CHAPTER IX

WORLD'S EXPOSITION HINTS UPON THE PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION IN

THE UNITED STATES

DATA FROM THE ELEVENTH CENSUS.

PROGRESS IN BRIDGE CON-
STRUCTION. THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE. THE CANTILEVER MODEL.
ELEVATED RAILWAYS. -STEEL STRUCTURE IN BUILDINGS.-ADVANCE
IN TELEGRAPHY.—THE EARTH TWICE CIRCLED IN FIFTY MINUTES.
-TIME AND THE TELEGRAPH.-THE WEATHER BUREAU.—THE
TELEPHONE. ELECTRIC LIGHTING.-TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICAL
POWER. ELECTRIC RAILWAYS. EDISON. HIS CAREER. HIS IN-
VENTIONS. THE PHONOGRAPH AT A FUNERAL.TESLA.-COMPARED
WITH EDISON.—TESLA'S AIM.-ASTOUNDING PERFORMANCES WITH
ELECTRICITY.—NIAGARA'S POWER TURNED INTO ELECTRICITY.—
ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION AT LAUFEN.—AT FOLSOM, CAL.—THE ORIG-
INAL BICYCLE. THE "SAFETY. -THE BICYCLE "CRAZE. --NEW
METHODS FOR THE CULTURE AND THE CAPTURE OF FISH.-THE
ROSE TRAP. THE FYKE NET. THE PURSE SEINE.-STEAM IN MEN-
HADEN FISHING.THE WORLD'S CONGRESS AUXILIARY.-PARLIA-
MENT OF RELIGIONS.—THE WOMAN'S BUILDING AT THE EXPOSITION.
-WOMAN'S INFLUENCE IN AMERICAN LIFE. THE WOMAN'S CHRIS-
TIAN TEMPERANCE UNION.—THE CRUSADE OF 1873-74.-VICTORY
AT WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE. LUDICROUS SIDE OF THE CRU-
SADE. ITS SPREAD. THE TEMPERANCE UNION GROWS OUT OF THE
CRUSADE.-WOMAN IN THE SALVATION ARMY.-RISE OF THE ARMY.
-IT INVADES AMERICA.-GOOD WORK. THE ARMY'S DISCIPLINE.
-WOMEN MADE "CAPTAINS," ETC., THE SAME AS MEN.

HEN the World's Fair was conceived, when it was

W born, and during the brief, bright period of its exist

ence, the returns of the Eleventh Census were undergoing compilation. That the Exposition and the census returns awakened public attention together was fortunate, as each made more impressive the other's testimony to our unparalleled national growth. The Census of 1790 had been a mere count of the people, quickly and easily despatched. Five years after the enumeration for the Eleventh Census, the returns, des

tined to fill twenty-five volumes and to cost $11,000,000, were
not fully compiled. In 1790 the population of the United
States numbered 3,929,214. In 1890 there were 62,622,250,
nearly sixteen times the earlier sum. The relatively small per-
centage of increase to 1890 from 1880, when the count footed
up but
50,155,783, disappointed even conservative estimates.
It was exceeded by that of every decade down to 1860, and
rose above that of the war decade by little over two per cent.
Increase in the proportion of city population, observable
Only in the West had rural devel-

in 1880, was more so now.
opment stood comparison with urban. In 1880 our cities.
contained 221⁄2 per cent. of the population; in 1890, 29 per
New York still held her primacy, containing 1,515,301
the second city of the Union,
Philadelphia, Brooklyn and
St. Paul, Omaha and Den-

cent.

souls. Chicago had grown to be
with a population of 1,099,850.
St. Louis followed, in this order.
ver had tripled or quadrupled their size since 1880. Kansas
no longer possessed any unoccupied land. Nebraska owned
scarcely any.
Among Western States Nevada alone lan-
guished. The State of Washington had nearly quintupled
her citizens. Though only a few counties in the whole coun-
try absolutely lost in population, many parts of the East and
South had grown little. The 1890 census revealed the centre
of population twenty miles east of Columbus, Ind., it having
since 1880 moved nearly fifty miles west and nine miles north.
In 1890 the country had 163,000 miles of railroad, nearly
double that in existence ten years before. Our national wealth
in 1890 was valued at $65,037,091,197, an increase for the
decade of $21,395,091,197. The per capita wealth had mul-
tiplied from $870 to $1,039, an increase of 49.02 per cent.
The output of minerals, measured in dollars, had gone up
more than half. Farming alone seemed to have lagged. The
improved acreage of the country had increased less than
a third, the number of farms a little over an eighth. The
proportion of school enrollment to total population had

SUSPENSION AND CANTILEVER BRIDGES

advanced from twelve per cent. in 1840 to twenty-three per cent. in 1890. The religious bodies of the United States embraced 20,612,806 communicants, not far from a third of the population. About one-tenth of the population were Catholics.

ours.

In respect to the nation's scientific progress, what the Fair hinted at was immensely more than what it immediately revealed. The Eiffel Tower might be styled the badge of the Paris Exposition; the Ferris Wheel bore the same relation to Tower and wheel alike uniquely exemplified the fact that in thirty years bridge construction had become almost an exact science. Many remembered the days of wooden bridges and massive wooden trestles, to compose one of which a forest had to be felled. Improvement in iron and steel manufacture changed this. The suspension bridge marked the new era, its most noted exemplar being the East River Bridge between New York and Brooklyn. John A. Roebling designed this, but died before work upon it was fairly commenced. It was continued by his son, Washington A. Roebling, even after he was stricken with paralysis, his wife becoming his lieutenant. The towers rose, then strand by strand the sixteen-inch cables were woven. The length of the bridge was nearly six thousand feet, and each foot weighed more than a ton. The rise and fall winter and summer was three feet. A still larger suspension bridge was proposed in 1896 to cross the North River.

The suspension bridge did not meet the demand of our railroad builders for speed in construction. Accordingly, the autumn of 1883, the year when the Brooklyn Bridge was completed, witnessed the advent of a pioneer of another type, the cantilever bridge, consisting of truss-work beams poised upon stone piers and meeting each other, a design of wonderful capabilities. The Niagara Suspension Bridge, built by Roebling in the fifties, was in 1896 about to be replaced by a cantilever structure, to occupy precisely the place of the original bridge. The change was to be consummated without an hour's interruption of traffic.