four hours. These engines were built by the Knap Fort Pitt Foundry Company, at Pittsburg, Penn. They pump through a force main five miles in length, and of 36 and 30 inches diameter, into the storage reservoir on Compton Hill. To relieve the engines and force main from any concussion, a stand pipe is now in process of construction which, when completed, will have a height of 242 feet above the ordinary high-water level of the river. It is about one-half mile from the high-service engines, and will, from its summit, present a view of the whole city, and of the river for many miles in its course. Before reaching the storage reservoir two pipes of 20-inch diameter branch off into the city and connect it with the present system of distribution, while a third feeder of the same size starts from the storage reservoir so as to secure continual motion, and thereby prevent the water from becoming foul.

The storage reservoir covers about seventeen acres of land, and is built near the city boundary, at the most elevated point within its limits. The elevation of its water surface will be twenty-six feet above the highest street grade, and will be ample to supply the upper story of every house in the city. We must not omit to mention in this connection that the greatest portion of the 8,000 tons of large pipe needed in the construction of these works has been east in this city by the enterprising firm of Shickle, Harrison & Howard.

As before stated, the Commissioners expect to have the works ready to supply the city within a few months; and unless some delay impossible to anticipate occurs, St. Louis will soon be able to boast of having the most liberal supply of wholesome water of any city in this country. What beneficial influence the completion of these works will have on the comfort and health of its inhabitants, and on the prosperity of its manufacturing interests, may be easily imagined.

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF

CALIFORNIA.

Stand-pife with the at the cover of -Grand Aneme anë 1447, St

MISSOURI AND HER RESOURCES.

Missouri is the great central State of the World's Republic. Geographically considered, nearly equal portions of the American Union stretch out from her borders towards the North, South, East, and West. Its dormant and latent energies being once awakened and developed, Missouri must become the Empire State of the Center, as New York is of the East. Its climatic position is altogether propitious, the surface not being greatly elevated, and the State lying between the temperate parallels of 36° 30′ and 40° 30′ N. latitude, and between the meridians of 89° 2′ and 95° 52′ W. longitude.

The greatest length of the State, from East to West, is 320 miles, and its width, from North to South, 280. These dimensions embrace an area of 67,380 square miles, equal to 43,123,200 acres of land; being about one-third larger than England, and possessing twice the productive capacity of that wonderful country. Missouri is larger than any State east of the Mississippi, and possesses as much fruitful and arable soil as any of her sister States, whether East or West. Not less than 36,000,000 acres of land in Missouri are well adapted to furnish all the products of a temperate clime.

No State is better supplied with fountains and streams, as well as with great rivers. It is bounded and bisected by the Mississippi and Missouri, two of tho largest and longest rivers in the world; rivers whose fountains are more than three thousand miles away, fed by the waters of the Itasca, or the eternal storms that breed and brood about the cliffs and canons of the Rocky Mountains, whose affluents water a score of States and Territories, and whose accumulated floods are poured into a torrid sea. One thousand miles of these great rivers lie within or upon the boundary of Missouri. The principal streams flowing into the Mississippi from this State are the Salt, Meramec, White, and St. Francois, the two latter being more properly rivers of Arkansas; and the main affluents of the Missouri are the Osage, Gasconade, La Mine, Chariton, Grand, Platte, and Nodaway.

Nature has given to Missouri vast resources in agricultural and mineral wealth, also abundant facilities for commanding and managing the internal commerce of the West. St. Louis, her commercial capital, is near the confluence of the two great rivers. There she stands, like the Apocalyptic angel, "with one foot on the land, and the other on the sea," beckoning to her the white-winged mossengers of commerce from every ocean, and stretching out her iron fingers to grasp the internal trade of half a continent.

The geographical and mineralogical features of Missouri are not only peculiar, but such as add greatly to the value of its products. What is known as the "Ozark range"-not of mountains, but of hills-passes through the south half of the State from west to east; sometimes appearing merely in the shape of elevated table-lands, and then again broken into rough and rugged hills. Most of the latter, however, are rich in metals or minerals, such as iron, lead, zinc, copper, coal, etc. Much the larger portion of this hilly region, too, is susceptible of cultivation; and for raising sheep, or the culture of the cereals, fruits, and especially grapes, no better land can be found anywhere cast of the Rocky Mountains. As the first settlers in Missouri generally sought the rich alluvial and prairie soils of the northwestern and central portions of the State, the vast and fruitful region lying in the southwest, south, and southeast was neglected, and deemed almost worthless. Large quantities of this land, so rich in minerals, and readily yielding fine crops of grain and fruit, have, within a few years, been sold for 12 cents per acre. That time has passed, however, and thousands of enterprising immigrants, both farmers and miners, are making for themselves pleasant and profitable homes in the south half of Missouri.

The soil along the river bottoms of Missouri is rich as the famed valley of the Nile. Only a little less fruitful, and much more easily put into cultivation, are the millions of acres of rich prairie land in the northwest and central portions of the State. The capacity of this State for producing food for both men and animals is something enormous. Whenever there is a full development of the State's resources, Missouri will furnish happy homes for five millions of people; one-half making bread, not only for themselves, but to feed two or three millions of miners, mechanics, merchants, and professional men; and the whole State receiving every year many millions more for her exports than she pays for imports.

