has turned out to be the wrong way? I can only guess; but I think my guess comes as near the actual truth as is possible under the circumstances.

The plan was made, as I have said, in the latter part of the last century. The only methods of communication, then, for commerce, was by wagon with the east (the canal was not open until 1829) and by the Ohio river with the west. The big Conestoga wagon and the keel-boat made Pittsburgh their point of transfer. These big wagons were cumbrous and occupied a good deal of room, together with stabling for their teams. The keel-boats found their loading and unloading place on the Monongahela, and mainly at the mouth of Wood street, because the bank there was low and the river easy of access, whilst Market street ended at the river at the top of a high bank. My guess, therefore, is that the proprietors concluded that the wagons, coming in from the east on Penn street, would unload and load at warehouses on Liberty street, and find yards and stabling on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh. [There was one of these wagon yards, within my recollection, as late as 1850, at the corner of Liberty and Seventh, and another, at an earlier date, on Fifth and Wood.] The transfer to the keelboats would then be made down Wood and Smithfield streets to Water street, at the mouth of Wood. Hence Liberty, Wood, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Smithfield were made wide to accommodate this transfer between keel-boat and wagon, and all the other streets were left narrow. Wide streets for anything

but traffic were not then thought of. The narrower streets, in the view of the proprietors, would answer for the private residences of the citizens, and the lots were made wide and deep to afford room for a garden and stable to each house. No one then had foresight enough to think of Pittsburgh as a manufacturing place. It was at the head of navigation on the Ohio, and was therefore laid out as the place of transit between the west and the east. If the original owners had known more they would have planned more wisely.

This short-sightedness, I may take occasion here to observe, was not peculiar to the people of a hundred years ago. It is apparent, to-day, in the building and management of railroads and in the laying out of new towns, as much as it was then. People plan and build and carry on their projects, all with reference to to-day, and never with reference to the future. Of all the shrewd and clear-headed business men and railroad men I have known, I cannot recall one who could see beyond the end of his nose or who had any controlling conception beyond the present. I have seen railroad bridges built, at enormous cost, that had to be torn down and rebuilt and re-rebuilt, within a few years, that, with a little forethought, could have been as well built rightly at first. The men of the last century had just as much and just as little forethought as the men of the present. 'It is because our hindsight is so much better than our foresight that we can see so clearly the errors of the people who went before us.

I have not a very high appreciation of the business abilities of the men known to us as the Penn proprietaries William Penn was a man of clear head and fine business capacity, but I do not think he left a son who was any approach to him on those points, and his descendants, at the time of the Revolution, were milk-and-water Tories, with not a particle of attachment to Pennsylvania, and not a whit of interest in it beyond what could be drawn from it. But, however short-sighted they and their advisers were at the time Pittsburgh was laid out, one thing they did know, and they acted on it, that Pittsburgh was so favorably situated between the west and the east that it was bound to be a place of commercial importance. They drew their plans to suit this judgment, and if after events have proven that they did not see far enough ahead, it may safely be said in their favor that no one of their day and generation had any better gift of foresight.

Pittsburgh, as originally laid out, had a reservation of a "diamond" or square on Market street, on which to build a court-house and market. The county was organized in 1788. In 1829 there was a brick court-house on the west side of Market street, a semi-circular market-house, roofed but open on all sides below, and two extensions on either side of the court-house. The sheriff's office was in the court-house, and the other county offices in one storied buildings on both sides of the court-house. The main court room was on the first floor and the grand-jury room on the second floor. Here justice was admin

istered until 1840, when a new courthouse, on Grant's hill, was occupied. This was of stone, and was a grand building for that day; but fire destroyed it and a new one of far better design will be dedicated on the centennial of the county, in September, 1888. The county has thus worn out two court-houses in one hundred years. Justice outside of the court-house was dispensed by a score of justices, who clustered like bees about the court-house neighborhood. Up to 1839 the justices were appointed by the governor, and took turns at acting as mayor, pretty much after the example of London. This is now all broken up, with a justice in each ward and a mayor chosen by the people every three years; but whether the change is for the better I am not able to determine.

