chandise handled by Cupples Station is valued at about $40,000,000 annually, of which $25,000,000 represents the business of two firms, each the largest of its kind in the world, the Simmons Hardware Company, and the Samuel Cupples Woodenware Company.

There is a single power-plant for the entire station furnishing heat, light, and power, either electric or hydraulic. The platforms for the handling of goods have a total area of 50,000 square feet, and are on two levels, one by the car doors, and one a story higher. These levels are connected by seven elevators operated by the station employees. The tenants operate 44 elevators to all floors in their respective quarters. The station has over 4,000 four-wheeled trucks, each easily drawn by hand and capable of carrying a load of 5,000 pounds. These trucks carry all the merchandise handled in Cupples Station.

Soon the trucks

The manner of operating the station is as follows: During the night the various railroads having freight to deliver to Cupples Station place their cars upon the switches adjacent to the lower platforms. At 7 A.M. a force of about 100 station employees open and unload the cars, place the goods upon trucks, and deliver them at the doors of the tenant firms according to their destination. By 9 A.M. the cars are empty, and the goods are for the most part piled away in the respective buildings. begin to reappear loaded with goods which are to be shipped. These are taken in hand by the station employees in the freight-receiving room on the upper platform; bills of lading are signed; and the trucks are sorted according to a schedule which specifies the order in which cars shall be loaded and immediately removed by the different roads. Each railroad knows just when to send an engine for its cars, and the station forces always see that the cars are ready. The employees of the tenant firms go scarcely beyond their own doors. About 25 per cent of the goods received are delivered at the street doors of the various firms to meet local demands. In this systematic and economical way over 50 cars with 1,000 tons of assorted merchandise are received and shipped in a day, or 300,000 tons in a year. No other single freight station approximates that amount of business. The sight of the station in full activity is most impressive. The constant passing of hundreds of loaded trucks; the simultaneous motion of many elevators; the loading and the despatch of cars, all this is at first confusing, but a deeper insight detects a perfect, harmonious system which wins the admiration of every attentive visitor.

One further fact remains to be stated, namely, that Samuel Cupples and Robert S. Brookings, the original owners and builders of this great enterprise, and the owners of several neighboring blocks occupied by firms which could not be accommodated in the station, have given the entire property to Washington University, as a permanent endowment for the cause of higher education.

Banks and Trust Companies.- Not to mention the smaller banks, the capital of 20 of the larger banks and 10 trust companies in 1902 amounted to $42,315,800; their surplus was $44.951,373, making a total of $87,267,173. The clearing-house statement shows that the clear

ings for 1910 of the whole city amounted to $3,704,263,700.

Municipal Improvements - Parks and Boulevards.-The city has 18 public parks, containing 2,125 acres. The four large parks, Forest, O'Fallon, Tower Grove, and Carondelet, have recently been connected by a system of boulevards carried across Mill Creek Valley on a magnificent viaduct. Lafayette Park (30 acres) was early improved and seven years ago was the gem of the city. Its wealth of elms, maples, sycamores was almost entirely destroyed by the great cyclone of 27 May 1896. Out of 792 forest trees 575 were broken and ruined. During the season which followed over 1,000 young trees were set out, to begin again the work of rearing a forest of ornamental trees. The cyclone destroyed property in the city to the amount of ten million dollars, and killed some 160 people. Shaw's Garden, the popular name of the Missouri Botanical Garden, was the gift to the people of Saint Louis of the late Henry Shaw. It is beautifully laid out, and full of a vast variety of flowers, trees, and shrubs, collected at great expense from all lands, and most carefully cultivated and housed. The Flower and Plant Garden contains 9.4 acres; the Arboretum, which contains specimens of all trees known which are hardy enough to survive the climate, covers 20.5 acres; the Fruticetum, which contains an extensive collection of hardy fruit trees and

plants, extends over eight acres; other grounds

near and tributary to the Shaw residence amount to 6.8 acres, making a tract of 45 acres.

Adjoining the Arboretum and vegetable garden is a pasture area of some 80 acres, of which one fourth has recently been graded, drained, supplied with water, and partially planted with North American plants arranged in the familiar sequence of families adopted by Bentham and Hooker; while the remainder will shortly be molded and planted to exemplify the more modern arrangement of Engler and Prantl, on plans already largely prepared. The Botanical Library contains 18,550 books, 22,608 pamphlets, and 66 manuscript volumes. The herbarium contains 400,000 sheets of specimens.

The ownership of the Missouri Botanical Garden is vested in a board of trustees which is charged with the care and maintenance of the garden and the administration of incomebearing property valued at some $4,000,000, the net income of which shall be spent upon the garden. With this munificent endowment the trustees are able to constantly improve, extend, and enrich the garden. The Henry Shaw School of Botany is conducted as a department of Washington University.