Looking at the two grand districts of Missouri a little more in detail, and beginning with the extreme southeast, we find an extensive bottom-land along the Mississippi, extending from Cape Girardeau south to the Arkansas river. It includes many swamps, which are rendered almost impenetrable by a dense growth of trees. The most extensive of these, called the Great Swamp, commences a few miles south of Cape Girardeau, and passes south to the mouth of the St. Francois, penetrating far into the State of Arkansas. This peculiar feature gave to Missouri its southeastern "pan-handle," or projection south of 36° 30′, the once charmed parallel between freedom and slavery. The early settlers in the region below Cape Girardeau, and south of the proper boundary of the State; could not reach any settlements in Arkansas, on account of the swamps, and prayed to be attached to Missouri, where they were in the habit of trading and getting their corn ground.

Turning northward from the swamp region, and following up the course of the Mississippi, we find a belt of high lands reaching all the way up to the mouth of the Missouri. The highest part of this range is between St. Genevieve and the mouth of the Meramec, where the ridge rises from three to four hundred feet above the waters of the Mississippi. This ridge of high lands is the Ozark range, before alluded to, cut asunder by the Father of Waters,

extending westward through the State, not losing its rough and rugged character until it is lost in a ridge of high prairie.

In the country north of the Missouri, constituting about one-third of the. State, the country is more level, but sufficiently undulating to secure good drainage; and the soil is gone rally excellent, a large portion of the country being a rich prairie, watered by numerous streams, each with its belt of timber. Altogether the richest soil and most productive portions of Missouri are to be found in the western and northwestern counties of the State. The Platte country, in the northwest, and Clay, Jackson, and Lafayette counties, in the west, have long been famed for their wonderful yield of hemp, grain, and stock.

THE CLIMATE

Of Missouri is peculiar. Being situated about half way between the great Southern Gulf and the semi-arctic regions of the North, with but slight barriers. on either side, she is subject, like all Western States of the same latitude, to frequent changes of temperature. But notwithstanding the great and sudden transitions as indicated by the thermometer, Missouri may be considered a very healthy State. Pulmonary diseases very rarely originate here. In most parts of the State plowing and putting in crops commence in March, and the forests are in full foliage early in May; while in the extreme southern counties cotton is raised, and young stock manage to live through the winter with little or

no care.

Taking the State with all its advantages-its fruitful soil and healthful climate, its vast wealth of metals and minerals, its facilities for transportation by rail or river, its present wealth and prospective greatness-and there is scarcely another State in the American Union that affords such attractions and inducements either to the capitalist or the emigrant.

HISTORY.

Although the life of Missouri, as a State, has only extended through half a century, yet it has been the busiest and most progressive half century in the annals of the world, and its characteristics have been stamped upon the history and fortunes of the State. Missouri had its origin amidst the first great political troubles and disputes of the American Republic. A compromise gave legal existence to the State, and this compromise was finally washed out in the blood of a civil war. The fraternal strife which for four years transformed the most beautiful country and the grandest political empire in the world into a great battle-field, gave a full share of its bloody fortunes to Missouri. Some of the fairest portions of the State were almost depopulated, and whole sections passed through the ordeal of blood and fire, and when the desolation had gone by, presented nothing but unpeopled and smoking ruins. But after the night came the day, and the horrid wounds inflicted by civil war began to be healed by the angel of peace. It was sharp and painful surgery that cut away the old excrescence, but it left the body politic healthier, and all the people happier and more prosperous than ever before.

Under the old regime, the States of Illinois and Indiana, although far behind us in natural resources, were outstripping Missouri in the march of empire. Although the great advantages of the State brought many immigrants in spite of the system then in vogue, yet our sister States across the Mississippi were, at the commencement of the war, far in advance of us as regarded population and material wealth. This state of things is being rapidly changed by the multitudes of immigrants from the Eastern and Middle States and the Old World, who are seeking homes on our rich prairies, in our fruitful valleys and extensive forests, or in our exhaustless mines of iron, lead, and zinc.

POPULATION.

The present population of Missouri may be safely put down at nearly, if not quite, 2,000,000. The first census of the State, when it was admitted into the Union in 1821, showed a population of 70,647. From that date the number of inhabitants very nearly doubled each decade up to 1860, when the population of Missouri, including white, free colored, and slaves, amounted to 1,172,797. The war drained the State, not only of material wealth, but of multitudes of people; but the return of peace, and the increased and ever-increasing tide of immigration, will bring the State up to three millions before the year 1880. Of the present inhabitants of Missouri about one hundred thousand, or one in fifteen, are colored. Considering the condition these people have been in for generations past, they have conducted themselves with great propriety since their formal emancipation in 1865. A large majority of them are not only making an honest support for themselves and families, but, by their industry and frugality, accumulating a decent competence. On the south side of the Missouri river especially, there is a large German element in the population. Wherever these people make homes in the country, and plant vineyards or cultivate small farms, you may look with confidence for present prosperity and future wealth. Every town or neighborhood in Missouri that has been planted by Germans is now actually wealthy, or has the elements of certain prosperity in the future.

EDUCATION.

But let us pass from these general views of a great State and its varied resources to some of the details which constitute the grand result. When we speak of the wealth of a State, we should not so much consider its rich mines, its fruitful soil, its genial climate, and its natural channels of commerce and communication, as its people. The people are all that give real wealth to any country. Without inhabitants, the fairest lands upon which the sun shines would be of no more value than a barren beach or a rocky cliff. But, then, the people must have intelligence in order to give value to the country they inhabit. Savages make a land poorer instead of richer by their presence. And just in proportion as a community rise in the scale of civilization, intelligence, refinement, and moral worth, their lands and houses go up in their money value.