cinnati. In 1803, St. Louis was a little village of log cabins, containing about eight hundred people. On the lakes Detroit had been settled early by the French. In 1831 a dozen settlers had built their cabins around Fort Dearborn, on Lake Michigan. In 1833 this was a town of five hundred to six hundred people, and took the name of Chicago. To-day it is a city of more than a million inhabitants. Many like stories might be told of the marvellous rapidity with

which the enterprising American people have settled the great West, pushing their way in much less than a century to the Pacific, and occupying all the habitable territory between. In the history of mankind there is nothing that bears comparison with it.

Routes of Travel.-The Ohio formed a ready channel of movement westward from the Middle States, bold navigators daring in rude craft the arrows and bullets of ambushed warriors. In the South hardy pioneers made their

way over the difficult barrier of the mountains. In the North they pushed westward through the forests, driving before them a frontier of hostile savages as they went.

The National Road. The first great national road was begun at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac, and gradually extended across the mountains to Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), on the Ohio. During the Monroe administration this was extended into Ohio, and eventually it was carried by the State governments to the Mississippi. It was a broad and solid avenue, the first great work of road-making in the United States. Along it moved a constant stream of emigrant wagons, often so close as to form a continuous line. Day by day, year by year, they moved onward, while the great West gradually filled up with the grand army of thrift and enterprise.

This road has long since been superseded by the vast network of railroad lines, and the slow-moving flat-boat has yielded to the rapid steamboat. By their aid the progress of settlement has been greatly intensified, and the hardships of emigration have almost disappeared through the replacement of the lumbering emigrant wagon by the iron horse and its swift-moving train.

Immigration. While the older population of this country has been flowing in a steady stream westward, new settlers have been pouring into the country eastward. Immigration has been more or less continuous since the date of the original settlements, but toward the middle of the present century it began to grow very large, an earnest desire springing up among the poverty-stricken and oppressed laboring people of Europe to enjoy the freedom and plenty of this prosperous country. A line of steamships began to cross the ocean in 1840; others followed; immigrants poured in at the rate of three thousand per week; and in the decade

between 1840 and 1850 nearly two million people were thus added to our population. This was almost twice as many as had arrived between 1800 and 1840. They were largely Irish, their great migration being due to the famine of 1845-46. Germany sent almost as many, while few came from other countries.

Now

Change in Character of Immigration.-Until and for some time after the Civil War the immigrants were generally desirable in character, and readily assimilated with the people. Since then there has been a change. The numbers of immigrants have enormously increased and they have become lower in grade. Formerly they were mainly from Great Britain and the Teutonic countries. Now they are largely from Italy and Eastern Europe. Formerly they were from the better classes of farmers and artisans. they are largely from the most ignorant and untrained class of laborers. Numbers of paupers, criminals, and others of the lowest class of Europe have been sent to this country, and a strong feeling of objection to such immigrants has grown up. The total immigration to this country since 1790 has been about twenty millions. Of these, more than five millions came in the ten years from 1880 to 1890, and nearly four millions in the succeeding decade.

The Chinese.-Chinese immigration to this country began about 1850. It increased rapidly after 1880, more than one hundred thousand landing in a few years. They worked for very low wages, thus disturbing the industrial conditions of the country. They brought no families, their purpose being to get what they could out of the country and then return home to enjoy it. It began to appear as if America would be flooded from the lowest class of Chinese laborers, who could not assimilate with our people and might in time lower the grade of our civilization. Consequently a law was

passed forbidding their immigration. Their numbers are now steadily decreasing, as many go home and few return.

Other Restrictive Laws.-Congress has passed laws to prevent the immigration of paupers and criminals, of those brought here under contracts to perform certain labor, and in general of all not able to pay their own way and without means to begin life in this country. Yet these laws have not proved sufficient. Undesirable immigrants still reach our shores in large numbers, and more stringent laws are demanded. It is now considered desirable to keep out all people who cannot read and write and all who do not intend to become permanent citizens of the United States, since numbers come here for a season's labor and then return home; also all Anarchists. Laws to this effect will be very useful, by restricting immigration to a better class.

7. TRANSPORTATION AND POSTAL FACILITIES. Early Travel.-The facilities for travel in colonial times were small, and few people left their homes. Most of the travel took place by boats on navigable streams and vessels along the seaboard, land travel being very slow and attended with many hardships. Inland travel was mainly performed on foot through the forest, or on foot or horseback over rude and primitive roads. As the roads grew better some carriages appeared, but travel continued chiefly on horseback or by boat. Very little took place, and even in Philadelphia, the largest city, a stranger in the streets was looked at with curiosity.

Dr. Franklin's Journey.-An interesting example of this is given by Dr. Franklin, in his story of how he came from New York to Philadelphia in 1723. Part of this journey was made with great difficulty by boat from New York to

Amboy, and part by boat down the Delaware. Across New Jersey he went on foot, the whole journey taking five or six days. By coasting vessels, with favorable winds, this distance could be traversed in three days..

Lack of Roads.-Franklin found roads, but through most of the country nothing better existed than Indian trails and bridle-paths. Such goods as needed to be transported were carried on pack-horses. In 1753, Washington travelled five hundred and sixty miles through the wilderness, the journey occupying forty-two days. It could now be performed in less than a day. No wheeled carriages were used until the middle of the eighteenth century, and few until after the Revolution. Those who could not afford a horse went on foot.

Military Roads.-Braddock, on his march toward Fort Duquesne, made a road as he went. Subsequently General Forbes, on a similar march, spent so much time in road-building as almost to defeat the object of the enterprise. Washington accomplished it by making a rapid advance to Fort Duquesne through the woods. Franklin came to Braddock's aid by providing for him a number of the famous Conestoga wagons of Pennsylvania. These were large, canvas-covered wagons used by the farmers and traders of that State to transport their produce to Philadelphia. They were each drawn by six or eight horses. At one time as many as ten thousand traversed the roads leading to that city.

Stage Travel.-—It was late in the eighteenth century before a stage-coach line was started between Philadelphia and New York, the two largest cities in the country. At first a wagon running twice a week sufficed for all the travel. The roads were bad and the travel slow, about three miles an hour being the average time. In 1766 coaches were put