The city, as I first saw it in 1829, was meanly built and gave no evidence of either wealth or refinement. More than half the city was built of wood, and the brick buildings were mainly two stories, very few being willing to build a threestory house and still fewer venturing on four. The churches were mainly small and of mean pretensions architecturally. Three of them, the Presbyterian, Episcopal and Lutheran, had each a half square assigned it for church and cemetery, in the original plan, but not one of the three had a building of any special merit. There were no public buildings with any pretense to architecture, and every building in the city seemed to have been built to suit the then present wants at the cheapest cost possible. The change in this respect has been wonder

ful. Beyond the conformation of the streets, there is nothing now, except a few spots here and there, to remind one of sixty years ago. The city has undergone a complete transformation. It has enlarged itself beyond all that anyone dreamed of sixty years ago. Boroughs and townships that were away out in the country have been absorbed by it, and a new crop of the same, grown up just outside of the city line, are now waiting a similar absorption. In population, in wealth, in refinement, in education, in architecture, in local government, in business enterprise, and in all that makes a people prosperous and respectable, it has grown so as to astonish even those who have grown up with it all and become familiar with the various aspects of the transformation.

In all this I have not ventured upon drawing any comparison as to the manufacturing industry and business energy of the people. That is too large a subject, and does not verge upon the historical. It is enough to say that while manufacturing then made the city dirty and disagreeable, from the large amount of it carried on and the use of bituminous coal, there is more manufacturing, proportionately, now than there was then. The mills are larger-everything is on a much larger scale than then. I have no figures at hand to compare with, but one fact is sufficient. In 1861, when the war broke out, there were a good many mills in operation, but all of lim ited capacity. Ten years afterward, in 1871, the one mill of Jones & Laughlin was able to produce as much as all the mills put together in 1861. And nearly

every other mill has enlarged as much as Jones & Laughlin's. This is an approximate basis of calculation. The number of mills has not only increased largely since 1861, but every one of them has increased in capacity from fourfold to twentyfold. There is, in fact, no basis of comparison between 1829 and 1887.

Of the prominent men of that day nearly all traces are lost. Harmar Denny was the member of congress then. He has children and grandchildren living, but none of them are now prominent. Richard Biddle succeeded him, but his relatives are all in Philadelphia; there are none here that I know of. John Darragh was mayor. His son, Cornelius, was afterwards in the state legislature and in congress, but has left no progeny to fill his place. Charles Shaler was judge, and after him T. B. Dallas. The family connections of the latter are all now in Philadelphia. William Wilkins, who was, by turns, congessman, United States senator, minister to Russia, secretary of the navy and state senator, has passed away, and with him nearly all traces of his family, Judge Baldwin of the United States supreme court, W. W. Irwin, mayor in 1840, congressman in 1841, and minister to Denmark, H. M. Brackenridge, author and congressman and General William Robinson, jr., who prided himself on being the first white child born within the bounds of Allegheny City, having all gone over to the great majority, leaving scarcely a trace behind. Of all the men who were then at the front, there is scarcely a single one

left, and but one here and there of those who were then children. An entirely new population as well as a new city has succeeded them.

The foremost lawyers then were McCandless & McClure (both afterwards made judges), Nathaniel P. Fetterman, T. B. Dallas, William W. Irwin, Cornelius Darragh, William Wilkins, Samuel Kingston, Walter Forward, Andrew Burke, Thomas Hamilton, H. H. Van Amringe, Richard Biddle and James Ross.

The latter I very well remember as a large, tall, fine looking man. He was United States senator at the time of the Louisiana purchase, but served only one term, and was out of active life at the time I am writing of. The list of the bar after this period extended very rapidly, and many young lawyers were coming forward into notice; but I am writing only of those prominent in 1829.

Of business men I can recall the names of but a few. Men in business fade out so fast that it is difficult to keep them in mind, or to follow their subsequent fortunes. Of the few names that I can now recall of those in active business life at that time, not a man is to be found among those now in commercial life. If only five out of a hundred succeed in business, as statisticians aver, the ninety-five unsuccessful ones disappear suddenly and forever, and the five successful ones retire from public view when success has been attained.

