Part 44 (1/2)

[Sidenote: The cities.]

[Sidenote: New York.]

[Sidenote: Chicago.]

363. The Cities.--The tremendous increase in manufacturing, in farming, and in trading brought about a great increase in foreign commerce. This in turn led to the building up of great cities in the North and the West. These were New York and Chicago; and they grew rapidly because they formed the two ends of the line of communication between the East and the West by the Mohawk Valley (p. 239). New York now contained over eight hundred thousand inhabitants. It had more people within its limits than lived in the whole state of South Carolina. The most rapid growth was seen in the case of Chicago. In 1840 there were only five thousand people in that city; it now contained one hundred and nine thousand inhabitants. Cincinnati and St. Louis, each with one hundred and sixty thousand, were still the largest cities of the West, and St. Louis was the largest city in any slave state. New Orleans, with nearly as many people as St. Louis, was the only large city in the South.

[Sidenote: The North and the South.]

[Sidenote: Growth of the Northwest.]

[Sidenote: Density of population, 1860.]

364. The States.--As it was with the cities so it was with the states--the North had grown beyond the South. In 1790 Virginia had as many inhabitants as the states of New York and Pennsylvania put together. In 1860 Virginia had only about one-quarter as many inhabitants as these two states. Indeed, in 1860 New York had nearly four million inhabitants, or nearly as many inhabitants as the whole United States in 1791 (p. 156). But the growth of the states of the Northwest had been even more remarkable. Ohio now had a million more people than Virginia and stood third in population among the states of the Union. Illinois was the fourth state and Indiana the sixth. Even more interesting are the facts brought out by a study of the map showing the density of population or the number of people to the square mile in the several states. It appears that in 1860 Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Ma.s.sachusetts each had over forty-five inhabitants to the square mile, while not a single Southern state had as many as forty-five inhabitants to the square mile. This shows us at once that although the Southern states were larger in extent than the Northern states, they were much less powerful.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DENSITY OF POPULATION IN 1860.]

[Sidenote: Improvements in living.]

365. City Life.--In the old days the large towns were just like the small towns except that they were larger. Life in them was just about the same as in the smaller places. Now, however, there was a great difference. In the first place the city could afford to have a great many things the smaller town could not pay for. In the second place it must have certain things or its people would die of disease or be killed as they walked the streets. For these reasons the streets of the Northern cities were paved and lighted and were guarded by policemen.

Then, too, great sewers carried away the refuse of the city, and enormous iron pipes brought fresh water to every one within its limits.

Horse-cars and omnibuses carried its inhabitants from one part of the city to another, and the railroads brought them food from the surrounding country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN OMNIBUS]

[Sidenote: Growth of the railroad systems.]

366. Transportation.--Between 1849 and 1858 twenty-one thousand miles of railroad were built in the United States, In 1860 there were more than thirty thousand miles of railroad in actual operation. In 1850 one could not go from New York to Albany without leaving the railroad and going on board a steamboat. In 1860 one continuous line of rails ran from New York City to the Mississippi River. Traveling was still uncomfortable according to our ideas. The cars were rudely made and jolted horribly. One train ran only a comparatively short distance. Then the traveler had to alight, get something to eat, and see his baggage placed on another train. Still, with all its discomforts, traveling in the worst of cars was better than traveling in the old stagecoaches.

Many more steamboats were used, especially on the Great Lakes and the Western rivers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HORACE GREELEY]

[Sidenote: Schools.]

[Sidenote: Newspapers.]

[Sidenote: Horace Greeley.]

367. Education.--The last thirty years had also been years of progress in learning. Many colleges were founded, especially in the Northwest. There was still no inst.i.tution which deserved the name of university. But more attention was being paid to the sciences and to the education of men for the professions of law and medicine. The newspapers also took on their modern form. The _New York Herald_, founded in 1835, was the first real newspaper. But the _New York Tribune_, edited by Horace Greeley, had more influence than any other paper in the country.

Greeley was odd in many ways, but he was one of the ablest men of the time. He called for a liberal policy in the distribution of the public lands and was forever saying, ”Go West, young man, go West.” The magazines were now very much better than in former years, and America's foremost writers were doing some of their best work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FIRST SEWING MACHINE.]

[Sidenote: The telegraph.]

[Sidenote: The Howe sewing machine.]

[Sidenote: Agriculture machinery.]

[Sidenote: Stagnation in the South.]