the genius of an irresistible progress which is today displayed in a myriad of diversified paths of greatness. The traffic of its tideless waters vies with that of the metropolis of our nation. Pittsburg's coal mines are lighting and heating the cities of the South; her rail-mills are rolling out steel bands which stretch gulfward and westward, binding our country in closer bonds of commercial unity; her armor-plate mills are girdling the ships of our new squadron with impenetrable steel; her artisans have fashioned projectiles that are irresistible even by all

the splendor of European armament; the product of her flaming coke ovens is feeding furnaces in old Montezumaland; she is building bridges in the Orient; her locomotives are climbing into the clouds along the slopes of the Cordilleras under the equator, and her electric lights, air-brakes and astronomical instruments are to be found wherever civilization and science have penetrated. The fascinating story of Pittsburg's progress, her innumerable industrial establishments and her vast resources must be intensely interesting to all to whom the activities of business are a necessity or have a charm.

George Washington did a great many great and good things, and one of these was the choosing of the spot whereon the city of Pittsburg is now located for the site of the fortress which decided the fate of the great Mississippi Valley. Washington first beheld this spot in 1753. For three-quarters of a century before, England and France had claimed this region, and four years prior to the coming of Washington the French had entered upon actual exploration and seizure of the region about the headwaters of the Ohio. In 1749 the Governor-General of Canada sent out an expedition under Captain Louis Celeron which deposited leaden plates at important places along the Allegheny and the Ohio and took formal possession of this country, Louisiana, in the name of the King of France.

A year previous to this England had made a crown grant of 500,000 acres lying south of the Ohio to a company of London and Virginian merchants. This was the famous Ohio Company, and its object was to traffic with the Indians. Among the members of this organization which became such an important factor in the last of the Inter-Colonial wars were Thomas Lee, president of the Virginian Assembly, and Lawrence and Augustus, older brothers of George Washington. The formation of the Ohio Company was the signal for the opening of the conflict which forever decided the fate of the Mississippi Valley and of the whole continent, the war which decided the superiority of the Saxon over the Gaul.

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About Pittsburg have been enacted some of the most thrilling events of American history. Within the limits of the city Washington narrowly escaped drowning, nearby his life was almost ended by a bullet from a savage's gun, and in the vicinity of the Iron City the father of our country had other thrilling experiences. A few miles away he fought his first battle, and almost within sight of the city he saved from destruction the shattered command of Braddock. Later he marched with Forbes and Bouquet and saw the last hope of the French for supremacy in the Ohio Valley go up with the smoke which rose from the ashes of Fort Duquesne. Until October, 1772, a British garrison was stationed at Fort Pitt, which rose from the ashes of the French fort to immortalize an English earl. At one time Colonel Gage, afterwards commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, was stationed here. This was the school wherein were trained in the terrible art of war many of those who became the opposing leaders in the American Revolution. Later Pittsburg became the base of operations against the fierce Miami Indians. From here St. Clair went out to defeat, and from this place Mad Anthony Wayne led out the expedition which forever ended the Indian troubles in this region. Next Pittsburg became the center of the Whiskey Insurrection. Hereabouts was organized armed resistance to Federal authority and here were perpetrated outrages upon the revenue collectors. But finally over all hovered the angel of peace and the signs of bloodshed disappeared from Pittsburg's horizon.

The growth of the great Iron City has been steady. In 1788 the place was a village of 500 people. When the town was incorporated in 1794 its population was 1,500. By 1810 it had increased to 4,000, and when it was incorporated as a city in 1816 the place had a population of 6,000. In 1830 it had reached 13,000; in 1840, 22,000, and by 1860 it was 125,000. Today Pittsburg's population is 350,000 and the city of Allegheny 150,000. The area inThe area in cluded in the recently proposed greater Pittsburg has a population of 750,000. Within a radius of twenty-five miles from the center of Pittsburg there are included 1,500,000 people. Double the radius and you include nearly twice that population. Make it one hundred miles and you have 10,000,000 who look to the great Iron City

as the center of their industrial realm. Ten cities exceed the present Pittsburg in population and twenty-six exceed her in area. With the greater Pittsburg a realized fact the Iron City would be advanced to the fourth place among the cities of our country, and in area she would rank third among our cities.

But it is in the manufacturing world that Pittsburg has risen to pre-eminence. The story of her mills, mines and factories, as told by the finished product, has been recited in every land beneath the sun. She manufactures more iron, steel and glass than any other city in the world; her electric works are the largest in the country; as a coal mining district she is without a rival; and in natural gas and oil she stands ahead of all the world. In the wide domain of mechanical arts there is nothing which Pittsburg has not achieved. She has the largest Bessemer steel plant and the largest crucible plant in the world; at her door are the world's largest plate glass works and two of the largest tableware factories. She has also the greatest air brake works, the largest tube works and the largest cork factory. Pittsburg's foundries cast cannons for three wars. She turned out the guns which blazed in victory from Perry's little fleet on Lake Erie. Guns and shells for the Mexican war were cast here and during the Civil War over 2,000 guns for the army and navy, from the great Columbiad which threw a projectile weighing a thousand pounds, down to the six pounders, were cast in Pittsburg.

The growth of Pittsburg's varied industries, if traced in elaborate detail, would fill a volume. The statistics of the products of her varied manufactories make a recital of superlative interest. American resources are so extensive in raw materials, fuel and all the requisites of successful operation, and American ingenuity has so improved manufacturing processes, that this country has nothing to fear in competition with any other nation so far as concerns the quality of the products in any kind or grade of iron, steel or the products thereof. In this line of manufacturing industry Pittsburg lays just claims to pre-eminence, for in the aggregate of her iron and steel industries she is the largest producer in the world and keeps steady pace with the progress of the industry, holding her relative and foremost position with ease.

During the year the production of steel