Of the medical fraternity I can recall the names of the two Drs. Gazzam, Dr. Dale, Dr. Mowry, Dr. Holmes, Dr. Simson, Dr. Burrell, Dr. Hannen, Dr. Speer,

Dr. Brooks, Dr. Addison, Dr. Bruce and Dr. Agnew. Of these Dr. Speer still survives.

It was not until some years afterwards that a daily paper was started in the city, and of weekly papers there were but few. The Gazette, started in 1786, edited by the veteran Neville B. Craig, was the most prominent. It was a semiweekly from 1820 and a daily from 1835. The others were the Statesman, edited by John B. Butler; the Mercury, by John M. Snowden, and the American Manufacturer, by Richard Phillips. The Mercury was afterwards merged with the Manufacturer and this became the Post, subsequently. The Statesman died a natural death. The Gazette and Post both remain alive and vigorous.

Of the clergy I can say but little. The venerable Dr. Francis Herron was in charge of the First Presbyterian church, Rev. Dr. George Upfold, since bishop of Indiana, was rector of the Episcopal church. [He was preceded by Rev. Dr. (since Bishop) Hopkins.] Rev. Samuel Williams was pastor of the Baptist church. He died at a very advanced age, but a few weeks since. Sidney Rigdon, afterwards a noted Mormon, was about this time a preacher in the Baptist church. I have forgotten the name of the Catholic priest, but remember his little church, then outside the city limits, on or near the site of the Pennsylvania railroad depot. The Methodist preachers changed so often and remained so short a time that they could make but little mark. Bishop Simpson came afterwards, but my recollection is that he was stationed in

Of the noted local points in the city there is but little change to note. Smoky Island was in existence then, and was opposite the Point, in the very mouth of the Allegheny. It had a factory on it of some kind, but both factory and island disappeared in the great flood of 1832. The gravel foundation of the island still remains, and is occupied in part by by the exposition buildings. Colonel Bouquet's block house is still to be found near the Point, with very mean surroundings. Grant street, the eastern limit of the old city, passes over Grant's hill, the scene of the massacre of Grant's command, shortly after the disaster to Braddock. The site of the massacre is now covered by the court-house, and the old city, for some years after 1828, occupied the western side of the street opposite the court-house as a reservoir to supply the city with water. In the panic of 1837, when money of all kinds melted out of sight, both city and county issued scrip for small change, as well as one and two dollar notes. The city afterwards redeemed its issue with the proceeds of the sale of the reservoir lot, and the alley below it is still called "Scrip Alley."

As the panic of 1837 came after the time of which I am writing, it is not proper to lug it in here; but the two periods are so near together that I may be excused for mentioning its effects. Money, as I have noted, had vanished. Silver was hoarded and bank-notes were of uncertain value. The scrip issued by city and county, by boroughs

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change; but the whole community was set back upon the first principle of commercial intercourse-barter. The mills and factories and mines could not pay their men in cash because they could not sell for cash; so they sold iron and glass and coal and all other fabrics for flour, wheat, bacon, sugar, molasses and whatever was eatable, and paid their men in those articles. member seeing the wharf covered with country produce of all kinds, sent in payment of Pittsburgh manufactures, and these were distributed to the men in any way that was most available. The "scrip" referred to was honorably redeemed, but for a long time afterwards and up till within a very few years past, small amounts of it would still occasionally come in for redemption; and there are yet, after fifty years have passed, odd amounts still out and unredeemed.

In the Pittsburgh Gazette of September 22, 1887, there is an interview with General Sherman, in which the latter is quoted as saying that Pittsburgh is as dirty now as it was fifty years ago, when he was here as recruiting officer. "But that is not fair," said the reporter, "for there were no factories here fifty years ago." If I needed any justification for writing this article, this would be sufficient. History needs to be re-written for the benefit of this reporter on paper in its one hundred and first year. The files of his own paper will show that there were factories here eighty years ago. Of those that were here sixty years ago, I can remember the Sligo

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