Tower Grove Park contains three fine bronze statues: Shakespeare, Humboldt, and Columbus, designed and executed by Müller of Munich, the gifts of Henry Shaw. Forest Park, two miles long by a mile in width, was a wooded tract of great variety and rare beauty, but one half of it has been loaned to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, and what was for the most part an irregular grove of magnificent forest trees is now covered by a series of exposition buildings, which in extent and splendor stand unrivaled on the face of the earth. The winding Des Peres River is buried

out of sight; the little lake is filled and covered with magnificent palaces. A mile of lagoons with curving banks of grass and flowers, and many a springing bridge, fill the scene with an amazing wealth of beauty and variety, utterly and entirely new-so great and wonderful is the transformation.

Of all the exposition structures now standing within the limits of Forest Park only the Art Building is to be permanent.

The City Waterworks.- The city waterworks consist: First, of a pumping station and settling basins several miles above the city proper, on the west bank of the Mississippi, a few miles below the mouth of the Missouri. Second, of a conduit leading the water from the settling basins to the pumps at Baden and Bissel's . Point. Third, the high-service pumping engines, where the water is pumped into the city mains or into Compton Hill Reservoir, several miles away to the south. Fourth, a system of pipes along every street and to every house, so that the supply is abundant everywhere. All old wells are filled and spring water is no longer used. A water tower near the reservoir furnishes high-pressure water through a separate system of pipes to residences on high ground. The capacity of the works at present is 120,000,000 gallons per day. The average daily consumption is 67,179,600 gallons, or at the rate of over three barrels per day for every man, woman and child in the city. The total length of all underground water pipes of all sizes is over 700 miles.

The Mississippi water coming from northern lakes and from the distant slopes of the Rocky Mountains, though heavily laden with mineral matter and more or less stained with vegetable matter from alluvial fields and forests, was until recently exceptionally wholesome, and when filtered was as clear as crystal. The drainage of river towns and mills was of course objectionable, but before the time when the city of Chicago, with a population exceeding the whole State of Missouri outside the limits of Saint Louis, poured its drainage through the Illinois River into the Mississippi, 40 miles above Saint Louis, the water pumped at Saint Louis was considered excellent. The present condition of the water is unsatisfactory in the extreme. Plans are being made to filter the entire water supply of the city and to eliminate, by legislation or otherwise, the vast evil of Chicago sewage.

The income from the "water rates" can be spent only in the water department. The unappropriated balance on hand in April 1903 was over $2,000,000, nearly sufficient to build a filtration plant which shall filter all the water used.

Sewers and Streets, Street Cars, etc.-There are 530 miles of sewers and 450 miles of paved streets. The streets are in general macadamized, but about 110 miles are paved with granite blocks, asphalt, or brick, and there are 85 miles of Telford pavement dressed with fine hard gravel. All streets are sprinkled daily throughout the summer months, and the granite and brick pavements are swept and washed. The city is not densely built, as good building ground is abundant; consequently the residence districts extend far into the country. This extension is favored by an admirable supply

of street railways and cars. There are 337 miles of single street tracks at present, under two separate managements. All cars are run by electricity, with overhead trolleys, and the system of transfers is quite general. At present there are no underground or elevated electric roads in Saint Louis.

In numbering the houses one hundred numbers are assigned to each block, counting westward from the river, and north and south from Market Street. The odd numbers are on the north and west sides. Thus, 2305 Pine Street is on the third house lot west of 23d Street, on the north side of Pine Street.

Education. The public schools are administered by a Board of Education which is independent of the city government, having its separate charter, and by the Constitution authorized to levy and expend taxes for school purposes. The rate of school tax is by the Constitution of the State limited to six mills on a dollar. The tax actually levied by the Board of Education in 1903 was five mills. The board consists of 12 members elected for six years on general tickets embracing the entire city; four members retire every two years unless re-elected. The expert officers charged with the business of conducting the schools under the authority and supervision of the board are: a superintendent of instruction, a secretary and treasurer, an auditor, a commissioner of buildings, and a supply commissioner.

A normal school is in course of construction which will receive 300 pupils; there are three first-class high schools, with accommodations for 4,000 pupils; a colored high and normal school for 300 pupils; and 91 district schools, of which 12 are for colored children under the care of colored teachers. The enrolment for day schools in 1910 was 87.931; for evening schools, 3,353. The number of teachers was 2,027. The cost of maintenance for every pupil in the day schools is about $21.

The estimated revenue for public schools from all sources, including its quota from the income of the State school fund ($202,251.16) is about $3,000,000.

The first year of the school course is devoted to kindergarten instruction and training in 78 kindergarten rooms, specially built and fitted for the purpose. Book work may begin in Grade I. at the age of seven. At the end of the VII. Grade, at the normal age of 14, the child should be fitted for a high school. In the high schools, pupils may choose a classical course, a general literary and scientific course, or a mixed course, including manual training or domestic art and science. In the two highest grades of the district schools the pupils receive one lesson per week in manual training- the boys in mechanical drawing and elementary woodwork, the girls in domestic science (sewing, cooking, and household economics). There is a school for the deaf, enrolling 34 pupils and five teachers.

All day schools are taught 40 weeks a year. There is no law compelling school attendance in Missouri, consequently in spite of a high degree of excellence pervading all grades of the public schools, a few children are allowed to grow up in ignorance. The superior quality of the public schools of Saint Louis is a matter of common observation. This is due to teachers